075. The Relevance Of Pentecost For Today. The Gift of the Holy Spirit

What turned the disciples of Jesus from being those who denied Him and forsook Him at Calvary to those who were willing to preach Him before hostile peoples? Pentecost! Something quite amazing happened on the day of Pentecost that utterly transformed the disciples. It was on the day of Pentecost that the promised Holy Spirit was poured out on the church. For that reason Pentecost has often been called the “Birthday of the Christian church.” What made it such a special day for those early believers? What does it mean for us today?

1). The Promise Of The Holy Spirit In The Old Testament. It had been prophesied that God would do something new for His people. He would do it by His Spirit. These verses express that thought. God would, by His Spirit, make His people sensitive to Him. Eze_11:19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, Also Eze_36:26. His cure for His hard-hearted people would be to give them a heart more sensitive to Him by putting a new spirit in them.

God would give His people His own Spirit to indwell them. Ezek 36:27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (Also Ezek 37:14). This adds to the previous verses the truth that His Spirit would motivate and empower them to do His will.

God would pour out His Spirit on all peoples. The promise of the Spirit is now extended to be poured out on “all flesh”. Joel 2:28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. There would be no age, gender or class distinctions when the Spirit was poured out.

2). The Promise Of The Holy Spirit through John the Baptist. He prophesied that believers would be baptised by, or receive, the Holy Spirit. Mat 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. AND Mark 1:8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

3). The Promise of the Spirit by Jesus. He promised His followers that they would receive the Spirit of God after His resurrection. John 7:39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. After His resurrection and before His ascension to heaven He promised His followers, Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

4). The promise of the gift of the Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came upon the disciples. Act_2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Peter’s explanation of the incident. The exalted Jesus received the gift of the Spirit and poured out the gift of the Spirit upon the church. Acts 2:33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he (Jesus) has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

5). How to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. By Asking God the Father for the gift. Luk_11:13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Through repentance and trust in Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For whom is it available? Acts 2:39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

6). How does the Holy Spirit express His presence in the believer? The Fruit of the Spirit is the outward expression of the presence of the Holy Spirit in God’s people. Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The on-going Christian walk. Living by the Spirit. Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. AND Rom_8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

7). Will believers ever “lose” the Holy Spirit? No, believers are sealed with the Spirit. 2Co_1:22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Eph_1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, and Eph_4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Wrong behaviour by a believer might cause grief to the Holy Spirit but He will never be grieved into departing.

8). What does it mean to be “filled with the Holy Spirit?” That was God’s command through St Paul for His people to “be filled with the Spirit”, Eph 5:18. The verb for “be filled” is present continuous and means “keep on being filled” with the Holy Spirit. Some have suggested that “we leak” and so we need to be filled again and again (presumably with more of the Spirit). However the Holy Spirit is a person and so it is not always helpful to use that term. Rather it could mean that instead of relinquishing all of our lives to the control of the Lord, all the time, we take back control so that there are areas of our lives that are no longer under His control. To ask God to fill us with His Spirit means that we are placing everything in our lives under His control again. It’s a prayer we need to pray all the time.

9). What sort of prayer does one need to pray to be filled with the Spirit? God knows our hearts and desires, so our prayer can be as simple as this. “Heavenly Father, I thank You that Jesus Your Son died for me on the cross so that I could be forgiven. I thank You that when I asked Him into my life, You sealed me with Your Holy Spirit so that I belong to You forever. Fill every part of my life with Your Holy Spirit so that I can become more and more the person You want me to be, and do the things You want me to do. I ask this in Jesus’ name. AMEN”

Blog No.075. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Tuesday 22^nd May 2012

074. The Assurance Of Salvation. A Reflection on 1John 5:9-13.

Have you heard things that seemed too good to be true?  Someone special who said to us for the first time, “Hey, I love you.”  Or someone said to us, “We want you on our team.” It could have been an invitation to join a sporting team. Or it could have been a work situation. We were thrilled to be recognised in this way. Life became different from that moment.
John in 1 Jn 5:9-13, tells us about a truth that is almost too good to believe. It is the truth that God has given to us “eternal life.” It sounds an interesting term because it is used more than 40 times in the New Testament, but what does it mean?

1).    “ETERNAL LIFE” . WHAT IS IT?
What does the word “eternal” mean? Does it mean living for ever and ever, so that we never die? In one of the Greek myths, the Goddess of the dawn, Eos (Aurora), fell in love with Tithonus a mortal youth.  She was given a wish. Her wish was that Tithonus would never ever die. But she forgot to ask that he not get any older. As time went on, he aged and became more and more decrepit. Life turned sour for their relationship. Eventually she locked him up before turning him into a grasshopper. The word “eternal” in the Bible doesn’t mean going on living for ever and ever like Tithonus in Greek mythology. Rather in the Bible it refers to a new quality of life, a whole new dimension of life which God gives us in Christ. We get some glimpses of this new quality of life in the Old Testament. In Ezekiel 36:25 and following, God promised His people that in the new covenant He would establish with them in the Age to come, He would give His people a new heart, and a new spirit. He would take away the hearts of stone among the people, and give them sensitive hearts of flesh, able to love Him and serve Him. He would put His Spirit in them to motivate and empower them to obey His laws and to do His will. They would be changed by the presence and power of God’s Spirit within them.
Jesus in John 14:23, spoke of what would happen after He had risen from the dead. He promised that He and the Father would take up their abode with the believers,  “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” That is, He and the Father would come and live with those who put their trust in Him, or in the words of The Lexham Bible, “will take up residence with him”.  A.T.Robertson’s ‘Word Pictures in the New Testament’ puts it thus,  ”If the Holy Spirit ‘abides’ (menei, Joh_14:17) in you, that heart becomes a temple (naos) of the Holy Spirit (1Co_3:16.), and so a fit dwelling place for the Father and the Son, a glorious and uplifting reality.” 

Paul wrote of this new life in 2 Cor 5:17) “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” A new creation is that which only God can do, for He alone can create. The special Greek word used for “new” is “kainos” (which can mean brand-new) and not “neos” which means just a recent brushed-up version of the old. Paul is stating that when someone becomes a Christian, they are being made radically new, even though they may not know the full implications of the change God has begun in their lives.

When the Bible is talking about “eternal life”, it means the life of God within those who are open to receive it.  They are seen as being sharers of God’s own nature. Peter wrote in 2Peter 1:3 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
We as humans can live lives that are full of meaning and purpose, lives that are victorious over sin and evil, as we are filled with the life of God Himself as a present reality.

2).     HOW DO WE GET ETERNAL LIFE?
The Bible says we can’t earn it or do anything to deserve it. Paul wrote in Eph 2:8,9, “For it is by grace that you are saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.” We’re not born into it, nor can we work for it. It is a gift of God’s grace and mercy.
How do we obtain this gift? By receiving it where God has placed it. And it is to be found only in one place, and that is in the person of Jesus Christ Himself. That’s the message from our reading in 1 Jn 5:11, ”For God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.”  No wonder He could promise in His teaching that if people put their trust in Him, and came into a living relationship with Him, they would have eternal life. It’s theirs in Him.
There are many ways of describing what happens when people come to God. Some people express it in the way they have experienced it, often in terms they later found were in the Bible. For example some say that they came from darkness into the light of God. Others that they came from death into life. Others that they came from bondage to freedom. Yet others say that they once were lost but now are found. Perhaps the simplest way of expressing commitment, is in the picture given in 1 Jn 5:11-12. God offers us eternal life in Christ, and we have the choice whether to receive the gift in Him, or to reject the gift. That’s how many of us can describe our conversion, by saying that once we didn’t “have” Christ in our lives. But there came a time when we asked Him in, and we were changed by His presence in us.

3).  WHAT PREVENTS US FROM HAVING ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST?
i).   There are those who say it’s all too simplistic and simple. They may think that surely there must be a lot of things they can do and should do, to receive the gift of eternal life. It was hard for the people of Jesus’ day to understand that the way of acceptance with God, is through receiving a gift, rather than struggling to earn the privilege. Paul warns his readers not to get away from the simplicity that is in Christ.  He said that a veil lies over the minds of those who haven’t come to Christ, so that they don’t see. But when a person turns to the Lord in faith, it’s as though the veil is taken away and they can see the truth that Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah and that He is life.
Paul wrote that the message of the cross about a crucified Messiah, Jesus’ death, was a stumbling block to the Jews, and absolute nonsense to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. It’s only when Christ is received into a person’s life that spiritual understanding comes. ( The story is told of a minister with a doctorate in theology, suddenly stopping in the middle of the sermon he was preaching, as he suddenly understood the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection. Someone yelled out in the congregation, “Halleluiah, the preacher’s been converted.” He was, as he understood the gospel for the first time and was born again in the middle of his own sermon as he stood in the pulpit.

ii.   There may be others who feel unworthy. None of us will ever be worthy enough to receive eternal life. But the important thing is not what we feel about ourselves, but what Christ thinks about us. He chose willingly to come to this earth and to die for us to take away our sins and to enable us to be forgiven and receive new life. As Paul wrote, it was “while we were yet sinners that Christ came and died for us.” Rom 5:8.

iii.  There are those who don’t expect to meet with a living Jesus. Jesus once rebuked the Jews of his day who knew the word of God in the Scriptures, but didn’t receive Him. He said, (Jn 5:39,40), “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and they do bear witness to Me … But you refuse to come to me that you might have life.”  The Scriptures pointed away from themselves to Christ as the One in Whom people should trust for forgiveness and salvation, but they rejected Him.

Well how can one get in contact with Jesus to be able to receive Him into one’s life, and thus receive forgiveness, eternal life and all the blessings which are ours in Him? God has given us many word pictures in the Bible. The one that helped me when I chose to stop running away from God at the age of 23 is a word picture God gave to individuals in the church in Loadicea in Revelation 3. The picture God gave was of the risen Christ standing at the door of human lives and asking to be admitted, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.” As we open the door of our lives to Jesus, He enters in. We now “have” the Son. As He enters our lives He brings with Him all the benefits of His life, death and resurrection.

I remember being excited by reading a comment by the theologian Jim Packer many years ago. It went something like this, “It is the living Christ Himself, the perfect Saviour for sinners, Who carries in Himself, all the virtue of His finished work on the cross.” It means that when we receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord, we receive in Him, all the benefits of His work on the cross. He receive in Him forgiveness for our sins, eternal life and all the blessings He wants to pour out on us as we become willing to receive them.  That’s why I preach Jesus as a person to be received rather than just forgiveness and healing, for all the promises of God to us, find their “Amen” in Him as a person. In receiving Him, we become open to receive what God has given us in Him.

4).   WILL HE COME INTO MY LIFE? 
Listen to what John promised to those who asked Christ into their lives in 1 Jn 5:13, “I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”  It is “have”, not “might have”. It is eternal life now, and not “pie in the sky when you die by and by.” It is eternal life, God’s life in you NOW. It is a life in which Christ can fill you with His presence, and can pour His grace into every area of need that you have. Death for the believer means entering more fully into the life we possess now in Him.
What will you do with Jesus? Leave Him standing at the door knocking and asking to come in? Or will you invite Him into your life? It’s not difficult to do. It can be as simple as praying, “Dear Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner, and that I need You as my Saviour. I thank You that You bore my sin on the cross. I thank You that You offer forgiveness for my sins in Yourself.  I thank You for knocking at the door of my life over these years. I now choose to ask You into my life. Come in today. Come in to stay. Lord, I believe Your promises. I believe that as I asked You in, that You did come in. Please enter into every area of my life, to bring Your cleansing and healing. Fill me with Your Spirit, and flood me with Your love and Your presence. By faith I give thanks for all that You are going to do in my life, now and in the days ahead. AMEN!

Blog No.074. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Monday 21st May 2012

073. Christian Ministry. “Rust out? Burn out? Opt out? Is there another way?”

“Rust out?” It’s sad to see rusting hulks on ocean beaches. They were ships that once served a great purpose but eventually could not withstand the storms around them and were driven ashore. Now they are sad reminders of a foregone era. No wonder Christians who want to serve God don’t want to “rust out for God” so that they are no longer useful to Him or to others. No one wants to become a beached lifeless hulk.

“Burn out?” Again it is sad to see the burnt out shells of churches or other buildings. They too served a great purpose as buildings but now have nothing to offer.  Some folk may say that they would rather “burn out for God” instead of “rusting out.”  They want to go flat out for God. And try to do so. However many have succumbed to the pressures of ministry and have become like burnt out shells of their former selves. There may be many reasons for this. Sometimes it appears that some of those folk relied too much on their human abilities and gifts. They did go flat out for God but often it was not what God really required of them. Their priorities became disordered and their “work” became more important than their relationships with their spouses or families or even with the Lord Himself. Instead of being devoted to the Lord, they become devoted to the “job” as they imagined it to be. That becomes another form of idolatry.

“Opt out?” No wonder others want to “opt out” when they see the damage that has taken place in the lives of some of their friends. Jonah was one who wanted to “opt out” of serving the Lord. But he learned that whenever you try to run away from the will of God, you can’t run away from Him. As the song says, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.” He watches over us as we place our lives in His hands. He watches us go as we move away from Him and from His will for us. He is there for us when we arrive at the place to which we think we have ‘escaped’ from Him. Watching. Waiting. Wooing. Welcoming, when we turn back to Him and to His will for us.

“Another way?” Is there an alternative to “rusting out”, “burning out” or “opting out”? There is a clue in the RSV translation of Rom 12:11, Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. The Message translation likewise has it as, Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame. The word for “aglow” is (ζέω) zéō which can mean to bubble or boil and has the meaning to be fervent. The only other occurrence of the word in the New Testament is in Acts 18:25 where Luke describes Apollos as fervent in spirit or in the words of The Message, fiery in his enthusiasm. The Apostolic Bible Polyglot uses the word, “bubbling in the spirit” in both verses. The picture that comes to mind is that in Exodus 3:2, where it describes the burning bush, And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Many of us want to be aglow for God, fiery in our enthusiasm, God’s light shining through us brightly. But it has to be His light, not ours. The energy has to come from Him, not us. We can be the bush aglow with the light or glory of God, but we are not meant to be consumed, burnt up. If we are then there must be too much of self in what we are doing. The power has to come from His unlimited resources and not from our own limited ones.  St Paul understood this. He wrote about true Christian ministry and living as being motivated and empowered by God Himself, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Phil 2:12-15. He motivates. He empowers. We shine with His light as a result of what HE is doing in and through us.

When St Paul understood this he saw that he needed to come to the end of own resources and rely on Christ’s resources in him. As he put it (and as we long to express it ourselves), I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Gal 2:20.  So too do we need to die to self and live to Him, or in Paul’s words, let Him live His life in and through us!

Blog No.073.  Jim Holbeck. Posted on Saturday 5^th May 2012

072. Christian Ministry. Our Ability Or Our Availability?

Christian ministry is what God does through His people who are available to Him.

Success in ministry is not dependent on the ability of His people.

Rather it is dependent on their availability to Him so that He can use them as He wishes, to accomplish through them what He desires.

My short Mini-Reflection:  ”Success in Christian ministry is dependent not on our human ability but on our availability to His ability in and through us by His Spirit.” 

Blog No. 072. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Friday 4th May 2012

071. God Can Heal The Mess We Get Into. “Repent. Return. Receive.” Acts 3:12-26

What do you do when you realise you have done something terribly wrong and you know are going to cop the inevitable consequences? You start to panic or else you do some very serious thinking, “How can I get out of the mess I got myself into?”

That was the situation of the Jews we read about in Acts 3. They had earlier demanded that Jesus be crucified. He HAD then been crucified but there had been reports that God had raised Him from the dead on the third day. If that were so then it meant that the Jews of that time had killed their long-promised Messiah. So here they are in Acts 3 looking at a lame man who had been healed by the apostles. How had they healed him? By calling on the name of Jesus. It meant that Jesus was indeed alive. He had risen as Lord. He had returned to heaven. He had sent his Holy Spirit on the apostles and others to empower them. He could answer prayer asked in His name. What a mess these Jews were in! Guilty before God. Was there any escape for them?

Peter challenged them in 3 ways. He told them:-

1).  YOU MEN OF ISRAEL (of that time) ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR JESUS’ DEATH.  Acts 3:12-15. (12)  And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? (13)  The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. (14)  But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,(15)  and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

He told them that they (as men of Israel) had  put Jesus to death. They thought, as men of Israel,  that Jesus should be killed for claiming to be the Son of God.  But that wasn’t what their God, the God of Israel thought. Their God raised Him from the dead after they had Him killed! Jesus was indeed the Son of God!  In these verses we note how Peter rammed home their guilt. They had delivered Jesus over; they had denied Him before Pilate; they had rejected the choice given to them by Pilate to set Jesus free. Instead they had chosen a murderer to be released to them;  they had put to death the author of life. It was guilt upon guilt upon guilt.

How about ourselves? It’s no use our going, “Tut! Tut!” in condemning them. We too were involved in His death. It was our sins as part of all the sins of the world that nailed Him to the cross.  We helped put Him to death through our sins. They were guilty. We too are guilty before God. As Peter put it in 1Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

2).        JESUS IS RISEN AND ACTIVE IN HIS WORLD. (Healing Through The Name Of The Risen Jesus).  3:16-18. (16)  And his name–by faith in his name–has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

A healing miracle had taken place before their eyes. Jesus had been asked to bring healing to a lame man, and the healing had taken place. God’s power was released into the man’s body as Peter and John prayed in the name of Jesus. It was another proof that Jesus had risen from the dead. Healing could take place in His name.  They had seen it happen to a lame man. There was power in the name of Jesus.

3).  THE NEED TO GET RIGHT WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS.  3:17-19. (17)  Peter continued, “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. (18)  But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. If they had known who Jesus was as their Messiah they would not have killed Him.  Paul made the same point in 1Cor 2:7. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8  None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  They didn’t recognise that their Messiah had to suffer and die on the cross to take away the sins of the world. They were accountable. They would have known of many Old Testament prophecies which had predicted that the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One had to suffer and die.

Peter told them how to get out of their serious problem. He gave them two things to do, and then encouraged them with the good news of what would happen if they obeyed those 2 commands. These same two commands are applicable to us today. So is the good news if we too obey those same commands.

The Two Commands. (19)  Repent therefore, and turn again. What did that mean for them? What does it mean for us?

i).  Repentance. The word means a lot more than simply feeling sorry about what we said or did. It is a lot more than feeling deep remorse like Judas Iscariot did after he betrayed Jesus. It is a change of mind accompanied by a change of direction in life. It is recognising the sinfulness of sin and turning from that sin to God to ask for His mercy. Judas didn’t do that. He didn’t turn to God. His was not true repentance.

ii).        Turning again. (From sin to God. The Greek word is epistrepho.) This word is used often in Acts to show the change needed in those who trust in Jesus. Some examples are as follows:-

In Acts 9:33-34, Peter said to Aeneas who was paralysed, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.” When the residents saw him healed, they turned to the Lord.

In Acts 11:19-21 we read of men of Cyprus and Cyrene travelling with Stephen to Antioch. They preached Christ to the Hellenists. We read the result, Act 11:21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

When Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra in Acts 14:15 people bowed down to them. Paul responded, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM.

At the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, mention was made of the Gentiles who were coming into the Christian faith.  It raised the question as to whether they should be accepted into the Christian family as they were or should they be forced to adopt Jewish rites and ceremonies first. James was given the answer, Acts 15:19  “Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles. 

So we see  in these references that repentance demands a change of mind and also a change in direction. It is turning away from sin AND turning to trust fully in God and in Jesus with all that one is and has.

Three Results follow from obedience to these two commands.

i).         Forgiveness of sins. (that your sins may be blotted out).

• The debt to God is cancelled. (We see forgiveness in action in Mat 18:27, The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.)
• The record of sins is blotted out.
• Forgiveness is available in Jesus for every sin. Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of our sins. 

We too can know that all our sins, past, present and future are covered (forgiven) by the blood of Jesus as we receive Jesus in whom all that forgiveness is to be found.

 ii).        Refreshment by the Holy Spirit of God.  (20)  that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. This noun occurs only here in the New Testament. The verb form though is used in 2Tim1:16 to describe the refreshment that Onesiphorus brought to Paul in prison, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

A similar reference is to be found in Titus,   Tit 3:4  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, 5  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. 

Christian believers have experienced the sense of being washed, cleansed, being born again, coming alive, being renewed, as God poured out His Holy Spirit upon them. It’s the experience that those who obey those two commands enjoy as they commit themselves to the Living Lord.

 iii).       We are Made Ready for the Coming of Christ. (and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus).  Instead of being fearful at His coming, believers could look forward to Him coming in glory as forgiven, renewed children of God. What a relief that would have meant for the men of Israel of that time.  If He were to return in their life-time they no longer had any reason to fear His coming, if they did what Peter had commanded.

We too as His saved people can look forward to His coming with the same confidence, as He comes to take us to be with Him forever. It will be the final episode of our salvation. We recognise that in our Holy Communion services when we say together these three phrases in the table below. To the right of those phrases are the various aspects of salvation that they represent.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

We are saved from the penalty of sin We are being saved from the power of sin We will be saved from the very presence of sin.

Praise God that if we find ourselves in a mess before God that we too can find the same way out as those Jews in Acts 3, by obeying those same 2 commands, that is by repenting of our sin and turning to God by trusting in Jesus His Son the Messiah and our Saviour.

Praise God we can know the same results if we do. 

• We can be forgiven of all our sin through what Jesus has done on the cross.
• We can be refreshed by the Holy Spirit as we comes to indwell us
• We are made ready for Jesus‘ coming to take us to be with Him in glory.

In the words of one of our songs, Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

Blog No.071. Jim Holbeck. Posted on Wednesday 25th April 2012

070. “From Doubt To Belief!” John 20:19-31.

Have you ever noticed how our strength can become our weakness?  Because we rely upon our strength in a particular area, it can become an area in which we are found wanting. A footballer who relies upon his normal fitness, and who doesn’t train hard, finds that as the game continues he can see the opportunities but his body is not fit enough to respond. Or it might be a person blessed with good health who fails to undergo the precautionary medical tests that could warn of impending trouble.

It could be the very gifted preacher who relies on his natural speaking ability and fails to wait on God for the message God wants him to speak. He speaks well but there is no power or authority behind the words. Ministry is more about availability to God than about our natural ability.

1).        THOMAS’ STRENGTH.  He had a strong will

His strength was that he wasn’t willing to be swept along in any religious movement. He wasn’t gullible. He wouldn’t be easily deceived. The world needs people like that who can look at all the options and then make the right choices. They are not easily carried away on the spur of the moment. We see this in Thomas earlier in the ministry of Jesus, when Jesus told them that He was going to wake up Lazarus from sleep. He meant that He was going to bring Lazarus back to life. Thomas recognized that Jesus would be walking into dangerous situation.

With either pessimism or with a clear view of reality, he told the other disciples, “Let’s also go with Him, that we may die with Him.”  Thomas looked at all the options and expected the worst, he could die along with Jesus. But he was still willing to go with Jesus.  He may have been a pessimist, but a courageous one.

But Thomas’ apparent strength was also his weakness. When Jesus appeared to the 10 apostles on that first Easter evening, Thomas was for some reason absent.  We’re not told why he wasn’t there. Some have speculated that he may have felt that he was strong and didn’t need the fellowship of the others. Others have thought that he may have been disillusioned because Jesus had been killed, and it looked as though the whole Jesus movement was going to end. Perhaps He wondered whether he had been deceived after all. He may even have thought that if the plan was to kill Jesus, then the disciples would be the next to go. It was safer not to be near the other disciples.

What we do know is that he wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to these 10 apostles, and showed them His hands and His side. He missed out on seeing the wounds in His hands and His side which showed them that this was Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead. When Thomas later heard that the 10 had seen Jesus, and that they had touched His hands and His side, Thomas’ strength again became his weakness. He wouldn’t believe them unless he could personally put his own finger into the wounds in Jesus’ side and hands. (Verse 25.)

2).        THOMAS’ SINCERITY A GOOD VIRTUE

The other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” Verse 25.  But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” That is, “I won’t believe until it becomes my personal experience.”  No second hand faith for Thomas.

We read that one week later Jesus again appeared to them in the upper room, and this time Thomas was with them. Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst, and then singled out Thomas. He answered all of Thomas’ demands.

Thomas’ specific demands a week before	Jesus’ specific answers (commands)
1. Unless I see in His hands the prints of the nails.	1. See my hands.
2. and put my finger in the mark of the nails	2.put your finger here
3. put my hand into His side.	Place your hand in my side
4. I will not believe	4 Be no longer unbelieving, but believing For each demand of Thomas there was a command of Jesus.

There may be doubts that come into our minds from time to time, but we are meant to deal with them and not let them continue on.  For every doubt in our minds, there is a corresponding truth in Jesus. Does that mean that we can be sincere doubters, Doubting Thomases, and God doesn’t mind? No! Jesus said, “Be no longer unbelieving (a doubter), but now believe.” That is “The time for doubting is over, Thomas; you have been confronted personally with the truth. Now you are commanded to believe.”

One of the great sadnesses in the latter part of last century was a book written by a senior Bishop in England in which he expressed many of his doubts about the Christian faith. It was a book that should never have been written by one in a position of leadership in the church. God doesn’t want His church leaders to parade their doubts publicly, but to deal with them in private. Then when they are free of their doubts, they can once again affirm the great truths of the Christian faith.  If they don’t deal with their doubts they shouldn’t continue on in ministry. When such leaders go public about their doubts, it endangers the lives of missionaries working in countries hostile to the gospel. It also makes it so much more difficult for a faithful wife and mother to try to bring up her children in the faith when  the leaders express doubts.

How did Jesus treat Thomas? He didn’t say to Thomas,” Good to have you on side as one of my followers. Sorry that you can’t really believe that I am risen from the dead, but just tag along with the others anyway.” No! His word was uncompromising. “Don’t continue in unbelief, but be believing. You have been confronted with the evidence, now act on it.” God never says in the scriptures, “Please try to believe in me if you can. But if you can’t, I’ll respect your sincerity.” 

No! He says in His word, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,  31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31. There’s enough evidence around to convince any sceptic of the truth of Christ, if they act upon the truth they have available to them.

3).    When Thomas Was Sure, He Committed Himself Fully. 20:28

Thomas cried out, Jn 20:28. “My Lord and my God.” It was not, “You are the Lord, the Ruler of the Universe.” Nor was it, “You are the God, the maker of the world and of all mankind.”  Rather he cried out, “You are MY Lord. You are MY God.” He was submitting himself to Christ as his personal Lord and Maker.  It was more than believing the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead. There is a massive difference between “believing about” and “trusting in”.

For example, Jesus is the Saviour of the World, but He doesn’t become MY Saviour until I admit that I need a Saviour and ask Him personally into my life. In Hebrews. Jesus is described as the new and living way into the presence of God. But I can’t come into the presence of God until I enter into that new and living way through Jesus. There is no other way.  Christ died for the sins of the whole world, but I am forgiven of nothing until I ask Christ to be my sin-bearer and personal Saviour. Christ has offered to share with us His love, His joy and His peace, but they don’t become mine in my experience, until I receive Him, and open myself to receive these blessings in Him. God offers to answer our prayers, but we only get the answers when we pray with belief and with no doubt. “James wrote, Jas 1:6-8 “When a person asks, he must believe and not doubt…..”

How does this passage relate to us? Jesus said we as believers are blessed. He pronounced a blessing upon those who would not see as Thomas did, but who would nevertheless believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Jn 20:29. That’s you and me, if we hear the truth about Christ and choose to act upon that truth. The truth that He is risen from the dead. The truth that He is alive. The truth that He can be alive in us by His Holy Spirit who  comes to indwell us when we trust in Christ. The truth that He can impart His life to us, so that we can say with all sincerity, ” I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in this human body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Sometimes we sing an old hymn which has the words. “I serve a Risen Saviour, He’s in the world today I know that He is living, whatever men may say, I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, and just the time I need Him, He’s always near. The chorus ends, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.” Doubt goes when we personally commit ourselves to Jesus the Risen Lord, and make Him the Lord, Master, of our hearts.

Any doubts about Jesus? Time to get rid of them, to repent of sin, and ask Him into your life. Then and only then can He fill you with the certainty of His love and His presence. Notice how John ends this chapter, Joh 20:30-31  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; (31)  but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The evidence is there. It is there for us to act on. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Son of God. He is the Saviour of the world. But He only becomes those things to us when we receive him into our lives by an act of faith. Believing brings life, eternal life, God’s life in us. 

Blog No.070. Jim Holbeck.  Posted on Tuesday 17th April 2012

069. Easter Day. “The Resurrection of Jesus. A New Life With New Possibilities”. Acts 10:34-48

Easter Day is the most important festival in this world. It is the most significant festival for humans in every age. We cannot lessen its significance for humans by ignoring it or by ceasing to observe it. There is something about Easter that challenges us “to our back teeth” as they say. Why is it more important than other festivals? It is because of what happened at that first Easter and the implications arising from what took place then.

Easter is more important than Christmas. Jesus the Son of God (the Creator) was born into this world on that first Christmas Day in the form of an infant. He was to be called “Jesus” meaning “Saviour” for He would save His people from their sins. He was born to die for the whole human race. More personally He was born to die for you and me. But His lowly birth introduced Him into a more significant role.

Easter is more important than Good Friday. The latter was the day on which Jesus was crucified. He died as the Saviour on the cross bearing the sins of all the world.  Paul described Him as the Passover lamb, 1Cor 5:7 …. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  But if he hadn’t risen from the dead it would meant that evil had triumphed over goodness; death had triumphed over life; and that death was the end for all people. There would be nothing beyond death. But St Paul reminded us that the death of Jesus was followed by His resurrection from the dead.  1Cor 15:3-8, (3)  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, (4)  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, (5)  and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (6)  Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.(7)  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.(8)  Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.  He made the point that if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, life would have no meaning or purpose. 1Cor 15:17-18, And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. (18)  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 

Easter Day reminds us that Jesus who was born to die, did indeed die but He rose again as the victor over sin, over evil, over death and over the powers of darkness which try to destroy us. On Good Friday Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished”. His work of redemption had been completed. He had borne the penalty for the sins of whole world.  As someone once said, “The resurrection is the  ’AMEN’ of the Father to the ‘It is finished’ of the Son (on the cross).”  The resurrection was the evidence that Jesus had accomplished what He had come to do through His life and His death. God was satisfied with what Jesus had done on the cross to deal with human sin and rebellion.  He raised Him from the dead. With that in mind we look at the reading from Acts 10 for a few moments.

In Acts 10 Peter had come to the home of a Gentile (non-Jewish) man. These Gentiles wanted to know more about Jesus. Peter gave them a thumb-sketch of Jesus’ ministry. He gave these salient points.

1).   Jesus Was Anointed By God To Minister On Earth. Acts 10:34-48.  (34)  Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, (35)  but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (36)  You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ–he is Lord of all. (37)  That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: (38)  how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. (39)  We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.    Jesus’ ministry was done under the anointing and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.  He healed the sick. He healed all those oppressed by the devil. “Oppressed” is katadunasteúō (“dynasty” is from the same root) meaning to rule, tyrannize, control harshly). How did He accomplish this victory? For God was with Him. As Jesus explained in John 14:10, the Father was behind every facet of his ministry in His words and works, Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

2).        Jesus Was Killed By Humans. 39b. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. That was the meaning behind the events on Good Friday. Jesus became a human so that He might live as a human, and die as a human at the hands of humans, for humans. But that wasn’t the end of Him. Death could not hold Him down.

 3).        Jesus Was Raised From The Dead. 40-41.  God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, (41)  not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He was really alive on that first Easter day. He was no phantom or ghost.  Hundreds of people saw Him as risen from the dead on different occasions. Jesus was and is a living Saviour!

 4). Jesus Wanted Everyone to Know He is Going to Judge Them. 42-43.  Peter told his hearers, (42)  He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.  Jesus is the Creator of this universe.  He is the Saviour of all who put their trust in Him for salvation. He is to be the judge of every human being ever born. God’s judgment isn’t the topic you would normally introduce initially to those looking seriously at the faith. But Peter immediately added the good news, that Jesus is the one who brings forgiveness to those who believe in Him, (43) All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Remember that Peter was in a Gentile (non-Jewish) home sharing the good news about Jesus with Gentile people. They had gone to all the trouble to find out about this Jesus by bringing Peter to this home to tell them about Jesus. They were open to the gospel, open to the good news about Jesus. Open to all the good news including the fact that Jesus saves believers from the coming judgment of God.

Something amazing happened as Peter was speaking. It often happens when people are open to the gospel message, and open to Jesus. We read what happened, (44)  While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word. (45)  The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles, (46)  for they heard them speaking in tongues and extolling God.  They had sovereignly been born again of the Spirit of God. They now had forgiveness of their sins in Christ. They now belonged to the people of God.  As such they could be baptised into the faith and into the family of God. Then Peter said, (47)  “Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”(48)  So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Peter was saying, “They belong to God. We as Jewish believers and they as Gentile believers belong to the same family of God. We belong to one another in Him.” So they were baptised as a sign that they already belonged!

Historically it meant that Jesus (who had risen from the dead and ascended back to heaven) had poured out the Holy Spirit on the first disciples on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. He had then poured out the same Holy Spirit on the Gentiles who believed in Him in Acts 10.   He continues to pour out His Spirit on those who are open to the gospel and open to the living Christ even today. He is ALIVE and He can become ALIVE IN US as we believe in Him and ask Him into our lives.

Blog No.069. Jim Holbeck. Posted on (Easter Day) Sunday 8th April 2012