Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10.1-10

Scripture

”When he has brought out all his own [sheep], he goes on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Observation

Anyone who does not enter a sheep pen by the gate is a thief and robber. The shepherd enters the paddock by the gate and calls the sheep by name. They follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger because they do not know his voice.

Jesus says, “I am the gate for the sheep.” Those who came before, the false Messiahs and false teachers, were like thieves and robbers. Thieves come to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus has come to give life to the full.

Application

Jesus calls us by name. He knows us. We are not a blank face in the crowd or a six-digit number.

The true follower of Jesus knows His voice and follows Him where He leads. We follow because we know the voice.

There is a depth of intimacy in our relationship with Jesus. He knows us more deeply than we know ourselves. He is the Good Shepherd who loves His sheep.

Jesus knows me and loves me!

I know Him. I recognise His voice as He speaks to my heart. I hear His voice in Scriptures and in good preaching. I hear His voice when He speaks to me in dreams and visions. I hear His voice in the stillness and quiet places.

He leads and I follow that voice; it works best that way. Sometimes I try to follow other voices, but it usually ends badly.

It is so much better to follow the shepherd of my soul.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, please help me to hear your voice and to follow your voice alone. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20.19-31

Scripture

Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Observation

The evening of Easter Sunday, the disciples are meeting behind locked doors, Jesus appears in their midst, showing them His hands and side to confirm it is Him. Jesus then breathes on them to impart the Holy Spirit.

Thomas isn’t there at the time and so He refuses to believe that Jesus is alive. A week later Jesus again appears to the disciples. He invites Thomas to touch His wounds, but Thomas answers, “My Lord and my God!”

Application

Thomas is often described as the “Doubter”, but who can blame him for being sceptical about an event that seemed too good to be true?

What is often overlooked is his passionate heart-felt response to the appearance of Jesus. “My Lord and my God!”

The other disciples rejoiced to see the risen Lord, but Thomas proclaims that He is Lord and God.

Rejoicing at the presence of the Lord is an appropriate response. I love a powerful worship time. I revel in hose personal times when Jesus seems so tangibly present.

But we don’t live only on experience.

There were lots of people partying in the presence of the Lord on Palm Sunday, but very few stood with Him on Good Friday. Many people are happy to celebrate Christ but it takes the confession and conviction, “My Lord and my God!”, to make a true disciple.

To say Jesus is God means that we recognise that He is more than a man. He is God with us,

To say Jesus is Lord is to give Him the right to direct every part of our lives. We are here to serve Him, not the other way around. Every part of my thinking, speaking and doing must be surrendered to God.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I declare that you are God and Lord . I surrender all that I am into your hands, and I rejoice that you are always with me. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4.1-52

Scripture

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

Observation

Jesus passes through the Samaritan city of Sychar where He stops at a well. A woman comes to draw water, and He asks her for a drink.

Jesus says to the woman that while the well water will satisfy for a little while, He has living water which satisfies permanently and becomes like a spring which flows out to others. He then tells her to go get her husband, but she replies she doesn’t have one. Jesus agrees that the man she has now is no husband, and she has had five husbands previously. She goes into the town to tell people about Jesus.

Many of the people from the city then believe because of the woman’s testimony, and many more come out to see Jesus for themselves.

Application

When we come to Jesus, He gives us living water that satisfies. Jesus takes this common activity of collecting water to drink and turns it into something profoundly spiritual. This is similar to the way that bread and wine carry power when we celebrate Communion.

The water of life satisfies spiritual thirst. David wrote in Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for the water so my soul thirsts for you.” Those who do not know Jesus are desperate for the freedom, intimacy, and love that He offers. They fill that need with all kinds of things that satisfy briefly.

Only Jesus meets that thirst, that desperate longing for God.

The living water wells up within us like a spring, flowing out to others and helping them to come themselves to the living water.

The Samaritan woman rushes off to tell her friends about the Messiah, who is Jewish and saves Samaritans. When we are touched by the Lord, we want to share that experience with others.

It’s not just about personal evangelism. The living water transforms our friends and neighbours as we learn to be life givers everywhere we go. The water brings life to everyone it touches.

Prayer

Jesus you are the water of life. Saturate the parched places in my soul and make me a spring of living water to bless others. Amen.

Passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3.1-7

Scripture
“The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Observation
A Pharisee, a leader of the Jewish nation, comes to Jesus by night. He recognises that Jesus has the power of the presence of God. Jesus tells him that nobody can see God’s kingdom unless thy are born from above.

Nicodemus takes this as a literal, or physical, saying, but Jesus tells him that he needs to be born of the Spirit, not just in the flesh. Jesus says that He testifies about heavenly things because He is from heaven.

God sent His Son into the world to save the world not to bring condemnation.

Application
We know the wind- we hear it and see its effects. We appreciate a cooling wind on a hot day and we use the wind for sail boarding and flying kites. Some people even understand the physics of why the wind blows.

None of us understands where the wind comes from or goes to, or why it can be gusty one minute and calm the next. We don’t know the wind at all.

Everyone who is born of the Spirit is like that to those who are outside the Kingdom of God. I used to think this was talking about the ways of the Holy Spirit being mysterious, but it is those who are born of the Spirit- the christians- who are mysterious.

Who of those outside the Kingdom can understand our love for God’s word, our church gatherings, the mysteries of prayer?

As we learn to live in the grace of the Holy Spirit, the things we do become more and more distant from the ways of the world. In the best cases, the people of God are seen as worthy of respect or as gracious beyond imagining. A pastor hugs a man who days before had run over his little boy; a church that expresses love and forgiveness to a man who slaughtered a dozen at their prayer meeting.

“I could never do that,” they say. That is true because it is only the Holy Spirit who makes heroic grace possible.

Prayer
Lord may I be a mystery to the world as I seek to be led by your Spirit. May I be a testimony of your power and grace. Amen.

Read passage: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+16:12-15

Scripture

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.”

Observation

This is a part of Jesus’ teaching to the disciples at the Last Supper.

Jesus tells them that He has many more things still to say to them. The Spirit of truth is coming and He will lead them into all the truth.

The Spirit does not speak from His own authority but only what He hears. He will glorify Jesus by taking all that is His and passing it onto the disciples.

All that the Father has belongs also to Jesus. The Spirit will take all of this and declare it to the disciples.

Application

The Trinity- Father, Son and Holy Spirit- is a mystery to us. Three persons in one God. Not one God totally homogenised. Not three gods living separately. Rather, a community of love expressed in three distinctive forms.

Every follower of Jesus has the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The Spirit is the Spirit of truth who will not allow us to be deceived. The Spirit takes all the truth about the nature and personality of the Father and the Son and leads us to a place where we “understand” the mysteries of God.

We never have to fear being alone because He is always with us. And, to the extent that we surrender our will to the Holy Spirit, He will lead us always in the ways of truth.

Prayer

Blessed God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit- you are a mystery too deep for human understanding. Thank you for the grace of knowing you. Take me deeper into your ways. Amen.