John 5:1-29 Dear RTB’ers, Jesus is back in Jerusalem at one of the three annual feasts, where again He is healing on the Sabbath. This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him… (v. 18a) Today we have the first account in John’s gospel of the Jews seeking to kill Jesus. …
Category Archives: RTB 2025 – Search the Scriptures, Part 2
September 27 / John 4:27-54
John 4:27-54 Dear RTB’ers, From yesterday, Jesus speaking, I who speak to you am He. (v. 26) This is the first account we have of Jesus claiming to be the Messiah. Strange that He revealed Himself to this Samaritan woman, but He had not made this claim to the Jews from where He had just …
September 26 / John 4:1-26
John 4:1-26 Dear RTB’ers, “The Woman from Samaria”… For me, better known as “The Woman at the Well”, very likely one of the two best-known of Jesus’ one-on-one interactions, the other being Nicodemus’ nighttime visit from our pervious chapter. We only get half of this story today; the preaching point for many sermons comes tomorrow …
September 25 / John 3:22-36
John 3:22-36 Dear RTB’ers, Three verses to comment on today… First, John the Baptist speaking: He must increase, but I must decrease. (v. 30) For all the attention that John was getting from the Jewish leaders and from the common people, in his heart he remained humble. We should speak these same words as John …
September 24 / John 2:23-3:21
John 2:23-3:21 Dear RTB’ers, Clarification… Yesterday I discussed the Jews seeking signs and wondered at how they knew about Jesus’ signs. Today we see that Jesus was, indeed, performing signs (healings?) in Jerusalem, leading to the Jewish leaders requesting additional signs: Now when He was in Jerusalem … they saw the signs that He was …
September 23 / John 2:1-22
John 2:1-22 Dear RTB’ers, It’s a strange question the Jews asked Jesus after His cleansing of the Temple, What sign do you show us for doing these things? (v. 18b) The NASB helps our understanding of their question, in that their interpretation includes the Jews asking about Jesus’ authority for doing these things. So, as …
September 22 / John 1:35-51
John 1:35-51 Dear RTB’ers, When a book is made into a movie, the book reader’s perspective on their original reading can become influenced by the way the movie portrays the book. That is clearly the case with me and the gospels. The series, The Chosen, has influenced my own imagination (or my own understanding) as …
September 21 / John 1:19-34
John 1:19-34 Dear RTB’ers, John the Baptist answering the Jews’ questions, I am not the Christ. … I am not. … No. … (vv. 20-22) No matter how John the Baptist answers their questions, they keep asking. But all their questions are about him, and he finally gets their thinking back to the Messiah: … …
September 20 / John 1:1-18
John 1:1-18 Dear RTB’ers, Based on familiarity alone, there are probably few passages in all of Scripture with which I am more familiar. As a child in the Catholic Church, until I was almost twenty years old, these first fourteen verses in John’s Gospel were spoken at mass as the Last Gospel, the final words …
September 19 / I Kings 22
I Kings 22 Dear RTB’ers, Ahab is dead, but his legacy lives on – sadly. There was one unusual item that caught my eye: Ahaziah … did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way …