December 25, 2022
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Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 25 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Growing Opposition
Read Sections 4.5 through 4.8 (pages 72-76)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
Advent days 24&25
Day 25
4.5 – 4.8
I love the story of Peter falling in the water when he takes his eyes of Jesus. Such a perfect analogy for our lives that when we look to the mess around us and take our eyes off God we easily become overwhelmed and sink!
Jesus is the bread of life….these words confused the people and yet seem so obvious to us knowing how Jesus’ story ends on earth. He was telling them that His death and blood would pay the price for our salvation. Not surprising that people walked away when the focus shifted to what they needed to do. Jesus was great when He was healing and feeding them but now when the focus shifts to us and what we need to do then Jesus becomes hard. We need to change our priorities, give up old ways, believe, and accept the struggles that may come from the old people’s expectations for us as we live a new life…still all much easier than the what Jesus did for us!
Jesus walking on water, another example of His awesome power to defy natural laws. And what a great picture of how faith connects us with His power. When we look to Him and believe, the power is there. When we look at the circumstances of life or people, and we then doubt what Jesus is doing with or through us, then we begin to sink. Faith is the key that makes the dynamic of God’s power work for us. It is staggering to think of all the things Jesus did in healing people, and yet we know faith was operating there as well. And how important faith is in understanding that Jesus is the bread of life. I love when Jesus says, the work God has for you to do is to believe in the One He sent. It is the only part we can play to receive all that God is and what He provides. And in the same way bread feeds the body, Jesus fills the soul. But when we eat physical bread, we need to eat again. When we feed on Jesus through faith, He satisfies us completely, and although we need to continue to believe and apply all the things Jesus is to the various facets of life, Jesus is still the One doing the satisfying. What a great picture of how integrated God wants to be in our lives in comparing Himself to bread. And how significant is the work on calvary and. Jesus explaining in the context of that He is giving His body and His blood as a sacrifice for us. And even though these same elements are in communion, we do not receive Jesus as the bread of life in that ceremony, we receive Jesus as the bread of life through faith. Every other thing that satisfies will bring harm or slavery. Jesus is the only One who satisfies us completely and without harmful side effects. Now this is and was a hard thing for some to understand. And some used it as an excuse to leave Jesus. But what Peter says is the essence of our faith and commitment to God: You have the words of eternal life, where else are we going to go? Truth does not change to accommodate us. We must change to accommodate the truth.
The teaching that Jesus gave about eating his body and drinking his blood to gain eternal life was hard to take by his followers who really didn’t believe. But to his apostles who did believe, because they knew he was the Son of God they accepted this teaching. And later on, they would understand exactly what he meant.
We were thinking it was funny that Jesus tells Peter, “your faith is so small. Why did you doubt?” Steve said, “Peter has the most small faith. Peter says, ‘if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” No one else is getting out of the boat! Peter actually gets out of the boat and believes enough to get to Jesus. Yet, Peter still has small faith. Imagine what complete faith could accomplish.
I think about the eating of Jesus’ flesh and the drinking of His blood as Jesus using shock to ask the people, “are you all in?” He tells the disciples, “the things I have told you are from the Spirit and they give life.” “The body has no value for that.” We are always looking for the physical way to access spiritual goals. I wonder if this is why the Catholic church has implemented the mass. They have now taken Jesus’ words, said regarding the Spirit, and made them a physical act necessary for salvation.
It is at least one of the texts they use to support the mass…I actually addressed that long ago in one of the messages I gave on John 6.