Tag: Jesus

Sensing God’s timing

Reflections based on John 12:20–36.

‘Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”’ (v23)

Jesus was conscious of God’s preordained timing of events throughout His ministry. This meant He carried out God’s purposes while on earth in a way that sometimes baffled His disciples. For example, instead of travelling immediately to heal the dying Lazarus Jesus ‘stayed where he was two more days’ (John 11:6), knowing that the miracle of raising Lazarus from death would bring the greatest glory to God.

Jesus knew His life on earth would end unnaturally prematurely, and that He would have to suffer the cruellest of deaths in order to be the ultimate sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin and to overthrow the works of the devil.

There are references to Him sensing God’s perfect timings throughout John’s Gospel: ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’ ‘Now is the time for judgment on this world …’ ‘Jesus knew that the time had come …’  ‘Later, knowing that all was now completed … Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’ (John 12:23,31; 13:1; 19:28,30).

As He died, Jesus knew that He had completed what He had come to earth to do. We, too, have particular tasks that God has for us to do (see Ephesians 2:10). I wonder whether you have ever experienced a sense of God’s timing in your own life?

Prayer: Lord, I give You my life afresh. Help me to hear and obey what You want me to do each day. Amen.

Hope for everyone

Reflections based on Colossians 1:13–29.

Just in case you aren’t fully convinced, we are spending one more blog looking at how much Scripture proclaims Jesus to be the hope of the whole world! Here, Paul is telling the Colossians his own reasons for working so hard – because he longs to present people that are fully mature before God.

Again, we are told of the supremacy of Christ, how He has been in existence since the beginning of time and helped the Father create the world and everything in it. We are also told that God could only reconcile us to Himself through his Son’s sacrifice.

Interestingly, Paul also refers to the fact that God has made salvation available to the Gentiles too. Remember, in Acts 10, God showed Peter a vision about this, urging him to eat animals that had previously been thought unclean. When Peter resisted, God said ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean’ (v.15) and immediately God put him in contact with Gentiles, to whom Peter then continually preached salvation.

The hardworking nature of both these men challenge me on days when I’m weary. They both understood that this hope is for everyone, not just to be kept to ourselves.

How often do we judge those around us? We may think that a particular neighbour, colleague or family member would never respond to the hope we have in Jesus – but who are we to judge? Only God can look into the hearts of men and women and truly know where they are at.

Interestingly, we were discussing this very subject in our small group this week, and we admitted that we can have a tendency to decide ourselves who seems ready to hear about the gospel – and who doesn’t. Often it is actually our fear of others rather than God that keeps us silent, but let’s remember that it is through us that: ‘God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory’ (v.27).

Prayer: I’m sorry I sometimes judge those around me as not being worthy of, or interested in, Your love. None of us could earn our salvation – thank you that we don’t have to!

Active hope

Reflections based on 1 Peter 1:13–24.

Last week we looked at the start of 1 Peter 1. The second half of that chapter continues with an exhortation to set our hope on future grace. This is an active thing; a choice. Indeed John Piper has described hope as being ‘faith in the future tense’ (a phrase we will come back to later in our study) and, just like faith needs to be exercised in order to grow, so too, I believe, does hope. So what should that action look like?

In these verses we are being urged to live holy lives rather than giving in to our earthly nature, and to love one another sincerely. If we are honest, there are times when it is far easier to give in to fear, anger, lust, dishonesty etc. What about the harsh words spoken over you? Maybe by someone in your local church? Or the friend or spouse who does something to really hurt you? Or perhaps you suffer daily through sickness. It is hard to feel hopeful in these times – and hard not to respond with our fleshy natures.

We will be taking a closer look at how we cling to hope in the midst of troubles later, but I think one of the keys is contained within this passage. We constantly have to remind ourselves that we were saved by something that will never perish – the precious blood of Jesus. And our truly, magnificent, all-powerful heavenly Father chose to redeem us in this way and so our hope is also in Him.

Whatever today looks like, our tomorrow is certain and sure – glorious intimacy with Him. Remind yourself today that God’s word is ‘living and enduring’ and never returns to Him empty (Isaiah 55:11). God will always have the last word. Hallelujah!

For prayer and reflection: Meditate on the fact that Jesus was chosen before the creation of the world to be your Saviour. How you can remind yourself of that amazing hope throughout today?

Jesus, the hope of the world

Reflections based on 1 Peter 1:1–9.

I simply had to start our study focusing on the person of Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate hope for the whole world. As Christians we believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection has provided the way for people to be saved.

This passage has such a richness to it, reminding us that it is through God’s mercy towards us that we have this hope at all, and through Jesus’ perseverance and willingness to die a truly horrific death. We also have an amazing promise – we can now partake in the same inheritance as Jesus and it is being kept for us until we get to heaven!

The passage doesn’t shy away from explaining that we will face struggles in this world. Indeed the people Peter was writing to in this letter were ‘scattered throughout the provinces’ (v1) and some of that was no doubt due to persecution. But trials while on this earth do not disqualify us from our inheritance, which is an important truth to cling on to when we are feeling close to despair. In fact, here we learn that often they prove the genuineness of our faith.

Verse 8 is one I think we should all keep close to us, as it is full of comfort and hope. We believe even though we do not see, and that gives us a glorious joy that can only be found through our Saviour. What a hope we have! It is not based on our own strength, deeds, health or bank balance –but on Him alone. There is nothing we need to do to earn it, as it is a gift.

Let us never take hope for granted.

For prayer and reflection: Thank you for the hope that I have in Jesus Christ. It blows my mind that I am a joint heir with Him. Help me to live in the light of that truth, whatever I go through today. Amen.

A new identity in Jesus

Reflections based on Ephesians 2:1–22.

This passage provides us with a wonderful picture of how God stepped down and, through His grace, picked us up. The keys to understanding our salvation and new standing before God are His grace and our faith. Verse 8 reminds us of this, that we have been saved because of Him but we had to exercise our faith – and still do. We haven’t done anything to deserve it and yet He has created us to do good works. Isn’t it incredible to think about how verse 6 tells us we have been seated in heavenly places with Christ? This means we now share in His inheritance, as daughters and sons of God. I heard a speaker say that he pictures being seated next to God: ‘having his ear like a child does their parents’ ears’. I love that. It reassures us that our prayers are being heard.

The second half of today’s reading widens out to show how God reconciles both Jew and Gentile in His one family and that those of us who believe are now being built together into a holy temple – isn’t that amazing! God’s presence is no longer confined to a physical temple but dwells in us. This is also a good reminder that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.

Optional further reading: Ephesians 1:3–14; Galatians 4:1–7.
Prayer: Thank You Lord that, in You, we are made alive – and are also grafted into Your one, united, family. Amen.

Jesus the holy one

Reflections based on Luke 1:35; 4:31–37.

We have spent some time, over the last few weeks, looking at the elaborate rituals and sacrifices within the Old Testament. We are now going to turn our focus towards Jesus, to spend a little time considering how He reflected the holiness of God while He walked this earth. We will be looking at what His sacrifice meant for us in terms of our standing before our holy God later on in this series too. 

We know that Jesus was born as a human and yet the verse in Luke 1 reveals that He was also divine: ‘the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God’. This was necessary for our salvation. Just as the animals sacrificed in the Old Testament needed to be without blemish, the One who provided the ultimate sacrifice had to be found to be without sin — to be holy. That is why God had to send His own Son in order to save us. 

Jesus showed us how to live, as humans, by the power of the Holy Spirit and yet through His words and actions, He also revealed who He is. Indeed, the miracles He performed were signs that pointed to His divine nature — and even the demons had to acknowledge who He was, as we can see in the Luke 4 passage. Before it is ordered out of the man, the demon calls Jesus ‘the Holy One of God’.

While the crowd was amazed at Jesus’ power and authority how sad it was that so few of them recognised who He was. I think that’s partly why Jesus asked His own disciples, in Luke 9:20, who they thought He was. They needed to be clear that He was sent from God in order for them to begin to understand why it was that He was there. Not to be the all-conquering, defiant Messiah that would lead them to rise up against their oppressors, but the pure, holy, blameless Lamb that would be slaughtered for their – and our – sin. 

Prayer: Jesus it is humbling to think about how You willingly obeyed Your Father and came to earth as a human, knowing the horrific suffering that awaited You. Your sacrifice gave us direct access to the Father. Thank You holy Lord. Amen.

How praise is made possible

the-cross

Reflections based on Hebrews 13:11–16

‘Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.’

I believe that this passage is a great reminder of our need for a saviour, and the ultimate sacrifice that he had to pay. Before He came, communion with God was only possible through a hugely complicated set of rules and animal sacrifices. Jesus’ death did away with such rituals and opened up the way to the Father.

Let’s ponder Jesus’ sacrifice a little more. Remember the agonising struggle that He had in Gethsemane when he thought about what was about to happen to him? Take a look at Matthew 26:36–46. ‘My soul is overwhelmed’ seems like a very apt description but somewhat inadequate too! Thinking about His humanity, Jesus must have been petrified at this point and yet He was still able to pray: ‘Yet not as I will, but as you will.’ Wow. But thank goodness He was able to do that, as it is only through what He suffered and endured, and then fought and conquered through His resurrection, that we are able to have a relationship with God. Today we are able to worship God freely, without needing to go through a priest.

While Jesus paid the sacrifice for our sins in a way we are totally incapable of doing for ourselves, God does still ask us for sacrifice. We are told to take up our cross on a daily basis (Luke 9:23). We are also asked to put others before ourselves (Philippians 2:1–4). But when each of these things is done from an attitude of thankfulness and remembrance of what Jesus has done for us, they don’t seem like so much of a sacrifice do they?

Prayer: Thank you Lord for paying the price that I could not for my salvation. Help me to live in the light of what you’ve done, remembering to take up my own personal cross daily as well as put on an attitude of thankfulness and praise.

Today’s the day!

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My books, Jesus and Prayer, are officially published today by BRF. I know I have included pictures of them in quite a few recent posts, but I couldn’t let today pass by without posting them again now could I?

So, if you are looking for small group resources, or books for your own personal study, then do please consider these titles. Each one has seven weeks of material and links to the Foundations21 website for further resources.

If you do buy them, my hope and prayer is that they will bless you and help you to go deeper in your walk with God – perhaps seeing something from a new perspective or trying out a different type of activity. We are all on this discipleship journey for life – I’d love it if you’d join me for a short time through my books! 🙂

 

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