The Gospel of John. Overview, Part 1

Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine

Soteriology, Theology Proper, Apologetics, Christology,
Bibliology, the Problem Solving Devices, and the nature of Christianity.

The Gospel of John.
Overview and Introduction.

The Gospel of John is pre-eminent among all the books ever written because of
its sublime subject,
its reach of thought, and its nobility of purpose.

Subject: the Deity of Christ
Reach: eternity, the Glory of God
Purpose: believe in Christ for eternal life

Who wrote the Gospel of John?

The Gospel of John has two authors –
a human author and a Divine Author.

The subject of this book is the unique Son of God, the God man Jesus Christ.

It is the doctrine of divine verbal plenary inspiration.

qeo/pneusto$ theopneustos
theos = God
pneo = to breathe

“all Scripture is God-breathed”.

Divine means “God”.
Verbal means “the words of Scripture in the original”.
Plenary means “all”.
Inspiration means “breathed”.

God supernaturally directed the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error His message to mankind in the words of their original writings.

The sublime purpose of this Gospel is to glorify Christ, who came to glorify the Father.

The identity of the human author is not revealed until the very END of the book.

Of first importance is the truth that Jesus Christ is God.

He is co-equal and co-eternal with
God the Father & God the Holy Spirit.

He – Jesus Christ – is the Creator of all things.

Jesus Christ is the Savior of the whole world.

The Beloved Disciple John wrote the fourth gospel.

The writer is an eyewitness who is giving us his personal testimony about His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

“testimony” = marturi/a
marturia = the evidence given, testimony before a judge

In John it is used for the facts relating to the truth of the Christian faith, especially testimony that establishes the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus is God.

marturia

the related verb is
marture/w
martureoo
and it means “to bear witness or to testify”. occurs 77 times in the New Testament.

33 of those are found in the Gospel of John alone!
14 others appear in the rest of the writings of John (1,2,3 John & Revelation).

The Gospel of John is a series of witnesses being presented to declare that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Lamb of God.

The book is filled with vivid details that could only come from an eyewitness.

When Jesus died on the cross, John the beloved disciple took the mother of Jesus to his own home, John 19:27.

He had access to the palace of the high priest, John 18:15, and had special information about what took place in the Sanhedrin, John 7:45-52; 11:47-53; 12:10.

He was present at the Last Supper, and reclined at the bosom of Jesus, John 13:23.

By process of elimination, one by one all the other apostles are eliminated, and you are left with John, the son of Zebedee and the brother of James.

John lived in Bethsaida. His father was Zebedee; his mother was Salome. They had two sons, James and John, and these two would later be given the name “sons of thunder” by the Lord.

John was a follower of John the Baptist, JOH 1:35,40. He left John the Baptist to follow Christ. John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loved, John 13:23“>JOH 13:23; 19:26; 20:2.

John was in the inner circle of Christ’s apostles, along with his brother James, and Peter.

Mark 5:37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.

Jesus gathered Peter, James, and John near to Him when He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane Mark 14:32-33.

John was the only male disciple present at the crucifixion.

Peter and John were often mentioned together, and these two were the first to go inside the empty tomb on Resurrection Sunday, John 20:4-8.

John saw things that no one else saw. There is nobody else on the scene with better credentials to be mankind’s witness to the life, death, and resurrection of
the Son of God.

John’s gospel records things the first three gospels omit and was written between 80 and 90 AD.

John ended up writing a gospel, 3 epistles and the book of Revelation.

What is the purpose behind this book?

The purpose of the Gospel of John is to provide overwhelming proof that Jesus Christ is God, such that the soul who realizes this will choose to believe in Jesus Christ and receive eternal life.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,
that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish,
but have eternal life.”

The key word in the Gospel of John is the word “believe” in the English .
pisteu/w
pisteuoo

“The conviction and trust to which a man is impelled by a certain inner and higher prerogative and law of his soul.” (Joseph Thayer, Greek scholar).

This word pisteuoo is found 98 times in the Gospel of John.

The theme of the Gospel of John is the Deity
of Jesus Christ.

the absolute use of the phrase “Son of God”. This is not a son of God; this is
THE Son of God.

ho huiós toú theoú

The book is filled with Deity. The Deity of Christ is presented in every chapter, in varying and convincing ways.

Simple words saying the most amazing things.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the “synoptic Gospels”.

The word synoptic means “seen together as with the same eyes”.

The fourth gospel, the Gospel of John, has been called the maverick gospel. It is very different from the first three.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke recount many of the same events. They follow a very similar sequence to one another. They use similar wording.

John wrote his gospel last. So it is quite probable that John had access to the first three in some form.

What do we call the #4 hitter in baseball? The “cleanup” hitter.

Relay races have four members on each team.

In relay races, the last lap is called the “anchor” leg.

Our anchor is the fact that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He is seated on His throne.

As the last gospel written, John completes the record of what God wants us to know concerning the life, death, resurrection and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.

Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.

Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.

Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.

Point 3. The Empty Tomb and the Grave Clothes.

Christ is also the promised Messiah that the Jews longed for.

The Bible says that Jesus was a man, PHI 2:7-8.

HEB 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

Pisteuoo = to have faith (in someone or something), to credit, to entrust. It means to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to place confidence in.

occurs 37 times in the New Testament. Amazingly, 30 of those 37 appear in books written by the apostle John.