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Go Live Devotions

Go Live Devotions

De: Jonathan Shumate
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Get into the Bible through weekly devotions provided by CrossLife. These devotions are rooted in Scripture and are aimed at helping you go deep in God's Word so that you can grow strong in faith and experience fruitfulness in your life, becoming the kind of person you want to be for yourself, others, and ultimately, for God Cristianismo Espiritualidad Ministerio y Evangelismo
Episodios
  • John 7:32-52

    John 7:32-52
    Feb 1 2022
    HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGE John 7:37-39 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.   COMMENTARY The events in chapter 7 happened during one of Israel's major festivals, the Feast of Booths. Just like our holidays today, each of the Jewish festivals had associations rooted in history and tradition that were attached to the celebration. One of the major associations of this festival was water. This was in part because the feast celebrated God's leading of the Israelites through the wilderness wandering, in which He provided water. The feast also came at the start of Israel's rainy season when the Israelites prayed to God for rains to water the next season's crops. This association provided the backdrop for Jesus' words in verses 37 and 38:   "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"   Jesus used the theological premise of the Feast of Booths to point his hearers to himself as the One whom Yahweh had sent to usher in true and final deliverance. The feast celebrated how God had demonstrated that He alone is God, and how God would fulfill His promise to care for His people by providing water for them in the wilderness. This demonstration of Yahweh's power and faithfulness in the past served as the basis for their prayer for rain in the coming months. When Jesus stands and beckons anyone who thirsts to come to him and drink, he proclaims the theological principle behind the feast: Life is found in Yahweh. Jesus, however, points to himself as the source of living water. All of his hearers could draw the same unmistakable conclusion, namely, that Jesus claims to be equal with God. John provides additional commentary about Jesus' words in verse 39. He informs us that Jesus was not only speaking of himself as the source of living water, making himself one with Yahweh, he was also speaking of the coming of the Spirit. The Spirit is the living water Jesus says those who believe in him will have flowing out of them. Many commentators on John's gospel rightly point out that John emphasizes Jesus' divinity more than the other gospel accounts. Many fail, however, to recognize that John also emphasizes the close connection between Jesus and the Spirit. For John, the primary consequence and authentication of the deliverance Jesus accomplishes is the coming and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in everyone who believes in him.   QUESTIONS 1. Jesus' call in verses 37 and 38 are intelligible and powerful to anyone who reads them. How does the background of the Feast of Booths add additional meaning?   2. What is the difference between "whoever believes in me will drink living water," and what Jesus actually says in verse 38, that "whoever believes in me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water?"   3. Based on verse 39, how is the work of the Spirit related to the work of Christ?   4. Based on verses 38 and 39, what role does the Spirit play in the life of a follower of Jesus? How would you describe this in your own words and experience?
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    18 m
  • John 7:1-31

    John 7:1-31
    Jan 25 2022
    HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGE John 7:14-24 14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”   COMMENTARY Jesus goes up to the temple during one of the major festivals in the Jewish calendar, the Feast of Booths. This feast celebrates God's leading and provision during the Israelites' time of wandering in the wilderness. It also occurrs at the conclusion of the fall harvest, celebrating God's provision of rain for the crops. A critical theological message underlies the joy of this festival: The Israelites must trust in Yahweh as the God who always cares for them. This might sound easy, but the Israelites are often quick to doubt God in the wilderness and frequently find their faith tested whenever they face questions of material provision, just as we are also tested today. When Jesus goes to the temple to preach openly about who He is and why He has come, he returns to the way the people responded when he healed the man by the pool. Although the feeding of the crowd and the ensuing rejection of Jesus by many of those who followed him serves as a kind of interlude, Jesus returns to the people's response to his miracle of healing because he again stands at the temple where the preceding discussion took place. Recall that Jesus used the healing of the man to point the Jews to the fact that He was one with Yahweh and was been sent by Him to deliver His people. This was the rationale behind His response to their complaint that he had healed a man on the Sabbath and told the man to pick up his mat and walk. Yet, just Yahweh had been at work from the very beginning without rest, so too, Jesus said, was he. In this speech at the temple, during the Feast of Booths, Jesus returns to this miracle and its purpose in order to call his hearers to put their faith in Him, the one sent from Yahweh to save them. As with preceding dialogues concerning his deity, this speech provokes a division between those present. Some want to arrest him while many others believe.   QUESTIONS 1. What was different about the way Jesus went to the festival compared to the way his brothers thought he should go to the festival?   2. Jesus exposes the sin of those who oppose him by asking why they seek to kill him (7:19). He shows their desire is antithetical to the law, which they claim has made them angry at Jesus for breaking. Jesus' critique can rebuke us as well. How do we either commit, or passively observe, acts that are wicked and wrong, all while justifying our action/inaction with religious rationales?   3. When Jesus heals the man by the pool, he fulfills a higher principle found within the Law of Moses than Sabbath observance. The command in Leviticus 19:18, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself," is a summary of all the Mosaic law regarding other people. In healing the man, then, Jesus fulfills the Mosaic law's chief aim, love for others rooted in love for God. What does Jesus' rationale reveal about those who are angry at him for healing the man on the Sabbath?
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    20 m
  • John 6:60-71

    John 6:60-71
    Jan 18 2022
    HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGE John 6:60-71 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.   COMMENTARY As mentioned previously, Exodus 16 forms striking parallels with the events that unfold in this chapter. There are two primary themes revealed through this parallelism. One theme concerns the identity of Jesus as one with Yahweh, the one who gives life to those who follow Him. We can call this the theme of God's self-revelation. In both Exodus 16 and John 6, the miracles involving food are intended to reveal and confirm to the people the identity of God. The second theme concerns the grumbling of the people toward God, which is recorded in both Exodus 16 and in John's gospel. We can call this the theme of unbelief. In Exodus 16, the grumbling of the people prompts God to provide the quail and the manna. For this reason, He makes it clear that this provision is also a test.   "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not'," (Exodus 16:4).   John 6 says that people grumbled at Jesus' words three times (verses 41, 43, and 61). Many of the disciples walk away as a result (verse 61). The parallelism is unmistakable. Just as many who were delivered from slavery in Egypt by Yahweh have hard hearts that never love Him or believe in Him, and so they are cast out, many who come to Jesus do, in fact, turn away. In both cases, hearts that grumble when God doesn't give them what they want reveals people's unbelief in Yahweh. By the end of John 6, we see that the feeding of the crowd, though an act of grace, serves as a test. Will the people trust in Jesus as their Savior, through whom they receive eternal life? In the end, the test causes many of his disciples to turn back. Jesus' opening words in Capernaum to the crowd reveal his intention. When the people greet him, Jesus immediately questions their motive for seeking him. Jesus intends the sign, pointing to his divine identity, to both test and expose the quality of faith among those who follow Him. Peter's confession in verse 68 models the confession of one who has been tested by Yahweh and demonstrated that their hope is truly in Him and Him alone.   QUESTIONS 1. What do you make of the fact that there were disciples who did not believe in Jesus, and that Jesus knew who they were (verse 64)?    2. According to verse 65, what causes one to believe in Jesus? How can we use this verse to explain the unbelief of some disciples?   3. In light of the testing the disciples face, what makes Peter's words in verse 68 significant?
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    17 m
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