The Gospel of John – Study Series

Inductive Bible Study Series

The Gospel of John

72 Lessons · Complete Passage Coverage

I have read the Gospel of John more times than I can count, and I still finish it convinced I have missed something. That is not false modesty. It is what happens when a book opens with “In the beginning was the Word” and ends by admitting that the world itself could not hold the books that a full account would require. John does not hand you a tidy summary. He hands you seven signs, seven “I am” statements, a long night of conversation in an upper room, and a single stated purpose — and then he asks what you are going to do about it.

That is exactly why I keep coming back to inductive study. My instinct, formed by a career of reading things quickly and deciding what they mean, is to jump straight to interpretation. Inductive study slows me down and makes me do the harder work first: observe what the text actually says before deciding what it means, and decide what it means before deciding what to do. It is not a clever method. It is mostly a discipline of paying attention. But it has changed how I read Scripture more than any commentary I own.

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31

So here is the next installment in the series. Following the same format as The Gospel of Mark, this study walks through all 21 chapters of John in 72 lessons, with complete passage coverage — nothing skipped, nothing cherry-picked.

The whole thing is free. Take it, print it, mark it up, teach it to a small group, or work through it alone at the kitchen table. I have made it available in two formats: a PDF if you simply want to read or print it, and a Word document if you would rather type your answers directly into it or adapt the lessons for a class you lead.

How I would use it

One lesson at a sitting, unhurried. Read the passage twice before you look at a single question — once for the shape of it, once with a pen. Answer the observation questions from the text alone, even when the answers feel obvious; the obvious ones are usually where I discover I had been assuming something John never wrote. Save the commentaries for after you have done your own work. And do not skip the application questions just because they are uncomfortable. In my experience, that discomfort is the point.

Seventy-two lessons is not a sprint. If you do one a week, you will spend well over a year in this Gospel — and I would call that time exceptionally well spent. If you work through it and something breaks open for you, or if you find an error I should fix, I would be glad to hear about it.

Grace and peace as you dig in.

72 Lessons · The Gospel of John · Inductive Bible Study Series