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The Gospel of John
Northwest London Christian Church
Series

Background to John’s Gospel – Church & Metaphors

John’s Main Themes

‘The Church’ in John
What does John’s Gospel teach about the church? What clues are there to what Jesus thought the
church would be like? Interestingly, there are no references to the word ‘church’ (ekklêsia in Greek) at
all in John (Matthew 16.18 & 18.17 are the only places in the gospels). Does this mean that Jesus (and
John) didn’t think church was important? Not at all! But they way they thought about ‘church’ might be
a bit different to the way we think about it. They saw church as …………

A New Covenant Community

God made a covenant with the Israelites (several in fact – Noah, Abraham, Moses …). The point was
that they understood they had a ‘contract’ with God. He was their God and they were his people – as
long as they kept the terms of the contract (worship no other Gods but me, etc.). This would work out
well for both parties – God would get the glory and Israel would have a land, a nation and prosperity
(Deut 29-31 gives a good flavour of all this). This covenant was not the end-game, however. Messiah
was still to come. A new covenant was promised (Jer 31.31-34) – one involving the heart and the Spirit
of God. We’ve already seen (and will see more) of how Jesus ushered in this new covenant, but one of
the main results of it was that a new community was to be established. This would come to be called
the church. So how do we see this in John?

Metaphors
Jesus is the replacement of Israel (chapter 15). He replaces the temple (worship Jesus, not at the
temple) and fulfils the law. He is the new vine (a common image for Israel, Is 5.1-7, 27.2-6, Jer 2.21, Ex
15, 19.10-14, Hos 10.1, Ps 80.9-16) and his followers are branches. He is also the chief shepherd of
the flock (church) – Jn 10, 17, 21.15-23; cf. Ps 23, Is 40.11, Jer 23.1, Ezek 34.11.
So here we have two very helpful pictures. The images of the vine with branches and the shepherd
with sheep tell us how Jesus saw the new community he was founding. It tells us a great deal about
what he expected his church to be like. Here’s a suggestion. Why not do a Bible study on these two
images and the passages mention above. What can you learn about the church? Your study might
look something like this ……
Church (New Covenant Community) as Vine and Branches
Characteristics of What this means for
Passages What this means for me
vine / branches the church
We should make it a What can I do to make sure I remain
Branches remain priority to help one
Jn 15.4 connected to Jesus and help others
attached to the vine another stay connected do the same?
to Jesus.
15.5

You could do one for vine & branches and another for sheep & shepherd. Perhaps this might make for
an interesting discussion in a group, or with a friend over coffee? Any way you want to use this kind of
study is great, but let’s take advantage of what John tells us of Jesus’ teaching about church to help us
understand his vision for the church and our part in it.

Malcolm Cox