Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 3:1-8.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 3:1-2 (NIV)
1  Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.
2  He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
 
On verses 1-2:   Jesus’ most vocal opponents and critics were the Pharisees, the religious elite of Israel.  Yet even among the Pharisees, there were those who secretly believed that Jesus was a teacher sent from God.  One of them was Nicodemus, who was not only a Pharisee but also a member of the powerful ruling council of Israel (v1b).  Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night (v2), perhaps because he did not want to be seen associating with Jesus.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 2:13-25.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

John 2:13-17 (NIV)
13  When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14  In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
15  So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
16  To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”
17  His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
 
On verses 13-17:  Here we read of Jesus going to Jerusalem, visiting the temple courts and driving out those who had turned the temple courts into a marketplace. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 1:40-51.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 1:40-41 (NIV)
40  Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
41  The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
 
On verses 40-41:  Earlier in John 1:35-37 we read that John the Baptist pointed Jesus out to two of his disciples and said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”   So those two disciples of John the Baptist start to follow Jesus.  We learn here that one of those two disciples is Andrew.  The identity of the second disciple is not 100% clear, but I think he might be John himself, the author of this gospel. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 1:29-39.  I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!
 
John 1:29 (NIV)
29  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
 
On verse 29:  Here John the Baptist is quoted as calling his younger cousin Jesus “the Lamb of God” (see also verse 36).  Just as God provided a lamb for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son Isaac (Genesis 22:8), just as Moses called the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb without defect at Passover to atone for the sins of their firstborn sons (Exodus 12:21), just as the Israelites later would regularly sacrifice a lamb without defect as an atoning sacrifice for their sins (Leviticus 9:3), so Jesus Christ would be the lamb that God would sacrifice to pay for our sins.  John, the apostle writing this gospel, would also write the book of Revelation where again he sees a vision of Jesus in heaven looking like a lamb that has been slain (Revelation 5:6).  Praise God!  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins by the shedding of his precious blood.