54 Minutes Well Spent


I’ve been working on my sermon series for 2009, which is a year-long sequence of messages on 100 different Bible verses everyone should know by heart.  Three of the first four verses come from John’s Gospel (John 1:1, John 1:14, and John 3:16).  As I prepared these messages, I recalled the old advice to new converts to read John’s Gospel first.  The apostle John uses the simplest words in the language to convey the deepest thoughts in the universe.

 

You can read through the Gospel of John in about the time it takes to watch your favorite hour-long television show (it took me 54 minutes).  Here’s a very simple outline to help you in reading through the Fourth Gospel.

 

  1. Prologue:  John 1a
  2. Jesus’ Public Ministry (largely in Judea) – John 1b-12
  3. Jesus’ Private Ministry (largely in the Upper Room) – John 13-17
  4. Jesus’ Death and Resurrection – John 18-20
  5. Epilogue – John 21

It’ll be 54 well-spent minutes this Christmas Season!