Read: John 14 Sing: Most Merciful God
John 14: 12-17...ish
This is a big chunk and a weighty topic as we go into the weekend. I wasn't sure where to stop and I actually thought (laughably) that we would get through John 14 this week. Attached at the bottom will be two more sermons to think through. Same New England Pastors.
There are so many passages taken out of context in chapter 14 alone. This is one of them. We live in a modern age of minute Bible clips, and it leaves us easily deceived. Rather that delighting in Scripture, saturating ourselves in Scripture, we try to satisfy our appetites with social media clips of scripture pulled out of its original intent. It goes back to our study on Tuesday, and friend, pinterest, instagram, these one off verses we read and claim for the day can be terrifying examples of eisegese (putting our own meaning onto the word, instead of drawing from it). Perfect example, as an athlete I used to write a verse on my thigh ( I was a swimmer) as my hope... and it had NOTHING to do with sport, or physical strength. I was putting my own meaning on it and then bill boarding it as truth. How much do we do this when we turn open our phone see one verse, take this as our quiet time and then are both dissatisfied but disillusioned when our day doesn't go as we thought it would? Or one hardship comes and we have an entire mansion built on sand. Friend, let this not be so. We must be SATURATED in scripture. It should be our primary text, our primary truth, and our primary delight. If we have time to eat, read, scroll, shop, work, we have time to be in His Word. We make time for what is important, what does your schedule reveal about your heart?
What does this have to do with today's passage? Everything. We are coming into a portion where Jesus is offering hope through Him and in Him, and gives us the chance to come to Him in prayer. He is marching to the Cross to raise from the dead to become our Mediator. Jesus is encouraging the disciples of what lies ahead. The greater works, namely being able to lead thousands to salvation post resurrection, and the ability to ask in the Lord's name, and He will do it.
What does this actually look like? In the sermon from Mt Hope, we hear discussed Jesus' time on earth. He had a relatively small following ( some of us would even scoff at today...12 followers, with one being a betrayer) and He is encouraging His disciples that they will do greater works than He. We see this fulfilled immediately with Peter preaching to the thousands and thousands coming to saving faith in just one day.
The Lord then says to ask in His name. We must walk cautiously here. This is NOT saying to claim Christ as an assertion to our prayer, but to reverently beseech the Lord, uniting His will with ours and then asking that His Will would be done. Jesus teaches us this in the Lord's prayer. Your kingdom come, Your will be done.
This is a hard prayer. Harder than we realize because often we have it backwards. Many times I run ahead of God. And if it looks good and looks biblical I assume it is His will and kind of ask for God's will but more like a asking of a sprinkle of blessing to what I have already pre-determined in right. And man, am I shocked when the answer is no. No hurts. No doesn't make sense. And more often then not I have seen No as His will. If the Lord is a good Father, why can I not delight in His will? Because I am selfish and 9 times out of 10 I desire my will over His. What would it take to align your heart with His today? What needs to go? What does your quiet time look like before Him? Do you know Him enough through His Word to even recognize His will, or love Him enough through His word to desire His will over yours?
Friend, lets ask hard questions, and run hard after Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment