FBCWest

FBCWest 337 | Jesus Heals and Forgives Sins

After having sowed His power and authority over nature by Simon’s great catch of fish, Jesus now shows not only His authority over the Scriptures as He teaches and preaches, He shows His power and authority over other matters. He casts out a demon from a man in the synagogue. Jesus has both the power and authority to do so and the people attending the synagogue that day are amazed by it and recognize that Jesus does have such power and authority. After the service Jesus goes to Simon’s house, where Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever. Jesus touches her, rebukes that fever and she is made well. Immediately thereafter she goes to work helping to serve those there. That evening is filled with Jesus healing and casting out demons of may who are brought to Him. But the next day Jesus goes into seclusion. If Jesus found that necessary, maybe we should too. However, people continue to search for Him until they find Him and want him to remain with them. Instead Jesus tells them He must continue to teach and preach elsewhere.

After having sowed His power and authority over nature by Simon’s great catch of fish, Jesus now shows not only His authority over the Scriptures as He teaches and preaches, He shows His power and authority over other matters. He casts out a demon from a man in the synagogue. Jesus has both the power and authority to do so and the people attending the synagogue that day are amazed by it and recognize that Jesus does have such power and authority. After the service Jesus goes to Simon’s house, where Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever. Jesus touches her, rebukes that fever and she is made well. Immediately thereafter she goes to work helping to serve those there. That evening is filled with Jesus healing and casting out demons of may who are brought to Him. But the next day Jesus goes into seclusion. If Jesus found that necessary, maybe we should too. However, people continue to search for Him until they find Him and want him to remain with them. Instead Jesus tells them He must continue to teach and preach elsewhere.

Find out more: https://fbcwest.net/Service/583664cd-fb80-4a66-8903-11bd64300e35/Miraculous-Healings-by-Jesus

Jesus after preaching to the people in Simon Peter’s boat. Tells Simon to go out a little and cast his net. Simon and his partners had worked all night without catching anything. Simon informs Jesus of this, but tells Jesus he will do so anyway. I do not think Simon did so in faith, but out of respect for Jesus. As a result of him doing as Jesus said, they caught more fish than two boats could hold. Simon could have responded by saying that if Jesus continued to tell him where to catch fish, they could become wealthy. Instead, Simon understands that Jesus was different than ordinary men and that in comparison Simon was a sinful man and that Jesus should depart from him. Instead of agreeing with Simon, Jesus tells Simon that He is calling him to no longer be a catcher of fish, but of people. Simon and his partners, Andrew, James and John leave everything and begin to follow Jesus.

1 Corinthians 1 beginning at verse 26 tells us we are to consider, think about, our calling. We are called not because we are worthy of the calling or even qualified, but that God calls us so that He will be glorified. Just as Simon and his partners left everything to follow Jesus, we too are called and should forsake everything and follow Him.

Jesus leaves Judea due to the arrest of John the Baptist. He begins His Galilean Ministry by relocating to Capernaum and traveling through Galilee preaching, teaching and doing signs and wonders. Early in that ministry He returns to His home town of Nazareth. There, as is His custom, attends synagogue on the Sabbath. He reads the prophet, Isaiah Chapter 61 and declares that they are witnesses to the realization of that prophesy. Initially, they are impressed at His words. However, He knows their hearts and tells them that God sent Elijah to a gentile widow, even though there were many widows in Israel and that Elisha healed a gentile of leprosy, even though there were many lepers in Israel. In essence He told them they, like Israel when it was hard hearted and did not seek the Lord, will miss the blessings of God. Instead of repenting, the entire synagogue became enraged to the point they move Jesus to the brow of the hill the town was built on to throw Him off. Because it was not Jesus’ time nor how He was to die, He simply walked away. When Jesus tells us difficult things, instead of becoming enraged or indifferent, we should repent and seek to be closer to Him, rather than having Him walk away.

https://fbcwest.net/Service/32ffd624-80a3-40ee-be08-a78a6e1e0374/Beginning-of-Galilean-Ministry

333 FBCWest | The Resurrevtion and the Life by First Baptist Church of Westminster, California

Jesus returns to Jerusalem for a holy day feast and heals a man who had been disabled for 38 years on the Sabbath. He is accused by the religious authority of breaking the Sabbath by healing the man. Jesus’ response is that God the Father works on the Sabbath and He does what He see His Father doing. This enrages them even more in that He is making himself equal with God. Jesus again rebukes them for their unbelief. He says there are witnesses of who He is. The witnesses are John the Baptizer, The Father, the works that Jesus does themselves, and the Scriptures. He plainly tells them they search the scriptures for eternal life, but it is the scriptures themselves that testify that it is Jesus who gives eternal life. He even more directly rebukes them by saying that it is not Him that will accuse them, but Moses himself. Moses, the one they honor and revere is the one who also points to Jesus as the Son of God.

A desperate father, because his son is dying, goes to Jesus, in faith, believing Jesus can heal him if He goes to his son. Jesus’ initial response is that people only want to see signs and wonders. The father stays persistent and implores Jesus to go to his son anyway. Jesus then answers him and say the child is healed. The father now has a choice: one to continue to implore Jesus to do it the way he asked, or the second to respond in faith and go back to his son. The father believes Jesus and returns home. Before he gets home he learns the child was healed at the same time Jesus spoke. As a result the whole household believes. In our prayer life we frequently ask the Lord to do something the way we think it should be done. What if we simply believed and allowed Him to answer His way?

330 FBCWest | A Conversation with a Samaritan Woman

329 FBCWest by First Baptist Church of Westminster, California

The miracle at the wedding at Cana speaks more of who Jesus is than just His first miracle. Jesus turns water into wine. Jesus does not transform water, He changes its elements to wine. Jesus’ power is not just that he moves one form to another. He does not transform water into ice or steam, but transmutes the elements from water into another substance. He is not limited to the elements at hand, but can change the substance of the element. Further, He is not limited in time, but transcends time. Wine requires fermentation time. The fermentation of wine requires at least two stages of fermentation. The first stage takes 5 to 10 days and the second 5 to 14 days. So the minimum time is 10 to 24 days, but Jesus turns water into wine instantly. This means He can operate outside time parameters. He also made “good” wine, not just wine. The term “good“ should cause us to remember creation when God said what He created was good. John at the start of his gospel stated that Jesus was/is God and was creator. The first miracle makes plain that Jesus as creator can make instantly, what requires time. The earth and the universe may appear to be of a certain age, but the Creator can make the creation instantly, though it appears very, very old.