Holman New Testament Commentary - John

Kenneth Gangel, Max Anders, Max Anders

• Publisher: Holman Reference
• Year: 2000
• ISBN:
  9781433674167
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblischer Kommentar

One in a series of twelve New Testament verse-by-verse commentary books edited by Max Anders. Includes discussion starters, teaching plan, and more. Great for lay teachers and pastors alike.

John 1

The Lamb of God

I. INTRODUCTION

Confusing Pictures

II. COMMENTARY

A verse-by-verse explanation of the chapter.

III. CONCLUSION

Father and Sons

An overview of the principles and applications from the chapter.

IV. LIFE APPLICATION

Sparrows in Winter

Melding the chapter to life.

V. PRAYER

Tying the chapter to life with God.

VI. DEEPER DISCOVERIES

Historical, geographical, and grammatical enrichment of the commentary.

VII. TEACHING OUTLINE

Suggested step-by-step group study of the chapter.

VIII. ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION

Zeroing the chapter in on daily life.

“Veiled in flesh the godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.”

Charles Wesley

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: BETHANY

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• Name means “house of unripe figs”
• The modern city is called el Azariyeh
• Suggested site of ruins claims to include the tomb of Lazarus and the house of Simon the Leper

GEOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: BETHSAIDA

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• Name means “house of fishing”
• Located on the Sea of Galilee close to Capernaum
• Rebuked by Jesus for unbelief (Matt. 11:20–23; Luke 10:13–15)
• Not to be confused with Bethsaida on the east side of the Sea of Galilee where the feeding of the five thousand and the healing of the blind man took place (Mark 8:22)

PERSONAL PROFILE: JOHN THE BAPTIST

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• Born six months before Jesus to Zachariah and Elizabeth
• Appointed by God to be Jesus’ forerunner
• Last of the Old Testament prophets, first of the New Testament prophets
• Jesus’ cousin beheaded by Herod the Great

PERSONAL PROFILE: ANDREW

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• The name means “manly”
• Son of Jonas, brother of Simon Peter
• Friend of Philip, who was also from Bethsaida
• Never mentioned in the Bible after Acts 1:13

PERSONAL PROFILE: SIMON PETER

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• Simon was his original name; Peter (rock) was a name given by Jesus
• A fisherman from Bethsaida
• The only disciple we know was married (Mark 1:30; 1 Cor. 9:5)
• With James and John, part of Jesus’ “inner circle” (Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33)
• Leader of the Jerusalem church in the early chapters of Acts

PERSONAL PROFILE: PHILIP

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• The name means “lover of horses”
• Philip the apostle of the Gospels should not be confused with Philip the evangelist of Acts 6, 8, and 21
• Probably the first disciple of John the Baptist
• Not mentioned in the Bible after Acts 1:13

PERSONAL PROFILE: NATHANIEL

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• The name means “God has given”
• Praised by Jesus for his integrity
• Also known as Bartholomew

John wastes no time in introducing Jesus to his readers as the Word of God, the Son of God, and the Lamb of God. Unlike the writers of the three Synoptic Gospels, John introduces Jesus at the age of thirty and includes no information about his birth.

The Lamb of God

I. INTRODUCTION

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Confusing Pictures

During the years I pastored my first church, my wife spent some time each week tutoring a young girl who had fallen behind in her reading at school. Since Linda was from a Christian family, part of the reading centered in Bible story books. One day Linda asked a penetrating question about the pictures she found in those books: “How do I tell the difference between Jesus and God? They both look alike to me.”

The artists, of course, had included all pictures of Jesus since God the Father is Spirit and cannot be shown by anything but symbols such as light or sound. But Linda had learned that Jesus was God, so she kept looking for pictures of both of them throughout her books. A natural mistake, and one which reinforces John's point throughout this book and especially the early verses of this first chapter.

In the first eighteen verses of his book, John introduces the Lord. He begins by proclaiming that Jesus reveals God the Father and tells us that when he came to earth, God's Son showed the human race what the Father was like—eternal, personal, and the source of all life. The word life appears no fewer than thirty-six times in this Gospel along with several other key words. We could say that life establishes the central theme for the book.

We need only read the first verse of the Bible (Gen. 1:1) to understand the central issue of life, and it centers on the reality of God. If there is a God (and there is), and if that God has spoken in history (and he has), then the most important thing in the world is to find out what he has said.

The Gospel of John is a loved and familiar book, but many who can quote important verses from its pages have a less-than-satisfactory grasp of its important theology. Yet John wasted no time in introducing the key question: “Who is Jesus Christ?” In his presentation of Jesus as the Son of God, John started out with creation. Everything that was ever made was made through him; and without him, nothing has ever been created. Jesus was the source of power in the original physical creation and in the spiritual creation by which people are brought to new life in Christ.

Do not forget that key word life. John used it frequently in his Gospel, and he also used it thirteen times in his first epistle and seventeen more times in Revelation. Here in this Gospel we have more than twenty-five percent of all New Testament references to life. John wanted to make sure that everyone knew life is possible only through the Son of God.

II. COMMENTARY

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The Lamb of God

MAIN IDEA: Jesus Christ is the heart and core of the gospel. Christianity is not a philosophy of life; it centers in a person who is the core of everything Christians believe.

Revelation of the Lamb (1:1–5)

SUPPORTING IDEA: Like his heavenly Father, Jesus reveals eternality, personality, deity, creativity, life, and light.

1:1–2. Some interpreters have translated the opening phrase of this Gospel, “Before there was a beginning, the Word had been.” Indeed, the familiar repetition of Genesis 1:1 almost looks as if John wrote a Gospel of two beginnings—a creation account that parallels physical birth and spiritual rebirth. But it is important to notice that we are dealing with two beginnings, not creations. The central focus of this verse is eternality. Like his heavenly Father, Jesus always was and therefore existed at the beginning of time.

It is interesting that John should call Jesus the Word rather than some other name to introduce his book—interesting, but not surprising since the Jews often referred to God in such terminology. The doctrine at stake here is the deity of Christ. Jesus is God, and John wanted to make that point immediately. In fact, this prologue (vv. 1–18) begins and ends with a strong statement of this doctrine.

The term Word (logos) would have been familiar to the Greeks as well. Their understanding centered on ultimate reason or the rationale of the universe rather than the personal God revealed to Abraham and his descendents. John claimed that the God of creation, the ultimate mind of the universe, had taken on human form; he had become incarnate.

The Bible allows no place for atheism and no room for doubt about how God has spoken—through the Word. Before there was a beginning, the Word had been coequal with God throughout all eternity. But what did the apostle mean by with God? The Greek word is pros which literally means “toward,” implying a face-to-face relationship. John would have neither atheism nor unitarianism. He told us later in his Gospel that the Godhead consists of a trinity, but here in verse 1 we learn plurality.

So Jesus, the Word, is eternal and personal. Nothing can separate the heavenly Father from his Son. Verse 2 merely emphasizes verse 1. I like the way Gary Vanderet puts it: “John intends that the entire book be read in light of this verse. The deeds and the words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God” (Vanderet, Prelude to Deity).

1:3. Unlike the Gospel writers before him, John tells us that Jesus participated in creation and again states his case twice for emphasis. Surely this is a deliberate link with Genesis, and it sets the stage for other New Testament Scriptures which show us Jesus’ involvement in creation: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16). “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (Heb. 1:1–2).

Creation is a foundational doctrine of the Christian faith. Virtually every other aspect of theology rests upon our understanding of God as the origin of all life and of the role Jesus Christ, the Word, in creation. John could hardly say it more clearly: without him nothing was made that has been made—eve...