John 5:1-24

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:2

Let us think of our intelligent plain man mentioned in chapter six coming for the first time to the reading of the Scriptures. He approaches the Bible without any previous knowledge of what it contains. He is wholly without prejudice; he has nothing to prove and nothing to defend.

Such a man will not have read long until his mind begins to observe certain truths standing out from the page. They...

For Reading and Meditation:     Ecclesiastes 4:1-12

The reason I have turned your attention for the moment from Proverbs and focused it on the book of Ecclesiastes (another book in the library of Wisdom Literature) is because today's passage shows us better than any other in the Bible the reason why friendship is so important. This passage is saying: it's a good...

For Reading and Meditation:     John 8:21-36

We saw yesterday that the phenomenon of catharsis comes about not simply through telling someone else our troubles, but when that other person is a warm, accepting and understanding individual. Psychologists believe the explanation for this to be the fact that the warm, accepting manner of the helper is so directly...

For Reading and Meditation:     Luke 15:1-10

We turn now to look at another aspect of Christianity's uniqueness - the issue of personal salvation. The vocabulary of salvation is distasteful to those of other religions and many insist we should give it up. They say, "It smacks of spiritual smugness and arrogance." But before we answer this criticism we must realize...

THE great Physician presents Himself to us this morning, and He asks, "Wilt thou be made whole? This is a searching question. Are you willing to be sanctified throughout? Willing that He should use what means He pleases, to conform you to Himself? Jesus is able to sanctify us wholly; the time of mercy is now; are we desirous of being healed? If so, let us put ourselves into His hands for the purpose; let us submit without hesitation to His terms; He performs the cure and receives all the...

Years are short to the happy and healthy; but thirty-eight years of disease must have dragged a very weary length along the life of the poor impotent man. When Jesus, therefore, healed him by a word, while he lay at the pool of Bethesda, he was delightfully sensible of a change. Even so the sinner who has for weeks and months been paralysed with despair, and has wearily sighed for salvation, is very conscious of the change when the Lord Jesus speaks the word of power, and gives joy and...

Like many others, the impotent man had been waiting for a wonder to be wrought, and a sign to be given. Wearily did he watch the pool, but no angel came, or came not for him; yet, thinking it to be his only chance, he waited still, and knew not that there was One near him whose word could heal him in a moment. Many are in the same plight: they are waiting for some singular emotion, remarkable impression, or celestial vision; they wait in vain and watch for nought. Even supposing that, in a...

We must always remember that whenever the Lord tells us to do something, He gives us the needed power. All His commands include His enablement, even when His commands are in the realm of the impossible.

Jethro said to Moses, "If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure"(Exodus 18:23). "The principle is that God assumes full responsibility for enabling His man to fulfill every task to which He has...

Here is an insight that has revolutionized and transformed many a life.

The duplication of "verily" or "truly" at the outset alerts us to expect something momentous. We will not be disappointed.

"I say unto you." The "I" is the Lord Jesus; we know that from verse 19. What we must also know is that when He says something, it is absolutely and invariably true. He cannot lie. He cannot deceive. He cannot be deceived. Nothing can be more sure and dependable than what He...

Twice in John 5:1-47 the Lord Jesus says that He can do nothing of Himself. In verse 19, He says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself…" Then again in verse 30 He says, "I can of mine own self do nothing…"

When we first read these verses, we are apt to feel disappointed. They seem to say that Jesus was limited in His power, just like ourselves. But if He is God, as He claimed to be, He must be omnipotent. How...