A New Purpose
This week’s devotions are based on Week 3 of the Series “Fresh Start” – I Have a New Purpose! (WATCH HERE)
Why are you here?
Everyone at some point in their life asks this question: Why am I here? Perhaps the question begins in the teenage years as one is seeking to understand their person and purpose. Mid-life crisis years can be another time where the question is asked. People even in the waning years of life when their health has deteriorated also ask, “Why am I here?”
Deep inside each of us is a desire for purpose.
A quote that is attributed to Mark Twain (but probably is not from Mark Twain) suggests this: “The two most important days in a person’s life are the day they were born and they day they discover why.”
We could have some discussion around this quote, but would have to agree that having a sense of purpose is significant in one’s life.
But what is purpose? What really answers that question for a person?
For some purpose is defined by a task that they do. “My purpose is to be a mom/dad. My purpose is to program computers. My purpose is to graduate from school.” I would suggest that what we do is not necessarily our purpose. Our purpose is actually bigger than our activities and instead of our activities defining our purpose, our purpose defines our activities.
Did you follow that?
If our activities define our purpose, then its no wonder we feel without purpose when we are no longer able to do those activities. However, if our purpose is bigger than our activities and defines our activities, our purpose continues even though the activities we engage with are different. Our activities become seasons for our purpose to be carried out.
If I haven’t lost you yet, let’s look at Jesus and his purpose.
It is captured well in this week’s main reading from Mark 1:14-15
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
At the heart of Jesus’ purpose was to change the lives of people with the power of the Gospel (good news). No matter what he did he wanted people to believe the good news that their sins were forgiven.
In Mark 1, the season of Jesus’ purpose was the beginning of his preaching, teaching, healing public ministry. Was he not carrying out his purpose before that? Nope. He was carrying out his purpose (which was given to him by his Father in heaven) as he was born into this world and named Jesus. He was carrying out his purpose by living as a child, teenager, and young adult without sin. He was carrying out his purpose as he sat in the temple talking to the leaders. All were important and key to form the heart of the good news which he would proclaim and change the lives of people.
His purpose didn’t change when he went to the cross. His purpose didn’t change when he went back into heaven. His purpose still is alive today…changing people’s lives through the power of the Gospel. The point is the activities Jesus engaged in changed, but each was significant in carrying out his purpose to change lives with the power of the Gospel.
Each aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry was orchestrated for the bigger purpose, a purpose that His Father had given to him:
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:38-40)
There was never a day that Jesus was without purpose because his purpose was given to him by his Father. The activities changed, his purpose remained the same.
We are definitely not Jesus, but as we search for purpose, we will see the blessing of living in the purpose that God gives to us…just as he gave purpose to his Son.
Apply: When in life have you struggled to know what your purpose is? How would you define that purpose today?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for sending Jesus who daily carried out his purpose to bring salvation to people through his life, death and resurrection. May the purpose he carried out for me always guide my purpose in life. AMEN.
A New Perspective on People…
This week’s devotions are based on Week 2 of the Fresh Start Series: I Have a New Perspective (WATCH HERE)
For the last devotion of the week, let’s go back to the main Scripture and notice one word that appears three times in the first verses:
John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Did you find the word?
If not, reread it again and see if you can find it.
Still lost, maybe look a little harder until you FIND it.
(Don’t you love teachers that give a hint of the answer! )
To make sure you found the right word, the word is find/found (same root, different tenses). Like you just did to find the word, the word “find” implies intentional searching for someone or something.
When you got separated from your parents in the store and someone helped you find them again, you weren’t looking for any generic person, you were looking for your parents and you searched until you found them.
Usually when you search for something and find it, you are elated, relieved, or just filled with joy because you found something that was lost.
The whole course of events starts with Jesus “finding Philip.” The heart of Jesus was intent, for whatever reason he had, to find Philip. He wanted to end Philip’s search for what he was looking for: the Messiah promised and prophesied of in the Old Testament. We just have the simple words, “Follow me” spoken to Philip, but however God’s Spirit worked on his heart it was enough to be certain that Jesus was the one he was looking for.
Then like any great find, you want to share what you found with someone else.
So Philip does. The heart of Jesus takes over Philip’s heart and he wants Nathanael to find Jesus too. So Philip looks for Nathanael until he finds him and then proclaims to him, “We have FOUND the one…Jesus of Nazareth!”
The heart of Jesus is to reveal himself to every person. His heart is defined by what he said in Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” He emphasizes it in parables such as the parable of the lost coin.
Luke 15:8-10 “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
What Jesus has done for you…found you…he desires to capture your heart as it did Philip. Jesus found Philip. Philip found Nathanael. Jesus wanted both to know he was the one they were looking for.
This is the perspective that Jesus desires us to have as well. The people around us are ones Jesus came to die for. The people around us are searching for answers in life. Some don’t even know what they are looking for or perhaps have given up looking. Either way, the heart of Jesus and his perspective on people is the heart we desire to have so we too love to find people and connect them to Jesus.
Apply: Who do you know that you want to know Jesus or know him better? What are options to intentionally connect with them to connect them to Jesus?
Prayer: Jesus thank you for your heart that sought me to connect with your love and grace. Use me to do the same with others, always reflecting your heart to others. AMEN.
Why do you need Jesus?
This week’s devotions are based on Week 2 of the Fresh Start Series: I Have a New Perspective (WATCH HERE)
Why do you connect with Jesus?
A crowd of over 5000 people had just participated in one of the greatest miracles of all time. A young boy was the only one who came prepared to stay for lunch and had two small fish and five loaves of bread. Before he even had the chance to settle on the hillside and eat his lunch, did a grown man ask him to get up and take his lunch to the one everyone came to see. Soon his small lunch was being blessed by Jesus and then being distributed to everyone there…yet to his and everyone’s amazement, the two fish and five loaves filled the bellies of 5000 men plus women and children.
What a great thing to come out to see and hear Jesus and have your lunch provided for you. It probably solved a few arguments of husbands and wives as to who was responsible for forgetting to pack a lunch and made a few parents happy as their hungry children were quieted with food for their tummies.
While it seems that all who were there should have dropped everything and discovered more closely who Jesus was and what he came to do, it appears that a good number of them sought to follow Jesus for one simple reason: We want another meal.
The perspective of Jesus that many latched on to was this: We will never have to cook dinner, prepare food, or do the hard work of growing it. If we hang out with Jesus he will give us our fill of bread and fish.
John 6:26,35 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. … 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
From what Jesus says afterwards, it seems like they even dismissed his miracle and simply wanted a “bread king” who would provide for their physical needs and had no concern for the spiritual problem.
Do people have this perspective today? For sure. In fact even some in the Christian realm can carry this perspective. We may not say it outright, but by our actions we expect Jesus to show up and take care of our physical needs much more often than we expect him to show up and take care of our spiritual needs. How can we tell?
It shows up when we get upset that we are dealing with a physical issue (hunger, illness, body aches, etc.) and Jesus is not doing anything about it. People have left Christ and his Church because they felt like Jesus didn’t answer their prayer. They overlooked his miracles and what his mission really was because he didn’t provide the “bread” for their bodies.
They and we at times need a new perspective. Jesus gives it. He said in essence, “The bread for your hunger is not what’s important. The witnessing of a miracle I do, you can miss that too. But what I don’t want you to forget is that the primary purpose of me coming to this earth was to feed your soul with spiritual food that will never leave you hungry.”
Jesus certainly desires to hear our requests to meet our physical needs, but let our perspective always be that his primary purpose is not just to feed our bellies, or to do miracles, but to bring our souls what they really need: his love, grace and forgiveness.
Apply: What is your perception of Jesus and his role in your life? What happens when the purpose of Jesus becomes first and foremost the feeder of your soul versus just the feeder of your stomachs?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for reminding me of what is most important: the food you give to my soul. AMEN
Don’t miss the point!
This week’s devotions are based on Week 2 of the Fresh Start Series: I Have a New Perspective (WATCH HERE)
John 5:39 You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
You can study the Scripture and miss the whole point.
Many individuals in classrooms of secular learning have opened the Bible to study it as a historical document. They have diligently read, studied hard, and offered “educated” opinions on authorship, age, and authenticity. They evaluated the text from a historical critical point of view which left question as to whether it is genuine to the time period or an insertion or change later in time. Tests were taken. Papers were written. But many if not most, missed the point.
Many individuals in classrooms of religious learning have opened the pages of Scripture and memorized the people and the history of the book. They have learned to spell the books of the Bible, perhaps even memorized a good number of passages. They too have discussed the detail of Bible stories, the interplay of God with humanity and mused about the meaning of it all. But there too many miss the point.
Many individuals in the quiet of their own homes read the Bible out of question or curiosity. Perhaps many with a genuine intent to get help with a problem, find the secrets to life, or determine if current news headlines are fulfillment of Revelation’s words have spent hours in contemplation and days of deep thought. Others have mined the pages for the moral code to follow to get a better standing in the afterlife, make sure they are “good with God” or otherwise find the pathway to heaven based on the performance of their lives. Unfortunately they have missed the point as well.
Diligent study of the Scripture without the Spirit-given focus on Christ is a study in academia or a personal quest for understanding and guidance, but it misses the point of which all of Scripture testifies.
With the wrong perspective, we will miss the point.
As Jesus interacted with the religious leaders of his day, he knew they were diligent in their studies of the Scripture. They spent countless hours seeking to understand the patterns and behaviors of life that would earn them a spot in the presence of God. Their intentions were real, and their effort strong, but Jesus clearly says, “You are missing the point.”
They refused to see Jesus as the Messiah and fulfillment of all the Old Testament scriptures and as a result they refused to believe that Jesus was the promised one and the only way to enjoy the eternal life with God that they were seeking.
We don’t want to miss the point. By God’s grace he opens our eyes to the very perspective that Jesus tried to get the religious people of his day to see: All of the Bible centers on and focuses on the saving life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To miss Jesus in the Bible is to miss the whole point of the Bible. And when we miss the point of the Bible, we miss the joy, the peace, the grace, the forgiveness, that God gives us through his Son, recorded in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
But we wouldn’t have figured this out on our own. To see Jesus as the center and central message of the Bible, is a gift of God’s Spirit. It is only through the new perspective he gives that we can see the gift the Bible is, a gift that shows us that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Apply: Next time you read a section of Scripture, ask these questions: What does it tell me about Christ? What does it tell me Christ did for me? What does it tell me about what it means to live for Christ?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your Spirit who gives me a new perspective to see all of the Bible as your Word of truth that points me to the One of all truth, Jesus, your Son! AMEN.
The Bible is not the word of men, but the Word of God!
This week’s devotions are based on Week 2 of the Fresh Start Series: I Have a New Perspective (WATCH HERE)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A record-low 20% of Americans now say the Bible is the literal word of God, down from 24% the last time the question was asked in 2017, and half of what it was at its high points in 1980 and 1984. Meanwhile, a new high of 29% say the Bible is a collection of “fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man.” This marks the first time significantly more Americans have viewed the Bible as not divinely inspired than as the literal word of God. The largest percentage, 49%, choose the middle alternative [Inspired by God, but not to be taken literally], roughly in line with where it has been in previous years. (https://news.gallup.com/poll/394262/fewer-bible-literal-word-god.aspx)
This July 2022 report from Gallup perhaps isn’t all that surprising considering what is going on in our society today. Yet, only one in five are willing to believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. It would probably be worth a devotional series to answer some of the common objections to trusting the BIble is the word of God, but perhaps this one little statement from Philip and Nathanael will help to solidify or change our perspective to trust that the Bible is not the word of men, but the Word of God.
When Jesus called Philip to follow him, Philip was intent on going to find Nathanael. When he did, he said this:
John 1:44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
So how does this give credibility to the Bible?
Philip had the perspective that the Bible told the truth. By his statement to Nathanael it shows he was a student of the Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) as well as the many prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others). The fact that Jesus matched the descriptions of the Messiah that were written many centuries earlier gives certainty that the Bible is not the work of man but the Word of God. Human authorship could never predict the coming of Jesus with such accuracy. Philip and Nathanael would never have been clear that Jesus was the Messiah without the accuracy of God inspiring Moses and the prophets to write of the Messiah, years apart, yet fulfilled with Jesus.
Nathanael’s reaction to Philip saying that Jesus was from Nazareth (Can anything good come from Nazareth?) is also an indication that Nathanael was a student of the Scripture. He knew that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, the city of David. However, Isaiah also prophesied the Messiah would minister in Galilee, the region in which Nazareth was.
Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—
The aspect of prophecy and fulfillment is a strong indicator of the divine origin of Scripture. While God used humans to pen the words, his Spirit guided every one of them to precisely be recorded. Why is this such a compelling reason for the Bible to be the word of God?
Professor Peter W. Stoner was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College and Chairman of the science division at Westmont College. In his book, Science Speaks, Professor Stoner outlines the mathematical probability of one person in the first century fulfilling just eight of the most clear and straightforward Messianic prophecies.
Josh and Sean McDowell quote Stoner in their book, Evidence That Demands a Verdict:
We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10^17 (1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000).
In case you’re wondering, the Mega Millions had a $1.6 billion jackpot in October 2018, and the odds of winning it were merely 1 in 302,575,350.
Stoner went on to calculate the probability of one person fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 in 10^157. (https://nickcady.org/2020/02/18/the-statistical-probability-of-jesus-fulfilling-the-messianic-prophecies/)
Philip and Nathanael knew they were seeing the fulfillment to many prophesies. While humanly impossible, they knew that not only were they in the presence of the Son of God, they had spent their lives studying the very Word of God.
Apply: What gives you confidence the Bible is the Word of God? What leads you to question that truth?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving your word to Moses and the Prophets so that we, like Philip and Nathanael, know with certainty, that you are the Christ, the Son of God, our Savior. AMEN.