
The Gospel of John Bible Study (current)
Our current non-denominational Bible study is being held twice monthly on Thurday nights at 7:30 pm, hosted at
The Church of the Master 110 Salem Hill Road in Howell, NJ. All are welcome!
BYOB! (Bring your own Bible that is...).​
NEXT STUDY : FEBRUARY 6​
Below you will find notes from our previous studies.

Session 1: Introduction to the Gospel of John
​
General study introduction:
-
Study, not a sermon.Less formal; absolutely hope for and encourage questions, comments, discussion
-
​Non-denominational, Bible based, Scripture is our only and absolute authority and we hold to a high view of Scripture - namely that is it BREATHED OUT BY GOD
2 Timothy 3:16-17. All Scripture is inspired (theoptneustos – God breathed out) by God, and is profitable or doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”Since God's Word is inspired, it is INERRANT, AUTHORITATIVE, SUFFICIENT
-
Will be roughly an hour. No set agenda / schedule.Gives us the freedom to dwell on a topic etc or move along.
-
Bible version/versions.None set.Usually will be out of NKJV or ESV.Other good translations include NASB, NET;NIV (sometimes too “paraphrasey”). KJV (can be archaic / confusing / cumbersome but at times useful). REMEMBER – no translation is inspired.
​
Introduction to the Gospel of John:
Who wrote the Gospel of John?
Truly - The Holy Spirit
HUMANLY - the apostle John of course – but how do we know?
The actual Gospel in its original manuscript does not name the author. So if we only had the Gospel text itself with no title, how would we know that it was written by John?
1. External (not from within the text itself) evidence:
One of the early church fathers, Iraneus, who lived from AD 130-200, was the first person to explicitly name the apostle John as the author. In his work Against Heresies, he writes “Afterwards [ after the synoptic gospels were written] John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia” (which places the date of writing then at about 80-90 AD.)
What makes his statement carry authority is that Iraneus was a discipled by Polycarp; Polycarp was discipled by the apostle John.
Also, two very early manuscripts of the gospel from about 200 ad that do attest to Johns authorship, and since these two particular manuscripts were not closely related, that points to a common tradition of ascribing authorship to John that would have to go back likely 2 or three generations
BUT WE ALL DO HAVE THE TEXT ITSELF AS WELL AS THE REST OF SCRIPTURE
2. Internal (from within the text itself) evidence:
-
The author was clearly a Jew.Familiar with Jewish opinions, customs and perspectives
-
The author was a Palestinian Jew (geographical reference) . He had detailed knowledge of local places as one would have who actually lived in the region of Palestine
-
The author was an eyewitness.He gave many personal details, even when not essential for the progression of the story;details not recorded in the synoptics
-
The author had to be an apostle.He was present at the last supper.So Hes got to be 1 of the 12.
-
The author never names himself; so
-
Since the apostles Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, Thomas, Judas (not Iscariot) and Judas Iscariot are named we can eliminate them
-
The author reclined on Jesus bosom at the last Supper.He was literally (physically)and figuratively(peronal relationship) very close to Jesus. So therefore he had to be one of the inner circle of three. (PETER, JAMES,JOHN)
The three:
The three shared in Jesus’ suffering in Gethsemane
They alone were taken up a mountain with Jesus when Moses and Elijah appeared
In Acts, you hear only about Peter James and John until Paul comes along
But remember we’ve already eliminated Peter. He was named in the Gospel of John. So now its down to James and John.
Cant be James. He was martyred (Acts 12;2), killed by King Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod the Great. He died too early to have written the Gospel of John. So by deduction from the text, it can only be John.
So we have established human authorship and date of writing
John is unique among the gospels:
The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are referred to as the synoptic gospels –
SYN-OPTIC means to see together.
Although each of the synoptics has its own emphasis and theme / themes, they follow the same general outline of Jesus life and share similar contents and structure
So picture three people standing in kind of a clustered portion of a semicircle, observing an event. But John is different…. In a way picture John as now someone up in a balcony behind the event. They are all observing the same facts / event. Johns perspective is just a bit different
All of the gospels have both narrative history ( ie Jesus went here, then He went there, then He did this…). and discourses. (What Jesus said / taught…) ; John has a much higher proportion of discourses to narrative history
Some things NOT found in John:
no narrative parables
No end times (eschatological) discourses
No accounts of exorcising demons or cleansing lepers
Doesn’t list the 12 apostles
No formal institution of Lords Supper / Lords Table / Communion
Does not record Jesus’ birth, baptism, transfiguration, temptation, agony in the garden of Gethsemane, or ascension
​
Some things found ONLY in John:
The prologue describing Jesus’ pre-existence and incarnation
Jesus’ early ministry in Judea and Samaria
First miracle (first sign)
Dialogue w Nicodemus
Samaritan woman
Healing of lame man and blind man in Jerusalem
Bread of life discourse
Jesus describing himself as Living water
Good shepherd discourse
Resurrection of Lazarus
Washing disciples feet
Upper room discourse
Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer
John also contains more teaching on the Holy Spirit than is found in the Synoptics
Proper perspective on this
Nothing in John contradicts the message or teaching of the synoptics
Although there are these differences, all four Gospels present Jesus as:
Son of Man – Israels promised Messiah
Son of God – God who has taken on human flesh
The Savior
The Holy Spirit has intended the Gospels to each supplement and complement each other.
In many instances, John will provide additional information to complete the picture or understanding of a Synoptic passage
An example of this is that at Jesus’ trial and on the cross in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus’ enemies accuse Him of having claimed He would “destroy the temple”. The synoptic Gospels do not record the basis of the (false) allegation, but the Gospel of John does.
The opposite s also true.
One example of this is in John 1:40 , Andrew is introduced as Peter’s brother; but Peter had not yet been mentioned. So we see that Johns gospel, written later, assumes that his readers were familiar with the earlier Gospels
The Defining Unique Element of the Gospel of John: John is the only one of the Gospels that gives a clear and precise purpose statement:
John 20:30-31. “Many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His Name.”
This Gospel was not written for the sake of knowledge alone – but rather saving belief.
The Gospel of John is the SAVING GOSPEL.
It is both profound and simple.
SO INVITE YOUR UNSAVED FRIENDS TO OUR STUDY!!!!
And a great place to suggest unbelievers start reading the Bible.
​
​