What is the new normal like for the life of a follower of Jesus?
What is the new normal like for the life of a follower of Jesus?
Still later, as the Eleven were eating supper, he appeared and took them to task most severely for their stubborn unbelief, refusing to believe those who had seen him raised up. … “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.”
Source: Mark 16:14-18
Jesus has risen from the grave. Jesus is now letting his disciples know what they can expect moving forward. The gist of it is: “Fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be a bumpy night.” The Holy Spirit is coming. That, my friends, is a big deal.
Am I thinking, if I can just touch Jesus, He will heal me?
It is a good question. Sometimes I believe yes, sometimes I don’t even think about it. I am forgetful of who Jesus is and the good news He has for me. I have faith but I need more faith.
Jesus was creating quite the stir. Multitudes were coming to him. They were hearing the message of good news. Jesus was healing them all. Every single one of them. They believed He could do it and he did.
Do you want to get well?
Do I want to get well? Jesus is in the healing business. Jesus can heal me physically and Jesus can heal my broken heart.
Jesus wants to know, do I want to get well? It is the essential question.
Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, “Do you want to get well?”
What a mother does to get Jesus moving.
Mothers, you have to love them. They want us to do something. We might as well do it. Jesus understood that.
It was a wedding. It is a special time for family and friends. They didn’t plan well. They are running out of wine and that is going to be a problem. The mother of Jesus intercedes.
The mother of Jesus steps in. She knows her son Jesus can take care of it. While He hasn’t done any public miracles yet, she has probably seen the power of God on Him. She knows this is no big deal.
What is a miracle? How does Jesus heal the sick?
There are so many amazing and supernatural acts of Jesus, revealing and confirming his Messianic credentials, and the coming of God’s kingdom. The miracles of the Messiah are to be seen as an integral part of his ministry, then and now. Jesus is so amazing! In this study, we will look at some where Jesus heals the sick.
The Greek word for miracle is δύναμις dunamis, doo´-nam-is. Think of the power of dynamite. It is stunning and amazing power, i.e. the power of the Holy Spirit from God the Father. We have this Holy Spirit in us. Now that is some good news!
Who are we looking to blame?
We’re not asking the right question. We’re looking to blame someone. We know this story from Jesus is directed at us. A judging heart looks for someone to blame. Jesus knows us.
Someone has to be at fault, we think. We know someone caused this to happen. Surely we all know that. Am I the only one who sees it?
Jesus isn’t having any of it. Jesus knows what God can and will do. Jesus does what God wants done and heals the man. Healing is the focus, not blame. Trying to find out who is at fault distracts us from God and His desire to bring healing into the situation.
Is Jesus the Messiah God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one?
Jesus is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom
Different cultures and religions have unique views of God. There is only one good news message though.
That is the message of Jesus. He is everything wrapped up in something that doesn’t make sense to our puny minds.
The message actually seems absurd to us. It doesn’t make sense to us at our human level.
God is absolute perfection and completely set apart from what we naturally know.
God is God.
Jesus came and has given us the key to enter into His presence. Jesus is everything we need.
While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming the Messiah, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—the Messiah is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tiny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can’t begin to compete with God’s “weakness.” 1 Corinthians 1:22-25
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Miracles of Jesus raising the dead!
There are a number of examples of this stunning miracle in the Bible. Notably, 3 are attributed to Jesus. This is the pinnacle of the miracles Jesus would perform under the power of the Holy Spirit as the Son of God. They culminated in the resurrection of Lazarus who had been dead for 4 days.
In John 12 we learn the effect this had on those who knew Lazarus. “The large crowd of the Jews then learned that Jesus was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. But the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death also; because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus.”
Why don’t our faithless solutions allow God to shine through?
Jesus feeds 5,000
Jesus challenges us. It had been a long day. It was beginning to get late.
His disciples came to him and said to Jesus, “Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the farms or villages around here and get a room for the night and a bite to eat. We’re out in the middle of nowhere.”
You feed them, he challenged them.
They came to him with a problem and a simple solution. They knew they couldn’t feed them because there were close to 5,000 men and there was no food. No one was prepared to be there so long with Jesus.
They also should have known that God can provide food when there is none. They had been around Jesus long enough to know this. Our faithless solutions don’t allow God to shine through.
And so … Jesus challenges us to seek God first, don’t depend on our own solutions even when we have one and let Him shine through.
God has a goal for us. It is to trust Him and not ourselves.
“You feed them,” Jesus said. (Luke 9:13)
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The Uniqueness In You
Brittney shares in John Chapter 9 about the uniqueness we have in Jesus.
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Scripture
John 9 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
The Sixth Sign: Healing a Man Born Blind
9 As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. 4 We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6 After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?” 9 Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.”
He kept saying, “I’m the one.”
10 So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So when I went and washed I received my sight.”
12 “Where is he?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The Healed Man’s Testimony
13 They brought the man who used to be blind to the Pharisees. 14 The day that Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes was a Sabbath.15 Then the Pharisees asked him again how he received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” he told them. “I washed and I can see.”
16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, because he doesn’t keep the Sabbath.” But others were saying, “How can a sinful man perform such signs?” And there was a division among them.
17 Again they asked the blind man, “What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?”
“He’s a prophet,” he said.
18 The Jews did not believe this about him—that he was blind and received sight—until they summoned the parents of the one who had received his sight.
19 They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How then does he now see?”
20 “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,” his parents answered. 21 “But we don’t know how he now sees, and we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he’s of age. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews, since the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed him as the Messiah, he would be banned from the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He’s of age; ask him.”
24 So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25 He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 “I already told you,” he said, “and you didn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”
28 They ridiculed him: “You’re that man’s disciple, but we’re Moses’s disciples. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we don’t know where he’s from.”
30 “This is an amazing thing!” the man told them. “You don’t know where he is from, and yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but if anyone is God-fearing and does his will, he listens to him. 32 Throughout history no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a person born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
34 “You were born entirely in sin,” they replied, “and are you trying to teach us?” Then they threw him out.
Spiritual Blindness
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown the man out, and when he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 “Who is he, Sir, that I may believe in him?” he asked.
37 Jesus answered, “You have seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
38 “I believe, Lord!” he said, and he worshiped him.
39 Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, in order that those who do not see will see and those who do see will become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these things and asked him, “We aren’t blind too, are we?”
41 “If you were blind,” Jesus told them, “you wouldn’t have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.
Christian Standard Bible (CSB) The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.
You don’t expect to bury your children.
Grief and Horror
She is 12 years old. She got sick. She died.
Everyone is beside themselves in grief and horror. You don’t expect to bury your children. It’s just not right. What kind of God allows that to happen?
Jesus arrives on the scene at the request of the father. The father believed in Jesus.
When he goes in to the room where her dead body is lying, Jesus says very little other than “Little girl, get up”. At that, she was up and walking around! They were all beside themselves with joy. Amazed. Stunned. Ecstatic.
This is stunning.
This is the power of God in Jesus.
We have the same Holy Spirit in us.
May I live my life knowing of this stunning power.
“Little girl, get up.” ~Jesus to a dead 12 year old girl (Mark 5:40-43 The Message Bible)
Another time Lazarus passed away. Jesus knew what was going to happen. He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
Yet Jesus shared the grief of those who were morning. What did Jesus do?
Jesus wept. Jesus was deeply moved by the emotions of those who were grieving.
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How do the miracles of Jesus reveal and confirm his Messianic credentials and the coming of God’s Kingdom?
There are so many stunning, amazing and supernatural acts of Jesus. They reveal and confirm his Messianic credentials. They announce the coming of God’s kingdom. The miracles of the Messiah are to be seen as an integral part of his ministry and are signs that point to the power of God.
We tend to think of the dramatic miracles where Jesus heals the sick. Jesus also casts out demons with evil obeying Him. Most amazing of all, Jesus raises the dead. Jesus also had authority of nature and natural forces. Jesus establishes that “nothing is impossible with God”.
John tells us that “many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
The Greek word for miracle is δύναμις dunamis, doo´-nam-is. Think of the power of dynamite. It is stunning and amazing power, i.e. the power of the Holy Spirit from God the Father. It is the power that raised Jesus from the dead, never to die again.
What does faith require of us?
Summer intern Kyle Waugh shares his devotional in John Chapter 5.
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Heroes Semester is a 10-week residential, “family style” living experience like no other! | — Sept 2 – Nov 9, 2019 | Participants ages 18-26 come with one purpose – to go deeper with the Lord. ow.ly/Nhag30oRYRK
Strengthening & Restoring Family Relationships — Train to Reign Program — Oct 20 – Nov 2 | Family is the most vital relationship and the one under the most pressure and attack. Come strengthen your family in a strong relationship with God. http://ow.ly/l5SU30oS5pQ