The Caldwell Commentaries Podcast

This is the continuation of the Lord's very comforting "Good Shepherd Sermon" of John chapter 7.   We discussed Him in the last lesson as "The Scriptural and the Saving Shepherd," and, in this lesson, He presents Himself as "The Sacrificial Shepherd" (giving more predictions of His voluntary death - and resurrection), "The Solitary Shepherd" (who brings both Jew and Gentile into one fold, under one Sh...

John 10:1-10

John chapter 10 is one of the most beloved chapters of the Bible for believers in Christ. This is the first part of the Lord's "Good Shepherd Sermon," which presents Jesus Christ in His tender role as the good, gentle, and caring Shepherd of His flock.  There is a deep sense of security to the believer who reads this chapter and realizes he has a Shepherd Who knows him so intimately and ...

This continues our look at the glorious biblical account of the first man to directly suffer for Christ's sake, the beggar who was born blind and healed on a Sabbath by the Lord Jesus.  He was callously excommunicated from Judaism by the cold-hearted, anti-Jesus Sanhedrin Council of Israel!  However, the Good Shepherd found him after he was "cast out" by Israel's false shepherds, and led him into the ...

John 9:8-41

The man born blind, healed by Christ in this chapter, represents the spiritual condition of the unsaved person (we give six ways this is true).  The Lord's merciful dealings with the poor, blind beggar present a 7-step picture of the work of God in salvation (we present them in this lesson).

To this point in the narrative of Christ's healing of the blind beggar of John chapter 9, the man h...

John 9:1-7

The Lord often performed a miracle to serve as a living illustration for a message containing spiritual truth.  In John chapter 9, His living illustration and confirmation of His "Light of the World Sermon" was a man born blind who He (Christ, the Light of the world) healed!  The greatest miracle in this chapter, however, is not the opening of the man's eyes, but the opening of his heart t...

John 8:48-59

This is the last part of the Lord's "Light of the World Sermon".  There are many interesting verses in the last section of what we call the Lord's "True Emancipation Proclamation".  Jesus asked the religious rulers if they could point out any sin in His life; their silence speaks volumes, although they resorted to name-calling.  They said He was a "Samaritan" (which they considered one o...

John 8:31-47

"The True Emancipation Proclamation" is the title for a two-part study, which continues and completes the Lord's "Light of the World Sermon" given in the Temple Treasury, the day after the Feast of Tabernacles.  He spoke about true freedom and how anyone can find "Emancipation from Enslaving Sin" (8:31-41a), "Emancipation from Evil Satan" (8:41b-47), "Emancipation from Eternal Separation"...

John 8:13-30

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, John designed his account of Christ's life so that 3 wilderness pictures of Jesus are presented in sequential order in chapters 6, 7, and 8.  In chapter 6, manna was given as a picture of the Lord, the True Bread of Life Who came down from Heaven.  In chapter 7, the water from the rock in Horeb was given as a picture of the Living Water (the Spirit), Who only ...

John 8:12, 20a

Although this lesson only covers 1 and 1/2 verses, it is packed full of Bible "meat"!

After the adulteress woman episode, in which the religious rulers failed miserably to trap Jesus, they tried another approach.  When they heard Him make yet another claim to Deity when He said, "I am the Light of the world,"  they tried to prove Him false, and the resul...

John 8:1-11

In John chapter 8, we find the nation of Israel represented symbolically as God's adulterous wife.  This lesson is the well-know account of the adulteress brought before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees to present Him with a seemingly impossible dilemma.  They figured He could not resolve this situation without either publicly disregarding the Mosaic Law (by saying, "Let her go") or by d...

John 7:32-53

Jesus stood in the Temple, raising His voice to people who thought He could not possibly be the Messiah because they "knew" His origin (birthplace and parentage), but they were wrong.  He gave repeated claims to His Deity (7:28, 29), which enraged the religious rulers, especially when many people did believe Jesus was Who He claimed to be.  The Jews felt it was time to send for the Templ...

John 7:11-31

In this lesson, we discuss the various debates about Jesus taking place in Jerusalem both before His arrival there and following His appearance in the Temple in the midst of the festival week (the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted 7 days).  There are five main divisions to this lesson: (1) Arguments about Christ's Character, (2) Astonishment at Christ's Doctrine, (3) Accusations of Chris...

Luke 9:51-56; John 7:1-10

The Lord now came to the end of His Galilean ministry.  In Luke 9:51, He is headed toward Jerusalem of Judea, and we read these words, "And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem".  It was near to the Feast of Tabernacles with only six months before the Feast of Passover - the one in which Christ wo...

Matthew 8:19-22; Luke 9:57-62

The Lord said His yoke is easy and His burden light, but it does not mean He makes easy and light demands of those who would be His followers (disciples).  He also said those who follow Him in committed discipleship must be willing to deny self and take up their cross.  In this lesson, the Lord encountered three "would-be" disciples - men who claimed they wanted to follow...