Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 265

September 22;   Luke 9:56;   53/260(II);   ‘To Save Not Destroy’

Luke 9:56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village.

The Lord Jesus sent messengers to a village of the Samaritans, in order for the village to prepare for Him.  The Samaritan people in the village were not receptive to Jesus.  John and James had fiery tempers and wanted to command fire to come down from heaven, as Elijah did, to consume those who did not want Jesus in their village.  The Lord Jesus rebuked John and James for their harshness.  Let me interject a note here concerning John and James.  Being with the Lord Jesus changed them.  John became the apostle of love (the agape love of God) and James, who headed up the church in Jerusalem before his martyrdom, had knees calloused like a camel, because of all of his praying.  After rebuking John and James, Jesus told them that He did not come into this world to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.  The Lord called Himself the Son of Man.  Jesus identified with us in every way.  He was tempted to sin, in every way we are tempted to sin and yet Jesus never sinned.  Jesus was hated and rejected by the religious leaders, the very ones who should have loved Him.  Soon Jesus would be betrayed and then His disciples, those who were the closest to Him, would abandon Him when He was arrested.  The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus knew all men.  Not just that some were evil and wicked, but why they were that way.  He also knew that we were but flesh, until we became Born Again.  The challenges of life and the hurts inflicted on virtually everyone, enabled the love of Jesus Christ to rise above their cruelty.  He knew that only His love could change them.  He knew that then, we must know that now.