The Literary Structure of John

Well, amen and good morning. Please take your copy of God's Word and join me in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

Whenever I preach, I'm always very reticent to draw any attention to myself, which is, I know, a little ironic because I'm standing up here and you're listening to me.

But I don't want you to pay a whole lot of attention to me. I want to draw your attention to the text that we're in.

And so that's why I wear the same jacket every Sunday. It's not because I don't want to own multiple jackets.

It's because I see no need to, and I just want to be kind of boring for God's glory.

I just want to get up and preach and have you hear God's Word preached.

So sometimes when there's something about me that might be distracting, I don't know if I should draw attention to it or not draw attention to it.

And so this morning I'm going to draw attention to something that perhaps is distracting, and maybe not.

Thank you for those of you who have asked. Maybe you haven't noticed.

But I have a pretty decent gash on my cheek this morning. I don't know if you can see or not on my cheek here.

Because this week I got into a fight with a rather obtuse pry bar that cared nothing about the opinion I was sharing with it.

And to my shame, it drew first blood, and I don't think I hurt it at all.

So that's what's happening with my cheek. Again, thank you for those of you who asked. All is well with me.

We have been working our way through John's gospel account.

Last week we concluded chapter 11.

But before preaching verse by verse, the beginning of chapter 12, I want to take a unique break.

I've been planning on doing this for some months now.

For our time together, you're going to need two things. Your Bible. You already turned to chapter 12, I hope.

And we're going to spend a bit of time there eventually.

And number two, you're going to need that bulletin that was handed to you on your way in.

I don't always, in fact, I rarely include any notes within the notes section of your bulletin.

But in this case, I have, and they will be very helpful for you to follow what I am saying.

I think you might be entirely lost if you don't have that opened up in front of you.

I want us to take a unique break to consider broadly the literary structure of John.

If you've been with us in our study, this concept will not be new to you.

So, why, you might ask, take a step back from the book to consider it as a whole.

We've been talking about chiastic literary structure almost every week that we've been in John.

So, why look at it as a whole is the question that's in front of us.

I hope doing this is going to elicit three responses for you.

So, here's my answer to that question.

Number one, I hope it'll elicit in you humility.

This book is brilliantly constructed.

And while we believe in the inspiration of the Bible,

that is, in this case, the Holy Spirit worked through the pen of John,

we believe that it was breathed out by God through the pen of John,

we do not believe this happens apart from the author's experience,

cultural background, education, intellect, etc.

That inspiration uses the personality of the individual.

So, John the Apostle, formerly John the Fisherman,

was a brilliant man,

which I find should humble us.

We are not the smartest people to ever live.

I think that John would have run circles around every single one of us intellectually.

Further, grasping the complexity of a book like John

should show us that none of us know our Bibles quite as much

as we might think that we do.

We've got a lifetime ahead of us, right?

As long as the Lord tarries and He leaves us here,

that we can study this Word and understand it more and more and more.

So, I hope to work humility in us this morning.

Secondly, I want to elicit a response of wonder.

John wasn't alone, as I mentioned in writing of this Gospel.

The Bible is God-breathed, and it is magnificent.

We can spend the entirety of our lives studying this book,

and we will not unpack all of its beauty.

Now, it is true that the doctrine of the clarity of Scripture states

that all that is necessary for life and godliness is clear in the Bible.

We, yes and amen, that reality.

But that's where a lot of people stop.

They stop understanding it and mining its depths at that level.

But this book is just amazing.

It's amazing.

Written by various authors across time.

It contains such singular focus.

It's just layered, layered, layered with awe.

We truly worship an incredible God,

and our study of His written Word is but a drop in the ocean of Himself.

I am convinced that we will spend eternity enthralled by discovery of the person of God,

and we get to begin with this book.

We should just be amazed by it.

When structure like this exists,

when the connections are apparent to us,

we just ought to stand in awe of it.

So I hope to promote wonder in us this morning.

And third, I hope to elicit attention.

I want to draw your attention to what I believe,

and I'm not alone in this,

is the central phrase of the whole of John's Gospel.

A central phrase.

I believe he means for us to notice this central phrase

and have it inform our reading and study of the rest of the book.

And so I hope to grab your attention this morning.

Now, I've mentioned taking a unique break to consider literary structure.

I've mentioned a central phrase.

If you've been with us, you know exactly what we're referring to.

If you haven't been, I want to introduce you to a literary structure we called chiasms.

Much of the Bible is chiastic.

They're all over the place.

They're not everywhere, but they are all over the place.

It is a broadly employed mnemonic device

used to help in the memorization of long texts.

Often used by ancient peoples,

this kind of structure to help people memorize things

because they didn't have paper and pen readily available the way that we do.

But it also served to drive particular points,

to grant interpretive lenses to a text.

So in your bulletin, I included a simple definition by a man named Jim Hamilton.

And he is, I have called him the contemporary king of chiasms,

which is chiastic and it alliterates.

That's free for you today.

But he says this,

the word chiasm derives from the Greek letter chi,

which looks like an X.

The idea is that the first and last points match,

as do the second and second to last,

with as many in between as the author desires,

hinging at a central turning point.

Okay, so it's just that simple.

And you'll be able to see what that looks like

as I've included some notes for you in your bulletin as well.

Before we proceed, let me lead us in a prayer.

Father, we do ask that you would bless the preaching of your word this morning,

even as we look at it in a broader sense.

I pray that you would work in us humility and wonder,

and that you would draw our attention to the saving work of Christ,

that we would perhaps for the first time today,

receive him as Savior and Lord.

And if we already have, that we would relish him all the more.

We humbly recognize that we cannot do this without your help.

We need your spirit to work in us.

And so we pray that you'll do this very thing.

Amen.

Okay, so firstly, I wanted to look at John chapter 1, verses 1 through 18.

John 1:1–18

You read this as a responsive reading earlier.

And I want to do this because this is an undeniable chiasm.

Even people who don't like the work of looking at chiastic structures in the Bible agree.

All the scholars go, yep, we see it there.

So you read it earlier.

I'm not going to read it in its entirety to you.

But you may have noted that it's a little bit odd in its structure.

You get this mention of John, and then a departure from John,

and then a return back to John once again.

It's always read strange to me.

I've always thought, man, the first chapter of John is a strange chapter.

It's like he's forgetting things he wanted to say,

and going back and filling in some details,

and then going back to the thing.

Like, whoopsie-daisy, I went off to John the Baptist.

I better circle back around and say some things about Jesus,

and then go back to John the Baptist.

Like, he didn't have an eraser, and he just had no choice but to do that.

I didn't really think any of that.

But it just always read odd to me.

Well, the reason it reads a bit odd is because it's a chiasm.

So if you look, there, I put that in the bulletin for you.

You'll notice I've demarcated things by A and A prime.

So those two correspond with one another.

So those beginning four verses, you see Jesus presented as light.

He's coming from God, a representative of God.

And then in that last portion, verse 16 through 18,

no one has ever seen God, God the only Son who is at the Father's side.

He has made him known.

So you see him presented as light and then as glory come from God.

Then very obviously, the B and the B prime.

You have a man sent from God whose name was John.

And then picking up in verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out.

There's that piece, John there, and then John picking back up again in verse 15.

Then you have C and then C prime.

Once again, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

Verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Again, light and glory.

So the central piece of that is verses 10 through 13.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

There's the central turning point of this text.

And what John is doing is he's setting up a theme that he's going to carry all throughout the book of receiving Jesus and rejecting Jesus.

We see this over and over again, back to back to back.

Chiastic structures again and again and again.

Receiving Jesus, rejecting Jesus, receiving, rejecting.

And he explains on what basis this happens.

Why is it that some reject and some receive?

Some are not born of God.

God is building this case right at the beginning, right here.

How is it that they come to faith in Christ?

It's that they're born of God.

God quickens them, makes them alive, births faith in them.

And he's going to continue to argue this out all throughout the book.

You can see it, I hope, right?

So I gave you like a little, little tiny hint at a chiasm that I made up about Jim Hamilton.

And now you're seeing it here in John in these first 18 verses.

And can you see that X structure the way that it lays out before you?

Right.

I hope that you can.

I hope you're with me.

Now, let's take some time to look at the book as a whole.

And I'm working you toward a point, right?

So I'm flying through some things, but I'm working you toward a point.

And that is that I want to draw your attention to the central phrase of the text.

So if you look, I think you have to flip your page.

I can hear pages flipping.

I've enumerated the chapters.

It starts broad and gets smaller.

I did not AA prime demarcate at this time for the sake of space.

But you'll notice, again, corresponding chapters in the entirety of the book.

So chapter 1 corresponding to chapters 20 through 21.

I would really encourage you to take some time to read these chapters.

Read chapter 1, then read chapter 20 and 21, and notice the things that are happening in these places.

Chapters 2 through 4 correspond with chapters 18 through 20.

So you see from Cana to Cana, from garden to garden.

This is where, in those chapters where Jesus talks about destroying the temple and raising it up in three days.

And then in chapters 18 through 20, the temple, Jesus is crucified.

And then he is raised on the third day.

Chapters 5 through 11, you see Jesus' public ministry.

He's among crowds.

He's at feasts.

Summary things.

Chapters 12 through 17, he's in private.

He's with his disciples.

He's at a particular feast, the Passover feast.

Chapter 11, narrowing the scope, verses 45 through 53.

Caiaphas, the high priest that year, unknowingly prophesied

that it's better that one man would die for the nation.

And John explains to us what's meant by that.

That he would die for the people of Israel who believe in him.

And not only them, but for the nations.

And then what do we see as a correspondence to that?

Chapter 12, verses 12 through 19.

The triumphal entry.

Where he is proclaimed to be the Christ.

The one who is going to deliver his people.

Chapter 11, verse 54 through 57.

Right there at the end of the chapter, this question is being asked.

Will he come?

Is Jesus going to show up to the Passover feast?

And you see the Sanhedrin has put out an order.

They're seeking to arrest.

They want to know if he shows up.

They want to arrest him.

And we know that they've already decided that they're going to kill him at this point.

And then the corresponding text is chapter 12, verse 9 through 11.

Where he does in fact come.

Right?

He shows up.

And there's a mention there of them seeking to kill Lazarus.

Am I making sense?

How it builds into a central point.

The central text is chapter 12, verse 1 through 8.

Where we see reject.

This theme emerges of receiving Jesus as the Christ.

And rejecting Jesus as the Christ.

On one side of that, you have Mary.

On the other side of that, you have...

My brain just went totally blank.

He has a name.

Judith.

Thank you so much.

Somebody whispered it.

I appreciate you.

Okay.

So that's where we're going to spend our time looking at this.

Now we are, next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at this text more broadly.

So some of the details.

But here we're just, we're working the chiastic structure down to the central phrase.

Okay.

Now, we've spent some time.

You've seen it on paper.

And now you guys are chiastic professionals.

So I did not include verses 1 through 8 because I want you to look at it yourself.

So now you've got your Bibles open to John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

We're going to look at verses 1 through 8.

I'm going to walk you through this and bring you to the central text.

And then we'll talk a bit at length about that.

Okay.

So let me read it in its entirety.

And then I'll go back and point things out.

All right.

So beginning in verse 1, chapter 12.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

So they gave a dinner for him there.

Martha served and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.

Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said,

Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief.

And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Jesus said, Leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.

All right.

So beginning with verse 1, right?

Jesus comes to Bethany.

It's a suburb, essentially.

It's a couple miles outside of Jerusalem.

This is just before the triumphal entry that we'll read about soon.

to the house of Lazarus, who he's just raised from the dead at the end of chapter 11.

And his presence is there.

He's there, right?

He physically goes to this place.

And then in verse 7, right, what does he say?

The poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.

So you see Jesus' presence being mentioned in both places.

He's there physically, absolutely, but literarily he's being mentioned.

He comes to that place.

You do not always have me.

Verse 2.

So now we're going to step in in our chiastic structure.

So this would be B, if you're demarcating it.

So they gave a dinner for him there.

Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.

And I suggest to you the corresponding verse would be verse 6,

which is explaining what Judas said.

He said this not because he cared about the poor,

but because he was a thief,

and having charge of the money bag,

he used to help himself to what was put into it.

So you have this dichotomy being set up between the two of them.

You have Martha serving.

She's serving others.

And here you have Judas serving himself.

So service of others corresponding to service of self.

Then our next step in in our structure,

verse 3, or C if you'd like to mark it out.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment

made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus

and wiped his feet with her hair.

So there's a mention of the expense of this ointment.

I'm sure you can now see the correspondence to that.

Judas gets upset.

Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii?

Very expensive this sacrifice was and given to the poor.

So the expense of the ointment mentioned in both of these places.

Which brings me to the central phrase.

And you may have noted that I did not read the end of verse 3.

And here it is.

I believe this is a central phrase to this piece of text

and to the entirety of the book of John.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

We are so quick to read past details like this.

Why in the world did John,

the inspired by God himself,

John, record this detail?

It's striking to me that there was mention in chapter 11

about the potential smell of Lazarus coming out of the tomb,

but no explanation of that whatsoever.

Never, right?

Never a mention he might smell.

Never does John give us any detail about that at all.

And yet here he mentions

the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Here is how the literary structure serves us.

Between two corresponding responses,

one, Mary kneels at the feet of Jesus.

She has received him as the Christ.

The other, Judas,

misunderstanding everything going on

and only concerned about his personal temporal gain.

Again, we'll look at more next week.

We have this phrase.

There's these two different characters.

One receiving, one rejecting.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Now, I did not discover the significance

of what John is doing here on my own.

Oh, how I wish I did.

How I wish my mind was so saturated with the scripture

that this detail left off the page at me.

It did not.

I have read past this little detail

as if it was insignificant all the years.

But at the same time,

I'm thankful for the help I received from others

and continue to,

and in this case,

Jim Hamilton pointing out this structure

in this book.

What are we to make of this?

Just moments ago,

Jake led in the reading

of an Old Testament text

that is printed in your bulletin

this morning.

It's like I do things sometimes by design.

Leviticus chapter 16.

Leviticus 16 · chapter mention

Look at that for me.

Jordan mentioned it when he got up

to lead the next song.

It is argued that the entire Pentateuch,

the first five books of the Bible,

are chiasc,

the whole thing,

and that it centers

on this text

in Leviticus.

The Day of Atonement.

The entirety of those five books

of the Bible

have this central point

in the middle

of it all.

I think that John knows this.

I think that he's assuming

his readers are going to know it.

I think that if we really knew

our Bibles,

these connections would fire off

and be made

in our minds.

What's happening here

is just a blip.

There's a lot of instruction

about the Day of Atonement.

But here it is

giving instruction

for the Levitical high priest,

the first of whom

was Aaron,

and how he was to make sacrifice

for the people of Israel

on this particular day.

So let's look at that text

again together.

I'm going to read it for us quickly

and draw your attention

to a few things.

So Leviticus 16,

starting in verse 11.

Aaron shall present the bull

as a sin offering for himself

and shall make atonement

for himself

and for his house.

He shall kill the bull

as a sin offering

for himself.

And he shall take

a censer full of coals of fire

from the altar

before the Lord

and two handfuls

of sweet incense

beaten small

and he shall bring it

inside the veil

and put the incense

on the fire

before the Lord

that the cloud

of the incense

may cover the mercy seat

that is over

the testimony

so that he does not die.

Are you making the connection?

Your brain

making the connection?

You're not awake

if you're not.

Verse 14.

And he shall take

some of the blood

of the bull

and sprinkle it

with his finger

on the front

of the mercy seat

on the east side

in front of the mercy seat

he shall sprinkle

some of the blood

with his finger

seven times.

Then he shall kill

the goat

of the sin offering

that is for the people

and bring its blood

inside the veil

and do with its blood

as he did

with the blood

of the bull

sprinkling it

over the mercy seat

and in front

of the mercy seat.

Thus he shall make

atonement for the holy place

because of the uncleanliness

of the people of Israel

and because of their transgressions

all their sins.

And so he shall do

for the tent of meeting

which dwells with them

in the midst

of their uncleanliness.

No one may be

in the tent of meeting

from the time he enters

to make atonement

in the holy place

until he comes out

and has made atonement

for himself

and for his house

and for all

the assembly

of Israel.

So Aaron

and then

his progeny

beyond him

those who served

as high priests

would go

one time of year

into an inner place

first in the tabernacle

that's where the instructions

are given here

and then into the temple

a place that was

the most holy

of places.

One time of year

this one man

could go in

and he had to follow

very strict instructions

or else he would be

struck dead.

One of the things

that he had to do

was bring in

incense

and burn it

to fill

the space

to cover

the mercy seat

so that

he does not

die.

He made an aromatic

sacrifice

in that moment

and God withheld

his wrath

for all their

uncleanliness

as he goes

about this process

of making

all of this

sacrifice

of blood.

The incense

the first thing

I want to draw

your attention to

right?

That other

I really want you

to see

is the solitude

of it.

It's Aaron

by himself

going into

this place

and burning

this incense

filling this

room

with this

fragrance.

fragrance.

So,

back in

John chapter

John 12 · chapter mention

12

and verse

3,

as Mary

kneels at

the Lord's

feet,

receives him

as the Christ,

makes this

lavish sacrifice

of service

to him.

And on the

other side

of that

you see

Judas

rejecting

Jesus,

wanting what

he could get

from Jesus'

ministry,

you see this

phrase,

the house

was filled

with the

fragrance

of the

perfume.

John means

for us to

see

Mary

worshiping

in the

very

presence

of God

himself.

Isn't that

cool?

That's the

moment that's

being recorded

here.

Mary has

gone in

behind

the veil

and she

has made

sacrifice

and Jesus

has welcomed

her.

The whole

book

is turning

on this

phrase,

the house

was filled

with the

fragrance

of the

perfume.

Now,

why does that

matter,

right?

You could

preach through

the book

of John

and I

think you

could preach

it faithfully

and miss

this.

I'm sure

without Jim

Hamilton's help

I would have

definitely done

that going

through the

gospel of

John.

But I

think he's

doing something

particularly

helpful for

us.

So,

he says

in John

John 20:30

chapter 20

verse 30

and 31,

I've read

this to you

many times

in our

study so

far,

now Jesus

did many

other signs

in the

presence of

the disciples

which are

not written

in this

book,

but these

are written

so that you

may believe

that Jesus

is the

Christ,

the Son

of God,

and that by

believing

you may

have life

in his

name.

You're

probably

very familiar

with this,

if you're

at all

familiar

with

John's

gospel.

He wrote

these things

down so

that we

can believe

Jesus is

the Christ

and have

life.

And what

we do

so often

when we

think about

life,

we think

about

eternal

life,

as we

put that

in

juxtaposition

to

eternal

death.

And there's

some

rightness

in doing

that,

but we

see it

as an

escape

from

punishment

and

nothing

more.

Nothing

more.

Justification.

What an

important

doctrine.

We want

to stand

on a hill

and die

for the

doctrine of

justification

by grace

alone,

through faith

alone,

in Christ

alone.

How can you

stand before

God?

How can you

have the

penalty of your

debt expunged

from you?

How can you be

given the

righteousness of

Christ so that

you can stand

before God

and not be

destroyed?

That's the

doctrine of

justification.

By grace,

through faith,

in Christ.

It's an

incredibly

important

doctrine.

But I

think our

minds stop

there.

I think if

we're not

careful,

it always

ends

there.

But John,

in saying

that we're

going to

have life

in Jesus'

name,

has already

defined what

life is

a few

chapters

earlier.

In chapter

17,

verse 3,

he says,

and this

is

eternal

life.

that they

know you,

the only

true God,

and Jesus

Christ,

whom you

have sent.

Beloved,

we are

justified

in order

to be

adopted,

to be

welcomed

back into

God's

family,

for to be

back like

in the

garden before

the fall

when God

walked with

Adam in

the cool

of the

day,

to get

to have

him as

our God

and we

be his

people,

to dwell

with

him.

He's the

end point,

right?

That restored

relationship,

to be

reconciled

back to

God

in

Jesus

Christ.

And I

think our

minds stop

too low.

Justification,

yes,

teach it,

defend it,

stand firm

on it,

but so

that

we're

adopted,

so that

we can

be welcomed

into the

presence

of God

forever.

The house

was filled

with the

fragrance

of the

perfume.

I think

that John

wants us

to have

this in

our mind,

right?

The Lord

of the

universe,

the word

made flesh,

dwelling with

man,

welcoming

a woman

who's willing

to give

everything

that she

might sit

in his

presence.

Let's pray

together.