Abiding

This is a month-long study, 30 lessons going through John 14 and 15.

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*Note: Like all my Bible teachings, my husband has seen these and gives me permission to share them.

Lesson 1

  1. I called this September Study Abiding. To abide actually means to remain. We’re going to talk about abiding in Christ, remaining in Christ. We make a choice of Jesus not just once, but moment by moment, day after day, and year after year.
  2. We will be studying through John 14 and 15, but today we’ll set the context with chapter 13. The context is the Last Supper. The disciples have had their Passover feast with Jesus. He has washed their feet, teaching them humble service, not thinking of themselves as better than others. Then Jesus sends Judas out.
  3. This is the context. Sitting around together after the meal, Jesus tells them that it’s time that He be glorified, and that He will be with them only a little longer.
  4. Read John 13:31-36.
  5. Who is the Son of Man and what does it mean that He’s going to enter into His glory? (Note: I haven’t hidden my answers on another page. They are here in the lesson. When you come to a question, answer it before you continue reading on.)
  6. The Son of Man is Jesus. He’s been referring to Himself as the Son of Man all along. In John 12:34, we see the people equating the Son of Man with the Christ. The Christ is a term that means Anointed One. He is one chosen to fill His appointed position. In the Old Testament we read about kings and prophets being anointed to show they were chosen for the position.
  7. So, Jesus is the Son of Man, and when it says He’s going to enter into His glory, it means returning to the Father in heaven. He will get rid of His body of flesh and get a new body that will never die, and He will be seated at the right hand of the Father.
  8. There’s a reason we call it “The Last Supper.” Jesus is about to die. He will be crucified, but He will rise from the dead. He conquers death. That is a glorious thing.
  9. Jesus then tells the disciples, after calling them “dear children,” that He will only be with them a little longer.
  10. Peter wants to know where Jesus is going. Jesus answered, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”
  11. What did Jesus mean?
  12. Peter has a promise of heaven with Jesus, but it was Jesus’ appointed time to die, not Peter’s.
  13. Jesus has one last thing He wants to say. What’s the one commandment Jesus wants to make sure the disciples know and pursue?
  14. He tells them to love each other.
  15. We were created in God’s image and God is love. We were created to love. God doesn’t need love. He is love. Our needing of love comes from the fall, the time when Adam and Eve sinned. We were created to be love, to give love, to live love.
  16. Jesus says they are to love each other as He loved them. What was Jesus’ greatest act of love?
  17. He laid down His life for us. He gave up heaven. He took on flesh. He lived a perfect life before His Father. He took our sins and their punishment on Himself and died on the cross. He conquered death and rose again. Now He prays for us to live in His same victory over sin and death.
  18. One final thing…Jesus says that our love for one another will prove to the world that we are disciples of Jesus.
  19. How are you loving in such a way that people see you are disciples of Jesus? When you are with your family, do people see the love? When you are with your siblings, do people see the love? When you are around others, whether friends or strangers, do they see the love?
  20. How can you love in such a way that people can see that you are a disciple of Jesus?

Lesson 2

  1. Let’s set the stage before we move on. Do you remember Lesson 1? What’s going on? Set the scene. Where are Jesus and the disciples and what did Jesus just tell them?
  2. The disciples are with Jesus in what we call the upper room. It is the Last Supper. They had their Passover meal, remembering God’s deliverance of the Jews from Egypt.
  3. Jesus just told them that He won’t be with them much longer.
  4. How do you think they felt hearing that?
  5. Jesus had been their life for three years. They didn’t understand that even after He left them, He would be their whole life, but even more so!
  6. Read John 14:1-2.
  7. Why is Jesus telling them not to let their hearts be troubled?
  8. Is it possible to not let your heart by troubled?
  9. It’s hard not to feel something. What can you control that’s connected to your feelings?
    • Your thoughts
  10. You can control your thoughts. Your thoughts drive your feelings. Change your thoughts and the feelings will eventually follow.
  11. Jesus tells the disciples the key to not letting their heart be troubled. What is it?
  12. Trust. If we trusted God, we wouldn’t be troubled. We’d know it is going to be okay. If God were taking care of us and the events surrounding us, would there be anything to be troubled about? What might still worry you?
  13. If we believed God was good and loving and perfect in all His ways and working everything for our good and His glory, is there anything that should trouble us? Why would even a hard thing (like Jesus leaving them) be a good thing?
  14. Jesus gives them a future hope to look forward to in His leaving. What is it?
  15. He’s preparing a place for them in His Father’s home.
  16. What does that mean?
  17. We have a place in heaven. How does Jesus prepare a place for us in heaven?
  18. He opens the gates to heaven through His death and resurrection. He took our sins and our punishment for our sins on Himself, died in our place for our sins, and conquered sin and death, rising from the dead.
  19. Do you trust that Jesus opened the way for you to go to heaven? Do you know that there is a place in heaven prepared for you? How can you be sure?
  20. We don’t just believe the historical facts that Jesus died and rose again. We trust Him. We trust Him with our life now and with our life for eternity.

Lesson 3

  1. Set the scene. Where are the disciples and what has Jesus just told them?
  2. They are at their Passover meal. Jesus has told them that He will be leaving them soon, but that He is going to prepare a place for them in His Father’s home.
  3. Read John 14:3-4.
  4. What promise does Jesus give the disciples?
  5. He says He will come and get them. What does that mean? When will Jesus come and get us?
  6. He’s going to come back and take us with Him! We call this event “the rapture,” though that term to some implies a specific timing. The rapture is when believers will be caught up into the sky. Like Jesus was lifted up and ascended into heaven, just got lifted up into the sky, we will also be lifted up to join Jesus.
  7. There will be a time of destruction on earth, a time of God’s wrath. Believers will escape that. Jesus is our way of escape. He will take us out of harm’s way by bringing us safely to Himself.
  8. Why is Jesus going to come and get us? So we will be…
  9. We’ll be with Him always!
  10. There is no more separation after the end. We will be with our God and our God will be with us. We’ll talk more about how the Lord is with us now, but this first part is about being with Jesus, the Man.
  11. He will be our King when He returns to earth. All of us believers will be perfectly one with each other and with Christ. It’s a glorious mystery.
  12. Read about it in John 17.
  13. There are two types of oneness. What are they?
    • with God and with each other
  14. We can’t have one without the other. Which one do you need to have in order to have the other?
  15. We need to individually be united with God in order to be one with each other. We need to have Christ living in us through our trust in His salvation in order to have the love and connection to other believers.
  16. Where do you see in your life an evidence of union with God?
  17. Where do you see evidence that you are living apart from God in some way?
  18. Where do you see unity or disunity between yourself and other believers?
  19. What’s your part to play in being in unity with other believers?

Lesson 4

  1. Set the scene. What has Jesus just told them? If you need the reminder, read John 14:3-4.
  2. Jesus has told them that He is going to be leaving them, but that He will come back to get them. Then He adds that they know the way to where He’s going.
  3. If you were there at the Last Supper and heard Jesus tell you that He was going, but you already knew the way there, what would be your response?
  4. What was Thomas’s response? Read John 14:5-6.
  5. He corrects Jesus. No, we don’t know the way. We don’t even know where you are going!
  6. What did Jesus reply?
  7. John 14:6 is a famous verse. It should be on your memorizing list. Do you have a list of verses you want to memorize?
  8. The verse has four parts to it. Let’s look at them. What’s the first word He defines Himself with?
  9. “I am the way.”
  10. If you ever feel like you don’t know the way, you do. It’s Jesus. I think we think all wrong about God’s will. We want to know what to do, what choice to make. I think we should be focusing on Jesus and being with Him. If we are with Him, then we can’t be in the wrong place. He’ll get us where we need to be. I heard a pastor say once, “If we focused on His affection for us instead of His direction for us, He could take us so much further.” I think we tend to want Him to point us in the right direction, so we can then go and do the thing. But He wants us with Him, not doing for Him. He wants us abiding, remaining with Him. That’s what we’re talking about in these lessons. Be His!
  11. What’s the next word Jesus uses to define Himself?
  12. “I am the truth.”
  13. The truth is a person. That’s why people can’t just have their own truth, whatever they decide is good and right. There is one truth and it’s the person of Jesus Christ. We are reading the book of John. His gospel begins with the famous words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word, God’s true and living Word.
  14. We need to understand that having a personal copy of the Bible is a relatively recent phenomenon in Christianity. And in some places even still today, having a Bible isn’t something just easily available to all Christians. I read the Bible even several times a day. It’s important to me, but it’s not more important than Jesus. We cling to Him as the Word, not just words on a page. Reading our Bible daily isn’t a command of Scripture (though you totally should). We are commanded to meditate on the Scripture. We’re to think on the Word. I do that through Scripture memory, but not everyone has the Scriptures. What can they do? They can think on what they have been taught, yes, but they can also think on Jesus Christ. Keep Jesus in your thoughts day in and day out. Meditate on the Word. Think on what is true. (That’s another command of Scripture. To think on what is True. Jesus!)
  15. What’s the last word Jesus uses to define Himself in John 14:6?
  16. “I am the life.”
  17. Jesus came to bring us life, abundant life. What life do we have in Jesus?
  18. We have eternal life for one, but we also have His life. How are we given the life of Christ?
  19. When we come to faith in Christ, we don’t just believe that He exists. We have faith in what He accomplished on the cross, victory over death and sin, and an overcoming life through the power of the Spirit.
  20. When we come to faith and are baptized, we are choosing the life of Christ. We say with Paul (from Gal 2:20), “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” We receive and live His life.
  21. What’s the final thing Jesus says?
  22. “No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
  23. What is the way to our Father in heaven?
  24. By faith, through the grace God gives, we believe in Jesus as the only way, truth, and life, and we receive Jesus to be all that for us.

Lesson 5

  1. Read John 14:7-9.
  2. What big statement does Jesus make?
  3. He says that in knowing Him we know God the Father, and those who have seen Jesus have seen the Father.
  4. What does that imply?
  5. Jesus is saying that He and the Father are one. Jesus is God.
  6. These verses speak to the divinity of Jesus and point toward the Trinity. What do those two “ity” theology words mean?
  7. Jesus is divine. It means that He is God. The Trinity refers to the doctrine that there is one God, and that this one God consists of the three Persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
  8. I’m going to assume you believe in the divinity of Jesus and in the Trinity, so I won’t spend time explaining or defending those. I want to look at the implication of knowing the Father by looking at Jesus.
  9. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But some people read the Old Testament and come away with the idea that God is all about rules and punishment. They miss the tremendous love and grace and mercy He shows and has always shown. Those people think the God of the New Testament is different. But God never changed. Jesus shows us the Father. What do we see in the life of Jesus about who our God is? List all you can think of before you read my list of some of the things we see in Jesus that show us who our God is.
  10. He is compassionate. He helps people just because He loves them and feels compassion toward them.
  11. He is powerful. Jesus performs more miracles than can be recorded, but among them are raising the dead and controlling nature (calming the storm).
  12. He is wise. The wisdom Jesus shows in answering the questions of those trying unsuccessfully to trick Him cannot be matched.
  13. He is a teacher. God is a good Father. He is always teaching and training His children.
  14. He is a God who is near. God is not a distant God. He draws near. He wants to be with us. He created us to be united with Him, and our inability to be holy and set apart to be with Him sets up our need for the cross of Christ. The blood of Christ bought us forgiveness, and the Spirit provides us with victory over the power of sin, and we are made holy, set apart from the world and to God, and we can be with Him forever, now and always.

Lesson 6

  1. What’s the scene?
  2. Jesus is speaking to His disciples at the Last Supper.
  3. Read John 14:10-11.
  4. What question does Jesus ask the disciples?
  5. Jesus and the Father were one. The Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father.
  6. We say that we are in Christ, that we are in Him and He is in us. We will be talking about this more because this is the basis of our abiding relationship with Christ, that we are united with each other.
  7. Jesus says that the Father lives in Him and that the Father does His work through Jesus.
  8. Whose work is being done by Jesus?
    • The Father’s
  9. Whose words are being spoken by Jesus?
    • The Father’s
  10. If our goal is to be like Jesus, what would that mean for us about our work and our words?
  11. It would mean that our work and our words would not be our own. We would seek to do God’s work and speak God’s word.
  12. What proof does Jesus give that He does the Father’s work?
  13. He says you can believe what I am saying because of the works that I have done.
  14. What works did Jesus do that show He was doing God’s work?
  15. He did all those miracles. But we also have all His words and we see Him loving others.
  16. People recognized that He didn’t speak like the other teachers. Here’s a Scripture about that: Matthew 7:28-29.
  17. Jesus had compassion and forgave the sins of others, but He also put others first before His own “needs.” How does this passage show Jesus’ compassion, how He loved others before Himself? Read Mark 6:31-34.
  18. In that last passage, Jesus also put the crowd before His disciples. He didn’t put up a boundary and tell people to go home because they needed the rest. He cared for the people. At the end of the day, the disciples get the joy of participating in the feeding of the five thousand. They get to do God’s work. Jesus could have done the miracle any number of ways. God is creative. He has the disciples feed the people. They get to participate in the miracle.
  19. For that matter, in John 6:21, we read how the boat immediately arrives at the shore once Jesus gets in. They didn’t have to row. God could just take them and place them where they were going. But He chooses for us to do the work. They got to carry Jesus and bring Him to the people on the other side. He chooses for us to participate in His work.
  20. How do you spend your days? Whose work are you doing?
  21. If you think that serving God means helping out at church, you are missing serving God most of the week. Our lives are not our own. We no longer live; Christ lives in us. It’s His life, not yours to decide what to do with. What does God want you doing with your time?
  22. Whose words are you speaking?
  23. What’s coming out of your mouth? Is it compassion, kindness, forgiveness? Are you speaking God’s words of life? Memorizing Scripture is a good way to have God’s word in your mouth!

Lesson 7

  1. Read John 14:12.
  2. Jesus gives us a huge promise in today’s text. What is it?
  3. We will do the works Jesus did and even greater.
  4. Wow. What do you make of that? Do you believe it is true?
  5. That’s a hard question I asked, because our experience might tell us that it’s not true. However, Jesus said it, and it is impossible for God to lie. Jesus IS the truth, remember?
  6. What were the works of Jesus? What did He do?
  7. One description we have is from Jesus Himself. What does He say as recorded in Luke 7:22?
  8. Reading that list, what do you think about you doing the works of Jesus?
  9. Who does Jesus say is going to do the works of Jesus?
  10. Those who believe in Jesus. What are we believing about Jesus when we are doing His works? What did we just learn in Lesson 6 about who does the work?
  11. We do the work of Christ when we no longer live but Christ lives in us. If we are living His life, then He is doing His work.
  12. What is the reason Jesus gives for why we will do His works? Because what?
    • Because He goes to His Father
  13. What does that have to do with it?
  14. Jesus had to leave so the Holy Spirit could come. Jesus could only be in one place at a time. The Holy Spirit can be with all of us at the same time.
  15. Jesus was only ministering publicly in these “works” for three and a half years and in a limited area. You have the rest of your life to be doing His works wherever He sends you, and that is true for all other believers as well.
  16. What other works did Jesus do besides the list from Luke 7:22?
  17. Jesus didn’t just raise the dead. He showed compassion, He forgave, He provided for others, He taught people to not be afraid…
  18. I have participated with God in seeing people instantly healed. There is a place for that in a believer’s life. My three-year-old once prayed, “God please help [my brother] feel better.” And he was instantly healed. We can participate in these types of works, but it’s always God’s work. We pray and we rely on Him. It’s His work, and always His glory.
  19. But we can also be choosing to forgive and show compassion, to meet needs and share truth. For all of it, no matter what it is, we rely on Jesus to do His work. We need His love to be able to do any of these works of His. Ask Him for His love poured out into your heart, so you can pour His love out to others.
  20. Paul talks about desiring spiritual gifts, but then he says there’s a more excellent way. The more excellent way is love. Loving others is our greatest command as Christians. That will always be your greatest work. Teaching, pastoring, prophesying, healing, none of it should ever happen without love. Love has to be what compels us.

Lesson 8

  1. Read John 14:13-14.
  2. In Lesson 7 we read about a big promise God made. It comes together with another huge promise. What is it?
  3. The promise Jesus gives is about Him doing whatever we ask. He repeats it twice. That reminds me of Pharaoh’s dream, how it was repeated twice. Do remember why? Because it was a settled, determined thing by God and that He would do it quickly. Good stuff!
  4. What does Jesus say He will do?
    • Whatever and anything – whatever we ask and anything we ask
  5. There is a qualifier. How do we have to ask?
    • In His name
  6. We tag on the phrase, “In Jesus’ name” at the end of prayers trying to pray in Jesus’s name, but I don’t think that’s what it means.
  7. We are Christ’s ambassadors, His representatives.
  8. When an ambassador acts on behalf of a nation, they don’t get to just make up whatever they want. They have to pass on what they were told to say. Jesus didn’t speak His own words, remember? Neither do we. We have to speak Christ’s words. They have the authority to present requests, demands, treaties, whatever, if they are sent by the government. Then they carry with them the authority of the government that sent them.
  9. The Father sent the Son, and Jesus spoke and acted in the authority of the Father.
  10. Jesus sends us. We go in His authority.
  11. To be clear: it is HIS authority. You don’t get to wield authority. It’s His. You don’t get power and then get to wield your power. It’s HIS power.
  12. People usually define the “name of Jesus” as His character, nature, and authority.
  13. In the Great Commission, Jesus says, “I have all authority, therefore, GO!”
  14. As for His character, we have the fruits of the Spirit.
  15. 2 Peter 1:4 says we can participate in God’s divine nature through God’s promises.
  16. Let’s read the next few verses as well. Read 2 Peter 1:5-7.
  17. It shows we participate, have a job to do, in building Christ’s character in us as well.
  18. Pray for the life of Christ to be formed in you. It’s His life we want to live. Then participate with God’s work in your life. Hard things will happen and you respond with faith, love, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, etc. He is building these things in you.
  19. I do expect my prayers to be answered. They aren’t answered 100%, but it is weird when they aren’t answered, and I have to ask God about those things to help me understand. I do expect my prayers answered.
  20. However, I don’t just pray anything. James 4:3 warns that people don’t get what they ask because they are asking out of wrong motives to get things selfishly for their own pleasure.
  21. Jesus and I are close. He’s in me and I’m in Him (abiding). I have the mind of Christ. He’s forming His heart in me. I am blameless before the Father, and the Father is pleased to answer the kind of prayers that are on my heart.
  22. You can believe that God answers your prayers, but you need to be “in Jesus’ name.”

Lesson 9

  1. Read John 14:15.
  2. This is a short verse, but it contains a lot.
  3. I want to show it to you in different translations. What is the difference between what we read in the New King James version and how it is written in the ESV?
  4. One is written as a command. One is written as an emphatic statement. If you love me, you WILL keep my commandments.
  5. Either one should end up with us in the same place, keeping His commandments.
  6. First, what are His commandments?
  7. We have what we call The Ten Commandments. Can you name them?
  8. We also have all of Jesus’ teaching, like love your enemy.
  9. Our Great Commission is to teach people to obey Christ’s commands.
  10. In order to keep the commandments, and certainly to teach them, we need to know what they are! Here’s a list! Read the titles of the commandments. If you have a question about one of them, read the verse to go with it to help you understand.
  11. Reading that list, how do you think you are doing with keeping the commandments?
  12. Let’s think about that word keep. It actually doesn’t say “obey.” It’s a different word there. Now, I do think you should obey Christ’s commands, but it’s not what this verse says.
  13. I’m going to have you look at the definition of the word there. I’m going to send you to BibleHub.com which is where I go to look up words in the Greek and Hebrew. You look up a verse, click on “Int” or “Interlin.” The word is interlinear, but the full thing doesn’t always show in the top menu. Then you find the word you want to know about and click on the number above it. That will take you to a page like this. In the top part at the bottom of the list, read what it says for “usage.” You can also read the “HELPS word-studies” section.
  14. What would it mean to guard or watch over the commandments?
  15. What would it mean to keep the commandments intact?
  16. King David is described as keeping God’s commandments, but we know he really messed things up at one point. But he kept God’s word in his heart. He didn’t pick and choose what commands he wanted. He loved God’s word. The longest psalm is all about how much David loved and valued God’s commandments.
  17. It’s not about never ever messing up. It is about choosing God and His way.
  18. What does that have to do with loving God? Why does choosing to live God’s way mean we love God?
  19. I could probably say a lot here, but let me say this one thing. God’s not a tyrant. He’s not forcing us to obey Him. He wants us to choose Him. His commandments are for our good. He is for our good. His love is the only perfect love out there. God knows that sin steals, kills, and destroys. He knows that His word brings abundant life. He wants us saved. He wants us in life. He wants us living in His perfect love. Sin separates us from God. God knows that with Him is the place of love that we all truly desire. He wants what’s best for us because He loves us. He’s a good Father.
  20. If we love Him, we want to be with Him, so we want to live in obedience. Because He loves us, He wants us with Him and wants us living in His perfect love. In order to be with Him, we need to live in obedience. Sin separates us from God. We choose obedience to be with God, because we love Him, because He loved us!

Lesson 10

  1. Read John 14:16-17.
  2. We are given an amazing gift, God Himself. We are given the Holy Spirit.
  3. What are the two describing names given Him?
  4. He is called Helper and the Spirit of truth. Let’s look at those first.
  5. The word Helper is translated different ways. Let’s look at it on BibleHub. Look at the definition, usage, and the HELPS word-studies. What did you learn about the Holy Spirit as our helper?
  6. This is a different kind of help from what we see when David calls on God for help because his enemies are about to kill him. This is a different kind of help than when God shakes heaven and earth with a blast from his nostrils because someone is messing with His child, and He will bow the heavens and come down and rescue him. (I’m referencing Psalm 18.)
  7. This is a legal advocate. This is someone who is going to stand up for us and work to make things right.
  8. One of Satan’s jobs is to accuse us. He’s the prosecutor in the court illustration. He’s accusing us of wrongdoing and demanding we pay a penalty for it.
  9. The Holy Spirit is the defense attorney. He intercedes on our behalf. He reminds us that Christ has borne our sin and our punishment. Jesus convicts us if we need to bring sin into the light, but then we confess and are cleansed. Then we are blameless and have no guilt. We are free. The Holy Spirit is trying to get us our freedom.
  10. I have certainly prayed for justice in my cases, reminding God that I stand blameless before Him and that there is no right for Satan to accuse, condemn, and cause harm.
  11. Ask for God’s help to get right before God if you’ve allowed anything to get between you and Him, and trust His work as Helper. You have the Holy Spirit interceding on your behalf, and Jesus as well! Isn’t that completely reassuring?
  12. The Holy Spirit was also called the Spirit of truth.
  13. Truth is about getting free. We are told the truth sets free.
  14. Who said, “I am the truth”?
  15. Jesus! The Truth is a person. The person of Jesus is with us by the Holy Spirit. The freeing Truth lives in us.
  16. What freeing truth do we need to know? What do we know about God that frees us? Answer before you read the following list. There is lots of freedom in Christ. This is just a short list.
    • that because Jesus took on our sin and died, our sins can be forgiven through confession
    • that we can overcome sin through the power of the Spirit in us
    • that we have become the righteousness of God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ
    • that the Spirit is our Helper
    • that God is with us and has prepared a place for us to be with Him forever
    • that He’s loving and good and in control
  17. Our Scripture reading today ends with a note that the world can’t receive the Spirit, but we can. Why? Why can we receive?
  18. It says because we know Him. Knowing God is eternal life (John 17:3). We need to know our salvation and then we can receive His life in us. We must know God. That must be our number one priority. Get to know God and receive His life.
  19. I think of Ephesians 3:19 where knowing the love of God is connected to being filled with all His fullness. To know God is to know the love of God. God is love. Know His love for you. Receive His Spirit, which is His love poured out (Romans 5:5). Be filled with all the fullness.

Lesson 11

  1. Read John 14:18-19.
  2. There are actually several promises in these few words. What promises are in there?
    • I will not leave you orphans.
    • I will come to you.
    • You will see Me (even when the world can’t).
    • You will live also.
  3. Let’s look at them. The first two actually go together. If I am reading it correctly, it sounds like Jesus isn’t leaving them orphans because He will come to them, as if they will temporarily be orphaned.
  4. If that’s how it reads, then how would Jesus soon be coming to the disciples?
  5. He came by His Spirit poured out.
  6. Jesus wasn’t abandoning them by leaving them. He was preparing the way to be with them in a more complete and perfect way. Jesus was a man and had the physical limitations of a body that could only be one place at a time. The Holy Spirit can be with us all at all times. We are definitely not abandoned.
  7. Jesus also says, though, that we will see Him when the world can’t. How can we see Jesus?
  8. This is interesting, right? I live in the presence of God. I see Jesus with me all the time. I have set Him before me as the psalm says. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s not imagining and daydreaming. It’s more knowing He’s with me than any kind of physical seeing. It’s seeing by faith, we could say.
  9. Do you live in relationship with Jesus like that, where He’s always with You, or do you have to seek for Him?
  10. If you have to seek Him to feel you have connected with Him, that’s okay. Keep seeking. Keep seeking to love Him with Your whole heart and to give up anything He shows you isn’t from Him. Keep surrendering everything over to Him and get rid of any other loves in your life that aren’t from Him.
  11. To be a friend of God, you need to do what Jesus commands. If that sounds like a strange friend to you because of the fact that you have to do what He commands, check back at Lesson 9 at point #19. God’s heart is always good and loving toward us.
  12. You can live in a relationship with God where you know He’s always with you, not because of a Bible verse, but because you know He’s always with you! It’s where you can ask Him questions and He answers and ask for help and know He’ll help. Now, we can never control God or direct His steps. I can’t make God answer any question, but He’s never silent for long. The answer might be wait, but there’s an answer.
  13. There is one last piece to our Scripture for today. “Because I live, you will live also.”
  14. The disciples were already alive. That can’t be what Jesus is talking about. What do you think He’s saying when He tells the disciples they will live?
  15. Jesus tells them that because He lives, they will live too. But He’s about to die. That must have really confused the disciples!
  16. How does Jesus live even though He died?
  17. He rose from the dead, and He got a new body that will never die.
  18. We will live eternally with new bodies that will never die.
  19. But what about today?
  20. Eternal life is eternal. It has no end, and it’s not something that starts when you die. If you have the Spirit of life in you, then you already have eternal life. You are living your forever life now and it will just continue on when you die (and get much better when we are free from this corrupted world.)
  21. And we get that life because Jesus lives. What does our eternal life have to do with Jesus rising from the dead? Why wasn’t His death on the cross enough? Did we need more than just our sins taken care of by Jesus taking them on Himself and taking our sin punishment on Himself?
  22. Romans 4:25 says that Jesus was delivered to His death for our sins, but it also says that Jesus rose from the dead for our justification.
  23. People like to define justification as “just as if I’d never sinned.” We live justified before God because the dead-in-sin self is replaced with the resurrected life of Christ.
  24. When we are baptized, we are crucified and buried, and are raised with Christ. Read Romans 6:5.
  25. I’d love for you to read Romans 6:1-11. How are we dead? How are we alive?
  26. Are you living alive to God? 🙂

Lesson 12

  1. Read John 14:20-21.
  2. Jesus isn’t talking about when they get to heaven. He’s talking about when the Holy Spirit comes.
  3. What will Jesus’ disciples know at that day?
    • Jesus is in the Father. We are in Christ, and He is in us.
  4. We call this the indwelling. We have the Anointed One dwelling in us if we have been filled with the Holy Spirit.
  5. How can we know we’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit?
  6. Holiness is a good clue! Are you set apart from the world? Are you not able to do and enjoy the things the world does and enjoys? Do you feel convicted if you do something wrong, like lie?
  7. As Christians we want to be able to say, “I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” That is from Galatians 2:20 if you want to look it up. Sword drill!
  8. To die to self and to let Christ live through us, we need to make the choice once and for all and again and again to obey Christ’s commands. Jesus was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8). We need to obey, choose His life, His way over our life and our way, until we can say with Paul, “I no longer live. Christ lives in me.” We say it in faith, and then in the overcoming power of the Spirit we live it out by His grace alone, through faith day after day.
  9. What are the three promises to those who keep Christ’s commandments?
    • Jesus will love him or her.
    • God the Father will love him or her.
    • Jesus will show Himself, reveal Himself to the one who keeps His commandments.
  10. We talk a lot in the church about God’s love. We talk like it’s just for everyone, always. Now, it’s true that “God so loved the whole world,” but there’s a special love for a child of God, for one who has joined himself to Christ.
  11. Jesus washed Judas’ feet. He showed him love. But do you think Jesus had a different love for John, who was leaning back on Jesus’ chest at the dinner that evening?
  12. We can have a personal, intimate relationship with God. But we can’t if we are clinging to our sin instead of clinging to Jesus and His word. Sin separates from God. Love joins us to Him, and to love Him is to obey Him. Love and obedience are always connected. You can’t say you love God and choose sin, selfishness, worldly things. Your choices show what’s in your heart, what you really love.
  13. What do your choices show about what you love?
  14. Where you see other loves taking space from where the love of God should be filling in your life, confess it. Make your choice to love God. Ask His help hating the things that have a piece of your heart.
  15. The last part of the promise was that Jesus would show Himself, reveal Himself, make Himself manifest.
  16. How does Jesus show Himself to us?
  17. I mentioned before seeing Jesus before me. I know His presence with me, but He also shows us Himself by opening His word to us. Jesus is the Living Word. When we read the Bible, He can give us understanding of Scriptures, teach us things about Himself, show us things about how He works.

Lesson 13

  1. Read John 14:22-24.
  2. Today’s reading is very similar to what we read in Lesson 12.
  3. What is Judas’ question?
    • How can we see you but everyone else can’t?
  4. I talked about that a little in the last lesson. Another of the ways God reveals Himself to me is showing me His hand. I see His hand in everything, how He put things together just right to bring about His purposes, though I’m sure I just see a very small part! Our God is so great and is doing more than we can imagine.
  5. In the Discipleship Course I talk about God saying “I love you” to me every time I see a palindrome time on the clock. That’s a little personal thing between the Lord and me.
  6. Another way God reveals Himself to me is all the answers to prayer and miracles we have experienced.
  7. In what ways does God show Himself to you?
  8. If you feel you don’t see Him, give your whole heart to the Lord and ask Him to show Himself to you. Keep your eyes open 🙂 Expect Him to show Himself.
  9. Jesus states plainly that if we love Him, we will keep His word. It’s just a fact. It’s not something we do to prove anything and certainly not to earn anything. It’s just what someone who loves God does. He will keep God’s word. He’ll guard it. It will be valuable to him. We don’t disregard God’s word. It’s important to us.
  10. Do you treat the things Jesus says as important? Is it important to you to know what He says?
  11. How does your time reading the Bible show or not show how important God’s word is to you? If it were a treasure to you, then you would seek it and guard it.
  12. Jesus says you can know who doesn’t love Him because that’s the person who doesn’t keep His words.
  13. Jesus is saying these things, but whose words are they actually?
    • His Father’s
    • Jesus was humble and did nothing on His own.
    • We’re to imitate Him in that!
  14. We’ve been talking about Jesus’ life in us by the Spirit, but who does Jesus say will come and live with us?
    • Jesus says, “We.”
  15. Jesus says, “We will come and make Our home with him.” We have the Father and the Son making their home with us individually.
  16. It is the Spirit that lives in us, but the Spirit gives us fellowship with the Father and the Son.
  17. What does it mean that God makes His “home” with us? What does that imply?
  18. It’s where He’s settled in. He’s not a sojourner, not a traveler, not passing through. It’s where He dwells, remains, abides.
  19. I wrote about us being God’s home, His place of rest, in one of the devotionals for the One Year Bible.

Lesson 14

  1. Read John 14:25-26.
  2. What are the two things listed here that the Holy Spirit will do for us?
    • teach us all things
    • bring to remembrance all Jesus said
  3. I think as Jesus’ disciples we can count on these things as well. We have the Holy Spirit as our teacher, and He can bring to mind words of Scripture and things the Lord has taught us.
  4. What does it mean to us that the Holy Spirit is our teacher? If you believe that, what would that mean? How would that change your day to day?
  5. We should be seeking to learn from God! (My one son answered here that “we could be His apprentice”!)
  6. I am convinced that America is one of the hardest places to be a Christian. One of the difficulties of America is the abundance of teachers and teaching. (And I say this as a Bible teacher!) People don’t have to study the Bible for themselves. They are often even encouraged not to, as if we need someone with a theology degree to tell us what the Bible says. As if the Holy Spirit were not enough! We end up seeking from man instead of God, which means we’re putting man in the place of God.
  7. One of the hardest things for the American Christian is to try and forget everything they have been taught and go back to the Scriptures themselves to see what God has to say.
  8. I would strongly encourage you to approach Scripture reading this way. Have a time every day where you read just the Bible; no lesson, no devotional book, just you and God and His word. Ask Him to teach you. Ask Him to remove what’s not of Him and to reveal to you His truth.
  9. Here’s our Scripture from today in our regular translation and in another translation. Ask the Lord to teach you, and then read it slowly.
    • These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
    •  I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
  10. What is the Lord teaching you?

Lesson 15

  1. Read John 14:27.
  2. That’s a Scripture to memorize if you don’t know it already.
  3. Jesus says don’t let your heart be troubled. Don’t let your heart be afraid.
  4. We can’t control our feelings. We can control our thoughts and actions. We talked about this earlier.
  5. These aren’t commands. You aren’t in sin if you have a troubled or fearful heart. You could be in sin if you acted on the fearful thought instead of trusting in God.
  6. Can you think of an example where obeying your heart’s feelings could be sin?
  7. One example I can think of is if I know God wants me to pray with someone or speak with someone and my heart wants to shrink back in fear.
  8. By the way, I know these aren’t commands, that having a troubled heart is not sin, because Jesus was troubled.
  9. Why can we not let our hearts be troubled? What does Jesus offer?
    • Peace
  10. Jesus says that He gives peace, but not as the world gives. Any idea what that means?
  11. I think Jesus gives us a different kind of peace than the world gives.
  12. Can you think of ways that people in the world try to get peace?
  13. People look for ways to numb themselves to the feelings of trouble. That might look like pills or alcohol.
  14. People look for ways to distract themselves to the feelings of trouble. That might look like entertainment, movies and games, etc.
  15. People look for ways to control things to avoid feelings of trouble. That might look like diet and exercise, or blocking people or news from their lives.
  16. What is God’s peace?
  17. Peace is a person. God gives us Himself. God’s presence in our lives is our peace. We have His Spirit in us giving us assurance of the Lord’s love and care and control of whatever we need.
  18. How do we get God’s peace?
  19. One, through receiving His Spirit and having God’s presence with us. Two, by getting to know Him. We spend time with Him every day in prayer and in reading the Bible and in worship and in thought and song.
  20. Biblical stress relief can look like prayer. It can look like singing and dancing to the Lord.
  21. Think of King David and all the armies coming after him wanting to kill him. How did he deal with the stress?
  22. He worshiped the Lord and trusted Him.
  23. The most stressful times for David and Jesus were when they were dealing with sin. Jesus wrestled with His will. “Father, I don’t want to have to do this, but I submit to Your will.” He doesn’t sin. He fights the good fight of faith and conquers and chooses the Father’s will, but it’s hard. David does sin and says things like his bones were wasting away and that he spent his days groaning until he confessed his sin (Ps 32:3-5).
  24. The point of that is that the most important thing is to keep your relationship with the Lord intact. Keep from sin. If you mess up, confess and get peace restored.

Lesson 16

  1. Read John 14:28-31.
  2. How can the world know that you love God? What did Jesus say about how the world knows He loved God?
    • Jesus showed His love for the Father by obeying His commandments.
    • We show our love for God by obeying His commandments, by living His way.
  3. What does that mean practically? What do you do each day that shows you love God?
  4. Are there things you do each day that make it questionable if you truly love God?
  5. Loving God is more than going to church and reading your Bible and saying a little prayer. It’s giving over your life, giving up your life. You are supposed to die daily and live Christ’s life of love daily.
  6. If you don’t know any other command from God that you are supposed to do, what is the one command you need to know and obey?
  7. What does loving others look like practically? What are things you can do each day?
    • putting others first
    • not insisting on your own way
    • helping others
    • spending time with others
    • listening to others
    • forgiving others quickly and easily and forgetting about it
    • Here are some verses: Philippians 2:3-4, Galatians 6:10, Ephesians 4:32
  8. Decide something you will do today toward others to show God how much you love Him.
  9. Jesus says the disciples should rejoice that He is going to the Father. Why should we rejoice when something good happens to others?
  10. We are all one Body in Christ. We should be happy for others, thinking of them and not thinking of ourselves. We should be selfless and loving and self-centered.
  11. The disciples should put Jesus’ joy above their own sorrow over the fact that He’s leaving. We should be able to be happy for others when they are happy.
  12. We’re to care about other’s lives, not just our own. Romans 12:15
  13. When we love others, we can’t help but receive the benefit of that. The disciples are about to get the benefit of the Holy Spirit. There will be rejoicing for them.
  14. One last part of these verses I wanted to point out. Jesus said, “The ruler of this world is coming, and He has nothing in Me.”
  15. Doesn’t God rule the world? Who is He talking about?
  16. He is talking about the devil. Read 1 John 5:19.
  17. The world is under the control, under the influence, under the sway of the evil one, BUT! We are not of this world. (John 17:15)
  18. We get to escape the devil’s control. We are submitted to God’s rule. We have switched kingdoms and so live under the rule of a different king. (Colossians 1:13)
  19. Jesus said that he has nothing in Me. Other translations read “…has no hold on Me” or “…has no power over Me.”
  20. That’s true of you as well. Resist the temptation. It doesn’t control you. Submit to your true King.

Lesson 17

  1. Read John 15:1-2.
  2. There are two kinds of cutting going on in these verses. What are they?
  3. One branch is being taken away. Either it is cut off, or it is dead and is broken off by some storm or something, and then hauled off. The other is a branch being pruned. It is cut back but not removed from the tree.
  4. What is the outcome of those cuttings?
  5. Do you know what pruning does? Pruning encourages more growth. Cutting your hair actually encourages it to grow. When people want to get their hair to grow longer, they cut a little off. People also prune things to shape them.
  6. Here’s a verse about the outcome of the first cutting off. Matthew 3:10
  7. What are these verses in John 15 about? Who is the vine?
    • Jesus
  8. Who is the gardener (or “vinedresser” in some versions)?
    • The Father
  9. Who are the branches?
    • Those who are connected to the Vine.
  10. Who gets pruned? Who gets cut off?
    • Those bearing fruit get pruned; those not bearing fruit get cut off
  11. What is this fruit that’s so important?
  12. Who is the Vine?
    • Jesus
  13. What’s the fruit?
    • the life of Christ in us, our reflection of Love, our showing the life of Christ through us
  14. The branch doesn’t produce fruit. It bears fruit. Any idea what the difference is?
  15. The branch doesn’t do anything. It just allows the life of the vine to flow through it and produce the fruit that it just bears. Who is the fruit for?
    • It’s not for the branch. The branch holds it out for the benefit of others!
    • When we did this lesson as a family, one of my sons answered that the fruit was for the gardener.  We do bear fruit for the Father’s glory and for Him to use as He pleases in and through our lives.
  16. We don’t live for ourselves. None of this is about us! The life of Christ in us isn’t for our personal benefit, though we do benefit. It’s for others.
  17. We reflect the life of Christ to draw others to Him.
  18. What would keep us from bearing fruit?
  19. Something would be keeping His life from getting to you to produce the fruit. We need the Holy Spirit in us to produce the fruit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the sap in the Vine.
  20. Do you have an experience of Romans 5:5? I would call that being baptized in the Spirit, having His love poured out on you by the Holy Spirit. Some people feel something like wind. Some show a sign like speaking in tongues. But the devil can also imitate that stuff.
  21. The biggest sign is a holy life, a life changed. The Spirit brings conviction of sin. Do you feel conviction about not doing things that other people don’t have a problem doing?
  22. Is there a fruit of the Spirit that you know you aren’t producing much of? You can’t just work harder to make that fruit in your life.

Lesson 18

  1. Our context for beginning this lesson is that Jesus just talked branches being removed or pruned. What is pruning?
    • It’s the cutting back of a branch. It shapes its growth and it encourages new growth.
  2. When a branch is pruned, the branch stays, but a part of the branch is removed. There is still a removal.
  3. What would God want to prune away from a believer? Any ideas?
  4. God prunes away things that are distracting us from Him or are displeasing to Him. There are things He wants out of our lives. Some may be permanent. Some may be temporary.
  5. For instance, dance was a huge part of my life growing up. In high school, I was at the dance studio six days a week. In college, I started as a dance major. I started a worship dance group. I then got filled with the Holy Spirit and left dance. It has come back into my life a little bit. I have danced at church, just informally, and support a worship dance ministry. I am regularly dancing to the Lord in my living room. 🙂
  6. He pruned all the entertainments out of my life. I don’t watch anything anymore or play any games (on my phone/tablet).
  7. Read John 15:3.
  8. Jesus said they weren’t only pruned, but also what?
    • purified
  9. What does it mean to be purified?
    • made pure, impurities have been removed, things that aren’t of God being removed from our lives, He is our purity
    • Do you know the promise to those with a pure heart from The Sermon on the Mount? They shall see God.
    • We want a pure heart.
  10. Jesus tells the disciples they have already been pruned and purified. How did that happen according to Jesus?
    • Jesus said they were pruned and purified by the message He gave them.
  11. That reminds me of Ephesians 5:26. Read it and state why they are similar.
  12. How does God’s word clean and purify us?
  13. Our minds are renewed by God’s words. It teaches us the right way. It teaches us truth. That way we can reject the wrong ways and lies.
  14. But He said they were already purified by the word spoken. When we come to Christ, we are saved and are being saved. We are holy and being made holy. I think of this the same way as both/and. It has been completed and is being accomplished.
  15. Jesus’ command to love one another is the fulfillment of the whole law. Their receiving that word, though still needing to live it out, is the word implanted. Christ is the Living Word. Having His word in us is having His life in us. We have His life in us and work to live out His life for the rest of our lives.
  16. Why is it important to know God’s word?
  17. How has God pruned you?
  18. Are you pure? How? Are you being made pure? How?

Lesson 19

  1. Read John 15:4-5.
  2. We talked about fruit before. What fruit do we want to bear as Christians?
  3. We want to be like Jesus. We want the life of Christ to show in us and through us. God is love. We want to become love and live a life of love. What does that look like?
    • being kind, patient, forgiving, faithful, gentle, self-controlled, obeying God’s commands, being peacemakers
  4. Also, think about fruit on a tree. Who is it for?
  5. It’s not for the branch. It’s for someone else. We pass fruit on. We want the life of Christ not only in ourselves, but we want to see Christ formed in the lives of others as well.
  6. In these verses, we read that we “cannot” and “can do nothing.” What can’t we do?
  7. We can’t produce this fruit. We can’t make ourselves like Christ. We can’t make others like Christ. (Parents: remember this. You can train outward behaviors, but God has to do the heart work. You will never be able to do that. You must rely on God and not your training.)
  8. Why is it good news that we can’t produce good fruit?
  9. We don’t have to do the work! We just have to give ourselves to the Vine. He does the work.
  10. Did you ever hear the expression, “Let go and let God”? Some people say that’s how we should live; some say that’s not how we should live. It depends on how you think of it.
  11. I am typing this lesson. I am doing something. I can’t just get in the recliner with my tea and say, “Let God do it.” But, I have to rely on Him for what the topic of the study should be, what Scripture to use, to guide each lesson, to get it to whom He wants to hear it, to prepare them to receive it, to have His word take root and produce fruit in them (in you!)
  12. Some people work hard to try to become better people, to work on their faults. They will be disappointed in themselves a lot.
  13. God, however, can change a heart in an instant!
  14. We need to seek Him for a new heart, for freedom from our bad behaviors, for His love poured into us, so that His love can pour out from us to others.
  15. God frees us from sin, not just forgives us our sin. Jude 1:24 says that God is able to keep us from stumbling. 1 John 5:18 says that we don’t just keep sinning if we’re born again into the life of Christ.
  16. God does the work of changing our hearts. He can make you kind and generous and good and loving. He is able. Believe He is able to save you! Jesus is Savior. He can save!
  17. Stop and pray and ask God to change your heart. Pray especially about one area where you know you are stuck in a behavior or attitude that’s not right. Ask Him to change your heart to produce good fruit in that area. Watch for situations to arise where you can make the right choice in that area. The Lord is teaching you His ways!

Lesson 20

  1. Read John 15:6. This is linked to the New Living Translation. After you read it, click on the NKJV tab and read that as well, because it uses the word abide.
  2. What happens to branches that don’t remain, that don’t abide in Christ?
  3. They are thrown in the fire to be burned. What does that mean? What is the warning?
  4. Thrown into the fire to be burned is a warning of hell.
  5. So, it seems rather important we understand what it means to abide in Christ, to remain in Christ.
  6. What has Jesus mostly been talking about?
  7. He’s been talking about oneness, togetherness: the Father in Him, Him in the Father, Him in us, us in Him, He and the Father living with us, us going to live with Him.
  8. That’s our abiding, our always living with God, in God’s presence.
  9. God used to to dwell with His people Israel in a couple of different ways. Can you think of any ways He did that?
  10. He was in their tabernacle, which was called the Tent of Meeting. Moses went there to meet God. But He was also with them in this cloud that led them day in and day out. Read this description of Israel abiding with God during their time wandering through the wilderness. Numbers 9:16-18
  11. Then they built a temple and God’s glory dwells there.
  12. The temple is destroyed. Was God not dwelling with His people any longer at that point?
  13. No, that was the time of the prophets Ezekiel and Daniel. God was certainly with them.
  14. Then the temple was rebuilt at God’s direction.
  15. It was destroyed again.
  16. Where is God’s temple now?
  17. Why are you God’s temple?
    • If the Holy Spirit lives in you, you are God’s dwelling place.
  18. How should you live if your body is God’s temple?
  19. But that’s not the whole story. All of us together are God’s dwelling place. We need to recognize the Spirit in each other and how that unites us as one. If you have any kind of thought of how you should take care of your body because it is God’s temple, then that applies to the whole Body of Christ as well. Care for God’s temple.
  20. What do we have to do to abide, to remain, to be part of God’s temple, to have God dwell with us?
  21. Remaining is a passive thing. We just stay. We just choose to yield ourselves to Him. We give Him our branch to use for His sap to fill and bear fruit through.
  22. A storm may prune our branch some, but the Vine will hold it fast. We are connected to the Vine’s roots that go deep into love that we can’t be separated from.
  23. Abiding is God’s work. We just have to give ourselves to Him for this work. He won’t force you to remain. You can chose to reject Him, but He won’t make that choice. His desire is Your salvation. That will always be His choice for you.

Lesson 21

  1. Read John 15:7-8. Let’s read it in the New King James as well.
  2. What is a disciple?
    • one who follows Jesus, learns from Him, and participates in His work
  3. According to today’s verses, who is a true disciple?
    • those bearing lots of fruit
  4. Who produces the fruit?
    • Jesus
  5. We are disciples of Christ if we allow Jesus to use our lives to do the Father’s work.
  6. There is an elderly lady at our church who was all excited one week to tell me something. God had used her. She said, “It was the first time He’s ever used me.” She told me story of being in a common area of the building she lived in looking at a book from church and how someone asked her what it was. She ended up with a group of them reading parts of it together and talking about it, and then a couple of them wanting to come to church with her. She said, “I didn’t have to do anything.” I told her that’s called “the power to be a witness. You just live and God takes care of the rest.” The power to be a witness refers to Acts 1:8 and the Holy Spirit coming on the disciples and changing their lives.
  7. Do you have an experience of being used by God? I’m not talking about volunteering for something. I’m talking about God doing something through you, not you doing something for God.
  8. Do you have experiences of being changed by God? You used to get angry, for example, but you don’t anymore.
  9. If you aren’t sure you are finding evidence of being a disciple of Christ in your life, then pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit and give your life over to God to use as He pleases. Let Him have your life. It’s His anyway. He created you and He bought you at a high price, the blood of Jesus.
  10. I have a course called Disciples of Christ that goes through the basics of the faith and living life with Jesus.
  11. Besides bearing fruit, what does being a true disciple do, according to the verse from today?
    • brings the Father glory
  12. What does that mean?
  13. I have a really hard time defining glory, but we can safely say that it makes the Father happy and makes Him more known and exalts and lifts up His name, displaying His greatness.
  14. What promise did today’s reading start with?
    • We had another promise of answered prayer. What can we ask for and get?
      • Anything!
  15. However, there is a qualification, an IF. When can you ask anything and believe you will receive it?
    • If we remain in Christ and His word remains in us, then we can ask anything.
  16. So what does it mean to remain in Christ? To remain in Christ, we have to not separate ourselves from Him. What separates from God?
    • Sin, selfishness, love of the world
  17. His words remain in us by His life in us. He is the word. The Spirit in us teaches us and reminds us of Christ’s words. We know His word and think on His word and act on His word and live by His word.
  18. What does that have to do with having your prayers answered?
    • If we are living by the life of Christ, then we can ask anything. When we are united with Christ, He puts His “willing” in us. We want what He wants. The Father meets the Son’s desires.

Lesson 22

  1. Read John 15:9-10.
  2. What is the command?
    • Remain in My love.
  3. How does Jesus say we remain in His love?
    • We obey His commandments.
  4. How did Jesus remain in His Father’s love?
    • He obeyed His commandments.
  5. Does this sound weird to you? Does it sound like Jesus could have not remained in the Father’s love if He didn’t obey?
  6. What’s maybe the most famous verse in the Bible, that has to do with God loving us?
  7. God so loves the whole world. Who does that include?
    • everyone
  8. God loves everyone. So, how can we not remain in His love by disobeying, by living life our own way instead of living His way?
  9. This word “remain” is the definition of abiding. This is what we’re talking about. We need to understand the difference between God so loved everyone and I am abiding in God’s love.
  10. Can we just say we are abiding in God’s love?
  11. No, there’s a qualification. We obey His commands to remain in His love.
  12. Why is obeying tied to remaining in God’s love? We talked about this before. How are loving God and obeying God connected?
    • Sin separates from God. If we are choosing to go our own way instead of God’s way, we’re literally choosing to walk away from Him, to leave Him.
  13. Do you know the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15? There are two sons. One takes off to live his own life. He wastes all his money living the wrong way and becomes broke. He comes to his senses and comes back home to ask his father to hire him as a servant. The father is thrilled to have his son back home and throws a party. The older son is upset that the wayward son gets a party while he’s been working hard and never got a celebration. The father says to the older son, “All that I have is yours.”
  14. Did the father love both sons?
    • yes
  15. Did he love the wayward son while he was gone?
    • yes
  16. What did that love feel like to the father?
    • brokenhearted
  17. What kind of love might he feel toward the older son?
    • proud (Think about the story of Job, where God says, “Have you considered my servant Job?” as if He were a proud papa and wanted to show him off.)
  18. The son’s selfishness took him away from his father.
  19. Sin separates from God. We can’t remain in His arms of love and be living in our selfishness. But the father hugs his son when he returns. God’s arms are open to us to repent and return to Him.
  20. If the son had truly known his father’s love, he never would have left; and even if he did leave, he would have realized his father would welcome back home with a loving embrace. The prodigal by the end of the story comes to know his father and his father’s love for him.
  21. Pray and ask God to teach you and make you understand His love for you. He doesn’t demand obedience out of selfishness. He requires obedience out of His great love for us.
  22. He knows what’s best for you and wants what is best for you (Himself!) Trust His way of living. Obey all you know of His commands. Ask Him to help you learn them and obey. Ask Him to put it in you to want to obey and to actually do it! Ask His help. You can’t save yourself, but we have a Savior!

Lesson 23

  1. Read John 15:11.
  2. Why is Jesus telling the disciples these things?
    • so that they would be filled with overflowing joy
  3. What has Jesus been saying that would bring joy to the disciples?
    • The Holy Spirit is coming. He and the Father will make their home with them. If we abide, we’ll have our prayers answered, have His love, bear fruit and glorify the Father.
  4. Let’s think about the idea of having God dwelling with you, which He does if you have received the Spirit through faith.
  5. If God were living with you, what would life look like?
    • Here are some ideas. If you were in God’s house and He were your Father and you were His child, then He would provide for you, He would teach you, you’d be together and have fellowship.
  6. Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
  7. Having God’s presence with us should result in the fullness of joy and constant and continual pleasure!
  8. Do you experience the “fullness of joy” because God is with you?
  9. If not, then you are missing out on fellowship with God.
  10. Psalm 140:13 says that the upright shall dwell in your presence…
  11. We need to be living right to be in God’s presence. That right living comes from God Himself. He forgives us and wipes away our sin, and He gives us His Spirit that puts in us the wanting to do right and the actually doing it.
  12. Think about what you spend your time on, what you think about, what you talk about. What do you talk about most? Is that your true love?
  13. The command is to love the Lord your God with all your everything! (Mark 12:30) (If you wanted to learn more about that command, there is a Bible Project series on it.)
  14. Where are you not loving God with your everything?
  15. What can you do about it?
  16. You may need to give things up. I gave up TV/movies. It was one of the best things to ever happen in my life! The fullness of God filled all the empty places that all that junk had taken up.
  17. At the very least, you need to give what you are doing to God to use for His purposes. He can use your sports, for instance, for Himself and His glory. Give it to Him to fulfill His plan for you, and let go of your plans and pursuing your own glory.
  18. The joy of the Lord should put a smile on your face. If you are complaining and upset at people and so on, then you are missing your joy in the Lord. Everything is a gift from God for a child of God because we give our lives into God’s control and He works everything for our good. Everything becomes a blessing. Everything becomes a reason to give thanks. In fact, we’re also commanded to give thanks in all circumstances. God is always good and is always with us. There is always a reason to give thanks and rejoice!
  19. Pray and tell God you want to live in fellowship with Him. It’s not just a life of prayer and Bible reading and singing. It’s a life where no matter what you are doing, you know (not just quoting-a-Bible-verse kind of knowing, but you know in experience) that God is with you. You look up and know He’s there and it brings a smile to your face.
  20. I’ll leave you with a quote from Spurgeon. “The habit of communion is the life of happiness.”

Lesson 24

  1. Read John 15:12-13.
  2. What is Jesus’ commandment to us?
    • love one another
  3. How are we supposed to love one another?
    • just like Jesus loved us
  4. How did Jesus love us?
    • He gave up His life for us.
  5. Jesus says the greatest love is to lay down your life for one’s friends.
  6. These verses would seem to be equating “each other” with “friends.”
  7. Jesus laid down His life for everyone (John 3:16, 1 John 2:2). And we are to love everyone. But, there’s a special love that’s supposed to be going on between God’s people.
  8. This is a really big deal, maybe the biggest deal to a Christian. What do I mean? Read these verses.
  9. To be a disciple of Jesus, to fulfill the law of Christ, we need to love one another. What does it mean to lay down your life? We’re most likely not going to die for each other. That would be really rare to be in a situation like that. Day to day, what does it look like to lay down your life?
  10. What from this list do you do well? What from this list do you need help doing better?
  11. Stop and pray for God’s love poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit, because you are never going to be able to love like Jesus without the love of Christ in you. He’s the one who perfectly loved us and only He can perfectly love others. We need Him to love others through us.

Lesson 25

  1. Read John 15:14-15.
  2. There are two descriptions of who are Jesus’ friends. What are they? Whom does He call friends?
    • if you do what He commands
    • those with whom He’s shared everything that the Father told Him
  3. If someone says I’ll only be your friend if you do everything I tell you to do, should you be their friend? Why?
    • No, they are not really your friend. They are just using you. It’s like you are just a tool or a toy to them.
  4. Why is it okay for Jesus to say you will be His friend if you do what He commands?
    • His commands are for our good. His commands show love to us. He is loving and good and selfless. He’s not thinking about what He wants. He’s thinking about what’s best for us.
  5. Here’s a description of what God is like toward us. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
  6. Would anyone who was like that be a good person to be friends with?
    • YES!
  7. What about the other description of being Jesus’ friends? They are people Jesus confided in. Do you know what it means to confide in someone?
  8. It can mean you are telling someone a secret, telling them something private. It can also mean you are entrusting something to someone.
  9. There were some from whom the things of God were hidden (Matthew 11:25) and some have everything shared with them. Why?
  10. We aren’t going to understand the whole mind of God. But, there are things we do know about Him. We know that we all deserve death and hell. We all have sinned against a holy God and the wage we earned with that sin is death. But He chooses to have mercy on us. He wants us to choose Him and to walk in His ways, but He puts in us the willing and the working. He arranges our lives to bring us to Himself and to walk in His choice for us. We still have to make the choice of Him each and every day, but He chose us before we chose Him.
  11. I can think of another confiding verse, Psalm 25:14. What does this verse say gets us friendship with God?
    • fearing Him
  12. Fearing and loving God are actually related. They are both related to obeying God. When we fear God, we obey. We don’t want to go outside of His good choices for us because we fear the bad outside of those choices. When we love God, we obey God out of our desire to please Him and just trusting His love for us.
  13. Are you a friend of God? How do you know?

Lesson 26

  1. Read John 15:16.
  2. We have another promise of answered prayer in today’s reading. What is it?
    • There is a promise of receiving whatever you ask for if you ask in Jesus’ name and are producing fruit that lasts.
  3. What can we ask for and receive?
    • whatever
  4. People tend to talk like God often says “No” to our prayers. That’s not really in the Bible, though. We do have several promises of Him giving us what we ask for. There is definitely a “wait” answer from God, though. For instance, the angel says to Zechariah, “God has heard your prayers.” His wife Elizabeth was long past childbearing. I don’t think he had prayed for a son in a really long time. He had no faith when the angel gave him the promise. It had been a long-ago prayer. God answered, but he had to wait.
  5. 1 John 5 talks about how we know we have the thing we asked for if God hears us.
  6. That’s the thing we don’t talk about. This scripture makes it sound like if we don’t get the answer, God didn’t hear us. That’s not how we usually think about God.
  7. 1 John 5:14 (linked in #5) tells us that God hears us when we ask according to His will. People use that to justify not getting an answer to prayer; they reason that they didn’t ask for what God wanted, so the answer was no. But the verse doesn’t say you don’t get the answer if it’s not according to His will; it says He won’t even hear the prayer. How can He say no if He didn’t even hear the request? Do you see how the way we often think about it doesn’t make sense according to the Bible?
  8. If you take the whole Bible into consideration, we see God answering requests that weren’t “His will,” in other words, did not seem to be what He wanted. But He does it anyway for the sake of the one asking. Examples: Moses asking God to spare Israel, Mary (Jesus’ mother) wanting Jesus to do something about the wine situation, the woman asking for deliverance for her daughter
  9. So, what does it mean to ask according to God’s will?
  10. 1 John 3:22 says we have whatever we ask because we do the things that please God.
  11. I think to ask according to God’s will is to be in right standing with God and to come to Him in the right way (blameless and in faith).
  12. The other parts of our verse for today talk about how to come to God in prayer according to His will.
  13. We’re to ask in Jesus’ name. We talked in Lesson 8 about asking in Jesus’ name. What does that mean?
  14. And, we’re to be producing lasting fruit.
  15. Do you have any fruit in your house, like apples or bananas? How long does it last? Not very long!
  16. It seems to me that for fruit to be truly lasting, it needs to produce more fruit. The seeds need to be planted and produce multiplied fruit. Then the fruit goes on and on.
  17. We need to be living for others and not for ourselves. Our fruit will go rotten if we are just keeping it to ourselves and not sharing with others. We need to share the love!
  18. There was one part of the verse we didn’t talk about: the beginning. What is it?
  19. God chose us. Not only did He choose us, but He appointed us to bear lasting fruit. That’s a comfort for me that it was God’s choice for me to be His and to bear fruit that lasts. He will accomplish His purpose. If I give myself to Him, He will make it happen.

Lesson 27

  1. Read John 15:17-19.
  2. Love and hate. Who loves whom?
  3. The world loves its own. Believers love each other.
  4. Who hates whom (in these verses)?
  5. The world hates the believer.
  6. Why would the world hate the believer?
  7. Jesus says that the world hates us because He chose us out of the world. Why would that cause them to hate us?
  8. Jesus also said that they would love us if we belonged to the world. People don’t like different. People don’t like set apart, which is what holy is.
  9. The Holy Spirit convicts people and one way He does it is through the lives of those living holy lives.
  10. I remember after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit in college (just prayed every day asking the Lord for it like I saw in Acts with no teaching on it whatsoever, and then it happened one day while I was singing a praise song), that suddenly I was convicted about the TV shows my friends and I watched, the most popular shows of the day. I didn’t say a word to them about how they shouldn’t watch them, but I started saying I had homework to do and would go to another room while they watched. There were some who got angry with me. During that year, I had someone work to turn others against me, and she had actually been my best friend. What was different? I had left the world.
  11. She was someone who went to church and to our fellowship group. You will find that attacks will often come from the religious people. Think about the Pharisees and Jesus, or Paul struggling with the Jewish believers in Christ telling new converts they had to be circumcised.
  12. Christians who love the world won’t be happy if you get free from the world and start living and believing that we can live free from sin, self, and the world. Jesus came to release captives. We are free in Christ Jesus!
  13. When you do face hate, remember that your job is to do what?
    • Love.
  14. Christians love their enemies. Jesus washed Judas’ feet. God sends the rain and sun on the just and unjust. Jesus died to pay for the sin of nailing Him to the cross!
  15. Ask now for God’s love in your heart by the Holy Spirit. That’s what it looks like to be filled with the Spirit, to have God’s love poured into you (Romans 5:5). You will need it to be able to respond in love when someone hates you. Always remember, the person is not your enemy. The person is someone created in the image of God, whom Christ died for and whom God wants to see saved!
  16. Is there anyone you are mad at? Ask for love in your heart for them. Pray about becoming love to all around you. That’s the ultimate goal, to become love, to become like Jesus, and God is love.

Lesson 28

  1. Read John 15:20-21. Jesus is speaking.
  2. What does persecute mean?
    • It’s treating someone wrongly in a purposeful, continued fashion because of something about them you don’t like, like their religion or ethnicity.
  3. Who is persecuting whom in these verses?
    • Unbelievers are persecuting believers.
  4. Who were Jesus’ persecutors?
    • religious leaders
    • You’ll find that a lot of persecution comes from within the religious establishment.
  5. Why are they doing it?
    • because they persecuted Jesus
    • because they rejected the Father
    • Remember, that they thought they served God.
  6. Who is being rejected when they persecute you?
    • the Father
  7. When you are persecuted, you need to remember who the enemy is. There are two enemies at work here. There is the enemy of believers and the enemy of unbelievers.
  8. Who is your enemy as a believer?
    • Satan is your enemy.
  9. The person persecuting you is not your enemy. You must always remember your job is to love that person. Your job is not to defend yourself. God is your defender.
  10. Who is the enemy of the persecutor?
    • Jesus
    • They are fighting against God, not you.
  11. Satan’s not out to get us. He’s out to get Christ in us.
  12. You don’t need to fight Satan. You don’t need to think about “doing warfare.” God fights our battles. Your defense is your righteousness. And your righteousness is the righteousness of Christ Himself. That’s impenetrable armor. Keep it on!
    • What do you know about the armor of God? What are the pieces?
    • Basically, you need to be saved and live in your salvation, and you will have God’s armor on.
  13. Your job is to pray and submit to God. Ephesians six talks about the armor of God. They are just things we have. The thing we do is pray.
  14. What does it mean to submit to God?
  15. When Jesus is our Lord, we make Him our master. We obey His commands. We honor Him. We look to Him for direction and follow His direction.
  16. Persecution is for every believer.
  17. It’s not to be feared. It means we’re getting to be like Jesus. I hope it’s your utmost prayer to be like Jesus.
  18. And there is a great promise attached to suffering with Christ. We get to be glorified with Him.
  19. What do you think that means?
  20. We share in His glory, receiving His perfect life in us, and the suffering produces His glorious likeness in us.
  21. Our glorified bodies will be the ones in heaven that never die, never feel pain, never tire or hunger.

Lesson 29

  1. Read John 15:22-25. Jesus is talking.
  2. What does it mean “without cause?”
    • without a reason
  3. Who do you think is hating Jesus without cause?
  4. It’s the people who aren’t believing in Him as being sent from God, especially the religious leaders who are plotting to kill Him!
  5. Jesus says they wouldn’t have sin if He hadn’t spoken to them and that they wouldn’t be guilty if they hadn’t seen Him do miracles. Do you understand that? They are guilty because they heard and saw. Why wouldn’t they be guilty otherwise?
  6. God doesn’t hold us accountable for our ignorance. How could they know this man was the Son of God? God didn’t hold them accountable until they had all the evidence they needed.
  7. God requires everyone to call on Him for salvation. He says no one is without excuse. Why do they not have an excuse even if they never heard about Jesus? Read Romans 1:20.
  8. God’s power, greatness, caring provision, etc. are visible to everyone always through the sun, rain, storms, stars, etc. Do you understand how a person might be saved even if no one ever tells them about Jesus? What if there was an illiterate goat herder in a remote place with no internet access ever in his life? Could he be saved? How?
  9. He could see the greatness of God and believe there must be a God behind all the wonder of creation. He could ask God for help, ask God to meet him, ask God to show him if He’s really there, ask God to forgive him, etc. God can answer those prayers. For example, God gives many people dreams where they meet Jesus, even if they were never formally introduced to Him.
  10. Read John 15:26-27.
  11. The Holy Spirit gets the same two names here — Advocate and Spirit of Truth. Who is sending the Spirit and from whom?
  12. Jesus says that He sends the Spirit from the Father. Who gets the Holy Spirit and how do we get the Holy Spirit?
  13. Read Acts 2:38.
  14. We receive the Holy Spirit when we repent and surrender our lives to the Lord. What does it mean to surrender our lives to the Lord? What does surrender mean?
  15. Surrender is to give up. We give up our lives. We give up deciding for ourselves what we want to do and how we want our lives to go. We surrender it over into God’s hands to decide for us.
  16. Have you surrendered your life over to Jesus? Have you given up control over the decisions in your life?
  17. It also talks about being baptized. Baptism is our death, burial, and resurrection so we can say, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” The old passes away and the new comes.
    • Romans 6 is a good place to read about baptism.
    • The other references are Galatians 2:20 and 2 Corinthians 5:17.
  18. And we can ask for the Holy Spirit from the Father. Read Luke 11:13.
  19. How can you know that He will give you the Holy Spirit if you ask?
  20. If you are His child, it is His delight to give the Holy Spirit! If evil men give their kids good gifts, our perfect, loving, caring Father will give us good gifts, and certainly the perfect gift of Himself.

Lesson 30

  1. This is our final day. How can we sum up the message of abiding?
  2. I defined “to abide” as “to remain.” How does one remain? You do nothing. Nothing is required. Literally the requirement is that you do nothing. We call this “the believer’s rest.”
  3. The word shalom in Hebrew we usually define as peace. But it’s more than that. It means complete, lacking nothing. It’s fullness.
  4. If you have the Spirit, you have the Living God in you. Could you lack anything you needed if you had God Himself? Can you believe He is all you need? Work on giving up everything and letting the Lord know you are willing to do anything and to give up anything, whatever it is, as long as you have Him. Let Him know He has your whole heart.
  5. I’ll leave you with this piece I wrote on shalom. He is everything. Just be His and you will have all.
  6. SHALOM

I am one with Christ and He is one with me.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of rest. I will do no work. My salvation is accomplished. I will not work to save myself. I will rest.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of peace. There are no emergencies in shalom. There is no hurry in shalom. The Father holds all things in His hands and performs all things for me.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of joy. I will honor the “Sabbath” by not finding my own pleasure (Is 58:13) for in Him is the fullness of joy and the fullness of pleasure. There is no more to be desired.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of hope. I will not be disappointed. I am kept in Christ of the Father’s will. I am kept from sin and evil by Christ Himself.

I dwell in shalom. I am whole. I lack nothing. The Father withholds no good thing from those who seek Him and walk uprightly.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of rest. There are no works of salvation, for His work is finished. My righteousness is secured by the blood of Jesus and the indwelling of His Spirit. I am saved and have the fullness of my salvation when I have shalom. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. There is no want.

I dwell in shalom. I will honor Him and the “Sabbath” rest, not speak my own words. I will honor Him and the “Sabbath” rest and not do my own way. I have a spring of waters in me that will never fail and rivers of living water flow through me to do His bidding.

I will delight in His “Sabbath.” My delight is to remain in Him and I do not seek anything else. There is no search. He leads and guides me continually for His name’s sake. There is no questioning. There is no confusion.

I dwell in shalom. There is no fear. There can be no fear because there is no unbelief. How can we not believe the One who is in us? For I am one with Christ and He is one with me. We can trust Him with His own life.

I dwell in shalom, the fullness of love. I will live loved and live to love. His love is poured into me and through me to others.

I will honor my Father and surrender into His arms, His arms of love, His strong arm to save. There is nothing more for me outside of Him.

I am one with Christ and He is one with me.