Transcript for Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (with Jeff Cavins) - 2022

Hey, Father. Good. Good to join you. And what a what a treat it is to look at a gospel at this at this point. It's like, uh, it's a little bit of a reprieve, isn't it? You're going through all this history and yeah, but what about Jesus? But what about Jesus? And here we are. We're going to jump ahead for the gospel of John. So this is going to be great.

Sure, it will be, and there's a couple of things to remember, and one is that all scripture that you have been reading, and in the case of our listeners, all the scripture you have heard up till now, is all crystal-centric, meaning it finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And that's what Bible study is all about, and the other thing is what Pope Benedict mentioned, and that's called recapitulative history. It's a big fancy word for Jesus came and did it again. He came and he relived those stories, and so as you start to read the gospels now, keep in mind that this is about fulfilling something. It's about the Son of God fulfilling what the firstborn son did not complete. Jesus had to fulfill all righteousness. He had to complete this. And then we have some guidelines, you know, in the catacysm about it being a revelation of who Jesus Christ is. And that's where that's where we get to today with the gospel of John. And the gospel of John is different. Everybody knows there's four gospels. And the question would come up. Well, wouldn't it have been okay to just do maybe one? Just had one.

Right, right, but the reason for that is that all four gospels have a different emphasis in some of the gospels share stories. So for example, Matthew, Mark, and Luke seem to be sharing material. The same stories, the same miracles that some of the dialogue. And so John stands out because John is really different than those other three gospels Not to mention that John is really for more of a universal audience. But there is an emphasis on each of the gospels. In Matthew, we see Jesus as king. In Mark, we see Jesus as the servant. In Luke, we see Jesus, the man, the humanity. And in John, we see God, Jesus as God, in fact, you know, in Matthew's gospel, it starts off with a genealogy and it goes back to a son of David, whereas John starts off and says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And so it starts off with the divinity of of Jesus. A few other things that are really interesting is people are going to go through this with you. There's only eight miracles recorded in John and six of those miracles are very peculiar to John. John doesn't have any parables. whereas Matthew had nine of them, Luke had 35 parables. He taught very much in a hebraic way that way. But one of the things that's beautiful about John is that every single chapter provides kind of a separate portrait of who Christ is, and what he, what he has demonstrated as far as being God. And so you could say that the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they tell us what Jesus did, John tells us who he is. in a real beautiful way. Another thing that's interesting is that John, over one third of John's gospel, chapters 12 through 19, covers the last week of Jesus. And so it really focuses on that crucial work that he did, that centerpiece of his death burial and resurrection. That's a really, really important point. And our response to the gospel of John is the word belief. And that word belief is used many, many times, because as John is showing you that Jesus is God, Jesus is the key to salvation, then the onus is upon us to respond to it and that is called faithfulness or we believe, we believe the truth.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, you mentioned the High Priestly Prayer in chapter 17. That is, that is an amazing prayer that when we get to that, I will see that we are focus of that, that he prays that we would be one as he and the Father are one. And that's, that's very, very powerful. You know that every time I hear the gospel of John, I'm reminded of Pope John Paul II, because John Paul II, he did Lexio Divina on the gospel of John every month of his pontificate. So you could say that he literally owned it. He owned that gospel. And that's something that I would really encourage people to do is choose one of the gospels and own it. You know, really get to know it. Memorize, memorize the main theme of every chapter. Now, John is great for that because every chapter, as I said earlier, is a portrait, really of who Jesus is. Jesus is, in fact, John kind of looks at Jesus as a ballroom. What do they call those like a ballroom light that turns in the middle of a ballroom? Yeah, yeah, like a disco. Okay. Yeah, there was no one's ever compared Jesus to a disco ball before, but we have now. But every time every little aspect of that disco ball, if you will, it's fine. Okay, sure. Every bit of that chandelier reflects a certain aspect of them. So you have the very famous nine I am statements in in in of Jesus. So John says about Jesus. I am the bread of of life in John 6. I am the light of the world. John 8. And also in John 8 before Abraham was I am in John 10. I am the door. John 10, I am the good shepherd. John 11, I am the resurrection in the life. John 14, I'm the way the truth in the life. And John 15, I am the true vine. And John 18, I am he. And so, and John seems to enjoy doing this because when he later wrote When he later wrote the book a revelation, he also picked up on that as well, and uses I am the alpha and the omega. I am the beginning and the end. I am the first and last. I am he who lives and was dead, and I am he who searches and reigns in hearts, and I am the root and offspring of David, and I am the bright morning star. So John is just really into revealing who he is in his divinity. And I think that that is beautiful. The one verse that really caps it all off in John is John 1030 where Jesus said, I and my father are one. I and my father are one. And he who has seen me in John 14 has seen the father end of case.

Yes, there actually is, and you bring up an odd point, right? And it says it's an odd point. It is. In John 21, Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of large fish. And John wanted you to know how many. I mean, either he's either he's really got a thing with numbers or he is trying to show you something. It's 153 fish. Thank you, John. Because that story would have been incomplete without that number. 153. Fish, and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Yes, you're right. Numbers mean something to the Jewish people. And in the Hebrew language, there actually is not one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. They actually use the alphabet to depict the numbers. And so, every letter has a numerical value. And when you put the phrase, the phrase, I am God. In Hebrew, it comes up to the equivalent of 153. And that is an amazing revelation. And I guess you could call it a hebraic type of teaching where John is showing you that there was 153 fish. We'll see 153. Well, that made me, oh, I'm God. I thought something was fishy.

You know, you mentioned that 153 fish. And I mean, you're teaching me something here too. And that is that, you know, we are talking about John is really speaking about the divinity of Christ. And here at the very end of it, at the point, and I'll just mention this. This is after Peter betrayed the Lord three times. He let the Lord down three times. He was the first Pope. And he, you know, he did not serve the Lord the way he was supposed to. And he actually went back to fishing. That's what he's doing up in Galilee. And Jesus says, no, you still have that calling on your life. And that's where he reveals the 153 fish, which is in Hebrew. Ani Elohim. Ani Elohim. I am God. Ani is 61. Elohim is 92 for a total of 153 and I think that that is showing us that God is still God even after we've blown it and and maybe people reading with you during this time feel like you know I just haven't been the the servant of God or the husband or the or the son that I should have been. Well, this is the book where you have a chance to begin a fresh. And Jesus says to you, let Acherai come follow me.

Yes absolutely right in the middle of the gospel of John you have John chapter seven and John chapter eight and it's the story of the woman caught in adultery and the leadership wants to stone her and they are shaming her and she is broken and publicly shamed and it's an amazing story that the Lord releases her from that shame and brings her to himself. And so I would really encourage people, you know, whatever shame in your life. It doesn't have to be what this lady committed. It can be shame in your town, shame in your family, shame for something you said, shame for something you did in college, whatever it might be. I want you to know that Jesus is not going to hold you to that shame the rest of your life, but he is going to release you. because he can. He's God. He is divine. And that's what the focus is. And that's just not a theological point. That is an experience that we can have in our life. Because he's God, I can be free from shame. Maybe he was something on the internet who knows. But you can be free and be restored to the Lord, whether you are someone listening to the daily readings or you're the Pope.

It's live at 2 p.m. central time on the Ascension Catholic Bible study page. Yeah, every we answer about three to five questions every week that you the listeners are asking. And usually it's, well, I don't understand this or how could God do that. And we try to take those apart as best we can. and always coming from the perspective of we trust God and God is good. He's not our is not arbitrary. He doesn't just do one thing one day and another another day. He's consistent and his actions are always held to who he is.