Bill Johnson - The Importance of Favor and Why You Need It
It says that if Jesus increased in favor with God and with man, it’s amazing. I understand why he needed to increase in favor with man because it would be Zacchaeus who welcomes him into his home. It will be the Pharisee who invites him to his house, where Mary washes his feet. These are the people who give Jesus the opportunity to step in. But how is it that Jesus, the Son of God, who is absolutely perfect in every possible way, had to increase in favor with God? I don’t know; I don’t have an answer. I just know that if he did, you and I might want to consider our need for increased favor with God as well.
Now, the Angel of the Lord appears to Mary and says, «Rejoice, highly favored one.» This favor would cause her to be valued and celebrated for all eternity. Everywhere the gospel is shared, there is celebration for this woman who said yes, and the miracle produced Jesus. She is celebrated, but she was also opposed, and favor does that to our surroundings. I strongly exhort you to not make excuses for the favor of God; simply embrace it and give him the honor and the credit for it. I’ve shared this even in recent weeks, but the whole point is, when somebody comes to you and celebrates you, thanking you and telling you what a great job you did, please don’t say, «It wasn’t me; it was Jesus.»
Because, besides it being nauseating for the rest of us, when I come to somebody and say, «What a beautiful song you just sang,» and they tell me, «It wasn’t me; it was Jesus,» I’m thinking, «Yeah, it wasn’t that good.» It was good, but let’s be honest; if Jesus sang, universes would be created. If he just declared a word, everything would change. So, it was good, but it was not that good. When someone comes to you with a compliment, receive it. If you don’t know how to receive honor, you’ll have no crown to throw at his feet. You have to know how to receive honor, and then when you get alone with the Lord, you just say, «Look at what was given to me; that belongs to you.» It’s a part of the process.
So, back to the story. Mary is called this highly favored one, and she had both blessings and challenges because of the favor, and favor will do that. The subject of favor is not our topic today, so I’ll have to move quickly, but favor is the difference between some people fulfilling why they’re alive and others who don’t. In the issue of favor, people can have a calling of God on their lives but never learn the need for favor, and so they never increase in favor, and thus never have the appropriate open doors to support whatever is needed to accomplish what God has called them to do.
Favor is the issue. It says that if Jesus increased in favor with God and man, it’s amazing. I understand why he needed to increase in favor with man, because it would be Zacchaeus who welcomes him into his home. It will be the Pharisee who invites him to his house, where Mary washes his feet. These are the people who give Jesus the opportunity to step in. But how is it that Jesus, the Son of God, who is absolutely perfect in every possible way, had to increase in favor with God? I don’t know; I don’t have an answer. I just know that if he did, you and I might want to consider our need for increased favor with God as well. Don’t think that what you have is enough, because part of what you need is what you can obtain through faithfulness with what you have.
So, let’s move on to this verse 32. It says in the last half of the verse, «The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.» That’s strange because in verse 35 it says he will be called the Son of God, but in verse 32 he’s called the Son of David. Hmm. This is one of the things that has marked me—to see God look at this man David, who God said had a heart after His heart. The Lord looked at this man David and said, «I’m going to call my son your son forever.» How do you obtain such a place of favor with the Almighty God? That tells me He is impressionable; it tells me it’s possible to leave a mark on His heart. He’s not a robotic being; He is one who has invited us into this relational journey. In scripture, we have times where someone demonstrates faith: the Centurion demonstrates faith, and the Syrophoenician woman demonstrates faith. Jesus stops in the middle of the miracle and says, «I’ve not seen faith like this in all of Israel.»
How is it that God stands up and says, «Wow, look at that! I’ve never seen anything like that before»? There are certain responses the people of God can have to Him that are not generic, not apathetic; they are unique, honest, real, and absolute surrender. He stops and says, «You know what? I’m going to call my son your son.» Never have I seen such great faith in all of Israel’s history. This is a relational journey. This is not a Christian routine where you jump through hoops and try to accomplish a certain regiment. I’ve been invited to know God, and in my heart of hearts, knowing Him is the reason I’m alive. It’s the reason I wake up in the morning, the reason I go to bed at night, the reason behind everything—this invitation to actually walk with the One who created all things and to come to know Him. There’s something about this privileged invitation that makes everything else pale in comparison.
I remember talking to some young people years ago in a group of about 20 or so. I said, «The claims of Jesus are so absolutely astronomical, so extreme that if they are true, I owe him my entire life.» But if it is a lie, it has made such a mark on history that I owe him my entire life to humanity to disprove that this claim is true. In other words, it is a line in the sand that says, «Choose your side.» It is that demanding; it is not a gray area. It’s not an apathetic era. It’s not an area where we stand back and simply applaud; it’s like the claims of this Jesus— to actually atone for sin, to make it so I can have peace forever with God, where His nature can become my own nature; that I am actually changed from the inside out. Suddenly, I find out why I’m alive, and this becomes crystal clear through the redemptive work of Jesus. And here, in this moment, He is called the Son of God, but He is also called the Son of David.