Immanuel Sermon Audio
John (43:66)
All right, take a Bible find the fourth gospel gospel of John No, that's okay. I got it right here. Oh You don't want to cheat? That's okay. Don't look It's tempting We do have extra pianos on the stage That is because our five piano concert is this Saturday evening and then Four of the five will be leading us in worship Sunday morning So you want to be here for that and then if you can't make Saturday evening or if you liked it so much You want to come back? We'll do it again Sunday at three and so there's child care at one of those and I'm almost certain It's Saturday night not Sunday. So Hope that you'll be there Remember to pray for our pianist Mark who played tonight and Terry and Michelle Owens and Tom and Denise Pinkerton so they all say they're ready to go and I'm excited so hope you'll be here for that this weekend gospel of John and we're gonna kind of flip all over a little bit tonight and Want to give you the big picture view of the book and then some of the specific things you take away here? Let me tell you why I like the gospel of John and it's kind of a long story. I'm gonna get back to it Lucas put my first picture up there anybody other than my in-laws know what that is That That is standing in the middle of the seminary lawn at southern seminary in Louisville, Kentucky And you're looking right at Norton Hall into your right is the greatest building on planet earth the library at southern seminary I love that library. It's right there and then over to the left is like the student center and behind you as a bunch of dorms And then this is the main classroom building right here. And it's just a it's a beautiful place I think outside of any place in the state of Texas. This is my favorite spot on planet earth To go right here. And so I thought this week as I was thinking about John John made me think about some of my favorite classes At seminary. I think I have some other pictures though to show you this these are cool pictures This is broadest chapel. Okay, they use this for small venues all the seminary students couldn't fit in here. No way. It's just a small chapel and those are two Angles of it, and it's patterned after a sort of a typical church building in Kentucky in 1800s or so this would be typical for what you would walk into and you see up at the front sort of that big Elevated thing that's the pulpit. That's where you would preach from and there's no amplification So they put that thing above you and it's supposed to help funnel your voice out to the people so that's what that thing is up in the very front and What do you see that that's interesting about that aisle? right doors all the way down Do you know they don't have them in this in broadest chapel? But do you know in an old old-timey church in that part of the country what would be on the outside of that door? anybody know your name Your name Mark Dawson says I bought this pew and I'm putting my name on it and it says right there mark Dawson and I've even heard stories. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard stories That some people would lock them like lock their pew This is my pew and my family sits here and we're going we unlock it. I don't know if that's true or not, but this is a neat room pretty room and So there you go. There's broadest chapel. Here's the main chapel and They remodeled it they finished remodeling it my first semester there and it's a amazing amazing building We have chapel in there two times a week and on Tuesday. It is full choir The loudest organ you've ever heard in your life I mean loud shake the windows the chandeliers are vibrating loud and it's really really great And then on Thursday they have a full band just sort of like what we have on Sunday mornings So chapel two times a week and that's where we have it. So back to what I was saying a minute ago Gospel of John made me think about some of my favorite classes and so You just have to endure with me rim and this thing a little bit as I thought about seminary on Put these guys up on the left is dr. Russell Moore. He's not at southern anymore. He's the head of the ethics and religious Liberty Commission and He does a lot of important stuff for southern Baptist. He taught a class on eschatology You know what eschatology is? study of the last things study of the end times and He was also our Sunday school teacher at the church that we went to and more than anybody that I've ever sat under as a teacher He helped me see how all of the Bible is about the same thing. It's all pointing you to Jesus from Genesis 1 to Revelation It's all pointing you straight to Jesus and so Eschatology was a great class the guy on the right. That's a cheesy picture and he's a cheesy guy he is a philosopher and he went to Vanderbilt and he's incredibly smart he used to be the president of Midwestern seminary in Kansas City and He's a professor at Southern now teaches philosophy classes and I put him up there because at the time when I took his class on Emology, that's the study of how you know things. I Thought this is the dumbest class ever and I don't get it and I don't understand what that guy's up there talking about his name is Dr. Coppinger and I used to just think this guy It's like he did drugs before we came to class. I don't have no clue what he's talking about and then Having some distance from seminary. I look back and I say that was definitely without question one of the most helpful classes that I took in all of seminary when I talk with people when I think about how to preach when I think about communication is a great class And so there's dr. Coppinger The third guy there with the blue stripe tie is dr. Moller. He's a president of the seminary and I took him for systematic theology one and two and That's the most intelligent human being I've ever met face to face. There may be people smarter than him on the earth I haven't met him. This is the smartest guy I know and he has a library under his house that has about 90,000 books in it and He likes to play a game with new seminary students. I never got to go do this But I've heard people tell me about this plays this game with new seminary students where he takes him down to his library and he you can pick any book and He'll tell you what it's about Because he's read them all and he remembers all of them So you just go and you pull one off the shelf and he says oh that's by so-and-so He's in charge of this at this university or he's a pastor of this church and the books about this And I didn't really like it because of this or I loved it and he just he rattles it off It's unbelievable. So he's a smart guy and then the guy on the far right That is dr. Guess what his name is dr. Bill cook bill cook This was the guy when we're visiting around churches some of you know bill cook used to be a pastor here When we're visiting around churches and we go to a finally 9th to know and the pastor is dr. Bill cook Brooke says We're done. This is where we'll go. We'll just stay here with dr. Cook. I like book cook So we stayed there and he taught a class. I loved him because he was my pastor, but The best class that I took from him was the gospel of John in Greek and There were no tests There was no papers You just had to come to class every day with your Greek New Testament And we opened it up and we started in John 1-1 and he would just look around the room and he would say you Read for 10 verses and read for 10 verses didn't mean read it in Greek It meant look at the Greek and say it in English what it's talking about and that was your grade Just based on how he thought you did and so he'd let you go for a while Read those verses and then he'd talk about that passage and then we'd go on and say okay next and you would think a nice Guy would just go in order, you know around the class so you would know what was coming But it's total potluck you you you and so that was one of the greatest classes. I had I really really loved the class and So I thought about dr. Cook this week when I when I got ready to preach Or talk about tonight the gospel of John When you come to John It's sort of a paradoxical book okay Even linguistically when you look at the Greek of John it is the easiest book in the Greek New Testament to read meaning it's the simplest vocabulary the Simplest syntax it's just written Reading wise on a lower level and even in English that comes through when you read the gospel of John It's just it's easy reading when I talk with a new Christian and they want to know what to read in the Bible I always without fail say gospel of John. That's the first book you need to read. It's the simplest. It's the easiest But I would also say to you if you came and said I've been a Christian for a lot of years Tell me the most important book in the Bible that I could really dig into and get deep study and deep theology I would say go to the gospel of John One theologian talks about the gospel of John this way in the the preface of his commentary Says the the gospel of John the waters are shallow enough for a baby to wait in But they're also deep enough for an elephant to drown in That's a good description of John. You can read through it and anybody can understand the basic message But you can read through it over and over and over and over and over again and never get to the bottom of the depths of This book and so is an important book and we're gonna try to tackle it tonight question number one about the gospel of John who wrote it external and Internal evidence points to John the Apostle brother of James son of Zebedee, okay We've talked about Matthew Mark and Luke that they're all Anonymously written the same is true of John. No one Ever comes out and tells us this is who wrote this gospel, but the external evidence Says that it was John and the internal evidence also says that it was John So here's here's what I mean by external and internal evidence Put a couple of these pictures up. Okay. The guy on the left is a guy named Aaron a s or iron a s He's lived a long long long time ago and the guy on a right is a guy named poly carp He lived even longer longer longer ago. In fact these guys lived so long ago that poly carp was a student of John Brother of James son of Zebedee you tracking with me John one of the twelve He was a mentor a teacher to poly carp the guy on the right Poly carp turned around and he mentored a guy named Aaron a s We don't have anything that poly carp wrote But we have a lot of what Aaron a s wrote and one of the things Aaron a s writes is that John wrote the fourth gospel Does that mean that he wrote it not necessarily? But his teacher was taught by John and so you look back and you say that's probably pretty reliable information So externally that makes sense Internally here's some clues that tell you that maybe John was the author of this It seems that an eyewitness wrote this gospel when you read through it There's just some details in it that seemed like somebody was there to actually see it The author seems to be Jewish Because for example when you get to John Seven and eight he talks about some Jewish Festivals and some things that happened in Jerusalem and he doesn't really explain him. He just sort of acts like yeah Everybody knows what this is so probably he was a Jewish guy Most scholars say that the guy who wrote this book was from Was from the area of Palestine because he includes more geographic references than Matthew Marker Luke He talks about specific places in Judea and Samaria and Jacobs well and all these different places he named so he was familiar with the geography there and We also know that the author of this book was a disciple. You can read that at the very last chapter John 21 24. We know he was a disciple and here's an interesting fact about the gospel of John This is not true of Matthew Mark or Luke. Okay in the gospel of John all of the apostles are mentioned by name except to All but to 10 of the 12 when you read through the others these guys don't get a lot of attention and They may be mentioned But it's only they're only mentioned in the list of who the 12 were and John doesn't include a list But just in the story he mentions all but two of them and the only two he doesn't mention are John and James The only two that aren't mentioned specifically by name you read about the sons of Zebedee, but you don't read about John and James In this book and scholars will tell you that James He died too soon to write this book you can read Acts 12 James was the first Apostle to be martyred that happened in the book of Acts and so most of the internal evidence as you read through the book says John Probably wrote it. Here's if you just like history. Here's some interesting facts on John's death Put these next two pictures up the guy on the left is a famous ancient church historian named Eusebius and he says that John the apostle died during the reign of Emperor Trajan 98 to 117 he puts it in that window and then Jerome that's mr. Jerome on the right Who translated the Bible into Latin for the first time Jerome says that John the apostle died in the 86 the year after Jesus his death which would put it again right in that same range. So John who wrote this book died somewhere around a 100 a.d. So we lived a long time all the other apostles according to a tradition were martyred For their faith John was the only one not martyred for his faith. He was persecuted We know he ended up on the island of Patmos when he had this Vision and wrote down the book of Revelation, but he wasn't actually Killed for his faith and the gospel that John talks about that in the very last chapter. So you can read that for yourself Here's some differences between John and the other three. Okay, we've talked about the synoptic gospels meaning they see it together Right. Here's some differences between the fourth gospel and the others in John the focus of Jesus's ministry Happens in Judea in the synoptic gospels that happens in Galilee So Judea would be Jerusalem and surrounding areas areas Galilee would be sort of the redneck areas and Matthew Mark and Luke talk more about out in the sticks what happened out there and John talks more about around Jerusalem John mentions three Passovers Matthew Mark Luke and John only mentioned one John says describes five different trips that Jesus took to Jerusalem the synoptic gospels only include one and we're in the gospel of Luke Right and you know Luke describes that trip it starts on Luke 951 He says he set his face to go to Jerusalem and then it takes about ten chapters and he finally shows up in Jerusalem In the gospel of John. There's a lot of abstract allegories So at times in John you feel like you're in my epistemology class Jesus stands up and says I'm the bread of life and everybody says what in the world are you talking about? That makes no sense and it's just it's more abstract thinking in the synoptic gospels. They're more simple parables Right they're just sort of down-to-earth basic things that Jesus is talking about there in the gospel of John you read a lot about eternal life and In the synoptic gospels you read more about the kingdom of God I think John only mentions the kingdom of God twice in the whole book But he talks over and over and over and over and over again about life and those two things pretty much mean The same thing. So there's a lot of differences. Here's something interesting when you compare John to the synoptics, okay? Take what we know in the gospels from all of the gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John Outside of the last week of Jesus's life, okay cut that off so from birth All the way up until the last week of his life that period of time 30 or so years There are only two stories From that period that John includes that you also read in the synoptic gospels Every other story John tells us is different. You don't read it in Matthew Mark or Luke You know what those two stories are that are found in all four of the gospels anybody know And that's a good guess and some scholars would say yes But here's what's interesting about the temple John tells us about Jesus clearing the temple in John chapter 2 Matthew Mark and Luke tell us about Jesus clearing the temple the last week of his life So some scholars say well John's just got it out of order. He got his dates mixed up. I Think he did it two times Once at the beginning of his ministry and once at the end so I'll give you like a half-star for that answer Anybody want a whole star? walking on water all four gospels Feeding the five thousand all four gospels the only two stories from his ministry that you find in Matthew Mark Luke and John Here's some interesting things that are missing in John He doesn't talk about Jesus's birth doesn't talk about his baptism doesn't talk about the Sermon on the Mount or the Lord's Prayer Which is part of the Sermon on the Mount doesn't mention the transfiguration doesn't talk about the Lord's Supper? Doesn't have any parables you think about Jesus and you're like he taught in parables if I know anything about Jesus I know that John doesn't have any parables Not one exorcism in the gospel of John when you read through the gospel of Mark You get the impression that every time Jesus turned around. He's cast in a demon out demon demon demon synagogue demon graveyard demon Everywhere he went demons not not at all in John and no eschatological discourse in other words Matthew Mark and Luke Have a long sermon of Jesus where he talks about the end eschatology the study of the end and John does not Include that. Here's some things that you find only in the gospel of John John's prologue which we're gonna read from beginning to end first 18 verses two temple cleansings So we talked about that the story of Nicodemus story of the woman at the well the I am statements We're gonna talk about those in just a minute multiple sermons that Jesus preaches in the gospel of John you don't find anywhere else the story of Lazarus story of Jesus washing feet And Jesus is high priestly prayer. This is not Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane But this is Jesus praying in the upper room with the disciples before they go to the Garden of Gethsemane all of these things You only read about in John. Okay, so John wrote it different than the synoptic gospels and the question is worth asking He wrote last we know Matthew Mark and Luke came first. Why did he write it? Why add one more gospel to it and you don't have to speculate because John tells us He wrote that people would believe that Jesus is the Christ and that by believing they would have life So after you fill those in flip over to John 20 John 21st 30 Says Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples Which are not written in this book? But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ or that you may believe that he's the Messiah The Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. So there you go. He tells us exactly why He sat down and he wrote the book. He wants you to believe and In the gospel of John you find the verb believe 98 times That's a lot of times, especially when you compare how many times Matthew Mark and Luke use that same verb 98 times in the gospel of John Jesus talks about believing believing believing I preached through John When I was a pastor in Kentucky and I just felt like you know how in the gospel of Luke I talk about Luke 19 10 every week every week it comes up We talk about it over and over and over and when you preach through John it's believe believe believe believe every week You cannot get away from it. Jesus calling people to have faith in him. Here's the outline of the book Okay, four main sections in the book chapters 1 to 12 are the first three years of Jesus's Life and it's just sort of life and ministry Most of what you read in these chapters is unique to the gospel of John Then in chapter 13 to 17 we read about Jesus's final hours specifically final hours in the upper room and Again, most of this is unique to what to what you read in John Matthew Mark and Luke Talk about the Lord's Supper. They're celebrating the Passover. Jesus changes that celebration and the emphasis is not on the sacrificial lamb, but the emphasis is on him and he says my body and my blood or what's being given for you John Doesn't include that part of the story But he includes a whole lot more that happened that night in the upper room chapter 18 to 19 final hours his arrest and his death This starts to dovetail more with what you see in Matthew Mark and Luke and in the last two chapters covers 40 days After the resurrection and Jesus is appearing to people and talking to people And so that's the outline as you break it down going through the gospel Here is one of the reasons that I really love John some of you who know me well know that I tend to be a type A personality and John I think was a type A personality and the reason I tell you that is that the structure of John is very Regular he moves in the gospel through seven signs seven statements and seven sermons These are sort of the things that he hangs the gospel on as he's telling the story of Jesus there's signs there are seven statements and there are seven sermons and Sometimes a sign and a statement are combined or sometimes a statement and a sermon are combined Sometimes they overlap, but there's seven distinct Of each of these things. So first of all the signs. I'm gonna give you this one I'm just warning you. I'm about to give you a test, but I'm gonna give you this one for free Okay, these are the signs he turns water to wine. He heals the official son Heals a blind man. I believe chapter five is by the pool in Bethesda he feeds five thousand he walks on the water He heals a different man that was born blind chapter nine and then he raises Lazarus from the dead So those are the seven signs in the gospel of John now don't move to the next slide yet There's also seven important statements in the gospel of John You only find them in John not Matthew Marker Luke and in these seven statements Jesus says I am Fill in the blank Write them down on your paper right now. See how many you can get I am See how many you can get I give you about 30 seconds You Interesting when you read These seven statements Jesus saying I am this I am this I'm this He uses the Greek phrase or the Greek two Greek words ego ami Which literally means I am? Which scholars will tell you is a direct appeal to the book of Exodus when God appears to Moses and Moses says look If I go talk to these people and I go talk to Pharaoh and they want to know who sent me What am I supposed to tell them and God says what you tell them? I am Since you and there is one place in the gospel of John when Jesus is walking to them out on the water where he only says I Am Don't be afraid. I am But there are seven statements where he says I am Fill in the blank anybody get seven mark thinks he's got seven. Okay, Mark read us the seven Do you use your Bible or did you know him? Oh? Very nice Just studied it in Sunday school Very nice. Okay. Here they are Seven statements. I'm the bread of life That one is one of the most interesting because of how people reacted to it people just almost Their heads exploded when Jesus started talking about that and there's a verse in the gospel of John chapter 6 for 66 That is on the tail end of Jesus saying I'm the bread of life That says a lot of people just walked away because they couldn't stand what this guy had to say anymore So I'm the bread of life. I am the light of the world That one is in the context interesting when you read it in John 8. I told you about Jewish ceremonies. He mentions there's a ceremony Candle lighting ceremony in Jerusalem at the temple and Jesus is there at the time that they're doing this ceremony And they're carrying this big candelabra into the temple and there's this big Processional of light going in and in that context is when Jesus says to everybody I'm the light of the world that one is interesting because it's one of these Statements where Jesus then later turns it around and says to his disciples. You are the light of the world So he doesn't do that on all of these, but he does it on that one I'm the door and then also in chapter 10. I'm the good shepherd those two are close together I'm the resurrection in the life. He tells that in chapter 11 after he or right before he raises Lazarus from the dead and then chapter 14 verse that a lot of people know 14 6 I am the way the truth and the life and then the one I always forget when I'm trying to write down all seven is chapter 15 I'm the true vine. That's the one I always leave off on accident But those are the seven statements and then he includes seven sermons lastly I won't ask you to to guess on these but There's a sermon as part of what he has to say with Nicodemus and then it continues after the conversation with Nicodemus He gives a mini sermon to the woman at the well. So a sermon preached to one He gives a sermon in chapter five where he argues that he's the son of God and We talked about this title the son of God a few weeks ago that for us that that has the connotation of son of God So you're like a little bit lower than God But when you read in chapter five Jesus is preaching and he calls himself the son of God the Jews almost blew a gasket Because they said you're telling us that you're God. They understood exactly what Jesus meant When he called himself the son of God He was saying I am God Humans have sons and their sons are humans if God has a son his son is God and they understood that so chapter five chapter six the bread of life This is he's feeds of five thousand they come find him the next day and they say hey, how about more bread and Instead of more bread Jesus gives him a sermon and they didn't like it chapter seven He talks about the spirit giving life to people that's sort of the main idea of that sermon John 8 he's the light of the world and then John 10 talks about he is the good shepherd So those are the sermons now. We'll end with this. I just want to give you the simple lessons from John and I tried to keep these just as basic and as simple as possible because John really is a basic and a simple book And so this doesn't need to be rocket science. So we'll go through these these lessons and we'll wrap it up number one Jesus is God who became man That's a very simple sentence But it's something that you can mull over in your brain for a long time And I don't know that you're ever gonna get to the bottom of that But you really need to think about it and you need to believe it and I want you to look at John 1 1 Verse 1 Just as a heads up I'll tell you all of these lessons I'm about to give you you can find right here in John 1 1 to 18 We could only look at these first 18 verses and you would find every major lesson that you see in the rest of the book But we're gonna look throughout the book as well So John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God He was in the beginning with God All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made In him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it That's a big theme in John light and dark day and night. It comes up over and over and over and over again When does Nicodemus come to Jesus? At night, that's not a coincidental detail that fits in with what John is talking about in darkness and light in day and night Verse 6 there was a man sent from God whose name was John He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him He was not the light but he came to bear witness about the light the true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world He was in the world and the world was made through him yet the world did not know him He came to his own and his own people did not receive him But to all who did receive him who believed in his name He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God and The word When you're looking in verse 14 and you like to make notes in your Bible You just circle the word there and you draw it back up to verse 1 where it says the word was God the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory Glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth John bore witness about him and cried out This was he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me and from his fullness We have all received grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus Christ No one has ever seen God the only God who was at the father's side. He has made him known, okay? You can spend Years upon years upon years digging through those 18 verses the coolest thing about those 18 verses is they form What's called the chiasm that's a form of poetry that Jews really loved we've talked about that when we've gone through the book of Psalms and some other Old Testament books and Basically verse one corresponds to verse 18 And it just sort of meets in the middle and the very middle is the most important part of that And so it's a chiasm and it begins that way and every theme in John you can find in those 18 verses So here's a second lesson Jesus is the embodiment of truth Everything about Jesus is truth is true and you could put capital T if you wanted to or you could put capital T capital R capital U capital T capital H Jesus is truth everything about him is truth and so look at for example John 1 14 Says that Jesus is full of grace in truth Verse 17 the law came through Moses grace and truth came through Jesus flip over to John 14 6 We've already mentioned it some of you know it, but I just want you to read it in the in the text itself John 14 and we'll begin in verse 1 Jesus said let not your hearts be troubled believe in God believe also in me in my father's house or many rooms if it were not so What I've told you that I go to prepare a place for you And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and we'll take you to myself That where I am you may be also you know the way to where I'm going Thomas said to him Lord. We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me Dozens of verses in John that talk about he is the truth I'm gonna read a few off to you if you want to jot him down and look him up on your own We're not gonna look all these up tonight for the sake of time and I'm gonna read these off quick Okay, Jesus is is truth chapter 4 23 to 24 Woman at the well he wants people to worship in spirit and in truth chapter 5 verse 33 Chapter 8 verse 32 Chapter 14 verse 17 15 26 16 13 16 13 talks about the spirit of truth Jesus is gonna send the spirit and even the spirit who he sends is the spirit of truth. Why because he comes from Jesus chapter 17 verse 17 chapter 18 verse 37 And chapter 19 verse 35 that is not all of them But that's a pretty good list going through the book versus that talk about Jesus being truth everything about him is true Lesson number three all people are called to believe Jesus This is a very simple statement, but it's something that's very confusing for people Today especially people in the Bible belt because you if you just pull people who live in Odessa Do you believe in Jesus? You're gonna get almost all yes And what a lot of people mean by that when they say I believe in Jesus is I believe there was a guy named Jesus He did some good things. I think he died somehow for me. There's a connection there and yes I believe there was a guy named Jesus John is not talking about just intellectual Do you believe there was a guy named Jesus? Do you believe there was a man named Nero? Do you believe there was a man named Hitler? Do you believe there was a man named George Washington? That's not belief in John? It's an intimate Relationship but throughout the gospel. It's just simply described as believing in Jesus. So look at John 1 again I want you to see this is in the prologue John 1 7 talks about John the Baptist came as a witness to bear witness about the light Why that all might believe through him and then you jump down to verse 12? All who received him. What does it mean to receive Jesus? It means you believe in his name when you do that He gives you the right to become children of God flip over to chapter 3 John 3 verse 16 17 and 18 for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him Should not perish, but have eternal life We hear that verse and we think believes in Jesus if you believe in Jesus. You won't die and you'll go to heaven when you die We think if you pray a prayer if you repeat what the pastor says If you sign your name on the card or check the box That's what it means to believe in Jesus. There's not what John is talking about Over and over and over throughout the book when you read all these references I'm about to give you it's something much more profound than just intellectual assent or praying some sort of prayer and saying yes I believe that he existed. Yes, I believed that this happened. It's more than that If you believe whoever believes will not perish, but have eternal life God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world But in order that the world might be saved through him Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but Whoever does not believe is condemned already Why is he condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God? Okay Called to believe in Jesus. I'm gonna call these out really quick If you want to write them down Chapter 1 verse 50 Chapter 3 verse 12 Chapter 4 verse 21 538 544 to 47 629 636 824 935 to 38 1025 to 26 1038 1115 1126 to 27 1142 1236 1319 141 to 2 1411 and I could go on and on and on and on and on and I'll just stop right there You can find the rest on your own if you want to find them a bunch of them believe in Jesus Next lesson important in John Jesus offers true life to sinners He is offering life Go back to John 1 so you can see this in the prologue John 1 4 in him in Jesus was life And that life was the light of men The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it So he's talking about life. He came to bring life Look at John chapter 10 verse 10 famous verse from the gospel of John This from the sermon about I am the good shepherd He's just talked about I am the door And he's about to talk about he is the good shepherd in verse 11 But look at john 10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy I came that they may have life and have it abundantly The reason on this note that I did not say Jesus offers eternal life to sinners That would be true The reason I didn't write it that way is when we hear eternal life. We think oh, that's something that ends when we die The life that Jesus is offering begins now It's not something you wait for until you die and then you get it you get it now I came that you may have life right now today If you believe you can be born again, you can have life and you can have it to the fullest So he offers people true life. I'll give you a few verses on life chapter 3 verse 36 chapter 4 verse 14 chapter 4 36 6 33 to 35 that's a good one 640 is a good one 647 is a good one 812 1250 We could look at john 14 6. I'm the way the truth and the life And you can look at john 17 2 to 3 again lots of emphasis on this in the book of john Number five sinners must experience a new birth A new birth John 1 Verse 12 to all who received him who believed in his name. He gave the right to become children of god verse 13 children who were born not of blood Meaning this is not something you are physically born into You're not a follower of jesus a christian a heavenbound person because your parents were christians not a blood Nor of the will of the flesh Nor of the will of man Okay, this is one of the things that got jesus in trouble from time to time But he's saying to people this is not something you can do on your own That's the whole point of everything he's saying to nicodemus. We're going to look at it in just a minute You can't do this. What did you contribute to your own physical birth Zero You just laid there and came out You did nothing your mom did all the work. You don't get any of the credit In your physical birth. The same thing is true in spiritual birth. You can't do it It's not up to you. It's something that god does so look at john three and we'll read what jesus says to nicodemus There was a man of the Pharisees named nicodemus a ruler of the jews. This man came to jesus lo and behold by night Why does john include that detail? He's saying nicodemus is in the dark Physically he's coming at night spiritually. He has no clue what's going on with this jesus guy Nicodemus said to him jesus rabbi We know that you're a teacher come from god for no one can do these signs that you do unless god Is with him. Do you know any people like nicodemus? They think they know But they really don't know I know a lot about the bible. I know a lot about jesus. You start to talk to him and you say you're in the dark You don't know what you're talking about, but he thinks he knows jesus answered him verse three truly truly I say to you unless one is born again Or literally it says born from above. He can't see the kingdom of god Nicodemus said how can a man be born when he's old can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of god You're going to have to be born physically and you're also going to have to be born spiritually Both of those things need to happen if you're going to enter the kingdom of god one of the few places he mentions the kingdom You can also jot down john 8 This one is one of my favorite passages It's so good. I think we got to read it john 8 verse 30 Oh 37 39 where do we want to start Look at john 839 Jesus is arguing with the religious leaders jewish religious leaders Now back up go to 34 Jesus answered them truly truly I say to you Everyone who commits in is slave to sin The slave does not remain in the house forever. The son remains forever. If the son sets you free you'll be free indeed I know that you're offspring of abraham meaning you're biologically jewish your dna is jewish But you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you I speak of what I have seen with my father And you do what you have heard from your father. This is where it gets interesting They answered him abraham's our father Jesus said to them if you were abraham's children, you would be doing the works abraham did But now you seek to kill me a man who has told you the truth that I heard from god. It's not what abraham did You're doing the works your father did They said to him. Well, we're not born of sexual immorality a reference to mary And her compromising situation We have one father even god and jesus said to them if god were your father you would love me for I came from god And i'm here came not in my own accord, but he sent me Why do you not understand what I say? Is because you cannot bear to hear my word here comes in verse 44. You are of your father the devil And your will is to do your father's desire He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies But because I tell you the truth you don't believe me You read that and you say it's no wonder they wanted to kill jesus He said things like that to the most important religious people in front of all the folks publicly You are a child of satan The devil is your dad And you act exactly like him They hated jesus and what he's saying to these guys your dad is a devil you need a new dad You need to be born again Okay centers need to experience a new birth. The last one is this jesus sends his people on mission Sends them on mission john chapter one You see an example of this in one person's life Verse six there was a man sent from god and his name was john And he came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him He wasn't the light but he came to bear witness about the light he had a mission given to him from god Point people to jesus. It's exactly what jesus calls us to do at the end of the book john chapter 20 This is after the crucifixion after the resurrection John 20 verse 21 Jesus said to them again peace be with you as the father has sent me Even so i'm sending you That is if you make notes in your bible you just draw a little arrow and out in the margin you say this is john's great commission Matthew's great commission is go make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the father the son the holy spirit Teaching them to obey everything that i've commanded you and i'm with you always even to the end of the age That's how matthew describes it when john describes it. He says Jesus speaking just as the father sent me i'm sending you how did the father send jesus luke 1910 He sent him to seek and to save the lost Jesus says that's how i was sent that's how you're sent The father sent me to do this now i'm sending you to do the same thing to go and to seek and to save the lost uh a few other verses on on this idea of mission john 13 12 to 15 john 17 20 to 26 And john 21 15 to 23 Here's a funny thing about john, okay You just look at those lessons that i gave you and i could have included some more But that's a pretty decent summary Jesus is god who became man Jesus is the embodiment of truth All people are called to believe jesus Jesus offers true life to sinners Sinners must experience a new birth Jesus sends people on mission. Those are very simple basic statements They're not complicated and i tried to make those statements as simple as possible And my guess is that most people in the bible belt in odesitexis who sit in a church pew or a church chair on a sunday morning Would hear lessons like that and their first thought would be what is this like third grade? This is just this is baby stuff. Give us something deep. Give us something solid But i'm telling you as a pastor when i counsel with people talk to people meet with people who are struggling Struggling you pick the struggle. It doesn't matter I could pretty much sum up what advice i need to give to them with this That's about all you need You need to understand the truth about who jesus is you're confused. He is god who became man That's a simple statement that has application in a million different ways And people think they know that in their mind, but then they struggle with things in their life And you say you don't really understand what we're talking about when we talk about jesus Jesus is the embodiment of truth You know people who would claim to be christians But then they want to backpedal on certain things the bible says they want to explain certain things away that the bible says they want to sort of grind the edges off of jesus a little bit you say you know you can't do that it's truth It is the truth. You can't backpedal from it. You can't explain it away You talk about believing in jesus again. So many people would tell you i believe in jesus. I pray to prayer My kids believe in jesus. They pray to prayer. My grandkids believe in jesus. They pray to prayer And i'm just telling you that's not what john's talking about He doesn't ever say pray this prayer. That's what it means to believe in jesus When you read the gospel and you read it over and over and over and over again you understand he's talking about discipleship He's talking about relationship. He's talking about real faith He offers life to sinners So many people are confused about what it means to have abundant life now And they miss it Sinners need to experience a new birth We talked about this in staff meeting We were talking about the idea of justification talked about it this week Talk to people who are struggling spiritually with their walk with their faith with obeying jesus And nine times nine times out of ten the folks that i talked to When i really start to ask questions and get to the bottom of what's giving them problems You figure out in the end. They really think they have to work for their salvation They really think that if they don't do this Jesus is going to throw them to hell if they do do this they're going to earn a spot in heaven They really think it's up to them That's the root of the struggle and john's saying you can't work into it or out of it You need to be born again people don't get that And what we're talking about on sunday mornings jesus sends his people on Mission and as i mentioned sunday so many times we think mission that's for missionaries No, that's for christians all of us Elders pastors deacons sunday school teachers people who come to wednesday night bible study everyone in between all of us Have a role to play in the mission and jesus has sent us out. So There's a gospel of john simple truths That we are slow to learn and that people need to hear over and over and over again So we'll pray and we'll ask god to to give us wisdom to understand these things father we come to your word And we are grateful For a book like john That is so simple that a child can understand it But a book that is so challenging and convicting in deep And boundless that we can never never master it and never fully wrap our arms around it And we pray that you would take tonight these very simple lessons and drive them home To our hearts help us to understand the truth about who jesus is Help us to be convicted by the truth Help us to understand and to live out what it means to believe in jesus Not just to pray a prayer not just to give a scent with our minds but to truly believe Father help us to find life Not just in the afterlife, but now abundant life Father remind us that Our greatest need as sinners is new birth is new life from you that we can't work for it We can't earn it. It's not up to us. It's not up to our parents Is a gift from you And father press in our hearts the importance of mission To understand that as jesus was sent by you on a rescue mission now he's turned around and sent us on the same mission To seek and to save the loss to take the good news to those who have never heard And father that may take us across the street. It may take us around the world It may mean that we pack up and leave home. It may mean that we give Sacrificially so that others can go but help us to find our our place and our responsibility in this mission Father again, we're grateful for the gospel of john and Pray that you would press these truths in on our hearts that we would not just understand them with our minds But they would be part of who we are and part of how we live. We ask it in jesus name. Amen