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.)
Again today we turn to Revelation 17:14: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Being “with Him” is the only place to be, and Jesus has placed us alongside Himself. He has “called” and “chosen” us. We rejoice in these certainties. However, the designation “faithful” is a bit troubling, for we must acknowledge that we are not always perfectly faithful to our Savior. The example of Peter is helpful. As Jesus had predicted (and as Peter had “vehemently” disagreed), the Apostle denied Jesus three times during the events leading to the Crucifixion (Mark 14:27-31, 66-72). After the Resurrection, Jesus spoke directly to Peter about his failure and his forgiveness (John 21:15-17). This threefold forgiveness was based upon the truths that Peter was already “called” and “chosen” and that divine love elicits a response of love from the “faithful.” When Jesus asked Peter three times, “Lovest thou Me?” (verses 15, 16, 17), He was indicating that love is essential in serving Him (“Feed My lambs” – verse 15; “Feed My sheep” – verses 16 and 17). He was also indicating that Peter was in the Christian faith, that he was “faithful” in the eternal sense of belonging to the faith and to Jesus Christ. Like Peter, we are not perfect (not yet), but our place with Jesus is secure. We are “with Him.” This certainly is a powerful impetus to grow in daily faithfulness to our faithful God.