Welcome to a Special Edition Daily Digest!
During Holy Week we have six special Daily Digest Devotions for you. These devotions will be posted at 6am daily from Monday, April 11th through Saturday, April 16th. In addition to the Daily Digest, tune in to Facebook Live each day at noon for a discussion of the day's topic.
Scripture Reading
John 13:19
I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.
Devotion
What makes someone trustworthy? It’s a loaded question for a lot of us, especially because of the world that we live in today. However, I would say that someone is trustworthy if what they say is what they do… and if what they say comes true. Take the classic tale “The Boy who Cried Wolf”. It’s a story of a young boy who is watching over a flock of sheep and continually comes down to a house where his parents are, yelling “There’s a wolf, come quick!”. And every time he yells, they come and find nothing. This process is repeated over and over until eventually, the boy does, in fact, see a wolf, and runs down the hill to the house yelling “There’s a wolf, come quick!”. Except this time, they don’t come running because of the number of times he lied to them. Trust is lost when what someone says is not true to what reality presents.
In John 1:1, the gospel writer makes a claim saying “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” He makes the claim saying, “the one who is to come is going to both speak and be the Incarnate God. The God who says to the Israelites “Be holy just as I am holy”.
That Jesus, the man who would come and walk the Earth, would be the same God of the Old Testament that we see making promise after promise to His People, and not only making these promises but upholding all of them. That he is the God who does what he says he is going to do. But Jesus doesn’t just rely on the telling of this simple truth even though His word would be enough since his word is the Word of God itself. Jesus himself does miracle after miracle, sign after sign, all to show that he is who he says he is.
In this season there is a tension, for a lot of different reasons, but in this truth, we find a tension in that we are called to believe Jesus in John 13:19 when he says “I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe I am he” - that he is the Messiah that was promised. But why should we trust him when he says this? We trust him because Jesus doesn’t just rely on the telling of this simple truth but in fact shows time after time, miracle after miracle, sign after sign that we can trust what he says because his character is constantly in line with his word.
Jesus is trustworthy because His Word - both what he speaks and who he is - is perfect, pure, holy and true. What makes Jesus trustworthy is not just that he himself is perfect or pure, but that he himself is the living, incarnate God of the universe - that he does not have impure motives, it is not in his character to be dishonest, and he knows all things just as they should be. Jesus is trustworthy because every word he has ever spoken and every action he has ever done has been perfect and holy, and Jesus is trustworthy because all that he has revealed in Scripture has been fulfilled by him, through him, and for him in his death and resurrection.
Who is someone that you trust with your life?
Why do you trust them?
What would cause you to lose trust in that person?
Have there been times when you didn’t trust God?
What areas of who God has revealed himself to be or what he has revealed that he has done do you doubt?
How does God being “holy” impact whether or not what he says is true?
What does it look like to completely trust God in your life?
What do you need to trust God with in your life?
Join Pastor Nathan today at noon on Facebook Live for a discussion of today's devotion.
