March 25, 2023

So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. Luke 5:1-3

The seven letters recorded in Revelation 2&3 sent by the resurrected Jesus from heaven to His followers provide unmistakably direct insights on His view of the occurrences and struggles in the church from its inception until His return. His admonitions and encouragements are aimed at leading His children safely all the way Home. We know that the adversary has ever been busying himself to intercept God’s plan of salvation by attempting to prevent Jesus from coming to the earth as a human, or by killing Him after His arrival. But Jesus willingly laid down His life, and then took it up again; a definitive demonstration of His power over death, which, we are taught in Genesis 2:17, is the result of sin. Now that He is out of Satan’s reach, the full brunt of Satan’s fury is directed at the followers of Jesus. Jesus could see down through the corridors of time, and everything He did and said was not only for the benefit of His hearers at the time, but also for everyone who would seek to learn of Him until “the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

“Beside the throng on the shores of Gennesaret, Jesus in His sermon by the sea had other audiences before His mind. Looking down through the ages, He saw His faithful ones in prison and judgement hall, in temptation and loneliness and affliction. Every scene of joy and conflict and perplexity was open before Him. In the words to those gathered about Him, He was speaking also to these other souls the very words that would come to them as a message of hope in trial, of comfort in sorrow, and heavenly light in darkness. Through the Holy Spirit, that voice which was speaking from the fisherman’s boat on the Sea of Galilee, would be heard speaking peace to human hearts [right up until] the close of time.”  DESIRE OF AGES by Ellen G. White (page 245)

Jesus said: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4 (see also Luke 4:4)

He also said: “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever…. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:57,58,63b