In his healing of the lame man, Jesus shows he is the one who will make all things new. But in the responses of the Jewish leaders and the healed man, we?re warned against two ways to miss out on the new world Jesus came to bring.

In place of a life defined by sin, suffering and death, Jesus offers us a life that is abundant and eternal. This passage is meant to show us why we can trust him to deliver on his promise. Jesus cares for his people with a love that drove him to death and a power that death could not conquer.

We have a hope that does not disappoint, one in which we should invest everything.

We must avoid faith based merely on what we see and aimed merely at the lives we want. Instead, we must seek faith based primarily on what we hear?on Jesus?s Word?and aimed at the life Jesus promises us.

Jesus?s conversation with the Samaritan woman clarifies the central calling of our lives. We?re called to be worshipers, and we?re called to seek worshipers.

This passage tells the story of Jesus?s meeting with a lonely Samaritan woman, an outcast even among an outcast people, whose life seems to have been a series of failed relationships with men. John tells the story to illustrate what Jesus came to offer those who trust in him. He offers acceptance even for those rejected by everyone else. And he offers satisfaction that is unmatched and unending.

This story centers on John the Baptist near the end of his life, just as his ministry was fading way and eclipsed by the rising popularity of Jesus. In his response to the situation we get one of this Gospel?s clearest examples of what it looks like to have genuine faith in Jesus. There?s transforming, liberating power in John?s statement of faith: ?He must increase; I must decrease.?

To fully appreciate the beauty in this iconic description of God?s love, we?ve got to understand who it is God loves and what his love costs him. And then we?ve got to face the choice this text poses for each of us: what will you do with Jesus?

Jesus insists that only those who are born again can enter the kingdom he came to establish. But what does it mean to be born again? And where can you get this experience? The answers come out in Jesus?s conversation with a religious leader named Nicodemus. They?re unexpected, but they?re life-giving.

This passage tells the story of Jesus cleansing the Jerusalem temple of all those selling animals and changing money. The fury of Jesus can be shocking given what we normally expect from him. But the anger he showed in driving shopkeepers from the temple flowed from the same love that drove him to earth. His all-consuming passion was for knowing God, and he came to make knowing God possible for us.