Day 4 - Embarrassing questions

Reading: John 3:1-21

Have you ever been embarrassed to ask someone something? How to turn on a computer? What a certain word means? Where a book is in the Bible? Whether someone has feelings for you too? I remember as a teenager sat in Sex Education lessons wanting to ask what some of the words meant, but I was too embarrassed! We all have embarrassing questions but if we don’t ask we will never know.

Perhaps Nicodemus, the Pharisee in today’s reading, came to Jesus at night time a little embarrassed, not wanting others to see him talking to Jesus. The conversation he went on to have with Jesus has become well known and a key reference point to what it means to be a Christian. Jesus explained ‘that everyone who believes may have eternal life’ (verse 15), and be born again / made spiritually alive / enter a relationship with God. Jesus teaches that this real spiritual life, eternal life, is available because of the gift of God’s son, to anyone who believes in him.

Did you know you can come to Jesus whatever your embarrassment or question is? You may just find that in coming to Jesus today you will discover, like Nicodemus, much more than you expected. I regularly have questions for Jesus, and I regularly say or do things I’m embarrassed about. As I grow in my Christian faith what becomes clearer and clearer to me is God’s heart of love for each and every one us and his gift of Jesus.

Whatever lies ahead of you today may I encourage you to come to God, through Jesus, honestly and with a grateful heart for the wonderful loving gift of Jesus.

Response

Father God, I bring to you today my questions and my embarrassments. I want to say thank you for sending Jesus so that I can have eternal life. I choose to believe you and trust you today.

Andy

Day 3 - Missing the point

Reading: John 2:1-25

Recently I attended my mother-in law’s funeral.  Many people turned up to the service recalling her outstanding example and inspiration to them and the quiet, hard-working loyal servant of Christ she had been.  I am ashamed to say that that I feel I completely missed this point of her life while she was with us.

In this passage the point is missed time and again. 1. The master of the banquet (verse 9, in charge of the running of the feast), tasting the wine (his neck being on the line), not bothering to find out where it had come from and commenting on its quality when God himself, the creator of every good thing, was gracing this marriage banquet.  2. The Jews demand a sign from Jesus to prove his authority – Jesus, the eternal Son of God, to whom and for whom the temple was dedicated and built!  3. The disciples and Jews miss the point of Jesus’ answer (verse 19), as he gives them a glimpse of his destiny to become the saviour of the world, abolishing the need for the physical temple he was standing in.  4. People who are so dazzled by Jesus’ miracles tragically miss the point of ‘God with us’ (verses 24-25).

So we need not be discouraged when people around us miss the point of our daily witness to them, but remember that we can do nothing without God’s power flowing through our lives and completely relying on his strength and not our own – the outcome of our lives is completely up to God.

But we are challenged: how many times do we miss the point when we don’t see that our prayers are being answered around us? When we read the Bible out of habit rather than out of a thirst for God? When God presents ‘gift wrapped’ opportunities to us?

Response

Father, allow me to see what is really going on around me in my life today and help those that I am in contact with be guided into truth as the disciples were.

Guy

Day 2 - Who are you?

Reading: John 1:19-50

The ministry of John the Baptist is given in some detail in these verses.  What can we learn about his character and his work from them?

When questioned in v19-28, John is open and honest in his replies and is not afraid to answer directly.  When asked in verse 22, “Who are you?” he could have explained about his family line and the things that his father Zechariah foretold about him at his birth (Luke 1), but instead John’s servant heart chooses to keep those things to himself and uses the words from Isaiah 40:3 to explain who he was and what his purpose was.  He moves the spotlight away from himself so that it focuses on Jesus.

Thinking about that question “Who are you?” in the light of recent life-threatening hostage situations around the world, I was challenged about how I would reply to those wanting an answer from me.  Would I be as open and honest as John?  Would you?

Moving to verses 29-34 it must have been a good experience for John to baptise Jesus and hear God the Father reveal to him that Jesus was the Son of God.  John has a clear understanding in verse 29 of who Jesus is and his purpose for coming to earth.  Do these truths mean something to you today?

In verses 35-51 look at what it was that brought each of these five men to Jesus.  How far did they understand who Jesus was?  What account of Jesus can you give to others?  Also in this wonderful story of Nathanael meeting Jesus, why did Jesus’ answer elicit the response of Nathanael in verse 49 (see John 2:25) and what do verses 47-50 reveal of Nathanael’s character?

Response

Let’s pray today that Jesus will reveal himself to us so that, like John and these five disciples, we might truly know him and his purposes and then invite others to get to know him too.

Susan

Day 1 - In at the deep end

Reading: John 1:1-18

“Never forget that the entire course of a story or novel, like an avalanche, is largely defined within its first seconds. To craft a compelling story, you must first launch it in the right direction.” 

Jacob M. Appel

The writer of John’s gospel begins by launching us in at the deep end!

Matthew, Mark and Luke begin by placing the account of Jesus in a particular time, place and setting.  In a sense they start ‘small’ and we grow to understand the huge significance of Jesus as we read on. John, on the other hand, starts with Jesus, as ‘the Word’, at the dawn of time and then tells us that the Word was God.

When we read the words ‘In the beginning …’ we are supposed to make a link with the start of Genesis. Very often, books of the Old Testament were known by their opening words, so by starting John’s gospel with these words we are invited to re-think our understanding of Jesus in the light of our knowledge of all of creation and the creator God.

And that’s just verse 1!

If you gave me a choice of any passage in the Bible and said I had to preach one sermon for each verse, one verse a week, I would pick these 18 verses, John 1:1-18. Each verse seems to contain a fresh truth to dwell on and consider. You can also read each verse in turn and ask, “What does this particular verse teach me about Jesus?”

Please read the verses again and take time to pause, reflecting on each line. Ask our God to guide you to see which verse is your ‘sermon’ for today. For me, today, it’s verse 12:

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Just as today’s opening passage repeats the word ‘light,’ may our God of light guide us all.

Response

Let’s pray today for encouragement for everyone taking part in these readings and take strength from the fact that others are praying for us.

Ken

40 Days in e-book versions

We have pushed back the technology boundaries yet again and managed to created e-book versions of 40 Days! If you go to Smashwords you can download the booklet for free in various versions including mobi (for Kindle), pdf, and epub. You can also get it for Kindle from Amazon but we are still waiting for them to drop the price (they will only allow you to publish on their site for a minimum of 99p).

By all means invite your friends to join us on the 40 Days journey, even if they live elsewhere. We are already looking forward to sharing thoughts with folk in Uganda, Senegal and Japan!

10 days, 15 days ...

Just 10 days now until our readings start in John's Gospel.

And just 15 days left for you to watch the first episode of The Gospel of John on the BBC iPlayer. The three episodes form a 3-hour reading of the gospel from what appears to be the most up-to-date NIV.

It's a great way to get an overview of the whole gospel before we start 40 Days.

Books

The books were picked up today and will be available to collect the next 3 Sundays from the foyer if you are planning to use one. We have a few spares so no problem in picking one up even if you hadn't 'ordered' one in advance.

Books are free but £2 will cover the cost of production if anyone wants to contribute.

A reminder that the readings start on April 27th.