Jesus came and lived among us. He lived a life walking with His Father doing His Fathers will. He gave His life, obeying His Fathers will to the end. In that He made a way back to Him for all people everywhere. If we believe in Him we will be saved.
Jesus’s life was an example of How to follow God and live with Him while here on earth. His actions, words, and teachings show us how to live in Him as His children. We learn how to love and care for others, show forgiveness and mercy, stand in truth, relate to others, and humbly walk with God our Father.
We are to be imitators of Christ. (Ephesians 5:1)
Love and Care for Others
Jesus felt for the needs of others. He had compassion on the crowds. He understood how lost they were without Him and how much the religious leaders led them astray with their rules and traditions. (Mark 6:34)
He fed 5,000 and then 4,000 in two different miracles because He cared for the crowds and saw their need. (Matthew 15:32, Mark 8:2)
He had compassion on many, healing them as He traveled. (Matthew 14:14)
He spoke to the marginalized and called the poor, needy, pushed aside and misdirected lost people. (Matthew 9:36)
He showed care for others by washing His disciples feet the night He was betrayed. He even washed the feet of his betrayer. (John 13:4-5, John 13:14-17)
Jesus taught love for your enemies. (Matthew 5:43-45)
He cared for His mother while suffering on the cross. He told on of His disciples to take care of her. (John 19:25-27)
Jesus cared deeply. God cares deeply for each of us. (John 11:35-36)
Jesus willingly gave His life in love for all of us. He willingly took our place, our punishment, our sins. (Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42)
Jesus showed love on the cross by accepting the thief’s repentance on the cross next to Him.(Luke 23:39-41, Luke 42-43)
From all this we see God’s love and care. Through prayer we too can learn to love others the same. To see them as God sees them and feel for them the same. We can care for, love, comfort and be there for them as He showed us. God is there for us and showed us the way to live so we can reach out to others in the same way.
Show Forgiveness & Mercy
Jesus taught us to love our enemies. God blesses them too. He loves them too. We were enemies of Him once, yet He still showed us mercy and kindness by drawing us to Himself, bringing us to salvation. He wants all to know Him, none to perish.
Jesus showed great concern for His betrayer. Judas betrayed Jesus to those who wanted to kill Him. Jesus felt for Judas and his decision. He grieved the decision of Judas to betray Him. (John 13:21)
Jesus asked God to forgive those who had nailed Him to the cross. He saw how lost and deceived they were and they did not know what they had done. (Luke 23:34)
He had mercy on those He healed. (John 9:35)
He he had mercy on the crowds that followed Him. (John 9:36)
He had mercy on all of us, when He died in our place. (Matthew 26:28, John 3:14-15)
He cried for Jerusalem, wanting to forgive and be merciful to His people, but they wouldn’t let Him. (Luke 13:34-35)
He showed mercy and forgiveness everywhere He went. He taught it and showed it by the way He lived. When we see people through God’s eyes, we see a different picture and from a different perspective. We see how lost they really are and how deceived by the lies of the devil they are. We see their hurt and pain and the burdens that they carry. If we ask God will show us His point of view.
Stand In Truth
Jesus taught truth. The religious leaders taught their own interpretation of the scriptures and traditions and rules they made themselves, not Gods truth. (Matthew 15:1-6)
Jesus also showed love through His teaching. Even though He taught the truth that went against the teachings of the religious leaders and He warned about their teachings, His motive was love for the people who were misguided by the leaders.
He taught what the scriptures actually said, the way God meant it to mean. He showed the people how to live in truth by the scriptures. He taught the truth on many subjects covered in the law of Moses. He taught how to truly apply the them and the concepts behind why they were given. (Matthew 5:21-22, Matthew 5:27-28, Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 5:33-34, Matthew 5:38-39, Matthew 5:43-45)
He read from scripture. He quoted scriptures. (Luke 4:16-20, Matthew 19:4-6, Matthew 21:15-16, Matthew 21:42-43, John 10:34-36, Luke 6:3-5)
He warned the disciples and the people about the religious leaders. That their teachings were only man made, not Gods. That they taught to make themselves look Holy and good. It was only out of pride. Jesus warned many times about them and their ways. This infuriated the religious leaders and is what lead to Jesus’s persecution and death on the cross. (Matthew 6:1-2, Matthew 6:7-8, Matthew 6:16, Mark 8:15)
Many times the religious leaders tried to trap Jesus into saying something that they could arrest Him for, but Jesus always responded in truth. (Matthew 22:17-18, Matthew 22:19-21, Matthew 22:22, Luke 20:26)
Jesus taught that mercy and love were behind all that God commands. Whereas what the religious leaders taught were hard and fast rules, no love and mercy in them. (Matthew 23:1-5)
Jesus called out the religious leaders many times on their hypocrisy. They taught one thing and lived another. They pretended to be Holy, bringing attention to all their Holy acts, but in their hearts they were cold and hardened against God and His ways. Jesus was angered and grieved by their hard hearts. (Matthew 15:7-9, Mark 3:5-6)
Jesus taught in the Temple. He taught in towns and villages across Israel. He taught the truth everywhere He went. (John 18:20, Luke 13:22, Luke 19:47, Matthew 4:23)
The world didn’t recognize Jesus because it doesn’t recognize truth. It shuns it. The people had a different view of who and what they expected the Messiah to be and do. The world has a different view of who and what they expect God to be and do.
But Jesus showed us how to live in truth. To be bold and stand on His truth, on the scriptures no matter what. He taught us how to use the scriptures against the attacks of the devil. We should read and memorize His Word, so we are ready. But most importantly we don’t just stand in truth, but we stand in love and mercy also. Giving truth without love and mercy will only result in what the religious leaders did. It will create hardness not softness towards God and His Word.
Relate To Others
Jesus was human just as we are. He understands our feelings, doubt, fear, grief, joy and everything else that makes us human. He was fully human and fully God.
He knew how to relate to others because He felt the same things. He saw the same things as they saw. He had concerns, fears, doubts too. He felt loneliness and rejection, grief and sadness as well as joy and hope.
He related to the couple getting married when He did His first miracle by turning water into wine. He celebrated and rejoiced with them. (John 2:1-5, John 2:6-10)
He related to the need of each person He healed. He related to the woman who touched his cloak, the blind, the lepers, the crippled, the demon possessed, the sick, the dead and many more. (Matthew 15:30, Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 18:39-42, Mark 1:40-41, John 5:6-9, Luke 9:42, Matthew 8:14-15, Luke 8:52-55)
He related to the woman at the well. Even though as a Jew He was not supposed to speak with a her, He reached out to her. Even though she lived a life of sin, He reached out to her. (Luke 4:7-9: Luke 4:10-12, Luke 4:13-15, Luke 4:16-18, Luke 4:19-20, Luke 4:21-23, Luke 4:24-26)
He related to the woman who anointed Him with expensive perfume before His death and resurrection. (Luke 7:37-38, Luke 7:44-46, Luke 7:47-48, Luke 7:50)
He grieved the deaths of John the Baptist and His friend Lazarus. He related to Martha and Mary in their grief and questioning. (John 11:32-34, John 11:35-37)
He was tempted and tried. (Matthew 4:1)
He felt soul crushing fear and anguish before He was arrested. He knew the pain and suffering He would go through and He knew the sin of the world that it would cover. He knew the how lost humanity would have been without His sacrifice. He also knew the many that would not choose Him throughout all time. (Matthew 26:37-38, Mark 14:33-34)
He felt the rejection and loneliness from His own people. They didn’t believe Him. They refused to accept and come to Him. They instead called for Him to be crucified. (Mark 15:12-13, Matthew 27:22-23)
He felt for Mary Magdalene at His grave when He appeared to her. (John 20:14-16)
He felt for His disciples when He appeared to them after His resurrection. (John 20:19-21, John 20:26-28, John 21:4-6, John 21:7-8, John 21:9-11, John 21:12-14)
Jesus understands us completely. God created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. He gets us. He showed us how to relate to others. How to love and understand them. How to see their need and reach out to them. If we ask, God will give us His eyes for the people around us everyday.
Humbly Walk With God Our Father
Jesus walked with His Heavenly Father everyday. He was guided by the Holy Spirit in everything He did and said. He talked with God all the time. He went off by himself to pray lots of times. He prayed to God when teaching and doing miracles. He saw the people from God’s perspective. He trusted Gods plan in His life. He did Gods will, not His.
Jesus was constantly led by God. He said and acted on what God said and did. He went where God led Him and spoke the words God gave Him. (John 5:19)
He answered questions from the religious leaders with knowledge and wisdom from God. (Luke 2:47, Luke 20:26)
He constantly communicated with God. He thanked God when He fed the thousands. He thanked God at the last supper. He thanked God for His plan to teach the people. (John 6:11, Mark 8:6, Matthew 26:26, Matthew 11:25-26)
He taught the people how to pray. He taught the people Gods ways. All from what God showed Him. (Luke 11:1-4, Luke 5:3, Mark 1:22, Mark 2:13)
He prayed by himself regularly. He went off to pray alone the night of His arrest. (Luke 15:6, Matthew 26:36-39)
He gave up His will for the torture of the cross so we could be saved. (Matthew 26:42)
He lived for God not himself. (John 8:28-29)
This is how we are to live. God first, us second. Led by the Holy Spirit in all we do everyday. He wants to be our guide. He wants to show us more of who He is and His plan for us. He wants to give us life abundantly in Him. Make Him the focus of each day. Through prayer and His Word He will help us stay focused on Him. Through prayer and His Word He will help us overcome temptations and distractions along the way. He will walk with us. He will carry our burdens. We will find hope, peace and joy walking with Him each day.
Conclusion
Jesus came to make a way back to Him for all humanity. He came and showed humanity how to live. The fall of man an introduction of sin broke Gods original design. God used that to show His great love and mercy to humanity by coming and dying for us.
In coming He showed us how to live with Him once again even though we still live in a fallen world. He came to restore our relationship with Him. If we believe we become His children restored to Him. Through His power we can live like Him.
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