John 14

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Which part of this passage strikes you the most? Which verse is the most challenging to you? 

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Day Fourteen of Steps to the Cross: John 14

 1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God^[a]; trust also in me. 2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going."

 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

 6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know^[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

 8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

 9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

 15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

 22Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?"

 23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 25"All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

 28"You heard me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me, 31but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me. 
      "Come now; let us leave.

Footnotes:

a. John 14:1 Or You trust in God

b. John 14:7 Some early manuscripts If you really have known me, you will know

Hey! Where did that commentary go?

BFE writers need a break sometimes; so, during Steps to the Cross, BFE writers are taking a short 2 ½ week sabbatical from commentary. But, they'll be back!

After Easter, 50 Days to Freedom (with commentary) will begin and run up to the day of Pentecost. This series will focus on God’s meeting the people of Israel in Egypt and leading them out of slavery into freedom; paralleling it with the freedom the gospel offers us. With bold faith and the grace of God we will learn how to be freed from the bondage of sin and to walk in the freedom of being God’s children.

1 Samuel 16: What is an Anointing?

If you have been reading 1 Samuel faithfully, you may begin to feel the grief that Samuel felt for Saul. The king’s unfaithfulness to God and sheer disinterest in Spiritual things has cost the nation the leadership it needs, his family a dynasty and now this passage brings into full repose his new current reality; he is leading a nation without the power of the Spirit with his replacement emerging before his eyes. The scene is quite painful and will only get worse as time makes clear that David is the anointing by God for leadership in Israel.

The Holy Spirit’s departure from Saul and the anointing of David is the central detail in this transition. So what does it mean for David to be anointed? What did it mean then and what does it mean for us?

The Spirit has always been an agent of creation (Gen 1:2). In the Old Testament there was a special anointing for kings, prophets and priests. They were anointed with oil to represent a Spiritual anointing that God would give them in order to accomplish a task. Kings were called to rule. Priests were called to mediate the blessing and curse of God’s presence among the people. Prophets were called to teach and hold the leaders and people to remain faithful to God’s word.

Part of what is good about the good news is that now the Spirit is given to all believers and that all believers with the Holy Spirit can offer the kind of kingly, priestly and prophetic ministry in the world. The Holy Spirit calls us to God and in that calling (vox) is a vocation (from the root vox). The vocation is a calling for us to use the anointing and accompanying gifts (1 Cor 12, Rom 12, Eph 4:9-16) to move the purposes of God forward in the world, to build his Kingdom.

Have you considered the call of God on your life to build the kingdom with the gifts he has given you? How do your talents and gifts move the Kingdom of God forward in this world? This would probably beg other questions like: What is the Kingdom? Is it the same thing as the church? (no) Beyond that, the anointing of the Spirit is something that must be cultivated and nurtured (Gal 6:8). Are you sowing your life to the Spirit (Eph 4:17ff) to develop the kind of character that can withstand the challenges of Spiritual leadership?

Posted by Marc Lucenius

Ephesians 2: Grasp this

“I pray that you may have power to grasp…” (3:16)

This chapter hold out almost every aspect of the believer’s experience of meeting God through Jesus Christ by faith in the gospel. Paul will pray in the next chapter that the believer’s have power to grasp all these dimensions of Christ’s love. The truths are as follows:

· We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We had submitted ourselves to the kingdom of this world, were submitting ourselves to its rules in thought and in deed; and were therefore enemies of God and objects of his wrath.

· Jesus himself takes the wrath instead of us (1:7) God who was rich in mercy made us, who have faith in Jesus, alive. We bring nothing to the table. If we did, we could boast.

· God has given us a new heavenly identity and a new heavenly destiny (5-7). This changes everything.

· Out of our new heavenly identity and on our way to our heavenly destiny, God has already prepared good works for us to do (10). We are his workmanship. He has made us to be a new creation that would do his work in remaking this world.

· The blood of Christ is the effective end of any hostility that can be held between any races. If Jesus can die and show grace to reunite enemies to his father, there is a solution for every racial problem. In that day, it was the divide between Jews and Gentiles (11-18).

· All people can now pray to the father—a royal priesthood- through the Spirit (18).

· Believers are throughout the world being made into a new living temple stretching to every culture in every place through every time in order to demonstrate a living body of people who would bring the rightful praise to God the Father and Jesus the Christ. Each person who is united to Christ by faith is a piece of the wall of this temple that stretches throughout the world and is united and held together by the very Spirit of God. This temple can never be defiled because is cleansed by the once and for all blood of Jesus Christ and kept holy by the Holy Spirit who dwells there (19-22).

Oh, for strength to grasp that…
Posted by Marc

2 Corinthians 3: Confidence in Christ

In verses 7-11 Paul takes the Church of Corinth for a journey back in time. He reminds them of the old covenant which leads to death, as no one could possibly keep the law. This covenant came with such glory, that when Moses carried the two tablets to the people his physical appearance served as proof that he had just been with God. His face was so bright that it was like staring into the sun. Moses wore a veil upon his face so that people could look at him. Think about how encouraging it must have been for the Israelites to know that their leader had access to and spent time with God.

Paul then flashes forward in time to ask “Shouldn’t we expect far greater glory under the new way, now that the Holy Spirit is giving life?” We no longer need to rely on the old covenant, because the new covenant of Christ’s blood gives us access to God as one of his own children. Just as we heard on Sunday that Stephen’s face shined. We become the ones whose face shines like Moses, and we don’t need to veil it.

The new covenant does not bring death but life. How much more secure are we living under the new covenant then the old? Paul follows that up in verse 12 by saying “Since the new way gives us such confidence, we can be very bold”; we also read in 2 Timothy 1 that God did not give us a spirit of timidity. This is very evident in so many aspects of our life. Just spend some time with a fan of a sports team? There is boldness in their talk. In talking to my good friend Danny Hess the other day he simply asked, “Why are we bold about all the wrong things?” What a great question. We tend to speak boldly about what we know best and have confidence in. What are you confident in? What do you speak boldly about?

Posted by Jim

1 Corinthians 2: The message or the messenger?

Which is more important—the message or the messenger? In the upper class Greek culture, they had high expectations regarding the messenger. They would disregard the message if it didn’t come in the fine oratory packaging that they had gotten used to. Paul didn’t want to confuse the message of the gospel with philosophy. He brought a plain message that trusted in a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. This is good news for several reasons.

1. Anyone who has the Spirit of God can be confident that God can use them to communicate the gospel. Paul claimed to know only Jesus and his crucifixion. If we can explain the cross, even in rudimentary terms, we can explain the heart of Christianity.
2. Our lives demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit. People want a faith that works. A simple rational explanation is only a collection of words. There is no end to words and good ideas. What people long for is something with the kind of power that can change their lives.
3. The Holy Spirit uses the words that we speak with fear and trembling and can reveal to others the mind of Christ.

If that wasn’t enough, we can be confident that God has given us the Spirit “That we may freely understand what God has freely given us.” What an awesome mystery!

How have you experienced The Spirit helping you understand what God has freely given us?

Posted by Marc

Acts 19--New Opposition

Tongues, counterfeit and riots. This is good stuff. As the gospel reaches new corners of the world, we learn more about the power of the Spirit and the kind of impact it can make.

Consider this. There are people in this chapter who are healing people in Jesus name but do not even know him themselves. They are bearing fruit too! It works until a point. This is unique aspect of the work of the Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit is not confined to our faith and its particular strengths and weaknesses. God holds our world together in His providence and regularly is at work through unbelievers to bring greater order to this world. And moreso, there are times when he uses those who do not believe catalyze faith in others.

That means that there are those today who zealously work in the name of Christ but don’t ultimately put their own faith in Christ. Like the seven sons of Sceva, they can be quite fruitful. The key here is to see that the Spirit isn’t fruitful because it is at work in a particular person, though he does work that way. The key lesson is this. The Spirit is at work in a person who does their ministry in the powerful name of Christ.

Then there is the riot. What a mess? 25,000 people rioting over who knows what. This is a key lesson in the works of the flesh and the world. The truth had come to that town and had threatened its core industries. When the Kingdom of Darkness (be it in our lives, or in this world), one of its classic strategic responses is to create confusion. Here, emotion, industry and confusion spiraled upward until people were chanting angrily in support of their god against …well they didn’t know what. It was so wise for others to protect Paul from going to the riot—for if he did he would have placed himself as the clear target for their confusion.

When our enemy wants to get a foothold in our lives, he will seek to use confusion and emotion. Sometimes it is a plain attack, but often it is a counter-attack to what God is already doing. See the idols of the city were threatened. Our hearts and our flesh also hold onto idols that they hold as precious. In fact, John Calvin described our hearts as idol factories. Just as the heart of the city was thrown into confusion and anger, we should expect that when our idols are threatened, our hearts will experience confusion or anger. It is our flesh rebelling against the advance of God in our lives.

Acts 6

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We see a connection between the leadership of man, the work of the Holy Spirit and the expansion of the church. Difficulty had obviously arisen in Jerusalem as the apostles needed to spend more and more of their time negotiating the challenges of an ever-increasing and diversifying body. They could either clamp down and bring control by their own means, OR they could enlist some of the other gifted people in their community who walk with God.

They choose to release and empower other godly men to serve in the community. This decision releases the resources of God’s people, the word of God spreads and the number of disciples increases rapidly. Some would hear this logic and think that this is simple secular logic or business thinking and it shouldn’t belong in the church.

Actually, this is a clearly Spiritual approach to church life. Consider the key description of the men chosen to offer leadership among the disciples. Verse 3 asks the people to choose men who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. Wisdom is a natural quality that you would look for in leadership. Being full of the Spirit, on the other hand, is essential. Here is why.

When people serve out of a fullness of the Spirit, they are functioning as vessels for Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ and when we serve out of that Spirit, it is as if Jesus Christ himself, through his Spirit is serving and shepherding his body. So when a church releases more Spirit filled servants to minister, it increases its capacity to be agents of Jesus’ shepherding care. In that way (look at Ezekiel 34), God entrusts more people to the care of that Spirit-filled and Spirit-led community.

That is why we must continue that Christians find ways to serve the Body of Christ. To be filled with the Spirit of Christ is to be filled with a Servant-Spirit. Communion with Christ requires alignment with this Servant-Spirit (Isaiah 11:2-4, 42:1, John 13:15-16).

Do you desire more from your relationship with Christ? Seek communion with Him in serving others. Are you weary in your service to others? Ask for Christ to fill you with His Spirit. Don’t know where to start? Ask God and the Holy Spirit will lead you.

Acts 2

The title above is a link to this passage on www.BibleGateway.com

What happened to Peter? 50 days ago (and a couple of Bible pages back in the gospel of John) Peter was denying that he even knew Jesus—to a servant girl. Now he is standing up in the midst of the Feast of Weeks and he is declaring to the same people who rigged Jesus death that they are guilty of killing the Messiah. Boldness is a weak word to describe what Peter is expressing at this point. What happened to Peter?

It probably has a lot to do with the spectacular event that preceded it. The day of the Lord, where his Spirit is poured out has finally come. We see tongues of fire and the followers of Christ proclaiming the gospel in every language represented in Jerusalem for the feast. People heard the truth about Jesus and they were cut to the heart--changed. In one day, the insiders were transformed, the outsiders were transformed (becoming insiders) and a new community was established (42-47). This all came from God through His Spirit. His Spirit empowered His people to witness to Him.

Based upon the Book of Acts, I would suggest to you that witnessing to the person and work of Jesus Christ is the chief purpose of the Holy Spirit in your life. I am not saying evangelism. I am saying that telling others what God has done for you is what it means to be a witness. The Holy Spirit is sent by God to make you a witness (1:8).

“In Acts there are ten occasions, at Pentecost and afterward, when an individual or group of individuals is said to have been filled with the Holy Spirit. In each case the common factor is that the persons involved immediately bore testimony to Jesus.”

James Boice, Commentary on Ephesians. P.164

Try this—Begin reading the book of Acts through the lens of the Holy Spirit making the followers of Christ to be witnesses. At the same time, begin reading your life through the lens of the Holy Spirit seeking to make you a witness. Speak to Him, listen to Him and ask him to show you where you can bear witness to the difference that Christ has made in your life.

Study Notes: This chapter is the hinge of all redemptive history. There are few more significant chapters in the entire Bible. It completes the redemptive historical moment of the Messiah’s arrival, ministry, death, resurrection and pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Now that Jesus has ascended, His Church is the incarnate expression of God on earth. Also, Pentecost is the fiftieth day after the Passover, marking this day as fifty days after the night of Jesus' betrayal.