Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 12   Jesus Anointed at Bethany A little later Jesus is now at the house of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany. One can only imagine how grateful Lazarus is to be eating anything at all. Martha was serving everyone, and Mary took a pint of expensive nard perfume, poured it on Jesus feet, and wiped it with her hair.  This seems a little bit strange unless you understand the culture they lived in.  Mary’s gift was remarkably humble. When a guest entered the home, usually the guest’s feet were washed with water and the guest’s head was anointed with a dab of oil or perfume. Here, Mary used this precious ointment and anointed the feet of Jesus. She considered her precious ointment only good enough for His feet. “To attend to the feet was the task of the most lowly slave. Thus Mary’s action denoted great humility as well as great devotion.” (Morris) Judas complained about how the money could have been used for the poor. As Judas' later actions at th

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 11 The Death of Lazarus Jesus learns that his friend Lazarus is sick and near death from his sisters Mary and Martha. We know from other verses that Jesus was close to this family. His sisters tell Jesus the " one he loves is sick ". Apparently this was a serious sickness as Jesus says, "This sickness will not end in death." Though Lazarus was very sick, Jesus stayed there for two more days. He said that Lazarus' sickness would glorify him through the sign he would do. The disciples wonder why he would go right back to Judea, where he was a wanted man. But Jesus says, "Are there not 12 hours in the day?" Jesus is saying that he has a lot of work to do during the day. There will be a time when darkness will cover the earth, but while there is still light out, he has work to do. He is the light of the world. Jesus tells the disciples that he is going to wake up Lazarus, implying that he was going to raise him from the

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 10 The Good Shepherd and His Sheep In chapter 10, Jesus uses the common metaphor of a "shepherd", which would be very familiar to everyone in his culture. There are also many references to "shepherds" in the Old Testament. Ultimately Jesus is telling the Pharisees they are not very good shepherds at all. They don't really have the sheep's interest in mind and really don't care about them at all.  They are false shepherds. They are like the strangers who enter the sheep pen and try to call the sheep out. But the sheep will not recognize them and will run away from them. Then, Jesus says that he is the, " Gate for the sheep." The gatekeeper, who is God, opens the door for him. Jesus says, "I am the gate for the sheep ." Another "I am" statement where Jesus is claiming to be God. On top of that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The sheep listen to his familiar voice and trust he will take care of

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 9 Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind This is an interesting story about if sin is correlated to physical impairments like blindness. Jesus and his disciples came across a blind man and the disciples asked,  " Did this man or his parents sin? "  First of all, a prevailing view in the Jewish culture is that sin can cause a disease like blindness. Secondly, they were referring to the Old Testament verses, where it says, " The sins of fathers can be visited upon future generations!"   To this Jesus replies, "Neither! " His explanation is that the man's blindness will give Jesus another opportunity to show the world a miraculous sign that points out He is the Son of Man. The darkness would be coming soon, so they needed to shine Jesus' light into the world while he was there.  Jesus used an usual healing method. He rubbed dirt and saliva together, and applied the mud to the blind man's eyes. Then, he told him to wash i

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 8 The Woman Caught in Adultery Some earlier manuscripts do not include this story in the bible, but I am glad the NIV translation kept it in. Why? Because this story adds yet another situation where we see Jesus' character, love, and grace in this case with a woman caught in adultery. Everything in the story is completely consistent with everything else we have learned about Jesus in his other personal encounters in the book of John.  The scene is very dramatic, as the Pharisees brought in this woman and used her to try and trap Jesus by asking what they should do with this woman? They claimed according to the book of Moses they were supposed to stone this woman for such a sin.  Is this true that the Mosaic Law said this? And if so, how was it applied in the Jewish culture of Jesus' time?  It is true that adultery was a capital offense under Jewish law, but the rules for evidence in capital cases were extremely strict. The actual act had to

Click Here to Read or Listen to John 7 Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles Jesus hung out in Galilee for fear of the Jews, but the Festival of Tabernacles was drawing near. His brothers urged him to go to Jerusalem against the wishes of his disciples, though it says his brothers did not believe in him themselves. This was a festival to celebrate the harvest, as they gathered the grain in tabernacles or booths.  So Jesus told his disciples to go to the festival, and he stayed around Galilee apparently not joining them. He cited the fact that the Jews hated him and his time was not ready yet.  Unbeknownst to them, Jesus went to the festival. Jesus wanted to make a secret appearance.  We see one of the reasons why Jesus did not come with his disciples as the Pharisees were lying in wait for him. He was clearly a person of interest. The crowd was giving Jesus mixed reviews some saying, "He is a good man". Others thought he was deceiving people. Regardless of their feelings,