The Word This Week
John 1:1…
Like us, John desires all people to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Near the end of the first century - after all the apostles except himself have gone to be with the Lord - and after the majority of the New Testament has been written, John writes his Gospel. He writes with the express purpose that, “…you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
By now the Temple has been destroyed and lain in ruins almost 30 years, and the Jews have been killed by the hundreds of thousands and exiled to distant lands by the Romans, who had finally reached the end of their tolerance for the constant belligerence of the Jews.
Of course the Jews who had become Christians in Judea and Galilee, by now numbering in the hundreds of thousands as well, were also caught up in the Roman attack of the land and had also been exiled, primarily throughout the Mediterranean region.
(Historian Josephus tells us the Jews who had become Christians by the time the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed in 70A.D. numbered about 300,000.)
Nearing the end of his own life and now serving as an elder in the Church at Ephesus, John looks around to see what remains to be said of Jesus’ life that may add to the testimony of Jesus that has not already been said in the other three Gospels -written as many as 30 years earlier.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known of as the ‘synoptic Gospels,’ because they take a ‘synchronized view’ of Jesus ministry on earth. (Syn – synchronized / Optic – view.) Even though there are differences in the synoptic Gospels, they basically tell the same story of Jesus’ ministry from three different perspectives – which explains the differences that are seen. But they are far more similar than they are different.
John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sees the opportunity to fill in some details in the story of Jesus’ life and ministry the other Gospels had not been led by the Holy Spirit to include.
So, here we have an entirely different Gospel, in no way in conflict with the other three Gospels but very complementary to them. John, unlike the other Gospel authors, centers His Gospel around the seven, “I Am,” statements of Jesus Christ, and seven miracles of Jesus Christ - (eight if you include Jesus’ resurrection,) - which PROVE Jesus is Messiah.
Pastor Bill
Like us, John desires all people to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Near the end of the first century - after all the apostles except himself have gone to be with the Lord - and after the majority of the New Testament has been written, John writes his Gospel. He writes with the express purpose that, “…you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
By now the Temple has been destroyed and lain in ruins almost 30 years, and the Jews have been killed by the hundreds of thousands and exiled to distant lands by the Romans, who had finally reached the end of their tolerance for the constant belligerence of the Jews.
Of course the Jews who had become Christians in Judea and Galilee, by now numbering in the hundreds of thousands as well, were also caught up in the Roman attack of the land and had also been exiled, primarily throughout the Mediterranean region.
(Historian Josephus tells us the Jews who had become Christians by the time the Temple at Jerusalem was destroyed in 70A.D. numbered about 300,000.)
Nearing the end of his own life and now serving as an elder in the Church at Ephesus, John looks around to see what remains to be said of Jesus’ life that may add to the testimony of Jesus that has not already been said in the other three Gospels -written as many as 30 years earlier.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known of as the ‘synoptic Gospels,’ because they take a ‘synchronized view’ of Jesus ministry on earth. (Syn – synchronized / Optic – view.) Even though there are differences in the synoptic Gospels, they basically tell the same story of Jesus’ ministry from three different perspectives – which explains the differences that are seen. But they are far more similar than they are different.
John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sees the opportunity to fill in some details in the story of Jesus’ life and ministry the other Gospels had not been led by the Holy Spirit to include.
So, here we have an entirely different Gospel, in no way in conflict with the other three Gospels but very complementary to them. John, unlike the other Gospel authors, centers His Gospel around the seven, “I Am,” statements of Jesus Christ, and seven miracles of Jesus Christ - (eight if you include Jesus’ resurrection,) - which PROVE Jesus is Messiah.
Pastor Bill