do not let your hearts be troubled

john 13:31-14:4

in my reading today i have realised a very important point which maybe, i have neglected, or been ignorant of.. As a person who is constantly worrying about my salvation, about whether i am making right or wrong decisions in the eyes of the Father… Jesus says ” do not let your hearts be troubled”.

To say that this sentence means not worrying about anything and not being troubled by anything, as many people, preachers or even writers, may be an understatement. More than the material cares, frivolous concerns , Jesus talks about us not worrying about an important thing – our salvation. We shall look at the context…

Before Jesus makes His statement, it is perhaps important to note what happened before it. Jesus was talking about Him leaving them (after His resurrection), jn13:31-34, and after Peter says that he will follow Him to the point of death, Jesus rebukes Peter and says that he will deny Him 3 times.

Immediately after this, Jesus tells them not to be troubled… I believe that He was showing His caring love to firstly, Peter, who was probably unsure and dumbfounded at Jesus’s predictions of his denial. It would be His way of telling him, even though I know you are going to do that, do not be troubled, but continue to trust in God and Himself with regards to the matters of his salvation, and that He has prepared a room for Peter and He assures him that he will go there… He was doing it also as an instruction, perhaps commandment (since our salvation is not by our own will or wisdom, but by God’s grace and mercy and Christ’s justification), that when He departs, amidst the confusion that they may experience for themselves, and the lies and the attacks that Satan will indefinately throw at them to convince them that their faith is void, Jesus reassures them and says,”trust in God, trust in Me also”.

What a wonderful lesson to learn, to know that when obstacles come our way, when sometimes we fail and we wonder if we could get up again, and we’re afraid of where we stand when it comes to the matters of our faith and salvation, the Author and Perfecter of our faith says “do not let your hearts be troubled. trust in God and trust in Me also” , and He continues to renew, regenerate and sanctifying us through the power of His Holy Spirit, right until the day we meet Him face to face.

The Importance of the Holy Spirit

Here is a little illustration about the ministry of the Holy Spirit that I came across while reading “Basic Christianity” by John Stott (a great book btw!). It’s a quote made by William Temple:

No good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can’t. And it’s no good showing me a life like that of Jesus and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write a play like that. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I can live a life like that.

It’s a wonderful illustration. Having Christ just as an example isn’t enough to be christian, we need his Spirit to live in us daily.

“We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” – 2 Cor 3:18

Jesus Demands that We be Born Again

I’m currently reading a book by John Piper : What Jesus Demands from the World, and it’s an amazing read (though i’m only pass chapter 4). So, I’d thought I should share some interesting bits, and help myself remember them, by posting them here.

In John 3, Jesus is having a talk with a pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again, but Nicodemus doesn’t quite get it and takes Jesus literally. Explaining further, Jesus then goes on to echo the book of Ezekiel by saying “Unless one is born of water and blood, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” That come from Ezekiel 36:25 – 27:

“I will sprinkle new water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Nicodemus, being a teacher of the law, should have made the connection between Jesus’s demand to be born again and the promise in the book of Ezekiel of a new spirit and the Gift of God’s Spirit, but he doesn’t. Jesus then further describes the role of God’s spirit in bringing about a new spirit, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) Humanity is divided into 2 parts, those who are spiritually dead (born of flesh, which is all of us), and those who are alive (born again, by the Spirit of God).

There is however, a mystery. ” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it’s sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Jesus demands that we be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, but we can’t cause ourselves to be born again. The Spirit does that, and the Spirit is free and blows in ways we do not understand. We need to be born again, but it only comes as a gift of God in His mercy to us.

John Piper’s encouragement was for us to look away from ourselves and to look to God to do the impossible. Moral improvement of our old self does not get us into God’s Kingdom. Only a new life. It’s supernatural and out of our control. We must trust God to do as He promises.

It staggers my mind to remember how much we depend on God. The very foundations of Christianity depends on God. Sadly, it seems like we lose focus all so often and instead prefer to depend on ourselves, churches too. Too much reliance of marketing strategies, popular music, speaker charisma, socialization etc. For me this reading was a great reminder to depend of Christ, because without Him I actually have nothing.

What Is Sin?

Actually this is an extract from the John Piper Desiring God website (you can find the link below). So here we go!

“But what is sin? Sin is any act or attitude that displeases God. But I find it very helpful to focus on the essential nature of sin as it relates to the great positive force in Christian life, namely, faith. Hebrews 11:6 says, “‘Without faith it is impossible to please God.” This implies two things:

1. Since sin is anything that displeases God and since without faith you can’t please God, therefore, if you don’t have faith, everything you do is sin, because everything you do displeases God.

2.This suggests very strongly that there must be a very close, perhaps causal, connection between the absence of faith and sin. And Romans 14:23 confirms such a connection. It says, “Whatever is not from faith is sin.” In other words, the essential nature of those actions and attitudes which we call sin is that they are not prompted or motivated by a heart of faith. The thing that makes an attitude or act displeasing to God is that it does not grow from faith in God. Sin is evil precisely in its failure to be the product of faith.”

Signs and wonders

Exodus 13-15

It is interesting and to a certain extent, amazing that even though God had sent plagues into Egypt one after another, and provided for them the way to worship Him and to be delivered, the Israelites still did not believe in His power and ability to provide for them. Miracles after miracles, and signs and wonders that the Lord did in their presence – it seems that all these were not enough to convince the Israelites.

I think that it is because their spiritual eyes were not opened to God- how the seeds of faith were not planted in their hearts and therefore, they could not associate the signs and wonders with the authority and power of God. This is a good example of how saving faith is not a result of signs and wonders (not saying that it cannot be a turning point in a person’s life, which God may have intended to do ),but it is the Holy Spirit that draws us to God first, so that when we see signs and wonders, we can then recognize that it is from God’s power and authority.

Moses

In our daily reading from Exodus, it’s interesting to have taken note that even though Moses was not eloquent in speech and he was rather reluctant to pick up the task that God had given him, God provided another alternative to which He would do His work through Moses- by speaking through Aaron. On first thought, it seems bewildering that God does not use Aaron directly for His purposes, but would rather work through Moses – but from here we can observe indeed that God doesn’t need our abilities; in His love and grace, He provides for His own purposes…

The Meaning of Hosanna

Here is a little misunderstood word.

Hosanna – it means “liberate us!”. Or “Set us free”, “save us”.

Shocking? Lots of people think that it just a praise word, but it is actually more than that. So picture Jesus making his entry into Jerusalem on the back of the donkey and the Jews were shouting”Hosanna!”.

The Jews were acknowledging Jesus as the promised Messiah, whom they thought would free them from the Romans. They were asking Him to liberate them from the Romans (which they thought the promised Messiah was going to do). Imagine their shock when Jesus went instead to clean out their religion.

We of course know that Christ has done much more than the Jews thought He would. He has liberated us from sin and death. He has set us free from legalistic religion. So next time we sing”Hosanna!”, remember the meaning and remember what Christ has done for us.

God glorified in man’s presence – paraphrase from Johnathon Edwards part 1

The writings of Johnathon Edwards are very enriching, but the english may be abit hard to understand for many of us… so i have attempted to paraphrase it abit so that we can share the amazing things he has to say about the Word. The following is the paraphrased version of “the works of johnathon edwards vol 2″ from the introduction of the sermon “God glorified in man’s dependence”.

God glorified in man’s dependence

1 Cor 1:29-31

 

That no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

 

The Christians to whom the apostles directed this epistle dwelled in a part of the world where human wisdom was in great repute; as the apostles observes in verse 22: “the Greeks seek after wisdom” Corinth was not far from Athens, which had been the most famous seat of philosophy and learning in the world. The apostles therefore explains to them how God destroyed and brought to nothing their own wisdom through the gospel. The learned Grecians and their great philosophers, by all their wisdom did not know God, thus they were unable to find out the truth in divine things. However, after they had done their utmost to no effect, God was pleased to reveal himself by the gospel, which they accounted foolishness. He “chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and the base things of the word, and things that are despised, yea, and things which are nothing, to bring to nothing the things that are”. The apostles also informs them in the text why He did – so that “no flesh should glory in His presence”. Here we can observe:

 

1. What God aims at the disposition of things with regards to redemption, that man should not glory in himself, but alone in God; 1Cor 1:29, 31 That no flesh should glory in his presence – that, according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

 

1. How this end is in and through the work of redemption – by that absolute and immediate dependence which men place upon God for all their good.

 

With reference to point 2, firstly, all the good that they have is in and through Christ; “He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. (1 Cor 1:30) All the good of the fallen and redeemed creature is concerned in these 4 things, and it cannot be better distributed than into them; but Christ is each of them (wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption) to us and we have none of these apart from Him.

 

“He is made of God unto us wisdom”: in Him are all the proper good and true excellency of understanding. Wisdom was a things that the Greeks admired, but Christ is the true light of the world, and it is through Him that true wisdom is imparted to the mind. It is in and by Christ that we have righteousness: it is by being in Him that we are justified, have our sins pardoned and are received as righteousness into God’s favor. It is by Christ that we have sanctification: we have in Him true excellence of the heart as well as of understanding; and He has given us both inherent and imputed righteousness. It is by Christ that we have redemption, or the actual deliverance from all misery, and the blessing of all happiness and glory. Thus we have all our good by Christ, who is God.

 

Secondly, another instance which shows that our dependence on God for all our good is that it is God that has given us Christ, that we might have all these benefits through Him; he of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness etc…

 

Thirdly, it is of him that we are in Christ Jesus and come to have an interest in him, and so do receive those blessing which he has made unto us. It is God that gives us faith which draws us near to Christ.

 

Thus through this verse, we see the our dependence of each person of the Trinity for all our good- We are dependent on Christ the Son of God, as He is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We are dependent on the Father, who has given us Christ, and made Him to be all these things to us. We are dependent on the Holy Ghost, for it is of Him that we are in Christ Jesus, it is the Spirit of God that gives us faith in Him, from which we receive Him and draw near to Him.