God shouting...

Isaiah 52:7-10.   Psalm 98.   Hebrews 1:1-14.   John 1:1-14

Liza walked into the room where her husband Henry was seated. She said, “There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Henry…”

No, no, no, wait…wrong story. This is the story I wanted to tell you. 

Liza walked into the room and said something to Henry, but Henry failed to respond. Liza then repeated herself word for word, but just a wee bit louder…at this point Henry turned in the direction of the sounds waves and said, “Sorry? Are you talking to me?” Again, Liza repeated herself, word for word, just a little louder. But Henry had already turned away and again did not hear what Liza had said. “What? Speak up, dear Liza. I can’t hear you.” Of course, you know exactly what happened at this point. Dear Liza raised her voice several decibels and repeated herself yet again. Henry turned around startled and said, “Alright, alright! You don’t have to shout. I’m not deaf.” For a split second Liza stood there wondering whether or not she ought to state the obvious, but she thought better of it, turned, and silently exited the room leaving dear Henry wondering what he had done wrong.

It is Christmas time, dearest beloved brethren. This is the time when God entered the room and shouted. 

Do you hear what I hear? 

The author to the Hebrews tells us that in times past, “God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.” But now…now, God has raised His voice a number of decibels and He has shouted to us through His Son…

The Word…the same Word that spoke everything into existence…that Word has entered the world, radiating the glory of God and expressing the very character of God…and yet, John tells us, the world has largely not heard His voice. “He came into the very world He created, but the world didn’t recognize Him. He came to His own people, and even they rejected Him.” And sadly, to this day, many do not hear His voice…many do not recognize Him…many still reject Him.

But those who did hear Him…those who did believe Him and accept Him…to them He gave the right to become children of God. The Word, dearest beloved brethren, the Word has become flesh…He has taken on human form…a form we share and know only too well…a form we can relate to…He took on human form and came to live among us so that we could not only hear, but see…see His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

But the Word did not become flesh only to be rendered silent once again after His death, resurrection, and ascension. No! He has spoken to us so that those who hear may become His spokespeople. Isaiah tells us that the feet of the messenger that brings good news of peace and of salvation are blessed. That is who we are, dearest beloved brethren…we are messengers. Jesus told the disciples just prior to His ascension that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit and then they would become messengers…witnesses…to Him to the ends of the earth. This is our identity…this is our purpose…this is the reason for our existence as the Church of Jesus Christ. We are messengers of peace and salvation to all.

Think of the many wonderful things God has done in your lives over the years…especially the little things…the unexpected things. Then think about Who He is…think about His Person…His character. God is love. He personifies kindness, righteousness, goodness, patience, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and grace. Think of His faithfulness to you and how He has shown and demonstrated His presence with you. That’s what the Psalmist was doing…and what was his advice? “Sing a new song!” He said, “Shout to the Lord!” Shout…shout it out…go, tell it on the mountains, the hymnist wrote….over the hills and everywhere, that Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God incarnate, has come into the room and He is seeking to communicate in Person to all who have ears to hear.

Indeed, is that not what the Eucharist is all about? What did Jesus say on the night He was betrayed? “This is My body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me….This cup is the new covenant between God and His people. Do this in remembrance of me every time you drink it.” Because, as the Apostle Paul said, “every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until He comes again.” 

God is shouting at us through the Eucharist…

Do you hear what I hear?

“I have done everything possible so we can communicate together for all eternity. I have done this so that the world might know Me, their Creator and their God. I have spoken in various ways before to your ancestors, but now…this Christmas tide…I have walked into the room and I have shouted through My Son. Would you join Me? Would you shout with Me?” 

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2019

The Choice

Isaiah 7:10-16.   Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19.   Romans 1:1-7.   Matthew 1:18-25

The profound promise found in Isaiah 7 that a virgin (or a young woman) would conceive and bear a Son and call Him Immanuel, meaning God with us, was not given in a vacuum. The historical setting for this prediction was fear…an emotion that often causes us to make wrong choices.

In about 734 BC, the northern Kingdom of Israel formed an alliance with Syria to help conquer the growing menace of Assyria, a kingdom located in what is known today as Iraq. Pekah, the King of Israel, and Rezin, the King of Syria, decided that it would be better if Ahaz, probably the coregent at the time with his father King Jotham of Judah, was removed from power and a puppet king installed by the coalition in his place. So, they decided to launch a preemptive strike against Judah.

At the opening of Isaiah 7 the prophet found the coregent inspecting the city’s water supply in anticipation of the impending siege. The coalition of Syria and Israel had already done quite a bit of damage in the territory of Judah and Ahaz reeked of fear. Isaiah wanted Ahaz to express trust in God by asking for a sign…but Ahaz refused. You see, he had already made the fatal mistake of trusting in the strength of another human power rather than on God. He had already sent off an appeal for help from Tiglath-Pileser, the King of Assyria. The Assyrians did respond and the coalition came to nothing…but Assyria would later turn against Judah and nearly destroy Jerusalem. Ahaz’s rejection of God’s offer cost Judah dearly. Assyrian troops swept through Judah, destroying everything in their path. The people of Judah starved as regular farming became impossible under the conditions of war…and so when the child born to the virgin was about twelve or thirteen years of age, he would be eating whatever he could find in the wilderness…curds and honey. 

Like the bail outs being offered by China today. Nice temporary roads…temporary yes, because they don’t last more than a year in most cases…nice railroads…nice financial aid…but pay-back day will come and then the choices made today will appear to have been foolish and rash.

Trusting in human powers rather than on God or confusing human powers with God is a mistake humanity has made repeatedly throughout history…

I believe this is the reason why Matthew saw in this prophecy of Isaiah a likeness of what happened with Mary. So many years later, politically, the Jews were in another pickle at that time. Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece had all come and gone…then there was a brief period of self-rule under the Maccabees and then Rome and Rome ruled with an iron fist and some religious leaders, most notably the Sadducees, took full advantage of the subjugation and oppression of their fellow Jews. Messiah fever was at its peak and some, like the Zealots, were trying to take matters into their own hands. A few self-proclaimed Messiahs had already led their followers to their deaths. But it seemed that few looked to God for help…so God sent them a “Sign”…with a capital “S”. God sent them His Son as rightful heir of the Kingdom.

For this reason, Matthew began with the genealogy of Christ. This is not a precise historical genealogy as some would want it to be…it is simply a rough sketch of Jesus’ ancestry that would serve as a backdrop for what was to follow in the rest of the Gospel story. The intention was to demonstrate that Jesus is King through His lineage…while this might not seem important to us, it was and still is very important to the Jews.

A Jewish man, Stan Telchin, in his book “Betrayed!”, tells of his daughter’s decision to become a follower of Jesus. This decision prompted him to set out to disprove the Messiahship of Jesus in order to win her back. To do so, he had to study the New Testament for the first time in his life…but he didn’t have to read very far. He was convinced by the time he got to the end of Matthew’s genealogy. Stan, as a good Jew, knew that all Jewish ancestral records had been destroyed in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. There was no way possible for any Jew to prove that he was a descendent of David since that time…Jesus was the last one. And so he became a believer in his daughter’s Messiah…just by reading the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew…

But perhaps the most interesting thing about Jesus’ genealogy is that, unlike most genealogies of the royal and rich and famous, the weak links, so to speak, were not eliminated or hidden…instead the people of questionable character, an adulterous king, an unfaithful wife, foreigners, and a loose woman were included…I believe for good reason…in Jesus’ Kingdom, even the marginalized and despised have a significant place. Besides, who can claim to have access to heaven through a perfect, sinless life? Aren’t we all just regular oddities who have been forgiven? As someone once said, God has the power to raise heroes from zeroes through His grace.

But Matthew’s point in quoting from the prophecy of Isaiah was to show that this King born to the Virgin Mary would render our fears invalid for all time. Ahaz feared Israel and Syria and made a bad choice in turning to Assyria for help. The Jews at the time of Jesus had to make the same choice. God or Rome…or a violent Messiah figure like Judas Maccabaeus. But God gave them the Sign of signs…the one born to the Virgin…the crucified Christ Child Who rose from the dead…He defeated the greatest enemy of all time. He set us free from the greatest slavery, exile, and oppression of all time. 

The Jews that rejected Jesus and trusted rather in Rome or a violent Messiah figure, were ultimately destroyed in AD 70…Rome itself did not last either…all the kingdoms of this world, great and powerful empires, have come and gone…but this Kingdom lasts forever. 

Because unlike the human powers, Jesus was without trace of the one thing that trips us all up…He was without sin. A Chichewa proverb says, “The good taste of the chicken starts all the way from the egg.” You see it doesn’t matter how good we try to be…we are flawed from the egg, so to speak…and we tend to make bad choices in our lives that affect us and others. This is the major problem shared by all leaders. But not so with Jesus. He was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit…unlike the child born to the young woman in Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus was God incarnate. 

As the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans, this reality of Jesus being the Son of God was only “discovered” later by His followers once God raised Him from the dead by the power of the same Spirit through Whom He had been conceived. You see, the resurrection was the ultimate sign given to the Jews and indeed to every human since then…Jesus through death defeated death. We need not fear death any longer…indeed, we need not fear the coalition of sin, death, and the devil…we can be filled with assurance that just as God raised Jesus from the dead, so He will raise us all who are in Him as well. 

This is the message of the Eucharist. Sunday after Sunday we reenact the greatest sign of them all…through these signs of His Body broken and His Blood shed we declare to all and sundry that Jesus has swallowed up death in victory and has released us who were once living in darkness and fear from the body of death. In Him we have eternal life…and these elements of bread and wine serve as our sign to this very day.

The question then, is quite simple. If this is our sign, what is our choice?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2019

December Newsletter

Where to begin? Ah yes, Start at the beginning. In the beginning, God...

That really says it all, doesn't it? In the beginning, the middle, the end: God. Without Him past, present, and future would make no sense...we would have no purpose, no identity, no hope, and no direction...just a meaningless movement towards an unknown goal.

But we do know where we going and that is why we do what we do...preach the Word in and out of season to every living soul that breathes, because...well, because God. People need God as without Him their lives are empty even if they appear to be full.

Louise and I hit the ground with quite a bang...no, nothing wrong with our pilot, but it felt as if we walked into a whirlwind when we arrived. Our roof was leaking and had to be replaced and our plumbing in the bathrooms too...but as these kind of jobs go, more problems surfaced as the renovators worked and our home was uninhabitable when we got here. So our kind in-laws took us in while we tried to speed things up. After all, our "Swedish" children and grandchildren were coming in two weeks time!

But there was also the Overberg 4 Jesus Revival going on and we played a minor role in that. Our regular Tuesday Evening Bible Studies continued to meet (in other people's homes) and we were involved in other church related activities as well. Louise's mum was doing well at the time, so no stress in that department! That came later when a dear tummy bug decided to make it's rounds in the Nursing Home and in our home! But that's an unpleasant story, so let's not go there.

Louise wrote another exam, this time on the Books of Moses. I am so proud of her...she is doing so well. It also gives us an opportunity to engage with the Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church in South Africa. Johann had a devotion to write on John 21 and a few sermons and services to do at St Augustine's.

Our children arrived and we had a blessed time together. We didn't do much sight seeing as the wee ones suffer from motion sickness, but we did a lot of talking, and sharing, and cooking, and eating.

Shortly after they left we received another visitor from Durban, an old friend of my oldest brother. Chris basically cares for Eldon who is rather frail and doing poorly. We are truly grateful for all he does. We did quite a bit of sight seeing with Chris until the second to last day when Louise and I got really sick. Poor Chris had to fend for himself for that day!

We also have one of our young Xhosa men applying for a Gap Year Program with J-Life, the organisation we work with. The quarterly program is quite practical and has him returning home to apply in his local church what he has learned while at J-Life. Please pray for Innocent as he seeks scholarships and support for this program. He is from the local informal settlement.

But all is well as the renovations are mostly done, we are in our home, and on the mend...and we have God. Through thick and thin, He is always there.

Our SAMS support account is looking rather sad though and we do covet your prayers. Without financial support we will not be able to do what we do! Our two project accounts are dwindling too, so please ask our Lord of the Harvest to raise up more supporters for His harvesters!

Finally...Louise and I wish you a very happy and blessed Christmas and may 2020 be a year filled with nothing but our Lord's very best.

With all our love
Johann and Louise

Devotion: Appearance to the seven disciples while fishing

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John 21:1-25

Galilee. Why Galilee? Prior to and after the resurrection, Jesus had instructed His disciples to wait for Him in Galilee (cf. Matthew 28:10). But Jesus ascended into Heaven from Bethany, not Galilee (Luke 24:50). On a good day, Galilee was about a three to four day walk from Judea. Why have the disciples walk all the way up to Galilee, only to turn around and walk all the way back? 

I believe it was primarily to restore and recommission Simon Peter.  

Remember, that before the arrest of Jesus and the crucifixion, Simon Peter had claimed that even if all the other disciples left Jesus in the lurch and deserted Him, he alone would not (cf. Mark 14:28-30). Jesus responded by predicting correctly, that Simon Peter would deny that he knew Jesus three times. A lesson that Simon Peter had yet to learn was that while the spirit might indeed be willing, the flesh was weak and prone to failure (cf. Matthew 26:36-46). This is a lesson we as disciple makers as well as the disciples we walk with need to learn too. Without Jesus we are nothing and can do nothing…we need Him and need to abide in Him if we are to avoid the pitfalls of life in a fallen, broken world. 

As we have already seen, Simon Peter’s failure to watch and pray with Jesus in the Garden ended in disaster as he tried to fulfil his boastful claims not to desert Jesus – he defended Him in the Garden, chopping off the High Priest’s servant, Malchus’ ear – he followed Jesus and the soldiers from a distance and gained access to the courtyard of the High Priest where the mockery of a trial of Jesus took place and there he denied that he knew Jesus three times. In his culture, threefold repetition resulted in the thing said becoming permanent.1  Which means that as far as Simon Peter was concerned, he was no longer a disciple.

But then hadn’t he told Jesus as much that day on the boat when they had pulled in nets almost bursting with fish after an unproductive night of fishing? “Leave me Lord and go look for someone else. I’m not the man You are looking for…I am a sinful man…a weak man…a business man…a fisherman…I’m no disciple…no follower of a Holy Man.” 

One can only speculate as to what went through Simon Peter’s mind as he fled into that dark night of his soul, but his actions in the opening verses of John 21 indicate that he understood only to well the consequences of his threefold denial. “I’m going fishing”, he said…in other words, he was returning to his old vocation as he had rendered his calling obsolete. 

It is interesting to take note of the way in which Jesus reinstated Simon Peter. It all started with a Déjà vu experience. Simon Peter and his partners had spent the whole night fishing and yet they had not caught so much as a fin. Then in the orange/pinkish mist of the early morning so characteristic of that area, they saw someone on the beach…they heard the person ask whether they had caught anything to which they responded that they had not…then the stranger told them that they ought to cast the net on the other side of the boat. We are not told why they obeyed…perhaps they were so despondent that they would have tried anything…or perhaps they figured that from his vantage point on the slightly raised shoreline, the stranger might have perceived a darkness in the water indicating the presence of a shoal of fish. Nonetheless, they complied with the command and the result was immediate and abundant. This ought to have brought to Simon Peter’s mind the miraculous draught of fish at his calling to be a fisher of people…but it is John that remembered, not Simon. 

Despondency and defeat and depression produce powerful emotions that can prevent the sufferer from being able to see any alternative positive perspectives and this may very well have been the case with Simon Peter. Nevertheless, there appears to have been a spark remaining and his rather impulsive response may indicate that hope was not completely quenched. He swam to shore to meet Jesus, but as he emerged from the water another memory was triggered…this time by the aroma of a coal fire burning close by. The Greek word ανθρακιαν (coal fire) is only used twice in the New Testament…once in John 18 at the trial and the other time here in John 21. Aromas can evoke powerful memories and I am sure this action on our Lord’s part was intentional. It was a gentle yet effective reminder of his sincere but foolish reliance on himself as an individual. 

One can only imagine the scene…the awkwardness around the fire as they consumed the fish…what was going on in Simon Peter’s mind? How did he view this encounter? As a farewell? He had failed at the most crucial moment of his life…surely there was no turning back…He had proved to be what he thought he was when he had told Jesus to find someone else…a sinful man. But Jesus never gives up on anyone…even though we have given Him ample reason to discard us, He never does. 

But note the progression in the questions that follow. The first thing to note is that our Lord addressed his self-flagellated disciple as Simon, not as Peter, the new name He had given him at their first meeting (John 1:42) and at the high point of his walk when he was the first to recognise Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God in Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:15-19). But the first question brought back yet another memory: “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” While some scholars believe by “these” Jesus meant the fish Simon Peter loved to catch as opposed to the fish he had been called to catch, I believe Jesus was alluding to Simon Peter’s remark in Mark 14…that somehow he loved Jesus more than the others…that while their lack of love might result in them deserting Jesus, his would prove to be stronger. While one cannot read between the lines here, I am sure that in his humble, mumbled reply, Simon Peter indicated that his love was not as strong as he once believed. 

Now much has been written about the different Greek words used by Jesus in His questions and Simon Peter in his answers…that Jesus was asking if Simon Peter loved him sacrificially (αγαπας) to which Simon Peter replied that he loved Him as a brother (φιλω)…but I am not convinced as the words are used interchangeably elsewhere (cf. John 13:23, 20:2, 11:3, 5, 36). What is perhaps more interesting is that the word for love in Aramaic that Jesus would have used in this speech was taken from a root word that means, “to set on fire”.2  In other words, sitting around the coal fire, Jesus would have asked Simon Peter, “Do you burn with love for Me?” The rekindling of love for Jesus in a failed follower is key to restoration.

In the Aramaic version of this passage, Jesus’ statements at the end of each reply included ‘rams’, ‘sheep’, and ‘ewes’. While some have seen this as an indication that Simon was given charge over three flocks, Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, the important thing to note is that Jesus looked beyond Simon Peter’s failure and once again saw the rock that he could be if he would but live a surrendered life. The key to successful discipleship is surely no more than a life totally surrendered to Christ.3  

Also, note that the question of love comes before the statement of commission because caring for others is a direct result of love for Jesus. Love for God is the first and greatest commandment…the second, to love others, is a result and manifestation of the first. Without the first there can be no second. 

By the end of this short discussion, with all the gentle reminders rendering Simon Peter ready for the eventual threefold challenge and charge, the Apostle had no doubt finally gotten the point. The call to make disciples who, in turn, can make disciples is not something we can do in and of ourselves…even the best of us, the most erudite, the most gifted, the most talented…without Jesus our claims and boasts are but hot wind and we are setting ourselves up for failure. He alone knows all things and He knows our weaknesses and our need for His wisdom and strength to face the unforeseen. 

It is comforting and perhaps amusing to catch a glimpse of the old Simon Peter peeking out at us from the pages as he questioned Jesus about John’s future. “Well, if I am going to die a martyr’s death, what about him?” But the deep work of both humiliation and love had already brought about a maturity that would result in this broken, sinful man being called a “pillar of the church” by those who knew him best…

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[1] This was part of the oral law, later written down in the Mishnah, and was called “chazakah”. It usually had to do with legal matters with regard to ownership of property or the presumption of personal status.

[2] Simmons, Brian, The Passion Translation, Broadstreet Pub, 2018, 305.

[3] The Passion translation renders John 15:4-5 as follows: “So you must remain in life-union with Me, for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to Mine. I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your sources, fruitfulness will stream from within you – but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.”