Bible Devotion

Meditative Reflection
Remaining in Christ

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Jn. 15:5)

As Jesus declares Himself to be the “true vine”, He distinguishes Himself from all other false messiahs before His time. He is the only true Messiah through whom the Kingdom of God will be brought to fruition as promised in the Scriptures. And we know He is not only the “true Messiah” to Israel, but the only “true Savior” to the world through whom all mankind can be saved from sin and eternal damnation into eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

Apart from declaring to be “the true vine”, He also points out the distinguishing mark of all “true branches”— those who truly belong to Him and the Father. The distinguishing mark is that of “fruit” and the most basic fruit is of course the fruit of repentance, as John the Baptist urges those who wish to be baptized by him, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Lk. 3:8).

However, to the “true branches”, Jesus commands us to remain in Him, because He says, “apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). This command is important in that no branch exists for itself, and each has been chosen so as they may bear fruit — fruit that will last (to eternity) and for the glory of His Father (15:16, 8).

In urging us to remain in Him, Jesus specifically mentions two aspects:

(1) “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you” (15:7): Indeed, the reading and understanding of His words is not only the path, but the essence of remaining in Jesus. He is the Word (1:1), and so without knowing the Scriptures, there is no way for us to know Him. Without knowing Him, we cannot be in Him. This is not just the starting point to repentance, but also the continuous path and essence of knowing and remaining in Him. It is only after His emphasis on remaining in His words that He urges us to ask whatever we wish of the Father (15:7). Therefore, to remain in His words is key to our prayers in that we will not “ask with wrong motives” (Jas. 4:3).

(2) “Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands you will remain in my love” (15:9-10). As important as it is to remain in His words, if we do not do accordingly, such reading and understanding will only be head knowledge which will not build us up in love (for men and for God), and will only cause us to puff up (1 Cor. 8:1). Without love, we can only be sounding gongs or clanging cymbals (1 Cor. 13:1), and we will not be able to bear any fruit that will last or be glorifying to the Father.

“Fruit” for thought!

Meditative Reflection
Fruit that will Last

“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (Jn. 15:16)

Allow me to share with you briefly how God has called me into full-time ministry. I had been an accountant for some 21 years, and I really liked my work and took pride in what I did.

During my “secular-career” days, I also tried to live out my faith in the marketplace, both in the attempt to apply biblical ethics to work, and to share the gospel. In attempting the latter, God enabled me to hold Evangelistic Bible study groups in my office and I used part of my annual vacations to go on short-term mission trips. However, from hindsight, I have to admit, while I tried hard to live out my faith in the marketplace, I was trying to love the world and Father God at the same time (1 Jn. 2:15).

Out of God’s mercy, He saw fit to call me into full-time ministry on June 1, 1991. Although the calling came in an unmistakably clear manner, my immediate reaction was a negative one. In fact, I said to God, “No way. You must be kidding.” As the Holy Spirit drew my attention to all the claims I made as I sought to share the gospel with others (such as, “Eternal life is far more important that this earthly life”), I asked the Lord to forgive me. I then realized that in rejecting God’s call, I really took this earthly life as more important.

After I yielded to God, on the morning following, I came across John 15:16 during my devotion time: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit that will last”. God showed me through this verse that I had been bearing fruit for myself and for my employers all these years — fruit of financial gain; and now He would enable me to bear fruit that would last for eternity. At this thought, peace — overwhelming peace — flooded my soul!

No, it does not mean that one can only bear eternal fruit by becoming a full-time pastor. It is by obeying the command of the Lord thereby allowing us to remain in Him, in His words and in His love that we can truly bear fruit — fruit that will last! However, in my case, His command was to have me give up my secular job to devote myself to full-time gospel ministry; and it was only by obeying that I could truly bear fruit that brings glory to Him!

Meditative Reflection
Hated by the World

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (Jn. 15:19)

I still remember the days when I became a Christian in the 60’s. While being Christian might invite some sarcastic remarks from classmates or co-workers, we never appeared to pose a threat to them or the society. However, things are very different these days. By simply acknowledging our faith in Christ in the public square, it appears that we are drawing not only sarcastic remarks but fear and rejection as we are perceived as bigots and haters especially in areas of public policies of abortion and the definition of marriage.

This particular phenomenon in North America has grown in intensity in the last twenty years. In the beginning, Evangelical Christians seemed to adopt a more united front in the issues of abortion and marriage, but with the increasing hostility in the public square, I observe that more and more Evangelical Christians have changed their stand and appear to be more compromising on these same issues. Allow me to be blunt: The motive behind such a change is nothing more than the desire to gain favor from the world, and in the process, they have become more and more like the world!

As clergy who wish to maintain faithful to our calling, some have called ordained ministers to renounce their long-established role as agents of the state with the legal power to sign marriage certificates. Part of the pledge reads,

“Therefore, in our roles as Christian ministers, we, the undersigned, commit ourselves to disengage civil and Christian marriage in the performance of our pastoral duties. We will no longer serve as agents of the state in marriage. We will no longer sign marriage certificates. We will ask couples to seek civil marriage separately from the church-related vows and blessings. We will preside only at those weddings that seek to establish a Christian marriage in accord with the principles articulated and lived out from the beginning of the church’s life.”
(Reverends Ephraim Radner and Christopher Seitz, First Things, December 2014)

I am still mulling over such a call to action, but I cannot help but feel that with such an action, we are conceding defeat to the world, and worse, we are withdrawing ourselves from the world to which we are called to witness. Therefore, I will continue to conduct official weddings that are true to biblical principles, and let the government do whatever they want, including nullifying my license.

Meditative Reflection
Persecution is Nothing New!

“They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.”(Jn. 16:2)

These days, Christians are alarmed by the severe persecution that is taking place all over the world, and especially in Islamic countries. Such persecution is not confined to extreme Islam terrorist groups, but in many of the Islamic countries.

It is certainly of grave concern, especially in view of the brutality associated with some of these persecutions. However, our Lord Jesus foresaw these persecutions and forewarned us, “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray” (Jn. 16:1).

Of course, He was addressing the disciples of His time, but this warning certainly is meant for all who would follow Him as His disciples down the centuries. As horrible as the present persecution under Islam is, its severity does not differ much from those suffered by Christians in the first few centuries under the Roman Empire known as the Ten Persecutions in ecclesiastical history. Allow me to quote from a few of these ten periods:

(1) The persecution under Nero, A.D. 64 when that emperor having set fire to the city of Rome, blamed the Christians for his own action. Those persecuted Christians

“were either covered with the skins of wild beasts, and torn in pieces by devouring dogs, or fastened to crosses and wrapped up in combustible garments, that, when daylight failed, they might, like torches, serve to dispel the darkness of the night”.

(2) The second general persecution was under Domitian:

“In the year 95, 40,000 were supposed to have suffered martyrdom”.

(3) The 4^th general persecution included the famous martyrdom of the Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp under the philosophic Marcus. When urged to renounce Christ before the stake, he replied,

“Fourscore and six years have I served Him, and He has never done me an injury: can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

(4) The most dreadful persecution perhaps was the 10^th in the nineteenth year of the emperor Diocletian in A.D. 303:

“The human imagination was, indeed, almost exhausted in inventing a variety of torture. Some were impaled alive; some had their limbs broken, and in that condition were left to expire. Some were roasted by slow fires; and some suspended by their feet with their heads downward; and a fire being placed under them, were suffocated by smoke. Some had melted lead poured down their throats, and the flesh of some was torn off with shells, and others had splinters of reeds thrust under the nails of their fingers and toes. The few who were not capitally punished had their limbs and their features mutilated”.
(CBTEL, Vol. VII, 965-6).

Of course, these past atrocities in no way justify the brutality of the persecution of today, but it serves to remind us that

“No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (Jn. 15:20).

Indeed, the path of missions has always been paved by the blood of the martyrs!

Meditative Reflection
The Work of the Holy Spirit

“When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” (Jn. 16:8)

We were reflecting on Jesus’ forewarning of persecution yesterday without addressing the work of the Holy Spirit in the passage. Let’s reflect on the latter through these words of William Barclay:

“We have here an almost perfect summary of the work of the Spirit:

(i) The Holy Spirit will convict men of sin. When the Jews crucified Jesus, they did not believe that they were sinning; they believed that they were serving God. But when the story of that crucifixion was later preached, they were pricked in their heart (Acts 2:37). They suddenly had the terrible conviction that the crucifixion was the greatest crime in history and that their sin had caused it. What is it that gives a man a sense of sin? What is it that abases him in face of the Cross? In an Indian village a missionary was telling the story of Christ by means of lantern slides flung on the white-washed wall of a village house. When the picture of the Cross was shown, an Indian stepped forward, as if he could not help it: ‘Come down!’ he cried. ‘I should be hanging there-not you.’ Why should the sight of a man crucified as a criminal in Palestine two thousand years ago tear the hearts of people open throughout the centuries and still today? It is the work of the Holy Spirit.

(ii) The Holy Spirit will convince men of righteousness. It becomes clear what this means when we see that it is Jesus Christ’s righteousness of which men will be convinced. Jesus was crucified as a criminal. He was tried; He was found guilty; He was regarded by the Jews as an evil heretic, and by the Romans as a dangerous character; He was given the punishment that the worst criminals had to suffer, branded as a felon and an enemy of God. What changed that? What made men see in this crucified figure the Son of God, as the centurion saw at the Cross (Matt. 27:54) and Paul on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-9)? It is amazing that men should put their trust for all eternity in a crucified Jewish criminal. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who convinces men of the sheer righteousness of Christ, backed by the fact that Jesus rose again and went to his Father.

(iii) The Holy Spirit convinces men of judgment. On the Cross evil stands condemned and defeated. What makes a man feel certain that judgment lies ahead? It is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who gives us the inner and unshakable conviction that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God.

(iv) There remains one thing which at the moment John does not go on to mention. When we are convicted of our own sin, when we are convinced of Christ’s righteousness, when we are convinced of judgment to come, what gives us the certainty that in the Cross of Christ is our salvation and that with Christ we are forgiven, and saved from judgment? This, too, is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who convinces us and makes us sure that in this crucified figure we can find our Savior and our Lord. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and convinces us of our Savior.”
(The Daily Study Bible Series, John vol. 2, 193-4)

Meditative Reflection
Direct Access to God

“In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” (Jn. 16:23)

The Israelites considered God as so fearsome and too holy that they dared not approach Him and so they asked Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die” (Exod. 20:19). Such fear was further reflected in the teachings by the rabbis in Jesus’ time that “Yahweh’s name is too holy to pronounce; therefore, we are to call Him ‘Adonai’ and ‘Elohim’” (Yahweh: The Name Above all Names, by The House of Yahweh)

However, Jesus told His disciples that “In that day” (referring to the day of His resurrection when they would see Him no more) they would no longer ask Him anything, and His Father will give whatever they ask in His name. That means, they will have direct access to the Father; they can ask the Father directly invoking the name of the Son. That certainly echoes what Jesus said earlier to them that He is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” and “No one comes to the Father except through” Him (Jn. 14:6).

This is also the truth that He told Nathaniel, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn. 1:51).

This amazing truth of being able to approach to God directly in the name of Jesus caused the disciples to open their eyes of faith and say, “This makes us believe that you came from God” (Jn. 16:30).

Isn’t that a pity that many still think that they need to pray to God through a priest or even worse, through some past saints?!

But equally pitiful are those who think the prayers of some pastors are more effective than their own! Let’s be reminded that the Father is waiting to hear from His children directly as James affirms saying, “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced crops” (Jas. 5:17-18).

Meditative Reflection
The High Priestly Prayer

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” (Jn. 17:15)

The prayer of our Lord to His Heavenly Father in chapter 17 of John is dubbed the “High Priestly Prayer” by commentators. Let’s reflect on these insights by Lenski concerning this prayer:

“Chytraeus calls this chapter the precatio Summi Sacerdotis, the High-Priestly Prayer, and Luther says, 'that He might entirely carry out His office as our only High Priest.' We surely have a prayer here. The counterclaim that this chapter presents only another solemn testimony addressed to the disciples, a final benediction for them, is contradicted at every turn. Jesus utters this prayer aloud for the simple reason that He wants His disciples to hear His communication with the Father. For His own person a silent prayer might have sufficed. To the last, His interest includes the disciples. They are to see how He enters His passion as a victor and to hear with their own ears the thoughts that rise to the Father from His heart, thoughts concerning Himself (v. 1-5), concerning the disciples at His side (v. 6-19), and concerning all future believers in all the world (v. 20-26). This prayer is to deepen and to intensify all that the last discourses contain. Its power is to work in the hearts of the disciples throughout the coming days. Jesus does not pray with the disciples, does not ask them to lift up their hearts and to join Him in prayer as we do at times when saying farewell. This prayer lies on a plane that is so exalted that no disciple can join in its utterance. Jesus prays before His disciples, they can only witness this prayer. Its serenity, its majesty, and its authority befit only the heart and the lips of Him who is the Son. Before this-prayer all our prayers fade like tapers in the sun.”
(Lenski, John, 1114)