The Message of John's Gospel – D.A. Carson Lecture

the first thing to understand about the gospel of john is that it is a gospel like the other three gospels in the new testament matthew mark and luke often collectively called the synoptic gospels it's important to remember that in the first century when all four gospels were written they were not considered the gospel of matthew the gospel of mark and so forth the gospel of john but wrath but rather they were called the gospel of jesus christ according to matthew mark luke or john that is it was widely perceived that there was one gospel one bit of massive good news and this gospel was attested by a variety of evangelists witnesses who wrote down what we call matthew mark luke and john by the time you get to the second century that usage has changed and there are what we would call fake gospels the gospel according to thomas the gospel according to judas but we'll see in a moment that they were really quite unlike the four canonical gospels of which of course john is one it's worth pausing for a moment to think of the ways in which they are formally alike all four of them have at the beginning the ministry of john the baptist introducing the ministry of jesus and they end with the death and resurrection of christ and in between there are a variety of acts talks speeches interactions with people not the same in each gospel although they overlap to some extent for example all four preserve the account of the feeding of the five thousand in john it's john chapter six and they have a common casts of personnel we hear of mary and martha in john but also in the synoptic gospels and we are introduced to a variety of apostles by name and then other figures like pilate so the story is the same in large measure but the crucial thing is that the gospel of jesus christ is the good news of jesus christ including his coming his ministry his death his resurrection according to matthew mark luke and john as i said the so-called gospels in the second century are a little different the gospel of thomas for example makes no mention of john the baptist it does not dwell on christ's death and resurrection it's got almost no history in it it's a collection of 114 statements sayings allegedly by jesus some of them probably are and some of them probably aren't and there are a couple of little historical snippets in this body and it's called falsely the gospel of thomas whereas the gospel that we call of john is really the gospel of jesus christ the good news about him according to john what is distinctive there are so many things that are similar um titles that jesus uses son of man son of god messiah or christ but what is distinctive about john's gospel as opposed to the other three canonical gospels let me mention a few first of all the synoptic gospels like the category of kingdom kingdom of god kingdom of heaven john uses the kingdom of god in only two passages he uses it twice in john 3 in connection with a new birth unless you are born of water and spirit you cannot see or enter the kingdom of god and he uses it again in the passion narrative in the account of jesus death and there we discover that jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world but that doesn't mean he is not interested in the reign of god it means that he uses slightly different categories that overlap with kingdom as used by matthew mark and luke for example in john's gospel you enter into life the big category to pursue is eternal life and that overlaps with a lot of what jesus says in the synoptic gospels and likewise the synoptic gospels sometimes use life which predominates in john's gospel but there are one or two titles applied to jesus in john that you don't find elsewhere in the gospels the most important is found in the very first verse in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god the word word is a tricky one there is a long history of dispute about the best way to talk about this expression logos some want to look at its greek background and and understand it to mean something like science or knowledge or reason in the beginning was the reason in the beginning was the knowledge in the beginning was the science but as far as i can see word means for john what it means cumulatively in the old testament in the old testament god spoke and worlds came into being by the word of the lord the heavens were made so the word of god is active in creation god sent forth his word and healed them god's word is is active in in salvation in restoration to life the word of the lord came to the prophets god's word is is is active in revelation so creation revelation transformation god speaks of these things take place and it's almost as if then john the writer the evangelist wants to find some category that's super uh comprehensive that captures all that he wants to say in in this introduction to the gospel of john and he thinks about it and led by the spirit of god he writes in the beginning was the word the word word is used elsewhere in john's gospel but only in the prologue in the first 18 verses is it used to refer to jesus christ and not to his message later on jesus can say in in john 8 for example if you hold to my word you are my disciples indeed word in that context means clearly his message his teaching but here in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and in verse 14 the word became flesh became a human being even the simplicity of that first verse is is simultaneously profound in the beginning was the word so now the words pre-existence is established and whatever beginning there was that word was already there in the beginning was the word and the word was with god god's own fellow and the word was god god's own self here you have the beginning of the terminology that ultimately gets hammered into what we confessionally call the doctrine of the trinity where the word is truly god yet in some sense god's companion distinguishable from god yet thoroughly completely utterly god and we'll trace out a little bit more of that kind of christological teaching in john's gospel before we're done with this hour then john's gospel begins jesus ministry in judea in the south the first four or five chapters focus on the south judea and samaria covering material that is not touched in the synoptic gospels the synoptic gospels begin jesus public ministry in galilee john begins a little earlier and then has jesus going back and forth between galilee and and the south then there is very distinctive teaching in john's gospel on the holy spirit all four gospels make reference to the holy spirit and the holy spirit is a big theme in luke in luke and in his second book the book of acts but in john's gospel not only is the holy spirit a big theme he he is presented especially in the farewell discourse chapters 14 15 and 16 in a category that is not used of him elsewhere he is the paraclete the parakletos sometimes rendered the comforter or the counselor or the helper the the word suggests someone who is called alongside to help and and that may be legal help prosecutorial help strengthening help it may be help and revelation and so that's part of the reason why it's translated in a number of different ways in different contexts it is flavored in a variety of ways but in five wonderful passages in john 14 15 16 the ministry of the holy spirit is laid out so jesus is going away to his father through death and resurrection and the apostles are feeling abandoned left out and jesus says he will not leave them orphans he won't leave them without comfort he's going to send the paraclete and this paraclete will be with them in much the same way that jesus was with them this paraclete this comforter this holy spirit will explain and and unpack the things that jesus himself taught them so that he will bring as it were to completion the teaching that jesus had already given in seminal form but which now in the light of the cross and resurrection need unpacking and explaining and and applying to their lives moreover he will function to bring conviction uh conviction of sin uh before the world and will bear witness to jesus before the watching world so that even in their evangelism and bearing witness to jesus the disciples will not be left alone the holy spirit will come along and help so this emphasis is wonderful in in john's gospel and is concentrated as i say primarily on those crucial chapters of the farewell discourse there is a distinctive emphasis in john's gospel on what the apostles understood during jesus ministry and what they understood only after the resurrection that's a very important distinction there are a lot of people of more skeptical persuasion who constantly suggests that john's gospel mingles what actually happened historically in the life and times of jesus and what was understood only later in the history of the church and john either purposely or accidentally confuses the two and as a result it's not very historically accurate but john's gospel more than any of the rest of them makes a distinction a very sharp distinction a repeated distinction about 16 or 17 times between what the disciples understood during jesus ministry and what they understood only later for example in john 2 jesus says destroy this temple and in three days i'll raise it again. now it's transparent in the context that jesus opponents didn't have a clue what he was talking about but it's also clear in the context that jesus disciples didn't have a clue what he was talking about they didn't understand they were probably elbowing each other and muttering deep deep we'll understand it someday but not now but in any case they didn't understand it but john comments after jesus had risen from the dead then they remembered his words and they understood what he was talking about in other words you had to pass the temporal mark of jesus death and resurrection before certain things that jesus taught in the days of his flesh slipped into place and made sense that sort of thing happens again and again in john 12 regarding the nature of the glory i'll come back to that one in a moment in john 20 regarding the race to the tomb by peter and john once again there is this emphasis on what the disciples understood only after the resurrection and what they understood before we're told in john 20 that up to this point when john and peter raced to the tomb up to this point they still did not understand that jesus had to rise from the dead even though jesus had predicted it again and again the penny hadn't dropped they didn't know what he was talking about it was beyond their ability to comprehend and and then after the resurrection then so many of the things that he had said in this regard clicked into place and the picture became clearer but the fact that john can make the distinction in the understanding levels of the disciples between before these events and after these events shows that john is very careful to be faithful with his history he's very careful not to read later events and later understanding back into what they understood it's why you really do get the impression that the apostles in john's gospel before the resurrection don't understand very much and of course that's historically the case they didn't understand very much and um in in in fact uh jesus can say in in in luke's gospel words that could equally have applied in john's gospel oh fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written he constantly rebuked them for their slowness to understand but part of the coming to understanding turned on the events of the cross and resurrection that brings us to the fact that john's gospel presents itself as an eyewitness work historically it was universally understood to describe the witness and work of john the apostle as the author and in my view that's still the most defensible position there are some who argue it's another rather obscure man called john the elder the trouble is that the john who writes this work is the john who is with the other apostles at the last supper and there is no mention of another john in fact elsewhere we're told that that jesus ate with the 12 apostles um so if you've got to invent another john you break up the biblical witness to the fact that there were 12 plus jesus at the last supper the the the strong evidence in my view is that the writer is an eyewitness a close friend of jesus on the inside track the one whom jesus loved and to be identified as you move the apostles around to be identified with john himself with the john the apostle himself there is another dimension to the uniqueness of john that i should list here john quotes the old testament less often than say matthew but john alludes to the old testament and its massive structures more often so in john's gospel jesus is the vine he's the vine in john 15 in the magnificent viticulture chapter it's sometimes called he is the good shepherd in john chapter 10. and he's the bread of life in john chapter 6. he he these these expressions are often locked into jesus i am claims i am the bread of life i am the vine i am the good shepherd and in a couple of remarkable cases the i am language is absolute before abraham was i am we'll come back to that one in just a moment or two as well now let me mention something about the structure and theological emphases of the book and and then we'll look at one or two passages more closely and then we're done structurally there's a prologue john 1 1 to 18. that lays out some of the theology of john's gospel and anticipates some of the themes that will be unpacked in it and at the other end there's an epilogue basically john 21 in between many people rightly in my view break the book up into two big parts sometimes called the book of signs and the book of glory the book of signs runs from 119 just after the prologue comes to an end and runs all the way through to the end of chapter 12 and then chapter 13 begins the book of glory now both of those expressions need explaining the book of signs is appropriate because much of those chapters are taken up with jesus acts his deeds deeds which in the synoptic gospels are more often called miracles works of power but john prefers to think of them as signs that is their works of power but they are significant that is they point beyond themselves to something so that for example in john chapter 2 jesus turns the water into wine but thematically that's got overtones of of the dawning of the eschatological age of the consummated kingdom of of the coming of the age of blessing and it's already being inaugurated by jesus in john 6 jesus feeds the 5 000 with bread and fish and so on but that kicks off his discourse about himself as the the bread from heaven which reminds you of the manna of god in exodus but at the same time there's a there's a profound theological connection jesus goes so far as to say in john 6 unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh you you cannot have eternal life and for us that sounds either a bit cannibalistic even barbaric or some want to turn it into some way of alluding to the lord's table holy communion even though holy communion had not yet at that point been established i think it's much more readily understood in terms of the categories of the day if you ask a five-year-old in in our culture where does food come from well everything depends on what is meant by our culture if if you're dealing with a child that's brought up in a big city then food comes from the shop it comes from the groceria if you're dealing with a kid that's brought up on a farm then they can answer food comes from plants and animals they they know the difference but almost everyone in the ancient world where jesus lived was in connection with the land in some way or another what what do you eat at mcdonald's well you eat a dead cow dead lettuce dead tomatoes a dead barley dead wheat dead onions everything you eat is is something living that has died and the kid brought up on the farm understands that if he's if he's having a roast beef he knows that an animal has died if he's eating potatoes they've been dug up from the ground after having grown there and so forth but when we go to mcdonald's we don't think that everything we're eating is dead except for a few minerals like salt it's the only thing that we eat in mcdonald's that is not dead so when we eat mcdonald's we don't stop to think that cow has died so that i might live it's diet in my place it's in substitution for me if that cow doesn't die i die well of course it could be a chicken or it could be vegetables or whatever but the whole point is that all that we eat that sustains us has life that has been given so that we might live and either it lives or we do but not both so when jesus says i am the bread of life i give my life for the life of the world and so on i think that the symbolism becomes very strong just as god provided manna in the old testament so he's provided bread from heaven of a more spectacular and eternal life producing variety that that gives people life that they can get only from someone who gives his life his life for our life that sort of allusion simultaneously to the old testament and to the feeding of the five thousand and to what would be an obvious metaphor in the culture of the time comes together in in in a threefold bond that makes a very strong image and uh jesus is the the the good shepherd in the old testament and god is the supreme shepherd and then the davidic king is supposed to be a shepherd the rulers of the people are supposed to be good shepherds but in a passage like exodus 34 god berates the false shepherds who are busy eating the mutton and fleecing the flock but not caring for the sheep so god himself says in a passage like exodus 34 and several parallels i will be the good shepherd i will tend the flock i will lead them to green pastures i will distinguish between sheep and goat i will give them clear water i will pastor them i will shepherd them again and again and again until you come to the end of about 20 of such claims when god says i will send my servant david to be their shepherd then a long jesus comes in john 10 and says i am the good shepherd and you realize that for john the old testament is not simply providing a a quota of proof texts but these huge thematic structures they're often called typological structures trajectories of themes that find their ultimate fulfillment in jesus the ideal vine the ideal shepherd and so on and he makes these claims very specifically there are several other ways in which jesus refers to the old testament for example in john chapter 1 verses 14 to 18 the last five verses of the prologue if we had the time we could show that there are six specific illusions in those five verses to themes in exodus 32 33 34 connected with the giving of the law on mount sinai and and and john makes those connections and expects his better informed readers to unpack them and understand them this includes the word became flesh and lived for a while among us a bit more to say about the structure of the book if the first big chunk is the book of signs which embraces most of jesus miracles apart from the resurrection itself and shows how they're significant they're significant to understanding who jesus is the book of glory is remarkable for what it does with glory uh earlier in the book um god's glory is is displayed in in in the miracles that jesus does for example um in john 2 the first miracle reported in john the miracle of the turning of the water into wine um we're we're told that the the the the emcee at the wedding uh saw that the wine was made miraculously he testified that that this water has become wide the wine but it's the apostles who see his glory the mc saw the miracle they discerned more than the miracle they saw the glory in the miracle so that god's glory is the display of god's work his activity even his character and the wonderful things that he does but by the time you get to john 12 the language changes for example in john 12 we read the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified but it turns out this glorification of the son of man of jesus himself is not only the return to the glory that he had with the father before the world began but it's a return to the glory that he had with the father before the world began through the ignominian shame of the cross as he's lifted up on the cross he is irony of ironies glorified he is being glorified as he returns to his father through the death and shame of being elevated on the cross then cast into a grave and then rising and and and not only from the dead but rising to the glory that he had with the father before the world began so that this book of glory is not glory as we're more inclined to think of it in the west today that is triumphalism spectacular display but the supreme glorification passes through the way of the cross and so the book of glory is a way of referring somewhat ironically to the fact that here in the second part of john's gospel all the emphasis is driving toward the cross the cross the cross and the resurrection that follows the farewell discourse in 14-16 before that chapter 13 the washing of the apostles feet by the lord which is not only a sign that he's cleaning them but that he takes the humble place of the servant in order to do so and then chapter 17 sometimes called the high priestly prayer where you see jesus oneness with the father and his plan is his vista of of conforming his own disciples the ones that are already there and the ones that will be added to their number to join in the oneness that he has with the father from before the world began until you actually get the narrative of jesus arrest and death and so on in 18 and 19 and the resurrection in 20 all part of the book of glory then in that connection it's worth looking at the last two verses of the book of glory john 20 30 and 31 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 might have life in his name in other words on the face of it this book is written with evangelistic purpose it's in order that you may believe in jesus the son of god some think that this means that you may continue to believe it's actually written to disciples for a variety of reasons i'm still persuaded that john has a particular group of unbelievers in view probably jews and those who are influenced by the synagogue gentiles who attend the synagogue who have some old testament background who are scattered throughout the diaspora throughout the roman empire and john focuses on them and writes these things this selection of science this particular set of emphases and so on in order that they may believe that jesus really is the messiah and that by believing they might have life in his name and that connection then john 20 30 31 sounds different from the purpose of another book written by the same john first john first john chapter 5 verse 13 john tells us his purpose for writing his first letter he says i write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of god that is he's writing to believers that you may know that you have eternal life he's writing in other words to believers to give them assurance of their salvation that sounds qualifiedly different from what john says about his purpose at the end of the book of signs and the gospel he writes in order that people may believe now i must say one thing above all about the christological emphases the emphases on jesus in this book some of the categories overlap with the synoptic gospels but above all you must see that john's gospel is emphatically clear on two truths about christ at the same time the one is he is to be identified with god now we've seen that already in the first verse in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god but you see it right toward the end of the book of science too when thomas is led to confess my lord and my god now that's a remarkable confession you recall that thomas hadn't been present when jesus appeared on the first resurrection sunday and so he was being a bit skeptical despite the assurances from the surviving ten apostles that jesus really was alive thomas insisted unless i put my hands in his side and see the nail wounds i will not believe he he had been so bitterly disappointed when jesus had died he didn't want to be crushed by some easy believism that made people happy but wasn't really true he wanted to be certain that the body with the marks that went into the tomb is of a piece with the body still with the marks that came out of the tune you're not suddenly pulling out a a twin brother or something and claiming a resurrection he wanted the continuity to be established in his own mind and jesus appeared then on that second sunday and thomas said my lord and my god the question is why did he say so much why didn't he simply say oh you are alive or boy did i get that one wrong or even oops but instead he confesses that jesus is lord and god why does he confess so much the only way you can make sense of that it seems to me is by reading john's gospel very carefully and putting yourself in thomas's place over the previous period of time he had heard jesus say things like before abraham was i am not even before abraham was i was which would have been enough to claim pre-existence but before abraham was i am using the exact expression that god himself uses repeatedly in isaiah 40 and following the i am the self-existent one the established god is so of course he's pre-existent but he's before all things he's in all things he is self-existent and then just a few nights earlier after all the night that jesus was arrested and betrayed he turns to philip after philip has asked a question and said have i been with you such a long time philip and yet have you not known me he who has seen me has seen the father and i can imagine thomas like the rest of them saying deep deep but not really understanding it not quite knowing what to do with it but deep but now in the light of the resurrection thomas has the time to think through the many things that jesus said and begin to wonder but can that be he was seen me has seen the father can that be true no no it's too much it can't be but but supposing he has risen from the dead so thomas is at the place where he is wrestling with jesus words and taken at face value then maybe they do make sense if this jesus has really risen from the dead and it changes all of his configuration and you can see then how the resurrection of jesus is for john not simply an historical event an event that could be witnessed but also a revelatory event an event that shed light on who jesus is and made sense of all that he had taught before that in anticipation of the gift of the spirit who is going to make things plain and teach them all the things that jesus had already taught them the book is thus coming together hanging together yet at the same time that john's gospel emphasizes the deity of christ it also emphasizes equally his i don't know what else to call it his dependence on his heavenly father so for example jesus says that he only does what the father gives him to do and gives him to say the world must learn that he loves his father and always does what the father gives him to do john chapter 14. the reverse is never said the father does not turn around and say oh yes and i always do what jesus tells me to do too it's it's it's not a reciprocal relationship it's a father-son relationship there is a kind of strong insistence on the functional subordination of the sun even while there is an equal insistence on the fact that jesus is to be viewed and worshiped as god himself one of the most striking passages in this connection is john 5 a verse that i have not infrequently used when i've been talking with muslims to try to explain what christians mean by son of god there we're told in john 5 verses 19 and following that all that the father does the son also does now you and i can be sons and daughters of god at some sort of level the bible tells us be holy for i am holy so if we are being holy we are acting goddessly and and indeed we are to act out as the image of god in all the ways that human beings finite people can imitate god but on the other hand i cannot say at least not with a straight face not without lying through my teeth everything the father does i also do for a start i haven't made a universe recently but the son has all things were made by him were told in the prologue itself and without him was not anything made that was made i haven't substituted myself to die for the sins of the world but this son has and he he he thus is the voice of of his heavenly father bearing the sins and guilt of his own people this this is remarkable theology that comes to the very heart of the christian faith and and this this obedience of the son on the way to the cross is pictured in all kinds of ways that anticipate the full reality of the event so in as early as john 3 we're we're told that jesus is to be lifted up we maintain the language in some of our hymns lifted up was he to die it is finished was his cry now in heaven exalted high hallelujah what a savior you see he lifted up on the cross meant ultimately being lifted up all the way to the glory that he had before the world began but lifted up is used four times and it gets clearer and clearer that that verb means lifted up on the cross we've already seen how the bread of life language anticipated jesus giving his life so that others might live and in john 10 where jesus is the good shepherd he not only looks after his sheep but he gives his life for the sheep in john 11 he seems to be the victim of a mad political plot by caiaphas and his friends but we're told emphatically that all of this takes place by god's own design because because it is by god's design that jesus goes to the cross to bear my sin and his own body on the tree and so john's gospel is rich rich rich in interwoven theology where it is a diminishment of the witness of john's gospel a diminishment of our understanding if we don't see the combination of simplicity and profundity that enables us to say simple true things about jesus but drives us to confess that in fact jesus is the christ the promised messiah the son of god one with god god's own servant god's own obedient son who in whom we are to believe in order that through him we might have eternal life

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Keywords: D.A. Carson on the Gospel of John, D.A. Carson Lecture, D.A. Carson Sermon, D.A Carson sermon on the gospel of John, D.A. Carson The Gospel Coalition, D.A. Carson John Commentary, What is the gospel of John about, Gospel of John Melodic Line, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, the gospel coalition, John 20:31, by believing you may have life in his name, D.A Carson, overview of the Gospel of John, Pillar New Testament Commentary series, D.A. Carson

Id: W76UvbZb9q0

Length: 40min 58sec (2458 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021