Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today we will complete the book of John 5-6. I’ll have comments on both chapters after the reading, and I’m calling today’s episode “The Pool at Bethesda.” 

Looking for the Chosen Video?

Unfortunately the Video Is no longer available.

Comments on John 5

After Jesus healed the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years, at the pool of Bethesda, the Jewish religious leaders were indignant that Jesus told the man to carry his mat on the Sabbath. Jesus answered their “offendedness” (to coin a word) in some detail, and then said this:

John 5:39-40

39 You search the Scriptures, because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, 40but you refuse to come to me for eternal life. (CEV)

39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. (NLT)

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. (NASB)

39‘Ye search the Writings, because ye think in them to have life age-during, and these are they that are testifying concerning me; 40and ye do not will to come unto me, that ye may have life; (Young’s Literal Translation)

39 You search and keep on searching and examining the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is those [very Scriptures] that testify about Me; 40and still you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. (Amp)

I show these different translations so that you could really get what Jesus was saying.

Let us not be like these people, beloved. You and I study the Scriptures together, but let us remember that the goal is not to become experts in Scripture. Our goal is to know *the* Word, as in John 1:1. “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”

If we study Scripture and miss Christ, we are as lost as the so called “religious experts” Jesus was speaking to at the pool.

To know Him, to love Him, to put our trust in Him, is life.

Amen? Amen!

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 5 CEV; Ch. 6 NIV

Support

This a value for value podcast. There are no advertisers because advertising=censorship. If you enjoy the Lifespring Family Audio Bible, decide how much value it brings to you. Only you can make that determination. Then put a number on the value and send it to me here: SUPPORT.

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Steve Webb 0:00
Can you imagine?

Steve Webb 0:09
Hello, this is the Lifespring family Audio Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, podcasting since 2004. I’m your OG God caster Steve Webb, welcome. I’m so glad you’re here today. This is the daily show where we’re reading through the entire Bible in a year. Today, we’re going to read from the Gospel of John chapters five and six, I’m calling today’s episode, the pool of Bethesda. And I’ve got a heads up for you. This is going to be a short one today. It is of course the day before Resurrection Day, which is my preferred way to refer to Easter. And my guess is that you might have a lot on your plate. I know I do. So to respect your time, today’s show will be short as well Tomorrow’s the show notes page. And you’re gonna want to take note of this even if you’ve never been to the show notes page, but I want you to go to today’s show notes page for a very special reason, which I’ll tell you about in a few moments that we read. The show notes page for today is Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 227. You can email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com. And I think it’s about time to get started.

Steve Webb 1:14
John chapter five. Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for another Jewish festival. In the city near the sheep gate was a pool with five porches. And its name in Hebrew was Beth zeta. Many sick, blind, lame and paralyzed people were lying close to the pool. beside the pool was a man who had been sick for 38 years. When Jesus saw the man and realized that he had been crippled for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to be healed? The man answered, Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. I tried to get in. But someone else always gets there first. Jesus told him, pick up your mat and walk. Right then the man was healed. He picked up his mat and started walking around. The day on which this happened was the Sabbath. When the Jewish leaders saw the man carrying his mat, they said to him, this is the Sabbath. No one is allowed to carry a mat on the Sabbath. But he replied, The Man Who healed me told me to pick up my mat and walk. They asked him who is this man that told you to pick up your mat and walk. But he did not know who Jesus was in Jesus had left because of the crowd. Later, Jesus met the man in the temple and told him, you are now well, but don’t sin anymore, or something worse might happen to you. The man left and told the leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. They started making a lot of trouble for Jesus because He did things like this on the Sabbath. But Jesus said, My father has never stopped working. And this is why I keep on working. Now the leaders wanted to kill Jesus for two reasons. First, he had broken the law of the Sabbath. But even worse, he had said God was his father, which made him equal with God. Jesus told the people, I tell you, for certain the son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. And he does exactly what he sees the Father do. The Father loves the Son, and has shown him everything he does. The father will show him even greater things, and you will be amazed. Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life. So the Son gives life to anyone he wants to. The father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has made his son, the judge of everyone. The father wants all people to honor the Son as much as they honor him. When anyone refuses to honor the Son, this is the same as refusing to honor the Father who sent him. I tell you for certain that every one who hears my message in has faith in the One who sent me has eternal life, and will never be condemned. They have already gone from death to life, I tell you for certain the time will come. And it is already here. When all of the debt will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who listened to it will live. The father has the power to give life and he has given that same power to the son. And he has given his son the right to judge everyone because he is the son of man. Don’t be surprised. The time will come when all of the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man and they will come out of their graves. Everyone who has done good things will rise to life. But everyone who has done evil things will rise and be condemned. I cannot do anything on my own. The father sent me and he is the one who told me how to judge. I judge with fairness because I obey him and I don’t just try to please myself. If I speak for myself, there is no way to prove I am telling the truth. But there is someone else who speaks for Me, and I know what he says is true. You sent messengers to John, and he told them the truth. I don’t depend on what people say about me. But I tell you these things so that you may be saved. John was a lamp that gave a lot of light, and you were glad to enjoy his light for a while. But something more important than John speaks for me. I mean, the things that the Father has given me to do, all of these speak for me and prove that the Father sent Me. The Father who sent Me also speaks for me, but you have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. You have not believed his message because you refused to have faith in the one he sent. You searched the scriptures because you think you will find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, but you refuse to come to me for eternal life. I don’t care about human praise. But I do know that none of you love God. I have come with my Father’s authority, and you have not welcomed me. But you will welcome people who come on their own. How could you possibly believe you like to have your friends praise you and you don’t care about praise that the only God can give? Don’t think that I will be the one to accuse you to the Father, you have put your hope in Moses, yet he is the very one who will accuse you. Moses wrote about me. And if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me. But if you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how can you believe what I say.

Steve Webb 6:28
John chapter six. Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee, that is the Sea of Tiberius, and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover festival was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, it would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon, Peter’s brother spoke up. He was a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But how far will they go among so many? Jesus said, Have the people sit down, there was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down about 5000 men were there. Jesus then took the loaves gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples gathered the pieces that are left over, Let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, surely this is the prophet who was to come into the world. Jesus knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Copernican. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing, and the waters grew rough. When they had rode about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat walking on the water, and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is I don’t be afraid, then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples that that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered, very, truly, I tell you, you were looking for me not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on him, God the Father has placed His seal of approval. Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, the work of God is this to believe in the one he has sent? So they asked him, What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you, what will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, it is not most As who was given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, always give us this bread, then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life, Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me, and still you do not believe all those the Father gives Me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never drive away, For I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of all those He has given me that raise them up at the last day, for my father’s will, is that everyone who looks to the sun and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. At this, the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, I came down from heaven? Stop stopped grumbling among yourselves, Jesus answered, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me, no one has seen the Father except the one who is from God, only he has seen the Father, very, Truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life, I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here’s the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you, whoever eats my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food. And my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks, my blood remains in me and I and then, just as the living Father sent me at I live because of the Father. So the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died. But whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of His disciples said, this is a hard teaching who can accept it? Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? The Spirit gives life? The flesh counts for nothing? The words I have spoken to you, they are full of the spirit and life. You have there are some of you who do not believe for Jesus had known from the beginning, which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, this is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has enabled them.

Steve Webb 13:37
From this time, many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You do not want to leave to do you. Jesus asked the 12. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God. Then Jesus replied, have I not chosen you the 12 yet one of you is a devil. He met Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, who the one of the 12 was later to betray him. Let’s talk a little bit about John five, after Jesus healed the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, the Jewish religious leaders were indignant that Jesus told the man to carry his mat on the Sabbath. Can you imagine he healed a man who had been lame for 38 years? And they got mad at him for telling them man pick up your mat and walk? Unbelievable. Well, Jesus answered their offensiveness to coin a word in some detail. And then this is what he said. You search the Scriptures because you think you’ll find eternal life in them. The Scriptures tell about me, but you refuse to come to me for eternal life. Now, I’m going to read some other translations for you just so you can get it A real flavor for what Jesus was saying to them. The New Living Translation says, You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. And the New American Standard says, You search the Scriptures because you think that in them, you have eternal life. It is these that testify about Me and you are unwilling to come to me, so that you may have life. And then the Young’s Literal Translation reads a little bit strange, because it is a literal word for word translation. But listen to what it says, Ye search the writings, because you think in them to have life age during, in other words, eternal life. Now continuing, and these are they that are testifying concerning me, and you do not will to come unto me that ye may have life. And then one more just for good measure. The Amplified Version says that this way, you search and keep on searching and examining the scriptures, because you think that in them, you have eternal life. And yet it is those very Scriptures that testify about Me. And still you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. So I read these different translations, like I said, so that you could really get what Jesus was saying. Now, Beloved, let us not be like these people. You and I study the scriptures together. But let’s remember that the goal is not to become experts in Scripture. Our goal is to know the word as in John one one, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being through him. And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Listen, if we study scripture, and we miss Christ, we are as lost as the so called religious experts. Jesus was speaking to at the pool, to know Him, to love Him, to put our trust in Him. That is life. Amen. Amen. Now, by now, you’ve probably heard of the movie project called the Chosun. If you haven’t, then you really must look for it and watch it. Now, here’s my homework for you. Yeah, I have homework today for you. Go to the show notes page Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 227. And watch the video I’m going to be putting up there. It’s from the Chosun. And it’s the scene we read about in chapter five where Jesus heals the man at the pool. It is such a beautiful scene, and it just touches my heart so deeply. Really, you have to watch it, do yourself a favor, even if you’ve already seen it. Go watch it again. Now, while you’re there, after you watch the video, scroll on down to the very bottom of the page. And leave me a comment on today’s show. I’d love to hear from you. Especially if you’ve never written before. Come on, leave a comment right there. bottom of the page. Can’t miss it. All right, tomorrow resurrection day, we’re going to begin the book of First Timothy will read the first three chapters. Again, it’s going to be a short show.

Steve Webb 18:32
Timothy LaFontaine said into $30 donation. And Timothy, thank you so much. God bless you, my brother, I appreciate you and your support. It means a lot to me. Now tell you beloved support like Tim’s really helps to keep things running here at the Lifespring family Audio Bible. If you enjoy the show, if it’s a valuable part of your life, then please consider returning some of that value to me to keep it going. Think about and pray about how much support you should send that’s between you and the Lord, and then go to Lifespring media.com/support. There are several payment methods that I’ve set up there to make it as easy as possible for you pick one of those methods and do as the Lord leads. Thank you and God bless you.

Steve Webb 19:26
On this date in church history, April 16 1922. I’ve never really mentioned on this show. I don’t think that I love to fly. I like to get on a plane and just go somewhere. And of course I like being behind the microphone too. And what happened on April 16 1922 Just kind of pushes both of those buttons for me. Belvin W Maynard was an ordained Baptist minister known as the flying parson. And on this date, he delivered the first sermon preached from an airplane by radio I think that is so cool.

Steve Webb 20:10
And now let’s pray Our Father in heaven, how are we thank You for Your Word, the Bible. We love reading and studying it not for the words on the page, but for the fact that they point us to you, the whole of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The words reveal to us your amazing love for us and the extent you went to redeem us, and when you reveal your character to us through the word, when we see Jesus for who he is, and what he did for us, and what he’s doing even now interceding for us at your right hand, when we learn how the Holy Spirit ministers to us and for us, Lord, we just can’t help but love you. Oh, Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us life everlasting life, when we were in Jesus. Lord, as we prepare to celebrate the resurrection, tomorrow, may we be moved like never before by what Jesus accomplished that morning when he threw off the bonds of sin and death. And that not happened, we would have nothing but he is risen, and death and the grave no longer have any power over those who believe in it. Tomorrow truly is a holy day, and we praise You for it. Lord, I pray that you bless the Lifespring family today. I thank you for each one who’s listening right now. Whenever there now is, I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. If you have something you’d like us to pray with you about or if you’ve got something you’d like us to rejoice with you about, please go to prayer dot Lifespring media.com and fill that form out you find it’s quick, it’s easy. And that’s what family does. We share with one another prayer dot Lifespring media.com.

Steve Webb 22:00
Please remember to share the show if you enjoy it. And if you don’t enjoy it. Why are you here? I mean, come on and comment on the show at Lifespring media.com/s 12 e 227. Watch that video there. Email me at Steve at Lifespring media.com support the show please at Lifespring media.com/support. And until tomorrow may God bless you richly. Thank you for inviting me to be with you today. One more time. Remember to go to the show notes page and watch that video. You’ll be glad you did. See you next time. Bye

Transcribed by https://otter.ai