But nevertheless, He still responded. Prayer: I come to your throne of grace with boldness, because of grace, Father. Help me to make my suggestions, with faith and thanksgiving. They bring out the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now. In those seasons, we can be tempted to wonder — is it all worth it? What might life be like without God in the picture? After nearly five decades as a Christian, that thought occasionally circles my mind.
When Jesus ordered the jars be used for the miracle, He made a dangerous move. The jars were earmarked exclusively for the purification ritual that Jews performed when they entered a house. Using them to serve wine risked upsetting any Pharisees who might be attending the feast, or who would hear about what happened later. But as we will see tomorrow, this act was rich in symbolism, because Jesus was showing our cleansing would not come through old religious routines, but through His transforming work.
And the wine that was produced in an instant was celebrated as the very best. Prayer: Lord, when the road is hard and steep, help me to remember that living for You and with You is the very best way, whatever the challenges. Before we move on, we should know this beautiful episode is about far more than Jesus rescuing a hapless family from the embarrassment of a wine shortage.
We saw yesterday that following God leads to the best possible life, symbolised by the verdict that the wine Jesus provided was excellent, and it flowed in abundance — over a hundred gallons. Commentators debate the significance of the detail that John gives, that this episode happened on the third day of the week. Tuesday, on the Jewish calendar, is still the preferred day for weddings in Israel. The Jews view the third day as one of double blessing, the best day of the week to begin a new life.
To ponder: Consider the blessings and benefits of following Jesus. Among them were those who were blind, those who could not walk, and those who could hardly move.
John We arrive at a junction of absolute impossibility. A serious sickness strikes, a flourishing career is suddenly cut short, a marriage collapses, a church implodes. We pray, perhaps fast, and try to hope, but nothing changes. But as we visit the pool of Bethesda, where it was rumoured that healing occasionally happened, we glimpse a Jesus who can bring His power into the most desperate situations. Describing the gathering of chronically disabled people who clustered around the pool, John wants us to know just how desperate they were.
In life, he felt permanently shoved to the back of the queue, physically and socially broken. And you, together with all my readers, are in my prayers today.
Bad theology is a harsh taskmaster. It was erroneous superstition that compelled the chronically disabled to gather around the pool of Bethesda — a false idea that has crept into some translations of the New Testament. In most translations, the fifth verse follows immediately after the third — so there is no fourth verse. But some translations add in the idea that the source of the healing was an angel who occasionally stirred up the water, and whoever got to plunge in the pool first would be healed, regardless of the extent of their disease.
It seems that they were added later, to reflect a local superstition that existed among the Jews back then. The idea that God sanctioned a desperate race between people with severe disabilities, healing the one who managed to struggle into the waters first is heartless.
Prayer: Father, I pray all who have been wounded by illness and hurt by well-meaning but damaging words. Help us to walk in the truth of Your word. He knew that the man had been in that condition for a long time.
Surely knowing what we really want in life is vital, because having clear objectives will influence our decisions, nudge us to make sacrifices, and help us to establish our priorities. As Jesus calls us to put His kingdom first Matt. No one wants to suffer; anyone who has navigated the shadowlands of chronic sickness knows the longing for relief and health.
Nevertheless, Jesus put the strange question to this man who had spent decades hoping to be well, a question He also put to a blind man called Bartimaeus. But look again: was this what the disabled man really wanted?
In that culture, his ability to gain an income as a beggar would be seriously impacted if he were no longer disabled, and so, perhaps Jesus was reluctant to change his personal circumstances without express permission. And that points us to a deeper truth about the way Jesus approaches people in the Gospel narratives — He always does so with respect, honouring their dignity and right to choose, seeing not just an illness or a condition, but a person.
Prayer: Lord, help me to be respectful to others, responding to their expressed needs, rather than what I think they need. Thank you that You know us. I try to get in, but someone else always goes down ahead of me. We all know what it is to ask God to do something for us, anticipating that He will respond to our request in a certain way. Responding to the question about whether he wanted to be well, popular superstition caused the man to focus on the rumoured healing powers of the pool rather than Jesus.
John reminds us of the awful situation here: not only had the man experienced long-term disability, but in the desperate little community gathered at the pool called Bethesda, he was friendless. Whenever the waters moved probably because of an underground spring , others scrambled in ahead of him. But Jesus was and is endlessly surprising. It may be that, in responding to our prayers, He is actively working in a way beyond our view or our understanding.
His ways really are higher than ours. Perhaps, please God, there are delightful and unanticipated twists in the road ahead for us all. Prayer: Lord Jesus, when my experience of what You have done limits my openness to what You might do, may I know the joy of Your trustworthy but surprising character.
The law does not allow you to carry your mat. It was a wonderful time for the small, rural church. A new youth minister had arrived, armed with creative ideas, and now a lot of teenagers were not only attending the youth club, but coming to the Sunday morning service as well.
They were warmly welcomed by most of the congregation, but a few parishioners were not so keen. At Bethesda, the religious barons were far from happy, and like most people who spend their lives committed to correcting others, they were blinded to wonder. Ignoring the stunning miracle, they zoomed in on the issue of Sabbath. Technically, their statement was questionable; the Sabbath rules meant that you had to cease from your regular occupation.
He was guilty only of offending the picky, fault-finding Pharisees. Miracles large and small happen. Prayer: Lord, help me to see what really matters, so that when You move and the result is unfamiliar or uncomfortable, I still notice and celebrate the miracle. When Kay and I felt that we should become foster parents, we were nervous, and for good reason — we were only in our early twenties, and there were so many unknowns.
We sought a lot of advice, but our final decision to go ahead was based on the simple conviction that God had told us to do this. Nevertheless Jesus does tell people to do things, as this nowhealed man experienced. When we find ourselves in a season when our questions go unanswered, and the pathway seems unclear, may we move forward in obedience and trust. To ponder: Can you reflect on a time when you moved into a place of uncertainty and risk, just because of a solid sense that God was leading you in that direction?
Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. It was a harrowing conversation. It was unspeakably cruel. The caller, desperate to find a reason and a solution to the sickness, took a stab in the dark — and the distraught father was cut to the heart as a result. But that does not suggest that this is always the case. Jesus overturned that notion completely in his dealings with the man who had been born blind John In the Bible, sufferings are sometimes but not always judgment for sin e.
And the apostle Paul does talk about some sickness being specific judgment upon the congregation in Corinth 1 Cor. But to speculate about the root causes of illness is dangerous and destructive. Quack statements about sickness can damage people terribly. Prayer: Save me from offering thoughtless and hurtful comments, especially when I encounter others who are suffering.
I like stories that end happily — but as we considered earlier, perhaps this is not one of them. Following his encounter with Jesus at the Temple, the man headed straight to the religious authorities with the name of his healer. If that was his intention, the result was still disastrous. Certainly, his report was the catalyst for Jesus being persecuted v Sometimes those that we invest in the most can be the ones who turn against us with ferocious spite. The pain that Jesus expressed at the betrayal of Judas shows how treachery wounds Matt.
And if I find myself in a place where those I like or love turn against me, please enable me to respond with wisdom and grace. He was even calling God his own Father.
He was making himself equal with God. As Jesus became the centre of criticism and persecution, we see where all this is going: John is pointing to Him as God, a claim that the religious leaders viewed as blasphemy. John emphasises the repeated attempts that the religious leaders made to kill Jesus , 25; , Vague spirituality is quite fashionable these days.
Spirituality is seen to be cool, and useful, if it helps me get through life. He is the Son of God, worthy of worship and absolute loyalty — the only way to the Father. Such truths got Him into trouble. Standing with Him as the only way to God may get us into some hot water, too. Help me to stand kindly but confidently on that truth, whatever the cost might be. There he sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. Such was the brilliant script-writing that we now see a trail of subtle clues were embedded in the unfolding plot, each one ultimately pointing to the identity of the villain.
In writing his Gospel, John continually uses rather obvious clues, but his mission is to point us, not to a criminal, but to the Saviour of the world. He is the provider and source of all that is needed for human beings, every one of us, everywhere in the world.
Living as a Christian is not a weird life choice for a certain type of religious person, but the way God has prescribed for everyone, without exception. Prayer: Lord, in a world where I can often feel that my choice to follow You is odd and out of step, help me to remember that Your way is the right way for all. Visiting a church as a guest speaker, the minister shared an announcement prior to my sermon. Our Jewish friends take a much more holistic view, refusing to compartmentalise life into spiritual and sacred boxes.
While his concern was primarily about their lostness, His care for them was deeply practical — they needed a meal. Prayer: Father, You care for me — all of me. I thank you for food, for play, for friendship, for fun.
Every good gift comes from You, and I am grateful. Perhaps now more than ever, we have become a culture of spectators. Get rid of them — problem solved. Jesus had other ideas which involved faith and effort. The world is changed, not by the keyboard warriors who take to social media and make loud and aggressive pronouncements about what needs to happen, but by the many selfless souls who roll up their sleeves and embrace the often tiresome and thankless trek of taking responsibility.
To ponder: What responsibility for world change and service are we taking, or might take? He already knew what he was going to do. Growing up in Essex, England, we lived near a small bridge.
One day, peering down at the waters below, I spotted a haul of treasure floating by in a leather bag. Retrieving it and finding a big selection of jewellery, I took it to the police station and heard that they would have the contents valued and, if nobody claimed it, the treasure would become mine.
Testing is different to temptation, which is an invitation to sin, whereas testing is an opportunity to trust. Elsewhere Scripture talks repeatedly about our faith being proven as authentic, usually through the trials of life. God often redeems the difficult seasons of life, wanting us to not just survive our darker days, but to grow in trust and faith as we walk those unwelcoming and shadowy pathways.
Prayer: When testing times come, unwelcome as they are, grow me in faith and intimacy with You, faithful God. I believe in God. My difficulty is that I can hold firmly to my belief in a good, loving and interested God — but then live as if He is not there at all. Crisis does that to me.
I focus on the mountainous challenges, and scarcely consider that God might do something to help. Sometimes my lack of expectation is fuelled by disappointment. Because I have previously asked of God and not received, I back away from hope.
But faced with a shortage of provision — in this case, food — Philip viewed the logistical problem from a merely human standpoint. In both stories, there was not only plenty for all, but leftovers, too.
God is. Prayer: When my faith seems like an irrelevant theory, increase my faith, and enable me to see life through the lens of Your reality, presence and power, mighty God. When eating out or in the homes of Christian friends, I often come to a moment of tension.
The food is served, I eye it eagerly, and then hesitate. It was then that they realised who He was, perhaps because this was such a part of His practice, although it was likely that every good Jew would pray this way before eating. And this was the most basic of meals, because barley bread was the staple diet of the poor. Ingratitude is ugly. And being thankful is part of that education. Prayer: I want to excel in thankfulness, Lord.
May I have eyes to see Your blessing, and a tender heart to live gratefully for it. You are good. He gave them as much as they wanted. And he did the same with the fish. As with the Cana event, John wants us to know there was more than enough for everyone that day. There was no rationing in the distribution — each took what they wanted.
That means that, on that wonderful day, some took more than they needed, because the miracle would not have continued once the food distribution was complete. I come from a working-class background where, growing up, there was very little spare cash, and I can be tempted to spend too much time and energy thinking about having enough. Saving is prudent, and budgeting matters. Money is not the root of all evil — the love of it is.
But I want to avoid the ugly, grabbing mentality where, despite all that we have and perhaps take for granted, we always want more, because greed is never satisfied. Save me from the endless dissatisfaction that greed brings. Just as Moses had led the people out of captivity and had been used by God to provide bread manna for the journey, now Jesus had performed a sign that echoed that ancient event.
So it seems that those who participated in that amazing, miraculous meal understood what Jesus was doing when He performed that Kingdom sign, but then quickly came to a totally wrong conclusion about what kind of King he was.
Throughout the Gospels, we see that the people of Israel had an expectation of a military Messiah, one who would overthrow the hated Romans and establish Israel as an independent nation once again, with a Messianic leader ruling from a throne in Jerusalem. But Jesus was on a mission that was greater by far than the emancipation of a particular people in a specific time in history. He is the liberator, not from the Romans, but from the shadows of sin.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, give me eyes to see what You are doing, especially when Your intentions are far greater than my expectations.
Theroux chronicles the tactics of Westboro Baptist Church, an American cult group that pickets the funeral of fallen military personnel and continues a campaign of hatred towards the LGBTQ community. There is no invitation to grace, no call to love — just spite, all wrapped in Scripture. Worst of all, they do this in the name of Jesus. In much more subtle ways, we can do the same. When we Christians bicker about incidentals, resort to ranting instead of discussion, act indifferently towards the marginalised — in countless ways, we can hinder the mission of God.
As we see Jesus being forced into overnight isolation, hindered and restricted because of a crowd that wanted to kidnap Him and then make Him king, we have to challenge our own hearts. Do people look at us and feel compelled to find out more about our Jesus — or are they more likely, because of us, to want to ignore or reject Him, hindering the mission of God? Jesus calls us, not to show off, but to live lives that shine, and point the way home to the Father. To ponder: What other ways has the Church hindered rather than helped the purposes of Jesus?
How might we have done that in our own lives? The people saw the sign, but failed to grasp the significance of the miracle, and seemed only interested in the potential of continuous bread supply, courtesy of Jesus. Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow wrote: At one time theologians argued that the chief purpose of humankind was to glorify God.
Now it would seem that the logic has been reversed: the chief purpose of God is to glorify humankind. Spirituality no longer is true or good because it meets absolute standards of truth or goodness, but because it helps me to get along. I am the judge of its worth. If it helps me to find a vacant parking space, I know my spirituality is on the right track. If it leads me in to the wilderness, calling me to face dangers I would rather not deal with at all, then it is a form of spirituality I am unlikely to choose.
Earlier we saw that God cares about our stomachs — but when our stomach is our God, our priorities are seriously wrong. Prayer: Jesus, help me to faithfully follow You, not just for benefits and blessings, but because of who You are, my Saviour and Lord.
No one who comes to me will ever go hungry. And no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty. God refuses to be boxed in. And as Jesus affirms that He is the bread of life — the very basic substance of existence — we remember again that we are not just dealing with a Galilean rabbi, but with the one without whom nothing was made that has been made John And what a wonder is His creation.
Hold up a twenty-pence piece against the night sky, and that tiny coin will be covering fifteen million stars in our Milky Way. A sun explodes with each tick of the clock.
The light that He has made travels at , miles per second. Inside our heads, there are billion brain cells, each one having as many as ten thousand connections to other nerve brain cells. We are fearfully and wonderfully made Psa. He is the source of everything. There are no words that begin to describe His mighty power. Jesus, the bread of life, is not an option for living — He is the only route to real life.
Without Him, we endure mere survival. And with Him, we are friends with the mightiest King in Creation, truly — the great I am.
Prayer: I stand in awe of Your mighty power, Creator God, and yet You care for the details of my little life. I worship You. Meeting up with a friend from Bible college days, we laughed about some of our crazier student days, but then were saddened as we recalled that some fellow students are no longer walking with Jesus — the casualty rate is high.
One of the unusual sides of Jesus the rabbi is that He kept giving His apprentices the opportunity to leave Him — or, more positively, to reaffirm their commitment to Him as they realised the cost of following in His footsteps.
When they first became His disciples, they had no idea what it would mean, even though He warned them that being with Him would cost them dearly. The resurrected Jesus takes Peter and his weary friends out for breakfast, and it is here that Peter is restored from his failure and denial, but he also learns there are very tough times ahead, including martyrdom.
And with that understanding, he was once again issued an invitation from Jesus: will you follow me? Life has been bruising. Yet He is still who He says He is — the bread of life. Will we leave Him, or continue to follow, today? Prayer: When the road is all uphill, and my mind and heart are weary, may I choose to walk with You, faithful Jesus, all the way home. You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus was and is it!
Peter was capable of such impetuousness, often speaking without thinking and being soundly rebuked for it. Christ alone is the life, and Christ alone has beaten death. Prayer: Lord, may I live for You, regardless of circumstances, and right to the very end. Waking in the small hours after a long flight, the hotel room was pitch black.
I gingerly fumbled my way around the walls, desperate for a light switch, which took a while, including some collisions, and prompted some unChristian muttering. When John talks about darkness and light, he is not just recording the time of day.
Like an artist with a colour palette, John uses day and night to capture the mood of a moment as well as the timing of it. John uses a similar tactic, not only in his first epistle 1 John , but also as he recounts the story of the disciples caught in a terrifying storm, and then the miracle that unfolds as Jesus strides across the turbulent waves.
Prayer: I am grateful, Lord, that light has come into our dark world. You have not abandoned us - you have come close and given everything to be our light. Thank you. And as a result of that instruction, they find themselves in danger. They paid the heaviest price of martyrdom because of their obedience to the great commission.
Right now, as your eyes pass over this sentence, there are believers around the world who are fearful of a knock at their door. They are being hunted down because they love Jesus and are responding to His costly calling.
And closer to home, it may be that you are being criticised, mocked or marginalised because you are a Christian. May you be strengthened in the storm, but not surprised when the storm comes. To ponder: Although Scripture clearly says that we should not be surprised by trial, we often get resentful when it arrives.
Why is that? They rowed three or three and a half miles. John — Some of my greatest failures in life have been in areas where I felt most competent. A challenge presents itself, and I rush to think that I can handle this, because I have the skills, the strength and the resources to deal with the problem.
Last week I completed my twenty-third year of ministry here at Grace Bible Church, and today I begin my twenty fourth year.
There are times that I want to present to you things that have been weighing on my mind and heart and this is a proper occasion for doing so.
In the opening message, John MacArthur made a statement about the church being in a crises of discernment. The problems in the church around the world that the conference would be addressing had developed to a large degree because so many professing Christians are lacking discernment. That brought into focus several issues that have arisen within our own church that I have had to deal with over the last six months or so. Though the particular issues are quite diverse, what they all have in common is a lack of discernment.
For that reason, I want to give a Call to Discernment. As a warning, I know that some of what I will say could be taken as offensive to some of you. While I have no desire to unnecessarily offend anyone, I do have a responsibility before God to clearly explain His word and make application of it to the issues of our day. I am asking you in advance to remain calm and carefully consider the Scriptures and their application even if you do not like what I say or how I say it. Take notes and prove yourself to be wise.
If you are wise, you will respond the same way because our mutual goal must be to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ as closely we possibly can. Lovingly challenging each other is part of that. Discernment does seem to be at an all time low. Even what should be very obvious has become confusing to many people.
There are many reasons for this, but at the foundation is the loss of how to determine truth and error and the increasing rejection of the Bible as the word of God. As people increasingly follow the vain philosophies and foolish speculations of men, there is a corresponding reduction in discernment. It includes the concept of being able to distinguishing between things.
This is knowledge that is much greater than just having a lot of facts. It can distinguish between those facts along with the ability to use them to make proper judgements. In Proverbs ,this is especially applied to distinguishing between right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust. God desires that we develop the ability to detect, recognize and identify things as separate and distinct. We are to develop discernment between that which comes from Him and that which comes from men, between that which is true and that which is false.
Without the ability to discern, a person remains immature and subject to the false teaching that abounds in our land. God has often tested His people to see whether they would follow Him or not, but it takes discernment to know the difference. Let me. Exodus is the first example. The children of Israel are in the wilderness after having been freed from their bondage in Egypt.
The food they brought with them is running out and they are beginning to complain. God tells them that He would provide food for them in a special way.
Those familiar with the story know that many did not. Contrary to the command, some tried to store what they gathered overnight and it became wormy and foul. Some went out anyway, but found no Manna and so went hungry. Judges reveals the specific reason the Lord left so many of the Canaanite people in the land after the conquest. Each of those nations became a thorn in the side of Israel for the nation would forsake the Lord and turn to the false worship of the surrounding nations.
The Lord would then chastise them causing them to repent after which the Lord granted them a deliverer. It would not take long for the people to turn away from the Lord and go back to the idols of the pagan nations.
That cycle was repeated over and over again throughout both the period of the judges and the kings. Deuteronomy explains the testing that would come to them in the form of false prophets. Over 3, years have passed since God gave that warning through Moses, but the truth is still present for today. There has not been any fundamental change since those ancient times. Many false religions and cults have developed since then, but they are all still false teachers which God allows to test people whether they will love and follow God or not.
It was then and it still is now a two fold test. First, what is the truth about what God has commanded. Second, obedience to that command. False religions such as Hinduism, paganism, Islam, human secularism, Scientology, Taoism, Jainism, Buddhism, the New Age movement and many others should be obvious, yet many professing Christians adopt ideas from these religions to incorporate with their own beliefs. They seem to be oblivious to the fact that beliefs such as reincarnation and karma and eastern mystical practices such as yoga, transcendental meditation and visualization are antithetical to Biblical doctrine and practice.
They lack either basic discernment or are just flagrantly disobedient to God. Some of these should be easy to identify because they believe their books are superior to the Bible, they flagrantly contradict the Bible, and they have a different Jesus. Yet there are over 11 million people in this cult and countless millions more think it is just another sect within Christianity. Where is the discernment? Other cults are a little more difficult to figure out because they do use the Bible and are often very good at twisting Scripture to fit their doctrines.
It can take a little time to learn that they can only interpret the Bible according to what the Watchtower society proclaims, that they deny the trinity, that their Jesus is a transmutating created being who was Michael the Archangel, then became the human Jesus who died on a stake, then was resurrected spiritually but not physically.
Over seven million follow this cult. Then there are the many churches that have fallen for the false teachings of theological liberalism which has spread its heretical tentacles not only in the main line denominations, but also throughout many groups claiming to be evangelical. The Charismatic movement has not helped with its experientially based system of beliefs which leaves the door wide open for all sorts of aberration, heresy and apostasy to enter in.
That is the reason Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and so many others that teach false doctrine are accepted within the movement. The Lord tolerates false religions, cults, apostates and heretics because each of them is a test for us whether we will follow the Lord or men. How does a person begin to discern the truth from error?
How do you distinguish between what God actually wants and what people claim He wants? Please keep in mind that many if not most people involved in a false religion, cult or aberrant sect are very sincere in their false beliefs and claims. We begin with Deuteronomy 18 in which Moses foretells the coming of the future prophet Jesus and then address this question about false prophets.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him. I already pointed out from Deuteronomy 13 that a prophet encouraging worship of a false god was to be disregarded. Connect to Spotify. A new version of Last. View all tracks. View all albums. Scrobbling is when Last. Learn more. Add event View all events. Add image. Don't want to see ads? Upgrade Now. Javascript is required to view shouts on this page.
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