Favorite Passages in the book of John

Jesus said:


“I am the Light of the World”

“I am the bread of life”

“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies”.

“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful”.

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

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B) God now relates to us as His children—and He has compassion on us
Psalm 103:13–Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

C) We also now get to receive His discipline
Hebrews 12:5-7– and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ”MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; 6(FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

D) He makes us heirs to a kingdom
Romans 8:16-17-The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
–Can you believe that God makes us fellow heirs with Christ?  We share in the inheritance that Christ gets. Read Hebrews 1:2
What does Christ inherit? All things—new heaven and new earth—we are partakers through adoption

E) We enjoy the privilege of suffering with Christ– so that we also may be glorified with him. Verse above—“if indeed we suffer with Him”
–We are now counted worthy to suffer shame
–Now that we belong to this family, all the persecution that is directed to the son (Jesus) comes our way too
John 15:18–” If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.
1 John 3:13–Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.
–it is in suffering that you cling to God and learn obedience

F) We are glorified with Him—one day we will be given new bodies
Romans 8:23–And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.
–Why do we groan?
–because we are waiting for new bodies and to be with God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit
John 17:24–”Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
From the verse above, Jesus prays that we will 1) Be where ___________ and 2) See His _________.
Jude, verse 24 says that He will one day make us stand in the presence of His glory, blameless—with great joy.
God doesn’t say ‑ Listen, you folks, I’m going to allow you to be subjects in My Kingdom, you can be My servants, I might even let you be My friend. That would be nice. But God says ‑ You’re not only not servants, you’re not only not friends, you’re going to be My … what? … My sons—My daughters.  –John Mac Arthur
Romans 8:15
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ” Abba! Father!” (abba means daddy)

Questions to Ask Yourself
1.  Do I fully realize the benefits of being adopted into God’s family—namely my inheritance?
2.  Do I have a right view of God? He is holy and He hates sin—and will punish sin.  But He is compassionate to those who come to Him.
3.  Do I have an intimate relationship with God—am I able to call Him daddy?

How Does this Change My Life?

1.      I don’t have to live in fear of the future—I am a child of God with an inheritance waiting for me in heaven.
2.      When I am disciplined by God I can remember that He does it because He loves me and because I am His child.
3.      I can have confidence that I have never had before because I have been adopted—I have a kind and compassionate Father in heaven who has His hand on my life.
4.      When I am sad I can remember that God is my daddy—my abba Father and I can rest in Him.
5.      How does this change my life? I must now step up to the plate and count myself worthy to suffer shame with Jesus Christ.  I will now share his love with others, not fearing what others think of me.

If you haven’t put your faith in Jesus Christ you can do it today.  Pray and ask Him to forgive your sin and give Him your life—everything you are and have.

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Romans 10:9 says– if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Why is believing that God raised Jesus from the dead important for salvation?
What does confessing Jesus as Lord actually mean?

–at the time that this verse was written, stepping out and confessing Jesus as Lord was dangerous because of persecution—so anyone who did it was willing to die for faith in Jesus Christ

–but just because we live in a free nation, doesn’t mean that Jesus does not still call us to give up our lives.  Jesus said to take up our cross and follow him—die to self and live for God—this will only happen as a result of faith (Matthew 16:24– Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.)

In the verse below, what comes from faith?
Romans 1:5-Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

–this verse is clear that faith produces obedience in our lives

According to the verse below, who is the author of our faith? Who makes our faith stronger?
Hebrews 12:2–Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Ephesians 2:8-9–For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

According to the verse above, can works save a person? Where does faith come from?

The dichotomy of faith and works
–on the one hand, works can’t save us—on the other hand, we are saved only by faith—but  faith isn’t real unless it results in works/action.

Example: If you had a husband who told you he loved you all the time but he was constantly with other women, would his words be enough for you?  You would look to his actions to judge whether he really loved you or not.

—the same is true with our relationship with God.  We can say we love God but if our actions don’t match what we say it is empty faith.

Look up James 2:14-20
It appears that faith is more than just believing.  Who else believes?
–if the demons understand intellectually that Jesus is Lord, what is the difference between their belief and a saved person’s belief?

If someone says they have faith in God but they have no actions to prove it, is their faith real?
This passage gives us the example of someone who needs our help but we turn away from them.  We can tell someone we care but we don’t really care unless we do something to help them.
Hebrews 11 is often referred to as the Hall of Faith because it lists people in the Old Testament who had faith and gives us an example of their faith—-Look at 3 examples:

1. Noah—v.7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

2.   Moses—v.24-27  By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen.

3.  Others (un-named) v. 36-38–and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.


Lack of Faith is at the Root of Every Problem We face—4 Examples (John Piper’s book, “The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace”, or “Battling Unbelief”) Quotes from John Piper’s book.

1. Depression/Despondency—“Unbelief in future grace is the root of yielding to despondency.  Or to put it another way, unbelief is the root of not making war on despondency…unbelief lets despondency take its course without a spiritual fight.
–Satan’s lies:  You will never be happy again, you are useless, you have no purpose
–the battle against despondency is a battle to believe the promises of God
–fight back by reminding yourself of God’s care for you (read the psalms)
–if we give in to depression it is because we don’t believe that God will be faithful

2.  Lust—“At first lust begins to trick me into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I followed the path of purity.  But then I take up the sword of the spirit and begin to fight”.
–Satan’s lies:  You won’t be happy unless you satisfy your lust
–fight back by finding your satisfaction in God and believing the promises of God more than believing the promise of lust.

3.  Bitterness—“Living by faith involves overcoming vengeance and bitterness by trusting God to settle all our accounts justly”.
–Satan’s lies:  You have a right to hold on to a grudge, you need to teach that person a lesson
—fight back by trusting God to deal justly with that person.  Have faith in God’s power to use the situation for your good.  Joseph said, “you meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”
–we are able to deal with bitterness in our heart when we believe God’s word which says, Matthew 6:14,15– For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.  (if we don’t believe this is true we will hold on to a grudge)

4.  You fill in the blank—every problem we personally face has unbelief at it’s root.  Think of any issue you are dealing with and look for where you are not trusting God to deal with the situation.  Fight unbelief by reading and knowing God’s word

How to Apply This

1.  Examine Your Heart—Are you truly saved? Has your faith in Christ resulted in a changed life? This doesn’t mean that you won’t stumble and fall at times, but is the desire of your heart to live for Christ and obey Him?  If you aren’t saved then turn to Christ today.

2.  If you recognize that you don’t have faith, ask God to give you faith-–pray for this every day until you believe.
In Mark 9:23,24 a man came to Jesus and asked him to heal his son.  Jesus said, “Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” What did this man do, in the verse above, when he had weak faith?

3. Understand there is a battle for your faith—Satan doesn’t want you to be saved, and if you are saved he doesn’t want you to have an impact on others.  He will do everything he can to make us useless, so that we don’t share the gospel with others who are going to hell.
Ephesians 6:16,17–In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

–Defeat Satan’s lies by taking up the shield of faith, which is believing in God’s word
–The sword of the spirit is the word of God.  You can’t use this sword to fight back if you don’t know the word.  Study the bible if you want to increase your faith.

Self Examination–The areas where my faith is weak are ____________________.
The 2 biggest problems I am dealing with right now are:______________________.

Assignment this week: Find verses on the two problems you are dealing with and deal with those problems by having faith in what God says about those 2 issues. A good resource to use when doing this is http://www.biblegateway.com

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