Welcome to a group of women who's goal is to encourage each other to put down some serious roots in the Word of God. This blog is dedicated to reading through the Bible in a year. Hopefully you will find the encouragement and accountability here that you need to push through the tough parts- or when life just gets in the way. The reading plan is located at the bottom of the blog. It contains links to the passages we are reading through biblegateway.com. You can use those links or read your own Bible, whichever you prefer.
We are all members of Oak Hill Baptist Church in Griffin, Georgia and felt the need in our own life for a little bit of the Lord's splendor. Please join us!!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

The Disciple Jesus Loved

Wouldn't you like to be known as the disciple Jesus loved?  That special place in His heart and by His side while here on earth.  An eyewitness to ALL that happened in Jesus' ministry and privileged enough to receive the AMAZING Revelation while in exile on the island of Patmos.  The youngest disciple while Jesus was on earth and the oldest disciple to live after His ascension.  John was also the ONLY disciple NOT to be martyred.  And the ONLY disciple NOT to scatter when Jesus was being arrested and crucified.  Wow!!!

John's Gospel is unique from the other three Gospels in several ways:
  • No genealogy is recorded.
  • No account of His birth is given.
  • Nothing about boyhood.
  • Nothing about His temptation
  • No transfiguration.
  • No appointing of the disciples.
  • No parables.
  • No account of Ascension.
  • No Great Commission.
YET only in John is He called "the Word".
  • The Creator
  • The only begotten of the Father.
  • The Lamb of God.
  • The revelation of the great "I AM".
The book of John was written to prove Jesus' deity.  JESUS IS GOD...PERIOD!!!  This book repeats this over and over and over.  This may seem basic to us, but there are SO MANY religions that say that Jesus was just a man and NOT God.  There are three important "sevens" in John that prove Jesus' deity:
  • Seven witnesses say that Jesus IS God (1:34, 1:49, 6:69, 11:27, 20:28, 20:31, and 10:36).
  • Seven miracles prove that He IS God (water into wine, healing the nobleman's son, healing the man at Bethesda, feeding the 5,000, walking on the water, healing the blind man, raising of Lazarus)
  • Seven "I AM's" (I AM the...bread of life, light of the world, before Abraham was born I AM, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life,  way the truth and the life, and the true vine).



The first 18 verses of chapter 1 are considered to be the prologue to this book and are probably the most well known verses in this book (other than John 3:16).  They ask the question, "What do you think of Christ?".  Was He just a man or was He God or both?  CLEARLY, these verses declare that Jesus IS GOD!!!  Then in verse 19 and all the way through chapter 12 verse 50 we find "The Word" displaying His glory in various ways.  Chapter 2 begins Jesus' interactions with Jewish institutuions.  There is such a sense of intimacy throughout this book...such a sense of Jesus being God and displaying His immense love for us.  Do you know this Jesus...I mean REALLY know Him like the disciple John did?  He is waiting for you...
    "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning...The Word became flesh and made his dwelling amond us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."                                            ~John 1:1, 1:14
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3 comments:

  1. BarbaraNovember 19, 2011 at 7:18 PM

    Oh what an informative post - I loved it Mindy. I don't have a real "study" Bible, so I learned lots of information from your post today about the unique things that John gives us compared to the other Gospels. Thanks. And your pictures were beautiful as well.

    I never thought about the birth account of Jesus not being in John. I love the first chapter though - the Word became flesh. And what a beautiful time of year we are entering to remember that.

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  2. NatalieNovember 20, 2011 at 5:13 PM

    What a great post and introduction to the book of John Mindy! Thank you! I I love the John calls Jesus "the word." I would certainly like to be called "the disciple Jesus loved."

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  3. TerryNovember 21, 2011 at 7:01 AM

    I really like this post also, Mindy! Thank you!

    I enjoy the simplicity and conviction of John's words. This one especially jumped out to me today: "He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person." Jesus knows what is in each us. "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts."

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