Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] John is where we are today, the Gospel of John. And we have been traveling through this book since the beginning of 2024. And today is the last Sunday that we will be in this gospel. Aw is the right response. Not Yay. Aw is the is the right response. Been a great book. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope you have as well. We're in chapter 21, verses 15 through the rest of the of the chapter I entitled the Message Believe, Love and Serve. And I'll read through this. Really. It's the culmination of John's letter and it's a beautiful and powerful account of Jesus instructions to a disciple who went from being a denier of him to a devoted follower of him. So let's read through the passage and then we'll pray and then we'll walk through your outline and through this passage together a little bit more slowly.
[00:00:54] So Starting in verse 15, we know Jesus has already risen from the dead. He's been showing up to various people.
[00:01:00] And in this last section we saw last week with Pastor Les the many fish that they caught and just that incredible miracle that he provided there for them. So verse 15 goes on. They just caught these fish. They came to the shore. Jesus was making breakfast for them. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. I'm reading from ESV. Verse 16.
[00:01:35] He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you what?
[00:01:41] Love me? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
[00:01:46] And he said 10 to my lambs.
[00:01:49] And he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? And Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time, do you love me? And he said, lord, you know everything.
[00:02:04] You know that I love you.
[00:02:06] Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. Truly, truly something important he's going to say here. I say to you, when you were young, you would dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
[00:02:24] John's note here, at least in my Bible, there's a little parenthesis here. Verse 19. This he said to show what kind of death he was going to glorify God. After saying this, he said to him two powerful words, Follow me. Verse 20.
[00:02:39] Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following him, the one who had also leaned back against him during the Supper. That is the Last Supper. This was before the cross. That's what John's referencing.
[00:02:50] Going during the Supper. It said, lord, who is it that is going to betray you? This is Peter saying, this is this other person, John, who asked this question of Jesus.
[00:03:02] Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is it to you? You. What are the two words?
[00:03:10] Follow me. So the saying spread among the brothers that this disciple was not to die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not going to die. But if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple. Now, like there's a break. My Bible has a separate paragraph here. So there's a break of that account to two closing sentences that John has in his Gospel. This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things. And we know that his testimony is true. The last verse of the book. Now, there were also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written down, I suppose that the whole world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Let's pray together.
[00:03:57] Lord Jesus, we are grateful this morning to be able to come before you to lay all the things that may be going on in our hearts and minds before you and know that you are strong enough to hold all of them.
[00:04:09] That you are a God of grace and a God of mercy. That no matter what faults, what errors, what sins, whatever things that we have taken part in this week that have not been walking alongside you, that we can lay them before you this morning and know that again you are a God of grace and a God of mercy who continues to call us to yourself.
[00:04:25] As we look at this powerful passage, I pray that you would keep our eyes open to the work that you want to do in our hearts and in our minds. The things that I say would be honorable to you, would be from you or that we would continue as you call Peter and you ask Peter here that we can be people that continue to seek to love you well in all the things that we do in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:04:48] All right, a little bit of review here and then we'll look right at point one. John's first goal in this book is for people to. There's one word it's used so many times through this book. Do you know what it is? It starts with the letter B.
[00:05:00] Believe. Can we say that together?
[00:05:02] Believe. That is John's key point in this book. That they would believe in Jesus as God in the flesh.
[00:05:09] Foretold, as the foretold Messiah and Savior of mankind. So John's primary goal is, people, please, what's the word?
[00:05:17] Believe.
[00:05:18] Then secondly, John's goal is for us to fall more in love with Jesus because we see him for who he truly is, one who deeply loves mankind. And so really, the first two sections of the book of John, the first half and the second half, really, John spends the first half of his book, chapters one through 12 or so, walking us through miracles, walking us through teachings of Jesus. And over and over he says, believe. Can you say believe? Believe. That's John's point. Believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God. Believe that he is the good Shepherd. Believe that he's the light of the world. Believe that he is the bread of life. Believe in Jesus as the sustainer of life. And then secondly, his goal is now that you hopefully believe that you will see his incredible love that he has for all of mankind. And he shows this to us as he walks through chapters 13 through about 20 or so, the trial.
[00:06:11] And then after that, Jesus death. And then after that, what comes after his death?
[00:06:16] The resurrection. And so that's chapters 13 through 20 or so that we just walked through. So the first part is that you may. What's the word?
[00:06:24] Believe. And then the second part is John's desire is that they may know the love of Jesus. Can you say love? The love of Jesus. So it's believe Jesus and then see the love of Jesus that he has for you. Now, obviously we know Even from John 3:16, the love of Christ, the love of God is woven through this entire book. And then we come to the last portion of this book, which is where we are today.
[00:06:48] Point three. The third big idea that John desires for us is not just that we believe in Jesus, our Lord and Savior, as the Messiah sent from God, not just that we love him as our Savior came, who came from heaven to die in our place, the greatest, the only substitute for our sin. And then he tells us here in this account with Peter, I think also a direct. I know a direct correlation to us as well is that we serve. Can you say serve? So we have believing, then loving, and then we serve. It's not just that we believe that he is.
[00:07:21] That he is the Messiah, that He's the Lamb of God, not just that we love him as our Savior, but that also we will serve him because we believe that he is our Lord. And sometimes this point will kind of be woven through this message here. Sometimes what we do is this. We take points.
[00:07:38] One or the first word, believe, and the last one, serve, and we forget about the middle one, which says what?
[00:07:46] Love. Now, we can do this so frequently in church ministry. I believe all the facts about God, and now I should go and do a lot of things, but I've never actually intentionally developed my relationship with Jesus. I've never actually said, I want to fall in love with you, Lord, and I'm willing to submit myself to your voice over everybody else's voice. We know all the facts, right? That's the belief part. And then everyone says we should go and do a lot of things. But this love part is really the thing that is the engine, if you will. In the vehicle, we may look really shiny, but as what First Corinthians 13 talks about, it's a noisy gong, right? A lot of shiny things. But without love, we are nothing. And so here we're reminded as Jesus interacts with Peter, that love must be the foundation of our service towards him.
[00:08:39] So point one on your outline, you could write this in verses 15 through 17. We'll just kind of walk through this. A well known conversation that Jesus has with Peter and one that has been talked about a lot. We won't spend forever on it, but we'll touch on, I think, some really powerful points here. So firstly, you can write this in. Shepherds must love supremely. And Peter is going to be a significant leader in the early church. And so Jesus now is going to take care of some unfinished business. Now what we haven't seen yet is Peter and Jesus interacting in any way to kind of resolve the major denial of Jesus that happened during the trial. We know that they've had conversations, but have you ever been in a situation where there's kind of unfinished business between you and somebody else? Have any of you been there before? You're like, things are kind of functioning, it's kind of working out, stuff's happening. But you're like, you know, there's this elephant in the room, if you will. And I'm sure that Peter felt that between him and Peter, him and Jesus, because the last time that. Well, one of the significant occurrences, Jesus is there during the trial, and then what? Somebody asks him once, hey, you're a follower of Jesus, aren't you? And he says, what?
[00:09:52] No. First denial. And somebody else comes along and says, no, I think you are. I think I've seen you with Jesus. And he says, what?
[00:09:58] No. And then somebody else is like, wait a minute, you even sound like you're one of those followers of Jesus. And he says, what?
[00:10:06] Nope.
[00:10:08] And then there's a rooster that crows.
[00:10:12] And he realizes that even just moments before that interaction where he denied Jesus three times, he had just told Jesus before the other disciples. He had just said, even if all the rest of these abandon you, even if all of them run away, I will never do that.
[00:10:28] And then a few hours later, what is he doing? Denying Jesus how many times here? It seems that Jesus now is going to restore Peter's view, his confidence, and his commitment to following him. Now notice Jesus doesn't ask for an apology. We'll read through this in a minute. Jesus doesn't ask for Peter to tell him what he did wrong. Jesus doesn't ask Peter all sorts of other things. What were you thinking in that time? He asks about Peter's heart.
[00:10:54] Does Peter love him in a supreme, committed kind of way? Now, as we look at this, you can go to the next slide. There, these verses here, we see that Jesus asks a couple different. A few different questions. Here, feed my lambs. You can write that in point A on your outline. There are a few different. Two different words that we see for the word love here. And this is important for us to note the first one, the word that Jesus uses is in the first A and B, which we'll see in a second. And the word that Peter uses each of those three times are two different words. So Jesus uses. He says this in verse 15, when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you what?
[00:11:37] Love me? And so we talk about this word agape, which means what in Greek?
[00:11:44] Love.
[00:11:45] In this text here, when love is a. When this word is used as a verb, it's a agapeo. Can you say that?
[00:11:54] Agapeo. So Jesus says here, do you agapeo me? And this is this supreme, committed, the love that we would talk about from God and that we are to demonstrate to other people this kind of agapeo love, this supreme, committed. I'm not asking a bunch of things from you. This is me saying, I'm willing to commit to you above all. So Jesus asks, do you agapeo me more than these?
[00:12:18] Now there's some conversation about what he's talking about here because they're on the beach. The Sea of Galilee is there. The disciples, it seems they're walking away from the other disciples. But who's following them?
[00:12:30] John is going to be kind of following along. And then Peter and Jesus are having this conversation. And Peter looks over. I'm sorry, Jesus Looks over to Peter and says, do you, Agapeo, do you love me more than these? Now the question is, what is these that he's talking about right now? Some people would say now, and I don't know which one it is. We can ask Peter when we get to heaven.
[00:12:50] It could be, do you love me more than these? And he's pointing at the disciples.
[00:12:57] Or it could be, do you love me more than these?
[00:13:01] They just caught a bunch of fish. How many fish did they catch?
[00:13:05] 153 fish. Massive catch. The nets didn't break, though. But something incredibly significant. Now, it could be either one of those. I don't know which one it is, but one is if it is, let's say the fish. Here's what he's asking. Do you love. Are you willing to be committed to me more than these? These fish being your livelihood.
[00:13:25] Are you willing to be more committed to me than a job that in this case, I mean, think about the best day of the week for your job. I mean, you just scored a big one at work. Things are great. Everyone would be like, look at you. You know how to fish. You got 153 of those. And so he just has this, if you will, best day at work kind of job. And then Jesus says to him, are you willing to love me more than your best day at work? Are you willing to identify more with me than you are with your success there? Or perhaps he's talking about the disciples. And if so, here's what he's suggesting or asking. Here is this.
[00:14:04] Before.
[00:14:06] Before all of these other disciples were here, I was walking along the shore and I asked you to come follow me. And then what did he do? He followed. And now we have all these other disciples. We've journeyed with Jesus for three years, and now Jesus is asking this, do you love me more than these? Moments ago, a couple days prior, Peter said to Jesus, even if they all leave you, I won't leave you.
[00:14:31] And now I'm sure Peter's remembering that. Cause a few days prior, he said, really what he said is this. I love you, Jesus, more than all of these people. Because when you say to Jesus, even if they all leave you, I won't leave you, it's basically the same thing, right? If they all leave you, I won't leave you. In other words, I love you more than they do. And so Jesus now bringing that up to him, and then here's his response. He says to him, feed. My leave.
[00:14:57] This word feed is literally this idea of feeding something, giving food to providing sustenance for.
[00:15:07] And he says this, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Now, he doesn't use this word, this high level, committed agapeo word. He uses the word fleo, which is still a word that means love. But it's, if you will, a lower level. This is the brotherly love, which is, by the way, like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. That's where this comes from. It's a lower level than this supreme agapeo love. And most likely Peter is feeling this tension.
[00:15:33] He knows he just denied Jesus a few days prior. And now Jesus is saying to him, do you agapeo me? Do you have this supreme level of love? And if I were him, and maybe if you were in this shoes as well, you might be thinking, I would love to say yes to that.
[00:15:49] But based on my actions, I feel like I can't have any of you been there before. You know, you just messed up in a royal way. And you're like, God, I love you. And he's like, and then you're thinking, but can I really say that based on what I just did? And then here's Peter probably thinking to himself, I mean, yes, I do love you, but that much. I mean, if I loved you that much, then I shouldn't have done this denying of you.
[00:16:12] There's this tension inside of Peter right now. And then Jesus replies, feed my sheep. He goes on and he asks him again, verse 16, you can write this in. He tells him to feed. This is that idea of caring for. You can write the next one. And really, it's just filling in the next word there. Tend to my sheep. Look at verse 16 with me. He said to him, A what?
[00:16:35] Second time Simon, son of John, do you love agapeo? Is the word there.
[00:16:41] Do you love me? In a supreme kind of way? And he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I, and for many of us in our culture, in our language, if I'm in agreement with you, you would just repeat back to the person what they said.
[00:16:56] But here, Peter doesn't repeat the same thing. He says again, lord, you know that I phileo you again, supreme agapeo love, Committed, no matter what. I'm committed here to you, to this brotherly love. Still significant.
[00:17:13] But I'm not there at the same level that you're talking about right now. And he said to him, tend to my sheep. Now, this word tend is different than the word feed. And this word tend is literally the word to like, govern, or to care for or to supply. And so It's a different word than just providing, for example, a teaching moment. But what we get a glimpse here of is Peter knowing Jesus, knowing that Peter one day is going to be a leader in, in the church. Peter is going to be leading even the other disciples in the early church. And so here we have a picture of Jesus saying, I'm giving you this ability and this authority to govern others as well.
[00:17:56] And so we see now we know that when Jesus asks something once, it's important because Jesus is speaking. When Jesus says something twice, we know it's really important. We should be paying attention. For example, he says truly, truly or verily, verily, depending on what version of Bible you have, we should pay attention. So we see here one, this is feeding of sheep that Peter's going to be tasked with. But we see something else and it's reason. It's underlined on your outline is this. The sheep that Jesus is talking about are not Peter's. Whose are they?
[00:18:26] Jesus? And this is true today as well in the life of the church. Anyone, in spaces of leadership, we have to realize that even though we may be in places of teaching or, or even of governance, the people that we are leading. Cause that's this parallel between sheep and people, right? The people that we are leading, the people that we're feeding or governing, they're first and foremost owned by who?
[00:18:48] Jesus Christ?
[00:18:49] And so that brings a whole new weight to the responsibility that Peter has. They are not your sheep, Peter. No, that's not your sheep that you have to govern or that your job is to feed. They are mine. I am giving you the opportunity to steward this position and, and your job is to hopefully steward it well.
[00:19:08] And one of the ways we know that you can steward that position well is firstly by your love for the Lord, and secondly by your love for the sheep. Thirdly, see on your outline we see this one. We are to feed my lambs. He says, tend to my sheep. And then here we see verse 17, he says, Feed my sheep. Verse 17 he said to them, he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you what love me? And here Jesus shifts.
[00:19:36] He shifts now from this. He's used other times, this agapeo word, supreme committed love word. He says that twice. Do you agapeo me? He says it again. Do you agapeo me this third time he says, do you phileo me?
[00:19:49] Do you have this friendship kind of love with me? And now Peter, then, not only because Jesus is asking him a fellow, but also because he hears the word change that Jesus just used. And I'm sure he realizes this tension inside of Peter's heart. And then Peter, what was he feeling right now?
[00:20:10] Grieved. That word is made sorrowful because he said to him a third time, do you phileo me? And he said to him, lord, you know. And this is to perceive, you know everything which Peter truly believed you know, which is actually a different word than the first no that we see. One of them is to see or perceive. The other one is a different no word that means to deeply experience, to know incredibly deeply. Not just to see, but you deeply know that I love that I flailet you. And Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. It's Peter and Jesus having this interaction.
[00:20:47] Jesus says to Peter, do you phileo me? And Peter going, man, he asked me once, agapeo. I said, phileo. He asked me again, agapeo. I said, phileo. And now he's saying, do you flail me? And he says, it's almost like he's like, I want to agapeo you. I want to be able to say that, but I realize my faults.
[00:21:06] Aren't you glad that Jesus uses broken people?
[00:21:10] Aren't you glad that Jesus uses us? Even in the midst of our uncertainty, at times, Jesus is asking the most important question, do you love me? This is the question we can easily answer yes to. But our lives will show us many times.
[00:21:27] And those around us will see where our true love sits.
[00:21:33] For Peter, Jesus is going to place him in a position of leadership in the church. And the most important characteristics that Peter needs to have is a love for the Lord and a love for the sheep that are truly owned by who?
[00:21:45] God himself.
[00:21:47] If a love for Jesus is not the pinnacle of the reason we serve, we are like a fancy car that people look at and say, wow, look at that. And you pop the hood open and there's nothing inside.
[00:22:00] How do you get that to go anywhere? Well, you just put it on a hill and you hope for the best.
[00:22:07] But when love for the Lord is what drives us, great things can come from our ministries asking this question first. Yes, we believe. Now Peter and Jesus have this conversation about where does your true love abide?.2 on your outline, we'll move right through the rest of this really powerful here. Point 2. Following Jesus equals a loss of freedom. Following Jesus equals a loss of freedom. Verses 18 and 19.
[00:22:32] Peter now and Jesus are continuing this conversation.
[00:22:35] Peter emotionally moved. And Jesus is gonna offer him another piece of hard information. Truly, truly. I say to you with, when you were young you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, that word old actually, by the way, is the same root word that we get geriatric from.
[00:22:52] Just fun fact for you. You will stretch out your hands so literally when you're old, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. He said this. This is John's note. He said this to show what kind of death he would die by glorifying God. And then Jesus says to him, again, we saw this earlier. I put it in a bold on screen, two important words. What are those words?
[00:23:12] Follow me. And this is so key for Peter. He realizes, all right, I'm gonna give you a position of authority. I'm gonna give you a position of shepherding other people. You're realizing that your job is to love me first, love those sheep as my sheep. And also when you follow me, hard things are gonna happen.
[00:23:31] Hard things are going to happen. Jesus now predicts Peter's death.
[00:23:35] Peter was estimated to die somewhere in the neighborhood of A.D. 67, 68. So about 30 years after Jesus goes to heaven is when, pet, he does incredible work in the church. Second Peter, chapter one, verses 12 through 15. Peter even speaks about, I know I'm gonna die soon. I know that this time is going to come. And so Jesus having this conversation, he says, there's gonna be a time because you're gonna choose to love me and follow me, that it's gonna be really hard and it's gonna lead to your death. What a way to sign somebody up for a job, right?
[00:24:07] I mean, you just tell them, hey, come follow me. Here's all the things. And by the way, you're gonna die because of this.
[00:24:12] Like, not possibly you're going to die because of this.
[00:24:17] Here's what Jesus is telling him. You can write this down somewhere if you'd like. Devotion to Jesus may lead to your death.
[00:24:22] And here is a reality that even much of us in the United States do not experience on a regular basis. But many brothers and sisters of ours around the world experience this reality regularly. Devotion to Jesus, not May, for many of them does lead to death. A on your outline. Matthew 16 and many other passages speak about this as well.
[00:24:44] Reminds us that we are not our own. Ephesians 6, 6 says that we are slaves to Christ.
[00:24:50] First Corinthians 6:19 through 20 says that we are not our own. Verses 24 and 20 through 26 of Matthew 16 on the screen there, Jesus says, if you want to come after me, let him deny himself Take up his what Cross and follow me. In other words, be ready to go to your death. Again, we see the word follow me there. But what does this look like in real life? What does it look like to follow Jesus in our real life? Now, that's a massive question that we've spent sermons, multiple sermons on. But I think it's important right now that we spend just a moment considering what this practically looks like.
[00:25:29] It looks like this looking at what Jesus says about what following him actually looks like and comparing that with our life.
[00:25:40] It looks like opening the word of God and saying, well, here's what Jesus said following him looks like, and this is what my life looks like. And seeing. How closely do they align? Are you with me?
[00:25:50] How closely do these things align? Because that's what a good student, a good disciple, a good follower of somebody else does is. Here's what you want, here's what I'm doing. How closely do they align? If you're husbands and wives, are you loving your spouse and helping them feel cherished and valued? Men, are we people of integrity, of courage, of gentleness and of honesty.
[00:26:12] Are we people of the women, Are we people of the Word? Are you growing and loving and speaking life into situations? Children, are you living up to the calling that God has on your life?
[00:26:23] Honoring your parents and seeking to set an example in speech, in life, in love, in honesty and in purity? If you work for somebody else, Employees, are you working as for the Lord, with honesty and with hard work and intentionality? If your grandparents here, are you remembering that you are here for a reason, that you have a purpose, that your voice is vital in speaking to the lives of young people? If you have a neighbor, if you are a neighbor, are you loving well, showing hospitality, being willing to let people peer into your home? And when they do, do they find Jesus at work?
[00:26:59] Just as Peter's freedom changed when he followed Jesus, so too must ours.
[00:27:04] We can start our day like Paul did. In many of his letters, he says. Oftentimes he says, paul, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. What if we started our days like that?
[00:27:17] I wake up in the morning, Duba, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we put our names there. Yes, we are friends of, friends of the Lord. As he says, we are children of God. We are beloved. And also we are servants. We are slave. We are owned by Jesus, right? Romans 12:1. Therefore, because of God's great mercy for us, let us consider ourselves as living sacrifices.
[00:27:43] We are his following Jesus equals a loss. Of what?
[00:27:48] Of our freedom, of Our ability to say, I wanna do life my way. Now it's no longer my way. It's I'm gonna do life Jesus way. He bought me, and so now what does he want me to do? What does his word say? And how does my life align with those things? That's how you tell, am I following Jesus? Let's look at point three on your outline before we close last few verses. Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned back against him during the Supper and said, lord, who is it that's going to betray you? He's just describing John the Apostle John.
[00:28:22] When Peter saw him, he said, lord, the word there is kyrios. Lord, what about this man?
[00:28:29] Jesus said to him, if it is my will that he remain, what is that to you? You. What's the two words?
[00:28:37] Follow me.
[00:28:38] So the saying spread, that is the gossip train picked up speed.
[00:28:44] That's what that means about among the Christians, that John was not going to die. And then John the Apostle, the one writing this book, who the gossip is spreading about, he adds his own little footnote in here. He like, adds a note, by the way, to all of you reading this who listen to what the gossip is, that's not right. That's not actually what Jesus said. Have you ever tried to fix a story that was not right about you? That's what John's doing right here. He's like, this story that was not right about me. I'm gonna fix that so that 2,000 years later, we still got the story right, okay? We know the real thing that happened between Jesus and Peter. Peter and Jesus. Jesus was making an example, giving Peter an example. He's like, if I want him to stay until I get back, that's not your business. In other words, mind your own business, Peter.
[00:29:28] Your job is to follow me. Your job is to follow me. Now, how often do we not mind our own business? As Christians, we spend so much time looking at all those little specks in people's eyes. Meanwhile.
[00:29:42] This is a log, by the way, not a telescope, right? This is massive issue in our own life or this incredibly clear calling that God has already made on our lives. We're so busy looking at all these other people that first and foremost, we need to come before the Lord and his Word and say, what do you want of me? First and foremost, following Jesus faithfully is what matters most. That's what Jesus wants Peter to get here.
[00:30:09] Now, why? Why does that matter most? Point A and point B. Because Jesus is Lord he is Lord. And what that literally means is he is our Master over all things. Now, often we call Jesus Lord, but we treat ourselves as Lord. We call Jesus Savior and we treat ourselves or our own good works as our Savior. We call Jesus King, but we treat our lives as our own kingdoms that we could do as we please.
[00:30:38] Now, in a world of faith, in a world of family, community, a society that's always telling us what we should care most about Jesus, words should come out on top. And what does Jesus say should matter most to us?
[00:30:53] Follow me over all else. Now why else should following Jesus faithfully matter most? Because one of John's key points as he inserts all over his book is this. This testimony that I'm telling you the things that are written in this book, John's gospel are true. So because Jesus is real is what you could write in point B because Jesus is real. John wants to be very, very clear about that.
[00:31:24] We see this last section there. He says this disciple is bearing witness about this is true, these things are true. This testimony is true. Now maybe some verbiage change that you can use before we look at point four, is this.
[00:31:40] The Bible isn't just full of stories, it's full of history.
[00:31:45] And when we consider especially working alongside young people or people that aren't familiar with the Word of God as much, we first must realize that everything in it is absolutely true. It's not just a story like many other kid books. This is true. Full of actual history that not just is information for us, but should transform our.
[00:32:07] And then the last verse of the book, John's courtroom situation, which we've kind of come back to over and over over the last year and a half or so, is this Jesus in all the things that John presents, this is enough for you to know to believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Point four, you can write this in the selected works of Jesus are sufficient for belief. The selected works, that is the selected works that John has in his gospel are sufficient for. For your belief. Jesus whole life is full of wonder and amazement and power. The works of Jesus that pointed to his true identity as Lord, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the King. Over and over again we see example after example after example in the Gospel of John that Jesus is who he says he is. I love John's phrasing there, right? He's like, I suppose. And that's an important thing, by the way, especially since they're writing probably on scrolls and parchments. It would have taken up a lot of Space.
[00:33:07] But his point is this. Jesus did fantastic work.
[00:33:11] But I wrote down the things that should change your mind about Jesus.
[00:33:17] I wrote down the things that should grip your attention about Jesus. What are the things that he talked about?
[00:33:24] Here's some things, because we're at the end of this book and John makes this comment. Let's just briefly review some of the things that Jesus did from chapter one. Keep your Bibles open. Chapter one, we learned this about Jesus, that Jesus is God in the flesh and he is the Lamb of God here to take away the sin of the world. In chapter two, he has power over natural elements, like wine, for example. He has great zeal for his Father's house. We saw in chapter two, that is the temple. In chapter three, we saw that he was sent to the earth because God loves us. And he was sent on a rescue mission to offer eternal life to all who believe in Him. In chapters four and five, we see that he can heal people of physical ailments even when he's not physically present.
[00:34:09] We also see that he is equal in power and authority with God. In chapters six and seven, we see that he can multiply food, that he can walk on water, and that he has the words to eternal life. In chapter eight, without him, the world would have no light.
[00:34:23] And in his identity, all the authority in the Father are present.
[00:34:28] In chapters nine and ten, we see that he can heal those whom were thought to be impossible to heal, and that he is the shepherd of God's people. In chapter 11, we see this is Lazarus, that he can raise the.
[00:34:39] That he can raise the dead. And then in chapters 12 through 20, we see that he can predict his own death, go to the cross and die in a way that has been foretold hundreds of years prior, and then rise from the dead. He is risen.
[00:34:53] He is risen.
[00:34:56] All through this entire Gospel, John truly has been laying before us a courtroom's worth of evidence.
[00:35:03] And he's saying, you're the jury.
[00:35:07] My job here is to present the evidence. And let me tell you, it's all true about Jesus.
[00:35:13] And the evidence demands a response.
[00:35:16] And here, firstly, it demands the response of believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Secondly, it demands the response of loving him the same way that he loved you.
[00:35:26] And thirdly, as we see here today, the evidence demands a response of service.
[00:35:32] Yes, it's good to believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, bringing about salvation, experience in personal relationship, the love of Jesus, that's the engine that gets us moving.
[00:35:42] And then lastly, the things that we do are born out of our belief in Jesus and our love for him. And thus now I'm gonna serve other people. Where are you today in those steps?
[00:35:54] Where are you?
[00:35:55] Are you today, right now, in the place of. I'm in the jury. I've been reading, I've been listening about this evidence given about believing in Jesus. Maybe you're sitting there still in step one, you haven't yet believed today.
[00:36:07] Choose to do that.
[00:36:09] Chapter 12 Jesus calls out and he calls people to repent. He says, please believe in me.
[00:36:14] Maybe you're in the second place. You believe, but the relationship you have with Jesus is dry, maybe non existent. I want to encourage you today, spend time alone with the Lord, open his word, get undistracted from other people and ask the Lord to speak clearly to you.
[00:36:31] Ask him to open your ears and open your eyes to the work that he's doing in your life so that you can personally experience Jesus and love him the way that he wants you to, this sacrificial kind of way so that you can truly experience life change inwardly in you.
[00:36:47] And maybe you're in the place of like, yes, I believe and I love him, but I'm not doing anything now. Doing things doesn't make you the good Christian. It's what is he asking me to do? And that's being obedient. I'm not doing the things out of guilt because somebody else told me I should do it. I'm doing it because I love him. He asked me to do it, so I'm gonna be obedient to it, whatever that is. Are you with me so far?
[00:37:10] Where are you in those steps? And I would encourage you today, move to the next place if you're okay with just the believing. But I'm not loving. Move to the next place if you're in the loving. But I'm not doing. What is he asking you to do? And do that. And maybe you're in the place of serving. What's the next thing? It's bringing somebody else the evidence of Jesus so they too can believe again or they too can believe for the first time. If you've never trusted in Jesus, your Lord and Savior, do that today. Let's pray.
[00:37:40] Lord Jesus, we're grateful for your incredible love for us that we can be a people that you care deeply about, that you stepped into this world to rescue us from the bondage of sin.
[00:37:53] I ask, Lord, that those here today maybe who have heard lots of information about you but have never submitted their life to you, they would do that today.
[00:38:01] They would call upon you as Lord, not just as Jesus who lived a long time ago, but as their personal Lord and Savior.
[00:38:10] Lord, for those here today who are struggling in their own relationship with Jesus, they know all the facts. But there's no emotional engagement, there's no relational connection. Lord, I pray that you would open eyes, you would open ears, you would help our hearts to soften to the voice that you have put inside of us. Your spirit, Lord, that is guiding and directing us.
[00:38:30] Lord, that relationship would come to life in each and every one of us here in this room.
[00:38:36] And maybe there's resistance even in the midst of relationship, resistance to obeying whatever you're calling us to do. Lord, I pray that you would give courage to help those here today to step into that place of serving you. Whatever that looks like, whatever you're asking them to do.
[00:38:50] Lord, that we would be people not sitting in this courtroom that John's laid out for us and not make a decision.
[00:38:58] Every day that we have is a gift from you.
[00:39:01] Help us to steward that gift rightly, to keep eternity on our minds at all times, to listen well to the things you're doing and saying in our life, in our church, in our community.
[00:39:14] In Jesus name, amen.
