Daily Doses of Jesus: A Year of Devotionals on the Lord’s Words

By James Frederick Ivey M.D.

Daily Doses of Jesus: A Year of Devotionals on the Lord’s Words is a book of 366 devotionals, one for each day of a leap year. It is designed for adults and older children. Except for three psalms, its scriptures consist of all of the words of Jesus and nothing else, from all four gospels in parallel. Dr. Ivey has drawn from several decades of studying relativity, quantum physics, Plato, and history, particularly that of the Jews, in order to compose his commentaries. He believes that they contain many novel (though not radical) ideas. The chief themes of this book are the support of science for the existence of God, the truth of the Bible, and the validity of the Christ. It also shows that almost all of the greatest thinkers of history have been theists and that the unique and heroic history of the Jews can only mean that their God is the truth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: May 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512772579

James Frederick Ivey M.D.

Dr. Ivey is also the author of two books on Christian apologetics, The Physics and Philosophy of the Bible and Science, Philosophy, and Jesus Christ. These books form the series, The Inevitable Truth, and utilize quantum physics, relativity, Plato, the history of the Jews, and logic to show that God exists, that we are immortal, that there exists an absolute standard of ethics, that the true God is He of the Bible, and that this God came to us in Jesus of Nazareth.

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Copyright © 2017 James Frederick Ivey, M.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotes marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright © by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7258-6 (sc)

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WestBow Press rev. date: 05/11/2017

Contents

Introduction

January 1

January 2

January 3

January 4

January 5

January 6

January 7

January 8

January 9

January 10

January 11

January 12

January 13

January 14

January 15

January 16

January 17

January 18

January 19

January 20

January 21

January 22

January 23

January 24

January 25

January 26

January 27

January 28

January 29

January 30

January 31

February 1

February 2

February 3

February 4

February 5

February 6

February 7

February 8

February 9

February 10

February 11

February 12

February 13

February 14

February 15

February 16

February 17

February 18

February 19

February 20

February 21

February 22

February 23

February 24

February 25

February 26

February 27

February 28

February 29

March 1

March 2

March 3

March 4

March 5

March 6

March 7

March 8

March 9

March 10

March 11

March 12

March 13

March 14

March 15

March 16

March 17

March 18

March 19

March 20

March 21

March 22

March 23

March 24

March 25

March 26

March 27

March 28

March 29

March 30

March 31

April 1

April 2

April 3

April 4

April 5

April 6

April 7

April 8

April 9

April 10

April 11

April 12

April 13

April 14

April 15

April 16

April 17

April 18

April 19

April 20

April 21

April 22

April 23

April 24

April 25

April 26

April 27

April 28

April 29

April 30

May 1

May 2

May 3

May 4

May 5

May 6

May 7

May 8

May 9

May 10

May 11

May 12

May 13

May 14

May 15

May 16

May 17

May 18

May 19

May 20

May 21

May 22

May 23

May 24

May 25

May 26

May 27

May 28

May 29

May 30

May 31

June 1

June 2

June 3

June 4

June 5

June 6

June 7

June 8

June 9

June 10

June 11

June 12

June 13

June 14

June 15

June 16

June 17

June 18

June 19

June 20

June 21

June 22

June 23

June 24

June 25

June 26

June 27

June 28

June 29

June 30

July 1

July 2

July 3

July 4

July 5

July 6

July 7

July 8

July 9

July 10

July 11

July 12

July 13

July 14

July 15

July 16

July 17

July 18

July 19

July 20

July 21

July 22

July 23

July 24

July 25

July 26

July 27

July 28

July 29

July 30

July 31

August 1

August 2

August 3

August 4

August 5

August 6

August 7

August 8

August 9

August 10

August 11

August 12

August 13

August 14

August 15

August 16

August 17

August 18

August 19

August 20

August 21

August 22

August 23

August 24

August 25

August 26

August 27

August 28

August 29

August 30

August 31

September 1

September 2

September 3

September 4

September 5

September 6

September 7

September 8

September 9

September 10

September 11

September 12

September 13

September 14

September 15

September 16

September 17

September 18

September 19

September 20

September 21

September 22

September 23

September 24

September 25

September 26

September 27

September 28

September 29

September 30

October 1

October 2

October 3

October 4

October 5

October 6

October 7

October 8

October 9

October 10

October 11

October 12

October 13

October 14

October 15

October 16

October 17

October 18

October 19

October 20

October 21

October 22

October 23

October 24

October 25

October 26

October 27

October 28

October 29

October 30

October 31

November 1

November 2

November 3

November 4

November 5

November 6

November 7

November 8

November 9

November 10

November 11

November 12

November 13

November 14

November 15

November 16

November 17

November 18

November 19

November 20

November 21

November 22

November 23

November 24

November 25

November 26

November 27

November 28

November 29

November 30

December 1

December 2

December 3

December 4

December 5

December 6

December 7

December 8

December 9

December 10

December 11

December 12

December 13

December 14

December 15

December 16

December 17

December 18

December 19

December 20

December 21

December 22

December 23

December 24

December 25

December 26

December 27

December 28

December 29

December 30

December 31

About The Author

INTRODUCTION

Come with me each day to visit with Jesus of Nazareth and to discover how His teachings, demeanor, and deeds show that He was God incarnate. To minimize human error in our studies, scripture quotes shall consist only of His biblically recorded words and nothing more.

We call Jesus the Son of God since from our perspective that is His identity, though from heaven’s perspective He is the Son of Man since He was born of human parents. It is interesting to think that perhaps God’s sacrifice for us, His creatures, was all the greater because Jesus was in some way His Son; parents would rather lose their own lives than lose a child.

Albert Einstein, Max Planck, and Planck’s successors, such as Werner von Heisenberg, along with Einstein and Planck’s philosophical and theological interpreters, astrophysicists Arthur Eddington and James Hopwood Jeans, have contributed massively to the apologetics of the biblical God. Einstein’s theory of relativity shows that we all live forever (though those without Jesus will not be glad of it), and quantum physics, the study of the ultimately tiny, founded by Planck, has proved that God exists.

This is just the beginning of the role that science plays in its scholarly connection with theology. Long considered a rival of religion, it has clearly become a booster. Philosophy plays the same role, especially when we consider Plato. He offers a huge bonus because all of the philosophy of Socrates comes to us through him. Plato gives us all the philosophy that we need for our apologetic endeavors, because, as Alfred North Whitehead argued, all philosophy since the time of Plato has essentially amounted to footnotes on his work. St. Augustine said that without Plato, he probably would never have been converted to the worship of Jesus.

These devotionals are based on Christian apologetics, a discipline that employs hard evidence to prove that the message of the Bible is valid. Apologetics comes from the ancient Greek word apologia, which means vindication and defense and has nothing to do with being sorry for anything. Thus, in these nuggets of scripture, interpretation, and prayer, I shall give readers daily reminders of how logical and reasonable is the concept of the biblical God and the truth of Christian scripture. I shall make claims and shall provide evidence that supports those claims, much as is done in a court of law.

In 1927, Eddington and Jeans, who during their careers worked with Einstein and Hubble respectively, came to the realization that relativity and quantum physics, together called modern or theoretical physics, showed that mind precedes and subordinates matter and that our world is the thought of God. This bears repeating: our world is not the result of His thought—it is His thought.

Eddington said, The stuff of the world is mind-stuff, and Jeans declared, The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine. Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter; we are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter … We discover that the universe shows evidence of a designing or controlling power that has something in common with our own individual minds. They realized that quantum physics had proved the existence of God.

All human disciplines support the validity of the Christ. Christianity has no competition in the annals of truth and religion, though I have great respect for God’s chosen, the Jews. Christianity offers an eternal life of joy. The Christian faith fits like a custom-made glove onto the hand of every seeker of truth and stands without wavering in the face of all scrutiny and attack.

Belief in a deity—dominant over atheism and agnosticism throughout human history except for the half-century or so following the findings of Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud—is rekindled, again dominant, and growing in terms of numbers as well as magnitude and intensity. The resurgence of this belief marks the rapprochement of faith and reason.

The amazing and inspiring phenomenon of quantum observation, an aspect of quantum physics, supports the validity of the creation story in Genesis, already held in great esteem because of the big bang theory and Alan Guth’s inflation theory, which together look exactly like the creation of a potential universe followed by its directed development.

God is the personification of ultimate truth, which I shall often designate as the Truth. This Truth is synonymous with ultimate goodness, or Goodness. Such a God would wish to know firsthand how it is with His cognitive creatures; thus, this God came to walk a mile in our shoes as well as to satisfy justice for our transgressions of morality; justice is a part of absolute truth that not even God can ignore.

My most important reference has been David Foster’s The Philosophical Scientists, which shows that godless explanations of creation and universal maintenance are so extraordinarily complicated that believing in God is, by comparison, easy to do without sacrificing reason or a belief in science.

I thank my pastor, Dr. Daniel Johnson of Trinity United Methodist Church, Gainesville, Florida, for inspiring all of my devotionals from the book of Matthew and those based on the book of Luke from its beginning through verse 26 of chapter 20. When I refer to his own devotionals on these passages, I make it clear that I am doing so.

I use the New American Standard Bible unless otherwise stated.

I am most grateful to Professor Marvin McMillin, formerly of the University of Florida, for reading and reviewing/critiquing all three of my works.

In most writings, one tries to avoid repetition. In the case of devotionals, I think that is not quite so important, so I shall allow a degree of it. For one thing, not everyone will read straight through this book.

Please bear with my use of male pronouns when both genders are involved in a statement. In no way do I consider males superior to females, but I shall ordinarily use he rather than he or she and him rather than him or her. To do otherwise makes writing overly complicated and results in verbal clutter. My perfect world has males in most leadership roles, but as compensation for this, I see women as worthy of a kind of worship from men and as God’s best creation.

The Gospels are the good news, the story of the Christ told by the four canonical gospel writers. (The term gospel refers to a single one of the four stories of the Lord told by His biographers.)

Let us now have a look at some characteristics of the gospel writers. Matthew was a Jew, albeit not a very popular one, as he was a tax collector. He gives us the largest number of Christ’s words, therefore affording us the largest number of quotes on which to base devotionals.

The gospel of Mark is the oldest of the descriptions of Jesus’s life, and the gospels of Matthew and Luke are based on it. The author went by the name Mark and sometimes by John Mark. Most scholars believe he was Peter’s protégé. Mark’s gospel is the most succinct. Mark wastes no words; he moves right along and often begins verses with the word immediately.

Luke wrote his gospel for Gentiles. It begins thus: Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke was a physician who traveled with and took care of Paul. Conceivably, as a physician, Luke may have had special access to the medical matters and even to the personal concerns of Mary, mother of Jesus. (He was also a fine painter and is the patron saint of artists.)

He writes to Theophilus, a name meaning lover of God. I suspect that this is not an identifiable person and that the letter is written to all lovers of God.

The fourth gospel, John’s, is more philosophical than synoptic. John’s gospel connects Jesus with the deepest thought of humanity, and its first eighteen verses succinctly tell us what Jesus is all about. They could not have been written by anyone who was not divinely inspired, and John’s ability to explain the meaning and significance of Jesus’s story was greatly aided by his discipleship with the Lord almost from the beginning.

Both Genesis and John open with the phrase In the beginning. Interestingly, the word beginning is not realistic in either scenario because the setting in each case is timelessness, which cannot involve a beginning or an end. Time did not exist until our universe came into being, and even then Einstein perceived time as illusory. The authors’ use of the word beginning is merely the best they could do with the language they had at their disposal.

The temporal order of occurrences in Jesus’s life (I also call them events, though some are simply His words) is presented in The Book of Jesus: Chronological Listing of Events, published by the New Amsterdam Publishing Company, copyright 1997. Sometimes the order in which this book has events occurring does not correspond with the order in which they seem to occur when one looks through the Gospels. I have used many of the titles of events that appear in The Book of Jesus. I discuss each event as it is described in all the gospels in which it occurs before proceeding to the next occurrence, and I arbitrarily use the order Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in dealing with each subject covered in more than one of the gospels. If a gospel describes an event without quoting Jesus, I ignore its rendition.

Note Jesus’s consistently high language. This is not the language of a mere human. Also notice the nearly unending wonders of which He informs us. Could someone solely human teach thus?

The Child Jesus with the Elders in the Temple

JANUARY 1

Why is it that you were looking for me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house? (Luke 2:49).

We find this story of an event in Jesus’s childhood only in Luke, as we might expect since Dr. Luke likely knew Mary better than the other gospel writers did.

The first time that Jesus’s parents take Him to Jerusalem, they lose track of Him on the way home. Hastily returning to the big city, they search for three days before they find Him in the temple courts. He is sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. His answer to His mother’s inquiry about what He is doing is our scripture lesson for today.

Mary and Joseph see that all who hear Jesus are amazed at His understanding and wisdom, and they are as well. His mother asks Him, Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You. Jesus’s response consists of all the words we possess that He spoke before His encounter with John the Baptist. One wonders whether some of the men present on this occasion encountered Him some twenty years later and remembered the impression He had made on them as a twelve-year-old.

Mary and Joseph cannot assimilate what Jesus says to them. They take Him back to Nazareth where He continues to develop in obedience to them. His mother ponders these things in her heart as He continues to increase in wisdom.

Jesus seems to have treated His parents as a model Jewish child would have done. Fully human, He was bound to honor and to respect them as per the fifth commandment. On the other hand, as God incarnate, He was duty bound to recognize His ultimate responsibility to the Father, the first person of the Trinity. Thus, we shall later find Him calling His mother woman and equating her with those to whom He is preaching. This is difficult to understand.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we read admiringly of this childhood exploit of Yours as You readied even then for the ultimate role You would play in human history. Thank You for all preparation that You did, which led to eternal life for Your followers. In Your wonderful name, we pray. Amen.

Jesus and John the Baptist

JANUARY 2

Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).

In today’s scripture reading, we find Jesus meeting His cousin and God-given herald, John the Baptist. We shall discuss only Matthew’s version of this encounter. Mark also describes it, but there are no words of Jesus in his rendition.

John is in the wilderness, calling people to repentance and baptizing those who positively respond to his message. Jesus asks for baptism and dispels John’s worries with regard to whom he can baptize and whom he cannot. This scenario is reminiscent of Lyndon Johnson having a friend of his, a low-level federal judge, swear him in as president following the murder of John Kennedy.

Today’s verse is Jesus’s response to John’s objection. By at this time, the Lord seems to be saying something like I realize there are legitimate reasons to discuss this further before acting, but trust me when I say that any discussion we might have had would have led to a decision to go ahead with what I propose.

John’s humility here is admirable, and though he makes a good point in saying it would be more appropriate for Jesus to baptize him, other factors counterbalance his concern. As fully man as well as fully God, Jesus needs baptism as much as anyone else. And though He is bound to live a sinless life, He has not yet done so. In addition, He needs to confirm His complete commitment to the Father in front of witnesses and, as He said, to fulfill all righteousness (i.e., do all things that are good). Perhaps God’s command here might be Thou shalt keep thy ducks in a row.

Matthew wrote primarily to his people, the Jews, though his occupation precluded their liking him.

During all of the time that Jesus spent in time, He constantly deferred to His heavenly Father. That’s because Jesus was fully man as well as fully God.

Prayer: Dear Lord, Abba (Daddy), Father, we love You and ask that we might love You more yet. Thank You for today’s insights about Your Word today, which is personified in Your Son, the Christ. As He so faithfully disdained all pride, even though He was entitled to it, let us do likewise and ever realize and practice our proper relationship with You, recalling that even Your only begotten Son did the same because of His humanity. Thank You again for answered prayer and even for prayer that is not, from our perspective, granted. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Satan Tempts Jesus

JANUARY 3

It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4).

On the other hand, it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’ (Matthew 4:7).

Begone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only’ (Matthew 4:10).

The next major event of Jesus’s life is His refusal to give in to temptation by the Devil. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all deal with His noble act, whereas John does not. We shall not, however, discuss Mark’s version because it contains no words of the Savior. Today, we shall deal with only two of these three temptations and save the other for tomorrow when we consider John’s perspective.

According to Matthew, the Holy Spirit of God leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the bent one (as C. S. Lewis called hell-bent Satan), who is aware that Jesus has had nothing to eat for forty days. Thus, the Devil begins his spiel by targeting what he perceives as Jesus’s weak spot and suggests that He turn stones into bread for His consumption. Because Jesus knows that His Father will care for Him, He declines. In addition, He needs to witness for the Father and set a good example, and He is not about to cheapen His supernatural abilities.

Jesus’s refusal consists almost exactly of Deuteronomy 8:3—man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord—and He jumps on this opportunity to point out that spiritual nourishment is more important than food for the stomach.

Next, Satan takes Jesus up on the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem and suggests that He jump off to demonstrate His ability to have angels bear Him up under such circumstances. But Jesus says that one must not tempt God, and He quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 to back up the proper choice that He makes on this occasion. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah. (In other words, do not put the Lord on the spot.) Satan is essentially asking Jesus to demonstrate that He is able to force the Father to do His bidding, and such obedience by the Father would have upset the proper order of things in a way and to such a degree as to court disaster. In that instance, all righteousness would definitely not have been fulfilled.

Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for making sure that we understand Your nature. Lord, give us understanding and good spiritual health. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

JANUARY 4

It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone’ (Luke 4:4).

It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only’ (Luke 4:8).

It is said, ‘You shall not force a test on the Lord your God’ (Luke 4:12).

Luke essentially tells the story of Jesus’s temptation in the same manner that Matthew did. The order of temptations is the same, and Jesus quotes the same three references that He cited in Matthew’s rendition.

We shall deal only with Satan’s third temptation today. In this instance, Satan outdoes himself by asking God incarnate to commit maximum treachery and to do something of infinite danger—to worship him and to yield ultimate authority to him insofar as ruling the earth is concerned. In turn, he shall make Jesus second in command. The earth was under the rule of Satan when the personification of evil made this proposal, but that was on account of human error, what we call original sin, for which Jesus would shortly atone.

This temptation is consummately ridiculous, as Satan is asking God to give up what is ultimately His own and to take second place to the heinous being who is in last place in any reckoning of powers and personalities! Jesus had no difficulty knowing how to answer this request.

In dealing with Satan here, Jesus refuses to complicate His relationship with the Father; simplicity is an important aspect of beauty, ultimate beauty is truth, and the Truth is God.

Dan Johnson, retired pastor of Trinity United Protestant Church in Gainesville, Florida, had this to say with regard to the temptations of the Christ: Jesus was just about to begin his public ministry. Before one embarks on such a journey, one needs to know who he is at the core, what methods he will use, and what methods he will not use. This is what Jesus sorts out during His time of temptation.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to resist temptation and preferably to avoid it altogether. Lord, protect us from the Evil One, for we know he is smart and clever, though his wisdom is at best defective. Only Yours is infallible; thus, we come to You in our hours of need, which are essentially all the hours of our lives. We love You, and we thank You so very much for Your consideration and care. We pray in Your holy name. Amen.

Jesus and Some Prospective Disciples

JANUARY 5

What do you seek? … Come, and you will see (John 1:38–39).

You are Simon the son of John, you shall be called ‘Cephas.’ … Follow Me (John 1:42–43). (Cephas, a Hebrew baby name, corresponds, in the Greek of Jesus’ day, with the name, Peter. In both languages, this name means rock, and this would seem to indicate that Jesus expected this disciple to be steadfast. The other John mentioned in the first chapter of John is John the Baptist. The author of this book of John is Jesus’ specially beloved disciple, the brother of James and also the author of the book of Revelation.)

Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile … Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you (John 1:47–48).

Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these … Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:50–51).

Today’s story is reported only by John, and these words of Jesus are the first recorded in his gospel. Our next six devotionals also originate in John.

In today’s lesson, John the Baptist looks at Jesus and tells two disciples that He is the Lamb of God. These men hear Him speak and follow Him. They ask where He is staying, and Jesus tells them to come and see. One of the men, Andrew, goes to his brother, Simon, tells him he has found the Messiah, and brings him to Jesus, who tells Simon to follow Him and changes his name.

The next day, Jesus goes to Galilee and, finding Philip in Bethsaida, asks him to follow Him. Philip is so impressed that he searches out Nathaniel and tells him he has found the man of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. Nathaniel basically replies, Are you kidding me?—reflecting his prejudice against Galileans—but he accompanies Philip anyway. When they meet, Jesus characterizes him as a what you see is what you get person. Realizing that these words describe him well, Nathaniel asks Jesus how He can know this about him. When Jesus responds that He had seen him (though He had not heard of him before that), Nathaniel is so impressed that he confesses Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus in effect replies, You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, guide us as we go through the gospel of Your disciple whom You especially loved. Let us understand his insights. In Your holy name. Amen.

The Wedding at Cana

JANUARY 6

Woman, what do I have to do with You? My hour has not yet come (John 2:4).

Fill the water pots with water … Draw some out now, and take it to the headwaiter (John 2:7–8).

On this day of Epiphany, the anniversary of the coming of the wise men, we examine the story of Jesus’s first miracle.

Here, Jesus and His mother are attending a wedding in Cana, in Galilee near Nazareth. The wine has all been consumed, and Mary asks Jesus to obtain more. What happens after this is fun. First we have a fascinating exchange between God on earth and His earthly mother. Reflecting His divine side, Jesus essentially says, This is a trivial matter; I don’t do magic tricks.

However, Mary knows her Son very well by now; she knows He can provide wine, and she is so sure that He will obey her out of respect that she ignores His response and tells the servants to do as He says. And when they fill the pots with water, it becomes wine. The headwaiter tastes it and remarks that it is excellent. This miracle at Cana is the first evidence that we have of Jesus’s divinity.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for showing Your divinity so clearly and so early in Your ministry. We certainly have no excuse if we do not accept You for who You are. Lord, give us insight that we may understand all that You have for us. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

Jesus and the Temple Entrepreneurs

JANUARY 7

"Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a house of merchandise" (John 2:16).

Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up (John 2:19).

Here we find Jesus in conflict with the entrepreneurs of the temple in Jerusalem. Some of them sold both large and small animals, such as oxen and doves, to those wishing to acquire something that they might sacrifice on the altar, and others exchanged foreign money for local money, probably extracting more profit than was fair from their customers.

In Psalm 69:9, we find what may be a prophecy concerning this event, as David wrote, For zeal for Thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me. Jesus’s disciples remember this psalm when Jesus admonishes those who are profaning the temple; this is mentioned only by John.

Is not Jesus meek and mild? He prefers to be, but we cannot stereotype Him. His demeanor is appropriate for the situation in which He finds Himself. The situation in the temple demands confrontation and action, and He is eager to oblige, partly because He is angry. Jesus overturns the tables of the animal peddlers and empties the coin sacks of the money changers, probably landing a few blows to some backs with the scourge that He made of cords.

After all of this, the Jews present ask for a sign, apparently to justify His actions, and Jesus responds with a profound, though figurative, statement. He tells the Jews that if they were to destroy this temple, He would raise it in three days. The Jews are incredulous and ask Him how he could raise up something in three days that had taken forty-six years to build, but the temple of which Jesus speaks is His body. He is predicting His death and resurrection. Notice how He could think on His feet, coming up with a profound reply on the spur of the moment while under pressure. Jewish religious authorities later used His statement for their own purposes, accusing Him of saying He was going to destroy the temple of worship in Jerusalem. After Jesus had resurrected, His disciples remembered what He had said about raising the temple of His body in three days, and they marveled.

Prayer: Thank You so much, Lord Jesus, that You gift us with a unique faith that is so clear and logical and that promises us eternal life where we may explore the mind of God in a mode of pure joy. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

Jesus and Nicodemus

JANUARY 8

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:5–8).

Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes may in Him have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. (John 3:10–21)

Jesus’s encounter with Nicodemus is an event too significant to discuss in a single devotional. Let us ponder these scripture passages until tomorrow and discuss it further then.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, give us insight to understand Your words to Nicodemus, and assist us that we might attain the second birth. Give us a burning desire for it. Let us be as committed to You as we can be, let us believe in You without doubt, and let us serve You with vigor and persistence that exceed what we give to all other purposes in our lives. Thank You, Lord, for Your desire to see us happy and in Your kingdom of glory beyond human reckoning. In Your wonderful name, we pray. Amen.

JANUARY 9

As we have noted, our scripture passages for today are the same as yesterday’s.

Most of us take Jesus’s words for granted, but think about it. Here we have a man without formal education who is about thirty years old, and He tells us of wonders in high language that comes off of His tongue in torrents. We shall see that His heavenly information is practically unending and that it all fits in well with the law and the prophets of the Jews. No mere man could speak and teach thus.

Jesus bluntly states that He is telling Nicodemus of heavenly things, and the best example of these is God’s plan to save His human children from their sins by way of Himself, the Son of Man. How could Jesus know these heavenly things unless He had been there?

Nicodemus, a Jewish leader, comes to Jesus secretly, to avoid detection by his peers, and He tells the Lord that he believes Him. Jesus answers that he and all others shall attain heaven only if they are born twice, first of amniotic fluid and then of the timeless water of the spirit.

The concept of the second birth that Jesus explains to Nicodemus is one of the most important pieces of information that Jesus imparts to us while He is in time. It is vital that we realize our need to develop our minds as we live our earthly lives in a way that prepares us to understand this. When we accept Jesus as God in the flesh, we die in the flesh, time-bound and temporary, and are born again in the Spirit of the Christ, timeless and eternal. Jesus is to be lifted up on the cross, and His crucifixion is unavoidable if His followers are to live forever in joy.

Here Jesus speaks of His death and resurrection surprisingly early in His ministry.

Jesus the Light, the only Son of God, came into the world, and the world did not recognize Him for who He was. Though He illuminated their evil acts, people carried on as usual because they did not know that their evil behavior was in plain sight.

The serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness was a parasitical worm, Dracunculus medinensis, the fiery serpent of the Hebrews, which can be removed from the skin of its victim by winding it around a stick.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You so very much for this message, enunciated in crystal clarity and glorious prose. Let us indeed be born again by virtue of believing and accepting You. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

The Samaritan Woman at the Well

JANUARY 10

Give Me a drink (John 4:7).

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water (John 4:10).

Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:13–14).

Go, call your husband, and come here (John 4:16).

You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly (John 4:17–18).

Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:21–24).

I who speak to you am He (John 4:26).

On the way to Galilee, Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman drawing from the well of Jacob. Ordinarily, the Jews of Judah did not speak to Samaritans, but Jesus asks her for a drink and says strange things to her about Himself and about spiritual water. Water is associated with origin and beginning; Thales of Miletus, the first great Greek philosopher, believed that it was the First Cause. It is the milieu of all life on earth, but Jesus’s special water is a solution of the Truth similar to the Bread of Life, fit to divinely nourish and connected with immortality. When Jesus tells the woman He can get some of it for her, she asks where He would get it and whether He is greater than Jacob.

Jesus is impressed with her honesty concerning her consort. She says He must be a prophet, and He again refers to the new dispensation to come. The Samaritan woman went to get water, but she finds the Lord and immortality.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, let us ever be prepared to receive You. In Thy name. Amen.

Jesus and His Spiritual Food

JANUARY 11

I have food to eat that you do not know about (John 4:32).

My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest?’ Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages, and is gathering fruit for life eternal, that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor (John 34–38).

The woman of Samaria to whom Jesus spoke goes to the nearby city where she lives and tells men there what has happened to her. Jesus’s disciples, meanwhile—there are apparently six thus far—are concerned that He has not recently eaten, and they try to get Him to partake. He responds that He has food they do not know about and that doing the will of God is nourishment for Him. They respond by asking each other, No one brought Him anything to eat, did they?

He is speaking of spiritual food, more important than steak and potatoes—things like learning about the Lord; praying, i.e., communicating with Him, and doing His will. Such nourishment, which enables us to grow our eternal spirits, is infinitely more important than any earthly food for our bodies.

Jesus’s other teaching here is that we are not, in our role as workers for Christ, to worry about whether we get credit for bringing new souls into our Christian cause, though we are to do our best to accomplish this. If we advertise our faith (sow), if we teach others about the Lord (more sowing), and/or if we bring others to confession of the Christian faith, it matters not whether we perform one, some, or all of these parts of the process; the point is that someone sows, someone teaches, and someone reaps. It makes no sense to covet individual credit.

Wheat is white when it is ready for harvest. Before that time, it is not edible, but God’s fields are always white, timelessly ready for harvest. We should sow the Word of God whenever and wherever we have the chance to do so.

Prayer: Lord God, thank You that we can constantly do Your work and will and that we can be free from all fear because You have defeated evil. In Your glorious name, we pray. Amen.

Jesus Heals a Royal Officer’s Son

JANUARY 12

Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe (John 4:48).

Go your way; your son lives (John 4:50).

Your son lives (John 4:53).

The son of an attendant to King Herod in Capernaum is ill and nearly dead. The officer has heard of Jesus’s teaching and of His having turned water into wine. Therefore, when he learns that Jesus is returning to Galilee from Jerusalem, he goes to Him and asks Him to heal his son. Jesus apparently perceives that it is the miracle at Cana that has convinced the man that He was sent from God. He therefore observes unhappily that such people as the royal officer would not believe without signs and wonders.

Nevertheless, He heals the man’s son. This event is reminiscent of doubting Thomas, who believed in Jesus’s resurrection only after he saw His pierced palms and side. Thomas’s way is one of three to become Jesus’s follower, though not the best. The best is by way of revelation and/or inspiration; the second is through apologetics, to worship Him because of good evidence that He is God. The third way is that of Thomas, to believe on account of what one perceives with the physical senses.

Prayer: Lord, grow our faith, preferably by revelation, but if it cannot grow from that cause, let us accumulate evidence in our minds that proves Your validity, and let us organize and correlate this evidence with all that we know and with all else that we believe so that our faith becomes like a huge stone, unshakable and immovable. Let us believe You without the necessity of signs and wonders. In Your name, we pray. Amen.

Jesus Heals a Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda

JANUARY 13

Do you wish to get well? (John 5:6).

Arise, take up your pallet, and walk (John 5:8).

Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse may befall you (John 5:14).

My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working (John 5:17).

Jesus returns to Jerusalem and finds a man at the pool of Bethesda (for which the United States Naval Hospital is named) who has not walked for twenty years. When Jesus asks him whether he wants to get well, the man answers that no one will dip him in the water when it is stirred up. (His belief in this instance is superstitious.)

Jesus simply tells him he is healed, and immediately the man begins to walk. Jesus thinks of him as well, and because He is divine, His thought is reality. As we saw in the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus operates on the level above ours, where one uses faith in place of vision, audition, and the like and where thought can generate reality.

Some Jews ask the healed man what happened, and he tells them