"This man"

We gather every Lord's Day morning to remember the Lord Jesus and we realise that we are able to do this because he came into this world as an actual and real man. He was a physical man, one whose pathway we can trace, one whose words could be heard, his actions could be witnessed, and his impact and presence could be felt by the men of the day around him.

With this in mind we love what the scriptures have to tell us about "this man"...

"this man was the Son of God"

Although we delight in remembering the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus, it is with fresh wonder that we remember that the man who stood before those people of the day, the one who walked amongst them and could be heard, touched and felt was the very Son of God! This is a truth that is often challenged in the world, but we must stand for the truth, that the man Jesus Christ is the Son of God!

"never man spake like this man"

Of course our Saviour was so different from all other people. He was unique, people had never met anyone like him before or since! We recall his words, and remark how they must have differentiated him from all other men. Even as we ourselves go about our daily lives, we can surely appreciate how wicked and filthy the conversation of this world is! How refreshing it must have been to hear the lovely words of the Saviour as he spoke! Words of grace, truth, wisdom, power, authority, compassion and love. His words bore all the characteristics of heaven and the Godhead.

"whence hath this man this wisdom or these mighty works?"

Our reference reminds us that not only were his words unique, but so were his deeds. He was characterised by wisdom and mighty works! Works that brought glory and pleasure to his father God, and that were motivated by mercy, grace and compassion. Man can often display mighty works of power, but rarely are they aligned with wisdom, and very rarely motivated by mercy, grace and compassion but often by self, greed or anger.

"I find no fault in this man... this man hath done nothing amiss"

We earlier commented on the perfect humanity of our Lord Jesus and we do well to reiterate that the Saviour was perfect! He was sinless, spotless, holy before God for he was God. We remember once again that he could not sin, neither could he be marred or tainted by it as he moved amongst the wickedness of this world. As his life came under constant scrutiny, there were those were caused to remark on his sinlessness.

"Morning by morning
Thou didst wake,
Amidst this poisoned air;
Yet no contagion touched Thy soul,
No sin disturbed Thy prayer"

"we will not have this man..."

But even as they witnessed this blessed one as he lived amongst them, a perfect man who lived a righteous and just life and who brought blessing to others, the verdict in the final analysis was "we will not have this man...". They rejected him! We remember that the prophets would speak of him saying that he would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. John would record that he came unto his own and his own received him not. How incredible that the very Son of God, he who was God manifest in flesh should ever taste rejection, hatred and cruelty at the hands of his creatures!

"but this man, having offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God"

We come to the cross, the place where he would give his life for us, the place of death. We thank God that we as believers are called to appreciate the tremendous truth of the sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus at that cross, we have come into the good of that once and forever work! As the Saviour hung on that cross the world saw this as failure, they had defeated him, they were putting him to death on that cross. Of course this was not defeat though, this was victory, as the Lord completed the work that had been given him to do, to pay the price for sin and make a way of salvation. That work of his at Calvary is perfect and complete, it was a priestly work as he offered up a sinless spotless sacrifice that day, a sacrifice that fully dealt with sin, not just for a while but once and for all! The priest was not permitted to sit whilst he served, but the Lord Jesus had finished that work forever, so he sits now at the right hand of God.

We have such a wonderful Saviour that we should rejoice to praise and worship him! "This man" is our Saviour, and "this man" is our Lord. We trust these simple thoughts today will be  blessing to us all.

Yours in Christ,

Mark

Jesus of Nazareth (part 1)

In our last post we looked at the word 'wonderful' in relation to the Lord Jesus and I hope this was beneficial to us all. Today we are going to look at that more familiar title of the Lord Jesus as referred to in the New Testament - "Jesus of Nazareth". I first looked at this about two and a half years ago and found it to be a lovely train of thought. Let us take a look at a few scriptures together.

"And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them" Luke 2:51

We start here, at the beginning! This verse describes the Lord Jesus as a young boy going down with his parents to Nazareth, the place where he would live until the commencement of his public ministry when he would move to Capernaum (Matt 4:13). The verse struck me as it states that the Lord Jesus was "subject unto them", that is his parents. What a marvel that the Lord Jesus should be subject to anybody! Here was the very Lord of Earth and Heaven, the one who had created all things, and who upholds all things by the word of his power and here he is being subject to the creatures of his hand! The word means "to obey" and carries with it a sense of humility and meekness. What a lovely thought that the Lord Jesus should come into this world and be found as a young boy being obedient to his parents! How this must have stood out to the world, that here was a young boy who was perfectly obedient to his parents - how unusual! Of course we know that it was evidence of his sinless, perfect humanity - he could not sin, but it is lovely that the Word of God records that he was willing to take that lowly place there in that town of Nazareth.

"We saw thee not when thou didst come
to this poor world of sin and death,
nor e'er beheld thy cottage home
in that despised Nazareth;
but we believe thy footsteps trod
its streets and plains, thou Son of God!"

"can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46

Of course Nazareth did not have a god reputation amongst the people of the

[caption id="attachment_108" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A view over Nazareth today"][/caption]

day, particularly devout Jews such as Nathaniel! Remember that Nazareth was a town that was in the district of  "Galilee of the Gentiles" (Matt 4:15 or "Galilee of the nations" in Isaiah ch 9), so-called as there was a high mix of Gentiles with Jews in that area, and of course this caused it to be despised by the Jews. You can almost hear the scorn and disgust in Nathaniel's voice, but just moments later he was going to declare the one from Nazareth to be the very Son of God! Nathaniel had questioned whether "any good" could come come out of Nazareth, and he was to learn that the very best had come out of Nazareth, the greatest person that had ever walked the earth had come out of that despised place called Nazareth! Of course we believe that the Lord Jesus had ultimately come from the Fathers side, but nevertheless he faced opposition because of the earthly place was associated with. Also remember the fierce criticism that Nicodaemus faced when he dared to defend the Lord Jesus? "Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Such disdain! This would remind us that he was despised and rejected of men, he would come unto his own and his own would not receive him.

"And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth..." Mark 10:47

Of course this reference is from the account of Blind Bartimaeus as he met the Saviour that day in Jericho. The scripture records that Bartimaeus reacted when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth who passed by. The one who the Jews despised because of his claims, his power, his authority and because of his humble background (in earthly terms) - it was this man that brought hope and cheer to the heart of Bartimaeus! It was in Jesus from Nazareth that he saw salvation and a solution - this man could heal him, and he was going to stop at nothing in order to meet him and seize his opportunity! We remember the faith that he showed that day, he believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of David, therefore proclaiming him to be the Messiah that should come from the line of David. Of course we remember that the Lord Jesus blessed him with sight that day, and this would remind us of our own experience with the Lord Jesus. We thank God afresh for the day that we met the Saviour! We praise him for that day when we made that step of faith and the man Jesus of Nazareth became so much more than that - he became our Lord and Saviour!

We trust these first few thoughts on this subject will have been of blessing and encouragement to us, and we will look at the last couple another time. Please feel free to make comments or suggestions on this subject or indeed any other, I will be pleased to hear from you.

Yours in Christ, Mark