Bulletin 6: Apostle John’s Gospel
This is an amazing Gospel- the profundity of John's message- focused on the mystery of Christ and the incarnation makes it well worth studying. The book is arguably the most treasured in the New Testament for Christians, but is not so well received by the Jewish and Moslem peoples. Written by John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, in the First century, it followed the Synoptic Gospels-Matthew, Mark and Luke, possibly as a supplement. It is an interpretation of Christ, with very distinctive features, especially for the Greek audience, thus highly significant.
By the way, I'm writing by means of points to make it simpler to understand.
#John has presented Jesus' teachings in longer discourses: the bread of life (6:41-59), the Good Shepherd (10:1-30, the vine and it's branches (15:1-8) and the priestly prayer (17:1-26).
# His contrasts such as love and hate, earthly/ heavenly are used in longer form.
#John used the metaphor "I AM" seven times to express Jesus' saving relationship to the world, which is very important.
#The earlier Synoptics, which are Jesus' teachings in shorter sayings, make up the basics of Christianity being supplemented by Jesus' Galilean ministry in Judea.
The doctrine of the Trinity (16:13-15) is stressed in accompanying Salvation -it includes the Holy Ghost.
# The 6 Titles of Christ are significant:
Bread of Life (6:35), Good Shepherd (10:11), Lamb of God (1:29), Light of the world ( 9:5), Only begotten of the Father (1:14) and The Word (1-1).
# Jesus' longest prayer has 3 parts: for himself, for His disciples, and for future believers.
# The death of Jesus is presented as the OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY (18:8-9), appointed by His Father (18:11) and Jesus characteristically refers to His death in a term, "glorify".
# John writes that readers ' may believe that Jesus is the Christ'. Also they may have life in His name (20:31) and the only way of Salvation (4:12).
# His apologetic work presents Christianity as distinct from Judaism, emphasising the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.
Conclusion: John's Gospel is significant amongst Biblical books for its content and is very worthwhile to study.
AMEN
SRD