Growing in the Spirit

Based on the last posting consider these three things again:

First, you are conscious of living in a spiritual dimension that governs the physical dimension. You begin viewing everything from a spiritual perspective. There is a whole spiritual reality behind everything you see.

Second, you were directly connected to God by being born again spiritually. You have found your real identity as an image of God and a disciple of Jesus. Jesus becomes the…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will…

Pentecost 4 The One Sufficient Spirit

Before Pentecost the world simply accepted a variety of gods, religions and the multiplicity of all kinds of spirits. Guesswork at best, philosophers searching and a general resignation to whatever seemed to satisfy for the moment.

But with Pentecost came the revelation, recognition and realization of the Holy Spirit as the singular Spirit of the One God. First, the revelation that God is a Father, second, the recognition that the Son is…

The single most important event after the coming of the Lord Jesus is His sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is where the shift to true reality begins. It is the Holy Spirit who brings our minds, our hearts and our spirits into spiritual reality. Because of this fact we are going to spend the next few pages visiting the event itself.

Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from…

Post Script Isaiah 52:13-53:12

So let's jump in and work through the intensely personal description Isaiah is given about this suffering servant who bears, carries, takes on the sins of a world of hearts, each having fallen in spiritual disrepair.

Is.52:13: “See, my servant will act wisely...” Wisdom, this is the key to this passage. Wisdom sets the stage for the personal description that follows. If we talk about the gift of wisdom it is a spiritual gift, the flagship gift of…

Post Script Isaiah 52:13-53:12

It might be good to start with what prophecy is all about. The whole issue of prophecy is God looking out for us so that we can look forward. By identifying sin and evil, He frees us from love of the world to His love. He restores our humanity to what He designed it for, loving Him and loving others. Our conscious moments, our lives, connected to Him make us real. So as we look at this particular passage from Isaiah think of every next moment in terms of…

Now we come to the moment of moments in human history, the Resurrection of Jesus. Before we ascend to the heights 'prepared for us since the foundation of the world' we want to make sure we see the careful attention to detail that John puts into the description of the human moments before its discovery. In Chapter 20 three specific events mark the initial impact of the Resurrection, Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene, the ten disciples and a second gathering when Thomas is there.

But…

John 25 Chapter 18-19

It's one thing to be performing miracles, healing people, teaching faith and hope, drawing crowds to hear you, being followed by disciples, your every move and word being observed and catalogued by enemies and having adoring people full of expectation about how you will change the world they're in. But you also know that no one has really understood who you are and what you have really come to do. Not even your own disciples, family and friends. They also are…

It's still night and the end is near. “Father, the time has come.” Everything necessary for the disciples to know has been taught by Jesus as they approach the Kidron Valley, the impending events on the Mount of Olives, the betrayal and arrest in Gethsemane, then the unjust trial and crucifixion. There is one more thing Jesus needs to do and that is pray which He does on the edge of the valley. His prayer is specific and really shows the heart of Jesus being poured out to the Father in front…

The context is still very real here. They're walking, Jesus is talking and the devil is stalking. Jesus and His disciples are walking through the darkness toward a historic valley of darkness surrounded by a world in darkness. The physical darkness being a copy and shadow of spiritual darkness of which the devil is prince. Yet the Light of the World, Jesus, is using words to convey His Light. They are words that lighten the darkness that surrounds them. They will be the substance of their…

Jesus and His disciples have just left the upper room where they were celebrating the Passover. Now they are on their way. The context is Jesus leading them to Gethsemane (which they probably don't realize as yet) and teaching while they are on the move. The world time is short but God's time is the event that will be a spiritual time to secure eternal life for anyone who through faith will believe in Him. So what follows on this teaching walk is series of principles, basics, fundamentals…

Next to the Cross and Resurrection, the Lord's Supper may just be the most significant event in Jesus' mission. You have to be willing to close your eyes and visualize the setting of twelve men reclining around a low table with the Passover elements lying before them. The single reference to them in John is that the meal was being served (13:2). In fact the only other mention of them is the bowl (probably the parsley in salt water signifying the bitter tears of slavery) into which Jesus dips…

Chapter 13 begins a series of teachings that will extend through Chapter 17. Chapters 13-14 take place in the upper room. Chapters 15-17 cover Jesus and the disciples walking to and through the Kidron Valley to an olive grove where Judas will betray Him, Jesus teaching along the way. These are Jesus' last teachings before His crucifixion. They are capped by His prayer in which there is a clear assurance for the disciples of the Father's love and care not only for them but for all future…

This chapter holds the end of Jesus' open public teaching. It takes place in the context of the Passover season, His last and 7th sign of Messiahship and His last public appearance. His hour has come, the hour He foretold, the hour of His glory. It was a 'looking forward' time for Him, grim though it was, looking forward to the Cross and beyond. He was looking forward in faith not only for Himself but for all those around Him who never really ever got what He was about. He was looking…

The signs we have seen so far:

1. Jesus changes the water into wine at a wedding feast (Ch.2)

2. Jesus heals an official's son (Ch.4)

3. Jesus heals a crippled man afflicted for 38 years at the Bethesda Pool (Ch.5)

4. Jesus feeds 5000 (Ch.6)

5. Jesus walks on water (Ch.6)

6. Jesus heals a man born blind (Ch.9)

Now we come to the 7th sign. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. It doesn't get any deeper or more profound than this. Jesus shows His mastery over…

We have spent some time looking at Chapters 8 and 9 in which Jesus opens a new door, a spiritual door. He is the light of the world. To make that clear He heals a man born blind. He identifies Himself as the One through whom all Creation came into being by mixing His spit with dirt and placing it on the blind man's eyes as the physical sign of the spiritual reality that enabled his healing. What an enormous statement that was being made right there. This is not the Messiah of cultural…

Chapter 8 is where Jesus again makes a declaration about who and what He is by saying, “I am the light of the world.” Remember how we said that the original scriptural documents didn't have chapters and verses? So this Gospel is a stream of Jesus consciousness John is giving us here. This is why what we call chapters really have to be read as they were written, a series of teachings and events that, as you read, step up the volume disclosing Jesus is God the Son and by believing in Him…

One thing we did not cover in John 13 was the rather lonely appearing verse connection of 7:53 and 8:1, just before the encounter with the adulterous woman: “Then each went to his own house. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.” The 'each' refers to the temple guards who went to arrest Jesus; the chief priests, the Pharisees, Nicodemus and whatever other rulers were present who went to their homes while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. They retire to their supposed safe places within the…

Vs.1-5 Now is when things really start to get dicey. It's time for another Feast, the Feast of Tabernacles also known as The Feast of Booths. It celebrates the coverings the Hebrews lived in along the way in their wilderness wanderings before they entered the Promised Land. We are still in the context of the miracles and signs that have made Jesus well known and a center of public attention and debate. So much so that He has become a threat in the eyes of Jewish leadership who now look for a…

John 12 Ch.6:48-71

Jesus' words launch a crashing explosion of spiritual reality into the mixed crowd of Jewish leaders and people assembled to hear Him teach. The hard jarring exclamation that He is the bread of life, the living bread from Heaven that, when eaten, gives eternal life. All they are willing to assimilate in their minds are images of cannibalism. They obviously are incapable at this point of thinking spiritually, seeing symbols, signs, as revelation of the unseen truth…