Bible Stories In John

The last few weeks - mid week - I have been working through the stories of the Gospel of John found in chapters 9 - 12.

We just finished chapter 12 last night.

Some stories in this segment are rather easy to tell as stories: the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus come to mind.

But each of these stories is then surrounded by confrontations of one sort or another that - for me - make for difficult story telling because they make for difficult memorization due to having a variety of twists and turns involved.

Chapter 12 presents it's own problems in telling as a story because you see the disciples approaching Jesus to tell him about Greeks wanting to visit him and Jesus goes into a long monologue that seems completely detached from the issue of Greeks...until the end of it. I wasn't confident enough in my storytelling skills to try to pull that one off.

The triumphal entry and especially the end of the chapter are densely packed with Old Testament allusions and quotations that make it harder for me to memorize so we just read and discussed them.

Most people doing bible story telling overseas do not have these problems per se because they are not attempting to "tell" a whole book usually (though you could with a book like Jonah). They are selecting individual stories as part of a "story track" geared especially to the worldview of the people they serve.

Obviously as the people become literate or get recordings of the whole book in their own language they then deal with these issues.

Next week in time for the Christian Passover, we have the Upper Room Narrative of John 13 - 17 that begins with a long "story"of the footwashing but then enters into very "dense" and harder to memorize and internalize declarations by Jesus that culminate in His High Priestly Prayer.

John 15 & More On Mixing Stories With Series

Last time I mentioned preaching through the 7 Basic Commands that Jesus gives the Church.

1. Repent and believe
2. Be baptized
3. Love God and your Neighbor
4. Feed on God's Word daily and Pray
5. Celebrate the Lord's Supper
6. Give
7. Make Disciples

It is part of my larger plan of preaching through the Book of Acts and preaching on these commands is, in essence, an exposition of Acts 2: 36 - 47

Telling the same story 7 times gets a bit old and reading the same passage 7 straight weeks could leave the church feeling you've not been doing your homework or were too lazy to change the bulletin.

So in this case I've used stories - such as the story of Jonah - to explain this story in Acts.

When I told the Story of Jonah, I let them know that it was my way of explaining Jesus' command to love God and our neighbor.

Last week I chose John 15 though it is more a metaphor than a story to explain the theme of Jesus' insistence that we feed on God's Word and Pray. Frankly I read it instead of "telling it" because it was too dense for me to memorize by Sunday! (Sorry I am not a perfect bible story teller!) I always try to read with feeling however to make it as much like a good story as possible.

Normally the promise given for prayer in John 15 is taken out of context to mean just pray, squeeze your eyelids together tight and grunt to show your "belief" and voila you'll get from God "whatever you wish".

Jesus of course said that on 2 conditions, that we "abide" ("remain", "live in", "remain vitally connected") in Him and His words in us. The second condition was that we do these things to bear fruit for God's glory. Very few people want a Ferrari for God's glory, but I suppose someone could. So these prayers that flow from our relationship with Jesus Christ are not for our comfort and ease but God's Glory and honor based on the Word of Christ abiding in us so that we might bear fruit.

What prayers have we prayed specifically in order that we may bear fruit?

William Carey said "Attempt great things for God; Expect great things from God". Attempting such things begins with praying for great things, great fruit to grow from your life and ministry for the kingdom of God.

What fruit are you asking God to bear in your life? How has the word of Christ inspired your prayer and vision?

When our affections are shaped by the love of God and formed by Christ's Word, then we may "ask whatever we wish" and see God do great things.