I also want us to focus on the Gospel of John and what we can learn from him. Mark and John are the two books that do not include the traditional Christmas story. But there is still much we can learn from them. We have already looked at the Gospel of Mark and how Jesus’ birth is firmly rooted in the OT. Today we are going to look at the Gospel of John and see what lessons God has for us about Jesus’ birth and coming into this world.
Question: when was the Gospel of John written?
Let me begin by saying that there is no book in the entire 66 books in the OT and NT that is clearly and precisely dated. There are some books where we can make more likely guesses and other books where we are considerably less sure about when they were written.
Church tradition is clear that John’s writings were among the last books to be written in the NT. And here I am thinking of not only the Gospel of John, but also the epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John, and the Book of Revelation as well. Apparently, as one commentator tells us, “John lived to a ripe old age and that he was the last of the evangelists to write his Gospel” (Köstenberger, p. 7). One of the church fathers, Irenaeus (quoted by Eusebius) places John’s death during the reign of Trajan (98-117) and Jerome says that John died 68 years after the Lord (98—or perhaps 101). Presumably John wrote his Gospel and Epistles and Revelation in the 80’s or 90’s of the first century.
So, John has had a lifetime of reflecting back on the events of Jesus’ life and ministry.
What are the most important things that were on John’s heart and mind as an older man reflecting back on all that he had experienced during his life? The answer is the things he writes about in his Gospel.
But still we can ask, what stood out to John the most as He reflected back on Jesus’ human life. And it wasn’t the story of the shepherds or the wise men or Jesus’ being born in a stable or His earthly life threated by King Herod when He was still a newborn baby. Instead, what stood out the most to the Apostle John was that Jesus was God Himself.
Notice how he begins His gospel in chapter 1:1.
John 1:1-2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2. He was in the beginning with God.
Here we are introduced to both the wonder of the Trinity and how Jesus was both with God and yet also God Himself. We are also introduced in this opening chapter of John’s Gospel to the two natures of Christ and how He was both God and man. But again, notice how John begins with a focus on Jesus’ deity.
3-5 “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
How is that for a summary of Jesus’ person and work?
Then like what we saw in Mark’s Gospel, John also connects Jesus with John the Baptist and how Jesus has a pre-history before He was born in terms of how God had already been preparing the way for Jesus’ birth for thousands of years—indeed from eternity past.
6-8 “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
But then John shifts back to thinking about Jesus.
9-13 “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Here we find the gospel in a nutshell. Jesus came and took the initiative in reaching out to His own people—and here we should think about God’s chosen people—the Jews., But by and large they did not receive Him But then we come to the marvelous promises in verses 12-13, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” The key to new life is being born or God. As Jesus later told Nicodemus, in order to become a child of God, you need to be born again or born from above.
Then then here in this next verse, verse 14, we find the Christmas story in John—and perhaps the best theological explanation of what Christmas is all about.
14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace.
The eternal Word took on human flesh and through an act of God’s Holy Spirit was conceived in Mary’s womb and was born as a fully human being that first Christmas, making Jesus the perfect God-man. So if we are looking for the Christmas story in John’s Gospel, this is it.
But then John continues on:
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'”)
16-18 “For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”
What a marvelous testimony of Jesus’ greatness and majesty?