“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.”
John 16:1-4
John 16:1-4
Author Os Guinness writes that following the three grand masters of suspicion, Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud, we have all been schooled in the art of mistrust. People mistrust Christianity because they do not know the revealed truth that flows from God to Jesus to them. In this age of suspicion, we Christians need to engage with truth and share it.
Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. If we are going to build our lives around him, we need to know the truth. We need to know Jesus. In Understanding Doctrine, Alister McGrath writes: Christian doctrine aims to describe the way things are. It is concerned to tell the truth, in order that we may enter into and act upon that truth. It is an expression of a responsible and caring faith—a faith which is prepared to give an account of itself, and give careful consideration to its implications for the way in which we live. Truth and doctrine are intimately connected. Yet, truth exists without doctrine. The aim of this blog is not to get doctrine straight but to help us engage with Jesus, who is the truth himself.
Two caveats: First, I do not want the outworking of these ideas to become a list of things to do so that we can check them off and feel good about ourselves or, worse, feel guilty because we attempt the list and cannot complete it. Following Jesus does not require doing things as if he came to give us a “to do” list. Instead, he gave us a mission to spread truth across the planet: Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:19-20). Following Jesus entails observing his commands and teaching them to others so that they become followers who teach new followers.
Second, I do not want to present following Jesus as something easy, something without cost. Jesus does not present it that way, and the evidence from the New Testament and church history does not present following Jesus as something without cost. Most of his early followers were martyred because they followed him. Jesus even said, Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:27-33). Discipleship is difficult because of all we have to renounce, including, sometimes, our very lives.
Today followers of Jesus pay with their lives in places like Pakistan, Turkey, India, The Sudan, and China. Every day I read news about a new martyr in one of these countries. Following Jesus and standing up for the truth about him comes with a cost. It also comes with pain. There is the pain of understanding who we really are and what we have done. There is the pain of change when God’s truth leads us into new lives and new behaviors. There is the pain of loving difficult and sometimes dangerous people God places in our lives. But Jesus gives us a wonderful promise: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God (John 3:21). God is with us in and through all the costs and pains of following of Jesus.
The New Testament reveals Jesus as the incarnation of divine truth. During Lent, my prayer is that as we read John’s Gospel and pray together, Jesus will lead us to the well of living water to drink of these saving, sacred truths and into the deeper life of being his disciples.
On Fridays and Saturdays we will consider self-denial and fasting. Self-denial and fasting entail giving up something for the self in order to help focus our attention away from ourselves and toward God. Perhaps you spend money on Fridays and Saturdays going out to dinner. You may want to consider eating at home and giving the money you save for an outreach ministry at SJD. Perhaps you might take someone out to dinner who cannot afford it or someone who could use some Christian fellowship. Another option might be to forego lunch on Friday and spend that time in prayer and Bible reading. The real goal of self-denial is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as yourself. Consider using the prayer below as you undertake a time of self-denial and fasting:
Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Spend time studying the Gospel of John below.
Study: John 1:35-50, Jesus Calls the First Disciples
35The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39He said to them, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ). 42He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas" (which means Peter).
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" 48Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
Reflection Questions:
1) Have you considered that John the Baptist helped prepare the way for Jesus by training up disciples so that Jesus could take them from him? How are you helping to train disciples for Jesus?
2) Why do you think Jesus called Philip?
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