Writing #5: The Gospel According to John

I just finished band practice. My fingertips are rather raw and are stinging like they have been stuck with a thousand tiny pins. I must be brief. Furthermore, you may be seeing this late, as in the next day, because I had trouble logging onto my blog tonight (10/5). I don’t know if it’s a server issue or what but I could not get there (or here). I thought I would write anyhow in case I do get here sometime.

The sky is black tonight and clear and speckled with millions of visible stars. Well, truth is, I might only be able to see a hundred or a thousand but it may as well be a million. The night is cool and it is relatively quiet even though I still hear the periodic car wooshing by every so often. I wish I could have one night where the cars don’t drive by all night long. Unfortunately that would probably mean the road is blocked off for construction or that I lived some place else—neither option seems desireable to me. So here I sit, window cracked, cars whizzing by, the small voice of my son catching my attention and some other less ambient noise in the background. My fingers hurt from mashing guitar strings for two hours tonight.

I read John’s Gospel tonight. I hope you have read it. Everyone always says that John’s Gospel is so much different from that of Matthew, Mark and Luke. I suppose stylistically it is—to an extent. I try very hard not to worry too much about what others think of the Bible. I read it. I believe it. I try to live by it. I am always interested to see how the various writers convey their message—the words they use, the sentences they construct, the stories they included or excluded. John wrote, "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have enough room for the books that would be written." I don’t know about you, but that whets my appetite. I’m curious: What else did Jesus do? What else did He say? Where else did He go? I suppose it is too dangerous to speculate, so I won’t, but I am still curious and I hope someday I get to know.

What struck me about John’s Gospel is that he actually told us why he wrote it: "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." He also said this at the beginning, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his hame, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God." Now here is the key to John’s Gospel.

He is writing, essentially, and evangelistic tract. Go ahead! Read it again. You will note that, with the possible exception of two chapters (I won’t spoil which two), John mentions that he is concerned with whether or not his readers believe in Jesus. "The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you may also believe." (19:35) John is always telling us that the objective is belief in Jesus. He even said there are consequences for unbelief: "I told youthat you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins." There are also benefits, "Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." It is God’s will that we believe, "For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will rasie them up at the last day." And, as if all that were not enough, "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life."

There’s more but I would like to you to do your own investigation. In the meantime, ask yourself, Have I believed in Jesus? John’s Gospel, like every other book of the Bible, is a Revelation of Jesus Christ. His objective is to make Jesus known and in so doing compel belief. "Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life." And finally, "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." Have you believed in Jesus?

Jerry

PS--as always I am sorry about the grammar and typos.