In the sermon titled 'A Summary of John,' speaker Jason Dohm provides an overview of the Gospel of John, focusing on its unique theological and Christological elements. He highlights John's authorship and the gospel's timing, written 50-60 years after Jesus' resurrection. Unlike the synoptic gospels, John omits certain narratives such as Jesus' birth and baptism, but includes unique stories like the wedding at Cana and the woman at the well. Dohm emphasizes the gospel's evangelistic purpose, stressing belief in Jesus as central to salvation. The sermon also discusses Jesus' 'I Am' statements, which reveal His divine nature and role as the ultimate revelation of God. Additionally, the Gospel of John's emphasis on the Holy Spirit and its distinct focus on Jesus' final week are noted. The sermon concludes with Dohm's personal reflections on favorite passages, underscoring the gospel's depth and transformative power.

Our sermon text for today is John chapter 1 verses 1 through 18. 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 with 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. This 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. John bore witness of him and cried out saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness We have all received and grace for grace For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ No one has seen God at any time The only begotten Son who was in the bosom of the Father.

He has declared him Well somewhat sadly this is our summary verse of our summary sermon of the Gospel of John. As I said last week, we've been here about two and a half years, something like 110 different sermons working through these 21 chapters. So here's what that means in mathematical terms. I gave a little intro and gave some applications at the end, and gave one minute per sermon, we'd have a two hour sermon. Well I'm here with glad tidings, I'm not going to do that.

We've done that. We've covered it carefully and slowly. So my intent is not to try to re-preach any portion of those sermons, but just to pick out some wonderful things from the Gospel of John before we leave, and really glory in the goodness of what God has done for us in giving us this Gospel. Just a road map for our time, I'm going to give us a few reminders from the introduction. I gave an introductory sermon to the Gospel of John.

I'm going to pluck some of the things out of that sermon just to remind us of things regarding the Gospel of John. Secondly, I'm going to give some memorable features of the Gospel of John. They'll all seem very familiar to you because this has to do with themes, not one-off things from the Gospel of John, but things that we see developed in depth and with repetition throughout the Gospel. And then I will give a few of my favorite passages. I'm actually going to indulge myself and pluck out three.

Really you could pick any of them. But I'm going to take three and say these are three of my favorites. And just sort of glory in them as one last opportunity to look at some favorites. So let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, It has been a special kindness to me to have the privilege of working slowly through this very unique Gospel.

How good it is to consider the person and the work of your only begotten son. What a pleasure to study him. We give you thanks, God, for two and a half years of just gem after gem, gold heaped upon more gold. Thank you for enriching the world, believers and unbelievers alike, with so much of what we need to know from heaven, given to us through the words and the life of your son Jesus. We give you thanks in Jesus' name, Amen.

Okay, seven reminders from the introduction. So I'm just plucking out seven things from the introductory sermon that will sound familiar but that have a bearing of John, really give you a framework for understanding the Gospel of John. Number one, overwhelmingly scholars accept John as the author. This has gone under the heading of the Gospel according to John since the earliest days. John discipled a man named Polycarp, who discipled a man named Irenaeus, and Irenaeus writes in multiple places.

Polycarp, my teacher, taught me that his teacher John wrote this gospel. So the sources that John is really the author of this gospel are very good and very early. And Also, scholars overwhelmingly accept that it was written somewhere in the range of 80-95 AD. So that would be roughly 50-60 years after Jesus' death and resurrection. It's the fourth gospel.

Commentators refer to it as the fourth gospel all the time because it's so comprehensively accepted to be the last gospel that was written. That would be about 50 years after Jesus died and was raised from the dead. And also 10 to 15 years after the Romans sacked Jerusalem and tore the temple down so that not one stone was upon another. So all that matters a lot just in terms of understanding the Gospel of John. Number two, in the introductory sermon I quoted a commentator who said this.

I don't even recognize the commentator so I won't say his name, but I quoted a commentator who called the Gospel of John, quote, a pool in which a child may wade and an elephant can swim. Now what's that commentator trying to get at? A child can go and make sense of the most important things in the Gospel of John. Figuratively speaking, a child can go and wade in this pool. It's not too deep for a child.

A child won't drown in John. A child can come and benefit greatly and actually understand the most important things that the Bible says about what God requires of us and how we can be saved through his son, Jesus Christ. So a child can go and wade in that pool. But it's also a pool in which an elephant can swim. It's not a constricted pool.

You can put the largest land animal on earth in there and that large creature will be able to swim, will be over its head. In other words, the wisest of earth are going to have their hands full with the Gospel of John. So which is true? Both are true. A child can wade, an elephant can swim.

It is all of these things. It really is a remarkable book. If you're coming to the end feeling like you've plumbed the depths of the Gospel of John, you've been listening to other preachers midweek. You didn't get that from me. That's for certain.

Number three. John is remarkable for the things that are missing and for the things that are present. When you actually look at what's in Matthew, Mark, Luke, but not in John, you say, how can you even have a gospel with those things? Well, John has managed to do it. And then, on the other hand, if you look at the things that are present in John, but exclusively in John, they are not in Matthew or Mark or Luke, you'd say, How can those guys have missed these things?

Let me give you a list of things that are missing in the Gospel of John. The birth narrative, Jesus' baptism, the temptation in the wilderness, the sermon on the mount, the Lord's Prayer, the Transfiguration, the Lord's Supper, narrative parables, there's not a single narrative parable in John, and demon exorcisms. You say, what a list! How could you possibly have a Gospel without those things? Well, John does have a wonderful Gospel without them.

Look at a short list of the things that are present in John and only John. They're exclusive to the Gospel of John. The wedding at Cana when Jesus turned water into wine. Nicodemus. That name is not mentioned in any of the other gospels.

You wouldn't have John 3.16, for God so loved the world without Jesus' exchange with Nicodemus. The woman at the well is only in John. Lazarus coming forth, the dead man coming forth in his grave cloths and Jesus saying free him is only in John. The upper room discourse is only in John. Many of the post-resurrection accounts are exclusive to John.

This is just to name a few things. I felt like every week I was saying this is only in John as we preach through. This is a very different gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are lumped together by commentators under the label the synoptic gospels. It's because there's so much overlap.

They're not perfectly identical, but there's so much overlap that they belong in a bucket with themselves. John's not in that bucket. John's in his own bucket. Number four. Forty-eight percent of the Gospel of John, chapters 12 through 21, are isolated on the last week of Jesus' life and the post-resurrection period.

So what you find across all the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is a heavy, heavy emphasis on that last portion of Jesus' life and the resurrection. But John, the most of all, John has more of his gospel devoted to the very end of Jesus' life and the crucifixion and the resurrection and these few accounts after the resurrection than any of the other gospels. It is lopsided towards the saving work of Jesus Christ in the crucifixion and resurrection. 48% of the gospel. Almost half the gospel.

We spent almost half of our two and a half years in John just in that last week of Jesus' life through the resurrection. Number five. Even among the other disciples, John qualifies as a fantastic eye witness. What do I mean by that? Well, if you asked anyone who is familiar with the Bible, who do you want as your eyewitness?

They would say, a disciple. One of the twelve, actually not Judas, one of the eleven. We want one of those guys. Okay. So you can pick one.

Who would you pick? You might very well pick John. You'd probably either pick John or you'd pick Peter. Why is that? Well, because if you look at the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, what you find is that John is in on many of the things that even the other faithful eleven aren't in on.

Like what? Well, Jesus raised a little girl from the dead. He actually took Peter, James, and John, and the other disciples weren't there to witness that. So he witnessed things that even this inner circle of disciples didn't witness. What else?

Like the transfiguration. Peter, James, and John only were there with Jesus to watch him be transfigured. His face shone like the sun and he talked with Elijah and Moses. John was there for that. So even among fantastic eyewitnesses, John is a super fantastic eyewitness and we have his gospel here.

We should praise God for that. Number six. The Gospel of John is a universal and evangelistic gospel. What do I mean by universal? Well, it's meant for Jews and Gentiles.

There's places that you would say, oh yeah, he wrote this for Jews, because it draws so richly on the Old Testament. For instance, chapter 1, in the beginning, every good Jew is going back to Genesis 1 1. In John 1 1, they are hyperlinked back to the very first words of the Bible. In the beginning God. John starts the same way.

A Jew wouldn't have missed that. You say, that's for a Jew. But in many other places, John is explaining something that every Jew wouldn't have need to have explained. They called him a rabbi, which in Hebrew means teacher. You don't need to say that if you are just writing for Jews.

So it's a universal gospel. John clearly intended Jews and Gentiles to both be the recipients of his Gospel. And it's evangelistic. How many times did I quote John 20 verse 31? I don't know, but it's a big number.

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. He told us why He wrote this Gospel. It's an evangelistic purpose. It's that you might believe and in believing that you might have life, eternal life. Again, John is the only one who gives us John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life or everlasting life.

Number seven. I quoted Andreas Kastenberger who actually lives in Wake Forest. He's a professor in Wake Forest. He's one of the commentators that I read for a period of time in the Gospel of John. I quoted him in the introductory sermon saying this, John's Christology is the teaching about Christ, the doctrine of Christ, an understanding of who this Jesus really is according to Scripture.

John's Christology, particularly affirmations of Jesus' deity and of His human and divine natures, decisively shaped the formulations adopted by the early church councils and creeds. The early centuries of the New Testament Church had councils, the most knowledgeable, learned, wise, prominent leaders gathering together to hash out what the Bible did teach and didn't teach about who Jesus is. Kostenberger looks at those early councils and the creeds that came out of those councils and say, when you look at the doctrine of Christ that flowed out of the early church councils, you see a doctrine of Christ shaped more than any other portion of scripture by John. John teaches us with great clarity the lines to be drawn, the trinitarian lines to be drawn around who Jesus is and isn't. What we must think about Jesus as the Christ and what we must not think about Jesus as the Christ.

The Gospel of John shaped the formulations of the Doctrine of Christ in the early church. So those were seven reminders from the introduction. Now let me give you eight memorable features of the Gospel of John. You might have noticed I'm not much of a list guy, I don't do a lot of lists. But There are some people when they hear sermons, they just love lists, so this is your week.

I do this for you. I'm going to give you eight memorable features of the Gospel of John. Memorable feature number one. The Gospel of John is uniquely theologically and Christologically driven. The Gospel of John is uniquely, meaning this is different than Matthew, Mark, and Luke in a sense, is uniquely, theologically, study of God, and Christologically the doctrine of Christ driven.

Here's a great example of that. Chapter 1, Matthew starts with birth history. Mark starts with John the Baptist and the launching of Jesus into public ministry. Luke starts with birth history. John starts with, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning. It's theology, not historical narrative, which we need. We need it all. We need the breadth of the Gospels. But John isn't genealogically, in other words, who did Jesus descend from in the flesh?

He's not driven by genealogy. He's not driven by history. He's driven by theology. Back in the beginning you will find someone already there, who was there. God and the Word, who we find out later, is Christ.

John is like that. John is a Gospel, chapter 1, and how it begins, the different way in which it begins, not about genealogy, not about history, but about deep theology and deep Christology is really representative of this Gospel. There's such a pinpoint focus on theology and Christology in the Gospel of John. Memorable feature number two, The seven I Am statements. Start in John chapter 6.

I Am the Bread of Life. You have this formula across all seven of them. They're scattered throughout John beginning with I am the Bread of Life in chapter 6. And the formula is I am, which is a somewhat subtle reference to Exodus 3, Moses before, a burning bush that just would burn eternally. It burns and burns but is never consumed.

A voice comes out of that bush, Moses take off your sandals, you are on holy ground. Go to these people, deliver these people. What if they don't believe that you sent me, who should I say sent me? Tell them I am, the self-existent God Jehovah sent me. All of these are a subtle claim, this formula, I am the bread of life, I am fill in the blank, begins with this subtle claim to being the self-existent God of the burning bush in Exodus 3, followed by something that displays an aspect of what he is to his people.

I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door of the sheep. How do I get on the narrow way that leads to life? The door.

I am the door of the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine, John chapter 15.

Without me you can do nothing. Abide in me. Without me you can do nothing. I had a whole sermon where we collected these all together to just look at these seven I Am statements that the Lord Jesus, how He describes Himself. And one of the things that I said is, He's everything His people need.

When you put these side by side by side by side and look at all the things that Jesus is, you find a sufficient king for a people, a sufficient shepherd. He's everything that we need. Memorable feature number three. The Gospel of John is the believe in Jesus and be saved gospel. It wouldn't be fair to say that Matthew, Mark, and Luke aren't believe in Jesus and be saved gospels.

They are. But John is when you look at that Greek word, Pisteo, and you look at its occurrences in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and you add all those together, that total is dwarfed by the Gospel of John. It is everywhere in the Gospel of John. Believe in me, believe in my name, and be saved. Here's an example right in John chapter 1, if you have your finger still in John chapter 1, verses 12 and 13.

John begins his gospel that way. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God. To those who believe in his name, that Greek word that appears so many times in John, 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, you are born of God if you believe in Jesus. I wonder how many times in these 110 sermons I said. There are two things wrapped up in this word.

Ascent to the truths, in other words I receive what you are saying as truth and I believe that truth and it is not just that, it is that, but it's not just that, and consent to the person. In other words, I believe that this is truth because of the source. I entrust myself to the source. And of course, if you think through it, it must be that way. Because if you say, I assent to the truth, I take this revelation from Jesus as true, The claims that he makes about himself forces you at the same time to consent to the person.

It must be this way because of the claims that he makes of himself. You are also entrusting yourself. You're throwing yourself upon Jesus to assent to these as truths. You are also consenting to the person who is the source of this truth. You are throwing yourself upon Him and forsaking every other hope.

Because He demands that, if you take this as true, you are conceding to those demands of the truth teller, the Lord Jesus Christ. Memorable feature number four. Let me go back. Memorable feature number three. The Gospel of John is the Believe in Jesus and Be Saved Gospel.

Thank God we are being told with such stunning clarity what I must do to be saved. And it's really simple. Believe in Jesus. Ascent to the truth, consent to the person, throw yourself upon Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It has nothing to do with work that you do, throw yourself upon him.

Alright, memorable feature number four. I'll really leave number three this time. Number four, the Gospel of John sets forth the Lord Jesus as being sent to be the ultimate revelation of God. God is spirit. No man has ever seen God.

How can we really understand, oh he took on flesh. He is the ultimate revelation of this God. He's a way to know God like no one before Jesus ever had access to our opportunity to learn about God like we can learn about God because He took on flesh and we beheld His glory. 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. That's chapter 1 verse 14.

Now chapter 1 verse 18. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Jesus sets Himself forth as being sent from heaven and one of the great reasons for being sent from heaven was to be the ultimate revelation of God. I want to know how to know God.

Okay, look at Jesus. You can know this God by looking at Jesus who is the ultimate revelation of this God who no man can see. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14, 9-11. It starts with Philip speaking. John 14, 9-11.

Philip said to him, Jesus, Lord, show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. Do you remember that? Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. So that brings us to memorable feature number five. The clarity of Jesus' union with and submission to His Father.

That was all over the Gospel of John. And it's in that verse, that section that I read out of John 14 is a crossover. It is about Jesus being the ultimate revelation of God. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. But it also bleeds over into this one, the clarity of Jesus' union with and submission to his Father.

The things that you're hearing me speaking, I'm not speaking on my own authority. I have been given authority to say these things from my Father. The things that you see me doing, I'm not doing, this is not an expression of my own will, this is an expression of my Father's will. He sent me to do these things. The things that I'm saying are only and all that the Father sent me to say.

The things that I am doing are only and all the things that the Father sent me to do. His union with and submission to his father. Memorable feature number six. The significance of the things missing and the things present. I gave you that unbelievable thing that are absent from the Gospel of John that make you say how can you have a Gospel without these things and yet he does.

And the things present where you say how could Matthew, Mark and Luke miss Lazarus coming forth from the grave. Well they did. The significance of all these things is the Bible has one author. Matthew is not the author of the Bible. God is.

John is not the author of the Bible. God is. So God in working through different human vessels, human channels, human authors, is pulling together a broader and more sufficient revelation, testimony than any of the authors themselves produced or even could have produced. So I think it's clear, I mean I can't quote chapter and verse for this, but from what I've observed going through this week to week, I think it's clear that John wrote his Gospel with the other Gospels in hands. He knew exactly what was in those other Gospels.

He knew that the New Testament Church had their hands on these other accounts. And he's saying, oh, the Spirit is inspiring him to say, oh the people of God have to have Lazarus. People of God have to have Nicodemus. I don't need to repeat these other things that have been said by my brothers, but I need to advance these truths to the people of God. By the way, church historians, there's an overwhelming consensus that even in the earliest days the gospels were circulating together.

It was a very short period of time where some independent gospels were in circulation, but in early, early, early years, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were being circulated as a body, as a whole. Memorable feature number seven. The teaching on the Holy Spirit in chapters 14, 15, and 16. The Gospel of John dwarfs the added up gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in terms of Jesus speaking about the person and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Let me read some of these from John chapter 14.

Just Listen to this. John 14 verses 15 through 18. And then I'll skip some and tell you what I'm doing. John 14, 15 through 18. Jesus says, If you love me, keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, or I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." And then skipping down to verses 25 and 26, he continues to teach on the Holy Spirit, these things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." Jesus is teaching that a Christian gets an indwelling tutor to teach him truth and to remind him or her of truth, to bring to remembrance the things that Jesus said.

He's called the Spirit of Truth. In chapter 16, this is all part of the upper course, upper room discourse. Jesus was teaching at the Last Supper in chapter 16 verse 7. He says, Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away." Mind blowing. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you.

Jesus asserted in John chapter 16 that it was better that he would remove himself physically and ascend into heaven and then send the Spirit than if he just remained bodily present. I'll bet you that not one of them believed it at the time. If you had been with Jesus for three and a half years, how could you even bear to part with this physical presence? Jesus said, it's to your advantage. It'll be better for you when I leave and send the Spirit.

This should be such a source of comfort and encouragement to modern day believers. We should be so encouraged by that. Not pine away for the experience of the disciples. Jesus says the better things coming. I'll send an indwelling spirit to strengthen and encourage and teach and remind believers.

One of the things that I said when I was teaching through those chapters in Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit was something that I heard someone say one time, which is with understanding the Holy Spirit, please don't start with Acts chapter 2 and sign gifts. Start back with Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit in John 14, 15, and 16 and then take all that he says in those chapters about the Holy Spirit and apply it to Acts chapter 2 and you'll know what you're about. And I wholeheartedly affirm what he said there. Memorable feature number 8, and finally in this section, the real Lord's prayer. We think of Matthew chapter six as the Lord's prayer, and that's fine.

It is Jesus teaching his disciples to pray. But if you want to actually see Jesus pray in an extended fashion, you go to John chapter 17 and see this long prayer. How does the one who sits at the right hand of his Father interceding for his people. How does he pray? You should want to know the answer to that question.

We got the answer to that question in John chapter 17 as Jesus prays for himself. Actually, I think a more accurate description of that first part of Jesus' prayer in John chapter 17 wouldn't be Jesus prays for himself, but Jesus prays that his father would glorify himself through the cross, which was what was about to happen. Jesus was praying for himself in a sense, but it was really about the work that he was about to do and Jesus' burning desire to see his Father glorified through the work that he was about to do. And then Jesus prays for his eleven faithful disciples. He prays that God would keep them.

He prays for their joy. Then He prays for all future disciples. See, in John chapter 17, Jesus actually prays for me. And if you're in Christ, Jesus actually prays for you too. Well, what does He pray?

Well, He prays that we would be unified, that the world might believe, that we would act Christian, so that an onlooking world would see and say, I want that. That's beautiful. And he prayed for us to be where he is. He prayed for a great time of reunion where we become present with Him in a much more face to face way. We will see Him face to face and we will be with Him for all eternity.

Jesus prayed for that. He prayed towards that. Okay, three of my favorite passages I shall now indulge myself. You don't get to pick yours, I get to pick mine, and you're stuck with them. You'll be glad you're stuck with them.

They're wonderful. I turn to John chapter 4. John chapter 4. The Samaritan woman at the well. I love this text.

I wish I could preach through this text again. John chapter 4. I'm going to be reading some extended portions. So just follow along and just enjoy the reading of a sweet passage of scripture. John chapter 4 verses 5 through 26.

Follow along. So he, Jesus, came to a city of Samaria, a city of Samaria with the half-breeds, which is called Sychar near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore being weary from his journey sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink, for his disciples have gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, who it is, who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.

The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. Jesus said to her, Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have well said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband, and that you spoke truly.

The woman said to him, sir I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes he will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.

It's hard to find a place to stop reading there. There's more wonderful things to read. She actually becomes an evangelist to the people of this city. And they come and they believe in numbers that It's hard to find proof that any other group in Galilee where Jesus was from believed in him. But here come the Samaritans believing in the Messiah.

In this text we have so clearly that Jesus didn't come for the righteous, he came for sinners to call them to repentance." Well here's what the Bible says, there are no righteous, but there are people who feel righteous and they have no need for a savior and so often God passes over people who have no sense of need for a Savior. But this woman, a sense of a great sense of need for a Savior was birthed in her heart through this exchange with the Lord Jesus Christ. And she believed and was saved and she brought people with her into salvation through her testimony. Such wisdom from the Lord Jesus. Such compassion from the Lord Jesus.

Number two, my favorite I Am statement. Here's a hint. It's not one of the seven. I love I Am the bread of life. I am the light of the world, and on and on.

But that's not my favorite I AM statement in the Gospel of John. My favorite is in John chapter 8. Turn to John chapter 8. John chapter 8 verses 48 through 59, follow along. John chapter 8 beginning of verse 48.

Then the Jews answered and said to him, Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks and judges. Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never see death." One of the things I love about the Gospel of John is just the jaw dropping, staggering claims that either God has to be saying these things or a mad man has to be saying these things.

Here's one of them, if you keep my word you'll never see death. Only a mad man says that unless that man happens to be God. Verse 52, then the Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets and you say if anyone keeps my word he shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham who is dead?

And the prophets are dead? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father who honors me, of whom you say that He is your God. Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him.

And if I say, I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word. Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." Now there's your direct link to Exodus 3 and the burning bush. Before Abraham was, I am.

You know your forefather? Yeah, you know he lived 1500 years ago? Yeah, before he was, I am. I am self-existent before your 1500 year old dad or father. Did the Jews understand or misunderstand?

Verse 59, Then they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them. And so passed by, the Jews got exactly what he was saying. I am God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus is God.

Jesus claims to be God so clearly in the book of John. Finally, favorite passage number three for me, site given to the man born blind. I'm going to begin right there. I ended here at the end of chapter 8. I'm going to pick up the beginning of chapter 9.

I'm going to read John chapter 9, 1 through 12. And then I'll skip and read 24-38 and I'll tell you when I do it. Follow along, John chapter 9, 1-12. Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man who was blind from birth. Blind from birth.

And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming when no one can work.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had said these things, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. And he said to him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated, scent. So he went and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, Is not this he who sat and begged?

Some said, This is he. Others said, He is like him. He said, I am he. Therefore they said to him, How were your eyes opened? He answered and said, A man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes, and said to me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.

So I went and washed, and I received sight. Then they said to him, where is he? He said, I do not know. Now skipping to verse 24, as this man and his parents are being interrogated by people who really don't want this miracle to have happened because it proves things that they don't want proven. Verse 24, So they again called the man who was blind and said to him, Give God the glory, we know this man is a sinner.

He answered and said, whether he is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see. Then they said to him again, What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes? He answered them.

I told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples? Then they reviled Him and said, You are His disciples, but We are Moses' disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses.

As for this man, we do not know where he is from. The man answered and said to them, why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where he is from, yet he has opened my eyes. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, he hears him. Since the world began, it has been unheard of that anyone open the eyes of one who was born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.

They answered and said to him, You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us? And they cast him out. And then Jesus finds him. Well, I'll just keep reading. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said to him, Do you believe in the Son of God?

He answered and said, Who is he Lord, that I may believe in him? Jesus said to him, You have both seen him, and it is he who is talking with you." Blind man, you've seen him. You've seen the Son of God. Then he said, Lord I believe and he worshiped him. Yes, this is a sign.

A sign is a miracle with a message. A miracle that has a specific purpose to point something to the authenticity of something beyond the miracle. It is that. But you have to know that like in many other places in the book of John, even though it has a purpose to point something beyond it, it in itself is such a deeply personal, deeply merciful action of Jesus. There's a real man here who had never seen anything in his life and Jesus had compassion on him and he gave him sight.

He changed his life forever. So praise God that it's a sign and it authenticates the gospel. Yes and amen to that. But there's a man here. He has a name.

He has parents. He grew up. He never saw it. That imposed many hardships. God actually did that to reveal His glory in His man.

This is a man who knew hardships that you and I know nothing about. God gave him the sight. God cares about these things. God cares about people. And he uses Jesus, who is God, to reach into the lives of sinners and of people who have great need to change their lives.

We have a lot of testimonies in these rooms of things like this. But Praise God for John chapter 9. Applications. Unbeliever, what are you waiting for? You need a better Savior than the Savior of the Gospel of John.

How could you wait another minute? This Savior stands extending mercy to you. He raised up an eyewitness, a fantastic eyewitness among fantastic eyewitnesses to tell you of the signs, the miracles with the message that authenticate the testimony about Jesus and he's written these things that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the believer you may have life, how could you hold yourself back one more minute? Do not hold yourself back one more minute. Come to Him.

He never turns away anyone who comes to Him. All you need is hunger, thirst, need. All you need is to feel need. That's all that's required of you. Feel the pressing weight of your sins and that you need to be freed from them and He will receive you.

Repent and believe the Gospel. The blood of the Savior has been shed. Nothing more is needed. It's sufficient blood. It will wipe away the last sin so that not one work from you is required.

By the way, if you added a work to it, you would defile the whole thing. Only He has undefiled works that God will accept. Come to Him, come to Him by faith today. Don't wait till tomorrow, don't wait till this afternoon. Turn to Him today and be saved forever and ever and ever.

He will save you. Believer, behold your Savior. Hasn't it been sweet, week by week, for believers to just look upon Him and hear Him speak and see Him interact so wisely, so mercifully, so strongly to those who would oppose Him. He is able to sympathize because He is the Word made flesh. He relinquished the glory, the honor that is rightfully His from all eternity.

He just laid that aside to come die for sinners. Think about that for a minute. If you're a sinner who's been redeemed, just rejoice that the Word was made flesh and He dwelled among us and we beheld His glory. Praise God for the glory of the Son of God that we've been beholding week by week. Behold your three in one God.

Oh, I don't know if the Trinity is more breathtakingly and clearly set forth than in the Gospel of John. You have the Father and the Son and the Spirit, distinct and yet one, laid forth so beautifully in the Gospel of John. God, thank you for our weeks here. Let us not depart from John. Let us never depart from John.

Let these things abide in our hearts. Help us to abide in this Savior that you sent. Without Him we can do nothing. With Him all things are possible. Help us to abide.

In Jesus' name, Amen.