Jesus is speaking to religious leaders deeply familiar with Scripture.
Read what He says they think the Scriptures give them, and what He says the Scriptures actually do.
Then notice what they refuse to come to Him for.
John 5:35-40
Tap a tool, then tap words. Highlight what gets your attention · underline what God is doing or saying · circle a repeated or unfamiliar word.
Read it aloud, then give everyone two minutes to mark it in silence.
Read the passage slowly. Notice what Jesus says about John, what the Father's works prove, what the teachers search the Scriptures for, and where Jesus says the Scriptures point. What details stand out? What surprises you?
John 5:35-40: The Scriptures point to Jesus, and life is found in coming to Him.
Mark it:
- Underline what God is doing or saying.
- Circle a word that repeats, or one you don’t understand.
- Highlight whatever gets your attention, even if you can’t say why.
NET Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. netbible.com
What stood out?
Go around the room. Each person reads one thing they marked. If you know why it stood out, say so. If you don’t, “it just stood out” is a complete answer. Nobody explains, nobody corrects.
Your markings are saved on this device and will be here when you come back.
Connect
Have you ever done something for so long that you forget your why? Our spiritual disciplines have a why that is easy to forget. It's easy to relegate our disciplines to because God said so, but they are much bigger than that.
The big idea: God and humanity connect in Jesus. Jesus is the primary and clearest means by which we know, connect with, and experience God. To the teachers who knew the Law, Jesus says the Scriptures bear witness about Him; God is revealed in Christ. Seeing Jesus is seeing the Father; He is the visible representation of God. Jesus is the fullest revelation of what God is like, so Christians learn to read God’s character with Jesus at the center.
And time with God is inseparable from time in community. In the same way that confession and accountability go together, time with God and time in community go together. Jesus died, ascended, and poured out the Holy Spirit, and the church became the body of Christ: at Pentecost, the people of God filled with the life of God (Acts 2:17-18). Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16). So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27).
In Jesus, God was seen and known in history; Jesus uniquely reveals God. The church, the body of Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit, bears witness to Jesus, and through that witness the world comes to know something of God. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12). We are more than just a social gathering; we are a community bound together by God's Spirit. We know and experience what God is like through one another.
God and humanity connect in Jesus. Jesus is the primary and clearest means by which we know, connect with, and experience God.
Read this one out loud.
Discussion questions
- When and how do you feel most connected with God? (Activities, moments, events, practices.)
- What are some things we can aspire to do to experience Christ within our community?
- What practices can we consider to deepen our trust and faithfulness to God together?
Write it out.
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Let’s pray together
Pray for a fresh connection with God through Jesus, for each person in the room.
Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He is like through one another, and share what you sense.
- Which discipline have you been doing so long you have forgotten its why?
- Where do you need to come to Jesus himself rather than only searching the pages?
Leave space for silence, listening, and Spirit-led prayer. If someone senses a word, a Scripture, or a picture for another, offer it gently and pray into it.
Let’s pray
Breakthrough is when God's Kingdom breaks into your reality: His presence behind the practices, His life behind the pages. Pray from that Kingdom, not toward it.
Be still for a moment. Open your hands and simply pray: “Come, Holy Spirit.”
Write down which discipline you have been doing so long you have forgotten its why, and where you need to come to Jesus himself rather than only searching the pages. Ask Him for the life the Scriptures point to, and write down any encouragement, Scripture, or impression you sense while you pray.
You can pray more than once. Stay present, and trust that God is at work. Take your time; there is no hurry.
Choose one. Say it out loud so someone else hears it.
Next time you gather, share what you practiced and how God used it, not for pressure but for encouragement.
The reminder downloads as a calendar event. Open it and it lands on your calendar for tomorrow morning.
Go further
Research and summarize the following passages. What do they have in common? What is the main point? How does this shape and deepen your understanding of how the early church thought about Jesus, and about experiencing God?
For this session
God becomes flesh.
Seeing Jesus is seeing the Father, revealing that Jesus is God.
Jesus and the Father are one, showing Jesus' divine nature.
Whoever sees Jesus sees the one who sent Him, indicating Jesus is God.
Knowing Jesus is knowing the Father, highlighting Jesus' divine identity.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Him.
Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
In Jesus, the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form.
Jesus, though God, took on human nature and humbled Himself as a servant.
Jesus is the true God and eternal life, revealing God's nature to us.
Christ, who is God over all, is forever praised.
We await the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, God manifested in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit and taken up in glory.
God commands all His angels to worship Jesus, affirming His divinity and authority.
Done.
God and humanity connect in Jesus. Jesus is the primary and clearest means by which we know, connect with, and experience God.