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.
Subject: the Deity of Christ
Reach: eternity, the Glory of God
Purpose: believe in Christ for eternal life
Overview and Introduction.
Who is the author?
Why was the book written?
What is the scope of the book?
What are the key doctrinal principles in the book?
When was this book written?
What makes this book different?
What are the major sections of the book?
Who wrote the Gospel of John?
The Gospel of John has a human writer and a Divine Author.
“all Scripture is God-breathed”.
Divine means “God”.
Verbal means “the words of Scripture in the original”.
Plenary means “all”.
Inspiration means “breathed”.
The sublime purpose of this Gospel is to glorify Christ, who came to glorify the Father.
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 provides testimony that establishes the truth that Jesus is the Messiah,
and Jesus is God.
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, JOH 19:27.
He had access to the palace of the high priest, JOH 18:15, and had special information about what took place in the Sanhedrin, JOH 7:45-52; 11:47-53; 12:10.
He was present at the Last Supper, and reclined at the bosom of Jesus, JOH 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, JOH 13:23; 19:26; 20:2.
John was in the inner circle of Christ’s apostles, along with his brother James, and Peter.
MAR 5:37 And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
MAR 9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and brought them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them;
Jesus gathered Peter, James, and John near to Him when He suffered in the garden of Gethsemane MAR 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, JOH 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?
John 20:28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
JOH 20:30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 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.
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.
JOH 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.”
JOH 20:31 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.
The key word in the Gospel of John is the word “believe” in the English .
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.
“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.
JOH 1:6 There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.
JOH 1:8 He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. 9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
JOH 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
JOH 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
The theme of the Gospel of John is the Deity of Jesus Christ.
JOH 20:31 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.
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
HEB 1:8 But of the Son He says, “YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM. NASU
The book is filled with Deity. The Deity of Christ is presented in every chapter, in varying and convincing ways.
John1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
JOH 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
JOH 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
JOH 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
Simple words saying the most amazing things.
JOH 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.
JOH 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘ He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'”
JOH 1:16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.
JOH 1:17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
JOH 1:18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
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.
HEB 6:19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
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.
Matthew portrays Jesus as the Son of David, the Heir of Israel’s throne, the King of the Jews – in a word, the Messiah.
In Mark, we find Jesus displayed as the Servant of God.
Mark wrote for
Gentile readers in general and Roman readers
in particular.
Mark’s Gospel emphasizes what Jesus did
rather than what He said.
Luke deals with the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John’s Gospel sees the Lord Jesus Christ as the Heavenly One
come down to earth, the eternal Son of the Father made flesh and tabernacling among men.
Emphasizing the Lord as:
Mat emphasizes the Lord from the standpoint of His kingship
Mark emphasizes the Lord as the “servant”
Luke ” ” as the son of man, emph His humanity and John emphasizes Him as the Son of God, i.e., His deity
COL 1:26 the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints,
COL 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
There is the revelation of Jesus Christ as the God-man.
Then there is the revelation that the Gentiles are fellow heirs with the Jews in the Body of Christ.
ROM 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
To the Jew first (Matthew) and also to the Greek (Mark)
The humanity (Luke) and Deity (John) of Christ.
( 1) No genealogy is recorded in this Gospel.
( 2) There is no account of Christ’s birth.
( 3) Nothing about His childhood is mentioned by John.
( 4) We don’t find Jesus being tempted, because God cannot be tempted.
( 5) The transfiguration is not recounted.
( 6) There are no parables in John.
( 7) John does not record any demons being cast out.
Ninety percent of the material in the Fourth Gospel is unique, not found in the other three.
Among the four gospels, John gives the most detailed treatment of God the Holy Spirit.
He alone introduces doctrines that are unique to the Church Age, such as the Rapture and the indwelling of Christ.
John’s gospel includes historical markers that are not found in the synoptics.
Without John we would not know the length of Jesus’ ministry.
JOH 10:22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem;
John10:23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.
JOH 2:13,23
Joh 5:1
JOH 7:2,37
Everything that is distinctive about this book combines to achieve this purpose – to provide proof that Jesus Christ is God.
The theme of John’s Gospel is the Deity of the Savior. Here, as nowhere else in Scripture so fully, we are presented with the Godhood of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ dwelt in the Godhead with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit from eternity past. He is God.
Jesus’ resurrected body simply passed through His grave clothes.