Monthly Archives: August 2025

JOHN’S GOSPEL… THE WOUNDS – 34

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John 20:19-20 NIV
[19] “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!” [20] After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”

If the presence of Jesus convinced Mary, what would convince the disciples that Jesus was alive? What would change the skepticism of Thomas into an outburst of faith?
What if He walked through a locked door? What if they met Him face to face, heard His voice? What if they saw Him eating a piece of fish? Would they believe?

John 20:24-29 NIV
[24] “Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. [25] So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” 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.” [26] 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!” [27] 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.” [28] Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” [29] Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

One thing above all else stood out to Thomas, convinced him that that it was really Jesus standing there…the wounds!

Thomas had seen the damage the Romans had inflicted on Him. He and his fellow disciples had seen His blood dripping from His hands and feet, the gush of blood and water from His pierced side! They had witnessed His final cry, His head hanging limply as the sound of His final rasping breath died away. They had watched as the soldiers lowered His pale, limp body to the ground and handed His remains over to Joseph of Arimathea for burial. They knew what real death was when they saw it.

Matthew Bridges’ hymn encapsulates the resurrection event in glorious poetry…

1. Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.

2. Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o’er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save;
his glories now we sing
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

3. Crown him the Lord of love;
behold his hands and side,
RICH WOUNDS, YET VISIBLE ABOVE,
IN BEAUTY GLORIFIED;
no angels in the sky
can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends their burning eye
at mysteries so bright.

4. Crown him the Lord of years,
the potentate of time,
creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
for thou hast died for me;
thy praise shall never, never fail
throughout eternity.

(Author: Matthew Bridges –
Source: https://hymnary.org)

Jesus took the wounds the disciples saw that day to glory, ever to remind His eternal family of the price He paid for our salvation.

Revelation 5:6 NIV
[6] “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”

Finally convinced, the disciples could relax. They clung to the hope, knowing that their MASTER was alive, that He  would always be with them…or would He?

Only after Pentecost would everything He taught them about the Holy Spirit fall into place. His real, physical presence with them would be replaced by the Holy Spirit in them…His “other self”, He had said, one exactly like Him who would be in them forever.

Unlike the occasional appearance of the Holy Spirit in the Old Covenant, who came upon people to empower them for a specific purpose, Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled in an event that restored the Spirit, lost through Adam, to all who believe in Jesus.

Joel 2:28-29 NIV
[28] “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on ALL PEOPLE. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. [29] Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

No longer would the Spirit be lent to select people for a specific task, for a season. He would come in a deluge of power on all people, regardless of artificial distinctions, to finish Jesus’ work of salvation. He would replace Jesus’ physical presence with His indwelling presence, to guide and mold all His disciples into His image. He would convince His people of righteousness, that one requirement for fellowship with the Father that Jesus gave us, witnessed by His wounds.

It’s the wounds that are the concrete and absolute proof that every child of God is righteous and fully acceptable to God. So, finally, the disciples knew, were convinced and believed, because the wounds told the story… “He is who He said He is and He did what He said He would do!”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
[21] “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

JOHN’S GOSPEL… RESURRECTION –

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John 20:1-2 NIV
[1] “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. [2] 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!”

The pall of unbelief still hung over Jesus’ friends. While they hid in fear, Mary went alone in the pre-dawn hush, to grieve at the tomb, to think, to remember, and to groan in her despair…What now? What would become of all the hopes and dreams Jesus’ presence with them had aroused?

Mary remembered, with a sharp pang of regret, her past life…her pre-Jesus, desperate quest for real love. This desire drove her into the sordid life of a “sinful woman”, eventually to be invaded by demonic spirits that controlled her every thought and movement.

Would she ever forget the instant Jesus spoke the words that drove the demons from her, leaving her free to follow Him and taste the real love her heart had craved. Jesus’ love was pure, not using and abusing her. His was a love that embraced her and all people, elevating each one He touched to a new perspective of divine goodness and mercy.

Slowly, as daybreak brought light to the scene, Mary became aware that the dark form of the stone she thought was covering the tomb was nothing but a black hole. The stone was cast aside, rolled away as by an unseen hand. Numb with horror, she raced back to the city to tell the disciples, hiding behind closed doors, the awful truth. “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

Who were ” they”? The temple guards? The Roman soldiers? The Sanhedrin? And why would these unknown people want to do that? Was the stone that sealed Him in the tomb not enough to keep Him there forever, to prove that He was dead and out of their hair?

Peter and John raced back to the tomb to discover that Mary was telling the truth. Not only that but, when they ventured inside, the tomb was empty! Gone! His remains were gone!

John 20:3-4, 8-9 NIV
[3] “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. [4] Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first…
[8] Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. [9] (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead).”

A glimmer of faith, a sliver of hope…that was all! It would take a personal encounter with the living Jesus to shatter their unbelief and awaken the truth that He was alive.

When Mary finally reached the tomb again, unaware of the disciples’ encounter with the emptiness they found, she crumpled into a sobbing heap, wailing her misery as she peered inside.

What met her was mind-blowing! Two angels…sitting where Jesus had lain!

John 20:12 NIV
[12] “She saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.”

What impertenance! What audacity! What authority!

They sat where death had been, to declare what Jesus had done. He had destroyed death!

Mary was awestruck, dumbstruck, numbstruck! She turned away, eyes blinded by tears, heart heavy with unbelief, walked away from the tomb… straight into Jesus Himself! What better way to convince her that He was alive!

She lay on the ground once more, not in misery but in ecstacy. Alive! He was alive!

Once more she ran, this time not with despair but with sheer joy, delight…to tell the greatest news in history, the same good news that echoes and re-echoes around the universe today. Jesus is alive!

No other message can bring such joy or strike such fear into the hearts of mankind. Joy… the core of hope! Fear…the certainty of judgment. All of history is wrapped up in the resurrection event. Nothing else can so convincingly confirm that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords.

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV
[9] “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, [10] that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

JOHN’S GOSPEL… WAS THIS THE END? – 32

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The inevitable happened! He was tried in a travesty of injustice, sentenced for blasphemy and treason, found guilty for being who He said He was, both Son of God and King of the Jews, and killed for the sin of the whole world, not His own.

1 John 2:2 NIV
[2] “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

And the world looked on, jeered, and celebrated.

Luke 23:35-37 NIV
[35] “The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” [36] The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar [37] and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

One man cared…

John 19:38-42 NIV
[38] “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. [39] 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. [40] Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. [41] 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. [42] Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

John’s words sound so final. The body of Jesus…His remains! Only one man had the courage to do something about it. He asked permission to give Jesus’ remains a decent burial. If Joseph of Arimthea had not intervened, Jesus’ remains would have been thrown on the city garbage dump to be burned along with the bodies of the criminals who were crucified with Him.

Joseph had been a secret believer. He was afraid of the repercussions of his faith if the members of the Sanhedrin got to know about it. Was he finally ready to reveal his connection with Jesus, now that his Messiah was safely dead and out of the way? How would Jesus’ death affect Joseph’s faith?

Nicodemus also came out of hiding to join him in this final act of love towards their Messiah.

Two men, despite the hatred and contempt their fellow Sanhedrin members had shown towards Jesus, by their act of compassion, finally made a public declaration of their faith and would be remembered for their loving gesture and generosity towards Jesus. They spared no cost to give Him a dignified burial…Joseph’s new tomb, the linen cloth, the expensive herbs and spices to mask the smell of decay… nothing was too good for Jesus’ remains.

Even Joseph’s tomb, prepared for his own burial, was freely given to Jesus. Joseph was wealthy enough to have another tomb prepared for himself and his family. One wonders, after Jesus’ resurrection, if Joseph’s family ever used that tomb again or would it be dedicated as a religious shrine to be visited by millions in the centuries to come?

How much did Jesus’ prediction that He would rise again affect the actions of these two men? Did they know about His prophecy or did the disciples’ unbelief silence them from speaking about something they didn’t understand? Is seems that the actions of Joseph and Nicodemus indicated that Jesus’ remains would be prepared and left to decay like any other body after death.

… But something was different! Jesus had spoken a word, and His Word would never be unfruitful.

Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV
[10] “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, [11] so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

Jesus had made a promise, and His promises were guaranteed…

2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV
[20] “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”

Jesus had said He would rise again after three days, and Jesus never lied…

Matthew 16:21 NIV
[21] “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

John 10:17-18 NIV
[17] “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. [18] 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.”

Since He had spoken the word, and His Word was His bond, Jesus, would rise again…not at the end of time but after three days. His prediction was as specific as that.

Whatever the two men had done for Jesus, as permanent as His death might have been in their thoughts, Jesus walked from the tomb three days later, through the impenetrable and immovable stone, smelling like the fragrant spices of His burial. Even greater than that, He returned with the fresh breath of heaven on Him, finally bringing the hope of heaven coming to earth as the foretaste of all that His death and resurrection had promised.

So, Paul could declare with unshakable confidence…

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 NIV
[55] “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” [56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

JOHN’S GOSPEL… “I AM HE” – 31

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John 18:4-5 NLT
[4] “Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. [5] “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.)”

Only John recorded this unusual interlude in the arrest of Jesus, the same John who presented Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus’ announcement “I am He!” had a surprising effect on the arresting mob.

John 18:6 NLT
[6] “As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground!”

They fell backwards as if a blast of wind had sent them flying! What happened? Jesus did much more than identify Himself as the one they had come to arrest. He declared, with authority, His name… Yahweh! That should have been enough to send them scurrying in the opposite direction.

How strange! A mob of soldiers, threatening, brandishing weapons, rough and unruly…arresting the Son of God! Why? How can this be?

The story unfolds as if copied and pasted from God’s history book written in eternity before time began, every detail a perfect match with the eternal story.

John 18:4, 8-9 NLT
[4] “Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked…
[8]  “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.”
[9] He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.”

Let’s match the story…

The betrayal…

Psalms 41:9 NLT
[9] “Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.”

The price…

Zechariah 11:12 NIV
[12] “I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.”

The arrest…

Zechariah 13:7 NLT
[7] “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, the man who is my partner,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Strike down the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn against the lambs.”

The trial…

Isaiah 53:7-8a NIV
[7]” He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. [8] By oppression and judgment he was taken away…”

The sentence…

Isaiah 53:5 NIV
[5] “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

The suffering…

Psalms 22:14-15 NIV
[14] “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me. [15] My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.”

The dying…

Isaiah 53:8-9 NIV
[8] “By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.”

The burial…

Isaiah 53:9 NIV
[9] “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”

The resurrection…

Psalms 16:10 NIV
[10] “… You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.”

… all written in detail before the beginning of time.

The ancient hymn writer captures, in beautiful poetry, this awful event in history.

1. My song is love unknown–
my Savior’s love to me;
love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
Oh, who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take frail flesh and die?

2. He came from His blest throne
salvation to bestow;
but men made strange, and none
the longed for Christ would know.
But oh, my Friend, my Friend indeed,
who at my need His life did spend!

3. Sometimes they strew His way,
and His sweet praises sing;
resounding all the day
hosannas to their King.
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
and for His death they thirst and cry.

4. Why, what hath my Lord done?
What makes this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run;
He gave the blind their sight.
Sweet injuries! Yet they at these
themselves displease,
and ‘gainst Him rise.

5. They rise, and needs will have
my dear Lord made away.
A murderer they save;
the Prince of Life they slay.
Yet cheerful He to suff’ring goes,
that He His foes from thence might free.

6. In life, no house, no home
my Lord on earth might have;
in death, no friendly tomb
but what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
but mine the tomb wherein He lay.

7. Here might I stay and sing–
no story so divine!
Never was love, dear King,
never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

Samuel Crossman (1674)
https://hymnary.org

Surely, then, for Jesus, the Son of God, to be arrested, tried, crucified, and buried, it could only have been that He chose to submit Himself to humans. There is no other way that God could have died in the place of sinners.

Philippians 2:6-8 NIV
[6] “Christ Jesus… who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; [7] rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. [8] And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

So, when the soldiers took Him to trial, He went, like a lamb to the slaughter, unresisting, without a murmur. Surely, this alone should have alerted them to something so unusual that they would have stopped to ponder…

JOHN’S GOSPEL… “THE TIME HAS COME” – 30

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John 18:1-3 NIV
[1] “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.”

Jesus had a tryst to honour. He had to meet someone who would play a crucial role in the unfolding drama.

[2] “Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. [3] 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.”

What an unusual situation! Written between the lines was Jesus’ prophetic word…

John 10:17-18 NIV
[17] “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. [18] 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.”

Step by step, through these dramatic events, Jesus demonstrated His absolute control over the story as it unfolded. He had a timetable to follow, and every detail had to fulfil all the prophecies about Him that covered this salvation event.

John 18:4 NIV
[4] Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”

So, like a prearranged signal, Judas knew where to find Him.

Why a garden, why this garden? Again, there is symbolism in the story. How fitting that the death of humanity, when they rejected God as theie God, which happened in a garden, should be reversed by the one who came to do the Father’s will by dying, in a garden!

The Garden of Eden was a plethora of provision for the first pair, delights of every kind in the fruits of the garden. In that same garden, they forfeited everything by one choice and one decision, turning their lives from perpetual bliss into never-ending suffering and loss. Driven out of the garden, they and all mankind, were to live their lives in toil and struggle.

The Garden of Gethsemane was a garden of olive trees, the fruit of which demanded extreme pressure to release its bounty. Gethsemane, the name that always reminds us of His suffering, means “press”. As the oil is pressed from the olives to benefit humans, so our Saviour was pressed until all that remained was His loyalty to the Father and obedience to His will, the way of suffering that restored our bliss.

Mark 14:36 NIV
[36] “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Only when every shred of reservation, every atom of resistance was submitted to the Father, was He ready to move with the circumstances that took Him to the cross.

It was at the perfect moment, when the struggle was over, that Judas and his ignominious bunch of “religious and military might” arrive on the scene to arrest Him. Why the need for such a mob? Did they really think this was necessary to arrest one man…and the one man who would be willing to go because it was His destiny? How little did Judas know that he was not in charge, and that those with him were doing the Father’s will?

Acts 2:23 NIV
[23] “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

So, the drama picked up pace. Arrest, trial…all in the perfect timing and purpose of the Father. How Jesus monitored the unfolding events until the moment when the cock crowed…the sun darkened…and the Passover lambs were slaughtered. The angel of death passed over, taking only the firstborn, the perfect Son of God…as the sacrifice for sinners.

How can we ever believe that Calvary was a random event, in which sinners carried out their own will? Far from this, Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He died in eternity, caused it to happen in time, carried it out according to a perfect timetable, and made salvation through faith in Him possible from before the beginning of history. Hence, the Old Covenant encapsulated, in a symbolic ritual called Passover, what Jesus did before time, and which Jesus fulfilled perfectly at Passover, so that we can know without a doubt, that His sacrificial death was all of God.

1 Peter 1:20 NIV
[20] “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

So, closely monitored by the Father, and fulfilled through the Spirit, Jesus walked the road to Calvary. Paul asserted that the Father was “in Christ” doing the work of reconciliation, while the writer to the Hebrews declares…

Hebrews 9:14 NIV
[14] “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

The Scriptures affirm that Jesus’ death was an event of the Godhead rather than just Jesus alone. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were in it together. The timing was perfect, prophecy was perfectly fulfilled, and the Father’s will done fully to the perfect moment.

How can we, then, not believe that the three-in-one God is sovereign in all He does. No matter what happens, as Jesus assured His disciples before these events unfolded…

John 14:1 NIV
[1] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

If with Him, so with us, He is working in all things for our good, patiently and purposefully restoring in us the image of His Son.