Who Is He

For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses,
inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.
Hebrews 3:3

Even today Moses holds a unique place in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people. He was their deliverer and principal figure in the foundation of Israel as a nation. However, although this man of God was great in all he did, he pales in comparison to Jesus Christ, who is Worthy of More Glory than Moses.

Moses 1.     Name mentioned 797 times in the Bible. 2.     Law of Moses (Joshua 8:31) called law of sin and death (Romans 8:2). 3.     Mediator of the First Covenant (Exodus 34:27). 4.     Moses’ face reflected glory of God (Exodus 34:29). 5.     A prophet (Deuteronomy 34:10) 6.     Led the children of Israel out of bondage from Egypt (Exodus 13:3). 7.     Built the foundation of the nation of Israel (Hebrews 3:4).

Jesus 1.     Name mentioned 983 times in the New Testament 2.     Law of Christ (Galatians 6:2) called law of Spirit of life (Romans 8:2). 3.     Mediator of a Better Covenant (Hebrews 8:6). 4.     The body of the glorified Christ shone (Rev. 1:14-16). 5.     The Prophet (John 6:14) 6.     Delivered the world out of the bondage of sin (Galatians 1:4).  7.     Built the foundation of the church (1 Corinthians 3:11).

In the very least Jesus Christ is Worthy of More Glory than Moses, but on a much grander scale, He is worthy “to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12). Praise and worship be to the Lord of Glory.

October 23

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers.
Acts 7:52

Who said it? Now that’s an important question to ask when studying the titles of Christ. In this case, it was Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church.

Stephen was the kind of young person that every youth group desires: energetic, servant’s heart, eloquent, and on fire for the Lord. The Sanhedrin had outlawed speaking about Jesus of Nazareth and there he was, right inside the temple, preaching about Christ and making points that no one could refute. He was hauled off to court and the book of Acts records his own defense. Stephen preaches a sermon detailing the history of Israel, pointing out that their ancestors had not only challenged Moses’ leadership, but the authority of every prophet God had sent. Then came the bottom-line: those assembled in that room had betrayed and murdered the Just One of God (a.k.a. the Messiah).         

The truth hurts and convicting truth hurts a lot, so the courtroom turned into a mob bent on really hurting Stephen. They dragged him outside and threw heavy stones at him until his skull was crushed and he died.         

Another young religious zealot witnessed all this, but he belonged to the opposition. Saul of Tarsus would have thrown stones himself if he had the chance, but was outranked by the more hateful clerics. Saul did see the angel-like face of Stephen and the peace with which he died, but the phrase Just One probably was what disturbed him the most.      

This was probably on his mind while Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers “of the Way” (Acts 9:2). He saw a blinding light from heaven, realized that Jesus of Nazareth was talking to him and was told that someone would come to him with instructions. That someone was an older believer named Ananias who told him “The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth.” (Acts 22:14). The same Just One that Stephen had preached had now became Saul’s Lord.

October 22

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
John 1:4

Most Americans aren’t into cartoons as they used to be. When I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, most homes subscribed to both a morning and afternoon newspaper. In the back of the last section would be forty or so different comic strips. It’s safe to say that the “funnies” were the how and why I learned to read. They also taught me how to recognize and interpret symbols.

If a comic strip character had smoke coming out of his ears, he was angry; if there was a series of Z’s over his head, then he was asleep. When there was a light bulb in a bubble over his head, it was clear that the figure had an idea.         

Actually, I’ve seen this scenario played out in real life during my forty years as a teacher. Every now and then, I presented a lesson to a classroom of bored students, when someone actually got what I was teaching! It’s very noticeable. Their eyes lit up as if a light bulb turned on in their head. They were truly enlightened. There is even a term for this in pedagogy. It’s called an “Aha moment.”        

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Light of Men in a world of spiritual darkness. Just as sightless people don’t have a clue about color or sunsets, the unregenerate are clueless about righteousness and judgment. The god of this age has blinded those who do not believe, so they can’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4). However, that veil of deception can come down and the light of God’s holiness can come into even the darkest hearts. Through the years, I’ve seen many people come to know Christ as Lord and Savior and I can testify that there is no greater Aha moment then when someone realizes that their sins are forgiven and they have eternal life. A great spiritual light bulb turns on in their soul when the Light of Men comes into their lives.

October 21

The LORD is my rock and my fortress […]; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust…
Psalm 18:2*

King David never quite got over the experience of being a shepherd boy alone in the wilderness responsible for the lives of many sheep. As a young man in the desert, he faced wild animals that were stronger and faster than he. As sovereign of Israel, he was surrounded by enemies with bigger armies. Feeling weak served David well, because he ran to the LORD “who armed Him with strength and made His way perfect” (Psalm 18:32).

The Prophet Daniel saw a vision of a “Glorious Man” who was “clothed in linen,” his face had “the appearance of lightening,” and “his eyes like torches of fire” (Daniel 10:5,6). Since the description is similar to Ezekiel’s view of the “Glory of the LORD “(Ezekiel 1:27,28) and the Apostle John’s encounter with the glorified Christ (Revelation 1:14,15), this vision is often interpreted as an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. Daniel describes a dialogue between the two of them: “And he said, ‘O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!’ So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, ‘Let my Lord speak, for you have strengthened me’” (Daniel 10:19).

The Lord Jesus is not only the personification of Strength, He is the source of strength for all those who are weak “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

The Lord Jesus declares in 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

The weakness of God is stronger than Mankind at his prime (1 Corinthians 1:25). When people are at their weakest, there is no strength to overcome the stressfulness of life. Only with God’s help can one truly have victory. The apostle Paul understood that he could rely on the Savior’s strength. “… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

*see also Isaiah 12:2, 25:4, 40:29; Revelation 5:12,12:10

October 20

 …of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
Romans 9:5

The Apostle Paul was hurting when he wrote this section of Romans. He realized that the Jewish people were eternally lost because they had rejected their Messiah and he was grieving the loss. They could be saved if they repented of their denial of Christ and embraced Him as Lord, but for a huge number of those who heard the gospel, it wasn’t happening. How much more serious could it be? The man they had crucified was God incarnate, the Eternally Blessed God.

Herein lies the great irony. The Eternal God came to this world to be able to bless Adam’s sinful race with everlasting life. However, to reject this gift of the Savior’s sacrifice outright is to be cursed forever with separation from God. The saddest part of all is that many of the early Jewish leaders, who handed the Savior over for torture and death, did so thinking they were doing the work of God.

As Paul preached the gospel in the pagan world, it wasn’t usually the polytheists who shouted him down, but the expatriate Jewish leaders living in the Greek speaking world. Again, they convinced themselves of their own righteousness and assumed they were doing the will of God. They were tragically wrong and sadly deceived because they were following the direction of the god of this world and not the Eternally Blessed God.

Just like Paul, Christians should feel sad and burdened that the lost are going to hell, but they should be careful not to think it is not their fault that they made bad choices. Just like ol’ Pharaoh and Judas Iscariot, Christ- rejecters don’t flip a coin and pick wrong. They go through life, refusing to acknowledge the sovereignty of God and respond repeatedly to their sinful desires even though they generally reap bad consequences from these choices. They have purposefully and methodically believed the “father of lies” throughout their lives and resist the still small voice of God.

People are saved by agreeing with the Eternally Blessed God that they are hopeless sinners, rather than trying to explain or justify their actions.

October 19

I am the living bread which came down from heaven…
John 6:51

Bread really isn’t alive. It dries out or gets moldy if you don’t take care of it; it’s a lot of work to make and you need an oven to bake it. Wouldn’t it be great if bread could just grow on trees?

Actually, breadfruit does exist and on paper is the perfect food. Its slightly yeasty odor and texture remind people of bread and it is actually very nutritious. It’s a good source of energy and high in vitamins, minerals, and fiber. One tree can produce over 400 pounds of fruit a year, so it seems ideal. There is only one problem, it’s almost tasteless. The food has never really caught on, so it fails as living bread.

After the Lord Jesus fed  5,000 people, they hung around until the next day wanting Him to provide breakfast and lunch. He left that place, so they searched for Him, but when they finally found Him, the eatery was closed. He wasn’t there to make bread; He came to the world to be bread, Living Bread.

The bread He offered wasn’t the kind that filled men’s bellies; He came to feed their souls. Here again, there’s a problem with market appeal. People would rather feed their faces than satisfy a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The fast-food and grocery industries have built  multi-billion dollar businesses counting on people to make poor nutritional decisions. Food high in fats, sugars, and chemicals will kill you, but that doesn’t matter as long as it tastes good.

People walked away from Jesus on the day He offered them living bread. They wanted the kind of bread that can dry out or get moldy, the kind of loaves that get eaten up today and need to be purchased again tomorrow.

Living Bread satisfies the emptiness within a sin-sick soul. It costs no money, produces sustenance within the person, and keeps on satisfying. That’s a much better deal.

October 18

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.
1 Corinthians 1:23

The word stumbling block occurs 11 times in scripture but only once does it refer to Christ. In the remaining ten verses, four times God’s people are told not to purposefully lay down obstacles for others, and six times were told that sin trips us up. The Lord Jesus is neither sinful or deliberately trying to bring down the Jewish people, so, how is the Savior a Stumbling Block?

The New Testament quotes five times from Psalm 118:22: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” The fact that this verse was cited so many times emphasizes the importance of the teaching. The Jewish teachers of the law were those builders. Instead of embracing Old Testament prophesy, proclaiming the arrival of the Messiah, they rejected Him; they discarded the Holy One of Israel.

Obeying the letter of the law became more important than honoring and having fellowship with God. Christ came to establish that fellowship much deeper than it had ever been before by becoming the Mediator of a Better Covenant. The problem is that the rulers of the Jewish people had become comfortable with observing the rules and regulations they had added, and so rejected the King of the Jews.

God, on the other hand, highly exalted Christ and gave Him a Name that is Above Every Name. Since the fourth century, the Jewish people have seen the rise of Christianity and this dispersed people have lived under the control of so-called Christian nations for centuries.

To this day, most of the descendants of Israel still stumble and fall over the Key Stone that their ancestors threw away. Blessings have become few and antisemitism is on the rise all over the world. Yet, most of the Jewish people today don’t understand what is happening, because Christ is still their Stumbling Block rather than a Savior.

October 17

And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:4

Since the verse above is pulled out of context, it’s a little difficult to understand what it is talking about. Actually, the Apostle Paul was making a reference to the Old Testament story of Moses getting water from the rock. Truth be told, the miracle was performed on many occasions.

Rocks by nature aren’t very absorbent. There is no such thing as a soggy rock. Also a huge amount of water would be needed. Do the math. Most scholars agree that the Israelites numbered around 3 million people and probably had hundreds of thousands of heads of  livestock. Calculating a gallon of water per day per person with two gallons per day per animal, they’d need at least 200,000 gallons of water per hour, (i.e. 55 gal./sec.) everyday day for 40 years. That’s not allowing for baths, washing clothes or spillage. Even if they got that much, it would have to be rationed.

In reality, the water coming out of the rock would have to be a small river that would constantly flow and allow for water seeping into desert sand. Once they found this kind of water source, they wouldn’t find another. But, they did leave it and then found another water-producing rock and then another and then another.

If the desert was full of these “gusher-rocks” then it wouldn’t be a desert. Truth is that God was performing a daily (hourly) miracle to provide His people with water and this miracle followed them as they wandered the wilderness for forty years. In the verse above, Paul tells us that it was actually Christ in His capacity of Creator that was producing the H2O out of stone. It was the Second Person of the Trinity come down from heaven to follow His people and provide what they needed to live. This time He manifested Himself as the Rock.

October 16

…But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form
of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:7*

Seven Hundred years before the Savior walked the hills of Galilee, the prophet Isaiah spoke of the coming Servant of Jehovah (Isaiah 52:13-15). Even the scribes and doctors of the law of Jesus’ day had serious problems with the prophecy. It was clear that God’s Servant was to suffer and be cruelly treated in order to justify many, but other prophesies presented the Messiah as an all-powerful king. To explain the apparent contradiction, some suggested that God would send two different Anointed Ones.

The religious leaders failed to see the two separate missions of Christ. Before He could reign and rule over Israel, He first had to stoop to conquer. When the Lord came to die on Calvary, He was the Suffering Servant. When He comes the second time, it will be as King of Kings.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He fed the hungry, attended the sick, and washed dirty feet. Finally, when his time of service was over, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8).

Men became slaves to the Devil by emulating their owner. Lucifer is a prideful creature who has the power to hold in bondage all those given to self-exaltation. It is deception to covet power and authority at all cost. But it’s bad business to gain even the whole world and lose one’s soul (Matthew 16:26).

Our master told his disciples “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Strange logic indeed it seems – until one realizes that there is nothing greater than being like the Lord. Being conformed to the image of Christ is glorious.

*see also Isaiah 42:1, 52:13, 53:11; Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13, 26, 4:30

October 15

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 23:1

This psalm might be the most well-known portion of the Old Testament. It is commonly read at funerals, quoted in greeting cards, and is set to music. But to most, it is just a pretty poem that doesn’t fit the reality of their lives. It says, “I shall not want,” but most people have plenty of wants: money, things, power, fame, pleasure, and if they do get those things they want even more; they are never satisfied.

The problem is that most people can’t say, “The LORD is my shepherd.” To do so would be to admit that they were like sheep and they needed to follow someone who actually knew the way. The prophet Isaiah nailed it: “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). A sheep that won’t follow the shepherd always gets lost, even if the shepherd brings it back to the fold. Sooner or later that sheep becomes wolf food. Sheep really can’t take care of themselves, especially the really dumb ones who pride themselves on their independence.

In 1868, Elizabeth Clephane wrote the following poem that later became a hymn:

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold;
But one was out on the hills away,
Far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare;
Away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

The next three stanzas describe how the Shepherd searches and suffers to find the sheep until it cries out for help. The last verse concludes:

And all through the mountains, thunder-riv’n,
And up from the rocky steep,
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heav’n,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own!”

October 14