God Is At Work

In John chapter five Jesus is in Jerusalem. He goes to the pool of Bethesda.

John 5:3
Crowds of sick people - blind, lame, or paralyzed - lay on the porches.

This was a place where the sick came for the waters in the pool. They believed that if they could get in the water first ,they would be healed.

Jesus goes to one man. The man had been sick for thirty-eight years.

In John 5:6 Jesus asks him, “Would you like to get well?”

Most people would have answered, “Yes!” But this man didn’t say that. In John 5:7, he says, “I can’t, sir.”

Many times, like this man, we live as victims.

The only person in all creation who could heal this man comes and asks if he wants to get well, and he says, “I can’t.”

Jesus didn’t ask if he could. He ask if he wanted.

In Mark 10 Jesus encounters a blind man named Bartimaeus. Jesus asks him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

In Mark 10:51 Bartimaeus answers, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.”

Jesus knows neither of these men can heal themselves.
Jesus knows that He can heal both these men.

The lame man saw himself as a victim.
Bartimaeus was blind but didn’t see himself as a victim.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls  is knowing we are (damaged, fallen), but not see ourselves as victims because the One who has overcome everything will heal us.

In John 5:8 Jesus out of compassion tells the man, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

John 5:9 says, “And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.”

One of the awesome things about Jesus is that He has unlimited compassion and He displays that compassion in ways that totally transform our lives.

But this healing of the lame man brings a question. There were many sick people at the pool. Why did Jesus focus on this one man?

A quick answer is that God is sovereign. But Jesus gives us a more in-depth answer farther down in chapter five.

John 5:17
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

John 5:19-20
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of His own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing, For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him so that you may marvel.”

If we want to learn how to know and do God’s will, we need to look at Jesus. He perfectly completed every assignment the Father gave Him to do.

Jesus never failed to do the will of the Father. Jesus never sinned. He becomes our model of how to obey the Father.

In the John 5 passage Jesus shares two important truths about how He knew what God wanted Him to do.

First, Jesus said He knew that the Father was working.

God is always at work in the world.

The lame man had no idea when he went to the pool that day what would happen. God had a plan to connect him with Jesus so the man could be healed.

Was the Father at work? Yes!
Did Jesus know where the Father was working? Yes!
Did Jesus obey the Father? Yes
Was the man healed? Yes!

When we look at our nation today we need to see more than just the disobedience. We need to see God working.
When we look at our nation today we need to do more than complain and whine. We need to rejoice over what God is doing.

We see the negative.
God sees the positive.

When the nation of Israel was in slavery in Egypt, was God at work? Yes!
God was giving them a desire for freedom.
God was preparing a deliverer.
God brought the deliverer, Moses, together with a people who had a desire to be free.
God delivered His people.

God is always working. We need to watch and see what He is doing and join Him.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about acknowledging that the Father is at work. It is about really believing that no matter how bad things “look”, God has a plan and He is working it.

Second, the Son could do nothing of His own accord.

John 10:30
I and the Father are one.

Jesus and the Father were one, but Jesus submitted Himself to do the Father’s will so that He would be our model.

In the same way, according to John 15:5, we can do nothing without Jesus, but with Him we will, as He did, produce much fruit.

If Jesus submitted His will to the Father, then how much more do we need to submit our wills to Jesus?

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about total dependence on Jesus to produce a life that bears fruit for God’s glory.

Third, Jesus didn’t just make up what to do. He did exactly what He saw the Father doing.

We operate much too often like Saul in 1 Samuel 15 where Samuel tells Saul that God has commanded him to wipeout the Amalekites. Saul spares the best of the livestock and the king of the Amalekites. When Samuel confronts Saul over his disobedience, Saul insists that he did obey God.

I have many, many times decided I wanted to do something. Most of the time something good, but “I” decided “I” wanted to do it. I would ask God to bless it after the fact.

That is not the pattern we see in Scripture. We see Jesus watching to see what the Father is doing and joining into the work of the Father.

In John 7 it is time for the Jewish Feast of Booths. Jesus’ brothers tell he should go to Jerusalem because that is where He will get noticed. In verse 6 Jesus says, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.”

Jesus let the Father decide the timing of when He did things.
Jesus let the Father decide what He did.
Jesus let the Father decide how He did things.

When Jesus went to the pool, He saw that the Father was working in the life of the lame man. Jesus knew that the Father had brought Him there to heal the man.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about learning to be dependant on the Father.

Fourth, Jesus knew the Father loved Him and would use Him to do great things.

John 3:16 says that God loved the world so much that He sent Jesus.
1 John 3:16 says that Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us.

The words and actions of God tell you beyond any doubt that God loves you.

Since God loves you and has called you into a relationship with Himself through Jesus, He wants to use you to do great things.

Jesus tells us in John 14:12 that we will do the works that He is doing and we will do even greater works because He is going to the Father.

The works we do are done by our obedience and God’s power. If we join God in doing His work, He promises to supply all we need which, in reality, is Himself. He is what we need to do His work.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about knowing God loves you and letting Him use you to do His work.

Knowing, Relying, and Trusting God in Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
                                                 Joe