The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be written (probably around AD 85). It was authored by the Apostle John, who  according to church tradition was the only one of the Eleven faithful apostles not to die a martyr’s death. He was a very young man when he began following Jesus in His earthly ministry. He was one of the three disciples who was closest to Christ. The Apostle John walked with Jesus very closely for the 3 years of His earthly ministry and then he walked with the risen and ascended Jesus a very long time. The Gospel of John is the fruit of a man who knew Jesus deeply and who had deeply meditated on the Person and Work of the LORD Jesus Christ.

Jesus Is The Great “I Am”

The Gospel of John presents Christ in all His glory. It is characterized by long discourses of Christ as He explains the meaning of His miracles and what they reveal about His nature. For example, in John 6:1-15, we have a record of the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with bread and fish in the wilderness.

Then, in John 6::25-71, we have an extended teaching of Jesus as He describes Himself as the Bread of Life and as the True Bread from heaven. He presents Himself as the True Manna of God who can sustain the people of God much better than the manna which the Israelites fed on in their 40-year wilderness wanderings, under the leadership of Moses. John 6 presents Christ as the greater Moses who has come from heaven to reveal God and the way to God. He is the fulfillment of God’s promises and dealings with the people of God under the Mosaic Covenant.

God had revealed Himself at the burning bush to Moses as the LORD, the great “I am“, in Exodus 3:14. This became the personal covenant name of Israel’s God. Most Bible translations use the capitalized form, the LORD, to designate the name “I am“. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is revealed as the “I am”. In John 8:58, Jesus says to the Jewish leaders: ” before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked stones up stones to stone him, because they believed he had committed blasphemy.

Jesus is presented as the unique son of God, the only eternally begotten of the Father (John 1:14, 18). He is the God-man. Christians are sons and daughters of God through adoption (John 1:12; Rom. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:6,7), but Jesus is eternally begotten of God. The Gospel of John presents Jesus as fully human and fully God. He combines in His Person 2 natures, humanity and deity.

Coming To The True Water Well

In order to enter God’s kingdom and God’s family, we need a new spiritual birth. In Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus, a Pharisee of the Sanhedrin (Jo. 3:1), who came to Jesus at night, Jesus declared these words: “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). And in John 3:5,6, he expanded what he meant by these words: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” When we come into the world through our first birth, we are born spiritually dead toward God (Eph. 2:1).

In order to become alive to God and become a part of his family, we need more than moral reform. We need forgiveness and resurrection. We need the blood of Christ to cleanse us and we need the Spirit of God to indwell us. In Jesus’ discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, Jesus says to her that whoever comes to Him will never spiritually thirst: “Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jo. 4:14)”. Up to now, this woman, who has had 5 husbands plus a current common law relationship, has looked to men for her deepest needs. Jesus gently teaches her that in order for her to drink of Jesus’ “water“, she needs to make Him her center, and not a mere man (John 4:15-18). Our salvation is in Him.

QOTD: Are you looking to Jesus to satisfy your deepest spiritual thirst?