Posts with the category “for-second-chances”

As we bring to a close John Season 1, it is worth taking a moment to consider that the place Jesus returns to here at the end of chapter 4 is the same place he performed his first miracle, in Galilee. And not just in Galilee, but Jesus is even going to return to Cana, where the wedding banquet took place and Jesus turned water into wine. In the three chapters that fall between the bookends of Cana...  Read More

Enough time has passed in the Judean countryside for two things to happen; for John the Baptist’s following to decrease as the number of those following Jesus increases, and for word to get back to the Pharisees in Jerusalem, and then back to Jesus, that powerful people are beginning to notice his rise in popularity. Jesus makes the decision that he and his disciples are going to venture north onc...  Read More

Entering into chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, you may notice that we fail to receive a time stamp like we did at the beginning of chapter 2 and throughout incremental parts of chapter 1. Only a short amount of time has likely passed between the cleansing of the temple and this night visit from Nicodemus, and it is worth noting that Jesus is still in Jerusalem, somewhat surprisingly not as one det...  Read More

As you work through the Gospel of John, the symbolic moments of Jesus’ life that brings to light the grand narrative of Scripture should astonish you. The Lamb of God, as John the Baptist appropriately labels Jesus, begins his ministry at the time of Passover, the Jewish festival celebrating the night in Egypt when the Angel of Death passed over the homes of those who had painted their doorposts w...  Read More

When studying the context, especially as it applies to a smaller story within a larger narrative, understanding what took place before and after the main text is crucial.  In Latin the word con means “together”. Joining this with the word texere, which means “weave”, and the most literal meaning for the word context is “to weave together”.In this section of John 2, we take the story of Jesus atten...  Read More

At the end of the Old Testament is the book of Malachi and turning to the beginning of the New Testament we find the Gospel of Matthew. But when you turn what may be just the one page that separates the Old from the New, you are passing through 400 years of silence where God withheld from speaking to the Jewish people. The prophecies foretold of a coming Messiah, the anointed one of God who would ...  Read More

Welcome as you enter, possibly for the very first time, the Gospel according to John. Turning to the beginning of the New Testament you first come across the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So, you might then wonder, why aren’t we starting with the Gospel according to Matthew? What makes John so special?  Read More