Devotionary

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Ep 322 – John 7 Nov 05, 2017

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Living water. What in the world is that? For some of us, our familiarity with these kinds of terms, found throughout the New Testament, makes us comfortable with them, but not necessarily aware of their meaning. They can become like so much white noise, spiritual-sounding words that have long lost their significance in our lives, if they ever had any to begin with. But when Jesus talked about living water, those who heard Him were taken aback at His choice of words. What was He talking about? What kind of water was He referring to? And Jesus' choice of location and timing are critical to understanding the meaning behind His somewhat cryptic terminology. Chapter seven of John tells us that it was the annual Jewish festival called the Feast of Booths. Jesus had made His way into Jerusalem for this event and about halfway through the days set aside for its celebration, He appeared at the temple, and began to teach. He created quite a stir by claiming to be speaking on behalf God. His detractors accused Him of being demon-possessed. And the Jewish officials become so incensed, they sent soldiers to arrest Him. Then, on the last day of the feast, Jesus makes what we will see is a well-timed statement about living water. He dramatically offers Himself as the solution to mankind's unrelenting thirst for spiritual meaning and significance. He presents Himself as a source of water that not only sustains physical life, but makes possible eternal life.

Ep 321 – John 6 Nov 04, 2017

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In John chapter six, we have the feeding of the five thousand – a very familiar story to most of us. By this time in the timeline of Jesus' ministry, He has become a very popular figure. He is attracting large crowds, due to His growing reputation as a worker of miracles. News has gotten out that He heals the sick and performs miraculous signs. The rumor mills are churning out all kinds of information regarding Jesus, both true and false. And before long, He finds Himself being pursued by everyone from the merely curious to the deathly ill. He is attracting thrill seekers as well as God seekers. And one day, surrounded by a growing crowd made up of all kinds of people, Jesus issues a challenge to His 12 disciples. He presents them with a seemingly impossible conundrum that tests not only the limits of their financial resources, but their faith. Within the crowd that day were all kinds of people, each hungry for something. Each had a need, including the 12 disciples. And Jesus is going to address the root problem behind their need. It was not physical in nature, but spiritual. The healings and miracles were attracting crowds, but that is not what Jesus came to do. He had not come to provide temporary relief from illness or a short-term solution to hunger. He was the bread of life. He was the sin-forgiving, eternal life-giving, righteousness-providing Son of God.

Ep 320 – John 5 Nov 03, 2017

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I always find it interesting that there are those who refuse to accept that Jesus was the Son of God. They have always been around. They were there in Jesus's day. And in each generation, these people always make the same claim: That Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God. Well, even if you want to refuse to believe that Jesus made that claim, you have to admit that the religious leaders of His day certainly thought He had. That's the main reason they wanted Him dead. It's the reason they accused Him of blasphemy. In fact, in today's episode, based on John 5, we see the religious leaders seeking to kill Him, "because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5:18 ESV). But Jesus really wasn't out to make a big deal of His deity. He was more concerned about His mission. He had no problem owning His divine nature, but He was far more interested in doing what He had been sent to do. He was out to do the will of the one who had sent Him: His own Father. Jesus wasn't interested in accomplishing His own will. He wanted to obey the will of the Father, so He sought to know and accomplish that will on a daily basis.

Ep 319 – John 4 Nov 02, 2017

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The woman at the well. You're probably familiar with the story. After all, it's a classic picture of Jesus going against cultural norms and rocking the proverbial world of His day. He shows up at a Samaritan village and strikes up a conversation with a woman who is there to gather water. This was not a chance encounter, but a divine appointment. When this woman had gotten up that morning she never dreamed that he typical ho-hum day was going to include a visit with the Son of God. This story reveals far more than Jesus' propensity to reach out to the less fortunate and the less-than-accepted of His day. He wasn't just ministering to this woman's spiritual needs, He was exposing the society's addiction to anything and everything but God to meet its needs. This woman was a case study in humanity's obsessive search for satisfaction and meaning. John chapter four provides a glimpse into mankind's Don Quixote-like quest for identity, hope, purpose and love. Jesus would reveal that He was greater than anything this woman could ever hope to find. He was life. He was living water. He was the One who could quench every thirst this woman had, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Ep 318 – John 3 Nov 01, 2017

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Some of us have heard the phrase, "born again" so often that we can hardly stand the sound of it anymore. But how could something that used to have a rich and dramatically important meaning become so pedestrian to most of us? In today's episode on the third chapter of John, we are going to hear Jesus use those two powerful words to explain something exciting and life-changing to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was searching for significance and risking his reputation by talking to this upstart rabbi from Nazareth. Nicodemus shows up at night, an indication that he wanted his encounter with Jesus to remain as incognito as possible. He started out his clandestine encounter with Jesus with flattery, telling him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for on one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." But Jesus doesn't even take time to thank him. He simply starts talking about being born again. And this unexpected turn in the topic of conversation leaves Nicodemus dazed and confused. It wasn't what he came to hear, but he was about to find out that it was exactly what he desperately needed to hear. Jesus was sharing words of life, abundant life and eternal life. He was dropping a bombshell on that would rock Nicodemus' comfortable world of righteousness earned through self-effort.

Ep 317 – John 2 Oct 31, 2017

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Would you like to have a glimpse of Jesus' glory? At the very early stages of His earthly ministry, Jesus performed a miracle at a wedding. Not everyone noticed, but the disciples and Mary, the mother of Jesus, were probably well aware of what had just taken place. Jesus had come to the rescue of the wedding host, who had run out of wine for the festivities. Jesus had the servants fill casks with water and the He miraculously turned the water into wine. Not exactly a simple parlor trick. And John describes it as the "first glimpse of his glory." This was just the beginning. There would be much more to come. And isn't that what we would like to see? Wouldn't it be great if Jesus would do a little wine-into-water action in our lives? But when we read these stories we fail to remember that Jesus has done something far greater in our world. He has turned sinful men and women, condemned to death for their rebellion against God, into children of God. He has brought the spiritually dead back to life. He has restored those who were God's enemies into friends of God. Jesus has restored sight to the blind, who had been living in spiritual darkness. What Jesus did that day was a glimpse of what was to come: Transformation. God-ordained, supernatural, Spirit-empowered transformation of something ordinary into something extraordinary.

Ep 315 – John Introduction Oct 30, 2017

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Today, we begin a new study in the gospel of John. One of the things that sets the gospel of John apart from the other three gospels is its emphasis on Jesus' deity. He gives the purpose statement behind his gospel in the last two verses of the final chapter: "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." He wanted his readers to believe in the deity of Jesus. He was the God/Man, God incarnate. He was not just another rabbi, teacher, moralist, or martyr. Jesus was God in human flesh, who was sent on a mission by His Father to redeem man from the condemnation of sin and the penalty of death. He was the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ, who came to pay the penalty for man's sin and offer His life as a substitutionary atonement for all those who believed. Belief will be a key word throughout the gospel, with the more traditional Greek word for faith, pistis, never used once.

As we work our way through this phenomenal book, be sure to read along each day so that you get the full flavor of the text we will be covering. This podcast is meant to compensate your reading of God's Word, not replace it. So, get out your Bible and let's get started with the Gospel of John.

Ep 316 – John 1 Oct 30, 2017

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Who was Jesus? There are a lot of opinions as to the answer to that question. Some say He was just another man, a good man, but a man nonetheless. Others say He was a great teacher and left us a wonderful example to follow, not unlike Gandhi or Mother Teresa. Still others claim He never existed at all. He is a myth, a figment of man's fertile imagination. And yet, there are still those who believe Him to be who He claimed to be: The Son of God and the Savior of the world. The author of the book of John, also known as the Gospel of John, would fall into the latter category. And because the author of John was the disciple of Jesus who bore that name, He has some very strong and extremely personal opinions about who Jesus was and what He came to accomplish. John's gospel is very intimate, providing us with an up-close and personal glimpse into the life of the Son of God. He will introduce Jesus as the Word of God, the co-creator of the universe, working alongside the Father and the Spirit to produce all that exists in the world. But Jesus is also the God-man, God in human flesh, come to earth to redeem sinful men from the self-imposed death sentence. In the very first chapter alone, John will use a wide range of names, titles, metaphors and designations to describe His teacher, friend, rabbi, and Savior.

Ep 314 – 2 Corinthians 13 Oct 29, 2017

Show notes

With this episode, we'll wrap up our study in 2 Corinthians. We'll close it out by looking at the final chapter in the book, chapter 13. In it, Paul is going to demand that the Corinthian believers test themselves. He wants them to do some serious soul-searching to determine if they are really in the faith, or not. As we will see, Paul is not really questioning their salvation, as much as he is raising some serious doubts about the effectiveness of their sanctification. The problem as he saw it, was that their lifestyle wasn't tracking with their profession of faith. Their behavior was not matching their belief. For Paul, life change was non-optional for the believer. True conversion brought about true life transformation. Spiritual maturity is to be characterized by increasing Christ-likeness. Transformation into the likeness of Christ is one of the primary byproducts of coming to faith in Christ. Paul was done having his authority as an apostle questioned. He was through letting the Corinthians raise doubts about his credentials and his right to speak for Christ. They needed to spend more time examining their own lives. They needed to concentrate on becoming who God had called them to be, rather than worrying if Paul was who he claimed to be.

Ep 313 – 2 Corinthians 12 Oct 28, 2017

Show notes

Power in weakness. That is NOT a part of the American cultural mindset. Weakness is nothing more than what it is: weakness; and it is to be avoided at all costs. We are strength-addicted. We want strong bodies, strong portfolios, healthy and robust social lives, strong kids, strong marriages, and the protection of a strong military infrastructure, backed by a strong government that reflects our strongly held political beliefs. But, as we will see in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is going to take a dramatically different approach to life, finding pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and troubles. It would be easy to write off Paul as a man with some serious issues. He wasn't realistic about life. Or maybe he didn't really know what it was like to suffer. But Paul will make it perfectly clear that he was well-acquainted with sufferings of all kinds. He was the poster-boy of suffering. But rather than loathe the trials and tribulations of life, Paul saw them as unique opportunities to watch God work. Because he had learned from experience that God's power is made perfect in man's weakness. So, in essence, his weakness was actually the key to discovering and experiencing true strength.

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