Daily Bible reading and prayer, Sunday, October 29, 2023
John 11 (chronological); Jeremiah 25-26, 2 Timothy 3 (OT/NT)
We are on our chronological journey through the New Testament.
Our daily plan usually assigns whole chapters, so we end up reading different gospel writers’ versions of the same account on different days. If you want to explore all the gospel writers’ accounts of a single event on the same day, I have compiled a Chronological Study of the Gospels, that is available by subscription. You should be able to preview it, here. As we follow various clues in the Gospel writers’ accounts and look at smaller segments consisting of particular verses from all the accounts about the events of Jesus’ life and ministry, sometimes in that study we find ourselves either behind or ahead of the daily chronological assigned reading plan.
We just finished three days in a row where what we examined in our Chronological Study of the Gospels was what we read in the assigned plan. Today, our reading course will diverge again from the study course for day 29. Our reading in John takes place in the last week of Jesus’ life, but we still have teaching to study in the other gospels before we get to that week.
Obviously, our daily Old Testament and New Testament plan will have us in the Old Testament through the rest of the year, but this will be the second time this year we have read each Old Testament reading.
A overview of our yearly Bible reading plan, with all edited summaries so far, can be found here.
Sunday, October 29, 2023 chronological reading: John 11
John 11
v1-16 “Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, ‘Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.’ But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.’ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to Him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?’ Jesus answered, ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.’ This He said, and after that He said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.’ The disciples then said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.’ Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.’ Therefore Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, so that we may die with Him.’
v17-27 “So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. Martha then said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.’
v28-29 “When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him.
v30-37 “Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and consoling her, when they saw that Mary got up quickly and went out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, and said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept. So the Jews were saying, ‘See how He loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?’
v38-44 “So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Remove the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’ So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.’ When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’
v45-46 “Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.
v47-53 “Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, ‘What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.’ But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.’ Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.
v54 “Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews, but went away from there to the country near the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim; and there He stayed with the disciples.
v55-57 “Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the Passover to purify themselves. So they were seeking for Jesus, and were saying to one another as they stood in the temple, ‘What do you think; that He will not come to the feast at all?” Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he was to report it, so that they might seize Him.”
Sunday, October 29, 2023 OT/NT readings: Jeremiah 25-26, 2 Timothy 3
We are reading Jeremiah for the second time this year. We are also reading 2 Timothy yesterday.
We are not reading Paul’s letters chronologically (we’ll do that later in the year). We’ve finished, in chronological order of their writing, Galatians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and Romans, all written before Paul’s imprisonment, and Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 Timothy, written after his imprisonment. A summary of the events in the book of Acts, which is helpful in the timeline of the apostle Paul’s letters, can be found here.
Paul always has a purpose in his letters, but through them he always teaches theological truths his readers, including us, may not be aware of and how those truths impact how they (and we) should live in fellowship with one another and as followers of Christ.
I’ve had time to look at the chronology of Paul’s life and letters again, given the mention of Timothy throughout.
Paul met Timothy early in his second missionary journey: “Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. And a disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek, and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek” (Acts 16:1-3).
Timothy plays prominently in the rest of Paul’s life, being mentioned in ten out of his thirteen letters. He is not mentioned in Galatians, because Paul had not met Timothy when he wrote this letter, and he is not mentioned in Ephesians, during Paul’s early imprisonment. He is not mentioned in Titus either, another letter written during his imprisonment.
We know, from the book of Acts, about Paul’s arrest in Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey, and his subsequent imprisonment in Rome. We do not know, from the Bible, the sequence of events that occurred after this before his eventual martyrdom. But we can pick up clues by the mention of Timothy in Paul’s letters. These clues have helped me correct earlier confusion.
In 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul tells Timothy, “I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus.” I thought this occurred at the end of Paul’s third missionary journey, but Paul said his goodbye to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus and the proceeded to Jerusalem, not Macedonia. Scholars place Paul’s letter to Timothy at the end of his life. They also believe he had a time of freedom after his time of arrest in Rome, before he was arrested again and then killed. There are clues in this letter to Timothy that Paul possibly did get to travel again after his time of arrest in Rome that we read about in Acts. His dire condition upon a subsequent arrest, that ends in his death, makes the context and content of his letters to Timothy understandable.
1 Timothy is a letter of instruction from Paul to his “true child in the faith.” It is necessary instruction for those in church leadership, but also for all of us who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy is a very intimate letter of possible goodbye from an imprisoned, and likely condemned, Paul to Timothy, his “beloved son,” imparting all he wants to tell him in case he does not see him again. He not only teaches Timothy how to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” in bewildering times, but teaches us as well.
Just like 1 Timothy, there is so much instructive content in 2 Timothy, it is hard to summarize it simply.
Chapter Highlights:
Chapter 1: Paul tells Timothy, “I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.” This makes sense in the context of him leaving him in Ephesus, as mentioned in 1 Timothy 1:3. He goes on to encourage and teach him, in light of his subsequent arrest and likely impending sentence of death. “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”
Chapter 2: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier….Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. But avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene….the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.’ Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”
2 Timothy 3
v1-9 “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.
v10-17 “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”
Dear Lord,
If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
Our faith in and obedience to You interferes with the plans of men. May we persevere.
Help us not to be weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Your Word is able to give us the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. May we truly treasure, study, and know this gift.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love this line: "Our faith in and obedience to You interferes with the plans of men. May we persevere." Thank you. God's will be done. Still praying for you in Maui.
Thank you!!!!