“The Jesus Files”
An introduction to John’s Gospel
“Jesus: He is a path, if any be misled. If any are hungry, He is bread. Those in bondage, He can make free. If any be weak, how strong is He! To the dead, He is life. To the sick, He is health. He is the truest source of joy, and peace, and spiritual wealth.
***Have you ever written a BOOK? No? Me neither!
I look at books…especially LONG books and NOVELS and wonder: “How does anyone ever sit down are think through this progression…so that they start the process and “unfold-unfold-unfold-unfold” until it comes to a CONCLUSION and it MAKES SENSE and it KEPT YOUR INTEREST all the way through??!!
***WHY do people write the books they do??
John tells us exactly why he wrote this book:
John 20:31
These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
This is a VERY IMPORTANT book…with a VERY IMPORTANT purpose!
Purpose of Matthew’s Gospel: “Jesus the King” (offspring of David…King of the Jews)
Purpose of Mark: “Jesus, the suffering servant” (no genealogy…who cares. Can he accomplish the work he came to do?)
Purpose of Luke: “Focus on Christ’s humanity” (“Son of Man”, his life of prayer)
Purpose of John: “Focus on Christ’s Deity” John wrote, INSPIRED and GUIDED by God’s Spirit, to show that Jesus SAID and PROVED that He was God…and his ultimate purpose was that the readers would believe IN Christ and RECEIVE eternal life.
***By the time we’re done…we’ll end up spending about 40 weeks in this book. I’m really excited about this study, and it would be a GREAT study to share with a friend (by inviting them to our church or…this is easy…let them know they can listen on the church’s website)
Let’s get the INTRODUCTORY or BACKGROUND information on this book:
1.) The AUTHOR of John’s Gospel: NOT John the BAPTIST.
***Although the author does not name himself in this book, the early church had no problem identifying him as John the Apostle. The other Gospels indicate that the disciples most intimately associated with Jesus were Peter, James and John. Peter is referred to in this book “in the third person”, and James was martyred too early to be a possible author.
BY PROCESS OF ELIMINATION……..John the SON of ZEBEDEE.
Mark 1:19-20
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
-Brother of JAMES.
Mark 3:17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder
-A FISHERMAN by trade when Jesus called him.
-Close friend of PETER.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke- John appears with Peter more than with any other, and in Acts they are companions in Jerusalem (Acts 3 – 4) as well as in Samaria (8:14). In the Gospel of John, there are INSIGHTS and INCIDENTS about Peter’s ACTIONS and WORDS the other Gospels don’t contain…like what Peter said at the Last Supper…and the RESTORATION of Peter after Jesus’ resurrection (in John 21).
-He was likely Jesus’ COUSIN.
Church history says that Mary was the sister of James and John’s mother…this “family tie” would make it very appropriate for Jesus, from the CROSS (in John 19) to entrust his mother to him.
-Referred to as “the disciple JESUS LOVED”.
John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 21:20
(John 13:21-25) 21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me." 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."
25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
His insights are UP-CLOSE and PERSONAL. He was one of the 12. Of the twelve he was one of the “inner 3”…and he was in a position to SEE and HEAR as much as anyone of Jesus’ LIFE and MINISTRY.
-If there were FLAWS…he would see them.
-If there were INCONSISTENCIES…he would discern them.
-If anyone could have DETECTED that Jesus was a FRAUD…it would have been him.
But he didn’t waiver…he stood with Jesus to the end.
-He was in the court of the High Priest when Jesus was on trial & Peter was denying.
-He was the only male disciple at Jesus’ cross.
-He went with the church through decades of persecution…and maintained his witness that Jesus was exactly WHO HE CLAIMED TO BE to the end!
2.) The SETTING and STYLE of John’s Gospel:
Written from EPHESUS, where John served as a PASTOR for over 20 years.
There is a marble tomb in Ephesus that is NOTED and ENSCRIBED as the burial place of "John the beloved".
With Ephesus as his base of ministry, it would make sense that he had jurisdiction over the seven leading churches of Asia…the churches he wrote about in Revelation, chapters 1 – 3.
Likely written in the late AD 60’s before Rome destroyed JERUSALEM and the TEMPLE.
That destruction took place in 70 AD and the way John writes about the temple Jesus’ knowledge of its FUTURE distress and destruction wouldn’t make sense if it had already happened…but not all biblical scholars agree with a writing date this early. Some suggest a later writing…toward the very end of John’s life.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are SYNOPTIC Gospels.
What does “synoptic” mean? It basically means "to see with the same eye". Though they are written to a different target audience, they deal with much of the same content, in a similar order.
John is more SELECTIVE in his content.
This gospel contains no account of the BIRTH, BAPTISM, or TEMPTATION of Jesus…he doesn’t refer to the LAST SUPPER or the agony in the GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE.
BUT…he does include FIVE miracles of Jesus that the other Gospels don’t mention, His ministry to the Samaritan woman and her village, and His teaching on the GIVING of the HOLY SPIRIT.
John emphasizes PEOPLE, and CONVERSATIONS, and DETAILS in a way unique to this Gospel.
-PEOPLE: Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the man with a sick son, the paralyzed man by the pool of Bethesda, Mary and Martha as they grieve their brother’s death, Peter at the seashore.
-CONVERSATIONS: You must be born again…Whoever drinks the water I give them will NEVER thirst again…I AM the resurrection and the life…Do you love me? Feed my sheep.
-DETAILS: (John 1:39) John remembers that it was 4 in the afternoon when he first met Jesus. (John 2:6) That there were 6 water pots at the wedding in Cana. (John 4:28) That the Samaritan woman left her water pot at the well when she ran to tell her neighbors about Jesus. (John 5:5) That a certain man had been an invalid for 38 years.
These certainly validate that he was an eye-witness to the events!
3.) The THEMES and EMPHASIS of John’s Gospel:
5 “big ideas”, emphasized by how often they are used in this book:
REVELATION: Jesus came to reveal GOD and shed LIGHT into our dark human condition.
John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
***God invades the world…and John writes that in Christ we see the GLORY and REVELATION of God. The darkness FIGHTS against this…but cannot overcome it!
***This doesn’t mean that every PERSON will BELIEVE, but it does mean that LIGHT always WINS!
“I AM”: Only John records these eight statements.
- “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35)
- “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12 and 9:5)
- “I am the door” (John 10:9)
- “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11)
- “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25)
- “I am the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6)
- “I am the vine” (John 15:5)
Jesus was CLEARLY identifying Himself with Jehovah God of the Old Testament. The God who revealed himself as “The I Am”…the ETERNAL and SELF-EXISTENT God.
The Jews of Jesus day knew that when he said “I am” that he was claiming, “I am Jehovah of the Old Testament.” No wonder they were angry and, on more than one occasion, took up stones to try to kill him.
(John 8:58-59)
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple."
LIFE: Eternal and abundant available through CHRIST.
-Life is BIOLOGY…but the Bible says it is MORE than biology.
-Life is CONSCIOUSNESS…but the Bible says it is MORE than consciousness.
-Life in its FULLEST SENSE is SPIRITUAL…this is the component of life that has been STOLEN from the individual through sin…and this is the component Jesus came to RESTORE!!!
BELIEVE: (Used 98 TIMES in John) Must be both INTELLECTUAL and ACTIVE.
This is the MOST USED concept in John’s Gospel. He didn’t write this book to simply cause people to put THIS “world view” up against their “world view”. He is puts the CLAIMS of CHRIST before the reader and reminds them that God demands a response.
***Think about John 3:16- The CHALLENGE to RESPOND is right there:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
POWER: Only John’s Gospel contains the promise and explains the ministry of God’s HOLY SPIRIT.
-The Spirit is essential to salvation: “Unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
-The Spirit is essential to satisfaction: “Whoever drinks of the water I give them, will never thirst again.”
-In the upper room discourse (John 14-16) the Spirit is promised to all who will believe in Jesus and His ministry is essential in their relationship with God.
The final word: An adequate “Christology” needs:
A HUMAN Christ to redeem us...
Jesus was truly human, and felt hunger, and thirst, He experienced pain and tears and temptation so mankind would know that He really LOVES His rebellious creation THAT MUCH!
...And a DIVINE Christ to reveal God’s nature. Jesus is truly God, He is ONE with the Father and yet He walked on this earth to show how PERFECT and POWERFUL God is. That nothing…not even death…has any hold on Him.
“Be PERFECT…even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” Impossible! How??
Illustration: When I was a teen, I was a "helper" in a children’s church program. There was a young boy who was a disruption every week in class and the teacher asked me to sit near and "deal with" him that week. Yelling at him hadn’t helped. Isolating him seemed to have no impact. He obviously felt that "any attention was good attention". As the teacher began with the lesson I could see him getting ready to cause trouble and simply put my arm around the back of his chair and gently laid my hand on his shoulder. No pressure. No pinch. Just a gentle reminder I was there, and believe it or not, he relaxed and "surrendered" to the feeling that someone was there with him.
A Spirit-giving Christ came to help us live holy lives. He CAME…and He GAVE…so we CAN give our lives to Him in the confidence that He first gave Himself for us.
