Hey there.. when I suggest to people to read the bible I always suggest they start with The Gospel of John. It is easy to read and follow through with the rest of the New Testament. What you will learn is, He has come to this earth to be a light to everyone and He is going to destroy the evil of darkness.. simple as that.. All in a days work for the savior of this world. You know the story somewhat cause I have briefly given you the first three Gospels from Matthew, Mark and Luke... read it so you will know.. John's message was a personal account of his following closely with Jesus. Therefore, John's message is for all ethnic groups and his whole purpose for writing is to bring evidence to prove that Jesus is Christ and truly the Son of God.. ….so from the beginning of John, The beloved disciple, here we go.. this will be the longest one, fully explained ok.
When Jesus appears on the scene, he starts to gather a nice little entourage of disciples. He travels with them around Judea bringing God's truth and racking up an impressive list of miracles. Turning water into wine.... Healing a blind man.... Raising a guy from the dead.... Seeing this, tons of people are now starting to put their faith in Him. Which I hope you have too.. you will I'm sure. But not everyone is so thrilled with the coming of the messiah. The religious authorities in Judea are fuming at the idea that there's a man walking around who can raise people from the dead. They hatch an evil plot to have Jesus killed and then, we assume, they start rubbing their hands together for when that day would come. They don't have to wait long. The next time Jesus is in Jerusalem, one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, conspires with the religious authorities to have Jesus arrested. He's taken to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
So, that's the end, right? Not a chance. Three days after he dies, Jesus comes back to life. He appears to some of his disciples and even gives out some pretty good advice. Jesus tells them to keep spreading his story around. The disciples oblige and the rest is the history. The history of the western world, that is.
This is the Gospel according to John.. and it starts like this…….. Make Way for Jesus ………… In the beginning, there's Jesus. Jesus is God's Son. He's always been with God and always will be. Everything in the world is made through God. He's the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness can't do anything to stop him. This is huge! John the Baptist is around, too, but he's just been sent by God to tell everyone about the light (Jesus). He is like the messenger. If you might be thinking that John the Baptist is the light sent from God, John's gospel wants you to know that he is not. The light is Jesus, and people are about to get hit with that info—hard.
Yes, it's true Jesus is already here, living in the world, but the people of the world don't know about him—yet. Some of them don't like or won't accept him either, but the ones who do accept him will be VIPs in God's book. That's a pretty good incentive, wouldn't you say? You have to get into that book!!! If that weren't enough, we're told that Jesus is also everything God says and thinks, He is the Son of God! He lives among us and we get to see how glorious He is. He will show us all God's grace and truth. Well, then. Again, John the Baptist stresses to everyone that Jesus is the important one we should be paying attention to. John is not the light. Why does Jesus rank above John? Because he's eternal and divine. Moses might have given the people their laws, but Jesus will show all of us what God is really about.
John the Baptist is in Bethany, baptizing people by the Jordan River. The religious authorities there ask him who on earth he is. John quickly explains that he is not the messiah or one of the big-time Jewish prophets. John quotes Isaiah. Turns out, he's just there to announce the coming of the Lord. The religious authorities want to know why John is baptizing people by the Jordan River if he isn't really important enough to be doing so.…John's answer? He's only baptizing people with water, but Jesus is going to do a whole lot more. In fact, Jesus is going to be so much more amazing than John, that John won't even be fit to stoop down and untie his shoes. The next day, John sees Jesus walking around and tells everyone: There! That's the guy I've been talking about!. John explains that he saw a spirit come down to Jesus like a dove. John didn't even know who Jesus was before this. But when he saw it, he remembered that God had told him that the person to whom the spirit comes is the messiah—the one he had been looking for. Oh, God also told him that this person is the Son of God.
Jesus Gathers His Entourage …...Another day passes, and John is standing around again with some of his disciples. He sees Jesus walk by and again tells his disciples that Jesus is the VIP sent by God. Two of John's disciples decide that maybe they've been following the wrong guy, so they go to see what this Jesus person is all about. When Jesus asks them what they want from him, they call him "Teacher" and ask where he's staying. Jesus tells them to come and see his place. The two guys follow him back home and stay with him for the day. One of the guys who stays with Jesus is Andrew, the brother of someone named Simon. After meeting with Jesus, Andrew goes to find his brother and tells him that he has found the messiah. Andrew takes Simon to meet Jesus and Jesus gives him a new name, Peter, which means "Rock." The next day, Jesus decides to head to Galilee. There, he meets a guy named Philip and invites him to join their group. Philip then tries to recruit a friend named Nathanael. When Phillip tells him that Jesus is from Nazareth, Nathanael is skeptical, but Philip asks him to come see for himself. Jesus says a few things that reveal that Jesus already knows who Nathanael is. Nathanael is majorly confused, but Jesus tells him that he saw him under a fig tree. Apparently, this is proof enough for Nathanael, and he decides Jesus is the messiah. Jesus jokes with him: if he believes based just on the fig tree story, he's about to get schooled with amazing things. Want an example? Well, for one, heaven will open up and all the angels will come down to hang with Jesus.
So Jesus and the disciples go to a wedding in Canaan. Unfortunately, the wine runs out. Jesus's mother is there with him and she lets him know that the party is starting to die down. Jesus knows that she wants him to make more wine, but he explains that he can't just go around performing miracles. He doesn't think it's the right time to out himself as the messiah just yet. But his mom doesn't really listen (typical mom eh.. they know what is right) and tells the servants at the wedding that they need to follow Jesus' instructions. Jesus relents and tells them to take six giant jars and fill them up to the brim with water. When the head waiter (who doesn't know what Jesus has done) drinks some water out of the jars, it has miraculously turned into wine. The wine is so good, that the waiter runs up and congratulates the groom on serving such excellent wine. See, usually hosts would bring out the best wine first; then, when the guests were less, um, discerning, out would come the so-so beverages. Needless to say, the waiter is very impressed. People actually do that today.. bring out the good stuff first and save the so so stuff for last.. not in this case tho.. And there you have it: miracle #1. All of Jesus's disciples are sure of him now.
Next Jesus Trashes the Temple Soon it's time for Passover, so Jesus and the disciples head down toward Jerusalem. When they get there, they visit the temple in Jerusalem, but Jesus gets pretty annoyed when he goes inside. In the temple, there are merchants selling all kinds of stuff, instead of doing what you might expect people in a temple to be doing—worshipping God. Jesus makes a whip out of some cords and comes after the merchants. He throws their money on the floor, turns over the tables with their goodies on them, and yells at them all to get out because they're turning a holy place into a marketplace. People are not happy about what happened. They demand that Jesus explain why he has rained on their parade. Jesus tells them that even if the whole temple were destroyed, it could be built up again in three days..... That comes later. The people have no clue what he's talking about. They know the temple has been under construction for forty-six years, but somehow this guy is going to build a whole new one in three days? Of course, the Gospel explains, they don't understand that Jesus is really talking about himself. He means that his body will be destroyed and raised up in three days. The whole time Jesus is in Jerusalem for Passover, loads of people see the things he can do and start to believe in him. But Jesus isn't too thrilled: the people are just amazed by his miracles, but don't really get who he is.
Jesus is so misunderstood.
Jesus then chats with Nicodemus ….. Nicodemus, one of the religious leaders in the Jewish community, comes to see Jesus at nighttime. He tells Jesus that he knows he's a great teacher and is clearly very important to God because of all the miraculous and amazing things he can do. Jesus tells him that no one can really be one with God unless they are born again. Huh? Not surprisingly, Nicodemus is confused. He wonders how someone could be born twice. Would you have to get back in your mother's womb? No, Jesus tells him, but you do have to be reborn in water (through baptism) and also receive God's spirit. But Nicodemus still doesn't get it and wonders how all of this could be true. Jesus agrees—it is pretty mysterious. No worries, though. Jesus totally knows how God works. But since he's the only one who does, you'll just have to take his word for it.
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