Seeing the Bible with 2020 Vision: John

Introduction: As we continue our survey through the Bible, we come this week to the 4th and final Gospel—the book of John. If you have been with us throughout the past few weeks of our study, I ended last week’s message by referring to the synoptic Gospels. If you recall, I mentioned that M,M,L all fit together to give three different perspectives of Christ. As you will see this morning, John does not fit into the category of a synoptic Gospel because He chose to share a completely different perspective of Jesus than the other three. In fact, if there was a word of the day it would be “unique” we are going to see that John’s Gospel is a very unique eyewitness account.

Now, I’ll dig into that more in a moment, but before we get into our study this morning, there is something I want to say about John’s Gospel. First, some of you may have heard me say that when working with a non-believer or a new believer, John’s Gospel is the first book I direct them to read. Why? Because John writes in such a way that Jesus is presented as the Christ and the Son of God in a very clear and direct manner.

During my study time this week, I came across a story about a man, who at the age of 11 or 12, walked down the aisle of a church during an altar call to dedicate his life to Jesus, and subsequently was baptized. However, nothing changed for this young man after that day. The story goes on to say that during his late teen years, this young man realized that there was not difference in his life… he couldn’t handle temptation, or peer pressures, and he realized that if something drastic didn’t change, he was well on his way to becoming an alcoholic. So, we went to a different church and went through the same routine—he went forward during an alter call, joined the church, and was for the second time baptized. By the grace of God, he graduated high school, and decided to join the military but was very afraid of dying while in duty because there was a war going on so for a third time, he found a church, walked forward, and was baptized. He got into the military and his life spiraled downward hard and fast, so the man one day just made the decision to stop trying to live right—he decided that he would live fast and die young. However, as you can imagine this lifestyle left him feeling empty and unsatisfied. He became an alcoholic and by 25-26 years old, saw no meaning or purpose in life. One night, he reached into his bag and found a small Gideon’s Bible that he had received during boot camp, and he began to just flip through this book that he had never read and he came to John 3 (Nicodemus and 3:16), and in that moment all of the churches and all of the rituals, and all of the religious talks were just cleared from his mind and he suddenly for the first time understood truth that can only be found in God’s Word.

Why did I share that story? 1st- reminder that you will get more from reading your Bibles and getting time alone with God than you will from 100 sermons. 2nd- as I hope you will see today, John’s Gospel is both simplistic and deep all at the same time. Someone who has never read the Bible will be able to know Jesus, and a life-long believer can grow…

WITH THAT, PLEASE OPEN BIBLE TO THE BOOKS OF…

I. This week, we are going to begin with a quick review.

A. Recall that our focus… SLIDE (Jews, Romans, Greeks, to all people)

B. Recall also that we cannot get bogged down with details, we are focusing… SL

II. To understand John’s Gospel, we are going to look at four questions. SLIDE

III. First, let’s get to know the author a bit—what do we know about John? SLIDE x2

IV. 2nd, if it is true that 92% of John contains content NOT found… WHY? SLIDE x2

V. Third, let’s answer the question, “What is the purpose…?”

A. John gives us his purpose and theme straight forward.

B. Some form of the word believe is used 98 times in John’s Gospel.

VI. Now let’s shift to the fourth question: What makes… unique? SLIDES x4

VII. Who is the author? SLIDE x

VIII. When was John written? SLIDE x

IX. Let’s look at a brief overview of John. SLIDE x

X. With this info, what would we say that the theme is of John? SLIDE x

XI. Questions: What is the importance of having John in the Bible?

XII. Questions: What part does John play in the big picture of God’s story?

XIII. Questions: What does John mean for us as Christians today?

Conclusion: As we close this time, I want to give you the rest of the story for the man I spoke about earlier. Recall, the man went to church at a young age, maybe even all his life but he was not a Christian. The man on three separate occasions walked to the altar, prayed a prayer and was baptized, yet still was not saved. The man wrestled with sin, temptation and the human nature that we often call the flesh, yet lost struggle after struggle. Yet he said when he read John chapter 3, something clicked… a person may ask, “If the truth failed to connect so many times in his life prior to that moment, what was different this time?” Let me share what the man said in his own words: “When I got to that conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, something just clicked inside of me. For years in my head I knew that I didn’t want to go to hell. Fear drove me to go forward, but it was only a head decision and never a heart decision. In that moment, for the first time, I understood what it meant to surrender my life to Jesus Christ and I couldn’t resist the power of God any longer.” And without anybody’s help, he fell to his knees and asked Jesus to take control of his life.

My friends, I wonder how many people have made head decisions but not heart decisions. Many of you have heard me say that sitting in a church does not make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car. Walking to an altar, praying a prayer, or being baptized… none of these things save you. While they are acts of obedience, the only act of obedience that means anything is a complete and absolute surrender to Jesus Christ. The way to know for sure that you are saved is by asking the question, “How is your life different today than before Christ?” My intention is not to cause anyone to doubt their salvation, but I want to ensure that you all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are sons and daughters of God. (final song, SLIDE)