Olive Branch Christian Fellowship Pastor Trevor O'Keefe

In our series studying the words and phrases Jesus used to describe Himself, He uses simple imagery that a child could understand or someone from any part of society. This week, we look at what it means when Jesus described Himself as the Door. It is through Jesus and what He has done for us that we are able to enter in to His Kingdom. Jesus did not come to be a gatekeeper, but to bring people into the fold and in Him we find grace and security.

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Since the fall of humanity there has been a deep darkness over the world, and throughout the Old Testament we see God manifesting as the light of Israel. On the heels of the Feast of Tabernacles, a festival where Israel remembers God’s protecting and guiding presence in the wilderness wandering through the pillar of fire and smoke, Jesus makes the statement that He is the light of the world. Jesus is the Light that dispels darkness, gives us life, and guides our paths. As we follow Jesus we shine the Light of God through his grace and mercy at work in our lives.
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While we see bread as a staple or sweet treat, having bread was equated to life back in Jesus day. When Jesus stated He was the bread of life, He was communicating that He was sent from heaven and is God among us. He didn’t compare himself to something exclusive and instead to the most universal food in His day because what Jesus offered was offered to all. In Jesus we are loved fully and are enough. We do not need to continue searching for other idols that ultimately spoil and disappoint us.
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This week we celebrated Easter and the Resurrection of Jesus. We talked about the importance and impact of Jesus in human history, and how the resurrection was essential to Jesus’ claims and his validity. Then we were considered 3 questions in light of this. Why would I need His resurrection to be true, why would I believe it to be true, and what should I do if it is true.
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The first thing that comes to mind when we think of Jesus says a lot about us. For the people greeting Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, they saw their king who had come to deliver them from their oppression under the Romans. They failed to see Jesus for who He was, that He had come to not deliver them from the Romans but to deliver us all from sin. He was not the king they expected and it leaves us with the question of who He really is. In Jesus’ own words, He is the Logos, the answer to the meaning of life that philosophers have searched for. He is the great I Am and also fully man, who walked among us, suffered, and can understand what we face in life.
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Habbakuk carries a great burden seeing the injustices in Israel. As we have seen, Habakkuk takes his struggles to God and. While they both agree that the injustice should be stopped, God said it would be stopped in a way that will be a shock to Him, raising up an enemy to oppress His people.
In the midst of this, Habakkuk embraced faith. He intentionally took the time to recall the goodness of God and His past faithfulness. He also assessed the reality of the circumstances and carefully counted the costs that would come to pass as God said they would. Habakkuk had great reasons to choose faith in God and did not do so by blind faith.
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