Well, we opened a new chapter in our study of John's gospel last week. You would turn please, if you would, to John chapter 5. We're going to look again this morning at the first 16 verses of John chapter 5. We just sort of worked through some introductory things last week and this morning now we're actually going to get down into the text a little bit and begin to look at some of the details. John chapter 5 verses 1 to 16. Let me begin this morning with a reading of the text and I know you just sat down, but why don't I have you stand again while I read the Word of God this morning. Would you mind standing as I read the sacred words of Scripture? Listen now. Get yourself familiar. I read this text for you last week. I'm going to read it again. This is a narrative account, and it's all about a healing. Jesus performed many healings while he was here. This is the record of one of those healings, and here's what it says. After these things there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted. A man was there who had been ill for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, do you wish to get well? The sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming, another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your pallet and walk. Immediately the man became well and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, it is the Sabbath and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet. But he answered them, he who made me well was the one who said to me, pick up your pallet and walk. They asked him, who is the man who said to you, pick up your pallet and walk? But the man who was healed did not know who it was for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. For this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. While you're still standing and before we go any further, let's pause for a moment to ask the Lord for his help as we study the word of God today. Thank you, Father, for this yet another Lord's Day opportunity that we have to study your word with your people in this place that you have so graciously provided for us. Teach us now, Father, we pray by your spirit as we study these words that you have breathed out of your mouth for us and then use them, Father, to accomplish what's on your agenda for today in my heart and life and in the hearts and lives of these people who are gathered here today. Father, we need your help. We ask for your help and we commit our time and the word to you now, praying all of these things in Jesus, precious, holy, wonderful name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, as I said a minute ago, we spent all of our time last week just working down through a list of preliminary things that I thought needed to be said about this text in order to set the stage for it, if you will. Quite frequently as we open a new text of scripture, there is a need for that and And it seemed that there was a need here. And so that's what we did. And so I thought I would begin our time today by giving you just a very quick reminder of those introductory things that we talked about last week. And so here we go. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because we did last week, but let me at least give you the list and a quick review of those things we talked about to set the stage for this text. The first thing, that we nailed down last week was the main message of this text, which is not what most people think it is from just a simple reading. From just a simple reading of this text, you might think it's all about a miracle. You might think it's all about a paralytic who got healed by our omnipotent Lord. And there is a sense, of course, in which it is about that. We just read it. We just read the narrative. There is a sense, of course, in which it is about that. But I made the point last week, and I'm going to make it again this morning, that this text is not primarily about that miracle. The miracle in this text is incidental to its main message. The miracle in this text is merely the vehicle through which the main message of this text comes through. That main message, as I shared with you last week, is reflected in the title that I've given this little series in these first 16 verses of John chapter five. The main message has to do with exposing the diabolical nature and damning influence of false religion. Please don't ever forget that that's why this text is here. That's really what this text is all about. And as we go on with our exposition this week and next week and probably the week after, you will see that very, very clearly. Now from the main message then last week, We went on to talk about a new theme in John's gospel that gets launched by this text. All through the first four chapters of this gospel, we have noted on several occasions how Jesus has taken measures to avoid a premature confrontation with the Jews. And you remember all of that. From their seething, jealous anger and their growing animosity, Jesus, of course, knew that that confrontation with them was inevitable. but he wanted to avoid it as long as possible, at least in those very early months of his public ministry, so that he could get the father's work done without the hindrance of that. And so that's why he got himself out of Judea, as you recall, in the early verses of John chapter four and headed North for Galilee. And that's also why then, He left the Samaritan city of Sychar after spending only two days there. Remember I pointed out to you, with things going pretty well there at Sychar, lots of people believed there in that Samaritan village, right? You would think that maybe he would have stuck around there for a while, but no. Two days and he was back on the road toward Galilee. Why? Well, because he wanted to avoid that premature confrontation with the Jews. Up to this point in the flow of John's gospel, Jesus has been trying to avoid that at all costs. But listen, as we come to John chapter 5 now and going forward in this gospel, in the Father's sovereign plan and timing, it is no longer going to be possible for Jesus to hold the jealous, angry Jews at bay. As I shared with you last week, This text at the beginning of John chapter five marks a turning point on that. It's this very text. It's the miracle in this text that Jesus performed on the Sabbath, right in the faces of these Jewish religious leaders. that will be the straw that finally breaks the camel's back. This miracle that we're studying in this text will formally launch people a serious and open campaign of persecution against Jesus by the Jews that from here on out, that will now follow him from here, where? All the way to the cross. For this reason, glance at verse 16 again, for this reason, it says in verse 16, Because of this miracle, because of what happened in this text, the Jews were now doing what? Persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. And as I demonstrated to you last week, That persecution equals a death warrant. All right. Here at the beginning of John chapter five, we're introduced to the first serious blow up by the Jews as they finally boil over and lash out with a vicious persecution of Jesus. All of that water that has slowly been building up behind the dam is here now. The dam is going to break. All right. And outlining that slow buildup then, was the third thing we talked about last week, if you recall. I just quickly swept you back through the first four chapters of John's gospel to remind you of those places where we have seen little glimpses of this animosity toward Jesus building. And I'm not going to get carried away here, but let me mention them quickly. It all started in chapter one when the Jews sent that delegation out to Bethany beyond the Jordan to interrogate John the Baptist. Remember that? What did we, what did we know right away from that? Well, we knew right away from that, that the Jews in Jerusalem were not very happy, right? Right. They're just a little bit, their noses are a little bit bent out of shape. They're not very happy about this man named Jesus. All right. From there, I reminded you of how the Jews all really got their noses bent out of shape. That was mild. They really got their noses bent out of shape and their egos bruised when, Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem at the end of chapter two with that little braided piece of rope, right? He drove them all out of the temple, right? With a piece of rope, right? The power of God was being manifested through that. That was a miracle, folks. That was a miracle. That was a miracle. And they all left. They had the fear of God and they all left. All of them left. Thousands of people dropped what they were doing and went running out of the temple, right? And so, I think it's pretty safe to say that the pride filled Jewish religious leaders never really quite got over that one. All right. So we got this little incident out in the wilderness with John Amathus. We've got this cleansing of the temple, right? And then as I've already said today, this growing hostility of the Jews and the desire to avoid a premature confrontation with them is what prompted Jesus to leave the wilderness of Judea and head North toward Galilee at the very beginning of John chapter four. And so what we've all seen coming, all through the first four chapters of this gospel is finally here. The animosity of the Jews toward Jesus finally boils over now for the first time in response to this Sabbath day miracle at the beginning of John chapter five, at which point now the false religious system is going to start very seriously, very aggressively, and very openly fighting back against their perceived threat. And so as a fourth item on my list of introductory things last week, we talked about two ways in which this false religious system is going to be fighting back from here on through the gospel of John. And so think with me about these things again. Number one, they're going to be fighting back. against their perceived threat by exerting a damning influence upon the people. Think about false religion, just like all of the world's false religions and cults still do today. Always remember, I think I mentioned this a couple of times last week, and I want to say it again today. Always remember that apostate Judaism in the New Testament is there to typify for us and represent for us all false religions of all times. It doesn't matter what the false religion is called. It doesn't matter who their supposed leader is. They're all typified. They all come from hell, right? Satan is behind them all. They all come from hell. They all exerting a damning influence on people, right? And they're all typified here in the New Testament by apostate Judaism, all through this gospel of John, we're going to see the Jews, right? They're the religious leaders of Jesus day, established religion, right? All through this gospel of John, we're going to see the Jews using their religious authority to threaten people. And how do they, what do they threaten people with? Excommunication. just like false religions and cults do today. They're going to threaten them with excommunication for violating their man-made laws. Under the tyranny of these false Jewish religious leaders, we're going to see people living in fear of being put out of the synagogue. And we're going to see that real clearly in John chapter nine. In fact, I think I took you there last week. What are these guys saying to the people? Well, they're saying basically this, we're the religious authorities here, folks. We hold the keys to heaven and you better do what we say or we're going to take those keys away. Doesn't false religion work? kind of in a similar way today? Cults, don't they work kind of in a similar way? They do! They absolutely do. It all comes right back here. The false Jewish apostate Judaism typifies all of that for us in the New Testament. But there's a second thing the Jews did. That, by the way, is the stranglehold, really, of false religion. And then we're also going to find these Jewish religious leaders throughout this Gospel of John conducting a relentless smear campaign against Jesus. What do they do? What do they say? All through this gospel to keep the people from defecting, the Jews are going to be telling them over and over and over again. If you've read the New Testament, you know, what are they going to say about Jesus? Jesus is a Samaritan. Jesus is a traitor. Jesus is demon possessed over and over and over again. You know, it's that whole idea. You say something, you tell a lie so many times people finally believe it, right? They say it over and over again. Jesus is a traitor. Jesus, uh, is a Samaritan and Jesus has a demon. He even does what he does by the power of Bilzebul, right? Right? I know you're seeing him doing all these wonderful things. Don't, don't, don't let that take you in. He's doing what he's doing by the power of Bilzebul. So they, they threatened the people. and they conduct this incredible smear campaign against Jesus. And of course, the people are already afraid of them anyway, because they represent established religion, right? They're the guys. They're the guys with religious authority. Secondly, then, and we talked about this as well, not only does it exert false religion exert a damning influence on people. But secondly, then this false religious system will fight back from here on through this gospel of John by aggressively trying to kill Jesus. That's what the persecution we just read about in verse 16 is all about. They are going to now aggressively try to kill Jesus at every turn. You'll read that all the way through the gospel of John and the other gospels as well. From here on out, they are going to be bent on killing him. And they will attempt to do that. on every turn. And so at the end of our time last week, if you recall, I took a few minutes to sort of sweep you through the gospel of John, just to show you a few of those assassination attempts. And wasn't it interesting to notice how many times when they would try to assassinate Jesus, he just sort of eluded them. He just escaped. We're not even given any details in the text. He was gone. He got away. He got away. And why was that? Because he's God and because, number two, his hour hadn't come yet, right? That's why. They're just frustrated. Why can't we just grab this guy like we grab other guys, right? They couldn't because he's God and his hour had not yet come, right? From here on out, they're going to be trying to kill him and And so we looked at some of those things, those assassination attempts, leading all the way up to the successful one, of course. We ended last time in John 19. In fact, I read a good portion of that chapter, which is a record of the successful assassination attempt. That's where they executed our Lord. And let me just say that it was successful, not because of the Jews, right? Why was it successful? It was successful because it was in the sovereign plan and will of God for our Lord to suffer, bleed, and die on an ugly Roman cross when his hour finally had come. And why did he do that? He did that for you, and he did that for me, right? It was in the Father's redemptive plan, right? And so it happened. And let's go back to John chapter 5. That's all review, all right? I just thought it might be good to run that by you real quick here again. Let's go back to John chapter 5 now to begin our verse-by-verse exposition of the text today. It's here where we're going to learn all about the event, people, now that would trigger this persecution of Jesus that is going to follow him, this open hostility and persecution against Jesus that is now going to follow him all the way to the cross. Let me give you an outline. that we're going to follow. It'll take us a couple, two or three weeks to get all the way through all of these verses. But let me give you the outline now so you know where we're going. Here's the outline points we're going to use to guide our thoughts down through these 16 verses. And then once I give you that outline, as promised, we're going to jump in and make it through at least the first four verses and kind of look at some details today. All right. In the first nine verses, we're going to see a demonstration of the Lord's gracious compassion. That's what I call the first nine verses as Jesus heals a very sick and helpless man. It won't be today, but when we get to verses 10 to 13, we're going to talk about the Jew's scornful disdain as they respond to what just happened by interacting with the man who just got healed. Now we're going to first talk about our compassionate Lord, right? You want to know what the antithesis of compassion is? These Jewish religious leaders, right? Do you remember when I read the text a minute ago, what did they say? As soon as Jesus healed the guy, he got up, he picked up his pallet, he began to walk. What did the Jews say? Oh, how wonderful that you can walk after all these years, right? Is that what they said? No. What did they say? They said, you can't do that. It's the Sabbath, right? They busted him. The Sabbath police jumped into action immediately. They weren't concerned at all about the man. They were concerned about their precious Sabbath law. And by the way, we're going to get into this more later on, but the man wasn't violating the Sabbath law. He was violating their perverted interpretation of the Sabbath law. Okay. But that's all they were worried about. That's the first thing they said. You can't do that today. It is the Sabbath, right? And so we're going to talk about the Jew's scornful disdain as they have that little conversation with this man that just got healed. And then we'll finish up in verses 14 to 16, where John will turn our attention to what I'm going to call the man's reprehensible ingratitude. And let me just say to you up front, and I know we're way, way, way far away from that. We're not going to get to it today, but let me just say this. It's almost hard to believe. what this guy is going to do in the final verses of this text, right? This man who has just been healed by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, you know what he's going to do? Because of the stranglehold that false religion had on this guy, because of his fear of those phony Jewish religious leaders, you know what he's going to do? To stay in the good graces of those phony religious Jewish leaders, you know what he's going to do? When it's all said and done, he's going to turn Jesus into them. He's going to turn you, you know, and a lot of these miracles throughout the gospels, the ones that are healed also get, the ones who are healed physically also get healed spiritually. It's not going to be the case here in this text. There's no indication anywhere. And I'll, we'll talk about that more on another day. There's no indication anywhere in this text that this guy is going to get saved. No, no, no indication of that at all. And his ingratitude here at the end is just almost, almost hard to believe, as I said, but we'll talk about that. That's all on another day. And with that, I'll go all the way back with me now to this beautiful demonstration of our Lord's gracious compassion in verses one through nine. As I said, we're only going to make it through four verses today, but that's okay. We're not in any hurry. We just want to understand the word of God, right? That's what we're here for, right? We want to understand what it means by what it says in its context, right? It's the word of God that God uses to do what? Two things. To save the lost and to sanctify the saved. That's what we're here for. And so if he comes for us before we get done with John's gospel, that's pretty good, isn't it? That's gonna be great, right? But if he doesn't, we're gonna just keep plowing along and we're gonna get there, right? As long as there's precious truth for us to see, I want us to see it, all right? And the first thing that we have here in the first nine verses is a beautiful demonstration of our Lord's gracious compassion. And before I even get into that, I thought I would just take a minute to show you his compassion in a few other places in the New Testament, because compassion is a characteristic of our Lords that gets demonstrated for us all through the New Testament. Let's just start with a quick summary of that. You don't have to follow me around if you don't want to, but let me just share with you a couple of examples of that. Matthew 9.35 says this, Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, it goes on to say in verse 36, listen, he felt compassion for them. He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Another one before he miraculously fed the multitudes. We all know about that one, right? It says in Matthew 15, 32, that Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry or they might faint on the way. You know, what's interesting about that one? You know, our Lord was always most concerned, deeply concerned about the spiritual needs of people, but that wasn't all right here. We see that he was also, he also had compassion for their, physical needs as well, didn't he? In Matthew chapter 20, two blind men on the side of the road begged Jesus for mercy as he walked by them. And it says this in verse 34, moved with compassion. Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and followed him. In Mark 1.40, I could keep going with these. I'll give you just a couple more. Mark 1.40, a leper came to Jesus, beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying, if you are willing, you can make me clean, moved with compassion. It says in verse 41, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, I am willing to be cleansed. When Jesus approached Jerusalem, it says in Luke 9.41, he saw the city. and wept over it. He saw the city and wept over it. Into that same city, Jesus said in Luke 13, 34, how often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not have it. And then just one more, just one more. When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, oh, that's a beautiful account, right? We've got some great stuff coming up. You know, I said last week, I can't wait to get to John chapter nine. where Jesus healed the blind man. I can't wait to get to John chapter 11, where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, right? When Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus, it says in John 11, 38, that he was deeply moved within. That's our compassionate Lord, people. That's our compassionate Lord. All through the old Testament, it says that our great and awesome God is a God of compassion. And so a little bit of logic here. If God, the father is a God of compassion, then God, the son is also a God of compassion, isn't he? because as Jesus said so well in John 10 30, I and the father are one, right? Throughout the gospels, Jesus had compassion for all kinds of suffering. He had compassion for people who were suffering physical ailments. He had compassion for people who were suffering from demon possession. And he had the very deepest kind of compassion for all the people who were suffering from the bondage and eternal consequences of sin. And so all through this gospel, what are we going to find him doing? And the other three gospels as well, we're going to find him. We're going to find Jesus constantly healing, sick people, constantly casting demons out of demon possessed people. And we're going to find him miraculously saving people who were spiritually dead and their trespasses and sins. Ephesians one or two, rather one to three. What kind of a healing, what kind of a miracle is it going to be here in our texts today? It's going to be a physical healing. Our compassionate Lord is going to miraculously heal a man who had been ill for 38 years. And I think I already said this, but I'll say it again. As our Lord heals this man who had been ill for 38 years, that's going to stand in stark contrast to the cold hearted Pharisees who have no compassion for this man at all. The Pharisees couldn't have cared less. Give a flip about this man who had been sick. for 38 years. And with all of that, now let's go ahead and jump in at verse one. If you have your Bibles open, follow me here in verse one. I have an outline there in your sermon notes that I think should do a pretty good job of kind of guiding our thoughts down through the flow here in these verses. But let's jump in and we're going to get four of them in here today before we quit. In verse one, our text starts out by telling us, that Jesus made another trip to Jerusalem. And so just think with me about that for a minute. Jesus was quite a, and we've already seen this, Jesus was quite a frequent commuter, wasn't he? Back and forth from Galilee to Jerusalem, to Galilee to Jerusalem, back and forth. You remember a previous trip like that, that he had made. Remember at the wedding feast in Cana in chapter two, when that wedding feast was over, what did Jesus do? He went, south to Jerusalem for the Passover, right? And then remember what happened from there when he was in Jerusalem, right? He then had that little nighttime talk with a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, right? You can't forget that in chapter three. And when that conversation with Nicodemus was over, what did he do? Chapter four, he went back north again to Galilee and on his way back north to Galilee, of course, what did he do? He made that little two day, three day actually stop in, Samaria, a little town called Sychar just outside. He spent a day with a woman at the well. We just spent weeks and weeks and weeks working through that. Jesus has now been in Galilee again for a while. And he's even been in Cana of Galilee again, where he has just done what? Remember at the end of chapter four, what did he just do? He just healed a nobleman's son at the end of chapter four. Remember that? And that's where we pick up the narrative now in John 5, 1. After these things, John says, that would be after Jesus had healed the nobleman's son and then saved that nobleman along with his whole household. After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, John says, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now, just like it was the last time, our Lord made a trip to Jerusalem. This trip once again has to do with a feast of the Jews. Jesus always attended those feasts of the Jews, didn't he? In perfect obedience to God's laws. We've talked about this before. While he was here as a man, yes, he was God. He never lost his deity when he was here in human flesh as a man. He was the God man, 100% God, a 100% man. But while he was here as a man, what did Jesus do? He always did everything that the law required of men. He obeyed it perfectly. That's why Jesus submitted himself to John's baptism. And that's why Jesus obediently attended all the Jewish feasts that have been prescribed by God in his law. Now keep in mind, even though the Judaism of his day was corrupt to the core, right along with its leaders, as a man, Jesus still always did what the law required men to do. And so if there was a feast in Jerusalem, guess what? Jesus is on his way from Cana back down to Jerusalem. Now, when Jesus left Cana the first time to attend a feast in Jerusalem, we know what feast it was, right? because John told us what feast it was. Which one was it? Do you remember? It was the feast of Passover, right? That's where he cleansed the temple. And by the way, let me say this, every other time that John is going to mention a feast of the Jews in this gospel, he's going to tell us which feast it is. Except for this time, this feast of the Jews, notice in your Bibles, is unidentified by John. We're not told which feast it is. And so that, of course, gave all the commentators something to do. By what I read, from what I read, I think they all took that as a challenge. Some of them wrote pages and pages and pages of stuff trying to figure out which feast of the Jews this would have been. And you'll never guess what they all said at the other end of their lengthy explanations it was actually kind of funny and you know what as I thought about it it would have been even funnier had I not just spent all that time reading their stuff but at the at the other end of all those lengthy explanations at the end of the day they all said No one really knows for sure which Feast of the Jews this was, because John doesn't tell us. And all I could think was, I knew that right off the bat. We all knew that right away. We don't know which one it is because John doesn't tell us. And so learn a quick lesson here as you study the Word of God. The Word of God doesn't tell us some little incidental thing like that. then how about if we just understand and accept the fact that we don't need to know that little thing, whatever it is, you know, which feast this was is obviously completely irrelevant to our understanding of this narrative account and its main message, or John would have told us which feast it was. And the only reason I can see why John mentions a feast of the Jews here at all, is to simply give us a reason, explain the reason why Jesus left Cana again and headed south for Jerusalem. That's it. That's all we need to know about this feast or John would have told us more. And then just one more real quick thing here. Before we leave verse one, Jesus, what does it say? Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Remember, have we talked about this before? I think we have. What, what, what happens? What, where's the confusion here? When we, when we travel South, what do we call that? We call that going down, right? When we go South, we call that going down, but the New Testament doesn't go by that rule. And so keep that in mind. The New Testament refers to travel directions in the terms of geographical elevations. All right. in the terms of going up a hill or going down a hill. And so even though Jesus was going almost straight south from Galilee down to, from Canaan down to Jerusalem, he was literally going what? Up. And so that's what the Bible says. He went up to Jerusalem. And so mark that and remember that as you read and study the scriptures. And let's go on to verse two now. And here now we're really going to start getting into the meat of the scene here. We go on to verse two. John tells us exactly where Jesus landed that day when he arrived in Jerusalem. This scene, this event, this miracle is going to take place, people, at a pool by the sheep gate, it says in verse two. And so look at the verse, and we need to talk about that. Now there is in Jerusalem, verse two, by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porticoes. So what I want, John is going to paint this picture. And so we need to have this, we need to let him do that. We need to let John paint this picture of this scene in our mind. Now there's really quite a bit to talk about here in verse two. And so let's get to it. As John paints the scene for us here for this miracle. And the first thing I would draw your attention to just for a minute, just for a quick minute, is that little present tense verb, is. All right. That's the first thing I want to draw your attention to. What does it say? Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep get a pool, John says, and the reason why we need to talk about this little word is just for a minute has to do with those enemies of the cross. who are always looking for, and this is one that they would land on, those enemies of the cross who would call this an error in the scriptures. Let me explain. If John wrote this gospel somewhere between 80 and 90 AD, which he did, then how could he say here that there is present tense in Jerusalem by the sheep gate of pool, the critics would say, when we all know history bears out, we all know, that Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70 by the Roman general Titus some 10 to 20 years before John wrote this gospel. Shouldn't John have said here that there was, past tense, in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, Apul. Well, not necessarily. There are actually two answers to that objection. Let me give them to you quickly and we're going to go right on by. Answer number one, as John relays this narrative account about something that happened in the past, he's going back into that place and back into that time to describe in what, to describe it in what narrative writers call the historic present tense. You've read narrative accounts that use that historic present tense. That's what John is doing here. Even though the pool was not actually there when John wrote, it was still there in John's mind as he relayed this narrative account. And then storytellers, narrative writers do that all the time. And then the other answer to this objection has to do with the testimony of a pilgrim that's recorded. a pilgrim who visited Jerusalem in the fourth century. And that pilgrim said that he could still see the remnants of this pool by the Sheep Gate. It was no longer functional, but it was technically still there. And so John says there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, a pool. And let's talk a little bit more now about this pool that was by the Sheep Gate. Think about Jerusalem now. Jerusalem, of course, was a walled city in Jesus' day. Thanks to Nehemiah, right? Who rebuilt that wall after the Southern kingdom of Judah came back from Babylonian captivity. And what do we know about walled cities? Walled cities, of course, always had to have gates in various places for people and other things to come in and out. But now I have to tell you this, that gate here in John 5.2 is a little bit of a problem for us today because that word is not really there in the Greek text. And take a real closer look at it now with your eyes. Focus in on that. If you look at that word gate in your Bibles, what are you going to notice? You're going to notice that it's in italics. And what does that mean? That means whenever you see a word in your Bible in italics, it means that it's not really there in the Greek text. It was added by the translators. And so what it really says here, what it literally says here is that there is in Jerusalem by the sheep a pool. There is in Jerusalem by the sheep a pool. Now the pool itself, people, is what we ultimately want to talk about here because the pool is going to be the scene where this miracle is going to take place. but we can't talk about the pool till we talk about the sheep, the word sheep, because the word sheep comes first and the word sheep comes as an adjective and it comes as an adjective to help us locate and identify this particular pool out of all the many other pools that there probably were in the old city of Jerusalem. Which pool is this? This pool John says is the sheep pool, the sheep pool. And with all of that now, Let's go back to that word gate again, that I've already told you is not really there. It was added by the translators. Now here's the deal. Sometimes, sometimes added words and phrases by the translators really, really mess up the clarity of the scriptures. And we've seen cases like that before many times, but in this case, adding that word gate, was probably a helpful thing. And even something that would have been implied by the word that is inspired here, the word sheep. By adding that word gate, the translators were taking their cue from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, where a sheep gate is mentioned twice in chapter three, and once in chapter 12. And so there was a sheep gate in the Jerusalem wall. And that's probably, that's almost certainly what John is referring to here, even though he doesn't actually use the word gate as he pens his gospel. The sheep gate, the sheep gate was on the North wall of the city of Jerusalem, a little ways in, from a little ways west of the northeast corner. So it was up there and then a little ways into the west from the northeast corner. And that gate, what do you suppose that gate was used for? The gate was used for exactly what you think it might've been used for. That gate is where they would bring in all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of sheep, right? That were on their way to be sacrificed at the temple. And so what do we know now? We know a little bit about where this pool was located. This pool that is the scene of this miracle was near the sheep gate. And it was also quite obviously near the temple. But that's not all we know about this pool from verse two. Notice a couple more things. After the comma there, John goes on to tell us the name of this pool. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, right? I think I mentioned this last week. We all, in Sunday school, we all heard about this account, right? We were all taught this account in Sunday school, the paralytic, the lame man by the pool of Bethesda, right? The name of this pool is Bethesda. Now, I have to tell you just quickly that there are some Greek manuscripts that refer to this pool by other names. Some manuscripts call this pool Bethsaida or Bethzada, which may be due in part, Henry Morris said, to the fact that the name is given in Hebrew, which would have been unfamiliar to the Greek scribes who typically copied the gospels. It would have been easy for them to make mistakes in a strange language, he said. But the oldest and best manuscripts that have now been discovered make it almost absolutely certain that Bethesda is the correct name for this pool that we're talking about. And let me tell you what that word means now. Bethesda literally means house of mercy or flowing water. House of mercy or flowing water. And as we're going to see here in a few minutes, both of those meanings very, very appropriately fit here. The water in this pool was not just stagnant water. It was flowing water. It was moving water. We'll talk about that later. And then all around this pool, all around this pool here in a minute, we're going to meet multitudes of people who are all in desperate need of mercy. So there was flowing water and there were, there were people there who needed mercy. And then at the very end of verse two, notice just one more little detail about this pool where this miracle in our text is going to take place. Now there is a Jerusalem by the sheep get a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five, porticoes. What are those? What's that all about? Well, those porticoes are actually quite an important part of the scene here. That's where John is going to add some people to this scene in a minute. And so what is a portico? I think we even know what a portico is. I don't know if we use that word all that much today. But a portico is basically like an open porch or a patio type of affair with a roof over it. The lexicons defined it as a covered colonnade, if you will, that would protect people from the weather, protect them from the heat of the sun, and so forth. Several reputable commentators have suggested based upon historical and archaeological evidence that this pool that we're talking about might have actually been a double pool, two pools side by side, if you will. D.A. Carson said this, and I quote, near the Church of St. Anne in the northeast quarter of the Old City, near Nehemiah's Sheep Gate, there were two pools lying north and south, surrounded by four covered colonnades and a rough trapezoid with a fifth colonnade separating the two pools in quote. And so that may have been how it was. And so here's where we are now in our study of this text. We have another trip to Jerusalem by our Lord in verse one that was prompted by a feast of the Jews. And then we have in verse two, a pretty detailed description really of exactly where in Jerusalem Jesus landed after arriving there. Our Lord is at a pool with five porticos called Bethesda in the Northeast corner of the old city near Nehemiah's sheep gate. And with that picture in your minds, now let's move on to verse three, where John is going to add some people to this scene that our Lord was now seeing. as he landed in Jerusalem that day. At the beginning of verse three, and here's where it's going to start to get ugly. The beginning of verse three, the scene that verse two is just a scribe for us turns into a pathetic scene. Verse three describes a multitude of sick people who were lying there in those five porticoes. Look at what it says. In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered. Sick, blind, lame, and withered. There are two things here that I would draw your attention to. Notice, first of all, the word John uses to describe how many sick people were there around this pool. And this is important for us to get the picture that John wants us to see. How many people were there? John says a, what's the word he uses? A multitude of sick people were there. Now you say, well, how many is a multitude? We don't know exactly how many is a multitude in terms of a specific number. But we do have a pretty good idea of what this word doesn't mean, don't we? We do have a pretty good idea of what this word never means. From this word multitude we can pretty reasonably conclude that there were more than just two or three sick people in each one of those porticoes, don't you think? And I don't even think John would have used this word multitudes if there were a couple dozen people in each one of these five porticoes. John uses a word here that the New Testament uses in other places to describe a very large number of people. And let me just give you several examples quickly. A very large number of people. So many, in fact, that they can't even be numbered. That's how the New Testament always uses this word. Luke 2.13, for example, you know, this uses this word to describe a multitude of the heavenly hosts who appeared with the angel who announced the birth of Christ to some shepherds. That's a very large number of angels. Too many angels to count is what that means. All of them praising God and singing glory to God in the highest. And how about this example? Luke uses this same word again in his gospel in chapter five. You'll remember this account. After the weary disciples had been out fishing all night long. Guess how many fish they had. Zero. Right? They've been out all night long. They had no fish, got nothing. Remember what our Lord said to them? He came along and he said, put out into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch. Okay. Okay. We'll try it. Right? Reluctantly, they did that. And in Luke 5, 6, This Greek word is used to describe people, a great quantity of fish. So many that their nets were breaking under the load. And then in Luke 6.17, Luke used this word one more time to describe a great throng of people. And I could give you more, but you get the point, right? All of that to say that what we have here under these porticoes, are you getting this picture? You're building this picture up. You're building this picture in your mind. That's what John wants us to do here. All of that to say that what we have here under these five porticoes around the pool of Bethesda, are probably hundreds and hundreds of people. The only picture I could think of, packed in there like sardines in a can, right? They were open a can. You see how they're all in there? Like that's how these people were packed under these porticos. And then secondly, here in this first part of verse three, notice how John describes this multitude of people. He uses four words that when taken all together, describe for us nothing less than a pathetic scene. Don't they? Look at them. In this multitude, sick people were there, John says. What does that mean? Well, you know what sick people You know what that means. A sick person is a sick person. That's just sort of a catch-all word that could be used to describe pretty much any kind of a debilitating illness. The people there were ill. They were weak. They were diseased. There were sick people there, John says. And then there were also blind people there. You know what that means. Some were sick, some were blind, and others, John says, were lame. That's a word to describe someone who is immobile, someone who is maimed or crippled from an injury or perhaps from some disease or illness. From verse seven, we're not going to get that far today, but from verse seven, we could probably conclude that this man, that Jesus is going to heal. And our text is in this category. He is lame. He couldn't walk. He could probably only crawl. What did he say to Jesus? There's no one to put me in the pool. When the water is stirred up, he said to Jesus, somebody always gets there ahead of me. And then John says, this is interesting. And then John says that withered people were there. Think about that one. That's an interesting word. that literally means to be dry and shrunken from disease. It describes someone whose body members have been deprived of their natural juices to the point of being shrunken, wasted away, and withered up. Have you ever seen anybody like that? Wasted away, withered up, dried up, shrunken. And so do you have the picture? This is an ugly picture. This is the grossly pathetic scene that our compassionate Lord encountered that day as he approached the pool of Bethesda. And so let's be reminded of this morning, what I'm sure that pathetic scene reminded our Lord of as it broke his heart that day. Let's stop right here. Can we just for a minute or two and think about this? Can we stop right here just for a minute or two at our study? long enough to be reminded of just how ugly this life in this world can get sometimes, and also why that is. When things are going pretty well for us, we tend to lose sight of that, don't we? I know that's the way it is for me. And yes, there is, don't take me wrong, yes, there is beauty here in this world to behold, isn't there? There are beautiful things to see in this world. And yes, there are joys in this life, to be experienced. Absolutely. 100%. But in spite of those things that can sometimes lure our minds as believers away, our minds and our affections away from truth and reality, let us never forget people that this world we live in right now is a fallen world. And these bodies that we live in right now are fallen bodies that are in the process of decay and on their way toward death, right? I think that's what Jesus was reminded of here. It broke his heart. As we think about this pathetic scene today at the pool of Bethesda that I just described for you, that John just described for us, let's be reminded of the fact that some 2000 years later, there are still people here in this world in all of these various categories of pain and suffering. Are there not? There are to this day. And also be reminded that apart from divine intervention, apart from salvation, here's what makes this pathetic scene even more pathetic, apart from salvation, lest these suffering, hurting people that are still in our world today, repent and believe the gospel somewhere throughout the course of this life, that physical suffering in the here and now. is going to turn into eternal torment in a horrible place. The Bible calls hell. I can't think of anything worse than that. And so let's be reminded by this pathetic scene at the pool of Bethesda today that sin, people, is the root cause of it all. And that's really, that's really what I want you to be reminded of right now. Every bit of this pain, every bit of this suffering in John chapter five, and every bit of the pain and suffering that is still going on today can be traced all the way back to what? To sin and the fall. And so let me ask you a question this morning, as we contemplate what we just read in the word of God, the beginning of chapter or verse three, rather. Do you ever look at sick and suffering people whose bodies are crippled by disease and grieve over the toll that sin has taken on the human race? I hope you do. I hope that when you see this kind of stuff that Jesus just saw at the pool of Bethesda, it arouses within you every time. deeper and more passionate hatred of sin. Paul summed it all up pretty well in Romans 5 12. Therefore, Paul said, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sin, listen, because God is holy, there is a connection between sin and death. We know about that, don't we? The wages of sin is death, Paul said in Romans 6 23. And that's why from the very moment of birth, all men and women are immediately thrust into the process of dying. That's one of the tolls that sin has taken on the human race. Our bodies are dying. And that's why there are sick people. That's why there are blind people. That's why there are lame people. And that's why there are withered people. But it's not just our bodies, right, that sin has taken a toll on. Because of sin, the world we live in, people, is also fallen and under the curse. We live right now in fallen human bodies. And we also live in a fallen world that is currently being ruled by Satan, who is the avowed enemy of God. That's why there's evil everywhere we look. And that's why ugly things happen in this world. All of it, all of it can be traced all the way back to sin and the fall. And that's what I believe the spirit of God would have us all to be reminded of this morning, as we see this ugly and pathetic scene, the pool of Bethesda. Listen, listen to me carefully. Don't ever let this world charm you with its fake glitter into thinking it's something it's not. Don't ever let this world charm you with its fake glitter into thinking it's something it's not. Don't ever let yourself get too settled in here. Listen, people, this place is not your home and you don't want this place to be your home. Because of sin, this world is really an ugly, ugly place. And what we just saw at the pool of Bethesda is this life in this world. showing its true colors. It always will. It always will. If it isn't showing them to you today, it will show them to you tomorrow. It always will. Remember with me this morning, that clear warning and exhortation we got from the apostle John a few years ago, when we were studying his first epistle. I don't know how it could be 70 clear. Do not, what did John say? Do not love the world or the things in the world. 1 John 2.50-17. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, And the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not from the father, but it's from the world. As I just said a minute ago, the world does have a fake glitter, right? We know it. We see it. The world does have a fake glitter, but never forget what John says in verse 17, the world is passing away and all It's lust, and also it's lust, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. And then there's this critical exhortation, one more, from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 3, 1 and 2. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, and you have been if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, keep seeking the things where? Above, Paul says, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. If you're a believer, what I'm trying to say is this. What I want you to be reminded of is this, as we look at this ugly, pathetic scene that Jesus just saw. If you're a believer, what you're really after people, what you really want is never here. It's always there. It's never here. It's always there. Right? And then Paul said this in verse two, set your mind, right? It's a daily kind of thing you need to reaffirm. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Listen, every time we come face to face with the ugliness of this life, this world every time we come face-to-face with the temporary and fallen nature of this life in this world. Everything good in this world is on its way to an end, isn't it? It is. Everything. Everything good in this world. Everything good that you have, everything good in this world that you perceive as good is on its way to an end, right? That new car you bought is in the process of rusting, right? Whatever it is. That house you built is in the process of decaying. Someday it's going to crumble and fall down, right? Everything. is temporary. Every time we come face to face with the ugliness of this life and this world, every time we come face to face with the temporary and fallen nature of this life and this world, it ought to renew and deepen our hatred for sin that brought all of that about, all of that ugliness about. It ought to move us with compassion for those lost, sick, and dying people who need the deliverance that only the gospel can bring. Listen, if you can help them with their physical pain, that's great. And you ought to do that. But if you fail to give them the gospel, You missed the entire point. This is a tragic account that we're studying in John chapter five, verses one to 16, because this man is going to be healed by the omnipotent Lord of glory. And then he's going to live out the rest of his life and die and go to hell. It's a tragic, tragic miracle story. If you fail to give them the gospel, you completely missed the point. And then every time we come face to face with the ugliness of this life and this world, It ought to make us long even more for heaven, people, where we're finally going to be delivered from the very presence of sin forever. Can you imagine? Can you imagine right now? You know, we say this all the time and it's because it's true right now as believers, we've been delivered from the penalty of sin, right? There's therefore now no condemnation. Romans eight one. And for those who are in Christ Jesus, right now we've been delivered from the penalty of sin. Right now we've also been delivered from the power of sin. We can live in victory over sin because of the indwelling Holy spirit. Right, right. but what's yet in the future for us one day in the future, we are going to be delivered from the very presence of sin at a very wonderful and very real place. The Bible calls having that place. We studied for about a year or so here a while back. You know, as I thought about that, you know what I was reminded of our very own Charlie has been in that place for two weeks now, right? It was about 10 minutes to five on Sunday afternoon, two weeks ago. Now that Charlie was carried by the angels. into the presence of his Lord in heaven. Used to sit right there, right there behind Stein. I'll never forget Charlie. You'll never forget Charlie. He's in glory right now. He's in heaven. Heaven, Paul said in Philippians 1. In fact, I was able to remind Charlie of this on the Friday night before he died. Heaven, Paul said in Philippians 1.23 is not just better than here. And it's not just much better than here. Remember what Paul said? Philippians 1.23, he said, heaven is very much better than here. That's our hope as believers. And I'm sorry for maybe getting on a soapbox here for a few minutes, but you know what? That's our hope as believers. And that's what the Spirit of God reminded me of. I just couldn't get past that as I sat there one day in my study, thinking about this pathetic, ugly scene of these horrible, sick people at the pool of Bethesda there in John chapter five and verse three. One more verse and we're going to go on. We got one more verse to go. In my Father's house are many dwelling places, Jesus said to his disciples in John 14, two and three. If it were not so, I would have told you. You can believe me, right? I'm the way, the truth, and the life, right? For I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you to myself. And where I am there, you may be also. Don't get too attached to this world. It's okay sometimes from day to day, but it's really an ugly place. And if it isn't raising its ugly head today, it will tomorrow. And if it doesn't tomorrow, it will the next day, right? It will, right? This world is an ugly place. This life, this world are not pretty. They're not pretty because of sin in the fall. Be reminded of that. As you see this, this ugly scene at the beginning of John chapter five and verse three, let's go on. Now we've got to get one last point in here before we quit and the narrative flow of this text. from another trip to Jerusalem by our Lord for a feast of the Jews to a pool by the sheep gate in Jerusalem called Bethesda to a very pathetic scene there at that pool where a whole multitude of sick people were packed into those five porticos like sardines in a can. We come now, and here's where we're going to end today. We come now to an interesting verse and a half that begins in the middle of verse three. It goes all the way down to the end of verse four that I'm going to call a superstitious theory, superstitious theory. It's here now where we're going to learn why all of these sick people were there packed into those porticos around the pool of Bethesda, right? Why were they there? Well, here's the answer. They were there, it says, and pick up with me now in the middle of verse three, they were there waiting for the moving of the waters for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted." All right? Pretty easy to understand that, right? That all sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it? But let me tell you that it wasn't a very good deal at all for a bunch of people who could barely move, right? And so understand something now. If this scene at the pool of Bethesda was pathetic on any given day, can you even imagine how much more pathetic that scene must have been on those days when the water was moving? And all of a sudden now, you've got all of these crowded, sick, hurting, invalid people, all with a false hope and a bogus theory, scrambling to be the first one into the pool, right? So now you've got a pathetic scene that is made ultra-pathetic, right? This is pathetic beyond pathetic. And let me tell you now why I just called this theory a bogus theory. It's because it was a bogus theory. Would you notice again a little textual thing here? Notice please, I had you look at that word gate earlier. I'm going to have you look at this last verse, this verse and a half from the middle of verse three down through the end of verse four. Notice please in your Bible, in your Bibles, that this verse and a half, I just read for you is either in italics or most likely it has brackets around it. And you already know what that means, right? What that means is that it's not really there in the Greek text, but was somehow added by a scribe. And we know that now by its absence in the much older and better manuscripts that have been discovered. And so here now is what we can do. after reading that verse and a half, we can now completely discard it, all right? Ignore it. Cross it out, whatever. We can completely discard this idea of certain seasons when an angel came down to stir up the water in this pool after which the first one in was healed. The inspired word of God does not say that, and so it is not true, and it did not happen. And so where then, you say, did this bogus theory come from, and how in the world did it end up in my Bible? Brackets, italics or not. Well, it had to come from somewhere, right? And it did come from somewhere. What this verse and a half describes is a superstitious theory that this multitude of invalids believe to be true. And from verse seven, glance down to verse seven, we know that the man that Jesus is going to heal believed the theory. We know that because of what he said to Jesus, do you wish to get well? Jesus asked him in verse six, the sick man answered in verse seven, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming another steps down before me." Can you imagine that going on for 38 years? Right? Every time he tried, somebody beat him to it. This theory is set forth in verses three and four as a reason why all these sick people were there. It's not in the Greek text, but you know what is in the Greek text? What it says in verse seven is in the Greek text. And so we know that this man, So we know that this theory was a real theory, a real superstitious theory. And we know that this sick man believed it. And not only him, all the other ones there believed it. That's why they were there. That's why they were all there, packed into those porticos, especially at those certain seasons, which don't get defined for us very well, but they were all there, especially at those certain seasons, whenever those seasons were, according to the theory. And that, by the way, is also then how this verse and a half somehow got added into those later manuscripts. This superstitious theory was apparently so well-known, so widely accepted, that a scribe somewhere slipped it in as he was copying the inspired text. But just think with me again now about how much more pathetic this makes that scene at the Pool of Bethesda. Desperate people. Think about sick desperate people. What does sick desperate people do? Desperate things, don't they? Desperate people sometimes hang on to the flimsiest of things, don't they? I remember Justin Peters telling the story of a desperate mother who spent every last dollar and every last ounce of energy she had hauling her invalid son all around the country in an old beat-up van. that could barely run to attend one Benny Hinn crusade after the other Benny Hinn crusade after the other Benny Hinn crusade. Followed them all over the countryside, taking this invalid son, dragging him in there, spending all the money she had in this old beat up van, hoping that at one of those crusades, Benny would heal her invalid son. You know the end of the story, don't you? That never happened. Let me tell you why that never happened. That never happened because Benny Hinn is a huckster. Benny Hinn is a huckster who will stand before God someday. Benny Hinn is a huckster. Desperate people are some of the quickest ones to believe the devil's lies that come through guys like Benny Hinn. Benny Hinn's interested in only one thing, not the well-being of that lady's invalid son. He's interested in the money that he can fleece out of that lady's pocket. That's all he's interested in. And I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself when I say this, but when Jesus finally does heal this man down in verses eight and nine, guess what? the healing is going to have absolutely nothing to do with this pool, right? Jesus didn't use the pool. He didn't need the pool, right? In order to heal this man. And then we're going to quit here. But just before we do, just to give this multitude of sick people that were gathered there, just a little break, right? A little bit of a break here before we wrap this up for today. Let me say that there probably was at least a little bit of reality upon which the superstitious theory was built. There probably was a natural spring bubbling up from the bottom of this pool. There probably was some moving water there, and some commentators have even suggested, and I think they're probably right, some commentators have suggested that the water in this pool might have had some mineral content, right? People go to the mineral springs sometimes for therapeutic reasons, healing reasons, or some sort of healing properties and so forth that might have been real medicinal benefits that would come from that water if there was a mineral content. But listen, an angel who came down to stir the water and then completely healed the first person in. No, no, no. And a thousand times, no, that was nothing more than a superstitious theory believed by a whole bunch of sick and desperate people. And that's where we're going to have to stop for today. Would you think about these things? And we'll pick up the narrative next time in verse five. And as we pick up the narrative next time in verse five, here's what's going to happen in this pathetic scene and out of this whole multitude, probably hundreds of invalid, sick, desperate people. Here's what's going to happen. And it's so typical of him, isn't it? Our gracious, compassionate, sovereign, omniscient and omnipotent Lord. is going to zero in on just one helpless man. A man was there, it says in verse five, who had been ill for 38 years. I remember in the fall of 1983 when Jesus Christ saved this guy, right? I remember that. You know what, as I read this, I thought about that because on that day in Cadillac, Michigan, where I grew up, As a young man, there were probably hundreds and hundreds of desperately lost people who were dying in their sin, their trespasses and sins who needed that salvation deliverance. But you know what? The Lord focused his attention that day on me, on me. And he did it as if I were the only one on the face of the earth. And he saved me. A man was there, it says in verse five, who had been ill for 38 years. That's where we're going to pick it up next time. Bow with me in prayer. Father, we've been reminded of the ugly consequences of sin in the fall this morning as we've gone back into the first century with our Lord to a pool there in the northeast corner of Jerusalem. Use that ugly and pathetic scene, Father, to create in all of us a passionate hatred for sin coupled with a passionate longing for heaven. And also use it, Father, I pray, to pluck the strings of compassion in our hearts for all of those people in our world today who so desperately need the salvation deliverance that only the truth of the gospel believed can bring. Father, I always know as I step into this pulpit and open the word of God that you have an agenda for these times we spend together in your word that is far above and beyond my capacity to even understand. And so accomplish that agenda here today, Father, in every heart and life, including my own. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.