Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

95 - Our Greatest Gift

Christmas is a time of gift-giving. I suspect the Magi, the wise men who came from the east, may be the inspiration behind it. They brought gifts to Jesus fit for a king while He was still a very small child in Bethlehem. They gave Him gold, frankincense and myrrh because they believed He was Israel’s promised Messiah who would bring God’s kingdom to earth.

On December 25th many of us will give gifts to one another as a way of celebrating Jesus’ birthday. I’m not sure how that tradition of giving gifts to ourselves was started, but I certainly have benefitted from it over the years. This year I’ve asked for some shop lights for the garage and a couple of new shirts. We’ll see what happens. But our gifts to one another are nothing compared to the gift the Father gave us on that first Christmas morning. He gave us His beloved Son. He gave us the only Person who could rescue us from our sins and make it possible for us to become His children. The story about the angels and the stable in Bethlehem and the baby in a manger is a beautiful one, and I never get tired of hearing it. But the gift of Christmas began long before that and will continue long after this world has passed away.

On that evening before the cross, Jesus was praying, and in His prayer He mentioned where He came from before He was born, and gifts the Father had given Him before the creation of the world. But then He prayed something so big, so wonderful, so eternal that it’s hard to put into words. He prayed that He could share His gifts with us. Let’s try to understand what He meant, because until we do, we don’t really understand the gift of Christmas, and we don’t really know who we are.

94 - Filled With His Joy

Possessions don’t bring joy. They break, get stolen, or we grow bored with them. Pleasure doesn’t bring joy. The more we seek it, the less we find. Entertainment doesn’t bring joy. Much of it leaves us feeling violated or sad. Trying to isolate ourselves from people or problems doesn’t bring joy. The more time we spend alone the more angry we become. We end up thinking far too much. So when Jesus prayed that we would be full of His joy, He was asking the Father to give us a source of joy that is totally different from all others. His prayer that night was that His source would become our source, and if we listen carefully to His prayer, we discover that He reveals His source. The problem is, His source is so different from all of ours, it can sound crazy until you try it. To find it we must walk in the opposite direction of where we would normally go. And isn’t that God’s way? To find life, we must die to self. To receive, we must freely give away. To be loved, we must learn to love others. And to be filled with joy, we must discover what it means to become “one” with God.

93 - Thankful For Truth

Do we realize what a treasure we hold in our hands when we open a Bible? The very words of God were written down and preserved for thousands of years so that, today, we can hear them afresh and believe. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible during Israel’s Exodus from Egypt, probably between 1446 B.C. and 1406 B.C. His writings and then those of all the others who wrote the books that are included in the Old Testament, were written over a period of a thousand years. During all those centuries dedicated people copied the texts by hand, word by word, writing on leather or papyrus. They checked, in every way possible, to see that each word was accurate. Why? Because these were the very words of God, and they wanted to pass that treasure down to you. They saw themselves as a link in the chain of history. When invaders attacked, they grabbed their most precious possession, the Bible, and cradling it in their arms they ran into the hills and hid it away so it couldn’t be destroyed. Why? So you and I could read it.

And then Jesus came and perfectly revealed the character of God and died on the cross for the sins of the world. His disciples watched and listened, and wrote down everything they could. I think some took notes as He spoke, and all of them memorized as much as possible, which was quite a lot because their memories were highly trained. They had been memorizing the Word of God since they were tiny children. And they surely realized that what they were hearing and seeing was very special. This too was God’s Word and must be preserved. Matthew wrote what he remembered; John Mark wrote down what Peter remembered; Luke did careful research, interviewing those who were eyewitnesses, and wrote down exactly what they told him. And John, the disciple who was with the Lord from the very beginning of His ministry until He ascended into heaven, wrote down what he remembered, filling in important sections the others had missed. Why? Because that was their assignment from the Lord. They were to preserve the truth that Jesus had revealed so that people all over the world and in every generation could hear it, and believe it, and be saved.

This weekend our nation will celebrate our Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a time we have set aside for reflecting on the good things God has given us, and acknowledging Him as our Source. Many blessings will be mentioned on that day, but this year as we listen to Jesus pray for those eleven men to whom He was entrusting the gospel, we would do well to be especially grateful to them, and to all the men and women who have preserved this truth, sometimes at the cost of their lives, over the past 2,000 years. It was written down, guarded, and passed onto their children and grandchildren so that you and I can still hear it. Without them we wouldn’t know that God’s Son died for us. And without them we wouldn’t know that the Father loved us and wanted to save every one of us.

This Thanksgiving we owe a debt of gratitude to a lot of people, but none more than those who made it possible for us to hear about Jesus. As we listen to Jesus pray for those first apostles let’s stop and thank God for their faithfulness this year, and for all those who passed on to us the knowledge of the truth.

92 - His Deepest Desire

What would you pray for if you knew you were going to be executed tomorrow morning? A legion of angels? The rapture? A good lawyer? I think most of us would be fervently pleading for a miraculous change of circumstance, which is what makes Jesus’ prayer that evening so amazing. He didn’t ask to be rescued at all. He quickly acknowledged that the time had come for Him to die, but then began to pray that God would give Him the deepest desire in His heart. This is what He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You.” That’s it! That’s the first thing He asked for. He wanted to give glory to God.

To “glorify” someone, as Jesus is using that word here, means to raise that person to a higher level of esteem in the mind of others. It’s doing something to expand people’s love and admiration toward him or her. But how do you glorify someone who is already completely glorious? How do you give a meaningful gift to a God who lacks nothing? What would anyone give Him that He would desire? Thankfully, there is something, not that He lacks, but that He deeply desires. And that’s what Jesus asked for that evening rather than His own safety. He prayed for the privilege of giving His Father that gift. That was His deepest desire. What’s yours? What’s mine? The answer to that question is what we’re asking the Lord to reveal to us today through His Word.

91 - Faith Under Pressure

Jesus’ disciples keep surprising us. You would think that by the final evening prior to His arrest they would have developed a strong, unshakable faith. After all, they had been watching Him minister and listening to Him teach for the past two and a half years. What greater miracle did He need to perform, or how much clearer could He be in telling them who He was and why He’d come? They had seen things no human eye had seen in all of history. And yet, as Jesus’ ministry on earth was drawing to a close their faith was still weak. It appears to have fluctuated with the moment. After some great miracle they would cry out that He was the Son of God, but as He kept progressing toward the cross, they seemed to struggle more and more to understand what He was trying to tell them.

The passage we’re studying today is one more example of the disciples’ changing moods. They had been debating among themselves about a statement Jesus made, when He suddenly confronted them. Without overhearing their conversation He was able to tell them what they had discussed, and then, using some of their exact words, He proceeded to answer their question (Jn 14:16-19). That really impressed them. They marveled that He knew their thoughts even before they had spoken a word to Him. And that prompted them to tell Him that they were now convinced that He was God’s Son. In effect, they were announcing to Him that they finally believed in Him. They said that after examining the evidence they had concluded that He had come “from God.” They intended their words to be affirming, but their statement actually revealed a very low level of faith, the sort of faith that would collapse as soon as it was put under pressure. Jesus replied that when Judas arrived with soldiers to arrest Him they would all abandon Him and scatter like frightened sheep.

But Jesus didn’t leave them with that discouraging assessment of their faith, He quickly redirected their attention to another source of faith. He said if they would believe what He had taught them that evening they would find a source of faith that would last, one that would bring them peace, even in the midst of suffering. He said their new faith would rest on the confidence that He had “conquered the world,” and that’s still the only foundation of faith that lasts. We need to understand what He meant by those words, so we too can put our faith in the One who has “conquered the world.”

90 - The Secret of Joy

If you want to know how you’re doing spiritually, all you have to do is answer one simple question: “Do I have joy?” If I’m full of fear, there is no joy. If I harbor bitterness toward someone, there is no joy. If I grieve the Holy Spirit by saying or doing something harmful to another, there is no joy. If I allow an addiction to control me, or follow after the passions of my flesh, there is no joy. But when my faith is strong, when I’m at peace with others, when my spirit is in control of my flesh and my thoughts, the whole world looks different to me. I can laugh again. I want to be with people. I make plans for the future. I dream about great possibilities. I’m glad to be alive. So it’s not hard to understand why the Bible says, “…the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Ne 8:10), because when I’m joyful I feel energized. I want to do something, heal something, change something. But when my joy is gone, life becomes hard.

Having just warned His disciples that they were going to be severely persecuted, and within moments of telling them that they would fail miserably to stand with Him when He was arrested (vs31, 32), Jesus talked to them about joy. What a strange topic to place in the middle of all this sorrow; or is it? First, He said they would feel grief as they watched Him suffer, but that their grief wouldn’t last. They would soon feel joy. He compared what they were about to go through to the emotions a mother may experience in childbirth. She endures pain during labor, but then joy after the child is born. He said that joy can be so strong it causes her to forget the suffering. Then He told them that it would be that way with them too. Even if they did not understand what was happening as they went through the turmoil that lay ahead, they were about to witness the most remarkable event in all of human history. A brutally-executed man would come back to life in a glorious, immortal body. After that all doubts about life after death or whether or not Jesus was truly God’s Son would be gone. They would receive a gift of joy that would be with them for the rest of their life.

But Jesus didn’t stop there. He went on to tell them that they would be given another source of joy, one which would fill up whatever was lacking in their hearts. He said they would see amazing answers to prayer. Whenever they asked the Father for what He told them to ask for, the Father would gladly give it to them. And watching God miraculously answer those prayers would lift anyone’s mood.

So regardless of the difficulties they were about to face, their lives would be marked by joy. Now, that’s a promise you and I need to learn how to receive, because Jesus didn’t promise us an easy life. What He said was, we would never be alone, and He would give us such authority in prayer that we could walk through whatever lies ahead full of joy. We need that, so let’s try to understand what He was saying.

89 - The Teacher Within

There are spiritual truths that you cannot understand, no matter how smart you are, until God reveals them to you. Once you finally understand, the meaning seems so obvious you find it hard to believe that you never saw it before. But the fact is, until God explained it to you, it never made sense. This is what Jesus was explaining to His disciples that evening when He said to them, “I still have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear [them] now…” (literal) (v12). In other words, He told them, “You don’t have the spiritual capacity yet to comprehend what I want to teach you.” No matter how carefully Jesus might try to explain those things, He would only confuse them. But the next statement He made was a promise that the obstruction that prevented them from understanding spiritual truth would be removed when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. Listen: “…but when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth…” (v12). He was pointing to the new gift of the Holy Spirit they would receive on the Day of Pentecost. When that promise arrived, which Jesus’ death and resurrection would make possible, the Spirit would dwell inside them and empower their minds to comprehend spiritual truth. In the future they would always have a Teacher to guide their learning until they understood God and His ways with no deception or distortion.

Then, as if to prove His point about their inability to understand, Jesus made a simple statement which, given all that He had said in the past, should have been easily understood. He said, “A little while, and you will no longer behold Me, and again, a little while and you will see Me” (literal). In other words, “I’m going to die, but don’t worry, I’ll only be dead for a short time, and then I’ll come back to life and you’ll see Me again” (paraphrase). He summarized in one sentence a truth He had been trying to teach them for the past two and a half years. But His words left them so confused they conducted a discussion among themselves, and decided that they had no idea of what He meant, and not even Peter had the courage to ask for further clarity. Frankly, their ignorance is odd, and a bit unsettling. You almost wish John hadn’t mentioned it because we don’t understand why they didn’t understand. But if we think back to what Jesus said moments earlier, we discover a very important insight about how humans learn about God. We discover that spiritual truths appear to be foolish to the unenlightened mind. We discover that understanding spiritual truth requires a miracle, and thankfully it’s a miracle God wants to give us.

88 - The Plan

What Jesus was about to do would change everything. All that God had done with the human race, from the time of Adam and Eve onward, looked forward to this moment. Even before He made the world, God peered into the future and saw everything. Listen to how Peter explained this, 
“…knowing that you were ransomed, not with corruptible silver or gold from your futile conduct [which was] given to you by [your] fathers, but with precious blood, as from a lamb without blemish or spot (stain), [the blood] of Christ, [who], having been foreknown from the foundations of the world, but revealed [for who He truly is] in the last times because of you who, through Him, believe in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (literal) (1Pe 1:18-21).

God saw human sin and all the trouble it would bring, yet His loving heart refused to let that sin ruin His plan to form a great family of children, as uncountable as the stars in the sky, filled with sons and daughters with whom He could fellowship forever. So, even though He knew we would misuse the freedom He gave us, He also knew there was a way He could save those who chose to use that same freedom to repent of their rebellion and return to Him. His plan would be terribly costly to Himself and His beloved Son. It would require His Son to leave heaven and join the human race. He would live on the planet for about thirty years, and during that time He would raise up disciples who would proclaim Him after He was gone. He would be brutally executed, but in doing so His death would become a substitute for all those who were willing to repent and believe. And then God would raise His Son to life, defeating the power of death by removing the condemnation that allows it to keep us in the grave.

But His plan contained even more. The cross and resurrection of His Son would cleanse the guilt of sin from even the physical bodies of those who believed in Him. Then the Father would lift His resurrected Son up into heaven, and there His Son would constantly intercede as a high priest before Him whenever one of those believers might sin. Now, because they were perfectly holy, God could send the Holy Spirit to dwell within a human being, empowering that person to serve Him in ways which would have been unthinkable before those events took place. Now, like a great army, men and women, young and old would go forth into the world with a new power and a new message. With the Spirit within them they would minister to lost and broken people just like Jesus did during the years of His earthly ministry. And they would proclaim a new message. They would announce that the Son of God had come, and had died, and that God had raised Him from the dead and then seated Him at His right hand. They would announce that He was now Lord of all creation, and that His cross and resurrection had defeated Satan, the ruler of this world, allowing humans to escape the strongman’s grip.

God saw all of this before He made the first human, before the first sin was committed, before the earth was cursed, before humans fell under the control of Satan. So as human history progressed, He was always steering it toward that moment in which these great events would take place. And because He foresaw that moment, He was able to be merciful to those who sought after Him long before that moment arrived. But as Jesus spoke to His disciples that evening they did not understand God’s plan. They had been taught a different plan. They did not understand that they were about to observe the most important events in all of history. All they heard was Jesus saying He was going to leave, and that made them sad. But Jesus, though He was already experiencing enormous stress, knowing what was about to happen to Him (Jn 12:27), was joyful in His spirit because He knew the plan. He knew the forgiveness His death would bring. He knew He was about to release a doomed human race from the power of death and Satan. He knew He would rise from the dead and return to heaven. And He knew that because of what He had done, He would send forth the Holy Spirit into His people, and then a great harvest of souls would begin.

Jesus saw the plan that night, and He wanted His disciples to see it too, because if they really saw it, it would change their perspective, it would turn their sorrow into joy. They would realize that they were about to be the first humans to step into the new era of the Holy Spirit, to taste for the first time the powers of the age to come (Heb 6:5). They would realize the honor they had been given to announce to the world the name of God’s Son, and to declare to them that the salvation God had promised, beginning in the Garden of Eden, had finally come. He knew that if they understood God’s plan, even though they would face tremendous opposition in the years ahead, they would remain joyful. And He knew that if we, who believe on Him through their word, understand God’s plan, we will too. Let’s listen to what He promised them that night.

87 - Recognizing God

If you met God, would you recognize Him? You might say, “Well, of course I would. He’s an old man with a long white beard, sitting on a throne with a brilliant light shining around Him. And there are angels who worship before Him day and night.” But that’s only the way people picture Him, it’s not the Person Himself. What if there were no beard or throne or light or angels, could you still recognize Him? What if He took on the form of a normal man, and you met Him one day standing on a street corner, would you know it was Him? If His voice were normal and there were no supernatural signs taking place around Him, what would you look for? What would tell you that there was something about this Person that was different from any other man you’d ever met?

I think I would see the difference in His eyes, and hear it in the tone of His voice. And if I had to pick one quality that would set Him apart from all other men, I believe it would be His love, a love that was instantly familiar because I have felt that love in various ways over my entire lifetime. I believe I would recognize the heart of the One who rescued me on several occasions and was near to me in some of my darkest hours. I believe I would recognize in His voice the same gentle confidence I heard when a still, small voice spoke to my spirit and comforted me, guided me, or encouraged me when I most needed it. What I’m saying is this: If I met Him on the street in the form of a man, I don’t believe I would be meeting a stranger. I believe I would recognize a friend. How about you? Do you think you would recognize Him if all the glorious, outward signs of His divinity were hidden? Because the Bible says God is near to every human, as close as our next breath. And that’s true no matter when or where a person is born. Listen, “[God] made from one [man] every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined [their] appointed times and boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist (are)…” (Ac 17:26, 27).

So, I actually believe no one would be meeting a stranger. Every person everywhere, would have some memory of that love and that voice. The difference would be in the way they responded. Some would be glad to see Him. Others would be afraid or angry. With this understanding in mind, let’s listen to the explanation Jesus gave His disciples as to why they would be persecuted.

86 - The Spirit of Truth

There’s a great difference between being informed and conformed. Being informed means to receive knowledge. Our minds learn something we didn’t know. But to be conformed involves being changed from one thing into another. It’s what happens to a lump of clay when it’s pushed into a mold. It takes on an entirely different appearance; one that was determined by someone else. First the clay has to be moistened with water. Then it’s kneaded until it becomes soft and pliable, and finally it’s pressed into a mold and allowed to harden until it retains the image even after the mold is removed. God’s plan for each of us is not only to inform us, but to conform us until we become like Jesus. Listen, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the first-born among many brethren…” (Ro 8:29).

That means, before God made the world He knew those who would become righteous by faith. That means He knew your name and mine long before we were born, and decided way back then what kind of person we would become. His desire was to form a great family made up of people whose character, and even glory, was like that of His only begotten Son. That means He predestined us to become morally pure, selfless, faithful, bold, and full of the Holy Spirit. Like that lump of clay, He intends to press each one of us into the mold of His Son. And you’ll notice that He doesn’t ask our opinion or seek our permission, though it’s true we can resist the process until it becomes very painful and takes a long time. But we can’t change the outcome; not if we’re His children, and frankly, who would want to? He won’t change the unique way He has designed us. He loves variety, and places it in everything He creates. But when it comes to our character and the direction of our lives there is only one mold: His beloved Son.

At that moment, somewhere in Jerusalem on Passover night, as Jesus was speaking to His disciples, that group of men did not look like a fearless band of missionaries about to carry the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. Not one of them was bold enough to stir up all the persecution Jesus was warning them about. They looked like eleven frightened people wondering what was going to happen to them if Jesus really left them as He said He would. But Jesus was able to look beyond that moment. He saw the change that would take place in them after they were baptized with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. So He confidently assured them, “When the Helper (Paraklete) comes, whom I will send to you from beside the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who comes from beside the Father, that One will bear witness about Me…” (literal).

And then He added this, “… and you will also bear witness that you [have been] with Me from the beginning” (literal). He was so sure that they would boldly go out and tell the world about Him, that He knew that they would bring upon themselves the persecution He had been describing. Why could He be so sure? He knew the plan. The Father had predestined them to be conformed into His image. That’s why He would send “the Spirit of Truth.”