KJB Daily Devotion – Following Jesus Through Every Chapter
Date: Sunday, October 02, 2016
Chapters: Luke Chapter 1-John Chapter 1:1-14
Message: Preparing The Way For The Lord
Hello My Friend,
I am excited to start this new journey of reading the Bible through in the course of its events, I believe we can get a deeper understanding by reading it as they happened rather than book to book. I hope this journey can be enlightening to both you and I as we near the end of the year. Each of the four Gospels, while many talk of the same events, has a particular audience it addresses as well as a different form of Jesus. The timeline for these events took place approximately between 4BC and 33 AD. The Book of Luke, was addressed to the Greeks, whom Jesus is presented as the perfect man. The purpose of this Gospel was to give an orderly account of Jesus from birth to show that He is the promised Messiah, and give an account to the Scriptures regarding John the Baptist. What we are to learn from the book is that our mission is to reach the lost with the Good News of Jesus and to realize that nothing is impossible for God. “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” – Luke 1:37.
Luke is called by Paul, the beloved physician, he often traveled with Paul throughout his ministry, he treasured the words that Jesus spoke, as well as everything else that concerned the Saviour’s life. Luke begins his telling of the Gospel of Jesus with a declaration. “It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.” – Luke 1:3-4.
“to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,” Theophilus, friend of God. This Gospel is not addressed a specific person, but a group of people, those who are friends of God. Friends of God are those who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as their Saviour by faith in believing the Scriptures alone. We need to get a little idea of what is taking place here, this is a time when there were no prophets speaking, anyone who believed in and followed God did so like we do today, they read the Scriptures and believed them by faith. All that was about to change when a priest name Zacharias gets a visit from an angel.
“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” – Luke 1:5-6,11-13,17.
“And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,” These are similar to the words that Malachi spoke four hundred years prior. What we learn from all this is that whatever God says will happen happens, it may take hundreds of years, but as long as we believe we have nothing to worry about. John would be the first to preach about Jesus since Malachi, He did not know when He would arrive, but He knew was coming. We too are to make people ready for the day that Jesus returns, it may be hundreds of years from now or tomorrow, but we need to prepare people for His coming. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” – II Peter 3:9-10.
Another event was about to take place that would not only bring the prophet, but the one they have been prophesying about all along. The same angel that visited with Zacharias came to visit a young woman named Mary, she was not sinless, but she too believed in and followed the Scriptures by faith.
“And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” – Luke 1:28-35.
“and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:” God did not use a man, or any other being, it was by His power that she, a virgin, conceived and was blessed to carry His Son. By human understanding this is without a doubt inconceivable, but With God, All Things Are Possible. I can only image what Mary was thinking as she was carrying God’s Son in her body, but I imagine she was on her best behavior yet. Mary went to see Elisabeth to witness her amazing miracle from God, a few months later John was born, and as soon as God saw Zacharias’ faith he was filled with the Holy Spirit and began prophesying about what his son would be doing.
“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” – Luke 1:67-69,76-79.
“And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us” Horn, a symbol of honor, plenty, strength, and power. Jesus, all God and all man is the only power that saves us from a fiery, burning hell, He is the glorious, mighty, plenteous, Saviour to all who believe in and receive Him. One thing we must not forget is that all these people that played a part in the life of Jesus from John to the seventy nameless disciples that we only read about had to believe the same Scriptures that we have today. A person can just as well get saved by having the Old Testament read to them as they can the New Testament, it all comes down to faith, which we all must have to understand and know God. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” – Hebrews 11:1-3.
The author of the book of John is John, not John the Baptist, but a disciple, and this Gospel was addressed to Jews and Gentiles, to whom Jesus is presented as the Son of God. The purpose of the book was to show All that Jesus is the Messiah, Son of God, and the only way to eternal life. What we are to learn from the book is Jesus is the Christ, and the only source to everlasting life. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” – John 14:6. Through John, we get a little more details about John the Baptist.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” – John 1:6-13.
“to them gave he power to become the sons of God,” Through the eyes of the sons of God, Jesus was, is, and always will be, not only His begotten Son, but God Himself in the flesh. John was inspired by God to reveal to us that Jesus has always been, and help us understand that we are not born into the family of God by natural human conception, but by believing in the Son of God alone. No one can be a son of God unless they receive Christ as their Saviour.
Jesus Christ Magnified: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” – John 1:14.
Today’s Prayer: God, It is often said that seeing is believing, well, I for one know that to be true, but not as the world would see, but as You would see. I may not have seen Your Son in person the day I believed in Him, but I have seen what Your Son has done in my life since making Him a part of it. Just like the miracle of birth, You created another miracle in my spiritual birth, and while I may not always understand Your ways, I do understand that You love us so much, that Your only option to save us was to give Your own through Your Son. Today, I do not want to ask You for anything, I just to thank You and praise You for being my God, my Father, and my Saviour. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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