Christ As God - Christ As Man

Luke 22:8-13, 21-22, 34 - Christ

Luke 22:32, 41-44 - Man

Reading chapter 22 of Luke I was stuck by the fact that within these few verses we have a good picture of Christ both as God and as man. First let’s look at three instances where we see His characteristics as God.

Verses 8-13 relate Jesus sending Peter and John to prepare for the Passover. Notice He told them they would meet a man carrying a pitcher of water and they were to follow him and ask him if they could use his guest room. They did what he asked and " www.bible.org http:>

In verses 21-22 He began to single out the one who was going to betray Him. Judas had put up a good front but Jesus knew his heart. In verse 34 Jesus tells Peter that he (Peter) will betray Him (Christ) and even revealed the timing. He knew the future not only generally, but specifically.

There are also verses that depict the manhood of Christ. In verse 32 we see Him praying for Peter "but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." Notice that He did not pray that Peter would be spared from the test but that his faith would not fail. Often, we ask for the easy road as we pray rather than for God’s will in our lives.

Verses 41-44 tells us of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane, once again revealing his manhood. We also see His agony: "in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." As God He certainly could have spared Himself of this great mental anguish and as man I think He desired that. Notice He prayed "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup for Me, yet not My will, but Thine be done." However, He chose to be obedient to God’s will and suffer that anguish for you and me.

Truly, Jesus was fully God and fully man.

God’s Word Lasts Forever

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away."

Luke 21:33

This is a very simple, yet profound, verse of Scripture. It is not difficult to understand but I think it is important for us to meditate on its significance. There are not many things that are eternal. I can think of only our God, His Word and our souls. Everything else will pass away. That helps us gain a perspective of what is really important.

First, God is eternal. Genesis 1:1 says "In the beginning God…" He chose to create everything else.

We know from Genesis 1 and 2 that God created us. He desires fellowship with us. In Genesis 3 we learn that man broke that fellowship by sinning. By disobeying God’s Word we were separated from Him. Our souls are still eternal, but because of sin there is the potential that we will be eternally separated from Him. Since we made the choice to sin, we also must make the choice of our eternal destination.

God also has shared with us His will for our lives. Although we have a sin nature, He has placed within each of us a conscious that convicts us of wrong thoughts or actions. We can sear that conscious through disobedience. He has also provided His Word in various forms so that we can know His will and be obedient to it. God never changes, He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and so is His Word.

We cannot completely comprehend eternity with our finite minds but God has given us enough information through His Word and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we can understand His will. God also has the characteristic of being eternally consistent so we can be confident not only that His words will not pass away, but also that they will not change. Our relationship with Him since the time of creation has been based on faith.

What a privilege and comfort it is to know that we can have an eternal relationship with Him.

The Return of Christ

Luke 21:25-28

The rapture of Christians from the earth begins the tribulation period which lasts for seven years and closes with the return of Christ to the earth called His second coming. The tribulation is called that because it is a period of wrath, judgment, indignation, trial, trouble, destruction, darkness, desolation, and punishment like the world has never seen before. There is not a passage to be found in the Bible to reduce to any degree the severity of this time that shall come upon the earth. This period will witness the wrath of Satan in his animosity against Israel (Rev. 12:12-17) and of his puppet, the Beast against the saints (Rev. 13:7). Rev. 14:7, 19; 15:7 tell us it is not the wrath of Satan but the wrath of God.

God’s purpose for the tribulation is to bring about the conversion of a multitude of Jews (Matt. 24:14, Malachi 4:5-6). Multitudes of Jews and Gentiles will be brought into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ during the tribulation (Rev. 7:1-9). The second purpose of the tribulation is to pour out judgment on unbelieving man because of his godlessness (Jer. 25:32-33, Isa. 26:21, II Thes. 2:12).

We believe that the period of Tribulation lasts for seven years and ends with the second coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom. That will have to be the topic of another discussion.

I have shared this brief explanation with you because I believe it is important that we are aware of what God has revealed to us about the future. It is worthy of further study, but not something that should consume us. We can be thankful that we will not have to live through this tribulation period because Christians will have been called home to heaven by Christ at the time of the rapture. We should be motivated to share our faith with others by realizing that those who do not know the Lord and are living at the time of the rapture will go through this dramatic time of wrath and destruction. We believe that the rapture of Christians is imminent; that is, there is no other prophetic event that needs to take place before it occurs.

The future

Luke 21:8-24

Our next two devotionals will look at the future. The disciples had been admiring the temple and Jesus told them that it was going to be destroyed completely (v. 6). The natural question from them was when? The parallel passage in Matthew (24) tells us they also asked about the end of the age. Jesus responded by telling them about three things that would start to occur before the destruction of the temple (AD 70) and one which would take place later.

First He said that many would come claiming to be Christ (v. 8). He wanted the disciples and us not to be deceived. Secondly, He said that wars would occur (9 & 10) and when that happened the disciples were not to be terrified because “the end does not follow immediately.” Thirdly, He mentioned that tremendous earthquakes would occur, causing great famine and pestilence (v. 11). Here he is speaking of the great tribulation that will occur after the rapture of Christians. Finally, He said that before all these things happened they would be persecuted. We know that all of the disciples were persecuted greatly. The next several verses (12-17) describe not only what the disciples encountered but also what future disciples would encounter. People will trust Christ during the tribulation and will undergo great persecution.

Jesus next (v. 20-24) noted that Gentile domination, which began in 586 BC when Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonians) took Jerusalem and the nation of Israel into captivity, would continue “until the times of the Gentiles would be fulfilled”. We are living in that age right now. This age will be culminated by Christians being raptured (1 Thes. 4:13-17), the Great Tribulation and the second return of Christ.

Everything we know from prophesy that needs to occur before the rapture has taken place. For that reason Christians believe that the return of Christ is imminent. That is the next event on God’s prophetic calendar and it could happen at any moment. We should live our lives in expectation of that event.