John 11:25 Jesus
said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even
though they die.”
This
last Sunday Pastor Phil was “under the weather”, so we were blessed to once
again to have Senior Chaplin Mike Reed of the Los Angeles Sherriff’s Department
“fill in”. Chaplin Reed posed the question: “Who is this Jesus?” - Was Jesus a
great man?, a great prophet?, or was He God? What did Jesus do to show us the
answer? Let’s see.
In
John 1:4-5, Jesus speaking of
himself said “In him was life, and that life
was the light of all mankind. The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” In John 19:19, Jesus said, “Light has come into the
world”, then declares in John
8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never
walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” What is light; that
darkness flees from its presence? Christians, too, are the light of the world (being salt and
light – Matthew 5:13-16) as we push out
darkness of sin and unbelief by reflecting and revealing the light of truth in
Christ Jesus.
When Jesus turned the water into wine in John 2:1-11, he changed the molecular
structure of the atoms to do so. Hebrews 1:2-3 tells us that “God promised everything
to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. The
Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he
sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.” The atoms
are literally held together by His mighty power, because John 1:3 agrees that all things were made by Jesus.
Matthew 9:35 Jesus went through all the towns
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the
kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. Historians
believe that in Jesus’ three year ministry on earth, He healed upwards of
30,000 people. They came to Jesus and he healed them all. Luke 7:22 - Jesus controls life. In Matthew 8:23-27, Jesus claims the storm and the disciples say: “What
kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” He had
control over the weather. In Matthew
8:28-34, the demons knew and obeyed the Son of God.
When
we become a Christian (receive Jesus and believe in His name), we become a
child of the family of God (John 12-13)
and a citizen of the kingdom
of Heaven (Philippians 3:20). The devil has two
goals: (1) he wants to make sure that you never know Jesus, and (2) for
Christians to keep their faith and the gospel to their selves and ruin their testimony.
Many people trust the Lord for mere temporal matters of life, but saving faith
is trusting Christ to save us eternally. Just think if every sin was exposed.
In Matthew 14:22-33, Jesus walks on water.
In order to do that, He must control gravity. In John 6:1-14, Jesus displays the power to replicate and produce material
(in this case food) from nothing. Nobody has ever done this. This is good news
... Jesus is God.
Chaplin
Reed challenged us; “Get out of your comfort zones and do something for the
Lord. In all of God’s work, He equips us. Anything that God brings to us, He
helps us thought it. Prayer is the way to communicate with God and we suffer
when we fall short in our prayer life. Go to people and pray for them, showing
the love of Christ and Christians (the children of God). The devil doesn’t want
us to pray, but stay as far from our relationship with God as possible. Prayer
doesn’t only better the life of those prayed for, but the one praying also.
In John 11:1-44, Luke 7:11-16, Luke 8:52, and Matthew 9:18-25, Jesus demonstrates power to raise people from the
dead. Finally, in John 20: 1-17, Jesus
defies death itself. Funny thing about all
of the His supernatural miracles of Jesus is that the only one contested is “the
Resurrection”. Do not be afraid of death, even though we dread the process of
death, because Christ has power over death, conquered death (John 10:18), and
the power to raise it again. Jesus was crucified because He claimed to be God,
and in the resurrection He proved that He was. We do not serve a dead God.
Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for
there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Why won’t
people accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? There is no other place to go
for salvation. The minute after we die, what’s going to happen to us? Where
will we go to spend eternity? Take the time to find Jesus and know Him more.
Trust in the Lord completely, changing everything about us from the inside out,
and be a light to the world. The greatest miracles that 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 (John 3:16).
In Christ, Brian
2 comments:
Hi Brian,
Great write up on Jesus.
Just this past Thursday I had a couple of Jehovah Witness come to my door. I find it difficult to be polite to them while they are trying to tell me they are Christian too. My heart aches to know that they don't have a clue who Jesus really is. They are blind and no matter what I say they just don't seem to get it.
These people are not only pushy but aggressive too. For them to keep coming out to my place goes to show a lot about their attitude. I live in the middle of nowhere with a really long, rough driveway. All I can hope and pray is that through my family and other Christians, they will have the veil over their eyes torn and they will see just who Jesus is.
Yep, going out of our comfort zone with these guys. :)
Blessings brother,
<><
Great point there Child of God. In this "Spiritual Battle" for souls, Satan and Sin are the enemy and all those who have not "saving faith" by putting their full trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, are blinded "prisoners of war" in need of rescue; "saved" - aka "Salvation". This is where the Bible's imagery of John 1:4 "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." makes sense. I agree that it is difficult to present an opposing argument, but the issue and consequences are eternal, so our heart does ache with compassion and longs that the spiritually blind will see the light of truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ, so the Great Commission is the most worthy cause there can be because no other cause really goes anywhere without Salvation first. Lord Jesus uses this logic in Matthew 16:26 "For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Thanks for writing sister.
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