The Gospel of John - An Introduction
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We’re going to begin tonight by simply talking about the Gospel of John. Tonight’s info is more of an informative nature… there will be no real work of interpretation or application…
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In this study, we are simply approaching the book that we will, very soon, be studying.
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Before we move on, even into chapter 1 verse 1… it will help us significantly to consider a few things:
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What makes John different than the other Gospels?
What makes John similar to the other Gospels?
How long did it take for the church to accept and come to terms with the Gospel of John?
Who is John? What do we know about him?
Finally:
What can we expect to receive from this study?
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SLIDE 2
What makes John different than the other Gospels?
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Matthew, Mark and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels. The word Synoptic relates to the word ‘synopsis’… - The term ‘general over view’ would be fitting. It also refers to the ‘taking of a common view’.
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The first three Gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels, because they all agreeably give the story of Jesus in the same format and highlight many of the same events in the same order.
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But John is written differently. John does repeat and overlap many of the Synoptic stories, but he doesn’t give the genealogy of Jesus, there are no demonic exorcisms... John is silent on some of the stories from the Synoptics…and sometimes John tells completely new ones.
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His style of writing is quite different too… this will become evident especially as we move into the first 18 verses. The synoptics take the reader back to the birth of Jesus… but John takes the reader back to .
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They Synoptic wrestle with the early lineage of Jesus, but John goes back to the v ery beginning, describing Jesus, the LOGOs… as both equal to, present with, and still unique from… the God of the OT.
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The intro of this book… the first 18 verses… very dramatically lays out several of the themes that will be touched upon later in the book.
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John also employs different styles in his writing. Many say the Greek he uses is simplistic because he avoids a lot of the flowery descriptive language that the other Gospels use… but in spite of his limited use of fancy adjectives, John does employ a lot of dualistic language, demonstrated in contrasts such as:
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belief and rejection
light and darkness
truth and lie
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Some of the themes that are central to the Synoptic Gospels are missing in John… in particular… the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven… They are huge themes in parables of the Synoptics… but in John they are barely mentioned.
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With John, you will see that there are three distinct years of ministry. He makes mention of multiple feast days that set the years apart and John even lets us know that Jesus didn’t just cleanse the temple at the end of his earthly ministry… he apparently also did it once at the beginning of his ministry too.
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Many people see this as a discrepancy… saying He only did it once, so apparently John’s time line is scattered… but others claim that Jesus must’ve done this twice…
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Where as the other Gospels begin Jesus’ public ministry with His baptism, this one is silent on that event and begins the public ministry of Jesus with the calling of some disciples and the turning of the water into wine.
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The Gospel of John has traditionally been broken up into two books. Chapters 1-12 is called the Book Of Signs… because this is where many of the Lord’s miracles are recorded… and the second half of the Gospel is called the Book Of Glory… focusing on the Lord’s imminent crucifixion… and records lengthy discourses from Jesus to His disciples. - Most notable...
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… is the Farewell Discourse in chapters 14-16...
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The Washing of the disciples feet in 13
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The Lord’s prayer for His disciples in chapter 17
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In John’s Gospel we don’t see Jesus performing any exorcisms… the closest we get is in where Jesus declares that the ruler of this world will be cast out. Also lacking from this Gospel is the account of the Lord’s Supper, and the temptation of Jesus.
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While there are long teachings of Jesus, John doesn’t much in way of parables.. - John does, however, record some very personal and memorable encounters that Jesus had with certain individuals…
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For instance… the stories of Nicodemus (3), The Samaritan woman (4) the interaction with Martha at the raising of Lazarus, several of the private teaching to the disciples… and the washing of the disciples’ feet (13) are in uniquely in the Gospel of John…
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There are many other small differences… but probably the most significant things are the promise of the coming comforter… the HS… () and the 7 “I Am” statements of Jesus.
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I am the bread of life (6:35, 41, 48, 51)
I am the light of the world (8:12)
I am the door of the sheep (10:7, 9)
I am the resurrection and the life (11:25)
I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14)as
I am the way, the truth, and the life (14:6)
I am the the true vine (15:1, 5)
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So yes… John is different than Matthew, Mark and Luke… but that doesn’t make John a contradiction. There’s much about this Gospel that is similar.
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SLIDE 3
POint Two:
What Makes John Similar To The Other Gospels?
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THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE SEE… Is that this is the very same… basic story.
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Israel’s Messiah is announced by John the Baptist… He teaches… He works miracles.... He runs into conflict with the religious leaders… He gets arrested and tried by Jewish and Roman officials… He is crucified… and… MOST IMPORTANTLY… HE IS RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD.
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So… the BIG PICTURE… the big story… - IT IS IN PLACE… And also, there are many overlapping events.
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John the Baptist’s ministry
The feeding of the 5000
Walking on the water
Jesus’ friendship with Mary and Martha of Bethany… and many others..
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No only do the events overlap… but so do many of the sayings.
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Rebuilding the temple in three days (//)
Prophets without honor (//)
Receiving me and receiving the one who sent me (//)
Predictions of betrayal (, //, )
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point three:
SLIDE 4
How Long Did It Take For The Church To Accept And Come To Terms With The Gospel Of John?
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Shortly after the Gospel of John was written, it was recognized a true Gospel and it was collected along with the other Gospels to form a codex that they called the ‘Fourfold Gospel’.
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This book… combined with Matthew, Mark, and Luke, was circulated widely amongst the early church. It was not a scroll… as the first manuscripts were… but a ‘codex’.. a book with separate leaves sewn or glued on one side.
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It was known simply as ‘The Gospel’ or ‘The Four Fold Gospel’… When they first put it together, they didn’t really identify who wrote each of them… it was simply treated as one book originally… but very soon.. it was divided into parts labeled:: ‘according to Matthew’… etc…
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Most scholars believe that these divisions weren’t really recognized before about AD 125… but no one really disputed that different apostles wrote different accounts… it just wasn’t really a big deal to the very early believers who had access to the Codex and the stories within.
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The writings of John were accepted and quoted amongst believers and Gnostics alike. The Gnostics didn’t believe that anything of the flesh could not be good… only the spiritual was good… everything else was evil. And yet… they took to the writings of John… because, of all the Gospels, his was the most -non miraculous.
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Of course, they had to re-interpret the words of John to fit into their heresy… but that’s not the importance here… the importance lies in the fact that John was quoted by these groups early on… - This lends validation to the early presence of writing and the widespread distribution of it.
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Some of the earliest church leaders who attested to it included one of John’s students, a guy named Polycarp, and a contemporary of his, who may also have learned under John named Papias. A student of Polycarp named Ireneuas… and many others… including… Clement of Alexandrea and Tertullian.
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Clement wrote: “But that John, last of all, conscious that the outward facts had been set forth in the Gospels, was urged on by his disciples, and, divinely moved by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel.”
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A student of Justin Martyr named Tatian… composed the first ‘harmony’ of the fourfold Gospel: He took the books apart and weaved them together into one continuous narrative. To do this, he used the Gospel of John as the framework and fitted the stories of the other Gospels into it.
How long did it take for the church to accept and come to terms with the Gospel of John?
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This would not have been written this way… with John as the back bone… if there had been questions about the authenticitiy of the book.
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By the end of the 2nd century… the Gospel of John was pretty much accepted by everyone… except one small group. They were called the Alogoi… They were a sect in the Roman church… and one of the main figures of this movement maintained orthodoxy at every point except for his rejection of John’s Gospel and the Apocalypse.
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The group faded away… which is cool. I wish we would see more groups who deny scripture fade away…
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By the end of the 2nd century, there was agreement in the church as to the authority, canonicity and authorship of the Gospel of John.
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SLIDE 5
Who is John? What do we know about him?
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THE NAME JOHN… corresponds to the OT name Jonah.
when he first came onto the scene.. he was quite young and certainly the youngest of the 12. Many account the differences in the way it was written to the fact that his experience of Jesus’ ministry was seen through the eyes of a much younger man....
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His relatives are known to us… His father was Zebedee and his mother was Salome who may have been a sister to Mary, Jesus’ mother… making John a cousin to Jesus.
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His brother was James, and due to the fact that they are generally named: James and John, in that order, it’s accepted that James is the older.
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John came to Jesus by first being a follower of John the Baptist… as a disciple of the Baptist, it meant much when his teacher looked at Jesus and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God’.
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He was so impressed by the recognition of John the Baptist, that he willingly left him and followed after Jesus. One day, while following behind Jesus… the Lord looked back at him and ask what he was seeking.
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John’s answer was odd… - “He simply asked… “Teacher, where are you dwelling?” - To which Jesus answered… “Come and See”… so John did.. - from then on.
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John brought along his brother James as Peter brought along Andrew and they fell in early on as followers of Jesus.
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John took the role of caring for Jesus’ mother after his death… he went on to be a great leader in the early church… and even though he too faced persecution, it did not kill him. Tradition says that they tried to kill him… even lowered him into a vat of boiling oil… but he survived.
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They imprisoned him on the Island of Patmos where he wrote Revelation.
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If John is presenting a unique message, what is he intending to show us?
Finally:
SLIDE 6
What can we expect to receive from this study?
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HOPEFULLY… We become better acquainted with Jesus. Hopefully… we never become too old, too knowledgeable… too experienced… too wise… to NOT become impacted by the person… the life… the teaching… the example.. the ministry… and the miracle of Jesus.
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That’s what I want from this study.
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I want to focus intently on who Jesus is… not just in this Gospel… but in the Gospel of today… the good news of right now… the Good News that we walk in, believe and embrace.
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It used to be… that was the most well known verse in the Bible.. Now, it’s probably.. (judge not)… everyone knows it, but they are clueless to the meaning.
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I would hope… that in this study… what is true, good, and spiritual… will be the thing that impacts us and becomes famous to us.
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I want the familiar message of , to speak powerfully to us… not just in the Nicodemus encounter… but in every encounter throughout the whole book.
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To tell you the truth… we were planning on doing a different kind of study on Wednesday nights… and we might still do that study down the road… but I’m excited about this one.. - We have a lot to learn anew, about who Jesus is… and I pray we learn it all again… and that it impacts our lives in ways it never has before.