Sermon nugget Mon March 24
Theme- Easter Benefits
Verses-John 5:16-21 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working."
18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Easter benefits us with Power.
Yesterday at our Easter services, I reflected on Easter being an Historical Event, An Annual Event, A Weekly Event, and A Personal Event.
Although this passage doesn’t deal directly with Easter it does point to the event in vs. 21 “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.”
During our nugget devotions last week we discussed how Jesus healed this man who was an invalid sitting near the pool bemoaning the fact he could never be healed because no one is available to get him into the pool when their believed an angel stirred the water. First one in gets healed.
The gist of the story is, -does the man really want to get healed? Or does he have excuses, blaming life and others for his hard life? There is nothing really he can do until he is confronted with Jesus. Faith is believing in Christ resulted in obeying him. The man was healed by the power of the divine.
The Father does not stop working because it was the Sabbath. He is always working. The Sabbath was set aside to remember His work. Jesus is only doing what the Father tells him to do and it is our understanding that the Father told him to heal this man. Jesus was also obedient.
Our worship on the Lord’s day (weekly event) points to the work completed by Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Far greater than walking for the first time in 38 years, is walking, dancing, praising in the presence of the Lord forever.
Easter reminds us of “even greater things that these.” It reminds us that Jesus confronted us one time and in a way asked us that question, "Do you want to be healed? -Healed of sin, of death, of the mandane life this world offers. Or are you comfortable where you are? Trusting Him to heal us produces a new life never imagined.
Pastor Dale
