Sermon Tone Analysis

Andrew Hodge                                                                                             31st March 2007

 

 

New Testament Survey NTES 111

 

 

Seminar 6

 

 

The Gospel of John

 

 

/The Gospel of John/; Guthrie, Donald  /New Testament Introduction  /Apollos, Leicester, England 4th Ed  1990 Ch 7; /Libronix DLS/; Irving L. Jensen /Jensen’s Survey of the New Testament /1981, Moody Press, Chicago Ch 8  

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/Contrast the primary theme of John with that of the Synoptic Gospels:/

/            /As mentioned in my notes for Seminar 5 “Jensen’s presupposition is that the Synoptic Gospels form a unified whole which together with the Gospel of John provide as full a picture of Jesus as we need.”

Therefore this distinct, non-Synoptic Gospel “serves as a capstone revelation of the life and ministry of Christ” (Jensen p 174).

Jesus is the Revealer-Redeemer; the Son of God Who both reveals Who God is, and Who has come to Redeem mankind.

“From beginning to end, the Fourth Gospel is concerned to set forth Jesus as the Revelation of the Father and one with the Father, but always with a view to making plain his role as Mediator of salvation—and of judgment, where man so insists.”[1]

In many respects John’s Gospel contains an account of Jesus’ life which reveals the spiritual heights of the God-man in more significant detail than the Synoptics.

The charts of each Gospel that Jensen constructs (based on Chart 17 p 104) rely heavily on the picture presented in John with regard to timeline, total length of earthly ministry, and significant focus-altering events.

Even the “perfect understanding of all things….in

order” of Luke 1:3 is unable to match this, and points toward the necessity of having a Fourth Gospel which can complete the historical narratives of the first Three.

John fleshes out the spiritual supremacy of the Saviour (eg John 3:16; or a comparison of Luke 1:5 with John 1:1, showing the immediate concern of John’s Gospel with the Deity, rather than the historicity, of the Christ).

This is not to say that John does not contain any history of note.

This Gospel is the only one to record Jesus’ early Judean ministry, and the crucial event of His first cleansing of the Temple (John 2:13-17).

Nevertheless, John is noted for its Doctrines, and “commentary” on these by the Apostle which are more extensive than in the Synoptics, many of which are unique to John eg the Father’s House (Ch 14), the Vine and the Branches (Ch 15), His High Priestly Prayer (Ch 17), etc.

By the time John was inspired to write this Gospel, the history of the early Church had progressed from “Hallelujah!

What a Saviour!” to “What does this mean for me, my society, our future and the rest of the world?”

There is more detail concerning this in Jensen’s Chart 42 p 181.

The primary audiences of the Synoptics are the Jews, the Romans and the Greeks respectively.

John is a Gospel for the world on a timeless basis; even those local events which it records have application to us today (eg Chh 3 and 4).

Other data taken from Jensen’s Chart 18, p 108 (only from where apples are compared to apples) shows the bias of each of the Gospels toward the Portraits of Jesus (the Prophesied King, the Obedient Servant, the Perfect Man, the Divine Son), the outstanding sections of each (sermons, miracles, parables, doctrines), the prominent ideas (law, power, grace, glory), and broad division (Synoptics - the humanity of Christ, as seen from the outside; Fourth Gospel - the deity of Christ as expressed by Himself).

It is readily appreciated that all of the Gospels are at once both the same and are different, and there is no question that the Fourth Gospel is opposed to the Synoptics in any way.

All four are necessary for us to see, understand and cherish Christ.

If one account had been written to include all of the material in all four Gospels, it would have been significantly shorter than the combination of the Gospels as they are, which make up about half of the written NT, emphasizing the importance of this material (Jensen p 108-109).

It is noteworthy that in spite of the tremendous importance of John’s Gospel, it omits what one would normally suppose to be crucial events - Jesus’ nativity, genealogy, youth, wilderness temptations (why not?

Does not this episode bear strongly on Jesus as the Son of God? See below and raise at Seminar), transfiguration (same query) or ascension (same query again) [Jensen footnote 10, p 182].

Note also that John only records 20 days of Jesus’ four and a half year (!?) ministry cf John 21:25.

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/Characterise// the portraits of Christ depicted in each chapter of John’s Gospel: /(list in Jensen p 196)

            Ch 1:49 Rabbi, the Son of God, the King of Israel

            Ch 2:11 The beginning of miracles, manifesting His glory, resulting in belief

            Ch 3:16 God’s Son, belief in Him giving everlasting life

            Ch 4:26 “I am” the Messiah

            Ch 5:25 life to be had in hearing the voice of the Son of God

            Ch 6:33, 51 the living bread of God

            Ch 7:29 Jesus knows the Father and is sent from Him

            Ch 8:58 “Before Abraham was, I am”

            Ch 9:37 Jesus Himself claims to be God

            Ch 10:30 “I and my father are one”

            Ch 11:27 Martha states her belief to Him that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, prophesied to come into the world

            Ch 12:32 Jesus prophesies His own crucifixion which will draw all men unto Him

            Ch 13:13 Jesus claims He is Master and Lord of His disciples

            Ch 14:11 Jesus pleads with His disciples to believe that He is equal with the Father - merely because He has said so, but if not, then on account of His works

            Ch 15:1 the True Vine (and His Father the husbandman)

            Ch 16:28 the Plan of the ages - a product of both the Father and Jesus as God

            Ch 17:1 Cooperative relationship between Father and Son

            Ch 18:11 Jesus’ obedience to the will of His Father

            Ch 19:7 The Jews realize that Jesus claims to be God

            Ch 20:28 Thomas, on visual evidence, recognizes Jesus as his personal Lord and God

            Ch 21:14 third resurrection appearance NB 10:17-18.

There is much more to Jesus than is contained in this list eg in the Prologue (1:1-18) He is the Creator of all things, the living Word or /Logos/, the Only Begotten of the Father; and elsewhere the Lamb of God, the Door, the Gift of God, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews, Jesus the son of Joseph, the Way the Truth and the Life, the Light of the world, the true Light, Only Begotten of the Father, only Begotten Son, Rabboni, the Resurrection and the Life, the Good Shepherd, Teacher, a grain of wheat (12:23-24), our Keeper (17:12), the Overcomer (16:33) - all just in John and in addition to Jensen’s list.

John’s Gospel more than the Synoptics reveals both Jesus’ humanity and His Deity although most commentators stress the Deity aspect.

Jesus in John is Son, active in domesticity (the wedding at Cana), gets tired and thirsty (the well at Sychar), is deeply moved and weeps at Lazarus’ grave, washes the disciples’ feet and thirsts in pain on the Cross.

He prays out loud for Himself, his disciples and the Church (Ch 17).

John’s Gospel is the only one to use the transliterated “Messias” to describe the Christ, right from the beginning (1:41).

The Synoptics merely use “Christ” to express the same intent.

In Messianic terms, “John alone records Pilate’s rejection of the chief priests’ request for the wording over the cross to be modified.

In the account of the feeding of the multitude, John alone tells us that the people sought to make Jesus king but that Jesus withdrew himself (6:15), no doubt because their conception of Messianic kingship differed radically from his.”[2]

 

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/Examine the titles “Son of Man” and “Son of God”:/

            It has already been stated that these two terms are not equivalent 2a.

/“Son of Man/ was the title used almost exclusively by Jesus Himself (cf.

Matt.

9:6; 10:23; 11:19).

Some feel He used it because it most clearly distinguished His [human] Messiahship from the erroneous ideas of His time.

The name /Son of God/ was also applied to Jesus in an official or messianic sense (cf.

Matt.

4:3, 6; 16:16; Luke 22:70; John 1:49).

It emphasized that He was a Person of the triune Godhead, supernaturally born as a human being.”[3]

In my view this is too simplistic.

‘Son of man’ is a title used extensively in the OT, especially in Ezekiel where it is used to address the writer 93 times.

It is used in John’s Gospel 12 times, generally by Jesus to describe Himself.

‘Son of God’ is used - not unexpectedly in view of the unity of Jehovah - only once in the OT - to describe Jesus in the fire with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3:25).

It is used in John’s Gospel 10 times, generally by others, to describe Christ.

It could be said that the use of the two terms is balanced in John.

Perhaps the significance of ‘Son of God’ is best brought out in Mark where it is used three times (1:1, 3:11, 15:39) to show the Deity of Christ.

In Matthew and Luke the title is used whenever Jesus is performing a miracle, or demonstrating His Deity in other ways, or being worshipped as God.

In John, ‘Son of God’ is not so specific.

It is frequently juxtaposed to His Humanity eg 1:34 John the Baptist sees Jesus and bears record that this is the Son of God; Nathanael says to Him “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”[4] ; in 9:35-37 Jesus asks the man whose blindness He had healed “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee”[5]; other instances are in 10:36, 11:27, 19:7, 20:31.

After the Gospels in the rest of the NT, the title the ‘Son of God’ is used either to specifically express Jesus’ Deity (Romans 1:4; Hebrews 4:14, 7:3; 1 John 3:8, 5:20; Revelation 2:18), or is a combination of His Deity and humanity, being non-committal (Acts 9:20; 2 Corinthians 1:19; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 4:13; etc)5a.

In John, “Son of Man” is a title which Jesus exclusively uses to refer to Himself.

This may have the quality of Deity (1:51, 3:13, 5:27, 6:62, 13:31) or the quality of humanity (3:14) or of both (6:27, 53, 8:28, 12:23).

In the rest of the NT, ‘Son of Man’ is used only 4 times, 3 times to refer to Jesus’ Deity and once to quote from the Psalms.5b

Conclusion: ‘Son of God’ is usually used by others to refer to a Jesus Who is God.

‘Son of Man’ appears to be used mostly by Jesus when He wishes to make sure His audience can identify with Him.

There is substantial overlap.

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/Articulate the Biblical reason for the Gospel’s writing (John 20:31):/

/            /John 20:31 “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name”.

In context the “these” that are written are the accounts of the bare bones of what Jesus did in front of witnesses (v 30), supporting the notion that they can be proved and therefore believed without hesitation.

Who is the “ye”?

There is no local contextual clue.

The obvious answer is the reader himself, supported by the context of the whole of the book and its place in the Canon.

The reader of this verse is assumed to be unsaved, and although much of the doctrine in the rest of the Gospel is written for the saved, the whole book is an apologetic to explain the necessity for salvation and the sufficiency of the Saviour.

The doctrine can only be understood when the key of salvation is received eg as shown by Jesus’ battles with the Pharisees.

The verse makes no apology for Who Christ is - God, the promised Messiah (ie the Christ).

There is also a sense that the new believer will have received something more than he bargained for ie “life”.

This Gospel has much to say about the life that results from belief in Christ - not only that we are resurrected from the spiritually dead (eg 5:24) but that we also have a “more abundant” life (10:10) than we thought was possible.

This verse also states that salvation and life come as a result of belief ie the acceptance of truth about ourselves, and trust in the Christ Who saves, which is a personal commitment between the believer and God, and not available any other way (ie only “through His Name”).