The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (9)

 

“All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:15).

Our life in Christ is to be a never-ending experience of maturation in Him, of seeing Him, of living in Him, of knowing Him, of deepening friendship, of deepening and heightened joy, of experiencing and manifesting His Cross, and of being Christ to others. (See 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18; Rom. 12:1 – 2; 1 John 3:1 – 3; Rom. 8:29; Heb. 2:9 – 13). 

This is NOT a self-improvement project, this is not about us, it is about Jesus and our Father, it is about being faithful to them and to one another, it is about manifesting Jesus Christ to the world and the cosmos – it is about moving from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood, to becoming fathers and mothers in Christ (1 John 2:12 – 14). It is about being placed, in Christ, as sons of the Living God and learning to live as sons and daughters in the Son. 

O dear friends, if Jesus had a maturation process in the Incarnation, why can’t we see that our Father is calling us into the same process of sonship? “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (Heb. 5:8 – 9). 

No wonder Paul writes, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:10 – 12).

Consider what Jesus says to the Father, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one” (John 17:22). The Father gives Jesus glory, and Jesus passes that very same glory onto, and into, us. 

The glory of the Son, which the Holy Spirit bestows on us, increases as we are transformed into the image of the Firstborn (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:17 – 18) until that special Day unfolds which Paul writes of in 2 Thessalonians, “When He [Jesus] comes to be glorified in His saints…so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Th. 1:10, 12). 

Paul also speaks of the glory that Jesus gives us in Romans Chapter 8:

8:17, “that we may also be glorified in Him.”

8:18, “the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

8:21, “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

8:30, “and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” 

There is a sense, if we can receive it, that when Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,” (John 17:1) that Jesus prays this not only for Himself, the Head of the Body, but for the entire Body. That is, He prays this not only for Himself as the Only Begotten Son of God, but also for the corporate Son of God, for the One New Man of which Jesus Christ is the Head. (This may take a while to ponder, but don’t give up on it!)

And so we read in Romans 8:16 – 18:

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”

Peters writes that our “inheritance is imperishable and undefiled, that it will not fade away, and that it is reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). 

In Revelation 21:7, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

The term “joint heir” is important, for it means that we inherit and share in 100% of the inheritance together with Jesus Christ and with one another. There is no “mine” in heaven, there is no personal property in heaven, there is no individual title to land (if you will) in our joint inheritance – as joint heirs we share all there is in Jesus Christ, as He shares all there is in the Father. “All things that the Father has are Mine,” Jesus says, and in turn we see that all that Jesus has is ours in Him. 

We are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” What greater inheritance could there possibly be than to inherit an eternal relationship with God and Christ? What more could we desire than that the Holy Spirit disclose to us more about Jesus and the Father? Do we not want to see and experience more of Jesus? Do we not want to see more of Jesus and His glory in one another? Do we not want to see others come to know our wonderful Lord and Savior?

While the “what is to come” of John 16:13 does indeed include the trajectories of the world and the Kingdom, as evidenced in passages such as 2 Peter Chapter 3, 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, and Revelation, the center of gravity and focus of these passages is Jesus Christ – they are meant to reveal Jesus Christ to us and not to appeal to our curiosity. The core of “what is to come” is Jesus Christ and our relationship in Him, it is our ever expanding and deepening koinonia in Him and with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, and with one another. 

Hence we have passages such as Ephesians 3:14 – 19, so that we might be “filled up to all the fullness of God.” 

What matters about today and tomorrow is our transformation into the image of the Firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29), our growing up into Him who is the Head (Eph. 4:15), so that Christ might be revealed in us in order that creation may be delivered from the bondage of corruption (Rom. 8:20 – 22). The trajectory of the world and its powers is judgment (Daniel Chapter 2), the trajectory of the Kingdom is Jesus Christ, the Stone of Daniel Chapter 2. How foolish we are to take our cues from the world’s news and headlines! We have a far greater storyline than anything the world offers – it is the glory of the Son, the glory of the Firstborn and His many brothers and sisters. Our Father is indeed “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb. 2:10). 

In our next reflection, the Lord willing, we’ll look at one for the most misunderstood terms and concepts in the Bible, the word “adoption,” and we’ll hopefully see how this informs what we’ve been pondering. 

More about Jesus would I know,

More of His grace to others show;

More of His saving fulness see,

More of His love who died for me.

 

More, more about Jesus,

More, more about Jesus;

More of His saving fulness see,

  More of His love who died for me.

2

More about Jesus let me learn,

More of His holy will discern;

Spirit of God my teacher be,

Showing the things of Christ to me.

3

More about Jesus; in His Word,

Holding communion with my Lord;

Hearing His voice in every line,

Making each faithful saying mine.

4

More about Jesus; on His throne,

Riches in glory all His own;

More of His kingdom’s sure increase;

More of His coming, Prince of Peace.

By Eliza Hewitt

The Holy Spirit – Revealing and Convicting (8)

 

Are we seeing the Trinity in John 16:12 – 15?

Are we seeing that all that the Father has the Son also has, and that the Holy Spirit takes from what the Son has and discloses it to us, communicates it to us, gives it to us? Throughout the Upper Room we are not only given visions of the Trinity, but we are called into the very koinonia of the Trinity, into the Holy of Holies. When we live in the koinonia of the Trinity, we are able to say with John, “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have koinonia with us; and indeed our koinonia is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

To have koinonia with the People of God is to have koinonia with the Trinity, to have koinonia with the Trinity is to have koinonia with the People of God. 

Have we, along with John, “seen and heard” so that we may proclaim? Or have we only been told about Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit? Can we say with the Samaritans, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world” (John 4:42)?

One of the mysteries of the Trinity is found in Jesus’ words concerning the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on His own initiative.” We see this also in our Lord Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; see also John 5:30, 6:38, 8:28, 12:49, 14:10). 

As we saw when we explored John 15:1 – 5, this Way of Life in the Trinity is also to be our Way of Life, in that we are called to live life in the Vine, and in living in the Vine we no longer live by our own initiative or wisdom or strength – but we are completely dependent on Jesus Christ and His Life. Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches. This is our foundational Life principle, our ground, our non-negotiable Breath of Life (1 Corinthians 1:30 – 31; Galatians 2:20). 

Jesus says, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). 

Do we believe this? 

Do we live like this? 

The Holy Spirit – Revealing and Convicting (7)

“He will guide you into all the truth…whatever He hears, He will speak…He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you…He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” (John 16:12 – 15). 

As we ponder this passage, are we developing a picture of the activity and ministry of the Holy Spirit? What do we see in this passage?

The Holy Spirit guides, He hears, He speaks, He discloses, He glorifies Jesus (as does the Father, see John 13:31 – 32; 17:5), He takes in order to disclose (which Jesus emphasizes by repetition).  

A characteristic of the children of God is that they are led by the Holy Spirit. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). The context of Romans 8:14 is intimacy with the Father and Son, as is the context of John 16:12 – 15. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of GPS, the Holy Spirit is God and we are called to relationship with Him. (Romans 8 is, in a sense, a wonderful exposition of John 16:12 – 15 and we’ll return to it in these reflections. How might you compare the two passages?)

The Holy Spirit is not in our lives to make us the center of life, but so that Jesus Christ is the center of life, that Jesus might be the heartbeat of our lives. 

There is really only one mark, one sign, one fruit, of the working and Presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual, a marriage, a family, a congregation, and that is the expression of Jesus Christ in word and deed, it is the glorification of Jesus Christ. In Acts Chapter Two, when the Holy Spirit came into the Church, when Jesus baptized His followers with the Holy Spirit, the result was testimony to God and Jesus Christ, Jesus was proclaimed and people were called to repent and follow Him, building up one another in Christ Jesus. 

What assurance Jesus gives us! The Holy Spirit will guide us, will speak to us, and will disclose Jesus to us. The treasures of the Father and Son will be given to us by the Holy Spirit. 

In his first letter, John writes:

“You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth” (1 John 2:20 – 21).

“As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and it not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him” (1 John 2:27).

John is writing in the context of false teachers (see 1 John 2:18 – 26). When John writes that “you have no need for anyone to teach you,” the context lets us know that John is affirming the Presence of the Holy Spirit within the Body of Christ, within the group of believers who are reading his letter. John is not saying that we don’t need others to understand the truth and to more fully know Jesus, that would be to deny the Body of Christ. John is saying that within the Body of Christ we are fully equipped in the anointing of the Holy Spirit to understand the things of our Father – we need not look outside the Church, the Temple, the Bride, the Gospel. 

I am saddened by our propensity to look outside our congregations for the Word of the Lord, rather than learn as a local people in Christ, rather than allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us as local expressions of His transcendent Body. While I strongly believe in cross pollination, while I emphatically believe in seeing and serving the universal and transcendent Church of Jesus Christ, I am also convinced that we ought to learn what it is for Christ Jesus to express Himself in us as local gatherings, as fully functioning communities in Him, After all, vocational ministerial callings are to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11 – 12). 

And here is a bit of an irony. The pastor or teacher who is most attuned to the transcendent Body of Christ is, I think, more likely to be secure enough to nurture full participation in church life within his congregation than a pastor who has a narrow understanding of the Kingdom. This is because such a leader has a transcendent context, has a heavenly perspective – one that dwarfs his denomination, tradition, parochial agenda…and that calls his people to a high calling in Jesus Christ. Yes, this is rare indeed. 

(This may seem like a tangent but wait until we arrive at John 17.)

Do we believe that we need the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus, to see and hear Jesus, to understand the Word of God, and to proclaim the Gospel? Do we believe that we need the Holy Spirit for our congregations to live? 

I doubt it. Whether we are Pentecostal or Baptist or Presbyterian or Roman Catholic or non-denominational (whatever that might be), I doubt that we truly believe and live as if we absolutely need the Holy Spirit to live, to breathe, to follow Jesus, to engage in ministry, to function as the People of God, to see and understand the Bible. Just as Jesus Christ is either everything or He isn’t anything, so we are either utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit or we are not. This is like a trapeze artist working without a net “just in case.” 

There is just too much risk for us to depend on the Holy Spirit. What would people think? How could we ever be so foolish as to surrender control to God? 

Consider what A. W. Tozer wrote in 1948:

“Every age has its own characteristics. Right now we are in an age of religious complexity. The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.” (The Pursuit of God, pp. 17 – 18). 

We are in a much worse condition today than in 1948, for today we have become experts in self-sufficiency, we have our own life – support systems which we market and induce our people to depend upon, and in which we educate our divinity students. Just as KFC has the image of Colonel Sanders at every location but does not need the real Colonel Sanders to operate, so we have symbols of the Trinity in our various locations, but we hardly need the Presence of God to function – we have lives of our own. 

Well, as I hope we will see, we have a glorious inheritance in Christ which we can experience today, right now (see Romans 8). We are the sons and daughters of the Living God, the sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ, and Jesus deeply desires to share with us TODAY the treasures which the Father has given Him. The Holy Spirit lives within us, He comes to us to join us to Jesus Christ, the Bride to the Bridegroom, cleansing us and washing us with the Word of God, presenting us to Jesus in glory (Ephesians 5:25 – 27), for after all, we are the fulness of Him who fills all in all (Ephesians 1:22 – 23). 

Jesus says, “All things that the Father has are Mine,” and this means that all things that the Father has are also ours, for we are “heirs of God and coheirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17). 

Do we believe this? 

Are we experiencing this? 

Treasures of the Cross

 Treasures of the Cross

Growing up in the D.C. area with a mom who was a teacher, not just by training but a teacher in her heart, meant that the Smithsonian was almost as familiar to me as our local playgrounds. While I gravitated toward history and my brother Bill toward science, I was fascinated by the mineral, stone, and gem collection in the Museum of Natural History.   

This was a long hall with displays on the right and left of many-colored and textured rocks, minerals and gems, presented in ways to help the observer best appreciate them. Some were exhibited in dark boxes with just enough light to highlight the beauty and colors of the piece – I recall a yellow piece (a rock or a mineral?) in a black velvet display with a beam of light shining on it, the contrast was striking. 

The journey down the narrow hall progressed in terms of the value of the items displayed, moving into the precious gem section, until at the very end of the corridor you arrived at the Hope Diamond. Many people came primarily to see the Hope Diamond with its many facets. While it has been decades since I’ve visited the Smithsonian, and while my old man’s memory is fading, that hall of gems and precious stones remains with me. 

There is a sense in which the Cross of Christ, though made of wood, is the hall of gems and precious stones for the Christian. (Note the many precious stones found in the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:10 – 27; there are also precious gems, representing the People of God, associated with the garments of the ancient High Priest, Exodus 28:15 – 21.)

Do we realize the many facets of the Cross? Do we see its treasures? 

If I were to ask you to tell me about the Cross of Christ, of why Jesus died and rose again, what would you say? If we were to ask a typical congregation this question, how would the people respond?

Would we hear about our dying with Jesus on the Cross? About our “old man” being crucified with Him, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin (Romans Chapter 6)?

Would our brothers and sisters tell us about dying with Christ on the Cross to the Law, so that we might be married to Christ and freed from our marriage to the Law (Romans 7:1 – 6)?

Would other professing Christians speak to us of there now being no condemnation, of us being set free from the law of sin and death? Would we hear about our glorious sonship in Christ, whereby we cry, “Abba! Father!”? (Romans Chapter 8). 

Is it likely that congregations would tell us that the Cross of Christ crucifies us to the world and crucifies the world to us? (Galatians 6:14). And if we did actually hear this, what would it do to our priorities? What would we do with our Nehushtans and Golden Calves? 

How many professing Christians would speak to us of Galatians 2:20? “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Is this our Way of Life? 

Would we hear about the Cross of Christ judging Satan and breaking the power of darkness? (Colossians 2:15; John 12:31).

How many would speak to us of being buried with Christ and raised with Him into the heavenly places? (Colossians 2:9 – 14; Ephesians 2:1 – 10). 

I have a book by John Stott titled The Cross of Christ, it is 351 pages. What might this tell us? In other words, how deep does our understanding and experience of the Cross go? Three pages, twenty pages, 351 pages? 

Or do we make it a paragraph or a sentence? “Jesus died on the Cross so my sins can be forgiven?” This is true, but it is one facet of the Diamond of the Cross that contains many facets, and it can’t be deeply appreciated without the other facets – they complement each other. 

The Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ is to be our Way of Life. There is no area, no facet of life, that ought to be outside the Cross of Jesus Christ. The very form of our lives is to be cruciform – it is to display the Cross. 

On this Good Friday let us ponder the treasures of the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. In Christ are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). 

Let us enter into the Cross and allow the Cross to enter into us. Let the Cross be the home in which we live, our heartbeat, our center of gravity, our portal into the Holy of Holies, the place where we are known and where we know the Trinity and one another. 

There are unfathomable treasures in the Cross, for in the Cross we know Jesus; we walk with Him and talk with Him and come home to our Father.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

“And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23). 

Let us enter into the treasures of the Cross and allow those treasures to enter into us…in Christ, always in Christ. 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (6)

 

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).

Jesus speaks to us to reveal Himself to us, to transform us into His image. In one sense this means that He speaks as we are able to hear and understand, in another sense it means that He challenges our understanding and hearing. Some things we may see more quickly than others, other things about Him and His ways may take more time and experience. This is true of us as individuals, as husbands and wives, and as congregations.

One element of revelation and teaching we must always keep in mind; Godly teaching will always be grounded in the Bible and the Bible will always be focused on Jesus. Always, always, always we want to see and hear Jesus. 

In the previous reflection I listed some passages to illustrate the idea that Jesus speaks to us about things as we are able to bear them. They also demonstrate that He speaks more than once over time about a matter, and that it may take us a while to grasp, in some measure, just what He is saying. Our lives are about relationship with the Trinity, they are not to be about scoring 100% on a Bible knowledge test. 

Here is an overview of the passages:

Mark 7:14 – 23: Jesus says, “There is nothing outside the man which can defile him if it goes into him; but the things that proceed out of the man are what defile the man.” As Mark, the author of this Gospel, retrospectively pondered what Jesus said, he made an editorial comment, “Thus He declared all foods clean.” 

This is especially interesting if we consider Mark’s association with Peter. Why? Remember this when we arrive at Acts Chapter 10. 

Had the disciples “heard” what Jesus was saying, there would likely have been much more for Mark to record, but they didn’t hear Him. The idea that the dietary laws of Moses were to be superseded by Jesus’s Message would have been, and would prove to be, a watershed in their thinking and practice – for this was about more than clean and unclean animals, it was also about circumcision and the entire way of life under the Old Covenant. 

The disciples could not bear the full understanding of what Jesus saying, but He was planting a seed.

Then we have John 4:7 – 42, what we know as the Woman at the Well. Here Jesus is not only sharing the Good News with a Samaritan woman and her village, but He is also saying that true worship is not about a place, that it is not even about Jerusalem, but rather about worshipping the Father in Spirit and in truth. When the disciples find Jesus speaking to the woman “they are amazed.” If they were amazed that He was speaking to a woman, I imagine they were further amazed when He spent two days with the unclean Samaritans of the village. 

The disciples were seeing Jesus treat the Samaritans as a clean people, yet were they really “seeing” what was happening? 

Then we come to Acts 10:1 – 11:18, Peter’s vision of the clean and unclean animals and his visit to the house of Cornelius the Roman centurion. Time has passed since Mark 7 and John 4. Jesus has been crucified and has risen from the dead. The Holy Spirit has come on the Day of Pentecost. Peter has been used by Jesus in many ways. Peter and John have even been to the Samaritans with the Gospel and laid hands on them to receive the Holy Spirit. 

Yet, Peter still has not heard and seen all that Jesus has been saying, for he still considers some food clean and some unclean, more importantly, he still sees some people clean and some unclean. But Jesus keeps speaking, Jesus keeps teaching, Jesus keeps revealing. While it takes the sheet being let down three times, and while it takes the Voice of God to make things explicit, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy,” Jesus keeps speaking – for Acts 10 is a kairos time, it is the season for the floodgates to open for the peoples of the earth to hear the Gospel. 

Then in Acts 11:1 – 18, upon Peter’s return to Jerusalem, the Christians of Jerusalem have to process what has happened. They need to deal with what Jesus has said to Peter and with Peter preaching to the household and friends of Cornelius. While the initial reaction was one of acceptance, when we arrive at Acts 15 we see that not everyone was happy about this new Way of life. Some disciples could bear what Jesus was saying and doing in His People, others could not. 

Galatians 2:1 – 21 relates Peter’s visit to Antioch in which he succumbed to the pressure of legalistic Jews and once again treated non-Jews as unclean people – in spite of what he had experienced in Acts Chapter 10! In this instance rather than give Peter another vision, Jesus gave Peter Paul’s rebuke in front of the church. 

What I hope we will see in the above passages is that Jesus kept speaking to His People over the course of years about there being no unclean people, which also meant a change in covenants – this was a radical message that took years to assimilate – after all, when we are raised a certain way, when we have been taught to think and act certain ways, it is a challenge to change – even with the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit – after all, we are living in jars of clay. 

Jesus kept speaking to His People about “things to come,” expanded ways of seeing people and the Gospel, renewed ways to live life in community. 

The last passage I listed is Ephesians 2:11 – 4:16. Here Paul, we might say, codifies the above passages, he puts them in a teaching framework with many facets – but they all flow from one thought, God has made one New Man in Christ, there is no longer Jew and Gentile, we are One Temple, One Body, One People. (We see this throughout the Epistles, but I’ve chosen this passage to make my point.)

As we see in Galatians, there was ongoing resistance to this, as there is today. In fact, much of the professing church in the West fails to recognize this, we keep taking a sword and splitting the Body of Christ into Jew and Gentile – how sad that we undo what Jesus Christ came to do on the Cross. Jesus has One People and only One People – His People, His Bride, His Church, His Temple. 

If you have never thought of these things before it may take you some time to ponder them, which is a good thing. We are to see the Bible holistically, not piecemeal; we want to see the entire picture, to watch the whole movie. 

I want us to see a few things. 

Jesus speaks to us as we are able to bear what He says, and He does so over time, in fact over a lifetime. This includes challenging us, it means at times He puts us in whitewater; Jesus upsets our equilibrium when necessary. It is good to have trusted friends to work through these things with in such times, it is good to have a Paul around to speak hard things to us. When our frames of reference are removed, when we are knocked out of our boats, it is good to have someone to throw us a life preserver with the name Jesus on it. 

The idea of “things to come” is about seeing Jesus, it is not primarily about future events. I will return to this in another reflection, but this term has been misused to focus on future events and thus distracts us from Jesus and our mission. The emphasis of John 16:12 – 15 is the glorification and unveiling of Jesus Christ in our lives, it is about us in Him as the daughters and sons of the Father – it is not about reading spiritual tea leaves. 

I am bemused when I see believers in knots about what they are supposed to do in this life. We are to know Jesus and love Him, more today than yesterday. Jesus says that the work of God is that we believe in Him whom the Father has sent. If we are not doing that work, then we are unqualified to do any work. Then we are to be on mission, to make disciples and teach them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us. And of course we are to be living in koinonia as His People, building one another up in Him. 

Our passage portrays a life of a continuing unveiling of Jesus Christ, of Jesus being glorified as we live in koinonia in the Trinity. This, above all else I think, is worship. Worship is our Way of Life in Christ, it is 24/7 and beyond, not relegated to time or place or whether or not there are music and lyrics – ought not our lives to be the lyrics and music of the cosmos?

Our daily expectation, as individuals, couples, and as a People, is that Jesus will be speaking to us, the Holy Spirit will be unveiling Jesus Christ to us. 

Now, if this is true, then we shall always have something to share with one another. We shall have Jesus. 

Yes? 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (5)

“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). 

We educate so that students may obtain good jobs, make money, and be successful. In the past we educated so that students would develop character, live responsibly, and contribute to society. I had a professor who studied obituaries from the 19th century and compared them with obituaries of the 20 century; those of the 19th century tended to speak of character, those of the 20th century of accomplishment and personality. 

Our utilitarian society employs utilitarian education which produces utilitarian people. If a thing is of no use, it is of no value. If a person is of no use, he is of no value. We consume things, we consume knowledge, and we consume people. 

We educate accordingly…and we bring this paradigm of education, this pedagogy, into the church. We look at the Bible as a database to be used, rather than as God’s Word which calls us to submission. We seek to form the Bible into our image, rather than allow the Holy Spirit and the Word to form us into the image of Jesus Christ. 

We also deceive ourselves when we speak of values in that values are changeable, whereas virtue is not. Our core values today may not be our core values tomorrow, for that which is not tethered to the transcendent is tethered to nothing. Are we using a compass or a weathervane to navigate life? (Ponder Paul’s list of virtues in Philippians 4:8).

If we think that “knowledge is power” then we are deceived, for true knowledge entails responsibility and service to others and ought to result in the formation of character. Our foolish first parents thought knowledge was power and we are still paying the price for their foolishness. 

The reason I’m writing these things is that in John 16:12 – 15 Jesus is speaking to us of the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus to us, showing us what is to come (we’ll explore this), and of us being on a trajectory of growth in Him. There were things the disciples couldn’t yet bear, and there are things we cannot yet bear. Jesus is not speaking to us about knowing “things” apart from knowing Him, but about actually knowing Him; He is not speaking about us knowing information but rather about us personally knowing the Trinity – the Upper Room leads us into the Holy of Holies of John Chapter 17. 

Are we teaching information in the church, or are we modeling what it looks like to follow Jesus? When teach the Bible, are we demonstrating seeing Jesus in the entire Bible, or are we teaching the Bible as data? Are we portraying Jesus Christ, or are we disseminating information about Jesus Christ? Can we can believe all the right things and yet not know Jesus? Are we teaching others to know our voices, or are we teaching them to know the Voice of Jesus?

Let us not gloss over what Jesus is saying in John 16:12 – 15, rather let us “receive with meekness the engrafted Word of God which is able to save our souls” (James 1:21).

Let us always recall that our Father desires that we be conformed to the image of Jesus, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers and sisters – relationship, relationship, relationship! (Romans 8:29).

How do we see Jesus in His words, “I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now”?

Our first thought may be that within a few hours Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, tortured, murdered, and buried. The disciples could only absorb so much, and the shock that was coming would disorient them in unimaginable ways. While Jesus had been telling them about His impending death for weeks, they did not understand what He was saying, it was simply too much, too far out of their realm of comprehension. 

What the disciples were hearing in the Upper Room was also beyond their clear vision and understanding, the things Jesus was saying to them were other worldly – and would become more so moving into the balance of Chapter 16 and then through Chapter 17. If we do not have a sense of how radical John chapters 13 – 17 are, then we have never experienced the passage…that is the most charitable thing I can write.

To be sure, the entire Gospel of John is replete with other - worldly words of Jesus, words which the disciples may have seldom understood, but words which they could experience to some degree. 

What may have Nathanael thought when Jesus said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51)?

Then in Chapter Two John writes, upon looking back, “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for Your house will consume Me’” (2:17). And then, “He was speaking of the temple of His body” (2:21). 

Or in 7:39, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus says things that either make no sense, or which the disciples only partially see and understand. Therefore, His statement that He has many more things to say but that the disciples cannot handle them yet, is both an acknowledgment of the horror and pressure about to descend on the disciples, as well as a continuation of a dynamic we’ve seen throughout the Gospel of John, as well as throughout Matthew, Mark, and Luke. 

Isn’t it encouraging that Jesus has many things to say to us? Our God is a God of communication, so much so that the Son is termed “the Word” (John 1:1). 

But here is something I hope we see, after the Resurrection Jesus did not do a data dump on the disciples and then say, “Okay, now go for it, go do your own thing. I’ve given you all the information you need.” God does not hand out diplomas in this life, His diplomas are bestowed when we appear before Him and the saints – and they are not awarded on what we know, but on how we have loved and served Him and others. 

For example, the title Acts of the Apostles can be misleading in that it can focus our attention on what the apostles did, rather than how they and the Church grew into the image of Jesus Christ. 

Consider, for example, the following passages: Mark 7:14 – 23; John 4:7 – 38; Acts Chapter 10:1 – 11:18; 15:1 – 35; Galatians 2:1 – 21; Ephesians 2:11 – 4:16. 

We’ll do an overview of these passages, the Lord willing, in our next reflection. What do you see in them? What is the storyline?

How might they relate to what Jesus is saying in John 16:12?

Our Last Battle (20)

Our Last Battle will always be about Jesus Christ; indeed, it is our ongoing battle. Will Jesus be our all in all? Will He be everything to us? For if Jesus isn’t everything then He isn’t anything. 

How long will we be deceived by dead lion skins? Will we have the courage to look inside ourselves and look for these skins? 

In The Last Battle, those worshipping a donkey in a lion’s skin soon found themselves sucked into worshipping Tashlan, and then Tash. Following caricatures of Aslan leads us into deeper and deeper darkness. When we accept caricatures of Jesus, portrayals of Him that look good, that are religious, that are “Christian” but not Biblical or in character with Him, then we move deeper and deeper into the opium den of murky half-consciousness until finally falling asleep in a stupor – a “Christian” stupor. 

Tirian fought a last battle with his anger, until he came to the end of himself and gave himself to Aslan and his people. Tirian paid a price, as did his people, when he failed to heed the counsel of Roonwit about the evil occurring on Stable Hill. It was only when Tirian offered himself as a sacrifice for others that he was delivered from his anger and found freedom in Aslan. 

The self-centered American church with its emphasis on pleasure and pragmatism, with its political and economic alliances, with its teaching centered on preserving our lives rather than laying them down for Jesus and others, this is a battle that we must fight – for if we surrender then we lose and those around us lose – only in the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ will we find enduring freedom, only as the Cross becomes our Way of Life can we possibly share the Life of Jesus with others. 

It frightens and sickens me to see professing Christians consumed by anger, endorsing anger, and justifying anger and lawlessness. Are we not called to be peacemakers as the children of God? Is not the wisdom of Christ gentle? (James 3:13 – 18).

As I’ve pointed out, Aslan does not appear in Narnia during the Last Battle, yet there are Narnians who are faithful to Him, and those Narnians will indeed behold His Face. If Jesus never appeared to us in this life, if this world were dissolved, as Narnia was, would Jesus still be enough for us? Do we love Jesus enough to be faithful to Him, and to Him alone, even though no one stands with us? Are we willing to be alone with Jesus? 

O dear friends, there are more dead lion skins in American Christianity than I can count, but there is only one Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and we are to follow Him wherever He goes (Mark 8:34 – 38; Revelation 14:1 – 5).

I’ll close with words from Jim Elliot, let us remember them as we fight Our Last Battle, “He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” 

Much, much, eternal love in our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Holy Spirit - Revealing and Convicting (4)

 

“I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

“All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” John 16:12 – 15. 

Now let me say something that may not have occurred to us, what Jesus is saying He is saying to us as a People, as His People; the Good Shepherd is speaking to His Flock. While we in no way want to negate the individual, and while we must not say that the individual cannot experience what Jesus is saying – in fact we affirm it – Jesus is speaking to us as His Bride, His Church, His Temple, His Family, His Flock. 

The Holy Spirit speaks to the Church, He guides the Bride into all the truth, He discloses Jesus to us, He takes the treasures of Jesus and reveals them to us as a People. Romans 12:1 – 13; 1 Corinthians 12:1 – 14:40; 1 Peter 4:10; and Ephesians 4:1 – 17 (and much else in Ephesians), portray an organic People in Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ. Note that Ephesians 4:1 – 16 gives us our trajectory; “the building up of the Body of Christ…the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ…grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” 

In these passages we see the importance of the individual to the Body, the individual contributes to the health of the Body, and the Body contributes to the health of the individual. It is foolish to think that my arm can have a life of its own, and it is foolish to think that an individual Christian can have a healthy life without being joined to the communion of saints, the Body of Christ.  

While I can see Jesus Christ as an individual, while I can hear Christ as an individual, while I can touch Jesus Christ as an individual (and be touched by Him), I will see more of Him, hear more of Him, and sense more of Him as I experience the koinonia of the saints. I will also grow in Him as I fulfill my calling in His Body. 

What does this look like? Well, my sense is that each local gathering has its own expression…if it is allowed the experience and not constrained by old wineskins. My sense further is that this expression can change and take various forms organically, certainly one size or pattern does not fit all - we want organic substance, we want Jesus (let us hope), we desire to be faithful in mission, in worship, and in building up the Body of Christ – locally, regionally, globally. 

For sure this is a challenge, for believers are not generally encouraged to contribute their vision and experience of Jesus to the local assembly – they are programmed to sit and listen and give money and time and naturalistic talent, but seldom are they given opportunity to share Jesus with their fellow church attendees. By and large folks are content with this because this is all they know, it can be safe, and it doesn’t require too much relationally. As an acquaintance of mine used to say, “It is difficult to have followship with the back of someone’s head.” 

My observation is that often meaningful relationships in the Body of Christ are formed outside of local congregations with disciples who are passionate about Jesus, who want to spend time together, who want to get to know other disciples, and who want to share Jesus with the world. So – called parachurch ministries can often be the venue in which these relationships begin because people associated with such endeavors can be serious about Jesus – they often realize that if Jesus isn’t everything then He really isn’t anything. 

(Another example is that before I retired, I hosted a weekly lunch fellowship in my office. It consisted of men whom I had met through my business career – we shared, we prayed, we reflected on the Bible. I sure miss those times and those men.)

In my own life I have been blessed with friends over the years who are taking this journey with me, some of whom are now in the Presence of our Lord Jesus (yet I still sense them with me on the journey). I am very much the product of friendships, of relationships. I am the product of the communion of saints, which includes Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Augustine, Fenelon, Andrew Murray, C. S. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers, and many more. 

My point is that we need each other. We need one another to know Jesus in His fulness, we need each other to help us along the Way, we need one another to fulfill our calling in Christ Jesus. This is a hard thing in that only a minority of professing Christians are interested in discipleship and in relationship, it is a hard thing because Christianity, as it is practiced in the United States, does not encourage a functional Body of Christ. It is a hard thing because, while the Bible teaches us to lay down our lives for one another (1 John 3:16), much of the professing church caters to the “self.” Our religious organizations tend not to serve the people, but rather have the people serve the organizations. 

While the “ministry gifts” of Ephesians 4:11 were given by Christ for the “equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12), we have turned that concept on its head by viewing those in these ministries as being responsible for doing nearly all of the work of service…and sadly most of us in vocational “ministry” are only too happy to go along with this misconception…after all we need our paychecks.

Relationships in the Body of Christ are hard to find and they require investment to maintain (as do all meaningful relationships), but they are certainly worth it, they are treasures…and we really can’t live without them. With them we will see Jesus as never before, with them we will experience adventure as we never could imagine, with them we will know what it is to live life with a band of brothers and sisters, we will experience God’s high calling to His heavenly City…that City which will one day be clearly seen on this earth…that City which is our Forever Home. 

End Note: As a pastor, I never thought the structure in which I functioned was Biblical. I never thought our forms of worship were a holistic Biblical expression. My desire was, however, that we would discover Jesus and one another and that our ways of doing things would be transformed as we grew in Christ. As people were given permission to share what Jesus was giving them sweet things happened. As they were given opportunities for koinonia outside of Sunday, opportunities to know and be known in Jesus, they discovered Christ in His Body. On the other hand, there was at times fierce opposition to freedom in Christ, to the threat to the religious status quo, for some people do not like to surrender control. Sometimes, as a pastor, I got it more right than at other times, sometimes I got it wrong. Well, we do what we can by the grace of God…I hope. 

I’m still on my journey, and thankfully I still have some friends.

What about you? What does your journey in Christ look like? 

If you were to fall off the mountain, do you have friends to hold the rope? 

Our Last Battle (19)

Only Aslan, Only Jesus

The Last Battle is the only book of the Narniad in which Aslan does not appear in Narnia. Yes, He is of course in the true and eternal Narnia, but He does not appear in the Narnia of the Shadowlands in the seventh book. Or does He?

As we witness the transformation of Tirian, as we see the wisdom of Roonwit, as we behold the love and faithfulness of the King’s cohort, we can see Aslan’s working within His People. In the remnant of Narnians who remain faithful to Aslan and the King, in their faithful deaths, we see the working of the transcendent Aslan, the Son of the Emperor-over-Sea. 

This is a reminder that we don’t know what the immediate or intermediate future looks like, other than we know that Jesus is always and forever with us. Isn’t this what matters? After all, aren’t we citizens of heaven and aren’t we looking for that City whose Builder and Maker is God? (Philippians 3:20; Hebrews 11:8 -16). 

The Stable was a portal of judgment for some, and a portal of heavenly glory for others. The inside of the Stable was greater than the outside. While the Calormenes thought they were driving Tirian into the Stable as an offering to the fearful Tash, Aslan was waiting to embrace Tirian into heavenly glory. Let us recall that as the rocks were falling on Stephen, beating out his life, that he beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. Jesus stands up for those who stand up for Him. The King of kings stood to receive and embrace His brother and His servant Stephen, to welcome Stephen to Stephen’s forever home.

“But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one” (Hebrews 10:32 – 34). 

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation” (1 Peter 4:12 – 13). 

The professing church in America has created a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry out of prophecy, and we have sadly exported it to much of the world. It avoids the Cross of Christ; rather than calling disciples to suffering for Jesus and others, it concocts scenarios in which believers escape from trial, tribulation, and having to faithfully witness for Jesus Christ by laying down their lives as their Way of Life. 

This Babylonian industry often leads to political alliances that soil the garments of believers, teaching them moral and spiritual promiscuity, worshipping Tashlans. 

Jesus is not the center of this industry, but it is too big to fail for it has its claws into the souls of millions of professing Christians. Most pastors (those who are aware) dare not challenge its message, for their people have been seduced by it and they would sooner change pastors than change their thinking. The denominations which are home to these purveyors dare not challenge them because they represent money and membership. Publishers love them because they sell books and other media. They are too big to fail, they are bigger and more profitable than the Gospel. 

If we look to Jesus, if we look for Jesus, then we will learn to see Jesus, and though we may not “see” Him in one sense, we will love Him and we will rejoice with inexpressible joy and glory (1 Peter 1:3 – 9). 

Our message is to be Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2) and the goal and purpose of every faithful teacher and pastor and prophet and apostle and evangelist is to present the People of God as a pure virgin bride to Jesus, wedded to Jesus, wedded only to Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:1 – 3). 

The purpose of Biblical prophecy is to reveal Jesus Christ, and the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). 

Let me try to illustrate what I’m talking about, here is a quote from the website of a popular teacher:

“Every year, _____ and other renowned Bible prophecy teachers unfold hidden meanings and revelations concerning world events. This conference has become a favorite among prophecy enthusiasts, especially as end-time events continue to escalate at a rapid pace. Make plans to join _____ at the __________ or take advantage of these teachings available online.” 

What in the world is a prophecy enthusiast? And isn’t all wisdom and understanding found in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2: 3)?  And where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ in all of this? What is the attraction? Who is the attraction? 

This teacher is too big to fail. He takes in too much money and has too great a following for his denomination to ever question his center of gravity – were that group to wake up.

O dear friends, Biblical prophecy unveils Jesus, it calls us to Jesus, it transforms our lives into the image of Jesus, it makes us more faithful witnesses to Him and the Gospel, it humbles us, it makes us agents of peace, it forms us to live sacrificial lives, cruciform lives, it teaches us to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

Biblical prophecy is not entertaining, and it does not appeal to our curiosity, nor does it call us to form alliances (political or other) with the forces of this world. Biblical prophecy is not escapist, preaching a doctrine of avoiding tribulation and pressure. 

For a thoughtful and Biblical approach to prophecy, I recommend Discipleship on the Edge – An Expository Journey Through the Book of Revelation, by Darrell W. Johnson, Regent College Publishing. You can also find some presentations by Johnson on YouTube.

One of the most insidious elements of the “end-times movement” is that it creates a false sense of security among its adherents. It has folks convinced that they will be removed from earth before things get bad, whatever “bad” may mean. This shallow thinking could only gain traction in an affluent society, for our brothers and sisters who are already in difficulties know better. This cotton candy thinking trains people to avoid the Cross, to avoid suffering for Christ and others, to avoid Biblical discipleship.

A poisonous fruit of this thinking is that when the time comes for tough decisions, we take the easy way out – rather than witness for Jesus we align ourselves with the pragmatic, with what we foolishly think is the lesser of evils – perhaps because we cannot conceive that we are called to suffer with Jesus and to suffer on behalf of others. 

If our lives are not formed by the Cross as our Way of Life, then we need not deceive ourselves that we will be faithful when severe times of testing come, we will have become like frogs in a kettle. 

Tirian and his cohort were faithful to Aslan though He did not appear, they loved Him even though they did not see Him…or did they?

What about us and Jesus?