A venturing into The Gospel According To John...



Today we start a new book of the Bible.  It is going to be The Gospel According To John.  I hope someday to preach through this book in a more formal way as I have for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts but I think this will be a great way to prepare for that future event.  We will look at the history and outline of the book this morning and I am thankful for study Bibles that give us so much background information.

"The Gospel According To John" was originally just "According To John" and the "The Gospel" was added later to the title.  This Gospel is thought to be written after the other three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke referred to as the Synoptic Gospels.  This Gospel fills in a lot of gaps that the other three Gospels fly past and also give more background details that help us to get an even fuller picture of the life of Christ.  The Gospel According To John is thought to be written around 80 to 90 A.D. so 50 years after Jesus' earthly ministry.

The authorship of The Gospel According To John is attributed to the Apostle John even though his name is not mentioned.  The early church fathers all are in unison on this issue.  Irenaeus (A.D. 130-200) was the student of Polycarp (A.D. 70-160) who was the student of the Apostle John.  Irenaeus gives us the testimony of Polycarp that the Apostle John wrote this Gospel while he was in residence in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor while advanced in age.  The minus of his name is so appropriate to reinforce that his focus was not on himself but on the Lord Jesus Christ.  With this authorship issue and date issue, it puts The Gospel According To John written after the other Gospels and prior to the Apostle John's writings of 1, 2, and 3 John and the book of Revelation.

From the outline of this Gospel come some great themes to track through the book.  One is the seven times that Jesus uses the phrase "I am."  "I am the Bread of life."  "I am the Light of the world."  "I am the Door."  "I am the good Shepherd."  "I am the Resurrection and the Life."  "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life."  "I am the true Vine."  The other is the seven signs given by Jesus of His deity:  the water into wine, the healing of the royal official's son, the healing of the paralytic, the feeding for the 5,000, the walking on the water, the healing of the blind man, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

I hope this study during our morning devotional times will be a blessing to you as it will for me.  We will also have our in between chapter devotionals on various subjects to give us a breather from this Gospel.  So let's venture into The Gospel According to John on Friday morning.  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your word.  Thank You through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to guide Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to give us a full picture of Your one and only Son, Jesus Christ.  May that same Holy Spirit help us to understand all that You have for us to discover through this Gospel.  Amen."

Pastor Adam
A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

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