The Story of God: John

Listen along as we continue our series through the story of Scripture.

Notes/Quotes:

John 20:30-31 -

(21:25)
Meme 1/2

In a world of darkness - Jesus is Light
In a world of death - Jesus is Life
In a world of despair - Jesus is Love

John 1:1-5

The term “the Word” (Gk. Logos) conveys the notion of divine self-expression or speech and has a rich OT background. God’s Word is effective: God speaks, and things come into being (Gen. 1:3, 9; Ps. 33:6; 107:20; Isa. 55:10–11). John also shows how this concept of “the Word” is superior to a Greek philosophical concept of “Word” (logos) as an impersonal principle of Reason that gave order to the universe. “And the Word was with God” indicates interpersonal relationship “with” God, but then and the Word was God affirms that this Word was also the same God who created the universe “in the beginning.” Here are the building blocks that go into the doctrine of the Trinity: the one true God consists of more than one person, they relate to each other, and they have always existed. - ESV Study Bible

John 1:14

In Hebrew the term “dabar” means both "word" and "deed." Thus to say something is to do something. "I love you." "I hate you." "I forgive you." "I am afraid of you." Who knows what such words do, but whatever it is, it can never be undone. Something that lay hidden in the heart is irrevocably released through speech into time, is given substance and tossed like a stone into the pool of history, where the concentric rings lap out endlessly. "In the beginning was the Word," says John, meaning perhaps that before the beginning there was something like Silence: not the absence of sound, because there was no sound yet to be absent, but the absence of absence: nothing nothinged: Then the Word. The Deed. The Beginning. The beginning in time of time. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God," says John. By uttering himself, God makes God heard and makes God hearers. God never seems to weary of trying to get across to us. Word after word God tries in search of the right word. When the creation itself doesn't seem to say it right—sun, moon, stars, all of it—God tries flesh and blood. Frederick Buechner

The Johannine model of salvation is, in the light of the Exodus, an act of liberation from the dominion of slavery to the freedom of children within the household/Temple of God, In this model there is liberation from sin, where sin is perceived as a power which enslaves humanity to “the ruler of this world,” just as Israel was once held captive within the house of slavery. But with the incarnation of Jesus, the true king has come, offering life and freedom. Mary Coloe

John 10:10

“Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden…When He talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamor of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.” C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

(Bible Project image)

John 16:7-11

John 20:21

Following Jesus is not a skill we acquire. Following Jesus is not a strategy we work out.  It is obedience – ‘my Lord.’ It is worship – ‘my God.’ No religious skills that you and I acquire will ever produce resurrection. No spiritual strategies that we work on will ever produce resurrection.  Following Jesus doesn’t get us where we want to go; it gets us where Jesus wants us to go.
- Eugene Peterson