Matt 17:5

Listen to Him.

The Lord led Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain. The veil was pulled to one side and His inherent glory shone forth, displaying to the disciples the King as He will be when He comes into His kingdom.

The approval of the Father boomed from heaven in an audible voice: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” This reveals to us in an explicit way the existence of the Trinity and assures us of purity and righteousness of the Son with reference to his human life.

The God-ordained application stands out prominently: make listening to Jesus the continual habit of your life.

An obvious reaction would be to set aside time to read through one of the gospels again, taking note particularly of what did Jesus actually say. There were many things, but some favorites come to mind.

The great commission in Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Three things stand out. We are operating under the authority of the King of the universe. Our responsibility is to help people learn about Jesus. He is present with us all the way to the end. The Holy Spirit does the convincing and the converting, but we have the privilege of having a part of the work.

The great invitation in Matthew 11:28-30

“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”

What burden does He have in mind? Certainly a burden from guilt and sin which plagues us. But He is also speaking to people laboring under a heavy system of self-righteous religious demands. The pharisees had produced through mistaken zeal and spiritual pride an approach to law-keeping that added intense regulations that obscured the actual law of God. For all of this, to serve the Lord Jesus is full relief.

The great commandment in Matthew 22:37-40

And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”

So many of our moral failures and so much of our anguish is caused by quietly forgetting these two commandments. We pursue delight, fulfillment, security in something other than our Creator. We live guarding our own privilege in fear, rather than being confident of our safety in the love of God for us and giving our attention to the needs of those we meet.

The great search in John 4:23,24

But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Following the same theme as the great commandment, God is seeking people who will worship Him, that is, people who will love Him with all their hearts. Such worship does not take place through some regimented physical action but flows from the heart in reliance on the truth of Scripture.

The great rescue in John 5:24

Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

Rest in this great news. Eternal life is a present and permanent possession for all those who are entrusting themselves to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pursuit of wisdom for today from the Ancient of Days

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