In Scott Brown's sermon 'Full of Grace and Truth', he explores John 1 and 21, emphasizing the themes of belief, life, and the deity of Christ in the Gospel of John. Brown reflects on the significance of Jesus being 'full of grace and truth' and the impact of His life and miracles. He discusses the two types of belief—intellectual assent and a life-giving trust—and the importance of embracing Jesus fully. The sermon also touches on contemporary political and social issues, contrasting them with the eternal truths found in John's Gospel. Brown highlights the transformative power of Jesus, who offers spiritual nourishment, light, and life. Through seven signs and seven 'I am' statements, Jesus' divine nature and mission are revealed, encouraging believers to live with 'life in His name', regardless of worldly circumstances.

Please open your Bibles to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, find verse 1. I'm going to read the first 14 verses of the gospel of John and the last two so and when I finish with verse 14 I'll have you turn to the end of the gospel and we'll find verses 24 and 25. 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 nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe.

He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And then turn to John 21 and find verse 24. Verse 24. This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things that Jesus did which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that could be written.

Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, we thank you for this remarkably beautiful testimony of your glory that we have pondered for many months. We are so thankful for the words to help us, to direct us, to comfort us, to correct us. All these things you've done to us Lord you have shown us your glory and we are so grateful for your glory we need your glory and I pray now that you would help us even as we've considered all these things for so long that you would help us even more for more of your glory, more of your grace, more of your truth.

In Jesus name, Amen. Please be seated. Well we began our journey through the Gospel of John at the end of 2017, and today we're going to conclude that series. This will be our last sermon in the Gospel of John. After this, though, we'll turn the page to the book of Acts and we'll continue the testimony of the 40 days of the Lord Jesus revealing himself is after his resurrection.

But then after we finish Acts 2 We're going to return to John. We're gonna return to the revelation of John, and we're gonna do an exposition of the book of Revelation. So that will happen after we finish the first two chapters of the book of Acts. Now, so we're summarizing the gospel of John and you probably won't hear anything new today. I really pray that's true you won't hear anything new but I do pray that it'll just sink down deeper that it'll get sweeter as you hear it again.

You know, maybe we should sing that song. Sing them over again to me. Wonderful words of life. Well, we're gonna hear them again. So we've been kind of soaking in this gospel for three years and the question that I've been asking is really arising out of the purpose of the gospel itself and the question is is what would it take for you to believe?

What evidence would convince you? What would you need to see about Jesus? To push you over the wall, to help you to believe? Or for the Christian, what would it take to make you want to run to him more? What would it take for you to, in the Gospel of John, to move you so that when you woke up in the morning, the first thing you could not wait to do was to put your hands on the Bible and to drink in the goodness of God and to pray to your God.

You know, what would it take for you to want more than ever, like more than ever in your life, to want to fill every moment of your day in self-consciousness, a self-consciousness that you've always longed for, to be in submission to the Messiah. Well, that's really an outgrowth of John's purpose. In John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, we find John's purpose, and he says that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. That's the whole purpose of John's writing this book and he wants to give the reader one manifestation of the glory of Jesus after another. And how much wisdom would it take to convince you that all you needed was Jesus Christ?

How much healing for you to see would it take for you to see how much Jesus desires to heal you? How much knowledge of Jesus would it take? So that's really the question. And You know, as we've gone through this, some of you actually have believed and some of you have been baptized. What a blessing that has been.

Now, I will have to tell you, I think I've struggled with this message more than any that I can remember in recent times. You know, it's so vast here to try to reflect what Jesus is saying here. And the job of a shepherd is to reflect what Jesus has said, to try to bring it out as best he can. And so I struggled. I would study for days and I would come home and I would say, Deborah, I've been studying for days.

I have no sermon. You know, you have to understand that there's a difference between having an outline and having a message and you know what what flocks need are messages from heaven and so I struggled with various titles you know for this message the word was God no no no no no in him was life no no no full of grace and truth I almost titled it no one ever spoke like this man. I was so drawn to, you must be born again. I loved, I wanted to say, he loved them to the end. I wanted to title it, Rivers of Living Water.

No, no, no. Bread of life. No, no, no. Life abundantly. No, no.

The thief comes in to steal and kill, no, not that, let not your hearts be troubled, how about that? Or life in his name, or that your joy may be full. You knew that was the one I wanted for today, didn't you? Well, that's not the one. The title that I actually arrived at was Life in His Name and it actually just arises out of John's purpose, which is communicated, which I just read.

And it's a very interesting, you know, when you think about the contours of life that a congregation goes through preaching through a book. Many of you know when you came to this church by the chapter of scripture we were in. When did you come? Oh, I think I was in John 4. Somebody told me that this week.

But when we began this study, life in America was relatively smooth sailing, unparalleled economic prosperity, relative political stability. My times have changed. The times are uncertain economically, most unstable politically, disturbingly corrupt morally, and You know Christians and particularly pastors were absolutely caught flat-footed and And completely by surprise when when governors and city councils and mayors all over America told churches to shut down and they said if you don't shut down you're breaking the law and you're not loving your brother. The government has never said things like that to the church before and so we didn't know what to do. And now our national and state elections are just three weeks away, less than that.

And one of the two most powerful political parties, front-running platform, is demanding government control, the killing of babies, imposing the LGBTQ agenda on everyone. Their platform legalizes an injustice. It destroys equality in the name of equality. And that's what we have ahead of us right now. And the turmoil in America and division seems deeper.

And I've heard many people say, this is the most important election in my lifetime. I've said that, maybe some of you have said that as well. You know, you hear people saying this election will determine the soul of America. Many people are saying things like that and so it's a time of darkness in many ways. In North Carolina however there's quite a bit of light on the political front.

We have some very, we have godly men actually running for the highest offices in our land. And I'm so grateful for that. You know, in the midst of all the shutdown and masking up and everything like that, our church has seemed like the land of Goshen. It just untouched. It's been very interesting.

It's as if we've escaped the intrusion and have lived undisturbed and have existed in a happy state. We've seen it every Sunday as we've gathered together. And I think we've seen that he has all the grace and truth you'll ever need and cleaving to him is what we need. And I just want to say that the preaching of the gospel and the message of the Gospel of John and the acquiring the wisdom in the Gospel of John is way more important than any economy than the outcome of any election. And when John says in believing you may have life in his name.

It's the same thing as saying that you can thrive in the midst of any economy, under any government, as long as you're listening and responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this really is our hope. And what is happening in our society is nothing in comparison to the importance of what's revealed in the Gospel of John. Isaiah says that the nations are worthless. They are nothing.

He says they are less than nothing. And, you know, it's been 2, 000 years since the events recorded in John. Nations have come and go, have come and gone. The wars have broken out, they have ceased, rulers have been elevated and they've been thrown down. And that cycle will continue, but the people of God will continue.

The Church of Jesus Christ will prosper in the land. And the reason is they have life in his name they have a life they have a real life and it does not ebb and flow so what what is contained in here is is life Charles Spurgeon in his book Lectures to My Students, I was reading this with some young men yesterday, and ran across this statement. To listen to the gospel is one of the noblest parts of the adoration of the Most High. It is a mental exercise when rightly performed in which all the faculties of the spiritual man are called into devotional action. Reverently hearing the word exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irritates us with joy, inflames us with love, inspires us with zeal, and lifts us towards heaven.

So I pray that the Gospel of John has been that for you as we've gathered week after week. I want to just go through a number of things here. You have an outline in front of you. It has lots of things on it. I just wanted you to see the things that I wanted to mention during this time here.

There's so much more to mention. But the beauty of the gospel is such a helpful thing for all of our hearts. But let's talk about the writer, John the writer. He was the disciple whom Jesus loved. Remember we went over that and I asked, are you the disciple whom Jesus loved?

I hope your whole identity is that you're the disciple that Jesus loves, that when you walk through the day that's what you think. I am the disciple that Jesus loves. He loves me so. Now John wrote letters of the New Testament, first, second, and third. John, as well as Revelation, he was a son of Zebedee and Salome.

He was the brother of James. He was the fishing partner with Peter, one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem, not meek and mild, fiery, judgmental, wanting to call fire from heaven down on the unbelievers. He was given the responsibility to care for Jesus' mother. How about that? His brother James was killed by Herod Agrippa in around 44 AD.

John lived into his 80s, into the 80s of the first century. He outlived all the other apostles. He was a pastor in Ephesus, which is about 45 minutes from our missionaries in Turkey. If you ever go visit them, you'll go to Ephesus. What an amazing place.

John probably died in Ephesus. John was a disciple and he was a disciple maker. Jesus' disciple was John. John's disciple was Polycarp. Polycarp's disciple was Irenaeus.

So John had tremendous reach and depth in the Christian community. But what I love the most about him is that he was a disciple whom Jesus loved. I hope that's true for you. Let's talk about the structure of the gospel. Just a reminder, you've already heard this many of these things before, maybe in a little different way today.

The prologue is from verse 1 through 18, and in these first 18 verses explain How Jesus was able to do what he did he is God he is before creation He is the agent of creation. He's the incarnate son of God He is the light and life and the prologue, you know proves that there are three persons in the Trinity composed of one essence in three persons. And the prologue destroys the heresies of the church that grew up in the first three centuries and on. And in the modern era, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Modalism, the prologue focuses on the theological discussions in the early centuries of the church. The Council of Nicaea in 325, the Council of Constantinople in 381, the Council of Calcita in 451, all of them really had a laser beam on these first 18 verses.

And so after the prologue we learned what he did and what he was like. And so in the second section, it's often called the Book of Signs. There are two large sections, book of signs and the book of his glory. But the book of signs spans from chapter 1 verse 19 to chapter 12 verse 50 and this is an outlay of the public ministry of Jesus Christ and here you find his miracles, his interactions with people, his jaw-dropping memorable statements that you can never get over if your heart is turned toward the Lord. And Jesus in this section in the book of signs was proving that he was the son of God and this section begins with choosing the disciples and it ends with washing the disciples feet in John chapter 13.

41% of the material in John are sermons. You have a red-letter Bible, you've seen a lot of red. The most red of any, most red in the Bibles of any of the Gospels. And 357 verses out of 879 verses are the words of Jesus Christ and his words are spirit and our life. It's such a remarkable blessing to read his words and have his words in your heart.

So you have the book of signs that's the first long section and then the book of glory or the declaration of glory this begins in chapter 13 verse 1 and stretches all the way to chapter 20 verse 31. Eight chapters on his suffering and death and resurrection. Forty-eight percent of the gospel of John covers the last week of his life And this section explains Jesus suffering for sin. And this whole section explains the answer to our greatest problem. And the question is, what do I do about my sins?

I am a sinner. What will I do?" And the answer to that question is that Jesus suffers in your place. That His whole life was a crucifixion, as one writer has said. From the cradle to the grave, his whole life was a crucifixion. And Jesus has been walking with his disciples for three years, and now they're in the upper room, and they've experienced the Last Supper, and he's telling his disciples that he's leaving.

Yeah, that's right. The person who turned water into wine, the person who called the sea, the person who was able to feed 5, 000 said, I'm leaving. Imagine that. Imagine the most important, the most powerful, the most helpful person in your life is saying, I'm leaving. And the disciples really are in pieces, and so he comforts them.

He says, let not your heart be troubled. And in this whole section we see that the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ and how God glorifies himself in the sufferings of his son. God is glorifying himself through the suffering of his son so that sinners would come and be part of his family. And he was condemned, he was slandered, he was rejected by men, he was slapped, he was mocked, and we deserved all those things. We are the ones who deserve to be slapped for our sins.

We are the ones who deserve to be mocked. We are the ones who deserve to be slapped for our sins. We are the ones who deserve to be mocked We are the ones who deserve to have all of our dirt thrown all over the world in public We are the ones who deserved to be stabbed We are the ones who deserved to have the crown of thorns smashed upon our head for all the ridiculous things we thought and done. And Jesus Christ died in our place. He was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. He bore our shame. All of the shame that we deserved was laid upon him. Isn't that amazing? And as a result, you actually have people who are free and who can smile on the future because their names are written in heaven.

And they've been forgiven of all of their sins in the past, in the present, and in the future. And this is the whole meaning of this section. You know, we hit this section and I turned and I did 10 sermons. I preached 10 sermons on the cross. We did the exposition but I thought there is so much in the apostolic preaching of the cross that there were 10 sermons.

Let me give you some of the titles. Behold the man of sorrows. Boast in the cross. Forsaken at the cross. Know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

Walls torn down, crucified to the world, nailed to the cross, slain before the foundation of the world. Take up your cross. The consequences for refusing to take up your cross. So those were 10 sermons on the cross. I was so thankful to be able to have the freedom to do that here in this church.

I pray it was a helpful shepherd staff for all of us to glory in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and to recognize that we are not saved by any works that we've done but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross so that whole section the book the book of glory God is glorifying his son by causing all of our guilt to be laid upon him. That whole section speaks of that in in tremendous detail and he took the wrath for everything we deserved. And then you come to the epilogue in chapter 21 in verses 1 through 25. And here in the epilogue, John seems like he's kind of cleaning up old business and he wants to tell us a little bit more about Peter. The last time we saw Peter things weren't going that well and so the Lord Jesus makes a fire on the beach.

The disciples are fishing and he calls out to them, have you caught any fish? And then he tells them to throw their net on the other side of the boat, and they bring in a big load, they come in, and the Lord Jesus Christ, he comforts them. And he brings them in. It's such a beautiful, beautiful picture. Now let's talk about some of the major themes here.

I tried to bring a short list. I promise. First of all, the deity of Christ. John makes it very clear that Jesus Christ is God. Jesus reveals God to us.

If you have seen him, you have seen the Father. And Jesus is fully God and fully man. He is the Word made flesh. He is the incarnate Word. And John argues powerfully for the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. So that's one theme, the deity of Jesus Christ. Let's look at another one. It's a word that appears over and over in the gospel. Belief.

What does it mean to believe? This is one of the most important words that John uses it. He uses it also in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and he uses it in the book of Revelation. And he wants everyone to understand what it means to believe. The most famous Verse publicly in the Bible is John 3 16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." And then two verses later in John 3, 18, he speaks of the danger of not believing, the terrible danger. 3, 18, he who believes in him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. And what John is making very clear, quoting the Lord Jesus, is that if you do not believe you are condemned, that you are lost and that you do not have life and certainly not life in his name. It's very important to ask who said this? The one who said this is the one who heals the sick and raises the dead. The one who said this casts out demons and he stops the wind.

He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He is the first and the last and he will outlast all who do not believe. So there's this terrifying specter of unbelief and the question all should ask is do I believe? Do I have life in his name?

And of course he's speaking of what it actually means to be a believer. To believe really defines what it means to a believer, to to be a believer and you have this statement that these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. So you have these two things, belief and life. Those are the two components of true salvation as opposed to fake salvation. So what does it mean to believe?

Well there are two kinds of belief. One kind of belief is a dead belief, and the other kind is a life-giving kind of belief. There's a belief, first of all, in the facts about Jesus. This is not the kind of belief that Jesus is talking about here. You may be able to appreciate the things that Jesus said and did.

You may like to be in a church, you may be able to debate doctrine, you may say Jesus was the greatest teacher, you may say he had the highest ethical standards of anyone in history. You can believe in Jesus the same way that you just believe that snow is white or the sky is blue and that is the end of it. And this is not the kind of belief that John is talking about. As brother James said it very clearly, the demons also believe and they tremble. Everybody believes in some way or another.

So just believing in facts has nothing to do with your salvation. The devil believes intellectually but but not lovingly, but not trustfully, but not savingly. The devil does not want his authority, But there's a second kind of belief and it's the belief of the gospel of John. It's the belief that trusts It's the belief that loves it's the belief that obeys to believe in Jesus and have life in his name means that you receive him in his totality, that you have given up your life, your self-congratulating life, to follow him and to take his authority and you embrace him warmly and trustingly and submissively and you take him hopefully and you take him lovingly. That's the kind of belief that John is speaking of here.

Now Paul said that with the heart one believes. It's beyond, it's far beyond just intellectual acquisition. It's not intellectual ascent, primarily it requires intellectual ascent, but that's really only the beginning. Jesus talked about receiving and believing. As many as received him to them, he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name.

This is a receiving of all that he is, not holding anything back. And Jonathan Edwards loved to talk about this in his work, A Divine and Supernatural Light. He makes this point, he says, there's a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet and having a sense of its sweetness. He says, you have a sense when you truly believe how good, how excellent Christ is.

This is much more than rational belief that God is glorious and that God is holy, but that you have a sense of his goodness and glory and holiness and love. It's your greatest attraction. It's what you want. It makes you hate your sins. It causes you to turn away from unrighteousness.

It makes you love your brother. It makes you want to run to him. It makes you want to obey him and if you don't want to run to him, if you don't want to obey him, you've not believed. Jesus said if you love me you'll keep my commandments. So it's a belief that obeys.

So belief, one great theme. Oh we've seen that word so many times. Another major theme, life, life. In him was life and the life was the light of men. Can you remember when you first read that?

Wasn't that amazing? He who has the Son has life. These things are written that you might have life in his name. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Everybody's trying to get a life, But the problem is they're trying to get their own life And you'll you'll you'll never have what you really want unless you have the life of Jesus Keep wanting more of yourself, and that's what you're going to get is that what you really want Or do you want more of the life of Jesus?

Another major theme light light I am the light of the world. I was reading in Isaiah 60 and these words about light Isaiah uses over and over again in his prophecy. But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself. For the Lord will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended." He's prophesying of the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you have Him, the sun never goes down. You always have Him. Well, you might have an economic collapse, you might have a political upheaval, you might have a revolution, you might be hungry, but one thing for sure, if you have Jesus Christ, you'll never lack light, you'll never lack knowing what to do, you'll never lack the comfort of his Holy Spirit, you'll never lack the knowledge of his will, because he is the light of the world. Another major theme, water. Water.

You know, it's interesting that John, he just can't get over the most beautiful things in the world and connecting them with the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And so this is the story of the woman at the well, Jacob's well, and she said, give me a drink. And Jesus said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Living water.

In John 737 on the last day of the feast Jesus cried out and said if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of water." Water. Water for refreshment, water to cleanse, water. There's enough water in the rivers of God to satisfy you. Let's talk about the motive.

John's motive is stated here. We read of John's motive. How about Jesus? Jesus' motive is declared in John 15, 11. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Everything that Jesus has said in this gospel is designed for your joy. God so desires to lift you out of your despondency. He so desires to carry you in your sorrows. He so desires to make your joy full. And there really is only one way.

And that is by seeking him with all your heart. To have life in his name. And to keep pursuing him. What would it take? What would it take for you to long for his presence more than ever?

When you get up in the morning, the first thing you wanna do is open up your Bible and let the living water flow. Let the joy fill your heart. Do you ever need that? Do you ever need a little bit of recalibration? And only the Word of God can do it.

Man's wisdom never does it. It always takes you deeper into your hole. But God says that he'll fill your heart with songs of deliverance whenever you're afraid. Okay, so those are some of the high points. Now of all the things to speak about in this gospel, I decided that I wanted to leave you with two things, two great things that are presented in this gospel.

And I pray that these things would be very helpful to shepherd you as a church. That they would be such a helpful shepherd staff for whatever you're going through now. And the first thing I want to leave you with is a sense of what he does. And secondly, I want to leave you with a sense of who he is. Now if you have an outline in front of me, you already know what I'm going to say here.

And John loves to present things in sevens. It's the number of perfection. When we get to the book of Revelation, you'll see it over and over again. John gives seven signs. Seven signs.

You have them listed. I put them there just so you could go back and look at them. But I want to see how these could be helpful to shepherd us in this church, a sense of what he does, what you can expect from him. What can you expect from him? Of all the things that happen, interpret what is happening according to what you can expect from him in whatever moment you're in.

What can you expect? Well first of all, you can expect that he'll turn water into wine. In John 2, verse 10, every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk then the inferior you have kept the good wine until now. You can always count on the fact that he will make good out of everything you've ever lacked and he saves the best for last. He saves the best for last.

Water into wine. What else can you expect? Healing. You have a figure of this in the healing of the nobleman's son in John 4, 46-54. He heals the sick.

There was a nobleman's son who was sick. The nobleman wasn't at home. And he went to Jesus and asked him to come down and heal his son. He was at the point of death. He said, Sir, come down before my child dies.

And Jesus said, Go your way, your son lives. So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went away. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying your son lives then he inquired of them the hour when he got better and they said to him yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him so the father knew that it was at the same hour which Jesus said to him, your son lives, and he himself believed, and his whole household. Jesus works over space, over time. He spoke a word, and a boy was healed over a very long distance.

You'll never need to worry about where you are. Jesus covers all the times, all the spaces of you and everyone that you know. And everyone that you know. These healings are figures of spiritual healing as well. The third, what can you expect?

You can expect the lame to walk. Isaiah prophesied this. The healing of the paralytic in chapter 5 verses 1 through 9. There was a sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

Now a certain man was there who had infirmity for 38 years, and Jesus says to him, do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made well? And of course This is a parable of a changed life. He could not walk. He was weak.

He was impotent. And as a result of this, he went places he had never been able to go before. And he saw things that he never saw before. And that's what happens when you turn to Jesus Christ. Everything looks different.

Everything looks different. The sky is bluer and the grass is greener when you know Jesus Christ. And then we go to the feeding of the 5, 000. What can you expect? What can you expect of him?

In chapter 6 verses 1 through 14 we find the narrative and what we learn from this is that Jesus is food from heaven so that you will live forever. And he says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life and I will Raise him up at the last day. I Am the living bread Which came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread that I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world." Now the message of this miracle is not see what happens when a little boy shares his lunch.

That's not the message. The message is that you have food from heaven. I mean I don't even know if he's saying I will give you food. I think he's saying I will give you myself. That's what you need.

I am bread from heaven. I am the manna that comes down in the wilderness. I am the one you need. I am your bread. In a few minutes we'll celebrate the Lord's Supper.

And we will hear the Lord say, take, eat. This is my body. He is bred from heaven. Then you have the stilling of the storm in chapter six, verses 16 through 20. Here, this remarkable story, which we spent quite a bit of time on.

He is the ruler of all nature. This is a very interesting text for the climate change, people who are scared. Well, in one way they should be scared because God is controlling the weather. He has always done it and He always will and you should be terrified because it's God who's doing it. And then there's the healing of the blind man in chapter 9.

He opens the eyes of the blind. His spit has more power to heal than the most expensive technology around. And he spits and makes clay from the ground and he anoints this man's eyes. And he says, go wash in the pool of Siloam. What can you expect?

You can expect your eyes to be open. And the seventh, the raising of Lazarus, what can you expect? What will he do? What will he do with you? Well, he's given you this miracle in the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11.

He raises the dead to life. He raises the dead. That's what you can expect. You can expect those seven things from him. This is what he does.

And let's look at what he, who he is because it is very important to see what he does and there are these seven signs and now there are seven markers of who he is, who is he, who is this man and there are these seven IM statements, they're very famous, you've heard them all, they're so wonderful, I hope they're sweeter today to recite them again. It's very important to know who you're aligned with. It's very important to know what he's like and what his character is. Who is this man? Well, first of all, he's the bread of life.

John chapter 6 verse 35 and on through that chapter. And he is everlasting nourishment in a world of famine. He's also the light of the world in John 8-12. He's your light in a dark world. It is a dark world, but you don't have to be dark.

Jesus spoke to them and he said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life. It's very interesting if you look at the context of this. The Pharisees had brought a woman caught in adultery and they want they want to stone her and but they come they come without any witnesses and they all walk away because Jesus saw right through them. He knew it was He knew that they came and brought that woman to test him.

It had nothing to do with morality. They had no witnesses and they all walked away. And the Lord Jesus Christ was really quoting the law of witnesses in Deuteronomy 19. The law called for false accusers to receive the same punishment they called for. And Jesus is not saying we need to forgive adulterers because we're sinners too.

He looked right through those Pharisees who brought that woman as a ruse to condemn him. And he looked right through their motives and he said, is there any, do we have any witnesses? And they all walked away. And to the woman he said, go and sin no more. But Jesus is the light of the world and he looks through all of the hypocrisy in all of our lives.

He said, I am the door. I am the door to the sheep. Chapter 10 verses 7 through 9 he calls his sheep and they hear his voice. He says I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep did not hear them.

I am the door. If anyone enters by me he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and they might have it abundantly. And so Jesus is the door of the sheepfold.

Interestingly, he's both the door and the shepherd in this text. And the sheep hear his voice and they come in and he takes care of them as they come in and as they go out. And then he says, I am the good shepherd in chapter 10 verses 11 and following. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.

And then he says, I am the resurrection and the life in chapter 11 verse 25. I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" And she answered, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come to the world.

I love those two little words, yes Lord, yes Lord. You know that's what Peter said when Jesus said, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. The sweetest words that a human being can ever utter is, yes, Lord.

And then number six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way, and he is the truth, and he is the life. And then he says, I am the true vine in chapter 15. I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that bears fruit he prunes.

That it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, Unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit.

For without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing. In Christianity, you actually have something real that's happening. You have real life flowing from God into the soul of a human being and that's what it means to be in Christ and that's what it means to believe. There is something real, there is real life that flows into the soul of man.

And here Jesus reveals it in this figure of the vine and the branches. And so it speaks of what it means to be a Christian. All the closeness, the fruitfulness, the dependence, all the belonging. So what would it take for you to believe? Would it be enough that he turned water into wine?

Would it be enough that he healed a nobleman's son from afar? Would it be enough to heal a paralytic? Would it be enough to feed 5, 000? Would it be enough if he were the bread of life? Would it be enough if he was the light of the world?

Would it be enough if he was living water? Would it be enough? What would be enough? What more would anyone want? What would anyone need to believe and to follow him and to say yes Lord?

Or to get up in the morning and say Oh Lord, yes Lord again and again and again to be fed from heaven to be cared for from on high to be led. What would it take? The Lord Jesus made this very clear. It's a matter of happiness. These things I have spoken to you, that your joy may be made full.

Isaac Ambrose captured this. He said, Christ is the whole of man's happiness, the sun to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, a wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures. Well it is true no one ever spoke like this man. His words are spirit and they are life. And the question is, do you have life in his name?

And do you say yes, Lord? A long time ago I read something I'm gonna read it now if you're probably if you're old if you're old you've already heard this but I'm not sure the younger generation has heard this so I'm gonna read it It might be very familiar to some of you. And I'll close with this. It's a piece of writing called One Solitary Life. He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in still another village where he worked until he was 30. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home.

He didn't go to college. He never traveled more than 200 miles from the place he was born. He did none of the things that one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when public opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to the cross between two thieves. While he was dying, his executioner was gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave for the pity of a friend.

19 centuries have come and gone and today he is the central figure of the human race, the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, all the kings that have ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as much as this one solitary life. And he is full of grace and truth. And he is the light of the world. And he is the bread of life.

And he's all the water that you need for the rest of your life and for all eternity. And so there you have it, the Gospel of John. Well, I'm grateful we're not gonna completely abandon John. We're gonna go back to him, and we'll see many of the same things in Revelation. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, we thank you for this stunning, beautiful testimony of Jesus that our brother John wrote down so that our hearts would thrill at your presence, that we would find all of our comfort in him so that he would be our strength he would be our teacher we would follow him and we would live in this world with life in his name Through all the ups and downs of this world, all the wars, all the troubles, all the reversals, to have life, life, everlasting life. Lord, I pray that you would take all these things and warm our hearts with them today, that we would delight ourselves in all of these things that you've said and done. Amen.