I have often heard it said that both for unbelievers and for new believers a good place for them to begin their Bible study is in the Gospel of John. However I find this gospel one of the most difficult to navigate through. While on one hand it is a rather simple history of the life and ministry of Christ, on the other hand it is also the most challenging dissertation on the doctrine of evangelism within the New Testament. I have considered studying it from two perspectives, one historical and the other doctrinal.
One of the clear doctrinal teachings of Christ regarding evangelism within this gospel is the matter that some will not believe because they cannot believe. That is a very hard pill for many of us to swallow. I am far from finishing my study of this though I have come to this conclusion. If there were those who rejected and opposed the personal and historical ministry of Christ I certainly should not be surprised to see that same gospel resisted and opposed today. I have also concluded that Christ did not make any adjustments to the gospel or attempt to make it appealing on a worldly or fleshly level. We find in this gospel that the true followers of Christ even attempted to get Him to trim the edges of what He said because they observed that the unbelievers were offended by what He said.
There is another clear teaching that stands out within this gospel. And that is that Christ is gathering a people together and that gathering is accomplished by the preaching of the gospel. So whether we understand it all or not we can do this work by the simple proclamation of the Gospel.
We don’t need to bang our head against this resistance and attempt to find some way to do an end run around it. We are just called to proclaim it and leave the results with our God!
