May 2, 2010

May 2 Luke 22:1-23
I wish I would have known in 2003 what was going to happen to real estate values in Brunswick county until 2006. I would be a very wealthy man right now if I had known that. In 2003 a lot on Oak Island could have been purchased for $20,000-$30,000. In 2006 you could not find one for under $250,000, a seven to tenfold increase in value. In my town of BSL in 2003, you could purchase a house lot for $5,000. In May of 2006 an interior lot down the street from me sold for $45,000, a nine fold increase. Had I the ability to know the future, I would have borrowed all the money I could get, and I would have bought all the lots that I could, and I would have made some significant profits. But alas, I do not know the future. God knows the future. If He had wanted me to be rich, I guess He could have somehow maneuvered me into buying lots three years ago. My focus needs to be on Him. He provides all that I need.
Jesus is the God/Man. He has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. They are forever united in one person without any mingling of the two. As God, Jesus would know the future. As man, He would not know the future. Is that understandable? I understand what is being claimed but I have difficulty knowing for sure how that worked out in His life here during His first appearance upon earth. It would appear from what He said and did, that all that He did as a man He did not do in His power as God but in the power of the Holy Spirit. But the disciples were approaching a very traumatic time in their lives and in His ministry. They needed both explanations before hand and demonstration of power that Jesus knew what was going on. They got it.
Jesus tells them where and how to go make preparation for the Passover. "When you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters.” I don't know about you, but that would have been pretty freaky for me, especially when it happened just as Jesus told them. I mean, it would be one thing if Jesus told them, "A man named such and such will meet you at a certain place. I have already met him and made all the arrangements, and he will show you to the house." That's kind of a normal thing. But Jesus doesn't give any names. He gives no address. Just do this, and it will happen. I think that it is a demonstration of the Holy Spirit telling Him future events, and the willing hearts of people He had not yet personally met. I think this was designed by Him as an encouragement to the disciples to trust His abilities and His leadership. It was a demonstration of power that He knew what was going on.
In the upper room He gives them a graphic explanation during the Seder of what was about to happen. The cross was coming. He was heading there purposefully. It was not that He could not control the situation. He was orchestrating this. His death was substitutionary for us. This meal from this point on would forever be a remembrance of His purposeful, loving death on our behalf. The King is in control even when it doesn't look like it. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john