The 'So That' of John's Writing

It's important because we want to look at the purpose statement that the Apostle gives to us for why this account was written. At the time that John wrote, the other Gospels had already been written. So why did John find it necessary to contribute and add his eyewitness testimony?

The Purpose Statement of John's Gospel

So as we enter this season of preaching through the Gospel of John, we'll start this morning with the so that of John's writing. That would be the title of today's sermon, the so that of John's writing.

Look at chapter 20 starting in verse 30. Two verses before us this morning, John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31, the so that of John's writing. John says this, therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these have been 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 it is from this purpose statement that now we can enter this eyewitness testimony with the right perspective as we seek to understand what John is going to communicate about his time spent with Jesus during Jesus's earthly ministry.

And you think about that. The purpose of an author's writing is extremely important. Just serving in ministry for a brief number of years, this one touches me personally. I remember going into some sort of communication with one of the pastors I was serving under or alongside of, and we had a disagreement about some doctrine.

So when we met together, very graciously, the brother took me to the scriptures and we were going to look. The topic was really whether something written in one of Paul's letters was more descriptive in terms of it was just recording something that happened in history, or whether it was prescriptive as in, we need to do this in church today.

This isn't a history lesson. This is telling us how we should conduct ourselves. So we went to this particular passage that spoke on this issue, and as thinking about it, is this a description for how history was in the time of culture for the Greeks?

Or does this apply to us today? Is it prescriptive? Well, before we went to that passage, I said, no, actually, this letter has a purpose statement. So we went to the purpose statement of the letter. It was Paul's letter to 1 Timothy, and Paul says something in chapter three.

He says, I'm planning on going to Ephesus to be with you, Timothy, but until I get there, this is why I'm writing this letter. He says, I want you to know how one ought to conduct themselves in the church until I get there.

Okay, so now that we know why Paul wrote, we can now look at the rest of the letter of 1 Timothy. Extremely helpful. Otherwise, you're just reading it and you're kind of coming to your own conclusions.

Every book of the Bible has a purpose statement. Some of the books are crystal clear because the author writes in there, I wrote this so that, I wrote this because. This happens to be one of the gospels, one of the books of the Bible that has this very crystal clear.

But every book of the Bible has a purpose statement. And so with John's writing, we have this really beautiful gift that the apostle has put in here. So I'm not telling you all this eyewitness stuff just so you can marvel over, isn't this so cool that he did this stuff?

No, he says, I want you to know without a shadow of a doubt, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He's the one prophesied in the Old Testament. He's the son of God and that by believing that you'd have eternal life.

What an amazing statement. Just think how important an author's writing is. Think about for your own lives, just practically, if you got a letter in the mail or let's say an email is probably the more normal communication, right?

Do people still do letters? I don't know. I write emails. But think about, let's say if you're going to get an email and you just got one from your friend or family member, co-worker, fellow student, and it was like a list of ingredients or something, but there's no statement.

Well, you could deduce, okay, this is like a recipe, but just adding in one statement, hey, I'm sending this to you so that you know how to do this. Or if a person communicated with you and you open the email and it just had a bunch of truth statements or was telling you about their day yesterday, you'd say like, what am I to do with this information?

But adding in a statement, I'm writing this email to you so that you know. You know, even in correspondence here, I'll email one of the deacons about something and I'll say, hey, I'm writing this so that, you know, you know kind of what's happening here.

If I didn't have that statement, it'd just be random information, like what am I to do with this email? So the author writing a purpose statement helps us to understand the content. It brings clarity.

The purpose of an author's writing is extremely important. The purpose of belief in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God developed in John is the claim of Jesus' oneness with God, his oneness with God, and the signs that Jesus performed.

From the start of John, the apostle describes Jesus' equality with God. The claim of Christ's oneness with the Father are made directly by Jesus, and they're recorded here for us by John, as a sign to his deity.

Jesus performed many miracles. John was written to give an eyewitness testimony to the Jewish people, to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. With the evangelistic purpose of demonstrating Jesus was the Christ, and believing in him is the only way to eternal life.

Not many roads to heaven, only one way. At the end of the gospel, John writes that his purpose for recording the miracles of Jesus is so that the reader will believe, and by believing, have life. And John is a complicated gospel.

It's one that is kind of out on its own. The first three gospels are very similar. They're the same events and some of the same things recorded. They're often called the synoptic gospels, just a fancy word for the same, the same account.

John is unique in that he records things that are not recorded in the other three gospels. Now John can be divided into many different divisions, but I think the best way to think about this gospel as a whole is just to divide it into two major divisions.

Two major divisions. The first division is the deity and signs of Christ, and you can almost just cut it right down the middle. The first 12 chapters, John 1 through 12, the deity and signs of Christ.

This division presents Jesus as God and gives an account of several signs that he performed, demonstrating he is the son of God, his deity. And the second division is the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And this is starting in chapter 13, really John 13 through 21. So an easy division, 1 through 12, the deity of Christ, the signs, 13 through 21, it's the death and resurrection. Even chapter 13 starts with the Lord's Supper.

And from the rest of the gospel account, it's just talking about him preparing his disciples for his eventual arrest, death, and then of course his resurrection and ascension. Beautiful. So a really easy division.

The second division is the death and resurrection of Jesus. This division focuses on the preparation of Christ for his trial, death, and resurrection. The themes in the gospel include Jesus as Christ, the son of God, Jesus as man, very important, Jesus and his humanity, that he's truly man.

Of course, the miracles of Christ are what we call signs. Belief, belief is a key theme, belief in Jesus. The disciples are another theme. A lot of time spent with the disciples and their interactions with Christ.

The Jewish people, the world, very broadly, this is the Jewish nation, but then going out and extending to the whole world. So the world is a theme in this gospel. The witness testimony, and we want to say eyewitness, this is not a narrative, this is a historical, accurate, eyewitness account of things that took place.

Of course, the trial and crucifixion of Jesus and the resurrection and appearance of Jesus. Now along with the themes of John's gospel, the historical context is helpful to understand that we're not reading this gospel in a vacuum.

This was written to real people. These are real people, real events that happened. People that are struggling with making ends meet, dealing with sickness, dealing with spouses, with children, with work, the normal things of life, just like we deal with.

And John wanted to write this gospel account. So the historical context helps us to see this is real. This is not a narrative, this is not a fable, this is not a mythology. These things took place, and they took place at a certain time in the historical record.

The early church father Irenaeus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, had much to say on this gospel. Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John. I mean, we need to think about that. These men exist in reality, in the historical record.

Polycarp, he was discipled by the apostle John, the John who laid his head on Jesus's shoulder, who spent time with Jesus of Nazareth. Polycarp was a disciple of John, so Irenaeus testified on Polycarp's authority that the gospel was written by John.

It was written by John the apostle during his residence at Ephesus, when he was more advanced in age. And preceding the writing, some things were going on in culture. In 68 AD, the Roman emperor Nero dies.

The emperors Vespasian and son Titus reign and persecute the early church. This is the destruction of Jerusalem, which occurs in 70 AD. Under the new emperor Domitian, brother of Titus, the persecution of the church continues from about 81 to 96.

John writes his epistles along with this eyewitness account in the 80s and 90s. False teaching continued to be an issue in the early church, hence we have second John. John is very clear, don't fellowship with people who don't live by the Bible.

These missionaries, these false teachers who are coming around, they don't believe the word of God. He says the elect, God's people, will listen to the apostles. He says don't even eat with one of these people.

Don't even invite them into your home. False teaching was a prevalent problem with the early church. So false teaching is going on, he writes first, second, and third John. Around this time, we have some other historical writings.

Josephus writes his famous Antiquities in 94. Clement of Rome writes the first epistle of Clement in 95, though not later recognized as canon because he's not an apostle. John then writes the revelation of Jesus Christ while exiled on Patmos, and that's 95 -96.

John eventually dies an old man, one of the apostles who didn't suffer persecution and martyrdom. He was persecuted, but he wasn't killed. So he dies an old man in 100 AD. The gospel is written from Ephesus in the late 80s as a supplement to the synoptic gospels.

So John knows the other gospels have been written. John is the brother of James. So first through third John are written in 90 -95, also from Ephesus, where John had relocated from Jerusalem a few decades earlier.

Revelation was written toward the end of Domitian's reign from John's exile on the isle of Patmos. John supplied a large amount of unique material not recorded in the other gospels. This gospel account is unique from the other gospels.

Material recorded in John doesn't appear in the other gospels. He provided extra content that helps readers fully understand the events in the other gospels. So it's not to get away from the other gospels, but to supplement and add and bring more clarity.

John's gospel is the most theological, and it contains spiritual insight into Christ's ministry while he was here on the earth. Early church fathers indicate that John was actively writing in his old age, and that he was already aware of the other gospels.

John wrote his gospel to provide reasons for saving faith for his readers. And as a result, to assure them. Assurance is something that you see in John's gospel and his letters. He says, I want you to have assurance.

The reason that I'm writing this is so that you will have assurance in your faith. That's in the epistles. John wrote this gospel to provide reasons for us to have assurance in our faith. An assurance in the matter of fact of eternal life, in the eyewitness of John's account, it was important to John.

One commentator noted this about this gospel. The apologetic purpose is closely related to the evangelistic purpose. John wrote to convince his readers of Jesus' true identity as the incarnate God-man, whose divine and human natures were perfectly united into one person who was the prophesied Christ or Messiah and Savior of the world.

In accordance with John's evangelistic and apologetic purposes, the overall message of the gospel is found in chapter 20, verse 31. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The book therefore centers on the person and work of Christ.

Three predominant words, signs, believe, and life in chapter 20, verse 30 and 31 receive constant re-emphasis throughout the gospel to reinforce the theme of salvation in Him, which is set forth in the prologue and re-expressed throughout the gospel in varying ways.

In addition, John provides the record of how men responded to Jesus Christ and the salvation that He offered. Summing up, the gospel focuses on Jesus as the Word, the Messiah, the Son of God who brings the gift of salvation to mankind who either accept or reject the offer.

In today's passage, John explains his purpose for recording his eyewitness testimony of his time spent with Jesus so that you can know for certain Jesus is the Christ and have everlasting life in His name.

The Miracles of Jesus as Eyewitness Signs

Two incredible components of John's eyewitness, the miracles of Jesus in verse 30 and number two, the Messiahship of Jesus in verse 31. Two incredible components of John's eyewitness. Number one is the miracles of Jesus.

John says, therefore, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. Now, the therefore here isn't necessarily pointing back to verse 29. Sometimes this kind of conjunction can be used in an inferential way, so it would point backwards, meaning it's denoting that what it introduces is the result or an inference of what precedes it.

You see a so, therefore, consequently, accordingly, or even then. Now, in the immediate context, John could be referring to the account when Jesus appeared to the disciples including Thomas. So look at what he just wrote starting in chapter 20, verse 26.

It says, after eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. And Jesus came, the doors having been shut. Now, that word shut, you might have a little number there next to that.

The original language says locked. It's not just that it was shut. He's making a point. The doors were locked. It's locked. There's no way to get inside here. The door is shut. It's locked. And he stood in their midst.

He didn't come through the door. He didn't need to come through the door. And Christ says, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, bring your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand here and put it into my side.

And do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see and yet believed.

Therefore, many other signs. So we can read it like that. But in this case, the therefore in verse 30 is actually being used as a marker of continuation of a narrative. It still fits with the idea of believing without seeing, faith, believing without seeing.

But John is being intentional here. He uses the conjunction in a way that serves to indicate a transition to something new. He'll actually repeat himself in the final sign off of this gospel eyewitness account.

Look at chapter 21, verse 25. So here's a repeat. This is the way he closes. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

That's the right way to think about this. The word he uses in verse 30, translated signs, is actually a word used for miracles. It is the Greek word for miracles. It literally reads like this, therefore many other attesting miracles.

Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. Here in verse 30, we see the bookends of the gospel account. He started his testimony the way he concluded it. Turn with me to chapter 2.

Let's go to the beginning of this gospel. Chapter 2, starting in verse 1. So we know how he's ending. Let's see how he started. We're thinking about the attesting miracles. John chapter 2, starting in verse 1.

And on the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. And when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it. Now there were six stone water jars set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing two or three measures each.

Jesus said to them, fill the water jars with water. So they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the head waiter. So they took it to him. Now when the head waiter tasted the water, which had become wine, and did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew, the head waiter called the bridegroom and said to him, every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the inferior wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

Jesus did this in Cana of Galilee as the beginning of his signs and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. The attesting miracles Jesus performed clearly identified him as the Messiah.

So turn back to chapter 20. The only person in all of the human historical record to fit the description made by God in prophetic perfection hundreds of years before his appearance, and notice he didn't do the signs out in the wilderness by himself.

His miracles were witnessed by many. John points out here in verse 30, the attesting signs were performed in the presence of his disciples. He uses a preposition pertaining to being present or in view, in the sight of, in the presence of, among.

He's giving added authenticity to the other gospel accounts. You know, think of John, I'm not the only one who saw the miracles, all of us witnessed what he did. We all saw these things, believe it. We can think about John.

Through the other gospels, we can see that only Jesus of Nazareth fits all of the prophecies of the Messiah. Now, when I was doing this sermon preparation, I was looking up the prophecies of Jesus and I was intending to include them here.

And I got about a quarter of the way in and I realized, oh, this is like a five-part sermon on two verses. There were so many, I ran out of space. I had to go back and omit them. They are unbelievable.

From Genesis all the way through the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, one prophecy after another fulfilled by only one person. John's very specific additions to the account of Jesus' earthly ministry only adds what was already said in the other gospels.

The attesting miracles is just one aspect of the prophecies. There must have been a hundred on there. And this was only one of them. It's not breaking them down as each sign miracle. These attesting miracles was one aspect of the prophecy.

Most of us would probably say, you know, we would believe in Jesus if we could have seen a definite miracle or a sign performed. But I'm not so sure. There were many people who witnessed Christ's miracles and they still didn't believe.

The point John is making is that Jesus says we are blessed if we believe without seeing. Every person on planet earth have all the proof they need in creation to believe there's a God. Every person has all the proof they need in the creation to believe in Jesus in the words of the Bible, in the words of the gospels, the testimony of believers.

The cold hard truth is that a physical bodily appearance would not make Jesus any more real than he is to us now in this testimony, in the testimony of the scripture. And this really brings us back to this first division of the gospels.

We think about the big picture, the deity and signs of Christ in the first 12 chapters. The opening of John starts with a declaration that Jesus is the word of God. He is the word of God, meaning that the Bible, the living word of God is Jesus Christ.

The Bible is the revealed mind of Christ in what he has revealed, not all of it. The word was not created, but has existed from the beginning. It is the word that brought all creation into being and Jesus was with God from the beginning.

It is through Jesus, the word of God, that all things were made. That's the first three verses of chapter one. Lord willing, we'll look at that next Sunday. John is strongly and clearly stating that Jesus has existed from eternity past.

John is saying Jesus is God. Jesus is the bodily manifestation of God in the flesh. John describes how the word, which is God, became flesh and took on a bodily form to enter the creation and explain himself to us.

John explains this manifestation of Jesus and uses the word God synonymously with Jesus, who is the only begotten son of the Father. The first sign Jesus performs in John is turning the water into wine.

Now the second sign recorded in John was the healing of a nobleman's son. So the second sign is the healing of a nobleman's son. This sign took place in Capernaum where Jesus, it was basically an area, a larger area than Cana existed in Capernaum.

So Jesus was in Cana when a nobleman who was a royal official approached him about his son. So a royal official comes up to him and this guy says, hey, my son is in Capernaum and he's dying. The man asked Jesus to heal his son by accompanying him to Capernaum.

But Jesus simply told the man that he would heal his son right there on the spot. I don't need to be present, he's healed. So that he and others would see the sign and believe. And this is in John chapter 4 verses 46 through 54.

So John 4, 46 through 54 is the second sign. The third sign in John was the healing of a paralytic man in Jerusalem. The man had been a paralytic for almost 40 years when Jesus met him. This isn't a trickster who pretends to be crippled and is a panhandling thing.

40 years this guy's been out there, 40 years. He's a paralytic man. Jesus saw the man and asked if he wished to be healed and simply commanded the man to get up and walk. Do you want to be healed? Get up and walk to a person that's paralyzed.

And the man was healed in the sight of many. The third sign wonder, that's John chapter 5 verses 1 through 9. So John 5, 1 through 9, the third sign. The fourth sign described in John was the miraculous feeding of a crowd of 5 ,000 people by the Sea of Tiberias.

They had seen the other signs of healing that Jesus performed that are not detailed in John. The crowd was very large and there was not enough food to feed everybody. Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish and miraculously multiplied it so that it was enough to feed 5 ,000.

You think of five loaves of bread, think about doing a French toast casserole. You use like a loaf there by yourself, you're feeding you and your kids. 5 ,000 people, 5 ,000 people, five loaves and two fish.

So he miraculously multiplied it so that everybody was fed and many believed that Jesus had come from God. That was the fourth sign. The fourth sign can be found in John 6 verses 1 through 14. So John 6, 1 through 14, the fourth sign.

The fifth sign in John was when Jesus walked on water, when his disciples were crossing the Sea of Tiberias toward Capernaum. It was in the evening during the crossing that the sea was stirred up from a strong wind.

The disciples were several miles into the sea. They saw Jesus walking on water and he comforted their fear and suddenly they arrived on land. That's John chapter 6 verses 15 through 21, the fifth sign.

John chapter 6 verses 15 through 21, the sixth sign in John was the healing of a blind man who had his sight restored by Jesus near the temple. Again, this is not a trickster, this is not a scam. The man was born blind, a blind man, born blind.

The disciples actually asked Jesus if the man or his parents had sinned. Did he sin or did his parents sin to cause him to be born blind? They were asking about this cause of his condition of blindness.

Jesus answered them that the man had been born blind so that God would have glory in his healing, that they would know he is the Christ. And Jesus promptly restored the man's sight as a sign of his deity and to give glory to God.

That's John chapter 9 verses 1 through 7. John 9, 1 through 7, the sixth sign. The seventh and last sign testified about in John was in the raising from the dead of Lazarus in Bethany. Lazarus was a man loved by Jesus.

When Jesus heard that Lazarus was very sick, he waited two days before he went to the family's home. He waited two days. During that time, Lazarus died and the family were grief stricken. By the time Jesus had arrived, Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

He'd been in the tomb four days. Jesus came to the entrance of the tomb and told the man to rise and come out of the tomb. And Lazarus rose and came out of the tomb. Lazarus was raised. This is not a resurrection from the dead, but it is a signed miracle and a testing sign.

This final sign is John 11, 38 through 44, the seventh sign, John 11, 38 through 44. You think about these amazing claims that John is making here. And we can think about the gospel even in a real simple way, John 3 .16.

This is the power of the gospel, the power of the word of God. Everybody here knows John 3 .16. What's amazing is there's people that hate God, practical atheists. They know John 3 .16. People on the other side of the world that have never read the Bible know John 3 .16.

And for us, the gospel entered our lives at some point. And it might have been John 3 .16, it might have been one of the other gospels. But the gospel was heard, it was proclaimed. And then the word of God penetrates the heart.

And God gives that person the ability to believe John 3 .16. And we all have a story like that, or we maybe have a family member or a friend who doesn't yet know the Lord. And if we are honest about it, it might even seem that it's hopeless, just hopeless for this person.

But think about it, at some point in your life, the gospel entered your life. The word of God entered your life. There was a man who was raised as a Catholic, didn't have a believing, really, mother or father.

Raised in a home of verbal and physical abuse. Started drinking at a young age, started doing drugs at a young age. Spent the majority of his adult life as a drug addict and alcoholic. Just not knowing God, totally entrenched in secular things and worldly things.

The kind of person, the Lord allowed him to marry a godly woman. And there was some sunshine in the life, but just a life of depravity. Even being married and having small kids, doing every kind of drug there is.

Drinking alcohol like it's breathing water. Hating God, the kind of person that is confrontational and violent, addicted to pornography, alcohol. Every kind of thing that the world has to offer, just a reprobate mind.

The kind of person who gets drunk on Christmas and smashes the Christmas presents that are wrapped under the tree. The kind of person who starts fights with his wife over creation versus evolution. And when the wife is crying, the man in his heart says, yes, I got her again.

I'm talking about just a deplorable reprobate, depraved mind. But at a certain point in this person's life, the gospel is preached. Maybe it's just somebody that he talked to. And then the word of God is opened up to him.

The Holy Spirit opens his mind to see that the truth is in the word of God. And God gives him the grace to believe the gospel, but it starts with the gospel. And then that depraved person who lives a secular lifestyle, this man, ends up becoming a preacher.

A college dropout with nothing to offer the world. What we would say is a loser, a stupid person. No public speaking, no education, no formal anything. And the Lord brings him to seminary through five to eight years of training.

That man then gets called into the ministry. So this reprobate mind is now serving as a pastor. That's the power of the gospel. A person that was written off is completely hopeless. We all have that person in our life.

Maybe that, what I'm describing, that person was you in your past. And now you look back at the way things used to be and you can remember that time that the gospel entered your life and changed you. John is very clear.

I want you to know for certain that Jesus of Nazareth is real. He really did these things. He performed these miracles. They were witnessed by all of us. Not even every miracle's written down here. That's the purpose of, he just wants you to believe.

He wants you to know that it's true. In this gospel, there's two really incredible components of the eyewitness account from John. The first is the miracles of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus were witnessed by many people and were in great number that exceeds the records in the various gospels.

The miracles of Jesus were witnessed by many people and were in great number that exceeds the records in the various gospels. And the second incredible component is the Messiahship of Jesus. In verse 31, John says, but these have been written.

These miracles have been 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 here we have the so that of the writing. John says so that you may believe.

And this is a recurring theme throughout the gospel of John, throughout the gospel. Turn back a page or two in your Bible to chapter 19. Chapter 19, starting in verse 28, the heading in my Bible, I'm preaching from the legacy standard, says scripture fulfilled, it is finished.

What a great piece of scripture here. John 19, starting in verse 28, after this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been finished, in order to finish the scripture, said, I am thirsty. A jar full of sour wine was standing there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to his mouth.

Therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a high day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken so that they might be taken away.

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him. But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood and water came out.

And he who has seen has borne witness. And his witness is true. And he knows that he is telling the truth so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass in order that the scripture would be fulfilled.

Not a bone of him shall be broken. And again, another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they pierced. In verse 31, John says, he has written. He has written, a word used to convey to inscribe characters on a surface, to write, or to express thought in writing of brief statements.

But this isn't prose or thought. He's not writing a poem. This isn't a narrative. This isn't a fun thing. This isn't something that's supposed to inspire you. He didn't write this to inspire you, to live a better life.

Here the word specifically means of pronouncements and solemn proceedings, to write down, to record. Oftentimes used of a vision, commandments, or even parables. He is conveying, I have recorded an eyewitness testimony of things myself, and many others witnessed in person.

And John says, this record is so that you believe, so that you believe. This is really the Greek verb form of the word for faith, pasteo. To consider something to be true, and therefore worthy of one's trust.

To trust it, to believe. Not faith, this is not faith directly. John is saying, treat this record like an eyewitness evidence in a court of law that necessitates faith to the point of not having doubt.

Believe it as if you've seen it with your own eyes. Because this record is accurate. These things happened. Know that your faith is grounded in factual eyewitness testimony. You can take this to court.

And he makes it clear what the outcome of the testimony is. Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. The word in the original is Christos, hence Christ. But it's very interesting, this Greek word, Christos.

It's literal lexical meaning is this. This is in the Greek lexicon. Fulfiller of Israelite expectation of a deliverer. The anointed one, the Messiah. That's who John says this man is. Fulfiller of Israelite expectation of a deliverer, the anointed one, the Messiah.

John is a Jewish man, and he makes it clear. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Jesus is the fulfiller of the Jewish hope in deliverance. He is the hoped for one. He is the deliverer. God's anointed one, promised deliverer and savior of the Jewish people.

And then by extension, because of God's grace, all that believe on him, all that call on him, all that call on him. Jesus is the Christos. And John takes us back to a few parallels from the Gospel of Matthew.