“His Abide”

Reading Reflecting Responding

Writing it Down and Walking it Out

Context:  Matthew 27: 32-44  Focus: Matthew 27: 41-44

“So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’’ And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.”  Mathew 27: 41-44

Jesus was mocked by the religious leaders, priests and elders while He hung on the cross. They taunted Him by saying He should save Himself like He saved others if He is the Son of God.  They mocked Him for trusting God, and that He should ask God to deliver Him and come down from the cross. The two thieves next to Jesus also mocked Him in the same way.

The One Who came down from heaven was the Son of Man and submitted to God completely while leaving His Sovereignty and credentials into the Father’s hands.  He came not to prove His divinity but to glorify God by His complete submission, to the end.  He always did what the Father was showing Him to do without an agenda of His own.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Philippians 2: 5-7

In the beginning of Christ’s Commission, Satan tempted Jesus to  prove Who He Is and Was – “If you are the Son of God”, then turn these stones into bread, cast yourself from this high place, and worship me, then all these Kingdoms can be yours, immediately.
But Jesus only responded with the Word of God for the proof is His Word.
His Word is Truth.

The whole time Jesus taught, healed, and fed the hungry, and explained the Word of God, He was challenged to prove Who He Was.  But He replied, “If you don’t believe in me,  then believe the works that I do.  Even Nicodemus, a religious leader, had to admit that the works He did meant He was sent from God. But Jesus left up the revelation of Himself to the Father.  John 10:38, John 3: 1-2, Matthew 16:15-17, John 5: 30-32

So many times I have gone to do the work of God led by my own agenda using my credentials as proof of my worth.  Recently, He has shown me that when I allow the Holy Spirit to take over, then He is lifted up, and not myself, and He draws everyone Who hears His Words, to Himself.
Even Paul the Apostle learned to let go of his credentials as a Pharisee to share the simple truth of the gospel which has the power to win souls. He did not depend on his knowledge but sought to know the Lord, so He could learn to do His will, and not his own.
John 12:32, Philippians 3: 3-11

CR – Genesis 3: 4-5, Matthew 24:35

Dear Lord, whenever I am tempted to think more highly of myself, let me remember how you humbled yourself, and pointed to the scriptures and not yourself.  May I remember to lift you up, and your Word. That is enough.  Luke 24: 25-27, Luke 16: 30-31