For This Reason
Imagine that you were known for doing things only to be a help to people. You are not looking for accolades or acknowledgments of any kind. Your entire motivation is to serve others willingly.
In chapter 2 of “What if this was you”; we saw that JESUS healed a man who was among a multitude of sick people that had an infirmity of thirty-eight years. We have no idea why JESUS healed this man and none of the others that were there that miraculous day. We can only surmise that he was constantly asking the FATHER to heal and help him. And that the FATHER directed JESUS to go to him. In this same chapter, I wrote how the Pharisees were more concerned with people obeying the ritual Laws of Moses rather than being merciful.
When the Pharisees found out the identity of who told the onetime infirmed man and who is now healed to “Take up/Get up your bed and walk” they were ironhearted. Taking no notice of the man being healed but rather magnifying the fact that the man was carrying his bed around. Seems rather ridiculous but nothing much has changed in these present days. People are still proned to magnify the things that do not matter more than those things that matter most.
The Pharisees were hot with hatred for JESUS and it is for this reason that they persecuted HIM. I want us to have a firm hold of what it is that the Pharisees wanted to do to JESUS and how today this spirit is still causing damage from person to person. *Being persecuted means to pursue the cause to injure, afflict with pain that is birthed out of hatred and malignity; to harass with unjust punishment or penalties for supposed offenses. To destroy.
The Pharisees wanted to murder JESUS because JESUS had healed the onetime infirmed man of three decades and eight years on the seventh day of the week. To be legalistic according to the Jewish calendar the seventh/sabbath day of the week is on Saturday. However, this is my freedom regarding the seventh/sabbath day of the week. I will remain busy or working for six days as the LORD commands, we all should. But if we are employed and it is required that we be present and be compensated on Saturday or Sunday for that which we have been hired to do, that is what we must do. We must then purpose in our hearts to take advantage of either one of the two days or just the one day that we are released from where we are employed. During this one day, we are to rest. Resting for us may come in various ways, sleeping longer/napping, visiting family and friends, viewing a movie or play, attending a sporting event, and such. The seventh/sabbath is also the day that we must go and fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith of CHRIST JESUS in our local assembly [wherever that may be for you if in-person attendance is now available to you rather than streaming from home]. Some people rest on Saturdays and others on Sundays, but for those who must go to their place of employment on those days their seventh/sabbath is on a weekday and hopefully, they can attend a worship service during the weekday instead of the weekend.
We all must obey to that which the LORD GOD commands us but without legality attached to doing so. We must always be motivated by grace and mercy in everything that we do.
I tell you these Pharisees are a trip. Some may know and others will find out through this article that the Word of GOD tells that the Born-Again CHRISTian is Abraham’s seed because he is the father of faith. But some may find out through DNA matching as we now can do to also say that they are of Abraham’s lineage. Well, that may be true as it was with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were descendants of Abraham but unlike Abraham who believed and lived by and in faith, so he became a son of the FATHER. The Pharisees were sons of satan because the Word of GOD was nowhere within them and because the Word had no place within them, they put forth to put a stop to and to murder JESUS.
I will step away for a brief moment in the hopes of making clear something that most southerners have been saying in the hearing of people for centuries. I heard it recently and was astounded that it came out of the mouth of a CHRISTian. When it thunderstorms it is said that we are to be still [quiet] because GOD is working. Thank YOU, FATHER, through the Word of GOD for JESUS and HIS Holy Spirit who is our Teacher. When I was in my twenties I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me about what I was taught as a child but never imposed this onto my children. I heard the Holy Spirit say “if GOD is only speaking during thunderstorms, what is HE doing when it is not thunder storming? GOD has always and is always at work”. And then by the HolySpirits’ guidance, I opened my Bible and this verse jumped right off the page into my heart. “MY FATHER has never ceased working HE is still working; MY FATHER has never stopped working; MY FATHER never stops working”.
The Pharisees were infused with such hatred that they were consumed with only one thought among themselves and that is to murder JESUS. Now they had another reason to murder JESUS; JESUS dared to say that GOD is HIS FATHER which makes HIM equal with GOD. What if we recognized that GOD is our FATHER as well, how will this reshape our thoughts, what we listen to, what we look at, what we speak into the atmosphere as well as into the lives of others, where we go, and our attitudes towards ourselves and others?
Can any of you remember when you used to mock your parents or if you are a parent do you recall when your child mimicked you? Mothers, maybe your daughter wanted to play dress-up and be like you or fathers, maybe your son wanted to work around the house as you do or dress up as if he too is going to work. Our children are watching us closely and from generation through generation children have mimicked what they see their parents doing and speaking. JESUS is no different where do you think we got that instinct from? It does not matter if we are Born-Again or not it is in our DNA to mimic our parents.
JESUS is our Mediator and Peacemaker in other words HE has all authority because HE has Power of Attorney from HIS FATHER. JESUS is GOD dressed in the flesh. GOD is invisible and we humans must have that which is tangible for us to understand. It is difficult to believe in that which we cannot see, smell, touch, taste, and hear. We are proned in the flesh to accept that which our five senses can acknowledge. This is why GOD put on flesh and came to earth to be among us. But because it is difficult for most people to accept that JESUS is GOD but rather, HE is a mere human. What a drastic mistake to believe this. This is why the Pharisees could not accept what JESUS told them, that HE is the SON of GOD the FATHER and that HE can only do what HE sees HIS FATHER doing. And it is true with every human that has not been Born-Again, we can do nothing on our own. We are always orchestrated by another force and for those without a repentant heart, they are orchestrated by their father satan and for those of us who do have a repentant heart, we are orchestrated by our FATHER, GOD through CHRIST JESUS. As JESUS is so we.
The FATHER LOVES HIS SON, and HIS sons [believers in CHRIST JESUS] so as HE showed JESUS all things that HE does, so be it the same with HIS children. The Pharisees’ was shown nothing because they did not belong to the FATHER. They could not understand what JESUS was saying to them. JESUS did the greatest work that will never be duplicated with the same effect. That work was that JESUS laid down HIS life on the cross for the world. JESUS was not placed on the cross as were those who were crucified alongside HIM.
And just as the FATHER raises the dead so does JESUS and we too as well if we operate in wisdom and faith from the Holy Spirit. We must ask and then follow HIS directions. Some people have tried to raise the dead either on their own or asked in or out of faith but did not wait to be guided in what to do by the Holy Spirit. We are to remember that JESUS gives life to whom HE desires to give life.
In closing, CHRISTians must stop going along with what the world believes and will say regarding judging. GOD does not judge anyone. The FATHER has given that responsibility to JESUS. There is a day that no human knows which has been scheduled for the world to be judged.
John 5:16-22 /Ref: Scriptures: Jhn 8:37, 10:39, 9:4, 7:1, 10:30, 5:30, 6:38, 8:28, Matt. 3:17, 11:27, Acts 17:31 NKJV, AMPC, CEV, CJV, ICB
*Webster Dictionary
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