“Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus, To reach out and touch Him, and say that we love Him. Open our eyes, Lord, and help us to listen. Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.”

The cover of an issue of U.S. News and World Report asked the question “Who was Jesus?” Inside it reported on some academic discussions about the identity of the one we call “Lord.”

Listen to some of their confusing conclusions: “In just the past two years, Jesus has been depicted variously as a magician and healer, as a religious and social revolutionary and as a radical peasant philosopher. One author has even theorized that Jesus was the leader of the Dead Sea Scrolls community in Qumran, that he survived the Crucifixion and went on to marry twice and father three children.”

Newsweek magazine ran a similar cover story, this one on “The Death of Jesus.” One of the articles focused on a group of seventy-seven liberal scholars known as the “Jesus Seminar.” These people meet twice a year to talk about their opinions regarding who Jesus was and what He actually did.

One of their most curious practices is that of voting about the authenticity of specific passages in the Gospels. Every person is given four beads; when it is time to vote, they simply drop in the appropriate beads. Red beads mean they believe Jesus certainly said or did what the text says. Pink beads indicate that they think Jesus said or did something close to what the text describes. Gray beads signify their doubt that Jesus said or did what the text relates, and black beads represent their certainty that Jesus never thought or did anything like what the text declares.

The following conclusions by the majority in the “Jesus Seminar” are shocking and, I believe, blasphemous! “This “historical” Jesus performed no miracles, but he did have a healer’s touch, a gift for alleviating emotional ills through acceptance and love. He called for an utterly egalitarian Kingdom of God—not on some day of judgment, but in the here and now. He wanted people to experience God directly, unimpeded by hierarchy of temple or state. The authorities executed him, almost casually, after he caused a disturbance in Jerusalem during Passover. Jesus lived on in the hearts of followers old and new, but he did not physically rise from the dead. Taken down from the cross, his body was probably buried in a shallow grave–and may have been eaten by dogs.’”

The identity of Jesus is a topic of discussion not only in scholarly circles today, but also in homes, at coffee shops, and on street corners all around the world!

Some hold that He was “a nice man.” Others believe that He was “an outstanding teacher.” Still others contend that He was “the wisest man who ever lived.” Most people in the world have some opinion of who Jesus of Nazareth really was.

What are we to make of this discussion? While I disagree strongly with the conclusions expressed in the above-mentioned news magazines and am deeply concerned with many popular notions about Jesus, I am fascinated by the fact that 2,000+ years after He lived on the earth, people are still asking about Jesus. The good news for us is that the Gospel of John begins with a definite answer to the question.

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Strategic to John’s background and setting is the fact that according to tradition John was aware of the Synoptic Gospels.

Apparently, he wrote his Gospel in order to make a unique contribution to the record of the Lord’s life (a spiritual Gospel) and, in part, to be supplementary as well as complementary to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

The Gospel’s unique characteristics reinforce this purpose: First, John supplied a large amount of unique material not recorded in the other Gospels. Second, he often supplied information that helps the understanding of the events in the Synoptics.

For example, while the Synoptics begin with Jesus’ ministry in Galilee, they imply that Jesus had a ministry prior to that (for example, Matthew 4:12; Mark 1:14). John supplies the answer with information on Jesus’ prior ministry in Judea (chapter 3) and Samaria (chapter 4).

Second, In Mark 6:45, after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus compelled his disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee to Bethsaida. John recorded the reason: The people were about to make Jesus king because of His miraculous multiplying of food, and He was avoiding their ill-motivated efforts (John 6:26).

Third, John is the most theological of the Gospels, containing, for example, a heavily theological prologue (1:1–18), larger amounts of didactic and discourse material in proportion to narrative (for example, 3:13–17), and the largest amount of teaching on the Holy Spirit (for example, 14:16–17, 26; 16:7–14).

Although John was aware of the Synoptics and fashioned his Gospel with them in mind, he did not depend upon them for information. Rather, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he utilized his own memory as an eyewitness in composing the Gospel (1:14; 19:35; 21:24).

John’s Gospel is the only one of the four to contain a precise statement regarding the author’s purpose (20:30–31). He declares, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (20:31).

Thus John had two primary purposes: evangelistic and apologetic. Reinforcing the evangelistic purpose is the fact that the word “believe” occurs approximately 100 times in the Gospel (the Synoptics use the term less than half as much).

John composed his Gospel to provide reasons for saving faith and, as a result, to assure readers that they would receive the divine gift of eternal life (1:12).

The apologetic purpose is closely related to the evangelistic purpose. John wrote to convince his readers of Jesus’ true identity as the incarnate God-Man whose divine and human natures were perfectly united into one person who was the prophesied Christ (“Messiah”) and Savior of the world (for example, 1:41; 3:16; 4:25–26; 8:58).

He organized his whole Gospel around eight “signs” or proofs that reinforce Jesus’ true identity, leading to faith.

The first half of his work revolves around seven miraculous signs selected to reveal Christ’s person and engender belief. There are also 7 “I AM” statements and 7 “Witnesses”…we’ll look at each of them as we reach them.

Because John composed his record in a clear and simple style, one might tend to underestimate the depth of this Gospel. Since John’s Gospel is a “spiritual” Gospel, the truths he conveys are profound. The reader must prayerfully and meticulously explore the book in order to discover the vast richness of the spiritual treasures that the apostle, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (14:26; 16:13), has lovingly deposited in his Gospel.

Special features: Of the eight miracles recorded, six are unique (among the Gospels) to John, as is the “Upper Room Discourse” (chapters 14–17).

Over 90 percent of John is unique to his Gospel—John does not contain a genealogy or any record of Jesus’ birth, childhood, temptation, transfiguration, appointment of the disciples, nor any account of Jesus’ parables, ascension, or great commission.

Although John wrote the prologue with the simplest vocabulary in the New Testament, the truths that the prologue conveys are the most profound. The prologue features six basic truths about Christ as the Son of God:

• The eternal Christ (vv. 1–3)
• The incarnate Christ (vv. 4–5)
• The forerunner of Christ (vv. 6–8)
• The unrecognized Christ (vv. 9–11), that is, His rejection
• The omnipotent Christ (vv. 12–13)
• The glorious Christ (vv. 14–18), that is, His deity.^[1]

Aside from the prologue, this first chapter records the events of only four days of Jesus’ ministry. Appropriately, it begins with the words, “In the beginning,” for a number of important beginnings appear in it, such as:

• The beginning of all things, John 1:3.
• The beginning of the recognition of Jesus as the Son of God, John 1:34.
• The beginning of Jesus’ disciples, John 1:41.
• The beginning of the apostleship, John 1:41f.
• The beginning of the use of the title, Son of Man, John 1:51.
• The beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.^[2]

It was not long before the Christian church was confronted with a very basic problem.  It had begun in Judaism.  In the beginning all its members had been Jews.  By human descent Jesus was a Jew, and, to all intents and purposes, except for brief visits to the districts of Tyre and Sidon, and to the Decapolis, he was never outside Palestine.

Christianity began among the Jews; and therefore inevitably it in spoke in the Jewish language and used Jewish categories of thought.

But although it was cradled in Judaism, it very soon went out into the wider world.  Within 30 years of Jesus’s death it had travelled all over Asia Minor and Greece and had arrived in Rome.  By A.D. 60 there must have been a 100,000 Greeks in the church for every Jew who was a Christian.

Jewish ideas were completely strange to the Greeks.  One outstanding example, the Greeks had never heard of the Messiah.  The very center of Jewish expectation, the coming of the Messiah, was an idea that was quite alien to the Greeks.

The very category in which the Jewish Christians conceived and presented Jesus meant nothing to them.  Here then was the problem-how was Christianity to be presented to the Greek world?

AUTHOR

The Gospel of John was written around a.d. 85–95 by a Jewish disciple who was chosen by Jesus Christ to share in His earthly ministry. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome and was the brother of James, whom Jesus had also called to be one of the twelve disciples. Jesus referred to the two brothers, John and James, as “sons of thunder.” (Mark 3:17) Along with Peter, these two brothers served as prominent leaders of the early Jerusalem church.^[3]

When Jesus and the Twelve were rebuffed by a Samaritan village, these rough fishermen suggested calling down fire from heaven to destroy the whole village. Jesus had to calm down the outspoken brothers and explain that vengeance was not his way (Luke 9:52–56).

Just before that incident, John had told Jesus that he had tried to stop a man from driving out demons “because he is not one of us.” Jesus had explained that he didn’t have an exclusive club, “for whoever is not against you is for you” (Luke 9:49–50).

One might predict that someone with a personality like John’s would self-destruct. Certainly this person would die in a fight or in a clash with the Roman government. At the very least, he would be discarded by the church as self-seeking and power-hungry.

But such was not the case. Instead, John was transformed into someone who was strong but gentle, straightforward but loving, courageous but humble.

There is no dramatic event to account for John’s transformation—it must have come from being with Jesus, being accepted, loved, and affirmed by the Lord, and then being filled with the Holy Spirit.

So overwhelmed was John by Jesus that he did not mention himself by name in the Gospel that bears his name. Instead, he wrote of himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:20, 24). What a humble change for one who, at first, had wanted power and recognition.

John stands as a great example of Christ’s power to transform lives. Christ can change anyone—no one is beyond hope. Jesus accepted John as he was, a Son of Thunder, and changed him into what he would become, the apostle of love.

This book has been called “the greatest book in the world” and the “greatest love story ever told.” It’s the book on which many feed their minds, nourish their hearts, and rest their souls.

The Gospel of John is of particular interest because of its unique approach—very different from the approach of the other three Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke (sometimes called the “Synoptic Gospels”). Over 90% of the material in John’s Gospel is unique to John, not to be found in the other three Gospels.

Clement of Alexandria (190-200 A. D.) said John knew that the other Gospel writers had given the historical data of Christ’s life and he (John) was “urged by his friends and inspired by the Spirit” to “compose a spiritual gospel.” John’s Gospel lends itself to both the profound and the plain. He expounds upon the deepest recesses of the infinite Mind in the simplest language.

John’s gospel attains its stature based, in small part, to its theme as depicted on stain-glass windows.  The gospel writers are depicted in certain ways: Matthew: a lion    Mark: a man            Luke: an ox       John: an eagle.

It is said that Matthew saw Jesus as Messiah and the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  He wrote to the Jews and was interested in establishing the regal rights of Jesus as King of the Jews.

Mark was the plainest, straight-forward, most human of the gospel writers. He was writing to the Romans and wanted to show Jesus as a servant. What Mark had his eye on was the humanity of Jesus, which would appeal to a practical Roman citizen.

Luke saw Jesus as the great servant of man and universal sacrifice for all mankind. He was writing primarily to a Greek audiences and focused on his humanity. He traced His genealogy all the way back to Adam.

John, however, shows Jesus depicted as an eagle. The eagle, of all living creatures, alone can look straight into the sun and not be dazzled. John’s account, then, stressed the deity of Jesus and His unique relationship with the Father.

Of the four authors of the New Testament Gospels, two (Mark and especially Luke) were not present with our Lord as one of His 12 disciples. Matthew was not one of the inner three. And so while Matthew can write about our Lord’s ministry from the perspective of one of the nine “outside” disciples.

It is only John who can describe certain critical events from the perspective of one of the inner three. Each Gospel thus has its own purpose, its own perspective, its own audience, and its own unique contribution.

John of all writers has the most penetrating gaze into eternal mysteries and eternal truths, and into the very mind of God. Many people find themselves closer to God and to Jesus Christ in John’s gospel than in any other book in the world.

John writes with a simple, straight-forward style. Seldom will we find a word over three syllables: most are one or two. He is also a writer fond of contrasts: light and dark; life and death; Spirit and flesh.

A story may jump from sadness to ecstasy, from stormy conflict to the sweetest calm, from a crisis of doubt to concrete assurance.

John also does not use a “running video camera” to record the life of Jesus. Rather, he uses a more selective snapshot approach; thus, the gospel reads more like a thematic scrapbook of Christ’s life than a meticulously chronicled documentary.

(John will show us Jesus in a very personal dialogue with a person, and then he “pulls back” and let’s us see the reaction/result of that ‘time with Jesus.’

John’s ministry. John was a Palestinian and a Galilean. He was not from Jerusalem, but from the country. This is why John shows such familiarity in his writing with the geography of the area and perhaps why John singles out the system of religious leaders who were in control in Jerusalem.

Many believe that John was first a disciple of John the Baptist. His mentor pointed him to Jesus when Jesus passed by. Then Jesus and John spent the day together (1:35–39).

At that time, John must have become a part-time disciple, for later we find him back fishing with his brother, James, and their father, Zebedee. But the next time Jesus called them, John and James left everything, father and boat included, and followed him.

This was after Jesus had turned water into wine (2:1–11), had cleared the temple the first time (2:12–25), and had been visited by Nicodemus at night (3:1–21). It was also after Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist (Luke 3:19–20), Jesus had spoken with the woman at the well (4:1–26), and Jesus had been rejected at Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30).

John has a different account on the scene of Jesus’s ministry. In the other three gospels, the main scene of His ministry is Galilee and Jesus does not reach Jerusalem until the last week of His life. In John, the scene is Jerusalem and Judea, with only occasional withdrawals to Galilee (John 2:1-13, 4:35-5:1, 6:1-7:14). And John is surely right!

The other gospels show Jesus mourning over Jerusalem as the last week came in (Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34).  It is clear that Jesus could not have said that unless he had paid repeated visits and made repeated appeals to it.

He gives specialized information on Palestine and Jerusalem: he tells us: how long it took to build the temple (2:20); that Jews and Samaritans had constant quarrels (4:9); he provides a picture of the low Jewish view of women (4:9); he shows us the Jews and the Sabbath and tells us that Cana is in Galilee (2:1).

John also has a different duration of Jesus’ ministry. The other three gospels imply that His ministry lasted only one year, as there is only one Passover Feast. In John there are three Passovers:

• one of the cleansing of the Temple (2:13)
• one near the feeding of the 5,000 (6:4)
• the last when Jesus went to the cross

This would put His ministry closer to three years.

As a member of the Twelve, John was an eyewitness to the miracles, an “ear-witness” to the parables and confrontations with the Pharisees and other leaders, and a student of Jesus’ special words of instruction.

John was at the Last Supper and in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he was the only one of the Twelve at the cross. John also saw the empty tomb and was in the upper room, on the beach, and at the Ascension.

We have not seen the last of John when we reach the end of the Gospels, for (apart from the Apostle Paul) John and Peter are the dominant apostles in the Book of Acts.

John is one of the disciples gathered in the upper room (1:13). He accompanies Peter on his way to the temple at the hour of prayer and thus participates in the healing of the lame man (3:1ff.).

John and Peter are arrested and instructed to cease preaching Christ by the Sadducees, but they refuse, insisting they must obey God rather than man by preaching that Jesus has been raised from the dead (Acts 4:1-22).

When the Gospel is proclaimed in Samaria and many come to faith, Peter and John are sent there, and when they lay their hands on these new believers they receive the Holy Spirit, just as the apostles did at Pentecost (Acts 8:14-17).

James, the brother of John, was killed by Herod, who intended to kill Peter as well, but God delivered Peter so that he could continue to preach the Gospel (Acts 12:1ff.).

In Galatians 2:9, Paul refers to John as one of the “reputed pillars” of the church in Jerusalem. John is, of course, the author of the First, Second and Third John and of the Book of Revelation.

This one who once “leaned on Jesus’ chest” in the Gospel of John is also the one who “fell as a dead man” at the feet of his resurrected and glorified Lord in the Book of Revelation (1:17).

When John wrote his epistles to Gentile congregations (1 John), “the chosen lady” (2 John ), and Gaius (3 John), he simply identified himself as “the elder.” So it is thought that John must have been the only surviving apostle at that time.

John provides a powerful example of a lifetime of service to Christ. As a young man, John left his fishing nets to follow the Savior. For three intense years he watched Jesus live and love, and listened to him teach and preach.

John saw Jesus crucified and then risen!

John’s life was changed dramatically, from an impetuous, hot-tempered youth, to a loving and wise man of God. Through it all, John remained faithful, so that at the end of his life, he continued to bear strong witness to the truth and power of the gospel.

How strong is your commitment to Christ? Will it last through the years? The true test of an athlete is not in the start but the finish. So too with faithfulness to Christ—how will you finish that race?

 ^[1] John MacArthur, John: Jesus—The Word, the Messiah, the Son of God, MacArthur Bible Studies (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000), 6.

^[2] James B. Coffman, Commentary on John, The James Burton Coffman Commentaries (A. C. U. Press, 1984), Jn 1.

^[3] Practical Christianity Foundation, John: The Word Made Flesh, The Easy-To-Read Commentary Series (Green Key Books, 2004), 1.