S – Do you not fear me? declares the Lord. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it. ²³  But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. 

Jeremiah 5:22–23 ESV

O – Commentary:

The people should at least respect the Lord for his power and tremble at the thought of his unleashing that power against them. If even the mighty sea was unable to pass the boundaries the Lord had set for it, surely the rebellion of little Jerusalem would fail.

New Living Translation Study Bible (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008), Je 5:22.

A – Why do we think we are smarter, bigger and more powerful than God?  Because he allows us to make choices that give us the false impression of our own “God” complex.  He is slow to anger, compassionate, gracious so we can recognize our need for Him.  Where he is hands off now, there will be a day where his judgement and power will not be escapable. The hope is that people would accept Christ and live for God today and avoid his wrath and judgement in that final day.

R – Heavenly Father, you are the one, True God.  Thank you for your patience, compassion and grace that you extend to us.  Help us to see and honor you for who you truly are.  Thank you for allowing us to grow in our relationship with you.

S – In that day, declares the Lord, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded

Jeremiah 4:9 ESV

O – Commentary:

on that day Refers to the coming day of judgment and divine wrath. The prophets often interweave imagery of immediate judgment (the Babylonian invasion) with future, final eschatological judgment. Both are referred to with the ominous phrase “in that day.” Compare Isa 19:16–25, where the phrase occurs six times.

the heart of the king and the heart of the officials will be destroyed A complete breakdown in society is symbolized by the failure of political and religious leaders.

 John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Je 4:9.

A – If you want to defeat a group of people, attack the leadership.  When kings and advisors lose courage, the people that follow them are doomed because they have no direction and fortitude to pursue movement.  In Christ, that will never happen.  He is the Hope of all glory.  Religious leaders who do not know Christ or his Word will be shocked because their hope is in ritual and acts.  They do not have a relationship with God so this will not bring hope of his involvement in these days.

R – Heavenly Father, you are the Hope of glory.  You give us the ability to believe that you are working even when we don’t see it clearly.  Grow our relationship with you so our trust and faith continue to strengthen for times when it is challenging. 

S – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; 

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

O – Four observations from this verse:

• God formed us – He made us exactly how we are (gifts, talents, personalities, physical qualities)
• Before He created us – He knew us.  He knew intimately.
• He consecrated us – He set us apart with a purpose.
• He appointed us prophets – Prophets have a message to deliver….so do we.

A -Jeremiah needed this assurance because he was afraid and the Lord was sending him to speak to the nations. We need to know the same qualities are in us and our relationship with God.  He created us, knows us, set us apart and given us a message. No matter our role, job or title – each of us has the same annointing to minister as Jeremiah.

R – Heavenly Father, you are the Creator of all things, including us.  Thank you for knowing us intimately enough that all the gifts, talents and attributes you have given us align with your purpose for us.  We choose to answer your calling boldly today.

S – Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹ (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” 

John 21:18–19 ESV

O – Commentary:

21:18–19. I tell you the truth (cf. comments on 1:51) introduces a solemn prediction of Peter’s coming crucifixion. In old age Peter was tied to a cross and had his hands stretched out (cf. 1 Clement 5:4; 6:1; Eusebius The Ecclesiastical History 2. 25). Obedience to Jesus’ command, Follow Me, is the key issue in every Christian’s life. As Jesus followed the Father’s will, so His disciples should follow their Lord whether the path leads to a cross or to some other difficult experience.

 Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 345.

A – Being told of the future to come, Peter had another opportunity to deny Jesus.  He knew that following Christ would lead to his death.  He became a pillar in the early church and one of the most well known apostles before his death.  Knowing that suffering and challenge is part of the Christian walk, will we deny Jesus or will we continue to follow Him?

R – Heavenly Father, we worship and surrender to you.  Empower us with courage to live a life that follows you daily, boldly shares our faith and loves others with full hearts.  The price of doing all of this can be steep but we want to follow you.

S – Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” ²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” 

John 20:21–23 ESV

O – Commentary:

20:21 I am sending you: God had sent Jesus into the world to establish his Kingdom, and now Jesus was sending his disciples to carry on his mission. Christ’s emissaries carry the truth of Jesus’ words to the world (cp. 17:18).

20:22 Jesus commissioned the disciples and then empowered them with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had not been given previously because Jesus had not yet been glorified (7:39). The glorified Jesus, resplendent in his resurrected body, poured the Spirit on his followers. This gift fulfilled many promises that the Spirit would be sent (14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13). It foreshadows the arrival of the Spirit’s empowering presence at Pentecost (Acts 1:4–5; 2:1–47).

20:23 If you forgive anyone’s sins: The ongoing work of Christ’s followers parallels the work of Christ. Christ’s followers do not distribute and withdraw God’s forgiveness on a whim, but they follow Jesus’ prompting through the Spirit (15:5), just as Jesus obeyed his Father (14:31).

 New Living Translation Study Bible (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2008), Jn 20:21–23.

A – This is Jesus first appearance to the disciples.  Since it is his first time with them since receiving his glorified body, it is interesting to note the things he says to them.  First, he gives them peace (twice) – joining quietness and oneness together instead of the fear they lived in the last week.  Second, he commission them as sent leaders of his will.  Similar to being sent out in twos during his lifetime ministry. Now, they going to share his message.  Third, they received the Holy Spirit – a promised and necessary part of their ministry and ongoing relationship with God.  Finally, they can now forgive sins (all believers can now) because Jesus’ death and resurrection empowers us to do so.

R – Heavenly Father, we glorify your name and character!  You are the one, true God.  You empower us through our relationship with you to be your ambassadors of your message.  We invite the Holy Spirit to guide, lead and reveal to us the conversations and environments to step into.  Finally, give us the heart of forgiveness to others that we may show your heart of love.

S – And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. ³ They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands… ⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” ⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” ⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” ¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.

John 19:2-3, 6–11.

O -A:  Commentary:

Jesus is identified three ways in these passages and all of them elicit a response from others.  The soldiers mocked him by rightfully calling him, “King of the Jews.”  He was their eternal king – the one above all kings.  To soldiers not of the Jewish faith, it was a title of disdain.  The Jewish leaders rightfully said he made himself the Son of God.  Correct again and yet with all their tradition and history, the rejected him.  Finally, Pilate, in fear, unpacks  the authority of God by trying to establish his own.  This allows Jesus to rightfully share what God gave him in John 13 when it says, “All authority was given to Jesus by God.”  

All this happened – Jesus fulfilling his true identity with full authority…and He still went to the cross.

R- Heavenly Father, you are King, God and have authority over all things.  Thank you for being all of those things as we walk in relationship with you.  We want to embrace all that you are in our lives today.

S – And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 17:3 ESV

O – Commentary:

Eternal life, as defined here by Jesus, involves the experience of knowing the only true God through His Son (cf. Matt. 11:27). It is a personal relationship of intimacy which is continuous and dynamic. The word know (ginōskōsin) here in the present tense, is often used in the Septuagint and sometimes in the Greek New Testament to describe the intimacy of a sexual relationship (e.g., Gen 4:1, “lay”; Matt. 1:25, “had … union”). Thus a person who knows God has an intimate personal relationship with Him. And that relationship is eternal, not temporal. Eternal life is not simply endless existence. Everyone will exist somewhere forever (cf. Matt. 25:46), but the question is, In what condition or in what relationship will they spend eternity?

 Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 331.

A – This is an amazing truth.  Eternal life is not us sitting on clouds playing harps.  It is defined by how we know God and Jesus.  It goes to relationship with both of them.  Do we know Jesus as our savior and that bridges to knowing God as the only true God.  This allows us to begin our “eternal life” today on on earth.  We don’t start it when we die.  It starts when we accept Christ as Lord.  And the great thing is that we begin to enjoy all the benefits of knowing God now.

R – Heavenly Father, you are the One, True God. Thank you for allowing us to know you through Jesus Christ.  We want to know you more each day.  Empower us to grow in our relationship with you.

S – When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come

John 16:13 CSB

O – Commentary:

But … the Spirit of Truth (cf. 15:26) would come after Jesus’ death to lead the apostles into the truth about Jesus and His work.

The Spirit, Jesus said, would not teach the disciples on His own (i.e., on His own initiative) but would teach only what He hears from the Father. This points up the interdependence of the Persons in the Trinity. The Father would tell the Spirit what to teach the apostles about the Son.

Also the Spirit would teach what is yet to come. This statement helps one understand the promise, He will guide you into all truth (lit., “all the truth”). This was a promise to the apostles that their partial understanding of the person and work of Jesus as the Messiah would be completed as the Spirit would give them insight into the meanings of the soon-to-come Cross and the Resurrection as well as truths about Jesus’ return (cf. 1 Cor. 2:10). The New Testament books are the fulfillment of this teaching ministry of the Spirit.

 Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 328–329.

A – We have a tremendous gift in the Holy Spirit who hears God just like Jesus did as he walked the earth.  The Holy Spirit is still teaching us today based on what he hears from God.  He continues to point us toward God’s truth and unpacks the mysteries that God holds.  We need to consistently invite him into the day and our daily situations. 

R – Heavenly Father, you are Father, Son and Spirit.  We invite the Holy Spirit into every part of our day today.  Guide us in all truth and and empower us with the Spirit of Wisdom, Discernment, Counsel, Courage, Knowledge and the Fear of the Lord.

S – “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit

John 15:1–2 ESV

 O – Jesus establishes that He is the vine (the connecting point for man to God) and God is the gardener.  If someone isn’t bearing fruit, he is removed from God.  Interestingly, the one that is bearing fruit is pruned.  The greek word is katharŏs, kath-ar-os´:clean (lit. or fig.):— clean, clear, pure (James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).

A – If one isn’t in relationship with God or not bearing fruit, he is removed.  But those who do know God and doing good things still have “parts that need to be cleansed, removed or purified.”  God will continue to work on us and give us challenges to refine us to bear more fruit. There is still pain when you are bearing fruit.

R – Heavenly Father, you are the Master Gardener.  You prune and mold us creating pain in our lives. Empower us to step toward your pruning and cleansing so we can bear more fruit.

S – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Johnn 14:6 ESV

O – Commentary:

Jesus’ words, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life, are the sixth of Jesus’ seven “I am” statements in the Gospel of John (6:48; 8:12; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1). Jesus is the “Way” because He is the “Truth” and the “Life.” As the Father is Truth and Life, Jesus is the embodiment of God so people can come to the Father (cf. 1:4, 14, 18; 11:25). By His words, No one comes to the Father except through Me, Jesus stressed that salvation, contrary to what many people think, is not obtainable through many ways. Only one Way exists (cf. Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:5). Jesus is the only access to the Father because He is the only One from the Father 

 Edwin A. Blum, “John,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 322.

A – There are many “gods” in this world.  God stands alone as the one, true God above all of them.  He is who He says He is. Jesus was the bridge to Him by coming to earth in the form of a man who was fully God and fully man.  We must accept Jesus as the Son of God to know God the Father.  To some, this sounds very narrow and restricting.  To me, this is simple and inviting to all people and in a way that anyone can make that decision.

R –  Heavenly Father, you are the One, True God.  Thank you for giving us access to you through Jesus your Son.  We accept him as God in the form of man who died for our sins on the cross.  We accept salvation through Him so we can have a relationship with you.  Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who guides and helps us each day.