All posts in Unvarnished Jesus

  • April 9, 2006

    Hosanna!

    Day 40

    Palm Sunday

    Matthew 21:1-11
    Mark 11:1-11
    Luke 19:28-44
    John 12:12-19

    Introduction to the Holy Week

    For the next eight days we will be following Jesus through the most climactic events of His life. The events of the Holy Week — Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday — are so important, that even though they only cover eight days, fully one third of the Gospel accounts are dedicated to recording these events. Our objective during this week is to be with Jesus every step of the way. We will wave the palms and shout hosanna as He makes His triumphal entry. We will sit at His feet as He gives His final teaching in the Temple and on the Mount of Olives. We will watch as Mary anoints Him for burial at Bethany. We will sit with Him at the table in the upper room for the last supper, and we will be a silent witness to His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

    When all of His disciples flee, we will stay with Him and follow Him to the house of Caiaphas. We will walk with Him along the Via Dolorosa to the place called Calvary. We will listen to His words from the cross, watch Him take His last breath and behold His lifeless body upon the tree. We will watch as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take His body from the cross and place it in the tomb. We will enter into the wrenching sorrow of utter hopelessness as the stone is rolled into place and seals the Son of God in a cold, dark tomb. And we will wait. We will wait for Sunday. And when it comes we will be overwhelmed with joy from the greatest fact in history: Jesus is alive!

    In his masterpiece, The Everlasting Man, G.K. Chesterton put it this way:

    On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener, God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.

    So let us prepare ourselves to walk with Jesus through the Holy Week and discover the unparalleled drama of the greatest story ever told. The week will begin with the happy shouts of hosanna!, but will end with the horrifying cries of crucify Him! But that end is not the end, for on Sunday a new week and a new world will dawn as we hear the astounding announcement of the angel: He is not here, for He is risen!

    _____________________________________________________

    Day 40 of our journey together. Forty days is a big deal in the Bible. Often after forty days something big happens. That’s what I’m expecting…something big.

    _____________________________________________________

    The Triumphal Entry. I always think of it as one of the most joyful events in the gospels…yet Jesus wept during it. Why did He weep? Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they missed the day of their visitation. A missed visitation has consequences: within forty years Jerusalem would be destroyed. Jesus wept over Jerusalem’s impending doom.

    Nevertheless it was a triumphal entry. A king coming to claim His kingdom. The coronation would be on Friday. But this triumphal entry was different as would be the coronation. This king rode a donkey’s colt, not a white stallion. And on Friday the king’s crown would not be made of gold, but of thorns.

    Jesus came in the way of humility and won His Kingdom on a cross. What a mystery. Among those who did recognize the King were blind beggars whom He had healed like Bartimaeus and rich and powerful elites like Nicodemus. Did Bartimaeus and Nicodemus stand side by side and shout, Hosanna! together? Many missed their visitation, but not all did. Some knew that God was up to something. Among those who knew something divine was happening, a movement would be born a week later that would change the world.

    CROSS…MYSTERY…ECLECTIC…COMMUNITY…REVOLUTION.

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  • April 8, 2006

    Breakfast with Jesus

    Day 39

    John 20 & 21

    John gives us some of the same reports of the resurrection as Matthew, Mark and Luke; e.g. the women at the tomb seeing angels and later meeting the risen Lord, and Jesus appearing to the disciples in the evening. But John, as is his wont, also gives us things no other gospel writer reports; most notably a detailed account of a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in Galilee. I call this episode, “Breakfast with Jesus.”

    The “breakfast with Jesus” encounter centers around Peter. I think Peter had mixed emotions after the resurrection. Of course Peter was glad that Jesus was alive, but don’t forget that on the night of Jesus’ betrayal, Peter had failed miserably. Peter and John and followed Jesus after His arrest to the house of Caiaphas…John following closely and Peter lagging further behind. Because John came from a prominent family which was well known to the high priest, he was able to gain admittance into the courtyard. John then made a request on Peter’s behalf, and he also was allowed into the courtyard. And that’s where it happened. The denial. Not once, not twice, but three times…and with an oath…Peter denied Christ.

    Remember that John was there when Peter’s courage failed and was a witness to what happened. Even as an old man John remembered certain aspects of that night in vivid detail. John remembered that is was cold. Most April nights in Jerusalem are cold — often in the forties or colder. And John remembers there was a fire built in the courtyard — a fire of coals. It’s one word in Greek: anthrakia. This is only used twice in the New Testament and it means a bed of hot coals. The kind of fire that is good to warm yourself by on a cold night. And it was while Peter stood around the hot fire of coals on a cold night that he three times denied Jesus.

    And the rooster crowed.

    And Peter went out and wept bitterly.

    Yes, Jesus was alive…but where did Peter stand with Him. Peter wasn’t sure. As Jesus had instructed them, the disciples had left Jerusalem and returned to Galilee. To do what? Who knows? They were just waiting…something Peter was never very good at. Finally Peter couldn’t stand it and said, “I’m going fishing.”

    So Peter and six other fishermen/apostles spent the night fishing. Peter was a successful professional fisherman, so this didn’t happen very often, but that night they caught nothing. Nada, nunca, zip, zilch. It had happened once before. Three years earlier on the night before Jesus called Peter to be His disciple. Deja vu.

    In the morning there’s a man on the shore asking if they have any fish. No. He gives some advise and they catch 153 big ones! John says, “It’s the Lord!” And Peter swims to Jesus (I wonder if he thought, “One time I walked on water to be with Jesus.”?). When they had hauled the catch ashore, Jesus called them to breakfast and when they came they found…a fire of coals. An anthrakia. That bed of coals. Jesus had recreated the scene of the crime. I’m quite sure that Peter ate his breakfast with a troubled mind.

    After breakfast there was a conversation between Jesus and Peter. It went like this.*

    * This is an interpretive and dramatized paraphrase of their conversation. It will help you catch an often overlooked, but very important element in their conversation. Though most English translations use the word “love” six times in their conversation, there are actually two different Greek words used in their conversation (agapao twice, phileo four times) and they have different meanings.

    Jesus: Simon son of Jonah, do you really have a greater love for Me than the rest of these disciples do?

    Peter: Lord, You know I’m your friend.

    Jesus: Feed My sheep.

    Jesus: Simon son of Jonah, do you have unfailing love for Me?

    Peter: Lord, You know I’m your friend.

    Jesus: Take care of My sheep.

    Jesus: Simon son of Jonah, are you my friend?

    Peter: (Very upset) Lord, You know everything and You know I’m your friend!

    Jesus: Feed My sheep.

    (Jesus and Peter talk some more)

    Jesus: Follow Me.

    Do you say what Jesus did? Three times Peter had denied Jesus (after boasting that the others might, but he never would). So three times Jesus made Peter profess His friendship. Peter couldn’t claim to have unfailing love for Jesus — because he had failed — but Peter could honestly confess that he was a friend of Jesus. And this was enough. Jesus restored Peter and than repeated His original call: “Follow Me.”

    The call remains the same…even when we fail.

    Thank you, Jesus.

    _____________________________________________________

    This completes our journey through the gospels. Tomorrow we enter our Holy Week journey with Jesus. I’m very excited about it! It will be life changing…I guarantee!

    Tomorrow is Palm Sunday. See you in church. Come ready to shout HOSANNA (yashana).

    BZ

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  • April 7, 2006

    “It Is Finished”

    Day 38

    John 18 & 19

    What is truth?

    This was Pilate’s cynical question of Jesus. I know it was cynical because Pilate didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, Pilate turned around, walked out of the Praetorium and told the chief priests, “I find no fault in him at all.”

    But Pilate knew there was truth. The truth is just what Pilate told the chief priests: There is no fault in Jesus.

    Pilate assumed there was truth whether he admitted it or not. He was a judge and he was adjudicating the case of Jesus of Nazareth; Pilate acknowledged there are such things as fault and innocence, which presumes the reality of truth. Three times Pilate told Jesus’ accusers, “I find no fault in Him.” And at the end of the trial Pilate protested his own innocence by washing his hands and saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just man.”

    Do you see it? When it suited him Pilate could pretend that truth was elusive and maybe non-existent, but he also used words like “fault” and “innocent” and “just” — all of which presume the reality of truth. People do this all the time. They shrug their shoulders and quip, “What is truth?” But then they protest their own innocence and assign fault when it suits them. They are not being honest with themselves.

    That was Pilate’s biggest problem — he wasn’t honest with himself. Jesus had told Pilate, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.” For those who are honest with themselves, the words of Jesus always ring true. As we examine the life of Jesus we find no fault in Him. We know that Jesus is a just and true man. But if we are not honest with ourselves, we play a dangerous game of self-deception. “What is truth?” And walk away from Jesus.

    Pilate died of suicide.

    Self-deception can create such inner incongruence that we can’t stand to live with ourselves.

    Salvation begins first with honesty. We must admit that, not only is Jesus without fault, but that we are not innocent. We must be honest with ourselves; we must face the truth and admit that we are not innocent no matter how much we wash our hands and protest that we are. I imagine Pilate in hell forever washing his hands, forever protesting his innocence and forever lying to himself. An eternal suicide from which there is no escape.

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    Jesus dead on the cross.

    In John chapter 19 Jesus dies at verse 30. Jesus is taken down from the cross at verse 40. In verses 31-39 Jesus is dead on the cross. The events of these nine verses involve two requests of Pilate and two trips between Calvary and the Antonia Fortress. These events would have taken at the very least an hour, and maybe more.

    For at least an hour the body of the Son of God was dead upon the cross. Force yourself to look upon this sight. It is holy and profane, beautiful and ugly, all at the same time. This is a great and sacred mystery to meditate upon. Jesus dead on the cross. What had happened? Jesus had absorbed this sin of the world into His own body on the tree — and it killed Him. Jesus took the bullet.

    Oswald Chamber calls this the collision of God and sin.

    The Collision of God and Sin

    “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24).

    The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross — He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

    The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus — He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh” from “He made Him to be sin for us” (1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

    The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

    The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

    –Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

    ______________________________________________________

    I’m spending the day getting ready for tonight’s message…

    The Devout and Supernatural Life

    This is an important word in preparation for the coming Holy Week.

    I hope you can be with me in church tonight.

    Blessings,

    BZ

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  • April 6, 2006

    Words from the Upper Room

    Day 37

    John 16 & 17

    We are in the Upper Room. It’s a cool spring night and there’s a chill in the air. The room is lit by flickering lamps. It’s getting late and we feel a little bit tired. Judas left about an hour ago. We don’t know why he left, but with his departure the mood in the room changed. Since Judas left Jesus has begun to talk more. He has been speaking very seriously and very deeply about several things; like a helper coming whom He calls the Spirit of Truth and a sorrow that is coming which will be turned into joy. One of the disciples speaks up and says,

    “Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that you came forth from God.”

    But Jesus’ response is less than enthusiastic,

    “Do you now believe?”

    _____________________________________________________

    It’s easy to get overconfident about our faith. We hear a good sermon on faith, we get pumped up about believing God and we’re sure we’ve finally got this faith thing down. Yeah, down to a science. But the problem is it’s not a science. It’s a life. The Bible doesn’t say the just shall know by faith, but the just shall live by faith. Abraham’s faith, David’s faith, Peter’s faith, Paul’s faith was a life of faith that they lived — not an inert doctrine of faith they merely adhered to. Your faith is not validated until you’ve lived it through the fire.

    The disciples in the Upper Room asserting they believed would indeed come to really believe, but it wouldn’t be until after they spectacularly failed. Yet the occasional spectacular faith failure is part of the learning process in the authentic life of faith. So be slow to assert how strong your faith is because you know something or heard something or read something — wait until you lived something. This is the real faith.

    _____________________________________________________

    John chapter 17 is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer.

    One of the great insights from this majestic and mystical prayer is the eternal love between the Father and the Son and Jesus’ knowledge of His eternal pre-incarnate existence with the Father. Consider verses 5 and 24…

    And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

    Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

    The Son is the divine Word who was with the Father in eternity past and through whom God created all things. The Second Person of the Trinity is the Wisdom referred to in Proverbs 8. Read this passage and understand it as the Eternal Son mysteriously describing His relationship with the Father in eternity and active with Him in creation (Proverbs 8:22-30)…

    The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,
    Before His works of old.
    I have been established from everlasting,
    From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
    When there were no depths I was brought forth,
    When there were no fountains abounding with water.
    Before the mountains were settled,
    Before the hills, I was brought forth;
    While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields,
    Or the primal dust of the world.
    When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
    When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
    When He established the clouds above,
    When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
    When He assigned to the sea its limit,
    So that the waters would not transgress His command,
    When He marked out the foundations of the earth,
    Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;
    And I was daily His delight,
    Rejoicing always before Him.

    _____________________________________________________

    Something funny and sad happened yesterday.

    The doorbell rang. I answered it. A man and his daughter were standing there with Bibles in hand. When he looked at me he seemed a bit startled.

    Him: “Hello, my name is so and so and we are from the Jehovah’s Witnesses…and you’re, you’re Pastor Zahnd.”

    (the poor soul looking very nervous)

    Me: “Sir, I perceive you are a prophet.”

    (laughter)

    We had an interesting conversation about the deity of Jesus (me believing it, him not).

    I was very polite to him, and if I can say so, I even went sort of easy on him. Not because I have any sympathy for JW’s and their Jesus-is-not-God-and-nobody-is-saved-but-us-and-we’re-going- to-get-to-heaven-by-knocking-on-doors-and-annoying-people false religion, but because his daughter was there and I didn’t have the heart to embarrass him in front of her. I did give them some things to think about. Like I said, it was funny and sad. May God open their hearts to the truth.

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  • April 5, 2006

    The Way, The Truth, The Life

    Day 36

    John 14 & 15

    John 14 and 15 are a treasury of some of the most cherished words of Jesus. Consider what precious gems are found in these two famous chapters:

    The promise of a place prepared in heaven.
    In my Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you.

    The promise of another Helper — the Holy Spirit.
    I will pray the father and He will give you another Helper that He may abide with you forever.

    The Promise of perfect peace.
    Peace I leave you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

    The call to abide in the vine and bear fruit.
    I am the true vine. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

    The new commandment of the new covenant.
    This is My command, that you love one another as I have loved you.

    The greatest love of all.
    Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends.

    These words have brought immeasurable comfort to countless Christians for two thousand years. When Pope John Paul II lay dying a year ago, he asked that these chapters from the Gospel of John be read to him. Millions of Christians through the centuries have done the same.

    When Jesus spoke these words in the Upper Room, He was a dying man, and He knew it. Jesus knew that before the sun would set again He would be dead on a cross; so He speaks with the urgency of a dying man. These words of transcendent truth come rushing out of Him as He tries to pack each moment of His final meeting with His disciples before His death with meaning.

    What stands out the most to me from Jesus’ “last will and testament” is the exchange He has with Thomas. Jesus is telling His disciples that He is going to prepare them a place and that they know where He is going and they know the way to get there. When Thomas protests that they don’t know the way, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

    These words belong to the category of words that can only be spoken by Jesus without them sounding like unmitigated egotism or sheer lunacy. Try to place these words in the mouth of any other great sage or leader and see how it comes across. Could Plato or Lincoln or Gandhi utter such words? Of course not. Muhammad could claim to be a prophet and Buddha could claim to know a way, but they could not dare to make the audacious claim of being the Way, the Truth and the Life. That these words “fit” in the mouth of Jesus — and only Jesus — is another testimony to the fact that He is the only begotten Son of God.

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  • April 4, 2006

    Raising the Dead

    Day 35

    John 11-13

    Is the raising of Lazarus (four days dead!) Jesus’ greatest miracle? Maybe. Walking on water, calming the storm, feeding the multitudes would also be contenders. But if the raising of Lazarus is not definitively Jesus’ greatest miracle, it is definitely His most emotional miracle. I see emotions in Jesus in this miracle that I don’t see when He raised the widow of Nain’s son and Jairus’s daughter. And when Jesus exercised dominion over the elements, He seemed almost nonchalant about it. But there’s nothing nonchalant in Jesus’ demeanor in the raising of Lazarus. Instead, Jesus is troubled, He groans, He cries — in a word, Jesus is upset. I’m not sure we’ve seen this side of Jesus before.

    Why was Jesus upset? Was it because Lazarus , Martha and Mary were His friends? Surely that must be part of it. On the other hand, Jesus knew what He was going to do days before He arrived in Bethany. He knew He was going to resurrect Lazarus and turn their mourning into dancing. So something deeper must have been going on. I think Jesus wept for the billions of times people gather at a grave and shed bitter tears. Jesus fully entered into the greatest sorrows of the human race.

    This is why Jesus came: That death might not be eternally the victor and the grave might not be forever cruel. As a token of the victory that was to be, Jesus called Lazarus back to the land of the living.

    And the crowd went wild.

    But the Pharisees reacted to the news of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead with this astonishingly hard-hearted response: “If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.” The Pharisees were never interested in finding the Messiah, they just wanted preserve their petty little positions. Pathetic.

    But then something strange…

    Without knowing what he was doing, the high priest, Caiaphas, from the anointing incumbent upon his office, began to prophesy, “You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people.”

    With John chapter 12 we enter the final week before the Crucifixion.

    In Bethany Jesus is at a meal where Lazarus, Martha and Mary are present. Lazarus had been buried for four days before he was recalled to life. Lazarus had just returned from death. Jesus was headed resolutely toward death. At the meal Mary anointed Jesus for His impending burial. Like Caiaphas, she too was unwittingly prophetic.

    May the lament of the Pharisees in John 12:19 be an unwitting prophecy of what we will see in these last days: “Look, the world has gone after Him.”

    Jesus intentionally prophesied by what death He would die when He said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” And if we will left up the gospel message of Jesus and Him crucified, He will draw people to Himself.

    Much of John 13 centers around the drama of Judas’ betrayal.

    When Judas entered willfully into the black hole of damning hypocrisy by sharing a covenant meal with Jesus while intending to betray Him, he unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 41:7…

    Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted
    Who ate my bread,
    Has lifted up his heel against me.

    At that moment Satan entered Judas.

    And then these chilling words…

    “Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately.
    And it was night.”

    Indeed it was. Judas had departed into a dark night from which he would never return.

    ______________________________________________________

    Song in my head today…

    Lone Pilgrim
    by B.F. White and Adger M. Pace

    I came to the place where the lone pilgrim lay,
    And pensively stood by his tomb,
    When in a low whisper I heard something say:
    How sweetly I sleep here alone.

    The tempest may howl and the loud thunder roar
    And gathering storms may arise,
    But calm is my feeling, at rest is my soul,
    The tears are all wiped from my eyes.

    The cause of my Master compelled me from home,
    No kindred or relative nigh.
    I met the contagion and sank to the tomb,
    My soul flew to mansions on high.

    Go tell my companion and children most dear
    To weep not for me now I’m gone.
    The same hand that led me through seas most severe
    Has kindly assisted me home.

    ______________________________________________________

    I’m really looking forward to the Delirious? concert at Word of Life tonight.

    I hope to see you there.

    Death conquered though we slumber,
    Seven is the perfect number.

    BZ

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  • April 3, 2006

    The Abundant Life

    Day 34

    John 9 & 10

    Who is blind and what is life?

    Jesus healed the blind man because He came to work the works of God and the works of God are not theological disputes and assessing blame, but opening the eyes of those born blind. And we’re all born blind, you know.

    David was a One Thing man — “One thing I seek.”

    Mary was a One Thing woman — “One thing is needful.”

    Paul was a One Thing apostle — “One thing I do.”

    The man born blind was a One Thing witness — “One thing I know.”

    And what was the one thing he knew? “Once I was blind, but now I see.”

    In chapter 10 verse 21 the people asked this question: “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

    Absolutely not. And if all we put in our head is the recycled lies of demonic deception that are the daily fare of our lust-driven, greed-driven, pride-driven culture, then we will never see. And we will never live. We’ll be blind and dead and not even know it.

    Jesus came to give sight to the blind and abundant life to those whose lives have been ravaged by the thief.

    Listen to what Jesus says (John 9:39 & John 10:10 MSG)…

    I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.

    A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

    So, what does it mean to really see and really live? It takes Jesus to do both. And the more you are filled with Jesus’ truth and Jesus’ life the more you will really see and really live.

    ________________________________________________________

    John Nine is about who really sees and who is really blind.
    John Ten is about who really lives and who is really dead.

    Blue Babylon
    (with apologies to Zimmy)

    Babylon is fallen, is fallen
    Haunted by every unclean and hateful bird
    Babylon is fallen, is fallen
    Baby, there’s a bird’s nest in your hair

    You’re dying but you don’t know it
    You’re already dead, but nobody told you
    I see dead people
    I’m looking at you

    Words are coming out of your mouth
    But they’re falling on the ground
    Your words are dying
    They fall from a dead mouth

    The blindman is breaking out of a trance
    But the hollowman dreams on and on
    Your hollow horn plays wasted words
    Wasted words from wasted lives
    They’re all wasted
    Middle-age wasteland

    Willy told us about Othello and Desdemona
    Zimmy sang about the poor boy in the hotel called the Palace of Gloom
    Othello told Desdemona, “I’m cold, cover me with a blanket.”
    So where is that poison wine? You gave it to me, I drank it

    But in my death I saw a redeeming vision
    Sour wine pressed to pallid lips upon a Tree
    I awoke from my dream a deadman walking
    I left Babylon and I won’t look back, I can’t go back

    You don’t know me
    But I know you
    You don’t see me
    But I see you
    You say you see
    But I know I’m blind
    You trust your eyes
    But they just tell you lies

    Colonel Klink thought he knew
    But his monocle was not enough to see
    Sergeant Shultz knew better
    All he would say was, “I know nothing”

    Your boots are stuck in Babylon
    Make it a memory and not a destiny
    The harlot’s chalice is full of malice
    It’s been weighed in the balance
    But there is another cup that will cure your ill
    Drink from it deeply and grace will fare thee well

    –Blindman at the Gate

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  • April 2, 2006

    Discovering the ‘I Am’

    Day 33

    John 5 & 6

    One of the great discoveries to be made in the Gospel of John is the primacy of the Father-Son relationship of the Living God and His only begotten Son. The great ambition of Jesus was to fully obey His Father and the highest priority of the Father is to honor His Son. Heaven and hell hang in the balance by how we relate to God’s Son whom the Father has sworn above all things to honor for His obedience.

    He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

    Our relationship with God is entirely predicated on how we honor or dishonor the Son of God by our obedience or disobedience to Him. God will honor His Son in two eternal ways: By welcoming all who honor His Son into His everlasting Kingdom and casting all who dishonor His Son into everlasting hell.

    Jesus’ sole ambition in life was to do the will of His Father. He did not seek to do His own will or to do what seemed right to Him; He only sought to do what the Father was doing.

    The Son can do nothing of Himself, but whatever He sees the Father do.

    In the early days of my ministry I ran myself ragged trying to convince certain people get on fire and stay on fire for Jesus. They demanded my constant attention and even then it seemed to be a losing battle to get them to maintain any real interest in the things of God. I felt like the guy in the circus spinning plates.

    Then one day God asked me this question, “Do you see Me doing anything in their lives?”

    My honest reply was, “Not really.”

    God’s reply was, “Then leaves them alone. Work with the people that you see Me doing something in their lives.”

    I have learned that fruitfulness in ministry does not come from good ideas, or noble ideas, or compassionate ideas, but from identifying what God is doing and cooperating with Him. Our job is not to do what we think is best and ask God to bless it (which is what most ministry amounts to), but to perceive what God is doing and cooperate with it. This is the style of ministry modeled by Jesus.

    John’s holy obsession is to present to us Jesus as God. John is determined that we perceive the greatest truth in history: That Jesus is God — the Eternal Word who was made flesh. John never leaves this theme, but returns to it over and over.

    John is not interested in giving us a complete narrative of Jesus’ ministry — Matthew, Mark and Luke have already done that. John chooses to focus on episodes from the life of Jesus which reveal His divine identity. We see this in the episode of Jesus walking on the water. Jesus walked on the sea (for three or four miles!) to reach His disciples in the boat. When the disciples saw the figure walking on the water they cried out in fear. Jesus calmed there fears by saying, “It is I”, or rather, “I AM.” I AM — The personal name of God (Yahweh or Jehovah). Who walks on water? God walks on water…

    God alone spreads out the heavens,
    And treads on the waves of the sea
    -Job 9:8

    Jesus Himself pressed the issue of His divine identity. After Jesus fed the five thousand, they sought to make Him King (for all the wrong reasons). The next day Jesus challenged them with words like this…

    The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives His life to the world. I AM the bread of life.

    When the multitudes that popularized Jesus for a free lunch but rejected Him for His “hard sayings” had all left, Jesus asked His disciples, “Do you also want to go away?”

    Peter answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know You are the Christ, the Son of God.”

    Capricious crowds will follow Jesus while He is “popular” — but committed Christians have burned all their bridges because they have come to know who Jesus really is: The Son of God.

    John 7 & 8

    All of John 7 and 8 occur during the Feast of Tabernacles, six months before the crucifixion.

    Here’s something to plug into your thinking regarding John 7:8. The Essenes observed a different festival calendar than the Pharisees and Sadducees. There is reason to believe that Jesus’ brothers sympathized with the Essenes and observed their reformed calendar, while Jesus continued to observe the traditional calendar. Bargil Pixner in his excellent book With Jesus Through Galilee: According to the Fifth Gospel* sheds some light on this.

    * So you don’t misunderstand: By “the fifth gospel”, Pixner means this, “Five gospels record the life of Jesus. Four you will find in the bible and one you will find in the holy land. Experience the fifth gospel and the world of the four will open to you.” A tour of Israel is an encounter with the “fifth gospel.”

    In John 8:14 Jesus says two things about Himself that the secularist can never say, and it strikes at the heart of post-modern purposelessness (which seems to lead inevitably to nihilism)…

    I know where I came from and where I am going.

    (Note to self: Preach on this.)

    The last half of John 8 is all about the deity of Christ.

    In John 8:24 Jesus says,

    If you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.

    Do you have to believe that Jesus is God to be saved? Yes! It does you no good to believe in a fictional Jesus, a Jesus of your own making or the false Jesus of heresy. The Jesus that saves is the Jesus that is God. The I AM. The Jesus of the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses is not God. Their “Jesus” is a lesser, created being and this false Jesus cannot save. You must believe that Jesus is God.

    In John 8:41 Jesus was scandalized by an ugly rumor that probably dogged Him all of His life: The vicious lie that He was born of fornication. Other ancient sources say the rumor was that Jesus was conceived by an immoral liaison between Mary and a Roman soldier. Satan is a rumormonger. His name means gossip. Gossip comes from the pit of hell.

    I find Jesus’ challenge in John 46 very interesting…

    Which one of you convicts Me of sin?

    Jesus lived a perfect life. I like to challenge skeptics to find fault in Jesus. If they are honest, they will have to say what Pilate said, “I find no fault in this man.” We easily find fault in everyone, but we can find no fault in Jesus. Jesus is God.

    And any doubt to Jesus’ claim of divinity is absolutely obliterated when He said,

    Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.

    AMEN!

    _______________________________________________________

    Song of the day…

    Jesus is Jehovah to Me

    I can tell you’re a sincere man
    And I’m tryin’ my best to understand
    But your words are confusin’, it seems you’re abusin’
    God’s Word that’s there in your hand

    Now a Christian you say you are
    But that’s stretchin’ the Truth much too far
    ‘Cause in Christ I doubt you believe
    And Jesus is Jehovah to me

    Jesus is Jehovah to me
    He’s Lord and He’s King of Kings
    Almighty God is He
    Jesus is Jehovah to me

    Now we both have said that the Lord’s commin’ back
    And you’ve more than once stated that fact
    Now it seems rather odd, if your prophet’s of God
    Your dates have been so far off the track

    Now the Watchtower can only deceive
    But from Jesus you can receive
    God’s Spirit comes in, and you’re born again
    Singin’ Jesus is Jehovah to me

    Jesus is Jehovah to me
    He’s Lord and He’s King of Kings
    He’s more than a man, He’s the great I AM
    Jesus is Jehovah to me
    If you’re really “Awake”, You’ll make no mistake
    Jesus is Jehovah to me

    From the album “Daniel Amos”
    Words and Music by Jerry Chamberlain, Marty Dieckmeyer, Terry Taylor
    1976 Maranatha! Music

    (Any Daniel Amos fans out there?)

    No Comments / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /

  • April 1, 2006

    Well, it’s like this…

    Day 32

    Well, it’s like this…

    I spent the morning with my Russian drusjkis (pals), Dmitri “Paul” Poliakoff and Georgey “Gera” Alexeev. I love these guys — they are full of Jesus and a ton of fun. They left my house a little past noon; Paul is ministering in St. Louis tomorrow and Gera is ministering in Chicago.

    As I type this I’m listening to Songs From the Other Side of The World by Gerasim & Parks (a.k.a Drusjki) — Gera’s latest album. I love it! It’s all in Russian, but it blesses my spirit.

    After they left I came to my study to prepare for tomorrow’s message on the miracle ministry of Jesus. I just got done. It’s past 8:00 now. Tomorrow is Day Light Savings Time Sunday (Spring forward!). So, you know what? I’m going home. I owe you a blog on my thoughts from John 5 and 6. I’ll do two tomorrow after church.

    Expect Miracles!

    BZ

    P.S.

    Happy Faith Day!

    That’s what I call April 1. It was 20 YEARS AGO TODAY that God spoke to me in my despair and said, “Preach faith and your church will grow.”

    I did and it did.

    God is good.

    11 Comments / Uncategorized, Unvarnished Jesus /
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