The Gospel of John - Amazon S3... · The Gospel of John “That you may have life in His name.” Introduction and Outline Through this in-depth study of John’s Gospel, God strengthens

Eric J. Thomas First Baptist Norfolk

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The Gospel of John “That you may have life in His name.”

Introduction and Outline

Through this in-depth study of John’s Gospel, God strengthens our faith in Jesus so that we as His followers might taste abundant life each day.

I. Prologue (1:1-18) II. Book of Signs (1:19-12:50)

A. Prelude to the Ministry of Jesus (1:19-51) i. John the Baptist and Jesus (1:19-34) ii. Jesus and His First Disciples (1:35-51)

B. Early Ministry of Jesus: From Cana to Cana (2:1-4:54) i. Wedding at Cana (2:1-11) ii. Jesus and the Temple (2:12-25) iii. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1-21) iv. Jesus and John the Baptist (3:22-36) v. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (4:1-42) vi. Healing in Cana (4:43-54)

C. Opposition to Jesus: The Sabbath and Festivals (5:1-10:42) i. Sabbath Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1-47) ii. Feeding the Five Thousand (6:1-15) iii. Walking on Water (6:16-21) iv. “I am the Bread of Life” (6:22-71) v. Feast of Tabernacles (7:1-52) vi. Excursus: Woman Caught in Adultery (7:53-8:11) vii. “I am the Light of the World” (8:12-59) viii. Healing of the Blind Man (9:1-41) ix. “I am the Good Shepherd” (10:1-21) x. Opposition to Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God (10:22-42)

D. Moving Toward the Cross (11:1-12:50) i. “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:1-44) ii. The Plot to Kill Jesus (11:45-57) iii. Anointing in Bethany (12:1-11) iv. Triumphal Entry to Jerusalem (12:12-19) v. Gentiles and “The Hour” (12:20-50)

III. Book of Glory (13:1-20:31) A. The Last Supper (13:1-38)

i. Washing the Disciples’ Feet (13:1-17) ii. Prediction of Betrayals (13:18-38)


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B. Farewell Discourse, Part 1 (14:1-31) i. “I am the Way, Truth, Life” (14:1-14) ii. The Promise of the Spirit (14:15-31)

C. Farewell Discourse, Part 2 (15:1-16:33) i. “I am the Vine” (15:1-16) ii. The World and the Work of the Spirit (15:17-16:15) iii. Joy in the World (16:16-33)

D. Prayer of Jesus (17:1-26) i. Prayer for Glorification (17:1-5) ii. Prayer for His Disciples (17:6-19) iii. Prayer for Those Who Will Believe (17:20-26)

E. Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus (18:1-19:42) i. Arrest (18:1-11) ii. Trial Before Annas and Peter’s Denials (18:12-27) iii. Trial Before Pilate (18:28-19:16) iv. The Death and Burial of Jesus (19:17-42)

F. The Resurrection of Jesus (20:1-31) i. At the Empty Tomb (20:1-9) ii. Appearance to Mary (20:10-18) iii. Appearance to the Disciples (20:19-29) iv. Purpose of John’s Gospel (20:30-31)

IV. Epilogue (21:1-25) A. Appearance to the Disciples by the Sea (21:1-14) B. Jesus and Peter (21:15-24) C. The Greatness of Jesus (21:25)

The Prologue (1:1-18)

There’s nothing as dark as the darkest dark of the woods. But the good news is that when the light shines in the darkness, it shines brightly and cannot be hidden. Like a man trapped in the darkest wilderness, we are surrounded by darkness without any escape. We live in the despair of this darkness, hoping and longing for light to come our way. When we first encounter our world in the Gospel of John, we find a winter wasteland where the icy grip of sin has overtaken the world. It’s always winter and never Christmas because Jesus has not been born. But in the fullness of time, the light began to shine. The snow began to melt and the ice began to thaw. What caused the change? God pierced time with the coming of Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior of the world.1


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1. Jesus is the eternal God, creator of all things. Before man drew his first breath; before the mountains rose up from the seas; before the sun rose in the east and set in the west; before the moon cast its beams across the waters; before the stars found their place in the heavens; before time was, Jesus was! He is eternal!

In 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. (John 1:1-3)

Now, first off, John called Jesus “the Word.” What a description! It meant the speech of God, the law of God, the wisdom of God,2 and the very presence of God.3 The Word, Jesus Christ, is the supreme revelation of God to humanity.4 Jesus was always with God. Literally, Jesus was face to face with God,5 distinct in personality, but absolutely united and the same with God. Jesus is God, and always has been God.6 This is bedrock to our faith as followers of Christ, and it is the foundation for every other thing that we do.7 Since He is God,8 we can trust Him more than culture, for He knows all things. Jesus is the Creator. At the beginning of time, Jesus created the world. He created all things in the world. Jesus understands the world which He created. He knows its intricacies. There is nothing that is surprising to Him about the world. 2. Jesus gives light and offers life. Jesus brought life into the world of darkness, and that life was the light of humanity.9 The Old Testament speaks of life and light as essential ingredients in the story of creation.10 John’s assertion is that Jesus is the source of supernatural light, which is the capacity to live in accordance to God’s will.11

[That which came to be] in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:4-5)

Jesus shines, and the darkness will never overcome it.12 Jesus alone brings the light of life into our world of darkness. Only God-become-Man could bring the life that all crave since the days of Adam. Jesus shines His life into our world with power and purpose. He shines His life into the darkness as a fountain that has no end. He shines His life into the darkness and produces the children of light (John 12:36).


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This is our escape from the darkness. This is the hope in the midst of the despair. Jesus brings His life into our world, piercing the darkness. But some rejected the light, preferring the cold embrace of darkness. 3. John the Baptist gives witness to Jesus. Now, we see a special description of one man born for a purpose, and that purpose is especially connected to Jesus Christ.13 His name was John the Baptist, and we find a record of his appearance in John 1:6-8.14 The references to him are “highly appropriate appeals to the witness of a man whose appearance and ministry belong integrally to the Christ-event.”15

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. (John 1:6–8)

The Gospel writer declares, “There was a man.”16 John the Baptist was a normal human being, but he was born with a divine purpose.17 He came to be a witness to the Light of the world, Jesus Christ.18 Luke’s Gospel gives us further insight (Luke 1:15-17).19 Gabriel declared that John would not drink wine or strong drink. While many consider the asceticism of John to be the Nazirite lifestyle (Num 6:3), others consider it to be better reflected in priestly regulations (Lev 10:9).20 Most importantly, John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from the womb, which enables him “to act powerfully as the prophet in the tradition of Elijah who prepares Israel for the Lord’s coming (1:17).”21 The mission of John the Baptist will be to turn many to the Lord God. There is the picture here of an estrangement between God and the people; an estrangement that sin creates and establishes.22 He is empowered by the Spirit to share God’s gift of grace to return to Him through Jesus.23 John’s mission involves going before the Lord, to represent God to the people.24 By preaching the message of repentance to the people, John’s ministry parallels the “spirit and power” of Elijah.25 As John goes before the Lord, his message and ministry brings reconciliation in family relationships and turns disobedient people toward righteousness.26 On the whole, God will use John to prepare His people for His salvation.27 4. Jesus rejected. God sent John the Baptist on a mission to open the hearts of individuals and prepare them for God rescue through Jesus.28 Jesus is the One who came to give light and life to humanity.29


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That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. (John 1:9-11)

John declared that Jesus was the true light. Every other light is a fake, a counterfeit; the difference between the sun and a 60 watt bulb. Jesus came to unveil the darkness in the world and in the heart of humanity. He shows us who we are under the bright rays of His light and life.30 Some refuse the warmth of the Son so that they might believe in the fake. 5. Those who receive Jesus receive life. Even though some rejected Jesus, He offers life to humanity, to as many as receive Jesus, to as many as believe in His name. There is the offer of light and life through faith in Jesus Christ.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. (John 1:12)

The apostle clearly highlights the pathway to God’s family in this verse. The use of o{soi [hosoi; “as many as”] as the subject suggests that entrance to God’s family is a door that is available.31 The key that opens the door is “receiving” and “believing.”32 As many as receive Jesus, those who believe on His name, have the authority to become the children of God. Jesus chose to leave the throne room of heaven for a manger and a cross. He who is and always has been God chose to become a real, physical man. He did not give up His deity, but He chose to take on humanity.33 And we see this mystical, miraculous paradox that took place.34 We see Jesus on the move from heaven’s throne to humanity’s skin and bone. 6. Jesus became flesh and bone. Jesus, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead resided, took the reins of redemption and blazed the trail for our salvation. Jesus became a man, born in the womb of a virgin through the miraculous work of the Spirit.35 In verse 1, John wrote that Jesus was always and always will be God. In verse 14, John declared that Jesus became flesh at a particular point in time.36 He became flesh and bone.37

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has


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seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:14-18)

Jesus put on the skin of humanity and stepped into their sandals. He pitched His tent in the midst of humanity’s camp.38 John the Baptist once again enters the scene of the prologue to bear witness to Jesus as the One who is full of glory.39 He is the fullest, most supreme revelation of God to humanity, displaying and proclaiming the glory of God for all to see and hear.40 Jesus was the only one who could display the full array of God’s majesty and glory,41 for He alone knew and dwelt in that glory from the beginning of time and eternity (John 17:5). And yet, all who followed Him saw the glory of God in Jesus.42 All who followed Him could see the grace and truth of God, His magnificent goodness, His majestic glory.43 And He brought the full measure of God’s grace to transform humanity from guilt under the Law to glory under the cross.44 When Jesus showed up, grace and truth showed up (1:17).45 The fullness of grace and truth has been given by the Word-made-flesh.46 1I concur with John Painter [“Identity in the Fourth Gospel,” in Doing Theology for the Church: Essays in Honor of Klyne Snodgrass, eds. Rebekah Eklund and John Phelan Jr. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2014), 248] who contends that the “fourth evangelist drew on the roots of various Christological traditions to produce a high-resolution image of Jesus the Christ.” 2On lovgo~ [logos] as the speech of God, one may examine the parallels with the Hebrew rbd [dabar], which “because it covers both word and deed, in Hebrew thought dabar had a certain dynamic energy and power of its own” [R. E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (New York: Doubleday, 1967), 520]. Concerning the use of lovgo~ [logos] as the law of God, Dodd [Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 82] notes that the rabbis taught the Torah as the supreme example of God’s love, whereas John’s prologue presents Jesus as the supreme example (full of grace and truth). See C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (Westminster, 1978), 153. Here, he highlights the parallels between personified wisdom (Prov 8) and the lovgo~ [logos]. 3On lovgo~ [logos] as the presence of God, one examines the background of the Aramaic targums in which memra is used. Such a description, however, is not in agreement with C. K. Barrett [1978: 413] who writes that “Memra is a blind alley in the study of the biblical background of John’s logos doctrine.” 4See Darrell L. Bock, Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 412. He provides a good summary of the background of the prologue when he suggests that Jesus “is the ‘revelator’ of God, the one who shows in his life and person who and what God really is and the one who knows his plan. In fact, the Word can be equated with God while being described as distinct from him.” 5In 1:1, the prepositional phrase, prov~ tovn qeovn [pros ton theon; “with God”], has the connotation of a dynamic relationship. See Brown 1967: 4-5; D. A. Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 116-17] suggests that John uses prov~ [pros] to point out “rather subtly,


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that the ‘Word’ he is talking about is a person, with God and therefore distinguishable fom God, and enjoying a personal relationship with him.” 6F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 59-61. Bruce demonstrates the belief of preexistence in Jewish thought, which was primarily “ideal preexistence” in relationship to Wisdom or the Temple. “Here preexistence is predicated of a man who had lived and died in Palestine within the preceding half-century.” E. Y. Mullins, Studies in Colossians (Nashville: Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1935), 48. Mullins contends that the use of the present tense, ejstin, reveals the “permanent and abiding truth” that Jesus is and has always been God in heaven. James D. G. Dunn, Christology in the Making (London: T and T Clark, 1980), 176-96. Dunn suggests that Paul’s statements here reflect the incarnation, but not preexistence. The notion of preexistence, according to Dunn, does not occur until John’s Gospel. 7James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 603. Garrett contends that those in history guilty of the denial of Christ’s deity were also those who denied His preexistence. He furthermore writes that “the eternal preexistence of the Son of God is not merely a topic for abstract speculation, but it relates to divine salvation.” 8The last phrase in 1:1, kai; qeo;~ h\n oJ lovgo~ [kai theos ēn ho logos], has led some to conclude that the lack of an article with qeo;~ [theos; “God”] means that John is not referring to Jesus as God, but merely that He had the qualities of God. They suggest that Jesus was not God, but He was merely divine. Yet, as Carson [1991: 117] indicates, such a conclusion fails to consider the common use of a “definite predicate noun in this construction, placed before the verb, to be anarthrous.” 9In the translation of verse 4, I have taken o{ gevgonen [1:3; ho gegonen] to be connected to verse 4, so that the translation is “that which came to be [o{ gevgonen; ho gegonen] in Him was life.” R. E. Brown [1967: 6] concludes that this is eternal life for all who are “in Him.” 10Barrett [1978: 157-58] traces both the Old Testament and the Hellenistic thought. 11Calvin [The Gospel According to John 1-10, trans. T. H. L. Parker (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1959), 11] however suggests that light [fw~; phōs] here in 1:4 is the common grace of rational, ethical decision-making that every human possesses in contradistinction to animals. 12Gerhard Delling, s. v., “lambanw, ktl.,” in TDNT, 4:9-10. The verb, katalambavnw [katalambanō], can mean to grasp, seize, overtake, or understand. Here, the translation of katevlaben [katelaben] is “overcome,” although Barrett [1978: 158] rightly indicates that John may be playing on the richness of the meaning to communicate the whole scope of the darkness’ relationship to the light. 13The intrusion of John the Baptist on the scene of this prologue concerning Jesus is a logical movement even though it does not match the poetic style of the prologue neatly. F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 34. Bruce notes that the intentionality of the evangelist’s inclusion of the Baptist serves to “remind the reader that the author is not concerned simply to state timeless truths, but rather to show how these truths are anchored in human history.” Raymond Brown [1967: 27-28], who views this section as an addition by the evangelist to the original hymn, suggests that this is a logical progression of thought with the appearance of the


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Baptist at this point. This parenthesis prepares for the coming of the Word in the third strophe of the poem. The emphasis on the “real light” flows from the context of 1:8. The emphasis on the coming of the Word into the world flows naturally from verse 9 into verse 10. 14The inclusion of John the Baptist in the prologue leads some scholars to see the passage as an insertion by a later editor. Others, however, consider the appearance of the Baptist here a logical movement from eternity and the cosmos to temporality and humanity. For divergent views, see Raymond Brown 1967: 27 (insertion by editor); D. A. Carson 1991: 113 (logical inclusion by the Evangelist); C. K. Barrett 1978: 150-51 (logical inclusion by the Evangelist). This author adopts the position of Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 73. He writes: “The blocks of material in the Prologue devoted to John the Baptist are not to be regarded as an interpolation. They are the opening of an historic connection between the independent revelation of God in the Son and the course of prophecy and religion as represented in the person of John the Baptist.” 15Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 41. 16George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 12. The Greek text reads, ejgevneto a[nqrwpo~ [egeneto anthrōpos]. The use of ejgevneto [egeneto] is significant. John the Baptist “came on the scene.” He was born. This is significant in contrast to Jesus Christ, oJ lovgo~ [ho logos], who always was (h\n; 1:1). 17Tenney [1976: 73] suggests that the phrase, ejgevneto a[nqrwpo~ [egeneto anthrōpos; “there was a man”], highlights that The Baptist’s “divine commission was asserted, but he was not said to have a divine nature.” 18Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 90-92. He highlights that John came to finish his work of pointing to Jesus Christ. The Baptist explicitly declared that he was not the light that brought life to humanity. His purpose, however, was found as the Light of Christ reflected from his heart to the world. He was sent from God to reflect Christ to the world. Brown [1967: 224] indicates this same truth as he examines John 5:33-35. He reveals that John is the lamp for the Messiah. He has been set aflame by God to bear testimony to the world that Jesus is the Messiah. 19I. H. Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, NIGTC (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 57. Marshall indicates that “John’s coming will spell joy” for many because The Baptist will be great in the estimation of the Lord. “John’s greatness is due to his personal dedication and divine empowering for his task.” 20James Edwards [The Gospel According to Luke, PNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 37] writes that John’s lifestyle “is better understood in light of the priestly regulations required in Lev 10:9, which, like the similar prohibition of the boy Samuel (1 Sam 1:11), signified personal commitment ‘to make ready a people for the Lord.’” 21See Max Turner, “Luke and the Spirit: Renewing Theological Interpretation of Biblical Pneumatology,” in Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation, eds. Craig Bartholomew, Joel Green, Anthony Thiselton (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 270-71.


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22Godet [The Gospel of St. Luke, trans. E. W. Shalders and M. D. Cusin (New York: I. K. Funk & Co., 1881), 48] makes this point. The Greek verb, ejpistrevfw [epistrephō], in 1:16, reveals “that the people are sunk in estrangement from God.” 23Schweizer [The Good News According to Luke, trans. David Green (Atlanta: John Knox, 1984), 22] writes, concerning 1:16, that “salvation is thus the gift to men and women of the strength and the repose to return, to change.” 24As Fitzmyer [The Gospel According to Luke (I-IX), AB (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981), 326] notes, the reference to “Him” [aujtov~; autos] in 1:17 points to God. Although we understand the mission involves the Messiah, John’s role is to represent God to the people. 25Darrell Bock [Luke, vol. 1, 1:1-9:50, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994), 88] writes: “The Word of God, especially the salvific Word, contains power to change one’s view of God, self, and the world. It also changes how one lives.” 26This is a quotation of Mal 3:24 in the LXX. Bock [1994: 88] considers this to be a reference to family relationships. Stein [Luke, NAC (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 77] suggests that “because of John’s ministry, fathers will turn compassionately and lovingly toward their children (cf. Mal 4:6), and disobedient people will turn and accept the wisdom of the righteous.” Schweizer [1984: 22] suggests that “fathers” and “disobedient” are parallel, and “children” and “righteous” are parallel. In his interpretation, the “fathers” represent the disobedient generation which embraces its traditions above relationship with God. When John comes preaching God’s message, their hearts will turn to the “children” in that they will embrace the newness of reform that God’s righteousness demands. 27See Bock [1994: 90-91] who suggests that John’s ministry is to prepare God’s people “who are ready for God’s salvation.” 28R. E. Brown [1967: 50] writes: “John the Baptist is to prepare a road, not for God’s people to return to the promised land, but for God to come to His people. His baptizing and preaching in the desert was opening up the hearts of men, leaving their pride, filling their emptiness, and thus preparing them for God’s intervention.” 29Ernst Haenchen [A Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 1-6, trans. Robert Funk, Hermenia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 141] suggests that “this light does not remain the hidden possession of the Logos, but it accessible to every man, and could and would enlighten every one who comes into the world.” 30D. A. Carson [1991: 123-24] suggests that the verb fwtivzei [phōtizei] may mean to bring understanding (general revelation). Or it could mean to shed light upon and to make visible. 31For the use of o{soi [hosoi], see A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 4th ed. (Nashville: Broadman, 1923), 732. 32The toi`~ pisteuvousin [tois pisteuousin; “to those who believe”] further modifies aujtoi`~ [autois; “to them”]. 33Millard J. Erickson [Christian Theology, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998)740-55] discusses at length the relationship between Christ’s humanity and deity. We will examine his consideration


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of Phil 2:6-7. The first clause may be translated, “who being in the form of God supposed to be equal with God not to be seized.” Erickson contends that Jesus did not empty Himself of morfh/ qeou`, but He emptied Himself of to; ei\nai i[sa qew/. Erickson comes to this conclusion through his view of morfh;n douvlou labwvn as a “circumstantial explanation of the kenosis” which immediately precedes the adverbial phrase. Erickson writes: “Since labwvn (labon) is an aorist participle adverbial in function, we would render the first part of verse 7, ‘he made himself nothing by taking the very form of a servant.’ The participial phrase is an explanation of how Jesus emptied himself, or what he did that constituted kenosis. . . . We conclude that it is equality with God, not the form of God, of which Jesus emptied himself. While he did not cease to be in nature what the Father was, he became functionally subordinate to the Father for the period of the incarnation. Jesus did this for the purposes of revealing God and redeeming humanity.” 34On the paradox and mystery of the Incarnation, see E. Y. Mullins, The Christian Religion in Its Doctrinal Expression (reprint, Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1964), 185-86. Lewis A. Drummond [The Word of the Cross: A Contemporary Theology of Evangelism (reprint, Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999), 115] writes: “Herein rests the ultimate paradox: the omnipotent, creating Son became a man of flesh and blood.” 35On the views of the Virgin Birth and its importance, see Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 756-75; Garrett, Systematic Theology 1, 578-97; and Drummond, The Word of the Cross, 128-30. 36F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Eerdmans, 1983), 40. The significance of the use of givnomai [ginomai] centers on the comparison with 1:1 in which the Apostle uses the verb eijmi; [eimi]. The former verb which is used in this verse describes something that has taken place at a point in time. It denotes something taking place which was previously not in existence. This is different from the use of the verb eijmi; in verse 1, which describes something that is in existence and has always been in existence. This conclusion may be drawn since the Apostle uses different verbs of being to describe the existence of the lovgo" [logos]. In verse 1, the Word was in the beginning, was with God, was God. In verse 14, the Word became flesh. 37D. A. Carson [1991: 126] notes that the use of savrx [sarx] is almost shocking in its vividness. R. E. Brown [1967: 13] suggests that the term literally depicts the physical make-up of a person. Figuratively, it denotes the “whole of man.” See also, Peder Borgen, “Creation, Logos, and the Son” Ex Auditu 3 (1987): 96. Verse 14 pictures flesh and bones rather than some phantasm or “Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, or Future.” It pictures a “particular, historical person, Jesus of Nazareth.” 38D. A. Carson 1991: 126-27; Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Eerdmans, 1971), 102-103. The verb skhnovw [skēnoō] denotes the habitation and residence of the Word among His people in the most personal manner. It reminds the reader of the tabernacle where God met the Israelites and in which God met with Moses as a “man speaks with his friend” (Ex. 33:11). Jesus Christ becomes the tabernacle, the “infleshment” of God among humanity. 39Ridderbos [1997: 42] writes that the appearances of John the Baptist in the prologue intentionally and thematically bear witness to Jesus (1:6-8, 15). “In both cases we are dealing with John’s identifying witness concerning Jesus, first in regard to Jesus’ unique significance as the light of the world, then in regard to Jesus’ antecedent transcendent glory.”


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40R. E. Brown [1967: 13, 502-503] suggests that here the Evangelist speaks personally of witnessing the visible representation of God in the flesh. He declares that he and others saw the glory of the Lord. Glory, dovxa [doxa], is connected with the previous verb, skhnovw [skēnoō]. It is the very presence of God which filled the Temple. It is the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. The very presence and person of God was manifested in the physical, literally, flesh-man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus Christ was filled with the presence and the person of God, and He revealed that presence and person to those whom He encountered. 41Leon Morris 1971: 105; D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies (Baker, 1984), 29-30. Jesus is the unique one, the only one from the Father. 42Robert A. Guelich, ed., Unity and Diversity in NT Theology (Eerdmans, 1978), 29-30. Most notably, it was clearly visible to those who followed Him through His miracles and His Passion 43D. A. Carson 1991: 129; R. E. Brown 1967: 14. The nature of the visible glory of Jesus was filled with grace and truth. The phrase depicts the nature of God’s steadfast and enduring love. The Hebrew terms that serve as the backdrop to these nouns are dseje and tm,a,. This pair of terms is used continuously in the OT to describe the nature of God’s goodness. As Carson states, the “glory revealed to Moses when the Lord passed in front of him and sounded his name, displaying that divine goodness characterized by ineffable grace and truth, was the very same glory John and his friends saw in the Word-made-flesh.” 44This last prepositional phrase is problematic in interpretation. There are four basic options for interpreting cavrin ajnti; cavrito". The first option [J. H. Bernard, The Gospel According to St. John (T & T Clark, 1928), 1:29] is to take the preposition, ajnti;, to mean “corresponding to.” This interpretation, however, does not find a plethora of support in the language of Scripture. This preposition reserves that definition of correspondence to compound words such as antitype or counterblow. The second option is to take the ablative with the force of an exchange, in essence meaning that Jesus offered a grace in exchange for another grace. This was Augustine’s approach by stating that the grace of faith was given in return for the grace of immortality [Augustine of Hippo, In Johannes Tractium, iii.8]. This option, however, does not correspond to the context of the passage, and it further is not found in the theological or doctrinal teachings of the NT. The third option is the most favored by modern scholars [R. Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John, trans. Kevin Smyth (London: Herder and Herder, 1968), 1:275-76; R. Bulmann, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, trans. G. R. Beasley-Murray (Louisville: Westminster, 1971), 78; F. F. Bruce 1983: 43.], who state that the preposition gives the force of addition. Christ offers grace upon grace. Jesus offers a wave after wave of blessing. The normal preposition, however, for this interpretation would be ejpiv. The fourth option, adopted here and by D. A. Carson, looks to the definition as grace instead of grace. This looks to the exchange being Christ’s grace of truth for the grace of the Law [For a full discussion, see D. A. Carson 1991: 133-34]. 45R. V. G. Tasker, The Gospel According to St. John, TNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), 44-45. The significance of the two verbs, divdwmi [didōmi] and givnomai [ginomai] is worth mentioning. The Law, which was given through Moses, became the sole object of devotion for Judaism. This Law was separated from the giver of the Law. Grace and truth, however, could not be separated from Jesus, and they therefore, came into being through Him.


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46According to Carson [1991: 133], “the flow of the passage and the burden of the book as a whole magnify the fresh ‘grace’ that has come in Jesus Christ. That grace is necessarily greater than the ‘grace’ of the law whose function, in John’s view, was primarily to anticipate the coming of the Word.”


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Prelude to the Ministry of Jesus (1:19-51)

Following the Prologue, John the apostle moves directly into the ministry of John the Baptist and the subsequent beginning of the ministry of Jesus. The first part of this section deals with John the Baptist’s witness to Jesus (1:19-34), and the second part deals with the coming of disciples to Jesus as a result of The Baptist’s witness (1:35-51).

John the Baptist and Jesus (1:19-34). As John the Baptist begins his ministry in the wilderness, Jewish leaders send emissaries to him on a quest to discover more about him.1 In some ways, this questioning looks like a courtroom scene.2 Perhaps, like the temptation of Jesus (Matt 4:1-11), this encounter is a temptation or trial for John the Baptist.3 1. The ministry of John the Baptist. There are three statements with which John the Baptist clarifies who he is: 1) he is not the Messiah, 2) he is not Elijah, and 3) he is not “the prophet.” Each of these negative statements has a deeper significance that was relevant to the Jewish leaders as well as to the readers of John’s Gospel. Messiah. In response to the questions of the emissaries of the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, John the Baptist clearly states that he is not the Messiah. In the first-century, the Jewish people in Palestine were filled with expectations of a Davidic ruler who would lead God’s people toward blessing.4 John the Baptist emphatically denied that he was this Messiah.5 Elijah. The prophet Elijah was also prominent in messianic expectations in first-century Palestine. They believed that Elijah, who didn’t die but left the earth in a chariot of fire led by horses of fire (2 Kings 2:11), would return. We hear God speaking through the prophet Malachi foretell the coming of one like Elijah.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. (Malachi 4:5)

Jesus identified John the Baptist as the fulfillment of this prophecy (Matt 11:14; 17:12; Mark 9:13).6 Yet, John the Baptist denied that he was “Elijah.” Is this a contradiction? John the Baptist was the one who came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17), but the Baptist understood that he was not the literal “Elijah who escaped death in a fiery chariot” returning to the earth in a similar fashion.7


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The Prophet. Messianic expectation also looked for “the prophet like Moses” (Deut 18:15-18). The first-century expectations considered “a special end-time figure; indeed, the Samaritans identified this prophet with the promised Messiah.”8 Yet, John the Baptist refused to identify himself with “the prophet.” When further asked about who he is, the Baptist replied with a quotation from Isaiah 40:3.

A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3, ESV)

John the Baptist saw himself as more than a preacher.9 John’s function is that of a herald declaring the event of the Messiah’s coming (Matt 3:1; khruvssw; kērussō).10

John goes into the desert and preaches there because the dominion of God is near and the time of salvation will begin in the desert. He does not come before the congregation as a teacher expounding the Scriptures in divine service. He shakes men from their slumbers and draws attention to what is to come like the prophets. Like a herald he cries aloud so that all who wish to hear may do so, and his summons is: ‘Repent.’ He bases this summons on the nearness of the kingdom of heaven, Mt. 3:1. He is no preacher of the Law demanding that men should simply amend their lives. His preaching of repentance is also prophecy. He points beyond himself to one who is coming, to a figure of the future, to the Messiah, Mk. 1:7. Ancient prophecy comes to life again in John. Its greatest longing and supreme hope were for the remission of sins, the royal dominion of God and the coming of the Messiah. The word of the Baptist was still a word of promise. But it was sustained by the certainty of immediately imminent fulfillment. In this certainty that the Messianic age was just about to dawn John proclaimed the remission of sins. The baptism to which he summoned (Ac. 10:37) was a sealing of those who waited for the rule of God.11

He served as God’s spokesman in the wilderness of Judea preparing the way for the ministry of Jesus. How do we talk about Jesus in our world today? First, our mission is clear. We must understand that God has sent us into our world as His spokesmen. That’s not negotiable! If we are to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ and obedient servants of our God, we must declare the pathway to God’s kingdom through Jesus. We must be constant and urgent for the Kingdom of God’s reign and rule is here and now through Christ.


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Second, our message must be clear. We must talk about the judgment that awaits us. John the Baptist spoke of the ax at the root of the tree (Matt 3:10) and the winnowing fan in the hand of Jesus (3:12). We cannot depend upon our heritage of religious life to protect us from God’s judgment (3:9). We stand in judgment because of our sin. Third, we also must talk about Jesus who has come to forgive and to cleanse. John the Baptist declared that Jesus was the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). When we talk about Jesus, we must speak clearly about the forgiveness that He offers through His death and resurrection. Finally, we must talk about our response to Jesus. We must repent (Matt 3:2; metanoevw; metanoeō).12 We must have such a change in our lives wrought by the power of Christ’s blood that our lives reflect the salvation we have received. It is not enough to go through the motions of conversion. We must be changed from the inside-out. When we talk about Jesus, we must talk about sin, forgiveness, and repentance. 2. Jesus overwhelms sin with His sacrifice. While John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness, he continually pointed people to Jesus.13

The next day John 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 is preferred before me, for He was before me.’” (John 1:29-30, NKJV)

The Lamb of God. John proclaimed that Jesus is the Lamb of God whose sacrifice overwhelms and removes the sin that runs rampant in the world.14 The image of the Lamb of God brought to mind for The Baptist’s hearers the picture of a sacrifice.15 John the Baptist declared that Jesus is the Lamb of God come to make sacrifice. Yet this image used by John the Baptist is the object of much debate and discussion concerning its background and meaning. One option is to view the image as the lamb of daily sacrifices for Jews in accordance to the commands given to Moses (Ex 29:38-42). The sacrifice was given each day in the morning and evening. The lamb which was sacrificed had to be unblemished. Exegetically, the term for “lamb” [ajmnov~; amnos] in 1:29 is the same as the LXX term used in Ex 29:38. The image, then, could be the daily practice of Jewish sacrifice to demonstrate Jesus as the pathway to the presence of God.16 It perhaps shows that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system.17


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Others contend that this imagery envisions the scape-goat in the sacrificial system. On the Day of Atonement, the Jewish people offered the sacrifice of the scapegoat in accordance to the law (Lev 16:6-10). This is the goat upon which God symbolically placed the sin of Israel and sent into the wilderness. This image, however, fails in its essence because the goat is not a lamb, and the people who heard John the Baptist’s statement would not have thought of Leviticus 16. Similarly, some have proposed the view that the image represented the guilt offerings (Lev 14:12-13).18 Although the lamb was offered to deal with the guilt of sin, the guilt offering was most likely a bull or a goat which was sacrificed. Yet, the guilt offering is never mentioned in John’s Gospel.19 Still others have connected the image of the Lamb of God to Jeremiah’s appellation of himself as the “gentle lamb” (Jer 11:18-19).20 Such a view, however, does not address the Baptist’s statement concerning the removal of the sins of the world. Another view is to attach the imagery to a reference to the lamb substituted for Isaac in Genesis 22.21 Aqedah is the Hebrew term denoting the “binding” of Isaac. Haggadic literature portrays Isaac as an atoning figure, and this portrait received the title Aqedah. Some have concluded that “lamb of God” refers to Servant of the Lord (Isa 53), since Aramaic word can mean servant or lamb.22 Perhaps, the apocalyptic lamb of Revelation is the idea intended by the Baptist (1 Enoch 90:9-12; Rev 17:14).23 In Jewish apocalyptic literature, the lamb is the victorious lamb who destroys the evil in the world. This fits The Baptists proclamation that Jesus would be the “winnowing fork” in God’s hand, burning chaff in unquenchable fire (Luke 3:17).24 One difficulty with this position is that the Gospel uses ajmnov~ [amnos] for lamb, but the apocalyptic lamb of Revelation uses ajrnivon [arnion].25 A second difficulty is what is meant by the descriptive phrase of the Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world.” Such a statement does not seem to fit the picture of the conquering lamb who comes to destroy evil.26 Perhaps the best approach to ascertain the backdrop to the image of the Lamb of God is to admit that we do not know what The Baptist had in his mind. Further, we can declare that the precise nature of the image is not essential to understand the point that The Baptist made in his statement. Like the background to lovgo~ [logos] in the prologue, the image of the Lamb of God cannot be absolutely applied to any one sacrifice.27 Forgiveness. Jesus reveals God’s glory by fulfilling His mission of rescue for sinners like you and me. Jesus came to make sacrifice for sin so that we might be free in the forgiveness that He offers.


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3. Verification of Jesus as the Son of God. What distinguishes Jesus from the prophets of old and the gods of this age is that He alone pours out the Spirit upon those who follow Him.28 When the Spirit descends upon Jesus, John sees Jesus fully and completely as the Messiah who purifies His followers by the baptism of the Spirit and empowers His followers to live in the truth that the Spirit brings.29

John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:32-33, NKJV)

The Spirit of truth has come to us through Jesus Christ. We can see God’s glory through Jesus, for He alone gives us the Spirit who shows us God’s direction in daily life.

Jesus and His First Disciples (1:35-51). The day following the heavenly approval of Jesus, John the Baptist once again proclaims to two of his disciples that Jesus is the Lamb of God. They chased after Jesus who asked them, “What do you seek?” 1. Jesus gives us hope for the future. Andrew was on a quest.30 As a follower of John the Baptist, he was searching for a deeper devotion to God – the fulfillment of a promise from God that He would bring a Deliverer. When Andrew and John heard the Baptist’s words about Jesus, something rang true in the hearts. They longed to discover more about this Jesus.31 They wanted to know the One greater than the Baptist.32 Andrew wanted to know this forgiveness that the Lamb of God would bring. 2. Jesus changes our lives with hope. Something changed in Andrew.33 It’s seen by his description of the time he spent with Jesus, “We have found the Messiah.” This is the One who was promised to bring hope to His people. He found hope for the future in an intimate encounter with Jesus Christ. When Peter met Jesus, Jesus changed His life (John 1:42).34 When Philip met Jesus, something changed in his life (John 1:43).35 When Nathanael met Jesus, his life changed (John 1:49). Nazareth was a small and insignificant place, and Nathanael had a very hard time thinking that the Messiah could have come from such a place as this.36 Jesus told Nathanael exactly what was going on in his life. Jesus understood the questions that were


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swirling in Nathanael’s soul.37 He saw Nathanael through and through, and He revealed His power to Nathanael.38 All the questions about Jesus subsided when Nathanael saw the power of Jesus Christ and felt Christ’s touch on his heart. 3. When Jesus changes our lives, we must share Him with others. Andrew, who had found his quest satisfied in an intimate encounter with Jesus, went first39 to find his brother.40 The change that he experienced charged him to find his brother. Andrew had an intimate encounter with Jesus, and he longed to share it with his brother. Look at the text, “He first found his own brother Simon.”41 Love for family said, “Come and see.” Every time we hear of Andrew in John’s Gospel, he is bringing someone to Jesus.42 Philip left Jesus to find his friend, Nathanael. Philip’s excitement was overwhelming. The stories were true. The Law and Prophets promised the Messiah, and He had come. He had to find his friend and let him know.43 Nathanael was skeptical. We deal with people every day who believe that Jesus is a made-up story in the imagination of people too weak to stand on their own two feet. But God has chosen to use His followers to share Jesus even with skeptics. Here’s how God has chosen to work in our world.44 He changes our hearts and lives, and then He sends us to share Him with others.45 “One lighted torch serves to light another.”46 Many are searching for a satisfying answer to their fears. Jesus is the answer. Many are searching for comfort in the midst of endless change. Jesus is the answer. Many are searching for hope in the midst of despair. Jesus is the answer. Many are searching for help in the moments of your sorrow or sadness or depression. Jesus is the ultimate answer. So, we who have been changed by Jesus must go intentionally to those seeking answers and introduce them to Jesus. 1Ben Witherington III [John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 64] notes that oiJ jIoudaiòi [hoi Ioudaioi] is a description of the Jewish religious leaders when used in a “pejorative sense.” 2Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John, trans. C. Hastings, 3 vols. (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 1:286. 3B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St John, 2 vols. (London: Murray, 1908), 1:32. 4Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 142-43] notes that “first-century Palestine was rife with messianic expectations. Some expected a Davidic messiah; others (as at Qumran) expected a priestly Messiah as well, not to mention the coming of ‘the prophet.’”


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5The phrase, wJmolovghse [hōmologēse; “he confessed”] kai; oujk hjrnhvsato [kai ouk ērnēsato; “and did not deny”] kai; wJmolovghsen [kai hōmologēsen; “and he confessed”], denotes an emphatic statement by John the Baptist. 6Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel According to St. John, trans. C. Hastings, 3 vols. (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 1:289. 7Andreas Köstenberger, John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 61. 8Carson 1991: 143. 9See R. L. Webb, John the Baptizer and Prophet: A Socio-Historical Study (Sheffield: JSOT, 1991); J. P. Meier, “John the Baptist in Matthew’s Gospel” Journal of Biblical Literature 99 (1980): 383-405. 10G. Friedrich, “khrux,” TDNT, 3:703-705. He suggests that khruvssw has a more “dynamic and varied” expression than our translation of “preaching.” It does not mean “a learned and edifying or hortatory discourse in well-chosen words and a pleasant voice. It is the declaration of an event.” That event is the coming of the Kingdom of God expected by the OT prophets. 11G. Friedrich, “khrux,” TDNT, 3:705-706. 12This term calls for individuals “to change their way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.” [J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (New York: United Bible Society, 1988), 510.] 13According to Carson [1991: 147], this section (1:29-34) serves as a bridge that continues the portrait of John the Baptist and introduces a series of titles of Jesus which occur to the end of the chapter. 14J. Jeremias, s. v., “ajmnov~, ktl.,” in TDNT, 1:338. The term ajmno;~ [amnos] is used only four times in the NT. On each occasion it refers to Jesus, “who is compared with a lamb as the One who suffers and dies innocently and representatively.” 15Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), 175. As Morris suggests, “it is a way of bringing before the mind the sacrificial system as a whole. What all the ancient sacrifices dimly foreshadowed, that Christ effectively accomplished.” 16E. C. Hoskyns [The Fourth Gospel (London: Faber and Faber, 1947), 176] saw this as the backdrop to John the Baptist’s statement, drawing from the daily practice of sacrifice to demonstrate Jesus as the pathway to the presence of God through His obedience. 17Leon Morris [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 147-48] suggests that this title portrays Jesus as the fulfillment of the OT sacrifices. 18Carson 1991: 149 19Skinner [“Another Look at the ‘Lamb of God,’” Bibliotheca Sacra 161 (2004): 94] adds that a “greater problem for this view is that the guilt offering is never mentioned in the Gospel of John,”


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which would, according to Skinner, “be odd to have such a concept introduced in the first chapter only to have it abandoned throughout the remainder of the Gospel.” 20See J. H. Bernard, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1928), 1:43 21For more on the theme of this image, see P. R. Davies and B. D. Chilton, “The Aqedah: A Revised Tradition History,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 40 (1978): 514-46. They deny the propositions that reference of Aqedah is made in “pre-Christian Jewish sources” and that “it is reflected in the NT.” Aqedah is the Hebrew term denoting the “binding” of Isaac. Davies and Chilton point out that the noun is never used in Gen 22 (only the verb, dq[). Haggadic literature portrays Isaac as an atoning figure, and this portrait received the title Aqedah. 22See discussion by Athanase Negoita and Constantin Daniel, “L’agneau de Dieu est le Verbe de Dieu,” Novum Testamentum 13 (1971): 29-31. 23C. H. Dodd [Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: University Press, 1958), 230-38] considers this as the intended meaning of The Evangelist. 24Brown [1967: 58-59] views this image of the Lamb of God to fit the message and nature of The Baptist’s “eschatological preaching.” 25Brown [1967: 58-59] explains the different vocabulary with his view that the Gospel and Revelation were written by different hands from the Johannine School. 26Carson [1991: 150] explains that, in light of the apocalyptic lamb, that the statement, “who takes away the sin of the world,” points to the Messiah coming “in terrible judgment and clean up the sin in Israel.” Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 24-25] suggests that John the Baptist probably said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,” with the image of the apocalyptic lamb in mind and the Evangelist added the words “who takes away the sin of the world.” But, as Carson [1991: 150] indicates, that kind of hermeneutical gymnastics fails to provide a sound foundation and is quite unnecessary. 27Alan Richardson [Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament (London: T & T Clark, 1958), 226] writes: “In the mind of Jews in NT days a multiple image would be found, and it is hardly possible to determine which of its components would be dominant in any particular NT passage in which Jesus is spoken of as a lamb or as the Lamb of God.” 28C. K. Barrett [1978: 178] notes that Jesus has the Holy Spirit to pour it upon those who follow Him. “It is the gift of the Spirit that pre-eminently distinguishes the new dispensation from the old (cf. vv. 26f.); it belongs neither to Judaism nor even to John.” 29Barnabas Lindars, The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 111. 30John Painter, “Quest Stories in John 1-4,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 41 (1991): 39-40. He suggests that 1:19-28 presents the “widespread quest for the messiah”; 1:29-34 functions as the “words of the narrator” depicting John the Baptist’s quest of the messiah; and 1:35-37 reveals the quest of John’s disciples for the messiah.


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31F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 56. Bruce suggests that Andrew and John did not understand the full import of the Baptist’s words, “Lamb of God.” John the Evangelist, however, paints the progression of this story from 1:29-31 to the present passage. In 1:29-31, the Evangelist writes the words of the Baptist, beginning with the “Lamb of God” picture and then with the additional teaching about the Coming One who is “preferred.” Now, as Andrew and John hear once again the image of the “Lamb of God” in reference to Jesus, they see in this Jesus the Coming One. As Bruce writes, “No wonder then, that they were eager to know more of him.” 32D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 130-31. The Baptist had been preaching about the Coming One “before he was able to point to a specific individual” (1:15). This Coming One would be greater than the Baptist because He was “preferred before” him. Carson indicates that the Greek phrase o{ti prwtov~ mou h\n (1:15, 30) “picks up the pre-existence emphasized at the beginning of the chapter, but also absolute primacy.” 33R. E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 79. Andrew’s time with Jesus opened his eyes to see Jesus as the Messiah. 34As Köstenberger [2004: 77] suggests, “God frequently changed people’s names to indicate their special calling.” Giving Cephas the name, Peter, is indicative of Jesus calling someone that which He is making them to be [Carson 1991: 156]. 35Did Jesus find Philip, or did Andrew find Philip? Carson [1991: 157] suggests several reason why hjqevlhsen (he purposed) in 1:43 has Andrew as the subject rather than Jesus. First, oJ jIhsou`~ occurs with the next verb, indicating a change of subject. Second, if the prwton in 1:41 describes the “first” thing that Andrew did, then the “second” thing would be to find Philip. Finally, if Jesus is the subject, then this is the only place in chapter one where Jesus takes the initiative to find a follower. 36George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 27. He notes that Nathanael’s skepticism is understandable. Nazareth, he notes, has “no mention in the OT, the Talmud or Midrash, or in any contemporary pagan writings.” That Jesus is from Nazareth, according to Beasley-Murray, is another “offense of the incarnation,” like His birth in a stable. 37Darrel Bock, Jesus According to Scripture: Restoring the Portrait from the Gospels (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 420. The phrase, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit,” is a declaration that Jesus knew Nathanael’s attitude. It meant that Nathanael “was honest in his questions, but open in taking a look.” 38R. E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 83. The point of the Evangelist’s inclusion of Jesus seeing Nathanael under the fig tree reveals the power of Jesus to know things that normal human understanding alone could not provide. This statement is not about speculative meanderings concerning the fig tree or what Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. 39C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (Westminster, 1978), 181-82. He notes the various textual variants of prwton. He concludes that it is best to see this term as the original meaning that Andrew found Peter before he did anything else, or that Andrew found Peter before he found anyone else.


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40R. E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), 79. Now that Andrew has been changed by Jesus, Brown suggests that the “disciples must begin to act like apostles and bring others to Jesus.” 41G. Campbell Morgan, The Great Physician, 23. “It is impossible to find Christ in such relationship as Andrew did, without realising (sic) the birth in the soul of a missionary passion. No man can become a living follower of the Lord without immediately finding His compassion moving him, and driving him out after someone else.” 42See Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 140. 43C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John (Westminster, 1978), 184, 268. Philip’s comments describe Jesus as the fulfillment of the OT Scripture. Indeed, He brings to light the Old Testament Scripture. 44F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 59. Bruce notes that Philip finding Nathanael is “how the number of Jesus’ followers has gone on increasing to this day.” 45D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 159. He notes that Andrew witnessing to Peter and Philip witnessing to Nathanael “has been the foundational principle of truly Christian expansion ever since: new followers of Jesus bear witness of him to others, who in turn become disciples and repeat the process.” 46Frederick Louis Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 2 vols., trans. Timothy Dwight, 3d ed. (reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), 1:332.


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The Early Ministry of Jesus: From Cana to Cana (2:1-4:54)

A. Early Ministry of Jesus: From Cana to Cana (2:1-4:54) i. Wedding at Cana (2:1-11) ii. Jesus and the Temple (2:12-25) iii. Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1-21) iv. Jesus and John the Baptist (3:22-30) v. Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (4:1-42) vi. Healing in Cana (4:43-54)

The Wedding at Cana (2:1-11) Weddings like the one at Cana could last for days, and running out of wine was rather commonplace. Also, there were “caterers who could have provided more wine should the wine run out.” The wine was alcoholic, “though it was customary in many contexts to dilute it with water in order to be able to consume more of it.” Thus, the hosts of the wedding party would serve the best wine first, so that the guests could “appreciate the vintage” before they were too drunk.1

This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. (John 2:11, NKJV)

Jesus unveils His glory in the most personal way. The wedding scene highlights the tension of difficulties we face and the power of Jesus to meet those tensions with His power. By making water into wine, Jesus reveals that He is greater than the gods of any age.2 We no longer are confined to the way of life apart from the gospel.3 Now we have the power of God available to us through Christ to navigate the tensions of this life.

Jesus and the Temple (2:12-25) Jesus has the authority over all people and things. He is in a class by Himself and He gives life to those who cling to Him by faith.4 Jesus gets to the very heart of who we are. He understands our thoughts and the intents of our heart. Jesus was set on a radical movement that would upset the status quo of those who worshiped in the temple.5

When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these


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things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2:15-16, NKJV)

One way to look at this encounter was to consider the activity of the money-changers. The money for offerings had to be paid with Temple coins rather than Roman currency, because the Roman currency had the stamp of Caesar on it. To use the Roman coins was considered a defilement of the offering. Perhaps what concerned Jesus was that the system encouraged an outward show of purity (exchanging the coins), but there wasn’t the corresponding purity of heart.6 Another way of looking at Jesus’s cleansing the temple is to understand the way worship worked at the temple. The only place for “outsiders” to worship God was in the outer courts. The outer courts were filled with the buying and selling of merchandise rather than devoted to inviting outsiders to worship God.7 Perhaps what concerned Jesus was the lack of concern for those who were outside the covenant of promise that the religious leaders enjoyed. When the Jewish authorities ask for a sign from Jesus authorizing such an action, Jesus declares His future death and resurrection.8 The significance of His words would elicit greater faith in Jesus, for His words here at the beginning of His ministry are essentially a sign to them of the truth of His ministry of life, death, and resurrection. Jesus forecast the impending death that the religious leaders would bring with His crucifixion. At the same time, He declared that God would raise Him up from the dead. And this becomes the heart of worship for the early church. It wasn’t the practice or ritual in the Temple that defined worship for followers of Jesus. Jesus Himself has taken the center place of worship. Jesus understands and knows the every thought and intent of our heart. There is nothing in us that fools Him.9

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men. (John 2:23-24, NKJV)

Even though there were many people who believed Jesus because of the signs that He did, they were only feeding on His miracles and weren’t devoted to Him. Jesus understood their pretense and didn’t entrust Himself to them.10 Here, we begin to understand the differences between those who embrace religion as opposed to those who embrace Jesus. For the religious, there is a place of gathering and the rituals that follow. There is the emotional or physical benefit


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that comes from religious membership. Jesus understands the hearts of those who merely follow religion. Yet, followers of Jesus embrace Him. They worship Him as the One who is killed for the forgiveness of sin and resurrected as the living Lord. Followers of Jesus worship Him rather than a place or practices in a particular place. They believe in Him, giving Him their wholehearted devotion.

Jesus and Nicodemus (3:1-21). Nicodemus came to Jesus under the cloak of darkness to find answers to the questions of his heart.11 Nicodemus approached Jesus to find the answer to his question.12 Jesus knew the heart of Nicodemus.13 Jesus knew the questions that were swirling in his soul, and Jesus pierced the darkness of doubt and fear with God’s love.14 1. We need a new birth. Jesus told Nicodemus that he needed a radical rescue, a new kind of birth. Unless there is supernatural birth in the soul of a person, there will be no participation in God’s eternal kingdom.15 Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born from above to enter God’s kingdom. One must be born spiritually.16 We need a radical renewal of the soul.17

“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8, NKJV)

2. We need a new Spirit. We don’t need a new lease on life or a new view of our world. We need a new spirit. Only God can accomplish that! Just as the wind blows freely and cannot be controlled by human hands, the Spirit’s work is not subject to control or manipulation of human beings.18 Only God can accomplish a radical rescue in the heart of perishing people. This is the divine intersection of His love in the real world of Nicodemus and you and me and the people in the world in which we live. Jesus delivers what we need most. God has initiated the mission to rescue those who are perishing.19 This mission of rescue has been initiated by God’s particular love for the perishing.20 God does not remain in icy isolation from those who are perishing.21 God sent Jesus to the rescue for sinners like you and me.22 Because of His love, God has sent Jesus on mission to give eternal life to those who are already dead in the icy waters of sin.23 God sent His one and only Son to be a missionary to people perishing.24


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“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

3. Jesus is the divine intersection. Only Jesus, the Son of Man, can speak authoritatively about the things of heaven.25 God gave Him to a world of sinners because of His great love. Jesus descended from heaven to be lifted up on a cross for the rescue of those who are perishing. When the children of Israel in the wilderness gazed upon the bronze serpent that Moses raised, their physical life was restored. Jesus declares that when perishing people set their faith on Him, they will receive eternal life.26 God sent Jesus to deliver redemption to us.27 Redemption is the payment-price for sin.28 Because of His love for sinners, God sent Jesus to provide the righteousness we require so that we might have the relationship with God that we all desire.29

Jesus and John the Baptist (3:22-36). Following the encounter with Nicodemus, Jesus and His disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Like John the Baptist, Jesus and His disciples were baptizing, “calling God’s people, even the righteous, to account in light of the new inbreaking work of God.”30 John the Baptist was also ministering near the region. In the process of this ministry, a debate occurred between some of John the Baptist’s followers and a Jew concerning the Jewish rites of purification (3:25).31 This general religious discussion led people to come to John the Baptist and ask about Jesus, giving John the opportunity to give testimony to Jesus once again (3:27-36). 1. Uniquely sent, uniquely gifted (3:27-30). John the Baptist begins with a general statement that calls attention to the powerful assignment that God gives to His people.

John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.” (John 3:27–28, ESV)

John the Baptist acknowledged again that he wasn’t the Messiah, but he affirmed that he had a unique gift from God for his unique assignment.32 God has given us an assignment and the gifting to go along with that assignment. Ours is to fulfill what God has given and gifted us to do. When we


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stay in the lane that God has given us, then we discover the satisfaction that comes from fulfilling God’s calling on our lives. When we don’t stay in our lanes, we become envious of others in their particular calling and gifting.

At a wedding the best man does not complain because he is not the bridegroom; he is there to assist the bridegroom and to see that all goes well as he secures the bride of his choice. The best man is satisfied if the wedding goes off successfully and the bridal couple rejoice in each other’s company. So John is satisfied now that he has introduced Jesus to the faithful in Israel.33

In the same way, God has given us our assignment. Our goal is to make much of Jesus, for Him to increase in the view of those we encounter. 2. Jesus is above all (3:31). Beginning with 3:31, the Gospel writer begins to explain the significance of Jesus and His relationship with John the Baptist.34 John the Apostle, the writer of the Gospel, contrasts Jesus (“the one who comes from above”) with John the Baptist (“the one who is from the earth”). Jesus is above all, for He comes from God in heaven, while John the Baptist is bound by earth with its concomitant “finitude and limitations.”35 Jesus is from heaven, while John the Baptist is from earth in origin and nature.36 John the Baptist gives testimony to what he has seen and heard, and people reject his witness (3:32).37 Jesus speaks the words of God, and those who receive the testimony of Jesus about Himself certify that God is truthful.38 3. Receive and believe in Jesus (3:34-36). Once again, the Gospel writer highlights the necessity of receiving Jesus and believing in Him to become part of God’s family. God sent Jesus on a mission, and Jesus speaks the words of God to humanity. God the Father gives the Spirit to the Son without measure so that there is no limitation to the communion between the Father and the Son, and thus the words of the Son are in perfect union with the words of the Father.39 The perfect love of God the Father for God the Son means that the Father has given everything into the Son’s care, including life itself. Thus, everyone who believes on Jesus has everlasting life!

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman (4:1-42). When Jesus went through Samaria, He did something unusual.40 When He went to the well at Sychar for a drink of water, He did something incomprehensible. God directed Him through Samaria to encounter a person who was in need of Christ’s invitation to the best in life.41 What would cause a Jewish man to break every acceptable code of conduct to talk to a Samaritan woman?42 What would cause a holy man to spend time with a wayward woman?


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The theme of this section is that Jesus Alone saturates our sole with satisfaction. Jesus talked to the woman about the gift of God and living water.43 The kind of water that Jesus offers is the supernatural spring from God that satisfies us completely.44 Jesus told the woman that the living water He offers satiates every thirst. The kind of water that Jesus offers is the supernatural spring from God that gives life. It is more than the mythic tales of Ponce de Leon’s search for the fountain of youth. It is the true taste of life as God originally made it. It is life in all of its fullness today and all of its glory in eternity. Living water comes from Christ. The only way to taste this supernatural spring from God is through Jesus Christ. He is the conduit through which this living water flows.45 He has come to satisfy the thirst and give life to people living in the litany of loneliness.46 The portrait of this woman’s encounter with Jesus is the portrait of so many of us. Traveling alone to the well in the middle of the day, the woman becomes a portrait of our lives fixed in the trap of unfulfilled desires, rejection, and isolation. Her life was a mess, filled with broken dreams and shattered hopes.47 1. In spite of our past, Jesus satisfies. Jesus comes to us here and now to bring us an answer to the mess of our lives. Living in the loneliness of desires unfulfilled and rejection and isolation, Jesus approaches us to change our life. The woman at the well had desires that remained unfulfilled. She was a mess, and she didn’t want to think about it.48

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” (John 4:16-18)

Desires unfulfilled chased the woman from her first man to her second, from her second man to her third, from her third man to her fourth, and from her fourth man to the man she was living with.49 In the midst of the mess of our past, Jesus offers satisfaction. He offers living water today for us to taste and which will give us life that is whole! 2. Despite rejection, Jesus satisfies. The companion of loneliness is rejection. This woman had been rejected by her community.50 In the laughter of sin, we have fun for a season, but the heart is crying because of it. We think only about


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what will give us escape or pleasure for the moment without any consideration of the plan, purpose, or pain we cause the Father. 3. When we seek God’s will, Jesus satisfies (4:34-38). The disciples found Jesus completely satisfied by the food of obedience to God’s will. Through obedience to God’s will and His work, Jesus had His desires fulfilled. In the same way, when we seek to do what God wants, we will taste the same satisfaction. 4. Follow the Son of God to satisfied living. When we follow the Son of God, we meet people where they are, as Jesus met the woman of Sychar. Our goal isn’t to win an argument, but to lead people to worship the one, true God. Followers of Jesus Christ have a moral responsibility and a divine calling to share the living water from the hand of Jesus Christ who was crucified for sin and deliver it personally to everyone we can.

The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’” (John 4:28-29)

The woman went to the ones who had despised her. She went to the ones who had gossiped about her and spoken unkind words to her. She went to the ones who refused to embrace her, and she invited them to meet Jesus. “Come and See!” She surprised her community with an invitation to meet Jesus.51 When we have an intimate encounter with Christ, when we experience His compassionate and unfailing love, we feel the spark of devotion ignite in our hearts. We become ambassadors for Christ’s love. We who have been changed by Jesus Christ move into our world with an invitation to our community to meet the One who can change their lives.

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His own word. Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42)

We long and yearn for an intimate encounter with someone who loves us with a love that will never fail. Can you hear Christ’s words of love for you this morning? He invites you to a love that never fails. A bubbling spring of life that will never fade or falter. Satisfaction for all our hopes and desires. Right now,


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listen to Christ’s words of unfailing love spoken by the One whose mission it is to bring us love and life.

Healing in Cana (4:43-54). Jesus traveled from Samaria to Cana in Galilee where He performed His “second sign,” the first being turning the water into wine. Although a prophet has no honor in His homeland, the Galileans welcomed Jesus (4:44-45). This perhaps indicates a desire to welcome the miraculous works without embracing the person of Jesus.52 Just as Jesus told the nobleman (4:48), the people of Galilee wanted a sign, a miracle, but not the Man, His message, and His mission. Unlike the Samaritans who embraced Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the world (4:42), the people of Cana embrace the benefits of the miraculous, but not the Messiah. Yet, this miracle nonetheless shows the power of Jesus to invade our broken world with His life-giving power. Through His encounter with the nobleman, John the Gospel writer shows what is needed to experience this life-giving power in our lives. 1. Get to Jesus. If we are going to experience the powerful work of Christ in our lives, then we must acknowledge our need for Him. The nobleman came running to Jesus. He had in his heart a supreme focus: get to Jesus. 2. Believe in Jesus. When Jesus responds to the request of the nobleman in 4:48, He highlights the faulty faith of many; those who desire only a miracle.53 If we are going to experience the life-giving power of Jesus in our lives, we need more than a miracle. Although Jesus responds to the request, what is needed to experience life is more than the faulty faith that looks only to the sensational as verification of a claim. We need faith that attaches ourselves inextricably to Jesus.54 Thus, Jesus uses this opportunity to awaken faith in a nobleman through a miracle.55 Jesus told him that his son lived, and the man “believed” (4:50). Jesus heals the nobleman’s son from Cana, without traveling to Capernaum. The man received word that his son lived, and he and his entire family “believed” (4:53).56 Without faith, it is impossible to experience the life-giving power that Jesus offers. So, we have before us a simple answer to the dilemma in life we face. First, get to Jesus. Second, believe in Jesus.


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1Ben Witherington III, John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 78. 2Witherington [1995: 77] suggests that the narrative of the wedding at Cana presents Jesus as “one greater than any Bacchus.” He notes that “there are two reasons for this way of framing the story of the miracle: (1) the evangelist is producing a document for missionary use in Asia Minor and (2) a goodly portion of his potential audience for this story is Gentiles.” 3Witherington [1995: 77] suggests that tis miracle demonstrates the “theological and social significance of Jesus – he is the one who brings the new wine of the Gospel, which eclipses and makes obsolete previous sources of life and health.” 4Barnabas Lindars [The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 169] suggests that the phrase, ejpavnw pavntwn [epanō pantōn], can be used to denote Christ’s authority as well as His superiority. 5Witherington [1995: 88], in reference to the “remembering” of the disciples (Ps 69:9), suggests that the cleansing of the Temple was Jesus bringing “radical reformation” to Judaism as well as posing a “serious threat to the status quo” which would eventually lead to the trial and execution of Jesus. 6Barnabas Lindars [The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 138] writes that “it is more likely that Jesus objected to the outward show of piety which insisted on a ‘pure’ coinage without a corresponding purity of heart.” 7F. F. Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 75] concludes that this cleansing of the Temple was fulfillment of Zech 14:20-21 and served as “prophetic symbolism.” He remarks: “The only place within the temple precincts which was open to people of ‘all nations’ (apart from the Israelites) was the outer court (sometimes called the ‘court of the Gentiles); if this area were taken up for trading it could not be used for worship. Jesus’ action reinforced his spoken protest.” 8Witherington 1995: 89. The ultimate sign of Christ’s authority over life itself, including the purification of our worship, is His resurrection. It is this “historical memory” that grounds Christ’s followers and enables them to live with confidence in their present and future. 9Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 78] writes: “He who is the Word incarnate has immediate apprehension of the mysteries and complexities of human nature. He does not depend on spoken words as the index to inward thoughts and feelings; the hidden depths of every heart lie open to his penetrating insight.” 10Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2nd ed. (Louisville: Westminster, 1978), 202] writes that “Jesus has divine knowledge and is not misled by appearances, even by the appearance of faith.” 11George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 47. Although many have commented that Nicodemus h\lqen pro;" aujto;n nukto;" (came to Him by night) due to his fear of other religious leaders, the most likely reason was his desire for “uninterrupted conversation.” Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 186-87] notes that rabbis “studied and debated long into the night.” This would highlight the narrative with Nicodemus coming from a discussion with other religious leaders and then approaching Jesus with his


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questions. Carson suggests that such a proposal “is in danger of making Nicodemus a mere cipher, a literary creation of the Evangelist, since it is quite clear that Nicodemus would not see himself as an exemplar of spurious faith.” 12C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 2nd ed. (Louisville: Westminster, 1978), 205. Barrett indicates that Nicodemus speaks on behalf of the polloiv of 2:23, “who believed because they beheld the signs done by Jesus.” Furthermore, Nicodemus “is willing to acknowledge Jesus as a teacher, equal with himself (v. 10)” which was no small thing for a leader in the Sanhedrin. The phrase ajpo; qeou` suggests that Nicodemus went so far as to confer to Jesus the title of prophet. Contrarily, Carson [The Gospel According to John, 187] notes that ajpo; qeou` “is certainly not a confession of Jesus’ pre-existence, but a recognition that God was peculiarly with him. . . . Nicodemus does not suggest Jesus is a prophet, still less the prophet or the Messiah, but simply a teacher mightily endowed with God’s power.” 13Merrill C. Tenney, John: The Gospel of Belief, An Analytic Study of the Text (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948; reprint, 1997), 85. The phrase in 2:25, aujto;" ga;r ejgivnwsken tiv h\n ejn tw/ ajnqrwvpw/ (for He knew what was in man), reveals that Jesus knew the “human heart thoroughly.” D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 184. Carson suggests that “His knowledge of men’s hearts is profound and accounts in part for the diversity of [H]is approaches to individuals in the Gospels.” 14B. F. Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, 2 vols. (London: Murray, 1908), 1:105. Westcott suggests that Jesus “answered not his words, but his thoughts. The Lord’s answers to questions will be found generally to reveal the true thought of the questioner, and to be fitted to guide him to the truth which he is seeking.” 15Andreas Köstenberger, John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 122-23. Jesus highlighted the requirement for participation in the kingdom of God as “born again” (gennhqh/ a[nwqen; gennēthē anōthen). This is “a decisive inner transformation of a person’s life.” D. A. Carson [The Gospel According to John, 188] suggests that the phrase, “see the kingdom of God,” means “to participate in the kingdom at the end of the age, to experience eternal, resurrection life.” 16George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Waco: Word, 1999), 45. The use of the adverb, a[nwqen (anōthen), is interpreted by Nicodemus to mean “again.” The adverb can mean “again; from the beginning” or “from above” [See BAGD, s. v., “a[nwqen,” 77]. Yet, Jesus points out that it is not another physical birth that He has in view, but it is a spiritual birth. 17On the discussion of “radical renewal,” see Don Williford, “gennēthēnai anōthen: A Radical Departure, A New Beginning,” Review and Expositor 96 (1999): 451-61. 18Francis J. Maloney, The Gospel of John, Sacra Pagina 4 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998), 93. 19Lewis A. Drummond, The Word of the Cross: A Contemporary Theology of Evangelism (reprint, Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999), 98-99. He writes: “If evangelism is born in the heart of God, to know His revealed heart is where authentic evangelization has its inception. To attain that grasp we begin by looking at God the Father as the eternal Author and Creator of world redemption.” Drummond continues to describe the “fundamental theological truth” that God is the Father of creation and the Father of redemption.


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20In John 3:16, the phrase, ou{tw~ ga;r hjgaphsen oJ qeo;~ (houtōs gar ēgapēsen ho theos), has been variously translated when considering the adverb, ou{tw~ (houtōs). Schnackenburg [The Gospel According to John, HTCNT (New York: Herder, 1968), 1:398] and Brown [The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1966, 129] translated the adverb, “so much,” in relation to God’s love. Beasley-Murray [John, 44] took a similar approach when he translated the adverb, “so greatly.” For a treatment of the adverb that denotes manner rather than degree, and the issues relating to such a treatment, see Robert Gundry and Russell Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Us of OSTWS . . . OSTE in John 3:16,” Novum Testamentum 41 (1999): 24-39. 21Michael Green, Evangelism Through the Local Church (reprint, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1992), 17. He writes: “Evangelism follows from the nature of the God we worship. Did He keep Himself in icy isolation from our predicament? Did He say, ‘They are probably all right as they are’? Far from it: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). The God we worship is the supreme lover.” 22Stanley Grenz, Created for Community: Connecting Christian Belief with Christian Living (reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 38. He writes: “According to the Bible, God’s ultimate desire is to create from all nations a reconciled people living within a renewed creation and enjoying the presence of the Triune God. This biblical vision of ‘community’ is the goal of history.” 23Millard Erickson, The Evangelical Mind and Heart: Perspectives on Theological and Practical Issues (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 51-65. 24Michael Green, Evangelism Through the Local Church, 18. The “supreme reason” for evangelism is that “we worship a God who had only one Son, and He gave Himself to be a missionary. Such love becomes infectious.” 25Andreas Köstenberger, John, 127; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 200; H. Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 135. 26Christ’s statement of the Son of Man being lifted up like Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness points to the faith that brings eternal life through Christ’s passion and resurrection. See especially C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 214. 27This redemption comes at the price of Christ’s sacrificial, atoning death on the cross. This is an essential ingredient to an understanding of the Father’s Heart. He paid the ultimate price to provide deliverance from sin for us through Christ. Kenneth Kantzer and C. F. H. Henry, Evangelical Affirmations (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990), 522. He writes: “We are certainly not interested in shaping evangelical Christianity, and certainly not biblical Christianity, into a form that will prove palatable to the sinful hearts and minds of all humans. We are not trying to remove the ‘offense of the cross.’ That offense is an inherent part of biblical and evangelical identity. It would be an irresponsible denial of our deepest faith to remove it. Yet we are deeply concerned also to remove false obstacles to the gospel. We do not want anyone to reject a perversion or misunderstanding of the gospel.” 28BAGD, “ajpoluvtrwsi".” It is the purchase price for buying back a slave off the auction block.


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29James S. Stewart, A Faith to Proclaim (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953), 121-22. He writes: “If the first note in the apostolic preaching of the Resurrection was Christological, the second proclaimed the vindication of righteousness. For what the Resurrection meant to those men was this: ‘There is a power in action stronger than the whole hideous alliance of evil forces that crucified our Lord.’ They now saw that in the agelong terrible conflict of which history was the arena – that perpetual conflict between good and evil, light and darkness, God and the demons, which came to a head at the crucifixion – the last word lay with God. They knew now that they were facing a defeated enemy. The power which had taken Jesus out of the grave would yet remake the dark and ruined world, and smite dead hopes with sudden life. The Resurrection is not just a personal survival: it is a cosmic victory.” 30Ben Witherington III, John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 108. 31Barrett [1978: 221] proposes that the phrase, peri; kaqarismou` [peri katharismou; “concerning purification”], is not about baptism but about “Jewish purification” in general. 32Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 95] suggests this as John’s point when he writes: “Each man, says John, has his allotted gift or ministry from God; his responsibility is to fulfill that. John was appointed to be a herald and witness to the Messiah; he might well be content to have fulfilled that commission.” 33Bruce 1983: 95. 34Although the NKJV continues John the Baptist’s words from 3:27-36, most scholars suggest that John the Baptist’s words end with 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Barrett [1978: 224] and Ridderbos [The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 148] follow the course of the NKJV, while Dodd [The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), 308-309], Carson [1991: 212], Beasley-Murray [1999: 46], and Schnackenburg [1990: 1:381] suggest that 3:31-36 represent the explanations of John the Apostle. 35Carson 1991: 212. 36See Barrett [1978: 225]. The first ejk th~ gh~ [ek tēs gēs; “from the earth”] in 3:31 signifies that John the Baptist is from the earth in origin. The second ejk th`~ gh`~ [ek tēs gēs; “from the earth”] signifies that John the Baptist is from the earth in type or kind. 37The use of oujdei;~ [oudeis; “no one”] in 3:32 is hyperbole. Obviously some received the testimony of John the Baptist. See Köstenberger 2004: 13 n. 15. In keeping with the parallelism, I take verse 32 to refer to John the Baptist rather than to Jesus. Others [Morris 1995: 216; et al.] take verse 32 to refer to Jesus. 38The verb in 3:33, sfragivzw [sphragizō; “certify”], derives from the practice of signing important documents, sealing them with hot wax imprinted with a signet ring. Haenchen [A Commentary on the Gospel of John: Chapters 1-6, trans. Robert Funk, Hermenia (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 211] notes that “whoever accepts the message of Christ confirms that God is true and that he does not deceive men about his real intentions by means of this message.”


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Morris [1995: 217] notes that the use of the aorist of lambavnw [lambanō; “receive”] in 3:33 suggests the moment of conversion, “the decisive act whereby one decides to accept Jesus and Jesus’ witness.” 39C. K. Barret [Essays on John (London: SPCK, 1982), 16] writes that “when in hearing him [Jesus] you hear the Father, when in looking at him you see the Father, and worship him.” 40The text reads, e[dei de; aujto;n dievrcesqai dia; th~ Samareiva~ (4:4). The translation is, “It was necessary for Him to pass through Samaria.” Carson [1991: 215-16] suggests that geography was the reason for e[dei. Carson explains that the “only alternative [to the route through Samaria] was to cross the Jordan near Jericho, travel north up the east bank (the Transjordan) through largely Gentile territory, and cross back to the west bank near the Lake of Galilee.” He further cites Josephus who records the antipathy of Jews for Samaritans, yet the Jews preferred the shorter route through Samaria. Carson concedes that the e[dei [edei] “may refer to God’s will for Jesus,” but the geography was the primary motive for His travel arrangements. R. E. Brown [The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB 29 (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 169] suggests that this route through Samaria was not “geographical necessity.” He proposes that there was an alternative route – the one described above. He intimates that, considering the use of dei` in 3:14 as divine compulsion, the travel of Jesus through Samaria expresses the motivation of God’s plan or will. I believe that there is an indication that Jesus felt the pull of God to pass through Samaria. Certainly, divine compulsion and direction convinced Him of the need to leave Judea for Galilee. As such, the necessity to pass through Samaria, although geographically viable, came from the direction of God for a specific appointment with the Woman of Sychar. 41John writes, “He needed to go through Samaria” (4:4). It is like saying, “A triangle must have 3 sides.” Merrill C. Tenney, The Gospel of Belief: John, An Analytic Study of the Text (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 91-92. “In the light of the general tenor of the Gospel, the word suggested that His reason was not geographical necessity nor social pressure, but the underlying compulsion of the Divine Will that sought out the lost Samaritan sheep.” 42D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, 217-18. He notes that Jesus broke with the social customs of the day in his encounter with the woman. “The inherited suspicions and animosities between Jews and Gentiles . . . erupted at practical levels. Although some Jews could imagine eating with Samaritans (Mishnah Berakoth 7:1), doubtless many a Jew would not eat with a Samaritan on the latter’s home turf for fear of incurring ritual defilement. Probably this fear was intensified when the Samaritan was a woman: within a generation Jewish leaders would codify a law (Mishnah Niddah 4:1), that reflected longstanding popular sentiment, to the effect that all ‘the daughters of the Samaritans are menstruants from their cradle’ and therefore perpetually in a state of ceremonial uncleanness.” C. K. Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 232] notes further that the codified law of Niddah 4:1 reflects the popular view that a Jew could never be certain when a Samaritan woman was in a state of uncleanness. This uncleanness would be transferred to the pot that the Woman of Sychar was holding and passed on to Jesus when he touched the pot from which He drank. The phrase, ouj ga;r sundrwntai jIoudaiòi Samarivtai~ (4:9), according to Barrett, does not mean, “to have dealings with” (See BAGD, “sugcravomai.”), but rather “to use together with.” In this sense, Barrett interprets the phrase: “the Jews do not use [vessels] together with Samaritans.” This principle “Jesus manifestly ignores.”


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Whether the interpretation of the phrase is as Barrett proposes [which depends upon D. Daube, “Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: The Meaning of suncaravomai,” Journal of Biblical Literature 69 (1950): 137-47] or a modified translation which interprets sugcravomai as “to have dealings with,” but with specific reference to the “vessels of food or drink” [See, Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 259], the nature of Christ’s encounter with the Samaritan woman transgresses the Jewish code of conduct. Jesus was not arbitrary in His ministry, picking some of the Jewish code to follow and others to ignore. He fully understood the nature of this code, and exegeted it by His actions. The code itself represents the issue of purity which was so beloved by the religious leaders, but denounced by Christ. His actions depict His interpretation in the Synoptics, “Here and understand: Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man” (Matt 15:10-11). Rather than a blind follower of blind leaders, Jesus taught that defilement comes from the heart rather than from that which is touched (Matt 15:13-20). 43“Living water” in the natural sense is water that is fresh and not stagnant. Keener [The Gospel of John, 2 vols. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2003), 605] notes that water drawn from a well was not considered “living” unless it was fed by a natural spring. It was thought to be more healthy than water from a well that did not have an underground spring feeding it. 44“Thirst” is a biblical metaphor for spiritual desire (Ps 42:2; 63:1, 143:6). 45Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 150] notes that the “living water” described by Jesus is unveiled as the Holy Spirit in 7:37-39. Jesus is the conduit for this gift because He is the Messiah [See Francis Moloney, The Gospel of John, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998), 126-27 on the division of the conversation between the gift of God (4:10-15) and the identity of Jesus (4:16-30)]. 46Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 157-58. 47Cantwell [“Immortal Longings in Sermone Humili: A Study of John 4.5-26,” Scottish Journal of Theology 36 (1983): 80] remarks that the woman’s response is “a not very clever equivocation which Christ dramatically exposes, to reveal a life which is not so much immoral as a mess, a broken series of false beginnings and shattered hopes.” 48D. A. Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 221] suggests that when the woman told Jesus that she had no husband, her response was “designed to cut off further conversation along these lines.” 49There is some debate concerning the use of a[ndra [andra] and ajnhvr [anēr] in 4:16-18. Some consider the statement to reflect the woman has been married five times. Others consider that the woman has been married four times [a[ndra] and is living with another man [ajnhvr]. Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 153] suggests that the use of the two terms may be an instance of wordplay so that she has had five “men,” four of the men [a[ndra] she has portrayed as her husband and the fifth [ajnhvr] may be the husband of another woman. 50Andreas Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 148] notes rightly that women would usually come in groups to get water from the well, and that they would normally do this work in the morning or later in the day. “This Samaritan woman came alone, and she


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came in the heat of the midday sun. Both observations suggest that this woman was looked down upon in her community on account of her low reputation.” 51Ronald Runyon, “Principles and Methods of Household Evangelism,” Bibliotheca Sacra 142 (1985): 64-66. Household evangelism is the method of sharing the gospel with those in one’s sphere of influence. Michael Green [Evangelism in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 194-228] proposes that there were three distinct settings for evangelism in the early church: 1) public square evangelism, 2) person to person evangelism, and 3) household evangelism. Runyon notes that the woman who shared the gospel with her community is one biblical example of household evangelism. 52Carson [1991: 236] proposes that this “welcome” is an example of Johannine irony. 53Köstenberger [2004: 170] on 4:48 writes: “Jesus’ comment reveals that people’s earlier ‘welcome’ (4:45) was rather shallow and based primarily on Jesus’ miracle-working ability.” 54This is the point Morris [1995: 257] makes concerning 4:48. Morris writes: “Jesus is affirming that people such as the man who had come to him were lacking in that deep trustful attachment which is the essence of faith.” 55Carson [1991: 239] writes: “The apologetic value of miracles, though often exaggerated, should not be despised: Jesus himself can encourage faith on that basis.” 56Gerald Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 221] tackles this “multistage believing pattern,” which he concedes may trouble those of us with a punctiliar view of faith. Borchert writes: “Many Christians have developed single-dimension theories of believing that in fact contradict growth patterns of believing in personal experience as well as biblical perspectives.” Borchert’s point is that the nobleman experientially grew in his faith and it led to his advocacy for Jesus among his family and household so that all came to attach themselves to Jesus as the source for life.


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Opposition to Jesus: The Sabbath and the Festivals (5:1-10:42)

Sabbath Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (5:1-47). In the story of Sleeping Beauty, we find a young princess who had been asleep for one hundred years, and she would remain trapped in the sickness of perpetual stupor until a prince would come and awaken her with a kiss. Unlike a make-believe myth, we find ourselves trapped in the struggle of life, overwhelmed and overcome by the disease of life itself. Facing the rock-solid barriers to health and wholeness, we are stuck in a stupor. We find ourselves in the throes of inevitable weakness, knowing that our inadequacies and fragility keep us holstered to despair over our future. How can we prevail? Jesus is the Healer who makes us whole. When we follow Jesus, our weaknesses become the starting point for His strength to work and grace to shine.1 Like the nobleman’s son in Capernaum (4:43-54), Jesus gives healing to a paralytic by the pool of Bethesda (5:1-9). Through John’s description of Christ’s powerful healing, we are encouraged to overcome life’s struggles when we follow Jesus the Healer.2 1. Jesus saturates our weakness with God’s power. The powerful picture of the healing displays the power of God invading the darkness of our world. Jesus explained His work to the questions of the religious people.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He himself is doing. And greater works than these will He show Him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will.” (John 5:19-21, ESV)

Jesus shatters the fragility of sickness with the power of God.3 He offers a whole life to a broken boy and a disabled man. We may be desperate like the nobleman. We may be hopeless like the disabled man.4 Yet, Jesus offers us God’s power in the face of our desperation and hopelessness.5


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2. Jesus surrounds our brokenness with compassion. Christ’s compassion for a broken-hearted and broken-bodied people compels Him to move with God’s power.

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. (John 5:5-9, ESV)

Jesus takes the initiative.6 We need to feel and feed on Christ’s compassion for us right now. His heart beats in tune with the Father who desires us to be made whole. Jesus came on a mission of love and compassion sent by the Father to take upon Himself the illnesses and load Himself up with the sufferings of the people. Ultimately, He took upon Himself the root of disease and the cause of sickness, which was the original sin of Adam. 3. Jesus overwhelms death with life. The power and compassion of God in Jesus the Son of God brings life to all who believe on Jesus and follow Him.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.” (John 5:24–27, NKJV)

When we believe in Jesus the Son of God, immediately we have life. We cross over from the realm of death into life!7 The mantra that we can manage life on or own is a myth. To prevail in the face of our weaknesses, we need Jesus. Our need is more than a pill to cure our ill. It is more than freedom from the grip of a disease or the struggle of an illness. Our deepest need is Jesus Himself.8 Followers of Jesus honor Him (5:22-23). To show honor means something more than respect. It means to submit to Him in all things.9 To submit is to give Jesus absolute sovereignty in our lives. If we want to experience the power of God to make us whole, then we must submit ourselves to Jesus each and every day.


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Without faith in Christ, we will certainly be overwhelmed and captured by the troubles of our broken life. When we believe on Jesus who has come to fix what is broken, our lives will be marked by His power coursing through every circumstance we face.10

Feeding the Five Thousand (6:1-15). A satisfied life is like a watch that takes a licking but keeps on ticking. Through the ups and downs of this life, our spirit moves forward in perfect motion.11 When we encounter Jesus in John 6, we see the yearning for a satisfied life pulsing through the crowds that came to Jesus, because they believed that Jesus had the power to fix what was broken in their lives. 1. Jesus has the power to fix what’s broken. When it comes to a satisfied life, we often measure satisfaction by how limited our discontent is.

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. (John 6:1-2, NKJV)

The crowds followed Jesus because they saw that He had the power to heal diseases. He had the power to combat the terrifying force of sickness and win. So, they followed Him in search of that power which could take care of their problems and alleviate their pain.12 If we are going to find satisfied living, then we need to see Jesus in all of His power. He has the ability to fix what’s broken in our lives. Maybe today, we need to acknowledge what’s broken in us. The majority of the crowd following Jesus could only see the surface of their broken lives. And that may be true for you today as well. But if we take a moment to ask God for a deeper understanding of ourselves, it may be that He will show us the brokenness that runs deeper than the externals. Jesus has the power to fix broken bones, and He has the power to fix broken hearts and souls. 2. Jesus has compassion for us. When we are in need, we recognize that there are people around us who can help. They have the ability, but they lack the compassion.

And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples. Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:3–5, NKJV)


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As Jesus looked upon the crowds, He longed to help them. Here is a picture of Jesus filled with compassion for people. It was a personal, powerful compassion. We hear Matthew describe this account in this way: “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.” (Matt 14:14). Jesus feels our pain and struggle with life. He is the One who knows us perfectly and sees through the blockades we create to mask our pain. He is not standing outside our situation. He has made it His mission to engage us right where we are for the sake of God's glory and our good. Jesus looks upon you and me this morning, and He feels deeply for us. His compassion has muscle to it. He doesn’t merely wish us well; He has the power to make us well. 3. Jesus has a plan for a satisfied life. Part of the problem we have in obtaining a satisfied life is that we live by our plans, and our plans are weak and feeble. They’re incomplete and unsatisfying. Jesus knows what it takes to satisfy us (6:6. For the crowd, it was a miraculous display of His power as the Son of God. The test for Phillip was whether he saw Jesus as the Messsiah.13 Here is the crux of our journey toward satisfaction. Jesus knows what to do to help us, and He makes it His business to provide the solutions to our need in the details of our day. Jesus already has a plan to provide for our needs and bring glory to God.

And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted. So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John 6:11–14, NKJV)

There is no barrier to satisfaction that Jesus has not overcome. There is no enormity of need for which He cannot provide. Jesus already has a plan to provide for our good and God's pleasure. Jesus will take simple things and make them marvelous. Today, we search for satisfaction, but we are looking in places that can never produce the contentment we long to know. There is something inadequate in the satisfaction through our earth-bound discoveries. The bottom line is that there is


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no one on this earth who has perfect power and perfect compassion who can speak to our deepest needs in life. But Jesus Christ is that person and He delivers perfectly. In the best days and in the worst times, Jesus alone places us on the path to satisfied living. If we are to know satisfaction, we must run to Jesus Christ.

Walking on Water (6:16-21). One of the things that creates such a raging chaos of discontent in our hearts is the reality of life and where we are and where we aren’t. We take a look at our journey in this world, and we see that even though we’re not where we used to be, we’re also not where we need to be. We’re in-between, but Jesus is King of the in-between.

Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing. (John 6:16–18, NKJV)

The disciples were in-between. They had left the safety of the shore and were making their way across the water to Capernaum. And then things got a little rough. I don’t know about you, but I hate the in-between. I know I’m not where I used to be, but I hate that I’m not where I need to be. It leads me on a cycle of discontent. But Jesus is the King of the in-between. When He is at the center of our lives, when we surrender all the details of our relationships and experiences and failures and actions into His hands, then we can take another step closer to a satisfied life that is not dependent upon our circumstances. 1. Get a clear picture of Jesus. To live vibrantly in-between where we are and where we need to be, we have to get a clear picture of who Jesus is (6:19). Jesus is Lord, and we can trust Him. In Him is the ultimate victory of God over all the power of evil and chaos. Jesus is Teacher, the One who teaches and guides us in the Way of Life.14 He is Prophet, the One who declares the Word and Way of God and our accountability.15 He is the High Priest, the One who stands between hell and heaven for us.16 He is the Savior, the One who makes us whole.17 He is the Servant, the One who suffers for our salvation.18 He is Sinless, the One who is Perfect and Holy, fully pleasing to God.19 He is the Son of God, the One who is


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God.20 He is the Son of David, the One who is the fulfillment of God’s goal of salvation for humanity.21 He is the Son of Man, the One who is the Ruler and Advocate for humanity.22 He is the Lamb of God, the One who takes away the sin of the world.23 2. Fear subsides in the presence of Christ. Jesus told the disciples, “It is I; Don’t be afraid!” Now, those words represent more than merely an identification of Jesus to His followers. The words, “It is I,” are a statement belonging to God Himself. When Moses met God at a burning bush, he asked whom he should say sent him. God replied, “I am” (Ex 3:13-14). When Jesus said, “It is I,” He was saying those same words that God used in the burning bush, “I am.” This is Jesus telling His friends that God has appeared and is ready to help.24 Even though the storms rage and we row and find ourselves filled with frustration and fear, in the presence of Jesus God shows up to chase away our fear and give us satisfaction. 3. From Stormy Sea to Safe Haven. The key for a satisfied life becomes clear as we see what happens when the disciples embrace Jesus into the boat (6:21). We take steps closer to a satisfied life when we willingly embrace Jesus into the details of our lives. What once was drudgery in daily living becomes a joy-filled life of fulfillment as He takes us from where we are to where we need to be.

“I am the Bread of Life” (6:22-71). What can we do to be satisfied? That’s the question that Jesus answers for us. When you’re hungry, you know it. You want something to ease the pain in the pit of your stomach. You’re not satisfied until the hunger’s been fed. What bread is to our hunger, Jesus is to our soul. Jesus is the One who answers our hunger and satisfies us completely. He is the One who nourishes our hearts and lives completely.25

Jesus nourishes us completely, 6:22-29. The crowd was on a search for Jesus. Some had spent the night on the eastern side of the lake, and others came the next morning from the western side of the lake to see Jesus. When they couldn’t find him, they went to Capernaum where they knew Jesus had some friends and family.


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Today, we can join the crowd in this search for a satisfied life, but we must allow Jesus to open our eyes to our search and move us closer to the point where we embrace the satisfaction that He truly came to deliver. Make no mistake, Jesus has come, not merely to give us bread for our stomach, but to give us life in all its abundance forever. 1. Stop chasing things that won’t satisfy. So much of our life is spent chasing after things that will never satisfy us. The crowds that followed Jesus were on that kind of search. Our search for satisfaction leads us to pursue perishables, those things that may appease the yearning at the core of our soul, but they don’t last.

Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you at of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes.” (John 6:26-27a, NKJV)

“The multitude was a group of materialistic curiosity seekers who were self-satisfied in their tradition.”26 This group of people sought Jesus because they wanted more food for their tummies.27 Jesus had given a sign concerning Himself as He multiplied the loaves and fishes, but they ignored the significance of who Jesus is to get more for their grumbling stomachs.28 We need to understand that Jesus is the miracle-worker. He is the One who takes water and makes wine. He is the One who brings health to broken hearts and souls. He is the miracle-worker. But we need to stop searching for the miracle that He provides and see the sign that the miracle portrays. Jesus is the King of the universe and the Rescuer sent from heaven to bring satisfaction in the core of who we are. The miracle of the feeding the five thousand shows us who Jesus is. He Himself is our satisfaction! 2. Pursue life-giving soul satisfaction from Christ. Jesus teaches us to stop chasing after things that won’t last and take hold of the food that will satisfy us completely for eternity.

“Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” (John 6:27, NKJV)

Jesus Alone delivers satisfaction. The crowd was motivated by their desire for more food for their stomachs. Jesus knew that they were physically hungry,29 but He called them to work toward the food that will not rot or ruin or disappear over the passing of time. He called them to labor for the food that will last for eternal life. Only Jesus can deliver this food, for He alone is God’s deliverer.30


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3. Do the works of God. The crowd, especially the religious in the group, wanted to know what it was that they needed to do to tap into this glorious work of God and find His affirmation.31

Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:28-29, NKJV)

Our search for satisfaction leads us to work, work, work, and more work. We believe that if we can achieve, then we will be satisfied. The crowd longed to find the satisfaction that would never end, so they asked Jesus what works of God that they must work in order to find it.32 It’s similar to the rich young ruler’s question: “What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life” (Matt 19:16).33 Perhaps the answer that Jesus gives this morning is different than what you expected. It certainly was different than what the crowd expected. Jesus declared that the work of God that delivers a satisfied life is simply to believe on Jesus. The answer to the question is shocking to the crowd, for it entails no intricate legalistic effort. It is to believe in Jesus the Christ.34 The requirement for a satisfied life is faith in Christ.35 We take steps closer to a satisfied life when we willingly embrace Jesus into the details of our lives. What once was drudgery in daily living becomes a joy-filled life of fulfillment as He takes us from where we are to where we need to be.

The danger of missing a satisfied life, 6:30-40. Jesus has just declared that He is exactly what they need. Our search for satisfaction leads us to a cynical skepticism. We become embattled with our own emptiness and bitter about the failed attempts to secure our satisfaction. So, we approach the claims of Christ with a doubting heart.

Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” . . . Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” (John 6:30-31, 34, NKJV)

The people wanted proof that what Jesus claimed was correct.36 They were looking for Jesus to prove that He was the Messiah through surpassing even the gift of manna from heaven.37 Really, what they wanted was for Jesus to give them bread every day like manna for the children of Israel in the wilderness.


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The motivation for the request from the people is physical.38 Although they longed for baked dough to fill their stomachs, Jesus had a greater and more needful concern for them.39 We can miss a satisfied life when we are consumed with our grumbling stomachs. Our search for satisfaction leads us to look for more and more and more. We’ve tried the tasty morsels that we can create, imitate, and duplicate, and we want the bread to continue to come. We long to have our appetites in this life fulfilled, but Jesus wants us to see that there’s a greater satisfaction than what a full tummy can provide. 1. Jesus offers more than a temporary fix. Jesus needed the crowd to understand a few things. First, Moses didn’t give them anything.40 Second, the manna they received was temporary (6:32-33).

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32-33, NKJV)

God is the One and Only who provided the manna from heaven, and now He is the One who delivers the true bread which gives life to the world.41 God’s provision of rescue was depicted through the Exodus, but the true rescue comes through God’s provision of Jesus Christ to the world.42 2. Come to Jesus and believe in Him for a satisfied life. Our search for the everlasting gobstopper ends in despair. The goal is not the candy, for it will never satisfy. The goal is Jesus Christ, who alone can satisfy.

And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

Jesus declares the pivot of this whole search for satisfaction.43 Jesus provides life in all its fullness for those who come to Him and believe in Him. They will never hunger and never, ever thirst.44 There is no need to give the bread again and again, but those who come to Jesus will be completely satisfied and never hunger or thirst again.45 We find satisfaction in life through Jesus Christ alone. When we come to Him by faith, believing in Him with all that we are, then we will taste more than baked


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morsels of perishable nuggets. We will have more than mere moments of despair’s absence. We will find life in all its fullness forever. 3. Jesus secures and satisfies forever those who believe. Jesus teaches us that we will have certainty of everlasting satisfaction through faith in Him.

“But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:36-40, NKJV)

Jesus declared that there were some who saw Him, His miracles, and yet they refused to believe in Him. However, Jesus receives and rescues all who come to Him, believing on Him. He will hold onto us and give us eternal life. God draws sinners to Christ for a satisfied life, and Jesus will hold onto them. He won’t throw them out. He won’t lose them. His purpose is to do God’s will, and God’s will is for Jesus to take hold of every person who believes in Him and never let them go.

The danger of grumbling away satisfaction, 6:41-59. Jesus has just declared that He is exactly what they need. In 6:38, Jesus declared that He was the fulfillment of God’s desire to satisfy humanity. The manna from heaven in the wilderness was just a small taste of what God would do through Jesus who came down from heaven. The Jews around Jesus in the synagogue grumbled and complained like the grumblers with Moses and the children of Israel in the wilderness.46 They refused to acknowledge that Jesus came down from heaven because they knew Mary and Joseph (Ex 16:2, 7). We grumble because we want something that we don’t get. We want to get certain things, and it seems that those things are out of our reach. We want life to be a certain way, but that life is out of our reach. We long to take hold of something that we believe will satisfy, and we give our affections to those things, but they don’t satisfy, so we complain. Ultimately, when we grumble and complain like the Jews did in the synagogue, we are grumbling against God.47 The Jews grumbled because they couldn’t see


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how Jesus was who He said He was. They refused to hear and receive the pathway to life that God makes available to them. So, they grumbled away their satisfaction. Jesus didn’t back up from His claims in the presence of grumblers. He took His declarations to a higher level. Jesus teaches the pathway to a satisfied life to people whose hearts have been hardened and continue to be hardened against Him. 1. God must draw us to Jesus. The Jewish leaders, with hearts hardened to the work of God, could not imagine a satisfied life through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:43-44, NKJV)

God in His glorious work draws sinners to salvation and satisfaction.48 Those who come to Christ are those whom the Father has drawn to Christ.49 The reason that the Jewish people refused to come to Jesus was because they refused to learn from God (6:45-46). Because Jesus alone has seen God the Father, He alone can deliver God’s lessons for life to humanity.50 God Himself teaches us and shows us the greatness of life through Christ. When God draws us to Christ, awakening in our hearts the faith to believe in Christ, then Christ Himself satisfies us. 2. Faith in Jesus delivers life forever. So, here we come to the answer to our search for satisfaction. Life is brought to us through Jesus Christ alone. He alone is the object of our search, the judge of our spiritual destiny, and the sustainer of life in the fullest measure.51 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” (John 6:47–51, NKJV) Jesus gave His flesh to be sacrificed for sinners so that those who come to Him in faith receive forgiveness for sins and life everlasting.52 Jesus is the Bread who gives life to the world.


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When Jesus speaks of His flesh and blood, He is speaking about His whole person (6:53-58).53 He offers Himself fully to those who believe in Him, and we must take all of Him for ourselves as the source of satisfaction.54 Jesus gives Himself sacrificially to us so that we might live, and we must embrace Him as God’s gift for a satisfied life.55 What is it that you as a believer are embracing to satisfy your life? Jesus calls us to abide in Him. Is the Father teaching you, drawing you to Christ? Then I beg you to come to Christ!

We can’t work our way to a satisfied life, 6:60-71. What makes the saying of Jesus hard (6:60) is that it ran counter to everything that the people had been doing to attain a satisfied life for eternity. They had been living as though the way to a satisfied life is through their hard work at being better people. Jesus teaches that the only way to a satisfied life is to share in His suffering and partake of His sacrifice.56 We find it hard to imagine perhaps that the way to a satisfied life is not in our power to attain.57 For the followers of Jesus there in Capernaum, the idea that Jesus was not merely a bread-maker for them, that Jesus was greater than Moses, that the body and blood of Jesus must be eaten, and that they weren’t in control of their eternal destinies were all enough reasons for them to be offended.58 Some of us are just like those who were following Jesus. They thought that their hard work and effort would lead them to satisfaction and eternity in heaven. But when Jesus confronts us with the impotence of our own efforts, we just can’t handle it.59 We turn away from following Jesus.60 The key to a satisfied life, however, is found when we turn away from our efforts and turn fully to Jesus. 1. Jesus leads the way to satisfaction. Jesus declared that He was the bread that descended from heaven. He is the heavenly manna that gives life to those who believe in Him and abide in Him. The pathway to this satisfied life forever, however, comes through His death.61

When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.” (John 6:61–64, NKJV)


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If the people thought that eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus was offensive, how much more the idea that the Messiah must be killed? It is this death that leads to His ascension to the glories of heaven. Unless He dies, there will be no pathway to a satisfied life.62 2. Yield to the Spirit and be satisfied. When we believe that we can gain a satisfied life through our own efforts, we forfeit the very thing we crave. Our hard work will gain us nothing. But the Spirit of God will open our hearts to words of Christ which give us life that is full and abundant.63 The apostle Paul declared: “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom 8:6). In order to experience a satisfied life, we must yield ourselves to the Spirit, obeying Christ’s words and following Him. 3. Depend on Jesus alone to satisfy each day. Peter and the disciples don’t leave. Why? Because Jesus has the words that bring eternal life to the hearts of men and women. He gives us nourishment in every way.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:67-69, NKJV)

Bread is served in many ways to satisfy our hungers. It is toasted, jellied, buttered, flattened, and even grilled. It can be used as a hot dog bun, a sweet roll, or dinner roll. It can meet many needs. So can Jesus. Our soul has different kinds of hungers. He has a word for the popular and the lonely. If you are seeing clearly, He can help you. If your vision is cloudy, He can help you. Jesus can meet the needs of our souls.

Feast of Tabernacles (7:1-52). The Festival of Booths was celebrated in September or October after the grape harvest. The Day of Atonement marked the culmination of the festival. It was the celebration of God’s provision during the wilderness wandering. The celebration lasted for a week and on the eighth day was a special celebration. “Tabernacles came to be associated with eschatological hopes (cf. Zech. 14:16-19).”64 Jesus doesn’t try to be popular. The brothers tell Jesus that if He is going to be known, then He needs to move to Judea and make Himself known to the world.65 And everyone who was anyone was going to be at the celebration.66 The


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departure of so many followers in 6:66 perhaps led His brothers to believe that Jesus could turn things around if He went to the most popular festival in the land.67 So His brothers urged Him to go to the festival, but He knew that He had to do what God wanted Him to do.68 The dangers of opposition weren’t as important to Jesus as pursuing God’s will at God’s time.69 1. A straight path and the right destination. Jesus didn’t go to the Feast openly, but He did go in private to teach.70 The people were murmuring about Jesus.71 They knew that the religious authorities were passionate against Jesus, and they didn’t want to come out in the open for Him or against Him publicly for fear that they might become a pawn in the religious leaders’ intentions.72

Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” (John 7:16–19, NKJV)

Jesus makes it plain for us today. He delivers God’s will,73 not merely the opinions of human teachers.74 He offers two statements to validate His claim. First, those who seek to do God’s will recognize that His teaching is from God.75 Second, the fact that He doesn’t seek the approval or affirmation of others is proof that He teaches only what God wants.76 2. Presence, Power, and Provision of God. At the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests would come each morning with water from the pool of Siloam and poured it out on the altar. On the last day, they would march around the altar seven times praying for rain.77

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-39, NKJV)

The desire of people living in the desert is water. Jesus declared that He was the rain that they were wanting. He declared that He is the full measure of blessing from God.78

Excursus: Woman Caught in Adultery (7:53-8:11).


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Most commentators indicate that the MSS evidence argues against the location of the pericope de adultera between the water ceremony and the declaration of “Light of the World.” C. K. Barrett, The Gospel according to St John (London: S.P.C. K., 1962), 490. He writes: “It is certain that this narrative is not an original part of the gospel.” Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 882, writes: “The textual evidence makes it impossible to hold that this section is an authentic part of the Gospel.” Morris however goes on to write: “Throughout the history of the church it has been held that, whoever wrote it, this little story is authentic” (Ibid., 883). Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (New York: United Bible Societies, 1971), 219. He writes that “the evidence for the non-Johannine origin of the pericope of the adulteress is overwhelming.” Again, like Morris, Metzger suggests: “At the same time the account has all the earmarks of historical veracity” (Ibid., 220). For a notable exception, see Hermann Freiherr von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt, Teil 1, Die Evangelien, Abteilung 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1911) 486. He writes: “Die Mehrzahl der Codd, die das Jo-Ev enthalten, wiesen nach Jo 7 52 eine Perikope auf, die den Zusammenhang von 7 52 mit 8 12 unterbrechend, Jesu Urteil über eine ihm vorgeführte Ehebrecherin zum Gegenstand hat.”79 Based upon his inclusion of the pericope in its current location as original, Hodges writes:

The woman left the Court of the Women by its entrance on the east. In doing so she walked directly into the blazing Palestinian sun which then lit her path. Out of the shadows of darkness she had been roughly dragged to stand in shame before Jesus and before others. But with His words of compassion and direction still ringing in her ears, a new “day” had truly begun for her and she walked out into it! As she left, Jesus resumed the teaching which this incident had so ungraciously interrupted. But where the Son of God is concerned, nothing happens by chance. In the wake of this striking intrusion—and against the backdrop of the physical light of this world—He was able to claim for the first time a title that is among the greatest He bears. Whatever the sun is to the natural earth—the source of light and warmth and life—He is to the world of mankind. He is, in fact, the Light of the world! Moreover, if any man or woman (such as the one who had just been there!) cared to follow the path He


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could reveal to them, the sins of the night need no longer be their experience but instead each day they could fully enjoy the liberating and illuminating light of life!80

Nothing in this passage, however, would suggest that such an account is out of place in the ministry of Jesus.81 The primary point of this passage is the power of God’s grace and forgiveness that Jesus offers to those captured in the grip of sin. Rather than condemn her, Jesus came to save her (3:17). In light of the forgiveness that Jesus offers, He calls the woman to leave her life of sin. As recipients of God’s grace and forgiveness, we too must leave our lives of sin, basking in the glorious new life that He has given us through Jesus.

“I am the Light of the World” (8:12-59). The people were gathered in the Temple. Everything was dark as the people waited expectantly in the Court of Women.82 They waited in the shadows as the procession entered. A single spark of flame came through the crowd of people to the center of the hall. The people smiled, some cried, some simply sat in silence as eight candles were lit: a symbol of hope that God would bring light to the world. These eight candles began to shed a ring of light around the Court of Women. And then a Man stepped into the ring of light. It was Jesus of Nazareth. He looked upon the tears and the hopes and the fears. And He said, “I AM the Light of the World!” Jesus appears at the Temple, “from obscurity to clarity, from darkness to light.”83 Hope is the confident expectation that the sun will rise in the morning. Everything in this passage speaks to the hope that God gives us through Jesus Christ. 1. Jesus, The Light of the World, 8:12-20. The scene of this text is amazing. Jesus makes a declaration that was almost beyond belief. Following the forgiveness He imparts to the woman taken in adultery (7:52-8:11), Jesus steps into the scenery of the Temple Courts during the festival of Lights. 2. Jesus clears the path to life, 8:21-29. He is the One who leads us to Life. He told the religious leaders that they would die in their sin unless they followed Him. Unless they believed that He is the Christ, they would never find life. Look at verse 28.84 The way that Christ clears the path to life for us today is through His own death on the cross.85 The picture of Jesus being “lifted up” also finds connection with the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 52:13.86 Through the cross, Jesus is revealed as the Suffering Servant. It is this “lifting up” that becomes the


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pathway to know Him, either as Savior or as Judge.87 He is the One who delivers eternal life. 3. Jesus gives us power for living, 8:30-36. Jesus gives us the power of life in the freedom from sin and death; the power to overcome the fear of the darkness that swirls around us. He is the light that gives power and courage to our lives. After all, He is the One who has conquered death itself. Certainly, He is the One who brings us courage in the face of darkness. The powerful picture that Jesus displays is that when we follow Him, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. 4. Jesus connects us to God the Father, 8:37-47. The religious leaders claim that they were the “seed of Abraham” (8:33). Jesus confronts their claim, declaring that if they were connected to God in relationship, then they would love Jesus for He proceeded from the Father (8:42). Instead of loving Jesus, they seek to kill Him (8:37). Their desire to kill Jesus “indicated that they had another father who was directing their lives (8:38).”88 Do our lives reflect our relationship with God? 5. Jesus opens the door to eternity with God, 8:48-59. Jesus promises us that if we abide in His Word, if we believe Him and follow Him, we will never taste the pangs of death (6:51). We will find life for all eternity by grace through faith.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.” (John 8:51, NKJV)

It might not be what we would expect.89 The path to life comes from a Man, the Messiah, born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago. It might not be what we expect, but it is exactly what we need today! We need light to pierce the darkness of the day and bring the life that God has promised. We need hope in this world, and Jesus Christ steps into our lives and declares, “I am the light of the world. I am your hope!”

Healing of the Blind Man (9:1-41). We begin this section with a powerful picture of God’s activity in healing a man born blind. This healing demonstrated His status as Messiah.90 Jesus proves the truth of His declaration, “I am the light of the world.” He encounters a man who was born blind and gives the man sight. This miracle sparks a confrontation with the Pharisees over Jesus, especially that He did this miracle on the Sabbath.91


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When we are touched by the healing hand of Jesus, we stand out as a picture of heaven touching earth.92 Jesus took the initiative in healing the man. In a world where some are captured in the pain of “I was born this way,” Jesus answers with the power to change our lives forever. Jesus declared again that He is the light of the world (9:5). Sending the blind man to the pool of Siloam was a picture of the living waters that He bestowed (7:37).93 Not everyone likes change that they cannot control. The religious leaders didn’t see the change in the blind man a source of amazement, but they saw it as a source of offence. For them, the healing of the man on the Sabbath was sinful.94 In some ways, this encounter is a picture of John’s statement that Jesus is the true light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn’t overcome or comprehend Him; He came to His own and His own didn’t accept Him.95 So, the religious leaders sought to excommunicate the blind man and brought him to trial (9:13-34). This is the high-point of legalism. Rather than rejoicing at the work of God in their midst, the religious leaders looked for ways to destroy Jesus, even going so far as to excommunicate the blind man. The blind man, confronted by the possibility of excommunication, was overwhelmed by his own common sense. When asked if Jesus was a sinner, the man replied, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” (John 9:25).96 The Pharisees could not accept Jesus because of their hard-hearted blindness.97 Because of the rejection of the grace of God through Jesus, the Pharisees are fixed in lostness.98 There is no help for people who reject the only help there is.

“I am the Good Shepherd” (10:1-21). We long for a life with no missing pieces, yet there are so many of us at so many times who find ourselves missing key parts to a life that is complete. W. A. Criswell once wrote: “You are either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or going into a storm.” We’re captured in the monotony of a life that is something less than living. Jesus has come to give us more than just the routine. He uses the illustration of a the sheep and the shepherd to help us in our search for peace.99 The scene is familiar to the first-century readers.100 He has come to bring us the best life.101

Dangerous Enemies to Peace


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When Jesus begins this conversation, He is sounding an alarm to the crowd and to us.102 He was calling the crowd and us to listen closely to the truth.103 The theme of His teaching is the shepherd and the sheep, and He describes those who seek to enter the sheepfold by some way other than the door.104 These are the dangerous enemies of peace. 1. Crooked Pathways (10:1, 8). An enemy of peace promotes a door that has little or nothing to do with Jesus.105 They are fakes and frauds (10:8). The foundation for their promise of peace rejects, neglects, ignores, corrupts the revelation of God through His Son and His Word. They throw God’s will to the wind, pursuing a path that benefits them no matter the cost to others or to Christ’s Kingdom. 2. Selfish Ambition (10:1, 10). An enemy of peace is a thief and a robber. They are motivated by personal gain at the expense of others.106 Their singular motivation is self-interest and greed. They disregard what God wants because their faithfulness is reserved for whatever will protect their own desires. They promise great times for those who pursue their course, but in the end the purpose of their pursuit is to steal, kill, and destroy. 3. Temporary Allegiance (10:12-13). When the tough times come, the enemies of peace run and hide. They are fickle providers of protection, not faithful friends feeding us hope and joy and peace. Because their allegiance is to themselves, they run away when the wolf comes prowling. Throughout Scripture, we hear of those who seek their own good at the expense of others. We hear of dangerous allurements that draw us away from God’s design and desires. But the end of their empty promises of peace is devastating despair.107

Jesus is the way to peace. Jesus tells us a statement about the way to peace. Jesus declares that He is the way to salvation and peace. Other “doors” have been offered to deliver safety to the sheep, but they are thieves and robbers.108 1. He is intimately, personally committed to us (10:2-3). Jesus declared that He is the Shepherd who calls out to the sheep. The sheep recognize His voice and He knows them by name. He is personally, intimately committed to us. He speaks, and we recognize His voice. He speaks, and we rush to His embrace. He speaks, and we find joy and hope and life with no missing pieces.


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2. He leads us on the journey to peace (10:4). Jesus goes before us, to show us the way to peace each day. Jesus guides those who are under His care. Oh how we must hear Jesus and follow Him. The call of the wild beasts may surround us, but the call of Jesus Christ is stronger. The raging storms may threaten us, but the power of Christ’s voice in the wind soothes our soul. When life is urgent, and even when it’s not, chaotic confusion can consume us in a vortex of woe. Each moment presents a million options that can shatter into broken dreams or flower into beauty. There’s very little peace on my earth when I have to go it alone in the apex of making decisions in everyday living. Jesus is the One who directs our steps so that peace becomes our theme. When we humble our hearts to follow Him, He gives us the peace of infinite wisdom in the grip of everyday living. 3. He rescues and cares for us (10:9). He is the only way to be saved, rescued from the guilt of our sin and the ravaging enemies of peace. We are nourished together as Jesus Christ leads us to the “green pastures” and “beside the still waters” (Ps 23:2). Each day brings challenges, obstacles, and difficulties that confound and confuse us. We can be captured in a maelstrom of unmanageable moments, meeting mountains beyond our ability to move. It’s in our everyday living that the Jesus Christ shines His peace. Jesus is the “Mighty God” able to save all who trust in Him. He has nothing less than the full omnipotence of God at His command. He is the Mighty God who has gained the victory over everything that hinders peace from our life (Isa 9:6).109 And He is the “Everlasting Father” who touches us with intimate strength, a personal and powerful love that meets us right where we are today. We can find peace because Jesus Christ gives us strength and victory for everyday living. 4. He gives us life by giving His life for us (10:11). Jesus declared that He had come to deliver the best life. It’s the picture of the flock flourishing under the care of the shepherd. This is the life that we long to have. It’s not merely counting time through this existence. It’s living each day immersed in the very best life that God provides.110 Jesus stands between us and danger. He cares enough to die for the sheep, to protect and guard them. That’s the Road of Sacrifice. We were in the path of terror, and Jesus came to put His life in that path to provide peace for humanity. He is our only source of protection and peace. We live in absolute security under the rule of Jesus Christ. Even when the wolves attack, Jesus will not flee, for He is the faithful Shepherd, the true Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep.


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5. He is on a mission of peace (10:16). Jesus is the Shepherd, and He is bringing together The Flock which He directs and protects. It is larger than the groupings of Jewish people in the first century, and it is broader than the hundreds who gather for worship each week. Just as Christ was not content with the few in the flock around Him, we must continue His mission in our world as ambassadors of this glorious peace that is found through Christ alone.111 Captured by the guilt of sin, we are captive to despair. Dead and dying, we long to find escape and life. Each morning we chew our breakfast of tears. Each night we taste the bitterness of our weakness. We are prisoners, locked in the cell of sin and swirling in the shame of guilt’s chain. Unable to escape and unworthy of pardon, we long for a way out of our prison. Then we see Jesus. Faith is sparked in our hearts by God’s power. Jesus has come with our salvation in His grip. We hear the awful and awe-filling transaction of grace. Jesus paid the ransom for our forgiveness through His death on the cross. He took the place of sinners on the chopping block of sin. He is the Rescuer sent on mission to set the captives free. Through His death, the cell of sin has been shattered and the shackles of shame have been destroyed. Because of my faith in Jesus who died for me, I have been set free! I have tasted God’s grace through faith in Christ, and now I live! Jesus is our only source of protection and peace when the walls of around us are crumbling.112 We should follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, for He leads us to the pasture of His peace. We follow Jesus because of the relationship that He has made with us.

Opposition to Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God (10:22-42). At the Feast of Dedication, Jesus once again faces the opposition of the religious leaders. This section comes with two questions and followed by two responses from Jesus. 1. Is Jesus the Messiah? (10:22-32). There is almost a frantic urgency on the part of the religious rulers in their question to Jesus, “Are You the Messiah?” They gather around Jesus in a group and ask Him for a plain and direct answer to their question.113 The response of Jesus is plain: “I did tell you, but you did not believe Me.” Although there is no direct statement about His Messiahship to the religious leaders in the previous chapters of John’s Gospel, His meaning was plain when


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He referred to Himself as shepherd as well as giving sight to the blind man.114 Jesus culminates His response to them by declaring, “My Father and I are one” (10:30). This statement calls attention to the shema (Deut 6:4). It is nothing less than a claim to deity.115 Certainly, Jesus operates in the world in unity with the Father, accomplishing what God the Father had given Him to do.116 The statement, however, presents more than a unity of will and action.117 Thus, the religious leaders set out to stone Jesus for His blasphemy. 2. Does Jesus make Himself God? (10:33-42). Jesus sees the stones and asks whether they are going to stone Him for the good works that He has done, works which originate with the Father. The religious leaders respond that it wasn’t His good works but His “blasphemous words.”118 They are going to kill Jesus because He, being a Man, makes Himself God. Jesus turns to the Bible as a response, quoting Psalm 82:6, “I said, ‘you are gods.’” In this psalm, God speaks to judges who exercise judgment on behalf of God Himself, but these judges would die like any human being. The point that Jesus makes is that if these judges who speak on behalf of God can in some sense be called “god,” then “how much more is this designation appropriate for him who truly is the Son of God.”119 Thus, Jesus places the opponents against the words of God and the unchangeable nature of Scripture.120 Once again, Jesus calls out their unbelief (10:37-38). He calls them to look to His works. If they are not from God, then don’t believe in Him. Yet, if the works that He has done are from God, then they should believe that “the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Although these words from Jesus give great comfort and joy to followers of Jesus, for the religious leaders they were “further evidence of blasphemy,” which led the rulers to try and arrest Him.121 Jesus withdrew from the religious leaders, returning to the region where John the Baptist had been baptizing. In that region, many continued to believe in Jesus and follow Him. 1George R. Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 67] suggests rightly that the two signs (4:43-5:9) display the theme of Jesus giving life to those whom he wills (5:21). 2For a more complete picture of divine healing and a balanced approach concerning more charismatic tendencies, see Douglas Moo, “Divine Healing in the Health and Wealth Gospel,” Trinity Journal 9 (1988): 191-209. 3Barnabas Lindars [The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 222] notes that greater works are still coming through Jesus will cause men to marvel “because what they


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have so far seen is only a faint shadow of the full scale of the eschatological task which Jesus will perform when he is glorified.” 4Gerald Borchert, John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 232. Borchert indicates that the paralytic’s response to Jesus’s question in 5:6 “revealed both his poor understanding of God and his sense of hopelessness.” 5The “whom He will” in 5:21 is not arbitrary selection on the part of Jesus. As Lindars [1982: 222] suggests, “those who are healed or raised to life by jesus are selected examples of what is to be universal at the end of the age.” 6Leon Morris [The Gospel According to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 303] proposes that “Jesus takes the initiative (as in the case of all the ‘signs’ in this Gospel save the healing of the nobleman’s son).” 7Beasley-Murray [1987: 76] writes: “The promise of life is for him who hearts the word of the Son and believes the Father who sent him. The promise becomes immediately effective; the hearer-believer has eternal life now. He has the judgment behind him, not before him, since judgment is for unbelief (3:18, 36), and he has crossed over from the realm of death into the sphere of the divine sovereignty, the characteristic of which is life for all who enter it.” 8Morris [1971: 303] suggests that the first essential ingredient to experience Christ’s power is our intense desire for it in recognition of our brokenness. 9J. Schneider [s. v., “timavw,” in TDNT, 8:178-79] indicates that this verb in 5:23 is used with strong theological significance. Jesus is calling others to honor Him as they honor the Father because the Father has given Him authority to act in the Father’s name. Thus, “men are under obligation to subject themselves to Him and His judgment.” 10Concerning 5:19-47, Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 257] writes: “Jesus is what he is only in humble obedience to and complete dependence upon the Father. He has no independent status; he even has no independent will or judgement. He does only what he see the Father do. This is at once a humble acknowledgement and a lofty claim. Simply because his one aim is to be obedient men may see in him the character and activity of God himself.” 11Imagery taken from Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment (London: L. B. Seeley and Sons, 1829), 25. 12Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 142] these were people who yielded to Jesus only "superficial allegiance" for they were primarily interested in the fulfillment of their needs and didn't understand the significance of His power. 13Ridderbos [The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 210] suggests, and Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 200] concurs, that Jesus is testing Philip’s commitment as a follower of Jesus Christ. 14James Leo Garrett Jr., Systematic Theology: Biblical, Historical, and Evangelical, Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 545. He writes: “The ultimate witness to the message and mission of Jesus was God the Father.” Jesus is “rabbi,” the one who teaches others the ways of God. In Matt


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23:10, the evangelist declares o{ti kaqhghth;" uJmwn ejstin ei|" oJ Cristov" (“for your Teacher is One, the Christ”). Garrett suggests that kaqhghth;" is a term that points to one who guides or leads. 15Luke 7:16; Acts 3:22. Oscar Cullmann, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed., trans. S. C. Guthrie and C. A. M. Hall (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963), 43-49. Cullmann suggests that this term in connection with Christ refers to the one who proclaims the eschatological kingdom of God. 16Ex 19:6; Mark 12:35-37; Ps 110:4. Cullmann, Christology, 83-89. Cullmann writes: “Is it not significant that Jesus applies to himself a saying about the eternal High Priest precisely when he stands before the Jewish high priest and is questioned by him concerning his claims to be the Messiah? He says in effect that his messiahship is not that of an earthly Messiah . . . but that he is the heavenly Son of Man and the heavenly High Priest.” 17Isa 19:20; Phil 3:20; 1 John 4:14. Garrett [Systematic Theology 1, 576] suggests that the term swzein and related words means to heal or to make whole. See also, W. Foerster, s.v., “swv/zw,” TDNT, 7:965-69, 980-1012, 1013-22, 1023-24. 18Mark 10:45; Acts 3:13, 26. See, R. H. Culpepper, Interpreting the Atonment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963), 36-38; H. H. Rowley, The Servant of the Lord and Other Essays on the Old Testament (London: Lutterworth, 1952), 39-41, 49-57. This title points most directly to the suffering servant of Isaiah’s prophecy. Rowley sees a process of identification so that the suffering servant is Israel (49:3), then the remnant (49:5-6), and finally the individual (52:13-53:12). Culpepper sees the sufferings of the servant including innocence, silence, willingness, completeness, obedience, vicarious, redemptive, and victorious. 192 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15. Jesus is the One who knew no sin, and yet became sin on our behalf so that we might have friendship with God. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T and T Clark, 1958), 4/2:92-93. Barth suggests that Jesus participated in our sinful condition. However, this goes against the biblical evidence from 1 John 3:5, Heb 9:14, and 2 Cor 5:21. The NT writers contend that Jesus lived a sinless life. Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1994), 328-29. Grenz affirms the sinlessness of Jesus, yet he suggests that this sinlessness “cannot function as a foundation for the assertion of his deity.” He argues that this affirmation is a confession of faith rather than a foundation for faith. I find his arguments specious and lacking in sufficient foundations for faith in Scripture. 20Matt 4:6; Matt 28:19; Acts 9:20; Ps 2:7 / Acts 13:33. 212 Sam 7:14. Leonhard Goppelt, Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols., trans. J. Alsup (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 1:168. This title refers to Jesus as the goal of salvation history. 22John 3:13, 14; 6:53; 8:28; 12:23. This is the principle self-designation of Jesus, according to Garrett (Systematic Theology 1, 556). It points to His reign over humanity and witness for humanity in heaven. Alan Richardson, An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament (New York: Harper and Row, 1958), 145. He writes that the Son of Man was “a term which could be made to carry the meaning which Jesus wanted to pour into it.”


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Rudolph Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, 2 vols., trans. K. Groebel (New York: Charles Scribners, 1951, 1955), 1:26-30. Bultmann denies that Jesus understood Himself to be the Son of Man. 23John 1:29. John the Baptist declares that Jesus Christ is the Supreme Sacrificial Lamb from God who lifts up and carries away (ai[rw) the sin of the world. 24Even though Brown [The Gospel According to John, 2 vols., AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, 1970), 2:533-34] suggests that this is merely identification, he concedes that it is clearly in line with divine theophany of the OT in which God declares: “Do not be afraid; I am the God of your ancestors.” Likewise, Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 259] concludes that these words “cannot be other than a divine identification statement,” connecting with the identification of God’s name in Ex 3:14. 25Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 534. 26Tenney [The Gospel of Belief: John, An Analytic Study of the Text (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 116] suggests that Jesus spoke to three groups within this discourse on the Bread of Life. The first group was the multitude (6:22-40), the second group was “the Jews” (6:41-59), and the third group was His inner circle (6:60-71). 27George R. Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 90] writes that these people “failed to see the meaning of the feeding miracle.” They longed only to get more food. 28As Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 261-62] suggests, the use of shmeià [sēmeia; “signs”] “points beyond the physical concrete reality to the reality of revelation. It provides insight into who Jesus is.” 29Thus, Schlatter’s [Der Evangelist Johannes, 2d ed. (Stuttgart: Calwer, 1948), 170] description of Jesus’ awareness of the poverty that plagued Galilean farmers. 30The picture of the seal set upon Jesus by the Father is a description of “Jesus’ exclusive appointment and authorization by God as the bringer of salvation [Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 225]. 31Gerald Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 262] rightly notes that the question about doing the works God requires was a quest among the religious to gain “precise definitions of legitimate, God-honoring work that would provide the devotee with God’s assured affirmation.” 32The phrase in 6:28, ejrgazwvmeqa ta e[rga tou` qeou` [ergazōmetha ta erga tou theou; “work the works of God”], reflects the notion of the crowd that there is some particular or “novel form of work” which God requires, and it is their “naïveté” to believe without a doubt that they have the “intrinsic ability to meet any challenge God may set them” [D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 284-85]. Urban von Wahlde [“Fath and Works in Jn vi 28-29: Exegesis or Eisegesis?” Novum Testamentum 22 (1980): 304-315] comes to a different conclusion after an analysis of the traditional interpretation espoused by Carson and others. He concludes that “work the works of God” is an idiom for “doing the will of God.” 33Andreas Köstenberger, John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 207.


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34Borchert [John 1-11, 263] highlights the comparison between faith and works: “Acceptability with God is a relationship God gives (6:27), therefore, and both believing and obeying are parallel ways one acknowledges dependence on God. As the Son always responded appropriately to the Father, people are to respond to the Son, who was sent by the Father (6:29).” 35Köstenberger [John, 208] writes that “in light of the Jewish emphasis on ‘works of the law,’ Jesus’ answer is nothing less than stunning: God’s requirement is summed up as believing in “the one he has sent,’ that is, the Messiah.” 36As Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 285] notes that “Jesus has been teaching with naked authority; the synagogue crowd demands an attesting, validating sign. One might have thought that the feeding of the five thousand was sign enough. In fact, it was enough to prompt speculation that Jesus was the promised Prophet like Moses (v. 14). That in turn suggested to the crowd that they therefore had a right to expect more spectacular signs than Moses himself provided.” 37Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 151] suggests that the people may have been saying: “In the messianic age the gift of manna will be renewed; give us manna, and we shall know that the messianic age has truly dawned.” 38See Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 229. 39Tenney [The Gospel of Belief: John, An Analytic Study of the Text (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976), 118] suggests that, as in John 4:15, the plea of the people for bread seems to be lacking “pure faith.” 40Carson [The Gospel According to John, 286] writes: “Jesus is persuaded that far too much attention has been lavished on Moses, and far too little on God himself, the ultimate supplier of the bread from heaven.” 41Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 290] shows that ajlhqinovn [alēthinon; “true”] is emphatic in the text, revealing that Jesus points them to the true bread from God. 42Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 209] writes: “As in 3:14, an event during Israel’s wilderness wanderings at the exodus is shown to anticipate typologically God’s provision of salvation in and through Jesus.” 43Lee [The Symbolic Narratives of the Fourth Gospel: The Interplay of Form and Meaning, JSNT Supplement Series 95 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994), 135-36] rightly notes that 6:35 is the “narrative and theological centre of the scene.” 44Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 92] notes that the negatives, ouj mhv [ou mē] and ouj mhv pwvpote [ou mē pōpote], are emphatic and very strong. 45This is brought out by Carson, The Gospel According to John, 288. Carson writes: “So the hungry and thirsty person who comes to Jesus finds his hunger satisfied and his thirst quenched. This does not mean there is no need for continued dependence upon him, for continued feeding upon


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him; it does mean there is no longer that core emptiness that the initial encounter with Jesus has met.” 46Borchert [1996: 267] points to the discussion in Urban von Wahlde, “The Johannine ‘Jews’: A Critical Survey,” New Testament Studies 281 (1982): 41-54. 47This is the contention of Moloney [The Gospel of John, Sacra Pagina (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1998), 217]. 48Millard J. Erickson [Christian Theology, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 938-39, 954] deals with the electing purposes of God in John 6:44-47, noting with the text that only those whom the Father may come to Christ as His people. Köstenberger [John, 213] also writes that “people can come to him only if the Father who sent Jesus draws them. Ultimately, therefore, salvation depends not on human believing, but on the ‘drawing’ action of the Father (presumably by the Holy Spirit) by which God moves a person to faith in Christ.” 49Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 213] writes: “Jesus proceeds to underscore the human inability to gain salvation apart from divine enablement. People can come to him only if the Father who sent Jess draws them.” 50This is Carson’s [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 294] point, along with Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 296] and Schnackenburg [The Gospel According to St. John, trans. C. Hastings, 3 vols. (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 2:52]. 51Tenney [The Gospel of Belief, 121] writes that Jesus “was the great objective of all spiritual search and the arbiter of spiritual destiny, the sustainer of spiritual life.” 52When Jesus told the crowd that they must feed on His flesh and drink His blood, He was calling them to partake of the life and forgiveness of His salvation. E. Earle Ellis, The World of St. John (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1995), 67-68; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 278-79. Carson views this statement metaphorically rather than sacramentally. He agrees with Leon Morris and George Beasley-Murray that Christ’s words signify that life for humanity comes through appropriating the Son’s sacrificial death “into our innermost being” through faith. See also, George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 99; Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971), 378-79. 53Köstenberger [2004: 216] contends that such a combining of these terms is “Hebrew idiom referring to the whole person.” 54Lindars [The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 269] writes: “This is the climax of the discourse. All the metaphors are dropped, and the whole thing is put into terms of personal relationship.” 55See Carson 1991: 298. 56See the discussion concerning the metaphorical portrayal of 6:49-58 in D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 294-99.


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57Maybe some followers were indignant that Jesus claimed to be the One who had come down from heaven. This is the view of Brown [The Gospel According to John, 2 vols., AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, 1970), 1:299]. Ridderbos [The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 244] concludes that the disciples were offended “not from the fact that they had to accept him as the one sent by God from heaven, but from the idea that their salvation should be bound up with his self-offering into death.” 58Carson [1991: 300] offers these four reasons that the followers’ sensibilities were offended. 59The use of ajkouvein [akouein] in 6:60 does not mean “understand” (NKJV), but rather has the connotation of listening with a view of obeying or following. 60Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 274] suggests that those “scandalized” by Jesus’ sayings were “unbelievers” (6:64). He concludes that “discipleship in John is far more than a matter of saying the right words or belonging to a group. It is a matter of obediently following Jesus.” 61Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 219] suggests that the reference to Jesus’ ascent points to His glorification through the avenue of the crucifixion. It is the picture of the crucifixion as the way to satisfaction that confounds and frustrates the human mind. 62Jesus has repeatedly promised to raise those who believe in Him and abide in Him up at the last day. This pathway to glorified living as followers of Christ takes the route of Christ’s own death and ascension / glorification. The connection between a satisfied life (raise up at the last day) and Christ’s ascension (glorification) is the death of Jesus to deliver forgiveness to sinners. Lindars [The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 273] rightly suggests that John portrays the ascent as the glorification of Jesus as the Son of Man, which is “anticipated in the Passion. It is the point where revelation and glorification meet, and the descent and the ascent overlap.” 63Without doubt, the reference to the Spirit here points us to the work of God in the heart of man. It is the revealing work of the Spirit who gives us understanding and obedience to Christ so that we are satisfied. As Carson [1991: 301-302] notes, the Spirit illumines the heart and mind to perceive and receive the divine revelation of Jesus Christ. Further as we yield to the Spirit, we feed on Christ by feeding on His words. 64Andreas Köstenberger, John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 229. 65Thomas Brodie, The Gospel According to John: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 310. 66F. F. Bruce [The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 171] writes that “It seemed incredible to the brothers that any one who believed himself to be Messiah should deliberately avoid publicity. . . . Everyone who mattered in Israel, at home or abroad, was likely to be found in Jerusalem during the great harvest-home celebrations.” 67Köstenberger 2004: 229. 68C. K. Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 308-309] writes: “His brothers (whose foolish suggestion showed their unbelief) urged him to seek


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publicity among the great crowds who always assembled for this, the most popular of the pilgrim feasts. It was absurd, they said, for him to think that he could be a public figure while he restricted his activity to an obscure corner. To such an argument Jesus could not yield; it ignored the essential difference between himself and other men. In the first place, unlike others, he could not choose his own time for coming and going; his time was appointed by God. In the second place, his destiny was not popularity but the hatred of the world, a hatred such as no one else could experience, since he alone brought the world into judgement.” 69Brodie [The Gospel According to John: A Literary and Theological Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 310] indicates that Jesus has moved His base of operations to Galilee. Judea has become a place where the religious leaders threaten to kill Him. He notes, as well, that the imagery of the “tents” at the Feast of the Tents “evokes human fragility and mortality,” thus increasing the threat of death. Brodie concludes that “the picture therefore is of someone who indeed acknowledges pressure but who also retains freedom.” Concerning the use of kaivro~ [kairos] in 7:6 and its meaning, especially in relation to crovno~ [chronos], Barr [Biblical Words for Time (Napierville, IL: A. R. Allenson, 1962), 121] rightly suggests that the differences between the two terms have been exaggerated. He, however, notes that “in many contexts the two words are interchangeable, apart from the stylistic preference for kairov~. For the lapse of time, with an adjective of quantity, crovno~ is usual; for cases like ‘the time for figs’, and for ‘opportunity’, kairov~ is used. The strong eschatological expectation and the sense of fulfillment of past eschatological promises, produces frequent contexts like ‘the time is coming’, in which oJ kairov~ is usual. The sense of ‘season’, both for natural and sacred seasons, appears a few times for kairov~.” 70As Giblin [“Suggestion, Negative Response, Positive Action in St. John’s Portrait of Jesus (John 2:1-11; 4:46-54; 7:2-14; 11:1-44),” New Testament Studies 26 (1980): 208] suggests, Jesus didn’t go up to the feast as His brothers suggested, but He went to Jerusalem when the feast was already half over, and He didn’t celebrate the feast. Rather, He began to teach. 71The phrase, goggusmov~ poluv~ [goggusmos polus], signifies a debate in the context of this verse. Schnackenburg [The Gospel According to St. John, trans. C. Hastings, 3 vols. (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 2:143] considers this grumbling “undercover talk.” Some considered him “good” [ajgaqov~ ejstin; agathos estin], while others considered that Jesus “deceived” [planavw; planaō] people. Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 107] suggests that the charge against Jesus of deceiving people “is a serious one in Jewish law, and if established could lead to capital punishment.” The language is familiar with Deut 13:1-6 in the LXX, which contended that that the false prophet should die because he led people astray [planhsai; planēsai] from Yahweh. 72This is the conclusion of Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 261. 73K. Rengstorf [s. v., “didachv,” in TDNT, 2:163-65] indicates that didachv [didachē] is the “proclamation of the will of God as regards both form and content.” 74Barrett [1978: 318] writes that the reply of Jesus to the religious leaders was that “if others drew their teaching from a rabbinic lecture room, he brought his from his father.” 75Brown [The Gospel According to John, 2 vols., AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, 1970), 1: 316] notes that this statement in 7:17 calls attention to the truth that these are people who are “attuned to God’s voice in order to recognize one who speaks for God.”


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76Beasley-Murray [1987: 108] reveals the logic of 7:18 when he writes: “A person who represents none but himself and talks on his own initiative is naturally anxious to win the approval of others; but one who seeks the honor of the one he represents is truthful and not false.” 77Everett Ferguson [Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993), 525] writes: “The observance of Tabernacles included a procession of the people carrying palm branches (lulav or lulab, palm shoots bound together with three myrtle twigs and two willow branches) and citrons (ethrog), which were waved aloft during the daily singing of the Hallel (Pss. 113-118) as an expression of joy. . . . Each morning of the period of the feast priests brought water from the fountain of Siloam and poured it out as a libation on the altar. On the last day the priests marched around the altar seven times, praying for rain during the ensuing rainy season. Four large menorahs were set up around the temple couts and kept burning each night. Dancing and pipe-playing lasted most of the night. The Levites chanted the Psalms of Ascent (120-134), one for each of the steps between the court of Israel and the court of women. These customs at Tabernacles (John 7:2, 14) provide the background for Jesus’ statements ‘If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink’ and ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 7:32; 8:12). The cycle of Torah readings in the synagogue began at Tabernacles.” 78Beasley-Murray [1987: 116] writes that “the remembrance of divine intervention in the past is conjoined with the promise of eschatological fullness of blessing in the coming kingdom of God, in order to show the realization of both in the present through Jesus.” 79My translation: “The majority of the Codices, which contain the Gospel of John, had a pericope, beginning after Jo. 7 52, which interrupts the connexion of 7 52 with 8, 12 with regard to Jesus’ judgment on an adulteress whom he had described.” 80Zane Hodges, “Problem Passages in the Gospel of John – Part 9: The Woman Taken in Adultery (John 7:52-8:11): Exposition,” Bibliotheca Sacra 137 (1980): 49. 81Carson [1991: 333] writes: “On the other hand, there is little reason for doubting that the event here described occurred, even if in its written form it did not in the beginning belong in the canonical books.” 82F. J. A. Hort, Introduction and Appendix, vol. 2, The New Testament in the Original Greek, by B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, rev. ed. F. C. Burkitt (Cambridge: MacMillan, 1896), 87-88. Hort offers this setting for the pericope, connecting it with 7:37-38. In this setting of the Feast of Tents (skhnophgiva), the “last great day” (th/ ejscavth/ hJmevra/ th/ megavlh/) of the feast was marked by the solemn ceremony of water. Raymond Brown [The Gospel According to John (I-XII), AB (New York: Doubleday, 1966), 327, 344] describes the ceremony:

On each of the seven mornings a procession went down to the fountain of Gihon on the southeast side of the temple hill, the fountain which supplied the waters to the pool of Siloam. There a priest filled a golden pitcher with water, as the choir repeated Isa xii 3: ‘With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.’ Then the procession went up to the Temple through the Water Gate. The accompanying crowds carried the symbols of the Tabernacles, namely, in the right hand the lulab, which was a bunch of myrtle and willow twigs tied with palm (a reminiscence of the branches used to construct the huts – see Note on vs. 2), and in the left hand the ethrog, which was a lemon or citron serving as a sign of the harvest. They also sang the Hallel psalms (cxiii-cxviii). When they reached the altar of


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holocausts in front of the Temple, they proceeded around the altar waving the lulabs and singing Ps cxviii 25. Then the priest went up the ramp to the altar to pour the water into a silver funnel whence it flowed into the ground on the seventh day there was a sevenfold circumambulation of the altar. . . . It was at this solemn moment in the ceremonies on the seventh day that the teacher from Galilee stood up in the temple court to proclaim solemnly that he was the source of living water. . . . Their prayers for water had been answered in a way they did not expect; the feast that contained within itself the promise of the Messiah had been fulfilled. Zech xiv 8 had predicted that living waters would flow out of Jerusalem, and Ezek xlvii 1 had seen a river flow from the rock underneath the Temple. But now Jesus says that these rivers of living water will flow from his own body, that body which is the new Temple (ii 21).

In the actual ceremonies of Tabernacles, as they had developed by Jesus’ time, on the first night (and perhaps on the other nights as well) there was a ritual lighting of four golden candlesticks in the Court of the Women. Each of these, according to Mishnah Sukkah 5:2-4, had four golden bowls on the top which were reached by ladders. Floating in these bowls were wicks made from the drawers and girdles of the priests; and when they were lit, it is said that all Jerusalem reflected the light that burned in the House of Water Drawing.

The culmination of the ceremony of water and of lights occurs on the 7th day. Jesus takes this opportunity to declare His life-giving presence as the Messiah to the children of Israel in the Temple of the Lord God Almighty. 83Barnabas Lindars, The Gospel of John, NCB (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 285. 84Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John, 2 vols., AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, 1970), 1:537. Brown notes that 8:28 finds connection with Isaiah 43:10. In this way, according to Brown, “John draws attention to the implications of divinity in the use of egō eimi by Jesus. After the use in viii 58, the Jews try to stone Jesus.” Brown further suggests that John perhaps “thinks of egō eimi as the divine name given to Jesus.” 85Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 303. In reference to 8:28, Ridderbos notes that this very act of killing Jesus will cause them to see who He really is. 86Rudolf Bultmann [The Gospel of John, trans. George R. Beasley-Murray (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971), 350] writes: “At the very moment when they think they are passing judgment on him, he becomes their judge.” 87This is Schnackenburg’s [The Gospel According to St. John, trans. C. Hastings, 3 vols. (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 202-203] consideration of the import of ginwvskw [ginōskō], which comes as a result of Christ’s crucifixion and brings the offering of salvation, or judgment through unbelief. 88Gerald Borchert, John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 304. 89George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 140. It was not what the Jewish people expected either. Jesus was not the Messiah in the popular ideas of Jesus’ day. “Yet, both sayings [living water, light of the world] are rooted in biblical prophecy and contemporary yearnings that lay at the heart of the festival.”


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90Ben Witherington III [John’s Wisdom: A Commentary on the Fourth Gospel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 180-81] writes: “In the Hebrew scriptures the giving of sight to the blind is associated with God’s own activity (Ex. 4:11; Ps. 146:8), or with that of his chosen one (cf. Isa. 29:18; 35:5; 42:7), and with no one else. It is thus very likely that by recording this miracle the evangelist is attempting to say something special about Jesus’ messianic, and perhaps also his divine, status.” 91Barrett [The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1978), 353] notes that “the foundation of this chapter is twofold: a simple miracle story in which blindness is cured, and the saying, I am the light of the world (cf. 8.12). The miracle is an efficacious sign of the truth of the saying, and the divisive, judging effect of the light, alluded to elsewhere (3.19ff., cf. 12.35f., 46), is brought out in the narrative.” 92George R. Beasley-Murray, John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 156. Beasley-Murray writes that the man who gained his sight “becomes a sign that something not of this world is active within the world through the One who gave him sight.” 93Herman Ridderbos [The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 336] makes this point. He indicates that the pool of Siloam’s role in the Feast of Tabernacles makes a strong connection to His declaration of His giving living waters to those who believe in Him. 94Bultmann [The Gospel of John, trans. George R. Beasley-Murray (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971), 334] notes that the miracle was a source of dilemma for the Pharisees. The miracle showed that Jesus was affirmed by God, but the breaking of the Sabbath was unforgiveable. The kneading of the clay was similar to the kneading of dough, which was expressly forbidden on the Sabbath [See Herman Ridderbos, The Gospel According to John, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 335]. 95Witherington [1995: 181] makes the suggestion that this miracle is an “apt exegesis of John 1.” 96Carson [1991: 374] rightly notes that the blind man didn’t understand the finer points of theological discussion that the Pharisees were harping on. “His increasing boldness and sardonic wit stem from his most uncommon gift, common sense. What he finds remarkable is not his own belief but the unbelief of the officials.” 97George R. Beasley-Murray [John, WBC (Dallas: Word, 1987), 160] notes that 9:39-41 is an interpretive epilogue about spiritual sight and blindness. 98Ridderbos 1997: 351. 99Jesus tells a “figure of speech” (10:6) to describe His relationship to humanity in general and Israel in particular. BAGD, “paroimiva.” This term denotes “a dark saying” in which “lofty ideas are concealed.” Jesus told this story filled with metaphors based upon first-century sheep farming. As D. A. Carson [The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 380-81] suggests, “The conceptual connection with the previous chapter is strengthened by focusing at once on thieves and robbers (cf. 9:39-41); the shepherd’s introduction to the scene awaits v. 2.”


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100See most notably, Gerald Borchert, John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 331. Concerning the periscope, Borchert [Ibid., 329] theorizes that John 10 is a māshāl, “a figurative text that can interweave as few or as many tangents and implications as are considered necessary by the writer or storyteller.” Robinson [“The Parable of John 10, 1-5,” Zeitschrift für Neutestamentliche Wissenshaft 46 (1955): 233-40], however, considers John 10 to be originally two shorter parables combined by the evangelist. 101D. A. Carson, Gospel According to John, 381-82; F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983), 223. Bruce suggests that “One who makes the claim voiced in Jesus’ parable of the good shepherd is making a tacit claim to be the Davidic Messiah.” Ez 34 presents a powerful background image to this figure of speech. Through the prophet Ezekiel, Yahweh denounces the religious leaders who have fleeced the flock for their own benefit (34:1-4). Because the sheep belong to Yahweh, He will rescue His own from the hands of the religious leaders. He promises to rescue them, to pasture them, to tend them, to strengthen them, and to shepherd them (34:10-16). Yahweh will set one shepherd over them – His servant, David – under a covenant of peace which is an everlasting covenant (34:23-25). 102Borchert [John 1-11, NAC (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1996), 331] proposes that the double ajmhvn [amēn] was similar to sounding an alarm. 103See Heinrich Schlier, s. v., “ajmhvn,” in TDNT, 1:337. This double ajmhvn [amēn] was the device Jesus regularly utilized to declare the reliability and truth of His teaching. 104A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, 4th ed. (Nashville: Broadman, 1923), 300. The adverb, ajllacovqen [allachothen], is used only here in the New Testament. It answers the question, “Whence?” 105The ones who are unauthorized to enter by the gate are characterized as a klevpth" and a lh/sthv". The “thief” and the “robber” seek to bring harm to the sheep. 106Herbert Preisker, s. v., “klevpth~,” in TDNT, 3:754-56. This interloper is a thief [klevpth~; kleptēs]. There is here the warning for the community of faith concerning the people whose ambition is “selfish seeking after power.” The second identification is that this interloper is a robber [lh/sthv~; lēstēs]. When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), he tells the lawyer that the man fell among bandits [lh/staiv; lēstai]. Rengstorf [s. v., “lh/sthv~,” in TDNT, 4:261-62] suggests that Jesus may have in mind the Zealots of His time. 107Carson [The Gospel According to John, 385] applies this to the “humanistic political saviours – its Histlers, its Stalins, its Maos, its Pol Pots.” 108The Greek reads, ejgwv eijmi hJ quvra twn probavtwn [I am the door of the sheep]. This statement begins a brief statement inserted into the longer metaphor of the Good Shepherd. 109F. Delitzsch, Isaiah: Two Volumes in One, vol. 7, Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, vol. 7, trans. James Martin (reprint, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), 1:253. Delitzsch offers a fine analysis of the term: “Now, if He is mighty God, and uses His divine might in eternity for the good of His people, He is also, as the fifth name affirms, sar-shâlōm, a Prince who removes all peace-disturbing powers, and secures peace among the nations (Zech. ix. 10), -- who is, as it were, the embodiment of peace come down into the world of nations (Mic. v. 4). To exalt the


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government of David into an eternal rule of peace, is the end for which He is born; and moreover He proves Himself to be what He is not only called, but actually is.” 110D. A. Carson [The Gospel According to John, 385] writes that the picture of “abundant life” means that “the life Jesus’ true disciples enjoy is not to be construed as more time to fill (merely ‘everlasting’ life), but life at its scarcely imagined best, life to be lived.” 111Köstenberger [John, BECNT (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 306-307] notes that “though this mission is to be carried out through his followers, the pronoun ‘I’ makes clear that Jesus will still be involved from his exalted position with the Father.” 112F. F. Bruce, Gospel of John, 224-25. Bruce writes: “In the picture drawn by Jesus it is the personal bond between the shepherd and his sheep that keeps them together as they follow his guidance. . . . The sheep in the fold were protected by the walls [of the pen]. But when the shepherd summoned his own sheep out of the fold, what protection had they? None, except what he provided. So long as they kept close to him, however, all was well: it is the mark of a good shepherd that he defends his sheep, even at the risk of his life.” 113Köstenberger [2004: 310] notes that “the Jews ‘encircling’ (kuklovw, kykloō) Jesus indicates their resolve to elicit a definitive answer from Jesus.” 114See Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, 2 vols., AB (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967, 1970), 1:406. 115Köstenberger 2004: 312. 116Brown 1967: 407. 117Carson 1991: 395. 118Brown [1967: 408] suggests that this was the first time that the official charge of blasphemy was put to Jesus. He suggests that such a charge was implied in 8:59. 119Köstenberger 2004: 315. 120Ridderbos 1997: 374. 121Carson [1991: 400] notes that “their attempt to seize him was as futile as the attempt recorded in 7:30, and doubtless for the same reason: his hour had not yet come.”

The Gospel of John - Amazon S3... · The Gospel of John “That you may have life in His name.” Introduction and Outline Through this in-depth study of John’s Gospel, God strengthens

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