A Holy Service

Posted on by korgrocker

“I have told you these things so that you won’t abandon your faith. For you will be expelled from the synagogues, and the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God. This is because they have never known the Father or me. Yes, I’m telling you these things now, so that when they happen, you will remember my warning. I didn’t tell you earlier because I was going to be with you for a while longer.”
John 16:1-4 NLT

It is strange that there are so many points of view regarding God. None of us really know God in all His fullness and we tend to focus on the bits we know and disregard anything else. We blithely talk about an infinite God without really understanding what we are saying. To illustrate this, I once had a conversation with a fellow worker who was a devout Muslim. Every lunchtime, his office door was closed and out came his prayer mat. Even the company’s managing director wasn’t able to disturb him. One day he said to me, knowing that I was a Christian, that we worshipped the same God. I told him that this wasn’t the case because his “god” was an authoritative being called “Allah” whereas I worshipped a Trinitarian God – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – who wanted a personal relationship with His children, those saved through a belief in Jesus. We pilgrims worship an Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent God and all we know about Him we find in the Bible and through our personal encounters with the Holy Spirit. But we won’t fully ever know God because making such a claim puts us right back in the Garden. Genesis 3:5, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil“.

In today’s verses from John 16, we read that there will be some who claim to know God and who will think that they are doing God’s will by killing those whom they perceive as being blasphemers, those who elevate Jesus as the Son of God and follow His ways. Saul, later to be called Paul, was someone who thought this way. We read in Acts 8:3, “But Saul was going everywhere to destroy the church. He went from house to house, dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison“. It took a personal encounter with the living Jesus before Saul could see the error of his ways.

We look back through the last two thousand years and find many occasions where different views of God clashed on the battlefields of towns and villages, in churches and monasteries, in the lives of ordinary men and women. Even today there is sectarian violence between Protestants and Catholics in various places in the UK. People with different views of God thinking that they are doing a “holy service” by trying to eliminate those of another persuasion. And as I write the violence between the Jewish state of Israel and the surrounding Muslim nations constantly simmers in a maelstrom of hate and violence. 

But we pilgrims are of a different persuasion. We know whom we follow. We are in a privileged position, as we read in 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light”. We know what the true “holy service” comprises. And we praise and worship the One who made it all possible -Jesus.

Jesus, we do indeed offer up our sincere thanks for all You did for us at Calvary. Amen.

Who Is The Son of Man?

Posted on by korgrocker

“He said this to indicate how he was going to die. The crowd responded, “We understood from Scripture that the Messiah would live forever. How can you say the Son of Man will die? Just who is this Son of Man, anyway?””
John 12:33-34 NLT

The people in the crowd were just not getting it. Just a few minutes before, Jesus had referred to Himself as the Son of Man – John 12:23, “Jesus replied, “Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory”. And the same people were there when He spoke about the kernel of wheat, and then when He had a conversation with His Father in Heaven. Of course, we also mustn’t forget that the miraculous raising of Lazarus from the dead was still foremost in their minds. What else did Jesus have to do to get across to them that He was the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Saviour of the Jews? 

But Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man. In effect, all us males are sons of man. Not to offend anyone, we are all sons and daughters of men and women. In other words, we are all human. So when Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man, He was emphasising His humanity. He was the Son of God and the Son of Man, divine and human. In the New Testament, Jesus referred to Himself eighty one times as the Son of Man, and then there was an eighty second mention from the lips of Stephen, as he was martyred – “And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!”” (Acts 7:56). 

Jesus also used the descriptive “Son of Man” as a statement of His humility. A humility that was exposed in a definite way when He washed the disciple’s feet. A humility that fulfilled the suffering servant prophecy we see in Isaiah 53. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 20:28, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus never went around lording it over people and using an elevated title to explain His true status. In all humility He rode a donkey into Jerusalem, hardly a mode of transport fit for the King that he was. He came to serve.

Jesus was God’s Son, part of the trinitarian Godhead, but also He was one of us as well. And, somehow, that humanity forms a link between God and His creation, mankind. In Colossians 2:9-10, we read, “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority”. There is also that tremendous verse – Romans 8:29 – where Paul wrote about Christ having many siblings – “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters“. We pilgrims are part of God’s family, and all because we believed in Jesus and His offer of salvation and eternal life. The Son of Man and the sons and daughters of men and women all combine into a glorious and united family, a family that one day will be all together in the presence of our Father God. 

Father God. Through Your grace, love and mercy, You have accepted us as Your children. We are so grateful. Amen.

Godly Claims

Posted on by korgrocker

“The Father and I are one.” Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.””
John 10:30-33 NLT

Jesus made the claim “the Father and I are one”. We believers know of course the truth in that, and the impact that this statement has on our faith. We know all about the Trinitarian God we worship, or we think we do. We struggle at times to describe how our God can exist in three persons, three very distinct but totally unified individuals with very different functions and personalities. But why are we surprised about our struggles? God is a Being infinitely more intelligent and far-reaching than we are. He is an infinite God that we, with finite minds, can never fully describe or appreciate. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God—but there is only one God. That is the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. It doesn’t help in our understanding that the word “Trinity” cannot be found in the Bible. But each member of the Trinity has different functions, and each can be defined, at least to a certain extent, by a detailed Bible study. In the end, though, we have to accept that we worship the only true God and leave things there.

Jesus made the truthful statement of His unity with Father God. The Jews listening to Him were incensed by what they perceived as blasphemy, which was punishable by death from stoning in those days. Their sensitivity was perhaps increased by tales of rulers in other lands making such a claim about being a god. And they knew about the pariahs who demanded that people bowed down to them, or to an effigy made to look like them. They could read about such a situation in the days of Daniel – “King Nebuchadnezzar made a gold statue ninety feet tall and nine feet wide and set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. … When you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue” (Daniel 3:1, 5). There was a later story about Herod that Luke wrote about in Acts 12. “The people gave him a great ovation, shouting, “It’s the voice of a god, not of a man!” Instantly, an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving the glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died” (Acts 12:22-23). People making godly claims generally come to a sticky end. And for those who claim that this was just a historical situation existing in an ancient society, look at the situation with the leaders in North Korea today. 

In 21st century Western cultures, if we asked the average man in the street about Jesus and His relationship to His Father, we would be fortunate to find anyone who knew anything about what we were asking. Most people would probably, if they were honest, admit to a belief in a “higher power”, something that is not unsurprising because God created everyone – Psalm 139:13, “You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb”. Within our “DNA” is something of God’s handiwork. But a knowledge of God and His Son Jesus would not be considered all that relevant today. But we pilgrims know better, and when Jesus said he was One with His Father, we feel the warmth emanating from that relationship. Rather than pick up stones to kill Him, we instead fall on our knees to worship Him. Our knowledge of Jesus and all that He did for us can never be replaced by a religion based wholly on the Law of Moses.

Dear God. Thank You for Your love and compassion. Amen.

“Where Is Your Father”

Posted on by korgrocker

“Your own law says that if two people agree about something, their witness is accepted as fact. I am one witness, and my Father who sent me is the other.” “Where is your father?” they asked. Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” Jesus made these statements while he was teaching in the section of the Temple known as the Treasury. But he was not arrested, because his time had not yet come.”
John 8:17-20 NLT

From these four verses we learn something significant about Jesus’ Father. Firstly, He had sent Jesus on His mission of salvation to Planet Earth, and secondly, Jesus’ Father would be instantly recognisable to anyone who knew Jesus. Of course, in our Western minds, we immediately think of two separate and individual people – a Father and a Son – but their relationship was more than that. They were, and still are, two members of the Trinity, and we know that the third person would soon be coming to the lives of those early believers and disciples, because Jesus said so. Regarding His relationship with His Father, Jesus later said in John 10:30, “The Father and I are one”. Regarding the third member of the Trinity, Jesus said in John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognise him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you”. We pilgrims worship a triune God, and in the Old Testament we can find references to all three members of the Trinity, who appeared at various times.

This unique relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is even more amazing when we understand that the third Person, the Holy Spirit, lives within us. He is a Gift sent by God. Peter preached, “ … Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God” (Acts 2:38-39). The Holy Spirit within us brings us right into God’s domain, allowing us access to His thoughts – 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, “But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us”. We know from John 10 that the Holy Spirit will never leave us and will lead us into all the truth we need about God and His Kingdom. The Holy Spirit will also point to Jesus – John 16:14-15, “He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me’”. 

The relationship between the three Persons of the Trinity is much closer than we might think. The old hymn ends with this line, “God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity”. Jesus often referred to His Father While He was here on earth. Many times He went away into the hills, especially early in the morning, to spend time with Him. Throughout His ministry, the Holy Spirit was in Jesus, empowering and supporting Him regardless of His circumstances. And to think that we pilgrims have the same opportunity is mind boggling.

When people look at us, do they see what God sees? A child of God, righteous and blessed, who has been saved through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary? Would other people get a glimpse of Father God in us? Nevertheless, we shine as beacons of hope in our world, bringing God’s message to those around us. Perhaps our friends and family will see something of Father God as we witness to all we have seen and heard. Jesus had a simple message to those people around Him. “Believe in Me and you will live forever”. Too good to be true? Too good not to be.

Dear Lord Jesus, we once again declare our love for You, acknowledging all You have done for us. We worship You today. Amen.

The Way of Truth

Posted on by korgrocker

“But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.”
2 Peter 2:1-3 NLT

All of 2 Peter 2 is devoted to “The Danger of False Teachers”. Not a problem we have these days we might think, but to follow that line of thought is dangerous, because “the way of truth” applies across all our lives, not just those parts we spend within our church building. Surely, because we have the Bible, handed down over the centuries, and faithfully translated from early manuscripts, we have the “truth” and error is rare. Or so we might think. But it is easy to extract a part of that same Bible and elevate it to a position in our thinking that isn’t justified by the context. For example, in Romans 5:20-21, Paul wrote, “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord“. If we build our lives on these verses, then we might end up in a permanent sinful state, because, we think, God’s grace will cover our excesses. However, we turn the page to Romans 6 and read, “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? (Romans 6:1-3). Living under the shadow of Romans 5 only might lead to a “destructive heresy“.

There are sadly examples today of false teachers in the church. I recently heard about how a minister taking a funeral twisted the John 3:16 Scripture to suit the occasion. The person in the coffin was, from all accounts, an unrepentant sinner. Of course we don’t know what happened just before death, but the minister proceeded to tell the large congregation that because Jesus came to this world, loving everyone, then their dead relative was now in Heaven regardless of the life they had lived. And that same situation would be repeated for everyone present. This is called Universalism, and many people today believe in universal salvation, thinking that a loving and compassionate God will have mercy on them and will never send anyone to the fires of hell. But they neglect the righteousness and justice of God. In Matthew 25:46 Jesus said, “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life“. This chapter in Matthew makes clear that some people, perhaps many people, will indeed end up in a place of eternal torment, a place we call hell. Thankfully, a Christian minister present in the funeral service took the celebrant to task after the service, expounding John 3:16 correctly, and adding the next verse into the discussion. Sadly, however, many people might have left the service deluded by false teaching.

The teaching of destructive heresies leads to sects such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They started off as a Bible study class in the nineteenth century led by Charles Russell but through a number of volumes containing his theology, the Bible came to be reinterpreted to suit. So the JW’s believe that Jesus is Michael the archangel, contradicting what we pilgrims read in John 1:1,14, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. … So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son“. To take another part of their doctrine, the JW’s believe that salvation is obtained by a combination of faith, good works and obedience. But we pilgrim Bible scholars know that salvation is by grace alone. Ephesians 2:8-9, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it“. The JW’s also reject the Trinity, believing that Jesus was a created being and the Holy Spirit to essentially be the inanimate power of God. The JW’s have retranslated the Bible to fit in with their doctrine and theology, and have produced a version they call the New World Translation. If you have such a volume on your bookshelf then bin it because it contains “destructive heresies”. And we pray that God will open the eyes of all those poor deluded people who have been deceived by their evil teaching. 

We pilgrims know the “way of truth” don’t we? John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. Jesus told His disciples to follow Him because that was the only way they would get to His Father in Heaven, and the same instruction applies to us as well. The Apostle Peter obviously got the message because he said to the Jewish rulers in the Sanhedrin, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus’ statement “I am the way” is exclusive, so if anyone tries to convince us that all paths, all religions, lead to Heaven then we are in danger of falling into the category of believing “evil teaching”. Best to close the conversation and quote John 14:6 instead.

Father God, we pray Your Son’s prayer today – “And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

Salvation for All

Posted on by korgrocker

“Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.”
Romans 11:11-12 NLT

There is always hope. God never stopped loving His people and His offer of salvation was, and is, always available to them. Jesus came to this world, as their Messiah, but the majority of His people rejected Him. They were looking for a “Messiah” made in their image rather than God’s. They expected their Messiah to arrive and throw out the hated Roman occupiers, restoring the land of Israel to them. They rejected Jesus’ invitation to the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel), in spite of all His miracles and teachings. They knew the Scriptures, but they failed to make the connection with prophesies such as we find in Isaiah 53, which includes the promise that Jesus was to become the sacrifice for their sins. “But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins”. (Isaiah 53:10-11). How did they miss their Messiah? I’m sure their rejection broke God’s heart. But God was planning for eternity. He could see the end from the beginning. 

The prophet Zechariah gave a prophecy about the End Times, and we read in Zechariah 12:10, “Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.” There will be a day, still to come, when God’s people will realise their awful mistake. But in the meantime, the Jews continue to worship God without their Messiah, still looking for Him. We Gentile pilgrims are the enlightened ones, secure in the knowledge that our sins have been forgiven, by the Jewish Messiah. But we cannot be complacent. 

Are the Jews jealous of God’s grace that he has so lovingly poured out on the gentiles? Probably not because they considered themselves to be strictly monotheistic, and the concept of the Christian view of God the Father, His Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, was to them verging on pantheism. The Jews continue in their legalism, adhering to the Torah and other Jewish rules and regulations. But Jesus was a Jew. Born of Jewish heritage, to a Jewish family. His ministry was to the Jews. Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah continues to this day, a rejection amplified by the way Christians have treated the Jews over the centuries that have passed. But as Paul said, “the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation”. However, the people of Israel are not beyond hope. God’s grace is there for all.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth“. We have not yet reached “the right time” but it is coming and it may be nearer than we think. God’s plan includes His people. And you and I. No-one who has accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour will be left out, whether Jew or Gentile. Paul finishes our verses for today with the thought, referring to “God’s offer of salvation”, “think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it”? To many today, the name “Jew” stirs up feelings of hatred. Hardly a day goes by without another news report of antisemitism. Small wonder that so many Jews have returned to the land of Israel, where they hoped to find a place where they won’t be persecuted. The persecution of God’s chosen people over the centuries has been tragic, and at a level not experienced by any other race. But it’s no surprise that the devil hates them with a passion and will always be looking for ways to annihilate them. However, God has His hand of blessing on His people, and has promised never to leave them or forsake them. 

We pilgrims must pray for our Jewish brothers and sisters, and we must remember that one day we will be serving a Jewish Lord, Jesus Christ Himself.

Dear Lord Jesus. We thank You for coming to this sad world, bringing Your message of redemption, hope for all eternity. Amen.