You will never believe this, unless someone shows it to you.

Acts 13:14-41
I knew I could not do it. I jumped back into the book of Acts once again, determined to read through it briskly. What a joke that is for me. 

As I sat a dinner reading, and yes, marking up my bible, a couple walks in. He must have noticed the bible right off the bat, either that or he was just friendly, because he gave me a nod. 

About 15 minutes later he walked over to the table, and asked the usual question, “That is a bible, right? Are you a pastor?” Yes, this is a bible, and no, I am not a pastor. 

I know what is on my mind when I approach somebody reading what appears to be a bible. I really want to hear them tell me how great their God is. 

Perhaps it would be best if I did not put my ideals on others. What I mean is, this dear man may have just wanted to make an acknowledging contact; that seems benign enough. But here you are talking to me, and with no purpose?

Seriously, - I am reading the book of Acts now, and though I have read it many times, it has come alive like never before. I feel as though I have looked through God’s lens as Peter came off that rooftop in Joppa, and as I have read Paul I see that he let no opportunity slip by. If you walked up to his table, you were going to get Jesus Christ preached to you.

I will warn you now. If you open the door in front of me, I will walk through it, and I did with this man. 
There was an awkward moment of silence, as the mind, unprepared, decides what to say next. He said, “I am a Christian too.” I said, “then you should be aware that the King is coming quickly, and it is imperative that we put out the clarion call for people to get ready.” 

He just stood there looking at me. A couple of seconds passed when I said, “then let me point something out to you. Matthew 25 tells us of ten virgins with oil lamps, all intending to go to the wedding, but five run out of oil. The remaining five were called in and the door was closed behind them, leaving the other five effectively locked out. I do not know with certainty what that oil is, but I know I want it. I believe that it is vital, and necessary. What if that oil is nothing more than zeal, passion, desire, attentiveness, and drive to have all of Jesus Christ that a man can handle?”
(If you have an understanding of God’s word then your head should be screaming at you, at this point. We are told that our cup will overflow, and that out of our inner being will flow rivers of living water. So, I implore you to pursue all you can get.)

Again, he just looked at me. A couple of seconds passed and he said, “I go to the Baptist church over here in San Dimas.” Our conversation was over, and he went back to his table. Strangely, even though I invited back to sit with me anytime you see me, he never made eye contact again, but his wife did.

(As an addendum – I had my father read this just to see if I am making any sense. Trust me, he will tell me if I do not. The first thing he says is, “you were too harsh on that man.” Yes, Paul was way to harsh on the Jews as well, but then that is my opinion and not Gods. What did Jesus tell them? Look it up – Matthew 10:34-37.)

I made it to Acts chapter 13.

Something that is dominant in my thinking is that the Apostles, and the multitudes of disciples, did not have Bibles, they were the bible. The acts that they did, in faith, were becoming the bible. Really, they were our examples of what to do.

What advantage did they have?

For several years the Apostles had the idea that God only intended this message for the Jews; after all He was their messiah. The Jews understood the serious nature of their status, and mandated that Jewish children go to synagogue schooling, where they were required to memorize, and have a working knowledge of the law and prophets. 

Saul/Paul was an honor student, with high hopes. He may have had dreams of becoming the high priest someday, I do not know, but I know he was good.

You saw evidence of this education as Stephen gave the high council a precise history of Israel, and included some things that are not common knowledge to us, but caused these learned men no grief. 

Now we see Saul/Paul, entering into the synagogue in Antioch, on the Sabbath, along with Barnabas. Paul too is about to deliver a history lesson, but this time with a spin on it.

I have a moment's hesitation as Paul, who moved quickly into the realm of the Gentiles, is now doing what I perceive as something that would exclude the gentiles from receiving the message. Paul’s “habit” of entering the synagogue tells me that there something richly important that we are missing, by not understanding the Jewish traditions, and that preaching to the house of Israel is still vitally important to him.

As you read through the passage you will see Paul do something else that puzzles me, for he addresses the “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God,”. Gentiles were not allowed in the synagogue, but converted ones were. Who were these men? Our clue comes from the phrase “who worship God,”.

The gospel had been preached in Antioch by Paul and Barnabas for about a year,and I can assure you that they made a huge impact.

As I noted earlier, the early church was the bible that we now read, so they were preaching a good news of Jesus Christ, with signs and wonders following.

What is good news to a legalistic Jew? Freedom. They knew that sacrifices were only temporary relief from a bondage to sin. They understood this better than anyone. That is why they made more rules, bringing more bondage.

What is good news to a person who does not live under the laws? Health, love, freedom from mental anguish, knowledge that there is a hope, and the understanding that they can have a peace with God.

So what do we see happening in the early church? They followed Jesus example of going about and doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.

What we see is action!

Open your bibles and let’s dive in.
(Bracketed and italicized wording is mine.)

Acts 13:14-41 NIV From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch.

On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down.

15. After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, "Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak."
    [Perhaps they have a guest speaker policy in this synagogue. I noticed that Paul and Barnabas came in and quietly sat down to listen and I suppose, take part. When the leadership called upon Paul and company to speak they opened the door, and Paul walked through it.]
16. Standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and said: "Fellow Israelites and you Gentiles who worship God, listen to me! (17) The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors; he made the people prosper during their stay in Egypt; with mighty power he led them out of that country; (18) for about forty years he endured their conduct in the wilderness; (19) and he overthrew seven nations in Canaan, giving their land to his people as their inheritance. (20) All this took about 450 years. "After this, God gave them judges until the time of Samuel the prophet. (21) Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years. 
    
    (22) After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: 'I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'
    [After, is from the Greek word – kata: meaning “according to”. Jesus was precisely this. God himself honored his Son in saying that he was well pleased. Jesus told them that he only did the Father’s will. Acts 13:22 KJV ….. a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will.] 
    
    (23) "From this man's descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised.  
    [Matthew 1:1-16 The lineage of Joseph. Luke 3:23-38 pulled from Mary’s family lineage.] 
    
     (24) Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. (25) As John was completing his work, he said: 'Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.' 
    
     [John the Baptist spoke of his coming.] 
    
    (26) "Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.  
    [The Jews were the ones chosen by God. As you read through the book of Acts you see some exclusivity on the part of the early church and it’s leadership. Peter’s vision of the unclean things, made it clear that all were included.] 
    
    (27) The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 
    [The blindness is suffocating. How is it that you can read it, and not see it. They carried out what God had planned like a skilled actor.] 
    
    (28) Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 
    [Matthew 27:16-23; Mark 15:7-14; John 18:40; Acts 3:14] 
    
    (29) When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. 
    [God so prescribed their every action, even to laying him in a tomb.] 
    
    (30) But God raised him from the dead, 
    [Decisively] 
    
    (31) and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. 
    [This is one of the establishing aspects that anchors our hope and faith, that what He said is true. I will come back for you so that you may be with me.] 
    
    (32) "We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors (33) he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: "'You are my son; today I have become your father.' 
    [What God promised, he has fulfilled. He has kept his word, and he proved it by raising Jesus from the dead.] 
    
    (34) God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'
    
    (35) So it is also stated elsewhere: "'You will not let your holy one see decay.' 
    [Having become one in Christ through faith in him, are we not now the holy ones? If so then we will not see decay either.] 
    
     (36) "Now when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. (37) But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. 
    
    (38) "Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
    
    (39) Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to get under the law of Moses.
    
    (40) Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you:
    
    (41) "'Look, you scoffers, wonder and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.'"

 We Christians should all understand that we have obtained forgiveness of sins through Jesus, but for some reason, we act like it is temporary. We worry about our state of readiness; we preach about sin in our churches, as though there are some that are not so proficient at it. LISTEN, we all know how to sin, we do it daily, our selfishness proves that out. We were born in sin, almost like that chicken you are making soup out of. BUT, the message of Jesus is good news.

Allow me to state it one more time, loudly. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin. If we are to believe his word then we have to believe it all. If we are to preach good news then lets preach it all.

I must tell you a story that I have told before; perhaps this is new to you. As a young man, growing up in church, we were “forced” to go out to neighborhood doors, and try to win the lost, and get them into church by preaching this “good news” that we were taught.

I do not remember any door but one. I was so shy back then, and desperately wanted to fit in. I considered many of these kids to be cool, even when they were necking under the blankets on the church bus.

We approached a door, and a hippie popped his head out. (This was the late 60’s the age of Aquarius, get it.) He listened politely to the spill and said no thank you.

 What were we offering him?

I do not even know, but the reaction of the others to his polite rejection was atrocious, as they now threw rants at him about his going to hell. They all left, and I just stood there. I think mostly from shock. I would not have appreciated any of that either. He turned to me and said, “what do you have to say?”, I said, “I am so sorry”, and I turned and walked away.

I will tell you this, that incident scarred me. I have never wanted to see that happen again, and I have never wanted to be a part of anything like that.

A little time has passed since I started this paper, and another incident occurs to me. I had gone to a Christian retreat in the mountains. I really love being there. I believe this might have been my second time, so it did not have that rookie feel to it. Chow line was always long, but there was always a mountain of food. You could get involved in some great conversations or listen in on others. 

This particular year there were some “bikerish” looking Christians there. This idea that we have to keep up our intimidation appearance puzzles me. These guys are preaching to the choir, in a sense, for they were pushing a technique for bringing people to the Lord, coercing them to admit their rotten sinful ways. 

I understand, more now than before, what they were doing. They were trying to light a fire, as I do, but after moving out in the Holy Spirit with an acquaintance of theirs, they pulled me into their circle under false pretense and started this garbage on me. Perhaps I was not as sanctified as I thought, but I told them that what they did in asking over to their table was deceptive and wrong. I rudely got up and walked away.

 Coming to realize that Jesus Christ paid a sufficient price for the worlds sins, makes me think that our approach to the world is completely backward. Paul told those self-righteous Jews, and devoutly religious Gentiles, that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, the last sacrifice, is from that point forward completely freed from sin.

 How is that possible?

It is so because either Jesus was enough, and we know he was, or this whole thing is a farce and there is nothing but the hell that this earth has to offer.

 Do you not begin to see why God had the prophet make such a statement. ‘I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you.' Many of you reading this have said in your hearts, that this is not so, but it is. I know this because I listen to the radio pastors constantly preaching about sin. Why don’t they try preaching about life, and hope, those are the things people struggle with; sinning is easy, living victoriously is hard.

The people milling about around you, have been forgiven, they merely need to know it, and accept the one who paid for it. This should change and turn your world upside.

 Preach Jesus, the same Jesus who went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. This last half of this sentence is whole other can of worms, but if you are paying attention, anyone who needs a healing has the devil tormenting them in some form.

Preach Jesus – He came as stated; he did what he said he would do; he followed the Father’s will explicitly; he was murdered according to scripture; he rose from the dead, just as he said he would; he came back and was witnessed by over 500+ people (Paul knew some of these guys.); he sent the Holy Spirit, as he said he would, and he is coming back for us, to rescue us from the wrath that is to come, so that we can be with him in heaven, as he said.

 He is coming back for those who wish to be his bride, and pursue him. Everyone else, though not judged for sins, will not have the opportunity to escape through the grace we now have, but will have to prove their allegiance, most likely, at the edge of a sword.

 Preach Jesus, for there is life and freedom in him alone.

Now is the time to step forward.

I chose to revisit a bible study where I was a regular attendee at for several years, but while I wanted depth I was not getting it and moved on. I also have an irregular work schedule that took me away for a time.

I happen to think that God has everything planned out, and even my random choice to go the bible study was destined to be.

I walked in, and found everyone intently writing something down on paper. A couple of the men acknowledged me and one jumps up to give me a hug.

I can be terrible at times, and so I started harassing them about taking a test and how the test is now over, because I thought it was funny. They told me to wait and all would be explained in a moment, and I would get to take part.

The exercise is one that missionaries have told us that the Christians in a particular communist country, with limited bibles do.

They all copy the passage(s) exact, then recopy in a way that they might use to share this truth with others on the street, and then make a point of putting it into practice throughout the week.

Here is the passage:

Ephesians 4:17-24 NIV So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. (18) They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (19) Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. (20) That, however, is not the way of life you learned (21) when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. (22) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (23) to be made new in the attitude of your minds; (24) and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Asked to rewrite this, like Eugene Peterson might. I wrote this.

Because God is that important to me, and I am deeply concerned about the condition of your soul, I implore you to not live as the world does. 

I understand your want to be accepted and blend in, but you are choosing to follow their useless thinking when you do this. Think about the things they say, it is proof that their way of thinking is clouded and their actions prove that God has no place in their lives. They will only bring you down to their level.

The pursuits of those that do not believe are evidence that they have given themselves over to selfish desires, and they do not care who they injure in the process.

Their greed consumes their every thought, as they go through life. It is only themselves that they think about.

But living a wretched life like this is not what I taught you. You have been taught to rise above.

Using Jesus as the example of a truthful, rich, full life I showed you that there is a hope and satisfaction in knowing Him.

Remember that I explained how you became remade at the moment you gave yourself to Christ; Christ, the one who loves you and gave himself for you, desiring only the best for you as you emulate his life.

Clinging to that old way can do nothing more than destroy any progress you have made in him.

Pursue him wholeheartedly, allowing Him to create a new image on the inside of you and watch the changes overwhelm you as he trains you to be the king you were meant to be.

We then had to read this back to the group.

I will tell you that I wrote as if God/Paul had talked to me, and I was in tears before I could finish writing.

When I read it back I was in tears, because it spoke to me as well.

God moves through me as I give out words of encouragement to people.

This gift, if you must call it something, is not that difficult, for Revelation 19:20 tells us that the testimony of Jesus Christ, is the spirit of prophecy. Therefore, if you give someone encouragement from scripture, are you not prophesying over them. Declaring those things that be not, as though they were.

I stepped forward and spoke specifically into the lives of two men. Upon direction from the Holy Spirit I asked the younger of them, what is your dream and hope for the future? He responded with, I want to be a drug and alcohol counselor. I immediately stood to my feet, commanded him to stand, and when he did not, walked over to him, held out my hand, and lifted him up. I spoke words of life and wisdom over him, and anointed him by the laying on of my hands, to walk in the ways and wisdom of the Lord.

What will become of him? That is God s business, for I did my job.

I am writing this down as a legacy and instructions.

God has called you forth, and you have struggled, not knowing what to do or who to ask. There may be no one human that will be able to give you the answers that you desire outside of the Holy Spirit, and there will be more than enough detractors, telling you that you cannot.

You are going to have to learn to trust the Holy Spirits ability to speak into your life. Ask him to speak to in simple matters, He will. You will then have act upon those things. Do not get stupid on me, be real and reasonable. You already know when to use the toilet, but there is no doubt that He can use that moment as well.

There is nothing that we do that does not have God's hand involved.

Peter stood before the crowds, many of them detractors, and said,

Acts 2:13-17 NIV Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." (14) Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. (15) These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! (16) No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: (17) "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

The last days are upon us, and that certainly includes you.

Now is the time for those who have the calling upon them, and those who want the best that God has to offer, to step forward. Be bold, and brave.

Will you suffer for it? No doubt. Killing off God s anointed has always been the response of the non-believing religious zealots.

Live for Him like there is no tomorrow. You will find it to be the most exhilarating thing you have ever done in your life.

Thoughts and commentary on John 5:19

John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

He healed a man, changed everything about him beginning with his circumstances, ordered him to take his bed roll and get out of the place he was in, and now He has told the Pharisees that he is the Son of God. They want Jesus dead, and will probably feel fairly justified in doing so. That is what has just happened.

Watch any of the television show COP's and you will observe human nature in its purest state, broken. Confronted with accusations, the defense system kicks in, and the mouth starts going. Attorneys are trained to give a strong defense and so are Christian apologists. The attack by the Jews is only verbal at this point; it could get worse, and according to the law they would be right in doing so.
Jesus responds to them, but watch the direction that he takes them. He goes to the source, the creator of the law. Only the originator can define and explain the hows and whys of what has happened before them. Speaking to Jews, deeply entrenched in religion, he speaks in clouded terms. This was no parable, but they did not get it.

"I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself;.."
Jesus already told them that he was God's Son. If I gave a "prophetic word" to someone, and tacked on "this is what God says" then in a way I may have manipulated the persons response to the word that I gave.
(If God should tell me to say that, it would be a different story, but he never has. I know that far to much of my humanness gets involved in what I say.)

Jesus said that He was the Son because He was, and because He did exactly what the Father told him to do. God himself told him to speak such to these men. Consider the moment in the garden when the guards came to get him. They asked him "are you the one" and he responded with I AM. Oh dear lord, the Majesty. His response put them on their backs. This world has tacked the term Your Majesty to mere humans, and those humans have strutted around as though they were somebody. Someday they will fall prostrate before the King.

People may say that Jesus was being humble in making this statement. I say that the Father intended to put the religious community on its ear. The time of change had come. The Pharisees were up to their necks in the law, but then so was Moses and he saw through it, and saw that there was freedom being displayed through the law. Moses, because of his actions was deemed the most humble man on earth until Christ came.

What made Moses the most humble man on the earth?
When the going got tough he turned to God. He was like a cattle rancher, trying to herd some of the most unruly cattle on the face of the planet. When Moses came off the mountain and hears the big party going on, he finds his own brother Aaron leading the crowd around a golden idol that they had made; totally contrary to what they had been told to do. What does Aaron say about the idol? We threw all the gold in and this is what pop out. Are you kidding me, and if so you decided to worship it?

Even the Samaritans were looking for the Messiah to come. They knew it would be one like Moses. That would imply a humble man.

One of the Greek words for humble is tapeinos and it is an adjective. In the NT it is always used in a good sense, but metaphorically to denote someone of low degree or a low estate. It can also mean humble in spirit.
Webster's dictionary defines humbly as an adverb. Meaning: in a humble manner; or modest submissiveness.

Back to Moses. Though he was considered to be the most humble man on the earth, at the time, this was not a man without a backbone. You cannot rule over that many people without a backbone. Moses was trained in the Egyptian courts, with the potential of taking over as a future Pharaoh. Choosing instead to be a Jew, he eventually leads Israel into "freedom".

'he can do only what he see his Father doing,.."
A man with a backbone; a carpenter, and a man that learned to submit to the voice and instruction of the Father. Standing before these Pharisees he tells them that I am only doing what I see the Father doing.
So now we have gone from I can do nothing by myself (I suspect that is more of a submissive state, for this man before them spoke the worlds into existence, and they did not know it.), to I only do what I see the Father do. This to had to push them over the edge. How could you see what the Father was doing. These men were the trained, Doctors of the law, and there was nothing humble about them. They could see the into the law, and it showed them nothing more than what their reactions demonstrated.

Think about this. Paul, John, Peter, and James (the brother of Jesus) all had that same law, yet they came to see the freedom that was embedded in the law, and the basis for it's being written. Hebrews tells us that the law was a shadow of the good things to come. The man that cast the shadow was standing before them.

The Greek word for see is blepo, and means to behold, beware, to look on, regard.

Did Jesus see things differently than we see, or could he have meant that same ability to see in the spirit that we have. Looking into the spirit (that is hard to define) is something that you do in faith. God, by the Holy Spirit, gave us that ability. It is a special gift in some, and an everyday way of life in the rest of us.

"because what ever the Father does the Son also does."
God created the laws that the Jews were using against Jesus, and yet by this statement God was overriding those same laws. If Jesus was only doing what the Father does, then without further explanation God is breaking his own laws and that makes him a liar. That cannot happen so there is something more to the picture than what we see. Moses understood all that. I will say it again, "the law was only a shadow of good things to come." How could that possibly be? The law carries the connotation of restrictions and bondage when most hear the term. What are we missing?

Thoughts and commentary on John 5:16

(John 5:16) So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him.
Jesus comes into the pool area, on purpose, but we do not really know that. God has a reason for everything, and this may be no different.

Did he pick out the man and the location because it represented how broken and abused the Jews and their religion were at the time?

Was the man singled out, like Judas, knowing that he would rat out the Savior after being healed?

The man was clearly a Jew, because the first place he goes after being healed is the temple. I suppose it is like being in shock after a car crash, you may not make the clearest decisions, but you go to the familiar place, in his case the temple.

Had he been put out and declared unclean because of his illness, and now going to the temple to show them, hoping to be declared clean, and reestablished back into the community.

The crazy part of his return to the temple is that he carried his mat with him. That mat had been his close friend for many years, and he may not be thinking so straight. Now to give him the benefit of the doubt I will use myself as an example. Working at the hardware store I am asked for help constantly. I listen to the customers descriptions in an effort to ascertain what they need from me (what we saw here was Jesus asking questions of others about the man). If I do not understand (the vague way the man answered Jesus makes me think that he did not understand either) I continue to ask questions until I see that I am not going to get any further (When the man responded, logically but indirectly, to Jesus question about being well, Jesus changed tactics and ordered him to his feet). At that point I run with what I know. The problem with that is that the picture in my head may lead me to grab the objects at hand, because they are familiar, they make sense, but they have led me in the opposite direction of where I need to be.

If you did not know who healed you, or how, and you were a Jew, what might you do? Go to the temple. At this point what else does he have, family? I do not think so, for he himself said he had no one to put him in the water.

Back to the verse. "... because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath,.."
    What did Jesus do? He came, he saw, he asked questions about the man, he healed the man, and he told him to take up his bedroll.


Carrying the bedroll around on the Sabbath was a bad thing. Jesus knew the law, he spoke it; everyone else knew that, and yet the man did it anyway. Why? At least he was obedient.

Exodus 20:10 (NIV) "but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates."

Jeremiah 17:21 (NIV) "This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem."

Deuteronomy 5:13 (NIV) "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,"

This passage is difficult, for we want to understand what was happening here. It appears that Jesus broke his own laws. Fortunately for us he answers the ensuing questions shortly.

"..because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him."Again, what were the things? He healed on the Sabbath, and that may have been perceived as work. It must have meant something else to the religious community. Think about the cleansing process. Mark gives us a clue when he shows us the man coming to Jesus and asking him if he would make him clean. That responsibility fell upon the priesthood, and yet Jesus did it. Jesus pointed out how corrupt they were, and we may have seen a part of his anger over their corruption when he cleaned the temple of money changers and animal sellers. But he did something else, he ordered the man to pick up his bed and walk.

The word in Greek, that was translated persecuted, is dioko, and means to pursue. By implication - to persecute.
They certainly intended to persecute him, but until then they began to follow him with the intent to overtake him. This is evidenced by the fact that they showed up everywhere he went, trying to trip him up, and catch him saying something that they could have him killed for.