GIVE GOD TIME.
Prayer and Praise.
Jesus said, “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:40, so we start our journey of giving God time to work in us, by praying the hymn IN CHRIST ALONE … at this link;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWiFYJMGas0
A WORD IN YOUR EAR.
John 8: 21-30. Dispute Over Who Jesus Is (B)
21 Again he told them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin — where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 The Judeans (Jerusalem Jews) said, “Is he going to commit suicide? Is that what he means when he says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”
The ‘Judeans’ were Jerusalem’s orthodox religious Jewish leaders. Translations simply translating the word as ‘Jews’, do not show the difference clearly enough.
23 Yeshua (Jesus), said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 This is why I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not trust that I AM [who I say I am], you will die in your sins.”
This is the translation by the Messianic Jewish Rabbi David Stern – so I trust this translation over the Gentile church’s translation. This is far more specific about who Jesus is saying He is. It is because of the specific meaning, that the Judeans then replied with the following question…
25a At this, they said to him, “You? Who are you?”
25b Yeshua (Jesus) answered,
“Just what I’ve been telling you from the start. 26 There are many things I could say about you, and many judgments I could make. However, the One who sent me is true; so I say in the world only what I have heard from him.”
Jesus is holding off from judging them, for now, because His first coming to earth is to bring about reconciliation and He only says what His Father tells Him to. One day He will come for judgment and then He will speak to judge mankind.
27 They did not understand that he was talking to them about the Father.
28 So Yeshua (Jesus) said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM [who I say I am], and that of myself I do nothing, but say only what the Father has taught me. 29 Also, the One who sent me is still with me; he did not leave me to myself, because I always do what pleases him.”
30 Many people who heard him say these things trusted in him. (Complete Jewish Bible.)
—-Summary
Notice that yet again Jesus says I AM [who I say I am]…
They understood exactly what Jesus was saying…which is why it is so significant when John adds the next statement…
- Today’s Verse… Who is Jesus? John 8:23-24
23 Yeshua (Jesus), said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. 24 This is why I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not trust that I AM [who I say I am], you will die in your sins.”
- Today’s Challenge
Notice it says… ‘trusted IN Him’ v.30. That is the key.
Have you?
Prayer and Worship
“… He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray.” Matthew 14:23.
Jesus taught His disciples what we call ‘The Lord’s Prayer’; (Luke 11).
Listen here to Albert Malotte’s ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever;- Amen.
Prayer suggestions;-
- The world. (ie ‘For those in authority.’)
- The ‘suffering church.’ https://barnabasfund.org/nz/pray/daily-prayer/#previous-dates
- Your own situation. (Suggest ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’.)
