John chapter 20. John chapter 20. The title of this sermon today, church, is Why This Was Written. Why This Was Written. We're gonna be kind of recapping some things, so we're gonna be all over the place, but primarily our text today is verses 30 through 31. So hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed 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 believing you may have life in his name. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church body. God, I thank you for the opportunity to bring the word today to preach from your Bible, from this sacred text. God, my words are not infallible. My words are not inerrant. I am an imperfect man. My Lord, you do something in this moment It's hard to reconcile exactly what happens, God, but you allow me to preach this word and you work in the hearts and minds of your people. This word is living. It changes us. It consoles us. It edifies us. And so God, I pray that that's what this message would do today. I pray, Lord, that we would remember why this was written, why John was written, and what that means for all of us now. And we would really see who the Christ is once again. How could we go wrong looking into once again who Christ is? And so Lord, I pray that you would bless our time. and you would give us focus on you. God, we have so many things that are constantly distracting us and taking us away from gazing at you, but I pray today that neither the enemy nor our flesh would distract us from your word, which is at hand. God, I give you all the praise. Please be with us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, we finished up last week looking at Jesus's greatest sign. He called it that in chapter two. In fact, he said he will rise again. He said he'll destroy this temple and he'll build it up in three days. He said, this will be a sign to you. We of course know that the blessed resurrection and all his appearance to Mary Magdalene, the apostles and Thomas are more than just a sign. but he calls it that nevertheless. And a sign is an attesting miracle. Attestation means something that proves or validates the truth of something or someone else, attestation. A miracle is an extraordinary occurrence, visible and observable, but otherwise is often not explainable. whether naturally or scientifically, supernatural would be the term to an attesting miracle or sign. A sign then is an observable event associated with supernatural power that proves the claims of Jesus Christ has full veracity, full truthfulness. When he acts, when he does something supernatural miraculous, it attests to, it validates who he is. For three years, the three years that Jesus of Nazareth was commissioned by his heavenly father to produce signs and wonders, to preach and teach, to correct and rebuke, to spread the gospel of the kingdom, and to make sure a group of Holy Spirit empowered followers would continue to share that good news, gaining even more followers, It's been the intent of God Almighty that the resurrection and the ascension of Christ would be the capstones, the capstone of his signs. You see, in a curved arch entryway, when they're building those, they take these stones. And they're building an arch, and mortar isn't enough. Mortar isn't strong enough. When you put a stone, you put some mortar, then you put it, because you have this circular angle. And so people, there's these forms holding the curve in place, the archway in place. And then finally at the end, they're about to meet. And then what is made is this stone is taken and it's chiseled down almost in kind of a triangle type shape. And it's called the capstone. It's wedged in the top of the archway. And it's not only the mortar alone that holds that archway, it's that capstone. Everything's held in perfect tension with that capstone. And I'm trying to say to you today that This resurrection that we've been looking at, this ascension, these things are the capstone. They hold all of these signs. All of these things that we've been seeing in John for the last two years, those things hold it all together. It proves that the archway is strong, that it's real, that it's true. You see, otherwise those signs are stones that are just loosely fit. They're glorious, they attest to who Jesus is, but with the resurrection and ascension, they all come together, not as many individual occurrences, but one singular everlasting foundation of the Christian faith that starts and ends with Jesus Christ. And John has been trying to get us to see that everything that he has recorded and more Things even in the other Gospels are all true. They're all true. Jesus rising from the dead is true. Jesus being what Thomas said, our Kurios, our Lord and our God, our Theos. We saw that last week, that's all true. He is the great I am, Yahweh from all eternity. He is the perfect Passover lamb. He is our sacrifice and his act on the cross was potent and efficacious enough to forgive the sins of a multitude of people near innumerable. That's what God tells Abraham, your descendants would be as numerous as the stars, as the sand on the seashore, as the dust particles in the air. So shall your descendants be. And we know with the New Testament writers that they pointed that Abrahamic covenant to the new covenant of Christ, that there would be so many saved. There's been so many saved from the beginning of creation until now. And that's what he's done. Everything I have taught you all by God's grace for the past two years is true. Everything from this word is true for the past two years that we've been looking at it. And that's why after the resurrection appearances, John steps out of his narrative. Did you notice that? John steps out of his narrative in verses 30 and 31, because we're going through at the end, you have Mary Magdalene, you have the apostles, then a visitation to Thomas, then all of a sudden John comes out of it. And he says here, Well, let me answer the question is, why did the evangelist choose the signs that we saw in this book? Why did he write this book? Why did John write the gospel according to John? And this is the reason why, verses 30 and 31. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed 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 believing you may have life in his name. So I think what we're going to do today is we will marvel at the things that Jesus did, both inside John and a couple things outside of John. And finally, we'll end with the implications of what John says here, believing Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, you may have life in his name. So just so you know, we have two more sermons in John after this. We're going to split chapter 21 in half. So the next two weeks will be in John, and then we'll be moving on. And so the best way to remember is typically to look back, right? You look at a photo album, you look at old pictures, you look at old things you wrote to remember. So let's do that now, okay? Verse 30 begins with therefore, and so we have to go back and see what it's there for. So in verse 29, which is what we ended with last week, Jesus said to Thomas, because you have seen me, have you believed? Then he gave that beatitude, blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. So the stream of thought then is that there are many who have not seen the risen Christ as John and the others did, but even they have believed because of their eyewitness. But now, he says, this book has been composed so that whoever reads it may believe just as they did. Just as John and the apostles and Mary did. Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. Blessed are those who didn't touch the nail holes. Blessed are those who didn't touch the spear wound. Blessed are those who didn't see the empty tomb and Jesus materialize in a locked room and make many appearances over 40 days before he ascended to heaven. Blessed are those who didn't see him go into the sky and ascend into heaven. Blessed are all those who didn't see these things, he says, and yet believed. They believed. At the same time, God didn't want any of this forgotten. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words shall by no means pass away. I think in some way, John writes these verses on behalf of not only himself, but the other New Testament writers, the letter writers, the gospel writers. These things were written so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ. That's the Old and New Testaments. This was written. Your Bible is in your hands so that you would believe Jesus is the Christ and believing you would have life in his name. You see, they didn't want these words to survive 50 years. They didn't want these words to survive 250 years, 1,000 years, or even 2,000 years. These words will forever, and I'm telling you, these words will forever stand as a testament to Jesus Christ forever. Always. And in addition to this, John admits there have been many, the word is palus, a great many, that's where we get the word poly, a great many other signs that Jesus performed and they were not written in this book. Now, that's not meant to subvert the finality of the resurrection or cause us to question if we're missing anything important. Why did John say that? Are we missing anything that we need? No. God has given you in his word exactly what you need to believe this, that Jesus is the Christ. But, What this is saying is Jesus's impact on the world had a wider spread than just the selected signs that John chose to include here. So later on, John will eventually say, if you try to write down all the things that Jesus did, all the books in the world could not contain them, such is the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we recap the seven main signs of John, there were seven main signs that John chose to put in his gospel, let's consider two other signs that were not in the gospel of John, okay? Because he says there were many other things. Let's talk about at least two of them, okay? So to do that, we would look at the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and by the way, If you've ever read those, if you're new to the Bible, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you say you see similar stories. That's why they're called the Synoptic Gospels. S-Y-N means together. Optic means seeing. Matthew, Mark, and Luke mean to be seeing them together. They're a block together. John is a bit different, but there's much overlap in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. One thing that John didn't choose at all to show. You might have noticed this. There's not one demon exorcism in the whole Gospel of John. There's not one. And so let's look at that. The Old Testament prophesied that at the coming of the Messiah, evil spirits or demons will be on the rise. They'd be more active, and sure enough, they were. At the first century, when Jesus comes on the scene, there's demonic possession everywhere, and it says in Matthew 8, verse 16, when evening came, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast out the evil spirits with a word, a single word. We don't know exactly how, but demons or evil spirits or fallen angels were able to occupy the physical bodies of humans. And they were doing that and afflicting those whom they possessed. Some of the spirits would make their host do various things against their will. Some spirits, it says, would make the host cut themselves. Some demons made their hosts throw themselves into the fire. You see that in the gospel, throw themselves into the fire and get burned. Some demons would make their hosts mute. They couldn't speak. It says some were even sick. It says demons were bent. I'm sorry, it seems that demons were bent on making those whom they inhabited either sin, or to experience torment, and often sin. This isn't something like someone was so righteous in serving God, and all of a sudden a demon came into them. This is something where sin led to demon possession, and that's how it happened in the first century here. But Colossians says that Jesus is the head. It says the head over all authorities, rulers, and principalities. He put them to open shame. All he has to do is say a single word. That's what we see, that's the powerful word of God. The creator Jesus speaks angels into existence and then he speaks to order them. in his creation on what to do. When Jesus removed the demon from the mute man in Matthew 9, Matthew 9.33, it says, after the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed and were saying this. The people said, nothing like this has ever been seen in all of Israel. Never. Mark records that the demons even recognized the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark 5.7. And shouting with a loud voice, the demon said, what business do we have to do with you, Jesus, son of the most high God? I implore you, do not torment me before the time. It says that Jesus would often not permit the demons to speak. He would shut their mouths and they knew who he was. We see that. They knew who he was. They were terrified. Every time Jesus encounters one, they beg him to let them go somewhere else. They're afraid of the judgment. They're afraid of the impending punishment. They'll go to the lake of fire that burns forever and ever, and demons will dwell there forever. And they're like, don't send us to the lake of fire yet. Let us go possess someone else. Let us go into this swine. Don't torment us before the time. And so Jesus removed demons with ease, with ease. You say, well, the apostles removed demons. The apostles did exorcisms by the name and power of Jesus, requesting power from on high, a power foreign to them. Jesus didn't have to do that. It was in him. This was a supernatural sign. This was a supernatural sign. The other sign of great significance, John didn't record, which people think is huge. How could John not put this in here? But John had an agenda. We'll go over that. How could John not have put this in here, the transfiguration? Go to Matthew 17 in your Bibles or go to the printout. Or just listen, Matthew 17, let's look at verses one through six. Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. Jesus' face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, and listen to him. And when the disciples heard this, they fell down to the ground and were terrified. You see, when you think of the transfiguration, what I think about is the fact that Jesus never lost divinity. He never lost his deity while he possessed humanity. He had both all at the same time. He was just as much deity or just as much God than before he even left the heavenly realm. He was never separated from the Trinity, from the Godhead, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. There were aspects of Jesus we did not see though, because of his taking on of humanity, though they were there nevertheless. You see, this is the mystery. This is what's hard to fathom. All at once, Jesus was omnipotent, all powerful, and yet, He got tired in his humanity, all powerful and got tired all at once. He didn't leave it in heaven. It wasn't in a glove box somewhere. He was all of it all at once. He was omniscient. He was all knowing, but deferred to the father on the timing of his return in his humanity. He was omnipresent. That blows people's minds. Jesus, the Son of God, was omnipresent at that time and yet was confined to one physical locality on earth in His humanity. These things were all at once. They were all in tension. And in this moment, on this mountain, Jesus gives a great sign. He shows them his glory. And you might think of that John 17 prayer, the glory that I shared with you, Father, before the world was. And boom, his face shone like the sun, full on glory. Try staring at the sun with no clouds in the sky for more than a second. It's blinding. Such was the radiant glory of Christ. And so we see Peter and John and James have the wrong mentality. Let's make three tabernacles. Let's make three tents for each of you. And so then all of a sudden, A bright cloud comes and overshadows them. And you might be thinking of the bright cloud in Exodus. the pillar of cloud by day that they would follow. And it was bright and there was the Shekinah glory. They knew the presence of God was in the cloud. And in a similar way, this cloud comes and overshadows them and says, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And the father says, listen to him. He says, this is the son. This is the son of God. Type of type. Kind of kind. Divine of divine. The Son is of the same substance as the Father. Not a lesser substance. Same substance. And this, in this moment when the Father speaks, this is attestation. This is validation. Jesus is no mere mortal. He is no mere prophet. He's not like Moses or Elijah. Give them all three a tabernacle. No, give Jesus alone your praise, men. He's God in the flesh. And when the father commands them to listen to him, that is a command to believe all that Jesus has spoken or will speak. When the father says, listen to my son, it's like his words are my words. His voice is my voice. We are one. This was the other great sign in the Synoptic Gospels. Now with that, I want to cover the seven signs in John that we've gone over these past two years. Some of you have been with us from the beginning. Some of you, this will be stuff you might know because you've read the Gospel of John already, but this will be a good recap. You're going to see a theme here, okay? I told you in August of 2022 that the gospel according to John can be seen in four sections, okay? What's called the prologue of John, which is in John chapter one, verses one through 18, then from there all the way to chapters two through 12 are called the book of signs. 2-12 are called the book of signs, and then chapters 13-20, ending with our verses today, are called the book of Christ's glory. And then chapter 21 is the epilogue. So that should be easy to remember. Chapter one, the prologue, and then you have the book of signs through to chapter 12, then chapters 13 through 20, which we're finishing today, is the book of Christ's glory. And then the final chapter is the epilogue. That's how it ends, okay? So what I want you to think about is creation. creation themes in John. For instance, the first sign of Jesus was on the seventh day of his earthly ministry. The seventh day. His first sign was on the seventh day of his ministry. Six days previously was his baptism. It was his interactions with John the Baptist. It was his acquiring of the apostles. On the seventh day that Jesus started his ministry, then the signs began. And I find that interesting because, you know, in the creation, God created the world in six days and on the seventh was his, what? His rest, Sabbath. And so when God created everything, he rested on the seventh day. When Jesus started his earthly ministry, the work began. The work began for us so that real rest would come to us. So the signs of Jesus started on the seventh day of his ministry. It says in our verses today that Jesus performed many other signs and we just went over two, but then he says, but these have been written. These, what are these? These are the seven signs. So if you want, sign number one is in John chapter two. I'm gonna recap it. I'm gonna summarize it. You can turn there if you'd like. John chapter two, Jesus attended a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the host ran out of wine. And in this moment, we see several important symbols as the wine has run out. First, verse six shows that Jesus told them to get these six stone water pots, and those water pots were used for the Jewish purification ritual, washing, purity, cleansing. And those are the vessels that Jesus has the wine materialize in. Jewish purification vessels, okay? These pots of water though couldn't truly purify anyone. The people would have to wash for purity and again and again and again and impurity and staining would continue to come back and they need to rewash with these purification water pots. But Christ brings new cleansing that lasts. So after the water pots are filled, with creation power, the creator in the flesh, Jesus makes the water into exceptional wine. And there are so many messianic prophecies. I'm telling you, if you did a search, there are so many messianic prophecies that speak of the messianic age, the arrival of the Christ, associated with the abundance of wine. the flowing of wine and vineyards and grapes and productivity and fruitfulness. And so that's what we have here. And not only that, but the wine is a symbol for his blood. You see, the water in the purification pots won't do it, but his blood cleanses forever. And lastly, here in this first sign, Jesus steps. into this wedding, and from the moment he steps in, the people who were there may not have known it, but he eclipses all other people in the story. John's point in sharing that first sign of turning water into wine is that even though the head steward honored the bridegroom, it is Jesus who receives the honor. It is Jesus who is celebrated. It is Jesus who's the true bridegroom, okay? These are people who are getting the praise when he should have gotten it all. There are speeches honoring the groom and the bride. There are award shows to display honor and prestige to people with high achievements. And most of those type of people are so concerned with self-promotion, but not Jesus. He's too humble. He's the one who turned the water into wine, but he takes no praise, but even still. The bride, which is called the church, will give praise to no one else save him. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The whole world will know his name. Revelation 19, seven says, let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Jesus is the bridegroom who came for his bride. This is the first sign. Next, the second sign. Go to John chapter four, verses 46 through 54. John four, 46 through 54. This is the healing of the nobleman's son. Jesus, at this point in time, had just experienced cheap faith, the cheap faith of the Galileans who wanted signs in Jerusalem. They wanted to see him do miracles, not so that they would believe in him, but so that they would treat him like some sort of magician, some miracle man. And Jesus was making his way back north from Jerusalem. And while he was back in the region, a royal official of Herod Antipas heard of Jesus's miracles. And this man comes to Cana to ask Jesus to heal his son, okay? And in this text, we see the desperation in the efforts and words of this man. He'd do anything for his son. My son's dying. My child is dying. My child is sick. Please save him. And he didn't realize that Jesus could grant eternal life, even so, which would avoid the clutches of death altogether. Ultimately, this man, the royal official, sees only his temporal need, okay? And so at the imploring to save his son, Jesus gives a rebuke, not just meant for this royal official, but for the Galileans as well, that they truly don't believe in him because they follow him only on the basis of his supernatural wonders, not because of his word, not because of who he says he is. They follow because they want to see tricks. But the man still continues, the man begs and in verse 49, he says, sir, come down before my child dies. And what's interesting is the roles have been reversed. This is a high ranking official from Herod. He's a royal official. But Jesus is the true royal official. He's the one with the real power. He's the real king. And so the man humbles himself, believing only Jesus can remedy this, but he still thinks Jesus needs to perform it in person. Come down with me, come to my son, come heal him. But our God can command healing even miles away. Jesus is not bound by the creation he made. And we see in this sign that Jesus has come to bring healing, healing that culminates into eternal life. And so at that point, Jesus makes an imperative for the father in verse 50, and he tells the man, go. He commands him, go and travel home. And Jesus says, your son lives. And we're gonna, in that, you start to see the change of the man. It says that he believed the word of Jesus, and that's essential. He believed the word. And so while the father was traveling back to his home, now wondering if his son is alive or dead, a slave comes and meets the man on the road and says, your son is alive, and not only that, he's well. And the man thinks, Was that Jesus? And so he asks the slave, at what time was my son perfectly healed? And the slave tells the father the time, and it was the exact time that Jesus spoke, your son lives. The exact time. And it says that that man believed that Jesus is the Christ, and he went home and he told his whole family, and it says his whole family believed. So the point is there in that sign, believing goes beyond what we can see and must be in what Christ has spoken, okay? That's true faith. That is the second sign. Now for the third sign. Go to John chapter five, verses one through 15. This is the healing of the paralytic. You might think, Pastor Wade, are there really only seven true signs in the gospel of John? Yes, there's only seven. You'll see dozens in the other gospels, but John chose seven, okay? Number three, the healing of the paralytic. So sometime after Jesus' stay in Galilee, he went down to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Just northeast of the temple was the Sheep Gate, and by the Sheep Gate was what was called the Pool of Bethesda. And the pool of Bethesda was made up of two pools. And there were five colonnades around it, like patios or gazebo type things, you know, over the pools. And around these pools in Jerusalem were sick people of all types. You had blind people, you had lame people, you had crippled people, paralyzed people, and the Jews, including the man who was here sick, it says, for 38 years. Sick for 38 years. And these people believed that this pool had healing powers. If it was stirred up properly, an angel would stir it up, and if they got into the waters fast enough, they would be healed of their infirmity. And so everyone's always racing to see the pool stirred up and to get their body in there. Shoot, 38 years I've been trying to get into this pool to heal me, but I can't get there fast enough because no one will carry me. That's the man's plight. And so Jesus goes to this man, aside from all the others, and asks him if he wishes to become well. And three times in this passage, the word ginomai or egineto are used, which points back to the prologue pointing to the eternal word made flesh who created everything. Those are words of creating power. And so Jesus came to recreate. He came to heal. He came to bring salvation. And so Jesus heals this man. He's miraculously walking, but he continues to be spiritually paralyzed. According to verses 10 through 16, Jesus commands the man to get up, pick up your pallet and walk. But the Jewish authorities see the man carrying the pallet, which is against what's called the 39 categories of Sabbath prohibitions, which were according to the traditions of the elders, this wasn't the command of God. There were 39 categories of hundreds and thousands of things that you couldn't do on the Sabbath. Tons of things, and picking up your bed was one of the things that went against the tradition of the elders. And so we see that these men are spiritually paralyzed too. They overlook, that's what's radical, is this man, everyone knows this was the man who was sick and paralyzed for 38 years, and he comes walking up to them, and what do they think? They're like, you're not following the rules. And he's like, I'm walking. They're not looking at the fact that there's a supernatural occurrence here, they're looking at the fact that he broke rules. And so what does the man do? He fears man, he doesn't fear God, and the man tells on Jesus. Oh, it was this man named Jesus who healed me. It was this man. And so then Jesus sees this man and he tells him, sin no more. because your unbelief has led to this, and he says, lest something worse happen to you. Be not unbelieving, but believing. Turn from this, because the fact is, temporal healing in this life does no one good if they don't receive eternal healing as well. That's what matters most. And so what this account will eventually unfold into is the fact that these people disregard Jesus as the Messiah, they disregard the will of the Father in the works of Christ, and they affirm their fidelity to a superstitious pool of water. The waters heal us. It's not the waters. Anytime anyone is healed, it's God. It's God, but they maintain their rule keeping and their superstition. And then it said in verse 17 in John 5, my father is working now until now and I myself is working. And if you remember, the Jews then accused him. They said, you're making yourself out to be equal with God. And he is. He is, my father's working and I'm working because they are one. Jesus is the healer, he's the Lord of the Sabbath, and he is the solution, not superstitions. Jesus is the solution, not superstitions, and he is God. This is the third sign. The fourth sign begins in John chapter six. Go to John six, verses one through 14. This is the feeding of the 5,000. 5,000 men was the number. A large crowd had begun to follow Jesus past the Sea of Galilee, John chapter six. And once again, these people were following Jesus to look for miracles that would benefit themselves. And the Passover sets the stage for the rest of chapter six, where Jesus says he's the bread of life. And to demonstrate how Christ is the bread of life and he's the lamb sacrificed for sin, there's this moment of the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus sees the people coming. They're out in the wilderness. They're beyond the east side of the Sea of Galilee. They've gone with him for miles. And the people coming, they've been hungry. They've been following them for hours. They're starving and it says that Jesus has compassion on them and there is no food out there. No food at all. So the Apostles Philip and Andrew who can't see beyond the natural realm, they have yet to understand what all this Messiah can and will do. They see an obstacle, not the omnipotent one. And so Andrew and Philip say, let's go in, let's send them away, let them go into the towns and eat. And Jesus is like, no, no, I'll feed them. And so they find a young boy who had five barley loaves and two fish, which Jesus acquired, then offered a blessing to God as our benevolent providing creator. And Jesus distributes the food to the people. What's interesting is Jesus delegated the task of telling the people to sit down and calm down to the apostles. but it says specifically that Jesus was the one who fed the people. So they went around and they gave each person bread and fish. With great messianic fulfillment, Jesus miraculously provides an abundance of food for what we know to be, if there were 5,000 men, it's likely there were anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 people there. And there was only, two loaves of bread, or five barley loaves, and two fish, and he's able to feed up to 20,000 people. It's amazing. This account is very reminiscent of Elijah. Elijah did something similar for the people during a famine, but this is much larger scale. Jesus is then greater than the prophet Elijah. And so the people see the sign. They saw him with that small amount. In fact, Jesus raised his hands and he thanked God in heaven. And then he started ripping pieces and it multiplied. And the people noticed, they're like, how was he able to feed 20,000 people? And then it says that they thought to take him by force to make him their king. Wow, this really is the miracle worker we're following. Let's make him our king. And it's said that they try to take him by force, and Jesus evades them. He goes off and he prays by himself. Why? Why would Jesus not want all the people to come around him and say, we're going to make you our king? Because in that moment, they wanted to make him an earthly king who would do siege warfare and remove the Romans. But Jesus knew that there was a greater evil than the Romans. Sin and death. And this evil would only be conquered by his own sacrifice. Not the killing of many lives, not siege warfare, okay? So in this sign, we see that he is the creator. He can multiply creation and he multiplies the bread and fish with the word. This is the fourth sign. The fifth sign is also in John six, verses 16 through 21, fifth sign. After the feeding of the 5,000, the crowds went away, the disciples headed for their boat to cross the Sea of Galilee alone. Jesus stays at the shore and he prays, but he's not alone. These disciples go off in the boat by themselves, okay? And so the text draws a link between being alone without Jesus and being in darkness. And that's what happened. You have the apostles all by themselves in a boat. They're starting to cross the Sea of Galilee. Jesus stays on the shore to pray, and all of a sudden, darkness rolls in. Thunder rolls in, a wind came down, and the Sea of Galilee started raging and storming, and it was chaos, and it was darkness, and it was fear for these apostles. Jesus isn't with them. And in this particular account, the darkness and chaos come from that violent windstorm. It stirred up the Sea of Galilee in ancient times, and even now, The Sea of Galilee is considered a place of violence. All seas are, all oceans are places of disorder, places of violence, where those in it are thrashed around at the will of the waters. But this is one of the most divine miracles of Jesus. It truly is amazing. The waters are storming, wind is blowing, lightning's flashing, thundering is going. The apostles are afraid for their lives. They're crying out to God and all of a sudden they see a figure walking on the sea, treading on the chaos. The Prince of Peace stamps on chaos. It's firm under his feet. He walks on the waters. Next to him, what I imagine is the waters are raging and they're doing nothing to him. I think the waters started to look tame compared to the fact that Jesus looked fierce. Jesus was strong. The creator controls what seems to be uncontrollable creation. Unlike Moses, Moses can part the sea. Moses can't walk on it. And this statement in verse 20 should remind them of the one true God, the Lord. Jesus says, it is I, do not be afraid. And in the Greek New Testament, literally what is often translated it is I is ego eimi. I am, do not be afraid. He says the name of God, I am, do not be afraid. It's as if all that they need to overcome this fear is in the fact that Jesus is the I am. He walks on water, church. He stamps on the waves. The thunder comes behind him, the lightning shoots behind him, and they're fearful, and they're like, this is God. And it says that Jesus came into the boat and then all of a sudden he rebuked the seas and it became calm. And then there's this interesting verse where it's as if he propelled the boat to shore. And it says in Matthew's gospel that at that moment that Jesus came in and calmed the seas, it said that they worshiped him. Those are the exact words, they worshiped him. And if he wasn't the I am, I am, do not be afraid. If he wasn't the I am, he should reject the worship. Don't worship me, but he received it. They worshiped him in that boat. This is the creator. This is incredible. This is the fifth sign. For the sixth sign, go to chapter nine. The sixth sign of Jesus in the gospel of John. After leaving the temple, when the Jews tried to stone Jesus for claiming the words before Abraham was I am, Jesus saw a man born blind from birth. Profoundly the creator God who is in the flesh sees the one who is ailing, okay? That's what's amazing is God sees those in need and he comes to them As much as we cry out to God, he also sees us in our need before we know we even need him. And so at this moment, the disciples see this man born blind and the apostles come to Jesus and ask him a theological question. They're pointing at the man born blind and they're like, Jesus, did this man sin or did his parents sin for him to be born blind? They ask him this theological question, the relationship between sin and infirmities, and Jesus does not disregard sin and fallenness, incurring sickness, but he clarifies that personal and individual sin does not always result in sickness and weakness. There's a correlation, but not always. Job is a great example of that. He didn't do anything to incur what he received. Sin, what he received wasn't a result of his own personal sin. And Jesus says, this man was not born blind because of parent's sin or his sin. It's so that these people would see the glory of God, that they would see the works of God through him. That's what he says. This has a purpose. This ailment has a purpose. He says that it will be the shining of the light of the world. He speaks to himself, the shining of the light of the world will shine through this man born blind. It'll impact many other people. And what this means for us is that even in our ailments, even in our sicknesses, even in our diseases and conditions, those are not realities of futility. You getting sick, you receiving something, that's not futile. That's not vanity. It means something. It's going to do something. God's gonna redeem it. God's gonna work through it. He's gonna sanctify you through what you suffer with. And so, These are opportunities for God's glory, our maturity, and they act as testimonies to others of God's sufficient grace. It's character building humility. Jesus then establishes that the light must work the works of God while it is still day. He says night is coming with his time here on earth. Well, he will be killed, he will be buried, then he will rise again. Night is coming and we have to work while it's still day. And so then Jesus takes some dirt from the ground and he takes his own spittle and he makes a clay pack. And he takes his spit and he takes the dirt and he makes clay and he places it on the man's eyes. And so the man, he commands him to wash in the pool of Siloam. And immediately the man gained his sight. And this is the foreshadow of the spiritual sight that this man is going to receive later. This man is going to believe later in this chapter. And so, This man then becomes a powerful witness of Jesus the Christ, and he tells all his neighbors of what Christ did for him. He's healed, he can see. And so at the end of this sign though, the point that John's trying to show is that healing in this life is only secondary. Healing that grants eternal life is primary. Not to mention as the creator who can heal and make blind eyes see, notice the other nod to creation. You see, before God spoke, there was darkness over the surface of the deep. This man was in darkness. Sin is our darkness, but God said, let there be light. And just as Jesus told the man that he is the light, and just as how he transferred us to the kingdom of light, There is that creation theme, okay? This is the sixth sign. Now for the seventh sign in John. This is in chapter 11. The seventh sign in John, bear with me, we're getting through. After a purposeful delay, Jesus finally arrives to Bethany, the village of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, his close friends. Bethany is in the south. It's just east of Jerusalem. It's by the Mount of Olives. And Lazarus has already been dead for four days. And Martha, as Jesus arrives, comes out to meet him. And as Jesus was nearing, she demonstrated her desperation and grief. And how many times do we do what Martha does? She said, Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. And how many times have you cried out, oh Lord, if only you did this, oh, if only you had been here, if only, if only God, then this, then this, then this wouldn't happen. And we've said that ourselves. She's just, we're just like her. But then she showed a confidence in Jesus. He's able, he can do all things. Jesus says, Lazarus will rise again. Martha thinks he's speaking of the final day, the final resurrection. Jesus then makes one of the most powerful statements. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. And he calls her to stop having faith in the final day and have faith in him. Don't have faith in an impersonal final day, a final resurrection, have faith in the personal resurrection, Jesus the Christ. Because there is no hope for resurrection and internal life outside of Jesus Christ. And this eternal life is such a sure thing for those who believe that it's as if that reality we're here in now, it's as if they will never die. In fact, Jesus minimizes death so much here in John 11. He says, Lazarus is sleeping. He's just sleeping. He's just sleeping. And so with Christ, there will be salvific life. There'll be life in the kingdom of God and life that is everlasting. Martha believes this and she runs back to her sister and she goes to get Mary. Let me get my sister Mary. And when Mary saw Jesus, And by the way, the crowds followed Mary. Mary's like, all the crowds are like, maybe she's going to the tomb, but Mary, Martha comes and tells Mary, the Lord is here. And Mary starts to go out to Jesus. The crowds follow her. And when their eyes meet, when her eyes meet the Lord Jesus Christ, desperation and grief causes her to collapse. Mary falls at Jesus's feet and she says the same thing as Martha did, but with far more emotion. If only you had been here, my brother would not have died. And so when Jesus sees her weeping, when he sees the Jews weeping, it says something happened to him. It says that he was outraged in his spirit. It says specifically that he stirred himself up. And the reason he was like this was because he had finally come face to face with man's greatest foe, death. What Satan did and sin did to desecrate his creation, that is the fall, all these things, caused Jesus to look upon the grief of this woman, the friend whom he loved, the grief of the Jews standing there. He looked upon all of it. And it says in two words, the shortest verse in the entire Bible, Jesus wept. Jesus wept. He didn't cry specifically for Lazarus. He knew he was about to raise Lazarus. He wept for his people. He wept for you and me. He wept for the fact that sin has come into this world and brought death to us, and that is not good. God created all things, and he said, this is good, this is good, this is good. Death is not good. And so Jesus weeps. Only the fulfillment of his mission could fix this, And what he was about to do next was on the trajectory of that. And so Jesus is outraged in his innermost being, and he looks upon death. The wages of sin have taken a toll on the world that he created so long ago, and it's time to reverse that curse. So Jesus approaches the cave that Lazarus has been sleeping in, and he commands for the stone covering to be removed. And Martha says what? Martha's like, teacher, master, don't do it. By now, it's been four days, there's a stench. The stench of death is in that tomb. Don't open it. But Jesus says, no. Roll the door away. Jesus reminds her that if she believes she will see the glory of God, For humans, we often need to see the results of God's promises, others' promises, but we ought to take it at his word. So upon removing the stone from the cave, Jesus prayed to the father and thanked him in such a way that as if Jesus had already privately communed with his father, that they had already planned to raise Lazarus, which of course they did. This is a Trinitarian act. And so Jesus shouts with that universe-making voice, the voice that calms the seas, the voice that commands demons to flee, and he yelled. And his yelling was coupled with his righteous indignation against sin and death. And in all that power, Jesus says, Lazarus, come forth. And I argue that if Jesus had not said the name Lazarus, every dead person on earth would have risen. Such is the power of God. Lazarus, come forth. And the dead man was alive and Jesus commanded the people, unbind him from these grave clothes. And this in this seventh sign of Jesus in the gospel of John was to be a foretaste. of what he would do for everyone. This is the seventh sign. And remember, on the seventh day of creation, God rested from all his labors, it's the Sabbath. And we see that Jesus raising Lazarus from the grave is on that seventh sign, like the seventh day. Real rest lies not in a casket, Real rest is not six feet underground. Real rest is with Jesus at the resurrection. But only one thing would secure this resurrection for us. We've gone through seven signs, but not even all of these will save us. Not all of these will save us. They're making the ark, but we need the capstone. And so although scholars agree that there are seven signs that Jesus performed in John's gospel, I would argue that there's an eighth, the eighth sign. So just as the light dawned brightly on the empty tomb that morning that Jesus rose, and the sun rose in radiance, At the rising of the Son of God, the resurrection of Jesus is making everything new. And this is what's interesting. Hang with me here. We've had, on the seventh day, Jesus started his signs. After his baptism, after getting the disciples, he started the signs on his seventh day of ministry. There were seven signs in the Gospel of John, and now? Some have called this the eighth sign, Jesus raising himself from the grave. This is like the eighth day, the eighth sign, the eighth day. And often the eighth day is called the Lord's day. It's called the new Sabbath, the day that truly secured our rest. And so the first day of the week, which is today, today's Sunday, the first day of the week can often not be called the first day of the week. This is the eighth day. This is the day of the eighth sign. Sons were circumcised on the eighth day, given the sign of the covenant. But in this eighth day, in this eighth sign, the new creation, Christ gives us by his resurrection the new Sabbath, the new rest, the new circumcision, the new covenant mark. Paul says in Romans and Colossians that we've been circumcised in our hearts. That's the new covenant sign, the eighth sign, the eighth day. And so at the resurrection comes regeneration. And so I hope you see the pattern now. Jesus made the water into wine, wielding creation power. Jesus made a dying child perfectly well, reversing the effects of the curse given in Genesis 3 after creation. Jesus healed the paralytic man in the pools of Bethesda, showing God is the source of healing, not magical waters. Jesus could multiply bread and fish to provide for his creatures, just as in the creation in Genesis 1, God created food in abundance to go over the surface of the earth. Then our Lord tread on the chaotic stormy sea of Galilee, walking on water with power. And get this, in Genesis 1, what happened? God was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was moving over what? The surface of the waters in Genesis one. Jesus healed the man born blind. He took him out of darkness and said, I am the light of the world. Just as God proclaimed with a word, let there be light. And there was light in Genesis. Then in pure wonder and majestic glory, Jesus doesn't just stop people from dying and heal them, he can bring people back even after death has taken them as we saw with Lazarus. As Jesus spoke for Lazarus to come forth, it was the same breath that breathed life into the man in Genesis 2. When he said, come forth, Jesus's breath came out, just like the breath that went into the man, into the dirt, into the dust and made man a living thing. Creation power. and to remove the greatest assault on his own creation. You see, Jesus made it good. He made it perfect. Then sin came into the world. And so Jesus has to make all things new. He has to restore it. In fact, he'll make it better. And so what does he do? Jesus became the curse for us. He bore the wrath. He took our shame on a cross made of wood from what? A tree that he spoke into existence. Nailed with nails of iron that He wrought in the depths of the earth. Pierced, killed by His own creation. murdered by the own creatures he spoke into existence, taking on the curse after his perfect creation was made. Then in John, one sign, two sign, three sign, fourth sign, sixth sign, seventh sign, those days of creation, then boom, the eighth sign, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death died that day when Jesus rose. It was defeated by Jesus Christ. He is now the creator. and the recreator. This is the eighth and most magnificent sign for all humanity for all time. And this sign, what's amazing is this sign he will perform on us as well. You see, in the seventh sign, Lazarus died again. Jesus rose Lazarus from the grave, but then Lazarus died again from natural causes. But in the eighth sign, Jesus lives forevermore and says, so shall you. You'll live like me. So to wrap this up, All of this, as verse 31 says, has been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name. You see, church, the gospel of John wasn't written so that you would become a better person. This wasn't written to give you good life lessons. This wasn't written to give you fables you can share to your children. This wasn't written to give us America. This was written so that you may believe, firstly, that Jesus is the Christ. This wasn't written so that you would believe Jesus is a good man. This wasn't written so that you would believe that Jesus was a great rabbi. This wasn't written so that you would just think that Jesus was an awesome prophet of God who could do wonders. This was written so that you may believe that he is the Christ, the I am, the divine son of God, and then believing in him, you may have life in his name. You say, I already have life. I'm sitting here. I'm living, Pastor Wade. No, you have the first life. You were given Genesis. You need re-Genesis. You were given creation. You need re-creation. You need regeneration. You have temporal life. You need eternal life. The re-Genesis life. Life without end. Life forever in the presence of our God. You'll have the forgiveness of sins. and you'll be in the presence of your Lord forever. And notice the basis of this life is not the greatest amount of good works you have. It's not being in the most perfect church organization. He came because none of that availed before a holy and righteous God. None of that worked. He came for you because you couldn't come to him. He came for you because you couldn't come to him. So as John says here, he says, believe, believe, believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And so whether you have already believed here or not, today as a minister of the gospel, as we looked back at these signs and we look at the eighth sign that we saw today, I simply call all of us to believe in Jesus Christ and what he did, all to his glory. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word that went out today. Thank you, God, for that wonderful recap of all that Jesus did. He is the perfect creator. He is the recreator. He's making all things new. He's made us new creations in Christ. He's taken out our old hearts and given us new hearts. He's given us the Spirit. And we've been given eternal life, new life. And that new life is going to be fully realized at your return, Lord Jesus. And so God, we thank you for this. God, I pray for everyone that they would know that Jesus isn't just The one who can give us Genesis, but he can give us regeneration, re-Genesis. And so God, please do a work here among your people. Let us marvel at you today. God, I pray that the hearts of your people would worship you today. God, we worship you, hallelujah. To you, Lord God, glory be to your name, Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to your name. May you have all dominion and power and glory and honor. Lord Jesus Christ, we bow to you today and forevermore. We love you, Lord Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right, well, let's take the Lord's Supper to celebrate.