Sermon: The Purpose of the Gospel of John
Series: The Gospel of John Part 1
Slide Introduction
Today we’re kicking off a brand-new message called, ‘The Gospel of John.’ And what we’re going to do over the next several weeks is walk through the Gospel of John.
For those of you that might not know the Gospel of John is one of the four gospels found in the New Testament.
It was written by…anyone want to take a guess? It was written by the Apostle John, the Son of Zebedee. He had a younger brother named James and what’s interesting about John and James is that Jesus actually gave them a nickname.
Jesus called John and James ‘Sons of Thunder.’ And so, anytime I hear that name I always think of the song Thunderstruck by AC/DC
Slide (maybe play brief song intro)
And legend has it that the inspiration for that song actually came when their plane was in the middle of a thunder storm and it was hit by lightning. And so, there is a little fun fact for you.
And so, for a moment I want you to think about thunder, thunder can be loud, right? Thunder can be a little unpredictable, right? You don’t know how loud it will be or the exact moment it will hit. And let’s be honest thunder can be powerful.
And yet this is how Jesus is describing these two brothers. There unpredictable, there a little self-centered, we can see some examples of them being forceful, we’ll see some examples of these guys just losing it and becoming angry.
For some of you, you’re going to realize that you're really not too different from these two brothers.
But here’s the thing, and this is true for us, Jesus saw something in these two men. He saw some potential in them. Jesus understood what they could be. And the same is true for us. Jesus has this ability to see things in us that we could never see. Jesus has the ability to see what we could be.
Matter of fact, these two brothers were a part of the inner three. There was Peter, and then there was John and James. All three of these guys were there at the transfiguration. There was such a closeness with these three and Jesus, that Jesus would refer to John as the disciple that he loved.
Matter of fact, John was the only disciple that wasn’t martyr for his faith.
And what’s really key to all of this is that John wrote this gospel 60 years later after Jesus had been resurrected. And so, this gospel was written around 90 AD and it came from the hand of John.
And the reason why this is important is that this is firsthand information. It’s not from someone, who heard it from someone, who heard it from someone, and so we better write this down.
No, these are creditable facts coming right from John who had spent three years doing ministry with Jesus. John had seen the crowds, he had witnessed the healings and miracles, he heard the words of Jesus as he taught, and John was present when Jesus was crucified and raised back to life.
And so, John saw all of this first hand and decided to write it down so that those that had never seen Jesus could have the opportunity to believe in Him. John wrote this amazing, life changing book so that we as believers could go deeper in our relationship. John wrote this book so that unbelieving people could have the opportunity to put their trust in Jesus.
Matter of fact, look at what John states right here, look at the purpose of John’s gospel…
Slide Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
Now why in the world are they not recorded? Because later on John is going to tell us that if everything had been written down there wouldn’t be enough room or enough books to hold it all.
Slide But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30-31 (NIV)
And so, we can basically summarize the whole entire gospel with one word, ‘believe.’
John is basically saying to his reader, ‘Hey, I didn’t include everything, I didn’t have the time or resources to include everything, but I’ve included these few things so that you might believe.’
John selected certain stories, certain miracles, certain conversations so that you and I could believe.
And in our world today, that word ‘believe or belief,’ has almost become this spiritual buzzword. A lot of times you’ll hear people say, ‘It doesn’t matter what you believe, you just need to believe, right?’ We hear this all the time. ‘It doesn’t matter who you believe in, you just need you to believe in something.’
We hear this time and time again, both in our churches and in our world. You can believe in whatever you want as long as you believe in something.
And we do this with the word faith. ‘You just need to have faith, it doesn’t matter what you have faith in, or what you believe in, or who you pray to, just have faith.’
We hear this time and time again. And John would challenge that kind of mindset. John would say, ‘don’t believe just to believe, don’t just have faith to have faith.’
‘No, I’m going to challenge you with something so much deeper, I’m going to give you something that is so much more powerful and life changing. I’m going to show you something that can give you a life without any kind of limits.’
And so, John would push back and challenge us not to be so shallow in our belief and faith…
Matter of fact, over the course of twenty-one chapters, John will answer three questions for us…
Slide What do we need to believe?
What does it mean to believe?
And, why do we need to believe?
And so, let’s take a few minutes and talk about these questions.
Slide 1. And the first one is, what do we need to believe?
Slide Look again at verse 31: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31 (NIV)
Well, we need to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that Jesus is the Son of God.
And so, what does it mean that Jesus is the Christ?
Well, the first thing that we need to understand is that Christ is not Jesus’s last name.
Back in the day, people would have identified him as Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus the carpenter’s son. Christ isn’t his last name, it’s actually a title, Christ is a title, and John tells us early on in his gospel what it means.
In chapter 1 John records an encounter between two brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter.
Slide Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
Slide The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. John 1:40-42 (NIV)
‘We have found the Messiah, that is, the Christ.’ And so, Christ in the Hebrew language, the language in which the Old Testament was written in means, ‘Messiah,’ Christ means ‘Messiah.’
And so why in the world is this so important? Because this whole idea of a Messiah coming is rooted throughout the whole Old Testament. We see promise after promise on how God is going to send this Messiah, and this Messiah is going to take what is broken and make it right.
And so, by the time Jesus came onto the scene, the nation of Israel had been waiting and waiting for this Messiah to come.
And what you’re going to notice as we’re working through the Gospel of John is that people are searching, they’re waiting for this Christ, this Messiah to come.
And this is what we need to understand when John identifies Jesus as the Christ, he’s not saying, ‘You need to at least acknowledge this. You need to just admit that Jesus is the Christ. You just need to accept that he’s the One.’
For John it’s deeper than this, he isn’t just wanting some lip service. He’s wanting us to believe that Jesus is the Christ. That this Jesus guy is the one that came to fulfill all the promises God made in the Old Testament.
And that’s what’s so beautiful about the Old Testament because it all center’s around this one person. The Old Testament isn’t a collection of a bunch of different stories, it’s just ONE story. It’s a redemptive story.
It’s a story of God creating man, man rebelling against God, and God sending his Son to reconcile man back to God.
And John is telling us, ‘You gotta believe Jesus is that person. That Jesus is that promise keeper and that Jesus is the one that is going to reconcile man back to God.’
And we also need to believe that Jesus is the Son of God
Basically, we need to believe that Jesus is God with some skin.
And this is really important because was Jesus human, absolutely, but was he also divine, yes because Jesus was God.
And the reason why this is so important is because only someone who was divine could do all that God had promised in the Old Testament. Only someone divine could be the perfect sacrifice and payment for the sin of the world.
And so, what do we need to believe? We need to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that He is the Son of God.
Slide 2. And so, what does it mean to believe?
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31 (NIV)
Believe is one of those words that we use in many different ways…
For example, someone may ask us, ‘How’s the weather supposed to be today? Is it going to be nice?’
And depending what season it is outside you might respond with something like, ‘I believe it’s supposed to be sunny and 90 in northwest Indiana. Or, I believe it might snow today.’
And what we’re basically saying to them is, ‘I heard it supposed to be…I think it might be… or I really have no idea what it’s supposed to be but let’s hope for 90s instead of a blizzard, right?’
Another example of the way we use believe is when it comes to certain facts or details. For example, some of know historical facts, we know details about the world around us because of science.
And belief in this sense means we know somethings; we understand somethings but there really isn’t any kind of attachment to it. Like you know these things but there isn’t really any kind of emotional connection to it.
And if some kind of new information was to come along, you could easily change your opinion about the subject.
But the belief that John is calling us too, is different from the belief we were just talking about.
You see the word, ‘believe,’ in the Greek means, ‘to trust,’ or ‘to put one’s faith into something or someone.’
And so, to believe in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God requires more than knowing some mere fun facts about the life of Christ.
It requires us to completely trust and believe who Christ says he. It’s about us putting our complete faith in what he has come to accomplish. It’s about us trusting and believing.
Let me explain it this way, imagine you are hiking on this beautiful mountain pass, it just completely gorgeous. And suddenly you're approaching the edge of a cliff that drops a couple of thousand feet into this canyon.
And the only way to get to the other side is walking across this suspension bridge.
Now it’s one thing to say, “I believe the bridge can hold me as I walk across.”
It’s a whole other ball game to put your trust in this bridge and start walking across it. Because you’re no longer putting your faith in an idea but instead, you’re putting it in a bridge.
And can I tell you something? Jesus is that bridge. You see John did not write his Gospel just so we could know facts about Jesus’s life. He wrote his Gospel so we would know Jesus so that we could put our trust in him.
And so, what does it mean to believe? Just like we have complete trust in the bridge, we’re going to have complete trust in who Jesus is. And who is Jesus? Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.
Slide 3. Question number three, Why do we need to believe?
One of the dominant themes we’re going to see in the Gospel of John is our need for life, and that need is always connected to the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is our life giver…
Slide In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. John 1:4 (NIV)
Slide For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)
Slide Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24 (NIV)
Slide Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26 (NIV)
Slide Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (NIV)
The life we need-the spiritual life, the eternal life, a life free from eternal condemnation-comes through our belief in Jesus Christ
Slide But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31 (NIV)
And the life that Jesus is wanting to give us doesn’t come to us like an amazon package or a UPS package. It’s not a transaction in which we believe in Jesus, then he hands us our life at the front door and walks away.
It’s not like that at all. The life that Jesus want to give us is life IN HIM.
Think of an example of a life in christ maybe something with a power source
And Jesus gives us this incredible illustration of what that life can look like when He shared this illustration of a vine and a branch with his disciples.
Slide Check it out: I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Slide If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Slide This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-8 (NIV)
You see branches don’t just get this one-time injection of life from the vine. Instead, it gets this daily nourishment from the vine its connected to.
And same is true in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We don’t just get this one-time shot. Instead, we receive this daily nourishment from Jesus because we are connected to Him. And this daily connection is vital to our spiritual journey while we’re here on earth.
Matter of fact, Jesus makes this promise that we can ask and it will be done, and when we’re connected, we’re going to produce fruit.
Slide And so, why do we need to believe because when we truly believe, we can truly find life.
I’m really excited about walking through the book of John with you. John wrote his gospel to inspire faith and belief. John knew Jesus intimately, and his gospel provides an intimate portrait of this.
For those of us that know Jesus, I pray this will help you to walk closer and deeper. For those of you that are searching and wanting to know, I pray that this series will help to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God better
What do we need to believe?
What does it mean to believe?
And, why do we need to believe?
So that we may find life in Him
Let’s pray
