LEARNING DAILY

John 8:28-29, 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. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left me alone for I always do those things that please Him.”

There is plenty of teaching for us to understand packed into these two verses. He is responding to the Pharisees who either did not understand who He really was or did not care and wanted to get rid of Him. He has told them in earlier verses that He was divine, that He “was from above”. He had told them they needed to know who they were opposing or “they would die in their sins”. Verse 27 tells us that they ”did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father”.

To this Jesus predicts His death and His resurrection, telling them that His words and actions are in obedience to His Father in heaven. To be “lifted up” was a common way Jesus spoke of accomplishing His mission (see John 3:14 and John 12:32 as examples). When He used the term “Son of Man” those listening would recognize it as a reference to Himself as the Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament. He also used the phrase “then you will know that I am He” referring to Himself as the One who is the source of salvation. Think of God telling Moses that “I AM WHOM I AM” when sending him to Egypt in the book of Exodus.

Jesus also tells His listeners that He and the Father are in constant communication and “the Father has not left Him alone for I always do those things that please Him.” Jesus has been consistent in acknowledging to have God’s power, judgment, and knowledge; Jesus has always given this ability to the fact that He and the Father are One. That brings us to the central thought that Jesus was always obedient to what the Father said. Jesus always had His mission on this earth before Him. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of My Father who sent Me that I should lose nothing but should raise it up on the last day” (John 6:38-39).

Here is the teaching to grasp, Jesus did everything out of love and obedience to His heavenly Father. Jesus centered His life in pleasing his heavenly Father by what He thought, by what He said, and by what He did. Th Pharisees did not grasp this – they probably did not want to. All believers who want to really please their Father in heaven should have this same desire to be obedient, to have a constant desire to live their lives out of love and be obedient to God’s Word. I hope the encouragement to walk on the narrow way that true Believer's walk never grows stagnant or old for you. Our walk must be one of obedience as we follow and walk with the Lord Jesus into His eternal kingdom. Obedience to the Word of God must be for us as it was for Jesus, the foundation and motive for all we think, say, and do each day.

Every day we do battle against unbelief, deception, false teaching, and all the worldly forces that want to discourage our walk with the Lord. To be obedient, we must daily be with our heavenly Father by reading/studying. Meditating on His Word and staying close to Him through prayer. Then we are to be doers of what it says. I pray that is your desire and part of your daily routine.