28th Jan 2011

John 5:1-15 – The Healing at the Pool.

• “Being There”
• As I have often pointed out, Jesus very rarely initiated any healing. He healed and did miracles almost always in response to a request of one sort or another.
• Today’s story is one of the very few incidents [around five] that is the exception to the rule.
• Or is it?
• I would still list this with the four other incidents of Jesus initiating healing but I think there is an argument that says Jesus was still responding to a request.
• Most requests came from someone reaching out to touch His clothes, or ripping open a roof or simply approaching him and verbally asking His assistance.
• This one came from simply being there.
• Archeology teaches us that this pool was a common place for people to go to ask their god to heal them. Not just Jews but Romans as well.
• Jesus… God.. turns up and knows that the man is already requesting His assistance simply by being in that place.
• If you’ve ever gone to church you will know that sitting in the first few rows gives you a very different experience that sitting at the back.
• When I sit on the back row I tend to observe, when I sit on the front row I tend to participate.
• My physical position is a signal to God. It is a request.
• I’ve sometimes advised people who feel far away from God to simply move forward a few places in church. I know this is in one sense a very shallow piece of advice but in one sense it is not.
• Our position is a hint.
• It is a request of sorts.
• Where we go can be just as much as request as the things we say. I think God may not need to read body language but I think He does read the language of placement.
• Who, where and when we place ourselves in different places tells God [and if we will take the time, ourselves], just what our attitude is towards Him.
• Sometimes we just have to commit to being there and waiting for Jesus to turn up as it were.
• Praying for faithfulness today to just be in the right spot and not rush around from place to place to find a miracle.

27th Jan 2011

John 4:43-54 – Jesus Heals an Officials Son.

• “Get in the Field!”
• The passage supports a key belief to the philosophy of Pais.
• Discipleship does not happen behind a desk.
• Discipleship does not happen behind a pulpit.
• Discipleship does not happen in a church.
• Discipleship does not happen via Skype.
• Discipleship is not simply education.
• Jesus was in Galilee and had declared that a prophet had no honor in his hometown. Without honor there was no faith to believe. Without faith to believe there were no miracles.
• So what was changing?
• The key is in this sentence:
• They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
• The believed because they saw Him in the field in action.
• Discipleship is not from top to bottom passing on old experiences and education. That is only a slither of it.
• Discipleship is modeling and answering questions about what people see you do.
• We need more leaders who get out into the field, get their hands dirty and model whatever it is that they are trying to pass on to others.
• I love hearing from people like Pete, one of the Pais National Directors as he demonstrates to his teams what it is to recruit people to the cause and Mawunyo another leader in Africa as she spends whole nights praying for her teams.
• Examples that can be seen to play their part.
• As much as I would love to just write and chill out at home I have to get up and get out of my comfort zone.
• As the followers of Jesus began to see what He was able to do away from home – they were able to believe His words.
• Praying I will not be confined by my comfort zone.

26th Jan 2011

John 4:39-42 – Many Samaritans Believe

• “It’s not Who you expect or How you expect”
• As was His Modus operandi, Jesus goes into the village because He is pursued.
• He stays for two days and speaks to the people.
• They tell Him that they first believed because of the words of the Samaritan woman but now know because of their own experience of Him.
• What is interesting to me in this passage is the line;
• And because of His words many more became believers”
• This is interesting to me.
• There is no mention of miracles.
• There is no mention of Him performing any signs.
• Where in Jerusalem that is exactly what the religious leaders said they needed in order to believe; here with the very people the religious elite looked down upon, they were not necessary.
• Firstly this reminds me that it is not who you expect who will respond.
• I have expected certain people to follow, join, give, support and encourage.
• But often I have been disappointed by them only to be surprised by just who has followed, joined, given, supported and encouraged me.
• So the mistake we make is investing our time because of assumptions. Jesus it seemed waited to see who really was pursuing Him. Who was willing to pay a price [in this case the price of hospitality]. Not only was it perhaps surprising that it was the Samaritans but it was courageous because of the enmity between the two groups.
• Secondly, maybe there was a sign.
• Maybe the sign was that Jesus, a Jewish Rabbi would go into that town.
• Maybe that courage and compassion was all they needed.
• It gave more credibility to His words that a miracle or supernatural stunt.
• As a leader I need to remember that.
• It may not be who I expect to respond and they may not respond for the reasons I expect.
• I need to be open-minded and open-hearted.

25th Jan 2011

John 4:27-38 – The Disciples rejoin Jesus

• “All in a Row”
• On their return, the disciples rejoin Jesus and are surprised to see Him talking to the woman but not enough to ask questions.
• The issues they tackle are physical ones such as Jesus’ food requirements and Jesus uses this to teach them another principle.
• It is almost as though in this vase they are not inquisitive enough and so Jesus gets them thinking.
• He teaches them a couple of lessons and one of them in particular is good for all leaders to remember.
• We are reaping where others have sown.
• When I first approached schools in Manchester in the late 80’s, a group of churches had already plied them with free books that the schools had need for.
• There were also other people who went into schools as part of their evangelistic efforts.
• I came next and began to open more schools up and then recruit teams and link the students to churches.
• Other Pais people have built on top of that.
• We are all in a row.
• Nothing starts or stops with us.
• We are part of an organic chain of events and process.
• It is good to be reminded of this.
• If we take ourselves out of the picture it affects all those following us. It will not stop the process but it will perhaps delay things.
• Nothing stops or starts with me and that is very good to remember.
• I am not critical to God’s plans but I can be a catalyst.
• I need to keep praying for humility.

24th Jan 2011

John 4:1-26 – Jesus Talks with the Samaritan Woman

• “Why Here and not There?”
• Jesus rejects some of the normal Jewish behavior here by taking a more direct route to his destination through Samaria.
• The geographical area was normally avoided in order to avoid its inhabitants – the Samaritans.
• The Samaritans were like the spiritual poor cousins of the Jews. They were the descendants of Jews who had intermarried with the pagans and the Jews had come to detest them.
• They lived a kind of Judaist half-life.
• They did not believe that Jerusalem was the center of worship to God but Mount Gerizim, the called themselves the ‘Keepers of the Law and only saw the Pentateuch as authority and rejected the rest of the Old Testament.
• Not only does Jesus mix with a Samaritan, talk to them and even ask them for something but the Samaritan in question is a woman.
• All of this is not that terribly surprising when we understand that Jesus was a lover of all people and saw them all as equal. It is not surprising because we know He was not a coward, he did not bow to the peer pressure of His followers in order to keep them happy.
• But…
• There is one puzzle.
• Jesus is called to the lost sheep of Israel. We usually see this as simply the Jews.
• And yet the only time he explicitly tells anyone that he is the Messiah is to a Samaritan.
• The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

• Why?
• Why here in Samaria and not there in Jerusalem?
• Probably because the Samaritans view of the Messiah had far less political or militaristic overtones as it did in Jerusalem.
• Jesus was therefore able to speak freely and clearly here because people would not add to His words their own extra baggage and interpretation to fit their needs.
• Could this be the case in our lives?
• Could that be why God has to sometimes take us to different places to speak clearly to us?
• Different geographical places, or emotional places or circumstantial places?
• Would He have to do that in my life if I attached less personal baggage and self-centered interpretation to the things He says?
• Even here what He is fully saying is missed.
• Jesus uses the phrase ‘”I am” the phrase God uses to reveal Himself in the Pentateuch. Invoking Remez here and elsewhere in John’s Gospel His full meaning is still missed.
• He directly reveals Himself as the Messiah and indirectly reveals Himself as God.
• But the Samaritan woman in her underdeveloped faith does not see it.
• Praying I will.

20th Jan 2011

John 3:22-36 – John Testifies again about Jesus

• “The ‘Paranymph Principle”
• John is approached by his disciples whom seem to be defending his honor or at least his ministry before another Jew.
• It is often the second in commands that are less able to see the big picture but are tied in more to the actual leader. The primary leader [John in this case] has his eyes on Jesus and yet the secondary leaders [the talmidim] have their eyes fixed on John.
• Perhaps they are struggling with the reality that their status and even identity is tied in to John’s and if his ministry diminishes they feel their will?
• John however has true vision and clarity. He is selfless and most passionate not about his own comfort or ministry but what will most impact the Kingdom of God.
• He loves the Kingdom more than ministry.
• In Johns mind He was the paranymph (friend of the bridegroom - Christ), similar to the best man at an English wedding. [Manners & Customs of the Bible by Freeman]
• The Paranymph was responsible for introducing the bride to the bridegroom.
• He made the initial contact, and often in Jesus’ day was charged with preparing her for her meeting with the groom. Giving her advice about the grooms likes and dislikes etc.
• At the wedding ceremony the groom and the bride would converse and the paranymphs greatest joy would be the words of the bridegroom who would then turn and share his delight with him. Telling him he had done a good job.
• It was a short role - one of introduction.
• I wonder how many paranymphs fell in love with the bride themselves as they spent time together?
• I wonder how many struggled handing her over to a third party?
• John did not.
• He loved the groom more than he loved the bride.
• Do I?
• Do you?
• Praying today for a greater love for the groom than I have for His bride.

19th Jan 2011

John 3:1-21 – Jesus teaches Nicodemus

• “The ‘Born Again’ Head Fake”
• Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night.
• This is another passage that challenges the simplistic idea that Jesus hated the religious leaders but loved the sinners., The fact is that Jesus invested in whoever pursued Him with the right intentions; and in many cases these were those who knew they were lost without Him.
• In the this passage Jesus invokes the famous ‘Born Again’ phrase. Since the 1970’s that sentence has been used to define at least a generation or two of Jesus followers.
• Many think that Jesus invested the phrase ‘Born Again’ and that the phrase is the key to what He was teaching Nicodemus.
• But he did not and He was not.
• The phrase ‘Born Again’ or its variations already existed in Jesus’ day.
• In fact there were six major uses of it.
• You were born again when:
• You converted to Judaism and came out of the waters.
• You got married.
• You were crowned King of Israel.
• You were numbered with the believers of Israel and became a son of the commandments [bar-mitzvah].
• You were ordained as a Rabbi.
• You became leader of a Rabbinic school.
• All of these were major life changes and none of them were something that Nicodemus was likely to do due to his age. Although some of them would of already happened to him.
• Imagine Nicodemus’ shock. What did Jesus mean? What else was left open to him… to re-enter his mother’s womb?
• So what was Jesus emphasizing? What was His message?
• Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
• And Spirit.
• All the above were rituals of some sort. Jesus was emphasizing that a ceremony would not save you.
• A ceremony such as marriage, ordination, coronation….
• Or putting your hand up after an alter call.
• It is a heart and Spirit thing that Jesus was emphasizing.
• Yesterday I pointed out that verse 23 of chapter 2 shows us that many believed in His name but few believed in Him.
• Are we in danger of simply adding number 7 onto the list?
• Creating people who think they are born again because they went through a modern, protestant, evangelical ceremony?
• Leaders beware… what you sow into people... you will reap.
• The key to salvation is responding to an invitation to participate in His Kingdom not a personal ceremony.
• Praying I sow into others the right thing because in this case number seven is not a lucky number.

18th Jan 2011

John 2:13-25 – Jesus Clears the Temple Courts

• “Trust issues”
• After the first miracle at Cana, thins seem to pick up pace.
• Jesus enters the Temple and His zeal for His father kicks in.
• The Temple courts had become a place of business for bother merchants in livestock because pilgrims would buy their sacrifice worthy animals there plus the money changers because the Temple would not accept Roman coin and so they changed it into Tyrian.
• The Jews wanted to know on what authority He did this.
• Trust lesson number 1
• Jesus always spoke obliquely to those He knew had little faith.
• Oddly, He only spoke plainly to those He knew had enough trust to understand.
• It’s as though He is trying to build the faith of those who have too little to believe by getting them to wrestle and do some spiritual gym.
• Trust lesson number 2
• The disciples believed in the Tanakh’s words [the Jewish word for the Old Testament].
• Trusting in Jesus has to be holistic. We have to trust not just in Jesus Himself but in what He trusted in.
• Verse 23 shows us that many believed in His name but few believed in Him. It is believing in Him that saves us and trusting in Him means trusting in what He trusts in.
• We cannot cut and paste Jesus in and out of Scripture.
• Trust lesson number 3
• Jesus did not entrust himself to men.
• As leaders we should never do that either. They are far too fickle.
• Winston Churchill was asked if it thrilled him when so many people came out to hear him speak. He replied “not really because I am aware that if it was my hanging there would be twice as many people in the crowd”.
• Trusting in God is complex and yet simple.
• Embracing all of Jesus means we have less space to trust in things that exclude Him.
• Praying my trust will be less narrow.

11th Jan 2011

John 2:1-12 – Jesus turns water into wine

• “Ten to one – a challenge for us all”
• This passage contains the best advise that anybody gave anyone at any time in history.
• The wine runs out and Mary the mother of Jesus immediately puts two and two together and gets five. She has received prophecies about her son, she has watched him grow and receive gifts from very important people and she knows that one day future generations will call her blessed.
• What is going through her mind is fairly obvious… this is her moment!
• Here and now at a big occasion in front of all her family and relatives would be the moment that Jesus did her proud.
• It was time to receive ‘naches’ a Yiddish word that means “The kind of Joy a mother feels”
• Jesus however reacts to this – he sees it within her and politely but firmly using a Hebrew idiom [although translated] puts a little distance between them. Basically he is very gently challenging her motives. He is also helping her to see Him as Lord not as a child.
• She responds perfectly; she lets it go and then with simplicity turns and gives the others the best advise they would ever hear; “do whatever he tells you to do”.
• Now contrast Jesus with Mary.
• As a leader He does not use His gifting for party tricks or to impress his family or His disciples. Again as with 99% of Jesus’ miracles He does not initiate anything; He is asked for help.
• Only when asked does Jesus responds and a wonderful miracle takes place.
• But what I personally get from this is the principle of ten for one.
• Jesus says ‘it is not yet my time’. He was conscious of His preparation. Thirty years of preparation for three years of world changing impact!
• Billy Graham said that if he could go back and change anything he would prepare more and preach a little less.
• Jesus valued the process!
• Do I?
• Jesus protected the process!
• Do I?
• Jesus did not rush the process!
• Do I?

7th Jan 2011

John 1:43-51 – Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael

• “A Master class in Recruitment Jesus”
• Even Jesus could not fulfill His calling alone; he needed help.
• The phrase ‘A Pioneer’ is an oxymoron – one person can change the world but they can never do it on their own.
• From the end of yesterdays reading to the end of todays, Jesus gives us a master class in recruiting people to His dream. Something we as leaders either as parents or as ministers can learn from.

1. Recruit with a BIG dream - John 1:35-51
2. Make your dream really clear - John 1:41
3. Be prepared to make sacrifices – John 1:43 & Matthew 20:22
4. Be the personal embodiment of the vision – John 1:46 & John 14:5
5. Empower those you recruit - John 1:42
6. Recruit their vision – John 1:41,45 & Matthew 4:19
7. Recruit the right people - John1:47
• I use this passage in more detail to unpack some of those principles in seminars I teach.
• Jesus was the greatest leader of all time and He is the person we must look at before all others as our best example.

6th Jan 2011

John 1:53-42 – John’s Disciples follow Jesus

• “Equipping Jesus”
• Tomorrow Jesus gives us a master class in recruiting people to your vision.
• Today we look at the other side.
• For people to truly follow Jesus, we as leaders must not simply releases them but send them.
• That is what John did. Disciples acted in many ways like slaves as we saw a couple of days ago. There are many things that John received from those who followed him;
• admiration, respect, service, honor, legacy etc
• the list could go on.
• When he gives them away, he gives his life away.
• In fact he does not simply give away, he goes the extra mile; he sends away.
• Who do you need to send away for them to truly follow Jesus?
• It may not be geographical; it might be an emotional or spiritual release.
• When you release how do you do it? Begrudgingly and with warnings or are you a cheerful giver?
• The role of a leader is to first introduce people to Jesus and then release them to Him.
• One is much easier than the other.
• But both are required for Jesus to be truly equipped with the people he needs.
• Praying today that I will equip Jesus.
• Bet you never prayed that prayer before did you?

5th Jan 2011

John 1:29-34 – John testifies about Jesus

• “When the time is right”
• I’m going to keep it very simply today.
• It’s not about me or my ministry.
• In this passage John refers back to his profound revelation that I unpacked a little in my blog two days ago.
• Rather than me repeating myself I will ask you to re-read that.
• Here the manifestation of that revelation is his understanding that his ministry is nothing more than a means to an end. His ministry is not that important – its only importance comes in its role in the bigger picture.
• I wish more leaders could understand that.
• God is not that sentimental.
• If he could destroy the temple – the most holy significant of all church buildings with all its history and emotional investment on God’s part…
• Then He will not think twice about ending our ministries when the time is right.
• The time is right when they no longer fulfill His purposes and start to fulfill ours.
• That could be said of everything that we hold onto to dearly.
• Again this is connected to the “first things first” blog from two days ago.
• Praying today for a deeper understanding of this so God does have to teach me the hard way.

4th Jan 2011

John 1:19-29 – John the Baptist denies being the Christ

• “Tongue Tied Humility”
• A group is sent from the Sanhedrin to check out this unauthorized teacher as they see him in their eyes.
• This was a customary practice when someone was drawing a following and/or doing miracles. The Sanhedrin were in some simplistic way the religious police.
• John the Baptist speaks the language of courage that only true humility can give you. His status is not important only Jesus’ is. And therefore he gains great courage from this.
• He applies to himself a Biblical description that was being used heavily by another group from that time:
• I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’.
• The other group was the Essenes. Their way of doing this was to reject the rest of the Jews and live in a holy huddle by the hills. They spoke harshly of the other Jews believing that only were the true sons of light. They moved out of Jerusalem believing that those living there were beyond redemption.
• I believe John was invoking Remez here. He was quoting one part of a passage of scripture to invoke the whole passage to people’s minds in this case the earlier part of Isaiah 40.
• In that passage were these words:
• Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
• The Essenes pride led them to dismiss Jerusalem but John’s humility allowed him to minister to them.
• He then goes on to make this statement about Jesus:
• He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie
• John is referring here to the religious tradition of the day that in this case referred to discipleship.
• A lot was expected from a disciple, in fact they were specifically told to be to a rabbi everything a slave was to be to their master… but with one difference:
• “All acts a slave performs for his master, a disciple performs for his rabbi, except untying the sandal” Babylonian Talmud ketubot
• Jesus by the way, shares this belief of the master/slave relationship. He uses a Hebrew idiom of pushing His point by repeating the same truth but with different comparative words:
• “A student is not above His teacher, nor a servant above His master” Matthew 10:24
• John in humility says he is not even worthy of doing what is considered too demeaning for anyone to do.
• There is a paradox in all of this. Jesus eventually said to His disciples that he no longer called them servants but friends because He had revealed to them His father’s business.
• And so here is the paradox: The more humble we are; the more we are included in the Father’s business. The more we are included in the fathers business, the less we are seen as servants of God and the more we are raised up to the status of friends of God.
• But we cannot even see God’s true business on the planet without humility.
• Praying today for a servant’s heart and therefore a friend’s relationship.

3rd Jan 2011

John 1:1-18 – The word became Flesh

• “First things first”
• This passage contains one of my favorite verses to preach from.
• In fact I spoke on it yesterday at Oak Hills Church, San Antonio.
• “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him”
• Jesus is the word [gk Logos] Logos means reason. It is the thing that makes sense of things and separates good from bad, right from wrong.
• Although God has also given us the gift of reasoning; our reasoning is not as good as Gods.
• If God’s reasoning exploded the world into being, then our reasoning is simply shrapnel.
• Gods reasoning comes first.
• He is who He is not who we try to make Him after the fact..
• The reason we miss God in our lives is not because we do not know what God looks like but because we have decided in advance what He looks like.
• We have decided in advance what a move of God in our lives will look like and if God moves in any other kind of way we automatically dismiss it.
• The author John quotes John the Baptist who has not missed God; even though Jesus is his cousin, he can see who Jesus really is because he has understood a profound truth stated in verse 15;
• “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.”
• John is responding to the ancient belief that the older person has more authority, wisdom and therefore should be given more respect and regard.
• But he argues: Although I was born before Jesus, he was created in the beginning. He is therefore older than me and is wiser and deserves the higher regard.
• Johns the Baptists’ wisdom came to him because he put first things first!
• God created him in his image not visa versa.
• God’s reason came first and is higher than our reason.
• God has already moved in our lives we are not waiting for Him to move.
• I cannot decide how God is going to move; He already has.
• I don’t get to decide; I get to discover.
• I don’t get to dictate; I get to discern.
• For anyone concerned that they might miss out on God this new year I might suggest this little exercise:
• Write out how you imagine and expect God to move in your life this year. Then repent and rip it up.
•  That simple exercise will do two things; first show you how much you might be dictating to God and secondly be a defining moment helping you to see God move where you least expect it.
• Praying today that I will put first things first and my reasoning second.