Philippians 2:5-11 (NIRV)

"As you deal with one another, you should think and act as Jesus did.
In his very nature he was God. Jesus was equal with God. But Jesus didn’t take advantage of that fact. Instead, he made himself nothing. He did this by taking on the nature of a servant. He was made just like human beings. He appeared as a man. He was humble and obeyed God completely. He did this even though it led to his death. Even worse, he died on a cross!
So God lifted him up to the highest place. God gave him the name that is above every name. When the name of Jesus is spoken, everyone will kneel down to worship him. Everyone in heaven and on earth and under the earth will kneel down to worship him. Everyone’s mouth will say that Jesus Christ is Lord. And God the Father will receive the glory." Philippians 2:5-11 (NIRV)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Seeing Something New

John 10:16
John 11:47-53


I always come away with something new, something I have seen or realized after going to Bible Study that has given me that "ah ha" moment. Even though I know I have read that same passage before, when I see something that I haven’t understood, comprehended, or recognized before I just love it! There are two passages from the past couple of weeks in my Bible Study’s study of the Gospel of John that I thought were pretty cool that I just feel like sharing, one is from John 10:16 and the other is John 11:47-53.

In the first verse, John 10:16, Jesus talks about me. I’ve never really looked at that verse so specifically before. I have always read it as there were people who were not yet believers, and would become believers. That is a very general principal for the verse. Specifically, however, Jesus is talking about the gentile nation. He is referring to the non-Jews who will be able to be one of God’s children because of the sacrifice that he talks about immediately preceding and following this verse. All of this goes back to God’s promise in Genesis. God’s promise to Abraham was that God would swear “…by my own name that I will certainly bless you…And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:16-18, emphasis added.) I find it so awesome to see that direct reference to a united group of God-worshippers – the Jewish nation and the gentile nation as one. I am able to belong to God (as a gentile) because of these words of Jesus.

The second passage, John 11:47-53, raises two very distinct emotions in me: excitement and sadness. Excitement in the fact that here is a direct prophesy that shows just what Jesus was about (again taking us back to Genesis). “…he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” John 11:51-52. God used Caiaphas to prophesy the truth, but he himself was blinded and/or hardened to the truth. He was supposed to be a student of God, a religious leader who knows (or is supposed to know) God and His word, but he didn’t see God in Jesus. In John 3:19, John writes that “…the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Because of the religious leaders’ selfishness and love for power, they plotted to (and did) kill Jesus. How sad that the very people who were looking for the Messiah/Christ missed Him because of their sin.

To read just what the religious leaders were about is, on the one hand sad, but on the other hand, it is something that I must guard myself against. I must not become so entrenched in my traditions and opinions that I lose sight of God and who He is and what He wants. As the body of Christ, the church (little “c”) must also guard against this tendency to miss the truth in a bid to keep a hold of its traditions, power, etc.
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