The Gospel According to John

Outline

• I. The eternal Word incarnated coming to bring God into man
• A. Introduction to life and building
• 1. The Word in eternity past, who was God, through creation coming as life and light to bring forth the children of God
• 2. The Word becoming flesh, with grace in fullness and with reality, to declare God in the only begotten Son of God
• 3. Jesus as the Lamb of God, with the Holy Spirit as the dove, making the believers stones for the building of the house of God with the Son of Man
• a. Religion looking for a great leader
• b. Jesus introduced as a Lamb with a dove
• c. Bringing forth stones for God's building
• B. Life's principle and life's purpose
• 1. Life's principle — to change death into life
• a. Christ coming in resurrection to the people in their enjoyment
• b. Their human life running out and their being filled with death
• c. Christ changing their death into life eternal
• 2. Life's purpose — to build the house of God
• a. Christ cleansing the temple
• b. The body of Jesus, the temple, destroyed and raised up in resurrection
• C. Life meeting the need of man's every case
• 1. The need of the moral — life's regenerating
• a. The Lord's commitment not in miracles but in life
• b. Regeneration by the divine Spirit in the human spirit
• c. Satan's evil nature in man's flesh being judged on the cross through the death of Christ in the form of the serpent that the believers may have eternal life
• d. The regenerated people becoming the bride of Christ as His increase
• e. The immeasurable Son of God for man's believing unto eternal life
• 2. The need of the immoral — life's satisfying
• a. A thirsty Savior and a thirsty sinner
• b. The emptiness of religion's tradition and the fullness of life's living water
• c. The way to take the living water
• 1) To make confession of sins
• 2) To contact God the Spirit in the human spirit and in truthfulness
• 3) To believe that Jesus is the Christ
• d. A living testimony with a marvelous harvest
• 3. The need of the dying — life's healing
• a. Christ coming back to visit the place of weak and fragile people
• b. The weak and fragile people dying
• c. Healing by the life-giving word and through believing
• 4. The need of the impotent — life's enlivening
• a. The inadequacy of religion's law-keeping and the sufficiency of the Son's life-giving
• b. Religion's opposition to life
• c. The Son equal with the Father in giving life and executing judgment
• d. The Son's fourfold testimony
• 1) The testimony of John the Baptist
• 2) The testimony of the Son's work
• 3) The testimony of the Father
• 4) The testimony of the Scriptures
• 5. The need of the hungry — life's feeding
• a. The hungry world and the feeding Christ
• b. The troubled world and the peace-giving Christ
• c. The bread of life
• 1) Seekers after the perishing food
• 2) Food abiding to eternal life
• a) Incarnated
• b) Slain
• c) Resurrected to indwell
• d) Ascended
• e) Becoming the life-giving Spirit
• f) Embodied and realized in the word of life
• 6. The need of the thirsty — life's quenching
• a. Life under the persecution of religion
• 1) Religion's plot and religion's feast
• 2) Life's suffering of man's unbelief
• 3) Life's limitation in time
• 4) Life's seeking of God's glory
• 5) Life's source and origin — God the Father
• b. Life's cry to the thirsty ones
• c. Division caused by life's appearance
• 7. The need of those under the bondage of sin — life's setting free
• a. Who is without sin?
• b. Who can condemn and forgive sin?
• c. Who can set people free from sin?
• 1) Christ, the light of the world and the Giver of the light of life
• 2) Christ, the I Am
• 3) Christ, the Son of Man lifted up
• 4) Christ, the Son as the reality
• d. Who is the source of sin and who is the multiplication of sin?
• 1) The source of sin — the devil, the liar, the father of liars
• 2) The multiplication of sin — the children of the devil, those out of the devil
• e. Who is Jesus?
• 1) The One who is without sin
• 2) The One who is the I Am before Abraham
• 8. The need of the blind in religion — life's sight and life's shepherding
• a. Life's sight — for the blind in religion
• 1) Born blind
• 2) Receiving sight by the light and the anointing of life
• 3) Persecuted by religion
• 4) Believing into the Son of God
• 5) Life's judgment on the blind religionists
• b. Life's shepherding — for the believers outside of religion
• 1) The sheepfold, the door, and the pasture — for the sheep
• 2) The Shepherd, the divine life, and the soulish life — for the flock
• 3) The eternal life, the Son's hand, and the Father's hand — for the security of the sheep
• 4) The persecution of religion
• 5) Life's desertion of religion and life's new standing
• 9. The need of the dead — life's resurrecting
• a. The dead man and his need
• b. The frustration of human opinions
• c. Life's resurrecting
• d. The conspiracy of religion and life's vicarious death for the gathering of God's children
• D. Life's issue and multiplication
• 1. Life's issue — a house of feasting (a miniature of the church life)
• 2. Life's multiplication for the church through death and resurrection (the glorification of God and the judgment upon the world and Satan implied)
• 3. Religion's unbelief and blindness
• 4. Life's declaration to the unbelieving religion
• E. Life's washing in love to maintain fellowship
• 1. Washing by the Lord Himself
• 2. Washing by one another among the believers
• 3. Washed, but not in the fellowship
• 4. Washed and willing to remain in the fellowship, but failing
• II. Jesus crucified and Christ resurrected going to prepare the way to bring man into God, and as the Spirit coming to abide and live in the believers for the building of God's habitation
• A. Life's indwelling — for the building of God's habitation
• 1. The dispensing of the Triune God — for the producing of His abode
• a. Jesus going through death and Christ coming in resurrection to bring the believers into the Father
• b. The Triune God dispensing Himself into the believers
• 1) The Father embodied in the Son seen among the believers
• 2) The Son realized as the Spirit to abide in the believers
• c. The Triune God making an abode with the believers
• d. The Comforter's reminding and life's peace
• 2. The organism of the Triune God in the divine dispensing
• a. The vine and the branches being an organism to glorify the Father by expressing the riches of the divine life
• b. The branches loving one another to express the divine life in fruit-bearing
• c. The vine and the branches, separated from the world, being hated and persecuted by the religious world
• 3. The work of the Spirit consummating in the mingling of divinity with humanity
• a. The Son's going for the Spirit's coming
• b. The work of the Spirit
• 1) To convict the world
• 2) To glorify the Son by revealing Him with the fullness of the Father to the believers
• 3) To transmit to the believers all that the Father and the Son have
• c. The Son to be born in resurrection as a newborn child
• d. The believers having peace in the Son in spite of persecution
• B. Life's prayer
• 1. The Son to be glorified that the Father may be glorified
• 2. The believers to be built up into one
• a. In the Father's name by the eternal life
• b. In the Triune God through sanctification by the holy word
• c. In the divine glory for the expression of the Triune God
• 3. The Father to be shown righteous in loving the Son and His believers
• C. Life's process through death and resurrection for multiplication
• 1. Delivering Himself in voluntary boldness to be processed
• 2. Examined in His dignity by mankind
• a. By the Jews according to God's law in their religion
• b. By the Gentiles according to man's law in their politics
• 3. Sentenced in man's injustice by blind religion with dark politics
• 4. Tested in God's sovereignty by death
• 5. Issuing in blood and water
• 6. Resting in human honor
• 7. Resurrecting in divine glory
• a. Leaving the old creation in the tomb as a testimony provided by His appreciators and discovered by His seekers
• b. Testified by angels sent by God
• c. Bringing forth many brothers and making His Father and God theirs
• D. Life in resurrection
• 1. Appearing to the seekers and ascending to the Father
• 2. Coming as the Spirit to be breathed into the believers
• 3. Meeting with the believers
• 4. Moving and living with the believers
• 5. Working and walking with the believers