For as long as it takes we are going to study the gospel of
John chapters fourteen to seventeen. Some of it will be what I have already
written and some will be new. Therefore it may sometimes appear that I leave
off in the middle of a topic to be continued, since I have reached my daily
word count limit. We will also return to placing a blog posting daily for the
time being.
In order to follow this you ought to have read from the first
posting in the series – John 14 (One).
We are currently
discussing John 14:6-7: "I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you
really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him
and have seen him."
Jesus is the way we should go.
Does that mean that we only need to accept Jesus and
would then get right to the Father? If this was true, the Bible could have been
only one page and it would have been sufficient. The Bible, however, is packed
with teaching to guide us in our discovering of the Way. We need to discover
the way Jesus does things, the way He relates to us and to Father. We also need
to discover Father’s ways. I have found the Old Testament excellent for that
purpose. We learn their way by reading about it in the Bible and applying the
principles in our own lives. Experiencing their response in our spirit and
circumstances confirms to us whether we were right about our understanding of
what they are like.
Say for example as a result of our background we
believe God is a nasty judge, sitting in heaven just waiting for us to make a
mistake so He can zap us. As we study the Bible though, we discover His love
and forgiveness. We find that when we make a mistake and ask God’s forgiveness,
peace fills our heart. We don’t even feel guilty about our mistake. When we
forgive others we feel we’ve done the right thing; in fact a strange freedom
and joy enter our heart. We also notice that people forgive us our sins and
their love towards us brings joy. What has happened? We have discovered a way of the Lord, which we were unable to
comprehend by just reading about it. In the same time we came a bit closer to
the Lord, since we have experienced some of His character which we hadn’t known
before.
Jesus is the truth
we should live.
Into all individuals are programmed the urge to follow
some direction, leading to a point in their life that will bring meaning and fulfilment.
Many people, however, drift around purposeless, desperately seeking for some
meaning in life. They are usually frustrated, lonely and desperate.
Spiritually there are many directions to follow.
Buddhism, Islam, New Age, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and many other directions of
thought make it their business to direct the minds of seeking individuals to
some “meaningful” life and purpose. These religions, however, are instruments
of the devil designed to deceive, leading to destruction. Each of these
religions proclaims something they hold as truth. There can, however, only be
one truth.
“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you
hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth,
and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:31, 32). Free from what? Free from
the burden of hopelessness, lack of peace, purposelessness and fear. The truth contained
in Jesus and His teachings has the answer to every issue that life presents. It
is important, however, to stick to the truth and to do the truth.
Jesus said in other words that He is the truth and no
one gets to the Father except through the truth. It's no use we try to please
the Father through our own ways of worship and service. It will bring us
nowhere. No, we must “worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the
kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must
worship in spirit and in truth,” (John 4:23, 24). This means we must know the
truth presented by Jesus, and through realising this truth under guidance of
the Holy Spirit we worship the Father through our spirit.
I'm reminded of Gideon in Judges 7:15: "As
soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he
worshiped." He saw the Lord in action and realised a truth about Him and
he couldn't but worship him. When we acknowledge something great about
somebody, such as an entertainment star, we express worship to such a person. This
is different from singing songs in church. This awe comes from our hearts. Then,
according to John 4:23 we are true worshipers and will enter Father’s presence
through the Truth, namely Jesus. Singing songs is a way of worship, a way of
expressing our love for the Lord, but true worship is pleasing the Lord through
faith-based obedience to the truth, in submission to and under guidance of the
Holy Spirit. Following human guidance in religious activity is therefore not
necessarily true worship, even if the songs are powerful and the atmosphere is
electrified. One needs to ensure that the Holy Spirit is in control, which is
why we received the gift to discern spirits.
Lord, show me your
way and truth.
Thank you Lord that
your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not
return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the
purpose for which you sent it.
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