SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2015
10:07 AM
Last Introduction to
John’s Gospel
Anyone who has a study Bible can usually look at the beginning
of a certain book and the author of who the Study Bible is written by will put
certain criteria there to give an introduction to the different books. They will have things like Title, Author and
Date, Background and Setting, Historical and Theological Themes, and
Interpretive Challenges. They will then
give an outline to the book. I have
already given an outline from the pen of Warren Wiersbe, and pretty much all
authors will change different things in their outlines. In the introduction to John’s Gospel from
John MacArthur’s commentary he has many of the things I have listed above and
as I went over them I chose some of the things to quote in this last
introduction that I will do on John’s Gospel before we dive into the text of
the first chapter. I found some things
very interesting, but will not be able to quote all of them.
The first category that we see in this introduction from
MacArthur is “The Authorship of John’s Gospel.”
I must say that frankly I do not have any problem in believing that the
Apostle John who leaned on the breast of Jesus at the last supper, who was the
brother of James and the author of the book of Revelation and three letters
found in the New Testament wrote the Gospel of John. I don’t really know why that he did not
identify himself when he wrote it other than for fear of his life which was
very real during those early days of the churches beginnings. MacArthur goes over some different historical
facts of both internal and external reasons why it is believed that John wrote
this fourth gospel account. In our study
of the book of Revelation we were introduced to a man named Polycarp and told
the story of how he died for his faith in Jesus Christ. My Spiritual Diary from 1-24-2015 gives a
very long quote telling how Polycarp died so if interested to find out more on
him look at that SD. He was from Smyrna
and lived in the second century. He was
accounted with a man named Irenaeus and Irenaeus was a disciple of the apostle
John. MacArthur writes “Thus there was a
direct line from Irenaeus to John, with one intervening link. The reason this
is so important is that these two me knew that it was John who penned this
fourth gospel which we attribute to John.
John MacArthur quotes a man named B. F. Westcott who was a
nineteenth century commentator and textual Scholar and he gives a number of
reasons why he believes that John wrote this forth gospel. I am only going to give the names of these
reasons with perhaps a brief quote to show the importance of them. First “The author was a Jew.” When we read the book of John we have to
realize that its author was a Jew because he knew many Jewish things that
happened during that time. Things like “the
Messiah, the importance of formal religious training (7:15), the relationship
of suffering to personal sin (9:2), the Jews’ attitude toward the Samaritans
(4:9), women (4:27), and the Hellenistic Jews of the Diaspora (7:35). He was familiar with Jewish customs,
including the necessity of avoiding ceremonial defilement from contact with
Gentiles (18:28), the need for purification before celebrating Passover
(11:55), as well as wedding (2:1-10) and burial (11:17-44; 19:40) customs. He was familiar with the great Jewish feasts
of Passover (2:13; 6:4; 11:55), Tabernacles (Booths, 7:2), and Dedication
(Hanukkah; 10:22).”
Next reason “The author was a Palestinian Jew,” and he cites
a number of things found in the gospel of John to show this like “distinguished
between the Bethany beyond the Jordan (1:28) and the Bethany on the outskirts of
Jerusalem (11:1), and he knew the precise distance of the latter from Jerusalem
(11:18).
Next reason the author gives is “The author was an
eyewitness.” As we read through the
Gospel of John we can see many things that he writes that only an eyewitness
could have known and remember that when Jesus promised the Holy Spirit that He
would bring to remembrance things that these apostles would need, and we can
see that from the four gospels.
The author gives two more reasons “The author was an
apostle,” and “The author was the Apostle John.” He writes the following on this last reason: “It is remarkable that the apostle John
mentioned some twenty times in the Synoptic Gospels is not named once in his
gospel. Leon Morris observes, ‘It is not
easy to think of a reason why an early Christian, other than John himself,
should have completely omitted all mention of such a prominent Apostle.’ Further, only a preeminent person of
unquestioned authority could have written a gospel that differed so markedly
from the other three, and had it universally accepted by the church.” Instead of naming himself John identifies the
author of his book as “the disciple whom Jesus loves.”
John MacArthur writes “Despite the powerful external and
internal evidence, many critics, as always desperately needing to assault the
integrity of Scripture to discredit its truth and authority over their sinful
lives, deny that the apostle John wrote the fourth gospel. The arguments they put forth are reflective
of unbelief, unconvincing, and often highly subjective. Some argue that John, like his brother James,
was martyred too early to have written the gospel of John. But that view is based on a misreading of
Mark 10:39, which merely indicate that the two brothers would suffer, not necessarily
that they would be martyred.”
At this point I have to give my opinion as to why I
believe John wrote this fourth gospel, and it is not because I am a Bible
scholar who has looked at old manuscripts or studied from other sources, it is
because I believe that God is not only the creator of the heavens and earth,
but is also the sustainer of all that goes on here on planet earth. We are told that Jesus will build His church
and even the gates of hell will not destroy it and a part of that building has
to have a true and accurate Bible which the gospel of John is a part of. When sin entered the universe as recorded in
Genesis chapter three man’s whole being was changed, no longer could man have
direct contact with God as Adam and Eve first did. No longer would man live his life to please the
Lord because of the fallenness of his being.
Man always wants to do wrong as this in his nature now and only apart
from the God of heaven intervening with man through sending His Son to die for
those who would accept Him would man ever begin to live in the fear of God once
again. Unsaved man will always attack
the Bible, but when unsaved man reads the Bible he is reading a letter, a love
letter that comes from someone he does not know and does not care to know, he
is reading someone else’s mail.
One more thing that I want to cover and that is what is
the purpose of the letter. John
MacArthur writes “John is the only one of the gospels that contains a precise
statement of the author’s purpose: ‘But
these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name’ (John
20:31). John’s objective was both
apologetic (‘and that believing you may have life in His name’). In keeping with the evangelistic purpose, John
used the verb ‘to believe’ nearly one hundred times—more than twice as much as
the Synoptics, emphasizing that those who savingly believe in Jesus will
receive eternal life.
“John’s apologetic purpose, which is inseparable from his
evangelistic purpose, was to convince his readers of Jesus’ true identity. He presents Him as God incarnate (1:1, 14;
8:23, 58; 10:30; 20:28), the Messiah (1:41; 4:25-26), and Savior of the world
(4:42). To that end, John repeatedly stressed
Jesus’ miraculous signs, including eight specific ones: turning water into wine
(2:1-11), healing a royal official’s son (4:46-54), healing a lame man at the
pool of Bethesda (5:1-18), feeding the five thousand (6:1-15), walking on the
Sea of Galilee (6:16-21), healing a man born blind (9:1-41), raising Lazarus
from the dead (11:1-45), and providing a miraculous catch of fish
(21:6-11). In addition to those signs
was the most convincing sign of all—Jesus’ own resurrection (20:1-29).
“In short, John presents Jesus as the eternal Word,
Messiah, and Son of God who, through His death and resurrection, brings the
gift of salvation to mankind. People respond
by either accepting or rejection the salvation that comes only through
believing in Him.” To that I have to say
“Amen.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “400 years.”
Today’s Bible
question: “What did the Lord and two
angels promise to Abraham before they destroyed Sodom?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/26/2015 11:16 AM
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