Unlimited Savior

Scriptures: Exodus 16:14-26, John 6:32-33, 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, John 6:41

In Exodus 16:14–22, we read the story of how God sent manna to feed his people in the wilderness. This was bread from heaven (v.15), and it represented the grace of Jesus, the One who would come and be the true Bread from Heaven (John 6:41).

Manna was sweet. You may have experienced bitterness in your life, maybe even right now, but Jesus gives you his grace.

The children of Israel needed to collect the manna every day. You need to receive the grace of God every day.

Manna was free. No one had to work for it. You didn’t have to go looking for it. It was just there at your doorstep. All you had to do was to go and pick it up and look up to heaven and say, “Thanks!” That’s how grace comes to you. You can’t work for the gift of Christ.

Manna was enough. Everyone received what they needed, and it was always enough. The grace of God will always be more than sufficient for your needs.

Some of the Children of Israel tried of find manna in their own way, with tragic consequences. It doesn’t work that way.

The Bread of Life is there for us every day, free, and always meets our needs. It’s what gives us true life. Jesus said that we need the bread of life every day. Are you making sure that you are receiving it daily? Your life depends on it.

Scriptures: Matthew 4:4, John 6:51-58, John 4:34-36, Ruth 1:6

In the story of Ruth, she and Naomi, her mother-in-law, travel from Moab to Bethlehem because they have heard that there is food in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:6). That shouldn’t be so strange, because the name “Bethlehem” means literally, the “House of Bread.” The whole story of Ruth, points us powerfully toward the coming, bread-providing Messiah, who would feed His people, the One who would be literally be born in Bethlehem.

When His disciples came back from buying food in the Samaritan village, they found him sharing the Good News with a despised Samaritan woman. He said to them, “I am fed by doing the will of the one who sent me and by completing his work” (John 4:34). Jesus was trying to teach the disciples that the Bread of Life that came from Bethlehem was not only for Bethlehem, but that it was to feed the whole world, and even a woman of Samaria.

Can you and I be fed in this way too? Jesus declared, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51).

Because of Calvary, none need ever go hungry again. There’s always bread in Bethlehem. If there’s always Bread for our need, where do we find this bread? The living bread always comes down to you, right where you are in need. It is where you are right now. Pray to Christ with faith right now and take the living bread he offers.

Scriptures: Luke 14:21-23, Matthew 22:8-10, 1 Corinthians 5:8-13

The shocking moral of Jesus’ Parable of the Great Banquet is how Jesus has changed who is welcome at dinner. He welcomes the unexpected, and especially the people you’d least expect.

When the Master tells his servant to go out into the “streets and alleys of the town,” what kind of people do you think lurked in the back alleys of towns? Jesus rams home the point as the story continues. The servant comes back and says that he has invited those people but there’s still room (Luke 14:22), so the master tells him to,

Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in (v.23)

The roads and country lanes back then were places to be feared, where one might find gangs of bandits: the sorts of people that weren’t allowed into the towns, because of their disreputable lifestyles or horrible diseases.

Of course, Jesus wasn’t talking about a literal dinner, but rather about whom our Heavenly Father blesses with his goodness and grace:

the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good – (Matthew 22:10).

If Jesus has changed the definition of who’s welcome at the dinner table, then shouldn’t we all do the same? Here’s a suggestion to help you break down your prejudices. Organize a lunch or dinner in your home and invite people whom you wouldn’t normally invite. Make some new friends!

Scriptures: Romans 5:8, John 3:16-18, Ezekiel 33:11

What has your experience of love been? If love were a shop, would you go there again?

Beyond the fairy-tale illusions of childhood, most people only ever know love as a constant tug-of-war in which you only ever feel “loved,” if you give in return. And too often our hearts are crushed underfoot.

But all models of human love are basically flawed. Calvary is God’s earth-shattering revelation of a new reality that he brings into the world.

The apostle Paul describes it in Romans 5:8. The word “but” means that this is different to any other kind of love.

The word “demonstrates” means that God doesn’t just tell us about his love. He has demonstrated it. The love of God has been demonstrated as a historical and relational reality, so that none can doubt it, and all can experience it.

The phrase “his own love” means that this love is as elevated from all human forms of love as the furthest stars are from the earth. God demonstrated it at Calvary.

God didn’t wait until we changed our lives, improved our characters or reformed ourselves. While we were still sinners, he died for us. The shepherd went out to look for his lost sheep, the father of the prodigal ran down the road to welcome us home. That’s true love.

How has your experience of human love distorted, or perhaps just limited, your understanding of the love of your heavenly Father? You learn more about the truth of your heavenly Father’s love by spending time with him. Are you spending enough?

Scriptures: Luke 15:20-24, Zephaniah 3:17-20, John 16:27

Prodigal means extravagant, even to the point of wastefulness. Most people think that the Parable of the Prodigal Son is about the younger son who was prodigal with his Father’s gifts. But it’s not about him.

Some people think that the parable is about the older son who appears in the second half of the story. It’s not. Yes, the older son was prodigal with his hard work. But it’s not about him. The main character in the parable is the Father.

It’s the father who’s the greatest prodigal, giving half of everything he owns to his younger son in the first place. He didn’t have to do it. He’s prodigal even to the point of wastefulness! Those who heard this story surely shook their heads in disapproval at the father!

It is the Father who is the greatest prodigal, in his love and forgiving mercy towards his wayward child. And then, scandalously, the Father throws the biggest, noisiest party ever, so that the whole neighborhood would know that there is joy in this home because his son has returned!

Oh yes, this parable has the expansive, unbounded, extravagant love of the Father written all over it. It really is the Parable of the Prodigal Father. Are you “prodigal” (lavishly extravagant) with the love and grace of God, or are you miserly and mean-spirited with others? Pray that the Spirit of God reveals areas in your life where you need to be more generous to others with the grace of God.

Scriptures: 1 John 3:1, Hosea 3:1, 1 John 4:16, Romans 5:8

While most prophecies begin with an explicit command for the prophet to prophesy, the book of Hosea begins with God’s instructions for him to get married (Hosea 3:1)

This is no ordinary marriage. God shockingly commands Hosea, a respectable young man, to propose to a prostitute. 

Hosea’s marriage became a living sermon: a reflection of the sad relationship between God and Israel. What Hosea did for Gomer, God did for Israel; what Gomer did to Hosea, Israel did to God.

Humanly speaking, Hosea’s love for Gomer did not make any sense. People must have thought, “What is wrong with Hosea? Why doesn’t he divorce her and get himself a decent wife?” But, that was the very point of the message. God’s love for sinners is unexplainable apart from his free and sovereign grace. 

The message of Hosea transcends his time and circumstance to ours. We too have turned to strange gods of money, politics, traditions, fame and wealth. At the cross, God enters into a marriage covenant with us, having saved us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

As it was in the marriage of Hosea, so is it in the covenant of grace. God continues to love us despite our constant failures. The only one proper response to this kind of love is always genuine repentance.

Can you think of any other stories in the Bible about the grace of God that are jarringly shocking? Now think about your own experience. Is there a similar story there? How are you responding to it in your own life?

Scriptures: John 1:16, 2 Corinthians 9:10-15, Ruth 2:15-16

Jesus is God’s ‘unspeakable gift’ (2 Corinthians 9:15 KJV). Though he was rich, for our sake he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. In Christ we have all else as well: righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. 

Jesus is our Boaz, our kinsman Redeemer. He is the Lord of the harvest who invites us to his banquet and speaks tenderly to us. He orders his angelic messengers to “drop handfuls … [on] purpose” (Ruth 2:16) for us that we might ever glean and be blessed. 

In Jesus is found all the fullness of God and heaven. Humanity has a heart that is bigger than the world, however, God be praised; there is such a thing as all fullness available! God “has set eternity in our hearts” that we might be contented with nothing less than Jesus. We eat at his table, and are satisfied, and there is still an abundance left over.

We all want more than we can have in this material world, because God made us to have fullness in him. Do you primarily find your satisfaction in “things”, or in Jesus Christ? Which one brings you happiness?

Scriptures: Luke 24:25, John 5:39-47, 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about” (Luke 24:25, CEB).
 Jesus was not talking to just the two disciples; he was talking to everyone.

Jesus was not telling them that they needed to see Him in the Old Testament. He was telling them that they needed understand that He was the whole point, hero, and reason, front and center, foundation and object, of the entire Scriptures.

Jesus was not telling them that they needed to understand the Messianic prophecies, –the “Messianic” parts of the Old Testament – He was telling them that they needed to understand His cross and victory as the point of it all; in other words, Jesus was telling them that they needed to understand the gospel.

These people had been taught to read the Scriptures and to see in them anything but the gospel. They saw history and moral instruction; they saw intellectual theology and wisdom, but they had missed the gospel.

It’s time to stop being foolish and dull. When you read the Bible and see the Gospel, your heart will burn within you with excitement! It’s time to read the Scriptures afresh! But we will only ever be able to understand if the Christ of Emmaus is walking alongside us to open our eyes. And an exciting new beginning will come into your life!

Do you recognize a “dull mind” in the way that you were taught Scripture, i.e. full of history, moral instruction, intellectual theology, wisdom, and prophecy, but no gospel? What are you doing to avoid replicating that in your home or spiritual community?

Scriptures: John 13:1, Luke 22:42-44, John 15:13

Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. – John 13:1, NKJV

This text describes the attitude of Jesus just before the Last Supper. The thought of what he was about to do, and the weight of the awesomeness of the burden that he would carry almost overwhelmed him.

This text doesn’t mean that he loved his own until the end of his life. That’s not what the Greek means at all.

The Common English Bible translates it as:

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them fully.

What the text means is that Jesus loved them to the uttermost. This is extreme love. This is even more than a love that goes beyond what we can understand or beyond what we have experienced. This is love taken to an unending extreme, in a way that only the divine heart of bottomless love can do. Jesus loves us to the end.

The ones whom he loves are “His own who were in the world.” He was talking about his disciples, with whom he was about to eat the Last Supper. He was about to be betrayed, denied, and abandoned by them. Yet still he loved them to the end.

He was talking about you and me, by whom he has been betrayed, denied, and abandoned. Yet he loves us to the end.

Whatever you may be going through, you haven’t come to the end of God’s love for you yet. If you need more strength, you need to receive more of his love. Are you doing that, or are you relying on your own strength?

Scriptures: Matthew 28:18-20, John 14:16-23, John 20:21-23

We need God. Everything you and I see is transient. Everything we feel, taste, touch – everything is temporary.

There is One who overcame the world, and who said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 RSV) 

When our Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he breathed upon his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). By so doing, he was saying, “Because of the cross you need never walk alone. Because of the cross, the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God has come to live beside you – and inside you – now and forever.” You see, the coming of the Spirit is the coming of God. Jesus said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18 KJV).

It’s true that everything passes away, but not the person who has made Jesus his Savior. On his last earthly night with his disciples, Jesus said to them, 

Because I live, you will live also (John 14:19). If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23, NKJV).

Go for a walk and look around you. Everything you see is temporary. It’s going to disappear. Only God, and those in him, last forever. Now as you walk, ask God to help you see from this perspective, and to value the things of eternity.

Scriptures: Mark 8:29, Matthew 16:18, Romans 13:14

The true basis of Christianity is the identity of Jesus Christ. Your identity as a Christian is not based on a bunch of personal opinions. It is not based on a bunch of traditions. It is not based on an institution.

Your identity is based on who Jesus is. Because of who Jesus is, the gates of hell will never overcome you. The identity of Jesus Christ is something that you can totally base your life on.

Other religions began as a result of a private revelation to one individual. This person told others, who believe his story. Consider how different are the origins of Christianity! It was no private revelation given to one individual whom others believed! Everything Jesus did, He did publicly, and was witnessed by many. 

Christianity grew because there were thousands of people on the Day of Pentecost willing to stand up and testify that Jesus Christ had indeed risen from the dead. Christianity grew because Jesus really was who he said he was, the Son of Man, Son of God, and the Savior of the World.

My identity is secure because it is based on who Jesus is, and nothing else. Learn to stand on it. It’s rock-solid. Learn to depend on it, because in this wishy-washy world, you’re going to need it.

Who do you think you are? It’s true that we are who we think we are. Pray that God will continually reveal your new identity to you in Christ, so that your thinking may be transformed.

Scriptures: Mark 10:45, John 15:15, Romans 8:16-19

The name that Jesus used most often for Himself, the name by which He preferred to be known, was a name that intimately and forever connected Him with humanity – “Son of Man.” Not “Son of God”, but “Son of Man.”

The name “Son of Man” expresses one of the closest human bonds that can exist, the son-father relationship. In Jesus’ culture, the son always put the father first; the son honored the father and did what the father could not do for himself. Even more than this, Jesus specifies that this servant-relationship to humanity is expressed in His redemptive self-sacrifice for all. He says that, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). 

Jesus came to this earth to be by your side – to be much more than just your best friend. He came to be related to you by blood – a blood-relationship that is even closer than anything you may have understood before, because it was forged by the sacrifice of flawless love and not by flawed genetics.

In whatever may be your need right now, He will stand there beside you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.

We often expect to see God in astonishing miracles and displays of power. But he calls himself “the Son of Man” – the one who comes to stand with us in our troubles. Pray for greater faith to see him in your times of weakness.

Scriptures: Exodus 20:3-6, Romans 1:25, Hebrews 4:14-16

In many ways, people have created God in their own image: narrow-minded people serve a narrow-minded God, resentful people serve a resentful God, small people serve a small God, and legalists serve a legalistic God.

Others serve a great big God whose forgiveness is unconditional, whose mercy is boundless, whose companionship is personal, and whose currency is love. Why do different people see God so differently?

Human beings have been trying to create God in their own image from the beginning. We want a God who is just like us – a God whom we can control. Because what we create, we can control. But you can’t create, and you definitely can’t control God. Some people like the idea of god, more than they like God himself, because an idea is easier to control than the real thing.

God showed us how unexpectedly and concretely he acts, in sending Jesus Christ to us to show us what God is actually like. This revelation was not abstract or intellectual in nature, but totally objective: God lived among us for decades in the flesh.

God desperately wants us to know Him, because to know him means salvation. Don’t let your knowledge of what God is like be defined by your upbringing, culture, or even your church. You can know God by knowing Jesus.

Take some time out in a beautiful spot where you can sit and meditate on this question: What is the one thing that the life of Christ especially shows you about what God is like? Then prayerfully consider this: To what extent does your life reflect this quality?

Scriptures: Acts 1:1-2, Matthew 28:18-20, John 14:16-18

Do you ever wonder what Jesus is doing right now? Where is he when you need him?

The words in Acts 1:1-3 are the ones with which Luke begins his second book about what Jesus did. This first book was of course the gospel that bears his name, and this second book is called the Acts of the Apostles.

The Gospel of Luke is about “all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” The Acts of the Apostles is about all that Jesus continued to do and to teach “after his suffering” (v.3).

What this means is that although his suffering for your sin (the atonement) is finished, Jesus’ work in this world or in your life is not finished yet. The story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is only the beginning of your own story, which he carefully continues to craft.

Jesus is alive! He is still at work today! His story is not a story of the past, but a story of today!

Will you allow Jesus to continue to work in your life? Accept him again as your Lord and Savior. Thank him because he hasn’t finished with you yet, and because he has chosen you to be part of his story.

Think carefully about how the story of Jesus recorded in the Gospels (particularly his death and resurrection) has continued in your own life. Has it? In what ways? If his story is your story, with whom is God calling you to share your story?