Spiritcode

Last Supper The Garden and Trial

HOLY WEEK PART 2 THE LAST SUPPER THE GARDEN AND THE TRIAL
We are continuing in the Holy Week series with part two, after Jesus had had the incident with the money changers, and the ensuing debates and confrontations with the temple priests and leaders. We are now looking at the Last supper and the events leading up to Jesus’ arrest and trial. Rather than simply reading the Scriptures I will tell these events as a story. The story is being taken from the book, The Plan, which I wrote a few years ago, and which is now out of print and that is a very good thing as I am doing a complete re-edit, because I was not happy with the book for several reasons. I think I used just a bit too much dialogue for a start, and I had also used different names for many of the characters to depict their character roles, instead of just calling them by their Biblical names. For instance the disciple Peter was called ‘rock disciple’ and Judas was ‘Troubled disciple’ and Pontius Pilate was ‘Proconsul’. This confused everyone - so hence the rewrite. I will do it as an eBook and it will be free of charge. That will be my atonement for trying to be too smart. So… Moving on…

…Then Jesus took the twelve aside and told them that he wanted to go and spend some time in prayer with his Father. He told them he wanted to share the Passover feast with them in the… evening and had already organized somewhere for them to have the meal, and Peter wanted to know where that place was.
Jesus told Peter that he wanted he and John to go to the city square where they would find a water carrier with a pitcher of water on his shoulder, and that he would be looking out for them. Jesus told the others to go off and spend some time in prayer and preparation for the event, while he would pray by himself, and meet them back at the place where they now were.

The two disciples found the man carrying the pitcher of water in the square just as Jesus had said, and they followed him as he entered a two storey building where they met the owner of the house and he led them to the room that had been prepared for them. This man had been instructed by God in a dream to set aside the room and he had obeyed without question.
After his time of prayer Jesus met with the others and they walked through the streets together the room. It was evening time and there was a large table set out with the Passover meal, and there they sat at the table with Jesus in the middle of them.

Passover was the festival time that celebrated the event of Moses bringing the Nation of Israel out of their slavery from Egypt. The Passover meal was not just a meal but a series of meals, interspersed with pauses for reflection and readings from the Scriptures in remembrance of the miraculous way God had freed them from their oppressors. After one of the meals, at which they ate roasted lamb and bitter herbs, Jesus stood up and went over to one of the sizeable washing bowls and taking off his outer robe he wrapped a large towel around himself and beckoned the disciples to come over to him.
Peter was curious and wanted to know what Jesus was doing. Jesus said that he was going to wash their feet. “Not mine,” exclaimed Peter. The other disciples were also curious and uneasy.
“Yes yours,” replied Jesus, “and all of the others too.” When he saw Peter balking and raising objections he stopped and stood up to face them all. He asked them if they remembered the time when they all became so angry with one another because James’ and John's mother wanted Jesus to give the highest places to her two sons next to him in his kingdom?”
They all nodded, remembering it well.
Nonetheless Jesus went over the lesson he had taught them that day, that if they wanted to have true authority they would serve one another, and if they thought that he had authority with them then they would let him serve them by washing their feet.
He began to wash the disciples’ feet, and when he came to Peter, Peter protested. And refused to let Jesus wash his feet.
“So you don’t want to be part of what I am doing?” Jesus said.
“Of course I do. I’m sorry. Please Lord, wash my hands and my head as well.”
“Just your feet Peter , here, in the bowl.” Jesus then continued to wash the feet of all the men, as they came forward one by one, some with tear streaked faces.

Heaven watched on silently and thousands of angels strained to see and to hear all that was being done and said in this most holy moment. They watched as their God cleansed a grimy unclean world from off those he loved, as he would for all who would let him do so down through the ages. When he had finished washing them he stood up again and said.
“Now you are clean, but not all of you.” One of them wanted to know what he meant, so he asked them to come back to the table with him, where they would continue their meal.

After they had sat down he asked for the bread and wine to be served, and then he said plainly,
“One of you will betray me.”
They were all shocked, and began to discuss this amongst themselves, but then their distress overwhelmed them so they began to ask him one by one, “Is it me Master?” they pleaded anxiously, without getting a reply. John knew the depth of love that he himself had for Jesus and did not even question his own heart as to whether he might be the one, so he simply asked,
“Who is it Lord?” Jesus saw their trouble and concern, so he said, “The one who dips his bread with me into the soup.” At that very moment Judas had his bread in the soup along with the bread in the hand of Jesus. The moment passed in the confusion and nothing appeared to register in the minds of the other disciples so Jesus let the moment pass, then Judas, feeling safe, said,
“Is it me Lord?”
“You said it.” Jesus handed him the piece of dipped bread from his own hand and said to him,
“Go and do what you have to do.”
Judas got up and grabbed the money bag and strode out, feeling euphoric with a heightened sense of mission in his newfound supremacy. The other disciples supposed that he had received instructions from their master concerning some arrangements about paying for the food, or giving to the poor that had been organized between them.

Jesus turned to the other disciples and took a large piece of bread from the bowl. They watched him as he broke it into twelve pieces, keeping one, and handing the rest around to the remaining eleven.
“This is my body. This has been broken into pieces but when we eat it, it becomes one piece again, because we are one. Whenever you and those who come after you do this in the future, you will join yourselves to one another and to me, and I will be there with you. Unless you have my life in you, you will not know what life really is.”
He took a cup of the ceremonial wine and drank from it, then passed it around for them all to drink. After they had finished it he said to them, ”This is my blood. Just as my body will be torn to pieces for you, so too will my blood be spilled for you. This is a sign of my life and of the new promise from God to give you and all of humanity our life to share, not just a life of rules and regulations, but our very divine life. Whenever people do this in the future I want them to remember that I died for them and that I will come back again at the end of time, in the full power and glory of my kingdom.”

Once again they recalled the things he had said to them about his coming back at the end of time. He had warned them of the things that would happen in the earth just before that mighty and awesome day when he would be seen by all the world coming in the clouds of heaven. They recalled his predictions of the earthquakes and natural disasters that would strike the earth, the rising tide of self interest and wars and terror, the epidemic of fear and hopelessness. They shuddered within themselves, and they were comforted by his presence.

The feast had come to an end and he stood and asked them to come with him into a garden near the olive grove, where he wanted them to pray with him. Jesus spoke to them.
“In a few hours the temple leaders will arrest me and I will be put on trial. After my arrest you will all become terrified and desert me, but it will fulfill the Scripture which says that when the shepherd is struck the sheep will run in all directions.”
Peter protested, “Even if everyone else deserts you I will never run,” and James and the others joined in the protest. Peter drew out his dagger, quickly followed by James.
“These are two daggers,” said Peter, seeing James's drawn dagger, “and I will die with you before I let anyone take you away.”
Jesus looked at Peter.
“Satan is out to get you Peter, and before the night is over you will separate yourself from me in fear but I will be praying for you that your faith will remain strong. You will hear a rooster crowing in the morning, and when you hear it, it will be a stark reminder of what I just told you. And for now, you can both put your daggers away.”
But Peter protested all the more, and Jesus let him talk on.

Jesus took the men to the garden area and asked Peter and John and James to accompany him further, motioning for the others to stay back. A little farther on he asked the three to wait and pray while he went on his own to pray to his Father. Finding a place, he fell on his face and began to quake inside with a peculiar dread. He would face torture and death in an unbearable and agonizing way. He would be totally alone, suffering the shame and reproach of a criminal. These thoughts tormented his mind and dried up his soul. Darkness tried to ride in on this torment. He began to sweat profusely, and he groaned, till he started to taste blood in his mouth. The blood dribbled down his chin, and then he saw droplets of blood on the backs of his hands. This was the cup of pain and sorrow that he was being asked to take. It was too much, and he begged for Father to take it away. He asked if there was some other way that he might accomplish what he had been sent to do, but he told Father that nonetheless he would do whatever he wanted him to. He staggered to his feet, and groped his way to where he had left the three. They were asleep.
Jesus groaned again, and waking them up he pleaded with them.
“Couldn't you have stayed awake and prayed? You know I am about to die, and I feel my life draining from me already, and I am almost overwhelmed by it. You need to pray too so that you will not be completely overwhelmed.”
They spluttered out their apologies. He moaned and went back to his place and cried out to Father again, to never forsake him, but still the agony fastened itself to his soul. He asked Father again if there was any other way, and again he yielded his will to his Father.

After more suffering that became more than he could bear, he returned to the three, but they had fallen asleep again. He pleaded with them again not to go to sleep. They didn’t know what to say. Sleep had become their escape from the heaviness of their grief and sorrow. Father watched from heaven and shared his son's agony, knowing that this was the darkest hour that his son had ever known. Heaven’s angels watched with him and shared his sorrow. Father sent one of these faithful beings to comfort his Son.
Jesus received the heavenly comfort then he sat up and looked to the heavens. “Father I have asked for you to take this cup from me, but because it is your will, I will go through whatever you wish.” He slumped back on his heels and buried his face in his hands and drew in strength.

Jesus found the three disciples asleep again, and just as he woke them there was the sound of a commotion a short distance away. The three men urged Jesus to come with them to a place of safety. ”No,” he said, “I have accepted Father's cup of suffering. We will go to meet this mob. Darkness is having its day and my betrayer is ready.”
Just then the other disciples came rushing to meet Jesus and the three. Together they all walked to where a large party of troops and officers of the High Priest were advancing with lanterns and clubs. When they got close, Judas broke out from among the advancing party and came to Jesus, embracing him and kissing him on the cheek.
“Is that a kiss of life or a kiss of death?” asked Jesus.
“This is the one,” said Judas, pulling away from Jesus and melting back into the throng. An officer of the High Priest grabbed hold of Jesus by the shoulder to take him away, when a dagger flashed and glinted in the moonlight. Blood spurted from the side of the face of the officer and he shrieked in shock and pain, as his ear fell to the ground at his feet. Jesus looked into the angry face of Peter who stood there with a bloody dagger in his hand. The troops fell back and watched in wonder as Jesus picked up the ear and placed it firmly back on the lacerated face of the officer. The wound healed immediately and a gasp went up from everybody.
“Put that dagger away Peter, I have angels that could do better than that, and wipe them all out in an instant.” He also gave a warning look to James who had his hand on the hilt of his dagger. He assured them that this had been written of him and was now coming to pass ( Psalm 41:9).
Instead of being confronted by a belligerent usurper who wanted to seize a throne and a kingdom, these soldiers were met by the Prince of peace, who stood calmly in front of them and surrendered himself willingly. The officers led Jesus away to the chambers of the High Priest and the disciples scattered in fear and distress, just as Jesus had predicted. Two disciples followed at a distance however, John and Peter, and they mingled with the crowd gathering outside the High Priest's chambers where Jesus was put through a preliminary interrogation. John even went inside the porch where the crowd was swarming, and where people were talking animatedly, warming themselves around a fire.

Jesus had just previously told Peter that Satan desired to have him and to attack him at the point of his weakest inner fear. Even though Peter could draw a dagger and physically attack a guard, he could not cope with the shame of being associated with someone who would damage his reputation of being a loyal Jew, and the temptation of this besetting sin revisited him at later times in his ministry.
Peter felt a spasm of horror hit him as the agent of destruction tried to overpower his being. He struggled against the violent evil force, but sensed a swirling sea of fear billowing somewhere beneath the faculties of his mind and will. He searched for faith but could only find fear. The fear became a terror and he was engulfed in the blackest moment of panic he had ever experienced, worse than any tempest at sea, or any phantom of some hideous dream, as everything and everyone about him became the source of some ghastly threat to his sense of who he wanted to be seen as by other people.
He shrunk back into a shadow and hid himself, and in doing so he bumped into a slightly built young servant girl, gathering wood for the fire. She pointed at him and called out to the people standing nearby.
“This is one of them, I saw him with the teacher – they’re both Galileans,” People began to come over to Peter and he cowered from them.
“You are one of them aren't you?” the young girl said again.
“No, never, I don't even know him. You must be mad.” He quaked inside himself. He was accused again of being one of Jesus' followers, and the third time he was accused he hurled back oaths and cursed them for being fools. By this time it was almost dawn, and the familiar sound of a rooster was heard crowing in the distance. Nobody took any notice, but Peter shrieked out in despair and fled from their midst, sobbing great sobs of desolation. He remembered the words of Jesus to him.

After the mockery of a trial before the High Priest and the council of elders , where Jesus was charged with blasphemy for threatening to destroy the Temple, Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate into the courtyard of the praetorium by the priests, the council, and hordes of the Jews. They demanded that Pontius Pilate come out to them and they shoved Jesus in front of him. He looked closely at Jesus for the first time and felt that his future was in this man's hands rather than the other way around. The crow Jews was growing in the courtyard below. They were quiet as they waited for the encounter. Pilate took Jesus inside, away from the eyes and ears of the crowd so that he could question him privately. He asked Jesus the most damning question he could devise, believing that Jesus would expertly deflect it.
“Are you king over your people?” he asked confidently.
“Yes I am,” answered Jesus, with dignity and humility, looking straight into Pilate’s eyes.
Pilate was staggered. He expected some deft manoeuvre of words but Jesus had just delivered his own verdict of guilty as far as the Jews were concerned.
“They are all accusing you, don't you have an answer? I am willing to listen to anything you say. Believe me I want justice for you, I do not wish you harm.”
Jesus remained silent and Pilate admired this man more than ever. He had not witnessed anything like this before.

Pilate went out and tried to plead with the crowd to let Jesus go free, but to no avail. He heard someone shout loudly above the others that Jesus was from Galilee and had caused trouble in the Lake Region as well as in the city.
“The Lake Region…Galilee…” Pilate repeated to himself. He stopped and thought quickly, and he knew he had the answer. He stood up and commanded silence. He addressed the leaders.
“Is this man indeed from Galilee?”
“Yes, that is where it all started,” They shouted back.
Pilate realized that the Lake Region was in Herod’s jurisdiction. Herod had more immediate responsibility for the Jews than he did, and the matter could be put into his hands, and he just happened to be in Jerusalem at this time for the feast of Passover. He shouted to the crowd.
“This man is in Herod's jurisdiction, not mine, so I am going to call him in to deal with it.” He felt relief sweep over him and he adjourned the hearing yet once more and returned to his rooms.

Jesus was sent to Herod’s palace in Jerusalem and Herod took control of the proceedings with relish. He had Jesus dressed up in mock royal robes and interrogated him, but Jesus did not say a word. He was punched and bullied by Herod’s guard of soldiers, but he received the indignation with total dignity and waited for Herod to give up his cruel game. Herod soon became bored with it all and sent Jesus back to Pontius Pilate.

Suddenly Pilate had a flash of brilliance. This was a special time of the year, the Feast of Passover, the time of the major festival of the Jews. Every year at this time Pontius Pilate had the authority to release a condemned criminal, no matter what his crimes were. He delayed the proceedings while he summonsed the worst criminal he had captive in the dungeon, a murderous killer, Barabbas, who was feared by the entire community. He would give them a choice - Jesus or Barabbas. He had Barabbas brought before the crowd and he was struck by the contrast between the two men standing before him. One man’s posture was cruel and menacing while the other man stood quiet and dignified, but the crowd’s one time hero had become a confusing embarrassment to them. Temple leaders had been going among the crowd stirring up the people against Jesus, using scorn or threats or whatever abusive tactic they could think of to turn the crowd’s baffled disappointment into resentment and rage. Their self proclaimed king had been reduced to a helpless bleeding failure before their eyes.
Pontius Pilate shouted loudly to the crowd. “Who would you like me to release to you?”
Shock hit his spleen like a dart as they clamored for Barabbas to be released - Barrabas, whose name ironically, means Son of the Father. He called for another adjournment.
Pilate remembered his wife telling him she had had dreadful dreams that had to do with Jesus and had sent a messenger to warn him to have nothing to do with Jesus. He wanted to wash his hands of the whole matter.
He went out there again to try and get some justice from the crowd.

Pilate stood nervously before the angry crowd. He held his hands out to them in a gesture of appeal.
“What do you want me to do with this man?” he pleaded.
“Crucify him,” shouted one of the temple leaders. Then the shout “crucify him” went up from the crowd.
Pilate shouted back at them.
“I find nothing wrong with this man, but if you want this to happen it must become your responsibility.”
One of the leaders yelled back at him.
“If you release this man you will be no friend of the Empire. Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”
Still the cries went up demanding Jesus’ death. Pilate feared that he might have a riot on his hands and he didn’t want to provoke trouble for himself with his Empire superiors. He called for a bowl of water. When the water arrived he ceremoniously washed his hands in front of the angry mob.
“I wash my hands of this matter. I am innocent of the blood of this just man.”
“His blood can be on our hands,” they yelled back.

Pilate nodded lamely and called for Jesus to be taken by the guards into the Praetorium and scourged. The scourge or flail, was a leather handled whip with leather thongs or lashes woven into the braided handle. The guards wielded the scourges heavily, and some of the scourges had barbed lashes attached. As Jesus’ back became more and more bloody, the leather became blood soaked and heavier and cut more deeply into his skin. The lashes would not only cut into the back but whip around into the chest and stomach area, splitting the skin open. Jesus suffered in silence, which angered the bullies and fuelled their malicious energy. The guards made a cruel game out of mocking Jesus by jamming a wreath of thorny vines onto his head and driving them into his flesh. They took a purple robe and draped it over him and joked together as they took turns in bowing to him, pretending to hail him as a king. When the thugs had beaten Jesus severely, they brought him back to Pilate. Pilate tried once more to have the Jews relent. He presented the limp and bleeding figure of Jesus to the people once more, thinking that this might satisfy their blood lust. He shouted out to the crowd.
“Here is your king. I find this man not guilty. The crowd shouted back,
“He is not our king. Crucify him.”
Pilate felt it was useless to take the matter any further so he handed Jesus over to be crucified

 

Three temple visits

Holy Week , that week during which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey while crowds called out Hosanna, was also the week where he turned over the tables of the money changers, the week of the Last supper, the week where he was betrayed and where he agonised in the Garden of Gesthemane,. He was denied by Peter, put on trial, and crucified. That week was preceded by a build up of momentum over many weeks particularly as he began to appear more publicly in open conflict and debate with the Scribes and Pharisees, and where he was questioned by the many that followed him, wanting to know if he was indeed the Christ.
But there was a certain particular activity that was significant to Jesus, and that was to do with the temple.

In the last months of his ministry Jesus placed an intense focus on the Temple. He made three visits to the temple from the month of November through to March the next year. The first visit was to the feast of Tabernacles, the second to the feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), and the third was to confront the money changers before the Feast of Passover when he was crucified.
The temple was the place where God had ordained in the OT that he would meet with his people – this was his habitation. This was paramount for Jesus, who was in fact the living breathing walking temple who knew that his death and resurrection would mean that the material temple, called in Scripture the temple made with hands would no longer be where God met with his people. His temple would be us as the temple of the Holy Spirit just as Jesus had become this habitation of God in his own body while he was on the earth. Jesus is quoted in the New Testament as saying a Body you have prepared for me.

So each temple visit was not just a visit to church as a good religious Jew – no – Jesus had a distinct purpose for each visit because they were about what was happening to him, and about what would be happening to us – the new temple to be.

The first Temple visit was a secret visit when he attended the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast celebrated the miracle of the living water that flowed from out of the rock in the wilderness – the rock that Moses struck with his rod (Exodus 17:34). In the NT the Bible says ‘That rock was Christ). His visit to the Feast of Tabernacles was when Jesus stood and invited everyone to come to him to receive the Living Water, thus prophetically declaring the mystery of his being that Rock, and that after he suffered for us on the Cross he would send the living water of the Holy Spirit to flow out of us.
John 7:37 On that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink, he who believes in Me.” As the Scripture has said, “Out of His heart will flow rivers of living water.” (The Temple Ezek 47, and the Rock Exodus 17, Zech 14). He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive (embrace)

The story behind the story. You can read it all in John ch 7. It starts off with Jesus staying in Galilee with his family and they were all preparing to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, and Jesus' brothers urged him to go to the temple for the feast.
"Go where more people can see your miracles!" they were mocking him. "You can't be famous when you hide like this! If you're so great, prove it to the world!" - even his brothers didn't believe in him.
Jesus just said "It is not the right time for me to go now. But you can go anytime and it will make no difference, for the world can't hate you; but it does hate me, because I accuse it of sin and evil. You go on, and I'll come later when it is the right time." So he remained in Galilee.
But after his brothers had left for the feast, then he went too, secretly, staying out of the public eye, and avoiding the crowds. He ended up taking the back roads to Jerusalem, and on his way to the temple he would have passed many hundreds of tents camped upon the hillsides because thousands of people gathered on these hills for the week of the feast.

The feast had a closing ceremony on the 7th day and the main feature was the drawing of the living water commemorating the living water that God had provided for them at the Rock in their wilderness travels.

He arrived in Jerusalem on the fourth day of the feast and went to the temple and began teaching and discussing Scripture and answering questions from the people, who were amazed and raved about his teaching (verses 14-30). They asked one another how he could have unfolded the Scriptures to them the way he did when he had not been formally taught.

People danced and sang as the water drawing ceremonies and rituals were acted out each morning. Women would get water from the surrounding springs and wells in their water pitchers and take them up to the temple singing with the men and the children from Isa 12:13 ‘Therefore with joy you SHALL DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION.
On the seventh day of the feast, the GREAT DAY of the feast, as the huge golden water bowl was carried by the people up the temple steps, the huge crowd stood around watching and cheering, amidst the trumpet blasts sounding out. This was the consecration ceremony of the sacred water, the high point of the feast.

At the top of the temple steps was a special altar with a priest selected by the Sadducees, waiting for the big moment to arrive. When the bowl was presented to him he would raise his hand to indicate that the call was about to be made for people to ‘Come, you who thirst, drink of the water’.
This would have been the moment, when the priest raised his hand, that Jesus would have stood in front of the crowd and called out in a strong loud voice; If anyone thirsts and believes in me let him come and drink. Those words that Jesus said this at that particular time in front of all the Jewish pilgrims from all over the Middle East, Asia Minor and Greece would have hit their ears like a thunderclap. Everybody would have known whose cry it was, and many would have seen its significance, namely that Jesus had come to embody all that past experience in the wilderness. The Scriptures tell us (verses 40-44) that division and argument broke out amongst the crowd. Many in the crowd said ‘This is The Prophet’ while others said ‘This is The Christ’, while others said ‘Would The Christ ever come out of Galilee?’

The temple police officers said ‘no one has ever spoken like this man. Jesus had turned their historic feast into a proclamation of their (and our) salvation, our present faith, and our future hope, an astounding fulfillment of prophecy.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were furious – calling on the temple police to stop him and arrest him but they couldn’t take hold of him. Nicodemus defended Jesus saying the Law couldn’t judge unless people have heard what the man has to say (vs.50). The officers came back and said ‘we couldn’t arrest him, and ‘besides, no man has ever spoken like this before.’

The problem for Israel in the wilderness was their thinking God was not with them, but God kept showing up for them time after time. It can be the same with us. That is why Jesus was so emphatic that he was the one always with us, like the Rock that was always with them, following them in the wilderness.

The second Temple visit was an open visit when he attended the Feast of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the feast of the re-dedication of the Temple at Jerusalem. This feast is not mentioned in the Old Testament as it occurred between the time of the last book (Malachi), and before the time of Jesus. However it is mentioned in the New Testament. It came in November/December just after the Feast of Tabernacles, and before the Feast of Passover in March/April of the next year.
John 10:22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the Temple, in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

The Feast of Hanukkah, or Feast of Dedication was instituted in 165 BC when Israel defeated the armies of Antiochus Epiphanes who had violated and blasphemously desecrated the Temple ten years earlier. The yrevived it and restored it – they resurrected it.
The enemy violated and blasphemously struck down Jesus as the living Temple but Father resurrected him. The enemy has attacked and violated the living temple of God’s people over the years and left it spoiled and weakened but God has visited his people and revived and restored them. Today’s church is in great need of the revival and restoration through a work of The Holy Spirit in these days so that we can celebrate the grace and power of an outpouring of his Holy Spirit.

The feats of Passover
Jesus entered Jerusalem early in the week and rode through the main street of Jerusalem in an extravagant procession. He was riding in royal style seated on a donkey and its colt while cheering crowds of people laid palm leaves on the ground before him and hailed him as their king. This posed an enormous threat not only to Herod who was the legal king over the Jews but it signalled a threat to the Empire. The people were urging him to establish his kingdom. The Jewish leaders also feared that Jesus would decides to rule over Jerusalem and keep on working miracles like feeding hungry multitudes and raising people from the dead. They feared He would be invincible and topple their own religious power base.
Jesus had made clear to his disciples that the procession was to be a fulfillment of a prophecy that came from
Zechariah 9:9 cry aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king is coming to you; he is righteous and able to deliver, he is humble and riding on a donkey and a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus had also told everyone that he was not interested in an earthly kingdom, but that his kingdom is a spiritual one, but even many of his followers did not want to believe this.
Jesus threw the tables over in the temple that the money changers use and he chased them from the outer court area when he visited the temple that day. It was into this area where Jews from other regions came, who didn’t have the temple currency and they had to exchange their money. It was not just the money changing tables that were the problem for Jesus, because these people needed to buy turtle doves, lambs, and such things to offer sacrifices, but it was the greed and corruption. The money changers charged from twenty to three hundred percent interest. It was actually criminal.

But Jesus said that the temple was his Father’s house, and that instead of being used for prayer and wordship it was being merchandised and corrupted. His actions were not so much aggressive as they were protective. God’s wrath is most notably displayed in the earth as an act of fierce protection over what he holds as precious.

After the procession and the incident with the money changers in the temple Jesus stayed in the city and in the areas round about, teaching the crowds that followed him. This was the busiest time of the year in Jerusalem when crowds of Jews from all over the Empire were gathering for the Passover feast. Jesus came under fiercer and more intense scrutiny from the temple leaders than ever before. Questions were hurled at him to entice him into confrontation regarding moral and legal issues of their temple religion. But Jesus was not about to be baited like an animal of prey. He fielded their questions with a calm authority and it was the tormentors who became enraged by the superior wisdom and integrity of their prey to be. Crowds of Jews looked on in expectation. Many wanted a show of strength and might to come from Jesus after these thrusts and parries, for surely this was the time for him to start his kingdom. But they were to be disappointed. Jesus was on a path that would lead to a far greater demonstration of such might that the whole cosmos would be shaken by it, and he knew that even though the time was short, it was still not yet. His trial was yet to come, The cross was yet to come, and then the resurrection. And it was his prophetic statement about the Temple being destroyed and raised up again in three days that was used as blasphemy against him to condemn him at his trial.

 

Life onboard the Ark

LIFE ON BOARD THE ARK
This is really part two of last week’s Make yourself an Ark. We saw then that the ark had three levels, which we saw represented the Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit. That means being in relationship with God in faith and and prayer through a time of global life changing crisis. I want to look at more of the detail of the structure and design of the Ark.
Genesis 6:9 Make yourself an ark … The length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above (a hatch), and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks.

So the structure of the Ark has lower, second and upper decks and the dimensions of those levels, 300 cubits long, and 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high. These dimensions speak to us of the divine nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their provision for us in these earth shattering times.

But first let us look at modern research into the extraordinary nature of the design of the Ark. Noah’s Ark was the focus of a major 1993 scientific study at the world-class ship research centre KRISO, in Daejeon, South Korea. They compared twelve hulls of different proportions to discover which design was most practical. No hull shape was found to significantly outperform the biblical design.
The research team found that the proportions of Noah’s Ark carefully balanced what are called the conflicting demands of; stability (resistance to capsizing), core strength, and seakeeping (a comfortable ride). In fact, the Ark has the same proportions as a modern cargo ship. The study also confirmed that the Ark could handle waves as high as 30 metres.

So the details of the design for function and materials for the building of the Ark are remarkable in their spiritual application for our lives in our relationship to God as seen in the symbolism of the dimensions of the ark and even the three aspects of balance – Stability, the 300 base of the Father, the centre core strength speaking of Jesus the 30 (the age of maturity for Jesus when he began his ministry). And the comfortable ride because of the wind catching trim on the upper deck – the 50 of Holy Spirit (the word for 50 in the Bible is Pente, as in Pentecost)-The researchers deduced that the top deck had a trim blade that could catch and hold the prevailing winds that allowed glide to occur. The Bible says that the Ark moved upon the waters and that God caused a wind to blow (Genesis 8:2)

For God to ascribe such precise measurements to achieve such an elegant and functional design of naval architecture and then for those measurements to match the defining characteristics of each of the three persons of the Trinity is an extravagant truth that can only reflect God’s divine purpose and meaning in our lives. They highlight how Father, Son and Holy Spirit protect and nurture our lives through times of crisis and prepare us for a new emerging life of spiritual growth and stature, and they speak of divine protection against all odds when we are battling against uncertainty and the unknown.

I’m now going to start with the work of the Father, 300, and then Jesus, 30, and finally the Holy Spirit, 50.

The number three hundred defines the work and person of the Father. That 300 code speaks of our defence against impossible odds. there is the account of Enoch in Genesis 5 where it tells us that Enoch walked with God for 300 years and he ‘was not’ because God took him – he did not see death. That is some kind of overcoming – against the odds - the overcoming of death itself through a close walk with God.

The next application of the number 300 as our defence against impossible odds is when God commands a man called Gideon, an ordinary man in a very ordinary family without military rank or reputation, to lead Israel in battle against the feared Midianites who were coming to attack them with an army of 135,000 soldiers. God made Gideon shrink his army from 32,000 to 300 to demonstrate that he was their supernatural defence against those impossible odds. (Judges chapter 7)
God had to do a lot of convincing with Gideon that it was all about God’s grace and power and not Gideon’s impoverished estimation of his own stature or strength. And also concerning Israel that it was not their own prowess or power that would defeat the enemy. So, Gideon was hiding from the approaching Midianite armies and told to lead Israel into battle to defeat them.
Judges 6:11 Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” Gideon said to Him, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.”
Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours (just previously proclaimed), and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
And then the Lord said to him, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.”
God devised a radical process of drastically winnowing down Gideon’s army of 32,000. First, God said;
“The people who are with you are too many, for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, otherwise Israel will claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me. So then twenty-two thousand of the people had to go home, and ten thousand remained. That was still too many so the 10,000 was then reduced to 300. That is a special number – not quite invincible but definitely unshakable and unconquerable. This 300 number is the basis of your life in the Ark experience. It might take a lot of winnowing out of things within us like doubt and despair or even pride to get us into a 300 kind of unshakeable attitude of trust in God, but Father is saying ‘Surely I will be with you’. What attitudes is God winnowing out of us as humanity in this crisis? God is committed to doing the impossible to have us respond to his mercy and love and forgiveness – to overcome the contradiction of our indifference and ignorance of who he is. He enters into the pain and fear and alienation this world has created between humanity and him and makes himself known, to draw us to himself.

The number thirty defines the work and person of Jesus. The Bible says ‘when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age’…(Luke). Jesus came into the midst of our limitations. He did not come to remove them but to give us his unlimited risen self in the midst of them. He endured the cross resisting the fear that made him sweat drops of blood. The Bible tells us that Jesus was made perfect (mature) by willingly going through suffering. He went through the affliction of life and took the cup of suffering in the Garden of Gesthemane from his Father. In other word he accepted the buffeting of life - didn’t demand special privilege like our culture trains us to do (even some aspects of our Christian culture). He gave thanks to his father. He made himself of no reputation and let go of all human entitlements.
As we learn to live consciously with him we can ‘lose’ our me-self, and gain our true self. We learn to live for something higher than our own privilages we live for God’ entitlement over us.
Being made intensely aware of our human limitations brings about a reaction - Our reaction to a crisis of losing our entitlement to certain things is the human experience of inner suffering ,a disorientating sense of loss. The degree to which we can accept and endure the reality of this loss is the degree to which true character is formed – the number 30 - that marks the person who is a living Yes to God, and who now begins to make courageous decisions . So then by faith we can endure by meeting these limitations with acceptance and not resistance. This brings hope – an expectation of God’s goodness and we can give thanks to God. We begin to know who we are and to live in the potential of who we were designed to be in Christ.

And finally the number 50 defines The Holy Spirit – Always at work in the world of the unseen in everyone on earth. The Holy Spirit is God in action in the earth at this critical moment in time, continuing the work of Jesus from when he was God in action in the earth 2000 years ago.
So lets look at the sending of the dove out from the Ark into the world in the time of the flood. The dove went out from the Ark twice! The first time the dove was sent out by Noah he came back with the olive branch of peace, the anointing of peace, and the second time the dove was sent out it stayed out in the world. That was those times
In our times Holy Spirit has also been sent out twice into the world. The first time he was sent into the world as the Spirit of indwelling for Jesus to be born into the earth. Then Jesus went back to the Father with the indwelling Spirit. Then Holy Spirit was sent from Heaven the second time at Pentecost out into the world and like Noah’s dove he is still out here NOW with us.
The Bible says ‘He will convince THE WORLD about sin and righteousness and judgment’ … What does that mean and how are we convinced of sin?
Sin means ‘missing the mark’ not just a list of bad behaviours, and there are endless lists which people like to categorize - but it means much more than that – It is missing the goal and aim and purpose of life itself, which is to come to know God and share life together with him in oneness of Spirit – the Bible is very clear about this as the aim of God for our lives. Paul tells us we are to be joined to The Lord in one Spirit. If we don’t have a great goal we will never achieve a great goal. If we have great goal and don’t know how to aim at it we will miss the mark and fail the goal.

The good news (gospel) is that The father has set the great goal and Jesus has achieved it for us and Holy Spirit is making it real for us in our everyday lives. We need to be made aware (convinced) that we are missing the mark of life itself (The Holy Spirit convincing the world of sin)so that we can experience a major change of mind about the meaning of life itself (that is what the bible means when it says repentance) and we can then align our minds and hearts with the mind and heart and will of God (that is what the bible means when it says righteousness) and then we can live with a sense of accountability and responsibility regarding the consequences of hitting or missing the mark (that is what the bible means by judgment). Many people are not even aware that they have a spirit. Our spirit is our essential ‘I am’ created by God, but most people think of their I am’ as being what is going on in their minds at the time, I am this because I’m good at doing that (The enlightenment revelation of who we are - I think therefore I am – the motto of humanistic philosophy in the 1700’s) but the problem with that is that what you think and more important who do you think you are depends on your own imagination and is mostly based on what other people have made you believe who and what you should be and should do. Everybody tries tried to work that one out, sorting out all the labels they’ve been given, or given themselves (which you cant do – you miss the mark on that all the time). That is because only God knows who you are because he created you and he wants to tell you. That is the ongoing lifelong work of The Holy Spirit. He is there to reveal who Jesus is and what he has done for you and to guide you and lead you through life and to make you know that you are at peace (at one) with him.
Holy Spirit is doing that now in everyone on the planet. It is always NOW, in fact that is all the world has at the moment.. We need to learn to live in that now activity of the Holy Spirit’s now - otherwise we live in the yesterdays of our past regrets or the tomorrows of our future uncertainties. Those things attach themselves emotionally to our mind as imaginations. So we move away from the mind’s imaginations and bring our thoughts into who God says we are. That is entering into our rest of faith, where we hear God. So know that his presence is with you always and that your life can be lived in his strength. Your life is unique to God and he has aimed you like an arrow in his bow and sent you forth to hit the mark of being the you he designed for you to be from eternity.

 

Make yourself an Ark

MAKE YOURSELF AN ARK

There are some remarkable similarities between the event of Noahs ark in the time of the flood to this time of the novel (brand new) corona virus and the global pandemic that has us all shut in. novel new like the flood – never been seen before
Genesis 6:14…Make yourself an ark…18… and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. And you shall take for yourself all kinds of food, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” Noah did according to all that God commanded him.

Noah’s ark is a story of people being saved from worldwide disaster, a flood that lasted for many months (5) and finished off the life and culture of that world at the time, in order to bring a new world into being, a new kind of life and culture. It was the end to former things and a beginning of new things - The global gamechanger – You could say that the flood was even the novel climate change gamechanger.

We are in the midst of a global event where certain emerging new ways of life and culture now perceived as temporary game-changing things will become permanent realities in many many aspects of our routine lives – working from home, banking and finance, education, even church.
As far as global game-changing is concerned there is an amazing spiritcode message – the number 120 – it is hidden in a comment that God makes as he speaks to Noah about the ark, when he looked at the things going on in the earth and decided he was going to stop things happening the way they were and prepare the world for a new way for life to happen

Genesis 6:4 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not contend with man forever, for his heart is totally self centred: so his days shall be 120 years.
That number 120 is not talking about what the span of human life is going to be. It is talking about how long Noah has to prepare an ark before the game-changing event occurs that marks the end of things being done man’s way and beginning to be done God’s way- the end of former things and a beginning of new things.
Building an ark is now the biggest and greatest project in our lives – but we need to know what it means…

This is the first specific mention of the number 120 in the Bible and it always signifies a situation of the old passing away and the new emerging. There are two very significant further mentions of the 120 code

The next was about Moses who was 120 years old when he died (Deuteronomy 34:7) - and his end-of-life age pointed forward to the rule of life under the Law coming to an end and a new rule of life would emerge in due course. The game-changing message here is that the new thing would be life under the rule of the Spirit of God.

The next was in Acts 1:15 - There were 120 Jewish disciples living under the Jewish Law in an upper room of prayer when the world at that time as they prayed, was visited with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and humanity was now able to live a life guided by the Spirit of God and not just their own understanding. We are living in a number 120 moment in the earth today. New things are going to come to pass we will be doing things in a new way that we haven’t done before. It’s no good my trying to guess what they will be but they will be done God’s way and not our way and we will experience a time of letting go – letting go of the old and embracing the new living way that is waiting for us to walk in.

The ark was a place of safety in a time of disaster and destruction – a flood - a global crisis, and the ark was where you had to go and had to be to preserve your life. So what kind of life are we talking about preserving in our current situation? We are all doing the best we can to observe the life-saving protocols of the lockdown shut in life in our homes for as long as we have to. It is in us as human beings want to preserve that and everything that goes with it – the outward form of things. But there are some outward forms of things we are learning to have to let go of and that is hard and often sad and perplexing to see them pass away. That is causing much grief and sense of loss and we are finding ourselves coming closer together even in our social distancing through our faith and our love for one another. That brings me to the inner life and THAT is where we can build the real ark and preserve the things that do not pass away but are eternal. Letting go of outward things that pass can keep alive the inner things that last. So Noah’s ark has lessons for us in finding the wisdom for safeguarding both inner and outer things in our lives. We might lose some things of our outer life in this crisis that help us to gain the inner things. Some things in our lives may have to die to so that other things might live.

How does this MAKE FOR YOURSELF AN ARK compare to the current corona virus disaster that we are experiencing at this moment?
Noah was told to prepare for something that he had never seen before – rain. There is no mention of rain on the earth till this time.
Genesis 2:5 For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth…but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground… So how could Noah prepare to survive and overcome something that he didn’t know even existed How do we prepare for something today that we didn’t know existed?
We can hear Noah saying to God after he was commanded to build an ark‘ Lord could you tell me what an ark does?– I honestly don’t think we need one’. God was not going to teach him about what a flood was or how to predict rain. And we can hear God replying ‘This is not the time for me to teach you about weather forecasts Noah – just build an ark’.
Covid 19 is called ‘the novel’ – the new corona virus – no vaccine – so no defence – no treatment so no cure as such at this time except for protocols of lockdown. so what do you do? You build an ark.
That is what you are on the earth for now – at this time.
There are outward things you are I are doing now that are different to what they were – and difficult -if we are taking the good advice from the authorised experts who are responsible and caring, and not only the facebook posts. So we listen carefully in that respect and try to get it right.

How do we let go of things that pass? Well mostly they just cease to be and will not be there so the only thing we cling to is the emotional attachment we have to wanting to have them still there or to get them back. Some we will and some maybe not or maybe different. That is the meaning of spirit code120.
Many people in this time of crisis don’t have their work and occupation or interaction with others that was their everyday life, at least not in the same way. Our hearts go out to each other in these things and we feel for one another, all over the world in our common sense of loss and grief. All of us no longer have the freedom of movement and travel to and fro and gathering together but yet we stay close.
So let’s move from the letting go of outward things that pass and get to keeping alive the inner things that last. That’s our real ark.

So how do we build an ark?
This is the building of the inner place of refuge. The ark had three levels Gen 6:16 This speaks of the Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit. He was told to build three levels – upper, middle, and lower. A huge Cruise ship. I’ve never been on a cruise ship but this is the kind of cruise ship that I want to be in at this time and I believe many of us have been seeking to travel our sea of life with God as father son and Holy spirit and to have this as our refuge.
The upper level represents the Holy Spirit, as the Bible speaks of the dove being sent out across the waters from a window in the upper deck to see if there was dry land, and the dove returned with an olive branch – the branch of inner stillness and peace. That dove was finally set free by Noah to fly through the skies. He is our freedom, gentle but powerful and the giver of truth and love.
The middle level represents Jesus who joins us with the Father. Jesus is there in us and as us – in everything – he’s been there in danger and in crisis and he always had the Holy Spirit to lead him and guide him and he always had the Father, in whose arms of love he could rest. Jesus is your Noahs ark experience in this calamity He is your strength in your weakness. And The Father cradles us all from underneath as his children.
I mentioned last week about our human need at this time to know what to do... What do I do next what do I not do OR What is happening – God is happening. God happens to us as the three in one, Father Son and Holy Spirit. There is one Scripture that sums it all up regarding building an ark and living the ark experience, and it speaks to us about The Holy Spirit who helps us to know what to pray for in a time like this because we don’t even know what to ask.
Romans 8:25 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought to, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts (that’s Jesus)knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He(that’s Jesus) makes intercession for the saints (that’s us) according to the will of God (That’s the Father- and Father always answers Jesus’ prayer).
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (invited to share with him in the unfolding purpose he has for our lives).
You have the Holy Spirit to touch your feelings and pray your prayer, and you have Jesus to take that to the Father so that your prayer is answered in the most powerful and caring way in a supernatural dimension that is above all of our attempts to know or to understand the unknowable and the incomprehensibility of the things which are beyond our control. This is your ark – God knows the thing you need, your health and material provision, your hope in times of anxiety, your fear of the unknown – he knows these things and he is quick to answer and to give you faith. You are his children.
So be conscious that this process is going on all the time and we can become part of this four way prayer meeting simply by knowing and believing that it is there and muttering our thankyous to God every time fear or anxiety try to wrestle this reality away from us. Make for yourselves an ark.

Be still and know that I am God

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD PSALM 46
I’m speaking today of the great need for all of us in this current crisis of the global coronavirus pandemic to know what to do... What do I do next what do I not do OR What is happening – God is happening AND God is telling us what he wants us to do – he is saying Be still etc. He is telling us what the big question is that we should ask him – WHO ARE YOU LORD?

God’s purpose is for people to KNOW HIM. When we say ‘Who are you Lord?’ he wants to tell us Who He is. Many people are more concerned with ‘What is going to happen to me’. I believe that MANY THAT ARE HEARING THIS understand and many have accepted this challenge of being still before God as a way of life. When we say we have sought to do this faithfully as a way of life in the day to day happenings of our yesterday life we can live in the hope of living this way as the absolute priority in the new TODAY of the current crisis in the Earth. We are living out an enforced Sabbath rest of FAITH! The Sabbath of the OT was God’s way of demonstrating to Israel that when they rested and trusted him they would see him miraculous work and provision for them. God will order the externals in his own miraculous way for you but you must order the internals for yourself, including the receiving of the wisdom to manage the externals that he is ordering.

Many Christians get to know the concept of God and then try the rest of their lives wanting to know what is going to happen to them. The New Covenant is not designed to tell people what is going to happen to them – it is designed to show them WHO is going to happen to them. What my or anyone else’s opinion is about what you need to know about God must only serve to move each and every one of us to exercise the faith to ask The Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus in each individual life (John 2:27).
Heb 8:10. His covt says all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins ?and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”?

The reason things went wrong for Israel in the Old Testament is that they went to Idols to find out what was going to happen to them and the false prophets told them what they wanted to hear. The true prophets spent their time warning them and encouraging them to live in obedience to God’s covenantal terms of agreement. The same problem can happen in the New Testament when people get the wrong slant on what God’s covenant promises and terms of agreement are really about.

So how are we going to get to know God?
We get to know God IN the things that happen to us – both the good and the bad – when we say ‘Who are you Lord?’ rather than ‘What is going to happen to me Lord’.

From the very beginning of his ministry Paul knew he would go through trial and tribulation but he never worried about that. His main objective in life was to get to know the person of Jesus in an intimate way.
When he had his first encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and he fell to the ground his first words were ‘Who are You LORD?’ That one sentence means a lot. It says ‘I want to get to know you and you are in charge.’ He was then told that he would suffer for this man Jesus and he accepted that wholeheartedly.

Paul believed fully in prophecy but prophecy meant more to Paul about WHO Jesus was rather than Paul having to know what was going to happen to him, whether good or bad in human terms. He would get to know more who Jesus was in the midst of All of these things.
The spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. (Rev. 19:10).
This because the work of The Holy Spirit is to bear witness to the person and the reality of who Jesus is and what he has done and what he is doing in joining us to himself and The Father and The Spirit. His passion is to become known and loved by us as he loves us and knows us. This kind of prophecy encourages and comforts and builds us up, causing us to grow in the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 14:3)

God will reveal his will and purpose through prophecy, but it will confirm things to our spirit that are from God, rather than predict a strange or unknown event of the future.
If we could trust as fully as we can in the pre-ordained purpose and the pre-ordained walk that God has for us (Eph. 2:10) we could rest in that and accept the adverse and the positive aspects of whatever happens. In that rest we would be focused more on knowing who Jesus is rather than what was going to happen to us. In any case, whatever happens to us there is always the opportunity to get to know Jesus more fully in it.

Phil 3:7 ‘But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings…

When Paul suffered persecution and imprisonment he felt he could identify with the suffering of Jesus, and that The Holy Spirit would show more about how Jesus felt when he suffered on the earth. He called this the ‘fellowship of his suffering’.
He also knew he would share the feelings of victory and joy that Jesus experienced in his resurrection. Paul wants us to share this same partnership of getting to know Jesus by hanging onto the hope that Jesus will bring victory out of every seeming defeat, no matter how difficult it may seem when we are going through it. This experience of final victory is that of actually sharing a deep joy with Jesus because that is the emotional experience of having a victory.

It is natural for us to want to know what is going to happen to us and to feel secure in that knowledge of the future – but a greater experience of faith in God through The Holy Spirit is waiting there for us... That is, that God wants to share with us every experience we go through.

In any experience of sharing life with someone else there is an unfolding to us of who that person really is. Little by little the deeper things of the heart and character become known. It is not like reading a book about them because it happens only in the happening and not in the knowledge of some facts about which can give us a theory of what we want them to do or to be for us. Jesus is far above anything we can ask or think.

We get to realize that God is deeply compassionate and profoundly tender and infinitely patient and he waits for us to learn while he never stops unfolding who he is. We learn to trust that he is the only one that knows the end from the beginning and that our extreme efforts to have to know WHAT is going to happen rather than WHO is going through the happening with us causes us to be looking the other way. He planned for us to be fulfilled in life this way, by getting to know him as we experience life conscious of him being with us. He is also fulfilled in this.
GOD WILL HAVE QUESTIONs FOR US TOO...
When Adam went his own way into the darkness and independence of self focused experimentation, God pursued him and said ‘Where are you – where is my friend that used to want to walk with me every day?’ God is still looking for that friendship.
God said to Elijah when he ran away in fear for his life from the cruel King Ahab and Jezebel What are you doing here… Our perfect answer becomes the perfect question ‘Who are you LORD?’ Then God shows us. His directive in getting us to know him is not a dominating commandment. It is an overture of a person who is saying I want us to get to know one another. That is God’s desire – to have fellowship with us. When this desire is mutual you have something absolutely exquisite in terms of a relationship. This is perfect love we are talking about here. When Paul said ‘That I might know him, and the fellowship of his suffering, he was not just looking for suffering, he was looking for an intimate fellowship with the feelings and emotions both good and bad of the person he wanted to know more than anything else,

He is the same yesterday today and forever, consistent in his compassion and guidance and discipline.
How can we be consistent same yesterday and tomorrow?
We do many things the same each day because they are worth doing and they are important - or we wouldn’t do them! They can be done better day by day in love and compassion and character and integrity and in hope and in faith.

 

 

Quietness Confidence Strength

Isaiah 30:15 For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, says: Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved; in quietness and confidence is your strength; but you would have none of this.
No, you say. We will get our help from Egypt (the world). They will give us swift horses for riding to battle.
But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! One of them will chase a thousand of you! Five of them will scatter you until not two of you are left together. You will be like lonely trees on the distant mountaintops. Yet the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed are all those who wait for him to help them.

Quietness – Be still and know. The ‘me’ self that lives the ‘never enough’ life with a sense of being unfulfilled, separate from what life is meant to be, is not at rest and is chronically anxious. The notion that God is absent is the fundamental illusion of humanity, but God is present, in the centre of our being.
Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Hebrews 12:1) (2Corinthians 10:4)

Confidence – Body, Soul, and Spirit.
A confident person is one who knows what they are aiming at and is motivated to trust that as having the highest meaning and purpose for their life. This becomes the inner strength that moves within them to overcome all obstacles.
Pull out of rat race (Egypt), be still and know your purpose (Quietness), commit to action (Confidence).

Body – Two opposing neurological behaviour systems.
Cortisol/adrenalin hormone sequence – the rat race reaction - is activated when your goals and aims and expectations are uncertain or out of reach - anxiety and stress and resentment kick in.
Dopamine, a hormonal neurotransmitter – the confidence reaction, is activated when you know you’re on track with the thing that you aspire to - the motivational component of reward-motivated behaviour. It helps with the buoyancy in the struggle to overcome the obstacles of staying on track. The advantage of this human wiring system can be used for good or bad purposes.

Soul – Aim at the right thing… Philippians 3:14 Press toward the goal for God’s highest invitation to you…
The mind must comprehend the conviction of truth that it believes in. The emotions then buoyantly and courageously rise to a hope and expectation of victory and success. Get into the place of quietness and confidence and encourage your best self. Then the will becomes determined in its action. (no confidence in the flesh Phil 3:3)( Heb 10:36 reward)

Spirit – The Spirit of God MOVES us forward (a MOVE of God!). Being led is more than just following.
Romans 8:14 For all who are led (ago - Moved) by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God, and share his Kingdom purpose and resources. Greater is he that is within us than he that is in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope for healing rain

The upside down theology of Christianity- down is up and up is down – We lose ourselves in order to find ourselves; admit we are wrong so we can be declared right; are strongest when we’re weakest;.
this one is We rejoice in suffering instead of learning to just get over it or learning to put up with it. There’s a secret here, a mystery, a hidden treasure as usual which declares the reality of a life lived with God. It’s the story of the gospel again in one of its 10,000 reasons.

Suffering produces endurance
Romans 5:2 but we rejoice (buoyant) in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance (seeing the potential - pain/gain Hebrews 12:2), and endurance produces character (‘dokime’ trustworthy, genuine, tried and true - sine-cere - without wax), and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame (make us feel worthless and helpless), because God's love has been poured into our hearts (a cloudburst after the drought Joel 2:28) through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (The healing rain)

What is suffering?
In this life we live with suffering and limitations. They belong to our limited being as distinct from God who is an unlimited being. Suffering is the human experience of our reaction to our limitations – Can’t have what we want, do what we want, be what we want or know who we really are. This is actually our reaction to losing our entitlement to certain things (the current global crisis).
This disorientates us and leads to an identity crisis – what I thought was mine now isn’t mine. Who is the ‘me’ that says it’s mine (Babies - and kids in kindy). Losing the true ‘me’ brings about shame (makes me somehow feel worthless or helpless or hopeless.

Endurance forms Character.
If I cannot accept and endure the reality of this loss or deprivation that is due to limitations character is not formed.
Jesus came into the midst of our limitations. He did not come to remove them but he has given us his unlimited risen self in the midst of them. (Hebrews 12:2-4 He endured the cross despising the shame, resisting unto blood). As we learn to live consciously with him we can ‘lose’ our me-self and find our true self (Matthew 16:25). limitations are now met and endured with acceptance (1Thessalonians 5:13). This opens the way for grace to become buoyant in trials (rejoicing).

This character (sincerity, inner strength) creates a new hope
This hope is an expectation of God’s goodness and love. We then experience the love of God poured out upon us. We are not disoriented, or made to feel ashamed (worthless, helpless or hopeless). We are made to feel worthwhile! (Joel 2:27)

This Hope fills our real self with God’s love
We begin to know who we are and to live in the potential of who we were designed to be in Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love not the world - by faith

 

Now our world is just a mere ‘Global Village’. A somewhat fragmented world is becoming...through media technologies like the internet enabling such things as transnational commerce on a level never before achieved ...through the migration and interconnection of nationalities and the sharing of the thoughts and ideas of multiple
cultures...through the vision for the future to see a single globalized marketplace.....these are the hallmarks of a global village.....Though it is seen as something quite new and modern....I think the world has had something similar to this is the past...but without the technology

The Tower of Babel. After the flood God had commanded Noah and his family to fill the earth. Eventually the inhabitants of the earth venture out together....all speaking the same language.....found a nice spot to live and said...."Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." (Gen 11:4) Instead of filling the earth, as God wanted, they wanted to be in one place. They wanted to build a tower to reach to the heavens to “make a name” for themselves. The Tower of Babel was a symbol of human pride and rebellion towards the will of God.
1 John 2:15 (First part says) Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.....

Let’s remember - God ordained that the earth should be cared for
Genesis 2: 15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
I want to distinguish between the world that we are to care for and the world we must not love The Bible describes the world in four basic ways..

1 The earth. Just the earth created by God. cultivate it and keep it.
2 Sometimes the world can mean the current age. You could say we live in a different world to the stone age or bronze age, middle ages, dark ages....we live in a different age....a different world
3 The population of the world....as a collective...we might say 31% of the world is Christian...or 24% of the world is Muslim..
4 It speaks of the world also as being ‘the structure and order of society’

This is what I want us to look at more closely in relation to “love not the world” ‘the structure and order of society’.

There is a theological meaning of the world developed by Paul the Apostle and the disciple John.
Theologically...Kosmos...views human society as an; Interwoven system...Created by a web of sinful human desires...Illusionary beliefs (false ideas)And misdirected passions....It is seen as a place that operates on principles contrary to those of God...
Eph:6:12 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.....1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one....the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The Devil. Satan.....1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Paul the apostle understood the flesh. In his teachings Paul lets us know human beings are fatally flawed by sin...Sin has infected our human capacities. Our emotions, desires, intellect and our will are all corrupt...That is why

Paul could write; Rom7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
1John 2:16 ........These things are not from the Father....but of the world
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.

1 John 2:15 Also goes on to say....If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.....we need to get the love of the Father into us......It seems to me the opposite of loving the world........is loving the Father...You could say.....love not the world....love the Father instead

ROMANS 12:1-2 Our life is to be lived presenting ourselves to God...To make giving our lives to God our Spiritual worship...And do not be conformed to this world... We need to be renewed by God.....
How do we love God on a daily basis? How to we live out loving God?...Loving God and not loving the world...It’s complex, complicated, so much to learn and discern....Trial and error, sin and success, highs and lows...What can we do each day to love God first? And we are all individuals....various spiritual gifts, spiritual calling, stage of life, theological understanding ...How we each approach loving the Father and not loving the world maybe different for each of us...no magic formula.

2 Peter 1:4-9 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Precious and magnificent promises....By them....partakers of the divine nature....Escape the corruption in the world....So I wonder how we can stay on track to love the Father and not Love the World .....without exhausting ourselves with a long list of do’s and don’ts.....Here’s what I think is simple yet powerful...Each day say Yes to God and No to the world
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual IQ

1Corinthians 2:13 We are not using the words that human wisdom teaches but those which the Holy Spirit teaches, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.

Intelligence is a knowing of a particular kind. Do you have any intelligence concerning the cause of a certain matter?
We have ways of measuring wisdom for different areas of our lives. One is called our IQ or Intelligence Quotient, which measures our intellectual intelligence - how competent we are to associate different things together, shapes, numbers, words, concepts, problem solving. There is also much emphasis today in measuring our emotional intelligence, our EQ - how effectively do we respond emotionally to life – calm responses or frustrated reactions? AND we also have an SQ, a spiritual intelligence - how we respond spiritually to life and resonate and flow with the gift of God’s Spirit living within us through Jesus (spiritual things with spiritual).
I can have a high strategic intelligence and not have an emotional intelligence awareness because I allow frustration and annoyance and resentment to rule instead of peace and calm. I can also have emotional intelligence but not have spiritual intelligence, not living in spiritual resonance or harmony with God’s Spirit within, not being grateful to God in all things, and indifferent to the needs of others. So finding emotional peace and calm is not just for making me an island of peace isolated from the needs around me.

These are all valid measures for different areas of effectiveness or success in our lives. So it is good to be aware of them all. And to do the work needed in each area.

What does the Bible say about natural wisdom and intelligence? – The parable of the unjust steward.
Luke 16:8 …Children of this world wiser than the children of light… Doesn’t mean Christians should learn how to cheat better in the rat race. But in the natural wisdom of the rat race the smart rats win. In the world of market place strategies those who have the clues and intelligently get down to the business of mapping their territory will be successful. What about us in our spiritual territory?

What are the virtues of natural wisdom? IQ
Confidence, intelligence, conscientiousness, discipline and stewardship.
The attitude is one of confidence.

What does the Bible say about emotional intelligence and wisdom? EQ
Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Avoid all devious talk; stay away from corrupt speech. Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path . Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil.

What are the virtues of emotional wisdom?
The attitude is one of caution and calm and consistency – not ups and downs but steady as she goes.

What is spiritual intelligence and wisdom?
Is it how much we read the Bible, or pray, or exercise spiritual gifts?
It is more than all of that. The Pharisees read the Bible and prayed. The Christians in Corinth excelled in spiritual gifts but the competition between them in the exercise of spiritual gifts was not spiritual.

2Corinthians 10:12 In comparing themselves with themselves they are not wise (spiritually unintelligent)
1Corinthians 3:1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your natural desires. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your natural desires? Aren’t you living like people of the world?

How do we blend these all these spheres of intelligent KNOWING in our daily lives and how do they affect us personally and help us to bless one another? We can be a blessing to people in our world.
Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ… vs.8 he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life… That is Spiritual Intelligence talk!
There is only one simple thing to do – be still and know. Intelligence is a knowing that you and God are doing his will together!
Have the faith of God Galatians 2:20. … no longer I that live…he is not a spectator in your life neither are you in his. It is not that God can’t do his will without us – He busts into our life (Philippians 2:6 - Saul Damascus) He just wants to do his will with us. An unlimited God wants to include limited us because that is his way of life since Jesus. That is his intelligent plan.
Jesus sowed the seed of his life so that his risen life would be the harvest in our lives. Paul sowed his life in prayer for others for this risen life to become real in them. (Galatians 4:19)

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ…
This is a powerful activity of the cross in our lives. In fact being anchored by faith in this spiritual understanding prospers our efforts in the other spheres. We become more productive and successful in our emotional and relational world and in our worldly plans.

There are choices we make in life that have a spiritual effect on ourselves and upon others and which also affect the spiritual environment around us.
There are certain simple but critical choices that we are confronted with in life at any given time which result in us being in harmony with God’s Spirit or not. Something in our responses and reactions resonates either with the nature of God or with the nature of our frustrated humanity or the nature of darkness. letting his love flow to us and through us to others, letting go of our doubts and limitations and letting God’s faith find us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Him and us

Hebrews 2:6. Someone wrote in Scripture the words, ‘What is man that you pay so much attention to him, or the son of man, that you would come and be with him?’ (the name Jesus used for himself 81 times)

7. You created him of a lower spiritual order than angels, and yet now you have given him a crown of glory and honor and placed him in authority over everything that is yours.

8. He is in command of everything. There is nothing that exists outside the scope of his dominion (Psalm 8:4-6).
But when we look at the apparent disorder of things it does not seem that everything is conforming to this rule (under His dominion)

9. But we are able to see Jesus*, created of a lower spiritual order than angels, so that he could suffer and die as a man - and through the grace of God, to digest the poison of fearful death for all of humanity and then receive his crown of glory and honor. * We can only see Jesus now by faith.

10. It was the most noble* and upright thing for him to do, the one to whom everything belongs, and through whom everything was created. It was so that he could bring the family of his human brothers and sisters into the same place of position and standing that he has himself. The pioneer of a whole new and perfect way of living had to voluntarily live the paradox of human suffering.
*nobility – the high state of character that is owed respect because of virtue

11. The one who is devoted to doing this for us, and those for whom it is being done, are all part of the same family of mankind, so he is happy to call us his brothers and sisters.

12. He said to his Father ‘I will talk about who you really are to my brothers and sisters. In church I will be singing praise to you along with the rest of them.’ (Psalm 22:2)
This is the ever-present response to God in all circumstances.

13. He also said ‘I will trust Father God totally’. He also said ‘Look at me and the huge family of brothers and sisters Father has given me.’ (Isaiah 8:17,18)

14. That family of brothers and sisters had always shared a flesh and blood existence of mortality, so he took on the same mortal existence. That way he used death victoriously, destroying the one that uses death to hold power over us – the devil.

15. He set us free from that fearful prison of mortal existence – the torment of being afraid to die.

16. He did not choose to take upon himself the being of angels. He took upon himself the lineage of Abraham. (1John 4:3 – antichrist)

17. He placed himself under the full obligation of being no different to his human brothers and sisters, so that he could feel compassion for us and be the most faithful kind of high priest that represented us to God and God to us. He absorbed the sum total of the sin and weakness of all of humanity.

18. The fact that he has gone through the pain of life and all its trials means that he is able to show us he fully understands how we feel when the pain of our trials happens to us.