Honor Who

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

HONOR WHO

John 7:14-19

14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?" 16 Jesus answered, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17 If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18 He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?" 
NIV

There most of been men of that time who went around speaking to gain honor for themselves, teaching and preacher to gain followers for they own benefit. It seems that even today we might well have the same kind of people doing the same thing, speaker for the own gain, rather than for the honor of God. It is evident in this believer’s life, there is no talent whatsoever, other than the gift that has been bestowed upon him by God. This of course does not excuse all of us from speaking the truth about God, but we must do it in a manner that does not bring honor to us. Those who have a ministry of performance in some musical capacity might become distracted by all the applause given for their performance, even if their intent is ministry rather than performing. Preachers might get distracted from bringing honor to God, by all the well-intended compliments of how great a message it was. We must be very careful not to accept praise for what we do as ministry and even in our work within the world. This is not easy as we all seem to have been raised to work our best so we can advance our position in life. We want to be recognized for our achievements, praised for our great work, but unless we give honor to God for the way we are, the diligence we give to our work, our life, our ministry, we might be guilty of speaking on our own so to gain honor for ourselves.  We need to always bring honor to Jesus, always speaking both verbally and in the actions of our lives about the truth of God, but with the singular purpose of bringing honor to God.  We need to know to whom it is we honor.

No Whispers

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

NO WHISPERS

John 7:10-15

10 However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that man?" 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews. 14 Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 15 The Jews were amazed and asked, "How did this man get such learning without having studied?"

It seems there will always be differing opinions about Jesus. These people were whispering theirs because they were afraid of what some others would think of them for just having an opinion. It is a curious thought how even today, it seems some believers seem to whisper their opinion of Jesus. Maybe this concept of people will know we are Christians based on our life is a form of whispering our opinion of Jesus. Are we afraid what people might think of us, if we publicly declare, we are Born Again, bible thumping, Holy Spirit Filled, full fledge followers of Jesus, and we believe the whole Bible as the inspired Word of God, word for word, and it has absolutely no error, and the Jesus is the only way to be saved, to gain eternal life. What if we stood tall and spoke up out loud whenever we were with others, believers and non-believers alike. That old saying about if you what to be seen stand up, and if you what to be heard speak up, but if you want to be appreciated sit down and shut up may be the way people want us believers to be, but we cannot afford to sit down and shut up, or even whisper. Of course we are always going to have those who whisper about Jesus being a deceiver of people. Those who refuse to accept him as Lord and Savior say all sorts of whispers trying their best to plant a seed of doubt in our minds. But we cannot listen to their whispers, but only to the voice of God, that still small voice which directs our life. We need to stand tall for Jesus, no whispers, no apologies, just stand up and be heard. Jesus is the Lord of our life, we believe he is more then a good man, we believe he is God in the flesh. No whisper.

 

Loved or Hated

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LOVED OR HATED

John 7:1-9

7:1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2 But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6 Therefore Jesus told them, "The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8 You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come."  9 Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

NIV

We could focus on the doing good deeds so the world could see, but that is not the main point of the truth here. The main point is that the world hates Jesus because he testifies to the truth and the evil that people do. In our more postmodern churches we are faced with the preaching of loving everyone, hoping to love them into the kingdom. If we show them all our good deeds in the community they might think kindly of us, and maybe just pop in church someday so they can hear a message geared for believers, but never hear the gospel and their need to repent and turn from their wicked ways. It would appear Jesus did not pull and punches, he told it like it was, and because of that he was hated, if fact they wanted to kill him. Should we not be more like Jesus? Should we not tell people the truth, that sin is sin and it is evil and God does not accept their sin? Although he does still love them, in fact so much that he sent Jesus to die for them. This is the message we should be telling them, not just trying to love them into the kingdom. We cannot be tolerant of sin, in us or in others. We need to tell it like it is. If a person is living in sin, we should just love them enough to tell them the truth. If we say we love them, but let them remain living in sin, without Jesus, then we truly do not love them, but are just giving them lip service. Love means telling the truth, Jesus did, and of course some people did not want to hear it, in fact they refused to hear it, and wanted to shut him up by killing him. Should we want the world to love us, or hate us? If we are like Jesus, then the world will hate us. It is what it is, so are we loved or hated?

To Whom Shall We Go?

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO

John 6:67-71

67 "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." 70 Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!"  71(He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
NIV

There is no doubt that Jesus chose those twelve men to be special men in the plan of God to bring the Good News to the rest of the world. Jesus selected each of them, called them out of their daily lives to follow, to learn from him, to be men who would change the world. Some people today would say that all men are chosen by God, that is the only people who can be saved are those chosen by God, but we know that simply is not true, for all men may be saved, Jesus died for the whole world, not just few those twelve and the others chosen by God. But in this conversation we should focus on the question Jesus asked, and the response of Peter. From this question of Jesus, it is apparent men may leave him. We just say many turn back from following Jesus because they thought his teaching was too difficult. Now he is giving his chosen twelve that opportunity to leave as well. That surely implies men has the free will to walk away from Jesus, therefore man also has the free will to follow Jesus. Peter had it right when he responded, “To whom shall we go?” Jesus asks us that same question, if we what to leave him too. It does seem rather odd to thing we, as believers would turn back, yet some have as so we should be aware it is possible for us to turn back too. What would we turn back too? It would seem obvious we would turn back to a life of sin, doing whatever we wanted to do without restrictions, yet turning back might also be as simply as just being self-reliant, living under the same principles of the world, rather than trusting God. Turning back might be as simply as turning back to a life of following rules and regulations set forth by a denominations interpretation of selected scriptures, or rather their rules and regulations and selected scriptures they chose to prove their position. There are all sorts of ways of life we could turn back to, but to whom shall we go? Jesus has the words of eternal life. We believe and know he is the Holy One of God. Could Judas be the only one who ever betrayed Jesus? When we turn to living under the law, under the rules and regulations for finding a righteous life, are we betraying Jesus? When we based our righteousness on a check list of do’s and don’ts are we betraying Jesus? Yes we should endeavor to live in a manner that pleases God, and we should refrain from anything which could be labeled as sin, but we cannot ever be perfect, we cannot ever be good enough, we cannot ever find righteousness in anything but faith in Jesus. We cannot ever turn back to any way of living we knew before coming to Jesus, we must live completely in him, for to whom shall we go?

Keep the Truth

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

KEEP THE TRUTH

John 6:60-66

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? 62 What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him."  66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
NIV

It appears it is much easier to follow the Law than to follow Jesus. Although the Law had so many rules and regulations, many devised or added by man, they felt the simple truth that Jesus was teaching them was too hard to accept. This is also where we get the truth about eating his flesh and blood, that he was speaking spiritually and not physically, for there is not a single person who has every actually done that, we have all used, even Jesus, at the last supper, bread and wine, as a symbol of remembering what he did on the cross, giving up his flesh and blood for us. Here is also where we see some people who followed him, people called his disciples turn back. They preferred their old lives which would lead to death then to follow what they perceived as hard teaching. What appears is they could not see with spiritual eyes, they could not grasp the spiritual as they were too imbedded in the physical. It would seem they felt more comfortable with the rules and regulations numbered out for them, then to accept true spiritual teaching. But Jesus knew that, yet he continued to teach the truth, not willing to compromise in order to convince them to stay. Each man must make his own choice, the Father makes every effort to influence people toward Jesus, that is one of the most uses of the word grace throughout the New Testament, the influence of God on our hearts and how that is reflected in our lives. God endeavors to influence all men toward Jesus, but some are not influenced and so it is true that only those who are enabled by the influence of God come to Jesus. The others would rather live under the rules and regulations of religion. This brings us to the question whether some today who thought they came to Jesus, but in reality could not cope with the freedom in Christ, the true spiritual teaching of Jesus, and therefore devised denominational rules and regulations which seemed easier to have a list of things they could check off they do not do, and a list of things they do. This would seem they too felt his teaching was too hard and turned back to a religion of man. It is far better to follow Jesus then to follow any other way. We must keep the truth as simple as the truth is. We cannot ever turn back to religion; we must stay true to the truth of Jesus. Keep the truth.

The Only Bread of LIfe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE ONLY BREAD OF LIFE

John 6:52-59

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."  59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
NIV

We should include the rest of what Jesus has said, so that we can include the part where he says what he said is spirit, but we will get to that later, yet we do need to keep that in mind as in the natural, this would certainly appear that he is suggesting people actually feast on his flesh and blood. On the other hand as we know he did not actually mean that. There are some mockers, who would use this to prove the whole bible is an allegory, but that would only be people who love the darkness trying to hide from the light by trying to prove the light is not actually light. This kind of argument is what existed in those who were there listening to Jesus as well. They and many today just cannot see or hear the truth when it is put right to them or they see it and do not want to see it, thinking if they do not admit to seeing it, then it does not exist, it is therefore not the truth. We know without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was not telling people to be cannibals, but that they had to accept him into their lives, as the bread of life. He was the only way people would ever experience eternal life. There is only one God, and only one Son of God and only one bread of life. Jesus reminded them about the fact their forefathers ate manna, even manna provided by the Father, but they stilled died. Any other food, any other faith, other in Jesus, concludes with death. Jesus is the only bread of life. There are so many religions throughout the world, but none of them include eternal life, except Jesus. Because God almighty, the creator of all things, is the only God who is not an invention of man, for there is no other actually God, although in some sense a god is what people worship as a god. God, the creator of all things, is who and not what, as are all the manmade gods of this world. Jesus is the only bread of life. There is no other god that can or did do what Jesus did. There is no other god that created all things and who sent his only Son to atone for the disobedience of the people he created. Jesus is the only bread of life.

So Clear

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

SO CLEAR

John 6:41-51

41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."  42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 44 "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 

NIV

Admittedly a large chunk, but it is better not to break this up. People just can’t see past their own noses, their own closed minds of what they have always believed. Sure they wanted free food and were willing to follow Jesus in order to get it, but at the same time they could only see him as the son of Joseph. If they knew his parents they most likely had seen Jesus before, many even when he was a boy, but they had just been feed, all five thousand of them, with two fish and five loaves, yet all they could see is this son of Joseph and Mary. Jesus was telling them if they actually believed in the words of the prophets, if they actually listened to God, believed he spoke to the prophets, they would have learned from the words of God that Jesus was the Messiah, the anointed one, the one sent from heaven. It is not much different today. Many people use the Bible as the basis of their faith, many people call themselves Christian, as opposite to some other religion, but that is as far as it goes. They do not actually believe God. They have not really listened to the Father and learned from him, otherwise they would come to Jesus, they would be born again. This believer never every read the Bible before coming to Jesus, but the Father drew him to Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is what Jesus meant about the Father draws people to Jesus. But all of us, one way or the other have believed God and came to Jesus, either through his words, or through the power of the Spirit. Now we have some people who make such a big deal about this eating of the bread of life, of bread being the flesh of Jesus. Yes, Jesus is speaking in a parable, or it might even be considered a hyperbole, but he is making the point that he will die for us, to satisfy the Law, so we can have eternal life through him. Anybody in their right mind would not even think that Jesus was suggesting those people become cannibals. If that was the case only those people could have been saved, we would not have been able to eat his flesh, except to make up some bread and wine and use that as his flesh and blood, as he told his disciples at that last supper with them. Some even believe, through a miracle that wine or grape juice and wafer actually becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus, which would make them cannibals, in some sense. But he did not tell them that would save them, but it was just a way to remember what he came to do, that he came to give his flesh and blood for them, for us. We cannot be saved by eating the bread, his flesh, we can only be saved by accepting him as our Lord and Savior, and that is what Jesus was telling them. He was the Bread of Life sent from the Father to bring them eternal life. If they believed God, then they would believe he is that Bread of Life, and they would accept him as the Son of God, sent from heaven and they would devour every word he spoke, and believed in him. It is so wonderful to believe in Jesus, to know the truth about him. How can anyone miss this? How can anyone misuse this? It is so clear.