Friday | Week 15
The Gospel of John finishes with the best of news: the tomb is empty! Jesus is Lord! He is risen from the dead and He is the Lord! Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! He has conquered death, and through the power of His resurrection, we are offered new life! As the final entry in this devotional, let’s focus on John 21:25, the very last verse in this Gospel: Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
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Friday | Week 14
When looking into the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life, it is vital to try and gain a fresh perspective. From His miraculous birth in a feeding trough to His humiliating death on a criminal’s cross, over time the narratives can become so familiar that the spark isn’t always there. Take the Gospel of John, chapter eighteen for example. Jesus was arrested, taken before the Jewish leaders, denied by one of his closest friends, and presented to the Roman governor, Pilate, for sentencing. The Jews saw an obvious violation leading to Jesus’ conviction to death. We know this to be the case.
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Friday | Week 13
In the spring of 2019, Barbara and I had the privilege of touring Israel with a group from Redeemer. A particular highlight of that trip was getting to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, just outside the walls of Jerusalem, near the Kidron Valley.
It was impactful to be able to stand in that spot and try to imagine what it would have been like for Jesus on the night He was arrested.
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Friday | Week 12
Jesus’ great discourse in John 13 through 16, in a pre-eminent way, provides comfort and consolation to his disciples whose hearts were troubled. They must have been particularly troubled by the growing realization that the One who loved them dearly and whose presence and affection they deeply desired, the One they had come to know as the Son of God, was soon to depart from the world and return to the Father. After foretelling of Peter’s denial, Jesus opens by saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1, ESV). And again in closing He says, “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, ESV). He gives them good reason to take heart as He describes the abiding relationship with Him and the Father, which they can experience.
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Friday | Week 11
How can we show the most honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? We submit to him and we follow his example in submitting to others. The idea of submission in today’s America is completely foreign, and frankly, unacceptable. It’s a bad word. Americans are not wired to submit. We are wired to follow the American dream. We are wired to compete and to succeed at all costs. We celebrate and admire the best and brightest in our society. We look to the rich and famous to push our culture and our “norms” forward. Submitting to someone else is a bad word in America, 2020.
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