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Today’s reading is from John 18:28-19:16.

Pilate was the Roman Governor of Judea. After Jesus was captured by the Jewish leaders  for claiming he was the Messiah he was put on trial before Caiaphas. Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus to Pilate to be crucified because any death sentence had to be approved by a Roman leader.  Pilate tried to avoid executing Jesus. He made attempts at sparing Jesus life.

First he tried to put the responsibility back on the Jewish leaders. In John 18:31 Pilate says, “Then take him away and judge him by your own laws”. But the Jewish leaders quickly reminded him that only the Romans are permitted to execute someone. Next he tried to find a way of escape so he could release Jesus. In John 18:39 he offered to release Jesus as it was a custom to release a prisoner at Passover. The Jews chose to release Barabbas (a known criminal) instead of Jesus. From there he tried to compromise by having Jesus flogged and humiliated rather than handing him over to die in John 19:1-3. Lastly he tried to appeal to the sympathy of the accusers in John 19:15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him – crucify him!” “What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.” In the end, even though he thought Jesus to be innocent, he sentenced him to death because the crowd was so loud.

John 19:16 “Then Pilate gave Jesus to them to be crucified”

Pilate stated 3 times to the crowd that he found Jesus to be innocent. (John 18:38, John 19:4, and John 19:6). He recognized the truth but he failed to act on it which led to Jesus crucifixion. He was so worried about the politics involved that he missed Jesus all together.

I am so thankful for the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Where am I recognizing the truth about Jesus but failing to take action? Where am I missing Jesus?

Shelly

The Adulterous Woman

John 8: 1-11

 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. ² Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. ³ The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst ⁴ they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. ⁵ Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” ⁶ This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. ⁷ And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” ⁸ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. ⁹ But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. ¹⁰ Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” ¹¹ She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]]

John gives us an example of Jesus’ love and compassion without too much action or commentary. The story is that of a woman who has been caught in the act of adultery.  From the previous chapter, the scribes and the leaders are trying to find a way to falsely accuse Jesus to get him to be executed.  While they are trying to find something on Christ, they find this woman who is guilty of adultery.   In Deuteronomy 22:22-30, the law that was given shows the “proper” way that the situation of the unlawful act should be handled, but the leaders are trying to use their intelligence to outwit Jesus.  Fortunately, Christ is able to use his peace and calmness to stop the confusion and calamity of the crowd and restore the woman to her whole self.

As we look at this particular situation, we can see it in a different manner.  We are the adulterous woman and we are presented to Jesus.  How many times have we been presented to Christ or gone to him with our shortcoming and sins?  How many times have we been presented with situations that we believe that we have created and Jesus will not save us from? How many times have we held our heads in shame in the presence of Jesus and we stop him from comforting us? Jesus is the only on that can judge us and make us whole.  He knows all the sins and obstacles that we allow the enemy to use to stop us from being close to him.  He knew the woman before she was presented to the crowd.  He knew each sin that she has ever committed (from the oldest to the newest). He knows all the things that makes us vulnerable and knows that the enemy will use these to stop us from getting close to Jesus and allowing him to heal our being.  What are the sins that are hold you and me back from the true love and compassion of Christ?

A little further in the chapter, Jesus states that he alone cannot make judgment on individuals, but he and the Father together can make judgment.  Jesus chooses to forgive us when we are submitted to his divine grace in spite of the sins that we have committed in the past and present.  He sees us without anyone to condemn us.

Jesus is waiting for you to come.  He is sitting, waiting.

Have you ever had to wait for someone?  Did you know they were coming?  My chauffeuring days are over, but I can vividly remember the years of dropping off and waiting on my children at one of their activities.  The longest wait was always the pick-up line after school.  You either had to get their super early to get a good spot in the front or be late and avoid the line.  My kids always let me know that they hated to be the last to be picked up.  So, I was always in the first 10 cars of the line, waiting patiently (20+ minutes) for them to walk out of the school.  But why did I sit there that long each and every day of the school year?  Because my most beloved children were going to be walking out of those doors and I wanted to be there to greet them each and every day.  I love them so much that I would sit and wait patiently for them each and every single day.  

Today in our reading of the Samaritan woman, John 4:1-42, we see Jesus, sitting, waiting.  I do not believe it was coincidence that Jesus was sitting at the side of the well when the Samaritan woman showed up to get her daily water.  Jesus knew she would be coming at that time.  A time when the well was empty of people, she did not want to be around others for she was ashamed.  Ashamed of her past and who she was.  

Can you imagine the face of Jesus as she walked up to the well?  As He was waiting for her, he probably smiled knowing that He was going to offer her her true hope and life.  He knew everything about her already.  He knew she had 5 husbands and was living with a man whom she was not married.  He knew she was a Samaritan.  

The Samaritans had once been Jews, they knew all about the coming Messiah and the Jewish law.  But, they had intermarried with people of other faiths.  They had brought new gods into their land, and as a result, they knew that they would be excluded when the Messiah came.  They also knew where they stood in the eyes of the Jews. 

All of the above matters made it even more unbelievable to the woman that this Jewish man sitting on the side of the well would speak to her.  

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 

John 4:7

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman.  How can you ask me for a drink?”  Jesus answered her, “if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you the living water.”  Because she was not a jew, she knew that salvation would not be coming for her.  That was, until this moment in time, when Jesus spoke to her.

Jesus told her about all that was going on in her home.  He spoke to her about all that was heavy on her heart, all of her shame, he knew.  At this moment she knew he was different.  How did he know so much about her?  How did He know exactly what she needed to hear? 

The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming-the one who is called Christ.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus tole her, “I Am the Messiah!”

John 4:25&26

As soon as the Samaritan woman hears these words, she leaves her jar of water and runs back to the town to tell the people everything that she just experienced.

The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did!  Could he possibly be the Messiah?”  So the people came streaming from the village to see him.

John 4:29&30

The whole village came to see what she was speaking of.  She did not hesitate and was not afraid to tell what had just happened at the well.  And because she shared her story, others came to check out Jesus and see what He was really about.  When they met Jesus they asked him to stay in their village, and he did so he could tell His message and more could believe.

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves.  Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”

John 4:42

This is our calling!  Not to make others believe, but to tell of what we have experienced with Jesus.  To tell our story of what He has done for us.  Then let Jesus minister to them and so that they will know He is the Savior of the world.  

Jesus is waiting on us to come to Him.  He sees each of us coming and is waiting.  We may not have to walk to a well to get water, but we have so many tasks we have to complete in a day.  Maybe it is walking to the washing machine to put in another load of laundry.  Maybe it is walking from the parking lot into our building where we work or go to school.  God is right in front of us waiting for us to come to Him.  He knows all of our past and shame.  But, just as He did with the Samaritan woman, he looks past it and wants to offer His love and Salvation.  Then He wants us to share our story!

 

Today’s reading is on Nicodemus in John 3:1-21.

Do you remember when you first wanted to give your life to Christ? For some of you, it may have been when you were a very young child, introduced to the Gospel by family. For some, it may have been first going off into the world on your own and discovering meaning in life through God. For others, maybe later in life, after experiencing many things, the decision to follow Christ made more and more sense. Either way, chances are it was not spontaneous. You most likely didn’t go your whole life without knowing a thing about God, then one day waking up and thinking “hey, you know what, I feel like devoting my life to Christ today.” It doesn’t really work that way – the decision comes naturally after beginning a personal relationship with God and His moving in your heart.

Enter Nicodemus, a Pharisee seated on the Sanhedrin, high council in charge of the law of Jerusalem. While Jesus is in Jerusalem, Nicodemus comes at night to ask the Messiah he’s heard of about who He is. Jesus gets right to the point and confronts him about how to enter the Kingdom of God. To Jews of this time, the idea of being “born again” is entirely new – they were part of God’s people simply because of their ancestry, entering into Heaven on merit of their heritage. But Jesus flips this idea on its head – entry to the Kingdom is not decided by who you were born to, but by who you give your life to instead.

Scripture makes sure we know the importance of baptism. In Acts 2, Peter says “repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In Titus 3: “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Through our spiritual death and rebirth, we declare ourselves dedicated to the Lord, renewed and saved through His grace. The most miraculous thing about it is anyone can choose to do so and give their life to Christ, Jewish or not. We can never predict how or when God moves in someone to make them want to decide this, but when he does, how could we do anything but fall to our knees and surrender to Him? The way Jesus explains why we would make this choice is surely one of the most known Scriptures for good reason. John 3:16-18 reads:

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Nicodemus hears why we choose to cast off our old life and accept spiritual death and rebirth in God’s Kingdom – His love. God’s love is more sacrificial, enduring, and rewarding than any other. It is this love that sent Jesus to live among us, that sent Him to die on the cross, and now seats Him at the right hand of the Father. This same love will always be, from now until the end of time. This love is available to anyone – those who have not yet believed but are moved by the Spirit will always be welcome in God’s loving arms. Someone today needs the news of this loving God, who will always love and never forsake those who trust Him: share this good news today with me. The world needs love now more than ever, and only God can provide the love we need for all.

 

 

John 1:35-42, 6:1-13, 12:20-36

We don’t get very much information in scripture that is specific to Andrew. There isn’t a very big window to view his personality, thought processes, or actions like we have for a few of the other disciples. Even though we don’t have much information I think we can look at the few verses we have and find some help on how to follow Jesus better in our lives.

We learn from John 1 that Andrew knew John the Baptist and followed his teachings. Andrew was actually with John when Jesus went by one day. When John said who Jesus was, Andrew left John and followed Jesus. Even before meeting Jesus, he believed in Him and accepted Him as his Messiah. This shows that he had a soft heart toward God and faith that God had a plan. Andrew knew he had found someone precious when he met Jesus. He was so excited, that he left Jesus and went to find his brother. He wanted to share his excitement for hope with his family. Are we still excited about sharing our Savior with others? Have we been quick to tell our loved ones that we have found hope and a Savior?

John 6 tells us about Jesus miracle of multiplying the five loaves of bread and two fish. When a huge crowd (5,000 men, this number doesn’t include women and children) gathered around Jesus and his disciples, the disciples felt a responsibility to feed the people. Andrew speaks up. “There is a boy here with bread and fish.” “But what good is that with this huge crowd?” Is the hope in His miracle-working Messiah shining through Andrew’s announcement about the small basket of supplies? Practicality sets in and he realizes how foolish his solution sounds to others and he follows up his announcement with a more realistic question. What good is this little bit of food?  Do we see Jesus first in an impossible situation or do we use our human resources and processes to discount God’s ability to provide answers that are not humanly available?

Later in John, Philip, another disciple of Jesus’ from Andrew’s hometown, comes to Andrew to get help checking with Jesus about meeting some out of town guests. This lets us know that Andrew was accessible to others and it was high priority to him to bring others to Jesus. Are we available to be interrupted? Do other’s know they can come to us with issues and they will get our time, wisdom and help? Do we make showing other’s Jesus our top priority in life?

Let’s close this morning with Jesus words to Andrew and the rest of the disciples in John 12. “Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.” Jesus is telling us that we need to be so committed to living for Him that we care nothing for our own lives by comparison. We have to turn away from the rule of self-centeredness that we are all are slave to. We need to put off our drive in life for advantage, security and pleasure so we can love God with our whole selves. Being willing to give up control of our lives to allow Christ to control us brings eternal life and true joy. I think we fear giving up control because we don’t fully grasp how much God loves us. We look at what we may be asked to give up rather than the fact that the Creator of the universe, the One who gave His life to buy us back from eternity separated from Him, actually desires a relationship with us. He loves us so much that He not only purchases us with His own life, but He also wants to help us change. This kind of love is so much more lavish and rich than the fear we have of missing out here on earth. He wants to give us eternal life, true joy, and relationship with Him while we are still on this earth.

We all know that God should be controlling our hearts and minds, but how do we actually do it? I wish I had a formula that I could add here to help us all accomplish this goal. In my earlier years I probably would have been dumb enough or arrogant enough to try to write one.  As I get older in my relationship with God I realize that nothing changes without His work in my heart. God’s word tells us this truth over and over, I just never really grasped it. I thought I could do it if I tried hard enough. A good place to start in being willing to give up control of my heart to Christ is asking for His help. Let me rephrase, change comes in consistently asking for help to put my heart in His hands. This is not a onetime, weekly or even monthly request. Every time I talk with Him I ask for His help in softening my heart, allowing him to enter new areas of my heart and to clean house in those areas, and to help me be more deeply devoted to putting my heart in His hands every day. I am finding that true change is slow. Real progress in giving up control to God takes time with Him every day that I can, with a heart that knows I can’t do it on my own. I also know how painful change can be so I ask Him to be as gentle with me as He possibly can and still accomplish His plan. (Maybe if I could be braver this process wouldn’t take as long…) I am also learning to live a little bit more in grace with this process. Instead of looking for complete surrender in all areas of my heart, (and feeling like a failure every time I realize I’m not) I’m learning to see that more areas of my heart are surrendered now than were 5 years ago. This is evidence of God’s work and I am grateful to Him for this change! I can also see that in a few of the areas that are surrendered, some are more deeply surrendered than they were in the past… again, evidence of His handy-work in my heart. The best change that I can measure, is that I started my day with Him more days this year than any other year in my life so far. It is clear to me that this particular change has facilitated all of the other progress that has been made in my heart. It is His grace, His time, and His gifts that are making me different than I used to be.

I wonder how this all worked in Andrew’s life. He got to spend a number of years in intensely close relationship with Jesus. Do you think he had a better grip on surrendering his heart to God than we do because of his relationship with Jesus? He got to see complete surrender lived out perfectly, but I have a feeling that the learning curve was so steep, and the life they all lived together was so fast paced and intense, it was hard to process it all until later in his life. We all have different experiences and different paths in life. We all have to decide who will rule our hearts. If we don’t consciously make a choice to surrender to God, our default setting is most definitely self.

In Luke 24, we read the story of the road to Emmaus. The experience of  two disciples who were walking home to Emmaus after the crucifixion of Jesus. Cleopas and his friend were trying to understand what had happened following the crucifixion, then after – having heard reports that the body of Jesus was now missing. They were wrestling with all they had gone through and the apparent impossibility of an empty tomb.

As they walked and talked that they were joined by a stranger who asked what they were talking about. This stranger – the risen Lord himself – gave them the gift of telling them everything that was there concerning himself.

As He broke bread together with them that “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (v. 31). Suddenly they understood why it was that, as He talked with them, they sensed something happening inside which they could only describe as their hearts burning within them. This experience is a deep inner knowing of the presence of God and the revelation of the truth about God. When our hearts are gripped by the truth about God, His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we can never be the same again.