John Introduction
No matter the translation, the Gospel of John will strike the reader with its depth, poignancy, and eye-witness appeal. This may well be the deepest book of the New Testament. New revelations seem to come through the Holy Spirit every time the gospel is studied, so it is impossible to determine that one has completely understood a verse.
The author appears to be lurking within the text as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, present but not focused on his own role. This title doesn’t necessarily imply that Jesus loved this disciple more than the others, only that this disciple recognized he was loved. Most commentators even from the earliest times believed this disciple was John, one of the twelve, brother of James and son of Zebedee.
The author apparently wrote this account considerably later than the other Gospel accounts. He probably was aware of the other accounts and chose to not include many of the stories they do include. There are discrepancies in the sequence and timing of events between John’s account and the three Synoptic accounts. (“Synoptic” means they “see with the same eye”.) For instance, John describes the cleansing of the Temple at a much earlier point in Jesus’ ministry. John has Jesus’ last meal with the disciples as before the Passover. There are various ways different commentators have reconciled the differences between the gospels.
John seems to be motivated to tell things at a more intimate level, giving details and even mentioning names, motivations, and events that are missing from the other three Gospel accounts. For instance, most of John’s account takes place in Jerusalem rather than Galilee, unlike the three synoptic accounts. The reason for Jesus being in Jerusalem is to attend the feasts, and most of his ministry in John occurs around those feasts.
The miracle stories John does include appear to have the motivation to prove that Jesus was the Anointed One. John also includes much of the theological reflections of Jesus, especially in Chapters 14-17, that are not included in the other three accounts. The focus of this theology is to help the world see how completely Jesus revealed the nature and love of God, the Father of us all.
John Guide to the Transcommentary
This is a little bit more than a translation and a bit less than a full commentary. It serves a similar function to the Amplified Bible, though that work’s purpose was to provide a complete sense of the meaning of the words used by the writers of scripture. This work has a somewhat different purpose:
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To convey as close as possible the actual meaning of the sentences as they would have been understood at the time they were originally spoken or written. To accomplish this for twenty-first century Americans, dynamic equivalent words and sayings have been used at a sentence level. An attempt has been made to preserve intended wordplay and irony from the original author.
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We have attempted to clarify ideas, references, and thought sequences that would have been clear to first century audiences but are not clear to modern audiences because of differences in culture, customs, language, or degree of familiarity with Old Testament scriptures and Messianic prophecies. The phrasing of the translation itself aims at that clarity, but we have also added words, phrases, and sentences to the narrative for improved understanding. All such additions are in brackets []. This allows the reader to have the explanatory additions when reading but also insulate these additions from the translated scripture – indeed, with a little effort they can be skipped entirely when reading aloud.
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Color codes for different types of additional material are intended to further aid understanding:
- As in many editions, the words of Jesus are shown in red.
- Words of Father God or the Holy Spirit are shown in blue.
- Green is used for words added to descriptive narrative because they are implied or as commentary to explain the context.
- References to scriptures are shown in gold.
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As in many translations and editions, we have added headings in bold to help understand when a new theme is introduced by the author.
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The author frequently refers to "Christ" or to "Jesus Christ". We have employed the words “the Anointed One” rather than "Christ", since that is the meaning of “Christ”. We wanted to avoid the sense of "Christ" as Jesus’ surname, yet still recognize it as a well-known title.
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We have also added study questions at the end of each chapter to help you think more thoroughly about the meaning and application of the author’s writing.
An example of the use of bold headings, color, and brackets can be seen in the following paragraph taken from John 5:
The basis for judgment
30 “I can do nothing on my own. When I judge, I judge by what I hear [as I listen both to people’s own words (Matthew 12:36-37) and what I hear from the Father], and my judgment is right, because I am not seeking to please myself but to do what pleases my Father. 31 [Likewise,] if I testify on behalf of myself, my testimony is not valid. [Testimonies on behalf of oneself legally must be corroborated by at least one other person.] 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. [Jesus is referring to his Father. The Father testifies out loud several times about who Jesus is (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, John 12:29), but he also testifies through the miracles that he and Jesus do together.]
We will have succeeded in this translation if you the reader find that you can read this Gospel with greater comprehension and enjoyment than ever before. Please let us know if you find the various supplementary materials helpful. or too distracting, or if you have any other suggestions about how to improve this approach to translation.
Richard Tittle, pneuma9@gmail.com
John Chapter 1
God’s Expression
1 God's Expression existed from the beginning, right alongside with God. 2 The Expression was also God, and was always with God, from the very beginning.
3 Through God's Expression, all things came into being. There was no separate expression for creating anything else. [This possibly is why Jesus has such command over the elements of nature – he intimately knows every feature of the world, since it all was created through him.] 4 In him was the life that animates creation. This life was the light that gives mankind direction. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but those of the darkness are not even aware of it.
6 There was a man sent from God, named John [the Baptist]. 7 He came as a witness to testify about the light, so all might believe in the light through him. 8 John was not the light himself but came only to testify about the light. 9 He was talking about the true light, which was coming into the world to bring illumination to all men. [By sending Jesus, God turned on a light for everyone in the world. It was up to them whether they chose to live in that light.]
10 He who was the source of the world was now in the world he created, but the world was not aware. 11 He came to his own country, and his own people did not embrace him. 12 But to all who did accept him and believed in who he is, he gave them the privilege to become children of God. 13 They would be born [in their spirits simply by believing and trusting in him], not by bloodline, or fleshly desire, or man's choice, but from God himself. [When we are born again, it is a new kind of birth – God is our father and we are a new and different kind of being.]
14 God's Expression became human and lived with us, and we [who have followed him] saw his majesty, the majesty of the only son, himself God, full of favor and truth. 15 John testified, crying out, “This is the one I already spoke about [at a previous time not recorded by this account], ‘He that appears after me is ahead of me, because he existed first before me.’”
16 And we [who have followed Jesus] have received from his fullness one gift after another. 17 For the Law was given by Moses, but favor and truth came through Jesus the Anointed One. 18 No man has ever seen God face to face, but the only son, himself God, who lives in the closest intimacy with the Father, has clearly portrayed him [showing exactly what he is like].
The testimony of John the Baptist
19 This is the testimony of John [the Baptist], when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to question him, asking, “Who are you?” [Many people were following John the Baptist, believing he might be one of the important representatives of God predicted by scripture. The Jewish leaders had the job of examining him to find out both his claims and the truth about him.] 20 He spoke out openly, without hesitation, saying, “I am not the Anointed One.” [“Anointed One” is a title given the expected coming leader of the Jewish people, referring to “the anointing” – the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the wisdom of God that would mark his leadership. There are many references throughout the Old Testament to this expected leader, but he is never directly referred to as the “Anointed One” in scripture. This was an understanding given by God to the prophets and the teachers of the Law.]
21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” [Malachi 4:5 refers to Elijah coming before the Day of the Lord, which the teachers of the Law had interpreted as the coming of the Anointed One.] And he said, “I am not.” [Though Jesus recognized John as fulfilling the scripture from Malachi (Matthew 11:14), John himself did not claim any title.] “Are you the Prophet?” [“The Prophet” was described by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-18, and again the teachers of the Law understood this to refer to the Anointed One.] He responded, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Tell us who you are so we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make a level pathway for the Lord’, as Isaiah the prophet said [Isaiah 40:3].”
24 The ones sent to him were Pharisees [the Jewish group dedicated to strictly observing the Law as a rulebook]. 25 They asked him, “Why, then, are you baptizing, if you are not the Anointed One, or Elijah, or the Prophet?” 26 John [the Baptist] answered them, “I baptize in water. [It’s what God told me to do.] There is standing among you one you do not know, 27 who is coming [among you] after me, but I am not worthy to even untie his sandals.” 28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan [in a small stream off the Jordan River in the modern nation of Jordan], where John was baptizing.
Jesus’ introduction by John the Baptist
[John the Baptist came and impressed everyone except the Jewish religious leaders. John had been told by God that his job was to pave the way for the Anointed One to come, and he was told several things about him in advance.] 29 The next day [after John was examined by the Levites and priests], John [the Baptist] saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. [That the Anointed One would take away the sins of the world, functioning as a substitute, was another revelation given to John the Baptist. The Anointed One was expected by the religious community to be a conquering hero rather than a suffering servant or a sacrificial lamb as described in Isaiah 53.]
30 "This is the one I was speaking about when I said, ‘There is one coming after me who ranks before me because he existed first before me.’ 31 I didn't know who he was, but I came baptizing with water, so that he would come and appear before Israel. [One of the primary purposes for my baptizing people was so that the Anointed One would come and be revealed.] 32 And I saw the Spirit come down like a dove out of heaven and remain on him. 33 I didn't know who he was, but the One who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain on him is the same one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’
[Surprisingly, the number one thing that John knew about the coming Anointed One, the one he was sent to identify to the world, was that he would baptize with the Holy Spirit, but Jesus does not do this until after his own death and resurrection. John baptized with water to signify cleansing from an old way of life, but Jesus was going to fill people with the Holy Spirit, which would empower them to live a new life and to walk in the wisdom and power of God (Luke 24:49). The Spirit would also be the seal which guaranteed to each believer their belonging to God (Romans 8:9, Ephesians 1:13) and their inheritance as sons. Jesus had to be glorified, dying on the cross and removing men’s sins, before he could send the Spirit. A Holy God could live in us only if we were first made holy. Jesus would send the Spirit after his death, resurrection, and ascension, from his place of authority at the right hand of the Father (John 15:26, John 16:7).]
34 "I saw this, and I testify that this is the Son of God.” [John knew that the one on whom the Spirit came and remained was the Son of God, and he saw this happen at Jesus’ baptism.]
Early encounters with disciples
35 The next day, John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples. 36 He observed Jesus walking and said, “Look, the Lamb of God.” [John was encouraging those who were seeking the Anointed One to transfer from following himself to following Jesus.] 37 Hearing what John [the Baptist] said, the two followed Jesus [as though they were his disciples]. 38 Turning around, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They replied to him, “Rabbi”, which is Hebrew for teacher, “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see for yourselves.” They came with him and saw where he was staying and stayed with him that night and the whole next day, since it was already about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John [the Baptist] and followed Jesus. [It seems likely that the other of the two was John, the writer of the Gospel account. The writer tends to mention himself, but not directly.] 41 Right away, Andrew found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the ‘Messiah’”, which is Hebrew for the Anointed One. 42 He brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus looked at him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John [not John the Baptist or John the Gospel writer]. You will be called Kephas”, which [translated from Hebrew to Greek] means Peter [or ‘Rock’ in English].
[These things all took place in Jordan, where John had been baptizing. John gave away at least two of his disciples to Jesus.] 43 The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. [Probably his new disciples traveled with him. After he got to Galilee, he continued gathering disciples.] He found Philip and said, “Come [be my disciple].” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the same city as Andrew and Peter. [This may have been the fishing village associated with a section of the larger town Capernaum, since Peter’s house has been excavated in modern times in the ruins of ancient Capernaum. However, Peter may have moved from Bethsaida to join his wife’s family in Capernaum. Most scholars think Bethsaida was just northeast of where the Jordan River feeds the Sea of Galilee.]
45 Philip found Nathanael [who was also called Bartholomew] and said to him, “We have found the one written about by Moses in the Law and by the Prophets - Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” [In Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Moses refers to a prophet like himself who would lead the Jewish people. There were many references to the Anointed One among the Prophets, for example, Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12:10.] 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” [Apparently, Nazareth had a bad reputation.] Philip said, “Come with me and see.”
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said this about him, “Look. Here comes an Israelite with no pretense in him.” 48 Nathanael said to him, “Where do you know me from?” Jesus replied, “Before Philip called to you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” [Jesus recognized Nathanael, possibly from an earlier vision.] 49 Nathanael answered, “Rabbi, [a Hebrew word for teacher,] you are the Son of God, the King of Israel.” [Nathanael seems to recognize Jesus as the Anointed One, though he doesn’t yet understand many of the implications of this truth.]
50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe [in who I am] because I said, ‘I saw you under the fig tree’? You will see greater things than this.” 51 And Jesus said, “I assure you, you will see the heavens open up and the angels of God will go up and come down on the Son of Man.” [Jesus was referring to a familiar story known to every Jew – the story of Jacob’s stairway to heaven – told in Genesis 28:10-13. Nathanael would see many miracles performed by Jesus. Heaven opens and angels come and go whenever we pray in faith, because it is the angels who do God’s will, and God carries out our prayers and declarations in agreement with his will. ‘Son of Man’ was both a known title for the Anointed One, or Messiah, and a fit and humble way for Jesus to describe himself as born like any other human being.]
Discussion questions
1. Why is the author so intent on making us aware that Jesus existed before his time on earth, and that he was God himself? What was it that John (the disciple) experienced with Jesus that he felt people needed to understand about him?
2. Why are the Jewish leaders investigating John the Baptist? What does John say is his purpose? Did he accomplish it?
3. Who does John say Jesus is? Why do you think it took so long for the disciples to understand Jesus’ identity?
4. Jesus tells Nathanael he will see angels coming and going in Jesus’ ministry? Why do you think Jesus mentioned this? Have you ever seen angels?
John Chapter 2
Turning water into wine
1 On the third day [since the disciples first began following Jesus], there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Both Jesus and his disciples were asked to come to the wedding. And when they [the wedding party] ran short of wine, 3 Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 Jesus said to her, “What does that have to do with you and me? My time [for revealing myself as the Anointed One] has not yet arrived. [The Father has not shown me this is my assignment.]” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.” [She felt it was her assignment to help the wedding party, and therefore, by extension, if Jesus could help, he should. Perhaps she was thinking he could help without fully revealing himself. As it happened, only a few saw what he did but most did not.]
6 There were six stone water jars standing there, used by the Jews for purification, each holding twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars up with water”, and they filled them up to the top. 8 And he said to them, “Ladle some out and bring it to the master of ceremonies”, and they carried it to him. [The married couple’s need and Mary’s faith in Jesus made this the right time for a miracle. Jesus didn’t even need to say a word for the miracle to be carried out.]
9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water [which had been] turned into wine, he did not know where it came from, but the servants who had ladled the water knew. 10 He called over the bridegroom and said to him, “Every man provides good wine in the beginning, and when guests have drunk plenty, then he puts out the inferior, but you have reserved the good wine until now.” 11 This first of his miracles was performed by Jesus in Cana of Galilee, showing his greatness, and his disciples believed in him [because of what they saw with their own eyes].
12 After this, he went to Capernaum [which later became his home base], along with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, where they stayed only a few days. 13 It was time for the Jewish Passover feast, so Jesus went to Jerusalem.
Cleansing the Temple
14 In the Temple, he found sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and money-changers sitting [in their usual places]. 15 Taking a whip made of small cords, Jesus drove them all out of the Temple, including the oxen and sheep, and poured out the money changers' coins, and turned over the tables. 16 And to those that sold doves, he said, “Remove all these things from here; do not make my Father's house into a house for selling things.” 17 All this reminded his disciples that it was written in the scriptures, “Zeal for your house has consumed me [Psalms 69:9].” [What appears to be the same story is described in Matthew 21:13, as well as in Mark and Luke, but in these three accounts the clearing of the Temple occurs during Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem before his crucifixion. It makes more sense the clearing of the Temple occurred later. Perhaps a disciple of John inserted this story in the wrong place within the account. Alternatively, Jesus may have cleansed the Temple twice.]
18 Then the Jews responded, saying to him, “What supernatural sign can you show us to justify [that you have the authority for] doing these things?” 19 Jesus replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will bring it back to life.” [Matthew 12:40, Mark 8:12, and Luke 11:29 make clear Jesus has no intention of fully explaining himself, saying instead that this will be like the sign of Jonah among the Ninevites, redemption after three days hidden in the great fish. Only his rising from the dead will prove who he is, but even then only to those who are ready to believe.] 20 Then the Jews said, “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you, in three days, will bring it back to life?” 21 But he was talking about the temple of his body. 22 After Jesus had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and believed the scripture [Psalms 69:9], and the word Jesus had spoken. [Later, it made sense to them that he had fulfilled the Psalm as well as the word he had spoken about his body being the new Temple.]
23 While he was in Jerusalem, many at the Passover feast believed in him, because of the miracles he performed. 24 But Jesus did not trust them because he understood [what motivated] everyone [and knew that their support was superficial and short-lived]. 25 He did not need a man to speak but already knew what was inside the man.
Discussion questions
1. Why did Jesus turn the water into wine, if it was not yet time to reveal himself? Or did Mary’s request actually change his Father’s mind?
2. What is the similarity between Jesus turning water into wine and multiplying loaves and fish? Do you believe that God intends for ordinary Christians to perform miracles?
3. What is the importance of Jesus talking about his body as a temple. Do you think Jesus was saying his body was replacing the Temple as the place for God’s presence to dwell?
John Chapter 3
Nikodemos hears about being born again
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nikodemos, a ruler of the Jews. [He was a member of the judicial council called the Sanhedrin, seventy-one men who were priests, tribal elders, and teachers of the Law, both Pharisees and Sadducees.] 2 He came to Jesus at night [to avoid being seen by other religious leaders as supporting Jesus] and said to him, “Rabbi, we [serious students of God] are aware that you are a teacher from God, for no one can perform the miracles that you have done, unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “I’m telling you the truth, unless a man is born again from above, he cannot see the realm of God. [You can only understand these things if you have fully given your life over to God. Then God will give you his Spirit who is God himself. Then you will live a new life in a new realm with new senses and feelings.]” 4 Nikodemos said to him, “How is it possible for a man to be born again when he is grown up? Can a man enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born again?”
5 Jesus responded, “I am telling you the truth, unless someone is born through water and [again by] the spirit, he cannot participate in the realm of God. [The first birth is our natural birth through water. The second birth is when we believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior which makes our spirit come alive.] 6 What is born from human flesh is human flesh and what is born from the spirit is spirit. [They are different realms with different laws. Our fleshly life and desires are set in motion when our bodies are born. But our spiritual life is set in motion when we are born again – that is, born of the Spirit.]
7 “Don't be so surprised when I tell you, ‘You must be born again from above.’ 8 Just like the Spirit, the wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear the sound of it, but you don't know where it came from or where it is going. That's the way it is with anyone born of the Spirit. [The operation of the Spirit is both spontaneous and invisible.]”
9 Nikodemos replied to him, “How are these things possible[, and nobody has understood this before]?” 10 Jesus replied to him, “You are a teacher of Israel and don't understand these things? 11 I assure you this is the truth, that we speak only what we know and testify exactly what we have clearly seen, but you are not accepting our testimony. [Understanding the kingdom comes only with trust in God.] 12 “If I have told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? [I have told you how a person connected to God can live a supernatural daily life. But I also need to tell you about God’s divine plan and how it will come to pass.]
The purpose of the Son of Man
13 “[You said before that I must be a teacher sent from heaven but let me explain to you why I was sent.] No one has gone up into heaven, but the Son of Man has come down from heaven. [I came from heaven, so I understand heaven’s point of view. I am always in connection with my Father, so I know exactly how he thinks.] 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21:8-9], in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that all who put their trust in him shall possess eternal life. 16 For God loved the world so much that he gave up his only son born to him, so that all who put their trust in him would never die but instead possess eternal life.
[In the story from Numbers, the people complained against God. Their bitterness and rebellion resulted in their destruction, as fiery serpents bit them. They were saved only when God had Moses make a representation of their sin as a serpent on a pole, so that when the people looked at it, they were delivered from death. This was a precursor of what God planned to do through Jesus. The only way we are saved from the destruction that comes from our own sin is by believing Jesus became sin for us on the cross. We cannot save ourselves – only by looking at the one God sent, can we be delivered from destruction.]
17 “God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but instead so the world might be saved through him. 18 The one who puts his trust in him will never be judged, but the one who does not believe is already judged, because he did not trust in the character and authority of God's only son. [Everyone who sins deserves destruction, because God hates sin, but God wanted to deliver people from that destruction. Whoever trusts Jesus is saved from death. Whoever does not trust Jesus is rejecting God’s remedy, so they are rightly condemned – for they were both sinful and they rejected his rescue.]
19 “But this is the reason for the judgment - that the light came into the world, and men preferred darkness to the light, because their works were evil. 20 For everyone that commits evil deeds hates the light and avoids coming into the light, where his works will be exposed and rejected. 21 But the one who does what is right comes to the light so that it can be shown that his works are in God.”
[God sent Jesus to shine a clearer light on the world. People already sinned, but now their sin was in clearer relief because they avoided the light of Jesus hoping no one could see the darkness of their sin. The same is true today when we present Jesus through our witness and our acts in his name – people can come into the light, or they can avoid the light, so they can continue to hide their works of darkness.]
The difference between John the Baptist and Jesus
22 After these things, Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, and there he stayed with them, and baptized [probably near Jericho]. 23 At the same time, John was baptizing in Aenon near Salem [a spring west of the Jordan River, halfway between Jerusalem and the Galilee], and people came and were baptized, 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
[Someone must have visited and reported what they experienced at both Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s baptism locations and saw the difference between what was happening at each.] 25 Then a discussion came up between John's disciples and a certain Jew about purifications [specifically baptisms]. 26 He approached John [the Baptist] and said to him, “Rabbi, the man [Jesus] that was with you on the other side of the Jordan, for whom you spoke up, now is baptizing, and everyone is coming to him.” 27 John answered, “A man has nothing except what is provided from heaven. 28 You yourselves heard me say I am not the Anointed One but was sent before him.” [John the Baptist was not offended that Jesus was gaining followers at John’s expense.]
29 “The bride belongs to the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and listens for his voice, has great joy when he hears his voice. 30 Therefore, my joy is now complete. He must become greater, and I must become less. [John was like the best man at a wedding, who has an important role, but when the groom comes, his role fades. John also is conveying the understanding that the Anointed One is coming as a bridegroom to marry an entire people – the Church.]
31 “He that comes from above [Jesus] is over all. He that is of the earth [John the Baptist], is earthly, and speaks about the earth. He that comes from heaven [Jesus] is over all. 32 And what he [Jesus] has clearly seen and heard is what he testifies, but no one receives his testimony [completely]. 33 He that does receive his [Jesus’] testimony has accepted that God is trustworthy [since God sent Jesus and gave him the words to say].
34 “The one God sent speaks the words of God, for God gives him the Spirit without limit. [Jesus always had words of wisdom for every situation because the Spirit constantly fed him God’s truth.] 35 The Father loves the Son and has given everything to him [through the Spirit]. 36 He who puts his trust in the Son possesses eternal life, and he that does not put his trust in the Son will never see life, but instead the righteous anger of God rests on him.”
[John the Baptist is saying, “I have a limited revelation. Jesus’s home is heaven, so what he teaches is the full revelation from God. Most don’t understand yet what he is saying. But as they do, they are aligning themselves with God. Jesus has been delegated the authority and full representation of his Father God. If someone accepts him, he has entered eternal life, but rejecting him will result in that person’s rejection by God.”]
Discussion questions
1. Have you been born again? Do you see things differently now – with spiritual eyes? Do you have times where your own life is unpredictable because you are letting God direct your path?
2. Nikodemos rightly said that Jesus was sent from God. What was the reason Jesus gave that Father God sent him? How can it be true that Jesus came to save the world rather than judge it, yet also that individuals would be judged on how they responded to him?
3. What reason does John the Baptist give for why Jesus is so much more important than him?
John Chapter 4
Jesus and the Samaritan woman
1 When Jesus was made aware that the Pharisees knew that he now produced and baptized more followers than John, 2 though it was not Jesus but his disciples who did the baptizing, 3 he left Judea, and departed into Galilee. [Some of Jesus’ disciples had followed John and were experienced baptizers – Jesus allowed them to continue and keep a continuity with John’s ministry. Jesus, just like John, would teach repentance, but he would demonstrate the goodness of God through miracles. Jesus knew that his own assignment would be to baptize people in the Holy Spirit after his death made it possible for the Spirit to live in sinful men, but at this point baptism in water provided an initial cleansing. Now that people were beginning to flock to him, he knew that confrontation with the religious leaders was inevitable. It was clear to him that it wasn’t yet the time for this, so he left the area closer to Jerusalem and traveled north towards his home area.]
4 On the way he had to pass through Samaria. [Samaria was directly on the road north from Jerusalem to Galilee, though many Jews traveling to Galilee went out of their way to avoid Samaria because of the hostility between Samaritans and Jews.] 5 So he came to a town of Samaria, called Sychar, close to the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and 6 Jacob's well was there. [Jacob’s well is still there, in the modern city Nablus in the West Bank area, inside the grounds of a monastery.] Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down beside the well. It was around noontime.
7 A woman of Samaria came to the well to draw water. [She came at a less common hour, presumably to avoid mixing with the other women of the town.] 8 Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For the disciples had departed into the city to buy food [and he had no bucket to use to draw water]. 9 The woman of Samaria said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask for a drink from a woman of Samaria, since Jews have no dealings with Samaritans?” [The Samaritans were a partially Jewish splinter group, descended from the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh mixed with ancestors from Persia from the time when the kingdom of Israel was exiled. 2 Kings 17:24-41 explains some of the history. The Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim, which was not far from the town of Sychar. The Jews and Samaritans had mutual animosity over their differing ancestry and views of the scriptures.]
10 Jesus answered her, “If you were aware of the gift of God [that I am] and who it is who asked of you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked me [rather than my asking you], and I would have given you life-giving water.” 11 The woman said, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then can you get that life-giving water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and needed water himself, as well as for his children and his cattle?”
13 Jesus replied to her, “All who drink from this water will be thirsty again. 14 The one that drinks the water that I will give him will never have to be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become a spring of water gushing up into eternal life [that will deeply satisfy you both now and in eternity].” [Jesus keeps on describing things that are perceived supernaturally but the woman takes his responses naturally, at least at first. Those who accept Jesus as the Lord of their lives will be given the Holy Spirit, who brings to them a flow of life through the Spirit.] 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me that water, so I won't be thirsty or have to travel here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.” [Jesus, having revelation of the truth about her, invites her to a more honest relationship, so that she can receive more.] 17 The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have spoken honestly, ‘I have no husband’, 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. [This doesn’t necessarily mean that she was divorced five times – the husbands may have died. Either way she has likely experienced much pain and has not been living under the blessing of God.] You spoke the truth.”
19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can tell that you are a prophet. [You see the truth about me. I wonder if you can tell me the truth about God too.] 20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, but you all say that Jerusalem is the place one should worship.” [The Samaritans conducted their worship at nearby Mount Gerizim.] Jesus said to her, “The time has arrived where people will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You [Samaritans] all worship one you do not know; but we worship him we do know, for salvation comes from the Jews. [Since the time of Abraham, God has revealed to the Jews the way of salvation, and the Anointed One who brings salvation comes from the Jews.]
23 “But the time has arrived for true worshippers to worship the Father [not in a specific place, but] in their spirit, knowing who He truly is, for the Father desires this type of worshipper. [God doesn’t want religious observance, he wants relationship. He also wants people to know how good he really is and how much he loves them, for then they will want to know him.] 24 For God is spirit, so those who worship him must worship him in the Spirit and in the truth. [When a person’s spirit comes alive, they will then be able to perceive the truth about God.]”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called the Anointed One. When he comes, he will tell us everything. [You seem to know so much. We have been taught that when the promised Anointed One comes, he will lead us into all truth.]” [Both Jews and Samaritans believed in the coming king called the Anointed One, (“Messiah” in Aramaic and Hebrew.] 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, who is speaking to you.” [The woman trusted him more and more, so now he could trust her with the fullness of truth.]
27 At this point, his disciples arrived, and they were amazed he was speaking to the woman, yet none of them said [to Jesus], “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” [According to the teaching of the rabbis, a Jewish man should not converse with an unrelated woman, especially a Samaritan. But Jesus did what his Father showed him. The disciples were not going to question him.]
28 The woman then left behind her water jar [because she had found a greater gift than water], and she went off into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come with me and meet a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he be the Anointed One?” 30 They proceeded out of the city and came to him.
The assignment of the harvest
31 Meanwhile, his disciples persuaded him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not see.” 33 Therefore the disciples asked each other, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to carry out the will of the one who sent me and to complete his assignment.” [To Jesus there was nothing more satisfying than carrying out his Father’s will.]
35 “You have a saying, ‘There are four months and then the harvest.’ But come and see [what’s really happening in front of us right now]. I am telling you, lift your eyes and look at the fields - they are ready for reaping. [All I did was offer truth to this woman whom the Father put into my path, and now these Samaritans are ready to believe.] 36 The [spiritual] reaper receives his pay and gathers a harvest by bringing people to eternal life, so both the one who first sowed the seed and the one who reaps the harvest are both glad about the results. [Let’s not worry about who gets the credit.] 37 The saying applies [to you my followers], ‘One sows and another reaps. 38 I have sent you to reap where you didn’t labor.’ Someone else began the work and you get to finish the job. [Now that the Father and I have brought these people to the brink of faith, why don’t you complete the job of explaining the goodness of God and life in the kingdom.]”
39 And from that city, many of the Samaritans put their trust in him, through the words of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to him, they asked him to stay with them awhile, and he remained there for two days. 41 Many more believed because of his own words, 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you told us, but we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Anointed One.” [This is not an insult to the woman. If anything, they are commending her for pointing them to such a valuable truth.]
A nobleman believes without first seeing
43 After two days, Jesus left Samaria for Galilee, 44 even though he had spoken that a prophet has no honor in his own country. [Jesus had just been honored in Samaria by a whole town believing, without even a miracle performed. Now, he is returning to his home country to give them another chance, though they had rejected him in Nazareth (Matthew 13:53-58).] 45 This time when he came into Galilee, the Galileans accepted him, for they had seen all he had done at the [Passover] feast, since they also had gone [John 2:23].
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made water into wine. A nobleman was there, whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea to Galilee, he went to him, and asked him to come and cure his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Unless you directly see me perform a miracle, you won't believe.” [Jesus wanted to impart to the Galileans a higher degree of trust and belief. The lowest level is just plain skepticism, finding any reason not to believe. The next level believes what your eyes tell you. The highest level is hope and trust, expecting that God is good, believing without any evidence required. This is what Jesus is about to impart.]
49 The nobleman said to him, “You must come before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go ahead, your son is alive”, and the man believed what Jesus said to him and departed for home. [The man hadn’t yet seen the evidence and yet he now believed. Jesus’ words to him brought with them the power to believe. Jesus himself believed that the Father would accomplish the healing.]
51 While he was on his way, his servants met him and said, “Your son is alive.” 52 The man asked them what time he began to improve. They said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, his fever left him.” 53 The father knew it was the same hour at which Jesus said to him, “Your son is alive.” As a result, the man and his entire household believed. 54 Thus, Jesus performed his second miracle when he had come out of Judea into Galilee. [Neither of the first two miracles in Galilee involved Jesus saying or doing anything overt to make the miracle happen!]
Discussion questions
1. Jesus often goes way out of his way to visit a single person. What do you imagine caused him to do that in the case of the Samaritan woman? Have you ever known that God wanted you to be at a specific place at a specific time? Were you obedient?
2. What does Jesus do that encourages the woman to continue in the conversation? What enables her to let her guard down and trust him? What have you found most helpful in talking to strangers to lead them closer to faith?
3. Why do you think Jesus was hopeful that the Galileans would now have a higher degree of trust and expectation? Why did he choose to not go with the man and instead heal from afar?
John Chapter 5
Jesus heals the man at the pool
1 After this, there was a feast day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. [Jesus frequently went to Jerusalem for the feasts, especially Passover. It is unlikely this feast was Passover because a short time later, in John 6:4, it is nearing Passover.] 2 In Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, there is a pool called Bethzatha [“house of the olive” in Hebrew], with five porches. 3 In these porches lay many sick, blind, crippled, or paralyzed, who were waiting for the waters to move. 4 For an angel went down at certain times into the pool and stirred the water, and whoever stepped into the pool first after the stirring of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. [Or so it was believed. To believe that God heals so arbitrarily is very common, but it is very short of the good news that God always wants to heal, which Jesus came to demonstrate. This verse was not included in many of the manuscripts – however, without it, verse 7 does not make sense.]
5 There was a man there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been that way for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to become well?” [Jesus did only what he saw the Father doing, so his coming to this gathering place of those who were sick and even choosing this man to heal must have been part of the Father’s plan.] 7 The man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to help me into the pool, so when the water is stirred, before I can come to it, someone else gets there first and steps in.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Stand up, pick up your mattress, and walk.” 9 Immediately, the man became well, and he picked up his mattress and walked. [Jesus’ words carried power and authority – the man did what he said even though he had plenty of excuses which had previously hampered him.] This happened on the Sabbath day. [Picking up his mattress is part of what proved the man was healed.] 10 But the Jews said to the one who was healed, “It's not lawful for you to carry your mattress on the Sabbath.” [The Law did not expressly forbid this, but it was the interpretations of the rabbis that defined picking up the mattress as work on the Sabbath. Jesus saw making a man whole a reasonable part of the Sabbath since one of the purposes of the Sabbath was to keep a man whole through rest.] 11 The man answered them, “The one who made me whole is who told me to pick up my mattress and walk.” [The man wants to blame Jesus so that he himself won’t be in trouble with the authorities.] 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick up your mattress and walk?” 13 And the man did not know who it was, Jesus having slipped away, since there were a large number in that place.
14 Later Jesus found the man in the Temple and said to him, “Look, you have been made well. Don't sin anymore, so nothing worse may happen to you.” [Jesus was called to those who sin and those who needed a physician. Jesus confronts the man as a habitual sinner and connects the man’s sin and his sickness. Ironically, the man immediately does the worst thing he can do – blaming his trouble on the one who has healed him.] 15 The man went out and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 And therefore the Jews went after Jesus, because he had done these things on the Sabbath
The relationship between Jesus and the Father
17 Jesus responded to them, “My Father has been working all along until now, so I am working too.” [Jesus is helping people understand the Sabbath. God stopped the work of creation on the seventh day, but not the work of mercy and governing the world he created. Jesus understood that God was his father. As a good son, Jesus would do the same as his father.] 18 Because of that, the Jews wanted to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, he also said that God was his father, making himself the same level as God. [The adult son of a man is considered at the same level of authority as the man since he represents the patriarch and will inherit the man’s title, possessions, and business. Jesus invites all to see God as their Father. However, the Jewish leaders were correct in assessing that Jesus was acting as the first-born son of the Father. As the first-born, he was the representative of his Father, and thus he was announcing his rights and responsibilities.]
19 Jesus answered them, “I am telling you the truth, the Son can do nothing himself except what he sees the Father do; in fact, whatever the Father does, the Son does the same. [Like every son, Jesus models his life on his father’s practices. He has a miracle working father. He sees in his Spirit what the Father is going to do next and then trusts his Father to accomplish it as he carries out what his Father shows him.] 20 For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself does, and greater works than these he will show, so that you will be amazed. [Every miracle and amazing teaching of Jesus came forth from Jesus’ submission to his Father, and he says and does what he hears and his Father shows him. The healings he has done are amazing, but he will soon raise the dead.] 21 For just as the Father awakens the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to whomever he chooses. [Both Elijah (1 Kings 17:22-23) and Elisha (2 Kings 4:32-37) had been used by the Father to raise the dead, but in the Last Day, the Father will raise all to life or judgment.]
22 “For the Father judges no one, but has turned over all judgment to the Son, 23 so that all will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is not honoring the Father who sent him. [Jesus is the complete demonstration of the love of the Father. Jesus makes visible and clear the Father’s will, and because Jesus has lived as one of us, he has the right and responsibility to judge us, which is the Father’s plan. That’s part of why he came to the earth. When people accept Jesus’ actions and words, they honor both the Son and the Father. When they don’t accept Jesus, they dishonor the Father as well, and their lives will be judged by Jesus accordingly at the Final Judgment. While the Jewish leaders are upset at Jesus describing himself as equal to the Father, Jesus is very honest about the authority the Father has entrusted to him.]
24 “I am telling you the truth, he that hears what I am saying and puts his trust in the one who sent me possesses eternal life and will not come under judgment but has already passed from death into life. [Any person’s response to Jesus determines the destiny of their lives. However, as soon as a person believes, they are saved from future judgment and born anew, and they will live forever.] 25 Again, I tell you the truth, the time has come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live. [Both the spiritually dead and the physically dead like Lazarus will come to life, once they hear and respond to Jesus.] 26 For just as the Father possesses life in himself, he has given life to the Son to possess in himself, 27 and also has given him authority to pass judgment, because of being a man. [Because of the Son’s submission, the Father gave him the right and ability to impart life to whomever he chooses. Jesus himself also gives the ability to impart life to his disciples. And because he was willing to live as a human, and understands the trials and temptations of human life, God also gave him the right to judge every human being.]
28 “Don't be amazed at this, for the time is coming when those in the tombs will hear my voice 29 and come forth, those who have done good, rising to life, and those who have done evil, rising to judgment.” [Matthew 27:52-53 describes how, after Jesus’ resurrection, many of the righteous who were in the tombs rose to life. Romans 2:6-10 describes how this same truth will apply to all who have died.]
The basis for judgment
30 “I can do nothing on my own. When I judge, I judge by what I hear [as I listen both to people’s own words (Matthew 12:36-37) and what I hear from the Father], and my judgment is right, because I am not seeking to please myself but to do what pleases my Father. 31 [Likewise,] if I testify on behalf of myself, my testimony is not valid. [Testimonies on behalf of oneself legally must be corroborated by at least one other person.] 32 There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. [Jesus is referring to his Father. The Father testifies out loud several times about who Jesus is (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, John 12:28), but he also testifies through the miracles that he and Jesus do together.]
33 “You sent to John [the Baptist] and he testified the truth [about me], 34 but I don't accept testimony from man [because men are unreliable but God never lies]. I mention these things [about who I am] so you might be saved [by putting your trust in me]. 35 He [John the Baptist] was a lamp that burned and was seen, and you were pleased to enjoy his light for a season.
36 “But I have a testimony greater than John's. For the works the Father has assigned me to carry out - these same works testify the Father has sent me. 37 And he who sent me, the Father himself, has testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, 38 and you don't have his word dwelling in you, or you would trust in the one he has sent. [If you are one who seeks God and are used to hearing from him, you would recognize I am from God.]
39 “You search the scriptures, for you believe that through them you possess eternal life, and yet it is these very words that testify about me. 40 And you won't come to me, so that you might [truly] possess life. [The living word, Jesus, fulfills the written word, but who Jesus is and what he does demands a response. We must come to him and decide to follow him.]
41 “I don't care about praise from men, 42 but you don't even have the love of God in you. [My motivation in talking about myself is not that I want you to give me the respect I am due, but I need to point out to you your own hypocrisy.] 43 I have come in my Father's name and you don't accept me. If someone else were to come in his own name, you would accept him. 44 How could you possibly believe me, you who accept praise from one another, when you don't even care about seeking the praise that comes from God alone? [Those who truly seek after God will recognize Jesus as God himself. Those who use God’s name for their own advantage will value credentials but not recognize someone who is truly from God.]
45 “Don't worry that I will bring accusations against you before the Father. There is already one who accuses you - Moses, in whom you hope. 46 If you really trusted Moses, you would trust me, since Moses wrote about me [Deuteronomy 18:15-18]. 47 But if you don't believe his writings, how will you believe what I am saying to you?” [Moses said that God would send a prophet that would speak the word of God and that anyone would be judged who did not believe him. Jesus is that prophet, and therefore Moses himself would be willing to testify against anyone who did not believe the words that Jesus said.]
Discussion questions
1. Why do you think Jesus picked this one man to heal out of the many that were there at the pool? Do you think the man truly wanted to be healed? Why would the man who was healed get Jesus in trouble with the authorities?
2. Some of the Jews were scandalized that Jesus claimed to represent God, but Jesus ignores their threats and expands considerably on all that Father God has entrusted to him. What does Jesus include among his responsibilities and authority?
3. Jesus says that both the works he does, and the scriptures, testify about him. Can you explain or give examples of both?
John Chapter 6
The miracle of multiplication
[After the healing of the man at the pool in Jerusalem,] 1 Jesus departed across the sea of Galilee, also known as Tiberius. 2 And a great number followed him because they had seen the miracles he had performed on those who were sick. 3 Jesus went up to a hillside where he sat down with his disciples. [The location is mentioned as near Bethsaida in Luke 9:10. The village called Tabgha, near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, is the traditional site of the miracle of multiplication.] 4 It was nearly Passover, a feast of the Jews.
5 When Jesus looked up and saw that a large crowd had come to him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, so they can eat?” [According to Matthew 14:13 and Mark 6:31-32, it was an isolated place so there were no villages nearby.] 6 He said this to test Philip, for Jesus knew what he was about to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Even two hundred days' wages wouldn't buy enough bread for each of them to have only a little.” 8 One of the disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 9 “There is a boy here with five barley loaves and two small fish, but what is that among so many?” [God can always use the little we have and multiply it to become much.]
10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass where they were. The men who sat down numbered about five thousand [not counting women and children]. 11 Jesus took the loaves and, when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those sitting for the meal, and likewise the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the leftover pieces, so that nothing is lost.” 13 They gathered and filled up twelve small baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that were left over. [Each loaf had been multiplied around a thousand times. The fact that there were abundant leftovers proved that there was more than enough to satisfy the people.]
14 Then the people, seeing the miracle that had been done, said, “This is truly the Prophet, who was to come into the world.” 15 When Jesus recognized that the people were about to come and take him by force to make him a king, he withdrew again to a hill by himself.[Many scriptures were considered “messianic” – that is, they described the Anointed One, whom God would send. One of the most important to the people is that the Anointed One would reign as a king on David’s throne (1 Chronicles 17:13). The people greatly desired a leader like David who would overthrow the Roman occupiers. Jesus knew this was not the kind of kingship he was called to demonstrate, at least not until his second coming.] 16 And when evening came, his disciples went down to the sea. 17 They boarded a boat and went across the sea towards Capernaum. [According to Mark 6:45, Jesus ordered the disciples to take the boat while he dismissed the crowd. He likely needed some time with his Father.]
Jesus walks on the water
18 And the sea grew rough because a great wind was blowing. 19 When the disciples had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat, and they became afraid. [Why did Jesus walk on the water? The Father must have shown him this since he did nothing except what his Father showed him. But this demonstrated that Jesus, even though not yet ready to assume earthly kingship, ruled over all creation.] 20 But he said to them, “It's me. Don't be afraid.” [According to the accounts in Matthew 14:25-26 and Mark 6:48-50, the disciples were extremely afraid and astonished when they realized it was Jesus walking on the water. Matthew tells how Peter followed the Lord’s example and walked on the water as well.] 21 They gladly received Jesus into the boat, and right away the boat was at their destination. [This immediate completion of their journey from the middle of the lake seemed miraculous to them too.]
22 The next day the crowd which stayed on the opposite side of the sea [from where the multiplying of the loaves and fish had occurred] realized there had been only one boat, but Jesus had not gone into it with his disciples but instead had gone off by himself, and his disciples had departed. 23 Other boats came from Tiberius near to the place where they had eaten the bread the Lord had blessed. 24 When therefore the crowd saw that Jesus wasn't there, nor his disciples, they boarded the boats and departed for Capernaum to seek for Jesus there. [The crowds were still looking for Jesus because they wanted him to meet their needs. It was a mystery to them that he wasn’t where they had last seen him since the disciples had taken the one boat.]
Sermon on Jesus as the bread of life
25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come [and how did you get] here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “You seek me not because you understood the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. 27 Don't work so hard for food that doesn't last, but instead [seek the] food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give you, for God the Father has marked him with his stamp of approval.” [If they had understood the miracles, they would know that Jesus was sent by God and could give them something much better than meeting their material needs – he could give them eternal life. Because the Father had approved Jesus as his son and representative, Jesus could promise they would have what could come from God alone.]
28 Then they said to him, “[You say we should be more spiritually minded.] What [are you saying we] should we do to work the works of God?” 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God - that you put your trust in the one He has sent. [You don’t get the good things that God has for you by working hard or doing the right things, but rather by trusting him and trusting me who was sent by him.]”
30 They said back to him, “[Even though we saw you multiply bread, you are claiming something huge – that God sent you.] What miracle will you perform for us to believe you? What work will you do? 31 Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written [Psalms 78:24], ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ [Moses gave bread daily, which established his right to be regarded as sent by God. Can you do something like that?]”
32 Then Jesus said to them, “Don't focus on the fact that Moses gave you the bread from heaven, but right now my Father is giving you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Then give us this bread all the time.” [They are still focused on the physical.] 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me shall never be hungry, and the one who puts his trust in me shall never be thirsty. [The manna that God gave through Moses nourished physically for a few hours. But I myself am bread that God is sending now for everyone in the world, and if you receive me I will give you eternal life, which will satisfy you completely.]
36 “But as I told you, you have been watching me, and yet you haven't put your trust in me. [I can’t give you abundance of life and satisfaction until you put your trust in me.] 37 Everyone the Father gives me comes to me, and I will never send anyone away who comes to me. [When someone responds to the Father’s draw on their hearts and comes to me, I know they are the Father’s gift to me. I would never reject a gift from my Father. They will be safe with me.] 38 “For I came down out of heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of the Father who sent me, that all he has given me shall not be destroyed but shall be raised up in the final day. [I can promise that I will lose none who comes to me. They are mine forever.] 40 And this is [also] the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who considers the Son and puts his trust in him, will possess eternal life, and I will raise him up in the final day. [In case you are worried that the Father has selected only a few and sent them to me, I am telling you that anyone who chooses me of his own free will I choose in return. All who come to me I consider the Father’s gift. They have already gained eternal life. No one shall take them from me. I will give them resurrection bodies on the Day of Judgment and they will live with me forever.]”
41 The Jews then began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 42 And they said, “Isn't this Jesus, son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he say then, ‘I came down out of heaven.’?” [This is the “Nazareth syndrome”, where familiarity breeds contempt – people argue themselves right out of believing.]
43 Jesus answered them, “Don't grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father, who sent me, draws him, and I myself will raise him up in the final [judgment] day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God’ [Isaiah 54:13]. All that have listened to the Father and have understood will come to me. [The Father speaks through miracles that you observe, scriptures that you read, through faith shared by others, and indirectly though dreams and visions.] 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God - he has seen the Father. [Jesus is that one who is from the Father and therefore knows him intimately.]
47 “I am telling you the truth, the one who believes [in me] possesses eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. 50 Such is the bread that has come down out of heaven that a man may eat from it, and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my body in exchange for the life of the world.” 52 The Jews then argued among themselves, “How can this man give us his body to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth, unless you eat the body of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you don’t have eternal life within you. 54 The one who eats my body and drinks my blood possesses eternal life, and I will raise him up the final day. 55 For my body is truly food and my blood truly drink. [You must chew, swallow, and digest the truth that I am giving my life as an exchange for you, and that my life remains in you.] 56 The one who eats my body and drinks my blood remains in me and I remain in him. 57 Just as the living Father has sent me and I live because of him, so also the one who eats me shall live because of me. [I learned to trust my Father who then lived in and through me. In the same way, you are to trust me, and I will then live in and through you.] 58 This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as your fathers ate and are dead. Whoever eats this bread shall live forever.”
Jesus’ words are spirit and life
59 He said these things as he taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 Many of those who had listened said among the disciples, “This is a difficult sermon. Who can understand it?” 61 When Jesus became aware that his disciples themselves grumbled at it, he said to them, “Does this upset you? 62 What if you were to see the Son of Man go up to where he was originally?”
63 “It is the Spirit that brings life. Human effort is of no value. The words I speak to you are themselves spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who didn't believe and who would betray him. [If Judas had believed Jesus’ words and had accepted who he was, he would not have betrayed him. The other eleven disciples also had various degrees of doubt but did not turn away from Jesus.] 65 And he said, “That's why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him from the Father.”
[Coming to Jesus is a process of the heart. Father God draws all people. Those who are willing to listen to the truth of the word of God will begin to gain faith. Those who are not willing will resist the truth and not gain faith. Prayer for a person will increase the draw on their heart, as some will need. But each person is responsible for the soil of their own heart.]
66 After this event, many of his disciples [but not the twelve] returned to their homes and no longer walked with him. 67 Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we not only believe, but we are sure you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus answered, “Haven't I chosen the twelve of you, and yet one of you is my enemy.” 71 He spoke of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, who was the one who would deliver him up. He was one of the twelve.
Discussion questions
1. After Jesus multiplied the loaves and fish, the people were ready to declare him their king. Why do you think Jesus needed time alone? Why do you think he sent the disciples away with their one boat? Had he planned to walk across the water?
2. Jesus describes the Father as the one who, behind the scenes, draws people’s hearts toward Jesus, but Jesus seems completely confident he won’t lose anyone who comes to him. Based on what Jesus says, how do you understand God’s intervention, human will, and the issue of whether salvation can be lost.
3. After reading this passage thoroughly, what is your understanding of what it means to eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood? Is he talking only about Holy Communion or does this have to do with a faith decision?
John Chapter 7
Worldly advice from Jesus’ brothers
1 After all this, Jesus continued to travel around Galilee, and he avoided traveling in Judea, since the Jews were plotting to kill him. 2 However, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Get out of this place [Galilee] and go to Judea so your followers can see the works you will do there. 4 No one stays hidden that wants to become well known. If you're going to do these things [miracles], you might as well show them to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers had faith in him. [As Jesus traveled around Galilee, apparently he occasionally spent time with his family. His brothers didn’t yet understand who he really was, so the best they could do was give him worldly advice.]
6 Jesus said to them, “It's not yet the right time for me [to go to the feast], but it's always the right time for you. 7 The world has no reason to hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it that its works are evil. [Because I tell the truth, there are those who want to stop me. The Father has worked out the best time for me to have an impact without unnecessarily causing opposition.] 8 You go ahead to the feast. I'm not going to the feast yet - it's not the right time for me.”
The controversy about who Jesus is
9 After he said these words, he remained for a time in Galilee. 10 After his brothers had left for the feast, he also went, not openly, but in secret. 11 The Jewish leaders sought for him at the feast, asking, “Where is he?” [The leaders were looking for an opportunity to get rid of him.] 12 And there was much murmuring about him in the crowd. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others said, “No, he deceives the people.” [They likely saw him as a false prophet.] 13 However, no one spoke openly about him for fear of the Jewish leaders.
14 When the feast was well underway, Jesus went up to the Temple and taught. [Jesus reached the maximum number of people by teaching at the Temple on the feast days. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, is the final feast of the Jewish year, and lasts for seven days.] 15 And the Jewish leaders were amazed at him, saying, “How does he understand the scriptures so well, since he never learned at our schools?” 16 Jesus had an answer for them: “My teaching is not from myself. It is from the one who sent me. 17 Anyone who is ready to do God's will can tell if the teaching is from God or only from myself. 18 He that speaks for himself is seeking his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is trustworthy and has no ulterior motive.”
19 [They were questioning him, but now he questioned then,] “Didn't Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you actually keeps the Law. [For example,] why do you want to kill me?” 20 The people answered, “You must have a demon. Who is trying to kill you?” [The leaders were desiring to do exactly that, though it’s possible the people didn’t realize that.] 21 Jesus answered, “I've done one miracle on the Sabbath, and you are all upset” [John 5:15-16]. 22 “[Let me help you think about the Sabbath.] Moses gave you circumcision, though it's not originally from Moses but from the patriarchs [Abraham originally implemented circumcision in obedience to God (Genesis 17:10-14), but Moses re-instituted it (Leviticus 12:3).] Yet, even on the Sabbath don’t you circumcise a male child? 23 If a male child receives circumcision on the Sabbath and the Law of Moses isn't broken [even though circumcision is work and you are not to work on the Sabbath], why are you angry at me that I have made a man completely well on the Sabbath? 24 Don't draw conclusions based on appearances only, but make a judgment considering all the Law.” [Frequently the rabbis argued about what took precedence when aspects of the Law come into conflict. Jesus’ argument was not unusual.]
25 Then some of them from Jerusalem said, “Isn't this the one they are trying to kill? 12 But look, he's speaking openly and no one is saying anything to him. Have the leaders already decided that he's the Anointed One? 27 But don't we know where this man came from? When the Anointed One comes, no one will know where he is from.” [One interpretation of Isaiah 53:8 was that the ancestry of the Anointed One would be unknown. This was just one of the many things the rabbis taught about the coming Anointed One.]
28 Then Jesus cried out in the Temple, “You know me and where I'm from, but I didn’t come representing myself [or my earthly family]. The one who sent me [who truly is my Father], you don't know at all. 29 I do know him, since I am from him, and he sent me.”
30 They wanted to grab him, but no one touched him, because his time had not yet been fulfilled. [It wasn’t the appointed time for his crucifixion.] 31 And many of the crowd put their trust in him and said, “When the Anointed One comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?” 32 The Pharisees heard the people murmuring these things about him, so the Pharisees and chief priests sent the guards to take him into custody. [The Jewish leaders felt that the people’s devotion to Jesus was getting dangerously out of hand. They would lose status if Jesus became identified as the Anointed One, and Rome might also react against this. They felt they had to stop this.]
33 Then Jesus said, “I am with you only a little longer before I go to the one who sent me. 34 You will look for me and not find me, for the place I am going, you can't follow.” 35 The Jewish leaders said to one another, “Where will he go that we will not find him - to the non-Jewish nations where our people live? Will he go and teach the non-Jews? 36 What is he talking about, ‘You will look for me and not find me, for the place I will be you can't follow.’” [This is another case where, even though the Jewish leaders were wrong-headed in their understanding of Jesus, what they said was prophetic, in that Jesus through his followers would in fact be teaching the non-Jews.]
37 On the final day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, 38 “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who puts his trust in me, as the scripture says, out of his belly will flow streams of life-giving water.” [Isaiah 44:3 describes the Spirit as water being poured out.] 39 He was speaking about the Spirit, who was going to be received by all those who put their trust in him, but the Spirit wasn't yet given because Jesus had not yet been raised to glory. [Until Jesus’ redeeming death, which completely removed all sins for those who trust Jesus, the Spirit could not come and make his home in men. Men had to be made holy for a holy God to live in them.]
40 Some in the crowd, when they heard [what Jesus said], said, “This is truly the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Anointed One.” But others said, “Does the Anointed One come out of Galilee? 42 Doesn't the scripture say that the Anointed One will come from David’s descendants [Jeremiah 23:5] and from David's hometown, Bethlehem [Micah 5:2]?” 43 So there became a division among the crowd because of him. 44 And some of them wanted to arrest him. But no one put their hands on him.
45 Then the guards came back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who said to them, “Why haven't you brought him?” 46 The guards answered, “No one has ever spoken like this man.” 47 They replied, “You weren't deceived by him, too, were you? 48 Have any of the leaders or the Pharisees put their trust in him? 49 But this crowd, who doesn't understand the Law, is under a curse.” [The leaders were saying that the largely favorable response to Jesus was because the crowd didn’t understand the Law and was therefore under a curse. This concept is described in Deuteronomy 28:15.]
50 Nikodemos, who earlier had come to Jesus, but was one of the rulers, said, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and examining what he is doing?” 52 They answered him, “Are you also from Galilee? Search and you will see that no prophet comes from Galilee.” [The “elite” from Jerusalem and Judea looked at Galilee as “the sticks”. However, while most of the prophets were from Judea, Jonah was a prophet from Galilee, so the comment was not even accurate.] 53 And everyone left for his own home.
Discussion questions
1. Do you find it surprising that Jesus’ brothers teased him? Or that Jesus sometimes travelled incognito? Does this make him seem more normal?
2. Jesus takes the trouble to explain the people’s misconceptions about work on the Sabbath, and about where he comes from and whom he represents. Can you summarize his points?
3. Why was Jesus so controversial? Is Jesus still controversial today?
John Chapter 8
The woman caught in adultery
1 Early in the morning, Jesus went off to the Mount of Olives [most likely to pray]. 2 When he returned to the Temple and all the people came to him, so he sat down and taught them. [Jesus had attracted much attention at the Feast of the Tabernacles, so the religious leaders were looking for an opportunity to trap him.] 3 The interpreters of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and when they had stood her before them, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. 5 Now, in our Law, Moses commanded that someone like this should be stoned, but what do you say?”
[According to Deuteronomy 22, all cases of adultery require the participants to die, not necessarily by stoning. Adultery is never considered the fault of the woman only – the man is guilty too. Jesus has already told us [John 3:17] he did not come to condemn but to save. In this case, he is able to prevent the injustice of men dominating a woman, especially by men who have committed the same sin as she has.]
Following the father of lies versus the Father of Lights
12 Jesus spoke to them again [at the Temple], saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever accompanies me as my disciple will not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life.” [Knowing that he had little time left to have an impact, Jesus was more forceful in his invitation to people to follow him personally as a spiritual leader.] 13 The Pharisees responded, “You are speaking up for yourself, so your testimony isn't valid. [How can you advertise yourself as a spiritual leader. Others have to testify on your behalf.]” 14 Jesus replied, “Even though I testify about myself, my testimony is accurate. I know the place I came from, where I received my assignment, and to which I am also going [when I complete my assignment]. Though you have no idea where I came from and where I am going.
15 “You judge based on your own desires. I am not judging anyone, 16 but if I did judge, my judgment would be correct, because I would not make it by myself. I am here along with my Father who sent me. 17 It is written in your Law that a testimony is true if it comes from two witnesses. 18 I am the first witness, testifying on my own behalf, and my Father who sent me is also testifying for me.” 19 Then they said to him, “Where is your father?” [They thought he was saying that his earthly father would come and testify on his behalf.] Jesus answered, “You don't recognize me or my Father. If you had recognized me, you would have also recognized my Father.”
20 Jesus spoke these words as he taught right in the middle of the Temple, near the collection boxes, and yet no one tried to arrest him, because his hour [the time of his trial and crucifixion] had not yet arrived. 21 Jesus spoke again to them, “I will be leaving here and you will try to find me. You will still be in your sin when you die, so you won't ever be able to go where I am going.” 22 So the Jewish leaders said, “Does he mean he will kill himself, since he said, ‘You won't be able to go where I am going’?” [Since they were observers of the Law, they expected that when they died they would go to “Abraham’s bosom”, or Paradise. If Jesus committed suicide, in their minds, he would be excluded from Paradise. Jesus, of course, was saying just the opposite, that their hardheartedness towards him would keep them from Paradise.]
23 Jesus told them, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; but I am not of this world. 24 That's why I told you, you will die in your sins. For if you don't believe that I am who I am, you will surely die in your sins.” [Jesus is making it clear that each person’s deliverance from eternal separation from God is entirely dependent on their acceptance of him.] 25 So they said to him, “Who do you think you are?” Jesus replied to them, “What I have been telling you from the very beginning.”
26 “I have many things that I could say condemning you, but he who sent me is the truth himself, and whatever I hear from him is what I speak to the world.” [Jesus responds like one of us – he is tempted to just tell them all that he sees that is wrong with them – but he resists that temptation in favor of what his Father is telling him to say. The Father is more focused on the people understanding who Jesus is.] 27 They didn't recognize that he was speaking to them about the Father.
28 Then Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will know that I am who I am. And I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things just as the Father has taught me. 29 He that sent me is with me and has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”
30 As he spoke these things, many put their trust in him. 31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who put their trust in him, “[I know you are excited about what I am doing and what I am saying but so far you do not trust me or my father.] If you live based on what I have been saying [and trust me completely], you are really my disciples. 32 You will understand the truth, and the truth will free you from bondage. [You are attracted to me, but your pride and your fear of what others think keeps you bound.]”
33 They answered him, “We are children of Abraham, and have never been slaves to any man. How can you say, ‘You will be freed from bondage’?” 34 Jesus answered them, “I am telling you the truth, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave isn't promised a permanent position in the household, but the son has the authority of a permanent position. 36 So if the son grants you your freedom, you are free.
37 “Even though you are descendants of Abraham, you are trying to kill me, because you have no room [in your hearts] for what I am saying. 38 What I learn from my Father is what I speak to you. What you learn from your father is what you do.”
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father!” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham's children, you would act as Abraham did. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who told you the truth I have heard from God. Abraham didn't do anything like this! 41 No, you are doing the acts of your father.” Then they said to him, “We aren't illegitimate. The only father we have is God!" 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your father, you would love me, for I came forth from him, not for my own purpose, but sent out by him on his mission.
43 “Why don't you understand my speech? It is because you don't even hear what I am saying. 44 You take after your father, the devil, and you carry out the lusts of your father. He was a murderer from the very beginning, and he never stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he is speaking his own language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45 “And because I tell you the truth, you will not believe me. 46 Which of you can convict me of sin? If I am speaking truth, why won't you believe me? 47 The one who is of God hears God's words. The reason you do not hear them is you are not of God.”
48 The Jews said to him, “Isn’t the truth that you are a crazy Samaritan and you have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I don't have a demon. Instead, I honor my Father. However, you treat me shamefully. 50 I am not trying to establish my own reputation, but there is someone seeking it for me and judging in my favor.”
51 “I have been telling you the truth - if anyone obeys what I have been saying, he shall not even experience death.” 52 Then the Jews said to him, “Now we know for sure that you have a demon. Abraham and the prophets all died, but now you say that if anyone obeys what you are saying, they will not experience death? 53 Are you greater than our father, Abraham, who is dead, and the prophets, who are dead? Who are you making yourself out to be?” [Jesus has been saying this for quite some time, and his listeners are finally hearing what he is saying.]
54 Jesus answered, “If I praised myself, it wouldn't mean anything. It is my Father who praises me, whom you call ‘our God’. [There are several places where the Father praised Jesus publicly – Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, John 12:28.] 55 And yet you don’t know him. But I do know him. If I were to say I didn't, I would be a liar, like you. But I know him, and I follow whatever he says.”
56 “Your father, Abraham, jumped for joy to see my day. He did see my day and was glad.” [Jesus appears to be referring to the story of the three visitors of Genesis 18. The three visitors appear to have been the pre-incarnate Jesus along with two angels.] 57 Then the Jews said to him, “You're not even fifty years old, and you've seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “I am telling you the truth - before Abraham was, I am!” [God described himself as “I am” in Exodus 3:14. By Jesus describing himself this way, he was making himself the equivalent of God.] 59 Then they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid and escaped out of the Temple.
Discussion questions
1. Did Jesus invalidate the Law by not endorsing punishment of the woman caught in adultery? Was there a power in his pardon of her and his command “Go and sin no more” that was greater than what was achieved through the Law?
2. Jesus called those who would not accept his testimony “children of the father of lies”? Why was it important for Jesus to make the case for who he was, even if he knew that the leaders and many of the Jews would not accept his testimony? If you try to convince a group of non-Christians to follow Jesus, are you willing to accept that many will not believe, so that you can reach those who will?
3. Why is Jesus now making it increasingly clear that he is the Anointed One, the Son of God, when earlier in his ministry he did not talk about it publicly?
John Chapter 9
Healing the man born blind and confirming the spiritual blindness of the Pharisees
1 As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been born blind. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Master, whose sin caused him to be born blind, this man's or his parents'?” [The teaching and belief of the time was that sickness was always caused by sin. It was even believed that sin could occur pre-birth. Exodus 20:5 says that a person’s sin, especially idolatry, caused a sin tendency in the person’s descendants. Jesus always emphasized freedom from sin and sickness.] 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents’ sin caused this. [Nor did God cause him to be born with blindness. In a fallen world, sickness and bad things happen!] However, this is an opportunity to show forth the work of God in him, 4 so let me do the work of him who sent me, while I still have time in the day. The night is coming when I will no longer be able to work. 5 While I'm still in the world, I am the world's light.” [Every case of sickness or bodily weakness is an opportunity to show forth God’s desire to heal, regardless of the cause. Jesus is the one who demonstrated this until his crucifixion, which is the “nighttime” he describes. After that, he put his trust in his followers to do the same works of healing that he demonstrated.]
6 After he said this, he spat on the ground, and making clay from the spittle, he rubbed it over the man's eyes 7 and said, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam”, which means “sent out”. [Jesus did what his Father showed him to do – he didn’t always heal blindness the same way.] 8 So the blind man went and washed and came back seeing.
9 [After the man washed and was healed,] his neighbors and others who had seen him beg then said, “Isn't this the man who sat and begged?” Some of them said, “Yes, this is the man.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” But the man himself said, “I am that man.” 10 So they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “A man named Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me to go to [the Pool of] Siloam and wash. I went and washed. I was able to see!” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I don't know.”
13 They brought the man that had been blind to the Pharisees 14 because it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened the man's eyes[, and the Pharisees had confronted Jesus before about “working on the Sabbath”]. 15 The Pharisees asked him again how he had received his sight. The man answered them, “Jesus put clay on my eyes, I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees responded, “This man [Jesus] can't be from God - he doesn't keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man possibly be sinful and do such a miracle?” And there was a division among them. 17 They said to the [formerly] blind man, “What do you have to say about the one who opened your eyes?”, and the man said, “He is a prophet!”
18 But the Jewish leaders did not believe that the man had been blind and then received his sight, so they called the parents of the man, 19 and they asked them, “Is this your son? Tell us, was he born blind? How then is he able to see?” 20 His parents answered, “We can tell you this is our son and that he was born blind, 21 but we don't know how he now sees or who it was that opened his eyes. Ask him - he is old enough to speak for himself.” 22 The parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who publicly acknowledged that Jesus was the Anointed One would be kicked out of the synagogue. 23 This is why his parents said, “He is old enough to speak for himself.”
24 Then they called for the man who was blind a second time and said to him, “Give your praise to God, for we know that this man [Jesus] is a sinner.” 25 The man answered them, “Whether he's a sinner or not, I know only that I was blind, and now I see.” 26 Then they said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” 27 He answered them, “I have told you already and you didn't listen. Why do you want me to tell you again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” 28 [This outraged them, so] they insulted him, saying, “You are his disciple. We are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses. We have no idea where this man is coming from.”
30 The man replied, “Now this is an amazing thing, that you don't know where he is coming from, and yet he has opened my eyes! 31 We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but he does listen to anyone who is a worshipper of God and does his will. 32 From the beginning of the world, no one has ever heard of someone opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man didn't come from God, he could do nothing.” 34 They replied, “You were born completely in sin [or else you wouldn’t have been born blind], and you are trying to teach us?” And they threw him out of the synagogue [excommunicated him].
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out of the synagogue and when he found him, said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” [Jesus knew that the man already had sufficient faith that he had stood up to the Jewish leaders despite the cost. Now it was time to confirm the man’s faith.] 36 The man answered, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?” [That he would call Jesus “Lord” meant that he already believed. But Jesus wanted to make sure the man knew more fully who he was.] 37 Jesus said, “You have seen him already, and it is he who is talking to you.” 38 And he said, “I believe, Lord.” And he prostrated himself to worship him.
39 And Jesus said, “I came into this world to bring about judgment, so that those who don't see might have sight, and those who have sight might become blind.” [Even though Jesus came to save the world, at the time of his Second Coming, he will judge the world, and how people have responded to him and his words will be the basis of that judgment. Those who appeared to have sight in this world will be shown to be spiritually blind by how they responded to Jesus.] 40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him said to him, “Oh, are we blind?” 41 Jesus replied to them, “If you really were [physically] blind, you would have no sin, but since you claim to see, your sin remains.”
Discussion questions
1. What are the differences between the response of the man born blind to his healing and the lame man at the pool in Chapter 5?
2. In what ways could the man Jesus healed of blindness see even before his healing? In what ways were the Pharisees blind even though their eyes were fine?
John Chapter 10
Jesus the Good Shepherd
[Having just pointed out the “blindness” of the Pharisees, Jesus felt the need to explain the difference between true leaders who cared about the people and those leaders who were out for themselves.] 1 “I am telling you the truth, anyone who doesn't come into the sheepfold through the entrance but climbs in some other way has come to steal and to harm. [There is an "entrance requirement" for those who would lead God’s people. Anyone who takes a leadership role for God’s people must himself love God and love those whom God sends or else he will be a dangerous leader.] 2 But he who comes in through the entrance is a shepherd to the sheep.
3 “The watcher at the entrance lets him in. And the sheep hear his voice - the shepherd calls to each of his sheep by name and leads them forth. 4 When the shepherd brings them out, he goes in front of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They won't follow a stranger but will run away from him because they don't know his voice.” 6 Jesus spoke this illustration to them, but they didn't understand what he said.
7 Then Jesus also said, “To tell you the truth, I am the entrance for the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me [pretending to be the Anointed One or leaders of the people] were thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them. 9 I am the entrance - if anyone enters through me, he will be safe, and shall be able to come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they can have life with such abundance that it overflows.
11 [The theme of God as shepherd is throughout the Old Testament – Psalms 23:1-4, Psalms 80:1, Psalms 100:3, Ezekiel 34:11-16.] “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 But the hired hand is not the shepherd - since the sheep are not his. When he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches some and scatters the others, 13 because he is a hired hand and doesn't care about the sheep. [This type of leader is after his own profit, so he doesn’t look after his followers – he either ignores or uses them.]
14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and I am known by them, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I am laying down my life for the sake of the sheep. 16 I also have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must lead them also, and they will listen to my voice, and there will be one fold with one shepherd. [The other sheep are likely the non-Jews who will follow Jesus.]
17 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life so that I can receive it back again. 18 No one takes it from me. I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and the right to take it back again. I have received this as a commission from the Father.” [Jesus is explaining what will happen in his crucifixion and resurrection. He is not expecting that the crowd will understand him now, but later they might. It may look like people are taking his life from him, but he is in fact purposely laying it down. This is the plan of the Father, and Jesus fully participates in it. And he also willingly will take on his body again after his death. Both his dying and living again are voluntary acts that he does sacrificially as the great shepherd for all the sheep on earth.]
Identifying Jesus as the Anointed One
19 There was again a division among the Jewish leaders because of what he said. [Jesus acted according to what God showed him, which included speaking the truth, but people often don’t understand the truth, and even resist it, especially when it’s different from the status quo.] 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon and is raving. Why are you listening to him?” 21 Others said, “These aren't the words of someone demonized. Can a demon open the eyes of a blind man?”
22 Some time after this, in the winter, it was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem, 23 and Jesus walked into the Temple, onto Solomon's porch. [Since the weather was colder, it was good to be in a more enclosed area.] 24 The Jewish leaders surrounded him and said to him, “How long will you keep us guessing? Tell us straight out if you are the Anointed One!” [The Feast of the Dedication, or Hanukkah, celebrated the deliverance of the Temple and the nation of Israel almost two hundred years earlier. Since the Jews were anticipating that the Anointed One would deliver them from Rome, it seemed an appropriate time to challenge Jesus to declare himself, though the Jewish leaders’ intention was to kill Jesus for such audacity.]
25 Jesus answered them, “I did tell you, and you didn't believe. The works that I do in the name of my Father tell you the truth about me. 26 But you don't trust me because you are not from my flock. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them well, and they follow me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never be destroyed. And no one can snatch them out of my care. 29 My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of his care. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again the Jewish leaders picked up stones to stone him. 32 Jesus responded, “I have shown you many great works that originated with the Father. For which of my works are you going to stone me?” [Jesus did works that only the Anointed One could do, then honestly described himself as coming from God. If it was blasphemy to call himself God, then it was equally so to heal what no one ever had been able to heal.] 33 The Jewish leaders responded, “We aren't stoning you for any good work, but because of blasphemy, since you are only a man, yet make yourself out to be God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Isn't it written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’ [Psalms 82:6]? [In this Psalm, the writer is prophetically chastising the religious leaders of the time that God had given them authority and they were using it unjustly. Jesus calls this “your Law” because they were so legalistically guided by it.] 35 If the ones who received this word were called ‘gods’, and scripture is infallible[, then it isn’t unscriptural to call ourselves “gods” too]. 36 What about the one whom God dedicated for his own purpose and sent into the world? How can you say of me that I blaspheme because I say I am the son of God?”
37 “If I am not walking in my Father's footsteps and doing his works, then don't put your trust in me. 38 But if I am doing my Father's work, even if you don't trust me, at least trust the works you see, so that you can know and believe that the Father is in me and I am in him.” [Jesus says that we can recognize someone as sent by God when they are doing the works of God – we recognize them by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20).]
39 So they tried again to grab hold of him, but he slipped out of their hands. [It was not yet time for him to confront the leaders so they would crucify him and he would sacrifice his life for the world. He was still making converts.] 40 He went beyond the Jordan to the place where John [the Baptist] first baptized and stayed there. [It was out of the jurisdiction of the Jewish leaders, and those who had been affected by John’s ministry were predisposed to receive Jesus.] 41 Many came to him there, saying, “John didn't do any miracles, but everything he said about this man is the truth.” 42 And many put their trust in him there.
Discussion questions
1. According to Jesus’ description of the “good shepherd”, it what ways can you see him fulfilling that description. In what ways were the Pharisees “hired hands” or “wolves”? Do you know your shepherd’s voice, and do you believe he hears yours?
2. Why was it so important that Jesus was freely giving up his life and then choosing to rise again?
3. If Jesus was ready to give up his life for the sheep, then why did he choose to escape this time when the leaders were ready to stone him to death?
John Chapter 11
The raising of Lazarus from death
[This story is not reported by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The most likely reason, since it was a momentous and influential event, is that their accounts might have endangered Lazarus if he was still living when they published their Gospels. John, having written much later, likely after Lazarus’ second death, could now report this story that had likely contributed to the impetus for Jesus’ crucifixion.]
1 There was a man named Lazarus from Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister, Martha, and Lazarus became sick. 2 This was the same Mary [who became] known for anointing Jesus with ointment and then wiping his feet with her hair [John 12:1-3]. It was her brother, Lazarus, who was sick. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, saying, “Come and see your friend who is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard this, he said, “This sickness will not end in death, but instead will result in God being praised, that through it the Son of God will receive honor.” [Jesus already could see what the Father intended to do through him.]
5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister [Mary] and [her brother] Lazarus. [If Jesus loved this family, why did he put them through Lazarus’ sickness and death? Because he loved the Father even more and was obedient to his instructions.] 6 Even so, he stayed where he was for two more days, 7 after which he said to his disciples, “Let's go back to Judea again.”
8 His disciples exclaimed in response, “Master, the Jewish leaders were just about to stone you, and now you want to go back again?” [They treated Jesus as though returning to near Jerusalem was his idea rather than the Father’s.] 9 Jesus answered, “Aren't there twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks during the daylight, he won't stumble, because he can keep his eyes on the light of this world. 10 But if a man walks at night, he stumbles, because he has no light.” [Jesus wasn’t worried about being prevented from his task, and the disciples need not worry either since Jesus would never steer them wrong. There was a time coming when, for a short while, people would stumble because Jesus would not be in the world. But this would end when the Holy Spirit came, because Jesus would then be available again as the light to guide all men.]
11 After he said these things, he continued, “Our friend, Lazarus, has fallen asleep, and I am going there to wake him up.” 12 Then his disciples said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, then he will get well.” 13 However, Jesus referred to his death, but they thought he was talking about resting in sleep. 14 So Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, 15 and I am glad for your sake I wasn't there, so that you can believe [because of what the Father has planned that I shall do]. Anyhow, let us go to him.” 16 Then, Thomas, who is called 'the twin', said to his fellow disciples, “Let's go also, so that we can die with Jesus.” [They had just been in Jerusalem (John 10:39), where the Jewish leaders had tried to take Jesus into custody, presumably to try him and have him executed, so it was reasonable for Thomas to feel that returning to Jerusalem was a death sentence.]
17 When Jesus got there, he found that Lazarus had already lain in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near to Jerusalem, around two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews came to console Mary and Martha concerning their brother.
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus had come, went out to meet him, but Mary continued to sit in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, 22 but even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, he will give you. [Even though I know you could have kept him from dying, I think you could bring him back to life again.]”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that my brother will rise again in the Resurrection on the Last Day.” [The teaching about the Resurrection, that it would occur for all on the Day of Judgment, was believed by many, including the Pharisees, but not by others, such as the Sadducees.] 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who puts his trust in me, even when he dies, he will continue to live, 26 and whoever lives his life trusting in me will never die. Do you believe this? [If you do, you will realize that Lazarus, who believed in me, is alive and accessible to me.]” 27 She said, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Anointed One, the Son of God, who was to come into the world[, the one prophesied by the scriptures, according to the rabbis and interpreters of the Law].”
28 After she said this, she left, and spoke in private to her sister, Mary, saying, “The Master is here and is asking for you.” 29 As soon as she heard this, Mary rose quickly and came to him. [Martha was an “action” person, but Mary loved Jesus too. She was likely quite disappointed Jesus had not come earlier, just as Martha had also expressed to Jesus.] 30 Jesus wasn't yet in the town but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31 But the Jews, who were with Mary in the house to console her, seeing her rise quickly and go out, followed her, thinking, “She's going to the grave to weep there.”
32 When Mary arrived at the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus regarded her weeping loudly and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he became angry and agitated [at the high regard they gave death], 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”
35 Jesus wept, 36 and the Jews said, “Look how much he [Jesus] loved him [Lazarus].” 37 But some of them said, “Couldn't this man, who opened the eyes of a blind man, have prevented this man from dying?” [This is the very thing both Martha and Mary had said. The problem is, if you are going to trust Jesus as healer, then you must trust him in all things. Jesus is not happy that the people are so impressed with death, when he is there, carrying life.] 38 Again, Jesus groaned with his displeasure as he proceeded to the tomb, which was a cave with a stone laid over the entrance.
39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” The sister of the dead man, Martha, said to him, “Lord, by this time it will stink. It has been four days.” [The Jews believed that the soul remained with the body for three days after death, and then when the soul left, decomposition began.] 40 Jesus said to her, “Didn't I say to you, that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” 41 Then they took away the stone, and Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me, 42 though I know that you always hear me (John 11:4). But I said it because of those standing around me, so they can believe that you have sent me.”
43 After he had spoken this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The one who was dead came out, his hands and feet bound with grave cloths, and his face wrapped with a towel. Jesus said to them, “Loosen him and let him out.” 45 Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and Martha, seeing what Jesus had done, believed in him. [Jesus and the Father not only raised Lazarus from the dead but cured his body of disease and reversed the decomposition of death.]
46 Some of them went to tell the Pharisees what Jesus had done. 47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together, saying, “What should we do, for this man has done many miracles? 48 If we leave him alone, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our people.” [While this was a somewhat realistic fear, if they believed Jesus was the Anointed One they should have trusted him to protect them, even from the Romans.]
Caiaphas’ pronouncement that one man must die for the nation
49 And one of them, Caiaphas, who was chief priest that year, said to them, “You really don't understand at all, do you? 50 Don't you realize that it's better for us if one man should die for the people and not the whole nation die?” [He meant that killing Jesus might save Israel from the wrath of the Romans if they saw Jesus becoming a rival king. One of the priests must have reported later to the disciples what Caiaphas had said.] 51 But what Caiaphas said didn't originate from himself - as high priest that year, he was prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation [atoning for the sins of all], 52 and not for the nation of Israel only, but also that Jesus would gather into one all the children of God scattered in many places [as people everywhere heard about him and had faith in him]. 53 From that time, they resolved together to put him to death.
54 Therefore, [knowing the decisions of men’s hearts and that it was not yet time for his death,] Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but left from there for an area near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, and stayed there with his disciples. 55 And when the Jewish Passover was near, many from the area went to Jerusalem to ritually purify themselves[, preparing themselves for the Feast]. 56 Then they looked for Jesus, and said among themselves as they stood in the Temple, “What do you think? Won't he come to the [Passover] Feast?” 57 The chief priests and the Pharisees had given a decree that if anyone knew where Jesus was, they should report it, so that he could be caught.
Discussion questions
1. What was it like for Mary and Martha as they watched Lazarus die, knowing that Jesus could have delivered him from death? And then as they watched him raise their brother? When have you felt similarly in your own life, as you lost someone important to you in spite of your prayers?
2. Do you believe that God could use you to heal the sick? How about to raise the dead? What would need to change in you?
John Chapter 12
The anointing of Jesus by Mary
1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 They held a dinner for him there, and Martha served, but Lazarus was among those who reclined at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took a pound of ointment, pure nard, which was very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.
[Each of the gospel writers tells a story of Jesus being anointed by a woman – in Matthew 26:6-13, Mark 14:1-9, Luke 7:35-50, John 12:1-8. Only Matthew and Mark’s stories are almost exactly the same. All of the stories have elements in common as well as differences. Matthew, Mark, and John all take place in Bethany, and in all there is anger at the waste of the valuable ointment. Luke’s story is implied to be in Galilee and focuses on the “woman of sin”. In Matthew and Mark, Jesus’ head is anointed. In Luke and John, Jesus’ feet are anointed. John is clear that it is Mary the sister of Lazarus who does the anointing. It seems most likely that Luke is recounting one story concerning the love and forgiveness of a formerly sinful woman, and the others Gospel writers are telling a second story about anointing Jesus for his soon coming burial. Perhaps Simon the Leper hosted the party in Bethany for Lazarus and Jesus. However, Simon was the name of the host in Luke's story as well. Perhaps Mary anointed both Jesus’ head and feet, and each writer recorded a different memory of the occasion.]
4 Then Judas, one of Jesus' disciples, who was going to betray him, said, 5 “Why wasn't the ointment sold for three hundred silver coins, and the money given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he carried the money bag and took from it. 7 Jesus then said, “Leave her alone. She has kept this to use for the day of preparation for my burial. [Anointing the feet with fragrant oil was part of the rite of preparation for burial.] 8 The poor you always have with you, but you will not always have me.”
9 Many of the Jews heard that Jesus was there and so they came to see not only him but Lazarus, the one he had raised from the dead. 10 But the chief priests also plotted to kill Lazarus, 11 since because of him many of the Jews had left the Jewish leaders and believed in Jesus. [This was the very thing the Jewish leaders feared.]
The triumphal entry and the crowd praising Jesus
12 The next day, many of the crowd, who had come to the feast when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, 13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, “Praise God! Blessings to the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessings to the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion, your king comes, riding on the colt of a donkey” [Zechariah 9:9].
16 His disciples didn't understand these things at first, but when Jesus had risen to glory, they remembered the scriptures that were written about him and that they had been fulfilled by how the people responded to him. 17 Some of the crowd who had been there told the story of when Jesus called forth Lazarus and raised him from death. 18 This was the reason the crowd came to meet him - because they heard he had performed this miracle. 19 And the Pharisees were saying to each other, “See, we're not making any headway at all [in keeping the people from believing in Jesus]. The whole world is following after him.”
The turning point, where Jesus is ready for the crucifixion
20 And there were also some Greeks who went up to worship at the feast. 21 They came up to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, asking of him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” [They probably recognized Philip’s accent as being Galilean.] 22 Philip came and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together told Jesus. 23 Jesus responded, “The time is now fulfilled for the Son of Man to be shown forth in his glory.” [Possibly the Father had told Jesus that when the non-Jews began to come to him, that was the sign that it was time for his death.]
24 “This is the truth - unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains a single grain. But if it dies, it will bring forth many grains. 25 The one who lives just for himself will lose even the life he has, but the one who lets go of his life in this world, will gain eternal life. [If you will let go of your right to live and be willing to die, God will use both your life and death to lead others to me, and you will live forever with me.] 26 If anyone wants to be my servant, he must follow me, for where I am, my servant should also be. [Be willing to do whatever I have done.] If anyone really is my servant, my Father will honor him.”
27 “Right now, [on the brink of completing my assignment,] my soul is troubled, but what shall I say – ‘Father, save me from what I must go through in this hour’? But it was for this very reason [- to give my life for the world -] that I came to this hour. [Jesus would go through a much deeper trial in the night hour in the Garden of Gethsemane where he fully experienced bearing the sins of the world on his own body and soul, as described in Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42, Luke 22:39-46. There too he fully submitted to the will of the Father.]
28 “Father, glorify your name - show how wonderful you are!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” [The Father’s name was glorified every time Jesus performed a miraculous work.] 29 So the crowd that stood near and heard it, said, “It thundered!” Others said, “An angel spoke to him.” [What people heard probably related to the level of their faith and expectancy of who Jesus was.] 30 Jesus answered, “It wasn't for me that the voice came, but for you.”
31 “This [my death on the cross] is the turning point for this world. Now the ruler of this world will be driven out. [Satan became the ruler of this world by successfully tempting Adam and Eve in the garden into coming out from under God’s truth and reign. They proved they were willing to follow the “father of lies”. Jesus will prove that it is possible to remain in the truth and under God’s reign. And as he dies a sinless human, he takes upon himself the sin penalty and sin nature of all men, which removes Satan’s hold on men. Thus, Satan is “driven out” from his position as ruler.] 32 And when I am exalted by being lifted from the earth, I will draw all men to me. [Not all would follow him, but his selfless sacrifice would exert a draw on all men’s souls.]” 33 He said this to indicate that he would die by crucifixion. [This was also an echo of what he said in John 3:14-15 that he was lifted up like Moses erected the serpent on the pole in the wilderness, he would draw people to eternal life.]
Many people pass up their chance to believe in Jesus
34 The crowd responded, “We have heard in the Law that the Anointed One remains forever, and yet you are saying the Son of Man must be crucified. [If he dies, how can he remain forever?] [Daniel 7:13-14 refers to the Anointed One as like a “son of man”, and states that his reign would never end. They couldn’t have understood the Anointed One would come into his kingship through his death and then rise again.] Who is this Son of Man [and what relationship does he have with "the Anointed One"]?”
35 Jesus said to them, “You have the light with you only for a little while longer. [I am that light.] Walk while you have the light, or else darkness will come upon you [and you won’t be connected to God and receive his light]. When you walk in darkness [like most of the world] you don't know where you are going [because you are not connected to God]. 36 While you have the light, trust in the light, so you can become sons of the light. [If you trust in me, you will be connected to God forever and you will be able to see with spiritual eyes and make God-illuminated decisions.]” Jesus spoke these things and departed, hiding himself from them. [He gave them a chance to think about what he had been telling them and to decide on their own.]
37 But as many miracles as he had done right in front of them, they still did not believe in him, 38 thus fulfilling the word of Isaiah, the prophet: “Who has believed what we reported and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” [Isaiah 53:1]. 39 Because they earlier had rejected the truth, they were now unable to believe, as again Isaiah said, 40 “He Himself has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, or else they would perceive with their eyes and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and I would cure them” [Isaiah 6:10]. 41 Isaiah said this because he saw the glory of our Lord and was speaking about Him. [John, the writer of the Gospel, may be referring to Isaiah’s vision of God filling the Temple in Isaiah 6:1-3 and saying this vision was actually of Jesus, whom John here calls “Lord”. Or just as likely, John is referring to the Isaiah 53 passage, where the glory of the Lord is through his sacrifice on our behalf.]
42 Even so, many of the Jewish leaders believed in him, but did not acknowledge it because of the Pharisees, who would have had them put out of the synagogue. 43 These leaders loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. [Some were hardened and did not believe in Jesus at all. Some believed but feared the cost of publicly acknowledging their belief. Only a few like Nikodemos believed and acknowledged their belief.]
44 Jesus cried out, “The one who believes in me is putting his trust not only in me but the one who sent me. 45 The one who watches me is watching the one who sent me. 46 I am a light which has come into the world so that the one who trusts in me will not remain in darkness.”
47 “And if anyone hears my words and doesn't follow them, I don't judge him, for I came not to judge but to save the world. 48 However, if a person refuses to receive me and doesn't accept the words I speak, [even though I don’t pronounce judgment on him myself,] there is one who will judge him. The word I spoke will be his judge on the last day. 49 For I haven't spoken my own words but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and to tell. 50 And I know that what the Father says is itself eternal life, so whatever the Father tells me is exactly what I say. [These precious words are so powerful that I give you from the Father, that if you don’t follow them, you are disregarding the Father himself, and your life will be judged because you were given the door to life but would not enter it.]”
Discussion questions
1. How do you feel when someone does something extravagant in their expression of love for the Lord like Mary did for Jesus? Does it feel like an excess display of emotion? Is it possible that we show our love too little?
2. Jesus says that his death would be the turning point for the world. Do you think this has proved to be true? Isn’t the world still pretty dark? Has Satan actually been cast out?
3. When we refuse to see a truth that requires us to surrender ourselves to God, are we setting ourselves up for a life lived in spiritual darkness?
John Chapter 13
Jesus demonstrates how to be a servant
1 Just before the Passover feast, when Jesus knew the time had arrived for him to depart from the world to be with his father, having loved all along those who belonged to him in the world, he loved them to the very end. 2 It was at the evening meal, and the devil had already put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to turn Jesus over to the authorities. 3 Jesus knew that all things had been given to him, and that he both came from God and was now [about to] be going back to God.
4 He stood up from the meal, took off his outer garments, and tied a towel around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and dried them with the towel around his waist. 6 Then he came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you really going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you don't understand right now, but after this you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet! Never!” Jesus answered him, “If I don't wash you, you are refusing my fellowship.” 9 Peter responded, “Then not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. [If your purpose is to make me clean, then it’s with my hands and my head I’ve sinned. Wash these so I can be truly clean.]” 10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only his feet washed since he is already thoroughly clean, and the group of you are clean, though not every single one of you.” 11 For he knew who was going to turn him over [Judas], which is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet, dressed himself, and sat down again, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done? 13 You call me “Master” and “Lord”, which is good, for that's who I am. 14 If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to [be humble enough to serve each other to the point where you will] wash one another's feet. 15 I have given you an example, so that you can do what I have done. 16 I am telling you the truth, the servant isn't greater than his lord. Neither is the one sent out greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you understand these things, then you are blessed if you do them!
Jesus announces that his betrayer is one of the twelve
18 “What I am about to say doesn't apply to all of you - I know the ones I have chosen. However, the scripture must be fulfilled, ‘He who eats with me has become my enemy’ [Psalms 41:9]. 19 I tell you this now, so when it comes to pass, you will know I am who I am. [Every scripture fulfilled will help confirm what you already know – that I am the Anointed One.] 20 I am telling you the truth, [you are so valuable that] whoever receives anyone of you I am sending is in fact receiving me, just as he who receives me is receiving the one who sent me. [That’s what makes this so hard for me.]”
21 After he said this, he became deeply agitated and exclaimed, “This is the truth I'm telling you, one of you will betray me.” 22 Looking at one another, the disciples had no idea which one of them he was talking about. 23 One of the disciples, whom Jesus loved, reclined with his head next to Jesus' chest. [People of the time did not sit at a dining room table. They lay on benches around a low-lying table, leaning on their hand and elbow. Two might be on a single bench with one’s head near the other’s chest. In this case, though not named, John, the disciple and the writer of the Gospel, is believed to be the one sharing a bench with Jesus.]
24 So Simon signaled to him to ask Jesus who he was talking about. 25 Since he was lying against Jesus' chest, he asked him [quietly], “Lord, who is it [who will betray you]?” 26 Jesus replied, “It's the one for whom I dip this piece of bread and hand it to him.” When he had dipped the piece of bread, he handed it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. [Naming the man’s father completely identified the betrayer, since Judas was a common name, and one other disciple had the same first name. Now at least John knew that Judas was the one identified by Jesus as the betrayer, and John likely told Peter.]
27 After Judas received the bread [dipped in gravy from Jesus], Satan entered him. [Perhaps in reaction to Jesus stating he would be betrayed by someone at the table, Judas allowed the demon to gain a greater hold on him, perhaps even with a visible effect. John, the writer of the Gospel, was the most likely person to see this effect on Judas since Jesus had told him Judas was the betrayer.] Then Jesus said to Judas, “What you are doing, do now.” 28 But no one at the table knew why Jesus had said this to him [since only John had heard Jesus identify Judas as the betrayer]. 29 Since Judas kept the money bag, some thought Jesus must have told him to buy the things they needed for the feast, or that he should give some money to the poor. 30 After receiving the bread, Judas left immediately, and it was night. [Jesus had been referring to the night coming (John 9:4), when he had to be submitted to the power of darkness, and with Judas’ decision to complete the betrayal, that "night" had begun.]
Jesus explains what he and the disciples are about to go through
31 Once Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now [that the betrayal is in motion that will result in my death], the Son of Man [myself] will be glorified [by sacrificing my life for all], and God [will be glorified] in him [by his willingness to give up his only son for the purpose of redeeming mankind]. 32 And if God is glorified in him, he will also personally bring him glory right away [both on earth by miracles that will accompany Jesus’ death and in heaven afterwards]. [There is no greater showcase for both the Father and the Son than going through the sacrifice of death and separation for the sake of redeeming all of mankind.]
33 “Dear ones, I will be with you only a little longer. I tell you the same thing I said to the Jews [the Jewish religious leaders], ‘You will look for me, but you cannot go where I am going.’ [I am going to the Father and will no longer live in this world.] 34 I am giving you a new commandment, that you should love each other. In the same way I have loved you, love each other. 35 This is how everyone will know you are my disciples, by the love you have for each other. [God has given us commandments about what to avoid. But I am telling you something totally new about how to live – and I am in the process of demonstrating it to you. Love is the greatest evidence that you are following me.]”
36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going? [I want to always be by your side no matter what.]” Jesus replied to him, “Where I am going you can't follow now, but you will follow later. [I will return to heaven but it's not your time to leave this life.]” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can't I follow you now? [I want to go with you.] I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? [You don’t know yourself well enough yet to make that promise and carry it out.] I am telling you the truth, the cock will not crow before you have denied me three times.”
Discussion questions
1. Why do you think Jesus humbled himself like he did to wash the disciples’ feet? What resistance is there in you to humble service? When have you felt the most like Jesus in terms of serving others humbly?
2. Why do you think Jesus might have revealed who the betrayer was to John but not the whole group of disciples? Why would Jesus tell Judas to get it done with?
3. In what ways was the crucifixion showing the greatness of the Father as well as the Son?
4. How was the command to love each other a new command? Do you think that the disciples were able to carry it out? Do you feel it is carried out today in your church?
John Chapter 14
Jesus made a way for every believer to be with him
1 “[Even though I’m telling you I will be leaving you and that you will deny me,] don't let your hearts be troubled. Put your trust in [our Father] God and trust me as well. 2 In my Father's house, there is room for many to live. If you didn't have a place there, I would have told you. [Your abandonment of me will not disqualify you.] In fact, I'm going now to get your place ready. [My death will open the door for you to eternal life in fellowship with me.] 3 And if I'm going to get your place ready, you know that I will come back to receive you next to me, so that you can be where I am. [Once you trust in me, you are born of the Spirit and become citizens of heaven, and you will live seated in the heavenly realm with me (Ephesians 2:6).] 4 And where I am going, you already know the way. [You might not be able to describe how to get to the Father, but you know to follow me. Part of your following me will be to totally give up your life for my sake.]”
Jesus identifies himself as just like the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way to get there?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! [If you trust and follow me and my words, you will know where to go, what to do, and how to live.] No one comes to the Father except through me. [The Father is a spirit. I have provided a living example to understand and come fully trusting to the Father. But I also have the Father’s divine nature and I am just like him in thought, word, and deed.] 7 Since you have known me, you also know the Father. And from now on, you can say you both know and have seen the Father.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, let us actually see the Father, and that will be enough for us.” [Philip is confident in what Jesus can do but doesn’t yet fully understand who Jesus is.] 9 Jesus said to him, “After I have spent so much time with all of you, Philip, don't you recognize who I am. [Through what I have said and done, I have demonstrated that I have the same nature and stature as the Father.] Whoever has seen me has already seen the Father. It doesn’t make sense for you to say, ‘Show me the Father’?”
10 “Don't you believe that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father? The words that I speak I don't speak on my own. In fact, it is the Father, who dwells in me, who does the works [miracles] himself. [Because I both experience and trust the Father, he lives right with me, even inside me. He tells me what to do and then when I do what he shows me, he makes the work effective. For instance, he told me to call forth Lazarus, I did, and my Father brought him to life!] 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe because of the works themselves. [No man could do these works – only the Father who made all things. I always remain in his will, and he never leaves me.]”
Doing the same works as Jesus and greater works
12 “I am telling you the truth, if you believe in me you shall do the same works that I am doing. [You will not only be able to but you will want to do what I do. People everywhere need healing and to know the love of the Father.] In fact, you shall do even greater works because I am going to the Father. [I want you to believe that I will do the works through you when I’m no longer physically here. The Father and I will send you the Holy Spirit who will give you power and authority, and then I and the Father will be doing the works through you. And you will be doing these works knowing that I bore all sin and sickness on the cross which will release faith and power to do even greater works than you have seen me do.] 13 Whatever you ask in [the authority and character of] my name, I will do it, so that the Father will be honored through the Son. 14 If you personally ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. [The Father will be honored by your using my name which he gave me.] [When we do the works of God, it is like writing checks that draw on the joint checking account of the Father and the Son.]
15 “If you love me, you will continue to follow everything I have told you [which will lead you to acts of sacrificial love and divine power]. 16 And when I ask my Father, he will send you another one to work on your behalf, who will be with you forever - 17 the Spirit of truth. The world can't accept the Spirit, because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. [To see the Spirit, a person must first trust me, which will cause the person to be born again of the Spirit.] You recognize him, because he lives with you, and will be inside each of you.
[Since the disciples were with Jesus all the time and the Spirit rested on him, they were used to watching the work of the Spirit. The Spirit would not come inside them until Jesus first took their sin away through the crucifixion, and then Jesus breathed on them (John 20:22). Since the crucifixion and resurrection, all believers have the Holy Spirit enter them when they decide to trust Jesus and follow him. The Spirit would come to the disciples in fullness on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Likewise, every believer can be filled with the Holy Spirit by inviting him to come.]
Our relationship with the Father
18 “I am not going to leave you orphans - I will come to you. 19 Very soon, the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I will live [again] and you will also be alive. [When I die, you will feel at first like I have left you as orphans. After I rise back to life, I will come to you to reassure you that I am alive. When you receive the Holy Spirit inside you, you will experience my aliveness which will make you feel fully alive.] 20 When that time comes, you will know that I am in my Father, and that you are in me, and I in you.
21 “The one who holds on to what I have told you to do, and does it, is the one who loves me. [This is my “love language” - listening to me and valuing what I have said to the point you put it into practice.] And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I myself will love him and reveal myself to him. [When you honor me by obeying me, both I and the Father will show our love to you and will share even deeper aspects of ourselves with you.]” 22 Judas [also called Thaddeus in Mark 3:16-19 and Matthew 10:2-5], not [Judas] Iscariot [who would betray Jesus], said to him, “Lord, how can it happen that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our dwelling place with him. [You will become aware of our constant presence and we will share our thoughts with you.] 24 Anyone who doesn't love me will not obey my word, though the word is not mine but my Father's who sent me. [When you don’t value my word, you are showing you love neither me nor my Father.]
25 “These things I have said to you while I am still living here with you. 26 But the one sent to work on your behalf, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name [as the representative of my authority and character], will teach you everything, and will bring to your mind all I have told you.
27 “I am leaving peace with you. The peace that I have [of complete trust and reliance on the Father for provision, protection, and love] is what I am giving you - not the kind of peace the world can give [which has manipulation and violence underneath the surface]. So, don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
28 “You have heard me say to you that I am going away and then coming again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. [You would be happy for me because I will be with the one who loves me so much, and I will be able to enjoy the glory of heaven. But you should also be happy for yourselves and the world because the Father can do even more for you than I can because he is in all places and sees all things.]
29 “I have told you all this now before it happens so that when it happens you will believe [even more fully that I am God’s son and the promised Anointed One and your Lord]. 30 I won't be talking to you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. [Satan is manipulating events through those he rules to kill me.] He has no hold on me, 31 but so the world may know I love the Father, I will do just as the Father has commanded me. [I don’t fear him, and he could do nothing to me, if this weren’t the Father’s plan that I willingly am submitting myself to.] Let us get up and go outside.
Discussion questions
1. When Jesus talks about “the Father’s house” as a place where followers of Jesus can be along with him, do you believe he is talking about a place to go for eternity or a place to occupy even during this life?
2. What is the relationship with the Trinity that Jesus promises? In what ways does our relationship with Jesus also lead us to have the Father and the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit lead us to Jesus? How has Jesus already said the Father leads us to Jesus?
3. Jesus says he wants us to do the same works he has done and even greater ones. Do you believe this is possible? What needs to change for this to begin to happen?
John Chapter 15
[Jesus and the disciples have now left the house in Jerusalem and are walking toward the Mount of Olives. All that Jesus says in chapters 15-17 take place as he and the disciples walk to the Garden of Gethsemane. On the way, there are vineyards, and Jesus and the disciples may have been passing one as he reflects on himself as the vine.]
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches
1 “I am the true vine which really grows fruit, and my Father is the one who takes care of the vine. [Everyone who believes in me receives life from me and produces character and good works from that life. The Father protects you and arranges the circumstances of your life to cause you to grow.] 2 Every branch connected to me that doesn't bear fruit he will remove, and the one bearing fruit he will prune, so that it will bear more fruit. [If someone lacks character and good works, then this is evidence he was never fully committed to me even if connected superficially, and he will not remain part of my body in eternity. If you are connected to me and you are growing, the Father will discipline you, remove wrong ways of thinking, and cause growth through the trials you experience. I will also continue to heal, restore, and protect you.] 3 You have already been pruned clean by the teaching I have spoken to you. [My teaching to you has removed much wrong thinking and brought you discipline and prepared you for growth.]
4 “Continue to live in me, and I will continue to live in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit from itself, unless it continues to live in the vine, you can't either unless you continue to live in me. [Don’t invent your own philosophy of life or try to do things in your own strength – the Spirit will guide you with my wisdom, and I will empower you as you do what I show you.] 5 I am the vine, you the branches. The one that continues to live in me, as I continue to live in him, bears abundant fruit. [There’s no better way to have a great life than following my teaching and waiting on me to guide and empower you.]
6 “But without me, you can do nothing. [Adam and Eve tried to make decisions independent of Father God and it messed up their paradise. Likewise, if you live an independent life, your actions will lack grace and power.] If anyone doesn't continue to live in me, he is thrown out as a branch and dries up, and these branches are gathered together, thrown into the fire, and burned. [If you don’t seek to live your life in and through me, you will not only not have life flowing into you, on the Judgment Day you are destined for eternal fire.] 7 [On the other hand,] if you continue to live in me, and my words continue to live in you, ask whatever you desire, and it shall become yours. [As you live in me and my words cause your mind to be renewed, you will desire and ask for things in line with my will, and I will make them happen. As you can see there is no comparison between living in me and living apart from me.]
Bearing fruit
8 “My Father is honored in this - that you bear much fruit, and thus truly become my disciples. [The way people know you are my followers is as they see your character and good actions. This also makes people want to belong to God.] 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue to live in my love. 10 If you follow what I have told you to do, you shall continue to live in my love, just as I follow what my Father has told me to do, and I continue to live in his love. [Because I love you, I tell you how to live. That’s the same way the Father has loved and taught me. But you continue the love cycle by accomplishing the things I tell you.]
11 “I have told you these things so that the joy I have might also be in you, and that your joy may be complete. [If you live totally trusting and dependent on me and follow all you hear from me, you will be filled with joy and you will lack nothing.] 12 This is my commandment, that you love each other, in the same way I have loved each of you. 13 No one possesses greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I've told you to do. [To a great degree, a joyful life is living for others. Make each other more important to you than your own self, even to the point where you would give up your life for the other. Then you will be just like me.]
Working side by side with God
15 “[Even though I am your teacher and master,] I no longer call you servants, because a servant doesn't understand what his master is doing. [Masters don’t need to explain themselves to servants, but they do love to explain themselves to a friend. I like to work together with you, rather than giving you an assignment and watching you do it.] But I have called you friends, for everything I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You haven't chosen me, but I have chosen you and trained you so that you might go forth and bear fruit, fruit that remains.
“[I have selected you personally to be a new kind of community that bears my stamp. I have not only done what the Father showed me but I have demonstrated and explained it to you. I want to work side-by-side with you and I want you to be successful.] For this reason, [that you are my friends,] whatever you ask the Father in my name [as my representatives], he will give you. [And the Father will make sure you are successful so that my name and his name are made great.] 17 I am telling you all this so that you love one another. [Follow all of what I am telling you and keep your love for one another – this is the mark you are really my followers.]
Expect hatred and persecution from the world
18 “[As you practice love, you will see that the world exhibits hate.] If the world hates you, just know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you. But, because you don't belong to the world, since I chose you to be separate from the world system, the world hates you. [When you don’t act like the world, the people living worldly lives are confronted and feel judged, so they reject you.]
20 “Remember what I told you, that a servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they have followed my teaching, they will follow yours. 21 Whatever they do to you, they will do because of me, because they don't know the one who sent me. [If they knew and loved my Father, they would love me and they would love you too.]
22 “If I had not come and taught them, they would have no sin, but now [because I did teach and demonstrate the truth to them] they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I had not come and done among them [miraculous] works that no one had ever done before, they would have no sin, but they have seen all that I did, and hated both me and my Father. 25 This fulfilled the word written in their Law, ‘They hated me without a cause’ [Psalms 69:4].
26 “When I have sent to you from the Father the one who will act on your behalf, the [Holy] Spirit of truth, who comes forth from the Father - he [the Holy Spirit] will testify for me. 27 You will also testify, since you have been with me from the beginning. [When the world hates and persecutes you, you will speak both what the Holy Spirit reminds you about me and what you have directly experienced.]
Discussion questions
1. In what ways can you stay connected to Jesus? Do you spend time listening to him? Do you trust and act on the things he tells you?
2. Many do not ask for things because they have been taught it’s selfish, but Jesus taught that it was the path to fruitfulness. Do you ask God to do things for you? Especially, do you ask him for fruitfulness each day? Do you ask him to live his life through you?
3. Do you lay down your life for your family? Or do you demand they lay down their life for you? What are ways that you can bless them?
4. Have you ever been persecuted or resisted or hated because of following Jesus? What has he asked you to do that you haven’t walked out yet?
John Chapter 16
Jesus tells about the coming persecution
1 “I have told you these things so that you won't lose faith. [It’s helpful for you to know in advance that being persecuted is part of the package of walking in my footsteps.] 2 They will excommunicate you from the synagogues. In fact, the time is coming when they will think they are serving God if they kill you. 3 And they will do these things because they don't really know either the Father or me. [If they did know me and the Father, they would be delighted and excited to meet you, since you carry our message.]
4 “I have told you these things so that when the time comes [that these things happen], you will remember that I told you [and you will stand strong in faith]. I didn't tell you these things at the beginning, because I was still with you [and you could watch how I handled opposition], 5 but now I am going away to him [the Father,] who sent me. [You will need to stand without me but with the help of the Holy Spirit.]
The Spirit will bring the truth through the words of Jesus
6 “But none of you asks me where I am going. [I’m surprised that you simply accept what I am saying without challenging it like Peter (John 13:36-37) and Philip did (John 14:8-9).] [I can see that] because of the things I have told you, sadness has filled your hearts. 7 However, I am telling you the truth, it is better for you that I go away, because until I go away, the one who acts on your behalf cannot come. But when I leave, I will [quickly] send him to you. [The Holy Spirit could not come until Jesus had redeemed all of us from sin by dying in our place and thus making those who say yes to him righteous. Also, it was the plan of the Father and Son that his followers would live by faith in the invisible God rather than the visible Jesus.]
8 “And when he [the Holy Spirit] has come, he will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment. [Anyone filled with the Spirit will see the truth and will also have the power to communicate the truth. For example, when Peter was first filled with the Spirit, he understood many things Jesus said with new clarity and when he preached, his hearers’ hearts were pierced (Acts 2:37-39), bringing conviction. The Spirit will convict people once Jesus is no longer walking the earth on the basis of how they responded to him when he was here or how Christians portray him in the future.]
9 “Concerning sin, because they didn't believe in me. [The Spirit makes people conscious that Jesus is truly God. In Acts 2:37, it is clear that the Spirit's words through Peter have convinced the crowd that their lack of belief in Jesus is sin.] 10 Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more. [Through the Spirit, Christians realize that Jesus was raised to the highest place after his death and resurrection, and so his life on earth would remain the standard of righteousness. Further, though it would be only by living in the guidance of the Spirit that Christians are to live righteously (Romans 8:4)]
11 “Concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is condemned. [The Spirit will make it clear to people that Satan was behind the plot to destroy Jesus. God the Father condemns the one who illegally condemns the sinless one, God's very son. And it is the Spirit who gives power to believers over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19)]
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you can't endure it now [because of your sadness]. 13 However, when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will lead you into all truth [including the things I can’t say to you now], for he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak. [The Holy Spirit doesn’t have his own agenda but serves the Father and the Son.] And he will tell you what is coming [in the future]. 14 He will bring honor to me, for he shall take [words] from me and tell them to you. 15 Everything the Father has is also mine, and that's why I can say he [the Holy Spirit] would take from what is mine and tell it to you. [Jesus wants his followers to be comfortable that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit co-own all things, and then he invites us to share them too.]
After sadness, joy will follow
16 “In a little while, you won't see me, but a little while longer, and you will see me again.” 17 Some of his disciples asked one another, “What does this mean, ‘In a little while, you won't see me, but a little while longer and you will see me again’, and ‘I am going to the Father’?” 18 So they said [among themselves], “What does ‘a little while’ mean? We don't understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus knew they wanted to question him, so he said to them, “Are you asking each other what it means, ‘In a little while, you won't see me, but a little while longer, and you will see me again’?” 20 I am telling you the truth [, here is what I mean]. You will weep and grieve [when I am captured, judged, crucified, and buried], but the world will be glad. You will be very sad, but your sadness will turn to joy [when I rise to life again, after only ‘a little while’ (on the third day)]. 21 When a woman is in labor, she has grief, but as soon as the child is born, the anguish is forgotten, because of her joy that a child has been brought forth into the world. 22 Likewise, you have sorrow now [as you go through these things], but I will see you again [after I rise] and your heart will rejoice, and no one can take your joy from you [even when I depart physically from you again when I ascend to heaven].
23 “And when that day comes [when I am no longer physically here], you will no longer need to ask me for anything. For I tell you the truth, whatever you ask the Father for in my name, he will give to you. [You will find that you have the same relationship with the Father that I have. In fact, he will treat you the same as he does me, his beloved Son.] 24 Up to now, you haven't asked for anything in my name [because I was here and you could ask me directly]. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be full. [Nothing causes joy like having what you ask fulfilled.]
25 “I have told you these things in word pictures, but the time has arrived when I won't speak to you any more in word pictures, but I will tell you directly about the Father. [In the beginning of our time together I primarily used stories to explain what God is like but now that you’ve experienced for some time just how good the Father is through the miracles and acts of love you’ve witnessed, I can speak more directly and you believe me.] 26 From now on, you shall ask in my name, and I won't say that I will ask the Father for you, 27 for the Father loves you himself, because you have loved me and believed that I came forth from God. 28 I did [in fact] come forth from God and came into the world. Now, I am leaving the world and am returning to the Father. [Therefore, ask the Father yourself for everything just like you’ve asked me and you’ve seen me ask him. And you can ask ‘in my name’, just as though you were me.]”
29 His disciples said to him, “Look, now you are speaking directly to us and not using any word pictures. 30 Now we really know that you know everything we are thinking without our asking you a question. [You anticipate our questions before we ask them.] Now [we can add this to everything else you’ve done as to why] we believe that you must have come forth from God.”
31 Jesus answered, “Right now you believe, 32 but the time is coming and in fact is just about to happen, when you will run away, each of you to his own place, and you will leave me by myself. But I won't be alone, for my Father is with me. 33 I have spoken these things to you so you might have peace in me [because you know I have anticipated everything]. In the world, you will have trouble and suffering, but be encouraged, for I have victory over the world [and you will walk in that same victory because you have the same Holy Spirit, and I will be with you myself].”
Discussion questions
1. Though you have never had Jesus walk with you in the flesh, have you ever experienced the grief that you were about to lose someone very important to you. Could you believe then that there would be a future time of joy?
2. In what ways is it to our advantage to have the Holy Spirit come to all believers compared to Jesus walking with his believers on the earth?
3. What does it mean to ask for things “in Jesus’ name”?
John Chapter 17
The time of glory has come
1 Jesus spoke these things and then lifted his eyes up to heaven, saying, “Father, it’s time [for me to give my life]. Help your son to show forth the full extent of who he is [by giving me the courage to be condemned unjustly, go through terrible pain, bear all men’s sins, and experience separation from you, and die]. 2 That way the Son can [also] show off the full extent of who you are [full of compassion for humankind, providing a way for them to be completely restored to you through our great sacrifice]. You have given him [your son] responsibility [to stand in place] for all humanity, so that he could give eternal life to each one you have given him. 3 And this is [the basis of] eternal life - to know you, the one true God, and Jesus, the Anointed One, whom you have sent.
4 “I have shown the full extent of who you are on the earth [by representing you exactly as you showed me], and I have completed the work you have given me to do [by saying and doing all that you showed me, including now giving my life]. 5 And now, Father, show forth who I really am along with you, with the majesty, honor, and power I had with you before the world was created [because I had to set aside my glory to come and live as a man].
6 “I have shown the way you really are to those you gave me out of the world [my disciples]. They belong to you. You gave them to me, and now [that I have fully explained and demonstrated everything,] they follow your word. 7 They have understood that everything you have given me really is from you. 8 The words you gave me I gave to them, and they received [the truth of these words and that they are from you]. And they now understand that I really did come forth from you, and they believe that you sent me.
Jesus’ request for the Father to keep the disciples safe from sin
9 “I am making a request on their behalf. I'm not asking on behalf of the world, but rather for those you have given me, for they truly belong to you. 10 [In fact,] everything that's yours is mine, and mine is yours. And who I am really is shown off in them. [Since I won’t be here, and you are ruler of the world, I am turning over all the responsibility for keeping my followers safe to you, my Father. I don’t have to ask you, Father, to do this, because they are already yours, but my followers need to understand that they completely belong to you and that you love them.]
11 “And I am no longer in the world [since I am leaving, so I am turning over my responsibilities to you], but these for whom I make this request are still in the world [and the world is a difficult place to remain holy and resist intimidation]. So, I come to you now, Holy Father [, asking you for this one thing]. Keep them [my followers] safe under the protective power of your name, the same name you have given me, so they can be one, just as you and I are one. [Adopt them so they know the safety of belonging to you, under your power and authority.] 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept those you had given me safe in your name. [They didn’t stray from following you because I showed them your ways, as an older brother shows his younger siblings.] I protected them, and none of them has been destroyed except the one born for destruction, thus fulfilling the scripture. [Though it may have been foreseeable from his birth, Judas fulfilled his terrible destiny by never giving himself fully to Jesus, and thus remaining outside the protection of Jesus. Judas’ betrayal fulfilled Psalms 41:9 which, while it originally described the life of David, was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.]
13 “And now I come before you [, Father,] and speak these words while still in the world, that they [my disciples] might be filled with the same joy that I have. [There is no joy like following you, Father, even when the world treats us terribly, because we know we will never lose your love.] 14 I have bestowed on them your message and the world has already hated them, since they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, only that you would keep them safe from evil. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” [Ambassadors are sent by governments to represent their own nation even in the troubled midst of a hostile nation, and the sending government does its best to protect its own.]
17 “Dedicate them for service to the truth. Your message is the truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I send them into the world. [This is what it means to make disciples – Father, you teach me, and I teach them, and they teach others.] 19 I have dedicated myself on their behalf [and taught them all I know] so that they might also be dedicated to the truth.
Jesus asks for the disciples to come into the unity of the Father and Son
20 “I am asking [for your protection and guidance] not only for them [my chosen disciples], but also for all who will believe in me because of what they [the disciples] say, 21 that all of them may be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world can believe that you have sent me. 22 And I have given them [the same quality of supernatural] life that you have given me, so that they might be one as we are one. [Oneness comes both through the supernatural grace of God and through our own efforts, as we receive and respond to the Spirit, listen and obey the written and revealed word of God, and submit to one another in love.] 23 I am in them and you in me, so that they may be made perfect in their unity, so the world will know that you sent me and that you love them just as you love me.” [Unity in love is so attractive and powerful that people understand this can only come from God.]
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to also be where I am going, so that they can see my full majesty, which you gave me out of your love before the world was created. [You are about to restore me to my former heavenly glory. I have already promised that I would provide a place in the Spirit where my disciples could be where I am and experience that glory (John 14:1-3). Now I am asking that access to the place of my glory would be made available for all who become my followers.] 25 Oh, righteous Father, the world hasn't known you, but I have known you, and these[, both my chosen disciples and the ones that will believe through them,] have come to know that you sent me. 26 And I have made known to them what you are really like and I will continue to make it known, so that they can experience the same love you have for me, and so I can be in them.” [This completes the discussion between Jesus and the disciples after they left the house where they celebrated Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper and when they arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane.]
Discussion questions
1. What was the plan of Father God and his son Jesus for saving the world? How did this show the greatness both of Jesus and the Father?
2. Jesus seems to be asking the Father to protect the disciples from sin. How does God fulfill this prayer – what would you expect he might do to protect us from sin?
3. Why is unity among the disciples so important? How does the glory being received by the disciples contribute to that unity?
John Chapter 18
The arrest of Jesus
1 When Jesus finished speaking, he and his disciples went across the Kedron brook. There was a garden there, and he and his disciples entered it. [This Gospel account doesn’t describe the time of Jesus’ wrestling in prayer while the disciples couldn’t stay awake to pray, as that story is sufficiently reported in Matthew 26:36-45, Mark 14:32-42, and Luke 22:39-46.] 2 And Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, since Jesus frequently gathered there with his disciples. 3 So Judas[, after he reached a deal with the Jewish leaders to betray Jesus], having been assigned a detachment of soldiers and Temple officers sent by the chief priests and Pharisees, led the group there. They carried lanterns and torches and weapons.
4 Jesus, who knew everything that was about to happen to him, went forth and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” 5 They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” He said, “I am [the one you are seeking].” Judas, who surrendered him up, was standing with them. 6 When Jesus said to them, “I am", they [Judas and those who came to take Jesus into custody] fell backward to the ground. [Jesus accepted the name given him, “Jesus of Nazareth”, his name on earth. But with one stroke, Jesus accepted the accusation of being the man they sought, but also the divinity they refused to acknowledge. The words that Jesus said, “I am”, answered the question, “Who are you looking for”, but he was also using the words that God said to Moses, “I am”, that identified his divinity. The Gospel writer notes that when these words were spoken by Jesus, they had such power that those who came were knocked backwards and fell to the ground.]
7 [Since they were stunned,] again he asked them, “Whom are you seeking?”, and they said, “Jesus of Nazareth”. 8 Jesus answered, “I already told you that I am the one, so if you are looking for me, let these others go.” 9 This would fulfill the words Jesus had said, “I have lost none of those you have given me” [John 17:12]. [While the disciples would not be released immediately, by the end of his arrest they would escape and not be pursued, in conformance with Jesus’ words.]
10 Then, Simon Peter, who had brought a long dagger, drew it and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. 11 Then Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup my Father has given to me?” [Jesus had explained in Luke 22:36-38 that the disciples needed daggers or swords to fulfill the scripture that foretold he would be counted among the criminals, so the disciples had two of them. But Jesus did not intend for them to be used to protect him. In Matthew 26:52-53, Jesus explained that violence leads to more violence, and if Jesus had asked, the angels would have protected him. Acting in the opposite spirit to violence, Jesus healed the man’s ear (Luke 22:51).]
Jesus’ examination and Peter’s denial
12 Then the soldiers and their commanding officer and the Jewish guards bound Jesus 13 and led him away, first to Annas [and then to Caiaphas]. [Years before, Annas had been high priest, then each of his sons, then his son-in-law Caiaphas. Annas was the leader of the political party.] He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. [Some say that Annas’ apartment was part of the house of Caiaphas, which explains why Peter could stay in the same courtyard for both interrogations.] 14 It was Caiaphas who had recommended to the Jewish leaders that it was to their advantage for one man to die on behalf of all the people [John 11:49-50].
15 Simon Peter followed Jesus[, as he was led captive from one place to the next], along with another disciple [presumably John the writer of the Gospel]. The other disciple [John], who was acquainted with the high priest, followed Jesus [and his captors] into the courtyard of the high priest's [Annas’ a, nd Caiaphas’] house. 16 But Peter stood outside at the door [to the house compound]. The disciple [John] who was acquainted with the high priest spoke to the girl who kept the door and brought Peter in. [No one knows why John was acquainted with the high priest. John was treated with privilege, so it is possible he or his father, as successful fishermen who were also religious, were known for their contributions to the Temple treasury.] 17 Then the girl who kept the door said to Peter, “Aren't you also one of this man's disciples?” He said, “No, I am not.”
18 The servants and guards stood around a fire they had made to warm themselves from the cold. Peter stood there with them to warm himself. 19 Then the high priest [probably Annas since John 18:24 indicates Jesus had not yet gone to Caiaphas] asked Jesus about his disciples and his teachings. [Annas had been high priest so was still addressed as such and carried considerable authority, even though his son-in-law was officially the high priest.] 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken in the open to everyone. I always taught in the synagogue or the Temple, where all the Jews come together. What I've said has not been a secret. 21 So why ask me? Ask the ones who heard me. They know what I said. [A man’s testimony for himself does not count].”
22 When Jesus had spoken this, one of the attending guards struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus replied to him, “If I have said something wrong, tell everyone what's wrong with it, but if I have spoken the truth, why do you hit me?” 24 Annas sent Jesus, still bound, to Caiaphas, the high priest.
25 Simon Peter continued to stand nearby and warm himself. So, they said to him, “Aren't you also one of his disciples?” He denied it, saying, “No, I am not.” 26 One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn't I see you in the garden with him?” 27 Again Peter denied it, and immediately the cock crowed. [John probably did not observe all of this, but since he and Peter were close friends, Peter probably told him all this later.]
Pilate’s examination of Jesus
28 Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Roman governor's judgment hall. They themselves didn't go in so they could avoid becoming ritually unclean and [still] eat the Passover feast. 29 Then Pilate went out to them and said, “[Why are you bothering me?] What charge are you bringing against this man?” 30 They answered him, “[We’ve already examined him.] If he were not an evil doer, we wouldn't have [bothered you and] brought him to you.” 31 Then Pilate said to them, “[I don’t want to get involved in Jewish affairs.] You take him and judge him yourselves according to your own law.” 32 But the Jews said, “It's against the [Roman] law for us to put any man to death. [Since his crime is worthy of death, you Romans will need to carry out his judgment.]” This [announcement that he would need to die at the hands of the Romans] fulfilled what Jesus had said about what kind of death he was to die [since they executed through crucifixion].
33 Then Pilate re-entered the judgment hall and had Jesus brought to him, and said to him, “Are you king of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Did this [thought] come from yourself, or did someone tell you [that] about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew [that I would know what the Jews consider a king]? Your own people and your chief priests turned you over to me. What have you done [that has made them think you consider yourself king]?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If it belonged to this world, my followers would have fought to keep me from being delivered to the Jewish leaders, but my kingdom is not here.” 37 Pilate said to him, “Are you [saying you are] a king, then?” Jesus replied, “It is you who are saying I am a king. [Even though it’s true, I never have made that claim.] The reason I was born, the reason I came into the world, was to bear witness to the truth [about what God is really like and how his kingdom works]. Anyone who is of the truth hears my voice [and trusts in me].”
38 Pilate said, “What is truth?” After he said this, he went back out to the Jews and said, “I find no crime in him. 39 But you have a custom at the Passover that I should release one [convict] to you. Do you want me to release to you the [one known as the] ‘King of the Jews’?” 40 Then they all cried out, “Not him! Release to us Barabbas!” Barabbas was a bandit [Mark 15:7].
Discussion questions
1. What must it have been like for Jesus to have already received a revelation of everything that was going to be done to him, and then watch it all take place? Why did he decide not to resist?
2. When Jesus said, “I am”, in response to his captors saying they were looking for “Jesus of Nazareth”, his words carried such authority that it bowled them over! Have you had the experience of someone’s words carrying authority? What would need to change for you to carry such authority? How would you use it?
3. Can you see the humanness of Jesus in his responses to the High Priest and Pilate? What do you imagine he was thinking?
John Chapter 19
The trial and conviction of Jesus
1Then Pilate had Jesus taken away and whipped. 2 The soldiers braided a crown of thorns and stuck it on his head and put him on display with a purple robe. 3 And they mocked him, saying, “Greetings to the ‘King of the Jews’”, and they slapped him around.
4 Pilate had him brought out again and said to the crowd, “Look, I am bringing him out again, just so you understand that I find no crime in him.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate said to them, “Look at the man! [He’s harmless! How could you feel threatened by him?]”
7 The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law, he must die, because he claimed to be the son of God.” 8 When Pilate heard this, he became more alarmed, 9 and went back into the judgment hall and asked Jesus, “Where are you from?” [Matthew 27:19 tells us that Pilate’s wife had dreamed about Jesus and warned Pilate to avoid judging Jesus, and he was doing his best to comply with this warning. But if Jesus claimed to be divine, he could be dangerous, since he would be a rival to the emperor himself, who was considered divine. Now Pilate felt he needed more information.] But Jesus gave no answer to him.
10 Pilate said to him, “You're not talking to me? Don't you know I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it was given to you from above, so the ones that turned me over to you have greater sin. [You think I should be worried about what you can do to me. God has arranged for me to be crucified, though he has given you a part to play in it. You carry some sin because you are bowing to political pressure rather than doing what is right. However, the Jewish leaders who brought me before you have greater sin, because I showed them that I truly am the Anointed One, and they rejected me.]” 12 From that point, Pilate tried to find a way to release him, but the Jews said, “If you release him, you are no friend of Caesar's, because whoever claims to be a king is against Caesar.”
13 After Pilate heard these words, he had Jesus brought out and Pilate himself sat in the judgment seat in the place called the Stone Pavement, 'Gabbatha' in Hebrew. 14 It was about noon on the day of the preparation of the Passover, when Pilate said to the Jews, “Here is your king.” [Jesus is about to be crucified the same hour the sheep for the Passover are sacrificed.]
15 But the crowd cried out, “Away with him! Take him away and crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “You want me to crucify your King?” [Pilate sees that the Jewish leaders are jealous of Jesus, so he is making fun of their unwillingness to follow Jesus.] The chief priest answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” [This too is ironic because they should have no other king but God, but they are rejecting the one who is God himself.] 16 So Pilate turned him over to the soldiers to be crucified, and they took him away, bearing his own cross. [Luke 23:26 tells us that, for part of the road to the cross, a man named Simon was forced to carry the carry the cross for him.] 17 He came out to a place called 'the Skull', 'Golgotha' in Hebrew, 18 where they nailed him to the cross. There were two others, crucified on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a title inscribed [on a wooden sign] and attached to the cross. The title read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. 20 Many of the Jews could read this title [representing the accusation against Jesus], since the place Jesus was crucified was near to the city, and the title was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. 21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don't write, ‘King of the Jews’, but rather ‘He said, “I am King of the Jews”’”. 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
The crucifixion and death of Jesus
23 After the soldiers had nailed Jesus to the cross, they divided his clothes into four parts [probably head covering, robe, sash or girdle, and sandals], one part for each soldier [crucifixions were generally performed by a squad of four soldiers], except for his tunic, which was woven in one piece without any seams. 24 So they said to each other, “Let's not tear it; instead, let's gamble to see which one of us gets it”. These actions fulfilled the scriptures [Psalms 22:18], “They divided my clothes among them and for my clothes they cast lots”, which is exactly what the soldiers did.
25 Standing at the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary of Clopas, and Mary from Magdala. [Mark says there were many women followers of Jesus at the crucifixion. Between John, Mark, and Matthew’s accounts the women specifically mentioned are a) Mary the mother of Jesus, b) mother Mary’s sister, c) Mary who is married to Clopas, d) Mary Magdalene, e) Salome, f) the wife of Zebedee who is mother of James and John, g) Mary the mother of James and Joseph. Likely the mother of James and Joseph is also married to Clopas. Salome may be mother Mary’s sister.]
28 [Jesus had now fully demonstrated the goodness of God through his words and deeds, he had taught his followers, he had allowed himself to be beaten and to bleed so that the sins of the world would be paid for, he had forgiven his persecutors, and now he had even arranged for his mother’s future.] At this point, Jesus, knowing that everything had been accomplished, fulfilled the scripture, saying, “I'm thirsty.” 29 A sponge was filled with vinegar and extended to his mouth on a hyssop branch. [Psalms 69:21 says that the Anointed One would have his thirst quenched only by vinegar.] 30 When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, “It is completed”, his head rolled to the side, and he let his spirit go.
Final fulfillments of scriptures in Jesus’ death
31 Because it was the day of preparation before the Sabbath, and this Sabbath was a high holy day, the Jews asked Pilate to break the legs of those who were crucified so they might die and be removed before the Sabbath. [The accusers were supposed to watch the deaths but could not do so without defilement if the crucifixions continued into the Sabbath.] 32 So the soldiers came and first broke the legs of the men on either side of Jesus. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was dead already, they didn't break his legs, 34 but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately came forth both blood and water.
35 This is an eyewitness account and the one who saw it provides these details so that you might believe. [It was amazing to John, the writer of the Gospel, the sequence that happened – a) that just like the Passover lamb, Jesus’ bones were not broken, b) that he was pierced as Zechariah had foretold of the Anointed One, c) that Jesus bled like the Passover lambs, and d) that water came forth representing his purifying of all men through his death on their behalf.] 36 For these things were done to fulfill the scripture [Psalms 34:20], “Not a bone of his shall be broken”. 37 And another scripture [Zechariah 12:10] says, “They shall look on the one they pierced”.
The burial of Jesus’ body
38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret disciple of Jesus because of his fear of the Jewish leaders, asked Pilate if he could take away Jesus' body, and Pilate gave him permission. 39 Along with him came Nikodemos, who had first visited Jesus by night [John 3], carrying with him around a hundred-pound weight of myrrh and aloes. 40 They took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, which the normal method of Jewish burial. [Though Joseph and Nikodemos had been secret followers, they now courageously honored Jesus at the risk of persecution by the Jewish leaders. They also were defiled by touching Jesus’ dead body and thus could not participate in the Sabbath meal or the remainder of the Passover feast.]
41 There was a garden near the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden, there was a new tomb [which belonged to Joseph of Arimathea] where no man had been buried. 42 Because the preparation day before the Sabbath was nearly over, they laid the body of Jesus in this tomb. [They and the women expected to come back the day after the Sabbath and more fully prepare Jesus for burial after the Sabbath.]
Discussion questions
1. Pilate, the Roman governor, had an important part to play in the crucifixion. What did Jesus say was Pilate’s responsibility? Who else was responsible?
2. Why was John, the writer of the Gospel, so impressed with how Jesus died? What did it mean to him?
3. Can you see the humanness of Jesus in his responses to the High Priest and Pilate? What do you imagine he was thinking?
John Chapter 20
The empty tomb
1 The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. [According to Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, and Luke 24:10, there were other women who came with Mary Magdalene, including Mary the mother of James and Joseph, Salome, and Joanna.] 2 Then she ran, coming to Peter and the other disciple [likely John], the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They [Joseph of Arimathea and Nikodemos] have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we [the women] don't know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter and the other disciple left to go to the tomb.
4 Peter and the other disciple [John] ran together until the other disciple outran Peter to get to the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen bandages lying there, but he didn't go in[, hesitant to disturb the scene and perhaps be defiled by contact with the things of the dead]. 6 Then Peter arrived, following him, and entered the tomb [because it was his nature to barge in and take command] and stared at the linen bandages lying there[, thinking about what he was seeing]. 7 The cloth that was around his head was not lying with the linen bandages but remained wrapped in its own place. 8 Then the other disciple [John] who had arrived first went into the tomb, and he saw and believed. 9 For they didn't understand yet the scripture that he must rise from the dead.
[They had never understood when Jesus had talked about dying and rising in three days. What John saw convinced him that it was true that Jesus had risen. If someone had stolen or moved the body, they would likely have taken the grave clothes as well. If someone had come to take the body and further prepare the body for burial, they might have unwrapped or cut off the grave clothes. But here they were still wrapped as though Jesus had evaporated out of them. John could picture all this. It’s not clear what conclusion Peter reached.] 10 Then the disciples left again for their own home.
Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene
11 [We don’t know when Mary arrived for her second visit to the tomb that day, but likely after Peter and John had left.] But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent down to look inside the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, one at the head and one at the foot of where Jesus' body had lain. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She responded back to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him.” [Mary Magdalene likely thought Joseph of Arimathea and Nikodemos had moved the body to another location, or possibly that someone had stolen the body.]
14 When she said this, she turned [partially] around and saw Jesus standing there but didn't know it was Jesus. [She wasn’t expecting to see him, and he may have looked somewhat different from what she was used to.] 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” [Jesus wanted people to make their own discovery.] Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him from here, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” [She recognized his voice.] She turned fully around and exclaimed, “Rabboni”, which is to say, “My teacher” [which was probably her normal greeting to him]. 17 Jesus said to her, “Don't hold on to me now, for I have not yet gone up to my Father. [Don’t keep me here. I have numerous things to do before I ascend to heaven.] But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going up to my Father and their Father, my God and their God.’ [I want them to know that they are my brothers and that they are to treat God as their Father.]” 18 Mary Magdalene went to tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
Jesus’ appearance to the disciples behind closed doors
19 It was evening on the same day, the first day of the week, and the doors were closed where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. [By this point, Peter and John and rejoined the other nine disciples.] Jesus appeared and stood in their midst, saying, “Peace to you.” [This was the normal greeting of a visitor, but it had special meaning since he had just supernaturally appeared, which frightened them.] 20 After saying this, he showed them [the wounds in] his hands and his side. The disciples were joyful once they were convinced it was the Lord. [After Peter and John’s experience of the tomb and Mary Magdalene’s description of her encounter with the risen Jesus, the disciples were probably in various states of doubt and belief. So, it took a while for them to be convinced that Jesus was alive, and that he was not a ghost.]
21 Then Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you. [You will have the same relationship with me that I have with the Father – you are my representatives and I give you my authority.]” 22 When he had said this, he blew on them and said, “[But for you to know you have my authority,] receive the Holy Spirit. [He will be your inner witness of truth.] 23 Whomever's sins you pronounce removed are truly removed, and whomever's sins you pronounce retained are truly retained. [You will keep the community of my followers in unity and love by addressing people’s sins. Through the Spirit you will know the truth of a person’s repentance. When there is sincere repentance you will wash them clean by forgiving their sins. When people do not repent, you will know that and hold them responsible.]” [This receiving of the Holy Spirit was also the disciples’ new birth, since until Jesus died and rose again, the Holy Spirit could not come and make a home in them.]
Jesus’ appearance to Thomas with the others
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called 'The Twin' [perhaps because he looked like Jesus], was not with them when Jesus appeared. 25 So they told him [later] they had seen the Lord. But Thomas said, “Unless I see the mark of the nail in his hand and stick my finger into the place and stick my hand into his side, I won't believe.” 26 Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered inside with the doors closed, but this time Thomas was with them, when Jesus appeared, standing among them, and said, “Peace to you.” [Jesus seemed to come this time only for the sake of Thomas, who had been absent the previous time. Furthermore, he knew exactly what Thomas was thinking and feeling.]
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Reach you finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand here and thrust it into my side. Don't continue to be unbelieving but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to Thomas, “You have believed because you have seen me face-to-face, but greater favor rests on the one who believes without seeing.” [Did Thomas receive the Holy Spirit? He wasn’t there when Jesus blew on the others. It seems likely Thomas received the Holy Spirit at this point, simply because he now fully believed and trusted Jesus.]
30 There were many other miracles that Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book, 31 but these have been written so that you [the reader] might believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.
Discussion questions
1. What would you have thought if you had witnessed the crucifixion and later came to the tomb and found it empty? Would you believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Or that someone took the body? What would it take to convince you?
2. Do you think it’s significant that Jesus, after his resurrection, appeared first to Mary Magdalene, and then to the other women, and that they believed and spread the news before the men?
3. When Jesus shared the Holy Spirit with the disciples, he gave them authority to forgive or retain sins. Why was that authority so important to the community of believers?
John Chapter 21
Jesus' appearance to the disciples fishing in Galilee
1 After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberius [Lake Galilee]. It happened like this. 2 Simon Peter, Thomas 'the Twin', Nathanael from Cana, the sons of Zebedee [James and John], and two others of his disciples [probably Andrew and Philip], were all together [the seven who were fishermen from Galilee]. [It’s not clear where the other four remaining disciples were when this story took place.]
3 Simon Peter said, “I'm going fishing.” They said to him, “We're going with you.” [Clearly, they were not yet living in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and faith, since they were still fishing for fish and not for men.] They took out a boat, and after fishing all night, caught nothing. 4 When morning came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn't know it was Jesus [since it was still dark].
5 Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast your net on the other side of the boat, and you will find a catch.” They cast as he said, and now they couldn’t draw in the net because of the multitude of fish. [Jesus had performed this same miracle before when he first encountered these fishermen at work (Luke 5:4-6).]
7 Therefore, the disciple [John] whom Jesus loved[, recognizing that this could only be Jesus], said to Peter, “It's the Lord”. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around himself, since he had removed it while fishing, and threw himself into the sea [to swim to shore, he was so anxious to be close to Jesus]. 8 The other disciples brought in the boat, dragging the net full of fish. They were about one hundred meters from shore.
9 As soon as they landed, they saw a charcoal fire burning with a fish laid on it and some bread. [Jesus already had fish and bread for them, reminiscent of the miracle of the multiplication. But, with the direction of the Lord, the disciples now had caught a much greater catch. This may have represented how many more would come to know Christ through the disciples than those who had already received faith through meeting Jesus during his three years of ministry.] 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring over some of the fish you just caught.” 11 Simon Peter went over and pulled the net in, full of a great many fish - one hundred and fifty-three - and even though there were so many, the net had not broken.
12 Jesus said to them, “Come eat”. None of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” [even though they couldn’t recognize him], for they knew it must be the Lord. 13 Jesus came over bringing bread and gave them some, and then also gave them some of the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he rose from the dead. [As already described, Jesus appeared to others before the disciples. The he appeared to ten of them, since Judas had killed himself and Thomas simply wasn't there (John 20:19) and this time included Thomas (John 20:26).]
The restoration and commissioning of Peter
15 When they finished eating, [walking together,] Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?” [Or possibly Jesus was asking if Peter loved him more than the others loved Jesus. Either way, Jesus was calling Peter to a deeper and less self-centered love.] Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you [even though I denied you].” Jesus said to him, “Take care of my lambs. [The way you will show your love of me is to love them.]” 16 Jesus said to him a second time, “Simon, Son of John, do you love me?” Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. [I would be lying if I told you anything else.]” Jesus said to him, “Lead my sheep. [Show your love by sacrificing everything to take care of the entire community of my followers.]” 17 Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved that Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?”[, since Peter had denied him three times], and he said, “Lord, you know all things - you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Care for my sheep. [Even though you denied me, I know that you love me and that you will carry out my commands.]”
18 “I am telling you the truth. When you were young, you used to put on your clothes and go wherever you wanted. [You were in charge and decided things for yourself.] When you are old, you will stretch out your hands and others will bind you and take you where you don't want to go [because you love me and this is where your love will take you].” 19 Jesus said this to indicate by what type of death Peter would honor God, and then he said, “Follow me [even to death]”. [By the time John wrote this Gospel account, he knew that Peter had followed Jesus to the fullest, having died by being crucified upside down (at his own insistence that he was not worthy to die exactly as his Lord).]
The assignment and final words of the disciple Jesus loved
20 Turning around, Peter saw following them the disciple [John] whom Jesus loved, who was also the one who leaned on Jesus' breast at dinner and asked who was going to betray him [John 13:23-26]. 21 Seeing him, Peter asked the Lord, “What about him?” 22 Jesus replied to him, “If I choose for him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You are to follow me.” 23 Then the word went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus didn't say that he wouldn't die but only, “If I choose for him to remain until I return, what's that to you?” [John was alive long after the other disciples all had given their lives for Jesus. John was the last witness, who captured all he saw in his Gospel account.]
24 This is the disciple who testified all of this and who wrote down these things, and we know that his testimony is the truth. [The same disciple who was just described in the previous verse is the disciple who wrote this entire account. His testimony is true because he was with Jesus his entire ministry and thus was an eye witness. This last paragraph may have been written by a follower of John.] 12 There are many other things that Jesus did, so many that if every one of them were written down, I don't suppose the world itself could contain the books that would be written. [This account was written to supplement the previous Gospel accounts, and even all the accounts together would not begin to fully record all that Jesus did.]
Discussion questions
1. Have you ever lost someone important to you? Was it good to escape to the familiar like the disciples did? Why do you think Jesus showed up to be with the disciples in their old fishing location?
2. From reading the dialogue between Jesus and Peter, how do you think Peter felt before, during, and after? Have you ever let the Lord down? What do you think his attitude towards you is, based on how he treats Peter?
3. Since this gospel account was likely written much later than the others, how do you think that would influence what John wrote and didn’t write?