John pt. 7 | John 1:35-51

The Purpose of John’s Gospel and the Word Made Flesh

Again it is good to stand before you this morning. If you will please turn to your Bibles, turn in your Bibles, excuse me, to the Gospel of John chapter 1. We will consider verses 35 through 51. The Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 35 to 51.

Let me pray. Oh God, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you and ask that you would please in this moment speak to us from your Word through this vessel that stands before your people this day.

Help us to hear with our ears, to see with our eyes, and to believe with our heart your Word this day. In Jesus' name, Amen. All right, so our theme for this Lord's Day is the testimony of two or three.

This first chapter of this glorious Gospel is focused on the witness of Jesus Christ, right? That's what we've been seeing. It's the witness of Jesus Christ. It is said if you want to know who Jesus is, read the Gospel of John.

The writer of this Gospel tells us in chapter 20 verse 31, it says this, but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Why was this book written? So that we may know that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God, and that when we believe, we have life. And this life that we have in him, it's through his name.

This book is a witness of Jesus. Chapter 1 has been a witness of who Jesus is. He is the Word, the Logos, right? We saw that chapter 1, verses 1 through 2, in the beginning was the Word. This Greek word, Logos, Logos, however you want to pronounce it.

And this Word was with God, and this Word was God. We saw that when you break that down in the Greek, it says that God is the Word. The Word was in the beginning, it was with God, and it was God. We saw that this Word is the creator of all things, verse 3.

All things were made through him. Speaking of the Word, and without him was not anything made that was made. Him being the Word that was in the beginning with God and was God, is the creator of all things, and that this creator of all things, this Word, the creator, enters into creation.

Look at verse 14, and the Word, the Logos, became flesh, and it dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory. Remember John, verse John, he says, we have seen him, we've looked upon him, we we've touched him.

We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. So if you want to know who Jesus is, then this gospel, the gospel that we're going to be walking through, I don't know how long it's going to take us, right?

This is our seventh message so far. This is the gospel that will answer your questions of who is Jesus. And in our outline, we will see the witness of Jesus by others. We broke down the witness of Jesus by the prophet last week, and we'll touch just a little bit on it today.

So the witness of Jesus by others is the witness of John the Baptist, the witness of Andrew, the witness of Philip, the witness of Nathanael, and the witness of Scripture. So point number one, the witness of John the Baptist.

Point number two, the witness of Andrew. Point number three, the witness of Philip. Point number four, the witness of Nathanael. And point number five, the witness of Scripture. And I know that sometimes it takes me a whole message to get through a point.

Not so today. Some of these points will go real quick, so don't let the five points scare you. So as we transition, it was only by the statement of two or three witnesses that a verdict can be made in a case.

Deuteronomy tells us in order to put someone to death, it had to be on the evidence of two or three witnesses. In 1st Timothy chapter 5, Timothy is told that he is not to receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

If someone was to accuse an elder of a church of something, if it was just one person, Timothy was not to receive that. It had to be on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Of course today, the two or three witnesses can be more than just two or three people.

You can have someone who has done something, he is believed to have done something, and the evidence could be a video of him doing something. That's a second witness. You were not to receive an accusation on an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

And in the letter of 2nd Corinthians, the letter of 2nd Corinthians is Paul's third witness against the church of Corinth. Real quickly, I'm going to read chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians. We'll look at verses 1 -5.

If you would put your finger in the Gospel of John and turn there, I just want you to see this. Paul writes, he says, this is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

I warn those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not spare them. Sounds like he's a little fed up, right?

Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with you by the power of God.

Listen, verse 5. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourself, that Christ Jesus is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test.

This church, the church of Corinth, they were doubting the apostleship of Paul. They were doubting that he was a true apostle. And Paul was saying, you're doubting me? Examine yourselves. Examine yourselves.

I planted this church and you're doubting me. Examine yourselves. Because if Paul is not a true apostle, then the church of Corinth is not a true church. You're doubting me? Examine yourselves. And he tells them how to know if he's a true apostle.

And it's that if Jesus Christ is living in them, everything was to be established on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Let's go to our first point, the witness of John the Baptist. We see this in the gospel of John, verse 35, chapter 1, 35 and 36.

Before we read that, I want you to notice it says, it says the next day. So verse 35, it begins with the next day. What we have here is a four day period, right? The first day is from 19 to 28. The second day begins in verse 29, look the next day.

The third day from 35 to 42, again, 35 begins with the next day. And the fourth day begins at verse 43. If you look at verse 43, it says the next day. So what we're looking at here is a period of four days.

And so just understand that whenever we, whenever we started with John preaching, when the Pharisees and the Sadducees were coming to him, it was day one. When John sees Jesus coming, day two. And we begin right here with day three, verses 35 through 36.

The next day, again, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold, the Lamb of God. This is John's second time saying this statement. We see that in verse 29, verse 29, speaking of the second day.

It says the next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, behold, the Lamb of God. He, he, he, he kind of elaborates more on it. He says, who takes away the sin of the world. John's witness of Jesus is that he is the Lamb of God.

This is speaking about the Paschal Lamb, the Passover, this, this Jewish feast that they would celebrate year after year, where they would slaughter a lamb and they would put the blood on the doorpost and on the lentil.

And this was, this was something that they did to, to celebrate a day that took place whenever Israel was enslaved to Egypt. This was the, the, the plague of the death of the firstborn. And so what they were doing year after year, year after year, they were reenacting.

We looked at this last week. There was reenacting this event as a celebration. And John sees Jesus and he says, look, reenacting is over. We no longer have to apply the blood on the doorpost and on the lentil because behold, the Lamb of God has come.

And he's pointing to Jesus. That's what he's doing here. When he's with his disciples, he's with his disciples. And he says, that's him. That guy that you see walking that, that's him. That's the one.

He is the one. That's the guy. He's the one who takes away the sins of the world. When these people came questioning me and asking me, was I the one? And I said, no, I'm not the one. But he who comes after me, who is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm unworthy to carry.

He who baptizes with Holy Spirit and fire. That's him. That's him. Point number two, the witness of Andrew. This takes place in verses 37 through 42. And what we have here in our text is two disciples of John who heard John the Baptist say that Jesus was the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

John in one sense is saying to his disciples, why are you still following me? Follow him. Follow him. He must increase. I must decrease, right? I'm not the one. He's the one. Why are you still here? Follow him.

We have two disciples here of John. One of them is named Andrew. It gives us his name here. And we'll see that in our third point, I believe it is. Who becomes a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is one of his disciples.

This is Peter's brother. And then the other one is unnamed, which leads me to believe that it leads me as well as theologians to believe that it's speaking about John, the son of Zebedee, the author of this book, the disciple, the apostle John.

John does not call himself out by name in this book. But remember our first message we walked through and was trying to figure out who it was that wrote this gospel. And over and over he called himself the beloved disciple, the disciple whom Jesus loved.

That's how he spoke of himself. So he doesn't necessarily come out and speak of his name being John or John, the son of Zebedee. But it's the disciple that Jesus loved. Other than that, whenever he is mentioned, he does not have a name.

The first witness of Jesus from these two disciples is that he is a rabbi, which our text tells us means teacher. So listen, before they ever heard Jesus speak, before they ever heard him teach, they called him a teacher.

He is a teacher. They've never heard him speak. They never heard him teach. And yet they understood him to be a rabbi, a teacher. And at this time, in order to follow a rabbi, you had to have their permission, right?

Rabbis did not approach people and say, follow me. You would have to approach a rabbi and ask permission to follow him. And a rabbi would test their knowledge through the Tanakh before making a decision of allowing someone to follow him.

The Tanakh is an acronym derived from the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, which we have the Torah, the Nehiv, the Neviv, excuse me, and the Ketaviv. So the Torah is the law, the Neviv is the prophets, and the Ketaviv is the writings.

So those are the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible. And what they were to do is, from my understanding of Jewish culture, in order to follow a rabbi, you had to memorize all of the Torah, the first five books, word for word, right?

Anyone want to give that a shot? Right? Any volunteers here? Anyone got that down? You had to memorize word for word the Torah. Now if I ask, you know, like, my daughter can name off the books of the Bible.

She's got a little rap song that she does, right? But just imagine, you had to memorize word for word the Torah. Thank you. That was getting in my eyes. But you also had to memorize the 300 and something prophecies of the coming Messiah that was in the Torah, the Nehiv and the Ketavim.

So you had to memorize the five books and all the prophecies of the coming Messiah. And once you were able to do that, you could ask a rabbi permission. Can I follow you? And he would test you by asking you questions.

In other words, you had to be the best of the best. You had to be the best of the best. The idea that Jesus's disciples were fishermen and tax collectors shows that they were not the best of the best, but common Jews at best.

Common folk like you and I. They were not the best of the best. Look with me at the text 37 through 39. The two disciples heard him, speaking of John talking about Jesus being the Lamb of God, heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, what are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? And he said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying and he stayed with them that day for it was about the 10th hour.

The 10th hour in Jerusalem was from 4 p .m. to 5 p .m. The 11th hour, which was from 5 p .m. to 6 p .m., was their afternoon liturgical service, which concluded the end of the day with the burning of the incense, sacrifices of the two lambs, which embraced the burning of the incense, making it a single sacrifice, and that the priest would then read the benediction given from Numbers 6, 24 through 26, which you should know this really well.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The same benediction that we end our service with.

The 12th hour was from 6 p .m. to sundown, which began a new day. Jewish time and our time is different, so their new day would begin at sundown. Go all the way back to Genesis. It was evening first, then morning the first day.

So a day to them would be a blending of two days to us. We see morning to noon as our day. I mean, morning to bedtime as our day. That's how we would view it, but they would see it different. When night fell, nightfall came, it was the beginning of a new day, which we'll learn a lot more about that when we get to chapter three to find out why Nicodemus visited Jesus at night.

Now by understanding the time indicators, we can conclude that Jesus and these two disciples did not join in the afternoon liturgical service. They were walking to where Jesus was staying. These two disciples understood that there was something more important taking place.

There's something more important happening right now than this liturgical service, because they heard John the Baptist say, that's him. That's the guy. He's the one who takes away the sin of the world.

They left John seeking Jesus. Remember the word, seek the Lord your God with all your heart, right? That's what we're called today. We're to seek the kingdom of God. As believers, we are to seek holiness.

There's things in our lives that we are to seek, and it says that these two disciples were seeking Jesus. Isn't that where we're supposed to be, right? We hear the gospel. We hear that he's the lamb. We hear that he's the one who takes away the sins, and we are to seek him.

That's exactly what we see here taking place in the text. They wanted to know where he was staying. Look at verse 40 -42. So before I read this, this tells us what happens on their way. As they're following Jesus, something else happens.

One of the two who heard John speaking and followed Jesus was Andrew. So now it's introducing us to Andrew. I spoke about him earlier. Simon Peter's brother. He found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ.

And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. So here in verse 41, Andrew gives another witness, and this witness that he gives, he gives it to his brother.

He tells Peter, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. And later we, well, not in the gospel of John, but in the gospel of Matthew, John, I mean, excuse me, Jesus asks his disciples who the men say that I am.

Peter says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus responds by saying, blessed are you, Simon, son of John, or Simon, son of Jonah, for man has not revealed this to you, but my father, who is in heaven.

He's told here that they have found the Messiah, they have found the Christ, but God himself has revealed him to you. Like I can stand before you today, and I'm preaching to you, say someone's in the congregation, and they're lost, or I'm out in the street preaching, and we're door knocking, and they're lost, and I can reveal to them that Jesus is the son of God.

I'm telling them something, but God is the one who reveals it to them, who tells them that it's true. They have found the Messiah, and as we transition, John the Baptist was not the Messiah, and he said he was not the Messiah, but John the Baptist pointed them to the Messiah when he says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Philip’s Call and the Witness of Moses and the Prophets

Let's look at our third witness, point number three, the witness of Philip. We see this in verses 43 through 46, 43 through 46. Again, this begins day four, verse 43. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, and he found Philip, and he said to him, follow me.

Remember, rabbis at this time were not going around asking people to follow them. You had to memorize the Torah, know the 300 and something prophecies of the Messiah, and then you would ask. Jesus is flipping the Jewish culture upside down by saying those two words, follow me.

He's not doing things the way everyone else is doing them. He's not acting in court of other rabbis. He's doing something different. We have here that he leaves where he was staying, and he goes, and he finds Philip, and he says to him, Philip, follow me.

I wonder if Philip knew the Torah. I wonder if Philip understood and knew the 300 something prophecies of the coming Messiah. I would say that he didn't. Let's finish reading through 46, verse 44. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, him of whom Moses wrote about in the law. We looked at this, what was it two weeks ago?

This being the prophet. The prophet that Moses spoke about after the Lord comes down descending upon a mountain, a mountain covered with smoke, with fire. And the Israelite people were terrified. Please tell him to stop speaking to us.

We cannot endure his voice. And God tells them that he's going to send them another voice, a prophet that's going to be from among them. And that when he comes, they are to listen to him or else. And we saw a couple of weeks ago that this is speaking about Jesus and Philip's witness to Nathanael as if we found him.

He's here. It's the one that we were supposed to listen to. The one that Moses said was coming. He was going to be born among us. He's here, Philip. I mean, he's here, Andrew. He's here. We have found him.

He's here. Celebrate with us. And also of whom the prophets, the coming one of whom the prophets spoke about. Remember all the prophets, they spoke about someone coming who was going to redeem them. And as we transition, look at verse 46 again.

It says, Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Nazareth at this time was, you could say a lower class of people. My old pastor, when he was preaching through the book of Matthew, and every time he would say Nazareth, he would spit like, oh, the people of Nazareth.

He said that's what it was common for people at that time to do that because Nazareth was looked at as a bad neighborhood, right? Oh, I don't want to go to Nazareth. Them people are nasty. Them people are just thugs, right?

For using common language. Whenever they would say Nazareth, they would spit. Meaning that they cared nothing about the Nazarene people. And he says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And just imagine him spitting.

Philip said, come and see. Come and see. See with your eyes. Fourth witness, the witness of Nathanael. On verse first, read verse 47. Nathanael, I mean, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, and he said to him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.

Jesus was saying, this is a true believer. This is someone who has the faith of Abraham. He is a true believer. Him, like Abraham, believed in the promise of the coming one, that one was going to come, and that through this offspring of Abraham, God was going to bless the entire world.

Nathanael was a believer. He believed that. Jesus said, a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. Verse 48, Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered, listen, before Philip called you when you were under the tree, I saw you.

Nathanael answered him, rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus tells Nathanael that he saw him before Philip called him while he was under the tree. Now, understand this. Jesus is not saying that I was 100 yards away, right?

I was 100 yards away, and I was able to see Philip before Philip came talking to you. No. He said, well, how do you know that? How do I know that Jesus wasn't 100 yards away, able to see Nathanael under the tree before Philip came and talked to him?

How do I know that? I know that because of the witness of Nathanael. Listen. After Jesus tells Nathanael, Jesus, I mean, after Jesus tells him this, Nathanael calls Jesus, rabbi, calls him the son of God, and calls him the king of Israel.

He acknowledges him, Jesus, whom he's never heard teach as a teacher, and he says to them, Jesus, you are the rabbi. You are the son of God. You are the king of kings. Because of that statement, I am able to tell you with certainty that Jesus wasn't 100 yards away looking down at a tree that he was under.

If Jesus was 100 yards away looking down at what took place, there would be no need for Nathanael to acknowledge him as a teacher, to acknowledge him as the son of God, or to acknowledge him as the king of Israel.

Because Nathanael knew that Jesus wasn't around, meaning they must have had to travel a ways to get to him. And Nathanael knew that Jesus saw him. I mean, imagine that. If they were able to look at each other, if Philip would have said, hey, come see, look, look, he's right there, you can see him.

He's looking at us. Well, that's nothing special. I could see someone from 100 yards away, depending on the sun and, you know, if I clean my glasses, right? There's nothing special about that. But there was something special that took place here in the text, and it doesn't really reveal that to us.

Nathanael knew that he was saw by Jesus, and he responds with, he's never heard him teach, Rabbi, you are the son of God. Only the son of God would know something like this. You are the king of Israel.

The Son of Man, Jacob’s Ladder, and the Kingdom of Heaven

And as we transition, Jesus' response to him leads us to our last witness, the fifth witness. So, our fifth point is the witness of Scripture, and this is in verses 50 through 51. Making good timing. Jesus answered him, talking about Nathanael, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?

You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. Now, turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 28.

For some reason, I did not put my normal clips in here, so I'm having to find it just like everyone else. Genesis chapter 28, we will read verses 10 through 16. Before we do so, I want to enlighten you on the context.

So, Esau has already sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob has stolen the blessings by Esau going out hunting for game. Jacob's mom makes the game for Jacob to bring to his father to receive the blessing, to steal the blessing, because Isaac was going to bless Esau once he brought the game to him and it was cooked.

Jacob puts, well, his mother puts fur, dead animal fur on him because Esau was a hairy man. So, he manipulatively, is that a word? We don't use it, sneaks into his father's room, pretends to be Esau and steals the blessing, which makes Esau angry.

And so, Jacob leaves. He's on the run from his brother, which picks us up in verse 10. It says this, Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.

Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head as he lay down in that place to sleep. Verse 12, and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top reached the heavens and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold the Lord, this is Yoheh Vaheh, this is capital L-O-R-D, this is Yahweh, behold Yahweh stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring.

Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south. And in you and your offspring shall all the family of the earth be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised. Verse 16, then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.

I was in a Bible study one time and the pastor of the church was in this Bible study and the guy leading the Bible study at this time was my mentor. He was the guy that I was under when I was preaching in the jails and stuff like that.

And they read this verse that we had, we came to in John and it said, when Jesus speaking to Nathaniel, he said to him, verse 51, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.

And I said, man, that sounds like Jacob's ladder. Pastor was like, hmm, I don't know. I'll have to look into it. I said, well, sure sounds like it to me. Sounds like Jacob's ladder. Sounds like Jesus is the ladder that Jacob dreamt of.

Now this was before I ever got into, you know, study Bibles and stuff like that. And some study Bibles will even kind of hint toward that. Most of them don't, but some do. But the way that they hint towards it is that, well, first of all, the word here for ladder, so the Hebrew word, a better way that you could translate it would be staircase.

So you heard a stairway to heaven. Like this is all speaking about Jacob's dream. It's all taken from that. Whether a proper way, our translation says ladder or it's a staircase. Either way, I believe that Jacob's dream to be pathetic, but other people believe that this is just hinting at Jesus, that this staircase, that Jesus is something like what Jacob dreamt about.

Not that it is, but listen to me. I truly believe that this is a prophetic dream, that God was showing Jacob as he was running from his brother, that he was going to fulfill the promises and bless all the people through this source by which man can, by which angels can travel.

Listen to verse 12. And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder and it's set on the earth. Listen, Jesus, the incarnation, he, God left heaven, the creator entered creation, the infinite became finite.

It was on the earth and it's top reached the heavens. Jesus speaking of his deity and behold, the angels of God were able to ascend and descend on it. And we have angels appearing at the birth of Jesus.

We have angels appearing at the resurrection of Jesus. We have angels appearing at the ascension of Jesus and read the book of Acts. They're coming proclaiming the name of Jesus. Jesus is the ladder. Jesus is the staircase.

Jesus is the ladder, the staircase that Jacob dreamt about. And it was to fulfill what it was spoken, that he was going to bless all the world, all the nations through this offspring that would come from Abraham.

And Nathaniel believes because Jesus said that he saw him under a tree. And then, and then Jesus says to him, oh, you believe because I said, I saw you under a tree. He's saying, just wait, just wait until what you see, just wait until what you're about to see.

You're going to see angels ascending and descending upon me. He calls himself here, the son of man. And when Jesus says that he is the son of God, he is referring to his eternal sonship. However, when Jesus says that he is the son of man, he is not, listen, he is not referring to his humanity.

Son of God, his eternal sonship, son of man, not speaking of his humanity. At this time, the son of man was referred to be, was referenced to be the Messiah. The Messiah was the son of man. The Messiah was to come, was to establish a messianic kingdom on earth.

And the people at this time would have pointed to Daniel chapter seven. Turn to Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 through 14, says this. So this is Daniel. He's having a vision. He says, I saw in the night, I saw in the night vision and behold, there were clouds, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the son of man.

So they would say that this is the Messiah. And he came to the ancient of days and presented before and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, listen, and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall never pass away in his kingdom. Listen, saints, one that shall not be destroyed. Jesus is referring to himself as the son of man, as the one spoken about from Daniel, the new covenant, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, right?

That's the message we hear. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and something new is taking place. A new covenant, the new kingdom, the kingdom of heaven is at hand and angels and the angels of God are able to ascend and descend upon the son of man.

This new kingdom is not the earthly kingdom. It is a heavenly kingdom. Its tops reach the heavens. In order, the Messiah, in order to be presented before the ancient of days, which would be the father, God the father, in order for the Messiah to be presented before the ancient of days and given a kingdom, he had to die and he had to live like no human being could live.

He had to take upon himself the sin of the world in order for Jesus to be presented to the father and given this kingdom that will never end. He had to live the life that none of us could live and then he had to die and take our sins upon himself.

Then he had to prove who he said he was was true by triumphant victory over death, busting forth from the grave. Jesus lived the life we could not live, died the death that we should die, was buried and he rose again on the third day.

He was seen for over 40 days by many witnesses. He ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God on the throne of David, ruling and reigning, putting all enemies under his feet, making intercession and prayer for those that draw near to him by faith.

And in our text right here would have been future. But ladies and gentlemen, for you and I, this is past tense. The kingdom has come. It has been established. The kingdom people are those who have been born again and have called upon the name of the Lord and have received the covenant sign baptism.

He, Jesus, has been given the testimony of two or three witnesses. Ladies and gentlemen, it is established. The witness of John the Baptist, the witness of Andrew, the witness of Philip, the witness of Nathanael, and the witness of scripture all say that Jesus is the one, the long-awaited Messiah.

He's here and I call you all to believe. I'm available to anyone who wants to talk. Pastor Cal as well. So our deacon Josh, if you have, if you need to talk, please come to me after the service. Join me as we pray.

Father, Lord, it is indeed a great privilege, one that I don't deserve, to be able to stand before your people whom you have called by your name and proclaim your word. Lord, I pray if I mishandled your word in any way, Lord, that you will put me on the right path, correct me.

But Lord, I do pray that you use this word today to grow your saints. As well as we partake in your supper, Lord, I pray that right now your people are preparing themselves and that you will also bless this meal, the body and blood that we are about to partake in, and that you will use that to grow us in holiness.

Lord, please put in us a greater love for you, for one another. Help us to love our God by believing in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.