Archive for category: GAMEtime Sharing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 7:14-24.  Let’s go!

John 7:14 (NIV) 
14  Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. 

On verse 14:  The Feast of Tabernacles lasted 8 days.  According to some scholars, it had been approximately 18 months since the last time Jesus visited Jerusalem.  Many were expecting Jesus to make a public appearance at the Feast, but Jesus does not appear when everyone expects.  Only when the Feast is halfway through did Jesus begin to teach in the temple courts.  There he amazes the crowd with his teaching. 

John 7:15 (NIV) 
15  The Jews were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”

On verse 15:  When the Jews ask, “How did this man get such learning without having studied?”, some scholars read this as the Jews simply being amazed that a man without formal rabbinical training like Jesus could teach with such wisdom and power.  However, there is probably also a streak of skepticism in their question as well. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 5:41-47.  Let’s go!

John 5:41-44 (NIV) 
41  “I do not accept praise from men,
42  but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.
43  I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.
44  How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?

On verses 41-44:  Interesting.  Jesus seems to be saying that if you’re all about living for people’s praise and approval and are not interested in pleasing God, this will keep you from an effective, saving, fruitful faith in God.  In other words, faith is a heart issue. 

John 5:45-47 (NIV) 
45  “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set.
46  If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
47  But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 5:19-30.  Let’s go!

John 5:19-23 (NIV) 
19  Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 
20  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. 
21  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 
22  Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 
23  that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

On verses 19-23:  Here Jesus describes how intricately entwined he and the Father are:

–        Jesus the Son can do nothing by himself but only does what he sees his Father doing (v19);

–        Whatever the Father does Jesus the Son also does (v19);

–        “For the Father loves the Son” (v20):  It’s a love relationship between the Father and Jesus the Son;

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 5:1-9.  Let’s go!

John 5:1-3 (NIV) 
1  Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. 
2  Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 
3  Here a great number of disabled people used to lie–the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 

On verses 1-3:  John’s Gospel now shifts to Jesus in Jerusalem where he visits the pool of Bethesda where disabled people were known to congregate.  Apparently some people believed that an angel stirred the waters of the pool of Bethesda and that the first person to enter the pool after the waters were stirred would be healed.   

By the way, why is verse 4 missing?  If you read the King James version of John’s Gospel, you will see verses 3b and 4 which mention this idea of an angel coming to stir the pool waters.  However, this was apparently a later addition into Scripture and has been omitted from more current versions of the Gospel of John.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 4:31-42.  Let’s go!

John 4:31-34 (NIV) 
31  Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
32  But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33  Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”
34  “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

On verses 31-34:  I could see the disciples coming to Jesus with food already in their mouths and casually inviting Jesus to eat something (v31).  Yet Jesus’ response confuses them (v32-33).  When Jesus says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (v34), what does he mean?  Jesus means that what drives him, satisfies him and empowers his life is doing his Father’s will and completing the assignment he has been given.  Jesus would say something related in Matthew 4 in the desert: “Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)  Take John 4:34 and Matthew 4:4 together and we get a powerful truth: Jesus fed on two things – meditating on God’s Word and doing God’s work.