JESUS WEPT

“Lord, the one you love is sick.” Jesus loved Lazarus.  Although Bethany was only one day’s journey away (18 miles) Jesus waited two days to begin the journey for He knew by divine revelation that Lazarus had died the day the messenger was sent by Mary and Martha.  Since rabbinical custom held that a dead person’s spirit tries to reenter the body for three days after death (called the days of weeping), it was necessary to resurrect Lazarus on the fourth day to dispel any notion that he “hadn’t died”.

This demonstration of God’s resurrection power would glorify Jesus and thereby glorify God the Father, and confirm to His disciples that He was the Messiah. But it would not come without tears for neither Martha, Mary or the Jewish mourners believed that Jesus could bring Lazarus back to life, even though they had witnessed many other miracles. They “believed” that Jesus could have prevented the death of Lazarus but not that Jesus could bring back to life a dead body that “stinketh.”

 When Jesus saw Mary and the Jews weeping, sobbing and wailing in grief He “groaned in the spirit and was troubled.” “Groaned” is from the Greek word embrimaomai, which means to be painfully moved, greatly grieved, to moan in anguish of heart.  It was then the Holy Spirit recorded the smallest verse in the Bible: “Jesus Wept.” The tears our Savior shed were not for Lazarus for He knew Lazarus would soon live again.  And they were not tears of sympathy for His friends Mary and Martha.  No, something much deeper, much stronger troubled the Son of God in His Spirit, causing Him to continue to “groan” in grief. With His humanity covering His divinity Jesus shed tears reflecting His inner grief.  The unbelief that surrounded Him, the inability of even His close friends to fathom who and what He was grieved our precious Savior to tears. I don’t know which is more amazing, a God who raises the dead or a God who weeps at our unbelief. Jesus is still, today, shedding tears of grief at our unbelief.  He is still saying to the church, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God.”  (Jn. 11: 1-44)

How Beautiful: Because He is our loving Savior

How Human: Because He was

How Sad: Because our unbelief grieves Him to tears

EVERY JOT AND TITTLE SPEAKS OF JESUS

The Bible is an integrated message system, where every detail, every number, and every place name has significance.  Its origin is demonstrably from outside the domain of time itself.  It proves its supernatural origin by describing history in advance.  It demonstrates the architecture of divine engineering through the integration of 66 books written by 40 authors, over thousands of years.  The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed; the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed -- one book, one message. God has left a slew of ‘Divine Fingerprints” to engage the inquiring mind studying His word. The genealogy listed in Genesis chapter five demonstrates this supernatural integrity of design:

                                    Adam:             Man

                                    Seth:               Appointed

                                    Enos:              Mortal

                                    Cainan:          Sorrow

                                    Mahalaleel:   The Blessed God

                                    Jared:             Shall Come Down

                                    Enoch:           Teaching

                                    Methuselah:  His Death Shall Bring

                                    Lamech:         The Despairing

                                    Noah:             Comfort or rest

The meaning of these 10 generations of names as listed in the text was derived from the Hebrew Root Dictionary.  The meaning of these names when read vertically down, as a sentence, clearly demonstrates the plan of God, God’s redemption, was laid out before the foundations of the world.  Even in the “misty” beginnings of the book of Genesis God is declaring His plan of redemption and revealing Jesus.

MAN IS APPOINTED TO MORTAL SORROW.  BUT THE BLESSED GOD SHALL COME DOWN TEACHING; HIS DEATH SHALL BRING THE DESPAIRING COMFORT.

DECONSTRUCTING MATTHEW 5:6

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.” Hunger (gr. peinao) is to be famished, starved, and thirst (gr. dipsao) is to be dry.  Both words are in the Greek present participle denoting a continuous and unquenchable hunger and thirst, literally the starving and dehydrated ones. The contextual metaphor is righteousness as spiritual nourishment: Ardent desire for right conduct before God that accords with His will and is pleasing to Him.  This conduct must, therefore, include love of God and love of all people who God places in our life path, within our sphere of influence. It must include unflinching obedience to God’s will, His word, in thought, deed and action.  It must include sacrifice, mercy rendered to the hurting world that surrounds us, including sacrifice of our time, our resources and our possessions. After all, are we not but stewards over these talents?  And it must include passion, passion in love, passion in obedience, and passion in sacrifice – people of one thing passionately pursuing the heart of God. God puts into willing hearts the desire to be in right standing with Himself, then clothes these hearts with the gift of His righteousness, the blood of His beloved  Son, so that His children can stand before Him -- God’s holy vision filtered by the precious blood of Jesus.  The phrase “shall be filled” is a very strong and graphic term originally applied to the feeding and fattening of animals in a stall, and here expresses the complete satisfaction granted to the spiritually “hungry” and “thirsty”. This passage expresses a dichotomy between the two states of “unquenchable desire” and “complete satisfaction”, which can only exist simultaneously in God’s Kingdom. There is, co-existing, a constant and recurrent hunger for and satisfaction with God’s righteousness, a deep consuming growing hunger, abundantly satisfied yet never relieved. The spiritual nourishment received from one filling is expended in hungering and thirsting anew for another filling - for they shall be filled and filled and filled and filled... And the need only grows with each filling. Could this be the meaning of God being likened to a consuming fire, consuming His children with passionate desire for relationship with Himself?  Spiritually prosperous are the ones who continually crave right standing with God, because they themselves shall be filled so as to be completely satisfied, while ever wanting more.

THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

From within the pattern of God’s purpose, by which He works all things according to the counsel of His sovereign will, God gives His Holy Spirit.  Simply put - it is God’s sovereign disposition.  Thus whatever said on the human side about the situation, context, and atmosphere of receiving the Holy Spirit is altogether secondary to God’s sovereign action.  In this sense, God gives when He wills, not according to human condition, but according to His overall design and purpose.  Therefore, there is a continuing mystery and humanly speaking, unpredictability about the giving of the Holy Spirit.   This was true of the first Pentecost in Jerusalem.  God had long purposed (and promised) the outpouring of His Spirit, and when the divinely planned time had arrived the Holy Spirit was given.  The disciples “tarried” to reach God’s timing.  This was God’s timetable, not man’s.  It dealt with God’s overarching plan in history.  It was an event of “the last days” according to the divine promise.  Likewise, it is important to emphasize that the movements of the Holy Spirit through history to the present day are grounded in the sovereign purpose of God, the ebb and flow of the Holy Spirit, and in particular the crescendo of the Spirit’s outpouring since 1900, points to divine intention.  God is doing it again and with such universality (“upon all flesh”) that we may surmise that “the last days” are being fulfilled before our very eyes, and that history is reaching its consummation. The critical point, the primary concern, is that it is not a matter of human concern but God’s concern.  Like the original disciples who participated in the coming of God’s Spirit because it was God’s time, so do we participate in our own day.  We are privileged to be alive in what may be the climactic outpouring of the Spirit at the end of the age.  Our concern is not unimportant, neither is our readiness to participate in what God is doing, but the basic matter again is God’s sovereign purpose.  Further, since it is a matter of the gift of the Holy Spirit, there is nothing anyone can do to earn it.  By definition a gift is freely bestowed; it cannot be worked for or bought.  It would be a serious mistake to think that while forgiveness is by grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit is by works.  And, however true it is that God sovereignly grants His Holy Spirit, it is only to those believing in Jesus Christ, those who are on The Way of Faith which leads to the constituents of faith, the observable expressions within faith that demonstrate the faith context in which the Spirit is given: prayer, obedience, yielding, expectancy. It is these attitudes of the heart and mind that herald the outpouring of God’s Spirit at any time in any age.

THE SECRET PLACE

If I call to you

You will answer me

If I run to you

You will run to me

All my days are known

From eternity

In Your secret place

You will meet with me

He who sees in secret

Calls me to His chamber

To behold His beauty

And still my raging heart

There is peace abiding

In His secret chamber

Glorious peace and joy

Residing in His heart

Then I come to meet you

Knowing You will tarry

 Just to be here with me

The one who stole your heart

To delight in Knowing

You are glad to see me

To delight in knowing

That I have won Your heart

So I call to You

And You answer me

 Then I run to You

And You run to me

In Your arms of love

Is eternity

In Your secret place

I find rest in Thee

(Mat. 6:6; Ps. 91:1)

GOOD PLEASURE

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Lk. 12:32).   This golden nugget of a command swaddled in grace appears within a context devoted to worry, the saint’s propensity for nagging anxiety about the physical necessities of life, which all too often drift well beyond needs into wants.  “Fear” (Gk., phobeo) embodies terror, and in the classical Greek usage meant fright causing flight -- to run away. “Do not Fear” is a command to stop doing something we are doing – stop fearing! “Little” (Gk., micros) quantitatively means few in number, giving size to  “flock” which it modifies, and with the definite article identifies this as God’s little flock, correlating to the “few”, the small number that find the narrow-gated difficult way to eternal life (Matt. 7:14). “Good pleasure” (Gk., eudokeo) must be thoroughly “rung-out” to get the full sense of what the Holy Spirit is saying here. Eudokeo’s basic meaning is to be well pleased and to think it is good. This means not only to think well of something by understanding what is right and good, but to stress the willingness and freedom of intention and resolve regarding what is good. Usage here is in the supratemporal with a clear sense of choice, resolve and love: The emotional God who loves whom He chooses and loves what He chooses and is resolute in His choices. “Give” (Gk., didomi) means to give of one’s own accord with good will – to grant, bestow, impart. “Kingdom” has the definite article identifying it as God’s Kingdom. Notice the contrast between the “little flock”, the helpless frightened little band of believers, and “good pleasure” the emotion with which the God of All bestows His domain as a willful unrequited act of pure supernatural resolute love. As God’s little flock we need to perceive the eternal love that envelopes us, the everlasting arms that encircle us and the extraordinary transcending inheritance bestowed upon us by our Father’s good pleasure in giving us His Kingdom. With boundless love and great tenderness God woos us into a favored place of pure intimacy – superabundant life in the King’s domain. It will cost us everything – absolute surrender always does – but we simply cannot fathom what He has in store for us. Fear not, it is our Father’s good pleasure!

ENJOYING GOD

Something is missing from our lives. It is the enjoyment of God as our supreme treasure, our "Pearl of Great Price."  Something is wrong with our approach to life. It is our foolish determination to enjoy something else, some paltry thing of this momentary pilgrimage on earth, as much as only God can be enjoyed, and to value our pleasure more than God’s glory.  Experiencing God is in itself a source of greater pleasure than experiencing anyone or anything else. If we could taste that intimacy, if we knew what it is to draw near to God and to feel Him draw near to us, if we realized how we are the ones to whom the Father and Son through the Spirit reveal themselves and in whom They make Their home, we would keep the “Better Life of Blessings”, the addiction of our old nature, in its place as a lesser thing, never demanded, never desired as a first thing passion. The knowledge that God and man can live in fellowship is hidden in Christ. It is too wonderful for sinful, corrupted human nature to discover. But we have, in Christ, the way into God’s presence without fear. Those who enjoy this communion are gloriously united to God through Christ and share in all the glorious and excellent fruits of such communion. The Spirit is inviting each one of us to walk a very different path, to embark on a radically different journey.  We’re bidden to come as we are, boldly, without fear, even though our souls still sometimes seem a cesspool of foul muck with no living waters in sight, abandoning ourselves to God for whatever He chooses to allow, waiting for Him to reveal how near we are to Him already in every circumstance of life, and to then draw us nearer still. This is walking in the Spirit, where the supremacy, majesty and sovereignty of Jesus is the fulcrum on which all else is balanced, and to love Him with the Father’s love is our only desire (Jn. 17:26).

PANNING FOR GOLD

The Bible is much more than a “broad outline” for Christians to meander through; it is a detailed roadmap for those traveling the narrow difficult way to eternal life with God. “Approach the Bible not only as a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking.  God’s speaking is in the continuous present” (A.W. Tozer).  If we considered God’s word to be treasure than we are all treasure hunters, workman digging in the treasure field of God’s Word, searching for golden nuggets of divine truth.  God has given us some spiritual standards, interpretive tools to guide our digging.  Using these tools wisely is essential to finding, discerning and knowing truth. A mind frontloaded with attractive viewpoints and opinions will invariably conform scripture into its own preconceived image, by pulling scriptures out of context, spiritualizing scriptures and ignoring parallel passages. God’s truth is hidden in plain sight for the pure in heart who simply want to know Him. Let the context interpret the text. When the plain sense of scripture makes perfect sense, seek no other sense. Consider all topically related parallel passages. Build truth on multiple foundation stones, multiple verses. Compare scripture with scripture, allowing scripture to explain itself. The “new and better covenant” has new and better commandments to regulate the Christian life on the road into eternity with God. Let the New Testament define new covenant doctrine – one wouldn’t use a California Roadmap to travel Missouri – new wineskins require new wine. And above all remember: The purest truth rises out of the text itself. (For a detailed study on interpreting the Bible send e-mail request to johns@mowisp.net)

LET THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN YOU RICHLY

IF NOT FOR GRACE

We ask God as a means of receiving from Him, we seek God in order to find Him, or rather to be found by Him, and we knock to gain entrance into His Kingdom. The promised results of our efforts are stunning in their spiritual significant: We receive, we find, and it is opened to us. In a sense “knock” is to continue to ask and seek, sort of a built in metaphor, the perseverance that unlocks the King’s domain. The “Pearl of Great Price” and the “Treasure in the Field” are metaphorically interpreted several ways and rightly so for God’s word is by no means shallow or common. They may represent man, individually or corporately, as seen through the eyes of a loving Savior who was willing to sacrifice His all on the Cross... to purchase us with His precious blood. They may represent Jesus, who certainly is worthy of man’s pitiful sacrifice, his life in submission to the Lordship of Jesus... a life for a LIFE. They may also represent God’s awesome Grace, His enabling power that provisions all that we experience as His children... Grace enabling what it commands. We ask and Grace answers... we receive. We seek and Grace answers... we find. We knock and Grace answers... opening the door into God’s presence. God releases an immense and unbroken supply of His Grace to mankind, to bring us to Himself and transform us into Christlikeness... a spiritual heart transplant. Our task is to keep knocking, to keep asking and seeking, ever drawing closer to the one passionately pursuing us, while sinking in His immeasurable ocean of Grace... His superabounding Grace...

THE POWER OF GRACE

Wish fulfillment is the primary fantasy of the human heart - clawing for Eden - but Eden is gone and though we want very much to believe we can fix our lives in a few simple steps, like making coffee or boiling an egg, we really can’t – we are broken well beyond human capability.  The essence of God’s message, the gospel of Jesus, isn’t a bunch of hoops to jump through, a divine checklist to be completed, a list of rules to be followed, or a series of ideas to agree with.  The essence of God’s message to mankind is an invitation to know God... to experience the living God in intimate relationship.

Life is complex.  Life is very complex, so to think it can be understood and fixed in a few simple steps is most absurd.  In reality there are a million steps and we don’t know what they are -- we don’t know where to start -- they are constantly changing -- they are different for each person, and we don’t know at any point in time if we are even willing.  But this is a most beautiful truth to cherish for we are truly helpless, totally dependent on our loving Father who keeps purposefully shaking things up... changing our path... reordering our life circumstances. Daddy both wills and allows, placing “speed-bumps” on the threshing floor of our life to chasten us into holiness, to mold and shape us into Christlikeness, to test, stretch and approve our faith.  The Apostle Paul warned us to Suck It Up: “Do not lose heart” at these “light afflictions”, for our perseverance produces God’s character and strengthens our blessed hope in His eternal promises, as He lavishly pours His love into our hearts. You see, Paul knew Jesus has prepared a place for us that is infinitely beyond our grandest imagination. So, we simply cannot rely on easy answers, power points, magic mantras, spiritual superstars, fleeces or man-made formulas... clawing for our best life now, when God has decreed our best life will be with Him in His Kingdom.  We can only rely on God’s existence, God’s truthfulness, God’s love for us, God’s mercy extended to us and God’s guiding hand in our life, and all of this is simply the power of His awesome Grace willing and doing His good pleasure in us... turning everything into His Good.  It should make us joyful to understand our life is completely out of our hands; we have been Graced by sovereignty... for Grace empowers what it commands. We can only muck it up if we fail to trust God.