Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean wilderness and there they were baptizing. John and his disciples went to a different location and were baptizing as well. We know Andrew left John to follow Jesus, but clearly not everyone did. John still had disciples with him. If you look at the beginning of chapter four of John’s gospel, you see that the group with Jesus was baptizing more disciples ...  Read More

It used to be the most memorized verse in the Bible. Quoted by three-year-olds taught at their mother’s knee. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” When Tim Tebow wore “John 3:16” in eye black during the January 2009 BCS championship game, it was widely reported that the verse was searched tens of millions of ...  Read More

Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night. We don’t know why, but most presume that it was because he didn’t want to be seen talking to Jesus. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews. That was another way of saying that he was also a member of the Sanhedrin, a group of 70 men led by the High Priest. I have heard that if you were to combine the US Senate and the US Supreme Court, you would have something clos...  Read More

The people watched in amazement as Jesus created a whip from cords and removed their commercial ventures. He drove them out with their sheep and oxen, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers. And the people said, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” What? Maybe they heard about the sign Jesus did in Cana, we don’t know. It’s the same word, sign. But in our vernacular, they ...  Read More

Jesus and his mother went to a wedding in Cana, and the disciples came as well. We can assume that the couple getting married were friends or relatives of Jesus and His family. A Jewish wedding and celebration could last up to seven days, so there was a constant need for food and drink to be replenished. And it would have been a big deal when the wine ran out at this wedding in Cana. We are not gi...  Read More

John the Baptist testified one day that Jesus was the Lamb of God, “who takes away the sins of the world.” Then he said something curious: “I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” Certainly, John knew his cousin! He had grown up knowing Jesus. They may have played the ancient version of soccer or baseball together. But John...  Read More

 When John the Baptist started drawing huge crowds in the wilderness, the Pharisees got nervous. Who does this guy think he is? They sent priests and Levites to find out. They first asked John if he was the Christ. No. How about Elijah? Nope. The Prophet? Not him either! The interrogators, frustrated no doubt with his answers so far and feeling pressure to bring something definitive back to the Ph...  Read More

I love the Gospel of John. I love all four gospels, but John is my favorite. It is not a synopsis of the life of Jesus, as Matthew, Mark, and Luke are. It is structured around Jesus’ encounters with different people, like Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the man born blind, and many more. These encounters each reveal something about Jesus, who He is and why He came. John’s gospel is also built on...  Read More

When Paul asked Philemon to forgive and be reconciled to his runaway slave, Onesimus, he made that appeal on the basis of how Christ forgives and receives us when we have been running from Him. “Receive him as you would receive me,” Paul writes. How could Philemon do that? How could he fully forgive Onesimus’s breach of trust?  Paul could have referred Philemon to what he had written to the church...  Read More

Paul’s letter to Philemon is considered one of the most powerful and eloquent examples of reconciliation in all of history. Paul writes to a friend whose slave has run away, and in his running has found Christ through Paul’s gospel message. You have to look at Paul’s approach to Philemon in asking him to not only forgive his former slave, but to release him and let him help Paul in his imprisonmen...  Read More

In his greeting to Philemon, Paul writes a familiar refrain that never loses its importance: “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers.” Just a reminder that when a beloved brother or sister in Christ comes into our minds, we can silently thank God for them. You can certainly pray more, but we should be encouraged to not pray less. As you are driving down the road or sitting at your...  Read More

I want to make sure that if I died today my wife would be provided for. There are lots of ways of doing that, and I am not an estate planner, but I will say that we need to follow Paul’s command in 1 Timothy to provide for our households as men. The word for provide means to “take thought…to provide beforehand.” That means for many people that we are to work hard to save, invest, and prepare for t...  Read More