Daily Devotion
With Pastor Ancel Presnell
“JESUS STILL AMAZES PEOPLE”
Of all the people who have lived down through the ages, no one has ever had the impact and influence on man, communities, cities, and nations like Jesus. Jesus came on the scene in an impossible way; He was born of a virgin and His Father was the God of the universe. Death followed Him all the days of His earthly life. It didn’t chase Him, it followed Him, you see, Christ was heading toward the cross from before the foundation of the word (Revelation 13:8.)
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount ended and there has never been a sermon so impactful as that sermon. It turned the world upside down. It dealt with a way of life unparallel to any other as He taught the Beatitudes. Christ upheld the Law of God, He dealt with the need to bear Christian influence across the world, and he even fit the subject of marriage and divorce into this sermon.
Jesus spoke to the importance of Christian love and service to others and to God, and He reminded us to remain humble in our service to the Lord. Jesus gave instruction on the most powerful thing that we have at our disposal, and that is prayer. Everyone worries about daily provision sometimes; it gets the best of us. Jesus commands us to leave worry behind and the logic in doing so is illustrated in how the Lord feeds the birds and clothes the lilies of the field. God has got us, aren’t we of greater significance than the birds.
Jesus tells us not to judge others while we have our own flaws. We have no right to help someone get a splinter out of their eye while we have a log in ours. Jesus put so much emphasis on prayer, he teaches us to ask, seek, and knock and He will answer us, show us, and open our requests up to us. This is powerful!
Christ preaches the need for us to treat others as we wish to be treated and then transitions into the very rigid truth of there being only two ways. One being straight and narrow and leading to God and the other being wide and leading to destruction. Choose wisely, whichever path one chooses will determine whether he builds his house on a rock or on sinking sand.
Jesus finished His Sermon, and the people were astonished at His doctrine. His teaching was astonishing, but the most astonishing thing was the authority by which He spoke it. As believers today, we must realize that the doctrine of Christ still amazes and astonishes people. It will still turn people’s world upside down. It will still meet people right where they are at. We must stick to the authority of the word of God, and if we do, it will still astonish people today.
Matthew 7:28, 29—“28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
