Read + Reflect + Rest
Welcome to a journey through the Gospel of John. This reading guide is a simple invitation to spend time daily immersing yourself in the story of Jesus according to the disciple “whom he loved.”
As we study the Gospel of John together as a church, we invite you to spend time each week reading, reflecting on, and resting in the specific part of the story we’re exploring that week at WestGate.
Eugene Peterson once wrote that, “We must never… force Scripture to fit our experience. Our experience is too small; it’s like trying to put the ocean into a thimble. What we want is to fit into the world revealed by Scripture, to swim in this vast ocean.”
Our hope and prayer is that as you read, reflect on, and rest in the Gospel of John, you might find yourself in this vast ocean, discovering new depths, experiencing the quiet work of God’s Spirit, and encountering Jesus in all of life.
According to the author, this story was written, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
May you experience life through the story. Enjoy.
This week’s Reading
week 1 - John 5:1-15
Take a moment to pause and pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to slow you down—your anxious thoughts, the temptation to rush— settling you into a pace that might help you sink deeply into the text. As you read, feel free to visualize the story, to pause when needed, or to re-read a line or a section.
READ:
Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.
REFLECT:
As you read the text today, was there a particular word, phrase, image, or section that most stood out to you? Was there anything you noticed, about the text and/or about your life in light of the text? Do you sense any specific invitation from God through the text?
REST:
Sit quietly with God for a moment. Feel free to sit in silence and focus your attention on his presence. Or you can talk with him in prayer, sharing your reflections, thoughts, questions, or doubts