Category: BSF John Study 2016-2017

Can you even imagine what it was like for the Apostles win the room with Jesus?  We are taking this a week at a time, but we need to keep in mind the last few weeks have all occurred in a matter of minutes, not hours.  The confirmation that Jesus’ death was imminent, one of the men at the table would be a betrayer, Peter would deny Jesus 3 times, that Jesus was going away but would come again, that He was going to Heaven and now this – there is a third person to God that is coming.

They would have grown up with the idea of monotheistic God.  The hints were there throughout the scriptures that the promised one, the messiah would be more than just a man, that He would be Emmanuel, God with us, but now not only is this second person of God, the Son of the Father, leaving, but a third person of God is coming.  Talk about expanding their minds and transforming their thoughts.

But, at the same time, they must have felt a comfort in this as well.  They longed to have God close to themselves.  They would have grown up with the wearing of the verses from Deuteronomy on their wrist and forehead, literally, not just figuratively.  They would have worn tassels and not trimmed the corners of their beards.  They wanted a private personal connection with God, not just at the temple but every day in every part of their life.  And now, Jesus has revealed to them not only would the Spirit of Truth be sent to them but that He would live in them, connecting them from the inside with God: Father, Son and Spirit.

But Jesus also points out to them that they already know the Spirit.  You know Him, He says.  And they do.  In the same way that they know the Father by knowing Jesus, they also know the Holy Spirit.  They also know the scriptures which are breathed through the Holy Spirit and they know God in creation where the mist of the Holy Spirit was part of the forming of the physical world that we know.

My Answers:

3.
I = Jesus, the Father=Father, Advocate/Spirit of Truth=Holy Spirit.  Separate by the use of the word “another”.  Holy Spirit is a “him”

4.
You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  The H/S is alive in me, shaping me and making me holier into the image of Jesus

5.
The connectivity in love of vs 20, Jesus in the Father, me in Jesus, Jesus in me, the Holy Spirit with and in me..  It is the way we were created to be, the original relationship of Adam with God

It is hard to fathom doing greater works than the Son of God. What is it that Jesus is saying in John 14:12-14 when He says, “they will do even greater things than these”?

There are two good references to answer this question. First, is the word itself. In Greek, the word used is Megas. It is important to note it is not Kalos. Megas is more or bigger. Kalos is better. When Jesus says we will do greater work, He isn’t saying our work will be better than His, but it will be megas, bigger, more.

The second is to look at where else in the bible this specific term is used. In this case, that is easy because it is used only in one other place, in John 5.:20. This was the story of the invalid that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and all the religious leaders could see was the sin of the man carrying his mat on the Sabbath, not that he had been healed. Jesus responds to their rebuke with, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.” It is interesting to note that the one doing the work is the Father and the one who gets to see it being done, first hand, is the Son.

As Jesus continues in John 14, “because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” He shows that the greater works are not because we have some special skill, but because He, Jesus, is going to the Father. Just as the Father did greater works that Jesus observed first hand, Jesus will do greater works that we will observe first hand. We are the many, the mirrors, the megas that reflect the light of His greater works so the whole world may be amazed.

My Answers:

11

Don’t you know me? How can you say…?

 

12.

1. The words he has said, 2. the evidence of the works. “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

 

13.

Whoever believes in me will do the works I’ve been doing and even greater works. This is because they/we have the full power of Jesus at the right hand of the Father, plus the indwelling of the Holy Spirit whom He has sent.

 

We are called to be followers of Jesus Christ. But I often find myself exactly in the same place as Thomas. I want to know where we are going!

If you think about it, it is a silly request. What am I going to do, figure out a better path to get there than the one Jesus is leading me on? Is it going to get me there better? Faster? Does Jesus need me to navigate for him?

It must be the equivalent to Jesus of someone constantly asking “are we there, yet?”

The analogy I heard the other day that puts this in perspective was a soldier discussing what it was like to walk through a field of landmines. The best approach, he said, is to step directly in the footsteps of the one who knows the true and safe path. Your focus is on the next step, the picking up and putting down, the light on the pathway. You are not concerned with or thinking about “I don’t know the path.” You are following. Your feet go in the footsteps of the one who went before you.

Sometimes we forget that this life is full of landmines and we have the one who knows the only path. He has cleared the path through His sacrifice, even laying down His life. We don’t need to know what God has in mind for us for the future, we just need to know where to put our foot so it lands where Jesus leads.

My Answers:

8.

He is the living God, the son of God, who is not simply part of history, but alive today and coming to earth again to retrieve all who believe in Him and accept His gift of salvation and eternal life in heaven.

 

9.

He saw Jesus as a separate entity from God, missing the connectivity of the Trinity. He saw Jesus as higher than man, but not equivalent to the Father.

I am blinded by my own self-reliance and plans to pray for direction and wait and listen before moving on.

 

10.

The word the means exclusivity – there is no other way to God. It is impossible to be a child of God and reject Jesus, the only son of the Father. Any other path is a false path, a path that leads not to life but to death. There are not many paths to Heaven, only one.

 

I’m sure the revelation to Peter that his conviction to Jesus was not nearly as strong as he boasted was hard. Ok, let’s face it, if it was us, we would have been swimming in an emotional stew. There is so much going on in this upper room. Jesus has been talking about death and going away and that the time is now. Peter, strong in conviction and strong in might, boldly asks the question, “Why can’t I follow you?” All he wants to do is be a follower of Jesus. All he has done for 3 years is follow and learn. He has repeatedly recognized by the power of the Holy Spirit who Jesus really is. He isn’t confused in the way of some of the others; He knows that Jesus is the Messiah that Son of the Living God. And, in his mind and every intention of his being he would be willing to lay down his life for Jesus.

But, then there is fear. Over and over again in the scriptures we are told to not be afraid. Fear is the blade that Satan attempts to use to cut our connectivity to God. It is not rational thought. It is not logic. It is not evidence or references. It is fear. When we are in the grasp of fear we grasp for things to hold onto. We run away. We lie. We do things we would normally not ever intend to do.

But that is where the next verse in John comes in. John 14:1, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me.” The alternative to fear is faith. It isn’t fleeing. It isn’t faltering. It isn’t fighting (self-reliance). These sentences provide the two doors that we can pass through. We can let our hearts be troubled OR we can believe in God and believe in Jesus. Jesus calls us to take door #2.

But, what if you’ve already taken door number one? What if fear pulls you into sin? The wonderful word that Peter heard and that we are told as well, as believers, is the word: WHEN.

In Luke 22:31, the last sentence is the most important for Peter and for us. And WHEN you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. It is not IF you turn back. It is WHEN. It is always WHEN. Satan does not have the power to snatch us from the hand of our Lord. He is given the power, by God, to put us through trials. To exercise our faith. To give us all kinds of fears in our lives. But, WHEN we turn back, we have more than we have before. Through those experiences that we call fear and failure, our faith is strengthened. We have more to give to others. We are more connected with each other and with God.

We can always come back and go through Door #2!

My Answers:

6.

Instead of being willing to lay down his life, Peter would deny that he knows Jesus 3 times that night (But Jesus has prayed for him and knows that he will turn back and strengthen himself and his brothers from the experience).

 

7.

It is never up to me or my strength if I am in the will of God, Ps 118:6-7, “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I look in triumph on my enemies.”

 

There is a difference between Love and being In Love. It is like the difference between there being a house and being in the house, or there being a group and being in the group, a family and being in the family. It is the difference between something that is “out there” and something that you are in, connected to and with, a part of.

Too often we talk about love as an “out there” thing. Share the love. All you need is love. Love makes the world go around.

But this isn’t what Jesus discusses or what He modeled. The model He provides is His and the Father’s love. We see it throughout our verses for today.

The son of man is glorified and God is glorified IN him.

If God is glorified IN him, God will glorify the Son IN himself

This is connectivity at its pentacle. The love of the Trinity within itself of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to connected that it is impossible to distinguish where one love begins and another connects.

This is the love Jesus called His disciples to have. An “In” kind of love. He didn’t command them to love. He commanded them to “love one another”. To be connected, joined, be part of the “in” of what made them something bigger.

This is how Jesus loved them. It wasn’t just the washing of feet, the patience, or even the willingness to die for them. These were all just external manifestations of what He was really calling them to do, which is to connect “In Love.”

This is hard. This level of connection means the facades we put up around our messed up lives come down. We open up. We spend time together in thick and thin. We keep promises. We do not look only for win-win solutions, sometimes we look for win-lose solutions, were we lose to help the other person win.

But this is the difference between the way Jesus loves us by being IN us and the love we too often pass off as “doing our Christian duty.” It is being in a community, a family, a church (in the realest sense of that word) with other believers.

And, isn’t it what we long for in the deepest parts of our soul? God built us to be IN love, IN His Love, IN the Love of His Church which is the Bride of His Son, to have the Holy Spirit dwell IN us as the glue that connects us to the Father and Son and them with us and with each other.

My Answers:

3.

Glorified in this sense is a transformation from the blank slate of being a sinless man to taking on the sin of the world and bearing it on the cross, carrying it into death and, in so doing, paying the price in full for sin, rising again to human life and ascending to sit at the right hand of God. This is permanent and eternal and divine, connect the physical and spiritual worlds. In contrast man’s glory and fame are momentary recognitions of temporary accomplishments to the acclaim of other men.

 

4.
a.

Love one another as I have loved you. This is a higher than the do unto others command in that it is not just how I would like others to love me, but how did/does Jesus love me, and to bestow that love to others

b.

15. As the Father has loved Jesus and Jesus remains in the love of the Father, remain in Jesus’ love and obey and love each other. It is an interweaving, a connection or communion. As Timothy Keller says, a divine dance

2. There is no room for hatred in the brotherly and sisterly love that Christ provides. Someone who continues to hate is in darkness

3. Love with actions, be willing to lay down life (and possessions) for brothers and sisters in need. Have pity/compassion.

5.

To help me love others deeper and with more compassion, especially those brothers and sisters in need of my time and attention and compassion. Help me to be a joyful giver and not to become judgmental and/or frustrated.

 

It has come up a lot this week, but I want to go back to some of the principles brought out in last week’s lesson in regard to the notion of “dying to self”, but specifically in the area of “leadership with grace.”

When we think of leadership we think of delegation.  It is a matter of getting the right people with the right talents in the right place and getting them the resources and direction needed to excel.  You divide things into a grid, make nice little boxes on the org chart and fill those boxes.

Using a tool analogy, you look for the right people to fit into the right holes.  The position of the leader is above, putting together the pieces, but also using coaching and incentives and constructive feedback to shape the person to better fit the hole, sanding off some rough edges or cutting off bad habits or gluing on some training.

But the position Jesus demonstrates for the disciples and for us to follow is more.  He is not simply up above arranging the pieces, but he also takes on the role of forklift or jack, to raise up those he leads.  He doesn’t just look at the outside, but works on the inside.  He isn’t about hammering someone into a position, but in lifting them up to do more and greater.

This is a hard example to swallow for a leader because it means you are constantly helping lift people to move on.  You are developing people not to stay in a role, but to go out into new roles.  You are preparing the members of the church to leave and start new churches, to be missionaries, to go be leaders.  You are shaping your employees to become managers themselves in other organizations.  This is more work for the leader.  It seems easier to just hold onto the same people and keep them in the same roles – but that is how all oppression begins, by leaders doing the easier thing instead of the right thing.  Dying to self doesn’t just mean giving up your time, it means giving up your people, too.  It means growing your kids to go out in the world and be their own followers of Jesus.  It means constantly opening your circle of friends and associates rather than settling in with the same old small group.  It means paying the price with your work for someone else to grow and be lifted up.

But isn’t that what grace is all about?  I’ve heard the acronym that grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  Jesus paid it all, we reap the rewards of being lifted up to holiness.

My Answers:

10.
I learn servant leadership.  I learn acceptance of God’s direction and plans even when I don’t like the plan.  I see Jesus’ grace in allowing Judas to make the choice he did – The other disciples would have restrained him with only a whisper.  I see Jesus love for His disciples and for us.

11.
I think they began to see the depth of His words and the layers of meaning.  I think they saw more about Jesus and Judas in the next hours.  I think they learned more about themselves.  And, as the church was forming, they learned to apply the teachings of this night – even to those they believed too unclean to have ever associated with before (people like me).

As I thought about the way Judas gave himself over to Satan, I was drawn to the actions of evil today.  Not to show too much of my inner-geek, but these actions are exactly the same steps that hackers use today.  Hacking is normally not a sledge-hammer approach.  It more commonly happens by probing along the perimeter of a network.  It tests for open ports on a firewall.  It looks for vulnerabilities in systems that have not been maintained.  It looks for weak passwords for carelessness.  It tempts action through phishing emails, luring someone to click a link or allow a download to occur.  It works through lies and deceit, using Trojans that appear harmless but secretly are harmful.  It can be targeted but most of the time it is simply trolling the internet looking for any opening anywhere.  Malicious programs are launched and go from IP address to address across devices and across nations.  Once inside the network, it is patient, lying in wait until it begins to take action.  It tries to spread through connections of one infected system to other connected systems in its network.

These are all the same tricks Satan used.  The fact that the disciples had no idea which of them would betray Jesus demonstrates both the quietness with which evil penetrated Judas, but also the fact that they all had likely been probed and tempted.

We all have weaknesses.  We all have sin in our lives.  We all have areas of our life that lack maintenance in fasting and reading the scripture and daily prayer.  But it is not of our own strength that we resist the probes of wickedness, it is only by the protection of the Holy Spirit.

One of the great reassurance is found in 1 Cor 10:13.  “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful…”  Satan has no new tricks.  There is no temptation in the world except the same old common temptations that have been around since the garden of Eden.  Satan has no ability to create anything new and nothing more powerful in reserve.  The worst he has at his disposal is the same old tricks that God has thwarted over and over and over again.

We are wise to protect our hearts, but it is not our work or our action that provides the real protection, it is putting our faith in God and the mighty power of our Savior and the Holy Spirit.

My Answers:

7.
The fulfillment of prophecy is not simply a broad overview that could apply to Jesus but might also apply to many other things.  It is specific, down to the fulfillment of the one who ate was the one who would betray Him.  This shows me the cyclical nature of time and how events overlay and overlay as foreshadows of each other.  Jesus did not shy away from what He knew was coming because He knew and trusted in God.  David goes on to say that God is gracious to him and lifts him up and delights in him and upholds him and sets him in His presence for over.  He does the same for us.

8.
Satan is prowling to harm and destroy anything created by God and particularly anything associated with God.  He asks to sift us like wheat.  he tests and prods and looks for weaknesses to exploit.  He seeks only harm and hatred.  He lies and is the father of all lies.

Our questions today discuss “humbly serving.”  While I believe we are called to humbly serve, I think we are called to more than that.  There are a number of people and organizations that “serve”.  Some do it for a living, such as waitresses and waiters and care givers in hospitals and nursing facilities.  There are some that do it financially.  Some as part of a community organization.  Some who do it as a requirement for community service hours.  But, if we really look at Jesus act of washing the disciples feet, it was more than humble service… it was making a connection.

Jesus didn’t just place himself at their feet.  He reached out and touched them.  He cleansed them with his hands.  He stripped himself down of his outer garments and became personally connected with them.  I think this is a big part of why this act resonates with us so much.  We don’t need a God who spends His time washing our feet – we don’t need a God who serves us.  We do desire with all of our hearts a God who connects with us, who is intimate with us and fills our souls with love.

This is the difference between true Christ-Like service and most of the service men provide, it is the connection.  It is far more than drive-by service.  It is not just a service penance that makes us feel better because we help those people, them, over there.  To be truly Christ like there isn’t a them and us, there is just a connected unity of us, the church, children of God.  It has to build connections, build communities that we are a part of not separate from.  Not just something we do to help but something we do with love for our God and for the person we are serving.

Think about where the disciples’ eyes would have been throughout this.  They would have been watching their Lord, the Messiah, tendering loving them and gazing back up into their faces, not in pain or disgust over their gnarly feet, but in an overflowing of love and compassion.  Psalm 145:8-9 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Could you use a little more grace, love and compassion in your life?  You know exactly where to look.  He is waiting with a towel around him, waiting to wipe away your tears and your sins.

My Answers:

5.
He is God.  He is their teacher.  He is the Lord, the Messiah, the center of all prophecy, and He got down and scrubbed the grime from their feet- a job for the lowliest of servants.  I learn that humility and service is the model of Jesus.  That our place as His followers is not to stand on and above others to oppress them for our gain, but to get down and lift them up

6.
a.
To children.  To wait patiently for His direction and calling.  To be anonymous in some actions.

b.
It brings me closer to the Lord.  I see insights in the scripture I would not see with a lofty chin and stiff neck.  I see more and more of Jesus’ love.  I see how much He humbled himself and how low I truly am (no boasting).

I love the story of Jesus washing the feet of His disciples.  There are so many amazing elements to it and such depth.  The fact that he was moved to do this mid meal.  The fact that he tied the towel around his waist so that the filth he removed from them was attached to himself.  The fact that even Judas received the blessing (and the offer of forgiveness inherent in it).

I’ve seen great leaders emulate the washing of feet.  I’ve seen church leaders do it.  I recognize it is the beginning of a business and civic mindset called servant leadership.

But in all of those things and all those reenactments or applications, it is easy to miss the most important part.  Look hard at the last sentence in John 13:1, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

This act wasn’t just a teaching moment.  It wasn’t just a foreshadowing.  It wasn’t just a living parable.  More than any of those things, it was an act of love.  He didn’t have to wash their feet, they had already come in and gone through all of the normal preparations before beginning a meal.  He was moved to do it out of love.

When we emulate this activity and serve others, do we do it to show others that we are “like Jesus”?  If so, are we truly like Jesus, doing it in pure love for the person?

It is an act like caring for an elderly dying parent.  It is an act like sacrificing your life for another.  It is a total giving of self, of letting go, to flow out to others.  There is nothing Jesus gains from this act, but He is moved to it purely in love.  Love to the end!

My Answers:

3.
He demonstrated servant leadership.  He, the Lord, was willing to wash the feet of each of the disciples at the table (even the one He knew was going to betray Him).  He didn’t have to do this, but chose to – in the same way He chose to die for us.

4.
Those who have accepted Christ are clean (saved), but still need to repent of daily sins.  All but Judas had accepted Christ into them, but he had chosen Satan instead.  I am cleaned by the blood of the lamb who died on the cross for my sins, but I still commit sins in both the things I do and say and the things I fail to do or say.  Of those I need daily (hourly) cleaning through confession and repentance.

As we read our lesson for today I was reminded of a verse from earlier in John, John 3:30 when John the Baptist said, in relation to Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

Mary lived out these words as a disciple of Lord Jesus.  She assumed the role of servant to this man whom she loved and who had brought her brother back from 4 days in the grave with a single command.  She recognized Jesus greatness and honored it, she didn’t envy it.  She took probably the most valuable thing she had, a bottle of perfume that came from the root of a plant that only grows in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains, and poured out the full contents of it on Jesus’ feet and cleaned them with her hair.  Pause for a moment and let’s think about this.  The full bottle of perfume was not required for this task.  A very little bit of perfume goes a very long way.  She easily could have honored the man Jesus with a gesture and a gift and still had months or years supply of perfume left.  But she poured out all that she had on Lord Jesus.  She wiped his feet with her hair, not because she wanted to coat her hair in the perfume, but because that was what happened when she prostrated herself at His feet, getting into as low of a position as possible to honor His greatness.

Judas, on the other hand, shows the exact opposite.  Instead of lowering himself in Jesus’ greatness, his view is on how to ride the Jesus train up to Judas’ own greatness.  He sees the act of Mary as a waste.  Not only does he monetize the gift, but he sees what it could have bought.  Good deeds for the poor done with sufficient self-promotion bring the honor and recognition of other, powerful people.  It buys goodwill in the community and it is totally in line with the teaching of the Pharisees.  His after the fact rebuke tears down Mary and sends a message to others.  It is not delivered as a brother or peer or co-disciple, it is delivered as from one in authority to a servant.

But, Jesus settles the dispute not by sending them to their corners or making them shake hands.  Instead, He rebukes Judas, as He would rebuke the devil (no coincidence there since it was likely the influence of Satan’s presence in Judas heart that caused him to suddenly speak so boldly).  He praises Mary, not for what she did, but for what had long ago been set into motion and ordained for her to do and then He elevates the conversation from the pettiness of Judas’ words to the announcement that Jesus would soon die.

Can you imagine the hush that must have fallen on the room at this point?  Mary still at Jesus’ feet.  Judas commanded into quiet.  The rest of the guests looking on with wide eyed expressions.  Jesus’ has spoken about death before, but this group that is still rejoicing about the resurrection of Lazarus would have been very alert to the words of death for the one who brought him back to life.

My Answers:

3.
caring, generous, honoring of God, self-sacrificing.  She wasn’t prompted, she didn’t wait, she was bold and giving and gave from her heart.  I want to be generous without concern, not for others.

4.
Jesus rebuked Judas.  Jesus also pointed out that this had be reserved for the day of His death to prepare Him for His burial.  It also revealed Judas heart – He was concerned about money, not honoring Jesus.  He saw it as waste and that the poor were more valuable than Jesus and that other people were more deserving of the perfume.

5.
He rebuked and chastised Judas and recognized and honored Mary’s actions.  He explained that this had been ordained by God and saved for the time of His death.  It made it clear that it was time for Jesus to die and that He knew He would die.