The Humility of Christ

October 28, 2024 — jwwealand

Consider the submission Jesus has towards his Father. Read John 5:17-20. When Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, religious leaders were worse than critical about his work. Christs’ response was very humble. In John 5:30 we have a companion verse to Jn. 5:19

“By myself I can do _____________; I judge only as I hear….” (John 5:30)

This is what we learn about the relationship between Father and Son in these amazing verses:

The Son doesn’t operate independently from the _____________.

The Son is in constant touch with the Father, and does what he _______________ the Father wants to do.

If Jesus were trying to promote himself, he would be emphasizing his own actions; but, he emphasizes his dependence on the Father. If we are following Jesus. We must learn from Jesus how to listen to the Father and then follow his instructions here on earth. In fact, if we attempt to live independently of the Father, (just doing religious things that we’ve learned to do from others) we will be powerless and ineffective. Jesus isn’t taking the credit, but giving the Father credit. We can do that. We must do that if we want to learn true humility.

Jesus invites people to come to him because he is “gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:28-30). “Gentle” here includes the ideas of being considerate and humble, not impressed with his own importance. “Humble in heart” suggests being lowly, not pretentious, comfortable to approach and be around.

Jesus says that even the exalted Son of Man came to serve, and give himself as a ransom for mankind (Mark 10:45)

Jesus washes the disciples’ feet as a way of demonstrating lowering himself to serve others (John 13:1-17).

Jesus is motivated by compassion for people because they were bewildered & helpless, not because they were sick, injured or poor, but vexed & discouraged. (Matthew 9:36; etc.). Jesus is tender with weak and spiritually wounded people (Matthew 12:20, quoting Isaiah 42:3). Jesus associates with the moral rejects of society because he longs “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 5:30-32; etc.) This is a humble concern for the spiritual, emotional & mental well being of our fellow man.

Jesus tries to limit the crowd size, because rather than doing spectacular things to increase crowd size, he wants to prevent them from glorifying him in a worldly way, he is not trying to win a popularity contest or become a physical leader or a political ruler, (Mark 1:44-45).

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Virtues of Christ ~ Humility

October 19, 2024 — jwwealand

Micah put this truth forward centuries before Christ.

“He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy


and to walk _____________ with your God.” (Micah 6:8)

Walking humbly with our God, of course, is humbling ourselves before God. Acting justly and loving mercy are respecting and showing concern for our neighbors, humble service of others. 

What Humility Is Not. Humility has sometimes been distorted into self-abasement, self-denigration, lack of courage, non-assertiveness & low self-esteem. To clarify what we mean by true biblical humility, we’ll flesh out from Scripture what authentic biblical humility looks like. Humility can be seen throughout the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-10.

1. Meekness Is Not Weakness

The world sometimes considers weakness as wimpy. The word translated “meek” in Greek is “praus”, meaning “the attitude or mindset of not being overly impressed by a sense of one’s self-importance, but gentle, considerate & self-controlled.” In the Bible, the meek are not the weak and docile, but the ones who endure oppression and persecution and still stand in faith. They are the persevering confident saints of God that can rejoice even in service that hurts. They are tough!

2. Humility Is Not Timid or Passive.

The phrase “Meek as a mouse” is heard often enough to identify meekness with timidity and fear, with running from a challenge, “a timid, meek, or unassertive person. This describes neither Moses (Numbers 12:3) nor Jesus, nor the disciples Jesus is laboring to form. Jesus is not passive.

FOUR REASONS TO ADOPT A HUMBLE MINDSET

  1. The apostle Paul instructs and encourages us to have a mindset of humility in Colossians 3:12-14. 
  2. Even divine love itself carries within it humility, see 1st Corinthians 13:4. 
  3. Humility gives priority to the concerns and needs of other people, Philippians 2:3-5.
  4. Everything we have is from God (Dt. 8:18; 1st Cor. 4:6-7). Since everything we have has been given to us by God, we have no reason for boasting in self, that we are somehow better than others, we don’t boast over a gift, but we should boast of the Giver.

“I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, 

but to think with __________  ____________________, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith”. (Romans 12:3)

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Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus from the Gospel of Luke

October 5, 2024 — jwwealand

Luke 1:17 quotes Malachi. 4:6, The success of John the immersionist is not measured by longevity, because his life was cut short, not by riches, because he lived in poverty and ate poor, not by miracles because he didn’t perform a single sign, but by the acceptance of God’s word into the hearts of many Israelites, (Lk. 3:21 “ALL”). Jesus said John the immersionist was the greatest of men born amongst women because of his ability to practice what he preached in holy living (Matthew 11:8-11).  The word “Turn” is a great word for describing the emphasis of John’s message of repentance, Mark 1:4 & Luke 3:3. In John’s ministry, baptism was immersion expressing a changed lifestyle in exchange for forgiveness, however in Christ’s ministry, baptism is immersion expressing death to sin and being raised to new life in exchange for a forgiven heart that can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:37-39.

Luke 4:18-19 quotes Isaiah 61:1-2, The success of Jesus Christ (Anointed) – ‘Masah’ Isa. 61:1, would be emphasized in preaching, the word “Preaching” is repeated 3 times in this passage. Proclamation of God’s word, not necessarily the acceptance of His word. The miraculous healing and many other powerful signs was simply the proof or confirmation of power from God in the word’s message, see Mark 16:20 & Hebrews 2:3-4. The preaching is described by two words, firstly, “Euangelizo” which is a reference to the inherent goodness of the message. Secondly ‘preaching’ or proclaim is “Kerysso” which is a reference to publication of the message. This kind of message is always public, never private. The fact that the Christ (Anointed) one did the preaching fulfilled the prophetic promise in Isaiah to make the “year of the Lord’s grace” known. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, Jn 1:17, not Moses or any other prophet or religious leader of any kind, it was only Jesus who can deliver gracious words and absolute truth, see Luke 4:22.

Luke 23:30 quotes Hosea 10:8, Jesus points to the destruction of Jerusalem impending with warnings, from prophets of the past, to his own generation. A sign of mercy to those who accept his word as God’s word, to flee and escape the judgment of God. Reference Matthew 24:15 & Daniel 12:11. If non-believers stay in Jerusalem to see this wrath they will cry out for creation itself to fall upon them, see Revelation 6:15-17, because the destruction is so thorough there will be no hope anywhere else but under the earth, i.e., dead!

Luke 24:27 quotes “all the prophets”.., after Cleopas said “but they did not see him”, v24. Jesus replied with a rebuke towards their wondering curiosity and wherever in the Old Testament Christ was spoken of prophetically, Jesus explained his fulfillment. What is amazing about this encounter, is that Christ’s knowledge did not open their eyes, but rather it was fellowship and prayer over dinner! A prayer of blessing opened their eyes, v30-31. Do you pray about what you read in the Bible?

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