The Gospel of John EXPLAINED in 60 Minutes | The Gospels in HD

Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone back to part four of the Gospels in HD! We've got a great one for you today—the Gospel of John, one of my favorites. I am so very excited to be here with you tonight, and I'm so glad that you all are here as well.

So let's jump in! We got a whole lot of stuff to cover in a short period of time, so we are going to jump right into the teaching tonight. All right? So we are going to talk about the Gospel of John, and John is very different from the other three gospels, as we're going to see tonight.

Okay, so as we have been looking at these gospels, let's do a little bit of a review since this is the final night.

Okay, so once again, we started on Monday night with the Gospel of Mark because we said that Mark was more than likely the first gospel that was written. For that reason, we believe that both Matthew and Luke got much of their information from the Gospel of Mark. Because Mark, Matthew, and Luke are very similar in their information and in their structure, scholars have called this group of gospels the synoptic gospels. That is just a word that means "to see together."

We see those three as being together— as being a unit—because the prefix "syn" means together and "optic" means eyes or to see. So you put "synoptic" together— those two words together mean we're seeing these three together, which leaves one more gospel out there which is the Gospel of John, which is not one of the synoptic gospels. As we're going to see today, much of what is in John is not found in the other three gospels.

Then we came back on Tuesday.

Okay, first of all, let me just review. On Monday, we said that Mark's gospel had purpose. He was living in Rome at the time, and it is said that he was probably writing Peter's version of the gospel, since Peter was an eyewitness of these things. Because he was living in Rome, he was specifically trying to convince a Roman audience that indeed this Jesus, whom was crucified, is indeed the Son of God.

For that reason, Mark decided to write his gospel a lot differently than the other three did. He decided to omit all sorts of things that he knew a Roman would not be interested in. For instance, a long name of genealogies or some lengthy story about Jesus' birth and nativity and shepherds coming to see him, and magi offering gifts to him. He knew that Romans weren't interested in that, so he packed his gospel with miracles because he wanted to focus on who—what Jesus could do, right? He was a man of action, a man on the move, and a man of supernatural power.

Then we came back on Tuesday. We looked at Matthew, and Matthew was more than likely living in Judea at this time. He was writing his gospel to a totally different group of people for a totally different purpose. His purpose was to convince the Jewish people that this Jesus, whom they had just crucified, was indeed the long-awaited prophet— or excuse me, Savior and King of the Jews that the Old Testament had prophesied.

For this reason, Matthew uses all sorts of Old Testament language. He uses a lot of Old Testament scriptures and all of these different things in an effort to try to convince this Jewish audience that indeed Jesus was the King of the Jews.

Then we came back yesterday and looked at my favorite gospel—but it's a toss-up between Luke and John. We said that Luke is the Gospel of Grace because Luke, being the only Gentile writer of scripture, was trying to appeal to a Gentile or non-Jewish audience. For that reason, he filled his gospel with all sorts of parables, and many of these parables, stories, and healings are specifically designed to try to convince the Gentiles that Jesus didn't just come for the Jews.

He didn't just come for upwardly mobile, highly aristocratic, high-class people. No, he came for the poor, the outcast, the leper, the prostitute, the tax collectors, the sinners, the lost, the prodigal—all of these groups that were considered outcasts, even women during these times. So Luke packed his gospel with all sorts of content to convince these people.

That brings us to number four—the Gospel of John. We're going to see here that John was written by John—okay, we'll talk about that in a second—and more than likely this was the final gospel that was written somewhere between 80 and 90 A.D.

Remember, each gospel had a different picture that they were trying to present. Mark wanted to present the picture that Jesus was a suffering servant. Matthew wanted to present the picture that Jesus was the King of the Jews. Luke wanted to paint the picture that Jesus was a merciful Savior who has come to save everyone from their sins.

Then John—real simple—he wanted to paint the picture that Jesus indeed was God.

All right? And so his audience was not Jews, not Gentiles, not Romans. His audience was all men, and we'll talk about that in just a second. As a matter of fact, 92 percent of John is unique and found only in John.

Now with all of that being said, let's jump in! Who is John?

Okay, now first and foremost, scholars believe that the John that is writing this gospel is indeed one of the apostles. Right now, there are other Johns in the New Testament, but we believe that it was John the disciple whom Jesus loved, is how he presents himself in this gospel.

All right. And so John and his older brother were known as the sons of Zebedee, but they were so zealous that Jesus gave them a different name. He said, "I'm going to call you all the sons of thunder." Right? And he was one of the three most intimate apostles with Jesus along with James and Peter.

You might remember that when Jesus went up to the mountain to transfigure Himself in front of them, he took three of his disciples with him: Peter, James, and John. Out of those three, John says, "Well, I'm the one that Jesus loved the most!" All right? Out of all three of them.

Right? So there's some of that jockeying back and forth going on.

Now this is the same John who wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, the Book of Revelation, and then obviously the Gospel of John.

Now why did John write his gospel? Well, the other three gospels leave it up to us as interpreters to try to figure out what was their purpose behind why they wrote their gospel. But not so with John. John came straight out and told us exactly what his purpose for writing was.

He says that Jesus performed many other signs—thank you so much, Markeisha, for that super chat! Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book.

Now the reason why I have other signs highlighted here is because we're going to see in a moment that signs in the Gospel of John is a very, very important thing that we need to pay attention to.

So keep that in the back of your mind, and we're going to come back to that in about five minutes. But notice it says here, "But these are written, these signs that I'm writing in this book, I am specifically writing them for you for the purpose of—for the result—that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in this, you may have life in His name."

So I want you to notice here that John does not leave it up for us to try to figure out why he wrote his gospel. He came straight up and said, "Look, I'm writing it, and I'm sharing all these signs with you so that you might believe, and by believing, you will actually experience life." All right?

So let's keep going.

Let's look at the structure of John because that is a very, very interesting thing to look at. Now people have put together all sorts of outlines as it relates to the structure of John, but I'm going to give you how I outline it.

Okay? This is how I see the structure of John: first, there is a prologue, and in this prologue, the focus is primarily on the different names of God—well, the names of Jesus rather than the names of Jesus.

Then there's this really long section that focuses on the signs of Jesus—the supernatural things that Jesus did to prove indeed that He is divine. He is God! So I've called that section "power." So we have the prologue, then we have this very lengthy section where Jesus demonstrates His power.

Then there's a middle section where Jesus starts to prepare His disciples for His crucifixion and ultimately His resurrection and ascension. In this section in the middle, the focus is on the words of Jesus. There's this lengthy section where Jesus is alone with His disciples, and He's teaching them things as He is preparing them for when He is getting ready to go.

Then there is this fourth section. You may have heard of the movie "The Passion of the Christ." Well, anytime you see that word "passion," it's talking about His suffering or His pain. Right?

And so in John 18 through 20, He is experiencing the suffering and the pain and the anguish and the resurrection and the crucifixion and all of the different things that happen there. Then in this last section, I'm going to call this "principles," because right before Jesus leaves, right, He lays down a few final principles that He wants His disciples to follow.

Are y'all ready? Are you all ready? Let's get it! Let's get into John! Here we go!

All right, let me know if you're ready in the comments.

All right, so check this out, guys! The Gospel of John—wow, what an amazing book! Remember, these writers were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to reach a different audience, different times, different places, different purposes.

The Gospel of John is strategically centered around seven signs—really eight, so I'm going to keep you wondering about what that eighth sign really is—and seven quote-unquote "I am" statements.

So, seven miracles or seven signs that Jesus performed during His earthly ministry, John is going to highlight those seven, and then there are seven statements that Jesus made that start off the words "I am."

Now, these seven signs point to the work of Christ—what He did—in other words, they demonstrate that, you know what, nobody other than God would be able to do these things.

And that's what John is wanting his readers to understand: that the only way that Jesus could have done these things—these seven signs—and also ultimately the eighth one, which you probably already know what it is, is that He had to be God!

But then He’s going to point to these seven "I am" statements, and these statements actually point more to the person of Christ—who Christ actually is.

Okay here we go! Now what are these "I am" statements? So, I don't want to assume that everybody here understands this. Well, you might recall in the Old Testament book of Exodus where Moses was a little bit nervous. He was feeling inadequate as it relates to what God was actually calling him to do, and he says, "God, I can't go in there and save my people from Egyptian bondage. No one is going to believe me! So, when I go in there, who should I tell them has sent me to come and try to save these people from Egyptian bondage?"

And God says to Moses, "Just tell them, 'I am who I am.'" This is what you should say, "You are to say to the Israelites: I am has sent me to you."

Can you imagine being Moses going up and saying, "Uh, I am sent me to you?" Right?

So the idea that "I am" became known among the Jews as what we call the divine name for God, namely Yahweh. Right?

So when Jesus was saying these "I am" statements, all of the Jews knew exactly what He was actually suggesting. Whenever Jesus would say, "I am the good shepherd," or "Yahweh's shepherd," they would say, "Oh wait, what? He's claiming to be God? Oh no!"

And that's why they got so angry with Jesus, because every time He said the words "Yahweh" or "I am," they understood that He was suggesting and claiming that He was actually God.

Now let's start with section number one of John, and oh man, it's going to get good! I hope you all are excited about this! Thank you so much, Mark, for the super chat! I appreciate you all supporting the ministry! Thank you!

Okay, the prologue. Remember, this prologue focuses on the names of Jesus.

Now what we're going to see in the Gospel of John is that John, just like in the Book of Revelation, whom he also wrote, is fixated with these groups of seven or sets of seven or the number seven. So the number seven is very significant in John's writings as it is the number for completion or perfection.

So in this section, John is going to build his case, watch this now, for who Jesus is by highlighting seven names given to Jesus, which is consistent with John's use of sevens throughout the entire book.

Now what are these seven names?

Let's jump in! Let's start with the genealogy. Do you remember that Mark's genealogy was simply that Jesus was the Son of God? You might remember that Matthew's genealogy took it through Abraham and ultimately to David. You might remember that Luke's genealogy was he was the son of Abraham, the son of David, and then the son of Adam.

Well, guess what? John takes it all the way back! All right? John takes it all the way back to creation—even before Adam—right? He takes it even further back, and he says, "In the beginning was the Word." Now every Jewish person listening to this would understand that he's referencing Genesis 1:1.

So that means that whoever the Word is, he's far before even Adam was even created.

And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created.

So at this point, we don't know who John is referring to as it relates to this Word, but we know that whoever this Word is, he was in the beginning with God, he was God, and he was creating all things! Right? So we know that!

So he's building his case for who might this quote-unquote Word actually be, and then the big reveal comes in John 1 a few verses later.

And so we see here, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Ding ding ding ding ding! There's the proof right there that he's not talking about God the Father, he's talking about some sort of human being!

Right? And he says the Word became flesh and actually tabernacled, as that Greek word means, he tabernacled, or already lived or dwelt among us. We observed his glory! John said we have seen the glory as the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth!

What a great lesson for us as Christians that we must always be gracious towards people when we're sharing our faith and defending our faith, but we must always be bold enough to share the truth!

And John testified concerning him and exclaimed, "This was the one of whom I said, 'The one coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.'"

Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

So now we see that John does not leave any doubt in the reader's mind as to who this Word of God is—that it was with God and was God at the beginning!

So the first name that we see, even in the prologue—we're not even through chapter one—is that Jesus is given the name the Word of God.

Now the second name that we see that highlights the deity of Christ is He is the Lamb of God.

The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

So now we see two different names given to Jesus. Now we have a third name: "I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

So now this is the third name given to Jesus in John 1. Then we have a fourth name: He's also Rabbi.

When Jesus turned and noticed them following Him, he asked them, "What are you looking for?"

They said to Him, "Rabbi," which means teacher, "Where are you staying?"

So now we have the Word of God. We have the Lamb of God. We have the Son of God. We have Rabbi. And now we also have Messiah.

He first found his brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah," which is translated, the Christ.

So do you see what John is doing early on in his book? He's building his case that this Jesus is everything that he said He was. So He is the Messiah. All right?

The Messiah means that a Jewish person would have understood that because they were waiting for the Messiah to come.

Then He was the King of Israel.

Rabbi Nathanael replied, "You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." And that's the sixth name that's given to Jesus.

And then finally, Jesus says this of Himself: "Then He said, 'Truly, I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'"

So do you see this? What has John established so far? That this Jesus was first and foremost fully divine.

He was with God, He was God, He was at the beginning, He existed eternally! He was also fully human; He dwelt among us and tabernacled among us. He was also a teacher because people called Him a Rabbi. He would also sacrifice His life because He is the Lamb of God.

He is also the King of Israel, so He is royal. He is also the long-awaited Messiah, and He fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. He's also the Son of Man!

So already in the prologue, we see that John is building his case for who Jesus is, and we're just getting started!

Here we go!

Section number two of the book is the lengthy section, and this is the section of power.

Now as we go through this Gospel of John, I'm going to point out certain literary features for you that will really help you distinguish John from the other gospels just as we've done in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

One of these features is that John's gospel, listen to this now, covers much more of Jesus' early ministry in Judea that the other three gospels don't cover.

Now let me explain that for just a second. Jesus did His ministry for about three and a half years. Well, most of the things that happened in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, aside from His birth, His nativity, His baptism, and His temptation—outside of those things—Matthew, Mark, and Luke start their coverage of Jesus' earthly ministry.

Some scholars believe, almost halfway into His three and a half years, so what you're reading in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is probably the latter part of Jesus' earthly ministry.

This is why you must read all of the gospels together because what we see in the Gospel of John is that John focuses his attention a little bit more so on Jesus' early ministry.

Let me give you an example. Okay?

So what we see in John are things that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don't tell us because these things happened early. Jesus meets Andrew and Peter for the first time.

So in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it was just going all over the place, but in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, whenever Jesus says, "Come and follow me," and they left their nets and followed Him, that wasn't the first time that they had met Jesus.

It wasn't like they just saw this guy and he said, "Follow me," and they just left everything. No, no, it was back in John chapter one where Jesus meets Andrew and Peter for the first time, and there was probably a year, maybe a year and a half, before they actually start to be His disciples.

Are you following here?

Okay, so I'm reading mostly from the Christian Standard Bible. All right, Christian Standard Bible. And please, remove that—whoever my moderator is, please remove the inappropriate comments. All right? Please remove those. That person needs to be removed.

Okay? So the next thing we see here is that Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael; that’s not in the other gospels. He also performs his first miracle, turning water into wine, and that's in John chapter 2.

Right? Jesus clears the temple for the first time at Passover. He also does it later on in His ministry, closer to His crucifixion, and then Jesus meets privately with Nicodemus.

That's early in His ministry. Then Jesus baptizes people by the Judean countryside, and then Jesus meets privately with a Samaritan woman by the well.

Do you see that? And then finally, Jesus heals an official's son, which we're going to look at some of these stories today.

So all of these things were things that happened before Matthew, Mark, and Luke pick up their coverage of Jesus' earthly ministry.

Now let's jump in here! All right! So this is the structure of John. So you notice the seven names of Jesus in the prologue, and now we're going to be followed up by seven signs or miracles where Jesus demonstrated His supernatural power.

Okay, so here we go! The first sign that we're going to look at is the water to wine.

This was Jesus' very first miracle. On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding as well.

Now when the wine ran out, Jesus' mother told Him, "They don't have any wine."

And Jesus said, "What's that got to do with me? That's none of my business." Right?

She says—Jesus says, "Well, my hour has not come yet." My time has not yet come, right?

Now Jesus did this later on. He did turn the water into wine, and this is the first of His signs. Do you notice how John is saying this is the first one that I'm showing you of these seven signs that I'm going to highlight in this book?

He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

Now what I'm going to do to kind of keep this thing going is I'm going to give you some time markers in John so that you can really understand this idea of this phrase that comes up several times in John: My hour has not yet come.

So at this point in Jesus' ministry, He says, "My hour has not yet come."

Okay, let's keep going!

Now sandwiched in between sign one, where Jesus turns water into wine and sign number two, where we're going to see in just a moment where He heals a nobleman's son, are two very beautiful stories that highlight another important literary feature that distinguishes John's gospel from the other three.

Okay?

And this literary feature is the fact that John's gospel focuses much more on Jesus' private interactions with individuals than His public ministry, more than the other gospel writers did.

Did you notice that when you're studying John, there are all sorts of private interactions where Jesus is discussing these things? It's not just with His disciples. It's not just with crowds. It's not just with all these masses of people that are following Him.

No, we see Jesus' private ministry. He's meeting privately with Nicodemus. He's meeting privately with this woman at the well from Samaria. He's meeting privately with Mary and Martha in their home.

He's meeting privately with His disciples in John 13-17. He's meeting privately with Peter in John 21.

Now let's skip over to sign number two, the healing of the nobleman's son.

Now this is the second sign that John highlights. He went again to Cana of Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum.

Now let's read this—the father realized: now, so what happens is this. The son is ill; the father asks Jesus if he could heal his son. Jesus says, "I don't have to come to your house. I don't have to go all the way over there. Matter of fact, by the time you get home, your son's going to already be healed. I don't have to go there in order to heal. I can heal him right where I am!" Right?

And so the father says, "Okay, I believe you! I accept it by faith!"

So the father goes home, and the people tell him, "You know what? Your son was actually healed this time yesterday!"

And so he realized that this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, "Your son will live."

So he himself believed along with his whole household, and now this was also the—here it is—the second sign Jesus performed after He came from Judea to Galilee.

So you see, John is listing out these signs. This is the second sign.

Now I want you to notice this that comes next. Thank you so much for sharing!

John then organizes a group of four specific stories that occur on sacred Jewish days, and each of them creates a different type of conflict among these Jewish leaders because Jesus was doing something on that sacred Jewish day.

Now to give full credit, I have to say that some of this information I was able to borrow from The Bible Project. They've done excellent two videos on the Gospel of John. So if you get a chance, you should check that video out. I actually put a link in the description box below to both of those videos.

But first and foremost, the Sabbath day. We know that Jesus was always getting in trouble because He was healing and doing things on the Sabbath.

And so we see here that essentially, Jesus says—well, they're asking Jesus, "Why are you working on the Sabbath?"

And Jesus' response was, "You know what? My Father never takes a day off. He's always working! So, therefore, I should be able to work any day I want to."

Does God the Father ever take a day off? Does He ever sleep or slumber? No! So if God is my Father and He doesn't have to take a day off—meaning God is not subjugated or subjected to obeying the Sabbath—He is the creator of the Sabbath!

And just like that, "I am Lord of the Sabbath! I can do what I want to do on the Sabbath!" Right?

Well, oh man, they just caused all sorts of conflict!

All right, so notice this: what happens here in John 5?

One man was there who had been disabled for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there, He realized he had already been there a long time. He said to him, "Do you want to get well?"

And that's a whole other sermon! We won't even get into that, but He asked him this question that seems like a dumb question on the front end: "Like why would he not want to get well? Of course he wants to get well, right?"

And so He asked him, "Do you want to get well?" and He tells the man, "Get up, pick up your mat, and walk."

And instantly, the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath. Oh no!

Oh here we go! Right, here we go with the Sabbath thing again! All right?

So notice here that instantly that day was the Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man, "So they're mad at two people. First, they're indicting the man because he did what he, they said to him, 'This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.' You see, they assumed that when you—they had interpreted the Old Testament law, 'Thou shalt not work on the Sabbath.' They had like five or six hundred laws or rules or things that you couldn't do on the Sabbath.

If you spit on the ground, that was considered work because you might be causing crops to grow. You might be watering your crops by spitting on the ground—stuff like that!

Right? So when he picked up his mat, they considered that as you doing some work on the Sabbath day, so they scolded him for it.

But not only did they scold the man for working on the Sabbath, they also scolded Jesus.

They said, "Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because He was doing these things on the Sabbath."

Jesus responded to them, as I said earlier, "My father is still working, and I am working also."

This is why the Jews began trying all the more to kill Him—not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal to God.

You see, they understood that when Jesus said, "My Father is always working," they understood that that was basically Him saying that "I and the Father are one," which He said later on, I believe, is in John 10:30, right?

And so they understood that Jesus was making Himself equal with God, and so they were very, very angry about that, obviously.

Now the next holy day that Jesus actually did something on was on the Passover.

You might recall this on the Passover: Jesus is basically saying, "Hey, I am the bread of life! You should eat me!" Right?

You should eat of me, or anyone who eats of me will have life!

And people looked at Him like, "You crazy! This guy is crazy!" You talking about eating Him? Nah man! What is He talking about? Like are we cannibals now? Like what? Really? Right?

So they start questioning Him, and it creates conflict.

So I want you to notice this. Catch the symbolism here! It's the Passover! Now Passover has—remember the Passover happened during the Exodus, right—where they were freed from Egyptian bondage.

Well, when they were in the wilderness, what was happening? Bread was coming down from Heaven feeding the people so that they could have food to eat.

Bread was coming down in the form of manna! Now keep that in mind!

Here we go! After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee. This is sign number four!

Okay, so sign number four: A huge crowd was following Him because they saw the signs that He was performing by healing the sick.

Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks, He distributed them to those who were seated, so also with the fish, as much as they wanted.

When they were full, He told His disciples, "Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted."

Now I want you to note that this is the only miracle, other than the resurrection, that is actually found in all four gospels.

There's another one healing the blind, but there's different people involved, right? But this is the only one that was actually in all four gospels.

Now this brings in the very first "I am" statement.

All right? Remember I told you, keep in mind, if you came in late, John organized his gospel around seven supernatural signs to prove that Jesus is God, as well as seven statements that Jesus said that started off with the divine name Yahweh, or "I am," or in Greek "ego ami."

All right?

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, so you see what Jesus is doing? He's tying these themes together—the theme of the Passover, the theme of wilderness, the theme of salvation, and all of this.

Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, "He gave them bread from Heaven to eat."

And Jesus said to them, "Truly I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from Heaven. Don't get that twisted! It wasn't Moses! Y'all talked about Moses giving us bread? No, no! Moses didn't give you anything to eat! My Father was the one that gave them manna to eat!"

And My Father is now, right now as I'm standing here talking to you, giving you the true bread from Heaven!

"I am that bread," right? And that's why He says, "For the bread of God is the one who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world."

Then they said, "Sir, give us this bread! We want the bread! Give us this bread! Let me taste it! Let me taste it! What's this bread?"

And Jesus said, "Oh, yeah! Um, I am the bread of life!"

"I am the bread of life," Jesus told them. "No one who comes to me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in me will ever thirst, or better, be thirsty again!"

All right?

Uh, yes! Whoever my moderator is, please take care of this! Thank you!

Uh, sorry about that!

All right, so what happens as a result of Jesus basically saying eat of me and drink of me? Some people just roll out! They're like, "You know what? Therefore, when many of His disciples heard this, they said, 'Man, this teaching is too hard to understand! Who can accept it?' We're out! Peace out! Peace out! Jesus, I was with you until you told me to start eating your flesh! When you told me to start eating your flesh, I'm out!"

Right?

And they started rolling out! And this leads to the fifth sign. After they rode about three or four miles, this is the walking on water, instilling the storm miracle. They saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid!

Now this next holy day is the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now this is a time whenever they would celebrate what God had done for them in the wilderness—hence, the Feast of Tabernacles!

Whenever they had to set up the tabernacle and pick it up and take it around in the wilderness, so there was a certain time every year where they would have these certain feasts.

The Feast of Tabernacles would happen to be the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now, I want you to think of two very important miracles that God did in the wilderness in the Old Testament. He caused water to come out of a rock, and He also led them in the night by a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

So Jesus picks up on this knowing that they would have these things in their mind because it is the Feast of the Tabernacles, and He says, "I am the water!" Right?

"I'm the true water! If you thirst, drink of me! I am the one that's gonna give you the water when you're thirsty!"

And then He also says, "I am the light of the world!"

Right?

So this is the idea that He is saying, "I am the light of the world!"

Now, this is the second time marker that I want to keep in your mind as we travel through this.

And notice, remember in Mark chapter 2, I believe it was where it talks about His hour had not yet come. Then they tried to seize him, yet no one could lay a hand on him because it wasn't His time. His hour had not yet come.

Now keep that in mind as we continue to progress.

This leads us to the second of seven "I am" statements.

Jesus spoke to them again: "I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life."

Can you imagine just being here and hearing somebody say these things? Like they probably thought He was like the most arrogant, pompous guy: "I'm the light of the world! We're supposed to follow you? We're supposed to eat your flesh? Right? We're supposed to drink of you? Or suppose you're the bread of life?"

Like, just remember, like this is somebody saying these things, and they probably thought He was crazy!

Right?

Now this leads us to a section where there is more conflict, and as this book progresses, you will see the conflict between Jesus and the Jewish leaders is actually progressing.

And oh boy, let's read about it in John chapter 8.

Jesus says, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

And they say, "We are descendants of Abraham, and we've never been enslaved to anyone."

So they don't understand Jesus is talking about, if you believe in the truth, you'll be set free spiritually, but they didn't understand that! They thought He was talking about like being in prison or being enslaved to someone!

So that's why they responded, "We are descendants of Abraham and we've never been enslaved to anybody! How can you say we become free? We don't need to be free! We're already free!"

Right?

They didn't understand it!

And Jesus says, "I speak what I have seen in the presence of the Father, so then you do what you have heard from your father."

Now later on, Jesus says, "Your father is the devil, the father of lies!"

All right? So Jesus already said, "Your father is the devil," and they don't understand this!

So they say, "Our father is Abraham!" They replied!

And Jesus said, "No, no! Your father's not Abraham! No, that's not true! Because if you were Abraham's children, then you would do what Abraham did!"

What did Abraham do? Well, it was credited to him as righteous because he believed in God, so he had faith.

So He said, "If you're really Abraham's children, you would be responding to me the way Abraham would!"

And then Jesus says—this is what sends them over the edge.

Jesus says, "Well, your father Abraham, since you say he's your father, he rejoiced to see My day."

In other words, when Abraham saw me, he was throwing a party! He was rejoicing! He was excited! He was elated! He was filled with praise!

When Abraham saw Me, he saw it and was glad!

The Jews looked at Him and said, "You aren't even 50 years old! How can you say you have seen Abraham? Dude been dead and living in his grave for centuries! You ain't even 50! How can you say that you saw Abraham?"

And then Jesus hits them with this: "Truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am!"

Oh, that's it! That's it! I'm out! They picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.

He said, "Before Abraham was ever even thought of, Yahweh! I am! Before Abraham was, Yahweh! Your boy right here was Yahweh! Right? I am!"

When they heard Him say this, man, shut the door! It was over!

And this leads us to sign number six where Jesus heals a man born blind.

As He was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, "Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind?"

Now this leads to more conflict! Okay? More conflict because once again, He's doing work, healing people on the Sabbath!

So some of the Pharisees said after He heals this blind man, "This man is not from God because he doesn't keep the Sabbath."

But other people were saying, "Well, how can a sinful man do these things? How can somebody who's sinful be healing and doing all these miracles and all this stuff? It doesn't make sense!"

So there was a division.

Some people said he wasn't from God, some people said, "He can't be doing these things unless he is from God," so we don't know what to believe, right?

And so this leads to the final sacred day, which is Hanukkah! All right? Or the Festival of Dedication—this is a time whenever they would celebrate the Temple of God!

But Jesus then comes and says, "You know what? I am the Temple! Destroy this temple, and in three days, I'll build it up again!"

I am the very presence! I'm the very essence of God!

So once again, when Jesus was saying these things around these sacred days, they all knew what He was saying, and they increased the conflict.

I'm going somewhere with this. This leads to the third of seven "I am" statements.

Jesus said again, "Truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep!" And everybody who came before me, they’re thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.

"I am statement number four: I am the good shepherd. I know My own, and My own know Me just as the Father knows Me, and I know the Father."

And this is a foreshadowing of what Jesus was going to do later on—spoiler alert—when He lays down His life, or He at least is willing to lay down His life for a special person—one of His friends who actually died.

We'll come to that in just a second! He said, "I'm a good shepherd because I am willing to lay My life down for the sheep."

This leads to I am statement number five!

Now, a little bit of context here. Mary and Martha—Jesus visits them, and one of the sisters comes to Jesus, and she says, "Jesus, Jesus, my brother, your friend Lazarus, he's dead! He's dead!"

And Jesus is doing something else, okay? I'll get to him. He says, "No, you don't understand. He's dead! We need you to come! We need you to raise him from the dead! Right now! Stop what you're doing! This is an emergency!"

And Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again. Don't worry about it! He'll be all right! He'll rise again!"

And Martha said, "No, no, Jesus! I know that he's going to rise again sometime later in the resurrection—like when You come back and do all this other stuff. Like, I know that he's going to die and we're going to still be here and then later on, the resurrection is going to happen—like I get that! Right?"

But Jesus said, "No, no! You don't understand! No, no! I am the resurrection and the life! The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will really actually live."

You see, this is the beauty of the gospel that if you're only born once, you have to die twice! If you're born twice, you only die once!

See if you are born once through your mother, you would die twice—a physical death and a spiritual death for separation from God! But if you're born twice, as was said in John 3 with Nicodemus, you must be born again! You are born from your mother, you are also born of the Spirit—then you only die once! Because when you die, you're going to be going to the presence of God!

But let's keep going!

So this now leads to the seventh and final sign, and this is the climax sign.

This is the sign that sends them over the edge!

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. "Remove the stone," Jesus said.

Martha, the dead man's sister, told Him, "Lord, I can't remove the stone because there's already a stench! He's been dead for four days! If I move that stone, it's gonna stink!" Right?

He's been dead for four days!

Now, just as a little bit of cultural background there.

The reason why Jesus waited four days to heal this man is that it was believed in those days that if a man was dead, his spirit hovered over the body for the first three days after they died!

Right? So by Jesus waiting until the fourth day, He was shutting down any sort of potential idea that maybe his spirit had entered back into his body because now he’d been dead four days!

All right? A little bit of cultural background there!

Now, a little bit more conflict here!

Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did, He raises Lazarus from the dead, believed in Him!

But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Uh oh!

Jesus, therefore, no longer walked openly among the Jews, but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness to a town called Ephraim, and He stayed there with the disciples.

Now remember, we have this situation now where Jesus realizes that it's not safe for Him to walk around anymore. Like if they were planning on killing Him before, it's getting real now. Like they're really ready to come for Him, and He understands this.

So Jesus, knowing that they were plotting to kill Him, watch this! Don't miss this! He rides into Jerusalem in John chapter 12 on a donkey in the triumphal entry.

And this was a foreshadowing of His willingness to lay down His life for His friends.

You see, Lazarus was His friend, and he had gotten into trouble with the Jewish people because he raised Lazarus from the dead.

And so because He raised Lazarus from the dead, now he was hated! Now He was a man on the run! Now He was a fugitive! But even though He knew that, He was willing to ride publicly on a donkey into Jerusalem to lay down His life for His friends!

Why did He do that?

Here's the final time marker in John: before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that His hour had come.

It was time!

He knew this is the moment!

It's come! The time for me to fulfill my mission here on Earth has come to depart from this world and to the Father, having loved His own who were with the world, He loved them all the way to the end.

And this leads us to the third of five sections of John.

The first one was the prologue: the seven names of God.

The second is the power: the seven signs of Jesus with five "I am" statements, and the third section is when Jesus begins to prepare His disciples for His exodus!

And He does that by doing several things: He washes their feet!

And He does this essentially because He says, "I'm washing your feet now. You won't understand what I'm doing now, but you will later! I'm doing this to set an example for you. If I'm willing to wash your funky, stinky, dirty feet—which is a sign of humility—then you ought to be willing to do whatever it takes to serve someone else. I'm doing this as an example for you!"

And then Jesus tells them, "He's going away."

He says in John 14, "If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself."

Thank you, Mike! I appreciate that! So that where I am, you may be also.

And then in four and five He says, "Jesus said, well, you know the way to where I'm going."

And Thomas said, "Lord, we don't know where you're going! How do we know the way?"

He's talking about, "We know the way!"

"Where you're going! We don't know where you're going! You're talking crazy! You've been talking crazy for a whole chapter! We don't get it!"

Right? Like, "Where are you going? Where's the way? We don't know the way!"

And this leads him into the sixth "I am" statement.

Jesus told him, "Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me!"

He says, "You're focused on some sort of GPS! You want to know where! Where do I—like coordinates? Go right? Go left? Go tight? 10 mi? No! No! Just, I am the way! You follow Me, and that's all you need to do!"

Right?

Now this leads Jesus to a long discussion on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because Jesus was preparing them for when He was going to leave, and He says, "You know what? Look, I'm getting ready to leave you, but I'm not going to leave you without help! I'm going to leave you with the Holy Spirit!"

Why is that important? Because I can only be in one place at one time, but the Holy Spirit will live in you, and He will be able to be with you at any time and any place.

So this is the third literary feature that distinguishes John's gospel from the others, is that John's gospel is much more theological in nature than the other three gospels and has the most extensive teaching on the Holy Spirit in all four gospels!

So you need to get that!

John's gospel is heavily, uh, it's heavily theological!

There's a lot of theology! Right?

In other words, we can understand a lot about God—not just stories and parables—but we can understand a lot about the theology of God—who God is—by studying the Gospel of John, which is why this is the gospel that we typically would encourage a new believer to read first.

Now we don't have time to go through all this, but let me just cover a couple of highlights so we can rush through this quickly.

He talks about the Holy Spirit indwelling them. He talks about the Holy Spirit teaching them all things. The Holy Spirit will remind you of everything that I've taught you while we've been walking together for these three and a half years.

The Holy Spirit will empower you to testify of Me to other people. The Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment—the Holy Spirit will guide you!

Okay, so He gives them all of these things, and this leads them to Jesus to the seventh and final "I am" statement!

And this is the idea that, look, if you really want to tap into all the power of the Holy Spirit and everything that I want you to do and I'm calling you to do, you can't do it apart from Me!

"I am the vine, and you are the branches! The one who remains in Me, and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without Me!"

Now I want you to remember that—spoiler alert! I'm going to come back to that in about five to seven minutes. He says, "You can do nothing without Me!"

Remember those phrases! I'm going to come back to that!

Okay, now once again, the structure of John: seven names of John in the prologue, seven signs of God—of Jesus in the power.

There are seven things that happen as Jesus is preparing His disciples: He washes their feet, He predicts their betrayal, He predicts Peter's denial, He teaches them on the Holy Spirit, He teaches them on the vine, He teaches them about persecution and what they're going to have to expect, and then ultimately, Jesus offers a prayer which is called His high priestly prayer in John 17, where He prays for His disciples but also for all those who will come after them.

Now this leads to the fourth part of the book: the sacrifice of Jesus—or the passion—and this is the final "I am" of the entire book!

Now watch this: then Jesus, knowing everything that was about to happen to Him, went out and said to them, "Who is it that you're seeking?"

"Jesus of Nazareth!" they answered, and notice what Jesus said: "Yahweh! Yahweh!"

He hit them with it one more time! The first seven wasn't enough! He hit them with it at the end! He was like, "Yeah, Yahweh, right here! Right here!"

"Yahweh—right here!"

From Yahweh!

Jesus told them, "Judas, who betrayed Him, was also standing with them. When Jesus told them 'Yahweh,' they stepped back and fell to the ground."

They couldn't believe that He was willing to call Himself Yahweh. It was like He was signing His own death sentence by saying publicly in front of these people who had come to Him, "Yahweh!" They fell back to the ground!

The final moments of Jesus' earthly life—a set of seven again.

Jesus is arrested. Jesus is denied by Peter. There’s a reason why it’s bolded; we'll come back to that.

Jesus is betrayed. Jesus is deserted by all of His disciples. They all left Him.

Jesus is crucified. Jesus is buried. And Jesus is resurrected!

Oh, but I told you at the beginning that there were seven signs, but I also told you there was eight! You remember that?

John saves the best sign for last!

In his effort to try to prove that Jesus indeed is God, John includes a sign that has never happened in the history of time!

And if Jesus can pull this sign off, there leaves no doubt that He indeed has to be God because there is no way that a human being can resurrect their own body!

But this sign is the final nail in the coffin—no pun intended—that proves that Jesus is God!

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark. She saw that the tomb assuming that the stone had been removed from the tomb!

Wow! Jesus had risen from there! He pulled it off! He pulled off the impossible!

That final sign was fulfilled!

So once again, guys, we got the prologue. We got the power. We've got the preparation. We've got the passion.

And then we ultimately have—uh, this last section—I forgot to change it—but that should be principles! Right?

He's laying down certain principles that He wants them to follow.

And guys, this is a perfect ending! If you don't get anything else out of the series, I want you to get this!

Whatever you're doing, put your phone down! Pay attention, okay?

Because what I'm going to talk about for these next couple minutes is so important! It's so important!

And I need you to get this above and beyond everything else!

So stay with me here!

Let's go back to Luke chapter 22. You might recall Peter's failure.

"Simon! Simon! Look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, Simon! But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail!"

I want you to notice here that Jesus prays not that Simon wouldn't fail because He knew he would, but He says that I'm praying that when you do fail, your faith would not fail!

That's a word right there!

You see, when you fail, when you fall away from God—because you will do that—God’s prayer for you is that your faith would not fail! That you wouldn't fall away from the faith!

And He prays that for Jesus, but He also says, "And when you have turned back," He said, "No, we're going to fail! I know you're going to fail! But Peter, whenever you get yourself back together and you get out of your little pity party and you turn back and you get strengthened, I want you to use your experience—use your failure, use your flaws, use everything that the devil tried to do to take you out! I want you to use that as part of your ministry!"

I want you to use your failure as fuel that ignites the very purpose of your life!

And He says, "I want you to strengthen your brothers because you, Peter, more than anyone else, will understand what it feels like to fail! You'll understand what it feels like to be a failure and to have displeased God! You will understand that! You'll understand what it means to doubt and to not have it all together!

He says, "Take all of that, Peter, and strengthen your brothers!"

Because when you have turned back!

Peter, being prideful, said, "Lord, I'm ready to go with you prison to death!"

He said, "No, no, no! You can't be talking about me! I'm Peter! I'm a rock! Right? I'm the one that was on the water—You told me to come and I was the only one! All the other guys stayed in the boat, and I was the one who stepped out! And I was the one that whenever you said, 'Who do men say that I am?' Matthew and John—they didn't say anything!

But I'm the one who said, 'You, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!' So he said, 'No, no! I'm the one that you said on this rock you'll build your church! So, no, no! Jesus, you're talking crazy! I'm ready to die with you! I'm ready to go to prison!'"

Jesus said, "Peter, you don't get it! You don't get it, Peter! Just slow down! I know you're zealous. But I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you deny me three times that you ever even knew me!"

Peter had to be thinking to himself, "There's no way I would say that! I've never known Jesus!"

Now fast forward a few verses, and Peter denies Jesus three times.

Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter.

Let's just pause right there.

Have you ever felt the Lord looking at you?

Have you ever just knew that God was looking at you? Right?

Right when you failed! Right when you slept with that person that you shouldn't have been sleeping with! Right when you were looking at that website you shouldn't be looking at! Right when you were cussing that person out or being angry or drinking or at the club doing something you shouldn't do or putting on an outfit that you shouldn't put on?

You see the Lord looking at you!

In other words, you see, as soon as Peter said, "I don't know this man," he looked and locked eyes with Jesus, and he saw Jesus looking at him!

And when he did, it says, "Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, 'Before the rooster crows today, you would deny me three times.'"

And he went outside and wept bitterly!

Have you ever been there?

Have you ever been to the place where you've come to grips with your sin and you've wept over it?

"How could I look at this again? How could I make this mistake again? What's wrong with me? Why can't I get it right? How could I fail again? How did I end up in this guy's bed again? How did I get pregnant again? How did I get divorced again? How did I commit adultery again? How is it that I can't forgive again?"

And you get so distraught over yourself! You're weeping over your sin! Weeping over your sin!

Now let's look at how Jesus responded to him in John chapter 21.

Oh, I love this! When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"

Now you have to understand that in our English language, we have one word for love.

In the English language, we have one word for love!

But in the Greek language, there are several words for the word love!

There is phileo, which is like the word Philadelphia or philosophy, which is just brotherly love—just affection! It's like the type of love you have for your brother!

There is agape, right? And that's the unconditional love that God has! There’s storge, and then there’s another love for physical love—I can't recall the word right now—sexual love!

Okay?

So when Jesus says, "Simon, do you love me?"

He says, "Do you agape me? Do you love me with all of your heart? Do you love me unconditionally the way I love you?"

And Peter replies back, "Yes, Lord! You know that I phileo you!"

"Oh, you see, you look at those Greek words! I encourage you to go look at those two Greek words!"

Jesus is asking Peter, "Do you love me unconditionally?"

And Peter's saying, "Well, I know I can't say yes because I just denied this guy!"

So he says, "But yeah! I phileo you! I mean, I like you! You’re my brother!"

He says, "Go feed my lambs!"

And then a second time, He asks him, "Simon, do you agape me? Do you love me with all of your heart, unconditionally?"

"Yes, Lord!" He said to him, "You know that I phileo—I like you! You’re my boy! Shepherd my sheep!" He told him.

And now a third time, Jesus restores Peter three times for the three times that he denied Jesus.

Simon, Simon!

And this time Jesus comes down to Peter's level and He says, "Okay, Peter, I get it! I'll take whatever you can give me right now! Peter, do you phileo me? Do you like me? Do you still like me as a person, as a man?"

And Peter was grieved that He asked him that!

Why would he agree?

Because He’s saying, "How could you even ask that? I do! I like you!"

He was grieved that He asked him a third time, "Do you like me? Do you phileo me?"

And Peter was grieved that He asked him that!

“Why would he agree?” He said, "Lord, you know everything, and you know that I phileo you."

And Jesus says, "Feed my sheep!"

My friends, the Gospel of John—my message to you is this: No matter what you've done, no matter how far you have fallen, it is not too far for the Lord to save you—and more importantly, to use you!

Because who do we see as the main spokesman in the Book of Acts? We see Peter strengthening his brothers as he's turning back!

Peter is the one who is one of the main leaders who actually went on to write scripture!

And the beautiful thing about Jesus is that Jesus never once brought up Peter's past!

He didn't say, "Peter, how could you have denied Me and did those things that when I needed you the most? What were you thinking? Why were you thinking that?"

No, Jesus is focused on Peter's future and not his past!

And I want to encourage you today: if you're feeling like you have a past that God can't forgive and God cannot use, God's word to you today is that He wants you to focus on your future!

Listen, you might have heard me say this before: there's a reason why the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror in every single car!

It's because when you and I are driving, we're supposed to spend more time looking forward than we do looking backward!

And that is my encouragement to you today! Forget the past! Learn from it! Move on from it!

But accept the gracious gift of forgiveness that God has for you and move on!

And more importantly, use the failures of your past as fuel that ignites the very purpose of your life!

And in the areas where you have failed, strengthen your brothers who might continue to fail in those areas now!

And that, my friend, is the Gospel of John.