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 Luke 9:21 “And He strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one,”

   Why this? Wouldn’t it be best to share this truth with all? To answer this, we must remember that God’s ways are not our ways. His timing is always perfect. Why send Jesus when He came and not much sooner, or much later? Prophecy of course had fixed the time of His arrival, but God could have had the prophets fix a different time.

   So it is all on God’s timetable, not ours. Making the truth concerning Christ known makes the most sense to us. This is nice since we are in the age of grace and the church, in which that is exactly what we are to be doing. But, though Jesus did give the command to go and tell to His disciples, it was not His command for them at this time. At this time He wanted the nation of Israel to do what it would do on the basis of its faith, such as it was.

   This is a good reminder for us. We do not go and tell other about Jesus because it makes sense to do so. We do it because Jesus commanded us to do it. The day is coming when the Holy Spirit will be removed from this old world, and all Christians with Him. At that time the proclamation of the gospel will be done in a different way entirely, and with different results.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Jesus! We praise You for this age of grace. Without it we could not have received the truth and been given eternal life. Thank You for bringing us into the fold. Your grace and love are truly so amazing! I love You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

Luke 9:20 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”

   Peter stated it directly, correctly, and succinctly. Jesus is the Christ. This is the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew concept of the Messiah. So, Peter was stating that Jesus was the Messiah, the Chosen One. This does not indicate Jesus was just a man who God chose in a special way. To be the Messiah, Jesus had to be divine. The Old Testament had already made clear the role of the Son of God. He would be more than any man could ever be.

Heavenly Father, You are so awesome! Only You could come up with a plan so perfect! Your Son is the King and Lord of all. You have truly done all things in accordance with Your Divine Will. Nothing has surprised You. You knew what You would do from before ever there was anything. You are so wise and powerful, and above all, holy! Thank You for all of it! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:19 “So they answered and said, “John the Baptist, but some say Elijah; and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again.”

   Each of these represents a different perception of Christ. People who said He was John the Baptist were likely only repeating what they had heard elsewhere. Herod was of this opinion. It was of course a fanciful idea with no basis in fact. It was likely assumed by some only because they couldn’t accept that God would send two powerful prophets back to back. So it was a way to minimize the issue.

   Those who believed he was Elijah either were unaware of the ministry of John the Baptist, or misunderstood his ministry completely. But, to be fair, saying Jesus was Elijah at least betrayed a good understanding of the Scriptures. Elijah returning was indeed a biblical idea, and was to be expected. However, John was the fit for this, not Jesus.

   As for the rest, who assumed Jesus was one of the old prophets come back to life, there is little to say. They obviously also simply made assumptions based on rumors, but had not much of their own ideas mixed in.

   All of this brings up a subject. Jesus obviously knew that people were confused about Him. So then why not give them very specific instruction to help them along in their understanding? Why did Jesus stay a step back in the shadows so to speak? Ah, here we find one of the most important concepts of Scripture. Without the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the truth will not be seen clearly. Jesus expected Jewish people to go and consult the Scriptures, and to ask Almighty God to show them the truth concerning Christ. I sincerely believe that any Jewish person in that day who actually sought God on the issue of the identity of Jesus obtained the correct answer. But, the vast majority of the Jewish population looked to their leadership, the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, etc. to spoon feed them the truth.

Heavenly Father, thank You for giving us the truth the way You do! We do not understand it at first, but when we study it, we see Your vast wisdom. You are the Expert. You know us better than we know You, and better than we know ourselves. You understand how we learn and grow. Thank You for ministering to us the way You do! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:18 “And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”

   This is still such an important question today. Jesus asked this to start a conversation about belief. He wanted His disciples to get this in front of them. Everyone must answer this. What do you think about Jesus Christ?

   In our day, two thousand years later, this is still the most important question to wrestle with. In fact, as the religions of our world coalesce to a greater extent, this question becomes that much more crucial. The true nature of Jesus is of very little consequence if He is not Who He claimed to be.

   If Jesus is only a man, we can afford to use Him for our purposes. We can mold Him to our will and present Him any way we please. But, if He is the Christ, well then that makes all the difference. If He is the Christ we owe Him our very existence.

Heavenly Father, all praise be to You for Jesus Christ! In Him You have set the truth before us. Even now humanity is wrestling with His will and way. We cannot escape it. Thank You for Him! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Psalm 119:62 “At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, Because of Your righteous judgments.”

   Sometimes we rise in the middle of the night. But, usually this only for important needs to be met. We must relieve the bladder. Or, there is a ‘bump in the night’ that must be investigated. A child is sick and requires attention. A spouse is unwell and requests assistance. Any number of things might be a just cause to awaken one from their beauty rest (or for some of us, ugly rest).

   The psalmist here reminds us that God’s Word is so important that it is something to rise in the night and thank the Lord for. We often want to raise our hands in praise to Him. But to raise ourselves from sleep is surely a clearer indication of our heart’s love for the Word. It is worth the effort.

   Maybe we have never arisen at midnight to offer worship to the Lord for His Bible. But, even if we have not, it is vital that we understand it is that important in our lives. If anything else can wake us, surely the very Word of God has more right to do so. Beyond this, we must not forget to thank the Lord for His Book.

   As you give thanks on this special day, do not forget to thank our Lord for the wonderous blessing of His Word. Without it imagine how you would live. It is the greatest mercy to our sinful hearts to have the Truth about Jesus available to us.

Heavenly Father, Your Word will always be precious to us. You have made all things good. And, Your Book shows us the way that we must take. Thank You for the comfort of the Word brought to us by the Comforter. Holy Spirit saturate us with Your Scriptures and make us whole. You can change us inside out! Make us clean that we may lift holy hands to you, or rise early in praise. We love You! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:17 “So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.”

   I have seen many attempts to make something of the number of baskets taken up here. To be sure Jesus could control how much food was distributed. And Luke did not have to record this detail. But, whether we try to see metaphorical significance or not, I think we can be certain of a few things here.

   First, the leftovers show clearly that enough food was distributed. If people had barely enough to to eat and some were still hungry, no leftovers would be there to be had. Second, the leftovers show that the food was normal. Jesus didn’t fill everyone’s stomachs somehow with just two loaves and fish. The original supply was indeed multiplied. Third, the disciples did quite a bit of work to distribute, and then to gather leftovers, for this meal. In spite of the miracle there was work to be done. This is very important as it reminds us all that God is not in the genie business. He doesn’t snap His fingers and make all the work go away so that we can take it easy. Even in our eternal future state we must expect to work, though work without the presence of sin will be a great pleasure.

Heavenly Father, thank You for supplying not only what we know we need, but also many things that we don’t know we need. Just recently You have supplied things for me that I had no idea I needed. But, as always, these were good things that I did need very much. You are wise! Thank You for not only meeting our physical needs. You bless every part of us, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social. God You are more precious to me than anything I could every imagine. You are so wonderful! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:16 “Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude.”

   Often due to our incredulity we fail to think about the practical side of the miracles of Christ. We claim to believe, but then we just don’t think about the details because we confuse miracle with magic. Magic is fake, a phony sham. Miracle is a real manifestation of the supernatural power that created this world to begin with. It is thus altogether different from anything else we have ever encountered. And yet, it fits in our experience better than we might think.

   To illustrate this, allow me to point out something that we commonly overlook. The performance of this miracle likely took quite a bit of time. There is no reason from reading the text to assume that Jesus ‘sped up’ the process. So, assuming Jesus broke off each piece, it could have easily taken well over two and a half hours to distribute to the disciples. And then of course it would take time for the disciples to distribute to the people.

   We have gotten the idea that baskets of food just ‘appeared’ out of nowhere. And of course Jesus could indeed make that happen with ease. But then I think we miss the whole point of the miracle don’t we? The supply of this food came straight from the Hands of the Master to the people. Oh what a picture of the love of God for us! Let us never forget that all we receive is from His hands.

Heavenly Father, Your provision is amazing! When we stop and think about the amount of food you provide for us, just that is something to be so thankful for. You give us things that we don’t even realize we have. You bless us in ways that we will never think of. Father, You are Providence and You are so wonderful! May we live to praise You, for You are so worthy! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:15 “And they did so, and made them all sit down.”

   The disciples facilitated the division into the groups of fifty. In every large ministry effort there is involved a certain amount of logistics.

Heavenly Father, we will order our souls to serve You as we should. So often the logistics of our daily lives are the most important element that we miss. We will praise You with our logistics, and not just with our mouths. We will prepare our hearts to sing Your praises. Early we will seek You, and try to find You with all of our hearts. Thank You for being the worthy pursuit of our lives. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:14 “For there were about five thousand men. Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.”

   So with five thousand men present there were surely some children and women present as well. But, there may not have been many. The journey to this area was long and it was a deserted place. So many of the families may have remained home. In any case, just the five thousand was a huge crowd to say the least.

   In groups of fifty there were 100 groups scattered around the area once they were seated. That figure serves to put into perspective just how many people we are talking about here. The miracle about to be performed would be no more or less remarkable if there were 500 or 500,000. But, the number does remind us of the feeding of the congregation of Israel in the wilderness with manna.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your leading. Father we do not often understand every thing You bring into our lives. Sometimes we don’t understand the ways in which You lead us. But, we also know from experience, faith, and truth that we can indeed trust all that we receive from Your hand. Thank You for being faithful always. When things that we have relied upon fall away, we are the more reminded that we should be relying only upon You. In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.

 Luke 9:13 “But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.”

   Jesus heard His disciples demand, but He took it up a notch. He challenged their faith. They needed to be reminded of Who they were with. He gives them an impossible task. Immediately they are incredulous. They begin to try to solve this logistical problem in their own strength, just as they had already done when they told Him to send the people away.

   It was good that the disciples understood the logistics of the situation. It was good that they wanted the needs of the people to be met. It wasn’t good that they had forgotten the most important resource that anyone has to draw upon. They had overlooked the Creator. They had forgotten that He Who has the vast stores of heaven and earth at His disposal was right there with them.

   We must never lose sight of the Lord. Yes we should be wise about how we approach logistical nightmares. But, in doing so we should always look first to our greatest resource, Almighty God.

Heavenly Father, You are the One Who supplies our every need. We cannot forget that we are completely and totally dependent upon You. Everything we have ever had has come from Your hand. Thank You for caring for us! You are full of grace, mercy, truth, love, power, and glory! In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray and praise You, Amen.