This Side of The Cross

I feel like I found a new chapter in my Bible this morning. I must of read this chapter 100 times but it all seemed new today. What an amazing prayer! There is so much here it may take a few days to digest it. So get this. Jesus is at the end of His ministry here on Earth. This is like the closing prayer before all the announcements are made, the chairs put away, the lights turned off. The stuff in this prayer is so rich with love and theology and promise. Things that stand out to me. 1. God had given Jesus all authority over all flesh. (yes, He said all) 2. Knowing God and Jesus translates to eternal life. (no coupons needed) 3.Jesus basically says that the work was done in the disciples (except for that whole sanctification thing). 4. Jesus said He didn't lose one that the Father had given Him (except for Judas).  I may have to come back to this one at a later date. 5. As the Father sent Jesus into the world, He is sending us. 6. Jesus glorified the Father h...

I have overcome the world. One of the boldest statements made by Jesus in my opinion. Here is Jesus, on the end of His time here on earth about to be taken by the "world", beaten, put on a cross to die, and He says "I have overcome the world" Not "might". Not even "will". I "have"! I often wonder about my life as a Christian. I know I am supposed to emulate Christ in my daily walk, but do I show such boldness? Am I letting my "Christian humility" get in the way of my "Christ-like boldness"? Maybe I don't believe He has overcome the world, yet. It is a lot easier to fit into my daily walk if Jesus hadn't already overcome the world. If we were waiting for a future event by Jesus before we really walked the walk. Think about it. If we still were waiting for Jesus to do the final blow to this world and it's power we could use that excuse to live lives less than the ones we were called to. On j...

What a great promise. Our sorrow will be turned into joy. Can you imagine? Those of us that have sorrowed over jobs, children, relationships, family, tribulations, etc. All that will be turned into joy! When? Well this is a tough passage for me and apparently many commentators as well. Is Jesus saying turned into joy after His rising from the dead? Or is He saying when He returns? I read several commentaries and they seem to disagree. I do know this, my sorrow has not turned into joy, yet. Does that mean I have missed the mark? Does that mean I am in sin and the sorrow that I feel is a result of that sin? Does that mean I need to change my priorities. Perhaps. More than likely, the wording on this passage is enough to mean at the return of Christ. Somehow it seems that the disciples understood it and needed no further explanation. I am slower than most so I would have asked for more. This one thing I know at some point, my sorrow will be turned into joy. Now when Jesu...

I believe this is one of the most comforting portions of scripture. Jesus is telling us He is not going to leave us by ourselves. He is sending The Holy Spirit to be our helper. He goes on to say this is to our advantage. Now it may seem odd because we would think having Jesus by our side would be the very best option. That's not what Jesus thinks. He said to our advantage. When we read through the Book of Acts, we see He is right. No longer are the disciples tossed around by every trial, and event that goes against them. They turn into these courageous man full of wisdom strength, doing miracles preaching awesome sermons. Basically, they are changing the world. That is the work of the Holy Spirit inside of them. We don't see that during the time Jesus was with them. No I am not saying we don't need Jesus. I am saying there is a plan for our lives. To do this plan we need to leave the "shelter of Jesus's side" and trust the work of The Holy Spi...

Ever feel persecuted? Ever feel like the world hates you? I kind of think that if it doesn't you are doing this Christian walk all wrong. Not that we should invite persecution into our lives. But if we are walking the walk we would be conflicted with the world. Jesus said if he had not come into the world and lived the life He had the world would not be judged. Let that sink in a bit. It goes on to say, because He did and they saw, they are judged and found wanting. The bible says we are not greater than Jesus so the world will hate us too. Do you have people that feel condemned for what they do when you come around? Do you rub people the wrong way when you love on them? Or when you stand up for what's right? I know we are supposed to love the people in the world. Our love shouldn't be mistaken for love of the world. We need to be a light just as Jesus was the light. That means exposing sin by our lives. That light doesn't come from us but comes from t...

You will not get a more clear more simple view of the church's role in the world. Or your role in the world for that matter. Jesus is a vine and if we are "in Him", we are branches to that vine. If we are not bearing fruit, we will be taken away. If we bear fruit we will be pruned. That kind of hurts doesn't it? You will surely either be cut off or cut back. Sounds like fun to me! I think that we bearers of the Grace message struggle with this passage. We would hate to think that something is actually required of us. Well here it is. No clearer message. We must bear fruit. Good news! A branch of a vine does not face each morning thinking "I must bear fruit". A branch produces fruit because of the life coming from the vine flowing through it. A good branch has lots of life flowing through it and therefore produces good fruit. So we don't concentrate on bearing fruit. We concentrate on connecting to the vine in such a manner that lots of life...

This is a very treasured part of the gospel, as far as I am concerned. Jesus is winding down His time here on Earth and promises some very special things. As one that grew up without a father and a mom that worked long hours to support us I can tell you this is very special. Jesus said He would not leave us as orphans. I know many of you might not fully understand this. But to have the promise of not being left alone is a wonderful thing. It was very hard growing up not knowing when my mom would get home to fix us dinner. Or when she would show up to help us with our homework. Or to have someone to cry on their shoulder when things went bad. And things did go bad quite often. So Jesus knows the disciples didn't understand what was soon to happen. But He comforts them with words they needed to hear. "I will not leave you as orphans". So He promises them the Holy Spirit. What a gift! The Spirit of God that is every bit an active part in our walk with Jesus as ...

Wow! What a statement! This is why the world hates Jesus. If only Jesus said "I am a way, I am part of the truth, I bring some life!" We would have peace in the world today. That's not what He said. The Way. The Truth. The Life. No getting around that. We want so badly for there to be another way to the Father. Or to Heaven. So many religions teach that there are many truths, many paths to enlightenment. So here you get to pick. Do you believe Jesus? Or do you believe the world? This is why "religion" is one of the topics we don't discuss in certain circles. Too much truth is hard to handle. Often times I find myself wanting to water down this message to make my beliefs more palatable to my friends. Many times I am tempted to include good works or good intentions as pathways to God. I must warn you, Don't do it! Don't water down this truth. This really is the make it or break it point of the gospel. We don't have to fit into...

So much has been said about Peter's denial of Jesus. I almost passed over this portion of scripture. But to remain true to the goal I will add my two cents worth. Remember who Peter is when you read of his denial of Jesus. This same Peter walked out of the boat in the middle of the storm. This same Peter left his boats and livelihood to follow this Jesus from Galilee. This same Peter pulled out his sword and cut of the soldier's ear in the garden of Gethsemane. We wouldn't call him a coward by any stretch of the imagination. So what would cause him to deny knowing Jesus when it was obvious to everyone that he did? Knowing. I believe it was knowing the plan that caused Peter to fail. Or more to the point, not knowing. It is a whole lot easier to follow someone when you know the plan. Knowing where youare going, knowing what to do when you get there. That is the hardest thing for me. I want to know what the plan is. What is the backup plan. What is the bac...

Well you would think that in the last day or so before Jesus was to be crucified, some of His most important words to us would be spoken. Wouldn't you? So here He tells us that there is a "new commandment".  Love one another. Is that really "new"? It seems we have heard this before. Didn't He say that all the law and commandments are contained in Love God and Love each other? I think there is a message in His words we so easily glide right over. That is why I really wanted to bo a journal through John this way. One section at a time. Not through the Bible in a year or month or week. Slowly, surely, just to be sure I didn't miss anything. Yes I know if I broke it down by word and got out my concordance and lexicon etc I would learn even more. I am not that smart. This fits my purpose just fine. I guess what I would say is "new" is that part where we are to love each other as He loved us. Now that is a new thought. I have heard this...

What a title! How would you feel if you were one of the disciples at the last supper and Jesus spoke those words? Would you feel fear? Betrayal? Anger? Guilt? Sadness? Astonishment? Shock? Maybe some of each. The one that stands out most to me would be shock. I know many things have happened the last few days. Lazarus was raised from the dead, many people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, many people left and now this. Surely Jesus was just feeling overwhelmed with the events of the last days. No one of the disciples would betray Him. None of the closest friends would even entertain the idea. Maybe if we just stop and take a breath here...... I think, in a small way, we all have betrayed Him to some degree. Maybe not to the point of death but by making those choices that would seem to crucify Him a little more. It's hard to always make those right choices. Not to make light of what Judas did, but in a lessor way, perhaps we are all guilty. The amazin...

Wow! There is a lot packed in this 20 verses! You could read this from an evangelistic perspective or a pastoral perspective or an elders perspective and get three different thoughts. Let me just give a couple of the things that stick out to me. Jesus washed the disciples feet. Not some of the disciples. Not all but one disciple. All of them. Did you catch that? Jesus washed Judas' feet . He already mentioned that one of them would betray him. He wasn't unaware. He wasn't just playing some little "guess who" game. Jesus washed the feet of the one that would betray him. You don't find that kind of humility in the church today. Or outside the church either. We would rather surround ourselves with people that love us. Keep out those that don't. Stay next to like minded people that don't rock our boat. I keep thinking of times when as a pastor or leader in a church I felt compelled to "guard the flock" against the sinners. Not l...

A funny thought occurred to me while reading this passage. Jesus didn't come to show us all what a wonderful guy He is. He came to be the light of the world. I know this may be a weird concept but bear with me. When you use a flashlight, you don't just sit there and stare at the light. The light become a tool to illuminate what is around the light. Jesus seems to be going to great length to point this out in these verses. I know, I know He is the truth and all of that. But take a minute and consider what He is saying. He says, "If you have seen me, you have seen the one who sent me." He also says "If you b believe in me, you believe in the one who sent me." This is not just a sense of modesty here. That is the way I have always thought it to be. No, He is trying to teach us something very important on the one of the last times He speaks openly to us before the crucifixion. It has to be more than that. I believe it is contained in the nex...

This is one of the saddest portions of scripture that I can recall. Unbelief. Here we see Jesus hiding himself from the people because they did not believe. So many miracles so many teachings so much love, and yet they still did not believe. I would like to say with all assurance that I would have believed. I cannot. I look at examples in my own life where the Lord has come through time and time again and yet I still don't trust Him in that area of my life. I see other areas in my life where I am able to trust Him completely (well in my perspective). I don't honestly know where I would fall if I lived in Jesus' time. The saddest part is that there were some that believed but choose not to follow Jesus because they "loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that come from God" I could not, would not fall into that category. Surely not me! The scripture says they would not confess their belief so they would not be put out of the syn...

There are some very hard sayings in this portion of scripture. For me harder than anything else we have come across in John. Thinking that God would be "glorified" by Jesus being tortured, whipped, beaten then put on a cross to die a brutal death is beyond my comprehension. Nonetheless that is what the Word says. Obviously, my way of thinking has to change. I kind of like the type of gospel where nobody get hurts where we all get to go to heaven and be with Jesus for eternity. No pain. No fuss. No problem! We here is the brutal truth. There was a painful bloody death awaiting someone. The someone was me. Never in a million years could I have prayed "Not my will but yours Lord"! I would have been begging those Greeks to take me away from there. So we are left with the way the Father gets "glorified". He trades the death of His only son for me. The one that deserved to die. The one that deserved to be left alone up on that hill. The one tha...

It wasn't just any "Greeks". It was "some Greeks"! This is another passage that, if just reading over to get to the end of our "daily reading plan", we could easily miss. In fact, the statement "Sir, we would see Jesus" was posted on the wall of the church I went to when I was a younger Christian. Even though I saw this for several years, several times each week, I still missed it. Here are some Greeks that have come to talk to Jesus. Was Jesus impressed? Here some of the "enlightened ones" that have come to discuss His cause. Greeks were well known for trying to find truth wherever it may be. Not necessarily to be changed by the truth. Simply to be enlightened by knowledge of the truth. Jesus speaks directly to their need to hear the truth while putting them in a position of decision. It is not nearly enough to know the truth, you must react to the truth for it to be of value to you. Jesus was on a schedule so in a br...

I find it rather interesting that John does not talk much about the Triumphal Entry. Other gospels are much more informative about this event. One of the reasons may be the intent of the writer. John's purpose was not to inform the reader of events that occurred. His purpose was to explain the events that would lead the reader to believe. What does that mean to us? I would think that there are certain parts of his Gospel that were expounded on more or less so that we would get more than just a history lesson. Yes I know all scripture is inspired and alive and powerful enough to change us. John is just somehow different. (in my opinion) The thing that stuck out to me in this passage was that the disciples did not understand these events as they were happening. John points that out in verse 16. He then goes on to point out that after Jesus "was glorified", they remembered that these things were written about Him before hand. Isn't it funny that when we are...

I must confess. I was going to skip over this section. Three verses. Not much to say. Not much to account for. Wrong. Once I quit reasoning my way and listened to the Holy Spirit There was some very important points in these three verses. 1. Often times great persecution or tribulation follow great victories. I cannot tell you how many times I have watched myself and others have great victory in an area of our walk with Jesus, only to see great failure follow. Marriages financial successes, relationships, salvations, deliverences, freedom from addictions, you name it. Sometimes I think it would be better to not have the triumphs just to avoid the failures. Wrong thinking. God brings us successes to bring glory to Him. that brings me to point number two. 2. Make sure the focus of the successes stays squarely on God's grace. Not your own efforts, or luck, or good fortune. Can you imagine Lazarus telling the crowds "Look at me! I conquered death" "I ...

This is such a beautiful passage. Just the image of Mary pouring out expensive ointment on Jesus' feet then drying His feet with her hair, leave a lasting impression. In another gospel it states the jar was made from alabaster. All of this points to a very expensive tribute to the one that had raised her brother from the dead. If that was truly what the point was a way to thank Jesus then it would be easy to understand. Jesus rebuked Judas for saying the ointment should have been sold and the money used to help the poor. He said to let her keep this for his burial. What an interesting statement to make. Do you think Mary knew? Do you think it was perhaps more than a very expensive thank you? Jesus also makes a very pointed statement about the poor being with us always but to set apart time, resources and convenience to worship Him while he is with us. For me, it is so very easy to get wrapped up in "good works" that I forget to worship the very one I a...

You know I hate to even title this "Jesus Raises Lazarus" Yes, it is the coolest miracle ever. Yes, it is an important reference in our faith. Yes it has become one of the more sermon topics ever. But I want to talk about the shortest verse in the Bible. Verse 35. Did you see verse 35? Did you? Did you really study it? Did you get out your Bible concordance and study every word? Jesus wept. You don't know how this leaps out at me. How this touches me in places no other scripture does! Why did Jesus weep? It sure wasn't for Lazarus. Jesus already said several times that Lazarus was going to live. Jesus wept because He saw the anguish that Mary was going through! He wept because He cared so much for Mary He felt her pain even when He knew the end result was going to bless her socks off! What a savior! What a friend! What a deliverer! Of course we know He cares about each of us like that. He is moved when when are suffering when we are lonely, whe...