Leithart.com | Bible - NT

Category Archive: Bible - NT - John

Anointed with clay - May 12, 2007
It's significant that Jesus is said to "anoint" the blind man's eyes with the clay-and-spittle (John 9:11). We wouldn't normally think of clay as a promising material to "anoint" someone with, but this is the way that the man describes...

Let there be light - May 12, 2007
In John 9, Jesus makes an allusion to the creation story when He explains to His disciples the reasons for the blind man's blindness. The man is not blind because of his own sin, or his parents' sins, but instead...

Sermon Notes, Ascension - May 07, 2007
Much of this comes from a lecture by Jeff Meyers at a Biblical Horizons conference several summers ago. INTRODUCTION Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven (Acts 1:3). As He had warned His disciples, He...

The veil of flesh - March 06, 2007
John does not record the tearing of the veil of the temple. Alone among the gospel writers, though, he records the piercing of Jesus' side. The two facts are related: Jesus is the temple (as He says in John 2),...

One new man - March 05, 2007
A student suggests a creation image in John 9 - the clay and spittle on the blind man's eyes recall the dust-and-breath of Genesis 2. Further, she suggests a connection with the land-sea imagery of the OT: Spittle and clay...

Jesus' silence - March 05, 2007
During his trial, Jesus is frequently, remarkably silent. This is particularly striking in John, where Jesus has been identified as the eternal Word of the Father. But when Jew and Gentile combine to put the Word of the Father in...

Exodus to light - March 05, 2007
John 9 tells an exodus story: The man born blind crosses through water, from darkness to light. Perhaps this is also a Jordan crossing, because as soon as he passes through the water he is involved in warfare with the...

Infant baptism - March 05, 2007
The man born blind in John 9 is reborn by clay, spittle, and a bath in Siloam. He is so transformed that people don't know if he's the same man (v. 9). At this point, he barely knows who Jesus...

Jewishness of John - February 27, 2007
Critics of John's gospel commonly claim that it is closer to something from the Orphic mysteries than from Judaism. One wonders if these critics have ever read the gospel, which mentions the Jews over sixty times, shows Jesus attending all...

New Creation, New Adam - February 20, 2007
Victor Wilson points out that the story of Jesus and the woman at the well is arranged in a series of six exchanges between Jesus as the woman (vv. 7b-9; 10-12; 13-15; 16-17a; 17b-20; 21-25), and ends with Jesus speaking...

Darkness in John - September 11, 2006
John's use of "dark" and "darkness" is often taken as a symbol of evil, dualistically related to the good that is symbolized by "light." While his usage does sometimes stretch to this, the fundamental dualism is not moral but temporal....

Exhortation - August 27, 2006
Deuteronomy is a series of sermons by Moses on the law. Moses is not going to go over the Jordan to lead the people against the Canaanites, and so he spends his last days instructing Israel how they should carry...

Sermon Outline - August 21, 2006
INTRODUCTION Prayer is not a monologue, but always a response to God's prior word, the second leg of a conversation. Faithful prayer speaks back to God as He has spoken to us; faithful prayer prays according to God's will. THE...

Truth in act - August 21, 2006
John tells his readers in his first epistle, "Children, do not love verbally nor by tongue, but in work and truth" (1 Jn 3:18). Truth here is not only not a quality of words and speech, but is being opposed...

Deny Son, Deny Father - July 29, 2006
1 John 2:23 says that whoever denies the Son denies the Father as well, and vice versa - whoever confesses the Son confesses the Father. What's the logic here? Is John assuming that Jesus is the mediator who makes a...

Righteous to forgive unrighteousness - July 29, 2006
It's common among evangelicals to say that the gospel is about God solving the tension between His justice and His mercy. As a just God, He must punish sin; as a merciful God, He seeks to save. The cross combines...

Light and cleansing - July 29, 2006
I've commented before on the sequence of 1 John 1:7, which moves from walking in the light to fellowship with one another, to cleansing by Jesus' blood. The presence of "fellowship with one another" between walking in the light and...

What we proclaim - July 26, 2006
Gary Burge points out in his NIV commentary on 1 John that the relative pronoun that begins the letter is neuter, even though the subject (LOGOS) is masculine. Drawing on Raymond Brown, he suggests that the neuter is used because...

Strange doings in John 21 - July 17, 2006
Some oddities of the narrative of John 21. Peter, we're told, has stripped, apparently to make it easier to do his fishing. When he hears that Jesus is on the shore, he puts ON his outer robe and throws himself...

Fellowship and cleansing - April 22, 2006
1 John 1:7 says "if we walk in the light as He is Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." We expect the sequence:...

Exhortation, Easter Sunday - April 16, 2006
What is the cross? For John, the cross is not the humiliation of the Son. The cross is His glorification. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Son of Man would be lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness. Jesus was...

Covenant lawsuit - February 28, 2006
John's gospel is a contentious courtroom of a gospel. Legal language dominates the whole gospel - witnesses are called, Jesus promises an advocate, the Jews are constantly trying to put Jesus in the dock. But the whole gospel is really...

Hidden Hero - February 28, 2006
Homer's prologue to the Odyssey delays the identification of the hero until the end of the prologue, a literary sign that this hero comes hidden, disguised, in craft. That, of course, is precisely how Odysseus behaves throughout the epic. John's...

Mediated fellowship - December 02, 2005
1 John 1:1-3 describes how those who never saw, heard, or handled the incarnate word of life can come to have fellowship with the Father through Jesus. First, the apostles ("we") witnessed the Word in flesh directly. Second, they proclaim...

Wedding Sermon - August 06, 2005
Much of the following wedding sermon was inspired by Eugene Peterson's recent Christ Plays In Ten Thousand Places. I read from the first chapter of John's First Epistle. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have...

John-Revelation Project - May 02, 2005
The John-Revelation project being developed by Knox Seminary professors Warren Gage and Fowler White (available on the Knox Seminary web site) offers many insights on Revelation. It is just as helpful on John's gospel. In Study Paper #3, they chart...

Random Thoughts on John - April 05, 2005
Thanks to Chris Morris for provoking these thoughts, or actually sharing them with me: 1) John 4:1-42 appears to be chiastically structured: A. Jesus baptizing, moving into Galilee, 4:1-4 B. Jesus and the woman discuss water, 4:5-15 C. Jesus and...

Holiness and Perichoresis - December 18, 2004
John 17 may provide some basis for developing the holiness of God along perichoretic lines. Jesus prays in vese 17-19 that the disciples would be sanctified. Jesus sanctifies Himself, so that the disciples too might be sanctified. The means by...

Pharisees and Intellectuals - December 12, 2004
Jesus charges in John 5 that the Jews seek glory from one another rather than the Father. It reminds me of a suggestion (I believe it came from Ken Myers) that the New York Review of Books should change its...

More on John 5 - December 11, 2004
Some additional notes on John 5, largely indebted to Gary Burge's NIV Application commentary. It has been said that the synoptic gospels �EMatthew, Mark, and Luke �Eare essentially passion narratives with long introductions. That is not really a fair way...

Sermon Outline, Second Sunday of Advent - December 01, 2004
INTRODUCTION Last week, we focused attention on the role of the Spirit in the incarnation, and what the incarnation told us about the relationships among the Father, Son, and Spirit. This week, we will focus attention on the Son or...

Grammatical Shift in Luke 14:23, 24 - January 10, 2004
Green points out too the grammatical shift between Luke 14:23 and v 24: He moves from narrating a story in third person to a direct address. This is still the master speaking to the slave, but it is also the...

Jesus' Table Practices - January 10, 2004
Joel Green points out that the TEXT of Luke actually displays the table practices of Jesus. In Luke 14, the scene is a meal in the home of a leading Pharisee, yet several people show up that we don't expect...

Unity - December 21, 2003
How is it that the unity of the Church shows the world that the Father has sent the Son, as Jesus says in John 17? There are doubtless many dimensions to this, but here's one possibility: The unity of the...

Sermon Outline, November 30 - November 24, 2003
God in Flesh, John 1:1-18 INTRODUCTION Many Christians puzzle over the incarnation, the fact that the Son of God took on human flesh. But most of the difficulties come from trying to think about the incarnation using categories from outside...

Judas and Election in John's Gospel - September 24, 2003
Odd thing: John's gospel has more references to God's will and choice and election than any other gospel. But in two cases, Jesus insists that He chose the disciples in the context of talking about Judas. John 6:70: "Did I...

Gage on John and Revelation - August 15, 2003
I had the opportunity this week to listen to a series of sermons by Warren Gage of Knox Theological Seminary in Fort Lauderdale. Gage is an Assistant Professor of OT, but he did his doctoral work at the University of...

Permission is given to use material on this site, provided the source is cited, blog entries are republished in full, and the author is notified in advance.