Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Friday after the First Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: St. John 10:31-38 (NKJV)
 
10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
 
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
 
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? 35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
 
Devotion
 
“If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”
 
Jesus told His Jewish hearers who were seeking to stone Him for claiming to be the Son of God that, if they did not believe His words, they should consider His works and believe in Him because of them. His works confirm Him to be the Son of God who has come into this world to redeem fallen mankind.
 
Even before Nicodemus became a believer, he recognized that “no one can do these signs that [Jesus did] unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Jesus opened blind eyes and deaf ears. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and even raised the dead. After He had made atonement for the sins of all by His innocent sufferings and death on the cross, He rose again on the third day! What more could we desire to prove that Jesus is indeed God in the flesh, one with the Father, and our Savior and Redeemer!
 
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully to receive the prayers of Thy people who call upon Thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfill the same; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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