Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 14:15-21.  Let’s go!

John 14:15 (NIV) 
15  “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

On verse 15:  Loving Jesus is not simply feeling a certain way toward Jesus or having a favourable opinion about Jesus.  It’s doing what Jesus commands.  To love Jesus is to obey Jesus.  If you want to know how well you love Jesus, ask yourself, “How much am I obeying what Jesus is commanding me to do?”

John 14:16-17 (NIV) 
16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever–
17  the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

On verses 16-17:   To help us love and obey Jesus, Jesus and the Father together give us access to the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity.  Here Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth” (v17).  He also calls the Holy Spirit a “Counselor” (v16), in Greek “parakletos”, which in other English translations has also been translated “comforter”, “advocate”, and “helper”.  Indeed the Holy Spirit is all of those things to Christians. The Holy Spirit counsels Christians to understand and do God’s will.  The Holy Spirit comforts Christians with the presence of God.  The Holy Spirit is our advocate who speaks to the Father on our behalf.  And the Holy Spirit is our helper, who empowers us to do what God wants us to do.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 13:31-38.  Let’s go!

John 13:31-32 (NIV) 
31  When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.
32  If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

On verses 31-32:  With Judas now on his way to betray Jesus, Jesus sees Judas’ betrayal as triggering the important process by which Jesus will be handed over to the authorities, crucified, killed, buried, and finally resurrected and glorified.  So Jesus is looking past the betrayal to what the betrayal would lead to, ultimately Jesus being glorified.

What can we learn from this?  Instead of focusing only on the current or soon coming pain or problem you are facing, like Jesus, learn to look past that current or soon coming pain and see that the current or soon coming pain is part of something greater that God is doing down the road.  Like Jesus, though your current lot may be pain and trouble, may you have eyes to see that if you persevere through this difficult time, there will soon be glory waiting for you in the end.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 13:12-20.  Let’s go!

John 13:12-15 (NIV) 
12  When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 
13  “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 
14  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 
15  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

On verses 12-15:  Usually washing the feet of guests was what the lowest servant or slave in the house was expected to do.  Thus it was inconceivable and shocking for the disciples that Jesus, their Lord and Teacher, would bend down and wash their feet.  What was Jesus teaching his disciples in doing this?  Jesus says it himself: “Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (v14-15)  Because Jesus, the name above every name and the king above every king, was willing to bend down and take on the role of a servant in the lives of people he loved, so Jesus calls us to do the same.  Humility is putting others ahead of ourselves, all the while being secure in our own worth and value.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 12:37-50.  Let’s go!

John 12:37-41 (NIV) 
37  Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.
38  This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39  For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40  “He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn–and I would heal them.”
41  Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

On verses 37-41:  John sees the cold-hearted, unbelieving response of many Jews toward Jesus as fulfilling prophecies written by Isaiah about 700 years before.  Quoting Isaiah 53:1 in verse 38 and then Isaiah 6:10 in verse 40, John says that Isaiah spoke wrote these prophecies because he also saw Jesus’ glory.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 12:20-26.  Let’s go!

John 12:20-22 (NIV) 
20  Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast.
21  They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.”
22  Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

On verses 20-22:  Here we see not just Jews but Greeks wanting to see Jesus.  It’s a reminder that Jesus didn’t just come to be the long-awaited Messiah the Jews were waiting for.  Even more Jesus came to be the saviour that the entire world needs.  Jesus himself showed this when he would talk about having “other sheep that are not of this pen” that he must bring in also (John 15:16).  He would show this again and again when he reached out to a Samaritan woman in John 4, a Roman centurion in Luke 7, and a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:22.  After Jesus’ resurrection Jesus would commission his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).  Praise God! No matter what your background, nationality or culture, Jesus is the saviour we need.