Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus explained, “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the Life. No one comes next to the Father except through union with me. To know me is to know my Father too. John 14:6 TPT
Even though Jesus Christ is equal to God, he never spoke of Himself while on earth, but always spoke what He heard from His Heavenly Father. He was never selfish, but always God-centered.
“And being found in appearance as a man, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:8)
A peek into an experience Jesus had tells a lot about His humble and obedient disposition. He was starving to death during His temptation in the wilderness. The devil tempted Him. He would not turn a rock into bread after the devil suggested that He should. He answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’ " (Luke 4:4).
Jesus was always thinking of others. He was humble! ALL LOVE. So what does it say about Him when He uttered the words from the cross, “I thirst” (John 19:28)? This was the Creator of the universe saying, “I thirst.” Do you think Jesus could have solved His own problem? Do you think He could have spoken water into existence? Yes. Jesus could have had Niagara Falls appear before Him if He so desired. But instead He said, “I thirst.”
This reminds us that although Jesus Christ was fully God, He also was fully man. Never for a moment did He give up His Divinity, though He did not displayed it in His miraculous events at will. He shrouded His glory. He was still always God. But the miracles He performed He promised you and I could perform also. He showed us the way. He led the way for you and me. (John 14:12) That is why His death, His voluntary death, and His death alone, was sufficient to meet the righteous demands of the Father. Amazing!
Take a moment today to thank God for becoming “Emmanuel,” God with us. He came to us, that we may know His supreme love. That we may follow Him, like He followed His Heavenly Father, even though, He was God! That His love may compels us to obey God, as Jesus obeyed God, even though He was still God!
If you want to start a relationship with Jesus Christ, or have fallen away and want to rededicate your life to Christ. Simply come to Him humbly by faith, confessing your sin and need of a Savior. Each person must sort out what to say to Jesus for himself, but one might try praying something like this:
“Jesus, I’m so sorry that I have been going my own way and not Your way. But I thank You so much for loving me enough to come and die for my sins. And now I’m so happy that in resurrecting you are alive and well, and I want to know You. Please come into my life, change my heart and mind, and let me know you deeply. I recognize You as King, please teach me how to obey and love You.”
“And being found in appearance as a man, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philippians 2:8)
More and more I wonder how would Jesus look and behave in our contemporary culture. You know why I wonder? Because the people of His time went crazy with His humble demeanor. Read the Gospels. They thought He was a fraud! He did not match the hero they had come to expect of their prophesied and idolized image of the Messiah! They liked His power manifested in miracles and healing, but they did not know what to do with his humbleness. Judah would have loved to see Jesus manifesting His power. He would have been Jesus’ campaign manager! Peter would have loved nothing less. The entire nation of Israel would have felt that their destiny had finally been fulfilled! Imagine!
If you were Jesus (God), would you ever be tempted to do a miracle for yourself? I probably would. If I had been Jesus, instead of walking long distances, I would have just said, “I am now going to be there,” and there I would be.
A peek into an experience Jesus had tells a lot about His humble and obedient disposition. He was starving to death during His temptation in the wilderness. The devil tempted Him. He would not turn a rock into bread after the devil suggested that He should. He answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’ " (Luke 4:4).
Jesus was always thinking of others. He was humble! ALL LOVE. So what does it say about Him when He uttered the words from the cross, “I thirst” (John 19:28)? This was the Creator of the universe saying, “I thirst.” Do you think Jesus could have solved His own problem? Do you think He could have spoken water into existence? Yes. Jesus could have had Niagara Falls appear before Him if He so desired. But instead He said, “I thirst.”
This reminds us that although Jesus Christ was fully God, He also was fully man. Never for a moment did He give up His Divinity, though He did not displayed it in His miraculous events at will. He shrouded His glory. He was still always God. But the miracles He performed He promised you and I could perform also. He showed us the way. He led the way for you and me. (John 14:12) That is why His death, His voluntary death, and His death alone, was sufficient to meet the righteous demands of the Father. Amazing!
Do you catch a glimpse of the humble Jesus? Would he feel comfortable in our mega-churches? Would He feel comfortable with religion? Would He attend our large institutional churches? Where would you find Him? Would He be allowed to preach from the pulpits that proclaim to be the authentic church of God on earth? Where would you find Jesus? With what kind of people would He chose to spend time with? Would you consider Him a lesser Jesus because He would offer to sleep in your couch at your apartment? Would you expect Him to own His own airplane, stay in resorts, expensive hotels? Think about humble Jesus for a minute!
Take a moment today to thank God for becoming “Emmanuel,” God with us. He came to us, that we may know His supreme love. That we may follow Him, like He followed His Heavenly Father, even though, He was God! That His love may compels us to obey God, as Jesus obeyed God, even though He was still God!
Live Like Jesus Christ
Live Like Jesus Christ
Start by knowing God’s written word. There is so much extensive wisdom and knowledge about God, about human nature, and about God’s dealings with mankind and vice-versa. Take some time to learn how to study the Bible, and then do it, study it.
By having God’s spirit within you. Jesus started his ministry off by being baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon him. We human beings are all spiritual creatures; we have a body and we have a soul, but our spirit, our essence, is what will live on forever. Without God’s spirit living within us, we are dead, we cannot live. God’s spirit is what teaches us His will, He is what gives us joy in difficult times, and God’s spirit is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! The very notion of being “saved”, or being given eternal life, is identified by being reconciled with God, which ultimately means having God’s spirit. By having God’s spirit, we become a new creature, we are born again.
By understanding the intentions of Jesus through understanding His actions and His words. Jesus said and did many things, but he did none of it haphazardly, everything Jesus said or did was deliberate and profoundly intentional in the part it played or would play in the eternal scope of the whole universe. You cannot imitate Jesus if you have no idea what his objectives were. So study His words and His intentions carefully.
By doing everything that Jesus instructed his disciples to do. If you don’t know what those things are, you’re going to need to study. But we can always revert back again to the same fundamental principle, that Jesus said that all the law and prophets rest on two key commandments:
- Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And,
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
But Jesus empowered his disciples through the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and heal them, to cast out demons, and more. They were expected to do these things in love. It’s all always about love. Remember this, because it was reemphasized later in the New Testament especially by Paul, that nothing we do is meaningful or of any value without love.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Jesus Can Be Your Best Friend
Jesus Can Be Your Best Friend
When Jesus (God) was on this earth He was known as “friend of sinners,” and in a careful study of the context where these words are used, you will hardly find them as a compliment or a political slogan to win any kind of leadership position in the government or the “official religious denomination” he was a part of. If his name would have been put on a ballot to be President of the Jerusalem General Conference he would have not only been defeated, but would have gotten the lowest vote from the conservative majority controlling the denomination.
The precise phrase — “friend of sinners” — is mentioned twice in the Gospels, in Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:34. The religiously conservative leadership of the denomination criticized Jesus as a “glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners.” I doubt a Pastor today would be called to Pastor a Church in any denomination with those rumors on his background.
There is something you need to understand about this label: Friend of sinners. It has a double application.
Yes, in a general sense, Jesus is a “friend of all sinners.” No doubt about it. We are all sinners.
But the specific application of the Gospels and the pronouncement by the church leaders was a very negative, toxic, demeaning label.
It was a way to say This Jesus, is a friend of losers, people the church does not want to deal with, people who had committed sins on the list of intolerable sins. Remember the church had two lists of sins. Jesus went against that theology, and consistently chose the worst sinners!
Included in that group were the homeless, women, the ones who suffered discrimination, the illegal aliens, the prostitutes, the ones considered cursed with disease, the LGTBQ, the publicans, (the ones who contracted the illegal aliens to work for the government at low wages), demon possessed people, mentally ill inhabiting cemeteries, the beggars, the tax collectors, (the ones who betrayed their people by collecting taxes for the oppressing government and often cheated them by vast amounts of money on illegal fees they pocketed), and kids. He was a FRIEND of the people at the margins of the culture. They loved Him. The official church hated them and Him. What a contrast!
Jesus was a “friend” of these people. He was not a social activist. He never marched on the streets for these people. He never carried banners or organized a revolt. He never fought the establishment. HE WAS THEIR FRIEND! He ate with them. He performed miracles for them. These were not the “average sinners,” but the outcasts of the culture. His own disciples were not a good sample of enlightened smart leadership. Jesus took as a leader a third position regarding these “sinners”: 1) He did not promote their “sins, and dysfunctions,” 2) Jesus did not judge their “sins and conditions.” 3) HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!
Members of the General Conference Jewish leadership establishment were appalled that Jesus would hang out with this “kind” of sinners.
Jesus never compromised—Jesus was fully God in the flesh living on earth. But, here is my point, He loved those outcasts, this off-scouring of society, and they knew that He loved them. They followed Him. They were drawn by His love just like moths are drawn to a Coleman lantern in the middle of the wilderness. Amazing!
God’s business is LOVE, grace, redemption, salvation, eternal life. That is His consuming passion.
“In the CONFUSION, 1) lying preachers (False religion) will come forward and deceive a lot of people. For many others, 2) the overwhelming spread of evil will do them in (Chaotic conditions in the world. Crime. Climate change. Poverty. Hunger. Disease. Geopolitical conflict)—3) NOTHING LEFT OF THEIR LOVE but a mound of ashes."
People will be unable to love and be loved based on # 1 and # 2, Mark this: People will increasingly lose their ability to LOVE. The world will turn into a cold, cruel, unloving place. Religion has never been about love. No answers coming from that corner. Politics is not about loving. Don’t expect love from politicians.
There is one “remnant,” one group of people from all walks of life that will manifest the true character of God. It won’t be a RELIGION. It won’t be a denomination. It will be people who have let God love them, and have developed a RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD translated into acts of LOVE for people, their marriages, their families, sinners and the marginal people of the culture. John 13: 35
“This IS HOW EVERYONE WILL RECOGNIZE THAT YOU ARE MY FOLLOWERS—when they see the love you have for each other.” Followers of God in the time of the end will be known as FRIENDS OF SINNERS! A community of love. An accepting community. A community of inclusion not exclusion. Those people will be persecuted like Jesus was. Make no mistake!
Lovers will do what God asks because LOVE will be their driving force. Observance of the commandments of God, dogmas, doctrines, 38 fundamental beliefs, without LOVE are a total abomination to the existential nature of God’s existence: LOVE. It’s amazing how great things you can do without love, (1 Corinthians 1:1-3), and the end God says, It’s NOTHING! No value. Waste of time, energy and resources.
Learn to be a “friend of sinners” in Glendale, in Southern California, wherever you live.
1) Learn to be ok with people from the margins of the culture, for God is there!
2) Aim to LOVE, listen, affirm, really listen, not just be NICE to feel good about yourself. I became homeless with my 4 kids for 2 months several years ago. My life has never been the same since then. I talk to homeless people all the time, and I hear their deeper stories. It’s amazing what some of these people have gone through and what they know already of the grace of God. Listen to the girls of the night, the ones who are high on drugs, the ones struggling with alcohol. Listen… Listen…
3) Pray for them. You may never see them again, But you don’t know how God may answer your prayer.
How many people from the margins of the culture will be in heaven because you became a friend of sinners? Is there any other purpose for our lives on this earth? Let GOD LOVE you FIRST, Friend, then LEAD life from within!