The Answer to Your Deepest Longing

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 4:1-14.  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 4:1-3 (NIV)
1  The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John,
2  although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.
3  When the Lord learned of this, he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
 
On verses 1-3:  Notice that Jesus was intentional and careful in his movements. 
 
John 4:4-6 (NIV)
4  Now he had to go through Samaria.
5  So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6  Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

Let Jesus Get the Glory

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 3:22-36.  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 3:22-30 (NIV)
22  After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.
23  Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized.

On verses 22-30:  I absolutely love and admire the humility of John the Baptist.  Instead of envying Jesus because Jesus was baptizing more people than he was and becoming more popular than he was (v26), John the Baptist displays incredible humility.  First, John says, “A man can only receive what has been given to him from heaven.” (v27)  In other words, instead of worrying about what he didn’t have, John the Baptist simply focused on what he did have because of God’s grace and was thankful for it.  Likewise, may you not worry and fret about what you don’t have but be thankful for what you do have.

From Death to Life

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 3:9-21.  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 3:9-13 (NIV)
9  “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10  “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?
11  I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.
12  I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
13  No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man.
 
On verses 9-13:  Nicodemus was known as “the teacher of Israel” (v10 ESV, NKJV).  Yet here Israel’s teacher is unable to understand what Jesus, the Son of Man, was saying.  It shows that Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, had wisdom and experience that Israel’s greatest teachers could not match.  Teachers like Nicodemus were mere men reaching for heaven, whereas Jesus is the one who “came from heaven” to reach people on earth.

What Does It Mean To Be “Born Again”?

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.

Take Great Care of God’s House

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. 

Jesus Always RSVPs

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 2:1-12.  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 2:1-2 (NIV)
1  On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there,
2  and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
 
On verses 1-2:  Jesus is about to do his first miracle of turning water into wine.  And guess who were the ones who got to experience it?  It was those who invited Jesus, as well as those closest to him.
 
What can we learn from this? If you want Jesus’ involvement in a situation, invite Jesus into the situation.   Whenever you sincerely invite Jesus, you can count on Him to be there.  Jesus always RSVP’s.    

A Greater Vision for Your Life

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. 

It’s God’s Work in You

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. 

What Greatness Looks Like

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is John 1:14-28.  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 1:14 (NIV)
14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

On verse 14:  Verses 14-18 conclude what is known as the Prologue in John 1.  The Prologue summarizes some of the central truths about Jesus from the Gospel of John.  Just from verse 14 alone we learn that:

–        Jesus (the Word) “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (v14a).  In other words, God became a man when Jesus entered this world and lived among people.  This is known as the Incarnation.

–        Jesus is the Son of God who came from the Father (v14b). 

–        Jesus is “full of grace and truth” (v14b).  Jesus is not just all grace, nor is he all truth.  He is full of both. 

–        For all these reasons, Jesus is unique and unlike anyone else.  That is why John calls Jesus “the One and Only”.

The Word In The Beginning

Hi GAMErs,

The Gospel of John is one of the most beloved books ever written.  While of course people like to debate everything, the best and most reasonable conclusion based on internal and external evidence is that John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, wrote the Gospel of John.  While it’s unclear when exactly he wrote it, scholars I respect tend to date the Gospel of John between approximately 65 A.D. and 85 A.D.

Today’s passage is John 1:1-13.  These first 13 verses, along with verses 14-18, are known as “The Prologue” by scholars.  It serves as an introduction to, and in some ways, a summary of the entire story that John is going to tell about Jesus in this gospel.  According to many scholars, these verses contain “some of the most tightly reasoned patterns of theological reflection in the New Testament”[1].  Profound simplicity, as others have called it.  Let’s go!