    Jesus’ last call is to put Jesus first. He wants everyday followers who make God first and last and best in everything. You are called to follow Jesus. So when He meets up with you, do nothing halfway.     

ASI 2016: Called. Chosen. Committed.

<div> <div> <div> <div> <p>Jesus’ last call is to put Jesus first. He wants everyday followers who make God first and last and best in everything. You are called to follow Jesus. So when He meets up with you, do nothing halfway. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Morning Devotional

Martin Proebstle

Called

Lord, may these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight.

Lord, Redeemer and my rock, this is what I pray.

And with the words of Isaiah, I want to ask you that your word will not go back to you without doing its work here in our hearts.

Maybe I should say good afternoon because I'm on what 4 p.m.

This is the story of 1 of the first ASI members.

I couldn't ask him personally but let me just think a bit about his situation.

He has a real fortune and he might not be Bill Gates of his times but he's quite wealthy And he lives in a city that has history.

I mean, archaeologists tell us that this city belongs to 1 of the oldest cities in the world.

I mean, it's right there on a kind of slow valley, low valley, and it's below sea level.

It's wonderful climate, it's even better than Phoenix.

It has palm trees, there's tropical garden there, there are kind of oasis, it's just beautiful.

If you could take this place as a winter residence in anywhere in this country, you would choose that place, like the priests and the Levites did, who were working in Jerusalem.

And of course, 1 of these teachers at that time, he had an instant classic story about 1 of the priests and the Levites coming down to our city.

This city, this lush beauty, was a major international business center and everything went through there.

If you want to put goods through from the west to the east, you had to go through that city.

And of course, that made it the place for his profession, Because from every good coming through, he earned his money.

Not only King Herod had his window residence there with a real big palace complex area.

I mean, that palace complex, after building 3 palaces at that time, was larger, I think 1, 000 square feet larger than North Hall, 100, 200, and 300 level together.

And I had a swimming pool of almost Olympic size there, sunken garden, Roman bath, water pipes, aqueduct, swimming pool, amphitheater, and so on and so on.

Herod kind of made the time of this city the golden age, and golden it was for our businessmen.

His guilt, influential, he knew how to handle money, but in the eyes of the people, they despised him.

But on this afternoon, he doesn't care a straw about that.

This afternoon, he has only 1 thing on mind.

In a few moments, this legendary city will be once more the arena of a divine conquest.

Remember back then when the first Jesus entered the city, there was this 1 jewel which they find in a place you would never think about, in the house of Rahab, the harlot.

And now, on this afternoon, the second Joshua is going into that city, just to find this 1 precious jewel in a place it would not come across your mind.

It's the place of the chief of tax collectors.

And as Rahab and her house have been saved that morning, then Zakiya's and his house will be saved by the Savior.

Lug penned this well-known story with the finesse of an excellent storyteller.

So, well, if you have your Bibles in your mind along or in your hands, turn with me to Luke chapter 19.

We'll have a close look at that story and if you please do me a favor, you do not know how this story ends, okay?

So read it along with fresh eyes, wondering how will it end.

It starts with, in the most translation, it says, behold, in verse 2, a man was there by the name of Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector and he was wealthy.

Behold, that seems to be getting our attention.

We look at that more closely and the first thing said is Zacchaeus, a name.

When Jesus is telling stories, when Jesus is experiencing situations, Luke is very sparingly using names of the people.

This time he's telling that this man is called Zacchaeus.

If you look through the stories in Luke, you have 4 stories which only Luke records, in which a name comes, Simon the Pharisee.

And Jesus says to him, Simon, I have something to tell you.

Or another story Jesus experiences is Maria and Martha, and you know Martha working in the house.

Martha means female Lord, and she comes and tells Jesus, Jesus, do you not care about what Mary is doing?

She wants to kind of say what Mary needs to do.

And Jesus tells her, of course, Martha, and looks her in her eyes.

The other story is a story Jesus Himself told.

Just a few chapters before in Luke 16, the story about a rich man, nameless, and a poor man named Lazarus.

And sure, God helped that poor man in that parable of Jesus.

It's surprising to find out that the name Zacchaeus means pure 1, righteous 1.

But in the same sentence it says he is the chief of tax collectors.

Remember what you know about tax collectors?

What kind of people are they at that time?

They are traitors because they are doing business with the Romans.

Thank you for sharing with me the viewpoint of Matthew.

In Matthew, yeah, there are all these things you just named.

But in Luke, text collectors are different.

Text collectors, any time when they appear in Luke, every time, they're mentioned very positively.

I omit the places because of time where you find that in Luke.

Chosen

And that library is kind of down in the basement of the girl's dorm.

Seems to be that that's the place where a library needs to be, right?

And if you're down in that basement and you look out, you basically see nothing because the windows are so high.

So this is not a real good place to study, to work.

And I was at that time the head librarian.

But the head librarian was a person who was in charge of about 10, 000 books at that time.

And people are coming in, the students, and they learn.

It's basically 1 room, 20 years or so plus ago, 1 room, and my office, if you call it office, was just separated by some board sheets.

So if you go in there and the people talk in the reading room, I could hear everything in my office.

So there was this 1 day, And by the way, it's still the same in Bogenhofen.

Nothing has changed from that time for the library.

So at that time I came in, I opened the door to the reading room, and before me was the reading room, nobody was in there.

But then I heard 2 people talking to each other in my office behind these wooden boards, which should be a wall, and I heard them loud and clearly.

And the things they were saying to each other were definitely not pleasant to my ears.

I was there, still standing in the door frame of the reading room, and I thought, well, maybe I should just leave, because if I go in now, this will be most embarrassing for them.

And because I still remember today, I can tell you the story today.

You see what kind of impression that left on me, right?

So if 2 people talk to each other about you, and you're not there, what do they say?

Second instance, also a few years ago I got a call from somebody from the general conference and never got a call from him.

I didn't even know that he has my number.

So he called, and I was on the phone, and he invited me to do something.

And I was so perplexed that I did not even ask him why.

I thought to myself, how in the world does it come that he called me?

Well, half a year later, we had a student tour with our Bogenhofen Academy students.

We go to the East Coast, we do a kind of a fun tour, but also an Adventist tour.

Going to the General Conference, for example, looking at the place so that they can see a little bit more of the Adventist world.

So we were having the tour through the general conference and here you go, that same person who called me was coming down the alley.

So I said to the tour guide, please continue, I will catch up down there at the Al-Ama'id Research Center.

So I went to him and after a very little small talk, I asked him the question, why did you call me at that time?

And that was a pleasant experience for me.

So if 2 people talk about you, would you like to be there to listen in a little bit, to see what they are thinking, what they're really thinking you, what would happen if Jesus and the Father talk with each other and not knowing you could be there.

And they would not know that you're there.

I mean, of course, theology students, please hold.

But just for the sake of imagination, what would they say to each other about you?

Wouldn't that be interesting to see what God really thinks about you.

There's a place in the Bible which comes very close to that situation, very close.

Jesus and the Father are talking with each other, and in fact, they're really talking about you.

I probably does not need, I do not need to tell you that John also is a master narrator.

Luke is somebody who kind of plays with theological threads through his gospel, John is doing the same thing.

And then John comes to chapter 17, there's something very interesting happening here.

If you have a red letter Bible edition, you will see it immediately.

Because usually in his farewell speech, in Jesus' farewell speech, John is interspersing some kind of narrative comments.

He as a narrator can say, well, and Thomas asked him, and Jesus said, these are all things which are not in dialogue.

But in chapter 17, the interesting thing is that after John introduces the prayer of Jesus, There are no more black letter verses in chapter 17.

So when he says after Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, it's like the narrator John steps back and says to us as our as his audience watch what happens I will not interrupt in any way it's Jesus personal prayer with the father Who am I that I just interrupt any time?

He continues in chapter 18 verse 1 with when he had finished praying.

So this makes it a very special and intimate prayer season of Jesus with his Father.

And It is this prayer season which we can overhear and we can listen in.

We can eavesdrop on Jesus and the Father talking about us.

It starts in verse 2, is it still verse 1?

The word father occurs 6 times in John 17, which Gives us the impression.

It's intimate here father the hour has come glorify your son Now John likes to Explain things in in a double way.

You have a surface level, what happens in the gospel, and if you look through the words he uses, sometimes you dig down a little deeper.

For example, here when it says, the hour has come.

All right, we know that afterwards, Jesus goes probably to the Garden of Gethsemane, and the final 24 hours take place.

His life on earth before his crucifixion.

But the term hour in the Gospel of John already appears in chapter 2, my hour has not come.

When Jesus kind of reprimands Mary, his mother, to say, you know, my hour has not come yet.

And the hour in the Gospel of John appears again and again and again.

Let's just take 2 verses, chapter 7, verse 30.

This they tried to seize him, but not 1 laid a hand on him because his hour has not come yet.

And then the verse which we usually read at the foot washing, it was just before the Passover festival Jesus knew that the hour had come.

It says here the hour for him to leave this world and go to the Father.

In the Gospel of John you could have the hour and the hour always refers to the crucifixion event, the resurrection morning and the going away of Jesus to the Father.

So when he prays, the hour has come, Jesus is fully aware of these last hours, literal hours, because that's the hour.

It's another term you would use in the lexicon gospel of John and English.

Committed

Dear Heavenly Father, our hearts are grateful, especially today on this Sabbath day.

It's wonderful to wake up to new life, to know that this day is in your hand and if everything we do, we say, we think, we can glorify your name.

We want to do that Lord and this morning we want to delve into the truth, the living truth, your word.

And Jesus, because you are the living truth yourself, we want to behold you in your word, because we know by beholding you can change us so please Lord change us into your image this morning as we focus on our Lord and Master Jesus Christ amen now this devotional is dedicated.

I have to do that, dedication at the beginning.

I dedicate it to all those who get up early on Sabbath morning, and I dedicate it to all those who are in exile, young people, women, men who are in exile from their homeland.

We are called, we are chosen, we are committed.

Now, when we looked at the Zacchaeus story, I heard I should pronounce it Zacchaeus, is that right?

In the Greek it's Zacchaeus, So don't worry.

When we looked at that, we saw that to be called means that you give everything to Jesus in the place where you are.

You give your first, your last, and your best for Jesus.

Oswald Chambers, 1 of the authors of a devotional book I like very much, said, put God first, put God second, put God third in your life.

Zacchaeus is the 1 who shows us what it means to be called.

Jesus calls him, and in this divine encounter, Zacchaeus was saved, and he followed him, and in the marketplace, he shared the gospel, and he spread the news together with his gifts.

Yesterday we looked at why we are chosen.

Probably the call chosen and committed theme has something to do with our Adventist message, but today I like to focus in the committed also on the same like we are chosen, chosen to see Jesus.

There is nothing more important than that.

And we never should forget in our daily life what Jesus has chosen us for, and His desire is not yet fulfilled.

Yesterday I didn't have time to mention that in the Desire of Ages, Ellen White describes this wonderful scene when Jesus comes to heaven.

We had the privilege to translate that into German anew, and when I came to that passage it just gripped my heart.

All heaven was waiting to welcome the Savior to the celestial courts.

As he ascended he led the way and the multitude of captives set free at his resurrection followed.

The heavenly host, with shouts and acclamation of praise and celestial song, attended the joyous train.

And then they drew near to the city of God.

And you probably remember what happens then.

Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and lift up ye everlasting doors.

The King of Glory shall come in joyfully." Just notice how often joy is mentioned.

Just imagine them standing at the door of the New Jerusalem, and they say, well, who is the king of glory?

Of course they know who it is But they do that to hear says Elmite the response because that brings gladness to their heart.

The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, so lift up your heads ye gates.

And then again is heard the challenge, who is the King of the glory?

For the angels never weary of hearing His name exalted, and the escorting angels make reply, the Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.

And I like how Ellen White describes it here when she says, with a burst of rapturous music, Jesus is moving into the city.

He goes straight toward the throne of God.

Of all His people He brings in, of the first fruits from earth.

And then He is there at the heart of the heavenly sanctuary in front of the Father, and He hushes the angelic crowd.

He says to the Father, You know, Father, I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am.

Now that assures me that his last plea in John 17 24 is Still on Jesus heart when he comes to heaven That's the first thing he presents to the Father his desire that his followers will be there and the ones who follow him because of the word of his first followers.

So he still has that, has chosen us to be with him.

I wanna focus in a moment on what that means for us.

But first, we need to say that Jesus is committed to his cause.

He is committed to the justified salvation.

He's not finished with his task when he died on the cross.

He goes up there, he gives his father again his last plea and the father says, it is okay, they will be there with you, with us.

I turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 9 and 10.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, amen, we are justified by his blood.

How much more, and this is something Paul likes to do, it's a Jewish thing to do.

If this is true, then how much more that is true.

So first he says it's true that we were saved by his blood, but how much more then, and then comes something else which is still future.

How much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?

And then in typical Hebrew parallelism, it says the same thing again with different words, Verse 10, for if while we were God's enemies we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, so that is in the past, reconciled through the death of Jesus Christ, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life?

Now let me ask you, What kind of life is meant here?

This is a powerful message about the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, because the past is the cross, and now we will be saved through what?

Jesus' life committed to us as a high priest will save us in the end.

Now this has nothing to do with deteriorating the cross.

But of course it needs to be administered so to speak by the minister of the heavenly sanctuary so that we will be saved.

We're saved in Jesus Christ, we have that assurance of salvation, and we believe it, we trust in it because He's committed to it.

We are all in exile, in a strange land, under enemies, and we want to be there.

So his life of commitment as a heavenly high priest, that will make us sure that we will be there.

And the result, excuse me, The result in Romans 5, 11 is said, not only is this so, but we also boast in God.

It's a glorifying of God because he will save us.

But his high priestly ministry is a pact, and I think you know that.

And now we go to the book of Daniel, which is a book I think in the Adventist world is close to our heart.

We go to that chapter in which the high priestly ministry in the history of the Adventist church to become is probably the most important verse, Daniel 8, 14.

And White said in, or writes in the great controversy, chapter 23, first sentence, the 1 biblical passage which is the pillar and the foundation of the Adventist message is Daniel 8, 14.

So we go there, and I just want to read 1 or 2 verses so that we recognize again that we're speaking here of a heavenly high priest.

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