Our season of Advent carries on as we continue to come follow Jesus (Matt. 4:19) and learn from him (Matthew 5:1-2, 11:28-29). This week’s focus moves from Jesus as “the Way” to Jesus as “the Truth”. The truth is that there is no other way to come to the Father except through Jesus (John 14:6). But just as powerful a reality is the knowledge that we are enabled to come to the Father by Jesus – and this is a Truth worth celebrating.
Read: verses 1-6 twice.
Mark: the words or phrases that catch your attention.
Meditate: talk (better yet write) with God about those words. Ask him to impress things upon your heart and mind; expect a response.
Lord Jesus, True God and True Man, help us to know the truth, to experience the truth, to wear the truth as part of our God-given armor; help us to stand in the truth and to withstand the onslaught of falsity and deceit that the Enemy is known for. Finally, help us stand against any and all compromised truths the world tries to push. You are Truth, and we seek you and your way above things. In your name we pray, Amen.
As we read Matthew 11:2-15, we hear of some awesome activities that Isaiah described would be associated with the coming of the Messiah (Christ). Jesus replied [to John’s disciples]:
“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."
Yet there was much more to the mission as Jesus’ unwavering path to the cross would show, more than healings and teachings. It was about life and death decisions – to live and die for us heal the disease of sin in us.
He came to testify to the truth – to this truth, and by his death provide access to the One True God.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
When Jesus saw [a woman crippled by a spirit], he called her forward and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
Praise the Lord, the God of Truth, for blessings small and big – and for the gracious place given you in the kingdom of God.
Sing to God, maybe try to recall or look up songs that talk about truth (Joy to the World LSB387 or The Voice of Truth by Casting Crowns). Play the music, sit back, relax, and rest in the Lord. Don’t be in a hurry.
[Insert your own prayer]
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Not everybody believed Jesus back then – not everyone believes today; but to those who do believe him and follow him, these words still ring true: If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus does tell us to count the cost in being a disciple (see Luke 14:25-34). He also reveals the benefits of following Him: true freedom and abundant life (John 10:10). Join me in acknowledging: I am a disciple of Jesus; I know the truth and I have been set free.
Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.
[Insert your own prayer]
Experiencing the True God
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The goal is not simply to know about God, but rather to know God and be in Him. This is what Jesus defines as life (John 17:3 next week’s theme). You can miss out on life without Truth. Let the Scriptures reveal the character and heart of God, and his attitude toward His creation.
Our chief goal with God’s Word is to bring about an encounter with the Living God, known as the Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – our Father in Heaven – Abba. We know God uses such encounters to create, sustain, or grow faith in His people and complete work He aims it to do in and through us.
Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.
The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
Ask God to reveal Himself to you in, through, and after your times in the Word and prayer.
Joy of the Redeemed
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Here are some of the prophetic words about the Messiah that Jesus references (see the Tuesday devotion).
They are weighted with hope-filled promises for a beaten-down group of people. Years later, God’s people would receive the Hope of nations in Bethlehem and Jesus would fulfill these promises precisely as God laid out:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever.
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
Father God, I want to be free – free from sin’s power and the Enemy’s lies. I want to know the truth that sets me free, to know Jesus as Truth, as Savior and to know you as the One, True God. I want to follow Jesus as Lord, willing to count the cost, denying myself and identifying as a disciple. To this end, help me immerse in your Word and Spirit consistently; in Jesus’ name, Amen
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. 3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. “By all means, go,” the king of Aram replied. “I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents[b] of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”
As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, “Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”
When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.” So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.
Naaman’s servants went to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!” So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. So please accept a gift from your servant.”
The prophet answered, “As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him, he refused.
“If you will not,” said Naaman, “please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord. But may the Lord forgive your servant for this one thing: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow down and he is leaning on my arm and I have to bow there also—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord forgive your servant for this.”
“Go in peace,” Elisha said.
This is a story of one man, a great warrior leader in a foreign army, encountering the God of Israel, the True God of Heaven and Earth. It would all start with the testimony of a little girl who followed that God – despite circumstances that left her a captive to this very man’s family, a servant in his household. It wasn’t just Elisha that serves on God’s behalf, it was this female servant also, and would later include Naaman himself, thanks to a few faithful disciples.
Ask God to check your attitude about your personal circumstances. Are you like the little girl? How are you different? Are you open to sharing stories about God to those around and even over you?
Thoughts on Jesus’ coming: Jesus came as the Truth of God. Keep that in mind as you ponder these two statements He made:
Jesus, you are True God and True Man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary – and my Lord. Teach me your teaching, show me your Truth, lead me in the way of life everlasting.
Amen.
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