18/03/2022
The Everlasting Word – Matthew 24:35
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
Have you received a Valentine’s Day card before? Typically, the givers commit their everlasting love and devotion with sentimental words in those cards. The word “everlasting” is an extension of the word “lasting” - a deeper expression of enduring, long-lived, timeless, or eternal. What is it we want to be everlasting in our life? ~ Is it beauty? Is it love? Is happiness? Is it monetary gain? Is it status? Is it security? Is it legacy? Is it life itself?
We can easily find debates and pointers on the websites on the secret to everlasting happiness or everlasting love, and debates on the pros and cons of a deathless life. A BBC news/magazine site published A Point of View: Would you want to live forever? – Are people foolish to crave everlasting life? To escape death and live forever on earth may be suffering in itself but to live as long as possible is a reasonable wish. However, a long life may be an empty one. When life cannot be everlasting, why not fill it with the everlasting Word of God and be grounded in His promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus? This way, all the questions in the first paragraph above will be answered.
In the gospel of Matthew chapter 24 verse 35, Jesus said “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” What does this mean? Perhaps Isaiah 40:6-8 can help us explain this statement:
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.
The Life Application Study Bible explains like this:
People are compared here to grass and flowers that wither away. We are mortal, but God’s Word is eternal and unfailing. Public opinion changes and is unreliable, but God’s Word is constant. Only in God’s eternal Word will we find lasting solutions to our problems and needs.
Psalm 119:89 further declares – “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.”
The current devastating events around the world tell us that we are living in an unstable world. For thousands of people, it didn't make sense to ponder on how to live as long as possible because the worldwide Covid pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the massive flood in Australia, have shortened thousands of lives and have increased pain and suffering. God’s love and His promises (His Word) in the Bible are our stability in this unstable world. We can choose to devote our time solely on gaining and accumulating in this world, while depriving ourselves of God’s eternal promise, or we can cultivate a relationship with God through reading and studying His Word.
John 5:24, Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
May God bless you and your family.
Pastor Susan
