John 20 The Empty Tomb and John 21 The Final Instructions

John 20 - The tomb where they put Jesus is empty…while sins pain was endured and Jesus gave up His life, after three days He was alive again.

He is alive today…He will be alive tomorrow! Have you put your trust in Him?

John 21 – I am sure that after denying Jesus Peter was feeling really bad. I am sure he was very disappointed and confused. However, when Jesus talks with him in chapter 21 He asks Peter to take care of Jesus’ followers.

What an amazing responsibility for someone who had just denied even knowing Jesus…how about you? Have you allowed past failures to stop you from becoming or accomplishing the great things that God has in store for you?

John 19 - To Be Continued...

It’s Good Friday, and we are reading the chapter in John that tells the story…Good Friday at first glance doesn’t seem like it should be called good at all!

We see someone who taught us to love our enemies and do good to those that harm us…who said love everyone…who never wrong anyone…who always was God honoring, brutally beaten and killed…

However, instead of thinking about the horrific scene remember it is the greatest act of love the world has ever known!

They saw a man beaten and ridiculed...we know the rest of the story today, and can boldly proclaim that this story is not over...no, it is merely TO BE CONTINUED!

John 17 – Be Glorified…

Isn’t it awesome that Jesus’ entire life was aimed at glorifying God? In life He gave God the glory, whether performing miracles, or being beaten and hung on the cross, He always gave God his full devotion! I wonder, are aiming to glorify God with every part of our life or with just parts of them?

If you examine your life, what does it SHOW that you are devoted to?

Are we glorifying God or ourselves?

John 16 - The Promise...

Doesn’t it feel amazing to be loved so much that Jesus was willing to go to the cross for us? His love is revealed over and over again in chapter 16. Another really awesome thing found in these verses is when he says that he is leaving so the Holy Spirit can come (verse 7)

Then we read that the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of Truth…conviction or feeling rotten deeply for the bad things we do is one of the operations of the Holy Spirit. However, the Holy Spirit doesn’t guilt trip us, he isn’t getting joy our of making us feel rotten…no, instead He is helping us live holy and acceptable, fully devoted lives to God!

Christ was fully devoted, so much so that he died for us, how devoted are we?

John 15 - Grow love, Grow Love, GROW LOVE...

One of the most interesting ways Jesus talks about being part of His family is when He compares us to trees. He says if we are loving God and everyone else that we will grow fruit. However, anyone that does not grow fruit will be cut off from the tree and thrown away, eventually burned up!

Jesus is our source of life. As we read in chapter 14 and again in 15 we are to allow Jesus’ love to transform us and give us GREAT JOY! When we are living in Christ and his love is real to us, we can’t help but be different and to grow or bear fruit. Isn’t it AWESOME that Jesus calls us friends in this chapter…he says I no longer call you a servant but you are now my friend!

What an exciting chapter…aren’t you just amazed by God’s love?

What do you think about the verse: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Be blessed today, and bless others with the love of Jesus!!!

John 14 - In Christ

John 14 is another super powerful chapter...One thing I love is that Jesus tells his followers that anyone who saw Him, also saw the Father…and The Father is in me and I am in the Father.

Now since the death and resurrection we know that we are also in Christ (Romans 8:1-2) and through Jesus we have a new identity. We are forgiven, loved, perfected, healed, well, blessed, purified, strengthened and many other things…

What are you in Christ?

John 13 – Hosanna Here is the King…

It is amazing how quickly the book of John turns around. It seems like Jesus just started doing amazing miracles and now as He enters Jerusalem a massive crowd is shouting to him:

The Triumphal Entry
12The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. 13They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!" 14Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
15"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion;
see, your king is coming,
seated on a donkey's colt."

How quickly things can turn around though. In chapter 13 this heroic scene of Jesus riding into town is quickly brought back to reality when Jesus again predicts His own death…
How fitting that our chapter today fits with Palm Sunday…let us not be the kind of “Christian” that one minute glorifies Jesus as our Lord and Savior and the next turns our back on Him. Lets focus on Jesus and the sacrifice that He made with all of our hearts, souls, mind, and strength.

John Chapter 11 – What has Jesus done for you?

Immediately the chapter starts with the mentioning of Mary and what she would later do (Cleaning Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume in chapter 12). Notice the connection here…first, she is already listening to and following Jesus. Second, Jesus’ does something so big for her that she is willing to give him anything she owns! She does this to show how much Jesus means to her…what does he mean to you? What has he done for you? Have you done anything for Him lately?

Chapter Ten - The Good Shepard

Chapter 10 says multiple times that they have heard, or seen and still do not believe. It never ceases to amaze me how people can hear the truth. People can even KNOW the truth and not believe…this is sad! Jesus talks about being the Shepard and His sheep knowing His voice. He goes on and explains that a sheep who hears someone else’s voice they don’t know, will freak out and run from them! When they run from the Shepard they run towards danger, towards enemies, towards prowling wild animals that can and will harm them! During times like this we must:

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

John 10:30 – I and the Father are one. Since Jesus is God in the flesh, when you run from Christ you are running from God himself…make the choice to follow Him today. Listen for His voice…read it in the Bible, and choose to follow it! What would happen if you did?

John Chapter Nine – Power of Display!

Sickness and disease is in the world because of sin…without sin, there would be neither sickness or disease! It is interesting that Jesus friends and followers believed that this man or his parents sin directly impacted his eye sight. They thought he was blind because of a sin that either he committed or his parents.

Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned.” Obviously they had sinned, but his blindness was not directly related to their sin. Jesus went on and told his followers that he was blind so God’s power could be on display…

What can God show through your life? What great things can you accomplish or can God accomplish through you that will make others go wow! Who will you give the glory to?

Will you allow God's power to be on display in your life????

John Chapter Eight - Scribbling in the Dust!

Looking at chapter eight you can help but focus on the story of the woman that Jesus saves! Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what Jesus wrote in the sand?

I have heard a theory that Jesus wrote the 10 commandments…others believe that he wrote secret sins of the people or their names to fulfill Jeremiah 17:13:

O LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust
because they have forsaken the LORD,
the spring of living water.
-JEREMIAH 17:13

the truth is though that we have no idea! Whatever it was, when combined with what he said, “If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” After saying this Jesus started writing in the sand again…

It was convicting for sure, but it also points out the fact that we are ALL sinners! Just as Romans 3:23 says, ”For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Lets focus on loving God, loving people and treating them like Christ did, with compassion and care!

John Chapter Seven - Death Threats!!!

Chapter seven is filled with threats aimed towards Jesus' life…other chapters up to this point really put God’s power flowing through Jesus on display, but this chapter is different then the previous…Jesus appears to be in danger for the first time!

It is clear through a quick reading of the chapter that many were trying to kill Jesus…

He knew it, and so did everyone else, word was spreading quick (12-13)

Negative news spread that said Jesus was deceiving the people. Some people believed it and others did not.

Jesus makes it clear however that he is going to be able to grant ETERNAL LIFE.

The chapter then tells us that the people were split into two categories, one that believed He was the Messiah and others wanted to kill him…(verses 40 – 44)

This division still exists today. Many believe Jesus was just a good man…others believe that He was one of many prophets…others believe what the Bible teaches, that the way to Heaven is through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Verse 37 says that any who come to Him, Jesus will give living water! Notice it says those that approach Jesus…not anyone else…by no other name can we make it to heaven…by no effort or works that we do…we are unworthy, unperfect, un-lots of stuff…

But through Christ we are many things including righteous, justified, perfected, and forgiven to name only a few!

John Chapter Six – That is not enough!

The miracle of feeding 5,000+ people with two SMALL fish and five SMALL loaves of bread (Verse 9) is a great reminder of how God loves to bless us when we aren’t even sure if we have enough for ourselves…many times in our lives we don’t have the answer ourselves, so we must trust in God to provide!

So often people say Jesus feed thousands of people with two fish and five loaves…but we often forget that they were SMALL. It wasn’t considered a lot of food for even one little boy. This was a lunch for a child and Jesus multiplied it to feed more than 5,000 hungry adults.

When asked by Jesus what to do for the food, Philip told him it would take more money then they would be paid to work for eight months (Verse 7)…did you catch verse 6 where it says, “He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.”

What miracle do you need God to do that looks impossible today? Remember God is not limited to finances or even things…God is the God of miracles! Do you need to trust Him for one today? Have you put your faith and belief in knowing that He has your answer?

Most of the time Gods answers and sources for blessing us are in different places then we would ever have thought to look or even imagine…so keep praying for your miracle, God has your SMALL fish and bread coming!!! Remember the greater the resistance is today, and the tougher our circumstances we face, the greater tomorrows miracle will be!!!

JOHN CHAPTER Five - Stop ITTTTT!

John chapter five has so many things that jump off the page at you…one of the most interesting things to me is after Jesus heals the sick man and sees him the second time in the temple he warns him saying, “stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. (Verse 14)”

Wow, we need to hear those words today…stop sinning! If we know what sin leads to, and the pain it causes we should have nothing to do with it…right?

When is the last time you got any joy out of sin? Sin leads nowhere…it is a dead end road!

We have all been healed, if not physically, perhaps mentally, and of course we have been spiritually healed if we have asked for Jesus to take away our sins...

Do you need healing today? Maybe the healing we need in our lives is a self-inflicted pain caused by sin?

Whatever the case may be, Jesus heals!

John Chapter Four - "Say What?"

Many lessons for our lives can be learned from the Samaritan woman at the well…the verse that really sunk in for me was:

Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said…
John 4:39

How many people have we told about Jesus? When is the last time you told someone about Jesus’ love?

John Chapter Three - FREEEEEE

This is a great chapter! Perhaps the easiest teaching on salvation in the entire Bible…

In order to get to heaven Jesus says, in John 3:3, “ I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Jesus goes on teaching Nicodemus basically telling him the same thing over and over again…Nicodemus doesn’t understand, so Jesus says:

“No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life…verses 13:15

Jesus is predicting his own death and resurrection in this verse! He will offer his own perfect life to win victory over sin and death...since the payment or consequence of our sin is death, and Jesus never did sin, he did not owe the price of death, he then could take the place of everyone else who has sinned...earning the right to forgive our sins by taking them on the cross through his death.

That gives us background as to what Jesus is really saying when he tells Nicodemus perhaps the most popular verse in the entire Bible:

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

God loves us and made the decision to send Jesus to Earth knowing what it would cost…his life! Now that is love…that is love that God has for YOU, for me, and for everyone.

Here is an answer to the question lots of people ask me, even daily. What happens if someone doesn’t ask Jesus to forgive their sins? What happens when someone doesn’t believe in Jesus? Most people don’t like the answer but it is found in verse 17 and 18…

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believe in the name of God’s one and only son.” John 3:17-18

Other places in the Bible is says over and over again confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and ask him for the forgiveness of your sins…it also says he will forgive you no matter what your past says!

How about you…do you stand condemned for your sins? Or have you let Jesus set you free?

Do you believe?

PLEASE feel free to talk about it here or message me to discuss this further!

John Chapter Two - "Jesus Can Do Anything"

Two amazing stories from Jesus’ life happen in chapter two of John.

First, Jesus performs his first miracle at the wedding. Isn’t it nice to know that we serve the living God that still performs many miracles today? What do you need Jesus to do for you? The Bible says all we have to do is ask and believe and Jesus will answer our prayers…(Mark 11:24 and many more places!)

Second, Jesus clears the temple, which was like our church building. People were not treating others fair, they were cheated people out of money in the name of God. We must make sure to examine our own hearts and keep our worship pure before God. Jesus had mega passion for the temple…he loved the church because it was a place to worship God! How do you feel about going to church? Have you connected with God today?

What did you get out of reading the second chapter of John?

John Chapter One "In The Beginning..."

The first chapter of John tells us some very, very important things about Jesus:

1st: Jesus has been with God forever (verses 1 and 2)!

2nd: Jesus is actually God in a human body. Fully God and fully man (Verse 14)!

3rd: Jesus is going to be the sacrifice that will take away the sin of the world. Men and woman can now have forgiveness of their sins because of Jesus life, death, and resurrection (verse 36)!

The first chapter of John does give us some great knowledge of who Jesus Christ truly is…He has been with God forever, He is God, and He is the payment for our wrong doings!

Growth Question: Who is Jesus to you?