Christian Holiness Journal | Page 96 | a record of struggle and victory to know the mind of Christ

I Am – The Messiah (John 4:1-26)

December 10, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

Jesus looks up at the sun, straight overhead, and squints his eyes. It’s midday, almost time. He’s tired, but not particularly thirsty. Still, He will ask her for a drink when she arrives. He sits on the edge of Jacob’s Well and peeks into the well. He’s pleased to find it has water. Had it been midsummer, He would have likely found it dry. He smiles and laughs at Himself. Of course, it has water. His Father has flawlessly prepared everything.

“Give me a drink,” He says with a smile when the woman arrives. It’s his way of striking up a conversation.

The look on her face when He speaks is priceless. He’s caught her off guard, which means she will speak candidly. That’s what He wants. Be open and honest with me, and I will touch your heart.

“What do you want with me? You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan.” She seems incredulous.

He is patient with her, but not direct; He speaks to her in a parable, for He wants her to ponder His words carefully. “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

He searches her heart and reveals it to her, for no one can truly know her own heart. He presents her with the opportunity to fill the emptiness inside her, to truly fill the void in her life, and that it’s something she has tried to do for years. To thirst no more; what wonderment. What blessedness.

He reveals to her her sin, but not in a condemning way. He knows that she has already condemned herself. He knows that she also feels the condemnation of the Law. He also knows that she has felt that way her entire life. A second-class citizen, a phony, a woman of ill-repute. She has heard it all. Because she knows that her life displeases God, He offers her hope as an alternative to condemnation.

“…the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Jesus sees that she is beginning to comprehend. “I know that the Messiah is coming, and that He shall reveal to us all things.”

Jesus looks deep into her eyes to be sure He has her full attention. What He tells her shall change her life forever. Very slowly and carefully he tells her,

“I… who speak to you… Am He.”

I am – the Light of the World

December 9, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

Christ was, perhaps, tired. After all, He had taught all the previous day. Not just teach; He had been repeatedly confronted by Pharisees. When it came time to eat dinner and retire, no one offered Him a place to stay. No matter, He had gone to the Mount of Olives, to His favorite garden, and prayed most of the night.

Now, it is early. The sky turns yellow, orange and red, hinting at a rising sun. It will soon be day. Jesus returns to the Temple and sits down to teach. He chooses the Temple not because it is a holy place. It has not been sacred for generations. No, He chooses to teach at the Temple because it is a place of concourse. Indeed, Jews from all over the Roman Empire gather there. Gentiles, too. Many of them have tender hearts and open minds. Some eagerly await the Messiah. A few are ready to take up arms and follow Him in rebellion against Caesar. Many are angry. As the sun smiles over the horizon, Jesus sighs at how little they comprehend.

I would gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks. He sighs again and begins to teach. It takes no time at all to gather a crowd. The people are eager to hear Him just once more before they leave Jerusalem.

The Pharisees are eager, as well. Unable to think of a snare that will trap Jesus, an opportunity falls into their hands: a woman caught in the very act of adultery. They plant a snare. Shall she be stoned? Only the Roman governor may order a death sentence. Of course, the Governor has extended that authority to the Sanhedrin, a body to which Jesus does not belong. If Jesus recommends stoning – and surely He will – they can charge Him with usurping authority. If He offers her forgiveness, as He has others, they can charge Him with heresy. The Pharisees laugh and smile and pat one another’s back.

When they ask Jesus for a verdict, they see for the briefest of moments a hint of an upturned smile. He ignores their question and kneels to the ground. With his finger, He begins writing in the dust.

They press Him for an answer, and for the moment, ignore his writing.

The Teacher stands and gives His verdict. “Let he who is without sin, throw the first stone,” says Jesus. He again kneels, returning to His writing.

Now the Pharisees read what He writes. One by one, the they turn pale. Slack-jawed, they turn and leave, filtering into the crowd.

“Where are your accusers?” Jesus asks the woman. “Does no one condemn you?”

She hesitates, looks into the faces of dozens of interested bystanders. None condemn her. Her husband is no where to be seen. The Pharisees are trying to blend into the crowd, and avoid eye contact. She looks into the eyes of Jesus and sees only compassion. “No, Lord. No one.”

“Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

She turns away, but before she leaves, she hears Jesus say,

“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

– John 8:12

She smiles. Something in her changeds when she considers His words. She will never be the same. Surely, she thought, this is the Promised One, the Messiah.

I am – the Eternal, Almighty God

December 8, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

Within His three-year ministry on earth, Jesus spent a great deal of time in the Temple, and this is where we find Him in John 8. Of course, any time Jesus is in Jerusalem, He is confronted by authorities looking to discredit or kill Him. It is on this particular occasion, in fact, where Temple authorities attempt to back Jesus into a corner by presenting Him with the conundrum of the woman caught in adultery.

If Jesus agrees that she should be stoned to death, they will go to the Roman governor and accused Jesus of usurping the authority of Caesar. If He shows leniency, they will pronounce Jesus a heretic. Instead, Jesus simply puts the conundrum back on them. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” In the end, of course, no one throws a single stone.

“Go, and sin no more,” He tells her. He then turns to those who remain and proclaims Himself to be the Light of the World.

The Pharisees are angry at such a pronouncement. How dare He? “Who bares witness to your claims?”

“The Father,” answers Jesus, telling them that they are from below, while He and the Father are of above, and that they can never know the Father because they have never known the Son. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

Here I can imagine Jesus clapping his hands, as if to brush off the dust, and turning His back on the Pharisees to leave. “I am going away, and you will seek Me,” He says, “and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

The Pharisees laugh. “He’s mad.” “A lunatic.” “He has a demon.” “He’s going to kill Himself.”

The discussion goes on, with the Pharisees working very hard to entrap Jesus and Jesus challenging them to name just one way in which He had sinned, just one – even the tiniest – sin.

Jesus, though, is sinless, and – of course – they cannot.

“I have no demon,” says Jesus. “I simply glorify my Father. It is He who judges.” At this, the Pharisees must be looking back at the woman caught in adultery and wondering if they are any better than she.

“Only my Father is judge, but if you keep My words, you will never taste death,” He says. And it goes unsaid, but He could continue and say, “and never face the Judge.”

“Are you greater than our Father, Abraham, who is dead?” The Pharisees are dumbfounded at the claim of Jesus, but not as shocked as when they hear Him continue…

“Before Abraham was, I am.”

With those five words, Jesus declares Himself to be the Eternal, Almighty God, Yahweh.

Note that He does not say, “I was.” He says, “I am.” He uses the same words that the translators of Exodus had used when they quote God telling Moses that His name is I Am.

One cannot believe that Jesus is just a good man. He is either who He says He is (God), or He was a lunatic.

He is the Eternal, Almighty God, Yahweh. I am.