Go, Your son shall live (John 4:43-54)

Jesus spends two days in Sychar, a Samaritan town where Jesus was welcomed and many came to faith by simply listening to Him.  From there, He continues on to His destination of Galilee, back to the town of Cana, where He performed His first miracle.  This is where we're introduced to Herod's official from Capernaum who has a son on his death bed.

In desperation he seeks out Jesus to come back to Capernaum with him to heal his son.  We see that as Jesus arrives at Cana, He is not received with honor, yet the text tells us He is 'welcomed'.  This would be the equivalent of a modern-day rock-star coming home.  While all appearances are that everyone loves Him, the reality of the situation is that they are using Him for His popularity, His miracles, or some other selfish reason.  We will see this later on as Jesus doesn't become what the people want, and they turn on Him.  We also see from chapter 2 "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name ewhen they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus fon his part did not entrust himself to them, because ghe knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for ghe himself knew what was in man.

When we see the desperation of the official, Jesus has some harsh words for not just him, but for all those in Galilee.  He uses the plural form of 'you' when saying "You will not believe unless signs and miracles are given."  This is in sharp contrast to Samaria.  Jesus, in His graciousness and mercy, tells the official that his son will live.  The next day as the official arrives back home, he is told his son's fever had broke.  When asked, they confirmed that his fever broke the same time that Jesus said that he would live.  This miracle allowed the official to believe in Jesus as the savior and we read that his entire family came to faith as well.

This scripture allows us the opportunity to review how we approach our Savior.  Do we come to Him with selfish reasons? or do we revere Him?  Often we can fall into one of the two ditches, namely if we have reverence only, God is isn't One we can relate and approach easily.  If we are too far in the other direction (Jesus is my home-boy), we make Christ just like us (which He is not).  There needs to be a line drawn and followed.  Question is: How do you approach Jesus?

The Will of God (John 4:27-42)

This week's scripture was from John 4:27-42.  This section of text (along with every other section of the Gospel of John) is absolutely full of lessons and truths that could easily overwhelm you.  It starts off with the sovereignty of God through His timing with everything.  He meets the woman at the well, He has a good conversation with her, and then declares Himself to be Messiah just as His disciples return from getting lunch in Sychar.  This of course would have been quite the wake-up call for His disciples as Jews and Samaritans don't have anything to do with one another.  On top of this, she was a woman.  Rabbi's don't talk to women, especially Samaritan ones.  To make matters worse, she was about as popular as a prostitute by the social norms of the day.  Yet, there was Jesus, sharing the gospel message with her, and His disciples were able to hear the exchange.
Her next move was to take off into town to share with everyone her testimony (a good indication that she was saved), and even encouraged people to check out this Guy by the well that might be the Messiah.  And they do.
Meanwhile, back at the well, His disciples are trying to get Him to eat something, but He declares He's not hungry, for He has food that they are not aware of.  They don't get it.  This would be the fourth time in this gospel that Jesus speaks on a spiritual level while those that He's speaking to are thinking on a physical level.  Jesus says that His food is to do the will of him who sent Him (v. 34).  His mission from God was to give eternal life, to save His people (v. 36).  How this relates to us is that we too are fed spiritually by doing God's will.  This can be summed up in three verses.  First, get saved (1 Tim. 2:3-4).  Second, be wise and full of the Spirit (Eph. 5:17-18).  Finally, be sanctified (1 Thess. 4:3).  We get ourselves into all kinds of trouble when we try to figure out God's private will.  To quote R.C. Sproul: Many Christians become preoccupied or even obsessed with finding the "will" of God for their lives. If the will we are seeking is His secret, hidden, or decretive will, then our quest is a fool's errand. The secret counsel of God is His secret. He has not been pleased to make it known to us. Far from being a mark of spirituality,the quest for God's secret will is an unwarranted invasion of God's privacy. God's secret counsel is none of our business. This is partly why the Bible takes such a negative view of fortune-telling, necromancy, and other forms of prohibited practices.

We would be wise to follow the counsel of John Calvin when he said, "When God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry." The true mark of spirituality is seen in those seeking to know the will of God that is revealed in His preceptive will. It is the godly person who meditates on God's law day and night. While we seek to be "led" by the Holy Spirit, it is vital to remember that the Holy Spirit is primarily leading us into righteousness. We are called to live our lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. It is His revealed will that is our business, indeed, the chief business of our lives.

Jesus then talks about missions, pointing to the harvest, namely, the Samaritans that were on their way to see Him.  Missions will and should be a celebration by those that sow and reap.  The sower in today's evangelism is largely ignored as most of the accolades goes to the "reapers" in the loaded question "How many people have you lead to Christ?"  Both sower and reaper will rejoice in the harvest.

Many Samaritans believed in Jesus during that two day visit, and understood the truth that He is the Savior of the world.

Thanks be to God.

The Essence of Masculinity Is Taking Responsibility

Our marriage course begins tomorrow night, and we're very excited.  Our course is full, but if any others would like to join us, I'm sure we'd find you the room.  Here's a clip from session #3.