John 1 Who Is John?

PDF File. John Chapter 1[add_to_cart id=”2689″]
Preface

1. I suggest you bring your Bible…one that you would consider writing in!
2. Bring something to take notes on
3. Read ahead of where we are. Maybe I can get that posted in the weekly update even?
4. Write down questions beforehand. Nothing is a dumb question and we are all loving friends here.
5. I will probably do most of the reading out of my NIV version. Yours does not have to be an NIV.
6. I will likely call on you to read. Please don’t be embarassed. Here is the place to hang your face out in front of friends who love and care about you . It will be OK!

Scriptures for people to look up

• Genesis 1:7
• Colossian 2:9

I. Who is John

1. an apostle – what’s an apostle? a vigorous and pioneering advocate or supporter of a particular policy, idea, or cause, a messenger or representative. ORIGIN Old English apostol, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek apostolos ‘messenger,’ from apostellein ‘send forth.’
   • twelve apostles of Jesus Christ
   • any important early Christian teacher, i.e., Paul
   • the first successful Christian missionary in a country or to a people
   • one of the twelve administrative officers of the Mormon church
2. He is the brother of Zebedee, and was called a ‘Son of Thunder’
3. He is not to be confused with John the Baptist which is especially important to understand in John chapter 1.

II. He wrote the Gospel of John around A.D. 85-90, probably after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and before his exile to the island of Patmos

III. Eight miracles are recorded in John and six of them are unique to the book

IV. The significance of the Gospel is that 90 percent of it is unique, that is, it is not recorded in the other Gospels

V. It is called a Gospel because it proclaims the good news of the coming of the Messiah, as do the other Gospels

VI. The ideas and concepts of C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and A Mere Christian will become very evident in John from the start. I will try to identify things as we go along. If you need to review any concept then we can do it in class or you can find it in your copy of A Mere Christian.

VII. Chapter 1:1

1. Describe creation from the viewpoint of science?
2. Describe what was before creation?

VIII. Chapter 1:2-3

1. To whom does the word ‘He’ refer to here?
2. We know it was Jesus to whom this scripture refers, as you read the context of the scriptures that follow and
3. Verse 3 declares explicity that ‘He’ is God.

IX. Chapter 1:4

1. What scripture can you think of where it talks about ‘In him was life?’
2. Genesis 1:7
3. This life is called Zoe which is what Lewis referred to as his life in us.

X. Chapter 1:5 – have the KVJ version read for contrast here also.

1. What important concept is this talking about? That there is a Good Force and a Bad Force
2. The Good force was pre-existing,
3. The Bad can not be bad in the same way that Good is good.
4. Good and Bad don’t coexist just in the same way that light pierces darkness.
5. ‘Understood’ (NIV) and ‘Comprehend’ (KJV) here comes from Strong’s 2638. καταλαμβάνω katalambano, kat-al-am-ban´-o; from 2596 and 2983; to take eagerly, i.e. seize, possess, etc. (literally or figuratively): — apprehend, attain, come upon, comprehend, find, obtain, perceive, (over-)take.

XI. Chapter 1:6-9

1. John the apostle is the writer of the book of John
2. The John here in verse 6 is referring to John the Baptist
3. His is the witness that comes before something else
4. He will prepare the way for ‘the light’ that is coming into the world

XII. Chapter 1:10-11

1. ‘He’ came to be in the world as all men do…from a human mother
2. Yet the world was made through him
3. He is not a ‘moral teacher’
   1. “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
4. ”Excerpt From: C. S. Lewis. “Mere Christianity.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/REUFv.l
5. The world rejected him

XIII. Chapter 1:12-13

1. Those that received him he gave the ‘right to become the sons of God. Why does he say ‘become?’ Aren’t we already sons of God? Well not technically yet.
2. “The mere Christian is at the first a slave who savors freedom or a ragged beggar who would be clean, healed, and clothed, who then becomes a servant. Finally he allows God to make him into a free and loving son completely devoid of defect, made to stand upright before his Father in Heaven, the only place where he can be healed. ”
3. Excerpt From: Ron Smith, MD. “A Mere Christian.” iBooks.
4. So what is being born of God? It is what we mean when we say we are born again.
5. That is when received the Zoe or breath of God
6. The Holy Spirit binds us into the perichoretic love of God and we receive the breath of life of his spirit.

XIV. Chapter 1:14

1. So throw out some descriptive words about Jesus Christ?
2. He teaches, but he not just a moral teacher
3. His flesh and bone should give us no less awe and respect than when we say the ‘Lord God.’ He is all God and all man, but he is not just a moral teacher.

XV. Chapter 1:15-18

1. John declares that he is not the Christ, but one who comes before him.
2. Jesus Christ is God AND Man (see Colossian 2:9)
3. God the Son declares God the Father, grace and mercy comes to us through Jesus Christ who declares Justice and Holiness of God the Father.
4. God the Son is not less nor more than God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. There is no competitiveness in their relationship, only perchoretic love.

XVI. Chapter 1:19-28

1. What’s happening in this section of scripture? John’s witness is challenged
2. Won’t our witness always be challenged?
3. What was the purpose of water baptism here in verse 26? It gives witness to the Holy Spirit’s bonding in our heart. (see verse 31)

XV. Chapter 1:29-34

1. What is happening in this section of scripture? Lots!
2. John gives us a picture of the bonding of the Holy Spirit in the descending dove
3. The Holy Spirit is the binder of God’s Agape love!
4. What is then baptism in the Holy Spirit for us? Is it speaking in tongues or casting out demons, or some physical act at all?
5. John knows Jesus is the Christ because he has been shown the image of the Holy Spirit descending on him as a proof. I believe he sees that as confirmation that Jesus is the Christ.
6. But the Holy Spirit descending on us is just like that! Baptism in water symbolizes our baptism by the Holy Spirit, and baptism by the Holy Spirit is pure and simple the bond of Agape love between God the Father and the God the Son and us.

XVI. Chapter 1:35-51

1. What is happening in this section of scripture?
2. Some of Jesus future disciples, notably Andrew and probably John, the author of the book of John, had been following John the Baptist
3. The sixth hour of the day is noon. Six hours after dawn. The tenth hour then is about 4pm.
4. Jesus tells Simon that his name will be Peter (translated as a rock or a stone).
5. Nathanael is identified as one in whom there is nothing false…no guile.