The Gospel of John

John is writing this Gospel much later than the Synoptics, as late as the early 2nd Century AD. John introduces us to completely new maternal, in may instances filling in the gaps which were left out of the Synoptics. It seems like Matthew and Luke conscientiously align their writings with Mark. John sets that aside and presents Jesus as coming from heaven to earth, from before time and creation itself.

Traditionally, the author is the Apostle John, son of Zebedee along with his older brother James, who first met Jesus on the banks of the River Jordan at the ministry of John the Baptist. If John was a teenager when he had his first encounter with Jesus and given that the tradition is that John lived to be one hundred years old, it is not a stretch to place the writing of this Gospel near the beginning of the Second Century. John claims to be an eyewitness to these events and wrote them down.

The Main Point of John’s gospel: God became a human being and lived among us in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. If we look to him, we know exactly what God would look and sound like, and how God might act in the variety of situations that are our lives. Meeting Jesus and trusting in him takes us from mere existence into real life, and “far more life that we ever had before”. (John 10:10)

Five Main features of John’s Gospel:

1. John makes absolute statements about Jesus’ Divinity compared to the Synoptics. John begins with Jesus at creation. First we see Jesus as the Word of God, then the Son of God, and then God.

2. The first half of John’s Gospel could be called “The Book of Signs”, for these seven miracles that are highlighted in John’s Gospel. Jesus calls them “signs” which point to him. a)Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding, b)Healing a nobleman’s son in Capernaum, c)Healing of a man who had been disabled for 38 years, d)Feeding of the 5000, e)Walking on water, f)Raising of Lazarus from the dead

3. John shares the many times Jesus used “I am” statements to present himself as God incarnate. John’s Gospel argues for Jesus as the only revealed means of salvation, and John invites and challenges us to put his full trust in him.

4. John’s Gospel contains extended conversations that Jesus has with people, which we do not find in the Synoptics.

5. Jesus teaches a great deal of material to his disciples right before his arrest and execution. Jesus teaches about the meaning of his death, his betrayal, his ‘going to the Father’, the promise of the Holy Spirit, his death as glorification, his final prayer for himself, his immediate disciples, and all who would later become believers.

Key Verse of this gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17)