The Gospel According to John

The Gospel According to John

Taught by:

Nathaniel C. Banks to Tuesday Evening Bible Study

Bethel A.M.E. Church 2009-2010

Written by whom? II Timothy 3:16: ALL scripture is God breathed. The vessel used by God to write this gospel is:

The disciple whom Jesus loved: John; 13:23; 19:26; 20:2 21:7; 21:20

The author does not describe himself until John 21:19-24

He had to be one of the three (Peter James and John) with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Not Peter, because he was not the disciple Jesus loved. It couldn’t have been James, because James was martyred soon after the beginning of the church (Acts 12:1-2). John was the only apostle thought to have died naturally.

When was it written? Anywhere between A.D. 85 to A.D. 170. Earliest papyrus writings with the text in them were around A.D. 105. Some believe that it was written when John was an old man.

Purpose of the Gospel:

To reveal what Messiah said about Himself: that He is the Anointed of God, who became flesh to redeem man and to show us the Father. He is presented as the Word (Logos) who became flesh

He declares Himself to be:

Bread of life

The light of the world

The door of the Sheep

The good Shepherd

The resurrection and the Life

The way the truth and the life

The true vine

The Father

Signs (miracles) of (pointing to) His Godhood

Water to wine

Healing those impossible to heal (lame, blind,

Multiplying bread and two fishes

Walking on water

Raising the dead

Signs of his humanness:

He grew weary

He showed emotion (he moaned in his spirit)

John chapter 1

V.1 In the beginning was the Word;

Before creation, the Word was there
God’s Word was in the beginning
The Word was with God

V.2-3 He, the Word was in the beginning with God

Everything that was made came through the Word of God
Which means He is the creator of everything
Without the Word of God nothing that was made was made
The Word has always been here. He has no beginning

V.4-5 Life was in Him from the beginning; life is not said to be created

Life existed in the Word and came forth from the Word
Physical life
Spiritual life

The life was the light of men (John 14:6)
We can’t exist without that light
We don’t exist outside of that light (Psalm 36:9)
Light shines in darkness; darkness does not overcome the light
The first thing God said was “Let there be Light” Genesis 1:3
Light is the life of the world

V.6-11the man sent from God was to bear witness of the Light

All through Him (the Light)would be saved
He was not that Light but was to bear witness
He bore witness that the True Light lights every person coming into the world
He was in the world that He made and the world did not know Him
He came to His own and His own did not receive Him

V.12-13

But as many as received Him, He gave authority to become children of God
They must believe (trust) in His name
These children are not born of blood or of the will of the flesh, but of God

V.14-16the Word became flesh and tabernacled with us

We saw His glory
The only begotten of the Father
Full of grace and truth
John bore witness and cried that He is the one...
We have all received of his fullness and His grace. The law came through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ

V.17-18 We have all received of His fullness; grace for grace

Colossians 1:19 all the fullness of the Father dwelt in the Word
The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ
The first indication in John as to who the WORD is!
No man has seen God at any time:
The only begotten son which is in (present tense) the bosom of the Father, has (past perfect) declared him

V.19-28 John’s record

The Jews sent priests and Levites to ask John the Baptist, “who are you”?
John’s record:
I am not the Christ
I am not Elijah (Jesus said differently)
I am not the prophet who was to come (Malachi 4:5)
Those asking weren’t asking for themselves, but for those that sent them (the Pharisees)
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord
In the tradition of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 40:3

Question: John’s testimony tells us that he existed to bring glory to Messiah, not himself; what is your testimony?

Question: Have you ever been in a situation doing God’s will when you were asked “who are you, what are you doing, and why are you doing it”?

Why was John baptizing if he was neither Elijah nor the prophet?
He was there to baptize people unto repentance, preparing them to receive the anointed one. (Malachi 3:1)
He also knew that one was coming after him, the latchet of whose shoes he was unworthy to unloose. That person would baptize with the Holy Spirit

V. 29-34

What did John mean when he called Jesus the “lamb of God”?
John baptized with water so that people could receive Jesus
Upon Jesus’ baptism John saw the Spirit descending from heaven and remaining on him
This was John’s confirmation that Jesus would be the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit

John 1 continued

V.35-42

John again identifies Jesus to two of his disciples; they followed Jesus
Jesus asked them what they sought
They said, we seek where you live
Jesus said come and see
One of them, Andrew told his brother Simon “we have found Messiah
When brought to Jesus, Simon’s name was immediately changed to Cephas (Peter) or stone

V.43-51

Jesus then found Philip
from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter
He told Philip, “follow me”
Philip found Nathanael
He said “we have found him of whom Moses and the prophets wrote”, Jesus of Nazareth Son of Joseph
Nathanael said can anything good come from Nazareth?
Can anything good come from the ungodly places you know?
Jesus saw and identified Nathanael
An Israelite with no guile
Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you
Jesus always sees us before we see Him!
This one simple answer was enough for Nathanael to declare Jesus to be the Son of God; the King of Israel
What made him say that?
Jesus said to Nathanael that his little declaration would now allow him so see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man!
Proving that it doesn’t take a lot of faith to see God’s glory
It just takes a little bit; He does the rest!

John Chapter 2

Topics: The Wedding Supper; cleansing the Temple; Jews seek a sign

V.1-3

The third day Jesus there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee
Jesus’ mother was there
Jesus and his disciples were invited
Wedding celebrations lasted 7 days generally; this may have been towards the end of the celebration
Mary told Jesus that they had no wine

V.4-5

She was asking him to use his power to deal with the situation; he said, “my hour has not yet come”
How did she know that he could help?
What hour was Jesus speaking about? (Matthew 26:18; John 7:6; 12:20-23)

V.6-11

The ceremonial pots must have been used heavily because they were not full
Jesus instructed the servants to fill the ceremonial waters to the brim
Then he told them take some to the master of the feast
The master of the feast said to the bridegroom, “you have saved the best for last”
This was Jesus’ first miraculous signs

V-12-23

He left Cana of Galilee and went to Capernaum with His mother, brothers, and disciples: proving that Jesus had siblings
At Passover time Jesus went up to Jerusalem
He found people in the temple courts selling cattle, sheep and doves
He found others in the court exchanging money
He knew it was his Father’s house
He drove all from the temple including sheep, cattle, and money changers
He told those selling doves not to turn his Fathers house into a market

Question: What are some modern day ways we turn God’s temple into a market?

His disciples remembered the scripture in Psalm 69:9

The Jews wanted to know where he got his authority. (Matthew 12:38) What sign could he show them that he was authentic?
There were several instances when the Jews wanted to know where Jesus got the authority to do what he did and to say what he said. (see Matthew 16:1; Mark 8:11,12; Luke 11:16
This time he said “destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days)
They presumed he meant the physical temple
He was referring to his body being the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19)
After he was resurrected, his disciples remembered this encounter and believed the scripture
When he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, the people saw him perform many miraculous signs. Many of them believed the scripture and the words Jesus spoke
He would not, however, entrust himself to them, because he knew all men and knew what was in their hearts

John Chapter 3

Born from Above

Pharisee defined: ‘the separated”; “the fundamental principle is that there was and is an oral law to complete and explain the written law”, A critical Lexicon and concordance to the English and Greek New Testaments, Bullinger

Eternal life defined:

Nicodemus: one of the leaders of the sect of the Pharisees

V.1-2

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night (incognito)
To respect hisprivacy?
To get a jump on others who wanted to know more
Because of fear of the Jews if they saw him talking with Jesus? Later in John 19:39 he became more bold among the Sanhedrim
acknowledging that He was a teacher come from God (Isaiah 19:20)
acknowledged the confirmation of Jesus through the miracles that He performed. He suspected that Jesus was the Messiah which was to come
He also acknowledged that Jesus had come from God: he equated the miracles with Jesus’ authority

Question: What kind of messiah was Nicodemus expecting, and does this have anything to do with how Jesus answered him?

v.3-6

Jesus ignored the compliment and challenged Nicodemus that he needed to be born again (Greek, anothen; from aboveab initio—from the beginning) (See v.31) to see the Kingdom of God
Nicodemus tried to use his own reasoning and got nowhere.
This is the equivalent of having new wineskins for new wine (Mark 2:22)
Without spiritual birth, you cannot see spiritual things
Jesus said to enter the kingdom you must be …
born of water
born of the Spirit

v.7-13

The born again experience is analogous to our experience with the wind. You can hear it, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going, neither do you control it. So is he who is born of the spirit

Question: Does the wind know where it is going?

Nicodemus didn’t understand
Jesus said, how can you be a master of Israel and not know these things?
If you do not believe earthly things, you can’t be shown heavenly things
The Son of man ascends to heaven and descends from heaven and is IN heaven! (Proverbs 30:1-4; John 6:38)

v.14-17

Just as the children of Israel needed to look up to the golden serpent, in order to be saved from fiery serpents, so mankind must look up to Jesus on the cross for salvation and eternal life
That whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life
God loved the world so much that He gave His only son
Whoever believes in him shall not perish(to destroy fully)
But have everlasting life
He was not sent to condemn us
He was sent so that the world through Him might be saved

v.18-21

The person who believes in the Son is not condemned
Those who do not believe condemn themselves
The condemnation is as follows:
Light has come into the world (what is the light?)
Men love darkness rather than light
They love darkness because their deeds are evil

Those who do the truth come to the light so that their deeds can be clearly seen as being worked in the light

QUESTIONS:

What are some of the ways that darkness manifests itself?

What are some of the ways we do the truth and come to the light?

______

John Chapter 3 cont.

John the Baptist testifies again

v.22-24

Jesus and His disciples come back to Judea and baptized repentant sinners
John was also baptizing at that time in Aaenon near Salim because there was much water there: both places were on or near the Jordan River

Question: Why did both Jesus and John baptize? (See Matthew 3:5-6)

John was still fully into his ministry at this point

v.25-26

The purification (cleansing; a washing off) that was spoken of refers to a preparation for service to the Most High God
This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born of water (purified in baptism) and the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom to SERVE
The dispute was about who had the authority to take people through the rite of purification (baptism)
John came from the Priestly line, so priest had the authority
Jesus did not come through the priestly line, so John’s disciples didn’t think that he should be doing. And, certainly, his disciples shouldn’t be doing it
John’s disciples had the same attitude towards Jesus and his disciples that the Pharisees had: they are taking people away from us!
John’s answer to his disciples set them straight
No one can receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven
John reminded his disciples of what he said all along: “I am not the Christ (Messiah)”
He was sent to prepare the way (go before), but he was not Him
He was not given the position of supremacy that his disciples wanted him to have
John tells them that he was preparing people to be espoused to the Bridegroom: John was the friend of the groom, but not the groom himself!
The friend of the bridegroom makes all of the arrangement for the groom
This dutycaused him to have and be filled with great joy
When the job is done right, Jesus increases and John decreases

v.32-36

John also prophesied that, although Jesus comes from heaven which is above all, and He testifies to what He has seen and heard, His testimony would not be received.
The person who does receive his testimony certifies that God is true.
He whom God has sent speaks the words of God because He has the fullness of His Spirit
The Father Loves not just the world, but the Son also: to the point that He has given ALL things into His hands
He who believes in the Son HAS everlasting life
He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but abides (continues, remains) with God’s wrath on him

John Chapter Four

Jesus speaks with: the Samaritan Woman; the Jewish Nobleman

v.1-3

As Jesus’ ministry increases, he (his disciples) baptizes more people that John the Baptist. (What scriptural purpose did baptism serve?)
______
He delegated his authority to baptize to his disciples! Is there any biblical evidence of them keeping this authority to themselves only?
Who has the authority to baptize souls into Christ’s church now? What is the source of your answer? ______
______
When Jesus knew that the Pharisees saw His disciples baptizing more people than John’s, this knowledge prompts Him to leave Judea and go back to Galilee. Why?______
______

v.4-8

The word says that he HAD to go through Samaria: there were two reasons:
Samaria was geographically in-between the two places
He had work to do in Samaria (see v. 35-38)
When He got to Sychar, Jacob’s well was there and He was thirsty
A woman came to the well to get water and Jesus said, “woman” give me to drink”

v.9-15

The woman acknowledged the hatred that Jews had for Samaritans and wondered why Jesus would speak to her.
Why didn’t she wonder, as the disciples would later, that He would speak to a woman at all?
She must have been comfortable breaking with tradition and talking to men (what kind of woman would this be?)
As was the case with Nicodemus, Jesus didn’t answer the question of her mouth, He answered the question of her heart
If you knew the gift of God and who it was who asked you…
You would have asked Him to give you the “living water”
And He would have given it to you

John 4 continued page2