Jesus Is Savior and Plenty More!

Summary:  Are you saved? Excellent! But don’t think of Jesus as a far-away Savior in heaven who is spread so thin with the world’s 7 billion people that He doesn’t have much time for you. No! The Son of God is deeply involved with you personally and cares for you in many wonderful ways — including saving you, but also a whole lot more!
 

Your Savior

Luke 19:9-10  Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house… For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

• The single most important thing Jesus has ever done for you is to come from heaven to earth in order to die on the cross and rise again to provide a way of salvation from your sins. You will often hear Christians refer to Him reverently as “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

 

• Thank you, Jesus, for that salvation that turns repentant sinners into born-again children of God!

 

• We can also thank Jesus for the many more ways in which He loves and cares for us. Come see.

Your Healer

Matthew 8:16-17  [Jesus] healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

• Jesus healed in the first century, and He heals in our 21st century. Why? Because He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). What He did for people 20 centuries ago He’ll do for you today.

 

• Back in the 1970s my wife (who is now in heaven) had a medically diagnosed infertility condition. After six years of marriage, she had still not become pregnant. Then God spoke to a lady in our church to tell my wife, “Your barren days are over.” Our faith grew greatly, and we and others prayed diligently that she could conceive and bear children. Well, she did! Not once, but four times! And those four children are now adults, married, and all serving the Lord. Jesus the Healer met us in our childlessness and brought a dramatic healing.

Your Baptizer with the Holy Spirit

Mark 1:7-8  [Speaking of Jesus, John the Baptist said] “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

• In my childhood and young adult years I was never a bold person. I preferred to be quietly on the periphery of crowds and social gatherings. Then I got saved in 1969 and was baptized with the Holy Spirit in 1971, with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

 

• From that time on, my life changed dramatically. I found a new boldness to speak to people about the Lord. I was able to stand before large congregations to preach and teach the word of God. How did that happen? I received new power (Acts 1:8), new boldness (Acts 4:31) to share the Lord with others with a confidence I had never had before Jesus filled me with His Holy Spirit. And He will do that for you today, too.

Your Intercessor/Advocate with the Father

Hebrews 7:24-25  …because Jesus lives forever … therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

• Let’s face it, we are needy people. Jesus was quite accurate when He said to His followers, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Now seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, Jesus “regulates the universe by the mighty power of his command” (Hebrews 1:3, TLB).

 

• What a comforting thought: the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is seated in heaven with God the Father and sustains the entire universe by His power. Yet He has not forgotten you individually. He “always lives to intercede for them … who come to God through Him.” Jesus is your “Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2), so that “whatever you ask of the Father in my name He may give to you,” Jesus said (John 15:16, NASB).

Your Encourager

Acts 23:10-11, NASB  And as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks. But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.”

2 Timothy 4:16-17, Amplified  At my first trial no one acted in my defense [as my advocate] or took my part or [even] stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me…

• The soldiers barely prevented the Jews in Jerusalem from tearing Paul to pieces! They detained him overnight to keep him safe. During that night, “the Lord stood at his side” and encouraged Paul. Another time, when facing a Roman court trial, Paul was deserted by all his friends. But again “the Lord stood by [Paul] and strengthened him.”

 

• Nearly torn to pieces … on trial before the Romans … does that sound like some of your troubles? Remember, the Lord will stand by you through everything. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus cares for His own and “has your back,” to borrow a current phrase.

Your Friend

John 15:13, 15  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends… [15] I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends…

• As the song says, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” My wife and I once were taking a walk near our house on the outskirts of Anchorage. We happened across an older Chinese couple who spoke almost no English. Nevertheless, we exchanged smiles and showed them some colorful autumn leaves we had picked up. Then the lady cheerfully began to sing in Chinese. After a few moments, we were startled to recognize the tune to “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” So we just joined right in and sang it in English while she sang in Chinese, and her husband smiled and said in halting English, “Friend … Jesus.” In these two fellow believers from the other side of the world Jesus had sent us an unforgettable confirmation of how He considers His followers to be His friends!

Your Companion

Matthew 28:19-20  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

• First century, sixth, fifteenth, twenty-first — it doesn’t matter. Jesus said He’ll be “with you always, to the very end of the age.” There’s never a time when He gets tired of our company! When Jesus chose His first twelve apostles, one of His motivations was “that they might be with Him” (Mark 3:14). Enjoy fellowship with Jesus in prayer and His word, in worship, in quiet mediation, and in church gatherings.

Your Forgiver and Challenger

John 8:10-11  Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

• The woman had been caught in adultery, a stoning offense under the Mosaic Law. The Jews were clamoring for Jesus to have her stoned. But He gave the famous reply, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (vs. 7). The embarrassed crowd melted away.

 

• Then Jesus turned to her and did two things (not just one, as so many people erroneously believe): (1) He forgave her — “neither do I condemn you” — but also (2) he challenged her to stop sinning! — “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

 

• Jesus is the same today. He is at the same time the forgiver of our sins and the One who challenges us to begin a new lifestyle of holiness, “leaving [our] life of sin.”

The One Who Loves You Steadfastly

John 13:1, ESV  Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Romans 8:35, 38 NLT  Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? … [38] nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

• In this earthly life, someone’s fondness for you can be there today and gone next week. Friends, neighbors, and coworkers can turn on you and from you in a heartbeat. Even your husband or wife, sadly, might let their love for you grow cold, as evidenced by the tragically high divorce rate in America.

 

• But Jesus loves you so much that he died for you and for your sins (Ephesians 5:25; 1 John 3:16). And it was not just a one-time love or a long-ago love. Rather, the love Jesus has for His own is a love “to the end.” Nothing can or will ever separate us from the love Christ has for us. You can count on His love, even if you find people around you backing off from you.

The Confirmer of Your Ministry

Mark 16:20, KJV  And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.

• As you take up the Great Commission and go forth ministering grace and truth in Jesus’ name, you are not alone! Jesus has promised that He will confirm your ministry with signs following.  Expect Him to help you supernaturally through the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are just as much for today as Jesus Himself is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). You minister in His name, and He will back you up with His power and gifts.

The King Who Invites You to His Throne

Hebrews 4:14, 16, ESV  …we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God … [16] Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Revelation 3:21, Amplified  He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne.

• The resurrected, glorified Jesus is seated in heaven at the right hand of God as our great high priest. And He invites you to come in prayer and worship to Him and to His throne of grace. He further promises that He’ll grant you grace and mercy in your times of need. Just think: the King of Kings on His throne bids you “welcome” to approach Him!

 

• And finally, when our time on earth is over, He will receive each believer into His presence in heaven. And more than just allowing us to be in His presence, Jesus says that He will grant each victorious Christian to sit beside Him on His throne! (vs. 21).

IN SUM: Jesus desires you to come to Him so that He may be your Savior, praise the Lord! But His involvement in our lives doesn’t stop there. Many more things could be said than those we have covered, but we have seen that Jesus is also:

• Your healer

 

• Your baptizer with the Holy Spirit

 

• Your intercessor and advocate with God the Father

 

• Your encourager

 

• Your friend

 

• Your companion

 

• Your forgiver who also challenges you to holiness

 

• The One who loves you unwaveringly

 

• The confirmer of your ministry

 

• The King of Kings who invites you to His very throne

Open your heart to Him and let Him be all these things that He longs to be on your behalf.

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©2015, James H. Feeney.
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