WHY: to restore Peter after his predicted denial- after the resurrection and to give Peter a new promise that Peter will be faithful and will be called to be faithful to death. What Peter wanted most of all, especially after his abject failure to remain faithful, was to live in a way that will honor the Father and die honoring Him.
How very like Peter I am. How very like Peter are you?
How have I failed Jesus?
Have I gone to Jesus for restoration?
I have noticed as I age, that while I may not wind up on a literal cross, aging has a way of stretching us and requiring us to stretch that which we have taken for granted in our younger years. I want to remember that we are all like Peter- we all fail and we all need restoration, grace and forgiveness. And we all are not meant to remain in this body of decay.
WHO: To the remaining 11 and specifically to Peter.
WHY: To prepare the men for what is to happen and give them encouragement. Also, to give a new commandment and to inform Peter that He cannot give His life in exchange for Jesus, in fact to prophecy to Peter thus to prepare Peter for the three denials of knowing Jesus that he is about to say. This is unfathomable to Peter. Yet why tell him? Because when the unthinkable that was prophesied comes true, you can be even more certain that all the other prophesies and promises that Jesus made will also come true. Just before this was the command to Love each other as Jesus has loved them. Love is how people will know the disciples of Jesus. Just prior to the command was the fact shared with the 11 that Jesus is now to be glorified, at once. Even now, Peter has been given an assurance to hang onto in the hours to come.
13:38 Jesus replied, Will you give your life for me? I can guarantee this truth: No rooster will crow until you say three times that you don’t know me.
WHO: Philip, at the last supper, has just asked Jesus to show them the Father and that it would satisfy them. Satisfy, a root word that also holds the idea of being strong enough to defend, to warding off. What is to be warded off? What is to be defended from? Doubt- the source of the original sin. What is the answer? Faith, believing, trust and obey.
WHY: Jesus in replying asks Philip “Don’t you know me yet, Philip?” He goes on to explain that He and The Father are one, each in the other. He gives them two choices: to believe what He says or to believe because of what He does. Choices we all have. And then, as these men are faced with the choice, He goes on to give them a promise when they choose to believe, that their prayers will be answered, so that the Father is glorified. Jesus will do it. He ties this to obedience, which implies that the prayers are according to His will and, as He also goes on to share, with the wisdom and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
14:12-21 “I can guarantee this truth: Those who believe in Me will do the things that I am doing. They will do even greater things because I am going to the Father. I will do anything you ask (the Father) in My name so that the Father will be given glory because of the Son. If you ask something, I will do it.
“If you love Me you will obey my commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper who will be with you forever. That helper is the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it doesn’t see or know Him. You Know Him, because He lives with you and will be in you.
WHY: by now the 11 are becoming overwhelmed by all Jesus has been saying. They are trying among themselves to figure it out. It appears as a riddle. “In a little while you won’t see me, and in a little while you will see me again”. This is a direct response to their attempt to understand. His words take it to deep emotions. He prepares them to endure the coming depths of sorrow and grief with a promise of a happiness that no one can take away. Cling to that. A day of unmovable happiness comes with understanding.
16:20 -22“I can guarantee this truth: You will cry because you are sad, but the world will be happy. You will feel pain, but your pain will turn to happiness. A woman has pain when her time to give birth comes. But after the child is born, she doesn’t remember the pain anymore because she’s happy that a child has been brought into the world.
WHO: The same 11, immediately part of the above.
WHY: When the day of happiness has come, which is the day they understand and won’t be asking Jesus questions anymore. From that place of understanding comes this next promise. It is one that will add completion to the happiness. The confidence of joy that is an evidence of being able to ask the Father, in Jesus name, because we understand they are One, for anything and He will give it. We shall understand how loved we are and that in being loved by Jesus/the Father, we can ask, anything.
16:23-28 “I can guarantee this truth: If you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. So far you haven’t asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive so that you can be completely happy.
Truly : The One, which ‘One’ am I?
WHO: To all 12 of his disciples, right after washing their feet at the last supper. John does not tell us who, if anyone else, is there, but all 4 gospels lead to it being just the 12. Someone has brought the food and most likely left them to their meal.
WHO: To the 12 still.
WHY: To show Jesus is in complete accord and in charge of the timing of setting into motion the events that lead to His salvation work of dying on the cross for the sin of the world.
Oh, the agony of being betrayed is so great. Ask any wife who was cheated on or anyone who has trusted and had that trust betrayed. Imagine the agony of knowing beforehand that it will happen! Jesus tells all of them, including Judas, that He knows it is to happen. It also stirred Peter to ask John to ask Him who, and Jesus let them know by an action. This could have been done in several ways. Was Jesus in the middle of grabbing a piece of bread, dipping it and sharing with all the men? Was this a fluid action, with no break in it and so close to the question that not until later was it clearly Judas? Did He give Peter the next piece? No one knew why Jesus told Judas to hurry and do what he had to do. Jesus set it in motion when He handed that sauce soaked bread and told Judas to hurry. Satan entered when Judas took it. Jesus was in charge of the moment. Believe.
What does betrayal look like? It involves close friends and is never expected. Except with Jesus, He knew and allowed it to happen. It involves acceptance. It involves rejection.
Who and what am I accepting in my life today?
Who and what am I rejecting in my life today?
WHO: Some Greeks had come to Passover and had gone to Philip because he was from Bethsaida in Galilee and asked him for an introduction to Jesus. Philip passed that on to Andrew and together they told Jesus. Jesus seems to be speaking to Philip and Andrew, not the Greeks.
WHY: Jesus starts by speaking about timing and is saying the time has come for his glorification. Then He speaks of His death and the purpose of that death. He speaks that as a shepherd leading His flock, those who serve Him must follow Him through a death of self love which will guard them for life eternal. Honorable service to Jesus would be: following Jesus, going where He goes, being with Jesus where Jesus is, regardless of how it affects human life and comfort. This was not easy for Jesus. He had the human emotions that struggled to surrender to His Father’s will. Yes, he chose to obey, suffer and give glory to the Father- which was to fulfill the purpose for which he was incarnated.
In the images above, note what happens to the seed shell.
What introduction does Jesus offer to those who wish to know Him?
What shell am I living in?
What am I holding onto that will only ultimately die?
What am I holding onto that will live forever?
WHO: Jesus speaking to those Jews who believed in Him.
WHY: To encourage them to live by what He is saying and be true disciples, knowing the truth and set free. He then explains what they are being set free from as they had not seen themselves as slaves (slaves to sin).
What pulls my strings? Are my strings cut? Am I set free?
Who’s Spirit do I live by?
How do I respond to people I don’t agree with? What does that say about me?
Lord, let me live through and by Your Holy Spirit and not my own passions and desires. Give me the desires of Your heart, that I might be free indeed!
WHO: The same Jews as above and those who do not believe who have just accused Him of being possessed by a demon.
WHY: To discern for them who their father really is, (not Abraham) and if they are a slave to sin. If they don’t understand, they don’t believe and belong to God. Also Jesus said this to clarify that He is not possessed and honors His Father. Glory and honor are to the judge. God the Father wants Jesus to have glory, not Jesus. God is judge. Then Jesus makes this promise. He is dividing the hearers every time He makes another statement. Shortly after this He makes it perfectly clear “Before Abraham was ever born, I am.” Over this, they now attempt to stone Him for what their unbelief perceives as blasphemy.
What do my actions reveal about me?
What do my words reveal about me?
Will I see death or life eternal?
WHO: The Jews who were being divided over believing or not believing in Jesus. Some believe, some do not. Division increases.
WHY: To answer the very direct question, “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophet have also died. Who do you think you are”? The Jews revered the prophets and they revere their ancestor Abraham. Jesus had just spoken about believers not dying. Yet those they revered and knew to be faithful Jews and believers in God the Father (the only one they knew about) are now, to their ears, being put lower as Jesus speaks with an authority they are questioning. “Just who does he think he is? “ They clearly wonder. So He tells them who HE IS! They understand the use of the great “I AM” as His claim to be God. Their actions attest to how clearly they understood that, as the biblical command for those that falsely claim to be God, is stoning. So “some of them” pick up stones to throw at Jesus, but Jesus, being God, is able to be “concealed” and somehow walked right past them all- without them finding their target.
What do my actions say I believe about Jesus to be true?
How does Jesus respond to unbelievers?
How does Jesus respond to those that want to stone Him?
How do I respond to those who hate and want to harm me?
WHO: Jesus is talking to the people. The text implies a continuation of the previous group. This includes some Pharisees who were with Jesus who had been asking him questions in regard to the man born blind whom Jesus had recently healed and sought out after learning the Jews had kicked him out of the synagogue.
WHY: He has just told this group of religious leaders that they are blind themselves if they claim to see, when in fact, they do not see the truth, thus they become liars and thus they are sinners- sinners who claim to be right in their actions. This sheep pen and shepherd description shows how to discern who people believe by watching who they follow. It will show to whom they belong. To recognize those who are in the ‘flock of Jesus’ is to see who is following Him. However, it is also interesting to note that in the process of leaving the pen, each sheep must leave by one gate and on the other side is a time of mingling around waiting for the rest of the sheep to leave the fold and be ready to follow the shepherd when He is done calling out His sheep and then step to the front and lead them. I think this is a good analogy to the time we are in and have been in since the resurrection. Jesus is calling out His sheep. A time shall come, when all His sheep have been called out and when He shall step to the front of the flock and lead us.
Who and what am I listening to? and watching?
Where are my leaders from?
How have my leaders come to be my leader?
Who am I following and who are they following?
Do I follow Jesus or some strange ‘sheep’?
Lord, help me to focus my ears on your voice alone, so that i recognize truth when I hear it and discern falsehood when it cries out to me.
WHO: Jesus is speaking to the same group of ‘sheep’ i.e. the Jews including Pharisees some who are and some who are not believing, above. The people he is continuing to talk to and in this section.
WHY: To emphasize His point. So that truly get the message. He is the only way. He is the gate. There is only ONE passage, one gate, one name, one shepherd that can call the sheep out into the pastures, the feeding ground of eternal life. He also explains He must give His life and take it back up again in obedience to His Father.
10:7-18 Jesus emphasized, “I can guarantee this truth: I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before I did were thieves or robbers. However, the sheep didn’t respond to them. I am the gate. Those who enter the sheep pen through Me will be saved. They will go in and out of the sheep pen and find food. A thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I came so that My sheep will have life and so that they will have everything they need.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away. So the wolf drags the sheep away and scatters the flock. The hired hand is concerned about what he’s going to get paid and not about the sheep.
Check out my gate! Through what am I going in and out, or through whom?
What voice calls me that my heart responds to?
Lord! Let me hear only your voice and may my heart leap with joy when you call!
Lord, let me wait patiently, fully satisfied, as you gather all Your sheep.
WHY: To address the desire for a “free lunch”. They had to “work” to get to find him in hopes for more, but Jesus addresses the need we all have to be productive, to do work and define what the really satisfying work is. If we are willing to go so far, to put that much into the attaining of a meal, to work to meet that temporary need that will only hunger again tomorrow, how much better to work for that which satisfies eternally!
How far am I willing to go to be truly satisfied?
Is that far really so very far away? Or is it right in front of me, waiting for me to trust in His promised provision?
What ‘work’ will satisfy eternally?
WHO: To the same recently fed crowd who now asks Jesus what God wants them to do? Isn’t that a question we often ask God? Jesus had told them to believe in Him, whom God has sent, yet they asked now for a miracle of manna- bread from heaven- like Moses did.
WHY: To lead them to the understanding of who He is, Jesus IS the bread of life. Jesus is the bread from heaven. Jesus is true food. Jesus is the source of life eternal and physical. All this is said so that they might believe in Him.
What is food, but that which brings nourishment to our body? We cannot sustain functioning without food, and good health requires good food. For our spiritual body we need spiritual food and that food is found in Jesus Christ. Thus we circle back to the first chapter of John, and who Jesus is. The Word, made flesh. Eat and drink deeply of Jesus. Take communion with a heart that seeks true food.
Lord, remind me as I study your Word, that I am being fully nourished and let me not gulp my meal or swallow without chewing.
Lord, may I taste and see that You are GOOD!
WHO: To the same crowd that is now understanding that Jesus is claiming to be Messiah and they don’t see how that can be because they understand him to be the son of Joseph and Mary and that he comes from Nazareth so how can he be Him? They are criticizing Jesus because they don’t understand.
WHY: So that they learn to seek the truth by going to the Father and come to understand that Jesus is from the Father and so come to Jesus. He wants them to believe. He chooses not to address how he came to be in Nazareth and speak on the physical part of His being. Rather He goes to the key parts of believing, the benefits. It is not about proving Himself to them, rather His focus is on what they must believe. Jesus is living bread from heaven that those who consume His flesh won’t die but provide eternal life. To believe Jesus is to “eat this bread” and what is the bread, it is His flesh- because Jesus gives to the world, at the cross, the flesh that He took on.
6:47-51 “I can guarantee this truth: Every believer has eternal life.
Lord, help me persist as I seek to understand and walk with You in Your ways.
Lord, help me to trust through the process of learning to understand.
So, as a believer, even though this physical body is dying daily, I am eternally already alive in Jesus! Hallelujah!
WHO: The crowd was very charged by this information and began to quarrel and argue with one another. Some were understanding others were plain angry at the thought of “eating his flesh”. They think of it as physical food they must eat.
WHY: To push the point further- and drink His blood. It’s a new food, it is not meant for the physical body but a food for the spiritual body to provide for eternal life. Jesus is specific in trying to get them to understand His message is for eternal life not for temporary life. They had only been seeking to fill physical hunger. Jesus had the food that meets the need of spiritual hunger.
6:53-58 Jesus told them, “I can guarantee this truth: If you don’t eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have the source of life in you.
Jesus challenged this hungry crowd to seek after true food and drink, one that would last to eternity. This point He made several times and this section is a lot of repeated guarantees (truly- trulys) for one group of people. They were in great need of understanding and knowing the hard truth and this one was hard. Is it still hard today? What do I learn about Jesus and the way He would interact with people from this repetition? I’m a mom, I know toddlers and children and teens and honestly, adults too. We all need repetition. We begin to believe when we are told something over and over again. But we really understand when we start doing.
So, do I only believe in Jesus? Or do I dine with Him?
Angry crowds. Ever have a group of people angry at you? Ever see an angry crowd in action? Think politics and religion if you are having trouble imagining this. People hold their beliefs very dear and if they feel they are threatened by another point of view, often they will get angry and the crowd effect is easily manipulated by despots. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler are all well acknowledged examples. But what about more on the personal level, perhaps in one’s own family or in one’s workplace. Have you ever observed a group gang up upon another? Or perhaps for most women, all we have to do is remember seventh grade when our ‘horror-moans’ took over our brains for a good solid year. How does one respond to an angry group of people? How did Jesus do this?
WHY: To show He has authority and is not breaking the law.
5:19-23 Jesus said “I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what He sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing. The Father will show Him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed. In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses.
This group does not understand who Jesus is, and are more in love with their rules and regulations then they are with truth. So they are judging Jesus based on their own limited knowledge of the context of the given law. They have lost perspective so Jesus gives them that perspective.
Let me seek the Lord’s perspective and share it when I am caught up in angry mob (or what may feel like that).
Let me speak truth courageously.
WHY: To offer forgiveness for their current misjudgment and offer opportunity to honor Jesus and thus honor the Father and have eternal life.
Jesus has given the perspective and if someone has the heart for truth and is willing to accept what He is saying, they most likely will feel guilt for their wrongdoing. Jesus knows this and adds another guarantee of forgiveness.
Let me always be forgiving and gracious when after truth is understood by someone who was falsely angry at me.
In this section He goes on to respond to those who might be surprised at what He is saying and He says more on what is soon to come. (the dead will rise and be judged).
He gives additional witness to His authority by referring to John the Baptist’s testimony and the testimony of the miraculous works He is doing. These two witnesses meet the requirement of the law and prove He is sent by the Father.
He calls them out for their hypocrisy of searching scripture for eternal life by not applying it when it is fulfilled in front of them. They have no love for God.
Lesson: LOVE is a witness to one’s faith. Where one seeks praise from, tells where one’s heart is and who/what they love.
Not everyone who is in the angry crowd will be accepting of truth, nor want peace. So Jesus, after calling out the truth, after giving new perspective, after guaranteeing forgiveness, now boldly says something to hold those who refuse truth accountable. This actually meets the need for justice, the ‘but that is not fair’ attitude embedded by our creator in each and every human being. Every child knows that things ‘ought to be fair’. So if the whole perspective is given, then there is no excuse.
Life may not seem fair many times, but don’t worry, eternity is.
WHY: to help him understand eternal life and how to have it.
WHY: to help him understand the necessity of being born of the Spirit and what life is like after that new birth.
WHY: To teach a teacher to understand.
This is interesting. First Nicodemus is told ‘no one can see it’ then he is told ‘no one can enter it’ without first being born from above. Jesus’s words get more specific as He goes on. And these words are ones we can count on being true. They divide believers and unbelievers. You can’t even see it yet alone enter it, if you have not had this second spiritual birth. First we are born of flesh and blood into this world, and then, by faith, based on the words of the Son of Man who came from heaven, we are born of the spirit- that which has a place in heaven. A place that no one had gone to except the Son of Man when Jesus spoke this guarantee. What is better than a lifetime warranty? An eternal warranty! The Son of Man, lifted up to heal His people from the consequence of sin (death) with the blessing of eternal life. It’s not a warranty that comes when I purchase a product, no its not an add-on either. It is a guarantee that is automatic when by faith I believe Jesus is who He said He is.
What goes on in one’s life between the time we are born and the time we die?
Am I living in such a way as to lead people to seek to see the kingdom of God?
Do I smell like the air of His kingdom or do my actions stink to ‘high heavens’?
Do I sound like the sounds of His kingdom, drawing those created in His image to want to identify with their creator? Or am I more like the flames of gossip that terrorize and burn and speak no love and drive away?
What do I show? What of the Kingdom of Heaven is visible in how I dress, in how I live, in what I watch on the screens, or games I play?
Lord, let me live today in a way that rejoices over the guarantee provided in the truth about You and Your kingdom. I know I stumble on this side of eternity, along the path of this life, yet let me stumble and rise with praise on my lips for your mercy, gentleness, love, faithfulness (even in my faithless moments), joy, patience and ultimate goodness!
John selects for us to know certain things Jesus said with the “truly truly” preface which in the God’s Word translation comes out to “I can guarantee this truth:” Jesus used this phrase selectively and John selects certain ones of these to make his point so that we might believe Jesus. It is a personal and revealing review to read these and collect them together in one place. I wish to end this time of musings in the book of John by looking at these specific guarantees straight out of the mouth of Jesus. I shall look at these using script analysis, to understand the person of Jesus. Who is he speaking to for what purpose?
WHY: a personal promise as to what following Him will mean.
Observational thoughts: For Jesus to say this to Nathanael, Jesus knew his heart. One who was truly seeking and longing to know God. He saw his hearts desire- and promised he would see the sky open and see angels and even better seeing them minister to the one and only Messiah.
How about you and I? My desires no longer seem to run on the surface as they did when I was a child. Now they run deep and are often hidden from my own daily awareness but yes, I too long to see my Messiah, and I rejoice in knowing that someday I shall.
What personal promise have I received from Jesus?
What does following Him mean?
When I turned my life over to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I asked Him to “please be gentle with me”. Those were the words of my heart. While I have experienced many changes typical to life, He has indeed been gentle through the hardest times. I am so grateful for this. Yet I wonder why I fear Him so? Perhaps it is knowing that who He is, like with Abraham hidden in a cleft of the rock so the sight of the Father’s back would not destroy him, I still have a hard time comprehending the vastness and greatness of the Father encapsulated in the human body of the Lord Jesus Christ- for us humans. A love so grand and fearsome and so gentle all at once!
John 21 Because It Is True!
John ends what he chose to share by explaining about himself and with what authority he can write truthfully all that we have just read. He also informs us of how much he had to choose from in selecting these things to write. These two last verses, 24-25 read like the promo on a book jacket and that is what they are in essence. They are on the last section of the scroll. This is the first part of what is seen before you roll the scroll to the beginning to read it from the start.
John observed for himself what he wrote. He was an eyewitness to it all. He shares it by choice with us. He knows that everything Jesus said was true. He was there. John does not tell us all that he experienced and saw with Jesus because there are not enough scrolls to do that, not enough at hand nor in the world! He did not add more later on to this book. The books he wrote later were encouragement to us in how to follow Jesus i.e., how to love. John gives us great details about Jesus. There is more than enough in what we read in this first book from John to know Jesus and to follow Him. It’s time to apply.
My Lord, my Savior, my only real Hope in a world gone mad without You, thank you for preserving through Your dear friend John, a record of how You loved, and how You taught. Here I sit, several thousand of years later, learning about you from one who walked this earth closely with You. I am able to learn of You through the eyes of one who loved You well. I am learning to love you too.
Today, as I sit at Your feet, I choose to rest. I choose to sit and soak up Your presence like the dry thirsting ground in the warm gently persistent rainfall. I accept Your love and gentle ways. I choose to rest in You. I accept with gladness and quietness all You have done for even me. I surrender my unworthiness to You. I’m Yours.