Author: kezha1

Jesus knew that the time of His destiny was at hand, and so sought one last intimate meal & time of fellowship with His disciples. He chose this upper room where He could share those most precious moments with His closest followers & friends…the twelve Apostles. Now an upper room in Jesus’ time was more of a family room, an open air space on the roof where family & friends would gather at the end of a long day to reconnect, share stories, and sip tea…and was considered a very important part of the social fabric. So today I would pose to you this question…Do you have an upper room? A place to encounter Christ, but more importantly, where Christ encounters you. For it’s in this upper room where Jesus can fill & equip… where we can share true intimacy with our Savior…and where we can go at the end of a long day to fellowship with our Master. We all need to have an upper room…but remember this, an upper room isn’t about the place but about the Presence.

Judas…his infamous name often used synonymously with betrayal & treason. He was the only non-Galilean among the twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. His name Judas, the Greek form of the Hebrew “Judah” – was indeed an honorable Jewish name for centuries. Judas of Iscariot held such hope & promise…not only by being selected by Jesus as one of the Inner Circle, but then elected by his fellow disciples to handle the funds from the common purse. But no one knows for certain why Judas changed…sinking into the depths of greed, deceit, & betrayal. It wasn’t that Jesus treated him differently…in Matthew 10:1-4 we see Jesus calling the Twelve to Him and giving them all authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease & affliction. And even to the end, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus called Judas “friend”.

The religious officials had been scheming for a while on how they might murder Jesus…but the last straw came when they heard He had raised Lazarus from the dead. The chief priest, Caiaphas, was an especially strong opponent of Jesus & His Message and had no regard for justice or truth when it came to getting rid of Him. That’s because Jesus’ teaching in the Temple Courts infringed on Caiaphas’s self-proclaimed title of “Keeper of all things” on the Law and the Prophets, and this encroachment on his authority infuriated him. So whatever form of trickery or deceit it was going to take in order to kill Jesus, Caiaphas was ready to make it happen.

Are we being pushed out of the Presence of God by distractions? It could be seemingly harmless amusements & diversions that take up a large quantity of our time…there by not allowing us to get into the Bible or pray daily. Other distractions could be perplexing events in our life that have us looking everywhere for answers but where we should…namely asking God for His perspective & clarity. Finally, distraction can come in the form of preoccupation with the superficial glamour & glitz of the world…and thus losing our attention to the eternal things of God. In Luke, we see Jesus coming to Mary & Martha’s house for a meal. Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus & listen while Martha was distracted & caught up in all the busy work. Mary stayed true to her priorities…while Martha’s got diverted by distractions.

Charles Spurgeon once posed this question to his Congregation, “If Jesus hadn’t shed tears, would He be able to wipe away ours?” We seem to forget that Jesus was fully man & fully God…that He was living in a mortal body & thus was capable of suffering in all respects as we do. Jesus was weeping out of compassion & empathy for the people He loved…something that’s happened to all of us one time or another. And we can take comfort in Revelation 21:4 when it says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.” That’s because, in the Presence of God’s glory, no tears can fall…and in the sufficiency of His grace, peace is found.

Our hope lies in God’s gracious dealings with His children from generation to generation, as He transforms us from offering meaningless worship & lip service to standing in true wonderment of His majestic holiness. Make no mistake about it…it was God’s plan all along to restore Israel to Himself as a lasting legacy. For even though they wandered & strayed from His Will…even though they murmured against Him, God promised to always be with His people and lead them, with nothing preventing His plan from being put into effect. (Isaiah 42:16) And that goes for us today. God is the Source of all truth, and the starting point of truth & knowledge is the fear or awe of the Lord.

Martha (the practical & pragmatic sister of Lazarus) looked at the current situation and realistically objected when Jesus directed the crowd to remove the stone covering the opening to her brother’s tomb. But Jesus reminded her of their earlier conversation, (John 11:25-26) her response, and confession of faith when He asked her if she believed Lazarus could be brought back to life. However, let’s not criticize Martha for her Crisis of Faith…for it will happen to all of us as we make our way with the Lord. Life is not easy, and it is always complicated by emergencies & critical moments when doubt and hopelessness take over. Psalm 73 speaks of this Crisis of Faith as a struggle that can only be resolved by entering into the Presence of God…and once there, as we behold His glory, all doubts & fears will disappear.

The only thing Jesus & we know about the Second Coming is that it will come when we least anticipate it. That’s because only God the Father knows the exact time. Throughout the Gospels Jesus warned His disciples to “Be on guard!” “Be alert!” “Be always on the watch!” The analogy He gives, about servants waiting for their master is found earlier in Luke 12:35-36, “Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.” The imagery here depicts servants with their loins girded for battle, their long robes hiked up under a belt, allowing free & instantaneous movement as they wait alert & ready for their master to return. That’s why Jesus’ warning to “Be ready!” should not be taken lightly or apathetically. For all we know…today may be the day.

Jesus was still outside Bethany, but He could hear the wailing & mourning of Mary and her friends as they approached Him…and it affected Him greatly. Why? Because Jesus was fully man & fully God…possessing every emotion & feeling mankind has ever experienced. He saw & heard the guttural cries of the bereaved & could not help but be moved with sympathy & compassion for them all. He did not dismiss their pain but rather embraced it to Himself in empathy. For it tells us in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.” Jesus knows all too well about pain, grief, illness, and affliction…for He lived it. But one thing Jesus was not – was upset at those grieving…No, when it says that He was deeply moved in Spirit and troubled, all His pent up anger & outrage was directed at Death itself…the primary cause of His friend’s suffering.

Your mind is the greatest gift, next to the gift of salvation & eternal life, that God has given you. And it should be devoted entirely to Him. But how many times does your mind wander aimlessly…and suddenly you’re thinking of ungodly & taboo things you shouldn’t. Or maybe your mind stubbornly refuses to give up its own selfish desires & plans rather than trust God? II Corinthians 10:5 tells us to, “Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Only ourselves can choose to take captive every thought, keeping them within the bounds & control of Godly thinking…and only ourselves can bring our mind’s thought pattern under the unquestioning compliance & obedience that Jesus demands.