During Jesus’s time, children were “considered to have low social status and were often overlooked.” They represented “innocence, humility, and the least in society.” (Bible Hub)
The disciples were arguing amongst themselves about who was the greatest. So in order to teach them a lesson, Jesus took a child in His arms while talking to them. He told them:
““Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”” Mark 9:37 NIV
Jesus taught them that when they humbly receive with gladness the lowly and the needy, it is as if they were humbly receiving Jesus Himself. If they received, or welcomed Jesus they welcomed their Heavenly Father as well.
Our lives are not to be spent working to achieve a position. God values the one who, in humility, serves not expecting anything in return. It’s the little acts of kindness, giving “a cup of water” (verse 41) that God rewards.
“But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”” Mark 8:33 NIV
Today is Mark 8:22-38.
The Disciples didn’t get who Jesus was. They didn’t understand God’s plan. The Jewish people of Jesus’s time were looking for the Messiah, the one who would deliver them from their oppression. They had suffered greatly under the Roman Empire. Jesus steps onto the scene and does things that no one had ever seen, including healing the blind man at Bethsaida. (verse 25)
So Jesus asks His disciples as they are walking “on the way”, “who do people say that I am?” Peter answered correctly…”the Messiah”. But when Jesus tries to teach them about what is to come — His death. Peter rebuked Him.
Peter didn’t have in his mind “the concerns of God.” He didn’t see God’s bigger plan. His thoughts on the Messiah was that Jesus would be a conquering King… not death at the hands of the Romans. But God’s concerns weren’t an earthly kingdom. His concerns were His Heavenly Kingdom that is eternal, unchanging, and free of all the hardship and sadness we see in our world.
God’s ways are not our ways. His concerns are not ours. We cannot with our human minds truly understand the depths of love, joy, and peace our Heavenly Father has for us.
So the words of verses 34 – 36 seem odd to our own fleshly hearts and minds.
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:34-36 NIV
Deny ourselves…take up our cross…lose my life…
These are the very things of the “concerns of God.” They are very important to Him.
As long as we are trying to live our best lives our way… after self and selfishness, we will not know Him. As long as we insist on our way instead of letting our old ways die daily on our own personal cross (a spiritual one), we will not experience His resurrected life living inside of us. As long as we insist on pursuing our life instead of losing it, we will never gain His life and live connected to Him.
Our mere “human concerns” will always lead us to having our way instead of Gods. God’s “concerns” — the things that are the most important to Him — are that we would know Him intimately. In order for that to happen, our concerns — the things that are the most important to us — must become His!
““If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” John 15:18-19 NIV
Jesus warned His disciples that the world would hate them. What is the world? It is the system of values and desires that are opposed to God and His will. (Bible Hub)
1 John 2:15-17 describes the world:
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” 1 John 2:15-16 NIV
The lust of the flesh -sinful cravings; the lust of the eyes — lust for material possessions or appearances; the pride of life —arrogance and self sufficiency; these are all part of the world.
Those who pursue the things of the world will be in opposition to the things of God. They will hate and persecute the ones who truly follow Jesus… As followers of Jesus we are “chosen out of the world.”
What I must understand is what side am I on?
Am I pursuing the things of the world? Do I chase after the sinful cravings of my old sinful nature? Do I desire prideful importance and position over exalting God as Lord of my life? Do I think I am able to live my life independent of God — not seeking Him, His will, or His truth in His Word?
“I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser.” (John 15:1 BSB)
It’s that time of the year again, Spring. I have this rose bush that I love. I was looking at it the other day as I walked by and was reminded that I need to tend to it, if I want it to produce the beautiful flowers it produces in a few months. I can see signs of life, but before it really grows and becomes what it was meant to be it needs to be pruned. Sometimes when I am finished cutting off the dead branches, it looks like there is almost nothing left. But give it time. It will be beautiful again this year!
Jesus tells us that He is the true vine. We are the branches connected to Him. Our Heavenly Father is the vinedresser. The Heavenly Father loves His vine! He wants what is best for it that it will bear much fruit. He cares for it. He cuts off the dead branches and tends to the vines needs insuring its growth and productivity. He is invested in His Vine (Jesus) and the connected branches (Us)!
Our lives are meant to be lived connected to the “True Vine”. As we are connected, our Heavenly Vinedresser will care for us. He will insure we are watered, watched over, and pruned. The things that are dead in us (sin) need to be cut off and removed for us to really grow and be the beautiful branch He intends for us to be. Our role is to live connected to the “True Vine” and allow the Heavenly Vinedresser to do His work in our lives.
If my rosebush could resist my pruning and demand to hold onto the dead branches it would not be able to be what it was created to be, a beautiful and productive bush. If we resist God and demand to hold onto the sin in our own lives, we will not ever produce and bear His fruit. Nor will we reflect His beauty.
Am I allowing my Heavenly Father, the Vinedresser, to do His work in my life?
Am I submitted to His tender care? Or do I demand to hold onto my own dead ways…(sin) ?
Am I connected to my source of life — the True Vine? Or am I living independent from Jesus?
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you…. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:16-17, 26 NIV
Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit to dwell within us! He describes Holy Spirit as “the Advocate” — (Greek — intercessor, comforter, helper, counselor). He is the Spirit of truth who teaches us and reminds us of everything that Jesus has said to us. What a wonderful Friend!
In 2 Corinthians, Paul spoke of “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” or the intimate relationship and communication we have with Holy Spirit. A few years ago, I read that verse and it hit me… I have made too little of my relationship with Holy Spirit. If Jesus spoke of what a treasure my relationship with Holy Spirit is, and Paul prayed that the Corinthians would experience this deep relationship, “fellowship” with Him, then why would I not want to experience Him? I began to ask God that I would truly know “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit desires for us to know Him! He wants us to listen to His voice. He wants us help us, guide us, speak to us, teach us, comfort us, etc. Will we let Him? Will we listen to Him?
One of my prayers that I pray frequently is this:
“Holy Spirit, I want to know You in deep fellowship — intimate friendship. I want You to speak to me. Help me to listen to You and obey You in whatever You say. I want to be close to You. I need You to teach me. I want to walk in the Spirit each and every moment of this day.”
Do You desire to know Holy Spirit and His fellowship? Do you desire to experience Him and all that Jesus promised that He would be to you — the Advocate — intercessor, comforter, helper, counselor, teacher, truth — your best Friend?
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”” John 14:21 NIV
Our one true purpose is to KNOW God! Jesus tells His disciples how to fulfill that purpose. He told them that it is the one who “keeps” His commands that truly loves Him. It is the one who truly loves Jesus who Jesus shows Himself to or makes Himself KNOWN.
Jesus said that if we love Him, we will OBEY His teachings and His Father will love us and they will come and make their home with us, or dwell with us. (John 14:23-24)
Obedience to what God says gives us a close and intimate relationship. Disobedience (sin) put’s God at a distance. It separates us from Him.
We need to remember that all that God commands us in the Bible is for our good. What He tells us He requires is meant to keep us from harm and to help us walk close to Him. When we are truly in love with Jesus, we will want to do what He says because we will want to please Him and be close to Him.
The problem is when we are not truly living our lives close to Jesus we want our way… when we want it and how we want it… THEN “obedience” seems like it is a “dirty word.” We do not consider what God wants. If we live our lives at a distance from Him, obedience will seem like a task and a burden.
Here’s the kicker….We can’t come to God on our own terms… If we live our lives chasing our ways with no consideration of what He has told us, we need to take a look at what is in our spiritual hearts.
Jesus said the greatest command is this:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souls and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
If you and I are truly loving God, we will do what He says in His Word. Which means we need to know His Word so we can obey it.
How is my love life with God?
Do I desire to KNOW Him and His Word so I can obey Him and then live my life connected to Him in an intimate relationship?
Or does the word “obey” feel like a dirty word to me? Does it make me recoil at the thought of it?
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:12-14 NIV
Jesus came to show us the Father. Everything that Jesus did was what His Heavenly Father did. Jesus told His disciples repeatedly that He and His Father were one. He wanted them to understand something that is VERY important to us today. We are invited to participate in that relationship of being one with Him.
Jesus said:
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
John 14:20 NIV
We were created for this very purpose — to live connected to our God, united to Him — one. As we live connected to Him — one with Him, we will do the things He does — His works. We will demonstrate and reflect God to everyone around us. So essentially Jesus was saying in the verses above, I’ve been doing God’s works and displaying who He is to this world. Now I am going back to my Father… Tag you’re it!
When we come to Jesus our life is no longer our own. Our purpose is no longer to do what we want, when and how we want to. We are here to “do the works {Jesus} had been doing, … and greater things…”
When we accept Jesus into our lives His Holy Spirit comes to live in us. He is in us and we are in Him. We now are empowered to do the works that the Father had prepared in advance for us to do.(Ephesians 2:10)
Am I living my life connected to God in a deep and intimate relationship?
“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”John 13:1 NIV
God is omniscient (all knowing). Jesus is God so He knows all things.
“…Jesus knew…” The events that occurred right before Jesus died did not happen by chance and they were not a surprise to Jesus. He knew! He knew that one of His twelve disciples, Judas, would betray Him. He knew another one, Peter, would deny Him. He knew the rest would scatter when faced with the danger in the moments ahead. He knew He would be arrested, beaten, spit upon, have His beard pulled out. He knew He would be made to carry a heavy cross, a Roman instrument of torture, up a hill. He knew He would be crucified.
So what was Jesus’s response to all the injustice He would suffer? He washed feet… He humbled Himself, took the position of a lowly servant and bowed before the ones who called Him teacher. The Master served…
Why would Jesus do such a thing? LOVE. He loved His own and He loved them to the end. Everything Jesus did was from His love, His desire to benefit and prosper us with absolutely nothing that could be repaid to Him.
I think the thing about this account that gets me the most is that Jesus washed Judas’s feet. Even though He knew… Would I do that? Would I serve the one who would betray me?
One more thought… It’s easy to read this account and forget that I am one of those He loves and loved to the end… When I have chosen sin over obedience, I have betrayed Jesus. When I have chosen to go my own way instead of follow His, I have denied Him as Lord. When I have repeatedly refused to live as He has called me to do, I have abandoned Him. Yet, He knows all this and He would willingly wash my feet. Because Jesus came to serve not to be served…
What is my response to such love? What is your response to such love?
Jesus finishes washing feet and then gives an instruction:
““You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” John 13:13-15 NIV
Help me to love as You love, Jesus. Help me to serve as You serve.
“Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.” John 12:42-43 NIV
Who am I living for? Who do I really love?
It is very possible to have an encounter with Jesus and believe that He is God, yet not acknowledge that you ever believed, or live like it…
Complete surrender to Jesus and His ways is uncomfortable to our sinful nature/flesh. Openly acknowledging Him and living with Him as your Lord for all to see will cause rejection by those who are not living for Him. If you are a people pleaser and you love to hear people complementing and praising you, the tendency will be to hide what God is doing in your life and not give glory to Him. But living this way points to a heart that really isn’t surrendered to Jesus as Lord of your life.
If your concern is about “what will people think?” and not about “what will God think?”, there is a problem. You cannot serve two masters!
You cannot live waiting for the world to say “well done” and waiting for Jesus to say “well done” as well. There is only One that we need approval from!
“Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.””
John 11:47-48 NIV
I am always amazed at the hard heartedness of the religious leaders of Jesus’s time. Jesus simply did not fit into their agenda. They wanted things the way they wanted them, when and how they wanted it… They pursued their ways so much that they had drifted further and further from the very God they claimed to serve. They could see Jesus doing miracles that were beyond explanation, but they chose to pursue their ways instead of following Him. They stood there in the very presence of Jesus and they were not moved by His words, His miracles, His love… I would like to point my finger, but there have been times in my life that I chose to go my way instead of pursuing Him. There have been times I’ve heard His voice, saw His miracles, and yet turned away.
Lifehouse recorded a song in the year 2000 thats lyrics have been rolling around in my head this morning as I have thought of this section of scripture.
“You are the life to my soul
You are my purpose, you’re everything
… And how can I stand here with you
And not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be
Any better than this?”
You and I were created with a purpose — to Know God! A hard heart will keep us from realizing this purpose. Sin hardens our hearts. What is it that stands between you and God? Are you able to stand in the very presence of Jesus and not be moved by Him?
This video illustrates the things that get in between us and God. Let’s ask these questions: “How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?”
Is there an area of sin in my heart that has caused me to have a heart that is hardened towards God?
Am I living my life wanting only what I want when and how I want it? Or is knowing Jesus my one true purpose, my everything?
Your Love 