Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 50:1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
Read the entire Psalm
The Lord Speaks. Thank God for this reality. He is Mighty. He is God. He is the Lord. Rather than being distant or “too good for us” in some snobbish way, He speaks. Rather than ignore us, He speaks. We don’t have to wonder what He is thinking because He speaks. Praise the God who speaks.
Scripture Reading
John 5 – New International Version
The Healing at the Pool
5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. [4] 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”
11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”
12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”
13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
The Authority of the Son
16 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 17 In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 18 For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted 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 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come 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 judge because he is the Son of Man.
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Testimonies About Jesus
31 “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. 32 There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.
33 “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. 34 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. 35 John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
45 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. 47 But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanks to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray for the Muslim world. Pray for Muslims to encounter Jesus Christ through visions, dreams, and faithful witnesses. Pray for courage and perseverance to follow Jesus when it means loss of family, future, and even life.vPray for all efforts to silence the Gospel to instead propel it across the Muslim world.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
Imagine being one of those in that large group of disabled people waiting around the pool for the waters to be stirred and then trying to quickly get in hoping for a cure. It was a kind of superstitious competition. The first one in the water supposedly gets cured while the rest are out of luck. We know that one fortunate disabled man was picked out by Jesus to be healed, the rest, evidently were left in their illness. Again, put yourself in their place. You live in a time with no disability act (ADA), no special ramps and concessions for disabilities. It was a very hard life, and you would have very little hope. Now this guy Jesus shows up and heals the person next to you and leaves you in your physical suffering. What are you supposed to think about that? What DO you think about that? Was Jesus cruel for not healing everyone? Would he have been less cruel if he had healed no one? This gets the much larger issue of the goodness of God in the face of human suffering. We will not engage that larger question here, but I will say this, Jesus did not come to take away all temporary suffering. Jesus asked rhetorically, “What good would it do to gain the world and lose your own soul?” The answer, of course, is “no good at all.” He could also have asked the many around the pool wanting a healing, “What good would it do to gain physical health, for a few years, then die and lose your own soul?” We want relief from suffering. We want the best physical life possible now. Some, according to God’s plan, have more and some have less physical health than others. In the end, the little bit of time we spend in these bodies, either enjoying health or suffering with illness, will be of small consequence to the weight of eternity. I hope that if I were there and watched Jesus heal this man that I would say, “Jesus, heal me please.” And if he were to say, “No that is not my will for you.” That I would then say, “Okay, I still want to follow you, because you have the words of life.”