THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Some of us have been talking about going through the Gospel of John together. This book has 21 chapters so I'm thinking we can cover a chapter a day. I thought we might start after we're finished with the 66 days through the bible. Bill (Stoner a/k/a REV), if you're reading this I would love you to participate. The way I think I want to do it is to read the chapter, meditate on it, and post whatever the Holy Spirit gives me for that day. It might be a verse or it might be a thought. Think about it and join us.

Something that has always interested me about the Gospel of John is the many names by which Jesus refers to himself.

I am the Bread of Life. Jn 6: 48
I am the Light of the World. Jn 8: 12
I am the Door of the sheep. Jn 10: 9
I am the Good Shepherd. Jn 10: 11
I am the Resurrection and the Life, the true and living way Jn 11: 25
I am the True Vine. Jn 15: 1
I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Jn 14: 6

 

Seriously? Stoner is REV? WooHOO!!!

 

We will be there soon Titus!!!

 

Yes, I look forward to learning and contributing to this thread soon. It's in my sights.

 

Kim,

While halftime I thought I would jot a few notes on the Book of John...

I think the book of John is particularly defining of the term 'spirit.' That term is mightily important if we are to truly begin to understand what the Bible means. Here are a few of the passages in the Book of John which I believe are particulary revealing. I will give some selected comments after each inside []'s.


John 3:6
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

[This suggest to me that there is a certain parallel realm to the natural realm, the 'flesh realm.' It is the spirit realm. The scriptures tell us that is true. But here this scripture tells me that these two realms are closely interwined. parallel, analogous, suggesting that in some or fashion they relate to one another]

John 3:8
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

[One way that the spirit realm and the natural or flesh realm interrelate is suggested in this verse, telling me that just as we cannot tell from whence the sound of the wind blows, we cannot tell where thoughts come that enter our minds. Are these thoughts born of our own spirit? Other spirits? I expect the answer to each is yes. And plainly there are evil spirits as well as Godly spirits. So just like we must learn to discern the direction of the sound of the wind, we must also learn to discern the origin of certain thoughts that arrive in our minds. I suggest that the way the Bible leads us to is to understand the Word of God. With that understanding, understanding of verses such as these as a matter of fact, we learn to discern which spiritual voices may be talking to us.]

John 4:24
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[This one is very revealing. GOD IS A SPIRIT. Therefore God lives in the Spirit Realm. Below we will see that John speaks of the Spirit of truth, which is the Holy Spirit. So when we worship God, John tells us that our route by which to do so is the same route by which God talks to us, the spirit. We must worship, pray, and otherwise communicate with God through our spirits. When we receive the Holy Spirit as born again Christians, then that is much easier. That is because the Holy Spirit IS the Spirit of Truth. If we have the Spirit of Truth within us, then communicating with God is that much easier.]

John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

[Words are spirit; words are life. WOW! That one says a mouthful. Because words are merely tangible 'natural world' means of expressing our intentions, then in the spirit world, our words, meaning our intentions, are spirit. So it is our intentions that in certain ways comprise our spirits. Whatever our intentions are, is within our spirit. So when our intentions are pure, so is that aspect of our spirit from which those intentions arose. The key is to work toward possessing only pure, Godly intentions, ridding one's self of any impure, unclean, ungodly intentions, AKA Satanic intentions. When we do that, our spirits are free. We are told that this is exactly what occurs when one is born again. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, washes any unclean spirits away from us. And because we become washed in the blood, the life, the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, we can access God in the Spirit realm after death of the flesh. This verse I believe is particularly meaningful toward understanding the scriptures.]

John 14:17
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

[Here John tells us that the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, does not dwell in unbelievers. Therefore they cannot see Him. They cannot know Him. They are oblivious to Him. But once one is born again, the Spirit of Truth comes to dwell in us, it 'shall be in you.' And when that occurs, we are given a certain gift of discernment of truth which before we did not have. Another very powerful and meaningful verse from John.]

John 15:26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

[So the Spirit of truth is the Holy Spirit. We have spent are fair amount of time talking about what is truth. Here God gives us a way to know the truth. And because so, we can know that truth is not relative. Truth is absolute, as absolute as all creation and existence.]

John 16:13
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

[The Holy Spirit is our guide toward absolute truth. He has a direct line to truth and will lead us to it.]


The Book of John is extremely revealing of these spiritual aspects of the Bible. Thanks for bringing up the topic.

 

More very revealing passages John gives us:

John 1

The Eternal Word
1 In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ] , and the Word [Jesus Christ] was with God, and the Word [Jesus Christ] was God. 2 He [Jesus Christ] was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him [Jesus Christ], and without Him [Jesus Christ] nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him [Jesus Christ] was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

The Word Becomes Flesh

14 And the Word [Jesus Christ] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His [Jesus Christ] glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’”
16 And of His [Jesus Christ] fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son[Jesus Christ], who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Yesterday we spoke about the Word of God being Spirit (John 6:63). We also noted that God, Himself, is Spirit (John 4:24). We derived that the Word of God, in spirtual terms, is nothing less than God's intentions. Essentially, God, being Spirit, is His Word. God is the embodiment of certain conscious and intelligent intentions Who has the power, ability and motivation to not only express those intentions, but to carry those intentions out, to accomplish or satisfy those intentions. God's intentions were with Him 'in the beginning.' All things were made through God's intentions that they be made. Nothing has been made that God did not intend in the beginning. The light of those intentions has been with man from the beginning. Where that light shines and it is not recognized, those who did not recognize the light did not recognize God's intentions. (This happens today and will happen until the end of time.)

Jesus Christ is the natural world embodiment of God's intentions in the spiritual world. God's intention was for Jesus Christ to be that tool that confirms the Word of God, God's intentions from the beginning, to all men such that men who stood in the light, in other words, such that men who were receptive to learning God's intentions, could and would receive knowledge of those intentions, knowledge of the Word, knowledge therefore of God, as evidenced by God appearing to man and walking on the face of the Earth. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. God intends that Jesus Christ be the Truth, the Word of God; that Jesus Christ be the Way, the manner in which man will know and see God; and Jesus Christ be the Life, the Instrument Who conveys Life to men who recognize the Word cast in the Light of God's intentions.

At least this is what it means to me.

 

Hank, you're going to get through the whole book before we start on Wednesday

 

I'm still in Chapter one. Plenty of time to catch up. Really deep, where I like to play. John is full of meaning, but one really has to think about what he says and make the terms make sense. And these terms' definitions are essential, I believe, to understanding the entire Bible.

OK, back to the game...

 

I think the Gospel of John is the heart of the bible. For years I tried to read the bible like I would other books.....beginning to end. Then I decided I needed to read it like any auditor would.....searching out fact, sorting through the literal versus the parable and documenting the cultural impact of the letters. I guess I just took the long way around letting the Holy Spirit help

 

Tomorrow begins the Gospel of John. I prayed about how we should do the study and here is the answer. One chapter a day is way too much to do this Gospel justice. We should break it down into sub-sections of the chapter. For example, the first chapter contains five sub-sections (The Word Became Flesh, John the Baptist Denies Being Christ, Jesus, the Lamb of God, The first disciples, and Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael). I think we should do one subsection a day. That will give us time to really meditate on the Word, draw from other scriptures, encourage, pray, and edify one another. We would finish at about Christmas What a beautiful Christmas present from God to us.

Wednesday 1:1-18
Thursday 1:19-28
Friday 1:29-34
Saturday 1:35-42
Sunday 1:43-51

 

I'll post the whole thing the night before so those who may not have access or find it easier to read on the monitor can participate or just read.



WEDNESDAY - October 14 - John 1:1-18 The Word Became Flesh


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.
9 The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. 11 He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. 15 (John bore witness to him, and cried, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’”) 16 And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known.

 

I think I could spend a thousand years on the first sentence in John's Gospel. Jesus was with God from the very beginning and Jesus is God. "In the beginning" puts God's existence into something we can grasp. It's hard to wrap my mind around God not operating in time. He is, was, and always will be. When he referred to himself as "I AM" that pretty much summed it up for me.

Thank you, Jesus, for leaving perfection and coming to earth so that we might spend eternity with You.

 

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

I find it extremely thought provoking John's use of the term, "Word," and capitalized as it is. I think we agree that the 'Word' signifies, among other possibilities, Jesus Christ. So as you say, that translates to mean that 'In the beginning was Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ was with God, and Jesus Christ was God.' But I expect the term 'Word' here is even more meaningful than that. When we speak 'words,' we do that soley for the purpose to fulfill certain of our intentions. Words convey those intentions to others. At the root of our words are our intentions. Words derive from those intentions. Words are really all we have to fulfill those intentions. It's similar to what the BeeGee's sang, "It's only words, cause words are all I have, to take your heart away." And really, that is all God has to fulfill the intention to 'take our hearts away,' His Words, His intentions, and the means to carry out those intentions. Viewed in this manner, Jesus Christ, God's Word, is God's way to convey His intentions to mankind. Also, Jesus Christ is the demonstration of the means, the power and authority, by which God can and will carry out those intentions.

In some other realm, those who are given access to that realm may actually see God, and know what God looks like. But even then, we don't know that God will have a form at all for these folks to be able to actually see Him, as if with natural eyes. But whether anyone will ever know what God really looks like, we can say this; regardless of God's form, what He is, what His definition is, for all practical purposes, is the origin and embodiment of certain exalted intentions and the necessary power and authority to carry those intentions out. That's it. For all practical purposes, from a purely functional viewpoint, that is what God is. And that definition John sums up into the term, "Word." That being the case, substituting terms again, 'In the beginning were certain incredibly exalted Intentions, those Intentions were with God, and those Intentions were God.' To be sure, God is nothing if He is not His own Intentions and the means by which those Intentions shall be carried out. God's Intentions and the means to carry them out, we can sum into one other term, God's Will, the Will of God. 'God's Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.' God's intentions shall be carried out throughout His creation, that is, throughout Earth, throughout the entire natural universe and throughout Heaven. That means everywhere. That is God's will, His intentions and the means, meaning the requisite power and authority, by which to execute those intentions.

And John summed up all that I say here in the one lead in sentence, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That is one powerful statement.

 

The Gospel of John is my favorite of the Gospels,, written around 90 AD John would have seen or would have known of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, this had to be heart breaking for him, John, like so many others, knew without a doubt that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jerusalem was His City, In the first 18 verses notice the word LIGHT,, Jerusalem was a city on a hill, the temple sets on Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered Isaac, that offering by Abraham was a shadow of things to come, Jesus the LIGHT was coming to the great city to be sacrificed, He would come in the flesh, look just like us, and face all the problems we do, but His Light can never go out, the destruction of Jerusalem only intensified the spreading of the Gospel, today we that are saved have that same LIGHT within us, and what a wonderful peace it brings, with the same attributes of Jesus within us we should live victorious lives each day and let our LIGHT shine.....

 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 - John 1:19-28

John the Baptist Denies Being the Christ

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 They said to him then, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

 

Kim - a few weeks ago, our youth pastor preached the sermon at church. He kept it light, he kept it funny, he kept it personal, and he kept it focused on God and His Word.

One thing stuck in my mind: Pastor Robert standing up at the altar, arms in the air, saying that God is the great I Am......and, arms pointing to the ground, that he - Robert - was the.........am not.

Of course, we all laughed, but what a powerful and true message we took home that day. We are the......am not.

 

Now that's a keeper

 

In these verses what seems to really jump out at me the most is John the Baptist saying I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness!!!,,To any Pharisee or religious leader of that day this phrase would have been easily recognizable as scripture from Isaiah, as John said the words and said there is one among you that I am not worthy to unloose his sandals, people would have began to wonder if the true Messiah was coming, according to what I have read it had been appoxiamately 400 years since the book of Malachi was written and many generations had passed,,after hearing John preach and saying these words some I am sure some began to believe that the time of the Messiah was near, Joy sprang out all over Jerusalem, imagine what a thrill this would be, to be the generation alive at the coming of the MESSIAH!!!!

And with everything going on in the world today, we could be the generation that sees the second coming of our Lord, what a great time in History to be alive,, WOW!!

 

John the Baptist's mother and Jesus' mother were related. They were both pregnant at the same time, according to Luke's Gospel. When Elizabeth (John's mother) first saw Mary (with child), John the Baptist "leaped in her womb" and Elizabeth "was filled by the Holy Spirit." Even before Jesus and John the Baptist were born into this world the Lord was at work in their mothers.

 

Exactly Kim and think about this, if a baby canbe filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb then what does that say about abortions, especially late term,,doesn't the Bible say John was 6 months older than Jesus, and when the mothers came together the baby leaped in the womb, at 6 months, wow,,that is some strong evidence that God is at work even while we are in the womb,, and talk about some very faithful women, I can't even imagine how faithful these two women must have been to be chosen to give birth to these to babies,,,what examples they are of the kind of human beings we are supposed to be!!!