The Work God Requires

John 6: 27 - 29 (NIV): Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

    To me, this is such an important passage because it shows us what God requires of us to achieve eternal life.

    The Old Testament had spoken of living a long, good life, but this was something new and radical: the idea that a person could live forever. No one had ever made such a promise. No one had ever said we had the option of living eternally. Then Jesus came along and offered just that.

    Naturally, people wanted to know what they had to do to get in on this eternal life. This would have to be the most expensive item ever purchased. It must be so expensive that few could afford it. But it would be worth any cost to get. Nothing could ever compare to such a gift.

    The people's question was simple and legitimate: okay, what must we do to get this? What work must we do to earn a spot in eternity? Everything in our nature tells us we must earn something like this. And it must be hard to get.

     Jesus' answer was every bit as radical as the concept itself: "believe in me." He said you can't earn eternity by any works other than that one thing – believe in the one God sent. In other words, believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There is no other way to heaven. Jesus was soon to pay for eternity with his own broken body and spilled blood. Only Jesus could pay for something so expensive and that is exactly what he did. But we must believe that. We must trust in him for our salvation and not try to earn it ourselves.

    Yes, our salvation has already been paid for, but there is one thing we must do to receive it, we must believe in Jesus.  A simple concept, yet Jesus said himself that few would do so.

Feeding the Five Thousand

John 6: 5 - 13 (NIV): When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. 

    God is more interested in our availability than our abilities. He can use what we have, but we must offer it to him. The little boy sacrificed his lunch on this occasion, and Jesus took it and multiplied it to feed thousands of people.

    This story shows that God can use anyone for a mighty purpose. In this case, a child fed a mob by giving what he had. If God can use a child, he can use you and he can use me. He loves to use the least likely person for great things. You may think there is nothing you can do for the Kingdom, but this story proves that God can use you, no matter your circumstance. You simply must be willing to offer what you have.

    This story also reminds us that God is a God of more than enough. Not only was this mob fed until everyone was full, but there were twelve baskets of bread left-over. Jesus didn't just provide a taste for everyone, or a small meal, he provided all they could eat, with plenty left-over. He offers an abundant life, not just an adequate one. When we belong to Christ, we don't just exist, we truly live.

The Healing Pool

John 5: 1 - 10 (NIV): Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie--the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?" "Sir," the invalid replied, "I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me." Then Jesus said to him, "Get up! Pick up your mat and walk." At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat."

Are you kidding me? This was the religious leaders' reaction to a man being healed? He had been paralyzed for 38 years and suddenly is standing there holding his mat – that stinking mat he had been confined to for years – and their reaction was, "Hey you can't do that."

But the church is often guilty of this today. We see lawbreakers instead of people who are hurting. We see what people are doing wrong instead of rejoicing with them that God is moving in their lives. We overlook healing and see issues. Come on man!

Oh, the church needs to take a stand against sin, don't get me wrong, but let's see people the way Jesus saw them: as hurting in need of compassion. A third of Americans now say they are no longer affiliated with a church. Could it be that they went to church for healing and found condemnation instead? Could it be that they felt beat down all week and went to church only to get beat down some more? We must preach the truth, but part of that truth is compassion and grace.

This is a mysterious story. It is found only here in the Scripture. I'm not sure if anyone was ever healed when the water was stirred, but I know this man was healed when Jesus came along.

The Samaritan Woman

John 4: 7 - 14 (NIV): When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

    Jesus broke several social and cultural barriers in this event. He spoke in public to a woman, he spoke to a Samaritan, and even asked a favor of her, and he allowed himself to be alone with her. These were things that Jewish men in his day simply did not do. But he was more concerned about her than the social boundaries placed upon them.

   Like Jesus' visit with Nicodemus in John, chapter 3, Jesus used natural examples to describe spiritual events. She understood what it was like to be thirsty. It is an ever-increasing longing that takes over your thought processes. But as Jesus told her, even if you quench your thirst, you will soon find yourself thirsty again. Jesus quenches the thirst we all have for meaning, hope, purpose and fulfillment. We are all born with a God-shaped hole in our hearts and only he can fill it. Trying to fill that space in our lives with other things will leave us unfulfilled.

    I encourage you to read the rest of this story. We can see her spiritual journey. She recognized Jesus as a prophet when he told her personal things about her, and the Christ when she tasted the spiritual water he offered. She left her water jar and shared the gospel with her town. She had been discarded by at least five men and was certainly an outcast because of it, but Jesus gave her salvation and she became a soul-winner. Jesus loves us all and offers each of us right-standing with God. We simply must accept the living water he offers.