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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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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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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.

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Daily Devotion July 15th

WEDNESDAY 15th

John 1:29, 35-36

NIV – ‘The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! . . .  The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God!’

ESV – ‘The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! . . . The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God!’

I am not what you would call an avid sports fan, but I do like motor sport and snooker, and in regard to football I would say I am a Southampton and England supporter, in Rugby, England of course! One of the features of a snooker match is when at the beginning the MC gets to do the big introductions. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have xxx xxx from xxx the 5 times world champion etc. and then to the cheering of the crowd in comes the player he has just introduced.

In our verses today, we find that the Baptist, has the great opportunity of introducing the Lord Jesus Christ to the crowd! What a job to have! And yet, we all have this opportunity, of finding some way of introducing Jesus to people!

Up to this point in the chapter it is as if the two Johns have been describing the one who is the Word, the light that was coming into the world, and he himself has been standing behind the scenes, and suddenly he comes and John declares ‘Behold, or look, the Lamb of God’, and then announces what he is going to do, not become a world champion in some major sporting arena but the One who is going take away the sin of the world. This is a loaded statement for within it is the theme of being a champion, for in taking away the sin of the world, this Lamb presented to them in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ was going to triumph. He was going to take head on the devil, sin, death, the grave and he was going to come out as the Conqueror. The Lamb was going to prevail and become the Lion of Judah.

The announcement that the Baptist made, was the news that the world needed to hear, because it meant that the greatest need of mankind was going to be met, the need of salvation and reconciliation to God.

The subject of a lamb and sin was not new to those who heard the Baptist talking, they would have been used to the regular practise of finding an unblemished lamb to sacrifice based on the OT law, but the problem was that this would have to be done regularly because sin was not taken away but only covered. This Lamb, who John was introducing to them was going to offer himself as a permanent sacrifice which would not cover the sin temporarily like a sticking plaster but would take it completely away. That must be good news! It is news on a par with the news that the angel gave to the shepherds on the night that the Word had become flesh and began to dwell among us, ‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’ The baby that they would find wrapped in swaddling clothes, was the Lamb who would be slain, and the Lion who would conquer.

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.

Behold the Lamb of God . . .! In the Old Testament the people would go out and select from the flock the lamb that was to be chosen and used for the sacrifice (see for an example Leviticus 1) it needed to be without blemish.

Not anymore, we cannot choose our own lamb to bring about redemption, God has already made the choice, the lamb to be used for the sacrifice was to be the lamb that God has given and that God had sent, that is the Lamb of God. This is important in our presentation of the gospel, when we come across those who are seeking to earn salvation, or who are seeking to reach salvation through effort, or foreign gods, there is only one way, the appointed way, which is through the shed blood of the Lamb of God. This is the way of the Cross, for that is the place where the sacrifice which was a once for all sacrifice took place and it was the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world. By faith we must come to the cross, relying not on our own effort but upon what Christ has done for us, we come for cleansing we come for pardon, we come for salvation. 1 Peter 1:18-21 ’ . . . knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.’

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Daily Devotion July 14th

TUESDAY 14th

John 1:16-18

NIV  – ‘Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.’  

ESV – ‘For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.’

I hadn’t included these verses but while looking back over what I had prepared I felt compelled to touch on them, and so I have included the verses above for today as they touch upon the word grace.

Notice first that his grace is contrasted with Moses’ law. The law came from God and was given through Moses, grace also comes from God and is given through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace is one of the most precious words in Scripture, because of who and what grace is.

Firstly, it is all about Jesus, for he himself is grace, as our text says, ‘For from his fullness, or from out of his fulness, we have received grace upon grace’ In verse 14 John has already said, ‘. . . we have seen his glory . . . FULL OF GRACE and truth.’

Secondly it is precious because of his fulness of grace which he pours out. Because he is full of grace, he has an inexhaustible supply of grace, which as we will discover through this gospel and throughout the Scripture, he is willing to pour out into or upon the whosoever that will believe. None of us deserve his grace, we are all unworthy of ourselves as sinful humanity, but out of his love and mercy he makes his grace available, he makes us worthy through his shed blood. And it is by his grace that he saves us. (Ephesians 2) As I am preparing this devotion I am reminded of the following song:

Unworthy am I of the grace that he gave,

Unworthy to hold to his hand;

Amazed that a King would reach down to a slave,

This love I cannot understand.

Unworthy, unworthy, a beggar;

In bondage and alone;

But he made me worthy and now by his grace,

His mercy has made me his own.

My sorrow and sickness laid stripes on his back,

My sins caused the blood that was shed;

My faults and my failures have woven a crown

Of thorns, that he wore on his head.

Unworthy am I of the glory to come,

Unworthy with angels to sing;

I thrill just to know that he loved me so much,

A pauper, I walk with the King

When we see Jesus in John 4 as he is talking to the woman of Samaria, as he talks to her it is grace at work, everyone else would have condemned her, criticised her, even shunned her, but Grace himself, spoke with grace and spoke grace into her life and what a result. Later in John 8 as the Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, as they were condemning her according to the law, Grace himself spoke, and again he spoke with grace and he spoke grace into her life. The law is to condemn, condemn, condemn, but grace is to forgive and forget and of course as we see in John 8 ‘go and sin no more’ (v11)

When Satan tempts me to despair, and he does and he will, I point to grace, for his grace that saved me is continually being poured into my life on a daily basis, reminding me I am a child of God, no longer under condemnation, for it is in the grace of God I stand.

Thank God the day is coming that because of the grace of God that has worked in our lives and saved us and is continually at work in our lives keeping us, that when we stand before Him on that day of reckoning, there will be no law to condemn us, but rather his grace, in the person of Jesus and as an act of his infinite mercy will usher us into his eternal presence. ‘Mercy there was great, and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied to me, there my burdened soul found liberty, at Calvary.’

We do not condone sin, but we cannot also sit in judgment, for but by the grace of God that is where we would still be, rather we should be looking for ways to be channels in which the grace of God can be shown, so that what we have received, others will also receive, his grace which is still freely available because he himself has paid the great cost.

I mentioned earlier I felt compelled to write todays devotion about grace, can I ask you where do you stand, does your unforgiven sin condemn you, or have you received his grace? Today come to the one who is Grace, allow him to pour his grace into your life, as you confess your need of the Saviour, repent of your sin and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. ‘Saved by grace alone, this is all my plea, Jesus died for all mankind and Jesus died for me.’

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Daily Devotion July 13th

John 20:28

NIV – ‘Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God!’

ESV – ‘Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God!’

Carrying on from yesterday we continue with the fourth point, we will see what others had to say about Jesus in regarding to his deity. The verse I have chosen above is a well-known verse, short and concise, but in that simple sentence, Thomas is making a very bold statement, he is calling Jesus both his Lord and his God. This resurrected Jesus who appeared before the disciples was the same person that Thomas had just spent the last three years with, the same person whom the Jews were criticizing for healing on the Sabbath and for making himself equal with God, and here we have Thomas making an affirmation of belief, that as he stood before the post-resurrection human Jesus he acknowledged him not only as Lord, but also as God. 

In Matthews account of the crucifixion, we have the confession of the centurion who along with others had been put on watch duty, he may also have been involved with some of the other activity of the crucifixion, but it says that after they had watched Jesus die and seen the things that had happened, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God’ (Matthew 27:54) Thomas said it about the resurrected Jesus, the centurion is saying it about what he saw as a dead Jesus! He didn’t fully understand the power of God that was at work at that very moment with the victory that the Son of God, as both man and God was accomplishing over the power of sin, death and the grave. The very words of Jesus himself were being fulfilled, further proof that he was who he said he was as recorded in John 17-18 ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.’

Fifthly we will see what some of the physical evidence has to say about him, we have already touched on the resurrection, but what about the things he did, beside the things that he said. This is where John’s gospel is helpful, for we have within the gospel what we refer to as the signs. The first being in John chapter 2, where we have the account of the wedding at Cana in Galilee. After the miracle of the turning the water into wine it says, ‘This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.’ (John 2:11) It is that word glory again, which is here linked to what has just been shown, a demonstration of divine power. We see the demonstration of divine power again in John 5 with the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, this was the incident that caused the Jews to challenge Jesus for healing on the Sabbath and challenge him for making himself equal with God. In John 6 we have the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and the account where Jesus walks on the water, just a sample of incidents that would indicate that Jesus was more than just a man, as Nicodemus said in John 3, the conclusion should have been with all who saw what he was doing ‘We know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him’ or perhaps Nicodemus should have said ‘unless you are God!’

Finally, what did Jesus have to say about himself? We turn to John again and to the tenth chapter, Jesus was still the subject of much controversy, v19 says ‘there was a division among the Jews’ because of what Jesus had just been teaching (it is the narrative about Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd and the door of the sheep) some of the Jews who had criticized him in chapter 5 were now also getting a little bit more inquisitive, in verse 24 we read ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly.’ Jesus gives an answer and in verse 30 he says, ‘I and my Father are one.’ The Jews immediately take up stones to stone him, Jesus says to them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you going to stone me?’ The Jews answered, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you being a man, make yourself God.’ They were happy to recognise he was a man, but not recognise him as God. Notice they said, ‘make yourself God’, Jesus had no need to make himself God, he already was God! ‘In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God.’ John 1:1

In Matthew 16, Jesus asked the disciples a question, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ The disciples trotted out all the answers, but then Jesus said, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’

As we end todays devotion, I ask a question, who do you say Jesus is? What is he to you? Do you know him, do you love him, do you follow him, do you recognise who he really is, as Peter declared, the Christ, the Son of the living God, but at the same time, as your Saviour?

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Daily Devotion July 12th

SUNDAY 12th

John 5:18

NIV – ‘For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.’

ESV – ‘This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.’

You would have thought that to have had the Son of God in your midst would have been the most incredible thing to happen ever, but here the Jews were seeking to KILL Jesus, first because he dared to heal someone on the Sabbath, shame on them that legalistic Sabbath keeping was more important to them than seeing a sick man being made whole – secondly, because Jesus had declared that God was his Father, thus making himself equal with God.

Now, either the Jews were correct in their assumption, or Jesus was! Either God was his Father, meaning Jesus was his Son, or Jesus was deluded and was on a mission to con the people as to who he really was, and therefore on a crusade to present himself as someone he was not.

Which is it to be?

This takes us back to where we left off yesterday,  when I stated, ‘The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is an important part of our Christian faith, it is what marks true Christianity from the cults etc. For we need to have a correct theology of Jesus.’

The whole of John’s gospel, as we discovered from John 20:31 is to demonstrate or to show that Jesus really was who he claimed to be. (‘. . . so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God . . .’) So, what evidence does John give us? And how is his evidence backed up elsewhere in the Word of God?

This is intended to be a devotion, so we will only touch briefly on the answer, and this will be over two devotions as more will come up in later devotions, but I trust sufficiently enough to help us.

Firstly, we will see what God the Father himself had to say. In John’s gospel we have recorded for us what we call Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, (John 17) and Jesus commences the prayer by saying ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you . . .’ (v1) This is not the first time that Jesus had made this request in prayer, for he said something similar earlier in John 12:27, ‘Father, glorify your name’, and the response is a cry from heaven itself with the reply, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it’. What is happening is the Father is responding to the Son, thus verifying the Lord Jesus Christ as being his Son. The Fathers name had already been glorified through the Son and was yet going to be glorified through the Son, and this could only happen if the Son was as equally God as the Father was, for in the Old Testament God had declared that he would not give his glory to another. ‘I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols’. (Isaiah 42:8) Through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God was being revealed. (we will see this in point four)

John mentions the time when Jesus was baptised in John 1:32- 33, Luke, one of the other gospel writers mentions more, he noted that as Jesus came up from out of the water that an affirmation was made loud and clear as to who he was ‘Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’ Luke 3:21-22. Let us be completely honest here with a question, Would God have given such an audible acclamation concerning Jesus if the Jews were right and that he was a con man?

Secondly we will see what John had to say about Jesus throughout this gospel, and without going through all the detail, it is evident with what we have looked at already over the last few days that John believed that Jesus was the Son of God, he believed in the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, he believed that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Thirdly, what did John the Baptist have to say about Jesus, seeing as he was the one who was sent as a forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord. We will end the devotion today with just a Scripture reminder of some of what the Baptist had to say about Jesus. John 3:30-36 ‘He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he  whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.’

The words within the statement of John ‘He who comes from heaven is above all’ is a loaded statement. Surely this cannot be made about anyone unless he were God! I am reminded of an older chorus we used to sin, ‘Far above all, far above all, God has exalted him, far above all, Crown him as Lord, at his feet humbly fall, Jesus, Christ Jesus, is far above all.’ This song is talking about his exaltation after his obedience in going to the cross, but prior to his death, prior to his coming to earth, he as God was above all.

We will continue tomorrow.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 10th

FRIDAY 10th

JOHN 1:11-13

NIV – ‘He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’

ESV – ‘He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.’

In the preceding verses 6-8 we have John the author writing about another John, John the Baptist ‘There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light but came to bear witness about the light.’ John is describing the role of John the Baptist as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, he had come to bear witness concerning the Word, who was the light that had come to shine in the darkness, John the apostle is making it clear that the Baptist was not the light, but was bearing witness that the true light was about to come. It is interesting that when the Baptist does introduce Jesus later in this chapter, he does not introduce him as the light but as the Lamb! We can see the Baptists’ role in verses 19-28 (which I will not be including in my study) ‘And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to him, Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said. (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, Then, why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?  John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.  These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing’ and then we have v29 ‘The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’

In verses 9-13 the Apostle John continues his unveiling of who the Word was. He starts by saying ‘The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.’ (v9) The world had descended into spiritual darkness as a result of the fall, darkness is used in Scripture to represent the fallenness of humanity, the depravity of man’s sinfulness,(John 3:18-19 ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil’)  it is used in contrast to the kingdom of God, which is a kingdom of light, but there was some good news, some much needed news, the true light was coming, to bring light into the darkness. Later in the gospel, John would show to the reader that Jesus had declared himself to be the ‘Light of the world’ (John 8:12) but at first as John continues in these verses in chapter 1 we are reminded that the true light had come, yet the world (which he had created) did not know him and those who were his own did not receive him, (Israel) but the good news that comes out of it all was that ‘. . . to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . .’ (verse 12) There was definitely something spectacular about the true light, and yet not all would welcome the light, not all would receive the light, but those who did, received a welcome into the family of God.

At this point we have hardly got into the first chapter of the gospel, and yet we have some incredible news, if we are willing to accept who Jesus the Word is and believe on his name, this involves coming out of darkness into the light, we will not only have life, but we will become the children of the living God. Let this sink in today if it has not already, as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has become your heavenly Father. I touched on this a couple of weeks ago, but sufficient to say today, we can call him ‘Our Father’ and he is pleased to call us his ‘sons and daughters’.