“After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.” John 7:1
We are all faced with choices. We make choices every day. You have already made choices today. You made a choice to get up. You made a choice to get dressed. You made a choice about what to wear. You made a choice about what to eat or drink. You made a choice to come to this online devotional today. And there are more choices to come!
In John 7, Jesus is being faced with choices. In our last article, we finished John 6. We move ahead to six months later as we begin chapter 7. At the end of chapter 6, a turning point has taken place in our Lord’s ministry. Thousands of Jesus’s disciples – those who had sat under His teaching everywhere He went — have now drawn back and ceased to follow Him.
In the opening words of chapter seven, John declares that there is a hint of murder in the air. Our Lord is aware of a growing hostility against Him and that the Jews in Judea are seeking a way to kill Him. With this in mind, we are going to see that Jesus desired to follow God’s plan for His life more than anything else.
What about you and me? Are we willing to follow God’s plan for us even if it involves pain and rejection? How do we follow God’s plan? Today we will find out. I FOLLOW GOD’S PLAN WHEN I…
ATTEND TO THOSE WHO ARE RECEPTIVE (John 7:1). “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him.” (John 7:1). Six months after the events of Chapter 6 of John, Jesus was ministering in Galilee. He walked from village to village proclaiming the gospel. Look at a map of Palestine in the time of Jesus. See where Galilee is north of Judea and Samaria? Jesus purposely stays away from Judea. Why? Because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Our Savior had no martyr complex. He was not about to endanger His life. He did not seek after persecution, He tried to avoid it until the time arrived for Him to be crucified.
So Jesus goes up to Galilee where people would be more receptive to His ministry. If we want to follow God’s Plan, we must focus our attention on those who are more receptive to the gospel. Remember what our Lord instructed His disciples to do when they encountered opposition to the gospel? “And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” (Luke 9:5). The Lord does not want us to stand there and argue with those who are resistant to the gospel. We are not responsible for how people respond to our message. But we are responsible for how we respond to their resistance. Like the disciples, we must move on to those who are more receptive.
I encounter several people on our Facebook page who are opposed to the clear and simple gospel and a literal understanding of the Bible. It profits no one to argue with those people. Their minds are already made up. God wants me to speak the truth to them, but not argue with them. God already has other people He has prepared to hear and believe His gospel. Those are the people I seek to interact with.
Does this mean we are to give up on reaching the resistant? Not at all. Continue to pray for them and model Christ before them. But don’t try to argue them into God’s family. Instead, be aware of others God has in your life who are ready to trust in Christ alone for His gift of salvation. Satan would much rather have us argue with those whose minds are blinded by him than see us share with those who are prepared to be rescued from his kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of God’s Son.
Prayer: Lord of the harvest, thank You for modeling what it means to follow God’s plan for my life. Just as You sought out people who were more receptive to Your message, so I am to seek out people whom You have prepared to hear and believe the gospel. There may come a time in my life where Your plan involves being led up a hill to be crucified for following You. I do not seek such a time, but I do seek You and Your leading in my life. There have been several seasons in my life where You called me to preach to resistant people who did not want to hear Your Word. Even then, Your grace was sufficient to sustain me. Thank You for the many times You have redirected me to people who are eager to hear Your Word and believe in Christ alone for His gift of everlasting life. I am trusting You today to lead me to those who are prepared to hear and believe Your life-giving gospel message. In Jesus’s powerful name. Amen.