John’s Closing

and you will find a catch. So
they cast and then they were not. Therefore, that disciple
whom Jesus loves said to Peter, it is the Lord. So when Simon
Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment where
he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. But
the other disciples came in the little boat, but they were not
far from land, but about 100 yards away, dragging the net
full of fish. So, when they got out on land,
they saw a charcoal fire already laid and fish placed on it and
bread. Jesus said to them, bring some
of the fish which you have now caught. Simon Peter went up and
drew the net to land, full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many,
the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and
have breakfast. None of the disciples ventured
to question him, who are you? Knowing that it was the Lord.
And he gave it to them and the fish likewise. This is now the
third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples after he was
raised from the dead. So when they had finished breakfast,
he said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more
than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you
know that I love you. He said to him, 10, my lambs. He said to him again a second
time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him,
yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd
my sheep. He said to him the third time,
Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because
he said to him the third time, do you love me? And he said to
him, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. Jesus
said to him, tend my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when
you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever
you wished. But when you grew old, when you
grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will
gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go. Now, he
said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify
God. And when he had spoken this,
he said to him, follow me. Peter, turning around, saw the
disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had also leaned
back on his bosom at the supper and said, Lord, who is the one
who betrays you? So Peter, seeing him, said to
Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? Jesus said to him, if I
want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow
me. Therefore this saying went out
among the brethren, that the disciple would not die. Yet Jesus
did not say to him that he would not die, but only if I want him
to remain until I come. What is that to you? This is
the disciple who is testifying to these things. and wrote these
things. And we know that his testimony
is true. And there are also many other
things Jesus did, which if they were not written in detail, if
they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world
itself would not contain the books that would be written. What we have in those simple
but clear closing few verses is an articulation of the nature
of Scripture. And therefore we have in John
a mouthpiece for the Word, the Word of God. And I believe that
what John purposes to show here is the truthfulness of His Word,
and the revelation of His Word, and the inspiration of His Word
by the Holy Spirit Himself. I believe that there are at least
three articulations of the nature of Scripture woven through this
passage, as simple as it is. It seems like just a capstone.
It seems like just a passing comment. But I think in its richness, it will be seen, the very nature of Scripture.
the very nature of God’s Word, first of all. The first articulation
of the nature of Scripture is that Scripture is divinely inspired. Scripture is divinely inspired.
Look at verse 24. Here in this passage, John says,
this is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these
things. And there are a number of different
elements to discuss. in this particular verse. First
of all, to what is the writer referring when he says these
things? He says it twice. He says that
he is testifying to these things and that he wrote these things. The question becomes, is he only
referring to this most recent discussion? What we have referred
to previously as the epilogue to the gospel chapter 21 where
Jesus deals in a very significant interaction restoring Peter to
his calling in that particular interaction is that all that
the writer is referring to when he mentions these things or is
the writer referring to the entirety of the gospel from chapter 1
verse 1 all the way to chapter 21 verse 23. I think it’s much more plausible,
much more understandable to look at those words as referring to
the entire gospel itself, and not just chapter 21. The whole gospel of John is in
view. I would suggest to you that it
is as if the writer said this, This is the disciple who is testifying
to these things written in this gospel. And wrote these things
written in this gospel. But there’s another question
that follows immediately on the heels. Once you look at that
and see that what he’s referring to is the entirety of the gospel,
another question that comes up is, who wrote these words? over the centuries, a recurring
problem has raised its head by that little word, we. And the
suggestion is that others had to step in and kind of lend credibility
to what John had done. And they do it in the third stanza
of that verse. This is the disciple who is testifying
to these things and wrote these things. And we, collectively,
an outside body standing behind, as it were, the Apostle John,
we testify that his testimony is true. And so the suggestion
is that it was written by someone else. It looks in its appearance
as if others are at least echoing in. And the suggestion over the
centuries has been that it was the Ephesian elders, men who
had served with John for many seasons, they are standing with
John as he announces the introduction of his gospel, his book. And so they are as, in a sense, support
to John’s testimony. And even though John seems to
say, after all he identifies himself as the disciple, the
disciple whom Jesus loved, John never uses his own name throughout
this entire epistle. He frequently refers to himself,
though, as the disciple, or the disciple whom Jesus loved. And
I think that when he says that, he’s not, as I told you when
we first looked at it, he’s not saying that Jesus loved him more
than anyone else. This is John, in utter surprise,
being totally astounded that God would love him at all. I’m
the disciple that Jesus loved. John never uses his name throughout
this entire gospel, and so it’s not surprising here as he closes
to just see him refer to himself as the disciple. I’m the disciple
who wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
And that has led many scholars throughout the centuries to conclude
that John didn’t even write these words. He was using what’s called
an amanuensis, a scribe, to jot down what he told the scribe
to write. And we know that that is plausible. Even when John says that I wrote
these things, Pilate In John 19, Pilate says that he wrote
an inscription and put it on the cross. Now, can we even assume
for a moment that Pilate himself actually sat down and made a
little sign to put on the top of the cross? Pilate, being a
ruler, dictated what he wanted written, and some person with
decent penmanship wrote the sign, Jesus the Nazarene, the King
of the Jews. So just because John says that
he wrote it, there are people that say that he very likely
used an amanuensis, a scribe. Paul does a similar thing in
the book of Romans. Remember that little epistle?
Paul says in chapter 15, I have written very boldly. And yet
at the end of the epistle, chapter 16, Verse 22, a man named Tertius
says, I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord.
All this to say that it’s entirely possible that even though John
says, identifying himself as the disciple, I wrote these things
and others are standing behind me testifying to their truthfulness, I think I lean in the direction of the
fact that it was written by the Apostle John himself, actually
written by the Apostle John himself. He clearly is mentioning himself. The actual writer of the gospel
is explaining the purpose, the nature of his document, This
is the disciple who is testifying of these things, and that is
very powerful language, as we’ll see in a moment. As one said, in this verse, the
Apostle John makes a solemn declaration of his own authorship of the
gospel, which bears his name, and of the truth of the matters
which the gospel itself contains. And so the conclusion that I
would suggest to you is that these verses, verses 24 and 25,
were written by the Apostle John, but with one very important caveat. John himself was the amanuensis. John himself was the scribe.
Because John wrote down what someone else dictated to him. That someone else was the Holy
Spirit. And the first truth that we glean from this simple little
passage, which seems on the face of it something that we could
just read and honor the Word in that regard and not spend
so much time taking it apart. The Apostle Peter spoke to the
nature of Scripture in these terms. 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and
21. But know this, first of all,
that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,
for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. That
ruins a lot of Bible study, doesn’t it? We can’t, we don’t have the rights,
we can’t come into a Bible study and say, well, this is what it
means to me. And the reason we can’t do that,
the reason it’s wrong to do that, there’s one meaning of Scripture
and there is one author of Scripture. And Peter concludes that verse,
no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men
moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. It’s God’s Word. And regardless of whether some
other Immanuensis or scribe was involved in jotting down what
John dictated to him, ultimately the author of John’s gospel isn’t
even the Apostle John, it’s the Holy Spirit himself. And so not
only the entirety of John’s gospel, but the entirety of God’s word,
the 66 canonical books, is inspired by God. even though it was conveyed. It was conveyed through the Holy
Spirit, even though written by men. Now, I’ve explained this
before in times past. I had one great act of inspiration,
one great moment of inspiration. I’ll never forget where I was.
I’ve been there since. I took a picture of it. It was
a campsite. And it was the campsite where I spent an evening inspired
to write a poem to ask my wife to marry me. It was some poem,
let me tell you, because she said yes. That’s not the kind of inspiration
that we’re talking about. It’s not as if John was sitting
high on a lofty mountain in a beautiful campsite next to a river. It’s
not that kind of inspiration at all. Instead, The passage
literally means that scripture is God-breathed. It’s God’s word. And the first thing that we glean
from this passage is if you tear it all away, it doesn’t matter
if there was a scribe involved or not. Ultimately, this is God’s
word. It was God-breathed. It’s God’s
message. It’s God’s gospel. It’s God’s
plan of redemption. But there’s a second articulation
of the nature of Scripture that we see so clearly in this passage. Not only that Scripture is divinely
inspired, but secondly that Scripture is divinely illuminated. We’ll
see this unfold before us. Look at verse 24 again, if you
would. I’m aiming ultimately at that
last clause once again. This is the disciple. who is
testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know
that his testimony is true. The very first word that I would
call your attention to is the word testimony. It’s courtroom
language. It’s as if God himself has called
up to the witness stand a series of witnesses to bring their account,
their testimony to be heard. And John just says that we know
his testimony is true. And in John’s particular gospel,
this word speaks to an official proclamation. That’s how he’s
using this word, a testimony. This is the testimony of an eyewitness. And throughout John’s gospel,
we have seen that attested to again and again by the Apostle
John. I saw it. And the testimony that
he provides is that of an eyewitness, not one who is hearing and writing
things down secondhand. The stress that John lays on
this idea of a witness is seen throughout his gospel. In fact,
this is a fact that I shared at the gospel several years ago. this word witness and testimony,
this courtroom language, it really is one word that can be translated
either as witness or testimony or to testify using a verb. That word is used only a handful
of times. I think five or six in the synoptic
gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Only five or six times. It’s
used almost 50 times by the Apostle John. The Apostle John wanted
to set forth an official, this is an official testimony as if
in a court of law, a deposition, if I may. And so we might call
these verses, verses 24 and 25, the summary statement that a
lawyer might make at the end of a case, here’s what we have
testified to. This is John’s entire testimony. But the second question comes
up at the end of verse 24, who is we? I’ve already hinted that
some people suggested that someone other than John, representing
a group of people, perhaps even his elders, Here’s how one said
it, it would have been out of place in the middle of his narrative
to add the testimony of the Ephesian elders. Yeah, it would have been
out of place. Would have been completely out
of place because they weren’t apostles as John was. They weren’t
indwelled with the spirit in a mighty way as John was to write
this particular gospel. But then they conclude, it is
not unnatural at the close of this gospel that he should claim
them as joint witnesses, as if he needed them. And so the suggestion is that
the elders of the church in Ephesus certify, this is their stamp
of approval, is what some more liberal scholars would say. It’s
their stamp of approval on John’s gospel. Look, listen to this
guy, he’s a credible witness. Now doesn’t that help you to
embrace the gospel of John all that much more enthusiastically? I don’t think it’s that way at
all. It was written by John, as I’ve already suggested, and
here he’s using a literary device in the little word we. He’s standing, as it were, at
the very front, and he’s saying, we testify to you that this is
the truth. And remember that part of that
we would include the Holy Spirit himself. This is what we testify
to. And even though it’s possible
that those last two verses were written or even attended to by
someone else, there’s certainly another way to understand this.
Let me show that to you. John often, often uses this little
device, we. Listen just carefully. 1 John
3.2. Don’t turn there, just listen.
We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we
will see him just as he is. We know this. He’s speaking collectively
of the testimony of believers, the experience of believers,
1 John 3.14. First John 3.14, we know that
we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. The first of many occasions where
he speaks of the love of the brethren as a sign that we are
in Christ. First John 5.15, if we know that
he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request
which we have asked from him. John there speaking using this
literary device we to testify that he was standing at the front
and yet he was supported by a great many who believed likewise and
there is a similar statement in the Gospel of John also written
by the Apostle John chapter 19 verse 35 just listen he who has
seen has testified, and his testimony is true, and he knows that he
is telling the truth. When I was in seminary, my professor
frequently would use this device. Well, we believe that da-da-da-da-da-da,
and you’ve heard me do this from the pulpit. Well, our position
would be, we see this. It’s a way of gathering the troops,
rallying the troops, and saying, look, this is the direction we’re
headed. This is what we believe Scripture to be teaching. We
believe this. And of course, none other than
Clint Eastwood has used this device, right? He’s arresting
some criminal, right? And he says, we don’t think you
should do that. And the criminal says, who’s we? And Clint Eastwood
says, Smith, Wesson, and me. So when John wrote this statement,
and he declares his testimony to be true, that it’s trustworthy,
This statement elicits thoughts immediately of the canon of scripture. He says that what I’m presenting
to you here in the gospel of John is scripture. It is the truth. It is trustworthy. The canon of scripture, for those
of you who have ever taken my class, the original word canon
was used as a measurement from the tip of your elbow to the
tip of your fist, roughly 18 inches. That reed, that length
of a reed, used to be used to measure all kinds of things in
the marketplace. But in time, that word cannon
meant to be, or came to be used as something that measured up. It fit the determining factors. And so eventually, Athanasius,
the first century father, referred to the books of scripture that
measured up. And there were a number of different
factors that they would look at as they looked to determine
whether these writings measured up. Was it written or endorsed
by an apostle? That’s exactly what the gospel,
or what John is doing here in these verses. He is endorsing,
He is saying this is Scripture. Was it attested to or confirmed
by acts of God? Was it theologically accurate?
Does it square as you interpret Scripture with Scripture? Does
it speak accurately about God’s plan and His plan of redemption? Remember John’s gospel came along
forth well after almost all of the epistles and All of the Gospels
had already been written. They had much with which to compare
John’s Gospel, not to mention the Old Testament. Was it attended
with the power of God? When we started the Gospel of
John, we noted how many of us had come to Christ by reading
this incredible Gospel. Not the least of which was me.
Was it accepted by the church? Was it accepted by the people
of God? This is exactly what John is
pleading for. And so it’s important to know
that with regard to the canon of scripture, the church didn’t
bestow authority on any of the books of scripture. They merely
recognized that it was already scripture. They recognized it
for what it truly was. As Gleason Archer, one New Testament
scholar said, the only true test of canonicity is the testimony
of God the Holy Spirit to the authority of his own word. This
testimony found a response of recognition, faith, and submission
in the hearts of God’s people who walked in covenant fellowship
with him. In other words, The initial church,
the early church, received the Gospel of John as it was written,
as Scripture, and the saints from that point forward did likewise. And so in God’s good providence,
God gave the church what the church needed by way of His Word,
as we’ll see even more clearly in a moment. pastor in summarizing
this whole statement. We know that his testimony is
true. He said it this way. Speaking
in full apostolic and inspired authority for and with the early
church, endued with the discerning of spirits, we received the sacred
canon and thereby amply proved that its books were selected
under divine guidance. The plural, we, is a dignified
assumption of representative character in communion with that
church. In other words, when John says
we, he’s putting himself in there obviously, he’s putting the Holy
Spirit there, but he’s saying that we as a church receive this
gift from God. But I want you to look at the
passage once again. Because John says we know We know that his testimony is
true. And I want you to compare that.
Compare that with some other things that, this is, I really
think this is what I remembered. I kinda remember things unfolding
this, that’s how we would testify, right? And even at the end of
it, we wanna humbly, well, I sure hope that, you know, I sure hope
I did a good job on this. That’s not what John says. We
know his testimony is true. And that kind of confident knowledge
points to the fact that the Bible, the Scriptures, are illuminated
by God. That’s how we know anything.
Remember 1 Corinthians 2.14? A natural man does not accept
the things of the Spirit of God. You open a Bible, if you’re not
a believer, if you don’t know Christ, haven’t placed your faith
in Christ, you can flip through, you can spend as much time as
you want thumbing through. It will look like so many words
on a page and makes no sense to you whatsoever. A natural
man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. They are
foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because
they are spiritually appraised. He needs, that man needs what
John Calvin called the spectacles of faith. He needs to be able
to have God’s help in discerning and understanding spiritual things. And that’s because sin. came
into the world, sin has adulterated the world. God’s creation has
been tainted, darkened in their understanding. General revelation
is there, we see stars, we see the sky, we see all that God
has created, but we cannot make heads or tail of it and we need
special revelation. We need the Holy Spirit to come
alongside. We need the Holy Spirit to bring
us those glasses. We need the Holy Spirit to impart
to us the truth that ultimately leads to salvation. A.W. Pink said it this way, Christ
is the key that unlocks the golden doors into the temple of divine
truth. Now that is a very flowery way
of saying what John says here. We know The Scriptures have been
unlocked to us. And that necessary illumination
by the Holy Spirit has been given, it’s been granted. You say, well, that’s awfully
self-serving of John to say that of his own work, but he’s standing
in the place of all the church as a representative of the church,
and he says that Essentially, this is what the Holy Spirit
imparted to us. And so practically speaking,
the Holy Spirit’s illumination of God’s Word and the individual’s
inevitable response to that work of regeneration of the Holy Spirit
is what enables a blind sinner to see the truth, recognize it
for what it was. And John says, my heart, my mind,
my eyes can see. You remember a guy named Augustus
Toplity? Do you remember him? He wrote
that little hymn. Toplity said it this way. To unconverted persons, a great
part of the Bible resembles a letter written in ciphers, in code. The blessed spirit’s office is
to act as God’s decipherer by letting his people into the secret
of celestial experience as the key and clue to those sweet mysteries
of grace which were before as a garden shut up or as a fountain
sealed or as a book written in an unknown character. The fact
that we can know I mean, if you go to talk to
a friend and you open up the Gospel of John and say, here’s
a nice piece of literature, it might be true, what good is that
gonna do anybody? If you don’t believe that it’s
God’s Word, if you don’t believe that it was given by God Almighty
Himself, look back at the sentence one last time. We know that His
testimony is true. It’s true. There’s not only a general confidence
in his message, there’s an absolute sureness of his truthfulness. And the very purpose of these
verses now seems to be that they were put to assure all readers
that John’s gospel, they had no doubt at all whether this
was a God-given message, that this gospel was a faithful, true,
accurate record of Jesus Christ, that it was trustworthy, just
as Matthew, Mark, and Luke were trustworthy. There are many spiritual truths
woven into this section, but when it says that this book,
this message is true, that just points to the inerrancy of Scripture,
doesn’t it? Doesn’t that remind us of the
truthfulness, the veracity of God’s Word? that John’s gospel
is true, that the New Testament is true, that the Bible is true. And that echoes the great truth
that as God’s inspired revelation, Scripture is inerrant. It’s absolutely trustworthy. One statement, the Chicago Statement
on Inerrancy years ago said it so clearly. being holy and verbally
God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching,
no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about
the events of world history, about its own literary origins
under God, which is exactly what John echoes here. Scripture is true. God’s Word is true. The Bible
is true. John’s Gospel is true. Thirdly, I told you there were
a number of articulations of the nature of Scripture in this
passage. Not only is Scripture divinely inspired and divinely
illuminated that we couldn’t see it if it weren’t for the
Holy Spirit Himself. Thirdly, Scripture is divinely
revealed. It’s divinely revealed or uncovered
or exposed to our view. But only what God wants us to
see. Look at verse 25. There are also many other things
which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose
that even the world itself would not contain the books that would
be written. What an astounding statement.
Here’s the gospel of John coming along forth. You would think
that John and he did include all kinds of things that Jesus
did that the other gospel writers didn’t record. But John says,
That’s a drop in the bucket compared to all that Jesus did, all that
Jesus accomplished. And essentially what he tells
us here is, I want you to know that I made a selection. I exercised
editorial authority in what went into this gospel. Now he’s speaking
in concert with the Holy Spirit here. The Holy Spirit had all
the say in the world, as to what went into John’s gospel. But he’s speaking of that editorial
license that he had. And what he’s talking about is
this passionate testimony of all that Jesus did in his life. And that even though through
best efforts, John had captured and recorded and communicated
only a very small amount. One pastor said everything that
Christ said or did was worth our notice. Everything that Jesus
ever did, and remember how many silent years there are, roughly
30? Everything that Jesus did would
have been worth our notice. He never spoke an idle word.
He never did an idle thing. He never spoke or did anything
insignificant. little or trifling, which is
more than can be said of the wisest of men, Matthew Henry. In other words, he says, look,
you go about and you start recording what we do in our day and you
see how much is insignificant or little, pointless, meaningless,
trifling, empty. Jesus never did a single thing.
And so when you think to record 30 years of moment by moment
interaction and action of Christ, this has been called, this statement
has been called hyperbole. Even the world itself would not
contain the books that were written. But if you started jotting down
and chronicling everything that Jesus ever did, it begins to,
that illustration, hyperbole, that exaggerated statement begins
to make sense, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s hyperbole throughout
scripture, right? You ever hear of a land flowing
with milk and honey? If that’s really literally true,
can you imagine wading through that place? Deuteronomy 128, the cities are
large and fortified to heaven. That’s a pretty tall wall. Judges
7, 12, the sons of the east were lying in the mountains, numerous
as locusts. Their camels were without number,
as numerous as the sand on the seashore. That would be one smelly
zoo. And so there’s hyperbole in scripture,
but there is truth to this statement. that it is absolutely innumerable
the number of messages, the number of truths, the number of stories,
the number of parables that Jesus could communicate. I would like
to think that throughout heaven, that’s what we’ll be spent doing
is reviewing those new things each day. The Jewish philosopher, This
hyperbole may not have even been original to John. It may have
been a saying. A Jewish philosopher said about
God, if God wished to display the riches of his creation, the
whole earth, land, and sea would not contain them. Anybody who knows me knows that
one of my favorite hymns is The Love of God. Almost every time
we sing that hymn, I have to pause and review these lyrics.
Could we, with ink, the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole. though stretched from sky to
sky. And yet, throughout the history
of humanity, there have been attempts since Christ came to
put together a little life of Christ, to decipher scraps of
paper and papyrus and other hearsay stories, this life that fills
in the gaps that God himself didn’t provide. And I say enough. It’s enough
what God has provided. It’s enough what God uncovered
for our eyes to glimpse. One scholar said, after all the
piety and learning of 2,000 years have accomplished, Christians
remain still unsatisfied, still unconvinced that most has been
made of the very fragmentary account of a tenth portion of
the Lord’s life on earth. Did you hear what he said? Let
me unpack it. We basically have a tenth, three
years, of Jesus’ life. His 33-year-old life. We have
about a tenth. And even though we just spent
four years meditating and mulling and enjoying the gospel of John
and every little twist and turn, can we begin to think that we
have milked all there is to milk even out of John’s gospel? What we have though is enough.
It’s enough because it came from God himself. It’s enough because
God determined what we needed and he gave us a peak. It’s called
revelation. Revelation refers to communication,
things about himself which we could not otherwise come to know.
We couldn’t have even conceived some of the stories. A man sitting
by a pool that suddenly bubbled up, that legend had it if he
threw himself in the pool, somehow he would be cured, yet God has
communicated all that we need through not only general revelation,
His invisible attributes, His eternal power, His divine nature,
as Paul says, but He’s also communicated to us by special revelation.
His Word and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. One of my favorite
Christmas passages is actually the book of Hebrews, chapter
one. God, after He spoke, long ago
to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many
ways in these last days has spoken. The simple sentence is separated
by all these prepositional phrases. The simple word is this. The
simple sentence is God has spoken. And He’s spoken to us in His
Son. He’s given to us His absolute and ultimate message. The message
is Jesus Christ. And so we come to the end of this incredible gospel. What Philip Schaff, a great theologian
and historian said is the most literary, the most important
literary production ever composed. We’ve had the privilege. And
we continue to have the privilege. to feast on John’s gospel. It doesn’t have to end today. John’s gospel has been likened
to a pool in which a child can wade and an elephant can swim.
And so children, I’d say wade in. Go into the gospel of John
and read it and drink it for all it’s worth and you’ll never
milk it dry. For the adults, throw yourself
in the deep end. I’ve studied the gospel of John
for four years, and as I put those books on the shelf, I realized
I hadn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the depths and
the significance of this incredible gospel. One pastor said the peculiar
character book has been set forth by the single adjective, sublime. For sublimity, it is said to
result from two factors, simplicity and profundity. The sea is sublime
because of its unbroken expanse and its measureless depths. The
cloudless sky is sublime because of its limitless vaults of blue. But such too as this little book,
its stories are so simple that even a child will love them,
But its statements are so profound that no philosopher can fathom
them. And it’s beloved. It’s not only
invaluable, it’s dynamic, and it’s beloved. I mentioned a moment
ago, this was probably the gospel, the section of scripture that
was most useful in bringing this sinner to Christ. but many that
I’ve talked to since then say the same thing. One pastor said,
the fourth gospel is the most familiar and best loved book
in the Bible. It’s probably the most important
document in all the literature of the world. It has induced
more persons to follow Christ. It has inspired more believers
to loyal service than any other book that could be named. Now,
I don’t know how you begin to measure that, It certainly is
a significant gospel. We’re not done with it. You’re
not done with it. It’s God’s revelation to you. Would you humble yourself before
the mighty and loving hand of God? Our merciful God, we thank
you and praise you for your servant, this apostle, the beloved disciple,
John, And we thank you for the admonitions contained in this
gospel, for the examples that were provided for us in Christ
and others. Lord, we thank you so much for
the richness of this gospel. We thank you that in this gospel
of John, we heard so clearly the gospel. of faith in Christ
alone for salvation. And Lord, we thank you and praise
you that even these final verses articulate so much truth that
Scripture is inspired and that it must be illuminated by God
the Holy Spirit Himself and that in the end we have divine revelation
in our laps. Lord God, we thank you that You
privileged us to open this book and to study it. That you allowed
me the rich privilege of preaching it. And Father God, let us not
lose sight. Even this morning. If there are
any in this room who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their
Savior. Today is. Or could be. The day of salvation. Today could
be that day where you move upon sinners and bring them to repentance,
having shown them the richness of your revelation to them. Lord
God, we plead for these. We plead for these who do not
know Christ. And Lord, we pray that you would
take this gospel and continue to mold and shape our lives.
after the Savior that we love. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.
Amen.