Epaggelia

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).