Category: Devotions

The Church needs to be the Son of Man.

Luke 9:22 “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Luke records 22 times when Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man.

The Son of Man with authority to forgive sins (5:24); as Lord of the Sabbath (6:5); whose followers will be hated (6:22); accused of being a drunkard (7:34); who must suffer many things (9:22); in these verses today where he will be ashamed of those who are ashamed of him (9:26); who will be handed to men (9:44); who has no place to lay his head (9:58); he will be as Jonah was, a sign to the present generation (11:30); he will acknowledge us before angels (12:8); will forgive (12:10); will come unexpectedly (12:40); a period of time known as the days of the Son of Man (17:22); compared to lightning (17:24); similar to the days of Noah (17:26); will be revealed again (17:30); he will come to the earth again (18:8); the prophets wrote about him (18:31); came to seek and save the lost (19:10); he will come in a cloud (21:27); those who escape will stand before him (21:36); he would depart soon (22:22).

In fact no other gives him the title, he uses it for himself.

Jesus didn’t come announcing he was the Son of God, ‘I have arrived, here I am the Messiah, the One the world has been waiting for, I am the be all and end all.’ He didn’t do that. In fact the time that he announced his deity was at the point he was laying it down at the cross for us but not before.

So why did he use the title ‘Son of Man’ so often?

In its most basic form, the Son of God is his deity and the Son of Man is his human identity.

He uses the title because

1. There was no offence, everyone is a child of a man after all.
2. It is a title used in Daniel 7 for an exalted figure, an earthly being but a heavenly one at the same time, those with ‘ears to hear’ would understand this but again the subtlety of Jesus is seen. He is cloaking who he is.

 

Several years ago I stood in front of my church and announced this:

“This year we will not focus on bringing people to church. We were not particularly good at this last year so we won’t be trying to do better.” There were cheers and sighs of relief from some but mostly a waiting for the ‘But’ from the others.

“But, we will all go and join something, a club, a society, a group, we will integrate as much as we can, we will get non-Christian friends and simply work at being friends and nothing else. Some of you only have Christian friends and that is why you are not happy so this will be good for you. I will be teaching a 4 week series on how to be normal for I fear we have become strange, we have a strange language of Zion that no one understands, we have behavioural practices that are weird and we need to unlearn what we have become and we need to become as normal as possible. For some of us this will be harder than for others but we will try. There is a rule. We must not tell people we are a Christian unless they ask. The point of being there is to be human not a spirit-filled, tongue speaking Pentecostal Christian just waiting to ask the question, ‘are you washed in the blood of the lamb?’ We engage and do life with people and we wait for the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do.”

What happened was quite remarkable as we saw for the first time long standing Christians getting involved in the world around them. Then the Holy Spirit started taking over and giving people wonderful faith conversations with people they had been going to the pub or café with or in the gym etc. The people in my church who had struggled to get folks into the church building were finding it easier than they thought to get church into the lives of those near them. By the end of the year our church attendances had shot up remarkably, we had entered into a whole new season of growth.”

As I think on that time this morning I realise that the Church had embraced and focused on its humanity, they had become the ‘son of man’ and at the same time had cloaked the authority and power that Christ had given them which in the course of time the Spirit flowed through which led to salvations and many faith conversations.

Perhaps the Church in the UK has been trumpeting its heavenly status and our dynamic power over the realms of darkness but at the same time have hidden our humanity. Maybe we have got things the wrong way round. Maybe the church needs to declare its frailty, its imperfections, its pursuit for the truth as journeymen, people of the way, its humanity. Those with ‘ears to hear’ will realise that when the body of Christ does that even though they are cloaking it then the exaltation of Jesus is near, the power of Christ will come through, the mysteries of heaven will emerge from the covers of humanity to a lost and broken world.

Let the Church announce ‘The Son of Man is here.’

Your cross

 

Luke 9: 21-27 “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

 

It is your cross

Your cross is where only you can go.

Your cross will cost you.

Your cross will take you to where you have never been.

 

 

Who is Jesus? A question that still needs asking.

Luke 9 v 18-20 “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”  “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

There were times such as this one when the disciples heard Jesus praying. Can you imagine? Being able to eavesdrop on the prayers of the Messiah? In the garden of Gethsemane though falling asleep they did remember hearing parts of his prayer. But here Luke only records what happened next, after the praying.

Matthew and Mark say that this happened in the region of Caesarea Philippi, the birthplace of all the pantheon of gods and goddesses. “Who do people say I am? Who do you say I am?” in the context of the world’s idols on display.

Luke has the context differently, set in the place of prayer. He doesn’t major on where they were in the sense of the region. It was where they were in the realm of prayer that is the importance for Luke.

I like that he does this.

In fact, Luke is the gospel writer who seems to speak the most about the prayer life of Jesus and a cursory flick through will show this and that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (5:16) and these were recorded.

But here in this place of prayer the poignancy is in what happens next. This is definitely a chapter turning. From here on Jesus is definitely thinking of Jerusalem and the reason for his coming, his death.

Our world has changed in what seems so quickly, almost overnight. We are the generation that have seen major technological change, breakthroughs in the medical field and a greater acceptance of the identity of humanity. The last one being one of the greatest challenges the Church has faced. I am open to any kind of change. I want life to be better. So long as from day one we keep on answering the question, “Who do you say I am?” The Jew, the Christian and the Muslim all have shared beliefs. But only one is correct regarding the identity of Jesus. There are endless conferences, demonstrations, books, media coverage regarding the identity of humanity. But I think who Jesus is far outweighs the need to know who I am.

• Find your true identity.
• 6 specific ways to know who you are.
• A guide to finding yourself.
• Who am I?
• Be me.

The list goes on and so much of it reads well and good.

However, you can find your true identity and not know who Jesus is.

Answering the question, ‘who do you say I am?’ leads to finding who you are and how you should be in this complicated world.

Luke will tell us that with Jesus being the Messiah, the Saviour then:

• We will have to lose our life and what we want (9:24).
• We will have to listen to Him (9:35).
• We will stop trying to be better than anyone else (9:48).
• We will stop trying to hurt those who disagree with us (9:54).
• We will pay the full price of following Jesus (9:57).

 

In this private place of prayer we discover something that could be said today:

1. More people got it wrong than got it right.
   1. Just because everyone says so or a voice is loudest, doesn’t make it correct.

 

2. The answers of the crowd were good but they were not right.
   1. Having empathy and sympathy doesn’t mean you have to agree.

 

3. It is easier to believe a Messiah will come rather than believe the Messiah is here.
   1. Life in the imagination often beats life in the reality.

 

4. It is what you say not what you think that counts.
   1. Your words are final, they last long after you have gone, it is time to speak up.

 

5. If you say, ‘Jesus is the Saviour’ then it effects how you follow.
   1. The identification of who Jesus is will cost you, ‘who do you say I am?’

How to feed 5,000 or whatever miracle you need.

Luke 9 v 16-17 “he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”

 

After giving thanks then came that first step into the miracle. The breaking of one of the loaves, this is it, the step of faith.

I would rather be broken by the hands of Jesus than anyone else. In his hands my life changes as I surrender to him. In his hands I am prepared for a new season I never thought would come. Faith is surely to be broken by Jesus. Faith is not so much the declaring of the stuff that we hope to get. Faith is to be in the hands of Jesus and learning to be content there even as He begins to change our lives. We focus so much on faith for the miracle. We often have more than a mustard seed but still we don’t get what we want. But faith is in who Jesus is and as He breaks and changes us the miracle is not the most important focus, He is. Whether there is a miracle or not, I am in the hands of Jesus and He is breaking me for a reason. Faith says Jesus is more important than the miracle. He is more than what I think I need. He is all I need. That is true faith. Looking back it is easy to see how the most difficult of days were the times when you were the closest to Jesus. So break me Jesus. Change me Jesus.

The need for a miracle can so consume you that you wait for it to happen before you do what you cannot do. Jesus didn’t wait for the boy’s small lunch to miraculously get bigger. He just gave as He broke it up. What can you do? Then do it. Don’t wait till you have the ability to do everything, just do what is in your hands now. Move, bless, give, love, make people happy, witness, pray, travel, worship, testify, attend church, invite friends, party, cook, you can do something today. I have friends who since the first day of the need of a miracle have given anonymously to people just for the sheer fun of doing so. They have found joy in giving and as they do so their mountainous miracle is reducing. Three years ago I had a scan on my knee as it was really painful to run on it and to even walk. My consultant was called Dr Kneebel (!!) and he showed me how I had no fluid in my knee it was bone-dry. But then he gave me the options of either having injections which had no guarantees of success or that I started running short distances. When I explained that was the reason for my pain he told me how my knee was like a rusty bike and that because of the pain I will be tempted not to use it until the pain goes. The pain will never go until you use it. The knee will just get ‘rustier’. So I took his advice and began to do just that. So that was three years ago and today I will run 5k as I did yesterday.

Jesus had told the disciples to give the people something to eat. In the end through His graciousness they did just that. He gave the bread and fish bits to the disciples who became the distributors of the miracle. How fun was that?! They just kept going back to Jesus and he kept giving them more to give to the people. We are not the healers, Jesus is. We are not the miracle workers, the restorers, the Saviours, the ones who change lives. We are just the distributors of His grace. If we stop going back to Jesus then our hands will be empty of the miracles that people need.

Be broken. Give. Distribute. We can see 5,000 fed.

Thankfulness

Luke 9 v 16-17 “Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”

The Jew spends every day focused on thankfulness. In fact because of a legend regarding a plague that took the lives of 100 people in one day during King David’s reign where the rabbi’s came to understand the spiritual reasoning for the plague and thus instituted the need to say 100 blessings of thankfulness to God.

Seeing Jesus take the bread and fish and give thanks was the normal practice. This was not some miracle routine that we need to copy though being more thankful may indeed lead to more miracles for our lives.

It is in our very nature to grumble. We complain about everything.

In some strange country a man goes to his priest to complain, “Life is unbearable. Life is unfair. There are 9 of us all living in one room. What can we do?”

The priest answers, “Take your pig out of the pen and put it in your room.”

The man goes crazy but the priest insisted.

“Do as I say and come back in a week.”

A week later and the man comes back dirty, dishevelled and distraught.

“We cannot stand it. The pig is filthy, noisy and big.”

The priest said, “Go home. Take the pig out of your room, back into the pen and come back in a week.”

A week later and the man returns to the priest.

“Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute now that there’s no pig only the 9 of us.”

Jesus took the bread and fish and looking up to heaven gave thanks.

When the head of the Church looks to heaven with gratitude for what was in His hand you knew something was going to happen.

Jesus established a ladder and he did it through thankful prayer.

A ladder between heaven and earth so that a miracle could occur.

We still need ladders today.

“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Genesis 28:12

It may not look much in your hand compared to the need before you but offer it in thankfulness to God and you will be amazed what can happen!

Musicians and priests were blowing trumpets and the singers joined in unison as with one voice to give praise and thanks to God singing, “He is good, his love endures forever.” By the end of that worship service fire came down from heaven and the glory of the Lord filled the temple, the priests could not enter and the Israelites fell to the floor in worship.

It was midnight and 2 followers of Jesus, Paul and Silas, were in a dark horrible prison cell waiting their fate and they began to sing hymns of thankfulness to God.

When we lift up thankfulness for whatever is before us then something from God will happen.

Suddenly there is a violent earthquake and the prison doors fly open!

What is in your hand? Lift it up in thanks to God. Something is about to happen.

 

The birth of a miracle.

Luke 9: 14-15 “But he said to his disciples. “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so and everybody sat down.”

John and Mark’s gospel have them sitting down in groups of 100’s and 50’s. Luke says about 50 in each group.

Why does Jesus do this?

• To look at a multitude of at least 5,000 people sat haphazardly all over the hillside could seem more daunting for the Twelve than having 100 groups of 50. Are you needing a miracle today? Break it down. Reduce the total.
  • Sometimes the strategy of division releases the faith for the miracle of multiplication.
• The disciples were going to be distributing the miracle and having clear pathways brought about by the creation of the groups meant that the miracle would come to everyone. No one would be missed.
  • Sometimes the administration is as important as the miracle itself.
• So the crowd worked out the numbers. Luke says about fifty in each. There they sat in groups. Just as Moses the shepherd could lead in a healthier way by putting the people into similar size groups, Jesus, does not leave the sheep without a Good Shepherd. There are groups all over the world. Yesterday, in Asia’s largest slum in Mumbai such a group met and 2 people found the miracle of salvation. Today somewhere in the world it will happen again. Countless more will find the miracle of healing and restoration from within a group.
  • Sometimes miracles are born to occur in groups of people.

So today, break it down, get things ready and join an expectant group because a miracle may just be coming your way!

What is in your hands?

Luke 9: 13-14 “He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand men were there.)”

What do you have?

What is in your hands right now?

Moses had a staff.

Joshua had a spear.

The widow of a prophet had a little oil.

Samson had a donkey’s jawbone.

David had a sling.

A woman had an alabaster jar of perfume.

What do you have that you can use?

What is in your hands now?

Maybe yesterday you had so much more.

But today you only have …

God clearly gave a principle when He created.

Jeremiah 32:17 “Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

The disciples had forgotten about the power Jesus had given them. They were not releasing what they had in their hands and as a result they did not realise that nothing is too hard.

“You give them something to eat.”

Jesus meant it.

They had enough. They just had to release it.

Stop waiting for God to give you what you think you need and step out now and give what you have. Stretch out your hand. Release what you hold. You will find that what is in you and what you are holding contains a miracle of provision for someone or some situation.

God is not waiting for you to have more income and resources or a spouse and a team, recognition and maturity, wisdom and strength. He is waiting for you to recognise you have something now, no matter how small it is and for you to offer it for service to God. Then the miracles can begin!

 

Blinded by self-centredness

Luke 9 v 11-12 “… but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing. Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

 

The Twelve and Jesus are in a remote place of Bethsaida sharing stories of their recent ministry trip. This was amazing. There was so much to say. But it was once again cut short by more work. The crowd had followed. They had been found and Jesus leaves the Twelve to welcome them, to teach parables again and to bring healing of broken lives.

Against all that we may long for, believe and campaign for:

Are we trying to dismiss what Jesus is welcoming?

If there was approximately 5,000 men there then surely one of those would have been concerned about food and lodging that night apart from the Twelve? The crowd do not seem concerned one bit that it is late in the afternoon. Why are the Twelve really concerned?

If miracle-working Rabbi Jesus, Lamb of God, Messiah and the One they have chosen to follow is who they think He may be, then why is he not troubled about the time? Why are they the only ones who seem to truly care about the welfare of the 5,000 people?

Are we trying to justify what we want to dismiss?

It is loving, caring, compassionate and just sheer common sense. Everyone can see that there are no hotels and restaurants around this place. If action is not taken now then the problem is going to intensify. People are going to get tired and hungry and then who knows what will happen?

Have we lost sight of who we are with because we are not getting what we want?

If the crowd was sent away who would be left?

The Twelve and Jesus. Bliss. Maybe that was the real reason for their concern.

But Jesus had another idea!

We may be able to read situations and people well yet the hardest person to read at times is ourselves. We can be blinded to our own self-centredness.

Time-out

Luke 9: 10 “When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida”

Yesterday a church in the UK announced that a married missionary couple would be returning from the mission field after serving for 8 years, to join the leadership team.

Like me, you may have seen many missionaries return home who have been serving God for 1 year to many years. Returning home can be as much a culture shock as going in the first place.

These missionaries need help to get re-established, they have often given up their homes and household items, they don’t have surplus money and it is not easy commencing a new chapter back ‘home’.

Then there is the much needed de-brief as they process just exactly what they have achieved and what went wrong and how they handled things. Looking at how missionary work changed their lives and looking ahead to what God has in store.

The Twelve apostles hadn’t been overseas for 8 years, maybe they were in the region for a week or so but nevertheless they had lots of stories to tell Jesus. They couldn’t wait to tell him what they had achieved, the lives that were changed, the healings that had occurred through their ministry. The debrief was exciting. They had never done such things in their life. The Kingdom of God was indeed here. What they had seen Jesus do they were doing. The power and authority that He gave them was the same as what He had. There was much excitement!

Jesus then led the Twelve to Bethsaida. It was the home place of 3 of the disciples, Philip, Andrew and Peter. But it was to the desolated part of Bethsaida that they went to. To the place with little population.

They withdrew to be alone with Jesus.

Even though it was short-lived the principle is there. Time alone with Jesus after a season of activity in the Kingdom of God is what He wants.

No doubt along the way they were still sharing stories. Maybe there were some lessons to learn. But as they processed this there was the growing awareness that they were not just going to Bethsaida, they were actually back following Jesus. Their eyes were back on Him. Their ears open to what He had to say. What they had done was being replaced with who He is.

You may not have travelled as a missionary overseas. You may not even have returned from a miraculous week or so of itinerant ministry. But maybe you have come to the end of a chapter. Perhaps you are changing your job or moving house. Maybe you have gone through a busy season where you have given much to people in terms of your time and energy. What should you do? Just keep going? Somehow you need to replace what you have done with who He is. His identity needs to overwhelm your activity. Your ability to keep going is dependent on your decision to keep pursuing Jesus.

 

 

Head down and get on with it.

Luke 9: 6-9 “So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.”

The Twelve are experiencing a move of God. Sent, moving from one place to the next, this was a successful mission! People were listening to the parables that they had memorised from Jesus, they heard a new kingdom, a powerful and influential kingdom and above all lives were changed forever.

All this can be going on and yet …! It is incredible to think but it is true that you may be in the middle of a move of God and yet others nearby have totally got the wrong idea.

Some were saying that John the Baptist had resurrected.

Some were saying Elijah had resurrected.

Some were saying one of the old prophets had been resurrected.

Herod the Tetrarch was perplexed and tried to see Jesus. He had John killed because he feared him but it seems he feared him more now he had been killed. Had John come back to torture him? He was anxious and desperate to see Jesus to deal with the matter. All because some were saying…

You can be doing exactly what God wants you to do. You can be elevating Jesus in all you do honouring and glorifying God. And yet some will be saying whilst you do that something quite opposite.

Just because some are saying doesn’t mean it is true.

Sometimes some that are saying amounts to only 2 anonymous people! Other times it may be many more.

It does not matter what people are saying. It is what you are saying and doing that is important. Head down and get on with it!