Posted by: pastorapbell | December 16, 2010

as we allow Jesus to multiply the little we bring to him!

In this section of his discourse John presents a scene that is alluded to in the other gospels. Jesus had just crossed the Sea of Galilee where he is followed by a large crowd. Obviously there are no shops on the mountainside, but Jesus is reportedly asking Philip where to go to buy bread. John tells us that Jesus was setting him up as he (Jesus) knew what he was going to do next. It could be that Jesus was fulfilling the promise made by Moses to his ancestors when he said “may the Lord of your ancestors bless you and increase you a thousand-fold as He promised”(Deut. 1:11). Now if Jesus was there at the beginning as John suggested at the beginning of his writings, ch.1:1, then obviously he would know about this promise.  So the story continues. Philip gives a logical answer and calculates that not even six months wages, that is, 180 days worth of money or 180denarius could feed this crowd.  Up popped Andrew and presents a boy with five loaves (small bread rolls for his sandwich) and two fishes and qualifies this by reportedly saying; we have a little but there is about 5000 people here!

Once the people were in and orderly manner, Jesus then provided enough fish and bread to feed them with left-over. This is the God that john is presenting to us this Christmas. A God who takes the little you have and multiply it a thousand times. So if you have a lot or a little this Christmas, give it to Jesus and stand back in amazement and watch it multiply over a thousand-fold.

Jesus is lord over all our circumstances, so give him everything you’ve got and watch him transform it and you. Have a read of John 6:1-15.

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Posted in Restoration | Tags: , , , ,

Posted by: pastorapbell | December 15, 2010

as we receive the Son of righteousness

Although John is different from the other gospel writer in that he is concerned with presenting a  Jesus that is 100% divine and 100% human, he presents Jesus as part of a family. So he records Jesus repeating, “I can do nothing on my own (5: 19), I only do what I see the Father doing (5:19), it is the Father who show the son what to do v.20, the father raises up the dead and gives life, so does the son.”

I n this passage Ch. 5:19-47, John presents Jesus as someone who is completely dependent on the support guidance and strength from the father. And later on in chapter 17 he records Jesus praying for his current and future followers.

Today as we draw closer to Christmas, let us remember that it is all about family and good relationships. Part of the mission of Jesus was to show us how to live in good relationship spiritually, emotionally and physically. By knowing who we are and who we belong to we are able to develop and maintain good healthy relationships which are not predicated by one-upmanship or clambering over each other to get to the top.

So today let us embrace the stance of Jesus and try to do what the father does by hearing, seeing and doing what the son did!

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 14, 2010

as we investigate the perpetuation of tradition!

Jesus heals whenever and wherever!

The reason for God sending Jesus into this world is to save those who have lost their way. This involves getting people to look beyond their immediate circumstances, exercising their faith and see the great possibilities that are open to us when God gets involved. In the vast majority of cases the reality is that we try to sort things out for ourselves in our own way. God knew this and he also knew that for a vast amount of people they prefer things to remain just the way they were. However, when Jesus passes by, he changes all the traditional rules and gets straight to the problem. We encounter this in John Chapter 5:1-18. There is a crippled man sitting by a poolside waiting for someone to lift him up and put him in the water so as to receive his healing. He lay waiting there for 38 years. Imagine the bed sores he had, the stench from sitting in the same position day in day out. His unkempt nature! Then Jesus comes along and asks him what seems to be an obvious question, v.6. Do you want to be made whole? Not do you want help to carry out your tradition? Or can I put you in the water, but do you want to be healed physically and spiritually?

The sick man answered according to his tradition and started to make excuses. Jesus commanded him to get up take up his bed and walk! On Hearing the living active word of God, he got up took up his bed and walked.

As we approach Christmas, let us remember not to get carried away by the hype of the season and remember that we are celebrating the advent of God among us. And that he comes to bring healing, deliverance and restoration to every part of our anatomy.

Jesus is still working whatever season it is in your life! John 5:17. So get up lay aside you traditions and live!

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 13, 2010

as we focus on the reason for the season

John tells us that Jesus came from above and is above all, whilst those who belong to the earth only speak of earthly things. Jesus was unable to testify about heavenly things because those surrounding him did not have the capacity to understand or believe. Like Nicodemus, they were living in the ‘soulish’ realm’ (John 3:31-36).

He reminds us that the Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands and that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.

Today as we who believe in the Son celebrate his birth, the vast majority of people, especially retailers, see this period as a time to boost their annual sales figures. The whole world has gone commercial. Money talks and the birth of Jesus is subsumed in rampant consumerism. Some folks don’t have Christmas trees, others don’t give presents. Let us have balance in our lives as we celebrate Christmas but remember that it is all about Jesus. Christmas is not only about presents, food and drinks, but it is about God the father sending his only Son to be a light for all of his creation who sit in darkness.

 As we go out shopping we will notice that Jesus is seldom mentioned by any of our high street retailers. They are even removing references to Jesus from Christmas cards!

Let us fight to have Jesus at the centre of our nation again. Let us pray that the true light from God will shine even brighter this Christmas!

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 11, 2010

as we embrace the radical nature of the Son of God

After the introduction to the mysterious nature of Jesus John get straight into the main course of telling his hearers about the uniqueness of Jesus and how he relates to those on the margins, those at the centre and those in the intersection. We are presented with a scenario that would never happen with a traditional Rabbi. Jesus gets into a dialogue with a woman by the side of a well at midday. Now we learn from John that the woman is a Samaritan. These are people who were the product from liaisons of the descendants of Israelites with the surrounding nations. So today they would be called mixed heritage. They we virtually outcasts, belonging to neither group. We must also remember that in those days women did not have a voice and were always on the margins. To make matter worst, this Samaritan woman had a chequered past. However, it is Jesus who makes the first move. May I have a drink? (v.7) why are you asking me that for, our people don’t talk let alone eat together, so who do you think you are? Who do you think you are? (vv.8&9). Jesus moves the conversation from the natural to the spiritual and eventually awakens the dormant spirit of this broken abused woman (vv10-24). After this encounter the woman left the task she came to fulfil and went into her city to evangelise! She had heard about the Messiah, knew about her religious heritage and practices but never had a real relationship with a God who was prepared to accept her as she was so that he could turn her world upside down.

This Christmas let us be reminded that our lives can be radicalised if we stop running around and sit and have a drink with Jesus. Your drinking habits will never be the same.

Have a read of John 4.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 10, 2010

as we travel with john back to the future

John’s gospel does not start with the birth narrative like Matthew or Luke nor does it go straight into the work of Jesus. He takes us back to the future. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things was made by him and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was light and the light was the light of men. The light shone into the darkness but the darkness did not understand it” (John 1:1-5 paraphrased).

John is presenting us with a pre-existent Jesus, one that holds all things together, made all things and then left his glory to come in humility to redeem his fallen creation.

He was born to an unmarried teenager whose fiancée nearly abandoned her (became flesh)

Born in a smelly stable where animals lived during winter

Spent his formative years as a refugee asylum seeker in a strange land (Egypt)

Grew up in a n obscure village called Nazareth

Trained as a carpenter, making rough timber smooth

At the age of 30 went on a preaching tour for three years that started a movement which continues today

Was betrayed by a friend (Judas)

Left to die on a rough piece of wood (became a curse for us. “Cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree” Gal 3:13)

Rose from the dead

Ascended to heaven

And is coming soon!

What a saviour! And like John all we can say is “those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe in him are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only son of God (John 3:18).

Amen

 

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 8, 2010

as we consider what it is to be “born again”

In chapter three of John’s gospel we are presented with a term that has become a mantra for many Christians.

This is the Kingdom of God

Although this is the only gospel where Jesus makes this statement many denominations and fellowships live and die by it. You are not saved unless you are born again! I am a born again Christian! You must be baptised using a certain formulae or you cannot enter heaven!

All these statements are contentious and miss the point that Jesus was making and which is made elsewhere in other gospels. We must remember that the greatest interpreter of scripture is scripture itself. We are reminded in scripture that we should read ‘line upon line and precept upon precept’ (Isaiah 28:10), so that we do not take things out of context or skew their meaning.

Jesus taught his hearers that the kingdom of God is here. That is; the king had arrived announcing a new and dynamic kingdom where the principles it operates by are completely opposite to those of the kingdom of humanity. And so when Nicodemus approaches Jesus in secret and enquires if he could be part of his kingdom and still be a religious zealot, Jesus responded with a categorical NO! The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom and can only be accessed by faith. However, for you to enter into this kingdom, you must believe in the king openly, renounce false religious practices and develop a new mindset (Romans 12:1&2).  

So today we are called to be ‘born again’ by believing in Jesus as the lord of lords and the king of kings; asking Jesus to baptise us in and with the Holy Spirit and living honestly and justly with our fellow men and women.

The only other person who uses the term is Peter in 1Peter 1:23 and as we have seen by embracing King Jesus his life was revolutionised.

Read John 3 and put on your spiritual 3D spectacles!

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 7, 2010

as we submit to the authority and power of Jesus

After leaving the wedding in Canaan, John takes us to the temple in Jerusalem where the people had subsumed to doing things that were outside the remit that God gave them through Moses. He presents a side to Jesus that many of us never see.  Particularly at Christmas when we think of gentle Jesus meek and mild, one who is innocent and would not harm a fly. John tells us that knowing that they had made the house of the Lord into a market place Jesus made a whip and drove them out (St. John 2:13). Matthew tells us that he overturned their tables and scattered their money on the ground (Matt 21:12ff). Like today people had made the house of God into a farce. Instead of praying and fasting they were having fetes, bingo games and even feasts. For us today it is time to return to our original mandate. The house of the Lord should be a HOUSE OF PRAYER.  David recommends that we enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise (Psa 100:4). So the question for us is this: what have we made the house of the Lord? Is church a place we go to when we feel down or a place we go to hear a personal prophecy or to get a word? Or is church a place where God lives by his Spirit? If it is a place where God lives then like David we should go there to give thanks not to get our egos pampered or our lust for a quick fix satisfied.

Those who congregates in any place and call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10:13). For when we call on his name he will come in power and bring healing, deliverance and restoration to all. As we approach Christmas let us remember that Jesus is no longer a baby or is in the grave but he is making intercession for us so that we can recognise his power and his might.

Read St John 2:13-25 and Matthew 21:12-17 as you asks yourself, should I be doing spring cleaning in December?

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 6, 2010

as we join John on his journey of excitement

When John stated his journey of following Jesus he was always on a high. He records in chapter 2 the incidence of Jesus turning water into wine. Although he was still probably teenager, drinking wine was not seen as a problem. Indeed it was healthier to drink wine that water during those times due to hygiene and sanitation issues. Jesus was not sanctioning getting drunk or drinking to excess, since this was only the third day of the wedding. What he was doing was demonstrating his power over nature and John reports this early in his account to show that Jesus was truly greater than their Jewish concept of Messiah.  Two things to note here: 1. Jewish weddings lasted for about a week and was finalised by the bridegroom coming at midnight to get his bride (see reference to this in the parable of the virgins in Matthew 25). 2. The Jews thought their Messiah would come, sit on the throne of David and restore Israel as one of the greatest nations in the vicinity.

 Similarly today many people are still seeking a benign manby pamby Jesus who wipes their noses and dries up their tears. Jesus is the Lord of the universe as John demonstrates and we need to discipline ourselves so that we can serve him faithfully and fruitfully in our generation. He wants us to prosper, but prosperity in not just in the things you have but in how we relate to those around us. We ought to live our lives with an element of excitement but earthed in the fact that Jesus is Lord of Lords and king of kings and nothing is impossible for him.

Today the issue for us and John was not that Jesus turned water into wine but that Jesus is lord and king over the natural, spiritual and ethereal things.

Read John 2:1-12.

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Posted by: pastorapbell | December 3, 2010

as John the man tells us of his journey from following the Baptist to learning from Jesus

The apostle John started following Jesus as a young boy probably around the age of 15. We glean this from some of the reports in the gospels (see Matthew 17:24-27), where Jesus and Peter pay the temple tax but the other disciples does not. This is because in Jewish custom and culture you were not a man until you were 30 years old or above. As a boy disciple, he was allowed to follow Jesus because his mother was part of Jesus’ support network and so he tagged along. We can assume that his father had also assented to this because he had allowed his wife to cook and clean for Jesus. So John grew up seeing firsthand the power of God move in is community with miracles as an everyday occurrence.

When John had time to reflect and to write of his experiences, he writes about the man Jesus and portrays him as being fully man and fully God at the same time. So John say things like: “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God” St. John 1:1. And “the word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of the father’s only son full of grace and truth.” V.14.

In John’s time like today, everyone is looking for something to meet their felt and perceived needs, however these needs cannot be met and satiated until the spiritual hole that exists in all humanity is plugged.  And it can only be plugged by being reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. As a seeker John the beloved found Jesus as a young boy, followed him and left a legacy that has stood the test of time. Do you want to leave a lasting legacy? Find the holy one of God and follow and love him with all your heart soul and mind.

From his initial encounter with Jesus, John was a transformed individual. Read his initial account in St John chapter 1.

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