Every Day with Jesus (10 page)

Luke 22:15-18

For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Luke 22:16

The Lord longed to share the Passover meal with His disciples. He was less than twenty-four hours away from fulfilling His mission, and like anyone who can see the finish line, He must have had feelings of relief and excitement. The Passover meal commemorated the Jews’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt (Ex. 13:3-10), but it also had a much deeper spiritual application that would be fulfilled through His death.

On the night of the original Passover, the Lord passed through the land of Egypt and judged the land by slaying all the firstborn men and beasts. To avoid this judgment, each Jewish family had to slay a spotless lamb, take its blood, and apply it to the doorposts of their homes. They were commanded to remain indoors, under the covering of this blood, until morning. When the Lord passed through the land at midnight to execute His judgment, He passed over the homes that had the lamb’s blood on their doors.

This is a perfect picture of the redemption that Jesus provides for us through His blood. Jesus was sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish year—the exact day and time that the Passover lambs were being slain at the Temple. Truly, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).

Today you deserve judgment for your sins, but when you confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you applied His blood to your heart. Now you no longer need be afraid of the Day of Judgment, because your sins are forgiven and washed away. You are no longer under judgment. You are under the grace and mercy of God.

March 30: His Emotional Pain

Luke 22:43-44

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Luke 22:44

It is interesting that Luke is the only one of the gospel writers to mention that Jesus’ sweat was “great drops of blood.” This is probably because Luke was a physician (Col. 4:14), and this fact had special significance to him. There have been documented medical cases of people actually sweating drops of blood under extreme emotional pressure.

Luke also is the only writer to mention that an angel strengthened Jesus. The other time this happened was when Jesus fasted for forty days in the wilderness, and the devil tempted Him. The Bible says that angels ministered unto Him. (Mark 1:13.) Here, too, He needed supernatural strength to endure His sufferings.

The use of the words “as it were” might also mean that the sweat of Jesus was only comparable to blood in consistency or size, but it certainly underscores the effect Jesus’ agony had on His physical body. His sufferings for us were more than just physical. In the garden, He suffered emotionally, almost to the point of death. As Luke records, an angel had to come and give Him strength or the emotional struggle alone would have killed Him.

Living in this world is not easy, and I am sure you have had some difficult and maybe even some tragic times in your life. However, have you ever been so emotionally stressed that you actually started sweating blood? This is what Jesus went through for you. He took all your emotional pain and distress so that you could be free. If you have any doubt that He wants you to be happy and free of cares today, remember the blood He shed for you in the garden.

March 31: The Power of His Name

John 18:5-9

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.

John 18:6

It is evident that it was the power of God that made all these men fall backward to the ground, but why did it happen when He said, “I am he”?

In this verse and also in verse eight, the word he is italicized. That means the word he was not in the original text but was added by the translators to make the sentence grammatically correct. This serves a useful purpose and is very helpful in most cases. However, in this case the translators could have left the text as is.

Jesus literally said, “I am.” Every Jew knew that when Moses had asked God who He was, God had said He was “I AM” (Ex. 3:14). They knew that was God’s name. All Jesus did was declare who He was, and He released the power of His glory. No wonder it knocked the men to the ground!

In the moments in which He was arrested, Jesus miraculously healed the guard’s ear (after Peter cut it off) and then knocked everyone to the ground at the sound of His name. Why did He do these things? This graphically illustrates how He could have easily defended Himself against any size army that would come to take His life. He was demonstrating what He had said in John 10:18, that no man takes His life; He lays it down of His own free will.

You can be totally secure in the knowledge that you are in Christ, He is in you, and the name of Jesus has been given for you to use with the same power and authority Jesus used the day they came to arrest Him. Today you can walk in His power.

April

April 1: His Silence Spoke Volumes

Luke 22:63-64

And the men that held Jesus mocked him, and smote him. And when they had blindfolded him, they struck him on the face, and asked him, saying, Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?

Luke 22:63-64

This is the account of God’s creation mocking and insulting His Son without Him intervening. The pain this must have caused the Father defies description. Those who struck Jesus and told Him to prophesy must have taken Jesus’ silence as proof that He was not who He claimed to be. The natural mind could not conceive that Almighty God would take this kind of abuse from His creation. But this was the plan of God.

Isaiah prophesied, “as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Isa. 53:7.) Jesus did not open His mouth. Isaiah also mentioned that Jesus “was taken from prison and from judgment” referring to Jesus not getting a fair trial. (Isa. 53:8.) Isaiah went on to prophesy in Isaiah 53:9 that Jesus would make “his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” This was fulfilled when Jesus was crucified between two thieves and buried in a rich man’s tomb.

The truth is, Jesus’ silence spoke volumes. It spoke of His unfathomable love for His Father and for you and me. It spoke of His total trust in His Father’s promise to raise Him from the dead. It spoke of the source of His strength to endure the Cross, which was the joy set before Him. And it spoke the words Satan had longed to hear for centuries: The Messiah is in your hands.

However, Jesus’ silence also spoke something the devil didn’t hear: He was not murdering the Messiah; he was sacrificing the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world and thus strip him of all authority! First Corinthians 2:8 says that if Satan had known what the death of Jesus would accomplish, he never would have crucified him.

Today when you wonder how God could possibly get you out of your dilemma-how He could change your heart, your circumstances, or anyone else’s heart or circumstances-remember how He even got the devil to do His will!

April 2: Pilate Washes His Hands

Matthew 27:19-24

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.

Matthew 27:24

When Pilate washed his hands, he was performing a symbolic custom of the day that declared his innocence in the matter, but he was also performing a ritual prescribed in the Jewish law. (Deut. 21:6,7; Ps. 26:6.) Matthew is the only writer to record that Pilate washed his hands of any guilt over Jesus’ death. He was also the only writer to record that Pilate’s wife came to him with the details of a dream she had had about Jesus. She begged him not to have anything to do with Him. Secular accounts record her name as Claudia, and she was the only person who spoke for Jesus during His trial.

Claudia’s dream came from God since Claudia would have had to have dreamt it before she knew that Jesus had been brought before Pilate. Not only did the Lord bare witness in Pilate’s heart to the innocence of Jesus, but He also gave Pilate’s wife a very clear message through this dream. Pilate was not innocent in this matter. Together, these instances underscore that Pilate did not innocently condemn Jesus to death. Pilate will be trying to wash the blood of Jesus off his hands throughout eternity.

If God was faithful to show Pilate and his wife, two unbelievers, the truth in this situation, you can be assured that He will reveal to you-His precious child-the truth about any situation you are facing today. All you need to do is ask, and He will give you the wisdom you need. (James 1:5.)

April 3: Relationship Not Religion

John 19:28-30

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:30

When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” He was not referring to the whole plan of salvation. He still had to descend into the lower parts of the earth and lead the captives out (Eph. 4:8,9), come back from the dead, and ascend to the Father. (Heb. 7:25.) Paul made it very clear in 1 Corinthians 15:14 and 17, that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, our faith is in vain, and we are still doomed to everlasting hell in our sins.

Why is the resurrection so important? We are saved by believing God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 10:9) because the resurrection proved the debt for our sin had been paid. Legally, God could not have raised Jesus up if He had died in any personal sin. When Jesus was resurrected, it proved He had been qualified to take all our sin and satisfy the demands of the Law against us. The Law is what He finished on the Cross.

The Law could only point to our sin and condemn us, so Jesus fulfilled it and took all our transgressions against it on Himself. (Eph. 2:15.) He fulfilled the Law for us, satisfied divine justice by paying the price for our sins against God’s Law, obtained God’s forgiveness for us, and gave us the opportunity to live by God’s grace. Instead of trying to keep religious ordinances to please God and making the specified sacrifices when we could not, we now have a living, intimate relationship with the Father and walk according to His Spirit.

The resurrection of Jesus makes Christianity different from all religions because you are dealing with a real, live person, not laws and rules. Your faith is lived in fellowship with Jesus, who is alive and communicates freely with you. Talk with Him as you go about your day today.

April 4: Why Seek the Living Among the Dead?

Luke 24:1-9

And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?

Luke 24:5

The angel asked the women at the tomb, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” That’s a great question! The women who came to the tomb that resurrection morning were seeking Jesus, but they weren’t seeking a living, victorious Christ. They were grieving because the Jesus they were seeking was dead.

Likewise, we often seek a dead God. We don’t phrase it that way, of course, but that’s what it amounts to. We pray and talk about how big and impossible our problems are, just as if God was dead. We forget or don’t believe that Jesus overcame all the problems of this life. We say things like, “The doctor told me I’m going to die.” What does this mean to the One who has already conquered death? A doctor’s report is nothing to Him. If we pray to the risen Christ, then death won’t overwhelm us either.

It doesn’t glorify the Lord to fall apart like a two-dollar suitcase every time something bad happens. We have access to Him, who has all power in heaven and earth. We need to come to the risen Christ and expect resurrection power to flow into our situations.

When the women at the tomb believed Jesus was alive, all their sadness turned to joy. That’s the way it will be with you, too, when you turn to your risen Savior, who has put all your enemies under His feet and therefore your feet. Recognize that Jesus is alive and Almighty God is working in your life today, and let true joy arise in your heart.

April 5: Denying the Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-15

Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.

Matthew 28:11

In the Jews’ efforts to prevent anything from happening that would cause people to believe Jesus was resurrected, they gave one of the greatest proofs of it. They sealed the tomb after He was buried, and Pilate agreed to send his guards to watch the tomb so that the disciples could not steal Jesus’ body and claim He had risen from the dead. (Matt. 27:64-66.) In the end, what they did removed any doubt that Jesus had been supernaturally resurrected.

In order for the disciples to steal the body, they would have had to kill the Roman guards on duty, break the seal, and roll the stone away. In the morning, there would have been dead guards to prove their deception. Instead, the guards were completely shaken by what they had witnessed. They had been frozen “as dead men” when the angel appeared, rolled away the stone, and announced that Jesus had risen. (vv. 2-6.) They then fled to tell the chief priests what had happened. That was when the Jews bribed the Roman guard to say that the followers of Jesus stole His body.

Anyone who knew the code of honor of a Roman soldier would highly suspect their story. They were to give their lives to carry out the will of their commander, and Pilate had commanded them not to let the disciples steal Jesus’ body. If their story was true, they should have been dead!

In this way, the enemies of Jesus became a historical witness that Jesus literally rose from the dead. The very ones the Jews had secured to guarantee there would be no rumors of Jesus being raised became the first witnesses and heralds of the resurrection. This is just another of many examples where God took Satan’s plans and used them in His plan. He can do the same for you today.

April 6: Valuable and Precious

Luke 8:11-15

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:11

You have the fullness of Christ in you, but how do you walk in it? How do you come to know it? Revelation and understanding come through reading the Word of God and the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.

You may not know what a privilege it is to have God’s Word in your own language. Six hundred years ago there was no English translation of the Bible available to believers. Most of the manuscripts were in Latin, and only the clergy had access to them. However, thanks to the efforts of John Wycliffe (1384) and William Tyndale (1523), today we are able to read the writings of the prophets and apostles for ourselves. These men gave their lives to bring English-speaking believers God’s Word, and we should see our Bibles as valuable and precious.

The piece of armor known as the “sword of the Spirit” is the only piece that has the ability to cut, wound, and hurt our enemy. It’s not the Bible lying on your coffee table that makes the enemy flee, but it is the Word of God hidden in your heart, activated by the power of the Holy Spirit, and spoken in an appropriate situation. It’s similar to what was spoken by Jesus in John 6:63, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” The Word by itself doesn’t make us free. It is the Word we know and speak that will deliver us. (John 8:32.)

Why is the Word so effective? It’s because it is God’s Word. His Word carries His sovereign authority, which supersedes all authority of the church, of human reason and intellect, and certainly of Satan and demonic power. When you speak God’s Word in faith, the Holy Spirit goes into action to perform it. Today you must avail yourself of God’s Word by placing it in your heart, guarding it as the most precious and valuable possession He has given you, and living by it. In this way you will experience the fullness of Christ.

April 7: God’s Word: Use As Directed

Luke 8:4-11

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:11

In the parable of the sower, Jesus taught that the seed was God’s Word, but it had to be planted in our hearts and allowed to germinate before it released God’s power. He said the seed of the Word was planted into one of four types of ground, which were the four conditions of people’s hearts. The Word is always the same, but the results are different because the condition of each person’s heart is different. The variable in this parable is the condition of the heart, not God’s Word. Like a seed planted in good soil, the Word will always grow and bear fruit if it is planted in a good heart.

How do you have a heart in which the seed of God’s Word will grow and flourish? Good ground doesn’t just happen; it must be cultivated. This is the reason why only one out of four people in Jesus’ parable brought forth fruit. It takes a lot of time, effort, and diligence to be a fruitful Christian. The Christian life is not like a 100-yard dash but rather a 26.2-mile marathon, and any farmer will tell you that it is quicker and easier to raise weeds than it is to raise tomatoes or corn!

In this whole parable, it was the Word that produced the fruit. The ground simply gave it a good place to grow. If we will simply put God’s Word in our hearts, protect it, and give it priority in our lives, the Word will produce fruit of itself. Satan has deceived many people into thinking they don’t have the talents or abilities to be fruitful Christians, but they are not the ones who bring forth fruit; it’s God’s Word in them that brings joy and success to their lives.

Today, meditate on and live according to the Word you sow in your heart. If you protect and stand upon the Word sown in your heart, the Word will do the rest.

April 8: Understanding God’s Word

Luke 8:4-13

Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

Luke 8:12

In the parable of the sower, the first kind of person Jesus describes was someone who does not understand God’s Word. (Matt. 13:19.) Before God’s Word can penetrate your heart, you have to have some comprehension of what it is saying. You must relate to it and embrace it as your own. If you don’t get it at all, it will be scattered (the wayside) because it doesn’t mean anything to you. Then birds will eat the seed, and there will be no fruit.

Mark 4:15 and Luke 8:12 make it clear that the birds represent Satan, and Mark says that the devil comes immediately to steal the Word. Satan did not have direct access to the Word in any of the other heart-types that Jesus described. Satan cannot steal the Word from us if we hide it in our hearts. (Ps. 119:11.) This first type of person simply hears the Word, but does not receive it. They never apply it to their lives, so they lose it.