SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
11/25/2015 8:27 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 Introduction to the Gospel of John
In today’s SD we want to continue looking at the
introduction to the Gospel of John as we need to have a good understanding of
what we are looking at before we begin looking at the first chapter and verse,
for as we have mentioned the Gospel of John is different in many ways that the
synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
When I write my Spiritual Diaries I like to quote from
different authors in order to make things a clear as they can be. I surely am in no way considered some kind of
Bible scholar, but only a person who loves to read and study the Word of God so
that in doing it the Spirit of God will speak to my heart, and hopefully others
from what I have learned.
The Gospel of John has the most important message in it
that can be found in the entire world, for in it John tells his readers the
clear message of salvation. We have
mentioned the reason why John writes this is found near the end of his writing
“30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 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 20:30-31).
John MacArthur concludes his preface with these
words: “In this profound yet plain
account of the coming of the Son of God to redeem sinners is the most needed
message anyone will ever hear or understand.
With just a little clarification and background, it proclaims to the
mind of the willing and humble sinner the truth that transforms eternally.”
As mentioned John’s Gospel follows a different path than
the Synoptic gospels, and it is important to understand that word
Synoptic. It is from a Greek word
meaning “to see together” which is what the first three gospel accounts help us
do because of their similarities to each other.
MacArthur adds “Although each has its own distinctive emphases and themes,
the Synoptics have much in common. They
follow the same general outline of Christ’s life and are similar in contents,
structure and perspective.”
When you first begin to read the Gospel of John you will
see that it is different right from the beginning, different than the other
gospel accounts as John’s Gospel contains a higher proportion of discourse in
relation to narrative than the others.
There contains no narrative parables, no eschatological discourses, no
accounts of Jesus exorcising demons or healing lepers, there is no list of the
twelve disciples or no formal institution of the Lord’s Supper. We won’t see anything of the birth of Jesus
or His baptism, nor transfiguration, or being tempted or seeing the agony of
Gethsemane, or not even his ascension back to heaven in this gospel message.
MacArthur writes that 90 % of the material found in the
Gospel of John is not found in the other three Gospel accounts. He gives this list “the prologue describing
Christ’s pre-existence and incarnation (1:1-18); Jesus’ earthly ministry in
Judea and Samaria (chapters 2-3); His first miracle (2:1-11); His dialogue with
Nicodemus (3:1-21); His encounter with a Samaritan woman (4:5-42); His healing
of a lame man (5:1-15) and a blind man (9:1-41), both at Jerusalem; His Bread
of Life discourse (6:22-71); His claim to be the living water (7:37-38); His
taking for Himself the name of God; His discourse presenting Himself as the
Good Shepherd and its aftermath (10:1-39); the resurrection of Lazarus
(11:1-46); the washing of the disciples feet (13:1-15); the Upper Room
Discourse (chapters 13-16); Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (chapter 17); the
miraculous catch of fish
(21:15-19). John also contains more
teaching on the Holy Spirit than is found in the Synoptics.” I hope after reading this that it will wet
you appetite to find out more of these things as we move through this wonderful
Gospel of John.
Just because John’s Gospel is different does not mean
that it contradicts the other three Gospel accounts. We must not exaggerate these differences
found in John’s Gospel for what is written in the other Gospels is as true as
what is written in John’s Gospel, and just as important to read, study and to
understand. All of the Gospels were
designed by the Holy Spirit of God in order to supplement each other. MacArthur quotes from a book written by four
different authors “The represent an interlocking tradition that is,…they
mutually reinforce or explain each other. What is being said here is that once
you read all four gospels that they are kind of like a puzzle with pieces that
fit together. An example of this is
given in the following quote from John MacArthur “For example at His trial
(Mark 14:58) and while He was on the cross (Mark 15:29), Jesus’ enemies accused
Him of having claimed that He would destroy the temple. The Synoptics do not record the basis for
that false allegation, but John does (2:19).
The Synoptics do not explain why the Jews had to bring Jesus before
Pilate: John explains that the Romans had withheld from them the right of
capital punishment (18:31).” There are
other reasons too but we will not got into all of them, but the point is seen
here as to why we need all four Gospels and how they fit together.
I
have to say that there is much more introduction that I will have to better
digest to see how much I want to include in my Spiritual Diary, so we will have
to add more to the introduction in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the Holy Spirit arranging these four Gospels in the way that He did.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to have a good understanding of why
this gospel was written as I continue to read more about it in different
introductions.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Moses” (Exodus 2:1-10).
Today’s Bible
question: “Approximately how many years
of ‘recorded silence’ elapsed between Old Testament times and New Testament
Times?’”
Answer in our next SD. 11/25/2015 9:27 AM
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