God the Father
1. John 3:16 seems like a good place to begin: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son." God's fundamental disposition toward the world is love.
2. "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." (4:24) In other words, God is not limited by location, still less by a physical temple.
3. God the Father of Jesus and is one with Jesus (e.g., 1:14; 10:30).
Jesus the Word
4. One of the striking features of the Gospel of John is the way it points to the pre-existence of Jesus. The other Gospels do not explicitly mention Jesus' pre-existence. "Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed." (17:5)
Certainly John 1 says that the Word was there in the beginning, that the Word was God, that God created the world through the Word, that the Word became flesh in Jesus Christ.
John 8:28 seems to equate Jesus with God at the burning bush. This is perhaps the most startling statement in the entire New Testament: "Before Abraham was, I AM."
5. Jesus is certainly the Messiah and Son of God in John also, as in the other Gospels (1:34; 4:26). Jesus is the Son of Man in the strong sense in John (1:51).
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (1:29). John parallels signs Jesus does with various "I am" statements to make it clear who Jesus is. I am...
- “the bread of life” (6:35)
- He gives living water (the Holy Spirit) (7:37-39)
- “the light of the world” (9:5)
- “the good shepherd” (10:11)
- “the resurrection and the life” (11:25)
- “the way, the truth, the life” (14:6)
6. The personhood of the Holy Spirit is clearer in John than anywhere else in the NT. John clearly speaks of the Holy Spirit as a person (e.g., 16:7).
The Holy Spirit...
- “will teach you everything” (14:26)
- “will guide you into all truth” (16:13)
- “will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment” (16:8)
2 comments:
Perhaps this passage is also relevant:
14:8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me; or else believe me for the very works’ sake. (World English Bible, public domain)
One of those verses did make the PowerPoint. :-)
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