Jesus glorified His Father!

Day 3: Amazing fact about God I am pondering today:

   Jesus came to earth with the purpose of glorifying His Father by restoring man back to Him. He was completely in tune with and obedient to His Father, God.

   Jesus came to earth in humble a humble manner. His father, Joseph, was a carpenter. His mother and father were married while she was pregnant, and only after an angel had appeared to Joseph and explained to him the baby she was carrying was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that the child that would be Savior would be born of a virgin, and that baby was the Savior the Jewish nation longed and waited for. Joseph being of the lineage of King David, he and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to be registered in the census. The Bible does not mention a donkey, but there are writings that indicate Joseph borrowed one for Mary. Jesus was born in a field of sheep, and laid in a manger. This was in complete contrast to the way the Jewish people expected Him, their Messiah to come. They were expecting a mighty warrior, a king in battle that could and would deliver them. Even though Jesus fulfilled so many prophecies just where and how He was born, they did not receive Him. He was too lowly.

   There are a number of incidents in Jesus’ ministry where He denied the violence others thought was called for. For instance, when Jesus was on His final journey to Jerusalem He was rejected by a village of Samaritans. James and John had experienced power and authority being Jesus’ disciples and wanted to use that power to call fire down from Heaven to destroy those Samaritans just as Elijah had done in God’s judgement of Ahaziah and his men. Jesus responded by rebuking James and John by saying, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”

   On the night Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane Peter drew his sword and cut the ear of one of the arresting high priests servants off. Jesus responded by saying, “Put your sword into the sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?” In other words, Jesus was asking Peter if he honestly thought for one minute that Jesus did not know He had been betrayed and would be arrested here... and if there was any question that Jesus would not submit Himself to this arrest that would end in His death. Jesus had been preparing them for this minute and there was to be no violence, just love that would glorify the Father, and save men. Just before this incident Jesus had prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.” He had also said, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”   

   Remember the woman caught in adultery that the scribes and Pharisees took to Jesus? They gave a report to Jesus about how the woman had been caught in the act of adultery, and then reminded Him of the law Moses had commanded that such should be stoned. They were busy those days trying to trip Jesus up and get Him to say something they could accuse Him of, have Him arrested and be done with Him. Sounds like big time pressure to me, but Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground as if not to hear them. We do not know what He was writing, but I can tell you what I believe He was doing. He was asking His Father what to say, and what He would have Jesus to do. The passage indicates it was if Jesus did not even hear them. I think it was His Father, God, that He was listening to. When He stood up Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”

Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.” John 5:19

Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.” John 8:28

I can of Myself do nothing. “As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” John 5:30

In Hebrews we read: 

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;  who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high...”

Of course Jesus was the  brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Father God, He only did what the Father said and did only what the Father said to do! 

The same meekness, the same humility that He was born in is how Jesus lived. His entire birth was just the way God had it planned. His death was also just as God had it planned. That humility is true power and authority. Jesus operated in that way as He only did what the Father said to do, and He only said what the Father said to say.

Amazing fact about God I am pondering today:

Jesus came to earth with the purpose of glorifying His Father by restoring man back to Him. He was completely in tune with and obedient to His Father, God. I want to be that person, the person that is humbled before God, listening only to Him, and doing only what He says to do and to say. I want to glorify God with my life. When my days this side of glory are over I want this to be true of my life:

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” 

John 17:4