John 5
Jesus heals man Bethesda verse 1- 9
After this there was a feast of the Jews
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool
which is called in the Hebrew tongue
Bethesda – having five porches
In these lay a great multitude of impotent
folk – blind – halt – withered
waiting for the moving of the water
FOR an angel went down at a certain season into the pool
and troubled the water
whosoever then first
after the troubling of the water stepped in
was made whole of whatsoever
disease he had
AND a certain man was there
which had an infirmity thirty and eight years
WHEN Jesus saw him lie – and knew that he had been now
a long time in that case – HE said to him
Will you be made whole?
The impotent man answered him
Sir – I have no man – when the water is troubled
to put me into the pool
BUT while I am coming – another steps down before me
Jesus said unto him – Rise – take up your bed – and walk
and immediately the man was made whole
and took up his bed and walked
and on the same day was the Sabbath
Jewish leaders objected verse 10- 13
The Jews therefore said to him that was cured
It is the Sabbath day
it is not lawful for you to carry your bed
He answered them – HE that made me whole
the same said to me – Take up your bed and walk
Then asked they him
What man is that which said to you
Take up your bed and walk?
And he that was healed knew not who it was
FOR Jesus had conveyed HIMSELF away
a multitude being in that place
Healed man learns more about Jesus verse 14- 16
Afterward Jesus found him in the temple – and said to him
BEHOLD – you are made whole – sin no more
lest a worse thing come to you
The man departed – and told the Jews that it was Jesus
which had made him whole
AND therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus
and sought to slay HIM
BECAUSE HE had done these things on the Sabbath day
Jesus makes HIMSELF equal with God verse 17- 18
But Jesus answered them
MY Father works hitherto and I work
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill HIM
BECAUSE HE not only had broken the Sabbath
BUT said also that God was HIS Father
making HIMSELF equal with God
Relationship of Jesus to the Father verse 19- 23
Then answered Jesus and said to them
Verily – verily – I say to you
The Son can do nothing of HIMSELF
BUT what HE sees the Father do
FOR what things soever HE does
these also does the Son likewise
FOR the Father loves the Son
and shows HIM all things that HIMSELF does
and HE will show HIM greater works than these
that you may marvel
FOR as the Father raises up the dead – and quickens them
even so the Son quickens whom HE will
FOR the Father judges no man
BUT has committed all judgment to the Son
that all men should honor the Son
EVEN as they honor the Father
He that honors not the Son honors not the Father
which has sent HIM
Belief equals eternal life verse 24
Verily – verily – I say to you – He that hears MY word
and believes on HIM that sent ME – has everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation
BUT is passed from death to life
Two resurrections verse 25- 30
Verily – verily – I say to you – The hour is coming – and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God
and they that hear shall live
FOR as the Father has life in HIMSELF
so has HE given to the Son to have life in HIMSELF
and has given HIM authority
to execute judgment also
BECAUSE HE is the Son of man
Marvel not at this – FOR the hour is coming
in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear HIS voice and shall come forth
They that have done good – to the resurrection of life
and they that have done evil
to the resurrection of damnation
I can of MINE OWN self do nothing – as I hear – I judge
and MY judgment is just
BECAUSE I seek not MINE OWN will
BUT the will of the Father
which has sent ME
Lack of acceptance of witness of Jesus verse 31- 38
If I bear witness of MYSELF – MY witness is not true
there is another that bears witness of ME
and I know that the witness
which HE witnesses of ME is true
You sent to John – and he bare witness to the truth
BUT I receive not testimony from man
BUT these things I say
that you might be SAVED
He was a burning and a shining light
and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light
BUT I have greater witness than that of John
FOR the works which the Father has given ME to finish
the same works that I do – bear witness of ME
that the Father has sent ME
AND the Father HIMSELF – which has sent ME
has borne witness of ME
You have neither heard HIS voice at any time
nor seen HIS shape
and you have not HIS word abiding in you
FOR WHOM HE has sent – HIM you believe not
Scriptures point to Jesus verse 39
Search the Scriptures
FOR in them you think you have eternal life
AND they are they which testify of ME
No love of God verse 40- 44
And you will not come to ME – that you might have life
I receive not honor from men
BUT I know you
that you have not the love of God in you
I am come in MY Father’s name
and you receive ME not
IF another shall come in his own name
him you will receive
How can you believe – which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that comes from God only?
Moses accuses Jewish leaders verse 45- 47
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father
there is one that accuses you
EVEN Moses – in whom you trust
FOR had you believed Moses – you would have believed ME
FOR he wrote of ME
BUT if you believe not his writings
How shall you believe MY words?
COMMENTARYDAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath. (5199 “whole” [hugies] means sound, restored to health, healthy, accurate, well, cured, safe, or undamaged)
DEVOTION: Christ is a unique healer. HE will walk up to a blind person and ask what he wants HIM to do. Of course, our thinking would take us to the fact that he is blind and would like to see. Here we find the a man who has been waiting at a pool of Bethesda for an angel to stir the waters in the pool. Once they are stirred the first one in the pool is healed. The man has been waiting for thirty-eight years. He had no one to take him to the pool.
Now Jesus comes to the pool on the Sabbath. HE sees the man and what does HE do? HE asks him what? Does he want to be restored to health? What should the answer be?
If we were sick for that time period and someone came who could heal us or give us other things what would we ask for? We should be like this man and ask for health.
Some of us might not need physical healing but we all need spiritual healing. Our goal should be to ask the LORD to continue to heal us spiritually, so that, we can be spiritually mature to help others. Of course the first step is to become a follower of the LORD. The next step is to continually ask HIM for spiritual development. We have to realize that there will be times when we are tested and we can only pass the test with HIS help.
So we need to ask HIM for that help. Those who are physically sick need HIM to heal them physically. Those who are spiritually sick need HIM to heal them spiritually.
CHALLENGE: Understand your weakness whether physically or spiritually and turn to HIM for help. HE will guide you in the right direction.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 17 But Jesus answered the, MY Father works hitherto, and I work. (737 “hitherto” [arti] means now, the period of time that is happening in the present moment, immediately, at once, or at this very time.)
DEVOTION: Jesus wanted everyone to understand that HE and the Father were one. The Godhead was working together during Jesus stay on the earth.
When Jesus informed the religious leaders of what was going on during HIS stay on earth they were furious. They were mad because HE made HIMSELF equal with the Father. They worshiped the Father or at least they thought they worshiped the Father.
They couldn’t understand the concept that Jesus and Jehovah were working together as one. They wanted to kill Jesus just for saying such a thing. They were angry.
Jesus had broken the Sabbath because HE had healed a man on the Sabbath. They were angry because Jesus told the individual to take up his bed and go home which they considered work. Work was a sin on the Sabbath according to them.
God is our Father once we become followers of Jesus. HE is the one that we are to pray to for our needs. We are to always pray in Jesus’ name. The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us understand what we should pray for on any given occasion.
All three form one God. Each has their own responsibility in the Godhead. They always work in unity. They are always equal. Is it easy to understand? NO!! The Bible states it that way and we just have to believe it.
CHALLENGE: Are we working together with the Godhead to reach our world for the LORD? Jesus did while on the earth and HE gave us the same assignment.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me (2045 “search” [ereunao] means examine into, try to learn, try to find out, or investigate)
DEVOTION: Jesus had told the religious leaders that HE had an equal relationship with the Father. They were furious and wanted to kill HIM. HE continued to teach them the relationship HE had with the Father.
This is an excellent chapter regarding the activities of the Father. Jesus points out to the religious leaders that their Old Testament writings predict HIS coming and tell of HIS ministry. HE tells them to examine or investigate the writings or Scriptures to see what is there. HE tells them that they speak of HIS coming and ministry.
They think because they can count the letters when they copy the Scriptures that they are going to heaven. They are wrong. The Scriptures testify concerning the coming Messiah who will die for the sins of the world. Eternal life is for those who worship God, not the writings HE has given them. The religious leaders were concerned more with preserving their traditions, then to worship Jesus as the Messiah.
Can we get so preoccupied with our position that we worship it rather than God? Can we look for proof texts to prove our point and cause others to turn away from the LORD? Our responsibility is to testify of what the LORD is teaching us from HIS word in love. We are to be sharing the truth in love. Are we truly examining the Word of God so that we can get closer to the TRUTH?
CHALLENGE: Investigate the WORD to see what the Holy Spirit can teach us regarding Jesus Christ. The more we know about HIM and HIS Word, the more we can be like HIM. Emulate Jesus Christ!!!
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: 47 But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe MY words? (4100 “believe” [pisteuo] means to accept as true, take to be true, to regard as trustworthy, have confidence, or to be firmly persuaded)
DEVOTION: The Jews in Jesus day were Old Testament saints. The ones who were genuine believers were using the books of the Old Testament to live by on a regular basis. Even though they were living under the rule of Rome, the Jews had their own worship centers and religious leaders.
These religious leaders didn’t like Jesus. They claimed that they had Moses and the prophets to guide them in their worship. Jesus confronted them on this belief. They were not listening genuinely to Moses. They were making their own rules and saying that they were following Moses.
Jesus stated that they didn’t believe Moses. If they believed Moses, they would believe HIM. They didn’t believe Moses and therefore didn’t believe HIM. They were going to face judgment for disobedience to Moses but more importantly to the teachings of Jesus.
Religious people have an outward appearance of Christianity but the real followers are those who worship HIM internally also. Be a believer in Jesus.
CHALLENGE: Watch out for false teachers.
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Feast of the Jews verse 1
Sabbath verse 9, 16, 18
Temple verse 14
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
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Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
Law verse 10
Search the Scriptures verse 39
Testify of Jesus Christ verse 39
Moses verse 45- 47
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
Father
verse 17, 18- 23, 26, 30, 36, 37, 43, 45
Father works with Jesus verse 17
Father called God verse 18
Father and Jesus equal verse 18
Father active verse 19
Father loves the Son verse 20
Father raises the dead verse 21
Father judges no man verse 22
Father to receive honor through Son verse 23
Father has life in HIMSELF verse 26
Father has will to send Son verse 30, 36, 37
Father gave Son works to finish verse 36
Father’s name verse 43
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
Jesus verse 1, 6, 8, 13- 17, 19
Healing of man with infirmity 38 years verse 1- 18
Sir verse 7
Jesus works with the Father verse 17
Equal with God verse 18
Son verse 19 – 23
Son raises dead verse 21
Son to judge all men verse 22, 27
Son to be honored verse 23
Son of God verse 25
Son has life in HIMSELF verse 26
Son given authority of the Father verse 27
Son of man verse 27
Just judge verse 30
Seek will of the Father verse 30
Sent of the Father verse 30, 36, 37
Bear witness verse 31
Finished works of Father verse 36
Son comes in Father’s name verse 43
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God verse 18, 25, 42, 44
Love of God verse 42
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Good angel troubles the water verse 4
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
All men verse 23
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Not lawful verse 10
Sin verse 14
Slay verse 16, 18
Condemnation verse 24
Dead verse 25
Done evil verse 29
Resurrection of damnation verse 29
God’s word not abiding in verse 38
Believe not verse 38
Not have love of God in you verse 42
Seek wrong honor verse 44
Trust not verse 45
Trust in Moses not Jesus verse 45
Believe not Moses writings verse 47
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Marvel verse 20
Quicken verse 21
Hear verse 24, 25
Believe verse 24, 44, 46
Everlasting life verse 24
Passed from death to life verse 24
Done good verse 29
Resurrection of life verse 29
Witness verse 32, 33, 36
Truth verse 33
Saved verse 34
Rejoice verse 35
Search the Scripture verse 39
Life verse 40
Love of God verse 42
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Jews verse 1, 10, 15, 16, 18
Jerusalem verse 1
Pool called Bethesda verse 2
Certain impotent man verse 5, 7
John the Baptist verse 33, 35, 36
Moses verse 45, 46
Moses wrote of Jesus verse 46
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
Judgment verse 22
Everlasting life verse 24
Condemnation verse 24
Graves verse 28
Resurrection of life verse 29
Resurrection of damnation verse 29
Eternal life verse 39, 40
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QUOTES regarding passage
18 The Jews were angry because of Jesus’ violation of the Sabbath, but they were furious when he was so presumptuous as to claim equality with the Father. This claim of Jesus widened the breach between his critics and himself, for they understood that by it he was asserting his deity. His explanation shows that he did not claim identity with the Father as one person, but he asserted his unity with the Father in a relationship that could be described as sonship. This sonship has many facets, as shown in vv. 19–24. (Tenney, M. C. (1981). John. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts (Vol. 9, p. 64). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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5:18. The Sabbath controversy was enough to cause them to hate Jesus, but the implication of His claim that God is His own Father was impossible for them to accept. To them, God has no equals. Jesus’ claim, in their thinking, was a monstrous blasphemy. To be equal with God suggested, they thought, two gods and therefore polytheism. To make oneself “equal with God” was a claim of arrogant independence. In the Talmud four persons were branded as haughty because they made themselves equal to God: pagan rulers Hiram, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and the Jewish King Joash. (Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 290). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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The Jewish leaders did not prosecute the man who was healed, even though he had broken the law; but they did begin to persecute the Lord Jesus. As the guardians of the faith, the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin (the religious ruling council) had the responsibility of investigating new preachers and teachers who appeared in the land, lest some false prophet come along and lead the people astray. They had looked into the ministry of John the Baptist (John 1:19ff) and more recently had been scrutinizing the ministry of Jesus.
Jesus had healed a demoniac on the Sabbath (Luke 4:31–37), so the Sanhedrin was already suspicious. In the days following the miracle recorded in John 5, Jesus would defend His disciples for picking grain on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1–8), and would heal a man’s withered hand on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:9–14). He deliberately challenged the legalistic traditions of the scribes and Pharisees. They had taken the Sabbath—God’s gift to man—and had transformed it into a prison house of regulations and restrictions.
When they confronted Jesus with His unlawful conduct, He simply replied that He was doing only what His Father was doing! God’s Sabbath rest had been broken by man’s sin (see Gen. 3); and ever since the fall of man, God has been seeking lost sinners and saving them. But when Jesus said “My Father” instead of the usual “our Father,” used by the Jews, He claimed to be equal with God.
The Jewish leaders instantly understood His claim, and they changed their accusation from that of Sabbath-breaking to blasphemy, because Jesus claimed to be God. Liberal theologians who say that Jesus never claimed to be God have a difficult time with this passage.
Of course, the penalty for such blasphemy was death. It is here that the “official persecution” of Jesus began, culminating in His crucifixion. In the days that followed, our Lord often confronted His enemies with their evil desire to kill Him (John 7:19, 25; 8:37, 59). They hated Him without a cause (John 15:18–25). They ignored the good deeds that He performed for the helpless and hopeless, and centered their attention on destroying Him.
Jesus made Himself equal with God because He is God. This is the theme of John’s Gospel. The Jewish leaders could not disprove His claims, so they tried to destroy Him and get Him out of the way. Both in His crucifixion and His resurrection, Jesus openly affirmed His deity and turned His enemies’ weapons against them.
British writer George MacDonald pointed out that John 5:17 gives us a profound insight into our Lord’s miracles. Jesus did instantly what the Father is always doing slowly. For example, in nature, as mentioned earlier, the Father is slowly turning water into wine; but Jesus did it instantly. Through the powers in nature, the Father is healing broken bodies; but Jesus healed them immediately. Nature is repeatedly multiplying bread, from sowing to harvest; but Jesus multiplied it instantly in His own hands. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 305–306). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Ver. 18. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, &c.] They were the more desirous to take away his life, and were more bent and resolute upon it, and studied all ways and means how to bring it about; because he had not only broken the sabbath; as they imagined; for he had not really broken it: and if they had known what that means, that God will have mercy, and not sacrifice, they would have been convinced that he had not broke it by this act of mercy to a poor distressed object: but said also that God was his father; his own father, his proper father, his father by nature, and that he was his own son by nature; and this they gathered from his calling him my father, and assuming a co-operation with him in his divine works: making himself to be equal with God: to be of the same nature, and have the same perfections, and do the same works; for by saying that God was his father, and so that he was the son of God, a phrase, which, with them, signified a divine person, as they might learn from Psal. 2:7, 12 and by ascribing the same operations to himself, as to his father, they rightly understood him, that he asserted his equality with him; for had he intended no more, and had they imagined that he intended no more by calling God his father, than that he was so by creation, as he is to all men, or by adoption, as he was to the Jews, they would not have been so angry with him; for the phrase, in this sense, they used themselves: but they understood him otherwise, as asserting his proper deity, and perfect equality with the father; and therefore to the change of sabbath-breaking, add that of biasphemy, and on account of both, sought to put him to death; for according to their canons, both the sabbath-breaker, and the blasphemer, were to be stoned. (Gill, J. (1809). An Exposition of the New Testament (Vol. 1, pp. 799–800). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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Jesus’ vindication of His action roused them still farther, for He put it on a ground which seemed to them nothing short of blasphemy: ‘My Father worketh even until now, and I work.’ They fastened on one point in that great saying, namely, that it claimed Sonship in a special sense, and vindicated His right to disregard the Sabbath law on that ground. God’s rest is not inaction. ‘Preservation is a continual creation.’ All being subsists because God is ever working. The Son co-operates with the Father, and for Him, as for the Father, the Sabbath law does not apply. The charge of breaking the Sabbath fades into insignificance before the sin, in the objectors’ eyes, of making such claims. Therefore our Lord proceeds to expand and justify them. (Jesus’ vindication of His action roused them still farther, for He put it on a ground which seemed to them nothing short of blasphemy: ‘My Father worketh even until now, and I work.’ They fastened on one point in that great saying, namely, that it claimed Sonship in a special sense, and vindicated His right to disregard the Sabbath law on that ground. God’s rest is not inaction. ‘Preservation is a continual creation.’ All being subsists because God is ever working. The Son co-operates with the Father, and for Him, as for the Father, the Sabbath law does not apply. The charge of breaking the Sabbath fades into insignificance before the sin, in the objectors’ eyes, of making such claims. Therefore our Lord proceeds to expand and justify them. (MacLaren, A. (2009). Expositions of Holy Scripture: John 1–8 (p. 246). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.)
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FROM MY READING:
THE POWER AND GUILT OF SIN
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:14
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ clearly saves us, in the first instance, from the guilt and the penalty of sin. We are all guilty before God and before His holy law. We are guilty in His presence; so the first thing I need is to be saved from the guilt of my sin. I need a Savior in that respect apart from anything else. I have broken the law of God, and I am under the condemnation of that holy law; so before I can talk about salvation or about being saved, I must be perfectly clear that I am delivered from the guilt of my sin. That is the glorious message that the New Testament gospel brings to me.
In Christ my guilt is removed. It is no use my facing the future and proposing to live a better life. I am confronted by my own past—I cannot avoid it, I cannot escape it. I have broken the law—I must deal with the problem of my guilt—and I cannot do so. I cannot undo my past; I cannot make atonement for my misdeeds and for everything I have done against God. I must be delivered from the guilt of my sin, and Christ—and Christ alone—can so deliver me.
But having thus had the assurance that the guilt of my sin has been dealt with, I am still confronted by the power of sin. I battle the world and the flesh and the devil; forces and factors outside me are trying to drag me down, and I am aware of their terrible power. The man or woman who has not realized the power of sin all around him or her is a novice in these matters. There is only One who has conquered Satan, there is only One who has defeated the world, and that is this Son whom the Father sent into the world to be our Savior. Jesus Christ can deliver me from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin.
A Thought to Ponder: Jesus Christ can deliver me from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin. (From The Love of God, pp. 140-141, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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Nothing describes the social pressure to conform better than Hans Christian Andersen’s parable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Do you remember it? An emperor hires two weavers who claim they can make a garment so fine it’s only visible to the very wise. Of course, they end up not making any clothes at all. They pocket the emperor’s money and send him on procession through the city naked.
No one—not even the emperor himself—dares to say anything thinking if they do, it means they’re fools. Only a child is willing to shout out, “The emperor is naked!”
Each week, I come across a headline that makes me think, “Finally! This has got to be our naked emperor moment. Somebody is going to call this out.”
Last week, for instance, the spokeswoman for a British doula association was forced to resign after reminding her social media followers that people who have wombs are… women. Commenting on a health awareness campaign that encouraged “everyone aged 25-64 with a cervix” to get screened for cancer, the longtime birth coach wrote, “I am not a ‘cervix owner …’ I am a woman: an adult human female.”
In response, angry transgender activists barraged Doula UK with complaints, ultimately driving someone willing to say the obvious out of her job.
Honestly, I just cannot imagine that the majority of people really want to live in a world where birth coaches aren’t allowed to call women, “women.” In fact, it may be that we are ready to put at least some limits on the men who demand all the rights and privileges of women.
For example, a biological man who filed complaints against Vancouver beauty salons because they wouldn’t wax his private area was just told by a Canadian court that he doesn’t have a right to force female beauticians to touch him.
Then there’s the ongoing custody battle over a 7-year-old Texas boy whose mother is convinced he’s really ashe and therefore should dress, live, and medically transition into girlhood. Since we last talked about this story on “BreakPoint This Week,” a Dallas judge refused to grant the mother sole custody—a big improvement over what the jury had recommended.
And, resistance is growing in the academy, too. A recent essay at The American Mind describes how a growing group of radical feminist are bravely taking on the demands of transgender activists, having realized that their very existence as women is threatened by increasingly unrealistic demands. In response, they’ve earned a derogatory nickname: “TERF’s” which stands for “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists.”
Camille Paglia—a hard-left feminist, lesbian professor—has been mercilessly attacked for refusing to accept the claim that men who feel like women really are women. Paglia and other “gender critical” feminists think there’s something essential to biological womanhood that no man can never appropriate, claim or understand – no matter how much makeup, hormone therapy, or surgery he endures.
As she told the Weekly Standard in 2017: “The cold biological truth is sex changes are impossible. Every single cell of the human body remains coded with one’s birth gender for life.”
It sounds like something a conservative Christian would say.
The very fact that we now find ourselves as Christians lining up with radical feminists makes me wonder if we are, in fact, approaching a turning point. After all, the stakes are only getting higher. Sports championships that belong to women are already being given to men.
Will scholarships designated for women be taken by men? And what will happen when a federal small business grant program for women entrepreneurs is claimed by a man? Or when women no longer are able to represent their country in the Olympics because men claim all of the spots on their team?
We will see whether there’s a limit to what people will sit back and take. I suspect there is. After all, the emperor just can’t walk around naked forever. (BreakPoint)
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Hebrews 4
As we labor to enter into God’s rest, we may call upon Christ for mercy and grace.
INSIGHT
The Word of God is energized by the Spirit of God. Whenever Scripture goes forth, it never returns without accomplishing the work it was intended to do. This is because the written Word of God is “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (v. 12). As we minister to others, the Bible must be central to all that we say and do. We must always remember that it is the Word which is alive, not our own insights, clever arguments, or interesting stories. (Quiet Walk)
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Things We Can’t Do Without
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12)
There are many things in this world that we can easily get along without, but some that are absolutely essential: First of all, we need Christ. Otherwise we are like the Gentiles described in our text—“without Christ . . . having no hope, and without God in the world.”
Secondly, if we were ever to be saved, Christ must shed His blood for our sins, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). In order for His death to be effective for our salvation, He was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Before Christ’s work actually becomes effective in our personal salvation, it must be believed and received by faith, for “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). This faith must be true faith, which transforms the life, for “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). Works do not bring salvation, but saving faith brings “things that accompany salvation” (Hebrews 6:9).
Among those things that accompany salvation is holiness, “without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Another is the privilege of chastisement! Our heavenly Father must deal with His errant children in loving discipline. Otherwise, “if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye . . . not sons” (Hebrews 12:8).
There are thus seven things we cannot do without. We cannot do without Christ, without the shedding of His blood, without His sinlessness, without faith in Him, without works for Him, without holiness unto Him, and without chastisement by Him. He said, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). But with Him, we have everything.
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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Daily Hope
Today’s Scripture
Psalm 138
Some people relate very well with the man that did not want to get up to go to church on a particular Sunday. His wife scolded him and stated that people would miss him, and he needed to be there. His thought was he would not be missed, and it would not matter for just one Sunday. Everyone has periods in their life where there is a dryness or lack of energy for worship. Reflecting back on Psalm 137, the Israelites would not sing as a result of their captivity and their attitude of revenge toward their captors.
David is the writer of this psalm and his desire was to worship the Lord for His faithfulness and truth (v.2). He desired to assure worship was accomplished regardless of who was present or the locale from which he worshipped. David was prepared to exalt his Lord and proclaim the strength of His word, whether before the gods (v.1) or the kings of the earth (v.4). When difficulties from his enemies threatened him, the words of the Lord brought a revival of energy needed to overcome and be victorious.
Recognizing the power of God’s word and taking time to praise the Lord for His work in our lives can bring empowerment to continue through adversity. David’s example here to devote time to worship regardless of the circumstances provides a principle for us to learn. Looking back at God’s work enables us to look forward with anticipation. His word and works are certain regardless of the current circumstances of life. The Lord is at work around us, give Him thanks with all your heart and praise Him (vv.1-2)!
With an Expectant hope, Pastor Miller
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