John 8

Thanks for taking up the reading challenge!  As you read through John Chapter 8 as preparation for the weekend, what do you think is the key statement or image? 

I would suggest (and you will hear more this weekend) it is that Jesus notes that He is the light – He is the light of the world!  Now – what does that mean?  How does that “reality of life” affect our lives? 

If Jesus is my light – how do I work through relationship challenges and even broken relationships?

If Jesus is my light – how do I handle finances and develop generosity?

If Jesus is my light – am I willing to be vulnerable before Him and others about my brokenness?

If Jesus is my light – am I open to new people and seeing them as gifts God has brought to me for the journey of life?

If Jesus is my light – do I treat Him as “ultimate” in my life?

I recently saw Tim Keller – a great preacher and writer (he wrote The Prodigal God) on Morning Joe on MSNBC.  During the course of the interview, he noted that we live in a world where we take good things (like work and family) and make them ultimate in our life.  The Apostle John is after us seeing Jesus as “ultimate” so that we frame and filter all of our life through Jesus.  He is the Light of the World.  He wants to be our light!  He wants to be your light! 

Grace and Peace – Jul 

John 7

In the 7^th chapter of John in verse 38 we hear Jesus say…

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  

How are we to understand this statement?  Jesus was challenging the people, as well as us, to a personal faith in who He said he was… not to just react in belief or unbelief according to the crowd. We see many people being confused by this man Jesus and his ministry.  The people wanted to believe but then saw the resistance from the religious leaders and they questioned if Jesus could be the One, the Messiah, if he came from Galilee (vs. 41&42). 

Verse 43 even says that the people were divided “because of Jesus.” 

What are the things swirling around us that can cause us to question? To be divided in our belief? What are we reacting to? Who is influencing us?

How are we seeing Jesus?  The one “who seeks the glory of the one who sent him” (vs. 18). 

As we look together at this passage we will be able to sense the confusion of the people… but through that confusion (and yes our own confusion) let’s hear how much He wants us to know the Father and experience that river of living water in our lives.

 Written by Pastor Todd Wessles.  Pastor Todd and his wife Cindy live in New Lenox.

John 6

John 6 is all about bread, bread that gives life and Bread that gives Life.

The chapter begins with Christ’s feeding of the 5,000.  Having witnessed Jesus’ healing of the sick, a large crowd gathers to hear him preach.  Jesus, in compassion, anticipates the needs of this crowd, asking Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (v. 5).  As John points out, even as Jesus asks the question, “he already had in mind what he was going to do” (v. 15).  The disciples supply five barley loaves and two fish, and miraculously, over 5,000 are fed.

This miracle reveals Jesus as the supplier of our physical needs.  He knows we are flesh, and as he later teaches his disciples to pray for their daily bread, he here supplies it.  But he wants to do so much more for us.

When the crowds receive this food, John writes that they want to make Jesus king by force.  Jesus actually runs and hides from them.  But the crowds will not be deterred.  They search for Jesus into the next day, eventually finding him near Capernaum. 

Jesus greets them: “You are looking for me . . . because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (v.27).  A few verses later, Jesus explains, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.  . . .For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (v. 35,40).

And remarkably, the crowds leave.  “This is a hard teaching,” they say.  “Who can accept it?” (v. 60).  How disappointed Jesus must have been.  Thousands wanted to make him king because he gave them bread, but when he wanted to give them so much more, they left.

Do we respond to God the same way?  We want secure jobs, good health, nice homes, and full bellies.  And if God will give us those things, we are content.  But Jesus wants to give us so much more.  He wants to give our lives direction and purpose.  He wants to bring reconciliation and healing to our relationships with each other and with God.  He wants to give us Life, now and forevermore.  All we have to do is believe. 

John 6 is all about bread, bread that gives life and Bread that gives Life.  Which one will we choose?

Written by Jeff DeVries, a member of New Life Church.

Review of John 5

“Do you want to get well?”

That is the question Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda.  It seemed like an obvious question seeing that the man was sitting beside a pool that was known for miraculous healing and that he had been sitting there day after day for years.  And yet, there was no remedy for the many except to sit within inches of help and hope and wonder if he would ever get well.  

Jesus told the man to “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” vs 8  The command came with the authority to make it happen and with the expectation that the man would testify to the miracle that had happened in his life.  And because the man obeyed, he was able to get up and walk for the first time in 38 years. 

This story, this command, this miracle have direct implications for our lives as well.  Jesus sees our heart and he can see the spiritual sickness we suffer from, even if we have the ability to hide it from others or even ourselves.  We, like the lame man, find ourselves within inches of the Truth, but unable to access it without the help of the Savior...and our willingness to obey him.  

“Do you want to get well?”  Jesus asks us the same question.  The cure for our spiritual sickness is believing that Jesus is the Christ, accepting the life that is offered through his sacrifice and then getting up and walking; testifying to others the life he has given us.  We are free to run, dance, sing and live in Jesus...if only we would “Get up and walk!”

“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:31

John 5

This chapter contains a very interesting story of a miracle of healing by Jesus on a man who was paralyzed for over 38years.   He would sit by the Pool of Bethesda daily.  The belief was that sometimes angel’s stirred the water with healing power.  If you were the first one in the pool, you would be healed.  So the paralyzed sat there day after day in his own brokenness unable to move one inch in order to be healed.  On this day he hears Jesus say “Do you want to get well?”

This occurs on the Sabbath.  Because Jesus had been doing miracles and preaching differently than the Religious Leaders, they began to accuse Jesus of violations of the law.  The 5th commandment (Exodus 20:8ff) to keep the Sabbath holy had been expanded to include 39 categories of things you could not do on the Sabbath.  Telling the formerly paralyzed man to carry his mat was one violation and the Religious Leaders accuse Jesus.

Jesus defends his work and clearly indentifies himself as God’s son. He wants everyone to know that he is the promised savior and that they can find healing in him.  He asks them the same question as he asked the paralyzed man – “Do you want to get well?”

While we don’t see ourselves in the same light and culture as the people in Jesus’ day, we are being asked to consider the same question that Jesus had for them.  “Do you want to get well?”  Consider what it might mean to really answer yes to this question.  How would our lives change if this were true?

Written by Pastor Roger Visker.  Roger is the Associate Pastor at New Life Church in New Lenox, IL.