Bible In A Year: The Gospel Of John

The Gospel of John reveals Jesus Christ as the eternal Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. Through His signs, teachings, and testimony, John declares that Jesus is the Son of God and the promised Messiah. Written so that people may believe, this Gospel calls us to trust in Christ and receive life in His name. (John 20:30–31)

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

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Why John Feels Different

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Welcome back to Teach Me the Bible Podcast. My name is Alex Wolf. I'm here with Dr. David Klingler, and we are walking through the story of the Bible in a year. We find ourselves this uh today in the book of John. So we're in the Gospels. Um we've been kind of going through, we've we've used the word, if you've been listening, synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, but today we're in something a little different. Well, the gospel is a little bit different. The book of John. And so uh we're gonna kind of dive in and see if we can wrap our minds around what specifically, what message John is trying to communicate in the way that he's trying to communicate it. So again, we're not uh trying to recreate all the events by looking at all the different gospels at the same time. Rather, we're trying to understand each gospel, uh e what each author is saying, what message he's uniquely trying to communicate with how he's telling his story. And so we're gonna do that in John today. Right.

Dr. David Klingler 1:28

And and uh just a reminder of what when we're talking about the synoptic, what you know, and and we we've mentioned it uh as we've gone through these weeks, but uh you know, the the sun there there are three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that have a lot of the same wording in a lot of the same order, sometimes word for word, right? And so um either there's mirac something miraculous going on here, or uh we we learn we know from Luke, and and we're gonna do uh Luke in the in the couple uh weeks to come that um uh that he did some research, right? Uh he was gathering some information. Yeah, and so uh and so it's probably reasonable that he had uh Matthew, maybe both Matthew and Mark as in front of him as he's writing his gospel of uh of Luke. Um and so uh we we talk about uh which gospel came first. Was it you know we call it Mark and priority? John, the the book we're gonna be in today is is probably the last gospel that's written. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written uh before. Uh but there are tremendous similarities with Matthew, Mark, and Luke in that there's wording that's identical. Uh and so then uh one area of New Testament studies has been to line up these three gospels and say, where are they identical? Where are they different? And how does that affect the message of the book and why is the author doing that? So that's so it's a study unto itself. John is telling his own story, right? Right. Uh so there are no parables in the Gospel of John like there were in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And John is going to achieve his writing purpose in a different way. Right. Right. Right. And so in chapter one, actually, in chapter one, John, yeah, I like that. He says, Let me tell you what I'm gonna tell you, so that when I tell you, you know what it is I'm telling you. I like that summary of it. It's a good communication strategy, right? Here's what I'm gonna tell you, then I'm gonna tell you, and then I'm gonna tell you what I told you. And this is what he's this is what he's doing.

Synoptic Gospels And Writing Order

Dr. David Klingler 3:40

Now, John, um uh this is the the John uh is helpful because he tells us why he wrote. He's saying, okay, here's what I'm writing. Uh and this is we find this in chapter 20, uh verses uh 30, 31. Uh and and so this gives us a really good indication of at least part a part of why he wrote. Uh, some would say, well, it is the indication why he wrote. Well, uh, we'll talk about that. But um in chapter 21, if if he says, Okay, that's why I wrote, you would expect it to be, and that's the end.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Okay.

Dr. David Klingler 4:18

Uh this is chapter uh twenty, verse thirty. Many other signs uh therefore Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you would have life in his name. Okay. Uh we often emphasize verse 31 and not verse 30. And why do I make this point? Uh many other signs Jesus therefore did performed in the presence of his disciples. That's important. It is the disciples' eyewitness account. Okay. We tend to um make the mistake of putting ourselves in the story, at least when we like it, right? When when we think that it it's relevant to us, or we want to be, you know, Moses, or we want to be David and play Goliath. We stick ourselves right in there. Uh I could walk on the water. Yeah, no, you can't.

unknown 5:14

Right.

Dr. David Klingler 5:15

Uh I I I could uh you know, I could no you can't. See, you're not a you're you're not Peter, you're not a disciple, you aren't and so uh and so one of the key uh concept key things to understand in New Testament is you aren't an apostle, you weren't there, you didn't see him, right? And this is how John begins his story. So our faith is dependent upon the testimony of the apostles and prophets, yeah. Uh the the prophets of the old testament and the apostles, and even more so the apostles, and Peter's going to say this in 2 Peter, we're gonna get to that way down the road. Yeah, right. Is because Peter says we have the prophetic word made more sure. Yeah. We saw him, we were with him on the holy mountain. We our hands handled him. We taught this is first John, and this is what this is what John's doing here, right? And so, uh, and so in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Uh, it was or he was. It at this point in the you're probably reading it, it was in the beginning with God. The word was with God, and the word became fleshy. Wait, wait, wait, what? You mean the word is a person? Yeah, all of the Old Testament testimony walked onto the scene in the person of Jesus, right? That's good. All that was explained, all that was looked forward to uh uh in the law and the prophets and the psalms, all parts of the Bible, right? The word became flesh. Uh and tabernacle among us, he's going to say. So so he was in the beginning with God.

John’s Purpose And Eyewitness Testimony

Dr. David Klingler 6:48

All things came into being uh by it or by him, the word, and apart from it, or apart from him, nothing has come into being has come into being. And it was life, and life was the light of men. See, he's actually using a pronoun here that could be translated it or him. Yeah right? Uh the word it or the but but when you keep reading, there was a man sent from God, his name was John, he was a witness, but he might bear witness with the light, bear witness with the you're thinking what bear witness for the word. Um he was not the light, he came to bear witness to the light. There is a true light which is coming into the world enlightens every man. Uh it was in the world, and the world was made through it, and the world did not know it or know him. It it came to his own, and his own did not receive him, but uh or receive it, right? See, this both works for the person of Christ and the word, right? It the the word came to Israel, came to his own, and his own didn't they didn't receive it.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

We can do that though, because we kind of know where it's headed. Oh, yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:45

Well, and as you're as you're reading along, you're saying this all of this is true of the word.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 7:50

But when it hits you like a ton of bricks, and that word became flesh, yeah, and you're going, wait a second. Wait, wait a second, back up, read that again. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was He was in the beginning with God. It's not just the word on the page, but the word incarnate.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

Wow.

Dr. David Klingler 8:11

Uh the the testimony that is contained in those words about the one who is coming walked onto the scene in the person of Christ. And and we saw him. He he dwelt among us, he tabernacled among us, uh John says. And and we saw him, we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Well, he just starts with some power, right?

Dr. David Klingler 8:36

Oh man, he's just yeah, he just goes right up to it. Yeah, he he starts with a haymaker. You know, he goes right, he backs the right fist way up and he brings it from downtown, and bow, he you know, uh John bore witness of him. He said, you know, the one who comes uh uh he after me is a higher rank, for he existed before me. For full uh for of his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The law was given through Moses. Now we need to stop here and make sure we understand this verse. Grace and truth were realized in Christ Jesus. Um we often has this have this misunderstanding of the Old Testament. Somehow God is a hard God in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, he's like the you know, the doting grandfather of the house. Um that somehow in the Old Testament he was merciful or merciless, judgmental, all powerful, you know. Uh you know, it's like the when when the genie comes out of the bottle, you know, the um that in the old testament, the character of God was revealed. It was revealed to Moses. Grace and truth were revealed through the law, revealed through the word. Uh the character of God, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, full of grace, full of struth. That would that that character was revealed in spades in the old testament as Israel experienced the loving kindness, forgiveness, right, for doing it, and because the father loved them, the discipline of the father. So grace and truth were given, revealed through Moses.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 10:10

But in the person of Christ, grace and truth walked onto the scene.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

Yeah, that's good. I always like to emphasize, too, that you know, in the law, the the judgments that Israel was receiving, that we watch them receive in the old testament, if you kind of back into the law, the whole point was so that you'll recognize and repent, and when you repent, I'll have compassion on you and mercy on you. And so it it really all was heading towards God's mercy and uh compassion, anyways.

Dr. David Klingler 10:43

Well, and and they're right, they needed to recognize there was no salvation, deliverance in any other God. Right. And that this only this God had provided the ultimate salvation deliverance in the promise and person of his son, the Christ.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

That's good.

Dr. David Klingler 10:58

Uh and so to reject the Lord is to reject the rock of his salvation, and and so that this was a uh grace and truth revealed in the Old Testament. The whole Old Testament was looking for this one to come, and here he has come. And and so uh and so this is kind of the we call this the prologue, chapters one, verses one through eighteen, and that kind of sets the stage for this is where this thing's headed. And so John the Baptist comes on the scene and uh and off we go. And uh and uh right away in the Gospel of John, you you're introduced to the antagonist, the uh the the problem, the the Pharisees, right right off the bat, right? And and so uh so what what then follows in chapters, end of chapter one, all the way down really through chapter 11, chapter 12, are these signs that Jesus does. Um we say seven signs, actually, the biggest sign uh that Jesus is the Christ is resurrection, which isn't counted as one of the seven. Right,

The Word Became Flesh

Dr. David Klingler 12:00

it's a pretty big one, a pretty big oversight. But nonetheless, we like the number seven as Christians. Yeah, that's right. We can make something about two or you know, three or seven. We're gonna we're gonna do that. But uh, but you know, these are the seven uh seven signs, but interspersed, and this is important, in between these signs are Jesus' words, right? And so uh the words and the works both together testify that Jesus is the Christ. And and and so that's how John is uh is establishing uh that Jesus is the Christ, the promised one. All of the signs of the Old Testament, uh the words, the word became flesh, and so Jesus' words match the words of the Old Testament, the words of the prophets, the words of the Christ. Uh his signs fulfill uh the uh the um uh what what was foretold in the old testament. Uh and so they witnessed it, right? Uh and so uh John is accomplishing this um his his strategy in a in a different way. He he sets up the he intersperses the words and works together. Uh and then uh Jesus uh raises Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11, chapter 12. Uh the the the tension is rising, uh, and they're going to kill him. The Pharisees, the uh Israel rejecting Israel is going to kill the Lord. And and so you get this giant section. This is chapters 13 through 17. We call this the upper room discourse, um, where Jesus explains to his disciples what's been going on, what he's been doing in his ministry, right? Um he he's explaining that the father sent him, the word became flesh, uh, and he has gathered these disciples and he's revealed himself to the disciples. Uh the word he is the word personified, he is the word of the father, and he has given the words of the father, the words which he's received, the words of which he is to the disciples. They've received those words, they have believed those words, and those words have made them clean. And now he says, I'm going to back to the Father. Uh, and you're not coming, at least not yet. You're staying here in the world, right? The world hated me, the world will hate you. Uh but um I'm going to send you a helper. Uh, and that helper is going to help you in several ways. It's going to call to your remembrance all that I said to you. Uh, because you now, disciples, are going to be entrusted with the word, the very word that gives life, that works, that that gives eternal life, even in the absence of the incarnate word. And so they're going to be entrusted with the word and sent out into the world to bear fruit. And that's a key part of the story. Oh, it's a key part of the story.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

Things are happening in his absence. Absolutely. Just because he says it.

Dr. David Klingler 14:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 14:57

Uh, and and so the disciples are explain uh what's it that their ministry is explained to them that he's going back to the Father, he's going to send them the helper, and that helper is not only going to help them in calling to their remembrance all that Jesus said and did, because they're being entrusted with the word, but it will also affect the others. Uh the the spirit will also convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And so as they are proclaiming the word uh through the ministry of the spirit, the spirit working in their lives, the disciples' lives who've been entrusted with the word, so also the spirit will be working on the other end of that equation to the hearers to the world to convict them of their sin of righteousness and of judgment. Uh and the goal is that they would bear fruit for eternal life. I am the vine, Jesus says to his disciples, and y'all are the branches. If you disciples abide in me, Jesus, you will bear much fruit. And that fruit are the people who will believe in me through your word. In fact, that's what he prays in chapter 17. We call it the high priestly prayer. Jesus prays for uh himself, he prays for his disciples in his absence, and then he prays not only for these. It says this is in chapter 17, verse 20. I pray not only for these, uh, but for all of those who will believe in me through their word. Uh, that the the words of the disciples uh are going to be the words of life, right? Uh and so this is going to be so central to John, Peter, James, uh, you know, the these uh all of these disciples afterwards, uh, that you believers, you have to listen to our words because we have seen our hands handled. So we have the you know, the the prophetic word made more sure, right? And so chapters uh uh 18, uh 19, 20, Christ's death, burial, resurrection, all kinds of irony things going on in here. But then in chapter 21, so why is chapter 21 there? Well, um back in the in the Christ's arrest, Peter rejects Christ. Um these these disciples were were selected and entrusted with the word in Christ's absence to bear fruit, his death, burial, resurrection, as was foretold. He's ascended to the Father, and there they are fishing. Excuse me, um what are y'all doing? Strange. Yeah. Uh in other words, are they doing

Signs Words And Rising Conflict

Dr. David Klingler 17:40

what they were entrusted to do in the upper room discourse, in the whole ministry, why they were trained, why they were taught, and why they were sent the helper, and uh, and uh and they're not, right? After these things, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and he uh revealed himself in this way. And and here they are, and uh they're back to you know, kind of where Jesus found them fishing. And he says, Children, do you have any fish? And they said, No, we don't have any fish. Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find a cast. And they cast their uh you know their nets and they weren't able to haul it in. And I like Peter, man. He you know, Peter gets a bad rap. I mean immediately, it's the Lord, and out the boat he goes, you know. Didn't worry about rowing. Yeah, forget this, man. I uh you know, as fast as he can get. This is the same Peter who uh uh previously in the story had rejected uh rejected Christ. And uh and so Jesus uh makes them breakfast and and this is the uh the uh recommissioning of P. He denied him three times. He's going to be reinstated three times. But but but not only that, but it's it's feed my lambs, it's shepherd my sheep, it's oh feed them with what? Well, feed them with the word. Right? You've been entrusted with the word, you give them what was entrusted to you. Uh and uh and so uh we we know the rest of the story. Uh uh, I think that they left their fish in nets and they they did okay. And so, so the gospel of John, he came to his own, but his own did not receive him, but whoever receives him. And so, so John is telling the same story. He came to his own, Israel's going to reject, but whoever receives him, and so you're gonna get this whoever all the way through the story in places like the Samaritan woman and all that, and so the gospel uh Christ is being rejected by Israel, and the whoever might receive him, to them is giving them eternal life through the uh through the word, through the word incarnate, and through the words of the apostles, the testimony of the apostles, uh, the spirit comes and and gives eternal life. And so, uh, and so the gospel of John is accomplishing the exact same thing,

Upper Room Helper And Apostolic Word

Dr. David Klingler 19:55

uh, telling the same part of the story as Matthew and Mark and Luke, uh, but it's achieving it a different way with a different emphasis. Right. And the emphasis here, um, I mean, you could say it is also in uh uh in Matthew is the test of the eyewitness testimony. Testimony. Uh and the the words of Christ, the words of the uh of the disciples are the words that make you clean. Uh and so that's that's what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

So you can say in John, there's sort of less of an emphasis than on you know Israel's rejecting gospel going to the Gentiles. Uh like Matthew, we talked about in previous weeks, but that was a a really uh No, it's it's there.

Dr. David Klingler 20:35

No, it's it's absolutely uh it's absolutely there. Um the Pharisees therefore said to one another, uh you see, uh this is back in chapter twelve. Uh he raises Lazarus. Uh you know, he raises Lazarus from the dead, and the Pharisees don't like this, and so their plan is to kill Lazarus again. You're gonna Okay. Um uh and so for this cause also the multitude went and met him because they heard that he had performed a sign, that he had raised Lazarus. The Pharisees therefore said to one another, this is chapter 12, verse 19, you see uh that you are not doing any good. Look, the world has gone after him. Now, uh there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast, and and we want to see Jesus. And uh and so you you've got the Greeks coming to him, you got the God fear, you know, the Gentiles are coming to him. So the same thing is happening, it's just being communicated in a different way. And there's other things that are going on, for example, in the book of uh book of John. Whenever John comes to Jerusalem, he's rejected. Whenever he's up there in, you know, in Galilee and the Samaria, you know, he's being received. And so so the the way that that reality, the rejection and the gospel going to the Gentiles.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

There's also there's also something going on with like day and night, light and dark, light and dark. There's a lot of really cool storytelling features.

Dr. David Klingler 22:03

Oh, yeah. The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness could not cover it. So there's a lot there. And so we want to give just an overview at this point. Now we're going to you know go go back through all of these books in detail. Yeah. Uh as we have done with some that we've got up. And and so um, you know, kind of a cliffhanger there, you know, stay tuned. Yeah. In the future, we will be going through uh the the Gospel of John in our podcast series, but also even at our at the church here uh later um this year, we're we're we're in uh we're gonna be in the Gospel of John. So so we we we just want to at this point give you an overview. There's a whole lot more going on in John, but that that's just a brief synopsis, uh, synopsis.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah, so it seems to me that when you get through the gospels, you should really be right phrase is hammered over the head with the fact that these apostles are are special and Jesus has prepared them to go out with his words. And so I I think that's that's huge,

Peter Restored And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 23:05

and that's gonna again take us into the rest of the New Testament as we continue to move on. Um just to emphasize that point. Yeah.

Dr. David Klingler 23:12

Uh yeah, read uh uh, you know, you you can um read chapter uh oh chapter 17, uh chapter 17 of that upper room discourse. Yeah. Uh, you know, uh in Jesus' prayer, how how important and special these apostles were.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, that's so good. Well, thank you for walking us through this book, and uh we look forward to to in the future when we're able to go through this thing chapter by chapter and really dive in. Um, I want to remind our listeners to if you haven't already, hop on over to teachmethebible.com or check out the app where uh we have all kinds of other resources and more resources are constantly being uploaded all the time, um, absolutely free to you, uh, so that you will understand God's word and know him through it. And so uh we're excited to offer those things to you. There's uh blog posts, articles, question and answer opportunities, book studies, all kinds of different things for you. So uh go on over there and check that out. Um, we're gonna continue on week after week in this series going through the story of the Bible. So uh we will see you next week.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

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