Tag: Emmanuel Pentecostal Church

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Daily Devotion July 25th

SATURDAY 25th

John 3:16-21

NIV (v16) ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

ESV (v16) ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

I have already used this verse in the devotion on July 7th but want to include it again. It is one of the most well-known and well used verses of Scripture that clearly reminds us of God’s love for humanity, God’s sacrifice for humanity and God’s offer of life for humanity, his one and only plan of redemption which comes through his one and only Son, or for those who prefer the KJV, ‘. . . his only begotten Son.’

What we see from this verse regarding redemption is:

ai)  The Underlying force for the gospel – the love of God

       aii) The underlying need for the gospel – man’s sin

bi)   The Universal reach of the gospel – the world

        bii)  The Universal reach of sin – all have sinned

c) The Uniqueness of the message of the gospel – whoever believes IN HIM

d) The Ultimate aim of the gospel – to have eternal life

e) The Unequivocal consequences of not believing the gospel – perish

We will consider the thoughts briefly over the next couple of days.

ai)  The Underlying force for the gospel – the love of God – 1 John 4:10 ‘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 sins.’

       aii) The underlying need for the gospel – man’s sin – Isaiah 64:6 ‘We have all

       become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a

       polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind,

       take us away.’

bi)   The Universal reach of the gospel – the world – Romans 8:32 ‘He who did not

spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’

        bii)  The Universal reach of sin – all have sinned – Romans 3:23 ‘for all  

       have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Romans 5:12 ‘Therefore, just

       as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so 

       death spread to all men because all sinned . . .’

The first four words of John 3:16 is a declaration that humanity does not deserve to hear because of its rebellion against God, ‘For God so loved’. The underlying need for the gospel is the depravity of humanity, his sinfulness, transgression and rebellion against God, and yet despite it all God still loves mankind, and his love for man whom he had created is such that it drives God to do something, to put a plan into action to deal with the sin, to save the sinner and reconcile him back into full relationship with himself again. Sometimes when you try to write something down in regard to these things it is difficult to put into words what you want to say, and even now as I consider the love of God toward the sinner, toward me, who deserves anything but his love, it is hard to comprehend, the lines of a couple of songs come to mind, ‘How deep the father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure, that he should give his only Son, to make a wretch his treasure’ and ‘Here is love vast as the ocean, loving kindness as the flood.’ The first mentioned song goes on to say, ‘It was my sin that held him there’, my sin, his love, thank God that love won. And as a result, the sin that had separated us from God is gone!

Spend a few moments contemplating God’s love toward you, an ‘ex-wretch who he has made into a precious treasure.’ – 1 Peter 2:9 ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’

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Daily Devotion July 24th

FRIDAY 24th

We return today to the same verses as yesterday John 3:3.

NIV (v3) – ‘Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’’

ESV (v3) – ‘Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’’

In verse 7 of the same chapter Jesus says, ‘Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’’ After hearing it the first time, Nicodemus was a little confused, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ You can only wonder what Nicodemus was imagining! But it was a good question, ‘Hang on, if I want to see the Kingdom of God, I have to be born again?’ ‘Yes, but it is not how you are imagining it to be, just as you have been born of the flesh, so also you need to be born of the Spirit.’

The term or phrase ‘born again’ is still just as much misunderstood today as it was when Nicodemus misunderstood it, often you will hear the term being used in a derogatory way, as a form of mocking, ‘Oh, they belong to the ‘born again’ people’ or as I have often had it asked to me ‘Are you one of those who talks about being born again?’ And yes, I do belong to them, and yes, I do talk about it, not because there is anything weird about me, not because we are a group of weird people, but because I have really known what it is to be born again by the Spirit of God. It is not weird, it is wonderful – in the words of an older hymn, ‘It is a thing most wonderful, almost too wonderful to know, that God’s own Son should come from heaven and die to save a child like me to know.’

What seemed ridiculous to Nicodemus and still sounds ridiculous to many today is the most important thing that we can all do and need to do, the ‘born again’ experience, because without it, as Jesus told Nicodemus we will not see or enter the Kingdom of God. And the alternative is not pleasant!

Being born again, is being made anew, it happens as we come to Calvary’s fountain and are washed in the blood of the Lamb, at that moment we are made anew by the Spirit of God, we have a fresh start, we become new creations, we are ‘born again’. I know I am talking about things we already know, but today, let me encourage us all that being ‘born again’ is nothing to be embarrassed about, or ashamed about when our unsaved family, friends or peers may try to mock us or laugh at us, and use the phrase in a derogatory way, for just as our natural birth was essential to bring us into this natural world, so a spiritual new birth is essential to bring us into the kingdom of God.

Weird? we are the most favoured in the world, because by being ‘born again’ we enter the family of God, the household of faith, whereby we know him as Father and he knows us as his sons and daughters.

In the words of the chorus, ‘I am a new creation, no more in condemnation, here in the grace of God I stand.’  I am happy to be known as weird by the unbelieving world, if at the same time it means that I know that I am a child of God, no longer under condemnation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’

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Daily Devotion July 23rd

THURSDAY 23rd

John 3:1-21

NIV (v3) – ‘Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’’

ESV (v3) – ‘Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’’

In this verse Jesus mentions three concepts, 1) the concept of ‘being born again’ 2) the concept of ‘the Kingdom of God’ 3) the concept that to be able to enter or see the Kingdom of God one needs to be born again.

This phrase ‘Kingdom of God’ only appears in John’s gospel twice, here in verse 3 and again in the same chapter in verse 5. But Jesus talks of his Kingdom not being of this world later in John 18:36. Despite its lack of usage in this gospel, the concept of entering the Kingdom is what the gospel is all about, because to be born again, means to have the new life, the eternal and abundant life that John talks about throughout. In Matthew, the Kingdom is mentioned 35 times, Mark 14 times, Luke 31 times. The phrase ‘the Kingdom of heaven’ is also used and is best understood as to be referring to the same thing, in Matthew 19:23-24, Jesus uses the two phrases interchangeably ‘And Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’’

In this devotion we will briefly answer the question as to what is the Kingdom of God? It is Matthew who records for us that John the Baptist, began to declare to the people, ‘Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3:1) as he prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, therefore this must mean that the Kingdom a) must have something to do with Jesus, b) must be linked to his ministry, c) must be linked to repentance d) therefore linked to the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ came into the world to save sinners, he came to bring us out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God. It was sin that held us in the kingdom of darkness, but it is grace that has brought us into the kingdom of God.

There are four aspects to this Kingdom. There is the eternal aspect, that is Gods kingdom has been and always will be, the present aspect in regard to salvation which is that at this moment it is a spiritual Kingdom, in that at new birth, Christ comes to reign in our hearts, thus bringing the Kingdom rule of God into our lives. There is a future aspect in that the day is coming when Christ will bring about a literal Kingdom on this earth, and he will reign for a period of 1000 years, then there is an even more future aspect in that the day will come when God is going to wrap up time and everything that is at present already here and will create a new Heaven and  new earth wherein the redeemed of the Lord will be forever in the eternal presence of the triune God and he will reign for ever and ever.

The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom where God rules and reigns as Sovereign, not as a tyrant, not as a despot, not as a dictator but as a caring, loving, and merciful God who exercises righteous judgement in all things. We can say that there is the external Kingdom, where God sits on his throne in the heavens and the internal kingdom, where God reigns in the hearts and lives of us who are believers.

We learn from Scripture that God’s Kingdom is:

Eternal – Psalm 45:6 ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of uprightness . . .’

The kingdom of God was not something new when the Baptist began to announce it, it was the bringing of the Kingdom into the lives of all who would believe and accept Jesus.

Established – Psalm 9:7 ‘But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice . . .’

The wonder is that through new birth the Kingdom will be established in our lives.

External – Isaiah 66:1 ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? . . .’’

That which was already external will become an internal reality for all who believe as he rules in the throne of our hearts.

Expected – Isaiah 9:6-7 ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.’

Entered – John 3:3 ‘Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’’

This to me is the wonder of the good news of the gospel, that we can enter the Kingdom of God and that the Kingdom of God enters our lives as Jesus comes to rule and to reign.

2 Peter 1:11 ‘For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’

Joy is the flag that flies from the castle of my heart, for the King is in residence there!

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Daily Devotion July 22nd

WEDNESDAY 22nd

John 2:18-25

NIV (v19) –  ‘Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’’

ESV (v19) – ‘Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’’

Yesterday we saw how Jesus cleansed the temple, after which those who heard him and witnessed what he had done demanded ‘What sign do you show us for doing these things?’ What they were saying was, ‘by what authority, or what authority do you have to do what you have done?’ Firstly, if they had listened to Jesus properly, they would have heard him say ‘Take these things away, DO NOT MAKE MY FATHER’S HOUSE a house of trade.’ So, simply put, his authority or his right to say what he did came from the fact that he was the Father’s Son, we could say he was the ‘house owners’ Son! Therefore, he had every right to do and to say.

At the end of the wedding at Cana, you will remember it says, ‘this the first of his signs, Jesus did . . . and manifested his glory.’ Now they were demanding more signs or further evidence regarding Jesus’ credentials. I do not know about you, but I would have been well impressed with the sign of changing the water into not just wine, but the best wine (even as a teetotaller). I guess like me you have watched TV and someone has come on who is what we call a magician, they do magic tricks and we respond with a wow, even though we know it is a trick, sleight of hand or something else. When Jesus turned the water into wine, this was no magic trick, there was no sleight of hand, this was the real deal. And he could do it because he was God in the flesh. But they weren’t satisfied with this they wanted more, further evidence that would back up his claim as to being the Son of God, and Jesus responds with an answer that confused them even more, and they wouldn’t fully realise what the sign meant until after what Jesus spoke about happened. He said, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.’ We now know of course that Jesus was talking about the temple of his body, his future death and resurrection. But I wonder how many even believed after this the greatest of the signs took place a few years later. Incidentally, Jesus being who he was, if the Jews had demolished the physical building of the temple, he could have rebuilt it in three days! In fact, because of who he was he could have built it in a jiffy, after all he created the heavens and the earth and everything that inhabits the earth whether animal, vegetable, or mineral in six days.

I wonder how often we hanker after God to give us a sign, we want confirmation concerning this or that, we want to be impressed before we will commit, we want to be like Gideon and put a fleece out and when God answers we say ‘Ah, but give me one more sign!’ God does not mind, but it would be far better if we could learn to love God and trust him enough to learn to take him at his word! After all he gave the sign and he also fulfilled it, his death and his resurrection is the only proof we really need to know that Jesus is the Son of God, and in that believing we will have life in his name. In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul encourages the believer to keep believing the gospel they had heard him preach, and what did it consist of? ‘Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve . . .’

I am trusting thee Lord Jesus, trusting only thee . . . I am trusting thee to guide me, thou alone shalt lead, every day and hour supplying, all my need.

‘Enough this covers all my want; and so I rest! For what I cannot, he can see, and in his care I saved shall be, for ever blest.

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Daily Devotion July 21st

TUESDAY 21st

John 2:13-17

NIV (v16) – ‘To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’’

ESV (v16) – ‘And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’’

There are two occasions which we read in Scripture of Jesus getting angry with what he saw going on in the temple. Here at the commencement of his ministry and then again in the week he entered Jerusalem before going to Calvary. (Luke 19:45-46 ‘. . . saying to them, ‘It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.’’)

The traders certainly had not learned the lesson the first time! But let us be honest here, how often do we need to learn a lesson the hard way, more than once!

The account at the beginning of his ministry, indicates that Jesus was not happy that the Jewish traders were making what was the temple, the House of God into a market place, I don’t think that Jesus’ reaction and his comments mean that we should never allow buying and selling in the ‘Church’ as we would call our building today, rather than a ‘Temple’, but what I do think he is saying is that buying and selling should not become the primary purpose of the building, it should not be the focus and most certainly should not be what the church relies on to be successful. The local church should survive on the giving of the people in the tithes and offerings. That should be its benchmark for survival, my personal view is that if a local church for example sells coffee, it should be sold at a much cheaper cost than say a market place coffee shop, because they are extortionate in their prices, they are profit, profit, profit! whereas in a Church it should be to cover costs, or for raising funds for a godly purpose.  I know that my personal view here may be considered extreme by some, but if a Church needs commercial enterprise to survive, then it is operating beyond what it has been called to be. What we discover about the traders in the temple, is that they were actually ripping the people off, they were overcharging, they were taking advantage of the poor who needed to buy a dove or pigeon for their sacrifice and were being extortionately over charged and if they could not afford the prices  were being marginalised or left out.

In the example before Jesus went to Calvary, he was indignant that they had made the ‘house of God’ into a den of robbers when it should have been a ‘house of prayer’.  Their priorities for the house of God were all wrong! We always need to remember that if a building has been dedicated to the glory of God and for corporate worship, then that must be its priority and emphasis.

Back in the Old Testament, when the temple was built and dedicated to the glory of God, we read that as soon as Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. It continues that the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house! The people responded by bowing with their faces to the ground and worshiped giving thanks to the Lord. (2 Chronicles 71-3) I wonder how Jesus would react if he physically entered many Churches today? Again, knowing that many wouldn’t agree with me on this point in the modern Church today, but I will say it, we don’t need our churches to be fitted out with black curtains or black painted walls, we don’t need flashing lights, we don’t need smoke machines, what we desperately need is Churches and congregations who are seeking God in such a way that as we worship, the glory of the Lord fills the house. My prayer is that Jesus will be pleased with who we are and with what we do in Emmanuel Pentecostal Church, so that when we regather, we will know his presence among us in a powerful way.

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Daily Devotion July 20th

MONDAY 20th

John 2:1-12

NIV (v11) – ‘What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.’

ESV (v11) – ‘This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.’

Have you ever wondered what it must have been about Jesus that caused the disciples to be willing to just walk away from their families, jobs etc to follow him for the three years that they spent with him.

Imagine if you were busy at your workplace, and suddenly this guy walks in who you may have seen but not spoken to, you may have heard about but not know too much about and he says to you, ‘Come on put your spray gun down take your overalls off, and follow me.’ (I have used myself as an example as I was a car sprayer) What would I have done, what would you have done? I would have thought about my home, my wife, my family, the mortgage, the bills and I’m sure I would have hesitated and to be perfectly honest I think I would have said something like ‘hang on a minute, I am pretty busy, I’ve got to get this car finished, and well there is my family to think about, come back next week, or next month and I’ll think about it.’  I would have wanted to enter some form of negotiation.

But when it comes to the disciples, we read that Jesus sees them, says ‘Follow me’ (John 1:43 Phillip, Matthew 9:9, Mark 2:14, Matthew) or ‘Follow me and I will make you fishers of men’ (Matthew 4:19-22, Mark 1:16-20, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John) and they immediately leave what they are doing to follow him. What was it about Jesus that made them do this?

We know from John 1:35 that Andrew was already a follower of John the Baptist and as we saw in an earlier devotion he switched allegiance when he learned who Jesus was as ‘the Lamb of God’, so he was already aware of the cost of discipleship, but there must have been something that caused them to be drawn to Jesus. Was there something about who he was as a person, something in his voice that was compelling, had they seen something of his character and personality that drew them, maybe they had heard something of what had happened in the temple from when he read from the book of Isaiah, (Luke 4) or even had heard some of the message of the forerunner, John. They had seen how spectacular John was in his ministry and this one who was to follow was going to be even greater.

We could give a lot of speculative ideas and thoughts, but what is true is that they gave up their nets, the tax collecting etc and followed him. Now, when we get to the scene in John chapter 2, the marriage at Cana in Galilee, we can see that it is only a few days after Jesus had called the fishermen, (John 2:1) and at this wedding something was going to happen that would convince them that they had done the right thing, that following Jesus was worth doing. And even if they did not really understand too much about him, from then on, they would get to know him more.  For our text says, ‘This the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. AND HIS DISCIPLES BELIEVED IN HIM.’

Jesus does call each of us to follow him, initially we do this by accepting him as our Lord and Saviour, by putting our faith and trust in him, that is what the disciples did when they responded, they trusted him entirely. He asks us to trust him, and then after our initial response he challenges us ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it . . .’ (Luke 9:23-24) For most of us following Jesus won’t mean we leave our jobs and give up our families, we follow him from the comfort of where we are, others will have to give up, especially those who commit themselves to serving the Lord Jesus in mission and ministry. Some go abroad and live in completely different circumstances, some remain in what we call the homeland, but for a season, relocate, leaving what was comfortable to serve wherever God has called them, Discipleship costs, but the rewards are high! As you hear the voice of Jesus calling you to follow him, how will you respond?

Finally in Luke’s gospel we have more about the cost of following Jesus, it describes how I said I would have been at the beginning, full of excuses, it is Luke 9:57-61, but Jesus finishes it off by saying (v62) ‘No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ Today, if you have put your hand to the plough, that is you have chosen to follow Jesus, keep going, remain faithful, for he will honour you even if at times the going may be tough.

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Daily Devotion July 19th

SUNDAY 19th

John 1:41

NIV – ‘The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).’

ESV – ‘He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).’

We have the same verse again today, but in this devotion, I want to look at the words ‘We have found the Messiah’. The nation of Israel had been waiting for a long time for the promised Messiah, you may remember that in John 4 when Jesus was talking with the woman at the well near Sychar in Samaria, that after he had told her about the living water,(vv10-15) they had the conversation about her many husbands, (vv16-8) she then  perceived that Jesus was a prophet (v19) they then talked about true worship (vv21-24) after which the woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus then replied, ‘I who speak to you am he.’ In verse 26 she goes back to the town and tells the people ‘Come, see man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’

The woman was still looking,  Andrew had found him! But thankfully, the woman also came to the realization of who Jesus really was. Thank God today that we too have found him as we have entered into a personal relationship by faith and have been born again of the Spirit.

By the time we get to Jesus being identified as the Messiah here in John 1, he has already been described in several different ways. I have already mentioned some in an earlier devotion, (Wednesday 15th July – The ‘Word’ in verse 1, is creator in verse 2, life and light in verse 4, becomes flesh (v14), full of grace and truth (v14) Jesus Christ (v17) and the Lamb of God in verse 29.) We add to the list the Lord (v23), Son of God (v34), Rabbi / Teacher (v38), Jesus of Nazareth (v45), King of Israel (v49), Son of Man (v51) and Messiah (The Christ) in verse 41.

The Messiah  – The Greek ‘Christ’ is the equivalent to the Hebrew and Aramaic ‘Messiah’ and means ‘one who is anointed’ or ‘anointed one’. The chapter we are considering commences with ‘In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God.’ V14 ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ In Isaiah 9:6 we have the prophetic declaration that a child is born, a son is given, the Word who became flesh was the Child born, and the Son given, the little baby lying in the crib was the arrival of the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ.

Again in Isaiah chapter 61 we have the following words ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.’ (vv1-2) And in Luke 4:18-19 we find that the Word who became flesh, the child born, the Son given used the very same words from Isaiah to describe who he was and what his mission was, thus declaring that he was the Messiah, the Christ.

In Matthews gospel when Jesus asked the disciples who did they say he was, Peter replied ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ The Messiah has come, and the good news is that he has accomplished all that the Father had anointed him or sent him to do. And as a result, as we believe by faith, we have life in his name. Remember where we started two weeks ago with John 20:30-31 ‘Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 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.’

We have only briefly gone through John chapter 1 over the last two weeks, but my prayer is that we will have either discovered or rediscovered something of the wonder of the redemption story, the wonder of who Jesus really is, the Christ, the Son of God, so that we will have life in his name.

As we conclude this look at chapter one, I bring a challenge to all who have read it in whatever format, do you know him? Have you responded by faith and accepted the one who was sent to be the Saviour, can you honestly say that you are born again by the Spirit of God? If not, then open up your life to him, allow him to come and to clean up the old and to recreate you into a new person, for ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, behold the old has gone and the new has come.’ (2 Corinthians 5:17)

For those of us who do know him, may we allow him to be all that he is meant to be in our lives, both Lord and Christ. The one who has saved us and the one who is sovereign in our lives.

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Daily Devotion July 18th

SATURDAY 18th

John 1:43

NIV – ‘The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me.’

ESV – ‘The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.’

If I were to give this devotion a heading it would be ‘Finding and Following’. Jesus did the finding, and Philip did the following!

In Luke 19:1-10, we have the story about Zacchaeus, this was the first portion of Scripture I ever preached from, it was in a youth meeting in a Church in Hay-On-Wye. We were given opportunity then to give a ten-minute word in the youth meetings which were held every month. I am not sure if I managed ten! I was about 13 years old and just like Zacchaeus I had a stature problem, short! (I still have the same problem) My grandmother was there, and she said to me afterwards, ‘I enjoyed your  word, I could hear you, but I couldn’t see you!’ The platform dwarfed me even more. That is all beside the point at this moment, what I am leading to is that this short man met with Jesus and Jesus said to him (v10) ‘. . . For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost.’ Zacchaeus was lost, not just among the crowd because of his stature but because of his sin. He looked for a vantage point to look for and to watch Jesus as he passed through the city, not realising that Jesus was looking for him!

We were all lost because of our sin, if you are reading this and do not know Jesus as Saviour, you are still lost, and Jesus came looking for you, you may have tried to hide, you may still even be trying to hide from him, but he knows exactly where we are. My grandmother could hear me but not see me, when I was a sinner the Lord Jesus could hear and see me, there was no hiding from him. And the same for you, no matter how hard you try to hide away, even perhaps to try and hide behind your sin, or run away from the convicting power of the Holy Spirit you will never get away, because the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ was and still is ‘to seek and to save the lost.’

For those of us who have been found, then we need to follow! In our text, Jesus was calling Philip to follow him, to become one of his disciples. Following Jesus is a life time commitment, it is a total surrender of who we are to become what he wants us to be, it is a leaving behind of everything that would easily beset us or hinder us (Hebrews 12:1-2) to follow in the pathway that he has prepared for us to walk in, it is a surrender of our will to his will, a conforming not to this world but a transforming renewal of our minds which will discern what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1-2)

In Johns gospel we read of some of the disciples who had a change of heart. It is in John 6:60-66 ‘When many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying; who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.’ In the previous verses Jesus had been talking about their partaking of Jesus as the ‘Bread of Life’,  They had found some of what Jesus had said difficult to swallow (excuse the pun) and so they chose to walk away. Jesus then turned to the twelve and said, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’

If we have truly been found, we will want to follow, because once we have tasted of the goodness of God, once we have known what it is to be forgiven, once we have known what it is be to a part of the family of God and to call him our Father, where else would we want to go, or be, for he not only has the words of eternal life, he is that life and he has given it to us.

Remember the hymn, ‘I’ve found the Pearl of greatest price, my heart does sing for joy, and sing I must for Christ I have, Oh, what a Christ have I.’ –  I’ve found the pearl of greatest price, have you?  Or, he has found me? Whichever or whatever way you want to consider it, let us keep hold of the Pearl, lets follow in his footsteps, let’s make the choice, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 17th

FRIDAY 17th

John 1:41

NIV – ‘The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).’

ESV – ‘He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).’

We could call Andrew the first Evangelist, after John the Baptist, although John was more of a prophet. Immediately on meeting with Jesus he goes to find his brother Simon, and makes the declaration, ‘We have found the Messiah.’

Andrew does not appear very often in John’s gospel, but each time he does he is playing an important role. Here in the text bringing his brother to Jesus, he then appears in John 6:8-9 ‘One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’ (Notice how he got stuck with the label Simon Peter’s brother – even though he was the first to meet Jesus!) Then again in John 12:20-22  ‘Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.’  Here he is mentioned again but in relation to Philip coming from the same town in John 1:44

That is it, four mentions in John and then a few  mentions in the other gospel and Acts regarding  his official call along with Peter to follow Jesus, (Matthew 4:18. Mark 1:16) the three times he is mentioned in the list of the disciples (Matthew 10:2, Luke 6:14, Acts 1:13, and then in Mark 1:29, when Jesus visits the home of Simon Peter and Andrew and heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever.

But what I want us to notice that although he is only briefly mentioned it does not mean he was insignificant. As I have already mentioned he was like an Evangelist in immediately going to tell his brother he had found the Messiah, and in the purposes of God, and as a result, his brother was going to be a pillar in the eventual mission and outreach of the Church, it was Peter who while standing with the other eleven preached on the day of Pentecost, it is also Peter who is accepted as being the one who took the gospel to the Gentiles, Acts chapter 10 and 11. So remember we do not have to have a big profile to be effective for Jesus, and who knows what that person you will share the gospel with might become in the purpose of God.

In John 6 Andrew was instrumental in finding the lad with five loaves and two fishes that Jesus took and blessed and fed the whole crowd of 5000 men plus women and children with. You may feel that you have little to offer, you may feel that what you do seems insignificant but when Jesus takes your contribution, however small you may feel it is when compared to the task in hand, Jesus can achieve what needs to be achieved. Little is much in his hands.

In John 12 Andrew was in a place again where he was able to introduce people to Jesus, (some Greeks) as a result Jesus gave them a glimpse of his redemptive work, his death and resurrection in the example of the seed dying and bearing fruit. (vv23-24)

What do we learn from Andrew? Even the least among us can accomplish much in the purpose of God, and the importance of being faithful in even the smallest of things.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 16th

THURSDAY 16th

John 1:37-39

NIV – ‘When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, What do you want? They said, Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.’

ESV  – ‘The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying? He said to them, Come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.’

I do not think that I have ever used these verses before to share from, but as I was reading them there was a thought that struck me which I will share. Verse 35 tells us that John was standing with two of his disciples. This means that the two were following John the Baptist, but as soon as they heard the declaration ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ his two disciples began to follow Jesus! This leads to the verses we have today, Jesus asks them ‘What are seeking?’ Perhaps today we may say ‘What do you want?’ and the two men replied by asking him ‘Where are you staying?’ I think that they wanted to know this because they wanted to find out more about this man who the Baptist had said was the Lamb of God. Jesus invited them to go with him to see where he was staying, they went and stayed with him that day.

The identity of one of the men is then revealed, he was called Andrew and he went immediately to find his brother Simon, saying ‘We have found the Messiah’. Simon went along with Andrew to where Jesus was and verse 42 tells us that Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter.

In Luke 6:12-16 we read the list of those who Jesus chose and named as his apostles, ‘In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.’

The second name in the list is that of Andrew, and we know it is the same Andrew as is mentioned in John 1:40 as we are told it was ‘Simon, whom he named Peter and Andrew his brother’.

This was the thought I had, Andrew had changed his allegiance, in John 1:35 he was a disciple of the Baptist, now, he is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can I suggest in this devotion that once we have met with the Lord Jesus Christ our allegiance has to change!  Obviously, there was not anything wrong with Andrew’s allegiance toward the Baptist, but if it had remained there, he would have missed out on what God had got planned for him! Before we met with the Lord Jesus Christ there may have been many legitimate things that we were actively involved with, which took our attention that in themselves were not a problem, but once we have come to know Jesus they could become stumbling blocks in our walk with him and so we have to make a choice, to leave them, walk away from them and choose to wholeheartedly follow Jesus. Our allegiance must be towards him. Our allegiance towards Jesus is linked to our knowing him as Saviour as well as acknowledging him as Lord.

The second thought we can draw from this is that on finding the Messiah, Andrew went to tell his brother. And as we have found him, we need to be active in telling others!

Finally, we are not told anything else about the other one who was with him. Both he and Andrew had heard what the Baptist had said, they had both spent time with Jesus, we do not know if he was ever a follower of Jesus, or perhaps he returned to the Baptist. And we do not always know the response that an individual may make when we share Jesus, all we need to do his share him, point others towards him and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.