This Is God's Will For You

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John 6:22-34

22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

 
 

After Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand in the wilderness by only using five loaves and two fish, the people want to make Him king:

14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself [John 6:14–15].

Jesus then crosses the Sea of Galilee to be with the disciples and get away from the crowd, but they track Him down. Jesus, drawing on the image of heavenly bread, tells the people that the most important thing and the way to show obedience to Father is to believe and trust the Son, on whom the Father has set His “seal.” But the crowd misunderstands and insists that Jesus give them the “bread” to which He has referred.

QUESTION OF THE DAY
In v. 28, the people ask what God wants them to do.
In v. 29, Jesus replies: believe in me.

Have you ever been told that what God wants from you is to believe in Jesus?

 

The People Want To Make Jesus King (By Force)

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Here’s what to watch out for in Part 3 (chapters 6–11) of the Gospel of John:

  • In chapter 6, the people want to acclaim Jesus as king, but by the end of chapter 11, the Jewish authorities have decided to have Him murdered. Understanding why this is the case will be an important thing to watch for.

  • Jesus often says something that is—on the surface—cryptic or puzzling. He does so with the intention of getting people to lean in and really think. So, when Jesus says something puzzling, ask yourself, “What point is Jesus trying to make here?”

  • The theme of seeing (and hearing) correctly will be woven throughout this section of John’s Gospel. Jesus will talk about the importance of seeing clearly and then John will show how the people refuse to see what’s right in front of them.

  • Another recurring theme that is related to the theme of sight is that of acknowledging what is happening right in front of you. Jesus will continually ask people to pay attention to what He is doing, but they will often ignore what can be seen and instead focus on something else that doesn’t matter.

We begin our reading plan on Ash Wednesday at the Sea of Galilee as Jesus feeds the five thousand with five loaves and two fish. We will conclude on Good Friday with Jesus about to enter Jerusalem in the last week of His life, and the Jewish authorities committed to His execution.

Along the way, we will learn more about who Jesus really is and how He came to die in order that all who believe in Him might have life and have it in abundance.

 
 

John 6:1-21

6 After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. 2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. 3 Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. 5 Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, 17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19 When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened. 20 But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” 21 Then they were glad to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

 
 

Mark’s Gospel moves quickly—he is famous for employing the word “immediately” through his narrative. In Mark, Jesus will do-this-and-then-immediately-do-that-and-then-do-some-other-thing-right-away.

In contrast, the Gospel of John takes a different approach. John has picked a few key incidents from the life of Jesus and slows down the narrative, taking his time to show us how this or that event or interaction demonstrates that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.

Remember John’s thesis statement:

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name [John 20:30–31].

The long account of the miraculous feeding of the five thousand is a good example of John’s practice of slowing down and doing more with less. Each of the Gospels tells us about this miracle, but John’s account is the longest—he wants to show us why this event was so important. One of the keys to understanding the miracle of the five thousand is to understand that John wants us to see Jesus connecting, fulfilling, and then exceeding the Old Testament.

Some Old Testament connections in John 6:

  • Israel was hungry in the wilderness→the five thousand are hungry in the wilderness;

  • Moses spoke from a mountain→Jesus preaches from a mountain;

  • The Lord provided manna from heaven→Jesus is the bread from heaven;

  • The twelve tribes of Israel→twelve baskets of extra bread;

  • Etc.

The people respond to the miracle, but not in the right way—they misunderstand the real identity of Jesus, and instead see Him as a leader who will provide for their material needs and whom they can control and manipulate.

14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”

15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself [John 6:14–15].

The people want Jesus for their own agenda, which is why He withdraws.

QUESTION OF THE DAY

Note how for the disciples, the five loaves and two fish are obviously not enough—they can’t see any way to solve the problem with what they have. And yet, once they put it in the hands of Jesus, He does for them what they could not do for themselves. Where today do you feel that you don’t have enough? What would it look like to take what little you have and place it in the hands of Jesus?

P.S. Remember, there are seven signs that Jesus performs in John’s Gospel. In this passage, John tells us about sign #3 (see v.2, which references the healings that Jesus was doing, as in 5:9) and sign #4 (see v.14, the miracle of the feeding).

P.P.S. Why do you think John has included the account of Jesus walking on the water?

 

Meribah and Massah – Psalm 95

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Psalm 95

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
8  do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
    as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9  when your fathers put me to the test
    and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation
    and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
    and they have not known my ways.”
11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
    “They shall not enter my rest.”

 
 

I might categorize Psalm 95 as a feel-good psalm if it ended with the first part of verse 7.

It is a great call to worship God.

 1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
    let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.

But then comes a warning at the end of verse 7:

Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

What is going on here?

A good reference Bible will point you to Exodus 17, the story where the people of Israel complain (again), and God tells Moses the strike the rock at Horeb and water will come out of it. Moses does this, and God provides water. Exodus 17:7 says:

And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Massah means testing. Meribah means quarreling.

In v. 7-9 God is the one who reminds the worshipping community, amid their joyous worship, of their past when they tested God and quarreled with the Lord in the wilderness. The warning is jarring and stern:

For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.” (v. 10-11)

And there the Psalm ends.

Beth Tanner provides insight:

We can make God so angry that worship is an abomination (Amos 5:18-25). This is not a nice word to hear, but it is true. This psalm leaves people who are anticipating a festival, and indeed whose festival had already begun with the shouts in vv. 1-2, on their knees contemplating the sins of past generations that serve as a warning to them. “Is the praise honest and real?” is the question this psalm asks as the party begins. “Do you really know what you are doing?” “Are you really prepared to encounter God’s face?” The questions for these ancient ones should also be ours. Worship, full-voiced praise-filled worship, requires an understanding of the serious nature of that praise, for as one encounters all of these enthronement songs, God is praised for being the Judge and Controller of the creation and all the peoples. The praise of God cannot be taken lightly, and so the congregation is left here on their knees to understand just that.

 

I Read One Psalm A Day, Every Day

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Almost five years ago—during the early days of the pandemic—I started the practice of reading one psalm a day, every day. There are 150 psalms, and when I got to Psalm 150, the next day I started back over at Psalm 1. I had heard Eugene Peterson recommend the practice as being particularly formative, and on Easter Monday 2020, I started reading through the psalms.

The nice thing about reading a psalm every morning is that there really is no excuse not to do it. If you are flat on your back and sick as a dog, if you had to get up at 3:00 AM to catch an early flight, if you overslept and have to brush your teeth in the shower just to save time, you can always make time for that day’s psalm. I generally prefer to read in my Psalms journal, but my iPhone Bible app will do in a pinch.

I’m constantly reading and working through whatever biblical book I’m preparing to preach and teach on, but the practice of a daily psalm gives me a really clear plan for my mornings.

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and our next set of John readings actually starts on Wednesday. (We’ll conclude on Good Friday, so our next John section will run through Lent.) So, I’d like to invite you into my own Psalm practice for the next two days. Today is Psalm 94. (I’ll read Psalm 150 on Monday, April 28 and being over again with Psalm 1 on Tuesday, April 29.)

 
 

Psalm 94

1 O Lord, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!
3 O Lord, how long shall the wicked,
    how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
    all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
    and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
    and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
    the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
8 Understand, O dullest of the people!
    Fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
He who teaches man knowledge—
11     the Lord—knows the thoughts of man,
    that they are but a breath.
12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
13 to give him rest from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the Lord will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.
16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
    Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the Lord had not been my help,
    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
    your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
    your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
    those who frame injustice by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
    and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the Lord has become my stronghold,
    and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
    and wipe them out for their wickedness;
    the Lord our God will wipe them out.

 
 

C.S. Lewis, in his little book on the psalms, offers the insight below into today’s psalm (and the other psalms of vengeance like it). Since I read first read this several years ago, the psalms that call on God to avenge the psalmists’ enemies have become much more meaningful to me. After all, it often seems as if the wicked get away with their crimes. Lord, come and make things right!

 
 

“The ancient Jews, like ourselves, think of God’s judgement in terms of an earthly court of justice. The difference is that the Christian pictures the case to be tried as a criminal case with himself in the dock; the Jew pictures it as a civil case with himself as the plaintiff. The one hopes for acquittal, or rather for pardon; the other hopes for a resounding triumph with heavy damages. Hence he prays “judge my quarrel”, or “avenge my cause” (35, 23). And though, as I said a minute ago, Our Lord in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats painted the characteristically Christian picture, in another place He is very characteristically Jewish. Notice what He means by “an unjust judge”. By those words most of us would mean someone like Judge Jeffreys or the creatures who sat on the benches of German tribunals during the Nazi régime: someone who bullies witnesses and jurymen in order to convict, and then savagely to punish, innocent men. Once again, we are thinking of a criminal trial. We hope we shall never appear in the dock before such a judge. But the Unjust Judge in the parable is quite a different character. There is no danger of appearing in his court against your will: the difficulty is the opposite—to get into it. It is clearly a civil action. The poor woman (Luke 18, 18, 5) has had her little strip of land—room for a pigsty or a henrun—taken away from her by a richer and more powerful neighbour (nowadays it would be Town-Planners or some11other “Body”). And she knows she has a perfectly watertight case. If once she could get it into court and have it tried by the laws of the land, she would be bound to get that strip back. But no one will listen to her, she can’t get it tried. No wonder she is anxious for “judgement”.

Behind this lies an age-old and almost world-wide experience which we have been spared. In most places and times it has been very difficult for the “small man” to get his case heard. The judge (and, doubtless, one or two of his underlings) has to be bribed. If you can’t afford to “oil his palm” your case will never reach court. Our judges do not receive bribes. (We probably take this blessing too much for granted; it will not remain with us automatically). We need not therefore be surprised if the Psalms, and the Prophets, are full of the longing for judgement, and regard the announcement that “judgement” is coming as good news. Hundreds and thousands of people who have been stripped of all they possess and who have the right entirely on their side will at last be heard. Of course they are not afraid of judgement. They know their case is unanswerable —if only it could be heard. When God comes to judge, at last it will.”

—from “Reflections on the Psalms”, by C.S. Lewis

 

The Bible Isn't The Point

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John 5:30-47

30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

 
 

Jesus is mistrusted by the Jews and is here explaining who He is and what He’s doing. He tells them that the reason they should trust Him is because what the Father and what John the Baptist have said about Him, and also because the Old Testament prophesied about Him. Unfortunately, though they “search the Scriptures” they have missed the point of the Bible—the Bible itself isn’t the point, the point is the Lord to whom the Scriptures testify.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:
We have completed another month of readings, and I hope you are learning more about the Bible. But the whole reason for doing this at all—the whole reason I spend all this time reading and writing—is so that you will come to have faith in Jesus and life in His name.

So, here’s our prayer for the day:
“Lord, use the words of your Scriptures to bring me more alive in You.”

 

Insight Into The Trinity

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John 5:19-29

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

 
 

Here, Jesus is explaining the life and love the Son shares with the Father, through the Spirit.

  • The result of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is that those who are in Jesus—i.e., those who trust and believe in Him—also share in His Sonship;

  • Jesus is the Son, who, through His loving obedience to the Father, carries out the Father’s will;

  • Through His death and resurrection, all who trust Him have been adopted into the family of God;

  • The love the Father has for the Son is now poured out on us through the Holy Spirit.

This is another way of thinking about salvation, with trinitarian language—the Son came to bring us back into the love of the Father, and the Father’s desire is to share the love He has for the Son, and the Spirit is the love They share.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
How is our understanding of God changed by understanding that God is trinity?

 

Why Did The Jews Want To Kill Jesus?

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John 5:18

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

 
 

John tells us that the reason the Jewish authorities wanted to kill Jesus is because they believed He was blaspheming by equating himself with God. But what we the readers have known since the first verse of John’s Gospel is that Jesus actually was God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [John 1:1]

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
The dividing line between Christianity and all other religions is the identity of Jesus—other religions may say Jesus was a prophet or a spiritual being or a good teacher, but only the Christian faith says that Jesus is God.

 

Jesus's Work = The Father's Work

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John 5:9b-17

9b Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

 
 

God “works” on the Sabbath, since God upholds reality constantly, seven days a week. When God causes the sun to rise on the Sabbath, e.g., He is not violating the fourth commandment—rather, He is making life itself possible. When questioned, Jesus identifies Himself with the Father and implies that they are both engaged in lawful work on the Sabbath.

P.S. We don’t know what Jesus means when He says, “Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you,” but the fact that the man immediately goes and informs on Jesus to the authorities isn’t a good sign!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Note how the healed man never thanks Jesus or gives glory to God. Let’s not make the same mistake today.

 

The Healing At The Pool On The Sabbath

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John 5:1-9a

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

 
 

Some of the invalids by the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem believed that the water in the pool of Bethesda—no doubt fed by a spring—had healing properties, but the lame man complains that he has no way of getting to the water. I love the question Jesus puts to the man, a question that cuts right to the heart of the matter, “Do you want to be healed?”

P.S. Eagle-eyed readers will notice that v.4 is missing in the ESV translation. This is because some of the oldest manuscripts don’t have this verse, and the editors have decided not to include it. This is a good example of how biblical scholarship works—editors have to make hard decisions about what to include or exclude. But the missing verse is included in a textual footnote in the ESV:

John 5:4 Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part: paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. 4 From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
If Jesus asked you what you wanted Him to do for you, what would you say?

 

Sign #2

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John 4:46-54

46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

 
 

There is something about desperation that opens up a person’s heart to Jesus. The desperate father’s plaintive request to Jesus—“Sir, come down before my child [literally “my little child”] dies”—is heartbreaking even after 2,000 years.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Why does desperation seem to open a person’s heart to Jesus? 

 

Like A Rolling Stone

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John 4:43-45

43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.

 
 

Jesus has had tremendous success in Samaria, which, you know, is filled with Samaritans!

But it’s time to move on. A rolling stone gathers no moss and “a prophet has no honor in his own hometown”—in other words, Jesus doesn’t want to overstay His welcome to the point that the people start to resent Him. So, He moves along.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Often those closest to us or who have known us the longest are the hardest to reach with the gospel. Why do you think that is?

 

This Mess Of A Woman Is Now An Evangelist!

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Our Bible Study has been moved to Wednesday, February 26, due to inclement weather expected in Tulsa.

 

John 4:39-42

39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”

 
 

Talk about an unlikely evangelist! This poor, lost Samaritan woman becomes an evangelist. John specifically uses one of his key words when describing her work—“testimony.”

Beautifully, the townspeople tell her that they investigated for themselves, and they too now believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
This is a perfect picture of what evangelism ought to look like: the Samaritan woman telling other people what Jesus has done for her, inviting them to come and see Jesus for themselves, and then they themselves experiencing the life He offers. It is, in other words, a “harvest” (see John 4:35–38).

 

When You Reap What You *Didn't* Sow

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Our Bible Study has been moved to Wednesday, February 26, due to inclement weather expected in Tulsa.

 

John 4:27-38

27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

 
 

The disciples encounter Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman and they are so shocked that they don’t say anything! She leaves and invites the townspeople to come and see Jesus. In the meantime, the disciples start talking to Jesus about food; He replies by talking about obedience, which He implies is satisfying:

34 My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work [John 4:34].

Then Jesus pivots and makes the point that there is a lot of spiritual work to be done, work that has been prepared for in the past:

38b Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor [John 4:38b].

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
That’s just a true statement, isn’t it? We are all beneficiaries of the work of those who have come before us. 

 

He's Not Talking About "Water," Is He?

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Our Bible Study has been moved to Wednesday, February 26, due to inclement weather expected in Tulsa.

 

John 4:7-26

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

 
 

This woman—a Samaritan, seen by the Jews as unclean—is out by herself in the middle of the day. She is ostracized from her community—who goes to the well in the heat of the day?—and is therefore totally shocked when Jesus approaches her. Women couldn’t initiate divorce in that culture, so she has been used (abused?) by a series of different men. She’s a mess. Jesus reaches out to her. (Love goes first.)

As the conversation begins, she thinks they are talking about water, but Jesus is talking about life in the Spirit. (In Greek, fresh, running water is called “living water.”) He says that the life that He brings will be like having a spring of water flowing up out of a person. He’ll say something similar in 7:37–38:

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ [John 7:37–38].

The Samaritan woman is intrigued by what Jesus is telling her, and she tentatively begins to talk to Him about theological issues. Jesus explains to her that God’s plan to save the world begins with the Jews, but that once the Spirit comes, the literal place where worship happens will not matter. The temple was the place where God’s presence “dwelt,” but Jesus is now the place where heaven and earth meet (see 1:14), and after His death and resurrection the Holy Spirit will be with all who believe in Him.

All this discussion prompts this poor woman to turn in faith toward Jesus, and He reveals Himself to her. It’s a powerful moment.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Why do you think Jesus uses the metaphor of water to describe life lived in the Spirit?

 

Jesus Leaves Israel

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John 4:1-6

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 
 

Later in this passage John will tell us “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” [John 4:9]. But, one of the things the Old Testament prophets said would happen when the Messiah came is that He would draw all peoples to Himself. So, Jesus is here doing something unexpected for a Jewish man—deliberately placing Himself somewhere where He will have interactions with non-Jews. Why? So, He can fulfill his mission. This is what He says later in the Gospel:

32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself [John 12:32].

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Looking ahead, we will see that the Samaritan woman Jesus talks to is much more open to His message than was Nicodemus, a “teacher of Israel” (see chapter 3). Why do you think that outsiders are sometimes more open to Jesus than insiders?

 

Why It's Good To Know Your Place

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John 3:22-36

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

 
 

John the Baptist knows his place. He is “of the earth…and speaks in an earthly way” whereas Jesus “comes from heaven.” Consequently, John has no problem with Jesus getting more attention and more credit. But this is not a bad thing, because John’s role is to prepare the way for Jesus, but Jesus’s role is to offer eternal life.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
It is a good thing to know your place. We cannot save ourselves; we cannot gain eternal life on our own, nor can we offer it to anyone else, nor can we raise the dead. So, when I know my place—to point people to Jesus—it is a freeing place to be, because I don’t have the pressure of having to save the world: Jesus is the Savior of the world, and all I need to do is trust Him and point other people to Him. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

 

Do You Know John 3:17?

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John 3:16-21

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 
 

John 3:16 is rightly understood as a beautiful summary of the entire biblical story. Unfortunately, 3:17 is much less well-known, which is a shame because it helps fill out and explain v.16.

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him [John 3:17].

The entire reason for the Incarnation was to save people! This raises the question, though, as to why people killed Jesus. The answer: because they preferred to stay in the dark rather than come into the light.

Light and dark are important themes in the Gospel of John, and here we see that there is a battle going on between light and dark. But John has already told us in the Prologue that light wins:

5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it [John 1:5].

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
How might John 3:17 help our unbelieving world better understand the gospel?

 

Jesus The Snake

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John 3:9-15

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

 
 

In v. 14, Jesus is referring to a story in the Old Testament book of Numbers. There is a plague of snakes attacking the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–9), and the Lord tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake and put it on a pole—anyone who then looks at the pole is saved. It’s a very strange story that only makes sense after the crucifixion and resurrection; after Jesus is raised, we can see that the thing that was meant for death—the cross—is the thing that makes life possible. The Old Testament story about the bronze snake was meant to teach the Israelites to be prepared for what God would ultimately do on the cross.

As with the snake, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the same thing is going to happen to Him: He will be “lifted up,” i.e., crucified, but his lifting up will make life possible for all who “look,”—i.e., believe—in Him.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
In the Roman world, the cross was a symbol of hideous cruelty, and yet it was exactly that image that the early church adopted as a sign of the gospel.

 

Above? Again?

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John 3:1-8

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

 
 

In chapters 2–4, Jesus keeps interacting with an important Jewish institution or theme, and through each interaction, Jesus further reveals who He is and that what He is able to do far exceeds what the Old Covenant could offer. He then offers His hearers a choice to either turn toward Him in faith and believe, or turn away from Him in unbelief. Here, Jesus interacts with a “teacher of Israel” (3:10), that is, the Jewish leadership and authority structure. Once again, the interaction will show that Jesus is superior to what has come before.

You will not understand this interchange between Nicodemus and Jesus if you don’t understand that in Greek the same word means “again” and “from above.”

Jesus tells Nicodemus that the only way to take part in what God is doing and live in the eternal life of God (“see the kingdom of God”) is to totally reorient one’s life to live it according to God’s perspective and God’s values, that is, to be “born from above” through the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus is saying that for a person to live in God’s life it will require a radical reorientation of a person’s life, a reorientation—as He will explain to Nicodemus later on—that is only possible through the Holy Spirit. This is how it works:

  • The Old Testament Law offered life to those who obeyed it but death to those who disobeyed it;

  • The Father Himself fulfilled the Law’s demands by sending His own Son.

  • Jesus, as the faithful Israelite, perfectly followed the Law, thereby bringing life and blessing to all who trust Him;

  • While at the same time God condemned sin once and for all by nailing it to the cross and thereby defeating it;

  • The Son of God died in place of unfaithful Israel, and He brought sin down with Him;

  • Sin and death stayed dead, but Jesus was raised to new life in the power of the Spirit;

  • And now those who trust Jesus live by the Spirit, who enables them to actually fulfill the Law and live righteous lives;

  • Living in the Spirit is eternal life, which the Son came to bring.

And how does one receive this Spirit-life? Through a radical reordering of one’s life that begins with repentance or turning back from destruction, asking for mercy, and trusting that Jesus offers life. Jesus’s shorthand way of explaining all of this to Nicodemus is summed up this way: “You have to be born from above.” And the beautiful thing is that this life is available to anyone, anywhere—“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (v.8).

Nicodemus is a member of the Jewish religious establishment, but he totally missed the point; rather, he thick-headedly thinks Jesus is talking about literally being born through childbirth a second time!

Jesus is talking about how the Holy Spirit changes a person, but Nicodemus totally misses it.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
The same blindness is constantly present around us. If people decide to turn aside from God, they are more and more lost, more and more blind. But, if people turn toward God in faith, then they see more and more clearly through the power of the Holy Spirit. This explains how something can be so obvious to us in the church and yet the world can totally miss it.

 

Jesus Knows What Is In A Man

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John 2:23-25

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

 
 

Belief in Jesus is normally a good thing, but here Jesus mistrusts the belief of many of the people because He knows their hearts. In other words, Jesus knows that the folks at the Passover feast were only superficially interested in Him because of what He was able to do. And He’s right: these same people will eventually call for Him to be crucified (see 19:15).

Later in the Gospel, John tells us that the reason why some people who believed in Jesus didn’t follow through on that belief is because they were afraid of the religious leaders:

42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God [John 12:42–43].

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
Today, are your actions being driven by fear of God or fear of man?