Jesus was just a few days away from the day of His death, and He knew it. And, He was focused on that event and what that event meant. He was a dead man walking.

What does a man on the way to his death think about? I suppose the answer varies with each person but for Jesus He was thinking about the will of the Father. He told His disciples “for this purpose I came to this hour” (John 12:27). Then He said to His Father, “Glorify Your name” (John 12:28).

Something cataclysmic was under way. Jesus and “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) were on a collision course. On Golgotha forces would collide and Jesus would die. In His death, however, the unthinkable, the unimaginable would take place and the ruler of this world would be cast out. Jesus said that in His being lifted up onto a cross and expiring on that cross He would draw all men to Himself (see John 12:32). The possibilities of redemption would be once and for all forever engrained into the very fiber of reality.

To this reality Jesus calls His disciples. He said to them, and through them to us, “If anyone serve Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also” (John 12:26). Jesus did not run away from the approaching collision but right into it; and so must we. Where I am, there My servant will be also.”

The greatest victory in all the world was won in the place of defeat. Just how big a victory it was would be seen on Easter Sunday morning. And, the ripple effect goes on and on and on. Let us be where Jesus is!

All four of the Gospels tell the story of Jesus feeding over 5000 people with a boy’s lunch comprised of five barley loaves and two fish. On our best day this stretches our imagination, doesn’t it? We call it miracle because that is the only word we have for it.

The apostle John called it a sign. For him, the mind-boggling size of the miracle wasn’t as important as was the One who worked the work. The sign pointed to Jesus. The issue wasn’t that everybody got a free lunch. The issue was the authority and power that were at work in the person of Jesus. This is quite an issue.

John said that when “the people saw the sign…they said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’” (John 6:14). What Jesus did that day evoked a response of faith and the people saw something they had never seen before. They didn’t understand it fully, but they knew they had witnessed an act of God, an act that led them to believe that something very unusual and different was afoot. Could it be that this one is the One we’ve been looking and waiting for?

People, being people, they wanted to make this wonder working fellow their king but Jesus would have nothing to do with that kind of thinking. They didn’t need a powerful king; they needed a powerful Savior. He didn’t come to pontificate monarchical strategies; He came to redeem a broken and hungry world.

I look at this sign and realize that the best thing we can do in our lives is to be as faithful to God as we know to be and to let Jesus do what Jesus does. He can make something out of nothing, a lot out of a little, and He does it all just because of Who He is. Truth is we don’t need a miracle so much as we just need Jesus.

Do you remember the story of Jesus turning water into wine? Just about everybody does. But, do you remember the story of Jesus turning the church back into the church? You can read about it in John 2:13-22. It is an intriguing story and at the heart of it is one angry Messiah.

Jesus had come into the Temple at Passover and noticed that the Temple had become a place of business rather than the place of spiritual formation. Sacrifices had to be made during Passover and the Temple leaders thought it might be profitable if they went into the sacrificial animal business. So they set the place up for honest and sincere seekers to buy the animal, sacrifice it, satisfy the law, all in a one stop church experience where the perceived needs of the worshipers outweighed the real need to come before God in worship and joy, brokenness and humility, and in praise and adoration.

Do you know how easy it is to turn the church into something God never intended it to be? At the heart of this radical renewal of church life probably lies honest and sincere motives; though motives are sometimes very difficult to discern. Yet, whenever the Church is made to be what it isn’t, even if it is in the name of God, it finds itself under judgment and perhaps the watchful eye of an angry Messiah.

Let the Church be the Church is our cry. To be anything other than what God desires is to set our minds on man’s interests rather than God’s. And, do you remember what Jesus said to Peter when he made this mistake? “Get behind me, Satan” (Mark 8:33).

Okay! He’s got my attention. I’m certainly listening.

On the journey to Golgotha Jesus reminds His disciples of how profoundly important it is for them to yield their lives to God and to live unashamedly for God in the days of their lives. He calls them to set their minds on the interests of God not man’s, and to take up their cross and to follow Him. The challenge is given extreme value when Jesus asks them “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (See Mark 8:31-38).

These are days when the economic systems of the world have been shaken and, for many different reasons, multitudes of people have lost fortunes, their retirement funds, and life savings. We are told by those who study these things that some people will never recoup their losses, and that for others it will take years to recoup if things go well in the future.

Some people have been duped, some misinformed, and others are so filled with greed and evil that it matters not to them that people are suffering. For some the world is not enough and they are never satisfied. In a profit and loss world there are some people who are forfeiting their souls for what economics can bring to their table.

In essence Jesus asks WHY. Why do people hang on to mist and wind when there is so much more to living than what the dollar can buy? For some people the question doesn’t even make sense, but to those who see beyond the moment and have a glimpse into eternity it is a crucial question. One of these days the great equalizer, otherwise known as death, will speak, and from that moment on somebody else will spend our money.

Jesus calls us not to think in terms of profit and loss but to think in terms of profit and forfeit. Can we be bought? What will a man give in exchange for his soul” {Mark 8:37). They don’t talk about this on the nightly news, do they?

Can you picture this? Coming up out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan, Jesus experiences a dove descending upon Him and a voice out of the heavens saying to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:9-11). Then, IMMEDIATELY, the Spirit of the Father “impelled” Jesus to go out into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). Jesus obeyed and spent the next forty days in the wilderness tempted by Satan (Mark 1:13).

Jesus goes from the emotional affirmation of baptism, the dove, and the Voice, to forty days in the wilderness “with the wild beasts” where Satan assaults Him and seeks to bring Him down (Mark 1:13). But, there in the real valley God does not forsake Him. God sent angels “And the angels were ministering to Him.”

Have you ever been assaulted by Satan? I mean really assaulted? He hits you time after time after time until you are tired and fatigued and restless. You feel like you just can’t go on, and then he assaults you again. We all have experienced this, haven’t we?

When you feel tempted and assaulted by the enemy don’t think for a moment that God has forgotten you. He hasn’t. He is near. You may have to go through what you are going through, but never embrace the thought that God has left you alone. Sometimes obedience will take you into a face-to-face confrontation with the enemy. Just ask Jesus. It was the Spirit of God that impelled Him to go into the wilderness. This wasn’t an unplanned outing; this was a divine appointment. And, in the desert God came near and gave His Son the power needed to overcome the evil one.

Be alert because God is in the midst of your story.

The Gospel writer, Mark, tells us that just prior to the event the Church calls the Transfiguration Jesus tells a group of people, including His disciples, that some of those standing there would “not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power”(Mark 1:1). Nine verses later, as Jesus, Peter, James and John are coming down the mountain He gave the three men “orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead” (Mark 1:9).

The story of the transfiguration in the Gospel of Mark is sandwiched between two thoughts about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I have to believe that in His resurrection “the kingdom of God” is revealed to have “come with power.” But prior to the resurrection none of what he was doing would really make sense. So, the word from Jesus was “don’t tell anybody about what happened on the mountain until I have risen from the dead.”

The resurrection is the clarifying reality concerning the life of Jesus. On the Mount of Transfiguration three men experienced the reality of the wonder that is God revealed in Jesus, but they weren’t ready to talk about it. Jesus still had work to do, drawing people to Himself. In time, the reality of it would explode out of a tomb, but not yet.

Today we live in light of the resurrection. The kingdom of God has come in power. The authority that raised Jesus from the dead is with us and the Father’s Word to us is, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him” (Mark 9:7). And, we do well to do so.

I am wondering if any of us really know how lonely it would be to be isolated from human touch. No hand shakes, no hugs, no high-fives – just distance and alienation and a sense of estrangement. Present but not really; marginalized, separated, and alone.

“And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). This leper knew about loneliness and isolation. It was forbidden to touch a leper, and if a mistake was made there was a huge cleansing ceremony that had to be administered to the poor unfortunate soul who did the touching. And, the leper knew the rules so he didn’t touch Jesus. He just fell at Jesus’ feet and begged for mercy.

“Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him” (Mark 1:41). You read it right. Jesus broke the rules of social engagement and touched this alienated, estranged, marginalized, separated and lonely man. He touched Him. Can you believe it?

“I am willing; be cleansed” (Mark 1:41). Jesus not only touched the man He healed him to the point of his being clean once again; clean to enter back into society, clean to take up his life again, clean to mingle among people, clean to be a part of conversations again, and clean to be embraced by loved ones.

And the Jesus who was willing to touch the leper is willing to touch us, too. He is willing to give us back our lives, to welcome us into His community so that we can experience His unfathomable grace.

The Christ we see in Scripture fully engaged Himself in the lives of people. Wherever He went He embraced people with the life of God. Wherever He went He brought health and vitality, dignity and respect, love and forgiveness. Wherever He went He preached the Word of God.

What does it mean to be a church built upon the life of Jesus? What would a people look like who were under the influence of God in Jesus? What would distinguish them from others? How would the people in their world know that they had been with Jesus and that Jesus was guiding and directing and orchestrating their lives?

I’m not sure we should look for easy answers to our questions but I am confident that they are questions worth asking. I’m also quite sure that whatever the answers might be for us they will not be discovered from a distance. I am quite sure that Jesus has called us to Himself, to be where He is. And, I am quite sure that wherever Jesus is He will be doing what He has always done – embrace people with the life of God, bring health and vitality, dignity and respect, love and forgiveness, and preach the Word of God.

I have thought about something Jesus did all through His ministry as He lived in the midst of people. Mark 1:35 summarizes it well when it says, “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.”

I am wondering if it is not in the place of prayer where our questions will most likely be answered. To build our lives, our church, on the life of Jesus is to do more than just be “out there” with people. We certainly do need to be “out there” with people but perhaps first, before we dare engage anybody with the life of Jesus, we need to be in the place of prayer and worship where we can commune with God. It seems to me that we’re not going to be of much help to anybody if we are not intimately connected with the One person we believe is the Holy One of God (see Mark 1:24).

Mark’s gospel tells a wonderful story of an event that took place in the Synagogue in Capernaum (See Mark 1:21-28). To us it is a miracle story but to Jesus it’s an event in which His divine personhood is revealed.

A man with an unclean spirit was released from that spirit; or, as Mark says, “the unclean spirit…came out of him” (26). From a prison in his inner life, the man is set free. Suddenly we know that for him the future will be different from the one we would expect him to have given his situation. Jesus spoke into the man’s life, and he was set free.

Interestingly enough, the unclean spirit had engaged Jesus in a conversation that ended with the spirit saying, “I know who You are—the Holy One of God” (25). It seems the spirit knew more about Jesus than the others in the sacred place that day. Apparently, Jesus wasn’t interested in a conversation with an unclean spirit and He rebuked it abruptly by saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” (24). Just like that a man gets his life back.

Jesus’ action that day got everybody’s attention it seems. Suddenly we hear people saying of Him, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirit, and they obey him” (27).

Are you captivated by the authority that is in Jesus? The people who observed Him in action in the Synagogue that day became captivated by Him. In fact, in a spirit of amazement they started talking about Him, and the conversation went far beyond the walls of the building.

And He is among us today, with the same authority, the same power, the same influence. No wonder they started talking about Him.

I wonder how their conversations went.

Start walking with Jesus and your story really gets intriguing. This is one of many ways to speak of what it is like to get connected up with Jesus. He shares the truth, He calls people into His life, challenges them to reconsider what they once believed to be true, to believe in God, and to join Him on a journey of walking into tomorrow from within the embrace of God.

So it was that Simon and Andrew and James and John got connected up with Jesus. They were fishermen by trade but had apparently been impacted by what they heard in the preaching of Jesus. Then one day Jesus ups and calls them to walk away from their trade and to follow Him. They would still be fishermen, He said, but in a completely different way.

Men and women need God but men and women don't naturally gravitate toward God so God has a force of men and women who, in a sense, fish for men and women. That is, they invite others to consider the possibility of Jesus, and to come to Him. There testimony: God has changed my life for the better. It can happen to you, too."

Jesus told His disciples that the kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15) and that they were invited into this kingdom. Simon and Andrew and James and John heard the message, received it, turned around and embraced the life of Jesus. It changed their destiny, even though at the time they probably had no idea what was coming down the pike at them.

"Follow Me," Jesus said (Mark 1:17). Isn't that enough? Join up and start following Jesus. You don't have to have every T crossed and every I dotted. Follow Him. He will build your life as you journey with Him. The kingdom of God is here. Wherever Jesus is, all the possibilities of God are present.

In the Gospel of John we read the story of the conversion to Christ by one Nathanael (John 1:43-51). His friend, Philip, had discovered Jesus and had invited Nathanael to discover Him, too. Nathanael wasn’t particularly impressed with it all when he found out that this supposed Messiah was from Nazareth. To him, that was pushing the sensibility envelope a bit too far. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” he asked. For him it was a rhetorical question, the obvious answer being, NO.

When he met Jesus, however, something happened in him. Jesus seem to know him and to appreciate who he was. This intrigued Nathanael and something in his spirit drew him to Christ and to an amazing proclamation, “Rabbi, You are Son of God; You are the King of Israel” (vs. 49).

This did not end the discussion. Jesus responded by saying to Nathanael something to the effect that he hadn’t seen anything yet. “You will see the heavens opened,” Jesus told him, “and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (vs. 51).

What happened to Nathanael was just a beginning. Jesus was going to work a work of grace in his life and in the lives of all His disciples, and in our lives, too, that would reveal He is indeed the long awaited Messiah.

Start walking with Jesus and the story really gets intriguing.

WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

Thirty years after His birth in a manger Jesus steps out of obscurity and into the waters of the Jordan to be baptized by one John the Baptist. Except for a couple of snapshots of isolated events, we don’t know much about those thirty years. The Gospel of Luke tells us that during this time “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52), and that’s about all we know. The Gospel of Mark picks up the story at what appears to be Jesus’ inauguration into public ministry.

After waiting His turn in line Jesus came up out of the waters met by “a dove descending upon Him. Then a voice spoke to Him, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased” (Mark 1:10-11). Those who witnessed the event said that it was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove that descended upon Jesus and that the “voice came out of the heavens.”

John would later declare that Jesus was the one of whom he said, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8; John 1:27; Matt. 3:11).

At the heart of all that Jesus Christ brings to the world is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is huge and I cherish that Sunday afternoon so many years ago that I was baptized, but that beginning led me to something more. I needed God to work a work deep down inside my life where nobody lived but me and where nobody really knew what was going on there except for God and me. I needed an inward work that could not be touched by water but only by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came to set our hearts on fire with God. He came to work the works of God deep within our lives. The One of whom the Father said, “In You I am well-pleased,” sets our hearts on fire with God so much so that God can honestly say to you and me that in our lives He is well pleased. Wouldn’t it be great to hear God say, ”Well done good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23)?

On the way home from Jerusalem and the Feast of the Passover, Mary and Joseph realized that their twelve-year-old son, Jesus, wasn’t in the caravan, so back to Jerusalem they go, frantic to find him.

They finally find him in the temple conversing with the teachers. He is listening to them and also asking some questions. He was conducting himself in such a way that “all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers” (Luke 2:47). Mary and Joseph aren’t thrilled about it all and Mary asks Jesus, “Why have you treated us this way? Behold your father and I have been anxiously looking for you” (Luke 2:48).

The twelve-year old boy responds to her by saying, “Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house” (Luke 2:49)? This response did not clarify things for Mary and Joseph, but apparently it was the end of the matter. The next thing we read is that Jesus “went down with them...and continued in subjection to them” (Luke 2:51). “Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (vs. 52), and Mary “treasured all these things in her heart” (vs. 51).

What do we do with this story? I suppose we just let it be and fight the temptation to read too much into it. Apparently God became a real human being and had to learn to live “in subjection” to his parents.” Also, Mary and Joseph had to learn to let go and to let their Son become who He was.

Here we see the spiritual depth of parents who really do live by the tenants of their faith and we see the Spirit at work in a twelve-year-old boy who still has a lot of growing up to do.

Incarnation is a tough reality to embrace, but if God is really going to do it, it had better be real or it will just be fluff. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) as a twelve year old and he submitted himself to parents who loved him. He wouldn’t always be twelve but He would always be Messiah.

Christians believe that God has entered into His own creation, and that He enters the created order so that humanity and nature itself might be redeemed. This thought is simply too much for some, and is summarily dismissed as ridiculous or unthinkable. Yet, at the heart of our Faith is the remarkable belief that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among” (John 1:14a). One of the men who was closest to Jesus for three years proclaimed, “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14b). Surely it is a huge thing to get our minds around, and the fact that God enters into His own creation is indeed a marvelous wonder and mystery.

I am intrigued that what the apostle John wanted us first and foremost to see about Jesus is that He came to us “full of grace and truth.” He wasn’t simply one of us; He was “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). And exactly how did the true Light come when He came to us. He came, “full of grace and truth.”

What do grace and truth look like? They look like Jesus. If grace and truth could be personified they would look like Jesus. He did not come to judge us into submission. He came to lift us up into the very life of God by a grace and truth that astounds the imagination. He came as Light in a dark place and to those who dare “believe in Him,” this Divine Light “gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

May we take the Light and live the life of one who has tasted both grace and truth. God dwells among us and we don’t have to live in the past and we don’t have to live defeated. He calls us to the Light and nobody can ever extinguish this Light (John 1:5). “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:4).

Let’s get busy living because we have tasted God’s grace and truth.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May I share this wonderful Christmas devotion from John Henry Jowett's devotional book, My Daily Meditation? It is based on Luke 2:8-20. It touched my heart again this year as it has done so for many, many Christmas days over the years.

The heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the corner to catch me at the fall. That “eye,” placed in the sky of many a picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a chilling fear. That God was to me a magnified policeman, watching for wrong-doers, and ever ready for the infliction of punishment. It was all a frightful perversion of the gracious teaching of Jesus.

Heaven overflows with good will toward men! Our God not only wishes good, He wills it! “He gave His only begotten Son,” as the sacred expression of His infinite good will. He has good will toward thee and me, and mine and thine. Let that holy thought make our Christmas cheer.

When Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have a baby even though she had not been with a man, her inquiring response was, “How can this be?” (Luke 1:34). How, indeed? For that matter another woman whom throughout her entire life had been called, “barren,” (Luke 1:36) was just three months away for delivering her son, John, who would be called, the Baptist. How, indeed?

Have you ever said to God, in light of His outrageous word, “How can this be?” I hope you have and I hope you never stop asking it. I hope God can be in each of us in such a way that our faith just keeps being stretched and stretched until the only answer that makes sense to us is, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Luke 1:35).

Mary couldn’t get pregnant, but the Holy Spirit came upon her.

Elizabeth couldn’t get pregnant, but the Holy Spirit came upon her.

Because of an evil Herod, Jesus had no chance of getting out of Bethlehem alive, but the Holy Spirit was upon Him.

The cross killed Jesus and the dream for the future died on a hill called, “The skull,” but the Holy Spirit was upon that event.

Death spoke loudly in the life of Jesus but on a Sunday morning He came out of the tomb alive because the Holy Spirit was upon Him.

The Church had no chance of making it out of the first century, but the Holy Spirit was upon the Church.

How can these things be? Because NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD” (Luke 1:37).

Case closed, or maybe reopened.

I feel compelled to share John Henry Jowett’s devotional thought for December 18, found in My Daily Meditation. Enjoy, and be filled with the wonder that is God.

THE SINNER’S GUEST

“He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.”
Luke 19. 1-10.

IT was hurled as an accusation; it has been treasured as a garland. It was first said in contempt; it is repeated in adoration. It was thought to reveal His earthliness; it is now seen to unveil His glory. Our Saviour seeks the home of the sinner. The Best desires to be the guest of the worst. He spreads His kindnesses for the outcasts, and He offers His friendship to the exile on the loneliest road. He waits to befriend the defeated, the poor folk with aching consciences and broken wills. He loves to go to souls that have lost their power of flight, like birds with broken wings, which can only flutter in the unclean road. He went to Zacchæus.

Yes, the Lord went to be “guest with a man that is a sinner,” and He changed the sinner into a saint. The worldling found wings. The stone became flesh. Gentle emotions began to stir in a heart hardened by heedlessness and sin. Restitution took the place of greed. The home of the sinner became the temple of the Lord. “Today is salvation come to this house forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.”

John the Baptist had become somewhat of a fixture in Israel so when Jesus showed up and began to baptize also it evoked a question in someone’s mind and the question led to a discussion about purification (see John 3:22-30). We’re not sure of the nature of the discussion but it led John’s disciples to go to him and tell him that someone was competing with him in this baptism business, and that this someone was a man that John himself had baptized.

I don’t want to speak for John’s disciples but it sounds like they weren’t very excited about the competition. John very quickly laid their concern to rest as he explained to them that this fellow about whom they were upset, in fact, was the one he had been talking about, the one of whom John said, “I have been sent ahead of Him” (vs. 28).

John was present to clear the way for Jesus. John saw Jesus as “the bridegroom” and himself as “the friend of the bridegroom” (vs. 26). He had his duty and it was to point the people to the One who would come after him. His ministry was about Jesus not himself. So it was John explains to his disciples that Jesus “must increase, but I must decrease” (vs. 30).

That Jesus was baptizing was exactly and precisely what John expected. It was okay; in fact, it was huge. It was time for Jesus to break out of obscurity and onto the world scene.

It’s not about us; it’s all about Jesus. We are friends of the Bridegroom, pointing everybody to this marvelous person whose name is, WONDERFUL.

Before Jesus entered into public ministry, God raised up John the Baptist to prepare the way for Him. History had been moving toward this moment for generations and at the appointed time John came saying to the people, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight” (Mark 1:3).

I’m not sure God ever does much of anything out of a vacuum. God seems always to set up history for appointed moments. His coming might surprise, even catch us off guard, but it is never without preparation.

For generations God had been speaking to the people about the coming Messiah. Then one silent night He slipped into history, almost unnoticed. For some thirty years Jesus lives in obscurity. Very few people know about the miracle among them. Then John the Baptist shows up proclaiming, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals” (Mark 1:7). What a wonderful and humble testimony, but it gets better. John says, “I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

Surely, John did prepare the way; and, one day not too long after John’s words a face in the crowd stepped out and submitted Himself to be baptized by one who said of himself that he was “not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.” The appointed time had come, and through John’s faithfulness the way was opened up for the Savior of the world to step out of obscurity and onto the world’s stage.

I have wondered if each of us doesn’t in some way have a John-the-Baptist role to play. Could it be that God uses us to open doors and to prepare the way for Jesus to step out of obscurity and into the lives of people who need the Savior?

Mark 13:24-37 contains a remarkable word from Jesus. Three times He calls the people either to “Keep on the alert” or “be on the alert” (vs. 33, 35, 37). These things He says in the context of a promise that the Son of Man is going to come “with great power and glory” (vs. 26). At that time He says He will “gather together His elect from the four winds” (vs. 27).

Sounds like a very special day in history, doesn’t it! One you won’t want to miss. It will be a day of great joy from some, a day reckoning for some, and a great day of revelation when the world will know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. And, what do we do until that day? We stay alert. The One who comes into human history as an infant born in a stable will come again into human history as the One before whom all history bows. It’s going to be quite a day.

The baby born in Bethlehem, now an adult, ready to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, tells His people to stay alert, not to be lulled into complacency, and always to remember that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away (vs.31).

In these days when everything Christian is under assault and Jesus is being marginalized into unimportance, be alert and don’t buy into the lies and fabrications. The world will do to Jesus what it has always done to Jesus. It will nail Him to a cross. And, Jesus will do what He always does. He will burst out of the tombs into which the world lays Him, and He will come forth alive, embracing with redemptive love the very world that killed Him.

Whether or not the world will receive His love is its issue, but make no mistake about it; while heaven and earth are passing away, His “words will not pass away.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.