John
An introduction to the Gospel of John
Today we are continuing in our study and conversation through the Gospel of John. Here we are, 21 weeks into our process, and the goal has been all along that we would process.
Process is more than just information. What is the power of knowing the information? Are you ready to play the Gospel of John Quiz?
Ten questions. Multiple choice. Here we go!!!
What town was Jesus in when he turned water into wine at a wedding?
Bethlehem
Pittsburgh
Nazareth
Cana
What did Jesus say to bring Lazarus out of the tomb he was placed in after his death?
"Arise from the dead!"
"Return to the living, Lazarus."
"Lazarus, come to the light."
"Lazarus, come out!"
Jesus attempted to explain to the people around Him why He must die, using what type of grain as an example?
kernel of corn
seed of apple
grain of rice
kernel of wheat
Who was the high priest the year that Jesus was crucified?
Pilate
Caiaphas
Caesar
Annas
What political position did Pontius Pilate hold in the Roman government?
King
Governor
General
Marshal
When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had a sign attached to the cross that read "Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the World".
True
False
When it appeared that Jesus had died, what did the Jews ask the Roman soldiers to do before they took down the bodies of Jesus and the other men?
pray
stab them
have their legs broken
burn the crosses
________ of Arimathea and __________ were the two men who laid the crucified Jesus in the tomb.
Peter and Paul
Mary and Miriam
Simon and Andrew
Joseph and Nicodemus
Jesus appeared to some of the disciples when they were fishing. At what part of the boat did Jesus tell them to cast out their nets to find fish?
left side
back
front
right side
How many verses are in the book of John?
254
724
879
1203
[1. D, 2. D, 3. D, 4. B, 5. B, 6. F, 7. C, 8. D, 9. D, 10. C]
How did you do?
The thing that I want us to feel is that knowledge / information / details / order of events / nuance of narrative all have value. But without processing, knowledge can potentially lead to nothing.
I keep bringing us back to the degrees of learning and Bloom’s taxonomy:
- Remembering
- Understanding
- Applying
- Analyzing
- Evaluating
- Creating
As we walk towards John’s objective:
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)
We don’t get to John’s objective by simply remembering what Jesus did or by simply understanding what happened. We don’t get to John’s objective by simply applying some things that we are told to do.
We have to get to the higher levels of learning to get to John’s objective: analyzing as we connect the ideas of John, the rest of the Bible, life and learning; evaluating what is believed, what is questioned, what is clear and what is confusing; and creating belief in Jesus as the Messiah and creating belief that there is life in relationship with Him.
Let me toss you right into a question, and I want you to answer it with the levels of learning in mind. How do you best learn at these different levels? Do you learn best through trial and error or pictures or videos or in a classroom setting or from books? There are quite a few different ways that we as humans take in information and learn.
In what ways do you learn the best?
Now I want you to think of a person that you have learned a lot from. It doesn’t have to be the person that you learned the most or the biggest lessons from, or the most impressive person you can think of.
Think of someone that you have learned a lot from. Who are they and what is something you learned from them that has impacted you?
I want to go one more step in our conversation. We have talked about how you learn best and about who you have learned from. Now we walk into what life has taught us. Life can teach us some beautiful things: giving is better than receiving; communication helps; friendship is worth investing in; being known comes after knowing; hard work is eventually recognized and appreciated.
But sometimes life’s lessons are not so precious. Sometimes life teaches us some heavy things: to not trust, to be insecure, to feel shame, to run away… or that you don’t matter and what you want doesn’t matter, or that you won’t be heard… that people lie, that others are selfish...
Learning is a lifelong process that can seem to be difficult and that doesn’t happen by being passive. But life can teach me lessons instantly that I will have to struggle and fight to unlearn.
What are some things life has taught you that you would like to unlearn?
There is so much happening in John 13. It’s the beginning of a 5-chapter farewell of sorts from Jesus to his disciples, his friends.
In the last hours, Jesus had entered Jerusalem to great fanfare--the Messiah and/or the revolutionary and/or the deliverer from problem has come! There was celebration as Jesus entered Jerusalem. Then Jesus and the disciples celebrated the Passover together. In the midst of this celebration of God delivering their people from the bonds of slavery in Egypt, Jesus got up and washed the disciples feet--this was Jesus’ character on display, God’s character on display. And now Jesus predicts His betrayal.
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” (John 13:21)
The disciples were so curious / concerned as they asked Jesus who it could be.
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” (John 13:25)
Jesus says He is going to a place that the disciples can’t go.
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.” (John 13:33)
And while the disciples are reeling from His declaration of betrayal and reeling from the idea that Jesus is leaving and they can’t come--in the midst of this Jesus gives a command.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
We are going to dig a couple of levels into this. The first is a moment to go to work.
There is value in being told what Jesus did. There are hundreds of instances that illustrate His character. But to continue us in process towards belief and/or building belief, we need to engage in the process.
If you simply Google search “Moments in Jesus’ life” and scroll a little, you will see a list of them all. So using that and using your insights and knowledge and listening and sharing with each other:
How did Jesus love His disciples?
As I process this love that Jesus had for His disciples, there are a few things that I see Jesus didn’t do. He didn’t guarantee success. He didn’t coddle or make it easy. He trusted early and empowered repeatedly. He was fully ingrained in their lives for years. He challenged and He focused. He didn’t just give all the answers. He confronted and He said it like it was.
So Jesus throws open this door:
Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
This tosses us into a moment of processing. You must love one another. This feels like such a command moment, and it can quickly turn into a pass/fail standard. So let’s process it a bit. Look a little deeper than the surface, a little deeper than just a pass/fail command, you’re in or you’re out.
In the lower levels of learning, we were asked, how did Jesus love His disciples. And then we are told to go and do the same. In the higher levels of learning we are asked to process.
What are the pros and cons to loving others like Jesus loved His disciples (loves us)?
Why should we love eachother like Jesus loves? Verses 34-35 say:
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35)
Let’s bring our process that we have been working through today all together.
Life has taught the disciples some things: to not trust religious authorities; who and who not to value; who and who not to trust; who and who not to care for; to hate the Romans.
What we’ll see over the chapters following this one is how Jesus lays all of this out. Jesus comforts His disciples and promises them the Holy Spirit. He reinforces this idea that they are really His and He is theirs, giving the picture of the vine and the branches. And He lets them know what to expect, in that people will hate them; that they will face hardship and persecution and grief and death. But He has overcome it all and they can take joy in Him.
Chapter 17 is an amazing moment where Jesus prays for himself, and then He prays for His disciples, and then He prays for all who would believe--and that includes us! We’ll talk more about this in a few weeks, but it’s incredible what He prays for.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. (John 17:20-21)
In the chapter following this, Jesus is arrested.
And all of this is incredible to me. Looking at chapter 13, I sometimes forget the order of events that takes place. I think most people could take the positions that Jesus did and communicate the positive things that He did. But for me it seems to be able to happen only when things are going well. Or at least, I don’t think that the moment after I’m betrayed I’d be able to stand up and communicate all kinds of good things.
Yet this is what Jesus does.
Judas leaves to literally betray Jesus. Then Peter zealously says that he’d die for Jesus, but Jesus knows Peter will deny even knowing Him.
Bring this back to our conversation on life’s lessons, some of which it would be great to unlearn:
How does betrayal affect your readiness to love unconditionally?
Think about it in this way. You’re with a group of your closest friends and you know you’ve got just a short time left with them. Then one of your friends leaves to betray you and you know another will betray you as well.
It’s in this context that Jesus communicates deep love and truth. In the middle of betrayal and hurt, He hands His friends hope. This is an amazing picture, that in the moment you’re betrayed or taken advantage of, you still hold hope and offer love.
Easier said than done for me, but it shows that I still have some work to do when it comes to learning how to love. I can get mad at someone for cutting me off in traffic or for making annoying noises; Jesus literally was betrayed and handed out love and purpose and future hope in exchange. What an upside-down way of seeing people. It is the way of Jesus.
I need to learn and relearn and get hundreds of reminders. What about you?
What do you need to learn/relearn/unlearn in how you love one another?
Take It Deeper Questions:
- Think of and share some advice that you received and took to heart and have strived to follow.
- Think of and share some advice that you received and didn’t embrace and have not strived to follow.
- What are some important or notable aspects of Jesus’ love for His disciples?
- How are you challenged, encouraged, focused or confused as you hear the call for us to love one another in that same way?
Bible Reading Plan:
- Leviticus 7
- Leviticus 8
- Leviticus 9
- John 11
- John 12
- John 13