The Gospel of John Bible Study (current)

Session 1:  Introduction to the Gospel of John

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General study introduction:

• Study, not a sermon.Less formal; absolutely hope for and encourage questions, comments, discussion

• ​Non-denominational, Bible based, Scripture is our only and absolute authority and we hold to a high view of Scripture - namely that is it BREATHED OUT BY GOD

2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is inspired (theoptneustos – God breathed out) by God, and is profitable or doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”Since God's Word is inspired,  it is INERRANT, AUTHORITATIVE, SUFFICIENT

• Will be roughly an hour. No set agenda / schedule.Gives us the freedom to dwell on a topic etc or move along.

• Bible version/versions.None set.Usually will be out of NKJV or ESV.Other good translations include NASB, NET;NIV (sometimes too “paraphrasey”). KJV (can be archaic / confusing / cumbersome but at times useful). REMEMBER – no translation is inspired.

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Introduction to the Gospel of John:

 

Who wrote the Gospel of John?

Truly - The Holy Spirit

HUMANLY - the apostle John of course – but how do we know?

 

The actual Gospel in its original manuscript does not name the author.  So if we only had the Gospel text itself with no title, how would we know that it was written by John?

 

1.  External (not from within the text itself) evidence:

One of the early church fathers, Iraneus, who lived from AD 130-200, was the first person to explicitly name the apostle John as the author.  In his work  Against Heresies, he writes “Afterwards [ after the synoptic gospels were written] John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia” (which places the date of writing then at about 80-90 AD.)

 

What makes his statement carry authority is that Iraneus was a discipled by Polycarp;  Polycarp was discipled by the apostle John.

 

Also, two very early manuscripts of the gospel from about 200 ad that do attest to Johns authorship, and since these two particular manuscripts were not closely related, that points to a common tradition  of ascribing authorship to John that would have to go back likely 2 or three generations

 

BUT WE ALL DO HAVE THE TEXT ITSELF AS WELL AS THE REST OF SCRIPTURE

2.  Internal (from within the text itself) evidence:

• The author was clearly a Jew.Familiar with Jewish opinions, customs and perspectives

• The author was a Palestinian Jew (geographical reference) . He had detailed knowledge of local places as one would have who actually lived in the region of Palestine

• The author was an eyewitness.He gave many personal details, even when not essential for the progression of the story;details not recorded in the synoptics

• The author had to be an apostle.He was present at the last supper.So Hes got to be 1 of the 12.

• The author never names himself; so

• Since the apostles Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas, Judas (not Iscariot) and Judas Iscariot are named we can eliminate them

• The author reclined on Jesus bosom at the last Supper.He was literally (physically)and figuratively(peronal relationship) very close to Jesus. So therefore he had to be one of the inner circle of three. (PETER, JAMES,JOHN)

 

The three:

The three shared in Jesus’ suffering in Gethsemane

They alone were taken up a mountain with  Jesus when Moses and Elijah appeared

In Acts, you hear only about Peter James and John until Paul comes along

But remember we’ve already eliminated Peter.  He was named in the Gospel of John.  So now its down to James and John.

 

Cant be James.  He was martyred (Acts 12;2), killed by King Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great.   He died too early to have written the Gospel of John.  So by deduction from the text, it can only be John.

So we have established human authorship and date of writing

 

John is unique among the gospels:

 

The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are referred to as the synoptic gospels –

               SYN-OPTIC means to see together. 

              

 Although each of the synoptics has  its own emphasis and theme / themes, they follow the same general outline of Jesus life and share similar contents and structure

So picture three people standing in kind of a  clustered portion of a semicircle, observing an event.  But John is different….  In a way picture John as now someone up in a balcony behind the event.  They are all observing the same facts / event.  Johns perspective is just a bit different

 

All of the gospels have both narrative history ( ie Jesus went here, then He went there, then He did this…).  and discourses. (What Jesus said / taught…) ;  John has a much higher proportion of discourses to narrative history

 

Some things NOT found in John:

                       no narrative parables

                       No end times (eschatological) discourses

                       No accounts of exorcising demons or cleansing lepers

                       Doesn’t list the 12 apostles

                       No formal institution of Lords Supper / Lords Table / Communion

                       Does not record Jesus’ birth, baptism, transfiguration, temptation, agony in the garden of Gethsemane, or ascension

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Some things found ONLY in John:

                    The prologue describing Jesus’ pre-existence and incarnation

                    Jesus’ early ministry in Judea and Samaria

                    First miracle (first sign)

                    Dialogue w Nicodemus

                    Samaritan woman

                    Healing of lame man and blind man in Jerusalem

                    Bread of life discourse

                    Jesus describing himself as Living water

                    Good shepherd discourse

                     Resurrection of Lazarus

                    Washing disciples feet

                    Upper room discourse

                    Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer

 

John also contains more teaching on the Holy Spirit than is found in the Synoptics

 

Proper perspective on this

                   Nothing in John contradicts the message or teaching of the synoptics

                  

 Although there are these differences, all four Gospels present Jesus as:

                            Son of Man – Israels promised Messiah

                            Son of God – God who has taken on human flesh

                            The Savior

 

The Holy Spirit has intended the Gospels to each supplement and complement each other. 

In many instances, John will provide additional information to complete the picture or understanding of a Synoptic passage

An example of this is that at Jesus’ trial and on the cross in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ enemies accuse Him of having claimed He would “destroy the temple”. The synoptic Gospels do not record the basis of the (false) allegation, but the Gospel of John does.

 

The opposite s also true. 

One example of this is in John 1:40 , Andrew is introduced as Peter’s brother;  but Peter had not yet been mentioned.  So we see that Johns gospel, written later, assumes that his readers were familiar with the earlier Gospels                 

                   

The Defining Unique Element of the Gospel of John:  John is the only one of the Gospels that gives a clear and precise purpose statement:

John 20:30-31. “Many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His Name.”

 

This Gospel was not written for the sake of knowledge alone – but rather saving belief.

The Gospel of John is the SAVING GOSPEL. 

It is both profound and simple.

 

SO INVITE YOUR UNSAVED FRIENDS TO OUR STUDY!!!!

And a great place to suggest unbelievers start reading the Bible.

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Session 2:  John 1:1-3

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One last introductory element to John is his intended audience.  I would argue that although for both Jews and Gentiles, Johns Gospels primary audience was Gentiles (and could even say Ephesian Gentiles); or at the very least John has made special considerations for a Gentile audience”

1. The various Jewish feasts are identified for the readers

2. The geographical locations are identified for the readers

3. Jewish names are translated for the readers

4.  The use of the word logos right at the start is addressing a Gentile, and specifically Greek concept.

 

 

John 1:1-5    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. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not [a]comprehend (OVERCOME) it.

 

What we will see in these first five verses is John firmly establishing the full deity of Jesus – in other words that Jesus is fully God – by providing three clear evidences:

1. He is eternally pre-existent

2. He is the Creator

3. He is self-existent

   

 

In the beginning.  The beginning of what?   Creation.  There is no “beginning” of God.  But there is a beginning point of creation and of time as we know it.  It is a reference to Genesis 1., and although of course in Greek instead of Hebrew, John 1 and Genesis 1 open essentially with the same words:  IN THE BEGINNING

 

 

Greek translated as beginning: arche .  Means source, origin, beginning.  Interestingly is can also carry the connotation (semantic range) of rule, authority, one in authority.   

 

 

Was (eimi  - to be, or in this case, to have been) – sometimes “little words” are so important.  And usually ties to that importance is grammar.

 

“Was” is past tense.  It also is the imperfect past tense which implies continuous action in the past.

 

Therefore – before the world began, Jesus ALWAYS HAD BEEN.  There was never a point that Jesus came into being.

(ETERNAL PRE-EXISTENCE….. not just before creation but always before creation)

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The Word – the Greek here is “Logos”

This word, logos, would have deeply resonated right away with both Gentile and Jewish audiences.

 

Jews – to the Jews “the Word of the Lord” was of course a significant Old Testament theme.  The word of the Lord was an expression of God’s divine power, wisdom, and  creation.  The Word of the Lord came to the prophets;  Gods words

established the covenants, gave instruction (10 commandments, specifications for building the temple) and of course God spoke creation into being .

 

Gentiles – to the Greek philosophers, logos was the impersonal, abstract principle of reason and order in the universe; it was a creative force, and source of wisdom.  Even the average person (non-philosophers) would have a basic sense of this meaning.  So to the Greeks John is going to be presenting the concept that what they have seen as abstract is truly the personal God;  and specifically this true logos is the God who became man – Jesus.

 

 

This somewhat reminds me of the perspective of atheistic scientists (not all scientists are atheists, and furthermore true science is not at odds with theology) who had to come up with this notion of the “strong force” because otherwise they couldn’t se how the universe actually stayed together… namely atoms

Simply:  just

think of magnets.  Positive charges pull together and attract negative charges.  Two similar charges will push each other apart.  So scientists had a problem….  The nucleus of all atoms (except hydrogen) have more than one positively charged protons.  So that means they shouldn’t clump together to form the nucleus of an atom, instead they should push each other apart.  In other words matter shouldn’t hold together.  So although theres a lot of “reasoning” about quarks and such, essentially they just said there has got to be this force – they called the strong force because it has to be very strong – that holds everything together.

 

But you see that’s not at odds at all with Biblical truth.  If John were speaking to these scientists today he’d just say “what you are calling the strong force is actually the manifestation of the Word – Jesus”  But its actually Paul who most directly addresses this Scripturally

 

Colossians 1:17. And he [ JESUS] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

 

So we have Johns first argument:  In the beginning was the Word.  Jesus is eternally pre-existant

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Now the next step further:  the Word was with God

 

The English translations do not bring out the depth and richness of the Greek expression pros ton theon – in the Greek it goes far beyond meaning that the Word simply existed with God:

 

W. Robert Cook – “it gives the picture of two personal beings facing one another and engaging in intelligent discourse”

 

So John is being clear, especially to his Gentile audience, that this Word (Jesus) that has always existed before creation is not an abstract force, or an attribute or emanation of God, but is a Person – a personal being distinct from what we know is the Person of God the Father.  Similarly to the Jewish audience this is not “simply” God’s voice.

 

And now this opening verse reaches its pinnacle:

The Word was God 

 

This is the simplest and clearest expression of the full deity of Jesus in Scripture. 

 

The truth of Jesus’ deity and full equality with God the Father is a nonnegotiable element of the Christian faith.  Any “religion” that denies this is not Christian.

 

MORMONS ARE NOT CHRISTAINS

(not exhaustive examination)

Mormons talk about a Jesus who was the spirit child of Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother. They refer to Jesus as the brother of Lucifer who proposed a better plan of redemption and won the designation “Messiah.” They believe in a Jesus who filled in the gap of humanity’s need through his atoning sweat in the garden vs His death on the cross.

 

They are preaching “another” (false) gospel.

 

JEHOVAS WITNESSES ARE NOT CHRISTIANS

(again not exhaustive examination)

Their translation which is “He was A God” , which was done by two men neither of whom has seminary education, neither of whom studied or could read the Greek language, and one of them only had maybe a high school education, among other things,  denies the true Christ.

 

Suffice it to say that all scholarly study of the Greek agrees that the translation is the Word was God.

 

Again, as the Mormons, hey are preaching another (false) gospel.

 

What does God say about those who preach a false gospel?

 

Galatians 1:7-9. ….there are some who trouble you and want to pervert[a] the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be [b]accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.

 

2 John 10.  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine (of the Gospel of Jesus), do not receive him into your house nor greet him;

 

So how do we balance God's command to "not receive or greet" someone who shares a false Gospel with His command to evangelize ?   Our group had a wonderful discussion about this.  Clearly we need to pray for wisdom and guidance in various individual circumstances to best honor God in this balance.  CLearly though we are not to condone, promote, encourage, or otherwise lend legitimacy to those proclaiming a false gospel. 

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continuing,

To absolutely reinforce this idea John restates the truths of verse 1 in verse 2:

 

He (Jesus) was (eternally, continuously always in existence) in the beginning (at creation) with God (the Father)

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Session #3

 

To review:  

 

In the beginning was the Word – Jesus was already eternally existing before the creation of the universe

 

And the Word was with God  - Jesus is as personal being in intimate intelligent fellowship with God the Father

 

And the Word was God – Jesus is Himself fully God

 

He (Jesus) was (eternally, continuously always in existence) in the beginning (at creation) with God (the Father)

 

 

Continuing:  John 1 V3

 

All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

 

All things - - is all inclusive.  Every single created thing

This is a great passage to show the truth to those who thin Jesus was a created being

 

Through Him - - Jesus is the agent of Creation;  and as Creator (Genesis1) this again asserts the deity of Christ.

 

Colossians 1:16. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or [a]principalities or [b]powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

 

Hebrews 1:2. God, who [a]at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the [b]worlds;

 

Came into being (ginomai) - - the Greek here is specifically different that what was used to speak of Jesus (eimi. was / to be)

 

The somewhat cumbersome apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being continues to reinforce Jesus’ pre-existence and deity.

 

We see that the Holy Spirit, through the apostle John, is making a very clear connection between John 1 and Genesis 1, showing that Jesus was indeed the same God of Genesis 1 ; Genesis 1 is all about creation – and here we see that is the first thing that John is pointing to about Jesus.

 

Remember John even opens exactly the same as Genesis 1: In the beginning

 

Someone read Genesis 1:1-2;    Someone read John 1:1-3

 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness [a]was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

 

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. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

 

Although of course we are dealing with a translation of Hebrew and a translation of Greek, you can still here theres a similar flow; a similar cadence.  Again reinforcing this link the Holy Spirit, through JohnJohn is making between Genesis 1 and John 1

 

And you will remember Johns purpose in His gospel:  saving belief in Jesus.

 

 

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

In Johns gospel,  Life – Zoe, spiritual life vs bios, physical life

 

In Him was Life – this refers here primarily to Jesus having life in Himself. 

                             So in addition to the emphasis  on being pre-existent to creation, now we consider:

                                Aseity – self existence (not reliant upon nor dependent upon any other for His existence)

 

Again this is evidence of Christ’s deity, as only God can be self -existent

 

Jesus’ spiritual life is the very spiritual life, or light of mankind which is granted by Gods grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.  Light is here taken as the manifestation of the divine life

 

While we can make distinctions  between life and light, the construction of the life was the light is the same as the Word was God.   So as John is using it here life and light share the same essential properties.

 

Psalm 36:9. For with You is the fountain of life; in your light we see light

Again we see the parallelism essentially equating life and light

 

Light and darkness are metaphors used throughout the Gospel of John and is a common theme in all of Scripture . And I think we are all pretty familiar with that:

 

 

Light – truth, morality / holiness / righteousness

Darkness falsehood, lies , sin / unrighteousness

 

Satans domain is the kingdom of darkness but Jesus is the source of Life

 

And the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not comprehend [overcome] it.

 

Which is the best translation here for katalambano?  comprehend vs overcome

 

Into or on what/whom does the light shine? Or where, or in whom, or in what is there darkness?

 

Satan / demons

The World / World system

Individual men and women (us)

 

Satan – did He comprehend the light? Yes

             Luke 4:34.  Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, 34 saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”

 

Side note:

What does this also teach us ?   Difference between knowledge and saving knowledge.There is a difference between knowing ABOUT Jesus and knowing Jesus.   James 2:19. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble

 

 

             Did he/they overcome the light?  No

 

The World System – does it understand the light collectively?  No

                                  Does it overcome the light?    No

 

What is the Biblical evidence that the darkness DID NOT (past tense) overcome the Light? – the resurrection

What is the Biblical evidence that the darkness WILL NOT (future tense) overcome the Light? - Revelation

 

Individuals - -do individuals comprehend the light?  No*. and

                                                                                    Yes*

 

In ALL cases though, the darkness does not overcome the light.  Overcome is probably the better translation.

 

What makes the difference in the outcome of Christ’s light shining on the darkness of an individual?  Don’t answer yet but Consider these verses:

 

 

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  John 3:20

 

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;  John 6:44

 

 

For the [message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Cor 1:18

 

                      

The answer is GODS GRACE

Do individuals overcome the Light?  No.  This leads to two very important and beautiful doctrines:

 

Most importantly, when the light of Christ shines  BY GODS GRACE , in the dark soul of a spiritually dead unbeliever  - as we all once were.  – we can rejoice that OUR darkness can never overcome the saving light of Christ.

 

GODS SALVIFIC GRACE IS EFFECTUAL. (Irresistible Grace)

 

Irresistible grace is the Biblical doctrine which teaches that the saving grace of God is effectually applied to those whom he has determined before the foundation of the world to save and, in God's timing, overcomes their resistance to obeying the call of the gospel, granting them the unearned gift of faith in Christ.

 

AND WE CANNOT LOSE OUR SALVATION (Perseverance of the saints)

And we also can rejoice that we will never lose our salvation both because salvation is Gods work in us, and our residual sin nature – our residual darkness does not overcome the light! (Perseverance of the saints)

 

I P of TULIP

 

Total depravity

Unconditional Election

Limited Atonement

Irresistible Grace

Perseverance of the Saints

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