21 John – Eyewitness

By Richard

Throughout John we read of the “disciple that Jesus loved”. Right at the end of the Gospel we get to find out that this special disciple is the very same as the writer of the Gospel that bars his name, John. John writes, “This is the same disciple who was an eye witness to these things and wrote them down. We all know that the eyewitness account is reliable and accurate.” (John 20:24, the Message)

We need to take seriously the claims of John. He was an eyewitness and claims that he recorded what he saw and experienced and touched. He’s telling the truth and you can trust the words that he wrote.

NOTE: COMING SOON!
This completes thoughts on the Gospels developed by reading the Gospels in the New International Version (NIV) and Message version. I plan in the near future to read the Gospels in other versions and I hope to post further thoughts. Please take time before then to look through the archives of over 400 devotionals on the Gospels.

May they bless you richly as you get to know Jesus and seek to become like him.

21 John – Glorifying God

By Richard

We often think of life as and opportunity to glorify God, but the risen Jesus spaks to Peter about his future death and hints we’re told, “at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God.”

Have we ever thought of death and an opportunity to glorify God. He probably seems us to as the least glorious of events that we will have to face.

A colleague of mine recently died of cancer at 46. She had a tremendous faith and her death had a strange beauty about it (she spent the last few hours saying goodbye to her children and husband before he asked Jesus to come and take her home…and within minutes Jesus did just that). So “amazing” was her death that the nurses who attended at the time wanted to know more about the faith that she had.

Now many of us don’t have the luxury of knowing when we will die, but the truth is this, how we live today will affect the way that we glorify God in our death. In a sense all of life is a preparation for the moment of death. Death becomes for us the instant in which the thin curtain between this life and the next is pulled back and we see the greater realities of heaven and the lesser realities of our earthly life. With God will to examine our years of life on earth – were they lived by faith (directed by our anticipation of meeting God), or were they lived by “physical” (focused on gaining the world and little emphasis on God).

The reality is that we will all die. Start working towards that moment when you will glorify God in your death.

20 John – John’s Gospel

By Richard

John tells us that he wrote his Gospel that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah and by believing have real and eternal life in the way that he personally revealed it.

John’s purpose for writing his Gospel is clearly laid out. The response is left to us. Will we believe and have life in Jesus or will allow presuppositions, like doubts about the supernatural, to cut us off from the greatest message ever. The God who made everything has fully revealed himself through Jesus and wants an eternally ongoing friendship with us, if we will just believe that Jesus is the one.

19 John – Jesus, the King

By Richard

We read in John 19 that Pilate wrote a sign and placed it above Jesus that read in Aramaic, Latin and Greek the following words:

JESUS THE NAZARENE
THE KING OF THE JEWS

Some of the Jews, reading the sign, asked for it to be changed to the words, “this man said, ‘I am the King of the Jews!’” But, Pilate refuses with the words, “What I have written, I’ve written!”

This is one of those scenes where I believe there is more going on than meets the eye. I think that we often read over it like it’s a miscellaneous historical fact. But, reading it today, it struck me that Pilate may be unwittingly declaring a prophetic truth, a bit like Ciaphas, who doesn’t realise that he is prophesying when he says that it is better for one man to die for the nation.

The strength of reaction of the Jews should alert us to the fact that even in Jesus’ death there is a declaration that this IS the King of the Jews, The Messiah. Pilate might not be aware but he’s telling the world that Jesus IS the Messiah. He’s telling you that Jesus is the Messiah!

19 John – Life is a Gift

By Richard

Jesus says to Pilate these strong words, “You haven’t a shred of authority over me except what has been given you from heaven!” (John 19:11, the Message)

This is a reminder that our whole life, beginning to end, is a gift from God. We are not the “owners” of our life, but the “stewards” of it. Let’s keep a Christ-centred perspective to our life.

18 John – Truth

By Richard

In John 18 truth plays an important part in the arrest and trial of Jesus. He has told the Chief priests that he has been speaking the “plain truth” and that everyone that has an inkling for truth recognises Jesus.

Truth is so key to our understanding of Jesus that I’ll be honest with you. We will have a hard time trusting our lives on earth and eternity to Jesus if we don’t really accept half of what Jesus said and did! Truth is foundational.

17 John - Sanctified by Truth

By Richard

Recently I received an e-mail from a friend to say that she’d finished reading the Gospels and she was asking what she should read next. That was music to my ears:)

We live at a juncture of history when people have grown cold in their love for Scripture. The bible describes itself as “food”. How many of us are “starving”? Jesus reminds us that God’s word is truth that helps us to become holy (like Jesus). He prays for his followers in this way. “Make them [us] holy – consecrated with the truth, Your word is consecrating truth” (John 17:13-19, TM)

Will we commit to allowing God’s truth to dwell in us and make us holy?