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Introduction

Here is a way to distinguish the four Gospels. (I’ve slightly altered their normal order to make their logical distinctions easier to recognize and remember.)

• Mark – the shortest Gospel
• Matthew – the Jewish Gospel
• Luke – the Gentile Gospel
• John – the deepest Gospel

Ancient sources, including Eusebius, agree that John was the last of the four Gospels to be written. Because the apostle John wrote late in life, he had more time to think about the things Jesus did and said. Also, the fact that three Gospels had probably already been written meant that he could take some liberty with the way he structured his account and what he chose to include. (Because Matthew, Mark, and Luke are structured similarly, they are called the synoptic Gospels.) Taking advantage of this freedom, John chose to focus on a select number of miracles and describe them more fully. As a result, his Gospel gives us more actual words of Jesus than the other Gospels even though he tells about fewer of the miracles.

One other factor that makes the Gospel of John the “deepest” of the four is that the early disciples gained so much insight about Jesus over the decades between Jesus rose from the dead and His coming in glory. For example, they learned that the Scriptures described Messiah and His kingdom in far more detail than anyone had realized until Jesus began pointing out the clues in the Scriptures to them after His resurrection. These more mature reflections show up in John’s Gospel and this is apparent from the very first chapter.

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John 1

The Gospel of John begins in a very thoughtful way – and very differently from the way that the synoptic Gospels begin. From the very first line of his Gospel, John wants to make clear that there is much more to Jesus than the earthly life He lived. To that point, John makes frequent references in the first 18 verses to Jesus’ preexistence. #RPJ

Jn 1:1-5 – Compare the first lines of the four Gospels to see how John starts in a very different way from the way the synoptics do.

Matt 1:1 The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Luke 1:1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us,

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jn 1:4 – For other verses that speak of “the life,” see THE LIFE.

Jn 1:6-8 – The apostle John speaks of John the Baptist as simply “John.” This tells us a lot about both men. We can see in the rest of the New Testament how great a man the apostle John was, but he is making clear that he considered John the Baptist clearly greater. As great as John the Baptist was, however, the apostle John is also making clear that Jesus was much, much greater.

Jn 1:9-13 – John the apostle now elaborates on the point he just made – that Jesus is infinitely greater than John the Baptist. This is because, first and foremost, Jesus is much more than a human being. John the apostle is thus revealing a mystery about Messiah and His forerunner (Mysteries and Revelations).

Jn 1:14-18 – Not only does John the apostle want to make clear that Jesus is greater than John the Baptist, he always wants to make clear that Jesus is greater than Moses – another forerunner of Messiah. Jesus is so much greater than these two great men – Moses and John the Baptist – that the word “greater” seems like understatement. In Jn 1:18, John the apostle is saying about Jesus what Jesus said about Himself in Jn 14:6. And that is something no mere human could ever truthfully say. See also BSN Glossary entry on “the image of God.”

Jn 1:19-23 – John the Baptist is willing to admit that he’s fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah’s (Is 40:3) but he doesn’t want to claim any title greater than that – even though Jesus (in Mt 11:14; 17:9-12) will declare him to be the “Elijah” about which the prophet Malachi had written (Mal 4:5-6). Like two other great men who were extraordinarily humble (Moses and Jesus), so John the Baptist was extraordinarily humble. Jesus said he was the greatest man who ever lived prior to the kingdom of God (Lk 7:28) – which made him even greater than Moses!

Jn 1:24-28 – Even today, “among us stands One whom many do not know.” (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh)

Jn 1:29-51 – In the remainder of this chapter we will see John the Baptist, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael each recognize Jesus as the Messiah – at least momentarily. (Sadly, we ourselves know the experience of glimpsing an important insight, but losing sight of it in the swirls and busyness of life. May we cling to the revelations He gives us.)

Jn 1:29-34 – We cannot see Jesus for who He is until we acknowledge that we sin. This is why the professional religious class in Israel, with a few exceptions like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, were blind to Jesus greatness – because they would not recognize their own sinfulness. Likewise today, people who see sin only in others – or even who see only great sin in others – do not see Jesus for who He is. Until a man is willing to admit that he knows far more sins of his own than he does of anyone else, he cannot see Jesus rightly.

Jn 1:35-42 – Many of Jesus’ disciples came from the ranks of John the Baptist’s disciples. John the Baptist did not consider such losses as losses; on the contrary, it’s what he most wanted (Jn 3:30). ***** Peter may have heard his brother Andrew call Jesus the Messiah that day, but that truth did not get into his heart with conviction until the day he looked at Jesus and said to Him, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16).

Jn 1:43-51 – Jesus is telling Nathanael that there was much more to Jacob’s dream (Gen 28:12) than any Israelite had previously realized, and that Nathanael is therefore going to see much greater things than he’s seen so far. More broadly, the Old Testament – called by different names in the New Testament – contained much more information about the Messiah than anyone had ever realized. ***** The apostle John is starting us off with small signs that we might be prepared for the greater signs to come in his Gospel. This is the way of God who begins every day with a squint of sunshine to prepare us for the noonday sun – lest we become blinded by too much light coming at us too fast.

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John 2

This chapter describes two significant events. First, Jesus, His mother, and His disciples attend a wedding in Cana, which was located in the region of Galilee – the northern region of Israel. When the hosts run out of wine for the guests, Jesus, at the request of His mother, turns water into wine – wine superior in quality to the wine that ran out. Second, Jesus was attending a Passover in Jerusalem – as Jewish males were required by the Law of Moses to do – and He physically drove out of the temple those who were making businesses out of what were supposed to be worship activities for Jews. So much for the milquetoast, namby-pamby personality some people want to ascribe to Jesus. He was a man’s man.

Jn 2:1-3 – This was obviously a big wedding and the hosts may have had bigger hearts than wallets. Or maybe they were just poor planners. In any case, it’s going to put an embarrassing damper on the festivities when word gets out that the punch bowl is empty. Mary has lived about thirty years with Jesus. We don’t know much about those years, but she must have seen enough during that time to make her think Jesus could do something about this predicament.

Jn 2:4 – It’s pretty sure Mary, Jesus, and His disciples weren’t guzzling down a lot of wine since Jesus said the outage had nothing to do with “us.” Besides, He went on to say, it was not “His time.” Jesus had a keen sense of timing when it came to righteousness. Recall that the question of whether John the Baptist was to baptize Jesus or Jesus was to baptize John turned on timing (Mt 3:13-15 and accompanying BSN note.) When we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Mt 6:33) we should be mindful of timing. According to the book of Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for this and a time for that.

Jn 2:5 – Mary’s direction to the servants in this verse provides a good answer to the question, “What should it mean to call Jesus ‘Lord’?” (See also Luke 6:46). ***** Notice the similarity between what Mary says about Jesus here to what Pharaoh said about Joseph in Gen 41:55 (“Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, you shall do.”). Notice also how Matt 21:6 fits this paradigm. ***** Notice the similarity between what Mary says here about Jesus to what Ruth said in response to Naomi giving her instructions in Ruth 3:5. ***** “Whatever He says to you, do it”

Jn 2:6 – That’s a lot of big pots – another sign this was a big wedding!

Jn 2:7 – It’s interesting how often God creates something by starting with something He’s already created. When He created Adam, He started with some dust. When He created Eve, He started with Adam. From then on, He created every other human being from existing human beings. He doesn’t always create that way – “Let there be light,” for example, sure doesn’t fall into that category – but He often does. Especially since those first six days gave Him so much to work with.

Jn 2:8 – It’s also interesting how Jesus respects authority and order. He doesn’t take it upon Himself to order the distribution of the new wine; rather, he defers to the headwaiter to make that call. If someone were going to make up stories about a miracle worker, they would not sound like the reports we read in the Gospels. His miracles are a fascinating combination of extraordinary happenings and ordinary actions. (Think also of how he had the disciples gather up and account for the leftovers when He miraculously fed the multitudes.)

Jn 2:9-10 – God always saves the best ’til last. (That’s why He created Adam on the sixth day, and Eve later that same day.)

Jn 2:11 – This is as John wrote in the previous chapter: “…and we saw His glory” – Jn 1:14. ***** Do we think the disciples were blessed because they saw things like this – that is, His glory? Indeed, they were. But we more so! How? As Jesus will later say to Thomas later in this Gospel, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed” – Jn 20:29.

Jn 2:12 – When Jesus entered the ministry, He moved from His home town of Nazareth to Capernaum, a coastal city on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The two locations were both in the region of Galilee, about 30 miles apart. Nazareth was a small, out of the way town; Capernaum was a larger and more active city, situated on trade routes.

Jn 2:13 – As a Jewish male, Jesus was required to be in Jerusalem for the Passover every year.

Jn 2:14-17 – Mankind’s tendency to monetize everything – even that which is most sacred – is a curse. (“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil” – 1 Tim 6:10.) Preachers do have to eat, but there also have to be limits on commercial transactions lest foster “peddling the word of God” (a phrase Paul used in 2 Cor 2:17).

Jn 2:18 – Jesus’ fellow Jews knew He was right to purify the temple or else they would have had Him arrested or even attacked Him on the spot. Instead, they were reduced to asking Him to prove God was with Him. It is telling that Jesus never held back a miracle when there was a pressing human need, but He always refused to work miracles when they were demanded of Him as credentials. This differentiated Jesus from Moses who was given signs to perform as credentials for his calling. This differentiation between Moses and Jesus warranted to demonstrate how much greater Jesus was than Moses. Moses needed such credentials because, unlike Jesus, he wasn’t walking down the street opening blind eyes, curing lepers, and making the crippled to walk. For Jesus to turn a staff into a snake after such a quantity and quality of miracles would have been to trivialize God’s support of His ministry and distract from the human misery being alleviated.

Jn 2:19-22 – See 1 Cor 6:19-20 and 2 Cor 13:5 as well as accompanying BSN notes on those passages for understanding how “the body of Christ” took on new meaning after Jesus was raised to heaven in the wake of His crucifixion and resurrection. ***** A lot of things came together for the disciples once Jesus was raised from the dead. Consider how weak they were during His crucifixion (Mt 27, Mk 15, Lk 23, Jn 19)…and how strong they were forty days later on the day of Pentecost (Act 2). That forty-day Bible study with a teacher who walked through walls must have been electrifying.

Jn 2:23-25 – The decades-long promotion of self-esteem in America has blinded us to just how evil we can be. Jesus knows our depravity and seeks to love us out of it. No man can become good until he first realizes how bad he is. Jesus came to tell us the truth about ourselves.

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John 3

This chapter begins with the story of how one of the leading Jewish teachers of the day – Nicodemus – approached Jesus in the dark of night (presumably so that his reputation with his peers wouldn’t be sullied by his having sought out Jesus for a one-on-one discussion). This chapter also includes one of the most well-known verses of the Bible, which is John 3:16. The chapter closes with more of John the Baptist’s perspective on Jesus.

Jn 3:1-3 – The apostle John wants us to know that Nicodemus wasn’t just a rank-and-file Pharisee; he was a leader among them.

Jn 3:2 – The phrase “by night” tells us that Nicodemus doesn’t want his fellow Pharisees to know about this meeting. The word “Rabbi” is synonymous with “teacher.” The references to “these signs that you do” is a reminder that John has chosen to be selective about the signs he is going to report. For he has so far only told us about the wedding at Cana, but obviously Nicodemus has seen or heard about much more than that for him to address Jesus this way. The synoptics revealed the quantity and quality of the miracles Jesus performed; not wanting to beat a dead horse, John chose to elaborate on a few selected miracles so as to show what they can teach us about God and His ways.

Jn 3:3 – This statement shows that Jesus knew what was on Nicodemus’ mind even though Nicodemus hadn’t told Him. ***** The NASB translators tell us in a footnote that the Greek for “born again” could alternatively have been translated “born from above.” This NT expression “born again” shows up only in Jn 3:3, 7; 1 Pet 1:3, 23, though it is implied in many places – such as Jesus being “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5).

Jn 3:4-8 – Nicodemus is walking in the flesh. (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh) Almost everyone in the NT except for Jesus is walking in the flesh; this is what He came to change. This is what His teaching is all about: getting us to “walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). We believe in the wind even though we can’t see it; why then can’t we believe in God, angels, the devil, etc. without seeing them? We believe in the wind because of the effect it has on things; likewise we should believe in God, angels, the devil, etc. because of their effect on things. Do we really think the wind evolved? From what??

Jn 3:9-10 – Nicodemus has the reputation of a professor, but Jesus tells him the truth – that he has the understanding of a kindergartener. For the next eleven verses, Jesus utters mouthful after mouthful.

Jn 3:11-12 – Nicodemus came to Jesus this night to learn – but he wasn’t learning because he wasn’t accepting Jesus’ testimony. The essence of faith is to trust Jesus’ testimony. If we can’t trust Jesus, who can we trust? And if we can’t trust Him about how things work on earth, how can we trust Him about what will happen in heaven? He ought to know – He came from there. #RPJ

Jn 3:13 – That “No one has ascended into heaven” is a reminder that from the beginning of time, everyone had been descending to Sheol/Hades at death. That people could ascend to heaven at death was an entirely new concept that Jesus brought to the ancient world through His teaching – and by living example in Acts 1!

Jn 3:14-15 – Jesus is alluding to an incident recorded in Num 21:6-9. It’s not an easy correlation to understand because we don’t easily think of a serpent as representing Jesus. The serpent speaks to our sin which Jesus took upon Himself. The reference to the serpent ties Jesus’ crucifixion to the garden of Eden where the serpent successfully tempted the first couple. They were, in effect, crucifying God – rejecting Him and causing Him great pain – because they did not trust in Him. Specifically, they did not trust that His commandment about the forbidden fruit was for their good.

Jn 3:16-18 – God came to do through Christ what He could not do without Christ. For if God could have saved the world without Christ, He would have done so. God is not a masochist. He’s not into suffering just for the fun of it. He came to suffer and die as Christ to prove to us beyond the shadow of a doubt that we can trust Him to love us in any and all circumstances. God became the Savior of the world through Christ.

Jn 3:19-21 – These three verses explain why people prefer to walk in the flesh. (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh) Jn 3:19-21 is a powerful explanation. Until we embrace this truth, we are like Adam and Eve after they sinned – “the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden” – Gen 3:8ff. Did they – or do we – really think we’re escaping notice?

Jn 3:22-24 – The apostle John’s description of Jews submitting to baptism fits perfectly with what Jesus just said in Jn 3:19-21. These Jews were overcoming their fear of being exposed as sinners by coming right out and admitting it. We don’t have to be baptized anymore, but still have to admit our sinfulness – not so much to other people, but to God and to ourselves. We cannot be free from our sins until we can sincerely say as Paul said…

It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
among whom I am foremost of all.

1 Timothy 1:15

Jn 3:25-30 – John had been the most famous prophet of his day…until Jesus came along. John did what the Pharisees and Sadducees were unwilling to do: step aside for Jesus to step up. Likewise, we must give up the autonomy of self that secularism enshrines so that God through Christ can take His rightful ruling place in our lives.

Jn 3:30 – What an empowering seven-word credo to live by! And it goes well with Jn 7:18.

Jn 3:31-36 – The apostle John is here demonstrating the consistency between what John the Baptist taught about Jesus and what Jesus taught about Himself. For some of the same specific points made by Jesus in His exchange with Nicodemus are being made by John the Baptist here, including references to Jesus’ preexistence (Compare verses 31-32 with verses 12-13). #RPJ

Jn 3:36 – This verse shows that believing is being obedient. This is because God commands us to believe. When I get scared and become hesitant to believe, it helps me to remember that I am commanded to believe. Therefore, it’s not a choice or a decision I need to make; it’s just something I need to do. And do without further procrastination. ***** This verse is also a reminder that wrath is already upon us because of our sins, and that Jesus comes to bring out from under it. If we don’t accept His helping hand, we remain under that wrath. 

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John 4

The majority of this chapter takes place in Samaria – the central region of the nation of Israel. To the north of Samaria was the region of Galilee (where Jesus resided and where the Sea of Galilee was located). To the south of Samaria was the region of Judea (where Israel’s capital of Jerusalem with its temple was located). To recap the geographic layout, Israel in that day was divided into three regions: Galilee in the north, Samaria in the middle, and Judea in the south.

The inhabitants of Samaria – the Samaritans – had a history of connection to, and yet disagreements with, the Jews. These two peoples had a shared heritage and yet were divided in their view of that sharing. This goes back to the time that the kingdom of Israel was split between north and south (as described in the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament) and even before. A fundamental aspect of the argument between Jews and Samaritans was the proper geographic location for worship – for the Jews it was in Judea, for the Samaritans it was in Samaria. This is why the Samaritan woman brings up this subject to Jesus in this chapter.

The chapter concludes with the second miracle by Jesus that the apostle John chose to record – the healing of a child who was at the point of death. As if that wasn’t miracle enough, Jesus accomplished the miracle remotely – speaking just a few words to the child’s father who was making the appeal to Him.

Jn 4:1 – That Jesus was surpassing John the Baptist in popularity with the masses is what sealed His fate with the Pharisees. They were envious enough of John the Baptist’s approval rating; Jesus’ popularity would drive them mad.

Jn 4:2 – In this way, Jesus could both affirm solidarity with John the Baptist by echoing his calls for the people to repent while simultaneously fulfilling John’s word that he was baptizing in water but Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8; Lk 3:16; Jn 1:33). Jesus would not begin His baptizing until the day of Pentecost (Act 1:5; 2:1ff) – 50 days after His resurrection and 10 days after His ascension into heaven. (Act 1:5). God loves to fulfill His words presented as riddles: “How could Jesus be baptizing in water yet not baptizing in water? He Himself was not doing the baptizing; His disciples were.”

Jn 4:3 – There were way more Pharisees in Judea – because that was the location of Jerusalem, Israel’s largest city, and of the temple, which was the center of Pharisaical attention – than there were in any other region of Israel. Therefore, going to Galilee would give Jesus some breathing room.

Jn 4:4-6 – NASB footnote says that “the sixth hour” was “Perhaps 6 p.m. Roman time or noon Jewish time.” In either case, a well would be a good place to rest – especially in that climate.

Jn 4:7-9 – This was obviously not a 21st century woman, for she took what Jesus said to her as a sign of respect rather than of condescension.

Jn 4:10-12 – This Samaritan woman gives Jesus the same sort of answer Nicodemus gave Him: a dull, fleshly-minded response:

“How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” – Jn 3:4

“Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?” – Jn 4:11

This will be a recurring theme in John’s Gospel. That is, Jesus will want to engage people on spiritual topics and they will sluggishly respond as if this physical world is all there is to our existence. (How will we ever understand the book of Revelation if we insist on clinging to worldly thinking in the face of simpler metaphors?)

Jn 4:13-14 – Jesus patiently keeps to His spiritual focus. He saw this woman as worthy of His attention. She had the same sort of openness to truth as Nicodemus had.

Jn 4:15 – The woman rewards Jesus’ hope in her and embraces the spiritual plane on which He wants to continue the conversation.

Jn 4:16-18 – Jesus indirectly confronts the woman with her sin and she makes no effort to hide it. She is like Nathanael in John 1 – someone “in whom there is no deceit.” This is why she is making progress in this conversation with Jesus. (We, too, make progress in our conversations with Jesus when we tolerate no deceit in our hearts.)

Jn 4:19 – People of that age knew when they were in the presence of a prophet. A prophet can tell you truth about yourself that only God knows; therefore, when she heard Jesus tell her that He could only have heard from God, she believed He was a prophet.

1 Cor 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all;
1 Cor 14:25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.

Luke 7:39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet He would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching Him, that she is a sinner.”

Jn 4:20 – Since the woman knows she has encountered a true prophet of God, she seeks an answer to the controversy at the heart of the long-standing tension between Jews and Samaritans.

John 4:21 – The woman thinks the answer to her question is going to be A or B, but Jesus informs her that there is a C.

John 4:22 – Relationship with God should be based on knowledge that He has revealed. Otherwise, we’re basing it on our ignorance. As Paul would later say to the philosophers in Athens, Greece:

“I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.” – Act 17:22-23

Human ignorance produces all sorts of religions (and even godless ideologies to replace them as we see in modern times).

Jn 4:23-24 – The apostle John is showing us that there were moments of insight that people had early in Jesus’ ministry that He was more than a prophet – that He was the Messiah. We saw it in the later part of John 1, and we see it here with this woman.

Jn 4:25-26 – In Jn 1:29-51 (see also the accompanying BSN notes above), we saw four individuals have a moment of recognizing Jesus not just as a man of God but as the Messiah Himself (John the Baptist, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael). This woman – a Samaritan – is the fifth about which the apostle John is telling us. But it is a revelation that none of them will cling to until after He is raised from the dead. In the meantime, Satan will keep distracting and tempting them such that they won’t be able to keep in mind who Jesus really is. The revelation left their minds almost as quickly as it entered.

Alas, we, too, know what it’s like to really see Jesus by faith for who He is really is, but then lose sight of Him somewhere along the way. Sometimes it’s the crises of life that blind us; other times it’s the more mundane aspects of life. The common thread is that Satan wants to blind our minds to Jesus’ light (2 Cor 4:3-4). Let us therefore resolve to “be not unbelieving but believing” (Jn 20:27).

Jn 4:27-42 – The woman has now gotten the whole city of Sychar believing that Jesus is the Messiah – for a mere prophet, great as he might be, would not qualify to be called “the Savior of the world.” Therefore, through the apostle John’s Gospel we are seeing that many people had a flash of insight that Jesus was the Messiah, but would lose it by the time we get to His crucifixion. They are all following the pattern of Peter who had Jesus’ messianic identity as firm conviction in his heart at Caesarea Philippi (Mt 16:13-17) but was denying emphatically and repeatedly that he knew Him at all by the night of His arrest and trial (Mt 26:69-75). Similarly, Peter walked on the water with Jesus, but then sank. Yet Peter recovered…and so can we. Judas gave up when he failed; Peter did not. Peter is proof that as long as you are breathing, you can repent.

Jn 4:43-45 – The Samaritans saw Jesus as a Jew, but the Jews saw Him as a Galilean Jew – meaning a subpar Jew. A deplorable. Jesus’ fellow deplorables thought more of Him when He showed well in the big city of Jerusalem. It is so easy to buy into the value systems of men without even realizing it. Let us see men as God sees them, free of human prejudice and human pecking orders.

Jn 4:46-54 – In this second sign that the apostle John chooses to report, we see a similarity with the first. In both instances, Jesus was not moved by a request for a sign, but rather by a pressing human need. In this case, it was the royal official doing the pressing; in the earlier case, it was Jesus’ mother who filled that role. God is love. He is not looking for opportunities to impress us with His power; He’s looking for opportunities to show us kindness.

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John 5

This chapter begins with the third sign the apostle John has chosen to describe in his Gospel. After the miracle, controversy ensues because it involved healing a man on the Sabbath. Such a controversy seems ridiculous to us, but the religious leaders of Israel took it quite seriously – or at least pretended to in order to discredit Jesus in the eyes of fellow Jews. These leaders have made majoring on minors into an art form. (Mt 23:34)

The apostle John does not mention the Pharisees as much as the other Gospel writers do, and he doesn’t mention the Sadducees at all. One reason for this is that John wrote later than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jews in Israel were interested in distinctions between various Jewish factions, but as the gospel was spreading into the whole world and reaching more and more Gentiles, there was decreasing interest such nuances. Thus John usually describes religious opposition to Jesus simply as coming from “the Jews.” Nevertheless, we must remember that while Jesus encountered much Jewish opposition, He also enjoyed much Jewish support. The twelve apostles were all Jews. Paul was a Jew. Jesus Himself was a Jew. Christianity is thoroughly Jewish in its roots. Jesus did not alienate Jews – He polarized them. And it is the same with Gentiles – He did not alienate Gentiles, He polarized them. It is the same today. Therefore, let us remember to take John’s statements about “the Jews” to be referring primarily to the ruling class of Israel – not all of the Jews, many of whom loved Him dearly. They were the greatest generation of all human generations.

It should not be difficult for us to see how “ruling class Jews” could think quite differently about things compared to the way “rank-and-file Jews” thought because the same disparity can be seen in America today. When I was young, America’s leaders were considered by and large its “best and brightest” – people who thought the way average Americans thought but who had simply achieved more success in life. Over time, however, America’s leaders have come to be considered not so much “better and brighter” but rather just different from average Americans – increasingly different. Thus the same sort of polarization between elites and regular folks that occurred in late-stage Israel can be seen in late-stage America.

Jn 5:1 – Jesus was fulfilling the requirement laid down by Moses in Ex 23:14-17 (see also accompanying BSN note on that passage).

Jn 5:2 – Although John probably wrote his Gospel last, note that he’s speaking in the present tense about an intact Jerusalem. Thus we may conclude that the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD had not yet occurred at the time of this writing.

Jn 5:3 – So many of today’s “faith healers” notoriously stay away from hospitals, yet Jesus ventures into a place where the chronically infirm were gathered in large numbers.

Jn 5:3-4 – The brackets tell us that the ancient manuscript evidence for the bracketed material is questionable, but v. 7 (which is not questioned) implies at the very least that something like this was true; otherwise, v. 7 would make no sense.

Jn 5:6 – Jesus regularly asks questions that make us think. He’s been doing that since the beginning of time. After the first sin, we read this:

Gen 3:8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

Jn 5:8 – I have yet to get over my fascination with how Jesus interweaves the sublime with the mundane. He tells a man who has been crippled for almost forty years to walk, and simultaneously tells him to pick up his pallet. Who cares about the pallet?! Jesus does. Just as with the feeding of the multitudes – who care about the leftovers?! Jesus does. God’s behavior does not follow the contours of human imagination.

Jn 5:9-10 – The Pharisees are playing a pair of deuces like they had a royal flush.

Jn 5:11-13 – The man never deviates from common sense, and that is so much to his credit. He may have been crippled in his legs for 38 years, but he had kept his mind active and in good shape. It was the professional religious class who had crippled minds.

Jn 5:14-16 – Why do people today doubt that Jesus healed people? There was unanimous agreement in 1st-century Israel that Jesus performed miracles. That He actually did heal people is a point on which both his detractors and his supporters agreed. Jesus’ detractors’ most common complaint against Him wasn’t that He couldn’t heal people, but that He did it on the Sabbath. By criticizing Him in this way, they were confirming that “He did it.”

Jn 5:17-18 – John will later describe how Jesus refuted this objection (Jn 10:31-39). For now, Jesus is just going to double down on the point.

Jn 5:19-47 – For the rest of this chapter, Jesus is going to confirm that His mission is indeed a Father-Son operation. His critics may not like it, and they certainly don’t understand it, but He is now going to explain how this Father-Son dynamic is working to anyone who will listen.

Jn 5:19-31 – Jesus is describing a handoff of God’s duties – a handoff from Father to Son. The Father is teaching the Son and the Son is going to mature and, in due time, take over those duties that have previously been the Father’s. This is the way of fathers and sons. That is, the son arises to take the father’s place (Ps 45:16). Jesus even gives examples of the duties of God that are in the process of being handed off – such as giving life and judging. (It would take until the Second Coming of Christ for the handoff to be complete, which is why Jesus spoke of the handoff in both present and future tense; but for us it is all past tense – Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again.)

Jn 5:32 – This statement applies not only the Father, about whom Jesus has been speaking above, but also to John the Baptist, about whom Jesus is going to speak now.

Jn 5:33-35 – Jesus is saying, “Look, guys, it’s not like I’m the only one who’s making these claims about My role here – remember that John the Baptist, the most revered prophet Israel has had in centuries – has testified on My behalf.”

Jn 5:36-38 – Jesus is saying here, “But however great John the Baptist was, his testimony pales in comparison to the testimony that the Father is giving when I heal someone who’s been crippled for almost four decades – not to mention the innumerable miracles like it I am consistently performing.” (Jn 20:30-31; 21:25) Indeed, actions speak louder than words and all the miracles performed through Jesus were the Father “testifying” on the Son’s behalf (Heb 2:4). 

Jn 5:39-40 – The Old Testament is filled with prophecies and foreshadowings of the Messiah, but these blind critics cannot recognize fulfillment of these prophecies when the Messiah is standing right in front of them and staring them in the face. Of course, the reason they cannot see their Messiah is that they are unwilling to see Him. And the reason they are unwilling to see Him is given in Jn 3:19-21: They “loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” This is the same reason men refuse to see Him today. It’s the reason I couldn’t see Him for the first quarter-century of my life.

Jn 5:41-47 – Jesus is concluding His response to His critics with reference to yet another witness in addition to the Father and John the Baptist – Moses, Israel’s most revered prophet. That prophet himself had said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” (Deut 18:15) In the wake of seeing a crippled man walk and move furniture, these critics were failing to do the very thing Moses had instructed them to do: “listen to Him.”

Jn 5:45-47 – See this verse referenced in the BSN note in the introductory notes on Mt 5.

In this extended discourse, Jesus, knowing that His teaching on the Father-Son dynamic in God would be difficult to digest, invokes three more-than-credible witnesses to His trustworthiness: John the Baptist, Moses, and the Father Himself. In doing so, Jesus is showing respect to His critics by practicing a principle that is promoted in both testaments of the Bible.

2 Cor 13:1 …EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES.

***

John 6

This chapter reports a miracle that Matthew, Mark, and Luke also reported – the feeding of the five thousand. However, John includes extensive reporting on the controversial discussion that followed it. Recall that this was part of John’s intent in writing a fourth Gospel – to bring some depth of discussion about certain of Jesus’ miracles.

In explaining this particular “sign” – a synonym for “miracle” that John was fond of using – Jesus taught about His personal significance in the plan of God, and how He Himself was being presented to the world as spiritual nourishment likened to food and drink. It was an analogy that gave indigestion to His opponents and led to many of His disciples deserting Him. Peter’s rationale for not joining the deserters (John 6:68-69) was priceless…and still holds meaning and inspiration for us today.

Jn 6:1 – John’s inclusion of the alternate name for the Sea of Galilee – the Sea of Tiberias – is additional evidence that John wrote his Gospel after Mark, Matthew, and Luke wrote theirs.

Jn 6:4 – John’s mention of the Passover means he wants us to think about it in relation to this sign he’s about to describe. The feast of Passover was celebrated in conjunction with the feast of Unleavened Bread – and this sign is, of course, a miracle of bread. Recall that the feasts of ancient Israel were established by Moses and all intended to point to the Messiah in one way or another. In the case of Passover, Messiah was the lamb without blemish (Ex 12:5); in the case of Unleavened Bread, He was the bread without leaven (Ex 12:15). Blemishes and leaven, of course, signified the presence of sin.

Jn 6:5-6 – Once again, Jesus asks a question intended to make His disciples think.

Jn 6:7-10 – Jesus is about to demonstrate that, contrary to human opinion prevailing at the time and still today, with God the existing creation is capable of meeting more human need than we realize. That is, God doesn’t have to create more stuff out of nothing; rather, He can produce more stuff out of what’s already here. Adam and Eve, for example, were the only two humans He created the way He did; all the rest of us came out of their union. This creation is sufficient for our needs; we just need more knowledge of God to maximize its potential.

Jn 6:11 – People tend to think of saying grace before a meal as one of the most mundane forms of prayer. Maybe it is, but, still, consider 1) the power resident in Jesus’ blessing that was able to multiply the lad’s loaves and fish, and 2) how the way Jesus said a blessing was so memorable (for His disciples finally recognized Him in that signature moment near Emmaus in Luke 24:30-31). With God, even mundane prayer is not mundane.

Jn 6:12 – This instruction was as surprising as the miracle itself.

Jn 6:14 – Some of the people recognized that “the Prophet” prophesied by Moses in Deut 18:15 was the Messiah; others thought that “the Prophet” was a separate person from Messiah (as John demonstrated in Jn 1:19-23 when priests and Levites were quizzing John the Baptist about his place in messianic prophecy).

Jn 6:15 – There are two things wrong with what the people wanted to do here. First, they wanted a political king who would take the place of David and rid the nation of the Roman Empire. Second, Jesus was not going to be a military king like David. His military moves would be spiritual in nature because He would rule over people’s hearts. These people just weren’t ready for this kind of king. And they would eventually crucify Jesus because He was not willing to become they kind of king they wanted.

Jn 6:16-21 – The man who wrote this account was a young but seasoned commercial fisherman at the time of the incident. Obviously, he could have said much more, but this was not one of the selected signs of Jesus that he wanted to emphasize.

Jn 6:26-27 – Jesus – and John as well by this time – is working hard to get people to think less in worldly terms and more in spiritual terms. It is a difficult task for a teacher. Even as Eve’s mind was easily drawn to, and distracted by, the physical realm, so our minds are easily led astray from spiritual reality. The rest of this chapter is going to be about recognizing Jesus as spiritual nourishment – the bread we need most in this life.

Jn 6:28-29 – The people want to know: “What kind of stuff can we do to impress God?” Jesus gives the answer: “Believe in Him whom He sent.” Yet they keep ignoring this simple answer. It’s like they don’t even hear it. It’s the same thing He’s saying to us today: “You want to serve God? Believe in Jesus.”

Jn 6:30 – He just fed five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish – and they’re demanding now that He show them a sign He’s from God?

Jn 6:31-35 – Jesus explains that the manna from heaven was a foreshadowing of a much greater feeding to come. They say, “Bring it on!” Jesus replies, “It’s Me!”

Jn 6:36-40 – Jesus taught us to pray (Mt 6:9-13), one of our petitions being “Give us this day our daily bread.” He’s telling us to ask Him every day for more knowledge of Him. Every morning, before I read the Bible, I pray this prayer. The Bible is the feeding trough. I’m not re-reading to increase my knowledge of the Bible as much as I’m re-reading it to increase my knowledge of Jesus. That’s what feeds my soul. He is – just as He says – the bread of life.

Jn 6:37 – See BSN: The Posture of Jesus.

Jn 6:41 – Just as He testified, this prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:44) – even though they acknowledged in verse 14 that He was “the Prophet” Moses prophesied when He fed the multitude!

Jn 6:42-51 – Jesus goes on to tell the crowd what they’re missing by disrespecting what they can clearly see God is doing through Him.

Jn 6:52-58 – The crowd was grossed out by the metaphor of eating His flesh…so Jesus doubles down by adding the metaphor of drinking His blood. He is force-feeding them spiritual talk. Sometimes we need to be force-fed. It shouldn’t be that hard to swallow this. “Eating His flesh” is being spiritually nourished by how He lived, and “drinking His blood” is being spiritually nourished by how He died. We read the Bible daily to consume the reports of how He lived and how He died. This is the Creator, come to show us how to live the life He created for us. And, specifically, He’s showing us how to live in a creation that’s become contaminated with evil.

Jn 6:59-60 – This is like the incident in Nazareth when the locals wanted to throw Him off the cliff because He said in the synagogue that He was fulfilling messianic scripture. This crowd wasn’t violent like that one, but even His disciples were becoming disgusted with Him.

Jn 6:61-62 – If we can’t believe things about Jesus that are easy to believe, how are we ever going to believe things about Him that are hard to believe?

Jn 6:63 – Jesus here sums up the motive behind all He has said to them in this chapter. He’s been speaking to them spiritually because that’s the only kind of speaking that gives life. Speaking in the flesh is what allowed Satan to turn Eve’s head. Your body doesn’t give your spirit life – it’s the other way around.

Jn 6:64 – All the Gospel authors want us to know that Jesus was not surprised by Judas Iscariot’s betrayal – just as they want us to know that Jesus’ crucifixion was not something that caught Him off guard.

Jn 6:65 – Jews in that day who truly feared God were drawn to Jesus; those Jews who only pretended to fear God were repelled by Him. There was no such thing as someone who loved God but hated Jesus – or vice versa. It was never a case of human persuasion or saying just the right words in just the right way. It still isn’t. It’s spiritual inclinations that determine the outcome of discussions about Jesus – not the cleverness of our speech.

Jn 6:66-67 – I love that Jesus was so gutsy. Most leaders panic when their supporters start abandoning them. Instead, Jesus turns to His strongest supporters and, instead of pleading with them to stay, asks them a thought-provoking question.

Jn 6:68-69 – Good ole Peter hits the nail on the head. So many times I’ve come to the end of my rope with Jesus – and then just hung on for dear life knowing that I had nowhere else to go.

Jn 6:70-71 – Judas should always be considered in comparison to Peter. Both were disciples of Jesus. Both were part of the twelve. Both had sins and both had character flaws. The essential difference between them was that Peter believed “in Him whom God had sent” (verse 29) – and Judas did not. Peter’s faith in Jesus gave him the ability to overcome his sins and character flaws. Judas did not trust in Jesus; he only pretended to. Therefore, he had no way to overcome his sins and character flaws. In other words, neither Peter nor Judas could swim; but Peter had a life preserver and Judas did not. Nothing is more important or foundational to a man than personal faith in Jesus Christ. It makes the difference between a Peter and a Judas.

***

John 7

In this chapter, we see that Jesus polarized not just His countrymen, but even His own family. There was controversy in Israel about everything Jesus said and did during His three years of public ministry, and not even within His own family could He find peace. And yet He managed to bring peace to every individual soul who was willing to have it. He still does this – that is, He brings peace to those who’ll have Him while simultaneously offending everybody else.

The reason for the wildly different responses to Jesus is not to be found in Him, but rather in us. As they say, the same sun that softens wax hardens clay. Thus the same Son who is loved and welcomed into some hearts is hated and rejected by others. He Himself is “the same yesterday and today and forever” – Heb 13:8. We are the variable.

Jn 7:1 – An honest man is safer in flyover America than in its most prestigious cities.

Jn 7:2 – This was one the three annual feasts of Israel prescribed by Moses that required male attendance (Deut 16:16 and elsewhere).

7:3-9 – It appears that the dynamic between Jesus and His earthly brothers – He had four of them (Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3) – has changed since we last saw them together in John 2:12 (right after the wedding Cana in Galilee). Jesus’ miracle of turning the water into wine at His mother’s request probably made local heroes of the whole family. In any case, we see no criticism or jealousy from the brothers in that chapter. What’s more likely to have caused the rift is what John mentions in verse 7 of this chapter – the ire Jesus provoked in people with His calls for repentance. (This same dynamic had been at work in the ministry of John the Baptist; the resistance to both men ultimately resulted in their martyrdom.) Many people intensely hate being called sinners. Jesus didn’t merely perform miracles to meet human needs; He also called on people to repent from their sins. Even people that others considered righteous. This stirred self-righteous people against Jesus – even family friends as we see when Jesus called on His home town of Nazareth to repent in Luke 4. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, many of the same people who cheered His miracles called for His crucifixion when the chips were down. At the root of hatred for Jesus was hatred for God. Sinful, unrepentant human beings want autonomy from God…and they hate any person who reminds them of the rightful claim God has on everyone’s very existence. Such rebels want to extinguish anyone who reminds them of the duty they owe to their Creator.

Jn 7:3-5 – The brothers would have included James and Jude, who would later convert (Acts 1:14) and ultimately write the books of James and Jude. At this time, however, they are taunting and mocking Jesus – daring Him to go to Jerusalem and face the greater hostility.

Jn 7:6-7 – The intense hostility toward Jesus wasn’t puzzling – people didn’t want to face their sinfulness. They still don’t.

Jn 7:8-10 – Jesus’ brothers could go up to Jerusalem at any time without fear of harm. However, Jesus waited until the last minute, and even then went up secretly, because there was a target on His back. John the Baptist was imprisoned and murdered for calling Israel to repentance – being a prophet was a dangerous occupation.

Jn 7:11-13 – Jesus’ approval rating was higher among the general population than with the ruling elite. But even that approval was muted because the common folk knew that the leaders were hostile not just toward Jesus, but also toward anyone who supported Him.

Jn 7:14 – Because Jesus had to go the temple for the feast anyway (the Feast of Booths mentioned in verse 2 above), He opened His mouth and began to teach. This is because for Him to go there and be silent would be a tacit admission that either the nation’s repentance had been satisfactory or that He’d been wrong to call for its repentance in the first place. Never one to send a mixed message, Jesus kept preaching the same message He (and John the Baptist) had been preaching from the beginning: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” – Mt 3:2; 4:17.

Jn 7:15 – When ruling class accuses Jesus of “having never been educated,” they meant “He’s never been to our schools” and “He doesn’t have the approval of the respected teachers.” When a respected teacher did express support for Jesus, as Nicodemus does in verses 50-53 of this chapter, he was censored.

Jn 7:16-17 – Jesus always spoke in the manner of a prophet, which is “Thus saith the Lord.” In other words, Jesus never taught on His own authority, or by the authority of any other human being or group of human beings – just as the prophets before Him had done. What distinguished Jesus even more was that He referred to the Lord who had sent Him as “My Father.” This, the prophets before Him did not do. Thus Jesus was a prophet, and more than a prophet. (See related BSN note on Mt 7:28-29, and on Jn 13:13 below.)

Jn 7:18 – This verse goes with the two before it, but it also stands alone as a very effective heart cleanser. And this statement goes well with Jn 3:30. We live not for ourselves, but for Christ. To live for self is to unwittingly live for sin. Who wants to do that?! Use this verse to purify your thought life.

Jn 7:19-20 – Jesus states the obvious…and the crowd accuses Him of being paranoid.

Jn 7:21-24 – Jesus ignores their current accusation and instead addresses the point on which He’s been most criticized – not keeping the Sabbath holy (#4 of 10).

Jn 7:25-27 – It probably sounded very “wise” in that moment to say, “whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from,” but such a statement shows ignorance of the Scriptures for there were clearly geographic prophecies regarding Messiah. (The question of Messiah’s geography arises again in verse 41 below as well as in verses 50-53; see also accompanying BSN notes.) Likewise, today someone will make some seemingly profound statement about the Bible, but, with the population being so biblically illiterate, few people recognize how stupid the statement is. For example, before I came to Jesus I used to justify keeping my distance from Him by pompously saying, “Well, the Bible is subject to interpretation.” By that logic, we shouldn’t read anything. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Jn 7:28-29 – Both Jesus and His critics were claiming to know God and to be speaking for Him. Since they were opposed to each other, an observer would have to make a choice about which of them to believe. Most people don’t like to make such choices; but not making a choice is also a choice.

Jn 7:30 – Because it was not yet His time to die, Jesus was never really in any danger while in Judea. But remember what He said about not putting God to the test when the devil tried to get Him to jump off the top of the temple (Mt 4:5-7; Lk 4:9-12). Jesus gathered up the leftovers after a meal, and He didn’t try to cross the street in heavy traffic.

Jn 7:31 – “Out of the mouth of babes.” How many more miracles would a man have to do to be considered a candidate for Messiah?

Jn 7:32 – Worried that the crowd might be won over to Jesus, the ruling class sends officers to arrest Him. Those officers will return empty-handed in verses 44-46 below.

Jn 7:33-36 – They’re just not listening to Him! He just got finished telling them where He was going and they’re acting like they don’t know where that is. It was one thing to not believe Him, but they were not even hearing Him!

Jn 7:35 – “He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He?”

Jn 7:37-39 – This is still true today. That is, the more we glorify Jesus, the more of the Holy Spirit we experience; the less we glorify Jesus, the less of the Holy Spirit we experience.

Jn 7:40-43 – As we might expect, there were varying degrees of biblical literacy and biblical understanding on display in this crowd. As was the case in Jn 1:19-23, some think that “the Prophet” is someone different from “the Christ.” The main reason that some people thought of “the Prophet” (Deut 18:15) and “the Christ” (2 Sam 7:12) as two different persons is that they couldn’t imagine the Messiah suffering. Therefore, they ascribed the prophesied sufferings to “The Prophet” and the prophesied glories to “The Christ.” Jesus, of course, revealed that both applied to Messiah – with the sufferings coming first (ending in death) and the glories after (beginning with resurrection).

Luke 24:25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Luke 24:26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

Peter learned of this progression from Jesus and expressed it this way:

1 Pet 1:10 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries,
1 Pet 1:11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.

Messiah’s glories began with resurrection and concluded with His being revealed as God Almighty. (emphasis added)

Is 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Is 22:21 And I will clothe him with your tunic
And tie your sash securely about him.
I will entrust him with your authority,
And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.
Is 22:22 “Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder,
When he opens no one will shut,
When he shuts no one will open.
Is 22:23 “I will drive him like a peg in a firm place,
And he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.
Is 22:24 “So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house, offspring and issue, all the least of vessels, from bowls to all the jars.

Jn 7:41 – As for reference to Messiah’s place of origin, see verses 25-27 and accompanying BSN notes above; as for a specific messianic reference to Galilee, see Jn 7:50-53 below including the accompanying BSN notes.

Jn 7:44 – It was not His time to go, so not even the officers sent to seize Him could lay a hand on Him.

Jn 7:45-46 – It’s only two verses, but it’s one of my favorite scenes in all of Scripture. No one who’s read the Gospels with an open mind could fail to say “Amen” to what these officer said.

Jn 7:47-49 – There may have been a sense in which the ruling class knew the Bible better than the crowd, but they certainly did not know its Author. Jeremiah warned us of their kind.

Jer 2:8 “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’
And those who handle the law did not know Me;
The rulers also transgressed against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And walked after things that did not profit.

Jn 7:50-52 – In the same breath that the Pharisees reject a common-sense reminder from one of their own – a suggestion solidly based on the Scriptures – they put on display their own ignorance of the Scriptures by saying, “Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”

Is 9:1 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
Is 9:2 The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.

For more on such references, see “Messianic Geography” in Messianic Prophecy.

Jn 7:53 – See reference to this verse in just below in the introduction to John 8.

***

John 7:53-8:11

The passage running from John 7:53 through 8:11 (12 verses total) is, like the passage that concludes the Gospel of Mark (Mk 16:9-20 – also 12 verses), questioned for authenticity by scholars of the ancient manuscripts. Some early manuscripts omit these two passages, leading scholars to argue about whether those manuscript copies are outliers or whether the passages were actually part of the individuals. I don’t have enough knowledge to decide, but I am amazed that there are only two passages of this length in the New Testament that are so questioned. So, with that proviso given, here are just a few comments on the woman caught in adultery.

Jn 8:2 – Ancient practice was for a teacher to sit while disciples and observers stood. Seems like a good idea as it gives the teacher more motivation to be interesting…and brief. Of course, Jesus needed no such prods.

Jn 8:3 – Why didn’t they bring the guy?

Jn 8:4 – In the very act? What kind of perverts are you people?

Jn 8:5 – Lev 20:10 states that the adulterous couple should be put to death – not just one of them.

Jn 8:6-7 – This is the only record we have of Jesus writing anything. It is gone, as are the divinely-engraved stone tablets of Ten Commandments. What remains to history are the records of what Jesus said and did…which will stand forever.

Jn 8:9 – Although what they had done with the woman was creepy, they obviously had a shred of decency in their hearts because of the way they reacted to Jesus’ challenge.

Jn 8:10-11 – Note that Jesus did not tell the woman she hadn’t done anything wrong. On the contrary, He told her in so many words that she had been sinful and should stop doing that sort of thing. It’s really pathetic – and blasphemous – when some people today try to present Jesus as someone who would normalize the sexual revolution by pronouncing the woman sinless.

Thus ends the portion of John’s text that is question.

***

In John 8, controversy over Jesus keeps growing as He refuses to apologize for, retract, or back down from any of the astounding things He has been saying about Himself. In fact, He keeps on saying astounding things in this chapter, such as “I am the light of the world” (verse 12) and “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am” (verse 58). Who else in human history has ever spoken this way? According to witnesses on the scene, no one (John 7:46).

Jn 8:12 – This is why Jesus has such a polarizing effect on people. No reasonable person can be indifferent to such a statement. As C. S. Lewis said, you either have to get this man psychiatric attention, condemn him as demonic, or start following Him. There’s no other reasonable option.

Jn 8:13 – The Pharisees were dead wrong about this. God was testifying to Jesus right and left with all the miracles (Jn 3:1-2). And the Scriptures of His prophets were testifying of Jesus as well (Jn 5:39-47).

Jn 8:14-18 – There was plenty of testimony about Jesus; the Pharisees just didn’t want to hear it. It’s the same today. There’s plenty of evidence that Jesus Christ is relevant to modern life, but secularism is the refuge for everyone who doesn’t want to acknowledge that relevance.

Jn 8:19 – It’s important that we understand there was no one in that day who honestly sought God’s view of Jesus but who didn’t know that Jesus was from God – because God made it known to every person’s heart who was open to Him. It’s the same today. In other words, there is no such thing as a sincere monotheist who rejects Jesus. If you look to heaven and sincerely cry out, “You who are the one true God, lots of people claim to speak for You and I don’t know which one to believe, so please show me,” He will show you that Jesus has the exclusive franchise on the one true God (Jn 14:6). As an agnostic, I prayed this way in my mid-20’s and within a matter of days someone came to me telling me about Jesus.

Jn 8:20 – Murderous people were all around Him, but Jesus was living in the impregnable fortress of God’s promises. He would only die when it was His time to die. Same for you; can you believe it?

Jn 8:21 – They couldn’t find Him because He was going to God and deep down inside they wanted nothing to do with God. I know that may be hard to believe about the professional religious class, but you can see from the historical record that they were even more interested in killing Jesus than Pontius Pilate was.

Jn 8:22-24 – No, Jesus was not going to commit suicide. Suicide is a thought that comes “from below,” not “from above.”

Jn 8:25-27 – As we see throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus’ opponents were not just not believing Him. And they were not just not understanding Him. They were barely even hearing Him! Jesus tells them as much in verse 43 below.

Jn 8:28 – Jesus had spoken of this “lifting up” to Nicodemus in Jn 3:14-15, and He’ll speak of it again to a crowd in Jn 12:32-36.

Jn 8:29 – Blessed be Jesus Christ who puts it within human reach to be able to utter such a statement!

Jn 8:30 – As when Jesus said “I am the light of the world” in Jn 8:12 above (see accompanying BSN note), just reading the red letters of the Bible will drive a person to belief or hardened unbelief.

Ps 119:38 Establish Your word to Your servant,
As that which produces reverence for You.

Jn 8:31-32 – It’s a terrible shame how often verse 32 is quoted without verse 31. In the newspaper business, they called that sort of thing “burying the lead.”

Jn 8:33-38 – The world rejected slavery two centuries ago but there are people today who want a merit badge because they’re opposed to it. All the while, they are blind to their own enslavement to sin – a slavery far worse than slavery to a man. Enslavement to men cannot take your soul, but enslavement to sin steals your soul.

Jn 8:39-47 – The professional religious class believed they were of Abraham and of God when they were really of the devil. You can’t get anymore off track than that. You can’t get anymore blind than that, you can’t get anymore deaf than that. Only reading the red can restore our senses (Jn 8:30; Ps 119:38).

Jn 8:48 – The same malignant blindness that caused Jesus’ opponents to see themselves as godly, caused them to see Jesus as demonic. There is nothing new under the sun; the prophet Isaiah saw this phenomenon in his own day.

Is 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

For this reason, Jesus said “Woe” to the Pharisees over and over again in Mt 23. “Woe” is likewise appropriately uttered in our day, as increasingly so much that is called good is actually evil…and vice versa.

Jn 8:49-58 – Of all the ways Jesus could have chosen to compare Himself favorably to Abraham in this moment, He chose the most mind-blowing. #RPJ #Hints

Jn 8:59 – I’ll say this for these opponents of Jesus: they at least chose one of C. S. Lewis’ three options. Most people today just blithely ignore Jesus as if that’s a reasonable option. ***** Jesus wasn’t at risk of being stoned because it was not yet His time. Not a hair of His head would perish until that time came.

***

John 9

This chapter describes how Jesus healed a man who had been born blind…and the controversy that arose because of this unprecedented miracle. Of course, criticizing the bestowal of sight on a man blind from birth is ludicrous on its face, for such criticism cannot possibly have any reasonable or moral justification. (What good reason can we have for not being happy about a man blind from birth getting to see?) For this reason, the dialogue between the recipient of the healing and the critics of it is at times laugh-out-loud funny. And when it’s not, it’s just plain sad.

Jn 9:1-7 – Everyone knew that blindness and other afflictions happened because of sin – but it was hard to know which sin. Of course, all disease could be traced back to Adam’s and Eve’s original sin in Eden, but it gets real murky if you want to trace a specific problem down to more recent and specific sources. Jesus did not have time during His brief stay on earth to get into forensic analysis of everyone’s pathologies. Rather, He was sent to forgive and heal…so that’s what He stayed focused on doing. Likewise, we should do good deeds to meet pressing needs (Tit 3:14) without being distracted by trying to nail down every cause of every pressing need we’re trying to meet.

Jn 9:8-17 – There seems to be a common profile of those who get healed by Jesus. They are practical people who stick to facts and don’t worry about how they appear to others. As a result, they seem strange and hard to understand to most observers. Everyone around the man was struggling to understand what was going on but to him it was all very simple. Let us take a page from the healed man’s book: the path to understanding is one of fewer thoughts, not more. It’s the multiplication of thoughts that blurs the view.

Ps 94:19 When my anxious thoughts multiply within me,
Your consolations delight my soul.

Jn 9:17 – By saying “He is a prophet,” the man is acknowledging what Nicodemus acknowledged: that no man could do such a thing unless God was with him (Jn 3:1-2).

Jn 9:18-22 – The social cost of saying anything that undermined the official narrative of the ruling class was very high.

Jn 9:23 – The parents of this man are not looking too good in this story. Granted, the man is grown, but should his parents have left him to beg in the streets? Now they say to the monster, “Don’t eat us; eat him instead.”

Jn 9:24-27 – Unlike his parents, this man has courage. He’s going to speak the truth and speak it plainly – irrespective of the consequences.

Jn 9:28-29 – Though they professed allegiance to Moses, the professional religious class were not at all walking in his steps. For Jesus Himself had said: (emphasis added)

John 7:19 “Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law?…

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Matt 23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,
Matt 23:2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
Matt 23:3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.

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Mark 7:8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
Mark 7:9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.

Therefore, it’s hypocrites who are condemning Jesus and this healed man. The hypocrites claim to be disciples of Moses and of God but are in fact lying – but have been doing it so long they probably believe the lie.

Jn 9:30-34 – The man spoke more truth than the elites could handle so they canceled him. Their justification was…(wait for it)…that the man had been born blind and they hadn’t. As the saying goes, “they were born on third base and thought they’d hit a triple.”

Jn 9:35-38 – If we get shunned for Jesus’ sake, He’ll seek us out and reveal more of Himself to us. When He does, let us believe and worship.

Jn 9:39-41 – I have no reason to worry about the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand; I’m only being held accountable for things I claim to understand. This is why I have to get the log out of my own eye before I speak about the speck in someone else’s because to speak about such a thing is an implicit claim to understand it.

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John 10

In this chapter, Jesus describes Himself as the good shepherd who has come to lay his life down for the sheep…and that he has other sheep beyond the lost sheep he is currently seeking (which is an allusion to the Gentiles). During His earthly life – the period of time covered by the four Gospels – Jesus focused His ministry on His fellow Jews, and only began including the Gentiles after He was raised from the dead and had ascended into heaven – the period of time covered by the rest of the New Testament, which comes after the four Gospels.

This chapter ends as John’s eighth chapter ended – with Jesus on the verge of being stoned by His fellow Jews. It’s a wonder Jesus lived long enough to be crucified; the pressure to kill Him had been building throughout His ministry. But He was completely protected by the angels of God until the time was right for Him to submit Himself to execution for our sakes.

Notice that John gives us no break between the last verse of the previous chapter and the first verse of this one. (Chapter and Verse Divisions) Therefore, the context for what we’re reading here is the question the Pharisees just asked Him and the answer He began to give.

Jn 10:1-6 – The Pharisees don’t understand this analogy He’s giving them for the same reason they haven’t understood anything else He’s been telling them (Jn 3:19-21).

Jn 10:7-18 – This was a messianic age. That is, expectations in 1st-century Israel that Messiah was about to appear were very high. Into this ring, many men threw their hats. In other words, there were many false Messiahs (false Christs). To the professional religious class, Jesus was just another one (Criticisms of Jesus). Nevertheless, Jesus was describing to the Pharisees, and everyone else who was listening, including His disciples, how people could discern the true Messiah. The true Messiah would act like the owner of sheep – not like a thief or a robber or a hired hand. The owner would lay down his life for the sheep for they are the means of sustenance for his family. A man does not live for himself; he lives for his family.

Jn 10:11 – What a remarkable statement for Jesus to make! Psalm 23 had to have been at least as memorable for His fellow Jews listening as it is to us. Therefore, it would have been impossible for them not to remember that words of that psalm (“The Lord is my shepherd” and so on) as He was speaking. This is an example of what Jesus meant when He said in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” – Mt 5:17. (By the expression “the Law or the Prophets,” Jesus means what we call “the Old Testament” – What NT People Called the Old Testament.) That is, Jesus came to live, die, rise from the dead, and then fulfill all the Old Testament said – not just about the Messiah per se, but about the Lord Himself. This was because the Messiah was to become the Lord (Act 2:36; Phil 2:9-11), though these people could not know or appreciate such a thing at this early stage in the unfolding of God’s messianic plan. But twenty centuries later, you and I can look back and see it. Jesus gave new life to Psalm 23 and to the entire Old Testament by doing as the Son of God the same and even greater things than He had done before as God. Thus when Jesus said He came not to abolish the Old Testament but to fulfill it, He was saying a mouthful. And fulfilling Psalm 23 is just one example. #Hints

Jn 10:12-13 – Jesus knew the wolf was coming but He stood His ground in Jerusalem – a den of wolves. The professional religious class was thirsty for His blood, ready to stone Him at any provocation – but He did not flinch or run. Likewise, we as men should stand our ground whenever our sheep are threatened (wife and children). Baying wolves are all the more reason to stay with the sheep – not leave them. 

Jn 10:14-15 – Satan never revealed himself to us. (Still doesn’t.) On the contrary, he enslaved us through our sins and made us think we were serving ourselves instead of him. By contrast, God came as Jesus putting Himself right out in the open for all of us to see and know who He was. The devil was an angel who was supposed to rule the world on behalf of God, but he deceived Adam and Eve so that he could rule the world for himself. Jesus let Himself be hung on a cross so the whole world could make an informed decision about His character.

Jn 10:16 – Jesus alludes to the Gentiles, who will be brought into the fold in due time.

Jn 10:17 – Jesus wasn’t a masochist. He didn’t lay down His life to lose it forever – He laid it down to receive it back more abundantly than He had it before. We follow His example. We play the long game!

Jn 10:18 – Jesus had committed His life to the plan of God. No one would be able to harm Him until that phase of the plan was reached. Until then, every hair on His head was safe. The same is true for you.

Jn 10:19-21 – Jesus’ words polarize. This still happens today. When we read His words in our Bibles in the morning, we either feel drawn in or push away. The difference is not in Him – it is in us.

Jn 10:22-30 – Here we see the polarization (mentioned just above) demonstrated right before our eyes. If we give attention to Jesus’ words, we cannot help either being drawn to Him or repelled by Him. The only people who are not polarized by Jesus’ words are those who pay no attention to His words. And there are lots of people today who fall into that category. The proverbial aborigine in the wild who has never heard the gospel is in no worse position than the American who avoids any discussion about Jesus. In fact, the American is in a worse position because he knows there’s something he’s ignoring.

Jn 10:31-39 – For background, see Jn 5:17-18 and the accompanying BSN note above. Jesus is returning to a subject that has come up before. Jesus’ opponents believe they are accusing Him of blasphemy for good reason. By “calling God His own Father,” Jesus was in their minds “making Himself equal with God” (Jn 5:17-18). Yet God’s prophecy to David that the Messiah would be David’s descendant – a prophecy which would have been well known to all these people – included the information that God would indeed be a father to the Messiah (2 Sam 7:14). But instead of pointing this out, Jesus chooses a passage from the Psalms which indicates that everyone to whom God has spoken would be a child of His. This was Psalm 82, and specifically verse 6. Thus in defending Himself, Jesus used a verse which defends every man’s right to consider himself and his fellow men as sons of God. For more explanation, see the BSN notes on Ps 82:5-7.

Jn 10:39 – It wasn’t His time.

Jn 10:40-42 – Away from the hubbub, things became clear. That’s what devotional times are for. If we stop shaking the snow globe and set it down on the table, the scene will eventually become clear. But we really do have to stop shaking it.

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John 11

In this chapter, Jesus raises a man from the dead – a close friend of His named Lazarus – who had been dead for four days. Four days! You would think this would be enough to make every Jew a believer. Instead, this event caused such a stir that while Jesus’ supporters became all the more enthusiastic, Israel’s ruling religious elite became all the more resolved that He must be killed. They even wanted to kill Lazarus, too (John 12:10). How is it that one and the same man could inspire love in one group of people while inspiring murder in another?

Jn 11:2 – It was also the Mary and Martha we read about in Lk 10:38-42 (“Martha, Martha…”)

Jn 11:4 – Sometimes bad things just set the stage for God to do good things – good things that overcome and outdo the bad things. Stumbling blocks for us are stepping stones for Him.

Jn 11:5-7 – Just as we do not know what prompted Jesus to react to the news of Lazarus being sick by declaring that it would not be fatal, we do not know why He waited two days longer to head to Bethany. We can safely assume, however, that the Holy Spirit was prompting Him along these lines because He lived a life led by the Spirit.

Jn 11:8 – Bethany was in Judea, only about two miles to the west of Jerusalem. Galilee was, relatively speaking, a safe haven for a prophet of God; the closer one got to Jerusalem, the more danger he was in. For this reason, Jesus could elsewhere say…

Luke 13:33 “Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day; for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.
Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!…”

Jn 11:9-10 – Jesus is venturing again into Israel’s place of greatest darkness in order to shine a light. This brings to mind something else Jesus said about light and darkness.

Matt 6:23 “…If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Jerusalem and its temple were Israel’s pride and glory in those days. If it was the spiritually darkest place in Israel, as its habitual negative reaction to Jesus is indicating, it shows the terrible spiritual state of the nation as a whole. This makes its complete destruction by the Romans in 70 AD no surprise at all. From an earthly perspective, Jesus’ mission – just like that of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah – was to warn His countrymen of the disaster that was coming upon them so that as many as possible could be saved.

Jn 11:11-15 – John wants to show here, as he has been all along in his Gospel, how spiritually dull he and his fellow apostles were in their interactions with Jesus. They would later, however, come to speak in the same sort of spiritual language Jesus used. John himself wrote the book of Revelation which is the longest, densest collection of spiritual utterances we have in the New Testament – but it took him years to get to that point. At this stage, every time Jesus wants to use known physical realities as metaphors to teach about spiritual realities, the apostles just don’t get it. This is why Jesus had been so delighted when He bumped into a woman who understood His spiritual language and responded in kind.

Mark 7:26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
Mark 7:27 And He was saying to her, “Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
Mark 7:28 But she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children’s crumbs.”

If the woman had responded like the apostles, she would have have said something like, “Who said anything about dogs, sir? I’m here about my daughter!” Instead, she understood what Jesus was getting at because she was tuned to His frequency of faith. By contrast, Jesus keeps having to translate for His apostles (“Lazarus is dead.”)

Jn 11:16 – This is the one people call “Doubting Thomas” (Jn 20:24-29). But here we see another side of him. He was therefore much like Peter in that he had the heart of a lion, but also could have moments of weakness. We should never underestimate how great these men were (The Greatest Generation of All).

Jn 11:17 – In retrospect, it seems obvious that Jesus wanted to let Lazarus be dead for longer than He would be dead so that the people would realize that the choice for Messiah to be raised on the third day was not because God’s power to resurrect had a shelf life.

Jn 11:18-19 – Jesus’ delay also gave time for a bigger crowd to gather – which would mean greater glory for God with more people witnessing the miracle.

Jn 11:20-22 – Martha has lots of ideas about how things ought to be (Lk 10:28-42).

Jn 11:23-27 – Jesus gently leads Martha to a profound profession of faith. ***** The professional religious class has really been bothered by Jesus calling God His Father, but He couldn’t have been the Messiah without also being the Son of God because the promise to David about Messiah included, “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me.” To be the Christ was to be the Son of God.

Jn 11:25-26 – It was impossible for Mary, or anyone within earshot, to fully appreciate the meaning of these words. Even we who live 2,000 years later struggle to take in its depths. #Hints

Jn 11:25 – As for “the life,” see THE LIFE for related scriptures.

Jn 11:28-29 – The purpose of my book is to tell people, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” I hope everyone who reads it will quickly come to Him by reading the Bible every day and practicing what He teaches.

Jn 11:30-32 – Even Mary has bought into the idea that Jesus should behave more like we think He should and needs an occasional word of correction from us.

Jn 11:33-37 – We cannot fathom the depths of all that was going on in the mind of Jesus at this time. Likewise, when you live your life following Him, people are not going to understand everything you do either. Therefore, make up your mind ahead of time that you’re not going to give in to the temptation to explain every single thing you do. Otherwise, you’ll wear yourself out.

Jn 11:38-39 – Martha is practical – we gotta give her that.

Jn 11:40 – Far from the stink of death, what’s about to happen is going to bring with it an aroma of life.

2 Cor 2:15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;
2 Cor 2:16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

Jn 11:41 – Jesus always practiced what He preached. His prayer here is structured just the way He taught us to structure ours: “Our Father who art in heaven…” (Mt 6:9-13).

Jn 11:42 – Jesus was not one to pray on street corners (Mt 6:5-6), but in this case, He wanted to be sure that the people present gave glory to God for what was to happen and not to Him.

Jn 11:43 – Guts. Everything Jesus had worked His whole life would have been out the window if Lazarus hadn’t responded to those three words.

Jn 11:44 – As we see over and over with God’s miracles, the mundane is interwoven with the sublime. The power of God brought Lazarus out of the grave, but He left men something to do as well. And such is the nature of our partnership with God in this earth: He does all the heavy lifting, while we tidy up the scene.

Jn 11:45-53 – As always, Jesus polarizes. Some believe in Him while others resolve to kill Him. There is no middle ground.

Jn 11:49-51 – Caiaphas was so close…and yet so far from the truth. Lord, deliver us from such blindness!

Jn 11:52 – That’s what He’s doing now (Everyone Is Going to Heaven). Did anyone think He’d only want to save a certain percentage of “the nation”? ***** #Hints Consider that Jesus becoming the father (once again), that is through the fulfillment of Is 9:6, would be the most efficient and effective way of gathering the children of God. See also Mt 19:14, which implies the same thing.

Jn 11:54-57 – The time is getting ripe for the death that had been foreseen in the garden of Eden when God said to the serpent, “He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel” – Gen 3:15. Jesus is about to get “bruised on the heel.” But it must happen on the Passover, so He will continue watching His step until then.

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John 12

In this chapter, Jesus enters Jerusalem for the final week of His earthly life. All four Gospels tell of how Jesus entered the city on a donkey, fulfilling the Scripture’s prophecy that Israel’s promised king would enter the city in this fashion. If Jesus is not king, He’s not anything. And if He’s not king of all, He’s not king at all.

Jn 12:1 – We know from the end of the previous chapter (chapter and verse divisions) that people from around the country (including, of course, Galilee) would travel to Jerusalem for the Passover a little ahead of time to be fully prepared for the event. Jesus, exercising appropriate caution (that is, not “jumping off the pinnacle of the temple” as Satan would have Him do – Lk 4:9-12), went to a safe haven in Bethany which was only two miles to the east of Jerusalem – the home of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary.

Jn 12:2 – Once again, Martha and Mary take different approaches in their devotion to the Lord (Lk 10:38-42). Because Mary was typically “seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word,” she had a sense of what was to come for Him. She also knew what sort of shape Jesus’ feet were in from all the traveling He did. She was, in effect, combining her way and Martha’s way. That is, Mary is still at the feet of Jesus, but now serving while she listens. This had to comfort Jesus greatly, not so much that He was getting a shoeshine so to speak, but that someone had listened to and taken to heart His teaching.

Jn 12:4-8 – Jesus resisted the temptation to blurt out, “You greedy little hypocrite, you’ve been stealing from the money box and, as if that’s not enough, you’re about to betray me for money, too.” Instead, He makes a point that was edifying for all to hear. He practiced what He had His apostles preach:

Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

Whenever we’re ready to vent, the Holy Spirit is ready to give us something edifying to say. We just have to change frequencies to hear it.

Jn 12:9-11 – You’re like Lazarus. That is, because Jesus raised you from death to life, the enemies of Jesus now have an interest in you that they did not previously have. Be on your guard as Jesus had to be.

Matt 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

As they say, “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get you.” Don’t be paranoid, but do recognize someone’s out to get you.

Jn 12:12-16 – Jesus arouses the hope of Psalm 118:26 and fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, yet His disciples did not recognize this at the time. They only remembered these things later by means of the Holy Spirit. Even if our memories fail us, the Holy Spirit won’t. He’ll bring things about Jesus to our remembrance.

John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Jn 12:17-19 – That there was such a tidal wave of support for Jesus only galvanized the determination of the ruling class to preserve the status quo at all costs. They were too blind to see that preservation of the status quo is what would doom the nation in 70 AD. The ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus were God’s last chance for Israel to avoid judgment. Rejecting their words of warning sealed the nation’s fate.

Jn 12:20-21 – Remember that because of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC, there were Jews who were dispersed all over the world (The Dispersion). This is what is meant by “there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast.” Just because it was more difficult for dispersed Jews to get to Jerusalem didn’t mean that none of them made the annual pilgrimage; many did. When they say, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” they demonstrate that wise men still seek Him – even from afar.

Matt 2:1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
Matt 2:2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

Jn 12:22-23 – When Jesus heard that the Greek Jews were interested in learning about Him, He took it as a sign from God that the time had come for His ministry to extend beyond the borders of Israel – and thus the time had come for His crucifixion and resurrection. Jesus was wise in the ways of God and knew how to recognize the signs of the times.

1 Chr 12:32 Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…

In understanding the times and acting on that understanding, Jesus was only practicing what He’d preached to others to do.

Matt 16:1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.
Matt 16:2 But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
Matt 16:3 “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?
Matt 16:4 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.

The Pharisees were not recognizing the signs of the times; Jesus was. And He was about to “leave them and go away” in a far more dramatic sense than meant by Matthew.

Jn 12:24 – Jesus is “the seed” (Gal 3:16; Acts 3:25-26) that will become a great “tree” (Mt 13:31-33).

Jn 12:25 – This is the very opposite of the way Lot’s wife looked at life down here. At its best – and at its worst – life down here is like summer camp. Only heaven can be home.

Jn 12:26 – Jesus says that in our own small way, we can follow in His steps – losing the life we’ve lived for ourselves in order to live for Him – which is the life He’s giving us.

Jn 12:27 – Jesus’ realization that the time had finally come for Him to suffer and die troubled His soul. This troubling would drive Him to His knees in Gethsemane. And the result of that hour of praying fervently would be a strengthened soul to carry Him all the way through the ordeal.

Jn 12:28 – Jesus keeps praying the way He taught us: to a heavenly father with concern for the father’s reputation (“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name” – Mt 6:9-13).

Jn 12:29-30 – The voice from heaven came for the crowd’s sake, but, as is always the case, the word from God polarized the crowd. Human will is a stubborn thing.

Jn 12:31 – God’s judgments had deposed many kings in the course of human history, but the coming judgment would depose a heavenly king: Lucifer (Satan). Jesus was now setting in motion the process that would culminate in casting Satan down to earth (Rev 12) so that there’d be room in heaven for humanity to go there at death instead of to Sheol where they had been going.

Jn 12:32 – Jesus was speaking here of His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension – for all three were a “lifting up.” ***** See also BSN: The Posture of Jesus.

Jn 12:33 – That John is emphasizing the first “lifting up” does not preclude the other two.

Jn 12:34 – This illustrates that it’s one thing to know a Scripture, it’s another to understand it.

Jn 12:35-36 – We are given windows of opportunity in life to follow the Light and do what’s right. They don’t stay open indefinitely. It’s like catching a train: if you miss the departure time, you have to wait until the next train is coming through. Therefore, if you know the right thing to do, don’t procrastinate.

Jn 12:37-43 – John is quoting from the prophet Isaiah – first from Is 53:1 and then from Is 6:10. John has had years and years to ponder these OT passages and how he had seen them fulfilled in Jesus’ life. He wants us to share his realization that Isaiah foreshadowed Jesus. Part of that realization was that as Israel was so far gone in Isaiah’s time that only a remnant of it could be saved, so it was so far gone in Jesus’ time that, again, only a remnant could be saved. The difference was that in Isaiah’s time, Messiah was still the nation’s long-term hope; but in Jesus’ time, Jesus was the Messiah. There was no other deliverer to look for after Him. And nothing has changed since then – Messiah is still God’s only plan. Reject Him and there’s no one else to hope for.

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.
John 6:69 “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”

Jn 12:44 – In other words, believing in Jesus is believing in God.

Jn 12:45 – In other words…

John 14:6 …“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Jn 12:46-50 – I wonder how it is that God and Jesus could be so closely aligned? #Hints

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John 13

Chapters 13 through 17 of the Gospel of John record what happened in the upper room the night before Jesus died. The upper room was the place provided for Jesus and His twelve apostles to partake of the Passover meal. Recall that it was the Passover commemoration that brought Jewish males to Jerusalem every year. This particular Passover meal came to be called “the Last Supper” because it was the last meal Jesus had on earth. John gives much more of that evening’s dialogue than any of the other Gospels – and it takes up almost 40% of his Gospel.

Jn 13:1 – Jesus was setting out to lead an exodus of cosmic proportions – and He was going to do it according to prophecy (Mic 2:13). It was an exodus for humanity from the slavery of death in Sheol/Hades below, to a glorious eternity in heaven above. But it would not be a freedom from God, but rather the freedom to serve God. Freedom from sin’s malicious and toxic grip. ***** When you die and go to join Jesus and all the refugees He’s led there, I pray that this is what people on earth say about you and how you loved your wife and children: “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

Jn 13:2 – We’re not original. Whether we do good or evil, it’s always based on inspiration…from one source or the other. What I’m saying is that, yes, the Holy Spirit is our helper for good, but Satan a helper for evil.

Jn 13:3 – That John said of Jesus, “knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands” is a reference to Jesus being the heir of God. #Heir His full inheritance would come at the Second Coming. ***** That John said Jesus “had come forth from God and was going back to God” was a reference to His preexistence. #RPJ The apostles did not begin to grasp Jesus’ preexistence in heaven until after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead when He conducted a 40-day on-site Bible study with them before He ascended into heaven.

Jn 13:4-5 – How does the One who is going to inherit the universe bend over and serve men in this way? The reality is that the act He is performing only illustrates what He has been doing by giving up the universe to come and live His life among us so that He could lead us back to be with Him in that place from which He came. Oh, the humility and the glory of our mighty, mighty God!

Jn 13:6-7 – The Gospels are full of examples in which the disciples did not understand something the first time Jesus taught it. Why then should anyone think that we will be able to understand every teaching of Jesus the first time we read it? Let us rest in His promise that we “will understand hereafter” and read the Bible with fresh zeal every day.

Jn 13:8-9 – Peter was “all in” on preventing Jesus from washing his feet until Jesus corrected him. Then he was “all in” on not limiting the washing to his feet. Peter was an “all in” kind of guy and that’s what made him special to the Lord. The apostle Paul and King David were of the same spirit. The primary Bible word for an “all in” attitude is “zeal.” God likes it.

Eccl 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…

Before we go to heaven, let’s make sure we’ve left it all on the field. (“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”)

Jn 13:10-11 – The Lord knows your heart. Peter was a good man with weaknesses; by stark contrast, Judas was a deceiver and he had no genuine love for the Lord. It’s alright for you to flop like Peter because you can recover from it as Peter did; but it’s not alright to be Judas. Make sure the Lord knows more about your love for Him than anyone else does (Mt 6:1).

Jn 13:12-20 – You and I are not apostles to the world, but we are to our families. We can take this passage as part of our commissioning. Let us teach our families about the Lord in the way that He teaches us – with that same sacrificial humility. With our wives as our helpers and co-laborers, let us teach our children with as much patience as He teaches us.

Jn 13:13 – (See Mt 7:28-29 just after the end of the Sermon on the Mount and the BSN note on it.) Jesus is “the authoritative Teacher” and “the teaching Lord.” He teaches to effectuate His lordship, and He is Lord so that He might teach us. See how closely these two roles of Teacher and Lord intertwine? (See related BSN note on Jn 7:16-18 above.) ***** The Lord’s favorite subject to teach is righteousness (see Mt 6:33 and Heb 1:9), which happens to be the subject we sinners are most in need of learning. The Lord is thus demonstrating how to meet “pressing needs” (Tit 3:14), and “the need of the moment” (Eph 4:29). He practices everything He preaches (unlike the Pharisees – Mt 23:3).

Jn 13:17 – Jesus is reminding us of Ezra’s three-step formula for success…and of how the Pharisees short-circuited it by leaving out the second step, thus making themselves hypocrites. No wife wants a hypocrite for a husband, and no child wants a hypocrite for a father. Let us preach to our families only what we practice. (emphasis added)

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel.

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Matt 23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples,
Matt 23:2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
Matt 23:3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.”

Jn 13:18 – Let us not beat the drum for our lordship of our families; rather, let us beat the drum for the Lord’s lordship of our families, with ourselves being an example of everything we teach them about Him. 

Jn 13:20 – You are God’s apostle to your family. When they reject your leadership, they’re rejecting His. Be as patient with their times of rejecting you as He’s been during your times of rejecting Him. Your endurance will bring with it many rewards.

Gal 6:9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.

Jn 13:21-30 – We probably can’t fully appreciate how deeply seared the apostles were by Judas Iscariot’s defection from their ranks. For us, the word “Judas” itself is itself a proverb for “traitor,” but they were completely blind-sided by his betrayal. They never saw it coming. He was the one entrusted with the money bag for cryin’ out loud! The lesson for all of us is to take a betrayal in stride. It’s one of the downsides of life down here. Yes, grieve over it if it happens, but do not linger over it and do not be deterred from your mission to your family.

Jn 13:31-35 – The command to love one another was as old as the Law of Moses (“love your neighbor as yourself” – Lev 19:18). What made this commandment new was “as I have loved you.” This new commandment could not have been given before this time because only now was God living – and now completing – His life on earth such that there was an example of godly love for mankind to imitate. Therefore, the old commandment was for you to love your wife and children as yourself; the new commandment is to love your wife and children as Jesus has loved you.

Jn 13:33 – Jesus addressing His disciples as “Little children” is a foreshadowing of the role He would one day take on. #Hints

Jn 13:36-38 – As we have been reminded in this chapter, Judas wasn’t even trying to please the Lord. Peter was. Never forget: If you’re trying, the Lord knows it. And He will help you not give up.

1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

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John 14

Chapter 14 is the second of four continuous chapters of dialogue between Jesus and His disciples in the upper room the night before He died. (The fifth chapter in this five-chapter account of what was spoken in that room that night consists of Jesus’ prayer, which takes up all of John 17.)

Jn 14:1 – The events of the New Testament (NT) all took place in the 1st century AD. In NT times, it was enough to reveal Jesus as a man. It would not be revealed that Jesus was God until the Second Coming, which came at the close of the NT age. Yet wise and aged men like John had already begun to “see in a mirror dimly” (1 Cor 13:12). #Hints

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. #Claims

Jn 14:2 – His “Father’s house” was heaven. ***** Jesus says heaven has “many dwellings places” so I don’t know why people portray it some fluffy cloud where we’re all jammed together as one big happy crowd with nothing much to do. ***** Jesus said He was going to heaven to “prepare a place” for us. One of the most important aspects of this preparation was to evict Satan from heaven; he practically had free run of the place (Job 1:6; 2:1), but he was going to be cast out of it at the Second Coming (Rev 12:7-10). Jesus foresaw this coming as He was preparing His apostles to take His message to the world (Lk 10:17-20 – “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning” and Lk 17:24 – “For just like the lightning…so will the Son of Man be in His day.”) We (that is, mankind) needed Satan cast out of heaven before we went there because we want and need deliverance from his presence. He makes life down here miserable; if it weren’t for him, earth would be a wonderful place to stay. If he were to remain in heaven while we were there, he would make heaven miserable, too. Therefore, the devil had to be cleared out of heaven to make room for the human race. Until then, the dead would have to stay below in Sheol/Hades. The dead were raised to heaven at the Second Coming. If you don’t believe the Second Coming has yet occurred then you have to believe that the dead are still down there.

Jn 14:3 – When Jesus says “I will come again,” He confirms that He’s talking about the Second Coming. Of course, what was future tense for the apostles is past tense for us (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again).

Jn 14:2-3 – See ANGEL OF THE EXODUS for the connection between the verb “prepare” in these two verses and that angel, as well as “the breaker” in Mic 2:13 (#FJOT).

Jn 14:4-6 – Lots to unpack here.

Jn 14:6 – “I am the way…” – As they say, “It’s more about the journey than the destination.” That is, it’s “the way” we live that matters. It was “the way” Jesus lived that got Him to heaven, and we get to fly there in His slipstream. Also, see THE WAY.

Jn 14:6 – “I am…the truth…” – Jesus and John have prepped us for this.

John 8:30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.
John 8:31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

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John 18:37 Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Jn 14:6 – “I am…the life…” – We were prepped for this, too. Also, see THE LIFE.

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
John 11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jn 14:6 – “…no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – Jesus has the exclusive franchise on God. There is no dealing with God apart from dealing with Him. Period. Collectively, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, and many others have misled billions. That said, the greatest harm being done to the human race today is coming from the secularists. (What’s Wrong with Secularism?)

Jn 14:7-9 – John said as much in his first chapter.

John 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

Jn 14:10-11 – We stand with Nicodemus and the healed blind man.

John 3:2 …”Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

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John 9:32 “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.
John 9:33 “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

Jn 14:12-14 – Lord, “We do believe; help our unbelief” (Mk 9:24).

Jn 14:15 – Compared to Jn 14:12-14, this is much easier to grasp and do. Perhaps following through consistently on Jn 14:15 will lead us closer to being able to grasp and do Jn 14:12-14.

Jn 14:16-17 – Jesus brings about the sort of widespread distribution of the Spirit that Moses longed for. (emphasis added)

Num 11:26 But two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them (now they were among those who had been registered, but had not gone out to the tent), and they prophesied in the camp.
Num 11:27 So a young man ran and told Moses and said, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”
Num 11:28 Then Joshua the son of Nun, the attendant of Moses from his youth, said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”
Num 11:29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’S people were prophets, that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!”

Jn 14:18 – If He wasn’t coming for them as a father, they would have been left still orphans even though He was with them. It is His presence as Father that makes us sons. #Hints

Jn 14:19-24 – The reason the world did not see Jesus come while we do is that they walk by sight and we walk by faith. We have been taught by His apostles through the New Testament to do this. The world can change its mind and do it, too.

2 Cor 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight–

***

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.

Jn 14:25-26 – We don’t get to walk with Jesus in the flesh as the apostles did, but we have the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ mouthpiece. What’s more important in life: knowing what Jesus physically looked like or hearing His words? We have a Bible with His words painted in red but nary a word about His physical appearance. God knows best.

Jn 14:27 – Jesus expands on what He said at the beginning of this chapter.

John 14:1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”

Jn 14:28 – Jesus would be able to do a lot more for the apostles from heaven than from earth. If we can’t trust that Jesus knows best, who can we trust?

Jn 14:29 – We are strengthened and matured when we believe the word of God and then see it fulfilled. It’s important for us to receive this strength and maturity because there are many promises from God we won’t be able to see fulfilled until we get to heaven. Therefore, prophecies that we do see fulfilled enable us to keep walking by faith to the end when we can see the rest fulfilled.

Jn 14:30 – Windows of opportunity don’t stay open forever. We need to act when it’s time to act.

John 9:4 “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”

Jn 14:31 – He’s going to drive straight through to the crucifixion, which will demonstrate His devotion to God. Yet He’ll have to make a stop for gas in the garden of Gethsemane. That stop will fill His tank and He will get across the finish line. God’s promise of resurrection to glory will take things to the next phase. Acts through Revelation depicts how things would operate with Jesus back in heaven. After that, the kingdom came and Jesus moved from the right hand of the throne of God (Ps 110:1) slightly to the left, which put Him back in the center of the throne (Dan 7:13-14; Rev 7:16-17).

***

John 15

Chapter 15 is the third of four chapters of continuous dialogue between Jesus and His disciples at the last Passover meal He ever celebrated on earth. Actually, this chapter, if viewed in isolation, is a monologue by Jesus because there are no words from anyone else in it.

The last verse of the previous chapter ends with “Get up, let us go from here.” (Chapter and Verse Divisions) But Jesus keeps on speaking, as He wanted them to be as prepared as possible for what they were going to face as He was transitioning to the next phase of the messianic plan.

Jn 15:1-5 If the apostles had only clung to this analogy (metaphor, parable, illustration) of a vine and its branches, they could have been comforted during the next 24 hours that He was going to rise on the third day just as He had repeatedly told them over the previous few weeks. For in using this analogy, Jesus made no mention of what would happen to the branches if the vine died. It was not necessary to illustrate outcomes that could never materialize.

Jn 15:6 – Judas was being thrown away as a branch. The apostles in their own ministries would likewise experience branches that failed to produce fruit and had to be thrown away. The reason Jesus chose Judas, knowing Judas would ultimately betray Him, is so that He could provide an example of how the apostles could endure such disappointments and keep on working without losing heart. And indeed the apostles did follow Jesus’ example when they experienced similar defections. Note below how they spoke about it. (emphasis added)

1 Tim 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

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Acts 20:30 and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things,  to draw away the disciples after them.

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2 Tim 4:9 Make every effort to come to me soon;
2 Tim 4:10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.

***

1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

Alas, Judas was a pattern that many would follow. And still do. Let us not set our hearts on avoiding being betrayed, for that is unrealistic. Rather, let us set our hearts on not being someone who betrays.

Jn 15:7 – What a great benefit of staying on mission!

Jn 15:8 – God has themes and He does not give up on them. (emphasis added)

Gen 1:27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Gen 1:28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

***

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

***

John 15:8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.”

Whenever we despair and think life is fruitless, we are denying our Creator.

Jn 15:9-10 – Whenever your children disobey you, they are abiding in something other than your love. Be patient until they find their way back in.

Jn 15:11 – Facing what He’s facing, He still has joy?! Yes, so much so that He’s sharing it with those around Him!

Jn 15:12-15 – As the old hymn says, “What a friend we have in Jesus!” And when Jesus calls us “friends,” He’s letting us occupy the place of Abraham!

James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS,” and he was called the friend of God.

Jn 15:16-17 – This is a summation of everything He’s said since “I am the true vine…” in the first verse above.

Jn 15:18-25 – Having spoken about love for nine verses, He now speaks about hate for eight. What ironies we find in this world! The Prince of peace produces conflict, the Creator of order gives rise to disorder, and the God of love provokes hate. Jesus has brought peace, order, and love to the world – and yet look at what the world shows Him in return! And we were part of that world until we finally yielded to His love. Now we are part of Him – branches connected to the vine. And so we inherit the hate the world has for Him. Heaven is not polarized, but earth is. (Heaven was polarized until the Second Coming removed the devil and his forces from it.) With Jesus being fully revealed, the earth is more polarized than ever. The world hates us because it hates Him. The more closely we walk with Him, the more the world hates us. He does not want us to be surprised or caught off guard about this.

1 John 3:13 Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.

John could say this because he was there in the room when Jesus spoke the words of Jn 15. John heard a warning, and he’s passing it on to us. James, too, warned about the polarization…and not to get on the wrong side of it.

James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Jesus is the light that the world hates.

John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
John 3:20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
John 3:21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

When we become a part of His light – like a branch on that vine, or a flame on that seven-branched lampstand – we get hated, too. 

Jn 15:26-27 – How do we survive this hatred? Welcome the Holy Spirit in your heart. He will help you cope. There are times your children will hate you, or at least seem like they do. When that comes, lean on the strength that comes from within. God’s love in you can eventually quench their hate. Like the apostles were sent to the world, you are sent to your wife and children. Let the following words describe you.

John 13:1 …having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

You can’t make your children love you in the moment. You may have to wait them out. But that’s a battle you will win because love endures forever, while hate has a shelf life.

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John 16

This is the fourth and concluding chapter of dialogue between Jesus and His disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem the night before He was crucified. John 17 consists solely of the prayer He prayed there before leading the men to the garden of Gethsemane for a more personal prayer time which would be followed by His arrest.

Jn 16:1 – What Jesus is saying in this verse could be said of the whole Bible.

Jn 16:2-3 – This statement is connected to what Jesus was saying in the previous chapter about how His apostles would be hated because of their association with Him (Jn 15:18-25). We know from the book of Acts that Jesus’ death did not quench the bloodthirstiness of the Jewish authorities; they only shifted their murderous lust to His apostles. I am struck by the fact that Jesus knew He was sending most of these men to martyrdom just as He had been sent to martyrdom. If we feel sluggish about obeying X today, let us remember not just the price He paid, but also that He was willing to send good men to their deaths just to get the word of His redemptive sacrifice to us.

Jn 16:4 – The Holy Spirit would come to the apostles bringing the voice of Jesus to help them, but Jesus would no longer be with them in the flesh. Thus Jesus is now fortifying them with these words. We hold on to words from God so that when fresh words from God come to us, we have the faith to receive them. But if we let go of the words we have already received from God, we are ill-equipped to receive new words when we need them.

Mark 4:25 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Not having Jesus with them in the flesh would be a big adjustment for the apostles…but they transitioned without too many bumps as we can see from the endings of the four Gospels and the beginning of Acts. That is, the apostles had doubts when the women told them the tomb was empty, but Jesus’ appearances began assuring them. Over a period of 40 days, He explained to them how the prophecies of the Old Testament were being fulfilled before their eyes. Then they had ten days to pray between when Jesus ascended into heaven and when the Holy Spirit came like a rushing wind. And off they went from Acts 2 onward preaching and teaching in His name, speaking like this:

2 Cor 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.

In short, the apostles eventually adjusted well to Jesus’ exodus from earth to heaven.

Jn 16:5-16 – Jesus turns again to the subject of the Holy Spirit, a subject He’d addressed in the previous chapter when He was speaking of the hatred that would come against the apostles once He departed from them.

John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
John 15:27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Jesus now wants to elaborate on what the presence of the Holy Spirit will mean to them. We know that the apostles are still fleshly at this point – disinclined to appreciate the superiority of spiritual things. Likewise, we are being fleshly when we would prefer to experience Jesus as a human being to experiencing Him through the Holy Spirit.

We need to sensitize and orient ourselves to what a massive change was occurring at this time in Jesus’ life and in the apostles’ lives. In all human history prior to this point, the activities of the Holy Spirit on earth had been directed by an unseen God in heaven. Now, a flesh and blood human being – known by close association with these men for roughly three years – would be ascending into heaven to give that direction to the Holy Spirit. This brought a whole new dimension to “having friends in high places”!

John 15:14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”

What Jesus was telling the apostles was outside the confines of what they could comprehend in the moment. John is only able to appreciate it after decades of walking in the Spirit. Think of the Holy Spirit as the Secret Service that protects and serves the American president. When a new president takes office, he takes over control of the Secret Service from the previous president. Jesus was telling the apostles that He was going to be inheriting “the Secret Service” of God. A human being would be directing the Holy Spirit! Peter spoke of this handoff on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came so dramatically.

Acts 2:33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

Note that the Father keeps His promise to hand over the Holy Spirit to Jesus whom Jesus then pours forth on people beginning that day.

With two thousand years of hindsight, we don’t struggle too much with the idea of Jesus taking over the Holy Spirit because we know – through the help of John and the other apostles – that Jesus had preexisted His earthly life and so would be resuming a role that He had previously had. But for the apostles to hear Jesus say He was going to be directing the One who had been directing Him was beyond their ability that night to digest the idea. Likewise, you and I read many things in the Bible that we lack the spiritual maturity to digest. But we should likewise keep such words on the back burner of our minds just in case the Lord one day opens our eyes to their meaning. We certainly shouldn’t discard any of His words just because we don’t currently understand them. That’s why I don’t mind reading – or at least periodically skimming – turgid portions of the Old Testament or Revelation. I’m certainly not going to tell people they don’t need to bother ever reading such passages in the Bible. Let’s just major on the parts we understand and minor on the parts we don’t. In no case do we reject anything that has come down to us from His prophets (the Old Testament) or His apostles (the New Testament).

Matt 4:4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'”

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Rev 22:18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;
Rev 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.

As I said above, there are parts of the book of the Revelation I don’t understand – but I certainly get the gist of what the apostle John is saying here. I had better not even think about either supplementing or editing out something in this book. And what he said about Revelation applies to the whole Bible because both the prophets (OT) and the apostles (NT) spoke by the Spirit of God and it is with His words that we must not monkey.

Likewise in this passage of John’s Gospel, even though we cannot fully grasp it, we can at least stand in awe of the fact that the messianic plan called for a man who had been led by the Holy Spirit while on earth to be elevated to heaven, from where He would direct the Holy Spirit to lead the lives of other men on earth. This was a handoff that the defense never saw coming. And it’s a thrill for us to watch the replay over and over!

Jn 16:17-22 – What the apostles lacked the foresight to understand, we have the benefit of hindsight to help us understand. We are by no means brighter than these guys; rather, we only see things – however many or few – by standing on their shoulders.

Jn 16:23-30 – Jesus here reaches a point in the conversation where the apostles are understanding enough of what He’s saying to give Him some assurance that they “get it.”

Jn 16:31-32 – Jesus tells them, in essence, “You may get it, but you’re going to lose it…but that’s ok because the Father and I have things under control; everything is going according to plan.” You and I as well know the experience of coming to at least partially understand something the Lord has said, only to become disoriented and even bewildered later…before returning to a clearer and firmer understanding. Being a disciple of Jesus is a trial-and-error process. Progress only gets made by moving forward after falls. A refusal to give up makes all the difference. Just compare Peter to Judas, or Jacob to Esau.

Jn 16:33 – I don’t know how comforted the apostles were in the room that night when He concluded His words to them with this sentence, but this sentence even by itself does me a world of good every time I read or remember it!

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John 17

Like the five chapters that precede it, this chapter records events in the upper room the night before Jesus died. However, this chapter, unlike the four that preceded it, does not consist of dialogue between Jesus and His disciples. Rather, this chapter consists of a prayer Jesus prayed that concluded their time in that room. It is the longest recorded prayer we have from Jesus. Like all His other prayers, it is directed to God as “Father.” Jesus is praying the prayer on behalf of those who are in the room…and those who believe in Him through their testimony (which, of course, puts us in view).

Normally, Jesus prayed in private (Lk 5:16), and that is what He advised us to do (Mt 6:5-6). However, there were occasions when He wanted others to hear what He was saying. One example of this is just before He was going to call Lazarus forth on the fourth day of his death (Jn 11:41-42). Another will be in the garden of Gethsemane where the disciples will be headed when they leave this upper room (Mk 14:32-42). And then there is this occasion: the Last Supper (Passover), still in the upper room. The prayer was lengthy, but, as always with Jesus, every word had godly purpose.

Jn 17:1 – We’ve heard in previous instances that Jesus’ hour had not yet come; that hour had now come and Jesus was facing it like a man. ***** Jesus doesn’t want to be glorified for His own sake, but only so that He can glorify the Father even more.

Jn 17:2 – Even though the Father was giving all judgment over to the Son (by making Him “Lord”), it was not so that the Son could condemn the world but so that He could save it (Jn 3:17; 12:47). God’s will was not to make death eternal, but rather to make life eternal.

Jn 17:3 – As best I can tell, the first time anyone ever put the two words “Jesus” and “Christ” together – that is, the first time anyone said “Jesus Christ” – was by Jesus Himself the night before He died as recorded in this verse. He, of course, had been called “Jesus” before and He had been called “Christ” before – but here on this night the two words were joined into one name. Therefore, when the apostles began referring to Him as “Jesus Christ” seven weeks later on the day of Pentecost and thereafter, they were following His lead. The apostles were not innovators – they were imitators. Whatever they taught us, it was of Him – not of themselves.

*****

In this verse, Jesus gives us a definition of eternal life, which is to know God and His Son. The New Testament was a time for humanity to walk through a divided Red Sea – from slavery to Satan through sin on the one side, to freedom for service to the Creator and Redeemer on the other. Here’s how the waters were divided:

Deut 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!

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1 Cor 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

In the Old Testament, the Lord God was declared one. In the New Testament, with the revelation and appointment of the Son of God as Lord, God was declared one…and so was the Lord. In other words, the OT conception of the Lord and God as one became the NT conception of the Lord as one and God as one. Still “one,” but now one God (the Father) and one Lord (the Son). (Not two-in-one, but two ones.) Paul said as much.

Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

How is this division of “the Lord God” to be resolved? For the waters to come back together once humanity was through the Red Sea. This was accomplished at the Second Coming when the Son was revealed to be the Father. But that would be years in the future. On this night, that mystery was still hidden (Mysteries and Revelations) – even from the Son Himself. For God made sure that even He would not know the secret while He walked among us as one of us. For how could He truly be an example for us if He knew He was God? We know for sure we’re not God; He put Himself in that same place. As Paul put it:

Phil 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Phil 2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Phil 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Phil 2:8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

***

2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

If it seems hard to believe that God would or could hide from Himself His divine identity while He was a human being, remember that He explicitly told us that there were aspects of the messianic plan to which He was not privy.

Mark 13:32 “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

And even Isaiah spoke of Messiah having a blind spot.

Is 42:19 Who is blind but My servant,
Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me,
Or so blind as the servant of the LORD?

So, until the coming of the kingdom of God, the true identity of Messiah would remain a mystery, only to be revealed (Mysteries and Revelations) on “the day that the Son of Man is revealed” – Lk 17:30. On this night, however, the Son and the Father remain distinct, but the day of revelation was coming when it would be clear that the Lord is God. And the Son is the Father.

Ps 100:3 Know that the LORD Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

***

Is 9:6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Jn 17:4 – What satisfaction for a son to be able to tell his father, “I did what you told me to do”!

Jn 17:5 – Remember that the messianic identity had been established from the beginning.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

And it was through Messiah that everything was created, so that even the angels did not know that Messiah was an alter ego for God for He was on the scene before they arrived. (He was “the firstborn of all creation” – Col 1:15.) That identity would not be revealed to anyone until the day the kingdom came.

Jn 17:6 – Remember that all of Jesus’ followers were drawn to Him because of their reverence for God, just as all His enemies were repulsed by Him because of their lack of reverence for God.

Jn 17:7-10 – Keep in mind that this entire prayer is for the apostles and for everyone who believes the apostles (see verse 20) – which includes, of course, us.

Jn 17:11 – That “name” is the one He uttered in verse 3 above: “Jesus Christ.” (Jesus + Christ tells a little about how and when these two names came together.)

Jn 17:12 – Jesus is here assuring the apostles that they may stumble like Peter but they will not fall like Judas.

Jn 17:13 – This is the second time on this solemn night that Jesus has mentioned his joy (Jn 15:11). And, again, His intent is not to keep it to Himself, but to share it.

Jn 17:14-16 – Like Jesus, we are in the world but not of it.

Jn 17:17 – This is why we want to keep abiding in His word (Jn 8:30-32) – that is, we want to keep thinking about it and doing it. (If you have a lot on your mind, all you have to remember is XL.)

Jn 17:18 – The word “apostle” means “sent one.” (Apostles)

Jn 17:19 – To “sanctify” means to “make holy.” Surely Peter was including in his thoughts when he wrote what’s below what he heard Jesus pray this night in the upper room.

1 Pet 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
1 Pet 1:15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
1 Pet 1:16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

Jn 17:20-23 – There we are! There we are! For “those also who believe in Me through their word” is us! Their word is the New Testament.

Jn 17:24-26 – Jesus wraps up with a petition that spans the entirety of time – from the foundation of the world to eternity together in heaven. Things went wrong shortly after the foundation of the world, and God Himself came to earth to set things right…forever.

***

John 18

This chapter records how Jesus was arrested and then tried before Jewish authorities before being handed over to Roman authorities for execution. Jewish authorities wanted themselves to execute Jesus as a “blasphemer” – what would probably be called a “heretic” in the Middle Ages or a “cult leader” in our day. However, in the 1st century Israel was a vassal state of the Roman Empire, and the Romans had reserved the administration of capital punishment to their own discretion. Since Israel had no legal right to execute Jesus, they presented Him to the Roman authorities as a seditious criminal and therefore a threat to Rome’s authority. The Roman governor of the region of Judea – Pontius Pilate – was the one who had the authority to make the final call.

Note that the fundamental “crime” that got Jesus into hot water with both the Jews and the Romans was that He admitted He was the Messiah (“King of the Jews”). In other words, He was deemed worthy of torturous death by both Jews and Gentiles for…telling the truth.

Jn 18:1 – This was the garden of Gethsemane. Knowing the three Gospels already in existence, John chose not to repeat their story of Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane but rather tells us about His prayer in the upper room (Jn 17) – which the other three did not report. Thus each of the first three Gospels are different from each other in small ways, but John differs from all of them in bigger ways. Yet all four testify of exactly that same major points. And this is just the way that multiple honest witnesses in a court case give testimony that is consistent. Only false witnesses agree on every minor point, and this is because they have rehearsed a fabricated story. In real life, different people see the same event from different angles and notice different details.

Jn 18:2-3 – The authorities needed a snitch because they wanted to arrest Jesus away from the crowds and when He wouldn’t be expecting it. They didn’t have street lights back then so it would have been very dark in that garden outside the city. They needed “lanterns and torches.” Having Judas on their team would allow the security detail to find Jesus in the dark. All this is further proof of what the prophet Isaiah said about Messiah – that He would be nondescript in appearance, hard to pick out of a crowd.

Is 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

What distinguished Jesus from other men was not the way He looked.

Jn 18:4-9 – This passage demonstrates that Jesus had sufficient angelic power at His disposal to evade arrest, protecting Himself and all His disciples from any harm in the process.

Jn 18:10-11 – Although John doesn’t explicitly mention the prayer Jesus prayed in the garden, he does report that Jesus used the “cup” metaphor with the soldiers that He had used in the prayer. This is an example of the many intricate ways in which the testimony of the apostles is interwoven naturally – simply because they all spoke honestly.

Jn 18:12-14 – John is referring to the report he gave in Jn 11:47-53 about how Caiaphas and the others conspired to kill Jesus after He had raised Lazarus from the dead.

Jn 18:15-16 – This other disciple could have been John himself. In any case, it was someone who had a familial or other connection with the high priest. Recall that John the Baptist had a father who was a priest in the temple even though John the Baptist himself lived in the wilderness. Similarly, it would not be unusual for even a Galilean to have a relative or family friend who was well placed in Jerusalem.

Jn 18:17 – Peter denies Jesus for the first time that night.

Jn 18:18 – The fact that it was cold that night adds to our understanding of the suffering Jesus experienced being stripped and scourged that night.

Jn 18:19-21 – When we search the New Testament for historical facts about Jesus of Nazareth, we are doing just what Jesus said we should do: that is, we are “questioning those who heard what He spoke to them; who know what He said.”

Jn 18:22-24 – Apparently, Jesus’ question was one for which they did not have an answer. How could they? No one has ever been able to identify a wrong He has done.

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

Jn 18:25-27 – Peter denies Jesus the second and third times.

Jn 18:28 – They’re worried about defiling themselves for the Passover while they’re in the process of orchestrating a murder of the Messiah – the true Passover Lamb Himself? Rightly did Jesus say of such leaders that they majored on minors.

Matt 23:24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”

The Passover feast was a shadow – Jesus Christ was the reality that had been casting that shadow. (Types and Shadows of Christ) Shadows are the minor; He is the major.

Jn 18:29-32 – For Jews, stoning was the typical means of execution. For Romans, it was beheading for their citizens, and crucifixion for others (especially the most despicable – like runaway slaves, or dangerous – like the leader of a possible insurrection). Jesus had prophesied to His disciples that He would be crucified…which meant that the Romans had to be involved for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

Jn 18:33-38 – In order to pacify the Jewish leaders, Pilate had to interrogate their prisoner. Since everything Jesus was saying was going over his head, he quickly gave up, saying, “What is truth?” Lots of people take that exit ramp today when the subject of Jesus or the Bible up in conversation.

Jn 18:38-40 – The custom was for Rome to release one popular political prisoner a year as a means of keeping the passions of a subjugated people from boiling over. While Jesus had been quite popular with the crowds a few days before when He entered Jerusalem on a donkey as a messianic king (Jn 12:12-19), their leaders had succeeded by this time in convincing the crowds that letting Jesus live would lead to the Romans cracking down on all Jews. In other words, the crowds – operating in a herd mentality – had been spooked into accepting Caiaphas’ logic.

John 11:49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
John 11:50 nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”

Thus neither Israel’s ruling class nor its common folk wanted to kill Jesus out of malice per se. Neither did Pilate have malicious intent toward Jesus but was rather just trying to avoid a riot which would make him look bad to his superiors. What then was driving all these people to want to see Jesus dead? Fear for their own well-being. In a word, self-preservation.

And so it is today. The fundamental reason people want the subject of Jesus to go away is for the preservation of self. Yet the irony of life is that we cannot keep our lives by trying to save them; if we could, we’d be saved by now. Instead, the path to life is by making His life more important than our own. For He is the only One who can give us life. He’s the One who gave us life in the first place, and He’s the One who can restore it if we lose it.

Mark 8:35 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.”

Therefore, let us adopt the attitude of John the Baptist:

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.

For this attitude will not only preserve us, it will cause us to increase. For He is “a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb 11:6).

***

John 19

This chapter records Jesus’ crucifixion. (Mark covers it in Mk 15, Matthew in Mt 27, and Luke in Lk 23.)

It’s fascinating to me that of all the ways God could be perceived by the human race, the two snapshots of Himself He obviously wants people to have uppermost in mind are as a crucified and, three days later, resurrected human being. Those two juxtaposed images will speak forever about the durability of His love for us.

We need to pay attention to God’s suffering in order to fully appreciate His glory. He didn’t go through all that so that we could be dense to its meaning and implications. (Suffering and Glory)

Jn 19:1 – At this point, Pontius Pilate has not yet granted the death sentence for Jesus. He is having Jesus scourged in the hope that this punishment will satisfy the Jews. It was a vain hope on Pilate’s part, but it shows how callous and brutal he was. When he expressed indifference to the truth in the previous chapter (“What is truth?” – Jn 18:38), he was unwittingly demonstrating the weakness of his character and the poverty of his soul.

Jn 19:2-3 – In stark contrast to Pilate, Jesus demonstrates the unfathomable depth of His character by restraining Himself in the face of pain and humiliation. He could killed them all with a single word, but He chose instead to suffer for them without complaint.

Is 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.

Jn 19:4-5 – Pilate (unwittingly) makes the profound statement, “Behold, the Man!” as John the Baptist had (consciously) made the profound statement, “Behold, the Lamb!” Both were right.

John 1:29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Jn 19:6-9 – Romans were not secularists; they believed there were gods. Pilate was worried about choosing the wrong side in this Jewish dispute, but with the mention of “Son of God” he was now also spooked about choosing the wrong side in some kind of heavenly dispute.

Jn 19:10 – Pilate was unaccustomed to condemned men not begging him for mercy.

Jn 19:11 –

Rom 13:1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.

Jn 19:12 – The Jewish leaders were threatening to report Pilate to his superior. This would prove to be the ultimate motivator for him.

Jn 19:13-16 – The pressure on Pilate was unrelenting. Like all weak men in a situation like this, he ultimately gave in. ***** As for the Jews, they were living in the hope of a Messiah who would save them, and when He was finally presented to them, they would condemn Him to death. This is the way of humanity and it is the proof of original sin and the fallen nature it gives us. That is, we are blind and do not even know how to seek our own good. Even when good is staring us in the face. Our only hope is to throw ourselves on the mercy of our Creator…and then He will open our eyes.

Jer 17:5 Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Jer 17:6 “For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.

Therefore, let us never complain to the Lord that He has not kept a promise. Instead, let us humbly pray that He opens our eyes to see the path to deliverance we have been missing.

1 Cor 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Jn 19:17-22 – Even a cold-hearted Gentile is proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah! Hearing that truth from a Gentile caused the Jews to realize what they were doing. So they sought to convince the Gentile ruler to change his messaging, but he had already given in to the main thing they wanted so he wasn’t going to give in to them any more than that. Not being able to change the sign, they just ignored it. It’s just like people today: they can’t change the Bible, so they just ignore it.

Jn 19:23-25 – The scripture being fulfilled here is Ps 22:18. That’s the same psalm Jesus Himself quoted while hanging from the cross.

Mark 15:34 At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” which is translated, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

(The first phrasing is in the Aramaic – the language most Jews spoke in that place and time.)

The dots were all over the place for the many synagogue attendees present this day…but no one was connecting them – not even Jesus’ closest disciples. Let us learn.

Jn 19:25-27 – Apparently, Jesus’ brothers James and Jude had not yet given up their skepticism about Jesus’ ministry, so Jesus gives Mary a household of faith in which she will be able to find comfort and strengthening for her faith.

Jn 19:28-30 – Yet another passage of Scripture being fulfilled right before their eyes!

Ps 69:20 Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick.
And I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
And for comforters, but I found none.
Ps 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food
And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Jn 19:31-37 – Jesus is dead and He’s still fulfilling Scriptures!

Ps 34:20 He keeps all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.

***

Zech 12:10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

Jn 19:38-39 – It is appropriate that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus are mentioned in the same breath, given that they are both outliers – members of the professional religious class in Israel who did not condemn Jesus but rather believed in Him.

Jn 19:40 – The linen wrappings are reminiscent of the linen curtains that lined Moses’ tabernacle in the wilderness.

Jn 19:41-42 – Joseph of Arimathea apparently had a burial cave in Jerusalem for burial much like Abraham did in Machpelah (Gen 23). This allowed Isaiah’s prophetic riddle to be fulfilled.

Is 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

Isaiah was prophesying that Messiah would both be with wicked men and with a rich man in his death. But on the face of it, those are contradictory and therefore an impossible circumstance. This is, of course, the nature of a riddle – two contradictory notions are presented with the understanding that it’s a puzzle to be figured out. This was a stunning fulfillment – that is, answer to the riddle – because Jesus was indeed crucified between two wicked men (Jn 19:18) and buried in one rich man’s place (“…Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb…” – Mt 27:59-60). (See more on riddles in Mysteries and Revelations.)

We can also give thought to the fact that Joseph was giving Jesus his place in death. We can do the same.

Rom 6:4 …we have been buried with Him…

***

Col 2:12 having been buried with Him…

***

Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

***

John 20

This chapter records the discovery of Jesus’ resurrection…and concludes with John stating the reason that he wrote his Gospel. The period of time John covers in Jn 20-21 – which is the 40 days between Jesus’ resurrection and His ascension – is covered by the other three Gospel writers in Mk 16, Mt 28, and Lk 24. Luke adds some further reporting on that time in the beginning of Acts 1.

Jn 20:1 – Mary Magdalene was mighty brave to come “early to the tomb, while it was still dark.” How many people do you know who go to work in grave caves while it’s still dark? ***** Mary Magdalene found the stone already removed from the entrance to the tomb even while it was still dark. I guess Jesus was an early riser.

Jn 20:2 – By her statement to Peter, Mary Magdalene indicates that at this point the thought that Jesus had risen from the dead has not even entered her mind. She had come only to finish preparations of the body for burial since everything had to be rushed on Friday afternoon due to the swiftly-approaching sabbath. (For Jews, the sabbath began at sundown on Friday.) ***** Rather than referring to himself directly, John says the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” (John also uses this expression in Jn 13:23; 19:26; 21:7, 20.) Recall that Mark also seems to refer to himself in an indirect way in Mk 14:51-52 (see also accompanying BSN note on this passage). Thus John is not the only Gospel writer to refer to himself obliquely. In fact, the Gospel writers seldom refer to themselves at all; Luke is the only one to do so by saying “I” or “me,” and he seems to do that only to make sure everyone understands that he’s relaying the eyewitness accounts of others and not claiming to be one himself. What John the Baptist lived and taught seems to have stuck with all of them.

John 3:30 “He must increase, but I must decrease.

It’s clear that the first readers of the four Gospels were fully aware of who the writers were. They did not need to be told in the texts or even in the titles, which came later. (The notion that some modern scholars present, that the Gospels are “formally anonymous,” is pretentious and deceitful – for more, see Modern Biblical Scholarship versus Ancient Biblical Scholarship.) A book’s author does not have to tell his publisher who he is; it’s the publisher who tells the world who he is. Therefore, there was no need for the writers to talk about themselves in their Gospels, and their humility further discouraged them from talking about themselves.

John’s choice to use this particular expression (“the disciple whom Jesus loved”) may be rooted in what he wrote in one of his letters.

1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

That is, whenever I read John saying “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” I feel he is challenging me to examine myself and see if I really believe that Jesus loves me. In other words, I feel John is trying to provoke a godly jealousy in me by saying that he knows Jesus loved him. John knows that I cannot love others as Jesus loves me unless I am convinced that Jesus really does love me. That’s why he’s prodding me to think.

Jn 20:3-5 – John was probably younger than Peter and likely would win any foot race. If it were purely a matter of zeal, Peter would likely have arrived first because he always seemed to do everything else before any of the other apostles.

Jn 20:6-7 – By entering the tomb first, Peter displays the first-to-act zeal we’re accustomed to seeing in him. ***** The reference to the face-cloth is intriguing. For one thing, it’s a curious detail that adds another element of authenticity to John’s account. Fabricated accounts don’t tend to include such details because a false narrative has to be kept simple enough for the conspirators to keep their story straight.

Jn 20:8-10 – They believed the tomb was empty, just as Mary Magdalene had said, but they did not yet connect the dots so that they could believe Jesus’ prophecy of His resurrection had been fulfilled.

Jn 20:11-12 – God grants Mary Magdalene something He did not grant to Peter and John – an appearance of angels.

Jn 20:13 – The angels ask Mary Magdalene a question designed to make her think. She was weeping because she hadn’t believed what Jesus had prophesied about being raised from the dead. (We, too, often weep simply because we don’t believe the word of the Lord.)

Jn 20:14 – Mary Magdalene is now granted an appearance of Jesus, though she doesn’t at first know that’s who it is.

Jn 20:15 – Jesus’ first question to Mary Magdalene is to repeat the question the angels asked her. Then He asks a more pointed question, again with the purpose of getting her to think. (The Lord has to work hard to get us to think, doesn’t He?) ***** She is still not looking for Jesus – only for His body. That’s a big difference.

Jn 20:16 – It’s hearing Him say her name that flips on the switch. Must’ve been something special in the way He said it. ***** “Rabboni” is Aramaic for “Rabbi” – that is, “teacher” or “master teacher.”

Jn 20:17 – Now that Jesus has finally gotten one of His disciples to believe that He was risen just as He said He would be, He hastens to remind them that resurrection leads to heaven just as He said it would (Mk 12:25). Otherwise, they’d continue to think He was going to remain on earth and resume His previous activities.

Jn 20:18 – Mary did her part to declare the good news; alas, the men failed to believe at first (Lk 24:10-11). Yes, we men are called to lead our households, but when the women hear a word of the Lord first and we don’t believe them, we look foolish to heaven.

Jn 20:19-20 – At least the men believed when Jesus made a personal appearance. But the Lord is going to use Thomas to show that they would have done better to believe Mary Magdalene and the women at their first telling of gospel.

Jn 20:21 – The glories of Messiah began with His resurrection (Suffering and Glory). They continue as He one by one begins taking on the duties of God. Although God sent the prophets and the Messiah, it is Messiah who will henceforth do the sending. #TGTC

Jn 20:22 – As with the sending, the Christ will also be the One bestowing the Holy Spirit from this point on (Acts 2:33). #TGTC

Jn 20:23 – Jesus is granting extraordinary power here!

Jn 20:24-29 – Recall that Thomas was not a weak man.

John 11:16 Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.”

Thomas just wanted the same experience all the other fellows were having, so the Lord gave it to him.

Jn 20:28 – Though he probably didn’t fully comprehend what he was saying, Thomas was on to something! #Claims

Jn 20:29 – Okay, fellow readers of the Bible, this is our chance to shine!

(#FJOT) This “Thomas vignette” in Jn 20:24-29 is foreshadowed by a similar Jacob vignette in Gen 45:25-28.

Jn 20:30-31 – The terms Son of God and Christ are often seen in tandem – Mt 16:16; 26:63; Jn 11:27; 20:30-31; 2 Cor 1:19. They are synonyms. That is, according to OT prophecy, to say Jesus was the Messiah was the exact same thing as saying He was the Son of God. He could not qualify for one of the titles without qualifying for the other. ***** John wants us to believe the signs he reported so that we’ll believe Jesus is the Messiah. Believing Jesus is the Messiah puts us in a position to then see that the Messiah is God.

***

John 21

This chapter records one of the many experiences Jesus’ disciples had with Him during the 40 days between the day He was raised from the dead and the day He ascended into heaven. This resurrection appearance is particularly poignant because it involves an allusion to Peter’s denial of Jesus – and yet also uplifting because it clearly signals Jesus’ forgiveness of him.

Recall that John – the writer of this Gospel – was a partner with Peter in a fishing business before either of them knew Jesus. The final scene of this post-resurrection, pre-ascension encounter becomes all the more vivid as Jesus prophesies of Peter’s death while hinting that John might escape a similar fate. This exchange, too, carries poignancy.

Jn 21:1 – The “Sea of Tiberius” is the Roman name for the Sea of Galilee. ***** Notice that Jesus was manifesting Himself “again.” He appeared to apostles “many” times during the weeks between His resurrection from the dead and His ascension into heaven.

Acts 1:3 To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

***

Acts 10:40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible,
Acts 10:41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.

*** 

1 Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Cor 15:5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
1 Cor 15:6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
1 Cor 15:7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
1 Cor 15:8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

Therefore, just as we don’t have a complete list of all the miracles Jesus performed, we don’t have a complete list of His many post-resurrection, pre-ascension appearances. But we have enough.

Jn 21:2 – This incident involved 7 of the remaining 11 apostles.

Jn 21:3 – Whether Peter was right or wrong, he was always leading. This is because he was a man of action. John was more a man of reflection. We see these differences in personality show up when we compare the Gospel of Mark (which was Mark’s transcription of Peter’s memories) and the Gospel of John; the former is action-oriented and the latter is reflective.

Jn 21:4 – A common occurrence in these post-resurrection appearances is that the apostles do not recognize Jesus at first. Perhaps this is explained in part by how much being “lifted up” (that is, being crucified per Jn 12:32-33) disfigured Jesus’ appearance – something Isaiah had prophesied.

Is 52:13 Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
Is 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man
And His form more than the sons of men.

We also know from Paul that resurrection means a new body – a heavenly body.

1 Cor 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.
1 Cor 15:41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
1 Cor 15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;
1 Cor 15:43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
1 Cor 15:44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

In His post-resurrection appearances, it seems that Jesus did indeed have a different kind of body – a heavenly body. It allowed Him to appear and disappear at will (Lk 24:31, 36), but it also allowed Him to be grasped (Jn 20:17) and to eat food (Lk 24:42-43). He said this body was flesh and bone, but didn’t mention if it had blood (Lk 24:39). We’re told that this body had some significant physical reminders; I’m speaking of the holes from the nails in His hands and side (Jn 20:19-27); I think we can safely assume these were “memorial” scars, not festering wounds that hadn’t healed from the trauma of crucifixion. In short, it seems Jesus had the kind of heavenly body Paul was talking about in 1 Cor 15.

If there was a different body, there’d also be a different voice since the sound of speaking comes from physical organs. In short, a heavenly body (as Paul taught) would be reason enough that His disciples might not immediately recognize Him. Then there was the possible disfigurement of the beatings and crucifixion (as Isaiah prophesied) that were memorialized in the new body. And then there was the possibility that the disciples’ eyes were supernaturally veiled until Jesus was ready to reveal His identity to them; after all, that how people could entertain angels without knowing it (Heb 13:2). Any or all of these three reasons could explain why Jesus was not instantly recognized by every person on every occasion.

Jn 21:5 – I wonder what they thought when this stranger addressed them as “children.” I know what I think: #Hints.

Jn 21:6 – In a Lk 24 post-resurrection appearance, they recognized Jesus when He blessed the food and started handing it out. In John’s previous chapter, Mary Magdalene recognized Jesus when He called her by name (Jn 20:16). In this appearance, John recognizes Him when He tells them where to cast their nets – because in this case as well, it brings to mind previous experiences with Him.

Luke 5:4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Jn 21:7 – What respect Peter was showing Jesus! Peter left the fish behind, made himself more presentable, and “threw himself into the sea” toward Jesus – all seemingly in one motion. Jesus has shown Himself wise and gracious in His effective use of Peter’s inclination to act and John’s inclination to reflect. This doesn’t mean at all that Peter never reflected or that John never acted. Spiritual maturity is being achieved when we recognize that, as Solomon would have put it in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, there’s a time for action and a time for reflection. And this is without regard to our individual tendencies.

Jn 21:8 – Just like the incident in Lk 5 where a carpenter’s advice had caused commercial fisherman to haul in more fish than they could easily handle, so the fish in this net had to be “dragged” to shore. Whether it was blessing food or finding it, Jesus’ role was memorable!

Jn 21:9 – Jesus did not need the fish He helped them catch. He just wanted that special way of revealing Himself to them, and of reminding them of the kind of person He was – an utterly unique kind!

Jn 21:10-14 – Everything about this appearance was about making it memorable for the apostles. They would need such memories to sustain them through the resistance and rejection they would face in the decades of preaching and teaching they would have to give for the knowledge of this Man to reach the world. Beyond writing, they had none of the human memory aids we have today – bound Bibles with New Testaments, audio recording devices, video recording devices, an Internet, etc. Sure, the Holy Spirit could bring things to their remembrance – but the memory had to be made in the first place for it ever to be remembered. That’s what Jesus was doing with them here and elsewhere: making strong and memorable impressions on them.

Jn 21:12-14 – For a similar post-resurrection meal, see Luke 24:41-43; also see Act 10:40-41 for a general reference to such post-resurrection meals. Sharing meals is a big deal in God’s eyes. Your family meals are among the most important times you’ll ever spend with your children.

Jn 21:15-17 – Jesus here gives another memorable moment – not just for Peter’s sake, but for the sake of all who witnessed it that day, and for all those with opportunity to read John’s report of it – including us. ***** When Jesus was asked for the greatest commandment, He gave two (Mk 12:28-31) – for there is no true love of God without love of neighbor. John got this point of Jesus’ exchange with Peter and expounded on it elsewhere.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
1 John 4:21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Your closest neighbors are your wife and children. No human being on this earth has a greater responsibility for their well-being than you do. Yes, you are to love everyone, but the wife you chose and the children you brought into the world come first. That’s the foremost way you truly show your love toward God.

Jn 21:18-24 – The Bible does not record Peter’s death, but other history tells us he died by crucifixion in Rome during the 60’s AD. Neither does the Bible record John’s death, but other history tells us he lived longer – maybe even to the 90’s AD. As for the rest of the apostles, only John’s brother James’ death is recorded in the Bible. The others, according to the history we have, all died as martyrs through one form of barbaric execution or another. That history is sketchy because the apostles were going through what Jesus described as the greatest tribulation the world would ever know. Who had the time or motivation to write their stories? The world does not pay attention to such men. They were like Jesus – poor and without worldly credentials. After all, we only know about Jesus because of these apostles; it wasn’t in the messianic plan for each of them to get biographers, too. They were decreasing in order to increase Him (Jn 3:30).

We know from Jesus’ promise that not all of the apostles would die before He returned (Mt 10:23; 16:28). The history we have of John tells us that he was boiled in oil but miraculously survived, dying sometime later – probably in prison on the island of Patmos to which he’d been exiled, and from which he wrote the book of Revelation. Therefore, it’s quite possible that he was the only one of the original twelve apostles to live long enough to see the coming of the kingdom. What we know for sure is that we have no writing in the New Testament from any of them indicating that the kingdom had come. But all of those writings clearly and emphatically said His coming was soon. In fact, in the very last words of the New Testament, John himself reminds us of this point, with Jesus Himself concurring.

Rev 22:18 I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;
Rev 22:19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

We can either believe them or not. I do (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again).

Jn 21:25 – John closes his Gospel by emphasizing again a point he made in the previous chapter (Jn 20:30): that he has only reported a fraction of Jesus’ miracles. He makes clear here that he’s not saying that the other three Gospel writers reported all the miracles; on the contrary, he says that no one could have possibly recorded them all! How much proof do we need? Nicodemus had it right.

John 3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
John 3:2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

We can either either believe these signs or not. I do.

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