Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / March 26 - John 5

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March 26 - John 5 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello, friends. It's Sean here.
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  It's Wednesday. It's the 26th of March.
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  And you have said, come on, Sean, come into my day.
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  Let us read the Bible together. And that is what we're going to
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  do. We're going to be continuing
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  along in this book of John where we don't just hear what Jesus
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  does, but we hear the stories around why he doesn't and what
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  he's thinking and what he's sharing with his disciples and
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  the way that he's testing their faith and growing their faith
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  and challenging their assumptions.
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  And as he does that with his disciples back in those days,
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  well, I think he's doing that with us as well as his disciples
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  here today. So as we hear today's reading,
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  let us just lay bare, hold gently all of the things that we
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  think we know to be true, and let God's words wash over us and
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  convict us of His truth so that our beliefs can be held up in
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  the light of His Word. So let's do that, friends.
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  Let us hear His words as captured in John chapter 5.
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  Afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish
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  holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep
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  Gate, there was the pool of Bethesda with five covered
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  porches. Crowds of sick people, blind,
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  lame or paralysed, lay on the porches.
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  One of the men lying there had been sick for 38 years.
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  When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he
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  asked him, Would you like to get well?
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  I can't, Sir, the sick man said. For I've had no one to put me
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  into the pool. When the water bubbles up,
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  someone else always gets there ahead of me.
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  Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat and walk.
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  Instantly the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat
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  and began walking. But this miracle happened on the
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  Sabbath. So the Jewish leaders objected.
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  They said to the man who was cured, You can't work on the
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  Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to
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  carry that sleeping mat. But he replied, The man who
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  healed me told me, Pick up your mat and walk.
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  Who said such a thing as this? They demanded.
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  The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.
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  But afterward Jesus found him in the temple and told him, Now you
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  were well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen
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  to you. Then the man went and told the
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  Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.
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  So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the
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  Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, My Father is
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  always working, and so am I. So the Jewish leaders tried all
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  the harder to find a way to kill him.
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  For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his
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  Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
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  So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth, the Son can do
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  nothing by himself. He does only what He sees the
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  Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the
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  Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and
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  shows him everything he is doing.
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  In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works
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  than healing this man. Then you will truly be
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  astonished. For just as the Father gives
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  life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to
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  anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges
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  no one. Instead, he has given the Son
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  absolute authority to judge so that everyone will honour the
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  Son just as they honour the Father.
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  Anyone who does not honour the Son is certainly not honouring
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  the Father who sent him. I tell you the truth, those who
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  listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal
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  life. They will never be condemned for
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  their sins, but they have already passed from death into
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  life. And I assure you that the time
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  is coming. Indeed, it's here now when the
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  dead will hear My voice, the voice of the Son of God, And
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  those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself,
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  and He has granted that same life, giving power to His Son,
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  and He has given Him authority to judge everyone because He is
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  the Son of Man. Don't be so surprised.
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  Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves
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  will hear the voice of God's Son, and they will rise again.
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  Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life,
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  and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience
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  judgement. I can do nothing on my own.
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  I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgement is just
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  because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own
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  will. If I were to testify on my own
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  behalf, my testimony would not be valid.
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  But someone else is also testifying about me, and I
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  assure you that everything he says about me is true.
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  In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist,
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  and his testimony about me was true.
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  Of course, I have no need of human witnesses, but I say these
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  things so you might be saved. John was like a burning and
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  shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his
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  message. But I have a greater witness
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  than John, my teachings and my miracles.
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  The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they proved
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  that He sent me, and the Father who sent me has testified about
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  me himself. You have never heard His voice
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  or seen Him face to face, and you do not have His message in
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  your hearts because you do not believe me, the one He sent to
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  you. You search the scriptures
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  because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures
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  point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.
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  Your approval means nothing to me because I know you don't have
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  God's love within you. For I have come to you in my
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  Father's name, and you have rejected me.
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  Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them.
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  No wonder you can't believe. For you gladly honour each
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  other, but you don't care about the honour that comes from the
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  one who alone is God. Yet it isn't I who will accuse
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  you before the Father. Moses will accuse you.
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  Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes.
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  If you really believed Moses, you would believe me because he
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  wrote about me. But since you don't believe what
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  he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
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  Jesus, thank you for your truth. Thank You that you are truth and
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  that when we read the Scriptures, it's not the
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  scriptures that are going to bring us to eternal life with
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  you and the Father and the Spirit, but it's you, Jesus,
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  it's you. So when we read this scripture
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  together and when we hear your teaching, let us always be drawn
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  closer to you. Jesus, come to us and meet us in
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  your Word so that we can experience you more fully,
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  because it's in you, Jesus, and our relationship with you and
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  your magnificent generosity reaching out to us that we taste
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  that life that you give us. Ah, so we come before you now,
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  Jesus, our living, loving Saviour with whom we can have a
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  real relationship with. And we pray that you draw ever
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  closer to us. Well, your arms are already open
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  with nothing between us. May we always draw nearer to you
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  as you would have us. Oh, you are wonderful, Jesus,
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  and we're so delighted to know you and love you and be loved by
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  you. So we bask in that love and in
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  your presence and your company. And we pray all of this through
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  your life. Giving name Amen.