Quick Note – John 6:24 – Seek Jesus

John 6:24 – So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.

When I am looking for something, I look high and low, far and wide for the thing that I am seeking, whether it be my car keys, my glasses, or my phone. I will scour the places that I thought I might have left it behind and continue to look for them there until I am certain that it isn’t there. Then, I will go to another place and look there. I will search as quickly as possible, because every minute counts to prevent me from losing that thing I am looking for forever. The question I have for you today is “When you realize Jesus is not where you currently are, do you immediately leave that place to seek Him?”

In our passage today, the people who were following Jesus went with him to a desert place. After preaching to them, Jesus not wanting them to go away hungry fed them with five loaves and two fish. He fed 5000 men not counting the women and children. This was a miracle! So when the crowd that was following Him realized that He could do this, they wanted to make Him king. Jesus then withdrew to a mountain, sent His disciples on a boat to the other side, and prayed. That evening after spending time with His Heavenly Father, Jesus walked on the water and joined His disciples on the boat. So it wasn’t until the next day, that the crowd noticed that Jesus was no longer there, and according to our passage, when they noticed that, they left that place to seek Jesus. They knew that nothing of value was there, if Jesus was gone, so they sought Him.

Now, in the later verses, we come to find out that the crowd only followed Jesus, because they wanted the free food, which is not why we should seek Him; however, we can still commend the crowd for realizing that without Jesus, there was nothing for them there. We can follow their example of leaving wherever we are at in life if He isn’t in it, in order, to seek Him. When I mean leaving wherever we are in life, I mean our careers, our relationships, and even our dreams and goals. If it isn’t God’s will for you to be in those things or to chase after them, then you need to leave those things and to seek Him. The only thing in life worth pursuing is a relationship with Jesus Christ, for He promises that anyone who comes to Him will have eternal life. Don’t seek Christ for what you can get from Him like the crowds did, but seek Him for who He is. So drop everything that takes you away from Him and seek Him!

Quick Note – Ruth 2:11-12 – Under the Wings of the Almighty God

Ruth 2:11-12 – But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.  The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

In the book of Mark, a rich young ruler came to meet Jesus and ask Him how he could obtain eternal life.  Jesus then told him that he should keep the commandments.  The ruler said that he had kept everything since he was young.  To which Christ responded, “You lack one thing:  go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  Jesus was telling the man to give up everything and follow Him. 

After hearing these words, the rich young ruler went home sorrowful, because he did not want to give up his possessions.  It was then that Jesus said it would be more difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  The crowd was astonished, because riches and blessings were considered by them a blessing from God, and if anyone should go, it would be those who had riches.  Jesus then told them that, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”  Peter then mentioned to Jesus that the disciples had left everything and followed Him.  I am not sure why Peter said these things other than to emphasize how they had been different than the rich young ruler and maybe to see what their reward would be.  Jesus then said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.”  Jesus assured them that they would be rewarded for their faithfulness.

In Ruth 2, Ruth, a Moabite widow, returned with her mother-in-law Naomi to Israel.  There she was surrounded by things that she was not used to.  She had left her mother and father.  She had left her home country.  She had left her culture behind.  She had even abandoned her gods.  She was a foreigner in a foreign land without a husband and without a penny to her name.  She had to glean (pick up the scraps) in the field just to provide food for her household.  But she did all of this because she loved her mother-in-law Naomi.  When she was gleaning one day, she came to the field of a man named Boaz, who then showed her favor.  Boaz was a relative of Naomi’s and heard all the good things that Ruth had done.  How she had left everything to watch over Naomi.  How she went to a foreign land to be surrounded by unfamiliar things and to serve.  And Boaz said, “The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Ruth chose to place her faith and trust in God, when she came with Naomi to Bethlehem.  She chose to abandon her idols, to abandon the wickedness of her past life, to abandon everything she knew to follow God.  She came under the wings of God, and she found refuge.  Boaz would eventually marry Ruth; they would have children; and that child would be the grandfather of one of the greatest kings of Israel David and would be recognized in the lineage of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Ruth gave up all for God, and God took care of her. 

I grew up in a Christian home, so I never had to worry about what family or friends would say when I became a Christian.  It was a time of joy for us.  I never had to worry about persecution or abandoning my past or living in this new situation.  But I know that it isn’t the same for others.  Many have had to give up friends, even family, their old ways of life to follow God.  But know as a fact, that even if you might feel alone for a while, God is there with you.  He has placed His hands over you and will love and care for you.  You are not alone.  You have come into the protection of His wings, and He will be your refuge. 

Boaz told this to Ruth.  Jesus told this to His disciples.  It won’t be easy.  It won’t be without trouble at times.  But it will be rewarding.  For you have come into the protection of the Almighty God. 

Restoring to Establishing

1 Peter 5:10 – “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

One of the hardest things to deal with in life is suffering.  Nobody in their right mind wants to go through trouble for no reason at all.  No one wants to be stricken with a malignant tumor fighting for their life everyday while dealing with the pain and hardship of chemotherapy.  No one wants to experience the death of a loved one.  No one wants to deal with a lost job due to a difficult economy.  And the suffering only becomes harder to bear when it happens to a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ for doing what is right because he is being persecuted.

Most of 1 Peter talks about how Christians need to stand strong for what is right and to continue to live a godly life in Christ in the midst of trials, knowing that the Lord also suffered.  We will focus for the next few devotionals on the reasons why we should stand strong for the Lord.  But before going into any of that, we will jump ahead to the end of 1 Peter where Peter gives one of the most encouraging statements for a person in suffering, 1 Peter 5:10 – “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”  In one of the closing verses of this book, Peter reminds all the believers that God will do four things for us – restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish – as well as remind them of what Christ has called us to – His eternal glory in Christ.

One way suffering can be endured is when a person remembers that what he is suffering for is worth all the pain.  This knowledge can push people to endure the worst of conditions, like when a parent will undergo torture to protect his/her child.  For this reason, Peter first reminds all the believers to what they have already been called to – His (God’s) eternal glory in Christ.  All the pain, all the trouble, all the persecution in the end amounted to God being glorified in Christ for the world would see that the suffering was not done deservedly for sin but due to the witness of Jesus Christ.  Paul encountered persecution for the gospel of Jesus Christ and eventually the whole palace where he was a prisoner knew that he was not placed there for any other reason but for bringing glory to God (Phil 1:12-13).  Not only was Paul vindicated for his imprisonment, but his imprisonment in the end brought to more sharing of the Gospel and many more people coming to know Christ.  Paul’s suffering ended up bringing glory to God and in the end himself as well for we still remember Paul, who now is able to partake in the glory of Christ.  It is the same for each and every one of us who are disciples of Christ, for we are fellow heirs with Christ and can also partake in His glory.  We must just remember that every time we endure suffering and persecution for the sake of Christ, we are blessed, for ours is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:10).

After reminding them of what they had been called to and will experience in the future, Peter then goes through a four step process to which God would take us through after suffering – restoration, confirmation, strengthening, and establishing.  First, Peter talks about restoration.  When we experience suffering, one of the easiest things to do is to pack up our bags and give up, to lose ground in our faith in Christ, to fall back on old sinful habits that were already gone.  Peter must have intentionally started with this verb restore to remind any believer who had slipped up during suffering that God had not given up on them in any way, shape, or form, but was ready to restore them again.  Too often we feel embarrassed when we realize that we had made a mistake and doubted God in the midst of trouble and are too afraid to return to Him, fearing that He is out there to give us an “I told you so.”  But God is not looking to condemn us but is waiting to restore our relationship with Him.  Even Job though he questioned God in the midst of suffering, in the end, when he humbled himself before the Lord, was restored.   In the KJV, this verb is translated perfect, which also means complete.  This is a reminder that God will complete us fully in the last day, making us perfect before Him.  I personally lean towards the ESV translation of restore though since the Greek word is katartizo,  which means repairing something broken (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/katartizo.html), in other words, restoring.  Even if there was no backsliding, suffering can take parts of you away and strip you of yourself, your emotions, your drive, and all of these things will be restored by Christ.

The second thing Peter says God will do is that He will confirm you.  The word in the Greek throughout the Bible has been translated as the word establish or confirm, both of which seem to carry the same idea in that something is being made sure of.  Interestingly enough, it was placed right after restoration, in that, God restores you after you might have backslidden and confirms your place in Him.  The restoration alone is an act of confirmation that you are still loved and cared for by Christ, but He goes over and beyond and specifically confirms your faith once again.  You can know for certain that Christ loves you and will never leave you or forsake you.  If you were a newscaster or writer, you might be told a small piece of information from a source, but unless you trust the source completely with your whole career and life, you usually need to confirm your facts and establish that they are true.  In the same manner, Christ not only restores your position and relationship with Him, but He will then confirm it for you, so that there will be no doubt in your mind of your relationship with Christ and where it is.

Third, Peter mentions how God will not only restore and confirm you but He will also strengthen you.  After going through hardship and suffering, falling back, and now returning, one of the hardest things to do is move forward.  Yes, you know that you are now in good graces with the Lord but it is still very difficult to move forward, knowing that you had fallen before, yet in this verse we are told that Christ will strengthen you, He will provide you the ability to go on.  At the same time, even if we had not lost faith in the midst of trials, there is no doubt that suffering will easily drain your drive to go on – whether it be living or continuing in the faith or growing in your relationship with the Lord.  We definitely need to find a source of strength to go on and that source is the Lord.  Isaiah 40:31 states it best, “But those who trust in the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”  In the LORD, we can find strength that can keep us going through any type of suffering and also the strength to continue on even if we had failed before.  May we always find our strength in the LORD.

Lastly, Peter reminds the believers that God will establish them.  After strengthening them, He will establish them.  Now, this word sounds very similar to confirm and seems like it means the same thing, but although it may be related, there is a subtle difference in that this word establish in the Greek means “to settle” or “to lay a foundation.” It means much more than just establishing an idea and letting one know it is true.  It takes that truth and causes a person to build his life on and around that truth so that nothing will ever shake it.  Confirm is like checking what someone said about the land on which someone wants to build his house, while establish is actually building the house on that land.  God not only restores our faith, confirms our faith, and strengthens our faith, but He establishes it so that it can never again be moved.  Romans 5:3-5 explains the process, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  Suffering led to a hope that could not be moved for it is established in the knowledge of God’s love and character.  As believers, we will no longer shift to and fro by the waves during suffering, but after a little while can find ourselves established in our faith not wavering in Christ, for our foundation is in Christ, our Rock.

1 Peter 5:10 is one of the great verses of Scripture to memorize and keep in mind in the midst of suffering, for although difficulties and persecutions arise, we can know for a fact that our Lord will in the end restore and repair where we have fallen or were hurt, confirm our faith and trust in Him as well as His Word, strengthen us to grow even farther in Him, and establish our faith so if and when another trial comes our hearts will stand even stronger in Him as our new character continues to be built to be more and more like Christ.  Remember His glory and your ability to partake in it, and remember His promise to restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  Suffering can be endured when you know and trust the promises of God.