Day 32 - Are you ready?

Reading: John 16:16-33

It seems to me that this passage is part of the biggest and most significant half time team talk of all time. 

Jesus is fully aware of what was facing him and he had begun to prepare the disciples for some difficult times ahead. Indeed, they would face fear as Jesus was arrested, distress and pain as they watched Jesus being crucified, the life-changing experience of the resurrection and later the responsibility of sharing the gospel which would bring persecution and suffering.

As Jesus begins to reveal the bigger plan, the disciples fail to grasp the significance of his words. Their feet are firmly rooted in the here and now and they flounder and struggle with a lack of deeper understanding. “What is he talking about?” is their response, one that is a common human experience.  How hard it is for us to sometimes see beyond the situations that we are currently in.

I take encouragement from Jesus’ patient response, his honest answer that the disciples will know sadness, suffering and hostility, but that a time was coming when they would have direct access to the Father in prayer, a Father who loved them, would answer them and turn their sadness into gladness. Just as a mother forgets the suffering of childbirth, once her baby is born. This picture took me back to the birth of my own daughters. I experienced two difficult deliveries that were immediately forgotten when I held my beautiful daughters for the first time.  I wonder if the disciples looked back on this conversation in later years and suddenly ‘got it’, or if this conversation remained a mystery that they tried to unravel or even struggled with at points during their lives.

Response

May we know the inner assurance that Jesus offers and be able to hold onto it during times of hardship. May we experience the love of our Heavenly Father, and know what it is to receive his peace.  Amen.

Louise

Day 31 - Saying goodbye

Reading: John 15:26-16:15

There are many different ways of dealing with goodbyes – especially when we know it could be a forever goodbye. Some people embrace, cry and hug, whereas others prefer to keep it brief and not get emotional. I remember when leaving my friends in Brazil that many of them couldn’t understand why I couldn’t stay and although I understood why I needed to come back I flew home crying.

Jesus’ followers were struggling to understand why Jesus was soon to leave him. They didn’t understand what he was going on to do and that ‘it is for your good that I am going away’ (verse 7). The reason Jesus could say this was not only because of what he was going on to achieve in his crucifixion and resurrection but because he was promising to leave the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and testimony and their personal advocate. The disciples were ‘filled with grief’ and struggling to take on board the words of Jesus, or understand the implications of always having the Holy Spirit with them.

I often think what if Jesus was here, forgetting that by his Spirit he is. Although not physically visible this is no less wondrous than having the physical Jesus among us. May you be reminded today that the advocate, the helper, the Holy Spirit is with you and in you, that he wants to guide you into all truth, help you to testify about Jesus and glorify Jesus.

Response

Thank you Jesus for sending the Holy Spirit to help us, empower us, guide us and testify about you. Please fill me with your Spirit today and make me aware of him all day long. Amen.

Andy

Day 30 - Good news, bad news

Reading: John 15:17-25

I remember seeing a herd of buffalo being attacked by a pride of lions. The lions identified the weakest calf and went in for the kill.  The mother of the calf tried to protect her offspring and eventually the rest of the herd joined her, made a ring around her and protected the calf and mother, eventually fighting off the pride.

Hate is a strong word that we tend to avoid using if possible, but Jesus is very open about it (verse 19): “That is why the world hates you.” Why?  Because Jesus has chosen us out of the world.

Jesus starts verse 18 with, “If the world hates you.” It is not inevitable that the world will hate us, but as we read on, it seems to be a very likely thing, so we should not be surprised when it happens.  Jesus is saying, if you’re mine, life will be tough at times – that is the bad news.

The first bit of good news is that there are good reasons for this hate: Jesus has chosen us (verse 19), we are becoming like him (verse 20), and they recognise Jesus in us (verse 21).

Jesus is the light to the world. He shows up the sin that men try to cover up. It’s no wonder, then, that they hate him and a little worrying if we don’t receive similar treatment at times.

The second bit of good news is found at the beginning of the passage (verse 17). Jesus commands us to love one another so that when we are hated, we have a safe and secure place to go, back to family, who will love us, lick our wounds, defend us and provide a secure environment for our recovery.

Are we hated?  Remember Jesus said “If”, but if we are not, is the opposite true? Are we loved by the world instead?

Response

Do we truly provide a loving, secure family environment for our fellow brothers and sisters? This is something we are commanded to do – it’s not an option. How can I do this better?

Guy

Day 29 - “Remain in me…”

Reading: John 15:1-16

The word remain means to abide, stay in the same place or condition, or continue to be.  It also makes us think of words like holding fast, being safe and secure in a position and not letting go. That is the picture that the Lord Jesus Christ portrays to us in this passage about the vine.

I inherited a small greenhouse and a vine when I moved house. I am sorry to say that after many years I have still not learned how to be a vinedresser or have followed the old Pears Cyclopaedia advice on how to train vines so that they look like the beautiful specimens in the Victorian greenhouses at West Dean Gardens. I do not water or feed it, but I do find that a good prune of the branches does produce better fruit. Last year after a vigorous prune in the winter and warm weather in the summer the vine did produce a good harvest of black grapes in September.

In this passage Jesus is the true Vine and we are the branches shooting out in all directions from the main stem. Jesus supplies all the nutrients from deep within to flow up through the branches. The branches depend upon him and the purpose for which the branches exist is to bear fruit. We have to ask ourselves what kind of fruit and how much fruit do we bear? The passage warns us that the vinedresser, God the Father, will prune the branches to produce more fruit but that whole branches will be cut off and removed altogether if no fruit is produced.

It is therefore important that we remain in him (verse 4), that his words remain in us (verse 7), and that we remain in his love (verse 9). We also have to obey his commands (verse 10) and love one another (verse 12). What will be the harvest of that remaining? We will receive answers to prayer (verse 7), know joy in him (verse 11), be his friends and not servants (verse 15) and bear fruit that will last (verse 16).

Response

Let us pray today that we will remain in Jesus and bear much fruit for him.

Susan

Day 28 - Challenges and promises

Reading: John 13:36-14:31

Today’s reading is full of both challenges and promises from Jesus.

We base so much of what we do together as a church on the significance of Jesus’ word when he says:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Also, in today’s passage there are three main questions which Jesus asks different disciples, and I find myself asking how I would answer these questions.

Taking them in reverse order, Jesus asks Philip (14:9-10), “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?”

Essentially, Jesus asks, “Don’t you have enough to trust in me?”

I remind myself that I have more than enough to go on in order to confidently place my trust in Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus also asks a leading question to the disciples together (14:2), “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

I read these words and imagine Jesus saying to me, “If there was more you needed to know about heaven, in order to trust me and to not let your hearts be troubled, don’t you believe I would have told you?”

So, I remind myself that Jesus has given enough promises and pointers about the future that I need not live with a troubled heart today.

Thirdly Jesus asks Peter (13:38), “Will you really lay down your life for me?”

I have left this question to last because it is the hardest. I read this question and remind myself of the need to prioritise following Jesus above everything else and to lay down my life for him again today.

Response

Review these 3 questions and offer Jesus your answers.

Ken

Day 27 - Marks of discipleship

Reading: John 13:18-35

I sometimes travel up to London by train on my own and one of the ways I pass the time (often longer than planned due to Southern Rail!) is to look around at my fellow passengers or listen to their conversations and look for clues to try to work out a bit more about them, what they do or where they are going for the day and so on. I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes having read Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories many times over, so maybe I fancy myself as a bit of an amateur detective!

Reading this passage made me think, “What clues are there about us that people around us might see that would mark us out as a Christian?” And I’m not thinking about fish badges on lapels or on the backs of car windows!

The account of Judas and the prediction of his betrayal in this passage shows us that there are certain things that people might naturally assume are good identifying marks of discipleship for Christians:  knowing a lot about Jesus; spending time with  his followers; and  even ministry for Jesus. Of course as Christians we should want to do all these things in whatever form that looks like, but it made me think that others could also do all these things ... after all, Judas did!

Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The early church took Jesus’ command to heart and displayed love as a mark of their discipleship. Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, writing about a century after the gospel of John was written, said that Roman society took note of Christians loving one another and would comment, “Behold, how they love one another!” 

Could the same be said of us at CBC?  Quite a challenge isn’t it, especially as this may well involve loving those in our church family that we find more challenging!

Response

How can we demonstrate our love for Jesus through the way we love one another in our church family? Let’s pray that those looking on are able to say the C21 equivalent of “Behold, how they love one another!” 

Paul

Day 26 - A living parable

Reading: John 13:1-17

On a recent trip to Zimbabwe a very poor family invited us into their home.  They told us what an honour it was to have us there and offered us some of their precious ‘sadza’ (white maize meal) to eat which they could barely afford to share.  Before eating (with our fingers!) they came with bowls of water to wash our hands.  With no running water in the house this precious water was also a gift they couldn’t really afford.

The sadza was bland, sticky and hard to swallow. I don’t like it…what if I get ill… smile Ellen, smile….

But the way in which it was given showed hearts that wanted to serve us as guests. People who had so little wanting to give. I left feeling very humbled indeed. And very challenged.

This passage in John 13 is about servanthood.  Jesus is back in Jerusalem for a final Passover and as part of the meal he washes his disciples’ feet. Jesus is doing here what a servant would do. Foot washing was common practice; on arriving at a home the servants would wash the dirty and dusty feet of the guests as they arrived.

What makes Jesus’ action so extraordinary is that he is their Lord and teacher. No one of such stature would stoop so low as to serve in this way. But Jesus wanted to demonstrate what true greatness is. And he is also demonstrating what his life and death were all about. At this Passover meal Jesus is pointing to himself as the true Passover lamb.  Jesus was to sacrifice his life as the ultimate act of service.

Jesus speaks in verse 15 about giving his followers a pattern to copy. Just as he served others, so are we to serve. To point with our lives and actions to Jesus.

What does it look like us to be servant hearted today? It almost certainly won’t be footwashing, or serving sadza. How can we show genuine love and service to people around us so that they sense and see what our God is like?

Response

Reflect on Jesus’ great example of servanthood and ask him for opportunities to serve him by serving others today. 

Ellen