Tag: Do You Believe This?

I Want To Know What Love Is

1 John 3:16 (NIV)

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Our Verse of the Day captures a great truth that Jesus desires each of us to attain from our personal encounter with Him; namely, the truth of God’s unfathomable love for those He created in His image …  and all of His creation. Indeed, we find this truth repeated in the inspired writings of the New Testament authors. John wrote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (Cf. John 3:16) And Paul wrote: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Cf. Romans 5:8)

What the Apostle John affirms here is that the sacrificial death of Jesus is how we KNOW what love is! Jesus Christ defines the love of God in terms that we have yet to fully comprehend. Yet, Jesus assures us that this truth can be known and understood by us. Consider the following text:

John 17:20-26 (NIV) ~ Excerpt from the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus

“My prayer is not for them (the apostles) alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

My friends, we can know God and know His love because of Jesus Christ … His Son.  The veil covering the holy place in the temple was torn in two – opening our access and revealing our capacity to have fellowship with the God who created us in His image. Jesus attested that He was sent to reveal the Father and to make Him known. Because of Jesus, we can know God … His Being and His passionate love for us.  Paul understood this revelation; and his prayer for the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 3:14-21 encompassed a deep, heartfelt desire for them (and us) to KNOW “this love that surpasses knowledge.”

Indeed, God has spoken His love for us. God has revealed His love for us. God has shown and demonstrated His love for us. All the Father asks of us is to believe in His Son, Jesus, and to love one another as He has loved us! His will is not mysterious or unknown. His expectation of those created in His image is attainable. The reciprocation of His love can be achieved. The only question for us is whether we truly desire in our hearts to make it actual in our lives.  For love requires us to humble ourselves … to subdue own wills … to exalt God above all else. And Christ Jesus, who ascended into heaven to become our High Priest before the throne of God, has demonstrated what this submission entails.  Indeed, the Son, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage;rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! (Cf. Philippians 2:6-8)

When we humble ourselves and exert our own wills to be obedient … to pick up our cross daily … to die to sin … to believe God at His Word … to see God through His Son; I am persuaded that we will intimately experience His love that surpasses knowledge and be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  We will have the capacity to love others as we have been loved. Indeed, that is the purpose of God … to complete His love.  The Apostle John shared these insights with us:

1 John 4:7-17 (NIV)

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 

All of these scriptures reveal the meaning and purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ being sent by the Father to this earth. God sent His Son to fulfill all of these truths because of His great love for us! I pray we will continue to reflect on these things as we recount His crucifixion and celebrate His resurrection!

So Now You Know…

Have a Blessed Day!

Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then Jesus returned to His disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” He asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.” When Jesus came back, He again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So, He left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. ~ Matthew 26:36-44

I AM the Resurrection…

John 11:25 (NIV)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die…

Most of us are familiar with the story that underlies our Verse of the Day. The circumstance is Jesus raising (resurrecting) his friend Lazarus from death. But before this miraculous event, Jesus has a conversation with Martha, a sister of Lazarus, where He discloses another “I AM” claim regarding His identity.  Let’s read the passage for context:

John 11:11-27; 38-44 (NIV)

11 After Jesus had said this, He went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” 13 Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. 14 So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17 On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. 18 Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, 19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home. 21 “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39 “Take away the stone,” He said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When He had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

Who has ever witnessed a person who was dead for four days being brought back to life? It is unthinkable … incomprehensible! And yet, this is the eyewitness account John has declared to us. Lazarus was restored to life in front of a crowd of people. The unbelievable happened right in front of their eyes. Can you imagine? What would you or I have thought in that moment? Would we have bowed down at Jesus’ feet and worshipped Him on the spot? Would we conclude in our hearts and minds that God sent Him? Should our reaction be any different when we see the supernatural occur before our eyes even now in our generation?  What did Jesus tell Martha? He said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

And equally unimaginable is the response of the religious rulers upon hearing of this supernatural power of God being exercised through Jesus. John 11:53 bluntly states: “They plotted to kill Him.” Seriously? And their rationale? “Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, everyone will believe in Him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” (Cf. John 11:47-48) Really? They were more concerned about preserving their religious tradition and their personal glory than experiencing the power and love of God in their lives and His glory?

Yet, I have seen this same rationale … this same phenomenon in the Church today. I see the manifestations and work of the Holy Spirit being suppressed by many of the religious leaders within the modern Church … especially here in America. There are some who assert that the signs of the Holy Spirit and supernatural works ended with the Apostles. Yet, how can that be? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Cf. Hebrews 13:8) Jesus is still performing miracles before our very eyes. Jesus is still raising the dead to new life. He is still healing the sick, comforting the broken hearted, and setting the captive free. There are thousands upon thousands of testimonies to these wonders throughout the world!

Just as the Father sent Jesus into the world so that we might believe in Him; the Holy Spirit was sent in His Name to indwell believers so that we might be empowered to continue His work and to bring glory to the Father. Before His ascension into heaven, Jesus said to His disciples: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Cf. Acts 1:8) Paul affirmed: “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-disciple.” (Cf. 2 Timothy 1:7) Jesus declared, “Abide in me, as I also abide in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must abide in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (Cf. John 15:4-5) And Paul affirmed, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” (Cf. Romans 8:9b)

Oh, how I pray in these last days that the Church will awaken to these truths! Jesus Christ is risen! He is seated at the right hand of God! (Cf. Luke 22:69; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1) Indeed, our Lord Jesus gave His disciples power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Cf. Luke 9:1-2) After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go. And Jesus said: “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects Him who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Cf. Luke 10:1; 16-20)

Some of the ancient manuscripts have this ending passage from the Gospel of Mark:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. (Cf. Mark 16:15-20)

Well, I will close with the same question that Jesus asked Martha. “Do you believe this?” Do you believe that Jesus is the resurrection and the life? Do you believe that Jesus continues to perform His supernatural work today so that people will believe the Father who sent Him?  I am convinced that He still does! My own life is a testimony of the One called me out of darkness into light … who performed miracles of deliverance, healing, and salvation within me. Yes, let us celebrate and rejoice in the author and the redeemer of life. “I AM the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Cf. Revelation 1:8)

So Now You Know…

Have a Blessed Day!