Time out

TIME OUT: JOHN Eye witness accounts of the life PRICE: FREE

of Jesus, plus articles, stories and interviews with those who claim to know Him now.

21

CHAPTERS

Inside: The Gospel of John PLUS EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES ON NEW BIRTH / MIRACLES / STRONG FOUNDATIONS PRAYER / THE CROSS / LIVING IT OUT / PASSION / PASSING IT ON AND MUCH MORE...

REAL AND ETERNAL LIFE, MORE AND BETTER LIFE THAN YOU EVER DREAMED OF John 10:10 (The Message)

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INTRO

IT IS FAIR TO SAY THAT THE MESSAGE FROM THE BOOKS IN THE BIBLE HAS TRANSFORMED THE COURSE OF HISTORY ACROSS THE ENTIRE WORLD. THROUGH THE CENTURIES, THE STORY OF A CARPENTER FROM NAZARETH HAS IMPACTED MILLIONS OF LIVES AROUND THE GLOBE, AND IN THIS ‘GOSPEL OF JOHN’ THE AUTHOR CLEARLY STATES THAT HIS AIM IS TO ENCOURAGE US TO ENCOUNTER JESUS FOR OURSELVES. Whether you feel familiar with the Story or new to the adventure, we hope that you will take some ‘Time Out’ to examine for yourself the claims that you can have a new life – ‘real and eternal life, more and better life than you ever dreamed of’ John 10:10 (The Message translation).

As well as the text of John’s Gospel, we’ve provided some additional articles, stories and helpful hints about engaging with the Bible as a whole. All of this is just to help you develop your own sensitivity to hearing God speak directly into your life.

We hope that you find this useful and would encourage you to share your journey with others as you explore these big issues for yourself.

John Kee (Editor)

FEEDBACK

If you can give us some feedback on the experience that could be very valuable for any future productions we might attempt. You can use this link to leave us your thoughts and comments: https://goo.gl/KmUIqY

INTRO

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 4

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The beginning

JOHN CHAPTER 1:1-2:25 Jesus is described as THE WORD, the Ultimate Truth behind everything; but he’s not talking about scribbles on a page! John tells us that the God of the whole universe somehow came down to the level of His own creation, revealed to all in plain sight. THE WORD has ‘moved into the neighbourhood’ has ‘pitched His tent among us’, the ‘Word’ now has skin and a frame, a name and a place. He became like us, so that we can become like Him and live for eternity in an intimate family relationship with Him…. oops, spoiler alert!

_ T H B E T H I N BI E N I N I N

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E GE N GG N G

1. THE BEGINNING

THE WORD BECAME FLESH In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, ‘This is the one I spoke about when I said, “He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.”’) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 1:1-1:18

TIME OUT Try re-reading

the last section but replace every underlined Phrase with “Jesus”

KEY VERSE JOHN 1:14

“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.

(The Message)”

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JOHN THE BAPTIST DENIES BEING THE MESSIAH Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, ‘I am not the Messiah.’

They asked him, ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the Prophet?’

He answered, ‘No.’ Finally they said, ‘Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’

Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, ‘Why then do you baptise if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?’ ‘I baptise with water,’ John replied, ‘but among you stands one you do not know.

He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

JOHN TESTIFIES ABOUT JESUS The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, “A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptising with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.’

Then John gave this testimony: ‘I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptise with water told me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.” I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.’

JOHN’S DISCIPLES FOLLOW JESUS The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

Turning round, Jesus saw them following and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, ‘Rabbi’ (which means ‘Teacher’), ‘where are you staying?’

‘Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which, when translated, is Peter).

JESUS CALLS PHILIP AND NATHANAEL The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.

Finding Philip, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, ‘We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’

‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’

Nathanael asked. ‘Come and see,’ said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, ‘Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.’ ‘How do you know me?’ Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig-tree before Philip called you.’

Then Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.’ Jesus said, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig-tree. You will see greater things than that.’

He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on” the Son of Man.’

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ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 1:19-1:51

TIME OUT Write down all the

different things you have learnt so far about who Jesus was...

1. THE BEGINNING

JESUS CHANGES WATER INTO WINE

JESUS CLEARS THE TEMPLE COURTS

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’

‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied.

‘My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from eighty to a hundred and twenty litres. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water’; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realise where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

1. THE BEGINNING

The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’

They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said.

Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

INSIGHT: The Temple was

the heart of the Jewish religion and these words and actions of Jesus were incredibly provocative. You can read more about the Temple in 1 Kings 6-8.

Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 2:1-2:25

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ARTICLE

Purpose on and off the field

INTERVIEW WITH PETE BROWN

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ARTICLE: PURPOSE ON AND OFF THE FIELD

PETE PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE ULSTER RUGBY TEAM. HE’S PASSIONATE ABOUT JESUS AND SEEKS TO LIVE OUT HIS FAITH BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD. WE ASKED HIM ABOUT HIS RUGBY CAREER, TRAINING AND HOW TO LIVE AS A CHRISTIAN SPORTSMAN.

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR HIGHLIGHT AS A RUGBY PLAYER? That is a tough question! There have been so many great moments. Winning the Amlin cup with Harlequins ranks up there and winning the Championship with London Welsh. Playing for Ulster now is also a highlight, my father is proud Ulsterman and being able to play for the red hand is an amazing privilege. Hopefully there are many more highlights to come!

“

JUST AS A PERSON MAY BE A GREAT SINGER AND WORSHIP GOD WITH THAT GIFT, THAT IS HOW I VIEW MY RUGBY, - AS AN ACT OF WORSHIP.

HAS YOUR FAITH IN JESUS IMPACTED YOUR RUGBY CAREER? Hugely! I believe that God has given me gifts (I’m bigger than average, can run quite fast and catch most of the time!), and I want to glorify God with the gifts He’s given me. Just as a person may be a great singer and worship God with that gift, that is how I view my rugby, - as an act of worship.

I believe God is a good Father and wants to give good gifts to His children. God has given me the gift of rugby to enjoy, and that should bring a freedom to how I play and a perspective within the pressurised lens of professional sport. I will not always get this right but my purpose is set on glorifying Jesus in and through my life and rugby.

YOU MUST DO A LOT OF TRAINING BEHIND THE SCENES FOR RUGBY. YET IN YOUR FAITH, HOW DOES THE BIBLE HELP YOU BEHIND THE SCENES TO LIVE YOUR LIFE WELL? There is a lot of training behind the scenes in rugby that requires discipline and commitment to produce a great performance. The Bible is central to my life and how I want to live it for God. The Bible is God revealing Himself to man, it is God’s words to us. Through Jesus I am in right relationship with God and like any relationship the more I understand and know God the better I can serve and love them.

If I was not to speak to my best friend for weeks on end we would drift apart, I would not know him anymore. Yet, if I am spending time, talking and sharing, then our friendship will become even stronger. God speaks to His people through the Bible and therefore as I am seeking to love God more deeply and more completely the Bible reveals Him to me.

God has given the Bible to us because He loves us and He wants us to know Him. Reading the Bible also requires discipline - Paul speaks of physical training being in parallel with spiritual training, and Hebrews 12:1-3 speaks of running the race of life with perseverance by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. I may not always feel like reading the Bible but I am called to fix my eyes on Jesus and the Bible is one of the main places to find Jesus!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pete plays for Ulster Rugby and lives

in East Belfast. He is passionate about communicating confidence in Christ and serves with CVM Ireland.

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The Messiah

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JOHN CHAPTER 3:1-4:42 The Jews were expecting God’s rescue plan to come in the form of new Messiah, which is the Hebrew word for ‘Anointed One’ or King… problem was - Jesus didn’t quite fit the mould. God was walking among them in the person of Jesus, the rescue mission had begun. He came to show everyone the way to eternal life, ‘the Saviour of the World’ had come!

But how did they respond? What is your response?

R I D N

O S E

2. PROMISED ONE

JESUS TEACHES NICODEMUS Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.’ Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’

‘How can someone be born when they are old?’

Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’

‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘You are Israel’s teacher,’ said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’

KEY VERSE JOHN 3:16-17

TIME OUT Jesus offers LIFE not DEATH and says we can be SAVED not CONDEMNED. What would you like to say to God about this statement?

because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptised. (This was before John was put in prison.) An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan – the one you testified about – look, he is baptising, and everyone is going to him.’

To this John replied, ‘A person can receive only what is given them from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, “I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.” The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.’

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted it has certified that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.

TIME OUT The Message puts

it this way: “Whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn’t see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that.”

Ask God to speak to you as you read it a gain. Use the space to express your response to God, perhaps by sketching or writing.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

JOHN TESTIFIES AGAIN ABOUT JESUS After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptised. Now John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim,

2. PROMISED ONE

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 3:1-36

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JESUS TALKS WITH A SAMARITAN WOMAN Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptising more disciples than John – although in fact it was not Jesus who baptised, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

INSIGHT The Jews and

the Samaritan were aggressive religious rivals, so by passing through Samaria and talking to the woman (which was completely against the culture of the time), Jesus is showing us that there are no barriers to knowing Him.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’

(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’

‘IF YOU KNEW THE GIFT OF GOD AND WHO IT IS THAT ASKS YOU FOR A DRINK, YOU WOULD HAVE ASKED HIM AND HE WOULD HAVE GIVEN YOU LIVING WATER.’’

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ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 4:1-10

2. PROMISED ONE

‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’ Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’

The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’ He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’

‘I have no husband,’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.’

‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.’

‘Woman,’ Jesus replied, ‘believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are

the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.’

The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) ‘is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I, the one speaking to you – I am he.’

THE DISCIPLES REJOIN JESUS Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’ They came out of the town and made their way towards him.Meanwhile his disciples urged him, ‘Rabbi, eat something.’ But he said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’

Then his disciples said to each other, ‘Could someone have brought him food?’

‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying “One sows and another reaps” is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.’

MANY SAMARITANS BELIEVE Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I’ve ever done.’ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

TIME OUT PRAY IN RESPONSE TO JESUS THE MESSIAH

Lord Jesus, thank You that You came into the world to rescue us.

Thank You that Your love is totally unconditional. You see beyond the things that we have said and done that are wrong, offering us eternal life. Lord, help us to understand the depth of Your love and forgiveness. Give us the strength to live a life pleasing to You. Amen.

2. PROMISED ONE

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 4:11-42

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ARTICLE

Born again

GETTING SWITCHED ON!

BY FERGUS McMORROW 15 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: HOW NOT TO KILL THE PUPPY

LET ME BEGIN WITH THREE STORIES. Being present at the birth of a baby is an unforgettable experience. I have stood and cried in wonder watching my wife give birth to our four children. I continue to be in awe as I have watched them grow into four very unique individuals, sharing many of the same family traits and looks, but also being quite different in personality, interests and favourite football team. We see our children as four miracles as my wife had a condition which often leads to infertility.

I read once of a man who had attended church for eighty years of his life but only recently stood in front of a cross in a field and truly met Jesus for the first time. He described Jesus reaching into the core of his being and “switching him on”, giving meaning and restoration even in the late years of his life. He said that “I know for the first time that I am alive”.

THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS US TO LOOK TO JESUS IN EVERY SITUATION, EVEN IN FAILURES. You will have read about new birth in the third chapter of John. The encounter there between Jesus and Nicodemus is one of the most quoted parts of the Bible. Nicodemus is a respected religious leader who visits Jesus at night under the cover of darkness. In the quiet and privacy of the evening, Nicodemus got to be upfront and personal with Jesus and to ask questions that were stirring in his heart and mind. He wanted to know who Jesus really was.

The response he received actually revealed who Nicodemus himself really was and indeed who we are and who we are called to be.

Jesus looked at him and said, “Nicodemus, you need to be born again” (Cf. John 3:5). The words Jesus used can be translated as “born again, born anew or born from above.” Nicodemus is confused by these words and asks Jesus what is their meaning: “Can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb?” Jesus then draws him to the very heart of the new kingdom life He is revealing and offering.

This invitation of new birth, being “switched on” is Christ’s personal invitation for you. You may know the exact moment, the exact place of this new birth.

Or it may be a more gradual dawning of the new life in Christ being present in your life. The Spirit blows where He wills.

Sometimes we can think that all our problems disappear with this new life in Jesus. However, it is more than a one-time miracle or a formula of prayer but a daily surrender to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps us to look to Jesus in every situation, even in failures. Our spiritual birth into God’s kingdom is also a birth in the family of God, with all the diversity, joys and challenges of a family.

Do you want to receive the most wonderful gift in the whole universe, the life of Christ Himself? Very simply turn to Christ by faith and put your trust totally in Him, asking Jesus to be your Saviour and Lord of all your life, to begin to reveal the fullness of life in Him which He has already won for you through His Cross and resurrection and to make you fully alive from the inside out through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Welcome to the family!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Fergus is a husband, dad and part of the team at Divine Healing Ministries. He is passionate about prayer, reconciliation and renewal.

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SECTION

Believe it or not

03

B I I 0 N

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JOHN CHAPTER 4:43-6:24 Jesus had been causing quite a stir, in Jerusalem and Galilee, but who is He? In this part of John’s Gospel, the writer is keen for those reading to know who Jesus is - God’s Son. There are miracles and strong words from Jesus to the Jewish leaders about who He is, His relationship with His Father and about what that means for us… Many of the Jewish leaders did not believe Jesus was who He claimed to be...what is your verdict going to be?

E L E V T R O T

E

3. BELIEVE IT OR NOT

JESUS HEALS AN OFFICIAL’S SON After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honour in his own country.)

When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’ The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ ‘Go,’ Jesus replied, ‘your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.

When he enquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, ‘Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.’

Then the father realised that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed.

This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

TIME OUT As you read through the next two passages below put a star beside anything

that stood out for you, a question mark beside something you don’t understand and an arrow beside something you think requires action from you. Tell a friend about what you marked and why.

THE HEALING AT THE POOL Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralysed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’

3. BELIEVE IT OR NOT

‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.

While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.’ But he replied, ‘The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.”’

So they asked him, ‘Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?’

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

THE AUTHORITY OF THE SON So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, 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.

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 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. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father, who sent him.

‘Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

TIME OUT Do you believe in

miracles? Do you think miracles are still possible today?

Check out Mike Pilavachi’s article on page 19.

KEY VERSE JOHN 5:24

Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 4:43-5:25

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 18

‘I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 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. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? ‘But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?’

JESUS FEEDS THE FIVE THOUSAND Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing those who were ill. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. ‘Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out – those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

TIME OUT Imagine you are

one of the disciples, as you read the story, try putting yourself in their shoes.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming towards him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?’ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, ‘It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!’

TESTIMONIES ABOUT JESUS ‘If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies in my favour, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

‘You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

INSIGHT Jesus often had

uncomfortable things to say to people who seemed to be ‘religious’ in society because He cares more about a relationship WITH Him than a head knowledge OF Him.

‘I have testimony weightier than that of John.

For the works that the Father has given me to finish – the very works that I am doing – testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

19 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 5:26-6:7

3. BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?’

Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

3. BELIEVE IT OR NOT

JESUS WALKS ON THE WATER When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened.

But he said to them, ‘It is I; don’t be afraid.’ Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realised that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

Once the crowd realised that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 6:8-6:24

TIME OUT Write a prayer to

thank Jesus for who He showed Himself to be in this section and what He means to you.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 20

ARTICLE

Everyday Supernatural

LEARNING TO BE OBEDIENT

BY MIKE PILAVACHI 21 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: EVERYDAY SUPERNATURAL

THE FIRST MIRACLE THAT JESUS EVER DID IS RECOUNTED IN JOHN 2:1-11 AND AT A QUICK GLANCE IT SEEMS TO BE HIM RESCUING A WEDDING PARTY AFTER THE WINE RAN OUT. IT SOUNDS A BIT OF A TAME WAY TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE SON OF GOD HAD ARRIVED DOESN’T IT? HE COULD DO ANY MIRACLE HE WANTED BUT RATHER THAN RAISING THE DEAD OR HEALING THE SICK, HE TURNED WATER INTO WINE. But Mary, Jesus’ mother, says something during this encounter which is foundational to seeing the power of God at work in our lives: “Do whatever he tells you” she says to the servants. These words can be addressed as much to us as they were to the servants.

Often we have this attitude: “Lord, we’ll do what you tell us, as long as we agree with your plan. It needs to be sensible. It needs to be realistic. And we don’t want to seem fanatical or extreme.” We must understand that is not obedience. Obedience is doing what God tells us even if it doesn’t seem to make sense.

After Mary told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you” Jesus then told them to fill stone jars with water. If I had been one of those servants I’m fairly sure I would have objected. What’s the use of filling a water jug when wine is what is needed? Thankfully, the servants simply obeyed.

But then Jesus told them to do something that seemed even crazier: to fill a cup with water and take it to the master of ceremonies. And somewhere on the journey between the water jar and the master of ceremonies a miracle happened. Water became wine.

How did it happen? Because the servants did what Jesus told them, even though what Jesus told them didn’t make sense. What might have made sense would have been him lending them his American Express card and sending them down to the off license. I might well have obeyed him had he told me to do that! However, obedience is doing whatever he tells us, regardless of whether we understand.

If we want to see God’s supernatural power in our lives, we need to learn obedience. Much like the servants at the wedding, Jesus repeatedly told the disciples to do things that seemed confusing (see Luke 19:30-31 and Luke 22:1011 for a couple of examples). Often the things God tells us won’t make sense and they will rarely be comfortable. Yet this kind of obedience to Jesus is the practical outworking of faith and the tangible expression of love God is looking for in his followers.

“

You may have heard people talk of how ‘anointed’ someone is at praying for healing or hearing God’s voice. This is another way of saying they are effective at it. Jesus was called the ‘anointed one’ which is translated Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek.

IF WE WANT TO SEE GOD’S SUPERNATURAL POWER IN OUR LIVES, WE NEED TO LEARN OBEDIENCE. So to be anointed is to have the power and presence of Jesus in us. What I’ve noticed over the years is that the most ‘anointed’ people just happen to be the most obedient. Each of us who has accepted Jesus as our Lord has the Holy Spirit living in us. That’s God’s power in us! If we want to see the miracles, if we want to see God’s power breaking into our ordinary, everyday world, let’s take Mary’s advice: “Do whatever he tells you.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mike heads up Soul Survivor, a ministry

that runs festival-like events for young people. He also leads a church called Soul Survivor Watford, has written quite a few books and loves cooking.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 22

SECTION

Misunderstood

04

JOHN CHAPTER 6:25-8:59 (THE MESSAGE) Jesus explains time and time again who He is and where He had come from - but some people just weren’t getting it. In fact, the reading ends with people stoning Him! . It wasn’t just that they didn’t get it - Jesus made them angry!! Don’t be too hard on them though - would we have missed God too? Maybe a better question is this - are we still missing God as He operates in the world around us today?

M I S U N D E R S T O O D

23 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

JESUS THE BREAD OF LIFE When they found him back across the sea, they said, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free.

“Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.”

To that they said, “Well, what do we do then to get in on God’s works?” Jesus said, “Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God’s works.”

They waffled: “Why don’t you give us a clue about who you are, just a hint of what’s going on? When we see what’s up, we’ll commit ourselves. Show us what you can do. Moses fed our ancestors with bread in the desert. It says so in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus responded, “The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven but that my Father is right now offering you bread from heaven, the real bread. The Bread of God came down out of heaven and is giving life to the world.”

They jumped at that: “Master, give us this bread, now and forever!”

KEY VERSE JOHN 6:35

Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life. The person who aligns with me hungers no more and thirsts no more, ever. I have told you this explicitly because even though you have seen me in action, you don’t really believe me. Every person the Father gives me eventually comes running to me. And once that person is with me, I hold on and don’t let go. I came down from heaven not to follow my own whim but to accomplish the will of the One who sent me.

“This, in a nutshell, is that will: that everything handed over to me by the Father be completed—not a single detail missed—and at the wrap-up of time I have everything and everyone put together, upright and whole. This is what my Father wants: that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who he is and what he does and then aligns with him will enter real life, eternal life. My part is to put them on their feet alive and whole at the completion of time.”

At this, because he said, “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” the Jews started arguing over him: “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?

Don’t we know his father? Don’t we know his

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

mother? How can he now say, ‘I came down out of heaven’ and expect anyone to believe him?”

Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent me is in charge. He draws people to me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do my work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End. This is what the prophets meant when they wrote, ‘And then they will all be personally taught by God.’ Anyone who has spent any time at all listening to the Father, really listening and therefore learning, comes to me to be taught personally—to see it with his own eyes, hear it with his own ears, from me, since I have it firsthand from the Father. No one has seen the Father except the One who has his Being alongside the Father—and you can see me.

“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”

At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: “How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”

But Jesus didn’t give an inch. “Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.” He said these things while teaching in the meeting place in Capernaum.

TIME OUT Pause and pray:

Jesus, I’m so thirsty, like a dry and parched desert where there is no water. I’m so tired, always looking for the next thing that will satisfy me. I need you Jesus.

I need this Bread that ends my hunger, and this Living Water which quenches my thirst. Jesus fill me up so that you live your life inside me, and you can overflow into lives all around me: my friends, my family, my school. Amen

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 6:25-59

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 24

referring to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. This man—one from the Twelve!—was even then getting ready to betray him.

Later Jesus was going about his business in Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judea because the Jews there were looking for a chance to kill him. It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews.

His brothers said, “Why don’t you leave here and go up to the Feast so your disciples can get a good look at the works you do? No one who intends to be publicly known does everything behind the scenes. If you’re serious about what you are doing, come out in the open and show the world.” His brothers were pushing him like this because they didn’t believe in him either.

Jesus came back at them, “Don’t crowd me. This isn’t my time. It’s your time—it’s always your time; you have nothing to lose. The world has nothing against you, but it’s up in arms against me. It’s against me because I expose the evil behind its pretensions. You go ahead, go up to the Feast. Don’t wait for me. I’m not ready. It’s not the right time for me.”

TOO TOUGH TO SWALLOW Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”

INSIGHT Wow! Even having faith in Jesus is a gift from God to us - we can’t do it without Him.

Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen.

Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.”

(Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”

He said this and stayed on in Galilee. But later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went. But he kept out of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself. The Jews were already out looking for him, asking around, “Where is that man?”

There was a lot of contentious talk about him circulating through the crowds. Some were saying, “He’s a good man.” But others said, “Not so. He’s selling snake oil.” This kind of talk went on in guarded whispers because of the intimidating Jewish leaders.

COULD IT BE THE MESSIAH? With the Feast already half over, Jesus showed up in the Temple, teaching. The Jews were impressed, but puzzled: “How does he know so much without being schooled?”

Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go?

You have the words of real life, eternal life.

We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus said, “I didn’t make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up. A person making things up tries to make himself look good. But someone trying to honor the one who sent him sticks to the facts and doesn’t tamper with reality. It was Moses, wasn’t it, who gave you God’s Law? But none of you are living it. So why are you trying to kill me?”

Jesus responded, “Haven’t I handpicked you, the Twelve? Still, one of you is a devil!” He was

The crowd said, “You’re crazy! Who’s trying to kill you? You’re demon-possessed.”

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

25 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 6:60-7:20

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

Jesus said, “I did one miraculous thing a few months ago, and you’re still standing around getting all upset, wondering what I’m up to.

Moses prescribed circumcision—originally it came not from Moses but from his ancestors— and so you circumcise a man, dealing with one part of his body, even if it’s the Sabbath. You do this in order to preserve one item in the Law of Moses. So why are you upset with me because I made a man’s whole body well on the Sabbath?

Don’t be nitpickers; use your head—and heart!—to discern what is right, to test what is authentically right.”

That’s when some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the one they were out to kill?

And here he is out in the open, saying whatever he pleases, and no one is stopping him. Could it be that the rulers know that he is, in fact, the Messiah? And yet we know where this man came from. The Messiah is going to come out of nowhere. Nobody is going to know where he comes from.”

That provoked Jesus, who was teaching in the Temple, to cry out, “Yes, you think you know me and where I’m from, but that’s not where I’m from. I didn’t set myself up in business. My true origin is in the One who sent me, and you don’t know him at all. I come from him—that’s how I know him. He sent me here.”

They were looking for a way to arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn’t yet God’s time. Many from the crowd committed themselves in faith to him, saying, “Will the Messiah, when he comes, provide better or more convincing evidence than this?”

The Pharisees, alarmed at this seditious undertow going through the crowd, teamed up with the high priests and sent their police to arrest him. Jesus rebuffed them: “I am with you only a short time. Then I go on to the One who sent me. You will look for me, but you won’t find me. Where I am, you can’t come.”

The Jews put their heads together. “Where do you think he is going that we won’t be able to find him? Do you think he is about to travel to the Greek world to teach the Jews? What is he talking about, anyway: ‘You will look for me, but you won’t find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you can’t come’?”

On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)

Those in the crowd who heard these words were saying, “This has to be the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah!” But others were saying, “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee, does he? Don’t the Scriptures tell us that the Messiah comes from David’s line and from Bethlehem, David’s village?” So there was a split in the crowd over him. Some went so far as wanting to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.

That’s when the Temple police reported back to the high priests and Pharisees, who demanded, “Why didn’t you bring him with you?”

The police answered, “Have you heard the way he talks? We’ve never heard anyone speak like this man.”

The Pharisees said, “Are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don’t see any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or any from the Pharisees? It’s only this crowd, ignorant of God’s Law, that is taken in by him—and damned.”

Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus earlier and was both a ruler and a Pharisee, spoke up. “Does our Law decide about a man’s guilt without first listening to him and finding out what he is doing?”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 7:21-7:51

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 26

But they cut him off. “Are you also campaigning for the Galilean? Examine the evidence. See if any prophet ever comes from Galilee.” Then they all went home.

TO THROW THE STONE

INSIGHT When all eyes where

on her, Jesus flips it back to those that were holding the stones in their hands. Suddenly they were faced with their own hypocrisy.

What do you think Jesus was writing in the sand?

They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?” Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.

He gave this speech in the Treasury while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him because his time wasn’t yet up.

The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons.

What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Then he went over the same ground again.

“I’m leaving and you are going to look for me, but you’re missing God in this and are headed for a dead end. There is no way you can come with me.” The Jews said, “So, is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by ‘You can’t come with me’?” Jesus said, “You’re tied down to the mundane; I’m in touch with what is beyond your horizons. You live in terms of what you see and touch. I’m living on other terms. I told you that you were missing God in all this. You’re at a dead end. If you won’t believe I am who I say I am, you’re at the dead end of sins. You’re missing God in your lives.”

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her.

“Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?” “No one, Master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus.

“Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

TIME OUT Jesus was amazing!! Imagine being there and seeing this story unfold! What

characteristics can you see in Him? What words come to mind when you read about His encounter with the woman? Mysterious? Compassionate? Brave?

YOU’RE MISSING GOD IN ALL THIS Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.” The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”

Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true.

I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father.

That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”

27 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

They said to him, “Just who are you anyway?”

Jesus said, “What I’ve said from the start. I have so many things to say that concern you, judgments to make that affect you, but if you don’t accept the trustworthiness of the One who commanded my words and acts, none of it matters. That is who you are questioning—not me but the One who sent me.”

They still didn’t get it, didn’t realize that he was referring to the Father. So Jesus tried again.

“When you raise up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am—that I’m not making this up, but speaking only what the Father taught me.

The One who sent me stays with me. He doesn’t abandon me. He sees how much joy I take in pleasing him.”

When he put it in these terms, many people decided to believe.

IF THE SON SETS YOU FREE Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure.

Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”

Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone.

How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”

Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though,

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 7:52-8:35

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”

They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”

Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”

They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.” “If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say?

Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening— because you’re not on God’s side.”

4. MISUNDERSTOOD

I AM WHO I AM The Jews then said, “That clinches it. We were right all along when we called you a Samaritan and said you were crazy—demon-possessed!”

Jesus said, “I’m not crazy. I simply honor my Father, while you dishonor me. I am not trying to get anything for myself. God intends something gloriously grand here and is making the decisions that will bring it about. I say this with absolute confidence. If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to look death in the face.”

At this point the Jews said, “Now we know you’re crazy. Abraham died. The prophets died. And you show up saying, ‘If you practice what I’m telling you, you’ll never have to face death, not even a taste.’ Are you greater than Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you think you are!”

Jesus said, “If I turned the spotlight on myself, it wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am doing what he says. Abraham— your ‘father’—with jubilant faith looked down the corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”

The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham saw you?” “Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.” That did it—pushed them over the edge. They picked up rocks to throw at him. But Jesus slipped away, getting out of the Temple.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 8:36-8:59

INSIGHT How Jesus described Himself here is virtually a claim to Divinity. His audience knew their scriptures and understood the ‘I AM’ phrase from Exodus 3:14 was essentially a name for God. This was a massive and in their eyes ‘heretical’ claim - no wonder it pushed some people over the edge.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 28

ARTICLE

How not to kill the puppy

BY PETE GREIG 29 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: HOW NOT TO KILL THE PUPPY

THE BEST GIFT OF MY LIFE WAS A PUPPY. A REAL, LIVE, FLUFFY LABRADOR WITH ENORMOUS PAWS AND AN INSATIABLE DESIRE FOR FUN. I LOVED HIM, BUT IT WASN’T EASY. I HAD TO FEED HIM, WALK HIM, TRAIN HIM AND CLEAR UP HIS MESS. You may have recently encountered God in a whole new way. You’ve heard God speak to you, perhaps you’ve come alive as a Christian for the first time.

But if you want to keep the gift you’ve received alive over the days and weeks and months ahead, you’re going to have to feed it, exercise it, take it for walks.

Leave it locked up as a lovely memory and, like an abandoned puppy, it’s going to get smelly and skanky and eventually die.

The single most important way of nurturing the gift that God has given you is through prayer. The three keys to growing your prayer life are these: keep it simple, keep it real and keep it up.

or going ape at the gym with a bible verse in your head, or getting out alone in the countryside, or praying together with friends.

FINALLY, KEEP IT UP. God’s not a cosmic slot machine. You can’t just insert a prayer and expect a can of coke. This is a real relationship we’re dealing with here, not a commercial transaction. Jesus told parables explicitly to say that we must persevere in prayer and not give up. It’s like stacking dominoes.

Eventually you pray the same prayer you’ve prayed 500 times before and suddenly the breakthrough happens. It’s not because you suddenly found some secret technique. You just didn’t stop praying one prayer too soon. Keep on stacking those dominoes!

THE MOST ARTICULATE PRAYERS OF YOUR LIFE CAN BE WORDLESS TEARS. IT’S OK TO PRAY THE WAY GOD MADE YOU.

FIRSTLY, KEEP IT SIMPLE. All relationships grow through good, regular communication. If I told you I never talked to my wife – or that I only talked to her once a week, never in private, and only if I needed something from her – you wouldn’t think much of my relationship with my wife! So try to get into the habit of chatting to God through the day. Tell him what’s really on your heart. Make a little space to be quiet and listen out for his whisper, especially through the words of the Bible. You’ll be surprised how much he talks to you when you do this.

SECONDLY, KEEP IT REAL. Be honest with God about stuff. He sees you when you’re on the toilet so there’s no point in pretending to be more together, or more holy than you really are. God can handle it if you get angry with him. And if you sometimes struggle with doubt, don’t worry - he honestly wont question his own existence if you talk to him about it. The most articulate prayers of your life can be wordless tears. It’s OK to pray the way God made you. Perhaps you love journaling, or singing opera,

It took a lot of work to care for my puppy. But with nourishment and exercise he quickly grew to become a dear and faithful friend. The cute Instagram moments became a beautiful, lifelong relationship.

God’s given you something even more precious than a cute pooch. As you nurture what he’s given you, the moments wont have to become memories that fade with your tan. Keep it simple, keep it real and keep it up, and your friendship with God will go deeper, grow stronger and get better than you could ever imagine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pete is a writer, church planter, Vice

President of Tearfund and founder of 24-7 Prayer. He also leads Emmaus Rd church with his wife Sammy.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 30

SECTION

Life to the full

05

JOHN CHAPTER 9:1-10:42 Like the Pharisees a lot of people today view Christianity as a list of do’s and don’ts, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact Jesus in this section says that the only way to the most fulfilling life imaginable is through an intimate relationship with Him. When you think about what it means to be a follower of Jesus do you think firstly of what you should or shouldn’t do? Or do you look to Jesus and focus on your relationship with Him?

L I F E T O T H E F U L L

31 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

5. LIFE TO THE FULL

JESUS HEALS A MAN BORN BLIND As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.

Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.

INSIGHT Sometimes we need

to make sure we’re not just reading the Bible like a textbook and allow ourselves to be amazed at what Jesus did, and can still do today!

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.” But he himself insisted, “I am the man.” “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

“Where is this man?” they asked him. “I don’t know,” he said.

THE PHARISEES INVESTIGATE THE HEALING They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind?

How is it that now he can see?”

“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 9:1-9:21(A)

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 32

who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” “Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”

Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Then they asked him, “What did he do to you?

How did he open your eyes?” He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen.

Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable!

You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person

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THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND HIS SHEEP “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.

The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 9:21(B)- 10:13

KEY VERSE JOHN 10:10 TIME OUT What does a really

‘full’ life look like?

What kind of messages do you get from the TV and media about what it means to have a really ‘good time’ in life? How does this compare with what Jesus offers?

5. LIFE TO THE FULL

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.

They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my Father.”

Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demonpossessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came— and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

FURTHER CONFLICT OVER JESUS’ CLAIMS Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.

The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My

5. LIFE TO THE FULL

Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father.

For which of these do you stone me?”

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.”

And in that place many believed in Jesus.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 10:14-10:42

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 34

ARTICLE

Strong foundations

BY RACHEL GARDNER 35 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: STRONG FOUNDATIONS

THERE’S A SCHOOL NEAR TO WHERE I LIVE IN LONDON THAT HAD TO CLOSE SUDDENLY BECAUSE A HUGE SWALLOW HOLE APPEARED OVER NIGHT IN THE PLAY GROUND. LITERALLY. THE CONCRETE WAS THERE ONE MINUTE, THEN IT WAS GONE! When investigated it became clear that under the school was a massive network of caves and mines the no one knew were there. But although all had been quiet on the surface, underneath a steady erosion had been taking place over years and years.

Eventually, after one pretty heavy downpour, the ground could no longer bare the weight above it and caved in, swallowing everything.

It’s not just school playgrounds that need to built on solid ground. You do too. Your life needs a foundation that won’t cave in. A foundation that is so strong that you can grow into the mighty woman or man of confidence, passion, purpose and power that God has destined for you.When Jesus says you can build your life on him, this is what he’s talking about; life that has deep foundations and endless possibilities. He offers you a rock beneath your feet and life that doesn’t just tick over, but spills over.

The problem is that the erosion of our own sin and the lies of the Devil spoken over us have already set in. We’re being under-mined by an enemy who wants nothing more than to take down the children of God. He doesn’t want us to have abundant life, he wants the opposite for us. One of his clever tactics is to rob you of your identity and confuse you about your purpose in life. If he can get you to believe that you’re nothing, a waste of space, a mistake, not good enough to be loved by God or talented enough to do anything significant, then he knows that it won’t take much for you to cave in.

because it’s impossible for us to do anything to earn it. If we can do nothing on our own to win his love and gift of abundant life, and it’s ALL about him, then we can be secure. Because the thing we know for sure about God is that he always speaks the truth.

He. Is. Truth. He can’t not be who he is, and he can’t speak anything over your life but the truth.

The truth is that your worth and potential are not of your making. They’re intrinsic; in you already. God created and God given. This is the truth about your identity and destiny that can ultimately combat the lies that try to under-mine you. When your Heavenly Father says he loves you and has a purpose for your life that will blow your wildest dreams out of the water, you can believe him. More than that. You can build everything on him.

WHEN YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER SAYS HE LOVES YOU AND HAS A PURPOSE FOR YOUR LIFE THAT WILL BLOW YOUR WILDEST DREAMS OUT OF THE WATER

The thing we know for sure about the Devil is that he lies. All. The. Time.

But he’s also cunning. He doesn’t tend to approach with the announcement, ‘Just to let you know that I’m doing some major disruption in your life right now!’ In fact, it can be really hard to spot his lies, because they’re often like the truth. It’s true that the Bible tells us that we’re unworthy of the incredible love God lavishes on us. But the unworthy bit is not because we’re impossible for God to love, but

So how do we overcome the lies of the enemy? The same way that Christians have done throughout the ages. Firstly we recognise our complete dependence on God by accepting that the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross means that every lie of the Devil thrown at us is powerless. He might still bark at us, but compared to Christ’s resurrected power, the Devil is a chiwawa on a chain! Secondly we dare to live in obedience to our Rescuer.

We do this by speaking and acting in ways that let people know that we’re not building our lives on lies, but on God’s truth.

(Revelation 12:11)

Because Jesus bore the crushing burden of your sin, he has the power to crush the lies of the Devil and become the strongest foundation you will ever know.

Don’t be afraid to really live!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rachel is the Relationship Lead at

Youthscape and President of the Girl’s Brigade. She is married to Jason and mum to Daisy.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 36

SECTION

Lazarus lives

06

JOHN CHAPTER 11:1-12:11 Here we find the only Gospel account of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. It also includes Jesus’ powerful words : ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ (look out for the other seven I AM statements from Jesus throughout this Gospel). These big claims led CS Lewis to famously suggest that we must conclude that Jesus must have been either mad, bad or indeed God Himself.

L A Z A R U S L I V E S

37 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

6.LAZARUS LIVES

THE DEATH OF LAZARUS Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

“But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?”

Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Anyone who walks in the daytime will not stumble, for they see by this world’s light.

It is when a person walks at night that they stumble, for they have no light.”

After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”

His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

to cry in front of the whole crowd.

Yes, He knew that Lazarus would live again, but He felt Mary & Martha’s pain so intensely.

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

JESUS RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD

JESUS COMFORTS THE SISTERS OF LAZARUS

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

INSIGHT Jesus wasn’t afraid

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.

Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

KEY VERSE JOHN 11:25-26

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.

6. LAZARUS LIVES

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 11:1-11:44

TIME OUT Write some

thoughts on these questions : In what ways have you experienced God bringing good things out of what seem like really bad situations?

What is the most challenging thing going on for you right now, and how would you like God to speak or act in that situation?

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 38

THE PLOT TO KILL JESUS Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked.

“Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus,

39 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

JESUS ANOINTED AT BETHANY Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor?

It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 11:45-12:11

6. LAZARUS LIVES

SECTION

Servant king

07

JOHN 12:12-13:38 Servant and King. Not two words you would naturally put together.

Yet when thinking about Jesus they fit perfectly together. He enters Jerusalem on a donkey, not a white stallion. He chose to wash the feet of His disciples, a task certainly not fitting for a King. This humble act of service was was a stark example for us all and previews His ultimate sacrifice that He had been building up to His whole life. A sacrifice that would impact the world forever.

S E R V A N T K I N G JESUS COMES TO JERUSALEM AS KING The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

At first his disciples did not understand all this.

Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him.

“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.

Many people, because they had heard that he had performed this sign, went out to meet him.

So the Pharisees said to one another, “See, this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

7. SERVANT KING

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 12:12-12:19

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 40

JESUS PREDICTS HIS DEATH Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.

Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

BELIEF AND UNBELIEF AMONG THE JEWS Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 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?”

For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:

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“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.

Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God. Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

“If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.

For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

JESUS WASHES HIS DISCIPLES’ FEET It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

INSIGHT Washing the feet of

a guest in your home was normally done by the servant of the family. Here Jesus demonstrates how He wants us to serve one another.

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 12:20-13:9

7. SERVANT KING

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

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. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

JESUS PREDICTS HIS BETRAYAL “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’

“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out.

And it was night.

JESUS PREDICTS PETER’S DENIAL When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of

7. SERVANT KING

Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

“A new command I give you: Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

KEY VERSE JOHN 13:34-35

Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

TIME OUT The Bible tells us that the Word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12).

This means that it has the power to transform us in our lives today if we open our heart to listen to what God wants to talk to us about.

Before you start this exercise find a quiet, comfortable space where you will not be disturbed. Relax and remember this exercise is a discipline. This means that it will take practice to get better at it and to get the most out of it so don’t stress if this doesn’t come easy to you at first, just enjoy learning to listen to God’s voice in this way. Before you begin simply say a silent prayer asking God, by His Holy Spirit to come and speak to you through His Word and reveal what He wants to say to you.

READ Take a few minutes to read the memory verse slowly. As you read it take in each word deliberately.Read it over again another few times.

REFLECT Think about what you have just read. Reflect on any words or phrases that particularly stood out to you. What words jumped out of the page? What words do you think God shone His spotlight on? How do these words make you feel? If you want to, write down any thoughts you may have.

RESPOND Ask God why He gave you this word? Through your thoughts listen to what He is saying. Spend time in silence with the Lord asking Him to reveal what He wants to say to you in His Living Word. It is important at this point to try and stay focused on what you are doing and not get distracted by what is going on around you.

REST Continue to stay in this attitude of prayer as you rest in God’s presence, let His presence and love bring you His peace and comfort. Write down anything you feel God is saying to you through these verses. As you finish thank God for His Word.

Remember what you may hear God saying to you and what someone else may hear Him saying about the exact same passage could be different and this is entirely normal as we are are all individuals going through various journeys and God Himself will know what we need to hear at this time.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 13:10-38

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 42

ARTICLE

An adventure worth living for

INTERVIEW WITH MITCH (CROWN JESUS) MITCH IS PASSIONATE ABOUT TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS - THE ONE WHO HAS FILLED HIS LIFE WITH PURPOSE. WE ASKED MITCH TO SHARE SOME OF HIS STORY WITH US AND WHY HE HAS GIVEN HIS LIFE TO SEE PEOPLE ENCOUNTER GOD. 43 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: AN ADVENTURE WORTH LIVING FOR

HOW DID YOU COME TO FOLLOW JESUS? In my teenage years, I was rebellious. There’s no question about that and there was also some insecurities as well. The best way to describe it was that I had a chip on my shoulder, mostly because I lost my Dad whenever I was so young.

Yet despite it all, I knew there was something missing. At 19, a friend of mine became a Christian and he invited me along to his church. I couldn’t tell much of what was said that night, but I knew afterwards that God was speaking to me. I went home and in the quietness of my room that night I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to change my life.

That was the start of the adventure.

Things became really exciting over the next 48 hours as I began to tell people what had happened.

I believe there’s something significant that happens when you speak out about Jesus - all of a sudden you see that you belong to something else, as you start to live that out.

Not long after, I was asked to give my testimony.

I was so nervous because I didn’t have that confidence. I wasn’t a good reader in school - I’d only read one book, The Hobbit, and I didn’t even finish it.

I wasn’t confident to stand in front of my class.

Yet, I shared my testimony and really felt that God was using me in that. A few weeks later, I was invited to speak at a church to open the Bible and share my story and as I was doing it, I felt that this was something worth living for.

DESCRIBE WHAT HAPPENED AS YOU SHARED YOUR FAITH MORE AND MORE.

I saw an advert for the Fire service. Now, I didn’t go for the job because as a kid I dressed up as a fireman and dreamt of becoming one or anything like that. I applied because the shift pattern looked good to me - 4 days on, 4 days off - I’d then have more time to serve the church.

4500 people applied for the job and they only took 26 in. I was one of them! I loved that job and did it for 16 years. And in that time, we started to develop our own ministry, Crown Jesus Ministries.

WHY DO YOU GIVE YOUR LIFE TO THIS THING OF TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS? You have either got to believe this is real, or not. And if this is real, that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died on a cross for your sin and rose again on the third day, to bring us into a right relationship with Father God and give us eternal life, then there’s nothing more important to give your life to than this.

I THROW MY WHOLE LIFE AT IT. I LOVE THE WORK I DO, BUT I LOVE THE LORD OF THE WORK, MORE THAN THE WORK.

My confidence in God grew in that time. I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin, trying to find ways to get confidence in my own self but started to see that I could find confidence in God. Over time you find comfort in what God has called you to do.

It would be strange for me to say that it became natural for me to share my story. I was on the street this morning sharing Jesus with them and it still doesn’t feel natural. Yet there’s a confidence that comes when we see that the gospel changes lives. It’s changed my life.

I throw my whole life at it. I love the work I do, but I love the Lord of the work, more than the work.

For the young people reading this, you’ve got to give you life to something and there’s nothing better or more fulfilling to give your life to than sharing Jesus with others. You don’t need to be in full time ministry to do that. You can be a sports star, a bank clerk, you can work in a shop and you can be the best witness right there. Not everyone’s called to full time ministry and my goodness, we wouldn’t want a world were every Christian was in full time ministry and the 16 years in the fire service was a great space for me to hone gifting and skills, that God developed in me.

I do it because it works. This gospel works.

When I became a Christian, I was unemployed. I prayed for a job and got one in New York as a camp counsellor, came back, worked as a fitness instructor and life guard for two years, working 50 hours a week. I asked the Lord if He could give me a job where I would have more time to serve Him.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mitch is a passionate evangelist and leads

Crown Jesus Ministries in his favourite city in the world, Belfast.

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SECTION

Never alone

08

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JOHN CHAPTER 14:1-16:15 Jesus tells His disciples He is going to die, so what does that mean for them? How would they get by without Him? Here we get to be a fly on the wall as Jesus explains how His followers are never alone – He is always with us through the Holy Spirit, although that doesn’t mean that life is always going to be easy.

E R L

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8. NEVER ALONE

JESUS COMFORTS HIS DISCIPLES “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

JESUS THE WAY TO THE FATHER Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

INSIGHT Jesus promises the

Holy Spirit to equip and empower us to continue the work He started. What do you think this means for you?

JESUS PROMISES THE HOLY SPIRIT “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 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. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 14:1-14:22

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 46

THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

TIME OUT Philip and Thomas had big questions about what Jesus meant. Write out the questions you have for Jesus in the box above.

KEY VERSE JOHN 15:5

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.

This is my command: Love each other.

TIME OUT Re-read the last section and mark with a highlighter, or circle with a pen every

time you see Jesus talking about ‘remaining in Him’ and ‘bearing fruit’. What do you think Jesus means by this?

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

47 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 14:23-15:17

8. NEVER ALONE

THE WORLD HATES THE DISCIPLES

INSIGHT An ‘advocate’

is someone who supports and speaks up for someone else.

Other translations use names such as ‘Helper’ (ESV), or ‘Friend’ (MSG).

These terms all help us understand the Spirit’s role in our lives. Jesus is our advocate, He speaks up for us before the Father.

8. NEVER ALONE

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

“All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who

kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 15:18-16:15

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ARTICLE

Sharing stories

INTERVIEW WITH JUDE HILL

49 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: SHARING STORIES

WE’RE ALL STORYTELLERS TO SOME EXTENT, AND AS CHRISTIANS WE’RE PART OF AN AMAZING STORY THAT’S BEEN UNFOLDING FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. BUT HOW DO WE TELL STORIES WELL? WE CAUGHT UP WITH JUDE HILL, JOURNALIST AND PASSIONATE STORYTELLER TO GET SOME QUALITY TIPS. AS A JOURNALIST YOU MUST HEAR ALL SORTS OF STORIES, GOOD AND BAD. BUT WHAT ONE STICKS OUT AS THE FUNNIEST? Definitely one of the strangest was a day I had to follow up a story about an overturned pig trailer in Cullybackey. Some of the pigs had run riot through the village and my news editor wanted me to get eye witnesses interviews on that! I went from shop to shop to burger van to building site asking people if they had seen the pigs running about!! Definitely a very bizarre assignment and most people I asked just kept saying ‘no comment’ – it was a weird day!

IN YOUR ROLE YOU’RE EXPOSED TO ALL KINDS OF BAD NEWS STORIES, HOW DO YOU STAY HOPEFUL? I know that so many people just see the news as bleak and depressing. We need to tell these stories. But look beyond that & even in the midst of awful events human spirit can shine through unbelievably. These are powerful stories to tell. These stories inspire people.

inspired by Matthew 5, “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God colours in the world”. I believe that in revealing hidden life giving stories – we can better reflect the divinely colourful place that the world is.

HOW CAN WE ENSURE WE SHARE THE BEST, GOOD STORIES RATHER THAN JUST REPEAT THE BAD NEWS OR GOSSIP WE HEAR? It’s easy to criticize the media and say it’s all doom and gloom. But what stories do we share when we hang out with friends? Do we only share the stories that promote the good in people and communities?

Sharing good stories starts when we’re eating food with people – hanging out in the students’ union or playground or posting on social media.

How can we spread stories that inspire and point out the good in people? It can take conscious effort in our chat and our online interactions. Words and stories are so powerful. They can bring change – or keep us segregated by our stereotypes. I’d say never underestimate the change you can bring - by telling stories that build people up and by being prepared to be brave in the honest telling of your own story. A good storyteller must be open too to listening to the experiences and struggles of others and seeing the good there. And that’s the Jesus thing to do – to listen to a story that’s not your own and see the good news there.

I BELIEVE THAT IN REVEALING HIDDEN LIFE GIVING STORIES WE CAN BETTER REFLECT THE DIVINELY COLOURFUL PLACE THAT THE WORLD IS.

I love my job because of the whole range of interesting people I get to meet and the stories I get to listen in on and tell. Some days I do go home and stories where people have suffered and hurt weigh heavily on me. But on those days my job is to tell their story as effectively and powerfully as I can.

My passion is also to give voice to stories that people don’t feel are being heard. Outside work I head up a community storytelling movement called Tell It In Colour. It was set up to spotlight stories of hope and change (www.tellitincolour.com) Our vision is to capture stories that lift the labels on communities, groups or individuals that feel stereotyped. To see people raising their voices and articulating a story they haven’t had the chance to share before – definitely gives me life and hope. I’ve always been

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jude has worked as a journalist for over

10 years in NI. Outside work she heads up a storytelling initiative called Tell It In Colour that aims to capture the stories of communities that feel labelled. She’s passionate about Belfast, change and the telling of new stories!

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 50

SECTION

The future

09

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JOHN 16:16-17:26 Turning grief to joy – that process can take a long time! Jesus tells His disciples the meaning of His leaving and through this section the disciples start to understand that more clearly – the penny starts to drop! The disciples still had to experience the grief of losing Jesus but in this passage Jesus is helping them to understand His death and resurrection. Then Jesus prays a profound prayer for himself, for His disciples and for all believers.

H U R

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9. THE FUTURE

“Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. In that day you will ask in my name.

I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.

Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

KEY VERSE JOHN 16:33

THE DISCIPLES’ GRIEF WILL TURN TO JOY Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.

9. THE FUTURE

TIME OUT Jesus tells us to ‘Take Heart!’ What does that mean? God is with us in difficult

times and in times of joy and yet, we aren’t always good at recognising God in our own lives. Take time to think about how you have seen God act in your life, write these down and give Him thanks..

JESUS PRAYS TO BE GLORIFIED After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.

Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 16:16-17:5

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 52

JESUS PRAYS FOR HIS DISCIPLES

JESUS PRAYS FOR ALL BELIEVERS

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them.

I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.

None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.

For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

53 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

INSIGHT Jesus prays for all

of those who hear this message – the believers. This includes us! We have heard the message of the Gospel because of how the disciples shared the story of Jesus.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

TIME OUT Did you know that Jesus prayed for you and your friends? How often do you

pray for your friends? Put a reminder on your phone each day to remind you to pray for them. Take a note somewhere of who you are praying for and what you have prayed. Why not be really brave and ask some of them what they would like you to pray for them. This is a perfect way of giving you an opportunity to talk to them about Jesus. Start this habit as part of your daily routine and watch how God begins to move in your life and theirs.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 17:6-17:26

9. THE FUTURE

ARTICLE

Raised from rock bottom

INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN EDWARDS JOHN’S LIFE HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED BY JESUS. ONCE BOUND BY DRUG ADDICTION AND FORCED TO LIVE ON THE STREETS, JOHN HAS EXPERIENCED FREEDOM AND SEEKS TO SHARE THAT FREEDOM WITH OTHERS. HIS LIFE IS A REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW JESUS CAN CHANGE PEOPLE’S LIVES.

Continued...

ARTICLE: RAISED FROM ROCK BOTTOM

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 54

HOW DID YOU FIRST ENCOUNTER JESUS? After being a drug addict for 24 years, seeing a lot of my friends die, overdosing a lot, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I was homeless on the streets of London and my father died, but my family wouldn’t allow me to go to his funeral. That broke me; that was my rock bottom.

I began to think about life and I spoke to a friend on the street who told me that I should do all that I could to get my life back together. I took his advice and came back to Ireland.

I tried so many things but nothing could set me free and at this time I started thinking about God again.

I grew up with a religious background, and though I saw a lot of hypocrisy, I still hadn’t given up on God. I used to call on to Him on the streets, asking that if He was real, would He help me?

I met some Christians at Alcoholics Anonymous and I just observed them for three months, watching how the way they were living just shone out of them.

The people weren’t recovering, they were recovered because of what God was doing in them. They invited me to an event in Dublin in September 1987.

As we worshipped, I called out to God, not just in my words but I called out from the depth of my being, “Show yourself to me.”

As I called out, it was like the roof came off the building and there isn’t a word to describe what I felt as the Holy Spirit came and filled my life to overflowing.

scriptures I began to realise that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I began to understand the plans that God has for me. I began to see that God wants to give me favour, even though I don’t deserve it. A quiet miracle took place in my head.

Now I’m married, travelling the world. Even though I got kicked out of school at 15 for knocking out the history teacher, I’ve written three books, one of which is a best seller.

The greatest miracle is how God has taken everything that was negative in my life and turned it into a positive. He’s taken the cry that was in the inside and replaced it with a smile.

AS WE WORSHIPPED, I CALLED OUT TO GOD, NOT JUST IN MY WORDS BUT I CALLED OUT FROM THE DEPTH OF MY BEING,

I knew that night that Jesus Christ was real. I knew that as He died on that cross, He died for John Edwards - it became personal to me.

After I became a Christian, I went to a Christian rehab centre and stopped smoking, drinking and taken drugs. I’ve been clean ever since.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE BEING A TEENAGER? Drugs and alcohol were my problem. Yet, the real problem started when I was much younger - it was the way I thought. As a teenager, I keep comparing myself to other people, wanting someone else’s personality. I wanted confidence, to be more outgoing, to have what someone else had.

YOU RECENTLY SPENT THREE WHOLE DAYS UNDERGROUND, LIVING IN A COFFIN AND IT WENT VIRAL. WHY DID YOU DO IT? I lived in a coffin for three days because I have had to go to so many funerals of young people dying from suicide. So I decided to do something radical to reach people before they end up in a premature grave. I lived in a coffin and brought words of life to people from across the world, telling people that dark and difficult times will come to an end, if you allow people to help you through them.

People got in touch with me and we’ve been able to help them, serve them and lead them to Jesus. It’s helped us connect us to people across the world who were listening. We’re working with people in Mexico, Albania, Australia, Columbia, Africa, America, Canada. People are getting back on their feet and encountering Jesus - their lives are changing.

I didn’t realise at the time that every young person thinks like that and yet never talk about it.

There was a conversation that I would always have with myself, putting me down. I was saying, I’m no good, I’m hopeless, I’ll never make anything of myself.

After I became a Christian, I realised that the power of that voice began to break and as I read the

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ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 17:6-17:26

ABOUT THE AUTHOR John has an incredible story of freedom to share. He does this through Walking Free as they reach out to the lost and hurting around the world.

ARTICLE: RAISED FROM ROCK BOTTOM

Never alone

SECTION

10

JOHN CHAPTER 18:1-19:42 At the centre of the story is a paradox. On a Roman cross we find our greatest hope. With Jesus’ final breath we receive life in all it’s fullness.

As we read the account of Jesus’ crucifixion we can’t help but be struck by the brutality of His sacrifice, as He was despised, rejected, humiliated and alone. Yet, as Jesus hangs on the cross, we see the heart of God displayed for the world to see. He longs for us to be relationship with Him again and through the cross, Jesus makes a way.

I T I S F I N I S H E D

10. IT IS FINISHED

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 56

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away!

Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.

PETER’S FIRST DENIAL Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

“You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.”

It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

THE HIGH PRIEST QUESTIONS JESUS Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.

JESUS ARRESTED When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it.

Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

“I have spoken openly to the world,” Jesus replied. “I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said.”

When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face. “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” he demanded.

“If I said something wrong,” Jesus replied, “testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground.

Again he asked them, “Who is it you want?”

“Jesus of Nazareth,” they said. Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.” This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

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ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 18:1-18:24

10. IT IS FINISHED

PETER’S SECOND AND THIRD DENIALS Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

He denied it, saying, “I am not.” One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, “Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?” Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

JESUS BEFORE PILATE Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor.

By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”

“If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.” Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” they objected. This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die.

Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

KEY VERSE JOHN 18:37

“Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they slapped him in the face.

“Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders.

But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews gathered there, “Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

“What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”

The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”

They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.

10. IT IS FINISHED

JESUS SENTENCED TO BE CRUCIFIED

When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace.

“Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 18:25-19:10

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 58

Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.

Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jewish leaders kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.”

When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of Preparation of the Passover; it was about noon.

“Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away!

Crucify him!”

“Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked.“We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: jesus of nazareth, the king of the jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another.

“Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, “They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did.

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and

59 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”

From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

THE DEATH OF JESUS Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

INSIGHT “The disciple whom

He loved”, is John, the author of this book. He witnessed these events in the flesh and took care of Jesus’ own mother from this point on.

TIME OUT The account of Jesus’ crucifixion is heartbreaking to read about. It’s raw and

brutal, yet there is more going on here. Take some time out to consider the questions: Why did Jesus die? What does His death mean for you? Write your aswers below.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”

THE BURIAL OF JESUS Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 19:11-19:42

10. IT IS FINISHED

ARTICLE

Why does the cross matter?

BY KRISH KANDIAH

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES . . . IT WAS THE SEASON OF LIGHT. IT WAS THE SEASON OF DARKNESS. IT WAS THE SPRING OF HOPE. IT WAS THE WINTER OF DESPAIR. WE HAD EVERYTHING BEFORE US. WE HAD NOTHING BEFORE US. WE WERE ALL GOING DIRECT TO HEAVEN. WE WERE ALL GOING DIRECT THE OTHER WAY. Continued...

ARTICLE: WHY DOES THE CROSS MATTER?

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 60

With these immortally paradoxical lines Charles Dickens introduces his epic novel A Tale of Two Cities. The contradictory sentiments they invoke point at the coexistent extremes of life in so-called ‘enlightened’ eighteenth-century London and Paris, at a time just before the French Revolution.

These lines hint at the contrasts and tensions that will unravel in the book, and the conflicting values that will be portrayed.

Love and hate. Wealth and poverty. Good and evil.

They make for an apt description of another time in history, too; one where light and darkness, hope and despair smashed into each other, and the world was changed forever.

TO THE WORLD, IT LOOKED LIKE UTTER DEFEAT, BUT IN FACT IT WAS GOD’S GREATEST VICTORY.

If ever there was a paradoxical moment in time, it was three o’clock on that Friday afternoon outside the city of Jerusalem, atop a hill that had been given the nickname ‘the Place of the Skull’. It was the middle of the day, and yet it became the middle of the night. It was humanity’s darkest hour, and yet divine love never shone brighter. An innocent man had been found guilty and was being given his – or, rather, everyone else’s – punishment. A man screamed out to God, asking why he had been abandoned, and at the same time the curtain in the Temple was ripped open, welcoming the world into the very presence of God. The death and distress of the one offered life and hope to the many. To the world, it looked like utter defeat, but in fact it was God’s greatest victory. In this picture of abject weakness, the power of God is revealed.

Imagine watching the ultimate heist movie with, of course, a priceless diamond arriving at a museum. The alarms are set to cover every inch of the display hall, and weight sensors are sensitive to the nearest gram. Extremely careful planning is

61 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

necessary by the prospective thieves so that at the decisive moment an unnoticed switch or substitution can occur. The diamond has to be replaced by something that is exactly its weight, or all the alarms will sound and the caper is over. This image gives us an inkling of what was going on when Jesus died on the cross. This particular crime and substitution had been planned in minute detail since before the beginning of time itself, signposted throughout the Jewish Scriptures.

Jesus the innocent Son of God is killed in place of the sinful humanity. Jesus willingly offers his life as a sacrifice to grant us forgiveness for the guilt of sin, redemption from slavery to sin, and rescue from the consequences of sin. Even more than that Jesus died to clear the path for our adoption into the very family of God. The eternal God was so concerned about the temporal affairs of humans as to make our entire history centre on the life and death of one particular man. The selfsufficient God chose to include redeemed humanity in his forever family. And so it is that an event in a forgotten backwater of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago has incredible significance right here and right now – and for eternity to come. The mystery of the death of Christ is both the worst of times and the best of times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Krish Kandiah is the founder of the charity Home

for Good and the author of Paradoxology: Why Christianity was never meant to be simple which further explores the paradox of the cross. Why not follow him on twitter @krishk or @krishkandiah on Instagram.

ARTICLE: WHY DOES THE CROSS MATTER?

No full stop

SECTION

11

JOHN CHAPTER 20:1-21:25 As Jesus was laid inside a tomb, it seemed like everything was over. The disciples thought their adventure story had finished. Yet as the sun rose on the first day of the week, a new era began. The tomb was found empty. The King is alive! The disciples would run to tell their friends that the story wasn’t over after all. In fact it was only just getting started...

N O F U L L S T O P

11. NO FULL STOP

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 62

TIME OUT Imagine what it

would have been like to have been Mary Magdalene as she saw the resurrected Jesus.

How would she have felt? Use the space below to write down your thoughts.

“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

JESUS APPEARS TO HIS DISCIPLES

THE EMPTY TOMB Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

JESUS APPEARS TO MARY MAGDALENE Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

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On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

JESUS APPEARS TO THOMAS Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

KEY VERSE JOHN 20:21

INSIGHT This is a preview of

what would happen more fully on the day of Pentecost, which was only a few weeks later.

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 20:1-20:29

11. NO FULL STOP

THE PURPOSE OF JOHN’S GOSPEL

TIME OUT The resurrection

means that God’s Kingdom has begun to invade the world around us, on earth as it is in heaven.

This means that as God’s rule takes hold in our lives, everything can change.

How can you join in with this new resurrection life?

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

JESUS AND THE MIRACULOUS CATCH OF FISH Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.

“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”“No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

JESUS REINSTATES PETER When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time

11. NO FULL STOP

he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

INSIGHT Jesus gave Peter

a second chance even though he had rejected Him not once but three times.

The story wasn’t over for Peter and He went on to do mighty things for God. The story is never over for us either. Regardless of what we have done, because of the cross, because of Jesus’ resurrection we can go on to do outstanding things for Jesus if we put our trust in Him.

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

ON THIS PAGE: JOHN 20:30-21:15

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 64

ARTICLE

BiG BIble GIVE-AWAY

BY EXODUS 65 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

ARTICLE: BIG BIBLE GIVE-AWAY

ON THE 15TH OCT 2016, 200 YOUNG PEOPLE FROM ACROSS NORTHERN IRELAND GATHERED AROUND ONE QUESTION, ‘HOW TO OPEN YOUR BIBLE’. OUR DAY WAS SPENT LEARNING ALL TOGETHER, IN PRACTICAL WORKSHOPS AND CONVERSATIONS OVER A BBQ ABOUT OPENING GOD’S WORD, FOR OURSELVES AND WITH OTHERS. With the many words that were spoken that day in a full range of contexts, our minds were buzzing.

Then someone stood up at the front and held this statement in focus.

“GOD WROTE A BOOK; WE CAN OPEN IT AND GOD WILL SPEAK.” There is something about simplicity and conviction that give words power. And we knew it was time to put these words to the test. To bring them to life.

Everyone came with one Bible and they left with 2, one to give away to a friend with the offer of reading it with them. And so everyone in the room was challenged to send a message to a friend saying that they had a gift for them, and then to write their name in the ‘Presented To’ section of the Bible. We lined up and we were each given a Bible to give away.

We can forget to easily that God wants to reach people, He wants to speak not only to us but to those we know. So simply, giving, opening and reading the Bible with a friend is one effective way to have God speak directly to us.

HERE’S A COUPLE OF THOUGHTS FROM SOME COURAGEOUS CHRISTIANS WHO WERE ON THE DAY.

BETHANY:

“When I got the Bible at the conference day I was really excited and thought straight away about my friend who didn’t have a Bible at home, but was scared because her dad was so against God and had taken her previous Bible off her. I texted the girl straight away saying that I had a surprise for her. When I gave her the Bible she was extremely thankful and gave me a giant hug.”

ZOE:

“I started reading the Bible with my friend when she was at a very vulnerable state. God had made things real to her and she turned to me, one of her ‘Christian’ friends. Reading with her was very encouraging as I got to grow as much as she did. God using people by just being there and reading with friends is class.”

ALICE:

“I knew that many of my friends didn’t have Bibles of their own, so I spent some time making a bookmark with my favourite verses and the topics that they related to. I wrapped up the Bibles, bookmarks and a wee encouraging note and gave it to them at school and suggested that we could possibly meet up and go through a few verses with each other.”

ZOE:

“I prayed that I would receive the confidence and courage when giving the Bible away and when I gave it to my friend she cried and gave me and giant hug. I just felt that Jesus was right beside me”

You can try this yourself. Pick a short passage, read it together and frame your conversation around these three questions. You could even use this magazine for it.

1. WHAT DOES IT MEAN 2. WHAT STANDS OUT TO YOU 3. HOW CAN WE LIVE IT OUT / HOW DOES THIS AFFECT YOU? And watch out! As you open God’s Word together He will speak because this book is alive, and it’s bang up to date?

ABOUT EXODUS Exodus use creative and engaging approaches and work with teenagers, churches and leaders to see young people boldly following Jesus and becoming lifelong disciple makers.

TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 66

67 // TIME OUT WITH JOHN

The Bible Society in Northern Ireland care about everyone having access to the Bible. We work with other Bible Societies all over the world to provide support for Bible translation and distribution as well as helping people like you to engage more with the Bible. We also work here in Northern Ireland alongside churches, church groups and individuals to encourage support and engagement with the Bible.

This copy of John’s Gospel has been designed and printed with you in mind. We want to reach everyone with God’s Word and that includes you and your friends and family.

THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN MADE POSSIBLE BY HELP FROM THE FOLLOWING ORGANISATIONS BIBLE SOCIETY NORTHERN IRELAND bsni.co.uk

Why not ‘Pay it Forward’ by sending a donation so another young person can have access to the Bible. We are supporting a project in Central Europe which provides Bibles to people who have had to leave their homes because of persecution, war or civil unrest. We are supporting local churches to reach out, provide a welcome, hospitality and Bibles to individuals and families from Iraq, Syria and across the Middle East who have been forced to come to Europe.

BOYS BRIGADE NORTHERN IRELAND

THIS PUBLICATION IS FREE BECAUSE WE HAVE RECEIVED THE VERY KIND SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP FROM A NUMBER OF ORGANISATIONS AND DONORS.

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So, we thought that you might like the opportunity to help us to provide others, who may have no real access to the Scriptures, with similar resources and opportunities.

HOW TO GIVE

All you have to do is SEND A TEXT to 70070.You simply need to use the code SMTO17 along with the amount you’d like to give (£1 or £2?) Your text message could read: SMTO17 £2 and you send this to 70070 Gospel of John taken from Holy Bible, New International Version ®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ‘The Message’ are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Icons: © rastudio / 123RF Stock Photo, except pages 17, 19, 26, 32, 37, 52 and 58.

PAY IT FORWARD / CREDITS

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TIME OUT WITH JOHN // 68

Inside: The Gospel of John Eye witness accounts of the life of Jesus, plus articles, stories and interviews with those who claim to know Him now.