In the letter to the Hebrews the writer has been emphasizing that all Christians have the privilege of free access to God … anytime, anywhere. It is the only religion of unhindered access to God. This access will always be available because Jesus rose from the dead and lives forever. It is because of what he has done and is received by grace through faith.

There is, however, a danger and that is ‘drawing back’ from God. This can show up in not meeting with other believers. It is in the fellowship of meeting together that the expression of love takes place. In this passage, the writer encourages those who have stopped meeting together to value the privilege of fellowship. He wants to highlight the dangers of being isolated from other believers.

The writer also gives a scary picture of those who have rejected the Gospel (apostasy). This is like leaving a kingdom which cannot be shaken to build one’s life on a fault line. If we reject Jesus Christ there is nothing left but judgement. It is a fearful thing to meet God without Jesus. Through Christ we have the right to approach God …. don’t throw it away.

 

The miracle of Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand is well known. What is less well known is the meaning of what Jesus was teaching the disciples. Jesus had already done miracles and so Philip and Andrew should have known that Jesus could provide food for the people.

This miracle is recorded by all 4 of the gospel writers. Jesus transformed the situation because He is sovereign. Believing in what Jesus can do comes from knowing who Jesus is.  The disciples needed to start looking at problems as those who believe. This is one of the lessons of this passage.

There is, however, another lesson to be learned. We must not go from believing what Jesus ‘can’ do to insisting that Jesus ‘must’ do things.  After people saw the miracle they wanted to make Jesus king by force. Jesus withdrew from them because they needed to yield themselves to his terms. Jesus would become king and in a way that would be best for them. This could only be accomplished through his death on the cross.

 

 

 

The ‘what’ of the Christian message is familiar to most people. The ‘why’ and the ‘how’ however are much less well known.

In Romans, Paul begins by putting his name to the letter and then briefly telling about  the ‘what’ before he goes on to the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. We find that the gospel (good news) was promised in the Old Testament Scriptures, it is about God’s Son, descended from David (in one sense) and resurrected from the dead. We also catch a glimpse of Paul’s heart, addressing the believers in Rome as ‘beloved’ …… showing his care and concern for them and hope to visit them.

This first part of Chapter 1 finishes with Paul giving a glimpse of the ‘why’. He says he is not ashamed of the gospel, the momentous truths about Jesus dying on the cross and rising again from death, because it is God’s way of saving people and we now get a glimpse of the ‘how’ …..  it is by faith. Faith is simply ‘confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see’.

Verse 17 is the key …….. it contains a quote from the Old Testament “the righteous man shall live by faith”. Another way of saying this is ‘the one who through faith is righteous shall live’. Its not about what we have accomplished but our participation, by faith, in what has been accomplished for us by Jesus Christ on the cross.

 

 

No one in all of history has been as controversial as Jesus. What do you make of Jesus? Everything hangs on this question. In the passage, we see him as what appears to be a conflict starter, a Sabbath breaker and a blasphemer. We must keep in mind however what Jesus said elsewhere … that he ‘came to seek and save that which was lost’.

Why would Jesus heal on a day and in such a way that it would create conflict?  The answer is that he wanted to bring the wrong attitudes and misunderstandings of the Jewish leaders into the open.  With the Sabbath, whilst it is good to set aside one day of the week for rest, it also points to the healing/rest we experience when we no longer try to justify ourselves. We are to rely instead on what he has done on the cross to make us right with God. With the charge of blasphemy, the Jewish leaders did not realize who Jesus was and is. It was completely true for him to call God his Father.

Is there anything that is holding you back from Jesus?  He will not share himself with any ‘idol’ which prevents us from trusting completely in him. In this passage Jesus spoke the words and the man was healed. There is a reminder here that we do not have this true healing/rest as a result of what we do but only as a result of what he did.

 

You don’t have to look hard to see people in this world in great need. There are broken relationships, broken families and broken lives. This is why this passage is so important. It points to hope for people who are hurting. It shows us that it is not how life is meant to be.

The scene is one of great suffering, both physical and emotional, making the people outcasts of society. Those who had come there for healing believed the pool had great healing power. The man was waiting for it to be stirred so he could enter the water.

He was, however, about to learn the most important lesson … our suffering is not sovereign. Jesus is. There is still hope even after 38 years. Jesus asks ‘do you want to get well?’ This was not an absurd question but a necessary one. There is a great risk of letting suffering become our identity.

Receiving Jesus means receiving a new identity.  This should be like a light which guides us home. It is not just infirmity and disease which have no place in heaven, but neither does sin. What Jesus is doing is alerting the man to the seriousness of continuing in sin. This is where he provides the greatest healing …… through the cross and received by faith alone.

Misreading signs can be dangerous. Signs point forward. Signs give us information. In the passage we find however that people misread the signs. Back in his hometown now the people honoured Jesus because of the signs he had done. The people were impressed by the signs but they had not listened to his words.

Signs might impress but they do not produce genuine faith. If people focus on the signs and not the person the signs will be of no value to them. Jesus uses the situation of the man coming to him to heal his son to show someone who was believing in Jesus’ words. He trusted that Jesus could heal his son by just saying the word.

Is our focus on the spectacular and the amazing or on Jesus himself? As Christians this is a warning not to rely on signs but on Jesus himself. Jesus is the source of all life especially eternal life. We need to read the sign which is Jesus himself and follow him.

 

 

God alone can satisfy the longing of our hearts and provide that joy which we desire. In the passage we find that the woman was so overjoyed at meeting Jesus she left her water jar behind. This was because she had found ‘living water’. It changed her relationship with others such that she wanted to tell them about Jesus.

When she comes to the men she says to them ‘come see a man who told me everything I have ever done’. This should not surprise us because she had found God’s grace in Jesus Christ and this had transformed her life. Jesus knew everything about her and yet he had not condemned her.

Jesus came to do the will of the Father in seeking and saving that which was lost. This was his ‘food’ as he explained to the disciples who had been thinking about physical hunger. Jesus knew that he would have to go to the cross but he also knew that he would rise again. This is why he came. The message brings great joy. People need to be pointed to Him.

What do you most long for and what if you don’t get it? For many people they thirst for relationships but often they don’t satisfy. The reason for this is that our desire for relationship can only be truly satisfied in the one who made us. We find this in the passage about Jesus’ meeting with a Samaritan woman.

It was no accident that Jesus met the woman at the well. Their conversation starts off with a discussion about the water from the well. Jesus then points the woman to the ‘living water’ the source of which is himself. She then asks about how this can be obtained, not yet realizing that it is her deepest need.

Jesus then turns the conversation to be about her and gently reveals the broken relationships in her life. She had been searching for love but her experiences had resulted in failure. In Jesus, a Jew who would not normally talk to her, however, she found someone who would never fail her.

This leads her to ask a question about the place to worship. The Samaritans and Jews worshiped in different places. Jesus explains that true worship is not about a building but about a relationship with God in and through himself. He satisfies those who are thirsty with the water of life ….. forgiveness and a restored relationship with him forever.

 

 

There is a lot of pressure these days from advertising and media to consider ourselves as the most influential and important ones. In this passage we see the direct opposite of that. The disciples of John the Baptist were concerned when people started responding to Jesus’ ministry in increasing numbers. John said to them ‘He must increase, I must decrease’.

John also said that the ‘bride’ is joyful when she sees the ‘bridegroom’ arriving and identified himself as among those who were joyful at the coming of Jesus. John understood that it was only Jesus who could save people from their sins and that he would do this through dying and rising again from the dead.

There are also some very important words for us as the end of this passage. Whilst for some there will be great joy, for others there is great danger …….. ‘Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them’. The modern focus on our own importance stands in stark contrast to the vital wisdom of John.

 

What would you reverse if you had the power to do so? What if death could be reversed? It seems so final. Some people have said that we cannot know because no-one has come back from the dead to tell us. In the passage, however, we see that Jesus did come back to life. We could say that a great reversal was brought about by the great reverser.

In the Gospels we have eye witness accounts testifying to the truth of the resurrection. These are written in such a way that shows it actually happened. In the Scriptures we also have the amazing words…’everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him will have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day’.

Jesus invites investigation. One of his disciples, called doubting Thomas, was not convinced that Jesus had actually risen from the dead. He wanted proof. Jesus met with him and the other disciples about a week after he had risen. He asked Thomas to put his finger into the holes in his hands and reach into his wounded side. Thomas then believed. The great reverser brings about the great reversal.