“Lord Jesus, we pray that we will always be fervent in our love for You. We are aware of the danger of becoming lukewarm in our relationship with You. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.
The Jews did not recognise Jesus as their Messiah. Though they were exposed to the Scriptures, they asked for Jesus to be crucified. His disciples too, though they had been close with Jesus for three and half years, did not recognise Him as the Messiah, who had come to set in place the kingdom of God.
The disciples explain their bewilderment to the Lord on the road to Emmaus.
Luke 24:19-24 And He said to them, “What things?” So they said to Him, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, (20) and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. (21) But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. (22) Yes, and certain women of our company, who arrived at the tomb early, astonished us. (23) When they did not find His body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said He was alive. (24) And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but Him they did not see.”
The Lord reprimanded His disciples for their blindness. Luke 24:25-26 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! (26) Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”
The Lord then explained to them, patiently, all things concerning Himself, from the Scriptures. Luke 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.
He did the same again, with all the disciples present. Luke 24:44-45 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (45) And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
We must know with all certainty, the ground on which we stand when we testify Jesus as the Messiah for the world.
Let us consider one of the prophecies of Jesus from Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah 11:1-5 There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. (2) The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (3) His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; (4) But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. (5) Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
This was the Lord’s message to His disciples, throughout the time that He was with them but they were not been able to grasp the truth. When His own disciples had difficulty recognising Jesus, we can appreciate the fact that the Jews could not and would not accept Him as the Messiah, for whom they had been waiting.
Here is the irony. Without recognising and accepting Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews fulfilled the Scriptures by condemning Him and asking Pilate to put Jesus to death by crucifixion. The irony was that the Jews, knowing the Scriptures, but not understanding the Scriptures, fulfilled the Scriptures, by putting Jesus to death.
This is why we see as His church must pray that our eyes will always be opened to know Him as our Lord. We must be warned that the same blindness that came upon the Jews and on the disciples, (temporarily), should not come on us.
Revelation 3:16-19 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. (17) Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— (18) I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. (19) As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
If we allow lukewarmness, to creep into our lives as His church, we too can become blinded and we will deny the Lord when in our times, we ought to be bold witnesses to Jesus as King.