This study
presents Jesus from the perspective of John's gospel.
The other books of the gospel tell the story of Jesus. but
we find John focusing on distinct theological themes, which
contrast such terms as life and death, light and darkness,
belief and unbelief, truth and falsehood, love and hate.
This is just a sample outline. You can download the entire message by clicking on one of the links below
- Jesus and His Divinity - Word - PDF
- Jesus Revealed to the Hebrews #1 - PDF - Word
- Jesus Revealed to the Hebrews #2 - PDF - Word
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In
John's gospel we have the deepest spiritual and theological
teachings of Jesus.
John's
gospel emphasizes Christ's deity to a greater extent than
the others.
John began not with Jesus' birth, but with a statement of
Christ's pre-existence as God.
John's purpose in writing this book was to unveil the Man,
Jesus, and to reveal Him as God.
John
20:31
...but 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.
This is
the purpose of this message as well -- that we may come
to a greater level of faith and belief in who Jesus Christ
is so that we may experience more of the abundant life He
has to offer us.
Special Marks of Jesus' Divinity - John 1:1-18.
1. Jesus Is Revealed as Being Pre-existent with the Father.
The first
mark of divinity that John draws us to is the fact that
Jesus was eternally existent with the Father. John
takes us back to eternity by identifying Jesus as "The
Word" who was in the beginning.
John
1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God.
2. He Is Shown and Revealed as the Creator of the Universe.
John
1:3 All
things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was
made that was made.
Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and
that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were
created through Him and for Him.
3. He Is Proclaimed As Life.
John
1:4
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
No one
but God the Father, unbegotten and uncreated, inherently
possesses life-in-himself. He is in His very being
`the living God'. Human beings, in common with all
other living things, do not possess life-in-themselves;
their life is derived from God, the source and stay of all
life. To the Son alone, begotten but not created,
has the Father imparted His own prerogative to have life-in-Himself.
– F.F. Bruce.
In the
eternal order of the Father, as Father, imparts to the Son,
as Son, that life-in-himself, the Son reveals that life
to men and women. Jesus
has come to impart His life giving spirit into each of our
lives through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Because He
is the resurrection of Life He imparts the eternal spirit
of life into our beings.
4. Jesus Is Proclaimed as the Light of the World.
Another
term that is used to describe Jesus' deity is that of light.
Light and darkness are often moral terms. Light represents
moral purity, holiness, righteousness, and goodness.
In contrast, darkness as a moral term represents evil, all
those warped and twisted ways in which sin had perverted
the good in man, and brought pain to individuals and society. The moral
light is one of the most powerful and pervasive evidences
of God's existence. eg. of Peter after catching the
fish.
Luke
5:8
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!"
The deep-seated
conviction that there is a moral order to things is present
in every human society. But society is in darkness;
even though some sense of moral order and rightness exists.
People in every society choose to do what they themselves
believe is wrong.
John
8:12
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "I am the light
of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness,
but have the light of life."
5. Jesus Was Also Proclaimed As Being Full Of Grace And
Truth.
Finally
we see Jesus portrayed as the Word becoming flesh being
full of grace and truth
John
1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
When the
Word became flesh we were given new light – a revelation
that the divine morality is "grace and truth".
In Jesus we see a morality that goes beyond law and can
only be identified as grace.
We must
see Jesus as He is, God's ultimate Word of revelation.
We must hear His Word, come to understand and believe in
Him. When we trust ourselves to Jesus, forever, and
daily, we will learn what it means to "have eternal
life in Him."
