John Chapters 19-20

1) How did John the Baptist introduce Jesus (1:29)?  What then is significant about 19:14-16?

2) Jesus death – victory or defeat?  Mission complete or epic failure?

3) They say seeing is believing.  How did this play out for Jesus’ disciples (20:8, 18, 20, 28)?  How does this play out for you and me (20:29)?

19:14 indicates it was the day of Preparation of Passover Week.  At this time, Jewish families would have been making all the necessary arrangements to celebrate the Passover.  This would have included preparing the Passover lamb to be slaughtered.  Jesus came, then died, as the perfect Lamb of God.

“It is finished.”  While the death of Jesus appears to be the ultimate defeat, we know that until the very end, Jesus was totally in control of what was going on.  Jesus had completed the work the Father had sent Him to do (19:28) and was now ready to die.  His final act was His giving up His spirit; no one took it from Him.

Jesus’ closest followers had the incredible joy of seeing their resurrected Lord.  The gospels are full of accounts of Jesus’ appearing to them before returning to heaven.  Yet, Jesus reserves a special blessing for all the generations to come in 20:29: “…blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”