In his own words (part 2)

The process of heaven becoming real on this earth began with Jesus’ disciples believing that Jesus had “come from the Father,” John 16:28. “You believe at last!” he cried out in verse 31. 

So Jesus was jolly pleased that they believed he’d “come from God” (verse 30), but why was he pleased? Because, verse 27: “the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” He was delighted with their belief because the result of it was the Father loving them.   

In asking the question, then, “Why Jesus?” – Jesus answered that for us in verse 27: he came from God to bring his Father’s love. When the Father sent Jesus to us it came with the message: “Give them my love” – like we say to visiting friends and relatives to give our love to those we know when they get back home. Back at their home base, then, they become messengers of our love, just like Jesus came to our home base to be a messenger of his Father’s love. 

And knowing the Father’s love would certainly make heaven real. It would open up a new world. So it’s no surprise that Jesus also explained to his disciples in verse 27 how that world would open up to them: “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me.”    

The obvious question then is: “How do we love Jesus?” In Jesus’ own words it’s obeying what he taught (John 14:23) – in recognition, John 7:16, that “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me.” So what Jesus taught came directly from the Father (14:10), and what “I learned from my Father I have made known to you,” John 15:15. So this was how they’d come to know the Father’s world and the Father’s love – through the direct line the Father had set up in the teaching of Jesus.  

And his disciples got that, because in John 16:30 they told Jesus, “Now we can see that you know all things and there’s no need for anyone to ask you any more questions.” It was seeing at last in Jesus’ amazing knowledge about the Father that “makes us believe you came from God.” 

And that was the starting point for what the Father had sent Jesus for – to make his love and his world real to Jesus’ disciples…(continues Friday) 

Explained in his own words (part 1)

In John 16:28 Jesus summarized his existence this way: “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I’m leaving the world and going back to the Father.”  

And that simple explanation seemed to satisfy his disciples because they replied in verse 29, “Now you’re speaking clearly.” Somehow it had got through to them that Jesus really had come from God. He wasn’t just a prophet, a teacher, or a healer who could work miracles; he was an extra terrestrial who’d landed on this planet “from above,” as Jesus phrased it in John 3:31. 

He wasn’t “from the earth,” because, he said, anyone from the earth “belongs to the earth,” but “the one who comes from heaven is above all.” So in his own words he was above and beyond anything that could be seen, heard or experienced naturally on this planet. 

But what proof did he offer that this was true? It was simple: everything he said and did was based purely on what he’d “seen and heard” in heaven, verse 32. And that he was utterly unique in his experience of heaven because “No one (else) has ever gone to heaven except the one who came from heaven” (verse 13).

It was an extraordinary claim, that this walking, talking human had come from heaven to speak of what he’d personally seen and heard in heaven, and also to act out heaven on the earth so that it could “be seen plainly,” verse 21, “that what he’d done was done through God.” Only God working in and through him could explain why Jesus was so different to anything seen or heard on earth.  

And then Jesus said in verse 35, that God had “placed everything in his hands” – with God’s unlimited power backing him up too (verse 34) – to make the life of heaven real. And it was to his disciples this understanding would be given, because it would be through them believing it that the process of heaven becoming real on this planet would begin. 

In what ways, then, would heaven become real through them?…(continues Wednesday)  

To Joy (part 18)

Jesus said a lot of things that puzzled his disciples. And when they asked him for an explanation, it sometimes made things worse, because on his own admission he’d “been speaking figuratively,” John 16:25 – like calling himself the “bread of life” (6:35) and the “true vine” (15:1).

But at this stage in their lives they were like children needing stories and analogies in earthly terms to get spiritual, heavenly points across to them. Like my oldest granddaughter who has trouble grasping why God is important. And as yet she’s not ready to go to God herself for an answer, so I need an explanation that makes sense in her terms at this stage in her life too.

Somehow I had to get across the need for another dimension beyond this one, without calling it “God.” What came to mind was a cartoon she’d drawn when she was around ten years old. She called it “The Squidgy Alien,” an oblong creature like a flying saucer with three eyes and little thin legs, and the subject of the cartoon was questions the aliens had trouble answering. But when an answer dawns on them and the alien scratches his head and says, “I wonder…,” he has exactly ten seconds to live and that’s it, game over, and there he lies with his little thin legs in the air and all three eyes closed.

So I used her cartoon to create the same picture of our lives, that we too are living in a world that constantly puzzles us, but just when we’re wising up a bit and finding answers, we keel over and die. So what on earth is the point of this life, when even if we do wise up and get answers we can’t benefit from them?  

Surely, then, there has to be another dimension in existence that set life up this way so we could learn by experience what works and what doesn’t in preparation for a world where we can benefit from what we’ve learnt. Because what is the point of life otherwise? We’re all just Squidgy Aliens.

But not Jesus’ disciples, because, he says, they can be in touch with this other dimension to get whatever answers they need (John 16:23) to make their joy complete (verse 24). And for joy to be complete it can’t be keeling over and dying with no hope of a future, can it?…(new series on Monday: “Why Jesus?…)  

To Joy (part 17)

I have a granddaughter who asks me some tough questions about God and the Bible. She’s puzzled, for instance, as to why God had so many people, including children, killed off in the Old Testament. So we talk and reason together, not only learning from each other, but a lot about each other too. Wonderful times. 

But one day I won’t be around for these animated chats, or be on call any time to help her through her puzzlement. Which made me wonder what I could do now in preparation for that time. And here in John 16:23 was the answer. 

Jesus has been helping his disciples through their puzzlement too (verses 17-19), but he accepts that one day he won’t be with them in person either. When that day comes – or “In that day” as he phrases it in verse 23 – “you will no longer ask me anything.” And if he’d stopped there, well, imagine the reaction my granddaughter would have if I said, “Sorry, old girl, but the day’s coming when I won’t be around and you’ll no longer be able to ask me anything,” and left it at that.  

But Jesus didn’t leave it at that. He said, “Yes, it will be tough (Now is your time of grief, verse 22), but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”  

So even though he wasn’t with them in person anymore, they would see him again, and in such a way they’d experience an unshakeable joy for the rest of their lives, because they could go “directly to the Father and he’ll give you whatever you ask for by using my name,” verse 23. 

Using his name would be the means by which he would remain alive to them. And this way I come alive to my granddaughter after I’m gone too, because I’ve told her already she too can go to God directly for help. So she can go to the Father and say, “Granpy told me I could come to you directly for answers, so I’m coming in his name. He also told me that when I ask you for help with my puzzlement I am guaranteed an answer from you, because you want my joy to be complete. That joy began when I was able to talk things over with my Grandpa in person, but he said you’ll make my joy complete when I come to you. Granpy said, so in his name here I am.” Just like we can say to the Father, “Jesus said, so in his name here I am”…(continues Friday)

To Joy (part 16)

“Now is your time of grief,” Jesus told his disciples in John 16:22, and what better description of life as humans in the present too? 

Because in this human life of ours there are endless causes of pain and anguish – physical, mental and emotional pain, and the underlying anguish of never quite knowing what’s going to happen next. Our life now is so much like a mother’s labour pains, fraught with the frightening helplessness at things going on inside us and to us that we have no control over. 

To Jesus’ disciples it would feel that way when he was killed. It would leave them absolutely shattered, not only by the overwhelming feeling of loss of him being ripped away from them, but also the frightening helplessness of it all happening so fast and there was nothing they could do about it either. It would leave them emotionally drained, and so mentally numbed that the fishermen among them went back to fishing again, as if nothing in the last three years had happened.

But the encouraging part is that Jesus knew this was how they’d feel, so immediately after he told them, “Now is your time of grief,” he followed it up with: “BUT – I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” 

Two points to note here: that, first of all, Jesus was concerned for his disciples and wanted to give them hope. He didn’t want them wallowing in gloom. But, secondly, he knew that the only solution to their gloom was himself. It would be seeing him alive again, and realizing their gloom was only temporary. 

And isn’t that the same for us, that we too discover in our gloom that there’s a living Jesus Christ who can get us out of it? And he comes alive to us in doing that for us again and again. 

So after a while it has to dawn on us that he really is alive, because even when we’re utterly helpless and in situations that offer no signs of improvement or solution, we find ourselves with such confidence, hope, peace and joy, that nothing and no one can take them away from us either…(continues Wednesday)  

To Joy (part 15)

In John 16:20, Jesus echoes the title of this series, “The Switch to Joy,” in nearly the same words, when he tells his disciples, “You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.”

His disciples would grieve when he was gone, but he promised their grief would switch to joy. What was causing their grief, then, would become a source of joy. But how can grief switch to joy? How is that even possible?

Jesus explains how it’s possible in verse 21, in his analogy of a “woman giving birth” and the pain and anguish she goes through leading up to the birth. “But,” as Jesus continues, “when her baby is born her anguish gives way to joy because she’s brought a new baby into the world.” 

So the cause of her pain is the baby, but so now is the cause of her joy. What was causing her grief, then, had become a source of joy. And it was God who designed it to be this way. He designed the birth of a baby to be tough. But why? Jesus tells us why, that in our present existence as humans there is pain, anguish and grief, yes, but it’s only temporary, just like a woman’s labour pains. And there’s a wonderful purpose to it, unseen and invisible to our eyes at the time of our pain, and that purpose as God intended is joy.

A mother experiences that joy in glorious reality in the birth of her baby. From a sweating, gasping, purple faced, frantic wild person, where it seems like the world will explode if that baby isn’t born soon, a tremendous transformation occurs in the mother, an incredible switch to joy, pride, deep satisfaction and serenity when the baby is in her arms. And Jesus picks up on this amazing transformation in the mother to explain to his disciples that, yes, there will be grief and suffering in their lives, causing as much anguish and “wishing it was over and done with soon” that a mother feels in labour, but it also has joy built into it too. With God and his genius, he’s built them both in together. 

And isn’t that a joy in itself, knowing that whatever is causing us suffering and pain, tucked in with it is joy in waiting? And think how many times we go through this as Jesus’ disciples, when we’re at the end of our rope, but then a joy and peace beyond understanding on discovering that God made our rope a lot tougher and longer than we thought…(continues Monday)  

To Joy (part 14)

A young person told me she has trouble with the Bible because it so often contradicts itself. Which made me think of the confusion the disciples experienced when it seemed Jesus contradicted himself too. 

In John 16:16 he told them: “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” Well, that set them off:“What’s he getting at?” they mumbled to each other in verse 17. “First he says we’re never going to see him again, and then he says we are going to see him again.” Confusion. 

I can understand why people say, “I give up on the Bible; it doesn’t make sense,” but Jesus took that into account with his disciples. He “saw that they wanted to ask him about this,” verse 19, so he took the hint and opened up a conversation. I sensed the same thing with the young person I was talking to. I could tell she was dying to get into her thoughts about the Bible but she was hesitating, so I opened the door to her – just like Jesus now did with his disciples. 

The key point being, that there was an explanation. His disciples may have been confused, but he wasn’t. He knew exactly what he meant by his supposed contradiction. In his death, for instance, they would never see him as a flesh and blood human like that again. But only three days later they’d see him again – but in a different body that could pass through the walls of a locked room. An easy explanation, but in their limited understanding at the time they couldn’t see it. 

And isn’t that how it is for us when we too don’t understand what the Bible says or what’s happening to us personally? We’re stuck with our limited range of insight into what God’s up to, and what we’re supposed to be getting out of whatever’s happening to us, or what he means in some difficult scriptures. But everything God does and says is sourced from a vastly different dimension in which everything is understood and can be explained, witness what happened here in John 16. 

It’s another reason for joy, knowing that with God everything has an explanation, and if we’re confused he knows it. And if Jesus’ example in John 16 is anything to go by, he’ll help us understand as well…(continues Friday) 

To Joy (part 13)

Three things Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do in John 16:13. First of all, “When he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” Secondly, that the Holy Spirit “will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears.” And thirdly, “he will tell you what is to come.”

On the first point, it sounds like Jesus’ teaching days are over. And there’s some truth to that, because after he was resurrected he didn’t do much teaching. His main reasons for appearing in person to his disciples, and to others, was to prove he was alive, and secondly, to explain that what had happened to him, his suffering and death, had all been predicted in their Scriptures. 

According to Jesus himself, the real teaching from that point on would be done by the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Spirit taught, then, would be all the truth they’d need. Which simplified life very nicely for his disciples: wait for the Holy Spirit to come and what they were alive for would be explained. Which is exactly what happened, first of all in the book of Acts when the Spirit came, and then in all the other books in the New Testament that came later, in the letters to the churches by Peter, James, Paul, the author of Hebrews and others. 

In the New Testament, then, we have all the truth we need to become what God made humans for. And the same principles apply to all, whether rich or poor, highly intelligent or very ordinary. And what simplifies this still further is knowing there isn’t “more” truth out there that we have to go looking for. Imagine having to read every book written to eventually find out what life is all about. Or that maybe a great philosopher of the past had the secret to life.

No worries on that score, because the Holy Spirit “speaks only what he hears.” The source of all that the Holy Spirit teaches is the mind of God, not some brainy human. The New Testament is a deep dive into God’s thoughts. That’s the truth the Spirit is guiding us into. Not the thoughts of man, but of God.  

And his thoughts include “telling us what is to come.” He details how evil works so we can see trends developing. But the joy too of knowing that, no matter how bad things become, one day God will solve all…(continues Wednesday)  

To Joy (part 12)

Three things the Holy Spirit does for us: First of all, he helps us understand why we humans have problems; it’s because we don’t look to Jesus to solve them. He then helps us understand how Jesus solves our problems, by filling us with Jesus’ righteousness, his nature, his goodness. And then he helps us understand how Jesus’ nature in us frees from all the rotten, twisted attitudes the evil power controlling this world had us stuck with before.  

And what that does is change our behaviour in such a way it’s noticeable, because that’s God’s strategy for the church having an impact in this world. It’s through the transformed, obviously different lives of Jesus’ disciples, and the joy we are clearly experiencing from being free and whole. 

Because as one writer put it, “There is something beautiful about whole people. They attract us, they capture our attention,” because “despite all the failure and weakness and the stumbling folly of their lives, here are people who like themselves have suffered all the hurt and loneliness of life, but have found the secret of calmness, peace, and forgiveness.”

As the world observes what the Spirit does to Jesus’ disciples, therefore, it’s helping people learn what that secret is, that Jesus is the Lord of life. You can’t play the game of life without acknowledging the One who created human life. Where we jump the rails, then, is ignoring the One in charge of life. We can try all we like to “get ourselves together” and become the whole beings God created us to be, but we are being “made the righteousness of God (the wholeness he has) in Jesus,” 2 Corinthians 5:21. It’s the work of the Spirit that makes us whole, not by anything we come up with. 

Jesus wanted “to say much more” to his disciples on this subject, John 16:12, but they’d be learning all they needed to know from the Holy Spirit later. That’s why he said it was “for your good that I am going away,” verse 7, because the Spirit would come and fill his disciples in such a way their lives would have an impact on people – which is exactly what happened when the Spirit came in the book of Acts. 

The joy for Jesus’ disciples in any age, then, is knowing the Holy Spirit will do the same through us…(continues Monday)     

To Joy (part 11)

The second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus is to fill his disciples with Jesus’ “righteousness,” his nature, transforming them into Jesus’ likeness. 

The purpose of which ties in with Jesus telling his disciples in John 16:8 that “when the Spirit comes he will convict the world,” verse 11, “in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” 

This is the third thing the Spirit does to bring glory to Jesus through his disciples. It’s opening their eyes to the invisible spirit masterminding this world’s unsolvable mess, and the joy of realizing we can be free of it, because through Jesus’ death this evil spirit “stands condemned.” 

First of all, then, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the stark reality that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19. How awful, that most people have no idea there’s a power behind the scenes influencing and distorting their thinking. But it’s obvious such a power exists, by the weird and destructive attitudes people have, that no amount of time or human brilliance have been able to solve. And so the world stumbles blindly along, year after year, trying one ideology after another, pouring out an endless stream of “new and improved lifestyles,” none of which offer any lasting or effective change in our behaviour. 

What a tragedy, therefore, that people do not know that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work,” 1 John 3:8. Jesus came so we could be free at last from the frustrating futility of never getting mastery over our selfish, destructive nature. The ioy for Jesus’ disciples, therefore, is proving it’s true, that we humans really can be free of the wrong habits and attitudes that rule our lives, because we ourselves are free of them.  

What God intended through Jesus’ disciples, then, was the impact of our transformed lives proving “the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Which in turn brings glory to Jesus, because he is the one who made it possible. 

There are three things (John 16:8-11) the Spirit does in the life of Jesus’ disciples, therefore, that tell of another wonderful power at work…(continues Friday)