New Testament Core Seminar

Class 6John

New Testament Overview1

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Gospel of John 18:31-33 (recto)

ΟΙ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΙ ΗΜΕIΝ ΟΥΚ ΕΞΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΠΟΚΤΕΙΝΑΙOYΔΕΝΑ ΙΝΑ Ο ΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΙΗΣΟΥ ΠΛΗΡΩΘΗ ΟΝ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΣHΜΑΙΝΩΝ ΠΟΙΩ ΘΑΝΑΤΩ ΗΜΕΛΛΕΝ ΑΠΟΘΝHΣΚΕΙΝ ΙΣΗΛΘΕΝ ΟΥΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΑΙΤΩΡΙΟΝ Ο ΠIΛΑΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΦΩΝΗΣΕΝ ΤΟΝ ΙΗΣΟΥΝΚΑΙ ΕΙΠΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΣΥ ΕΙ O ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΙΟΥΔAΙΩN

the Jews, "For us it is not permitted to killanyone," so that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spoke signifying what kind of death he was going to die. Entered therefore again into the Praetorian Pilate and summoned Jesus and said to him, "Thou art king of the Jews?"

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Gospel of John 18:37-38 (verso)

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΕΙΜΙ ΕΓΩ ΕΙΣ TOΥΤΟ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΑΙΚΑΙ (ΕΙΣ ΤΟΥΤΟ) ΕΛΗΛΥΘΑ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΚΟΣΜΟΝ ΙΝΑ ΜΑΡΤYΡΗΣΩ ΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΠΑΣ Ο ΩΝ EΚ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΗΘΕIΑΣ ΑΚΟΥΕΙ ΜΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΦΩΝΗΣ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΩΟ ΠΙΛΑΤΟΣ ΤΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΚAΙ ΤΟΥΤOΕΙΠΩΝ ΠΑΛΙΝ ΕΞΗΛΘΕΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΙΟΥΔΑΙΟΥΣ ΚΑΙ ΛΕΓΕΙ ΑΥΤΟΙΣ ΕΓΩ ΟΥΔEΜΙΑΝΕΥΡΙΣΚΩ ΕΝ ΑΥΤΩ ΑΙΤΙΑΝ

a King I am. For this I have been bornand (for this) I have come into the world so that I would testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truthhears of me my voice." Said to him Pilate, "What is truth?" and this having said, again he went out unto the Jewsand said to them, "I find not one fault in him."

This photo shows a papyrus fragment from the Gospel of John, discovered in Egypt, the oldest known fragment from any part of the New Testament, dated from the first half of the 2nd century C.E. Script appears on both sides, the front contains verses 31-33 and the back, verses 37-38. The fragment resides in the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.

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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.

• His claim of divinity was verified beyond doubt, and with that, the authority of all of his teaching of who he was and why he came.

• 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.

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• John’s “thesis statement” in chapter 20, verses 30-31.And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

• The author does not identify himself but the author writes about the disciple John in the 3rd person.

• For example in ch 21 he writes “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” • The church father Polycapr, identifies John as the author in the

early in the 2nd century AD.• The wealth of first-hand accounts, especially in private settings,

suggests that the author was part of Jesus’ very closest circle.• It appears it was written after the other three, in part because it

allude to Peter’s future death in 21:18-19 as a past event. • Tradition states John lived a long life in Ephesus, a date fairly late

in the first century is generally cited—perhaps around 90 A.D.

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Composition• John is significant difference from the first three gospels.• 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.”

• The outline of John is:A. Prologue | The King, Eternal and Incarnated (1:1-18)B. Public Ministry | Presentation of the King (1:19-12:50)C. Private Ministry | The King’s Preparations (13:1-17:26)D. Passion | The King’s Death and Resurrection (18:1-20:29)E. Epilogue | Follow the King (21:1-25)

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• 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”.

• 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 frequently states, “My time has not yet

come.” (2:4, 7:6, 7:8, 7:30, 8:20) • Immediately after the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem in 12:23,

He says, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified”. • Chapters 13-17 contains Jesus private teaching. • Chapters 18-20 describe his passion, his death and resurrection. • Chapter 21, functioning as an epilogue, concludes the book with

an exhortation to follow this risen Messiah.

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What We Should Believe• We are to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. • Two basic things: that Jesus is God, and that when Jesus came as

the Messiah, he came to do some very specific things. Jesus is God• Many people refer to Jesus as a wandering sage, a radical

prophet, a gifted teacher, a model businessman, or a mere reflection of God’s character.

• Many who actually knew Jesus, walked with him and heard him teach, did not perceive him to be any of that. They hated him.– They take offense at him in chap 2. (2:12-25). – They call him a liar in chap. 7 (7:12). – They attempt to seize him (7:30-32) and to stone him in chaps. 7-8 (8:59). – They seek to kill Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead in chap.

12(12:10-11)! – Then, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, bound, interrogated, beaten, flogged,

mocked, crowned with thorns, and crucified.

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• It wasn’t His wise teaching that caused this … these reactions appear to result from how Jesus described himself as God.

• As you study this claim in John keep your non-Christian friends in mind.

• And the truth of this fact, that Jesus claimed to be God!• This ‘fact’ is vital to our faith.

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• Evidences: Jesus told Nicodemus in the famed John 3:16 that he is God’s “one and only Son.”

• Jesus explains this 5:26, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.”

• Got that! The Father has “life in himself;” he is self-sufficient. • Jesus has the same attribute! “life in himself”= 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 arrangement of equality between the Father and Son,

equally glorifying one another, is at the very core of His teaching. • His claims of deity were understood and infuriating many. Read

5:18.• Now, read 19:7• Note, not just one of many sons of God; the Son of God.

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• Don’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:– “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 would have prompted the Hebrew mind of 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!” (8:58) … and the people tried to stone him!

• Jesus is claiming to be eternal, pre-existing . . . God himself.• And bluntly in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”• Jesus was claiming to be God.

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What Jesus Came to Do• The gospel of John tells us He came to do a number of things.1st He came to expose misunderstanding and disobedience. • He was showing a deeply religious but hypocritical society that

they needed a savior. • This is the point of the controversy around healing on the

Sabbath. • As Jesus says after one such healing, in 5:17, "My Father has been

working until now, and I have been working."• The point? God doesn’t stop working for the good of all people

on the Sabbath day. • When He heals a man on the Sabbath he says he’s acting just like

his Father. Implication: Jesus is God.

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• For the Pharisees, the Sabbath was a way to notch up their self-righteousness scorecard.

• For Jesus, it was a way to showcase his identity as the Savior. • They missed the point and Jesus exposes their hard hearts.2nd He came to provide a sacrifice for the salvation of sinners. • “I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to

save the world.” 12:47• Hence John the Baptist’s statement “the Lamb of God, who takes

away the sin of the world!” (1:29). • Jesus is the Passover sacrifice, who was killed in the place of

sinful human beings. • And Jesus says, “"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the

flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (6:53-54).

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• He intended for his blood to be shed and his body to be broken when he was lifted up on the cross.

• It is in His substitutionary sacrifice that we must put our faith.3rd, a greater purpose, that Jesus might be glorified by the Father. • As he enters Jerusalem, Jesus announces that “the hour has

come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). • He prays just before he is crucified, "Father, the hour has come.

Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You” (17:1). • The climax of this book is a story with the Father and the son at

its center, rightfully receiving the glory.• John encourages us to believe two things:

– That Jesus is the Son of God, and – as the Christ, he came to reveal our sin, to save us from it, and to glorify

himself.

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Why We Should Believe 7 signs• John’s Gospel is built around seven miracles (eight with the

resurrection) that provide evidence of Christ as the Son of God.Sign 1:• John 2 begins with the turning the water into wine at the

wedding• John states “This beginning of signs Jesus did … and manifested

His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” (2:11). • In chapter 3, Jesus explains to Nicodemus that one can only enter

the kingdom of God if he is “born again.” • So, the sign shows Jesus’ power to transform. • He’s not just 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.

• This new covenant requires a transformation of the human heart more miraculous than any sign—the new birth.

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Sign 2:• In chapter 4 Jesus is speaking with the Samaritan woman at the

well, and he says should ask him for “living water.” (4:10). • Is this new life, the new birth, just available for the asking? • Nest an official asks Jesus to heal his son. He later learns he was

healed the same hour when Jesus had said “Your son will live.”• This is the second sign – showing that we may ask Jesus for life,

and it will be granted.Sign 3:• In 5, is the Sabbath healing at the pool called Bethesda.• The miracle causes the crowds to recognize that Jesus is claiming

the same authority as God the Father. • The man heard the voice of Jesus but 5:25 says “the hour is

coming, and now is, 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.

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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. • How is this new life to be given? • “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.Signs 6:• Here the signs and explanations are reversed. • In 8:12, Jesus claims to be the light of the world. • It validated in chapter 9 when He heals the man born blind.

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• Jesus explains in 9:4-5, ” I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

• The miracle is a picture of the need for all of us to be set free from spiritual blindness …

• And the fact that he is the only one who can do it. Signs 7:• Read 10:14-15.• ‘I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known

by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.’

• Then in chapter 11 He raises Lazarus from the dead.• If Jesus can raise the dead … why would He sacrifice himself?• “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have

power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.’ 10:18We believe not because of the miracles but what they mean.

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What Believe Means• In Chap. 6, the people directly ask Jesus what they must do to

please God. Jesus answers, “believe in the one He has sent’.• We all of us have fallen short and abandoned God in our sin and

lived to please ourselves, instead of the one who made us. • God is just to condemn us all to eternal punishment in hell. • John shows us the great hope for us, ‘For God so loved the world

that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. (3:16)

• Jesus died and rose again so all who repent of their sin and believe in him might be forgiven and inherit this new life.

• Read John 1:12-13 which tells us what it means to “receive” Jesus.

• So believing is a kind of receiving, and this receiving is worked out in our hearts by God.

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• The idea that belief is ultimately God’s work throughout the book. – In 5:21 the Son gives life to whom he wishes. – In 6:37 the Father gives us to the Son so that we might believe. – In 10:16 there are other sheep that He “brings” in.

• So, belief is a kind of receiving and it is the work of God. But what exactly do we receive?• 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).

• True belief does not simply mean believing Jesus spoke truth.• The phrase often repeated 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 is to trust totally what he teaches about himself.

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• Belief is receiving Christ as an act of God. • Receiving is to rely on the words and work of Jesus. • With this idea of reliance in place, Jesus describes the life of a

believer as one of love for God. • “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—that he came from God, lived, died, and rose again.

• And to believe in the person and work of Jesus—that we can rely on his love and sacrifice for us on the cross.

• When we receive these things through God’s work in our hearts and lives, we will believe in him with persevering love and obedience.

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The Results of Believing• The 3rd part of John’s purpose statement is: “but these are

written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31).

• The results of believing will be life in Jesus’ name. • Several states are involved in this process.• We start in death. Jesus tells us in5:24:

– “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life”

• We are born dead, without belief, we are condemned for our sin.Belief results in salvation• To Nicodemus, “For God did not send His Son into the world to

condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (3:17).

• Jesus came to save. The first result of belief is our salvation.

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Belief Results in Life• Jesus gave life to the official’s son and to the world 6:33.• This makes Jesus different from the religious leaders of the day. • Jesus shows he’s different in 10:10, “The thief does not come

except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.’

• Full life and joy, “But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.” (17”13)

• Joy without hardship? No. To quote Jesus “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (16:33)

• If you’re missing joy in your life, 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, so real joy can be found in the midst of struggle.

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Belief Results in Eternal Life• Not just full life, but eternal life1• Jesus promises “he who believes in Me has everlasting life” 6:47• And for those who believe you can loose it there is John 10:28,

“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”

• And, “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (12:25).

• Eternal life, ultimately, is communion with God. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (17:3).

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Belief Results in Love• Belief not only results in Salvation, life, and eternal life, also love.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (13:34-35).

• This should NOT be a cliché for Christians. • Jesus is saying love is a telltale sign of Christian belief. • Ask yourself, “Am I thinking, speaking, acting in a loving way

toward ____________ (you fill in the blank)?” • Don Whitney writes in Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual

Health, “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.”

• Why is it so important for us to obey Christ’s commands? 1. “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (14:15). 2. 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.

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Conclusion• 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.• The journey through the Gospel of John can be seen in the life of

Pharisee, Nicodemus. – 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?