Category: Devotions

Some days there isn’t anyone to blame

John 9: 1-5

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. ² His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³ “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. ⁴ As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵ While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

We are part of a blaming culture.

If Adam and Eve were alive today, they would probably sue the snake!

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. But today we’re asking who pushed him!

There are many people who blame God for the hurt in their lives. The death of loved ones, health issues, job losses. The truth is, God has already blamed Jesus for all the sin that causes all the pain in all our lives.

Sometimes there’s no one to blame. At that point we need to look instead to what God can do.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28.

In Zundert, Holland in 1853, a Lutheran pastor became the proud father of a baby boy. At 16 the boy went to work for a firm of art dealers in The Hague. A few years later he took the opportunity to travel to England. There he fell in love with his landlady’s daughter, but she rejected him. In his grief he turned to Christ. He began helping a Methodist minister in Turnham Green and Petersham. The conviction grew that he should become a full-time evangelist, and in his mid-twenties he returned to Holland. He soon found great success in preaching to the poor, dressed like a peasant and living in their company. He washed their clothes, cared for their sick, consoled their dying and he led them to Christ. However, the Church leaders of the day rejected him and forced him to give up his ministry. For many this would have brought a crushing blow with no recovery. But God can bring light out of darkness.

He went back to the world of art and tried his hand at painting. His name was Vincent van Gogh.

 

Maybe you have unanswered questions like the blind man. Maybe you have pain in your life. Maybe you can make no sense of it all

But there is hope. Great hope. There always is with a God who is the light of the world.

Psalm 23:4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

You only get a shadow when there is a shining light creating it. Right there in our ‘darkness’, God’s brilliant light is giving us hope. He is our hope in a dark world.

 

The power of pre-existent Jesus

John 8 v48-59 “The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?” ⁴⁹ “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. ⁵⁰ I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.” ⁵² At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?” ⁵⁴ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”⁵⁷ “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!” ⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.”

 

We start this passage which brings a section to a close with some initial name-calling by the Jews. It would end with them picking up stones that were on the ground in the Temple to try and kill Jesus.

Jesus’ reply was this (using my inflection): I am not demon possessed and the proof is I am honouring God my Father, no demon would do that. Secondly, I am not even answering the Samaritan charge because I have already demonstrated the Father loves them as much as you.

They move from name-calling to twisting his words, v52.

Jesus’ reply was this: I never said they wouldn’t taste death, you said that. I said that whoever walks with me will never see it. They will never be overwhelmed by the fear of death.

They move from twisting his words to incredulous defamation, v53.

Jesus reply led to them picking up the stones: I AM!

This was the most incredible, confrontational and boldest statement Jesus ever made.

Some are so earthly focused that they have reduced their relationship with Jesus to all about what happens here and now. But the offer of Jesus is to discover and live your life through the filter of eternity.

Jesus had said many things to the Jews that had got him into trouble but his claim of pre-existence was the one they balked at the most.

Jesus was fully aware of his pre-existence. This was not some re-incarnation understanding. But rather the incarnation of the Son of God in human life-form on earth.

Jesus was fully aware that He existed before this life on earth.

When God revealed himself early in His Word He used the words I AM = I will be whatever I need to be, healer, saviour etc. It is the title of deity. There is no greater title.

Jesus is the I AM. We have read so far that he said: I am the bread of life, 6:35 and I am the light of the world, 8:12.

I AM

The Jews saw only the historical manifestation and not the eternal person.

Jesus did not begin 2000 years ago, that was just when the incarnation took place. He had no beginning. He was before beginning. Because of this we can say He has seen it all and He knows it all.

There have been no accidents in your life, neither your birth, nor your death, nor anything in between. He knows the beginning and the end for each one of us.

We can invite Jesus into our existence – but there is a far greater invitation. An invitation for us to live our lives in His pre-existence.

You might not know why some things have happened or why they haven’t. But He knows. We are called to be content in that.

Jesus is able. He is pre-existent and 2,000 years on from his incarnation He is here right now in the place where you are reading this.

The ‘I AM’ stands before you today. That means God is here. The same God who said ‘I will be what I will be.’ The same God who led Israel out of Egypt and sustained them in the desert is here. The same God who entered humanity is here with you now. He is here to live, speak, call, ask, act, decide, love, forgive.

 

WHAT IF hypocrisy is closer to those with a Christian heritage?

We are in danger as a Church in permitting the re-making of Jesus to one that fits the times we are living in.

We are reading a passage which shows a man (Jesus) surrounded by a crowd (good religious people) who were increasingly becoming angrier with him. Amongst them are the religious leaders (spiritual advisers and representatives of God to the people) who want nothing more than to kill Jesus. The heritage of these people did not protect them from their hypocrisy in fact it heightened it.

Does this still exist today in our Churches?

WHAT IF …?

John 8 v 33-47

How can you say that we shall be set free?’ ³⁴ Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it for ever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. ³⁸ I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.’ ³⁹ ‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered. ‘If you were Abraham’s children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would^[c] do what Abraham did. ⁴⁰ As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. ⁴¹ You are doing the works of your own father.’ ‘We are not illegitimate children,’ they protested. ‘The only Father we have is God himself.’ ⁴² Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. ⁴³ Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. ⁴⁴ You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ⁴⁵ Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! ⁴⁶ Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? ⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’

 

WHAT IF members of a Church are not members of the family of God? V35

WHAT IF those who own a Bible and have it on a shelf don’t have it in their hearts? V37

WHAT IF people sneered at a beautiful move of God in the past meaning they also missed what God was doing in the present? V41 (they were indicating questions over Jesus’ birth)

WHAT IF unkind and hurtful people in the Church were carrying out the devil’s desire? V44

WHAT IF people in the pew and behind the pulpit are not hearing what God is saying? V47

WHAT IF?

Don’t paint brush the past. It doesn’t own you but it doesn’t have to be ignored.

John 8 v 31-33

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”

 

It is strange how we forget history, conveniently.

They go all the way back to Abraham, missing out Moses and the Exodus where from? From slavery! They have been slaves before historically but they seem to have overlooked this detail.

Some desire to cover over their past for fear of exposure and the shame of an event. Some disown themselves from it, they paint themselves out of the picture and say they were not there.

No one is free from the failures of the past. But ignoring those failures can keep us trapped within them.

The step to freedom is truth.

 

The rescuer is still here

John 8 v21-30 (see at the end of the devotion)

This is day one of ten days of further forecasted rain where I live. It means that once again the river which has already burst its banks bringing devastation to many homes is going to rise again. Once again the Environment agency will be trying to rescue people and once again some will resist that rescue not wanting to leave their homes.

Jesus the Messiah came to rescue people but the people resisted.

It was a dangerous time. The forecasts were not good. People were living under the oppression of the pagan Romans. Great instability was taking place in the whole region. If only they had received the rescuer their lives would have been spared. That’s what John and the other gospel-writers record, v21 “you will die in your sin when I have gone away.” But it goes over their heads. They don’t pay attention to the threat. If only they knew what was around the corner. That in their lifetime, within the next 30-40 years tremendous hardship and persecution would come on their beautiful city by the Roman emperors. But their thoughts are on Jesus. “Where is he going? What does he mean?”v22.

We are then taken to the cross in the gospel. Jesus says they would lift him up, inferring their part they would play and not just the Romans in putting him on the cross, v28. But that it would be the cross which answers their question of “who are you?” in v25. The cross still does that. To know Him is to go through the way of the cross. Our sin put him there.

But they are going to miss this truth. They are of this world and they will not receive it, v23.

Destruction will soon come.

Today we wake and once again the coronavirus will be front pages of our news feeds. It is spreading across the world. Will this be a pandemic? How many will die? When will it be contained?

I will be in Kenya soon and today it faces Biblical proportions of locusts devastating that nation.

Great persecution will continue today in many parts of the world and the saints will be martyred again.

The world will miss the rescuer though the signs are all around that it needs rescuing.

BUT NOT EVERYONE!

The question is still being asked of Jesus, ‘who are you?’ and it is still causing many to believe in him, v30.

 

²¹ Once more Jesus said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.’ ²² This made the Jews ask, ‘Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, “Where I go, you cannot come”?’ ²³ But he continued, ‘You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. ²⁴ I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.’ ²⁵ ‘Who are you?’ they asked. ‘Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,’ Jesus replied. ²⁶ ‘I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.’ ²⁷ They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. ²⁸ So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. ²⁹ The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.’ ³⁰ Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

 

You don’t know me!

John 8 v 13-20

“The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.” ¹⁴ Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. ¹⁵ You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. ¹⁶ But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. ¹⁷ In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. ¹⁸ I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” ¹⁹ Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” ²⁰ He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.”

 

The Jewish law, the Torah, called for witnesses to those standing accused. Only two were needed. Jesus states they have had two. Himself and his Father. The fact is they didn’t know God the Father and so they were a million miles from knowing God the Son.

Here comes the attack.

“Where is your father?” It was an attacking question. This was not only saying we cannot see your father standing with you. This was about knowing the story of Jesus. Or they thought they knew the story!

A story of illegitimacy in their eyes. It wasn’t the beautiful incarnational story. It was shameful. “We know you never had a real father!” That was the call from Jesus’ enemy.

Even if our past is shameful, the enemy of our soul will twist it to make it even more so. He is a liar and a father of lies.

Don’t let your enemy either re-write your past or make your past worse than it was. Here is your response:

“You don’t know me”

 

Let’s stay in the light
John 8 v 12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Winston Churchill once stated that England was in its darkest hour because there was fear and uncertainty about the future.
It seems that we are still in our darkest hour certainly in terms of Christianity. Or are we?
This is not the first time John has used the image of light. It is certainly not the first time it has appeared in the Jewish mind.
In fact the people were the light. In Isaiah 60 they are the light of the world.
So imagine the offence caused when Jesus refers a title given of Israel to himself?!
There are many lights that come into the world. We ourselves are called to shine brightly.
However, the brightest and true light is Jesus.
He is shining today across the world in the darkest of places. As he does this it not only leads the way but it exposes the darkness.
Israel was supposed to be the light but their light had stopped shining and they were the opposite, they were walking in darkness. Jesus came as the true light. Where Israel failed He succeeded. He exposed their darkness and the leaders didn’t like it. It was this that began the fight between the darkness and the light. We know the LIGHT won!
The same can be said of the Church in 2020. If it stops shining as the light and becomes dim or the light goes out then Jesus will expose it. It is possible that the ‘body of Christ’ could enter a battle with Christ because of the issue of LIGHT. The Church faces significant issues in these days and we need Jesus more than ever, we need the light so that we don’t become dark ourselves.

What did Jesus write?

John 8 v 3-11

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

 

What did Jesus write?

No one knows but it hasn’t stopped people guessing! From doodling, a Jewish custom when thinking, to writing the sins of the stone-throwers. Whatever it was, it dislodged the stone-throwers. They had never seen Jesus write on the ground.

Maybe it wasn’t what he wrote, but what he did that was important, maybe that’s why we’re not told what he did write.

Everything he did and spoke was founded in the Old Testament he continually affirmed the words of the Law and the Prophets. He was a walking Old Testament.

Perhaps he resurrected the prophet Jeremiah who at a similar time when his accusers were trying to trap him as a false prophet, offered a prayer to God and said “those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.” 17:13

It could fit because Jesus had already been using the term ‘living water’ previously regarding himself with the Samaritan woman at the well.

So it wasn’t what he wrote but the fact that he wrote that reminded them but maybe he sealed it by writing their names and the connection was too much.

They brought a nameless woman to Jesus. They weren’t bothered about her. Her sin didn’t concern them at all. What concerned them was whether Jesus was bothered about her sin or not.

Jesus bent down and acted out the prophet Jeremiah and wrote their names in the dust. The older ones perhaps realising the connection sooner than the younger men walked away first. Until all was left was an accused woman, Jesus and the names of her accusers written in the dirt. Jesus still stands in the middle of us and the accusations we face throughout our life of not being the person we should be. When everyone has gone He stands with us.

What’s in your hand?

John 8 v 3-11

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group ⁴ and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” ⁶ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. ⁷ When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. ¹⁰ Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

 

What’s in your hand? Take a careful look because it is possible to carry stones and not realise it.

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They were trapped – to throw a stone meant they were without sin and only God is sinless, to walk away was to admit they were sinners.

They tried to trap Jesus but in the end they were trapped by him.

What’s in your hand? Drop the stones.

For the sin of those who deserve to be stoned is equal to those who carry the stone.

Our lives are never seamless but they are worthy of a seamless book

John 8 v 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group…

So yesterday we apparently, seamlessly moved into the preparation for this new story.

7 v53 Then they all went home …

8 v 1-2 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.  At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.

However, this story is in effect not seamless at all.

From 7 v25 till v52 John describes the division over the identity of Jesus and then from v12 “When Jesus spoke again to the people …” John continues with further disputes over Jesus’ testimony. From John’s point of view this is the seamless narrative not the move into the story of the adulteress.

In fact without going into depth, John probably didn’t write the story. It was probably written later but John did say there were other stories that he didn’t have space to write about and this is probably one of them.

Anyway, something for us to think about before we do delve into the story is this: Our life is never seamless. Oh that it was!

Our lives are full of ‘I never saw that coming stories and events’; shocks and surprises; waking up and the day turns on its head and everything changes; questions commence: Why? Why did that happen? Why did it happen then? It may just happen today.

However, our lives do tell a story, a gospel story of how despite the interruptions we face which we constantly respond and react to, continues to read well. You see there is a master scriptwriter who is writing a masterpiece of our story. He seems to seamlessly weave the stories into our narrative and though not perfect it does become a good read.