John 21:1-25 Do you ever feel like you have drifted too far from God, wracked with guilt and shame you cannot seem to shake? As we consider the love of Jesus, we should always remember that his grace is greater than our sin. John 21 finds Jesus once again appearing to his disciples, this time in northern Israel. He begins his meeting by telling them how to catch an extravagant number of fish. This...

John 20:1-31 In writing his Gospel, John was not only concerned with the belief of the disciples, but desires for everyone to come to belief in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. He places the purpose for his writing in the final verse. John 20:31 says, “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” John’s w...

John 19:23-42 Three times in our reading today, John points to an event around Jesus' crucifixion which fulfills earlier Scriptures. Often these fulfillments are of a specific prophecy in a specific verse. For example, John 19:24 fulfills Psalm 22:18, and John 19:33 fulfills Exodus 12:46, Numbers 9:12, Psalm 34:20, and Zechariah 12:10. Other times the fulfillment seems to be broader than simply a ...

John 18:25-19:22 Each of us has been given a sphere of authority and are to lead within the areas which God has given to us. So how well are you leading where God has placed you? In John’s depiction of Jesus’ trial, we encounter two different sets of leaders. The religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat to their religious-political system. They had slowly lost followers and fanfare throughout Jesus...

John 18:1-24 When you wake up in the morning do you primarily think about what you need to accomplish, or how you can serve others? Is your focus on yourself, or on other people? Keep these questions in mind as you read John 18. After an exhausting night which included a meal and intense prayer, a mob came to arrest Jesus. If Jesus’ mindset was selfpreservation he could have fled or denied his ide...

John 17:1-26 The day before Jesus died, he stopped and prayed for you. Yes, he specifically prayed for you. What an amazing thing —to know that Jesus took the time mere hours before his betrayal to pray. So, let us investigate together what exactly he prayed. Stop and reread John 17:20-23. Notice Jesus’ prayer for us centers around the idea of unity. First, he wants us to experience unity with him...

John 16:1-33 If you had to explain the person of the Holy Spirit to someone, how would you describe him? In John 16, as Jesus heads to his imminent death he stops to provide some critical instructions to his disciples. Out of all the issues he could have discussed, he taught them about the Holy Spirit. He wanted them to understand that he would send the Holy Spirit who would live within them. Thou...

John 15:1-27 On Jesus’ last night before his death, he walked from the upper room in Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. In his teaching, we see some of the essential truths he longed to communicate to his disciples before he was taken from them. He tells his disciples that he is the vine and his followers are branches. He is the source of life, so the only way we can thrive is to remain connec...

John 14:15-31 Jesus has been modeling and speaking about love throughout the gospel of John, and especially in his upper room discourse in John 13-14. He wants to leave his disciples with a clear understanding of what it looks like to love God and others. If you were to point to one thing in your life which shows your love for God, what would it be? In John 14 Jesus highlights obedience as evidenc...

John 13:31-14:14 What would you show as evidence that you are a follower of Jesus? If someone wanted to convict you as a Christian, what would they bring to a judge? According to Jesus in John 13, the proof we are Christians is the way we love people. Our calling is not to occasionally love others, but to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by loving continually as an overflow of the love he has shown us. ...

John 13:1-30 In John 13 we are told that Jesus “now showed them the full extent of his love.” Jesus showed his love through service. He postured himself as the lowest person in a household by washing the disciples’ feet. He humbled himself by becoming a servant to show love. He stooped down to bless others. If we are to follow in the way of Jesus this is the same mindset we need to adopt. In the t...

John 12:20-50 Jesus’ path to glory is very different from the strategy of the world. Our world tells us to pursue comfort, ease, happiness, and self-fulfillment, while Jesus models a path towards death and sacrifice. As we seek to follow Jesus, we will have to come to terms with whether we are willing to embrace his way of life. Jesus says that “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and die...

John 11:55-12:19 In John 12, the last week of Jesus’ life on earth comes into focus. As Jesus heads toward his death, opposition only intensifies. The first source of opposition in John 12 is that of the Pharisees. They have been trying to stop Jesus throughout his ministry, but now commit to doing so at any cost—even a willingness to kill him and Lazarus. They would do anything to keep Jesus from...

John 11:1-54 “If only….” That hanging phrase causes so much angst. Especially in the case of Martha, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” We may feel in our own lives that there have been many “if only” moments where God did not step in, which caused uncertainty in our lives. When Jesus finally arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. Four days of sorrow...

John 10:22-42 Who is Jesus? The first question Jesus addresses concerning his identity in John 10:22-42 is whether he is the Christ/Messiah. He answers that he is and has proven this through his actions, specifically his miracles. He then continues with his identity as the good shepherd. The focus of the shepherd image in John 10:22-42 is that what he gives his sheep can never be taken from them. ...

John 10:1-21 When you think of God what comes to mind? You may think of him as Father, Savior, Triune, or any of the other aspects of his character, but one of the most common images for God in the Bible is that of a shepherd. John 10 helps to develop exactly what it means for Jesus to be our shepherd. When Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, he is inserting himself into the slot which God take...

John 9:1-41 How can there be an all-loving, all-good, all-powerful God; yet such evil and suffering in the world? This is one of the most asked questions from skeptics to Christians. Jesus gives us one particular reason in John 9. The disciples, who had been with Jesus for a while, asked Jesus why a particular man was born blind. The disciples assumed the blind man was either blind because of his ...

John 8:31-59 When a baby is born everyone tries to decipher whether the child looks more like the mom or the dad. This practice is an understanding that kids look like their parents. This is not meant to be true only of physical features, but in Jesus’ conversation in John 8, it is meant to be true in the way we live. Jesus lays out two ways in which we are to reflect his life in the way we live. ...

John 8:31-59 When a baby is born everyone tries to decipher whether the child looks more like the mom or the dad. This practice is an understanding that kids look like their parents. This is not meant to be true only of physical features, but in Jesus’ conversation in John 8, it is meant to be true in the way we live. Jesus lays out two ways in which we are to reflect his life in the way we live. ...

John 8:21-30 Do you have confidence that you have eternal life? If you do, are you walking in a way that reflects and tastes that life now? Or does your life sometimes feel like a slow death? Three times in the ten verses of John 8:21-30 Jesus uses the phrase "die in your sin(s)." Jesus confronts the Pharisees to make clear what is at stake. Either people will die in their sins and have their wick...