John 4.35-39 - Open Heart, Opens Doors

My heart leaps thinking about the wide open door God has placed before BICF ZGC! Even having lived here over four years, I am still amazed we can openly worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ in China. As we sit in Xijiao Hotel we’re next to the University with the largest number of foreign students in China. Their web site claims 10,000 a year from 120 nations. And we are just blocks away from several dozen other universities too. There are 82 Universities in this district that bring 100,000 International students to our neighborhood! One million Chinese University students! This means we can go on a “mission trip” by just visiting our next door neighbor! When Jesus looked over Jerusalem He wept at their need for Him. He gave His life for them. Do you see Beijing through the eyes – and heart - of Jesus?

John 5.14 - Something Worse will Happen!

God heals people every day who do not know Him. Some who get healed by God have no interest in knowing Him, or even thanking Him. But God’s mercy abounds even toward the ungrateful. The man in John 5 is one of those guys. But there is meaning behind mercy.  “…God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2.4). Physical healing is no guarantee of spiritual healing.  Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you" (John 5.14). The Healer is also the Savior. He who ended the man’s 38-year affliction can also deliver Him from an eternity of agony. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10.28)

John 5.24 - Just a Door

Endless torment? Annihilation? Unimaginable Bliss? Just what is beyond death’s door anyway? That depends on where you’re heading.  Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” His critics paraphrased, “he will never taste death” (8.51,52). Either way it’s a blip. The Gospel of John portrays death as a passing moment. “…whoever believes in him should not perish” (3.16). “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life”(5.24). “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (11.25). Death’s door sounds ominous. But Jesus walks through doors. “…the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (20.19).

John 5.24 - Our Good Hope

For centuries Europeans wanted to reach Asia by sea, land travel was long and nearly impossible. But innumerable adventures and unlimited wealth awaited. So many daring navigators crashed going ‘round the southern point of Africa that treacherous headland strewn with shipwrecks was called ‘Cape of Storms.’ Finally, one determined captain made it round. A statue of Vasco de Gama stands in Macao. Today we call that perilous African promontory ‘Cape of Good Hope.’ The Risen Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Hope. He spanned the chasm of death and now lives to take us to the other side. His indestructible life lifted Him beyond the wrecks of empty philosophy and false religion. Hear the promise of our Faithful Captain, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5.24).

John 6.35 - Every Man’s Trilemma

Humans need water, bread, and light.  Yet Jesus claims to be even more essential for life; “whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (6.35) “Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (8.12)  “A mere man saying what Jesus claimed would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God ... " (C.S. Lewis)

John 6.68 - Follow the Bloodstained Path

Let’s be very clear – it is not easy to follow Jesus! Those who do follow – and finish faithfully – consider Him far better than anything in this world. Paul bemoaned, “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me” (2 Timothy 4.10). And John lamented, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us” (1 John 2.19). “Health and wealth” ministries flourish today.  But if you are looking for a smooth, easy, life Jesus is not the One you want to follow. He scared away the crowds with warnings about “carrying your cross!” Thousands who enjoyed His free lunch took off when He demanded they “eat His flesh and drink His blood”! But Peter rightly confessed, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6.35-59,68).

John 8.36 - Spiritual, but NOT Religious

“I’m spiritual, but NOT religious…I enjoy checking out European cathedrals.” Our cool Facebook friends sound like that.  Spiritual is hip. Southampton University in England studied 15,000 North Americans who concluded ‘intrinsically religious’ people are desirable, ‘extrinsically religious’ people are not. So statistics prove spiritual people have sex appeal, but religious people do not! ‘Religion’ is from the Latin for ‘bind, regulate’ and that is JUST what we DON’T want. Nobody tells us what to do. We are free. But, paradoxically, the Gospel invites us to grace-based structure and order. In the freedom of the Lord Jesus Christ we find meaning and purpose in life.