I am continually convinced that the physical world gives volcanic explosions of examples of deep spiritual truths. It’s as if God kindly condescends to us to make sure that all possible ways for us to grasp truth is presented and covered. We were made for God, and not God for us. The emptiness and longing of your heart can only be satisfied by God-nothing else, and no one else will ever even come close. Anything else, and anyone else used as a substitute is idolatry.
Jesus uses the most basic and critical necessities of life to effectively illustrate eternal and everlasting truth. Jesus performs miracles involving thirst and hunger, the most basic of human needs to illustrate spiritual absolutes.
The feeding of the 5,000 was a miracle to satisfy the physical hunger of so many people. Most likely there were about 20,000 people there.
As magnanimous as the miracle is, it’s Jesus’ own commentary on His miracle that I want to look at. In John 6:26-29 the emphasis is the positive statement of verse 27, "Labor for the food which endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give you." When the people seek Jesus out the next day after the miracle, He accuses them in verse 26 of not coming because they had seen signs but because He filled their bellies. They had no spiritual sensitivity that Jesus' miracle pointed beyond itself to the spiritual nourishment people needed and which Jesus came to give.
-Hudson Taylor wrote: “I saw Him, and I sought Him, and I had Him, and I wanted Him.”
-A.W. Tozer wrote that “the great people of the Bible and Christian history have had an insatiable hunger for God. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with so many of us He waits so very long in vain.”
-David describes his own passion for God: “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple” (Psalm 27:4).
-The psalmist in Psalm 42 writes, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
What do you want? What do you long for? What occupies the thoughts of your mind and the desires of your heart? Is it temporal things or eternal things? There are 2 elements involved in falling in love—your wanting and the other person’s wanting you back. God wants to be wanted.
Look at the commentary that Jesus offers and the dialogue that takes place. Jesus said in verse 6:27, "Don't labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life." The crowd completely misunderstands and misses it in verse 28, "'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" In the miracle no one could buy the food. No one could earn the food. No one could provide the food. No one worked for the food. Jesus answers in verse 29 that all the works you can do for eternal bread that will endure and satisfy is no work at all: "Believe in him whom God has sent." Come to me, trust me, and feed on me. Draw life from me as you would draw precious water from the provisions of a well in a desert place. Satisfy yourself with his hope-filled fellowship. Lay aside pettiness for the pristine beauty of Christ. Set aside your personal agenda in order to actively and passionately pursue Jesus.
The meaning is similar to Matthew 6:19, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal." Anything temporal that the heart can treasure is food that perishes. If the treasure is not Christ it will perish. It will not satisfy your hunger and thirst today, and it will be worthless at death and useless on the judgment day.
The people seeking Jesus were "laboring for food that perishes" and He commanded them not to do it. You can be a very religious person, but not be born again. What is missing is a spiritual feeding on Christ, and a childlike submission to his Word. Where you dine will be reflected in your attitude, your actions, your words, your calendar, your checkbook, your priorities, your passions, your demeanor, your possessions, etc. In other words, how you feast and what you feed upon will eventually be manifested.
David Jeremiah said, “Each of us have as much of God as we want….It should bother us to realize that we have pursued God exactly to the point that satisfied us, and then we stopped, made camp and relaxed.” Don’t even begin to think that we can get away with saying, “I want more of God, but I have not been able to go any further with Him.” There is always more of God, and there is always more within reach. He would not promise so many promises intimate fellowship if it were not possible, and desirable, and necessary for all of His children. God will honor whatever intensity you bring to the relationship. He will feed and provide and satisfy.
Sherwood Elliot Wirt wrote: “The problem with this whole hunger issue with Christians is that often we think spiritual hunger works the same way physical hunger works. When you are physically hungry, the longer you go without eating, the hungrier you get. When you finally do eat, fill yourself up, your hunger is satisfied. In the spiritual realm, it’s exactly the opposite of that. In the spiritual realm, the longer you go without eating, the more your appetite wanes. If you don’t eat, you can go for long periods of time and you aren’t even hungry.”
The opposite is true. Spiritually, the more you eat of God’s Word, the more you are filled with “thus saith the Lord,” the more you want, the more you crave, the more you desire, and your spiritual appetite intensifies. You won’t say like after a Thanksgiving meal, “Oh, I ate too much. I’m stuffed. Why did you let me eat that much? No! No! No! A thousand times no! You will want more!
From the pen of A.W. Tozer, “Why do some persons ‘find’ God in a way that others do not? Why does God manifest His presence to some and let multitudes of others struggle along in the half-light of imperfect Christian experience? Of course the will of God is the same for all. He has no favorites within His household. All He has ever done for any of His children He will do for all of Hs children. The differences lie not with God but with us. Pick at random a score of great saints whose lives and testimonies are widely known. Let them be Bible characters or well known Christians of post-Biblical times. You will be struck instantly with the fact that the saints were not alike. Sometimes the unlikenesses were so great as to be positively glaring. The differences are as wide as human life itself: differences of race, nationality, education, temperament, habit and personal qualities. Yet, they all walked, each in his day, upon a high road of spiritual living far above the common way. Their differences must have been incidental and in the eyes of God of no significance. In some vital quality they must have been alike. What was it? I venture to suggest that the one vital quality which they had in common was spiritual receptivity. Something in them was open to heaven, something which urged them Godward. Without attempting anything like a profound analysis I shall say simply that they had spiritual awareness and that they went on to cultivate it until it became the biggest thing in their lives. They differed from the average person in that when they felt the inward longing they did something about it….As David put it neatly, “When thou sadist, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”
Labor by rising early for prayer and meditation, and holding Christ near to your heart all day. Jesus calls us to be aliens and exiles in the world. Not by taking us out of the world, but by changing how we view the world and do our work in it. Meditate on this command: "Do not labor for the food which perishes."
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign- A True Healing and Hinn Can’t Touch That
"These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me."
John 5
The Lame, Liars, and the Lord
Background- John 5:1-3
Most likely this pool of water was just north of the temple area. It was divided into two sections- men and women. It would have been surrounded on all four sides and divided in the middle. It was probably spring fed, which would account for the stirring or moving of the water. It was also thought to be reddish in color because of the mineral deposits in it. It is also believed to be on the route that the sheep destined for sacrifice at the Temple would have been led. The pool of water was probably referred to as ‘Sheep’ in the Greek and the Aramaic or Hebrew term was Bethesda, which means the ‘House of mercy’. You can understand why either term would seem appropriate. It was believed that such pools of water with springs had some sort of healing power. This was a hospital of sorts, and Jesus goes to the hospital—He doesn’t wait for the hospital to come to Him and then demand payment. And so, it is understandable why the blind (those who cannot see), the lame (those who walk through life haltingly), and the paralyzed (those who simply cannot move) are there. It is interesting how the physical mimics the spiritual.
The Lame (5:3-9
The man has been in this physical condition longer than most people of his time lived. For 38 years he had been coming to this pool, the same amount of time as the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel in Deut 2:14. Notice the details of verse 6; the recognition of the fact that the man had been wandering to the water’s edge a long time. We also find the sensitivity of Jesus in seeing the man and seeking to engage the man’s will ("Do you WANT…?") and to awaken the invalid’s sense of hope with a question.
Here is a valuable little insight into human nature from the question of verse 6. Do not think that people with needs, no matter how acute or severe, automatically want help. A sense of need is never solely sufficient as the sole impetus in seeking help. Sometimes need coupled with frustration can quickly lead to futility as a settled way of life. In other words, some people simply do NOT really want the help. Need, in whatever form it is found, is at times the excuse for one to use to escape responsibility of life, or to draw attention which they may think they would otherwise miss. It is not automatic or axiomatic that the hurting want to be healed.
Here is quite another sometime sad observation into human nature from the response of verse 7. No one was there to help him. He might have been bereft of friends. And, no one who may have received a cure in this fashion then proceeded to turn around and help someone else. The right response from help should be thankfulness, and the right reaction to thankfulness should be help.
The pool of water may have had some limited potency, but Jesus as the living water had unlimited power. (John 4:13-14, 7:37-38) What does Jesus do to bring healing? He speaks! The focus is not on healing, or the gift of healing, but on the healer-Jesus.
The Liars (5:10-13)
Liars were the religious leaders who should have led the sheep in the right direction, but were instead leading them to the road of destruction. Notice the questions and statements going on in the dialogue here. There is absolutely no acknowledgment of the fact of the healing, but instead there is an accusation regarding the breaking of a tradition and law. The Sabbath meant an absence of activity and an abstinence from work.
The poor guy who is healed in caught in the crossfire. He is not prepared to argue with the theologians over religious rules and regulations, which were less about Scripture and more about a man-made system that they developed. He should have been jumping for joy, but instead he is jumpy because of an intimidating judgment (5:10). The man does what most people would do in this situation-he denies and blames.
Lord of the Sabbath (5:14-18)
Whether this man being an invalid for 38 years was due to sin is not really the issue here. As bad as it is to lie on mat most of your life with a physical deformity it is much worse to be spiritually deformed. God does not judge sickness, but He does judge sin. Jesus is more concerned over the man being crippled on the inside than the outside. The man will once again suffer something.
Jesus seeks the man out and reminds him of the importance of the physical healing, but the physical was meant to point to the eternal.
Notice the extent of the hatred that they had toward Jesus and the reason why (5:16). This was not a one time deal with Jesus. He apparently repeatedly did this type thing on the Sabbath. He hit them right in the gut of their pride and weakness. How could an unknown and untrained and unaccredited rebel be allowed to freely do what He was doing and to free people from the restrains of the law? Where would it end? What was next?
You must get this next point. Jesus’ statement in verse 17 and His actions clearly means that He is equating himself with God. They got it. And for that they wanted to kill Him. Jesus turned the tables on them and insisted that He was simply doing the very things that God did on the Sabbath. God’s creating the world may have stopped on the 7’TH day, but his creative activity did not stop. The works of divine providence continue on the Sabbath (rain, sun, births, death, the acting out of the laws of nature). He continues to act in an unabated fashion without exception. He does not need to rest because He is not weary. Jesus links His own labor as continuous and coordinate with those of God the Father. He identified with the One who made the Sabbath, and made the laws, and made the world, and who never rests, and who never grows tired or weary, and who is beyond the reach of the established laws and tradition.
They sensed and knew immediately what Jesus was saying. He made implicit in His argument that He was equal with God. And, you cannot be equal with God unless you are God. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and the great Physician. Our response must be worship and honor. It is not Jesus and healing. It is Jesus the healer. Nothing is out of His reach or purview. All authority is His. "These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
John 5
The Lame, Liars, and the Lord
Background- John 5:1-3
Most likely this pool of water was just north of the temple area. It was divided into two sections- men and women. It would have been surrounded on all four sides and divided in the middle. It was probably spring fed, which would account for the stirring or moving of the water. It was also thought to be reddish in color because of the mineral deposits in it. It is also believed to be on the route that the sheep destined for sacrifice at the Temple would have been led. The pool of water was probably referred to as ‘Sheep’ in the Greek and the Aramaic or Hebrew term was Bethesda, which means the ‘House of mercy’. You can understand why either term would seem appropriate. It was believed that such pools of water with springs had some sort of healing power. This was a hospital of sorts, and Jesus goes to the hospital—He doesn’t wait for the hospital to come to Him and then demand payment. And so, it is understandable why the blind (those who cannot see), the lame (those who walk through life haltingly), and the paralyzed (those who simply cannot move) are there. It is interesting how the physical mimics the spiritual.
The Lame (5:3-9
The man has been in this physical condition longer than most people of his time lived. For 38 years he had been coming to this pool, the same amount of time as the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel in Deut 2:14. Notice the details of verse 6; the recognition of the fact that the man had been wandering to the water’s edge a long time. We also find the sensitivity of Jesus in seeing the man and seeking to engage the man’s will ("Do you WANT…?") and to awaken the invalid’s sense of hope with a question.
Here is a valuable little insight into human nature from the question of verse 6. Do not think that people with needs, no matter how acute or severe, automatically want help. A sense of need is never solely sufficient as the sole impetus in seeking help. Sometimes need coupled with frustration can quickly lead to futility as a settled way of life. In other words, some people simply do NOT really want the help. Need, in whatever form it is found, is at times the excuse for one to use to escape responsibility of life, or to draw attention which they may think they would otherwise miss. It is not automatic or axiomatic that the hurting want to be healed.
Here is quite another sometime sad observation into human nature from the response of verse 7. No one was there to help him. He might have been bereft of friends. And, no one who may have received a cure in this fashion then proceeded to turn around and help someone else. The right response from help should be thankfulness, and the right reaction to thankfulness should be help.
The pool of water may have had some limited potency, but Jesus as the living water had unlimited power. (John 4:13-14, 7:37-38) What does Jesus do to bring healing? He speaks! The focus is not on healing, or the gift of healing, but on the healer-Jesus.
The Liars (5:10-13)
Liars were the religious leaders who should have led the sheep in the right direction, but were instead leading them to the road of destruction. Notice the questions and statements going on in the dialogue here. There is absolutely no acknowledgment of the fact of the healing, but instead there is an accusation regarding the breaking of a tradition and law. The Sabbath meant an absence of activity and an abstinence from work.
The poor guy who is healed in caught in the crossfire. He is not prepared to argue with the theologians over religious rules and regulations, which were less about Scripture and more about a man-made system that they developed. He should have been jumping for joy, but instead he is jumpy because of an intimidating judgment (5:10). The man does what most people would do in this situation-he denies and blames.
Lord of the Sabbath (5:14-18)
Whether this man being an invalid for 38 years was due to sin is not really the issue here. As bad as it is to lie on mat most of your life with a physical deformity it is much worse to be spiritually deformed. God does not judge sickness, but He does judge sin. Jesus is more concerned over the man being crippled on the inside than the outside. The man will once again suffer something.
Jesus seeks the man out and reminds him of the importance of the physical healing, but the physical was meant to point to the eternal.
Notice the extent of the hatred that they had toward Jesus and the reason why (5:16). This was not a one time deal with Jesus. He apparently repeatedly did this type thing on the Sabbath. He hit them right in the gut of their pride and weakness. How could an unknown and untrained and unaccredited rebel be allowed to freely do what He was doing and to free people from the restrains of the law? Where would it end? What was next?
You must get this next point. Jesus’ statement in verse 17 and His actions clearly means that He is equating himself with God. They got it. And for that they wanted to kill Him. Jesus turned the tables on them and insisted that He was simply doing the very things that God did on the Sabbath. God’s creating the world may have stopped on the 7’TH day, but his creative activity did not stop. The works of divine providence continue on the Sabbath (rain, sun, births, death, the acting out of the laws of nature). He continues to act in an unabated fashion without exception. He does not need to rest because He is not weary. Jesus links His own labor as continuous and coordinate with those of God the Father. He identified with the One who made the Sabbath, and made the laws, and made the world, and who never rests, and who never grows tired or weary, and who is beyond the reach of the established laws and tradition.
They sensed and knew immediately what Jesus was saying. He made implicit in His argument that He was equal with God. And, you cannot be equal with God unless you are God. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath and the great Physician. Our response must be worship and honor. It is not Jesus and healing. It is Jesus the healer. Nothing is out of His reach or purview. All authority is His. "These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
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