Live Free with Josh Howerton - Knowing the Rules but Missing the Point | Ep. 260 | Friday, February 2, 2024

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

The Pharisees thought Jesus was a problem because He challenged their system by caring more for people than their man-made rules. Jesus told them that anyone who listens to Him will live, including them. They had all the knowledge but missed the truth of who Jesus is. How might you value knowledge more than truth? For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, thanks for tuning in to the Daily Drive podcast. Hope you having a good day and our time together today will help you get to know God better. My name is Mike Bro, and we hang here Monday through Friday for a few minutes,

and we have been hanging in the Book of John, this good news biography of Jesus that highlights mainly seven signs and miracles that authenticate who Jesus is. There are so many cool encounters that Jesus has with so many different kinds of people, and as John writes as an eyewitness, his goal is to get you and me to believe in the one who is the light of the world, so that you and I can have the same kind of light in life that he experienced. We've been in Chapter 5 this week. Jesus heals this man who had been sick and in mobile for 38 years, tells him, pick up your sleeping mat and walk. And the guy, well, he does. He is

instantly healed. And as he's walking through the streets of Jerusalem, the religious leaders call a foul on him for carrying his mat on a holy day. They cite him for quote-unquote working on the Sabbath. They chastise him asking, who told you, who told you to pick up your mat and walk? Well, he eventually identifies the man as Jesus, and the religious leaders are not happy. See, Jesus is a problem to their system. He seems to care more about people than keeping their inflated interpretation of the law. We left off yesterday with Jesus addressing their anger by telling them that he was simply doing the work of his father. They're going, his father, your father Are you claiming to be God?

Well, Jesus basically says yes, as he humbly talks about his relationship with his father, and then he says this piece of good news that we ended with yesterday. Verse 24, 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. By placing our faith in Jesus, we pass from death to life. Through his resurrection, he turns graves into gardens, tombs, into tunnels. Death can't touch those who believe. And then foreshadowing his resurrection, Jesus

tells them verse 25 and following, and I assure you that the time is coming. Indeed, it's here now when the dead will hear my voice, the voice of the son of God. And those who listen will live. The father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his son. And then he talks about his authority to judge and how people like John the Baptist were talking about him how John the Baptist was throwing a floodlight on the one to come, namely Jesus, and then he says this in verse 36. But I have a greater witness than John. My teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish, and they proved, they prove, that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me himself. Now you've never heard his voice or seen

him face to face, and you do none to have his message in your hearts because you don't believe in me, the one he sent to you. You search the scripture. because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. That's a sad passage. I wrote in the margin of my Bible. Rules don't change the heart.

Knowing the Bible doesn't give you eternal life. No one Jesus does. Again, religion is literally a dead-end street that leads to self-righteousness. Following Jesus is the road that leads to life. homely come to him and receive that life. Hope you have a great weekend. See you back on Monday for Chapter 6, and it's a really good one.

See you then. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our Church Online Live Weekend Services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.church slash daily drive.