DAY BY DAY THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 365 TIMELESS DEVOTIONS FROM CLASSIC WRITERS EDITOR AND COMPILER LANCE WUBBELS 5 Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 3 4/10/18 12:35 PM © 2018 by Lance Wubbels Published by Bethany House Publishers 11400 Hampshire Avenue South Bloomington, Minnesota 55438 www.bethanyhouse.com Bethany House Publishers is a division of Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. ISBN 978-0-7642-3073-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935315 Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Interna- tional Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com Scripture quotations labeled amp are from the Amplified® Bible, copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) Scripture quotations labeled amp-ce are from the Amplified® Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org) Scripture quotations labeled kjv are from the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture quotations labeled nkjv are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations labeled nlt are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Cover design by LOOK Design Studio 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 4 4/10/18 12:35 PM INTRODUCTION uring the second half of the nineteenth century, Great Britain was home to some of the greatest expository preachers, biblical scholars, Dand Christian leaders and writers in all of church history. Legend- ary names such as Charles Spurgeon, Alexander Maclaren, Joseph Parker, Hudson Taylor, Catherine Booth, George MacDonald, Alexander Whyte, Frances Ridley Havergal, and others stand out as giants of the church. Their predecessors, including John Wesley, Matthew Henry, and Adam Clarke, left them a rich tradition of biblical and evangelical excellence to follow, and follow they did. On the American side, R. A. Torrey, S. D. Gordon, and Charles Finney were cut from the same cloth, as well as South African Andrew Murray. Over my thirty-five years of working in Christian publishing, I have been delighted to discover a wealth of rich expositions from the classic writings of these revered saints. However, much of what they wrote is not easily accessible, hidden away in out-of-print books or in large, expensive pastoral volumes (some of these writings are now available online). It has remained my passion for years to make these writings available in a popular format and provide readers with the wisdom that lies buried in the old volumes. In this book, I have compiled and edited “the very best of the best” of their inspirational insights on the Gospel of John. Verse by verse, follow- ing the biblical text consecutively through the life of Jesus Christ, here are 365 devotional readings packed with profound biblical commentary, sound wisdom, and practical application for a Christian’s daily walk. Readers will Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 5 4/10/18 12:35 PM Introduction reap an unforgettable understanding into the life, words, and ministry of our Lord and Savior. It is my hope and prayer that these readings will help bring alive for you the Word of God. May they be a source of biblical inspiration that leads to thoughtful meditation, reflection, and abundant worship. Lance Wubbels Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 6 4/10/18 12:35 PM CONTRIBUTORS HARLES SPURGEON (1834–1892) was the remarkable British “Boy Preacher of the Fens” who became one of the greatest preachers of Call time. Coming from a flourishing country pastorate in 1854, he accepted a call to pastor London’s New Park Street Chapel. This building soon proved too small and so work on Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle was begun in 1859. Through Spurgeon’s ministry, the Metropolitan Tabernacle grew into a congregation of more than six thousand, and added well over fourteen thousand members during his thirty-eight-year London ministry. The combination of his clear voice, his mastery of the language, his sure grasp of Scripture, and a deep love for Christ produced some of the noblest preaching of any age. An astounding number of sermons (3,561) have been preserved, from which the readings in this book have been selected and edited. During his lifetime, Spurgeon is estimated to have preached to 10 million people. He remains history’s most widely read preacher. There is more ma- terial written by Spurgeon than any other Christian author, living or dead. His sixty-three volumes of sermons stand as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity, comprising the equivalent to the twenty-seven volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. ALEXANDER MACLAREN (1826–1910) was a Scottish Baptist minister who pastored the Portland Chapel, Southampton (1846–1858) and Union Chapel, Manchester (1858–1903), where he acquired the reputation of “the prince of expository preachers.” Next to Charles Spurgeon, Maclaren’s sermons have been the most widely read sermons of their time. His preaching drew vast Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 7 4/10/18 12:35 PM Contributors congregations and his sermon methods of subdivision and analogies drawn from nature and life have been widely imitated ever since. The eleven volumes of Maclaren’s Expositions of Holy Scripture, from which the devotional readings in this book are derived, are still available today. Of these expositions, W. Robertson Nicoll, a noted New Testament Greek scholar, said, “Will there ever be such a combination of spiritual insight, of scholarship, of passion, of style, of keen intellectual power? He was clearly a man of genius. So long as preachers care to teach from the Scriptures, they will find him their best guide and help.” JOSEPH PARKER (1830–1902) was an English Congregational preacher who was ordained in 1853 to the ministry in Banbury Congregational Church, though his formal education had ceased when he was sixteen. In 1869 he moved to Poultry Chapel in London, which congregation built the City Temple, opening in 1874. There Parker ministered until his death, preaching twice each Sunday and every Thursday morning, earning a reputation as one of the city’s greatest pulpit masters, alongside Spurgeon and Liddon. With an impressive appearance, regal personality, commanding voice, and impeccable diction, he preached authoritatively and appealingly. Only Spurgeon exceeded him in attracting crowds. During 1885–1892, he preached through the Bible. Those sermons were published in the twenty-five volumes ofThe People’s Bible, from which these devotional readings were selected and edited. S. D. GORDON (1859–1936) was a prolific author and evangelical lay minister active in the latter part of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He served as assistant secretary of the Philadelphia YMCA from 1884 to 1886 and then became state secretary for the YMCA in Ohio, serving from 1886 to 1895. An incessant and tireless itinerant speaker, his quiet style of devotional speaking and writing, always illustrated with parabolic stories, had gripping power to hold the attention and stir the heart. He is perhaps best known for his series of books “Quiet Talks about . ,” which have their own unique style, very different from that of other writers of his day and from which these devotional readings were selected and edited. ANDREW MURRAY (1828–1917) was born in South Africa. After receiv- ing his education in Scotland and Holland, he returned to South Africa and spent his life there as a pastor, missionary, and author of many devotional books. He was a champion of the South African Revival of 1860 and one of the founders of the South African General Mission. Lance Wubbels, ed., Day by Day Through the Gospel of John Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2018. Used by permission. _Wubbels_DayByDayGospelOfJohn_NR_djm.indd 8 4/10/18 12:35 PM Contributors ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836–1921) was a Scottish minister often described as “the last of the Puritans.” Educated at King’s College, Aberdeen, and at the Free Church of Scotland’s New College, Edinburgh, he was called to Edinburgh as successor to R. S. Candlish at St. George’s Free Church. During nearly forty years there, he established a reputation as a graphic and compelling preacher to an extent probably unparalleled even in a nation of preachers, and was the author of numerous devotional books. GEORGE MACDONALD (1824–1905), Scottish novelist, poet, and pastor, was one of the most original and influential writers of Victorian Britain.