John: A Story About The Son of God

Sometimes when Christians zoom in and focus on one verse, they lose the context of the chapter, or even the paragraph the verse is in. Sometimes when Christians zoom in and focus on one chapter, they lose the context of the whole book. I know through my studies of John that when we focused on one chapter of John, it might be easy only think about what that chapter is saying and not even consider the context of the whole book of John. It would be a shame if we did that because most likely that chapter contributes the book’s overall message, and if we don’t think about the book’s overall message, we might very well miss the true meaning of the chapter. I close my devotional commentary on John by stepping back, zooming out, and looking at the whole picture of John. I’ll start by reviewing the introductory material to John, then we’ll outline John, and from that we’ll pull out theological pictures, themes and messages.

Before we go any further, I will put a disclaimer by saying that this will be nothing like my devotional commentary on Mark. Mark is not like John. Mark is an epic story; John is not. Let me be clear on what I am saying. Yes, John is a story, in the sense it is written in narrative form. I believe John does this in order to demonstrate what he is writing is historical truth (history in the 1st century was written like a story). But as I will remind you in the introductory review, John is a supplemental Gospel. And just like the supplemental appendixes to any book, both fictional and non-fictional books, the supplemental appendixes are not meant to tell a good story, but are meant to give extra information to help the reader understand the book’s concepts further. That is what John is trying to do. He’s not trying to tell a good story to get the reader to come to faith. Instead, John is trying to give extra information about the history of Jesus to persuade the reader to come to faith (or continue faith). So think of John less as a story, and more like a persuasive essay. That will also help with the introductory material.

Speaking of introductory material, let’s move on to the introductory material. Now I’m not going to spend time defending all of it. If you want a defense of all these, go back to “John 0: An Introduction” where we talked about this. If you don’t want to read it [again], just accept what I have said as truth. Remember, the introductory information is what reporters seek when asking questions. This is the who, whom, what, where, when, why, and how. To be more specific, the answers to these question will be the author, the audience, the historical occasion, the location, the date, the purpose and the structure.

THE AUTHOR (WHO): John
THE AUDIENCE (WHOM): Christians
THE LOCATION (WHERE): Written in Ephesus, Takes Place Mostly in Judea
THE DATE (WHEN): 85-95 AD
THE HISTORICAL OCCASION (WHAT): Gnosticism and other pseudo-Christianity cults were preaching that Jesus was only a man, and wasn’t God.
THE PURPOSE (WHY): John wrote the book of John to persuade Christians to continue believing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
THE STRUCTURE (HOW): A Supplemental Gospel

Now if you remember my explanation on the structure (how), I told you that it could both/either the writing style and/or method, or it can be an outline. In my review of the introductory material, I simply told you the writing style. The Gospel of John is a supplemental Gospel. But I do also want to outline the book for you. At Bible College, I was taught that a good start to outlining a Bible Book is to first write sentence summaries on the paragraphs, and then group the similar paragraphs together. But I don’t have the time to write paragraph summaries, and you probably don’t have the time to read paragraph summaries. So for simplicity’s sake, I am going to write a sentence summary for each chapter. Then we will combine similar chapter summaries together to draw up an outline. Below are the sentence summaries. The bullet number is the chapter number. Also, I will sometimes “cheat” on the sentence summaries. If I cannot write a one-sentence summary without making a ridiculously long run-on, I will make it two or three sentences.

1. Jesus is God because He was with God at the beginning, He created the universe and He gives life. Then 5 men testify Jesus is God: John the Baptist, John the Disciple, Andrew, Philip and Nathanael
2. Christ’s disciples believe Jesus is the Christ and Son of God through His first miracle of turning water to wine and through the cleansing of the temple.
3. Nicodemus moves from the darkness of sin to the True Light, Jesus Christ, because Nicodemus believes in Jesus as the Son of God.
4. Jesus evangelizes the Gospel as Living Water to the Samaritan Woman at the well, and she believes that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.
5. Jesus points out 4 testimonies that demonstrate Jesus is God the Son: God the Father, John the Baptist, Old Testament Scriptures, miracles/miraculous signs
6. Jesus demonstrates that He is the Bread of Life, an “I AM” statement, by Feeding over 5,000 people. Many followers turn away from Jesus because they cannot accept his hard teachings, but the disciples stick with Jesus because they believe Jesus is the Holy God.
7. The people are skeptic about Jesus, split between either “a good teacher” or “a deceiver,” but few will commit to Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus calls the people to a stronger faith, one that recognizes Jesus as the Christ and/or the Son of God.
8. Jesus demonstrates He is God because uses 2 “I AM” statements, which link back to God’s name, Yahweh, or “I AM WHO I AM.”
9. Jesus demonstrates that He is the Light of the World, an “I AM” statement, by giving light to a blind man. The miracle shows that those who are in sin are in darkness because they do not have the Light of the World.
10. Jesus teaches that He is the good shepherd, an “I AM” statement, and a biblical allusion to God that all the Jewish people will recognize, thanks to Psalm 23.
11. Jesus demonstrates that He is the Resurrection and the Life, an “I AM” statement, by raising Lazarus from the dead.
12. As Jesus enters Jerusalem, the Jewish form a parade and declare that Jesus is the Son of David and the King of Israel, titles only for the Messiah. John shows the reader Scripture foretelling of this event, further proof that Jesus is the Christ.
13. Christ’s betrayer is identified, and this further proves Jesus is the Messiah because Old Testament Scriptures, such as Psalm 41:9, foretell of the Messiah having a betrayer.
14. Jesus demonstrates He is God by teaching He is the only way to the father, as well as the only way to even see the Father, using an “I AM” statement. Jesus also displays Himself as the God the Son by depicting the Trinity, with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
15. Jesus demonstrates that He is God by teaching that He is the Vine (an “I AM” statement), the Father is the Gardener, and the Christians are the branches.
16. Jesus is shown as God the Son because He sends God the Holy Spirit from God the Father.
17. Jesus is displayed as the Son of God because He calls God His Father in an intimate way.
18. Jesus shows that He is in control of the Jewish trials because God is the one who gives the Jewish leaders the authority they are in.
19. Jesus shows that He is in control because He explains to Pilate that the only reason why Pilate is in charge is because God gave him authority. Jesus also is seen as the Christ because He fulfills prophecy and serves as Penal Substitution for sin.
20. Jesus rises from the dead, and His disciples and followers go from calling Jesus “Rabbi” and “Teacher” to “Lord” and “God.” For the disciples, the resurrection was the ultimate sign Jesus was the Messiah and Son of God.
21. The large catch of large fish is a post-resurrection miracle that further proves to the disciples that Jesus is the Lord God.

Alright, the next step is to group them together into similar themes or similar messages. Now I was taught a good outlines has neither too many points nor too few points, or a good outline has neither too many section or too few sections. This became a problem for because of the latter. Every time I tried to outline it, I ended up shoving a bunch of chapters into a single section. But I tried to look past this. I didn’t want a hermeneutical rule to be stronger than good theology. Maybe if the theology is good, it doesn’t matter if the hermeneutical rule is broken. So the first one I tried was to group was by Christ’s “life stages,” or by time. Once again, the bullet numbers are the chapter numbers.

Outlined by the Life of Christ
1-10. The Ministry of the Christ (3-4 years)
11. Transition from the Ministry to the Passion (1-2 days)
12-21. The Passion of the Christ (1 week)

This outline has many strengths, of because of the many strengths, this one is the one I like the most, despite its shortcomings. One of its biggest strengths is that it cuts the Gospel of John in half, and the halfway point is the perfect transition. Another good sign of an outline is that it is no lop-sided, and this outline definitely does not lop-side the Gospel of John. The Ministry of the Christ is 10 chapters long. The Passion of the Christ is 10 chapters longs. That one chapter that serves as the halfway marker is the Resurrection of Lazarus. The Resurrection of Lazarus is part of The Ministry of Christ because He is serving people to bring them to believe in Him. The Resurrection of Lazarus also is part of The Passion of the Christ because it foreshows that Jesus will die and be raised up. Another reason I like this outline is because you could rename the section titles, and they would still contain the same chapters. For example, you could name the outline “Outlined by Location.” Chapters 1-10 would be labeled “Israel” because Jesus ministers in Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Chapter 11 would be labeled “Perea” because the Resurrection of Lazarus takes place in Perea. Chapters 12-21 would be labeled “Jerusalem” because all 10 chapters (for the most part) take place in Jerusalem only. Another example would be renaming the outline “Outlined by Time” Chapters 1-10 is “The Years,” Chapter 11 is “Day,” Chapter 12-21 is “week.” A third reason I like this outline is that all the sections are consistant with John’s purpose. All the sections portray Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. What are the problems with this outline? Like I said above, it bunches too many chapters into one section. 10 chapters for one section is a lot, especially for a book with 21 chapters. On a similar note, 1 chapter is too small for a section, especially if the other 2 sections have ten chapters. Speaking of an unbalance, another fault is the time is unbalanced. There’s not a good balance if you go from years, to days, to weeks. If you were to go back the “location outline,” the balance within “Israel” and “Jerusalem” is not good either. Only once does Jesus go to Samaria in “Israel.” And a couple times in “Jerusalem” Jesus is outside of Jerusalem, like in Bethany or by the Sea of Galilee. But I still feel like this is nit-picky, and next to the pros of the outline, the cons seem like nothing.

Still, I tried to think up of a way outline this Gospel in another way. On one hand, if my biggest problem with the first outline was that the sections were too big, I had to figure out a way to make the sections smaller. On the other hand, if one of the things I liked about the previous outline was the transition in chapter 11, so I had to figure out a way to keep it. The best way I could think of keeping the transition was to think up another transition similar to the one in chapter 11. In order to do this, I looked at different interpretations and different lessons learned from John 11. By doing so, I came up with an outline that outlines the Gospel Book by the numbers of followers Jesus had. I came up with this.

Outline by Number of Followers
1-5. Thousands of followers (5,000+)
6. Transition from thousands of followers (5,000+) to tens of followers (70-90)
7-10. Tens of followers (70-90)
11. Transition from tens of followers (70-90) to hundreds of followers (100-600)
12-21. Hundreds of followers (100-600)

This outline does need a bit more explaining. As you can guess, one way I looked at story of the Resurrection of Lazarus was at the great increase of followers. That immediately reminded me of another great change of numbers when it came to Christ’s followers. It wasn’t an increase, but a decrease. In chapter 6, many followers leave because they cannot accept Christ’s hard teachings. So I tried to see this as 2 transitions. While the generic titles of sections, such as “tens,” hundreds,” and “thousands” do not need great explaining, maybe the more specific numbers do. But before I explain them, let me say these are rough estimates, which means they were rounded. The “thousands” number of “5,000+” I got from the Feeding of the 5,000, obviously. I chose “70-90” for the tens because we know at this point in the Life of Christ Jesus sends out 72 disciples to minister to the people (see Luke 10) but it can’t be in the hundreds. For the “hundreds” I chose “100-600” because we know Jesus appeared to over 500 believers after the resurrection (see 1 Corinthians 15) but we also know there are only 120 in Jerusalem during Pentecost (see Acts 2). This outline has strengths. First, it gives us more sections. We went from 3 sections to 5 sections. Second, it gives us a better spread of chapters…well, at least better than the last outline. Yet each strength of this outlines has weaknesses, and then some more. First, while it gives us more sections, it doesn’t give us too many more sections. 3 sections to 5 sections is not a big change. On that note, the sections don’t exactly divide the material better. For starters, it only gets rid of one of the big sections of 10 chapters, but it also leaves the other big section of 10 chapters. Next, the chapter divisions are far from even. If written out, the chapter divisions would be 5-1-4-1-10. Even without the transition chapters, it’s 5-4-10. These are far from even. At least the last outline was closer to even. As I argued with chapter 11 above, chapter 6 alone is not good enough to be its own section, even if it is 70 verses long. As I stated with one of the negatives with the last outline, these titles don’t fully do a good. In chapter 1, Jesus only has 5-6 followers. In the first half of chapter 2, Jesus has 5-13 followers. Chapter 1 and half of chapter 2 is far from thousands of followers. My last argument against it would be the theology behind it. Did Jesus ever measure His ministry’s success by number of followers? Far from it. It would seem like more often Jesus called His followers to be more sincere and serious about their faith, even if it mean losing several followers. If Jesus didn’t measure His ministry by His followers, then neither shall we.

Running out of ideas, I “cheated” and I turned to commentaries. And I do use the term “cheated” loosely. Whether that was “cheating” or not in Bible College varied among your professors. Some professors did call it cheating because they claimed that you should be able to outline it yourself by just reading it, and you shouldn’t need any help, especially from commentaries. Other professors say that it’s not cheating, but proper research. In fact, you should check commentaries to see if you are right or not. Coincidentally, these professors were the professors who would cut and paste the commentaries’ outlines in their PowerPoint when teaching. Well, I am going to side with the other professors and look at what a couple commentaries say.

The first commentary I want to look at is The Bible Reader’s Companion. The reason I am showing you this is not because it’s a good outline, or at least it’s not the best outline, but because it does kind of verify my first outline. Now because it is very similar to my outline, it’s going to have the same weaknesses as my first outline, the biggest one would being the sections are too big (also note that I am only going to show you the main points, not the subpoints). But at the same time, it has the same strengths. So let’s take a look at it.

The Bible Reader’s Companion Outline
1-12. Public Ministry
13-21. Private Ministry

From the start you can see the problems I had with this outline. There’s not enough sections. Because there is not enough sections, there are too many chapters within a section. Yet it works. The first 12 chapters of John all show the Public Ministry of Jesus. In those chapters, Jesus is seen multiple times teaching to large crowds. All his teachings and miracles are done in a public place where everyone can see, like a synagogue or a temple (see John 18:20,21). The last 9 chapters, chapters 13 to 21, show the Private Ministry of Christ. Remember that John 13-17 is all behind the close doors of the Upper Room where the Last Supper takes place. Most of John 18 and John 19 is Jesus privately talking to his accusers, both the Jewish accusers and the Roman accusers. In the last 2 chapters of John, John 20 and 21, Jesus only appears to the followers, which are only a few hundred. Once again, this is not the best outline because of too few and too big section breakdowns. But it does show it is possible to have a working outline with few sections breakdowns.

The next outline comes from Willmington’s Bible Handbook. This outline is better than the last outline, but it’s still lacking that good quality I am looking for. It’s better because it’s more specific than the last outline. It has more sections. At the same time, it’s still lacking in places, such as even splits between sections. Once again, I’m only going to show you the main points, not the whole outline. Now you’re going to notice a few different things about this outline. This commentary is not as concerned about chapter barriers. Most Bible scholars say this is good. So it will divide by verses. You are also going to notice that this commentary will use a more theological approach to outlining it. I think this is a plus, and I’ll explain it once you see it.

Willmington’s Bible Handbook Outline
1:1-1:18. Jesus the Eternal Son of God.
1:19-18:11. Jesus the Earthly Son of God
18:12-19:42. Jesus the Executed Son of God
20:1-21:25. Jesus the Exalted Son of God.

The first thing I like about this outline (and this is the reason I am showing it) is that the outline keeps in mind the purpose John is writing and the picture of Jesus John is painting. This outline remembers that John is trying to show us Jesus is the Son of God. So in outlining the book, it wants the outline to also show Jesus is the Son of God. So the commentary went into outlining John by asking, “How does John show Jesus as the Son of God?” And the outline shows the answer. The first 18 verses of John shows Jesus as the Son of God eternal with God the Father Himself. The commentary believes John 1:19 to John 18:11 shows Jesus as the Son of Man just as much as the Son of God. To them, this section shows the duality between Christ’s deity and Christ’s humanity. And I can partially see it too. The next thing the commentary notices is that half of chapter 18 and all of chapter 19 is the Son of God being put on trial, which leads to his execution. Then, the last 2 chapters show Jesus exalted through his resurrection. Of course, my biggest beef with this outline is the lack of balance in the sections. The first section is 18 verses, roughly one half of the first chapter of John. The next section is 16 whole chapters and 2 half chapters, totaling 17 chapters. The third section is half of chapter 18 and all of chapter 19, totaling 1 ½ chapters. The last section is 2 chapters, the only section with whole chapters. If you’re following and keeping score, the chapter splits are ½ - 17 – 1 ½ - 2. There’s the lack of even chapter divisions. Also, there’s too much weight on the “earthly son of God.” I don’t think it really tells what all happens within those chapters.

The outline I liked best is from the Bible Exposition Commentary. Just take a look.

Bible Exposition Commentary Outline
I. OPPORTUNITY for Jesus to present Himself (ch. 1-6)
A. Jesus presents Himself to the disciples (ch. 1-2)
B. Jesus presents Himself to Nicodemus (ch. 3)
C. Jesus presents Himself to the Samaritans (ch. 4)
D. Jesus presents Himself to the Jewish leaders (ch. 5)
E. Jesus presents Himself to the Jewish people (ch. 6)
II. OPPOSITION over conflicts between Jesus and the Jewish leaders (ch. 7-12)
A. Conflicts over Moses (ch. 7)
B. Conflicts over Abraham (ch. 8)
C. Conflicts over the Messiah (ch. 9-10)
D. Conflicts over miracles and signs (ch. 11-12)
III. OUTCOME of Jesus and the people (ch. 13-21)
A. The disciples believe and accept Jesus (ch. 13-17)
B. The Jewish leaders do not believe and reject Jesus (ch. 18-19)
C. Jesus is victorious (ch. 20-21)

Let me first explain the reason I put the sub-points in this time. First, the sub-points help better explain why the commentary used these section divisions. Second, this outline needs the sub-points, for the outline would make no sense without them. Immediately I like this outline because it gets rid of all the weaknesses of the past outlines. First of all, it seems like it has the right amount of section divisions. The most we’ve been able to divide the book into is 5 sections, and the least amount of divisions is 2 divisions. We’ve gotten 3 section divisions before, so 3 seems to be the right amount. Second, I like how these sections fairly even divide the chapters. The first section, the “opportunity” section, is 6 chapters long. The second section, the “opposition” chapter, is also 6 chapters long. Sections 1 are 2 are equal. I really like how the public ministry of Jesus is evenly divided. The last section, the “outcome” section is the only big section, with 9 chapters. But considering that most outlines insist on putting chapters 13-21 (even 12-21!) together, it’s best to just leave it like that. But the sub-points help make sense of that.

Speaking of sub-points, the strengths listed above are also true for the sub-points. There is not too many or too few sub-points. Each section has no more than 5 sub-points, and no fewer than 3 sub-points. Each sub-section does not have too many chapters in them. Most sub-points either have 1 or 2 chapters. The one sub-point that has 5 chapters I don’t see as a problem because most commentaries do group all those chapters together. What I’m trying to say is this outline is well balanced outline, and that’s why I like it so much.

Another reason this outline works is because it also carries all the strengths of the other outlines. The “opportunity” section and the “opposition” section are the Ministry of Christ, more specifically the Public Ministry of Christ. The “outcome” section is the Passion of the Christ, or the Private Ministry of the Christ. The “opportunity” section and the “opposition” section focus on Christ’s journeys through Galilee, Samaria and Judea, while the “outcome” section focuses on Jerusalem. The last section also accurately reflects how many followers are with Jesus at the time. Finally, the beauty of this outline is that is does go back to how John is viewing Jesus in his Gospel account. This outline does focus on Jesus as the Son of God. The “opportunity” section is Jesus presenting Himself as the Son of God. In the “opposition” section, all the arguments roughly trace back to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. The outcomes also go back to Jesus as God the Son. The disciples believe and accept Jesus as the Son of God. The Jewish leaders do not believe and reject Jesus as the Son of God. Jesus is victorious because He is God.

So in conclusion to the outlines, I am going to adapt The Bible Exposition Commentary’s outline as the best outline of John. If we need to pick an original outline, or a shorter outline, it would be the first outline I showed you.

So let’s quickly use the outline to tell the story of John. Ever since Jesus began his ministry at the age of 30, he presented Himself to people as the Son of God, such as the disciples, Nicodemus and the Samaritan Woman at the well. Through His presentation as the Son of God, most people believe and come to faith, while others simply listen to Him and ask Him questions out of curiosity. The climax of Jesus presenting Himself comes in chapter 6, when Jesus starts teaching harder teachings. Many of His followers cannot accept these harder teachings. So his number of followers greatly drops, and now there are 3 views of Jesus. There are the believers, there are the skeptics and there are the adversaries. The believes accept Christ’s teachings and follow Him. The skeptics are unsure about Jesus and question Him. The adversaries oppose Jesus and doubt Him. So Jesus has to go from presenting Himself to defending Himself, as the opposition increases. Jesus defends Himself with Abraham, Moses, the prophets and miracles. The results are the same. Some people believe and come to faith, others do not believe and reject, and yet others are skeptics who are 50/50. But near the end of Christ’s earthly life, that last week, there is no middle ground for the skeptics to stand on. They either have to follow the decision of the disciples by believing and receiving Jesus, or they have to follow the path of the Jewish leaders by not believing and rejecting Jesus. Some come to faith, after seeing the resurrection of Lazarus, but others do not in fear of being excommunicated from the Jewish faith. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the sign that choosing believing faith in Jesus was the right answer, for it is the one that comes with eternal life.

The perfect transition from outline to theology is talking about other structural details. Why is the perfect transition? A lot of people have attempted to outline John by using common themes found in John’s Gospel. The only problem is these outlines tend to either be topical (as opposed to chronological), messy or confusing. So instead of showing you the outlines that are made, I’m just going to list where the structures appear.

The first and foremost common theme would be the “I AM” statements. I made sure we followed the 7 “I AM” statements carefully. The “I AM” statements are probably the most explicit proof in the Gospel of John that Jesus is God. First and foremost, the term, in the Jewish and Christian mindset, immediately goes back to the name God gave Moses to give to the Israelites in Exodus 3:14- “I AM WHO I AM.” But second, each “I AM” statement would finish with a quality or characteristic that both Jews and Christians would relate to God. Thus, in every “I AM” statement, Jesus twice declares He is God. The 1st century Jews recognized this, and every Christian of every century recognizes this. I hope you were able to follow all the “I AM” statement, but just in case you were unable, here they are-

The 7 “I AM” Statements
1. I AM the Bread of Life (6:35)
2. I AM the Light of the World (8:12)
3. Before Abraham was born, I AM (8:58)
4. I AM the Good Shepherd/Door (10:11,14/10:7,9)
5. I AM the Resurrection and the Life (11:25)
6. I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6)
7. I AM the Vine (15:1,5)

Going along with the theme of 7s, there is another 7 in Gospel of John. (Some scholars have suggested John likes the number 7, for when he writes Revelation, there are 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets and 7 bowls.) The other 7 is the seven miracles, the 7 signs or the 7 miraculous signs. Obviously, I have to start out by defining the term. The Greek term is semeion. Some translations translate it “miracle,” while others translate it as “sign.” The NIV compromises and translates it “miraculous sign.” On the surface level, this may seem redundant, but maybe this redundancy reveals a great theology behind John. Of all the miracles Jesus has done, he picks seven, and he picks his seven very carefully. All 7 miracles serve as signs to the message Jesus is preaching. For example, Jesus uses the Feeding of the 5,000 to preach that He is the Bread of Life. Another good example is John retells Jesus healing a blind man to put in light Christ’s teaching the He is the Light of the World. All 7 Miracles serve as a sign that Jesus is the Son of God. Even the miracles are central to this message.

The 7 Miraculous Signs Jesus Performed in John
1. Water to wine at the wedding in Cana (2:1-11)
2. Healing the Royal Official’s son of a fever (4:43-54)
3. The Invalid Man walks at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1-15)
4. Feeding the 5,000 (6:1-15)
5. Walking on Water (6:16-24)
6. The Blind Man sees at the Pool of Siloam (9:1-7)
7. Lazarus is raised from the dead (11:1-44)

Both the 7 “I AM” Statements the 7 Miraculous Signs demonstrate Jesus is the Son of God, but what else displays Jesus as the Son of God? If John truly is trying to get across the message that Jesus is the Son of God, what else would John include? Indeed, John does insert a lot of evidence that Jesus is the Son of God, so much that if I were to cover it all, it would at least double what I have already written now. So I will quickly cover a few quick topics. Just as we saw early God Sightings in John 1, I will once again bring you to John 1 to look closer at the titles given to Jesus: “the Word” and “the True Light”. In Bible Quizzing, quizmasters made the quizzers say “Word” or “True Light” in the appropriate places and not simply “God” or “Jesus.” I think they made the right decision, both for quizzing and for theology.

The Word. John chooses to call Jesus the Word in order to use familiar terminology with both the Jews and the Greeks. By the 1st century AD, many Jews were now using the Aramaic term for word, memra, in place of God’s holy name, Yahweh, in order to prevent themselves from using God’s name in vein. Because they were doing so, a philosophy developed that the Word of God was equivalent to God Himself, or even that the Word of God is interchangeable with God. On the Gentile side of the coin, Greek philosophers were believed that the Word (Greek term logos) was in eternal, impersonal force that created everything, sustained everything, and ruled over everything. When John uses the term “Word,” John is using the best of both worlds to teach about Jesus. Jesus is the Word like the Greeks say because Jesus created everything, sustains everything, and rules over everything. Unlike the Greeks, Jesus is like the Word like the Jews say because He is the same personal God found in the Old Testament. The only correction John needs to make to the Jews is that Jesus is not interchangeable with God, or equivalent to God, but rather Jesus is His own entity. This is why John says that was with God AND the Word was God in John 1:1,2.

The True Light. Quickly go back and read John 1:5-8. Now read John 1:9-13. Does it look like “the light” John is talking about in both sections are the same light? I say it is not. In John 1:5-8, the light simply refers to moral goodness, and John 1:5-8 shows a spiritual battle between moral goodness and the darkness of sin and evil. The fate of this spiritual battle? The darkness of sin and evil does not understand it. In John 3, Jesus says that the light is rejected because men love the darkness so they can keep on with their evil deeds. By John 1:9-13, the light is now called the True Light because it no longer is talking about the moral goodness, but it is talking about a person, and that person is Jesus Christ. John 1:9-13 pretty much tells the reader that the light in John 1:5-8 was personified and took on a body. Not only is Jesus the Word Incarnate, but Jesus is also the Light Incarnate. Jesus is full of goodness (or sinless), just as much as God the Father is. Remember how John 1:5-8 tells a story of the light entering the world, but being rejected? John 1:9-13 parallels the story to foreshadow the fate of Jesus. Jesus will walk the same path as light. Jesus will enter the world, and then He will be rejected by the world, mainly because the people do not understand Him. Now, unlike the Word, John is more consistent in keeping up with this terminology for Jesus. Jesus refers to light in John 3, John 8 and John 9.

Of course there is more proof that Jesus is the Son of God in John 1, and if you want to look at that again, go back to my writings on John 1. But for those who just want a quick reminder, I will post the 8 God Sightings found in John 1-

God Sightings in John 1
1. Jesus explicitly stated as God, and is seen with God in the beginning (vs. 1-2)
2. Jesus is the creator of the universe, and Jesus gives life (vs. 3-4)
3. John the Baptist’s testimony: Lamb of God and Son of God (vs. 15-35)
4. Andrew and John’s testimony: Rabbi (vs.35-39)
5. Andrew’s testimony: Messiah (vs. 40-42)
6. Philip’s testimony: The One Moses and the Prophets foretold (vs. 43-46)
7. Nathanael’s testimony: Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel (vs. 46-49)
8. Jesus gives a self-testimony: Son of Man (vs. 50-51)

Now, if we’re sticking with John 20:31 to look for theological themes that John is trying to draw out, remember that John wants to prove that Jesus is the Christ just as much as Jesus is the Son of God. So to accurately look at the theology of the Gospel of John, a examination of the Christ as found in the Gospel of John is necessary.

But first, we must look at the Jewish understanding of the Messiah by the time of Jesus. Obviously, the best way to start this would be to look at the Old Testament. The Old Testament promises a Messiah. This promise is made every time God makes a covenant with someone. In every Old Testament covenant, God promises land, seed and blessing. The ultimate fulfillment of the seed is the promised Messiah. This can be most explicitly seen in the Davidic Covenant, for God promises that the Messiah would be a kingly descendant from the line of David. After God makes this promise with David, that’s all the Old Testament can talk about. The most prevalent fact about the Messiah in the Old Testament is that the Messiah will come from David and would be a king like David. This becomes a problem when Israel and Judah are sent into exile. From the Assyrian captivity of Israel in 722 BC and the Babylonian captivity of Judah in 586 BC, there would always be someone over the Jews, whether it be the Persians, the Greek or the Romans. So how could the Messiah be a sovereign king over a sovereign nation if Israel and Judah were in exile? The Jews concluded that the Messiah had to be a political and militant Messiah. If the Messiah were to be a sovereign king over a sovereign nation, he would have to overthrow the reigning empire. But I will be clear that not every Jew believed the Messiah was to be political and militant. Some Jews watered down this messiah, simply making the Messiah the greatest Rabbi and the greatest Prophet that ever existed. Now this wasn’t the only debate the Jews had about the Messiah. The Messiah was a popular debate topic up to the time of Jesus. Many Jews would come to debate everything about the Messiah, from the origin to Messiah to the destiny of the Messiah.

Therefore, when John writes his Gospel, he adds to the debates and the discussions. John recalls Jesus correcting all these misconceptions about the Messiah. In John 7, the Jews debate whether or not the Messiah’s location origin will be known or not. Jesus answers that his true origin, heaven, is unknown because no one has been to heave. In John 12, when the Jewish leaders ask if the Son of Man will die or live eternally, Jesus replies that the Son of Man must die then be raised to eternal life. These are just a few examples, but I hope you see that not only does Jesus correct the understandings of the Messiah, but also proves how He is fulfilling them. If the teachings and corrections from Jesus aren’t enough, then just look at the testimonies. Andrew, Philip, Nathanael, the Samaritan Woman at the Well and Martha all declare that Jesus is the Messiah. And that’s even before Jesus rose from the dead! All 5 of these people knew Jesus was the Messiah just by being around Jesus.

I will draw you back to the testimonies in John 5. Once again, I will not repeat an explanation for all of them. If you want the explanation, go back to my writings on John 5. I will simply give a list of the 4 Testimonies found in John 5. These testimonies demonstrate that Jesus is both the Christ and the Son of God.

4 Testimonies about Jesus as found in John 5
1. God the Father’s testimony (vs. 31,32,37,38)
2. John the Baptist’s testimony (vs.33-35)
3. Self-testimony through miracles and miraculous signs (vs. 36)
4. Old Testament Scripture’s testimony (vs.39-47)

Now I know my professors and classmates from LBC would be asking, “Where’s the application?” John does give an application right in his theme verse. It’s the most repeated verb in John 20:31. The application is simply to believe. In the Greek, John uses the Greek verb for believe, pisteuō, 98 times. Now, if you’re reading the NIV, you’re not going to be able to count 98t times the word “believe” because half the time the NIV will translate it “put their faith into” just to mix it up. But interesting enough, the Greek noun for faith, pistis, is never used in the Gospel account. Perhaps John does not want us to see belief as something we have, but something we do. If you recall, throughout the book of John, John shows the contrast between belief and unbelief, or the contrast between believers and unbelievers. In the end of John 2, Jesus performs miracles, but the people still do not believe that He is the Christ or the Son of God. They just like watching him do the miracles. In John 6, thousands claim to be followers of Jesus, but when Jesus cranks up the teachings to harder teachings, many stop following Jesus. In John 7-11, John shows that a person cannot simply pick and choose what believe in Jesus. A true believers has to believe that Jesus is both the Christ and the Son of God. Those who don’t believe both, like the skeptics in John 7-11 who believe Jesus is only a rabbi or a prophet, aren’t real followers. John continues to up the ante by insisting that truly believing doesn’t just believe that Jesus existed in history, but is also following the teachings of Jesus. What a perfect application for today. If you were to ask people in my generation and the next youngest generation what being a believing Christian is, they will pretty much tell you it’s adopting the Christian church’s faith statement as their own. This means that they will believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and they will believe that He is sinless, but they won’t love their neighbor, they won’t love their enemies, they won’t do anything Jesus taught them to do. It’s just like Jesus said: people are presented with the light, but they turn it down for the darkness so they can keep with their deeds. If anything becomes more directly applicable to you, I hope it’s the word “believe.” Read this Gospel and ask yourself, “Do I truly believe?” Don’t just believe what you want to believe about Jesus, but believe what Jesus said and what Jesus did, and do likewise.

I better wrap this up before it gets any longer. I will close my conclusion to the Gospel of John the same way I closed my introduction to the Gospel of John. Before I began looking at each chapter individually, I asked you to ask yourself 3 questions reading through John. First, “Who does Jesus claim He is?” Second, “Who does those pro-Jesus, or for Jesus, claim He is?” Third, “Who does those anti-Jesus, or against Jesus, claim Jesus was?” If you sought after these questions, you would have found every time the answer was “Son of God.” Throughout the book, Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, using miraculous signs, using “I AM” statements and even by calling God “the Father.” Those pro-Jesus claimed Jesus was God. The Twelve Disciples (Judas Iscariot is debatable), Nathanael, Nicodemus, the Samaritans (including the Samaritan Woman), Martha and Mary Magdalene all claimed Jesus was the Son of God. Even those anti-Jesus, those against Jesus, knew Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. And John reveals they knew it, too, and that’s why they wanted him dead! Jesus, Son of God or not, was a threat to them and their way of life. They were losing disciples to Jesus, and they became jealous. Thus, they went after him, using the claims to be the Son of God against him. Without a doubt, everyone in this book knew Jesus was the Son of God, and I hope you now know it, too.

Scholars have debated whether or not the Book of John is to be used for evangelistic purpose (to convert non-believers to Christianity) or for discipleship purposes (to help grow and strengthen a Christian’s faith). I believe it can be used for both. Anyone who does not believe in Jesus will believe in Jesus as the Christ and Son of God from the evidence of the signs. Those who already do believe in Jesus will receive strong and persuasive proof that they are correct in their beliefs and they should stay strong in continuing to believe Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. And for both, as John says, both will receive eternal life. I hope that you have enjoyed this walk through the Gospel of John, I hope you learned something, and most importantly, I hope that you have either gained a new faith or continued to believer more than ever that Jesus is God.