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1 John 3:11-24

As humans we do not perceive the spiritual realm and its realities well at all. So that presented God with a “problem” — how to reveal to us the love He has always had for us. His solution was to do something. Since doing and living are inseparable, we could also say that God’s solution was to live His love for us.

Because Jesus wanted me to see clearly His love for me, He died for me. Notice what 1 John 3:16 says — “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Imagine that! Had He not put our lives ahead of His own, we could not have known His love for us.

Furthermore, He gave His life so that we might have an example to follow in our relationships with others. The conclusion of that verse tells us how to make our own love perceptible to others. Read it all

Matthew 5:27-32; 19:3-9

“No adultery” is what God decreed in the Law (Exodus 20:14).

“Not even in the eye or in the heart” is what Jesus explained in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:28).

• Did Job understand that (Job 31:1)?
• James helps us understand the consequences of following our lustful eyes and heart (James 1:14,15).
• Which helps us understand further the rationale behind Jesus’ prioritizing lesson in verses 29 and 30.

Jesus acknowledged the Mosaic allowance (Deuteronomy 24:1) for a man putting away his wife with certain provisions.

• Because of “some uncleanness in her.”
• Don’t just kick her out; give her legal standing with proper process and documentation.
• But God hated such putting away (Malachi 2:14-16).
• It was no compliment to them that God allowed it back then: “For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept” (Mark 10:5).
• But from the very beginning, God had a better plan (Mark 10:6-9).

“What therefore God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder.”
(Mark 10:9)

Perhaps the Pharisees heard (or least heard about) Jesus’ teaching on the mount. So eventually they put Him to the test on the matter: Read it all

1 Corinthians 15:1-11, 20-22

We are saved by the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:2).

Christ died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3).

After being buried, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:4).

Even those who actively and aggressively work against Him are eligible for His salvation (1 Corinthians 15:9).

By Jesus, we who believe in Him shall also rise from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

Good news!

Have you believed it yet? Read it all

Matthew 27:62-28:10

Would you have gone looking for Jesus in the tomb had you been one of the women then?

I’m sure you would have; I’m certain I would have also. That was the natural thing to do. Sure, Jesus would have told us that we wouldn’t find Him there by then, but our hearts would have been as perceptive and receptive as theirs. I don’t believe we would have done better than they at remembering His words. So we would have gone to the tomb, not Jerusalem or Bethany or Olivet.

Now we know better.

So do the unsaved.

That’s right! The unsaved know better than to look for Jesus among the dead. I say that because I want to ask you this: When the unsaved want to find Jesus, do they go to you or do they avoid you? Read it all

Mark 11:1-11

For some three years the disciples and other followers of Jesus had awaited this day. Now it had arrived! Jesus would at last take His rightful place as King of a reinvigorated Israel. The Lord finally had quit trying to hide His Kingship. The time of His revelation had arrived with high drama. Jesus was using a donkey to fulfill a most wonderful prophecy.

Exciting? Exhilarating and electrifying were more like it! What a thrill to recite Zechariah 9:9 with the multitude that day:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”

No wonder they shouted, “Hosanna!”

But in the midst of the merry making, they missed a significant point. Read it all