Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living

“Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9).

 

You never know what to expect when a child opens his mouth!  He may embarrass you; he may amuse you; or he may say something that reveals wisdom beyond his years.

On one occasion, a minister visited a Sunday school class where the four-year-olds were drawing pictures about people in the Bible.  One boy had drawn an exciting scene of God driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. Another showed Jesus feeding a large crowd of very hungry people.  “And what are you drawing?” the pastor asked a sincere and innocent little girl of about five years of age.  “Oh, I’m drawing a picture of God,” she replied confidently. “Well, that’s a nice idea,” he answered kindly, “but really no one knows for sure what God looks like.”  “Oh, they will when I get done,” she smiled enthusiastically, as she hurried on with her drawing.  Think about that for a moment: “They’ll know what God looks like when I get done!”

An overstatement?  Yes, for a four-year-old.  But not for Jesus Christ.  By His birth, life on earth, death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave, He showed mankind what God was like.  He was the God-Man.  The Bible says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”

One of the names given the Son of God is “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”  When Jesus was on Earth, God was on Earth. When Jesus healed, God healed. When Jesus forgave sinners, God forgave sinners.  You cannot have one without the other!  In the Old Testament days (the period of time before Christ came to earth), the revelation of God was never complete.  When Moses asked God for credentials as to his divine mission of leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, God answered, “Tell them that I AM has sent you.”

Now any grade-school student knows that “I AM” is an incomplete sentence.  There is a subject, a verb, but no complement.  If I stepped up to you and said, “I am,” your natural reaction would be, “You are what?”  You would want me to finish the sentence.

Well, here is good news: when Jesus came to earth nearly 2,000 years ago, He did finish the sentence of truth so that man would understand God clearly.  He did not just say, “I am.”  He said, “I am the Door….  I am the Good Shepherd….  I am the Bread of Life.”  By such figures of speech, He revealed God simply yet beautifully so that all men might understand the heart of God.

A Good Shepherd is a tender-hearted person, seeking the lost sheep.  So is God compassionate, seeking each lost man and woman in our big, bustling world.

“Bread” is the staff of life. A person can live without cake and cookies, but not without bread.  It is essential to healthy living.  “Likewise,” says Jesus, “do you need God.  He is to your soul what bread is to your body.  He is the very Bread of Life.”

Where are such statements found? Right in your Bible.  The Bible is the Written Word that shows you the Living Word, Christ Jesus!  If the book is new to you, I suggest that you begin with the Gospel according to John. It is easily understood, beautifully expressed, and in its third chapter is the best-known verse of the entire Bible. Martin Luther said this verse was the Gospel in miniature, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  As you read this verse, and the other verses of John’s Gospel, you will better understand what God is like. You will see Him in the life of His son.

 

Resource reading:  John 14: 1-30