We all make promises. We make them at home, at work and even at church. At home we might promise to take our kids somewhere fun or, for us guys, we might promise to take out the garbage. Work promises mostly cover getting a certain task finished by a certain time. And church promises might encompass promising to serve in a particular ministry on a certain day or promising to bring in a food item or something for Vacation Bible School.
In general, I think most people want to keep their promises, but from time to time something legitimate happens and our promises get broken. Then, sometimes we break promises for not so legitimate reasons like the infamous "something came up" excuse or "I had a crazy week" excuse. I know you know what I'm talking about. We've all done it a time or two.
When breaking promises becomes a pattern in someone's life a couple of things happen.
First, hopefully, the person's conscience bothers them. That small voice (the Holy Spirit?) talks to them and "convicts" them. They feel bad or they should. An unclear conscience is a sure sign that something is wrong in your life.
Secondly, constant promise breaking damages one's integrity. It gets to the point that trust is broken because the person cannot be counted on to come through when they say so. You've heard this expression and have probably said it too, "I'll believe it when I see it". That's what people say about someone who is a promise breaker.
Now, Jesus made a bunch of promises. In John 14:25-26, He promised the Father would send the Holy Spirit after he ascended to heaven. This is a promise that was fulfilled and recorded by Luke in Acts 2:1-4. Jesus also promised to prepare a place for us in heaven and also return for us (John 14:2-3). Another promise from Hebrews 13:5 should also be comforting to us.
Those are some of the promises. However, how can we be sure that Jesus' promises can be counted on? After all, there has only been one promise that is recorded as being fulfilled. One promise that has physical evidence of coming to pass and that's the sending of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Not exactly. You see there is another promise Jesus made that has been fulfilled and recorded. On this one promise hinges all the others. It is the one promise, that if it did not occur, there would be no Christianity. Jesus would be just another Rabbi that led a decent life and taught some good things.
The promise I speak of comes in John 2:18-21.
Jesus had returned to Jerusalem. He had just cleared the temple of people who were selling livestock and changing money. The Jews asked him under what authority He did this. He answered, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
What He was saying is that He would show what authority He had on the day of His resurrection. With that one event, Jesus proved His deity and established His authority. With the resurrection we can also put our trust in all of His promises. Let's face it, if someone told you that they would die and then at some point come back to life and you witnessed that, you'd pretty much believe anything the person said, wouldn't you?
And, we can see the disciples' reaction in John 14:22, "After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken."
They believed the Scripture and "the words" that Jesus had spoken. You see, they believed it because they saw it.
We can have the same confidence in Jesus' promises because, thankfully, all of this was recorded for us.
Now, we know that Jesus will deliver on His promises. There should be no doubt because He rose on the third day.
Praise God!
May God bless you and keep you.
May God have mercy on America.
Marriage: one man, one woman. It's Biblical, not Political!
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