subject: This Leader Led So Faithfully For Sixty Years As He Followed The One Who Trained And Prepared Him [print this page] This Leader Led So Faithfully For Sixty Years As He Followed The One Who Trained And Prepared Him
When I come to the end of a section in Scripture which has become very precious to me it is difficult to rush on and that is what I am presently experiencing.
Over these past weeks we have been reading and studying in the Gospel of John. What have we seen? We have been in the Upper room watching and listening and observing, and then walking down from the Upper Room, past the Temple, towards the Garden of Gethsemane.
We have studied the significance of the washing of feet. Then, we learned of Judas leaving the room, and the atmosphere lifting.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, continued teaching and informing His disciples of what is about to happen and what they can expect and face as they serve.
During that Passover meal Jesus takes the bread and the wine and imparts that new meaning and significance and all this has become so precious to each one of us.
Jesus speaks about the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit.
There is so much being said as Jesus is about to be betrayed and arrested and put on trial and crucified.
When we come to the second half of John Chapter 16, the lessons are just as relevant and profound.
John was around 90 when he is writing this. He is the last surviving member of that band of men whom Jesus Christ chose and it all seems so fresh. For 60 years John had faithfully served and obeyed and witnessed to Jesus.
John had been through good times and not so good times, and during everything he faced, he gave such good positive dynamic leadership. Everyone can learn something from this faithful leader who experienced rich blessing and painful persecution.
He was among the first to be imprisoned for his faith and his ministry and he realises that he is not going to live all that much longer.
John takes his pen and writes down all that he knows, or everything that the Holy Spirit brings to his remembrance.
This is the good news as told by John, and John gives a deep account, and John writes with profound thoughts, and John writes accurately. And the more one reads and studies these words, the more one realises that it is indeed good news.
If you ever hear anything about Jesus that does not fit in with this book, it is a lie.
There is only one Jesus Christ and He is the risen Christ as revealed to us through His living Word.
Sandy Shaw
Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary athttp://www.studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column. His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.
