Read: John 4:43-54

While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him. Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, Your son will live. So he and his whole household believed. (John 4:51-53)

What an exciting encounter! The servants met this man with the glorious news, Your son is living—the very same words Jesus had said to the father. Immediately he checked the hour when it had happened. It dawned on him that at the precise moment when Jesus had said to him, Go; your son lives, the fever suddenly left the boy and he began to mend. There broke upon him a new realization, not of what Jesus could do, but of who Jesus was. He had authority over all illness. He was not limited by distance or time. He had power in areas beyond the knowledge and reach of men. When the man understood that, he believed, and all his household with him. This is the same word for belief that was used of him before, but now it is used at a much higher level—a trust that God was at work and would work out this matter in ways that he could not anticipate.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Faith’s Encouragement →

Read: John 4:1-42

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus is met at Jacob’s well by a Samaritan woman, who has come to draw water. How very beautifully Jesus overleaps the various barriers that separated him from this woman. He was a rabbi, and according to the rabbinical law, rabbis were instructed to never talk to a woman in public—not even to their own wives or sisters. In fact the rabbinical law said, It is better to burn the law than to give it to a woman. In that culture women were regarded as totally unable to understand complicated subjects like theology and religion.

But notice how Jesus treats her. He could judge something about her from the circumstances of her being at this well. Although there was another well in the village, as a moral outcast she was forced to come all the way out to this well, half a mile away. Meeting her, our Lord understood this to be a sign from his Father that here was one of those sinners whom he came to call to repentance. He himself said on one occasion, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners (Mt 9:13). He probably knew more about this woman’s history than this introduction suggests, because later he tells her some facts about herself that he evidently knew. He had been through this small village several times, and had probably heard something about her. Now to have her meet him at the well is to him an indication that God the Father wanted to reach out to her.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – Thirsty →