John 20:30

Good morning. Let's set our mind and focus on Jesus this morning. It's important to remember that He's not looking for our perfection.

He just wants our attention. Let's praise Him for everything that He's doing in our lives in the midst of everything that's going on in this world. He's got everything for us.

I would be desperate. I felt your love slip to the darkness if it wasn't for the cross.

If you died and I was lost, where would I be if it wasn't for the cross?

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I was in prison. Now I'm alive. With your blood. All my freedom. Hallelujah.

I'm saved. And you've got a life. All my weakness. All my weakness. All my weakness. And your mercy. All my weakness. All my weakness. Oh, my wealth.

Look at my son. It's all the glory.

Oh, the power of the cross

So hallelujah

Thank you, Jesus

I was a gift

Now I'm alive

With your blood

For my freedom

So hallelujah

Oh, the cross

So hallelujah

Thank you, Jesus

I was a gift

Now I'm alive

With your blood

For my freedom

Hallelujah

Oh, the power of the cross

For your strength

By your death

I'm alive

While the sin is overcome

In the city, city, city

By your stripes

I'm alive

By your death

I'm alive

While the sin is overcome

In the city, city, city

By your stripes

By your death

Now I'm alive

Now the sin is overcome

In the city, city

Hallelujah

Thank you, Jesus

I was a prisoner

Well, now I'm alive

With your blood

You bought my freedom

So hallelujah

For the cross

Hallelujah

Thank you, Jesus

I was a prisoner

Now I'm alive

Thank you, Jesus

Thank you

Amen

Waymaker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the darkness My God, that is who you are

you are You are here Moving in our midst I worship you I worship you You are here Working in this place I worship you I worship you I worship you

You are a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are.

You are a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are.

You are here, touching every heart.

I worship you.

You are here, healing every heart.

I worship you.

You are here, turning lives around.

I worship you.

You are here, mending every heart.

I worship you.

Waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are.

You are a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are.

That is who you are.

You are a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

My God, that is who you are.

You are a waymaker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness.

That is who you are.

Even when I don't feel that you are working.

Even when I don't feel that you're working.

You'll never stop, you'll never stop working

Even when I don't see it, you're working

Even when I don't feel that you're working

Even when I don't see it, you're working

Even when I don't feel it, you're working

You never stop, you never stop working

You never stop, even when

Even when I don't see it, you're working

Even when I don't feel it, you're working

You never stop, you never stop working

Even when I don't see that you're working

Even when I don't feel that you're working

You never stop, never stop working

You never stop, never stop

Waymaker, miracle worker

Promise sleeper, light in the darkness

My God, that is who you are

You are, you are

Waymaker, miracle worker

Promise sleeper, light in the darkness

My God, that is who you are

That is who you are

You are, you are

Oh, it's who you are

It's who you are

Waymaker, miracle worker

Promise sleeper, light in the darkness

My God, that is who you are

Waymaker, miracle worker

Promise keeper, light in the darkness

My God, that is who you are

How great the chasm

He lay between us

I could not cry

In desperation

I turned to heaven

And spoke to me

Into the night

And through the darkness

Your loving kindness

Tore through the shadows

Of my soul

The work is finished

The end is risen

Jesus Christ, my living hope

Who could imagine

So great a mercy

What heart could fathom

Such boundless grace

The God of ages

Stepped down from glory

To wear my sin

And bear my shame

The cross is spoken

I am forgiven

The King of kings

Calls for years on

He is forsaken

In your spirit

Jesus Christ, my living hope

Hallelujah

Praise the one who set me free

Hallelujah

He has lost his grip on me

You have broken every chain

The salvation is

This salvation is

Plan the rest

We'll be right back.

The body Began to breathe And out of the silence The holy lion Declare the grave There's no pain on me You came the morning Let's see the promise You're buried by

The holy lion Declare the grave There's no pain on me Oh Jesus, yours is the victory Oh Jesus, yours is the victory Oh Jesus, yours is the victory Oh Jesus, yours is the victory

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise the Lord Praise the one who set me free Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah That has lost his grip on me You have broken every chain There's salvation in your name Jesus Christ, my living hope Oh God, you are my living hope Oh God, you are my living hope

God, thank you for

the congregation. Lord, we look out to y'all

singing and praising. We know that

there's good in what we're doing.

Lord, we just ask that you bring our nation together and you heal us.

Lord, we ask for wisdom

for Pastor Curtis as he gives the sermon today.

Lord, I just pray for him and I pray for our elders

that we just, as a church,

can still keep moving forward with our community

and bless some

like-kind people

and

all these things we ask

in your holy name.

Amen.

Good morning, good morning, Miami Community Church.

As soon as they get the lights up, I'll say it's good to see you. It's good to see you.

It's good to see you.

It's a blessing to be back again.

Two Sundays now. Two Sundays now we've been back.

Last Sunday. Amen. Amen. God is good.

Last Sunday, it just kind of felt eerie.

It just felt eerie. It felt like everybody was here.

They were like, they were, are we supposed to be here? Is it okay to be here? Are we doing what my mom and dad said we're not supposed to do?

You know, that kind of thing.

It's a blessing. It's a blessing to gather here today.

Before we get into things today, I got a couple of quick announcements.

If you're visiting with us today, we do have some visitor cards in the chairs located in front of you.

Grab one and fill it out.

Just give us some info so we can touch base with you.

Maybe you have prayer requests today.

Please fill that out as well, too.

Put it in one of the churches here and the church in the back as well, too.

And for home folk, that's where we, again, that's where we receive our offerings.

Thank you for continuing to be faithful to give.

We are.

to be able to do that. And that's some of the things that our heart is to give back to the community. I don't have everyone's, I don't have everybody's information. So if I miss somebody, you know, just know that I'm sorry. But I know that we have a couple of big days coming. This coming Tuesday is going to be Taylor's birthday. Taylor ours is going to have a birthday on Tuesday. It's a big one. It's a big one. It's a big number. And on Thursday, Terry's having a birthday. Terry, raise your hand. Yeah.

That's right. Terry and Taylor will be the same age this year. They'll be the same age. Right. You'll be as young as Taylor, right? Yeah. And so I want you to I want you to keep them in prayer. Keep them in prayer and just celebrate with them. And should we sing happy birthday this morning? We kind of do that all the time, don't we? Should we do that, Rob? What do you think? It's fine. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Start us off, Rob. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. I don't hear you guys.

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Yay. Hey, listen. Listen, while that was good, while that was good, you guys are in big trouble because we just sang a song,

Hallelujah. He has won the victory. And I couldn't hear half of you this morning. And that's something to sing about more than happy birthday. Oh, that's important. Come on, people.

Wow. I want to just let you know next Sunday. Next Sunday.

We've got something going on in the community. I'm working with several different pastors in the heart of our community. And next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.

And you're going to get some more information from us. So make sure you check on your group me. Make sure you check on our Facebook page and our website.

But we are calling. We're calling. You're going to have some more information from us as to where, if you would like to join us.

But we have several churches in the community who are going to do a prayer walk for just 30 minutes.

And we'll give you some more information. We have a lot to pray for in our community with this COVID that's going on and with some of the heartbreaking things that have taken place for Ahmaud Arbery and his family as well, too.

And just for all that's going on in the life of our community, we just we we need for God to intervene and to pour out his spirit upon his people.

And so we'll be doing a prayer walk and you'll get some more information from us on that.

OK, I think that's it. Normally, I would dismiss the kids, but we're keeping everybody in here.

So you got it. You got to hang with us today.

Today, we we start a new series.

We start a new series. We took a little over to a little over two years and we did an expository study of the book of Genesis.

We covered everything from Genesis 1, 1 to Genesis 50 at the very end.

It was it was over two years. It was it was a blessing for me.

I don't care about the rest of you. It was a blessing for me.

We took a few breaks in there in between and did some did a few series in that Christmas time and this and the other.

But it was a great study in the book of Genesis.

Now, we'll start off today, but next week you will not you will not get the second of the series study.

Today's the first because next week we have our graduation celebration.

Normally, we honor the graduates that we have within the life of our church.

Obviously, we can't do that like we normally do.

We have to keep our distance with some things, but we want to honor.

We have three particular graduates that we want to just speak over their lives and honor them.

And so in so doing next week, also, I'm going to have our student pastor, Joe Williamson.

He's going to bring a message next week for the kids, for the students and their parents and all of us just about next steps and what happens next in life.

And where do we go as we follow the Lord and those kinds of things?

And then we'll get back into the series on the following following Sunday.

But today, it has been, I'll get into this a little bit in more detail, but a little, I told you last week, a little over two and a half years ago,

I really felt that we were going to do an expository study on the book of John, the gospel of John.

That's where.

And so, in the midst of all of that, we can see how it all ties in. Genesis being so foundational, and now the gospel of John, I pray, will come alive for us as we study the gospel of John. Wow, it's going to be another long series, isn't it, Pastor Curtis? Yes, but we're a church, okay? We're a church. So, anyway, I'm not even going to get into that.

But the title of the entire series is going to be Faith to Believe. And this morning, the title of today's sermon is just Faith to Believe. Because all I'm doing today, I know you think we're going to get into John, but we're really not going to get into John.

What do we need to look for? And what does this gospel even have to say to us? And how is it going to change our lives? But the Bible is an amazing book, isn't it?

You've got 66 books in the Bible, okay? Comprising of the Old Testament and the New Testament, 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 books in the New Testament.

The Bible contains 31,173 individual verses. That's a lot of scripture. A lot of scripture before us.

And so, something that I've always wanted to do on a Sunday morning is to do an in-depth series on expository messages that are homiletically crafted,

and with a couple of verses or a paragraph that drive home a single point or two.

And there are 879 verses within the Gospel of John. Go home and count them, okay? And just make sure I'm right.

Yours might be different, because each version seems to have a little different thing.

But I believe that the promised result of plowing through these verses will be an increased faith.

An increased faith. And so, knowing that, go with me to John chapter 20 this morning.

Because this is one of the few books that the author gives the purpose of why he's written the book,

but he actually does it at the end of the book.

And he tells us why he's written it in chapter 20, verse 30.

Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples to have life in his name.

Our faith will be increased because of this book, as we study this book.

And I want to say this morning that I really do admire your faith. I really do.

One of the great joys that I have in this Spirit-filled fellowship is your love for the Word.

Your love for the Word. And you're a loving congregation.

But don't you think that your faith could increase a little bit?

Don't you think that you could have, that the Lord could reach down and touch you and increase your faith?

That it maybe could be like as Paul when he wrote to the church in Corinth, that your faith may abound?

I want that kind of faith, don't you? An abounding faith?

I mean, even no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord right now, I think all of us want that kind of faith.

And when I say that, I always think about the demon-possessed boy whose father comes to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, if you believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

And the man was so honest with Jesus that he says, I believe, but help my unbelief.

But help my unbelief, okay?

I believe, but there's a little part that doubts.

And if you would just fix that, Jesus.

And I think the Lord wants to do that for us in this series.

To strengthen our faith.

And so today we're just going to look at the opening statement.

Although it's not the opening statement.

He doesn't put it in the front of the book, okay?

But he puts it in the back of the book.

But we're opening these verses, these two verses, as my wife, the English teacher, would probably tell us.

It's his purpose statement, okay?

He gives us his purpose statement back there.

And these two verses, he has two ideas that John looks at.

Number one, what Jesus did and what John documented.

What Jesus did and what John documented.

So first of all, let's consider what Jesus did.

Look at verse 30 with me.

Now Jesus did many signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

The first thing that's clear in this book, and in fact reading from any of the gospel,

is that Jesus' life and his ministry was extremely busy.

Extremely active.

He had a three and a half year ministry and was packed full of signs, wonders, and activities, and all this other work.

And if you had this idea that Jesus just stood around in a robe, and he was glowing, and he had a halo over his head,

and he would walk around and just go, ah, you are sadly misinformed in the life of Jesus.

He was very, very active.

And the ones who saw it are called disciples. Now, we probably have a reasonably good idea of what disciples means, okay? And let me just say that a disciple means a learner, a student, or a follower, okay? That's what disciple means. And when you hear the term disciples, you probably think of the twelve, alright? And that's probably correct, because most of the time when it's used, it's speaking of the twelve disciples or the apostles who were sent.

But the Bible also indicates, like in Luke chapter 10, that there were seventy disciples. Another translation says seventy-two disciples were sent out around the Sea of Galilee. In Acts chapter 1, it mentions that a hundred and twenty disciples gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem. But most often, when the New Testament talks about the disciples, they're talking about Peter, James, John, Bartholomew, Simon the Zealot, etc., etc., okay? These disciples.

Well, John was one of those disciples. Well, John was one of those disciples. And if you think about it, if you've ever done a study on the twelve that Jesus picked, if you think about it, you have to come to the conclusion that Jesus had to have a sense of humor when he picked these guys. You know, I mean, seriously, these guys, they weren't the sharpest bulbs in the bunch, alright? And so, and if today, if today people were to advise Jesus, okay, on his mission,

to reach the entire world, I think it would be very different, and they would move for him to pick people in a very different way. I think if he would have gone to a PR firm, and Jesus would have gone, they would have said,

Jesus, the first thing that you should do is you need to go to the seminaries, and you need to find the sharpest guys, the professors who really know their stuff, and get them on your team.

The second thing you need to do is you've got to find some pretty powerful and articulate communicators to really get the hearts and the minds of the crowds.

We've got to really work these people up. And the third thing that we need to do is we need to get a few millionaires on your team.

We've got to go over to Sea Island, get a few of those golfers, and get a few of the NFL players and the Major League Baseball players,

and we've got to get them on your team, because this is a big undertaking. It's going to take a lot of capital, you know, to do this movement, okay?

And the fourth thing we need to do is we've got to get some pro wrestlers, okay, who are going to be your bodyguards,

because you're going to say some pretty controversial things, and you're going to need some bodyguards here to protect you.

And the fifth thing you've got to do is you've got to go get Bethel to do all your music,

because everybody in Jerusalem and Galilee loves Bethel's music, okay?

And that's really going to make everybody listen to what you've got to say.

Did Jesus do any of that? No.

No, he goes down to Fisherman's Wharf and gets a bunch of Yehoos, blue-collar guys.

A bunch of Yehoos is going to do this, but he takes these guys and he says, these disciples, these guys, he says to them,

let's change the world. Let's change the world.

Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel.

We're going to talk more about them later on,

but we want to look at what John looks at,

and this stuff that he's talking about,

this amazing stuff that they saw,

and he calls them in verse 30, signs.

He calls them signs.

It's a very important word.

Jesus did many other signs, okay?

Simia is the word in the Greek,

and it means a distinguishing mark.

And it could be a miracle,

it could be a miracle,

and it could just be an activity that's predicted in the Scripture.

But whatever it is,

they were distinguishing marks

that would point to Jesus

being the promised deliverer,

being the Messiah,

being the King of Israel,

being the one that the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about.

Jesus did signs

that distinguished him from everybody else.

I mean, can you imagine being around

and hearing the messages that Jesus would teach,

and being around and seeing all the things that Jesus would do?

Well, John, who writes this Gospel,

he also wrote 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John,

and he wrote Revelation as well too.

John was around.

And this is what John says in 1 John chapter 1.

He says,

That, which was from the beginning,

is the one that we have heard and seen.

We saw him with our own eyes,

and we touched him with our own hands.

He is Jesus Christ,

the word of life.

He's the word of life.

And John didn't just have some second-hand religious experience.

We saw him with our own hands.

Thank you.

Upper Room Discourse in this book in chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16, okay? And so they listened to the messages for the first time. They saw these things. And on top of what they heard, they would never forget what they saw. They saw limbs that were withered being healed right in front of their eyes. They saw people with ears that couldn't hear that were stopped up being unstopped. They saw blind people who could now see. And they saw lame people who couldn't walk were walking. And they saw those

those who were dead being resurrected. They saw these things. They watched Jesus walk on water. They watched Jesus turn water into wine. All of these were distinguishing marks. And the greatest of them all was the resurrection from the dead. That was the greatest distinguishing mark of all when Jesus raised himself from the dead. From the dead, okay? Now, when you hear of a sign or a miracle,

please don't confuse the natural phenomenon with miracles, okay? I hear people all the time that degrade the miraculous by saying, man, every time a baby is born, that's a miracle. Look at that sunset, that sunrise. That's a miracle. No, it's not. It's a miracle if you or I pulled it off. Right? But that's the natural order of things.

A miracle is when natural law is suspended and overwritten by supernatural forces.

Let's get an understanding of what a true miracle is. That's different.

And that would be the sign that those would be miracles. And Jesus did a lot of them. He did 34 miracles in the New Testament.

And everything that he did wasn't written about. Those are just the ones that they gave us.

Probably because he gave us all the miracles, we would think it would be so outlandish and we couldn't even deal with it.

We couldn't even deal with it.

Somebody, I thought this was kind of funny and I like funny stuff.

But somebody wrote one time, they tried to imagine if Jesus did those signs and those miracles in our generation, in our time now.

What would it be like?

And this is what they wrote.

They said, he would probably be wanted by the FDA for turning water into wine without a license.

He'd be wanted by the EPA for killing fig trees.

He'd be wanted by the AMA for practicing medicine without a license.

He'd be wanted by the health department for asking people to open graves and raising the dead and feeding 5,000 out in the wilderness.

He'd be wanted by the NEA, that's the Education Association, for teaching without a certificate.

He'd be wanted by OSHA for walking on water without a life jacket and flying without an airplane.

He'd be wanted by the ASPCA for driving the hogs into the sea.

He'd be wanted by the National Board of Psychiatrists for giving advice on how to live a guilt-free life.

He'd be wanted by the NOW, that's the National Organization of Women, for not choosing a woman apostle.

He'd be wanted by the abortion rights league for saying whoever harms this child would be better that they'd never been born, right?

He'd be wanted by the interfaith movement for condemning other religions, all right?

So, here's what we need to know.

The Gospel of John is very selective about the account of Jesus' life.

It's not a comprehensive view.

John is one of four Gospels.

You have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Okay, why are there four Gospels?

Why isn't there just, you know, I get questions all the time.

Why isn't there just one composite Gospel?

You know, do they differ?

Do they contradict?

The answer is yes, they differ.

And the answer is no, they do not contradict, all right?

We need to understand, these are very foundational things before we get into the study.

What you have is simply four different viewpoints of one person's life.

They don't contradict.

And here's what it's like.

The character of Jesus is so unique and so magnificent.

It's like that of a diamond.

You can't just hold a diamond and look at it like that.

You've got to be able to turn it and look at it at every facet.

And it changes at every facet.

That's what it's like.

The Gospel of Matthew was written by a Jew for a Jewish audience.

By a Jew for a Jewish audience to show them that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament promise

that Jesus is Messiah and King of the Lord.

Genealogy describes Jesus as human. He is the Son of Man. He is fully man. He is fully man among men. So Luke presents Jesus as Behold the Man. Now you come to the Gospel of John and it's completely different than the other three Gospels called the Synoptic Gospels. Okay? Completely different. Because they're primarily written in a certain way. In John, the heavens open up and descends

the Son of God towards us. And the Son of God is the Son of God. And the Son of God. God in human flesh appears. If Matthew is Behold your King. And Mark is saying Behold the servant. And Luke is saying Behold the man. Then John is saying Behold your God. Behold your God. John presents Him in His pre-existence. In His glory. In His glory. In all of His deity. That's how He presents Him. And that Jesus is none other than God in the human flesh.

And that's why John doesn't begin with genetics. But rather He begins in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. That's how He begins. We'll get to that in a second as well too.

So John goes back before space and time and says Jesus didn't have a beginning. He didn't have a beginning. He was there. In fact, He was what began everything. And that's John.

John. And now, before I tell you what John includes, I want to tell you what John doesn't include.

Because we're still on that little sentence there in verse 30 that says, which are not written in this book.

Alright? Now you understand why we have to have this foundational Sunday before we get into things.

First of all, there is no account of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in John's Gospel.

There is no account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan River in this Gospel.

There is no account of Jesus being tempted out in the wilderness by the devil.

And it's easy and simple to see why. Because John is emphasizing the deity of Christ.

That's his emphasis. Not the humanity of Christ.

So he leaves that to the other Gospels to cover it. And John doesn't cover this.

Now John does describe how the Word became flesh.

Speaking about the birth, but from a whole different angle.

This is his incarnation as God in the flesh.

John doesn't include any of the parables of Jesus.

Okay? Like the others do.

There's no eschatological discourses in John.

Eschatological lepers.

There's no formal list of the twelve apostles given in John.

There's no mention of the transfiguration with Moses and Elisha.

There's no record of the formal institution of the Lord's Supper.

I mean, where he says, this is my body, this is my blood.

We see Jesus in the upper room, okay?

But there's no formal institution of the Lord's Supper.

There's no mention of the agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Those are all in the other three Gospels, which are largely informational.

This Gospel is highly inspirational and highly applicational.

I don't even know if applicational is a word, but I'm using it anyway.

And so there you go.

So then we get to verse 31 of our text.

We've considered what's not written in this book.

And what I want to do now is, let's see what John documented, because he starts off.

But these are written, okay?

So what are written?

Well, these 879 verses, right?

And tell us about the life of Jesus.

These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

And that by believing, you may have life in His name.

Now, just how unique John is by what he leaves out, let me tell you how unique John is by

what he puts in, all right?

90% of the material that you find in the Gospel of John is all new material.

90%.

That's crazy.

You would never know these things unless they were in the Gospel of John, okay?

90% of the material that's in John is not found in the Synoptic Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they follow the same chronology.

They follow the same pattern, the same content.

John gives us 90% new stuff, okay?

New information.

You know, for example, the opening prologue is so different from anything else.

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 speaks of His deity. Totally different. It's not found anywhere else other than in John. The first miracle in Canaan is found only in the book of John. The lengthy dialogue with Nicodemus is only found in John chapter 3. The woman at the well in Samaria is only found in John chapter 4. And what's great is when you're going to notice when we get into John, is that there are seven times there are statements called the I Am statements, the I Am claims. They're only found in John. I am the bread of life.

I am the living water. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the good shepherd. All these are only found in the Gospel of John. The raising of Lazarus is only found in the Gospel of John chapter 11. The washing of the disciples' feet, chapter 13, only found here. The upper room discourse, that lengthy teaching of Jesus to His disciples, is only found here in John 13, 14, 15, and 16.

And then that great prayer, the high priestly prayer that Jesus prays is only found in John 17. And what's more, John includes Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit more than all the other three Gospels do. He lays it out. That's an emphasis.

And something else that's astonishing is that John will indicate that Jesus' ministry was about three and a half years. That's well over 1,200 days. Okay?

But what you may not know is John only focuses on about 20 of those 1,200 days.

That's it. Only about 20 of those days. Just a very small sliver of the life and the activities of Jesus Christ.

In fact, John omits the entire second year of Jesus' ministry in his book.

They're not included. So what we have is just a sampling of the words and some of the events, okay?

But the whole point that John is making is that, hey man, Jesus did a lot of stuff in here.

I didn't write about all that, but what I did write about, there's a purpose.

And the purpose is John's Gospel will promote our faith, will promote our belief,

and that faith will produce life.

Life.

We're going to talk about that this morning.

But these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that by believing, you may have life in his name.

Please understand, once again, that the purpose of John writing this book is not to get some historical narrative

or some curricula or something like that.

This is not for some literature class.

He has an agenda in what he includes.

And John will use the word believe 98 times within his Gospel.

Believe.

Believe what?

Believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

I mean, notice that word is.

That Jesus is.

And I'm going to sum up by saying, now I'm not eating my sermon, but just so you know.

I'm summing up, because I get in trouble for saying that too many times, okay?

But I'm going to sum up by saying that this is what he wants us to believe.

He wants us to believe that Jesus is among us.

Jesus is among us.

When did John write this?

He wrote this after Jesus died and rose again.

Right?

And so he didn't say, I want you to believe that Jesus was the Christ.

I want you to believe, past tense, that Jesus was the Son of God.

No, I want you to believe that he is.

Because if he died, and he did, and if he rose, and if he did, then guess what?

He's still around.

He's with us now.

He is among us.

He is alive.

And that's what John would want you to believe and have that faith.

And I believe, in fact, I know that your faith will be increased in this series as we study the Gospel of John.

And for some, you may have faith that it will be birthed during this series.

Amen?

And praise the Lord Jesus.

And I can't wait to see what happens in terms of people coming to Christ, and people's faith being restored, and people's faith being renewed.

And it's going to happen.

I have prayed about this for over two and a half years.

It's going to happen.

But William Barclay wrote these words, and he said,

So often, we have a kind of vague, wistful longing for the promises of Jesus, that the promises of Jesus should be.

And that's what they, when they say, I believe, that's the kind of faith that we're talking about. Not this, oh, that makes a lot of sense to me. That's cool, Jesus. I think I'll come to church next week. No! Not that, not that kind of thing. I'm talking about, I believe, like it's, I believe in the clutching intensity of a drowning man.

You're not only my last hope, you're my only hope.

When was the last time you approached the Lord with that kind of intensity?

That belief of a drowning man?

Something else in verse 31.

Not only that you may believe, believe that Jesus is, is the Christ, the Son of God, but note of this, notice this, this is that by believing, okay, here's a better translation, that as believers,

that as believers, this is put in a special tense, it's called the present active subjective, okay, it's in a continual sense, it's not speaking about, hey, I'm writing this stuff for evangelism's sake, so that people will get saved, okay, that, that you believe, no, he's saying that, now that you are saved,

now that you are saved, now that you believe, that continuing to believe, you may have life in his name.

And I wonder how many of us really have life in his name, and really know what that means to have life in his name.

I know a lot of Christians that say they believe, but I wonder if they really have life in the name of Jesus Christ.

I mean, life, I'm not talking about putting on airs, and putting on shows, and running around with Christ, no, this real life, overflowing in you.

You know, when Caroline was little, was, was really little, I don't do it too much anymore, because she's gotten really big,

but I would throw her up in the air, and catch her.

Dad, did you ever do that? Just make sure you're not by the ceiling fan, and it's on, okay?

Yeah, that's not a good thing.

But I'd throw her up in the air, and I'd catch her.

When I'd throw her up in the air, what would she, she'd go, ah!

She'd scream, and she'd giggle and laugh, and when I caught her, guess what she would say?

Do it again, Daddy! Do it again! Do it again!

And I remember one Sunday, I was down here, I was down here, and I had her, and I was throwing her up,

and somebody from our church walked up, and they said, Brother Curtis, that floor is concrete.

I don't know that that's a wise thing to do with that little girl right there.

I said, I hear you, I hear you.

No, I didn't do that.

I hear you, I said, just stand right here.

I said, I want you to watch her face.

I want you to tell me what you see.

And I threw her up in the air, and she's like, ah!

And I caught her, and guess what she said?

Do it again, Daddy! Do it again, Daddy!

And she, that joy, and that shouting, that scream, why, why, why?

Because she trusted me!

She trusted me!

I have never dropped her!

Your life and my life, as we study the Gospel of John,

they're going to come to some twists and some turns in the road,

and sometimes you're going to feel like you're just up in the air,

and I pray to God you experience,

Jesus, Daddy, do it again, Daddy!

Jesus caught me!

Do it again, Daddy!

That was amazing!

I was scared to death, but whoa!

That was awesome!

Do it again!

When's the last time you had that kind of relationship with the Lord?

That that life welled up inside of you is so contagious,

it's spilling over into everybody you meet?

When's the last time your wife told you,

husbands, will you stop loving Jesus so much?

Will you stop following the holy, righteous things of God so much?

When's the last time, husbands, that you've ever said to your wife,

will you stop being a support and encouragement to me?

That just wears me out when you're always encouraging me.

And I pray that you get to a point,

this life of faith is great!

Do it again, Daddy!

Do it again!

This is that you might believe,

and as a believer, continuing to believe,

you might have life in His name.

And that word Christ, right there in verse 31,

that's a title, it's not a name, okay?

It's Jesus the Christ, okay?

It may burst some people's bubble to understand that

Christ is not His last name.

with him as only one person.

Is he behind us不知道,

Mashiach. And if you were to live in Nazareth, Jesus' name was Yeshua, Jesus, okay? And the disciples came to believe that Yeshua was Yeshua Ha Mashiach. The Anointed One. The Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ. The Promised One of the Old Testament, that the Old Testament said would come. And not only that, but John wants you to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. A title that He's going to use,

10 different times within the Gospel in here, okay? Now, understand what Son of God means, and we'll get into that much later, and we'll dissect it a little bit more. But the Son of God is a title for deity, alright? That He is the unique Son of God, okay? He's not the Son of God like you and I are sons and daughters of God by faith, alright? This is the unique Son of God, and He shares the same nature as the Father.

The same nature as the Father. The Father and the Son share the same nature as the Father. That's why Jesus can say, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father, okay? Thus, He is the Son of God.

And also, not only does John's Gospel not only promote faith, but that faith is going to produce life.

And this is where I want to tie things to an end here today, that by believing, you may have life in His name.

Now, you're going to meet some people in this book as we study, and it's going to say that, and Nathanael believed.

Nathanael believed, you know, chapter 1 and 2. The disciples believed, chapter 4. The Samaritans believed. The noblemen believed.

And you're going to read about all these people who believed, and you'll read how they enjoyed the life that came through faith.

And in these 879 verses, this book will promote faith, and that faith will produce life.

And this is what I have to say, is that when you hear the word life, here's the problem.

The problem is, is that in the English, we have a limited amount of words, okay, to describe experiences.

So what we might use one word to call something, we use one word all the way through, and it may be different words out there.

The word life.

In the Bible, there's three different Greek words translated life in our English Bible.

The first one is bios, bios, and it's where we get, it's biological life.

That's physical life.

That's all the externals, and we get the term biology, we get the term biography from the word bios.

Now, this kind of word, the biological life, is used in the scriptures, but very, very seldom.

And when it's used, it's used in a negative way and not a positive way.

In 1 John chapter 2, John will say, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Bios.

That's what he's talking about right there.

The bios, the biological, that's what the world is chasing after, okay?

That's what they focus on.

Jesus will even use this term when he says, the seed fell among the thorns and was choked up by the pleasures of life.

Bios.

Okay?

The second Greek term in there is psych.

And so, and it's often translated life, it's where we get the word psychology, psychologist, psychiatric.

It's the thought life, the inner life, your character, okay?

But did you know that you can have a biological life and you can have a psychological life and still be dead?

You know, the Bible speaks of that.

You know, you can, according to the great theologian, the princess bride, you'd be mostly dead, right?

And so, you don't have real life, okay?

You can have life.

I mean, I can have life.

I can eat.

I'm eating.

I'm breathing.

I'm walking.

I'm talking.

I'm living.

That's physical life.

And I got a thought life and sometimes that's pretty intense.

But I don't have the third life that this is talking about here in the Greek is zoe.

And that word zoe is often accompanied by another word, which is eternal or everlasting.

And that's the kind of life that's really more about the quality of life rather than the quantity of time.

And then the Bible speaks of that zoe eternal life. Henry David Thurow once said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation. I've seen that a lot. And even the media mogul Ted Turner even once was quoted saying that life is nothing but a B grade movie. You know, that's just sad. And let me tell you, that's not what Jesus wants from us. He doesn't he doesn't want you to just settle into mediocrity.

He'll end up saying in John chapter 10 that I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly. And the Amplified Bible says life to the full until it overflows. Don't you want that? I want that. I want that. You know, I mean, how many people do you really know that you can? Can you count them on one hand that live their life to the and have life to the brim? Life to the brim.

And how many people have that love for life? Or how many people you see come in the store? You got to go the other way. I don't care if all the arrows in Walmart are telling me I got to go this way. I'm going this way because I don't want to run into them. Right? Here comes Debbie. Debbie Downer. And it's because of what Jesus has done and is doing that these these type of people that have this life continue to believe. Continue to believe.

And they've they've they've seen that life in them. And it doesn't matter what's going on with them. OK. And there's life in them. Their surroundings have their surroundings may be sideways, but there there's still life in them.

And so we're going to meet Jesus face to face for a long period of time in this series. And my prayer is that each one of us is going to let his life spill over into our lives.

Let his life spill over into our lives. And I just I'm going to read something that I dug out. I found years ago by James Hefley. It's called One Solitary Life.

And I just felt like it was it was applicable this morning. It said, here's a man who was born in a in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. And then for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college.

He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place he was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away.

One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial.

He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. And while he was dying, his executors gambled for the only piece of property that he had on earth.

His coat.

When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone.

And today, he is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat,

all the kings that have ever reigned and put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that one solitary life.

We will be gazing in the eyes of that one solitary life.

Yeshua.

Yeshua HaMashiach.

And because of that life, the disciples were changed from fear to courage.

Thomas was changed from doubting, unbelief to confidence.

And John will invite us to trust Jesus.

He will invite us to trust Jesus and to be changed from death into eternal life.

Zoe.

Giving us the faith.

Faith to believe.

Amen?

Amen.

Father, we just come before you in the name of Jesus today.

Thank you.

would come to understand the great grace that you offer. They would fall upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, the cross. They would repent of their sins, Lord God, and they would trust in you. I pray for those of us who have been walking with the Lord for a while, that God, you would stir up within us a desire to have that overflowing life that you have come to give us and abundantly give us, Lord God.

God, forgive us for settling. God, forgive us for settling. The times we have settled in our lives, settled with what the world throws at us, settles with just... I can make a list here this morning of things that I have settled for. And I confess to you, Lord God, I need your forgiveness. Awaken in the heart of every man and woman today that trusts in your name.

Amen. Amen. The call that you have put on their lives. To walk in that faith and to have the newness of life in the name of Jesus.

Our trust is in you, Lord. We give thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. This morning I just... I know that we are being wise and being safe in our greetings and in our distance, but if you want to spend some time at the altar in prayer this morning, please know that the altar is always open.

We will keep our distance. If you would like someone to pray with you, I would love to pray with you this morning.

If there's something going on in your life, I'd love to meet you back in the prayer room. We'll keep our distance.

But I just don't... not want to do ministry.

Not want to minister to the heart that needs ministry.

God bless you. God bless you. I love you greatly. I love you greatly.

I look forward to this journey with you in the Gospel of John.

God strengthens all of us and challenges all of us and grows us in our faith.

Let's stand and give thanks and praise to Jesus.

God bless you.

It's on and on and on and on it goes.

The golden world just satisfies my soul.

I never, ever have to be afraid.

It's one thing that remains.

She loves me and my love is out of me.

Cause your love never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me

Cause your death is alive, my heart could end covered by the power of the only way you are

my death is dead, there's nothing that separates my heart from your great love

my death is dead, there's nothing that enters my heart from your great love

Cause your love also fails, never gives up, never runs out on me Cause your love unfair, never gives up, never runs out on me

It's your love, never falls, never gives up, never runs out on me.

She love, never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me.

Is your love, is your love

Is your love that never fails, never gives up, never runs out on me

It's your love, it's your love, it's your love, it's your love, it never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.

It's your love.

It's your love, it's your love, it never gives up, it never runs out on me.

It's your love.

Your love, your love, your love, your love

Thank you, Father. You're so awesome.

I just love these times where we get to reflect on everything that you do

that just make us feel alive. We are alive in you, Father.

It's just so comforting that we know your love will never fail.

You will always pursue and chase us.

You will never leave nor forsake us.

And so we love you, Father.

We will go out and glorify your name. We'll praise your name in this world.

Make you famous.

Amen. Amen.

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Thank you.

I have no idea what happened.

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