The book of John has always intrigued me.  It is different than the other Gospels.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all try to tell specific parts of Jesus’ life story generally in chronological order.  That is why these Gospels are called Synoptic Gospels.  But John is of an entirely different category.  John has a purpose, it just isn’t biography.  John states his purpose in John 20.31 as “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life.”.  He does not set out to tell the history of Jesus but the reason for His coming.  He hopes that you and I will gain an insight in the grander scale of Jesus’ incarnation.  And that this insight would spark the initial flame of belief or encourage and strengthen our belief in Jesus.  So John looks at the same situation the other writers did and tries to show us the divine nature of Jesus and how we benefit because of Jesus.  The whole book is written with this in mind.

John chapter three is particularly appealing.  It contains the only verse in the Bible that has been to every Superbowl and appeared at many other athletic event. Chapter three begins before time began and ends after time ends; with a rescue in the middle!  It contains instruction about the Kingdom of God, Jesus’ purpose, ministry, following Jesus, and the end of the story.  Now that is what I call all of life.  And John does it all in thirty-six verses.

These are few of the things I propose to discuss in the coming posts.  So take five minutes out of your very busy day and read all of John chapter three in its entirety.  See if you can find how Jesus deals with us and how we should imitate Him when we talk with people (hint: it is not in verse 16).  That way you will be up to speed when I get rolling here in a few days, a week tops.