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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - John 1 ch. 1:1-18 ch. 1:19-28 ch. 1:29-34 ch. 1:35-42 My
Commentary On The Gospel Of John
This
commentary is based on the 1994 edition of the New International Bible.
Chapter titles in this commentary correspond to chapter titles in the
NIV. IntroductionA
quick reading of the four gospels will show that John’s gospel is quite
different than the other three. One
main difference is that the others major on certain events that showed the
teaching and character of Jesus. John
does relate some events to us but there seems to be a more theological emphasis
on his writing. This can be seen
right from the first verse when he speaks about Jesus being the “Word of God
being made flesh”. The rest of the
book shows us this “fleshly Word”. The
other gospels spend much time on Jesus Galilean ministry.
From John’s account you’d hardly know that Jesus was born, raised,
and spent most of His life in What
we learn from John is not found in the other gospels.
This does not mean what John is saying is not authentic. It simply means
that John’s reasons for writing are different than the others. It
is commonly thought that John’s gospel was written from the city of Ephesus
somewhere between 90 and 110 AD where John lived in his senior years.
The
Word Became Flesh (ch. 1:1-18) Much
of the first chapter of John addresses the issue of the pre-incarnate Christ.
That means that Jesus didn't start existing in Mary's womb.
He has always existed. The
very name "Jesus" mean "Yahweh is salvation".
God told Mary to call her son "Yahweh is salvation" because
that is who He is. He is in fact
"Yahweh", the covenant God of the Old Testament.
In
the very first phrase we are presented with a theological concept that needs
some thought. John says, “in the beginning was the Word”.
Two things need to be clarified here.
One is, what is “the Word?” Two
is, what is “in the beginning?” The
Greek word for “Word” is “logos”. This
has become quite a common word in Christian circles in the last thirty years.
“Logos” means, “an expression of thought, a concept, or an idea”.
You might say that the thoughts within our heads are “logoses”.
The suffix "ology" as in "Christology" or
"archeology" has this suffix. "ology"
comes from "logos". So
when you see the word "theology", it means "thoughts about
God", or "the study of God'. "Theos"
is the Greek word translated as God. So
John says that this certain expression of thought, this concept or idea which he
is going to speak about was in existence “at the beginning”.
This reminds us of Gen. 1:1 where Moses uses similar wording.
John most likely understood this as he wrote these words.
In
my thinking, “in the beginning” refers to the existence of the Word in the
eternal past, if you can say such a thing. In
reality, eternity appears to have no past present or future.
Yet from a human stand point we can say that the Word was there in
eternity past, having no beginning. Some
might at first glance suggest that “in the beginning” refers to the creation
of the earth as what seems to be suggested in Gen. 1:1, although in Gen. 1:1 it
is not absolutely clear that “in the beginning” refers to the beginning of
earth or a previous beginning of an earlier existence of life, although my
personal opinion is the it means in the beginning of this planet earth, whether
before a pre-adamic race or not. The
next phrase helps us determine that “in the beginning” means more than just
the creation of earth. This phrase
says, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.
First
of all we will look at the first phrase, “the Word was with God”.
By using the word “with” John is suggesting that the Word and God are
two separate identities. They are
with each other. Now remember our
definition of “Word”. John is
saying that the concepts and ideas he is going to speak about was with God in
eternity past. They were always with
God and never was a time when they weren’t. The
second phrase is, “the Word was God”. These
words state that the Word and God are more than separate identities but are the
same in essence, meaning the Word and God are one in the same.
This would make sense from our definition of the word “Word”.
The ideas and concepts that John is going to talk about are in fact the
mind of God, His thoughts, ideas, and concepts.
It
thus appears then that part of the Trinity is referred to in verse one, meaning
that the Word is both separate from God yet is God at the same time – two in
one. In
verse 2 John repeats himself by saying that “the Word was with God from the
beginning”. Some might suggest
because John uses the words “from the beginning” that both God and the Word
had a point of beginning. Some sects
believe that Jesus was created and that He had a beginning.
Orthodox Christian thinking states that Jesus had no beginning – He was
not a created being. In
verse 3 John says that “through Him was all things made, and without Him was
nothing made”. This statement
should tell you that if all things were made through the Word then the Word had
to have been there before all things were made.
He was not part of the creation of all things.
What
does “all things” mean. Does it
mean “all things in the physical universe”, or does it mean “all things,
including the spiritual universe”? We
do know that before the earth was created there were spiritual beings, of which
satan was one. I
believe "all things" means "all things", as in everything,
even things created before the creation of our material universe. The
creation account in Genesis is clear. God
created all things from nothing unless otherwise stated.
This is why the Bible, does not teach evolution.
Man was created from the dust of the earth.
Man was not created from nothing, but the text states this clearly.
That's why I say, that if the text doesn't clearly state it, all things
were created from nothing. Besides,
the Hebrew word for "create" implies creating from nothing.
The
idea here is that God (the Father) created all things through the Word.
The Word was a central agent in creating all things.
Look at it this way. If the
Word is actually God’s creative thoughts, concepts and ideas, then it is clear
and obvious that all things were made by the Word, these creative concepts.
There is nothing hard to figure out here. We
now see the “Word” personalized with the use of the pronoun “Him”.
No longer is the concepts and ideas of God merely concepts and ideas, but
a Him, a personality. These concepts
and ideas in the mind of God was life in itself.
Yes, they were life giving, but in themselves they were life.
This refers to a distinct personality.
Then
John makes the statement that this “life was the light of men”.
This light gave breath, life and understanding to mankind.
Mankind was distinguishable from other things created because the Word
brought light to him. I believe this
was more than mental light or understanding, but spiritual light that lit the
way so man and God could commune in perfect peace. This
obviously ended at the fall. This
also tells me that the very breath of any human being at conception or birth
comes from God. Since
the fall of mankind, God’s light is not part of man’s make up, but it still
shines on man in various ways. Paul,
in Romans one says that creation speaks to the fact that there is a God.
This is God’s light shining on man, telling them that there is a God.
The
Holy Spirit Himself shines light into people’s hearts with the understanding
that there is a God, and with the understanding of who He is and how He wants us
to live. Though this light is presently shining on mankind, mankind is in
complete darkness and cannot understand or comprehend this light.
Only God by His Spirit can open the minds and hearts of men and women in
order to have this light become effective in their lives.
Spiritual things cannot be understood by a carnal mind.
These things come only through revelation by the Holy Spirit. Verse
6 says that there “was a man name John who was sent from God’.
This John is John the Baptist. John
the Baptist was a testimony to the light. He
was sent from God to announce the coming of this light, the coming of the Word
of God. John
says that part of the mission of John the Baptist was to give testimony to the
light so that all men might believe. John
preached repentance that led to faith which in turn would bring salvation.
John makes it very clear that John the Baptist was not the light himself
but only a witness to that light. I
need to note here the words repentance and faith.
It is clear from this verse, and verses throughout the New Testament that
repentance is a prerequisite to forgiveness of sins.
This is very important but commonly misunderstood.
This means that one can't have real faith, or forgiveness of sins unless
he repents. Repentance is simply the
changing of one's mind, and in this case, the changing of one's mind concerning
sin and the direction of one's life.
Verse
9 says that “the true light that gives life to every man was coming into the
world”. This was the message of
John the Baptist. There was someone
coming that could bring light to mankind. Once
again, this light was a spiritual light, bringing reconciliation.
At the time of John the Baptist, the light was not yet come to the world,
that is why John phrases this in the future tense, “was coming”, that is, in
the process of coming. Then
John says that the light “was in the world and that the world was made through
Him”. In one sense of the word, a spiritual sense, the light was already in
the world, but could not be seen or understood by the world.
For this reason the light, the Word had to come to the world in such a
way that man had a better chance of understanding and embracing Him.
The light came into the world by becoming human. John
then proceeds to say that the Word came to “His own”, as in the Jews.
God set aside a nation of people to be a witness to the world, yet they
did not become the witness God wanted them to be so the Word came to them to
shed light and understanding on them but the Jews refused to receive the Word.
Then
in verse 12 John says that some would receive the Word.
Those who believed, that is gave their life to the Word became
“children of God”. We need to
note that our modern English concept of believe being mentally assenting to the
truth is not what its Greek counterpart meant in John’s day.
When John uses the word “believe” he means to give ones life to
someone or something, creating a trusting relationship between the person or
thing and the one believing. Believing
is much more than simply agreeing with the truth and stating that you accept the
truth. You give your life to the
truth. That is believing.
Those who did that, and those who do that today become the children of
God. Verse
14 makes things very clear. John
says that “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us”.
John clearly states that the Word, that is, the concepts and ideas in the
mind of God, became flesh and lived among mankind.
Another way to say it is that the Word became a man.
John clearly tells us that the One he is talking about existed before
entering humanity. This goes to the
point of this section, that is, this One, pre-existed before becoming human.
We know who that man is although John has not yet mentioned his name.
John is taking his time and is leading up to who this man is. John
says that “we have seen His glory”. John
and others saw the living Word in action. He saw the miracles.
He saw His death, resurrection and ascension.
He touched the nail prints in the hands of the living Word.
He saw the glory of His glorified body. John
saw the glory “of the One and Only who came from the Father”.
John clearly believed that this man, the living Word came from God and
was part of God. This
man is, and was, “full of grace and truth”.
Grace and truth should always go together in our thinking.
We often promote one over the other.
Some promote the grace and love of God to exclude the truth and justice
of God. Yet John says that both
grace and truth are apart of this living Word.
Truth and justice is part of the very nature of God and is part of the
nature of this God man. Still John
has not mentioned His name. John
then goes back to explain what John the Baptist taught concerning the Word of
God in the flesh. He said that He
came after Him but was greater than he was since He was before him.
The living Word existed long before John the Baptist was ever thought
about, in eternity past. In
verse 16 John says that “from the fullness of His grace have we all received
one blessing after another”. All
men have been blessed by the Word since they derive their very existence from
Him. Then Christians have received
even more blessings since they have given their lives to Him resulting in
spiritual and eternal blessing. Now
in the last half of verse 17 John finally tells us the earthly name of the Word
who became flesh. He says, “the
Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”.
God gave the Law to Moses and Moses passed it on to the nation of Israel. But when Jesus came, God used
Jesus to give us both grace and truth. Jesus
would eventually lay aside the Law of Moses when He died on the cross.
Jesus came to fulfill the Law, and that He did.
He met every requirement of the Law on our behalf.
God now looks at us who believe and sees us as people who have obeyed the
Law in every aspect. Jesus obeyed
the Law. Now in the sight of God,
someone actually did obey it. That satisfied God, allowing Him to accept us as
Law obeyers instead of Law breakers, even though we are still Law breakers.
Now
John clearly states who this living Word is.
He says that it is Jesus Christ. It
took him some time to come this point but he has been building a case, and now
this is the climax of his case. Remember,
the name Jesus means "Yahweh is salvation", and, "Christ"
means, the "Messiah". Jesus
was the long awaited "Yahweh
– Messiah, that would bring salvation and restoration to both In
verse 18 John says that “no one has ever seen God”.
No one has, or could see God. I
don’t believe that humans can stand in the presence of God without being
destroyed. God is too powerful and
we are too weak. It is quite
possible that we may never see God face to face.
We will see Jesus, the one who can stand before God on our behalf. John
says that no one has ever seen God, “but God, the One and Only”.
John is saying that the only one who has ever seen God is Jesus.
Why? Because Jesus is the
Word of God, the mind of God – God’s thoughts, concepts and ideas.
This is one of a few Scriptures in the Bible that actually says that
Jesus is God. The Deity of Christ is
fundamental in the thinking and doctrine of Christians. This
section ends with these words, “who is at the Father’s side, He has made Him
known”. When John says that Jesus
is at the Father’s side, he means that Jesus is in a place of authority along
with God. It does not necessarily
mean He is physically at God’s side, and that God actually has a side. John
then says that Jesus has made God known. That
is part of the reason why Jesus came to earth.
If God wanted to communicate with man, the best way He could do this was
to become a man. It is like the old
analogy. If a man wanted to
communicate with an ant then he needs to become an ant.
This is what God did in becoming a man.
John The Baptist Denies Being The Christ (ch. 1:19-28) We
learn in verse 19 that John the Baptist caught the ears of the Jewish leaders in
They
then asked John if he was either Elijah or that prophet.
John said “no” to both.
The Jews claimed that Elijah would return physically to usher in the
Messianic Kingdom.
After
saying that he wasn’t any of these three people the men asked him just who he
was. They
needed to return with some kind of answer.
John answered by saying, “I am the voice of one calling out in the
desert. Make
straight the way of the Lord”.
John literally was alone voice crying out in the desert.
He was in a real desert, yet at the same time the Jewish nation was in a
desert spiritually.
John, a Jew, was crying out in a spiritual desert.
He was telling his parched and dry countrymen to repent and return to
their God, thus making the way easier for the Messiah.
But John indeed was crying in the wilderness.
The Jewish leaders refused to hear him. In
verse 24 the representatives then ask John why he baptizes if he is not one of
these three important men.
It is interesting to note that Christians or Jews were not the only
people who baptized their flock.
Other sects baptized as well.
You might view it as in initiation process into a certain group.
John was not baptizing in this sense.
He was not creating a new sect that needed some right of initiation.
So their question is logical.
Why baptize? John
baptized “by water”, he said.
We learn elsewhere that this baptism is a baptism of repentance. This
means that those who wanted to put their trust in the soon coming Messiah had to
first repent. One
needs to repent before believing.
I've said this over and over again, but we need to return to a Biblical
understanding of both repentance and forgiveness.
The modern church has adopted worldly ways of thinking in this respect. John
goes on to say that “among you stands one you do not know.
He is the one who comes after me …”
We also learn elsewhere that the one after him would baptize with the
Holy Spirit and fire.
His baptism would be much more important than John’s although we
don’t minimize John’s baptism of repentance.
It
is interesting to note that John says that there is one that stands among you
that you do not know.
Jesus at one point, and maybe even a number of times stood in that crowd
of people listening to John.
No one knew, not even John that the Christ was actually standing among
the people listening to John in the desert. I
often have wondered what Jesus must have been thinking about when he was
standing in that crowd listening to John.
He knew John was talking about Him.
He was just waiting for the exact moment to step up and allow John to
baptize Him. I
say, "the exact moment" because I am convinced that God has a
time-table for all things, and what He does is done at the exact moment.
I need to mention a contextual problem concerning
verse 28. You will note that the NIV
says that John baptized at " The location to this town is somewhat significant
because this is where Israel
crossed over the
Jesus,
The Lamb Of God
(ch. 1:29-34) Verse
29 is one of my favourite verses in the Bible.
John saw Jesus coming towards him and says, “look, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world”. This is the message of the gospel.
God comes in the flesh to take away our sin from His eyes.
I
just mentioned that I've often wondered how Jesus felt as He was standing in the
crowd listening to John.
Now I wonder how John felt as Jesus approached Him to be baptized.
What a moment that must have been.
It's probably beyond our comprehension.
Throughout
the history of the Jews lambs were killed and sacrificed to God to bring
temporary forgiveness of sins.
Yet John describes Jesus as the Lamb of God, and that He was.
He would die like one of the sacrificial Lambs, but there was a big
difference between His death and the death of an animal.
Jesus was the Son of God.
Jesus was God Himself.
Jesus would die as a form of punishment for our sins. He took our place
when it comes to experiencing God’s wrath and punishment.
We should be the one’s to be punished.
We are in the wrong, not Jesus.
Jesus stepped in on our behalf.
God punished Him by death.
God saw this punishment and His sense of justice was satisfied. Sin was
finally punished in such a way that it satisfied God.
Now for those of us who trust in the death of Jesus to provide such
forgiveness, God no longer sees our sins and wants to punish us. In this way our
sins have been taken away from the eyes of God. Pity the people who don’t
appropriate the cross to their lives.
Pity them
if they don’t accept the provision for forgiveness that Jesus provided for
them on the cross.
If God was so angry at us because of our sin that He killed His Son, then
how much more angry will He be at those who refuse to accept His provision of
forgiveness. The wrath of God will be on these people in its totality. In
verse 30 John clarifies the point that this is what he meant concerning Jesus
who came after him but really was before him.
This is not double talk.
John the Baptist knew that Jesus came from God and the He existed before
creation. He
was just now appearing to the world in the form of a human being.
Jesus existed before John but now will take over after John departs from
the scene, when his ministry is complete. So
once again, we see one of the main points the writer of this gospel is making,
and that is, Jesus existed long before He entered humanity.
Then
John the Baptist says that “the reason why he came baptizing with water was so
He could be made known to John
the Baptist proceeds to explain how He recognized Jesus to be the Messiah.
God, who called him,
told him that some day as he was baptizing a man would come before him to
be baptized. When
he was ready to put this man under the water, the Holy Spirit would descend like
a dove and remain on the man.
This man would be the Messiah.
How thrilled John must have been when he saw the Holy Spirit come on
Jesus. The baptism of Jesus was an initiation into His earthly ministry. What happened here was that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit, as one would anoint someone with water or oil. We
need to ask. Did
Jesus have the Holy Spirit before this event.
Of course He did.
He is God in human flesh.
But as with man, there is more to the Spirit than one body can contain,
and Jesus’ body was no exception.
There is a difference between the Holy Spirit being in you and the Holy
Spirit coming upon you.
When the Spirit comes on us miraculous things happen.
He comes upon us from time to time, but as John puts it, “He remained
on Jesus” throughout His earthly ministry.
This is the difference between us as Christians and Jesus.
One thing I need to note here.
Paul, in Colossians 1:19 tells us that the fullness of God lived in
Jesus. That mans, all of who God is
lives in Jesus. God is in Jesus. Still, there is more to God in a material of
spiritual sense than can fit in one body. Then
John the Baptist tells the crowd that the one whom the Spirit comes and remains
will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus will not baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit.
The first time this took place was on the day of Pentecost when the
believers received the Spirit for the first time in their lives.
Up to that point they did not have the Holy Spirit living in them.
As a side note, John 20:22 where Jesus said, “receive the Spirit”
must be interpreted in this light.
They did not receive the Spirit then.
That was a prophetic jester.
What
happens when someone is baptized in the Spirit is that they receive the Holy
Spirit. The
baptism is only the way in which one receives the Spirit.
Pentecostals have tended to emphasize how the Holy Spirit is given, and
not the Spirit Himself.
How we receive the Spirit is secondary.
That is to say, the baptism is secondary. The Holy Spirit Himself is
primary. John
the Baptist concludes that He “has seen and testifies that Jesus is the Son of
God”. This
is a clear and convincing confession of John.
Once again, we see the doctrine of the "Deity of Christ", that
is, "Jesus is in fact God". Jesus’
First Disciples (ch. 1:35-42) In
verse 35 we see John the Baptist with two of his disciples.
John had disciples.
Disciples are ones who simply follow someone’s teaching.
John sees Jesus and he says, “look, the Lamb of God”.
It is interesting to note that John doesn’t call Jesus by His name, but
calls Him the Lamb of God.
By this John is pointing out why Jesus is in fact on earth, rather than
simply calling Him by name. John the Baptist is thrilled beyond measure seeing
the Lamb of God that would take away his sin and the sin of the world. As
soon as these two disciples heard that Jesus was the Lamb of God they turned
immediately and started following Jesus, that is to say, not following Jesus as
a disciple, but literally walking behind Jesus.
Jesus in turn asked these two men what they wanted. The
two called Jesus “teacher”.
This was way too early for these two men to have a clear understanding of
who Jesus really was.
Yes, He was a teacher, but He was much more than a teacher.
I believe John the Baptist understood who Jesus really was, but he was
the only one. The
two men asked where Jesus was staying. So Jesus invited these two men to come
with Him. John
notes that this was about the tenth hour, which would be about 4 PM out time. It's
only my speculation, but if this was the tenth hour of the day, Jesus might well
have been water baptized at the ninth hour, which would have been one of the
traditional times of prayer for Jews.
It was also the hour in which Jesus died.
Again, I believe God has a time-table.
All things He does comes at the exact moment.
John
tells us the name of one of these two men.
His name was Andrew.
Andrew was Peter’s brother and it appears that before they got to where
Jesus was staying Andrew went and found Peter and invited him along, telling him
that they’d met the Messiah. At
first the two called Jesus “teacher’, now Andrew calls Him Messiah.
This is clearly a progression in the thinking of Andrew to who Jesus
really was. In
verse 42 we see the first time that Jesus meets Peter.
Andrew brings him and introduces him to Jesus. Right away there seems to
be a special connection between Peter and Jesus that you will see throughout the
gospel story. Jesus
says, “you are Simon son of John”.
Did Jesus know Peter before he met him, or know of him.
Not likely.
This was probably a word of knowledge.
Jesus then says, “you will be called Cephus”.
Both the name Peter and the name Cephus mean “a rock”.
Peter is Greek and Cephus is Aramaic – Jewish. It
would appear by this name change that Jesus wanted Peter to use His Jewish name
for the most part, although we still see him being called Peter as well.
Why Jesus wanted this is only speculation. We do know that Jesus had come
for the lost sheep of Jesus
Calls Philip And Nathanael
(ch 1:43-51) The
next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee from the Philip
told Nathanael that he had found the one that Moses and the prophets wrote about
– “Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph”.
Nathanael’s
first impression was, “can any good thing come out of In
verse 47 Jesus has some good things to say about Nathanael.
He says, “here is a true Israelite, whom there is nothing false”.
Quite impressive words to hear from the lips of Jesus, I’d say.
This tells me that Nathanael was a honest and
straight forward person. Such a quality was a good start to be a disciple
of Jesus. In
verse 47 Nathanael asks Jesus how He knew of him.
Jesus replies by saying that He “saw Nathanael while he was still under
the fig tree”.
When Philip found his brother, he must have been sitting under a fig
tree. Once again we see a word of knowledge come from the lips of Jesus.
This was supernatural knowledge about Nathanael that could not have been
known naturally. Nathanael
was quite impressed and replied, “you are the Son of God, the King of
Israel”. Obviously
the words spoken by Nathanael were true, but as we see the disciples at work
over the next three years we note that even though they may verbally acknowledge
Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, they still have a hard time understanding
what that all means. The
chapter ends by Jesus telling Nathanael that he believes because he saw a
miracle from Jesus, that is the word of knowledge.
But this was nothing compared to what
Nathanael would see.
Jesus told him that he’d see “heaven open and angels ascending and
descending on the Son of Man”.
Jesus always called Himself the “Son of Man”, and not the “Son of
God”. This
was more of a humbler term. What
does the reference to the angels mean?
It is my thinking that angels helped Jesus in the circumstances in which
He found Himself.
Whether Nathanael and the others actually saw angels coming down upon
Jesus or not is hard to say, but they certainly saw the effects of these angels
and how they ministered to Jesus. If
you remember in the Genesis account Jacob saw angels ascending and descending
from heaven in a dream.
I'm not sure of the connection, but it is my guess that
there is some connection between Jacob's dream and Jesus' words here.
Jacob's dream might well have been prophetic of Jesus.
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