Tag: boldness

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2 Corinthians Devotionals

Seeing God’s glory

2 Corinthians

Then Moses said, “Please, let me see your glory.”

He said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name ‘the Lord’ before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

But he added, “You cannot see my face, for humans cannot see me and live.” (Exodus 33:18-20)

There are a lot of ties between that passage and 2 Corinthians 3.

For sinful humans like us, the glory of God can be a scary thing. Because he is so holy and we are not, people could not see God’s glory and live.

And so for Moses, God provided a rock to hide behind. (Exodus 33:21-23)

In the tabernacle, there was a curtain that blocked the priests and everyone else from the Most Holy Place where God revealed his presence. (Leviticus 16:2)

Even when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, he burned incense creating a cloud that prevented him from seeing God’s glory directly. (Leviticus 16:12-13)

Just to see the remnants of God’s glory on Moses’ face was too much for the Israelites. And so Moses put a veil on his face, even as that glory gradually faded away. (Exodus 34:29-30)

But when Jesus died on the cross, the temple curtain was torn. And now, when we turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. And in the face of Christ, we see God’s glory.

But in seeing God’s glory, we are not destroyed. Rather, we are transformed into his likeness.

Sinful though we are, God is gradually changing us. And when Jesus comes, in an instant, we will be like him. (1 John 3:2)

And unlike the glory that faded from Moses’ face, we go from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

So like Paul, let us be bold. (2 Corinthians 3:13)

Bold in drawing near to God. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

And bold in sharing the message that gives life with those around us. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6)

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Acts

Unstoppable

Acts

If there is one word that comes to my mind when I read this passage, it’s “unstoppable.”

But I’m not talking about the apostles. I’m talking about the work of the Spirit.

First, we see the apostles going out and performing miracles, and preaching the gospel, and because of this, more and more people were entering the Kingdom.

When the priests saw this, as was the case when Jesus was around, jealousy arose in their hearts.

I wonder if in their hearts, they wondered, “We’re the priests. We’re the representatives of God. Why is God doing these things through them, and not us?”

Yet deep in their hearts, I think they knew the answer. Because in their rebuke of the apostles, they said,

Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood. (Acts 5:28)

Already, you can see a desire on their part to disassociate themselves from the death of Jesus. Why? Probably because after the resurrection, they had to be thinking, “What if we’re wrong? What if Jesus really was the Messiah?”

Not that this caused the chief priests and the members of the Pharisees to change their minds. But we do find in Acts 6:7 that others among the priests actually started to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and put their faith in him.

At any rate, the Sanhedrin had the apostles arrested again, and then berated them for continuing to preach despite the warnings the Sanhedrin had given them earlier.

Peter’s response was incredible.

We must obey God rather than men!

The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead–whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. (Acts 5:29-32)

Looking at these words from a 21st century Christian’s perspective, Peter’s words were not something particularly startling.

But from their perspective, it must have blown the priests and Sanhedrin’s minds.

For one thing, they didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. But not only did Peter preach this, he said that Jesus was resurrected and that it is through him that God gives repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

More, they pointed to the work of the Spirit as proof to the truth of all they said. This in a day and age when the work of the Spirit had not really been seen in hundreds of years until John the Baptist showed up.

And now the apostles were proclaiming that the Spirit was being poured out not just on a select few, but on all followers of Jesus.

Think for a moment about to whom the apostles were saying all this to.

They were telling this to the priests, who should have had God’s Spirit in them!

Well, the priests and the members of the Sanhedrin couldn’t accept this, and they were ready to murder the apostles right then and there.

But Gamaliel stepped in, and said,

Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.

But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. (Acts 5:38-39)

I said earlier that the chief priests themselves must have started having doubts about if they had been wrong about Jesus, and their reaction to Gamaliel’s words are why I think so.

If they had had no doubts at all concerning Jesus, if they had had no doubts that Jesus was an impostor, there is no way they could have seriously considered the possibility that the apostles’ work was from God.

But because of their nagging doubts, they let the apostles go. And the apostles went out and continued preaching that Jesus was the Messiah.

What can we get from all this? When God’s people are filled with his Spirit, his work cannot be stopped.

We can get discouraged by looking at the direction society is going. We can get discouraged by the persecution we’re starting to see.

But if we are filled with God’s Spirit, no matter what people may do to us, God will use us and his kingdom will increase.

So let us not get discouraged. Instead, let us be bold, going in the power of the Spirit, and do the things he’s called us to do.

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Acts

Filled and refilled with the Spirit: What does it mean?

Leaky vessel

As I look at this passage, there are two things I notice.

First, the filling of the Spirit was not a one time thing. Instead, time and again, the Spirit filled God’s people.

We see it in this chapter, and we see it in the subsequent chapters throughout the book of Acts.

Second, for what purpose did the Spirit fill his people?

In this chapter, I see two main purposes: power and boldness.

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard Peter speak, it says,

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)

Think about this for a moment. In arresting Peter and John, throwing them in prison for the night, and then dragging them out for questioning in front of them, the religious elite, they probably expected Peter and John to be intimidated.

Yet, the two apostles stood there boldly proclaiming Jesus to them, quoting scripture, and making the stunning statement that,

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

Here were these ordinary fishermen, uneducated, and yet speaking with great boldness and power that could not be quelled or denied.

The Sanhedrin couldn’t explain away the resurrection of Jesus. (Even they didn’t believe their own story that they had tried to spread through the soldiers.)

Nor could they explain away the healing of the man they had passed by for roughly 30 years at the temple gate.

And because of all this, they were rendered speechless.

Finally, after withdrawing and discussing the matter, they tried once again to intimidate Peter and John, warning them never to teach in the name of Jesus.

But once again, Peter and John refused to be intimidated, saying,

Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. (Acts 4:19-20)

After further warnings from the Sanhedrin, they returned to their fellow Christians, and together they prayed that God would continue to fill them with boldness and with power that the people might know that Jesus was the Messiah.

When they had done so,

…the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. (Acts 4:31)

What can we get from this?

If we are ever to make a difference in this world for Christ, we need his Spirit within us. Through him, and the power and boldness he gives us, though we may be ordinary people, God can do great things through us.

How often, though, do we lack that power and boldness in our lives?

I know I do. Too often, I lack confidence because of who I am, with all my weaknesses and limitations.

And that’s why I, and all of us for that matter, need to be constantly filled and refilled with the Spirit.

As one person put it, we are vessels of the Spirit, but we are leaky vessels. We can get tired. We can get distracted. We can get discouraged. So moment to moment, day to day, we need his filling in our lives to do his work.

Holy Spirit, I need you. So fill me this day and every day. Fill me with the power and boldness to do the work you’ve called me to that I may touch this world which needs you so desperately. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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John John 12

From whom we seek praise

John

One of the saddest comments you’ll ever read in the Bible comes from these two verses.

Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.

But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God. (John 12:42-43)

Basically, you see in this passage a bunch of undercover believers.

They had seen all that Jesus had done and had heard all his teaching, and they believed. But they did not tell anyone because they feared being put out of the synagogue. And to be put out of the synagogue was essentially to be cut off from society.

But what that showed was that they were more interested in what people thought of them rather than what God thought of them.

If Satan cannot prevent you from becoming a believer, the thing he wants to do most is to prevent you from sharing your faith.

And his best weapon in doing so is asking the question, “What will happen if others find out if you believe?”

For some, the answer is clear cut. It means rejection by their family, their friends, and those around them.

That’s what these leaders faced. A certain excommunication from the synagogue and society.

For others, the answer is not so clear. But they are ruled by the fear of what others might think of them.

I know I was that way all the way through my sophomore year in high school. I didn’t tell anyone I was a Christian, not because I knew I would be rejected, but because I feared I might be rejected.

But God does not want us to live that way. He wants us to make a difference in this world for him, but we cannot as long as we are afraid of what others think.

Some people will reject us for our faith. As one preacher put it, that is an occupational hazard of being a Christian. Not everyone will like us.

As I’ve said before, Jesus was perfect, and people still hated him. How can we expect to be any different from our master?

But what we’ll find is that if we share our faith, some will receive it and be saved.

So let’s not worry about being rejected because of our faith in Christ. Let us proclaim it boldly and let the chips fall where they may. For as Jesus said,

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

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John John 9

A picture of salvation

John

After Jesus healed this man blind from birth, it caused quite a stir as we see in this chapter. But through this story, we see a beautiful picture of salvation.

We see, first of all, that this man was blind from birth. In the same way, we also were born spiritually blind and spiritually dead.

Then Jesus came for us. It wasn’t that this blind man sought Jesus. Jesus sought him out, and touched him. And though we, like this blind man, were not even seeking God, he sought us and touched us.

The man was then told to wash in the pool of Siloam. This is a picture of baptism, both our spiritual baptism in which God washes us of our sin, and of our physical baptism in which we proclaim to the world what God has done for us.

The man now seeing, the change was so dramatic that people could barely recognize him, saying,

Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg? (John 9:8)

Some people said yes, others said it couldn’t be, and the man had to insist that it was really him.

People often respond the same way to us after we become Christians.

Sometimes the change in us is so dramatic, that people can barely recognize us, and wonder, “Is this really the same person,” giving us the opportunity to give our testimony as this man did.

Like the man, however, we often don’t know so much when we first become Christians.

But as time goes on, we start to get a clearer idea of just who Jesus is. To this man, Jesus was first simply, “a man,” then “a prophet,” then finally, “God’s Son.”

But though we give our testimony, and though the change is undeniable, yet some people will reject not only Christ, but us.

And that’s what happened with this man. First, they tried to convince the man that Jesus was a sinner, and not from God.

But when this man could not be shaken, they rejected him.

Even then, this man’s faith was not shaken. And when Jesus found him again, he fell at Jesus’ feet and worshiped him for the new life he had been given.

Let us be like this man. Grateful for the change that God has brought in our lives. Sharing boldly what we know (limited though it may be) with others. Standing fast in the face of opposition. And ever worshiping and seeking our Savior.