Study Desk

But the time is coming—indeed it's here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth."

You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.' But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest.

When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days,

long enough for many more to hear his message and believe.

Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.

Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?"

"I can't, sir," the sick man said, "for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me."

The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.

So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules.

So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making himself equal with God.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.

For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants.

"I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

John was like a burning and shining lamp, and you were excited for a while about his message.

For I have come to you in my Father's name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them.

No wonder you can't believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don't care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.

(It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)