Jesus, the Supreme Savior

This post was inspired by the message I gave last night to our middle school students. Last night, we looked Christ being the perfect and living Word of God. We took time to examine three points from Scripture. This post will simply highlight the third point, for it had the most impact on my life. This has been a tough week of ministry and seeing this point from God's Word last night brought joy to my restless soul.

The third point from last night's message was simply, "The Perfection of Jesus reaches to our need." With this point, we examined Hebrews 4:15. This is what the author of Hebrews writes, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."(ESV). What is this verse actually teaching us? How can Jesus sympathize with what we struggle with here on this earth? Does He even have a clue to what we battle? I believe if you take the time to examine the Scriptures, you will be surprised to note how many issues you deal with were experienced by your Savior long ago. Last night, we covered 4 issues. I may sneak in a 5th issue if time allows.

Issue #1 - Friends deserting you –
1. Luke 22:54-62 – Peter denies knowing Jesus. (Peter, who walked with Jesus and traveled with Him, denied Him at His toughest hour.)
2. Matthew 26:36-46 – Disciples sleep in their last night with Jesus. (Jesus requested the disciples to stay awake and to be alert...they slept. Have you trusted your friends to help you or do something for you...and they drop the ball? Jesus experienced that.)

Issue #2 - Death –
1. John 11:35 – Jesus wept. At the death of Lazarus. (Jesus wept at the death of his dear friend. True, He did raise Lazarus back from the grave, but before that miracle took place, our Savior experienced the brokenness of losing a loved one.)
2. Mathew 4:3-13 – death of John the Baptist (Jesus lost His precious cousin to a sinful monarchy system. His own cousin that prepared the way for His ministry.)
*This shows us that Jesus experienced losing both a friend and family member while He walked the earth.

Issue #3 - Temptation -
1. Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4…in the wilderness. (Jesus experienced a strong attack of temptation while glorifying His Father. When we find ourselves in strong attacks of temptation, let us cling to the Savior who is able to sympathize with our temptation.)

Issue #4 - Family issues -
1. John 7:2-5 – brothers rejected him. (In this passage, you will read about His own brothers ridiculing and rejecting Him. When we find ourselves in situations in our own families of rejection, let us cling to our Savior who experienced that pain before us.)

Issue #5 - The Most Important Issue...YOUR SIN.

Genesis 2:17 - God ordained a law in the garden. Death would occur if this law was broken.

Genesis 3:1-7 - The Law was broken by our parents. Sin came into the world.

Genesis 3:21 - God showed His marvelous grace by replacing their death with a substitute sacrifice...a verse to later show us the treasure of Jesus (John 1:29)

Romans 3:23, 5:12-19, 6:23 - God's Word shows us that we all have this problem, this issue that is non curable. The only remedy is found in a substitute death for our problem.

2 Corinthians 5:21, Ephesians 1:7, Romans 5:8, Galatians 3:13, 1 John 4:10 - We see these verses showing us the love of our Father. In His mercy, He poured the death sentence on His only Son and giving us in replacement His grace...as shown to our parents in Genesis 3:21. We are forgiven. We have adoption. We have the perfect definition of love.

Let us worship today Jesus, our Supreme Savior. Let us quit fighting battles that hinder the Gospel mission. Let us quit living as religious people that know it all...but as children of God who love the One that knows it all.

My rambling is done. Soli Deo Gloria!

Dave