What is your smaller world of interaction teaching you?
Some of you may have discovered a neglected discipline as your world has become smaller during the pandemic. Maybe you have cooked more, baked more, practiced an instrument more, gardened more, or perhaps you have rested. But my guess is that the discipline of waiting and listening for Jesus’ voice has not become “easier.” I pray that we would all be given grace to increase our capacity to listen to Jesus. If we don’t, we will miss out on so much joy.
John the Baptist’s life is full of so many discipleship lessons for the followers of Jesus. When his disciples are all stirred up by comparison and jealousy John responds with contentment, jubilation and joy.
His contentment had been nurtured through surrender and faithfulness.
He says, “A person can only receive what is given them from heaven.” Without this surrender and perseverance in relationship to God John would not have had joy.
John’s joy has been nurtured through clarity and conviction.
He is clear about who He is and what is about. His identity flows from His relationship with God and the unique time in which He has been situated in God’s plan. John richly describes his relationship with Jesus, with himself, and his relationships with people and the stuff of earth through the metaphor of the wedding party. John says,
“The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:29-30)
The Friend of the Groom
When you are part of the wedding part, the groom’s men or the bride’s maids you have certain responsibilities and roles to play. At the wedding the point of focus is not you; it’s the groom and bride. As the friend of the groom you are not trying to upstage him; you want to attend to his needs and to his purposes in loving, celebrating, and building up his bride.
John says he has been attending to Jesus, the Messiah. John has been waiting for Jesus. John has been listening for Jesus. And when Jesus speaks, John has joy. When the bride moves toward Jesus John celebrates and feels a sense of completion in his life.
Are you learning to wait on and listen for Jesus? Our joy is in hearing his voice and responding to Him in obedience.
Waiting and listening are not passive; they require attentive effort.
At at wedding celebration the friend of the groom may be seen sitting, walking, and standing. Sometimes he appears to be alone — but he may actually be on task for the groom. Sometimes he appears to be with the groom: sitting, walking, standing. Sometimes the friend of the groom may be attending to a need of the groom’s bride on the groom’s behalf. There is joy in all of it.
But all the activity has as its point of reference that the friend of the groom has been able to wait and to listen.
Even while active in mundane or once-in-a-lifetime tasks, the friend of the groom is mindful to listen for the groom’s voice.
This is John’s internal posture: attending to the voice of Jesus.
Is it yours?
You can nurture this kind of attention through:
daily surrender to Jesus.
daily openness to His Spirit filling you.
daily feeding on His Words and the stories of Jesus’ life.
daily mindfulness to His nudge drawing your attention to people so you can participate in what He is doing in their lives and yours.
celebrating the union of the Church with Jesus the Lamb of God!
A few weeks ago we made a shift from Journey Through John to Life Journey With Jesus (LJWJ). I haven’t abandoned the Gospel of John! Instead of blogging or creating a video unpacking the text during the day I made a shift to begin a new series on the first Sunday after Easter to explore the Gospel of John in our Weekend Broadcast. The Broadcast has been designed to assist people in having a House Church experience on the weekend anywhere around the world.
So here’s Resurrection Authority, from 2:13-25 taken from the Origin Church Weekend Broadcast on 17 April 2020.
The Gospel of Jesus is an announcement, “God reigns.” No matter the darkness of the night, or of our souls, or of the corrupt behaviour infecting our lands. God reigns. The Gospel of Jesus has a historical reach that includes all the time humanity experiences. In fact God has exceeded our imaginations: before Creation the Communion of God existed. All we see in the cosmos has its origin in Him.
The Apostle John has written his book, so “you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may life in his name.” (John 20:31) Let’s read this Gospel with John’s intention: to believe and to receive the life Jesus gives.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
John 1:1-5, NIV
This morning I was reading the Prophet Jeremiah in chapters 21-23. Not pleasant. Even Jeremiah himself felt the weight of God’s Word in respect to the days to come. He says, “My heart is broken with in me…” (Jeremiah 23:9) Yet in the midst of God’s judgment on the kings and the prophets, and the people, God offers glimmers of hope.
5“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,“when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch ,a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.
Jeremiah 23:5-6
If there is darkness; The Lord is still present. If there is light; The Lord is present with us.
This morning I looked through the spaces between my house and our neighbour’s house; this is what I saw:
O wee moon sliver it’s morning and I see thee. The Day cometh soon.
In the Gospel of Jesus we have the announcement: we — all people — live now between the Resurrection and the Return of Jesus. His light shines. Generations of people lived between the Creation and The Cross. But we live now between Jesus’– life-death-burial-resurrection-ascension AND His return. We have much in common with people on the “other side of the Cross of Jesus,” including this: the light of God has never, never, never ever stopped shining.
Oh this babe wrapped in swaddling cloths his last breath as vulnerable as his first! He took up heaven’s cross to be wrapped in linen cloths. So, we might lay down filthy rags and be gracefully fitted for the robes of those made righteous. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him!
Each of the persons in the collage have been arrested. They have previously or are currently incarcerated.
Can you listen to a prisoner?
Can you open your heart to them?
When we read Ephesians we are reading a prison epistle. It’s a letter written by a prisoner. Paul didn’t want his audience to forget it.
When he enters the ethical dimension of discipleship with Jesus, Paul reminds the readers (listeners), “As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you
to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
Paul wants us to walk, to conduct ourselves, to live, in a manner worthy of our calling! This is a prisoner of the Lord talking!
Whenever we read “prisoner” we must not gloss over what is happening. Prisoner convey’s a social and political dimension to this person’s relationship with us and with a government. Paul insists that the word prisoner is also a reflection of his relationship with Jesus Christ.
In the Origin Church gathering Sunday I briefly introduced our congregation to four folks who have been prisoners in our consideration of Ephesians 4:1-6. Here are links for you to explore the lives of these four people further. And then some final reflections on Jesus the Prisoner and our unity with Him.
Pastor Wang Yi
“If I am imprisoned for a long or short period of time, if I can reduce the authorities fear of my faith and of my Savior, I am very joyfully willing to help them in this way.”
Pastor of Early Rain Covenant Church, Chengdu China, has been incarcerated since Dec 9 2018. His letter, “My Declaration of Faithful Disobedience” had been written in Sept of that year and held that it should be published if he was detained for more than 48 hours. Read Pastor Wang’s Declaration. Pray for Pastor Wang as he is still incarcerated.
John M. Perkins
“God used the black and white nurses and doctors at that hospital to wash my wounds. For me they were symbolic of the people who had beaten me. What they did healed more than just my broken body. It healed my heart… Oh how beautiful it would be if we could wash one another’s wounds from the evil of racism in the church!”
In Feb of 1970 John Perkins was headed to the jail of Brandon MS to post bail for civil-rights demonstrators. But before he could get into the building he has accosted by highway patrol officers who met him with their fists and dragged him to jail. During the night he was brutally tortured by officers, he survived but the trauma prompted a heart attack and then ulcers — a long recovery ensued. He still has physical consequences to this day. He writes in One Blood: “I’m just now seeing clearly that the black church can’t fix this and the white church can’t fix this. It must be the reconciled Church, black and white Christians together imaging Christ to the world.” Read More about John M. Perkins and his ministry journey with Jesus.
“We must relearn what it means to be a body and what it means to continue Christ’s ministry of preaching the gospel to the poor. I believe there is a strategy to do this. We have seen three principles work that seem to be at the heart of how a local body of Christians can affect their neighborhood. We call them the three Rs of the quiet revolution: relocation, reconciliation, and redistribution.” Read more about the three R’s.
Linda Barkman
“Hospitality means that I come to your table as a guest and I am always a guest. By contrast integration means that I come to your family as a guest and I become family. You’re not going to offer integration to prisoners unless you really believe in redemption — that Jesus died for every single person.”
The 2018 Valedictorian of the Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies had been imprisoned longer than most of her fellow students had been alive. At age 65 she had been in prison for 30 of those years. “Prison was my first pulpit.” Read more about Linda and her journey.
Reverend Chu Yiu-ming
“I am a Christian minister committed to the service of God. I have resolved to live a life of friendship with the weak and the poor, praying that God’s justice be manifested on earth as it is in heaven, and that the Gospel of love and peace be proclaimed among the people. But today, old and grey, I find myself in the Defendant’s dock, making a final plea as a convict. It looks absurd, if not outright shameful for a person holding holy office. And yet, at this very moment, my heart tells me that with this defendant’s dock I have found the most honourable pulpit of my ministerial career. The valley of the shadow of death leads to spiritual heights.”
Found guilty in 2019 of “public nuisance” for involvement in the 2014 pro-democracy protests — in Hong Kong. His sentence was commuted and he was sent home for reasons of his health. Read Reverend Chu’s full statement.
Jesus the Prisoner and our unity with Him.
As followers of Jesus we have in common Jesus as Lord, so Paul suggests that instead of fetters like chains we now share the bonds of peace. We are not captives yet we are captivated. We are not slaves, we are friends. We are not strangers, we are family. We share a common Lord; our peace was accomplished through the incarceration and execution of the Prince of Peace. The prophet Isaiah writes of Him: (Isaiah 53)
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8By oppression (or arrest) and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Oh, in the gaze of this crucified prisoner and risen Lord shall I not do all within my power to guard the unity of the Spirit? In the light of His grace shall I not humble myself? In the light of His meekness shall I not be patient with His friends? In the light of His long-suffering, shall I not be patient with others? In the light of His love shall I not put up with others in love? Following Jesus I will seek wisdom from heaven to know when to be close or to take leave, to speak up or to be quiet, to challenge or to wait.
Oh, by His grace, we will!
Note: Please follow the links to each article for the photo credits.
