Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
The essential message of John the Baptist is found in Mark 1:7: “[He] preached, saying, ‘There cometh One mightier than after me, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.’” His simple words are our model. Jesus said of John in Luke 7:28a, “Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.” This great man, though, directed all attention away from himself and to the Savior. He directed his own disciples to follow Jesus rather than stay with him: “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus” (John 1:35-37). We know that one of these disciples was Andrew (John 1:40), and we believe that the other was the Apostle John, the writer of the Gospel of John. John the Baptist’s ministry to these two men was instrumental in their saving faith in Jesus. Later, John the Baptist provided a statement about Jesus that should be the creed of every Christian: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). A major part of his greatness was his humility, which we emulate whenever we direct folks to Jesus rather than to ourselves.