The Purpose of John

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Let's pray together.

Lord, we say we're we're empowered and enabled to say, Oh Lord our God, uh, because you claimed us.

And so, because you've claimed us, uh, we get to respond and reciprocate by claiming you, by saying, You're oh Lord our God.

And so uh, Lord, worship is one of the things we're gonna do forever.

And so we're here to get our head and our heart tuned to sing your praise.

And so, Holy Spirit, uh, just kind of prepare us for what we were created for.

And what the one of the few things we do in this life that we will do, we will do forever and eternity.

And so, Lord, as we open up your word this morning, uh it's gonna go out and not come back void.

It's going to accomplish the purpose for which it's written, for which it's sent.

And so, Lord, the Bible's full of causality.

It causes things to happen today.

So I pray, God, for every need in this room, uh, we just confess, God, that you're sufficient and you're enough.

Uh, and so when we're ready, we're eager, we want to hear the truth.

And so before I finish this prayer, I want you to take about 15 seconds and whatever's heaviest on your head and your heart today, just kind of just kind of lift that up to the Lord and just say, Lord, I want to hear what has my name on it today.

It's maybe the first time you've been in church in a while.

Maybe you're visiting a new church for the first time.

Just just relax.

Just ask the Lord, Lord, what do you what do you want to say to me today?

Father, the great thing about the Bible is that you speak a language that everyone understands.

And so to the engineer who's it's math, and to the artist for which it's music, you're gonna speak both those languages today.

And for that, we're grateful, we're humbled, Lord.

Let your word find a resting place in us, and then let it find expression in our culture and our city this week.

We pray in Jesus' name when everyone said, Amen.

You can have a seat if you have a Bible.

I invite you to take it open up to the Gospel of John, John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

Uh, we are starting preaching through the Gospel of John today.

And if you're like, if you're starting in chapter 20, that's nothing wrong.

Well, I'm gonna talk to you this morning, kind of an overview.

Well, I want to talk to you about the purpose of John.

The purpose of John.

If you're our guest today, we preach expositorily, which means we go through books of the Bible.

Typically, every once in a while we'll do a topical series, and even then it comes out of the Bible uh because it's not our opinion or what we think or what the culture or what the climate is saying.

It's what does the word of God say?

That's what drives the bus around here.

And so we're gonna start in the Gospel of John.

Next week we'll start in chapter 1, verse 1.

But I want to kind of give you an overview.

Uh one of the things, if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.

I'm on page 907, uh, and I'll be talking from John chapter 20 and verse 31.

John 20 · chapter mention

Uh, the Gospel of John is written.

Let me just give you a little overview of the Gospel of John.

It's written to reach people that do not believe in God.

John was a Palestinian Jew, and he's writing to people in this what's called the diaspora.

People are scattered.

Uh, it's kind of like God sneezed and people went everywhere.

And these people are scattered because of persecution.

And he's writing to these very religious people, the Jews who do not believe, to say to them, there's sufficient evidence for you to come to place your faith in Christ.

But he's also writing to people that already believe to strengthen them in their relationship with God and to empower them to keep living for the glory of God.

One of the things about John that's unique from other gospels, it's very dialogical.

A lot of conversations.

Jesus talks with immoral people, and after he's done, they don't want to be immoral anymore.

Their life changes.

He talks to a woman who's had who'd been married five times and was living with a man that wasn't her husband, and Jesus tells her all this, and she says, I see that you are a prophet.

And Jesus says, No duh.

Blind people come to him.

A guy walked up to Jesus and says, Lord, if you can heal me, and Jesus is like, if.

And so it's very dialogical, a lot of miracles, uh, a lot of dualism, a lot of opposites, light, darkness, uh, eternity versus temporary, all these kind of things.

Uh, but here's my favorite thing about the Gospel of John.

The people who do inner city missions in Chicago, this one organization I'm familiar with, they say, we don't give out Bibles, we don't give out New Testaments, we give out the Gospel of John.

And when asked, why do you give out just the Gospel of John?

And the guy said, Because the junkies love it.

And I was like, that's enough for me.

Hold your calls, we have a winner.

Here's why.

Because people that are beat up and burned out and bedraggled, they read the Gospel of John and they see a compassionate, available God who came to make their life different.

That's why they give it out.

And so that's one of the things we're gonna see as we journey through the Gospel of John.

And so if you're visiting today or this is your second or third or eighth time, my invitation to you is to come on this journey with us and just kind of go through this book of the Bible.

But I'll start this morning by giving you kind of an overview.

Uh, John summarizes actually at the end of chapter 20, it's the next to last chapter in the gospel.

He summarizes in 48 words.

It's like he compresses this literary snowball into this tight pack and hands it to us with these words in verse 30.

He says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Sounds very simple, sounds very uh very summary, but it's very profound and provocative words that he says.

There's three points that the text makes that I want to make this morning.

Number one is simply this not everything but enough.

Not everything but enough.

You say, What do you mean?

Look at verse 30.

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

Occasionally I get asked this question, and I've been asked it consistently for years by different people, but the question comes out in some fashion like this.

So, do you think the Bible contains everything that Jesus ever said and did?

And I always answer, no, it doesn't.

Matter of fact, the Bible is so confident of its own authority that the Bible tells us it doesn't contain everything that Jesus ever did.

And I remember one guy in particular is like, where's that in the Bible?

And I said, It's in John chapter 20, and again in chapter 21.

John 20 · chapter mention

He goes, What do you mean?

So if you're in chapter 20, I want you just to turn the page and look at the very last verse of John's gospel, John 21, verse 25.

John 21:25

He says, This, he says, now there are also many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

Now, I said to this guy, I said, it's right here in the Bible.

He says, if everyone, and then he asked a great question.

He said, Now, I teach an apologetics class on Wednesday nights here, back here in the fellowship Paul.

And if you're in my class, you remember I said every week we have an opportunity to have what we call apologetic conversations.

Apologetics is the defense, a reasoned defense of the Christian faith.

And so this guy looks at me and he says, Well, it says right here that Jesus did a lot of things.

They're not written in the book.

You just showed me in the Bible where it says that.

I said, Yeah.

And he goes, Well, what if Jesus did something or said something that would contradict the things that were written down?

I said, but that's a great question, okay?

Because when you talk to somebody, find something you can agree with.

I said, Man, you're a very thinking person.

You're pretty serious about this, aren't you?

He said, You're dang straight I'm serious about this.

I said, Here's how you can know that there's nothing that Jesus said or did that contradicts what the gospel writers wrote down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

He goes, All right, let me hear it.

I said, the character and nature of God.

The Bible says of God that He's not a man that He would lie.

His yes is yes and His No is No.

Jesus doesn't say one thing in this situation, it's something else over here.

And so there's nothing that wasn't written that's going to contradict what was written.

And he's like, Well, I mean, how do you know that?

I said, We'll get into it.

You've got to go back to the first chapter of John, where it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father.

The Bible has the character and the nature of God contained in it.

And he looked at me and he said, Man, you've thought about this.

And I said, A little bit, and I said, but here's the thing: the Bible's not for smart people, the Bible's for willing people.

So when I say to you this morning that not everything but enough, what I'm saying to you is the sufficiency of the Bible.

And in this case, in the Gospel of John, he says, hey, there's a lot of things that Jesus, a lot of signs that he did in the presence of his disciples, which are not written here.

Not everything, but enough.

But I think the Bible is sufficient in what it covers so that a person doesn't get to the end of their life and realize what they've believed is insufficient.

Let me say that again.

The Bible is sufficient in what it does contain, such that a person doesn't get to the end of their life.

And like Elvis Presley, who had a statue of a Buddha, who had a cross on, who had all kind of Hindu, all about seven world religions represented in his bedroom.

Because he's like, hell, at the very end, I just want to make sure I cover all my bases.

Here's the thing that Elvis didn't understand.

It's not covering all your bases, it's finding and believing in the one way.

Because one of the things that Jesus says in John's gospel is that I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through me.

So there's an exclusivity to Jesus that he does not apologize for.

And so when I say, hey, not everything, but enough, that's what I mean.

Secondly, it's written with a purpose.

It's written with a purpose.

And John lays it out there in verse 31.

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

Two things that he's really driving for in this whole gospel, 21 chapters.

These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Secondly, the Son of God.

Now, when he says that Jesus is the Christ, he's talking about the Messiah.

It's a question of identity.

Are you really who you say you claim to be?

It's a question of identity.

Now, remember, John is a Hellenic, he's a Palestinian Jew.

He's writing to Jewish people.

And to this day, an Orthodox Jew does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

And so John is writing, trying to convince him.

And so the Gospel of John is very what we call Christocentric.

It's very Christ-centered.

A lot of stuff about Jesus, about his identity, and about his authority.

So when he says, I'm writing, so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

This is a really compelling statement for people in the first century.

And here's why.

They had been waiting for a long time for this Messiah to come and make everything better.

Now we don't get that because we don't wait for much.

Like if I ask you in this section right here, what is the longest you have waited for something?

You would say 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes.

If I go to the, my daughter loves to go to Dairy Queen and get a blizzard, and I'm like, okay, great.

But if I pull up to the Dairy Queen and there's like five cars in the drive-thru, I'm like, this was not worth it.

This is gonna take too long.

I don't say that, but in my mind, I just think, we've got ice cream at home, and I could get a half gallon of that for what I'm fixing to pay for this blizzard.

But I love my kid, so I keep my mouth shut and I stay in the line, okay?

I get the blizzard, the lady's like, look, and I'm like, you know what?

I would be impressed if it were free.

Not that it doesn't fall out.

Just give me that.

And my daughter doesn't hear a word of that.

She just eats her blizzard and we go back home.

But here's the thing, it's hard to capture.

Back in the first century, for years this had been going on, they'd been told for over 700 years the Messiah's gonna come and he's gonna make everything better.

It had been so long that these people had given up hope.

That's why you hear this lament and all through the Old Testament and in the Psalms, people saying, How long, O Lord, how long?

Now, I remember when I was a kid, my mom, now I say this, I'm not being glib, okay?

Mental illness runs in my family, okay?

And some of you are like, well, that explains a lot right there.

Uh but and and my mom especially struggled with it.

And so my mom every once in a while would say to me and my brothers, I had that dream again last night, and we would look at each other like, You think mom's offer meds?

Because here was my mom's dream.

Now, don't pity me, okay, because I don't want pity.

But we were dirt poor, all right?

Okay, we were the kind of poor where we kept a pitcher of water in the refrigerator, like that would make everything better, and and and and just half-empty jars of condiments like mustard and ketchup and mayonnaise, and that was about it.

Occasionally there'd be a pack of hot dogs in there.

But I just, we were poor.

But here was, I tell you that to get the context.

My mom would smile and she'd go, Oh, I had the dream again last night, because my mom grew up in Minnesota, and so she talks like this.

And she's like, I had that dream, and she had the look on her face like it's gonna come true one day.

And we were like, should we call the doctor and get the meds adjusted here?

Here was a dream.

The dream was that armored cars were coming from Minnesota where she was born, down to Texas and bringing her money.

And I was like, Mom, you might want to let go of that because open the fridge.

We got Jack in there, okay?

Well, that started in 1980.

I was a sophomore in high school.

That's right, do the math.

I'm 37, okay?

And so for years, my mom would have this dream three or four times a year, and every time she had it, she would talk about it like it's just a matter of time now.

This is gonna come to fruition.

And every time me and my brothers would be like, hmm, what do you think?

And it always got pushed on to me to be the person that made the decision.

I'm like, hey, dude, I'm 16.

I shouldn't be making these decisions about the health care of our mother, okay?

And then from 1980 all the way to 1993, my mom would call me on the phone.

I'm alpha college.

I had the dream again last night.

That's cute, mom.

Thanks a lot.

It's like people in the Old Testament, the Messiah's gonna come make it better.

Great, we're getting the snot kicked out of us in the meantime.

And then 1993, my mom called me one day.

I just got married and she went, I said, What's up, mom?

She said, Well, you know that dream I've been having all these years?

Mm-hmm.

I just got a letter in the mail and I just got a phone call, and they told me that my great aunt Audrey died and left me about$93,000, and she lives in Minnesota.

And I was like, shut up.

And my brothers and I, I remember the first time we got together, we looked at each other and like, okay, who's crazy now?

Because my mom, every time she told us about it, it was like, I tell you that to tell you this.

In the first century, people had heard all this talk about the Messiah, they would just roll their eyes, like, okay, grandma, we know he's gonna come and make it better.

Matter of fact, people had been waiting so long, and they begin to come up with what they thought he would be like, and how he would do ministry and what he would say and how he would talk and teach, and so much so that it was really disconcerting to them when Jesus did come.

That's why the Bible says he was a stone, a rock of stumbling, or a stone of offense.

He was a stumbling block to some people.

They were kind of like, You can't be what we've been waiting for, can you?

Oh man.

Because for, like I said, 700 years, you say, Where do you get that from?

The book of Isaiah.

The book of Isaiah, written 700 years before Jesus comes on the scene, says things like this in Isaiah chapter 9, starting verse 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy.

They rejoice before you with joy at the harvest, and they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Why?

Because for us for to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government and of the peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

700 years before, this is gonna happen, and this is how it's gonna happen.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

After about 150 years, they're like, okay, the zeal of the Lord, after about 500 years, they're like, yeah, yeah, we've heard that before.

Then later on in Isaiah chapter 40, the Bible is so succinct and so clear.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

It doesn't only say that there's gonna be this Messiah's gonna come, born of a virgin, it gets in greater detail and says, by the way, before he comes, there's gonna be a forerunner to him, a guy that's gonna say, Hey, get everything ready.

You think you're ready, but you're not ready.

The Bible prophesies this in Isaiah chapter 40, verses starting in verse 3.

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

A voice cries, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low.

The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Now, why do I tell you that?

To tell you this, turn back, you're in John 20, turn back to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Because you don't get three steps into the Gospel of John and you trip over these realities.

John chapter 1, verses 6 to 8 says this.

John 1:6–8

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

It's a reference to John the Baptist, the forerunner.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.

Now, by the way, when he says he came as a witness to bear witness about the light, remember what he said back in Isaiah 9?

He says, Those people dwelling in deep darkness, a what has dawned on them?

A light.

A light.

And so you don't get three steps into the Gospel of John, and you see, hey, on them a light.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

Skip down to verse 19.

And this is the testimony of John, John the Baptist, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?

He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.

By the way, look at me.

John the Baptist didn't want credit, he wanted God to get glory.

It's just the Bible kind of winks at us and says, Here's how you do it, folks.

You don't go through life wanting credit, you want God to get the glory.

So when they said, Who are you?

He answers in the negative.

He says, I'm not the Messiah.

Everybody else, there were other people coming going, I'm the Messiah, follow me.

The first thing John the Baptist says is, I am not the Christ, I'm not the Messiah.

And they asked him, What then?

Are you Elijah?

He said, I'm not.

Are you the prophet?

And he answered, No.

So they said to him, Who are you?

We need to give an answer to those who sent us.

What do you say about yourself?

He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Look at me.

The Bible's not a bunch of one-off stories.

It's just, it's this very connected one story that God tells.

Now, it's hard speaking to a group of people in 2017 about anticipation and waiting and longing and desire because what happens in John's gospel is you begin to see right in the very beginning, what could be is turning into what is.

Possibility is becoming reality.

Let me give an example of what I'm talking about that'll help you clarify.

It happened yesterday in this room, right here at about 1.30, standing right there.

We had a wedding.

Couple 20-somethings got married.

Christian Rice, sweet, beautiful girl in our church, married a very sharp, godly young man named Stephen Wigman.

Stephen's a good-looking guy, has little artsy glasses and everything.

They came to me.

I said, We want you to do our wedding.

I said, Great.

You got to come to five sessions of premarital counseling.

They said, Great.

He said to me, What's it gonna be like?

I said, I'm gonna beat the brakes off of you.

That's what it's gonna be like.

And he said, I'm in.

And so, great guy.

And so we're standing over there, and I saw him at the rehearsal.

I said, How you feeling?

He goes, I'm good.

And so, about 10 minutes before the ceremony, he's sitting in the chairs right outside that door because everyone else is back here.

And we had a conversation, and we're talking about their service.

And I said, Hey, now here's where you typically come in.

And he said, Ask a great question.

He said, Why do I come in at that point?

Seems kind of early.

I said, You signify the fact that you're standing there waiting for your bride because after the family's seated, you come in and you stand there, and the whole wedding party comes in.

Seven bridesmaids and seven groomsmen, like the Republican National Convention up here yesterday.

And he's standing there, and I said, You signify that you're waiting, and all these people are coming by, but they're not who you're waiting for.

It's a picture of Christ waiting for his bride to church.

And so you're just kind of standing there, and then the doors are closed, and then the musical change, the doors are open, and your bride will be there.

And he's like, Okay, I got it.

So 10 minutes full of service, I said, How you doing?

He goes, I'm good, I'm ready to go.

I got it.

I thought to myself, You ain't got it.

You think you got it, but you ain't got it.

You ain't gonna land on Plymouth Rock.

Plymouth Rock's about to land on you.

But I didn't say anything, I just smiled, you got it.

Okay, you think?

So he standing out there and I said, Check your zipper.

And he's like, What?

I said, always make sure.

And so we walk, the family's seated, his mom and dad come down, they're seated.

We walk in, I stand back the other way, he stands right there, and I and not out of anything but just how many of y'all have been married before?

Okay.

And so he's standing there, all the people file by, some of his grooves will give him a high five, and I was like, mm-mm.

This is about to land on you in a way nothing else has.

Now keep in mind, we're talking about 700 years of waiting and possibilities fixing to become reality.

I mean, everybody gets in place.

I step around behind them, take my place, the doors close, the music changes, the doors open, all rise.

Everybody stands up and she comes in.

He can't really see her because everyone's standing.

She rounds the corner and all of a sudden he sees her and just goes, It was all I could do not to walk down the steps and go, who got it now?

Now, now look at me.

I'm not making fun of that because at my wedding, I thought I had it until I saw my wife, my my bride round the corner.

I was like, I was making noise.

Dogs were showing up outside the church.

We heard a whistle.

No, look at me.

That's what happens when possible, what's always been a possibility becomes reality.

They got up here on the steps, said brother, we're still leaking during the ceremony.

He was trying to just discreetly wipe his eye, and I was like, just go ahead and snot yourself and get it over with.

Why?

Why do I tell you that?

Look at me, because in the Gospel of John, that's the way people responded to Jesus.

They were just like, Oh my gosh, we've heard all these stories, and oh my gosh, it's Better than anything we could have asked or imagined.

So when he says, hey, I write these things to you so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, he is building the case for the fulfillment of history and its possibility becoming reality.

And then secondly, he says this: here's the other thing that I want you to believe: that he's the son of God.

That he's the son of God.

He's not just some charlatan.

He's not just some magician.

He's not David Blaine, street magician.

I do stuff, you know, you can't understand.

No, no.

He's the son of God.

This is a question of authority.

One of the questions he gets asked a lot is by what authority are you doing these things?

And he always points back to the fact that it's authority, it's an authority that's born of relationship.

One of the things that you'll see in John's Gospel is the way Jesus relates to his father.

If you've got kids in the room, can I see your hand?

Have you got children?

Oh yeah, put your hand down.

This is going to bless you.

One of the things that you'll see in John's Gospel is that Jesus is functionally subordinate to his father, and he does only what his father gives him to say and do, and he does everything his father tells him to do and to say.

Yes.

Now think about that against the backdrop of your children.

You're like, that is an impossibility.

Oh, we have a 14-year-old at home, okay?

And I went in her room last night because she goes to sleep listening to music every night, and so I'm trying to gently take her earphones off, but I opened the door, looked like a bomb had gone off in there.

I distinctly remember saying to her on Friday, your sister's coming home for the wedding, could you get your room cleaned up?

I got it, Dad.

I was like, I don't think we got it.

I didn't wake her up at 11 o'clock and go, clean your room.

But the day after church, we're going to talk about her being functionally subordinate to her father.

And I'm going to say, Did you hear in the sermon how the Bible talks about Jesus?

And she'd be like, Dad, I got it.

I've heard that before.

But here, here's the thing I'm pointing to.

I don't want to over, I don't want to beat the life out of it, but I do just want to say, Jesus said over and over in John's gospel, I do what I do.

I only do what I see my father doing.

And I do whatever my father tells me.

So much so that it was agonizing when he gets to the very end and realizes I'm going to lay down my life.

It's why he came.

It didn't take him off guard.

But it was so agonizing he said to his father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

But nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

That's what he said.

He says, Hey, you may believe that he's the Christ, the Son of God.

Third thing I want to say to you about the Gospel of John is just the goal of it all.

The goal of it all.

What do you mean?

The latter part of verse 31.

He says that these are written, so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Secondly, the Son of God.

Here's the goal of it all, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Hear that again.

That by believing, you may have life in his name.

The goal of Christianity isn't just to get you to believe some propositional truths.

It's not.

It's not what it's about.

Okay?

Secondly, it's not a guarantee of forgiveness for all the wrong stuff that you've done.

Many people believe some propositional truths.

There's a lot of people that believe most of what the Bible says, but they do not experience life in Jesus' name.

So one of the questions you should walk out of here in a few minutes with this morning is what does it mean to have life in Jesus' name?

And the closest I can get to helping you try to understand that is we don't say this anymore.

But used to, when the cops, when the police were chasing somebody, they would say, Stop in the name of the law.

How many of you remember ever hearing that phrase?

Yes.

That was old school right there.

They would say, stop in the name of the law.

They would not say, hey, like there's a there's a man in our church, David Ryder.

He's a chief of police for all the Fort Bend Independent School District.

He doesn't say to students, hey, stop with the name of David Ryder.

Let my drug dog sniff your backpack.

No, he's been invested and endued with a measure of authority.

So he acts with authority that's greater than himself.

When he puts on the bat his uniform and the badge and the gun, all of a sudden, five O's in the house.

It's not just David Ryder.

Why?

Because he represents an authority bigger than him.

Look at me.

The Bible says when you come to Christ, the same thing is true of you.

You represent an authority that's bigger than you.

Matter of fact, you not only represent that, but you're authorized to exercise that authority.

What do you mean?

Probably the closest that we don't get stopped at the name of the law because our culture has very little respect for authority or authority figures, but maybe this would help.

It's called a power of attorney.

If you appoint someone to act in your name, it means that they act as your representative within these restrictions that you impose.

Jesus has empowered his followers to act in his name and to do certain things in his name.

And to do something in Jesus' name means that you do it with authority that he gave you, not your own authority, and you do it because he has authorized you to do that.

And so, two words I want you to take away around this last sentence is where Jesus, hey, that by believing you may have life in his name.

It's a different dimension to life.

It's not it's not math, it's music.

Now, we have a lot of engineers in our church, and one of them comes up to me after the first service, and he said, I'm an engineer.

And I said, You want to talk about math and music?

He goes, Yeah, I'm by nature math, but I'm starting to hear the music.

And I said, When you start hearing the music, that's when it gets good.

That's when you find yourself in circumstances and situations where you're doing things that you by nature wouldn't do.

And he goes, Yes, yes.

So sometimes it's scary.

I said, Yes, yes, it is.

Yeah, absolutely, but but all intimacy is scary.

Okay, God, yes, yes.

It's but by believing you may have life in his name.

Look at me, beloved, we're almost done.

You still with me?

The goal of all this in God's mind is not just to get you forgiveness and get you into heaven.

I thought that when I became a Christian at 18.

I thought, I'm gonna be miserable until I die, but when I die, I get to go to heaven.

So I guess that's worth it.

Look at me.

Some of you in here that are 15, 16, you still think that.

You think, yeah, I mean, that just looks, eh, because all you've ever tasted is life in your name.

And the invitation that Jesus extends to people in John's gospel, he stands up in John chapter 7 and interrupts this big religious festival and says, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, and out of his inmost being will flow rivers of living water.

John 7 · chapter mention

And people are like, Yes! I've been doing these empty rituals forever.

I want something besides me flowing out of me.

It's life in Jesus' name.

Now, when he says life, it's not the Greek word, there's two words for life that are really popular used.

Bios, which is just physical life.

Just I go to work, I eat, I sleep, I watch the Cowboys play Denver today after I eat and take a nap, and my wife wakes me up and says, kick off.

Nothing wrong with any of that.

Not what Jesus came for.

The word that's used in the Greek here is Zoe, Z-O-E.

Zoe.

It's that cool name some of you name your daughters.

Yes.

It's a great name, has radical implications for all believers.

You say, What do you mean?

Well, I looked at different things when I was studying.

Uh, I've been asking people for the past two weeks, what does life in Jesus' name mean to you?

We had an elder meeting last Monday night.

I asked the elders of our church, hey, what is life in Jesus' name?

And they just kind of lit up like hippies at Bonnaroo.

Yeah, I'll tell you what.

Uh when you say life in Jesus' name, here's a long definition.

I compiled from a couple different sources.

It's this right here.

I'll read it to you.

Don't try to write this down.

You can take a picture.

We'll post it on the web for you.

Zoe is the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God.

Life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed.

In the portion, even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection, to be consummated by new ascensions.

Among them a more perfect body and to last forever.

Now just breathe that in for a minute, beloved.

Just look at those words and ask yourself, who wouldn't want that?

Who wouldn't want that?

My apologetics class on this past Wednesday night, I talked about five aspects of hope.

And the last one was consummation.

It's not just in this life.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we're to be pitied above all men.

This life transcends this life.

Which is why he gets to the end and says, hey, but after the resurrection, to be consummated by new ascensions among them, a more perfect body, and to last forever.

Here's what I'm saying, and we're done.

I just want to give you a taste of what John's about.

And I'm serious, if you're visiting for the first time today, or you're checking out church, and you're like, hey, I'm not real big on this, come along on this journey.

Come along on this journey because it's you'll you'll you'll learn a lot about Jesus.

He's not mad.

He doesn't go through town screaming at people.

He comes to the down and out and he talks, and they just light up and they're like, oh my gosh, yes, this is the truth.

It gets into chapter 8, and Jesus says, You'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Because that's what Jesus desires for his followers, for people like you and me.

It's just the freedom.

It's just not bios, but Zoe.

Again, ask yourself, who wouldn't want this kind of life?

And look at me.

The Bible says that the consequence of believing is that it's yours.

Let's pray together.

Just take a moment.

We like to teach the Bible and then give people some soul space to think about it.

And so, just during this time of reflection, just ask yourself, hey, what had Neon on it for me today?

What jumped off the page?

What's stuck in my head and in my heart?

Because John's gospel is full of a robust Christology.

There's very vibrant Jesus throbbing on every page.

But one of the things you also see is that this life that we get to live is not just be boring and be sad until you die, then you go to heaven and the party starts.

No.

You get to experience some of it here.

Not all of it, but some of it.

And this is the life that Jesus comes to make available.

Which is why he says in John 10, I am come so you may have life and have it to the full, to have it more abundantly, to have it above and beyond what you thought it could be.

So if you're at the end of your rope today, if you're tired of trying every little trick and fad and four-point, this, that, and the other, your soul is longing for the truth that comes from God's word.

And John's gospel and the rest of the Bible is full of that.

Let's just kind of think about what you've heard this morning and what it means for your life.

And then it finally shows up.

Thanks for the vivid portrait of Stephen seeing Kristen as his bride for the first time and just being overwhelmed.

Because that's the response of people when the king and the kingdom dawns on them in John's gospel.

They're just overwhelmed.

They're like, oh my gosh.

Oh yes, I thought I was ready, but I wasn't ready for this.

Because it's better.

And it's more.

And the better and the more is available to us now.

Not to just wait for us when we die, this this delayed eschatology.

No, we get we get to experience this life now.

And in fullness then, but in measure now.

And I pray for people in this room that have been going to church their whole life.

And they just, it's it's it's always been bios.

It's been behavior modification sermons.

Don't do this and don't do that, and do more of that and less of that.

And Jesus comes and says, Oli alley and free, come out, come out wherever you are.

This is about, I'm about to set this off up in here.

And we're all invited.

That's the beauty of the gospel.

So for those who are already converted and those who are not there yet, the reality of the gospel beckons you Godward and says, Come, come, come on.

This is for you.

Thanks, God, that you speak a language we understand so we can live a life that you made available.

We're grateful for that.

So we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're a guest today, let me say thanks for your presence here in our service.

Uh, when you came in, you were given a worship folder, has some information about our church.

Take that with you.

On the far right side, it has a little tear-off portion that has some information about our church.

Let me just highlight a couple of things that are probably in your worship folder, though they may not be.

First of all, community groups kick off tonight.

Community groups are small groups that meet all over our city.

Most of them meet on the first and third Sunday.

Some of them meet on Saturday night, some of them meet on Thursday, but they are small groups that meet in homes where people process what they hear in the sermon.

And so it's a great opportunity to meet people.

It's a great opportunity to dialogue.

It's a great opportunity for spiritual formation.

This is where that happens for us here at Grand Park Way.

And so community groups kick off tonight.

And so if you're a part of a group and you know where you're going, great.

You can go to the website.

We have handouts at all the doors that have information about all of our community groups.

You can show up tonight.

You can call or contact the small group leader and say, hey, my wife and I are coming.

We have child care that's available.

We believe in community groups so much we provide and pay for childcare here at the church.

So you and your wife can get a break and you can just kind of process and have spiritual dialogue and just relationships.

You can meet other people that are kind of in your phase of life and kind of go, okay, we're not crazy.

Okay, great.

Wonderful.

And so, second thing I'll remind you of is that our men's retreat is coming up in October.

Uh, we are registering for that in the lobby this morning.

Uh, if you have any questions about that, we'd love to answer it.

Uh, Chris Brooks, who was with us last year, will be back this year.

Or some guys say the guy with the big beard.

Yes, that guy.

Uh, and so he'll be back with us as our speaker.

It's a great opportunity.

We go up to Huntsville and play golf on Friday, and then just drive over to Priny Woods on Friday night, and the retreat kicks off Friday, Saturday, we'll come back on Sunday morning, okay?

If you have any other questions about anything, we'll be available down front.

If this is your first, second, or third time to visit our church, come up and introduce yourself to us, okay?

And here's why.

We want to learn your name.

Okay?

And usually it takes a couple of times to learn your name.

We don't do that thing like, hey, how do you spell your name?

Because you'll go B-O-B, Bob.

We're like, great.

Now I got caught.

And so uh we just want to meet you.

We're not gonna make you have a conversation you don't want to have.

We just want to put a name on the face, okay?

Stand to your feet and let me speak a blessing over you.

Hold your hands out.

You're the beloved sons and daughters of God.

And he died.

He lived the life he lived and died the death that he died so you could have the life you were created for.

Depart now and bring this reality to bear on yourself and the culture and city around you for the glory of God and the pleasure of his people.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You're dismissed bless you.