The Gospel of John - Introduction
John · Vern Peterman · Jan 6, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 01
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926339504271

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK, so on your handout here, the Gospel of John is the fourth of four Gospels written by the Apostle John, likely about 85 to 90 AD. And a lot of the dating that is given to various New Testament documents and Old Testament documents, we use our dating system.

They didn't use that dating system, so they didn't write down, you know, this was written in 85 AD. They didn't know at the time that there was such a date. I think. What is typically the situation in the biblical era, almost entirely, is that things would be dated often by a ruler. This was the first year, and even sometimes this many days into this ruler's reign. And so things were often dated by that.

In the Gospel of John, you find some names come up that give us a time window. We know, for example, that Pontius Pilate ruled from 26 to 36 AD, so that gives about roughly a decade-long time window, and that fits. However, that's not very precise in terms of giving us anything other than, here's the decade window.

Gospel of John is the fourth of four Gospels written by the Apostle John, likely 85 to 90 AD. The Gospel of John presents some accounts in parallel with the other three Gospels. It also has much that is unique. What is often said is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels, that is, that they frequently present many things in parallel. The Gospel of John, on the other hand, presents some things that are not presented at all in any of the other Gospels, and we'll take a look at what that is. As you see there in the kind of the table, comparison and contrast in the Gospels.

Matthew written to the Jews, directed to the Jews. Mark to the Romans. See, the Romans were interested in getting things done, so one of the words you will see repeatedly used in the Gospel of Mark is immediately. and you will frequently see Jesus doing things not that much compared to the other Gospels about what he says. He does record what he says, but not as much as the other Gospels, which is another reason it's shorter.

Luke was written to the Greek mind there, and John, we say here written to all, John has some unique insights into the Jewish leadership. And then what's interesting is the creature symbols in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Revelation chapter 4 match up with the Gospels.

We have Matthew, presents the creature as a lion, and he's the Lion of Judah, which fits the Jewish perspective. Mark, pictured as an ox or a calf, but the bottom line is working, getting things done. And then Luke, to the Greeks, Jesus as a man is presented. And then finally, as an eagle, Jesus' deity is pictured by the animal symbol. So here's John and his brother James.

Actually, you know, in the Bible we have the name James. As a matter of fact, they're starting a study on the book of James, right? In another elective. It's not James. it's Iakovos, Jacob. So anyway, that's an interesting little piece of Bible tradition. I don't know why, why don't they, Jacob's not that hard, why don't they just translate it Jacob? But anyway, I probably won't be able to fix it.

So they were sons of Zebedee and what's real interesting here, at one point their mother asked that James and John get special honors. You've got your various disciples. We want these two to get special honors. No. As a matter of fact, the special honor that they would have is James would be the first apostle to die by the sword. Acts chapter 12. And John would be the last to die. So far as we know, the only one who died a natural death.

So James and John were bookends in terms of the life of the apostles. The other thing is there are a number of Jameses that show up. James was a very common name, in fact really Jacob in the Bible. And so it's important to make clear, this is James the son of Zebedee, James the brother of John that we're referring to, not the author of the book of James, who is Jesus' half-brother.

So far as we know, John was the only disciple to die a natural death, and that because as the account, and this is not a biblical account, so this is an extra-biblical account, Domitian tried to kill John by boiling him in oil, so the account goes, and that didn't work, so he put him in the Isle of Patmos there, so the account goes. That he was on the Isle of Patmos we know from the Book of Revelation.

Both in the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, also written by John, there's a pattern of sevens. And we'll see that here as we go through this study of the Gospel of John. For instance, in the Gospel of John, there are seven metaphorical statements of I am by Christ. And by making some of those statements multiple times, you have a total of 23 times in the Gospel of John where Jesus says, I am. And so what you see in the table off to the right, His Gospel of John has, I am the bread of life, but Jesus doesn't just say, I'm the bread of life.

He could have just said it in normal terms, but instead he used a pair of Greek words, ego eimi, ego eimi, and these are used repeatedly in the Greek Old Testament by God himself. What you have, let's see, here's one, we went through Isaiah, And it says, I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43, 25. That is actually a repetition, ego eimi, ego eimi, in the Greek Old Testament. Jesus uses that special pair of words, ego eimi, 23 times in the Gospel of John, and has a pattern of seven different kinds of metaphorical statements.

I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine. People will quote Jesus saying, I am the way, the truth, and the life, but the way Jesus said it is, I, being in fact God, am the way, life.

So we're going to see that as we go through the Gospel of John. One of the things we'll find is it will first start showing up there around John chapter 6 and then we'll see it almost chapter after chapter until the Last Supper when we get into John 14 and 15.

Christ makes multiple claims to be God and in fact the Gospel of John proclaims Christ deity starting in the first chapter as we'll see. Proclaims Christ deity. On the second page there, in addition to the seven I am metaphors, Jesus also performs seven miracles or signs in the Gospel of John and it begins with turning the water into wine at the wedding of Cana. It goes on, "...healing a nobleman's son, heals a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, feeds 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee, walks on water and stills the storm, heals a man blind from birth, and raises Lazarus from the dead." So those seven miracles are told in the Gospel of John.

John also calls Christ the Lamb, and actually Jesus is called the Lamb not only in the Gospel of John, starting in the first chapter, but where else? In the book of Revelation, repeatedly called the Lamb all the way into the new heavens and the new earth.

Won't this be amazing? We'll be in the new heavens and the new earth with the Lord. And I'm sure a lot of things of life past will just be Hardly a memory for us, but we will recognize this is the one who was the lamb. This is the one who paid the price for me. Yeah, Sam? So is that because you think John was involved with the sacrificial system? It is a possibility. I don't know that there's any way to confirm it, but that's something else we'll be looking at here.

There have been those who think that John was actually of the tribe of Levi. and that he actually held a priestly status which would explain some of his insights into the Jewish leadership and his contact and influence with the Jewish leadership, different from any of the others.

John, for example, is the only one that reports about Nicodemus. He reports more about Joseph of Arimathea, also of the Sanhedrin, the Council. than the other Gospels do. He's the only one who reports about Nicodemus. He not only reports the John chapter 3 meeting of Jesus and Nicodemus, but also mentions that Nicodemus tries to speak up in defense of Christ at the Sanhedrin and gets shut down. None of the other Gospels report that.

So that might be one. Peter tries to get into the courtyard of the high priest and they won't let him in. John gets him in. So John's got some pull and some influence here that's extraordinary. So, yeah, that's why some have thought John must be, you know, of the tribe of Levi, a priest or something of that sort. That may be or it may be simply that they've made some efforts to make some of those kind of high level, you know, political contacts. After all, his mother was saying, hey, give my sons, you know, some special consideration here.

Very, very good question, though, and that's something we will point out as we go through here. The Christ is the Lamb statement comes out twice in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. The next day he saw Jesus, that is John the Baptist, coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And by the way, that taking away means he lifts it up. It doesn't mean he just makes it go away. He lifts it up. The other half of that is where did he put those sins once taken off of us. Where do those sins go? On to himself. So that's the second half of placing those sins upon himself so that his crucifixion would be a time of dying for our sins. So this is the first half. The taking away doesn't mean that they just disappear. But he lifts them up off of us onto himself. Okay, the next one, John 1, 35 and 36.

Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus and he walked and said, Behold the Lamb of God. So he said the same thing the next day. It's amazing that with that kind of a statement that John's disciples, not all of them seem to get it. Neither did Jesus' disciples. Okay.

The Apostle John seems to have some unique connections to the Sanhedrin. This is bringing up the point that you brought up, Stan. Only John mentions Nicodemus, one of the Sanhedrin, and also Joseph of Arimathea, also the council. Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned elsewhere, but John particularly. Nicodemus is named when he comes to Jesus by night, when he attempts to defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and at Jesus' burial after Christ was crucified. John also, not naming himself, but calling himself another disciple, that disciple, or the other disciple, was able to get Peter into the courtyard of the high priest and he was known by the high priest.

Here is John, and it's interesting, he doesn't name himself in his book. He refers to himself as another disciple, that disciple, the other disciple, or sometimes he calls himself The one whom Jesus loved. The one whom Jesus loved. And why would he do that? Why would he write it that way? Because he didn't want to focus on himself. Yeah, one is, you know, this book isn't about me, right? We call it the Gospel of John, but I'm not sure he would have named it that anyway. Yeah, he didn't want to focus on himself. Why else? You're correct. But why else? Why else would he save, for example, the disciple whom Jesus loved? Didn't he love all the disciples? Yeah.

Well, first of all, they say that he was part of the inner circle, which is like Peter, James, and John. So that indicates that he already had some kind of close relationship with Jesus. And I think he's also saying that they had a really close fellowship. That would be my take on it. Think of John, he was acutely aware, particularly aware, this Jesus loves me. This Jesus loves me.

And I think if you ponder that, I think that's an important thing for all of us to really let sink in. For God so loved the world, we can easily just sort of say, well, that's sort of a generic thing. No, you particularly, you specifically. And John was quite aware, this Jesus, he doesn't just kind of do this generic, you know, I love everybody thing. He was intensely aware that Jesus loved him. And that's a good thing for all of us to let sink into our hearts. Jesus loves me. Yes. We say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

The next time that the loved and gave sequence comes up is in Galatians 2.20 where Paul personalizes and I think that's something that we all would do well to do. He loved me and gave himself for me. me personally. Yes.

And maybe you could also tie that to the fact that he was a priest because you know the tribe of Levi was a very special tribe and I would assume that God's love was really manifested through a lot of the priests because they had you know that working relationship with God every day when they did the sacrifices and stuff.

What's interesting is some got that what you described and there were a great many who didn't. A number of the priests were also Sadducees, which meant that they didn't believe in a Messiah, they didn't believe in life after death. They didn't believe in anything past the first five books of Moses. So a great many priests just, we just believe those first five books, when you're done, you're done, that's it. And so their perspective was often not good. But here's John who was acutely aware that God loved him through Christ. Because he repeatedly refers to Jesus as deity. But he also refers to himself as the one whom Jesus loved.

Yeah. I think that helps me a little bit when it talks about the nation of priests. talks about that to me. You know, the fact that John was a priest really makes that more understandable in my mind. That we can be like that as well. Yeah, I would say that we don't know for a fact that he was a priest, but it's quite likely.

Yeah. That's actually a statement, which is definitively that he's a priest in the community. Ties to that would be Yeah, in other words, you would say there are indications, but we don't have certainty, you know. So as we go through, we can point out what seems to be indications, but they're not, you know, final and definitive proof or statements.

So here's John able to get Peter into the courtyard of the high priest and it says there he was known by the high priest. So that's very interesting. Here you have this whole nation and John is known by the high priest. The high priest was a Sadducee. The high priest did not believe in a Messiah. The high priest So here's John, who knows the high priest well enough that he just says to the people who are guarding the gate, you know, hey, Peter's okay.

And they let him in. I mean, that's amazing influence. Oh, you're John, we know who you are. And he gets him in. This is astounding connection where, oh yeah, we know who you are. I mean, there's not even any picture ID. But they know who this guy is. Okay, here's John 18, 15, and 16.

Simon Peter was following Jesus and so was another disciple. Guess who that was? Now that disciple was known to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest, but Peter was standing at the door outside. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in. astounding influence there.

Though it is not known explicitly, some have suggested that John was a priest and that might explain why John would have such connections among the Sanhedrin. So it may be the case, we don't have definitive proof, but it is kind of astounding. But there may be other reasons why John had such religious political connections and insights.

In John 14, through 16, Jesus tells a great deal about the ministry that is to be in their near future. And it's recorded only in the Gospel of John. John 14, 15, and 16, Jesus at the Last Supper is preparing the disciples for what will be their next ministry, and that is, you guys, I've sent you out two by two to the land of Israel and told you don't go anywhere, not even on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go only to the Lashiv of the House of Israel. Now he's going to tell them, okay, here's the next ministry that you're going to have and the Holy Spirit will be given to you and the Holy Spirit will bring to memory the various things that I've told you, including these words.

At the time they have not the foggiest idea what he's telling them. But we're going to be able to go through those chapters and those are real special chapters recorded only in the Gospel of John, not the other Gospels. You can imagine Jesus is giving them all this preparation for something and they have the slightest idea what their next stage will be. They really have not any idea. Within hours he would be crucified and they'd have no idea what that was all about. And within days, he would be resurrected, and they had no idea what that was about either. So he's telling them things that they would recall and understand later, a fair amount of time later, but not of the time that he was telling them. So anyway, we will go through that. Page 3.

As he does also in the Book of Revelation, John records the purpose of his writing. There's something interesting about John in his major writings. He tells you, here is why I'm writing, which is somewhat of a unique thing. That's not typical of books in either the New Testament or the Old. But this one, John 20, 30-31, 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 and it's the Messiah, the Messiah, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. Now here's something very interesting. Did Caiaphas, the high priest, believe there was a Messiah, any kind of Messiah. It was a Sadducee, they didn't believe in that. So here's John that knows the High Priest, has connections that he can just walk right in the door and get Peter in, who otherwise wouldn't be allowed in. So here's John, and he's writing this. Why is he writing this?

Among his purposes, is that you might understand that Jesus is the Messiah, even though the high priest doesn't think there is one. So the high priest was interrogating the Messiah that the high priest didn't believe existed. And you know what he asked him? Are you the Messiah?

And of course, it didn't matter what Jesus answered. Caiaphas wasn't going to believe it anyway. because he didn't believe in one. If Jesus said no, that would have been fine. If Jesus said yes, that would have been fine. Caiaphas isn't going to believe it no matter what he says.

These things have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. How are those claims different? What's the difference between the Messiah and the Son of God? What does it mean for Jesus to be the Messiah? He is the promised one, the long promised one. The predictions of the Messiah start in Genesis and continue on. Even though the Sadducees believed the book of Genesis was a proper book, they wouldn't see the Messiah in it.

It's a Jewish Israel scripture. Yes. The Messiah saves Israel and the Son of God is a never distinguishing title altogether. Yeah. Let's ask this question. Will you, I'm assuming that you're probably not Jewish, will you have a relationship with the Messiah? Here's what's interesting, it's a specifically Jewish term, but I think a lot of Christians don't think through what does this mean. It's probably a best kept secret.

The book of Ephesians, starting with Ephesians 1.10, has THE Christ, that is THE Messiah, just like this, 23 times. It's not brought out in the translations.

And Ephesians 1.10, all things will be summed up in the Messiah. And guess what? So the Messiah is a specifically Jewish term, you're correct. What will be our relationship when he comes again? What will be our relationship to Christ? will be spiritually in us, we will come back with him, we will be the bridegroom. That's our relationship to the Messiah. So the Messiah has significance, but we have a different relationship than Israel. Yes? Yes. I'm sorry. He is the bridegroom. We are the bride. Yes. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for clarifying that.

So how could the high priest not believe in a Messiah? I guess I can kind of understand maybe life everlasting, but you would think that since it's written in scripture so many times, particularly in Isaiah, that they would have to believe that. No, because they only believe in the first five books and they don't believe everything that's in it.

The Messiah is predicted in numerous places, even in Genesis, but here's Judah. This is one we went over just before Christmas in the prophecy in Genesis about Judah. you know, until he comes to whom the scepter belongs. Descended from the line of Judah, and Judah is like a lion, so who is Jesus? He is the lion of Judah. Yes? So how did the high priest become the high priest? Is that just down the line? Obviously it's not about his beliefs.

The way it was worked out was the Sadducees were a minority party, right? The Pharisees were the majority party among those two groups. They're not the only groups, but those were the two major groups that had power and control. of the Sanhedrin, not necessarily, but because you would have people of various kinds. However, here is the way they balanced out the fact that the Sadducees had a minority in numbers and they tended to congregate right around Jerusalem, whereas the Pharisees were actually missionary and went all over the Roman Empire and elsewhere. What they did was they said, OK, the Sadducees were a minority party, but we're going to compensate for that by making the high priest Sadducees.

And it tended to be one that got passed within the family line. So that was their way of kind of counterbalancing it. So, all right, you're a smaller group, but we'll balance that out by making the high priest a Sadducee. and because there was a tendency to keep it within the family as sort of a family tradition as well.

Okay, and then one of the things we see there, we said the Messiah, the Son of God. What does the Son of God mean? It's deity? Okay, and most certainly that points to deity. Which, by the way, if you talk to an Orthodox Jew today, they are looking for the Messiah. I talked to a rabbi some years ago here in Denver, an Orthodox rabbi, and he said, you know, when the Messiah comes, we'll be asking him, is this your first or second time? But one of the things he told me is that the Orthodox Jews do not see the Messiah as deity.

So what John is putting together here is, here is Jesus who is the Messiah and he is in fact deity. He is in fact deity. So he is the Son of God. As a matter of fact, how many persons are there in the Godhead? three, and we have the Father and the Son, this is what the Son of God refers to, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, in that believing you may have life in his name. And by the way, there are several times, we're going to point them out, several times where the Gospel of John has believing and then life. Calvinism I know we've had some questions about that from time to time. Calvinism says you get life first and then you believe several steps down the line. The Gospel of John says otherwise. That believing you may have life through his name. When you believe, then you get life and not before. Right? Not before.

John is one of the four Gospels that includes identification truths. The identification truths are only explained by Paul, but they are included, as we'll find, in the Gospel of John towards the end, in several different places, and you can also find them in 1 Peter. We'll point some of those out even here in the main service. But for an explanation of it, you have to look to Paul's epistles.

That being said, one of the things that John does with the identification truths is that he shows intimacy. Intimacy. And that's a very valuable thing. I think intimacy is one of those things that our culture doesn't understand very well. But that's revealed and we'll see that as we get towards the end of the Gospel of John. Here are some of the identification truths examples. Here's John 8, 21 through 25, and you can compare this to 1 Corinthians 15, 17 and Ephesians 2, 1.

Then he said again to them, I go away and you will seek me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come. So the Jews were saying, surely he will not kill himself, will he? He says, where I am going you cannot come. And he was saying to them, you are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. Why is that a problem? Why is it a problem to die in your sins? You're still in Adam. You're still in Adam. And so you're in Adam. And that's a problem.

And you will die having a sin nature attached to this body, right? And it'll still be engaging in sinning until the day that you die. And if you're a believer, do you die in your sins? No. And that's what he says. Unless you believe, you're going to die in your sins. If you believe, you won't die in your sins. Why won't you die in your sins as a believer?

Because Christ, John chapter 1, took them, lifted them off of himself and put them to himself. All sins are paid for. Only the one who believes takes advantage of that. Otherwise, you die in the sins because you didn't allow Christ's death for those sins to deal with them. Yes. And was that not the purpose of the sacrificial system? I mean, that's what had been going on for centuries. Christ was the last sacrifice. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing all these sacrifices? What is it for?

Does it get anything done? No. It keeps pointing. Right? It keeps pointing to the problem. Yeah, right? I was just thinking, you know, the land, the thing with the hands on the land. Yeah, placing the sins on the Lamb. Yeah. Yeah. Personally. Yeah, Gail?

You know, the in Adam statement is from the Apostle Paul's writings. They likely did not understand that at this point in time. What's interesting is Jesus says identification truths kinds of things, including what we just looked at and what we're going to look at next. But the explanation of those identification truths is only given in the Apostle Paul's writings.

Here's John 15, 1-11. And this is per the American standard, except for I've translated one of these, lift up. I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he lifts up. And that is different from what you'll find in the usual translation. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. Be more fruitful.

You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. What does the Word of God do? It's cleansing. It's cleansing. Okay. The Word I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. Is that a statement of position or condition? Okay, in other words, so here is an appeal. This is something where you could abide or not abide. Right? So that's pointed to condition based on the position. Abide in me. So what that's saying is live according to the position that you have.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him You are in Christ and Christ is in you. And so that's the positional statement. The conditional statement is live in your condition according to your position.

He bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing. Apart from me you can do nothing. Does a person who does not abide in Christ but is a believer, does that person lose their salvation? No. What do they lose? They lose fellowship, not their salvation. That's the distinction.

I am the vine, you are the branches, who abides in me, and I in him. He bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up, and they gather him, and cast him into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples." When we go through this, I will be showing you pictures of the practices called viticulture, how they manage the grapevines and things of that sort, and that will help clarify a lot of the details. But the point here is that identification through teaching is brought out in position and condition in this passage here.

Yes? It's just a question. Yeah. For instance, you are from below, I am from above. Right, and he was speaking to the unsaved, unbelieving Jewish leaders. And it carries that significance in parallel to Ian Hatton? Yeah, where are you from, right? I'll have to think about that one. I'll have to think about that one. Let's look at John 17, 20-23.

I do not ask, this is Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. By the way, Gethsemane just means an olive press. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those who believe in Me through their work." Who is He praying for? You. He's praying for you. And by the way, you heard people say, don't take this personally? I recommend you take this personally. I recommend you do take this personally.

Christ is praying for you. that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. You, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us. There's identification truth teaching in Christ's prayer about us. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them, and you in me.

As an inspired book, we're about to behold the Lord through his word and thereby be transformed and be impacted deeply. We will see that in the first chapter. We will see beholding the Lord in the first chapter of the Gospel of John as we get there. 2 Corinthians 3.18 and Hebrews 4.12 also have that. By the way, the first several verses of 1 John as well. Let's take a look. You've got a couple of pages here of reference materials and I think these are worth taking a look at here. What we have is from John and the other Gospels. Here are different key locations where Jesus carried out his ministry. And let me ask you a question.

Up at the upper left there you see Jesus is in Tyre and the Syrophoenician woman's daughter is healed. That was outside of what was considered Israel. It was outside of where the Jews spent a lot of time. Why would Jesus go to Tyre if he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and he sent the disciples only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why would he go to Tyre?

Tom? It was actually within bounds of what God had originally promised. There you go. There you go. People wonder, why did he go there? Jesus went to all the places that God had originally given to the Jews, even if it was a place where there were not a lot of Jews.

Because the Jews were originally supposed to have taken the land that included Tyre and never did. But Jesus went there, why would he make a point of going there to the place that was supposed to be under the Jews? Yeah? And the other thing is Jesus was the king of who? The king of the Jews. He was the Messiah and so going to the place that was supposed to have been Israel's was a way of claiming it as the Messiah.

Also it wasn't fire. One of the cities that was judged And so when he comes up later and says that, you know, Khorasan and Tyre and Sidon or whatever was the city that he listed, he said that their judgment would be even greater, I assume greater than it was previously, even greater. Because when he came as a Messiah, they didn't recognize him even then. Which is similar to Jerusalem, because when he came to Jerusalem, they didn't recognize him either.

Yeah, you are correct. And so I think looking at, as we go through this, we'll be looking at some unique things in terms of things that are brought up only in John. Look, for example, in the middle of the map, kind of slightly to the left and down from the center, Sychar. This is the woman at the well, John chapter 4, where Jesus goes among the Samaritans. Totally shocking behavior, right? But that also would explain why Jesus would go there even though it would be supposedly inappropriate and you're not going just to the Jews. Why? It's because these Samaritans are partly Jewish, one, and two, it's within the land that the Jews were supposed to have taken at the outset.

So both Tyre and Sychar would fit that criteria. Then, let's take a look, you've got John at a glance here. Some people like to look at outlines of books and things of that sort, this is, I think, a little bit easier to look at in terms of what's the breakdown. And what we find are patterns here in the book.

If we start at the top, the focus, the incarnation of the Son of God, the presentation of the Son of God, opposition to the Son of God, and that is that matches up, if you look below it, to some significant stretches of time, seven miracles that you might believe in a few years. Then we have on the top again the preparation of the disciples and the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God. The preparation of the disciples and the prayer for the disciples in Jesus' prayer in the garden He prays for himself, for his disciples, and those who would believe, us, because of the disciples. He prays for those three, and that's the last part of the preparation, is praying for us. And then finally, the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God. So John has some unique things that he reveals that the other Gospels don't in each of these stages here.

One of the things we'll see is that a few years consumes about 12 chapters. A few hours consumes about 5 chapters. And then the rest of the book, a few chapters, is a few weeks. So we have a few years, a few hours, and then a few weeks. So John does not give equal time and go along in some mathematical approach. He gives these samplings here until the time when Christ is having the Last Supper. He gives these samplings of different events, and he includes the seven miracles that we talked about. Remember, he does sevens. He does the seven miracles in those few years, and then after that, the seven miracles don't show up.

The rest of it is all about death, burial and resurrection. They make a distinction here that you might believe and that you might have life. As I've looked at that, that's the one part of this chart that I would go, I'm not so sure. Because the believing seems to go all the way through and the life seems to go all the way through, as far as I can tell. So that might be a little more of a distinction than I would make. But other than that, I think the chart's helpful, and possibly more so than some outline. Besides that, I don't think any of the biblical writers use outlines. That's something from our modern era. Okay, comments, questions? Yes. Okay, back on John 15, 1-11, verse 6. If anyone does not abide me, he is thrown away as a branch. So does that indicate that all people are considered a branch? You're either in Him through belief and abiding or you aren't?

Yeah, I think what we have to do when we go through it, at Holly Hills we particularly like to go through and say, is this position or condition? And I think what we're looking at in that is he making a conditional statement or a positional statement? If anyone does not abide in me, So you said earlier that that was conditional based on position. Well, different parts of that passage are positional and different parts are conditional. When we go through it in when we actually study it in more detail, we'll go through and take note of what's position and what's condition.

Yeah, I think the desire to take that particular passage out and stare at it I'd say almost in John 10, before you ever get there, there's a whole bunch of back stories, so to speak, before you can actually take that out and do it. Yeah, I think as you look at it... I couldn't hear. Okay. What she's saying is context, essentially. There is context preceding and afterwards that we have to take a look at. We also have...

Here's one of the other things that's really helpful as we interpret The Gospel of John or Revelation or any of John's writings, his other three letters, John is, I will say, a very consistent writer. The Apostle Paul wrote with complexity, you know, big, long words. The Apostle Paul sometimes put together, you know, compound words and put that together. In some cases, he uses words that we don't find anywhere else. Apostle Paul writes with complexity. He writes big long sentences sometimes and will have inserted thought in the middle of the sentence.

John writes simply. John doesn't use a compound word unless he has to. John writes simply, he writes consistently, and that's going to help us because as we go through the Gospel of John, you can look at his consistency. and use that as a means of making sure, yeah, we've got the right interpretation. Even things like using the sevens, you know, the pattern of sevens that he does, which he does also in Revelation. Calling Christ the Lamb, you know, which he also does in Revelation. John is such a consistent writer, writing simply, using, if at all possible, the simplest words to explain things.

It makes it much better in terms of being able to have some certainty about how we're interpreting. Nonetheless, we'll need to go through that passage there in John 15 and the others and look at it real carefully to determine where is he talking about position and where is he talking about condition, because he does address both in that passage. Other thoughts, questions, comments, inspirations, exasperations?

Almost certainly, but also just the entire sacrificial system. Look, we have this sacrificial system and it all has been pointing for centuries to this man. This one right here. This is God's Lamb. We bring our lambs like God told us to do, but this is God's Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. The next day, behold the Lamb of God.

It's also the seriousness of sin. And that today, like in New Age and a lot of the other cultic belief systems, sin is no longer that grave. It's not that big a deal. And that's why you can have a lot of the cult systems will get the cross out of it. because I can't speak a lot. I'm a cynic.

I was talking about the deity and the sign. The sign means anointed one. Yeah, Christos is the Greek, Chamaschia in the Hebrew, and both of them mean anointed one. You wouldn't apply the term anointed to this one. Well, the Messiah and Son of God are two different pictures, because the Messiah talks about certain things having to do with Christ coming here. The Son of God, He was always in eternity past and always will be in eternity future. It's specifically for the Messiah. The Son of God statement is a statement about deity, which by itself doesn't automatically mean that.

But notice that John puts the two together right there in the passage towards the end of the book. Let's pray because we're running out of time here. Lord, we thank you as we begin looking at the Gospel of John. What a wonderful, wonderful insight you've provided here. Some very unique and precious things that you have laid out for us. And we're really looking forward to going through this book in the weeks and months to come for what you have for us. It is your inspired word that you very much intend to use in our hearts and in our lives and for us to behold Christ through these inspired words and that we are thereby transformed. And we do give you thanks for all these things that you so graciously give us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.