Today’s passage: John 15:1-11

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel was compared to a vine in the Old Testament (Isaiah 5:1-7).  Christ is the true vine that will not fail to bear fruit.
• To abide in Christ is to continue in relationship with Him.  This would include prayer, meditating on the Scriptures, and fellowship with God’s people and it produces obedience and joy.
• When Adam and Eve sinned, they saw that they were naked and they hid.  When God’s children obey, they have joy and walk in the light (1 John 1:7)

Questions to consider:

1. Compare John 14:15 with 15:2.  What is true of those who say they love Jesus but do not obey (Bear fruit)?  What is true of those who show they love Jesus by bearing fruit?
2. While pruning does not necessarily sound like an enjoyable experience, what emotion will it eventually produce (Verse 11)?
3. If we are abiding in Christ and His words are abiding in us, what kinds of things are we going to wish to ask for?  How does verse 8 help us to answer that question?

Today’s passage: John 14:15-31

Helpful thoughts:

• Christ ascended to the Father, and the Spirit came.  The disciples were “losing” Jesus and gaining the ministry and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  And we have Him today!
• Those who love God, have God, and follow/obey God.
  • For example, a husband who says he loves his wife while he is unfaithful to her is not speaking the truth.  That is not love.
  • If you love Christ you are following Him (Not, you will follow someday, but you are following).
• Before Jesus was arrested, He made sure to let the disciples know the Jews were only able to take Him because it was God’s plan.  God was always in control.

Questions to consider:

1. Why would the disciples have rejoiced in Jesus’ departure if they were loving Him rightly?  What was the purpose of His going away?  How could the disciples have been exited for Jesus?
2. How does a right understanding of what love is help us understand what conversion should like like and result in?
3. In what way did Jesus leave “peace” with His disciples (And with us)?  The Holy Spirit was not an empty parting gift!  How did His promises ensure our victory and our ability to persevere while we await His return?

Today’s passage: John 14:8-14

Helpful thoughts:

• As Moses had asked to see God’s glory (Exodus 33:18), Philip asks Jesus to bring the glory of the Father to them.  Perhaps Philip thought, If Jesus can bring God’s glory before us, then we can be confident in who He is and what He is saying.
• What Philip and the disciples had seen and heard in Jesus, was the glory of God before them (John 1:14).
• The “works” of the disciples (The Apostles) consisted not just of miracles (e.g. healing) but also teaching and seeing lost sinners come to faith in Christ!
  • Greater works (In these areas…especially the conversion of the lost!) would come after Jesus went to the Father, when the Holy Spirit came (Acts 2).

Questions to consider:

1. In what ways had the disciples been experiencing the glory of the Father over those last three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry?  To what events and teaching was Jesus pointing them for comfort?
2. What do we learn about the relationship between the Son and the Father in these verses?  How are they the same?  How do they relate to each other?
3. How would Jesus’ promise of what was to come have comforted the disciples on that day?  In what way might it not have worked so well on that night, but then have provided more encouragement in the months and years ahead?  How can His words encourage you to pursue the conversion of the lost still today?

Today’s passage: John 14:1-7

Helpful thoughts:

• In the moment, the disciples were troubled because their Lord was about to leave them and they did not understand why.  From our perspective, this passage becomes one of great comfort.
• Jesus is in Heaven, preparing a place for us.  A place where we can be with Him.  And He is coming again to take us there.
• This hope and comfort can only be claimed by those who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  He is the only way to eternal life.  He is the only way to the only one true God.

Questions to consider:

1. What is the greatest part of being in Heaven (End of verse 3)?  What are some things you look forward to in Heaven?  Why will being with Jesus be better than anything else we imagine?
2. How do the words, “way,” “truth,” and “life” convey the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Is there a different way to go that will result in eternal life with God?  Is there a different, alternate truth that is as valid and accurate as the truth?  Is there another life than can be lived outside of the life that God grants to His people?
3. What must people in this world know and believe to have eternal life?  What will any other belief system result in? (John 3:18, Revelation 20:11-15)  Let’s tell them!

Today’s passage: John 13:31-38

Helpful thoughts:

• With Judas on his way to betray Jesus, the last chain of events leading to Christ’s crucifixion was in motion.  His glorification (His death for our sin) was beginning.
  • This task was His alone to complete.
• The crucifixion of Jesus is the grounds on which our sin is forgiven.  God’s justice has been executed for our sin through His sacrifice.  The crucifixion is also the highest form of love displayed for God’s people to emulate.
  • Christ gave of himself proactively and sacrificially for our benefit.  There is no greater love.
• Peter’s pride demanded he would be able to lay down his life for Christ.  God’s decree demanded Christ lay His life down for Peter.
  • The same self-centered thinking that motivated Peter to protest Christ’s words (In the appearance of risking his life for the cause) would bring him to deny Christ hours later.

Questions to consider:

1. Christ again refers to the time of His crucifixion as His glorification?  Why is that so?  Why is the most humiliating and terrible death man could devise Christ’s glory?
2. What are some examples of how we could love others in proactive, sacrificial ways?
3. How could pride be behind both Peter’s apparent willingness to die for the cause and his willingness to deny Jesus within a number of hours?  What happens to our “moral compass” when WE (Ourselves) become the magnetic pole?  How is our thinking given clarity when God is our “true north?”

Today’s passage: John 13:21-30

Helpful thoughts:

• As Jesus reveals his betrayer, knowing what is to come, he continues to be troubled.
• The Apostle John is speaking of himself in verse 23.
• Jesus commanded Judas to go do what he intended to do.  His betrayal was no accident.  It was not unforeseen.  It was part of God’s plan for our redemption.
  • Judas was possessed by the devil at this point.  But God was still in control.

Questions to consider:

1. What did the other disciples think Judas was going out to do?  What did they think Jesus had asked him?  What does this indicate about their opinion of Judas still to this point?
2. Why might Satan have entered into Judas at this very moment?  What did Judas try to do after his betrayal was completed (Matthew 27:3-4)?  To whom may Jesus have been talking in verse 27?
3. How is Christ’s love for His own and submission to the Father evidenced in this passage?  Why was He troubled?  What did He do in the face of this distress?

Today’s passage: John 13:1-20

Helpful thoughts:

• Washing feet was one of the lowest and dirtiest of tasks.  No one of any importance would be expected to do such a thing.  God the Son did it.  He did it willingly to teach His disciples (And us) an important lesson.
  • Washing the feet of His disciples was not the lowest of tasks Jesus was going to take on.  Jesus used the washing of their feet to picture what He was about to do.
• To Peter, Jesus’ humble service became a stumbling block.  To many others, it would have looked like foolishness.
  • 1 Corinthians 1:23 – “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”
• If a person is unwilling to admit they need cleansed, and/or if they are unwilling to receive cleansing based on the work of someone else (Especially in the form of a man dying on a cross), that person will not be saved.
  • We have all sinned.  We cannot cleanse ourselves.  We cannot decide how we ought to be cleansed.  We must repent and believe. (John 14:6)

Questions to consider:

1. How is the heart of Christ for his people evidenced in verse 1?  As big and amazing as God is, what comfort and encouragement can we receive knowing that God cares for us (1 Peter 5:7)?
2. Since washing the disciples’ feet wasn’t the lowest task Jesus took on, what was?  What was the greatest humiliation and suffering that Jesus experienced, which was also His glorification?  What did Jesus do for you?
3. If Jesus washed His disciples’ feet and if He died on the cross for you and me, what are we to learn about service?

Today’s passage: John 12:44-50

Helpful thoughts:

• Jesus did not come to judge in his first advent, He came to save.  But, judgment will be given to Him (John 5:22).
• To obey God’s commandment to believe in Jesus Christ is eternal life for the believer.
  • To reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is to disobey God’s command and to remain in darkness (Which is where we all naturally begin, in sin).
• To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe in God the Father.
  • To reject Jesus Christ is to reject God altogether.

Questions to consider:

1. Who appears to exercise ultimate authority within the Godhead?  Is the Son inferior to the Father (The answer is no…)?  How does submission within the Godhead help us to better understand the definition of submission as it relates to human relationships?  Why isn’t submission or authority an identifier of greater or lesser worth?
2. What did God do for you when you believed in Jesus?  By God’s grace, what happened to you?  What is the eternal consequence of your salvation?
3. What does it mean now to walk in the light (1 John 1:5-10)?  What was the immediate significance of your conversion?  How does life begin to change?

Today’s passage: John 12:36-43

Helpful thoughts:

• The people saw everything we read in the Gospel of John, and they did not believe.
  • They could not believe (Verse 39).
  • And, they did not want to believe.
• This passage quotes from Isaiah 53:1 and 6:10.
  • In these verses we see God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.  Both are true.
    • God hardens hearts (Romans 9:14-24).  And people willingly reject Him.
    • God also opens blind eyes and brings spiritually dead people to life (Ephesians 2:1-10).
    • See Isaiah 55:8-9
  • These things can be hard to think through (2 Peter 3:15-16), but it is not our responsibility to hold God accountable to our standards.  We answer to Him.
• Many who heard Jesus had a hard time understanding and believing the things He said.  Because of spiritual blindness/deafness, and (Or also) sometimes because they feared man more than Almighty God (Verses 42-43).

Questions to consider:

1. Why is this passage hard to wrap our minds around?  How does the sovereignty of God work with the responsibility of man?  Is anyone going to go to hell who didn’t want to reject God (Romans 1:18-20)?  Is anyone going to go to heaven who wanted to love God all on their own (Romans 3:10-12)?
2. From an eternal, spiritual perspective, what must happen in order for a person to hear about Jesus Christ, hear the gospel message, and believe? (John 3:7-8, Ephesians 1:3-6, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
3. From what might be considered “our” perspective, what must happen in order for a person to hear about Jesus Christ, hear the gospel message, and believe?  What has God instructed us to do?  What is our responsibility? (Matthew 28:19-20, Romans 10:14-17, 2 Corinthians 5:20-21)