Wednesday, February 22, 2017

You Will Be Scattered (LS79)

         'Last Sermon of Jesus'

John 16:32 "Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me."
    Our Lord admonished them because they only chose to believe what would benefit them, and not the truth. Just like Christians today, they dissect His words and choose the meat and throw away the bones.
   The disciples only accepted the Messiah as the King of Israel, not the Lamb to be slain! Despite giving up all to follow Jesus, they fled and returned home after their Saviour was arrested, and subsequently crucified.
   Similarly, Christians who accepted the Lord with the motive that they, as children of God, are always entitled to  be blessed, rich, successful, powerful and healthy will face similar anguish and sorrows when any disaster, sickness, accident, difficult and poverty befalls them. Their kind of diluted and distorted belief had caused many to lose their faith.


Mark 16:10-11 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
    When Mary Magdalene told the disciples that she had seen the risen Lord, they should be rejoicing in the Lord, for He had overcome death on their behalf, but instead, she met unbelief and mourning.

John 20:19-20 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
    Eventually our Lord Jesus Himself appeared to His disciples when they were so insecure and fearful. Only after greeting them and showing them His pierced hands and side, would they believed Him and were filled with joy. Our Lord told them to go back to Jerusalem, to await the coming of the power from on high or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. If our Lord Jesus had such great patience with His stiff necked disciples, He will also have patience with us, who are not worthy to be loved by Him. Every time He sees us rejecting His words (just like our earthly father) He too will be sad, for we are rejecting His love, help, guidance, to our benefits, blessings and rewards.
    Brethren, if the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Act 2, can transform His stiff-necked disciples from fearful, insecure and sorrowful, into knowledgeable, merciful, wise, powerful and miracle workers. Then, we must desire it at all cost. We only need to love Him by keeping His commandments and our Lord Jesus will then baptize us with the Holy Spirit. The Helper or Spirit of truth will then transform us to be like His transformed disciples.

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. (1John 3:1-6)