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We are overhearing that conversation in John Chapter 5 where Jesus Christ speaks to a man who has been lying by the pool of Bethesda for 38 years.

He says to Jesus, “I can’t help being this way. No-one will lift me into the water and just when I am trying to get in somebody steps in before me.” For some 38 years, this man would have begged, and people had provided him with some sort of existence. He had resigned himself to his condition.

I have no-one to help me. What a sad situation to be in. Had he lost his friends? When the time came for a lift,…  ( Click for more )

In John Chapter 5 and at verse 1, we read of Jesus Christ going back to Jerusalem.

Now, there is a pool in Jerusalem called Bethesda Pool, and it has five porches.

You can visit this pool today. It was discovered around 1888, and it has been carefully excavated. I have had the privilege of visiting this area in Jerusalem on various occasions, and it is situated only a quarter of mile from the Temple area.

Around this pool lay hundreds of lame, weak, sick, blind, withering, paralysed people, waiting for the moving of the water. It is a picture of absolute misery and…  ( Click for more )

Two days later, Jesus left this scene of revival in Samaria, and went north. Jesus was moving away from where it could be comparatively easy, to a difficult and tough situation.

God often calls us to move where it is hard or where it is harder.

Jesus has been speaking about how it is hard to witness where you are known best. A prophet is not appreciated by those who know him well.

They had received Jesus with open arms. There was a warm welcome, and there were warm welcomes in various places because He was a miracle worker, but they were not receiving Him as a prophet. …  ( Click for more )

We move on in the Gospel of John to Chapter 4 and verse 16. We have been reading of Jesus Christ being willing and prepared to go through Samaria, and we saw Jesus being so prepared to speak with this immoral woman. Not many Jews would have been willing to do that.

Jesus does things which others might not be so willing to do!

Jesus begins very simply by asking for a drink of water, and Jesus led her to that point of being spiritual thirsty.

Jesus seeks to make people spiritually thirsty and spiritually restless, and to that point where they are ready to receive what…  ( Click for more )

In John’s Gospel at Chapter 4, we have this astonishing and revealing conversation between Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and a woman of Samaria, who has come out to the well at noon to draw water and Jesus is soon referring to the Holy Spirit. She attempts to shrug it all off. We meet people like this far too often.

The deeper Jesus went, the shallower she became! Have you ever noticed that?

Some try to laugh it off, and treat it all so lightly, and make a joke of spiritual things. Never joke when Jesus is serious, and never be flippant with Christ and over spiritual…  ( Click for more )

Jesus Christ and His disciples have entered what might have been regarded by many as a no-go area. Jesus and His chosen men are walking through Samaria. We are reading John Chapter 4.

It is hot. It is noon. Jesus is weary, thirsty, hungry, tired and worn out, and the disciples go into the village to buy some food. Jesus sits down on top of the well.

A woman comes out to draw water and Jesus requests a drink.

What a strange time to come out and draw water – noon! Maybe she did not want to meet anyone. She was a loner. She appeared to like and prefer men…  ( Click for more )

We move on in the Gospel of John to Chapter 4. Over these past weeks, we have seen Jesus at a village wedding changing water into wine. We have been reading of Jesus in Jerusalem observing the Jewish Passover, but having to cleanse the Temple of things and behaviour that ought never to have been present. Jesus was ridding it of rather obvious sin, as people were being defrauded and robbed and maltreated, in the House of God, in the place of Worship and Prayer.

We have been reading of Jesus down at the Jordan River, and today we see Jesus and His disciples making their way…  ( Click for more )

We are reading in John Chapter 3 at verse 27 and studying the significance of these words and their practical application for faith and life. John explains to his own men – A man can only receive what God has given him from heaven. It is God the Father Who is raising up this ministry along the river. It is God Who has given Him all these people. Jesus was along the river and it looked as if he was drawing bigger crowds than John and John’s disciples appeared to regard this as a bit of competition.

If God moves the people along the river to another place, that is His…  ( Click for more )

We were reading that exciting and probing conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus Christ, where the theme is, “You must be born again”. If you are not born again, you will not even be able to see the Kingdom of God, and you will certainly not be able to enter it.

This is why we must make sure we see people fully and adequately born again.

We now go outdoors. We leave the city of Jerusalem and we make our way down to the Jordan River, and there we see Jesus and His Disciples ministering and baptising, although Jesus Himself is not actually baptising. Chapter…  ( Click for more )

John Chapter 3 verse 16 is a well known verse but even in the Church of Jesus Christ, how many know what it really means? I do not think even in my early days that I ever preached on this verse. This is a very different type of study from what I usually write but do check it out for yourself, because wrong believing will lead to wrong behaviour, and dodgy doctrine will affect our deeds. Our creed influences our conduct greatly.

Let’s go through the verse and see what it really says.

It has been used as a gospel verse, but is it?

Only those who have been rescued from…  ( Click for more )

We are in John Chapter 3 and reading of this religious leader, this theological professor, who at that present time was spiritually blind. That is a serious condition for anyone to be in. Nicodemus and Jesus Christ are having a profound conversation. And Jesus has begun to explain to Nicodemus that he requires a radical change and transformation in his life and it would be like being born again, or born anew, or born from above.

Nicodemus asks “How?” Is he saying – I am too old to change? I cannot start all over again, and I have my position to think of. I have…  ( Click for more )

It is never good to interrupt a conversation but that is what happens if we stop in the middle of these verses in John Chapter 3. It is a crucial conversation and we are so privileged to be permitted to overhear it. The conversation is between Jesus Christ and a man called Nicodemus. It is one of the most crucial conversations ever to be recorded.

Nicodemus is a religious leader in Jerusalem. We could even regard him as a professor of theology. When we meet him he is blind – not physically but spiritually. Here is a theological professor who is spiritually blind. He has…  ( Click for more )

Nicodemus comes to Jesus Christ one night and Jesus goes right to the heart of the issue immediately. We are reading in John Chapter 3. Nicodemus, you must be born again, and then, you will be on the inside, and then you will be able to see.

Notice how Jesus skips all the palavers, and Jesus gets right to the point. Study this passage carefully because there are essential lessons and truth to be gleaned from this conversation. This is by no means a superficial encounter.

Jesus could have spent so much time ‘counselling’ but He doesn’t.

This is the point…  ( Click for more )

When Jesus looks at a man and when He moves around and among men, and when He sees a faith that is real and deep and which has that desire and longing to grow and mature, Jesus will be prepared to share and reveal many things to that man. We move into John Chapter 3 in our studies.

There was a man in Jerusalem who wanted to go further and he is called Nicodemus. He wanted what Jesus could give. He had a thirst for that which was spiritually real. He had seen the miracles, and now he was hungry for the Word of God. He was ready for something more – for something deeper.…  ( Click for more )

We have been reading John Chapter 2 where we have seen the significance of Jesus Christ transforming water into wine, and then going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover, when he found the Temple to be like a market place.

Jesus took time to make a whip to clean up the Temple. Jesus was concerned about what was going on in the place of Worship, and Jesus continues to be concerned about what is going on in the place of Worship, and how we behave and sing and praise and pray and listen to His Word when we, as part of the Church, come together.

Now, Jesus was also performing…  ( Click for more )

People say at times, “We must be tolerant. Live and let live.” Tolerance is not a Christian virtue, and nowhere do we see and understand that more clearly than in John Chapter 2, when Jesus Christ goes up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

There are certain things Jesus Christ will not tolerate or permit, especially when they are disguised and paraded under a cloak of religion.

When Jesus sees the situation in the Temple, He takes time to make a whip of small cords. Jesus deliberately makes this, and uses this on all that was going on in the Temple, on animals…  ( Click for more )

We are reading and studying the Gospel of John and we come to John Chapter 2 and verse 12. We were reading about that miracle at the Wedding where Jesus Christ turned water into wine. Now, we read of Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. It would be late March or early April, and millions of Jews, from all over the Middle East, would go up to the House of God in Jerusalem, for a week of worshipping God, and remembering what the living God had done when he delivered Israel out of slavery and bondage in Egypt.

This was one of the largest annual Jewish Festivals.…  ( Click for more )

We have been reading in John Chapter 2, where Jesus Christ transforms that massive quantity of water into wine, and what Jesus does here stimulates faith. The disciples believed on Him.

The wedding guests never saw the miracle as far as we know. They were generally speaking like so many today. They were unaware of what can be happening when Jesus Christ is present.

Jesus did not just doctor up the water and make it taste like wine. He transforms water into wine. I have never seen water turned into wine but I have seen beer turned into tables and chairs!

The disciples saw…  ( Click for more )

We move on to read John Chapter 2. On the third day there was a wedding, and Jesus Christ is present. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Mary’s boy, our Saviour and Lord, has just appeared on the world’s scene.

Jesus Christ has just been baptised in water and anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is just beginning to gather around Him His disciples, and yet, he has time to attend this family occasion. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, so what He is like here in this book, He is the same today.

Here is Jesus Christ honouring marriage. God gave…  ( Click for more )

In John Chapter 1 and at verse 35, we read of two men searching for Jesus Christ and they find Him. They go looking for Jesus Christ. Had they heard the Pharisees ‘praying’ and debating and they knew that that was not real. They wanted reality! Want what is real and if you are a preacher or Bible Class leader or Sunday School teacher give your people what is real.

One of these two men is Andrew, having found the Christ, he immediately goes to find for Christ.

He goes to his brother Simon Peter. “We have found the Messiah, the Christ.”

How long does…  ( Click for more )

We have been reading and studying in John Chapter, 1 of how God was working and moving to prepare people for the coming and appearing of Jesus Christ, His Son, the Saviour of the world, the Messiah. God decided to prepare people by sending a man with a message, and that is normally the method He uses.

If you are a man with a message from God, then bow before Him and give thanks, and deliver that message faithfully and gracefully.

God sends a man with a message here, and John the Baptist calls people to repent – to turn from their sins to God – to sort things out,…  ( Click for more )

We are reading and studying the opening words of the Gospel of John, and already John is pointing to the Cross of Christ, and it is only Chapter 1. Jesus Christ shed His blood and died to take away our sin – not just to reduce it – but to take it away. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God and Paul describes Jesus so accurately as our Passover Lamb.

The Passover Lamb was one year old and without any blemish whatsoever. This speaks of the spotless purity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.

The Passover Lamb offered protection on that night in Egypt and our Passover…  ( Click for more )

I this opening Chapter of the Gospel of John, Almighty God is speaking through a peculiar preacher who down at the Jordan River. He was drawing great crowds and he was immersing them in the waters of the river as a sign that they seriously wanted to clean up their lives.

This had never happened before and that usually causes trouble. When God begins to move in a new way and do something different and something real – that can be upsetting.

It must have been powerful preaching. Can you imagine some of the reports that must have got back to Jerusalem? In Jerusalem, there…  ( Click for more )

As we read these opening verses of the Gospel of John we read about another John. It is John the Baptist, or John the baptiser, or John the plunger. If only the translators had translated that Greek word ‘baptizo’ instead of transliterating it, what a lot of theological confusion and denominational division might have been avoided.

John is around 30 years of age and he is a strange looking man wearing strange clothing – but he walks onto the world’s scene with a straight from the shoulder word, which came straight from the heart of God.

He is preaching.…  ( Click for more )