Passage
Jesus
and His newly acquired disciples went to Capernaum. On the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue
and began to teach. The people in
Capernaum were astonished at Him because He taught as someone who had authority
rather than as the scribes taught.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
On
the Sabbath, Jesus went to church (I know, I know. Synagogue doesn’t necessarily equal
church). But really, think about it for
a second. Does Jesus need to go to
church? Isn’t He God? Doesn’t church kind of follow Him
around? Jesus goes to church to
demonstrate two principles to those who would follow Him. First, regardless of who you are, worshipping
God is a necessary part of a truly godly life and the main reason to go to
church. Second, being in the habit of
having a spiritual community and having the opportunity to talk about one’s
faith is an important thing.
Why
do you go to church? How often do you go
to church? Do you ever see going to
worship God as a sign of obedience to Him?
Does it make you feel good to know that when you go to worship God you
are mimicking Jesus?
Second Thought:
Jesus
not only goes to church, but while He is there He teaches. Okay, I get it. He is the Son of God. He probably has a few things to say and He’s
got confidence in abundance. We don’t
always have those two qualities. Yet, we
should realize that going to worship God should not be a passive thing. We should not always go to “receive.” We should go to participate. We should lift up our gifts and use them in
the worship of God. We should be an
active voice that proclaims our relationship with God to others – even in
church.
Are
you passive about proclaiming your faith when you go to worship God? What makes it easy to be passive? When you focus only on receiving from God,
what might you be missing out on?
Third Thought:
The
people of Capernaum were astonished.
First, they were probably astonished because Jesus actually did have a
public faith. Testimonies of public
faith are hard to come by in any day.
Second, and more importantly, they were astonished because Jesus taught
as one with authority. He taught with
authority because He spoke the words of God.
He taught with authority because He was in tune with what God was doing
through Him. He taught with authority
because He believed in God’s plan.
What
is God’s plan for you? Why is it hard to
live with authority if you don’t know what God is trying to do through
you? Who in your life teaches with
authority? What can you learn from their
example?
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