Author: missionspaul

The Father’s house

This morning I have been reading continually the following passage, soaking myself in each word, praying that the Church aligns itself as the Father’s house. By that I don’t mean a building of course, but the people. Those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers, Christians. We are the Father’s house.

This passage is not the evidence needed for anyone in a position to be able to hold a whip to be offensive, rude, to have online anger issues or a soapbox- ranter. This is not the inspiration to be abusive to those who don’t see it the way you do, from pew to pulpit or pulpit to pew. This is not the excuse for abusive, coercive, subversive behaviour in your Church.

If this is righteous anger then it is the either the only time we see it or it could be only twice that Jesus clears the Temple in the 3 years (the other Gospels have Jesus clearing the Temple at the end of the 3 years).This is not a daily occurrence for the compassionate, loving Jesus. There was one other time when Jesus revealed the righteous anger of God and that was when he was on the cross. Oh for more of that kind of expression.

There is so much for me and you in this passage. I am led to simply write short one line notes this morning and if you are reading this then I pray the Holy Spirit will apply this to your life in the way only He can do.

Here is the passage.

 

John 2: 13-22

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶ To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸ The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” ¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” ²⁰ They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” ²¹ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²² After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

 

In the Father’s house:

There is the Passover Lamb of God.

(Jesus the Passover Lamb enters the Temple where the sacrifices were taking place)

• The atmosphere of forgiveness and grace.
• The act of selflessness.
• The place of standing in the gap for others and for God.

There is Passion.

(Jesus made a whip out of cords and cleared out what was wrong)

• That drives out prejudices and pretensions.
• That drives out hypocrisy and the con man.
• That drives out superiority and injustice.

There is Presence.

(Jesus makes clear He is the Temple and points to the reason for Him coming and later the disciples realise the Scriptures are fulfilled)

• Revealing the identity of Jesus not our personality.
• Revealing the Authority found in sacrifice not in persuasion.
• Revealing the Scriptures to stand on not our thoughts to impress.

May the Church become more aligned as the Father’s house this year!

Turning weddings from hell into weddings of glory

John 2: 1-12

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, ² and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. ³ When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” ⁴ “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ⁶ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. ⁸ Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, ⁹ and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” ¹¹ 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. ¹² After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.”

 

We have all heard of the weddings from hell. The closest one to hell that I have officiated at is when the bride was over 30 minutes late due to her father needing another drink to get through the ordeal. They had to be brought through the back door for his friends to try and get him together in order to then walk his daughter down the aisle.

When things go wrong at certain events then the embarrassment and the shame are palpable.

Welcome to the first miracle of Jesus.

• It was the 3^rd

An important little detail that John notes. In the creation order the 3^rd day was good because it was the day when all the fruit trees were created. It was a day of blessing. Here at the wedding the wine (a symbol of blessing) was flowing and it was good. Until the blessing ran out.

• Jesus’ mother was there.

Jesus says to Mary, “My hour has not come”. In 7:40 Jesus is teaching in the Temple courts and the religious authorities tried to seize him “but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Later again Jesus teaching near the Temple declares, ’I am the light’ and they were furious, “Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come” 8:20. In 12:23 just after the Triumphal Entry Jesus declares, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Prior to him washing the disciples’ feet in 13:1 “Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.” And finally in what is the most beautiful of prayer moments in 17:1 “he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” In his gospel John does not mention Jesus’ mother after this moment of the wedding from hell until the moment she is very much aware the hour had come, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother” 19:25.

There is so many more things that you can draw out of this first miracle.

But let me focus your mind and heart on this one wonderful truth.

In the previous chapter we ended being reminded about Jacobs dream at Bethel. The very first miracle where he revealed his glory (v11) and where the divine activity of ‘angels ascending and descending’ 1:51 is at a wedding from hell. Not at one of the Messiah-proof declarations like the healing of a blind man, the leper, the lame and those held in darkness. No.

In seeking after the glory of God to be revealed. In our desire for His presence and power to be known in our lives and in our churches. Why don’t we begin with the simple? Why don’t we just try and help out a family who are so embarrassed and ashamed of what has happened? It doesn’t matter who is to blame. We don’t have to conduct forensics. We just have to reach out a hand to make things better. To cover over other people’s pain and humiliation. Instead of exploiting it let us make things better for people. It may not seem much but maybe it is the road to the glory of God being revealed in us and our churches.

BETHEL

John 1:43-51

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” ⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” ⁵¹ He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

It seems that John very early into his gospel is showing how so many people were experiencing the revelation of Jesus as Messiah. Whether it be Jesus finding people or people telling their friends and family they have been found or have indeed found the Messiah, it is clear there is a momentum of witnessing taking place.

More than that the extraordinary is already taking place. Whatever Nathanael was doing underneath the fig tree Jesus saw and pointed it out and this led to Nathanael choosing to believe and declare so early on in John’s gospel that Jesus is the Son of God.

But there is more.

Mission and making disciples is central and our main focus. It needs to happen and must continue. But there is a greater thing.

Throughout this gospel John clearly connects Jesus as the fulfilment of the Temple on earth. From the commencement, Jesus is the Word become flesh and making his dwelling amongst us to this moment when Jesus uses a phrase which doesn’t mean much to us at first glance but to John’s first readers. To those standing there with Jesus he says, “you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

The image of the angels ascending and descending is the referral to Jacob’s dream. The connection of saying Nathanael is a man with no deceit is also Jacob. The story of Jacob is about a man who knew how to lie. He deceived Esau, his twin brother, out of his birth-right and father’s blessing and has to flee for his life. With absolutely nothing left, a broken man, failed in every way, he goes to sleep one night and has a dream of exactly what Jesus mentions and he names that place Bethel because it means House of God.

The Jews and the Samaritans (who John is trying to reach) all believed that Bethel was one of the main worship centres and where in this House of God activity passed to and from heaven and earth.

Jesus is saying to these early disciples that they would see heaven open over Jesus and the activity of a divine exchange will take place. He was about to take them on an incredible adventure. John is writing his gospel to communicate that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Temple. He still is. Jesus is the presence of God and the centre for all activity under heaven and on earth.

May our lives and our churches be places of Bethel.

Worship centres known as the House of God where divine exchanges take place.

Let our lives be Bethel and here is the Bethel blessing:

I am the Lord God

I will give you

You will spread out

You will be a blessing

I am with you

I will watch over you

I will bring you back

I will not leave you

I will do what I have promised you.

(Genesis 28:13-15)

 

The Church needs to encounter again: note the time.

John 1: 35-42

“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’ ³⁹ ‘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. ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter)”

 

We don’t know who he was but we do know the time.

The other disciple to Andrew is widely believed to be John who wrote this gospel based simply on the fact that he doesn’t mention his own name.

That detail doesn’t seem important to the writer and yet the time of about 4pm does.

Though John was probably in his 80’s when he wrote the gospel and in his 30’s when the events occurred, he still remembers the time, etched into his ageing memory.

Let me pose the very same question that Jesus asked, “What do you want?”

Many times in the gospels we see invitations asking for Jesus to come to the homes of people in need or just wanting to host him. Maybe you need Jesus in your home today? Maybe you desire your home to be filled with the presence of God.

But I have a better desire.

It was the request of Andrew and the other.

They wanted to see his home.

Can you imagine with me right now, entering the home of Jesus? Seeing the place where he slept, where he ate, the environment that he stayed in.

Nearly 30 years ago we had invited a very important national leader in our Church denomination to preach in our very small church and we subsequently invited him to our home. I remember the time very well it was about 3pm, we had just eaten lunch and the leader was giving a seminar from the settee on ‘if I was you this is what I would do’. My wife having worked the night shift was so tired started to drift off to sleep and my son who was only 2 years of age started pulling on the impeccably pressed trouser leg of the leader which gave him some awkward annoyance as he began to shake him off. That was the moment realising my days in Elim were numbered that I began to pray for the return of Christ! But that was also the day when the important leader began to know who we really were and what our life was like.

When someone visits your home then you will not fully know them. But when you visit their home then you walk into their culture and you encounter them at a whole different level.

It was about 4pm and something happened in the place where Jesus was staying that changed the lives of these 2 men. The result was they encountered the Christ and secondly they went to tell others they had done so. Discovery and strategy for Mission at about 4pm.

We need Christians to articulate again that what they want is an encounter with the Christ. Oh that Churches will gather to encounter Him. The focus not being we want Jesus in our homes and in our lives and in our hearts. All that is good.

But there is more.

We need to step into His sphere, His culture, to know His ways and to move into His existence. Only then will we be changed by discovery into a life of mission and service. Only then will the Church know a baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Are you ready for such an encounter? Note the time.

Is the dove remaining on the lamb?

John 1:29-34

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ³¹ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³² Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. ³³ And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

Since the first person he had baptised, John had been looking.

“How will I know it is Him? How do I know if the Spirit has come down? Is the next person the One? Will it be today?”

There are no indications in the gospels that anyone other than Jesus and John had seen heaven open, the voice from God and the Spirit fall in the form of a dove upon Jesus.

When Jesus met John, something happened in the water that left John in no doubt. Just as the dove was released by Noah several times and finally came to remain on dry ground (Genesis 8) so the Spirit remained on the One who had been sent by God to represent safety, hope, a new day and covenant, peace and a future for the world.

And here is the key: when you have seen the significance of the dove then you will have revelation of the lamb.

John is announcing a new and better Noah story and is now clearly laying out as he will do throughout his gospel leading to the culmination of Jesus’ death on the afternoon when the Passover lambs were being killed in the Temple, Jesus the lamb.

The Christian and the Church needs more than ever to realise that the dove remains on the lamb.

When the dove remains on the lamb then the Holy Spirit is at work.

The outpouring that we all long to see can only come with this combination. Anything else is man-made.

Give me someone who knows they are sent to bring hope not despair, whose words convey peace and the promises of God. Give me someone who is kind and gentle and yet is strong enough to lay their own life down in surrender to God and to others. Give me that person in the pulpit and the pew and I will paint a picture of an outpouring of the Spirit.

Let me ask 3 questions that contain their own answers:

1. Where is the Spirit? (Where are the miracles? Where is the growth of the Church with souls saved and lives transformed?)
2. Where is the Lamb? (Where is the sacrifice? Where are the acts of kindness in the public place, the pew and the pulpit?)
3. Where is the dove? (Where is the deep, abiding, remaining sense of being sent to herald a new day? Where are the messengers of safety?

“How will I know? Will it be today?”

It can be.

 

 

Do it again Lord

John 1: 26-28 “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. ²⁷ He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”

It was an insurmountable problem.

It represented the deepest psychological challenge.

A story 1,000 years ago before John the Baptist and yet still carried in the hearts of the Jews even to the present day.

An event right on the spot where John was baptising.

The crossing of the river Jordan.

• It was the sign of God establishing them as a strong nation.
• It was a reminder that God was a miraculous God in their generation. He had opened the way for the previous generation at the Red Sea and He was doing the same for the next.
• It showed to the whole world that God was powerful amongst His people.
• The result of this was that God’s people would walk in fear of Him for the rest of their lives and for the generations to come.

The Jewish leaders have sent a contingency to John the Baptist to question his credibility. They don’t like what he is doing and they are certainly not recognising him.

In the place of the historical signs of God, miracles, presence and power and where commitments were made to Him come generations later cynical, doubtful, argumentative, political nonsense.

John is Baptising in the ideal spot. The glory of God was coming again to this very place. John knows he is not even worthy to be a servant of him.

But they will not know him. They have not understood John and they will not recognise the One greater than him.

This is a sobering lesson for the Church today.

We want a move of God. But if He moved would we recognise Him? Would we be caught up in division and derision?

Some don’t even recognise a new minister never mind a new move.

Some won’t sing a new song so they are never going to worship at the heart of a move of God.

Some won’t say hello to the person next to them in the pew so they are never going to welcome strangers that get saved.

Let us join together and pray “DO IT AGAIN LORD” and believe that He will move again in 2020. But get ready and be open because you might miss Him.

Don’t limit what you can do

John 1: 24-25 “Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

The leaders in Jerusalem had sent a team of investigators.  Word had reached them that crowds were going out into the wilderness to meet a man who was then baptising them in what was a lifestyle changing ceremony. They were keen to clamp down on such things for they were the protectors of the faith. They didn’t want any loose cannons.

Their problem was that there was nothing in their Scriptures that foretold of a ministry of baptism. Neither had John gone to them first to get their support of his ministry.

Humility may have been in his mouth (he denied being anyone important) but his behaviour was suggesting that he was indeed someone special.

There is no limit to what God can do in anyone that He has sent (v6).

This year God can put His greatness on you and use you powerfully for Him and the enemy of your soul can come and question on what grounds you have the ability, the confidence and the credibility to do this. Who are you going to listen to?

Those who don’t have anything to say will always be jealous of those who do.

Those who have no one following them will always be spiteful towards those that do.

Let this year be a year when you do things that are beyond you. Accustom your life to the voice of the enemy just don’t pay any attention to it.

I am only a voice

John 1: 19-23

¹⁹ Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. ²⁰ He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” ²¹ They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” ²² Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ²³ John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”

As we start this New Year, nothing remarkable happened probably overnight. You woke up in the same way as you did last year. You are you.

You still cannot fix those impossibilities. You couldn’t last year. That hasn’t changed. You are not the Messiah.

People may think you are a certain person. Your gifts and abilities may impress and show that you could definitely be him. But you know who you are and you are not that hero for people, you are no Elijah.

You may be conscious of the hope that surrounds you. People genuinely thinking a move of God is going to happen and they think you are instrumental in that happening. You will soon disappoint for you are no Moses.

Leaders are speaking of you, those who work in the House of God, (the Priests and the Levites) are messaging you wanting to know who you are. “Show us your CV?” “Who has credentialed you?”

They do so because though you know who you are not, you have been behaving strangely.

“I am only a voice,” this is not what you are saying.

You are not just a voice amongst the voices in this world oh and how noisy the world we live in.

No. You are THE voice.

Now of course you are not John the Baptist either. But you have the same attitude as John. You have the attitude of the voice calling “In the desert prepare the way for the Lord make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)

As John said those words they were taken right back 700 years previously when Isaiah spoke of the things to come. They knew every word and every promise of hope. Someone special was coming.

Today raise your voice (Isaiah 40):

“The glory of the Lord will be revealed” v5

“The Word of our God stands for ever.” v8

“The Sovereign Lord comes with power.” v10

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the week.” v29

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.” v31

Raise your voice for Jesus has come and He is coming.

Grace and Truth

John 1: 15-18 “ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ 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.”

The last day of the year, 2019. How shall we end it?

We end it by thanking God that grace and truth is greater than the religious rules and duties.

What got you through the year was not the law but it was grace and truth.

A grace that is never exhausted.

A grace that is not interrupted and has no limitations.

The law can be understood and mastered by knowing its parameters.

But grace is an adventure.

No one can say where grace will take you.

This grace is an ever deepening experience of the presence and the blessing of God.

Grace is undeserved, unmerited, but it is not blind, it can see what is wrong. It can see the brokenness, the sin but it refuses to back away because truth is holding it there.

Truth is not a law, it is not a matter of facts; it is not a set of rules nor is it justice.

Truth is a person. I am the way, the truth and the life.

Truth can see the wrong. But truth says someone needs to pay and Jesus Christ says I AM THE ONE WHO HAS PAID THE PRICE, THE TRUTH.

Grace will deliver you and Truth will redeem you.

Grace will rescue you and Truth will stand for you.

Grace will sustain you and Truth will defend you.

In 2020 we will again need Grace and Truth.

The Christmas Prologue 9: He is here with you now, yes, even in the hell of the pain.

John 1: 14 “John 1: 14 ^“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We end the Prologue today. These powerful 14 verses of John’s gospel.

John in this opening of his gospel is keen to compare the story of Moses, their hero, with that of Jesus.

There are so many parallels in the gospels of Jesus and Moses, but Jesus is greater.

For example:

Herod ordered the killing of all the Bethlehem boys of 2 years and under to be killed, in order to make sure Jesus was killed.

The slaughter of the innocents happened, Jesus had been born.

The King of Egypt ordered the new born males to be killed and Moses had been born.

Identical beginnings and it reveals Jesus is greater than Moses.

From the beginning of his life and at the end of his life on the cross we see a violent and terrible world. A world that He came to redeem.

For Jesus, the greater Moses, living between the atrocities of Christmas and the cross came to redeem our lives but also to show us that that gospel message can survive the most dire of circumstances.

If the gospel can survive the violence of Christmas and the vulgarity of the cross it can survive anywhere in the world and in any circumstance.

So no longer do we need to say, ‘Where are you in this?’

For as we see the total vulnerability of God to expose Himself to the atrocities surrounding His incarnation, we see He exists in pain and suffering.

What is He doing there?

He is delivering us. He is bringing us out of the hell of the pain.

He is doing it not through a law but grace. Grace upon grace. Continual grace.