Category Archives: Devotions from the Gospels

Holy Perfectionism

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You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect.               Matthew 5:48 ESV1

Read Matthew 5:13-48 & Luke 6:20-36

In the Sermon on the Mount, (recorded in Matthew chapters 5-7) Jesus challenged His committed disciples to live lives on a higher plane than even the highly respected religious leaders of their day. This plane of perfection went beyond that which they had been taught. Jesus equated anger with murder (see Matthew 5:21-22) and lust and divorce with adultery (see Matthew 5:27-32). He called oaths evil (see Matthew 5:33-37) and commanded His followers to return retaliation and enmity with love (see Matthew 5:38-48). In teaching His disciples to obey not only the Law but the spirit of the law, He was teaching them how to show God to their world. This perfection was, and still is, a high road.

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Ultimate Satisfaction

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Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them.                   Matthew 5:1-2 ESV1

Read Matthew 5:1-12 & Luke 6:20-26

Jesus had been going “throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people, so His fame spread throughout all Syria” (Matthew 4:23-24a). Once again, Jesus was confronted with a crowd of people wanting something from Him, but instead of immediately ministering to the multitude, He climbed a nearby mountain and got away from the hustle and bustle. Only those who were really committed to following Him joined Jesus on His climb. When they all reached a quiet spot, Jesus sat down and began to teach these disciples.

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Jesus Prayed

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He [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray, and all night He continued in prayer to God.  Luke 6:12 ESV1

Read Luke 6:12-49

Why did Jesus make the effort to climb a mountain and take the time to spend all night in prayer? Was it because He had an important decision to make in selecting twelve of His closest disciples to become His apostles? Because that is what He did immediately following this time of prayer. Their names are listed in verses 13-15 of Luke 6.

Was it because He knew He was going to have to be empowered to conduct a particularly draining time of ministry the following day? Because, at the foot of the mountain, He was met by a great crowd of people. Luke 6:19 tells us, “All the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came out from Him and healed them all.”

Or did He spend all that time in prayer, because He was planning on giving a very long and radical speech that would challenge the most basic beliefs of his audience? Verses 20 through 42 of Luke 6 record a sermon which names as blessings situations most everyone would consider curses, pronounces woes upon those things for which humans constantly strive, and commands that one must love one’s enemies and stop judging others. (Matthew records an even longer version of this sermon in chapters 5-7 of his book).

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It’s Not About Me

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“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30 ESV1

Read John 3:22-4:3

One day, “Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, and He remained there with them and was baptizing” (John 3:22) … Although Jesus Himself did not baptize, but only His disciples” (John 4:2). Jesus’ ministry was getting more and more visibility. Many of the people who heard Him speak and saw His miracles wanted to get right with God. To show their commitment to a changed life, they desired baptism. Jesus’ disciples were happy to help. But, without their realizing it, their actions began to cause an uproar.

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Spiritual Eyes

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The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’?  John 4:11 MSG1

Read John 4:1-42

One day, as Jesus was traveling through the land of Samaria, “wearied as He was from His journey, [He sat] beside [a] well … A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink’” (John 4:6-7). The woman was shocked that He, “a Jew, [would] ask for a drink from [her], a woman of Samaria” (John 4:9). It was socially unacceptable. But Jesus was trying to get this woman to focus, not on the physical realm of life, but the spiritual. So, He continued, “If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10). The woman, again physically focused, said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket” (John 4:11).

Imagine telling the One who created water and spoke it into existence, the One who could have, then and there, called forth a river to flow out of a nearby rock, that He could not come up with water. Imagine limiting the Limitless One to a bucket. But that is exactly what each of us does when we see only the physical boundaries before us.

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The Great Exchange

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“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God…whoever believes in [the Son of God] may have Eternal Life.” John 3:5 & 15 ESV1

Read John 3:1-21

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, and a teacher of Israel, came to Jesus under the cover of night. Was he trying to hide, and if so, from whom? The other Jewish religious leaders? the Jewish people? Was he concerned about his reputation, or was he just a very busy man trying to seek an uninterrupted audience with another very busy Man, and late one evening, the opportunity provided itself? We don’t know why Nicodemus came to Jesus because before he even got through his introduction, Jesus cut him off.

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For the Audience of One

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And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth … [but it wasn’t long before] all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove Him out of town and brought Him to the brow of the hill … so that they could throw Him down the cliff.                                         Luke 4:22 & 28b-29 ESV1

Read Luke 4: 16-30, Matthew 13:53-58 & Mark 6:1-6

People are fickle. They like it when you encourage them and tell them what they want to hear. But when you confront them on some issue, they are usually not so friendly. Though it likely didn’t surprise Jesus, because “He knew what was in a man” (John 2:25), and He had seen Israel “kill the prophets and stone those sent to” her (Matthew 23:37), Jesus Himself experienced this truth, you might say, a little too close to home in Nazareth, from his own relatives, friends, and neighbors.

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In Need of a Minor Miracle

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When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And … His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” John 2:3 & 5 ESV1

Read John 2:1-12

It had been a busy few days for Jesus. He had just started His ministry. It had begun with His baptism, where He had been met by both God and man each declaring His identity and purpose. As the days passed, He had met several people. Some had decided to join Him in His ministry. Others weren’t so sure. He had traveled back and forth over the rugged landscape of Decapolis and Galilee. (See John 1:29-2:1). Now, He was ready to relax with His family and His friends, old and new, at the wedding of someone very close to Him. Continue reading →

Tackling Temptation

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Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil. Matthew 4:1 ESV1

Read Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, & Luke 4:1-13

Temptation is bad, isn’t it? Why then was Jesus led by the Spirit into temptation (see Matthew 4:1, Mark 1:12, and Luke 4:1)? We are supposed to plead with God not to lead us into temptation (see Matthew 6:13). And the Scriptures tell us God “tempts no one” (James 1:13b). Yet, God, through the Holy Spirit, led Jesus right into it. Why?

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A Child of God

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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”                Matthew 3:8-9 ESV1

Read Matthew 3:1-12

In the time in which Jesus walked the Earth there were groups of very religious people who were absolutely sure that they, above others, were right with God. They studied the Scriptures, followed very high standards of holiness, and taught others to do the same. Two of these religious groups were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Shortly before Jesus began His earthly ministry, his close relative, John the Baptist, was preparing the way for Jesus by preaching, “‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’” (Matthew 3:2). A great number of people from the region believed John’s message. “[They] were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6). Presumably, because they were serious about matters of faith, “many Pharisees and Sadducees [were also] coming to [John’s] baptism, [and] he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come’” (Matthew 3:7)? Why was John so rude to those wanting to do the right thing?

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