John's Gospel I: Understanding & Appreciating John
Sermon Review
01 July 2001
John 20:30,31Introduction:
I loved comics when I was young. Every now and then they would be confiscated and forbidden – making me miss them very much! Often times the value of something is not realised until it is taken from you. Freedoms become extremely important after one is grounded, privileges withdrawn suddenly become important, and toys or possessions taken for granted become desired when lost or stolen. It’s a strange quirk of human nature that the value and significance of many things in our lives only grow when threatened or removed. This is no doubt why certain movies, books, plays, or even Bibles or church become obsessively important when authorities ban them. It is a great pity that it takes something like this for the fog to clear and significance to surface. But that seems to be the way it is. So when thinking about how to increase your appreciation of the Gospel of John, I thought of fantastic things like having the power to make it disappear out of your Bibles, or your altering your memories so that you forgot about it! – all ridiculous of course. As an alternative, I decided that I would open a window on this unique book, and increase your understanding of the unique contribution that it makes to our understanding of Christ and the Christian faith. In other words, I decided to dangle before you what you would be missing if we only had the three other Gospels. I am hoping that taking a positive approach, rather than the drastic steps fantasised about, you will find an increasing appetite to value John, and stimulate you to study and absorb what it has to tell and teach. Firstly, though, lets briefly look at some relevant historical details.
Historical Details:
The traditional view is that the writer of this Gospel was the Disciple John, son of Zebedee, and brother to James. Other names have been put forward eg. John of Jerusalem, the Elder John, and others using John as a pseudonym. However the majority of scholars opt for the Disciple John who either wrote it or dictated it late in his life in Ephesus prior to being exiled to the Island of Patmos and writing the Book of Revelation. The date of authorship was most probably between 90-95 AD. So John would have been quite advanced in age, with 60 or more years of Ministry and long and active experience in the Lord, under his belt.
John & The Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark, & Luke:
A quick cursory reading of the Gospel of John will soon reveal how different it is from the Synoptic Gospels – Matthew, Mark, & Luke. This name was given them near the turn of the 18th. Century due to the fact that they could be conveniently arranged in 3 vertical columns so at a glance you could tell how closely the 3 Gospels agreed ie. you could gain a synopsis easily. Most Christian book stores sell such Harmonies of the gospels, or Gospel parallels, and they are great for quickly appraising what each of the three say on various passages. Overall, Percentage-wise, these three gospels have only 28.49% which is not in some form reduplicated amongst themselves. However, Mark is by far the Gospel most able to be lost for it has only 31 verses not duplicated in some form in the other two.
- Activity 1:
Skim through the Gospel of John and see if you can suggest 1 or 2 events that are in one or more of the other gospels, yet missing from John. Write them below. Eg.
. no genealogy; no virgin birth and surrounding events; no early childhood; no baptism; no temptation; no transfiguration; no communion instituted; no ascension; no casting out of demons or evil spirits; no great commission; and most astounding of all, no parables! The closest to it is the vine analogy in chapter 15.
- Activity 2:
Now skim through the Gospel of John and choose two passages or events that are unique to that Gospel – that is, they are not reduplicated in any form in the other 3 Gospels. Write them below. Eg.
. the expose on Jesus as the Logos chap.1; the Wedding at Cana chap.2; a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry chap 2; Nicodemus and rebirth from above chap.3; the Samaritan woman at the well chap.4; the invalid healed at Bethesda chap.5; the woman caught in adultery chap.8; the man born blind and healed chap.9; the good shepherd chap.10; the raising of Lazarus chap.11; washing of the disciples feet chap.11; particular teaching on the Holy Spirit chap.14 & 16; Christ as the true vine chap.15; Jesus intercessory prayer chap.17; Jesus’ recommissioning of Peter chap.21. On top of all of these we have the ‘I Am’ titles of Jesus eg. Bread of Life, The Light of the World, The Gate, The Good Shepherd, The True Vine, The Way, Truth, Life etc.; extra details like barley loaves in the feeding of the 5,000, 6 stone pots at the wedding in Cana, 4 soldiers gambling over Jesus tunic, the exact weights of myrrh and aloes, the overlapping ministry of John the Baptist etc. And besides all of this there are the great teaching conversations of Jesus surrounding his great ‘I Am’s’ which are missing from the other gospels.
- could you imagine evangelism without resorting to terms and understandings like ‘born again’, or John 3:16, or John.14:6? Or funeral services without ‘I am the Resurrection and the Life’? Or labouring under the impression that Jesus avoided the rabbinical method of aggressive conversational teaching, only talking in disguised parabolic form etc.
In John we have gems and truths that if missing would have severely impacted on our present day understandings of the life, teaching and ministry of Jesus Christ, as well as a much more restrictive doctrinal and theological base for the Christian faith. Make no mistake, this gospel is quite different and inestimably valuable for the Christian church. In fact, in contrast to the other 3 Gospels, John is 90% unique. That is, 90% of its material is not reduplicated in any form in the other 3 Gospels. All of which says we would do well to treasure it, as well as begs the question of why it is so different.
Why is the Gospel of John so Different?
The answer to this lies in John’s intention in writing it, his intended audience, and surrounding religious beliefs. 1. John’s intention in writing it.
a. We have an historical record from Clement of Alexandria – A Christian Scholar of great historical significance alive between 150 and 220 AD., that says ‘John was acquainted with the other gospels, and at the request of his disciples, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, John decided to write a spiritual gospel’. This tells us two important things - John, when deciding what to write, took into account what was already available, so we can assume that he intentionally avoided duplicating the Synoptics; also, he appears to have intentionally delved more deeply into the divine side of Jesus teaching, as opposed to describing lots of activity, for instance.
b. John also states his purpose for writing his gospel quite clearly in chap.19:31. It is evangelistic – to inspire faith in Jesus as the Divine Messiah so as to receive eternal life.
2. Gnosticism & audience:
. In the latter stages of the first Century, religious beliefs that have been packaged under the term ‘Gnosticism’ were becoming quite popular. The term Gnosticism was used to cover the similar stress on being saved by knowledge (Gk.Gnosis) amongst what was to become a number of different religious movements. In full flight, the prevailing strands within these movements argued that Jesus was not really divine. He was really only one of a chain of lesser beings between the Creator and us, and a phantom without flesh and blood at that! John’s heavy emphasis on Jesus as the Logos, the Son of God, as well as one who could also grow weary, require food, thirst, and weep and grieve as any man, is presumed to be aimed at this increasingly popular type of thinking. With regard to audience, history informs us that the gospel was probably written in Ephesus, as is reported by Irenaus who has written, ‘Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia". As Irenaus, the Bishop of Lyons 170 AD., had personal contact with Polycarp, who in turn knew John personally, it is assumed that this report is probably correct. Combined with John’s effort to explain Jewish terms, his use of Greek thinking and philosophy (eg. Logos), that his audience was primarily not only non-Jewish, but one heavily influenced by Greek thinking and culture.
All of this helps make sense of why John is so different. As an evangelistic tool, supplementary to the other Gospels, and aimed at identifying Jesus as both divine and human as well as messiah to peoples heavily influenced by Greek culture and thinking, there is no wonder there are no genealogies, nor parables, but a number of miraculous signs accompanied by long speeches and conversations explaining them. It is also no wonder that his material contests the beginnings of heretical Greek-based thinking which was to become quite popular, evolving into what would become known as ‘Gnosticism’. The differences between John and the other Gospels become quite reasonable and understandable when one considers John’s intention and purpose in writing, the audience, and prevailing religious thinking he was ministering within.
Conclusion:
I hope that you not only understand John a little more now, but are also intrigued by its differences and the unique contribution it makes to Christian beliefs. Over the next 6 or so weeks we will be doing some travelling through John’s gospel, exploring various themes and topics. My hope is that you will now go home, blow of the cobwebs, read this Gospel again, and marvel at its uniqueness and importance in preparation for the short journey we will be making over the next 2 months.
Blessings