Do You Want To Be Seen With Jesus?

Scripture

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus—but secretly because of his fear of the Jews—asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus’s body. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and took his body away. Nicodemus (who had previously come to him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes.

John 19:28-39 CSB

Thought

The verses above come right after Jesus had been crucified. His disciples were confused and distraught. They thought this was the man who would finally lead them to brighter days and yet here they are without a leader, or so they think.

Following Jesus crucifixion we see that Joseph of Arimathea offers to bury Jesus. He is a disciple of Jesus but John tell us that this is actually a secret. The next guy who comes to help out with the burial is Nicodemus. We met Nicodemus earlier in John’s letter when he came to Jesus at night for fear of what it would do to his reputation to be seen with Jesus. What I love about this is how now Nicodemus isn’t trying to hide who he is anymore. He is no longer scared to be seen as Jesus.

I think that John put these very specific details in his letter to us. There have always been people who are scared at first to be seen with Jesus. But when you spend enough time with Him and truly believe you don’t care who sees you with Him.

Even in today’s world people can be very scared to be “seen” with Jesus. Some parts of the world you can be killed for following Jesus. Some parts of the world it may cost us our reputation, jobs, or relationships. For these reasons we try to hide it.

It can be normal when we first start to follow Jesus to be a little hesitant like Nicodemus and Joseph were. But may we never stay that way. May we be like Nicodemus and quickly realize what an honor it is to be known as a friend of the Savior.

Action

What is one way today that you can show you are proud to be a friend of Jesus? Would that be talking to a friend about Him? Would that be standing up believing in Christ as the Son of God in a conversation? What can you do today? Go do it!

Trust Him

Scripture

He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.

Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

“Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.

While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

Now this was also the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.

John 4:46-54 CSB

Thought

Jesus has always had people from all walks of life who are interested in Him and what He can do. When Jesus walked on this earth both the poor and the rich all were intrigued with this man named Jesus.

In the story we read above we meet a royal official who had traveled quite a distance to come and meet Jesus and beg Him to heal his son who was about to die. He must have heard of Jesus and the powers that he had. Nobody leaves their dying son behind unless there is a chance that leaving him could bring healing to him. 

So this man comes to Jesus and asks for his son to be healed. Jesus answer to the man. Go and your son will live. I’m sure this was not what the man was expecting. I’m sure he was thinking Jesus would come back to his house and heal his son in front of him. This is not what Jesus did. He asked the man to just trust Him.

Jesus has been asking us all to trust him for the past 2000 years. He has been asking us to trust that he is the Son of God. He has been asking us to trust that salvation comes through a relationship with Him and nothing more. He asks us to trust Him. 

Hopefully we all can have the faith that that royal official had. Enough faith to just turn around and go home trusting that Jesus would do what He said He would. We get to see the end of this story. The man returns home and finds out that his son’s health began to improve when he had trusted what Jesus had told Him. May we too trust Christ with all of our hearts, souls, and minds.

Action

Take some time today to read more of John’s account of Jesus life. Write down some of the stories that strengthens your trust in Christ.

Are You Confident?

Scripture

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ‭‭John‬ ‭1:1-14‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Thought

Can you imagine walking the earth with Christ? Can you imagine what it would have been like to talk to Him, see Him preform miracles, and watch him love people that no one else was willing to even look at? John was able to do just that. 

John’s testimony is so important to us. He tells us about Jesus’ life and ministry. John tells us about Christ’s life and ministry so that we can believe in Jesus as the Son of God just like he did. He wrote the letter he did so that we that read it might believe as well. 

Are you confident in Christ being the Son of God? I believe that we can be confident in Christ being the Son of God but often we are content with just being pretty sure because we were told to be. We can see from how John started his letter that he wasn’t just pretty sure. He was confident. Let’s get to that point as well if we aren’t already.

Action

Too often in Christianity we just believe because our parents or a friend told us to believe. We don’t dig in for ourselves and actually find out if Christ truly is the Son of God. I would encourage you to take sometime today looking at the evidences for Christ being the Son of God. I am confident that you will find the truth!

A New Command

Scripture

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” - John 13:34-35

Thought

Jesus had a way of changing things up. To the Jews many of these statements seemed blasphemous. Under the Old Covenant the Jews had many commands and laws they were to keep. When Jesus came he changed the whole system. He gave us a new command. A command that is very simple yet is so hard to live out.

The night before His crucifixion he told His disciples a new command. That command? To love one another. But not to just love one another. Jesus wanted us to love each other the way He has loved us. The disciples at that time had now clue what was coming next. Just how far Jesus was about to go in order to love them and love us. But the disciples had already seen so much of His love in their own lives. Love that no one else would give to tax collectors. Love that no one else would give to ordinary men. Jesus loved people in a way that had never before been seen. Then he tells us to do the same.

He finishes up this new command by saying that people will know we are His disciples by the way we love one another. So often in today’s world this isn’t the case. Many Christians are seen as mean and hateful. This ought not be the case. Jesus wants us to love those who are different than us. Jesus wants us to love those who act differently than us. Jesus wants us to love those who think differently than us. Once we start to do this the church starts to look more like the early church. Like a magnet that people are just attracted to because of the love we have for one another, love that looks just like that of our Savior.

Action

We all have people in our life that we could be loving better. Loving the way that Jesus has loved us. Write down two people in your life that you know you need to start loving. Then write down a couple of ways you are going to do that in the next few days. Let’s not just say we need to love better let’s actually do it.