Gospel of John Daily notes

Daily Bible thoughts 1230: Friday 16th September 2016: John 12:1-11: Perfume.

John 12:1-11: Perfume.(please click here for todays passage)

Worship is costly. It is a sacrificial response to the sacrificial love of Jesus. Our sacrifices are small by comparison, but if ‘the cross’ does not lie at the heart of our offering it is not worship. As far as we are concerned, if we are worshipping Jesus it will be costly. Someone said, ”Ministry that costs nothing accomplishes nothing.”

Worship that pays the price will perfume the world. There is a fragrance, a lovely scent, an aroma of Jesus surrounding those who are deeply in love with Jesus.

Worship involves abandonment and self-forgetfulness. Therefore those who worship may draw criticism from merely religious people. When it comes to spiritual things, there are those who can ‘talk a good game’; they can use the terminology, the vocabulary, but their hearts are deeply polluted wells of corruption. They hate genuine worship.

To truly worship you have to have a generous spirit. This touches every area of life – not just money. But it will be shown in our attitude towards finance, so that we give freely, joyfully and with faith-filled hearts.

”One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.” Proverbs 11:24.

PRAYER: Lord, let me carry your fragrance everywhere.

September 16, 2016 0

Daily Bible thoughts 1229: Thursday 15th September 2016: John 12:1-11: Get your Lazarus.

John 12:1-11: Get your Lazarus. (please click for todays passage)

Here are three simple points from this passage:

Jesus raised Lazarus to life (1): I am struck by the words, ”where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.” If Jesus raises you – you live! There are no half measures where His work is concerned.
Jesus raised Lazarus to intimate fellowship (2): He got to be ”seated with Christ” (Ephesians 2). He who had so recently been laid in the grave was once again able to enjoy food, and company and other blessings. In the East, the table was the place of intimate and leisurely communion. It’s a delightful picture. This actually happened to Lazarus, but it also portrays our experience. We honour the Lord Jesus who raised us by enjoying His company, feasting on Him, as it were, and ‘reclining’ on Him. Our life now is not one of self-reliance, but we lean on Him. We rest on Him and His finished work. A missionary was living with a remote tribe in order to translate the Bible into their language. He was, however, struggling to find the right word for ‘trust’. One day, a native came into his hut. He was weary from a long day’s work, and as he gratefully sank into the missionary’s chair, he expressed that it was good to be able to ”lean his whole weight” upon it. The missionary realised that he had found his word for trust.
Jesus raised Lazarus to be living evidence of His power (9-11). The great Methodist preacher, Samuel Chadwick, asked the question, ”Do you want to know the secret of filling your chapels Sunday by Sunday?” He said, ”Get your Lazarus!” How obtuse people can be though. They wanted to put Lazarus back in the cemetery rather than accept what his life was saying about Jesus. It’s a wonderful thing to be given resurrection life by Christ, but it’s also dangerous! He calls us out of the grave into ‘risky living.’

September 15, 2016 0

Daily Bible thoughts 1228: Wednesday 14th September 2016: John 12:1-3: Living worship.

John 12:1-3: Living worship.(please click for todays passage)

Although we ‘focus’ our worship in specific acts of worship, on a Sunday, and at other times; worship is actually a 24/7 calling. I read a book many years ago entitled ‘Worship the Lord’ by Jock Anderson. In it, the author said this: ”God wants worship that is living and living that is worship.” I think partly through the influence of that book, I came to see that everything we do should be offered to God in worship, and if we can’t worship by doing it, then we probably ought to avoid that particular thing.(David Pawson said that for the Christian, the whole of life is sacred, and the only thing that is secular is sin.) The worship of Jesus, who raised us to life, is a beautiful thing (3). There is a fragrance about worshipping people, and also in the very atmosphere they carry about them. But also, when we grasp that worship is about the lives we lead as well as the words we say and the songs we sing, we begin to experience that there is a cost to worship. When you worship with the whole of your life there is a price tag. It may even be true to say that the greater the cost, the sweeter the scent; the more powerful the aroma. Whatever, let us not be ashamed to show our love to Jesus. I once knew a girl who loved the Lord so much that her expression of worship, in church, was quite extravagant. But I am certain she was not being exhibitionist in any way. She just adored Jesus and was ‘lost’ in worship. She was oblivious to what anyone else thought.

As we see here, we may eat in Jesus’ honour (2). It reminds me of Paul’s words:

”So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

The Lord wants living that is worship:

”And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

If Jesus has made you alive (1) you will surely want to do just that.

PRAYER: I am so aware Lord Jesus that you have imparted abundant life to me. So I ask that the life I lead in this world will be a beautiful and fitting response to you. Let me carry the scent of Jesus wherever I go.

September 14, 2016 0

John 11: 45-57: Stranger than fiction!(please click here for todays passage)

Truth is stranger than fiction, and it is regularly less popular.

So Jesus had raised Lazarus from the grave, and you would think that by doing that He would blow away all doubts and convince every sceptic; that He would triumphantly carry all before Him and win the day. All opponents would step up out of their trenches waving white flags. It would be ‘game over’ for unbelief.

But that is not the situation you find here.

Rather, the division over Jesus continues (45, 46). It remains the same today. Compelling evidence (as we might regard it) of Christ’s reality and divinity will only serve to make some people dig their heels in all the more. In fact there will be those who actually choose to align themselves with forces violently opposed to Jesus rather than bow the knee to Him. It’s like they see this huge aircraft coming towards them which has the firepower to blow all of their unbelief out of the water. Yet they keep blasting away at the aeroplane with their canons, even though they cannot hope to bring it down.

The fact is that certain people are just not interested in truth claims (47, 48). Whether or not Christianity is true is not of paramount importance. Their big question is, ‘How does this affect me?’ And if they perceive that their vital interests will be adversely impacted, they just don’t want to know. So, it’s not mainly a question of, ‘Is this message true?’ Rather, it’s a case of, ‘Will my life have to change?’ If the answer is ‘Yes’, in some way or other they will line up with those who plot to remove Jesus.

Jealousy and fear ruled the hearts of these spiritual leaders – not a desire to know the truth. The unintended prophecy from Caiaphas is also quite remarkable:

‘ ”Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?” He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation, and not only for the nation but so that all God’s exile-scattered children might be gathered together into one people (50-52).’ The Message.

In saying that it was expedient that one man should die instead of the whole nation, this hardened, powerful religious leader was unconsciously prophesying the substitutionary death of Jesus – a death that would lead to worldwide salvation (see 10:16).

So we see yet again that, in spite of the severe hostility surrounding Jesus, God is in control. Our God reigns!

Prayer: ”Saved by grace alone; this is all my plea. Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died for me.”

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Free Daily Bible notes by Rev Stephen Thompson

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