The Gospel of John

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.

In the Bible, the word "disciple" can apply to followers of John the Baptist, students of the Pharisees or the broader circle of people who believed Jesus' teachings. But it most often refers to the twelve disciples whom Jesus asked to follow him. They lived with him night and day and learned from his teaching and lifestyle. The Bible makes it clear that Jesus' followers were not perfect, but they knew enough to recognize that leaving everything they had in order to follow Jesus was worth the price.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Night
Night is more than just the time period that begins at sundown and ends at sunrise. Unlike the day, night is typified by darkness and filled with unseen obstacles and dangers. The night offers cover for sinful people to undertake selfish pursuits, and it provides challenges for the believer when we sense the "night" in our society. The Lord Jesus will return like "a thief in the night" (1 Thessalonians 5:2) - when we least expect him and whether we're ready or not.

There are many great stories in the Bible that occurred during the night: During the night of Passover, the Lord struck down every firstborn son of the Egyptians. The Israelites followed a pillar of fire when they traveled by night during the exodus. Under cover of night, Gideon and an army of Midianites. Torches lit the night when Jesus was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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.

Eye
If someone says, "I'm keeping an eye on you," it might imply suspicion or displeasure. But when God says his eye is on us, he's promising to watch over us with tenderness and care. He sees our every need and provides for us in ways we may not even be aware of. The Lord also gives spiritual insight, opening our eyes to see things we previously couldn't imagine or didn't know were there. On the other hand, Satan and sin blind us to spiritual truth.

Home
The concept of a home - a place where we belong and from which we gain our identity - is prominent in the Bible. People are often identified in the Bible by their ancestry, such as "Lot son of Haran" (Genesis 11:31), or according to their hometown such as "Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:43). The word "house" frequently indicates the collective relatives and descendants of an individual, such as "the house of David" (1 Samuel 20:16).

With this in mind, the image of a home or house is often used symbolically. The temple was called the house of God. Although God is present everywhere, the temple represented his special relationship with the Israelites, his chosen people, and their identification with him. In the new testament, Christians are referred to as God's house because his Spirit lives in them, as the Spirit of God filled the temple (see Temple).

Look
Looking something over is a way of understanding it to a fuller extent. No one knows us more completely than God, who thoroughly examines our actions. Since he is perfect, only he can judge what things are truly done for him and what things are misdirected attentions.

Pharisees
If you lived in the time of the Pharisees, you were in big trouble if you had a house fire on the Sabbath. Carrying your clothes out of the burning building was strictly against the law. But putting your clothes on before escaping was legal!

The Pharisees were the most influential Jewish leaders while Jesus was on earth. They tried to perfectly uphold the law, and they imposed that expectation on others. Yet as carefully as they defined the law, they went one step too far and made it the epicenter of their faith. Jesus was not impressed with their law - abiding ways; in fact he harshly criticized them for burdening people with unnecessary rules and forgetting how to love others.

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).

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."

Signs
When we see geese flying south in a V formation, it's a sign that winter is on the way. Almost every street corner and road we travel is marked with a sign telling us where we are and the direction we're headed. God gives signs-miracles or fulfilled prophecies-to show that his promises will come true. The rainbow in the sky after a storm is God's aerial billboard-his reminder to himself and us that he will never flood the earth again.

The Bible also gives us signs to help us understand what is happening in the world around us. The first believers saw many signs to confirm the truth of the message about Christ. Most of all, signs help explain how we can come into a relation with the true and living God. God expects us to pay attention to, and follow, his signs.

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.

Son
"If you really want to understand someone," said President George W. Bush, " you look at his family and where he was raised." Using this reasoning, what can we learn about Jesus Christ, the Son of God? The Bible says that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). This means that the Son is fully God; all of God the Father's qualities are manifested in him: love, justice, righteousness, holiness. God the Son was also fully human; while he was on the earth, he shared our experiences: temptation, hunger, fatigues, pain and 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.

Glory
Millionaires, Olympic athletes and superstars excel in shrewdness, strength, talent, beauty, discipline and sometimes just plain good luck. Thus they enjoy the kind of adoration many people crave. But the Bible reminds us that even the greatest human honor and splendor will fade away. Alexander the Great's conquests are legendary, but only crumbling artifacts remain of his empire. God alone is perfectly and eternally glorious by his very nature. Scripture calls him the "King of glory" (Psalm 24:7-10). He is, and always has been, magnificent, powerful and holy. Everything he does demonstrates his glory, and nothing can detract from it.

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 placed 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.

Sin
Sin is a tough three-letter word to get one's brain around. It is a term loaded with lots of distasteful and challenging connotations in our world. Everyone sins, but no on e wants to talk about it. Bluntly put, sin is choosing our own will over God's will.

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.

Word
God's Words are powerful! God spoke, and everything that exists in our universe was created. His written Word, the Bible (see Scripture), flawlessly teaches people about God and the way to follow him. God's message through his prophets to his people, the nation of Israel, was often called, "the word of the Lord." God's Word is also displayed in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Word of God in human form. He is complete communication of who God is, and he is the revealer of how to follow God.

Neighbor
Robert Frost once wrote despairingly in his poem "Mending Wall" of a neighbor's claim that "good fences make good neighbors," wondering why a division would ensure good neighborly conduct. We can be the best neighbors when we reach out to those around us by building relationships and showing them the love of God.

Sight
Look at the drawing; clearly, it's a duck's head. Wait, look again, the bill becomes a pair of ears, transforming the duck into a rabbit. Optical illusions are reminders that things aren't always what they seem. What is seen often depends on who is doing the looking. I may not see what you see, and God sees things neither of us may see. While we tend to tolerate or overlook sin, God hates the sight of it. He is able to see into our hearts and determine what is there.

Godliness
Parents of young children quickly learn they must watch what they say; their children are sure to repeat what they have said at the most inopportune moment. With God and us, the tables turn. We wish we did a better job of saying what he says and doing what he does. Godliness is being like God-in his attitudes and actions.

Light
"Let there be light!" was one of the first things God said in relation to the creation of our universe. Light's significance is obvious; we need light to live. Light is a symbol of all that is good, while darkness symbolizes evil. It's not too surprising, therefore, that Jesus Christ referred to himself as the "light of the world" (John 8:12).

Our purpose and significance would be impossible to understand without the light of the Bible. God's Word is a "lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (Psalm 119:105). The Bible contains everything necessary for shedding light on our lives.

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.

Keep
Keep watch. Keep control. Keep the faith. Will these things be lost if we don't maintain them? Basically, yes. For instance, God keeps watch over us no matter where we are or what we are doing. He cares for us and faithfully protects us so that we are not lost to danger or to evil.

Fear
Fear is not merely the fright caused by a horror film. Critics may praise the thrill of a scary movie, but no one recommends feeling truly afraid. The only reason a person should experience true fear is if he or she rejects Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or defies God's commands. The Bible defines fear in two basic, but radically different ways: fear caused by lack of trust (see trust) in the Lord and fear caused by reverence, awe (see awe) and humble obedience to God.

Tongue
Our tongues can spread deadly poison or bring healing and strength. Hurtful words can lead to gossip (see Gossip), which can tear down someone's reputation. But one word can also calm an enraged person. We are warned to control our tongues because of the incredible power they wield. Destroying other people, especially those within the church, goes against the love God tells us to show other.

CHAPTER NINE

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

1. As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

3. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4. As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6. Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9. Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

10. “How then were your eyes opened?” they demanded.

11. He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

12. “Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

13. They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

16. Some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner do such miraculous signs?” So they were divided.

17. Finally they turned again to the blind man. “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

18. The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

20. “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind.

21. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews, for already the Jews had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24. A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

25. He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

26. Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27. He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”

28. Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

30. The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. 32. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34. To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Spiritual blindness

35. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36. “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37. Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”

38. Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

39. Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will turn out to be blind.”

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