OUR LORD WHO SHOWCASES US TO THE WORLD

In Roman times, when an emperor defeated a foreign territory, he would return with His army to Rome leading a contingent of captives from that conquered territory parading them through the city to display to the whole world his prowess at expanding the boundaries of his empire.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 14 - 16, a striking image is painted of the Lord Jesus heading up a triumphal procession through the whole world where we, who are His, are displayed as captives of Him who conquered sin and death.

We who believe in Christ, are emblems of the exaltation of the Lord whose sacrifice of His own  life for us,  conquered our hearts and thus our testimonies, presented to the world,  convey the perfect qualities of Him who saved us. The passage goes like this;

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 

For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

We who have trusted in God and are surrendered to Him, are showcased to the ones being saved and to the perishing in Jesus' triumphal procession.

The story of Jesus' friend Lazarus being raised from the dead ( found in John Chapter 11 ) is a metaphor for this dichotomy between the responses of those being saved and those who are perishing.

While Lazarus was dead in the sealed grave, he was the aroma of death unto those who were denizens of the grave but when Jesus called Lazarus forth, the stone was rolled away and Lazarus was presented to the world alive. 

He no longer carried  the aroma of death but the aroma of life that brought honour unto God and belief in Jesus among the living who were witnesses.

Bless the Lord who displays us who believe as an aroma of life to those who are being saved.

Amen.

OUR LORD PROPHECIES HIS MISSION TO REDEEM US

Isaiah 50 verses 1 - 5  records a monologue delivered by the eternal Son of God, Jesus.

In this chapter, Jesus summarizes His mission to the earth.

He first says that He did not reject us but rather that our own sin drove us away from God.

To then redeem us who were separated from Him by sin, the Lord orchestrates His arrival at the temple but there was no one to meet him and none to answer when He called. He asks why we did  not look to Him to save us. Jesus asks if we did not believe that He had the capacity to do so.

He informs us that by a mere word, He could dry up the sea and parch a river. He tells us that it was He who cloaked the heavens in darkness. The passage reads this way;

This is what the Lord says:

“Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away?

Or to which of my creditors did I sell you?

Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.

When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer?

Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?

By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

I clothe the heavens with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”

The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.

The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.

Here, the Son of God says that on His mission to save us, He will arrive with a well-instructed tongue that speaks words that uplift the weary.

He says His Father in heaven will awaken Him every morning and awaken His ears to listen to instruction.

 He tells us that He is obedient to His Father and does not turn away from His directives even when the cost of obedience to His Father is the loss of His own life.

When our wonderful Lord Jesus was with us on earth, He demonstrated His comforting words that give solace even to this day and demonstrated His power by healing people and quieting storms. He also demonstrated His obedience to God His Father by heeding His instructions right up to His death on the cross for us all.

Bless our Lord Jesus who prophecied His mission in this chapter of Isaiah  and then fulfilled it.

Amen.

OUR LORD IN THE HANDS OF SINNERS

After Jesus had been arrested, He was put through trials in front of the  leaders of Israel and the Roman Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Trying to appease the crowds who were calling for Jesus' death, Pilate ordered that He be flogged.

 Then, a crown of thorns was put on His head and He was draped in a royal robe so as to unrelentingly mock Him. They also struck Him on the face.The passage in John 19 verse 3 - 4 goes like this;

They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” 

This grisly scene revealed a hateful, unseeing  attitude that was the exact opposite of a simple childlike faith. 

Faith in Jesus is understood to be accepting Jesus on the merits of hearing the good news of His provision for our salvation and feeling the truth of His words resonating in our hearts and thus believing in Him without even having seen Him. 

However, the text here  illutrates an attitude that was the exact opposite of faith. 

After Jesus had been subjected to harsh mistreatment, Pilate finalized the representation of Jesus with the declaration that he could find no basis on which to charge him.

So even though they saw Jesus in real life, hailed Him as king, and even placed a crown and a royal robe on Him and heard Him being publically declared to be without fault, the minds of men could not believe in the One who was sent to save all mankind.

Let us earnestly believe in our Lord who endured humiliation and brutalization at the hands of men who mocked him for being who He really was;

The King of Israel and Saviour of the world.

Amen.

 OUR LORD IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

John chapter 3 verse 16 is one of the most famous scriptures in the world because it summarizes in a single phrase what Jesus' mission on earth was and His motivation was and what the ultimate goal was.

The scripture today is verse 19 declares the verdict on the what the world's response was to Jesus. The passage goes like this:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

When Jesus came into the world, He should have been received with joy and celebration because He was the long awaited Messiah who had been promised by the ancient prophets.

Instead, Jesus faced attempts to kill him from the time He was a child in Bethlehen when King Herod tried to murder Him  until He was finally arrested and crucified outside Jerusalem.

The Lord Jesus was the light of the world but because the hearts of men were evil and loved darkness, they responded  to Jesus' outreach of light with rejection and chose to call for His death.

What was not known to anyone was that the death  Jesus was going to suffer was the antidote to the evil that was in men's hearts and by the death on one sinless man, light could enter the world and whosoever believed would have everlasting life.

Let us bless the Lord who suffered rejection by mankind and yet still died for us and made a path of salvation for us.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO HUMBLY SERVES OTHERS AND TEACHES US THE SAME

In John chapter 9, on the night before Jesus' crucifixion, Jesus and His disciples were in an upper room where they had just completed the last supper.

At this point, God the Father had placed everything in heaven and on earth under Jesus' power. Jesus, now at His strongest, having power over all of creation, undertook the washing of His disciples' feet.

The passage reads this way;

Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. 

Jesus, in this meticulously staged object lesson, was demonstrating that His kingdom was one of humble service toward other people. 

At first, Simon Peter, understandably, did not want His Lord to wash his feet but Jesus insisted  by saying that evading this foot washing ceremony as a lesson in humility would disqualify Peter from sharing in Jesus' mission.

Peter, realizing his mistake, then asks the Lord to not only wash His feet but his hands and his head as well.

Peter now understood that participating in the foot washing ceremony to learn the importance of humility was a qualifier to be part of Jesus' mission so he enthusiatically asked for additional washing so that he could be even more integrated with Jesus' purpose.

This little window into Peter's personality gives us a view of his whole-hearted approach and his willingness to go all in to get the best and most of God.

Jesus assured Peter that the foot washing was enough but we can see how Jesus appreciated Peter's attitude and told him that he was already clean enough to have what God had for him. 

Let us bless our Lord who teaches us to be humble and shows us that participating in the lessons that the Lord teaches us, qualifies us to be part of the Lord's purpose for us.

Amen.

 OUR LORD WHO SHAKES MOUNTAINS.

In the book of Nahum chapter 1 verse 5, an image is painted of the God of creation approaching the earth in wrath and with vengeance.

In the white-hot plasma of the Lord's anger, Nahum describes the earth's response as follows;

The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away.

The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.

In the presence of the Lord, indignant at the unrighteousness found on the earth, mountains and hills shudder and get so heated that they melt. A global tremor causes the whole world to jitter in its orbit and every person is shaken.

This fearsome vision of how unchallengable the Lord is reminds us of our own frailty and helplessness before Him.

By His lovingkindness, He has provided redemption through the death and ressurection of His Son Jesus Christ who was the sacrifice given to save us from our sins if we humble ourselves and turn to Him for salvation.

Let us bless the name of Him who is unimaginably mighty and yet made Himself a sacrifice for us sinners who were otherwise lost forever.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CONTENDS FOR US

Completing our study of chapter 49 of Isaiah, we now  look at verses 22 - 26. 

Here, the Lord describes the absolute victory that He obtains for those who hoped in Him. 

The Lord emphasizes how His people will by no means be taken from Him and that he will make His people to be the head and not the tail. The passage reads as follows;

This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.

Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. 

They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce?

But this is what the Lord says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce;  I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;  they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

The Lord will deal with the oppressors of His people in such a way that the whole world will know that the Lord is our mighty redeemer.

Let us bless the Lord whose victory is sure.

Amen.