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March 5, Sunday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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One Whom You Do Not Know — John was not a self-proclaimer, and neither was Jesus. Later in His ministry, Jesus even “warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ” (Matt. 16:20). He demonstrated His deity. In our passage for today, Jesus had not yet begun His public ministry, but this One whom the Pharisees did not know (John 1:26) would continue to be a mystery to them because they did not want a Messiah to upset their political hold on the Jews who attempted to follow God. Some of those Pharisees did come to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and had faith in Him. God never provides enough evidence to eliminate the need for faith. We are surrounded today by people who do not know Jesus as their eternal hope. We need to tell them that there is hope beyond the kind of life they have experienced. We need to show them that the Holy Spirit dwells within us and makes a drastic difference in our lives, because we know Whom we have believed.
I Know Whom I Have Believed – YouTube
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March 6, Monday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Lamb of God, Son of God — John the Baptist presented two important titles for Jesus in this paragraph. The first was “the Lamb of God” (v. 29). That is a huge step beyond being called the Messiah—it encompasses the primary mission of Jesus. He came to die, and even though there is some evidence in the Old Testament of that purpose, the picture most seen was that the Messiah would powerfully rule over Israel, and even more widely. That will still happen in the future, but His first coming was to be in the role of the sacrificial Lamb of God. The second title was “the Son of God” (v. 34). This shows that the expected Messiah was to be God Himself. Yahweh provided Himself to satisfy His justice by being the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of humanity. Although John was almost a year older than Jesus, he said, “He existed before me” (v. 30). That points to the eternality of God the Son, which was also indicated in Jesus’ later statement that “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). Jesus is the eternal, perfect sacrifice for our sins; the Son of God was the Lamb of God.
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March 7, Tuesday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Early Evangelism — There are three examples of early evangelism in this passage. One was John the Baptist’s declaration to two of his disciples: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” (v. 36). It was an invitation by John that his disciples should become Jesus’ disciples. That was sacrificial evangelism; John was willing to lose something in order for others to gain. Today, our only sacrifice might be the possibility of losing a friend who would reject our invitation to take a closer look at Jesus. John declared what he had learned from the heavenly voice at Jesus’ baptism. Jesus was the Sacrifice—the Lamb of God. The second example of evangelism was from Jesus Himself, when he invited Andrew (and probably the Apostle John) to where He stayed: “Come, and you will see” (v. 39a). They apparently stayed with Jesus for the whole day, beginning from 10:00 a.m. (“the tenth hour”—v. 39b). Wouldn’t you love to have a recording of what Jesus said to them that convinced them that He was the Messiah? “Come and see”—that is an invitation we could give to friends we invite to church or a small group Bible study. Jesus was the Inviter — “Come!” The third evangelistic effort was when Andrew went to get his brother, Simon (Peter), and bring him to Jesus. His declaration was, “We have found the Messiah” (v. 41). Can you imagine the impact of that statement to a Jew whose ancestors had been waiting for the Messiah for hundreds of years? Jesus had convinced Andrew, and Andrew turned into an evangelist. Jesus was the Messiah—the “Anointed One”—the Christ.
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March 8, Wednesday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Supernatural Savior — We see something of the supernatural character of Jesus in today’s reading. He displayed supernatural knowledge in “seeing” Nathanael under the fig tree before Philip called him. A fig tree grows out and down more than up, providing relative concealment for anyone under it. Perhaps Nathanael (also called Bartholomew, “son of Tholomaios”) was taking a nap. Nathanael had doubted Philip’s claim that Jesus was the Messiah because He came from Nazareth, but when he heard Jesus say that He had seen him under the fig tree, he knew it was supernatural knowledge and, therefore, that Jesus was the Messiah. He called Jesus “Rabbi … the Son of God … the King of Israel” (v. 49), the long-awaited Messiah. Jesus complimented Nathanael’s faith from what he had heard, but He predicted that he would “see greater things than these” (v. 50). He would, indeed! The next statement, Jesus said “to him” (v. 51), was referring to Philip, but others were probably there also because the two second-person pronouns (“you”) that followed (“I say to you, you will see…”) are both plural. What would they see? “THE HEAVENS OPENED AND THE ANGELS OF GOD ASCENDING AND DESCENDING on the Son of Man.” This OT quote refers to Jacob’s literal experience at Bethel (Gen. 28:12). Most commentators say that Jesus’ prediction here was only figurative, indicating His opening the door of communication with God. On the other hand, Nathanael, Philip, Peter, Andrew, and John were all in attendance at the Ascension, when Jesus was literally caught up into the heavens. Angels were also present because two of them asked the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking toward heaven? …” (Acts 1:11). Even though Luke did not mention that the angels were ascending and descending, perhaps that was just omitted because of the focus on the challenge and promise communicated by the angels to the disciples. Remember to ask about that when we all get to heaven!
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March 9, Thursday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Water to Wine — Jesus must have had a brief talk with the Father between telling His mother, “My hour has not yet come” (v. 4), and telling the servants, “Fill the water jars” (v. 7). The fact that Jesus was the Messiah was revealed to John at Jesus’ baptism, and to Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael, and probably the Apostle John individually, but not yet on a more public scale. With the miracle of changing water into wine, however, He “manifested His glory” (v. 11) to the servants and to His disciples. When Jesus performs a miracle, He does it right! This was a miracle of quantity: the six jars held 120-180 gallons (450-690 liters), probably producing much more wine than was provided at the beginning of the wedding. It was also a miracle of quality: the headwaiter thought the bridegroom had saved the best wine for last (v. 10). Do you think those servants told others about what they knew Jesus had done? Certainly! It was an experience of a lifetime. How about the miracle Jesus performed in our own lives? That was also a life-changing experience. Are we spreading the Good News that Jesus is still making drastic changes in human vessels?
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March 10, Friday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Zealous for Holiness — This passage does not say that Jesus was angry, but He certainly was violent. He drove out the oxen and sheep with the whip and spilled the money changers’ coins on the ground, but He only spoke to the dove sellers, telling them to leave (v. 16). His intent was not to ruin the merchants, but to cleanse the temple area. He was zealous for holiness. Their business was a helpful service to Jewish travelers coming to the temple to offer sacrifices, but it was taking place in the Court of the Gentiles, an area reserved for their worship. They were restricted to this area; it was their only place for worship at the temple. For them, it was probably somewhat like I feel when I pause to thank God for my food in a noisy restaurant. It is not conducive to worship. Jesus was sensitive to the needs of the Gentiles and He was sensitive to God’s honor at the place where God’s presence was represented. Jesus not only displayed violence in His actions, He also acted with authority. The Jewish leaders were horrified. Since Jesus was not one of their leadership group, they demanded for Him to explain His “authority for doing these things” (v. 18). They asked for a supernatural “sign” to prove His authority. He would provide that sign about three years later when He raised “the sanctuary of His body” (v. 21) after they had killed Him. Jesus was zealous for holiness, and He had the authority for cleansing the temple because He was God.
Here is an appropriate song recorded during the pandemic by a Chinese-Filipino
church choir in Cebu City, Philippines, where I have preached several times.
This is My Holy Place – YouTube
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March 11, Saturday
An audio recording of the following reading is available below.
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Divine Omniscience — The word “But” at the beginning of verse 24 presents an important contrast between what the people believed (“many believed in His name”—v. 23) and what Jesus knew (“Jesus … was not entrusting Himself to them”—v. 24). The same Greek verb is used for the people’s faith (“believed”) and for Jesus’ hesitant faith (“not entrusting”), but there is a huge difference in the object and level of their faith. The people believed that Jesus was supernatural, “when they saw His signs which He was doing” (v. 23). That was faith based on external evidence—Jesus’ miraculous signs. On the other hand (“But…”), Jesus knew what was internal; He knew their hearts, which were sinful with selfishness and limited in knowledge. No one needed to inform Jesus about what was in their hearts because “He Himself knew what was in man” (v. 25b). It was supernatural knowledge, or divine omniscience. Jesus knew everything about mankind; He knew that He could not depend on them. We are not to be trusted either. Although the divine Spirit of God now dwells in each believer, we still have our sinful nature that cannot be trusted. We are in a training process of growing in godly wisdom and action, but we are faulty. That is not a reason to excuse our sinful thoughts, words, and actions, but it is a reminder of our weakness and how much we need to rely on God’s strength. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9).
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YES! to the Joybells Gospel Team Virtual Choir! (Friday) That was great. Praise God!
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(Thursday) Jesus’ changing the water to wine was not only a “quantitative” and “qualitative” miracle, it also was a “creative” miracle–since water (H2O) was changed to wine which has carbon atoms also.
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