In the sermon 'That You May Believe, Introduction to John,' Scott Brown introduces the Gospel of John, focusing on its purpose to promote belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, so that believers may have life in His name. The sermon highlights two key scripture readings from John 1:14-18 and John 20:30-31, emphasizing the transformation that belief in Jesus can bring. The speaker outlines the structure of the Gospel, noting its focus on the divinity and personal nature of Jesus through seven signs and seven 'I AM' statements. These signs and statements aim to reveal Jesus' glory and encourage a deep, personal faith beyond intellectual assent. The sermon also touches on the transformation of John, the author, from a 'son of thunder' to an 'apostle of love,' illustrating the transformative power of Jesus' message. The speaker challenges listeners, especially young people, to consider what it truly means to follow Jesus and to seek a personal relationship with Him that transcends mere knowledge.

There are two portions of the scripture reading today. One is John chapter 1, verses 14 to 18, and then we'll go to John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. John chapter 1, verses 14 to 18. 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 faithfulness, 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 is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. 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. O Heavenly Father, We thank you for your goodness toward us. Lord that you've given us ears to hear and eyes to see. And Lord as we journey through this book, I pray Lord that more eyes would be open.

Lord, that more of the blind would see your glory or Jesus Christ. Father, may ears be unstopped and Lord, May many come to the knowledge of your faith and faith in Christ. And Lord, I pray that even as this John, a son of thunder, was transformed into the apostle of love. I pray, Lord, that we would too be transformed through your word, oh Lord, that we would know your son. And even as John said, he who has the son has life.

I pray Lord that this book will be life-giving to each one of us. In Christ's name, amen. Amen. Well, it really is with a whole lot of happiness and zeal that I have here to bring us into the Gospel of John and to start the journey here today. And I'm going to begin with an overview of the Gospel of John today.

Sort of. I mean, it's difficult to really overview all that's there, but many people find the Gospel of John their favorite book of the Bible. There are many really familiar favorite verses that people draw upon in the Gospel of John. Probably the most globally well-known verse in the Bible comes out of the Gospel of John. Of course, it's John 3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

And maybe you were like me when you were becoming aware of your need for Jesus, somebody told you the first thing you should do is read the Gospel of John. That happened to me. My guess is it might have happened to a few of you as well. I've recommended it so many times. And, you know, having read it early in my Christian life, it's always coming back to me, always coming back to me.

I've been so encouraged and refreshed, and many times, I would say many times every month I'm taken back to those days when I first came to Jesus because of the words of the Gospel of John that I was reminded of at that time. So I'm transported back years in the past when I read the Gospel of John with great happiness and thankfulness for that. Now we are embarking on a contemplation of Jesus, Jesus the Son of God, and there's nothing that you can do that's more freeing than to contemplate Jesus Christ the Son of God. There's nothing that you can do that's more freeing than to contemplate Jesus Christ the Son of God. There's nothing that you can do that's more healing.

There isn't anything that you can do that's more encouraging or Empowering than to look in the face of Jesus Christ and we are probably going to do this for maybe almost two years in time ahead I'm so grateful that we're going to do that and I pray that this will be a Centering time and our church that it will focus us like never before on Jesus Christ, and that we would love Him more, we would know Him more, and that we would exalt Him even more. Isaac Ambrose spoke beautifully of the value of beholding his glory. You have this printed in your outline. 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, and the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures.

Behold your God, behold Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. I'm so thankful that we will have this laser beam focus on Jesus Christ and upon Him crucified. Well, but there's a problem, isn't there? You know, particularly, let's just say hypothetically you might be a young person. I'm told that probably 70% of the people in this room are young persons, like below the age of 20.

And You've grown up in a Christian home. You've heard it all. You know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You know that Jesus Christ died on the cross. But you will know a lot more than that because you have spent years hearing the Word of God preached.

And your parents read it to you in your home You you're probably getting more information about Jesus than most people get and So and you're wondering, okay, so So what does it really mean to be a Christian? How do you become a Christian? What does it feel like? Because this happens particularly to young people as they get into their teens. They wonder, is this mine?

Is it, I am His and He is mine? Is it that way? And what does it mean actually to believe? And I've encountered many young people in our church who go through a season where they say, Lord, am I a Christian? Who am I, really?

And many of them cry out to God for months sometimes years? Oh God save me and they they don't really but it doesn't happen maybe in the time that they sense and But but what does it mean to be a Christian? What does it feel like to be a Christian? You know, what does it look like to follow Jesus, to actually believe and to follow Jesus Christ? I pray those questions will be surrounded, the answers to those questions will surround us as we go through this time.

And the other question I have in my mind for all of us who maybe who aren't following Jesus Christ, who aren't sure, what would it take? What would it take for you to first of all know if you're a Christian? What would it take? And what would it take for you to embrace Jesus Christ wholeheartedly and to become His disciple? What would it take to clarify who Jesus is and what He calls for?

You know, what would it take to bring you to a place where you came to the conclusion that you could no longer live one more minute without Him, that you couldn't go on without having Him and knowing Him and following Him and loving Him. What would it take to bring you to that place where you just couldn't go on without Him? And I pray that God will give that to many here that are gathered with us over the months that we engage in this study. That we would find many of us saying, I can't survive another minute without the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I cannot survive another minute without knowing that I'm justified by faith.

I can't survive another minute without the comfort of the Holy Spirit. I cannot survive another minute without knowing that I'm justified by faith. I can't survive another minute without knowing that I have the bread of life and the water of life and I've entered into the door rightly. I don't want to go on another minute in my life until that is squared away. And I guess the answer is to those questions only God has.

But would you believe if he was the bread of life? Would you believe if he was the resurrection and the life? Would you believe if he really, really was the light of the world and that he could be your bread and your life and your resurrection and your door? Would you believe, could you believe if you, if you knew that was true, deep within your heart and do and or do you believe that is true with, with all of your heart? And so, you know, all this sort of brings me to a stop, almost a hard stop and a halt, because I think we have to recognize that when we look at Jesus, we realize that Christianity, it's not a lifestyle, it's not a teaching, it's not a position.

It includes those things. But Christianity is a relationship with a person and that's the person of Jesus Christ. It's loving him, it's following him, it's calling out to him, it's trusting him, it's praying to him, it's following after him. And it is believing in a person and loving that person and following that person and reflecting the glory of that person and being saved from the wrath of God by that person. That is the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's the essence of what it means to become a Christian.

And so in many ways, you know, to be a Christian is to behold the glory of God. You behold Him, you believe Him, and you become like Him. And that's why in the Gospel of John, John says, we beheld His glory. Glory is of the only begotten Son of God. We beheld His glory.

We saw it. We saw Him. He made sense to us. We loved what we saw and we went after Him with our whole hearts. That's the essence of Christianity.

And so as we engage these coming months, we'll be beholding the face of Jesus Christ. It's so important that we understand who he is. We know the Bible says to behold his face, but who is he? Who is the historical Jesus? And, you know, where did he come from?

What did he do? What is his message? You know, where did he travel? Who is John? Why did John write this gospel?

All of these things we'll be pursuing in the coming times, And so I want to introduce the gospel of John this morning. One of the things I'm very delighted about is that there are so many little children here because Jesus spoke to children. He did. If you look at this outline, It's shocking how graphically real life it is, how there are so many amazing stories and images that are here. All you children, you need to hear all these stories.

You need to understand what happened when Jesus turned water into wine he did that you need to understand when he healed a man's son from really far away you need to understand that he fed five thousand that he calmed the storms and he's all these things that are listed here. John is the perfect book for a child. I think it was Augustine who said that John's gospel is deep enough for an elephant to swim in and shallow enough for a child not to drown. John is so simple. By the way, I'm going to show you the outline in a minute.

It's a really simple outline. And John deals in the simplest principles on the one hand, and he tells the simplest stories, but on the other hand, they are deeper than you can possibly mine. They are so deep. So As you see in this outline, I've divided it into various sections. In the first section, it speaks to John's purpose in writing.

And then the second section deals with various facts. And I'm going to give you four facts, four primary facts, about the gospel of John. And then I want to declare that John's argument for the beauty and the power of the gospel and of Jesus himself, it rests on seven signs, and we're gonna walk through each one of these signs, these miracles that Jesus did to declare his glory. And then there are seven IM statements that I want us to review and then we'll wrap it up from there. So that's where we're going this morning.

You'll get kind of a picture of the various mountain peaks and the contours that are there in the gospel. Okay, first of all, John's purpose for writing. Well, you find his purpose, it's stated really clearly in chapter 20 verse 31. Please turn there, I'd like you to like you to read it with me. John chapter 20 verse 31, and we'll also read verse 32, and here John explains why he wrote this gospel 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." And so this is, John states exactly why he has written this gospel, and that is that you might be doing two things, caught doing two things.

Believe, that you would believe, number one, and that in believing you would have life in His name. In other words, it's a belief that makes you alive. That's why he wrote these things. And these two verbs believe and believing, you know, putting them together the way that John does, makes it very clear that believing in Jesus is not just an intellectual exercise. It does begin with the intellect, but it's not just an intellectual exercise.

You know, intellectual conviction is not saving faith. G. Campbell Morgan said that preaching in the Gospel of John. But true belief surrenders. Belief that is true belief desires to follow, desires to obey, desires to be under the authority of the one believed in.

And that's the kind of belief that that he is speaking of here. James said that even the demons believe, so it's not that kind of believing. It's not intellectual assent. It's believing so that you have life, that you love, you love what you believe in. So it's far more than just recognizing a few facts about Jesus Christ.

And we find that Jesus, he speaks very, very personally. This whole matter of personal belief that changes your life in such a way that you have life in his name is the kind of belief that he's talking about. It's interesting, John speaks of Jesus in a way that's a little bit different than the other gospel writers. Like for example, John is so personal with Jesus. Maybe That's why people love the gospel of John so much.

The tenderness, the personal nature, the warmth of his gospel is unparalleled. But like, here's just a sort of a technical comparison. Mark calls Jesus Jesus 13 times, a very personal name. Luke calls him Jesus 88 times, Matthew calls him Jesus 151 times, John calls him Jesus 247 times. Jesus is so personal and he wants you to have life in his name not just not just a an intellectual ascent and you know so when when when his name is spoken it does does his name draw you does his name warm your heart Does it give you a sense that you want more of him?

You know, I I love to sing songs about Jesus To my grandchildren. They're the same ones I sang to my children And I love the most singing the ones about Jesus. And there's one that I love to sing to them, one of my favorite. It says, His name is Jesus. Sad hearts weep no more.

He has healed the brokenhearted, opened wide the prison doors. He is able to deliver ever more." I love to sing the songs about Jesus. Another of my favorite is, It goes like this, it speaks of Jesus as the holy and anointed one. And then the lyrics go like this, your name is like honey on my lips, your spirit like water to my soul, Your word is a lamp unto my feet. Jesus, I love you.

I love those words. They're about Jesus. This is the kind of...this is the Jesus that John knew. He's very personal. He wants you to have life in His name, not to just think about Him as an intellectual category.

One of my most favorite songs that I sing to them is this one that has these lyrics, Oh let the Son of God enfold you with His Spirit and His love. Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul. Let Him have the things that hold you. And His Spirit, like a dove, will descend upon your heart and make you whole." Well, this is the Jesus of John, the gospel. And that's why he says he writes these things that you might believe, but not just that you have this intellectual experience of, yes, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but that your heart is drawn, that you're moved toward him, that you love him, that you want to follow him.

That's the kind of belief that John wants to draw all of us into more and more deeply. And I pray that God is going to do two things here in this church. He's going to take some who have an intellectual experience with Jesus and they believe the stuff, but they don't have life in His name. I pray that God transfers some of you from death to life, and I also pray that He transforms the rest of us into more and more life, deeper, sweeter, more intense, more true, more real, more active in our hearts, and that it's expressed in everything that we do. Okay, now I want to give you an outline.

You see it printed here. As you can see, there are four major divisions in the Gospel of John that I'm identifying here. There are different ways, of course, you can outline it. This is the way that I'm presenting it this morning. The first is the prologue, and That's verses 1 through 18 in the first chapter.

This is so critical When we go through these these sections, you'll recognize that Jesus Christ In in his person and who who these verses say He is, it destroys...it really does, it destroys Mormonism, it destroys Seventh-day Advism, it destroys Islam, and it destroys the major heretical religions of the world, right there in these first verses. This is why in the first 300 years of the history of the church, the pastors were captivated by John 1, 1 through 18. This prologue set forth the contradiction of all the heresies that rose up in the first 300 years of the church. They are all refuted right here, and we'll have a front row seat on that, but we'll also understand how we need these just as much today as they did then. Those are the first 18 verses.

We're going to go slower in the first 18 verses, and then we're going to speed up a little bit as we get on in the gospel. Then the second section I'm calling the display of signs. This is the public ministry of Jesus, And this covers chapter 1 verse 19 through the end of chapter 12. So there's this long section that just displays the signs that Jesus gave to display who He is. And this gospel hangs on these signs.

We're gonna get to those in just a minute. And then, then the third section is the declaration of His glory. And I'm calling this the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is from chapter 13 verse 1 all the way to the end, okay? Almost to the end.

And what you...maybe you've noticed that most of the...an enormous amount of the gospel of John is dedicated to the last week of his life like 48% of the book of John is dedicated to the last week of Jesus life this is John's emphasis his emphasis is on on the glorified Son of God and his his his death and his resurrection and so and an enormous amount of this material Almost half of it is about the last week of his life which should tell us about what we need to focus on, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then finally there's the epilogue, the final summary of the gospel, the conclusion where we read those words which I again I'm taken back 45 years when I just recite these words there were many other signs that Jesus did but not all the books in the world couldn't contain them. It's amazing. I remember reading that like it was yesterday. It blew me away.

And you just see the depth of the glory of Jesus Christ. So, you know, when we get to the resurrection section, you know, you'll just see how powerfully John presents the finality of His resurrection. The stone is gone, the tomb is empty, Jesus is absent, the grave clothes are undisturbed, the face cloth is by itself, the angels are there testifying and there are these face-to-face meetings with Jesus. He is the resurrected Christ. He reveals himself to particular people and you'll find it so fascinating who he has chosen to reveal himself at his resurrection.

You'll be really surprised who is first and who is last. It's really remarkable. But Jesus reveals himself to every category of person that he is willing to save. And it's a beautiful section. You know, what would it take to convince you to really believe with all of your heart.

What would it take to transition you from that place in your life where you're saying, I don't even know what it means to be a Christian. I want to be, I see my parents, I grew up this way, I do believe it in my mind, but what about what about my whole soul? My parents seem to believe with their whole soul like there was a time when it shook them to the core and they turned But what about me? You know, I pray that God gives us that moment many moments like that in this room Coming to give you five facts about the Gospel of John. Now what you'll find is that, or actually four facts, these four facts are probably more like a hundred facts, but I'm organizing them under four categories.

First of all, who is John? Well, this is the John that wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, and the book of Revelation. The early church fathers, you know, all believe that John wrote the fourth gospel because of personal knowledge and also because of implications that are in the gospel. We're not going to go into them in depth here this morning, But the early church fathers were very connected with the Apostle John. John discipled Polycarp, Polycarp discipled Irenaeus.

And these all contend that John wrote this gospel. It's called the fourth gospel because it was the last one that was written. It's clear that John knew what Mark wrote and Matthew and Luke in their Gospels and he is he's expanding on it. His name by the way is pronounced Jonah. He's a believer, he's the son of Zebedee, he's a son of Salome, he's the brother of James, He's the fishing partner with Peter.

By the way, Peter and John is just Almost seemed inseparable you go to the book of Acts. They're together all the time. Remember the song, you know the song children Peter and John went to pray. There you go. They were ministering together all through the Book of Acts, and Jesus met John while he was fishing.

And so, you have...he's one of two sets of brothers who followed Jesus. You have Peter and Andrew and James and John. You have, you have Peter and James and John sort of an inner circle of the disciples who were together more, seemingly more than the others in the Mount of Transfiguration and at various other places. John was a pillar in the Church of Jerusalem after the resurrection. He preached, he healed, he was exiled on the island of Patmos, and then he returned to Ephesus to be a pastor there, and he wrote the Gospel of John at the very end of his life.

John was not Mr. Meek and mild. He was one of the sons of thunder. Called that because, you know, he and some of the others wanted to call thunder down to incinerate some people who didn't love God the way that they thought they should. He was, some say, in Mark chapter 938, he was judgmental, in Mark 1035, he was selfish, and you know, he did, he was involved in so many things, he was a very close eyewitness.

He went to prepare the room for the Last supper, and he was also given responsibility to take care of the mother of Jesus. Jesus was on the cross, and he looks at his mother and he says, Behold your son. He looks at John and he says, Behold your mother. And John took care of the mother of Jesus for the rest of her life John was very close to Jesus. He saw it all he was he was an eyewitness He did he outlaw outlived all the other Apostles James died first all of them died deaths of martyrs except John.

God did not determine that he would be executed by those who hated Jesus Christ. He probably died in Ephesus and he was, he was, he calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. The disciple whom Jesus loved. I think you see the tenderness that he understood Jesus with. And you know, that phrase, the disciple whom Jesus loved, you know, can you say that?

Can you say that you're the disciple whom Jesus loved you know of course all of all of Jesus disciples are loved like that in the same way and okay John now what kind of writing is this? It's a gospel. It's a gospel. What is a gospel? Well, I think we might know what is the gospel.

It's the good news. What is a gospel? A gospel is a writing that records what is the good news. And of course, you know there are four gospels. There are three which are called synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Synoptic means sin, like synergy, the same, an optic site. So, viewed together, seen together, they're like each other. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are like each other. John is not like Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It's very, very different.

And...so there are many differences. The...you know, like for example, in the Gospel of John, unlike the synoptic Gospels, there's no Mary and Joseph, there's no baby and stable and manger and shepherds and star. He, instead, John is giving the backdrop to the glory of Jesus Christ in eternity past. He gives a theological explanation of Jesus. There are no parables, there's no sermon on the mount, there's no Lord's Prayer in John, There's no account of Jesus' baptism or the Lord's Supper or the Mount of Transfigurations or exorcisms of demons.

There's no temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by Satan. There's no, there's no Gethsemane in the way that the others record it. And now John, John has fewer historical accounts, but more theological accounts. And also John writes much about the Holy Spirit, particularly in John chapter 14 and 15 and in 16 the Holy Spirit is explained to us like no other gospel writer does. So he does things that the other gospel writers don't do.

You know, as Mike and I were considering what to preach on, which gospel to preach on, it was a big struggle, at least for me, whether it was gonna be Luke or John, and because Luke is just, he is the Son, he's the compassionate Son of man who always sees Jesus healing. But we thought it would be better for the church, because we've gone through Matthew, which really is one of the Sonacra Gospels, that it would be better to get a view of the glory of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. And so that's what we're doing here. We want to see Him in His glory. The third fact is that there are lengthy sermons.

This is one of the neat things about the Gospel of John, long sermons. How about this statistic? 41% of the material in John are sermons. 357 verses out of 879 verses are sermons. You know, long discourses.

They're just beautiful. You can't forget them when you read them. They're just absolutely astonishing and so helpful. You know, so in John, You have a different take in John. You know, with Matthew, you're before the face of a king.

In Mark, you're before the face of a suffering servant. In Luke, you're in the face of a compassionate healer. But in John, you're before the face of the perfect and fully divine Son of God who is full of grace and truth. That's who you're beholding in the gospel of John. And John writes to prove that.

You know, Do you feel drawn to Jesus Christ when you hear of him, when you read of him, when you are beholding his face, do you desire to hear from him? Does it cost you pain to think that you're not close to him? Well, John writes for this purpose. He uses the word life over and over again in this gospel. The fourth fact, When was it written?

I've already alluded to this. I'll go quickly over it. It was written, most likely, between 81 and 90 AD, after the destruction of Jerusalem, after the martyrdom of Peter and the rest of the Apostles. John is writing in in Ephesus after his exile on Patmos, and it's the last gospel written. But why do I say that?

You need to think about John. You know, walk in his shoes. When John, John's an old man now, and he can remember, he still remembers the taste of the wine at the wedding at Cana. He can smell the perfume of that woman. He remembers what he felt when that man who was born blind received his sight.

He could smell the fish and the fire on the beach that Jesus made after his resurrection. He's an old man, but he remembers the beauty of Jesus, and it's the last gospel, which is why they call it the fourth gospel. Seven signs. There are seven signs that John uses to prove the glory, the beauty, and the deity of Jesus Christ. Seven signs.

Many of the commentators say that John's whole argument hangs on these seven signs. And that way it's very simple. Like if you go to Luke, there are so many signs and miracles, it's not even funny. There's a miracle, you know, on every time you turn around, there's a miracle. Same thing with the gospel of Matthew and Mark.

But John has coalesced the identity of Jesus into seven particular signs, and he calls them signs. And then at the very end, at the very end he says, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but then he says but these and he means signs these signs are written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name. So the, I think we should take the signs seriously, and I would just encourage you, teach your children the signs. Help them to understand what happened in each one of these signs. There are only seven of them.

And it's going to take us a long time to get to them, So you'll have time to rehearse them and to expose them to the language and the contours of the beauty of the signs that He gives. These are the signs that are given to us so that we would believe first, But it wouldn't stop there in our brains and our noggin, but that it would flow down into our hearts and we would have life in His name. These signs are designed to push you over the wall, to take you into the living water, to have you taste the living bread that he gives. These signs are there to take you there, to push you over, to say, are you at that place where you can no longer live without him? These signs are there to push you over the wall and to believe with all of your heart.

Okay, the first sign, water into wine. You can see that on your outline. This is the first miracle in the gospel of John, and there's this wedding. The very first miracle that Jesus performs is at a wedding. Isn't that amazing?

He enters into the life of these families and they're there and they're celebrating and they run out of wine. And so, Jesus' mother, you know, tells him that and Jesus says, what am I supposed to do about that? And then his mother turns to his servants and says one of the most remarkable, helpful, practical things that anybody could say. Whatever he says to do, you do it. Whatever he says to do, you do it.

There you go. Jesus' mother understood how good Jesus was. Whatever He tells you to do, do it. That's the best thing you can ever do is do what Jesus tells you to do. But then at the end of the narrative, the master of the feast, he calls the bridegroom and he's talking to the bridegroom.

And he says, 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 and You know Jesus he's saying Jesus is different. Jesus doesn't lure you in and get you drunk. Jesus is always good. He gets better as time goes on. He doesn't trick you.

He sets out the good and it stays good. He doesn't manipulate you. He's not...He doesn't throw out a teaser for you. What he offers you is real and it's good and it's a blessing and it actually gets better. That's Jesus.

I mean, like, do you believe that? Is that enough to push you over the wall? Is that enough for you to say, okay, I believe. I want to follow him. You know, what's it like to follow Jesus?

To follow Jesus is to follow the one who tells you the truth upfront and it gets better along the way, and he saves the best till last. Is that enough to push you over the wall? The second sign, the healing of the nobleman's son, that's in chapter 4 verses 46 to 54. Jesus goes back to Cana, same place that he did the miracle of the turning water the wine and a nobleman Comes up to him and says my son is dying And he was probably a day's journey away at least. His son was in another place and the nobles said, my son is dying.

Would you please come? Please come down before my child dies. And Jesus said to him, Go your way, your son lives. So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and he went in his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Your son lives.

And he inquired of them the hour when he got better, and they said to him, Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. Wow, that was right at the same time that Jesus said, Go, your son lives. This is Jesus' power over time and space. Jesus spoke a word and the nobleman's son was healed over a long distance. The nobleman didn't even learn until the day after.

If he had lived today, somebody could have texted him, you know, he would have known in a second, your son's alive! Boom! He had to wait a day before he learned that his son was healed. But Jesus isn't isn't limited by space and time And you never have to worry about where you are. He covers all the spaces.

So what's it like to follow Jesus? To follow Jesus is to follow the one who is not limited by space and time, not by resources, not by relationships. He's not limited by anything. That's Jesus. And the nobleman believed, but he believed before the miracle took place because his heart loved to follow Jesus.

He had life in His name, and so he believed. The third sign, the healing of the paralytic. You know what a paralytic is, somebody who can't move a part of their body. Their body is dead. It doesn't respond.

It's completely unresponsive. The mind tells it to move, but it won't move. It won't do what it's supposed to do. And so there's a great multitude of sick people gathered at the sheep gate where there is a pool, the Pool of Bethesda, and there are paralyzed people there. And there's a man there who has been paralyzed for 38 years, maybe his whole life long, or maybe he's older and he had some kind of an accident and he was paralyzed and he couldn't move.

And there he was. He wanted to be made well. And Jesus says to him, do you want to be made well? And he said to Jesus, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I'm coming another steps in before me and Jesus says to him Rise take up your bed and walk don't mess with the pool You need me You don't need You don't need all these traditions and all this hocus pocus.

You don't need that. You need me. You know, people want to turn to hocus pocus. They want to turn to every remedy other than Jesus when they have a problem. You know, no one was helping him.

You know, Jesus doesn't need others to get you the help you need. He says, take up your bed and walk. And it doesn't matter if there's someone there to pick you up or not. Now God will probably send someone to help you. That's what he does all the time.

But God doesn't need your mechanism To take care of you. What's it like to follow Jesus? To follow Jesus is to follow the one and to be convinced in the one who has authority over all sickness He has authority over all sickness and If you're sick Jesus can make you well. He will take care of you. I I don't believe that this means that you should not use medicine I don't believe it means that and it definitely doesn't mean that you'll never be sick It does mean that Jesus Christ is going to take care of your sickness one way or another.

He may do it through a surgeon, he may do it through some medicine, he may do it through some comfort of your heart, He may do it out because of your repentance, because your sickness is tied to your sin and your grief and your obsession with things and he wants to relieve you of those things. But Jesus will make you as well as He desires to make you in this world, and by the way, He will finally heal you. He will raise you up to new life and He will give you a new body and you will be healed. You absolutely will be healed. Maybe not in this world, but quite likely in this world.

We have one of our dear sisters in the hospital today. Our hearts go out. We want every means to be applied to heal her and bring her back to life, but here's what we know. It's God that has ordained all those things. All those things came from God.

We're crying out that the very best medicines, the very best insight, the very best treatment would be given to our dear sister Jenny. Right now she's laying in bed in the hospital. Oh, that God would bless her. But here's what we know and here's what she needs to know, and she does know this, that Jesus is the healer. Jesus is the exclusive, authoritative healer of man's afflictions.

If you want to follow Jesus, you're following the one who has authority over all sickness. Number four, the feeding of the 5, 000. Everybody knows this story. Here he expresses his authority over provision. You have these people, there were probably 25 to 30, 000 people at the feeding of the 5, 000.

There were 5, 000 men. This was a huge crowd. And how are you gonna feed 30, 000 people? I know, you know, I know some people in this church that have to feed a multitude on short notice, but it's not anything like 30, 000. So you can count your blessings for that, sisters.

But, you know, but imagine having to feed 30, 000 at the drop of a hat. Well, it's rough. And that's exactly what happened. There's this great multitude. Philip says, where are we going to buy bread for these people to eat?

How can you? We're going to buy out every bread store in Galilee. Jesus was testing him. And there were five loaves and two fish that fed the entire crowd. He gives this sign to make something really clear.

He's the bread of life. He's the one that's gonna feed you. He is the living bread that came down out of heaven. And he gives life to the world. What's it like?

I mean, like to follow Jesus. It's to learn how to quit worrying about food and clothing and everything else in life. Quit worrying about whether you're gonna be provided for. If you have Jesus, if you know Him, if you're a follower of Jesus, He's going to make sure you get everything you need. Jesus said, you know, All these things that Gentiles seek, I'm gonna take care of you.

I'm gonna take care of you. Everybody's running around so worried about food and clothing and money and everything else. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about anything. That's what it's like to follow Jesus.

Would that be enough to push you over the wall? To believe in that Jesus who's the bread of life. And then the fifth sign, the stilling of the storm. This is in chapter 6 verses 16 through 21. Here we see his authority over nature and the disciples are rowing and it's hard and there's a great wind blowing against them and they've rowed about three or four miles and they see Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat.

I think that must have been... I think Jesus must have been smiling when he was doing that because he's walking and they are just pulling so hard. And he, he calms the sea. He says, don't be afraid. And they take him into the boat and you know what happens to the boat?

It is instantaneously transported to the shore. Okay, he gets in the boat, it goes to the shore. How about that? Wow. You know, I do think he was smiling when he was walking along and they're afraid, you know, he's walking along and he gets in the boat and they get to the shore.

And you know what what is it like to follow Jesus? If he is in your boat you got nothing to worry about and he will carry you, he will get you there, He'll get you where you need to go. And He's in control of nature. And He's going to get you through the storms of life. Two things.

You're going to have storms in your life. You're going to have storms. But how are you going to get through the storms that's the question you want to get through the storm with Jesus in your boat that's who you want him in your boat. Is that enough to push you over the wall? Is that enough to say, I don't wanna live another day without Jesus.

I don't wanna live another minute without knowing him as the one who will carry me through all the storms of my life." The sixth, the sixth sign, the healing of the blind man. This is in chapter 9 verses 1 through 7. This man had been blind from birth, and the disciples were saying to him, to Jesus, hey, who sinned? This man or his parents? Who sinned?

Because they were part of a group of people who thought, if there's something going wrong in your life, God's punishing you. That's what they thought. That was a common thought. Now, sometimes it is true, but Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no, no. This man was born blind.

This is in verse 4, so that the works of God would be, verse 3, so that the works of God would, verse three, so that the works of God would be revealed in him. And so then Jesus says, I'm gonna work the works of God, and the works of God in this case is to heal this man because I have authority over sight. And he says, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. And then he spat on the ground and he made clay with the saliva and he anointed that blind man's eyes with clay and then he said, go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he did that and he saw.

You know, it'll be very interesting to go through this in detail, but I think one of the things that you recognize here is that a doctor said this to me the other day. He said the spit of Jesus, The spit of Jesus, the Son of God, is more powerful than any medicine you can, any man has ever conceived of to heal somebody's eyes. He makes the blind see. There's so much to say about that. What's it like to follow Jesus?

It's to have your eyes continually opened and your sight gets better and better and he'll never leave you without illumination. He said, thy word is truth and he's given you his word. So is that enough? Would that be enough to push you over the wall? To follow the one who will continually open your eyes?

You know, I don't know how long you've walked with the Lord, but, you know, I'm going on my almost fifth decade, and he does keep enlightening your eyes. You see how little light you had, but He always wants to give you more. And then the seventh, this is probably the climax, the pinnacle, and that's the resurrection of Lazarus. The seventh sign, A certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany. And so, it's interesting that the sisters come to Jesus and they say, Lord, Behold, he whom you love is sick." Oh, so John wasn't the only disciple that Jesus loved.

He also loved Lazarus. And Jesus said, this sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, that God, that the Son of God would be glorified through it. And so Jesus delays, he doesn't come right away. The family is upset with him that he didn't come right away and they're saying to him if you had come he wouldn't have died they were there was a little bit of tension you know because the because Jesus didn't do exactly What they wanted him to do they delayed And so Jesus tells them that he's the resurrection and that he that he's he's gonna raise them raise him from the dead and so he comes and everybody's weeping and they're groaning and and Jesus tells them to take away the stone and then Martha, Lazarus' sister says, Lord by this time there is a stench." But I like the way it says it better in the King James. In the King James version it reads, he stinketh, he stinketh by this time.

He's been dead, okay? And yes, he stinketh. Don't roll away that tomb, you know that or don't roll away with that stone and And so they rolled away the stone and they believed Jesus has authority over the grave He brings the dead to life and he resurrects to eternal life. You know, what is it like? What is it like to follow Jesus?

Here's what it's like. You are dead in your sins, dead as a doornail, and you're in a hopeless state. You can't raise yourself up, you can't do anything to save yourself, and you're unable to believe and follow Him, and He raises you up out of your death. And then He gives you eternal life. He has authority over the grave.

Would that be enough? Would that be enough to push you over the wall to say, I can't live another day without Jesus. I can't live another moment without following Him. I want Him. I need Him.

I cannot live without Him because of who He is. And then there are the seven I AM statements. These are very familiar and we won't dwell deeply on them. But the first is Jesus says, I am the bread of life. In other words, He is the only one who can nourish you the way you were created to be nourished.

He is the only one who can fill all the holes in your life and He's the bread of life. To follow Jesus is to have a never failing store of food from heaven. He says I'm the light of the world in John 8, 12, and chapter 9, verse 5. What is it like to follow Jesus? It's to have light on your path.

He promises his light, and you can have it. And then the next, he says, I am the door of the sheep in John 10, verses 6 through 10. What's it like to follow Jesus? It's to go through him. It's to go to him rightly, go through the door.

He is the door. And then the next statement is, I am the good shepherd, John 10, 10 through 14. What's it like to follow Jesus? It's to have the best shepherd you can have in this world. And then he says, I am the resurrection and the life in John 11, verse 25.

What's it like to follow Jesus? It's to have everlasting life. It's to be with the one who takes dead things and he transforms them. And the next, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John 14 verse 6.

To follow Jesus means that you'll always have a way, You'll always have a way through everything. And it's through Him and His Word and His wisdom. And then finally, the seventh, I am the true vine, John 15, 1-8. What's it like to follow Jesus? It's to have life from outside of you flowing into you.

It's being fed from heaven. It's being connected to a source of life. It's being connected to something real. We have fellowship. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

We are connected to him through this vine. Now one of the things that we notice here in the Gospel of John is that there were people who didn't believe in him. And one of the most fascinating and really startling things about the Gospel of John is that we learn that Jesus' brothers didn't believe Him for a long time. His brothers didn't believe. Hey, they'd seen it all.

They saw the miracles. They experienced the signs. They knew what was happening. They saw it all, but they didn't believe. They had an intellectual belief, but they didn't follow Him and love Him.

And in John chapter 7 verse 5, we learn that His brothers did not believe. They were not pushed over the wall by those miracles. They didn't come over to Him, even though they had had seen it. And this is also a theme that you see in all the Gospels. You know, Jesus, the Son of God, is rejected.

In spite of the signs, He is rejected constantly. And there's reject...there's bitterness and hatred, and they...and they finally crucify Him. He came into His own, and his own did not receive him and even his own brothers Did not believe until a certain point and even at the very end all the disciples fled Unbelief is the central problem of the central nervous system of a human being. It is the most central problem. Unbelief, not believing, not believing and having life in His name.

It's the most tragic thing that can happen to a person. You find this resistance in this gospel, and you find people who are criticizing and disputing. That's exactly what Jesus' brothers were doing. They said, why don't you, you're doing this, why don't you go do this? You'll be more popular if you do this.

They're telling Jesus what to do. They're disputing. They're criticizing Him. This is what the non-christian does. They're always disputing a text.

They're always wanting something different Rather than rather than falling at his feet and saying oh Lord and my God teach me more. I need more I need more. Well, Jesus, He turns water into wine and He rules over all your sickness. And He is a governor over space and time. He feeds, He feeds you when it's impossible to get food.

He opens your eyes when everyone else has failed and he makes you walk when you've been lame your whole life long. That's Jesus. And the question is, you know, what would it take to help us believe? What would it take that we would go deeper, that we would be awakened like we never have been before? What would it take to believe and have life in His name?

Well, we get to experience that in the coming months, and I'm so thankful that we are. It is true, Jesus Christ is the whole of man's happiness. He is the sun to enlighten him. He is the bread to feed him. He is the water to refresh him.

He is the healing balm of Gilead. He's Jesus. And what a blessing it is to behold him. As we turn to the Lord's Supper here in just a few minutes, let's just recognize this is the one we turn to. Behold your God.

What a blessing we have to turn to his death and his resurrection, which really is the pinnacle expression of his glory. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you that you have given us this marvelous testimony. Thank you for showing us your son so that we wouldn't be confused about who this is. Lord, we've seen him.

And we pray that you would grow our love for him in every way. Amen.