Am I asleep to Jesus' presence?...Matthew 17:1-13...Falling in love again with His words.

 


The Never Summer Mountain Range is behind me.  It is always amazing to me how people will respond more quickly to a picture than to the text.  I updated our Facebook cover photo and profile picture and people are responded left and right to it.  I do not get as much response when I print text to the same group of people.  I think this bears true with the response to video presentations of the Bible over just the written text of the Bible.  But since we don't have actual video footage of Jesus (sorry Chosen) I feel it is important to not just rely on someone's artistic presentation of the text but to read it for ourselves.  The question would be, "Am I reading more than I am watching when it comes to God's words?"

I have purposely not used much video in my preaching opportunities because video will steal the show, no pun intended, to the actual passage we are looking at.  I think we need to train ourselves again to rely on what we are reading rather than what is being presented to us in the visual format.  Reading the actual words also gives us the advantage to quote back what was actually said without all the filler that is added in the dramatizations.  Your mind now creates the scene from the text and our passage this week is a great example of this.

The near prophecy is the 4 bullet points of what is next.  1) Go to Jerusalem.  2) Suffer at the hands of the religious leaders.  3) Be killed.  4) Rise on the 3rd day.  The nearer prophecy is that some of them would not physically die before they saw the Son of Man in His glory.  The far prophecy is found in Malachi 3 & 4 some 400 years earlier that a messenger would come before the Messiah, an Elijah type.  We start to see these prophecies, near, nearer and far, being fulfilled.  We will hold onto Jesus' words as we read on further and witness the fulfillment and more prophecies given that are yet to be fulfilled.  Jesus bats 1000 when it comes to fulfilled prophecies so we can rest assured that the upcoming will also be fulfilled.  

Luke tells us the 3 disciples (Peter, James, John) were fast asleep after climbing up the mountain with Jesus.  They come out of their sleep to see Moses and Elijah and also to hear the voice of God from out of the cloud.  Peter responds as Moses and Elijah are leaving.  I have been in plenty of church meetings where the agenda is set, the bullet points are covered, the final prayer is given and then someone adds something to the end that should have been discussed earlier in the meeting.  Sometimes the unofficial meeting spills out into the church parking lot.  The benefit is lost because it was said after the fact.  Do we do this with Jesus?  Do we tag Him onto the end of our conversations or whatever we are doing?  Shouldn't Jesus be in the center of all that we say and do?  Are we asleep to Jesus in our everyday conversations and interactions with others?

This ties into being Jesus focused.  If I am not Jesus focused then He will be just a tag onto the end statement rather than the substance of what I say and do.  He will be just a little "God bless you" on the end rather than in the thick of the conversation because I am thinking of His words rather than my own to share.  Being Jesus focused takes action like the disciples looking up to Jesus after falling face down on the ground at the voice of God.  It takes our actions to keep Jesus focused.  We stay Jesus focused by reading His very words.  We stay Jesus focused by setting purposeful time to speak to Him each day.  We stay Jesus focused by attending a church that teaches from His words and sings His words.  We stay Jesus focused by relying on His commands and warnings more than our own.  

And this relates back to His words being beautiful and wonderful.  This comes back to dealing with His actual words and allowing the video presentations of them to only be a supplement.  If you spend more time reading His words and then you watch some presentation of them, you will be surprised how quickly you can pick out what is not in the Bible but added for effect.  Artistic license is great and especially if it is drawing from 1st century historical facts but I would say that recall of His very words because you have read them over and over, meditated on them, and even shared them with others is even greater.  When Jesus' words are spoken, you won't be sleeping.  Let's fall in love with His actual words over the man made visuals.  His word says that His words will never pass away as we put another DVD on the shelf that we may never put in the player again.

Adam (video link to sermon below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFOwlsMYmA4&t=1880s

A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 39th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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