John

  • John 17:1-5

  • John 16:12-15

    The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

    In chapter 15, Jesus tells us there are going to be difficulties for His followers. These difficulties come from the world outside the church and from within it. One would think this would be the best time for Jesus to be by our side. However, He also tells His disciples that He will be going away -- and that it is to their advantage that He goes away.

  • John 16:4-11

    What God Says about the Holy Spirit.

    Last week, we talked about how the world of unbelievers will hate Jesus' followers, because the world hated Jesus. Jesus told His disciples this to prepare them for what was to come.

  • John 15:18-16:4

    The World Hated Christ and Will Also Hate Christians.

    In the believing community, it is normal to share how God saved us and hear others shout in agreement!But in John 15, Jesus tells us to expect something very different from the world. In verse 18, Jesus wants His disciples to know that the world will hate them since it hated Him. Even if our experience has not displayed this hatred, we need to filter our experience through what the Bible says. The truth of the Bible is that believers will be opposed as long as they live among unbelievers.

  • John 15:9-17

    Lessons from the Master’s Vineyard.

    In John 15:1-8, Jesus gives us an illustration of who we are in Christ. Jesus says, “I am the Vine and you are the branches.” There is a truth in today’s passages that Jesus teaches about the Lord’s Supper, also known as Communion. Today we will look at lessons from the Master’s Vineyard.

  • John 15:1-8

    What It Means to Abide in Jesus.

    Jesus gives us a beautiful illustration in John 15. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. If we abide in Him, we will have life and bear fruit.

  • John 14:18-31

    Our Provisions from Jesus.

    Jesus tells His disciples to not let their hearts be troubled, for in His Father’s house are many rooms (John 14:1-2). This statement assumes that we are not yet home. Jesus continues, “If anyone loves Me, he will follow My Word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him" (John 14:23). Though we are not now at that place Jesus is preparing for us, He wants us to be confident and assured that we are not left to trouble, distress, fear, and worry because the Godhead has made a home in each of us.

  • John 14:1-17

    A Faith Consistently Lived and Conscientiously Kept.

    In John 14, all the disciples except Judas are in the upper room with Jesus. These men have been following Jesus for three years and have seen His power firsthand, evidencing that He is the Son of God. Jesus has told them that He is going away, and they cannot follow at this time. Understanding their emotions, Jesus tells them repeatedly to let not their hearts be troubled (John 14:1, 27; 16:6).

  • John 14:12-15

    Principles of Prayer:

    Jesus is going to depart, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Jesus says, “Do not let your heart be troubled (John 14:1).” While the disciples had Jesus physically present, they did not need to pray to Him, making the instructions given by Him in John 14:12-15 to pray in Jesus’s name new information.

    Prayer is a tool given to Christ’s disciples to encourage their belief in Him. We cannot grow in our faith without prayer. Believers must rightly understand and exercise prayer in agreement with the Word of God.

  • John 14:7-15

    Believe in Jesus, Who Is Enough.

    The conversation with the disciples continues in John 14:7-15. Jesus is going away, and the disciples cannot go with Him. Their hearts are troubled.

    Philip, representing all the disciples, desires more. He wants to see the Father and that will be enough (John 14:8). The problem from Philip’s perspective is bigger than who he sees Jesus as being. Yet, Jesus is enough. Enough for the disciples then, and enough for each believer now.

  • John 14:1-6

    Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled

    John 14 opens in the midst of Jesus’s dialogue, a continuation from the previous chapter. The evening had begun with Jesus, their Rabbi and Messiah, humbly washing the disciples’ feet, followed by Jesus’s troubling statements that He was going away, and they could not come.

    The disciples are troubled. Jesus leaving them is an unimaginable situation for the those who had left everything to follow Him. Though they claim they would lay down their lives for Him, Jesus predicts that the disciples will fail Him.

  • John 13:31-38

    The Final Lesson to Love One Another Like Christ

    Jesus is a rabbi, a teacher in the Jewish culture, teaching final, critical lessons to His disciples. The upper room discourse begins in John 13:31-38. Earlier in John 13, Jesus provided an object lesson for His disciples when He washed their feet. As He will soon be departing, Jesus desires for His disciples to thrive without His physical presence, as they will not yet be able to follow Him.

    No matter their fear, uncertainty, failure, or doubt, Jesus has a final, powerful lesson for His disciples to learn: that loving one another like Christ is the way of perseverance.

  • John 13:18-30

    What Love Looks Like in the Face of Evil.

    In John 3:16-21, Jesus talks about the difference between light and dark. Those who would reject Jesus rejected that light due to their deeds being exposed.

    Last week we talked about Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, but when Jesus came to Judas, He didn’t skip him. Jesus was instructing them on how to love in the face of evil.

  • John 13:1-17

    You Should Love One Another as Jesus Loves You.

    If you knew you had 24 hours to live, how would you spend it? A common answer is to spend it with the people you love the most. But if you knew those people would leave you during that time when you needed them most, would that change how you would spend it?

    In John 13:1-17, Jesus knew that He was about to be betrayed and crucified. Yet Jesus called His friends to and modeled for them the defining characteristic of a Christ-follower.

  • John 12:36-50

    The Results of Jesus’ Ministry.

    Many commentators who study the book of John divide the book into two parts, the first part being Jesus’ public ministry and the second part as His private ministry to His disciples. The passage today makes that clear in verse 36 when Jesus says, “while you have the Light, believe in the Light.”

    Although Jesus performed many signs before them, the hearers would not believe. This leaves a question lingering in the air: Is Jesus’ ministry successful? The people Jesus came to save refused Him. The religious leaders rejected Him. The people He spoke to would put Him to death. Even Jesus’ disciples had to go into hiding.

    However, the God of Heaven said, “Yes, You have glorified Me and You will glorify Me” (verse 28). In reality, Jesus’ ministry is powerful and merciful.

  • John 12:27-36

    Jesus Will Be Glorified through Suffering.

    In John 12:27-36, we come to the end of Jesus’ public ministry. We’ve already talked about the curious Jew worshiping Jesus, the marvelous worshipper Mary, and covetous Judas. As we look at these groups and their responses to Jesus, hopefully we aren’t interested in just calculating what we can get from Jesus like Judas did. Instead, let’s elaborate on how the seed has to die in order to bear fruit.

  • John 12:20-26

    The heart of a true disciple will trust in Jesus no matter the cost.

  • John 12:12-19

    The Triumphal Entry of Christ.

    The Scriptures describe past military parades and conquests of Israel’s kings (1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles) as well as one to come (Rev. 6). John 12:12-19 is an explanation of the Christian’s greatest parade of conquest to this point in spiritual history. Recorded in all four gospels, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem at the beginning of the Passover is the commencement of Christ’s passion week. We see an irony of faith in this grand parade for the Son of God who has come to suffer and die for the sin of the world.

  • John 12:1-11

    To Worship Like Mary.

    We learn from the woman at the well that true worshippers of God must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24), while those who are forgiven much, love much, as demonstrated by the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-50). In John 12:1-11, we learn from Mary how to worship.

  • John 11:45-57

    Symptoms of Unbelief

    John 11 marks the turn of Jesus’s public ministry to His private ministry. Jesus states that the purpose for the death and resurrection of Lazarus is the glory of God so that the Son of God may be glorified (John 11:4). The response to this miracle by the Jews and the religious leaders is the focus of the remainder of this chapter. Though some Jews believe in Jesus because of this miracle (John 11:45), many who were eyewitnesses to the death and resurrection of Lazarus do not believe in Him (John 11:46). We see unbelief acknowledge the miracle but resist submitting to the lordship of Christ.