Get ready, folks! The beginning of John is DEEP. I will try to keep us above water!!
II. Chapter 1
a. Verses 1-18: These verses are the philosophical basis for the introduction of Jesus to the Gentiles. The foundation on which everything else is built. I truly think that these are some of the most powerful verses in the Bible. They say so much. In fact, they really get to the core of who God is, who Jesus is, who we are, how we were made, and how we relate to each other. They say much more than I realized when I began to prepare for this. There are some deep ideas here, but stick with me and we’ll get through it. The purpose John had in writing this book is in John 20:31 – so that we may hear and believe and have life in Jesus’ name.
i. Verse 1-2: “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning.” In the beginning – this phrase is also found in Genesis 1, which is also the phrase that begins the Bible. It is interesting that this goes even further back than Genesis. Prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth. The author is demonstrating that Jesus has been here from the beginning and through Him we can have a new beginning. It also ties Jesus to the beginning of all creation. Jesus (refer to verse 14-18) was here before time began with God. In other Words, God’s Word was not created, but existed before creation. The word “Word” here is Logos in Greek, which refers to “word, thought, concept, and the expression thereof” and in the Greek world was used to refer to “creative control and the ideas of reason” (Ryrie Study Bible, Moody). This was the Greek’s own word and John used it intentionally to declare to them that Jesus was the “Logos” that they constantly debated in their philosophical circles. Another way to state this is that Jesus is the “Word” personified.
The Word was God – God’s Word, His actual thought – existed prior to creation. His thought has creative power and becomes reality. Again, Jesus is the personification of this thought. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay lists a few passages in the Old Testament that also demonstrate this idea: Proverbs 3:18-20; Proverbs 4:5-13; and most importantly Proverbs 8:22-36. These verses talk about wisdom and equate it to thought and its creative power. Also, these verses establish that the creation of wisdom was prior to the rest of creation. This wisdom is His “Word”. His Word is eternal and not part of the creation, which was brought forth in time and space. Jesus and God are identical, yet distinct. I know that is hard to wrap your mind around, but let’s move on.
QUESTION: How would you define reality? Do you think that reality has anything to do with our relationship with God? Is reality purely a matter of what you perceive? Is reality relative or different for each person or is always the same? How does this impact your daily life?
ii. Verse 3: “All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created.” The creative force of the Universe – God’s Word (Jesus). All things that were ever created were made through Jesus. Jesus is this power and it does not exist without Him. The basic building blocks of reality, absolute truth, life, the physical and spiritual world do not exist but by Jesus. He says Himself later “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but by Me.”, John 14:6. This statement of Jesus is meant to equate Himself with God. He has come to redeem that which has been His from the beginning.
The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay mentions that the author included this idea partly because of the prevalence of Gnosticism at that time, which held the idea that the god of the Old Testament (evil God) created the world and was hostile to the god of the New Testament (good God), who was the father of Jesus. The author is refuting this idea, while demonstrating the unchanging nature of God quite beautifully. If Jesus is God and he existed in the beginning (before time), then the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament are the same and He has not changed and will not ever change. That is something that we can truly place our faith in and rely on.
As I thought about this, I compared God’s unchanging nature to something physical that I know is unchanging –gravity (maybe it changes some here on earth, I don’t really know but it seemed like a good example). I thought about how I personally put my trust everyday in the law of gravity (I am sure you do too - so what right?). I know that gravity is true and it will continue to be true, so I go about taking advantage of this law. I apply this law to my advantage every day. In other words, I don’t plan my day around the possibility that gravity may fail and I need to be tied down at all times so I don’t float off into space. Not taking advantage of this law would be a real waste of time and energy. The same concept applies to the laws and promises of God. God is the same before, now, and always and He has given us physical and spiritual truths and revealed them to us in numerous ways to help us understand how He set things up for us. These are laws – not like a rule that we must obey or we will be punished – but truths about life and how He set up this world in which we live that we can always rely on. We can either take advantage of these laws (it’s what God intends for us to do) or we can “kick against the goads” like Paul did before He met Jesus on the road to Damascus. These laws and truths he reveals to us are His nature.
QUESTION: How would you change your life if you listed out the promises of God and went about your life with total confidence that they were automatic and something that you could totally depend?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Study of John - Week 1
I. About the Book
a. Who wrote it?
i. John was written by “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. It was either John the disciple or another John (the Elder). The Ryrie Study Bible says that John was a Palestinian Jew who was an eyewitness of the events of Jesus’ life based on: 1. His knowledge of Jewish customs (7:37-39; 18:28); 2. His knowledge of the land of Palestine (1:44, 46; 5:2); 3. The fact that he also includes details of an eyewitness (2:6; 13:26; 21:8, 11).
b. When was it written?
i. 60-70 AD. These dates have been determined by various facts, including the other Gospels, the Book of Acts and the date of the death of Paul, among other things. Christ died in the years 30-33 AD, so this book was well within the lifetime of the actual eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life (27-40 years). Much of the eyewitness accounts would have been hard to falsify with so many people (including hostile eyewitnesses) still alive that would have seen them and been able to refute any bogus claims.
ii. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay says that compared to the other Gospels, John is most the work of the Holy Spirit. This is because it was the last written. I believe that the fact that John was not written the morning after Jesus appeared to the disciples and ascended into heaven is a fortunate thing for us. The reason is that there were most likely many things that John saw and heard that he did not understand the second they happened. God has a way of taking us along a journey in our spiritual walk and revealing things along the way, not all at the same time. John had worked through a great deal of issues by the time he wrote his book and was still learning. There were many things that the Holy Spirit had revealed to John by the time he wrote the book. Jesus said in John 16:12-13 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is to come.”
c. How reliable is the book based on historical evidence?
i. In The Case for Christ, Craig L. Blomberg says that compared to any other ancient historical writings, the Gospels were written so closely to the actual events that the gap in time is insignificant.
What this means is that there was not time for new legend to develop and make its way into the writings. For example, the earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after his death and are considered to be generally reliable. There has since been legendary material written later that is not historically reliable. So, within the first 500 years or so the story remained intact, but the legendary material was added in the centuries after this time period. With John being writing so close to the actual events, it is not accepted in scholarly circles that John contains any legendary or inflated material.
Archeological Note: The John Rylands Papyrus was discovered in 1920 in Egypt and is the oldest existing manuscript of the New Testament (fragment of Book of John) and is actual evidence of the Book of John in the first half of the 2nd Century, which supports a date of authorship of John is the latter part of the 1st Century.
d. How does John compare to the other Gospels?
i. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay says that it was also written with the intent of being a gospel to the Gentiles. This is very important in that the others were chiefly interested in conveying a message to other Jews. Jesus was of Jewish decent and spent his whole life in the area surrounding Judea. The Jews already understood the concept of a messiah and framed their view of Jesus and the gospel of Jesus with their understanding of the history of their people. The Greeks did not have this understanding of Jewish culture and history or where Jesus came from and John intended to write his gospel with this in mind. Christianity had reached Rome by 60 AD. The author decided to write a gospel that did not take non-Jews through Jewish ideas in order to present Jesus to them. In other words, this is Jesus for everyone, not just for the Jews.
ii. John has some more theological info than the other gospels. It is also highly spiritual. There are several stories relayed in John that are not in the other Gospels: The miracle of turning water into wine at Cana (2:1-11); Nicodemus coming to Jesus (3:1-15); the woman of Samaria (4); the raising of Lazarus (11); the way Jesus washed His disciples feet (13:1-17); Jesus’ teaching of the Holy Spirit in chapters 14-17. Only in John does Thomas speak, only John speaks of the crown of thorns, and there are many other examples. The HCSB states that 90% of the material in John is unique.
iii. The New Defender’s Study Bible states that all of the original apolstles (including Paul) had been martyred by the time that John wrote the Book of John (except for John). The HCSB Study Bible states that
e. The Archeological Study Bible states that the Book of John has three main themes:
i. Jesus is God
ii. Jesus is the Messiah
iii. Choose Belief or Unbelief
Reading for Week 2: John 1:1-18
a. Who wrote it?
i. John was written by “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. It was either John the disciple or another John (the Elder). The Ryrie Study Bible says that John was a Palestinian Jew who was an eyewitness of the events of Jesus’ life based on: 1. His knowledge of Jewish customs (7:37-39; 18:28); 2. His knowledge of the land of Palestine (1:44, 46; 5:2); 3. The fact that he also includes details of an eyewitness (2:6; 13:26; 21:8, 11).
b. When was it written?
i. 60-70 AD. These dates have been determined by various facts, including the other Gospels, the Book of Acts and the date of the death of Paul, among other things. Christ died in the years 30-33 AD, so this book was well within the lifetime of the actual eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life (27-40 years). Much of the eyewitness accounts would have been hard to falsify with so many people (including hostile eyewitnesses) still alive that would have seen them and been able to refute any bogus claims.
ii. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay says that compared to the other Gospels, John is most the work of the Holy Spirit. This is because it was the last written. I believe that the fact that John was not written the morning after Jesus appeared to the disciples and ascended into heaven is a fortunate thing for us. The reason is that there were most likely many things that John saw and heard that he did not understand the second they happened. God has a way of taking us along a journey in our spiritual walk and revealing things along the way, not all at the same time. John had worked through a great deal of issues by the time he wrote his book and was still learning. There were many things that the Holy Spirit had revealed to John by the time he wrote the book. Jesus said in John 16:12-13 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is to come.”
c. How reliable is the book based on historical evidence?
i. In The Case for Christ, Craig L. Blomberg says that compared to any other ancient historical writings, the Gospels were written so closely to the actual events that the gap in time is insignificant.
What this means is that there was not time for new legend to develop and make its way into the writings. For example, the earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written more than 400 years after his death and are considered to be generally reliable. There has since been legendary material written later that is not historically reliable. So, within the first 500 years or so the story remained intact, but the legendary material was added in the centuries after this time period. With John being writing so close to the actual events, it is not accepted in scholarly circles that John contains any legendary or inflated material.
Archeological Note: The John Rylands Papyrus was discovered in 1920 in Egypt and is the oldest existing manuscript of the New Testament (fragment of Book of John) and is actual evidence of the Book of John in the first half of the 2nd Century, which supports a date of authorship of John is the latter part of the 1st Century.
d. How does John compare to the other Gospels?
i. The Daily Study Bible – The Gospel of John by William Barclay says that it was also written with the intent of being a gospel to the Gentiles. This is very important in that the others were chiefly interested in conveying a message to other Jews. Jesus was of Jewish decent and spent his whole life in the area surrounding Judea. The Jews already understood the concept of a messiah and framed their view of Jesus and the gospel of Jesus with their understanding of the history of their people. The Greeks did not have this understanding of Jewish culture and history or where Jesus came from and John intended to write his gospel with this in mind. Christianity had reached Rome by 60 AD. The author decided to write a gospel that did not take non-Jews through Jewish ideas in order to present Jesus to them. In other words, this is Jesus for everyone, not just for the Jews.
ii. John has some more theological info than the other gospels. It is also highly spiritual. There are several stories relayed in John that are not in the other Gospels: The miracle of turning water into wine at Cana (2:1-11); Nicodemus coming to Jesus (3:1-15); the woman of Samaria (4); the raising of Lazarus (11); the way Jesus washed His disciples feet (13:1-17); Jesus’ teaching of the Holy Spirit in chapters 14-17. Only in John does Thomas speak, only John speaks of the crown of thorns, and there are many other examples. The HCSB states that 90% of the material in John is unique.
iii. The New Defender’s Study Bible states that all of the original apolstles (including Paul) had been martyred by the time that John wrote the Book of John (except for John). The HCSB Study Bible states that
e. The Archeological Study Bible states that the Book of John has three main themes:
i. Jesus is God
ii. Jesus is the Messiah
iii. Choose Belief or Unbelief
Reading for Week 2: John 1:1-18
Study of John - Introduction
I used various reference materials for the purpose of this study of John. Here they are:
Books and Commentaries:
The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
The Daily Study Bible Series - The Gospel of John, William Barclay
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Bibles:
Ryrie Study Bible - NIV, Moody
New Defenders Study Bible, KJV, Dr. Henry Morris
Archeological Study Bible, NIV, Zondervan
HCSB Study Bible, Holman
Additional Resources:
http://biblos.com/
I chose these books because they are chiefly concerned with the facts of the Bible and have been widely accepted in the Christian world. I am familiar with these books and they met the “gut check” test with me and I feel like the writers were in keeping with what is actually written in the Bible. In other words, I don’t think that they have taken any liberties and changed things or omitted things to suit some agenda. With that, the Bible is sufficient on its own and I will try to stick to it as much as possible. Since I am not a trained Bible scholar, these books help me with things that I might not be privy to, such as the Greek or Hebrew and references. They also give an additional viewpoint and commentary that we can draw from as a class. I have also used several different study bibles and translations to see what additional insight we can gain from these.
I also thought that for anyone who is interested, I could post the material on a blog. I will post the study material there and have it available in class. If you miss a week of class, you can get it off of the blog. You can go to the blog at http://mmumcsundayschool.blogspot.com/. I will review the material on Sunday night and post any additional information that I can come up with on the blog, so that is fresh for each lesson. I will also post the reading schedule for the next week at the end of the post, so you can make sure you are in the right spot for Sunday morning. I will do my best, although I am not much of a blog expert or anything. Also, where I say “the author”, I am talking about John who is the writer of the Gospel of John and not some other author of one of the books mentioned.
I have added my own thoughts and interpretations – mostly how I feel that it applies to my life, how I can apply it to my life, and how it has impacted my life. I ask that you go through this class with the mind set of how it applies to you personally and not as some additional facts that you can store in your mind in case you ever need them. Please fact check any of this stuff. That is what we are supposed to do (see how the Bereans did it to Paul in Acts 17:11). Lastly, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, challenge anything I say, and check things out for yourself. As you study, ask God to reveal Himself to you and He will.
Books and Commentaries:
The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
The Daily Study Bible Series - The Gospel of John, William Barclay
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
Bibles:
Ryrie Study Bible - NIV, Moody
New Defenders Study Bible, KJV, Dr. Henry Morris
Archeological Study Bible, NIV, Zondervan
HCSB Study Bible, Holman
Additional Resources:
http://biblos.com/
I chose these books because they are chiefly concerned with the facts of the Bible and have been widely accepted in the Christian world. I am familiar with these books and they met the “gut check” test with me and I feel like the writers were in keeping with what is actually written in the Bible. In other words, I don’t think that they have taken any liberties and changed things or omitted things to suit some agenda. With that, the Bible is sufficient on its own and I will try to stick to it as much as possible. Since I am not a trained Bible scholar, these books help me with things that I might not be privy to, such as the Greek or Hebrew and references. They also give an additional viewpoint and commentary that we can draw from as a class. I have also used several different study bibles and translations to see what additional insight we can gain from these.
I also thought that for anyone who is interested, I could post the material on a blog. I will post the study material there and have it available in class. If you miss a week of class, you can get it off of the blog. You can go to the blog at http://mmumcsundayschool.blogspot.com/. I will review the material on Sunday night and post any additional information that I can come up with on the blog, so that is fresh for each lesson. I will also post the reading schedule for the next week at the end of the post, so you can make sure you are in the right spot for Sunday morning. I will do my best, although I am not much of a blog expert or anything. Also, where I say “the author”, I am talking about John who is the writer of the Gospel of John and not some other author of one of the books mentioned.
I have added my own thoughts and interpretations – mostly how I feel that it applies to my life, how I can apply it to my life, and how it has impacted my life. I ask that you go through this class with the mind set of how it applies to you personally and not as some additional facts that you can store in your mind in case you ever need them. Please fact check any of this stuff. That is what we are supposed to do (see how the Bereans did it to Paul in Acts 17:11). Lastly, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, challenge anything I say, and check things out for yourself. As you study, ask God to reveal Himself to you and He will.
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