Tag: Emmanuel Pentecostal Church

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Daily Devotion August 19th

WEDNESDAY 19th

John 14:15-31

NIV (v16) – ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—’

ESV (v16) – ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever . . .’

This fourteenth chapter of John contains two promises that gave the disciples hope, the first as we saw yesterday was of a future home, here in this section was the promise of a present helper. The disciple having spent three years with Jesus, watching and learning are told he was about to leave them, but not without promising that he would ask the Father to send them the Holy Spirit who would come alongside them to help them, or as the KJV puts it to be a comforter.

I know this is a poor illustration, but it does in some way show a similar lesson. When I left school, I went into the motor trade to learn to be a panel beater and car sprayer. I was privileged to learn from one of the best, as the man who I was going to be working alongside and learning from had spent several years in the Rolls Royce factory. One day after I had enjoyed learning from him for a couple of years he announced he was going to be leaving, he had decided to retire, but then he added, don’t worry (or words to that effect) someone else is coming to take my place and he will continue to train you.

The disciples had spent three years learning from Jesus, but there was still so  much more they needed to know, and when Jesus announced he was leaving them he said (my paraphrase) ‘Don’t worry someone else is going to be coming to take my place and he will continue to train you’. We read it in verse 29, ‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’

The present helper was to be none other than the Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, and we know that a few weeks after the ascension of Jesus he arrived to come alongside the disciples to help them, to empower them, to strengthen and enable them for the task in hand. And he is still here, as he came alongside the disciples, so he is wanting and willing to come alongside us to be with us, to be our helper, to be our comforter, to enable, equip  and empower us for the task in hand.

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Daily Devotion August 18th

TUESDAY 18th

John 14:1-7

NIV (vv2-3) – ‘My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’

ESV (vv2-3) – ‘In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.’

We remain in the first few verses of this chapter again today, to look again at the wonderful promise that Jesus made in verse 3, ‘I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.’ As I am preparing this it is a wet and miserable looking morning, it is raining, and the mist has come down over the town so that I cannot see very far. This would perhaps be a good way of describing how it felt for the disciples in the upper room with Jesus, not so much wet but a miserable day, the mist of gloom had descended upon them and they couldn’t see much further than beyond the next hour or two. But Jesus detected the gloom in their hearts and not only did he encourage the disciples that as they trusted in God, so they could also trust in him, (as we saw on 16th) but he makes them an incredible promise, ‘Yes, I am going, but I will come again and fetch you so that you can be with me in the place I am going to prepare for you, don’t be troubled, trust me in the same way as you trust God’. (my paraphrase)

We may look around us at this time and feel that the outlook looks gloomy and hopeless, but we as the family of God have this wonderful promise to cling onto, ‘Jesus is coming again’, we realise that what we see all around us is only temporal and will one day pass away, but what we are and who we are ‘in Christ’ is eternal, and we wait with eager anticipation to receive our eternal inheritance. ‘In this world’, Jesus said, ‘you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’ When you see the gloom, remind yourself, there is a place being prepared for you, and one day Jesus is coming to fetch you and he will lift you from out of the gloom and into his glorious presence so that you will forever be with him.

It was January the 3rd when we reserved our house, here in Stanley, and all the delays made it seem like it was never going to happen, but finally we have moved in. Jesus made the promise two thousand years ago about a home he is preparing and it may sometimes seem like it is never going to happen, but it will, one day and it will be suddenly and at an unexpected moment we will move in, and what an incredible moving in experience it will be as the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive and remain will be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Therefore, during this gloomy time in the world in which we find ourselves at this moment, be of good cheer, and keep looking up, for your redemption is drawing near.

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Daily Devotion August 17th

MONDAY 17th

John 14:1-7

NIV (v6) – ‘Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’

ESV (v6) – ‘Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’

We come to the last but one of the ‘I am’ statements of Jesus in these first few verses in this fourteenth chapter. Jesus says four things about himself:

I am the way

I am the truth

I am the life

No one can come to the Father except through me

You may remember in a previous devotion I talked about the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the gospel message which we proclaim. The uniqueness of Jesus and the gospel message is not something the Christian faith has mustered up to try to proclaim and propagate its message, it is something which has come from the mouth of the Lord Jesus himself. He himself made the declaration that he is the only way to the Father, therefore the only way to heaven. When Peter and the disciples declared in Acts 4:12 that there is no other name given under heaven by which we can be saved, they were not making up some new idea, or some fanciful plan or scheme they were declaring the truth of the message which Jesus himself declared.

Earlier in John’s gospel we are reminded of the uniqueness of Jesus in that we are reminded that 1) God loved the world 2) That he sent his Son into the world 3) So that WHOEVER believes IN HIM will not perish but will have eternal life (3:16)

This ‘I am’ statement in John 14:6, sums up everything about what this gospel is all about. It is about pointing men and women to the one who is the only source of eternal life, the only means of eternal life and the only giver of eternal life. All other ‘faiths’, ‘religions’, ‘isms’, are dead ends, there is only one door, only one Saviour, only one way and it is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who has loved us and given himself for us. (1 John 4:10)

This statement in v6 came out of the inquisitiveness of Thomas who wanted to know where Jesus was going and how we can know the way to where he is going (v5)

The world has always been searching for answers, for the meaning of life, about the afterlife etc. The answers to all the questions can be found in the Lord Jesus Christ, for in knowing him we find real purpose and we have real hope.

May we continually rejoice in the hope that we have as we have come to know the one who is the way, and the truth and the life, and may we continue to pray that many more will come to find him and know him, and may we individually be used in some way to point others to the one who is the way, the truth and the life.

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Daily Devotion August 14th

FRIDAY 14th

John 13:1-20

NIV (15) – ‘I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’

ESV (v15) – ‘For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.’

This is linked to where we were with our devotion on Wednesday, a command for us to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ which was an example of humility.

In Philippians 2:1-11 we read ‘So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’

May we always make every effort to ensure that Jesus is the example that we want to follow. We live in an era where following someone is very popular, for example with social media, your activity is measured by how many people you follow or how many are following you, many follow a particular football team, or other sporting team / individual, etc. some of those we follow are good examples in their particular sphere, we may follow someone socially because of who they are but there may be aspects of their personal life that we would not be willing to endorse, but when it comes to following Jesus, he is perfect in every way, in who he is, in what he has done and in what he continues to do. Pilate when looking at Jesus made this statement, ‘I find no fault in him’ and Pilate would have been strict in his scrutiny of Jesus. How well do we follow him, how closely do we follow him, how determined are we in ensuring that whatever our lot, we will follow Jesus, any day, every day, we will follow on? For those of us who do use social media, let us make sure that following and liking and keeping up with Tom, Dick and Harry doesn’t get in the way of hindering our following, liking and keeping up with Jesus.

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Daily Devotion August 12th

WEDNESDAY 12th

John 12:12-26

NIV (v26) – ‘Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.’

ESV (v26) – ‘If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honour him.’

We used to sing a hymn with the chorus that said ‘Following Jesus, ever day by day’ it was linked to our knowing Jesus as our Shepherd, and following is voice, but here in this chapter the call to follow Jesus comes with our knowing him as the Servant, the one who stooped down to do the lowliest of tasks, washing his disciples feet. Just as he was willing to be a servant, so we his followers must follow his example and be willing to serve.

There is no room in the Body of Christ for big egos, or proudful boasting, we have all become who we are and what we are because of the Cross, and the Cross is a ground leveller, it puts us all on the same level which is as sinners who have been saved by grace. Prior to salvation, we were all lost and bound for hell, regardless of our class and status in life, and post salvation day we are all heaven bound. On that journey, God may call us into different responsibilities or callings within the body, but we are all of equal honour, the pastor or senior leader is no better, nor more important than the almost unseen or unheard individual that may attend a place of worship and vice versa, as Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 12, ‘But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body’ (vv18-20) and v 22 ‘On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty . . .’ We are all in the same body, and we all have the same or equal responsibility toward one another as we serve the one who has called us by his grace. Not one of us should consider ourselves to be of more importance than another, if our servant Saviour was willing to wash feet, then we should all be willing to stoop down and to serve one another as if we were serving him, our Lord and Saviour.

Graham Kendrick put the thought in his well-known song, ‘The Servant King’, ‘So let us learn how to serve and in our lives enthrone him, each other’s needs to prefer, for it is Christ we’re serving’

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Daily Devotion August 10th

MONDAY 10th

John 11:1-44

NIV (v27) – ‘Yes, Lord, she replied, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’

ESV (v27) – ‘She said to him, Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.’

We remain in chapter 11 again today and our verse is the answer that Martha gave to Jesus after he had told her that he was the resurrection and the life, he said to her ‘Do you believe this?’ Martha answered in the affirmative with an important statement that summed up her own understanding of who Jesus was, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God . . .’

Do you remember when a similar answer was given when Jesus asked the disciples who they thought he was, Peter replied ‘You are the Christ the Son of the living God’ (Matthew 16:16)

There are a lot of questions in the Bible, this one in John 11:26 ‘Do you believe this?’ is an important one, in its context it is regarding our answer to whether we believe or not that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and that by believing we will never die, but will have eternal life, but what he offers is only possible because of who he is, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Because of the reason for John’s writing of this gospel, ‘ . . . that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, . . .’ (see John 2:30-31) it is plainly obvious that we cannot go through the gospel, and in particular myself preparing these devotions by having to keep repeating the theme of believing who Jesus is and the importance of believing on him! But that is a good thing, that we keep reminding ourselves that in believing in Jesus we have come to know the only one who can give forgiveness of sin and grant eternal life. While going through the gospel, I have not gone too often into the Old Testament, but with today’s devotion we will turn to Psalm 103 to remind ourselves again of what the Cross means to each one of us, the place where the Christ, the Son of the living God paid for our redemption.

Psalm 103:1-5 ‘Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’ 

‘. . .who forgives all your iniquity.’ Look at what it says in Psalm 32:1-2 ‘Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.’

We are blessed because we have been forgiven, we are blessed because our sin is forgiven, it has been washed by the blood of the Lamb and therefore the Lord will not count that iniquity against us. The lyrics from a well-known song, ‘Only by grace can we enter’ continues with ‘Lord, if you marked our transgressions , who would stand? Thanks to your grace we are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb.’

Believing on Jesus is so important, not only because of who he is, but because of what he has done for us. I repeat the question Jesus gave to Martha, ‘Do you believe this?’ Then end with the words of John, ‘. . . but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that by believing YOU may have life in his name.’

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Daily Devotion August 8th

John 10:1-18

NIV (v11) – ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

ESV (v11) – ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

In today’s Scripture we come to the fourth of the ‘I am’ statements, ‘I am the good shepherd.’ It is only a few weeks ago that I highlighted the Scriptures that show us that Jesus is the ‘good, chief and great’ shepherd in our Sunday video.

Good as in our text for today.

Great in Hebrews 13:20

Chief in 1 Peter 5:4

Today we will consider the second part of the text ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’

This is what Jesus came to do, he was born to die, he was born to become the sacrifice for the sins of the world, he was born to be both the shepherd and the lamb. As a result of his sacrifice, through him becoming the Passover Lamb, we can become a part of his flock, in the safety of his fold and know him as our Shepherd.

Back in our earlier devotions from John’s gospel we recalled what John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus coming toward him, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’, (John 1:29) But before he could take the sin away he had to go to Calvary, which was God’s appointed place for the sacrificial lamb to be slain. In 1 John 4:10 we read ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin.’

Lets remind ourselves that God loved us and so he sent his Son to be our sacrificial Lamb so that as a result of our coming to believe in him, we will have life which is abundant (John 10:10) and eternal (John 10:27) and at the same time we will come to know the Lamb as the Lord our Shepherd.

This is all good news, but there is further good news in this same chapter that reminds us that the one who came to be the sacrificial Lamb so that we can come to know him as our Shepherd has power over death, verse 17-18 says, ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it upon again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from  my Father.’

He went to the cross, knowing that he was going to suffer, he knew the awfulness beforehand of everything that was going to happen, the scourging, the beating, the taunting, the thorns, the nails, the taking upon himself our sin and the punishment he would bear on our behalf for it, but he was willing, first because he loved us, second because he wanted to redeem us, and we could give a number of other reasons but my third will be because he knew that in laying down his life he had the power to take it up again, and fourthly because he had the power to lay down his life and to take it up again, he would have the power to grant eternal life to all who would believe and fifthly, he knew he was going to have a sheep-fold full of sheep, taken from among the nations and tribes of the world, men and women who will be washed in the his blood, the blood of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 5) The Hebrew writer reminds us in Hebrews 12:2 ‘. . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross . . .’

Today as we contemplate what Christ has done for us, give thanks from a grateful heart, and should it happen to be that you are reading this and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Shepherd, then come to know him, as your Saviour, as your Shepherd. Come to the one who gave his life to redeem you, to reconcile you back to God, come into the safety of his sheepfold.

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Daily Devotion August 7th

FRIDAY 7th

John 10:1-18

NIV (v7) ‘Therefore Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.’

ESV (v7) ‘So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.’

We have our third ‘I am’ statement in this portion of Scripture today, plus the fourth in v11 which we will consider tomorrow.

Here Jesus is identifying himself as the door (ESV) or gate (NIV) in the context of this chapter he is not only the Shepherd of the sheep, but also the gate or door or entrance into the sheepfold.

We could bring a number of different lessons from these verses, but for today I want to link it to what Jesus says later in John 14:6 when he says that he is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life. NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME.’ He is the only door or gate or entrance into heaven. There is no other way, there is no other door, there is no other gate, there is no other entrance.

I have always been a fan of cars, and from an early age, probably from about age eleven I would go every year to the Motor Show that was held in Earls Court, London and then latterly at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, for Earls Court my grandfather would take my older brother and myself by coach from Hereford. Once it had moved to the NEC, I would go by myself. One year, I decided to let the train take the strain, and arrived at the exhibition centre, not sure of the way to get in and I had a bit of difficulty finding the entrance. Eventually, I found a doorway that took me down some stairs and through a corridor. I was then faced with another door. I opened the door and walked through it and there I was in the main exhibition hall! I thought to myself, how as that happened, I have got in without paying, without going through any ticket entrance, I was in for free. I decided to speak to a security guy, and said to him what had happened, explaining that somehow I had stumbled upon a way to get in without paying, he replied don’t worry about it, enjoy your day!

There are many who are trying to get into heaven their own way, through works or personal merit, through religion, through religious fervour and practise, but unlike my stumbling upon an entrance into the show, they will never be able to stumble into heaven, there are no backdoors, no holes in the fence, no short cuts, there is only one way and it through the Lord Jesus Christ, it is by the way of the cross. There is some good news though, and just as I got into the show for free, so also the cost has been paid for our entrance into heaven, the one who said he was the door has also paid the price, by laying his life down for the sheep.

The hymn writer reminds us that the one who is the gate was also the one who unlocks the gate! ‘There was no other good enough, to pay the price of sin, he only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.

Have you come to Jesus, have you come through him, to receive all the benefits that come from knowing him as Saviour and Lord? Remember he is the only way into heaven.

We return to the same chapter again tomorrow.

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Daily Devotion August 6th

THURSDAY 6th

John 9

NIV (v25) – John 9:25 ‘He replied, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!’’

ESV (v25) – John 9:25 ‘He answered, ‘Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’’

At first glance, it seems strange to us who read this story to think of this man saying that he did not know if the man who had given him his sight was a sinner or not. We have hindsight, prior to this the man had no sight! He may have heard Jesus on occasions before this, he may have heard about Jesus, but he had never physically seen him with his own eyes. But this day, something incredible would happen to him, he would not only hear this man, he would see him, believe him and receive him.

It is another of those chapters where an incredible miracle caused the Pharisees and the gainsayers to debate, discuss and dispute over Jesus. They call the healed mans parents in for questioning, then the healed man himself, suggesting that to him that the healing had been done by a sinner, to which the man replies, ‘Whether he is a sinner or not I do not know’ he was uncertain about who Jesus was, but the facts were very clear, ‘One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.’ It is almost as if the blind man was so overjoyed about receiving his sight, it did not really matter who had done the miracle!

The story continues that because the man had a measure of faith and understanding he comes to the conclusion that the man who had given him his sight must be from heaven, and he was then cast out of the Synagogue, for anyone who agreed that Jesus was the Christ would be thrown out (v22)

It is only after this that he encounters Jesus again, and he comes to believing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (verses 35-38).

We have already considered light versus darkness in previous devotions, this story relates toward spiritual blindness, the testimony of this man has also become our testimony as we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as the hymn writer, John Newton also puts it in the song ‘Amazing grace’ I once was lost but now am found, was blind but know I see.’

The people around us are not only walking in darkness, they are also walking as blind men and women, spiritually blind, they may have heard about Jesus, but they have not yet seen him, they have not yet encountered him. There is an old hymn we used to sing, ‘Jesus is passing this way, this way, today, Jesus is passing this way, is passing this way today’. And I am glad of the day when he passed the place where I was sat in my spiritual blindness, and he stopped and opened my eyes to the wonder of who he is and of his amazing grace, and thank God he is still passing this way, by his Spirit he is still at work reaching out to touch spiritually blind eyes to see him for who he really is, and to unblock spiritually deaf ears to hear him calling and to unstop spiritually dumb mouths to sing forth the praises of him who has brought them out of darkness into his light and to bring strength to the spiritually lame to enable them to dance with joy unspeakable and full of glory! He is passing through our communities, he is passing through our towns, Gateshead, Newcastle and the surrounding district, may we rejoice to see and hear of many yet coming to the place of meeting with him, and having their lives transformed by his touch, by his power and with his grace.

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Daily Devotion August 5th

WEDNESDAY 5th

John 8:31-59

NIV (vv31-32) – ‘To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

ESV (vv31-32) – ‘So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’

We are told that we are living in a free world, and yet for the believer the freedoms that we have so long enjoyed are slowly being curtailed by those who are in civic and political authority and it isn’t always plainly obvious, but it is introduced through various means such as political correctness, where the rights of every individual are claimed to be upheld . . . unless you abide by the truth which is not only Jesus himself but also his words, including the Word of God, allowing it to governing your life with godly principles, upright morality and righteousness, then those who promote tolerance are reluctant to show tolerance toward you.

But the reality is that even when the world seeks to bind or gag the believer, and despise righteousness, we are the ones who are truly living in real freedom, for we have been set free from the snare of sin and the control of Satan and as we discovered yesterday we have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light, a kingdom where we come under the authority of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and his name is Jesus, and there is no greater authority and rule than his, true freedom comes through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and his Lordship, his rule in our lives and linked to this is our continuing to know or to live in freedom by living according to his word or his teaching.

There are many around the world today who are imprisoned because of their faith, or restricted in their celebration of and living out their faith because of the hostility toward Christianity in a Communist regime, or nations under the control of Islam etc. and yet in their imprisonment they the persecuted believers are living in true freedom because of the eternal hope that has been set within them. We in the western world need to be earnestly praying for our brothers and sisters who are found in such hostile environments and at the same time pray that the erosion of our freedom to celebrate our faith will not continue, but rather be turned around for the glory of God.

Linked in with this, over the last few days there has been much debate over the restrictions that have been put in place, forbidding gatherings which has and still affects the gathering of Churches. There are those who are to the one side seeing it as a political attempt to gag the Church and yet fail to realise or want to overlook that at the same time other forms of mass gatherings are forbidden, and to the other side those who see it has a necessary means for the Church to play its part in the efforts to minimise the spread of the virus. We need to be careful how we react and allow the virus pandemic to eventually reach a level where we can safely open and then ensure that any other means of Government interference or enforcement is not that which would be seen as a definite effort to silence the Christian witness. We are living in unprecedented times, but we can rest knowing who we are in Christ, living in his freedom and abiding by his Word, which is truth.