Author: missionspaul

Great timing, perfect timing.

John 6:1-4

“Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.”

Here is the Moses connection again.

The history of when the Israelites placed the blood of the lamb over their door posts and the destroying angel passed over their homes when bringing death to Egypt.

And here comes Jesus entering to be the true Passover Lamb at the time the Jews would be celebrating their Passover festival.

This is God’s grace at its best because the timing is perfect.

God’s acts of grace are always in time.

He is never late.

He is not playing catch-up.

He is never too far ahead.

He is always on time.

When the time had fully come God sent His Son, Galatians 4:4.

As Hesus was facing the crucifixion he would say, “Father the time has come” (John 17:1)

God is not a God of disorder. No matter how you are feeling right now. It is only for a time.

The KJV throughout the Bible has 4 important words … it came to pass.

You may be waiting for your miracle – it came to pass.

You may be waiting for your storm to end – it came to pass.

The timing of God’s grace is perfect.

Who are you?

Jesus gives a long dialogue regarding his authenticity.

John 5: 31-47

Yesterday after preaching in a church I went to the home of the Pastor for a wonderful lunch. I was wearing a really nice white shirt and after lunch we took a photo of the whole family so I could post on to social media which I did. Lots of comments came in and ‘likes’ however what people were seeing was not the truth. Only 2 minutes into the meal I spilt sauce onto my really nice white shirt! I was stained and concerned that the photograph was now impossible. The Pastor gave me assurance that with his know-how no one would see the stain and sure enough by the time the picture came out on social media he had doctored the stain and removed it (not that easy to do in real-life back home!).

In our world of social media claims and selfie’s with huge declarations of what has been achieved and beautiful displays of blessing it is easy for someone to think they are living in a different world but they long to be part of what they see on their phones and tablets. The truth is that not everything is perfect.

Who are you? That was the question the accusers of Jesus asked. “Prove it” was the challenge.

The Jews believed that the person speaking about who they are is not good enough. It needed more than the voice of the accused. In their law it states “On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.” (Deuteronomy 17:6).

That is why Jesus said in v31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true.” He was referring to the Law of Moses. He knew they wouldn’t and couldn’t accept it.

So he reveals 3 witnesses:

1. Man – John the Baptist. Here is what he says in v32-35

“There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that his testimony about me is true. “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.”

At first they received John but then as his ministry increased and as he pointed continually towards Jesus then the Jewish leaders backed off.

2. The Works of God – the miracles that Jesus had been doing amongst the people. Here is what he says in v36-38

 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.”

People’s lives were being transformed and they pointed to the approval from God. Though John doesn’t write about it the other Gospel writers do, the voice from heaven at the baptism of Jesus was the voice of the Father giving his approval.

3. The Scriptures. Here is what he says in v39-40

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. “

The whole point of their Torah was to lead them to the Messiah but they never came. He was standing amongst them and they had studied all their life for this moment but they were blind to who He is.

 

So Jesus turns the discussion around to their authenticity and the challenge remains for us today. Let me set it around 3 questions:

1. Where does your glory come from?

V44 “How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?” Before this Jesus said, “I do not accept glory from human beings,”v41.

Jesus was saying he doesn’t wallow in the glory from man. He doesn’t worry if he gets the ‘likes’ or not. He isn’t trying to impress man so man’s praise doesn’t move him. His glory isn’t from them. Where is ours? Do we need man’s praise and man’s approval for us to know who we are? Is that the glory we seek? Or do we seek the glory of God? Are we aiming for the beauty of God to shine through our lives?

2. Where is your love?

V42-43 “but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.”

Jesus was demonstrating his love for God and love for people, the 2 royal commands that he taught. But they didn’t demonstrate this.

May our words be kind and loving not only to God but to those around us; those on the street and those who are difficult to love.

May they know Him because of our love.

3. Where is your hope?

V45-47 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

The big blow. Jesus wasn’t there to judge them, they already lived under judgment and it was Moses of all people. Their hope was founded on his teaching of the Messiah to come but they didn’t know who he called them to know. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. Our hope leads us to Christ, it doesn’t condemn us.

May the glory, love and the hope that are in our lives authenticate who we are today.

It is all about hearing.

John 5: 19-30

Do you know that experience of opening a large present only to find a smaller one inside? You open that one and then there’s another to open inside that. Eventually you get to the treasure!

This passage is a little bit like that.

Remember why John is writing his gospel: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” 20:31

Let us read this passage as if we are opening a present.

 

V19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. AND v30 ^“By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”

1. Jesus is because the Father is. It teaches us that we need relationship with God to do anything.

That’s the first layer opened. But it’s not the central present.

V20-21 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. AND v28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”

2. The Father and Jesus are both the instigators of life. It teaches us that our relationship will lead to life at the culmination of everything.

That’s the second layer opened. But it’s not the central present.

 

V22-23 ^“Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.” AND v26-27 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

3. Judgment has been given to Jesus by the Father. It teaches us that there is only one way to the Father and that is through the Son’s judgment.

That’s the third layer opened. But it’s not the central present.

 

Here it is, we have come to the final layer. How exciting!

 

V24-25 “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. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. “

 

John wants everyone to believe that Jesus is the Son and that they have life because of that belief.

May today many hear the words of eternal life and believe.

May they hear the voice of Jesus calling them to live.

That is the central prize, the crux of the purpose and the core present.

Shut down that new ministry

John 5: 17-18

“In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

If Jesus was equal with God then where does that leave them?

If everyone had previously viewed them as a higher authority, with power to lead and control their lives and then on comes Jesus who claims to be above and beyond them, then how do they recover their position?

We all want God to be glorified.

However, how do we feel if we are pushed off top position? How do we feel if we are no longer where we have been, known, applauded and appreciated? We don’t feel good.

There is a tendency to eradicate those who threaten our position. Let’s speak ill of those who are ruining our credibility. We need to remain strong, big and popular.

We wouldn’t be feeling this if God was genuinely exalted. But we often cannot accept the next move of God because it makes us feel like our work is lesser.

So we reject, we discredit and stop the new thing from gaining any more support. We feel justified to hold terrible thoughts of wanting to finish ministries and close down people.

Let’s demonstrate a Christianity that opens doors not shuts them due to our own insecurites.

Let others have a go.

John 5: 16 “So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him.”

Jesus was performing miracles, lives were changing for the good and sicknesses that had lasted for decades were being healed. Under the noses of pagan shrines like Asclepion and the watchful eye of Jewish leaders, both of which were incapable of doing what Jesus was doing.

He was doing these things not only on the Sabbath. They made the Sabbath the excuse for persecuting him. They could defend their persecution because everyone would accept that to break the Sabbath was wrong. How could they defend persecuting Jesus for just making people well? They couldn’t.

When someone is doing something amazing that we are not doing but would have wanted to do given the opportunity; when someone is receiving praise and accolade that we craved for; when a church is getting more people attending than our church; when people are finding promotion when we are struggling; when open heavens seem to be over people when we only have a brassy sky; when, when, when …. Our reaction is often a shock even to ourselves!

To criticise would be wrong. That person is doing good things. So to find a point of order; an objection even over minutiae is what we ponder; if we find something obvious, some protocol that wasn’t followed, something that perhaps everyone will say ‘ah yes, you’re right, this shouldn’t be happening,’ well, that means success surely?

So often we lose sight of the mission and we focus on how the mission is done.  It is called control.

OFFENCE

John 5: 10-15

“The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” ¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” ¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. ¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.”

If you can be offended you will be.

The man had been unable to walk for 38 years. Surely Jesus could have waited one more day to heal him? Just a day and the offence would not have been made.

The Sabbath was holy. The seventh day when God rested from his work and so should we.

The healing wasn’t the work because at the most it was just a command. But picking up his mate, well, that was work.

A wonderful healing and those who saw the results were offended.

But I see the possibility of another offended party. The healed man.

What was his sin? John doesn’t say. Maybe it was attached to the fact that this Jewish man had spent his whole life at a healing centre dedicated to the god Asclepius. Maybe it wasn’t that. It seems only Jesus knew.

Previously the man could not tell the Jewish leaders who Jesus was or where he was. But after this rebuke about his sin that’s exactly what he does. It could be of course an innocent reason but very possibly because he was offended. Whatever the reason it led to difficulty for Jesus.

Offence strikes at us all. We get offended when others are blessed and we get offended when we are corrected even if we are blessed.

The greatest miracle is that of a changed heart.

The WORD within Mercy

 

John 5: 1-9

“Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ⁵ One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” ⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” ⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”

This place in Hebrew means ‘House of mercy’. It was used by everyone, not only the Jews. In fact it was dedicated at one time to the pagan healing god, Asclepius.

How it worked (according to several ancient copies of John, but not the oldest ones), an angel would periodically stir the water and the first one in was healed. How that happened could have been simply the workers at the pool turning some pipes to let water in. However it was, there was one man who never got anywhere near being the first.

“If only I could be first!”

Many will cry that today.

There are many who nearly got there, but didn’t.

In the house of mercy there was no one showing him mercy.

But his problem was he had become focused on the reason why he couldn’t get into the pool and not the fact that he desired healing. He doesn’t answer the question of Jesus, he just gives the reason why he hasn’t been successful.

Sometimes we are looking at trying to solve the problem when maybe we are never meant to be solving it.

All the man needed was the WORD.

The word from Jesus is all that it takes.

John is building this case in his gospel in each and every sign and miracle.

In this place shared by pagans and Jews (the whole world) Jesus demonstrated that the Word is for everyone.

May that be true today for us all. Wherever we go we carry the WORD in our hearts and as we speak it to the world they will indeed receive mercy.

 

The unusual enemies of your faith

John 4: 43-54

After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. ⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. ⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” ⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. ⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.”

It is a strange thing that knowing Jesus and longing for Him to move can end up being enemies of our faith.

Jesus spent two days in Sychar and because of what he was teaching them many believed, v40-42.

At 1pm in Cana a certain royal official chose to believe the words of Jesus that his son would live, he acted on that and it ended wonderfully. His son was healed and he and his household became believers.

It is important to John that we see Jesus as the Word of God, “In the beginning was the Word”. It is the Word that makes believers. Hear and believe.

There are many enemies against the Word. The ones that seem to appear the most are still with us today and it is not the dark forces that we may assume. They are:

1. “Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country”

Jesus left Galilee as a carpenter and returned as a rabbi with disciples following.

There had been a significant development in his life. But that could not be said of his home region.

Some people never want you to progress. They want to keep you just exactly where you were even many years ago. Familiarity breeds contempt. “We know you. And we can get offended by you if you don’t act the way you should in our eyes.”

2 v 23 “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.” Here in V45 “… the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.”

Jesus, back in Cana knew that some people will only believe if they see the miracles. “What’s in it for me? Change my circumstances and I will believe.” Their Jesus is important for what He does and not what He says.

 

Your faith has enemies and they are closer than you think.

Today can be a glorious day!

John 4: 39-42

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”

It is amazing what God can do in one day.

When she woke up that day she would never have thought what was going to happen.

Not only her but also many people in Sychar.

Her testimony was not that Jesus told her the whole list of sins of her life. But that he knew all about her life.

How do you move from a broken woman to a town of believers saying ‘we know Jesus is the Saviour of the world’? They didn’t know fully what they were saying but they used the title of the Roman emperor and they gave it to Jesus.

John brilliantly shows us how not only Jesus is the Saviour of the Jews (v22) but he is the Saviour of the Samaritans and the Samaritans say the world! Incredible!

How do we get from a Jesus tired from the journey sitting sown at a well to this scene in just one day?

Never underestimate what God can do today!

 

 

 

 

An energised Jesus

John 4: 27-38

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him. ³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” ³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” ³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”

 

She was a woman.

A Samaritan woman.

A woman who had a story that either ostracised her in the suffering or because of social stigma.

She hadn’t fully grasped everything Jesus had said.

She doesn’t ask for baptism.

She doesn’t say she has found the Messiah, she is not 100% convinced yet.

She runs into the town and tells everyone her experience. That she had met a man who knew everything about her and all she had done. It wasn’t exactly the full gospel explained. No one had signed up for Alpha yet.

However, despite this, Jesus was energised. He didn’t need any earthly stimulus. He didn’t need food. Not on this occasion. This conversation with a Samaritan woman was full of possibilities and opportunities. This is why he had come.

May we all be energised continually with the conversations we have despite our own needs to sit by wells because of tiredness. The impromptu ones that are not held within the week of evangelism but are just part of our lives.

May we be so fired up with the possibilities of what could happen if these conversations turn out to be conversions that we are so consumed and energised we don’t think or worry about what others do.