“His (Christ’s) authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.
Without the Bible world evangelization would be not only impossible but actually inconceivable. It is the Bible that lays upon us the responsibility to evangelize the world, gives us a gospel to proclaim, tells us how to proclaim it, and promises us that it is God’s power for salvation to every believer. It is, moreover, an observable fact of history, both past and contemporary, that the degree of the Church’s commitment to world evangelization is commensurate with the degree of its conviction about the authority of the Bible. Whenever Christians lose their confidence in the Bible, they also lose their zeal for evangelization. Conversely, whenever they are convinced about the Bible, then they are determined about evangelization.” John R. W. Stott
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After several attempts to plan a trip to Bangladesh, they were canceled due to Covid and other obstacles. These made us depend more on the Lord to open this door. God’s Plan for His Disciples has been translated into Bengali, printed and ready for introduction. We are very thankful to tell you that Tim and Randy leave Tuesday for Bangladesh and are scheduled to be there March 23rd to the 29th. Please keep them in prayer. Our goal in traveling to Bangladesh for the past two years has been to encourage and equip the local church pastors and leaders in anchoring their lives and ministries in the authority of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. We also desire to give them a vision for reaching the Rohingya people. The Rohingya are classified as the most persecuted people group in the world as they have been undergoing an "ethnic cleansing" from Myanmar and now are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. One of the refugee camps is the largest in the world with nearly a million Rohingya people living in a 4,000-acre compound. The Rohingya people are Muslim in practice and need the gospel of grace. Please pray that through Tim and Randy’s visit these leaders will catch a ‘God sized vision’ to carry the gospel into these camps. I know God's timing is perfect and that His Spirit at times "prohibits" us from going to certain places when we plan. Acts 16:6-10 reminds us that we want ONLY Spirit-led opportunities rather than our own. They become “effective” opportunities that produce much fruit. “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:1–3).
Can you sense the passion of Paul for the Christians at Corinth in these verses? He had deep concern for this church that caused him more pain and travail than any other church. Considering all the issues Paul had to address in two letters, let’s look at the real basis for his concern.
Pastors, elders, teachers, is this your passion for those you serve? At one of the recent training events, our team sensed division between the students. Rather than say anything, the team began introducing God’s Plan for His Disciples. With much prayer and asking God to work in their hearts, they saw the Holy Spirit using Scripture to produce personal conviction that led to repentance. It was obvious that God’s power was working through His Word to achieve unity among the brethren.
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1). The atmosphere of a place immediately changes when we allow the Spirit to create HIS unity. It will always begin by our desire for it. If there is disunity, God’s work is hindered, He is not glorified, and there is little or no fruit for Him. In addition, the Spirit is grieved (Ephesians 4:30). We often avoid issues that cause division or some degree of disunity. How do we start addressing conditions like this? Returning to Scripture and asking the Spirit to speak to us through the Word is the best way to start. Peter says, “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble”” (1 Peter 5:5). Are you willing to apply this principle in any situation where disunity has affected the Church? As I looked at John 14 again, I asked myself the question, what does Jesus mean by “whoever has my commandments and keeps them” (21)? I discovered those first two words mean to “possess, own or hold on to.” It is the idea of making the words of Jesus your own because of their value. Keeping His words is not a matter of ‘law keeping’ as in the Old Testament, but because of their value to the relationship with Him that they are kept. Jesus’ words are treasured as part of the relationship built on love.
This is not a new subject in John’s Gospel. When the Jews reacted to Jesus making Himself equal with God, “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I came from God and I am here” (John 8:42). Later He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death”” (8:51). What a promise! Jesus makes these vital connections that are unique to a relationship with Him. Those who love Jesus and keep His word have the promise that “the Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (23). This is one of the most precious verses of Scripture! It speaks of a permanent intimacy that is known and experienced by someone who knows Jesus as their personal Savior. If we are not experiencing this intimacy, we may lack genuine love for the Lord and are not keeping His Word. Perhaps we need to follow Paul’s instructions in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. With Jesus departure from this world back to the Father via the cross only hours away, He repeats principles in a way that reinforces critical truth for the disciples. One theme is that Jesus is leaving this world and going back to the Father, but in doing that, His disciples are not going to be left alone (“orphans”). Jesus immediately follows this statement by saying, “I will come to you” (John 14:18). How and when would this take place? Was He referring to His return for the Church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)?
The world will think they have killed and silenced the Son of God and leaders even created a lie to support their goal just in case there was a resurrection as Jesus promised (Matthew 28:13). “The world will see Me no more, but you will see Me (John 14:19). How can this be? Remember that one of the main points of chapter 14 is the promise that the Holy Spirit was coming to fill them and “He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (26). Not only that, but His works will continue through the disciples and they will do even greater works (12) when they are filled with the Holy Spirit. What Jesus is trying to impress on their hearts is that He will be with them (us) through the Spirit. Read Matthew 28:20. I wonder if we really understand how important Pentecost is and the Spirit filling every disciple impacts us with the presence of Christ. How would this transform our work to be more effective for His glory? As I continue my morning devotions in John 14, there is a noticeable difference in the approach to ‘obedience’ between the Old Testament and the New. The quote from Leviticus 18:4–5 gives us a look at obedience from the Law. “You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the Lordyour God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.”
In John 14:15-17, Jesus brings together two great thoughts in these three verses. First we see the link between love and obedience. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (15). Love was not part of the motivation for obedience in the Law. In other words, we can’t fully obey Jesus' words without love for Him being the underlying motive. The second point in these verses is that we are not left alone to work out our obedience. A provision had been planned before the foundations of the world that Jesus would ask the Father to “give [us] another Helper, to be with [us] forever” (16), one just like Jesus. There would be something different about this Helper, though He is exactly like Jesus in divine character, He will never leave us under any circumstance. As we grasp this truth, we realize that we have a constant Helper to draw from that makes our obedience flow out of love for Christ. It is no longer obedience based on rules, but love. There are mornings when I feel compelled to spend more time on a section of Scripture that has such a powerful impact on my life and witness of a disciple. John 14:8-14 is one of those passages that captured my attention.
Perhaps verses 8 to 11 express the oneness of the Godhead more than any other passages. Jesus told Philip that to see Him was the same as seeing God the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” is spoken twice in these verses, plus Jesus says that “the Father who dwells in Me does His works.” This conveys the perfect oneness, closeness, and unity that exists between Divine Persons. In addition to that oneness, everything Jesus was in His humanity, every word, and every deed was a perfect revelation of the Father. We should note at this point in reading Chapter 14 the expression “dwells” is used of the conjunction with the Holy Spirit coming to reside in the believer (verse 17). This does not mean there is the same oneness as in deity, but because the Spirit was sent from the Father to indwell us as disciples, but the Spirit in us works to produce a unity between us and the Father and the Son. Only the Spirit in us can create this unity. He also causes us to have a real desire for that unity. Humanly, we are unable to desire or cause that kind of unity to happen without the Spirit’s work in us. The more we want to see God’s will accomplished in us and in this world will dictate whether we are willing to let Him change us into the image of Christ. One of the topics I address occasionally in this blog is the reaching the lost, whether that means individuals or people groups. Jesus addressed this subject in many settings, but there are occasions that are completely different from each other that I will refer to here.
The first is in March 11:15-19 where Jesus enters the temple and throws out all the commercial trade that is going on. This got the attention of everyone there including rulers who wanted to kill Him. Then He says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (17). First observe that Jesus calls this place “My house” referring to the place where God meets with those who come from “all nations” (panta ta ethnê), meaning all “people groups.” This statement would have been a shock to any Jew who held to the traditions. Jesus was asserting that God’s house would be a place where every Gentile people group would be represent, not just the Jews. As Jesus was finishing His final days with the disciples in Chapter 13, He gives them a clue about what the last days would look like and their role as His “witnesses”. But the end would not come yet because “the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations (panta ta ethnê), all “people groups.” This view is given by Jesus in numerous other occasions by Jesus including Matthew 28:19. As we let this truth sink into our hearts, be sure that our missionary actions follow His intent. When John the Baptist “saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes awaythe sin of the world” (John 1:29), and 1 John 3:5, “You know that He [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins.” Notice the difference in terminology from my post yesterday on the Old Testament which used the word “atone” meaning to cover. “Takes away the sin” means to “carry away, destroy or withdraw” which is a complete removal of sins, not just to cover.
I want to take you back to Hebrews 10:1. “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to comeinstead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.” That is why I referred to all those sacrifices as covering sin, but never taking them away. Verse 14 is very important to understand. “For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” PERFECTLY CLEAN! This verse includes two very important principles that we cannot forget.
I trust this has been helpful in understanding the difference between the offering required by the Law and what Jesus did by His sacrifice on the cross. He is worthy of all praise! |
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