Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Read the Rest of Chapter 18 John 18:8-11 J esus answered,  “I told you that I am he. If you are looking for me, then let these men go.”   9  This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled:  “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”   10  Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)  11  Jesus commanded Peter,   “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup  the Father has given me?” This story is told in all four gospels with various details added to each account.  This is the only account where it names Peter as the one who wielded his sword.  In Luke, after Peter cuts off the servant's ear, Jesus touches the man and heals him.  In this chapter in John we also see Peter's denial of Jesus when questioned if he knew him.  As usual Peter is all over the place. Cutting off ears in one instance and hiding by the fire in the next.  But I think w

Click Here to Read John 17 1 3  “I am coming to you now,  but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy  within them.   14  I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.   15  My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.   16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.   17  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.   18  As you sent me into the world,  I have sent them into the world.   19  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. Chapter 17 showcases Jesus' last prayer before he went back to be with the Father.  Notice he says he is going back to the Father who he was with before the world began.  This is another way John is teaching about the divinity of Jesus.  This is consistent with John 1 where it says, " In the beginning was the Word. The W

Click Here to Read John 16 12  “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.   13  But when he, the Spirit of truth,  comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.   14  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.   15  All that belongs to the Father is mine.  That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” Today, we live in a world of instant communication.  Whether we text, Facetime, post on Facebook, or tweet we can get information out to lots of people quickly.     Today Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure.  He knows they will be sad, but wants to let them know what they can look foward to. And one thing they can look forward to is how He is going to communicate to them.  And for this Jesus prepares them to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.   One of t

Click Here to Read John 15 “As the Father has loved me,  so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.   10  If you keep my commands,  you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.   11  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.   12  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.   14  You are my friends  if you do what I command.   15  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.   16  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you  so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.   17  This is my command: Love each other. John 15 is perhaps one of the greatest chapters

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit 15  “If you love me, keep my commands.   16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate  to help you and be with you forever— 17  the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him,  because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be [ c ]  in you.   18  I will not leave you as orphans;  I will come to you. 19  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.   20  On that day  you will realize that I am in my Father,  and you are in me, and I am in you.   21  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.  The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,  and I too will love them and show myself to them.” Click Here to Read John 14 Jesus says, " If you love me, keep my commands ".  This sounds like something your parents might tell you when you were young. Or even now! LOL.  This is not the first or

Click Here to Read John 13 6  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  7  Jesus replied,  “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”  8  “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered,  “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”  9  “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” If it is too much for Jesus to come to earth as a human being, in this passage Jesus goes one step further and washes his disciples' feet. This was the job of the menial servant to wash the guest's dirty, dusty, and smelly feet.  But as Jesus prepares to go to the cross he uses this moment to show the disciples his true nature.  And it is critical for Jesus that his disciples know why he is washing his feet.   So when Jesus comes to Peter, Peter resists as if to protect Jesus from doing such a lowly thing.  Peter is pretty incredulous and states in no uncertain t

Click Here to Read John 12 37  Even after Jesus had performed so many signs  in their presence, they still would not believe in him.   38  This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet: “Lord, who has believed our message      and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” [ h ] 39  For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:  40   “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts,nor turn—and I would heal them.” This passage has at times been problematic for me.  Jesus has performed many signs at this point in the story.  He has healed people, delivered them from demons, turned water into wine, fed the 5,000, and even raised someone from the dead.  But, still there many who would not or cannot believe, especially his own fellow Jews.  This was especially true with the Pharisees who were threatened by Jesus and his following that kept growing.  Then

Click Here to Read John 11 32  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved  in spirit and troubled.   34  “Where have you laid him?”  he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35  Jesus wept. 36  Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37  But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man  have kept this man from dying?” This is the famous passage where Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead.  Jesus was friends with both of Lazarus' sisters Mary and Martha.  Mary was the one who anointed Jesus with the expensive perfume, and earlier they had both hosted Jesus and his disciples at their home.  When see how strong a relationship Jesus has with them when they both meet Jesus and says, "Lord if you had been here he w

Click Here To Read John 10 The Good Shepherd and His Sheep 10  “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.   2  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.   4  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.   5  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”   6  Jesus used this figure of speech,  but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them . Today Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd to differentiate who he is as the Good Shepherd and the Pharisees.  The shepherd's role with the sheep was well known to Jesus' culture.  A good shepherd knew the sheep and t