The Bible Study:
By James Jordan
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This week we begin a study of the Gospel of John. For now the plan is to work our way through John, and I may try to get two out every week, but we will see how that goes. If I get a lot of email from people saying they’d rather read about something else, we can shift gears. A couple of you asked that I concentrate on a book or a subject, so this is in response to that.
The first study concerns the WORD, or Jesus being the essence of God.
At the end of the study is a little background on the Gospel of John.

John 1:1-3
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

I remember being shocked in a Sunday School class I was teaching, when one of the students began a heated debate with me over who Jesus was. The idea that Jesus was God was completely foreign to this man, and he was adamant that they were two separate beings. Part of the reason I was so shocked was, that this was ina Baptist Church. (This is the reason theology and doctrine need to be taught!)
Ever since the resurrection of Christ, the diety of Christ has been debated. The debate continues to this day.
When John was writing his account of Christ, he tackles this issue right off the bat. He  refers to Jesus as the WORD, which  is saying that Jesus was and is God in human form, that he was and is the very essence of God.
The word John used here is LOGOS, which means an idea or expression of thought. It does not have the meaning of  a name of something. The Greeks used RHEMA for the kind of word that was naming something, or even words that are spoken.
Greeks and Jews alike in John’s day would have caught what he was saying immediately.In Greek it is obvious that he is saying that Jesus is God.
Greeks were the intellectuals of the world 2000 years ago, and they struggled to define God and with many other deep theological questions.  They also believed that man was evil and God was good, and the two could never mix.
So John begins his gospel, saying that not only had God and man mixed, but that in Jesus they were of the same essense. Greeks would have thought this nonsense, and Jews would have objected, saying that there is only one God, who is the father.
But John declares that Jesus is the “Word”  …The “Logos” … This means, not that he was equal to God as a separate being, but that he was the very essense of God… The Godness of God,  or as theNicene Creed says, “very God.”
In John 14:9, Jesus tells one of his disciples,  “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
In Hebrews, the writer compares the Old Testament prophets to Christ, and says
In a very loose paraphrase… “When the prophets spoke, it was merely as mouthpieces.When the Son spoke, it was God Himself who spoke.”

This is what the New Testament refers to as the Mystery of  Christ. It is a mystery that cannot easily be explained, and many people take the easy way out by saying that Jesus and God are not the same being.
This is a very important piece of theology though, to realize that Jesus was and is God. Jesus came to earth, not to show us how to live, or to primarily even show us God. He came to earth to die on the cross for the remission of sins. Had he been anything less than God, his death and resurrection would not have accomplished our salvation.

From Vines Dictionary…
The Lord Jesus is called THE WORD in John 1:1, 14; I John1:1, 5:7; Rev. 19:13. In John 1:1 we have the preexistence of the Word, His fellowship with God the Father in His preincarnate state, and His absolute deity. In John 1:14 the incarnation of the Word is in view. I John 1:1 speaks of the things which the disciples heard and saw with reference to the earthly life of the Word. In I John 5:7, the name “The Word” is used as a designationof our Lord in connection with the names Father and Spirit. In Rev. 19:13 the descending Conqueror is called The Word.




Gospel of John background:
The Book of John has been called the gospel of belief.
The other three gospels.Matthew, Mark and Luke, are called synoptic gospels. This means they sought to give a historical account of the life of Jesus. Each of the three had a certain slant, but the style is very similar.
John is very diffrent.
John 20:31 says , But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
This verse sums up the book, and it is the purpose statement.
John does this through a series of stories and dialogue, which show different stages of belief and unbelief. Constantly, whenever Jesus does anything, in John you get the reaction of people. Often it will say, some believed but some did not...and at times it says others were undecided.
Jesus came to his own, who were the Jews. The Jews could have declared him king and he would have ruled on the throne in Jerusalem, Instead they rejected him and that led to the crucificixion and that to the resurrection. From early on on the book, the struggle between Jesus and the Jews rages.
Even the struggles of the disciples as they go from varying stages of belief and unbelief.
Everything about the book goes along this theme of belief.

While the other gospels seek to show a history of Jesus, John has seemingly little interest in history. He jumps right to the significance.
It starts
Jesus has revealed the father, he has exegeted the father to us
Luke we meet Jesus as a baby
Matthew we meet Jesus as achild
Mark we meet Jesus in ministry
John we meet Jesus as the eternal son of God, it is more theological

While the other gospels present Jesus...John interprets Jesus, by telling us what it all means.
John is concerned with belief, with the spiritual significance of every act, more than he is with recording what happened.
John records only seven miracles, much fewer than all the other gospels, but he spends much more time showing the impact of the miracles and explaining the significance.
John calls the miracles signs, which were signs for the people to see to authenticate that Jesus was indeed the Christ. These signs were the things John was writing about when he said “these things are written so that you may believe....”


HERE IS AN OUTLINE of the book

1:1-18 the prologue, setting the stage for the rest of the book. Basically the spiritual impact of the christ.
1:19-51, beginnings of Jesus ministry, calling the 12, people start to believe.
2:1 - 11:57 Jesus ‘ministry, signs and peoples reaction to the signs. Basically the evidence that Jesus is the Christ.
12:1 - 19:42 Passion week, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews, the crucifixion
20:1 - 29 the resurrection
20:30- 21:25 purpose of the book and epilogue.


Hope this was helpful.
I do appreciate those of you that give me feedback.
In Jesus
James