The Gospel of John

Jesus
Jesus was born approximately 5 B.C. in the town of Bethlehem, Israel, to a virgin named Mary, who was descended from King David. Raised in Nazareth by Mary and her husband, Joseph, Jesus lived the ordinary life of a carpenter's son. Those who knew him didn't yet know that he was also God's Son. At age 30, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and tempted by the devil into the desert. He then began healing, teaching and performing miracles throughout Judea. He called people to believe in him as the only way to God.

Galilee
Described as hilly country, Galilee was located in the northern part of ancient Israel. Jesus was from Galilee, as were his disciples; much of his ministry took place in Galilee. During the time of Christ, Galilee made up about one-third of the present-day holy land. In more modern times, Galilee was revived through Zionist colonizations. The land became part of modern-day Israel after the Arab-Israeli war in 1948-1949.

Jews
A yellow star stitched on a jacket declares a person's Jewish identity in Germany during World War II. It was not the fist time that being a Jew carried a death sentence, nor was it the first time that the Jews emerged victorious from a plot for their worldwide extermination.

Jews are the physical descendants of Abraham through his grandson Jacob, the father of the Israelites. The label "Jew" came into use after the Babylonian captivity. The stories of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther highlight God's protection of the people in the midst of great danger and opposition.

Life
Do you want to live forever? Jesus Christ says he's the only true way. He says he's the door to a life of abundant blessing. God is the giver of life, and his role as such started with the creation of our ancestors, Adam and Eve. When sin entered the world, we were blocked, not only from having eternal life with God, but also from a meaningful life on this planet. Both can be obtained through God himself.

This is where Jesus enters the picture. He came to give us abundant life. He tells us to give him our cares and stop worrying because worrying doesn't add a single hour to our lives. Jesus also tells us to stop selfishly hoarding our lives; instead, we are to freely give them away by serving him. In a strange paradox, it's only when we lose our lives to him that we gain them back. Jesus reminds us that if we get everything the world has to offer, yet lose our souls, we haven't really lived.

Brothers
Big brothers, babe brothers, blood brothers - all imply a relationship characterized by warmth and similarity of character. Brother can refer to to both natural brothers and "brothers in Christ" (fellow believers). Jesus Christ said that everyone who does the will of God is his brother. Though Jesus is our God, we enter a fraternal relationship with him when we become children of God. Although that does not make us equal with him, Christ is not ashamed to call us his brother or sister.

Disciples
Does disciple sound uncomfortably like "discipline"? It is. A disciple is a person who adheres to the teaching of another - not just believing a certain philosophy, but also applying it to his or her life.

Believe
Beliefs dictate who we are and how we live our lives. To believe in something is to have faith in it. Though it may seem feeble to accept something on faith rather than fact, we all believe many things on different levels without being experts through experience or knowledge. A Christian's life is a demonstration of grounded belief in action.

Merely "believing" in God does not make someone a Christian any more than believing in exercise keeps one in shape; a person must actually exercise to stay in shape. Demons "believe" in God (James 2:19). They know he exists, but they don't choose to follow him. Believing that Jesus Christ is your Savior means believing that Jesus' death pays the penalty for your sin. As a result of this belief you repent-you turn away from your sin-and obey Jesus Christ.

Miracle
Unexplainable healing, the dead raised to life, the sun standing still, strange encounters with supernatural beings, wonders in the sky and other unsolved mysteries - are events like these miracles, coincidences or merely hoaxes? Miracles are occurrences in the physical world that have no natural explanation. Their cause is either still unknown to science or ascribed to the powers of the supernatural. The Bible is filled with stories of miracles performed by God through human beings. God used people to accomplish his purposes (such as parting the Red Sea to bring the Israelites out of Egypt), demonstrate his character (such as sending Jonah to the Ninevites by way of a great fish) and help people believe in him (such as the disciples' ability to heal the sick).

But the greatest miracle worker was Jesus. He said to his disciples, " Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves" (John 14:11).

World
World does not refer to the landmass represented by the globe of the earth; it refers to people, perspectives and practices. When we pray that God loves the whole world, we mean that God loves all people. However, God hates the perspectives and practices that belong to the "prince of this world" (John 12:31), who is Satan (see Satan). That's why Christians are told not to love (see Love) this world. The important thing to remember is that the people God loves and the perspectives and practices he hates are under his control.

Right
International laws stand to protect the dignity, basic freedoms and governmental immunities due each person because of his or her humanity. Sadly, despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, people still face persecution. Christians, though we live in this flawed world, are ultimately under God's rule and protection. Our rights as God's children guarantee freedom from sin's bondage and immunity to spiritual death.

Time
Time governs our lives. Our day planners help us manage it. We eat by it. We sleep by it. We're upset if people don't respect it. God, however is not constrained by time. He created time, and - though it's hard for us to grasp - he exists outside of time. Because he contains time, he knows the future and is able to reveal it in prophecy.

God has a clear understanding of time. In the Bible, he warned that all people should live for him because the time is coming when he will return to the earth. While some believe they can delay serving God, we are commanded to serve God now. We are to take advantage of the moments God gives us to share the gospel.

Evil
Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot - these names are associated with the epitome of evil. With arrogant and wicked (see Wicked) schemes, they brought about unspeakable injustice and shed much innocent blood. Their evil went beyond the sins of racism, prejudice, lying, stealing or murder. It was their persistence and their pride in their atrocities that characterized these men as thoroughly evil.

We would be horrified if someone added our name to this list of wicked men, yet we all have sinful human nature that, without God, is capable of every kind of evil. The Truly evil person loves what God hates and refuses to admit his or her wrong. Avoid evil, for god will one day completely punish all evil.

Hate
Biblically speaking, hatred seems a bit confusing. We are commanded not to hate, yet sometimes we are commanded to hate. If we hate what is good, that is bad. If we hate what is bad, that is good. In other words, love what God loves, and hate what God hates. Hatred can be both a positive and negative action. The phrase "Love the sinner but hate the sin" expresses this concept well. Just as God loves humanity but detests sin, we are to love fellow sinners but hate sinful deeds.

Ask
To ask means to "call on" or to "request." God definitely wants us to come to him and make our requests. Psalm 62:8 tells us to "pour out [our] hearts to him." Read through the Psalms, and you'll see King David asking for things unashamedly.

Teach
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day," the old saying goes, but "teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Teaching and learning are also crucial to our Christian faith. Learning is the first step, in fact, to telling others about Jesus Christ. Jesus taught the people about God. He explained what the Scriptures meant, and he taught with an incredible authority that the people had never seen before. In fact, the people called him Rabbi, which means "teacher." Jesus told us to carry on his work. We are to instruct people not only in the facts about salvation, but also in how to obey God and apply what they hear.

Teaching is a God-given ability, or spiritual gift; however, it doesn't guarantee that a person with this ability is always right. The Bible warns against Listening to and teaching faulty information about God's truth (see Truth).

Temple
After Jesus' death and resurrection, god no longer dwelt in a building made by human hands, but in the believing human heart. Because the Holy Spirit lives in each believer our very own bodies are his temples. Today a church building is not the temple, but it is where many "temples" of the Holy Spirit gather to worship God weekly.

Choose
God demonstrates that he values choice because he created human beings with the capacity to choose. We are not robots, programmed to mindlessly follow his directions. We may choose to accept or reject his gifts, commands and promises. He gave Adam (see Adam) and Eve (see Eve) the opportunity to obey or disobey. When they chose to go their own way and eat the forbidden fruit, God honored their choice. He also allowed them to experience the consequences. Scripture is filled with admonitions to choose wisely, to choose to obey, to choose to serve God. We are responsible for how we choose to life- and accountable for the consequences.

God
When you look at your watch, you know that an intelligent person designed it. It didn't just come into existence by itself. What about your wrist - isn't it more complicated than your watch? Didn't an intelligent person design your wrist too? We call the One who designed these things God, our Creator, the One who spoke the word and created the universe.

God has spoken to us in terms we can understand. The Bible is the record of his revelation - what he wants us to know about himself. God also became flesh and blood in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is 100 percent human and 100 percent God. Want to know what God is like? Study the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Honor
We set apart those whom we honor: red carpets are rolled out, flashy medals are given and achievements are celebrated. Honor is reserved for the worthiest individuals and organizations, and by honoring them, we openly demonstrate our respect and esteem for them.

As Christians, the most important person we can honor is God himself. He tells us that showing kindness to others and living a morally upright life are ways to honor him. We also honor God by humbly acknowledging his power and our dependence on him.

We also honor the Lord through honoring others - including our parents, a command that made God's "top ten list," the Ten Commandments.

Truth
What is truth? God is truth. Everything he says we can believe. There is no deception, no hypocrisy, no half-truth in God. Our finite minds can't fully comprehend God or understand all his mysteries, but he is everything he says he is: the all-powerful, just, loving Creator of everything that exists. How do we know right from wrong? God alone, because he is truth, provides an accurate standard for ethics and morality. Whatever he does and commands us to do is right. Anything God hates and forbids us to do is wrong.

Work
God created us with a need to engage in meaningful, productive labor - it's part of being made in his image. God worked for seven days to create the earth (see Creation), and then he rested (see Rest).

Moses
As the son of an Israelite slave, Moses should have been killed at birth. Instead, his parents raised him secretly for three months, then place him in a floating basket among the reeds of the Nile River. No one could have guessed this baby would one day become one of the Bible's greatest leaders, and at the same time, the humblest of men.

Eighty years later, Moses was herding sheep in a desert when God recruited him for an incredible rescue mission. With God's help, Moses led the Israelites - over a million people - out of Egypt. Over the next 40 years, the Israelites faced the Egyptian army, walked through the Red Sea, drank water from a rock (twice!), heard firsthand the Ten Commandments, survived in the desert and finally reached the promised land. Today we remember Moses as a powerful leader, a servant of God and a man of faith.

Possessed
Demons are a reality though we don't readily discuss them in this scientific age. Demons are able to torment and afflict people. Such attacks are sometimes called "possession."

However, demons only have power in the lives of those who are not close to Christ. Our Lord is more powerful than demonic forces; in fact, they are afraid of him. By belonging to Jesus Christ, we have the upper hand, for he has given us the power to exorcizes demons by using the name of Jesus Christ.

Circumcision
Technically, circumcision is the removal of the male foreskin. Today the procedure is commonly performed on newborn boys, mainly for health reasons. In ancient times it was practiced among certain people groups. When God made a covenant with Abraham, the founder of the Jewish nation, he asked Abraham to circumcise all the males in his family and his servants' families as a sign of the promise God had arranged with him. This set Abraham's descendants apart from the people around them, reminding them that they must follow God's laws. While other groups practiced circumcision, it was not for reasons of a covenant with God.

Sabbath
We live in a fast-paced society in which people brag about their lack of sleep and the schedules that keep them going "24/7." Our culture promotes busyness as a measurement of status, wealth and quality of life. But that's not the way God created human beings to function. God "rested" from the work of creation (see Creation), and he is a model for the regular habit of rest that the Bible calls the "Sabbath."

Healing
Jesus Christ walked this earth healing all sorts of diseases and bringing words of life to repair broken hearts and misled spirits. He healed out of compassion and, often, in response to an individual's faith.

Judge
In the Bible, the book of Job tells of a man who's loyalties to God were tested when God allowed him to be stripped of his wealth, children and health. Job's friends thought they had the answer: Job must have done something wrong. Why else would God do this to him? They were judging Job's heart, and they were wrong. In fact, God had allowed bad things to happen to Job to prove how righteous Job was. Judging someone is easy; love takes a whole new kind of heart, the kind Jesus has and gives to his followers.

Jerusalem
Jerusalem, Israel's capital, is first mentioned in Abraham's time; it was then called Salem. From that time forward, it has played a large role in Biblical history. David conquered the city and established royal rule there. His son Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem, making the city the nation's civic and religious capital. After a long siege, Babylon's King, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the city in 588 B.C. In 536 B.C. the Jews started to rebuild the city. During Jesus Christ's time on earth, Jerusalem was under Roman control. Jesus was crucified there. The Holy Spirit later came to believers in Jerusalem.

Christ
Christ, meaning "anointed one," is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. The Jews were waiting anxiously for the Messiah, the person guaranteed by God to be their leader and ruler. Every Jewish person living at the time of Jesus knew exactly what he or she was waiting for. "Is he the one?" was the question everyone was debating about Jesus. Some said yes; some said no; and some said Jesus was a liar.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Jesus goes to the Feast of Tabernacles

1. After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. 2. But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, 3. Jesus’ brothers said to him, “You ought to leave here and go to Judea, so that your disciples may see the miracles you do. 4. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
5. For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

6. Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. 7. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. 8. You go to the Feast, I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” 9. Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

10. However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11. Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, “Where is that man?”

12. Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.” 13. But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.

Jesus teaches at the Feast

14. Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple court and begin to teach.15. The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”

16. Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. 17. If a man chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. 18. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. 19. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”
20. “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?”

21. Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all astonished. 22. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a child on the Sabbath. 23. Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man o the Sabbath? 24. Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”

Is Jesus the Christ?

25. At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?
26. Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Christ? 27. But we know where this man is from; when the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

Topic: Knowing God's Will
John 7:6-9

God's schedule, not ours

Gail was leading her drama students through rehearsals for their big play, now only a week away. Then the call came:"Can you fly home, Gail? Dad's had a serious heart attack." Mom needed her, but so did her students. What should I do, Lord? The word "go" flashed through her mind, and she knew it was the right thing to do. Only later did she discover God's purpose. Gail's father, who had scorned her faith in Jesus for so long, asked her to pray for him. "Dad, Jesus wants to give you a new heart." As tears flowed, Gail's father asked Jesus to forgive him and to give him a heart of love like Gail's.

Our challenge is to stay in tune with God so that we work according to his schedule. Inevitably God's purposes will sometimes conflict with our preferences. Jesus didn't let others pressure him into a timetable that would take him outside of God's will - and neither should we. We benefit by making a point to seek God's timing. He wants only the best for us.

Have you faced a situation where your schedule conflicted with Gods timing? What did you learn from it?

FURTHER STUDY:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; John 2:3-8; 11:6-15

page 11

THE STARTING POINT STUDY BIBILE New International Version
The Luis Palau Evangelistic Association / www.luispalau.org