That We May Believe Series

That we may believe

Text: John 20:30-31

Let’s take our Bibles and open them up to John 20. This morning, we’re going to look at John’s purpose statement. He’s going to tell us why he wrote this Gospel account. John 20:30-31 (READ).

Ok, so there it is… Why did John write this? So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God… and that by believing you may have life in His Name. And John says, “Jesus did many other signs… BUT THESE SIGNS are written so that you may believe.”

That word “sign” is the Greek word “Semeion” and it literally means – “A token, a proof, or a deed done with the intention of proving something or pointing to a previously hidden truth.”

The sign, in and of itself is NOT the thing… it’s pointing to the thing.

So how many of you remember, back in chapter two, where Jesus turned water into wine? It’s John 2:1-11. If you were to go back and read that, you’d see that in verse 11 John says, “This was the first of His signs that Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him.” And we went over that… we talked about belief, and how John, over and over again, uses that word in different ways. The disciples believed something about Jesus, but at that point they did not believe UNTO salvation.

Then, in John 4:43-54 we are told about Jesus healing the officials son who was near death. And verse 54 says “This was the second sign Jesus did.”

In John 5:1-47 we read about Jesus healing a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda, and in that instance, Jesus equated Himself with the God of Moses. He told the Pharisees that if they believed Moses they would believe in Him, because He Himself was the God that Moses believed in. They wanted to kill Him for that…

John 6, Jesus feeds 5000 people (more than 5000 actually), and He walks on water. Do you remember? And the people walked along the coast of the Sea of Galilee and followed Him, and Jesus actually rebuked them. Let me just turn there and read it, so it’s fresh in our minds. It’s John 6:26-37 (READ).

So, again, people seeking the signs, seeking the wonders, seeking the miracles, seeking the free meals, the hand out, the gifts… and totally missing what (WHO) all of those signs are pointing to. In John 9 Jesus healed a blind man… in John 11 He raised Lazarus from the dead… And then finally, He Himself was raised up from the dead.

Signs… but those aren’t the only signs. Those are miraculous signs… but we also read about things like Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan to fulfill the Law. We read about Jesus being anointed at Bethany, Jesus, cleansing the temple, Jesus riding on a young donkey at the Triumphal Entry… We know about the trial and crucifixion and burial of Jesus… all of those are signs of fulfilled prophecy – signs that God had previously told us His Sent One, the Messiah would do and accomplish. Just like His being born of a virgin. Being born in Bethlehem, His flight to Egypt to escape Herod. His return. All of it was foretold in the Old Testament, and was spoken of, and given as signs people should look for – when the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ comes.

Now I don’t have to say this, we all know it, but I will. We live in a postmodern time where there is a very negative attitude towards anything that has to do with objective truth. The world is always attempting to put us into a mold that says tolerance is the supreme virtue and everything else is a secondary issue at best. There are even some churches where that is the case. They take the attitude of, “Oh hey, we’re not going to make dogmatic claims about what’s true or false, what’s real faith or false faith. It doesn’t really matter what you believe, we’re just happy that you’re here, and hopefully we all somehow make it to heaven.”

That kind of makes me want to gag. But it’s really the mindset of our world today. And its completely counter to what the Bible says and teaches. It’s completely counter to what Jesus has said and taught. Jesus said, very clearly I might add, that He is the only way to God the Father, and no one comes to the Father except by Him, or through Him. Jesus very clearly said, that if you do not believe that HE is the I AM, you will die in your sins (we read that in John 8:24 BTW).