Gospel of John 13:31-38 Jesus is Going Where They Cannot Yet Come
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” – John 13:33 In John 13 we learn that the hour Jesus has continuously referred to as coming is now […]
Gospel of John 13 – Does Jesus Really Want me to Wash Feet?
John doesn’t give us the Last Supper/institution of the Lord’s Supper but he does give us the “rest of the story.” It was not uncommon in their day to enter a home for a meal and expect to have your feet washed by someone in the lowest position, usually a slave. The point was, doing […]
Bible Class Teaching – The Importance of the Big Picture
One of the things that I have grown into over the last three years is trying to get the big picture and communicate it as simply as possible. That is not an easy thing for me to do because I like all the little details, connections, and hints that may or may not really be […]
Ten Reflections on the Importance of Scripture
I really do love the Bible. It has meant so much to me in both the peaks and the valleys of life. It is like a long standing relationship that just gets better and better with age. I have had the times when the Bible fell open to just the right text at just the […]
Gospel of John 12:20-33 – Greeks Want to See Jesus
The triumphal entry concludes with jealousy from the Pharisees and the statement, “Look how the whole world has gone after him.” (12:19). The very next verse shows how true that statement was. Some Greeks approach Philip and ask to see Jesus. Philip and Andrew ask Jesus if this would be okay and, in typical Jesus […]
Attractional or Distractional – Part 1
We hear a lot about attractional models of worship, evangelism, and all the rest “doing church.” I wonder at what point attractional becomes distractional. Moving Away from Worship as Penance: I don’t want you to mishear me here. I am not trying to say the duller and more irrelevant our worship services are the more […]
Gospel of John 12:12-19 – Jesus’ Triumphal Entry
What would cause you to join a crowd? What would motivate you to get out of bed and join a group of people for a particular cause? We have seen people march on Washington over health care but I doubt many of you reading this were there. We have seen million man marches but I […]
Gospel of John 12 – Jesus Anointed at Bethany
One thing I never realized about this story was that Bethany literally means, “House of the poor”. That possibly makes the events of this story so much more meaningful. If Mary, Martha, and Lazarus are not very well to do, this magnifies the sacrifice of an already costly gift. This makes even more sense of […]
Raw Emotion – The Raising of Lazarus from the Dead
There is little more mystifying and moving to me as the tears Jesus shed with Mary just before he raised Lazarus from the dead in John 11. Wouldn’t you think Jesus would have had more of a chuckle rather than tears? The kind of wink, wink…you are crying now but wait and see what I […]
The Shortcut of Changing the Labels – Christian vs. Christ-follower
In John 10 Jesus has some tough words for the Pharisees in response to their poor reception of the man he healed from blindness in John 9. I wrote up quite a lengthy post detailing what was going on in John 10, Jesus as the good shepherd and the gate and all the rest…context, historical […]