Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed.
Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” (Luke 22:7-8)
The critical and decisive point had arrived and Jesus tells His closest disciples to, “Go and make preparations.” Why is it that oftentimes we do not take advantage of the opportune moment? For me, the critical moment is when I am asked about my faith and I stumble and trip over my words leaving my listener with no greater understanding of who Jesus is. Sometimes I miss an opportunity to teach the truth to my children because of my all too important busyness–robbing me of intimacy in my family life. I am sure that you can name your own ways of not making the most of every opportunity.
Scripture tells us that we are to be “very careful” regarding how we are to live:
Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Ephesians 5:15-17)
Have you noticed that many times, we just get one shot? Some opportunities only present themselves once.
While Paul tells us we are not to dwell on the past losses or mistakes, we are to strain toward what is ahead in this race called life:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. (Philippians 3:12-16)
Let’s be honest, the greatest gift in human history was about to be accomplished for mankind and the disciples were basically unaware. The prophets had foretold it, Jesus had spoken plainly to His closest confidents about it, and still the disciples were, for the most part, clueless. I am reminded of Jesus’ appearance to two of His followers after His resurrection as they walked along the road to Emmaus.
Unaware that it was Jesus, they were downcast and befuddled:
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24: 13-27)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
Take It to Heart
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“Our God is a God who not merely restores, but takes up our mistakes and follies into His plan for us and brings good out of them.” (J. I. Packer)
“Real trust in God is above circumstances and appearances.” (George Muller)
“We mustn’t doubt in the darkness what God has shown us in the light.”
(Robert J. Morgan)
For 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)
The battle rages over the souls of men and while Satan lures us with lies, God lures us with love. God’s ultimate motivation towards His people is love. This love is not limited to a few choice souls or to a few distinct groups, rather His gift of love is given for the whole world.
“The essential fact of Christianity is that God thought all men worth the sacrifice of His Son.” (William Barclay)
To be sure, God delights in us and it is His desire for this delight to be evident to others as well. The prophet Zephaniah tells us:
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)
The Bible teaches that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul tells us:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
God loves us–we must let the truth of these precious words resonate in our weary souls–impress them upon our hearts and our minds. Indeed, God loves us! Even when we were His enemies, He so loved us that He gave us His one and only Son that those who believe in Him will not perish but experience life in abundance both now and forevermore.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1 John 4:15-16)
“The supreme happiness of life,” Victor Hugo said, “is the conviction that we are loved” ... Unfortunately, many people go through life feeling unloved–and unlovable ... No matter the reason, your feelings aren’t telling you the truth! God loves you, and if you begin to see yourself the way God sees you, your attitudes will begin to change. If He didn’t love you, would Christ have been willing to die for you? But He did! The Bible says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16). God loves you. Hammer that truth into your head and mind every day. It will make all the difference. (Billy Graham)
Take It to Heart
“I was the enemy of God. I was stamping through God’s universe, shaking my fist in His face. And in the very moment when I was shaking my fist in God’s face and tramping through the Creator’s universe, muddying all His streams, that’s when Jesus died for me. And if this is when Jesus died for me, what hope it gives me now! Now, even when I fall, the blood of Jesus is enough. He didn’t save me because I was strong; He saved me when I was weak. He didn’t save me when I was a pretty thing; He saved me when I was a mess. On the basis of this reality, I can have comfort.” (Francis Schaeffer, The Finished Work of Christ)
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who
received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:10-13)
Fully God and fully man condescending to silently grace the world with His presence, the Creator paid a visit to His creation. Taking our nature upon Himself, Jesus humbly dwelt among us. The fullness of the Godhead in bodily form left a throne room and place of glory and bliss to enter into the misery, melancholy, and mayhem of this world brought on by the poor choice of sin–a world where darkness reigns and where Satan waves his withered hand promising all, yet delivering none. For a time, Jesus surrendered His right of deity to manifest Himself visibly to a fallen world.
Indeed the light came to shine in the darkness. Yet we are told in our verse for today that “the world did not recognize him.” The world and everything in it that He had created! In fact, this world rejected Him. Isaiah prophesied this rejection of Jesus in the book which bears his name:
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:3-4)
And yet, Jesus counters graciously with a loving “all.” “All” is such an inclusive word, is it not? “All” who would receive Jesus; “all” who would believe in Him; “all” who would come to Him. Indeed “all” who would put their faith in Him would become children of the Great I AM!
What an unspeakable privilege that we, mere flesh and blood, mere dust of the ground, can become children of the King! How lavishly He has loved us! Oh! What great love is this!
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, and we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Take It to Heart
“To those who believed in his name” is far deeper than simply knowing what Jesus is called. The word translated “name” is from the Greek word onoma meaning “title, reputation, fame; implying authority, dignity, used to indicate the character described by the name or identification with the person bearing the name” (Hebrew Greek Key Words Study Bible New Testament Lexical Aids).
Simply put, believers bearing His name are to bear His character. Just as we bear resemblance to our earthly families, we, as children of God, are to bear resemblance to our heavenly Father. Paul gives us a glimmer of what this should look like in his letter to the Colossians:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.(Colossians 3:5-14)
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