John: Reaching through Time to Guide Us Today

By Tim Mulgrew

A relationship with God should be a constant enjoyable experience. Reading scripture should be exciting and a source of great guidance. We tend however, to read out of an obligation, a duty as it were. What if we learned to find ourselves in our daily reading? What if it turned out to be all about us? (Our favorite subject)
That’s exactly what we will find when we read scripture in a different light. When we stop hiding from the light and start using it as a guiding light.
This book introduces us to how we can see things in that light - and therefore use them to make our life more fulfilling, more exciting, more rewarding, more what God wants for us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385013883

Tim Mulgrew

Our author is a long time teacher of Bible principles with focus on application of the Scriptures to everyday life. Basing his teachings on the building blocks of knowledge that provide a strong foundation of understanding, this provides a fresh look at getting through life the way God intends. Following a career of counseling people on all aspects of life, this book brings together the human nature we all suffer from and marries it with biblical truths that serve to guide people to the fulfillment God intended for their lives. With a strong conviction that the Christian experience should be an amazing relationship with an amazing God, this book is written to show how to use the Bible as a guide to a better life every day.

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Copyright © 2024 Tim Mulgrew.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1386-9 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1387-6 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1388-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023923004

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/15/2024

Contents

Preface

1. Why John’s Gospel?

2. The Calling of Disciples

3. Water Becomes Wine

4. The Temple Cleansing

5. Born Again—The Key to Heaven

6. Seeking Love and Fulfillment

7. Obedience Is the Answer to Desperation

8. Take Control of Your Life

9. The Secret of God’s Power Revealed

10. What Is Eternal Life?

11. Our Mission—Feeding the Multitudes

12. Why We Sink in Times of Trouble

13. The Purpose of Life

14. You Are What You Eat

15. Hard Truth—The Only Kind Worthwhile

16. Experience—The Best Teacher

17. Finding the Source of True Satisfaction

18. Check Your Motives

19. Point of Reference

20. The Formula for Life

21. The Choice

22. Why Do We Suffer?

23. Recognizing Our Shepherd

24. A Remedy for Hard-Headedness

25. Don’t Confuse Me with the Facts

26. Learning to Be a Friend

27. Summary: What Does It All Mean?

Preface

A relationship with God—Christian, as we call it—should be a constant, enjoyable experience. Church should be exciting and enjoyable, and reading the Bible should be equally enjoyable. All too often, we call on God when we can’t manage circumstances ourselves. All too often, we read the Bible and look at it as more of a history book—events that certain people did at certain times—but we don’t put the pieces together.

If people really knew what God is like, they would love life with Him so much more. We wouldn’t be able to build enough churches to house everyone who wanted to attend!

Almost anybody who reads the Bible regularly will tell you of a similar experience, where they come across a passage they will swear wasn’t there before. If they were to highlight the passage, however, and return to it after some time, it wouldn’t be as meaningful or stand out as much as it once did. Often, they can’t even tell you what the experience was but will continue to find new passages that have a similar impact.

This is because the Bible is written to be constantly relevant. If you dig down, you will see that each passage that was carefully chosen boils down to relatable human behavior, but that’s how it should be for us. God should be like our best friend, and when we come across something relevant, the first thing we think of is that we want to share it with that best friend. When God is allowed to be our best friend, we have an exciting relationship of sharing and caring. When we go to church, we should get the same experience. When we read His book, we should experience an excitement that is unparalleled with any other—but we generally don’t.

It’s because we need to stop seeing it as just a recording of history and start seeing ourselves and others in every line of text. Then, it becomes an exciting challenge to find daily treasures of common human behavior in its pages and how best to deal with them.

This book shows us just that . It takes a few chapters of John’s Gospel and reflects the human character that’s demonstrated—a human character that was present at the time and remains such today … and tomorrow.

Based on an honest look at scripture, coupled with an honest look at ourselves, this book will break down the walls we commonly put up to defend ourselves, without realizing we are only defending ourselves from the very God who wants to be our friend. If we are doing it right, we have no need to defend ourselves.

The truth, most often, is a bitter pill to swallow but is always the best medicine, whatever our circumstances. When we sugar-coat the pill to make it easier to swallow, all we do is pollute our bodies and minds with the sugar and never notice the truth we so desperately need.

Why do we eat cheap fast food when God gives us five-star meals? We should be unwilling to accept anything but God’s absolute best for us. We know that our bodies feel better when we eat nutritious food, in the same way our spirits feel better when it gets better food!

Too many Christians are good churchgoers who are spoon-fed the Word of God but, in a short time, don’t remember what they ate or how it tasted. When there is no way to apply it, it goes away quickly.

Being creatures of habit, we quickly go back to them. Oh, how comfortable our comfort zones are!

So many people have milk-level faith and understanding. They find a comfort level and are unwilling to go past it, believing they have enough. In reality, these are milk duds. Milk is for the new Christian but should always lead to consuming bread, then meat, as we grow and expand our understanding every day.

If we are willing to take a hard look at ourselves without constantly justifying our every thought and action, we can live that fulfilling life that scripture promises us but so few of us actually find.

It’s no wonder people lose their faith in God’s ability to do anything. No wonder we turn to ourselves for almost everything and only turn to God when we think it’s bigger than us. This human behavior was introduced to humankind from the tree of knowledge. From the very beginning, God never intended for us to suffer, but we know who did intend it. Life leads us away from God, as scripture keeps telling us. Only when we cut through the lies and deal with absolute truth will we find the promises of God in this world.

This book is written to encourage people to want to read scripture because of what they will find in its pages. It’s not simply a duty to read scripture; it should be an absolute pleasure!

The basic format is milk first, to provide a basic level of understanding and application, followed by bread and then meat. As understanding develops, so does the level to which we can dig. This book is written to show that anyone can build the foundation, followed by the building blocks of understanding.

The goal is to ultimately understand ourselves and others and learn to be honest about who we are and how we behave and understand. If you stay at milk, you will never enjoy bread or meat, which means you will never be satisfied. You will miss so much joy by finding a comfort zone and staying within it.

There are no limits and no ends to God and scripture so why would we want to limit ourselves?

CHAPTER 1

Why John’s Gospel?

I t is widely believed that John wrote his Gospel account between AD 85 and 95. Compared with the other Gospel authors who wrote earlier (Matthew in AD 45, Mark in AD 57–60, and Luke in about AD 61–62), John wrote his twenty to fifty years after. We note that John’s Gospel account focuses on the deity of Jesus Christ. John is very concerned with ensuring that people understand that Jesus is God Himself.

A study of Acts and the various epistles (letters to the various early churches) reflects a common theme among the people of the early churches. It seems that most of the letters were written to address issues the churches were facing, mostly as a result of the human nature of the people attending. The common theme of many of these issues seems to be that people began to lose touch with the idea that Jesus was God. As time went on and people were faced with continuing life without Him, it seems the old human nature took over their experiences. People went back to their old traditions. The Jewish believers reintroduced the old laws and traditions to which they had been accustomed. The Gentile believers, who had some form of religion, introduced their traditions. The people who had no religious upbringing were confused and questioning. This problem seems to be an ongoing issue. We see the same issues and problems in our modern-day churches.

John wrote much later than the others, probably because he saw people losing touch with the impact of what it meant to have been visited by God Himself. The memory of Jesus quickly was watered down, and people lost touch. This is much the same today. People do not see or comprehend the impact of Jesus’s ministry. Many believe in what Jesus taught and believe He is God, but they don’t grasp the impact of God’s coming to earth to reunite us to Him.

To study the book of John is to take a deep look at what he was trying to get us to understand—the point that we continue to miss with our easy-believe-ism, with our comfortable way of relating with God, with our legalism, and with our overall lax view of God. Yes, we appreciate our God, we worship our God, and we acknowledge our God, but we don’t place Him at the forefront of all we do.

John wanted the whole world to know the Jesus Christ he knew. Having been Jesus’s best friend during His ministry on earth, John had an intimate understanding of Jesus and truly grasped that Jesus was God in the flesh. Thus, he wrote his Gospel account much later than the others, which is why, when you look at the harmonization or comparison of the accounts, the first three seem to be quite in unison, but although John’s concurs, John wants to focus on Jesus as God, rather than give detailed accounts of the events of His ministry. His intended point is very different from those of the other Gospel writers.

The message John leaves for us contains so many aspects of normal human behavior. If we can see how we behave and learn the consequences or a better way of acting, we can appreciate the message he left for us. We will get a little closer to the joy God intended for us to have in this life.

CHAPTER 2

The Calling of Disciples

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God! The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, What do you seek?

They said to Him, Rabbi (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), where are You staying? He said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. (John 1:35–40)

J ohn tells us that Jesus began with two men who had already been in training under John the Baptist. By this account, it becomes clear that John the Baptist intended these men to leave him and follow Jesus. John the Baptist knew his role was to announce the Messiah, then step aside. He knew his ministry would fade as Jesus’s ministry grew. That was the plan from the start.

His introduction as the Lamb of God reflects his understanding of the first problem—people needed to settle with God on the problem of sin. The only way we have access to the living God is through the forgiveness of sin, as that is the thing that separates us from Him. This is why John selects this as the way of introduction.

Two of John’s disciples heard him call Jesus the Lamb of God, so they left their old mentor, John the Baptist, to join Jesus. One of the disciples was Andrew, the brother of Peter, and the other was not named, but by that very anonymity, we understand it to be John, the writer of this Gospel account. Throughout the Gospel according to John, he always speaks of himself in anonymity or third person; thus, it is widely accepted the second disciple is John.

Next comes the crucial question and Jesus’s first words in the Gospel of John: What do you seek? Like so many of the profound words recorded in scripture, Jesus’s first words of His public ministry are in the form of a question. But this is much more than a simple question. When we translate its original meaning and update the thought to modern usage, it’s more like, What are you looking for in life? That same question with which Jesus began is the same question He asks you today: What do you want out of life?

The disciple’s answer, however, comes in the form of another question: Rabbi, where are you staying? This is a rather safe response to an otherwise deep and provoking question. Jesus responds in a way that shows how well He understood Andrew: Come and you will see. This is an invitation to investigate. Jesus welcomed the seeker, the inquirer, the one who hungered to know more. This is the most appropriate response to these two men, who were not easily convinced but, once convinced, were passionate about their beliefs. Jesus was instantly responsive to their needs. These men had open minds and were willing to learn, but they could not be persuaded against their will. Jesus saw this in them and invited them to investigate for themselves.

According to this account, these two men stayed with Jesus all day. If John refers to Jewish time, the tenth hour would be four o’clock. John, however, wrote his gospel later and to a wider audience, so it is more likely that it was Roman time, which would be our ten o’clock in the morning. These men were captivated by the things they learned from Jesus; they’d had an opportunity to spend one-on-one time with Him without distractions. We are not told what they learned, but we know they were so captivated by what Jesus told them that they stayed with Him thereafter.

The Outreach Begins

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah. Then he brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas [translated Peter]." (John 1:41–42)

Andrew began his calling by rushing out and bringing his own brother to the Messiah they found. John, likewise, went to find his brother James, which is yet another indication that the other disciple is Joh because James and John are the sons of Zebedee, as indicated later in scripture. Jesus made such an impression on these men in the one day they spent together that Andrew most emphatically cried out, We have found the Messiah. Interesting because they were the ones who were lost!

Jesus looked Simon, this burly fisherman, up and down and immediately saw a need for change. Simon means listener or hearer, but Jesus had bigger plans for this new follower and quickly renamed him Cephas (Aramaic) or Peter (Greek), which means rock. Perhaps Jesus, in effect, was saying to him, So you are Simon, a listener. You are tuned in to what everyone around you is saying. You are easily affected by the opinions of others. Quite intuitive, considering that Peter was quickly swayed by the opinions of others when Jesus was up for crucifixion and thus denied knowing Him to save his own skin.

Jesus read Peter’s heart instantly and effectively said, Your name is Simon, but you shall become a rock by the time I’m done with you. Peter subsequently became the one everyone began to build the church upon. Jesus looked into Peter’s heart and read his weaknesses but also recognized his potential. This is the same thing Jesus does for each of us even today. He knows our hearts, and He also knows what we can be if we choose. People like Peter have a capacity for great strength of character, but they often undermine that potential by their impulsiveness and undependability. They have never learned to listen to the right voice and instead follow the easy voice, looking for a cause they can commit themselves to. Jesus takes this potential and creates someone solid as a rock.

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. (John 1:43–44)

John tells us that Jesus found Philip. Philip didn’t find Jesus—he was found. Philip came from the same town as Andrew and Peter and, presumably, James and John, since they all came from the same area.

Why does John tell us where Philip was from? Why do we need to know he came from the same town as Andrew and Peter? The answer leads to another question: Why didn’t Andrew and Peter bring Philip to Jesus? They probably knew each other. Andrew and Peter had found the most exciting person they had ever met, the Messiah! Why didn’t they bring Philip to Jesus, and why did Jesus need to find him?

The answer is in the character of Philip. He was the kind of man nobody remembered to bring. He was quiet and shy and was easily overlooked, ignored, or forgotten. The only record of Philip’s actions is found in the Gospel of John; the others simply list him as one of the twelve.

In God’s eyes, nobody is forgotten or ignored. Because no one ever thought about Philip, Jesus went out and found him. If you ever feel forgotten and ignored by people around you, rest assured that Jesus is seeking you, and He will find you.

Jesus saw that Philip was intelligent, sincere, and spiritually hungry. Jesus addressed him: Do you want to be a spiritual man? Then come, follow Me! Jesus didn’t say Philip had to do it; He said He would do it, just as He said Come, follow me. I will make you fishers of men. He didn’t say they would do it; He said He would do it. Jesus was telling them—and us—that we don’t have to plan or figure out how we will serve or what we have to do to become more spiritual. All we have to do is come and follow. With obedience to His command, putting Him first in our lives, and reading His Word, He will make us more spiritual.

An Evangelist Is Born

We have already seen that Andrew became the first evangelist among the apostles when he ran to his brother Peter. Now we see Philip following suit:

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. Nathanael asked Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? Philip replied Come and see. (John 1:45–46)

If you study the lives of the twelve apostles, you may notice that the name Nathanael does not appear in the lists of the twelve. That’s because the lists use his patronym, Bartholomew. A patronym is like a surname that indicates who his father is. Common in these times the term Bar is Aramaic for son of, like Simon BarJonah is Simon, son of Jonah. Nathanael is the son of Tolmai. Bartholomew is the English standardization of the Aramaic term meaning son of Tolmai. Thus, Nathanael and Bartholomew are the same person.

Philip brings the news to Nathanael using the authority of the scriptures. We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—then Philip brings in local context—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Nathanael’s response seems a bit rude at first reading. Nathanael comes from Cana of Galilee, a small village over the hill from Nazareth. Although modern Nazareth overshadows Cana due to its fame, in those days Cana was a center of commerce, and Nazareth was a dusty village with a bad reputation.

But Philip has learned very quickly from Jesus and does not argue with him but simply invites him: Come and see. Philip knew that it didn’t matter where Jesus came from; anybody would recognize Him as the Messiah simply by meeting Him.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward