At the end of October 2015 I was praying about how to finish this year’s reading of the Bible and the thought of studying the gospel of John landed in my mind pretty forcefully. What has followed is a 21-day series called Look at the Lamb.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Outro & Day 21)”
Verses 1-10: Mary Magdalene was distraught with grief and couldn’t sleep so she goes to be as near to Jesus as she thinks she can. Even being near to a dead Jesus is surely better than no Jesus at all. But the stone rolled away and an empty tomb? Mary’s anxious mind first jumps to further insult to injury rather than a miracle of God in her midst.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 20)”
Verses 1-16: The first 8 words of this chapter take one second to read. Scenes from Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ come to mind as we can only imagine what this ‘flogging’ looked like. Isaiah (52:14) gives us a better idea, approximately 760 years before, who details the Lamb for us,
But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human and, from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
Verses 1-14: Two gardens are separated by a dark valley – sound familiar? Jesus leads His men from the scene of the Vine discourse, through the Kidron Valley, to the garden of Gethsemane where Jesus would be arrested. It was a place that the company often went to because Judas knew it well (verse 2). The betrayer Iscariot led a detachment of Roman Soldiers to their secret lair, complete with weapons and torches. It was night time and they evidently expected a fight. (see verse 36).Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 18)”
Verses 1-5: It’s good to continue to hear the echo of 16:33 as we start with 17:1 because this unique window into Jesus’ prayer life starts with,
After Jesus *said this*, he looked towards heaven and prayed…
The ‘said this’ is of course the knock-out verse from the previous verse and chapter,
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
This short section teaches us to have a faith-filled confidence in the completed work of Christ when we approach God in prayer, a victory that demolishes any trouble that Satan, or any evil group, can muster. Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 17)”
Verses 1 – 4a: Chapter 16 sees Jesus offer words of comfort to the disciples, although they may not have seen it that way initially. He wants His followers to know that they most definitely will face opposition. He doesn’t try to pull the wool over their eyes by painting a rosy picture of the kind of life a true disciple of His would face. He wants them to see that following Him carries a high cost. He is completely honest with them so that their faith in Him would not be shaken when opposition came their way and they would not fall away as a result. Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 16)”
Verses 1-17: Here Jesus uses the analogy of a grape vine to describe how we should relate to Jesus. The word ‘remain’ (NIV) or ‘abide’ (NKJV) is repeated 11 times in 10 verses. Similarly, the word ‘fruit’ is repeated 7 times in 8 verses. Repetition is a technique used by writers to emphasise something that’s important; something that they don’t want you to miss.Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 15)”
Verses 1-4:
“Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”
These are good verses for evil days – to remember and commit to memory. Jesus reveals that, somehow, as followers of Christ, we have been given authority over our hearts to not let them be troubled. This isn’t meant to be a robotic attempt to put our heads in the sand, but a faith-based state of heart that we can rest assured in the knowledge that God ‘sees all and knows all’ and has a bigger picture for us one day. This is echoed later in John’s shorter letter,
Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 14)”
Verses 1-17: If you needed any convincing of the importance of the dinner table, (aside from all heart-warming Bisto adverts), just flick back and re-read chapter 12 and then this one, or read Acts and note the centrality of food within a sharing community of prayer – it’s all about the dinner table! But this is no ordinary dinner table; it’s the dinner table for the Last Supper, the last, that is, until we share at the marriage supper of the Lamb when we’ll get to drink the new wine of the new heavens and the new earth in the new City of Jerusalem! (see Rev.19:9).Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 13)”
Verses 1-11: This scene is spectacular! It’s a gospel-scene that requires faith and meditation to fully appreciate because of the threat of familiarity breeding its ugly, callousing contempt in our hearts. There is concentrated wonder for us here but the devil lurks in the shadows to steal, kill and destroy because he knows that wonder is uniquely and inextricably linked to our satisfaction in God and our effectiveness in the world.
Continue reading “Look at the Lamb (Day 12)”
firebrandnotes.com