A Stroll Through John: A Love Story Revealed

By Jim Wick

John was one of three disciples considered the inner circle of Jesus ministry and also referred to the one that Jesus loved. He had a special relationship with Jesus and he wrote his entire account of Jesus’ life and ministry to show “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31). He loved Jesus with all his heart and understood love and wrote about love. The love of God toward humankind and he was determined to show that love in such a way that as many people as possible could experience that love for themselves. Therefore, this book is about explaining John’s understanding of the love of God towards His people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798385002993

Jim Wick

Jim Wick grew up in church and learned to read by reading the Bible. He began his ministry at the age of 23 by planting a church in Montana and later moved to Oregon where he pastored for a few years before going to college to prepare for further ministry. While earning his Ph.D. he was hired to teach at a four-year Bible college where he taught for many years. After leaving there he went to the Philippines where he served as a missionary for 11 years and planted and developed a Bible School that continues to thrive. After moving back to Oregon with his wife and two teenage children, he felt to continue his ministry by writing from his many years of studying and teaching the Bible.

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Copyright © 2023 Jim Wick.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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All Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0298-6 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-0299-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023913138

WestBow Press rev. date: 08/15/2023

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1Purpose of the Book

Chapter 2The Beginning of Jesus’ Signs

Chapter 3Jesus’ Encounter with Nicodemus

Chapter 4The Great I AM

Chapter 5Christ’s Identity Challenged

Chapter 6Christ’s Fourth and Fifth Signs

Chapter 7The Jews Seek to Kill Jesus

Chapter 8The Light of the World

Chapter 9Jesus’ Sixth Sign Healing a Man Born Blind

Chapter 10The Good Shepherd

Chapter 11Jesus’ Seventh Sign Raising Lazarus from the Dead

Chapter 12Jesus Anointed for Burial

Chapter 13I Am My Brothers Keeper

Chapter 14Who is This Fellow Anyway?

Chapter 15The Relationship of Believers to Jesus

Chapter 16The Promise of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 17Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer

Chapter 18Jesus’ Betrayal and Arrest in Gethsemane

Chapter 19The Passover Lamb

Chapter 20The Crucifixion and Burial of Jesus

Chapter 21The Resurrection and Post Resurrection Appearances of Jesus John 20:1 – 21:14

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with most writers, I do not write in a vacuum. There are many people involved along the way. In my case I have learned a lot from my students over the years as I have attempted to teach and have not been as clear as I might have been. This has fostered questions from discerning students who have challenged me with questions that forced me to dig in and research a topic to gain deeper insight.

I have also been deeply influenced by a godly wife who in her own right is an accomplished Bible student and teacher. She has helped me on many occasions understand important points and clarify statements to be better understood and better in line with scripture. Thank you, Grace, for always being my biggest cheerleader and encourager.

I also want to thank my mother-in-law, Kathleen O’Reilly, who was an invaluable help in editing my writing. She was not able to complete the entire book but was very helpful in teaching me some fine points of grammar. As well I am grateful to my daughter Phoebe who designed the cover for this book. She captured the essence of its message perfectly.

And, of course, I have to give my deepest thanks to God the Holy Spirit who gave me the anointing and strength to record the insights He has taught me over a lifetime of walking with Him in life and ministry.

INTRODUCTION

As I begin this second book in the series A Stroll Through, I want to begin by explaining something of my approach to writing. I was born into a fundamentalist family and was taught to read using the old King James Version of the Bible. I attended church run schools through my first year in high school and gained a love for God and His word. However, because of the strictness of the church in which I was raised and a rebellious spirit in me, I walked away from the church and tried to walk away from my relationship with God at the age of 17. But, because of God’s nature of love, He did not walk away from me and through a process of correction and revelation, He led me back to Himself and my love for Him and His word was restored. Thereafter I entered a lifetime of service to Him and ministry in His kingdom. After returning from two years in the military, the last year at a remote Army base in the center of Alaska, I returned to Montana and planted a church which I pastored for several years before moving to Oregon where I co-pastored a church for a few years. During this time in Oregon, I felt the call to return to school and prepare for further ministry.

I did not have any formal training and struggled in the administration of church duties during my time pastoring the church in Montana, and slowly gained insight into my need for higher education. I did, however, recognize my need for a closer walk with the Lord and gave myself to the study of God’s word and prayer. I developed the habit of studying the Bible on my knees and prayerfully reading and meditating on what I was reading. I did not realize it at the time, but later learned that this is exactly what the Scripture means when it says to meditate on God’s word. The word meditate is from the root meaning to chew the cud. Now, in case you are not farmer enough to know what that word means, it means to rehearse over and over again His word in your mind until it becomes an integral part of who you are. Let’s consider what chewing the cud really means both in a physical sense and then in a biblical sense. A cow, or any animal that chews the cud, has more than one stomach, or more accurately, several compartments to their stomachs. When a cow, for example, eats grass for several hours, it will then go and lie down and after a while it will regurgitate some of the grass into its mouth and chew on it some more before swallowing it again. It will then sometime later, regurgitate it again and chew on it some more repeating this process four times until the final time when the grass is ready to be absorbed into its system as nourishment so it can produce milk (for the female) and sustain health and strength.

In the same way, to mediate on Scripture means that you and I read God’s word and then as the day goes by, think deeply about it and ponder what it means. How should I or how could I apply it to my life? In other words, allowing that word to change me by becoming part of how I think, react, and order my life interactions with God and others. I discovered that as I was faithful to read and ponder (chew the cud on) His word, the Holy Spirit was faithful to build His principles into my life, and the more I engaged in this process, the more I fell in love with Jesus and His word.

Growing up I did not do well at all in school thinking I was not smart enough to go on to college, and simply went to work for a Chrysler car dealership upon graduation from high school and learned the auto repair trade. I worked as an auto mechanic for many years and was able to support my family from this trade. This is how I supported my family even while engaged in pastoral ministry in Montana and later in Oregon. I was able to complete two years of college work at a local Bible school while working as an auto mechanic, however, upon enrolling in a four-year degree program at a Bible College, I had to give up the auto repair trade. My wife, upon moving to Oregon went to school and earned her RN (registered nurse) degree and was able to support the family for the first two years of me attending college. Finally, about halfway through my master’s degree program, I was hired to teach at a two-year college and was able to once again contribute to the financial support of my family.

Upon graduation from Seminary and while working on a PhD at Gonzaga University, I was hired to teach at a four-year Bible College, actually the Bible College where I had earned my bachelor’s degree. It was during my tenure there that my wife developed bone cancer and went to be with the Lord. After some time, I remarried and was blessed with a second family. I had three children with my first wife and am blessed with two more children with my current wife.

Now, back to my point of the general approach to writing this series of books. I first learned to read and understand Scripture solely by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, but during my formal education, I had to learn to approach Scripture from a scholarly perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed the academic scholarly approach, but in some ways found it lacking. I remember back in my early years of elementary schooling where I had to learn how to diagram sentences to learn the various parts of speech and their purpose. Of course, the purpose of all those tedious exercises is to make students better communicators. And for the most part it works. I do have to admit, nevertheless, even with all that training, I still must use the expertise of an editor to read and help me correct grammar errors as I write this book. The upside of that is that I am blessed with a mother-in-law who is trained in English and is able to help me edit my writing.

I have found the same principle of value in understanding and interpreting Scripture. I am eternally grateful for the training I received in seminary on the critical study of the Bible and the use and understanding of the original languages. I still use Bible concordances and Bible dictionaries to help me understand certain words and am indebted to Bible historians who bring to life ancient Bible customs and traditions which help us understand the many figures of speech used in Scripture and cultural traditions which bring to light certain practices used as well. Nevertheless, without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and His guidance and insight, all these tools and training are mostly useless. I think of the apostle Paul who was highly trained in the Jewish scripture and yet had to have an encounter with the risen Lord and be filled with the Spirit of God to truly understand those scriptures in which he was so thoroughly trained.

Jesus was extremely specific in a conversation He had with a Jewish scholar by the name of Nicodemus late one evening. We find this conversation recorded for us in John’s gospel. Nicodemus was highly trained in both biblical language and tradition; he knew Jewish tradition because He lived in Jerusalem and taught the people Jewish tradition and the Torah. However, he admitted to Jesus that there was a lack in his understanding and Jesus explained to him that that lack was because he needed the Holy Spirit in order to understand. The Scriptures are Spirit and can only be understood by Spirit. That Spirit is available to any and all who call upon the Name of Jesus and believe that He is indeed the very Son of the God, the promised Messiah. "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63–64 emphasis added).

I also learned some important lessons in my approach to Bible study and teaching while serving as a missionary to the Philippines. After leaving the Bible college where I taught for many years, my family and I moved to the Philippines where we established a Bible school. It was while there that I learned, again, the value of my first approach to Bible study under the influence of the Holy Spirit while on my knees with an open Bible. I could not use a scholarly academic approach to teaching the Bible there but had to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to use me to speak truth from the heart in a simple, straight forward approach. Using scholarly language simply did not work in that environment. I had to learn how to teach in a manner that laymen could easily understand. The Holy Spirit is faithful to allow us frail humans to be used to touch the hearts of His people no matter where they are. God does not look at our academic standing before He is willing to open up our minds and wills to Him and His word.

It is for this reason that I have used the less formal approach to writing in this series of books on the Scripture. The trained Bible scholar will note the formal training is some parts where I have to rely on research and Bible study tools to determine certain facts, but the untrained reader will also notice the Spirit’s activity in the writing. I have chosen to write from the heart, which I trust is from the Spirit, and in a simple non-academic language. I have not done extensive research specifically for this book, but I have had extensive exposure to the contents of this book, through reading it, teaching it, and, most importantly, through chewing the cud on it. My heart is that the reader will determine to read this book from the heart, relying on the Holy Spirit to bring deep understanding and genuine heart change that each one might make a difference in this old world for Jesus and His kingdom.

I also want the reader to understand that this book is written with the assumption that the reader is generally familiar with the major stories contained in the Bible. You will notice that I do not explain every detail of every story that I refer to, assuming that the reader is generally familiar with the content. If I happen to refer to a story that the reader is not familiar with, please stop and briefly read the portion of scripture under consideration to get the whole picture. There is simply not enough room in a book of this kind to include the details of every reference. You will notice that quite often I will use a reference from another portion of scripture to help explain the portion under consideration.

It has been a fascinating journey writing these books and I have had some challenges, especially with copyright laws. For example, when I submitted the manuscript for my second book to the publisher, the only complaint was that I used too much Scripture! Now how can that be, you might ask? Well, I asked the same question, and the response was that the copyright holder to the translation of the Bible that I was using had a legal policy that one could only use a certain portion of any publication containing quotes from their copyrighted work, which in this case was the Bible. I was a little shocked, but that was the law I had to live by as an author. For that reason, I contemplated using the original King James Version of the Bible. The old King James Version is in what is called public domain, which means that one can quote as much as you want without permission or cost. However, because my goal is to allow as many as possible to hear and believe the Scripture and be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, I decided to go ahead and use a modern translation, in this case the New King James Version, so it is clearer and easier to comprehend. I have simply decided to use a little less quoted Scripture and use more paraphrased ideas with the reference in parenthesis such as (see verse). With that in mind, may God’s anointing give you insight as you proceed to look at some depth, at John’s Gospel message.

1

PURPOSE OF THE BOOK

INTRODUCTION TO THE WORK

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