Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In John 5, Jesus said to a paraplegic, “Do you want to be healed?” (v 5).

The man replied, “I do. I’ve been waiting years by this pool, but when the healing waters are stirred, no one helps me get in first” (v 7).

Jesus said, “Pick up your mat and walk.” He did. Jesus had healed him. 

The Pharisees saw the man walking around with his mat. “Hey!” they said, “Carrying a bedroll is work. You can’t do that on the Sabbath” (v 10). 

The man said, “Chill out. The one who healed me told me to pick it up” (v. 11). 

“Who said that?” they asked. “We need to talk to him!” (v 12). 

The man said, “Search me. I don’t know .” Later he met Jesus, who said, “You’re healed. Stop sinning or something worse might happen” (v 14). So the man told the Pharisees, “I just found out. It was Jesus who healed me” (v 15). 

The Pharisees promptly got Jesus in their sights and told him to quit healing on the Sabbath. 

Jesus replied, “My father, God, is always working. I’m just following his lead” (v 17).  

Think about that! Didn’t God rest on the Sabbath, the seventh day of creation? Well, not completely, the Jews said, because God works every day to sustain creation. They granted God a small exemption to their rule about not working on the Sabbath.

But Jesus? His accusers were pretty sure he wasn’t sustaining the universe. He was walking around, healing like a doctor. And he told the man to carry his bedroll.

Not cool, complained the Pharisees. And it’s even worse that you claim God as your father, and say your work is like his work.    

Jesus didn’t back down or negotiate. Instead, he escalated by making more and bigger claims. Listen to him.
  Whatever God does, I do (v 19).
  God raises the dead. So can I! (v 21).
  God is the judge, but he delegates judgement to me (v 22).
  God has eternal life in himself. So do I (v 26).
  God is in charge of the end of times. But it’s me who will raise people from the dead   

   and give them eternal life or eternal condemnation (v 28-29). 

These are massive claims for a mere man. No wonder the Pharisees were royally ticked. 

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, we are Pharisees. We want clear rules to live by. Rules to prove we’re right.  Rules to prove we’re right with you. Rules to control others. Forgive us for making rules that circumvent compassion. Forgive us for honoring ourselves instead of you on the Sabbath.

O Jesus, we are the paraplegic man. Waiting years for healing. Hoping for healing in health care or church, in natural remedies or science, in meditation, medication, or psychology. Only you can heal our brokenness. Come, Lord Jesus, heal us. 

O Jesus, we are your disciples. We listen to your colossal claims and we believe in you. You are our lifegiver, our judge, God’s son and equal. Look on us with compassion. Make us your disciples.

Amen 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In John 4, while the disciples went into town for food, Jesus stayed at a well and offered a woman what he called living water. When the disciples returned, Jesus gave them a lesson about food.

They said to Jesus, “Have some lunch” (Jn 4:31). 

Jesus said, “I don’t need lunch. I eat different food” (v 32). 

Confused, they said, “Did someone give you something to eat?” (vv 31-33). 

Jesus replied, “My food is to do the will of God” (v 34). That’s strange. Can God’s will fill your stomach?  

Without explaining what Jesus meant, gospel-writing John takes us back to Cana, the place of Christ’s first miracle. But  this time the story is about a royal official who tells Jesus, “My son is dying. Come heal him” (v 47). 

Jesus responded harshly, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe” (Jn 4:48). 

Why the rebuke? Was the official asking for a miracle, a sign? Or did he just want healing for his son? Fortunately, he ignored Jesus’ signs and wonders comment and said, “Please come before my boy dies” (v. 49). 

Jesus said, “Go home. Your son will live” (v. 50). The servants said the boy was healed exactly when Jesus said, “The boy will live” (v 52). 

Two comments. 

This is the second time Jesus expressed reservations about providing a miracle or a sign. Remember when the Jews wanted a sign after Jesus cleansed the temple? That’s when he said, “Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days” (Jn 2:23). Not the kind of sign they wanted. And now, to the distraught father, Jesus says, “Unless you see signs you won’t believe.” 

Second, Jesus was compassionate. He didn’t press the official to become a better believer, or to express his faith. He just said, “Your son will live” (v 50). 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we want signs and wonders to increase our faith. Could you honor the prosperity gospel and make us rich? Could you guide us with words of knowledge in our churches? Could you explain living water and mysterious food?

O Jesus, when you cleansed the temple and when you healed the official’s son, you saw doubt and resistance in human hearts. John says you didn’t entrust yourself to people, because you knew what was in them (Jn 2:24-25). 

O Jesus, entrust yourself to us. Give us wisdom to accept your teaching, to believe in you, to drink living water at your well, to find nourishment in doing your father’s will. And most of all, teach us to live the life you live within us.

Amen 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Who do you think Jesus is?  

John 4 traces one woman’s progress in discovering who he was?  

When Jesus met her at a well and asked her for a drink, she identified him as a strange  Jewish male: “Jews like you don’t ask Samaritans like me for a drink” (Jn 4:9). 

Unlike her, I often forget that Jesus was a Jew. Born in Palestine in a Jewish family, he grew up honoring the law of Moses, wearing sandals and a robe, going to synagogue. But today he’s my savior, and I see him as a man like me, not someone from a vastly different time and place and culture.   

The well where Jesus met this woman was over a thousand years old, dug by Jacob, a father of the Jews. When Jesus offered to give her living water instead of Jacob’s well water, she said, “What are you going on about? You don’t even have a bucket. Are you better at well building than Jacob?” (Jn 4:11). 

How’s that for a put-down comparison! Jacob had been famous for two millenia, but who was this newcomer, offering a new source of water in a dry and desert land? But think: it was an apt comparison because Jesus offered something Jacob couldn’t.

John the Baptist heard and accepted Jesus’ big claims by calling him “Lord” – as in “Prepare the way of the Lord” (John 1:23). The woman at the well used the same word, Lord, for Jesus, but my Bible translates it as “sir”, as in “Sir, where can I get this living water?”, or “Sir, give me this water” (John 4:11, 15). 

Sir, or Lord, is an interesting word, suitable for John the Baptist preparing the way of the Lord. And suitable for a carpenter asking his client, “Sir, do you want a table of olive wood or cedar?” 

Store clerks sometimes call me “Sir,” but never “Lord.” I want to tell them, “Sir is a term of respect for people with social status. If you knew my lowly status you wouldn’t call me Sir.” 

I think John uses the word as a double entendre. The woman’s respect for this random Jew was slowly growing. Calling him “sir” moves her a step toward “sir” with a capital S, which for her is the same as “Lord” with a capital L.  

And finally, when Jesus tells her that true worshippers worship in spirit and truth, she replies, “I don’t understand you, but when Messiah, the Christ, comes, he will explain this stuff clearly.” 

And Jesus says, “That’s me.”

What a story. Her estimation of Jesus morphed from random Jew to comparing him to Jacob, to a respectful Sir or Lord, and finally, a glimpse of the Messiah.

In the noonday sun by the well, Jesus led her on a pilgrimage of discovery.   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, like the woman we struggle to grasp who you are. 

We read your many names—son of God, Messiah, savior, healer—but do we know you? Do we drink living water from your well? Or are we still drinking water from Jacob’s well?  

We worship at Jerusalem, we worship in our church. But how can we worship in spirit and truth?   

O Jesus, come to us and question us as you questioned the woman. Expose the truth of our lives. Quench our thirst with living water. Transform our lives with a vision of Messiah.  

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

John 3 is about Nicodemus, John 4 about a nameless woman Jesus met at a community well. 

Interesting contrasts between the two stories.
  – A man in one, a woman in the other.
  – He is named, she isn’t.
  – The man came to Jesus. Jesus approached the woman.
  – Nicodemus’ meeting was at midnight, the woman’s in the noontime heat. 
  – One was a respectable, well-educated leader, the other an ostracized social outcast.
  – One choked on Jesus’ born-again message, the other drank deeply of his living water.

Let’s look at the woman. 

When Jesus met her at Jacob’s well, he said, “Please give me a drink.” She replied, “You’re weird. Jewish men don’t ask Samaritan women for water!” (vv 7-9).

Jesus said, “You should ask me about God’s living water” (v 10).

She said, “Where’s your bucket? You can’t draw water without a bucket.” (v 11). 

He said, “Put water in your bucket, and you’ll thirst again. Dip your bucket in my living water, and you’ll never thirst again (v 13-14). 

She said, “Sold! Give me your living water” (v 15).

Jesus said, “Excellent. Why don’t you get your husband and come back?” (v 16). 

The woman replied, “No can do. I don’t have a husband” (v 17). 

Jesus said, “Exactly. You’ve had five, and your current partner isn’t your husband” (v 17-18).

The woman said, “Ouch, that hurts. You must be a prophet. Tell me where to worship–on our Samaritan mountain or at the Jerusalem temple?” (v 19-20).

He said, “Neither. Heart always trumps place. True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth” (vv 21-23). 

Confused, the woman exclaimed, “That sounds complicated. But when Messiah comes, he’ll untangle everything for us” (v 25). 

Jesus said, “Indeed he will. Because that’s me” (v 26). 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, like the woman we are bound by time and place and circumstance. We drink city water from the tap. We buy white bread at Superstore. Our lives are socially awkward. 

We try hard to understand your teaching–“be born again” and “drink living water”.

Speak to us as you spoke to the nameless woman. Invite us to your spring of living water. Teach us to worship in spirit and truth. Be the answer to our tangled relationships. Lead us to confess that you are Messiah, our savior. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Have you been born again? What does that mean? 

Jesus shocked Nicodemus when he lobbed a birth metaphor into his religious life. A member of the Jewish parliament, Nicodemus was a scholar who helped make laws and settle disputes. His religious colleagues hated Jesus, but Nicodemus wanted the facts. 

One night he came furtively to Jesus. “Your miracles suggest that God is with you” he said. “But you reject the religion God gave Moses. You confuse me. What’s the truth here?” (John 3:2). 

A great opportunity for Jesus to teach Nicodemus, to show him Old Testament prophecies that point to Christ.A chance for Jesus to start an ecumenical dialogue with the Jews. 

Nope! Jesus says, “You need to be born again” (John 3:3)

Not quite the answer Nicodemus was looking for. He wanted to understand the relationship between God, Jesus, and the Jewish religion. Instead Jesus criticizes Nicodemus’ first birth experience and says he should try again. 

“Really?” Nicodemus replies. “Go back into Momma’s womb and emerge again? Impossible. Ludicrous” (John 3:4).

Reminds me of Jesus’ earlier statement, “Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days” (John 2:19). A mysterious saying, impossible to take literally. Jesus confused the Jews with building and birthing metaphors.

“Listen,” said Jesus to Nicodemus, “you must be born of water and the spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). 

And you? Have you been born of water? Have you been born of the spirit? 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we don’t know born of water means, but we believe we have been born of the spirit Jesus mentions. 

Yet how little our lives seem to be born again. We work at jobs, read novels. Embrace social media, go to church. Activities that follow our physical birth. But where is our wellspring of life in the spirit? 

We are humans. We are physical bodies inhabited by invisible life forces–mind, soul, emotion, and spirit. Dwell in us by your spirit, until your goodness and power animates all our thoughts and actions. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Why did Jesus challenge religious leaders to destroy the temple (John 2:19)?

It happened like this. After he whipped the sheep and cattle out of the temple courtyard and upended the money changers’ tables, the Jews protested, “Show us a sign to prove your authority to do this!” (John 1:18). A reasonable request. 

Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple and I’ll rebuild it in three days” (v. 19). Sounds  unreasonable doesn’t it? 

Jesus’ hearers thought so too. “Hey! It took 46 years to build this temple. And you say you can do it in three days” (v. 20). 

Gospel writer John explained that Jesus wasn’t talking about the temple building in front of them (v. 21). 

Who knew? Not the disciples, not the Jews standing in front of that huge temple. In fact, John says nobody understood until three years later when Jesus was raised from the dead. Then the disciples said, “Oh, his destroy-and-build-the-temple story was about himself. He meant, destroy me and I’ll come back in three days.”

Really. Quite a strange story at the beginning of John’s gospel. Here are some thoughts. 

1. This is the first time in the Bible that someone’s body is described as a temple. I wouldn’t think to call a living, breathing human body a temple. But Jesus did. Pagan gods reside in pagan temples. The living God has come to live in you. Paul says, Treat your body with care because it’s God’s temple, the place where he resides (1 Cor 3:16-19). 

2. A second point. Jesus had a reputation as a great teacher, but this time he just confused his listeners. To the Jews, he wasn’t much more than an arrogant windbag claiming he could rebuild a huge temple in three days! It took almost half a century to build that temple, and Jesus wanted to do it in half a week?

John places this story early in his gospel to warn us that the simple, obvious, and literal meaning of what Jesus says is not always the right meaning. Jesus hid his lessons in metaphors and parables. His words were not what they seemed. He let people stew in wrong meanings, without correcting errant understanding. Do you understand Jesus’ words? 

Modern, rational scripture readers delight in explaining and expanding. English grammar and Greek definitions, parsing subtle nuances in major points. Perhaps we need John’s caution that literal meanings are not always correct, that Jesus sometimes hides his intention. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you stood before a huge temple of wood and stone, and spoke mysteriously of destruction and rebuilding. Three years later, the temple of your body was crucified and resurrected.

As we search the literal meaning of things spiritual, help us see beyond your plain words, to the spirit and truth of what you said and who you are. 

When you speak of temples, help us not to look aimlessly at temples of wood and stone. When you speak of the rapture and the tribulation, help us not to create charts and movies about who is taken and who is left behind. 

We trust you to reside in our living temples, in our lives and the lives of your followers. We trust you will bring us to reside in the eternal dwellings you are preparing.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Why would John put stories of winemaking and wrecking side by side? That’s what he did, in chapter two of his gospel. 

The wine ran out at a wedding so Jesus turned ordinary water into fine wine to keep the celebration going. 

Next, John flips to a story about merchants selling sacrifice-animals and providing foreign exchange in the temple. Jesus was offended, so he made a whip and drove away the animals. He knocked over the money changers’ tables, coins flying, tempers rising. A regular wrecking party. 

Here’s my take on John’s stories. 

At an ordinary wedding, Jesus did something extraordinary, something that hinted he was more than just an average rabbi wandering backwater Galilee. John says the winemaking showed his glory. Jesus, the carpenter with callused hands and unkempt hair. But unexpectedly, the love and power of God shines through. That’s his glory. quietly using God’s power to solve human problems.  

Psalm 104 says God gives wine to gladden human hearts (v 15). At the wedding celebration, Jesus gave the gift of  gladness. 

But it’s not just gladness Jesus brings. What about his wrecking ball encounter at the temple? He couldn’t tolerate money-grubbing incursions into God’s holy place. Nor would he tolerate noise where God ordained quiet, or business where God ordained worship.

That’s John’s picture of Jesus. Meek and mild, a gladdener of hearts. Strong and wild, a wrecker of false worship. Which Jesus will meet you today?

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, too often we are like those money changers and animal sellers. Too often our religion is a business. Too often we leave church on Sunday and serve our own interests all week.

Our reverence for you has devolved into tolerance, our worship is full of empty words, our prayers vain repetition. 

Restore us to true spirituality, to communion with you, to a love of your church and your people. Help us make your house a house of prayer. Teach our hearts to touch your heart. Help us use our lives to show your praise. 

O Jesus, make us glad with new wine. Feed us daily with your bread. Illuminate our souls with your light. Refresh our journey with your presence. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube Text

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

If Jesus said, “What do you want?”, what would you say? 

That’s the first question Jesus asked his disciples. When John introduced him as the lamb of God, two of John’s disciples followed Jesus, so he said, “What do you want?” 

Taken aback, they replied, “Uhhhh–like, where are you staying?”

“Come and see,” he said (John 1:39). And they spent the day hanging out with him. 

So begins John’s story about Jesus’ disciples. He doesn’t start with a splash, like Matthew and Luke, where Jesus calls busy fishermen. John starts with curious disciples trailing Jesus.

One of the most amusing and mystifying features in John’s gospel is how he contrasts Jesus’ greatness in heaven with his low profile on earth. 

• Jesus was the creator, but his creation didn’t recognize him.
• He was eternal, but he functioned on an earthly clock, all the way from a baby to a man.
• He was full of grace and truth, but the Jewish religion thought him a scammer.
• His home was heaven, but he invited the first disciples to his residence on earth. 

“What do you want?” he asked them. Does he ask you that? Do you know what you want?

Continuing the story, one of the two who followed Jesus was Andrew. He made a detour to collect his brother Simon. And Jesus gave Simon a new name, Peter, the rock (John 1:42). Does Jesus give you a new name?

The next day, Philip invited Nathanael saying. “Hey! We found the Messiah. He’s Jesus of Nazareth.”

Listen to Nathanael’s shocked unbelief. “A messiah from Nazareth? Nothing good ever came from that place” (John 1:46). 

Jesus, a commonplace man from a disreputable village. In Matthew, shepherds heard angels and believed who Jesus was. In John, Nathanael heard Philip and disbelieved his testimony.

Jesus responded to Nathanael, “I saw you under the fig tree. I know you are a man without pretensions” (John 1:48). Amazed, Nathanael said, “Rabbi, you are the son of God, the king of Israel” (John 1:49). 

John doesn’t describe the logic, the reasoning, that lifted Nathanael from “Nazareth? Unbelievable” to “I believe in you, Jesus.” But perhaps that’s what meeting Jesus can do. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you invited the disciples to “come and see” where you were staying. 

Two thousand years and half a world away, we still hear your invitation. We come, we see, we believe you live among us and in us.

O Jesus, speak to us as you spoke to Nathanael, words that turn our hard unbelieving hearts to faith, that turn our harsh unyielding realism to gentle openness, that turn idle curiosity into living discipleship. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube