“Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because
we have now heard for ourselves. Now we know that he is the Saviour
of the world.”
Observation
The
woman turns the discussion to where is the right place to worship.
Jesus tells her that the time has already come that the Father does
not care about where we worship God but that we worship in spirit and
in truth.
The
disciples return and urge Jesus to eat something. Jesus replies
that His food is to do the will of the Father.
Many
of the Samaritan villagers believe in Jesus because of the testimony
of the woman, More importantly they believe He is the Saviour because
they encounter Jesus for themselves.
Application
The woman believes in Jesus because she recognises He is a prophet.
He told her her life story then gave a new account of a God who loves
everybody and not just the Jews.
She tells her friends who come to see for themselves. They believe in
Jesus because of the woman’s testimony. Meeting Jesus for
themselves is a different, deeper experience.
John’s story of the expanding kingdom of God is about people
encountering Jesus and then taking their testimony of that experience
to others who come to see for themselves who Jesus is.
Our personal testimony of Jesus is the greatest tool of evangelism
that we have. Nobody can argue with our experience.
Secondly there is an invitation, “Come and see this man who told me
everything I have done.” At their own meeting with Jesus He becomes
more than an abstract theory but a real person.
People are not saved by hearing a personal testimony but it is a
great place to start. Having shared that testimony, we need to pray
that they will move on to their own encounter with Jesus,
Prayer
Thank you Lord for saving me from sin. Please help me to share my
story and to invite others to come and meet Jesus. Amen.
“Those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It
becomes a fresh bubbling spring within them, giving eternal life.
Observation
Returning
from Judea to Galilee, Jesus passes through the Samaritan village of
Sychar. He stops to rest at Jacob’s well. A Samaritan woman comes
to draw water.
Jesus
tells the woman about the living water He has which can become a
spring that bubbles up within and gives eternal life.
Application
Jesus is the water of life, the source of eternal life.
The water He offers is not just a refreshing drink on a hot day- a
drink that is soon forgotten.
Jesus’ water is eternal life. When we drink deeply from Him, He
refreshes our soul. He gives us resilience , the strength to live
with joy through the trials of life.
The water that Jesus gives enables us to live forever. This water
cleanses us from sin and restores our relationship with God.
This eternal life, sustained by dwelling in Him, becomes a source of
life for others. A spring bubbles up within us.
That living water must flow out to others. The life that Christ gives
to me is meant to be shared. A spring that is blocked up is no longer
a spring.
We
share the living water by bringing Christ to others through our
testimony. We are called to witness to others about the powerful
change Christ has brought to us.
We
also share Christ by sharing the incredible love He has for all
people. Acts of love, deeds of kindness, reconciliation of
relationships, bring life to other people and point them to Christ.
Prayer
Thank you Jesus for being living water to me. Show me who to share
your life with today and every day. Amen.
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 1:11. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site.
Ephesians 1:11
In him we are chosen, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will.
It is hard to know who the “him” and the “his” refer to in this verse. Right through the chapter the subject is God the Father.
In God we were chosen (“Predestined” in the NIV) according to God’s purpose.
We were chosen. At first glance this would suggest the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. According to this doctrine, only some are chosen out of the whole of humanity, and it was only for those chosen ones that Christ died. Those chosen ones were “predestined” – that is qualified for heaven- before time began.
But God is bigger and more gracious than that. Jesus died for the whole of the human race. “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son.” (John 3:16) In that sense every person is “chosen”, but only those who receive Christ are in the Kingdom and share in eternal life.
We are chosen according to God’s purposes. He has a course for every person’s life, a path that He wants us to follow. That includes the saved and the unsaved alike.
We have all been created for the purpose of praising God and glorifying Him. The highest expression of that purpose is when we willingly and thankfully follow Christ, walking in the path of redemption and the process of becoming holy as God is holy.
Even those who are opposed to God’s purposes fulfil His purposes. Those who reject the way of Christ are still made in the image of God. Though reluctantly, they show the glory of God in the same way that the rocks and the stars sing praise to the Almighty.
At a deeper level, those of us who are saved and rejoice in Christ are a part of God’s purposes in redeeming creation. As we bear witness or testify to the power and glory of the gospel, more and more people are saved. The time will come when all people will be transformed by the Good News, and the mission work of the church will be completed.
It is hard to imagine what it would be like for the whole world to be under the Kingly reign of Christ, but that is God’s purpose for us.
God accomplishes all things in conformity to His will. God has purpose and will achieve it. He accomplishes all things. Nothing slips past Him as if it takes Him by surprise. “I never saw that coming” is not in His vocabulary.
He accomplishes all things. He always gets everything done that He intended. In that sense the broken world in which we live, with all its violence and sinfulness, is designed to achieve His purposes. Not that God is responsible for sin, but that He uses it.
We have to conclude that His purposes include raising a Kingdom of people who, though born in sin, raised in an environment of sin and constantly surrounded by sin, nevertheless still choose to follow Him and prefer righteousness.
Only humans, a breed of creatures who are both physical and spiritual, could achieve this. Only men and women can apprehend the glory of a God able to redeem them from sin. We are the chosen ones.
God accomplishes all things in conformity to His will. He has plan and purpose, and His deeds are directed by His purpose. This is Good News. It means that nothing is random or meaningless. God’s purpose is always present.
Evolutionists and cosmologists talk of random events- galaxies, mutations, big bangs and so on. Ascribing phenomena to randomness only indicates that we cannot see the whole picture. Our minds are too small to contain God’s purpose. This is especially true in science which consciously excludes God and is forced to insert randomness instead.
This is true of our lives. We see the idea of a random event and a random person as a way to explain this event and that person. Even the deepest tragedy is not random. It is not sent by God but it may be used by God in His purpose.
“No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.”
Observation
Jesus spends some time baptising people. Some of John’s disciples
come to John and say that Jesus is getting more baptisms than John
is. John replies that Jesus is the Messiah. He, Jesus, must become
greater while John becomes less.
Jesus is from heaven and testifies about heavenly thing. John, on the
other hand, is from the earth and testifies about earthly things.
Application
When people pursue spiritual gifts or ministries, there can be a
tendency to forget that they are gifts or callings given by the Holy
Spirit, They can run off at a tangent, chasing an experience of God
rather than chasing God Himself.
John’s disciples missed the point about John’s ministry, a
mistake made by Jesus’ disciples later. It was not about the number
of people being baptised by their group. The point of John’s
ministry was to pave the way for Jesus.
Whatever we seek, it only comes as a gift from God, whether we
recognise that or not.
This apples in families and businesses also. The top entrepreneurs in
the world get to be rich and famous because they worked hard and
because God gave them a particular gifting.
Every good gift comes from our heavenly Father. We can do nothing
unless God allows it.
So when we pursue something from God, we need to make sure the gift
or ministry is not an idol, that is something that becomes more
important to us than God Himself.
If
we remember that everything is a gift from God, our hearts will be
filled with gratitude and thankfulness- a much healthier state than
the anger and sense of entitlement that mark much of our society.
Prayer
Than you Lord for every good gift from your hand. Amen.
There is no judgement against anyone who believes in him. But anyone
who does not believe in him had already been judged for not believing
in God’s one and only Son.
Observation
God
loved the world so much that He sent His one and only Son so that
everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus came into the world to save us not to judge us.
Anyone
who trusts in Jesus is saved, and there is no judgement against them.
The judgement is this- God’s light came into the world and people
preferred the darkness.
Application
No judgement against believers!
I talked to a distressed pastor the other day who said something
like, “I’m afraid that God will say to me ‘You should have
pushed harder, got more people saved.’” Even among pastors
(especially among pastors!) there is a fear of God’s judgement
because we are not good enough or not doing enough.
There is no judgement for those who trust in Jesus. God will not
confront us for our sins. That is all dealt with in the blood of
Jesus.
The judgement christians face is the sheep and goats judgement, the
division between believers and unbelievers.
We already have our “boarding pass”! We have already been judged
as sinless because it’s all covered by the cross.
What
about the verses that say things like “You will be judged for every
idle word”? The judgement is on unbelievers not the believers.
Every sin will be accounted for, but every sin that christians commit
is covered by the blood of Christ.
Does
this mean that we should be complacent or lazy or just live according
to what we want to do? Of
course not! Having received such love from our Holy Father God, how
can we trample it on the ground or take it for granted? To believe
Jesus is to follow Him in a life of holiness.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for the blood of Jesus that covers every sin. Amen.
Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt like hypocrites but had been forced to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made
That’s exactly what you are- no feeling like it at all!
The protestors actually admitted what they normally refuse to say:
Solar power is more expensive
Solar power (especially in northern England!) is unreliable and requires backup by traditional reliable means.
From The Manchester Evening News:
Climate change protesters admit using a diesel generator to power their stage
Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt like hypocrites but had been forced to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made
A diesel-powered generator is being used to run the music stage at the Extinction Rebellion protests on Deansgate.
Organisers told the Manchester Evening News they felt “like hypocrites” but had been “forced” to use the generator because it would have been too expensive to get a solar panel made.
The protest – which has brought one of Manchester’s busiest shopping streets to a standstill to highlight the threat of climate change – is on its third day.
Graham Buss, 63, said: “We were desperate to get a solar panel specially made for the demonstrations but it would have cost us £8,000.
“That’s money we simply don’t have.
“Even if we’d been able to get a solar panel made, we would have still had to have had a diesel-powered generator as a back up.
“It’s something we really do regret having to use and we feel like hypocrites, but this is the point.
“We’re part of a system that has made it incredibly difficult to use solar panels for these sorts of events and we feel like we’ve been forced to have to use the diesel generator.
“Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives
birth to spiritual life.”
Observation
A Pharisee called Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night time.
Nicodemus says that he can see that Jesus’ miracles are a sign that
God is with Him. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to be born again
in order to see God’s kingdom.
Nicodemus can’t understand this phrase, so Jesus explains that we
must be born of the Holy Spirit to have spiritual life. Just as we
can’t see what drives the wind, we cannot see how the Spirit works.
As Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness, so too will
Jesus be lifted up to bring eternal life to people.
Application
We
can only enter into eternal life by being born again. People
can reproduce biological life, which is quite a miracle in itself.
But spiritual life, eternal life, can only come through the Holy
Spirit.
This means that we cannot force anybody into the Kingdom. It is
between them and the Holy Spirit. Clever selling techniques,
evangelism programs, incentives to attend church services, and the
like will bear no fruit unless a person is born of the Holy Spirit.
It also means that we cannot force our own way into the kingdom.
Whether by determination, good works, or by playing the role of the
good christian, we cannot prove ourselves worthy of eternal life.
Our spirits must be born of the Holy Spirit.
At the heart of salvation we must have a relationship with God
through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be born
again.
Prayer
Thank
you Father for the gift of eternal life. Thank you for causing me to
be born of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
New Life Narrabri 