The following devotions are written and shared weekly by Pastor Steve Harmon.
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Day One
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Luke 19:40, we see evidence that God will not be left without a witness. When the Pharisees tell Jesus to quiet His disciples – to keep them from proclaiming Him as their King promised long ago by God through the prophet Zechariah – Jesus tells them that if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.
The heavens declare His glory. The trees of the field clap their hands. The complexity and intricacy of creation witnesses to an intelligent designer – that all we see did not come about by chance. You don’t get a Rolex watch by putting pieces in a bag and shaking it up. Every house has a builder.
God won’t be left without a witness, but we need to speak. The heavens with all of their majesty and beauty can’t speak to God’s mercy. We have to do that. We have to tell what God has done to rescue us from sin and death.
Sin and death held all of God’s creation (including us) captive. And they are masters of destruction. They took God’s creation captive in order to destroy it. All of creation groaned under that yoke.
So God entered into His creation so that He could set it free from those chains. Jesus became the ransom price paid to satisfy the demands of sin and death. By Jesus’ death on the cross, the ransom was paid. Sin and death had to release their hold on God’s creation. We were set free so that we could become children of God.
Day Two
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here in John 21:1-14, this is the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples after He rose from the dead. Certainly, Jesus does this to confirm that He is indeed alive – that He has risen from the dead. And that is great news – news that will turn the world upside down.
The detail I want to focus on here is Peter in the boat. He was out fishing. He had taken his outer garment off – I would assume for better range of motion – ease of movement – as he tossed the net and pulled it back in. I would have done the same.
But when Peter hears John say that it is the Lord who is standing on the shore, he puts his out garment back on and jumps into the sea to swim to Jesus. That is not something that I would have done. If I was going to jump into the water, I would not put on extra clothes before I did so.
Why does Peter do that? We could say that he just wasn’t very smart. All joking aside, that’s not likely. A more likely explanation would be that Peter was feeling naked – like Adam and Eve in the Garden – and wanted to cover his nakedness. He was probably still feeling shame from his denials. Three times he denied that he knew Jesus prior to His crucifixion.
That he dives into the water and swims to shore is a contrast to Adam and Eve. He doesn’t try to hide in the back of the boat – behind the other disciples in the boat. In spite of his shame, he wants to get to Jesus. And Jesus will deal with Peter’s shame. That comes later in this chapter. He will let Peter know that he is forgiven and that Peter will have an important role to play in the building of the Church.
Day Three
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philip has been called by Jesus to follow Him (John 1:43-51). And Philip does. Part of following Jesus is telling others about Him. Philip finds Nathanael and tells him that they (he and Peter and Andrew) have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law – they have found the Messiah.
Probably it would be more correct to say that they were found by the Messiah. Jesus came to them. And He does the same for Nathanael. He does that because He wants to be known. He wants that because it’s through knowing Jesus that we come to the knowledge of salvation. It’s by knowing Jesus that we see the saving work that He has done for us.
As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we come to realize how absolutely dependent we are on Jesus’ work. We can’t save ourselves. We possess nothing in us that makes us worthy of God’s love. We have been adopted as children of God because of Jesus’ work done for us and given to us. He has made the unlovable
lovable through the forgiveness of our sins.
Day Four
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us to live not as unwise, but as wise. Certainly that tells us to be aware of the consequences of our behaviors. If we make foolish choices, then we will be dealing with unwanted consequences. And if we continue to live foolishly, then we will blame others for those consequences. Doing that only serves to drive us deeper into folly.
What Paul is talking about here is making choices that lead to life. That’s what the Ten Commandments are all about. They are God’s gift to us to guide us to make choices that lead to life. With those commandments, God has set boundaries for us. Within those boundaries, the consequences of our choices are blessings. Outside of those boundaries, the consequences of our choices are destructive. The pleasure may be the same, but the consequences are not. One leads to life. The other leads to death.
Jesus has chosen us to be His own precious treasure. He has given us the benefits of His saving work. The wise choice is to remain with Christ – to trust Him to care for us and keep us steadfast in the faith. Trust His voice and follow Him because He is at work to bring you home.
Day Five
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
John says a lot here in John 1:29-41. He sees Jesus coming toward him and identifies Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He goes on to say that Jesus is the one who comes after John whose sandals John is not fit to untie.
Identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God is the reason why John came baptizing with water. John didn’t come to make a name for himself. He doesn’t identify himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He is simply doing the job that was given him to do so that the Lamb of God might be revealed to Israel.
He knows that Jesus is the One because of what happened when Jesus came to be baptized. John was told that the one on whom he saw the Spirit come down and remain on him is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit – is the Lamb of God.
When he identifies Jesus again as the Lamb of God on the next day, two of his disciples follow Jesus. They spend the day with Him. During that time, Jesus reveals to them that He is the Messiah – the Anointed One of God who has come to deliver God’s people.
And the first thing that Andrew does is to tell his brother Simon Peter that he has found the Messiah – the Christ. After John’s personal encounter with Jesus, he proclaims that He is the Lamb of God. After his personal encounter with Jesus, Andrew proclaims Him to be the Messiah. And he shares that with his brother.
So we see the work of revealing Himself to Israel has begun. And it continues today as God continues to reveal Himself through His Word to be the Savior of the world. And we, like John and Andrew, are participants in that work as we share Jesus with others.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Luke 19:40, we see evidence that God will not be left without a witness. When the Pharisees tell Jesus to quiet His disciples – to keep them from proclaiming Him as their King promised long ago by God through the prophet Zechariah – Jesus tells them that if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.
The heavens declare His glory. The trees of the field clap their hands. The complexity and intricacy of creation witnesses to an intelligent designer – that all we see did not come about by chance. You don’t get a Rolex watch by putting pieces in a bag and shaking it up. Every house has a builder.
God won’t be left without a witness, but we need to speak. The heavens with all of their majesty and beauty can’t speak to God’s mercy. We have to do that. We have to tell what God has done to rescue us from sin and death.
Sin and death held all of God’s creation (including us) captive. And they are masters of destruction. They took God’s creation captive in order to destroy it. All of creation groaned under that yoke.
So God entered into His creation so that He could set it free from those chains. Jesus became the ransom price paid to satisfy the demands of sin and death. By Jesus’ death on the cross, the ransom was paid. Sin and death had to release their hold on God’s creation. We were set free so that we could become children of God.
Day Two
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here in John 21:1-14, this is the third time that Jesus appeared to His disciples after He rose from the dead. Certainly, Jesus does this to confirm that He is indeed alive – that He has risen from the dead. And that is great news – news that will turn the world upside down.
The detail I want to focus on here is Peter in the boat. He was out fishing. He had taken his outer garment off – I would assume for better range of motion – ease of movement – as he tossed the net and pulled it back in. I would have done the same.
But when Peter hears John say that it is the Lord who is standing on the shore, he puts his out garment back on and jumps into the sea to swim to Jesus. That is not something that I would have done. If I was going to jump into the water, I would not put on extra clothes before I did so.
Why does Peter do that? We could say that he just wasn’t very smart. All joking aside, that’s not likely. A more likely explanation would be that Peter was feeling naked – like Adam and Eve in the Garden – and wanted to cover his nakedness. He was probably still feeling shame from his denials. Three times he denied that he knew Jesus prior to His crucifixion.
That he dives into the water and swims to shore is a contrast to Adam and Eve. He doesn’t try to hide in the back of the boat – behind the other disciples in the boat. In spite of his shame, he wants to get to Jesus. And Jesus will deal with Peter’s shame. That comes later in this chapter. He will let Peter know that he is forgiven and that Peter will have an important role to play in the building of the Church.
Day Three
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philip has been called by Jesus to follow Him (John 1:43-51). And Philip does. Part of following Jesus is telling others about Him. Philip finds Nathanael and tells him that they (he and Peter and Andrew) have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law – they have found the Messiah.
Probably it would be more correct to say that they were found by the Messiah. Jesus came to them. And He does the same for Nathanael. He does that because He wants to be known. He wants that because it’s through knowing Jesus that we come to the knowledge of salvation. It’s by knowing Jesus that we see the saving work that He has done for us.
As we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we come to realize how absolutely dependent we are on Jesus’ work. We can’t save ourselves. We possess nothing in us that makes us worthy of God’s love. We have been adopted as children of God because of Jesus’ work done for us and given to us. He has made the unlovable
lovable through the forgiveness of our sins.
Day Four
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul tells us to live not as unwise, but as wise. Certainly that tells us to be aware of the consequences of our behaviors. If we make foolish choices, then we will be dealing with unwanted consequences. And if we continue to live foolishly, then we will blame others for those consequences. Doing that only serves to drive us deeper into folly.
What Paul is talking about here is making choices that lead to life. That’s what the Ten Commandments are all about. They are God’s gift to us to guide us to make choices that lead to life. With those commandments, God has set boundaries for us. Within those boundaries, the consequences of our choices are blessings. Outside of those boundaries, the consequences of our choices are destructive. The pleasure may be the same, but the consequences are not. One leads to life. The other leads to death.
Jesus has chosen us to be His own precious treasure. He has given us the benefits of His saving work. The wise choice is to remain with Christ – to trust Him to care for us and keep us steadfast in the faith. Trust His voice and follow Him because He is at work to bring you home.
Day Five
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
John says a lot here in John 1:29-41. He sees Jesus coming toward him and identifies Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He goes on to say that Jesus is the one who comes after John whose sandals John is not fit to untie.
Identifying Jesus as the Lamb of God is the reason why John came baptizing with water. John didn’t come to make a name for himself. He doesn’t identify himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He is simply doing the job that was given him to do so that the Lamb of God might be revealed to Israel.
He knows that Jesus is the One because of what happened when Jesus came to be baptized. John was told that the one on whom he saw the Spirit come down and remain on him is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit – is the Lamb of God.
When he identifies Jesus again as the Lamb of God on the next day, two of his disciples follow Jesus. They spend the day with Him. During that time, Jesus reveals to them that He is the Messiah – the Anointed One of God who has come to deliver God’s people.
And the first thing that Andrew does is to tell his brother Simon Peter that he has found the Messiah – the Christ. After John’s personal encounter with Jesus, he proclaims that He is the Lamb of God. After his personal encounter with Jesus, Andrew proclaims Him to be the Messiah. And he shares that with his brother.
So we see the work of revealing Himself to Israel has begun. And it continues today as God continues to reveal Himself through His Word to be the Savior of the world. And we, like John and Andrew, are participants in that work as we share Jesus with others.