Day 17 - John 5:31-47
30 Jan 2017
These are serious claims, and we should believe and act on them. But can we be expected to believe them just because Jesus says so? Yes! But Jesus goes on to say to his audience (and us) that we don’t just have to take his word for it. If we don’t believe him, there will be witnesses that show that we are wrong to do so. The first witness is John the Baptist - we heard his testimony...
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Day 16 - John 5:24-30
30 Jan 2017
The healing of the man at the pool at Bethesda provoked a confrontation between the religious authorities and Jesus. They knew what Jesus was claiming about himself. He is claiming to be fully God, equal with the Father. To show that they were not misunderstanding his point, Jesus tells them they have come to exactly the right conclusion. As we saw yesterday, Jesus began to give us an i...
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Day 15 - John 5:19-23
27 Jan 2017
Jesus is God. No other conclusion will do. He is God the Son incarnate. John has begun his gospel with that great conclusion, and at the end of his gospel he will underline that point. During his life on earth, this claim was obvious to the Jewish authorities. That was why they wanted to kill him (see verse 18). Believe and worship, or want to get rid of him. Those are the only two realistic op...
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Day 14 - John 5:1-18
26 Jan 2017
Have you ever considered how strange this miracle is? Just picture the scene. Jesus is in Jerusalem for a feast, and he visits a pool beside which lay lots of sick people. Verse 3 tells us there was a “multitude of invalids”. Imagine a hospital ward full of seriously ill people. Their only hope was a superstition that they may get held when the water moved. It would have been a tragic scene...
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Day 13 - John 4:46-54
25 Jan 2017
Jesus returns to Cana, where he performed his first miracle at the wedding (at the beginning of chapter 2). By now his reputation has grown, and an important man seeks him out. He's got a very serious problem. His son is at the point of death. Jesus shows love to this man - and he heals the boy. By the time the man returns from his trip to see Jesus, his son was recovering. This miracle...
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Day 12 - John 4:27-45
19 Jan 2017
It is interesting to notice that in the Old Testament many of the important characters found their wives at wells. That’s where Abraham’s servant found a wife for Isaac. It was true for Jacob and Moses too. Jesus Christ has a bride that he has come into the world to win. This bride isn’t an individual female, but his church that he has given himself up for. Who does this c...
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Day 11 - John 4:19-26
18 Jan 2017
In verse 19 it may seem like this woman is changing the topic of conversation. That would be understandable - Jesus has just revealed he knows some embarrassing facts about her life. But it might be that she is following up on what Jesus has just said. There is an important connection between true worship and true satisfaction. Everyone worships. We worship what we think will give us pu...
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Day 10 - John 4:1-18
17 Jan 2017
John is the master of the double meaning. He writes statements that can be taken one way, only for the reader to realise they should be read another. Verse 4 is one of those stamens. “And he (Jesus) had to pass through Samaria”. Yes, it is true Jesus is travelling to Galilee. The quickest route was through Samaria. Yet as we read this chapter we see that was not the only reason Jesus came t...
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Day 9 - John 3:22-36
13 Jan 2017
As we read through John’s gospel we need to keep remembering why it was written. John did not write his gospel merely to inform us - he wants us to worship Jesus. He wants us to “believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing we may have life in his name.” One of the ways he helps us do this is by showing us people who did believe. We have already met John the Baptist bac...
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Day 8 - John 3:16-21
12 Jan 2017
Some verses in the Bible are very familiar. If we have grown up knowing the Bible we can probably recite John 3:16 word for word. It is a succinct summary of the gospel. Familiarity can breed contempt - or at the very least it can mean that we miss the impact of what Jesus says here. The amazing thing that Jesus highlights to Nicodemus, and to us, is the love of God. We expect God to be...
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