The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Messianic Checkpoint: The Gospel of John (2025)
Wed, 09 Apr 2025
You've made it to the first Messianic Checkpoint! Jeff Cavins joins Fr. Mike to introduce the Gospel of John. They discuss the structure of this Gospel and what makes it so different from the other three Gospels. We learn that the Gospel of John doesn't just tell us what Jesus did, but most importantly who he is. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts introducing the Gospel of John?
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. Speaking of today and speaking of Genesis to Revelation, We are now launching ahead. We just are in the midst of this time period, but we are jumping all the way to the Gospel of John in the New Testament.
It's our first of four messianic checkpoints. One of the things that this comes out of is the idea or the reality, essentially, that as we're going through the Bible timeline, following these 14 narrative books, we recognized that if we just kept going through from beginning to
to the end we wouldn't be reading any of the new testament until roughly november and so we thought wow it would be very very important to introduce to all of us in the midst of this year a number of times where we get to take a step back and actually kind of launch forward and see okay now how has all of this been leading to christ because all the old testament is pointing to the New Testament.
All the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, who is the fulfillment of everything. And so for the next seven days, we are going to be walking through the gospel of John. And in order to introduce the gospel of John, so we can get kind of an understanding, once again, of John and of the structure of John's gospel and how unique John's gospel is.
Once again, we're joined by Jeff Cavins, which we're super grateful to talk with Jeff about John.
Hey, Father. Good to join you. And what a treat it is to look at a gospel at this point. It's like a little bit of a reprieve, isn't it? You're going through all this history and, yeah, but what about Jesus? But what about Jesus? And here we are. We're going to jump ahead for the Gospel of John. So this is going to be great.
So good. Yeah. I'm so grateful for the opportunity even just to see here is where the whole thing points. As I know, I think you might've even been the first person to point out this quote from St. Augustine. I think it's St. Augustine, right? You can correct me on this one, is that the Old Testament is revealed in the new and the New Testament is hidden in the old.
And that's one of the things that I love about, well, all of the New Testament and Old Testament, but when it specifically comes to the gospel of John, there's a number of like just really critical connections that are fulfillments in John's gospel of all the stuff that we've been reading and some things we'll be reading in the future. But there are so many
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Chapter 2: Why is the Gospel of John a Messianic Checkpoint?
Thank you, John, because that story would have been incomplete without that number. 153 fish. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Yes, you're right. Numbers mean something to the Jewish people. And in the Hebrew language, there actually is not 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. They actually use the alphabet to depict the numbers. And so every letter has a numerical value.
And when you put the phrase, I am God, In Hebrew, it comes up to the equivalent of 153. And that is an amazing revelation. And I guess you could call it a Hebraic type of teaching where John is showing you that there was 153 fish. Let's see, 153, what would that mean? Oh, I'm God. I thought something was fishy. Yeah.
And it's just one of those things where the Bible has so many different layers to it. And that's one of the reasons why we'll be going through all of John's gospel in only seven days. And so the next number of days for those who've been journeying with us are going to be pretty full. They're going to be full with the story.
But the thing I love about that is it means that we get to allow the entire story of John's gospel to kind of just wash over us in many ways, just to be able to take it in, knowing that I won't be able to take it all in, kind of like the previous 90 days or so. I will not be able to take all of this in. But what I'm going to do is I'm just going to allow in whatever can get in.
And so I might miss the 153 thing. I might miss some of the other pieces of these stories of John's gospel. But to realize in one week, I will have heard a gospel in its entirety, which I think is just a blessing, and I think is something that all of us can be looking forward to.
You know, you mentioned that 153 fish, and I mean, you're teaching me something here too, and that is that, you know, we were talking about John is really speaking about the divinity of Christ, and here at the very end of it, At the point, and I'll just mention this, this is after Peter betrayed the Lord three times. He let the Lord down three times.
He was the first pope, and he did not serve the Lord the way he was supposed to, and he actually went back to fishing. That's what he's doing up in Galilee, and Jesus... Jesus says, no, you still have that calling on your life. And that's where he reveals the 153 fish, which is in Hebrew, Ani Elohim. Ani Elohim, I am God. Ani is 61. Elohim is 92 for a total of 153.
And I think that that is showing us that God is still God even after we've blown it. And maybe people reading with you during this time feel like, you know, I just haven't been the servant of God or the husband or the son that I should have been. Well, this is the book where you have a chance to begin afresh. And Jesus says to you, come follow me.
Yeah. Yeah. That fear of, am I disqualified? I know what I've done. Maybe even at some point as a follower of Christ, I know what he's called me to and the dignity is bestowed upon me, but have I disqualified myself? And am I done? He's going to go on without me and he's going to do what he does because he's God and he's still God. He'll get someone else. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
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