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This morning we're going to continue
our journey through the Gospel of John with a focus on John
19, verses 31-37. It's John 19, verses 31-37. I'm
going to begin, I'll back up a little bit here to at least
verse 28. Because what happened there is
going to inform what we're going to be reading about Jesus has been crucified and
he is hanging on the cross, and he has given John charge over
his mother, and after this, we read in verse 28, Jesus, knowing
that all things were now accomplished, that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled, said, I thirst. Now a vessel full of sour wine
was sitting there, a sponge with sour wine and put it on Hyssop
and put it to his mouth. So when Jesus had received the
sour wine, he said, it is finished. And bowing his head, he gave
up his spirit. And we saw last week how Jesus brought about
the fulfillment of the prophecy that was fulfilled here by saying,
I thirst. So that he was orchestrating
the fulfillment of this prophecy in the things that he said and
did. We're going to see that sort of continue today. In verse
31, we read, therefore, because it was the preparation day, that
the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath. This
preparation day was sort of doubly important. They were beginning
a special Sabbath because it was coincided with the Passover
celebration. And that's the preparation day
that's being spoken of here. because it was the preparation
day that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath,
for the Sabbath was a high day. The Jews asked Pilate that their
legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then
the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the
other who was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus
and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a sphere, and immediately
blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified,
and his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the
truth, so that you may believe. For these things were done, that
the Scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be
broken. And again another Scripture says,
they shall look on him whom they pierced. Let's pray. We come to you this morning reminded that our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, who cleansed the temple many years ago, is the one who sees everything
in our hearts, is the only one who can cleanse us through his
shed blood on the cross. And we've taken time to praise
you for that this morning, to ask you to cleanse our hearts
anew, to forgive us anew, to fill our hearts with praise for
what you've done for us. Help us then, Lord, with that
same spirit to come to this passage so that we might hear your word
about our precious Savior and what he accomplished as he died
on the cross. We've already spoken in the past
about how he bore the wrath for our sins there. about some of
the things he did there to fulfill prophecy, about how he continued
to fulfill the law in looking after his mother, even while
he was suffering such anguish. And we'll see that even after
having given up his spirit, even that action led to, by his design,
by your design, in fulfillment of your plan, the fulfillment
of Scripture. Help us, Lord, to be attentive
to your word this morning, recognizing that just as we could not have
come to faith in Christ without the enabling grace and power
of your Holy Spirit working in our hearts, even so we cannot
understand correctly what your word says this morning without
complete dependence on the power of your Holy Spirit. Fill us
then with your Spirit, we pray. Humble our hearts before you.
Help us to hear you speak to us through your word. We ask
these things in the name of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen. I'd like to begin today with
yet another reminder of John's overarching purpose in writing
this Gospel. I've called our attention to
this a number of times along the way through the Gospel, because
we see how throughout the Gospel, John reveals that intention in
the way he writes things, and then explicitly states it toward
the end. And we're going to see that today again, that the intentions
he had in writing the Gospel are coming out in this passage
already again. For example, in John 20, in verses
30 and 31, John will say, truly Jesus did many other signs in
the presence of his disciples which are not written in this
book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life
in His name." Now, we've seen some of the signs that Jesus
did, even while He was dying on the cross, as He brought about the fulfillment
of Scripture in spite of the evil intentions of His executioners.
They are doing things in fulfillment of Scripture with their evil
intentions. that God was intending obviously
for good, for our good. For example, last week we saw
that Jesus spoke the words, I thirst, in order to bring about the fulfillment
of a prophecy in Psalm 69, 21. After which Jesus then, of his
own accord, by an act of his own will, gave up his spirit,
gave up his life. This morning we'll see that in
giving up his life when he did, our Lord also ensured the fulfillment
of a couple of other messianic prophecies. See, if he hadn't,
of his own accord, by an act of his own will, as though it
was a power of life and death, offered up his own life precisely
when he did, these prophecies would not have been fulfilled.
But in that he did so, These prophecies were fulfilled. So
even in dying, precisely when he did, he was orchestrating
what was happening. He was ensuring that prophecies
would be fulfilled as they ought to be fulfilled in accordance
with the divine plan. And these are some of the signs
then, which he continued to do. Even dying as he did when he
did shows us something about him. as we saw last week, about
his power over life and death. And these signs, too, were signs
clearly indicating, as John later says, that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and provide reasons for us to believe in Him, to
trust in Him. But John then goes on to end
his Gospel with an emphasis upon the fact that he was writing
as an eyewitness of the things he records. And this offers yet
another reason to believe, since we know that his testimony is
true because He wasn't relying simply on second-hand information.
You see, in the first century, the most important historical
account you could ever have was from an eyewitness. And that's
why John stresses this the way that he does. He's not hearing
something second, third, fourth hand here. He was there. He saw the things he's writing
about. He heard Jesus say the things that he's recording in
his Gospel. He is an eyewitness of the things
that he records. Let's look briefly at the final
words of the gospel to see what I mean. In John 21, in verses
24 and 25, John writes, this is the disciple who testifies
of these things. He's already, in this gospel,
referred to himself repeatedly as the beloved disciple. And
we've seen in our past studies that this has to be John. And he says, this is the disciple,
the beloved disciple, John, who testifies of these things and
wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. And
there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they
were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that would be written. Amen. That's how
he ends the Gospel, the focus on the fact that he is an eyewitness who's giving true testimony about
what he's seen and heard, so that we might know that we have
a trustworthy account of who Jesus really is. So we're going to see both of these
themes this morning in this passage. We're going to see the theme
of John as an eyewitness to the events that he records, and the
theme of Jesus as the one who demonstrates that he truly is
the Christ, the Son of God, by ensuring that the prophecies
concerning himself were fulfilled. With this in mind, then, we'll
make our way verse by verse through this passage. Beginning here
in verse 31, we read again, Therefore, because it was the preparation
day, that the body should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath,
for that Sabbath was a high day, the Jews, here indicating the
Jewish authorities, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken,
and that they might be taken away. Now, we'll begin with what
led to this concern of theirs. What led to the concern that
the bodies of these three crucified men not be left hanging on the
crosses as the Sabbath approached may first of all be found in
the Old Testament law in Deuteronomy 21. If you've got a good study
Bible or a cross-reference Bible, they should have a reference
to this passage somewhere there for you. Deuteronomy 21 verses
22 and 23 says this, If a man has committed a sin deserving
of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his
body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely
bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which
the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who
is hanged is accursed of God. And we saw in our previous study
of this gospel. One of the reasons they were
so bent on having Jesus crucified was precisely for that reason.
They wanted him to be seen as a curse of God by all the people
of Israel. That really backfired in a big way because, as it turns
out, he became a curse for us. And he bore our sins on the cross. That was God's plan all along. So that kind of backfired, didn't
it? But the law says you can't leave that body hanging overnight. In the case of Jesus and the
two criminals who were crucified with him, the Jews would have
been doubly concerned that these men who had been put to death
would have their bodies removed from the crosses. First, as we've
seen, they didn't want to violate the law, no doubt, in leaving
these bodies hanging there overnight. And secondly, the Sabbath was
going to begin that evening. And that would leave them with
no time to remove the bodies before dark if the men were not
killed immediately. See, there's two things. They
can't leave him overnight. The Sabbath will begin probably
before it's even dark. But they can't work on the Sabbath.
So that pushes the timetable up a little bit more even. So
they're in a hurry to get this over with so they can begin the
Sabbath and fulfill the law. This is what would have been
going through their minds. And so they want these men killed
immediately. So they asked Pilate that the
men's legs would be broken. Now they did this because this
is what Roman practice was in situations like this. D.A. Carson describes the reason for
this request when he writes, the normal Roman practice was
to leave crucified men and women on the cross until they died,
and this could take days, and then leave their rotting bodies
hanging there to be devoured by vultures. Of course, he doesn't
talk about this, but the reason that they would do that is these
people then would serve as a deterrent for a while. He goes on to write, if there
were some reason to hasten their deaths, the soldiers would smash
the legs of the victim with an iron mallet, a practice called
in Latin, crurifragium. I think I said that right. Quite
apart from the shock and additional loss of blood, this step prevented
the victim from pushing with his legs to keep his chest cavity
open. Strength in the arms was soon
insufficient and asphyxia followed. In other words, they suffocated
to death. If they couldn't push their bodies up to get air in,
they would slowly suffocate and in great anguish. It's a terrible
way to die. But in this manner, the Romans
could hasten the death of a crucified person in a brutal way that continued
to torture the victim. See, they could just walk up
and end it relatively painlessly with one blow if they wanted
to. But that's not a very Roman way
to crucify someone. You've got to be as brutal, as
cruel. It's got to be as much pain and
torture as possible. And this is what the Jews wanted
them to do to Jesus. They weren't being nice. They
weren't trying to end his suffering quickly. This wasn't an act of
mercy being performed on these men. In situations where they
gotta get this over quick, they do it in as cruel a way as they
can. That's what's happening. And that's what these Jewish
people want them to do. Not just to these two criminals,
but to Jesus Christ, our Lord. And we know that Pilate granted
their request because what John tells us in the following verses,
in verses 22 and 23, or 32, rather, 33, Then the soldiers came and broke
the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with
him. Apparently they started on the ends. But when they came
to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break
his legs. Now we don't know why the soldiers
began with the two thieves on either side of Jesus rather than
with Jesus when they did this. But we do know why they didn't
break Jesus' legs when they finally got to him. It was because he
was already dead. And he was already dead because,
as we saw last week in verse 30, when Jesus had received the
sour wine, he said, it is finished, and bowing his head, he gave
up his spirit. He fulfilled the prophecy that
he had given, that he would lay down his life, that he had the
power to lay it down and take it up again. And he demonstrated
that. When he chose to die at that
moment, In other words, then, Jesus'
legs were not broken because he himself prevented that by taking away the opportunity
for them to do so. He rendered it unnecessary. Yet, despite the fact that the
soldiers had already concluded that Jesus was dead, they wanted
to make absolutely sure which is why they took the action that
John records in the next verse, in verse 34. But one of the soldiers
pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water
came out. We're used to reading that account,
so it's lost some of its shock value on us. But imagine you're reading it
for the first time. Or imagine if you're John, standing
there, or standing at some distance, and seeing this happen. I think it would seem startling
to you that both blood and water came out of Jesus' side. I mean,
how many times would you expect to peer someone in the side and
see that? It certainly seems to surprise
John a little bit. But there are plausible medical
explanations that medical doctors and medical examiners have given
for this in modern times. D.A. Carson is again helpful
in describing a couple of the more common explanations, and
this gets a little bit graphic. There's some medical terms in
here, but I think you'll get the gist of it. He writes, medical
experts disagree on what was pierced. The most common theories
are these, and he offers two. A, the spear pierced Jesus' heart,
and the blood from the heart mingled with the fluid from the
pericardial sac. That's sort of a double-walled
layer of tissue that surrounds your heart, and I guess the roots
or base of the major vessels that go to and from the heart,
if I'm understanding this correctly. At any rate, the spear pierced
Jesus' heart is the first option and the blood from the heart
mingled with the fluid from the pericardial sac to produce the
flow of blood and water. B. By contrast, it has been argued
that fluid from the pericardial sac could not so readily escape
the body by such a wound. It would instead fill up the
chest cavity, filling the space around the lung and then oozing
into the lung itself through the wound that the spear made.
In tests performed on cadavers, it has been shown that where
a chest has been severely injured but without penetration, hemorrhagic
fluid, up to two liters of it, gathers between the pleural lining
of the ribcage and the lining of the lung, between your ribs
and your lungs. This separates the clearer serum
at the top, the deep red layer at the bottom, and if the chest
cavity were then pierced at the bottom, both layers would flow
out and it would look like blood and water. coming out. So there
are these medical explanations. Those are the two most common
ones, Carson says. These are the medical explanations
for what might have happened. But however one assesses the
medical evidence, the blood and water that flowed from Jesus'
side made it abundantly clear that he was, in fact, already
dead. We can be relatively certain
that John would not have known about these medical things that
we're talking about here. I doubt he practiced on cadavers to find
out what happened, and so forth. Which is why the apparent surprise
of witnessing such an event, together with the way in which
it confirmed that our Lord Jesus really did give up his own life
by his own will, led him to interject that he
saw it with his own eyes. See, I think he anticipates that
people might find this incredible. Jesus decided the moment he was
going to die, and by his own decision, just died. And then
it was proved when he was pierced in his side, and this sort of
unique situation of blood and water coming out made that abundantly
clear. John, I think, anticipates that
the reader might find that startling. And so he immediately says in
verse 35, he can't wait until the conclusion of the book to
point this out. after he's just said what he said, right? He
immediately says in verse 35, and he who has seen, and he's
referring to himself here, has testified, and his testimony
is true. And he knows that he is telling
the truth, so that you may believe. And there's an emphasis on the
you there. So that you may believe. Whoever you are who are reading
this. See, John already believes. He's seen this with his own eyes
and he can't deny it. He wants you to believe. That's why he's
writing this. Remember? So that you will believe.
So that I will believe. And he wants to emphasize, I
saw it with my own eyes. I know that I'm telling the truth
because it was there. I saw it. It actually happened. Well, John saw it as a wonder
to him. He saw Jesus give up his own life simply by deciding
to do so. And then, of course, he decided
to take his life up again on the third day. That's something
no mere human could do. And this fact was confirmed by
the blood and water that flowed from his side. Such a wondrous
series of events led John to assure his readers he really
did see it with his own eyes. In fact, his words reflect those
of John the Baptist after he saw the Holy Spirit descend on
Jesus. John wrote about this in John
1, where he said in verses 32-34, John bore witness, saying, I
saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained
upon Him, upon Jesus. I did not know him, but he who
sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see
the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes
with the Holy Spirit." And then John the Baptist says, "...and
I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." Those
are the same words that John now uses. The Apostle John. When he says, "...this is he
who has seen and has testified." to what he's seeing, that you
may believe. And of course, he means believe
that Jesus is the Son of God, so that you might be saved, so
that you might have everlasting life. He really saw how Jesus gave
up his own life. He really saw how this was confirmed by the
blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side. He really saw how
Scripture was fulfilled in these events. through the actions of Jesus
Himself, bringing them about. And he immediately emphasizes
a couple of fulfillments in the next two sentences. In verse
36 he says, "...for these things were done..." What things? Well, the things that the soldiers
did, but also what Jesus did that required them to do what
they did, or not. "...these things were done that
the Scripture should be fulfilled." Not one of his bones shall be
broken." If Jesus hadn't died just when he died, his legs would
have been broken. He prevented that. Now there are several Old Testament
passages which John might have in mind here. The first two are
the laws governing observance of the Sabbath. These are found
in Exodus 12, and then in a restatement of the same laws in Numbers 9.
So those two passages really amount to kind of one. reference,
if you will, because they're talking about the same thing.
So let's take a brief look at the Exodus 12 passage. I'll read
to you Exodus 12 verses 43 to 46. This is the institution of the
Passover in Exodus 12 that's being talked about. And the Lord
said to Moses and Aaron, this is the ordinance of the Passover.
No foreigner shall eat it, but every man's servant who has bought
for money, when you have circumcised him, then he may eat it. A sojourner
and a hired servant shall not eat it. In one house it shall
be eaten. You shall not carry any of the
flesh. He's talking here about the flesh of the Passover lamb
that they were to kill. You shall not carry any of the
flesh outside the house, nor shall you break one of its bones." Now, the Greek words used by
John in John 19 are very close to those used in the Septuagint
text of Exodus 1246. Remember, the Septuagint is the
Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that was commonly used
in the first century by most Jews. In fact, most of the citations
of the Old Testament you have in John and elsewhere in the
New Testament, most of them come from the Septuagint, the Greek
translation of the Old Testament. And if you were to compare that statement in Exodus 12.46 in
the Greek with the statement John here in the Greek, it's
almost identical. It's very, very close. He changes
the tense of the verb, and that's it. this connection, this linguistic
connection, together with the way in which John has repeatedly
emphasized that all these things were happening on the Passover.
Beginning back in chapter 13, verse 1, and then repeatedly,
the theme of the fact that it's the Passover is coming up. When
you combine these things, it indicates that John sees Jesus
as our Passover sacrifice. Or rather, he sees the Passover
lamb as a type of Christ. as a sacrifice that foreshadows
the sacrifice of Christ for our sins. And I think this kind of an interpretation
is later confirmed for us by the Apostle Paul who says to
the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5.7, for indeed Christ our Passover
was sacrificed for us. These kinds of facts weren't
lost on John or Paul. There's also a passage in Psalm
34 that he might have had in mind. I'll read to you Psalm
34, verses 19 and 20, although the reference is in verse 20.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers
him out of them all. He guards all his bones, not
one of them is broken. So John may want us to see in
the fact that none of Jesus' bones were broken a confirmation
by God that Jesus was indeed a righteous man. It's also possible, and I think
very likely, that John has both passages in mind here. He's sort
of combining them. And there are other examples
of this in the Gospels or in the New Testament. They kind
of run passages together in their thinking. Well, he's citing a
text that could be from either of these passages, and I think
he knows it. I think he may have both in mind.
That is, that he saw the fact that none of Jesus' bones were
broken as both a confirmation that he is a sacrifice foreshadowed
by the Passover lamb, and as a confirmation that Jesus was
righteous in the eyes of God, despite the fact that he was
crucified with two criminals on either side of him. I think
John wants us to conclude here something about Jesus. He was
a Passover lamb, he was a perfect lamb. But John sees yet another prophetic
fulfillment in these events that he makes clear in verse 37 when
he says, and again another scripture says, they shall look on him
whom they pierced. Now there's no doubt here about
the prophecy that John has in mind is being fulfilled. It's
got to be Zechariah 12.10. which says, I will pour out on
the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the
spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom
they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him.
Notice he goes from me to him. Yes, they will mourn for him
as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves
for a firstborn. Now in the Old Testament context,
This is actually a statement made by Yahweh himself, if you
look in the context in say verse 1 of chapter 12 of Zechariah.
And the Hebrew text literally may be translated here, they
will look on me on him whom they have pierced. That's the way
the ESV takes it. And then you have the other hymns
coming after that. So what this passage is referring
to Yahweh, in the first person as the one who is pierced, and
then it shifts into the third person to talk about Him. That
would seem odd if there were no Trinity. Right? And it would
be even more odd if Jesus wasn't God. But Jesus is God. So who is it speaking to Zechariah?
It's God the Son. himself being pierced. So although John simply says,
they shall look on him whom they pierced, there could be no doubt
that he sees Jesus as Yahweh himself when he cites this passage
as being fulfilled in the fact that Jesus was pierced with a
spear. And this means that John sees
the fulfillment of this prophecy as yet another evidence of the
deity of our Lord Jesus. See, why was he pierced though?
Because his legs hadn't been broken. And why weren't his legs
broken? Because he decided to give up
his life before it could happen. He initiated this chain of events.
These fulfillments of Scripture himself. Something he had revealed
about himself way back in the day of Zechariah. He brought
to pass. in the way He timed things in
accordance with the Father's plan on the cross. Wow! These things aren't just an accident. They were intended by our Lord.
But the fulfillment of this prophecy really has a double fulfillment.
There was a fulfillment that day, but the ultimate fulfillment
apparently awaits the future, because John brings it up again
in Revelation 1. And again, if you have a good
study Bible, it'll probably have both the Zechariah 12.10 and
the Revelation 1.7 referenced there. But I'll begin reading
in Revelation 1.4. where we have John talking about
writing letters to the seven churches. He reads, John, to
the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace
from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from
the seven spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ,
the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler
over the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests
to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with
clouds and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth
were mourned because of him." This is all a reference to Zechariah
12.10, which he had first referenced in his gospel as having a fulfillment. when Jesus was actually crucified.
So for John, there was a fulfillment of this prophecy of the crucifixion
of Jesus, but there's also fulfillment yet to come. This will happen only when Jesus
returns in the future. And the people who pierced him,
they wouldn't literally have pierced him like the Roman soldier
did. who thrust the spirit aside. He would have been pierced because
of them. D. A. Carson is again helpful when
he writes, John does not explain when they will look on the one
they have pierced. If John has in mind a referent
for they, he does not tell us. Yet, as at the cross, both executioners
and disciples saw the wound but in time perceive quite different
significance in that wound, so also both in this world and at
its end, men and women are confronted by the one whom they have pierced
and perceive very different things. One day, however, all will look
on him and mourn, whether in deep contrition or in grim despair."
I think he's right. Parson aptly points out here,
you and I are left with a choice. We can mourn in deep contrition
for our sins now and repent, as John would have us do, trusting in Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior, or we can mourn in grim despair at the future judgment
when it will be too late. But mourn we shall. So we've seen in this passage
how Jesus continued to fulfill the numerous Old Testament prophecies
concerning the Messiah, and in the process he demonstrated not
only the truthfulness and reliability of the Scriptures, but also of
his own deity. These are only some of the signs
about which John has written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life in his name. We've also seen that what we
have here is the eyewitness testimony of John himself, not simply second-hand
or third-hand or fourth-hand information from people perhaps
far removed from these events. This is the disciple who testifies
of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his
testimony is true. If you've already trusted in
Jesus Christ, If you've already believed that He is the Son of
God, that He is Lord, that He is Savior, that He died on the
cross for your sins and rose from the dead that you might
have life. If you've already trusted in what He did for you,
knowing that you cannot do anything to save yourself, that you must
accept what He's done for you as a free gift. If you've already
done that, then you should be greatly encouraged and strengthened
in your faith by what John says here. Your faith has not been
misplaced. Jesus really is who He says He
is. Be encouraged. Be strengthened in your faith.
The same Jesus who died on the cross and orchestrated so clearly
everything that was happening there, is Lord of your life. And He's in charge of everything
that's happening to you, too. And nothing's happening by accident.
Even if it looks like defeat for you sometimes, like it looked
for Jesus that day, He always has the victory. We
are always victorious in Christ. So be encouraged. He's shown
you who He is. He's God. He's in control. He loves you. He's made that
abundantly clear. We have John's testimony to that.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, for God's glory and for our good,
However, if you've not trusted in Christ, if you've not yet
seen that you're a sinner who owes allegiance to God, if you've
not yet been grieved by the fact that you've sinned against Him,
it's time for you to start recognizing that you have to answer to Him. And you can grieve for your sins
now and repent and trust in Him now, or you can bow the knee
come judgment day and grieve that you missed the opportunities,
that you didn't take the opportunities on your way to hell. And there
is a hell. And it's forever. So, this is the choice before
you today. Trust in Christ and have everlasting
life. Or reject Him and have eternal death. It's up to you. It's up to you. I urge you to trust Him today
and be warned that should you continue to reject Him, you're
left with that excuse. You're walking out of here today
as someone who ought to know better. And one day you'll see Him and
you'll regret that you didn't trust Him when He offered you
the chance to do so. Because He's in charge of the
fact that you're here today. Let's pray. Holy Father, I hope
that I've been able to clearly communicate what this passage
is all about in the context of John and of the rest of Scriptures. Faithful to the flow of thought
of the book of John and not reading things in, but seeing there the
things that you want us to see, that you clearly intended for
us to discover. Lord, I pray that the truth of your Word will impact
our hearts strongly today, if it hasn't done so already, that
those who know you will leave here even more confident than
when they came in. that their trust in Jesus is
not misplaced. They can count on him forever. Lord, for those who haven't yet
come to know you, we ask that you would please do for them
what you've done for us. Open their eyes, that they may
see. Grant them faith and repentance,
we pray. By the power of your Spirit,
grant them enabling grace to see Jesus for who He really is,
and to trust Him, and only Him is the one who can save them
from their sins. We'll give you all the glory
for what you do as a result of your words being proclaimed here
today, because every day we are more and more convinced that
you alone deserve all the glory. We want to praise you as our
great God and Savior. I pray these things in your name,
Lord Jesus. Amen.
Jesus is Always in Control
Series The Gospel of John
| Sermon ID | 33161936100 |
| Duration | 41:16 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 19:31-37 |
| Language | English |
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