Series: New Testament Overview
Category: Core Seminars, Scripture, Death of Christ, Life of Christ, Miracles of Christ, Person of Christ, Resurrection of Christ, The Deity of Christ, Work of Christ, The Gospel, God the Son
Detail:
Introduction
The Christian faith is built on a simple logical sequence. A man named Jesus lived in ancient Palestine. He claimed to be God. He also claimed that he would be killed and rise from the dead. He was killed. He did rise from the dead. And so his claim of divinity was verified beyond doubt, and with that, the authority of all of his teaching concerning who he was, why he came, and the significance of his death on our behalf.
This is the message of all of the gospels. But none proclaim this precious string of evidence more clearly than the gospel of John. Why was this book written? Let’s take a look at what we might call John’s “thesis statement” in chapter 20, verses 30-31.
“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
For the rest of our time together this morning, we will search through all of John’s gospel, but this verse will be our guide. We’ll briefly discuss the book’s authorship, date, and composition. Then, we will look first at what John says we should believe: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”
Second , we will look at why we should believe: “But these are written that you may believe.” ”These” are the miraculous signs that John chronicles, giving us reason for faith.
Third and finally , we will look at the results of believing: “that by believing you may have life in his name. ”
Author and Date
But initially, as I mentioned before, some basic background, starting with authorship. Like the other gospels, the author of the book of John does not identify himself. But unlike the other gospels, when the author writes about the disciples, he doesn’t talk about the disciple John in the 3rd person. He instead mentions “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and in chapter 21 indicates that he is that beloved disciple. Therefore, the apostle John is recorded as being the author of this gospel early in the 2nd century AD by the church father Polycarp, who himself was a disciple of John. And the wealth of first-hand accounts in this book, especially in private settings, suggests that the author must have been part of Jesus’ very closest circle.
The gospel seems to have been written after the other three, in part because it allude to Peter’s future death in 21:18-19 as a past event. Given the tradition that John lived a rather long life in Ephesus, a date fairly late in the first century is generally cited—perhaps around 90 A.D. Interestingly, given its late date, it is John for which we have the oldest physical fragment of any of the gospels, dating to around 125 AD.[1]
Composition
But back to the composition of the book itself. When you read through it, you notice immediately some significant differences from the first three gospels in your Bible. Eusebius, an early church father, writes that “John, aware that the external details had been recorded in the gospels, was urged by his disciples and divinely moved by the Spirit to compose a spiritual Gospel,” in other words, a Gospel more uniquely focused on the identity and purpose of Jesus as the son of God.
What that entailed is a book in five sections. These are noted on the outline in your handout.
The first half of chapter 1 contains the famous words of the prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”—and the amazing description of the divine Jesus that follows. The rest of chapter one on through chapter 12 is the public ministry of Jesus, containing most of the miraculous signs that John uses to prompt the faith of his audience. Chapter 12 then marks a turning point in the gospel. Prior to this point, Jesus has frequently commented, “My time has not yet come.” (2:4, 7:6, 7:8, 7:30, 8:20) But immediately following the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in 12:23, we hear Jesus saying, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified”.[2]
And from this point, Jesus teaches privately, a ministry that covers chapters 13 through 17. Chapters 18-20 describe his passion, his death and resurrection. And chapter 21, functioning as an epilogue, concludes the book with an exhortation to follow this risen Messiah.
With that background in place, let’s get back to John’s purpose statement in 20:31 “But these [signs] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
What We Should Believe
First, what should we believe? We are to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Two basic things that we see here: that Jesus is God, and that when Jesus came as the Messiah, he came to do some very specific things. We’ll take them each in turn.
Jesus is God
First, we are to believe that Jesus is God. Many folks today like to talk about Jesus as a wandering sage, a radical prophet, a gifted teacher, a model businessman, or a mere reflection of God’s character. But many of those who actually knew Jesus, who walked with him and heard him teach, did not perceive him to be any of that. They hated him.
We see this all throughout John. They take offense at him in chap 2. (2:12-25). They call him a liar in chap. 7 (7:12). They repeatedly attemp to seize him (7:30-32) and even to stone him in chaps. 7-8 (8:59). They even seek to kill Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead in chap. 12(12:10-11)! And then, of course, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, bound, interrogated, beaten, flogged, mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified.
Clearly, whatever Jesus taught that aroused such violent reaction, it wasn’t just wise teaching about being kind to each other. No: these reactions appear to result from how Jesus described himself as God.
Now—I’m guessing that most of you will agree with that statement. After all, we’re in a Bible-believing church this morning. But please don’t disengage here. If we are going to be faithful in evangelism, we’ll need to insist that Jesus claimed to be God. So, as you study this claim in the book of John keep your non-Christian friends in mind. And, even more importantly, as Christians, the truth of this fact, that Jesus claimed to be God, is vital to our faith. There is no better place to go to remember and meditate upon this truth than the gospel of John. Let me briefly run through some of this evidence.
Jesus told Nicodemus in the famed John 3:16 that he is God’s “one and only Son.”
Explaining what that means in 5:26, Jesus said, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.” (5:26). The Father has “life in himself;” he is self-sufficient. And yet the Father grants the Son “life in himself!” What that means in the context is that the Son of God is also self-sufficient – he does not depend on the Father for his life; rather, as God, the Son can give life to those who are spiritually dead. This reciprocal arrangement of equality between the Father and Son, equally glorifying one another (Jn. 17), is at the very heart of Jesus’ teaching about himself.
And his claims of deity were understood. In 5:18, his opponents are furious because “he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” The Jews later insist, in 19:7, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.” Not just one of many sons of God; the Son of God.
And we shouldn’t misunderstand this “sonship” as meaning secondary to, or created by, the Father. Jesus used it in the opposite way, to demonstrate that he was of the same essence as God. We see this particularly in the famous “I am” sayings of John’s gospel: “I am the true vine” (15:1), “I am the good shepherd” (10:11), “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25), “I am the way” (14:6) and so forth. All of these would have prompted the Hebrew mind to recall Yahweh’s words to Moses by the burning bush: “I AM WHO I AM” (Ex. 3:14). And so when Jesus says, “I tell you the truth” “before Abraham was born, I am!” in John 8:58, the people tried to stone him. Jesus is claiming to be eternal, pre-existing . . . God himself.
As he says so bluntly in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”
Even if your college professor or our Muslim friends, or Time Magazine deny it, we can hear what those pious, monotheistic Jews heard at the time: Jesus was claiming to be God.
But that is only half of what we are told we are to believe. “But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ , the Son of God . . .” What does John say about Jesus being the Christ (the Greek word for Messiah)? What did Jesus come to do?
What Jesus Came to Do
The gospel of John tells us that as the Christ, he came to do a number of things.
First, he came to expose misunderstanding and disobedience
But for those who would listen to him, the second thing he came to do was to provide a sacrifice for the salvation of sinners
But beyond our salvation, there was a third and greater purpose for all of this: that Jesus might be glorified by the Father
So that is what we should believe according to the book of John. That Jesus is the Son of God, and that as the Christ, he came to reveal our sin, to save us from it, and to glorify himself. Before we move on to the second point, Why we should believe all that , any questions on what we’ve covered so far?
Why We Should Believe
The Signs
Why should we believe? That question brings us to the telltale “signs” that punctuate the book of John. John structures his gospel around seven miracles (eight, if you include the resurrection) that provide evidence for Jesus’ claim to be the Christ, the Son of God. And, thankfully for us who are slow to understand, most of them are accompanied by extended teaching that help us understand what these signs signified.
Let’s flip through the pages of the book together so I can show you what I’m talking about.
Sign #1: John 2 begins with Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding—something John calls “the first of his miraculous signs . . . he thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” (2:11). What does the sign mean? Later, in chapter 3, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that one can only enter the kingdom of God if he is “born again.” And this must be a miracle of the Spirit of God: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” (3:6)
So, the sign shows Jesus’ power to transform. He’s not primarily interested in the transformation of one liquid to another. He is here to inaugurate a new covenant, in which his own body is the new temple of God’s people. And that new covenant will, as the prophets foretold, require a transformation of the human heart more miraculous than any sign—transformation so complete that it is called the new birth.
Sign #2: We get to Chapter 4. Jesus is speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well, and he says that if she knew who he really was, she would have asked him for “living water.” (4:10). Is this new life, the new birth, just available for the asking? Later in the chapter, an official asks Jesus to heal his son. Even though they are far away from the boy, the official later finds out that the seventh hour, right when Jesus had said “Your son will live,” is precisely when his son was healed. This is the second sign – and it shows that we may ask Jesus for life, and it will be granted.
The 3rd sign is in chapter 5, and it’s the Sabbath healing at the pool called Bethesda that I mentioned earlier. The miracle is what causes the crowds to recognize that Jesus is claiming the same authority as God the Father. So, you can see the portrait filling in. The man who was healed heard the voice of Jesus in a certain sense; but 5:25 says “A time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” He’s pointing forward to a far greater miracle.
The next two signs (#4 and #5), the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water, are explained in the “Bread of Life” discourse in chapter 6. And here we have a new wrinkle to the story. How is this new life to be given? I mentioned Jesus’ analogy before. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life . . .” (6:54). Yes, Jesus is the bread of heaven who himself feeds and saves his people. But such a salvation will only be imparted as his very body is given for his followers.
Sign #6: Now the signs and explanations reverse order. In 8:12, Jesus claims to be the light of the world, giving spiritual sight. This assertion is validated in chapter 9 as Jesus heals the man born blind. The sixth sign. Jesus explains in 9:4-5, ”As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (9:4-5). Jesus miracle is a picture of the need for all of us to be set free from spiritual blindness, and a warning that he is the only one who can do it.
Sign #7: And this brings us to the explanation for the 7th sign, which is about to come. Paradoxically, John juxtaposes Jesus’ Good Shepherd discourse in chapter 10, where he says that he will voluntarily lay his life down for his sheep (10:14, 17-18) and the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11—where he shows that he possesses power over even death. Now. If Jesus can raise the dead, why would he sacrifice his own life? The answer is in 10:18. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again .” If Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, then lays his own life down, we can be sure that his death is no accident, no conspiracy of fate. He has laid his life down of his own accord, for the sake of us, his sheep.
That seventh sign, then, the raising of Lazarus in Chap. 11, is what finally leads us into Christ’s passion and the greatest of the signs in the book of John, Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.
So . . . why should we believe? Not really because of these seven signs. There were plenty who saw Jesus’ miracles and didn’t believe in him. It’s what the miracles mean , as Jesus explains them, that should cause us to cling to Christ in faith. As I mentioned at the beginning of the class, Jesus claimed to be God, predicted his resurrection, and in fact rose from the dead. That’s all the evidence we need. But we believe because these signs show us that we are spiritually blind, condemned by God, and in desperate need of new life.
Now that we’ve seen why we should believe, what does it mean to believe ? John’s gospel helps us with this question as well.
What Believing Means
At one point in Chap. 6, the people directly ask Jesus what they must do to please God. Jesus answers, “believe in the one he has sent’” (6:28-29).
Perhaps you’re here this morning and you recognize that God is holy and just. He created all of us and expects us to obey and please him in every area of life. But all of us have fallen short of that charge. Worse, we’ve abandoned God in our sin and lived to please ourselves, instead of the one who made us. Because of that, God is just to condemn us all to eternal punishment in hell. Yet, as we’ve already seen in the book of John, there is great hope for us, because God loved the world in this way: “he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). Jesus died and rose from the grave that all who repent of their sin and believe in him might be forgiven and inherit this new life, by his grace pleasing him forever.
If that’s how we’re made right with God, then belief is crucial to grasp. So, how do we believe? What does it mean?
In John 1, we learn that it means to “receive” Jesus. Verses 12-13: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent or of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God ” (1:12-13). So believing is a kind of receiving, and apparently this receiving is worked out in our hearts by God.
Incidentally, the idea that belief is ultimately God’s work is written throughout the book. We are told in 5:21 that the Son gives life to whom he wishes. We see in 6:37 that the Father gives us to the Son so that we might believe. And we learn in 10:16 And that when sheep who are not of God’s sheep pen come in, they are “brought” by him.
So, belief is a kind of receiving, and it is the work of God. But what exactly do we receive?
Well, for one, we receive, and believe, his words . Jesus described unbelief as the failure to have God’s “word dwell in you” (5:38). Positively, he described belief as trusting what the scriptures say about him (5:39).
But furthermore, true belief does not simply mean believing Jesus, that is, believing that he’s speaking the truth. Rather, the phrase we see over and over again is to believe in Jesus. “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (11:25-26). To believe, then, is to rely completely on his person and to trust totally what he teaches about himself.
Belief, then, to summarize, is receiving Christ as an act of God. What does it mean to receive? To rely on the words and work of Jesus. And with this idea of reliance in place, it makes sense that Jesus describes the life of a believer as one of love for God. Jesus said to his disciples, “The Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (16:27). This love isn’t mere sentiment; 14:21 reminds us that loving belief results in obedience: “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me”
We are to believe these facts about Jesus—that he came from God, lived, died, and rose again. And we are to believe in the person and work of Jesus—that we can rely on his love and sacrifice for us on the cross. But when we receive these things through God’s work in our hearts and lives, we will believe in him with persevering love and obedience.
The Results of Believing
And that brings us to the third part of John’s purpose statement for the book: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). What are the results of believing? As John states in this verse, by believing we will be given life in Jesus’ name. Several states are involved in this process.
It’s important to know where we start: in death. Jesus tells us in chapter 5, verse 24 reads “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” In that sense, we are born dead. Without belief, we stand condemned for our sin.
Belief results in salvation
But, as Jesus says to Nicodemus, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (3:17). Praise God! Jesus came to save. The first result of belief is our salvation.
But there is more.
Belief results in life
Secondly, belief results in life. The theme resonates loudly through the entire gospel. Jesus gave life to the official’s son in chapter 5. He called himself the “bread of God” who gives life to the world (6:33).
In this, Jesus differentiates himself from the religious leaders of the day. Jesus sums up the disparity between them and him in John 10:10—“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” So . . . life to the full! He can give us full life because he gives us his life, a life full of grace and truth and joy! As he prayed to the Father in chapter 17, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them” (17:13). Is this joyful life without hardship? No. To quote Jesus in John 16, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (16:33)
If you are a Christian but you find that joy to be distant, to be absent, spend time in the book of John learning of the fullness of Jesus’ life, of Jesus’ joy. Because this joy is in him, and not in yourself and your circumstances, this means that for Christians real joy can be found in the midst of struggle.
Belief results in eternal life
But the life that comes from belief is not just full, it is eternal. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus says, “he who believes has everlasting life” (6:47). Eternal life is given as a gift of Christ: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (10:28). Eternal life is otherworldly: “The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (12:25). And eternal life, ultimately, is communion with God. Jesus defines it beautifully in his final prayer: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (17:3).
Belief results in love
But, lastly, belief not only results in Salvation, not only results in eternal life—it also results in love. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (13:34-35). For us at CHBC, loving one another can sound like a cliché. But Jesus is saying it’s a telltale sign of Christian belief. Perhaps we could use this verse to diagnose the state of our faith this week. Mentally walk through your relationships at the church and ask yourself “am I thinking, speaking, acting in a loving way toward that person?” Then ponder the love of Christ we see displayed in John. Don Whitney writes, “God is the source of the love that flames in the Christian heart. We must bask in His love before we can expect it to consistently blaze forth from us to others.”[3]
Why is it so important for us to obey Christ’s commands? Because he says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (14:15). And this is how we can know that we do in fact believe not just about, but in, this Savior, Jesus Christ. If we love him and his people.
Conclusion
So that is the message of the book of John. The goal: belief in Jesus as the Son of God. The reason: the signs he has given us. The result: eternal life, demonstrated in our love for each other.
One way to sum up the book is to look at the story of the Pharisee, Nicodemus. He appears in this gospel almost as a miniature version of what John longs to see in all of us. In chapter 3, a curious but skeptical Nicodemus approaches Jesus—at night, privately—to ask him questions. And he leaves confused. By chapter 7, Nicodemus is publicly suggesting that maybe Jesus deserves a more fair trial. And in chapter 19 he is present at Jesus’ burial and helps prepare the body. John shows us that a transformation has occurred: Nicodemus went from skeptical, to sympathetic, to saved.
Have you experienced such a transformation? A rebirth? Do you see Christ’s love for you in your love for others? Read the gospel of John, and use it as it was intended—to birth belief in your heart that you also might have eternal life.
Let’s pray.
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