Alright!
Welcome back to this month’s installment of my ongoing Isaac Hunter Online Bible Study. Throughout July, I worked through John 11–15 with several specific goals:
- To examine the significance of the raising of Lazarus as the final public sign before the cross.
- To explore Jesus’ final teachings to His disciples during the Last Supper.
- To better understand what it means to abide in Christ, love one another, and live as His followers.
- To trace the themes of life, resurrection, sacrificial love, obedience, the Holy Spirit, and faithful discipleship.
John 11–15 marks another major turning point in the Gospel. The public ministry of Jesus draws to a close, and John’s attention shifts almost entirely to Jesus’ final days before His crucifixion. The raising of Lazarus demonstrates Christ’s authority over death itself, yet instead of leading everyone to believe, it becomes the catalyst that hastens the leaders’ decision to put Him to death.
From there, the Gospel becomes deeply personal.
Jesus spends His remaining time preparing His disciples for a world without His physical presence. He washes their feet, gives them a new commandment to love one another, promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, describes Himself as the True Vine, and encourages them to remain in Him when trials inevitably come.
These chapters do not merely teach us who Jesus is—they teach us what it means to belong to Him. The focus moves from public evidence to personal discipleship. Jesus’ concern is no longer convincing the crowds. It is preparing His followers for the mission that will continue after His departure.
The question is no longer simply, “Who is Jesus?” It has become, “What does it look like to follow Him?”
– End of Month Study Summary –
!! ISAAC HUNTER’s BIBLE STUDY !!
As with each month’s study, I read through John 11–15 several times, each pass focusing on a different aspect of the text. Rather than trying to answer every theological question these chapters raise, my goal was to observe what John emphasizes and how each event builds upon the one before it.
During this month’s study, I paid particular attention to:
- How the raising of Lazarus serves as the turning point leading directly to the crucifixion.
- The relationship between Jesus’ public ministry and His private instruction to the disciples.
- The repeated commands to love, obey, and abide in Christ.
- The promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit.
- The imagery of the vine and branches and what it reveals about discipleship.
- The progression from public signs to intimate conversations with those closest to Jesus.
One of the things that stood out to me is how deliberately John slows the narrative in these chapters. Earlier in the Gospel, the focus often moves quickly from one sign or encounter to the next. Here, John lingers over Jesus’ final conversations with His disciples, giving them—and us—careful instruction before the crucifixion unfolds.
For a full explanation of my study method, including how I work through each passage, refer to the original post on the Study page.
These chapters move from public revelation to private preparation.
By this point in John’s Gospel, Jesus has already revealed His identity through signs, miracles, and direct claims. But in John 11–15, the focus begins to narrow. The raising of Lazarus reveals Jesus as the resurrection and the life, but it also becomes the event that intensifies the decision to put Him to death.
The miracle points to life. The response of His opponents moves toward death. That contrast sits at the center of these chapters.
From Sign to Sacrifice
John 11–15 shows that Jesus is not moving toward the cross as a victim of circumstances. He knows what is coming. He understands the betrayal, the hatred, the scattering of His disciples, and the sorrow they will experience. Yet He continues forward deliberately.
What stands out is how much of His final teaching centers on love, obedience, abiding, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus does not merely tell His disciples that He is leaving. He prepares them to remain faithful after His departure.
The question shifts:
Not only “Who is Jesus?” but “What does it mean to belong to Him?”
To belong to Christ means receiving His life, following His example, loving one another, abiding in Him, obeying His words, and depending on the Helper He promises to send.
Join the Study
If you are reading along, I invite you to engage in the comments by answering the following questions:
- What stands out to you about the raising of Lazarus and the different responses it produces?
- Why do you think John places so much emphasis on love, obedience, and abiding in these chapters?
- What does Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet reveal about the kind of leadership He calls His followers to practice?
- How does the promise of the Holy Spirit shape the way Jesus prepares His disciples for His departure?
This study remains intentionally transparent. I am not presenting final answers—only careful reading, honest wrestling, and faithful attention to the text.
John 11-15
The Gospel of John opens not by addressing a drifting people, but by revealing a person—Jesus as the Word, the light, and the source of life—and then immediately moves into how individuals respond when they encounter Him; rather than building slowly, John establishes His identity upfront and shows that while clarity is given, responses vary—some recognize Him, some misunderstand, some hesitate, and some begin to oppose—making the central point clear: exposure to truth does not guarantee acceptance of it.
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“Okay, mom,” Randy said.
“You behave yourself and be nice. You’re lucky to have company while you wait for the doctors.”
The woman turned and started back the way she came.
“The nurse said it would be twenty or thirty more minutes, so we’ll eat quick and be back up here before they take you in, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Sorry for him,” the woman said to Katie as she walked by.
“He’s funny.”
Katie grinned.
As the woman left, Katie noticed the boy moving around again on the bed. Before she realized what was happening, the tiny lump disappeared and she could hear the faint sound of bare hands and feet on the tile floor.
He was low crawling under the beds toward her.
A moment later, Randy popped his head out from under the nearest hospital bed, craning his neck around to look up at her.
“Hello, there,” Katie said.
Randy disappeared back under the bed, the bed sheet draping down almost to the floor. Katie could still see three little fingers pressed to the tile.
“What are you here for?” Katie asked, readjusting her seat in the chair, trying to get the ache in her chest to lessen.
For whatever reason, the wheelchair was really uncomfortable.
“Why are – “
Randy’s voice trailed off for a moment as he looked around.
“Why are you here?”
“I’m getting my leg fixed,” Katie said. “See?”
Randy poked his head back out from under the bed and looked at the leg she was pointing to.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“The doctor said it’s broken,” Katie said. “Shattered.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. Ouch.”
“Can you feel it?” Randy asked, able to stay out from his hiding place.
“I can feel it, but it’s not too bad,” Katie said, then tapped the IV in her arm. “This thing is giving me medicine of some kind for the pain. At least that’s what the nurses said.”
“Why are you – “
Randy stopped mid-sentence.
He scooted out from under the bed entirely and slowly crept over to er on all fours.
“What are you, some kind of spider?” Katie asked, giggling a little.
“What are you?” Randy echoed.
He was now only about a foot away from her chair and sat there, his legs folded up under him, gawking up at her.
“What are you staring at me for?”
“I’ve never – “
Randy put out a hesitant hand and ever so gently touched her arm.
“Are you some kind of ghost?”
He looked around again.
“Are you – ”
He leaned in, talking in a whisper.
“Are you dead?”
A nurse came around the corner and stopped abruptly, spotting the empty bed in the far corner where Randy should have been.
“Randy Andrews,” the nurse said, her hands now on her hips. “You get right back into the bed and you stop playing around, please. They are ready for you in surgery.”
Katie watched as Randy scrambled on all fours under the beds and back up onto his, pulling the sheet back over top of himself again.
She started to ask him about his question, but couldn’t get the words out before his parents appeared at the door.
Katie sat there quietly, watching Randy stare back at her from under his sheet. She glanced over at his parents and the nurse, noticed Randy’s dad had no hair on the top of his head.
Are you dead?
What kind of question was that?
The snap of the wheel locks being disengaged on Randy’s hospital bed jarred Katie out of the confusion she was in.
The doctor she’d first seen was now at the door, waiting for Randy.
He was his surgeon.
They wheeled Randy out of the room, his parents following right behind, disappearing to the left, heading for his operating room.
The pre-op room was empty again.
Dead.
Are you dead?
What kind of crazy question was that?
The nurse came back through the double doors.
“It won’t be long now,” she said.
“Okay.”
Katie tried not to think about the dull ache growing just behind her sternum.
The nurse disappeared around the corner as Katie watched the double doors to the operating rooms slowly shut.
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What do you think?