When something is being built there are a great many things that are important. What is being built? Whose will it be when it is built? Where is it being built? What materials are being used in building it? Who is paying for it to be built? Who is building it? There are probably more, but this gives us the picture. Of course the answers to these questions will vary by the project. In Matthew 16:18 we read Jesus saying, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” From this verse we learn the answers to some of those questions. Jesus is the builder. The church is what is being built. There is only one being built. It is built on the rock of the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. It will belong to him when it is built. 

From other passages we can find out the answers to more questions. God paid for it with his own blood -Acts 20:28. Christians are the materials he uses to build it - 1 Peter 2:5. Jesus is the chief cornerstone of the foundation with the apostles and prophets helping complete the foundation - Ephesians 2:20. He began building in Jerusalem, but has continued to make additions to it through the ages - Acts 2:47

There’s more, but let’s focus back on Christ: the builder, owner, and purchaser. He will decide who is and who is not in his church. He will decide where each stone is placed and what function it will serve. In any building there are different purposes for different parts. We sometimes are guilty of thinking like the apostles, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom (church)?’. We must remember that Jesus is the greatest and we are created for him - Colossians 1:15-18. We should be content to be part of what he is building and do our best to bring him glory and honor no matter the place he puts us or the way he chooses for us to be used. To use a concept from scripture with a different example: Shall the brick say to the builder why did you put me here? Or, Why didn’t you use me in a more prominent position? 

We answer to the Builder. Are you doing your best to fit into God’s building where the builder has placed you?

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There is a story about a boy who saw a man parking his brand new expensive car. The boy asked about it and found out it had been a gift from the man’s brother. The boy said, “I wish...” (You know what came next don’t you? Or do you?) “I wish I could be a brother like that.” Read the rest of the story at http://www.chickensoup.com/book-story/36169/a-brother-like-that. Of course we have a brother like that, Jesus has done far more than give us a car. 

And Jesus left us an example so we could be brothers (and sisters) like that as well. Jesus gave us so much, and all he expects in return is for us to do God’s will. Mark 3:34-35  And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  35  For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

Younger children usually either are jealous of an older sibling, or want to be just like them in every way possible. What a great older brother we have in Jesus. The question is which will we do? Are we jealous of him because he is perfect? Do we envy him because he is better known? Do we want to be just like him? I hope that we all want to be like him. He always did what the Father wanted him to do (John 8:29). He gave until there was nothing more he could give us.

We can be siblings like Jesus. We can give ourselves to our brothers and sisters and devote ourselves to doing God’s will. We will not always live up to the standards our big brother did, but we can keep trying. 

Think about the things our brother, Christ, has done for us. How have we responded to him? Won’t you decide today that you want to be a brother like that and make whatever changes you need to make to love Christ and love your brethren like he loves you? 

John 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

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It is well-accepted that Zechariah 6:12 is a prophecy about Jesus, even though at first glance it appears to be talking to and about someone else. Notice the section. After some of the exiles returned, Zechariah was given the following message from the Lord in 6:11-13  Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.  12  And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.  13  It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ After this it tells how people will come from far away to build the temple. 

It looks like the man, Joshua, is the focus of this message, but he is just the symbol and shadow of the Christ who was to come. Let’s notice some things. 1) Joshua and Jesus are forms of the same name and both basically mean savior. 2) Behold the man is exactly what Pilate said when he presented Jesus to the people with a crown of thorns on his head. 3) Zerubbabel built the physical temple in their day, yet the Branch was going to build the temple. 4) The Branch was to sit and rule on his throne and be a priest, neither this Joshua nor any other priest of the tribe of Levi ever was king. In fact Israel never had it’s own king again after this time. 

When we take all of these things and more together we can see that this was an encouragement to the people to trust that God had a plan and that if they would obey him he would bless their obedience. Christ is still branching out today, and he began branching out from Jerusalem. Are you trusting God’s plan and being obedient to him so that your obedience can bring blessings as well?

JP

While there are some who are gluten intolerant and can’t eat regular bread, most of us love bread, probably too much. We eat sandwiches, have rolls, biscuits, flat breads, cornbread, etc. Most of us have some kind of bread every day and some have it at every meal, but we could live without it and probably be healthier. In Jesus’ day that was not the case. They didn’t have the same access to fruits and vegetables and meats that we have today. For some in the Bible bread was literally what kept them alive. That’s why Jesus telling Satan that man does not live by bread alone was a significant statement.

In John 6 some amazing things happen and some amazing teaching takes place. Jesus feeds the 5,000 and walks on water. The people try to make him a king and follow him around the Sea of Galilee. So, they have just eaten miraculously produced bread and now he is teaching them about true bread. They talk a little about the manna in the wilderness and then in John 6:35 Jesus says, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Jesus says that the manna was only a foreshadow of him and that he is the real bread from Heaven.

People lived on bread and water and not much else sometimes in those days and Jesus wants them to understand that spiritually he will be the thing that sustains them in their hunger and thirst. He wants us to know that as well. Are we coming to Jesus so we will never hunger or are we eating all the spiritual junk food out there in the religious world? Are we believing in him so we will never thirst or are we trying to quench our thirst with other things? The good news is that Jesus is bread that brings and sustains us and that all can partake of. Let’s be sure we never become Jesus intolerant.

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