The Gospel of John Made Easy
John was one of the 12 disciples. John gives his reason for writing this “book”. John 20:31, “These things are written so that you might ( may) believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing you might (may) have life through his name.”
Chapter 1
Verses 1- 15
Verses 1 -5
John starts by introducing who Jesus is. He explains that Jesus is not just a regular man, but he is one with God. Jesus was with God before he became a man. Jesus was God. Jesus was part of the power of creating the world.
“In the beginning the Word (Jesus) already lived. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is.
There is nothing that he did not make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never put out this light.”
These verse clearly tell us that Jesus was God. He was part of God from the beginning.
In Genesis 1: 26 when it tells about the creation, it uses the word “us”. “Let us make man in our image.” God calls himself “us”.
“Us” means more than one person. “Us” means God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
We call this the Trinity—meaning 3 as 1. This is hard to explain and understand. And because people find it hard to understand, they say it can not be.
God is more than we can understand. If we could understand all about him—-he would be even with us. God is far more than we are. He made us. Any one who is smart enough to make a human, is a lot smarter than the human.
We can not understand how God is one god and yet shows himself to man in 3 different persons. That is the mystery of God.
John lived with Jesus here on earth. John walked with Jesus for 3 ½ years. They saw many things Jesus did. They felt his power as they were near him. John and the other disciples knew this was not a regular man. He was much more.
Even one of the Roman soldier at the cross said, “Surely, this was the son of God.” Mark 15: 39
Jesus said he was one with God. In later verses in John we will read what Jesus said about himself.
There are two big religious groups in America that call themselves Christian but they try to explain these verses in John in a different way. Often the people of one group come to your door to talk to you.
They say that “Jesus was with God in the beginning and Jesus was a god.” They say he was a created being.
Men who are learned in the Greek language, say that this verse can not be interpreted to say “a god”. To do that would be to change the Greek words. If you take the Greek words as they were written and with the right meaning—-it says Jesus was God.
The person or persons of this religious group wrote the Bible with their own interpretation. This is the Bible that they study. They also wrote another Study Book for them which they read more than the Bible.
The men of this religious group were not learned in the Greek language, not in Hebrew, not in Aramaic, and not in Latin. The one man said he knew Greek, but in a court of law in Canada, he could not even say the names of the Greek letters.
Yet tens of thousands of people follow the written words of this man’s writings—-which are changed and twisted meanings. They have believed things that are not true.
(You know that the New Testament was written in Greek and in Aramaic. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. These are the languages those people spoke. Jesus spoke Greek and Aramaic and Hebrew. Any Jewish man who had gone to school would be able to speak these languages. They may have spoken some Latin, too, because that is what the Romans spoke.)
It is important that you read a Bible that has been interpreted into English in a right way. There are many good Bibles in Bible bookstores.
These Bibles have been interpreted by groups of people working together to make sure they have the right interpretation. These people are learned in the old languages.
The big question for the Jewish people of Jesus’ time was—-is Jesus God?
This is still the question some people have today.
If Jesus was God—–then we must listen and obey him. If he is not God—we can ignore him—we do not have to listen.
Each person in the world must decide what he will believe about Jesus.
What he decides to believe will decide where he goes after he dies.
John is writing this book because he wants people to believe that Jesus was God. John believed Jesus was God.
John also said about Jesus that he was the “life”. In him was life. The life was the light.
Jesus is the only one who has life. No other god has life. If you want a good life here on earth and life forever—-you will find it in Jesus and only in Jesus.
This light shines in the darkness and the darkness can not put out the light. If you light a candle—-the light from the candle takes away the darkness around the candle. The darkness does not put out the light of the candle.
Jesus is the light. Sin is darkness. Satan is darkness. Jesus takes away sin. Jesus wins over Satan. Darkness does not win over Jesus. Darkness of sin does not take away the light of Jesus.
If you have the light of Jesus in your heart, you can walk in this world of darkness and sin and you will not lose your light. God’s power can keep your light going and you will be able to take away some of the darkness of this world.
verses 6 – 9
God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the “light” so that everyone would believe because of John’s testimony (what he said about Jesus). John was not the light. He was only a witness (a person who saw or knew) about the light. This true light that would soon come into the world would give light to everyone.
verses 10 -13
Jesus made all the world, yet when Jesus came to the world he made—they did not know who he was. In Israel, the Jewish people who knew the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah (Promised Anointed one to come)—they did not believe him. They did not accept him.
But to all the people who would believe him and accept him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. They are born of God—-not just of flesh and blood, not just by human parents,
If we believe and accept Jesus, He will give us power to become part of His family—sons of God.
Verse 14
The Word (Jesus) became human and lived here on earth among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory of the only begotten of the Father. He was full of grace and truth.
Jesus is called the Word in these verses. When we read in Genesis about the creation—–we see that God spoke a word and all that he wanted to happen came to be.
There is power in the word God speaks. There is life in the word God speaks.