Book of John Summarised with Video Illustrations!

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The Gospel according to John is different from the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

In John’s Gospel there are no parables. No genealogies. And John explains why in Chapter 20:30-31:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

The purpose of John’s Gospel is not to repeat the signs and wonders already explained in the other Gospels, but for everyone to hear more about eternal life. The Good News of Salvation that Jesus preached, so that those who believed in His name may be saved into eternity.

This is why John begins this book by claiming Jesus as God, as the Creator and as our redeemer – all in the very first Chapter. There was no doubt in John’s understanding of who Jesus was.

*Note: If you prefer to watch this summary in a video format, you can watch this entire book illustrated and summarized in our YouTube Channel below.

He then moves on to introduce John the Baptist, who is described as a messenger, to prepare the way for the Lord – as was prophesied by Isaiah in the Old Testament. It is interesting to note that Isaiah mentioned that this messenger (who we now know is John the Baptist) will make way for GOD. This prophecy in itself validates that Jesus is God!

John the Baptist also claims that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. If you again go back to the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, when Abraham is ready to offer his Son Isaac as a sacrifice, God stops Abraham as this was a test of faith set by God and Abraham proved Himself righteous. But it was many years later that God provided an ultimate sacrifice for our sins, through His Only Son Jesus. The story of Abraham offering Isaac was a symbolic representation, foreshadowing Jesus’s sacrifice on the Cross.

After John Baptised Jesus, Jesus begins His earthly ministry. He starts calling together His disciples, starting with Andrew who called Jesus the Messiah, then Simon Peter who Jesus later called Jesus as the Christ. Next, He calls Philip who understands Jesus to be the one Moses and the prophets spoke about in the Old Testament. And then comes Nathanael. Jesus surprises Nathanael by telling him things about himself – like how He saw him sitting under a fig tree. By this, Nathanael call Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel.

We see right at the start, there was no doubt in any of the disciples minds that Jesus was more than just a prophet.

Next, in Chapter 2 we see the wedding at Cana where Jesus turns six stone water jars into wine. This was the first recorded miracle of Jesus in the Bible.

We then see the righteous anger of Jesus as He enters the Temple in Jerusalem and drives out the money changers and those who were selling animals for sacrifice. The idea behind animal sacrifices in the Old Testament was to prevent people from sinning, not to conduct a business out of it. Here Jesus makes another divine statement about Himself.

In John 2 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He is speaking of His own body being the temple, and the power and authority He has to raise it back up again.

Next, we see an incredible meeting between Jesus and a Jewish Pharisee called Nicodemus. Nicodemus understands that Jesus is no ordinary teacher and questions Jesus about all that He does. It is here that Jesus introduces the concept of being born again to Nicodemus.
Jesus says in John 3:6, “that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of Spirit is spririt.”

What Jesus is trying to tell him is that we are all born of flesh by birth, and this flesh is sinful in nature, since the fall of man. We see this stated in Galatians 5:19-21 and Romans 8:3. So it is the spirit that needs to be saved, and the only way to do this is for our spirit to be united with the Holy Spirit. The only way for this to happen is by being born again and this happens when we believe in Jesus.

This is why being born again is an important decision that everyone has to make. We can only recieve the Holy Spirit, when we accept Jesus into our lives as Lord and Savior.

Jesus explains this again to the Samaritan woman at the well. He tells her that He is the source of eternal life.

During their conversation, the woman understands Jesus to be a prophet, but Jesus lets her know that He in fact is the Messiah they have been waiting for. After this womans testimony about Jesus, many other Samaritans heard Jesus’s teachigns and believed that He was the Savior of the world.

Jesus goes on to perform many healings and miracles including healing a paralyzed man at the pool of Bethseda – on the Sabbath – something that the Jews were against, as they considered Sabbath to be a day of rest, and Jesus was healing on this day.

John 5:18 also show us that the Jews were not happy with Jesus calling God His own father. MAKING HIMSELF EQUAL WITH GOD.

Till the end of this Chapter we see Jesus explains very clearly how He is One with the Father and also explains in verse 46, that even what Moses wrote in the Old Testament was about Him.

In John 6, we see the incredible miracle of Jesus multiplying five barley loaves and two fish into enough food to feed five thousand. And it didn’t stop there, there was leftovers! 12 Baskets full of the remaining bread and fish! Just when they thought they had nothing, they were given their fill and had more too keep!

Next, we see Jesus walking on water while the disciples were in a boat at sea battling a storm.

The next day, Jesus is seen preaching to a crowd and addresses the bread that they recieved the previous day. He again points to an Old Testament story of how God, the Father provided the Israelites with bread when they were in the wilderness with Moses. Jesus claims that He is this bread – not only as the bread that came down as manna, but the supernatural bread that gives us eternal life.

If you remember what Jesus told Nicomdemus about the difference between the flesh and the Spirit, you will see the connection He makes here again. In John 6:63 Jesus says,
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

It is the Spirit that leads to eternal life and this is not a new concept. The Old Testament also teaches in Ecclesiastes 12:7 which says,

“and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

This teaching about eternal life, caused many disciples to turn away from Jesus. They were happy to see miracles and healings, but this type of teaching was too hard for them to swallow.

Jesus ends this Chapter by saying that although He chose His disciples, one of them is the devil- talking about Judas. This shows us how Jesus knows what’s in our heart even though we don’t speak it out, showing us He is truly God who manifested Himself on earth as a man.

So we see that whether it was to Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman at the well or to His disciples, Jesus was proving Himself to be the Son of God, who is the ONLY source of eternal life to all who believe.

As Jesus continues to teach, there was confusion among the people about who Jesus was. Some said He was a prophet, other thought Jesus to be the Christ.

But Jesus’ teaching was unlike any prophet. When the scribes and the Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery, Jesus was able to handle the situation with causing judgement on her. He left the Pharisees speechless with His question: “Let him who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” This goes in line with Jesus teaching in Matthew 7:3, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”

Jesus then goes on to say that He is the light of the world, and in John 8:23 He states that He is not of this world. And in verse 24 Jesus says, “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”

Towards the end of verse 8, we come to one of the most debated bible verses where Jesus states,
“Before Abraham was, I Am”. Now I AM, is the name of God as revealed to Moses in the Old Testament. So it is understood that Jesus is calling Himself God in this statement. However many claim this was not true. But even if Jesus didn’t mean to say I AM as in being God, the fact that He says that Abraham saw Jesus and he rejoiced, proves that Jesus pre-existed. This is not something any prophet has every claimed to have done in the past.

In John 9, we see the healing of a man born blind. But the real story is when the Pharisees refuse to believe that he was blind in the first place, so that they could try and dismiss the miracle performed by Jesus.

Jesus then goes on to call Himself the Good Shepherd, raise Lazarus from the dead and also call Himself the resurrection and the life.

In John 11:47-48 we see the real reason the Jews wanted Jesus crucified,

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Just as they silenced the blind man from declaring Jesus healing on him, they also wanted Lazarus dead, as his miracle was causing many to believe in Jesus.

He then washes his disciples feet in humility as a lesson for us to do the same to others.

In Chapter 14, Jesus tells us to believe in God and in Him. He also goes on to describe how there are many rooms in His Fathers house and that He is going to prepare one fot those who love Him. Throughout this Chapter we see how Jesus is one with the Father. Finally this Chapter ends with Jesus saying Satan has NO claim on Him – setting Himself apart from humanity and the world.

In Chapter 16, Jesus talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit who is there to guide us all in truth. This also shows us how God, first displays Himself as the Father in the Old Testament, as the Son in the New Testament, and now lives within us as the Holy Spirit. God never leaves us alone and is always here with us.

From Chapters 18 untill the end of the book we see the betrayal, Crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. While many of us are familiar with this part of the story, here are some interesting facts you may have missed.

During Jesus’ final week before being crucified, He stood before the people as they claimed Him to be a Prophet. He stood before the high priests, even though Jesus is our Great High Priest and He stood before Herod as the King of Israel – yet no one recognized Jesus to be our King of kings and Lord of lords.

To give a powerful conclusion to this Gospel of John Bible study, let us see what Jesus said in Matthew Chapter 12:

• Something greater than the Temple is here
• Something greater than Jonah (the prophet) is here
• Something greater than Solomon (the king) is here

This statement shows Jesus telling us that He is greater than the temple, greater than a prophet and greater than a king. He is God!

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