The First Days – John 1
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life.” — 1 John 1:1
Opening Thought: What’s In a Name
Our study of the Gospel of John is titled “In His Image” for a reason. It’s not titled “Christlikeness” or “Beholding Him” or such. The title needs to constantly remind us of where we’re headed. We want to know Him, then show Him, then make Him known. This study is aimed at getting to know Christ in order to understand Who He is and how He expressed His character here in our world. That understanding is a growing process, never complete. However by spending some time focusing on Him, perhaps we can increase our consistency at the task. Before we can “be” Christlike, we need to understand what Christ was like. So let’s focus on Him, “behold” and “handle” Him as John and the other disciples did.
Study Notes
1. Why are there four Gospels? As you study through the four gospels, you can begin to see an theme for each of the books is developed.
- Matthew: Jesus as King of the Jews, His regal right to David’s throne; writing to the Jewish reader; see Zechariah 9:9, “behold your King”
- Mark: Jesus as a man of action, the Suffering Servant; writing to the Roman world; see Zechariah 3:9, “behold my Servant”
- Luke: Jesus as the Son of Man, our Redeemer; writing to the entire Gentile world; see Zechariah 6:12, “behold the man”
- John: Jesus as the Son of God, His holiness and compassion; writes to the timeless assembly of believers (see the expansion of the audience over the 4 Gospels?); see Isaiah 35:4, “behold your God”
2. Who IS this man Jesus?
Two accounts of Jesus and His disciples help to bring this question into focus. In Matthew 8 :23-27 (Mark 4:35-41; Luke 8:22-25), Jesus is in a boat with His disciples, taking a nap, and a heavy storm comes upon them. Jesus awakes and just speaks the storm into quietness. One of the disciples exclaims, “What manner of man is this?” Who IS this guy?? We’ve left everything to follow Him – wow! Are we in for a ride!
Then note in Matthew 14:22-33 (Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-21), the disciples’ are in a boat as they are caught in another storm.. This time Jesus comes to them walking on the water, then quiets the storm.
Look into each of these passages and write down what you learn about Jesus from each —
- John 1:1
- John 4:10
- John 6:35
- John 8:12
- John 10:14
- John 11:25
- John 14:6
- John 15:1
- Hebrews 4:14
- 1 John 1:1
3. The First Days — the First Followers
John provides us with important clues about the first days in Jesus
‘ life of public ministry, beginning with His baptism.
- Day One, John 1:29-34 — John the Baptist, “behold the Lamb of God”, a singularly important statement of the unique work of Christ as Redeemer, a meek lamb (Isaiah 53), here to do a complete and final work of propitiation (“take away” in a permanent sense, for the whole world, not just Jews)
- Day Two, John 1:35-42 — two of John the Baptist’s disciples, Andrew and likely John the Gospel writer, leave to go with Jesus; remember that John in his Gospel never refers to himself by name. Andrew, perhaps in somewhat uncharacteristic fashion, rushes off to find his brother Simon and drags him back to meet the Savior!
- Day Three — John 1:43-51 — Jesus takes His new proteges and treks up towards the north end of the Sea of Galilee; in the area around Bethsaida, they run into Philip (Jesus surely expected that to happen; after Jesus draws Philip into their circle, Philip demonstrates his evangelistic zeal (more to be seen later, such as Acts 8) by bring Nathanael back to meet the Savior, who then joins the band of followers
- Day Four — John 2:1-11 — Together, the men walk over to Cana to join with family and friends for a wedding. Again, Jesus knew He needed to be there. Session 4, we will study this special occasion.
For further study:
1.Spend some time this week in the Gospel of John, trying to think of what the three most notable occasions were when Jesus interacted with people.
2. Have you found any characteristics of Jesus yet that you need to be focusing on in your life? Meditate in God’s Word about them.
