Appetizer

2 Tim. 2:¹⁵ “Work hard so you can present yourself to God and receive his approval. Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth.”

John is one of the four Books in the New Testament [Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John] called the Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first three [Matthew, Mark, and Luke] are known as the synoptic Gospels because they are similar in reference. In fact, Mark’s work is about ninety percent of Matthew’s work, even though it was to different audiences. Matthew was speaking to the Jews, Mark was speaking to the Romans, Luke was speaking to the Gentiles. They were speaking to different audiences, but they quoted mostly from the same references. The Book of John stands alone, totally different, and we will explain how and why. The synoptic gospels rely heavily on the Law and the Prophets, quoting from the Law and the Prophets over one hundred and forty times. John quoted more from the Poetic and Wisdom Books [Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes], quoting the Law and the Prophets only a few times.

All the parables of Jesus are found in the Synoptic Gospels, in fact almost in the same order. But there is no single parable in the Book of John. John’s account was more of a narration of events that occurred. John takes you into the life of Jesus, into the story of the events, into the actual time. It is only in the Book of John that you would find references to specific times of the day. For example, “It was about twelve noon when He sat by the well and He was talking to a lady …”; that was in John chapter four. John was narrating from an eyewitness account. It was not a case of, “they said…”. John was called the Apostle of Christology because he was focused on Christ Himself. When you examine the work of John, you will see Jesus glorified.

John based his work mainly on the Wisdom and Poetic Books; the essence of the Wisdom Books surprisingly reveals the inadequacy of wisdom. For instance, the crux of the Book of Job is to show the inadequacy of the wisdom of Job and his friends. The crux of the Book of Job is, God Himself showing up. The person of God was the answer in the Book of Job. In the Book of Psalms, the presence of Jehovah, God showing up is the crux. For instance, “I would have lost my way until I entered your temple…” [Ps.73], pointing to the fact that the presence of God is the answer. In Ecclesiastes it is even clearer, “vanity upon vanity all is vanity” [Eccl.1:2]. The Book of Proverbs introduces wisdom as a person, the essence is the presence of God. In Songs of Solomon, it is the same thing, it is all about the Lover of our souls [the essence is God].

Jesus showing up is the ultimate answer to every question and every need of man, that was what John was saying. “And the Word became flesh [He showed up] and dwelt amongst us.” [John 1:14]. One thing that our discourse must do to you, by God’s grace, is to push and propel you to do the hard work of seeking the scriptures for yourself. Our objective is to whet your appetite so that you can dive into the Word of God and read your Bible.

Prayer: Lord, I pray that Your Word will indeed become flesh to me, in Jesus Name. Amen!