Scripture

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me has eternal life.”

Observation

People start to grumble because Jesus said that He is the Bread of Heaven. They know His father and mother. How could He have come from heaven?

Jesus responds by saying that nobody can come to the Him unless the Father draws them. Anyone who believes has eternal life. He is the Bread of Heaven, just like the manna their ancestors ate in the desert.

Application

Salvation is a person, not a religion. If we really want to be sure of eternal life, we must attach ourselves to Jesus and follow His way.

There is nothing that we can do to make us right with God. If I decide to live a perfect life from today, that is only what God expects of me, and it does nothing to pay for my previous sins.

Good deeds and religious virtues can never make us right with God. Only Jesus can do that.

Anyone who believes (a better translation would be “trusts”) in Jesus has eternal life.

Jesus has paid the price for my sin. All I have to do is trust in Him.

Many years ago, there was a man in my town who lived on the streets with his dog. Each week he would go to the bank and withdraw $20 for his drink and some food for his dog. He was actually quite a wealthy man and could afford to live in any house and eat the best food. He chose to be homeless.

God has given His promise to every person in the world, the promise of eternal life. Those who refuse to receive the promise make the choice for hell.

The choice is clear. Trust in Jesus for eternal life. Trust anything else for eternal torment.

Prayer

Thank you Jesus for opening the doors to heaven for me. I receive your promise of salvation and I choose to follow you. Amen.

Scripture
Jesus answered “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

Observation
After the feeding of the 5000, Jesus and the disciples cross the lake in a boat. Some people follow them. Jesus confronts them with the fact that they are only following Him for the food He produced.

They ask Him what God requires of them. Jesus replies that the work of God is to believe in Jesus. Jesus is the bread of life and anyone who comes to Him will not hunger or thirst.

Application
A religious person will want to know what they have to do to placate God, whom they perceive to be angry at their guilt. Whether it is sacrifices, good deeds or pilgrimages to holy places, we want to know what pleases God and gets us out of trouble.

Jesus tells us here that the work God gives us is simply to trust in Jesus.

When I trust in the One sent by the Father, I can know my sins are forgiven. What bliss!

A religious person will pray a prayer of repentance, the “sinner’s prayer.” They may start to attend a church.

But Jesus is looking for more than a prayer. To trust Him means that we hand everything about us into His hands. It is about a relationship. He directs our paths and we follow, trusting that He has our lives under control.

It’s all about believing Jesus.

Believing that He is in control.

Believing that our sin is forgiven and that we have abundant life in Jesus.

Believing that the One who fed 5000 people has enough to meet my needs.

Prayer
As one person in the Bible said, “Lord I believe; help my unbelief.” Jesus, I trust you to direct my paths. Help me to follow you today. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10.11-18

Scripture

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep, and they know me.”

Observation

Jesus is the good shepherd who sacrifices His life for the sheep. A hired hand is in it for the money; he doesn’t care about the sheep.

Jesus is the good shepherd. He knows His sheep and they know Him. He gives His life for the sheep. He has sheep from a different sheep fold and He will bring the flocks together.

Application

Jesus is the good shepherd. He is not a faithless hireling who runs at the first sign of danger. He lays down His life for the sake of His sheep.

There is nothing that Jesus will not do for His sheep. He won’t always give us what we want, but He will meet every need that we have. He is the good shepherd.

He knows us by name. He sees us the way we really are. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, our victories and our failures. He knows us as closely as He knows the Father. And He loves us.

He wants us to know Him also. To have the strong, unbreakable bonds of friendship. He wants us to invest time and energy in seeking His face.

It is said that in the time of Jesus, shepherds would often put their sheep in a shared sheepfold overnight. In the morning, the shepherds would call their respective sheep but name, and their sheep would hear the voice of their own shepherd and go to them.

Jesus’ sheep know their shepherd. They know when He calls their name and they follow Him.

Prayer

Jesus, you are my good shepherd. Thank you for sacrificing your life for me. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3.14-21

Scripture

“And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”

Observation

In the desert Moses, at the direction of the Lord, hoisted a bronze snake on a pole so that anyone who was bitten by a snake could be healed. Now Jesus is to be lifted up, and anyone who believes in Him will receive eternal life.

God loved the world so much that He sent His one and only Son so that anyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. This is for salvation not condemnation, but those who reject Jesus are condemned because they reject Him.

Application

In the wilderness, the Israelites complained about not having anything to eat except “disgusting manna.” The Lord responded by sending venomous snakes. People died, but the Lord provided a remedy in the form of a bronze snake hoisted on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at the bronze snake and be healed.

In a similar way, Jesus was “lifted up” on the cross so that anyone who looks at Him in faith will be healed of the poison of sin and receive eternal life.

The idea of being “lifted up” suggests an elevation to a higher place, a place of esteem and glory. The cross, of course, is the very opposite of this- a place of death, degradation and torture. For Jesus, though, the cross is the ultimate glory as it shows how great the love of the Father is for us.

God’s love for us is so strong, so passionately unstoppable, that He held nothing back from us in order to win us back to Him. No price is too high for Him to pay in order to break down the wall that sin puts up between people and God.

Now, as true followers of Christ, we can lift Him up through our words, our worship and a life of service to Him.

Prayer

Thank you Lord Jesus for going to the cross for me. May my life lift you up so that all around me will see the glory of God in me. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passsage/?search=John+14.15-22

Scripture

“On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

Observation

Jesus tells the disciples that if they love Him they will obey His commands. He will send the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because the world does not know Him.

Jesus is going, but because He lives we also will live. We will know the unity of the Father with the Son and with us.

Application

Often we fail to understand the true unity of the believer with God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that He is in the Father and also in us, and that we are in Him.

To be born again is to be born of the Spirit. We share in Christ’s death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us.

There is a close unity within the person of God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we are born again, we are brought into the union.

I am in God and God is in me. This is not some Eastern mystical idea where “god” is in the creation and everything is “god.”

No, this is about relationships. God invites us into a relational unity with Him that we were created for and which sin destroyed.

Because I am now in God, I need to protect this unity through a commitment to holiness. I do not want to risk this unity by offending God’s perfect holiness. This would be like defiling my marriage relationship by sleeping with a woman other than my wife.

We were created for a close relationship with God. Jesus died on the cross to restore the relationship. He gives us the Holy Spirit to be the centre of the relationship.

Prayer

Lord, this concept of being united with you is very hard to get my mind around. I don’t understand it, but I receive it. Please help me to repent and turn away from everything that would rob that relationship. Amen.