Teachings and Miracles

Posted on by korgrocker

“John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message. But I have a greater witness than John—my teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face, and you do not have his message in your hearts, because you do not believe me—the one he sent to you.”
John 5:35-38 NLT

John the Baptist had one God-given mission in life, and he was prepared for it almost from the time of his birth. We read in John 1:6-9, “God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world“. When pressed by the religious leaders to explain who he was, he quoted the Scripture from Isaiah 40:3, “Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!” In  His conversation with the Jewish leaders, Jesus made mention of John and his witness that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for. But He then said that He had a greater witness than John to His authenticity. Jesus said His teachings and miracles were enough to prove who He was, and then He went further. He said that because of the works He accomplished, this proved that he had been sent by His Father in Heaven, God Himself. 

In His next part of the conversation with the Jewish religious leaders, Jesus then delivered a warning and a challenge. He told them that because they failed to believe that Jesus was who He said He was, the Son of God, they had rejected God Himself. It is true that the Pharisees had reached a position in their religion where they believed that just keeping the Law and its associated rules was enough to ensure their salvation, and they therefore neglected the intent behind the Law, a relationship with God. And Jesus exposed this before them by saying “you do not have His message in your hearts”. 

The teachings of Jesus have underpinned our faith ever since He walked the Palestinian paths, and when He delivered them, they clarified the intent of the Law, as well as exposing how negligent the Jewish religion had become. Through Jesus’ teachings we find a God who desires a relationship with His people, Jew or Gentile. Once He was asked asked which of the commandments was the greatest, and he replied, saying,  ” … ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). The meaning of the word “love” is clear, and our love of God, and His love for us, underpins our faith.

Jesus also said that His miracles were a witness that he had come from God. Through them His Father in Heaven testified about Him. And there is no doubt that these miracles became a stumbling block to the Jews. On one occasion the people were so excited by a miracle of healing that Jesus had performed, that they said,  ” … Could it be that Jesus is the Son of David, the Messiah?” (Matthew 12:23b). But in the same event, the Pharisees stated that Jesus could only cast out the demon by the power of satan. And ever since, people have had to try and explain away the miracles Jesus performed, because otherwise they would have to admit that He was indeed the Son of God, with far-reaching consequences for their lives of sin. 

We pilgrims know our God and wonder with gratitude about the miracles Jesus performed, and the miracles performed ever since in His Name. But, in the words of the famous hymn, He “saved a wretch like me”. That must be the greatest miracle of all.

Dear God. With an inexpressible gratitude we bow before Your throne today. We were heading down the broad way that leads to destruction and death, but through Jesus we found a new way that leads to life. We worship You today. Amen.

Pick Up Your Mat

Posted on by korgrocker

“so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” But he replied, “The man who healed me told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded. The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.”
John 5:10-13 NLT

The Jewish leaders were not happy at all when they found someone carrying a sleeping mat through the crowds around the Pool of Bethesda. They probably had a point if the man was moving house or was doing some other manual task, but after an amazing miracle the man was probably just heading home, musing in the process about what he was about to tell his family when he got there. He had a lot to think about. It wasn’t just his life that was changed. He would also find that the family dynamic was suddenly altered. The one cared for was no longer needing care. And what about a job – could he now find some way of repaying all the kindness shown to him over the thirty eight years of infirmity? Regarding his sleeping mat, he probably didn’t think about leaving it behind, after all, these things cost money, he thought. And anyway the Man who had healed him told him to take it with him.

But all of a sudden, he was jolted out of his thoughts by the religious police, the Jewish leaders, pulling him up over a simple thing like carrying a mat. The man explained how he had been healed, and how he had been told to pick up his mat by his Healer and walk. But that didn’t make any difference to the Jews. They asked the man, “Who said such a thing as that?”. But the man didn’t know because Jesus wasn’t with him any more. Rather than rejoice with the healed man about the marvellous miracle performed by Jesus, the Jews just wanted to stop a violation of their laws.

That was a sad day, because priorities and common sense were qualities conspicuous by their absence. The Jewish leaders missed a life changing encounter with God through the man who was healed. They were so focused on the mundane that they missed a supernatural event. But isn’t that something that we can all be guilty of? Even we pilgrims? How many times has God said something through a brother or sister, or through the preaching of the Word, or through circumstances, and we have ignored it, missing a God-moment? Do we sometimes get anxious over something that we fear might happen, only to find that God has gone before us and removed the problem? “What if’s” disappear before our loving Heavenly Father’s caring gaze. There is a short verse embedded in Peter’s first letter, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7). That isn’t there by accident – it is a reminder to all us worriers! 

But back to our man carrying his mat on the Sabbath. If something happening before us doesn’t fit into our world view, let us pause and seek God in case He is doing something supernatural. We can’t put God in a box of our own making, restricting Him to a certain way of doing things. He is God after all!

Father God. Please forgive us when we fail to recognise Your hand at work in our lives and the lives of our friends and families. We know that You care for us, Your children, every day, bringing life and hope in our times of need. We are so grateful. Amen.

Nicodemus

Posted on by korgrocker

“There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.””
John 3:1-2 NLT

A Jewish leader, a Pharisee called Nicodemus, emerges in the account in John, and we can read an important conversation between him and Jesus. Nicodemus emerges again in various places in John’s Gospel, but through it all he seemed to be a man who probably became a disciple of Jesus, albeit secretly.

The Pharisees were legalists who believed that their salvation could be attained by following the Law, every jot and tittle of it, and including all the additional rules and regulations the Jewish rabbis had developed over the years since Moses gave them the tablets of stone. So why would Nicodemus want to talk to this itinerant preacher called Jesus? After all His ministry was a threat to the cosy club the Pharisees had built for themselves. But Nicodemus had observed the teaching and miracles of Jesus and something stirred within him.  Could this man really be the Messiah the Jews had been waiting for? Perhaps he thought he would go and find out secretly, one to one with Jesus.

He probably did well to find Jesus available for the conversation, and he started respectfully by acknowledging Jesus was a rabbi, and that God had sent Him to teach the people. The miracles, he said, were the evidence needed to endorse Jesus’ ministry. But what was he hoping to gain from the conversation? Perhaps he was hoping that his position of being a leader in the Jewish faith would be endorsed and that he would find special favour. Or perhaps he just wanted to know more about Jesus and His background and faith so that he could gain some insight into Jesus’ future ministry and who He really was.

There are many today who would like to know more about Jesus. People have vague ideas about who Jesus was, perhaps gained from nativity scenes or memories of childhood Sunday school lessons. Perhaps they have puzzled over the liturgies in Christian marriage and funeral ceremonies. As an aside, I can remember at my daughter’s wedding one of the guests, a niece of my wife’s, asked why the minister kept mentioning Jesus in the service. Some people have preconceived ideas about Jesus perhaps fuelled by negative press reports about an errant priest or off the wall sect. But whatever the occasion, the devil has come along and has snatched away any curious thoughts about Jesus. 

What a tragedy that the Son of God Himself should be marginalised and forgotten about. Or reduced to a swear word in a conversation. But we pilgrims know differently. We have heard the Voice of God and have responded on our knees in repentance. We have worshipped the God-Man Jesus, acknowledging who He is and all that he has done for us. Like Nicodemus, there was probably a day when curiosity blossomed into our faith in Jesus. We don’t know what really happened in Nicodemus’ life later on but we know what will happen in ours. That’s all that matters. And from that faith, we tell others, introducing them to Jesus.

Dear Lord Jesus. Once again we thank You for coming to this errant world, riven by evil and sin. But You were, and are, the answer. We worship You today. Amen.

By His Wounds

Posted on by korgrocker

“He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.”
1 Peter 2:24 NLT

Does God heal today? Peter said quite unequivocally that He does, or at least did in his days on this earth. And that’s the issue for many – does healing in the way Peter wrote about, through the power of the Holy Spirit, still take place today as it did then? Through Peter, God certainly brought about miracles of healing to a people who otherwise had no hope. In Acts 3 there is the story of the lame man, a man who had never had the use of his legs and feet since he was born, and we read in Acts 3:6 what happened to him. “But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”” It should be noted that Peter himself didn’t have the power to heal in this miraculous way. It was accomplished “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene”. Only God had the power to heal.

Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” (John 14:12-14). Jesus said that to His disciples and, don’t forget, we are His disciples as well.

Peter’s verse today was influenced by the prophecy in Isaiah 53:5, “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed“. What Isaiah could see coming happened several hundred years later. That a man, the Son of God, would be cruelly whipped so that people who believed in Him would be healed. It happened in the first century and I believe it has been happening ever since.

We pilgrims have the power within us, through the Holy Spirit, to do amazing things. Ephesians 3:20, “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think“. Either that verse is true or it isn’t. The problem for many today is that, failing to experience God’s healing power as a result of their prayers, they have decided that when the early apostles died, the power to heal died with them. But there is nothing that I can find in the Bible that would confirm that belief. So, churches particularly here in the West, no longer give the Holy Spirit His proper place in their worship. In fact, some have questioned that if the Holy Spirit left their churches, would there be any difference? The pews would still be there. The liturgies unchanged. The prayers still said. The Bible still read. But no divine presence.

For me, I do not know why some prayers for healing are answered by God, and others, perhaps most, are not. Some say it’s due to a lack of faith. Or that presumption has displaced belief. Or that it is not God’s will for a person to be always healed by prayer. But, personally, I will always pray for healing for those who are sick. Peter wrote, “By his wounds you are healed“. As these verses were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and because He resides within me, I will pray. And pray again. As much as it takes. Only God knows the end from the beginning. And only He will heal.

Dear God. You are the ultimate Healer, and able to work wonderful miracles. Please forgive us for our unbelief and lack of faith. Amen.

The Trembling Earth

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Red Sea waters saw them coming and ran the other way!
Then later, the Jordan River too 
moved aside so that they could all pass through.
The land shuddered with fear. 
Mountains and hills shook with dread. 
O sea, what happened to you to make you flee? 
O Jordan, what was it that made you turn and run? 
O mountains, what frightened you so? 
And you hills, what made you shiver? 
Tremble, O earth, for you are in the presence of the Lord, 
the presence of the God of Jacob.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭114:3-7‬ ‭TPT‬‬

We read the historical and prophetic accounts contained within what we Christians call the Old Testament, and wonder about the nature of the events described. Are they accounts seasoned with traditional, word of mouth legends handed down from one generation to the next, or did the described events actually happen? Did the Red Sea really part? Did the Jordan River really stop flowing? And there are other events that took place in the Bible that seem against natural laws. Did the rock really release rivers of water when Moses struck it with his staff? Did the Jericho walls really collapse when the Israelites gave a shout and blew their trumpets? Did the ground really collapse and swallow up the family of Korah in the Numbers 16 account? Over the years I have heard two categories of response to these questions – one is the secular and liberal theology approach, that these Bible stories are just that, stories. Fictional accounts, or at least myths that some people try and explain away or discount by applying modern thought and archaeological research. But the other response is one of a fundamental belief in the infallibility of Scripture. A belief that these events really happened, just as they had been written. Sometimes people adopt a hybrid approach to these two extremes, accepting some accounts and not others. Others protest with the thought, “What does is all matter anyway?” 

This Psalm contains a fundamental, irrefutable theme – that God is the Creator of the Earth and everything within it. That He is able to make things happen in His creation because He is God. He is the all-powerful, ever present Almighty. And the palpable sense of awe in God’s presence manifests itself in the Psalmist’s graphic language of how the earth was responding, our world that we take to be fixed and immovable, but in his account frightened and shivering when God was there. 

As pilgrims in this life, we can trudge along, bounded by what we think are “natural laws”, or we can develop a sense of excitement that we are in the presence of Almighty God, our Creator who is able to do anything because he is all-powerful. Adopting an expectant feeling that whatever is facing us in our journey, God is there to help us, able to move the mountains in our paths. Without God’s intervention, the Israelites would have been recaptured or destroyed by the well-equipped Egyptian army when they encountered the Red Sea. Without God’s intervention, they would have been unable to pass over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. However, such miraculous events were not just for the Old Testament; Jesus Himself taught about the power we have over the natural world in Matthew 17:20, “I promise you, if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the size of a small mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move away from here and go over there,’ and you will see it move! There is nothing you couldn’t do!” Jesus walked on water. He stilled the storms. He healed the sick and raised the dead, and, amazingly, He said in John 14:12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Now that’s challenging. 

So what do make of all this? Are we feeling a sense of excitement building within us at what we can do though and with our amazing Heavenly Father? Or are we going to continue to tramp through a monochrome world, bounded and limited by our puny and inadequate natural abilities? We may not have the faith to make one of our local hills disappear, but what about stretching our faith to pray for the sick old lady next door, believing for her healing? Or believe God for …. (fill in your own faith need)? Tasha Cobbs sings a song, “This is a Move”. Let’s sing it together today – it’s on YouTube if you don’t know it. Here are the first two verses.

Mountains are still being moved
Strongholds are still being loosed
God, we believe
‘Cause yes, we can see it
That wonders are still what you do

And bodies are still being raised
Giants are still being slayed
God, we believe
Yes, we can see it
That wonders are still what you do

Come and See

Posted on by korgrocker

“Come and see what God has done, 
His awesome deeds for mankind! 
He turned the sea into dry land, 
they passed through the waters on foot – 
come, let us rejoice in Him. 
Come and hear, all you who fear God; 
let me tell you what He has done for me.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭66:5-6, 16‬ ‭NIVUK‬‬

“Come and see”. “Come and hear”. God invites us to use our eyes and ears to check out all the wonderful things He has done for us. Traditional Jewish families to this day remember the Biblical events such as crossing the Red Sea, an event mentioned in the verses today. But what about God’s ability to wow us with His abilities in 21st Century Scotland? Or in the societies within which we live? Personally, God never ceases to amaze me as I wander around the woodland paths close to where I live. His creation shouts out His wonderful acts to me and those around me – if we look for it. The plant life in its abundance. The trees growing straight and strong. The birds, filling the air with their music. The deer crossing my path just a few yards ahead. The rodents grubbing around near the forest streams. Even occasionally a fox or two, slinking away into the undergrowth. Further afield, I continue to be amazed by beautiful sunsets and sunrises. The news reports of wonderful creatures not found before. The physicists making discoveries about nuclear particles. The medical scientists researching and finding ways to treat disease. The list is endless. Our natural world is a wonderful testimony to God’s “awesome deeds for mankind”. Sadly, the evolutionists will say this all happened by chance, missing out on the opportunity to be able to rejoice in our wonderful God, missing out on the opportunity to thank our Creator for His awesome deeds. 

But it doesn’t stop there. God also does wonderful things in the realms of the supernatural. Through the power of His Spirit as He permeates the world and people within it. I look back in my life and remember occasions where things could have gone horribly wrong, but they didn’t because God did something awesome. Coincidence or chance the sceptic might say. But to me there have been too many occasions where God has moved in response to prayers, bringing outcomes that fall into the category of “His awesome deeds”. I would go as far as to call some of them “miracles”. And in particular the situation of my own daughter’s healing from encephalitis, a virus attacking her brain with such severity that the medics were convinced that her lengthy time in hospital would not end well. But after her total recovery, one of the doctors wrote on her notes, “This is a miracle”. And as a family we thank God continually for His miraculous intervention, taking every opportunity to tell what He has done for us.

In verse 16 of today’s Psalm, the Psalmist invites those people around him to listen to what God has done for him. Those of us who are Christians have a story to tell. A story of the journey in which God found us and we responded to His grace and love. A story that may not contain the earth shattering events such as the crossing of the Red Sea, but it will contain those personal details of the wonder of what our loving Heavenly Father has done in our lives. I could tell you of drug addicts whose lives have been transformed by the power of God working in their lives. I could tell you of miracles of healings that have brought people back from the very gates of Heaven. But perhaps the biggest miracle is the one in which we have been transformed from a dismal life in the kingdom of darkness into citizenship of the Kingdom of Light. Financially it cost me nothing, but it cost Jesus everything, even His very life on that cross at Calvary. And by so doing we are assured a future with the very Person who does “awesome deeds for mankind”. So I invite you today – “Come and see” and “Come and hear”. “Let me tell” – that’s what I will be doing and saying, grabbing every opportunity to invite those around me to join me in this wonderful life, life with our loving and gracious Heavenly Creator God.