Quick Overview of The Gospel of John
Quick overview of the Gospel of John, surely does not do the book justice as I highly recommend you reading it, but it does highlight certain verses and discuss the main points behind the book of John
So the Author of John is actually not identified in the book, but evidence does point to it being the Apostle John, son of Zebedee. And is estimated to have been most likely written between A.D. 70 - A.D. 100 towards the end of John's life, after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written. Now whether or not John had the other written Gospels with him at the time he was writing his book, John does offer other unique information that is not recorded in the other three Gospels, also adding supplementary information to help our understanding of events.
So the Gospel of John, and it's overarching theme is that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Son of God. And, by believing this, by believing that Jesus is the Christ, you may have eternal life. And we know this to be the theme, and also to be the purpose behind the Gospel of John because it clearly tells us in John 20:31 where it says, "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." Having been very clear and outright with his purpose, John is the only one of the four Gospels, to have a precise statement from the author about the purpose of the book.
So what I hope to do in this, is not necessarily cover everything in John, as that would be really long and difficult, but rather highlight certain things that really point to the theme of the book and purpose of the book. So tonight, I hope to touch on Who Jesus is, What Jesus said, and What Jesus Did. But before we go into that lets pray.
We will now first look at who Jesus is. So who is Jesus? Some say he is a prophet. Some say he is a good teacher. Other say he's God, the Christ. And still other's say he's just plain and simple crazy. But the reality is, Jesus can't be a prophet or a Good Teacher. No teacher or prophet with any morals could make the claims Jesus did. So that leaves us with two options, Jesus is God, the Christ like he says he is, or he is Crazy. Thankfully though, we know Jesus wasn't crazy, and John knew that too. Jesus is God, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the son of God.
In John chapter 1 verses 1-5 we will look at who Jesus is. John 1:1-5 says,
"1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
Here from the beginning John takes a different approach than the other Gospels. Matthew and Luke start with the birth of Jesus, and Mark starts with the baptism of Jesus, but here, John starts from the very beginning, before the creation of the earth, before time began. John takes the time to establish very early on that Jesus is God, Jesus is the Son of God, and that Jesus existed before the creation of the world. In John 8:58, "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.' " Jesus wasn't some crazy person that we idolized and made into God, Jesus is God, has always been God, and will always be God.
Here are some other specific examples in the Bible where God is applied to Jesus is:
John 1:18
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
John 20:28
Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
Romans 9:5
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all blessed forever. Amen.
Titus 2:13
…waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…
Hebrews 1:8
But of the Son he says, " Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom."
2 Peter 1:1
To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with our by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…
Jesus is God, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Messiah! He is all of those things. In the first half of the Gospel of John, Jesus does 7 signs that point to Jesus being both God and the Messiah.
1. John 2:1-11 Jesus changed water into wine
2. John 4:46-54 Jesus healed the official's son
3. John 5:1-15 Jesus healed the lame man at the pool
4. John 6:5-13 Jesus feeds the 5,000
5. John 6:16-21 Jesus walked on water
6. John 9:1-7 Jesus healed the blind man
7. John 11:1-44 Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead
Jesus is God, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Messiah! And now I want to look at What Jesus said.
Jesus' time here on earth was controversial, his ministry was upsetting many people. Why? Because the things he said were hard to listen to, it was a slap in the face. Some people, took it to heart, and allowed themselves to be convicted by it, and followed Jesus, others were so offended by it that they sought to kill Jesus. So what did Jesus say?
Throughout the book of John, Jesus made 7 "I am" Statements.
1. John 6:35, 48, 51 I am the bread of life
2. John 8:12 K; 9:5 I am the light of the world
3. John 10:7, 9 I am the door of the sheep
4. John 10:11, 14 I am the good shepherd
5. John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life
6. John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life
7. John 15:1 I am the true vine
With these I am statements, the Pharisee and Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus, because they were blinded. Thankfully as Christians, as believers, we know Jesus to be all of these things, but it is important for us to remember, to be humbled, that it is nothing that we have done, but purely by the grace of God that we are saved. In John 6:44 Jesus, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." And in John 15:16 Jesus tell his disciples, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
Now let's move on to the final part of John that I want to touch on tonight, What did Jesus do?
Jesus saved us from an eternity with out God, from an eternity in Hell.
Human beings are relational beings, we need to develop relationships, we need the friends we need other people to lean on, to pick us up when we fall. But the thing is no matter how many friends you have, or how good they may be, none of us are perfect. You and me, we're sinners. Regardless of what you do, no matter how many good deeds you do, no matter how much we donate to charities, we're still sinners. And because we're sinners we separated ourselves from God, we ran in the opposite direction with no way to get back. But thankfully God is full of love, grace, and mercy. John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." Now this is huge. Jesus came down from heaven to save us. Jesus left the streets of Gold, He left the Pearl Gates, He left his throne, Jesus left all of it behind to come down to earth to save us. This isn't even modern day earth we're talking about, this is some 2000 years ago. There weren't computers, cell phones, cars or paved roads. Jesus left a Heaven, to come to a sinful self destructive earth. Jesus left everything behind to save the world, to save us. Jesus left everything behind to save you and me. John 3:36, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
How did Jesus save us? Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." We deserved to die, we deserve an eternity in hell. But God being a just yet merciful God sent Jesus to take our place. To cleanse us of our sins. Jesus died for us. Not just any death, he died on the cross, a death reserved for the worst possible prisoners. In John 19, we see Jesus before Pilate, were he was flogged, and then released to Jews to crucify him. Jesus died a humiliating death for the sake of us. He never forgot why he came, he never forgot that he came to save the very people who killed him.
Romans 5:6-9 says,
"6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-- though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. "
That's the beauty of the Gospel, Christ died for us, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
If it were to end here, if the Gospel were to end here with Jesus dead on the cross, then we would be doomed. But it doesn't end here, Jesus died and after three days rose again.
John 21:25, John's closing observation and statement says, "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." John really takes the time to try to hit it home with us, about how great the deeds of Jesus were. How we will never be able to comprehend all that Jesus accomplished for us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in history. Without the resurrection, there would be no hope for man, no way of overcoming sin, and no way of being united with God. If there was no resurrection, and Jesus died on the Cross and remained in the tomb, then there would be nothing behind Christianity. It is so foundational to Christianity that no one can call themselves a Christian, a believer and deny the resurrection as truth. Jesus said it himself in John 11:25-26, "25I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die…"
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