Rejecting Deception: Paul’s Call for Truth in Ministry

Posted on by korgrocker

“Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.”
2 Corinthians 4:1-2 NLT
“Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as we received mercy [from God, granting us salvation, opportunities, and blessings], we do not get discouraged nor lose our motivation. But we have renounced the disgraceful things hidden because of shame; not walking in trickery or adulterating the word of God, but by stating the truth [openly and plainly], we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
2 Corinthians 4:1-2 AMP

To Paul, there was something very precious about the “new way”. This was his ministry: preaching the Gospel throughout the Middle East, in the towns and cities where he found himself on his missionary journeys. Places like Ephesus, Galatia, Thessalonica, Philippi, and, of course, Corinth. Paul’s message, given to him through his encounter with the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, wasn’t just some theory or new ideology. To Paul, it was more valuable than anything else, and because of that, he never stopped sharing the Good News about Jesus. Imagine Paul holding in his hands a golden crown, studded with precious stones, worth more than anything he ever dreamed of owning. How would he have viewed it? As an investment opportunity? Or perhaps with disdain because it was of no practical use? But as a materialistic lump of precious metal and diamonds, Paul would have discarded it as “rubbish” because it fell far short of the value of what he had to share with people. The Gospel was, and is, priceless, because it brings people, human beings otherwise lost and hell-bound, into God’s presence. And Paul considered that it was through God’s mercy that he was able to share it. How could he ever abandon this ministry, no matter how many knockbacks he received along the way? Paul believed in the ministry granted him with a passion that took up every part of him, a passion that drove him on into one place after another. A passion that took him to marketplaces and even into the presence of kings. But in it all, he never lost the humility and gratitude of being able to do so much for Jesus.

“just as the Scriptures said”

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Note the repetition of “just as the Scriptures said”. Paul wasn’t making up the message he shared. It was based on the truth of Scripture. So why did Paul think it necessary to write, “We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God”. Had someone accused him of trickery and lies? Surely not, because Paul was transparent in all he preached, and his message was simple because all it contained was the truth that Jesus was crucified and on the third day he returned to life, the resurrected Son of God. Perhaps there were some charlatans in the First Century AD who, finding that here was a way to make money, were preaching a message that people wanted to hear. Paul warned Timothy about such people in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths”. There’s a satirical song, “Preachin’ Blues” recorded by the female duo “Larkin Poe” on their 2017 album “Peach”, that contains the lyrics, “I’m gonna get me some religion / I’m gonna join the Baptist church / Gonna be a preacher / So I don’t have to work”. Perhaps there were a few men with similar sentiments roaming the Middle East in the time of Paul, men making an easy living preaching what people wanted to hear. 

Today, we pilgrims notice that the practise of “adulterating the word of God” hasn’t gone away. Of particular note is the JW sect, which, rather than fitting their faith to the Word of God, the Bible we know and love, instead have concocted its own translation of the Bible to fit its faith. And there are others who, in a more subtle way, have decided to omit certain passages of Scripture, or, worse, have ignored them or dismissed them as being of a bygone age, Scriptures they say don’t apply anymore. So we have the “woke” influence and gender ideologies being promoted in the liberal wing of the Church of England. A recent news report started, “Worshippers will no doubt have been delighted to read about the Church of England’s latest “diversity drive.” To help “boost inclusion”, we learnt yesterday, clergy in London are being encouraged to “preach anti-racism in sermons”. So Anglican ministers now have to be aware of  DEI policies in their preaching. Can we go as far as labelling the liberals in the Church of England as being a “sect” much like the JW’s? Perhaps.

But back to us pilgrims. Like Paul, we only accept the “pure milk of the Word” because only this contains the words of eternal life. We do not “distort the Word of God,” but believe it to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). Not part of the Scriptures, or this bit that someone has rewritten. All Scripture. And so we look to Jesus, as did Paul, as the Author and Finisher of our faith, and one day we will join Him in the place He is preparing for us.

Dear Lord Jesus. All we want to do is follow in Paul’s footsteps and preach the words of eternal life that You left with us. Please lead us and guide us, we pray, in Your everlasting ways. Please protect us from preachers and words that distort the truth. We are so grateful, Amen.

Personal Profit

Posted on by korgrocker

You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us.”
2 Corinthians 2:17 NLT
“For we are not like many, [acting like merchants] peddling God’s word [shortchanging and adulterating God’s message]; but from pure [uncompromised] motives, as [commissioned and sent] from God, we speak [His message] in Christ in the sight of God.”
2 Corinthians 2:17 AMP

The verse today is the last one in 2 Corinthians 2, and it comes at the end of a short section entitled “Ministers of the New Covenant”.  In a sense, that title includes all true believers, not just the church leaders, the pastors, teachers, apostles and all. We are all a “Christ-like fragrance” as we go about our daily lives in this sad and bad world. We are the “salt and light” that Jesus taught about in His Sermon on the Mount. But in this last verse, Paul speaks more personally and points out his true qualifications. There were men in his day who were false teachers, apostles, or prophets, and they somehow managed to wheedle their way into churches and people’s lives, finding that they could earn quite a useful living by doing so. But not Paul. His motives were driven and fueled by Christ’s authority.

In recent years, several high-profile “televangelists” have become wealthy through their ministries and donor-funded media empires. They promote the use of private jets as a “Biblical necessity”, and all based on the premise that faith can bring financial prosperity. Kenneth Copeland, for one, is reputed to have a net worth of over $300 million. Joel Osteen is another very wealthy man, with a net worth close behind. But are these men the “hucksters” that Paul warned about? That’s not for me to say. Some people say a minister should be kept financially poor by their congregation, because they say it will keep them humble, but I don’t endorse that premise either. Jesus warned about the dangers of false prophets in His Sermon on the Mount: “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7:15-16). The Apostle Peter also had some warning words: “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).

How can we pilgrims avoid finding, or even getting involved with, a “huckster”, someone who peddles God’s Word for profit? The only way is to refer back to God’s Word to see if the message being preached is true. But there are other “red flags” that we should be aware of. One important test for me is about accountability. Who is the minister accountable to, and if there is a Board of Trustees or even just another person, how sound are their credentials? Another important thought is about promises. False ministers preach about guaranteed health, wealth, and success, neglecting the biblical teaching on suffering and the cross. Such ministers can also be very controlling, and they use fear, guilt, or shame to control church members and often discourage any questioning of their authority, with statements such as “touch not the Lord’s anointed”. Such a person will cleverly introduce their false teaching and doctrines in a way that seems and sounds plausible, drawing gullible people into believing that what they preach is indeed from God. And of course, there is the question of money, which in itself can become a “red flag”.

“They searched the Scriptures day after day“

In Acts 17 we can read about how the Berean people responded to Paul’s teaching. “And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth” (Acts 17:11). And that is how we pilgrims should approach any new preaching and teaching that we haven’t heard before. 

We pilgrims know and love the Lord, and as we stay close to Him, we will stay on the path of truth, supporting those in leadership who are truly God’s anointed. Paul said he preached “the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority” and then pointed out that God is watching him. Of course He is, and us as well. Our loving Heavenly Father watches over us constantly, keeping us right through His Spirit within us. And we are so grateful for His Word, the Bible, and all the truth that it contains. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Only You have the words of eternal life, and only You are the way, the truth and the life. Please deliver us from evil, we pray, and keep us on the path of everlasting truth. In Your precious name, we pray. Amen.

Standing Firm

Posted on by korgrocker

“I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions. When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.”
2 Corinthians 2:9-11 NLT

Paul wrote that he had forgiven the man who opposed him and disrupted the other Corinthian believers, and Paul asked them to forgive the man, too. But he went on to mention the devil and his evil schemes. The devil has nothing new that will impact Christians, but we must be aware of his strategies and methods, and who he is most bothered by. Peter warned the believers in Asia that he is like a roaring lion: “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Peter proceeded to say, “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith…”. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 about the weapons we have available to “stand firm” when the devil is on the prowl: “Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). 

“Stand firm … and be strong in your faith”

So what are these devilish “strategies”? From our verses today, there is a connection with forgiveness, or lack of it. If the believers in Corinth had decided that the man causing the offence was beyond being forgiven, even if he had left the church, there would have been an opportunity for the devil to point an accusatory finger at them for denying Christ’s teachings. Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, said, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15). And as the Roman soldiers hammered home the nails, “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing … “ (Luke 23:34a). Unforgiveness is a spiritually debilitating disease that will sap our strength and stunt our Christian lives. But it is pretty serious if any of us hold unforgiveness in our hearts, because, as Jesus said, God will treat us in the same way, and without forgiveness, there is no possibility of salvation. 

The devil will fight against us, and many a Christian has fallen under the onslaught of his attacks. If anyone in the Corinthian church had refused to forgive the man in question, then the devil had won the battle. He would have succeeded in snatching someone from God, and if that person never subsequently came to a place of seeking forgiveness both from the man and from God, then they were in danger of being lost forever. 

It is worth meditating regularly on the verses that describe our spiritual armour. As we consider the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, we have all the protective armour that we need. And then we have one further offensive weapon that the devil cannot stand before, and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Three times in the wilderness, the devil tried to tempt Jesus away from His mission, and each time Jesus had a Scripture ready to block the attack. We can read them in Luke 4. But what would have happened if Jesus hadn’t remembered the Scriptures He required? Come to that, do we know the Scriptures we need to “stand firm” when the devil attacks? There is only one way to resolve ignorance: reading the Bible.

The devil has no jurisdiction over true believers in Jesus. There are many who claim to be believers, but who are confused or ignorant about the Christian faith and what it means. We find them in some of our denominational churches, where liberal theologies abound. In such churches, there are blatant deviations from Scriptural truths, and the people in the pews suffer the consequences. In a church near where I live, the congregation is devoted to its building. The devil isn’t bothered about them because they are no threat to him while they are trying to fix the fabric of their church. And if they even spark into spiritual life God’s way, then all he has to do is to poke another hole in the roof and divert their attention back onto their building. The congregation is now mostly elderly and sadly dwindling. 

But we pilgrims are Bible-believing, blood-bought, children of God, and nothing will pull us away from a life spent in His presence. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, “It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first instalment that guarantees everything he has promised us”. With God on our side, we are invincible, but only if we live our lives His way. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We pray Jesus’ prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses and deliver us from evil” in faith and with grateful hearts. On Your Word we stand firm forever. Amen

One Lord, Jesus Christ (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

Paul made two unambiguous statements about God and Christ in the last verse of our reading today. He said we live for God the Father, but through Jesus Christ. They identify two separate roles for God the Father and God the Son, in that all things were created by the Father, but through Jesus. These statements are foundational to the Christian faith, and there is no alternative way of life for any pilgrim. We considered the Father yesterday, and now we turn to Jesus, “through whom we live”. 

All the way back in Genesis 1, we see that God “spoke” the heavens and the earth into being. Genesis 1:3, “Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light”“. But if we now turn to John 1, we find out about what was said. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him“. So we find the Trinitarian relationship between the Father and Son, because God spoke and Jesus was the Word, a partnership that has always existed. In Genesis, we read that humanity was created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26f), and we must consider what that truly means. God had already created the angels – we don’t know exactly when, but this probably occurred before the world was created – and He then created human beings, populating both the spiritual realm and the natural world. Two separate kingdoms have existed, one eternal and one bounded by time, but it was God’s desire that He brought them both together under the authority of His Son, Jesus, as we read 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”. 

The mind-boggling truth is that through the Word, the logos, we find the God-man Jesus walking this world, bringing God’s love and grace to people dying in their sins. Jesus was, and is, the Logos, as described by John, who went to great lengths to explain and correct false beliefs and ideas about God, and to provide us with the proper and correct facts about Him. In discussions with the JW’s, we will find that they do not believe that Jesus is God, a member of the Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Their version of John 1:1 (New World Translation) reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god”, and that identifies the JW’s as a sect that denies the divinity of Jesus as He went about Palestine showing His love and grace for the people. There are other differences, but we need to beware of a religion claiming to be Christian but one which has been infiltrated by the devil.

One of the first things that Jesus said when He started His public ministry was, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We are all very familiar with this verse but the word “perish” is often overlooked. We go for the “love” bit and how we must believe in God’s Son, but the consequences for people who don’t are that they will perish. Back to Genesis 1:26. Being created in God’s image means that with the package came free choice, a huge responsibility that is avoided by most of the people in our unbelieving society. It is a responsibility because those who don’t believe will “perish”and we know what that means if we read Revelation 20. And to those who claim a God of love would never send anyone to hell, we have to respond with the message that He would not overrule their right to free choice and turn them into an automaton. Instead, He sent His Son, full of unlimited love and grace, to take on the punishment they deserve and by His sacrifice ensure that they will never perish. 

There was a time in Galilee when Jesus addressed a couple of local news reports, brought to Him by the people there. The first was concerning Pilate, who had murdered some people in the Temple while they were offering sacrifices, and the second was when eighteen people died after a tower in Siloam fell on them. But Jesus turned the emphasis around, ““Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too” (Luke 13:2-5). Jesus’ response was clear. Don’t get caught up with temporal matters and neglect the reality that unless we believe in Him, repenting of our sins, then we will “perish”. 

We pilgrims live our lives through the lens of the Cross, where we lay our burdens down and believe that Jesus died for our sins. Paul reminded the Corinthians of that, and, with a sober and realistic perspective, we too take on board what it means to live through Jesus, the Son of God.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Son Jesus and all He has done for us at Calvary. Thank You that through Your plan for salvation You have saved us from perishing in a terrible place. Amen.

Living By God’s Power

Posted on by korgrocker

“Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. But I will come—and soon—if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power. For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?”
1 Corinthians 4:18-21 NLT

Do we believers talk a lot about the things of the Kingdom but fail to leverage the power available to us through the Holy Spirit? I think we probably do, because there is a disconnect between what happened in the early church and what is happening today. When was the last time we had a prayer meeting that was so powerful that the building shook, for example (see Acts 4)? When was the last time we were in a meeting where the power and presence of the Holy Spirit were so evident that healings occurred, a crescendo of praise erupted spontaneously, and everyone spoke out in tongues? Of course, the Cessationists claim that all this would have finished with the death of the Apostles, because they believe that certain spiritual gifts, particularly those considered miraculous or revelatory, ceased to be active after the first century. They believe gifts like speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing are not meant for the church today. In contrast, we have the Continuationists (like me) who believe that the miraculous gifts mentioned in the Bible, such as healing, prophecy, tongues, and miracles, are still given by the Holy Spirit to believers today and should be actively sought after and practised in the church. Whichever position we follow will have a profound effect on how we view and believe the Bible. Take, for example, 1 Corinthians 12, a chapter where Paul taught about the Spiritual Gifts. A Cessationist might be comfortable with the Holy Spirit gifts of service, enabling us to help each other (vs 4-7), but they would start to become a bit uneasy when it comes to verses 9-10, “The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said”, and in the end they would get a black marker pen out and find themselves redacting parts of these verses, because they don’t believe they apply today. After all, if they don’t believe what is written in the Bible, then they may as well remove the bits they disagree with, or treat the Holy Scriptures as nothing more than a good read or a history book detailing the life of the Jews and the early Christians.

As a Continuationist, I have no problem in accepting these verses, and those written anywhere else in the Bible about miracles and healings, prophecies and tongues, and in fact, I have personal experience of the Holy Spirit moving in healings and miracles. Some years ago, my daughter was totally healed of a brain illness with a prognosis so poor that my wife and I were told to expect, and prepare for, the worst. But she recovered through God’s grace and healing power, and her hospital medical notes were completed with the comment “this is nothing short of a miracle” written by an unbelieving medic. Today, through her, we have two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren (so far), bringing blessings upon blessings. We serve an amazing God, who loves us and cares for us.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers that there was no use in all their “pretentious speeches” and accompanying arrogant talk because there was a lack of God’s power at work. But what does “living by God’s power” really mean? In our own lives, God has supplied all that we need for life in His Kingdom. 2 Peter 1:3, “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself through his marvellous glory and excellence”. We may not have the riches and means to live a prosperous life in our natural years, but God has supplied all that we need for life in His Kingdom. There is a difference. Jesus said to the church in Smyrna, “I know about your suffering and your poverty—but you are rich! … ” (Revelation 2:9a). Here was a fellowship of believers who had little financially but who were rich with the resources and power of the Holy Spirit. Also, our needs have been met by God with all the resources of God being placed at our disposal. In our earthly lives, we are in the middle of a battle described by Paul in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms“. And Paul continued to describe the whole armour of God, set out to replicate the physical armour of the Roman soldiers to whom he was chained. We know the passage of Scripture, with the defensive items followed by one offensive weapon – ” … the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17b). And finally, Paul exhorts us to “pray in the Spirit”

Are we pilgrims living in God’s power, so freely available to all those who believe? Or are we in a place of fear and anxiety, depressed by world events, and hoping that Jesus comes soon? We pilgrims are made of stern stuff, solid in our faith, and dependable in times of crisis. Psalm 112:6-7 is a pillar in our faith, “Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered for ever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord“. We share Scriptures like Psalm 105:4-5, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced“. We can all recall the difficult times when God came through for us, and we strengthened ourselves with prayers of “do it again, Lord” when faced with a crisis. It is a tragedy that so many pilgrims can be stoics, gritting their teeth when troubles come against them, and sometimes hoping against hope that the Lord will return soon. But, folks, we have access to God’s power, and when we live by it, we are in a different world. Even when the world and society are falling apart around us, we can stand strong and firm, living in the power of God.

Dear God. Your power is limitless. Please forgive our lack of faith and help us to grasp all You have us with both hands, as we walk day by day in his sad and bad world. In Jesus’ name, amen.

How Did Jesus Know?

Posted on by korgrocker

“So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.””
John 13:25-27 NLT

Jesus was, and still is, the Son of God, divine and human. Two thousand years ago He was sent to Israel with a plan for the redemption of mankind, following through every requirement to bring it into fruition, a successful conclusion. Jesus knew that His death and resurrection were the final part of the plan, and He spoke several times about it – Mark 8:31, “Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead“. But how much of the detail beforehand did Jesus know? Father God could of course see the end from the beginning, every twist and turn, every event, because He lives in eternity, a place without time. Imagine something like the Bayeux Tapestry, laid out before Him, but with every event portrayed in its minutest detail. Because of His humanity, Jesus would not have had such a view, and He regularly communicated with His father in prayer to obtain the guidance He needed, to make sure He stayed on track. Through the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, He retained that divine communication.

But Jesus was also human. We see from John 4:6 that He got tired, “Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.” About Jesus, Paul wrote, “Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. … ” (Philippians 2:6-7a). So Jesus needed to eat and drink, sleep, and use the bathroom. Even as early as the age of twelve, Jesus had a sense of His mission, as we read from the account of Jesus in the Temple, “So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”” (Luke 2:48-49). 

So, did Jesus know beforehand about the woman at the Samaritan well? Or the fact that there would be five thousand men and their families to be fed? What about the other miraculous occasions? Did Jesus know about all these in advance? I don’t think He did, but He did know about the power through the Holy Spirit that He had within Him, and He was close enough in tune with His mission and His Father’s will to know what to do at the time. So, how did Jesus know it was Judas who would betray Him? In fact, how did He know that He would be betrayed at all? Judas was a pivotal factor in God’s redemptive plan, to the extent that he was prophesised about in Psalm 41:9, “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me“. At first sight, it would seem strange that Jesus gave a piece of bread soaked in the vinegary dip common at the Passover meal, to expose the man who would betray Him. But that was a very real part of the Psalm 41 prophecy. 

Jesus did know what was going to happen because He knew the Scriptures. Today, there are many problems both inside and outside the church caused by a lack of Bible knowledge and, consequently, a failure to put God’s commands into practice. But at a personal level, we find most of what we need to live in the Bible. It is a unique book. There in none other like it. As Peter said in John 6:68, “Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life“. There is nowhere else where we can find the words we need. Of course we pray to our Father in Heaven and trust in the Holy Spirit for power and guidance, but through the Word of God we have a foundation that underpins our lives on this planet and leads us to a life with God for ever.

Dear Father God. We thank You for Your Word, and the guidance it provides for our lives. Amen.

Demon Possessed

Posted on by korgrocker

“The people retorted, “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?” “No,” Jesus said, “I have no demon in me. For I honour my Father—and you dishonour me. … I tell you the truth, anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!” The people said, “Now we know you are possessed by a demon. Even Abraham and the prophets died, but you say, ‘Anyone who obeys my teaching will never die!’ Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?””
John 8:48-49, 51-53 NLT

The accusation that someone is possessed by a demon is only rarely heard in our Western cultures, if at all. Much was attributed to demon possession in Biblical days, society using it as a catch-all for a variety of unexplained physical, mental and behavioural attributes and conditions. To the crowd, heavily infiltrated by Pharisees and other religious leaders, Jesus’ counter-cultural claims and message were so unusual that the accusation of demon possession was, at least superficially in that culture, a logical choice. The crowd were doing what we often do – they tried to make sense of behaviours unexplained by any other cause. In our societies today we might conclude that strange and unusual behaviour is because of “learning difficulties” or some form of mental illness. But in Jesus’ day there was no reason why the crowd should level the accusation of demon possession at Him just because they disagreed with what He was saying. Jesus’ message was simple yet profound, and never the ravings of someone possessed. The dangerous thing for the people was that by levelling such accusations at Jesus, they were at risk of committing the unpardonable sin. Mark 3:28-29, “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences”. Imagine the scene before the “pearly gates” as one of Jesus’ intransigent accusers arrived and tried to gain entry. The realisation of what they had done would have preceded a quick journey to a place where they would find out what real demon possession was all about!

To a crowd steeped in a religious culture that claimed salvation through obeying the Law of Moses and the plethora of rules devised by generations of rabbis, someone who claimed otherwise would have been most unwelcome, to the point that they might become associated with the devil, who, by definition, was anti-God. To a sincere law-believer of that day, such a person as Jesus was in danger of destroying their entire belief system, and their first instinct was to protect what they had. But the sad thing was that religious people of Jesus’ day had replaced God’s loving plans with a liturgy that excluded relationship with God and exchanged it for a life style devoid of the life that God intended. 

In 21st Century Western societies, people only rarely display anything that would warrant the claim or accusation of demon possession. But things happen that display the same stubborn behaviour in the face of messianic claims of a new way or alternative explanation. The ideological clashes between groups of fanatics over issues such as the climate or gender are perhaps a modern day demonstration of the same refusal to change demonstrated in the crowd before Jesus and such behaviour is still very much part of the human psyche. The same crowd who accused Jesus of demon possession would perhaps deny the holocaust ever happened in the mid-twentieth century. Or they would make other outrageous claims all in the name of their own particular “religion”.

How do we pilgrims cope in the face of new claims and better ways? We do what countless others have done – we turn to the Word of God. There we find truthful nourishment for our souls. And rather than accuse the ideological fanatics of demon possession, we reach out to them with a message of hope straight from the throne of God. They will probably reject both us and the message, even screaming accusations of demon possession, but, like Jesus, we patiently and lovingly repeat what we have said and then move on, leaving the consequences of their denials to the mercy of God. 

Father God. Please help us to stay close to You and listen constantly for Your voice in all we think and do. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Trained by God

Posted on by korgrocker

“Then, midway through the festival, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. The people were surprised when they heard him. “How does he know so much when he hasn’t been trained?” they asked. So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me.””
John 7:14-16 NLT

There came the day when Jesus finally appeared in the Temple, and John recorded that He “began to teach”. As a reminder, Jesus appeared publicly half way through the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a week long festival of thanksgiving to God, for the harvest just completed and the feeding of the Israelite slaves in the wilderness so many years before. It was an essential event for the Jews, particularly the male contingent, so Jerusalem would have been mobbed by huge crowds. John also recorded that the “people were surprised when they heard Him” because of His lack of training. 

What was there about Jesus’ teaching that made the people think that way? There were probably several reasons. Perhaps His style of presentation was different to what the people were used to. His teaching material, though Scripturally based, would have had a different interpretation to that of the conventional text books. The miraculous signs he used to support His message would have wowed the crowd but, again, suggest to them that He had not been trained in the traditional Jewish ways. Jesus was honest and said it as it was. He made no attempt to woo the crowd with benign platitudes and a false praise. He regularly attacked the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, even on one occasion saying that their father was not God but the devil. When they tried to trap Him with difficult questions, He confounded and silenced them. Jesus told the crowd that, like it or not, His message “is not [His] own; it comes from God who sent [Him]”.

Most church ministers, as we pilgrims know, are trained in some theological college or other. The people who are training for the ministry become acquainted with the culture and teaching of their particular denomination, learning the liturgies and Biblical interpretations. But there is a better way through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Jesus told His disciples that He will lead us into all truth – ”When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future” (John 16:13). That’s all Jesus did. He told the people what His Father in Heaven told Him to say. We pilgrims have a duty to consult with God over what we should do and say. His Words may or may not agree with the teaching of our denominations but by being soundly Bible based then they will be truth. The words Jesus said cut across cultural sensitivities to declare and teach the truth after generations of misinterpretations or even untruths supposedly based on the Hebrew Bible. The truths we declare will increasingly impact the cultures in which we live, because they expose sin and evil, never a popular subject in a society without a relationship with God.

We pilgrims had embraced the Gospel, repented of our sins, and believe in Jesus 100%. We speak as God directs. There is no other way.

Dear Father God. We reach out to You today, trusting in You to lead and guide us through the minefields of life. Only You have the words of eternal life. Thank You. Amen.

The Words of Eternal Life

Posted on by korgrocker

“At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.””
John 6:66-69 NLT

In our fellowships and churches there can sometimes be a parting of ways between a member of the congregation and the leadership. It can be due to a simple administrative problem such as who does what, or someone falls out with another person,  or it could be over a doctrinal issue or some form of Biblical interpretation. Regarding the latter I know of a church where a member left because they disagreed with the Biblical stance over matters of sex and marriage. But all these situations may or may not be valid and I’m sure most divisions within the Christian real estate are avoidable, should there be a will to work out a solution.

However, in Jesus’ case, the disciples left Him because they could not accept His teaching. These men and women were having difficulty in accepting that Jesus was the Son of God, and that what He taught about His body and blood was true. Jesus said, “For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up” (John 6:44), implying that Father God sent Jesus to this world, and in the process He was going to attract people to support His Son. So perhaps the disciples who left Jesus were not the ones needed at that time. This is perhaps a contentious thought, because we know that the Gospel is available to all, but after there had been an exodus of disciples, Jesus turned to the twelve disciples He had chosen, and asked if they were going to leave too. But Peter responded with a timeless statement, “You have the words that give eternal life”. After all that had happened, the difficult (to them) teaching, the divinity claim, the consequent murmuring and complaining, and the mass exodus of Jesus’ followers, the Twelve disciples, later to become the Apostles, stood firm in their allegiance to Jesus. What would I have done, is a question I ask myself. But we note that not all the disciples other than the Twelve deserted Jesus – just “many” of them. There were still some who remain faithful. Men and women on the periphery doing what many do today, quietly getting on with a life of service to God, below the radar of public notice. People who have accepted Jesus, who believe in Him and His teaching, and who are doing their best to apply it in their own lives. 

Peter, speaking as the Twelve’s representative, stated two truths that must have gladdened Jesus’ heart. Peter said that the Disciples recognised Jesus’ divinity, and that they believed in Him. Because of that, the Disciples knew that Jesus was speaking words that, for those like them that believed them, will lead to a life spent with God.

We pilgrims too have declared that Jesus is the Son of God, that we believe in Him and we follow His teaching. The “words of eternal life” were not just for that generation but timelessly apply over the millennia right up until today and beyond. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved”. The early disciples who left Jesus failed to make the declaration and ended up in a spiritual wilderness, but we pilgrims are in a privileged position, being of those who have declared and believed. 

Today we once again declare that Jesus is Lord and that he has the Words we need to hear for our future. And we tell others about our wonderful Saviour, that they too will have the same opportunity we have had.

Yes, Lord Jesus. We proclaim and declare that only Your have the words that will lead to eternal life. We give You all the glory today. Amen.

Too Hard to Understand

Posted on by korgrocker

“So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. … Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” … At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him.”
John 6:53-54, 60, 66 NLT

On the way to the synagogue in Capernaum Jesus had made many disciples. These were men (and presumably women) who believed in what He said. They saw His miraculous signs. They heard His wonderful words of grace. They heard Him expound the Scriptures in a way they liked. But then they heard Jesus say things that they struggled to understand. So they ended up leaving Him and they “turned away”. A tragedy for them because they missed the only opportunity of receiving Jesus’ promise of eternal life. There may have been too many problems for these early disciples. Firstly, the concept of eating and drinking Jesus’ body and blood from a physical perspective blinded their minds to the spiritual meaning behind His words. Secondly, they perhaps did understand what Jesus was meaning, but the consequent commitment and implication for how they should now live their lives was too great a sacrifice. 

There are always people who are unable to understand, or don’t want to understand, what Biblical teaching says. One day a person might hear a sermon on anger, taking as its text Jesus’ teaching on anger – “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell” (Matthew 5:21-22). A naturally angry person might decide that to change their approach to other people who upsets them is too big an ask and they decide they can’t follow teaching like this. So they either rationalise it and continue as they did before, or they leave and find a church where Biblical teaching is less challenging. And they conveniently forget these verses from Matthew. It is easy to follow a Gospel that we agree with and won’t mean we have to change our lives.

The more liberal of Christians will have a relaxed and dismissive approach to some parts of the Bible. For example in Matthew 5:27-28, Jesus said some hard words about adultery. “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.“ Of course, this is a very sensitive subject, but it emphasised a principle that Jesus expounded – it is not what we appear to do but what is going on inside of us. So people, particularly men, who may struggle to change their behaviour in this area, may instead choose to disagree or ignore what Jesus said. As pilgrims, do we approach the Bible with reverence and in the knowledge that it is the Word of God and the final arbiter of truth, or do we just take from it the bits that we agree with and ignore the rest, even making up excuses, or changing the meaning, for the contentious verses?

So many of the early disciples in Jesus’ day started to follow Him until His teaching became too difficult for them to follow. I wonder what they did then? But for us pilgrims, we have decided to follow Jesus, come what may. There is no turning back.

Dear Father God. There is indeed no way that we pilgrims will turn our backs on the very One who gave His all for us. We are so grateful. Amen.