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.)
In Mark 13:6, Jesus says to pay careful attention to the false claims of evil men and to reject both: “For many shall come in My name, saying, ‘I am Christ; and shall deceive you.’” Throughout history, there have been many false messiahs, people who gained a following and used it for personal gain. John warned against such charlatans in the first century (I John 4:1-5) using the term “spirit of antichrist” (verse 3). Even in the late 1900’s, an elderly rabbi in New York was proclaimed by some to be the Messiah (“Christ” is the translation of the Greek equivalent of “Messiah). When he died, his followers expected him to come to life again; he did not. Despite the long history of such failures, there will continue to be such fakes (culminating in the Antichrist, whom we will discuss later in this chapter), for Jesus’ prediction will continue to prove to be true. His detailed warning to us is an evidence of His grace: He really wants to protect us from the deception that will continue to increase.