Send From God: A Missiological Word Study From John's Gospel

In our study of the person of Jesus, we discussed an important word study in the Gospel of John. Jesus repeatedly emphasizes throughout John's Gospel that he was "sent" by the Father. Below is the results of my word study.

• John 4:34 – Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.
• John 5:24 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
• John 5:30 – “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
• John 5:36 – But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.
• John 5:38 – You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.
• John 6:29 – Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
• John 6:38 – For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
• John 6:39 – This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
• John 6:44 – No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
• John 6:57 – As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.
• John 7:16 – So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me.
• John 7:18 – He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
• John 7:28 – Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.
• John 7:29 – I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.
• John 7:33 – Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me.
• John 8:16 – But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.
• John 8:18 – I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”
• John 8:26 – I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.”
• John 8:29 – And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
• John 8:42 – Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.
• John 9:4 – We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.
• John 10:36 – do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?
• John 11:42 – I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.”
• John 12:44 – And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me.
• John 12:45 – He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
• John 12:49 – For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.
• John 13:16 – Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
• John 13:20 – Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
• John 14:24 – He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.
• John 15:21 – But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
• John 16:5 –“But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
• John 17:3 – This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
• John 17:8 – for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.
• John 17:18 – As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
• John 17:21 – that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
• John 17:23 – I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
• John 17:25 – “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;
• John 20:21 – So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

The point should be obvious. The impetus for missions and evangelism, in Johannine theology, is rooted in a proper understanding of the incarnation. As the Father sent the Son into the world so the Son sends us into the world.