October 18, 2025 • 21 mins
Start with wonder, not assumptions: John opens by taking us back before time, presenting Jesus as the Word who was with God and is God, the source of life whose light the darkness can’t extinguish. We share why this Gospel is our favorite to hand to new believers and curious skeptics alike, and we map the big picture—authorship, audience, Ephesus roots, and the driving purpose that you would believe and have life in His name.
From there, we move through the prologue’s rich themes—Logos, creation, Trinity—and watch John the Baptist step into his role as witness, not rival. His cry, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” frames Jesus’ mission with Passover power and points to a salvation that is more than advice; it’s rescue. You’ll hear how the Spirit’s descent marks Jesus as the chosen one and how the earliest followers respond with a simple, transformative rhythm: hear the witness, come and see, stay and learn, then bring a friend.
We also talk about skepticism and surprise through Nathanael’s story—“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”—and how one moment of being truly known flips doubt into confession. Along the way, we introduce John’s structure of seven signs and seven “I Am” statements, a design that reveals not just what Jesus does but who He is: Bread of Life, Light of the World, Good Shepherd, Resurrection and Life. This isn’t a distant theology lesson; it’s an invitation to encounter the Lord who sees you where you are, renames your future like Peter’s, and offers grace upon grace.
If you’re ready to move beyond a vague idea of Jesus into a living relationship with the Lord and Life-Giver, hit play and join the journey through John. If this conversation helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s curious about faith, and leave a review to help others find the show. What stood out to you most from John 1? We’d love to hear.
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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
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Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:21):
Today is the day.
I've got to go ahead and tellyou as we get ready to jump into
the Gospel of John.
I almost skipped it.
And it's not for the reasons youwould think.
The reason why I almost skippedthe Gospel of John is because,
like, I don't know if we'regoing to be able to do this
gospel justice.
This is my favorite of the four.
Now, I love God's Word.
(00:42):
I love all of God's Word.
I love all four of the Gospelsfor different reasons.
But when I say I love the Gospelof John, I'm I love the Gospel
of John.
And I love it so much thatthere's just, there's no way
that we could do the Gospel ofJohn justice because I mean,
people write entire like seriesand volumes of books just on
(01:03):
this gospel.
So I want to highly recommend toyou that when you have any kind
of extra time, I would love foryou just to take some next steps
when it comes to every one ofthese chapters.
I'm going to talk very brieflyabout a lot of the different
theological ideas in the Gospelof John.
But anytime you have a question,make a note of it and write it
(01:25):
down somewhere and go back intothis because the Gospel of John
is so theologically rich that itis just is beautiful and it is
wonderful.
And as a matter of fact, whensomeone gives their life to
Christ to make a decision tofollow Jesus, and they come to
me as a pastor and say, Whatshould I read?
I always tell them to start withthe Gospel of John because it is
(01:45):
just so amazing.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to take about five minutes
and give you kind of an overviewof who it is that wrote this
gospel, why they wrote it, andthen we're going to dive into
chapter one.
And it's possible the first fiveverses in the Gospel of John
might be the most importantverses in the entire New
(02:05):
Testament.
And we're going to talk aboutwhy in just a moment.
But first of all, who wrotethis?
Well, it was written by a guynamed John, of course.
And his name is not actuallymentioned in the Gospel of John.
He's going to refer to himselfover and over again as the
disciple whom Jesus loved.
And we don't know from this whothat was.
(02:26):
What we realize, and I lovethis, is that's where he's
finding his identity.
He's saying, My identity is thatI am loved by God, which is
amazing.
But let's also go ahead and say,it's awesome when you can go
ahead and say, by the way, I wasJesus' favorite.
And what we believe happenedwithin the context of the
Gospels is the Gospel of Johnwas written not to talk about
(02:48):
the blow-by-blow account of abiography of Jesus, but it was
written to talk about themessage of Jesus.
And that's why John is notinterested in giving you all the
details as to who he is and allthis.
He's really trying to focus onJesus.
Now, the reason why we know thatit was John was because, number
one, most all scholarly uhpeople say that John was
(03:11):
probably the closest to Jesus.
You had the 12 disciples.
Then Jesus had the inner three,James, John, and Peter.
And then he had John as kind oflike his right hand man.
But also, unanimously, justabout every early church father,
the people that lived during thetime when the apostles were
still alive, almost unanimouslythey give the credit for this
(03:33):
gospel to the apostle John.
So we know that John wrote it.
The next question would be whendid he write this?
There's two schools of thoughton this.
And John was not as interestedin writing the date down, so we
don't know exactly.
One group of people put thisvery late, around 96 A.D.
And those people say that Johnwould have written this right
before he died, and he wasseeing the narrative going on in
(03:56):
the early church, and they werereading the other gospels, and
he wanted to just zoom in on themessage of Jesus.
That's what some scholars think.
There's a growing list ofscholarship that says that John
may have been written around 60to 65 A.D.
And there's not really a goodreason for either one.
You could go either way.
John was not interested insaying anything about himself,
(04:16):
he was interested in spreadingthe message of Jesus.
So we simply don't know for surewhen he wrote it.
We just know he wrote itobviously within his lifetime.
Now, where did John write this?
John wrote it from the city ofEphesus.
Ephesus became John's kind ofministry hub.
And we we're gonna read later inJohn chapter 19 that when Jesus
(04:37):
was dying on the cross, he looksat John and says, John, will you
take care of my mother Mary?
Because I'm gonna, I'm, youknow, this is my situation is
about to change, right?
I'm gonna die and rise again.
And so history says that Johnmoved Mary to Ephesus and spent
the rest of uh she spent therest of her life there, John
taking care of her.
So it would have been inEphesus.
And then who was he primarilywriting to?
(04:59):
Well, in the book of Revelation,also written by John, we see
that that the Holy Spirit speaksto the seven churches.
Those seven churches were likelythe seven churches that John
oversaw and was a bishop over aswell.
And so most scholarship is thatJohn was primarily writing to
these seven churches to spreadthe message of what Jesus said
(05:20):
when he was on this earth.
And if you were to look at theoverall narrative of the Gospel
of John, John surroundseverything around seven signs
that prove that Jesus is God.
And there's seven times whenJesus says, I am, I am the way,
the truth, and the life.
(05:40):
I am the resurrection and thelife.
I am the door, I am the goodshepherd.
And so he is telling everybodywho he is, and he would work a
miracle, and then that miraclewill get everybody's attention,
and then they would hear themessage.
So what we're gonna do is we'regonna rally around this theme.
The overall theme of the Gospelof John is to let the reader
understand that Jesus is God.
(06:03):
The book of Matthew talks aboutJesus as the rightful king of
the Jews.
Mark talks about Jesus being amiracle worker and a suffering
savior.
Luke talks about Jesus as thehealer and the and the Messiah.
John goes a whole nother stepand he says he's not just an
earthly king, he's not just theawaited for deliverer, he is God
(06:24):
all the way back to Genesis whenGod said, Let there be light.
And so what John is going to dofrom the very beginning is he is
gonna use this example of theword as a a word to describe
Jesus, saying that Jesus is thedivine, the Greek word is logos,
the divine word of God.
(06:45):
And so he goes all the way tothe top and he says, Don't get
it twisted.
Jesus wasn't just a righteousman, he is God all the way back
from the beginning.
And so the key verse of thegospel of John is John literally
tells you why he wrote thisgospel, and he says this, John
chapter 20, verse 31.
But these are written so thatyou may continue to believe that
(07:07):
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son ofGod, and that by believing in
him, you will have life by thepower of his name.
So the reason why John wrotethis was that you may believe
that Jesus is God, and that thatbelieving will give you life and
power in his name.
So that's the whole reason whyJohn has done this.
(07:29):
And it's very important for usto grapple with this.
In a world we live in, whereJesus is thought of to be either
not real or not divine, John issaying he is both real and
divine.
I love how C.S.
Lewis said it once.
He said, Jesus cannot beeverything you think he is.
He is either a liar, he is alunatic, or he is Lord.
(07:50):
So, in other words, the thingsthat Jesus said, when he said, I
am the way, the truth, and thelife, no one comes to the Father
except by me.
That's a pretty bold statement,if you think about it.
So either he's lying, he'scrazy, or he is Lord.
He really can't be all three.
And so, what I'm interested inas we read this together is to
(08:10):
become reacquainted with Jesus,not just as the Savior, but as
Lord and as God all the way fromthe beginning.
And so I'm just gonna gush aboutthis.
This is my favorite gospel.
And so, what I want to see kindof in my mind, rather, is you
and I sitting across the coffeetable.
We're sharing a cup of coffee,we've got our Bibles open, and
we are just gushing about God'swords.
(08:32):
We're gonna stop along the wayand try not to do too much.
I don't want all of thesepodcasts to be like an hour
long, but just so much goodstuff.
And so we're just gonna, I'm Iwant to be your tour guide and
kind of reintroduce you toJesus, not just as savior, but
as divine sovereign, as king andas Lord.
And as we learn about him, he isgonna breathe fresh life and
(08:56):
give us power to live in ourworld.
So I love this.
Let's jump in, okay?
Finally, here we are, chapterone, verse one.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead and tellyou the first five verses.
John is gonna give some of themost elegant, some of the most
beautiful, and some of the mostcareful wording in the entire
New Testament.
Because what John is going to dois he is gonna try to find a way
(09:18):
to just very carefully, almostlike a surgeon, very, very
carefully as he's inspired bythe Holy Spirit to tell you, and
he's gonna say the word, he'stalking about Jesus, that Jesus
is God, but at the same time, heis not the Father, he is not the
Spirit, He is the Son, thedivine Trinity, that we have the
(09:39):
Trinity, you have Father, Son,and Spirit, same in essence, as
far as they're all God,different in person.
The Father is not the Son, theSon is not the Spirit, but they
are equal in power and divinity,separate in person.
And so he's going to say thisvery, very carefully.
And so I want you to hear thisand hear it as though you've
(09:59):
never heard of Jesus before.
And all of a sudden, John says,Let me tell you the best news
you've ever heard.
Here we go.
If you got your Bibles open,your coffee ready, John chapter
one.
In the beginning, the wordalready existed.
The word was with God, and theword was God.
He existed in the beginning withGod.
(10:20):
God created everything throughhim, and nothing was created
except through him.
The word gave life to everythingthat was created, and his life
brought light to everyone.
The light shines in thedarkness, and the darkness can
never extinguish it.
And so what John is doing ishe's pulling all the way back to
(10:40):
Genesis 1, verse 1 through 3,because Genesis 1 says, In the
beginning, God created theheavens and the earth, and the
earth was formless and void, anddarkness was over the face of
the deep, and the Spirit of Godhovered over the face of the
waters.
So you have God created theword, everything that we see.
(11:01):
And so he is saying, Jesus andthe Father and the Spirit are
separate but one.
It's just mind-blowing, it'sridiculous.
But he says it to say, hey, yougot to understand, every
everything I'm about to talkabout about this person, he's
not just a man, he's God.
Okay, here we go.
Verse 6.
We're gonna talk about theforerunner, the guy I lovingly
call Johnny B.
Here we go.
(11:22):
God sent a man, John theBaptist, to tell about the light
so that everyone might believebecause of his testimony.
John himself was not the light,he was simply a witness to tell
about the light.
The one who is the true light,who gives light to everyone, was
coming into the world.
He came into the very world hecreated, but the world didn't
(11:43):
recognize him.
He came to his own people, andeven they rejected him.
But to all who believed him andaccepted him, he gave the right
to become children of God.
They are reborn, not with aphysical birth, resulting in
human passion or plan, but abirth that comes from God.
So the word became human andmade his home among us.
(12:06):
He was full of unfailing loveand faithfulness.
We have seen his glory, theglory of the Father's one and
only Son.
Pause for a moment.
So once again, John is saying,remember that word from the very
beginning, that is the Son ofGod.
The Son came to the earth, heentered into our time and space,
born as a man, clothed himselfin flesh, still God, but yet
(12:29):
housed in flesh.
The divine mystery of how Godwas able to be God and man at
the same time.
All right, verse 15.
John testified about him when heshouted to the crowds, This is
the one I was talking about whenI said, Someone is coming after
me who is far greater than I am,for he existed long before me.
(12:51):
From his abundance, we have allreceived one gracious blessing
after another.
For the law was given throughMoses, but God's unfailing love
and faithfulness came throughJesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, butthe unique one who himself, who
is himself God, is near to theFather's heart.
(13:13):
He has revealed God to us.
This was John's testimony whenthe Jewish leaders sent priest
and temple assistants fromJerusalem to ask John, Who are
you?
Who gave you the right?
And he said, I am not theMessiah.
Well, then who are you?
They said, Are you Elijah?
No, he replied.
Are you the prophet we areexpecting?
(13:34):
No.
Then who are you?
We need an answer for those whosent us.
What do you say about yourself?
And then John replied in thewords of the prophet Isaiah,
he's saying, I am a voiceshouting in the wilderness.
Clear the way for the Lord'scoming.
Then the Pharisees who had whohad been sent asked him, If you
aren't the Messiah or Elijah orthe prophet, then what right do
(13:57):
you have to baptize?
John told them, I baptize withwater, but right here in the
crowd is someone you do notrecognize.
Through his, though his ministryfollows mine, I am not even
worthy to be his slave and untiethe straps of his sandals.
This encounter took place inBethany, in an area east of the
(14:18):
Jordan River where John wasbaptized.
And now pause for a moment.
The reason why John, the writerof this, would have such
information about John theBaptist is because a lot of
historians think that John wasoriginally a disciple of John
the Baptist.
That's why not only would hehave the message like the other
gospels do, but he's also goingto know where it was as well.
(14:40):
And what John the Baptist justgot through doing is he was
quoting a scripture that wassaying that before Messiah will
come, there will be aforerunner, a hype man who will
prepare the area for the Messiahto come.
And so what John is saying islike, I'm, I am not all these
other people.
I am just a messenger to tellyou, get ready, because the king
is coming.
(15:00):
Can you imagine?
You imagine John saying that.
The disciples of John andeverybody around would have
known what he was talking about.
So you imagine they're lookingaround, going, the Messiah's
here among us?
The Messiah's here.
And just the excitement.
And it makes you wonder if Jesuswas in the crowd, just kind of,
just kind of nodding, going,Yeah, buddy, you got this.
You got this, just cheering himon, knowing his time was going
(15:20):
to come.
All right, verse 29.
The next day John saw Jesuscoming toward him and said,
Look, the Lamb of God who takesaway the sin of the world.
He is the one I was talkingabout when I said, A man is
coming after me who is fargreater than I am, for he
existed long before me.
I did not recognize him as theMessiah, but I have been
(15:42):
baptizing with water so that Imight be, so that he might be
revealed to Israel.
Then John testified, I saw theHoly Spirit descending like a
dove from heaven and restingupon him.
I didn't know he was the one,but when God sent me to baptize
with water, he told me, The oneon whom you see the Spirit
descend and rest is the one whowill baptize with the Holy
(16:05):
Spirit.
I saw this happen to Jesus, so Itestify that he is the chosen
one of God.
So two things here.
Number one, why did John baptizepeople?
You ever wondered?
Like, why did he do that?
Well, you see, the reason why hedid that is because he did that
so that he could find the Son ofGod.
So he's doing this to helpeveryone get ready, but at the
(16:28):
same time, he said, I did thisso that I'm the Son of Man might
be revealed to all of us.
The second thing is, you imaginehow you ever been in a situation
where someone across the way iswaving at you and you think
they're waving at you, rather.
And so you wave and you go, Oh,oh, not me, the guy behind me.
Sorry, sorry, and it's a littleembarrassing.
Can you imagine John ispreaching and all of a sudden he
(16:51):
he looks at Jesus and he pointsin that general direction and
he's like, Behold, the Lamb ofGod that takes away the sin of
the world.
What if, what if there was somepoor soul who was standing right
in front of Jesus, and he and hedidn't say Jesus right at first,
he just said him, you know?
Imagine that.
And imagine that person isgoing, Me?
I'm the oh, oh, my bad.
(17:13):
Yeah, yeah, probably, probablyhim.
Yeah.
It's kind of the way my mindworks.
Like for a like a moment,someone was like, Oh, okay, not
me.
All right.
Anyway, all right, verse 35.
The Bible says, on the followingday, John was standing.
Oh, wait, I've already readthat.
No, yeah, here you go.
Sorry.
I'm so excited.
Verse 35.
The following day, John wasagain standing with two of his
(17:34):
disciples, possibly one of thembeing John, who later wrote
this.
As Jesus walked by, John lookedat him and declared, Look, there
is the Lamb of God.
When John's two disciples heardthis, they followed Jesus.
Jesus looked around and saw themfollowing.
What do you want?
He asked them.
They replied, Rabbi, which meansteacher, where are you staying?
(17:55):
Come and see, he said.
It was about four o'clock in theafternoon when they went with
him to the place where he wasstaying, and they remained with
him the rest of the day.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,was one of these men who heard
John and said, and then followedJesus.
Andrew went to find his brotherSimon and told him, We have
found the Messiah, which meansChrist.
(18:17):
Andrew brought Simon to meetJesus.
Looking intently at Simon, Jesussaid, Your name is Simon, son of
John, but you will be calledCephas, which means Peter.
The next day Jesus decided to goto Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him,Come, follow me.
Philip was from Beseda andAndrew and Peter's hometown.
(18:38):
Philip went and looked forNathaniel and told him, We have
found the very person Moses andthe prophets wrote about.
His name is Jesus.
He is the son of Joseph fromNazareth.
Nazareth, exclaimed Nathaniel.
Can anything good come fromNazareth?
Now, the reason why he wouldhave said that is this is kind
of backwater small town.
Think of, think of like the mostnowhere town you can think of.
(18:59):
That's Nazareth.
And so the answer to this was,Come and see for yourself,
Philip replied.
And as they were approached,Jesus said, Now here is a
genuine son of Israel, a man ofcomplete integrity.
How do you know about me?
Nathaniel asked.
Jesus replied, I could see youunder the fig tree before Philip
found you.
Then Nathaniel exclaimed, Rabbi,you are the Son of God, the King
(19:23):
of Israel.
Jesus asked him, Do you believejust because I told you I had
seen you under a fig tree, youwill see greater things than
this.
Then he said, I tell you thetruth, you will all see heaven
open and angels of God going upand down on the Son of Man, the
one who is the stairway betweenheaven and earth.
(19:44):
Man, oh man, we are in a treat.
In for a treat.
Over the course of the Gospel ofJohn, Jesus is going to perform
seven major signs, and sevenmajor times he is going to say,
I am.
And he's going to tell us he isnot just a man, he is not just a
miracle worker, but he is Godfrom the beginning.
(20:06):
And I can't wait to jump intothis.
And so I'm curious for you.
What about this that shows youthat Jesus is God?
What from this can you gain hopeand trust that Jesus is not just
our Savior, but also our Lord?
You know what I love is I lovethat Jesus saw Nathaniel where
he was.
(20:26):
I love that he didn't have tojust wonder, but he said, I saw
you even before you came to me.
I had my eyes on you.
And that brings me so much hopeto realize that my King and my
Lord sees me no matter where Iam, and he sees you too.
I can't wait to get into this.
Let's pray, and we're going toread our scripture, and then
we're going to be done fortoday.
Father, thank you so much forthe beginning of this journey.
(20:48):
I'm so thankful, Lord, that yousee us and you know us, you are
with us and you are for us.
And I pray, God, that we willjust enjoy this journey of
knowing you, not just as ourSavior, not even just as a King,
but the Lord of Lords, the Kingof Kings in all things.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
God's word said the reason whyJohn is even was even written,
(21:10):
inspired by the Holy Spirit, isthese were written that you may
continue to believe that Jesusis the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that believing in him, youwill have life by the power of
his name.
I'll see you tomorrow for Johnchapter two.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:21):
Today is the day.
I've got to go ahead and tellyou as we get ready to jump into
the Gospel of John.
I almost skipped it.
And it's not for the reasons youwould think.
The reason why I almost skippedthe Gospel of John is because,
like, I don't know if we'regoing to be able to do this
gospel justice.
This is my favorite of the four.
Now, I love God's Word.
(00:42):
I love all of God's Word.
I love all four of the Gospelsfor different reasons.
But when I say I love the Gospelof John, I'm I love the Gospel
of John.
And I love it so much thatthere's just, there's no way
that we could do the Gospel ofJohn justice because I mean,
people write entire like seriesand volumes of books just on
(01:03):
this gospel.
So I want to highly recommend toyou that when you have any kind
of extra time, I would love foryou just to take some next steps
when it comes to every one ofthese chapters.
I'm going to talk very brieflyabout a lot of the different
theological ideas in the Gospelof John.
But anytime you have a question,make a note of it and write it
(01:25):
down somewhere and go back intothis because the Gospel of John
is so theologically rich that itis just is beautiful and it is
wonderful.
And as a matter of fact, whensomeone gives their life to
Christ to make a decision tofollow Jesus, and they come to
me as a pastor and say, Whatshould I read?
I always tell them to start withthe Gospel of John because it is
(01:45):
just so amazing.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to take about five minutes
and give you kind of an overviewof who it is that wrote this
gospel, why they wrote it, andthen we're going to dive into
chapter one.
And it's possible the first fiveverses in the Gospel of John
might be the most importantverses in the entire New
(02:05):
Testament.
And we're going to talk aboutwhy in just a moment.
But first of all, who wrotethis?
Well, it was written by a guynamed John, of course.
And his name is not actuallymentioned in the Gospel of John.
He's going to refer to himselfover and over again as the
disciple whom Jesus loved.
And we don't know from this whothat was.
(02:26):
What we realize, and I lovethis, is that's where he's
finding his identity.
He's saying, My identity is thatI am loved by God, which is
amazing.
But let's also go ahead and say,it's awesome when you can go
ahead and say, by the way, I wasJesus' favorite.
And what we believe happenedwithin the context of the
Gospels is the Gospel of Johnwas written not to talk about
(02:48):
the blow-by-blow account of abiography of Jesus, but it was
written to talk about themessage of Jesus.
And that's why John is notinterested in giving you all the
details as to who he is and allthis.
He's really trying to focus onJesus.
Now, the reason why we know thatit was John was because, number
one, most all scholarly uhpeople say that John was
(03:11):
probably the closest to Jesus.
You had the 12 disciples.
Then Jesus had the inner three,James, John, and Peter.
And then he had John as kind oflike his right hand man.
But also, unanimously, justabout every early church father,
the people that lived during thetime when the apostles were
still alive, almost unanimouslythey give the credit for this
(03:33):
gospel to the apostle John.
So we know that John wrote it.
The next question would be whendid he write this?
There's two schools of thoughton this.
And John was not as interestedin writing the date down, so we
don't know exactly.
One group of people put thisvery late, around 96 A.D.
And those people say that Johnwould have written this right
before he died, and he wasseeing the narrative going on in
(03:56):
the early church, and they werereading the other gospels, and
he wanted to just zoom in on themessage of Jesus.
That's what some scholars think.
There's a growing list ofscholarship that says that John
may have been written around 60to 65 A.D.
And there's not really a goodreason for either one.
You could go either way.
John was not interested insaying anything about himself,
(04:16):
he was interested in spreadingthe message of Jesus.
So we simply don't know for surewhen he wrote it.
We just know he wrote itobviously within his lifetime.
Now, where did John write this?
John wrote it from the city ofEphesus.
Ephesus became John's kind ofministry hub.
And we we're gonna read later inJohn chapter 19 that when Jesus
(04:37):
was dying on the cross, he looksat John and says, John, will you
take care of my mother Mary?
Because I'm gonna, I'm, youknow, this is my situation is
about to change, right?
I'm gonna die and rise again.
And so history says that Johnmoved Mary to Ephesus and spent
the rest of uh she spent therest of her life there, John
taking care of her.
So it would have been inEphesus.
And then who was he primarilywriting to?
(04:59):
Well, in the book of Revelation,also written by John, we see
that that the Holy Spirit speaksto the seven churches.
Those seven churches were likelythe seven churches that John
oversaw and was a bishop over aswell.
And so most scholarship is thatJohn was primarily writing to
these seven churches to spreadthe message of what Jesus said
(05:20):
when he was on this earth.
And if you were to look at theoverall narrative of the Gospel
of John, John surroundseverything around seven signs
that prove that Jesus is God.
And there's seven times whenJesus says, I am, I am the way,
the truth, and the life.
(05:40):
I am the resurrection and thelife.
I am the door, I am the goodshepherd.
And so he is telling everybodywho he is, and he would work a
miracle, and then that miraclewill get everybody's attention,
and then they would hear themessage.
So what we're gonna do is we'regonna rally around this theme.
The overall theme of the Gospelof John is to let the reader
understand that Jesus is God.
(06:03):
The book of Matthew talks aboutJesus as the rightful king of
the Jews.
Mark talks about Jesus being amiracle worker and a suffering
savior.
Luke talks about Jesus as thehealer and the and the Messiah.
John goes a whole nother stepand he says he's not just an
earthly king, he's not just theawaited for deliverer, he is God
(06:24):
all the way back to Genesis whenGod said, Let there be light.
And so what John is going to dofrom the very beginning is he is
gonna use this example of theword as a a word to describe
Jesus, saying that Jesus is thedivine, the Greek word is logos,
the divine word of God.
(06:45):
And so he goes all the way tothe top and he says, Don't get
it twisted.
Jesus wasn't just a righteousman, he is God all the way back
from the beginning.
And so the key verse of thegospel of John is John literally
tells you why he wrote thisgospel, and he says this, John
chapter 20, verse 31.
But these are written so thatyou may continue to believe that
(07:07):
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son ofGod, and that by believing in
him, you will have life by thepower of his name.
So the reason why John wrotethis was that you may believe
that Jesus is God, and that thatbelieving will give you life and
power in his name.
So that's the whole reason whyJohn has done this.
(07:29):
And it's very important for usto grapple with this.
In a world we live in, whereJesus is thought of to be either
not real or not divine, John issaying he is both real and
divine.
I love how C.S.
Lewis said it once.
He said, Jesus cannot beeverything you think he is.
He is either a liar, he is alunatic, or he is Lord.
(07:50):
So, in other words, the thingsthat Jesus said, when he said, I
am the way, the truth, and thelife, no one comes to the Father
except by me.
That's a pretty bold statement,if you think about it.
So either he's lying, he'scrazy, or he is Lord.
He really can't be all three.
And so, what I'm interested inas we read this together is to
(08:10):
become reacquainted with Jesus,not just as the Savior, but as
Lord and as God all the way fromthe beginning.
And so I'm just gonna gush aboutthis.
This is my favorite gospel.
And so, what I want to see kindof in my mind, rather, is you
and I sitting across the coffeetable.
We're sharing a cup of coffee,we've got our Bibles open, and
we are just gushing about God'swords.
(08:32):
We're gonna stop along the wayand try not to do too much.
I don't want all of thesepodcasts to be like an hour
long, but just so much goodstuff.
And so we're just gonna, I'm Iwant to be your tour guide and
kind of reintroduce you toJesus, not just as savior, but
as divine sovereign, as king andas Lord.
And as we learn about him, he isgonna breathe fresh life and
(08:56):
give us power to live in ourworld.
So I love this.
Let's jump in, okay?
Finally, here we are, chapterone, verse one.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead and tellyou the first five verses.
John is gonna give some of themost elegant, some of the most
beautiful, and some of the mostcareful wording in the entire
New Testament.
Because what John is going to dois he is gonna try to find a way
(09:18):
to just very carefully, almostlike a surgeon, very, very
carefully as he's inspired bythe Holy Spirit to tell you, and
he's gonna say the word, he'stalking about Jesus, that Jesus
is God, but at the same time, heis not the Father, he is not the
Spirit, He is the Son, thedivine Trinity, that we have the
(09:39):
Trinity, you have Father, Son,and Spirit, same in essence, as
far as they're all God,different in person.
The Father is not the Son, theSon is not the Spirit, but they
are equal in power and divinity,separate in person.
And so he's going to say thisvery, very carefully.
And so I want you to hear thisand hear it as though you've
(09:59):
never heard of Jesus before.
And all of a sudden, John says,Let me tell you the best news
you've ever heard.
Here we go.
If you got your Bibles open,your coffee ready, John chapter
one.
In the beginning, the wordalready existed.
The word was with God, and theword was God.
He existed in the beginning withGod.
(10:20):
God created everything throughhim, and nothing was created
except through him.
The word gave life to everythingthat was created, and his life
brought light to everyone.
The light shines in thedarkness, and the darkness can
never extinguish it.
And so what John is doing ishe's pulling all the way back to
(10:40):
Genesis 1, verse 1 through 3,because Genesis 1 says, In the
beginning, God created theheavens and the earth, and the
earth was formless and void, anddarkness was over the face of
the deep, and the Spirit of Godhovered over the face of the
waters.
So you have God created theword, everything that we see.
(11:01):
And so he is saying, Jesus andthe Father and the Spirit are
separate but one.
It's just mind-blowing, it'sridiculous.
But he says it to say, hey, yougot to understand, every
everything I'm about to talkabout about this person, he's
not just a man, he's God.
Okay, here we go.
Verse 6.
We're gonna talk about theforerunner, the guy I lovingly
call Johnny B.
Here we go.
(11:22):
God sent a man, John theBaptist, to tell about the light
so that everyone might believebecause of his testimony.
John himself was not the light,he was simply a witness to tell
about the light.
The one who is the true light,who gives light to everyone, was
coming into the world.
He came into the very world hecreated, but the world didn't
(11:43):
recognize him.
He came to his own people, andeven they rejected him.
But to all who believed him andaccepted him, he gave the right
to become children of God.
They are reborn, not with aphysical birth, resulting in
human passion or plan, but abirth that comes from God.
So the word became human andmade his home among us.
(12:06):
He was full of unfailing loveand faithfulness.
We have seen his glory, theglory of the Father's one and
only Son.
Pause for a moment.
So once again, John is saying,remember that word from the very
beginning, that is the Son ofGod.
The Son came to the earth, heentered into our time and space,
born as a man, clothed himselfin flesh, still God, but yet
(12:29):
housed in flesh.
The divine mystery of how Godwas able to be God and man at
the same time.
All right, verse 15.
John testified about him when heshouted to the crowds, This is
the one I was talking about whenI said, Someone is coming after
me who is far greater than I am,for he existed long before me.
(12:51):
From his abundance, we have allreceived one gracious blessing
after another.
For the law was given throughMoses, but God's unfailing love
and faithfulness came throughJesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, butthe unique one who himself, who
is himself God, is near to theFather's heart.
(13:13):
He has revealed God to us.
This was John's testimony whenthe Jewish leaders sent priest
and temple assistants fromJerusalem to ask John, Who are
you?
Who gave you the right?
And he said, I am not theMessiah.
Well, then who are you?
They said, Are you Elijah?
No, he replied.
Are you the prophet we areexpecting?
(13:34):
No.
Then who are you?
We need an answer for those whosent us.
What do you say about yourself?
And then John replied in thewords of the prophet Isaiah,
he's saying, I am a voiceshouting in the wilderness.
Clear the way for the Lord'scoming.
Then the Pharisees who had whohad been sent asked him, If you
aren't the Messiah or Elijah orthe prophet, then what right do
(13:57):
you have to baptize?
John told them, I baptize withwater, but right here in the
crowd is someone you do notrecognize.
Through his, though his ministryfollows mine, I am not even
worthy to be his slave and untiethe straps of his sandals.
This encounter took place inBethany, in an area east of the
(14:18):
Jordan River where John wasbaptized.
And now pause for a moment.
The reason why John, the writerof this, would have such
information about John theBaptist is because a lot of
historians think that John wasoriginally a disciple of John
the Baptist.
That's why not only would hehave the message like the other
gospels do, but he's also goingto know where it was as well.
(14:40):
And what John the Baptist justgot through doing is he was
quoting a scripture that wassaying that before Messiah will
come, there will be aforerunner, a hype man who will
prepare the area for the Messiahto come.
And so what John is saying islike, I'm, I am not all these
other people.
I am just a messenger to tellyou, get ready, because the king
is coming.
(15:00):
Can you imagine?
You imagine John saying that.
The disciples of John andeverybody around would have
known what he was talking about.
So you imagine they're lookingaround, going, the Messiah's
here among us?
The Messiah's here.
And just the excitement.
And it makes you wonder if Jesuswas in the crowd, just kind of,
just kind of nodding, going,Yeah, buddy, you got this.
You got this, just cheering himon, knowing his time was going
(15:20):
to come.
All right, verse 29.
The next day John saw Jesuscoming toward him and said,
Look, the Lamb of God who takesaway the sin of the world.
He is the one I was talkingabout when I said, A man is
coming after me who is fargreater than I am, for he
existed long before me.
I did not recognize him as theMessiah, but I have been
(15:42):
baptizing with water so that Imight be, so that he might be
revealed to Israel.
Then John testified, I saw theHoly Spirit descending like a
dove from heaven and restingupon him.
I didn't know he was the one,but when God sent me to baptize
with water, he told me, The oneon whom you see the Spirit
descend and rest is the one whowill baptize with the Holy
(16:05):
Spirit.
I saw this happen to Jesus, so Itestify that he is the chosen
one of God.
So two things here.
Number one, why did John baptizepeople?
You ever wondered?
Like, why did he do that?
Well, you see, the reason why hedid that is because he did that
so that he could find the Son ofGod.
So he's doing this to helpeveryone get ready, but at the
(16:28):
same time, he said, I did thisso that I'm the Son of Man might
be revealed to all of us.
The second thing is, you imaginehow you ever been in a situation
where someone across the way iswaving at you and you think
they're waving at you, rather.
And so you wave and you go, Oh,oh, not me, the guy behind me.
Sorry, sorry, and it's a littleembarrassing.
Can you imagine John ispreaching and all of a sudden he
(16:51):
he looks at Jesus and he pointsin that general direction and
he's like, Behold, the Lamb ofGod that takes away the sin of
the world.
What if, what if there was somepoor soul who was standing right
in front of Jesus, and he and hedidn't say Jesus right at first,
he just said him, you know?
Imagine that.
And imagine that person isgoing, Me?
I'm the oh, oh, my bad.
(17:13):
Yeah, yeah, probably, probablyhim.
Yeah.
It's kind of the way my mindworks.
Like for a like a moment,someone was like, Oh, okay, not
me.
All right.
Anyway, all right, verse 35.
The Bible says, on the followingday, John was standing.
Oh, wait, I've already readthat.
No, yeah, here you go.
Sorry.
I'm so excited.
Verse 35.
The following day, John wasagain standing with two of his
(17:34):
disciples, possibly one of thembeing John, who later wrote
this.
As Jesus walked by, John lookedat him and declared, Look, there
is the Lamb of God.
When John's two disciples heardthis, they followed Jesus.
Jesus looked around and saw themfollowing.
What do you want?
He asked them.
They replied, Rabbi, which meansteacher, where are you staying?
(17:55):
Come and see, he said.
It was about four o'clock in theafternoon when they went with
him to the place where he wasstaying, and they remained with
him the rest of the day.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,was one of these men who heard
John and said, and then followedJesus.
Andrew went to find his brotherSimon and told him, We have
found the Messiah, which meansChrist.
(18:17):
Andrew brought Simon to meetJesus.
Looking intently at Simon, Jesussaid, Your name is Simon, son of
John, but you will be calledCephas, which means Peter.
The next day Jesus decided to goto Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him,Come, follow me.
Philip was from Beseda andAndrew and Peter's hometown.
(18:38):
Philip went and looked forNathaniel and told him, We have
found the very person Moses andthe prophets wrote about.
His name is Jesus.
He is the son of Joseph fromNazareth.
Nazareth, exclaimed Nathaniel.
Can anything good come fromNazareth?
Now, the reason why he wouldhave said that is this is kind
of backwater small town.
Think of, think of like the mostnowhere town you can think of.
(18:59):
That's Nazareth.
And so the answer to this was,Come and see for yourself,
Philip replied.
And as they were approached,Jesus said, Now here is a
genuine son of Israel, a man ofcomplete integrity.
How do you know about me?
Nathaniel asked.
Jesus replied, I could see youunder the fig tree before Philip
found you.
Then Nathaniel exclaimed, Rabbi,you are the Son of God, the King
(19:23):
of Israel.
Jesus asked him, Do you believejust because I told you I had
seen you under a fig tree, youwill see greater things than
this.
Then he said, I tell you thetruth, you will all see heaven
open and angels of God going upand down on the Son of Man, the
one who is the stairway betweenheaven and earth.
(19:44):
Man, oh man, we are in a treat.
In for a treat.
Over the course of the Gospel ofJohn, Jesus is going to perform
seven major signs, and sevenmajor times he is going to say,
I am.
And he's going to tell us he isnot just a man, he is not just a
miracle worker, but he is Godfrom the beginning.
(20:06):
And I can't wait to jump intothis.
And so I'm curious for you.
What about this that shows youthat Jesus is God?
What from this can you gain hopeand trust that Jesus is not just
our Savior, but also our Lord?
You know what I love is I lovethat Jesus saw Nathaniel where
he was.
(20:26):
I love that he didn't have tojust wonder, but he said, I saw
you even before you came to me.
I had my eyes on you.
And that brings me so much hopeto realize that my King and my
Lord sees me no matter where Iam, and he sees you too.
I can't wait to get into this.
Let's pray, and we're going toread our scripture, and then
we're going to be done fortoday.
Father, thank you so much forthe beginning of this journey.
(20:48):
I'm so thankful, Lord, that yousee us and you know us, you are
with us and you are for us.
And I pray, God, that we willjust enjoy this journey of
knowing you, not just as ourSavior, not even just as a King,
but the Lord of Lords, the Kingof Kings in all things.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
God's word said the reason whyJohn is even was even written,
(21:10):
inspired by the Holy Spirit, isthese were written that you may
continue to believe that Jesusis the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that believing in him, youwill have life by the power of
his name.
I'll see you tomorrow for Johnchapter two.
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