God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat d...

I made a very specific note about something that was mentioned in this section in yesterdays devotion. I noted that it was highlighted how Jesus went up on top of a mountain and that the time was drawing to the Passover. We would do well to remember that Scripture does not simply add filler. It is not trying to "set the stage" or anything of the sort. There is intention to the mention of these thi...

The whole of chapter 6 brings us into a strong discourse concerning the evidence of Jesus being the Messiah. The section we are currently covering highlights a means in which Jesus is greater than Moses. The section begins with Jesus, traveling over the sea of Galilee. There, a multitude begins to follow him because they had seen the miracles He had done. The passage stresses two things. It stress...

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased.  3 And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.4 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. 5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward H...

If you answered honestly that you are not fully convinced then I encourage you to pray that the Lord would reveal Himself to you. Pray for strength to put your full trust in the Lord and that your faith would grow. If you answered that you were fully convinced, ask the Lord to strengthen that faith that it would endure as well. Pray also for the family of faith that we would all be strengthened to...

8Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!-Psalm 34:8We are invited to participate with the Lord in belief. One of the things that astounds me is that Jesus promises results in this life for our belief. We can actually test the theory of faith and see what it produces! No, I am not talking about prosperity and all that. What I am talking about is transformation....

There is a very strong call to action found in this passage, but you have to look for it a little bit.24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.-John 5:24In the center of Jesus' discourse, we have a clear instruction to follow that really captures the essence of ...

Jesus spells out this lesson very clearly in the text. The Son is not operating on His authority. He is operating on the authority of the Father. We have all heard the saying that goes, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." The point of the saying is that we operate in a father-like-son world. A son imitates his father. So the same for the Son of God imitating the Father. Jesus makes regular...

Whenever we have sections that are divided up in the center of the narrative, we must look back to that immediate context. As we have looked at this passage, we see the reality that Jesus is simply doing what His Father has instructed for Him to do. So when the Jews approach Jesus about the healing on the Sabbath and instructing the man to take up his mat and walk, there is really one response to ...

Directly following the last account we went through, Jesus responds to the angry Jewish leaders who are accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath. What we ultimately see is a clashing on different understandings of the Sabbath, but it leads into an incredible discourse from Jesus where He highlights some very important things about Himself.Equality with God in Nature, Power, and AuthorityThe Witnesse...

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for wh...

Do you believe that Jesus is truly supreme? Is He truly Lord over your life? Have your surrendered both victory and failure to Him? These are things that we ought to pray through. Seeing the supremacy of Jesus challenges me to ensure that I am not trying to perform what He promised. Rather, I am seeking to conform to His promises. Let us pray that He would truly be the Lord over our lives and that...

There have been moments in my life where I have ineffectively ministered to people because I simply took the populous understanding on certain matters. I did not have an understanding or depth of insight of my own. So I just spewed the same stuff that was spewed to me. As I dove into Scripture and really sought to understand, I saw the error in it. I was prideful. I did not want to be wrong and I ...

As a pastor, I often read a lot of people's takes on different theological issues and the sort. It can be quite easy to get caught up in the weeds of theology and be largely informed by the popular consensus and simply go along with the theological status quo. Something that really stands out to me in this passage is that the majority did not share the same view with Jesus concerning the Sabbath. ...

The primary lesson given here to the original audience is in regard to the supremacy of Jesus. Not only did Jesus accomplish in this man's life what he had been searching after for a considerable amount of time, He also broke several social barriers in doing so. The sick, infirm, and lame were often looked down upon in society. This man even admitted to the fact that he had no one to help him get ...