Tag: Apostle John

Today’s passage: John 18:1–27

Focus verse: Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow. (John 18:27)

Peter has pledged he would die to protect his teacher (John 13:37). I’m sure he meant what he said—at the time. When we’re at our best, I suspect we might say the same thing.

If Jesus is the most important priority in our lives, we can best prove our commitment by dying for his cause.

Yet, when we face pressure and fear confronts us, we waffle. We cave. Our pledge of complete support for Jesus’s mission only goes as far as our comfort level or personal safety.

With gut-wrenching reality, the life of Peter shows this.

Right after the disciple makes his bold pledge of support, Jesus counters his claim, predicting that by daybreak—before the rooster crows at dawn’s first light—Peter will disown Jesus, not once but three times (John 13:38). 

I suspect Peter doesn’t believe his Master. But he should. We all should.

At Jesus’s arrest, Peter does his best to protect his Rabbi. He whips out his sword and slashes at the high priest’s servant. 

Remember, Peter’s a fisherman, not a soldier. Just because he carries a sword doesn’t mean he knows how to use it.

He goes for the head. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a downward stroke at the man’s crown or a sideways slice at his neck, Peter misses. He only gets an ear (John 18:10). 

Though John doesn’t mention it, other biographers do: At this point the disciples scatter, just as Jesus predicted. The bold and boisterous Peter flees too. Protecting themselves is more important than standing with their Messiah.

Afterward, Peter and another disciple (whom I suspect is John) gather enough courage to return. In the high priest’s courtyard, one of the servant girls recognizes Peter as one of Jesus’s disciples. 

“No, I’m not,” he says.

Later in the night, standing by a fire to warm themselves, another person asks Peter if he’s a disciple. Again, Peter denies it. But a relative of the man whose ear Peter sliced off confirms he saw Peter in the garden with Jesus during the arrest.

Peter denies his Master a third time. A rooster crows.

The Bible often repeats things three times for emphasis, to make a point. The most common example is saying that God is “Holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 4:8).

Here, Peter denies knowing Jesus three times. This isn’t a singular instance. He disowns Jesus threefold. It’s confirmation that he means what he says, as if putting a couple of exclamation points at the end of his denial.

Questions:

1. What is the biggest priority in your life? Why?
2. How willing are you to die for Jesus? 
3. How willing are you to be arrested and go to jail for him? 
4. When you fear for your safety, do you fight, freeze, or flee? Why?
5. Will you stand for him regardless of what it might cost?

Discover more about the gravity of denying Jesus in 2 Timothy 2:12. What insights can you glean from this passage?

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

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Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: John 17:1–19

Focus verse: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

With the time of his arrest drawing near and having given his final teaching to his disciples, Jesus prays. This isn’t a quick, God-help-me prayer. It’s an intentional and fervent outpouring of his heart to his Father in heaven.

This prayer is by far the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the Bible. As such his words are worthy of our focus. Each phrase is noteworthy, but the key one is eternal life—his reason for coming to earth in the first place.

After Jesus confirms that his purpose is to give people eternal life, he explains what this life everlasting is. Eternal life is knowing his Papa, the one and only true God.

It’s also about knowing Jesus, the Messiah, whom God sent. Since Jesus and the Father are one, knowing God the Father and God the Son produces the same result. It’s a relationship with the God seen throughout Scripture. 

This explanation of eternal life may not be the clarification we want, but it aligns with John’s poetic writing style. It’s noteworthy that John mentions eternal life more than any other biblical writer, with nineteen mentions in John and six more in 1 John.

Eternal life has two phases.

The part of life eternal that we gravitate to most is our forever future with Jesus in heaven. By believing in Jesus and following him here on earth, we secure a future reality for us with him in heaven when our body dies. Our spirit will live on in eternity with Jesus. 

In anticipation, we look forward to this: a new heaven and a new earth (2 Peter 3:13 and Revelation 21:1). At this time, righteousness will rule, which suggests no more sin.

In this idyllic afterlife, there will be no more tears. The threat of death will end. We will not mourn, or cry, or suffer pain. Our memories from earth will fade from our mind (Revelation 21:4).

But eternal life isn’t only about our future. It also addresses our present. To better grasp this, consider what Jesus says about the kingdom of God (kingdom of heaven).

When we say yes to Jesus, eternal life begins at that moment. Though we may not realize it, we live today in the reality of a life eternal. Yes, our experience of eternal life will get better after we die, but we must remember that we’ve already started that journey.

Day by day we move toward perfection through Jesus. That is, God sanctifies us (John 17:19 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23) and perfects us (Hebrews 10:14). This moves us into a fuller realization of eternal life with Jesus (John 4:13–14).

Jesus came to give us eternal life, starting now.

Questions:

1. How often do you have an intentional, fervent outpouring to God, like Jesus did in today’s reading?
2. What can you do to better know God the Father and God the Son?
3. How well do you do at accepting that eternal life begins here on earth?
4. What are you doing today to make the most of Jesus’s eternal life? 
5. What can you do to point others to Jesus?

Discover more about eternal life in John 3:14–17, John 6:27, John 6:47, and John 6:68. What insights can you glean from these passages?

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

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Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: John 15:18–John 16:5

Focus verse: “They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.” (John 16:2)

Too many people do not see God at work and instead oppose those who follow him in fresh ways.

Jesus warns his followers about what awaits them. First, their church (that is, their synagogue) will expel them. We’ve already seen this threatened in Day 16, “Rule Follower” and Day 22, “Faith or Fear?”

Beyond that, people will kill them. Religious persecution is what Saul (later called Paul) does in the first part of the book of Acts before he encounters Jesus and goes all in to serve his Savior.

These opponents—these persecutors of faith—will do so in the name of their religion. They assume they’re acting in service to God, but their actions oppose him instead.

This means these killers aren’t coming from the world but from within God’s family. Though we should expect persecution from secular society when we go all in to follow Jesus, opposition shouldn’t come from among God’s other children. Yet it does.

Throughout history, this internal persecution happens whenever a new move of God occurs. The biggest movement of God was Jesus coming to fulfill the Old Testament law.

Many of the Jews don’t see this, and so they oppose him. They end up killing him. He’s a martyr and a human sacrifice—one to end the need for all sacrifices. 

This pattern of religious conflict continues from the time of Jesus. Consider the Reformation. In that era, Christians opposed other Christians. Christians hated other Christians. And Christians killed other Christians. 

Another sad time of Christian versus Christian hostility happened at the birth of the Charismatic movement. This occurred in the early 1900s and again at its rebirth in the 1960s.

Each time God is at work doing a new thing. Each time, many of his people mount a significant opposition. And God’s messengers suffer as a result.

Don’t label the people who follow God into his new ways of doing things as heretics and oppose them.

Instead, we’d be better to heed the words of Gamaliel who tells the religious leaders, “Don’t bother with them. If they’re doing this on their own, they’ll fail. But if it’s of God, we can’t stop them—and could end up fighting against God himself” (Acts 5:38–39).

That is, don’t fight against God and the work he is doing.

When we peer into the past, we easily spot the errors of people who missed seeing God’s movement. It’s much harder to spot God at work when we’re living in the middle of it and people align as being for or against it.

But instead of removing the people we disagree with from our church, we should check and see if God is at work. 

Instead of arguing, let’s listen.

Questions:

1. When have you opposed other Christians in the name of religion? 
2. What can you do to not repeat this mistake? 
3. When have other Christians opposed or persecuted you? Was it justified?
4. How do you react when the world persecutes you?
5. What must you do to listen and not argue?

Discover how the early church dealt with disagreement in Acts 15:1–21. What insights can you glean from this passage?

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

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Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: John 15:1–17

Focus verse: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Farmers who grow grapes and fruit know a truth that seems counterintuitive to everyone else. An unpruned vine or tree doesn’t produce much fruit, if any. To the uninformed, it seems backward. Logic suggests that the more branches, the more fruit. But this isn’t the case. 

Though a vine or fruit tree may have many branches loaded with flowers, too many blossoms produce small and undesirable fruit, which are worthless for sale and of little use.

In extreme cases it produces no fruit. This is because the plant divides its sustenance between all the branches and flowers. If it has too many blossoms, none of the blooms receive enough nourishment to thrive. As a result, the harvest disappoints.

Given this, wise farmers prune their grapes and fruit trees with care. With practiced skill, they cut off the weak branches, the damaged limbs, and the competing boughs so that the remaining healthy ones can thrive and produce much fruit.

So it is with us and Jesus. 

This word picture of vine and branches helps us better understand our Messiah. He is the vine (such as a grapevine or a fruit tree), and we are the branches.

In this, Jesus is the source of our nourishment. He’s the giver of life. He is the means of our support, our sustenance, and our existence. Without him we are nothing and can do nothing.

For us, as branches, we completely depend on him. We can produce fruit only through him. Just as farmers trim fruit trees and grapevines to produce more fruit, so too, God prunes us to be more productive for him. 

A more sobering thought is cutting off unproductive branches from the vine. What a horrifying image, to have our life severed from Jesus. Yet, even if our unproductive nature has separated us from Jesus, we have hope.

Paul mentions branches grafted—that is, reattached—back onto the tree. The grafted branch can again receive life-giving sustenance and survive.

Later in John, Jesus reminds us that he loves us, chooses us, and appoints us to bear fruit for him. Take comfort in this and go produce fruit.

Questions:

1. What fruit are you producing? 
2. Is your attention divided between too many things? What can you eliminate so you can produce more fruit?
3. How open are you to Jesus pruning you to produce more? 
4. What must you change to make sure you’re getting your nourishment from him?
5. If you ever feel lopped off from the vine, do you believe Jesus can graft you back?

Discover more about grafted branches in Romans 11:11–24. What insights can you glean from this passage?

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

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Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Today’s passage: John 14:15–31

Focus verse: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16–17)

Jesus promises to send us an advocate, the Holy Spirit. As our advocate, he will guide us and live in us forever. Holy Spirit and Spirit occur hundreds of times in Scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments.

The synonym advocate is much less common, appearing only six times. Five are in John’s writings and the sixth one in Job.

An advocate is someone who stands for us before another, such as arguing our case, offering support, or pleading on behalf of someone else. The Holy Spirit serves as our advocate to Father God.

Through Scripture we learn of a second role of our Advocate. Sent from God for our benefit, the Advocate will teach us what we need to know and remind us of Jesus’s words. He will help us do what we should do. And he will live in us forever.

A third name for the Holy Spirit is “Spirit of truth.” This only occurs in John’s writing. Since John is a poet, it makes sense that he would use this intriguing phrase. This phrase occurs three times in his biography of Jesus and once more in his first letter.

In each instance in the book of John, he quotes Jesus as saying the “Spirit of truth.”

In these contexts, Jesus talks of sending an Advocate to help us and be with us forever. He refers to the Holy Spirit. This makes the Spirit of truth a synonym for the Holy Spirit.

I like the label Spirit of truth. It better conveys who the Holy Spirit is and what he does: he comes to show us the truth.

In his first letter, John writes about discerning between the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception, Satan. This is an important distinction to make. Not all that’s spiritual is good.

Though I doubt people will start referring to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth, remember that the Holy Spirit, our Advocate, shows us God’s truth.

Questions:

1. What do you think about having an Advocate in heaven?
2. What do you think about having an Advocate to teach you and remind you what Jesus said?
3. How is the Holy Spirit at work in your life? 
4. Do you embrace his power or pull away? Why?
5. How do you react to the line “Not all that’s spiritual is good”?

Discover more about the Advocate in Job 16:19, John 15:26, John 16:7, and 1 John 2:1. Read about the Spirit of truth in John 16:13 and 1 John 4:6. What insights can you glean from these passages?

Read the next lesson or start at the beginning of this study.

Tips: Check out our tips to use this online Bible study for your church, small group, Sunday school class, or family discussion. It’s also ideal for personal study. Come back each Monday for a new lesson.

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Read more in Peter’s new book, Living Water: 40 Reflections on Jesus’s Life and Love from the Gospel of John, available everywhere in e-book, paperback, and hardcover.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.