Category: JOHN

Re:Verse reading–John 6:52-69 (day three) 

“He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”

There’s a certain convenience we find in quoting well-known historical figures. Reaching back through the mists of history for adages and maxims and platitudes lends an air of wisdom and heft to whatever point we’re trying to make. The historical figure can become for us merely a free library of quotations we use for just the right occasion. It’s easy. But Jesus is an actual person who stood upon the ground of a real place and looked into the eyes of each individual around him. He’s not a collection of quotations. We can shape quotations to fit any occasion. The words Jesus spoke, though, are the source of all life. His words will shape us.

Re:Verse reading–John 6:52-69 (day two) 

Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. Vs. 68

Simon Peter would spend much of his time with Jesus asking questions, not understanding, or misinterpreting – but he knew who had the words of life. Whether or not he understood them at that time, his faith was absolute. Not every message is easy. Sometimes the truth is shrouded in a mystery of faith, and we are called to walk in humble obedience without having it all figured out for ourselves. Did Jesus know this would happen? Absolutely. Did that change is manner of speech or action? It did not.

Jesus is not calling us to a faith of convenience. One where we only read the stories we can easily explain, and avoid altogether any challenging doctrine. He calls us to confront those tough truths, and believe in the one who uttered them. There will be those who walk away. They will be unwilling to walk with Jesus into the places that call us to think, to act, to trust completely.

This is a new year. It’s not like there is a cosmic goal post the we have crossed, or a galactic turnstile that has clicked off another pass round the sun, but we have declared that this will be the start of a new year. Where will your faith take you? Will you be like Peter and say to the Lord – where else would I go but to you? Will you be like the others who can’t be bothered with the tough stuff? This is not a passive faith. None of us is on the sidelines. Let us all commit to following our savior with complete abandon. Happy New Year!

Re:Verse reading–John 6:52-69 (day one)

“As. . .I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me. . .will live because of Me.”–v 57

Strange idea to most of us.  As unfamiliar and distasteful as it was to those who first heard it.  However, it was a central construct of the Lord’s mind.

1) Life requires fuel.  No one but God is self-sustaining.  We draw/borrow life from something other than self.

2) As bread is fuel for physical life, Jesus is fuel for eternal life.

3) Eternal life is greater than physical life.  We should work of it with greater interest/intensity than for physical needs. v 27

4) Bread must be eaten and digested.  In the same way, Jesus and His words must be appropriated, considered, obeyed.

Most of us are fitful and irregular in our spiritual diet.  What strength and health would come if we could think like Jesus!

“Lord, to whom shall we go?  You (alone) have words of eternal life.  v 68

 

Re:Verse passage – John 5:1-24 (day seven)

Jesus said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, pick up your pallet and walk.” Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. John 5:6b-9

The sick man has an all too common response to Jesus, “I have no man to put me into the pool…”  This man wanted healing, but he only knew of one physical way it could happen.  Jesus, though, opened his eyes to spiritual realities that bring healing in a way unfathomable to man.  The same story has happened all through the Gospel of John, and continues to happen today. We have failed to learn from these examples of people who limited themselves to the temporal.

The woman at the well said the same thing to Jesus, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep…” John 4:11

Nicodemus likewise said, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” John 3:4

And we repeat the same error, “Jesus the things you say and the way you teach is impossible.”  We always have a good reason to say “no” to Jesus just like this sick man, the woman at the well, and Nicodemus, but thankfully, each one of these doubters move from doubt to belief by the grace of Jesus Christ. If we will but submit, and not doubt, Christ will transform our lives into something we could never fathom.

Re:Verse passage – John 5:1-24 (day six)

You don’t walk away from this story thinking how sweet Jesus is; you shouldn’t. This is no cuddly Jesus; he is all power and authority. The kind of man who knows how to walk into trouble. The kind that commands decrepit old legs to get up and walk. The kind that demands, “Stop sinning.” And when confronted by the “powerful” he didn’t back pedal, or debate with them, he said plainly, “That’s right, I’m working on the Sabbath, just like my Father is working.”

Sometimes our Jesus is so cuddly and sweet, there is no need to obey him all the time or take him all that seriously. Just like a teddy bear we cozy up with from time to time, but give little thought of the rest of our day.

Maybe our view of Jesus needs to change. John would certainly insist on it. Oh, and so would Jesus.

Re:Verse passage – John 5:1-24 (day five) When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, “Do you wish to get well?” John 5:6 

Same remarkable facet of the nature of Jesus we read in John 4 last week- the knowledge of Jesus. Come meet the man who told me all the things that I had done. Jesus knew the paralytic perfectly well. Jesus knew the woman perfectly well. Jesus knows each of us perfectly well. There is no occasion for Him to discover more about us.  No need to better understand us. No information lacking to diagnose us.  He already knows it all. And He acts perfectly with all His knowledge and understanding.  With wisdom and grace, Jesus questions, challenges, convicts, convinces, encourages, and empowers. 

This should fill us with awe, so that we sin not; with courage, so that we fear not; with delight, so that we mourn not. -Spurgeon. 

Re:Verse passage – John 5:1-24 (day four)

Why did Jesus choose the veteran invalid to be healed?  38 years is a long time to be sick.  A long tenure of illness often times breeds a sense of hopelessness for ever being well again.  Jesus asked the lame man if he wanted to be made well.  There was no expectation of the man that Jesus was about to heal him.  He appears to know very little about Jesus and did not even know his name when questioned by the Jews. Surely there were others on the porticoes trying to be healed, yet we only have a record of this one man being healed.  The only explanation for his healing is the sovereign grace of God.

In verse 19, Jesus says that He can only do what He sees the Father doing.  Jesus acts in like manner to the Father.  It was the choice of God the Father to heal this lame man.  Not because he was more worthy…not because he had pleaded with the Lord…not because he demonstrated great faith…it was God’s sovereign choice.  This miracle was one more sign of the integral relationship between God and Christ.  Does your life demonstrate that type of relationship with God?

Re:Verse reading–John 5:1-30 (day three)

“Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

We don’t know what the man by the pool was thinking after Jesus healed his body. But in the light of his subsequent encounter with Jesus, one could reasonably draw this conclusion: He didn’t want to get well, he just wanted to get by. Jesus had plenty to say about seeking God’s minimum requirements: a man with an evil spirit who cleaned up his act but failed to act cleaned up; a son who faked obedience to get his father off his back; a man who was all yoke and no ox when it came to working the field. The only life that remains unharmed by disease and suffering is the actual life of Jesus. It is our learning to live that life which is the purpose for every single miracle he did.

Re:Verse reading–John 5:1-30 (day two) 

“Do you wish to get well?” vs. 6b

The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:5

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them. Isaiah 9:2

“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12

It is the question that comes to us all. Do you want to be well? When we are in darkness, we feel as though we can hide our sin from the world, and even from God. The truth is he still sees, but is also still seeking to shine his light of truth into your life.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. He has come to make you new. I hope you will take time to read Luke 2 to your family sometime today. Merry Christmas.

Re:Verse reading–John 5:1-30 (day one)

“After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. . .and Jesus saw him. . .and asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’ “–v 1, 6.

Christmas Eve, 2018.  I hope  you and your family will be in worship tonight.  It is a holy day.

John 5 presents Jesus in a similar setting.  The Lord delighted in the feast days that celebrated the saving acts of God.  God’s word instructs families/culture to carry and teach “His story” to each succeeding generation.  Even with the growing danger in Jerusalem, Jesus journeyed to be present.

While there (once again, John’s gospel has the “feel” of an eye-witness account) Jesus “saw” a man in desperate need and engaged him with life-giving words.

We do well to cherish the same hope.  Tonight, when we gather, the Lord will be there and will see our need and speak life to us.

It is a holy day.