John’s Gospel – Lesson 2

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We need to spend a bit more time on John the Baptist or "Baptizer" as we move on into the Gospel of the Apostle John. As I mentioned last week, you may think of John as the last of the Old Testament Prophets. He had been exposed to a revelation of the holiness of God and lived a very separate life with a very real awareness of his own sinfulness. A revelation of God's holiness produces that effect in a man and tears down pride.

 

His mother's name was Elizabeth and she was the older cousin of Mary. His father was named Zachariah and he was a priest. John's birth was miraculous because Elizabeth had always been barren. Gabriel told Zachariah he would have a godly son who would minister like Elijah and that Elizabeth would be the mother. Zachariah, being old like some of us, argued with an angel in the Holy of Holies and therefore he got the sign of Gabriel's truthfulness and authority by being unable to speak. If Gabriel brings a message from God then don't argue. Mary said the right thing. Mary said "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." That is how you talk to Gabriel and walk away still able to talk. Their culture is different from ours but Elizabeth was judged for not having children and then when she got pregnant it was Zachariah who was viewed as hitting a home run one handed with his eyes closed. The relatives were insisting on naming the new baby Zachariah to celebrate his success and poor Elizabeth was about to be overruled until Zachariah independently confirmed that the baby's name was to be John.

 

John lived under a special set of vows that made him a Nazerite like Samson only John actually kept kosher while Samson did not. I mentioned last week that John really stirred things up and for the historians first century it was John who was the big news. This was because he was the first prophet in 400 years. He opposed the religious authorities of the day by calling everyone to a baptism of repentance. He opposed the ruler of the day too and that eventually resulted in John's decapitation. John was such big news during his ministry that the priests and Levites wanted to know the "who" and "why" of his radical outreach.

 

John 1:19-20

And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."

In this verse, John states in the strongest way that he is not Christ because one of the rumors that had been circulating was that John himself was the Christ. We will get to a series of "I am" statements of Jesus but I especially like that this verse (because of Greek grammar) transliterates something like "not I am that Christ". Translators complain about this Greek sentence but John the Baptist is closing off all discussion of him being Christ.

 

In writing this Gospel the Apostle John was standing in a particularly firm way against those who were called Gnostics. The many types of Gnostics have a root similarity in that they seek special knowledge. Gnosis is part of our words like diagnosis and prognosis and this special knowledge claimed by the Gnostics lets those "in the know" be more spiritual than even an Apostle. So, if you can stay with me on which John I'm talking about, it is particularly ironic after 2000 years that there exists a Gnostic group called the Mandeans in Iraq that claim to follow the teaching of John the Baptist. I'm sure that their version of John the Baptist's teaching is an odd Gnostic enhancement to the truth but they are dwindling away in our day. This is because the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates called the Shatt al Arab waterway (where they baptize) near Basra is so small and polluted they can no longer baptize in it and are forced to use an indoor pool. This was covered in a New York Times story in June of this year. John the Baptist would never have attracted attention to himself in this way and he knew that he simply went before Christ. The cult of the Mandeans is a Gnostic distortion of truth as the Gnostics in all ages are. However, for John the Baptist, the Pharisee's reporters wouldn't go back without some sort of answer.

 

John 1:21

And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."

John was not physically Elijah and a misunderstanding of prior Scripture (Malachi 4:5) had lead the Pharisees to expect Elijah in person. John was preaching in the spirit of Elijah and Jesus confirmed that for us in Matthew 11:14. God doesn't do reincarnation. Herod was even afraid that John the Baptist was reincarnated in Jesus (Mark 6:16). John knew his role and was as willing as a sinful man can be to fulfill his role in the most important event in history.

 

John points to Isaiah 40 and says that he is a voice crying out in the wilderness. John could live along the edges of civilization but the wilderness of most importance was the wilderness of human sin that was the "civilization". We usually picture John preaching with the wilderness behind him but really the wilderness of snakes and vipers was in the city. John's call was for those hearts to get ready by repentance (turning from their sinful ways) for the Christ.

 

John 1:24-28

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

So the reporters ask a dumb question. If John the Baptist was the voice of one crying out in the wilderness then he is baptizing to prepare hearts for the Christ. John could have told them to go read Isaiah and stop acting like you haven't even had your bar mitzvah yet. But he answers, as he should, by faithfully pointing to Christ.

 

It was customary for the disciples of John's day to follow and minister to the teacher. They would take care of all the details of life for the teacher as payment for being disciples. So you might imagine that the lowest of the low in the disciple "food chain" would be the disciple in charge of sandal strap untying and tying. It is very important that we realize that what John the Baptist says was not expressing false humility or hyperbole. This is statement of fact. In Matthew 11:11 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." John needed the Savior. Think of this. John was the best. He was better than Mary. He was a better Elijah than Elijah. But he didn't qualify for the Kingdom without that righteousness that was imputed to him from Christ the Savior. You need that conviction of sin and awareness of God's holiness that is given by the Holy Spirit as he works within you. John was right about the sandal and Jesus confirmed it. How about you? Do you have that same awareness of your need for a savior?

 

John 1:29-34

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."

This was John's salvation. John knew to his core that his sins would condemn him without God's Grace. This was true even though he was the best son of Adam the earth had seen and his awareness of sin was in part the product of being the best son of Adam the earth had seen. God the Father sent John the Baptist and told him to look for God the Spirit to descend on God the Son. John had to be shouting really loudly. Even though John knew Jesus and even responded to Jesus "in utero" but he didn't see as the Lamb until it was revealed to him. God didn't let John know until the right moment that his ministry was being completed and that the Son of God was beginning His ministry.

 

While John's baptism is from heaven as Jesus stressed, we are not baptized with John's baptism. Our baptism is not simply a baptism of repentance. We are making a claim and giving a testimony that John the Baptist would have made had he had a different role.

 

Acts 18:24-28

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

Apollos was a very sharp guy that God used for the Kingdom. However, at this point he had missed the point about baptism and needed to have it explained to him more accurately. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3:20-21 that baptism corresponds to, or is a type of, Noah and the other 7 passing through the flood waters of God's wrath against sin. The flood was God's judgment and the Ark was God's Grace. We see it again in the deliverance of Jonah. The storm was God's judgment and the fish was God's Grace of Salvation. Noah and the other 7 and Jonah couldn't survive God's righteous judgment of their sins without Grace.

 

We testify in our baptism that we were justified in Christ as He went though the hell of God's wrath on the Cross. I'm testifying that He died for me specifically.

 

Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Even John the Baptist needed to be "in Christ" as we do. Scripture says "in Jesus Christ" or "in Christ" over and over. We are carried through the waters God's wrath that should have destroyed us like they should have destroyed the Children of Israel except for God's Grace in parting the Red Sea (I Corinthians 10:2). God held the waters back in Grace. The Corinthian church was warned about giving a false testimony like many of the Children of Israel gave after the baptism in the Cloud and in the Sea.

 

Romans 6:1-4

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

At this point we are really talking about a doctrine known as "limited" or "particular" atonement. It gave us the name of "Particular Baptists" a long time ago. I like the term "specific atonement" because Christ knew who he was redeeming.

 

When you were baptized you were testifying with water that you were there in Christ by the gracious election of God when Jesus died on that tree in the hell of the Father's wrath for your sin. That is a serious confession and one that we are charged to work out with fear and trembling. I think you can see why I like lots of water at a baptism.

 

John’s Gospel – Lesson 1

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew focuses on Jesus' kingship, Mark on Jesus role as servant, and Luke on Jesus' humanity. These three Gospels are called synoptic because they give an overview or comprehensive view of the life of Jesus. That is not the purpose of John's Gospel. John is concerned with your theology and doctrine. John wants you to know about Jesus' divinity and the Gospel. He is not concerned with giving you a timeline for Jesus life or even covering all the events that John knew of in Jesus' life.

 

There is no reason to think that the authorship of this book is in dispute. John refers to himself within the Gospel as the disciple "whom Jesus loved" and the author had all the characteristics that John would have as an eyewitness and a Jew. The Gospel was probably written late in John's life. The language is simple but the concepts are profound. John puts into relatively simple Greek all the theology you could ever want. You could spend your life studying this book of the Bible and not exhaust the truth in it.

 

John gives the reason for writing the book in chapter 20 verse 31 when he says it was written "that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). Fundamentally then John wants to focus on the person and work of Jesus. History is still there but John wants to make sure that you know who Jesus was and how He brought salvation to you. John wants you to have the correct belief (doctrine) so that in believing you will have salvation.

 

John 1:1

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

 

This almost sounds as if we had jumped back to Genesis 1:1 but rather than the earth being in view we have Christ and the Trinity in view. John begins with the deity of Jesus and it is in the forefront of this Gospel. This verse and many others teach us fundamentals that we have the blessing of Church history for understanding. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are distinct persons and yet are each in essence fully God and there is only one God. We do not believe a contradiction and that is because we believe that God is three in person and one in essence. We are limited in our understanding of the Trinity but that doesn't seem strange to me. I think it would be more surprising if God were easy to understand "up close and personal". In part I think that because we seem to have such a hard time understanding ourselves and others. The key point to remember is that you are not proposing a contradiction in which God is both three and one at the same time and in the same sense. The sense is different here. God is three in person but only one in essence.

 

You'll almost surely be exposed to error on the topic of the Trinity. The Church periodically drifts from sound doctrine and then eventually responded when called back to sound doctrine repeatedly. For example, modalism is a heresy that teaches that God is one and pretends to be each of the persons of the trinity at various times. Think of a cup with a bulldog at one position, a tiger at another position, and a yellow jacket at a third position so that you can only see one mascot at a time. It isn't a cup many of us would be comfortable with. Scripture teaches that the three persons of the Trinity are actually distinct persons. They are not the same person. If you order materials from "LifeWay" then you may be exposed to this heresy by the writings of TD Jakes. However, in the last few weeks there seems to have been a change in what Lifeway distributes from TD Jakes. The heresy being taught was condemned by the Church before 500 AD. Even if stubborn people didn't purposely teach false doctrine about the Trinity we would still find those who are young in the faith inventing these same errors as first approximations trying to understand God. However, being young and untaught is different from being stubborn and un-teachable. We may all make mistakes with imprecise language but we need to allow Scripture to correct us and we need to be discerning about what materials we use. If we wish to study error, then the materials of a man who is a modalist might be of value but we would not wish to be exposed without exercising discernment. If you are exercising discernment then you'd keep the works of a heretic off the shelf with the milk. Mixing the error in with the milk is how we drift away.

 

John 1:2-5

He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

Even here we begin to see the "economy" of the Trinity. What I mean by that is we see the roles in perfect unity and harmony practiced within the Trinity. Christ is eternally begotten of the Father. He was in the beginning with God. In perfect agreement the Father created through the Son who submitted so that all things were made through Him. Nothing was made without the Son because the Father and Son were in perfect harmony and unity. Also from the foundation of the earth in this Gospel we see the foreshadowing of the pact between Father and Son for redemption. The Son had life within Him. The Holy Spirit brings this life and men have life because as men to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

 

John points back to the beginning of Genesis in which "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" Genesis 1:2. We were lost and without hope living in the kingdom of darkness when the Holy Spirit was sent and we were moved into the Kingdom of Light. The light is shining and the darkness of fallen mankind has not extinguished God's work.

 

In these five verses we have an opening that teaches us about the Trinity and foreshadows the entire Gospel according to John. The Holy Spirit, through John, gives a tremendous introduction to the Gospel.

 

John 1:6-8

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

 

This is John the Baptist or John the Baptizer. He had a very special role. I'm sure I've heard a sermon or two on how we all need to bear witness about the light. Nobody has the role that John had. He was baptizing the Jewish Nation. That was a radical move since the baptism rituals were saved for gentiles who wanted to convert to Judaism. John was stirring up controversy but his ministry was another of God's gifts of grace to a people whose hearts had drifted away. God's holiness along with the nearness of the redemptive work and the impending judgment on the Jewish Nation had such an impact on John that his life manifested itself as an Old Testament prophet. This lifestyle stirred up additional controversy because the Jewish Nation hadn't had a prophet in the 400 years since Malachi. So God sent a prophet, the last of the Old Testament prophets if you want to think of it that way, to point at Jesus and call Him the Lamb of God.

 

John 1:9-13

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

 

John gives us another reason to love the True Light and that reason is "Common Grace". Grudem defines common grace as "the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation." We can summarize common Grace in the following categories:

 

1. The Physical Realm – praise God for the beauty of creation and how He provides for us in creation,
   
2. The Intellectual Realm – praise God that even though we are fallen creatures we are able to act rationally and distinguish error in many ways. The blessings of science and technology are the result of common grace even though we may be poor stewards of those blessings at times,
   
3. The Moral Realm – praise God that even though we are fallen creatures mankind is restrained and prevented from all the evil that would be pursued otherwise. Even most atheists act as if there were a God who requires them to be moral,
   
4. The Creative Realm – praise God for the creativity of the arts, music, athletics, cooking, writing, and crafts,
   
5. The Societal Realm – praise God for government and organizations in human society, and,
   
6. The Religious Realm – praise God for the way He blesses the unsaved through the actions of the saved.
   

 

Have a look at Grudem if you'd like to see a more detailed description of the function of Common Grace and read about Special Grace. So the True Light that is the source of all this blessing was coming into the world and deserved all praise and honor and glory from every creature. However, the world did not know Him and His own did not receive Him.

 

In Special Grace or that Grace that brings salvation we see Grace prevailing against the darkness. The True Light was coming into the darkness but it was not overcome by the darkness because Christ knew those who were His and He was bringing another birth. We'll see even more clearly how this works in later chapters but your new birth put you in a new place with regard to God. You are no longer a child of wrath but instead you are born by the will of God as His child. We say this first step is monergistic because there was one worker and that worker was God. If you are a Christian then, in response to the Gospel (the Call), He changed your heart in such a way (Regenerated) that you received Him and believed Him (Conversion) and your sins were covered (Justification) so that you were then in God's family (Adoption). That process is part of what is called the "Order of Salvation" or "ordo salutis". Of course there is no holy paperwork that delays each step. It is considered a process in a logical sense but it is something that happens in an instant.

 

John 1:14-18

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.' ") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

 

It is important to remember that the Word is eternal. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. He had no beginning and He will have no end. He "became flesh" as in pitched His tent among us. The Apostle John is giving you a firsthand account of the glory of the Son and also the Apostle John is giving firsthand testimony to the witness of John the Baptist. We see that we have all received from His fullness both in Common Grace and in Special Grace if we are Christians. We also see that Jesus was the end of the law for righteousness sake because of the grace and truth he brings.

 

Even the end of this section is very Trinitarian. We can't see God but God who is at the Father's side has made Him known. Christ made our every prayer Trinitarian. That is because we pray under the leading of the Holy Spirit to the Father with our sins forgiven and clothed in the righteousness of the Son who is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. I hope you'll keep that in mind as you take communion this morning.