I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 19-21.

    When Jesus was before Pilate He told Pilate that he only had the power to crucify Him because it had been given to Him from God. The same thing applies to us and the authorities. Jesus did not answer to Pilate and we do not answer to the authorities of this world either. Jesus answered only to the Father and Pilate, the authority of this world, only had the power over Him which the Father had given him. Now, as I was re-reading this in order to compose the above thoughts, something new struck me. Jesus told Pilate that he was going to order His crucifixion even though Pilate knew that Jesus was innocent of the charges. By doing so, Pilate would be sinning, even by Pilate’s own moral code. When those in authority break the rules to mete out punishment on the innocent (whether they know they are innocent or not), they are sinning and God will hold them accountable. I wanted to point out that Jesus’ statement about those who turned Him over to Pilate had the greater sin still implied that Pilate sinned because all of the commentaries I remember on this verse tend to make you think otherwise. Those who bring punishment down upon those who they know have been falsely accused sin, but those who bring the false accusations commit a greater sin.

    I have often wished we knew more about Thomas because he is the one of the Twelve I most identify with. Thomas was not willing to take the word of the other disciples on Jesus’ resurrection. He needed to see for himself. He was skeptical of the testimony from the others because it seemed to him like wishful thinking. In many ways Thomas represents the answer to those who question why, if Jesus did the things the Bible says He did, so few non-Christian sources mention Him at all. How could someone see what Jesus had done, even before the resurrection, believe that He was someone significant enough to mention, and not become His follower? If you saw what Jesus had done and were skeptical of His miracles, then He was just another rabble-rouser, and not a particularly significant one since He made no attempt to raise an army to overthrow the Romans. Only those who believed He was the Messiah would have viewed Him as significant until His followers numbers in the 10os of thousands. I want to circle back to Thomas before I end. Thomas shows us that God will provide convincing evidence for those skeptics who genuinely seek the truth.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 17-18.

    My focus today will be on what John writes in this passage about truth. God’s truth will make us holy. That is not quite right. God will make us holy by His truth. Jesus gave His disciples God’s word, which is truth. And the reciprocal of that is true as well. Truth is God’s word. God’s word will reveal to us what is true, and as we learn what is true we hear God’s word more clearly. The world hates those who listen to God’s word because the world does not want to accept His truth. Which brings me to Pilate’s response to Jesus, “What is truth?” The world does not want to accept that there is objective truth. The world defines as true that which they desire to be true and feels threatened by those who acknowledge that truth is not a matter of opinion. Jesus sends us into the world to testify to God’s truth just as He was sent into the world for that same purpose. The final point I want to make is that Jesus talks about desiring His followers to be in unity with one another. Unity is only possible when we stand fully in God’s truth. IF we allow ourselves to be deceived by lies we will be separated from each other because each of us will insist that what we want to be true is true. We can only live in unity when we agree that God’s truth is the only truth.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 14-16.

    Many people believe that there are many paths to God, even some people who consider themselves Christians. There are indeed many paths to God. However, they all lead to Jesus. When Jesus told His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” He was expressing a basic truth about the Universe. Those who truly seek God will find Jesus, some sooner, others later. The same thing applies for those who seek truth or meaning in this life. The saddest thing I ever witnessed was someone who had been genuinely seeking God who turned away when that search led them to Christ. They had been so conditioned to believe that Christianity was a scam that they refused to accept Jesus when their search led them to Him. Jesus and the Father are one, so it is clearly impossible to know God without knowing Jesus. However, I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit will use the Satanic Bible to reveal Jesus to the individual who is genuinely seeking God if that is where they are looking.

    I was going to go on to Jesus telling us that we can ask anything in His name and He will do it (and I may still write something about that) but as I read the verses around that I was struck by what Jesus had to say about the Advocate whom God will send us (has sent us). Jesus tells us that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit because it is not looking for Him and does not recognize Him. The Holy Spirit will teach ever greater truth to those who receive Him, but only those who are looking for Him will receive Him. However, we must not only look for the Holy Spirit, we must also recognize Him when He comes to us. In order for us to be capable of receiving the Holy Spirit we must love Jesus and love God. If we love Jesus and love God we will do as they have commanded. If we do not do as He has commanded we do not love Him. But we must be looking for the Holy Spirit as well. There are things which we need to know which are not wholly contained within the Bible.

    I could go on and on writing about what John has written in today’s passage, but I am running out of time. I will wrap up by mentioning that the Holy Spirit will live in us, if we let Him. By doing so He makes us one with Christ and one with God. Which is really the same thing, since they are One. Part of the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of peace, a peace which the world can never give us. If you find yourself troubled or afraid, call out to the Holy Spirit and embrace Him. As you learn to recognize that all that happens in this world comes from God, and that God causes all things to work together for those who love Him, you will find the presence of the Holy Spirit giving you the peace of which Jesus speaks. Iam going to use an old story about not worrying to sum up this lesson:

If you love God there is no need to worry because in life there are only two things to worry about: either you are well or you are sick. If you are well, there is nothing to worry about. If you are sick there are only two things to worry about: either you will get better or you will die. If you get better there is nothing to worry about. If you love God and you die you will go to Heaven, so there is nothing to worry about.

This is much easier said than done, but the doing is related to where Jesus earlier told us that those who lay down their lives will save them. The more we focus on doing God’s will at the expense of ourselves, the more we will have the peace which Jesus promised us.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 12-13.

    One of the themes which is throughout the Gospel of John is the idea that people saw the miraculous signs which Jesus performed but still did not believe in Him. John seems to be saying that most of the people who witnessed Jesus ministry here on earth viewed it as great entertainment but did not take His teachings seriously. However, John points out that there were those who believed, even among the leaders of the Jewish people. Most of even those who believed were not willing to say so publicly because they did not wish to face the opprobrium they would receive from their peers for doing so. I wrote all of that as the setup for what I think is the central point of today’s passage and I still failed to actually set it up.
    Jesus tells His listeners in today’s passage that on the Day of Judgement it will not be Him, or even God the Father, who judges people. Rather, it will be the truth which Jesus has made known to us which will judge us. On the Day of Judgement all of the lies which we have used to shield ourselves from the truth which we do not want to acknowledge will be stripped away and we will be exposed naked to the cold, hard light of that truth. The more we allow the Holy Spirit to expose us to God’s truth in this life, the less harsh that day will be.

    Repeatedly throughout His ministry Jesus told His disciples that in order to be great in the Kingdom of God they needed to be a servant to others. In today’s passage He illustrates the meaning of this in a very profound way. As they prepared for their Passover celebration, Jesus took on the role of servant and washed each of His Apostles feet. If Jesus could do this for them, and, by proxy, us, how can they, and we, do any less? Jesus did not wait for an opportunity to serve others, He sought one out. Let each of us do likewise.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 10-11.

    The account here of what Jesus said about the Good Shepherd, the sheepfold, and the sheep is a very mixed metaphor. In this metaphor Jesus is the shepherd, the gate, and the gatekeeper (OK, perhaps the gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit). First, Jesus is the gate, those religious leaders who do not come through Him and lead the sheep through Him are thieves and robbers. They do not have the best interest of the sheep at heart. Further those sheep who go in and out of the fold through the gate will find safety and comfort. Those who seek another way in or out of the fold will fail to get into the safety of the sheepfold and suffer hurt and injury when they attempt to go out for food and water. But Jesus is also the Good Shepherd. Those who are His sheep recognize His voice and follow His lead to good pasture and safety. The key understanding here is that those who do not follow Jesus’ voice are not part of His flock and thus will not gain entry into the Kingdom of God. He was willing to sacrifice His life for His sheep, those shepherds (Church leaders) who truly follow His lead will do likewise. Those leaders who are in it for the money and/or prestige will abandon their followers when trouble/persecution arises.

    We typically remember the Apostle Thomas as “Doubting Thomas” for his response to being told that Jesus had risen from the dead. However, in this passage he encourages the rest of the disciples to accompany Jesus back to Judea even though they all might face death for doing so. This is not the braggadocio of Peter during Passion Week, but a genuine call for the other disciples to stand with him at Jesus’ side in the face of perceived danger. I don’t want to make too much of either what Thomas did here or what Peter did later. Thomas is calling for the disciples to stand together with Jesus while Peter was claiming that he would stand alone with Jesus.
    Mary and Martha represent the faith challenge that most of us experience. We believe in Jesus, we believe in God’s power, but when it comes down to it we doubt that He will act. Here Mary and Martha believed that those who believed in Jesus would have eternal life, but doubted that their brother would rise from the dead.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 8-9.

    The story of the woman caught in adultery is not in the earliest, most reliable manuscripts of the Gospel of John, which means that it was unlikely to have been in the original. However, since God allowed it to remain in the Bible for as long as He did before this was discovered I believe that it provides material we can learn from. At the end, when all of her accusers had left, Jesus told the woman that He would not condemn her either and she should go and sin no more. Thus the passage provides us with a model for dealing with sinners. It is not our place to condemn them for their sins, but we should encourage them to stop sinning.

    In the next section Jesus’ interactions with people remind me of a friend of mine who is sometimes a jerk. Reading this it seems to me as if Jesus is intentionally antagonizing his audience. It is worth noting that John introduces the exchange by saying that Jesus told those who believed in Him that the truth would set them free and that they responded by saying that they had never been slaves. From there, Jesus starts a process where He says that they are not the children of Abraham, but are rather the children of the devil. He antagonizes them to the point where they want to stone Him. My point here is that there are times when it is appropriate to antagonize those who think they are righteous by attacking their assumptions about themselves.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on John 6-7.

    After Jesus fed the 5,000 the crowd followed Him seeking more free food. Jesus told them they should spend their energy seeking the eternal life which He could give them rather than perishable things like food. The crowd reacted to this by saying they wanted to do God’s works as well. Jesus told them that the only work God wanted from them was for them to believe in Him. At which point the crowd demanded a miraculous sign from Jesus, giving as an example the manna which Moses gave their ancestors in the wilderness. This was the same crowd which had witnessed Jesus feed over 5,000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish. How often do we do the same thing, respond to the miraculous things God does for us by demanding He do more for us?

    When Jesus was teaching in the Temple, the religious leaders sent the Temple guards to arrest Him. The Temple guards returned without arresting Jesus and told those who had sent them that they had never heard anyone speak the way that Jesus did. This led the religious leaders to ask them how they could possibly believe anything He said when none of the educated did? They were using an appeal to authority to dismiss Jesus’ teachings. They made no attempt to refute what Jesus taught. They merely expected people to accept it on their authority, because they were the ones educated in the Law and Scripture, that He was wrong. Even today we have people who wish for us to take it on their authority that Christianity is wrong. Unfortunately, there are many people who accept that argument.