Stress Points In The Hands Of Jesus Series

We're going to study over the next several weeks Jesus. Now really, every week we study Jesus

because you can find Jesus on the page of every chapter of the Bible. But in particular, we're

going to look at Jesus through the eyes of John as he wrote the gospel of John. We're going to

walk with the disciples as they walked with Jesus so that we can learn how to be better disciples

ourselves. I think you're going to find this to be a fascinating study as we work together to try to

get to know Jesus better.

In preparation for that, what I want you to do is I want you to think for a moment and just ponder

your own heart. I want to ask you a question that I want you to think about this morning. What

are your two top stressors in your life? The two top things that are challenges for you, that bother

you, that put pressure on your life. Some of you already know what they are. They just come

quickly because you know they're stressors in your life. But for others they are…I don't know.

Maybe you got to think about it for minute. Maybe there's a financial pressure you're dealing

with. Maybe there's a relationship challenge that you're experiencing. Maybe it's something at

work. Maybe there's a specific need that you have, a habit that you have that you're working on.

Maybe there's a person who's suffering that you're caring for or that you're concerned about. Or

maybe in your own body you've got some stuff going on. Pause for a moment. Just think about

two stressors in your life.

Because I believe that as we walk with Jesus, we're going to see that He's the one who provides

for us and cares for us. In very practical ways He helps us. Now I want to test you. I want to ask

this question. How are you allowing your faith in Jesus to affect those stressors that are in your

life? Now, when I use the word ‘test,’ we can use it three ways in scripture. One is, is it pass or

fail test? Are you a Christian or not a Christian? Are you going to heaven or not going to

heaven? That's one way that we use the word test. But there's also this idea to remind or reveal. I

think that's how I'm asking the question now. Just to remind us that Jesus is the answer for the

stress points in our lives. That we come to Jesus and He's the one who helps us address all the

challenges that we experience. And then of course there's the other use of the word ‘test,’ which

is to strengthen or refine us. That's another way that the word ‘test’ is used in the Bible.

But I think today as we look at the gospel of John and over the next several weeks, we're going

to be reminded of some certain things in our lives. We need to be able to allow them to affect us

in very personal ways, even the stress experiences that we're experiencing right now.

We're going to look at the gospel of John. Now the gospel of John is very different from the

other gospels. And the gospel of John has different characters, different stories. In the gospel of

John, we don't have the battle with the demons. We don't have any prophecies about the end

times in the book of John. Most of the stories in the book of John take place in Judea, whereas in

the other gospels they take place in Galilee for the most part. John has different kinds of stories

that are going on. Do you know that in the gospel of John there are no parables as there are in the

other gospels? There are these conversations, these very intimate conversations He has with a

number of people. From those conversations, we get little sermonettes. We get little ideas and

lessons that we can take and apply to our lives.

John's gospel was written about fifty years after the other gospels were written. John's an older

guy now. He's an old man. He's thinking back and he's saying, “Okay, I'm going to write about

this. This Jesus. I'm going to write about Him. And I have a reason I'm going to write that's

different maybe from the others.” In fact, John tells us what that reason is, actually, in his book. I

want to go to John 20, where these two verses describe why he wrote this book. I want you to

stand with me if you would, as I read these verses. Because they really describe the purpose of

John's gospel.

So in honor of God's word, we stand.