The Bible from 30,000 Feet. Soaring through the scripture
from Genesis to Revelation. All right. Let's turn in our Bibles
to the Gospel of John. Or, we like to affectionately
call him around here Juan. The Gospel of Juan. Can we do that? Yeah. OK. The gospel of Juan it is. So, many years ago,
just a couple miles from here in an apartment house
called the Lakes Apartments, in the little
community center room, we had our very first Bible
study that became this church. The very first Bible study
was II Peter, chapter 1. Don't need to explain
why I chose that. But I announced that
night after the study-- since it was our
very first meeting, it was sort of like
an interest meeting-- that we would be starting
the following week in the Gospel of John. I said, the name of my message
next week is John chapter 1. The name of my message
the following week will be John chapter 2. And we will go through
the Gospel of John. And then after John, we
covered the book of Acts. And we continued our--
continued our pace of going through the scriptures. And then it eventually went into
the Old and the New Testament. But all of that to
say, the foundation, the earliest foundations
of this fellowship is the Gospel of John. So it's fun for me to be
returning to it, although just for one night. And now John is a friend. He's Juan now. So I've spent a lot of
time in this gospel. The first book I read
in the New Testament was the Book of Matthew, just
because that was the first book in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But I discovered
what a valuable tool John is for young believers. And so we often counsel
brand new believers to-- the first book they should
read is the Gospel of John, because of the way it sets Jesus
forth in such a unique way. So we're looking at John
from a 30,000 foot view. We're only going to be diving
down for some key texts. But let me take you
back to a question that Solomon asked when he
built that temple in Jerusalem, and he was there dedicating it
and praying before the Lord. And, you know, he said,
it's been a lifelong dream of my father and here it is. And your glory has
filled this place. And we want you to dwell
among your people, et cetera. But then he asked the
question, but will God indeed dwell on Earth? It's like, wait a minute. The heavens of the-- heavens can't contain
God, much less this temple that I have built.
Will God indeed dwell on Earth? It's a fair question. And it really is
not answered fully until we get to
the Gospel of John. Now, I know, God dwelled among
his people in the tabernacle, with the mercy seat, the Ark
of the Covenant, eventually the temple. It stood there. People gathered
to worship there. God did works and wonders there
in the midst of His people. But you also remember
as the worship system of the tabernacle
and temple wore on, that eventually the glory
of God, the presence of God departed. Ezekiel saw the glory of
God depart, be lifted up out of the temple toward
the Mount of Olives, and then vanish in
the book of Ezekiel. So back to the question, will
God indeed dwell on Earth? Now we come to the
Gospel of John. And in the first chapter,
in the 14th verse, John says, 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. God became human. Undiminished deity,
unprotected humanity, and dwelt among His people. John was one of the
witnesses to that. And John gives us that
unbuffered, fullest account that exalts the deity and
the glory of Jesus like none of the other gospels do. This gospel of Juan-- John-- is typically
distinguished from the other three. Those three are
called synoptics, as we covered last week. This is simply referred
to as the fourth gospel. The fourth gospel. The Gospel of John
is the fourth gospel. We have three accounts
that are very similar. We have one that is
standalone and very unique. And I'll explain
why in a moment. Now I'm going to take
you way back again. I want to tie some
loose ends together. When God was dwelling among
His people in the tabernacle, the 12 tribes were encamped-- in Numbers chapter
2-- at the foot of Mt. Sinai around the Tabernacle. And they were divided
into four sections, depending on the four sides
or signs or directions that we still talk about-- north,
south, east, and west. On the east side, there
were three tribes. On the west side, three tribes. On the south and the
north, three tribes. 12 tribes divided
into groups of four, with three tribes
per camp, per group. In each of those four
directions, those four large camps of three
tribes, they all gathered under the tribal banner
or the standard of one tribe. And we're told that
in the Old Testament. And tradition gives to us-- Jewish tradition--
what the signs of those banners or ensigns,
those standards were. So for example, facing the
east was the tribe of Judah. The tribe of Judah had a
special emblem, a flag, a banner that was a lion. On the west side was
the tribe of Ephraim. And the tribe of Ephraim,
the three groups that gathered under the banner
of the tribe of Ephraim or the group of
Ephraim was an ox. So you have a lion on one
side, an ox on the other. And then the north
and the south, there were three tribes
and three tribes under a banner and
another banner. And on one side was
the tribe of Reuben. And he had the banner of a man. And the other tribe
was the tribe of Dan. And Dan had the banner or
the insignia of an eagle. So you have a lion, an
ox, a man, and an eagle. That's the tabernacle. Now let me just throw
in something else. If you were to look at
the tabernacle encampment from a drone, from an aerial
view, you're looking down. If the tribe of Judah
was at the bottom, that would have been
the largest encampment. There were more people in
that eastern encampment that had Judah as the
insignia than all the rest. So you would see more people
in the tribe of Judah, fewer people in the
encampment of Ephraim, and just about equal
amounts on the two sides, on north and south,
on Ephraim and Dan. So looking at it from an
aerial view or a drone shot, it would appear to you like a
cross, where the bottom part would be much longer. The top part would be a little
bit smaller and equal distance on the side. We've shown you that map before. The tabernacle, the place of
God dwelling with His people, was, you might say, a
model of the throne of God. Fast forward to the
book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel sees a vision
of the glory of God. And he sees these creatures
in Ezekiel chapter 1 and chapter 10. And in Ezekiel 1,
these four creatures each had the face of a man,
a lion, an ox, and an eagle. Hm. Hold that thought. Fast forward to the Book
of Revelation chapter 4. John sees a vision of four
living creatures with eyes in the front and behind. And one had the
appearance of a lion. One had the appearance of a man. One had the appearance of an ox. One had the appearance
of an eagle. I don't think it
is coincidental. It seems to be-- to be
fingerprints of the Holy Spirit throughout the scripture. And add to that
the four gospels. Why four? Well, it's interesting. We discovered last week
Matthew shows Jesus as fulfilling all
of the scriptures. The King of the
Jews, the fulfillment of Jewish anticipation, the
lion of the tribe of Judah. Mark pictures Jesus
in a fast pace, like a movie going very rapidly. He is the servant of the Lord. The ox was the beast of
burden or the servant animal. Then you have the
Gospel of Luke picturing Jesus as the son of man,
the perfect ideal man for the Greeks. Now you have the Gospel of John. And this pictures Jesus soaring
like the eagle as the great son of God, or God in human flesh. A fourfold testimony like
the fourfold testimony seen on the ensigns
at the tabernacle. Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel 10,
Revelation chapter 4. I don't think it's coincidental. I think it's there so we
get the idea that there's a full orbed picture of Christ. OK, the synoptic gospels. We covered that last
week in one fell swoop. Matthew, we said-- and Luke-- were like 2 snapshots
of Jesus' life. The gospel of Mark was like
a very fast motion picture. The Gospel of John is more
like a studied portrait. A studied portrait. It is different from
the other gospels. Let me explain why. Over 90% of John's
gospel is unique material that does not show
up in the other three gospels. 90% is new material. It is the strongest evidence
for the deity of Christ, as I mentioned. In the Book of John, the seven
"I am" statements appear, where Jesus said, I
am the bread of life. I am the Resurrection
and the life. I am the door to the sheep fold. On and on. Seven statements Jesus
applies to himself, claiming to be very unique. There are no parables in the
Gospel of John whatsoever. And the miracles that are
recorded, there's not as many. There are only seven miracles,
five of which are new. Only two are shared with
the synoptic gospels. But five of them are unique
to the Gospel of John. The longest prayer
in the New Testament is found in the Gospel of John. It's Jesus' own prayer
in John chapter 17. Longest prayer, shortest verse. The shortest verse is found
in John chapter 11, verse 35. You know the verse well. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. 1/3 of the Gospel of John
covers the last eight days of Jesus' life, from Palm
Sunday to Easter Sunday. Also, the most famous verse
in all of the scripture, the most often quoted verse
in all of the scripture, showing up everywhere--
even at sporting events-- is John 3:16. "For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever
believes in Him would not perish, but
have everlasting life." Something else. In the Gospel of John, the
word Jesus and the word Christ appear over 170 times. The book is all about not John. He's not even
mentioned in the book by name as the
author of the book. I'll explain that in a second. But it's all about
Jesus Christ, 170 times. Not only that, but
the word believe is very key to this book. The word believe and its
derivations show up 98 times in the Gospel of John. So if you want to know what
the book of John is about, you count up the words
that are used over and over and over again. Believe, believe, believe. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Christ, Christ, Christ. And he tells us in John
chapter 20, "Truly more signs than these Jesus did in the
presence of his disciples." Which are not
recorded in this book, but these are written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ. And by believing,
have life in His name. He states the purpose. Very few books in
the Bible do that. John tells you why
he wrote the book. He writes it so that
you will believe it. So if you're struggling
with faith, read this book. By the way, if you know
somebody that you've shared the gospel with who's
struggling with Christianity and God and belief,
and you've shared and they've already
tuned you out, just give them a little printed
copy of the Gospel of John. I've watched the Gospel
of John confront people like nothing else. My father-in-law was an atheist. Did not believe in God, raised
Lenya to not believe in God. Tucked her in at night
saying, God doesn't exist. You make it on your own. Until he read the
Gospel of John. Now he is confronted
with statements he must accept or reject. He had rejected
them all his life, but now he is confronted
in a different way. And that atheist decided
to give his life to Christ and get baptized. And had to call Lenya up and
say, whoops, boy, was I wrong. Basically he read the Gospel of
John and said, if this is true, I'm in trouble. And he would have
been in trouble, were it not for a
change that was made. Now, John-- again, this is
the Bible from 30,000 feet, so I'm going over
his life before I go a couple of verses in his book. John, his dad was named Zebedee. His brother was named James. So James and John
were sons of Zebedee. They had a fishing business
in the Sea of Galilee. They were also partners with
another brother gang, Peter and Andrew. And so you will see
Peter and James and John as part of the inner
circle with Jesus, being a part of certain events
that the other disciples are not a part of, like the
transfiguration of Jesus on the mount, the raising
of Jairus' daughter, being asked to come
aside privately with him in the garden of Gethsemane. This is part of
the inner circle. OK. His name does not
appear in the gospel. We believe John wrote it,
even though John didn't say, I'm John. I wrote it. He does in Revelation. He said, I, John, saw this. And I saw that. Here he does not say, I, John. He simply refers to himself as
the disciple whom Jesus loved. And so I bring that up
because if you're thinking, well, John didn't
want to mention his name because he was humble. He's the guy who said, I'm
the disciple whom Jesus loved. Enough said. I don't know how humble
that is, but it's true. He was the disciple
whom Jesus loved. But also was Peter. And so was Andrew. And so was James and Judas
Jesus loved them all. But I like it when
somebody personalizes it. I can say, I'm Skip. I'm the guy Jesus loves. And you can say that. You ought to say that. The reason we believe it's John
is because internally, there are certain events he records
that only require an eyewitness account and the other gospels
say it was Peter, James, and John, number one. Number two, the Greek
of John is very simple. When I studied Greek,
I studied the book of 1 John, because it's
the simplest Greek. 1 John, 2 John, 3 John,
the Gospel of John, it's very, very easy Greek. Greek students cut their
teeth on the writings of John. And because the
wording is related-- Revelation, 1 John, 2 John,
3 John, Gospel of John-- very similar in writing style. That's another clue. But there's a third
historical clue. There was a guy named Irenaeus. Irenaeus was a disciple of a
guy by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp was a guy who was a
disciple of the apostle, John. John had told Polycarp that
he wrote the fourth gospel. Polycarp told Irenaeus he
wrote the fourth gospel. Irenaeus wrote it down. So that's a pretty early,
almost eyewitness account that John wrote the gospel. John is the most theological
of all the authors, as seen in his prologue,
the beginning parts. So we begin in John chapter 1. We're going to look at verse
1 and a couple of verses. Let me set this up
by saying Matthew began with Abraham, right? The genealogy. He started with Abraham. Why Abraham? He's writing to Jews. That's where you
start when you write to Jewish people, Abraham. Father Abraham. Mark includes no genealogy. He's writing about a servant. Servants, who cares
about their genealogy? Luke includes a genealogy,
goes all the way back to Adam. So he goes all the way
back to the beginning. John beats them all. He goes back before Adam. So the book begins with the
incarnation of the Son of God. That's chapter 1. "In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things were
made through Him. And without Him, nothing
was made that was made." That sort of sounds
like a strange way to introduce a person in
such an impersonal way. "In the beginning was the Word." The word? What that-- was was all-- word? What's that? The ancient Hebrews, in
some of their writings, would use the Hebrew word Memra. Memra means word. And they would use that in
place of the name of God, in place of the
name of the Lord. You'll see it in the Targums,
some of the translations and commentaries. They take the word Lord or
God out and they put Memra in. The Word, the Word, the Word. Also, the Greeks used the
term word, Logos, a lot. You see, the Greeks
studied their world. And they saw that in their
world there is a predictability. There are patterns. There are seasons. There's a predictable sunrise
and sunset, as we call it, as we know it. And there are seasons. And there's a predictability
about the natural world. And then they
asked the question, why is there that pattern
predictability in the natural? What is the cause of that
kind of organization? Their answer was,
there must be a Logos, an ordering principle,
a first cause. And they call that the Logos. So John, perhaps with
a Jewish mindset-- but more, perhaps,
with a Greek mindset-- says, in the beginning
was the Logos, the Word. The Word was with God,
and the Word was God. Several years ago-- I
love telling this story. Several years ago, I
got a knock on my door. And I opened the door and there
was somebody standing there with a "Watchtower" magazine
and a green covered Bible, which I was familiar with as
the New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses. And I knew that I was staring
at two Jehovah's Witnesses. So I looked at them. And I took in a breath,
because I knew-- I knew the dialogue
that was coming. And so we started talking. And I mentioned that I
believe in Jesus and stuff, and that I believe
that Jesus is God. I just wanted to
cut to the chase. And so the Jehovah's Witness
at the door quoted John chapter 1, verse 1. And he said, now, in the
original Greek language, it says "in the
beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God,
and the word was a god." I said, are you sure about that? He said, oh, yes. We are-- it's right here. Here's an expandatory on it. And I said, so you
know that to be a fact? Yes, I know it to be a fact. I said, hold on just a minute. I went and grabbed my Greek New
Testament, opened it up to John chapter 1, verse 1. And I said, OK,
let's read together. [SPEAKING GREEK] I said, now you
noticed, did you not, in verse 1 that there's no
definite article before [GREEK] and that the predicate
is moved forward. And you probably also
know that the Greeks would do that for emphasis,
so that literally it reads not "the Word was a god." It literally reads,
"God was the Word." God was the Word. Now, don't think I'm a
smart guy or something. It was-- I happened to
be taking-- it was, like, my first week in Greek. And we had just studied that. So it was fresh in my mind. So it's not like I can do
that with the rest of the New Testament. But I just thought,
this is perfect. I'm going to pull this baby out. But that is true. [SPEAKING GREEK] That's all verse 1. Go down to verse 14. "And the Word--" that Logos-- "became flesh." That's important to John. I'll show you why in a moment. "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." When John wrote the Gospel of
John, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, he was combating
an error that had swept through
the early church at the time of his writing. It was called gnosticism. Some of you have
heard of gnosticism. A Gnostic, it means to know. And they believed they
knew better than everybody. They knew more
than everyone else. And their teaching
was that Jesus never had a physical body. The first heresy
in the early church was not a denial of
the deity of Christ, but a denial of the
humanity of Christ. They taught Jesus seemed to have
a human body, but he didn't. God would not dwell
in a human body that's sinful and evil and corrupt. So they had all
these weird sayings that when Jesus
walked on the sand, he didn't leave footprints. And all sorts of
fanciful stories that he didn't have a body. So John is writing to
fight against that error and will say in 1
John, "Every spirit that does not confess that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is an error." He fights against gnosticism. Jesus truly was human. He got tired. He slept. He ate. He wept. The Bible says his
spirit was troubled. All of that human
emotion and experience, at the same time, no less God. Again, undiminished deity,
unprotected humanity. So he begins setting that
up, fully God, fully man. By the way, 1 John,
chapter 1 is very similar. "That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled
concerning the Word of life." He's making sure you know
Jesus was both deity as well as humanity. So that's the incarnation. The second part, toward
the end of chapter one. Take you down to verse 29. After the incarnation
of the Son of God is the presentation
of the Son of God. He is presented to
John the Baptist, to the disciples
who believe in Him, to the group in his neighboring
town of Cana of Galilee, to Nicodemus and to
the Samaritan woman. But look at verse
29 of chapter 1. The next day, John-- this is J the B now,
John the Baptist. This is Juan number two. "The next day John saw
Jesus coming toward him and said, behold--" or
look, or check it out-- "the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world." You need to know
why John said that. John was from a priestly family. His father was in
the priesthood. His father offered up lambs
for the morning and evening sacrifice. He was familiar with
the shedding of blood for covering sin in
a temple setting. And here is that son of
the priest seeing Jesus, saying, look,
behold, check it out. The Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. "This is He"-- verse
30-- "of whom I said, after me comes a man who is
preferred before me for he was before me. I did not know Him, but that he
should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came
baptizing with water." Now, I mentioned
that 90% of John does not show up in the
other three gospels. So John will record
or reveal events that aren't in the other three. Certain festivals
that Jesus attended and cleansing the temple. The other three gospels show
that Jesus cleansed the temple, remember? With the whip,
whipping the people out who were buying and selling? At the end of his
ministry, John shows that Jesus did it also in the
beginning of His ministry. So He did it twice. In chapter 2, verse 23, "Now
when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
during the feast, many believed in
His name when they saw the signs which he did." Now, we read that and we
go, oh, that's awesome. That's great. The disciples are
going to be stoked. They believed in Jesus. Lord, sign them up. Take them to the prayer room. Get them involved. No. Not so fast, buckaroo. It says they believe,
but Warren Wiersbe calls these unsaved believers. It's an interesting term. They believed when
they saw the healings. They believed when
they saw the miracles. They didn't believe
in Him as a savior. They believed in
Him as a healer. That's all they wanted. So notice verse 24,
"but Jesus did not commit Himself to them." Oh, it seemed like they were
ready to commit themselves to him, but Jesus was not ready
to commit himself to them. Why? Because he knew all men. Insight into his character. "And had no need that any
one should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." But now, immediately, chapter
3, verse 1, there's a contrast. "There was a man." So Jesus knew men. He knew what was in man. There's some men and some
women who believe in Him. Jesus won't believe in them. But there is a man different
from the other men. There was a man of
the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by
night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a
teacher come from God, for no one can do
these signs that you do unless God is with him." He is interested in Jesus, but
for a very different reason. They are following
the miracle worker. He wants to explore more
who this Jesus really was. He's not wowed by the
miracles as much as they are. So he comes to Jesus. And he says, "Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher come from God." Stop right there. Was that accurate? Well, it's a trick question. Yeah, it was accurate. He was a teacher. He was human, though he was God. But he was teaching them. He was instructing people. "We know that you are a
teacher come from God." But here's the
misunderstanding of Nicodemus-- that's all he thought he was. It's the same misunderstanding
people have that, I'm willing to recognize
Jesus as a good teacher, a good person, a great
leader, but nothing more. Certainly not the Son of
God, certainly not God in human flesh. So Nicodemus was partly
right, but not fully right. Jesus was a teacher
come from God. But more than that, He was
God who had come to teach. Now, you notice
he came at night. And I read commentaries and
people make a big deal out of this. He was a coward. He didn't want to be seen by
his friends, the leadership who knew who he was and knew Jesus. Jesus was controversial,
so he was a coward. He wouldn't come to him
in the day, came at night. I don't look at it quite
as conspiratorially as some people. Nicodemus had a real job. He worked during the day. Jesus was surrounded with
crowds during the day, thousands of people. Probably, he's a
pragmatist and he thinks, you know, the best time
to get some one on one with him is at night, after
the day is over. When he's hanging out
with his disciples, I'll find out where
they're staying. I'll have a private
interview with him. Smart. Chapter 2, verse-- or
chapter 3, verse 3. "Jesus answered and said to him,
most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he
cannot see the Kingdom of God." This is unique to the Gospel
of John, this interview. Here's what I love about Jesus. Jesus doesn't care
about the flattery. We know that you're a
teacher come from God. Nobody can say these
things or do these unless God is with him. Jesus didn't go,
oh, well, thank you. I'm glad you noticed. I really thought that
water-to-wine thing was pretty cool anyway. I'm glad you dug it as well. He bypasses all of
the opening statements and just cuts
right to the heart. Unless you're born
again, you won't even see the kingdom of heaven. I feel sorry for that
term, born again. Ever since President Jimmy
Carter, it's been ruined. There was a time in our
country when born again meant what we know, as
biblical Christians, it means. President Carter said he
was a born again Christian. Nothing wrong with that. But it became part
of our pop culture. People now talk
about reincarnation as being born again, all
sorts of weird experiences. I've been born again. Songs about being born again. They've cheapened the term. Born again is literally
translated born from the top, or born from above. You want to get
to heaven, you've got to be born from the top. You've got to be
born from above. There needs to be not
just a physical birth, but a spiritual birth. And then he fully explains
it in Chapter 3, verse 16, that most famous verse
in all of scripture, what Martin Luther called
"the Bible in miniature." It covers the entire
scope of salvation. Let's go through it quickly,
but let's go through. John 3:16. "For God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." But look at it more carefully. It tells us the
origin of salvation. For God so loved the world. You know, sometimes people say,
man, I'm searching for God. Oh, really? Like, where you looking? Like, behind the
barrel over there? This mosque or that church
or this group or that belief? I mean, first of all,
God isn't lost, dude. You're lost. God has been searching
for you for a long time. The origin is not you. The origin is God. For God so loved the world. The Bible says, in Ephesians 2,
"we were dead in tresspasses." Dead people don't
search for anything. So the origin of
salvation, for God. Second, the motivation
of salvation. For God so loved. I hope you are still
gobsmacked, awed by the fact that God in heaven
loves you, let alone-- I mean, He knows you. He cares that you exist. And that he loves you madly. For God so loved. That's the greatest miracle. You know, John who wrote this-- wrote 1 John goes,
"herein is love." Not that we love God,
but that He loved us. That's real love. So you have the origin and
the motivation of salvation. Third, the destination
of salvation. For God so loved the world. Now, to a Jew, a Jewish leader
like Nicodemus-- a Pharisee, who believed that God loved
special people, chosen people, the elect people, the Jews-- to be told God so loved
everybody, that was a wake up call. That was new information. Then we have the demonstration
of salvation in verse 16. "For God so loved the
world that he gave"-- there's the demonstration--
"that he gave his only begotten son." Love can never be silent,
can never be passive, must always be active,
must always be giving. So God demonstrated it. Next we have the
condition of salvation. Whoever believes in him. Whoever-- you have
to believe in Him. You have to believe the gospel. If you believe
truly, you have faith that God sent His
son into this world to die on a cross to
pay for your sins, that he rose again from the
dead, that he is alive today. If you actually believe that-- and by believe, I mean you
receive it as your own, you surrender to that knowledge,
that fact, that truth-- and it changes, you are saved. That's the gospel. Whoever believes in him. You don't have to work for it. You believe. And if you believed,
you'll see the evidence. You'll see the
works that follow. And then, finally,
we have we have the conclusion of salvation. "That whoever believes
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." See, that's the conclusion. That's the end. The end of your belief
system, whatever it is, is going to lead you
to one of two places as seen in this verse,
condemnation or salvation. If you believe in Jesus, you
won't perish, condemnation. You'll have everlasting
life, salvation. If you don't believe in Jesus,
you will not have salvation. You will have condemnation. OK, enough said on that. We've got to get going. John is also the
only one to record that beautiful incident
in chapter 4 of the woman at the well of Samaria. And I just want you to
notice one particular verse, since you know it so well. Verse 4. It said, "But he needed
to go through Samaria." I like that little part. "But he needed to
go through Samaria." If you and I were Jewish
and living 2,000 years ago and heard somebody say, hey,
Jesus needs to go through Samaria, you would
go, no, he doesn't. He does not. There are two other
routes to get to Samaria or to get from Galilee
to Jerusalem, Jerusalem to Galilee. They're well traveled. You don't have to
go through Samaria. In fact, none of us ever do! The other routes were
longer, but preferred by Jews because the woman of the well
will say-- we won't read it, but you heard it in
the little skit-- the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. Back in history, when
the Assyrians in 722 BC-- you know that date
now, don't you? The Assyrians took
the northern kingdom captive and repopulated people
from other conquered kingdoms into that area of Samaria. The Jewish people intermarried
with all these different groups so that the
bloodline was impure. And eventually they
abandoned the temple worship in Jerusalem. They built their own rival
temple on Mount Gerizim. And because there were two
rival worship systems and two rival temples, the Jews and the
Samaritans did not hang out. But it says Jesus needed
to go through Samaria. Why? Because there was a
woman there who really needed a life change, who
really needed forgiveness. Jesus isn't just
about the crowds. He's about the one. He needed to get to her. He got her life squared
away, got a hold of her. She went and told the villagers,
many of whom believed in Him. Jesus then spoke to
some of the villagers. And there was a
sort of pre-revival of messianic Judaism
going on in Samaria, even before the book of Acts,
when one of the apostles goes to Samaria
and preaches there. Philip preaches there. And there is indeed a
revival that happens. So he needed to go there. Chapters 5 through 12
is the next section. So we have the
incarnation of the Son of God in chapter 1, the
presentation of the Son of God all the way to chapter 4. Now the confrontation of the
Son of God, chapters 5 to 12, which include the a 7 "I
am" statements of Jesus. This section include
the seven "I am," where Jesus claims
to be certain things. Here's an FYI that I
hope you'll appreciate. The chronology of
Jesus' ministry is largely ascertained,
understood, constructed from
the Gospel of John. If we just had Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, it would seem like the
whole ministry of Jesus took place in about a year. John helps by mentioning certain
festivals, certain events, certain gathering
chronologies that help us understand that indeed
the ministry of Jesus on Earth lasted 3 and 1/2 years. So when you add John to
the other gospel accounts, it rounds out the information. So that we know Jesus lived and
began his ministry at age 30. And that ministry
lasted 3 and 1/2 years. In chapter 5, now, he's the only
writer to bring this story out. Verse 1, "After this, there
was a feast of the Jews. Jesus went up to Jerusalem. There was in Jerusalem
by the sheep gate a pool, which is called
in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches." Bethesda is a word that
means the house of mercy. It's a great name. If you went there and looked
at those people in that pool, and smelled that horrible,
third world rancorous smell, you would say, this-- this place isn't named right. This isn't the house of mercy. This is the house of misery. This is a miserable spot. "In these--" Verse 3
is the explanation. "In these lay a great
multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting
for the moving of the water." The pool of Bethesda
was a pool that was about two to three feet
deep, large and rectangular. It had a colonnaded porch
around the whole perimeter of this rectangle. It was bisected in the
middle with another covered, colonnaded porch. So you have one, two,
three, four porches. And one cutting across the
middle, that's the fifth porch. You follow? Come with us to Israel and
we'll show you the remains of the Pool of Bethesda. It's not far from
the Temple Mount. It's where they used
to wash animals. Lambs, before they
would take them up to the temple for sacrifice. But scholars say
that, on a normal day, there were probably
300 sick people there. On a festival day,
there were 3,000 or so. So again, you have
to just imagine the sight and the smell. And why were they there? There was a legend
that because it was fed by a spring
of water, sometimes the spring would bubble up. And when it would
bubble up, they would say, oh, an
angel is moving that. So the legend was when
it starts bubbling up, and the angel
starts, I don't know, kicking it with a little
angel foot , whatever, a wing to get it stirred up,
that the first one down in that water would be healed. Go to chapter 7,
if you don't mind. After Jesus heals him, after
the confrontation takes place in the temple with the
leaders, chapter 7, verse 1. "After these things,
Jesus walked in Galilee, for He did not want
to walk in Judea." So he's back up north. He's done with down south. "Because the Jews
sought to kill him." Now, on the Jews' feast-- now, verse 2. "The Jews Feast of
Tabernacles was at hand." That's the Feast of Booths. I'm going to take you all the
way back down to verse 37. It says, "On the last day,
that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out,
saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me,
as the scripture has said, out of his heart will
flow rivers of living water." The Feast of Tabernacles
was a special feast. There were three feasts
that you know of, that if you lived anywhere close
enough to get to the temple, you would make your way
to Jerusalem on a pilgrim festival. The Feast of Tabernacles
was one of those feasts, one of the three pilgrim feasts. It lasted for-- it lasted
a total of eight days. Really seven days, but
there's sort of a beginning and an end day. So on every day,
there was a ritual. The priest would leave the
Temple Mount, go down the hill to the Pool of Siloam, which
is where the water source fed the city of Jerusalem. Where you would go down and
get your water, take it home. And so you would go down
to the Pool of Siloam, bring a pitcher,
a silver pitcher. Walk back up to the temple. And I'll pour it along
the base of the altar. And then, the priest
would yell out a quote from Isaiah chapter 12
that says, "With joy you will draw water from
the well of salvation." They did that every
day, every morning. Every day, every morning. On the last day of
the feast, the priest went down twice and did it. And it was a bigger crowd. And so the water
would be poured out. Everybody would shout, "With
joy, you will bring water from the well of salvation!" Then it said-- and probably
right after that event-- "Jesus cried out in the temple." He didn't just [SOFTLY]
talk like this. OK? So there's thousands of people. He has to get their attention. It's like, [YELLING] "If anyone
thirsts, let him come to me and drink!" All the heads went
[WHOOSH] as He was talking. "If anyone thirsts, let
him come to me and drink." If you're thirsty,
you're quoting Isaiah. You're remembering that our
forefathers were given water out of the rock from
the Old Testament, and that we dwelt in booths. And God brought
water for the people of Israel in their
wilderness wanderings to quench their thirst. Let me just tell you, if
you're thirsty, you come to me and drink. What a statement. What a day that would have been. Whoever believes in me out
of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Did you hear that promise? Jesus didn't say, if you
come to me and drink, your thirst will be quenched. That is true. He did say that on another
occasion, but not here. He said, "out of your
innermost being will flow rivers of living water." Here's how it works. You come to Jesus. You drink of the living water. Your thirst gets quenched. Christian, if that's where you
stop, you've stopped too soon. If you're making it all
about me-- bless me, fill me, I want to enjoy, I want more-- you've got it all wrong. He satiated you that he
might flow out of you. Out of your
innermost beings will flow rivers of living water. You have a message to get out. You have others who are
lost, who are thirsty. They need to hear it, too. Don't just let the-- let the-- don't be a well. Be a hose. Be a geyser. That's the thought of this. "Out of his innermost being will
flow rivers of living water." In chapter 12, I'm taking you
to sort of the end of a section. Take you to verse 37. He concludes this section
giving a statement of national unbelief. This really closes
Jesus' public ministry in John chapter 12, verse 37. "Although he had done so
many signs before them, they did not believe in him." This is the confrontation. "That the word of
Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spoke, Lord who has believed
our report, and to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed." That's Isaiah 53. "Therefore, they
could not believe, because Isaiah said again,
he has blinded their eyes"-- quoting Isaiah 6-- "and hardened their
hearts, lest they should see with
their eyes, lest they should understand
with their hearts and turn so that I
should heal them." So John is making a summary
statement of saying nationally, the Jewish people rejected him. Did not believe in him,
just like Isaiah predicted. Their hearts became hardened. Now, in chapter
13, 14, 15, and 16, we have what I call the
instruction of the Son of God. Jesus now devotes these weeks,
months to His 12 disciples, His staff, His closest friends. Instructing them. He is alone with them. He disciples them. The setting here is in
chapter 13, verse 1, is the Passover meal. There are no crowds. "Now, before the
Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that
His hour had come, that He should depart from
this world to the Father having loved his own
who were in the world. He loved them to the end. Supper being ended,
the devil already put it into the heart of
Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the
Father had given all things into His hands, that
He had come from God, was going to God,
rose from the supper, laid aside his garments. Took a towel and girded himself. After that, poured
water into a basin, began to wash the
disciples' feet, to wipe them with the towel
with which he was girded." This act was sort of a
parable form of his life. He rose up from the supper like
He had done in a greater way, rising up from the throne
of glory in heaven. It says that He laid
aside His garments. Philippians chapter 2
tells us He emptied Himself of the prerogative of deity. Then third, He took a
towel and girded Himself. Jesus wrapped Himself
in a skin of humanity, a cloak of humanity,
while on the Earth. Then He poured
water into a basin to wash His disciples' feet. In a few hours, He would pour
out His blood upon a cross to wash people from their sin. And now, in chapter 17, we
get to that longest prayer that I mentioned. Jesus spoke-- at
least recorded here-- 632 words, the longest
prayer recorded. Doesn't mean this is the longest
prayer Jesus ever prayed. Far from it. On 19 different times, if you
add up all the gospel accounts, we find Jesus praying. And sometimes he'd spend
all night in prayer to God, so this is by far
not the longest. But it says, "Jesus spoke
these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that
your son may glorify you." Now, there's an obvious
point to be made. If Jesus, the Son of
God, needed to pray-- or at least felt
the need to pray-- that's Him. You and I, not Him, do we
feel at least or more a need to be connected
in prayer to God? See, Jesus was unique. He was theanthropic. He was Theos, God,
and anthropos, man. He's the theanthropic
son of God. You and I are just anthropos. We're just people. If Jesus, as the
theanthropic son of God felt the need to pray,
how much more should we? By the way, tidbit
of information-- John Knox, the great
Scottish reformer, when he was on his deathbed
asked his wife to bring a Bible and open it to John
17 and read it. And he listened to this
prayer being read by his wife as he fell asleep from this
world and awoken in heaven. He wanted to make sure this
is the last thing he heard. Now, we get in chapter 18 to
the execution of the Son of God. That's chapter 18 and 19. He goes to Gethsemane. He's arrested. He goes through trials before
high priest Annas, Caiaphas, Pilate, et cetera. In verse 1 of chapter 18, when
Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples
over the Brook Kidron where there was a garden in
which He and His disciples entered. John is the only gospel
writer to mention that he crossed over
the Brook Kidron to get to the garden
of Gethsemane. Just said he went to the
garden of Gethsemane. Why was that important? The Brook Kidron
had a channel where blood and water from the
sacrifices in the temple flowed underneath the Temple
Mount into this conduit, was emptied out into
the Brook Kidron. So when Jesus was
walking over the Brook Kidron on a little bridge, He
crossed over a bloody river filled with the blood of lambs. He is crossing
over something that was emblematic of sacrifice. He the Lamb of God was going
to be taken back over that same brook up to be
tried and executed as the Lamb of God who takes
away the sins of the world. I'll take you now to verse-- chapter 19, verse 1. We'll fast forward His arrest. Pilate took Jesus
and scourged Him. That is using the Roman
flagellum, the whip. The soldiers twisted a crown
of thorns, put it on His head, put Him in a purple robe. And they said, hail,
King of the Jews. And they struck Him
with their hands. Verse 25, there stood
by the cross Jesus, across of Jesus, his mother, his
mother's sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother and
the disciple whom He loved-- that is John-- standing
by, He said to his mother, woman, behold your Son. He said to His disciple,
behold your mother. From that hour, the disciple
took her to his home. John it seems the only
disciple at the cross. Joseph, the husband of Mary,
no doubt dead by this time. Died an early death. Tradition said he's gone. Jesus gives Mary to
the charge of John. According to tradition,
John takes care of Mary. And she dies 11 years later
in the city of Jerusalem. Some think she went to
Ephesus, and there's churches in different
parts of the world where legend says she went. Probably not. She died in the
city of Jerusalem and was taken care of to the
time of her death by John. She's not mentioned after this. Nothing is known, at
least, of Mary after this. We don't know exactly
where she went. She shows up in Jerusalem in
the book of Acts probably, but that's it. Now, we come to
the last section. We're going to go very quickly. I'm going to take
you to the very end. This is the Resurrection of
the Son of God I'm over time, so I'm only going to say
that Peter and John both go to the tomb. John records that they
both went to the tomb. John records that John
beat Peter to the tomb. Want you to know
that on Resurrection day, for the Resurrection
marathon, John won. Peter came in second. Peter may have been the guy
who said, I know who you are. You're Christ, the Son of God. Blessed are you,
Simon, son of Jonah. Not to be outdone,
John wants you to know he beat Peter, number one. Number two, he wants
you to know that when he looked in the tomb, Peter
just sort of looked mystified. John looked and believed that
He had risen from the dead. John brings that out as well. Book closes in chapter
32 with Jesus in Galilee with His disciples. Peter goes back to fishing. It's what he knew best. The others join him. Chapter 21, verse 4, when
the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet, the disciples did not
know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them,
children, have you any food? They said no. He said to them, cast your net
on the right side of the boat. And you will find some
Hmm, that sounds familiar. So they cast, and
now, they were not able to draw it in because
the multitude of the fish. Therefore, that disciple whom
Jesus loved said to Peter, it's the Lord. He wants you to know that
he spotted Jesus first. Now, when Peter-- Simon Peter heard that it
was the Lord from John, he put on his outer garment for
he had removed it and plunged into the sea. He wants to be close to Jesus. Jesus restores him in
that beautiful picture, the reinstatement of
Peter, three times, you love me, feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Verse 20, then Peter,
turning around, saw the disciple
whom Jesus loved following who also had leaned
on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who is
the one who betrays you? Peter seeing him said to Jesus,
but Lord, what about this man? This is human nature. Jesus said, if I will
that he remain till I come, what is that to you? Follow me. I have things to say about it. You've heard it before. Let's go on to the
very last verse. And there are also
many other things that Jesus did, which if
they were written one by one, I suppose that even
the world itself could not contain the books
that would be written. Amen. Now, that last verse could
be a figure of speech, could be a literary
device, right? It's there, an exaggeration
to make a point, or it's a statement of fact. If you actually think of
the millions of people throughout history whose lives
have been changed by Jesus, if they were to write
about those changes, you would have
massive libraries. Probably, the libraries
could not contain them. You have a story. There are millions
of names written in the Lamb's book of life. I hope yours is. After 2,000 years, we're still
talking about this greatest story ever told because Jesus
is still working, still changing lives, still forgiving people,
still reinstating people back into ministry, still
doing work on earth through the Holy Spirit. [APPLAUSE] Father, as we close
tonight, we close in prayer. You have changed so many lives. You changed John's. His writings committed
to this fourth gospel has changed my life, our lives. Thank you, Lord,
that you are still in that business
of transformation. [MUSIC PLAYING] And we could write our
own story of life change. We could write our
own testimonial of how you have worked, are
working, and are using us. Lord, we who are born
again surrender ourselves to your plan. Just like you reinstated Peter
and sent him out, use us. Send us wherever you want
to send us for your purpose, for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's all stand. We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible From 30,000 Feet.
