by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” God could have justly snuffed out the entire world, including the first man and woman. He graciously withheld His...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” Election is the theological term used to label the teaching that God has selected some men for special purposes in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” Atoning was what the religious leaders tried to do to Jesus when He “manifested” God’s name to them. To manifest...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” The name of God was revealed to Moses in the burning bush story in Exodus 3:14, but He clarified shortly after: God...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.” The Name of God is the most significant word in all of Scripture. What is it that Jesus manifested on earth? Contrary...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5“Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Glory, typically, is something we tend to think of in terms of brightness, an apt metaphor or depiction. To see God as He is would certainly be a blinding...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5 “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” Togetherness is unity, an important theme of this Upper Room. Unity begins, though, with the Father and the Son. The “work” of glorifying God is a team effort...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Past tense is what Jesus used to describe the work of glorifying God. Yet He had not yet accomplished the greatest work assigned to Him, namely dying on the cross for the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Shining light on God’s character so that people might see Him as He is – that is the work Jesus came to do. Everything about Jesus, what He taught, the miracles He performed,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” Shining light on the true nature of God was Jesus’ goal. And truly that was needed, because since the fall in the Garden of Eden, the knowledge of God grew darker and darker....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” What would Jesus do,” was a popular saying a few years ago. But many used it to support any “good feel” activity or “politically correct” notion in vogue. In...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life, what is that? Christians like to think of it as our spiritual fire insurance policy, our “get out of hell” card, a euphemism for salvation. To be...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “… even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” Very specifically, and most importantly, Jesus was given the authority to grant eternal life. God’s relationship with His image-bearers is the focus of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “… even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” Authority given to Christ extends to all of creation, including the unseen spiritual angelic world. The writer to the Hebrews explains: “You [God] have...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “… even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” The request now for glory, that begins Jesus’ Upper Room prayer, does not arise out of a vacuum or a whim. He couches this request in the existing...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You …” High Priestly Prayer” is the title often given to this chapter. The high priest in the Jewish religion, was the one...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You …” Requesting glory for Himself, Jesus is the only person in the universe that escapes moral guilt for doing so. Such...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You …” With the awaited time arriving, Jesus began with “Father,” the same as He taught His disciples to pray (Luke 11:1)....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You …” The hour” had finally come, for the full revelation of who Jesus really was. From the time of the first miracle, when...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You …” John 17 is forever titled, “Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer.” Some have called it “the Lord’s Prayer,” as opposed to “the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Seven times in the New Testament this word for courage is used, and always in the imperative, a command—and always...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Peace in Christ derives from the most relevant truth for our day, Christ is peace. The young unbeliever adamantly...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” One might be hard pressed to take Jesus seriously, in context of all that was happening: “I have overcome the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” That Christians will suffer in this world is abundantly asserted in the New Testament. Jesus here says it...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
32 “Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. The hour Jesus spoke of in John 4:23 when “true worshippers will worship the Father in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
29 His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. 30 Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God.” 31Jesus answered them, “Do you now...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
28 “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” Relationship between the three persons of the triune God—that’s an issue which taxes the best intellects. Contrary to Muslim thinking (as well as all...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
27 “… for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. Belief that Jesus came from God” is absolutely essential for a right relationship with God. True Christianity does not teach that Jesus the man...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
27 “… for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” An interpretive issue arises in this verse that must not be left unaddressed. Is God’s love for us contingent upon our love for Him, as first...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
26“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father. Hard to take, but maybe it is...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
25 “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. Figurative language was a common educational technique for Jesus, the Master teacher. He...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. Promise of answered prayer was not new to the disciples. Neither was the promise of joy. As early as John the Baptist, joy was presented as something...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. Upper Room teaching is not exhaustive, but it is profound. Jesus wasn’t saying everything there is to say about prayer at that time, but He is laying down...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
23 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” Whether “that day” refers to post-resurrection appearances of Christ or to post-Pentecostal life in the Spirit,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
23 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.” Prayer is a most enigmatic Christian discipline, but it ought not be so. If there is one thing the Scripture...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22 Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Although experiencing heavy emotions at the thought of Jesus leaving them, that was nothing compared to what they were...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
19 Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “Are you deliberating together about this, that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me, and again a little while, and you will see Me’? Some people appear to be mind-readers because of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
17 Some of His disciples then said to one another, “What is this thing He is telling us, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?” 18 So they were saying, “What is this that He says,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me.” Again Jesus tells them of His departure. This is certainly not a new thought (John 7:33); in fact, this subject dominated the Upper Room conversation (see 14:18-19 and...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” Trinitarianism stretches our minds, and that makes sense. It goes against the propensity of humans to put God in a box, reduce Him to that which is fully...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” Three in harmony, all working together, the Father, the Son and the Spirit (the “He” in our verse refers to the Spirit as understood from the previous...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. The Holy Spirit’s role is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Does this make Him lesser than the Son? Not in the least. The Spirit is fully God, just as the Son and the Father are fully God....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” Combined with the perfect recall Jesus told the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” What a salve this truth must have been to the disciples’...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” Amazing as it was for the disciples to have sat under the Lord’s direct teaching—and amazement was a frequent experience of theirs—there was a whole lot more that Jesus could have taught them,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “… and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Fear of judgment runs deep in the human heart, a foreboding sense of coming up short of what God expects. That is what enlightens our understanding of what Jesus meant when speaking of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “… and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Judgment looms over the world of unbelievers. And it began with the judgment of Satan. The actual event that brought on this judgment was still future to the time Jesus spoke these words,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
10 “… and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me…” Righteousness in God’s terms resides not in a set of precepts, but in the life and person of Jesus Christ. He is the “Holy and Righteous One” (Acts 3:14-15). While the religious...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
9 “… concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me…” Main problem with lost sinners is not the specific sins they commit. Those are the symptoms of the deeper problem, namely the sin nature. When unbelievers sin (and sometimes sin in “big”...
by Chuck Gianotti | IMHO Blog
I would like to introduce you to a new, oustanding blog called “Faith and the Other Five Senses.” Biased I am, to be sure, since it is written by my daughter Shannon Gianotti. I believe you will find it refreshing and lively. I think you will like it. You...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment …” This work of conviction belongs to the Holy Spirit alone, not to any human being. Yet it seems to be in human nature the desire to displace the Spirit’s work. The fine...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment …” Conviction is that inner work of exposing a person to his own true nature. The world was already under God’s judgment and Jesus came to provide a solution. However, it...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” “Read my lips,” says the Master. “Focus people, you are blinded by one of the truths I told...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.” Sorrow in itself is over-rated. True, there is genuine sorrow at the loss of things that are precious to us—that is inherent to our human nature. However, sorrow can be eclipsed by...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Overwhelmed at His leaving them, the disciples were oblivious to even considering where He might be...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.” No one wrote down what Jesus said while He spoke. Yet they needed to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.” Atheists assert there cannot possibly be a God. How could that be when there are so many evils in the world: wars, genocides, murder, extortion and sickness? That was the “argument” of one...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.” Ignorance is no excuse, so goes the popular saying. And that’s true in spiritual things as well, if you think about it carefully. There is no excuse for not knowing God, for He actively seeks...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” Persecution will run extreme, Jesus warns His disciples in the comfort and culinary enjoyment of the Passover meal; a meal...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.” Jesus used a common training tool with His disciples, telling them about the problems they will have, before they get there—so the surprise element won’t stumble them. In fact, the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
27 “… and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” Chosen to be God’s instruments in propagating the truth, we followers of Christ have the inestimable privilege of joining with the Trinity in testifying about Jesus Christ. To testify...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me…” We stand not alone in the quest for truth. God has a vested interest in the march of truth into the blackness of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me …” Our western culture values the market place of free speech and public debate. Hatred blinds the mind of the one...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
25 “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” Many today invoke the word “hate” to project the most extreme judgment on the intentions of another person with whom there is disagreement. Much emotional...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.” The Judge has spoken. The charge is hate. If Jesus had not come as Messiah, they would not have been guilty of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
23 “He who hates Me hates My Father also.” Jesus-phobia, Jesus-hate. There is coming a day when we will see this in our western world, where we have long enjoyed a Judeo-Christian culture and morality, infused with the influence of the Bible. Increasingly, it is...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.” Now clearly, there was sin in the world already before this, as Paul later wrote, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
21 “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” Jesus had just raised the disciples to the status of friends (“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves … I have...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” Quoting Himself, “A slave is not greater than his master,” Jesus reminds His...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Hate speech” is a phrase bandied about today. If anyone disagrees with another’s life style,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Not a very hopeful prognosis, to say the least. But that is only if we pull this verse out of context. The disciples had already been promised a new home in heaven, a reuniting with...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
17 “This I command you, that you love one another. Five times, count them. Jesus commands Christians to love one another. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (John 13:34) “This is My...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” “Appoint” means to lay hold of for a purpose. There is no...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” Theological debate rages between the so-called Armineans and...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” We can’t help but remember Abraham, the “friend of God” (James 2:23)....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” When did Jesus call His disciples slaves? Well, maybe not in those exact...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” Name dropping is the “art” of building oneself up by verbally associating with those of a higher status. In Canada, for example, most people can say they personally know or have met a professional hockey player....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Love is the greatest of all Christian virtues (1 Corinthians 13:13) and in our passage, Jesus identifies the greatest form of love—giving one’s life for another person. Notice, He...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. Well-quoted, but rarely lived out (or should I say rarely “died out”), this verse. It is the stuff of noble characters in fiction novels. But this should be normative Christianity. The...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Christians often seem to squabble a lot within churches, among churches, between denominations and doctrinal persuasions. A common criticism today is that individual Christians raise...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. How interesting, love as a commandment. So much has been written on it in Christian circles that a short devotional cannot do justice to this statement by the Lord Jesus Christ in the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” The words of Jesus echoed throughout Peter’s life, so that in his later years he encouraged the scattered, persecuted believers with these words, “… though you...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Life to the full (John 10:10) can be had even when hard times come. The more we know that before those experiences arrive, the better position we are in to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” The intimate circle of those who have forsaken all to follow Christ involves a fellowship of joy. While He spoke to the multitudes in parables, Jesus would follow...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” Joy is not automatic, nor does it depend upon circumstances. Rather, this is a supernatural joy that is completely independent of life’s circumstances, just like...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” So how do we abide in Christ’s love? We abide in His love by keeping His commandments. That is the pattern we have from Jesus Himself, how...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. Flowing love, from the Father to the Son, and now to us—why would any believer not want to abide in Christ’s love? Jesus’ love for us is exactly the same kind of love that the Father has for...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” “That the world might know that I love the Father,” is the ultimate fruit of our Christian lives (John 14:31). This is not a matter of verbally including a certain...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” Reputation is important to God, that is, His reputation. Being created in His image, our main goal in life is to glorify God. We agree with the first point of the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” So why does God leave the divine resources on hold until we ask for them? Why not just put them on autopilot and skip the middle step of asking? Then He will supply...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” This being the key to prayer is not an overstatement. Every other verse on prayer in scripture subsumes under this over-arching principle. Many commentators and...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Among the great promises about prayer in the Bible, our passage contains Jesus’ simple invitation to “ask whatever you wish.” What a fantastic, wonderful message....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” Horror comes the thought of not being fruitful as a Christian! How can that even be possible for those of us who have...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.” Theological debates rage over this verse. Three main interpretations are offered by those of differing doctrinal...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Imagine John, the gospel chronicler, writing this account many years after the fact. He had apparently made it into his 90s, as the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Metaphors are more powerful than similes, both figures of speech. Similes, using words like “as” or “like” compare something with...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” Fruitfulness the goal, abiding the process. It is popularly said today that the Lord does not command us to be fruitful,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” Ritualistic cleansing tempts the interpretation we might give this passage, but without merit, considering the context. The word “clean” occurs only in one other passage in the Gospel of John,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” One can imagine the Lord in the Upper Room speaking to His disciples, holding some fresh fruit in His hand. While we may not...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” Jesus, continuing with the vineyard imagery, speaks of the standard practice of pruning, common for increasing fruitfulness...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Spiritual growth, whether individually or corporately, is first and foremost God’s business. He not only is vitally interested, He is the primary cause of spiritual growth. As humans, we have a part, as seen in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Master teacher that He was, Jesus brought forward one of His farming illustrations. But we underestimate the divine Story-Teller if we fail to recognize the exquisite plot lines at various levels. Many layers...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
31 “… but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.” Just as He followed the Spirit’s leading into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan at the beginning of His ministry (Matt 4:1), so now...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
31 “… but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.” Everything recorded in the Gospels about Jesus demonstrates His love for His father. Intentionally. Everyone knows that Jesus talked...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
30 “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me … That Satan is still active in this world in made clear in many passages. We write about him, not to give him glory and undue attention, but to warn. There is...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
30 “I will not speak much more with you, for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me … ” Jesus is absolutely pure of all evil, and gives no quarter to Satan. Jesus is connected to the Father, the God of Israel. To those who rejected Him, He...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
29 “Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe.” A young man went to buy life insurance for the first time. When he saw the face value suggested by the agent, he became quite excited, having never had that much money in his entire...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” Greater than the Son, how can that be? The concept challenges us on a number of levels....
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” Pushing the envelope, Jesus not only broke the news to the disciples in the Upper Room that...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
27 “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Surprisingly, this is the first time the word “peace” is used in the Gospel of John. He uses it one other time in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. This verse adds two important truths to our understanding of the Holy Spirit. Let’s look at the second truth...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
25 “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. Red letter Bibles are helpful for identifying the direct teachings of Jesus, but they are no more important than any other teachings found in Scripture. Some erroneously attribute more weight to quotations...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. Word of Christ versus the word of the Father? Which is which? If Jesus Christ is God, then is not the word of the Father the same thing as the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. Making sure they don’t mistake what He is saying, Jesus repeats Himself in the negative. Before He said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” Straight answers Jesus gave to the disciples in the Upper Room, though clouded emotions and thick heads...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Unfortunate to have the same name as the traitor, this disciple presents the fourth and last question to their Lord in the Upper...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Young or unlearned Christians can stumble over this verse. Does not Jesus teach in John 3:16...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. Trilogies occur not infrequently in Scripture. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the most central of course. But here we have the Father, Son and us. We take the liberty here to see...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. Oh, to have been there in the Upper Room with the disciples to see Christ in person, how could anything possibly be better than that? To experience His...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” “Orphaned” is how Jesus described to His disciples their lives without Him. What a terrible thing to consider, life without the personal presence of God. For many people their religion views God only as...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Great concern that good parents have for their children is to provide for them after they are gone. A well laid-out will with a wealthy inheritance makes a poor substitute for a father. Although in His absence,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
17 “ … that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Truth in the person of the Spirit, will be with us forever. In a world today where media has...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
17 “… that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” Helper is synonymous with truth. That is the One the Father will be sending (in our case, has...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever …” “Another Helper” will be given to us at the Son’s request. The third person of the Trinity is now in this world to be of assistance to us. Do you believe that? We...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever …” Ever wonder what the Trinity members say to one another, this mysterious one God who exists in three persons? If you find that unfathomable to contemplate, you are in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever …” New presence, in light of Jesus’ imminent departure, will enable the disciples to carry on the mission, to carry the good news to all the world. This Upper Room teaching...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. Repetition is a key to interpretation. Jesus uses the phrase, “If you love Me…,” repeatedly in the Upper Room. The grammatical form is identical to the previous statements of our Lord, “If you ask Me anything in My...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” The “anything in My name” covers a lot of ground. What are those things that would be appropriate requests? Obviously,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Martha had already concluded that Jesus had a special inside access to God, as she exclaimed to Him, “Even now I know...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” Pithy statements on prayer abound. Nothing is more simple and to the point, and “pithy,” than Jesus’ own statements...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” One of the challenges of the Upper Room teaching is determining how much is aimed specifically at the...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” Did Jesus speak generically when He made this promise concerning, “he who believes in Me,” in which case...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” Speaking to the future apostles (who they were going to be), not the present ones (who they are now in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves.” Question gives way to command. “Why don’t you believe?” gives way to “You should believe.” Not strictly a command, but what is called a “hortatory”...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Incredulity balanced with love, Jesus does not reject the disciples for their...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
10 “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” Yes, there was enough evidence linking Jesus to God, as Jesus indicated in...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” Gently reproving Philip, the Lord challenges him that he should already know these truths...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Philip’s turn, as Thomas slinks to the background, the third one of the disciples to venture an interaction with the Lord. Not wanting to be overly ambitious and risk rebuke, his concern is not...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” They just didn’t get it yet, or we should say, they just didn’t get Jesus yet. Not quick studies, these disciples! But dare we judge them from the vantage point...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Life ain’t nothin’ but a funny, funny riddle…”—so goes a catchy country song. Apart from Christ, our human existence can be confusing, frustrating, making no...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Philosophers seek the truth. Libraries on university campuses around the nation have written over the front entrance to their sacred halls, “Ye shall...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” There is one, and only one way to God, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who lived in history. All roads do not lead to God, contrary to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Ringing through the centuries, the centrality of the person of Jesus Christ for all of existence is proclaimed, and that by none other than Jesus Christ...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
4 “And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Simple language to convey a seismic change in thinking, Jesus simply says, “You know the way where I am going.” Yet they could not go...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Finally, Jesus assures them that His leaving them will only be a hiatus, a temporary situation. They could not possibly imagine life without...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” Heaven is going to be better than you or I can imagine. The Lord uses images from our experiences to describe our ultimate living...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” Never has there been a more timely message than this one. In the face of growing despondency and confusion, when everything looked to the disciples like it was going downhill fast, Jesus...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.” Second bomb dropping, Jesus gives the haunting assessment of Peter’s claims to loyalty. What could this brave disciple be...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” Loyalty asserting, Peter asserts his fidelity. If anyone was devoted to Christ it was this man. Allegiance was his middle name. At least that is what he wants to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” All the talk of love seemed to miss Peter, the consensus spokesperson for the twelve. Praise God for this character in the story...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Talk, liturgy, doctrinal correctness, morally faultless, known for wisdom—all are good things, but they do not mark us out as Christians. Many religions of the world espouse...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Standard of love can be a self-defining, relative sort of thing. To love as you have been loved depends upon the love with which you have been...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Love is central to Christianity, so central that even non-Christians recognize it as the “supposed” defining characteristic of those who claim to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’” With great affection, Jesus refers to His disciples as “little children.” John, the Gospel chronicler,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
32 … if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. Finally, the fourth movement of glory is that God “will glorify Him immediately.” This is where things become concrete, where glory becomes tangible, down to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
32 … if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. Secondly, “God is glorified in Him.” “He has explained Him,” John writes in his account (John 1:18). The word “explained” means to fully bring out the essence of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
32 … if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. Glory is what God is all about. Five times the word “glorify” appears in this and the preceding verse. The disciples were being introduced to an unveiling of God...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
31 Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him … With Judas now gone, the about-to-be-crucified-Savior-of-the-world begins to take His faithful disciples deeper in their preparation for His departure. As...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
32 … if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. Finally, the fourth movement of glory is that God “will glorify Him immediately.” This is where things become concrete, where glory becomes tangible, down to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
30 So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night. No time to waste, the betrayer exited the intimate circle of fellowship—and fast was the fall thereof. Sometimes when the tares among the wheat have participated for so long in the close...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
28 Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. 29 For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the feast”; or else, that he should give...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
27 After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” One cannot worship the risen Savior without contemplating His rejection and suffering. Dark and gloomy as it is, scenes like this passage weave the black...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
26 Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Never one to give a simple answer, Jesus answers John (and Peter’s question)...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
25 He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” John was in the privileged position, at the side of the Lord Jesus in the Upper Room, close enough to lean back against Jesus as they reclined around the dinner table, as was customary in those...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
24 So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” Indications of an eyewitness testimony, John pictures for us the gesture of Peter. The two must have been some distance apart at the dinner table as they reclined, but...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
23 There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Stark contrast with the betrayer, we find the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” Could this be the author’s method of making sure the reader sees the contrast. He knew Jesus loved him, there was...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
22 The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. We the readers already know what the principle support-actors in the play do not, namely which of them would betray the Master. They had no clue. In fact, the story line has...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
21 When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” Calm, cool and collected, Jesus seemed to be calm up until this point. But that was now changing. Though Son of God, He was...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” John 13:20 Ambassadorship befits those who follow Jesus—implicitly. We carry this responsibility because of our association with Him—really,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. One of the unique phrases as recorded by John the gospel writer is Jesus’ use of “I am.” With simple, yet powerful imagery Jesus was the Master of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
19 “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Prophecy at its most basic is simply telling ahead of time what will happen. With mere humans, some may have remarkable intuition, a sense of what will...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
18 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ Jew Testament use of the Old Testament at times challenges the interpreter of Scripture. Here...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
18 “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ Most incredibly ironic, “didn’t see that coming” plot twist ever written, is this story of Judas’...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
17 “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Blessing is what God loves to do. And throughout the teaching of Jesus, He talks about blessings. Probably the most well known teaching on this subject is the eight-fold blessing of the beatitudes. The most...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
16 “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. Had Jesus not begun this with the double “truly” we might miss the import of His statement. It is like He is saying, “Now listen...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
15 “For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Modeling is big in Christianity. Not the showing of fashions, but the emulation of behavior and attitudes. Our primary example is found in the Lord Jesus Christ, yet there are times when Paul...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
14 “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. Contemporary Christianity is in a backlash mode, like a pendulum swinging away from religious obligations to religious freedoms. After all, if we are saved by grace...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
13 “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. Meekness does not negate objective acknowledgment of one’s status. Christ had no problem acknowledging that He was in fact Teacher and Lord over the disciples. He provides the perfect example of true...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
12 So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? When Jesus asked a question, He was not looking for information. Being the master teacher that He was, the goal was to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” A second question arising from this verse is this: if Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him, why didn’t He stop the betrayal. Jesus could have revealed the plot to...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
11 For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” Jesus knew Judas was going to betray Him. We know it already, because most of us have heard the stories of Jesus Christ repeatedly. Plus John had already made reference...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
10 Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” Contrasting most other NT documents, this Gospel writer spoke in picturesque story form with much dialogue. Simple...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
9 “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!” Peter has been much maligned by Christians for his impetuousness, and this may not be altogether misplaced. However, we must tread carefully lest we inadvertently judge ourselves...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
8 Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Stark relief, that’s what Peter provides to the Upper Room story. Almost the foil. In his honest, though impetuous reaction, he provides Jesus...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” A young seminarian, bored with a minute point of theology, sardonically intoned to his professor, “I don’t see the relevance of this.” The man of God responded,...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” First recipient in this normally routine domestic chore was Peter. Hardly would anyone have rejected such an offer of hospitality in that culture, being an expected courtesy from any decent...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
5 Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Details that fill out the story, on the way to a great moral lesson of serving one another? True, but nothing the Lord did or that...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
… 4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. So begins the premium illustration of Philippians 2:7-8, the model for us to follow in our behavior toward one another. Imagine in your mind’s eye the Creator and Sovereign of...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God … Second on His list of things known was that “the Father” had assigned ownership to Him over all things. We already know from...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him … Characters in the story come to the fore. Christ, of course, is front and center, and “His own” are there as well, that is, the disciples. The timing is...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Twice we see Jesus “knowing” in this, the first part of the Upper...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. The Upper Room discourse took place in the context of the Passover...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
Context is important to understanding a story. In our passage of John 13-17, there are different levels of contexts. The first, of course, is the physical context, namely Jerusalem (12:12), during a supper (13:2), just before the Passover celebration (13:1), the night...
by Chuck Gianotti | The Upper Room
Intimacy with the Lord on the human front reached its zenith in the Upper Room, the scene of the Last Supper of our Lord with His disciples, the night before His crucifixion. Jesus’ final briefing for them to carry on His mission lies exposed for all to read. Like the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
23 Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. 24 Greet all of your leaders and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. 25 Grace be with you all. Final words of a letter usually carry personal comments to or...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
22 But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Urging is the work of the shepherd-heart who not only desires that Christians know the truth, but that they respond to the truth. The writer of Hebrews has written this...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Equipping the readers, in one sense, is the purpose of this book; equipping them to live life well...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord … Closing statements of a NT book are often overlooked as non-essential wrap-up to the other more “meaty” parts of the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. 19 And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner. Urgent call for prayer is the hallmark of a Christian, the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. Fundamental to Christianity is an understanding of authority and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. In the midst of reflecting on the deeper trenches of spiritual profundity, as afforded in the book of Hebrews, we risk running aground on the shoals of academic buffoonery. After...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. Priests as we now are (Rev 1:6, 1 Peter 2:9), we join in the ranks with Christ, the new and exceedingly superior High Priest....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. How ironic, that we who join Christ “outside the camp bearing His reproach” (vs. 13) are really seeking something better than to be accepted back into the old way of life and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. The death and burial places of Christ have been disputed by various traditions. According...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Casual...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Hinted at in the previous verse, the comparison becomes clear. The “foods” of verse 9 refer to the animal and grain offerings brought to the temple during life under the Mosaic...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. To be strengthened by grace—how does one do that? Grace comes from God, it is...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
9 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited. False teaching proliferates in the Christian world. That should not surprise...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Eternally consistent, unified, steady, unchanging, dependable, constant, unfailing, stable, unswerving, transcendent. The list of synonyms could go on. Jesus existed before His birth, the second person of the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
7 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Memorials help in Christian life and growth; they give us models of Christlikeness to follow in a fallen world, a human picture to which...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 6 so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Confidence is that which we must have to enter God’s presence (Heb 4:16, 10:19). To draw near to God is not for the timid or reticent, but for the bold in faith. If...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
5 Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” Love of money contrasts with love of the brethren, the imprisoned and love of one’s...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
4 Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Catch-all is the word we are tempted to use of this last chapter of Hebrews. But, lest we think this string of seemingly random...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Compassion is a hallmark of Christianity and it has been from the very beginning. Jesus spoke of judgment as hinging on this very thing....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Not your grandmother’s Sunday afternoon dinner with the visiting preacher, this command of hospitality! The word play is unmistakable. In verse one, we are...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
1 Let love of the brethren continue. Moving from God’s judgment to the topic of love, theology and warnings give way to practical Christian living. Chapters 1-10 of Hebrews laid out the superiority of Christ over all else, chapter 11 focused our attention on the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 29 for our God is a consuming fire. Warnings in the book of Hebrews are powered by the character of God. He is not to be trifled with because He is a “consuming fire.” Thus the book of Hebrews does not present suggestions and alternatives, but warnings (see also...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe … What then motivates a person to live a righteous life? For many it is ultimately the fear of judgment...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Temporary and unsteady world is what we live in. The physical universe is shaky and tottering....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” We left off in verse 24 with being told of having come to a new Jerusalem and to Jesus as the mediator of the new covenant. I...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. Terse warnings in the letter to the Hebrews point out the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. Reprising the teaching from previous chapters, we are reminded that our new standing is that of being identified with Jesus, “His Son” (1:2). In...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect … As believers in God’s grace through Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice, we have been called into...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels … Contrasting the old with the new, the writer of Hebrews continues to show the superiority of Christ over the Old Testament system of law. In verses...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; 16 that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. Life of faith includes pursuing peace. Remember the first eleven chapters of Hebrews beautifully laid out the case for faith in Christ who is superior to the angels, Moses,...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Slumped shoulders and wobbly knees might be an apt present day...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. One of the truest and most obvious statements to be made is this one: “All discipline for the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Sonship and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin … Wrestling with sin for many people amounts to the “normal” struggles of life: paying the bills, saving for the future, finding the right life partner, career, car, house, etc....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Let’s consider Christ, as the passage suggests. How did He suffer? We could look as early as the forty day fast and temptation in the...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Misery loves company, the saying goes, a cheap alternative to this verse. But here we discover that those who suffer can be inspired by others...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Supreme focus in the Christian life is none-other than Jesus. While...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us … Turning the corner from theology and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. As great as was their faith, and having “gained approval through...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
38 … of whom the world was not worthy … Unbelieving, God-rejecting persecutors of believers treat followers of the creator God of the universe as unworthy of life. The penchant for ridding life of such miscreants, in their opinion, would make the world better off. As...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, The cascade of faithful people goes on. How does one select individuals for God’s Hall of Faith, there are so many examples. Four...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Examples of great faith are not limited to the great patriarchs; the attention now turns to a non-Jew, a prostitute by the name of Rahab. She...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. Under new leadership and after forty years wandering in the desert, the people of Israel continued their walk of faith. Actually, their faith had taken a four-decade hiatus! At...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. Miracles seemed to occur quite frequently in the Bible, and so they did—at certain, well-contained time periods. Abraham...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. Firstborn” was a position, a status in the ancient world. Often it meant a double portion of the inheritance and authority in the family...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. Think about it for a minute. God told Moses that a death angel would fly over the land to kill the first-born of all, both humans and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. Ten times Moses faced Pharaoh; ten times Pharaoh vented anger on Moses and the people. The exalted law-giver never gave way to fear – and he led his people out...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
… 26 considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. Economically speaking, faith doesn’t make sense, at least in Moses’ case. That is especially provocative in light of the present day “health and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
25 [Moses] … choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, One thing it is to identify with a group of people when there is great benefit, but it is another thing to do so when that would mean suffering with...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter … Told in many Sunday School classes and children’s summer camps, the story of Moses resonates to all ages. In some regards the plot line is very simple, yet as with much of...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. Four hundred years passed with the absence of any notables of faith until the parents of Moses...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones. Miniseries of Joseph’s life are well known. The eleventh son of Jacob, the first of his favored wife Rachel’s, he was the love of his father....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
21 By faith Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. Next in the “Hall of Faith” is Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. One would think Judah would be son in focus here, since it was through him that...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. Legacy of faith becomes characteristic of Abraham’s son, Isaac. Compared to his father Abraham and his son Jacob, much less is known about Isaac. Most of what we know is about his finding and...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Abraham’s relationship with God was based on a genuine faith and it was tested. This incidence of offering up Isaac occurred in Genesis 22, after...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. What was Abraham thinking? He obviously was sure that God had commanded him to offer up his son Isaac. Whether or not human sacrifice was the norm in...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” Why Isaac? What about Ishmael? Islam claims that the Jews and Christians have it all wrong, that Ishmael, as the firstborn, was the son of promise, not Isaac. Of course, that would require...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son … Stretching—that’s what this test was all about. Abraham’s faith was being stretched. God had promised him innumerable descendants...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. What an amazing thing—God is not ashamed of those who follow Him, no matter what the world says of them....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. The option always remains for the Christian to turn back. And in fact, that was the temptation of the readers, to turn back to the old way of...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
12 Therefore there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead at that, as many descendants as the stars of heaven in number, and innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. One must see the humor in this annotation, this colloquial expression of faith....
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
11 By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Certain heroes of the faith are somewhat enigmatic. Sarah is one of them, for in the actual reading of the story in...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
10 for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Property, land, cities—all things that give us a sense of security, no less today than it was back in the day of Abraham. There is something about owning a portion of land...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise … Static is not an adjective used of faith. Rather, biblical faith is dynamic and living. Abraham’s commendation was...
by Chuck Gianotti | Hebrews
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. One of the most frequently mentioned Old Testament characters in the New, Abraham is most frequently...
