On Sunday, April 27, we’re going to begin a journey. A long journey. A journey with Jesus. Starting the week after Easter and ending April 26, 2026, we will spend our Sunday mornings slowly reading through the Gospel of John. Over this year, we will read the entire Gospel of John together: all 21 chapters, all 879 verses, all 18,635 words.
“Why John?” You may ask. “Why spend a year on one series?”
Certainly, a year-long series is new for us. Most of our series are between six and eight weeks. To really understand this good news of Jesus, we need to go deeper. We don’t want just a glimpse of Jesus, as we might get in a short series. No, we want to see Jesus clearly and deeply. We want to learn from him. Most importantly, we want to encounter him and be transformed by him.
Among the four gospels, the book of John is the most unique in how it tells us about Jesus. The book is a bit more of an insider’s view as John was one of the “inner three,” along with Peter and John’s brother James. John is Jesus’ self-described best friend (John 13:23). He has an important story to tell us about the good news of Jesus Christ.
John writes his gospel for a simple reason: “You may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:35). Life in Jesus is both eternal and abundant (John 10:10). Life in Jesus is the hope of resurrection (John 11:25). Life in Jesus is the way to truth and the Father (John 14:6).
Along with this series, we are producing a Bible reading guide. While devotionals with a reflection based on a short passage can be really helpful, I fear sometimes they create a spiritual practice of reading about the Bible instead of actually reading the Bible. This is not that. We need to develop the spiritual muscles of reading the actual words of the Bible in a consistent, slow, deliberate process. These guides will be available as we begin our series.
My prayer for us as we begin this journey is that we may, as John the Baptist says in John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I hope you’ll join us and invite a friend.