The Acts 13 Network

Jesus ties a towel around his waist and kneels at the feet of the man who will betray him. In this next installment of the John series, we step into the upper room — the last night, the last teaching, the last hours before the cross — and discover that the way of Jesus is rooted in a love that discomforts before it comforts.

In this episode:

• Why John 13–17 is written for the church, not just for history
• The double meaning of "he loved them to the end" (John 13:1)
• What foot washing actually cost Jesus in an honor/shame culture
• Why Jesus honors Judas with the choicest bread at the table — knowing what's coming
• The new command, and why "love one another" was never really new
• What Peter's failure (and restoration) teaches us about sacrificial love

Scripture: John 13:1–38

Discussion questions:

1. Who is the "Judas" in your life right now — someone you'd rather exclude than serve?
2. Where have you swept a hurt under the rug instead of having the hard conversation?
3. When has love cost you something real?
4. Where do you need the same restoration Jesus gave Peter?

Related: Catch up on the full John series — Believing Is Seeing, and Believing Is Life — wherever you found this episode.

The world feels like it's spinning out of control — and fear is the natural response to feeling out of control. In this message, we close out Part 2 of our series through the Gospel of John ("Believing Is Seeing, and Believing Is Life") by looking at John 10–12, where Jesus reveals three ways His sovereign love drives out fear:

• Love gives us security in the face of the enemy (John 10) — including an uncomfortable look at who Jesus actually calls "thieves and robbers"
• Love gives us hope in the face of death (John 11) — Jesus weeps at Lazarus's tomb, and offers Himself, not an idea, as the resurrection
• Love gives us belonging in the face of loneliness (John 12) — a single kernel of wheat, planted and multiplied into a people

Next week, we step into Part 3 of the series: the glory of the cross.

Scripture: John 10:1–18; John 11:1–44; John 12:20–26

Discussion Questions:

1. Where have you experienced "insiders" — even well-meaning religious ones — creating fear or insecurity instead of grace?
2. Jesus stayed away from Lazarus because He loved him. Where in your life have you mistaken God's delay for God's absence?
3. Where do you feel isolated right now, and what would it look like to actually receive belonging rather than just agree with the idea of it?

Episode Description:

Jesus stands in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles and claims both of its central images for himself — he is the living water, and he is the light of the world. In this message, we walk through John 7–9: the water-drawing ceremony and temple illumination that shaped the feast, Jesus's declaration to "let anyone who is thirsty come and drink," the woman caught in adultery and what her story exposes about selective grace, and the man born blind whose sight moves in stages from a name, to a prophet, to "Lord, I believe." Along the way we ask a harder question: where in our own lives has a rule or tradition become more important to us than the person standing in front of us?

Scripture: John 7:37–52, John 8:1–30, John 9

Series: Believing Is Seeing, and Believing Is Life — a walk through the Gospel of John

Show Notes:

• The two central images of the Feast of Tabernacles: the water-drawing ceremony at the Pool of Siloam, and the illumination of the temple's four golden lampstands
• Jesus's claim in John 7:37–38, and its connection back to the woman at the well in John 4
• The woman caught in adultery — a textual note on the passage's manuscript history, and what's conspicuously missing from the story
• Jesus's claim to be the light of the world (John 8:12) and the pushback it draws
• The man born blind — tracing his growing understanding of Jesus across four rounds of interrogation
• The closing challenge: what rule, ritual, or tradition do we protect more than people?

Related listening: Believing Is Seeing: The Long Walk from Cana to Capernaum (John 4:43–54) · Night and Day (John 3:1–21, 4:1–42)

Three signs. Three questions. One that actually matters.

In this message, we take a big swing through John 5 and 6 together—the healing at the pool of Bethesda, the feeding of the 5,000, and Jesus walking on water—and land on the question underneath all of them: are we chasing Jesus, or just chasing what he can give us?

We look at a man who'd been sick for 38 years and answers Jesus' question with reasons why healing is impossible. We look at a crowd that gets fed and comes back the next day looking for more bread, not more of Jesus. And we look at Peter, who stays when everyone else walks away, because "you have the words of eternal life."

Along the way: why archaeology backed up a detail in John's Gospel skeptics doubted for years, why grace tends to collide with our religious rule-keeping, and a gut-check from C.S. Lewis about how easily we settle for less than we're offered.

In this episode:

• The healing at the Bethesda pool and the question, "Do you want to get well?"
• Why the religious leaders missed the miracle and only saw a broken rule
• The feeding of the 5,000 and its ties back to the manna in Exodus
• Jesus' hard teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood—and why people left over it
• Peter's answer: "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
• The real question: do you want what Jesus gives, or do you want Jesus?

Scripture: John 5:1–15, John 6:1–15, 25–69

Quoted: C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Description:
Jesus heals a royal official's son from twenty miles away — with nothing but a spoken word. But the real story here isn't the healing. It's the choice the official makes before he knows the outcome: will he trust Jesus's word, or walk away disappointed like so many others in John's Gospel? This week we look at the difference between a transactional faith ("what will you do for me") and a trusting faith ("I believe you, so I'll act on it") — and why that difference only really gets tested when suffering shows up.

In this episode:

• Why the Galileans' "welcome" of Jesus was more transactional than triumphant
• The royal official: powerful, wealthy, and completely undone by his son's illness
• Why suffering is the great equalizer — and why Jesus's "unless you see signs and wonders" isn't as harsh as it sounds
• The turning point: the man takes Jesus at his word and starts the twenty-mile walk home
• Seeing-is-believing vs. believing-is-seeing — and which one you actually are
• Why suffering, not comfort, reveals the true shape of our faith

Scripture: John 4:43–54

Two of the most famous stories in the Gospels, side by side: Nicodemus, a respected religious leader who comes to Jesus at night, and the Samaritan woman, an outcast Jesus meets at a well in the heat of noon. Night and day. Male and female. Insider and outsider. Same offer of grace.

We walk through both conversations — Nicodemus and "born again," the woman and "living water" — and ask which one we actually resemble: the person hiding what's inside, or the person already exposed and desperate for grace. Either way, Jesus meets us there.

Scripture: John 3:1–21, John 4:1–42

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John 2:13–25 | Acts 13 Network

Everyone notices it eventually: this story shows up in the wrong place. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus clearing the temple courts comes near the end of his ministry — it's the moment that gets him killed. John puts it in chapter two. Same event, two different spots. In this message, we look at why John does that, what was actually happening in that temple courtyard, and why Jesus's anger there still has something pointed to say to us about what we worship.

In this message:

• Why the Gospel writers weren't writing modern history, and what that means for how we read the placement of this story
• What was really going on in the Court of the Gentiles — and why it mattered that this particular courtyard was the one turned into a marketplace
• The wordplay in the Greek between "temple" and "temple" that most English translations flatten out
• Why "seeing is believing" gets flipped on its head for Jesus
• A hard question about what we actually measure as church "success" — and what our own idols tend to look like

Scripture: John 2:13–25

Discussion questions:

1. Jesus overturns tables but doesn't strike a person, and he lets the dove-sellers keep serving the poor. What does that precision tell you about the nature of his anger?
2. The religious leaders were fixated on Herod's temple complex while missing the one standing in front of them. Where are you tempted to fixate on the impressive and miss the actual presence of God?
3. What's your version of the "triple B" — building, budget, or butts in seats? What would it look like to measure faithfulness differently?
4. Is there a table in your own life that Jesus would want to overturn?

Acts 13 Network is a house church gathering in Ypsilanti, MI. Find us at acts13.net.

We often view God in grand, cosmic, and epic terms. But what happens when the Creator of the universe steps out of the eternal scope and moves straight into a dusty riverside neighborhood?

In this episode, we kick off a new study in the Gospel of John, diving into what commentators call the "Book of Signs" (John 1:19–2:12). Together, we trace the narrative from John the Baptist’s interrogation at the River Jordan to a chaotic wedding feast in Cana. Along the way, we explore three profound realities about living in the active presence of Jesus and confront the dangerous tendency to substitute a living relationship with a dry, religious checklist.

Tune in as we discuss how Jesus steps into our human insufficiency to offer an overwhelming, inside-out transformation.

Key Takeaways From This Episode:

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  The Danger of Religious Blindness: The Pharisees and scribes had credentials, devotion, and the scriptures memorized, yet they completely failed to recognize Jesus standing right in front of them. We face the exact same danger when we evaluate our faith based on an external audit of rules rather than His presence.

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  The Power of "Come and See": When the first disciples approached Jesus, they didn't ask for a theological defense—they asked where He was staying. Evangelism isn't a complex sales job or an apologetics battle; it is a simple invitation to encounter the Savior who is already in our midst.

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  From Empty Rituals to Kingdom Abundance: At the wedding in Cana, Jesus turned water into 600 to 900 bottles of the absolute choice wine. By using the stone jars meant for ceremonial purification, Jesus showed that He didn't come to look at our external cleaning rituals—He came to take our dead, incomplete religion and transform it into the rich, abundant wine of kingdom life.

Scripture Referenced:

• John 1:19–2:12

• Genesis 28 (Jacob’s Ladder)

Reflection Questions for the Week:

1. When someone asks how your walk with God is going, do you immediately run down a checklist of external behaviors, or do you focus on His active presence?

2. Are you still standing by the old stone jars trying to scrub yourself clean from the outside, or are you resting in the transformational wine of His grace from the inside out?

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review, subscribe, and share it with a friend who needs the reminder that believing is seeing, and believing is life!

We often think of God in two ways: He is imminent (right here with us) and He is transcendent (completely beyond our comprehension). But how do these two realities mix when life gets messy?

In this episode, we dive into the final verses of the John 1 prologue to explore one of the most radical claims of the Christian faith: The Word didn't just look down on us—He became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. Before Jesus died for you, He lived with you. Join us as we look at what it truly means to experience a God who doesn’t hide from our mess, but steps right into it to offer relentless, wave-after-wave grace.

📋 What We Cover In This Episode:

• The Ultimate Paradox: How we can know God truly without ever fully exhausting the depths of who He is.

• The Great Undoing: Why Jesus walking on Earth is the direct reversal of the brokenness, shame, and isolation born in Genesis 3.

• Grace Upon Grace: A look at the Greek word pleroma and why God’s grace functions like ocean waves—eternally rolling in, with no danger of ever running out.

• The "Holy Huddle" Trap: Why the Incarnation doesn't allow us to isolate ourselves from the culture, and what it actually looks like to "show up" for our neighbors.

💬 Key Quote From The Sermon:

"The way God decided to bring grace and mercy to the world was by showing up, by being present, by moving into the neighborhood... We leave the church and we go be present out in the world, demonstrating this life of love for the world to see."

🎯 Your Challenge This Week:

You don’t need a bullhorn, a stack of tracts, or a perfect theological argument. This week, simply walk out your front door, look at your community, and find one practical way to show up and love well.

Enjoying the podcast? Don't forget to hit the Follow button, leave us a 5-star rating, and share this episode with a friend who needs a reminder of God's endless grace today!

In this episode, we continue our journey through the Gospel of John, diving deep into the structural center of the famous Prologue: John 1:9–13.

While it's easy to get caught up in the grand, cosmic scale of Jesus as the pre-existent Word and Creator of the universe, John’s ultimate destination in this passage is deeply personal. He drives us toward a breathtaking climax: the reality that those who receive Christ are given the legal right to become children of God.

Join us as we break down this text into three powerful movements: the Creator rejected, the Creator adopting, and the Creator working alone.

What We Cover in This Episode:

• The Irony of the Rejected Creator: How Jesus came into the very world He spoke into existence—and even to His own chosen people—yet was completely unrecognized and rejected.

• The "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" Dilemma: A look at C.S. Lewis’s classic argument. Why we cannot just settle for calling Jesus a "good moral teacher."

• The Legal Power of Exousia: What it actually means to have the "right" to become children of God. Spoiler: It’s not a vague spiritual "vibe"—it is an unbreakable, documented legal standing given by the Father.

• Why the Creator Works Alone: Dissecting John’s "triple negatives" (not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of a husband's will). We debunk the cultural myth that "God helps those who help themselves" and look at why our total inability to save ourselves is actually the best news ever.

Key Takeaway:

"In our world, we say 'seeing is believing.' But in God's economy, John flips the script: believing is seeing. When you place your trust in Christ, your eyes are opened to see who God truly is—and who you are to Him."

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