The Everyday Prayer

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

You must be born again…a spring of water welling up to eternal life…If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Jesus had a way with words. So far, Jesus has used the tangible (new birth, water, bread) to make sense of spiritual realities, although no one fully understood him at the time. Even though Jesus rarely went out of his way to explain his metaphors (he did with his disciples), his methods say a lot about his character. Jesus chose words that were relevant, relatable, and meaningful. Yes, these truths were still challenging, but Jesus did not got out of his way to make them so; they are so, by their very nature juxtaposed to a broken world. His words are the kind of words that required presence; being with people in the moment.

That’s a very good method. A good method indeed.

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

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

Jesus makes a deep and profound connection between the Spirit and the Word of God. It is the Spirit that makes us alive through the Word of God. The wisdom, power, and promises found in the scripture are greater than any other faith system or pattern of thought designed to find happiness and meaning.

Are there difficult teachings?  Are there passages that challenge the human heart and mind to think and approach life in a way that seems unnatural (not of the flesh)? YES!  But beyond the seeming confusion and frustration there is enough clarity in the scriptures to bring hope, life, and faith.

Peter didn’t deny the difficulty of Jesus words. He had heard and understood enough of Jesus other words to find life and hope. There is life and eternal truth to be found in the scriptures.  Enough to cling to in times of confusion, difficulty, and uncertainty. 

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

I am grateful for all of my English teachers I had growing up that taught me well.  They taught me about the figure of speech called a metaphor.  A metaphor is a word or phrase that is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.  The Jews must not have understood about metaphors.  Jesus used them often and they never understood what He was talking about.  They wanted to apply the literal meaning to it and then reacted to their misinterpretation.  Jesus will talk about the need to stay in Him in John 15 when He says to abide in Him.  He uses the metaphor of the vine and branches, but does not mean to become a literal vine or branch.

Jesus gives a clue to their lack of understanding in verse 65.  “…no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”  Understanding of God’s Word is dependent on our faith response to God’s drawing.  Having a relationship with God and having the Holy Spirit is like having the secret code breaker manual built in.  “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life…”

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?