In John 17:18 Jesus prays to his Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” So, just as the Father sent Jesus with a job to do here, Jesus has his share of people he’s been assigning a job to do here as well.

In verse 19, Jesus then clues us in to what his job was: “I sanctify myself that they too (the people he assigns) may be truly sanctified” as well. So the reason the Father sent Jesus into the world is the same reason for Jesus sending his disciples into the world, because in both cases it involves the word “sanctified,” meaning “being made holy,” or being made perfect. 

Jesus’ goal in his human life, therefore, was to be made perfect, because “once made perfect,” Hebrews 5:9, “he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” His perfection, or sanctifying himself, therefore, would swing open the doors to eternal life – to those, that is “who obey him.” 

Because it’s obedience that sanctified him, and obedience that sanctifies us. Jesus “lived by every word that came from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4), and he remained “obedient to death” (Philippians 2:8). Every thought, word and action of his was geared to what he knew his Father wanted him to think, say and do, just as “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

But why such emphasis on obedience? Because as Jesus prayed to his Father back in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.” The basic “truth” of life is knowing and obeying what God says. And to get that point across Jesus willingly emptied himself of all his Godness so he could pattern that basic truth for us in his own life. 

The basic truth of his life being Hebrews 5:8, he “learned obedience.” By willingly subjecting himself to excruciating temptation and testing (2:10, 4:15), he learnt just how hard obeying God is. But he did it – and God rewarded him handsomely for it (Philippians 2:9-10). Jesus’ great wish, then, is that we now “learn obedience” so we too can be “truly sanctified” and perfected in readiness for joining him forever. 

Which for us involves learning to obey him (Hebrews 5:9). In which case, “How do we obey Jesus?”….(next blog)

In 1 Corinthians 1:30, Paul tells us “it’s because of God that we are in Christ Jesus.” And God’s reason for that is because Jesus “has become for us wisdom from God.” 

“In Jesus,” then, means God has made Jesus the source of his wisdom for us – “wisdom” being defined by Paul in that same verse as “righteousness, holiness and redemption.” Or, as one translation puts it, “right thinking, right living and a fresh start,” because it’s God’s intent to restore us back to what he meant humans to be. 

In Jesus, then, God is taking us back to the Garden of Eden to get it right this time, because the first time we got it terribly wrong, based on the serpent’s lie that the source of wisdom was in ourselves – in our own brain and ability – which got us thinking, “Who needs God telling us how to live, when we can figure things out for ourselves?”    

So God has given us lots of time to see how that works, with a movie-like script for visual impact in the nation of Israel from Moses to Jesus. Because when Israel thought they were wise enough to figure things out themselves, they always ended up in a terrible mess. But they also learnt that when they cried out to God to get them out of their terrible mess, he always responded by helping them get back to right thinking and right living, restoring the nation back to what he’d called them to be.

It got the lesson across that God was their source of wisdom, because brutal experience made it obvious that they weren’t. God then sent Jesus, who never made the mistake of thinking he had all he needed for right thinking and right living within himself. That’s because his rule of life was: “I am in the Father,” John 14:11, because “it’s the Father living in me who is doing his work” (10). 

What Jesus meant by being “in the Father,” then, was totally depending on his Father to be his source of right thinking and right living, especially since it was his Father’s work he’d been sent by the Father to do. 

Which clues us in to what being “in Jesus” means – that we now are totally depending on Jesus to become our source of right thinking and right living to fulfill the work he’s sent us to do. With that in mind, then, “What did Jesus send us to do?”….(next blog)

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve believed the serpent’s lie that knowing good and evil would make them “like God,” Genesis 3:5, the best part of which would be the “wisdom they’d gain” (6), which they assumed would be enough to see them through whatever the future held. Wisdom, therefore – sourced totally from within themselves – would be relied on from that point on to how the impossible would become possible.

If, however, this truly was (and is) the means and solution to a utopian world free of evil, then why did God then prevent Adam and Eve from “eating off (the other tree in the garden), the tree of life,” which would have given them “life forever,” Genesis 3:22? 

We’ve all been learning the answer to that ever since, as we look back on a long and destructive trail through history of nations and empires always striving, always thinking they know best, always floundering as things go terribly wrong, always trying new things that never work, always creating collateral damage for the innocent, always creating upset, division, polarization and tribalism, and constantly having to lie and deceive to hide their errors – and all because they believed (and still believe) they have the wisdom and ability of gods to solve all, even to assuming to themselves the “god-like” right and authority to decide what is right and wrong, and justify enforcing it with “god-like” authority, crushing and censoring all who dare to disagree, challenge, expose or threaten them.

We’ve been learning by brutal experience, then, what happens when we rely on wisdom sourced from within ourselves. But, fortunately, into our unending mess God has provided the knowledge and the means to making the impossible possible, including total restoration of the planet and damaged lives repaired. 

World peace is included in that too, because it was in Jesus’ promise in John 16:33 – of making possible the peace that we’ve never been able to attain – he dropped a vital clue. And in only two words too: “in me” – “so that in me you may have peace.” And that, according to Jesus, is how the impossible becomes possible. 

It’s not sourced at all from within ourselves; it is purely sourced in Jesus, Which begs the question – “What does ‘in Jesus’ mean?”….(next blog)

The proof of Jesus’ authenticity was his ability to do the impossible. He did perfectly what no human has ever been able to do. But Paul then says in Philippians 2:5, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” 

So that’s the proof of our authenticity too: it’s doing the impossible. And the impossible in one particular attitude of Jesus too, that he “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,” verse 6. Which rings a rather large bell, because Adam and Eve, picturing all of us, took an immediate liking to the serpent’s claim that “your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like God” – you can “grasp equality with God,” in other words.  

So God got the point across very quickly that we humans are suckers for wanting to be like him. But Jesus as a human like Adam and Eve and the rest of us, did the opposite: he “made himself nothing,” stripped himself willingly of all his divine privileges, “and chose instead the humbling position of a slave” (7), because the driving force in his life was to obey his Father’s will, without any gain to himself or the slightest hint of “selfish ambition or vain conceit” (3). 

Impossible? Absolutely. Good, because if we find ourselves rather surprisingly operating on the same wavelength as Jesus once in a while, there’s our proof that our Christianity is real. And especially in a world driven by people in leadership positions who blatantly make it obvious they are driven by selfish ambition and vain conceit, and they’ll do anything to protect their privileged status. They feed on the “divine right” they give themselves to decide what’s good and evil for the rest of us, create a bureaucracy that serves their interests rather than serving ours, and woe to anyone who dares to expose or threaten them.

It’s very tempting, therefore, to simply give in to being like that too, because if our noble leaders are like that, why can’t we?

But Jesus chose a human life in a world just like ours in its attitudes, so he knew firsthand that in such a world “we’ll have trouble” resisting it, John 16:33. “But take heart,” he said, because “I overcame it.” He never gave in to it. Which in our day to day experience by comparison seems impossible. But Jesus is saying, “No, it isn’t,” because in his life and teaching (same verse) he gave us the clue to “How the impossible becomes possible”….(next blog)

Jesus taught a ton of theory, like “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” the obvious intention being that we try it to find out. Because in trying it out, or “putting it into practice,” as Paul said in Philippians 4:9, the promise that comes with it is “the God of peace will be with you.”

And it’s the same with being “poor in spirit,” because it has a promise that comes with putting it into practice too: it’s being “Blessed,” Matthew 5:3, which in Greek, makarios, means “divinely blessed.” So this is more than just human happiness on offer, it’s God’s direct and very personal way of forming what we’re seeking into something absolutely real in our very own day-to-day experience. 

He’s flung open the doors of heaven so we’re living in a world we never knew existed. But that’s exactly what Jesus said would happen in verse 3, when he promised “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That now becomes ours. The streets of heaven are ours to tread and shop freely for all that Jesus offered.

And it’s ours for simply wanting to put what he taught in this verse into practice – but even that was stirred in our minds by God too. When Jesus promised he’d give us his peace in John 14:27, for instance, he said in the verse before that “the Holy Spirit will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (26). So it’s the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven by the Father himself, who stirs the interest in what Jesus taught, to get us off our duffs to try it out, so we get to experience the loaded promises that come with it.

The reality and beauty of all this must have hit Paul with a whomp, because it stirred him to write in Philippians 2:12, “You don’t need me around to get you working out your salvation with fear and trembling, because it’s God (13) who is at work in you, giving you the will and the power to achieve his purpose.” You know the ropes, he’s saying: keep putting what Jesus taught into practice, that God stirred in you in the first place, because he then, by his divine blessing, will make it real.  

Which explains why Paul talks of “fear and trembling,” because in the Greek it’s hinting at panic, the ghastly thought that life is going by and what Jesus taught is all just theory and it still isn’t real. But God has an ace up his sleeve to make it real when it dawns on us we’re “Doing the impossible”….(next blog)

So why do so many people wanting to escape their nations seek refuge in Christian-based nations? And why, if they say their religion and beliefs are so great, don’t they stay in the nations that taught those beliefs?

Clearly, there’s something far more attractive to people seeking peace and well being in nations where God’s peace has been taught and practiced. But of late that trend seems to be changing, as immigrants to Christian-based nations, as well as those born in them, are leaving in increasing numbers. 

Several reasons for doing so are expressed, but the main ones seem to be, “The country I fled to isn’t what I thought it would be,” or, say the native-born, “My country is not the same as the one I grew up in.” 

That’s the perception, so is there any connection between it and unChristian narratives becoming ever more popular in schools, universities, mainstream media, social media, and in politics, and even in supposedly Christian churches too? 

An obvious answer to that would be, “Well, what if we get back to good old Christian values and see what happens?” Judge by the fruits. See if Jesus’ teaching about “the things that make for peace” really work – things like: “In everything do to others what you would have them do to you” in Matthew 7:12, for instance. 

The obvious result of that would be peace, but the proof of our own history is that no matter how deeply and sincerely we’ve wanted peace – and all religions acknowledging the truth of that verse as well – peace, permanent peace, hasn’t happened.

Ah but, Jesus also said in verse 11, “your Father in heaven gives good gifts to those who ask him.” And since he wants to give us peace and sent Jesus to tell us that, we get to experience if it’s true that “everyone who asks receives” (8). 

Have we got the means of restoring God’s peace in our nations at our fingertips, then? It’s right there in Jesus’ teaching – plus his promise that we’ll receive all the help we need to live it too – because isn’t it great “When theory becomes real”?….(next blog) 

What brought Jesus to tears was the pitiful state of his fellow Jews and Israelites not grasping “the things that make for peace,” Luke 19:41-42.

It was so sad, because he’d come “to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace” (1:79). So they had peace in their grasp, the very thing Jesus knew they’d been longing for under the brutal rule of the Romans and the stifling rule of their own religious leaders. And into this suffocating, hopeless world he’d come, boldly announcing in every town and village he visited, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17) – or as we might say, “Stop feeling sorry for yourselves, because what you’ve been longing for is on its way as promised.”

They knew what was promised too, that one day, Isaiah 9:7, “the increase of God’s government and peace” would be established forever on this planet. To hear from Jesus, then, that the time had arrived to begin setting it up was the best news possible. So, go on, people, “believe the good news” (Mark 1:15) and get in on it too, to experience for themselves the peace that God was now making possible.

Because Jesus also knew the consequences in Luke 19 if they didn’t, the first of which was the things that make for peace being “hidden from your eyes” (42). They’d lose all sight of how to make peace, which is exactly what’s been happening today as well, as new ideologies promising utopia and saving the world from disaster replace faith in – and even interest in – biblical values. What Jesus taught about peace is being swamped in a flood of ideas that are already causing havoc and division. Worse still – no one seems to know what to do about it: it’s “hidden from their eyes,” just as Jesus predicted for the people of his day too.

The second and far more harrowing consequence that caused Jesus to cry was knowing the horror that awaited as vicious enemies invaded their land (43), just as Christian countries today are also being taken over by invaders causing mayhem. 

We’re experiencing the same consequences Jesus predicted for his day, and for the same reason too – “because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you” (44). God got the information about peace to us that made us into Christian nations; we dismiss it to our peril. So “Can we restore God’s peace in our nations?”….(next blog)

According to the Bible, God has given us humans the chance to experience the “God-style” peace that he experiences. And being its usual practical self, the Bible also tells us how we get his peace, and what happens to us when we’ve got it, so we can judge by the fruits in our own experience if we’ve got it and whether it’s worth it, or not.

It was Jesus who originally came up with these thoughts when he told his disciples in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you,” with the added emphasis that “I do not give to you as the world gives.” So this would be an extraordinary peace beyond anything we humans can create, the first and obvious symptom of which is revealed in Jesus’ next statement, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  

The Greek word for “peace” in this verse conveys that thought exactly: it’s eirene (air-ray-nay), meaning “to bind, join, weave together,” which Paul used when wishing “grace and peace” on the churches in his care, Colossians 1:2. Because when people were bonded and woven together with God and with each other (4), that’s what gave them eirene, from which we get the word serenity – the “untroubled heart” that Jesus promised in John 14:27. 

Paul expanded on this in Philippians 4:7, when he speaks of “the peace of God guarding our hearts and minds,” so that eirene, serenity, an untroubled heart, will be our constant experience. Which is why he could say, “Let your gentleness be evident to all” (5), because it’s so much easier being calm with people when we’re inwardly serene. 

Which explains why Paul bursts out with: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” in verse 4 – because in his experience this inner serenity brought joy too. And again in his experience, when we’re “not anxious about anything” (6) we’re freed up to enjoy “what’s true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy” (8). 

We can then judge by the fruits what that “God-style” peace does to us, and whether it’s worth it, or not. Paul’s advice in verse 9, therefore, is “put into practice” what he says, because if we’re willing to give it a whirl, Paul guarantees that “the God of peace will be with you.” According to Paul, then, If we’re seeking that inner serenity, God will make sure we get it, because in Paul’s own experience it was well worth the “joy” and “refreshing” that came with it (Romans 15:32-33). So, what are “The things that make for peace” then?….(next blog)

In many nations rooted and built on Christian values, new ideas and ideologies are being tried that sound Christian too, like the new religion of ‘Diversity, Inclusion and Equity’ and its offshoots of justice, accessibility and belonging. 

It sounds really good too, but how is it working out in practice? – taking into account Jesus’ advice in Matthew 7:15, to “Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Fortunately, verse 16, “By their fruit you will recognize them.”

The same could be said of Christianity too, of course, because we’ve got 2,000 years of Christian practice to look back on to judge it by its fruits too. Has Christianity, for instance, done more harm than good, or more good than harm? Or, since we’re all fallible human beings, has Christianity, despite its obvious faults and horrific blunders, at least come up with a record that shows it’s been better for the world than what non-Christians have come up with?   

But how does one judge that? Christians and non-Christians have both shown they are capable of doing good and even great deeds, but equally horrible deeds too. We can name names and historical records of both good and bad on both sides. And it’s amazing how quite evil people can do loving things, while supposedly loving people in the Christian fold can hate, shoot to kill, follow tyrannical leaders, and be just as unforgiving, arrogant, judgmental and jealous as non-Christians. 

So why is Christianity so good for the world? Because it’s meant to create people who “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to building each other up,” Romans 14:19, based on the dawning realization that “anyone who serves Christ in this way is deeply pleasing to God – and passes the trust test with people too” (18). 

Peace, therefore, becomes the driving force in a Christian’s life, just as it will be for Jesus when he sets up his government on earth in Isaiah 9:7. In the meanwhile, we get the chance to see and learn what God means by peace and how it works in practice. Taking into account that the kind of peace Jesus promised in John 14:27 is nothing like what this world comes up with to create peace. His peace is beyond our best efforts, and beyond what we can even imagine too (Philippians 4:7). But we can judge by the fruits in our lives and the lives of others if it works. So “What is peace God-style like?”….(next blog) 

Jacob pronounces an amazing blessing on his son Joseph, starting in Genesis 48:15 and finishing off in verse 20, when Jacob says to Joseph, “In your name (Joseph) will Israel pronounce this blessing: ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.’”

Jacob was right too, because Israelites and Jews have been pronouncing that very blessing on their sons for centuries, and still do today. With good reason too, when taking into account how Jacob’s blessing on Joseph unfolded in Joseph’s life first of all, because Joseph had an enormous impact on the Egyptians and the world where he grew up. 

When Joseph got permission from the Pharaoh in Genesis 50:5-6 to go back to Canaan to bury his father, “All Pharaoh’s officials accompanied him – the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt” (7).

The whole lot went with Joseph, all the top officials running the country. “Chariots and horsemen also went up with him, it was a very large company” (9). And after several days travelling and feeding that huge company and finally arriving at Jacob’s burial spot, they all “lamented loudly and bitterly” while Joseph “observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father” (10). And they were all willing to do this because of their deep respect for Joseph. Not only had he impacted their world, he’d impacted these Egyptians personally too.

Which brought to mind what Christianity has done to people and the nations where it has grown too. Because we’re now discovering what happens when Christian nations ditch their Christian heritage for man-made alternatives. And especially in those nations that many have thought are the modern day manifestation of the original Ephraim and Manasseh, on whom Jacob’s blessing was pronounced.

Because a child could colour in the nations on a map where Christianity took root and prospered, due to the obvious and enormous impact on those nations’ economies and well being. Which ties in so well with God’s promise to Abraham to bless the whole world, because when people cotton on to what Christ accomplished in his death, and now in his resurrection, the nations in which they live change hugely for the better, and so do the people – just as they did in Joseph’s day.  

In which case what is it about the Christian message that creates such an impact? Or put another way, “Why is Christianity so good for the world?”….(next blog)