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We are reading and studying the Gospel of John and we come to John Chapter 2 and verse 12. We were reading about that miracle at the Wedding where Jesus Christ turned water into wine. Now, we read of Jesus going up to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. It would be late March or early April, and millions of Jews, from all over the Middle East, would go up to the House of God in Jerusalem, for a week of worshipping God, and remembering what the living God had done when he delivered Israel out of slavery and bondage in Egypt.

This was one of the largest annual Jewish Festivals.…  ( Click for more )

We have been reading in John Chapter 2, where Jesus Christ transforms that massive quantity of water into wine, and what Jesus does here stimulates faith. The disciples believed on Him.

The wedding guests never saw the miracle as far as we know. They were generally speaking like so many today. They were unaware of what can be happening when Jesus Christ is present.

Jesus did not just doctor up the water and make it taste like wine. He transforms water into wine. I have never seen water turned into wine but I have seen beer turned into tables and chairs!

The disciples saw…  ( Click for more )

We move on to read John Chapter 2. On the third day there was a wedding, and Jesus Christ is present. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Mary’s boy, our Saviour and Lord, has just appeared on the world’s scene.

Jesus Christ has just been baptised in water and anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is just beginning to gather around Him His disciples, and yet, he has time to attend this family occasion. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, so what He is like here in this book, He is the same today.

Here is Jesus Christ honouring marriage. God gave…  ( Click for more )

In John Chapter 1 and at verse 35, we read of two men searching for Jesus Christ and they find Him. They go looking for Jesus Christ. Had they heard the Pharisees ‘praying’ and debating and they knew that that was not real. They wanted reality! Want what is real and if you are a preacher or Bible Class leader or Sunday School teacher give your people what is real.

One of these two men is Andrew, having found the Christ, he immediately goes to find for Christ.

He goes to his brother Simon Peter. “We have found the Messiah, the Christ.”

How long does…  ( Click for more )

We have been reading and studying in John Chapter, 1 of how God was working and moving to prepare people for the coming and appearing of Jesus Christ, His Son, the Saviour of the world, the Messiah. God decided to prepare people by sending a man with a message, and that is normally the method He uses.

If you are a man with a message from God, then bow before Him and give thanks, and deliver that message faithfully and gracefully.

God sends a man with a message here, and John the Baptist calls people to repent – to turn from their sins to God – to sort things out,…  ( Click for more )

We are reading and studying the opening words of the Gospel of John, and already John is pointing to the Cross of Christ, and it is only Chapter 1. Jesus Christ shed His blood and died to take away our sin – not just to reduce it – but to take it away. He is the sacrificial Lamb of God and Paul describes Jesus so accurately as our Passover Lamb.

The Passover Lamb was one year old and without any blemish whatsoever. This speaks of the spotless purity of Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.

The Passover Lamb offered protection on that night in Egypt and our Passover…  ( Click for more )

I this opening Chapter of the Gospel of John, Almighty God is speaking through a peculiar preacher who down at the Jordan River. He was drawing great crowds and he was immersing them in the waters of the river as a sign that they seriously wanted to clean up their lives.

This had never happened before and that usually causes trouble. When God begins to move in a new way and do something different and something real – that can be upsetting.

It must have been powerful preaching. Can you imagine some of the reports that must have got back to Jerusalem? In Jerusalem, there…  ( Click for more )

As we read these opening verses of the Gospel of John we read about another John. It is John the Baptist, or John the baptiser, or John the plunger. If only the translators had translated that Greek word ‘baptizo’ instead of transliterating it, what a lot of theological confusion and denominational division might have been avoided.

John is around 30 years of age and he is a strange looking man wearing strange clothing – but he walks onto the world’s scene with a straight from the shoulder word, which came straight from the heart of God.

He is preaching.…  ( Click for more )

We are reading and considering these opening sentences in the Gospel of John. It has been said, “These words are like the spreading of honey on the tongue of a believer, yet to the unbeliever they remain a puzzle; to the unbeliever they remain meaningless.”

If these verses are meaningless and if they are somewhat of a puzzle, it may mean that you still need to know Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and be born again. This is the writing of a fisherman, he is now a fisherman who has walked with Jesus Christ for some 60 years and he has been born again and he has served…  ( Click for more )

We are in these opening words of the Gospel of John, where John goes right back to the beginning. You cannot go further back than the beginning! What John is saying is that even at the very beginning, even at Creation, He already existed.

God the Son Who became the Man Jesus Christ has always been. Before anything else was, He existed, and Jesus lives today, and He always will.

You come across people who still ask that silly question, “Who made God, then?” It is like asking where is the beginning of a circle! If only people would take up the Word of God and read…  ( Click for more )

We have been looking at why there are four Gospels and what were the main reasons for John writing his account of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, because it is so very different from the other three.

John 1 verse 1. John wants us to believe and to believe correctly, and to believe what is right, and to believe what is worth believing. We cannot afford to base our life’s work on something that is untrue, or on a myth, or a legend, or rumour or hoax, and having been a disciple of Jesus Christ, and a preacher and teacher for some 60 years, John saw some funny teachings…  ( Click for more )

Having given just a brief introduction to the Gospel of John we still have one or two issues to look at before we go to the text.

Why was this book written? Does it have any specific and particular purpose?

In Chapter 20 verses 30,31, we read, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.

Not even John could write everything down. No-one could do that. John had to select. John had to pick and choose, but note his motive, “that you might believe”.

Around 100 times John…  ( Click for more )

Having completed Acts and the Gospel of Luke we now begin reading and studying John’s Gospel. Why are there four Gospel and not just one account?

The Gospels are not photographs of Jesus. They are more like portraits.

Mark relied upon Simon Peter for much of his information, then Matthew and Luke wrote their accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus, and they concentrate upon what Jesus said and did. Matthew writes from the angle of the Jews and it is very much a Jewish view or standpoint. Luke appears and writes as a Gentile and almost for Gentiles – that is…  ( Click for more )

We were reading of these two disheartened and downcast disciples of Jesus Christ as they left Jerusalem on resurrection afternoon to make their way to Emmaus. It is all recorded for us in Luke Chapter 24. The conversation is serious and these men are disappointed or angry and we might even suggest depressed.

In verse 25 Jesus takes over. How foolish and how slow you are to believe, ALL THAT THE PROPHETS HAVE SPOKEN.

The risen Jesus gave them a Bible Study, from Moses and the prophets. Some people think Bible Studies are dry dull and boring. Not a bit of it!

Jesus acted…  ( Click for more )

We come to this final section in the Gospel of Luke. We are in Chapter 24 and at verse 13. Jesus Christ is risen and alive, and it is mid-afternoon on Resurrection Day. A lot has been going on. These past two weeks have been fairly traumatic for everyone and we have looked at the events in some detail.

Two disciples of Jesus are walking the seven miles or from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

They appear to have so much to say to each other. They have been in Jerusalem and they had seen Jesus Christ crucified, and now they think it is all over. Do you ever think that?

Do you ever…  ( Click for more )

Problems and fears arise when we forget the Word of the Lord. This is what happened to the women when they made their way to the tomb on Resurrection Morning. They were hearing what common sense was saying, and they had forgotten what Jesus had said.

Never forget what Jesus Christ has said and taught. If we do, fear and doubt and confusion and worse can wriggle their way in.

We saw Him taken down from the Cross. He was dead and laid in the tomb, therefore He will remain lying there. They were so wrong. Things had changed. They had expected things to be as they had always…  ( Click for more )

Now, we come to that other vital aspect which lies right at the very heart of our Christian Faith - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ - that amazing event for which words are inadequate - we can but Worship and give thanks.

No other faith in the whole world has a Leader Who is Alive. Are the others not simply philosophies where one tries one best but that can never be good enough?

In Luke Chapter 24 we read of some women making their way through the streets of Jerusalem. It is around half-past five in the morning. It must have been a long wait, since the body of Jesus Christ…  ( Click for more )

Over these past two months, reading from Luke Chapters 22,23, we have moved slowly through, from that Passover meal in the Upper Room in Jerusalem through the Garden of Gethsemane and the trial and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Saviour and Lord. Consider some of the people in these verses.

Firstly, Pilate. Pilate wanted to do the right things, but he didn't. It is so strange. Why? He knew what he ought to do but couldn't bring himself to do it. He had power. Politically he was the most powerful man on the scene. In one sense he had the power of life and death.…  ( Click for more )

We have been spending weeks looking at some of the details leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Luke Chapter 23 and verses 39 to 41, we read that Jesus is crucified between two criminals.

It is interesting that Jesus does not correct their thinking on capital punishment. At this time of writing I have just been asked to give two talks on “The Biblical View of Capital Punishment”. We cannot go into all the salient details in this study but it is an important topic. Murder is not only theft. Murder is sacrilege.

Today, the television…  ( Click for more )

“For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

One friend, when he has gone on speaking engagements, has read these words and then has asked, “Now where does this sentence come from? Old Testament, New Testament, or William Shakespeare?” The majority have usually been wrong, and yet these words are spoken by Jesus as he approaches Calvary.

We are in Luke Chapter 23 and at verse 31. Is this the most unknown verse in the New Testament? These words are spoken just before Jesus Christ is crucified. What does He mean?…  ( Click for more )

After a most exhausting and draining thirty hours or so, Jesus Christ is led away to be crucified. We are in Luke Chapter 23 and at verse 26. The authorities force a dark skinned man from Tripoli to carry this heavy wooden beam. No Roman would carry the cross, and the Romans would not ask a Jew, not in this situation, in the middle of a Religious Festival. It was the Passover.

Simon of Cyrene carries the cross of Jesus, and this man received a mighty reward. It appears from Mark 15 and verse 21 that he and his wife and two sons became disciples of Jesus.

No man carries the…  ( Click for more )

In Luke Chapter 23 and at verse 24, Pilate caved in, and gave the people what they wanted. He is so weak. He is so spineless. He has no moral backbone, and just goes along with the critics of Christ Jesus and with the crowd.

In reality, it was not Jesus who was on trial. It was them! Jesus is going to the Father, admittedly by a very painful route, but it was essential. The sacrificial lamb has to be slain.

Pilate's pathetic actions, and Herod's rage, and the evil plans of the religious leaders, cannot stop Jesus Christ from fulfilling the will of the Father and doing His…  ( Click for more )

We are in Luke Chapter 23 and in verse 12 we read Pilate and Herod, who had been enemies, became friends that day.

Foes of God and enemies of Jesus Christ, frequently become friends, and begin to talk together, conspiring against the body of Christ. This is happening all across our world as people oppose the Word of God and the Church of Jesus Christ.

I wonder how deep their friendship was, and how long it lasted?

I know we are moving quite slowly through this section in Luke’s Gospel but there is much to take in and study. When you are taking your people through…  ( Click for more )

In Luke Chapter 23 the whole united assembly march Jesus Christ off across town from the House of Caiaphas the High Priest to Roman Governor Pilate.

There is an array of false charges and when they cannot get Jesus on one charge they changes the charge. In verse 5 the charges change again. Now, these men are becoming annoyed and rattled, and they are becoming fiercer.

They say that Jesus is a troublemaker who is stirring up the people and upsetting everyone everywhere with his teaching.

As soon as Pilate hears the word Galilee, he says, O Jesus is from Galilee? It is Herod…  ( Click for more )