Body

Devotions

The Ever-Present Jesus

Gary Wilkerson

Not long ago, I was sitting outside my house, reading my Bible, and I suddenly felt this intense longing. I found myself saying, “Jesus, I wish you were physically here. I wish you would sit next to me on my porch, open my Bible, and talk to me about it. I wish I could see your eyes and hear your voice.”

In that moment, I was reminded of the scriptures where Jesus said, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away…” (John 16:7, ESV). How many of you have heard that scripture? I’ve heard it since I was a little boy. The problem is that I’m not sure I ever believed it. I’ve honestly often thought that it would be better if Jesus was with me right now. I get on a plane and think, “I wish he was sitting next to me on this plane.” It'd be a perfect world to have Jesus sitting on one side of me and my wife sitting on the other!

Here's what Jesus said to me, though, that time on my porch. “Gary, if I was here on earth, at best, you’d get five minutes of my time per year because there’d be a big line.” 

If Jesus was physically here on earth, he would be limited to the capacity of humanity. There would be only so much that he could do or say to each one of us before it’d be like “Okay, next. Next person. Next.” 

Now that his Spirit and truth is living in us, he is with you all the time! He never has to leave you to eat or sleep or see someone else. I thought that when the Bible says, “He will never leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6), it meant kind of doctrinally. God won’t allow me to ever not be a Christian; he’ll hold me in my faith. 

Now I see that verse as promising that Christ will never leave me. He’s right here with me. He’ll be on the airplane with me. Anytime I’m in my car and I want to talk to him, he’s right there. That actually is much better than him being physically here, isn’t it?  

A Zealot and a Tax Collector

Tim Dilena

The New Testament shows us two groups of people: the tax collectors and the zealots. The former were Jews who collected taxes from their fellow Jews for the Roman Empire. They made their living by charging an extra amount on top of what everyone owed. Some of them extracted as much as they could and became very well-to-do. Many Jews saw tax collectors as traitors because they became wealthy by collaborating with the Roman authorities at the expense of their own people.

The zealots strongly believed that the Romans should not rule their land, and they considered violence an appropriate response. Some factions of the zealots we would probably call terrorists today. They murdered in the name of religion, and they hated traitors, specifically tax collectors. 

Putting those two together probably wouldn’t be a good idea, but what do we see in the gospels? “He [Jesus] called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him” (Matthew 10:1-4, ESV, my emphasis). 

Jesus put a tax collector and a zealot together in his closest group of disciples. Matthew wrote this and included those labels so we would know about the potential conflict here. Jesus specifically called them to work and live together, and you can be sure he did that on purpose. 

Our tendency is to hang out with people like us, but that’s a club, not church. Church represents Jesus’s loves, not your likes. God can put you with people who irritate you. That’s how sandpaper works. You get the rough edges rubbed off of you, and you become more like Christ. 

So the next time your zealot nature sits next to an irritating tax collector, think about how Jesus may have placed that person in your life to make you a stronger Christian. Once you get that far, think about how God is almost certainly using you to sanctify somebody else, and then rejoice. This is the church as Christ intended it!

After pastoring an inner-city congregation in Detroit for thirty years, Pastor Tim served at Brooklyn Tabernacle in NYC for five years and pastored in Lafayette, Louisiana, for five years. He became Senior Pastor of Times Square Church in May of 2020.

God Will Not Walk Out

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Psalm 107 has been called “the Old Testament love feast.” One of the most encouraging passages in all of God’s Word, it is for those needing forgiveness, deliverance or restoration. The final verse promises the reader an understanding of who God truly is. “Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43, NKJV).

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! For his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them" (Psalm 107:1-5).

Here is a classification of people who once knew the fullness of the Lord and at some time in their life discovered glorious deliverance. Now, however, they are in a solitary wilderness, wandering alone, and they cannot find the city.

"The city" in the Old Testament is always Zion, which represents God's true church. Today, of course, it signifies the true body of Christ, those who worship in spirit and in truth but cannot seem to find “the city.” They no longer attend church, refusing to worship with any body of believers because there is little or no spiritual reality to be found.

Indeed, there are multitudes of starving Christians who go from church to church today, trying to find their place. In the end, they give up even seeking a good church because they are determined that there are none. Perhaps you say, "Brother Dave, I can't find a Christ-centered, holiness-seeking church in my area. I can't find the city."

Beloved, God has provided a solution. "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place" (Psalm 107:6-7).

God says, "I will show you the body; I will lead you right to them." Rest assured, Jesus has his body of believers all over the world; and if you cry out to him, he will miraculously bring like-minded Christians to you.

Mary Magdalene

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Mary Magdalene epitomizes the believer whose heart is wholly given to Christ. This woman's life was marked by her love and affection for Jesus.

As far as the world was concerned, Mary Magdalene was not a great theologian. When the disciples got together to discuss the deeper things of the cross, she was probably silent, since women of that day rarely spoke openly of spiritual matters in the presence of men. Yet she had something they did not have; she had a revelation!

"The first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb" (John 20:1, NKJV). Mary came to the tomb while the others still slept. When she found the stone rolled away and Jesus’s body missing, she ran to find Peter and John.

When the disciples arrived at the tomb, they went in and saw the linen clothes neatly folded but no body. They understood clearly that Jesus was not there. The Bible says the two disciples "...saw and believed" (John 20:8). They remembered Jesus’s words to them about his resurrection on the third day. Two verses later, we read, "Then the disciples went away again to their own home" (John 20:10). They were satisfied with the knowledge that Jesus was no longer there, so they went back to business as usual.

Isn't that just like the church today? Many Christians say, "I've seen the power of the gospel so, of course, I believe." They identify their present relationship with Jesus by mere head knowledge. Not so with Mary. Knowledge was not enough for her. She wanted Jesus himself, and she was not going to move. "But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping" (John 20:11).

Mary’s spirit was crying, "This world is intolerable without him. I can't go home." She simply loved the Lord, and she was determined to stand gazing into that tomb until her breaking heart found answers. Sure enough, Mary's heart of devotion brought her a visitation of the divine.

"And as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting . . . where the body of Jesus had lain" (John 20:11-12). While the other disciples were back home, Mary was seeing things nobody else could see because her heart was given to Jesus.

Look for His Coming

David Wilkerson (1931-2011)

Jesus warned his followers, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44, NKJV).

A characteristic of the bride of Christ is an expectancy of his soon return. Jesus’s bride is to live in continual, joyful expectation of his imminent return because he may come at any moment.

Jesus warned, however, that in the last days evil ministers will infiltrate the church in an effort to put the bride to sleep. They will attempt to take away her heart of love for her bridegroom by claiming, “My master is delaying his coming” (Matthew 24:48). This gospel is preached by those who do not want to pay the price of obeying Christ’s commands. They really do not want Jesus to come back because they have sinful habits and lead double lives; in fact, they have concocted a doctrine to justify their continuing in sin. What is the result of this false teaching? First, it ends in worldliness because those who believe it want to enjoy worldly success and prosperity.

Beloved, do not give in to this doctrine of delay! If you are a part of Jesus’s bride, you will be so lovesick for your Lord you will not be able to buy into it. Instead, you will cry out, “My Lord said I am to be ready at any moment for his return. I know he is near; I can sense it. My heart cries out within me, ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming!’”

The early church was wide awake, heeding Jesus’s words. Their lamps were trimmed and burning, and they had a good supply of oil. Peter summed up the spirit of the early church. “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God…nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:12-13). 

Finally, Paul said, “…you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:5-7).