Would You Be Willing to Come and See?
Good Morning Friends,
Calling someone the Lamb of God for a Jew in the time of Jesus was really a more impressive comment than we give credit to the title today. It was a Wow!!! statement that prompted excitement and emotions. It was an invitation to a spiritual feast and a discovery of something very valuable and nothing less than the answer to the question on the minds of Jews looking for the Messiah and yes, finding God’s gift of the second Adam and second Eve. For all of us today who do not have the same cultural heritage, the question might be a little different and initially less exciting but not at all boring. The experience of becoming righteous in a relationship with bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh is the enthusiastic story of life in the called-out assembly of God. So maybe for those who have yet to get it we should ask something like, Would You Be Willing to Come and See?
Scripture: Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:7-10 (NRSV)
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
John 1:35-42 (NRSV)
Message: When it comes to sin and being a Christian, on the surface of it, there seems to be a contradiction, for all the Christians I know still sin. The Jews had sacrifices to deal with the contradiction but even that was not enough. The revelation is that we tend to get better at being good when we love, for God desires our love more than our sacrifices. But still we all fall short. We need something to engage us in getting better for we are typically not a great attraction for the faith on our own. Thankfully God provides a solution to the problem by providing the sinless Lamb of God. Here God provides the opportunity for us to offer others the chance to experience forgiveness and to come and see the depth and breadth of this movement that started as a tear in the Father’s eyes and turned into a flood of emotion designed to baptize us in the Spirit and fill our cup with overflowing joy. It starts out like a single snowflake, for my frozen chosen friends up North, that turns into an avalanche of love. For in this experience of life we are to discover that Jesus is the Son of God…the answer to everything of importance. We are to discover that we have been made in the likeness of the Second Adam, Jesus, not just the first. So, friends we need to try out not sinning and see what happens. Perhaps we might just find that the love of God is so prevailing a match that we no longer desire to sin.
Pray we be swept up in the Spirit of God moving in the world. Pray we each day come closer to portraying the image of the Son of God. Pray God is revealed to us in a relationship with Jesus as opposed to a relationship with evil. Pray we stop deceiving ourselves. Pray that the more we abhor and avoid sin, the more we spend our time and energy doing the things Jesus did. Pray this nature of God abides in us. Pray we strive daily to attain that blessedness. Pray that all who call themselves Christians aspire to that state beyond grace. Pray we practice righteousness and in this realize that Jesus is never boring. Pray we purpose our hearts to point others to Jesus in 2018.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 