A. The writer(s), the place, and the time: This book was written by the apostle John (21:20, 24), the son of Zebedee (Matt. 10:2); his brother was James, and his mother was Salome (Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40). It was written about A.D. 90, perhaps in Ephesus. It was written to all Jewish and Gentile believers; we know this because of the explanations in 1:38; 5:2; and 19:13.
B. The subject: the gospel of life—proving that Jesus Christ is the God-Savior coming as life to bring about God’s enlargement.
C. The background: [The Gospel of John is a good example of a New Testament book written against a negative background. This Gospel was written during the last decade of the first century. At that time there was a tendency, even among Christians, to deny the deity of Christ. Some were doubting Christ’s deity, and others were even denying this truth. With such a trend as the background, this Gospel was written by the apostle John. Without this Gospel, we could not have an adequate understanding of Christ’s deity and His eternal existence. Neither could we realize how Christ could become our life. But through the Gospel of John we clearly see that Christ’s deity is eternal and absolute. In this Gospel we also have the clear view of eternal life and of how Christ can be life to us. If there had not been such a dark background at the end of the first century, this wonderful Gospel probably would not have been written.]
D. The central thought: [The Gospel of John reveals that the Triune God is dispensing Himself into His believers and that all His believers, as a result of the transfusion and infusion of the Triune God into them, become His enlargement. This enlargement of the Triune God is the expansion, the building, and the expression of God.]
E. The general sketch: [The Gospel of John reveals that in Christ, the Word of God, is life (1:4); that He came that man may have life (10:10b); and that He Himself is life (11:25; 14:6). Furthermore, this Gospel shows us that Christ is the bread of life (6:35); that He has the water of life (4:14); that He gives life to man (5:21); and that He even lives in man as life (14:19).
The Gospel of John unfolds the building. In 1:14 we see that Christ in the flesh was the tabernacle for God’s habitation among men on earth. “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Also, Christ’s body was the temple before His death and after His resurrection (2:19-22). Before His death His body in the flesh was the temple, and after His resurrection His resurrected body remained the temple of God. This is the building. Furthermore, this gospel reveals that the believers are to be built as the abode of the Triune God (14:2, 23). This is adequately and fully disclosed in John 14. According to that chapter, all the believers will be built together as God’s eternal habitation with so many abodes. Thus, as the Lord’s last prayer found in John 17 indicates, all His believers must be built up into one (vv. 11, 21-23).]
F. The sections: 1) the eternal Word incarnated coming to bring God into man (chs. 1—13), and 2) 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 (chs. 14—21).
A. The writer(s), the place, and the time: Luke wrote the book of Acts after the book of Luke, between A.D. 67 and A.D. 68 (1:1). It may have been written in Rome (see Philem. 24; 2 Tim. 4:11). Its recipient was Theophilus (see Acts 1:1; Luke 1:3 footnote 2).
B. The subject: the propagation of the resurrected Christ in His ascension, by the Spirit, through the disciples, for the producing of the churches—the kingdom of God.
C. The background: The first book written by Luke, his Gospel, describes the Lord’s life and ministry on earth. [That life and ministry were initiated by His conception and concluded by His resurrection. Then after His resurrection the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens. This ascension was not a termination but another initiation. This initiation brought Him into a new realm, that is, into the heavens, where He now has another living with another ministry.] [Now there is the need of the second book, the book of Acts, to tell us into what kind of living and ministry the Lord has been initiated through His ascension. Therefore, Luke had the burden to write a second book to unveil the living and ministry of this ascended Christ.]
D. The central thought: [God’s New Testament economy is to propagate the processed Triune God in the Person of the all-inclusive, resurrected Christ. Only the propagation of this resurrected Christ is the answer to the pitiful situation on the earth. What is needed is for us to allow God to carry out His New Testament economy in propagating the resurrected Christ.] [Having become the all-inclusive Spirit, He now enters into God’s chosen people to apply to them all that the Triune God in the Son has accomplished. Through such an application, God’s people become living witnesses of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ (Acts. 1:8).] [As those who have the all-inclusive Spirit within us, what should we do? We should simply be living witnesses containing, bearing, and conveying the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ so that He may be propagated throughout the earth for the fulfillment of the divine economy.]
E. The general sketch: The Lord charged His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they receive power from the Holy Spirit, that they may be His witnesses from Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (1:8). They prayed in one accord and were filled with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (1:14; 2:1-4). They became witnesses of the resurrected Christ in ascension to the Jews and to the Gentiles (chs. 2 and 10). They witnessed in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, Samaria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Europe, and in Rome. Many people became the reproduction of Christ, and many churches were established in these regions as the expression of the resurrected Christ in ascension. The book of Acts did not have an ending. Any one of us, filled with the Spirit, may continue Acts by propagating Christ to the people around us for the producing of the church.
F. The sections: 1) introduction (1:1-2), 2) the preparation (1:3-26), and 3) the propagation (2:1—28:31).
Jesus Christ, the promised and prophesied Messiah in the Old Testament, came as a King-Savior, served as a Slave-Savior, lived as a Man-Savior, and gave His life as a God-Savior. He served His people through His death and resurrection. In His ascension, He was propagated through gospel-preaching and baptism to produce many sons of God like Him, and local churches to be His corporate expression on the earth.