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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. In the Old Testament, Solomon dedicated the temple. The temple was a symbol of God's presence upon the earth. As he dedicated the temple, his father David had saved up the wherewithal to do it. Solomon built it and as he dedicated the temple, he asked a very intriguing question.
Listen to his question. All the people of Israel are gathered there in Jerusalem and then Solomon says, but will God really dwell on the earth? For behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, much less this temple that I have built.
It's a great question. It's a great thing to ponder as we open up to the Gospel of John. God really dwell on earth. Well, we know that the tabernacle and later on the temple became those focal points for the presence of the Lord among his people, God dwelling among his people, people coming to that central place, seeking the mind and the will of the Lord. Now we really find God dwelling on earth. We'll see it in John chapter one, verse 14, if God willing we get that far. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled is the literal term, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten son, full of grace and truth.
God dwelling on the earth. So significant is the incarnation, the coming of Christ dwelling that it takes not one, but four different individuals to write the story of Christ, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I'm often asked why are there four gospels? Why not just one grand gospel?
Why four? It's because the person of Jesus is so unique. Not one author can capture in beholding his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. It's as if the Holy Spirit is the director of a string quartet. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are playing the instruments and the Holy Spirit is the director and he puts all of those instruments in beautiful harmony together. So the output, the outcome is an awesome, awesome score.
Beautiful to listen to, but it takes all four. Working together in harmony together, blended together to get a full picture. Or if you prefer a different analogy, it's as if the Holy Spirit is the director on a film set.
And he uses four different cameras from four different angles to capture the action, the response of the crowd, the main characters, body language, etc. Matthew, Mark, Luke, Mark, Luke, and now the gospel of John, each having a different emphasis. I love the gospel of John. We were talking before the service about the gospel of John being the go-to gospel that we usually tell new believers we want them to read. You see, Matthew's gospel was written for the Jewish people. And an often repeated phrase and word is the word fulfilled, or so that it might be fulfilled. We find that phrase in the gospel of Matthew because it's written for the Jews. To show the Jewish people that Jesus, this Jesus that is presented in Matthew is the fulfillment of the Old Testament predictions to the Jewish nation.
It's about doing, it's about accomplishing, it's about getting the job done. It has the Roman audience in mind. When we get to the gospel of Luke, it's as though he's writing to a Greek audience. Luke being a Gentile physician, being a little more exact and a little bit different in his language and covering a different angle altogether, speaks about Jesus in his perfect manhood. He is the Son of Man. That's how Luke presents him.
And to Greek philosophers, the ideal man was often discussed by their philosophers and in their school. So Jesus, the perfect man, full of compassion, full of love. When we get to the gospel of John, it seems as though the audience is not the Jews or just the Romans or just the Greeks.
It's as though the audience here is the whole world. It's the fullest of his character. It speaks of him as the Son of God. In fact, God himself as God in a human body, God in human flesh. So in the gospel of Matthew, the focus is on what Jesus said. We have the great discourses in Matthew that are presented. In the gospel of Mark, we have what Jesus did. It's that rapid action, short, fast moving gospel. Words like immediately or employed a lot.
He did this and then immediately and then and then and then it moves quickly. The gospel of Luke is about how he felt. The gospel of John is about who he was.
Or think of it this way. Matthew, Mark and Luke, which are also called synoptic gospels, because they're very similar in their approach. John is very different in his approach. John is a studied portrait.
It's a studied portrait. We beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so you'll notice that John goes back in his genealogy in verse one, all the way back further than Matthew or Mark or Luke to the very beginning itself, like the book of Genesis, in the beginning. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. The gospel of John was written by John.
Very good. Although his name does not appear as the author of the gospel. He's never introduced as the writer of the gospel in the gospel. When he begins in verse six and says there was a man sent from God whose name was John, he's speaking about John the Baptist, right? So we have John the apostle, the author, not mentioned as the author, writing about at first John the Baptist. Just so we get that square and we get that straight. So if John is not mentioned as the author of the gospel, how do we know then that the gospel of John is indeed the gospel of John?
That's a fair question, right? Would you like the answer? Okay, the reason we know John wrote the gospel is because a guy in the beginning of the second century named Irenaeus said he wrote it. You go, well, so what? How does he know? Well, Irenaeus was a disciple of a guy named Polycarp.
You say, well, so what? Polycarp was a direct disciple of John the apostle. He would have told Irenaeus. So Irenaeus is the first one historically that tells us the guy that wrote this gospel was none other than John the apostle. Now, he does call himself, he goes by an interesting title in his own writings.
You know what I'm going to say some of you, right? He's called the apostle whom Jesus loved. He writes that about himself. Then there was, you know, the apostle Jesus loved.
You know, I won't say his name, but it sort of sounds like John. So he says that about himself, and some people in hearing that think, well, that's sort of arrogant to say I'm the one Jesus loved. I don't see it's arrogant at all.
I think it's confident, not arrogant. You're the disciple Jesus loved as well, and so am I. When you can know that and you can personalize it, and I'm the one that Jesus loved. But on a personal level, the love of Christ, so he calls himself the disciple or the apostle whom Jesus loved. You'll be inspired as you discover that the same spirit who worked in Paul, Peter, and the early church is active and involved in your life today. We'll send you the Holy Spirit then and now as our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to reach people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. When he was transfigured with Moses and Elijah, he took with him only Peter, James, and John. In the Garden of Gethsemane during his temptation, he scurried off from the rest of the crowd just Peter, James, and John. John was the first apostle at the tomb of Jesus. He was also at the cross. He stood at the cross. He watched his Savior die. The other disciples had fled.
John alone was there. He was next to Jesus' mother, Mary. In fact, at the cross, Jesus entrusted Mary into John's care. Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. Then, after the resurrection when the woman said, He's not in that tomb, you guys.
He's gone. It says that Peter and John, Peter and the other disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved, ran to the tomb and it says that John beat Peter to the tomb. I just find it fascinating that John, again, writes of himself. Not only is he the guy whom Jesus loved, but he's the guy who beat Peter to the tomb. Just saying.
It tickles me. And the other disciple did outrun Peter. That's how it's put.
I'm just a little faster. He gets to the tomb first. It says he looked in first and he was thinking about what he saw. Then it says Peter went into the tomb and he sort of scratched his head like, I can't figure this out. Then it says John went in also and he saw and he believed.
So John was not only the first at the tomb, he was the first to believe of the apostles that Jesus had risen from the dead. He is one of the sons of Zebedee. Who is the other son of Zebedee?
James. Yeah, James and John were with their dad, Zebedee, in a fishing business around the Sea of Galilee. They also happened to be partners with a couple other brothers, Peter and Andrew, around the Sea of Galilee.
So they were involved in a fishing business. They were known as the sons of Zebedee. But Jesus called the sons of Zebedee by a nickname.
Boanerges, or sons of thunder, it's translated. And that is probably because, and it's interesting that it was John. James and John and the rest of the gang were going toward Jerusalem. They were going through Samaria. They wanted to stay there. The Samaritans wouldn't receive them because they had set their face steadfastly toward Jerusalem. And there had been a long-going animosity between those in Samaria and those in Jerusalem. So because they were not well treated, James and John said to Jesus, listen to their question.
I know you know this, some of you, but for others of you, but for all of us, it's still amazingly humorous. They sincerely asked him, Lord, would you like us to call fire down from heaven and consume this village? Lord, if it's all the same to you, we'd like to just nuke these people. Is that okay with you?
We're just going to nuke them into oblivion. And Jesus said, you don't know what manner of spirit you are. That is not my heart.
You don't even know what you're talking about. The Son of Man came to save lives, not to destroy lives. So Jesus, who would seem from that, calls them sons of thunder.
Sons of Zebedee, sons of thunder. Now, why that's a little odd and should be interesting to us is that John has been dubbed, do you know what he's been called? The apostle of love. He's been called the apostle of love by how tender he writes this story and how tender he was toward Jesus. And for many reasons that shows an intimacy and a warmth and a tenderness in John.
And yet, he really seemed to have a temper, seemed to be short on the fuse, temperamental, angry, impetuous. Some of the things we typically ascribe to Peter, that was part of James and John's makeup. But it shows you how Jesus can change a life in three and a half years. To turn men from sons of thunder to sons who are tender. And to make John so tender hearted that he would lay his head on Jesus' bosom at that last supper. And for so many other reasons, I love the fact that lives can change if they're willing to hang out with Jesus long enough.
And he hung out with Jesus for his ministry. So we need to go over these verses and really understand them. And again, we're in no hurry. I always set my sights high. I always think, oh, we can cover at least a chapter, maybe two, but at least a chapter. But you're looking now and thinking, that's quite impossible by this time. But that's okay.
Here's the joy of Wednesday night. We have our time, we do what we do, and we pick it up next time and we go through the gospel. Because we want to get certain principles and certain verses understood by all. Some of you have read the Bible, but not all of you have understood it. So let's go through the gospel of John now, kind of concept by concept. In the beginning was the Word, verse 1. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Now notice this, He, speaking of the Word, sounds like He's speaking of an inanimate object, the Word, a piece of conversation, a word. But He, the Word, He, was in the beginning with God. So Matthew begins the genealogy of Jesus Christ.
Do you remember with whom? Who was first in the genealogical record? Abraham. Luke decides to take the genealogy of Jesus Christ and go back even further, all the way to Adam. He begins with Adam.
That's as far back as you can get, you would think. But John actually does Him justice, taking it all the way back to the very beginning at the beginning. The point being is Jesus never wasn't.
He always was. In the beginning, sounds like Genesis 1, in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth. In the beginning was the Word. Now that sounds strange, to be talking about a human being, a person, an entity, an entity with a human body, a personality. But to call the personality by the term, the Word. It sounds so mystical, ethereal, philosophical. What's with calling Jesus the Word?
Why is that? Here's what you need to know. The Jews would sometimes refer to God as the Word. The Hebrew word is Memra, the Greek word is Lagos. And that is because the Jewish people had such a high respect for God, they would never use His given name in the Old Testament, Yahweh. They wouldn't say Yahweh. It was such an ineffable name, an unpronounceable name, a perfect holy name. They would either say Adonai, or simply say Hashem, which means the name. Or sometimes, in their writings, like the Targums, which are commentaries on Old Testament Scriptures, they would simply use the term Memra, or the Word, as a designation of God Himself. So if it was familiar among the Jews, if you were to say the Word, they would think that means God.
But also, in that day and age, among the Greeks, they believed in what they called the Lagos, the Word. And that was a term used by Greek philosophers, for you see, the Greeks understood that the world in which we live has a level of design, it would seem, or at least predictable patterns. The light begins in the morning, ends in the evening, there are rotations and orbits of planets, etc.
There are seasons, there are lengths of days that you can, after a while, observe and thus predict. So then they would ask the question, what is the source and what is the origin of all of this ordered principle in the universe? Why the order? Why the symmetry?
Why the predictability? They said it must be because there is a first principle, an ordering principle, they called the Lagos. The reason for the order in the universe, according to Greek philosophers, is because there existed a Lagos, a Word.
So appealing to Jewish listeners, appealing to Greek listeners, remember he's writing for the world, in the beginning was the Lagos. The ordering principle, the first cause, God himself, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. A few years ago, I heard a knock on my door during the day, and I looked through my little eye hole in the door to see who it was. I was in my study at the time, and I walked up and I looked in there, and I saw two people there with little green Bibles, green covers, and a little magazine that said Awake. So I knew that they were Jehovah's Witnesses, Jehovah's Christian Witnesses, so I thought, well, this will be interesting. So I opened the door, and we began having a conversation, and I'm pretty, I kind of know where the conversations go, I know their lines, I know what they're going to say, I know what they've been taught, I know how they've been discipled.
And it finally got to the point where I brought up John chapter 1, verse 1, and they were ready. And one of them said, well, you know, in the Greek, it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. And I looked, and I said, are you sure about that? Oh, yes, well attested to.
It is. So a person showed me his Bible, and said, sure enough, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. So I asked a couple questions. I always like to ask them, first question, can you provide to me a list of the translators of the New World Translation, your translation? They couldn't do it. And at that time, the Watchtower Track Society couldn't and wouldn't provide a list of their translators.
Because every time they do, the translators, they quote, say, we didn't say that, you're misquoting us. So when they told me that the Greek says the Word was a God, it piqued my interest, and I went and I grabbed my Greek New Testament out of my office. And I opened it up to the Gospel of John, I spread it out, and I said, show me here in the Greek, here is a Greek New Testament written in the Greek language, read it.
Show me. Now, I'll admit, I was being a little persnickety, a little pesky, a little mischievous. You know, I'm no great Greek scholar, trust me, but I was during that time taking a Greek class from our resident Greek scholar, Dr. Stephen Collins. And so I was sort of right in the throes of that. So, you know, I had been studying that passage. So I said, show me where it is. And they both looked at it and said, we can't read Greek. So I said, okay, then let's just go through the first couple of verses.
You're going, okay. Now, you'll notice that last part that I just read. And you'll notice that there is no direct article before Theos, because, and the predicate, notice that the predicate is moved to the front of the sentence, not typically in English to the end of the sentence like we do.
But notice that it's moved forward. And it's done that way to prove a point by the author. The author is trying to show the essence of something or someone. So it literally reads in English, caitheos en halogos, or and God was the word.
That's how it is literally written. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you the Holy Spirit Then and Now featuring two books by Chuck Smith to help you understand how God's spirit worked in the early church and how he's active in you today. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
