Month: June 2018

110. A Prepared Place

 John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.

The promise of Jesus is that we will be with Him where He is. Where He is there we will be also; we will be with Him. Jesus said He would go and prepare a place; He prepared that place when he died on the cross and rose again from the dead. Where He went was to the Cross and the Tomb to overcome Sin and Death. He has done that as promised. Then He will come again to receive us; He did that when He sent the Holy Spirit to come and be with us where we are. Now the promise is fulfilled and we are with Him.

According to John 14:23, “We will come to him and make our home with him.” The word for home in v. 23 is the same rare Greek word for “place” in vv. 2, 3. It appears that the place He prepared for us is within us, in our spirits, where He and the Father would come and make a “home.” In other words, the place He prepared for us by His death and resurrection is in our hearts where God will dwell with us. Jesus is at home in our hearts. Jesus lives within my heart, that special place He prepared for us to live with Him and He with us.

The other, more usual, way of interpreting the “place prepared” is the place in heaven, which His death and resurrection makes for us there. Both ways may be taken as true: heaven is “up there” as well as “right here” within. This already and not yet paradox is hard to understand, but it can be believed. What it says is that we “go to heaven” to the place prepared when we go to Jesus living within. The Good News is that we can go to this place any time, anywhere. It may blow our mind to think that we may “go to heaven” now while we live on earth, but this is the promise: the “prepared place” is heaven on earth, and that place is where God makes His home in our spirit.

All of this is in the context of John and especially John 14-16, where Jesus says He will send the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us. When the HS is there so also is the Father and the Son. Reflect on this promise and let it sink in: God is in heaven; God is in my heart; heaven is where God is; heaven is within our spirit where God is at home, the place prepared. By faith I am with Him at home in my heart. We believe the “already in heaven” and the “not yet in heaven” promise. It is hard to see and hard to believe, but it is true.

109. Happy

John 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

 Happiness usually means blessed in the Bible and it is connected to the general well being of life in all its goodness and richness. It is also often connected to conditional promises: if you keep the commandments, then you will be blessed. This is most certainly true: if we would obey the Ten Commandments and the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, our lives would, in consequence, be blessed in every way. “Blessed is he who hears the word of God and keeps it.”

The conditional promise is also evident in John 13, where Jesus has just acted as a servant and washes the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper. He says, “You ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example.” The object lesson of the example is service: live your lives as a servant in the service of other people, always lowering yourself and serving the needs of others.

A servant does not serve to get blessed; he serves to get paid. But you will serve other people by dying to self and giving up your own needs to see that the needs and comforts of others are met. This thought runs contrary to all logic and normal experience. The world grabs and gets what it can before others do; we must rip and steal in order to gain; we need power to make others serve us. But you are not like your friends in the world: you are different; you are the opposite; you serve. There is no motivation to serve and love and give, for we do not see how we can get anything of benefit for it.

It is for this reason that Jesus gives the promise, “Happy are you if you do them.” It is worth it, giving yourself up for the benefit of others. Serving and giving and laying down our own lives (our own rights) have a return value, a benefit for self: you will be happy. Believe the promise: washing feet brings happiness. I would not know that unless I was told. So Jesus tells me. He makes a promise.

108. Not to Judge but to Save

John 12:47 For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

 The world in this verse means the people in the world, all the people who ever lived or will live on the planet. “The world” here does not mean the world philosophy, the world way of thinking, the world as an abstract pawn of Sin and Satan. The people in the world (physical earth) must be saved out of the world (spiritual entity). The world is under condemnation and has the sentence of death placed upon it. There is no redeeming it, saving it or improving it; it can only be destroyed and melted with a fervent heat.

Thia distinction of the meaning of “world” is important: the world as a thing or a personality is condemned and cannot be saved; the world as the people in it are not condemned but saved. A familiar way of putting it is: “Hate the sin but Love the sinner.” Jesus condemns the world but not the people in it; Jesus saves the people in the world but not the world. The people in the world are saved from judgment, or damnation; they are saved from sin, death and the devil.

Jesus declares this to be true and it is; however, it is not preaching universalism in the sense that all people will be saved, but that all can be saved. Salvation is announced for all but they must believe Him for it to be activated. Jesus saves all from judgment, but if it is not believed these remain under the judgment of the world.

I am in the world, but not of the world, and that makes me a target of the promise. Jesus saves the world; that means me.

107. Not remain in Darkness

 John 12:46  I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

 Not staying in darkness is really a more remarkable promise than we may realize at first, because we do not normally realize how deep is the darkness in which we live on a regular basis. Like the frog in the kettle of boiling water we do not notice the darkness if we just get used to it and don’t know any better. We walk in the valley of the shadow of death, listen to the dark lies of the Devil, and live in the dark evil of daily sin in and around us.

The good news is that we don’t have to stay there. The light has come, it pushes back the darkness, and it brightens every day. Jesus is the Light that has overcome the darkness of Sin, Death, and Devil. Once we have come into the light we never want to go back into the darkness again. We are enlightened enough to know that sins from darkness produce more darkness.

Darkness has no power against the light. The Gospel is the light switch. The only thing darkness can do is lie to us long enough to get us to turn off the light ourselves. Our sinful flesh listens to the lies, switches off the light of the Gospel, and then gropes in the darkness. However, one flick of the light switch chases away the darkness and we see. The light switch is the forgiveness of sins announced in the Gospel, in whatever way we hear it. Choosing to live in darkness is a problem but sinners can’t solve it (we can’t stop); the real problem we deal with is closing ourselves off from the light of the Gospel, simply turning off the switch.

We may not always notice the light going on, but it does; the light turns on and the darkness is gone. We need to simply believe the promise that we are no longer in the darkness and we don’t have to stay there. Let the Light shine!

106. Children of Light

John 12:36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.

 Jesus is the light that has penetrated the darkness of a dark world of Sin and Evil; Jesus is the light that has pushed away the darkness in our hearts. We who believe in Jesus become children of light. Believers are the “light of the world,” a light that shines forth from our hearts into a world of darkness. As light within, the light of God’s Word shines around inside the darker recesses of our hearts. Our own sins are exposed to our own awareness, and so we repent and believe the Gospel.

We are lights; we have light within; we are children of light. When Jesus entered in when we first believed, and when Jesus enters in every time we hear the Gospel, light shines. We not only know the difference between right and wrong but we are also able to do the right and good thing. The light shines from our eyes, our smiles warm other hearts, and our good deeds make a difference. We do not usually see the light shining or working, but we know it does; for this reason Jesus gives us a promise so that we can believe what we do not see.

Humans actually live in so much darkness that they get comfortable living in it and treat it as normal. But the children of light see life in a different way and, just like light is the opposite of darkness, they do things that look to the dark world like losing: serving, giving, suffering, sacrificing and loving others. The promise of being children of light helps us have to courage to let our light shine.

105. Drawn to Jesus

 John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

 This may not sound like a promise, but it is a wonderful promise that Jesus will draw all men unto Him. He had earlier said that the Father draws us to Jesus. We are drawn to God with cords of love. The love of God is a powerful magnet.

The Gospel of John comments in the next verse that Jesus is showing by what kind of death He was going to die: He would be lifted from the earth a couple of feet on the cross. That lifting on the cross and then dying is the exhibition of the Love of God that would draw all men to Him. The Cross reveals in the clearest of ways how much love the Father has for all. Jesus shows His love in how He lays down His life for His friends by being lifted up on the cross.

The promise is that this revealed love of God, this act of dying for the sins of all, this substitutionary death will draw us to Him. God’s mode of operation is to never force or coerce anyone, but it is to draw with love. When we see the love of Jesus displayed in His death and we understand the meaning we are gently drawn to such a powerful grace and mercy. This love can be resisted, for if it could not be resisted it would not be genuine, freely given, love; but who would ever want to resist such a powerful love? The promise is that we will be drawn with love, not coerced by power or overwhelmed with might; the drawing is not against our will. And once we are secured in God’s Love we would never let go. We love Him because He first loved us; and we can only pray to comprehend the height, depth, width and length of the love of Christ.

Although God deals in holy wrath and just judgments, He promises to deal with us by drawing with love.

104. Honor

John 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

 If you serve Jesus, then the Father will honor you. The promise is not as conditional as it sounds; serving Jesus means believing in Him. Faith is not a condition for the promise of life; it is the means of receiving the free gift.

The promise is unusual: the Father will honor him. The Father honors the Son and the Son honors the Father. We also know that the Father honors all who believe in Jesus, those who are connected to Him. It is wonderful to be loved, saved, forgiven, redeemed, adopted and given life; and to be honored is even more fantastic. It pleases me and lifts me up to be honored; I am something special to God; I am not just another one whom God loves, but he honors me and gives me respect and position and esteem.

Not only did God create me specially as someone He wanted to love particularly, and He bought me back to belong to Him as one of His own, but He also regards me highly and thinks of me in a special way as a unique individual. It blows my mind that God Almighty, the Creator, should honor me and hold me in such high regard. That makes me someone who is really important with worth and value.

It has often been said that if I were the only one in the universe who ever sinned God would have sent His Son to die for me to forgive me and bring me to Himself. It is true that Jesus came into our world just to find and save me, in addition to the fact that He came for everyone else as well. But that He came to die for all does not diminish the fact that He died for me. I am honored.

103. Keep his Life

 John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

 The conditional promise in this paradoxical statement of losing and keeping turns on the meaning of “life” and on the meaning of “love and hate.” If you hate your life, then you will keep it unto life eternal. Eternal life is the promise.

“Life” in this promise refers to the soul, or the self.The self that lives in “this world” is the soul (the mind, will and emotions) that thinks, feels, and decides. In some contexts soul can mean the same thing as “flesh.” The self must be regarded as the seat and ruling position of Sin. The self or the flesh is regarded as the place where Sin rules and the Devil plays. In some contexts it is the “heart,”as in Jesus’ commentary, “Out of the heart proceed (all the sins listed).”

It is assumed that all men love the self: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Jesus is not commanding us to love the self; he says that we should turn that inbred love for self outward into loving others in the same way we already love the self. The guide is the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you). Everyone understands self-centeredness, self-respect, and self-esteem. Jesus says we should turn that into other-centeredness and respecting and esteeming others. In Ephesians 5:29, Paul says: “No one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” So a man should regard his wife, as his own flesh, for the two are one flesh.

However, the truth is that if one loves his life, or soul, or flesh he will lose it. Guarding, keeping, nourishing and cherishing one’s self is the same as loving sin and being selfish without giving a thought or care for God and others. If we see the Self as the seat, heart and source of Sin we will hate it. When this revelation of the Law reveals our sin and guilt we will despise it and repent and turn to Christ and the Gospel. “Hating his life” means hating sin; this leads to repentance and faith in the Gospel. Believing the Gospel keeps the soul unto life eternal.

When a person says, “I hate myself,” we are aghast and we chide him; instead, we should encourage him to finish, that is, go on to receive forgiveness. We can lose the soul or keep the soul: we lose the soul by loving it and paying attention to sin’s dictates; we keep the soul by hating it and disregarding its desires for sin and evil, for disobedience and rebellion. Instead we focus on Jesus and pay attention to the Christ who lives within; we do so by hearing the Gospel as often as possible. Hate sin and love Jesus = believe Gospel. This is how we keep the soul (the self) unto eternal life.

102. See the glory of God

 John 11:40 Said I not unto thee, that, if thou shouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

 Specifically in this context, Jesus is speaking to and making a promise to Martha: shortly she will see the glory of God in the resuscitation of Lazarus. But in the wider Biblical context, Jesus is also speaking to us and making a promise for all believers: you will see the glory of God.

The glory of God is hard to define: for us on earth, it usually means the manifestation of the Presence of God on the earth, in the physical world; for God in heaven, it simply means the outer manifestation of the inner character of God in fullness. For the Gospel of John, the glory of God is the suffering and the death of Jesus on the cross. There, for us all, God manifests His Glory and it looks like Love. All believers have seen the Glory in the Cross, for we understand the Gospel meaning.

The Glory of God is visibly seen in all the dozens of miracles and healings performed through Jesus during His lifetime on the earth. Any miracle, something not explainable by empirical science, in human history is “seeing the glory of God” at any time. The glory of God, in the evident presence of God and in the wonderful answers to prayer, is actually seen more often than we think.

The biggest miracle or the most glorious event in our lives is the miraculous conversion, the simple salvation, the experience of being born again, the coming from death to life by faith in Jesus Christ. This actually happens more than once in our lives: we see the glory of God every time we hear the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins. And finally, the day will come when we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; then we will see the shining fullness of the glory of God face to face in the eternal kingdom. We will see all glory clearly when the veil of Sin is removed, the darkness of Death is defeated, and lies of the Devil are destroyed once and for all and forever. Then we will see clearly face to face; until then we see through a glass darkly, but we do see, by faith.

Yes, we will see the glory of God! Have you seen it yet?

101. Live

 John 11:25, 26 I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

 Death is a separation: spiritual death is separation of the soul from God; physical is separation of the soul from the body; eternal death is separation of soul and body from God forever. We are 1) born spiritually dead 2) surely going to die physically and 3) going to die eternally unless forgiven and saved.

When Jesus says we are dead (“though he were dead”) He means spiritually dead, and because of that separation we will physically die. If we are spiritually dead we will also be eternally dead, unless life is given. Then He says we are alive (“yet shall he live”): we are spiritually alive, connected with God right now; though we will physically die we will immediately live again; and we are eternally alive with God forever.

He that believes in Jesus will live: spiritually, physically and eternally. The Life is God’s Life and we have it now and we have it forever. We are connected to God; we are in a mystical union with God because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Jesus will never die. Faith and Life are always connected closely in the Gospel of John, according to Jesus. The converse is also true: Unbelief and Death are also connected. If we believe we will live and not die; if we do not believe we remain in our sins and thus we shall die in all three ways, spiritually, physically and eternally. We humans cannot create life or give life; all we can do is kill and take life away. We cannot give life but we can receive it; we do so by faith in the Gospel. By ourselves we cannot choose to believe, but the life-giving Spirit gives life when He creates faith.

Natural man is driven to survive, and not die; the spiritual man is driven to thrive, and not allow spiritual life to slip away. Therefore, we go to the Bible and to church to hear the life-giving Gospel: to believe and not die, but live.