John

Overview

John writes the fourth Gospel differently from the other three. There is no genealogy and no birth in Bethlehem; it opens before the world was made, with the Word who was with God and was God. Long conversations replace short parables, and seven miracles are called signs — chosen not because they were the only ones but because of what they show.

John tells you plainly why he wrote: so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. Everything in the book serves that one purpose.

Background

By the time John wrote, the church had been preaching for half a century, Jerusalem and its temple had been destroyed, and the eyewitnesses were nearly all gone. John was the last of the Twelve, writing what he had seen and heard himself.

He assumes his readers know something of the story already; he fills in what the earlier Gospels left out — an early Judean ministry, several Passovers, and the long farewell in the upper room.

Key themes

• Jesus is God come in the flesh, and was so from the beginning.
• Belief and unbelief: nearly every chapter has someone deciding one way or the other.
• Life — eternal life, living water, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life.
• Light and darkness, truth and falsehood, above and below: John sets things side by side.
• The Spirit, the Comforter, who is promised at length before the cross.

Outline

1. The WordChapter 1

   In the beginning was the Word — and John the Baptist points to the Lamb of God.

2. Early signsChapters 2–4

   Water into wine, Nicodemus by night, the woman at the well, a nobleman’s son healed.

3. Signs and sayingsChapters 5–10

   Healings on the sabbath, five thousand fed, the bread of life, the good shepherd — and mounting opposition.

4. Lazarus, and the turn toward the crossChapters 11–12

   The seventh sign raises a dead man, and the council resolves to kill Jesus.

5. The upper roomChapters 13–17

   Feet washed, a new commandment, the vine, the promise of the Comforter, and Jesus’ own prayer.

6. Trial and crucifixionChapters 18–19

   Betrayal, Peter’s denial, Pilate’s question, and "It is finished."

7. RisenChapters 20–21

   The empty tomb, Thomas convinced, and breakfast on the shore with Peter restored.

Key passages

• John 1:14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
• John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
• John 4:13-14 The woman at the well, and water springing up into everlasting life.
• John 6:35 I am the bread of life.
• John 11:25-26 I am the resurrection and the life.
• John 13:34-35 A new commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
• John 19:30 It is finished.
• John 20:28-29 Thomas: my Lord and my God.

Christ in John

The whole book is about Him, but watch the seven "I am" sayings — bread, light, door, good shepherd, resurrection and life, way and truth and life, true vine — and the moments where He says "I am" with nothing after it at all. That is the name God gave Moses at the bush, and John’s readers knew it.

Reading it

• Read the prologue (1:1-18) slowly; nearly every theme of the book is in those eighteen verses.
• Mark each of the seven signs and ask what it shows about who Jesus is.
• Chapters 13–17 are one evening. Read them in one sitting to feel their weight.