Today we start our journey into the book of John. So, I want to begin by explaining a little bit about the Gospels. As you know there are four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The first three, Matthew, Mark and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels, that word synoptic means that they see things together. If you have been paying attention over the past three years, we have covered off the majority of the Synoptic Gospels, and you should have noticed that they all tell the story of the like of Jesus Christ in a mostly chronological order.
In the book of Matthew, we have Jesus presented as King, that is because the book of Matthew speaks to people with a Jewish background. So, you see the phrase King repeated over and over in the scripture, reminding readers of the Old Testament prophecies of the coming King, the promised Messiah.
The book of Mark focused more on reaching the Roman gentiles. Mark says behold the servant, and it is written in a very fast moving and straightforward manner, designed to appeal to the Roman way of rationalizing and thinking.
Luke takes a different approach. It says behold the man, and it includes many details that are brushed over quickly in the other Gospels. This gospel was focused on the Greek gentiles, who explored the deeper meanings of life and its relationship to God, for this reason it is filled with parables.
John is a little different. John says Behold you God. John’s Gospel is a universal gospel, meant to reach people of all tribes, nations, cultures and tongues. It was written to include all people from all times. John 3:16 is a perfect example of this.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The Gospel of John is all about what it means to be in a relationship with God, to be born again as Jesus explains to Nicodemus. Throughout the Gospel we will see three key ideas repeated; signs, belief and life. The whole Gospel of John revolves around these ideas and through them we are given a revelation about our God.
Signs are what John calls miracles. He calls them signs rather than miracles because he says that they are pointing to Jesus’s divinity. When you read of a miracle you have a choice, to believe or not to believe. John puts forth that is you know a miracle is true it has to point to God, and you have to believe. And from that belief, from your faith and trust in that Jesus is in fact the Son of God, you receive eternal life.
John even stated that in his book.
John 20:30-31
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but 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.
John tells us that he recorded the specific signs, miracles, in his scripture so that we could discover the divinity of Jesus Christ through them. He says he skipped over and left out many other signs. The book of John is not a biography of Jesus’s life instead it is just seven of the many miracles that are recorded in the other Gospels.
What are those seven miracles,
The turning of water into wine
The healing of the nobleman’s son
The healing of the disabled man
The feeding of the 5000
The walking on water
The healing of the blind man
The raising of Lazarus from the dead
What is interesting is that only two of these miracles are recorded in the synoptic Gospels. The feeding of the 5000, and Jesus walking on water.
The only miracles that appear in every gospel is the feeding of the 5000.
The Gospel of John is special. It’s different, there is no genealogy, no birth, no boyhood, no baptism, no temptation, no mountain top transfiguration, no Gethsemane, only these signs that point to the divinity of Christ that John has chosen to record in his Gospel.
What we do have are the famous ‘I am’ statement that are made by Jesus and many discourse that are not found in the other Gospels.
There are no lepers, no scribes, no demoniac s, no parables even.
Some people joke that when John wrote his Gospel, he had a copy of Luke’s Gospel and left out all the stuff that Luke put so much detail into, and instead he wrote of all the things that Luke left out.
The Gospel of John has been called the most profound book ever written, it has no parables, but it does have allegories. It also contains the upper room discourse, John covers many of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the upper room discourse which is only one night is chapters 13-17 of the book of John. And it concludes with Jesus praying to his father, recording the actual words that he used to pray.
It is an attested Gospel; the disciples were there are witnessed all of the signs that john records. So, the disciples can attest, can act as witnesses to the truth of the miracles. It is also an apologetic Gospel. John wrote it so that you might believe.
The book of John defends the reality of who Jesus is, the Christ, the Son of God.
We see this in the seven ‘I am’ statements of Jesus Christ
I am the bread of Life
I am the Light of the World
I am the door
I am the good shepherd
I am the resurrection and the life
I am the way, the truth and the life
I am the true vine
Every time he makes one of these statements, (Ego Eimi), he is referencing the Old Testament and say I am God.
The Gospel of John sole purpose is to bring you to belief in Jesus Christ.
Finally notice something in verse 31, once you believe you have life in his name, once you believe the Holy spirit can begin its work in you, changing you from the sinner you are into the person that God intends for you to be.
There are just a couple more fun facts to know before we begin into chapter 1, John, which means beloved, and his brother James were given a nickname by Jesus. They were called the Sons of Thunder, because they wanted to call fire down from the heavens on the Samaritan people when they did not want Jesus to pass through their lands.
John always refers to himself as the ‘one who Jesus loves’ and he was part of the inner circle of disciples Peter, James and John.
Finally, John was the only disciple to not die a martyr’s death. He wrote his Gospel some time between 60 and 90 AD, likely just before he wrote the book of revelation. The three synoptic Gospels were already written and in circulation by the time John wrote his gospel.
He went from being known as the Son of Thunder in his youth to being known as the Apostle of Love in his old age, his heart had been softened by the Holy Spirit that much.
So, with that in mind, let us begin into the first chapter of the book of John.
John 1:1-18
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
In Greek, Logos, is the word that we have translated as word. However, that word has a deeper meaning than a group of characters put together to make a sound. It was a word that was a word used by Philo and other great Greek Philosophers and it meant reason, thought and communication.
John using this word to describe Jesus is interesting, after all Jesus is the Alpha nd the Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Everything, every thought, every emotion, every sensation, everything that humans wanted to communicate to one another is communicated thought the usage of the alphabet, putting it together to make a word and Jesus is the foundation of it all. Jesus Christ is the Word, and he comes to reveal God to us.
Hebrew 1:1-2
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
God speaks to us through Jesus Christ. Hebrews tells us that in the Old Testament God spoke to us through the prophets and in the new testament he speaks to us through his Son, the appointed heir of all things.
If you want to hear God speak you simply need to read your bible. You need to look to and listen to Jesus Christ. If you are wrong about Jesus, you are wrong about God, it is that simple. If you do not have Jesus, you do not have God. The only way for anyone to know God is through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the eternal word, in the beginning the word already existed, and it will exist for all of eternity. This is paralleled by Genesis 1:1 where in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Think about it, science keeps discovering that the more they know the more they do not know. They keep creating new theories and new concepts to try to explain the intelligent design that they discover in things like DNA. Even something as simple as the Big Bang Theory of creation, a sudden unexplainable force acted upon the center of the universe and created everything, but it definitely could not have been God. Really the divine creator of all things could not have started it all off with his WORD!
God created time, matter, space, light in the beginning, and Jesus Christ was there. This is important for us to understand because Jesus Christ was there at the very beginning. We need to know this because there are people who will focus on the word that Jesus Christ was the Son of Man and say that he was a human being that became God. This is one of the teachings of the Jehovah Witnesses, they believe that Jesus was the archangel Michael before he became Jesus. Ironically that was the same teaching that Got Arius slapped across the face by Bishop Nicolas at the council of Nicaea in 325AD. It is a false teaching and a false doctrine, and we need to have no reservation about calling it one. Anyone who does not believe in the trinity is heretical, this would also include the teachings of modal-ism and oneness that are once again becoming common in churches today.
Jesus is the word, and the word was with God. Jesus is a personal God; he was with God the father from the very beginning. The father, the son and the Holy spirit in unity from the very beginning of all things. This leaves no doubt that Jesus was divine.
John 1:3-5
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Now we get to the Word and creation. All things, yes, all things were made by Him. Everything we see, everything we have not yet discovered, was made by Jesus Christ.
The Word life and light of men. Scientists love to debate the origin of life, light and life come from God. He is the one source. This is another of the themes that we will see often in the book of John the contrast between light and darkness. The word light has a sense of moral and ethical rightness, and darkness a place where sin and moral wickedness rule.
Notice it says that the light shines in the darkness, the light shines into the places where fallen and sinful man is, like a lighthouse become shining out on the stormy seas, leading us to salvation. Without the light we cannot be saved.
Men living in the darkness cannot understand God. Talk to someone who is not a Christian, they cannot begin to fathom anything the scripture says, they cannot understand why a Christian chooses to live like they do, they cannot begin to understand because they do not see the light. The light can go into the darkness but notice that the darkness cannot go into the light.
John 1:6-13
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Now we learn a little about John the Baptist, the man sent from God to be a witness to the Light, the baby who leapt in the womb when the mothers met.
However, once we reach verse 9, we get into another of the themes of John. You have two options in this world, to belief in Christ as your saviour or not. To have the Light in your life or not.
Jesus brought light into the world, but men will reject Jesus and choose to live in darkness.
He was in the world and rejected by the world. Think about that, the creator of all things, he spoke it all into existence, and the world did not recognize him. He came into his own and his own received him not. In verse 11 that first word ‘own’ means creation, the whole of the universe, the second ‘own’ means his people, the Jewish people, who also did not recognize him and rejected him, even though they claimed to be looking for their messiah.
In verse 12-13 it tells us of those who believed, they were given the right to be called children of God.
Jesus came into the word he created to bring salvation, and some will have him as their saviour, and some will not. You want to know why Jesus could walk on water, or turn water into wine instantly, or heal the blind or speak a word and raise the dead because he was the creator of all things.
You need to accept Jesus Christ as your saviour, to trust in him, to put your faith in him. Salvation is a gift to humanity from God, but we have to receive it, and when we do, when we humble ourselves and trust and obey in him, we are given the right to be children of God. We live in the light to in the darkness, there is no in-between.
It is very clear in verse 14, you are not saved because you were born into the right people, it is not because of the blood or the flesh. Just because you were born a Christian and went to church does not mean you are saved. I have said it before, ‘God has no grandchildren, only children, it is a personal relationship you need with God.’ It does not matter if you live a good life doing good things, the will of man, that does not get you saved. It is only through God. Through faith in him, the one and only path to salvation.
God regenerates you; God gives you life, God adopts you into his family, it all belongs to God. If you are a good person and a good Christian, it is all because of God. We did the sinning he did the saving.
John 1:14-18
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
The word became flesh.
In verse one and two we have the word, logos, and creation. In verse three we have the word and humanity, in verse four and five we have logos and the witness to the word. In verses six through 13 we have the word either rejected or accepted and in verse 14 we have the word becoming flesh to live among us.
Why?
So that what is said in verse 18 could take place. Jesus Christ came to reveal God to mankind, to people lost in the darkness.
So, as we spend the next year or so on our journey through the book of John, we will discover how the word became flesh to lead his people out of the darkness into the eternal light of salvation and the ways in which we are called to walk as the salt and light of his word in our dark and broken world today.