He doesn’t need our help, or want our help when it comes to the business of saving people and giving them eternal salvation.
Only a puny sort of god would require assistance in giving people new life and raising them from the dead.
Our God is a real God and therefore is more than capable of doing for us and giving to us everything that we need.
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Pastor Mark Anderson’s sermon for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany:
click here > ‘Jesus came to save us…and He came to do it…ALONE’
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Thank you, Pastor Mark.
And thanks to flickr and freestone, for the photo.
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Filed under: Pastor Mark Anderson, Sermon |
The Old Adam Lives! 
A great new series, by our friend Alden has just started here:
http://aldenswan.com/2012/01/new-covenant-law-1/comment-page-1/#comment-25649
Well worth a look.
Howard.
Thanks, Howard.
I did go over there. Good stuff!
Thanks for the heads-up and link.
– Steve
Only a short – as always 😀 – spotlight on the scene in the synagogue on the Sabbath day…
Up from this day Jesus had difficulties with the people around Him. Beforehand we are told that He “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), but after Jesus revealed Himself being the Messiah, they wondered what happened to the man they seemed to know as Josef’s son.
What was different with Him? Was He so evidently transformed that people suddenly were astonished about “the gracious words coming from his mouth” (Lk 4:22)?
In my humble opinion, Jesus had always been the Son of God, to be sure, but this fact was hidden for anyone until they could feel it, see it and hear it with the eyes and ears of their hearts. They were thrilled by the all-pervasive power of the Holy Spirit with whom Jesus was filled through His baptism. In His power Jesus was able to overcome any temptation in the wilderness on our behalf, so that we being tempted can rely on His success – just in case we’d give in to a temptation.
You can see that God’s Word “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12), because when Jesus just finished His first prophecy “all in the synagogue were filled with wrath” (Lk 4:28) and wanted to kill Him. For what reason? Has He done anything wrong? No, not at all; it was His light they couldn’t bear.
“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (Jn 3:19)
Jesus illuminated their hearts in a way they couldn’t help realizing that they never would be able to hide anything from Him. They only had two options – believing and repenting or hating Him. There is no other possibility to choose than one of them.
However, Jesus proved and demonstrated soon afterwards why He actually came to us: He taught and preached with divine authority, cast out demons, and healed any sickness fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1-2 by giving grace upon grace (Jn 1:16) to any weak, desperate, and helpless sinner He called (Mt 9:13) – and, last but not least, He forgave sins.
Good thoughts, Susanne.
Yes, he was different. He spoke with real authority. He had real power. He was different. He didn’t come to tune us up. He came to save us.
“Jesus illuminated their hearts in a way they couldn’t help realizing that they never would be able to hide anything from Him. They only had two options – believing and repenting or hating Him. There is no other possibility to choose than one of them.”
Someone once said that only two outcomes are possible when a person meets Jesus, “Either they die, or He dies.”
Thanks, Susanne.