Hey Everybody,
As we move into John 5, Jesus heals the man at the pool. The man had been an invalid for 38 years. Shortly after Jesus heals him, Jesus appears to him again, and tells him to "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." My first thought about this is what could happen to the man that would be worse than being an invalid for 38 years, but the answer to that question is in Jesus' statement. If the man doesn't let go of his sin, he may spend an eternity in hell.
Any way, Jesus has this great healing. Awesome. Of course, Jesus does this great healing on the Sabbath, and so the this gets the Jewish leaders all stirred up against him. This leads to a very interesting conversation between the Jewish leaders and Jesus recorded in John 5:16 and following. Jesus makes some amazing claims in this passage including: He claims the power to give life (v. 21), he claims that God had given him the right to judge all people (v. 22). In all of this he is claiming to be the Son of God. These are some very bold claims if you think about it.
The one claim that I want to focus in on today though is from verse 27, where Jesus claims to be the Son of Man. I had never understood why Jesus referred to himself this way. Son of God made sense to me, Son of Man did not. So I did a little research. It turns out that that name, Son of Man, comes from Daniel 7:13-14:
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power: all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
Clearly the Ancient of Days is God the Father. And in claiming to be the Son of Man Jesus is claiming all authority, all glory, and sovereign power. He is claiming that all people will worship him (see Philippians 2:9). He is claiming that his kingdom will be eternal. In essence he is telling them that he is the son of God. (In Matt. 26:64 he refers to himself again as the Son of Man and throws in the part about coming on the clouds of heaven just like in Daniel 7.)
Back in the 1930s, a famous baseball player named Dizzy Dean was quoted as saying "It ain't braggin', if you can do it." Today, hearing someone talk like this, we would probably consider him delusional. But Jesus was not delusional, all of these things were absolutely true. It's not delusional, if you can do it.
Tom
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Jesus is a Foodie
Hey everyone.
The boys and I are gearing up to go to New Jersey's first Dads and Lads Retreat. Awesome. Before we go I wanted to share a little thought.
I am a foodie. I will admit to being an unabashed flavor-holic. I can talk for hours about food. Jesus is a foodie, but not in the same way that I am. In my last post, I talked about Jesus and the woman at the well. I am going to continue that story now.
If you remember, Jesus had been talking to this woman about "living water," and that she would never be thirsty again. Then he began to talk to her about her life. This is where we ended. After the conversation, the woman runs back into town, leaving her water jar behind. (John 4:28) She had gotten so excited about Jesus that she had forgotten what she went to the well for in the first place. Later she brings back the town and many lives are changed.
In the meantime, the disciples who return just before the woman leaves, tried to get Jesus to eat something. He refuses their offer of food, stating "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." The disciples did not really understand what Jesus meant by this, and asked among themselves, "Could someone else have brought him food?" OK, so this is the "Jesus is a foodie" part. Jesus tells them his food is "to do the will of Him who sent me and finish his work." Jesus' food is doing God's will.
I eat food for two reasons. First, my body requires it for energy. Second, I eat because I really like food. When I taste something really flavorful, my eyes light up and I get excited. Either way, you can say that food energizes me. Jesus, however, was energized by spiritual food. Talking to this woman, changing her heart and her life, had Jesus so energized that he would not take regular food. He was already full from doing the will of the Father. Jesus then goes on to talk to his disciples about the "harvest," (a word that means the gathering of food) but he was not talking about food. He wanted to harvest a crop for eternal life. (John 4:36) So Jesus is a foodie, but his food is a different food.
We have to ask ourselves, "What energizes me?' "What is my spiritual food?" I would like to think that doing God's will excites me more than actual food. How awesome, how fulfilling is it when you know that you have been doing God's will? May we all be full like that.
Tom
The boys and I are gearing up to go to New Jersey's first Dads and Lads Retreat. Awesome. Before we go I wanted to share a little thought.
I am a foodie. I will admit to being an unabashed flavor-holic. I can talk for hours about food. Jesus is a foodie, but not in the same way that I am. In my last post, I talked about Jesus and the woman at the well. I am going to continue that story now.
If you remember, Jesus had been talking to this woman about "living water," and that she would never be thirsty again. Then he began to talk to her about her life. This is where we ended. After the conversation, the woman runs back into town, leaving her water jar behind. (John 4:28) She had gotten so excited about Jesus that she had forgotten what she went to the well for in the first place. Later she brings back the town and many lives are changed.
In the meantime, the disciples who return just before the woman leaves, tried to get Jesus to eat something. He refuses their offer of food, stating "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." The disciples did not really understand what Jesus meant by this, and asked among themselves, "Could someone else have brought him food?" OK, so this is the "Jesus is a foodie" part. Jesus tells them his food is "to do the will of Him who sent me and finish his work." Jesus' food is doing God's will.
I eat food for two reasons. First, my body requires it for energy. Second, I eat because I really like food. When I taste something really flavorful, my eyes light up and I get excited. Either way, you can say that food energizes me. Jesus, however, was energized by spiritual food. Talking to this woman, changing her heart and her life, had Jesus so energized that he would not take regular food. He was already full from doing the will of the Father. Jesus then goes on to talk to his disciples about the "harvest," (a word that means the gathering of food) but he was not talking about food. He wanted to harvest a crop for eternal life. (John 4:36) So Jesus is a foodie, but his food is a different food.
We have to ask ourselves, "What energizes me?' "What is my spiritual food?" I would like to think that doing God's will excites me more than actual food. How awesome, how fulfilling is it when you know that you have been doing God's will? May we all be full like that.
Tom
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Jesus Gave Her Water. (And It Was Not From the Well.)
Hello everyone.
Continuing the story of Jesus in John, we reach John 4 which contains the story of the woman at the well. It's likely that you are familiar with the story, but just in case, I will sum it up for you. Jesus and his apostles had left Judea to return to Galilee, passing through Samaria on the way. They stopped near a town called Sychar in Samaria and Jesus rested by a well while his disciples went into town to buy food. As Jesus is resting, a Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water. Jesus has a conversation with her. This conversation changes her life. She goes back to her town and brings her town to meet Jesus, and he changes their lives as well.
I want to talk about that initial life-changing conversation. Jesus starts with a simple request. "Will you give me a drink?" The woman is surprised because a Jewish rabbi is talking to her, a Samaritan woman. Knowing that Jews did not associate with Samaritans she asks, how he can ask her for a drink. Of course, Jesus did not hold the same prejudices as the society that he lived in. (Also, being the creator of the Universe, he was free to talk to whoever he wanted.) He responded her that if she knew to whom she was speaking, she would ask for living water. He defines this "living water" by saying that if you drink it, you will never be thirsty again and that the water inside of you will become a spring that wells up to eternal life. That sounds like pretty awesome water.
Jesus is talking on a spiritual level that the woman obviously does not understand. She believes that he is talking about a literal "living water," and so she asks for some of Jesus' water. (Of course, if that was what Jesus meant, he would not have asked her for water.) She asks for the "living water," Why? So that she would not have to keep coming back to this well to draw water.
You see, she was looking for a way to make her life easier. That was not Jesus plan at all. Jesus was looking to make her life better, but not necessarily easier. Jesus then began to challenge her about her life. She listened. She went on to influence a number of other people as well. I believe that this conversation with Jesus made her life better. She still had to come draw water from the well, though. I think the same applies to us. We often look to Jesus hoping that He can make our path easier for us. That may not be what we need. Certainly the woman did not some kind of magical water that would mean that she wouldn't need to work as hard. She needed that living water that help her deal with the sin in her life. Let's make sure that we seek that kind kind of water so that no matter the difficulty, we have a spring of living water inside of us that wells up to eternal life.
Tom
Continuing the story of Jesus in John, we reach John 4 which contains the story of the woman at the well. It's likely that you are familiar with the story, but just in case, I will sum it up for you. Jesus and his apostles had left Judea to return to Galilee, passing through Samaria on the way. They stopped near a town called Sychar in Samaria and Jesus rested by a well while his disciples went into town to buy food. As Jesus is resting, a Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water. Jesus has a conversation with her. This conversation changes her life. She goes back to her town and brings her town to meet Jesus, and he changes their lives as well.
I want to talk about that initial life-changing conversation. Jesus starts with a simple request. "Will you give me a drink?" The woman is surprised because a Jewish rabbi is talking to her, a Samaritan woman. Knowing that Jews did not associate with Samaritans she asks, how he can ask her for a drink. Of course, Jesus did not hold the same prejudices as the society that he lived in. (Also, being the creator of the Universe, he was free to talk to whoever he wanted.) He responded her that if she knew to whom she was speaking, she would ask for living water. He defines this "living water" by saying that if you drink it, you will never be thirsty again and that the water inside of you will become a spring that wells up to eternal life. That sounds like pretty awesome water.
Jesus is talking on a spiritual level that the woman obviously does not understand. She believes that he is talking about a literal "living water," and so she asks for some of Jesus' water. (Of course, if that was what Jesus meant, he would not have asked her for water.) She asks for the "living water," Why? So that she would not have to keep coming back to this well to draw water.
You see, she was looking for a way to make her life easier. That was not Jesus plan at all. Jesus was looking to make her life better, but not necessarily easier. Jesus then began to challenge her about her life. She listened. She went on to influence a number of other people as well. I believe that this conversation with Jesus made her life better. She still had to come draw water from the well, though. I think the same applies to us. We often look to Jesus hoping that He can make our path easier for us. That may not be what we need. Certainly the woman did not some kind of magical water that would mean that she wouldn't need to work as hard. She needed that living water that help her deal with the sin in her life. Let's make sure that we seek that kind kind of water so that no matter the difficulty, we have a spring of living water inside of us that wells up to eternal life.
Tom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)