Image: Forsythia, North Garden, Virginia, April 2018
Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on John 8:48-59.
Let
me draw three statements from John 8:48-59 for reflection:
First, look at v. 51 where Jesus said, “If a man keep
my saying, he shall never see death.”
Think
of how people try to escape the first death. Think of the explorers who looked
for the fountain of youth or moderns who want to freeze their bodies in hopes
they might be preserved till a time when diseases are cured. Consider health
foods, diet, exercise, essential oils, yoga, running, meditation, surgery, etc.
Even
funeral homes work to make the dead look alive!
But
believers know that the wages of sin is death. The mortality rate is 100%!
There
is, however, a way not to die, that is, not to experience the second death,
eternal death. And that way is by honoring the Son and by believing and keeping
his words.
Second, look at v. 53, when the crowd asks Jesus, “Whom
makest thou thyself?”
Who
did Christ make himself out to be? Did he make himself out to be just another ordinary
man? Or did he make himself out to be something more? And what is your verdict?
Are you with the unbelieving crowd or with the apostles?
Third, look at v. 58, where Jesus said, “Before
Abraham was, I am.”
Now, what mere man could say such a thing? Imagine you are
visiting Monticello in Charlottesville and you meet a man who says, “Jefferson
rejoiced to see my day. Before Jefferson was, I am.” Would you not say that
such a man was beside himself? But when the earliest followers of Jesus heard
Christ say, Before Abraham was, I am” they believed it to be absolutely true.
In fact, they were willing to die for him and for this truth.
Now, where do you stand?
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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