Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John is much loved within the church of today.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes
in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Indeed, John records for us some of the most memorable sayings of Jesus.

Not only that, John has some of the best stories

In so many respects, John provides us with some very straight up, simply information
about Jesus.

The difficulty of reading John:

Shallow enough for a child to wade in, deep enough for an elephant to drown.

REASONS FOR DIFFICULTY

First – he is different to Matthew, Mark and Luke

Parables

Exorcisms

Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out (John
12:31)
Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

Eternal Life - rather than kingdom of God

John has a much greater focus on the way Jesus reveals God to us

The language of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Jesus as the divine Son of God

In John, Jesus‟ deity is much more overt.

Why is John so different?

Getting the Most out of John

JESUS IS GOD

JESUS’ ACTIONS HAVE SYMBOLIC REFERENCE

 Healings

 The Symbolism of the Feasts

By pronouncing himself to be the „light of the world‟ (8:12; 9:5) and the
source of „living water‟ (4:10–14; 7:38), Jesus claims to fulfil the torch-
Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

lighting and water-pouring ceremonies which formed part of the feast of

Tabernacles.

By dying during Passover week, Jesus is revealed as the fulfillment of the

Jewish Passover (19:14).

The Book of Acts

1. The book of Acts is written by the same person who wrote the book of Acts –
a man called Luke, who was a Gentile, a doctor and a companion of Paul.

2. Luke deliberately writes it as the continuation of the story he started in Luke:

(Acts 1:1-2)
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to
teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the
Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

THE BASIC PROGRAM OF THE BOOK OF ACTS

Acts 1:8

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

The whole thing is about showing to you how God is expanding his mission to
include people outside of Israel (see Genesis 12)
Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

Luke indicates this focus of his by the constant repetition, indicating the progress of
the word by the power of the Holy Spirit

Acts 6:7

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly,
and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

Acts 9:31

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It
was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in
the fear of the Lord.

Acts 12:24

But the word of God continued to increase and spread.

Acts 16:5

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

Acts 19:20

In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

Therefore, Acts is a story told in six major panels, which together contribute to an
understanding of the progress of the word:

6:8-9:31
9:32-12:24 16:6 -19:20
1:1-6:7 12:25-16:5 19:21-28:31
The Gospel
The Gospel The Gospel
The Gospel in in Judea, The Gospel The Gospel
goes to the goes to
Jerusalem Galilee and goes to Asia goes to Rome
Gentiles Europe
Samaria

Not a church history….a history of one strand of the Christian mission designed
encourage all Christian mission.

We want Acts to be a simple manual for us – so that we can say – this is how they did
it in Acts – this is how they we should do it today.

But Luke is not directly interested in those questions.

Week 5 - The Gospel of John, The Book of Acts

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GOSPELS

The question of text – can we trust what has come to us?

The question of temporal distance

“When the disciples quote Jesus, they write this many years after he left, so how
could they be accurate and why do we regard these quotes as God himself speaking
Jesus words of life”

The question of miracles

The question of canonisation

“How a group of people, hundreds of years after its creation, could pick and choose
the books of the New Testament, then claim that it‟s all the divine Word of God”