The Forgiveness of Jesus - A Forgiveness that Restores

We have spent the past few weeks talking about the forgiveness of Jesus.  When Jesus offered people God’s grace and mercy, it completely changes their lives.  It was the forgiveness of Jesus that helped the lame to walk and the blind to see.  It was forgiveness of Jesus that released people from their sin, and the guilt and shame that comes with sin.  It was the forgiveness of Jesus that helped move people into the new life that God had for them.

When Jesus extended forgiveness to people, what he offered them was a restored relationship with God.  In the original story we looked at of the prodigal son, when the wayward son returned home, the father forgave him, and that forgiveness opened the door to the father and son being in a relationship once again.  When we forgive someone, it opens the door for a friendship or relationship to be restored, and the same is true with the forgiveness of Jesus.  Through Jesus, God’s forgiveness opened a door for people to feel connected to God.  While sin separates us from God, the forgiveness of Jesus connects us, it restores that relationship.

What is special about the forgiveness of Jesus we will look at today is that forgiveness is offered before the person has turned back to God.  The forgiveness of Jesus takes the first step, it initiates the restoration and new life.  Matthew 9:9

As a tax collector, Matthew would have been seen by all in the community as a sinner.  While we don’t know Matthew’s heart, and we don’t get a glimpse of his conscience, he was a sinner because he was working against God and for the Roman government, which oppressed the people of God.  Many tax collectors also abused their position and cheated people, so their relationship with others was strained.  Tax collects were sinners because they were far from God and far from the people of God, and yet here we find Jesus calling out to Matthew, at his tax collecting booth, still in his sin, and yet inviting Matthew to come with him and be a disciple.

When Jesus says to Matthew, Follow me, Jesus extends forgiveness.  By inviting Matthew to follow him, to be a disciple, Jesus is saying to Matthew, your sins are forgiven.  Your past is behind you, and there is a new life waiting for you, and that new life is now characterized by having a relationship with me, which is the beginning of a relationship with God.  Forgiveness restores our relationship with God, and notice that the forgiveness given here comes before Matthew asked for it, before he repented, changed his heart, or promised to live a new life.

Now this doesn’t mean Matthew didn’t repent and change his life and live a new life – he did.  When Matthew walked away from his tax booth, he was making a bold decision and a clear change, he was turning away from his old sinful life and embracing a new, more faithful one, but God’s invitation came before Matthew made that that change, or promised to change, or even asked for help.

Here we see one of the most important truths about the forgiveness of Jesus– the forgiveness of Jesus makes the first move.  While Matthew may have been part of the crowd that had been listening to Jesus as he preached, and he may have seen the miracles Jesus performed, we have no record of these two men having had any conversation before this moment.  Matthew hadn’t poured out his heart and soul to Jesus, he didn’t tell Jesus how sorry he was for the life he was living, or that he even wanted to live a different way.  Matthew was a sinner, and Jesus offered him forgiveness before he even asked.

The forgiveness of Jesus always takes the initiative in our lives.  God’s grace is always at work in us before we turn to Him.  God’s grace always takes the first step in restoring our relationship with God.  Even the people who came up to Jesus asking for forgiveness, or looking for healing, were not coming to Jesus first – the only reason they are able to come to Jesus was because God sent Jesus into the world.  God made the first move by sending Jesus into the world, and here Jesus makes the first move by seeing Matthew at his tax booth, sitting in his sin, and inviting him to be a disciple.

John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist Church, called this movement of God prevenient grace.  This is the grace of God that is at work in our lives before we turn to God or even think about turning to God.  It’s God’s grace that actually helps us think about our need for forgiveness.  It’s God’s grace that opens our eyes and our hearts to see the darkness that we live in and our need for Jesus to be the light in our world.  Prevenient grace is seen in all those little ways that God works in our lives before we thought about turning to God to ask for help or to seek forgiveness.

Prevenient grace is the sudden longing we have to learn more about God.  It is the prompting to go to worship, or the unexpected invitation to attend worship that comes from a friend or coworker.  It is what draws us to read the Bible, and it is that verse that suddenly speaks to us in a new way, or in a personal way, when we do.  Prevenient grace is what opens our eyes so that we see our need to change, our need to set things right, our need to love God and be loved by God.  It is God’s grace that always takes the initiative to reach out to us and begin a process of reconciliation with God – restoring a relationship.

In my own life, prevenient grace was seeing a sign for Intervarsity before I knew what Intervarsity was all about and only later realizing that it was a Christian fellowship that would offer me encouragement, friends, and a deeper relationship with God.  The thing about prevenient grace is that we never see it in the moment, we only see it when we look back.  It is after we are in a relationship with God that we are able to see how God had been working to restore that relationship.  If you can’t see God’s grace working in your life today, don’t worry, it’s there.  In fact, you are here today because God’s grace has been working in you.  You are here today because God wants you to hear once again that you are forgiven, that you are loved, and accepted, that the same invitation given to Matthew is given to you – Follow me.

If you take nothing else with you today, take this – God’s grace is at work in you at this very moment.  It is already at work in forgiving you, and God is inviting you to follow Jesus into a deeper relationship with him.  The forgiveness of Jesus is a forgiveness that restores us into a right relationship with God, but not just God, it also helps restore our relationship with one another.  The forgiveness of Jesus not only restored Matthew’s relationship with God, but it also begin to build a new community.
Matthew 9:10-13.

Matthew invited his friends together and then he included Jesus and his disciples at the table.  In the Jewish tradition, if you shared a meal with someone it meant that you accepted them fully.  You were honored to be there, you were part of their family, and their community.  If you ate with a community of sinners, in some sense it made you a sinner, but here is Jesus at the table with sinners not to become one of them, but to invite them to be part of him.  Jesus eating with them begins to create a new community centered on Jesus.

While Jesus doesn’t approve of their sinful ways, notice that he doesn’t force them to renounce those ways, confess their sin, repent, and promise to live a new life before he eats with them.  Jesus knows that being with them, eating with them, inviting them to be part of his family, and his community where they can experience love and grace will help them know God’s love and grace and begin to restore in them a relationship with God. 

I was thinking this week what it must have been like to be one of the disciples at this dinner with Jesus.  They know how inappropriate this looked, but Jesus was there so there must be something they needed to learn from this moment.  There is something they needed to see.  I wonder if they looked around the table and slowly began to realize that they all had something in common, they were all sinners!  Did being a table with people known as sinners make them more aware of their own sin, and their own need for God’s grace?

This was a new way of doing ministry.  For the religious leaders, sinners were to be avoided, for Jesus they were to be embraced.  For the religious elite, their community was only open to those who thought of themselves as pure and righteous, but for Jesus the new community welcomed sinners, which reminded everyone that we are all sinners, and that we are all in need of God’s grace.

Now more than ever we need the forgiveness of Jesus to build a new community.  Our differences seem to be driving us apart.  We are becoming increasingly intolerant of people who live, think, dress, act, and believe differently than we do.  We are becoming more and more like the religious leaders who only wanted to surround themselves with people who thought like them, acted like them, and believed like them, but what we need to do is build a community where what brings us together is Jesus.  If we are able to come together with Jesus as our focus, we will see two powerful things.

#1. We are all children of God.  As we gather in a new community centered on Jesus it opens our eyes to seeing everyone around us a child of God.  We spend less time judging others, and putting people into categories, because we are all children of God.

#2. It is the forgiveness of Jesus alone that restores our relationship with God.  When we gather as a new community with Jesus as the focus, we realize how foolish it is to think that our own morality, and ability to be faithful, is what makes us right with God.  It is not.  We are saved by faith through grace.  It is the forgiveness of Jesus alone that restores us in a relationship with God. 

The forgiveness of Jesus began to build a wide and diverse community.  Jesus brought together tax collectors and religious leaders, rabbis and prostitutes, the rich and the destitute, outcast Gentile women and devote Jewish men.  We often only think of Jesus living among the least, the last, and the lost, but at the end of his life it was two religious leaders, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, who took Jesus’ body and buried it in a new tomb, Joseph’s tomb, which tells us that Joseph was a wealthy man.  So on the last day of Jesus life he brought together a powerless thief who had nothing and a powerful religious leader who had it all.

Jesus gathered together all kinds of people with one basic message, we are all children of God – not because of our ability to live righteous and moral lives and always be faithful, but because we can see clearly our need to be forgiven.  Maybe the gift that the church has to offer the world is that we can become a new community that comes together around Jesus and that despite our differences we chose to focus on what unites us.  And what unites us?  We are all God’s children and we all are in need of the forgiveness of Jesus. 

The forgiveness of Jesus always takes the first step in reaching out to us and the forgiveness of Jesus always works to restore us as God’s children.  When we are forgiven, a new community is also formed and it is this community that needs to now take the initiative and invites others to experience the grace of God and the forgiveness of Jesus. 

 
Next Steps
A forgiveness that restores

Connect with God
• Identify how God’s grace reached out to you before you reached out or turned to God.  (Prevenient Grace)
• Thank God for loving you before you loved Him.
• Thank God for loving you whether you follow Him or not.
• Accept the grace and forgiveness Jesus offers you today.


Connect with the Church
• Identify one way you can deepen your relationships with people in the church.
• How can eating with others be part of your life of faith?
• How can the church become more of the “new community” Jesus created?  How can you help?
• Begin to pray for someone you would like to invite to worship on Easter Sunday.
• Share the name of this person with a trusted friend and invite them to pray with you.


Connect with the World
• Identify any relationships in your life that need to be restored.  Pray for the ability to forgive
• Identify one place in the community that needs the love of Jesus.  Get involved there.
• Pray for those who need to hear about the grace of God here and around the world.
• Ask God for opportunities to share your faith.

The Forgiveness of Jesus - A Forgiveness that Opens Our Eyes

During this season of Lent, these weeks leading up to Easter, we are looking at the forgiveness of Jesus and what it meant for people in Jesus’ day, and what it means for us today.  In Jesus’ day, sin and sickness often went hand in hand, so stories of Jesus healing people would often have been seen as stories of forgiveness as well.  While Jesus worked to separate the idea that sickness was caused by sin, and we will see that again today, Jesus never tried to separate how forgiveness and healing were tied together.  Today we are going to look at another story that on the surface, looks like it is just a story about Jesus healing a blind man, but it is also a story that has a lot to say to us about forgiveness and a new vision that comes to us when we are forgiven.

To really understand this story, we need to understand the context in which it takes place.  In the Jewish calendar, there were specific festivals, or religious celebrations, that took place during different seasons of the year.  In the early spring, about this time of year actually, there was the Feast of Tabernacles.  This was a time to celebrate and remember how God used a pillar of fire to lead his people through the wilderness for 40 years.   

To commemorate this light, they set up 75 foot golden candelabras that held 4 - 10 gallon bowls of oil.  A wick, made from the old garments of the priests, would then be lit for 7 days.  Picture something similar to the Olympic flame, only 16 of them, in the Temple courts.  The fire from these flames would have lit up the Temple courtyards and much of Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem Temple with Feast of Tabernacles Candelabras 

The light helped people see all through the night and it reminded them that it was God who helped them see their way in the wilderness.  The light was a symbol of God’s presence with them and it told them that God was still a light to help them see, both physically and spiritually. 

On the 8th day of the festival, the flames were extinguished and that was the day Jesus encountered a man born blind.  John 9:1-5.

We see two things happening here.  First, we hear once again the idea that sin caused sickness.  This was just how the people understood their world.  Sin, our failure and disobedience, was the cause of everything bad, especially blindness, so when people encountered this man born blind they didn’t see someone who needed to be healed as much as someone who needed to be forgiven.  Jesus made clear that the man’s blindness was not caused by sin but that it was going to be an event that would help people see, pun intended, the glory of God.  The forgiveness of Jesus was going to open eyes, bring light into darkness, and help people see. 

To drive this point home, Jesus talked about all this in the context of the Feast of the Tabernacles and even said, I am the light of the world.  Since the light everyone had just experienced and celebrated for the past 7 days had been the light of God, it was clear that Jesus was saying, once again, that he was God, and to prove the point he opened the eyes of a man born blind.  John 9:6-7.

Jesus restored his sight.  No ordinary miracle worker was able to do this kind of healing.  No one was able to open the eyes of a man who had been born blind, so this was a powerful act that pointed to Jesus as one who not only had the ability to heal but the ability to forgive, to bring light into darkness.  Opening the eyes of this blind man was a symbolic act that told people that whoever came to Jesus, listened to him, and obeyed him would be able to see. 

For this man the sight was physical, but for the rest of us the sight is spiritual.  Coming to Jesus, the light of the world, means being forgiven and with the forgiveness of Jesus comes the opening of our eyes, and the eyes of our heart so that we have the light to see.   Forgiveness not only leads to healing, it leads to seeing. 

Forgiveness helps us see ourselves more honestly,
it helps us see Jesus more fully, 
and it helps us see our world more clearly.  

God’s forgiveness helps us see ourselves more honestly.  As we read the rest of this story, we find that the man who was healed and forgiven slowly saw himself more clearly.  When he was questioned about his healing, each time he gave people more information about his own situation.  It’s as if he was able to see more and more of himself. At one point, when he was asked what happened, he said, One thing I know, I was blind but now I see.  John 9:25.  He was able to see his own blindness and how it was Jesus who opened his eyes. 

Forgiveness helps us see ourselves more clearly and be honest about our own blindness, our own darkness, and sin.  Forgiveness helps us see more clearly the sin of our past and it gives us the courage to confess it in ways that set us free.  Knowing that God’s forgiveness is available helps us look deeper into the darkness of our own past and confess the sin that has long been hidden.  God’s forgiveness opens the floodgates of sin and shame that we had tried to hide or push down, and it allows it to come pouring out – which is good.  We need to unburden ourselves and allow God’s grace to set us free.  We need to confess our sin and allow God to forgive us.  As long as we allow sin, shame, and the darkness and failure of our past to remain in our lives, we will never be free – but if we can confess it – God has promised to remove it. 

Look at 1 John 1:5-9.  It is as we walk in the light of God’s forgiveness that we are able to see and confess more sin and experience more forgiveness.  As we experience God’s light and grace, as it touches our lives in some new way, it opens our eyes so that we can be more honest about ourselves, which leads too deeper confession, and greater forgiveness.  Once this man’s eyes were opened, he could see the grace of God, the forgiveness of Jesus, and then testify, I was blind – but now I see. 

Knowing that we are forgiven means that we can more freely confess our sin to God.  With eyes wide open, we can search our hearts, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds, and share it all with God because we see the light of grace and forgiveness.

Forgiveness helps us see ourselves more honestly but it also helps us see Jesus more fully. When the blind man could first see, he saw Jesus as a prophet.  Later on he called Jesus a godly man who is able to do things no one else is able to do.  In other words, he was more than a prophet.  Finally, Jesus came and talked with the man and asked him if he believed that he, Jesus, was the son of Man, and the man replied, Lord, I believe.  And then he worshiped Jesus. 

Slowly this man’s eyes were opened so that he could see more fully who Jesus was.  First a prophet, then more than a prophet, then the Messiah and Lord, and then he worships him because he is the light of the world, God.  This is what the forgiveness of Jesus does in our lives, it helps us see more fully who Jesus is.  Forgiveness slowly opens our eyes, and the eyes of our heart, so that we can see more of Jesus.  This was what happened to the Apostle Paul. 

Early in his life, Paul saw Jesus as nothing more than a blasphemous teacher whose followers needed to be killed, but then Paul was forgiven.  Now here is what is ironic, in the process of being forgiven Paul was first struck blind and then had his sight restored.  God is once again saying that forgiveness opens our eyes, and Paul’s eyes were finally opened, physically and spiritually.  First Paul was baptized, he confessed Jesus as his Savior and Lord, and then Paul went away for several years to be able to see more of who Jesus was.  Forgiveness slowly opened Paul’s eyes and helped Paul see Jesus more fully.  A few years later Paul returned and was a powerful preacher and teacher who showed the world who Jesus is.  Forgiveness helped him see more of Jesus, and it helps us see more of Jesus.   

I shared last week about the moment the forgiveness of Jesus touched my life.  I thought I knew who Jesus was at that moment, but I have come to see Jesus so much more fully in the years since.  Through years of study, service, fellowship, prayer, worship, and mediation, I have come to see Jesus more fully and understand more clearly why he came to this world, and what he wants from us.  In fact, my eyes continue to be opened to the fullness of Jesus. 

We need to understand that forgiveness is not the end of our spiritual journey – it is just the beginning.  Forgiveness helps us see more clearly who God is, who Jesus was sent to be, and how God’s grace works in our lives, and in our world.  Knowing that we are forgiven, and feeling God’s grace touch and heal our lives, is just the first step in developing a deeper relationship with God.  Forgiveness just opens our eyes, it is then up to us to use this new vision to look around and see more fully who God is and how God wants us to live.  It is with new eyes that we should seek a deeper relationship with God, stronger relationships with one another, and more vital relationships with the world.  It is up to us to look with new eyes to see God’s truth and understand God’s movement both in our lives and in our world.

Forgiveness helps us see ourselves more honestly, it helps us see Jesus more fully, and it helps us see our world more clearly.  For the blind man, he slowly began to see the world around him more clearly.  While at first he saw the religious leaders as being interested in what happened to him, he slowly saw that all they really wanted was to denounce Jesus.  While at first they asked the man what happened, and how he was healed, and who healed him, in time they simply grew angry with his answers because they weren’t willing to see Jesus as a prophet, miracle worker, or savior.  Slowly the man began to see that the religious were so against Jesus that they would kick him out of the temple because of his steadfast testimony that it was Jesus who opened his eyes, and it was Jesus who was the light of the world. 

Forgiveness helps us see the world more clearly.  Forgiveness helps us identify the darkness, and the brokenness that permeates our world and with new eyes we begin to see that Jesus is the only answer.  It is in experiencing the power of God’s grace, and feeling the healing that comes to our own broken lives, that helps us see God’s forgiveness and grace as the only real solution for the darkness in the world.  Forgiveness opens our eyes, it helps us see, but sometimes the new vision comes slowly.

The testimony of this blind man was used by another man who had his eyes opened when he was forgiven.  John Newton used the line, I was blind, but now I see, in the classic hymn Amazing Grace.  As you may know, John Newton was a wild and rebellious young man who worked on a slave ship, and then a slave plantation, for three years.  In 1747 he was transferred to a ship called The Greyhound and sent to England, and it was during that trip that a fierce storm threatened to destroy the ship and all on board.  During that storm, John Newton gave his life to Jesus.  That was the first time the forgiveness of Jesus touched his life, and it opened his eyes.  John Newton slowly had a new vision that helped him see the world more clearly, but that new vision came slowly.

For 7 more years, Newton worked on slave ships trying to bring more Christian values to how slaves were treated, but he slowly began to realize that the practice of slavery was wrong, so he left the slave trade completely in 1754.  It was then that Newton became an Anglican priest and spoke out more clearly against slavery, but it wasn’t until 1787, a full 40 years after his eyes had been opened, that Newton wrote his essay, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, which was instrumental in William Wilberforce’s work to abolish slavery.  Newton lived to see the abolition of slavery in 1807, 60 years after forgiveness had touched his life and opened his eyes.  It is said that Newton rejoiced at the news, and I have to wonder if he sang, I was once lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. 

Newton’s story, and the song we sing, reminds us that the forgiveness of Jesus does open our eyes.  We may not see everything clearly in that moment, but we will begin to see ourselves more honestly, Jesus more fully, and the world more clearly in days to come.  For today, let us allow the forgiveness of Jesus to once again touch our heart, open our eyes, and forever change our lives, and may the one who is the light of the world, truly bring light to our world. 
 

Next Steps
A Forgiveness that Opens our Eyes

Connect with God
• What does it mean for Jesus to be the light of the world?
• What does it mean for Jesus to be the light of your world?  Ask God to help you see with His eyes as you look at your own heart and life.
• Identify one way your eyes have been opened? 
• Thank God for this forgiveness and grace. 

Connect with the Church
• Ask God to open your eyes as you look at people around you in the church.  Identify the needs you see that you can meet.
• How can you allow the light of Jesus to shine through you in the life of the church?  Find one way to connect and serve others. 
• Identify a need in the church that you can fill, and fill it.

Connect with the World
• Ask God to open your eyes as you look at the world. 
• Identify one place where the light of Jesus is needed at your place of work. 
• Identify one place where the light of Jesus is needed in our community.
• Identify one place where the light of Jesus is needed in our world.
• Find one way to allow God’s light to shine in one of these three places this week. 

The Forgiveness of Jesus - A Forgiveness that Heals

Scientific studies over the past several decades have proved what the Bible has tried to tell us for thousands of years, forgiveness and healing go hand in hand.  Research papers from John’s Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic have said that forgiveness can lead to these physical health benefits: lower blood pressure, a stronger immune system, improved heart health, and a decrease in diabetes.  Whether we are the ones being forgiven, or the ones forgiving someone else, when forgiveness becomes part of our lives we experience less stress, less anxiety, and less anger, which leads to better health.  Forgiveness leads to healing – every time. 

There was a moment when Jesus linked forgiveness and healing together, and he did this to make several points about forgiveness and healing.  Before we look at this, however, we need to make one thing clear.  While forgiveness can lead to healing and improved health, it does not mean that all sickness and disease is caused by sin.  In Jesus’ day, the idea was that if someone was sick it was due to some kind of sin.  If someone was blind, people assumed it was because that person sinned, and if someone was born blind, then it was their parents who sinned.  Without the science we have today, this was just how they made sense of their world, but Jesus separated sin and sickness.  Jesus makes clear that sickness is not directly caused by sin, but the beauty of what we see in Jesus is that when he forgives it leads to better health, a better life. 

In Mark 2 we find a story where Jesus links together forgiveness and healing.  It is early in Jesus’ ministry and he has healed a lot of people, which has made him very popular.  People from all over the region around Capernaum were flocking to Jesus in order to be healed, and to hear his teaching, and while the crowds were thick, people just kept coming.  One day four men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus.  They couldn’t get to him because of the crowds, but they could get to the roof of the house where Jesus was speaking.  They took their friend up onto the roof, found the right spot, and dug a hole large enough to lower their friend to Jesus.  They were desperate for Jesus to heal their friend.  Mark 2:4-5. 

Have you ever wondered what these friends must have thought in that moment?  What is Jesus talking about? Doesn’t he see that “Joe” is paralyzed?  We brought him here so Jesus could help him walk, not to be forgiven.  That Jesus chose to forgive this man before he healed him tells us that forgiveness is that important.  That Jesus forgives the man before he talks about or considers healing him tells us that the priority for Jesus is forgiveness first.

Have we made forgiveness a priority in our own lives?  Have we made receiving God’s forgiveness a priority?  Have we made forgiving others a priority?  What priority have we given forgiveness?  We spend billions of dollars on our physical health and many more billions on our mental health, which is fine – we need to care for ourselves in these ways, but have we made this kind of healing and wholeness THE priority?  Have we placed our physical and emotional well-being ahead of our spiritual well-being? 

If forgiveness always leads to better health, maybe we need to make sure that we are taking as much time, and spending as much energy, on our spiritual lives.  Have we asked God to forgive us and are we asking God to help us forgive others, so that we can feel better.  If sin, shame, and our own sense of failing God can cause us to feel anxious, and stressed, which can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and a compromised immune system, then maybe we need to shift our priorities and examine the role that forgiveness can play in our lives so that we can be healthier and happier. 

Now please don’t hear in this that I am saying we don’t need to go to doctors for our physical problems.  I am not saying that all!  What I am saying is that if forgiveness can become a priority, as Jesus made it, then maybe we would experience better overall health.  Jesus forgives the man first to show us that forgiveness needs to be a priority in our lives, but he also forgives first to prove to everyone involved that he has the authority and ability to forgive and to show that God’s forgiveness is real and complete. 

Mark 2:6-12. 
When Jesus said this man’s sins were forgiven, he was not forgiving a personal offense between the two of them.  Jesus was forgiving sin, all his sin.  Jesus was claiming to have the authority to forgive sin in this man’s life – an authority and power that belonged to God alone.  While we can forgive one another, only God can forgive sin, but here’s Jesus forgiving sin, and to prove that he can do this, he tells the man to get up and walk, and the man gets up and walks.  This miracle was proof that Jesus had the power to forgive sin, which told the crowd that Jesus was God in the flesh.  The forgiveness Jesus offers is real, and complete, and what we see here is that it leads to healing and new life. 

Let’s look at this story from the perspective of the paralytic.  When Jesus forgave him, he still couldn’t walk.  He was still lying there.  He may have felt something change in his heart and life, he may have felt some assurance of forgiveness in his soul, but at some point he would have been left asking himself if what he felt was real.  Have I really been forgiven?  But when Jesus told him to get up and walk, it was the proof he needed that he was forgiven.  His healing was not just a physical gift from Jesus, but a compassionate spiritual gift Jesus as well because the healing told this man, beyond any shadow of doubt, that he was forgiven. 

And think about the crowd.  They heard Jesus forgive the man’s sin and they must have wondered what he was doing, or if what he said really meant anything, but then they too saw the man get up and walk.  They also had this visible sign that Jesus not only had the authority, but the ability to forgive sin.  They were looking at the Savior, the Messiah, and in Jesus they knew that forgiveness was possible – and if forgiveness was possible, then healing was possible, and new life was possible.  The forgiveness of Jesus changes everything. 

While we see here that forgiveness leads to better health, what we often miss is that the healing was also the visible proof to the paralyzed man, his friends, the home owner, and the crowd, that Jesus has the power to forgive sin and that God’s forgiveness is real, and available, and really does change everything.  Can this story help us see the same thing? 

We often talk about how we are forgiven through the blood of Jesus, or the work of Jesus on the cross, or how God forgives us, but then we are left wondering, am I really forgiven?  Has God really forgiven me?  Are my sins really washed away, removed as far as the east is from the west?  What this man got to see and experience, we have to take on faith.  While the crowd got proof of Jesus’ power to forgiven, we have to just trust that it is true.  Can this story help us trust Jesus more?  Can this story of forgiveness and healing help us see and believe that we too are forgiven, and that just as it did for this man, our forgiveness can lead to healing, wholeness, and new life? 

John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement struggled with this very issue.  While he believed in God and trusted in Jesus, he often wrestled with whether or not God had forgiven him.  It was many years after Wesley had been a missionary and preacher that he attended a meeting where he heard once again that we are forgiven by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  Wesley writes in his journal, “While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Some have said that this was not just a turn of phrase for Wesley but that he actually felt a physical burning in his chest when he realized that he was forgiven.  There was this physical sign for Wesley that he was forgiven, and that moment led to a changed life.  It was from this moment on that Wesley’s work took off and the Methodist movement and church was born. 

Jesus goes to great lengths to show us that God’s forgiveness is real, it is personal, it is powerful, and it is available, all we need to do is come to God in faith.  We may not get a visible sign of forgiveness, but we will feel free, lifted up, or maybe filled up in some way.  When we have this assurance of forgiveness our lives are different, we are healed in some way, and life is better. 

For me it came on an October afternoon as I sat on the campus of MSU.  There was no physical healing, there was no burning in my soul, there was no powerful sign that anyone else would have seen, but there was a lightness to my being, as if a burden of guilt and shame had been lifted.  I’ll be honest, there are still moments of doubt, and moments of fear when I wonder if God still forgives me because I still sin and fall short – but I think back to that moment, that day, that feeling, and it helps me trust that God has forgiven me, and that, yes, God still forgives me.  God’s forgiveness is real. 

I’m sure there were many days this once paralyzed man felt the same way.  Does God still forgive me?  Has God forgiven my sin from this day, this year?  So what does he do?  He goes back and remembers that day when forgiveness led to healing, and when his healing was a sign that he was forgiven.  We can go back and remember that same day, see that same miracle, and hear the same words spoken, but this time not to a paralyzed man, but to us, your sins are forgiven.  Our sins are forgiven and we can get up and walk into a new life. 

God’s forgiveness also brings us great joy.  Mark 2:12. 

They praised God.  They celebrated God’s forgiveness.  I’m not sure we know how to celebrate God’s forgiveness, either our own forgiveness or the forgiveness we extend to others, but if the power of forgiveness is really life changing – it should be something we learn to celebrate – every day.  While studies haven’t shown this is how it works, I wonder if it is the celebration of forgiveness that leads to improved health. 

Studies have shown that gratitude and thankfulness improve our health, so if we are praising God every day for the forgiveness he offers, then we will experience better health.  Maybe it is the joy and the freedom we find in forgiveness that leads to improved health.  So let’s learn how to celebrate forgiveness in our lives, our families, and the life of the church so we can be healed. 

One last observation we need to make about the forgiveness of Jesus is this, the paralyzed man was only forgiven and healed with the help of his friends.  They were the ones who brought him to Jesus.  There is a world that needs to know about the forgiveness of Jesus.  There is a world that is laying diseased, and dying, and they need to know about the forgiveness of Jesus, and we are the ones being called to carry them to Jesus.

When we pray for people, we carry them to Jesus.  When we make a simple invitation for someone to worship with us, serve with us, or join us in a small group, we carry them to Jesus.  When we forgive someone, we carry them to Jesus.  When we accept the forgiveness offered to us, we carry them to Jesus.  In all these ways, and more, we need forgiveness to flow in and through our lives to a sick and dying world so that they can experience the forgiveness of Jesus and the healing it brings. 

 
Next Steps
A Forgiveness that Heals

Connect To God
• Ask God to forgive your sin.
• Ask God for the healing you need.
• Ask God to help you see Jesus as the One who has the authority and ability to forgive and heal.
• Surrender your life to the authority of Jesus.
• What would it look like for you to live with the conviction that God has forgiven all your sin? 

Connect to the Church
• Identify someone who needs the forgiveness and healing of Jesus.
• Pray for this person. 
• Identify ways you can help bring this person to Jesus.
• Volunteer in a Sunday morning ministry of Faith Church so that you can help the church welcome those looking for forgiveness and a deeper faith. 

Connect to the World
• Identify people around the world who need to know the love of Jesus.
• Pray for these people. 
• Ask God to show you how you can reach them.
• Pray for the authority and love of Jesus to be seen through your life.

The Forgiveness of Jesus - A Forgiving Father

The season of Lent is the 6 week period leading up to Easter, and in the life of the church, this has been a time for followers of Jesus to focus on a more disciplined life.  People often talk about giving things up, or starting new habits and practices, but this year we want to look at the discipline of forgiveness and to do this we are going to look at the forgiveness of Jesus.  Much of what Jesus did during his ministry was to forgive people and to talk about the power of God’s forgiveness in our lives.  So we want to take some time to reflect on this during these few weeks. 

What does God’s forgiveness look like in our lives?  How does God’s forgiveness impact us and what does it look like for us to forgive others? While taking time to think about all of this is always a good thing, this year it seems that this focus is more desperately needed.  When our world, and church, and at times our own families are so divided in so many ways, learning what forgiveness means can bring healing.  One of the foundational truths about forgiveness we will see today is that forgiveness only comes with humility and our being willing to turn to Jesus, and now more than ever, people need to come together with humility and turn to Jesus.

One of the most important things to understand about forgiveness is that it is not defined by how we treat one another, but how God has treated us.  God defines forgiveness.  God sets the standard and Jesus shows us what God’s forgiveness looks like by telling the story of a forgiving father, or a story we might know as the prodigal son.  The story is found in Luke 15 and it begins when a son, in arrogance and pride, only thinks about what he wants, and what is good for him, and asks his father to give him his share of the family fortune.  While this might not seem like a big deal, in Jesus’ day, this was a huge offense.  The son might as well have said, Dad, I wish you were dead so I could have your money now. 

Instead of pointing out the offense of his son, shaming him, or punishing him, it says the father divided his property between his two sons and gave the younger son his share of the money.  Now here’s the thing, the only way the father could have done this would have been if he sold what he owned so he could give his younger son his share in cash.  When he sold his property, the people would have started asking why, which means his son’s request would have been well known in the community.  Instead of shaming his son and holding him up to public scorn, we see the father begin to take on the shame of his son.  He gave his son the freedom and the money that he wanted. 

The son then goes off and lived a very wild life.  He squandered all he had on food, drink, and prostitutes for himself and his friends.  When the money was gone, so were his friends and he had nothing.  With no one to take him in, he found a job feeding pigs.  For a Jewish man, this would have been as low as it gets.  Pigs were unclean and to touch them or interact with them in any way would have been unheard of, but this man didn’t just feed them, he longed to eat what they were eating.  It doesn’t get any worse than this, and this is where we pick up the story.  Luke 15:17-20a.

So he heads home and this young man has no idea how his father might react when he gets there.  While he is biologically a son, this young man has cut himself off from his father when he asked for his inheritance.  He has brought shame on himself, his father, and his family, and he knows that he no longer deserves any place in his father’s house, except maybe as a slave, or servant.  He also knows that the community can judge him for his behavior.  Because of his actions, any man in the community could have turned him away.  In fact, if someone from the community had seen him coming home, they could have run out to him and broken a clay jar in front of him, it would have meant that he was cut off from their community and could not return. 

I’m not sure I have ever thought much about this young man’s journey home and what he must have been thinking, but I know what I have thought on my own journey back to God.  Will God accept me?  I have failed God again.  I have messed up my life again.  I have allowed myself to fall into bad thinking, hurtful language, and sinful behavior again.  What right do I have to return to God and ask for anything?  What right do I have to even turn to God?  None.  I have no rights at all.  There is no reason why God should accept me.  This had to have been some of what this young man was thinking.  Will my father acknowledge me?  What about the rest of my family?  What about the community?  Did he return wondering who the first one might be to run out and smash a pot in front of him? 

But the son returns and we often think of this as the first step in forgiveness.  We often think forgiveness begins when we acknowledge our sin and return home, or turn back to God.  We call this act repentance, a turning away from sin and back to God, and as we can see here that it is an important step in forgiveness, in fact, the son couldn’t have been forgiven if he hadn’t returned home, but this is not the first step in forgiveness.  What happened before this is that the son remembered the character and love of his father.  He remembered how his father had loved him when he had offended him in asking for his inheritance.  He remembered how his father was willing to be bad-mouthed and shamed when he gave him his money and his freedom.  He remembered that the father loved him first and so he can make this turn home.  God’s love for us, God’s grace reaching out to us, is the first step in forgiveness.

The first step in forgiveness is not our turning away from sin and back to God, but a still small voice, God’s voice, that tells us that no matter what we may think, and no matter how far we have fallen, and what doubts, and fears we may have, God loves us, and because of that love we can take the risk and turn toward home.  The bible says, it’s not that we loved God but that God first loved us.  The first step in forgiveness is God’s grace which reaches out to us while we are down and desperate, and it reminds us that we can get up and return home.

So he remembered the love of his father, and he headed home.  Luke 15:20b-24.

And this is what forgiveness looks like.  The father runs out to welcome his son home.  This is a startling example of just how powerful God’s love is for us.  For the father to run he would have had to lift up his robes and expose his legs, this was shameful in Jesus’ day, but the father once again takes on the shame of his son and runs out to greet him.  And why does he run?  I have always thought he ran out to simply embrace his son, he missed him so much and was glad to have him home, but maybe there was something more going on here.  Maybe the father runs out to get to his son before anyone in the community can run out with pot and cut him off.  The community could have shamed the son, and cut him off, but if the father can get there first, he can stop the condemnation and restore his son, but he has to get there first, so he runs out to greet him. 

Not only does God not condemn us, but God’s forgiveness stops the condemnation of others.  When a woman was caught in adultery, the people wanted to condemn her, but Jesus said, those without sin can cast the first stone.  Jesus stopped the condemnation of others and offered the woman mercy.  God’s forgiveness not only lifts us up, but it begins a process of reconciliation by cutting off the judgement of others.  There is an important lesson for us here, if God forgives we must forgive others. 

But it doesn’t stop there, the father doesn’t welcome his son home as a servant or slave, he restores him as a son.  When the father asks for sandals, a ring, a robe, and fatted calf to be prepared for a meal, he is completely restoring him as a son.  Sandals were reserved for family members, while servants and slaves walked around barefoot.  The ring was most likely a signet ring which was reserved for sons, and was a sign of authority in the family.  Robes were reserved for children, and a celebratory meal was reserved for family occasions.  These were all tangible signs the father was giving his son to show him, his family and the community that his son was forgiven.  Completely. 


Forgiveness restores relationships completely.  There are no second class citizens when we talk about forgiveness with God.  God doesn’t welcome us home but then constantly remind us how we have failed, and relegate us to some inferior status, forgiveness restores us, and then it celebrates.  The father celebrated with his son, and he invited the whole community to join him, because his son had returned. 

In this story, Jesus gives us a picture of what the forgiveness of God looks like.  God’s love reaches out to us first.  Before we can even think of coming home, God’s love is speaking to us and giving us the assurance that we will be accepted and forgiven.  When we turn back to God, God runs out to greet us, and God doesn’t take away our shame as much as God takes on our shame.  Just as the father took on the shame of his son, so Jesus took on our shame when he died on the cross.  The bible said that those who hang on a tree are cursed, so the death of Jesus was not just a physical death, but a sign of Jesus taking on our shame.  And by taking on our shame, and overcoming it, we see that God forgives. 

Forgiveness means that God restores relationship.  The father is not content to welcome his son home as a slave, or servant, he is welcomed home as an honored son and then he invites the family and community to be restored as well.  Forgiveness restores and resets relationships.  And then there is a party, God celebrates.

This is what God’s forgiveness looks like and this is what is available for all of us.  God’s grace is reaching out to each one of us today, calling us to return, letting us know we are loved.  God is running out to each one of us, willing to take on our sin and shame so we can be set free, and God is restoring each one of us in a relationship with him, calling us honored, valuable, children of God.  All of us.  And God is just waiting to celebrate. 

This is what God’s forgiveness looks like and this also begins to set the standard of what forgiveness needs to look like for each of us.  It is an impossibly high standard, I know, but it sets for us a goal, and gives us a vision and some direction to what forgiveness needs to look like in our own lives and in our church, community, and world.  We can’t just sit around and wait for people to come to us to apologize, there are those times we have to do what we can to reach out in love to offer grace, and mercy, to others.  Jesus said, if you know someone who holds something against you – go and seek reconciliation.  Go to them. 

While repentance is part of the forgiveness story, the son did acknowledge his mistake and wanted to tell his father how sorry he was, the father doesn’t stay focused on the problems of the past but just sees the possibilities for the future.  This is often the hardest part we have in forgiving others.  We want to make sure people know the depth of their failure, sin, and mistakes.  We want to make sure the other person really knows that what they have done is wrong, or how they have hurt us.  It seems like we want to focus more on the offense and justice than on the restoration and the love.  We want to stay focused on the brokenness and not the healing.  We want to keep reliving the past and not write the new story of our future.  Forgiveness is not pointing out the shame others should feel but finding ways we can take on that shame so that the other person is healed and restored. 

With this as a standard, we have a long way to go, and the first step is to simply accept again, and anew, the forgiveness God offers to us.  It is only in being forgiven by God, it is only in being clothed with the power of God, and restored into a relationship with God, that we will ever be able to forgive others the way Jesus did.  So as we begin this season of Lent, let us once again humble ourselves and, remembering the amazing love of a forgiving father, let us reach out once again to accept for ourselves the forgiveness of Jesus.

 
Next Steps
The Forgiveness of Jesus – The Forgiving Father

Connect With God
• Turn to God in humility and confess your sin.
• Identify the shame you feel and allow God to take it from you.
• Read these passages that tell us we ARE forgiven
o Matthew 6:14-17
o Romans 10:9
o Ephesians 1:7, 4:32
o 1 John 1:9
o Isaiah 1:18, 55:7
• Find one way to celebrate that God forgives you.


Connect with the Church
• Commit to worship during the season of Lent to learn about and celebrate God’s forgiveness.
• Pray that those in the church can truly grasp and extend to others the forgiveness of God.
• Learn about one ministry supported by Faith Church that helps spread the love and grace of God. 
• Join a class, study, or small group to explore more about what it means to be forgiven, and to forgive.


Connect with the World
• Ask God to show you the person (or persons) you need to forgive.  Pray for them.
• What group of people is God asking you to reach out to, get to know, and build a stronger relationship with? 
• Pray for this group and opportunities for engagement. 
• Identify one way you and your family can serve the community during the next 6 weeks, then serve. 

What Was I Thinking? God IS Active

Author and theologian A.W. Tozer said, What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.  What we think about God, and how we think about God is important.  it shapes us and it shapes all of our relationships.  What we think about God shapes our relationship with God, it shapes our relationships with the church, and our relationships with one another in the world. 

For the past 4 weeks we have been remembering, and learning, some deeper insights into the character of God so that our thinking about God will lead us to good decisions today and into the future.  When we know that God is powerful we want to call on him in prayer.  When we know God is present we want to lean into God for support.  When we know God is loving, we are able to find security and peace, and when we know God is holy, we want to put God first in our lives.

There is one more quality and characteristic of God that we want to address and that is that no matter what we may feel – God is active.  In fact, God is more active in our lives and in our world than we can possibly imagine.  Too often, when we feel isolated, alone, and unloved, we begin to think that God is simply not at work in our lives or in the world.  And it is in those moments we often think that we have to make decisions by ourselves and we fail to turn to God or trust God.  This is what King Asa did.

King Asa is the poster child of, what was I thinking.  He knew God was powerful, and present, and loving, and holy during his life, but he slowly began to doubt all of this and made a decision to trust the power of this world instead of the power of God.  Asa didn’t think God was active in the world, he thought God was not seeing or hearing their needs, so he aligned himself with a nation and a king that was active, and that decision cost him everything.  We cannot forget that God is active.  When things aren’t going the way we think they should – God is still at work.  When we are struggling through difficult health situations – God is active.  When we are wrestling with financial hardships – God is active.  When our families are going through hard times – God is active.  When our jobs are unpleasant and we don’t think we can take another day – God is active.  When our United Methodist denomination is divided and things seem chaotic – God is active.  God is active, and God’s movement in our lives is real, and if we can trust God’s activity, and follow the movement of God’s hand – we can find all the fullness and power of life God has for us.  We may not get all that we want – but we will find the power and presence and love and holiness of God – which brings us life.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the struggle I went through my freshman year of college.  I was feeling incredibly insecure at MSU and I tried to power up and fit into the fraternity scene, but I couldn’t keep up that image – it wasn’t me.  So then I powered down and was ready to quit college and return home.  I was feeling completely lost and alone, helpless and unloved.  It was a difficult few weeks, but here is the lesson I learned – God was more active in my life during that time then I could have possibly imagined.

I mentioned that at one point I called my parents saying I wanted to return home and my Mom answered the phone and said, no.  Well that is not all my Mom said or did.  At church she shared my situation with the mom of a good friend I graduated with, and this mom shared what was going on with her daughter, my friend, Cindy.  Cindy then wrote me a letter of encouragement and in that letter she said that when her sister had been a student at MSU many years earlier, she had been involved in a Christian Fellowship called Inter-Varsity and I should check it out.  Cindy said it might be similar to our church youth group that had sustained me through high school.

Now here is what you need to know, I got that letter from Cindy immediately after I had walked through an orientation and information center for campus groups.  I had seen a huge sign for Inter-Varsity and totally ignored it because I assumed it had something to do with sports, but I remembered seeing it.  So I went back to the sign and found the people who were connected to the group and asked about it.  They told me the first meeting was that night and they invited me to come.  At the time I really didn’t think much about all of this, but looking back, God had been active, more active than I had known or seen, and God’s activity gave hope, and direction and in time helped me make some good decisions.

God timed a conversation of my mom’s, a letter from a friend, a walk across campus, my eyes seeing the banner, and the day of the letter’s arrival and the first IV meeting being held on the same day.  God was at work in providing me a group that not only welcomed me, loved me, and helped me my freshman year, but a group that forever changed my life by helping me go deeper in my faith.  I didn’t see it, and wouldn’t have believed it in that moment, but God was more active than I could have possibly imaged.  And this was not a onetime incident.

A few years later I went to Yellowstone National Park to serve with a Christian Ministry, and the plan was for me to work in the Lake area of the park, but when I got there my job had been transferred to Grant Village and serve there.  I thought I had to work in Lake to be part of the ministry so I contacted them and they said, no problem go to Grant Village.  So I went to Grant Village and I can’t explain to you the power of the ministry team God had assembled there.  We clicked in a way that was powerful and I know that God was active in moving me to that exact location.

Fast forward about 10 years and I was appointed to Second Avenue UMC in Altoona and I really thought this was not going to go well.  This was a much different neighborhood than I had ever lived in and I wasn’t sure this was what God wanted, but God was more active than I could have imagined.  God was at work raising up people in the church, and planting seeds in the children of the neighborhood that all came together for a season of new beginnings and growth that amazed us all.  The children were ready to hear about God’s love.  They were ready to flock into the church to hear about Jesus and the church was ready to welcome them.  God was active in bringing it all together.
God is always at work and if we can open our eyes and hearts, and expect God to be at work, then we can experience the fullness of life and faith that God has for us.  Where we really see this concept at work is in the life of Jesus.  In Jesus, God was constantly at work and everywhere Jesus went, he brought life.  Those who were open and willing to see the hand of God could see the power and love that God brought, but those who refused to see God at work missed it completely.  A great example of this found in John 5:1-10.

For 38 years this man had laid as an invalid.  He had given up any hope of getting into the waters and finding healing.  God was simply not active in his life – God was silent and inactive, or so he thought.  Jesus came to him and asked if he wants to get well.  It’s an odd question, but maybe Jesus said it with a twinkle in his eye and a smile on his face because he knew what he was going to do.  Anyway, the man doesn’t have to go into the stirred up or living waters of the pool because the one who is the living water had come to him. In Jesus, God was at work and this man was willing to embrace it.  He got up and walked.

But now notice the religious leaders, they don’t look at the man who for 38 years had been begging and now was walking – they are looking at him carrying a mat.  All they see is a man breaking the Sabbath law.  They are so focused on the breaking of the law that they can’t see the activity of God, so they miss God in their midst.  They miss the life Jesus has to offer.  There are many stories of Jesus just like this, where Jesus brings God’s activity to the people, he brings in the kingdom of God in all its fullness to the people, and many miss it completely because they are not willing to look and listen for what God is doing.

If we are going to see God as active in our lives and in our world, we have to look for and listen for the movement of God.  We have to be aware that God is moving and be ready to embrace and be part of that movement.  If God is always active, and always at work, why do we so often miss it?  It’s because we are looking in the wrong direction.  I want you to take this awareness test. 

The activity of God is like the houses and the landscape changing all around us, but we are so fixed on the car, our lives are so filled with problems and details that we think we need to figure out, that we don’t even notice.  To see and hear how God is at work we need to ask God for open eyes and ears.  Here is a prayer we can pray,

God, what are you doing right here, right now?  Help me see, help me hear, so I can be part of what You are doing. AMEN.  

It was the people who took the time to look at Jesus, and what he was doing, and really listen to what he was saying that found healing, wholeness and new life.  God is active – are we listening.  God is moving – are we seeing through open eyes of faith.

Not only does God want us to see what he is doing, God wants us to join Him in His work.  I never cease to be amazed at this concept.   God wants me to join Him in His work.  God doesn’t need me.  God doesn’t want me to help because I am good at what He is doing, I’m not.  I don’t bring anything of real value to the table in comparison to God, but God still wants me because God loves me.  God is patient with me in life and in ministry because God loves me and wants me working with Him.  Amazing.

It makes me think of all those times our parents or grandparents invite us to work with them when we were children.  Maybe it is in the kitchen, or in the garden, or under the hood of a car, but when parents invite their children to work with them it’s not because our children are good at the work, and it’s not always because we want to teach them, or that they want to learn.  We invite children to work with us because of love.  We want to spend time with them.  We want to walk with them in life.

Relationships are important, and our relationship with God is important.  God invites us to be part of his activity because he wants to know us and for us to know him.  That’s it.  God is active and wants us to work with him so that we can know him more, and love him more, and find the fullness of his life and love in our lives.

As we look at the world and see division, hurt and pain, the truth is that God is more active than we can imagine and he invites us to see how and where he is working and he invites us to join him.  When we do, we will find power, love, and the fullness of life.  And when we see God at work we can join God and be part of God’s kingdom in profound and life giving ways. 

If you have ever had an experience where you have been able to see or hear the activity God, and it has made a difference in your life, then I want to invite you to tell that story to someone.  The world needs to hear that God is not dead, God is not uninterested in our world, God is not silent, and God is not inactive.  God is alive and at work.  Reflect on your life and find those moments where you can see the hand of God at work and tell your story.  Our stories not only give Glory to God but it can be an encouragement to others, and our stories will also remind others that God IS Active, more active than we can possibly imagine.  Knowing God is at work, and working with God, can help us make good choices, focus on the right things, and never have to look back on some poor decision we made and have to say, what was I thinking?



 
Next Steps
What Was I Thinking?  God IS Active.

1. When have you felt that God was silent, or inactive?

2.  Read John 5:1-15.  Identify all the ways we can see the activity of God at work in this story of Jesus.  What other stories of God’s activity in Jesus come to your mind?

3. Why do you think the religious leaders missed seeing God at work?  What were they focused on?  What were they worried about?

4. In what ways are you like those religious leaders?  What are the things that take our eyes off Jesus and blind us to the activity of God in our world?

5. A simple prayer for this week:  God, what are you doing right here, right now? Help me see, and help me hear, so I can be part of what You are doing.  AMEN

6. Identify one way you can see God moving in the world.  How can you join God in this activity?  Who can you invited to join you?

7. Tell your story.  Share a story with your small group, family, or a friend about a time you were able to see the activity of God in your life.

8. Remind yourself this week that:
• God is powerful – so we can pray.
• God is present – so we can lean in for support.
• God is loving – so we can find security and peace.
• God is holy – so we can make Him first in our lives.
• God is active – so we can join in God’s work.