Rev. Nathan Meador, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Plymouth, Wisconsin, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 11.

Our Lord Jesus performs His greatest sign: He brings Lazarus back from the dead. He doesn’t just heal a man who’s been sick for 38 years. He doesn’t just heal a man who’s been blind his whole life. He actually raises a man who’s been decomposing in a tomb for four days. Everyone is stunned.

Here in John chapter 11 more of the pieces come into place. Our Lord says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” signaling to us that the symbolic “I am the” statements in John are meant to correspond to the signs that Jesus has been performing: the signs prove the truth of Jesus’s words, and His words reveal the meaning of the signs. They are all meant to inspire faith in us, so that we would look to Jesus as our Messiah who died, rose, and ascended for us. With this final sign, the criss-cross pattern between our Lord’s signs in Galilee and His signs in Judea is complete. Orders are given for His arrest, and the High Priest confirms His imminent death.

Rev. Warren Woerth, pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Arnold, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 10.

Chapter 9 flows seamlessly into chapter 10: Jesus’s opponents cannot recognize His light because they are spiritually blind, and so they cannot recognize His voice because they don’t belong to His spiritual flock. The Lord gives us a new metaphor to reveal Himself as the Messiah, which He breaks down into two parts: He is the door, and He is the good shepherd. What is He getting at with each of these two pictures? Who are the sheep, who are the robbers, who are the wolves, and who are the hired hands? The message rings as true as ever, in our context surrounded by influencers vying for our attention.

Chapter 10 marks the end of the first half of John. In literally every chapter, Jesus hints at His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, as He does here: “This reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” Unlike every king before Him, Jesus is the truly selfless king who gives His life so we may be raised to life with Him.

Rev. Steven Theiss, retired pastor in Frohna, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 9.

What’s greater than healing a man who’s been sick for 38 years? How about healing a man who’s been blind his entire life! As the Lord Jesus was leaving the Temple, He performs a second miraculous sign for Jerusalem, again on the Sabbath. Rather than giving glory to God however, we see that John chapter 8 records even greater consternation and hostility towards Jesus and even towards the man who was healed.

Jesus reveals Himself as the light of the world, and without Him, even people who consider themselves educated or spiritual are utterly blind in their pride. This is as true today as it was then. The man who was blind was asked, “What do you say about Him?” since he was the one who received the healing. If you have received grace from Jesus, what do YOU say about Him?

Rev. Brian Kachelmeier, pastor of Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church in Los Alamos, New Mexico, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 8.

John chapter 8 begins with the Pharisees presenting Jesus with a woman who was caught in adultery. He writes on the ground with His finger, and He says “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” While this is one of the most beloved stories from the Gospels, it probably wasn’t in John’s first edition. Yet, the story’s theme fits here so well, is it possible it came from John later? And turning to the story itself, what did Jesus write on the ground? And where is the man who committed adultery? Jesus does not overturn Moses; He fulfills Moses.

The rest of the chapter is framed by two powerful “I am” statements: “I am the light of the world” and “Before Abraham was, I am.” How are we to understand these statements in the context of John’s Gospel, and why did the crowd react so violently, picking up stones to kill Him? The answer is back in John chapter one.

Rev. John Lukomski, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Darmstadt & St. Paul Lutheran Church in New Athens, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 7.

If John chapter 7 seems unfamiliar, you’re right! Most of the chapter is never read in church on Sundays, but it’s one of the most human chapters in the whole Gospel: our Lord, true man, struggles with the dilemma of whether to lay low and avoid confrontation or whether to attend a mandatory festival in Jerusalem where His enemies are waiting for Him. When He arrives, the crowds in Jerusalem and even the officials are of mixed opinions, and no one can really agree on what to make of Jesus.

The chaos and confusion however is not because Jesus is some sort of riddle that only intellectuals can grasp. Logic and study are good, but the people’s real obstacle is the same one we deal with today: self-centered pride. The living water of the Spirit is given to those who are thirsty with humble faith.

Rev. David Boisclair, pastor of Faith and Bethesda Lutheran Churches in North St. Louis County, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 6.

John 6 is the longest chapter in the Gospel, full of miraculous signs and challenging teaching. Reading between the lines, we see that after leaving Jerusalem, Jesus did many miracles along the way not described in detail. On top of that, after going up the mountain with His disciples, He comes down the mountain to give the crowds God’s Word, just like Moses did after the Exodus. He feeds them figuratively with God’s Word, and then Jesus feeds the crowd literally by miraculously multiplying bread and fish! Later He walks on water to reach His disciples caught in rough waters, and then John tells us of the miracle that no one remembers: John doesn’t say that Jesus calmed the storm, so what happened exactly?

Then John shows us that, years before the Last Supper and our Lord’s betrayal, Jesus already knew what was going to happen. It was His plan from the beginning. Although many disciples are scandalized by the words “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” Peter and the Twelve confess their faith in Jesus. So we too—even though we at times doubt and are even offended by what God says—by God’s grace we also look to Jesus in faith.

Rev. Robert Zagore, Executive Director of the LCMS Office of National Mission, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 5.

In John chapter 5 we hear about a man who has been sick for 38 years. Jesus miraculously heals him with a single word, and everyone is… angry! They demand to know who performed this miracle, but the man doesn’t know because Jesus blended back in with the massive crowds there in Jerusalem for the festival. What’s going on?

When the Jewish authorities figure out it was Jesus, they begin to go after Him. They don’t like the way He’s talking. God is the Father of His chosen people Israel, the entire nation, but Jesus is talking like God is His own personal Father, and not theirs! What gives Him the right? Jesus says there are two witnesses who testify to His authority: one is John the Baptist, and the other is God the Father Himself in His miraculous power. To them, the Lord Jesus adds a third witness: the first five books of the Bible written by the prophet Moses. Jesus wants the Judeans in Jerusalem to be saved, but they deny even these witnesses. How could they? How could we?

Rev. Kevin Martin, pastor of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 4.

Jesus meets a woman at a well and asks for a drink of water, just like the patriarchs did in several Old Testament stories. In the Old Testament, the patriarchs found their wives at the well—what is Jesus doing here, in Samaria of all places? Is there more to this encounter than meets the eye? Before the woman runs back to the village, Jesus lets her in on a secret that He hasn’t told anyone else: He is the Messiah, the Son of God. Why did He choose to tell her?

The chapter closes with the miraculous healing of an official’s son. Jesus doesn’t even go to the official’s house; the moment Jesus says “Your son will live,” his boy began to get better. John calls this the second of Jesus’s “signs.” A sign for what, exactly? And hey, when is Jesus ever going to get that drink of water?

Rev. John Shank, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Ministries in Edwardsville, Illinois, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 3.

John 3:16 is one of the best-known verses in the entire Bible, but are we missing its full meaning? John chapter 3 answers the questions “How?” and “Where?” How do I receive the new life of the kingdom of God? Where can I go to find it? Jesus’s answer: you need the rebirth of the Spirit, and you’ll find it in the water of baptism.

How has God acted to save the world? In the wilderness He lifted up a bronze serpent, but where do I look for salvation from the poison of sin, death, and the devil? Jesus’s answer: God has acted by sending His Son, and anyone, anyone in the world, who looks up at the cross of Jesus will find salvation there.

Rev. Kevin Parviz, pastor of Congregation Chai v’Shalom in St. Louis, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study John 2.

Students of the Bible are often confused by John chapter 2. Why is it that Jesus’s first miracle, turning water into wine, is only recorded in John? And why is it that John says that Jesus drove the money changers out of the Temple at the very beginning of His ministry, but the other Gospels say it happened right before His death and resurrection? Pastor Kevin Parviz of Chai v’ Shalom joins us to help bring a “Jew-theran” perspective on these questions and others.

After the crucifixion and the resurrection, the disciples looked back on these events early on in Jesus’s ministry and saw them with new significance. Even from the beginning, Jesus was pointing to how He was going to make all things new as the Messiah of all creation. The Passover was central to Israel’s identity as God’s chosen people, and the Passover was central to Jesus’s ministry, because the true Exodus for all people would happen through His life, death, and resurrection.