James 4:6

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So when something doesn’t go right, actually, when everything goes wrong, when you fail, or when plans get changed, where tragedy strikes, when you find yourself in such a low place, it can be so difficult. And it can feel like, game over.

But it’s only game over if you are convinced that it stops there.

And the reality is, someone in Christ, when you are finding yourself in such a low place, you’re actually in a way positioned now for the next level.

Let me explain. If you look at James chapter four verse six, it says,

But he gives greater grace! That is why it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)

And the concept of humility in the scriptures is of being in a low place. See, when you are in a low position, you are actually positioned then to receive gifts from God. The word grace has to do with being so pleased with someone, desiring someone, and loving someone in such a way that you want to give them a gift. And it has nothing to do with anything they can give you, but everything to do with the way that you delight in them. Like a parent who gives a gift to a child. It’s not because a child has done so many great things, but because you love that child and you want to give them a gift.

And your God when he sees you in that hurt, that broken place, he actually he wants to meet you there. He wants to lift you up when he sees you broken by your sin, your guilt, your shame. He wants to meet you with that comfort that, yes, you have made a mistake. Yes, you have gone beyond making a mistake, you have sinned against me. But by my grace, through my grace, I have set you right with me. My son Jesus has lived and died and risen again for you. I give you this free gift of life. You find yourself weak. Well guess what? I want to be strong with you. You are not sure about the future? Well guess what? You can cast your anxieties on me. I see you on that low place and I want to lift you up.

And so when you find yourself in that low place and it feels like it’s the end of the road, that is actually a moment to have your problem actually be transformed in a way, by seeing that problem become a prompt. Where it prompts you to look to God and say, okay, when I’m in a low place, God promises he’s going to meet me here with his grace. So what does God have for me? How does God want to meet me? He will always meet you with the good news of what His Son has done. He will always meet you with his love, with his good plans, and with the life he has for you. You may be in a low place, but God in his grace meets you there.

John 1:43-51

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We try not to judge a book by its cover. That’s what Nathaniel also called Bartholomew did. And let’s see how it turned out for him.

The next day, Jesus wanted to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael said to him, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

“Come and see!” Philip told him.
Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?”

Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:43-51 EHV)

The Word of God taken from John chapter one. Now, thankfully, the “book” Nathaniel misjudged was Jesus who has a perfect life and offers freedom and victory from sin and death for all who come to him. Thankfully, once Nathaniel realized who Jesus was, he found a Lord who was forgiving and gracious. But if you or someone you know has ever been dismissive or skeptical about Jesus or the Christian faith, Philip’s words to his friend Nathaniel give us a good script.

What did Philip say? Come and see. We can also say, come and see this Lord who speaks through His word to your deepest insecurities and fears that maybe you haven’t been brave enough to confront on your own or tell to anyone else.

Come and see this Lord, who does not demand from you, but first gives himself for you on the cross, taking all of your guilt and shame away. Come and see this Lord, who in baptism claims you as his own, giving you identity and belonging and purpose and a future. Then come and see the body of Christ, fellow believers who have gathered around this Savior. How, even with their shortcomings and sins, you will find a love here that is deeper and more consistent, flowing from this Savior than you will find anywhere else. Come and see.

You know, Nathaniel was from Cana in Galilee, where Jesus did his first public miracle changing water into wine. So both by believing in Jesus and also getting to witness and and experience these miracles. Nathaniel was receiving what Psalm 34 promises. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is everyone who takes refuge in him.

Genesis 6:6, Ezekiel 33:11, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 53:3, Romans 8:28-29

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That really difficult situation, that really tough thing in your life, is God happy that happened? Did he want that to happen? Now, at first you might say, well, of course God didn’t want that to happen. But I find the more that I talk with people who go through challenging times, I find that there are things that sometimes we say that make it feel like God wanted that bad thing to happen, or that God is happy that it did. And part of why then we struggle is because it seems like, well, why was God so cruel? Why did God want that to happen?

And here’s the thing sometimes people will say, they’ll say, okay, this happened because God wanted to do this, or this happened because God wanted to do that. And there becomes this sense of, okay, God wanted this to happen because of, you know, XYZ thing. He wanted to teach me or to grow me. And sometimes people will talk about God being in charge or God working all things for good. And so therefore something bad happens, well, God must have wanted that.

But Scripture is very clear. There are many things that happen in this world that God isn’t happy about, that are not things that God wanted or wants. For instance, if you look at Genesis chapter six. So this is where the chapter leads up to the flood. We’re told that

The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with sorrow. (Genesis 6:6)

When he saw the violence in this world, he was filled with sadness. This didn’t please God, this didn’t make God happy that there was all this violence. There are things that are happening, that were happening, in the world that God was very sad about. Or Ezekiel chapter 33, the verse first part of verse 11, the Lord says,

As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from their way and live. (Ezekiel 33:11)

God doesn’t want the wicked to die. And so when the wicked do, that’s actually something God is sad about. Or first Timothy 2, 3 to 4.

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

God wants everyone to be saved. And so when there are some who do not believe in him, that’s not what God wants. That doesn’t make God happy. And so when you are going through something and you’re like, oh, that was hard. That was tough. You don’t need to see God as well, okay, but God wanted that bad thing to happen. Actually, Scripture describes God as coming close to us and often actually mourning with us. Psalm 34:18 it says,

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
He saves those whose spirits have been crushed. (Psalm 34:18)

And Isaiah 53, that beautiful chapter that paints this prophetic picture, what a Savior would be, describes the Messiah as one who

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man who knew grief,
who was well acquainted with suffering. (Isaiah 53:3)

See, your God actually meets you in those difficult things, and he mourns with you. He has sadness with you, God, when he sees the sin and brokenness of this world, he mourns that and he grieves that. And that’s actually what motivated him to carry out his plan to set things right. That motivated God the Son to become the man, Jesus. To die in this world. To take on himself our sin, our shame, our suffering, our sadness, our death. But then to come out the other side, to give us hope the other side of it. To give us the hope of his return that day where all things are set right and every tear is wiped away from our eyes, from the eyes of those who have faith in him.

Our God meets us, and he gives us hope the other side of our grief. So then how do we think about the challenging things in our life? Well, first of all, know that God meets you there and he grieves with you. And does God use these things? Yes, absolutely. See, something can be both something that is bad, that is sad. And yet God works something good out of it. And the good that God works, God wants that. He doesn’t necessarily like or is happy about the bad, but he uses it even for his good. That’s what Romans 8:28 is about.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, because those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28-29)

He does come alongside and use even those bad things, those things that he mourns with us about. He will even use those things for our good.

John 12:20-21

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We hear about the disciple Philip in John chapter 12.

Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” (John 12:20-21)

Philip was from Bethsaida, we’re told, which was a town on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Compared to Judea and Jerusalem in the south of Israel, this region of Galilee, where Jesus grew up in Nazareth, had a higher proportion of Gentiles, people who were not ethnically Jewish and who were connected to this Greek speaking Roman world beyond the confines of Israel.

Interestingly, Philip is a Greek name. Famously, Alexander the Great’s father was named Philip. Now a lot of the disciples, as we’ve already seen in previous videos, had maybe both a Hebrew or an Aramaic name as well as a Greek name that they would go by, they would have multiple names. The interesting thing is, Philip is only referred to in the Gospels by this Greek name. So it could have been that though he was a Jew, he had more of a connection to this Greek speaking world and culture. Maybe he spoke Greek more fluently. And that’s why these Greek peoples, so non-Jews who followed the Old Testament religion, come up to talk to him at the festival in Jerusalem.

I bring this up because Greek at the time is what we call a lingua franca. That is, it was a kind of more universal language that spread across cultures and was used for business, for government, for education. And it’s because the Greek language had become so widespread in what was at that time the Roman Empire, and even beyond its borders, that the New Testament, written in the Greek language, could spread so widely. Why Paul, for example, who could speak Greek, could go and preach the gospel, plant churches in all these different places. That’s interesting, because the Old Testament religion did not have Greek as its base language. It had Hebrew as its base language. So the switch to Greek in the New Testament church, and even with the New Testament scriptures, tells us the gospel doesn’t depend on your language.

Your sins are real no matter what language you speak. There is a God who is the source of life, and by your sins you have rebelled against him. And if nothing is done, there’s going to be eternal separation, eternal death in the end. But this God sent His Son, Christ Jesus, into the flesh through the Jewish people for all nations, so that by his death he would pay the penalty for your sin. By his resurrection, he would proclaim that your sins are forgiven. This Lord is gracious, though you have rebelled, God has sent his Son to rescue you.

Now, if you’re understanding the words that I’m saying, that means you just heard a basic gospel message in the English language. And that’s important because English today is what Greek was in the time of Christ. There are more people who speak English in the world, including both native speakers and non-native speakers, than any other language. That means if you speak English fluently, as Philip likely spoke Greek pretty fluently, you have great power. There is great power in being able to serve as a conduit for the message about Christ. Not only do people in your little corner of the world who might speak your little native language, but in being able to reach people across cultures with this message about Jesus. So look for opportunities like Philip to share the message of Jesus so that others would see him and believe.

Genesis 1:24-25, 2 Samuel 22:6

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Genesis chapter one, verses 24 and 25.

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:24-25)

That reference to things that God made that creep along the ground. I think that includes spiders, because spiders live on the ground, not in water, they were most likely created on the sixth day instead of on day five. But spiders. Spiders are amazing creatures. Lots of people don’t like them. Lots of people are afraid of them. But still! How does a spider know that if he or she will string six, eight, ten strands from one branch to another with a midpoint where they all cross in the center, and then if he begins to work his way out. How does he know that essentially forms a net, a web in which he can catch insects, flies and mosquitoes? Well, God’s just designed him to to do those things, maybe even to know those things.

And if you’re afraid of spiders, really, imagine what a fly or a mosquito would feel how they feel about spider webs. I mean, they get caught there in the web. Spider wraps them up and saves them for later to eat them for lunch. So they’d be, I think, much more afraid of spider webs than we are of spiders.

King David talks about something like that. Second Samuel, chapter 22.

the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me. (2 Samuel 22:6)

David’s talking about a time when he was being chased, pursued by Saul, like a fly or a mosquito, trying to avoid being caught in the net. The cords of Sheol. Sheol is another word for the grave. Cords and snares like a spider’s web. David was desperately trying to escape from them, and he did. The Lord God watched over him, delivered him safely. But later on in his life, the cords of the grave they did entangle David. David eventually was caught in that web of the grave of Sheol. David was mortal. David’s life came to an end, and we’re told that he closed his eyes and he slept with his fathers.

And that same is true of all of us. All of us, one day the cords of Sheol, the grave, the snares of death, one day they’re going to entangle us. And, well, what next? Well, what’s next is answered by Jesus. Jesus himself was caught in that web of death. Now he willingly gave himself over to it. But the cords of Sheol, the grave, the snares of death, they even wrapped Jesus himself up, and he was laid to rest in a grave as well.

But as you know very well, I pray you know, he rose. Three days later, he rose from the dead, breaking free of those bonds, that web, breaking free of the grave. And he’s promised that he’s just the first. He the first fruits of those that will rise. So even though those cords of death entangle us, even though eventually our strength runs out, and one day we’ll close our eyes in that sleep like David did, even like Jesus did. Because of Jesus and what he’s done for us, one day our eyes will open again. We will burst free of those bonds, that web, the grave, and we will be with him safe and sound, forever in heaven. That’s a promise, a promise that is true because Christ himself is risen.

I pray that’s a comfort to you, especially when you look at your life like a fly or a mosquito might look at a spider’s web and worry about being caught and entangled in it. You won’t be lost forever because of your Savior, Jesus Christ. So thank God for him and what he’s done.

Matthew 9:9-13

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Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector. That means he collected taxes for the Romans from his own Jewish people. For that reason, he would have been considered an outsider from Jewish life, a kind of traitor to his people. Tax collecting was also associated with certain immoral practices, extortion, taking more money than was due and skimming it off for yourself. And yet it’s from that work, when Matthew was at his tax collecting booth that Jesus calls him to be his disciple. We’ll read that account from Matthew chapter nine.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting in the tax collector’s booth. He said to him, “Follow me.” Matthew got up and followed him. As Jesus was reclining at the table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were actually there too, eating with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ In fact, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Knowing he was a tax collector, we can safely assume some things about Matthew. He was probably fairly wealthy, upper class, well-connected, good communicator, persuasive speaker to solicit taxes and also navigate tense relationships on a lot of levels. But he also likely bore this sense of shame and a lack of belonging. He wasn’t truly part of the Roman ruling class, but he also wasn’t accepted fully by his own Jews. We see the Pharisees looking down on him and others like him. Yet it’s Matthew who has chosen to write the first account of Jesus life and ministry. What we call Matthew in our Bibles. Technically, the Gospel according to Matthew.

And each of the four Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John emphasize different points about Jesus life and ministry. So it’s interesting to think about what Matthew emphasizes. Matthew makes a very clear connection between Jesus and the Old Testament. He quotes the Old Testament again and again, saying, Jesus is fulfilling this scripture. Here’s how the Savior promised by God has come in Jesus. Here is how the law, which we could not fulfill, which Matthew knew he could not fulfill, has been fulfilled by Christ. Here is how all those sacrifices, proclaiming that we could have peace with God through the blood of someone else, someone innocent, shed in our place, is fulfilled in Christ going to the cross for us.

So Matthew emphasizes Jesus connection to the Old Testament, but also that this work has worldwide importance, is for all people. It’s Matthew alone who gives us the account of the Magi, the wise men, coming to worship the child Jesus. It’s Matthew alone who gives us what we call the Great Commission. Go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them. So I can’t help but think of Matthew. Who knew what his former life was like, who had Jesus come and while he was participating in what was likely a sinful profession in how it was practiced, calls him, claims him, redeems him, forgives him, and then gives him this great position of honor, of relaying what Jesus did and taught to others.

And I like to think how Matthew probably rejoiced as he was writing lines like, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Instead of the legalism of the Pharisees who put burdens and rules to make people think, they had to keep them in order to gain God’s favor. Here Jesus was proclaiming grace through what he had done. So he, an outsider from Jewish life, could be included and belong among God’s people through this grace which would go out to the world and continues to go out to claim people, sinners like you.

Proverbs 3:5-6

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So you’re trying to figure out what comes next. What path to take, how your life should go. And you’re stressed and you’re asking God for guidance.

I often have conversations with young people trying to figure out their lives, and sometimes they are just paralyzed because what does God want me to do? And we’ll talk about Proverbs 3:5-6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

And what I’ve found is that often when people talk about Proverbs 3:5-6, that trust in the Lord with all of your heart, we tend to think about that verse like I’m trusting God to help me figure out exactly the right path. I’m trusting God to help me make the perfect choice. And sometimes that sense of being paralyzed comes when we’re waiting and thinking, I don’t know. God hasn’t made it clear to me yet. I’m not sure exactly what I am supposed to do.

So then what ends up happening in our conversation is we start talking more about, okay, let’s look exactly at what this says. When it says trust in the Lord, the idea of trust is that it’s of something or someone you go to as a refuge, as a protection. And so trust in the Lord here, go to him as your protection, not your understanding. You’re not going to trust in or find your security in whether or not you get how this is all going to work out. You’re not going to find security in okay, now I know exactly the right choice. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him and in the original language it says to know him and he will make your path straight.

It’s not about asking God to help you know the perfect path. It’s about knowing him who makes your paths straight. And if you think about it, that’s how our relationship with God really works. It’s not that God gives you the ability to figure out how to be good enough for him. You and I can’t. It’s about him being good enough for us. It’s about God the Son who became human to live the life you and I were meant to live. It’s about his death for your sins and mine and his resurrection to give us new life. And now, through the faith of the Holy Spirit has given us we do get the partner with God. But God never says, okay, now I need you. I’m going to help you figure out how to fix it all. We just simply get to be part of his plan. We get to receive life from him. Live life with him. Walk with him and know him. It’s not about you or I figuring out or asking God, okay, help me to know all the things. Rather, we get to know the one who does. He will make your path straight.

John 14:3-6

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When you hear the disciple’s name Thomas, your mind might immediately add the prefix doubting. Certainly, this disciple of unknown origin finds his most prominent moment after Jesus resurrection. Jesus appears to the disciples the evening of Easter and shows them all that he’s risen from the dead. Thomas wasn’t there, and later, when Thomas hears about it, he says, unless I can put my fingers into the holes in Jesus hand and my hand into his side where the spear pierced, I will not believe. Well, a week later, Jesus appears to all the disciples. Thomas is there, and Jesus invites Thomas to touch his living, risen body and believe. And at that, Thomas gives us one of the clearest outright statements of Jesus divinity in the Gospels, “my Lord and my God,” Thomas said.

From this account we can say a couple of things. First, Thomas did follow the evidence. His doubt was not stubborn. It was just skeptical.

Speculating a little bit, but maybe he did understand that his role as a disciple was to witness all that Jesus did, including ostensibly this greatest miracle of the resurrection. He had to be able to see this so he could give his eyewitness testimony later on in a way that could be verified and trustworthy.

Second, from another account, we get the sense that Thomas’s doubt or his questioning was not only because of doubt, but because of his candor. He was willing to say things that the other disciples were maybe thinking, questions they had, or questions they would have had if they were in his shoes. So this other example comes from Maundy Thursday. And here’s the exchange we have. Jesus says,

if I go and prepare a place for you

And he’s talking about going to the cross and death, but also then ascending to heaven and leaving,

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:3-6)

In many ways good on Thomas for asking. There’s also one other instance that isn’t brought up in connection with Thomas and should be more often. That is several times before Jesus went to Jerusalem to suffer and die, he predicted that he would. And on one of those occasions, it’s Simon Peter, this great leader and bold, faithful confessor among the disciples tries to dissuade Jesus from going. No, Jesus, don’t let that plan unfold. It’s Thomas who at that moment steps forward and says, let us go to so that we may die with him. So Thomas may have required verification at various instances, answers to his questions, but he was not soft in his commitment to Christ.

So Christianity is a religion that invites questions not in unbelief, but in faith. So you repent of any times when you’ve maybe demanded of God an airtight explanation for something in Scripture, or something going on in your life. God doesn’t owe us an explanation for everything, but take comfort in the things he has revealed to you so clearly. Take comfort in the forgiveness and life that Christ won for you when he paid for all of your sins on the cross. Take comfort from the fact that Jesus resurrection gives you innocence before God now, and also a place prepared for you with Thomas in heaven.

Genesis 1:20-22, John 14:3-6

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Genesis chapter one, verses 20 through 22

And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:20-22)

Hi there, I’m Pastor Tony Pittenger. I’m a pastor out at Bethany Lutheran Church in Port Orchard, Washington. One of the neat things living out in the Pacific Northwest is the salmon run. It’s the time of the year, usually summer, starts in Alaska in the summer, but for us, it’s really fall when the salmon returned to their streams to spawn. That is, to either lay eggs or fertilized eggs for the next generation. It is an amazing thing.

Nowadays we’ve got phones in our pockets, or we’ve got something on our wrist that tracks our steps. How many steps do you do in a day? Set goals like maybe 10,000 steps. So I started doing some digging. Salmon travel, swim, an average of 18 miles a day, and during the spawning season they can double that 34 miles a day. What’s amazing about them, though, is that they return from swimming miles and miles, thousands of miles in their lifetime. They return to the very same stream where they hatched as an egg. Even they find the very same spot within about a foot or two. They go back right there to lay a new generation of eggs, or to fertilize that new generation.

Absolutely amazing. Do you know where you were born? Do you know what hospital you were born in? Do you know what room of the hospital you were born in? How do the salmon do it? Some of them travel all the way to Montana. I mean, they travel past Washington and Oregon, through Idaho, all the way into Montana to spawn. How do they do it? Well, God’s created them to do just that. For some reason, in his divine wisdom, he has them returning those thousands of miles to the place where they were born.

Jesus was talking to his disciples once in John chapter 14. He says,

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:3-6)

So if you can’t imagine finding your way back up a stream to the very same spot, or if you don’t even know exactly which hospital or which hospital room you were born in, how could we possibly know how to get to heaven? We’ve never even been there. Well, Jesus assures Thomas, he assures the rest of us that he knows the way, that he is, the way through him, through what he’s done for us, his life, his death, his resurrection. That’s the way. That’s how we will one day find ourselves at home, at that place prepared for us, prepared for you. We’ll find ourselves there because of our Savior and what he’s done for us. And for that, we not only marvel like we marvel at the salmon and their spawning and their return to their home. But for that promise of our home in heaven, we give thanks to God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

John 14:2,6, John 1:29, John 20:30-31

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The disciple John intersects with the three covered so far and rounds out the big four: Peter and Andrew, James and John. From these two fishing families on the Sea of Galilee, thoroughly Jewish but interfacing with the Greco-Roman world beyond. In the Gospels, John plays a relatively minor role. He doesn’t have many lines, although in his own gospel he refers to himself five times as the disciple Jesus loved. (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20)

He does figure prominently in the crucifixion, where it seems he alone appears at the cross of Jesus, and Jesus commends Mary, Jesus mother, into John’s care. John is best known for his writings. He wrote The Gospel according to John. He wrote the epistles that bear his name first, second and third John, as well as the Book of Revelation. Not bad. He was one of the pillars of the early church, one of Jesus’ inner circle. They got to witness some of the most pivotal moments in Jesus’ ministry, that others weren’t able to see, revelations of his glory and his power.

Later in his life, he moved to Ephesus, which is in western modern day Turkey, and then, because of his faith, was exiled by the Romans to the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. It’s perhaps that he is the only one of Jesus’ disciples, living disciples after his ministry, that was not killed for his faith. And yet, throughout time, Christian communities have seen his exile to that island of Patmos as a sort of martyrdom. It’s a good reminder to us that it’s never worth it to sacrifice our faith for the sense of a familiar home. Instead, our faith may require us to sacrifice that home for the one we have in heaven.

It’s through John in his gospel that we have Jesus’ words recorded.

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6)

And

“In my Father’s house are many rooms… I go there to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2)

As one reads John’s Gospel in the original Greek, but also in many English translations, the language can seem simple, but the concepts are profound. John seems to have been a thinker, someone who dwelled on these deep things about God and spiritual life. Maybe it was that John was also tempted, like we are, to use his intellect in a bad way. Doesn’t matter how smart you think you are. We all love to be able to use our reason to prove others wrong, or to show how we are so much smarter than they are. Well, instead, John’s writings show a submission of that skill a recognition of Jesus as the one who bears all wisdom and knowledge and doesn’t use it in those sinful ways, but instead righteously calls out those who oppose God’s grace and God’s Word, but also bearing patiently with those who need understanding.

In a way John is used by God to provide this simple patient guidance toward the truth that we often need. And also to those who come broken and with many sins. Jesus is described by John as embodying grace and truth, bringing the conviction of sin and its reality in the truth, but also applying the lavish grace he himself would win and create through his own body. It’s John who records John the Baptist’s words,

“Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

And then in the book of Revelation, after this great act of Jesus’ life, his crucifixion, which is also seen as his glorification, the saving act of God for people by which we can know him and praise him. The Lamb in Revelation is the one who sits on the throne, to whom his ascribed salvation and praise and honor and glory forever.

So there is a through line in John’s writings come to a true repentance of any sufficiency of ourselves. Recognize our sinful use of God’s gifts, whether it’s your reason or something else. See how Christ’s perfectly used it in your place, atoned for all of your sins, and now promises you a life beyond this one, where you can finally enjoy all of God’s gifts in full.

John summarizes not only the purpose of his writing, but really of all of Scripture in a basic way. When he writes toward the end of his gospel,

Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

[This devotion is the final part of a 3 Devotion series on The Venite.]

Psalm 95:7

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As we continue meditating on The Venite. That song from the office of Matins, which is Psalm 95. I want to read one more verse to you. Verse seven of Psalm 95

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. (Psalm 95:7)

As we consider this song as the perfect morning hymn, as we’re preparing to use our hands to go out and accomplish the work God has for us, we look at our God’s hands. And here the third time in this Psalm, we see God’s hands described for us, now as a shepherd’s hands. Holding his sheep. We are the sheep of his hand. We often think of the shepherd holding the staff aloft, the shepherd’s crook by which he guides the sheep. But of course, that staff is in the shepherd’s hand, and the shepherd’s hand is of so much more importance than just the staff by itself. The staff is there to point to the hand of the shepherd, so that the shepherd can bestow his love on the sheep as he pets them, lovingly moves them along, uses those hands in working to shear the sheep, to feed the sheep, to water the sheep, to birth the lambs. Those hands are intimately at work among the sheep.

Now, as we, these sheep, go about accomplishing the work that God has for us. Ultimately, we’re receiving all the work that he is giving to us. We’re receiving the blessings. This good Shepherd is guiding us in good pastures everywhere we go. It might not always be apparent, but everywhere we go he has blessings in store for us. He is guiding us along every step, whether it’s along the greenest pastures or in the deepest, darkest valleys. We belong to that shepherd. He not only guides us by those hands, he holds us in those hands, those very hands that once again were pierced for our transgressions. Those hands that formed us out of the dust. Those hands that open to feed us every day. And those hands that embrace us with his love, his undeserved love and holy grace that he gives us especially and most significantly in His Son, Jesus Christ.

His hands open now also to you in His Word. He reads this word to you through the mouths of pastors and fellow Christians, or through your own eyes, perusing this word. This is the green pasture on which you can feed throughout your daily work, and you can know as you go about that work that your father is pleased with you. Your God loves you, sanctifies all that work. He is working through you. Rest in him and enjoy the blessings that he has for you.

Luke 9:56

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James, the son of Zebedee, is the first James. There was another James as a disciple of Jesus, but this one is far more prominent. He and his brother John were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, and their business associates were none other than Simon Peter and Andrew, two other brothers who were disciples of Jesus. James and John were known as the sons of Zebedee, referring to Zebedee, their father. Jesus named them the Sons of Thunder, likely referring to their fiery ambition and zeal. When James and John are approaching a Samaritan village with Jesus and see that the village doesn’t immediately receive Jesus with hospitality. They ask if they can call down fire from heaven to consume them. Jesus, who could rightly call down fire from heaven, responds,

“The Son of Man did not come to destroy people’s souls, but to save them.” (Luke 9:56 EHV)

At another time, James and John have their mother asked Jesus if James and John can sit at Jesus right and left hand in heaven, positions of great power and importance. James even promises to follow Jesus into martyrdom if necessary. Little did he know all the things that James and his great fiery ambition claimed and desired would, in a sense, come true. Fire would fall from heaven to consume sin. Not on James or on the Samaritans, but on Jesus. Jesus would bear the brunt of God’s wrath for all of our unbridled selfishness and pride and arrogance. But Jesus also came to save people’s souls. In there is an atonement for James, for the Samaritans and for you.

Now James by faith will occupy a prominent position in heaven, maybe even more prominent than others because of his contributions to the faith and to the early church. But James did follow Jesus into martyrdom, his as the one death of a disciple we have recorded for us in Scripture. Acts chapter 12. We hear that Herod Agrippa the first, that’s a grandson of Herod the Great, who pursued the young Jesus life, had James killed for his faith by the sword, that means he was probably beheaded.

I don’t mean to be casual about James’s death, but he who could get a big head lost his. But thanks be to God, who decapitates our selfish ambition and gives us a new head, the head of Christ, the church whose blood runs through our veins, who claims us as God’s people, who directs us away from our own purposes and toward the purposes of God’s kingdom, the salvation of souls.