June 23, 2014 (Monday)
The gospel of John is different from the synoptic gospels because it was written later and amidst new circumstances. By the time John wrote his gospel, Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed and the Jews dispersed. Heresy had arisen and the divinity of Jesus was being denied. Established churches existed in many places and Christians were to be found all over the Roman Empire as a movement not to be ignored. John, who also wrote three epistles and the Revelation, is not writing to introduce Jesus, but to show that He is God with us. He is not writing to give us a biography of Jesus, but to show by relating certain events that He is “the word made flesh.” Each event and discourse stands on its own. It’s almost as if we gathered around John every evening to hear his stories about the Savior; every night would be a new story, complete in itself. All the stories, however, would center on one theme: the divinity of Jesus. The gospel begins by telling us that Jesus Christ is divine.
John – A devotional thought
Jesus is quoted in the Gospel of John as saying, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to Father but by me” (John 14:6). An old song goes like this:
“Jesus is standing at your heart’s door,
Standing and knocking,
He’s knocked before.
This is the question you face once more:
What will you do with Jesus?
What will you do with Jesus?
Neutral you cannot be.
Someday your heart will be asking,
‘What will He do with me?'”