“There are four gospels that tell the story. Three of them (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) give us the earthly history. Three of them look at the birth and the life and the experiences and the travels and the calling of Jesus upon His followers and the teaching and the parables and the events of His life, including His arrest and His trial and His execution and His resurrection, many of the features with which we are so familiar in those, called synoptic gospels, because they’re the synopsis of His earthly life.
John doesn’t give us the earthly story. John doesn’t give us the historical view of the life of Christ. John gives us the heavenly story. He gives us the supernatural view of Christ. And in that way, John is unique. Ninety percent of what is in John is not in Matthew, Mark, or Luke. Ninety percent of this is John’s alone to declare under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing in John’s gospel about the birth of Christ. There is nothing about the early life of Christ.
There is nothing about the baptism of Christ. There is nothing about the temptation of Christ. There is nothing about the transfiguration of Christ. There is nothing about the travels of Christ. There’s nothing about the garden of agony of Christ. There’s nothing about His ascension into heaven because John is not focusing on the history of His life. There are no parables. Parables were earthly stories. There are no earthly stories. This is a heavenly book. This is a heavenly look at the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the most heavenly of all the gospels by far.
The purpose of John is to convince the sinner of the true person of Christ – the true person of Christ. “That you might believe,” John 20:31, “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you might have salvation in His name.” This is a salvation book. This is an evangelistic book. And in order to have salvation, you must believe in the true Christ.”
—John MacArthur
Believe that Jesus is the Christ 