Give God Time.
Prayer and Praise.
Jesus said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40, so we start our journey of giving God time to work in us, by praying this hymn… In Christ Alone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn9-UNer6MQ
A Word in your ear.
John 3:9-13 Nicodemus asks Jesus about being ‘born again’. (Acknowledgements to the Complete Jewish Bible).
9 Nakdimon (Nicodemus) replied, “How can this happen?”
Last time Jesus taught we must be born again to enter God’s heaven – yet again Nicodemus asks what Jesus means!
10 Yeshua (Jesus) answered him, “You hold the office of teacher in Isra’el, and you don’t know this?
Jesus is teaching discipleship 101 – and yet Nicodemus doesn’t even understand the basics, and he holds the office of a teacher…
11 Yes, indeed! I tell you that what we speak about, we know; and what we give evidence of, we have seen; but you people don’t accept our evidence!
The leaders had fingers in their ears. They were being told the truth by witnesses, but their prejudice meant they wouldn’t listen.
12 If you people don’t believe me when I tell you about the things of the world, how will you believe me when I tell you about the things of heaven?
Nicodemus had snuck out at night out of fear of the other religious leaders. He knew the religious leaders were impossible to communicate with. Compare for example the Catholic Church’s attitude to Galileo, where the Pope forced him to ‘retract’ (take back), his discovery that the earth went around the sun, on pain of death. (If he hadn’t, he was to have been burned alive for heresy, so of course, he obviously admitted the truth was wrong!) So we can feel for Nicodemus trying to get at the truth behind the backs of the religious leaders.
13 No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
Jesus said He would be the first to ascend to heaven. He was also the only One who had come down from heaven.
Worship and Prayer.
“… He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23.
Jesus taught His disciples what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’; (Luke 11).
Listen here to Albert Malotte’s ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever;- Amen.
Suggestions;-
- The world. (ie ‘For those in authority.’ For lawmakers, trying to shut down Christian freedom to disagree.)
- The ‘suffering church.’ https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates
- Your own situation. (Suggest ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’.)
- Today’s Verse…
John 1:13 No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
- Today’s Challenge
A religious leader didn’t understand being ‘born again’. Jesus had to explain discipleship 101 to a religious leader. Being ‘Born Again’ was the first step only.
Are you clear about what being ‘Born Again’ means?
If so, have you done anything about it? If not, feel free to email us!
Religious leaders have often worn clothes that make others put them on a pedestal. See what Jesus said about that; Luke 20:45 here… 45 Within the hearing of all the people, Yeshua (Jesus) said to his talmidim (disciples), 46 “Watch out for the kind of Torah-teachers (teachers of the law) that like to walk around in robes and be greeted deferentially in the marketplaces, the kind that like to have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, 47 the kind that swallow up widows’ houses while making a show of davvening (praying) at great length. Their punishment will be all the worse!”
