MEMORY TEXT: John 10:10 KJV “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

John 10:10 COMMENTARY BY JAMIESON, FAUSSET, AND BROWN I am come that they might have life, and ... more abundantly--not merely to preserve but impart LIFE, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. What a claim! Yet it is only an echo of all His teaching; and He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all worthy of the death He died, or "God with us"--there can be no middle course.

John 10:10 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES Might have it more abundantly. Literally, that they may have abundance, or that which abounds. The word denotes that which is not absolutely essential to life, but which is superadded to make life happy. They shall not merely have life--simple, bare existence-- but they shall have all those superadded things which are needful to make that life eminently blessed and happy. It would be vast mercy to keep men merely from annihilation or hell; but Jesus will give them eternal joy, peace, the society of the blessed, and all those exalted means of felicity which are prepared for them in the world of glory.

Sunday, March 23

Joy

1 John 1:1-4 KJ21 “1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of Life— 2 for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us, 3 that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.”

1 John 1:4 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE Ye have already tasted that the Lord is good; but I am now going to show you the height of your Christian calling, that your happiness may be complete, being thoroughly cleansed from all sin, and filled with the fulness of God.

1 John 1:4 COMMENTARY BY ALBERT BARNES The sense here is, that full and clear views of the Lord Jesus, and the fellowship with him and with each other, which would follow from that, would be a source of happiness. Their joy would be complete if they had that; for their real happiness was to be found in their Saviour.

Monday, March 24

Guilt Free

Romans 8:1 BBE “For this cause those who are in Christ Jesus will not be judged as sinners.”

Romans 8:1 COMMENTARY BY MATTHEW HENRY They may be chastened of the Lord, but not condemned with the world. Now this arises from their being in Christ Jesus; by virtue of their union with him through faith they are thus secured. They are in Christ Jesus, as in their city of refuge, and so are protected from the avenger of blood. He is their advocate, and brings them off. There is therefore no condemnation, because they are interested in the satisfaction that Christ by dying made to the law. In Christ, God does not only not condemn them, but is well pleased with them.

John 5:24 NKJV “"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

John 5:24 COMMENTARY BY MATTHEW HENRY Our Lord declared his authority and character, as the Messiah. The time was come when the dead should hear his voice, as the Son of God, and live. Our Lord first refers to his raising those who were dead in sin, to newness of life, by the power of the Spirit, and then to his raising the dead in their graves. The office of Judge of all men, can only be exercised by one who has all knowledge, and almighty power. May we believe His testimony; thus our faith and hope will be in God, and we shall not come into condemnation. And may His voice reach the hearts of those dead in sin; that they may do works meet for repentance, and prepare for the solemn day.

Romans 3:24-25 MKJV “24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God has set forth [to be] a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness through the passing by of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God;”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NRSV “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Tuesday, March 25

New Covenant and New Heart

Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT “17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Ephesians 3:17 COMMENTARY BY JAMIESON, FAUSSET, AND BROWN "Love," the first-fruit of the Spirit, flowing from Christ's love realized in the soul, was to be the basis on which should rest their further comprehension of all the vastness of Christ's love.

Ephesians 3:17 COMMENTARY FAMILY BIBLE NOTES Dwell in your hearts; as the object of supreme affection. Rooted and grounded; fixed as trees in a deep, fruitful soil, and firm as a building on a rock.

1 John 4:16 Weymouth “And, as for us, we know the love which God has for us, and we confide in it. God is love, and he who continues to love continues in union with God, and God continues in union with him.”

Wednesday, March 26

New Covenant and Eternal Life

John 11:25-26 NRSV “25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"”

John 11:25 COMMENTARY BY ADAM CLARKE Every man who has believed or shall believe in me, though his believing shall not prevent him from dying a natural death, yet his body shall be re-animated, and he shall live with me in an eternal glory. And every one who is now dead, dead to God, dead in trespasses and sins, if he believe in me, trust on me as his sole Saviour, he shall live, shall be quickened by my Spirit, and live a life of faith, working by love.

John 11:25 PEOPLE’S NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY Christ makes the grand, striking declaration that he is the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE, words that never could have fallen from the lips of a sane mortal. They mean that he is the power which opens every grave, gives life to the sleepers, and calls them forth to a new existence; that the life that endows men with eternal being is in him and proceeds from him. In the light of his own resurrection they mean that when he burst open the tomb he did it for humanity and in him humanity has won the victory over death.

Revelation 2:11 NKJV “"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death."‘”

Revelation 20:6 NKJV “Blessed and holy [is] he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”

Revelation 20:15 NKJV “Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

Revelation 21:8 NKJV “"But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."”

Thursday, March 27

New Covenant and Mission

Matthew 28:19-20 KJ21 “19 Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Amen.”

Matthew 28:19 COMMENTARY BY JOHN WESLEY Make them my disciples. This includes the whole design of Christ's commission. Baptizing and teaching are the two great branches of that general design. And these were to be determined by the circumstances of things; which made it necessary in baptizing adult Jews or heathens, to teach them before they were baptized; in discipling their children, to baptize them before they were taught; as the Jewish children in all ages were first circumcised, and after taught to do all God had commanded them.

Matthew 28:19 PEOPLE’S NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all nations. There are several things to be noticed: (1) Go, implies an aggressive warfare. The Gospel army must move upon the nations. The Lord seeks universal empire, and sends forth his armies to conquer the world. Every church and every disciple must understand that they have marching orders. (2) Not only is every saint commanded to go, or to take steps to make the gospel go, but the object is stated. They are to make disciples, or pupils, and scholars of Christ; not great philosophers, but "babes in Christ Jesus" [1Co 3:1], who have entered the school of Christ and are to be taught afterwards. (3) Who are to be made disciples is next indicated. Not the Jews only, but all nations. Christ came to be the Savior of the world. His is a universal religion. In the Great Commission he looks beyond Judea, and commands that the Gospel shall be offered to all nations. The test of eighteen centuries shows that Christianity is not local or national, but is adapted to the needs of all mankind. (4) It is next stated how disciples shall be made.

Baptizing them. The rite by which those who believe upon him should be formally enlisted and enrolled in the school of Christ is baptism. It is not a baptism of the Spirit that he means, because it is one that those whom he addresses are commanded to administer. He alone baptized with the Spirit; his apostles and disciples baptized in water, and it is to this rite that he refers. Hence, when we turn to the preaching of the apostles under this commission, we find that all converts were at once baptized (Ac 2:38-41; 8:12-18). (5) The end or result of baptism is also given. Converts were to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It is a positive affirmation of the Old Testament that where the name of the Lord is recorded there will he meet his disciples, or there will be his presence. See Ex 20:24. The Lord declares that the three names, that of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, are recorded in baptism. In this rite, then, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit meet the believer; the Father to receive him as a child, the Son to welcome him as a brother, and to cover him with the mantle of his own purity; the Holy Spirit to endow him with that Spirit by which he can say, "Abba, Father." "Into the name of" is equivalent to "into the presence of," or "into the Father, and into the Son, and into the Holy Spirit."