Bible Study

And what we thought we would do at this time, since we do have a little bit of time, that we would begin our next book that we'd like to go into. And as we talked about it and thought about where would be a good book to launch into that might help us as we're hopefully getting towards spring. It's snowed here today in Cincinnati, so it didn't feel a lot like spring in the morning, but here tonight it's all melted already. So it is getting towards spring, and we thought about the spring holy days as a connection there as well. And so we want to go into the book of John, the Gospel of John, mainly because it has a lot of unique things to say, especially when it comes to the Passover and what John teaches on those things and what he records about the experience of Jesus Christ. So we'll get to those areas, maybe a little bit after the Passover by the time we get there. If it goes the way it has been, if it takes one Bible study per chapter, it could be quite a while. But if not, we'll try to get there. And if not during the spring season, we'll be able to talk about those various things. And of course, there are unique things in the book of John. It's not one of the synoptic Gospels, so it's a little bit different than Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And we thought it would be good as we get to the spring holy days. So I thought I'd do a little bit of the background for the book of John, and then Darris is going to launch into the first chapter if I don't take too long. So we will cover some of the background of the book as we go through it. So I don't want to take a lot of time to do that, but if you want to just flip over the book of John and get ready for Darris to launch into it, I'll try not to take too much time.

But the Apostle John, who was he? Well, he was one of the sons of Zebedee. Zebedee was a commercial fisherman. John was a fisherman by trade. He is the brother of James. James and John. The sons of Zebedee, also known as the sons of thunder. Mark 3, 17 talks about them being the sons of thunder.

And Christ gave them the surname Bonergis, and it literally can mean thunderous. So there's been some debate what exactly that means, whether that means that maybe Zebedee and his sons, by extension, had a fiery temper. Some of the scholars think it may relate to that.

But it's also thought that perhaps it meant that literally they had loud voices. They could have been loud kind of people. But some have also speculated that it meant that they had a zeal for Christ, that they had a zeal for God's way, that they were fervent to accomplish the things that Christ would want them to do. And of course, the example shines throughout the New Testament, that these were men who were ready to stand for the truth. They were ready to oppose the enemies of Christ and God's way. And so they oftentimes exhibited a kind of a faith that went along with that name, kind of putting that nickname into words. And so it is interesting. We don't know exactly what it means, but it may relate to some of those aspects of what their personalities might have been like.

It's also interesting that while possibly being a fiery kind of character, perhaps a loud family coming from that, John's also known as the Apostle of Love. And so you can imagine perhaps someone that might be a little boisterous, but very loving and someone with their arms open to you, a very personable individual, that John and James as sons of Zebedee perhaps were that kind of a person, because certainly he writes a lot about this character trait of love. Not only here in the Gospel of John do we read a lot about it, but also 1, 2, 3 John deal a lot with that. And so that would be his father's side of the family, his mother's side of the family, his mother was Salome. She was one of the ladies that were right there at the crucifixion.

And so she evidently was Mary's sister, the mother of Jesus Christ, his sister, Mary's sister, so that would have been Christ's aunt. So she would have been there when Christ told John to take care of your aunt, Mary.

Here's your mother. And so you could see this family relationship going on between them. Of course, she would have also been the one that came to her nephew and said, Hey, is it okay for your cousins to sit on your right hand and your left hand? So interesting family connections that sometimes we miss when we just read, you know, straight what's there and not make all the connections from the various books to see that there's family connections here as well. Of course, John was the last remaining of the original disciples of Christ of the Twelve.

He was the last one to remain alive, probably living into the 90s AD or so. Of course, growing up as a good Jew, he was familiar with all the Jewish traditions. He would have been an eyewitness to all the ministry of Jesus Christ. He would have been one of those that was there at the Transfiguration. Remember when Christ appeared in a glorified form? It was Peter and James and John. They were there at the Transfiguration. So he was, in a sense, a very close friend of Jesus Christ, sometimes called the Inner Circle. I don't know that Christ necessarily thought like that, but, you know, commentators will often refer to them as kind of an Inner Circle.

It's also interesting John was a disciple of John the Baptist. He was one of those as well. So most of the scholars that you'll read will kind of date that book toward the end of John's life, that perhaps he wrote it near the end of his life, maybe in the 80s or 90s AD. There's a little bit of disagreement because of a couple of references that might put it earlier, but it seems that most seem to point at that time frame for the writing of the book of John.

It's also interesting that different than the other gospels, John has no parables in his writings, not a one. And so he doesn't lean on those things. He doesn't, for whatever reason, feel a need to use those examples to explain about Jesus Christ. And so it's a different perception, a different presentation than what you might see in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Now, if you're there at the book of John, if you want to flip over to chapter 20, I think in chapter 20, verse 30, and verse 31, reveal probably the main purpose for the book. It kind of puts it in a nutshell here in the book of John. If you go over to chapter 20 and verse 30 and verse 31, he focuses in on what seems to be probably the main purpose for him recording this book. And he says, So what he's getting at here is this is a theological book. This is a theological book that focuses on the fact that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jesus also is referred to as the Lamb of God, and he focuses a lot on eternal life. And you'll see these words keep coming up over and over and over again. The main words he focuses on, believe, or its forms of belief. I used 98 times in the book. So over and over and over again, you'll see the forms, sometimes it's translated trust, sometimes it's translated commit, but it's all from that same base Greek word, to believe.

So that's one of the three key words you'll find throughout the book. So we'll take notice as we go through it. The other key word right here in this section is life. The word life he uses 55 times. And so he's not just talking about human life itself, but really the new awareness that we would have because of the meaning that our life is intended for. You know, what's our ultimate purpose?

What's our destiny? What is life all about? Well, John is going to deal with those questions and relate that to the life of Christ and what it was really all about. And then it's also interesting, the other thing that he points to here is the signs that Christ did. He did many other signs in the presence of his disciples and many witnesses. And so, the book of John. And you can probably think of a number of those signs. Many of them are included in the other gospels, but John focuses on seven specific signs, seven miracles that Christ performed.

He performed the water into wine as one. He healed the nobleman's son was another sign. The healing at the pool was the third sign. Feeding the five thousand, the fourth sign, fifth sign, walking on water. And we'll focus on each of these individually as we come to those. He healed the blind man as a sixth sign. And he raised Lazarus from the dead as his seventh sign.

So, John points to those specific signs as evidence that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Son of God, and he shows the importance of that. And throughout the book, he'll keep coming back to these things. That how important belief is. You know, belief is one of those conditions that we must have when we come to repentance, when we come to baptism. It's a requirement. We must believe. And that belief has to translate into how we live our life. And that should be evidence in our life that we're obeying God's ways.

So belief and obedience go hand in hand, and all of that is possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ. So John concentrates quite extensively on that as he records his writings for us. So that's a real brief outline. Perhaps we can jump into the first chapter right away, unless anyone has any comments or questions about that. All right. Other things to add to that? We'll add some things as we go along, too.

I'm sure we will, yes. It's a big book. It's a big topic. As Mr. Myers was saying, it's a different type of account of Christ's life. And it really does crystallize by the one who was the one who seems to have had the closest relationship with Christ. It crystallizes who Christ was. And as he was reading there from John 20, verse 31, I believe, that we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. And that is really a critical point to understand about the New Testament and about the Bible. The divinity of Jesus Christ is a key point of faith.

Without that understanding, then you just look at the Gospels and the life of Christ as merely teachings of a good rabbi who kind of rose above the crowd in the first century and stood out and got himself killed. But nothing more than that.

But to believe and to understand that He was the Son of God, come in the flesh, to die for the sins of mankind, and to make possible by all of that our human entry into salvation, into the family of God, the kingdom of God, eternal life, is what it's all about. We either believe that and we have a Savior, or we don't, and we have just a philosophy, a human reasoning. And that, brethren, is probably one of the most important matters that you and I in our personal relationship with God must establish, believe, renew, and never ever forget.

There are challenges to those points of faith on a regular basis from society around us. And I see them, unfortunately, creep into and among individuals within the church who come to a point of unbelief about God. Not the church, not men, but about God. And when you come to that, that is a major, major point of faith that is very serious. And so this is why we have so many statements in this book of John to point us to that.

Now, with that a little bit as my background, it helps, again, for us to jump into chapter 1 and verse 1, where John makes this statement that is so startling, so direct. He says, "'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'" One of the greatest sentences in the Bible. It is the beginning place to understand what the Bible is all about. We used to begin many, many sermons and many Bible studies years ago in the church that I remember with this verse, John 1-1. This was the beginning. Not Genesis 1-1. John 1-1. This was the beginning.

And it's very true. This is the beginning, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Now, those first five verses form a reference and a beginning here to understand, as John did, with crystal clarity, who Christ was. He saw that, perhaps even clearer than, well, it's hard to say, the other apostles. They all saw it too. They handled Him. They were taught by the resurrected Christ. John was the one who was able to articulate, with the help of God's Spirit, this eternal truth. Now, the Greek word for word here that is translated into the English word is very easy to understand. It's not a difficult word. It means it's logos. And it means word, translated here. It also can mean reason, or it can mean wisdom.

In the beginning was the word. It comes out of the Greek in some of the applications of that word logos within the Greek. But it is that word, and it tells us that He was in the beginning, and that He was with God, and the word, the logos, was God. He was in the beginning with God. There's a repetition that goes on here as well. What it says at the end of verse 1 is of most importance, that the word was God. And He was sent from God, verse 6. That's referring to John. But down in verse 14, this word, it says, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begot to the Father, full of grace and truth. I'll jump ahead just a little bit, but verse 14 does go back to what we read here at the beginning of John. Let me just briefly make an excursion into the Old Testament and some of the thinking that led to this statement here, this bold statement by John. In the Old Testament, we have many Scriptures that show us and indicate to us that there was something more than one being, if you will, within the family of God. And the Jews recognized this, and they read certain Scriptures and they puzzled over them. One of them being Psalm 110, verse 1, where it says, The Lord said to my Lord, Set you on my right hand, until I make your footstool.

The Lord said to my Lord. What did that mean as they would reason it out? There's another verse back in Proverbs chapter 8, where we find wisdom is personified. And what it says about wisdom is interesting, and again, as the Jews and the Israel scholars looked at this, they pondered what does it mean. In the 8th chapter of Proverbs, wisdom is the subject here, and wisdom is personified. And it says that, does not wisdom cry out? And understanding lift up her voice? She takes her stand on the top of a high hill, beside the way, as her little musical interlude here.

Or either that was to tell me that I have 10 minutes. I'm not quite sure what that means. It's your 10 minute warning. 10 minute warning? Yes. They give us a 2 minute warning at football, but we get a full 10 minute Bible study. Wisdom is personified. And they would look at this, in verse 22, it says, The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way before his works of old. And through this, again, there was the question, what is this talking about? That this wisdom, this sophia, as the Greeks used the word wisdom, was a person, was with God, was at the beginning before his works of old. And all of this was part of the whole philosophical thought that developed even among Jews. A Jewish scholar named Philo wrote a great deal about this. And so, when John here begins to write about Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and understanding that he was resurrected, remember John was with Peter and they raced to that tomb the morning after Christ's resurrection, and they peered in, they were among the first, not the first, but among the first, to recognize that he indeed was risen, and to be astounded by that reality. And as the events unfolded, and as their ministry unfolded, and John comes down to this, and he is led by God's Spirit to write these words, he brings it out with such focus, sharpness, and clarity that it is unmistakable that he is saying that this Jesus Christ was all that we read about in the Old Testament that we saw and wondered about in terms of another being or another personage, whether it was an angel that wrestled with Jacob, a Melchizedek-type character individual that appeared to Abraham, or this wisdom personified, or the one to whom the Lord spoke and said, as my Lord.

And he came in the flesh, and he dwelt among men, and he was God, and he was in the beginning, and he was the one who made all things. So, John is also dealing with other ideas that were beginning to develop in his day toward the end of the first century, Gnostic ideas that were slamming the idea of the divinity of Jesus, that had other ideas about how this universe came into play.

John is saying, this being who was the Word, he created everything. All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that was made through him. All things. Paul would say this same thing in Colossians 1.16, and in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 6.

And in Hebrews 1 and verse 2, this thought would be brought forth again by Paul to be placed squarely on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. And so, there was no doubt. These are very direct statements of truth. And from this point, John writes the truest words that could ever be written, and he moves into the whole story of Christ's life as he has it here. He says, Steve has already commented a bit about the life. I wanted to make a comment about verse 5, where it says, This is a theme that John comes back to many times throughout the book as well and writes about, especially here in the first chapter, to show that in him was this life. You know, we appreciate light. Without it, we cannot see in the dark. Without adequate lighting, we struggle to read a book, especially the older we get. And without the aid of things like these glasses, we would be dead in the water, a lot of us. But even with these, we need light to be able to read and to see, to drive, to walk, to work with our hands and to do things.

Light is what God separated out of the darkness at the beginning in Genesis. And this again, in him was this light. He was the light that shines in the darkness. The darkness did not comprehend it. Light is used in this way to describe a great deal. It penetrates the darkness. When you shine a beam of light from a flashlight or a torch or whatever it may be, into a dark room, a dark backyard at night, it penetrates that darkness and we understand what it lights up. We get into this time of year, the darkest time of the year through December, January, February, until the days begin to get longer.

The days are short, the nights are long, the night comes on by five o'clock, at least in December or early January period. And it impacts us. We are creatures that want light and should want light more than we want dark. And as it is applied here to who Christ was, and His life and His teaching and His mission was a light that penetrated and overcame darkness and the works of darkness.

And drove out fear. Understand something about the world that John wrote in. The ancient world was a dark world. They did not have electric lights that we take for granted. They could not walk into their hut, their villa, whatever abode they had, and flip a switch. They had to light a torch that was fueled by oil. And if they didn't have oil, they didn't have light, much less anything to cook with. And they had darkness.

I read a book about Rome a few years ago, Ancient Rome, and the author did a very good job of describing what the city of Rome, which today is called the Eternal City, was like in the ancient world, it was a very, at night, it was a very dark place. The streets were dark and people didn't go out.

In the cities of the ancient world, you stayed in. Darkness had a compelling influence upon the world. John uses light to describe the influence that Christ had as the true light. It really resonated with his audience. You and I today get upset, well, at least we probably did when we were kids. How many of you wanted to have a light left on when you were going to... ...a little light? How many kids today?

Leave the light on, Mommy, because we're afraid of the dark. We want to see how to get to the bathroom, or to sneak out to get to the refrigerator, or whatever it might be. There's a light in the refrigerator. The light in the refrigerator comes open. We don't want to be in the dark. And as all of this is placed upon the life and the ministry and the message of Jesus Christ, John plays and brings this out in such a way. Verse 7, he says, This man came for a witness, to bear witness of a light that all through him might believe.

He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. Now he's talking here of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was the witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. His teaching, and Christ's way of life, and how he lived it, and what he left as a legacy for us to follow, is a light in every way as to how to live.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, literally to his own tribe, the tribe of Judah, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

He's going to elaborate on this further in chapter 3. We'll cover that a bit more when we get there. So again, I read verse 14, and I think Steve was going to pick up at that point, but we've got about a minute to go. You may have a question or something else. Yeah, there were a couple of questions.

I think I finally figured that one out. There were some scriptures that weren't the right ones, at least marked here. And then this was another one on Titus. Maybe we can finish that one, and I'll start this one, and take a look at that one if you want. There was a question that came in regarding the book of John, which we're going to get to a little later, so we won't take a whole lot of time. But maybe really quickly, the question says, ...here on earth, why did Jesus tell Simon Peter that where he was going, Peter could not follow him yet, but that he would follow him afterwards?

So that's over in John chapter 13 at the end of that chapter, and then into chapter 14. So in chapter 1336, that's where Christ said, where I'm going, you can't follow. And then later in chapter 14, he says, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

And so it says, please explain this, is not heaven. Well, he says he's going to draw him. He doesn't say to heaven. He says to himself. So then I guess the question then becomes, where is Christ going to be? You know, at that time, when Christ returns, he's preparing for the kingdom. You know, ultimately is what he's preparing for. We know that ultimately that kingdom is coming to earth. Whether we look at Revelation 11, it talks about the kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of God, you know, and of his Christ.

That's what Revelation 11, 14, 15, 16 talk about. So Christ will be returning to earth. Back in Zechariah, it talks about the fact that Zechariah 14, 4, in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. So where will Christ be? Here he's returning to this earth. His feet are going to be standing there. So we see that he's going to come again.

And then he says, where I am, there you may be also. So where will they be? There will be a part of the kingdom of God which is on this earth. So that's the short of it. And we can talk about a little bit more of it when we get to that section of the book of John. All right. I'll just quickly give an answer to another question. This was on... the question was about Titus 3, verse 9, and the comments I made there.

Again, Titus 3, verse 9, it says, Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless. And the question asked, does this mean that we should not ask questions to one another about difficult scriptures or things going on in our lives because the questions may invoke differences of opinion? No, that's not what it means. You should be able and willing and able to sit down with someone, any other member or individual of faith and discuss the Bible, discuss questions.

Even difficult scriptures, as they may be for you, or to seek deeper understanding, or again, things going on in your life. And to do so in such a way that does avoid dispute or a foolish dispute that leads to contention and strivings that become unprofitable and useless. One of the most beautiful things in the world is two or three people gathered together. Christ said, I have it in the midst of you discussing the Word of God, discussing Scripture, talking about it, and perhaps iron sharpening iron, coming to better understanding, working out misconceptions, working out a deeper understanding about Scriptures, and doing it to build one another up and to build one another's faith.

That's a beautiful thing. And that should be done. The key to going about without getting into division or strivings or contentions is to do it with grace. To understand, as Paul says in Titus, and I brought out, that grace be with you. Grace, mercy, and peace. One of the best things you and I can learn to do with grace, whether it's a question about anything, if it's a question about understanding of the Bible, or about how something may be presented or put, to go to your brother, to go to one another, to go to a minister, to go to another member, and to sit down and discuss in a gracious manner, without argumentation, without accusation, without labeling, and come to an understanding about where people are, what your understanding is, what is the truth, what does the church teach, what should be our practice, without creating division.

When people can do that, that is a beautiful thing within the church. And that should be done. So don't ever shy away from that to try to squeeze this particular admonition against division into an interpretation.

All right. Maybe just a couple of quick reminders as we conclude. I'll remind you once again for our archives. Go to ucg.org. Media tab, live and archived Wednesday night Bible studies is where you can find them. Also, I might remind you that we have another Bible study in two weeks. So two weeks from tonight, we'll have our next in the series on the book of John. So we'll get into that. I might also encourage you to check out our BT dailies that we're recording every single morning and trying to get them up on the web by noon. Some new material all during the week. This was a BT nightly. Yeah, this was a nightly. And so you can check out our extra wrinkles that we have in the morning and check those out. We cover a lot of different topics. In fact, if you've got a question, other questions, let us know because oftentimes we'll take a question from a viewer or one that comes into the website and we'll talk about those things. Also, try to talk about some events that are happening in the world, as well as just some other things that might be going on in the church, in the work of the church, and what might be going on prophetically as well. So we'll look forward to seeing you next time. Have a good evening, and we'll look forward to seeing you two weeks from tonight. Drive safely.