It has been said about the Gospel of John, that it is shallow enough for a baby to swim in, yet deep enough for an elephant to dive in. Although a baby will likely not be reading John, and elephants do not read (!), the saying captures most people’s experience when working through John. On first reading—“I get it … I get Who the Jesus of John is.” Then on second, third, tenth reading—“Oh mercy … there is so much more to get!”

John is accessible to just about any audience—to those who have never read the Bible and to those have read the Bible all their lives.

Historical Background

There is very good reason to believe that the author of John is, in fact, John, the son of Zebedee, one of the first persons Jesus called into the venture of discipleship (Matt. 4:21). The author is the “beloved disciple” (21:20), the one who, as a number of commentators put it, “has his head on Jesus’ heart,” who enjoyed the most intimate of relationships with Jesus during his earthly ministry (13:23).

Although we do not know with certainty, John likely wrote his Gospel from the city of Ephesus, and did so sometime before AD 70, when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. For as he says in 5:2, “there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool ….” The implication being the Temple is still standing when he writes.

John is writing to those who want to know who Jesus of Nazareth is—“Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (12:21). The Greeks on Palm Sunday are expressing the longings of those to whom John writes. They likely had some knowledge of him, but are wanting more. So, John gives them, and us, more! Understatement, if there ever was one! Although as John says, he has not written everything he could have: if everything were written, “I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books which were written” (21:25).

The book, therefore, is all about Jesus. Or, more accurately, all about Jesus revealing who he is. Revealing who he is for the world, and for every person in the world.

The big discovery we make is that Jesus wants the world, us, to have life and have it “abundantly” (10:10). Is that not the quest of everyone in the world today? John writes his Gospel because he is convinced that “abundant life” is found only in Jesus. John states the reason for writing at the end: “These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God; and that in believing you may have life in his name”(20:31).

The Greek word John uses which we render “life,” is zoe. Not the expected word bios. Although a very good life, bios, the life we get from our parents, runs down, decays, dies (tell me about it). Zoe, however, does not run down, decay, die. For zoe cannot. Zoe is the life God has and is. Eternal Life. And that is what Jesus comes to give us!

Structure of John

John begins with what is traditionally called “The Prologue,” 1:1-18; literally, “the word before the word.” Likely written as a poem, John lets us know right from the beginning who the rest of the story is all about. “And the Word … Who was God” (1:1), “became flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14). Jesus of Nazareth is the Living God himself, come into our world as one of us! In the rest of the story we are encountered by God in our flesh and blood.

John then further sets the stage, (1:19-51) by telling us about Jesus’ “forerunner,” John the Baptist. And then about Jesus calling the first disciples, telling them what they are getting themselves into by following him—“you will see heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (1:51).

The whole book is built around the word “glory.” 1:14: “And the Word became flesh … and we beheld his glory.” “Glory” is a way of revealing the “essential nature and character of God.” In chapters 2-21, we are “beholding glory.” And as a result, we are being changed (2 Cor. 3:18).

There are two halves to the book: chapters 2-11 and chapters 12-21.

Chapters 2-11 are bracketed by the word “glory.” After turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee, John says, “and his disciples beheld his glory” (2:11). Then, just before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus says to the man’s grieving sisters, “Did I not tell you that if you believe you would see the glory of God?” (11:40). The implication being that everything Jesus does and says between these two events reveals the essential nature and character of Jesus, which is the essential nature and character of God. Especially in Jesus’ deeds and words in the context of the various Jewish Feasts, most dramatically in the Feast of Tabernacles, when he declares, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (8:58).

Chapters 12-21 begin with the word “glory.” On Palm Sunday, after entering the city of Jerusalem, Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (12:31). “Now”—in the events of Holy Week, leading up to his crucifixion and resurrection. “Now” glory is fully manifested for all the world to see. Which is why John Calvin called the second half of John, “the theater of glory.” Glory is breaking through on the cross. Glory is breaking through in the empty tomb. The revelation of the God who overcomes the power of death by dying. The revelation of the God who brings us into being a whole new order of life by rising from the grave. “And we beheld his glory.”

Preaching Pericopes

1:1-18 – Prologue – “Before You Read The Rest of the Story”

1:19-34 – The Witness of John the Baptist – “Look!”

1:35-51 – Calling of the first disciples – “What Are We Getting Ourselves Into?”

2:1-12 – Wedding at Cana – “All Things Made New”

2:13-25 – Cleansing of the Temple – “Clearing the Way into God”

3:1-21 – Mid-night visit with Nicodemus – “Born From Above”

3:22-36 – John the Baptist – “Friend of the Bridegroom”

4:1-38 – The woman at the well – “The Father Is Seeking Worshippers”

4:39-45 – A city is won to Jesus – “We Have Heard for Ourselves”

4:46-54 – Healing at Cana – “Your Son Lives”

5:1-47 – Jesus on the Sabbath – “I Myself Am Working”

6:1-15 – Feeding of the 5,000 – “Kingdom Math”

6:16-21 – Walking on the water – “Do Not Be Afraid”

6:22-71 – Bread of Life sermon – “Eat and Have Eternal Life”

7:1-8:58 – Feast of Tabernacles

• 7:1-9 – “Show Yourself to the World!”
• 7:10-53 – Controversy with religious establishment
• 8:1-11 – “Neither Do I Commend You”
• 8:12-21 – “I Am the Light of the World”
• 8:22-58 – More controversy – “I AM”

9:1-41 – “Seers Loosing Sight, Blind Beginning to See”

10:1-42 – Feast of Dedication – “I AM the Good Shepherd”

11:1-46 – Raising of Lazarus – “Live Even If They Die”

11:47-57 – Resolve to kill Jesus – “The Hardness of Religion”

12:1-8 – Woman anointing Jesus – “Preparing for My Burial”

12:9-50 – Palm Sunday – “Sir, We Want to See Jesus”

13:1-17:26 – The “Upper Room Discourse”

• 13:1-20 – Jesus washes his disciple’s feet – “Love As I Love”
• 13:21-30 – Judas’ betrayal of Jesus – “And It Was Night”
• 13:31-16:33 – Jesus prepares the disciples to go on living in the absence of his physical presence – “The Promise of the Paraclete.

17:1-26 – The “High Priestly Prayer – “What Does Jesus Want?”

18:1-14 – Jesus is arrested – “I AM He”

18:15-26 – Jesus before the high priests; Peter’s denial of Jesus

18:27-19:16 – Jesus before Pilate – “No Guilt!” “Behold the Man!” “Behold the King!”

19:17-37 – The crucifixion – four times, “That Scripture Might Be Fulfilled.”

19:38-42 – Jesus is buried – “The Love of a Secret Disciple”

20:1-18 – The First Day of the New World; Interchange between Jesus and Mary – “Mary!’

20:19-25 – The First Evening of the New World– “Peace Be To You”

20:26-29 – Jesus meets Thomas in his doubt – “My Lord and My God!”

20:30-13 – Why John wrote his book – “Life In His Name”

21:1-23 – Jesus finds and restores Peter to discipleship – “Do You Love Me?”

21:24-25 – Post-script

Sermon Series

One can preach through the whole book in three different ways.

The first is to simply preach through the book sequentially. Depending on how deep and thorough one seeks to be, it could take a year or more to complete the journey.

The Prologue (one to five sermons)

John the Baptist prepares the way (one or three sermons)

Jesus calls the first disciples (one or two sermons)

Chapters 2-4 – “From Cana to Cana” (seven sermons)

Turning Water Into Wine (2:1-11) Cleansing the Temple (2:12-25) Nicodemus (3:1-21) John the Baptist (3:22-36) Woman at the Well (4:1-26) A City Converted (4:27-45) A Boy Given Life (4:46-54)

Chapters 5-11 – Jesus and the Jewish Feasts (five to fifteen sermons)

Sabbath (5:1-47) – “My Father is working and I Myself am working” (5:18)

Passover (6:1-71)

Feeding the 5,000 (6:1-15) Walking on Water (6:16-21) Bread of Life Discourse (6:22-71) – (two or three sermons)

Tabernacles (7:1-9:41)

“Come to Me and drink” (7:37) “I Am the Light of the Cosmos” (8:12) “I Am He” (8:58) From Darkness to Light (9:1-41)

Dedication (10:1-42)

“I Am the Door” (10:7) “I AM the Good Shepherd” (10:10) “I And the Father are One” (10:30)

Unnamed Feast (11:1-53)

“I Am the Resurrection and the Life” (11:25)

Resolve to Kill Jesus (11:54-57)

Chapters 12-21 – Holy Week (sixteen or more sermons)

• Preparing for Burial (12:1-8)
• Palm Sunday (12:9-43)
• “Hosanna!” (12:13)
• “The hour has come—glorify!” (12:23)
• “Now!” (12:31-32)
• The Mystery of Faith (12:36-50)
• Maundy Thursday (13:1-17:26)
  • Washing the Disciple’s Feet (13:1-38)
  • Preparing the Disciples to Go On (14:1-16:33)
  • “I Go to Prepare A Place” (14:1-3)
  • “I Am the Way, the Truth, the Life” (14:6)
  • “I Will Send the Paraclete” (14:16)
  • The Work of the Paraclete
  • “Abide in Me” (15:1-17)
  • “I Have Overcome the World” (16:33).
  • Jesus Prays for His Disciples: Then and Now (17:1-26)
• Good Friday (18:28-19:42)
  • Jesus Arrested – But In Charge! (18:1-11)
  • Religious “Trial” (18:12-14; 19-24)
  • Peter’s Denial (18:15-18, 25- 27)
  • Political “Trial” (18:28-19:16) – The Gospel According to Pilate
  • The Meaning of the Cross (19:17-37)
  • Laid in the Tomb (19:38-42)
• Easter Sunday and Following Days (20:1-21:23)
  • In the Garden (20:1-18)
  • In the Upper Room (20:19-23)
  • Thomas (20:24-31)
  • Peter By the Sea (21:1-23)

A second way, is to break the book into smaller series, and preach them as stand-alone series for different “seasons” of the Christian year. One would thus lay out eight different series … that just happen to be in John!

Advent and Christmas – the Prologue (1:1-18).

Epiphany – Beginnings (1:19-4:54).

Lent – The Cross (18-19).

Palm Sunday – Glory! (12).

Easter Tide (20-21) – He Is Alive! (Plan four “Easter Sundays” in a row).

Easter-Pentecost-Summer – Jesus Prepares Us to Go On Without His Physical Presence (13-17)

Fall (which I find is the time one can dig deeper) – Jesus and the Jewish Feasts (5-11)

A third way, is to preach one of the above sections a year. One year Advent on the Prologue. Another year Epiphany through Lent in 1:19-4:54. Another year Epiphany and Lent in 18-19. On so on. One would cover the whole of John in seven years while preaching other portions of the Word.

I found option B to be the most fruitful. But any time spent in the Gospel of John bears delicious fruit. Any time spent in John brings people into life-giving encounter with him who is the Life.

Here is a sample of a mini-series I did in John 2-4, which, as noted above, is bracketed by reference to Cana of Galilee (2:1, 4:46).

Series Title: From Cana to Cana: All Things Made New

Text: John 2:1-11

• Title: Water Into Wine
• Bg Idea: Jesus reveals himself as the One who brings new life out of the old. The ingredients for the wine are not in the water (i.e. no grapes). Jesus can bring something into being out of nothing!

Text: John 2:13-25

• Title: Clearly the Way
• Bg Idea: Jesus so wants us to know him and his Father that he will clear out anything that is in the way. He himself is now the Temple where we meet God, and he will make sure nothing is in the way.

Text: John 3:1-21

• Title: Born Anew From Above
• Bg Idea: Jesus comes to give us a whole new, different, quality of life. Receiving that life causes a new birth into a new way of being.

Text: John 3:22-36

• Title: The Bride of Christ
• Bg Idea: John the Baptist sees his job as bringing together Jesus the Bridegroom and his disciples, his bride. We are the Bride of Christ!

Text: John 4:1-26

• Title: Seeking Worshippers
• Bg Idea: The mission of Jesus is to seek worshippers for his Father. The woman at the well, who is seeking, is being sought. As is the case with all seeks!

Text: John 4:27-42

• Title: The City Comes to Life!
• Bg Idea: Through the witness of one woman, and then through Jesus himself showing up, a whole village comes to salvation. We never know the full consequences of our witness!

Text: John 4:46-54

• Title: Your Son Lives
• Bg Idea: When we come to Jesus with our need, he gives us more than we ask. The father wants his son to be healed. Jesus wants him to have zoe— the life we live even if we die!

Application

The way to “apply” John is to try to get inside his heart and mind by asking, “So, what does John want to see happen in our lives as a result of reading his work?” He has two great desires.

One, that we “behold glory” (1:14). John simply wants us to see who Jesus is. Nothing more. Just see. For John’s conviction, shared by other New Testament writers, is that in seeing we are changed (2 Cor. 3:18). So have we, as preachers, done what we need to do for our listeners to see? Should they not do something about it? Yes. But it is not our job to tell them what to do. Our job is to invite them to “behold.”

Secondly, John’s desire is that in seeing Jesus we believe, and in believing we find the life only Jesus gives (20:31). The major “application” of John is “believe.” And that will mean different things for different people. So we can try to suggest what true believing entails.

Having said the above, John does record a number of texts in which Jesus speaks specific imperatives. Like, “come and you will see” (1:39); “Take these things away; stop making my Father’s house a house of merchandise” (2:16 – huge challenge to the contemporary church!); “You must be born again” (3:7); the question, “Do you wish to get well?” (5:6); “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you … “ (6:27); “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (6:56 – requiring careful and deep nuancing!); “If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink” (7:37); “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone” (8:7). On it goes. Leading to the major imperative of John, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (15:4). [It would be good to trace all the uses of the verb “abide” before preaching the whole book]. So we can, when preaching texts with specifics calls to “do,” call our listeners to do what Jesus says to do.

Again, the goal is to get inside John’s mind and heart and lead our listeners to where John wants to lead them.

Theological Themes

John is working with and through a number of themes throughout his book. The chief ones are:

The Word. The Logos: John is declaring the incredibly good news that the Living God wants to be known, and has made himself known by speaking for himself. And that speech is Jesus of Nazareth. Which means that as we watch Jesus work and listen to Jesus speak, God is revealing himself to us. Oh, what a revelation!

Glory: As I have emphasized, this is the major theme of the book. “The Word, The Speech, became flesh … and we beheld his glory.” In everything Jesus does and says, glory is breaking through to us! Every text we preach, therefore, will result in our listeners encountering the glory of God. Suggesting that the most important response to the text will be to worship!

Life: Before preaching the book, it would be good to trace that word, noting all the places John, or Jesus, uses it. Again, it is zoe, not just bios. As good a life as bios is, it runs down and dies. Zoe does not run down or die. It cannot. For it is the life God has and is. And Jesus gives it to us! Mercy.

Believe: It is the one over-arching command of the book. Literally it is “believe into,” not just “believe in.” The preposition (eis) suggests motion, moving toward and then all the way in. In other words, faith does not just sit there it gets up, and moves into Jesus.

Light and Darkness: Jesus is the Light come into the darkness. Meaning, he comes to illuminate our reality so that we can see clearly, and thus, live wisely and fully. He comes to expose the dark side of our reality, which can be initially painful (which is why many resist Jesus), but ultimately redemptive. Our preaching John will involve calling folks to invite the Light.

The “I Am” Claims: Jesus uses the phrase both with and without a predicate. With the predicate, “I AM the Good Shepherd,” “I Am the way, the truth, the life,” and so on. And without a predicate. Just “I Am” (4:26; 8:24; 8:28; 8:58; 18:5-8). Causing those who first heard him to respond, “Whom do you make yourself out to be?” “I Am.” The same language God uses of himself at the burning bush (Ex. 3:14), and in the prophet Isaiah (43:10-13; etc.). Oh that the church, and world, can hear Jesus’ claims afresh! “Never did a man speak the way this man speaks,” say those sent to arrest Jesus (7:46). Indeed!

My Encounter with John

I have found preaching John the most transformative of all the series I have preached (except perhaps preaching his “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”!). As I prepared each sermon in the series, I regularly found myself either on my knees in tears before Jesus, basking in just how good and glorious he is, or on my feet with hands raised in joyful praise.

I think if you ask those who walked through the series with me, they would say they had the same experiences. What “connected” with the hearers was Jesus. Simple as that. I and they were taken with Jesus. As I evaluate the preaching, it was giving listeners the background on the context in which Jesus speaks that made it all come alive. Especially developing what was going on in the Jewish feasts in which Jesus makes his most powerful claims.

If I ever get to preach through John again, I will move slower and take more time to bring people into the historical circumstances more fully. Once we grasp something of the place and space in which Jesus speaks, his Word comes alive in contagious ways.

Commentaries

F. Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2012)

D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1991)

Bruce Milne, The Message of John (Downers Grove, IL.: Inter Varsity Press, 1993)

Lesslie Newbigin, The Light Has Come (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1982)

Darrell Johnson has been preaching Jesus Christ and his gospel for over 50 years. He has served a number of Presbyterian congregations in California, Union Church of Manila in the Philippines, and the historic First Baptist Church in the heart of Vancouver, Canada. He has taught preaching for Fuller Theological Seminary, Carey Theological College in Vancouver, and Regent College in Vancouver.