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Thou art
the Lord who slept in the stern of the boat in all Your humanity, but then You
spoke and calmed the sea in all Your deity. You demonstrated Your power over
nature, as Your previous miracles showed power over disease and demons. You are
the Lord who encourages me to turn to You in all the storms of life, knowing
that, my boat can never sink when You are at the helm. Praise to Your Holy name.
You are
the God-man who healed the woman with an issue of blood. She touched the border
of Your garment and immediately she was healed. You gave her a public blessing
for acknowledging You as her Savior. You flooded her soul with full assurance of
faith and salvation.
You raised
Jairus’ daughter from the dead. You have the power over demons, disease and
death –freely God but yet fully man.
You are the God-man who fed the five thousand. You had compassion for the
people. They were wondering around without a spiritual guide, hungry and
defenseless. You began to teach them and as the day wore on You realized
they had nothing to eat. You took five loaves and two fish and fed five thousand
and had leftovers. This pictures how You would give Yourself to be the bread of
life for a starving world. Your body would be broken so others might have
eternal life.
We are to never doubt Your power to supply our needs. If You were able to feed
five thousand with five loaves and two fish, You certainly can provide for Your
trusting servant under any circumstance. You blessed and broke the loves
and fish, for unblessed by You they would never have availed. Unbroken, they
would have been utterly insufficient. The reason I am not more freely given to
men is that I am not properly broken. O, break me Lord so I can freely give of
myself to Thee and to Yours. Your plan for us is to feed Your sheep!
The
fragments that were left demonstrate that You are a bountiful giver. Praise to
Your holy name.
You are the God-man who walks on the sea. You not only provide us sustenance,
but for our safety as well. As You were praying on the mountain, You saw Your
disciples rowing hard against a contrary wind. You went to their assistance,
walking on the sea. As you spoke reassurance to them and boarded the boat, the
wind ceased immediately. Even today, Father, we see Your miracles and yet we
doubt. Nothing is impossible with You. We should
never be surprised when You miraculously heal a loved one or friend. Our lack of
faith produces a hardened heart and dullness of spiritual perception. Help our
unbelief, my Father.
We the
Church should see this miracle as a picture of this present age and its close.
Jesus on the mountain represents Christ in His present ministry in heaven,
interceding for us, His people. His disciples represent us, buffeted by the
storms and trials of life. You will soon return for Your own, to deliver
us safely to the heavenly shore.
You are
the God-man who healed the people of Gennesaret. Wherever You went, people
carried needy cases to You on mats. Market places became improvised hospitals.
They wanted only to get close enough to touch the hem of Your garment. And all
who touched You were made well. That’s true for today, if we would only have
faith enough to touch the hem of Your garment, we would be healed, physically,
mentally and spiritually.
You are
the God-man who healed the Gentile woman because of her faith. You tested her
faith and she was faithful. As a Gentile, she had no claim on You or Your
benefits and she acknowledge that fact. Her faith was remarkable and You
rewarded her instantly by healing her daughter.
You are the God-man who healed the deaf-mute. This pictured a sinner deaf to
Your voice and therefore unable to speak to others about You. You took the man
aside privately and put Your fingers in his ears, and You spat and touched his
tongue, thus by a sort of sign language, telling the man that You were about to
open his ears and unloose his tongue. You next looked up to heaven indicating
Your power came from the Father. Your sigh, expressed Your grief over the
suffering, which sin had
brought on mankind. Then, You said, “Ephphatha” be opened! The man
obtained normal hearing and speech immediately. You make both the deaf to hear
and the mute to speak.
You are
the God-man who healed the blind man at Bethsaida. This is the only healing in
Your Scriptures that took place in stages!
You are
the God-man who was transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. You allowed
Peter, James and John to see Your Kingdom in power. You were transfigured--a
dazzling splendor radiated from Your person-even Your clothes were shinning
whiter than any bleach could make them. This represents that during Your first
advent, Your glory was veiled. You came in humiliation, a Man of Sorrows,
and acquainted with grief. But! You will return in glory. You will visibly be
the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Elijah
and Moses represent the O.T. saints and the law; saints who had died, and those
who had been translated. You were the central Person-You must have pre-eminence.
You are the glory of Immanuel's land. The cloud was the shekinah glory cloud,
which stayed in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle Temple in O.T. times; the
visible expression of Your presence. The voice was Your Father’s voice,
acknowledging You as Christ, His Beloved Son.
When the
cloud was lifted, Your disciples saw no one, but You. It pictured the unique
glorious and pre-eminent place You would have when the kingdom comes in power,
and what You would have in the heart of Your followers.
You are
the God-man who healed the demon-possessed boy. A father came to You and asked
You to heal his son who was possessed with a mute-spirit. The demon dashed
the child to the ground and made him grind his teeth and foam at the mouth. The
disciples were unable to set him free so the man came to You. With a
heart-rending cry, from years of desperation, the father asked You to do
something, if You could. You told him that it was not a question of Your ability
to heal, but of the fathers’ ability to believe. Faith in You is always
rewarded. No case is too difficult for You. The father, replied, “Lord, I
believe; help my unbelief!” Yet even today we want to believe, yet find
ourselves filled with doubt. We have this inward, unreasonable contradiction
that we seem to fight it in vain. You ordered the unclean spirit to leave the
child.
You are
the God-man who healed blind Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus recognized and addressed You
as Lord and as the Son of David. It’s ironical that the nation of Israel was
blind to Your presence as their Messiah, but yet a blind Jew had true spiritual
insight!
You are
the God-man who willingly gave up Deity of heaven to come to earth as a lowly
man of dust to become a scapegoat on the Cross of Calvary, to die for our sins,
a man who knew no sin.
You are the God-man who made a new covenant. You instituted what we now call the
Lord’s Supper or
Communion. Its meaning is beautiful beyond words; You took the bread; broke it;
meaning You took humanity upon Your self as You were about to be broken for us
on the Cross. You gave Yourself for us. The bread signified Your body given, the
cup of wine, represents Your blood, that would be shed.
By Your
blood, You ratified the New Covenant. For You, there would be no more festive
joy until Your return to earth to set up Your kingdom.
You are the God-man who suffered the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. You
prostrated Your self on the ground and prayed to the Father, that if it were
possible, the hour might pass from You. “Abba
Father, all things are
possible for You; take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will,
but what You will.” We noticed that You addressed God as Your beloved
Father, whom all things are possible. You, my Father could find no
other righteous basis upon which You could save ungodly sinners. The silence in
heaven indicated that there was no other way. Your Holy Son must bleed so that
sinners might be freed from sin.
You are
the God-man who endured hell, pain, ridicule, mans sins and the worst pain of
all, separation from the Father. God the Father could not look upon sin so He
turned His back on You. You, the Son who knew no sin, took upon Yourself the
sins of the whole world so that we sinners could have everlasting life with You
in heaven. God forsook You, because of His holiness, He disassociated Himself
from sin. You identified Yourself with our sins and were paying the penalty in
full.
You
breathed Your last-but not until You asked the Father to not hold this against
us-for we know not what we did! It is finished! You gave up Your Spirit unto the
Father.
You were
buried in a borrowed grave, wrapped in linen, and put in a new tomb as
prophesied in the O.T. The door was sealed with a coin shaped stone.
But love
leaps over mountains of difficulties to reach objects of its affection. Three
days later early on a Sunday morning a group of women found Your tomb empty! You
were alive! Raised from the dead! Hallelujah! Upon entering Your tomb, the women
saw an angel who quickly dispelled their fears with the announcement that You
had resin! The tomb was empty! The Angel commissioned them to go tell Your
disciples and Peter that You would meet them in Galilee.
Forty days
after Your resurrection, You were received up into heaven and are seated at the
right hand of the Father, the place of honor, and of power.
You
entrusted us with the Great Commission-Our task is to reach every person with
the gospel. The promise signs being fulfilled. Mark 16:15-18 “
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not
believe will be condemned. And these signs shall follow those who believe;
In
my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will
take serpents and if they drink anything deadly it will by no means hurt them;
they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”
After You spoke those words,
You were received up to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father. You
are forever interceding in prayer for me and for Your people.
You also
left instructions for Your disciples and followers to not depart from
Jerusalem but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which He said, You have
heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but You shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit of promise. (Luke 24:29-John 14-16, 17, 26;
15:26)Acts
1 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon You
and You shall be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 2:1-4—Luke 24:49-24:48)
When the Day of Pentecost had freely come, they were all
with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of
a rushing might wind and filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then
there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire and one sat upon each of
them; and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4
You, as
wholly God sent Your Holy Spirit to indwell every believer to be empowered to do
Your will in all things. We are sealed with Your Spirit when we ask You into our
hearts, to be our Savior, Master and Lord. Then we were commanded to be filled
daily. Confess our sins; repent asking the Holy Spirit to be our Guide;
our teacher; our friend. Surrender Spirit, Soul and Body to His authority.
He will empower us to walk in Your will; empower us to pray and when we do not
know how to pray, He will pray for us in words that we cannot understand.
Written by VSD_G
5/19/01
Believer’s Bible
Commentary
 
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