This section continues off of the interaction that Jesus is having with His disciples. Judas, who is specified as not being Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus, presses Jesus on more questions. The last thing Jesus had said is that He would manifest Himself to His disciples. So Judas presses into this. He asks how Jesus would manifest Himself to them but not to the world? Judas caught on to...

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.25 “Th...

Pray for an increase of a measure of faith and trust in the Lord. Pray that the Lord would send His Holy Spirit to you. Pray for wisdom and strength to walk out His commands. Take this time with the Lord and give Him thanks.......

So we have discussed both the cycle of faith -> love -> obedience. We have also discussed the need of the Holy Spirit and the benefit Jesus sees in sending the Holy Spirit. The action plan of these lessons marry together. Scripture seems to infer to some degree that the receiving of the fullness of the Holy Spirit is contingent on some degree of faith and obedience. This is not to say that you get...

Depending on who you talk to, the Holy Spirit takes one of two roles. Either He is the most neglected person of the Trinity, or He is the most overly emphasized person of the Trinity. In my more recent experiences among believers, I have seen the neglect of the Holy Spirit. Something this passage stirs in me is that desire for the Holy Spirit.It is so easy to get caught up in works and the things ...

Aside from the nature of the Holy Spirit, the original audience would pick up on the three things that Jesus is instructing them in. Believe. Love. Obey. Our minds tend to be more formulaic whereas the minds of the ancient readers were more cyclical. They would have noticed the pattern here that is more easily missed to us. If you believe, you will love. If you love, you will obey. You obey becaus...

There are many connections to be found throughout this passage, but I want to zero in on Whom Jesus says will come after Him. I want to address a larger biblical theme and then also address the role that Jesus says He will take. This is all that of the Holy Spirit.Let us look back towards Moses and Elijah. These are the representatives of the Law and the Prophets. We see them appearing with Jesus ...

Philip grabs ahold of what Jesus was saying. The goal is the Father and Jesus is the way. He asks then for Jesus to show them the Father and that it would be sufficient for them. This leads to a bit of a rebuke and revelation from Jesus.The Son is the image of the Father. In seeing Jesus, they are seeing the revelation of the Father. He reveals a very deep mystery of He and the Father being One an...

8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father...

Let us enjoy communion with the Father. Take some time and read through Psalm 119. See how the Psalmist simply enjoys God through His word. Enjoy Him and delight in Him. Prayerfully commit that you would make communing with Him the goal of your life. And then pray that He would empower you in it.......

20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.-2 Cor. 5:20-21The goalpost shifts when we think that heaven is the goal. We tend to think of that as a down the road experience. When we see that the go...

The major lesson that sticks out to me is one that rewrites much of how Christianity was originally introduced to me. I was always told that heaven was the goal. So in order for me to experience "eternal life," I needed to wait until death. But there seemed to be this experience of eternal life that the biblical authors had that did not include the need to die. That caused me to question what eter...

The lesson for the original audience is not far at all for the lesson for us. At the core of this is a very central verse to our faith.6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.-John 14:6This both defines the fact that Jesus is the way to eternal life but it also defines what eternal life is. Jesus did not say no one goes to heaven ex...

The text we are dealing with draws attention to a very broad stroke of eschatology - the study of death, judgment, and the finality of one's soul. Many readers of the day may have viewed this text through the lens of an eternal home type context. And I believe they are right to do so. I want to draw a few more connections to some of Peter's thought later on in Scripture that peaks my interest when...

Jesus is continuing his discourse with the disciples after Judas has left. He just shared with Peter that he will deny him thrice. This is what enters us into chapter 14 where Jesus says, "Let not your heart be troubled." In light of the encouragement to not be troubled, the direction Jesus takes it to is faith. They believe in God, they must also believe in Him. He comforts His disciples in advan...