In this first sermon in a new series going through the Gospel of John, Pastor Dave Capoccia gives an introduction to the Gospel. Pastor Dave explains five main areas of background information that will help you better understand and appreciate the Gospel of John: author, date, origin, purpose, and structure.
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thank you so much musicians so good to praise the Lord and man I feel fired up to preach I’m excited to begin a new sermon series with you all today it’s been almost a year since I’ve done a prolonged verse by verse book Exposition with you and though I will take breaks from our series now and then as we go forward for special messages I trust that a sustained gospel study will prove edifying and enriching for us all let’s ask the Lord’s blessing as we begin looking at this new book of the Bible Lord Jesus we thank you that you are our Lord and savior you are indeed all that we have you are the great treasure you are our life but thank you that you have proven faithful to your word you did not leave your disciples as orphans but you sent the spirit and you brought to remembrance the things you told to your Apostles so they could teach others they could write it down and we can have it today but bless this study of your word even as we look at the introductory information in Jesus name amen some of you may know that I attended College as an undergraduate at Rutgers University in New Brunswick for my first two years there I lived on campus in one of their co-ed dormitories I still remember that on one of my first nights there as a wide-eyed freshman our resident assistant LED our whole floor of people and an icebreaker one by one we were to introduce ourselves to one another with an alliterative adjective and then we were to recite the names and adjectives of all those previously introduced so for example someone might introduce herself as meticulous Megan but then she would have to recite all the other names that had been spoken so far peaceful Patrick sneaky Sarah dangerous Dave meticulous Megan the intent of the game of course was just to have a little fun learning everybody’s names well one of my new floormates who later became my good friend he wouldn’t give himself an adjective he simply introduced himself as John we told him that’s not how the game works but it kept on insisting on saying only John I’m John we try to give him examples of what he could do with his name what about Jolly John or Jumping John but he refused again but then he slipped up because he replied to us with just John of course for the rest of the Icebreaker and a long time afterwards my FloorMate became known as just John well today we’re going to be introduced to a different John the Gospel of John and like my friend from college this John is also going to prove a bit reticent in giving information about itself however by paying close attention to the details that the Gospel of John does give us as well as by noting early church testimony about this book we can learn the background of this gospel and prepare ourselves to study it well that’s my intention with you today this is the introduction to the Gospel of John and in this introduction I want to explore with you five main areas of background information that will help you better understand and appreciate the Gospel of John five main areas of background information that will help you better understand and appreciate the Gospel of John and those areas are author date origin purpose and structure let’s start with number one the author who wrote the Gospel of John and to that you’re probably immediately thinking uh it’s called The Gospel of John so obviously John wrote it duh well the problem is that title is not part of the original work it was added later like the other three gospels the Gospel of John does not explicitly name its author anywhere in the book yet the gospel does give us important clues about the author that will help us understand who wrote it turn with me to the end of the book of John to see this for yourself John 21 verses 20 to 24.
it’s page 1087 if you’re using the Bibles that we’ve provided John 21 verses 20 to 24 this section appears right after Jesus restores Peter after Peter Peter’s previous denials and Jesus also tells Peter that Peter will one day glorify his Lord Jesus in martyrdom look what appears next starting in verse 20.
Peter turning around saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them the one also who had leaned back on his bosom at the supper and said Lord who is the one who betrays you so Peter seeing him said to Jesus Lord and what about this man Jesus said to him if I want him to remain until I come what is that to you you follow me therefore this saying Went Out Among the Brethren that that disciple would not die yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die but only if I want him to remain until I come what is that to you this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true notice first here verse 24 where the narrator identifies himself as the book’s writer he calls himself a disciple that is a follower and learner of Jesus he also claims to testify about the matters which he writes that is he is a witness even an eyewitness to the life and Ministry of Jesus he also says we know that his testimony is true which is a very intriguing shift into the plural first person this shift need not mean that this work has multiple authors there are reasons a singular author might sometimes employ we but certainly the author is claiming here that there is a faithful Community who knows and affirms that everything the author has written is true but notice now that this at the beginning of verse 24.
thank you this demonstrative pronoun tells us that the disciple that we’re talking about is the same disciple that the author has just been talking about in the previous verses we read those if you just go back to verse 20 we see that this same disciple is described in a very particular way the disciple whom Jesus loved this phrase the disciple whom Jesus loved actually appears several places in this gospel and I’ll mention them to you it appears in John 13 23 at the Lord’s Supper describing a certain disciple who reclines on Jesus’s chest after being urged by Peter to ask Jesus about who the betrayer is we see this phrase also in John 19 26 at the cross where Jesus tells a certain disciple to care for Mary Jesus’s mother and take her as that disciples own mother we also see it in John 20 verse 2 when this disciple the disciple whom Jesus loved outruns Peter to the tomb after Mary Magdalene reports that Jesus body is gone and then we also see the phrase earlier in the chapter chapter 21 verse 7.
where the disciple whom Jesus loved is fishing with Peter and then tells Peter that the man on shore who just brought about a miraculous catch of fish is the Lord so we see this phrase in multiple places so though the author does not name himself he does mention himself with this curious phrase at key points in the narrative about Jesus and this shows us these things together shows us that our author this disciple is no ordinary disciple if he’s there at the Lord’s Supper which is a pretty exclusive event if he’s there at the cross if he’s there with Peter running to the tomb and he’s there at Peter’s restoration and this disciple must be an apostle even one of Jesus’s closest apostles and it’s notable that this unnamed disciple is frequently appearing with Peter you may have noticed that in the references I just gave to you it’s as if this gospel communicates that the Beloved disciple and Peter are good friends Close Associates even here in verses 20 to 24 which we read notice it’s Peter asking Jesus about the fate of this one this disciple whom Jesus loved Peter is asking about him so he must be an apostle but can’t we say anything more specific about which apostle wrote This Book well yes again looking at the beginning of the chapter verses one to three mentioned that or mentions which disciples are part of this last scene presented in the book we’re told that there’s Peter Thomas Nathanael the two sons of Zebedee and two unnamed disciples well this means that the author is certainly not Peter Thomas or Nathanael since they are named outright and not given the disciple whom Jesus loved treatment our author must be one of the other 12 and perhaps the son of Zebedee considering the Beloved disciples intimate relationship with both Peter and Jesus this disciple or author is likely part of Jesus closest Circle which we hear in the other gospels consisted of Peter and the two sons of Zebedee Peter James and John so which of the sons of Zebedee well it cannot be James because of what’s mentioned in verses 18 to 23 again we read most of that in these verses Jesus foretells Peter’s martyrdom Jesus refuses to foretell the author’s fate and then the author notes that people wrongly began spreading the rumor that our author would not die but live until Jesus returned why is that significant because those things together they strongly suggest that by the time of the writing of this gospel Peter has been martyred but our author the Beloved disciple has not this is why there has been a rumor that has spread about the author that the author wants to correct what according to acts 12 2 James the son of Zebedee actually died before Peter he’s the first Apostle to be martyred when Herod Agrippa put him to the sword in order to gain favor with the Jews so if our author has indeed survived Peter and is part of Jesus Inner Circle and the author can only be one man the Apostle John the son of Zebedee a one-time fisherman who Jesus turned into a fisher of men and who was transformed from a son of thunder that’s what he and James were called transformed from a son of Thunder ready to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan Village that wouldn’t let Jesus through to what he became known as in the early church the Apostle of love again and again in his writings John and this writing is included stresses that Jesus true disciples are marked by love he still has a zeal but he’s marked by his love now I grant that this identification of John the Apostle as the author relies on some inferences but John the son of Zebedee makes the most sense as the implied author of this work is there another details in the book also point to John as the author throughout the book the author clearly demonstrates intimate knowledge of the land of Israel and Jerusalem which John would have had as someone who lived in Israel the author writes in Greek which John would have picked up living in Galilee an area that interacts with many Gentiles yet his style and some of his expressions are clearly Semitic suggesting a Jewish background for the author which John certainly had being a Jew furthermore the author never specifically mentions John the son of Zebedee in this gospel which is extremely curious considering how important in the other gospels John is being mentioned as Jesus even closest Inner Circle this is made more significant by the fact that the author of this book often goes above and beyond in identifying other persons in the Bible in a way that distinguishes them so that no one’s confused you actually see this in the beginning of the chapter if you just look at John 21 verse 2 where we see the names of the disciples given to us it’s not just Peter but Simon Peter it’s not just Thomas it’s Thomas called didymus and it’s not just Nathanael but it’s Nathaniel of Cana and Galilee when he introduces or reintroduces a person in the account he gives you extra information about him but there’s one person in this book for whom the author unexpectedly does not provide any differentiating description and that’s John the Baptist John the Baptist actually appears a number of places in this book but never with the title the Baptist which is extremely odd because the again the other gospel writers Matthew Mark Luke they often add the Baptist when talking about John the Baptist so that the readers will not confuse that John with John the Apostle and that makes sense right we would be confused without that extra information but this gospel doesn’t do that it only refers to John the Baptist as simply John this can only unless this is an extremely Reckless stylistic choice this can only be that the author relied on the fact that his audience would understand that the disciple whom Jesus loved is John the Apostle therefore there’s no need to differentiate John the Baptist from him with a description like the Baptist now again I admit I am making some inferences about the author’s identity based on clues in the text the author’s identity is not made explicit however I’m convinced that the only conclusion about authorship that satisfies otherwise strange choices made in the telling of this gospel is that the Apostle John is the author and I am made more confident in that conclusion by the fact that the early church concluded the same thing about this book when the Gospel of John begins to be talked about in the late second century every person who mentions authorship says it was written by John the son of Zebedee the authorship of John would not seriously be questioned until the enlightenment period when so-called biblical Scholars started questioning the authorship of basically every book of the Bible so from both internal and external evidence we can confidently say that the Gospel of John is rightly named it is the record of Jesus life teaching and ministry as written by the Apostle John this unfortunately is not the conclusion of most biblical Scholars today I should put biblical scholars in quotes they instead commonly assert that though the Apostle John may have originated the tradition that is captured in this gospel this was really written years after the fact by a johanine community that is a group of John’s later disciples and supporters they pretended to write as the Apostle so that they might pass on his teaching this was therefore a collaborative effort with multiple editors changing the record to deal with issues in their own time or to improve the story according to their own judgment that may remind you if you were with us in previous years about what Scholars say about the solomonic authorship of Ecclesiastes no Solomon didn’t write it it was a collaborative effort there were editors etc etc I have very little patience for such theories of authorship I won’t go into the detail but I will summarize my response which is that such theories are plainly subjective highly speculative speculative and clearly anti-supernatural I don’t believe what the Bible proclaims about how it was written I will respond to one other objection note that these Scholars raise one objection some say if John the Apostle is really the author then how can he call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved isn’t that a proud way to refer to oneself as if Jesus didn’t love anybody else but you we may admit that John’s descriptor of himself is surprising but to care but to declare that Jesus loves a certain person or even that Jesus loves you does not necessarily imply that he doesn’t love anybody else in fact in this gospel Lazarus Jesus Friend Is identified for Jesus by the Jews as quote he whom you love unquote and yet clearly Jesus is also said to have loved Mary and Martha and even the rest of his disciples Paul not in this book but in Galatians 2 20 actually says the same thing about himself Galatians 2 20 Paul says I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Who Loved Me and gave himself up for me Paul’s not being proud in this statement he’s actually putting himself forth as an example to all Christians all Christians should be able to say the same as Paul and John actually far from a statement of Pride I would say the descriptor the disciple whom Jesus loved is an expression of humility and faith I mean it’s literally self-effacing don’t call me John just call me the disciple whom Jesus loved John’s making it all about Jesus and this descriptor also shows that John was captivated by the fact that Jesus loved even him as others have said when you think about it there are few truths more profound than the simple childhood rhyme Jesus loves me this I know for so the Bible or so the Bible tells me so before the Bible tells me so but that’s enough about author as we go through this gospel know that John the Apostle is the author let’s next talk about date number two date when did John write this this actually isn’t an easy question to answer because again we don’t get a lot of information from the book itself regarding its timing and the evidence we do get most of it could be interpreted in multiple ways the most significant timing information again comes from the passage we were looking at in John 21 verses 18 to 23.
the Revelation that Jesus gave that Peter would die as a martyr glorifying God and that John was thought by many to be guaranteed to live until Jesus returned again these details strongly suggest the gospel was written after Peter’s death and that took place under Emperor Nero between 64 and 66. I’m talking about A.D all the dates I’m going to mention today are anno domini so 64-66 but how much farther after ad66 was this gospel written hmm well another time detail often considered significant is the Jerusalem Temple’s destruction in 70.
and perhaps you say wait I don’t remember that detail in the Gospel of John exactly John does not mention anything in this gospel about the destruction of the physical temple in Jerusalem not that it would happen or that it did happen many interpreters believe that such a significant event especially for Jews if it had happened anywhere near the time of John’s writings would surely have received some mention some illusion but since the destruction of the temple is not mentioned in John’s gospel the argument goes John must have written either before its destruction or a decently long time afterwards so everybody’s kind of used to it doesn’t need to be mentioned again that means John either wrote this between 66 and 70. before the temple was destroyed or maybe 80 to 90 so a decently long time afterwards and we can appreciate the reasoning behind this assertion but we must note that this is an argument from Silence and those arguments are always a bit weak maybe John had another reason for not mentioning the Temple’s destruction similar detail highlighted as significant for determining the date is the fact that this gospel is so different from the synoptic gospels and the events that those gospels choose to talk about many of the events and teachings mentioned in Matthew Mark and Luke are not mentioned in John and vice versa so the thinking is that John must have waited until after the other gospels were written and decently disseminated before he wrote his own Gospel account to supplement them and this would pushes closer to a later date maybe a date around 80 to 90.
again that’s a fine Theory I see the logic of it but there’s actually nothing in John’s gospel that requires the other gospels to be written first the synoptics do inform some details about John’s gospel but the reverse is also true John’s gospel helps explain some of what we see in the synoptics none of the gospels really are dependent on each other therefore they can’t really tell us which of them are they can’t just comparing the gospels can’t tell us about the timing of their creation two other Minor Details In John’s gospel are considered notable some say the threats of being put out of the synagogue for confessing Christ which is mentioned in John 9 22 is a late first century development and so mentioning it must mean that God’s gospel was written later towards the end of the first century okay understand the logic of that but that threat may have been enforced earlier in the first century so it doesn’t necessarily mean this book was written late and some also say that the use of the present tense to describe the pool of Bethesda in John 5 2. there is a pool in Jerusalem that is indication for an earlier date of the Gospel since if Jerusalem had been destroyed by the time of John’s writing John Shirley would have used the past tense to describe that pool that makes sense but the Greek present tense is grammatically flexible enough so that it could be used to describe something in the past sorry it’s not exactly equivalent to English sometimes the present can be used to describe the past sometimes the past can be used to describe the present context must ultimately determine how you translate verbs in Greek so all this to say that the internal evidence mostly only suggests that the gospel is written after 66.
hard to say more definitively than that the general testimony of the early church though is that John wrote this gospel under emperor domitian and the mission range from 81 to 96.
considering that external testimony and the somewhat ambiguous internal testimony of the book I’m inclined to place the writing of John’s gospel in the traditional slot of 80 to 90.
so you’ve got author you’ve got date how about origin number three from where did John write well here we have even less information to go on then for author and date in the book John mentions many specific details about places in Palestine so some have suggested he wrote from Jerusalem but John as someone who lived there a long time could have intelligently and accurately written about Palestine from some other place it didn’t have to be there the earliest extensive use of John’s gospel in the second century appears around Egypt and Syria so some have suggested that John wrote from Alexandria or Antioch with copies spreading out from there well just because the book was later used notably in certain places doesn’t necessarily mean it was written there the tradition from the early Church in the late second century is that John wrote this gospel from Ephesus in Asia Minor John is said to have traveled there after the Jewish Rebellion against Rome took off in 66.
then John began shepherding the churches in Ephesus and in the surrounding area that assertion does fit with what we see in the Book of Revelation the first couple chapters of that book mentioned John writing on behalf of Jesus to the seven churches which are all in Asia Minor all around the city of Ephesus so that would make sense also the Book of John noticeably explains aspects of Jewish life in Palestine as if those aspects are unknown to the readers suggesting that his audience did not live in Palestine and perhaps also that John did did not live there anymore either so here again without much internal evidence to suggest otherwise I’m content with accepting the early Church’s position that John wrote this gospel from Ephesus in Asia Minor around 80 to 90.
now perhaps you’re thinking by this point this gossip sure has left us without a lot of internal evidence to inform background is there anything that John’s gospel does make clear for us well yes actually and we’re going to see in the next two points let’s look at number four purpose why did the Apostle John write this book good news John tells us directly in John 20 verses 30 to 31 you can turn over there now page 1086 if you didn’t move from where you were before just look over to a new section that’s right close by John 20 verses 30 to 31.
John writes therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the 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 John tells us here that his primary purpose in writing this book is Evangelistic he intends that his readers by John’s testimony will believe in Jesus as Messiah and God and thereby find everlasting life in him simple purpose clear purpose notice some details with the me though in these two verses notice thee therefore that begins in verse 30. this is another word like the this that points us back to what we were just looking at before or what the readers were just looking at before what came before we see the answer in verses 26 to 29 and we also read from this section earlier in the service when Thomas beheld the Risen Christ and proclaimed that Jesus was Thomas Lord and God Jesus tells Thomas do you believe in me just because you’ve seen me risen more blessed are those who have not seen me yet believe we go straight from that statement to the therefore verse 30.
therefore these things have been written do you see the connection John wants his reader he wants his listeners he wants you and me to experience what Jesus just said to know the blessing the great blessing of not having seen Jesus with your own eyes yet believing in him as Messiah and God and finding eternal life and notice according to verses 30 to 31 how John says he’s going about this purpose in this book John has selected certain signs or sign Miracles sign is often used with that sense John has selected certain signed miracles of Jesus to help you see who Jesus is John confesses that Jesus did many other Miracles proving who he is but there are too many to be written in one gospel these he says but these these signs have been written so that you may believe we cannot see these signs with our eyes but we can see them with our hearts and believe and be blessed now can we be more specific as to who exactly John is trying to reach with the gospel of Christ is he trying to reach everyone indiscriminately or is he focusing his efforts on a particular group of people well though the Gospel of John has ministered and is ministering to all sorts of people through the centuries believer and unbeliever Jew and Gentile new Christian and mature Christian I am persuaded that John writes this book specifically to evangelize Jews and god-fearers let me explain if you look again at verse 31 notice the emphasis on messiahship these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God you Jews are wondering who the Christ is I’m telling you as an eyewitness that it’s Jesus As proved by Jesus signs after all what does Paul say in First Corinthians 1 22 about the Jews Jews search for signs Greek search for wisdom in one sense John is saying with this book you want signs here they are carefully selected for you so that you might find life in your true Messiah now if you’re a little bit familiar with the Gospel of John the assertion that John writes primarily to evangelize Jews might surprise you due to a noticeable feature in this book that is John repeatedly refers to the Jews as the enemies of Jesus the Messiah this is different than the other gospels where the writers make distinctions between who are the particular opponents of Jesus it could be described it could be the Pharisees it could be the Sadducees but we don’t see that in John he simply calls all these groups the Jews thus the Jews in John 5 16 are the ones persecuting Jesus for healing on the Sabbath John 7 13 no one spoke openly of Jesus for fear of the Jews John 10 31 the Jews picked up stones to throw at him John 19 7 and 12 the Jews were the ones calling out for Jesus death on the basis of this repeated emphasis on the Jews as Jesus enemies some have even claimed that John is an anti-semitic gospel this is showing hatred toward the Jews add to this the odd feature that I mentioned earlier that John our author feels compelled to explain certain basic elements of Jewish culture to his readers for example John 1 38 they said to him Rabbi which translated means teacher John 4 9 how is it that you being a Jew asked me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman parentheses for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans or John 19 31 then the Jews because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath parentheses for that Sabbath was a high day may look at these and ask if John is really writing to Jews then why these parenthetical explanations wouldn’t the Jews have already known these things well to deal with the second objection first the reason John adds these explanations is not because he’s writing to Gentiles and not Jews but because he’s writing to hellenized Jews he’s writing to Jews in the diaspora these are not Jews who live in Palestine they live elsewhere and they don’t speak Hebrew or even Aramaic they speak Greek so not all of them know what the term Rabbi means doesn’t come up in their regular life they’re not familiar with Jewish Samaritan relations in Palestine and they don’t know the details of holy Festival concerns in Jerusalem so John needs to explain these things for his audience and he is aware though that these diaspora Jews many of them read their copies of the Septuagint what’s that that’s the Greek translation of the Old Testament therefore they do they are familiar with various scriptures they are concerned about the messiah’s arrival they intend they want to inherit eternal life as for the apparent hostility toward the Jews on displaying this gospel a closer examination reveals that that characterization is inaccurate after all John notes Jesus confession to the Samaritan woman in John 4 22 salvation is from the Jews and John 11 45 and John 12 11 John notes that many of the Jews who saw Lazarus raised from the dead believed in Jesus so it’s not a universal hostility and let’s not forget that both our author John and Jesus himself are Jewish so this is not an anti-semitic gospel what’s going on though in this gospel with John’s refusal to segment the Jews into different groups but refer to them all simply as the Jews that’s a difficult question to answer I think that John is doing something very poignant in this choice and in others in his gospel his approach in writing this gospel is not quite like Matthews Matthew’s the other Apostle who writes specifically to Jews Matthew emphasizes how Jesus fulfills Messianic prophecies goes through everything that Israel does yet succeeds where Israel fails and though rejected Matthew emphasizes the power and authority of God’s anointed king John comes from a different angle drawing attention to two aspects of Jesus life that were most bothersome to potential Jewish converts namely that Jesus a man claimed to be God and that Jesus was rejected by the Jews from being their Messiah even crucified going back to that statement from Paul in First Corinthians Jews look for signs but what’s their stumbling block the cross it’s almost like John wants to deal directly with the elephant elephant in the room you Jews have heard that Jesus claimed to be God and maybe you’re wondering if that’s an exaggeration or not I’m here to tell you that Jesus sure did and that claim is more pervasive and profound than you even know but let me also show you the signs he did and the words he spoke that prove his deity and you Jews have heard that Jesus was rejected from being Messiah over Israel and maybe you’re wondering if that was only part of the Jews or maybe just the Jewish leaders I’m here to tell you that it was a full rejection the Jews as a people have rejected their Christ yet this rejection was foretold by God and rather than a sign of weakness failure no favor from God this rejection this Christ being put on the cross it was Display of Power and Glory and the question for you Jews is John is basically asking will you side with your people against your Christ or will you side with your Christ and be rejected by your people you know there’s a repeated idea in John that over the years as I’ve read through it I’ve never really understood what to do with it it’s this idea that if you really belong to God you will recognize Jesus as your Messiah for example John 3 20-21 John 3 20-21 says this for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed but he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God is that statement ever confused you never understood how anyone could be said to practice the truth before coming to the light I mean aren’t we all evil outside of Christ aren’t we spiritually dead aren’t we all slave to sin how can we be said to be practicing the truth before coming to Christ we’ll consider the significance of this statement for those who already worship Yahweh as Jews or who are proselytes to Judaism or who are Gentile god-fearers or even followers of John the Baptist can’t some of them rightly be said to be practicing the truth at least as it has been revealed to them up to this point in their lives but John asserts if these really belong to God what will they do when they hear the good news of Jesus when they see God’s true light come into the world even shining on them they will come to the light so that their deeds will be manifest as having been wrought in God they will confess that all the good that they were doing or experiencing before Christ was not from themselves or on their own it was actually the grace of Christ working in them and now they understand now they want to glorify Christ for that now they Embrace him but if someone claims to truly follow God without crossing over to follow Jesus I worship God I follow God I follow I love the father but I don’t I’m not going to go with Jesus what does John assert about that person the reason they don’t come is because they’re still in the darkness they’re never really in the light they were in the darkness and they’re refusing to come out because they love it thus John’s gospel is a challenge specifically to those who claim to be religious claim to already worship the true God John essentially is asking provocatively if you really love God will you own his son whom he has sent will you suffer rejection with the son so that you may receive eternal life those of you who are on the fence who are thinking about it don’t be afraid don’t stay hesitant believe and follow your Victorious Lord even through persecution even being put out of the synagogue I think this challenging Evangelistic purpose also explains the noticeably Stark contrasts presented in this book are you with the light or with the darkness Are you full of Love Are you full of hate do you follow the truth or do you follow lies will you Embrace Life or Embrace death with these kinds of repeated emphases in this book John is showing there’s no middle ground with Jesus you are either with God and his son or you’re with Satan there’s no middle ground how you respond to Jesus shows which Camp you’re in John is showing his leaders just how high the stakes are when it comes to how you respond to Jesus now you don’t have to be Jewish to have John’s challenging message resonate with you minister to you even if you’re already a born-again Christian I know that you’ll be blessed by studying this book and I think many of you confess that you already have been but we should recognize that John’s primary purpose in writing this gospel is to evangelize is to evangelize even the Jews even those who say they’re religious and know the true God John is going to prod those readers to face what or who it is that they really love whether the Glorious Lord of life really is their lord and worth suffering rejection and even death so we’ve seen the author the date the origin and the purpose it’s finally considered number five structure how does John organize his gospel well again John essentially tells us in John 20 30 to 31 what is his organizing principle John has selected several miraculous signs from the many that Jesus did to bring his readers to saving faith in Jesus and from investigating John’s gospel we can see that John has selected seven or perhaps eight Miracle signs they are and I’ll just give these to you now number one turning water into wine which is John 2 1-11 number two healing a royal official son who was at the point of death that’s John 4 verses 46 to 54.
number three healing a lame man who was at the pool of Bethesda that’s John 5 1-18 feeding five thousand plus persons that’s the number four Miracle John 6 1-14 number five walking on water that’s John 6 15-21 number six healing a man born blind that’s John 9 1-41 and then number seven raising Lazarus from the dead that’s John 11 verses 1 to 46.
now that’s seven signs interspersed between these signs are a number of discourses from Jesus that is debates and conversations the eighth sign if it is to be counted is Jesus own Resurrection which happens after his crucifixion the resurrection is described in John 20 verses 1 to 29.
now if you’re paying attention to the references I gave to those seven signs however you may notice that they take us to basically halfway through the book the end of chapter 11.
not coincidentally chapter 11 also represents the culmination of hostility against Jesus by the Jews they resolve to kill him in chapter 12 as a result Jesus ends his public Ministry enters Jerusalem for the final Passover and foretells his death after chapter 12 Jesus turns to minister privately to his disciples and then proceeds to his crucifixion and Resurrection thus the Book of John has two main sections and this has often been observed they even have catchy titles for these two sections what’s often called The Book of signs goes from John 1 19 to the end of chapter 12. John 1 19 to 1250 the book of signs and then there’s often what’s called The Book Of Glory or the book of exaltation that goes from the beginning of John 13 John 13 1 to the end of chapter 20 John 20 verse 31.
so we’ve got the book of signs the book of exaltation and then on either side of those two we have small explanatory sections a prologue in John 1 1 to 18 and then an epilogue in John 21 verses 1 to 25 all of chapter 21 basically so I think that’s a recognizable a good overarching breakdown of how John has structured this book however if you’d like something a tiny bit more specific helps you keep track of the events happening in John I appreciate the outline put together by one of my Seminary professors for this book Dr Brad Claussen I’ll give it to you I think it’s a good one for our study as we go through it it flows this way I’ll say it twice so if you want to write it down you can we have the prologue and 1 1 to 18 John 1 1 to 18. then we have the presentation of the son of God that’s John 1 verse 19 to the end of chapter 4 John 4.
verse 54.
I’ll repeat those two again so the prologue from 1 1 to 18.
and then the presentation of the Son of God in 119 to the end of chapter 4 verse 54.
and we have the opposition to the son of God chapters 5 to 12.
that’s the opposition to the Son of God chapters 5 to 12.
then we have the preparation of the disciples from chapters 13 to 17.
preparation of the disciples or chapters 13 to 17 and we have the passion of the son of God from chapters 18 to 20 so passion referring to his crucifixion his glorious death a passion of the son of God chapters 18 to 20. and then the epilogue chapter 21. so that more specific breakdown it basically fits into the more overarching one that I mentioned to you previously epilogue is chapter 21.
so there’s the structure and there’s the Gospel of John this is a true eyewitness record and profound teaching as to who Jesus is this is also profound teaching as to why we should believe in him and what it means to follow him if you do not yet believe in Jesus as Lord as Christ as God then join us in this study listen to an eyewitness behold with your heart Jesus believe in him and find eternal life if you do already do already believe in Jesus as your lord and savior then join us for this study too that you also may be hold again your Christ your God and that you may grow in your belief it may grow and your obedience and following him and you may grow in your worship of him and your love for him I very much looking forward to learning and growing with you as we study this book together may the Lord be so kind as to show us afresh the Glorious Living Word through his inspired written word with our introduction complete our next stop is John’s prologue and John 1 1 to 18. so next time I’m preaching with you I anticipate we will be back there let’s close in prayer Lord again we thank you for your word we thank you for John’s witness we thank you for even just his example the way he even describes himself just the disciple whom Jesus loved but in a sense that’s us what are we God except the disciples whom you have loved whom you have loved and are still loving and will love forever not because of anything good in us not because we’ve earned it not because in ourselves we chose it but God because of you and your heart and how it pleased you pour out salvation on us and make up make us objects of your love forever oh Lord we are going to see that more and more just what a lovely Christ God you are let us Lord be so confident that these things are true let us be so struck by the reality that this word you’ve given us declares so that we stop being LED Away by the things of the world by the Temptations of the World by the idols of this life that we would no longer hesitate ourselves saying oh should I really go all the way with Jesus there will be persecution we know but Lord you are so great there is such life enjoying you that all suffering is worth it actually the suffering becomes the way we enjoy you more behold your glory and display it to others Jesus what was true for you and going to the Cross despising its shame and Rising again it will be true for us you were exalted when you humbled yourself we will be exalted also thank you for the also precious truth in this book that where you are now we will be also it is your desire that we be brought to the place where we can behold Your Glory forever and all the ways that you’re going to show us that and all the good that you’re going to do us what would we thank you we are undeserving forgive us for our sins let us follow after you more wholeheartedly more righteously more with joy continue to teach us in Jesus name amen