The Seven Signs of John’s Gospel

By Cuthbert H Dawkins

‘Water off a duck’s back’. What a dreadful thing to say about the Word of God! But it is possible to read the Bible in a way that gives little information and no meaning at all.
John’s Gospel should be read like rain soaking into dry ground. Only then will seeds of meaning grow. John may have been an old man. He may have been a slave in a salt mine, but he had thought and thought and thought. He had had long years teaching about Jesus. He had seen more and more deeply what Jesus meant. The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, had taught him.
You must enter John’s Gospel almost like a cave of mystery, holding your breath, wondering if you are going to see in the darkness ahead. It is the same Jesus. It is the same Holy Spirit who will help you. If your eyes are strained in the darkness, stop and rest awhile until you can see again. If you are weary, wait until bread and water are brought to you.
Don’t abandon the awesome search in this ... wonderful, exciting cave.
The writer of these studies, Cuthbert Dawkins, would encourage you to explore the cave with a companion or in a group. He would suggest you prepare with prayer. Then care for one another with kindly questions and answers. The Holy Spirit will help you and you will become like dry ground able to soak in rain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: White Tree Publishing
• Release date: Apr 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781913950316

Book preview

About the Book

‘Water off a duck’s back’. What a dreadful thing to say about the Word of God! But it is possible to read the Bible in a way that gives little information and no meaning at all.

John’s Gospel should be read like rain soaking into dry ground. Only then will seeds of meaning grow. John may have been an old man. He may have been a slave in a salt mine, but he had thought and thought and thought. He had had long years teaching about Jesus. He had seen more and more deeply what Jesus meant. The Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, had taught him.

You must enter John’s Gospel almost like a cave of mystery, holding your breath, wondering if you are going to see in the darkness ahead. It is the same Jesus. It is the same Holy Spirit who will help you. If your eyes are strained in the darkness, stop and rest awhile until you can see again. If you are weary, wait until bread and water are brought to you.

Don’t abandon the awesome search in this ... wonderful, exciting cave.

The writer of these studies, Cuthbert Dawkins, would encourage you to explore the cave with a companion or in a group. He would suggest you prepare with prayer. Then care for one another with kindly questions and answers. The Holy Spirit will help you and you will become like dry ground able to soak in rain.

The Seven Signs of John’s Gospel

Being a Disciple of Jesus

Bible Studies by

Cuthbert H Dawkins

Missionary in East Africa 1934-97 Founder of Trinity Fellowship 1963

Copyright © The Estate of Cuthbert H. Dawkins 2021

eBook ISBN: 978-1-913950-31-6

Published by

White Tree Publishing

Bristol

UNITED KINGDOM

More books on www.whitetreepublishing.com

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All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner of this abridged edition.

Scripture quotations from Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover image: finish - 184468_1920 pixabay

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Book

Publisher’s Note

1. The First Sign

The Turning of Water into Wine

2. The Second Sign

The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son

3. The Third Sign

The Healing of the Helpless Invalid

4. The Fourth Sign

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

5. The Fifth Sign

The Walking on the Water

6. The Sixth Sign

The Healing of the Man Born Blind

7. The Seventh Sign

The Raising of Lazarus

About White Tree Publishing

More Books from White Tree Publishing

by Cuthbert H Dawkins and others

Publisher’s Note

The main Bible passages in this Study are shown at the start of each of the seven Parts. However, it may help if you have a separate Bible as you go through each Part, because with an eBook it is difficult to go back to the start of each Part to read the Gospel verses again, and return to the page where you left off.

If you do not have access to a printed Bible (and you may want to read the passages in a different version anyway) you can find free online Bibles of nearly every English version, old and new, on the Bible App you can download at http://www.youversion.com/ or find by entering youversion in the Apple and Android app stores.

On the youversion website you will find Bible readings with helpful notes for every day of the year, plus other Bible related material. There are also Bible versions in many other languages, all free.

There are 7 Parts in this book. In the second half are some advertisements for our other books, so this book may end earlier than expected! The last Part (7) is marked as such. We aim to make our eBooks free or for a nominal cost, and cannot invest in other forms of advertising. However, word of mouth by satisfied readers will also help get our books more widely known. When the book finishes, please take a look at our website for other books we publish: Christian non-fiction, Christian fiction, and books for younger readers ‒ a range of over 160 books available from White Tree Publishing. More details on our website www.whitetreepublishing.com .

Introduction

John’s Aim and Method

Let us turn to John’s Gospel chapter 20 and read verses 30 and 31. These verses are the key to our present Bible study.

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name."

These are the words with which John closes his history of the life of Jesus (chapter 21 only being added later as an epilogue), and in these two key verses he reveals two important things: (a) what his aim has been in writing, and (b) the method he has employed to achieve that aim. Now although in these verses the method is given before the aim, it is the aim that we must consider first. And this we find stated quite simply in verse 31:

"... that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His Name."

So here we have the aim and purpose of John’s Gospel. It appears plain and straightforward enough, but there is much more to it than at first meets the eye. We gather from it that our having life, true life, depends on our believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. But what does ‘the Christ’ really mean? And what does ‘the Son of God’ really mean? The word ‘Christ’ of course means ‘Anointed One’, and is the Greek translation (in the New Testament) of the Hebrew ‘Messiah’ (in the Old Testament).

The coming of an anointed King, a Messiah, who shall bring salvation to His people, is repeatedly foretold in