The Gospel According to John

The Gospel and its purpose This is the gospel that identifies Jesus as the Word of God It was written for the readers, who di d not experience Jesus as the aut hor of the gospel and his community d id. Future generations The purpose of the gospel is to make t he readers believe and find life in Je sus. Jesus is God in the flesh who reveals t he hidden loving God. Jesus is God’s self gift who will bring s alvation. All the readers need to do is open up t heir hearts to this spiritual reading and they will believe. Jesus is crucial because he is the key t o get to God. He leads to God and those who see Je sus see God because Jesus and God are one

Who is John? Traditional attribution: To John, son of Zebedee, One of the twelve An Essene Author detectable from content: One who regards hi mself in the tradition of the disciple who Jesu s loved.

John’s Christology Christology is the branch of t heology that studies the me aning of the person of Jesus Christ That is, trying to understa nd who he is The church has many un derstandings of Jesus Ch rist. How do we know? Look a t how Jesus is depicted, o ver time, by different cultu res and in different roles …

Themes in John: T he Word The author of this gospel is interes ted in the theology not the history or the story of Jesus. He stresses Jesus’ identity (unveil s Jesus’ true identity) as the revea ler God (the word) He is the word of God that has exi sted forever This very Word of God is God him self This concept of the Word is a conc ept that appealed to both Jewish a nd Gentile audience. In the OT, the Word of God referre d to creation and God’s revelation The Greek word for the Word i s Logos Logos was the spiritual prin ciple or soul that held the w orld together It also means knowledge, r eason, wisdom

THEMES IN JOHN: THE “I AM” SAYINGS  The multiple times that Jesus uses the word “I am,” is a striking characteristic for many.  In the Synoptics, Jesus refers to himself using the phrase “I Am” only two times in both Mark and Luke and only 5 times in Matthew. … Contrast to John, where Jesus uses the phrase a total of 46 times.

 The purpose of the use of the “I am” is to “’identify Jesus as a historical revelation: He is God in the flesh  The “I am” sayings present Jesus as God.  In the Jewish scripture, God’s name is I AM  They demonstrate that Jesus’ purpose is to reveal the Father and the way to him.

“I AMS” TO OUTSIDERS  It is natural that the Jewish people rejected Jesus’ claims of being One with God  If a person claimed oneness with God, they were seen as making it up, full of deceit and pride.  They were dangerous to …Judaism  God kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden to remind them that they were creatures, not equal to God  Jesus’ claims were replacing over 1000 of Jewish tradition – this cannot be taken lightly …and to Rome  Only the Emperor could claim Godliness and he did not take kindly to those making the same claim

THE “I AMS” SEEN BY JESUS’ FOLLOWERS  But there were those who saw Jesus’ claims differently …They trusted their experience of him  He was humble in every other way  He healed people “just because”  He fed people miraculously …Thus, because they trusted Jesus, they saw his words as true. …Jesus, for them, was as a Divine Revelation occurring through an ordinary man, making him an extraordinary man