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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Yesterday, I promised you that for this period of intense global frenzy and fear I’d give you each day, a powerful Old Testament cornerstone of God’s Truth, which speaks directly to the times in which we live. So today I offer Psalm 14.
“The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’.” (Palm 14:1) In all of history there have always been some people who have made this ridiculous claim, “There is no God.” But the number of these voices has been rapidly increasing among us since the 1960’s, would you agree. Therefore as this global crisis creeps into nation after nation, look closely to see how those in leadership, all around the world, have responded. How many have called their nations to prayer, to seek God? What difference would it have made if leaders in business, education, health care, politics, entertainment, and especially high profile religious leaders, had called us to prayer, to seek God’s help in this, in every nation where COVID-19 has taken hold?
Consider our crisis from God’s perspective: Psalm 14:2 “The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God…” From what you can tell, as God looks at your community, your nation, what does He see in the hearts, minds, words and actions of those in leadership, making the decisions regarding this global crisis where you live?
What about the average person… including you and me? Who understands what’s really happening in this global panic? Who, in your part of the world, is publicly saying they are seeking God and inviting us to do the same?
Psalm 14:5 “There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous.” Do you see some who are ‘overwhelmed with dread’ in your part of the world today? Here’s some very good news my friends. . .“God is present in the company of the righteous.” The righteous? That’s God’s people who have been declared justified, sin-forgiven, by Almighty God who has accepted the sin payment Jesus made on our behalf! God is here, among us, within His righteous people, in the midst of this global crisis! Now think about that, my friends!
Because, the Holy Spirit of God resides within those people, who have trusted Jesus Christ to be their Savior, God is here IN the people of God, calming them, guiding them, giving them wisdom to bring the hope and help of Jesus and the truth of God’s Word to the people where they live!
Almost 1 Billion people claim to be Christians. How many are genuinely redeemed by the blood of Jesus, (Eph. 1:7-12) are born-again by the Spirit of God, (John 3:3-7) are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,17) and are genuinely “Ambassadors of Jesus Christ” in this crisis (2 Corinthians 5:20)?!! Are you among these ambassadors of Jesus? What has Jesus asked you to do as an active, Holy Spirit filled agent of God, to spread calm and hope where you live in the face of the pandemic of fear?
Oh my “Walking with Jesus” friends, let’s be those who understand, who are seeking God, and who are drawing others to God with us. God has the answers in this crisis.
Now let’s rejoin our journey to Easter with Jesus in John 1. We ended yesterday in the 24 hours between verse 34 & 35. “The next day, John was there again, with two of his disciples…” It means there were people who followed John the Baptist, spending lots of time with him, trying to learn from him and understand what God was doing in their world through him. Some of these were called his ‘disciples’. How much time have you spent, my friends, trying to understand what God is doing in your world?
As you read the next few verses you’ll discover two of those men turned and spent that day with Jesus, fascinated by what John had said about Jesus, and wanting to know what they could discover about Jesus. Here we meet Andrew and John the brother of James, both of whom later become disciples of Jesus.
This John became Jesus’ best friend and he is the author of the Gospel of John, which we are reading today. In fact did you know that 5 times John refers to himself as “the disciple Jesus loved”? You’ll find those in John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 20:7; and 21:20. Oh, Jesus loved them all, but this John felt especially loved by Jesus… do you see yourself as a follower of Jesus whom He loves?
John doesn’t tell us where they spent that day, or what they talked about. All we know is that by the end of the day, both Andrew and John were convinced they had met someone very special, maybe even life changing. Could it be they had encountered the long awaited Jewish Messiah!? Please note verse 41 “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘we have found the Messiah (that is the Christ)’. And he brought him to Jesus.” Now here my friends is another ‘defining moment’. It’s remarkable!
Whatever Andrew experienced that day, in those few hours with Jesus, his life was changed… for the rest of his life, and he just had to tell his brother about it. More than that, he felt compelled to bring his brother Simon to meet Jesus for himself. May I ask each of us to think about this for a moment?
How long have you known ABOUT Jesus? And how much has what you know ABOUT Jesus impacted your life?
If you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior, how long ago was that? And how do you put into words how much your relationship with Jesus has changed your life? Please don’t rush from those questions…ponder them deeply.
God invites us into RELATIONSHIP with HIM, not into RELIGION! There’s a huge difference.
Look closely at this first encounter between Simon and Jesus in verse 42: “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’, (which when translated is Peter.)” Simon, was a fairly common name in Israel in those days, in fact Mark 6:3 tells us Mary and Joseph had other children after Jesus, and one was a son they named Simon. Simon means “Listen, or Hear”. Hebrew families chose names carefully for their children, so we can imagine Simon’s parents gave him this name in hopes he would be one who would listen well and learn much in life.
“Cephas”, the name Jesus gave Simon, is a name in Aramaic, the dialect spoken by many especially in the Galilee area, in the first century. And “Peter” is the Greek version of Cephas. This name, given by Jesus to Simon, means “rock” or “stone”. That would suggest strength, durability. Think about how important rock or stone is in our world, especially in construction!
Now put his two names together, Simon Peter, and what do you get? A ‘listener’ who becomes ‘rock solid’! The more Simon listened to Jesus, the more Jesus’ truth penetrated his life and changed him into a strong, rock-solid man, to whom many people turned for hope, especially in the intense times of Roman persecution of Christians, toward the end of the first century.
Years after this first encounter with Jesus, Simon Peter wrote his two powerful letters of 1 & 2 Peter to suffering followers of Jesus all across the Empire. Those words that Simon Peter wrote, have brought great encouragement and strength, to those in very dire, frightening times, from the first century to now, even to those facing martyrdom!
What became clear to those close friends of Jesus, is that in this name changing moment, Jesus was challenging a normal fisherman to become someone that only God could help him become. And that special someone, Simon Peter, would end up being, next to the Apostle Paul, perhaps the most revered and influential of all the followers of Jesus in the first century. It’s going to be exciting for us to trace the changes in this man, and in John, and several others, from this first encounter through to Easter weekend and beyond!
Do you see the white space between verse 42 & 43? That’s another 24 hour break, so tomorrow we’ll meet two more men who have life changing encounters with Jesus, Philip and Nathaniel, in John 1:43-51.
Let’s pause right here for today, my friends, and just ponder, contemplate what we have read and heard. And may I ask you… how much impact has Jesus had on your life since you first heard of Him? Is it substantial enough, that a different name might better describe you, than the name your parents gave you?
Is LISTENING a really important character trait for you, especially listening to God, for the purpose of internalizing whatever God says to you, so that it affects you, it impacts you, it changes you?
How much time do you devote to listening to God each day?
What prevents or distorts your hearing God as He is speaking to you?
Are you becoming ‘rock-solid’ as you internalize what you learn from Jesus?
Have you and I become the “Simon Peter” type people our friends and family desperately need us to be in these Coronavirus COVID-19 days of global fear?
Oh friends, I’m including a youtube link to Steven Curtis Chapman singing a song he wrote that fits well in these frightful times all around the world… “My Redeemer is Faithful and True”. After I pray, take a moment, quiet your heart with God and worship…
Oh Lord Jesus, thank you for the accounts we have of people just like us, whose lives YOU changed by Your truth, Your power and Your relationship with them! What about us, Jesus? Do you find us hungry to listen to You, willing to allow You to change us into the men and women God has designed us to be for such a time as this? Thank you Jesus, our Redeemer, that you are faithful and true…
Click to read today’s chapters: John 1. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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