WWUTT 1012 Many Other Signs?

When John wrote his gospel, he said there are many other things that Jesus did but the signs and the teachings that he singled out were enough for us to know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, 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.

John 20:30-31 and the Purpose of the Gospel

Thank you, Becky. We come back again to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 20. I still have two verses left in Chapter 20 before we go on in Chapter 21, so let me do that here. This is John 20, verses 30 and 31.

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.

And that's it. That's the end of the gospel as John tells it. And you might be going, well, wait a minute. We've got a whole other chapter to go here. There's still Chapter 21. Yeah, Chapter 21 is an epilogue.

It's like punctuation at the end of the story or icing on the cake. But for the most part, the gospel that John has set out to tell has been told when you get to the end of Chapter 20. Let me go back to the outline.

I gave this outline last year when we started our study of the Gospel of John and just kind of remind you just as a refresher of where we've come. So the very beginning of John, Chapter 1, verses 1 through 18, this is the prologue.

This is John introducing Christ as the Word of God incarnate. That's how he he begins talking about Christ in his gospel. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And he also reveals the mission. This is verse 18.

At the end of this prologue, no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known. Jesus came to live and to die and rise again so that all who believe in him have fellowship with the father.

Jesus reveals to us the father. We know the father in heaven through the son and have received the Holy Spirit. Salvation being a thoroughly Trinitarian work. And this is part of that mission that Jesus came to accomplish, that we would be reconciled back to God through the person and work of Jesus Christ for all who believe in him.

So that's the prologue to John's gospel verses 1 through 18. And then picking up in the second half of chapter one, all the way through to the end of chapter 12. We have the seven signs that John singles out to show the majesty and divinity of Jesus.

Now, of course, we've got Jesus teachings throughout this as well. The signs are divided by discourse and the things that Jesus taught. We have more teaching of Jesus in John's gospel than we have in the other three gospels.

And Matthew, Mark and Luke feature more miracles than John's gospel. But John has a very deliberate intention in why he chose the miracles that he chose. And he comes back to mentioning that here, even at the end of chapter 20.

Jesus did many other signs, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. Again, each one of those signs pointing to the fact that Christ is divine, that he is the son of God who was sent to take away the sins of the world.

So that's what we read in chapter one, verse 19 through chapter 12. Again, we've got much of the teaching of Jesus that's there, but we also have those signs. And even the teaching of Jesus is kind of led by the sign.

He'll do the sign, the people don't believe it or they argue about it or they don't understand or something like that. And then Jesus will teach to the people that didn't get what happened. Or he'll speak to his disciples or something to that effect.

But all of the teaching that we have in John kind of flows right off of everyone's reaction to the miracles. Trying to make sense of all of this and yet not coming to understand that Jesus is the Christ.

This was for those whom the father had given to the son, had predestined from before the foundation of the world. And there's probably no chapter in the Bible that is more clear about that than John chapter six.

It is there where Jesus says, all that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. John 6, 44, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

And then verse 65, this is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father. You want to talk about the doctrine of predestination? There it is there in John chapter six.

I don't know how you could possibly avoid it. So even that teaching is related to the miracles that Jesus had performed and disciples saying, well, we don't understand these things. Hundreds of disciples that were following Jesus at that time, not just talking about the 12, but many, many more.

And as they listen to Jesus teach, they'll follow him looking for another sign or that he'll heal their sick or that he'll feed the 5000 again or something like that. But then when Jesus teaches them, they turn to one another and say, who can understand this?

This is such a difficult teaching. And then that's what prompted Jesus to say, this is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the father. We come to understand what we have read here in this gospel because it is appointed by God that we would understand it, that we would no longer be natural men or women, but that we would be supernaturally changed.

We would have the spirit of God to understand spiritual things, as Paul talks about in first Corinthians chapter two. What we have in the next section of the Gospel of John is Jesus farewell discourse and the passion narrative with Jesus going to the cross, dying for our sins, buried in a tomb, rising again from the grave, revealing himself to his disciples.

Of course, that starts with the upper room discourse in chapter 13. And that is that is a five chapter discourse, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, all the way through chapter 17. Jesus talking with his disciples about the mission that they will have, the helper that he is going to send to them, their hope that is in heaven.

The high priestly prairie praise in John chapter 17, which is probably the greatest prayer in the Bible. It is just a gorgeous prayer. Then the next section of the Gospel of John is the epilogue. And that's what we have to get to next in John chapter 21.

Faith by Hearing Rather Than by Sight

But looking at these couple of verses here today, again, verse 30, it says now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples. Now, remember the context that we're talking about here. This is right after Jesus had showed himself to the disciples again, and this time Thomas being present with them.

Thomas, who had said, I am never going to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead unless I myself get to touch the scars in his hands and the hole that is in his side from the spear that pierced him.

And then only then will I believe, but never will I believe unless that. And though he was being absurd, Jesus was gracious to him and let him see the nail scars in his hands and the hole in his side.

And then went on to say, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. We are not supposed to base our faith on Jesus Christ on any sort of sensory perception, even emotion.

Now, of course, we can say faith is not supposed to be based on our senses, that we looked at Jesus and we saw him and therefore we believe. Well, we can't do that because he isn't here. Everything for us now in this time is going to be by faith, by our mind's eye of faith.

According to Hebrews 11, one that is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen or the substance of things hoped for is it's worded in in some translations. And so convinced are we by this thing that we believe that we are convicted to obey it.

So therefore, it's the substance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commandments. And we affirm that we have a genuine faith in Christ when we obey what he has said.

It's not just a profession of faith, but it is a doing of faith as well. We will profess with our mouths and from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. But then we must affirm our calling or the way Peter put it in second Peter chapter one.

Confirm your calling and election by doing those things that Christ has called us to do. Doing the works does not save us, but it will be the evidence that we have been saved. And so this is how we put our faith in action.

Do you truly say that you believe? Then you will demonstrate it by your works. Faith is the work of God. Faith is not a work of ours. He gives it to us. And then we're going to show that we have that faith when we obey what it is that he has commanded.

But coming into that faith, it's not because of anything that we have seen or experienced. It is believing in the words that have been spoken to us. Now, so as I said, of course, we're not going to see because Jesus is not here.

So, therefore, be very careful of those who will say that they have seen. I have seen the risen Christ. He has appeared to me. He told me to tell you this. He said that I'm going to be able to do this.

And now I'm going out to do this. And they'll build their entire ministries on the fact that they have seen the risen Christ and Jesus told them to do something. Such false teachers include Jesse DePlantis, who claims that he actually went up to heaven in a cable car and prayed for Jesus, like encouraged him because Jesus was sad.

It's one of the most arrogant sermons I've ever heard. You can still find it on YouTube. Anyway, Jesse DePlantis being one of those. Mike Bickel, who's just down the road from me in Kansas City at IHOP, who is Mike Bickel, is the founder of the International House of Prayer.

And he has claimed that his entire ministry began with him going up to heaven and standing in a private room with Jesus and having a personal conversation with him. And it's not just some vision he had, as he says to his audience.

And I even have the audio recordings of him saying this. He says to his audience, this this wasn't a vision. It was as real as life here. And then he had a face to face conversation with Jesus. So Mike Bickel's faith is based on something that he has seen.

And yet Jesus says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. All of these who claim that they have seen the risen Christ, they're liars. They are not telling the truth. For Jesus said in Matthew 24, beware of those who say, look, here he is in the inner rooms.

Don't go in. Look, there he is out in the wilderness. Do not go out. For false Christ and false prophets are going to arise, performing false signs and wonders. So as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

See, I have warned you beforehand. So we must be very careful about those who claim that Christ has come to them and has given them some sort of additional word. We are to believe by faith. We are not to expect that you will.

We are not to expect that we will see with our eyes Jesus before the appointed time. We will not. And anyone who claims that they have seen Christ since the apostles to now, they are liars. Joseph Smith, of course, with Mormonism, claimed Jesus appeared to him and gave him the true church.

I understand that James White and Jeff Durbin recently made a trip to New York State to the very grove. That is said, Joseph Smith was in when Jesus appeared to him and God the father appeared to him, which, by the way, no one else in Scripture ever had the privilege of seeing God the father.

As again, we've read in John 1 18. No one has ever seen God. He who was at the father's side. That is Jesus Christ. He is the one who has made him known. So Joseph Smith claimed to see something that no one else in the Bible even saw.

And that is God the father. Anyway. So as I was saying, James White and Jeff Durbin were up there at the grove in New York. And apparently they've got some sort of documentary about Mormonism or something like that coming out a little bit later on.

Anyway, I'm curious to see whatever it is, a project that they have been working on. But we do not believe by sight. We believe by faith, and it is by faith in Christ that we are justified. So we aren't even to chase emotional feelings, thinking that in order to be truly saved or have some sort of genuine Christian experience that I must have a feeling about this.

I must feel the goosebumps. I must get chills. And that's how I know that I'm saved. I have to speak in tongues. I need to experience some sort of a miracle. I need to see something with my eyes that gives me proof.

You know, all of that in charismaticism and Pentecostalism, that is relying upon the seeing of things with our eyes in order to have faith. And that is not how we have faith. In fact, Romans 10, 17 tells us plainly, faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

That's how you come to faith, because the gospel was preached to you and you turn from your sin and you believe in Jesus. And so you live. That is how you come to saving faith. So we're not chasing emotions.

We're not chasing some sort of experience. Yes. In your Christian walk, you can certainly have those kinds of experiences. I have. There are times in my life where I felt saved. And there are times in my life when I did not.

I felt like I was far from God or that he was far from me. But I did not rely on those feelings. I relied on the word of God to tell me the truth. And it's this word that Jesus gives to his disciples to go out and share with the world.

We believe in the word of Christ. We believe in Jesus. And that is our hope and assurance of salvation. No matter what body chemistry you're going to feel that day, whatever emotion is going to fill your brain.

Those things are not going to be the evidence of your salvation. It's what is said in the word of God and our faith in what Jesus said. So, again, verse 30. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

And like I said, the context of that is related to the disciples, Jesus having appeared to them in the upper room. Many other signs Jesus did. But this isn't necessarily talking about just those signs that Jesus did for his disciples between his resurrection from the grave and ascension into heaven.

Although it's amazing that the Gospels are quite scant on whatever Jesus said and did between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. I think John gives us more detail than any of the other Gospels.

The rest of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, with the exception of Luke. I mean, you've got the road to Emmaus. There's that story in there. But Matthew and Mark in particular is just kind of like Jesus rose from the dead, appeared to his disciples and then went to heaven.

There really isn't much detail that is given there. But in John, we're going to have in the epilogue this conversation that Jesus has with Peter. And he also has something specific that he is going to say about the beloved disciple, who, of course, is John writing this gospel.

So Jesus doing many other signs. This isn't John saying that there are other things that Jesus did between his resurrection and his ascension, that 40 day period. Although that's certainly true. Jesus did do other things in that span of time that are really not recorded for us in the Gospels.

But what John is more specifically talking about here is is the whole body of work that Jesus did in his earthly ministry, because he's going to say coming up here in chapter 21 at the end of the gospel.

Verse 25. 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. So all kinds of stuff Jesus did during his earthly ministry in just that short period of time that we don't have record of.

But what has been written down for us, John says, are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. That's chapter 20, verse 31. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

What we have here in this gospel is enough. We don't have to know some of those extra things that happened between in that 40 days between his resurrection and ascension. We have enough that is given here in the gospel, even just seven miracles that John lays out.

But all of that is enough to know that we may believe in Jesus Christ and know that he is the son of God incarnate, the word made flesh to dwell among us. And that by believing, John says, you may have life in his name.

By faith in Jesus, we are justified. We are forgiven our sins and we have everlasting life with God in heaven. Christ, having accomplished what he came to do, lay his life down as a ransom for many so that we would be reconciled with the father.

We who were far off because of our sins, but God so loved the world that he gave his only son. And whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life. One more section of John to get through, and we will finish up our study of the gospel of John by next week.

We're going to begin chapter 21 tomorrow. Let's conclude with a quick word of prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for giving your son to die for our sins, rising again from the grave, conquering death, ascending into heaven, seated at the right hand of God.

And all the things that you have given to him are likewise going to be given to us as fellow heirs with Christ in his glorious eternal kingdom. What treasure and abundance we do not deserve, but you have given these things to us, not because we're great, but because you are great.

So may we today praise your great and holy name in all that we say and do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.