In the sermon 'That You May Have Life' by Scott Brown, the focus is on the concluding verses of the Gospel of John, specifically John 20:30-31. Brown emphasizes the purpose of John's Gospel, which is to present the signs and miracles of Jesus Christ to lead believers to faith and to have life in His name. He highlights that the Word of God provides the ultimate shepherding, meeting believers in their current circumstances and directing them to Jesus as the solution to personal and societal challenges. Brown discusses the sufficiency of the signs recorded in John's Gospel, selecting them to demonstrate Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God. He distinguishes between intellectual belief and true belief that leads to a transformed life. The sermon underscores the historical authenticity of Christianity, grounded in real events and miracles witnessed by Jesus' disciples. Brown concludes by affirming the necessity of having life in Jesus' name, which provides peace and stability amidst the tumultuous world, and encourages listeners to examine their faith and relationship with Christ.

Please open your Bibles to the only inerrant, sufficient, pure word of truth to John chapter 20 verse 30. I'll be reading verses 30 and 31. Verse 30, John chapter 20. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these 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.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these great words of summary of all of what has been written before in this wonderful gospel. Lord come shepherd your flock now through your word. Amen. Please be seated.

The Word of God is the tool to shepherd the flock of God. If you want shepherding, the greatest and most effectual place you can receive it is in the words of God. People are searching for shepherding in all kinds of places, but it is God and his word that provides the greatest of all shepherding. So in our church we believe that it is the word of God that shepherds the flock, so when we gather together to to deal with it, to read it, and to preach it, we believe this is a moment of shepherding. We pray that God will shepherd your soul today, that God would move your heart to himself and to instruct you in the ways in which you should go, to clean up the junk in your mind and to replace it to refresh your mind with every good thing.

So we're here before this Word of Truth and this text of course is nearing the last portion of the Gospel of John. We have been in the Gospel of John since December of 2017 and we're coming to the end of it. I promise you I will try with all I can to prolong the staying in the gospel of John. You know when you preach through a book you never want to leave it you know it has never left you or forsake you and you don't want to do it either. And so Our text here though brings us to the greatest remedy for the greatest problems that our nation is facing and that you and I are facing.

The word of God and the sermons that are preached from the word of God really are meant to meet us in the moment and I pray that this text meets you in the moment that you're in now we happen to live in a time of tumult in our country there's a sense of vulnerability that people feel There's a feeling of fear of the consequences of the social revolutionaries, the moral revolutionaries, the political revolutionaries, the economic revolutionaries if they find themselves taking over our culture. And as I talk to people and as I read the news, there's a feeling of fear of the upcoming election like I've never known before. The fear is that no matter who wins, there'll either be violence or further restrictions, violence if the Republicans win, further clamping down on churches and families if the Democrats win. So we're facing really many things that are shocking to us where we're facing the fact that the Democratic Party platform celebrates every sexual sin that the Bible condemns. Their entire platform rejects the entire foundation of biblical relationships, of morality that's expressed in the word of God.

The Ten Commandments is trampled under foot. And what's the problem? Well, The answer to the problem really is in our text this morning. And the truth is, and the problem is, that man has rejected Jesus Christ, and they do not have life in his name. And what has happened, what has happened is that people have, as Jeremiah said, they have forsaken the fountain of living waters and have hewn out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

And that is the problem. You know, it's very interesting, this morning after I got up I was reading Paul's letter to the Ephesians and part of Philippians and it struck me about the reality of the presence of those letters to those churches. These churches were under tremendous persecution. They were under totalitarian governments that you ain't seen yet. And They were suffering in many, many ways.

They were living under very harmful and draconian regimes. And what does Paul do in those letters? It's very interesting. If you read those letters in light of the persecution, the social upheaval and the political pressures that were on the people of God. What does he write about?

Well, he writes to them about the glory of Jesus Christ. He writes to them about how they would conduct themselves in their families. And he writes to them about how they would conduct themselves in their churches. He talks about how they would be husbands and wives. He talks about how they would treat their children, and how they would bring them up in the training, the admonition of the Lord.

And what he does is he deals with really the real things in your life, the most important things in your life. And the truth is there isn't any person in this world that's going to turn around all the political regimes in the world. But you can do something in your in your heart and you can do something in your home and you can do something in your church. You can do that and the Apostle Paul seems to acknowledge that as he as he writes I was so refreshed by that this morning just to consider the simplicity and the beauty and the reality of the Christian faith that it works in every part of your life. And you know there's tumult all around you but there's calm in the heart of the Christian who trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was just so thankful to acknowledge that this morning before the Lord because I found myself anxious about what's happening as well So I was very grateful for that. Well the context of this passage is really the conclusion of the gospel of John. These are the concluding words of the gospel of John but you say oh no but there's one more chapter left. Yes, there is. It is an epilogue.

You know how that works. You come and you bring a message to someone, and you say, OK, that's it. And then you think of three more things, and then you say them. And I think that's what John has done in his epilogue in chapter 21. And this passage of scripture deals with two very, very critical matters.

And verse 30 speaks to the evidences of Jesus Christ. And verse 31 speaks of the evangelistic message of John's gospel and his intent for writing everything that he wrote in the gospel of John. He wrote these things that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that in believing that you might have life in His name. We read earlier that He said, these things I write to you that your joy may be complete. Those two things are connected.

Your joy being made complete is entirely dependent upon whether you have life in His name life in His name, you know, what are you supposed to think about in? Through this sermon. Here's what I want you to think about life in His name life life everlasting life life That flows into your heart even in the midst of the most difficult and trying times you might experience, and that we might be experiencing as a nation. Now, Jesus has already appeared before two groups of people in this context. First among fearful disciples locked in a room.

They were afraid of the Jews. But eight days later they met again on the Lord's Day on Sunday and Thomas was there. And Thomas had just confessed, my Lord and my God. That's what comes before this summary section. And then John tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these 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." Now, I've divided these two verses into two sections.

If you have an outline in front of you, you'll see where I'm going with it. It's not rocket religion. And so I'd like you to look at verse 30, and we'll talk about the signs. Verse 30 speaks about the signs. This is so important and so critical where Jesus where it says Jesus did many other signs, signs, that's the operative word, in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book.

Now what we learn from this is John has selected signs or miracles in this book to drive home his message and what is a sign? Well It's an unusual event that points to a larger purpose. A sign is a miracle with a message. It's an event that proves something. And That's why John recorded the signs that he did.

The equivalent word to sign is miracle. He did these miracles for this purpose. Now what we find here in the gospel of John, if you just want to look at it from a literary standpoint, is that John took a sample of signs. He didn't take them all. He pulled the ones that allowed him to drive home his message that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God and that in believing you might have life in his name and that your joy might be made full.

He's chose the signs to lead you there. He's leading us to this conclusion. And John in every chapter is driving to an agenda. And he's always driving to the sweetness of Jesus Christ. You know, when I was a young man, I read the gospel of John and I was born again.

I saw the sweetness of Jesus Christ. And John reveals it so beautifully. John is not just dispassionately reporting historical facts. He is reporting historical facts, But he's reporting historical facts so that you can see the life in his name. Life in his name.

He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son does not have life. And John wants us to see the life that in his name. It's so beautiful. The other apostles have already written and John writes his gospel last.

He is assuming that all the other miracles and all the other accounts of Jesus Christ have been recorded that are necessary and so what he does is he just picks a small number of them seven of them depending on how you count them but John is very very focused and he had focused and he has a very clear focus. If you've ever written a book, you realize that somehow you have to come up with a focus. Or if you're even gonna preach a sermon, you need to come up with a focus. And if you're speaking to your children, you probably ought to have a focus as well. But John's focus here is very, very clear and he has stated it.

John is employing what one theologian called lucid brevity. He doesn't say everything, he just says what you need to know. Verse 30 is very much like the very last verse in the Gospel of John. In John 21 25 John writes and there were 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 would be written and then he says Amen. So John has been setting before us signs.

Over the months we have covered these various signs in some detail. In chapter 2 verse 11 at the wedding of Cana in Galilee where Jesus performed his first miracle we read these words words this begin this is the beginning of signs that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory as his disciples believed in him. Every one of his signs, every one of his miracles declare some element of his glory. You can learn so much about Jesus from every sign. Go back and read the signs again.

Oh by the way to elongate this study in the gospel of John I just might do that and we will see his glory, glory as the only begotten of the son of the father. In chapter four verse 54 we read these words, This again is the second sign Jesus did when he had come out of Judea into Galilee. It's very interesting. People had different responses to the signs, and that's true today too. Some of you have responded to the signs with belief and you have life in His name.

Some of you today have not responded to the signs with belief. Well that that's what happened in the time of Jesus. In in chapter 2 23 we read that many believed when they saw the signs. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did. But we read in chapter 12, verse 37, that many did not believe when they saw the signs.

But although he had done many signs before them, they did not believe in him, that the word of the prophet might be revealed. And the prophet, Isaiah, prophesied that some would not believe when they saw the signs, that they would be dull, they would be deaf, and they wouldn't be able to hear, they wouldn't be able to see even though they saw them with their own eyes. And we find that same thing even today. And so the signs are prominent. In chapter 19 verse 34 the Lord Jesus Christ displays the signs of the gospel.

And we read of that in chapter 19 verse 34, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified and his testimony is true and he knows that he is telling the truth that you may believe for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled not one of his bones should be broken and again another scripture says they shall look on him whom they have pierced his body his pierced body his pierced hands and his feet were signs that he was the Son of God and Yet some believed and some did not believe when you get to the book of Acts in the preaching of the cross of Jesus Christ Peter is preaching to Cornelius who who is being converted And he's explaining the work of Jesus Christ and that he, Peter, himself witnessed these signs. He speaks of how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good, " I love that phrase, he went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God Even to us who ate and drank with him after he arose from the dead and he commanded us to preach to the people and To testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets witness that through his name whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. Peter is preaching the integrity of the signs. He is preaching the historical realities that he himself observed as an eyewitness.

These are the signs. And his very hands and his feet and his pierced side are signs that he is the Son of God. So John's purpose, his whole purpose is to prove that Jesus Christ is the only Savior and so he records seven miracles and they're found between chapters two through twelve. Upwards of 36 miracles are listed in all the four gospels and of course John narrows it down to the seven. He uses this word signs more than any other gospel writer and he's giving proof of his deity and I'll just name them quickly.

He turned water into wine first, second he healed a nobleman son, third he healed a man with a withered hand at the pool of Bethesda, fourth he fed 5, 000, fifth he walked on the water in the sea of Galilee sixth he opened the eyes of the man born blind and seven he raised Lazarus from the dead after he was stinking in the grave and these are the signs Of course the the quintessential pinnacle of all the signs is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But John wants us to believe because of the signs. What does all this mean? It means many things. I think first it means that history, that this is a history that can be verified.

We encounter this word in John truly. It appears over and over again, truly, truly. This is a faithful saying. What we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard, and what our hands have handled. In other words, we've been eyewitnesses of His Majesty.

This is history, It's not fantasy, it's not mythology. Christianity is a religion grounded on real historical situations. And John is telling us that Christianity is based on signs, things, miracles that actually happened. And John actually tells us what Jesus did specifically, where he did it, specifically in what town he did it, or in what region he did it, or by what lake he did it, or in what river he experienced it. John tells us specifically who were the kings and the governors and the political movements of the time and the religious makeup of the time.

He names names. He explains various categories of religion among the Jews that were real at that time. John tells us what Jesus did, where he did it. He documents the presence of individuals with names and families and he tells us that these events happen in particular days of the week. He tells us the hour that they happened.

His crucifixion happened at three o'clock. He died at three o'clock, these things are documented. Our source of truth is truth and things that actually happened. We embrace what some call a realist epistemology. In other words, our source of truth is realism.

It's what's real. Real things that happened in real history to real people in real places. And John is telling us there are real signs of a real Messiah and his name is Jesus Christ And in him and in only him can you have life in his name? And there is only one source of truth his word and there is only one Savior and that is Jesus Christ. That's what John is trying to prove and I don't want us to miss something here that was pointed out in men's Bible study on Monday.

By the way if you haven't been in men's Bible study, I'd encourage you to come. Almost every man comes. We have men's Bible study at 6 a.m. On Monday to discuss the text of the sermon coming up. And we want these men who come and boys to know what it says and take it back into their homes and teach their, we want the fathers to teach their their wives and their children and we want the young the young men who are there to meditate on it so that when they hear the preaching they actually already know what the text is all about and and frankly those of you who were at Men's Bible Study on Wednesday, on Monday, have already heard me say things that you shared, that I have taken to share with the rest of the church.

God is very kind to use his body to teach one another. And even these times of preaching are a representation of that. But one of the things that was brought up in Bible study on Monday was the abundance, the abundance of evidence that God brought to his people to help us to believe. Notice just the lavish display that Christ made to convince his disciples. John only records seven.

John tells us that the whole world couldn't contain all the books if you wrote it down, all the things that he did. And the Lord Jesus Christ gives us thousands of ways to believe, reasons to believe. It's abundance. He lays it out. In John alone, he gives us seven miracles.

Oh, the turning of water in the wine, that's not enough for you? Okay, I'll heal a man born blind. Oh, that's not enough for you. I will bring a man stinking out of the grave and give him a new life. Is that enough for you?

You know one of the questions I've been asking over the months as we've been in the gospel of John is this question and I'll ask it again. What would it take for you to believe? What would it take to give your whole life to Jesus Christ? What would it take? What evidence do you need for such a thing?

Well, there are many signs that were written down, and there are many ways that the Lord Jesus Christ communicates that there is life in his name. Here's what I want us to see in particular. John presents a reasonable faith. It's an evidence-based faith. It's not an emotion-based faith.

It's not a rumor-based faith. It's an evidence-based faith through eyewitnesses who wrote it down and it was recorded and copied over and over again and the copies actually bear witness to the original if you study them. So these are eyewitnesses. Jesus is not a trickster. He does it all in public in the presence of his disciples.

You see those words in the text? He did it in the presence of his disciples. Everyone saw them. These things were not spread about by hearsay and rumors. Rather, John is saying, I saw the signs and his disciples saw the signs.

But, you know, Jesus is not a minimalist when it comes to declaring his glory. And he gives us many, many reasons to believe. And I'm just so grateful for that. A little bit like the Queen of Sheba when she visited Solomon, she said, I didn't even understand the half of the glory of this kingdom. And John wants us to understand that.

Now also, notice these words, which are not written in this book, which are not written in this book. This is, there is a book, the book can be read, it can be read over and over again, and it's a book that has been unchanged over the centuries. And so we've come in this first section, this first verse that we're handling today, the absolute sufficiency of the signs. And I just want to ask you, are the signs enough for you? Do you need more?

Do you need one more proof? You know, the Pharisees after seeing many signs said, give us another one. We'll believe. We might be able to believe if you just give us one more. I mean I realize that you calm the storm, you heal the sick, you raise the dead, you cast out demons, But I need more.

And the question is, what would convince you? What would push you over the wall? What would make you want to follow him with all of your heart? What would make you want to give up everything to follow him? What would you need?

What kind of testimony do you want? And what John is saying is that these signs, these seven are sufficient even though there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more that all the world couldn't contain them if they were written down. Well if you're waiting for one special sign I hope you don't wait too long. But John wants to remind you, and you're here today, to be reminded that this is a historically proven faith by real people in real places in real time and he's here today among his church. So then in the next verse John gives us the purpose of the signs.

In verse 31, why all the signs? Why all the miracles? He explains it very clearly. But these 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." Now, again, notice again we have a reference to a book, but these are written. Again, there's this emphasis on the book.

The Bible is not the result of the telephone game where one person repeated one rumor after another and then the story gets distorted. No, the Bible is a book that was written and it was fixed. Once you write a word it is on the paper and it makes a testimony. And these were written in 66 books over a 1, 500 year time period with different personalities in the midst of different nations and the midst of different political situations and pressures and eras. And amazingly, they do not contradict one another.

The clarity, the continuity, the consistency and the dependency on one another is remarkable. And these men, these eye witnesses, they believed it to such a degree that they gave their lives. All of them were martyred except John. John who spent many years in the Church of Ephesus writing this book probably in his 80s. I was just reminded we visited the island of Patmos on my daughter's 19th birthday a few years ago.

And we sat there and just thought about the whole gospel of John. But John wasn't eyewitness. John was the only one that was not martyred. He was boiled in oil, so says tradition, and he survived. Imagine that.

He was some tough cookie. But these men gave their lives for this book and for this testimony and for these signs. And so it was very serious to them. And the purpose is stated that you may believe. Now this word belief of course is used over and over again in the Gospel of John.

The purpose of the whole Gospel of John is stated here that you may believe. This is why he has written it. John has been called the gospel of belief. Back in my 20s I bought a commentary when I first preached through the gospel of John when I was probably age 27 or something like that. And Meryl Tinney wrote a commentary called the gospel of belief.

And I used that commentary in those days. I still have it in my library today. But the word believe appears 98 times in the gospel of John. And the Lord Jesus Christ himself just over and over again explains the beauty and the glory of belief in him. In John 640 he says this, 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.

Jesus speaks in John chapter 3 verse 15 the most memorable words and the most well-known words in the of the entire Bible around the world. Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that 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. 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 that's why people don't believe that's why people don't come it's because their deeds were evil they actually don't need another sign they don't want another morality and that's really the problem Now what does it mean to believe? I'm just going to give six quick marks of belief. Many of them are drawn from Ephesians one, verses 11 through 14. The first mark of belief is hearing. In Ephesians one, The apostle speaks of those who have heard the word of truth, having heard the word of truth.

There's this miraculous thing that happens when you believe. You hear for the first time in your life. You know, you could sit in church and hear 300 sermons, and then all of a sudden, wham-o, you hear. And it's very funny, you know, sometimes a child who's grown up in the church, you know, will go somewhere else and they'll hear the gospel and they'll say, I never heard that before. That's not even true.

They heard it a thousand times before they just didn't hear it but when God opens your ears it's the most wonderful thing and wham-o it's so good and you know you know the purpose of your life. You know you want to walk with Jesus Christ. You know he's a good shepherd. You know he's the light of the world. You know he's the resurrection of the life and you want him.

And that's what it means to believe is that you hear. The first mark of believing is hearing and the second involves embracing and I think the word belief actually encompasses this idea of embracing in Colossians 2 6 he speaks of those who have received Christ as Lord Jesus said as many as received him to them he gave the power and the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. The third element of belief it involves ownership. Sealed by the Spirit. You're sealed by the Spirit and He owns you now.

He pours His Spirit out in you and His Spirit moves you in ways you never were movable before and you realize that he owns you and he loves you and he moves you by his spirit and then the fourth mark and by the way just before we go past this one point we know from the book of James that even the demons believe. There are two kinds of belief. There is an intellectual ascent where you say, yes, Jesus Christ is the son of God, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I believe that. And there is the belief that says Jesus Christ is the Son of God and I have life in His name and I love Him and I want to follow Him above all else anywhere.

The fourth element of true belief is it involves the work of God. By grace you have been saved. No one is saved except by a work of God. No one is saved by their own work or their own doing or their own giftedness or their own wisdom or their own righteousness or their only own good deeds. No one can be saved that way because man has sinned and falls short of the glory of God.

Faith is granted. Belief is granted in Ephesians chapter 3. It was granted to you to believe. It was God who moved on your heart and you believed. And fifth, it involves a joyful and humble acceptance of his word.

In 1 Thessalonians 1, 6, we read that when the Thessalonians heard, they received the word with joy. They received it with joy. That's the mark of a true believer. They love the word of God. They want to hear the word of God.

So those are six marks. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. So there is a life that follows the belief that you might have life in his name. That's not just some, it's not only some ethereal thing.

It has to do with life, the way that you live your life, the life of Jesus Christ working in your life and changing your life. If your life is not being changed, you've not become a Christian, you've not truly believed. You're like the demons. They believe intellectually, but their lives are not changed, and they don't worship him and love him. So there's two kinds of belief actually even in the gospel of John.

And then John uses two critical terms in this verse. You see these two words, Jesus is the Christ, we are to believe that Jesus is the Christ, that's one thing, and the Son of God. And I want us to just camp briefly on those two really important categories. And of course it's in this sentence, and these things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you have life in his name. So let's first look at the statement, Jesus is the Christ.

Christ is not Jesus' last name. Jesus Christ, his last name is not Christ. It is a title. He is the Messiah. He is the anointed one.

It is the word Christos used around 500 times in the New Testament. Jesus is the Christ and in John chapter 1 the early disciples said we have found the Messiah. We have found the Christ. We have found him. The Old Testament of course predicts the Messiah and the New Testament documents the coming of the Messiah and the fulfillment of all the messianic promises.

Even Herod the king was aware of and afraid of the coming of the Messiah and in Matthew chapter 2 verse 4 we read he inquired where the Messiah where the Christ was to be born And it terrified him the woman at the well that wonderful story where God rescues this woman was such a such a remarkably sinful past And she says I know that the Messiah the one called Christ will come and Boy, did he come? He came right into her life and she received living water and that water started flowing out of her life. What a blessing. So the Hebrew term refers to anointing, the Old Testament testimony of the Messiah, often refers to oil, to spread liquid. In other words, he was chosen, anointed, appointed, covered up with divine authority.

He's the prophet, he's the priest, he's the king, and this is his anointing as the Messiah. You need a Prophet to speak the truth to you. You need a priest to intercede for you and you need a king to guide you and Jesus Christ comes as the Christ. He is the Messiah the anointed one That's why the Apostle Peter said in Acts chapter 2 verse 36, he said, let all the house of Israel know for sure that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Lord and Christ.

Those are two critical matters if you want to understand the doctrine of salvation. He is both Lord and he is Messiah. Now the term Messiah implies something very, very important that we need to recognize. And It actually is a term that refers to people who are in need. They need a messiah.

They need to be saved from their sins. The very word implies a need in the heart of man. He is the one to whom you look to for deliverance. He's the one that you look to for help. He's the one that you look to for wisdom.

He's the one to look to in your fears. He's the one to look to when you sin. He's the Messiah. He is the Savior. He came to save you.

And his very title implies our very need. That we need a Messiah. We need someone to rescue us. We're not what we ought to be on our own. We can't be.

We need someone to rescue us from our life and to give us everlasting life and life in his name every day. And no one else meets this requirement. This is the exclusivity of Christ. He is the only Savior. He is the only Messiah.

He is the Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved." Aren't you glad that he saved you? Aren't you glad that he met you in your need? I want to look also at this second phrase, the Son of God. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

This speaks to his divinity, that Jesus Christ is God, and he is the Son of God. Now even the demons believed this they said we know who you are do you know who he is? He is the Son of God. In John chapter 11 verse 27 it was Mary who said, yes Lord I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who is to come into the world. He came into the world to save sinners and he who has the Son has life and he who does not have the Son does not have life.

And so Jesus bears these marks of the Messiah as God's son, as God's only son, his divine son. And he bears the marks of his sonship as a result of his crucifixion. And his hands and his feet and his side are signs that he is the Son of God prophesied from before the foundation of the world. Now let's look at the phrase life in his name. As you can see we're just trying to take this verse apart phrase by phrase.

These are beautiful phrases. Life in His name. Now we could have, could have, should have probably camped on this one for the entire time in a way we have. Life in His name. Life in His name.

And the question that you should ask is do I have life in his name? It's the most important question you can ask You know, it's easy to say the only thing that matters is the gospel. And in saying that it can be misleading to think that that's all there is to the gospel is a gospel message. But actually in the gospel there's life, there's a life, there's a life that you live. And it begins with embracing the message of the gospel, but that's only the beginning because then you have life and it is everlasting life, but it is also a life of Jesus manifesting itself through your life.

And as you behold the glory of Jesus Christ, you become like him, and you're transformed into his image. You have a life, and your life is being replaced with his life you have life in his name and that has implications everywhere in your life in your work and in your home and in your thought life and what you do, what you look at, what you listen to. His life is manifested. You remember when back in John chapter 6 where Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom should we go? Where are we going to go?

Because people were abandoning Jesus. He says, where would we go? You have the words of eternal life. Where would we go? And I hope that's your sentiment today.

John gives a beautiful illustration of this in chapter 15, the vine and the branches. He says, I am the vining of the branches. He's talking about life. He's talking about the source of life that Jesus Christ is in the soul of man. The life of God in the soul of man is real because Jesus Christ is the vine and you are the branches.

And Jesus was telling his disciples about this because he had just told them he is leaving and they were despondent and shocked. The one who's turning water into wine, the one who's calming the sea is leaving them and they're shocked. Imagine the most important person in your life telling you I'm leaving and that's what Jesus did and then he said I am the vine and you are the branches and I'll give you life. I will be giving you life while I am gone. You know, I was thinking about the vine and the branches a few days ago and I bumped into an old sermon by Jonathan Edwards and he was coming on John 15.

It was a sermon on John 15, I am the vineyard of the branches. And the sermon, he called it Christ Jesus, the original fountain of all spiritual life and nourishment. So I started reading the sermon. I got distracted. You know, I'm in John 20, not John 15.

But I was so taken by what he said. He talked about how life can be hard, but Christ is not hard at all. And I'll just quote some of the words he used, it's remarkable. He says, this life is a tiresome, weary pilgrimage, full of so many difficulties, crosses, and disappointments, except we have a resting place to fly to and he says there's no resting place in the things of this world he calls it an uneasy and an uneven world Have you found the world to be that way? It's uneasy and it's uneven.

There you go. It's the fallen planet. That's what you get here in this world. In this world you will have tribulation, Jesus said, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world.

So that's how it works. But he says, he says there's no resting place to be found in the things of this world And he says there's really nothing that you can Set your foot on that's solid in this world. He says if we set our foot on it, it sinks. He says if we trust our life to earthly friends, hoping to satisfy us and comfort us, he says they become like ghosts and they just disappear. They're gone.

He says, he says they're just not able to fill the desires of the mind. I'm quoting from his sermon. He says, if we try all earthly things, he says we'll never find rest there. You know, he's very honest about the way the world is. He says, so tempestuous and stormy, so shadowy and vain, so uncertain and unchangeable as this world.

He says there's nothing to be found that will give any rest or satisfaction to the poor, weary, hungry souls of the sons of men. But then he talks about the shelter, the life in his name. He says, but if we go to Christ, there we shall find rest. There, alone, we will be sheltered from all the danger and sorrows. However great, we may sit down with him tired and weary and spent and rest.

There we may lay ourselves down and sleep sweetly and quietly with the Lord sustaining us. After we've been wearied by temporal affliction or spiritual trouble or the weight of our sins we may safely repose our head on Christ's bosom and there we shall find rest." And then he said, remember what Jesus said, come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest for I'm gentle and humble and hard and you'll find rest for your souls. So I think that is so beautifully explaining this life in his name. That you have one place to go The word of God By the Lord Jesus Christ and it's such a wonderful thing Here's I can't help it John. He continues he says Christ is able to give us that wine and milk that is the sweetest refreshment of the soul and then he quotes Isaiah 55 come by wine and milk without money without price so he gives life he is the way the truth and the life He has the words of eternal life.

He said, I am the bread of life. He said, the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of life. Paul said that Jesus, the second Adam, was a life-giving spirit. In Colossians 3, Paul said that if you've been raised up with Christ, Christ is your life and you can have life in his name. And that's why Jesus said, the thief comes to kill and steal and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

And this is the answer to all the tumult that you see in the world is to have life in His name because the church in all eras of time as it has existed in various kinds of governments and situations. The church has always rested because they have life. They have everlasting life. They have a solid foundation. They stand upon the rock, not upon the sand.

No matter how the shifting sands of the culture and the politics work. They have life. They have life in his name Praise the Lord for life everlasting He who has the Sun Has life Would you pray with me? Father Thank you for sending your son What a life-giving spirit What a kind shepherd What a wonderful Savior Lord we thank you that we could look in upon the signs and the reasons for these wonderful signs to take us to places we never could go without Him. Amen.