The Gospel of John in 21 days

Day 1

Quick overview. First who wrote it. This is not written by John the baptist. Instead it is written by John the disciple, who becomes John they Apostle. He is the same person who wrote 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, as well as the book of Revelation. In the Gospel of John, he refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

When you read John’s Gospel you will see that there are several things he leaves out that are central themes in the Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here are the main things that John leaves out.

Jesus’ birth

Jesus’ baptism

Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness

Confrontations with demons

Jesus teaching in parables.

he Last Supper.

Jesus praying at the Garden of Gethsemane

The Ascension and Great Commission.

Why does John leave these things out. Because his approach to telling the story of Jesus is different than the other Gospel writers.

Matthew is the most Jewish Gospel. So Matthew starts out with Jesus family tree. He traces Jesus family tree, through King David all the way back to Abraham.

Mark wants you the reader to know that Jesus is the Messiah, but his gospel focuses on Jesus as a servant.

Luke wants you to know that Jesus is the fulfilment of prophecy, the promise that God made way back with Abraham.

John however wants us to know that Jesus came from Heaven, He not only is the son of God. He is God, in flesh! That is why the first 14 verses start out the way they do. John wants us to know that Jesus is eternal. That He was there when God created everything. He saw Adam and Eve. It was through Him that God brought life to all of creation. John also wants us to know that we encounter Jesus from cover to cover in the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation we see Jesus.

John 1:19–23 NIV

Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’ ”

People were longing, looking desperately waiting on the Messiah, so that He could deliver them from Rome! Not so that He could save them from their sins.

They ask if He is Elijah. In 2 kings 2:11 it tells us that Eliah was taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind, he never died.

In Malachi 3:1 it says

Malachi 3:1 NIV

“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.

Then Malachi 4:5-6 says.

Malachi 4:5–6 NIV

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

So the people expected Elijah to come before the Messiah. That is what the prophet said.

Then they ask him if he is the prophet. Now this is a kind of generic prophet. Moses told the people in Deuteronomy 18:15 that God would raise up a prophet like him to lead them. They want to know if he is that prophet.

It is important to know that it had ben 400 years since God had sent Israel a prophet. Malachi was the last prophet and he lived 400 years before Jesus.

When John the Baptist finally answers them, he quotes another famous prophecy from Isaiah chapter 40, which say that he is a voice shouting in the wilderness to make straight the pathway for the Lord’s coming.

The thing is this is problematic. How can he john the baptist be the voice in the wilderness, if Elijah, or the prophet that Moses promised had not showed up yet. See why the people struggled to believe that Jesus was the Messiah?

So I want to close chapter 1 by saying that It is so important that John the Apostle makes sure that we understand John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. Verses 19 the 41 show us how important it is that John makes the proclamation first that Jesus is the Messiah. Because even though John the baptist denied being the prophet, or Elijah, the people believed he was the one who was to come before the Messiah. So his proclamation that Jesus was the Messiah allowed so many people to believe in Jesus.

Day 2

In Chapter 2 John shows us the evolution of Jesus being revealed as the Messiah, Its the beginning of him proving that Jesus is the promised, Christ the Son of God.

That is why He starts out with with the miracle of changing water into wine.

A couple things about the miracle of turning water to wine. First the fact that scripture say Mary and Jesus were both invited to the wedding. The fact that Jesus the oldest son was accompanying his mother to this wedding almost 100% guarantees that Joseph has passed away. It was a huge cultural insult to refuse a wedding invitation; so If Joseph was alive it is almost guaranteed he would have been there, or an explanation would have be given as to why he was not there.

Jesus statement that his hour has not come tells us that He understands there is a process to revealing His glory. It will not be until after He is resurrected that people will completely believe He is the Messiah.

The miracle was for the people, right. It fixed a problem and saved the family embarrassment; but more so it was for His disciples. It was the nugget they needed to put their faith in Him, as more than just a teacher. But as we will find out later, they still did not fully believe that He was the Messiah until after His resurrection.

Clearing the temple:

The temple that is talked about in Jesus day is the rebuilt temple. It is not the original temple that Solomon built. That temple was burnt to the ground, or mostly burnt by King Nebuchadnezzar in 2 Kings 25 verses 8-17. That is why if you see a TV show about the Arc of the Covenant, or lost temple treasure it is because so many things were stolen from the temple, or hidden before it was destroyed, and they have never been found.

The story of the rebuilding of the temple takes place in the books of Ezra. That is why they people are able to say that it took 46 years to build the temple, there is a historical account of it in the book of Ezra.

Why is Jesus so upset about the market and the money changers in it. Ok, lets spend some time here. This was during passover. A week long feast that every Jewish person needed to observe. It celebrated the exodus from Egypt and the Angel of Death passing over the houses of the Jewish people during the plague of the first born. In order to worship during this festival a person had to present animal sacrifices. In Deuteronomy 12 verses 5-7 the people are instructed to bring the animals from their flock, that way it was personal, relational. But when the temple, and Jerusalem was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar the Jewish people were scattered all over, which meant many of them had to travel long distances for the festivals. So the Temple Priests set up a market that way the people could by what they needed for the festival and sacrifices. Seems to make sense. the problem was they were dishonest, and cheated the people. Think about buying a soda at a sporting event. A 32 ounce fountain pop at the local gas station might cost you $1.50. But the average cost of a 32 ounce pop at an NFL game in 2021 was over 6 bucks. That was the type of mark up at the temple for animals.

Then there were the money changers. They required that people purchase the animals with the local currency and they marked up the exchange rate and literally robed people.

So its easy to understand why Jesus was upset. The last thing is the place where the market was set up, was called the court of Gentiles. It was the outer court of the temple, and it was supposed to be a place of worship that was open to all people including foreigners. Jesus was upset because it was so full of animals and money changers that it made it nearly impossible to worship Yahweh.

The final part I want to touch on about the temple is the 3 days that Jesus speaks about. Recently there has been some teaching out there that says this is Jesus predicting the second temple destruction about in 70 AD which is about 30 years after Jesus died. But this doesn't make sense. In other Gospels Jesus says this and the writer explains this is about his death and resurrection.

Day 3 chapter 3.

There is a lot here, and I am trying very hard to keep these videos to 7 mins or so, with a max of 10 mins. so I cannot touch on everything. But I want to address who Nicodemus is. He is a Pharisee. I am not going to go into a lot of detail, but if you want to know more about the Pharisees and Sadducees there is a really good video on Youtube from got questions ministries. Simply called who were the Sadducees and Pharisees. I don't know anything else about this ministry, but I have watched this video and its good.

Just a couple more things about Nicodemus. he has some belief in Jesus, that is why he came to him at night. He may have been embarrassed by it, again that is why he came to him at night. But it could have also been the best opportunity to spend some alone time with Jesus. Because it appears like this interaction is just with Jesus and him.

Now lets move on water and spirit. I think there has been confusion around this. and I have heard it taught that Jesus is speaking about baptism here. I have heard the rest of John chapter 3 used to defend this. so the thought is Jesus is saying in order to be saved you have to be baptised. Here is why I think that is wrong.

It goes against Jesus teaching on salvation pretty much everywhere else in scripture. It goes against John 3 16-18

And there is no account of Jesus ever baptising anyone. We will talk about that more in just a bit.

So what does water and spirit mean. First water. this is Jesus acknowledging Nicodemus question about birth, natural birth, when asks how a person who is old can be born again. Jesus says water, and flesh gives birth to flesh. So in order to be saved your first have to be born, which is pretty much well everybody. Also everybody other than Jesus who was born needs to be saved because of original sin.

Next Spirit, this is the new birth, the second birth. It is through Jesus sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit that we are saved. We have to receive Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (which happens when you are saved) to go to Heaven.

Its the only way, in 1 Corinthians 15:50 Paul says.

1 Corinthians 15:50 NIV

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

This teaching also blows the idea that all roads lead to Heaven out of the water.

Lets move on the the baptism part in verses 22-36.

Again this scripture has caused a bit of confusion, because of the placement next to the teaching on being born of water and spirit. So I want to revisit what I said earlier. Baptism is not required for salvation and there is no account of Jesus baptising anyone. So lest talk about the second statement first. Because that last portion of John 3 says that Jesus was baptizing and it upset John the baptist disciples.

Well in order to see this all we have to do is jump a head to tomorrow's reading John 4: 1-2

John 4:1–2 NIV

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples.

John specifically says Jesus was not the person baptising. So if baptism was a requirement for salvation it would only make sense that at least one of the Gospels would give an account of Jesus physically baptizing someone. Look at all the accounts of healing, raising people from the dead, turning water to wine, walking on the water, calming the storms, and on and on.

Also think about the story of the thief on the cross found in Luke. In Luke 23 verse 43 when Jesus is on the cross He looks at the thief who ask for forgiveness and to be saved. Jesus does not say to him, well lets jump down find some water, I will baptize you, or get John to baptize you because he is down there with my mom; then you will be saved. Instead he says surely today you will be with me in paradise.