We Have An Advocate

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

1 John 2:1

In the previous chapter John has made it clear that we all sin, and in verses 9-10 (which we looked at last time) he told us that if we confess our sins God will forgive our sins and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. John's motive here is not to encourage us to sin, but to show us that we do not have to sin; John is not giving us a license to sin and that is what chapter 2 is about.

John begins chapter 2 with the words "My little children." With these words, and the switch to the first person singular (I as opposed to we in chapter 1) John is drawing his readers attention to the exhortation that he is about to give them. John does this with the affection and compassion of a father as he addresses his readers as his children in the faith. And what is his message to his children? He tells them that he has not written this letter to them to give them either permission or an excuse to sin; he has actually written to them so that they will not sin, which may seem odd considering that in that last few verses of chapter 1 John made a point to make sure we all knew that we all sin and that God will forgive us if we confess our sins. He even when so far as to say that if we say that we have no sin we are a liar and the truth is not in us. Now he says he has written this to us so that we may not sin, so how do we explain this seeming contradiction here? I think Warren Wiersbe sums this up well when he writes:

There are three motives for obedience. We can obey because we have to, because we need to, or because we want to.

A slave obeys because he has to. If he doesn’t obey he will be punished. An employee obeys because he needs to. He may not enjoy his work, but he does enjoy getting his paycheck! He needs to obey because he has a family to feed and clothe. But a Christian is to obey his Heavenly Father because he wants to—for the relationship between him and God is one of love. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

This is the way we learned obedience when we were children. First, we obeyed because we had to. If we didn’t obey, we were spanked! But as we grew up, we discovered that obedience meant enjoyment and reward; so we started obeying because it met certain needs in our lives. And it was a mark of real maturity when we started obeying because of love.

“Baby Christians” must constantly be warned or rewarded. Mature Christians listen to God’s Word and obey it simply because they love Him.

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1989). The Bible exposition commentary. "An exposition of the New Testament comprising the entire 'BE' series"--Jkt. (1 Jn 2:1). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.

This is the point that John is making here; when we look at the compassion and mercy of God, and the fact that he says that he will forgive all of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, our love for Him should motivate us toward holiness and not toward further sin; we show our love for our Heavenly Father by our obedience to his word, not because we have to but because we want to.

John goes on then to again remind us that even though we are to live a holy life there will be times when we realize that we have fallen short of what God has called us to be and he tells us that when that happens we are not to give up and stop trying. Why? Because we have an advocate with the Father. Webster's Dictionary defines the word advocate as:

1 : one that pleads the cause of another specifically : one that pleads the cause of another before a tribunal or judicial court
2 : one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal
3 : one that supports or promotes the interests of another

Merriam-Webster, I. (2003). Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Includes index. (Eleventh ed.). Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, Inc.

The Greek word used here is paráklētos, which means, "a legal advisor, pleader, proxy, or advocate, one who comes forward in behalf of and as the representative of another." So the picture that we are getting here is that when we sin as a Christian we have someone who will come forward on our behalf and plead our case before the Father; we have someone who will defend us and who will represent us. John then gives us the identity of this advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous. We will see in the next verse that not only is He our advocate, but that He is also our propitiation; not only does He defend us, but He also is the one who paid our fine (more on that next time).

Notice that John refers to Jesus here as Jesus Christ the righteous. John here is pointing to the holiness and perfection of Jesus, he is reminding us that Jesus is the perfect Son of God and that as our sinless advocate, when Satan brings an accusation against us (Revelation 12:10), He is able to point to His finished work on Calvary and say, “Charge that to My account.”

So as you spend some time alone with God today take a few minutes to thank Him for all He has given you; thank Him for the promise that if you confess them He will forgive all of your sins. And take some time to praise and thank Jesus for being your advocate, for coming to your defense, and for standing up in your place as your representative since you are not able to do so yourself.

What Does Your Worship Look Like?

Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table.

Matthew 26:6-7

In this passage we see a woman anoint Jesus with a bottle of expensive perfume as He reclined at the table for dinner. This is another passage that we usually read and then just move on, but there is a lot going on in this passage and we need to pause and take note of what is happening here. In the parallel passage in the Gospel of John we learn that the woman mentioned here in Matthew 26:7 Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead (see John 12:1-3).

As we read this passage we see that there were three different views of what was taking place here: first we have the view of Mary, then the view of the Disciples, and finally the view of Jesus. It is very interesting to look at what was happening here from each of these perspectives, at the individuals involved, and at the role each played in this encounter.

First we have Mary. Mary is only mentioned 3 times in the New Testament and in each of these occurrences she is found at the feet of Jesus. Warren Wiersbe writes:

She sat at His feet and listened to the Word (Luke 10:38–42); she came to His feet in sorrow after the death of Lazarus (John 11:28–32); and she worshiped at His feet when she anointed Him with the ointment (John 12:1).

There is a great deal we can learn from Mary; what a great compliment it would be if every time we were seen it was at the feet of the Savior. And what was she doing here? She came to Jesus with what the text calls a "very expensive ointment" and she anointed His head with it. In this passage we are not told the value of the ointment, only that it was valuable, but in the parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark we are told that it was worth more than 300 danarii (Mark 14:5). John MacArthur writes "Since a denarius was a day’s wage for a common laborer, it represented almost a year’s work for such a person." When was the last time any of us gave a whole years wages as an offering to Jesus in an act of worship?

Let's move on.

Next we have the disciples. The disciples watch this event take place, and instead of admiring Mary for the profound act of worship they have just witnessed, verse 8 tells us that they became indignant at wha they perceived as a colossal waste. Matthew tells us that it was the disciples who became indignant, but John tells us that it was one in particular who led the charge, and while all of the disciples may have joined in, it was Judas who in John 12:5 said , "Why was this ointment not sold for 300 danarii and given to the poor?" Then John goes on to tell us that Judas was not really concerned with the poor, but that he wanted to steal the money (John 12:6). Judas pretends to be concerned about what he perceives as waste, but Warren Wiersbe points out that it was Judas who was guilty of waste; he writes:

While we can never fully understand the mind and heart of Judas, we do know that he had every opportunity to be saved. He was often warned by Jesus: in the Upper Room, Jesus even washed Judas’ feet. Probably, Judas saw in Jesus the hope for Israel’s political freedom. If Jesus established His kingdom, Judas, as treasurer, would have had an important position. When Jesus repeatedly refused to become a political Messiah, Judas turned against Him. Satan found a willing tool in Judas. Satan put the ideas into Judas’ mind (John 13:2) and then entered into Judas to use him to betray Jesus to the enemy (John 13:27).

Judas’ life is a warning to those who pretend to serve Christ but whose hearts are far from God. He is also a warning to those who waste their opportunities and their lives. “Why this waste?” asked Judas when he saw that expensive ointment poured out on Jesus. Yet Judas wasted his opportunities, his life, and his soul! Jesus called him son of perdition (John 17:12) which literally means “son of waste.

So we see that Mary was performing and act of worship, and the disciples (at least Judas) saw it as a waste of money, but how did Jesus view this encounter? We get the answer to this question in verses 9-13.

Jesus comes to Mary's defense; He tells the disciples that what she had done was a beautiful thing; she has anointed His body in preparation for His burial (which we will see in the next chapter). Jesus didn't view this as a waste, He saw it as an act of love and devotion. Again, Warren Wiersbe reminds us,

Nothing given to Jesus in love is ever wasted. Her act of worship not only brought joy to the heart of Jesus and fragrance to the house, but also blessing to the whole world. Her devotion encourages us to love and serve Christ with our very best.

So my question for all of us today is this, what is our worship like? Are we giving Jesus our best, or are we indignant when we see true worship taking place perceiving it as a waste? We are not to ignore the poor, but we should take every possible opportunity to pause and worship our Savior with everything we've got.

What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

Matthew 20:32-34 Jesus stopped, called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" "Lord," they said to Him. "open our eyes!" Moved with compassion Jesus touched their eyes. Immediately they could see, and they followed Him.

Have you ever thought about how you would answer if Jesus ask you "What do you want Me to do for you?" In our passage today that is exactly the question that Jesus asked these blind men. We don't know anything about them prior to this day, but they had to have heard about the miracles that Jesus had been doing in and around Jerusalem. We also get the impression that they knew who He was, by which I mean that they knew He was the Messiah, because in verse 30 they called Him "Son of David" which is one of the Old Testament titles for the Messiah.

So what can we learn today from these blind men? The first thing that we are told is that they were blind. This is talking about physical blindness, but we can draw a parallel here to our our spiritual blindness apart from Jesus. Just as they had their eyes opened physically, we all need to have our spiritual eyes opened.

The second thing we see is their faith. These men believed that Jesus could heal them, and they called out to Him for mercy. Again, just like these men we rely on the mercy of Jesus and we must also put our faith in Him and believe that He is the One that can open our eyes. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God, because those who come to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

The third thing we can learn here is the importance of persistence. The crowd tried to quiet these men, but the more the crowd told them to be quiet, the more they cried out. This too is a lesson that has application for us today; we are told in Jeremiah 29:13 that we will find God when we search for Him with all of our heart. These men didn't let anything stand in their way, not fear, not blindness, and not the crowd. They sought Jesus and they didn't give up until they found Him.

And what happened? Jesus opened their eyes and they followed Him. Do you see yourself in this story? I sure hope that you do.