Audio by genre gospel_of_john

Download a PDF of the handout here: John 1 handout

Video cover image from Kids on the Move (permission given)

• Why does Jesus answer Mary in such an odd way? It is almost rude and seems very out of character.
• Yet it turns out that this answer is what unlocks the challenge to us in the story.

• What exactly made Jesus so angry?
• Why did he gave such a strange answer to the Pharisees?
• When we can truly resonate with Jesus’ anger and feel his love, we can get what this story is all about.

• Jesus challenged Nicodemus to think outside his religious box.

• John 3:16 is probably the best known verse in the Bible, but it has a hidden depth and richness that makes it (and the rest of the passage) well worth studying.

• After feeding the 5000 and walking on water, Jesus was asked to provide more food. The answer he gave was very strange, and resulted in many people walking away from him.

• These strange sounding words can be, for your, a deep source of life.

• Are you feeling dry and thirsty? Jesus is offering cool refreshing water: abundant, life-giving and free. Come and drink!

• There is a voice inside you that is telling you lies!
• Experience what it is like to have the truthful words of Jesus bringing freedom from this darkness.

• On the surface this is a simple healing story,
• but John has beautifully put together a series of events and conversations that build up to a startling revelation from Jesus
• that his light can actually lead people to become blind,
• and we ourselves need to pay close attention.

• Jesus highest teachings, given just to his disciples in John 14–17 come to a climax in his prayer at the end,
  and now we reach the very pinnacle of the prayer

• We are a gift from the Father to Jesus: his beloved ones
• He gives our love back to the Father as a gift:
  to be revealers of God’s self-giving love to the world (and universe)
• This is the highest expression of the Christian faith you will ever hear.

• Jesus was betrayed, arrested, abandoned, denied and abused.
• Yet those were the very people he came to die for!
• What manner of love is this?

• Pilate was faced with a choice that in some ways is very similar to ours, even if we are a Christian.

• John is very selective, but this is because he is very focused in the unique way he wants us to relate to Jesus as he suffers and dies on the cross, a way that we miss if we don’t follow his references

• We believe the Bible because it is God’s word, but nevertheless it is encouraging to our faith so see the strength of the evidence.
• Plus it helps us to visualize and conceptualize what actually happened at a real place and date.

• The resurrection of Jesus was not simply coming back to life, but the start of a new kind of humanity.
• It gives us access to a new kind of life within us—empowered for victory.

• Life from the resurrected Jesus brought life to those around him.
• You can experience more of that life, as Mary did.

• People get fixated on the 153 fish, Peter’s clothes or odd behaviour, and miss the wondrous and life-changing point that this story is making.

• This story helps us understand how Jesus deals with our failure.
• Come to him and let him gently restore you and give you strength.
• Just honestly tell him about it, and accept it is the same gentle Jesus that talked with Peter on the beach that morning.

• John’s desire is that we should meet Jesus through his writing.
• Even if we are Christians, we can meet him in a new and powerful way as we engage in these pages with the one who is both God and human.