You're listening to a message preached at Front Range Baptist Church by Pastor Dean Miller. It is our prayer that this message will be a help and an encouragement to you in your spiritual walk. Now, here's Pastor Miller.

You may be seated. Thank you for being here on Wednesday night. Are you ready to fly? All right, we're going to fly quick because we've got a business meeting right at the end of this, and it's just a simple quarterly meeting, and uh nothing nothing of great um uh consequence, but just we gotta go through our business meeting and keep everybody abreast, and we're gonna vote on a few of our officers. So very, very quick, but we're gonna fly through this book as quick as we can. Everybody ready for this? So buckle up, Buttercup, because here we go. That's what I would say if I was a pilot. I would say everybody, you know, put your seat back in the upright position and buckle up, Buttercup. Because Miller is flying this plane. So well, I don't know if we're gonna land well, but we're gonna get we'll we'll get over the target anyway. So, the book of John, man, I I love the Gospel of John. Uh it is uh it is a gospel that I read from frequently, and I would encourage you to read through the Gospel of John over and over and over again. It is uh one of those beloved books where we first launch new believers in. When people get saved, shortly after they get saved, I start them in the Gospel of John. Read the Gospel of John. And it is one that a child can come right to the bank and drink from the Gospel of John and understand it. It's written in simple form. A child can understand it and be refreshed, but theologians can dive down into its depths and never touch the bottom. And so don't expect miracles tonight. We're just flying, okay? We're not going, we'll dip down every once in a while and look at something, but we're gonna get right through the book tonight. John is unlike the other Gospels. Uh, you have Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They're called the synoptic gospels. They have such great similarities in the way that they are constructed. But John stands alone. John is one of the most beloved books in all of the scripture. Matthew presents Jesus as the king, and Mark presents Jesus as the servant. Luke presents Jesus as the Son of Man, but John presents him as the Son of God. Now I want you to think about this for a minute because I want us to go all the way back to the Old Testament when the tabernacle, that old tent made out of badger skins, dyed red, that tent didn't look really good, but it was, man, full of gold and all the beauty inward, and that's the way Jesus was. There was nothing outward in him that was desirable or comely. He didn't look like a king. He didn't look like the Messiah. He looked like a normal man because he was. He was all man and yet all God. But here's Jesus dwelling in this earthly tabernacle, like the Old Testament tabernacle camped at Mount Sinai. And then you remember at that encampment, how many tribes were in Israel? Twelve tribes. So they camped three tribes on each side of the compass around the tabernacle. You had three tribes to the north, three tribes to the east, three tribes of the west, three tribes to the south. And uh you had these tribes encompassed about the tabernacle and the presence of God where God was going to dwell among his people. And in those tribes, each one of those tribes that were there flew under the main ensign or banner of one of those tribes. For instance, Reuben and those tribes that were with Reuben, they flew under his ensign, which was a flag of a man. And then you had Dan, who was the flag of an eagle, and Judah, the flag of a lion, and uh and so forth. So you you look at that, and what you what you get is a picture here, and then of course you had the um uh the other tribe, which is an ox. But you have you have a picture of the throne of God. When you go to the book of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel comes in the throne, around the throne of God are these creatures, face of a man, face of a lion, face of an ox, face of an eagle. And it's it's very reminiscent of the throne of God and those that were in the presence of God. Well, here is Jesus now in his earthly ministry, and he is seen as the lion, as the man, as the ox, and now as the eagle soaring as the son of God. It's a beautiful culmination. And I believe this goes back to an answer that Solomon asked at the dedication of the temple when they built the permanent temple. And in 1 Kings 8, when Solomon dedicates that temple, Solomon is realizing that the God of the universe, who the heavens can't contain, is gonna live in this house. And even in all of its grandeur, how small did that look compared to God? And Solomon asked the question in 1 Kings chapter 8 Shall God indeed dwell upon the earth? Shall God indeed dwell upon the earth? I mean, is God who inhabits the eternal heavens going to dwell on the earth? John's gospel says yes. And not only will he, he's here. Uh he is here, God in human form. John's Gospel is unlike the other three in that 90% of its content is unique to itself. Uh 90% of what you read in John, you're only going to read in John. And he doesn't focus on chronology, he focuses on theology. John focuses on the miracles, he focuses on conversations, he focuses on sermons, and they're all to answer one central question of the book. Who is Jesus? And John is going to write this as Matthew wrote to the Jews, Mark is writing to the Romans, Luke is writing to the Greeks, John is really writing to the whole world. In fact, he uses the word world all throughout his book. God so loved the that he gave his only begotten son. So he refers to the world many, many times. But John also, knowing his Jewish audience, refers to the Old Testament over a hundred times in the book. So he ties Jesus back into that. He was not just this new religious figure, but he is the promised Messiah, the Christ of God, now in human form, our Jesus, our Lord. John is one of the unique writers of the Bible because he gives the purpose of his writing very clearly in John chapter 20. In John 20 and verse 31, John tells you why he wrote the book. He says, listen to this, these are written. So John said, I've written this book. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing, you might have life through his name. Now I love this because John's gospel is basically a gospel track. John is writing this to say, hey, read this. You're going to learn about who Jesus is and you can believe on him and have eternal life. And so this is the early church gospel track. Here, read this. Here, read this. It's going to tell you who Jesus is. Now, John's going to write later in 1 John, in his epistle, 1 John, he's going to write later, and he's going to say, These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. So, hey, everybody who read my gospel and you believed on Jesus and got saved, I'm writing this epistle to you, those of you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God, that you continue walking in faith. We believed on him, but now we need to believe in him, and we need to continue to walk in faith. Amen? So John is just an amazing, amazing book, and uh it is uh it's a it's a tremendous gospel uh advance. He uses the word believe about a hundred times in the book. That's his goal. I want you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, believe that he is the Christ. Everything in this Gospel of John is designed to bring the reader to faith in Jesus Christ and then to strengthen that faith. John's Gospel stands apart from the other three Gospels. Their gospels were kind of like this. Come and hear. Come and hear. John, his gospel was come and see. Come and see. He's gonna record 67 references to seeing the works of Christ. Then he's gonna talk 58 times about hearing what Jesus, what Jesus said. So he's he's really going to join this uh here's his words coupled with his works. He's the Son of God. He is He is Christ. And by the way, that that appeals to the whole world because to the Jew, it doesn't matter what anybody really what they said. Show me what show me what you do. What does he do? And uh to the Greeks and to the to the whole Grecian philosophy and world is what did he say? What does he believe? What's his philosophy? What makes him tick? And so John kind of covers both of those bases. To the Jew, look at his works. Here's the signs of what he did. But to the rest of the world, here's what he said, and here's what his here's his claim. And so uh it's an amazing, it's an amazing reference to the Son of God. A unique feature about the Gospel of John, and I think I found this very interesting, is that John only records in detail 21 days from Jesus' life. In the Gospel of John, he only zeros in on 21 days. And John carefully selects those things that he zeros in on because he wants those things to reveal who Jesus is. It's it's a revelation of his identity. 42% of the Gospel of John. Let me put it in chapters. Chapter 13 to 20. 42% is devoted to the last 24 hours of Jesus' life. He takes 42% of this gospel and he really comes into the last 24 hours. And he's going to show you from the night that he sat down to eat in the upper room with his disciples, going out into the all of it discourse and talking to his disciples in John 14 and 15, going into the garden to pray in John 16, then in the Gethsemane, his betrayal, his crucifixion, and so forth. So chapter 13 through 17 is just one night in Jesus' ministry. This book was not meant to be a chronology of his life, it was a detailed theology that God is with us. It's an amazing book. So we're going to look at it. Look at John chapter 1. John kind of opens up with a poem. It's written in a poetic way. But in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Now listen, this is a way to start because John immediately comes into this book. Matthew took us back to Abraham. Why? Because he's writing to Jews. And where do you want to start with the Jews? He's the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of the faith. He was the fa it was Father Abraham. Luke takes us all the way back to Adam. Hey, look, Jesus is born of Adam. Jesus was born as a human. He is man. But John takes us past, he takes us right past Abraham. He zooms right past Adam. He goes right past creation. And John takes us all the way back into eternity and said, Hey, here he is. He was already here. He's the eternal word. And I love that he is the word, the logos. He is the very expression of God. John is going to show us the eternal word, and he's going to do it by this. He's going to prove it through seven signs. There's seven signs. Then he's going to give us seven statements of I am that Jesus that Jesus made that make the declaration that he is Jehovah God. And then he's going to tie all that together with seven witnesses. And there are seven different people, eight if you count the Lord Himself, but seven different people in the Gospel of John who declare that he is the Son of God and God the Son. And these seven people are John the Baptist, Nathaniel, Peter, the blind man that was healed, Martha, Thomas, and the Apostle John himself. Seven witnesses who declare that he is the Son of God. Then John's going to take us into the upper room, and we're going to hear the heart of Christ, and we're going to see the cross, the passion, and then, of course, he's going to zero in on the tomb, and then some after his resurrection, into those 40 days, that interval of 40 days, when Jesus showed himself alive by many infallible proofs that he was the Son of God. And there's a reason for that, and I'll touch on it hopefully right at the end, about that epilogue at the very end of the book where he gives some of those words about Jesus having breakfast with the disciples, restoring Peter, and then giving Peter a commission and then prophesying his death. There's a reason, I think, for that, and I'll talk about that in just a minute. But all of these things are to prove that Jesus is God in the human flesh. So John 1, what did we just read? He doesn't begin in Bethlehem. He didn't, by the way, Jesus didn't have his beginning in Bethlehem. And he wasn't made in a manger. Jesus was pre-existent, eternal with God. Way before he was ever our Jesus, he was God's Christ. And God anointed him and ordained him, and then he came into the world to be made flesh. He begins before creation. He is in the beginning, already existent. In Genesis, we see in the beginning God created. But in John, in the beginning was the word. So before God ever created, Jesus was the word by which God created it. So John takes us right there. Look down in verse number 14. He says, And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him. So here it is, John is making it very clear. By the way, that's that's John the Baptist. That's the other one. So John the Baptist is the one that bore witness of him, but John, the Apostle John, is making it very clear in this passage of Scripture that Jesus was pre existent and eternal. He is the Creator God, and that that creator God became flesh, and we saw his glory. It was the glory of the Father. We beheld it, full of grace and truth. So Jesus, in John's writing, is that gateway into the very presence of God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And that Jesus is eternal. John starts off that Jesus is God, he is creator, and that he became a man. And what a mystery, right? That God would become man, that he was all man and he was all God. And that Jesus was man and yet he was man without sin because he was virgin born, so he had no sin nature, no capacity. Why was Jesus tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin? To show that Satan had no handhold in him. Satan had nowhere he could get a hold of him. There was nothing in Jesus that was corruptible. He is pure and undefiled and holy and separate of sinners. Jesus is the one and only. Amen? He is the one and only. Man, we could just go home right now. But the word, I love that he's called the word. Why? Because words reveal the thoughts of our minds to those that we're communicating with. Words are thoughts communicated. It's the heart and the mind revealed. Sometimes we say things and we say, Man, I didn't mean to say that. No, no, you meant to say that. You just didn't mean for anybody to hear it. It revealed what was in your heart. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. What's down in the well comes up in the bucket. So if it's down in there, it's coming out. The words are a revealer of the heart. Well, if that's the case, and Jesus is the word, then Jesus is the revelation of the heart of God. He is the revealer of the heart of God. He reveals the mind of God. He's the very expression of God. He's the express image of God. He is God and all that is God in thought and in heart revealed to man in the person of Jesus Christ. One of the things that I love about words, Jesus is the word. Words are made up of letters. And what does the Bible say about Jesus? He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the beginning and the end. In fact, Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 3, makes it known that Jesus is God's last word to mankind. That God has spoken in diverse places and in sundry times. He spoke through prophets, he spoke through angels, but in these last days he has spoken unto us through his son. Jesus is God's last word to mankind. And what was that word? Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. Whosoever will may come. So John introduces Jesus in John chapter 1. John chapter 2 is one of the first signs. And we'll get to this in a minute, but you're going to see in chapters 2 through 12, you're kind of cruising over the public ministry of Jesus. Again, he's not giving these in chronological order necessarily. He's not even giving these all in um in a way to show all that Jesus did. He's only highlighting seven different things that Jesus did, seven great statements that Jesus made, witnessed by seven witnesses. This is a triple seven. This is a completion, a perfection. This is God's finality in the word of Jesus Christ. So his public ministry in chapters two through twelve, John is not recording dozens and dozens of ministries or miracles. What he's giving us is choosing carefully seven selected signs. The people keep asking for a sign. In fact, look at chapter 2 and look very quickly in verse number 18. Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Now, this was the sign. They were asking Jesus for a sign. What are the signs? And John is going to give you these seven signs to show why Jesus did what he did and who he was. But let me just say before we get to all that, Jesus shows up at this wedding, and he chooses to put to do his first sign at the wedding. And John zeroes in on this. Why does John zero in on these things specifically? You've got to remember this that miracles are not just acts of compassion. You know, this has been a conundrum for a lot of people. Like, you know, if Jesus healed these people, why doesn't he heal those people? If Jesus, if Jesus, you know, if Jesus touched that blind man, why not that blind man? And remember, Jesus even had to say, look, I mean, hey, listen, there were there were lepers in in your world, but but who did the prophet go heal? What leper did he go heal? It was the gentile leper. Hey, there were widows right here in Judea, but who did the who did the prophet go to? He went to a gentile widow. And Jesus had to show that there were not every widow was fed with a miraculous feeding. Not every leper was healed with a miraculous healing. So why did Jesus heal some and not others? You have to remember that Jesus did not come to heal leprosy. Jesus came to heal sin. See, let me tell you one of the things that I think is is a is a blight in the modern day church. If I were to bring a man on Sunday morning and I brought a man in a wheelchair down to the front, and I said, Sir, what is your name? And he said his name, and I said, What is your condition? And he said, I was injured as a child, I've been paralyzed all my life, and I'm I have all these sores, and I can't move my legs, and I've never been out of this chair. And and on Sunday morning I was able to just wave my hand over that man and kind of pop him on the head and say, hula, hula, hula, hula, hula, what's up? And that guy jumped up out of that chair and his legs were made whole and he started running around. Listen to me. We couldn't get people in our church with a shoehorn the next Sunday. People would be out of their minds that there was this miracle that happened at Front Range Baptist Church. And yet, Sunday after Sunday, we yawn when we leave here after people have raised their hand and trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior. The greatest miracle that ever happens is when Jesus Christ transforms a sinner and forgives his sin. We would yawn in the face of that oftentimes. In fact, sometimes we're like, man, I would wish we could get through this invitation in a hurry. And he preached a little long, I gotta get to lunch. And people are trusting Christ. And sometimes we just want to go on our way and we never stop to think about why. So so we need to believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus. I don't trust in the miracles. The greatest miracle is when Jesus sets us free from sin. When he gives us new birth. So all of these miracles, it's indicative of this truth when I show you that that man came down through the roof and his friends brought him down. And Jesus said to that man, What would you have me to do? Lord, he wanted to be healed. Jesus said was gonna heal the man, and they said, Wait a minute. And Jesus said, Your sins be forgiven you. And they said, Hey, nobody has power to forgive sins but God. And Jesus said, What would be easier for me to say? Your sins be forgiven you, or rise up and walk. And he said, To show you that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, I say unto you, rise up and walk. And that man got up and walked. That miracle was not necessarily just a mere act of compassion to a crippled man, it was a sign that Jesus had power to forgive sin. So Jesus shows up at a wedding in John chapter 2, and uh there are these six water pots, big water pots, and John explains because he's writing to some Gentile writers or readers, he's writing that these pots were for the purification of the Jews. These were water pots that they would use for their ceremonial cleansing. But Jesus calls for those water pots to be filled up, and Jesus changes the water into wine. What is he doing? Weddings were joyous occasions, weddings were celebrations, weddings were times of uniting of these two lives into one flesh. By the way, this is what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to call sinners into reconciliation with God. He was even called the bridegroom. John was the friend of the bridegroom to announce him. And even though Jesus was the man of sorrow, the Bible said also that he was anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows. Jesus was not just some pale religious, you know, recluse that just walked around with a hmm holier than thou and a big dinner plate behind his head. That's not how he was. Jesus was a man of joy as well as sorrow. Jesus came to that wedding, and he, this was the first sign that John zeros in on because Jesus had power over creation. Jesus was actually the joy of the celebration. It was Jesus who was going to restore new life into the people. And notice what happens after that. Jesus goes up and he cleanses the temple. Many of the writers, the other writers put this at the end of the book, because Jesus had a time where he cleansed the temple at the end of his ministry, but this is at the beginning of his ministry. He went in and he called them a making the house of God a house of merchandise. And then later he was going in there and saying, You are a den of thieves, and he cleanses the temple. But it was after that they said, What sign do you give us? And notice what Jesus gave him. In verse number 19, he said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Now, then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and thou will rear it up in three days. But he spake of the temple of his body. One of the things that John's gonna always point out is that there were things that Jesus would say that unsaved people didn't understand. And that unsaved people couldn't understand my words. That if you're gonna understand my words, you're gonna have to believe on me. And when you believe on me, you're going to get my spirit, and in my spirit you'll understand my words. And he's gonna show this over and over again. For instance, in Nicodemus, how can I be old? Get her into my mother's womb. He had no idea what Jesus was talking about in this new birth. Unsaved people didn't understand him. But but notice this, Jesus is speaking of his death, and watch what happens. In verse 22, when therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them, and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had said. So that the even the disciples didn't really catch what he was putting out until after his resurrection. They're like, oh yeah. Remember three and a half years ago when Jesus said, You can destroy this temple and I'm gonna rebuild it? That's what he was talking about. And the Holy Spirit was saying, duh. But they finally got it. But notice this, and this is what this is a this is in this is, I think, in John's gospel because a hundred times he says believe. He's written this to the end that we would believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that in believing we would have, we would have life in his name. But John makes a qualifier here about believing. And he writes this down in verse number 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name. And then John adds a describe a descriptive to that. When they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Now listen, this is really important because if you study the two words there of they believed in his name, but Jesus did not commit himself unto him. These two words are translated in the English, believe and commit, but they come from the same root word. These people mentally assented to the fact that this man was of God. Nicodemus was going to assent to that. In the next chapter, we know that thou art a man sent from God. But was Jesus just merely a man sent from God? No. Who was he? He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. What does a man need to believe to be saved? He needs to believe on the name of the Son of God. He needs to not just mentally assent to that Jesus is a man that works miracles, that Jesus is a man who is somewhat supreme in humanity, that Jesus is a great teacher or prophet, or that I believe in him mentally as though like I believe in Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, and I really have an affinity to him, like I do to some other hero of history. Listen, this is the kind of belief that I think many people have. They have a head belief, they believe in him, but they've never believed on him. And the word commit is key to this. In other words, let me say it this way: they believed in him, but Jesus didn't believe in them. Let me say it this way: they committed that he was a man of miracles, but Jesus did not commit himself to them as a savior. So these were people who were professors that Jesus was more than just a man, but they were not possessors of eternal life and light because they did not believe on him. I want to just tell you, I believe that there are many, many people in this world that will say to him in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not? But they missed heaven by 18 inches. They believed with their head, but they did not believe with their heart. They did not trust him, they did not receive him, they did not cast themselves upon him, they did not believe and hold to the finished work of Jesus Christ and rest upon his finished work and really commit themselves to him in belief. This is why a man like Judas could walk with Jesus, be baptized, walk with Jesus, see his miracles, hear him preach. Judas could even go and kiss heaven's door and then go to hell. Because Jesus was believed on, but not believed on. He saw him as a man who potentially could reign and rule, and I could potentially reign and rule with him, but I did not believe that he was the Lamb of God sent for my transgressions. And so I believe John includes that because I think John is qualifying here. Hey, I want you to believe, but I want you to be careful how you believe. I want you to examine yourself whether you be in the faith. Do you have you really rested upon the Lord Jesus Christ? And I don't want to make anybody doubt their salvation, but I want you to examine how you believe. Do we just believe with a mental ascent, or have we believed on him with the heart? The Bible says, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, but with the heart man believes into righteousness. Alright, so let's hustle. So the second sign that Jesus gives in the book is in chapter four, the healing of the nobleman's son. It's a great story. Jesus is showing here that he has authority over distance, and I can't linger into these. I've got to fly. I've dipped down too far right now. Then in chapter five, he gives it the third of the seven signs, and that's the healing of the lame man in chapter five. In fact, this is unique to John because Jesus comes into the pool of Bethesda. It's a place of five porches, it's a place where the sick people were. It was a place in the Old Testament and often in the New Testament when the feast days came that they would go down and cleanse the animals in ritualistic cleansing before they took them in the temple to be sacrificed. The pool of Bethesda would have been a place of smell, it would have been a place of a stench, it would have been a place of disease. And there were five different porches. There would have been about 300 people or so at any given time in that pool of Bethesda laying there. And one of the reasons why they were there is because there was a superstition. Because there was a spring that fed the pool of Bethesda, sometimes it would really bubble up. There would be a rush of water. And the superstition was that an angel came down and stirred the water, and if somebody could get into the water while it was stirring, they could be healed. And so there was this belief. So they would bring lame men there, then they would wait for these things that they thought was an angel stirring the water. Now, on certain feast days, that attendance could swell to about 3,000 people at that pool. So when Jesus walks up to this man who's been there for 38 years and said, Hey, do you what what would you have me to do? He said, Lord, I want to walk. And he said, Well, well, well, why are you how long have you been laying there? Well, sir, I have no man to get me into the water. And it was almost as Jesus was saying, Sir, I am the water. Just take my hand and stand up and walk. But Jesus goes into that place to show a sign, and he heals this man that was lame, and he had authority over that disease. The fourth sign was the feeding of the 5,000. In chapter 6, you're familiar with that. Jesus distributes the bread of life, but then remember they all came back out to him because Jesus wants to, they want Jesus to feed them again, and Jesus makes it clear. No, no, no, listen. I am the bread. Moses fed your fathers with manna in the wilderness, but I'm the bread sent down from God. If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me. And man, they all forsook him and fled. They wanted nothing to do with that message. And unfortunately, even the Catholic Church has erred on that, saying that when we take the communion, that we're literally eating the body and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ and transubstantiation, which if you read, Jesus gives the dispersed of what he was saying in John chapter 6. But Jesus rules over man's need and hunger, and he is the satisfying bread of life. The fifth sign is Jesus walking on water in John chapter 6. Jesus walks on water there, and he comes out to the boat with his disciples and shows that he has power to calm the storms and to knock down the waves. Let me give you a parentheses. We're going to dive down for just a minute. Look in John chapter 7. John chapter 7. Now I'm showing you, these are the seven signs. This is not one of the signs, but it's right in the middle. Jesus would make these signs. We'll go back and see this in a minute. But Jesus would make a statement, then he would show a sign and declare himself to be the Son of God. And somebody would make a declaration that he was the Son of God. He would make a statement, an I am statement, show a sign, and there was this continual repetition of the revealing of Jesus of who Jesus was. But something significant happens in John chapter 7, and I want you to see it. In John chapter 7, the Bible says in verse number 35, then when said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go that we shall not find him? Will he go into the dispersion of the Gentiles and teach them the Gentiles and so forth? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am, whether you come that you cannot come? Then John says this In the last day of that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now Jesus had just said, I'm going to go away. You can't, you'll seek me, you won't be able to find me. Then he goes up to the feast, the last day of the feast, the great day of the feast, and he makes this loud proclamation Come to me, everyone that is thirsty, come and drink. What is all of this about? This is probably one of the most dramatic and symbolically rich moments in the ministry of Christ. Is everybody hearing me? Just give me one minute as we walk through this for a second. This was not just a beautiful invitation that Jesus was making, but it was a deliberate claim that he was the fulfillment of one of Israel's greatest feasts. So this feast that was happening was the Feast of Tabernacles. Feast of Tabernacles was a day they would go out, they would camp outside, but they would come to the tempt to the temple. And it was a seven-day feast with an eight-day solemn assembly. You can read about it in Leviticus chapter 23. This Feast of Tabernacles celebrated three things: God's provision for them in the wilderness. While they were dwelling in tents, God was taking care of them. It also celebrated the harvest, and it celebrated God dwelling in a tent with his people. We dwelt in tents, but God dwelt in a tent. Our God came and lived in a tent with us. That's our God. He came to us. He provided for us and he came and dwelt with us. It's an amazing feast. It's one of the most happy celebrations in Israel's calendar year. But by Jesus' time, when he comes, the feast had developed some ceremonies that were not commanded in the law, but had become traditions that were cherished by the people. One of those traditions was the water pouring ceremony. During the Feast of Tabernacles, every morning during the feast, a priest would lead a procession of people from the temple to the pool of Siloam, carrying a golden pitcher. He would fill that pitcher up with water. Then he would return back up to the temple, followed by the people singing and praising and rejoicing. Then he would go to the altar outside the temple in the court, and he would pour some of that water out around the altar while another priest would pour wine. And it was this pouring of water, pouring of wine, and the celebration of joy and fellowship with God, that God came to dwell with us. So while the priest was pouring that out, the people were singing Old Testament passages. One of the passages that they would sing was Isaiah 12.3. Therefore, with joy, hence that's the wine, therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. Now think about this. The priest is pouring this water around the altar of the temple, and the people are singing Isaiah 12.3, therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. This ceremony always was meant to be a reminder to Israel of water from the rock in the wilderness. They had kind of morphed that into this tabernacle that God gave us water in the wilderness, and it came from a rock. God faithfully provided for us. That our hope that we look back on in the wilderness is our hope that there would be a blessing again of the coming of the Messiah that would bring wine and joy and rejoicing that God would dwell in this land. Everybody with me so far? So this was all going on. There were other prophecies. I don't have time to go to all of them, but Isaiah 44, 3, Ezekiel 47, Zechariah chapter 14, verse 8. These all speak of the life-giving water that was flowing into the kingdom that would come one day. And they were demonstrating that. Not only were they looking back on what God had done in the wilderness, they were looking forward to what God had prophesied to do in the kingdom age through the Messiah. And on the last day, the great day of the feast, the priest would do that twice. He would make the trip down, he would come up and pour, he'd make the trip down, come back up and pour, he would do that twice, and the crowd by that time would have swelled on the seventh day of the feast. John emphasizes the timing of what Jesus did. Jesus comes on the last day, the great day of the feast. So there would have been multitudes of people at the temple. And Jesus, after seven days of pouring water, the ceremony would all of a sudden cease, and then everybody would be done with the feast and they would all go back home. But Jesus stands up and he cries out if any man thirst, let him come to me. What Jesus was essentially saying in this feast was that everything in this ceremony points to me. I am the fulfillment of all of this. I am the rock from which the water will come. I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am God dwelling in an earthly temple, in an earthly tent with his people. Everything, I am the well of salvation. Come to me and draw waters of joy out of the wells of salvation. But you have to come to me. And Jesus stood and cried. Now, that was contrary to what normally happened. Rabbis normally sat down to teach. Jesus stands and he shouts publicly. This was not a quiet lesson to his disciples. Listen, this was a public invitation to the nation of Israel. I am here. That God is with you. When Jesus said, Come unto me, that was an astonishing claim because he identified himself as the source of salvation. Throughout all the Old Testament, God alone is the source of living water. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 13, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Jeremiah 17, 13, the Lord, the fountain of living waters. And now Jesus, on those claims, is saying, Come unto me. Anybody that tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God needs to go to this great day of the feast. Jesus was saying, I am Jehovah God. I am here, and I'm telling you, if you want to be saved, you come to me. And it's interesting that Jesus speaks of the living water, and he tells, John tells us that he spake of the Spirit that they which believe on him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. But Jesus was going to give the Holy Spirit and he would flow out of us rivers of living water. And it's an amazing declaration of his deity. Alright, everybody with me on that? Okay. By the way, it this living water whole thing, it connects to other places in John. It connects to John chapter 4 when Jesus goes to the Samaritan woman. I love in John 4. I must needs go through Samaria. And the disciples are like, why? No, you don't. Number one, we don't want to go to Samaria. Number two, we don't want to make that trip. There are two easier ways to the Galilee around the mountain range. You're going to make us walk from basically from Estes to Redcliffe, going around to Redfeather, going over the mountains. I mean, it's an arduous walk. And then when we get there, it's the Samaritans. Who wants to go there? But Jesus went there and said, Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. He had already made this tie into being the water. So that's just a little thing. I gotta fly. So the the sixth sign is the healing of the Blind man in chapter 9, that Jesus is the one that gives spiritual sight. And then the seventh sign is the raising of Lazarus. Jesus does this shortly before his death. He knows that going back up to that part of the country was going to be a death sentence. He knows that being as conspicuous as a sign of raising a man from the dead is going to be his death sentence. But Jesus knew that going to raise Lazarus was going to mean that I'm going to die. But he set his face as a flint and he went. And it was a sign that he had authority over death itself. And every one of those signs that Jesus did begged the question, who can do such things? And the answer was, only God. Who can do things like this? Only God. Now, let me run through these very fast. There are seven I am statements in the book. These were not accidental or incidental. God had revealed himself to Moses. I am that I am. That's the divine name of God, the great I am, Jehovah, that's where we get the name Yahweh. And Jesus says in John 6, I am the bread of life. In John 8, I am the light of the world. Twice in John 10, I am the door, and I am the good shepherd. In chapter 11, I am the resurrection and the life. In chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. There's no other path to God. And then in John chapter 15, I am the true vine. So these are seven I am statements specifically, intentionally made to say, I am. By the way, Jesus emphasized this in two places. After some of these great I am statements, when the Pharisees came to him and accused him of being a liar, Jesus said, No, you're of your father the devil. And the lust of your father you will do. He was a liar. And then Jesus mentioned something about Abraham, and they said, wait a minute, you're not even above 40 years old, and you know Abraham? And Jesus said, Before Abraham was, I am. And there was the great reference to Jehovah. And then in the time of Jesus' betrayal in John chapter 18, when Judas brings the army to him, and they said, Jesus said, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, I am he. And they all fell down. Boom! And uh and he spoke, I am, he is, I am. Now, so those are the seven signs, seven I ams. I gotta be done. John records, and this is what I love about John. John records one-on-one conversations in Scripture. John gets into these really intimate, detailed conversations. In John chapter 3, he has the conversation with Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus, religion can't save you. You must be born again. In John chapter 4, Jesus gets into the detailed conversation of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. Here's a woman married five times, living with a man who's not her husband. Jesus has a divine appointment with her. She has come to draw water by herself. Jesus sits down and said, Hey, can you give me some water? And she said, How do you, being a Jew, ask me a Samaritan for water? And Jesus said, Woman, if you knew who I was, you'd ask for me water and I'd give you living water. You'd never thirst again. She said, Well, that sounds pretty good, but you don't have anything to draw water out of the well with. And Jesus said, I don't need to draw out of that well. And uh, and he said, and he said, and she said, Give me some of that water. And he said, Okay, go get your husband. And she said, I ain't got no husband. This is in the Greek. I ain't got no husband. And Jesus said, You're right, you ain't got no husband. You've had five of those guys, and the one that you're married with now ain't your husband. In other words, lady, this is Jacob's well. You know who Jacob was? Jacob was a deceiver. He was a surplanter. You know what Jacob always did? Jacob always tried to get what God had already promised him in his own way. That's what religion does. Jacob had deceived himself. Jacob was the son of promise. He was already born promise, but yet he was gonna connive to get his own way what God had already promised him, if he would have just done it by faith. And now he's got this well. She's at this deceiver's well. And you know what she says to Jesus? Well, you Jews worship in that mountain, but we worship in this mountain. She wants to talk religion. I'm gonna get from God in my own way. And Jesus said, Lady, forget religion, man. I'm here, the Messiah. I'm talking to you, I'm the one. And she realized that he was him, and she left her water pot. See, she'd always been drawn out of the wrong wells, and she always went home thirsty. Then she found the right well, and she didn't need her bucket no more. So that's good Greek, isn't it? She didn't need her bucket no more. I'm gonna preach a message on that one day. She didn't need that bucket no more. Point number one, you ain't got no husband. So Jesus speaks of the Samaritan woman. Then he has an intimate conversation with the blind man in chapter 9. Then he has an intimate conversation with Martha about resurrection and life. Martha, do you believe? Believest thou this? Believest thou this? Do you believe this, Martha? He had an intimate conversation about death and resurrection and life. Then he had an intimate conversation with Thomas. And Thomas, John's the only one that records Thomas' words, my Lord and my God. Again, proving that Jesus is the Son of God and that Jesus meets people right where they are. Isn't that good that Jesus meets you where you are, but he loves you too much to leave you where you are. Then we see in John chapter 13 through 17, we see the upper room. So we've seen his eternal past, and we see some of his earthly ministry in 2 through 12, and then we see the upper room in 13 through 17. Nearly one-fourth of John's gospel occurs on the final evening before the cross. John records so much of the teaching up there. It shows Jesus' humility. I'm going to just run through these, shows his love. He speaks about the Holy Spirit. He speaks about prayer. He talks about peace and joy. He talks about abiding in him. He talks about fruitfulness. I've not, you've not chosen me, I've chosen you. And I've chosen you that you would go and bring forth fruit. He talks about the coming persecution. You're going to see me die, guys, but you better understand something. I'm going to come out of that grave. And you're going to go face persecution, but you're going to face it with hope. That one day too, you're. They may be able to destroy your body, but they can't destroy your soul. Then in chapter 17, Jesus goes out and prays the longest prayer in the New Testament. Probably the greatest prayer in the Bible. And I call John 17 the high priest's prayer. This is Jesus giving us a glimpse of what goes on behind the curtain when Jesus got into the presence of his Father and He prayed. You know what Jesus prayed for? Let me just say this quickly and we're going to go. He prayed for himself to be glorified. He prayed for his disciples. He prayed for their strength. And then I love this. He prayed for you. He prayed for every future believer that would believe on him. Jesus prayed for you in John 17. You ever had a text from somebody, hey, I'm praying for you? And it just encouraged you. Anybody ever had a text like that? What if you could get one of those every day from Jesus? I said, I said this to, I said this to my wife one day. We were at home and I said, and she said, Hey, what can I do for you today? And I said, I just need you to pray for me. And she said, I'm praying for you. She said, but Jesus is already praying for you. And I want to tell you, if I could just ever remember that every day, if I could just remember that, if I could just hear Jesus praying for me in that next room, and I could fight, I could go to hell and fight it with squirt guns. Put the flames out. Jesus prayed for you. And then John 18 through 19, the cross. This is where Jesus cries out, it is finished. One Greek word. To telesty. Paid in full. Accomplished. Finished. Every sin, every debt, every punishment, finished forever. It is finished. And then I love this. The whole narrative of John kind of slows down in John 20 at the resurrection. John, John just kind of says, hey, I want you guys to just, hey, let's just come to the garden here for a minute. Let's see Jesus and Mary interact. Let's see all the other guys get there. Let's tell you about how when I outran Peter to the tomb. And he's slow and I'm faster than him. And I got there and had to wait for him to get there. And then we met with the Lord. And he just talks about all of these intimate things at the resurrection. You just kind of patiently get to meet Jesus as he meets each one of his disciples. And you really find in that story of John's resurrection, that John portrays of Jesus' resurrection, that Jesus did not just die for sinners. He did, but not just. He conquered death. He took sin and its consequence and he destroyed it. And then John 21 is kind of that epilogue to this book. John puts it in there, and I believe, here's what I believe. I believe that John includes this in the gospel because it shows the restoration of Peter. And why is that important? Peter, Peter was was was he was crucified upside down in Rome shortly after the apostle Paul died. So Paul gets killed, and then Peter dies. And up in that part of the world, the Gentile believers, there was a huge test of faith. What are we going to do? And John actually comes to Ephesus to be the pastor in Ephesus. And I really believe that John included these things of Jesus prophesying the death of Peter as a way to comfort the saints and to give them an encouragement that this was not, this was not a tragic accident. This was prophesied by the Lord that this was going to happen. And it was to bring them back into assurance that Jesus had restored Peter. Peter did not die in vain, and he didn't just die at the hands of Rome. He died under the word of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that this would happen. And it's okay. We have hope, not just in this life, but in the life to come. Let me finish with this. Man, I I flew a little bit too long tonight. In Genesis, the question was, who made us? John answers, he who can save us. He's not just the creator, he's the savior. He's the eternal word, made flesh, full of grace and truth. And I love this. John's gospel declares, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And I want to say this. I think you can summarize the whole Bible up in these three statements. The Old Testament is basically asking the question of Isaac: where is the Lamb? We have the wood, we have the fire, where is the Lamb? That's the Old Testament. Where is the Lamb? The Gospels are behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb. And the rest of the New Testament is worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. And that's the Bible. Amen? Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for your.