Bible Survey - John

And so it's the fourth of the four Gospels written by the Apostle John, likely about 85-90 AD. While the Gospel of John presents some accounts that are in parallel, there's a lot of the Gospel of John that's unique. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are called the Synoptic Gospels because there's a lot of it that is in parallel. Scholars debate as to which one was written first, and who copied from whom, and those kinds of things. But the Gospel of John has some very unique material. A lot of it is unique, and we'll take a look at that at the end as we have time.

Whereas Matthew is written to the Jews and Mark to the Romans, Luke to the Hellenists, and then John to the Greek world. Now, let's ask the question, what's the difference between the Hellenists and the Greek world? What's the distinction there? Well, the Hellenists, as you've been describing them, were Jews who were under the Greek influence. Yes. Yeah, the Greeks were real Greeks, right? Yeah. So the Hellenists, we use that term for Jews who are under Greek influence, and then the Greeks are those who are Greek, in whom the language and culture is native.

So, in summary here, under the portrait of Jesus, Jesus is the fully divine Son of God in whom we should believe to receive eternal life, the I Am, and we'll talk about that down below, of God. John 20.31 is a key verse. This is John writing his purpose statement, and that's the way John does in both Revelation and the Gospel of John, he writes a purpose statement. These things are written that you might believe, and that believing you might have life through his name. And John writes not about having faith, not about de-faith, John writes about believing.

Somewhere around a hundred times. Just lots and lots. So here's John. He has a brother, had a brother, James. Actually, we use the word James, but it's more close to Jacob in the original language. So Jesus' half-brother, we say, is James, but it's really Jacob. And in the original language, Yaakov. So it's quite a leap from there, James. So you have John and James, the sons of Zebedee. At one point their mother asked that they have special honors. Why do you think she was going for that? Why do you think she was going for that? How would she be so bold as to ask for special honors for my sons?

Here's something to think about, and we'll touch on a little bit later here, but John seems to have connections with the upper crust of Jewish society in Israel, and particularly connections with the Sanhedrin, and connections with the priesthood that the other writers don't seem to have.

Here's some examples. Nicodemus, John chapter 3. Nicodemus is one of the people on the Sanhedrin, right? One of the guys on the Sanhedrin. And John is the one who writes about him, not the other gospel authors. When Peter wants to get into the courtyard of the high priest, who gets him in? John. John gets him in. They recognize John. They didn't know Peter. They weren't going to let Peter in. But they recognize John. John gets Peter into the courtyard. Then what does Peter do?

He blows it, of course. But it was John that gave him the privilege. Right? Okay. So now, we have John's brother James was the first of the apostles to die and John was the last to die. So these two brothers are like bookends. Right? So far as we know, John was the only apostle who died a natural death. All the others from any record we have, and James is the first, of course, recorded in the book of Acts, all that we have in the way of records say that all the apostles, except for John, died for their faith. They died for their faith. Both the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation, also written by John, there's a pattern of sevens.

And that pattern of sevens here shows up in the I Am statements. That's what you see in the lower right there. The I Am statements. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate. I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and I am the True Vine. So all those metaphorical statements of I Am are in the Gospel of John, all seven of them.

Then the significance of these statements is that I Am, the Greek Ego Emi, is used in the Greek Old Testament of God Himself. That shows up in Moses and the burning bush. In the Greek Old Testament, ego eimi. I am. And then Isaiah, several times, in the Greek Old Testament, it comes across ego eimi in one place. In Isaiah, it actually says ego eimi, ego eimi, twice. So it's emphatic. Okay, let's take a look here, top of page two.

So Christ makes multiple claims to be God in the Gospel of John, in addition to accepting worship, which is not allowed for another person or even an angel. In addition to the seven I Am metaphors, Jesus also performs seven miracles or signs in the Gospel of John. And one thing you'll notice is that Jesus does his miracles in the Gospel of John early. early in the book. He does his seven, and then there are many chapters after that. So the miracles are done early, finished by chapter 11. John uniquely calls Christ the Lamb. He writes about John the Baptist twice in John chapter 1, we have it quoted here, calling Christ the Lamb. And then in the book of Revelation, he's called the Lamb from beginning to end.

Even in the new heavens and new earth, and to me that's significant, we're going to be with the Lord, there will be no more mourning or sorrow or crying or pain, but there will be a recognition, He paid the price for me. He paid the price for me. And so we will recognize that on into eternity. That this was God's lamp. And we won't be thinking about mourning or sorrow or crying or pain anymore. No more death. But we will recognize that He paid a price we could not. Let's take a look at...

Here's the Apostle John that we mentioned earlier. He's got unique connections to the Sanhedrin. In the priestly class, only John mentions Nicodemus, one of the Sanhedrin, and also Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph of Arimathea is mentioned in the other Gospels, but they're put together in the Gospel of John, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. Nicodemus' name when he comes to Jesus by night, when he attempts to defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin.

Now, that's something that's often overlooked. Nicodemus actually tried to defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and he got shut down. He got shut down. That was just not something that they were going to let pass. Nicodemus' name when he comes to Jesus by night, he attempts to defend Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and at Jesus' burial after Christ was crucified. He shows up. Between Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, they bring spice, aloes, and cloth, a hundred pounds weight.

That was a burial for a king. The average person didn't get that. This was a king's burial. And what's amazing, here they would give him a king's burial, he would be put into a rich man's grave, but he'd only be in there for a very short period of time. So this is kind of astounding.

Alright, John also not naming himself, but calling himself another disciple, that disciple, or the other disciple. As a pattern, he was able to get Peter into the courtyard of the high priest as he was known by the high priest. So here's John 18, 15, and 16. Simon Peter was following Jesus and so was another disciple. Now that disciple was known to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the court of the high priest. But Peter was standing at the door outside, so the other disciple who was known to the high priest went out and spoke to the doorkeeper and brought Peter in.

By the way, there's an archaeologist, he's I would say the foremost archaeologist of the area around the Temple Mount. And he actually has gone into the building where they were allowed in. And so he says, Peter was right here when he denied Christ. So he's just that spot. He's identified it. So these aren't just accounts that are somebody made up and kind of floaty and best I can remember, but there are places, there are people that are genuine and identifiable. Okay. It's not known explicitly, some have suggested that John was a priest.

It might explain why John would have such connections among the Sanhedrin. why he would be recognized by the Caiaphas. But there may be other reasons why John had such religious and political connections and insights. What indications do we have that John's family was well connected? We have these insights here that John had some good connections and John's family had some good connections with the upper crust of Jewish society. But even for James and John's mom, mother, to come and ask for, hey, can these guys have special seats? These guys were, at least in the family, accustomed to having, you know, recognition and special treatment.

Okay, so John 14-16, Jesus tells a great deal about the ministry, excuse me, that is to be in the near future and the Holy Spirit's involvement in it, but the disciples seem to understand little about it until much later. What are some of the things that are said in John 14, 15, and 16 that are rather unique, that you don't find similar words in the rest of the Gospels? You think of some things that are unique there? How does John 14 start off?

You believe in God, believe also in me, let not your hearts be troubled, right? And then he tells them, in my Father's house are many mansions, and I go to prepare a place for you, and I'll come again and take you, you know, with myself that where I am you may be also."

And by the way, those are words that a groom would say to his bride. So these guys were kind of, woo! These are getting ready for a wedding kind of words. So Jesus is saying these words to the disciples and I imagine they were rather stunned. What's he doing? What's he saying this for? And then he says, And he says, I am, and it's one of the I am statements, right?

I, egoe me, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. So he makes it very explicit and unique. In fact, I'll expand on that a little bit. I, being in fact God, am the singular way, the singular truth, and the singular life. No one comes to the Father except exclusively by me. That's the expansion of what he said. So he's very emphatic.

In all three of chapters 14, 15, and 16, he also talks about the Holy Spirit. And why does he need to inform them about the Holy Spirit? What's going to be different when the church begins that hasn't been in the past? Hasn't even been true of the time when Jesus had his ministry. The Spirit is given as a pledge, right? Yes, all believers are permanently involved with the Holy Spirit all the time. Every believer, all the time.

So that's going to be unique and different. They haven't had that. So he's telling them in advance about these things because it's going to be a different kind of thing than what they've experienced before. They need to be informed about it. Just like you have emphasized many times in the two years I've been here that under the law, it was all external, you might say. God set up the command, and although it was still Him who accomplished it, you had to assist as it were. Whereas now it's the attitude and the heart. Emphasis is on the wellspring of the action and the attitude and not on the performance itself.

How did people get to be into the nation of Israel? How did they get to be into the nation of Israel? It's genealogy. It's how I'm descended. That's the story. How do people get into the body of Christ? Believing. That's our part. How is it that we as believers get into the body of Christ? Who does it? 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says it's the Holy Spirit who places us into the body of Christ. Paul has that picture of grafting the Gentile branch out of Romans, right? But it's a work of the Holy Spirit that places a believer into the body of Christ.

So that's an identification truth. So, he's telling them in advance about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What are some of the other things he tells them about the ministry of the Holy Spirit? When he's come, he's the abider, he's the comforter. That's one of the things, a comforter. He'll remind you of all the things that I've told you.

So, their remembering is not simply a human activity, right? So their remembering for the sake of telling people, for the sake of writing it down, isn't just a human activity. The Holy Spirit will bring it to mind later. Right? Right. Bring to your remembrance all these things. So it's not just a human activity where they're doing their best job to try to remember things, but it's spiritually assisted as a work of the Holy Spirit. Now, let's ask this question, because it's something else that's brought up here.

When we put it all together, we have close to two dozen ministries of the Holy Spirit to the believer. Two dozen different things that the Holy Spirit does in the life of the believer. Does the Holy Spirit have a ministry to unbelievers? Yes, and what is that? Okay, it's a conviction, right? Of sin and righteousness and judgment. So there is a convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. So if you think about it, everybody has ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's just an entirely different set of ministries for the unbeliever as opposed to the believer. Right? Yeah, Al? A sermon this morning by Dr. Stanley emphasized the fact that God is faithful and we base our faith on his faithfulness, but that God is also faithful to the unbeliever, that the things that the Bible says about rejecting Christ bring with them consequences of that choice. Let's think also of this.

In John 14, 15, and 16, each chapter the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Christ the Son, talking about the Holy Spirit in 14, 15, and 16. When we get to John 17, which is the Lord's, it's called the High Priestly Prayer oftentimes, where he's praying prior to being arrested and all that. Who is Jesus praying to in chapter 17?

So the Father. So you actually have with those chapters, you've got all three persons of the Trinity are involved. Spoken of, spoken to, speaking. involved in those chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17. Let's take a look at the top of page 3. So John records the purpose of the writing. We highlighted that briefly. So it's John 20, 30 through 31.

Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. Now, how many signs did Jesus have? How many signs does Jesus have that are written in the Gospel of John? Seven, right? So what he's saying is those seven are not all of them, right? So he says, many others, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is, the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Yeah, Stan? I would say it was classified as messianic miracles, but at least three of them are. Like Lazarus, he was dead four days. And that was past the three day criteria. Walking on water, no one had ever done that before. And being born blind from birth.

That supposedly was a healing, not only a messiah. Yes, this isn't just a simple restoration of sight that was there. I think he's really pinpointing again that he is the messiah. God is the word. You brought up an important point. I'd like us to look at it. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Are those synonyms or is there a difference there between those two? Let's think about that. How long was Jesus the Son of God before He was born? From eternity past He was the Son of God. How long will He continue to be the Son of God? Into eternity future. So his identity as the Son of God is eternity past to eternity future.

How about the Messiah? The Messiah is something different in that it relates to time. It relates to this planet Earth. It relates to his entrance into the sphere of human activity. Yes. So the Son of God relates to his deity and who he always was and will be. However, he became the God-man, and that introduces the Messiah part. Yeah? Well, the Jews weren't expecting necessarily the Son of God, but they were expecting the Messiah.

Yes, yeah. According to clemency, it's the Son of God and the Messiah. Yeah, and that, they couldn't put it together. That just blew their circuits. When he said before he was, I am, that caused them to pick up the stones and get ready. Yes, that's right.

Before Abraham was born, I am. John chapter 8. Yeah? When he says he's the firstborn among many brethren, what's that talking about? I mean, you're right. What's that talking about? The firstborn among many brethren. I guess for me it kind of tells me what my relationship is to Christ. Yeah. And that it's different than my relationship to Jesus. Yeah, yeah. In other words, we talk and we've been talking about it here and we'll talk about it some more. The family relationship within the body of Christ, we are brothers of Christ, right, and children of God. And he is the firstborn, and it can mean two things. One is preeminent, and the other is first in sequence. Is he one or the other or both? Both? Yeah, both. Okay, now let's take a look here.

To believe is a key theme in the Gospel of John as his life. To believe in life. Believing is the key to life. I give John 3.16, 5.24, 11.25, and 20.31, and each of those has belief and then life, which you might show to a Calvinist sometime. You believe and then have life, not the other way around. Belief comes first, then life.

John is the one of the four Gospels that includes identification truths. Now that's something very interesting. John does not explain identification truths as the Apostle Paul does, but he does include it. And so we have some of these highlighted here. I won't read the whole passage, but for example, John 8, 21 through 25, this is a negative identification truth. It's a bad identification truth.

Then he said, Jesus said again to them, I go away and you will seek me and will die in your sin. In verse 24, therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. So what is that saying? It's an identification truth regarding the unbeliever. And what's the identification truth? for the unbeliever, what he's stated here. Pardon?

You'll die in your sins, unless you believe. So what happens if I believe, am I going to die in my sins? No. So unless you believe, you'll die in your sins. Why is the believer different? Your sins have been forgiven. That's true. And what else? You are no longer in your sins as a believer. You are where? Where are you in? In Christ. You're in Christ and He is the definition of righteousness.

So the unbeliever is going to die in their sins. The believer will die In Christ, physically die in Christ, but not in sins. We have Christ's righteousness because it has been placed into Him. No longer with the worry or threat or concern of dying in your sins.

Let's look at John 15, that's another one. Every branch in me, there is an identification truth that does not bear fruit, he lifts up. Verse 4, abide in me and I in you. So neither can you unless you abide in me. Verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit. Verse 6, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up. Why does Jesus have to exhort them to abide in Him. It's so easy to want to do something to earn your salvation or anything else. Just think of it, these disciples had grown up under Judaism.

It's all in what you do, right? It's all in what you do and don't do. That's the definition. Here he's talking about abiding in Him. Now let's ask this question. Are we in Christ? Yeah, we are in Christ positionally. So the exhortation is to live moment by moment according to the position that you have. That's what he's talking about. That's why he says, abide in me. It's not that we get a position, it's living in our condition according to our position. That's what this is all about.

There's something else here too, and that all has to do with relationship and fellowship. Now let's look at John 17. John 17, 20-23, I did not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those who will believe in me through their word. Who's Jesus praying for here? Us! So Jesus prays for himself in this passage, then he prays for the disciples, and then he prays for you and me. That they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, and they also may be in us.

Okay, so let's ask this question. Are you in Christ? Are you in the Spirit? Yes. Romans 8. And here, are you in the Father? Yeah. Isn't that amazing? We are in all three persons of the Trinity. But it means something different. Yes. John was actually written after Romans, right? Yes. What is recorded took place before Romans was written. But John itself was written some time after Romans, a few decades.

Let's take a look at the top of page four. Here's John at a glance and gives us a kind of a visual breakdown. What you see, and we pointed out earlier, is in the middle of that chart on the left-hand side are the seven miracles. And so you see that. You have what's called the Upper Room Discourse.

We've talked about that with John 14, 15, and 16. That's unique to the Gospel of John. And the prayer that we talked about in John 17, that's unique to the Gospel of John. And then it goes on to the crucifixion and resurrection. Interesting, we talked about belief in life. There tends to be a greater emphasis in the first half of the Gospel of John on believing, and a greater emphasis in the last part of the Gospel of John on having life. The other thing that comes out here is the first part of the Gospel of John, say roughly a dozen chapters, extends over a few years.

All of a sudden there's a zoom lens effect where it's a few hours from chapter 13 to chapter 17. So it's a zoom lens, there's not an attempt to give some sort of objective, equally timed emphasis here. It's a few years go by and all of a sudden, zoom, and we're going to spend several chapters with Jesus talking to the disciples and talking to the Father. And then finally, after the crucifixion, a few weeks. Let's look at, there's a listing at the bottom of page four of some of the unique passages in the Gospel of John, and there are a number of them. Almost all of chapters one through three is unique material.

Jesus has the Word Jesus is the word, an account of Jesus calling his first disciples, changing water into wine in Cana of Galilee. That's unique. The first day at Capernaum, first cleansing of the temple, and the conversation with Nicodemus at night. In John chapter 4, Jesus talks with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. We have no other similar record. I mean this is a spectacular, shocking, you can imagine the disciples.

We're going to go through where? And you're going to talk to who? At what hour? That well, at that hour, you know what kind of ladies are going to show up. So Jesus does it, I'm deliberately going to go to the Samaritans and I'm deliberately going to go to the well at the time when this kind of lady is going to show up.

It's interesting in that discourse that the disciples are thinking on a physical basis. Jesus said, well I have bread to eat, you don't know of. Did somebody come and bring bread? Yeah, and they're still thinking about physical things instead of what's he really meaning. Can you imagine the disciples? Because the Holy Spirit brought things to mind, right? Can you imagine having decades of aha moments? Oh, that's what he's talking about. That's what he meant, right? Decades of aha moments. Yeah.

In chapter 5, Jesus goes to Jerusalem for the second Passover during Jesus' ministry and heals a lame man. Healing is a fascinating event, but we don't have time for that. So, John chapter 7, we find out that Jesus' brothers do not believe. As a matter of fact, they encourage him to go to Jerusalem at one point in time because they're sure that he's going to get killed.

I find out Jesus' brothers don't believe until James sees Christ resurrected, and then we find out in Acts 1.14 that all Jesus' brothers are gathered there with the disciples and Mary. Last mention of Mary, by the way. So John chapter 18, an adulterous Adulterous is spared and told to sin no more, and Jesus declares himself the light of the world. So these are unique statements. John chapter 9, a man born blind is healed, as you mentioned earlier.

John chapter 10, Jesus is presented at the Feast of Dedication, that's Hanukkah. It's the only time Hanukkah is mentioned in the Bible. And has challenged interaction with the Jewish leaders. This is the Feast of Dedication that's like verses 22 and 23. So that's the Hanukkah. So Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. But that's also the chapter where the Jewish leaders come to him and say, if you're really the Messiah, just tell us. They want him to really hang himself.

He says, I'll do better than that. I'll do better than that. My sheep hear my voice. I give them life. The English translation is weak. And they will never, not even remotely possible, it's the same thing we're going to cover in the passage here this morning, it is not even remotely possible that they can lose their salvation of their own doing, middle voice. It is not even remotely possible they can lose their salvation of their own doing, and nobody will pluck them out of my hand, and the Father gave them to me, and nobody is going to pluck them out of his hand either. So, you want me to say that I'm the Messiah? I'll do better than that.

And that motivated them to pick up stones. I guess they wanted to study geology or something. John chapter 11, Jesus has interactions with Mary and Martha, and raises Lazarus. By the way, this raising of Lazarus, was that something done off in a corner, or were there a lot of witnesses to that? A lot of witnesses. And so, when the Jewish leaders hear about Lazarus who's been raised, and you've got all these witnesses, what do they want to do?

They want to kill Lazarus. These guys are amazing. This guy really is the Son of God. He really is the Messiah. Instead, they say, hey, let's kill Lazarus. I mean, it doesn't make any sense. It shows you the kind of twisted, warped thinking. Instead of coming to an aha moment, spiritually speaking, they want to go kill the guy who's the walking miracle. Destroy the evidence. Destroy the evidence, yes.

Don't you think that was primarily because they didn't want to be replaced in their position? They didn't want somebody coming in there and being in a higher position than they already were? What's amazing is that you'll have people who are skeptical, I demand God do this and that. They're openly skeptical. You'll have people who get into positions of power, and they will hold on to their skepticism, even if something is right in front of their eyes. They will hold on to their power, even if it's just nuts. Those things, it's amazing, those things get to be so important to them that reality doesn't matter. Reality doesn't matter.

In John chapter 13, Jesus washes the disciples' feet. That's unique to John. We don't see that in the other Gospels. John chapter 14 through 16, Jesus prepares the disciples for ministry after he ascends. What we find in the four Gospels is there is some reference to the church in some way in the last part of each of the four Gospels. John is unique here in that he talks more about the Holy Spirit's ministry and has Jesus talking to the Father, so we get this involvement of all three persons of the Trinity at length. So John chapter 17, as we mentioned, prays the Lord's Prayer. and intercessory prayer with the Father.

John chapter 18, Jesus is first examined by Annas, the former high priest. Why would they take him to Annas, the high priest, first? Why not just say, hey look, he's no longer the high priest, we're just going to keep going here. We'll go directly to the guy who's the high priest right now. Why go to Annas first? Wasn't he the father-in-law or something? Yes. Essentially, there was a network of high priests who were all related to Annas. Sons, in this case Caiaphas was the son-in-law. So, Annas was still around and he wasn't officially in the position.

As a matter of fact, one of the terms you'll see in the New Testament is high priests, plural. Officially, there's only one. But the reason is because those who were former high priests were still highly regarded and recognized. So you'll see the term high priest plural even though officially there was just one. And so Annas was the one who had some blood or marriage relationship to about a half dozen high priests to follow, Caiaphas being one of those. Okay.

John chapter 19, Jesus assigns care of his mother to John and declares, it is finished. It is finished is uniquely to the gospel of John. It's unique to the gospel of John. It's not found in the other gospels. It's one word, but that one word is powerful. First of all, it's in the perfect tense. So it's a completed past action with ongoing results on into the future, implying permanence. So that's just the form of the verb, and then it's an accounting term. It's all paid. So it's all paid, completely done, ongoing results, on into the future, implying permanence. So he did that with one word.

Yeah, Stan? I was going to say, isn't that kind of a good example of irony? Annas are talking together, I mean, he replaces Annas as the high priest. I mean, there's Annas who supposedly is the high priest, right? He's just been replaced. Now, think of it, all these high priests are of one order, they're of the order of Aaron, right? descended from him. Jesus is the high priest, but where's his descent? Is his descent from a priestly line? It's from the order of Melchizedek. Physically, he's descended from David, who isn't qualified.

So that's how it had to be a different order than the high priest that we're talking about here. Yes? No, because only the high priest had to be a descendant of Aaron. Only the high priest had to be a descendant of Aaron. So there were special qualifications for the high priest.

It's one of the reasons why there tended to be kind of family line in there. It was real easy to tell, this guy is descended from this one, he's of the right line. So it kind of tended to narrow the qualifications. Someone who was a priest just couldn't step up and say, hey, I'll do it. Right? Because they had to be of the right line.

Okay, the next part, John chapter 20, Jesus appears to Thomas, and this is unique, a week after appearing to the other ten disciples. I have a question. Why did Jesus wait a week to appear to Thomas? A part of what you see there is repeated insistence upon denial and skepticism. I don't care if all ten of you tell me for a week, I don't care if all ten of you that I've spent three years together with tell me for a week that you've seen Jesus, I won't believe it until I see and touch myself.

Isn't there also a little bit of the idea like you had with Lazarus? Martha says, well, Lord, if you'd been here, you'd know what you thought. But he deliberately waited. until people knew that Lazarus was not just sleeping in a coma, etc. etc. He's dead. The Lord must not take the stone away because it's going to smell pretty bad. And for Thomas to wait a week for Thomas is sort of like saying, I'm not just hiding in the closet here and going to come out and say, boo, here he is. That waiting pattern, and you see it with Thomas, but as you mentioned, it shows up other places, even with Lazarus. Jesus could have dealt with the issue and Lazarus wouldn't have died. That waiting phenomenon, then God acts.

Ever see that in life? Lord, how long are you going to let this go on? wants to know if we're doing serious business or if we're just sort of like little kids who bring the bicycle in and say... Here's my instant wish. Yeah. Ask you in 10 minutes, is it done yet? Yeah. I think it's a key thing for us to take a look at and see that, you know, from a human standpoint, we would say, look, If Thomas wasn't there then, we've got to get him in the loop here like the next day or something, right? Not a week. Yeah. Doesn't that also increase the joy? Yeah.

I mean, for Thomas, if he would have done it right away, it would have been okay. I believe. But since he had to wait all that time, When it finally happened, it was like an aha moment, squared. It was really, really fantastic. Because of the delay, it was far more emphatic, right? Because of the delay, it was far more emphatic. So yeah, that's a good point. Let's take a look here. In John chapter 21, there's a unique account in that it's not recorded in the other Gospels. Jesus appears to seven disciples on the shore of Galilee. This is where they've been fishing all night. And by the way, why'd they have to fish all night? Well, it's true they weren't catching, but why did they have to fish at night?

Why don't they just say, man, that fishing at night stuff is for the birds, they'd rather sleep. The fish can't see the nets at night. It wasn't until recent decades that we had netting material that was invisible during the day to the fish. Otherwise the fish would look at it and say, I'm not going in that net. So they would fish all night and they caught nothing.

So here's this guy standing on the shore. He says, no problem, just throw the net on the other side. That'll fix it. But Jesus had told them to do that before. So they say, okay. They throw the net on the other side and it's got so many fish. And John gives the number. I forget the exact count. John gives the exact number. So many fish that they can hardly haul it in. Peter just jumps out of the boat and comes ashore. It's the Lord! It's the Lord. And then, that's when they have breakfast together and then Jesus takes Peter aside and restores him to service after his denials.

Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? So a very touching and special moment. The Lord, instead of coming up to him and saying, Peter, what are you doing? I heard you deny me. He comes up instead and just, here's the issue. Do you love me? Yeah. Feed my sheep. And He makes it a tender moment and restores Peter to service. What is amazing is to see situations like Peter, or even worse, here's the Apostle Paul. You know, I'm going to Damascus to kill Christians.

Let's talk about that. So it is amazing to see the Lord putting people into place who have blown it in some huge way and restoring them and putting them back into service. Yeah? I think if you had been painted you might have been a little bit concerned after that It's kind of an amazing moment the Lord arranges here. I think a lot of people make comparisons between Peter and Judas. They're saying that Peter was given the opportunity to come back into the fold. But I think when Jesus says, do you love me? I think that's probably the key to the difference between those two as well. Because Judas was a means to an end. Jesus was always a means to an end. I don't think it really shows a lot of compassion and care and love for Jesus.

He just wanted You know, like the priest and stuff. He wanted his agenda taken care of. Yeah, I got my stuff to do and my things to accomplish, and I want what I want. Even though Peter did a lot of things that were ridiculous, the love was always there. Yeah, here's Judas. He had seen these miracles. He had seen these miracles, right? Was he not among the disciples that feed in the 5,000? You know, here's calm the storm, all that stuff. The bottom line, he says, show me the money. Show me the money. I don't care about all these miracles, just show me the money.

We haven't gotten to Romans in our survey yet, but Paul emphasizes grace so much in his theological discourse. And he brings in love in his letters particularly, in 1 Corinthians 13 with the description of qualities of love. John integrates love into life. He so much brings in the attitude of love in his letters, in his gospel, the basis for The verse that I talked with you about, if you love me, keep my commandment. The basis for keeping the commandment was not because you'd get a reward, but because you had a heart of love. The attitude of love and what it looks like lived out. And he shows Jesus showing that attitude of love, whether it's the woman caught in adultery, whether it's a man healed in the different actions that you mentioned. Love is a key principle.

The commandments always had, you know, keep my commandments so that you'll be blessed. Because if you break them, you'll be cursed, right? But let's say he turns it the other way. It's relationship first is the motivation, right? Not do this so you'll be blessed or cursed. Okay, let's pray here.

Lord, thank you for these four Gospels that you inspired, had written for our benefit because you love us. And as we think of the Gospel of John here, what an astounding, very unique and special writing this is. And we thank you for it. We thank you for all the things you've revealed there because you love us and care for us so very much. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.