Paula Wiseman

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Posts that focus on the words of Jesus

Intercession: For Each Other

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Intercession for each other title graphic

Intercession is going to God on someone’s behalf. It a holy privilege and duty, not to be taken lightly. It is strenuous and it can be messy. But it is one of the greatest ways we can minister and show love to others. We’ve learned we need a BURDEN for others, and we need to identify with the those for whom we are praying. We’ve looked at how to pray for those who are sick, how to pray when trouble comes, and how to pray about our sins and the sins of others. We’ll finish up learning from Jesus how we can pray for each other.

In John 17, we have the longest recorded prayer from Jesus. It is rich in theology and worthy of much study and meditation. We will barely scratch the surface. However, it is significant to consider what Jesus prayed for when He prayed for His disciples and for us. These were the things in the forefront of His mind in these last moments before His suffering.

Jesus first prayed for Himself.

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (John 17:5). We shouldn’t hesitate to pray about our legitimate needs. Jesus’s prayer for the glory and presence of God is a longing for the plan to be completed. I hear echoes of “your kingdom come, Your will be done,” in it.

We certainly need to pray for God’s will to be done in our lives and that we would work to accomplish it–and not interfere with it.

Jesus prayed for His followers.

I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours (John 17:9). There is no question that Jesus loved and prayed for unbelievers, but on this night, knowing what lay ahead, He prayed for His disciples.

We need to be faithful to pray for each other when facing challenges. To be honest, who among us isn’t facing challenges?

Jesus prayed for our protection.

Holy Father, keep (protect) them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one (John 17:11) and keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15). This is not only physical protection, but more urgently, spiritual protection. The attacks from Satan would only intensify for Jesus’s followers after His arrest.

We and our brothers and sisters are under relentless attack. You see evidence in things like discouragement, conflict, anger, doubt, apathy and even apostasy experienced by believers and the body of Christ. We need to hold each other up and pray protection for us.

Jesus prayed for our joy.

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves (John 17:13). Jesus knew how much we needed His joy, and He specifically prayed for it.

Pray that we all recover and grasp the joy we have in Christ, in our salvation, in all its fullness. How different things would be if we just realized this.

Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified, set apart, in the truth of His word.

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth (John 17:17). The living Word transforms us, making us more Christlike day in and day out. This is the goal for our life here.

We can pray that we are getting good teaching, that we are spending time in the Word, that we are applying it, that we are meditating on it, that we are bringing our lives in line with it.

Jesus prayed for our witness.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word (John 17:20).

The gospel wasn’t going to end with Jesus’s return to heaven. Here He prays that God would already be at work in the hearts of those who would hear and believe in the coming days, including us.

We must be vigilant about praying for each other’s witness and testimony. Pray that those around them have soft hearts. Pray for boldness and for opportunities.

Jesus prayed that we would be with Him to share His glory.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory (John 17:24). Let that sink in. Peter, James and John saw His glory on the mountain. Paul saw it. John saw it again in the Revelation. They were overcome by it. However Jesus prays not just that we see it, but we share it. That is the end of our salvation. Amen!

We can pray that all of keep eternity in focus and that we long for that day when our faith ends in sight.

Over the last several weeks it has become clear that there is no shortage of things to pray for, of ways to pray for each other. May we be faithful to do it.

Are We Willing?

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Are we willing title graphic

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Mark 1:40-41

We aren’t lepers, but we have junk that eats away at us.

Junk that makes us feel like outcasts, like we are unwelcome, like we don’t belong.

But here’s what we do. We put words in Jesus’s mouth.

“This is what you deserve.”

“This is your punishment.”

“Things are never going to get better, never going to change.”

That’s a tragedy.

The reality is, if we have the boldness to approach the King of Kings, look how He responds.

He is moved with compassion.

He stretches out His hand.

He touches us.

He says, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Be healed. Be restored.

He is willing.

Often more willing to answer than we are to ask.

Is Anyone Left Out?

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Is anyone left out?

Jesus said to love God.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37.

He said we should love fellow believers.

 “[L]ove one another; as I have loved you.” John 13:34

Jesus said to love our neighbors.

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

In Luke in the story of the good Samaritan, He explained our neighbors included anybody we came in contact with.

He also said to love our enemies.

“[L]ove your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

See who Jesus mentioned? Is anyone left out?
Do we leave anyone out?

Test Time

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Test Time title graphic how did we treat the least of these

My husband and my son are both taking online classes this summer. This means lots of books to read, online lectures, discussion forums, papers, and the inevitable exams. With these classes, there may only be two or three tests, so doing well on them is key to doing well in the class. So when the lecture comes or the information is posted about what the exam will cover, everyone pays close attention. You may recall classmates (or maybe it was you) in high school or college interrupting a lecture with the $64 question: “Is this going to be on the test?” How the instructor answered that question determined whether we listened for the next few minutes or went back to doodling in the margins of our notebooks. None of us wanted to waste time studying things that seemingly didn’t matter.

In Matthew 24, the disciples ask Jesus a couple of important questions – “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3) Jesus answers their questions in a lengthy passage called the Olivet Discourse. Then He gives His guys a couple of parables to help them understand. After the parable of the talents, one which underscores the importance of seizing the opportunity to demonstrate faithfulness, stewardship, and diligence in service to the master, Jesus gives them one more admonition.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Matthew 25:35-36

When He comes in His glory, a separation will be made between His sheep and the goats. His sheep will be admitted to eternal rest prepared for them from the foundation of the world, while the goats are consigned to outer darkness. Without arguing the eschatological timing of this separation, let’s focus on the criteria in Matthew 25:35-36.

Feeding the hungry.
Satisfying the thirsty.
Welcoming the outsiders.
Clothing the naked.
Visiting the sick.
Caring for the prisoners.

Jesus, the King, explains, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Matthew 25:40

My friends, this is what is on the test.

Did our genuine faith lead us to care for others? James hits this hard in his short book.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27

If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:15-17

Did we see the unseen? Are we generous? Did we love the marginalized? Did we stand up for those who have no voice?

Or did we hoard our resources? Did we expend them on ourselves? Did we make our names great rather than growing the kingdom? Did we cross over to the other side of the road so we didn’t have to see, so we didn’t have to get involved?

This is not to say that we stop doing the one thing that only we as believers can do and that is spreading the gospel. Not at all, but as the gospel goes out, compassion and caring go with it. We feed the hungry because we know where they can find the Bread of Life. We satisfy the thirsty because we can offer them springs of living water. We welcome the outsiders because Jesus said. “Come unto Me.” We clothe the naked because He offers us His righteousness in exchange for our filthy rags. We visit the sick because the Great Physician has healed us of the sin that was destroying our souls. We care for the prisoners because we have been set free.

Or we abdicate that responsibility, that stewardship and let governments or agencies or nonprofits try it. The body of Christ will continue to grow weak and ineffective and irrelevant.

I believe we have a moment of testing right now. I know Covid-19 has presented challenges to believers and churches unlike any we have seen. But this season of unrest and upheaval in our societies is even greater. The test papers have been handed out. We know what’s on the exam.

How will we respond?

Jesus and Women: The Woman from Sychar

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John’s gospel devotes a sizable portion of its narrative showing Jesus breaking with the religious and cultural conventions of His day. Of course, this isn’t just Jesus being contrary. No, in each case, something of eternal significance is at stake. In chapter 4, we find Jesus’s conversation with the woman from Sychar.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) John 4:9

Now, you are probably very familiar with the animosity that existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. This dates back to the Assyrian captivity. The Assyrians took the Jews captive, leaving only the poorest in the land, and then repopulated the region with other dregs of humanity from other conquered nations. The association and intermarriages resulted in a mixed race population with a religion that was just as mixed.

When the Jews returned from Babylon, the Samaritans were rebuffed in their offer to help with the rebuilding and then set out to interfere with the project, even slandering Nehemiah to try to bring it to a halt. You can check Nehemiah for more details. The bad blood intensified about a hundred years before Jesus when high priest/king John Hyrcanus overran Samaria and destroyed the temple on Mount Gerizim. This even figures into the conversation Jesus has with the woman.

So against that backdrop, about noon, Jesus sends the disciples off to get lunch and He takes a seat by the town well of Sychar. It isn’t long before a woman comes to draw water from the well. Water-drawing time was usually in the morning and evening and served as a social event. The fact that the woman was coming when she expected the well to be deserted is significant.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” John 4:7

Jesus asks her for a drink. He initiates the conversation. This is huge. Men did not talk to women in public. Especially rabbis. In fact, rabbis didn’t even talk to their wives in public. This was part of that whole “hedge around the Law” thing. To keep from committing any kind of sexual sin, or giving anyone reason to suspect anything, opposite sexes didn’t even talk. Generally religious teachers wouldn’t stoop to talking with common people, so He broke that convention as well. Plus Jews did not, did not, talk to Samaritans.

We know the rest of the story and we know that that this woman had some scandal, some baggage in her life. What is so beautiful about this simple act of humbly asking for a drink, is Jesus, by initiating the conversation, takes the scandal onto Himself.

Are we willing to humbly approach others, enter into their “scandal” to initiate significant eternal conversation with them?

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Did you notice the topic Jesus immediately jumps to? Not raising kids or fixing dinner or laundry. Not adultery or immorality. Theology. Living water. It turns out she wasn’t as familiar with the Old Testament prophets as Jesus was so He moves to an object lesson. Through it all, He wants her to understand she is more than her past, her sins, her failures, and her reputation. He, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, has come to her personally.

Are we willing to engage others deeply, about things of eternal weight, rather than superficially?

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” John 4:29

The revelation of Christ brought the change in the woman’s life. She didn’t have to change first. Her change didn’t bring His revelation. He graciously revealed Himself to her. This woman from Sychar is the first person in the gospels to hear Jesus’s plain statement of who He is. The greatest evidence of the change in the woman’s life was that she had to share the news of the encounter.

We have no record of the disciples’ trip into town. Do you suppose any of them started up a conversation with a shopkeeper? “Oh hey. We’re picking up lunch for us and the Son of God. You should come out and meet Him.” After the resurrection, they totally would have.

Are we willing to make sure everyone we know understands that Christ is real because He changed our lives?

Jesus teaches us quite a bit through His conversation with the woman of Sychar. We would do well to respond like she did.

Read other posts in the Jesus and Women series.

Love Your Enemies

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Love your enemies title graphic

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Luke 6:26

I love my husband.

I love my kids. And my family. And my friends.

But love my enemies?

Ignore them maybe. Or not go out of my way to get back at them. That’s charitable enough.

I can’t love them. That’s impossible.

That’s Jesus’ point. The standards of kingdom living are much too high for me.

But He already loves my enemies, and He lives in me.

That’s how I love them.

This love is not an emotion. He can’t command us to feel a certain way.

No, this is demonstrating selfless care. That kind of love.

He wouldn’t tell me to do it if it was impossible.

He told me to because He had already worked out the details.

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