Gospel of Love 5 of 21

The first section of John chapter 5 covers the story of the man who was ill for 38 years and waiting by the pool of Bethesda to be healed. Jesus finds the man and asks him if he wants to be made well, Jesus heals the man on the Sabbath and sends him on his way. 

The religious leaders found out that he was healing on the Sabbath, a day of rest, and confronted Jesus about it. Jesus responds with amazing insight about how Jesus did ministry. Jesus said “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” Jesus speaks of the unity of Him and the Father and how Jesus yields His life to the Father. And in turn Jesus speaks of how the authority of heaven has been entrusted to Him. 

In the last section of Chapter 5 Jesus calls out the blindness of those religious folks saying that they search the scriptures looking for eternal life, but the scriptures tell about Him and that He is the one who can give eternal life. They were so very blind to the presence of  God among them.

John 5 <— Link here.

The faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain.

Often times we are drawn to the flashy and flamboyant things of life. We like fancy cars and exciting movies, and yet we can still miss out on true fulfillment. Some people search their whole lives for satisfaction and never find it. Some people travel the whole world looking for a paradise that will give them peace, to no avail.

I’ve been there, and so have you, or maybe you’re there right now.

God has not chosen to fully reveal His greatness to mankind, yet. He has revealed a taste of it in remarkable fashion, enough to give us something to talk about for the last 6 thousand years. But He has chosen to remain cloaked by normality. So that those who believe or are curious about Him would be amazed at His presence, even in the midst of regular every day things.

In our time period God’s into that. He’s not into making a big show of Himself, yet He has monopolized our fulfillment within Himself. We strive for peace and success, and in relationship with Christ we find the cure for our needs. We search the earth for satisfaction and He is standing right here right now offering satisfaction. We look for a place to go to gain perspective and He is waiting on us to turn our attention to Him to give it to us.

He was here all along, waiting to tell us how much we are loved. Waiting to stop all our striving by His kind touch. The question isn’t about God’s nature anymore, we’ve seen it revealed in Christ. The ball is in our court… the question is will we choose to live acknowledging His presence or will we look right past Him as so many have before, even those in John 5.

Let’s take time today to acknowledge Him. Not necessarily getting all frothed up praying about stuff, but just simply checking the surety of His presence.

Lord, are you here? What’s on your heart?…