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Home Group Notes - John's Gospel

As we are looking at John in the morning sermons in January, I have chosen three passages, from the first part of the gospel, where different people met Jesus. I hope the notes are helpful in your preparation. Again I am indebted to Tom Wright’s ‘John for Everyone’.

What does John the Baptist say about Jesus?

How could we explain to someone who hasn’t read the Bible what it means to say that Jesus is the Lamb of God?

What does John’s description of Jesus’ baptism tell us about the nature of the Holy Spirit?

Nathanael showed his prejudice against Nazareth. How have we been surprised by what God can do in unlikely places?

What stereotype views of Jesus and the Church put people off finding out more? How can we help them to get past these?

How do the disciples introduce their friends to Jesus? Can we learn anything from this?

What do you think Jesus means in v51?

The disciples used a number of different titles for Jesus in this passage. What do they tell us about who Jesus is?

The passage immediately precedes the turning of water into wine. John the Baptist was a major celebrity, yet he was content to point away from himself to Jesus and to allow his disciples to leave to follow Jesus.

v29 Lamb of God: At the end of the gospel the author makes it clear that Jesus is the true Passover lamb and that God’s plan is to bring his people out of a slavery greater than Egypt, the slavery of sin. This Lamb will take away the sin not just of Israel, but of the whole world.

v32,33 The baptism of Jesus is not described. The writer of the gospel seems to assume that his readers know quite a lot about the story of Jesus. Here John draws attention to the meaning of Jesus’ baptism. One of Jesus’ key tasks is to bring the Holy Spirit to his followers, which happens at the end of the gospel (20:22).

v34 Son of God: The first and most obvious meaning of this title to the early disciples would have been ‘Messiah’, God’s anointed one. The king of Israel is called God’s son in the Old Testament. The readers of the gospel know from the Prologue (1:1-18), which we heard read at Christmas, that there is much more to this title than that and this is explored throughout the rest of the gospel.

v35-42 One of the disciples is un-named. It is possible that this is the author of the gospel, or the source of the stories on which it is based and it could be John, son of Zebedee, as traditionally thought. This may be why the original Aramaic of this conversation is preserved and translated. The author doesn’t want to leave out the actual words he remembers.

Messiah is the Aramaic or Hebrew for anointed one, Christ means the same in Greek. Cephas is Aramaic for rock or stone, which in Greek is Petros, from which the name Peter comes.

v45 Nathanael came from Cana, about four miles from Nazareth, perhaps a Middlesbrough /Hartlepool kind of relationship?

v51 Jesus here refers to Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28. This is a difficult verse. It is hard to know what Jesus meant or what the disciples might have understood by it. However, it does close the first chapter of the book, a chapter which is full of significant statements about who Jesus is. Jacob’s ladder showed him that God was with him in that place, which Jacob called Bethel, God’s house. This reminds us of the temple. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus fulfilled promises made about the temple (see 2:19). Jesus is saying that the disciples will see the reality to which Jacob’s ladder and the temple itself point. When you are with Jesus you are in the house of God and God’s own presence is beside you. Something more than a Messiah is here.

Titles used in this passage: Lamb of God, Rabbi, Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph, Son of God, King of Israel

Meeting Jesus 2 - Read John 4:43-54

If a prophet has no honour in his own country, why did the Galileans welcome Jesus?

How does Jesus test the royal official?

What stages of belief does the official go through?

How did he demonstrate his faith?

What wrong reasons might motivate to ask things from God?

How can we know what we should pray for?

Why did Jesus do miracles if he was worried they might distract people from understanding his true message?

One of the themes of the gospel is that asking for a sign is a sign of unbelief: Why should this be so?

Can anyone in the group share an answer to prayer which has strengthened their faith at a particular time?

Jesus returned to his home territory of Galilee. This is one of the very few passages in John’s Gospel, which takes place in Galilee; unlike the other gospels most of the action in John takes place in Jerusalem. The welcome he initially receives seems superficial. John has already told us that Jesus’ miracles are ‘signs’, clues to a deeper reality. The Galileans are like people on a treasure hunt, who are more interested in admiring the clues than in finding the treasure.

The response that Jesus is seeking is found in the royal official, probably an employee of Herod Antipas, who believes Jesus’ word and then has it confirmed by seeing the healing. However, his faith is not dependant on receiving a miracle. At the end of the gospel, Jesus rebukes Thomas for needing to see before he believes in the resurrection: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’ (John 20:29). This is a word of encouragement to us and perhaps also to John’s first readers, who may not have met Jesus during his earthly ministry. We are invited to believe not in an abstract idea, feeling or spiritual experience, but in the Word made flesh. However we should not stop at the flesh, but seek the person of Jesus, the Word, hidden within.

v52 The seventh hour – 1 o’clock in the afternoon.

v54 John tells us that this is the second sign, after this he expects us to count for ourselves.

Meeting Jesus 3 - Read John 5:1-18

Why does Jesus ask the man if he want to get well?

What was the man’s response to Jesus?

Why did the Judaeans react as they did to the miracle?

What can prevent us from seeing God working in the lives of those around us?

When can we as individuals, or as a church, be more concerned about a religious activity than the reality behind it?

v14 What does Jesus mean by this?

How does God heal today?

What should our attitude to Sunday be, in the light of Jesus’ view of the Sabbath?

The Pool of Bethesda or Bethzatha was a well-known place for healing in Jerusalem, just to the north of the Temple Mount. It has been excavated and archaeologists have discovered that it was not just a Jewish healing place. There evidence that pagans also regarded it as sacred and at on time it was dedicated to Asclepius, the healing god. There does seem to have been as certain amount of superstition surrounding it. It appears that the waters bubbled up periodically and the first person to jump in after this was healed. Verse 4, which appears as a footnote in most NIVs, explains this and adds that it was caused by an angel. This verse is not in the best oldest manuscripts and I can still remember a sermon I heard on this passage about 25 years ago, when the preacher said, ‘Whatever caused this, it wasn’t an angel of God.’ The element of lottery, the hopelessness of the man, who had made a career out of lying by the pool, is in contrast to the loving healing ministry of Jesus. The Pool of Bethesda spoke of miraculous healing, but it was at best spasmodic, at worst a dream. Then Jesus comes and in an instant does what the pool has claimed to do, but hasn’t done successfully. Here as well as fulfilling the hope of Jewish people, he also fulfils the hopes of pagans. The salvation Jesus brings spreads out from the Jews to the wider world. Paganism tries to harness creation for its own ends. Jesus brings healing and the beginning of a new creation.

It goes without saying that this study tackles a very difficult issue. Some may feel like the man by the pool, that they have waited a long time to be healed and seen others going into the pool before them. John does not tell us how many of those by the pool that day Jesus healed or whether the lame man was the only one. However, looking at passages like this one does give people the opportunity to talk through what we can expect from things like prayer ministry.

v8 The word for ‘Get up’ is the word regularly used in connection with resurrection in the New Testament. The man is being offered a new life.

v14 This verse has been thought to imply that the man’s illness was a result of sin in his life. John 9:3 makes clear that in no way is this generally the case. I think it is more likely that Jesus is highlighting the deeper need, that of forgiveness, that the man may not have been aware of, as in the conversation with the paralysed man in Mark 2.

Meeting Jesus 4 - Jesus the Servant

Notes are, as usual, taken mainly from Tom Wright’s commentary ‘John for Everyone’.

Why did Jesus wash the disciples feet?

What tasks at home, work or church might be equivalent to foot-washing?

Why did Peter want to refuse to allow Jesus to wash his feet:

What was Jesus trying to teach him in verses 8-11?

Do we ever feel awkward when others try to serve us?

What difference does it make to the way we live our Christian lives to know that we worship a foot-washing God?

How can we follow Jesus’ example in our daily lives?

v1 John tells us that it was Passover, reminding us that Jesus applied the festival to himself as the perfect Passover lamb. John does not describe the Last Supper. It may be that his readers knew the story well enough from other traditions and their own experience of the Communion service.

Jesus’ ‘time had come’, not simply his time to die, but time to put in motion the events which would form a ladder between this world and the Father’s world.

What Jesus does now, in washing the disciples feet and in going to the cross, is the action of supreme love. There was nothing that love could do for them, that Jesus did not do.

v2 There is nothing cosy about this scene. At the moment that love goes to the limit, evil creeps in.

v3-5 Here the full picture of Jesus is revealed. The Word, who was with God and who was God, laid aside the clothes of glory and put on human nature in order to wash our feet. John comes close here to what Paul says in Philippians 2:5-11. The point is not that we should say: ‘Amazing! Despite coming from God, Jesus washes their feet.’ The whole point is that washing their feet is what Jesus had to do, precisely because he had come from God. The foot-washing, and the crucifixion to which it pointed, was Jesus’ way of showing who God is and what he is like.

v8 Peter’s objection to Jesus washing his feet reflects his objection to Jesus going to the cross.

v14 It is hard for us to follow Jesus’ example. It is easy to feel proud about being humble! But our focus should not be on ourselves but on the world we are supposed to be serving. Jesus did not wash the disciples’ feet simply to get them to be nice to each other, but to commission them for the ministry of the church after he had left them. They (and we) will be Jesus to others. This may mean sharing in Jesus’ suffering in the world (v16), but may also mean sharing in the welcome given to Jesus by those who receive the message (v20).

‘Our lives no longer are to be lived according to what we want but according to what He says. We are His faithful servants. Jesus asked, ‘Do you understand?’ Then He emphasised the importance of what He had just said by driving it home: ‘I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him’ (13:16).

How could you and I ever think of walking into the presence of Jesus with clean hands when His are dirty? Who do we think we are? Why do we think we are exempt from the dirty work when He wasn’t exempt? And what is ‘the dirty work’? It’s showing others – and Him – the full extent of our love…by serving them willingly, humbly and obediently. For no other reason than because His hands are dirty, too!’ (My Heart’s Cry: Anne Graham Lotz)

Jesu, Jesu,

Fill us with your love,

Show us how to serve

The neighbours we have from you.

Kneels at the feet of his friends,

Silently washes their feet,

Master who acts as a slave to them.

Jesu, Jesu,

Fill us with your love,

Show us how to serve

The neighbours we have from you.

Meeting Jesus 5 - Jesus the Way

What comfort do these verses give the troubled disciples?

How do they reassure us in times of trouble?

What had Thomas and Philip failed to understand about Jesus?

How is Jesus the way to the Father?

What do these verses tell us about the Spirit?

How does the Spirit bring help and comfort to Jesus’ followers?

In what specific ways have we experienced the Spirit’s comfort in our lives?

How do we understand the relationship between loving Jesus and doing what he commands?

How does Jesus show himself to his followers and not to the world?

How is the peace of Christ different to the peace the world offers?

How can we share this peace with others in practical ways?

v2 Jesus reassures the disciples that he is not abandoning them.

v6 Some Christians feel uncomfortable with this particular claim of Jesus. Saying that all religions are really the same, is in effect saying that God or the Divine is essentially remote and unknowable and all we can get are glimpses of that reality. However the whole of the New Testament insists that the one true and living God, the creator and the God of Israel, has made himself known within history in the person of Jesus Christ and acted to save humanity through his death and resurrection. Of course, this claim has been presented in a very arrogant way at various times throughout history. The setting of this passage, however, coming as it does after the one we looked at last home group, seems to rule out arrogance.

‘The truth, the life, through which we know and find the way, is Jesus himself: the Jesus who washed the disciples’ feet and told them to copy his example, the Jesus who was on his way to give his life as the shepherd for the sheep. Was that arrogant? Was that self-serving? Only when the church recovers the nerve to follow Jesus in his own mission and vocation, I suspect, will it be able to recover its nerve fully in making the claim of verse 6.

Unless it does, though, it loses also the vision of the father which this whole passage sets out before us. Don’t come with a set, fixed idea of who God is, and try to fit Jesus into that. Look at Jesus, the Jesus who wept at the tomb of his friend, the Jesus who washed his followers’ feet, and you’ll see who is the true God.’ (Tom Wright: John for Everyone)

v17 These chapters of John say a lot about the world as place of danger for the disciples and opposition to Jesus. There is a sharp distinction between Jesus and the world, but those who hold fast to Jesus will receive a peace that the world cannot give, assuring them of Jesus’ presence and his oneness with the Father.

v30 The prince of this world – Caesar, whose soldiers will take Jesus to death, but behind him the spiritual force of evil, which we saw at the beginning of chapter 13. The world created and loved by God remains under the rule of Satan. Jesus’ death and resurrection will deal this rule a huge and terminal blow, but there will still be opposition for Jesus’ followers to face.

I know that my Redeemer lives-

What joy the blest assurance gives!

He lives, he lives, who once was dead;

He lives, my everlasting Head.

He lives, to bless me with his love;

He lives, to plead for me above;

He lives, my hungry soul to feed;

He lives, to help in time of need.

He lives, and grants me daily breath;

He lives, and I shall conquer death;

He lives, my mansion to prepare;

He lives, to lead me safely there.

Meeting Jesus 6 - Jesus the Vine

How does this image of the vine help us understand our relationship with Jesus?

Have any circumstances made you feel far away from Jesus?

What does it mean to remain in Christ?

What kind of fruit can we bear as Christians?

Have we experienced God’s pruning (v2)?

What benefits are there in remaining in Christ (v7-8)?

What do we value in our friends?

How has Jesus demonstrated his love for us?

How can we lay down our lives for our friends (v13)?

What does Jesus ask his friends to do (v14-16)?

In the Old Testament, the vine is picture of Israel (Isaiah 5, Psalm 80:8-18). Jesus is the true vine, the true Israel. If the disciples remain in him, they are members of God’s true people.

Branches that decide to go it alone wither and die. Branches that remain on the vine and submit to the pruner’s knife where necessary live and bear fruit.

How do we remain in Jesus? First, there is no such thing as a solitary Christian, we are part of the community of the church and need to meet with others. Secondly, as individuals we must be people of prayer and worship, keeping in touch and in tune with Jesus. Although it may be painful, we must also be ready for the pruner’s knife.

v13 This verse immediately brings to mind war memorials. How does this connection influence how we read this verse? What does this verse mean in its context in the passage?

v17 The command to love is given by one who has himself done everything that love can do. In one sense, love cannot be commanded, but Jesus creates a context in which love is the natural response.

‘Fruit is only borne in abundance on tender, fairly new growth. As the wood of a branch gets older, it tends to get harder. So even thought a branch is living and is connected to the vine, it can become barren. Still leaving the branch connected to the vine, the gardener cuts back the old, hard wood, forcing it into new growth that will produce fruit, instead of just more wood and leaves. In fact, there are times when he cuts the branch back so drastically all that is left of it is the connection to the vine…There are times when God cuts everything out of our lives except our relationship with Jesus. He forces us to pay attention to our relationship with Him because that’s all we have. And in the process, our ‘connection’ to the Vine is enlarged and fruit is produced…

You and I can trust the Gardener to skilfully, personally, lovingly and effectively use the shears in our lives. Isaiah described the gentle skilfulness of His touch when he revealed, ‘A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.’ In other words, God will not cut you back so much that you are broken beyond the ability to grow, nor will He quench you to the point that you give up and quit. So trust Him. He’s been pruning for years. He knows what He’s doing.’ (My Heart’s Cry: Anne Graham Lotz)

You are the Vine,

We are the branches,

Keep us abiding in You.

And we’ll grow in your love

And we’ll go in your name,

That the world will surely know

That You have power to heal and to save.