6th July 2011

Luke 1:1-4 – Introduction.

• “Investigate!”
• Luke introduces his story.
• He writes to Theophilus. We do not know for sure if he was a real person or if Theophilus meaning ‘lover of God’ was a generic name given to all the saints who would read his letter.
• At the beginning of this book, Luke tells us that many similar books have been written.
• Yet only four made it into our Bible.
• Why?
• There are many reasons for this but sticking to this passage let me suggest one in particular.

• “Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning”.
• Those whose words stand the test of time are those do not accept things lightly. Luke it seemed [being a doctor] researched and checked out his facts.
• The bigger the questions we have, the deeper we will dig. The deeper we dig the stronger the foundation of our faith.
• This is the benefit of doubt that is driven by belief.
• I wrote about this on June 13^th.
• “In fact I think that [doubt] is its purpose; it is used to make us dig deeper and so discoverer truths we may have previously skipped over. At the end of the process, we can become more trusting than others who never had any doubt in the first place. But the process of doubt requires belief.”
• If we want our words to matter – then we need to allow ourselves to ask the difficult questions. We must investigate our faith. We must probe, consider and explore.
• It seems to me that those who act the most defensive of their faith are often those who seem the most insecure about their faith. They don’t like debate or conjecture. Maybe because they are worried about what they might find?
• “Blessed is he who does not see but believes” is not a call to blind faith but an encouragement to those like Luke – those who had seen, believed but investigated for the sake of passing their faith on to others.
• The digger the foundation, the bigger the building and the more people can be invited into it.
• Praying today that God will put questions in my mind and the desire to investigate all His promises.

16th June 2011

John 21:15-25 – Jesus Reinstates Peter.

• “Jesus is the Mirror”
• What a great story for John to end on.
• Peter who as we saw last time, had gone backwards is reinstated.
• Why did he need reinstating?
• Because He had done something that no disciple should do – left his Rabbi.
• A famous exchange of words take place where Jesus asks Peter; do agape me and Peter replies I philo you.
• Agape meaning selfless love – “I love you because I am full of love”
• Philo meaning friendship love – “I love you because we are good together”.
• This could mean that Peter is admitting to Jesus that he realizes he has not demonstrated the kind of love Jesus is looking for. And that Jesus is showing Him that He will accept Peter’s phileo love because the third time Jesus asks; do you love me, He uses phileo.
• Jesus is looking for genuine, real, authentic relationship.
• Better pure phileo than pretend agape!
• [Note however scholars disagree on the significance of the use of the Greek words here. Plus, were John and Jesus speaking Greek anyway?. No so we can never be sure.]
• I think a more certain and interesting lesson comes from a different part of the story.
• Jesus calls Peter to feed His sheep. He prophesies his death by crucifixion and then says again . . .”follow me”.
• Before answering however; Peter points to another disciple and asks Jesus: what about him?”. Peter wants some assurances. Peter wants to know if everyone else is going to have to suffer the same fate as he will should they follow Jesus.
• Jesus essentially replies by asking; “what on earth has that got to do with you?”
• Jesus wants to connect us with each other not compare us with each other.
• Peter has to decide based on Jesus’ request not on anything else.
• What happens with other disciples of Jesus should not affect our choice to follow Him. It’s not about fairness, it’s not about comparisons, it’s not about hiding behind the faults of others.
• We cannot stand before God and use other people’s actions as an excuse for our own. Jesus is leading us to compare our lives with His example not others.
• Jesus is the mirror.
• No one else.
• You are called to sacrificial love no matter whether others live one or not.
• John ends with a call to love God pure and simple.
• He tells us that lots more could be said . . . but what’s the point.
• Let’s stop looking for alternatives and accept the one way He presents to each of us . . .Jesus.

14th June 2011

John 21:1-14 – Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish.

• “Backsliding”
• Why are the men fishing?
• Peter encourages them to do so.
• No wonder tomorrows passage is full of Jesus’ question; “Do you really love me”.
• Peter and the disciples had either not understood or given up on the calling Jesus had given them. They had returned to something they should not have.
• He had commissioned them both before His death and after His resurrection.
• Suddenly He appears to them.
• They are not doing what He has asked and they are catching no fish.
• They had gone backwards. They know Jesus is resurrected but it has made no difference.
• Which poses the question; is backsliding really just about losing your belief?
• You can believe but go backwards just as yesterday we realize that you can doubt but move forwards.
• I have done the same.
• I ‘backslid’ for three years – I still believed but my disobedience was an act of the will. I wanted to do stuff that God did want me to do.
• For most of us, the reality is that we move away from God in our hearts not because of a crisis of belief but as an act of will.
• Things have not panned out the way we had hoped.
• Maybe we did not get out of the experience what we had expected we would when we entered it.
• This is why it is so important that we do our best to make sure people enter the Kingdom of God for the right reasons.
• And that we do as well.
• Maybe there is someone you know who is no longer serving God. Can I suggest that it’s not really a crisis of faith as they might say; it’s a crisis of expectations.
• Knowing that may help you help them deal with the real issue.
• After seeing and hearing Jesus, one of the disciples recognizes who He is and Peter grabs his outer cloak and jumps in the water.
• At first, adding an extra jacket for a swim seems odd but it was inappropriate to have a formal meeting with a rabbi without being fully clothed.
• Peter’s saving grace is his immediate desire to reconnect with Jesus, which of course, changes everything.
• He still acknowledges Jesus as His master but as we will see tomorrow, reconnecting is just part of it. Jesus now needs to get at the very heart of why Peter wants to follow Him.
• Maybe that is why things sometimes don’t pan out the way we had expected them to. Maybe it’s an opportunity for the Spirit of Jesus to have a heart to heart conversation with me about my motives?
• Praying through my motives again today.

13th June 2011

John 20:18-23 – Jesus Appears to Thomas.

• “The good and the Bad of Doubting”
• The story of ‘Doubting Thomas’ is for some scholars as close as the NT gets to explicitly stating that Jesus is God.
• Interesting that a doubter is the one who appears to make the most convincing statement.
• Sometimes doubt can do that.
• In fact I think that is its purpose; it is used to make us dig deeper and so discoverer truths we may have previously skipped over. At the end of the process, we can become more trusting than others who never had any doubt in the first place.
• But the process of doubt requires belief.
• For the process to be successful we need to explore our doubts with faith. How we enter the question often determines how we exit it.
• Jesus says;
• “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
• I can see why He would value belief without seeing so highly.
• When I present Pais there are some who believe asnd invest because of its obvious intrinsic value and there are those who only partner after they see it proven elsewhere.
• Experience teaches me that those who partner with us for the former reason are far more loyal and honest. They believe because its tru not for what they can benefit from its truth.
• It leads to a different kind of partnership.
• I think this is what God is looking for from me.
• Relationship based on who I believe He is not what I get from Him.
• I’m not sure He minds doubt when we use it to pursue Him at a deeper level.
• I think it is doubt driven by “woe is me”, “how will I ever be blessed” stance that he struggles with.
• How we enter doubt determines how we exit it.
• Praying that I will believe in God’s love enough to pursue my doubts with a desire to find His truth and a faith to believe without having to see.

10th June 2011

John 20:18-23 – Jesus Appears to His Disciples.

• “Supernatural vs Spectacular”
• Jesus missed a great opportunity here for a good joke.
• He suddenly appears to the disciples who have locked themselves away for fear of those who had Jesus crucified.
• He says to them “peace with you”
• I’d have said ‘boo!’
• Jesus, however, a bit more mature than me, combines the extra-ordinary with the ordinary.
• Sometimes we love the spectacular but Jesus operated in the supernatural.
• Jesus was mystical in many ways but never spooky.
• God does move in mysterious ways and in Jesus’ case it was never to attract attention to Himself or put on a show as so many leaders often do.
• He uses the most normal common greeting of the day to make an extraordinary event ordinary.
• Why?
• Because His emphasis was on what would happen next not on the event.
• Similar to yesterday – he does not want people to hang onto the moment but to grasp the job in hand.
• He then breathes on them and speaks one of the most contested sayings in scripture.
• “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
• I was so disappointed today. None of my commentary books would comment on this difficult saying. In fact I took 13 books off my shelf and 12 of them refused to even acknowledge the statement!
• It is as though Jesus had said “boo!” to them and they didn’t know what to do.
• The only theologian who would take a pop at the subject is not a follower of Jesus and doesn’t have a grip on the Jewish context as well as he thinks.
• But he did manage to link the phrase with binding and loosening. In other words with the job Jesus had been preparing His disciples for. The role of helping build and shape this new community of believers according to His teaching.
• There are various ways of interpreting Jesus’ words. My drash would be that He is partly referring to their role of essentially taking over from the Sanhedrin and making halakhic decisions to help the new community mature and grow up into God’s promise for them.
• But the main thing that today’s reading leaves me with is that Jesus is constantly moving us forward, He does not want us to get sucked in to the spectacular but to move forward in the supernatural.
• He is not interested in shouting “Boo!”
• He wants us to be naturally supernatural.
• Hoping I can be that today!

9th June 2011

John 20:10-18 – Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene.

• “The First Profession”
• Now it is Mary’s turn.
• She hangs around just a little longer and when she peers into the tomb she sees two angels.
• They ask her why she is crying. Seems odd. Why would you ask a person stood at a tomb why are they crying? Isn’t it obvious . . . someone they love died.
• But in her culture a question always led somewhere. She just had to take the next step.
• Then she sees the gardener.
• But He is not the gardener, she only thinks He is.
• There is an interesting contrast here. Some think Mary had been a prostitute which the media is constantly telling us is the oldest profession.
• But it is not, gardening is. Adam was a gardener and Jesus is seen as one.
• Then Jesus asks her the same question; “why are you crying?”
• Both times this question is leading her to realize that she wants to find Him and hold on to Him.
• When He says her name realizes who He is.
• He tells her not to hold on to her and goes to the heart of the issue;
• You cannot hold on to me because I have something I need to go and do.

• 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'
• You cannot hold on to me because you have something you need to go and do!
• “Go instead to my brothers and tell them”
• The first profession of our faith should be to family.
• Before he commissions the disciples to tell the world He tells the first person to see Him resurrected, a woman who tradition says becomes a leader and visionary, to go to the family.
• This reminds me of Moses’ encounter with God. He gets where we all want to be, onto ‘holy ground’ hearing God and as soon as he does, God says; “Go”.
• The presence of Jesus is not something to be hung onto but to give us direction.

8th June 2011

John 20:1-9 – The Empty Tomb.

• “Running to catch up”
• Mary approached Jesus’ tomb to find He is not there.
• So she get’s two of the disciples and they run to the tomb to find our for themselves what has happened.
• When they get there they begin to realize that Jesus has risen.
• The Bible stated that the disciples did not understand from Scripture that Jesus would rise from the dead.
• In one commentary it gives two particular scriptures from the Old Testament that it says prophecy Jesus will rise from the dead, almost as though the disciples should have realized.
• Looking at them – I don’t think I would have realized either – they both seem pretty tenuous at best.
• They are Isaiah 53:9-12 and Psalm 16:10.
• The second one seems a little more obvious but even then it could mean a number of things..
• The fact is this; we are always catching up to God.
• He is always doing things to surprise us and to think that we can understand everything up front is a little foolish.
• I love what Simeon Peter does.
• Whilst the other disciple stands at the edge of the tomb, Peter explores.
• We need more explorers.
• The first disciple seems a little nervous, as though he is waiting for it to be deemed ‘safe’. So many are on the edge of God’s intentions. Waiting for things to someone else to declare it is safe rather than searching things out themselves.
• I want to be an explorer and to do that I need to recognize that God is always going to have a few tricks up His sleeve and some shocking ideas.
• I don’t want to stand on the edge – I want to be the first to go in and find out what He is up to.
• Don’t you?

6th June 2011

coin

So, how did David, a teenage boy with all the sticky labels that every adolescent struggles with, go from shepherd boy to the most famous king of all?

His secret lies within his coin.

According to Jewish tradition, when David grew in stature and became king, he commissioned the royal minters to produce a coin that would speak to God’s people.

Firstly, he commanded that the coin be weighted fairly; this allowed it to become credible beyond the nation of Israel.

Secondly, it was to be stamped on one side with a picture that displayed the majesty of a king God had honored; he chose the imprint to be the tower of David.

The third request, however, took his staff a little by surprise.

And on the other side—a shepherd's staff and shepherd's bag.

The people were thrilled with this decision because the great and mighty David was not ashamed of his humble origin. They said of him:

“He never forgets that God had taken him from his flocks of sheep and made him king. He has other flock to care for now, and he treats them as lovingly and as tenderly as he had treated his little lambs!” 

The coin symbolized a characteristic of the God of David’s kingdom.

He is looking for those who can be entrusted with a lot because they do not misconceive the power of the little.

He is looking for a people who will do something.

1st June 2011

John 19:38-42 – The Burial of Jesus.

• “Too late to be Strategic?”
• Two VIP’s come out of the woodwork as disciples of Jesus.
• Both were members of the Sanhedrin the ruling Jewish authorities.
• This old Sanhedrin was about to be replaced by Jesus Apostles, the ones He sent out in Luke 10.
• These two men did a very brave thing here – they made an important an statement.
• I’m wondering how much impact they would have had afterwards?
• They were not included in the 72 as far as I know.
• Does that mean we can be precious as follows of Jesus but not strategic to Him?
• Should they have made their beliefs clear earlier?
• I’m wondering if other leaders even today hide their true beliefs for political reasons.
• I’m wondering if they also hold on to one position out of fear and in doing so lose the opportunity of a far greater opportunity to serve Jesus.
• Just a thought.
• I'm so impressed with those who step out of secure positions to pioneer something they truly believe in.
• I must be careful not to be a secret believer who only states my true beliefs when it’s a little too late.

1st June 2011

John 19:28:37 – The death of Jesus.

• “All is revealed”
• The Jews realized that some of the laws God had given them made absolutely no sense at all.
• Yet, they had this deep down faith that He must have given them for a reason.
• He is a loving God, they thought, so His rules must be based in love.
• A pretty good angle to approach God’s Word – better than only basing our approach on our own rational thinking.
• They even invented a name for these peculiar rules: “hukim”.
• This passage helps us understand that god places things into our lives for a reason. And those reasons may only become apparent much later.
• One of the “hukim,” was that the command to refrain from breaking the bones of the Passover Lamb.
• This had been adhered to “blindly” for centuries.
• Only now does it make sense. Jesus is crucified but unlike most victims of this particular torture . . . His bones are not broken as the traditional way of finally killing a crucified man, He is already dead.
• A ritual commanded given many years previously suddenly gave significance to Jesus’ death. The whole weight of years and years of ritual behavior was now a sign once, hidden now disclosed.
• Suddenly things they knew made sense - Psalm 34:19-20 – “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.”
• It leaves us the question: what hukim has God put in my life?
• What commands has He given me that make no sense now but could unlock a future mystery?
• What commands has He given me now that will help me identify His direction in the future?
• What irrational commands has He given you and are your obeying them because you know He loves you or have you dismissed them?
• What makes the difference?
• The way we enter the Bible.
• Enter it with the view to find the obvious life principles and we will miss Him.
• Enter it with the filter that everything God asks us to do is driven by love and we will eventually see Him in it.