Month: November 2023

V8 – We who believe in Jesus have one teacher, the Lord through his spirit.

John 14:26 NIV – But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

There are many times where we tend to exalt some people yet in essence, they are only students who have been taught by the Lord. By his grace, god gives different abilities to us for the edification of the believers and for training in righteousness. When our eyes stop seeing the Pastors, Apostles, Teachers, Evangelists, and Prophets as believers with grace from the Lord to do certain things, we begin giving them the glory that is the Lord’s.

Ephesians 4: 11-13 NLT –  Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

All of us are equal as brothers and sisters.

By exalting people or fellow brethren, we also start to accept all they say without verifying it through scripture and can thus be deceived.  Jesus Christ, our savior, remains to be our teacher.

V9-10 – In the same way, we should not call any person “Father” because God in heaven is our father. No one else deserves that title. It is God whom through Christ Jesus has brought us to salvation through his mighty power and we are now his children.

John 1:12 AMPC – But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—

We are his children if we believe him and continue in that manner to trust him, adhere to and rely on him. As good children, we must obey our father. We praise God because He is perfect and therefore we cannot be at fault when we obey Him. He has no imperfection and He is life in itself. We live by his power and through him and so, we can trust Him the direction He gives. Like in Proverbs, the Lord always says to us:

Proverbs 1:8 NLT – My child, listen when your father corrects you…..

Let us learn to obey Him. If we say we love Him, let us prove that this is true by obeying Him. Those who love him, obey Him and by doing so become more and more like Him because the purpose of his instruction is to make us more and more like Him. His desire is to bring us to “such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.” as explained in Ephesians 4:11-13 quoted above.

John 14:15 ESV – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…

V21 GWT –  Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.

V23 GWT–  Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them.

And here is the warning from Jesus

V24 GWT – A person who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say. I don’t make up what you hear me say. What I say comes from the Father who sent me.

V11-12 – Jesus here continues speaking in the context of the Pharisees who exalt themselves and love these high positions and respect from the people. He says an important thing – that those who love exaltation will be humbled, and those who love humilty and remain humble, they will be exalted.

It is not in your place to exalt yourself. God exalts those who are humble. And remember, even when He exalts you, still remain humble before Him. Humility and servanthood is a continuous nature which you and I must take on. It never ends.

We are called to be humble and to be servants. Willingly be a like a “slave” to everyone. Serve them without complaining and with joy. Get rid of constant complains and grumbling. These are not from God.

Philippians 2:14-16 – Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life.

Embrace forever servanthood. Serve God and his people willingly and joyfully and when you are done, you must still remain humble. These must be your words:

Luke 17:10 NLT – In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

The verses above Luke 17:10 help to ensure we have context. Here is the full text from verses 7-10.

Luke 17:7-10 NLT –  “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? 8 No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron, and serve me while I eat. Then you can eat later.’ 9 And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. 10 In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

It is your duty to obey Him.  Don’t exalt yourself. It’s not a favor, we are called to obey as faithful servants. And after obeying, we obey more and more, it never ends. Continuous obedience.

(Lord, please forgive me for every time I have exalted myself. Remind me by your word to remain humble and to love to obey you who is my faithful Father. You are a good God, not an unfair master. You are good in your intentions for me because you do It out of a love that even now, I am yet to fully comprehend. As your word says in Ephesians 3:18-19, my prayer is that we all may have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep your love is. May we experience your love Lord Jesus, though it is too great to understand fully. Then we will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from you, our God. )

V1-3 – There are people who understand the word of God and can teach it to others but they do not practice what they know in their minds and what they teach. The Pharisees know God’s Law and they are very careful to study and teach each of its commands. But apart from that, they do not take God’s word in their heart and obey it.

This is a dangerous place to be. When you know God’s word but it is not having any impact in your life, then more can be done?

James 1:22-23 NLT – But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.

V4 – The Pharisees seem to have taken pleasure in burdening people with all these regulations which were unbearable. But they themselves did not help to make these burdens lighter. They were masters of oppression in the name of keeping the law. But they did not participate in the carrying.

In contrast, the burden we get from Jesus is not heavy, it is light. It is the burden to obey him and to love Him wholeheartedly.

Matthew 11:28-30 NLT – Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

V5-7 – The Pharisees love what comes with their rabbi position, they do not love the God they teach about. They love power, recognition, honor where people almost tremble before them. Instead of giving glory to God, they were heaping up glory for themselves.

What a dangerous place to be. When teachers, preachers, servants of God in music, ministry, and other places… love the things that come with their position rather than loving God. This is where you, kind of, become your own god, and you worship yourself. Instead of working out your salvation with fear and trembling and giving glory to God, you are blinded by what comes with your service without a genuine love for God. You become filled with pride and fail to humble before the Lord.

Do you have a vibrant personal relationship with Christ? Or any connection you have to God ends with your service? What do you prize in your heart? Knowing the Lord and walking with Him or his blessings? Our goal should be like Paul, the Apostle…

Philippians 3 NLT – I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

My goal must be to seek him, earnestly, and to love Him, because then, He comes and makes a home in me.

Psalm 105:4 NLT – Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him.

“His face — the brightness of his personal character — is hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us. That is why we are told to “seek his presence continually.” God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of his supreme greatness and beauty and worth.” From <https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-seek-the-lord>

And what is the meaning of seeking Him?  It is setting our minds and our hearts fully on Him.

1 Chronicles 22:19 NLT – Now seek the Lord your God with all your heart and soul.

Colossians 3:1–2 NLT – Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

I would say that seeking the Lord, therefore, is a constant never-ending pull and desire to be conscious of his presence in all we do, his love, his power, his justice and judgement and all He is, and being in communion with Him.

This involves a conscious choice to direct my heart, my thoughts on God. Every moment of every day. We do not seek Him as if He is lost, no. We seek him because our hearts and our minds are very prone to wandering away from focusing on Him. Seeking him is the battle in our minds to focus on Him continually.

It is a battle because there are very many obstacles that block us from constantly focusing on Him. Some of these include the worries of this life, entertainment and pleasure, work etc. All these, in all their good intentions, can easily become obstacles in such a way that God always feels far, yet He is not. It is in this sense that you would think as God always being hidden. He is revealed to those who are constantly seeking Him. Those who overcome these obstacles and give Him their attention constantly.

While there are truly many ways how we seek God and see him, two foundational ways that ought to be a constant for us is to seek him through His Word and to seek him through prayer.

And this is not the religious kind of prayer and reading of his word where we do it out of obligation or as a normal habit… it is seeking him in prayer with a true desire every time to meet Him. And it is reading his word and meditating upon it in order to know Him, not mere reading. It is to seek to understand what you read.

By practicing all this, I believe that our eyes also get opened to see him in many others areas. Including in other people’s lives, in creation etc.

V41 – After the Sadducees and Pharisees had tried to trap him with their questions and getting answers that silenced them, Jesus now asks them a question.

But there is a difference between Jesus asking them a question and them asking Jesus a question. Remember, the Sadducees and Pharisees had come to him wanting to trap him so that they could arrest him. Their questions were not fueled by an interest and desire for Godly knowledge, their questions were malicious in their intent. But Jesus could not do the same to them by seeking to trap them because that would be evil. And how do we know that Jesus’ intentions were pure, even in this case? The Bible records that:

I Peter 2: 21-23 NIV – To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

In a sense, Jesus was now showing them the questions that they should truly be asking. Jesus was not going to behave like them. He was going to ask them a real question and this was not revenge for them trying to trap him, it was a question to stir up their minds.

The intention of Jesus was always and is still always to reveal God’s kingdom and salvation to human beings and this is what He was doing here. He wanted to ask these teachers of the law and the leaders of the religion a hard question so that it can jolt their minds to really think about Kingdom matters that they did not seem to understand. They were focused on trapping him but all the while, Jesus was focused on teaching them the truth and directing them to true worship.

I see a big lesson here:

Jesus, our Lord and savior, is our example. As 1 Peter 2 has said— “Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” We should endeavor to be like him and to learn from him.  And there are other verses that admonish us to be like Christ:

1 John 2:6 NIV – Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV – Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

John 13:13-16 NLT – You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message.

First, the lesson is to be like him. We must be imitators of God if we say we love him. If we don’t obey him (obeying his word) wholeheartedly, our love for God is not yet complete.

1 John 2:5 NLT– But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.

Second, do not retaliate when they try to trap you with their questions. Rather, seek to understand the root cause of why they are doing that and pray for them and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to address that. In this situation, our goal must always be to reveal Christ Jesus… our Lord and savior.

The third lesson is to remain in love, all through. Love for even those who persecute you. And the Holy Spirit will always be there to remind you to love God and do his will in all situations. He will also remind you to love every person. His promptings will always be clear. When we hear these promptings, let us harden our hearts but rather obey him wholeheartedly and with joy.

The fourth lesson is to be patient. Jesus was very patient with the Pharisees and Sadducees. He did not blast them in anger but first, patiently deal with those issues and questions they have and after that, direct them to Christ. Direct them to the real bigger issue… do they know him? Are they in a close relationship with him?

V42-45 – Jesus, the messiah has always been from the beginning. He was only revealed by coming to earth at the time He came. But He has always been present, from the beginning. The Pharisees and Sadducees, and the whole Israelite nation did not seem to understand that.

They thought that the Messiah would be a physical human being who would come to liberate them from their oppression from the Romans. They did not seem to understand that the Messiah actually already existed since the foundation of the earth and that all things were created through him. And so, if the Messiah existed since the beginning…. How then could He be a son (descendant) of David?

Even though David, their forefather, knew that the Messiah was his Lord and was God, David’s descendants (the Israelites) still seemed to think that He would be a mere human being.

How could the Messiah be just a human being yet He already existed at the beginning??

There was no way that the Messiah would be just any human being. If He has been from the beginning, even before David, then He was not a human. He was and is God himself. Because it is God who has always existed since the start. In fact, He himself is the Alpha and Omega. He himself was the beginning and He is the end.

The Israelites, Pharisees and Sadducees, had not ever been able to understand that.

And so the big question that Jesus was directing them to was this ….. “Who is this Messiah really?” or “Do we really understand who the Messiah is?”

The Israelites did not understand who the Messiah was. Yet at this point, he was right in front of them. They were seeing God physically but did not realize it. They were so bound to their wrong teaching such that when Jesus said to them directly that He was the messiah and He was God, they could not take it yet it was true. They had God in their midst but did not notice. We see this in another part of scripture which puts this perfectly in context:

John 8:58 NIV – Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Here are other verses that show that He was present from the beginning:

1 John 1  NLT – We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.

John 1 NIV – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

V46 – They could not dare ask another question after this because they knew they could not trap him. He had turned the script over and posed them with a difficult question that would really cause them to think if they really knew the God whom they say they knew and whom they taught people about.

(Oh Father, thank you, thank you for Christ who was from the beginning, who is now my example to follow. Help me to truly imitate him and live like him.)

V34-35 The Pharisees and Sadducees, out of their hate for Jesus because of how He was changing everything, seemed to have ganged to try and put him down. Because of their hate, they came up  with ways of trying to catch him in a wrong. And it’s interesting because they themselves were already against him so they had already closed their hearts to him, they were only looking for a way to “convincingly” accuse him before the people and then arrest him.

Matthew 21:46 ESV – And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.

They wanted to poison people’s minds against him. That is why Jesus said to them:

Matthew 23:13 NLT – “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.

While the Lord Jesus was perfect, we are not. We are being perfected so that we become like him. And so, in the process of perfection, we have to be careful not to be like the Pharisees and Sadducees. They are an example from God to us. Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a place where our hearts do not love one another and so because of that, we poison each other’s minds against each other.

If a believer does something which is faulty or says something which is faulty, our role is not to gang up against them. No, we must first have the understanding that all of us are in a journey of being perfected to be like Jesus, and therefore, we must forgive them and pray for them. In fact, Paul told Timothy this:

1 Timothy 2:1 TLB – Here are my directions: Pray much for others; plead for God’s mercy upon them; give thanks for all he is going to do for them.

Let us also remember to always make room for each other’s faults:

Colossians 3:13 NLT – Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

We have a continuous labor of love to carry.

V36-38 – I MUST love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. This is the greatest commandment.

It’s a command, not a recommendation.

How do I love Him with all my heart? – I am reminded of the hymn “Take my heart and let it be consecrated Lord to thee.” Loving the Lord with all my heart is to love him wholeheartedly, with no other affections for any other. There should be no other thing/person/item that I love more than him.  One of the things that usually helps to measure Love is how much TIME you spend with someone. How much time in my day to day life do I give to the Lord? to prayer? to the word?

How do I love with all my soul? The soul is the seat of emotions and affections. My emotions must be for him. I must take my joy to Him, same as how I must take my pain to him. I must take my tears to him and my rejoicing. I must also submit my anger to his word and his will. I must also take all my anxiety to him… He is the one who knows the deepest parts of me and therefore I must share my life with Him.

How do I love him with all my mind? This is about me loving him with all my thoughts. Are my thoughts pure and directed or controlled by the Holy Spirit and God’s word? Are my thought patterns directed by God’s word? Are my decisions submitted to God’s word? Do I obey the leading of the Holy Spirit as prompted by my conscience?

1 Timothy 1: 18-19 NIV – Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the battle well, holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith.

The Living Bible puts v19 this way:

“Cling tightly to your faith in Christ and always keep your conscience clear, doing what you know is right. For some people have disobeyed their consciences and have deliberately done what they knew was wrong. It isn’t surprising that soon they lost their faith in Christ after defying God like that.”

DON’T BRING SHAME TO THE NAME OF CHRIST BY DOING WHAT YOU KNOW YOU OUGHT NOT TO DO.

V39 – I MUST also love my neighbor as myself.

This is made even simpler by this verse:

Matthew 7:12 AMP – “So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is [the essence of] the Law and the [writings of the] Prophets.

Lord, help me to love you and to love my neighbor. I fail so many times. Have mercy in me and cause me to do your will. For these two are the simplest ways of understanding your will ie …what you want me to do.

In verse 40, the Lord says that these two sum up all that the law and the prophets demanded. It’s really as simple as that.