The Beginning
The Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Today, we are beginning a look at the Gospel of John. As with any passage of Scripture, it is good to gain an overall understanding about how the book flows, and its context, so that it going to be our focus today. We will look at a few main things about the book of the Bible, and then over the coming weeks, we will work through section by section.
The Purpose.
The Purpose.
John 20:31.
This shows us that this is a Gospel tract.
The Gospel of Matthew was written to show that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and King to a primarily Jewish audience.
The Gospel of Mark was written to show that Jesus is Who He says He is to Gentiles.
The Gospel of Luke was written to clarify with specificity everything that Jesus did while He was on Earth.
In this passage we read, we saw that John wrote His Gospel so that people could come to true salvation.
Themes.
Themes.
Jesus.
Quite literally, Jesus, Who He is and what He has done is the theme of this entire book.
John 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.”
Life.
Life can be understood in two ways:
We are alive right now. Each of us has been granted life by Almighty God.
Acts 17:28 “for in Him we live and move and exist...”
Eternal Life. We are told in John 20:31 that, in believe that Jesus is the Christ, we would have “life in His name”.
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.”
Light & Truth.
Light and truth are deeply connected (John 3:20-21).
Those that live in the truth will always come to the Light and will not fight the light.
When we have done something wrong, it is our sinful human nature that causes us to hide or run from authority. Nobody likes to have the lights turned on when you’re trying to sleep.
It even causes us to be self justifying, where we will need anyone and everyone to know our version of events so that they know we are not wrong, and that we look good in their eyes. That is essentially hiding from the truth. Christians don’t hide from the truth, even if they have done wrong.
Worship must be done in truth.
John 4:23-24 ““But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.””
Jesus Christ is not Buddha or Confucius who say that all ways of worship lead to the One True God.
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Believe (over 70x).
It is one thing to know the truth about Jesus, but it is another thing to believe it so much that it changes the way you live your life.
We saw that that the purpose.
The Author.
The Author.
As we study this book, you’ll notice that the guy who wrote doesn’t mention his name anywhere.
He calls himself, “The disciple in whom Jesus loved.”
John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20.
He does this because he was most likely trying to take the focus off of himself as the author, and place it more on Jesus, just like his account of where John the Baptist (a different John), says in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Pure humility.
Its quite telling as well, because during the time of Jesus’s ministry, he was one of the “sons of thunder”
Luke 9:54 “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?””
He was the only Apostle of the 12 that didn’t get executed for being a Christian.
He was exiled on the Island of Patmos.
Prison Colony.
Boiled in tar.
He was released and then pastored a church in the city of Ephesus until his late 90’s when he authored this book
1-3 John.
Revelation.