“So Jesus told them, “My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honour the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.”
John 7:16-18 NLT
Late one night a man, a Jewish leader, called Nicodemus paid a secret visit to Jesus, and we can read John’s account of the conversation between them in John 3. But we are all aware of the verse that succinctly states the message that underpinned Jesus’ ministry and teaching for the few short years He was here in earth. John 3:16-17, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him”. And in Luke 19:10, following the conversion of Zacchaeus, we read, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Of course, we should also read John 14:6, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me””. There is an essential element in the response to Jesus’ teaching and that is that we must believe in Him. This isn’t a detached, uninvolved belief, that has no impact on our daily sinful lives, but one in which we respond to in repentance, turning belief into the actions required by His teaching.
Jesus told His listeners in the Temple in Jerusalem that He wasn’t preaching a message of His own making. He was communicating something that had come directly from God Himself, and this message will only be valid for those who genuinely want to do the “will of God”. So Jesus wasn’t interested in getting the glory for all the teaching and miracles he performed. In it all He looked up and pointed to His Father in Heaven, telling the crowd to do the same. Jesus continually honoured His Father in Heaven, and taught others to do likewise. The prayer He taught His disciples starts with the phrase, “Hallowed be Your Name”. Before anything else we look to God and give him all the glory, all the thanks, all the honour, and all everything else, because he and He alone is our God.
There is much more that can be said about God’s message. It started with the love of a Father who sent His Son to die on a Roman cross at a place called Calvary, so that through Him we believe that he paid the penalty that our sins deserved – death – and instead gave us His righteousness. What a Saviour! What a God! What a Message!
Father God. What can we do other than bow at Your feet in gratitude and worship. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 