The Gospel of John: Bible Study Guide

By Mathew Bartlett and Derek Williams

A simple verse by verse guide to the Gospel of John for individual or group use. Every chapter has thought provoking discussion questions to aid study and sample answers are provided. Group members have said that:
“These studies have helped me stand in the most difficult times of my life”
“I feel that I have grown s

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faithbuilders
• Release date: Jan 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9781912120857

Mathew Bartlett

Mathew Bartlett holds a MA in biblical studies from Chester University, and is researching for PhD in Lukan rhetoric.

Book preview

Faithbuilders Bible Studies

The Faithbuilders Bible study series has been developed as a useful resource for students of God’s Word and their busy lifestyles. Pastors, home or study group leaders, and indeed for anyone wishing to study the Bible for themselves will benefit from using Faithbuilders studies.

Each volume is the result of many years of group Bible study, and has been revised to be relevant, challenging and faith building whilst remaining clear and easy to understand, helping more people to discover the blessings of God’s Word.

Mathew Bartlett holds a Master’s Degree in Biblical Studies from the University of Chester, England and is currently researching rhetoric in Luke-Acts at Roehampton University, London. Derek Williams is now retired, having been a pastor and preacher for over 40 years.

Contents

Faithbuilders Bible Studies

John Chapter 1

Christ the Eternal Word

Christ the Light of Life

John the Witness

The Word made Flesh

The Voice in the Wilderness

The Humility of John the Baptist

The Testimony of John

Pointing Others to Jesus

A Personal Invitation from Christ

A Personal Invitation to Christ

A Powerful Indication of Christ

Discussion Questions for Chapter 1

John Chapter 2

Jesus’s First Miracle: At the Cana Wedding

Fulfilling the Scripture

Rising from the Dead

Discussion Questions for Chapter 2

John Chapter 3

A Religious Man

New Birth

How the New Birth is Accomplished

God's Great Love

A Dispute Provides an Opportunity

John the Friend of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is Far Above All

Discussion Questions for Chapter 3

John Chapter 4

An Introduction to Christ's Visit to Samaria

Christ the Source of Eternal Life

Now is the Time of Harvest

A Harvest Gathered In

Believing the Word

Discussion Questions for Chapter 4

John Chapter 5

Healing on the Sabbath Day

Christ Equal with God as Creator, Life Giver, and Judge

The Resurrection of the Dead

A Fourfold Witness

Discussion Questions for Chapter 5

John Chapter 6

Feeding the Five Thousand

Jesus the Bread of Life

Trust and do not Fear

Seeking Christ

Christ The Bread of Life

Discussion Questions for Chapter 6

John Chapter 7

The Unbelief of Jesus’s Brothers

The Heavenly Teacher

Instruction for the Seeker

An Invitation for the Thirsty

The Invincible Christ

Discussion Questions for Chapter 7

John Chapter 8

No Condemnation

Jesus Defends His Self-Witness

Jesus Speaks of His Departure

The Son Sets Us Free from Sin's Slavery

The Son Sets Us Free from Satan's Bondage

The Son Sets Us Free from Death's Sting

Discussion Questions for Chapter 8

John Chapter 9

Sight Received

Give Glory to God

The Witness of the Healed Man

Discussion Questions for Chapter 9

John Chapter 10

The True Shepherd

The Shepherd is also the Door

The People Divided Over Jesus

Jesus Questioned

The Security of Believers

The Eternal Son

The Fruit of Faithful Witness

Discussion Questions for Chapter 10

John Chapter 11

Death Among Christ’s Closest Friends

The Delay

The Challenge

At The Grave of Lazarus

The Resurrection

The Plot to Kill Jesus

Discussion Questions for Chapter 11

John Chapter 12

Practical Service, Spiritual Worship, and Bold Testimony

Serving Christ with Our Praise

Serving Christ with Our Lives

Jesus Predicts His Death

Spiritual Blindness

Only Believe

Discussion Questions for Chapter 12

John Chapter 13

Divine Example

Judas’s Choice

A New Commandment

Simon Peter's Denial Predicted

Discussion Questions for Chapter 13

John Chapter 14

The Way

Revealing the Father

The Answered Prayer

The Promise of the Comforter

Indwelling of the Father and the Son

The Gift of Peace

Discussion Questions for Chapter 14

John Chapter 15

Christ The True Vine, Believers the Branches

The Nature of Christian Love: Unselfish, Obedient, Original

The Servant is not Greater than his Master

Discussion Questions for Chapter 15

John Chapter 16

Persecution

The Indwelling Spirit

Sorrow will Turn to Joy

Immediate Access into God's Presence for all His Children

Discussion Questions for Chapter 16

John Chapter 17

Jesus Prays for Himself

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

Jesus Prays for All Believers

Discussion Questions for Chapter 17

John Chapter 18

The Arrest

The Interrogation

The Hearing

Having The Trial and the Verdict

The Question of Kingship

The Question of Truth

Discussion Questions for Chapter 18

John Chapter 19

Jesus Scourged and Mocked

Pilate on Trial

The King on a Cross

At the Cross

Jesus Buried

Discussion Questions for Chapter 19

John Chapter 20

The Empty Tomb

The Risen Lord

Jesus Revealed to the Disciples

Where is Thomas?

The Purpose of John's Gospel

Discussion Questions for Chapter 20

John Chapter 21

Where is Peter?

Peter Restored and Commissioned

Following Jesus

Discussion Questions for Chapter 21

Sample Answers

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Bibliography

Appendix – How to Use this Study Guide

John Chapter 1

Christ the Eternal Word

1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.

This verse immediately takes us back to the beginning, prior to creation (Gen 1:1). God existed before time as we know it; indeed, there has never been a time when God did not exist (Ps 90:2). With God in the beginning was another figure—the Word.

Not only was the Word with God in the beginning, the Word was God. At the beginning of his Gospel John sets out the biblical principle that the Word—Jesus Christ—is fully divine. These introductory comments set the tone for the rest of the gospel and are essential to help the reader understand the way in which John portrays Jesus. Although he does not fully develop it here, John is introducing the concept of the Trinity; which is expanded in the first epistle attributed to him (1 John 5:7).

1:2 The Word was with God in the beginning.

John repeats his emphasis that although the Lord Jesus Christ (the Word) is God, yet he was with God (as part of the Godhead), in the beginning. There can be no explanation of these verses without understanding that John has the idea of the Trinity in mind as he writes. Though the Word is God, he does not exist on his own, but together with the Father and the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Cor 13:14).

1:3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.

John gives further testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ being fully divine and equal with God. Not only was he with God in the beginning (he is eternal), but also all things were made by him (he is the Creator; see Col 1:16–17). The Jews accepted that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Here John sees the Lord Jesus, the Word of God, was the agent in that creation. As God, the Father spoke, or willed the creation into being, it was the living Word who performed the action through the Holy Spirit who moved in power on the face of the waters (Gen 1:1–3). All three members of the Godhead are credited together with the act of creation. Significantly John says, without him nothing was made that was made. The other members of the Godhead did not act independently of him or of each other. They did nothing without him—which is to say they acted in perfect union as one Creator.

Christ the Light of Life

1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.

John’s thoughts here move from the creation of the world in general to the creation of man specifically (Vincent). Having created the heavens and the earth, God had one more thing left to create. He made man in a unique way—forming his body from the dust of the ground and imparting the essence of his own life into man by breathing into his nostrils. In this way man became a living being, as God is a living being. God in this sense made man in his own image and likeness, for man shared the life which God imparted to him.

No man has life of himself; God gives it. All that we are and have comes from God, the life or spirit of man is God’s life imparted to man. That is the force of John’s words here, in him was life; it was never ours, it was always his—but he gave it to us. Adam was specially created, sharing God’s life, to have a relationship with God. Later God made woman in the same image as man, so that she shared the life which was in man, which was God’s life. God did not need to breathe into her, for the life he had already given to Adam was to be imparted via him to the whole human race. Similarly, God has no need to breathe into every new-born baby, for each baby receives its life from its parents, the one act of creation being sufficient for the procreation of the race in God’s image.

The life that Christ the Word imparted to man was the light of men. This is not natural light; it is the faculty of being alive; the faculty of being able to understand and know God, to discern right from wrong. It is this light, given by the special impartation of God’s life into man that raises humanity above the lower order of creation and gives him dignity as a son of God (Adam is called the son of God in Luke 3:38)—that is, one who is in the image of God.

when Christ, the word, breathed into man the breath of life and he became a living soul, he filled him with rational light and knowledge. Adam had a knowledge of God; his being and perfections; of the persons in the Trinity; of his relation to God, dependence on him, and obligation to him; of his mind and will and knew what it was to have communion with him. (Gill)

1:5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

So what has happened between versed 4 and 5? Verse 5 describes a tremendous calamity! From talking about the light given to man, John now speaks of the darkness that is in man. If light is the knowledge of God, then darkness is the wilful ignorance of God. It began in Eden where Adam and Eve thought they were wiser than God, and disobeyed him. In his letter to the Romans, Paul tells us that ever since man opened the door to sin, he has wilfully tried to expunge the knowledge of God from his being (Rom 1:18–21, 28).

God told Adam and Eve that their disobedience would lead to death, and to this day humanity remains in a state of spiritual death (Eph 2:1); sin has separated us from the life of God. We are wilfully ignorant of God, and our selfish actions prove we are his enemies (Eph 4:8; Col 2:21). Evil powers influence humanity, for men and women walk according to the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). All of this is what John has in mind when he writes of the darkness that is in the world, and again this theme is expanded more fully in the First Epistle of John.

However, verse 5 also brings good news. Although man has fallen into this state of alienation from God, there is now a light shining in the darkness. Its purpose is to show humanity a way to escape the darkness of sin and once again share the light of the knowledge of God. Tragically, such is the condition of the human heart that when this light was manifested, people were so used to the dark that they did not recognize or understand the manifestation of the light. This is the reason John wrote his gospel, that we might know that Christ has come as the light to bring the life of God to humanity John 20:31 (Luke 1:78–79; 2:29–32).

John the Witness

1:6–7 A man came, sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him.

God sent John the Baptist (cf. Matt 3:1–3) to bear witness that light, in the person of Jesus, was coming into the world. This good news requires men and women to testify to others. All who come to know Christ do so through the witness of other people, just as it was God’s intention that through John the Baptist's testimony, all who heard him might believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved.

1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

John does not want his readers to think that John the Baptist is the light. John is introduced at this point to highlight how much greater Christ, the light, is than to other men—even greater than John (whom in Matt 11:11 is described by Jesus as the greatest of men).

1:9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

John refers to Christ as the true light; one who can be fully trusted. He came to bring light to everyone who has ever been born into the world. Such a statement indicates that Christ is the only way to life. There is not one correct way for one religious group and one way for another—Christ is the unique light of all people (John 14:6).

1:10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him.

At the time of John the Baptist's ministry Jesus was already in the world. It was the world that he had made, but the entire population of earth, left to themselves, would not have recognized him. John reveals the true condition of humanity, it has moved so far from God that even when God stood among them, they did not know him. That is why Christ had to be introduced to people by John, by God’s testimony, and by the miracles (John 20:30–31). For the same reason, Christ came first to the Jews (verse 11), so that through his ministry to them the whole world might be re-introduced to its Creator.

1:11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him.

Jesus not only came to his own world but to the nation of Israel, which God had set apart as his own people. Yet even his own people, who had the extra light of divine revelation given through the prophets, rejected him (cf. John 5:39). It is not John’s intention to show that Israel was worse than other nations; but rather to show, since even privileged Israel rejected Christ, how far humanity has fallen from God.

1:12–13 But to all who have received him — those who believe in his name — he has given the right to become God's children — children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband's decision, but by God.

Good news is again reported—there were those who did receive him! John defines receiving Christ as believing or trusting in him. Everyone may choose to believe, but only those who do are born of God—born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, as John goes on to explain in chapter 3:1–21.

What John is saying in this first chapter is clear. God made humanity to share his image and glory, but humanity fell from that privileged position because of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, the light of life, has come into the world to bring us back to God that we might again share his nature and glory. He does this for all who believe in him, as they by faith become children of God. As Paul describes it this as regeneration of the Holy Spirit (Tit 3:5). This new birth does not depend on a person’s ancestry, it does not happen because of any human effort; nor is such conversion merely outward. It is an act of God wrought within the heart of a person on their initial faith in Jesus Christ.

The Word made Flesh

1:14 Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory — the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.

This is the key verse of the passage. Unlike Matthew and Luke, John does not go into the practical details of the virgin birth of Christ. He simply states that he who was God in the beginning, became flesh. The Word became flesh denotes the unity of two natures, God and man. Jesus Christ was fully human yet fully God, the two natures being perfectly united together. John could honestly say that Jesus lived among us and we saw his glory. Christ’s glory shone through in the events which John witnessed: his calming of the storm, walking on water, changing water into wine, healing the sick, raising the dead, in his transfiguration and chiefly his resurrection. The reason John records all these events in his gospel is so that others might believe (John 20:30–31).

His glory was the glory of the Son of God, who had come from the Father, and who was full of grace and truth. Christ came to forgive the sins of men (grace) without condoning sin in man; and revealed the truth about God and humanity (truth). He came to bring salvation without ignoring the justice of God. As Paul says, he provided a way in which God might be just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus (Rom 3:23–26; Ps 85:10).

1:15 John testified about him and shouted out, This one was the one about whom I said, 'He who comes after me is greater than I am, because he existed before me.'

John the Baptist had testified that Jesus was the pre-existent and exalted Son of God. It could be suggested that John the apostle (the author of the gospel) had first learned of Jesus from the ministry of the Baptist.

1:16 For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another.

Since then John and everyone else who received Jesus as Saviour have received his fullness. As believes, Christ resides in us; for we are filled with him (Col 2:9–10, my paraphrase). When we receive his grace, we receive all that he is. He is ours, we are his; we live by his life and rejoice in him evermore. How is this fullness received? All the blessings we have received in Christ were given us freely by his grace, without any merit on our part.

1:17 For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.

Christ is greater than Moses. Moses brought the law, God’s holy standard, which showed man his sin but gave him no power to change. Jesus Christ brought grace and truth by which man is forgiven and brought back into a right relationship with God, justified from the law’s demands and by the indwelling spirit is enabled to live a life that is pleasing to God.

1:18 No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

There has never been a person in the history of the world who has seen God. God is Spirit, and invisible (by implication of 1 Tim 3:16, not even the angels have ever seen him). But there was one who knew the invisible God so well that when he became man he could speak from his own experience about God. He came from the bosom of the Father, being essentially one in nature with him. This is the one whom John has introduced us to in the prologue—the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.

The Voice in the Wilderness

These verses are a record of the witness John the Baptist gave to the priests and Levites that were sent from Jerusalem.

1:19 Now this was John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

The fame of John the Baptist had spread throughout all Judea and to Jerusalem (Matt 3:5). On hearing the substance of John’s fiery preaching, and that he was baptising people in water, the Sanhedrin sent priests and Levites to determine whether he was the Christ, the anointed one of God who had been promised in the Scriptures (Luke 3:15). Notice that they were very cautious in their question. They did not directly ask if he was the Christ, but who are you? Other gospel writers reveal that John was critical of the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to see him (Matt 3:7; Luke 3:7).

1:20 He confessed — he did not deny but confessed — I am not the Christ!

John, however, did not shy away from the question but openly acknowledged that he was not the Christ, for he understood his own role to be that of the one who would prepare the way for the Christ.

1:21 So they asked him, Then who are you? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not! Are you the Prophet? He answered, No!

When they further questioned him if he was the prophet Elijah (they doubtless had the prophecy of Malachi 4:5 in mind), he answered them no.

1:22 Then they said to him, Who are you? Tell us so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

They were still not satisfied with his answers, for he had not yet told them who he was, and so they had no report to give to their superiors; so once more they asked him to give an account of himself.

1:23 John said, I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way for the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said.

John had no doubt about his role, quoting Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming of a forerunner or herald of the Christ (Isa 40:3), the one who would prepare the way for Israel to welcome its Lord.

1:24–25 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked John, Why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?

Those who were sent to question John were of the Pharisees, the group which composed a significant part of the Sanhedrin.