Sitting in Judgment Over God

In my personal Bible reading I have been reading in the Gospel of John and have come to the betrayal, arrest, trials, and ultimately the crucifixion of Jesus (John 18-19). It’s at the same time a sad and yet hopeful story.

Reflecting on the events of that night when Jesus was betrayed, I wondered what it looked like from Jesus’ perspective. We know what it looked like from the various

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The dying, profane, wicked, weaklings are sitting in

judgment over the eternal, holy, sinless, all-powerful One.

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perspectives of the players involved, that’s the focus of the gospel accounts. But what did it look like from the perspective of the eternal, holy, sinless, all-powerful God of the universe?

There are many words that I could have chosen to describe Jesus. I chose those four deliberately. They bring into focus something that we have missed. They magnify the cosmic difference between us and God. And the chasm is great. Greater than anything we can even imagine.

He is eternal, we are dying. He is holy, we are profane. He is sinless, we are wicked. He is all-powerful, we are weaklings.

And Jesus knows who He is. And He knows who we are.

So go back to that night and ask yourself, what did it look like from His perspective?

That’s the sad part of this story.

The dying, profane, wicked, weaklings are sitting in judgment over the eternal, holy, sinless, all-powerful One.

The two-year-olds are throwing the ultimate temper tantrum. The inmates are running the asylum.

Does it get any more ludicrous than that?!

In His omniscience He knew what was in their hearts. He knew their thoughts. But He still must have shaken His head in almost amazing disbelief. Who do they think they are? The nursery has risen up in rebellion.

And today we are still throwing infantile hissy fits.

Every time we reject something that God says in His Word. Every time we go our own way instead of God’s way. Every time we chose Me over Him we throw ourselves onto the floor in a spiritual temper tantrum. Bang your fists. Kick your feet. Scream.

And the God of the Universe stands silently and watches. Still shaking His head in disbelief.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve

Using the Obscure

We are people of the big. We like things to be large. In our minds small is bad, big is good. We like big events, big trucks, big steaks, big houses, big everything.

It’s even infiltrated the church. Big churches are good, small churches, well not so good. The unspoken thought in many minds is, something must be wrong if a church is small. Small is automatically associated with defective.

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God chose an obscure time, an obscure land, an obscure village,

and an obscure woman to bring about his greatest plan.

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Big and small are also associated with well-known and obscure. No one has ever chosen to be obscure. We may not choose to be well-known, but we certainly don’t want people to think of us as nameless.

It’s interesting that God doesn’t think that way. In fact God often chooses, as the Apostle reminds us the foolish things . . . the weak things . . . and the lowly things (1 Corinthians 1:27f) to bring about His plan.

Think for a moment about the obscure, unknown people that God has used throughout history. Most of us would be hard-pressed to say much about Jethro, Jabez, Elishama, or Ehud. What about Bezalel and Oholiab? Or Zelophehad’s Daughters? Unknown and therefore obscure people, yet they were each important enough for God to record their names for eternity.

God chose an obscure time, an obscure land, an obscure village and an obscure woman to bring about His greatest plan. The plan of redemption.

You might feel obscure. No one knows what you do in the kingdom of God. And you just want a little recognition.

Don’t give up. Know that what you do is known by the most important One of all. Nothing gets by Him. And someday He will come.

Revelation 22:12 should encourage you to keep on. Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

When He comes you will be rewarded for your faithful service for Christ, no matter how small or how insignificant you think it is.

Nothing is too small or obscure for God when it is done in His name.

Stay in the Word

Pastor Steve