Day 1

First Look

To Start

Sit in silence for 1 minute before you begin. If you can’t get something off your mind (a task you need to accomplish, something you don’t want to forget), take a moment and write yourself a note (Don’t forget to change the laundry. We’re out of toilet paper. Call the doctor about that ache…). Now try to clear your mind again.

If you especially enjoy these times of silence before reading (or perhaps if you don’t enjoy them but recognize God’s invitation in them and want to say yes), consider extending this time beyond a minute. You might choose to devote as much as half of your allotted time to sitting in silence.

Pray

Yahweh, as we read, reveal Yourself to us—Father, Son, and Spirit.

Give us the strength to stand in Your presence, behold You, and become like You.

Read

Read John chapters 14-16. I’ll provide the full text below, but reading in your own Bible or printing the chapter is preferable.

Before you read, ask the Spirit of God, “What do You want to show me?”

Because this is a long bit of reading…

• We won’t read it all together like this every week. We’ll read the text in one big gulp three times over the course of 49 days.

• I won’t provide any accessory devotional or reflection questions today. Your study time will be entirely devoted to reading.

• As you read, don’t try to understand everything. Just let the text wash over you. Today we’re looking for general impressions. Today’s quick reading will be a kind of trailer for the movie that deep reading will reveal.

• When you run into things you find confusing or things you’d like to meditate on more fully, mark the verses and jot down your questions. Don’t try to answer them today. Today’s questions are seeds. Plant them in your heart and let God tend them for the next few weeks. Inevitably He’ll provide a harvest.

• If you feel a bit like you’re being dumped into something without context, you are. We’ll spend this week considering the who, when, and why of the passage. But for now, let what you don’t know inspire curiosity and openness.

When you’re finished, summarize your reading in three sentences. This part is more important than you know. The act of summarizing forces your brain to process the raw data of the text. Plus, it’s fun to watch your summary change over the course of the study.

John 14

“Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? ³ If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. ⁴ You know the way to where I am going.”

⁵ “Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where you’re going. How can we know the way?”

⁶ Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will also know my Father.From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

⁸ “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works. ¹¹ Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

¹² “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. ¹⁷ He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. ¹⁹ In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you will livetoo. ²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹ The one who has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. And the one who loves me will be loved by my Father. I also will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

²² Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it you’re going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?”

²³ Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. ²⁶ But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

²⁷ “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful. ²⁸ You have heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens so that when it does happen you may believe. ³⁰ I will not talk with you much longer, because the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me.³¹ On the contrary, so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me.

“Get up; let’s leave this place.

John 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. ³ You are already cleanbecause of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown asidelike a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. ⁷ If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.

⁹ “As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commands you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

¹¹ “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

¹² “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. ¹³ No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ I do not call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from my Father.¹⁶ You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.

¹⁷ “This is what I command you: Love one another.”

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.²⁰ Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹ But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ The one who hates me also hates my Father. ²⁴ If I had not done the works among them that no one else has done, they would not be guilty of sin. Now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.²⁵ But this happened so that the statement written in their law might be fulfilled: They hated me for no reason.

²⁶ “When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.²⁷ You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16

“I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling. ² They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³ They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or me. ⁴ But I have told you these things so that when their time comes you will remember I told them to you. I didn’t tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵ But now I am going away to him who sent me, and not one of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶ Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.⁷ Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. ⁸ When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: ⁹ About sin, because they do not believe in me;¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

¹² “I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. ¹³ When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

¹⁶ “In a little while, you will no longer see me; again in a little while, you will see me.”

¹⁷ Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this he’s telling us: ‘In a little while, you will not see me; again in a little while, you will see me,’ and, ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ¹⁸ They said, “What is this he is saying, ‘In a little while’? We don’t know what he’s talking about.”

¹⁹ Jesus knew they wanted to ask him, and so he said to them, “Are you asking one another about what I said, ‘In a little while, you will not see me; again in a little while, you will see me’? ²⁰ Truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. ²¹ When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world. ²² So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you.

²³ “In that day you will not ask me anything. Truly I tell you, anything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ²⁴ Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

²⁵ “I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. A time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶ On that day you will ask in my name, and I am not telling you that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ²⁷ For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. ²⁸ I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”

²⁹ His disciples said, “Look, now you’re speaking plainly and not using any figurative language. ³⁰ Now we know that you know everything and don’t need anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God.”

³¹ Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe? ³² Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.³³ I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”

Process

If you’re looking to spend more time today in meditation, consider the following prompts. Engage with as many as you’d like.

• Return to the questions you wrote down as you read. If one stands out as particularly urgent or interesting, write it on an index card and carry it in your pocket today. Every time you remember it’s there, pray: “God, what do You want me to reveal to me about this?”

• Return to a line you’ve highlighted. Why did that verse or phrase stand out? What might God be trying to show you?

• What about today’s reading stirs joy or hope in you?

• What from the reading today provokes tension in you? Why might those words stir up frustration, anger, doubt, or sadness in your heart?

Pray

End your time by praying some bit of what you’ve received from God back to God. What did you highlight or underline? You might thank God for a truth you’ve noticed. You might ask God to help you live out some behavior. You might have a conversation with Him about where you are and how this passage challenges that (or provides comfort). Whatever you feel compelled to talk to God about—bring it to Him.

From JL

I won’t provide personal commentary on Mondays. I want to give you and God space to meet and communicate. Starting tomorrow I’ll begin offering insights and guidance.

In the Comments

You’re welcome to study along with us privately, but if you’d like to engage with the larger group, I’ll provide a group discussion prompt each day. Today we’re asking:

• Does reading this passage directly on the heels of Holy Week affect your understanding of it? Do you find Lenten ideas, Good Friday thoughts, or Easter messages informing or upholding your reading? Please share!

  (I’d also love to hear about your Easter. Easter is my favorite.)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Godspeed,

JL