Book
Scripture
Book of John
Interpretation: Why - the truth
Observation - Who, What, Where, When, How_________________________
Who
John was a disciple of Jesus& was the author
He lived longest of the disciples and was about 90 years old, the only one to die a natural death.
He had cared for Mary until she died.
He wrote 1st,2nd,3rd John and Revelation.
Where
Israel under pagan roman rule and looking for the promised one who would lead them to freedom
Why
In the first century Gnosticism grew as a belief that denied the deity of Jesus. John's writings directly refute this.
Focus of the book of John is
Application- How will this change my behavior
I must abandon all else and worship him only.
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
Jesus is the Christ who gives you access to God and eternal life if you surrender to Him
Theologian AW Pink started out as a Gnostic (Theosophical Society) and through the love of a family member came to Christ. He said "The same was in the beginning with God." The same," that is, the Word; "was," that is, subsisted, not began to be; "in the beginning," that is, before time commenced; "with God," that is, as a distinct Personality. That it is here repeated Christ was "with God," seems to be intended as a repudiation of the early Gnostic heresy that Christ was only an idea or ideal IN the mind of God from eternity, duly made manifest in time—a horrible heresy which is being reechoed in our own day. It is not said that the Word was in God; He was, eternally, "with God."
C. S. Lewis, who was a professor at Cambridge University and once an agnostic, understood this issue clearly. He writes: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -‑ on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg ‑- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the son of God: or else a madman or something worse." Then Lewis adds: "You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
* notes taken from Be Alive by Warren Wiersbe, other sermons and commentaries on BlueLetterBible.com, and the Seminary Course from John Dennison Jr.
Chapter Summaries