Heart in Bloom

“Through the Parables Jesus told, He reveals the heart of God the Father:

In the gospel of John, we are witnesses with this apostle to seven signs showing how God reveals His Son Jesus Christ to people during His earthly ministry. In many ways, John’s gospel is like Genesis, the first book of the Bible, when God speaks the creation into existence. Something similar occurs in this New Testament book where John presents God as speaking our very salvation into existence. This time God’s word takes on human form and enters history in the person of Jesus, and He who speaks the word and it happens. Our Savior calls everything into salvation, forgiveness, judgement, mercy, grace, joy, love, freedom, and resurrection. And this time Jesus not only speaks the word of God, but He is the word of God.

‘I believe’ makes the difference between everlasting life and everlasting death.

When Jesus spoke salvation became real in a very personal way. Jesus wasn’t some far-off God but someone who lived among us and sacrificed His own life for our sins. John tells us that ‘no one has ever seen God,’ (John 1:18) but we can see His Glory in the life of Jesus. In John, chapter 2, in Cana was the sign of Christ’s glory, and His disciples believed in Him. Jesus Christ our Savior is still revealing not only His glory but His goodness toward us. The second sign in Capernaum was in John 4:46-54. And the man believed and left, this was true faith. Because he left the presence of Jesus without any evidence of the healing or of a miracle. It was just our Savior’s word that this official believed in. It wasn’t until the next day that this father learned that his son had gotten well at the very time on the previous day when Jesus had said He would. It showed how important it is that we believe the words of Jesus even before we have an immediate sign of a miracle in our lives. Jesus calming the sea [and walking on water], healing the [disabled] and feeding of the five thousand, are among 7 signs revealed. The gospel of John gives us these 7 signs.

Jesus offers to calm the storm of our lives if we only ask Him to come aboard and be with us as we travel on the ship through life. In chapter 8 of John, we read the account of why our Savior used the words, ‘I am who I am,’ taken from the Old Testament book of Exodus 3:14. This phrase became the unique personal name of God in Isreal. And Jesus used this name as His own many times. Jesus said, ‘I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’ (John 8:58)

The immediate response of those listening shows they understood right away what He was saying. ‘I am God Himself, here and now, I have always been and I will always be.’ Most of us don’t think about it when we read how God created the heavens and the earth, that Jesus was present when everything was created. Our Savior shouldn’t just be loved for the supreme sacrifice that He made for our salvation, He should be worshipped just as we do God our Father in heaven.

The 6th sign was the healing of the man born blind in Jerusalem, chapter 9 verses 1-41. The 3rd sign was at the pool of Bethesda, the sign took place on the Sabbath. Instead of looking at it as one more sign of Jesus being revealed as the Son of God, the city’s religious experts saw it as one more case of Sabbath breaking. What the blind man saw was God’s presence in his life and how it was at work through this miracle, and this man believed.

The seventh sign is Lazarus being raised from the dead. (John 11:1-54) Always at center stage is Jesus, who performs all those miracles as signs that he is indeed the Son of God. In our own lives and the events that shape our lives, Jesus should always be at center stage. He went about doing good, not only preaching the good news of the kingdom of God, but also healing the sick and lame, and even in the case of Lazarus. Our Savior was met by Martha as He got to Bethany, and she said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.’ (John 21-22). That’s when Jesus said, ‘your brother will rise again.’ Martha thought he was referring to the resurrection at the end of time. Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. (John 11:25)

Jesus tells us that if we believe and trust in Him, He will raise us to eternal life. Even though He saw fit to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus will be there to greet us when we die and go to heaven. Our spirits will be united and we will worship at His feet. Praise God for this wonderful knowledge!

‘And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’ (1 John 2:17)”