God created fig trees to bear fruit but, in the parable, Jesus told (Luke 13: 6-32) that particular fig tree took up room in the soil, yet contributed nothing. It was alive but fruitless. Why did the gardener want to give it one more year? Because he saw that there was LIFE in it and recognized it’s potential. Satan always schemes to hinder and prevent the fruit-bearing which is God’s intended purpose. Why did Jesus tell this parable? Because He knew there was a woman who had been bound by Satan for 18 years. This woman occupied space, took up room, she was hopeless and helpless and not able to contribute anything of any use to anyone. Why did Jesus bother with her? Because He saw that her bondage was not to be the end and climax of her existence, not what God had created her for. Jesus saw spiritual value and amazing potential in her. When she received the ministry and healing touch of Jesus, everything changed for her. Everything became new by the touch of the Master’s hand. However, she represents (maybe you or me) who will receive, experience the life-changing power of Jesus and we will become contributors.
Jesus continually contributed by taking sinners baptism. He identified Himself with sinners because He knew He would die for sinners on the Cross of Calvary.
How could Jesus say (John 14:30) that there was nothing in Him to which Satan could relate, nothing the devil could use to gain an advantage in temptation? Wherever Jesus was He always continued by His healing, teaching, praying to be busy for God, occupied only with the things that pleased the Father. Satan could find no loophole to penetrate His armour. Even though he was tempted (Hebrews 4:15) in every point as we are. God was revealed in Jesus and Jesus is to be revealed in us.
Jesus was everything that God loves but when He was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) He became everything that God hated. I try to get my mind around what Jesus felt and experienced when He was utterly forsaken by His Father, totally abandoned to the hatred and cruelty of Satan and his demons. Oh Calvary, dark Calvary. He was forsaken by God, deserted by His disciples - - absolutely alone with the loneliness of hell - - savagely ripped away from the loving embrace of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, (Matthew 3:17) God spoke from heaven and said, that He was well pleased with His beloved Son. Jesus was fitted and equipped. Why then (Matthew 4:1) was he driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? He had to prove Himself to be battle-ready and He did so triumphantly. He is the Mighty Conqueror.
If you pass a magnet over an iron object, it will rise up in response to the magnetic pull. If we are completely filled with Jesus, temptation will not find a magnetic pull in us to make us succumb to any temptation.
Crucifixion was the most cruel, brutal and long-lasting forms of execution Roman soldiers delighted to drag out and make the torture last as long as possible. Some crucified bodies were left on the cross until they disintegrated. Jesus could inhale but because of body shock, He could not exhale. He had to keep moving in order to breathe. The vicious scourging tore his back to ribbons, but he had to force His back up and down against the rough cross to breathe, stripped naked and humiliated in every possible way. Through it all, He remained the Worthy Lamb of God and He paid our total sin-debt in full. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. He is (Revelation 19:16) The King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Deliberate sin is caused by selfishness, so sin is idolatrous self-worship. Sin pays the earned wages of eternal death but (Romans 6:23) Grace is God’s free gift of eternal Life. The Lord can make us contributors in all the circumstances of life for God’s glory. We can be (Dr. C. Stanley) disciples for Jesus, unless we choose the carnal things of the flesh. A thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) is God’s gift to protect from pride. Everything the Lord gives us is filled with the wonders of God’s creation and the goodness of God’s provision.
I want my life to be ‘Not I but Christ Jesus’ all the time and everywhere so that (Galatians 1:16) others will see Jesus in me. The King’s daughters (Psalms 45:13) is all glorious within if the King is living, ruling and reigning within. I am just a suit of clothes for Jesus. He chooses the thinking, the saying, the doing and the spending of time. He is my glorious Lord, my precious Master and my beloved all-wise reigning King of my life. The true Christian Life is God’s gift to us. It is the Life that Jesus lived when He was on earth, lived now by Him, in us. If He is not living His Life in me, my Life is not the Christian Life.
Jesus said (John 14:30-31) that Satan had nothing in Him He could relate to which would give him any advantage. If we are filled and flooded with God Himself, the most seductive temptations will find nothing in us to make us responsive to any temptation. I want to be filled with Jesus, filled, thrilled and overflowing with the written Word of God and the Living Word of God. Nothing in me has any desire or inclination to respond to any temptation. We Christians are set apart for God Himself. We have wonderful assurance (Mathew 7:8) to ask, seek and knock.
Our glorious God is the sum total of all perfection, wisdom and beauty. We cannot separate Christmas and Easter, Bethlehem and Calvary, the manger and the empty tomb. It is all the glorious plan of God from before the foundation of the world. Therefore, Easter Sunday is Resurrection Day for all Spiritually dead people who choose to come alive!
The Star of Bethlehem shares the MESSAGE of its brilliant beauty and golden glory continually in my heart and through me to those who are in darkness. The Star of Bethlehem will light our way all the way Home