Good Morning Friends,
We never know what is going to happen when the Lord is at work helping us to feel and perceive something that first requires faith. It all unfolds on the journey a step at a time. We can be convinced of what is going to happen, but the Word of God shows us that some of the most important things God wants us to know and act on are not necessarily those things we would naturally ask for, but what the Holy Spirit prompts us to ask when we are moved from our habits to do something new with Jesus. Which brings us to today’s question: What Does The Lord Want Us To See By Faith?
Scripture: The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.
Acts 16:22-34 (NRSV)
But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
John 16:5-11 (NRSV)
Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Genesis 28:15-17 (NRSV)
Message: Today we continue with a study of the Holy Spirit and in the reading of scripture learn that Jesus had to go away for the Paraclete to attack the world’s rejection of Christ. And as we read this, we begin to see that perhaps we are better off for Christ going away. That is the position taken by Jesus. Now we might think experiencing Jesus in the flesh would be a great thing, but Christ did not put much value in the local influence he could exert in the flesh compared to the Holy Spirit in ten thousand places aiding in such unlikely conversions as the Philippian jailer and the amazing attitude of Paul and Silas while still in jail and their miraculous deliverance. Over the last couple of weeks, we have read about the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch and Paul of Tarsus and Cornelius and Lydia. But the Philippian jailer is one of the most unlikely of all of them.
And what is perhaps most amazing is the question he asks, after he has seen Paul and Silas singing hymns, as they were incarcerated, and after an earthquake sets them free. The question he asks is about mercy and grace and has the same answer, or at least a beginning of an answer to today’s question as well. The jailer asks what must I do to be saved? Jesus, and therefore the Holy Spirit and the Father also, wants him to see the path to salvation and he wants us to see the path of salvation too. And this is exactly what the Holy Spirit helps the jailer to see as an alternative to death, and out of love it is extended to his family as well. Here seeing is not believing as much as believing is the seeing.
And So, God wants us to come and see but also to taste the joy of being a Christian in the process. And for now, in this moment, God wants us to follow and see the next step, but ultimately God wants us to see heaven opened. There are several instances in the Bible where someone sees heaven open, and they all relate to Jesus. We have the dream of Jacob, and the revelation of the resurrected Christ and the vision of Ezekiel and the baptism of Christ and the stoning of Stephen. All have meaning linked to the greater divine reality of Jesus as the Messiah. And in the story of Jacob and the ladder to heaven, as with the stoning of Stephen and the Baptism of Christ and the transfiguration and resurrection and ascension, we get glimpses of this new reality where Jesus is the link and is a steppingstone and foundation for everything good. Jacob says, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” In connecting himself to this, Jesus is indicating that what Jacob saw, others will see in the Son of Man. Jesus is saying that he is the presence of the I AM. He is the house of God. He is the gate of heaven available to us now. We are to see the truth about sin, righteousness and judgement through the lens of faith.
Pray we believe that Jesus wants us to see by faith that he is the gate of heaven with us now. Pray we believe that Jesus, despite being both elected by God and rejected by many of his kinsman, remains our Savior. Pray we are not consumed with breaking news but the sharing of the good news of communion with the broken body of Christ who died on the Cross for our sins between one who accepted him and one who rejected him. Pray we really want to see the truth and be free of the curse of sin as we receive God’s love. Pray we realize that suffering is part of salvation, but so too joy. Pray that we realize that believing differently is more important than trying harder. Pray we ask Jesus to help us to see what is important. Pray we realize that what Jesus maybe asking of us is to have him as our faith. Pray still even in our blindness that the Holy Spirit help us to grasp the truth about God’s love. Pray Jesus is vindicated in our believing. Pray we are convicted and convinced of our sin and of Christ’s righteousness and we begin to see the Judgement on Jesus reversed in the lives of others because of His faith in us. Pray we realize that real life comes from believing in the Lord’s faith manifested in the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Pray we realize that Jesus is the Way of Salvation. Pray we discover a wise way to bring our doubts to a place that transforms them. Pray we study the Word of God. Pray we get a glimpse of God and the Word speaking and the Holy Spirit active in the celebration of our lives. Pray that the Gate of Heaven opens for us and floods us with blessing after blessing including ultimately a place and time that Jesus has prepared for us to bless others. Pray in the providence of God in the power of the cross of Christ and in the tension of God’s power given to us in our weakness that we find truth in relationship with God alongside us and with us and for us.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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