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Reading John 21:25 where the Apostle John says that if we were to write down all that Jesus did, the world couldn't contain all the books. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
At the end of John's gospel, he said that Jesus did many other things, and if all that stuff were to be written down, the world wouldn't be able to contain all the books. Was John talking about miracles?
No, he was talking theology, when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back again to our study of the gospel of John. Really we come to the end of our study of the gospel of John. We have one more verse to look at, and that is John chapter 21, verse 25.
At the end of his gospel, John wrote, 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.
And that's it. That's our study of John. Now most people, when they read this particular verse, John 21, 25, they will think that what John is talking about is more miracles, more works that Jesus did, or maybe teachings.
Because after all, John records teachings that Jesus gave that aren't recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke record miracles that Jesus performed that aren't recorded in the gospel of John.
Therefore, we can surely conclude Jesus taught many other things and performed many other miracles that were not contained in these four gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John. So if we were to write down all those other things that Jesus did, well, there would be so much stuff, we don't even have enough parchment paper to accommodate all these things that we need to write down.
And if we were to fill up books, well, the world would even be able to contain all of those books. That's mostly what people think when they read John 21, 25, and you can't exactly blame them for that understanding.
That's a pretty straightforward reading. But keep something in mind here. Jesus' earthly ministry was really only about three years long, from about the age of 30 to 33, as church tradition holds. And not just according to church tradition.
I mean, we draw that from scripture. Luke says that Jesus was about 30 years of age when he began his earthly ministry. John records three Passovers from the start of his ministry to the time of his crucifixion.
Therefore, we come to the conclusion that Jesus was approximately 33 years of age when he was crucified. So that's three years. That's really not a long period of time. I've been doing ministry longer than that.
I've been a pastor for nine years now. And before that, I was in Christian radio for over 20 years. Since the age of seven, I've had my own radio show. I had my own radio show until I left radio and became a pastor.
And then I still continued broadcasting when I started up the video series and the podcast. Nevertheless, I've been doing ministry longer than Jesus did in that three-year period of time. Not to say that I'm doing anything greater than he did, but it's just to elaborate on the fact that that earthly ministry was not all that long.
Could you write down all the stuff that he did in that three-year period of time? Yeah, you probably could. You probably could write all that down. So maybe John is being hyperbolic here. This is hyperbole in John 21 -25.
Jesus indeed did a whole lot more stuff. But we need to have an establishment of tradition of the teaching that he gave and the miracles that he performed. And so that's what you have in Matthew, Mark and Luke, the synoptic gospels, synoptic meaning the same.
You have that root core teaching that Jesus preached during his earthly ministry that Matthew, Mark and Luke all record. John's gospel comes later and he's kind of elaborating on more teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples and even rebukes that he gave to those who did not believe, highlighting only seven miracles to show that Jesus is the one who was sent by God.
He was the one who was at the Father's side. He has made him known, as we read back in John 1. So John had a particular reason for writing an audience. Matthew, Mark and Luke, they all have kind of that core teaching that was agreed upon among the apostles.
Of course, Jesus taught many other things. And of course, he performed many other miracles. Sometimes the miracles are just recorded in such a way as saying, and Jesus was there and he had compassion on them and he healed their sick.
So we don't hear like the specific miracles that he did or how many people got healed at that particular place. We just know that Jesus performed some miraculous signs. So there are surely some things that Jesus did way beyond what we read about in the four gospels.
But again, you could have written all that down three years time that he did all of this. It is possible to chronicle all of that. It's possible. So was John just being hyperbolic here? Was he just saying, hey, we know there were many other things that Jesus did, but we got to keep all of this concise.
The Gnostics certainly wanted to expound upon what we have in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gnostics said, yes, Jesus did do many other things. And we just happen to be privy to some of those miracles.
We could tell you more stuff than what the apostles told you. So you've got things like the infancy gospel of Thomas, where there's this story about Jesus in his boyhood had fashioned a bird out of clay and then breathed on it, became a living bird and it flew away.
That story is actually recalled again in the Koran. But it didn't happen. Those miracles did not occur. Jesus was not teaching or performing miracles prior to the age of 30, because what had to happen first is that John the Baptist had to come.
That's what was prophesied in the Old Testament, that there was one who would come as spoken by the prophet Isaiah, who would be who would be preaching in the wilderness, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
Jesus was not going to show up until after that. So from the age of 12 to the age of 30, he was just a young man serving his father, learning the trade of his father, becoming a carpenter. Jesus is referred to in the Gospels as being either the carpenter's son or the carpenter himself taking on the trade of his father.
It was in Luke chapter two that we had Jesus teaching in the temple at the age of 12. That's the only time Jesus taught prior to him announcing repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand in Matthew chapter four before.
Or you could say that Jesus taught John the Baptist maybe at Jesus baptism when he said this must be done for the sake of righteousness. OK, so there's teaching going on there, certainly. And you have the voice of the father coming out of heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
The spirit of God descending upon him as a dove when Jesus came up out of the water after being baptized by John the Baptist. Prior to all of that, the only teaching of Jesus was at the age of 12 in the temple.
You know the story, right? When Mary and Joseph were there and they lost track of Jesus and they had to go all throughout Jerusalem looking for him and they found him in the temple and said to him, son, why have you treated us so behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.
And Jesus said to Mary and Joseph, why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. But listen, listen to what it says in verses 51 and 52, Luke 2, 51 and 52.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all of these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
He wasn't performing miracles and he wasn't teaching. He was learning the trait of his father. He was becoming a carpenter. And it wasn't until the age of 30, not until John came in the wilderness first, preaching make straight the Lord's paths.
He's coming. John is preparing the way. And then Jesus is baptized by John. He goes into the wilderness 40 days and 40 nights where he is tempted. And and unlike Adam, who failed when he was tempted, Jesus is able to withstand the devil's temptations and comes out of the wilderness and then goes and calls his first disciples.
So that is the that's that's kind of the timeline of the beginning of Jesus ministry. And before that, there was not any teaching or miracles. So we've got nothing there to record. There's nothing between Jesus teaching in the temple at the age of 12 and then being baptized at the age of 30.
That's worth us writing down to understand the ministry, the will of God that he was sent here to accomplish. The will of God for him from the age of 12 to age 30 was to submit to his earthly mother and father, his his mother, Mary, his his what would you call him, stepfather?
I think you'd call him a stepfather, adopted father, Joseph. Anyway, Jesus would submit to them and he would learn the trade of Joseph and he would be a good brother to his brothers and sisters until the time that had been set by the father came about that Jesus would be the one to preach just as John had preached before him.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Therefore, all of the things that Jesus did are only contained in those three years from the beginning of his earthly ministry with the with the baptism by John the Baptist all the way up to his crucifixion, resurrection, ascension into heaven.
There you have it. There you have the span of time in which Jesus accomplished the will of the father in just that period of three years. So what is John talking about there? John 21, 25. There are so 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. What is John talking about? I tell you this. He's not talking about Jesus having performed more miracles. He's not talking about other teachings in addition to what we have in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
We cannot speculate about those things. We don't know what else Jesus may have taught. And furthermore, it isn't important because the Holy Spirit of God has given us what we have in the gospels. This is what is important.
This is what God wants us to know. So we should not speculate about anything else. Jesus may have taught outside of of all of scripture. Genesis to Revelation. It's all the word of Christ. Certainly, if you have a red letter Bible, you've got the words that Jesus spoke in red, but all of it comes from God.
As Peter says in 2 Peter chapter one, no prophecy ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is exactly what God wants us to know, and it is sufficient.
You don't need anything else beyond what we've got in the Bible. All of this, according to God's providence. All right. Just want to make that plain. So what is John talking about when he says there are so many other things that Jesus did?
Here's what here's what he's talking about. And this is even prophetic in a certain sense, and that prophecy is continuing to be fulfilled to this day. What do I mean? The things that Jesus did that that would that would fill up so many books, the world could not contain them includes his incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, the fact that he is the second person of the Trinity, that he was submissive and obedient to the will of the father.
He is equal to the father, but willingly submitted to the father's will. All of these things that we talk about in theology that are divine and mysterious, it would take us books upon books upon books in order to explore the vastness of all of these mysterious things that are just barely touched upon for us in the scriptures.
And there's certainly enough here in the Bible that people who have written about this stuff, exploring doctrine, expounding upon it, using scripture to interpret scripture, not adding to the scriptures, not because the scriptures are are not sufficient, but because they are sufficient.
We study them and we try to fathom the depths of God. We know God being infinite. We're never going to understand God on this side of heaven. We're never going to see him as he is. It's in first John three, two, where it says we will see him as he is because we will be made to be like him.
That's on the other side. That's when we get to eternity. Meanwhile, while we are here on this earth, touching on the depths of God that he has revealed to us in the scriptures, we're writing books upon books upon books, and we never get to the end of those books.
We're going to keep writing those books until Jesus comes back. And it's not that there's anything new under the sun for us to explore. It's just beholding the glory of God, which is infinite, and we're never going to come to the end of it.
So ever since ever since Jesus came and preached and performed all of these miracles and accomplished through his incarnation, he accomplished active and passive obedience. The crucifixion itself, everything that pertains to the atonement, all the stuff that has been written about what Christ accomplished on the cross, what was happening physically, what was happening spiritually when Jesus did these things, him being taken off the cross and being buried in a borrowed tomb, what was going on in the three days when he was in a tomb, what the significance of the resurrection, where Jesus was in that span of time when he was in in the tomb, like where was his soul?
Where was his spirit? We write about those things as well. His relationship to the father, what Jesus was doing in the 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension, what it means for him to be seated at the right hand of God, everything pertaining to his coming again, the way that he mediates for us, the way that he presents us to the father, the way the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words.
I mean, all these things we can we can lay out a list and I'm not going to even be able to touch on on the start of that list in just the time that I have left in this particular podcast. All of these things that we write about in theology, we're still writing about them.
We're still beholding the wonders of the glory of God, and we will continue to do so until Jesus return. And sure enough, so much has been written that the whole world cannot contain all the books of everything that has been written.
In 2000 years after Jesus ascension, more stuff was still being written. The gospels were not written until after Jesus went back to the father so that it was after that we got Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
We got acts the story of how the message of the gospel went to the whole world and the church was planted. And then you've got the epistles that explore even further on some of these deeper doctrinal truths, justification by faith, sanctification.
How living out the gospel should look in the Christian life. All of those instructions come from Romans. Of course, we get them in the gospels and acts as well, but then from Romans all the way through Jude.
And then in the book of Revelation, you have Jesus having given to John a vision of what is going to come about in the end, how God is going to bring about in the fullness of time the reconciliation of all things through the person and work of his son, Jesus Christ.
And we're still exploring all of that stuff. And you in your lifetime would never be able to read all of the books that have been written about the mysterious things that Christ has accomplished. Now, there are books that are certainly true and sound, and those are the books that we should read.
And then there are books that are heretical, false teaching, leading people astray. But even those books are still centering around Christ, though they might get the details completely wrong and they're being led by Satan rather than by the Holy Spirit of God.
Nevertheless, what they're writing about is centered around Christ. It is because of what Christ has done that has prompted them to write what they have written. They write what they write sincerely. They think they're telling the truth, but they are deceived by the devil.
And so this is why the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 that the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach patiently enduring evil. God may perhaps grant repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from a snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will.
They've been ensnared by Satan to believe the things that they believe and write the stuff that they write. But once again, all of this is still because of what Christ has done, that men trip all over themselves to try to make sense of fathom the mysteries, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that can be found in Christ alone.
As Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 11, starting in verse 33, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever.
Amen. And surely, you know, the passage in Isaiah 55, where it says where the Lord says, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts and my ways are higher than your ways. So we've just we've just been given a small glimpse of the mysteries of God, according to what is said in the scriptures.
God is infinite. We are finite. We're never going to come to the end of his glory. But praise the Lord that there is a day where we will see him as he is once again. First, John three, two. And it's if we are in Christ Jesus, we will stand before God and not perish in judgment, but we will receive everlasting life or we will have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ.
All those who believe in him and that that itself, an understanding of double imputation that when Christ died on the cross for us, our sins were placed upon him and his righteousness was given to us.
All of this continues to be those things that we write about as we fathom and praise God and we ponder and think about these things. Books are being written and indeed the world cannot contain them from the early church fathers to the reformers, to the Puritans, to such faithful ministers that we even have today, the plethora of books that are being published.
We should spend more of our time in the Bible than anything else, because this is the word of God. And as Jesus said in John 17, 17, we are sanctified in God's truth. By reading this, we grow in holiness and righteousness.
But it is good to read other books as well from men who have devoted their lives to studying these things so that by their teaching, we might come to know how to be worshipers of God. It teaches us more rightly how to worship him appropriately.
Glory be to Christ, our King, until that day when he returns, may we give him all the praise and honor with our whole lives and all that we say and do. It's a beautiful thing to ponder and think about the things of God, for he loves us and has demonstrated his love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This podcast in particular, over a thousand episodes that we've done now and all of this just in studying the word of God and still haven't even come to the end of it yet. In the four or five years that I've been doing this, we've still got more books of the Bible to go and still going to be committing our time to reading God's word and understanding more deeply who Jesus is, what he has done for us, how he loves us and what we must do to show our love for God in return.
So let's keep on studying. We're done with John. Next week, we start the book of Acts. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for your goodness and how wonderful and incredible you are. We could just marvel and wonder all day long at you and what you have accomplished for us, the love that you have shown to us in your son, Jesus Christ, how undeserving we are, how wretched we are in our sinfulness, and yet you have lifted us up.
You have given us faith. You have drawn our eyes heavenward. Where previously we were rebellious against God, now we love you and desire to obey and serve you with our whole lives. And so I pray that we find other opportunities and ways to do that today, maybe even sharing the gospel with someone else.
This gospel that has saved us, the truth of what Christ has accomplished and by faith in him, we are forgiven our sins and we have eternal life. Lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.
In Jesus' name. Amen.