24 Why Believe? Themes from the Gospel of John’s Final Chapters

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Thank you for making Wednesday in the Word a part of your day. Today is the 24th and final talk in my series on the Gospel of John. Today I'm going to summarize everything we've learned while focusing on John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. Today's show notes are at wednesdayintheword.com slash John 2.4. And if you've enjoyed this series, please remember to like and follow the show. It is hard to believe that we have reached the end of our series on the Gospel of John. When I started this series, I planned to cover John's Gospel in 18 podcasts, but it's expanded to 24. In this series, we focused on the big picture. Instead of going verse by verse digging into the historical background, the grammar, and the details of what each phrase means, I have tried to give you an overview of John's purpose in the Gospel. I've skipped by many of the details to try to build this big picture, and we are going to continue that today. The last four chapters of John's Gospel record the events of what we call Passion Week, the betrayal and arrest of Jesus, his trial, Peter's denial, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. In addition to the facts of the story, we see the same themes in John's account of the Passion Week that we have seen throughout his Gospel. Similar to what I did in the last episode with the Upper Room Discourse, I want to pull out the major themes. Like last time, if it's been a while since you read through chapters 18 to 21, you might want to pause the podcast and read through them now. Then resume listening. Toward the end of John's Gospel, he gives a very clear summary statement of his purpose in writing this. And I'd like to end this series by using that statement as a framework to review what we've learned and to pull out the major themes in the final chapters. It's a very accurate statement of why he wrote the Gospel. I'm going to go through this statement a phrase at a time because as I started thinking about it, every phrase is significant in terms of the themes we've been discussing throughout this series. That sentence is found in John chapter 20, verses 30 through 31. And it reads, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written 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. So our first phrase is Jesus did many other signs. And as we've seen, signs has been a huge theme in the Gospel of John. Signs are the miracles Jesus performed which send a message, and that message is that God is behind this man, Jesus. Jesus, who is standing in front of you, has just healed the lame man, he's just raised the dead or opened the eyes of a blind man. And what do you do with that? We see the Pharisees and the crowds asking, How did he do that? And John tells us he did these works because God is behind his message. God did these miracles through Jesus to testify to everyone watching and later hearing that we need to listen to Jesus. Now John says here there are many other signs that Jesus did besides the ones he records, but he has told us about a number of the miracles. We saw Jesus tell Nathaniel what he had been doing as he sat under a tree far away from where Jesus was. We saw Jesus turn the water into wine. We saw him heal the sick, the lame, the blind. He knew the details of the life of the woman at the well without ever having met her before. He fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves and fishes. He walked on water. He healed a man who had been lame for over thirty years, and he healed a man who had been born blind. And the most profound miracle we saw, the one that provoked his arrest, was the raising of Lazarus from the dead. But the greatest sign of all that he has performed is the one that we see at the end of John. He rose from the dead just as he predicted. Early in the book, the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, and he said, Okay, I'll give you a sign. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. John tells us that Jesus was speaking metaphorically. He was speaking about his body when he spoke of the temple, and he was talking about the resurrection. And in the end, that's exactly the sign that Jesus performed. He was arrested and executed on the cross, and then three days later he rose from the dead. Jesus told Nathaniel, When you were under the tree far away over there, I saw you, and that's like God whispering, Pay attention, this is my son. But when God raises Jesus from the dead, that's like God shouting, Pay attention, this is my son. Not even death can hold him. So a key part of John's story is the record of these miraculous signs that indicate Jesus is who he says he is. He's the Messiah, the Son of God. Now let's go back to our summary statement. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples. That's our second phrase, in the presence of the disciples. The apostles played a very important role in John's gospel. Jesus gave them the task of continuing his ministry and teaching all of us throughout church history what Jesus said and did. We didn't have the chance to see him face to face. We never saw him perform a miracle or heard him preach. We don't even know what he looks like. But the apostles saw him. They know what he looks like. They saw the miracles, they heard him teach. Jesus never wrote anything down, but his apostles wrote his story or dictated his story to someone else who wrote it. They wrote letters explaining what the gospel means and how we live in light of it, and those letters got collected into the New Testament. They had the authority to do that because Jesus appointed them to be his representatives. John the Baptist didn't write anything down either, but we know what John the Baptist testified, and that was that Jesus was the Christ. And we know this because several of the disciples of Jesus, who later became his apostles, were with John the Baptist and heard John the Baptist testify about who Jesus was. These same disciples saw all the miraculous signs Jesus did, they heard his teaching, they spent time with him day in and day out, they saw the arguments he had with the Pharisees, they had the chance to ask him privately what he meant, and then they heard Jesus in the upper room explain their role as apostles. When Jesus is resurrected, their role is crucial. They are the witnesses to all this. They are the ones who saw him suffer and die, and they saw him rise again. Now notice how John reports the details of these events. For example, this is John chapter twenty verses one through nine. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early while it was still dark, and saw the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first, and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth which had been on Jesus' head was not lined with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed, for as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise from the dead. Our author John is this other disciple that is described here. He never speaks of himself in the first person in this gospel. He doesn't name himself, but he is usually described as the other disciple or the disciple whom Jesus loved. Whenever he doesn't name a disciple, it's a safe bet that John is talking about himself. But notice the level of detail recorded in this account. That detail reflects the fact that John was there. He saw all this stuff. He can tell you things like, well, we were running together, but I got there first. I looked in, but I didn't go in. Then Peter caught up and he went in and I followed him and we saw how the cloths were arranged. This is the account of somebody who was there and saw it. This is the account of somebody who can tell us firsthand details like the face cloth was folded up. He can tell us things like that because he was there, he saw it. When the resurrected Jesus reveals himself, he reveals himself to the apostles. This is John twenty, nineteen through twenty three. On the evening of that day, the first of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now John was in that room when Jesus showed up, and he reports that Jesus repeats this commission that he had given to the disciples in the upper room discourse. They will be the ones he sends as his apostles, his ambassadors to represent him to the world. He is equipping them and giving them the authority to speak for him. The Gospel of John ends with a scene that shows just how important the role of the apostles is. Jesus has returned from the Daddies with them in Galilee, and this is John twenty one, fifteen through nineteen. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus 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, Feed my lambs. He said to him 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, Tend my sheep. He said to him a 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, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God. And after saying this he said to him, Follow me. I love that passage. There's a lot we could talk about in it. I just want to highlight one thing here in the context of John's themes, and I think that's very significant. I think it's really why John told us this story. Jesus uses this metaphor, feed my sheep. And of course he's not telling Peter to go out and feed a flock of sheep that he has somewhere on a hill. This is a metaphor. Jesus wants Peter to teach his people. Jesus is leaving. Peter and the other apostles are taking on the task of teaching the people of Jesus. They are taking on the task of shepherding Jesus' flock. They are the ones who are going to instruct and encourage and exhort all future followers of Jesus. Jesus is telling Peter, if you love me, then you will love the ones that I love. That is, you will teach them and encourage them as I would have done if I were here. Now Jesus asks him three times, Do you love me? And each time Peter answers yes. And Jesus says, Well, if that's the case, then take care of my people. And that's who Peter and the other apostles are to us. The apostles are the shepherds that Jesus left behind to care for us, they're to show his love for us. We're the sheep he's talking about. So although we don't have one word written by Jesus, we have the teaching of Jesus passed on to us through the apostles, including Peter. Now, in our summary statement, so far, then we've seen that Jesus performed signs, and the apostles were witnesses to those signs, and their role was to testify and teach others. Let's go back and look at the next phrase. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written. Okay, these signs seen by the disciples have been written in this book. And this phrase fits one of the greatest themes in the book of John, this idea of testimony. And we have talked about testimony a lot throughout this series. You and I have not seen Jesus, but we have a book with the written testimony of the Apostle John, who saw and heard these things. We rely on the testimony of John and the other apostles. In his book, John tells us story after story that explores this notion of testimony, the testimony of those who are telling others about Jesus. And we saw this almost from the beginning. This is the prologue in chapter 1, John 1, the six through eight. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. So here we are, six verses in, and we're talking about testimony. We're talking about bearing witness. John the Baptist testified about what God had told him. God told John the Baptist, This is how you will recognize the Messiah. And then John the Baptist testifies, I saw that happen with this guy, Jesus. He's the one that God told me about. How do we know what John the Baptist said, what he testified about? He never wrote it down. We know because John the Apostle testifies to what John the Baptist said. In this gospel, we've seen Jesus himself often speaks of testifying to what he knows from the Father. The Father told him to do something, asked him to do something, gave him words to say, and Jesus does. We don't have direct access to the Father, but Jesus testifies to us as to what the Father has said. And the Father testifies through the signs that Jesus performs that Jesus is right, that what he says is true. Then we see people like the woman at the well who testify that Jesus was a prophet, and the people in the town believe because of her testimony. Later, when they hear Jesus for themselves, they say, now it's not just because of your testimony, we've seen it for ourselves. The man born blind testifies, Jesus is the one who gave me sight. Those who saw Lazarus raised from the dead testify to others what they saw, and it creates this huge fur in Jerusalem over Jesus. And this theme continues into the end of the gospel. For example, this is John 19, 31 through 35. Since it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath, for the Sabbath was a high day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness, his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth, that you also may believe. Now that's written in the third person, but again I think John is talking about himself. He's saying, I saw it with my own eyes, he was dead. They came up to him, he was already dead. They stabbed him, and the signs of death, the blood on the water came out. I saw it with my own eyes. I'm here to tell you this is what happened. One of the most fascinating passages dealing with testimony is found right at the end of John in chapter twenty. This is a famous story, you probably know it. This is John twenty, twenty four through twenty nine. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord, but he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the marks of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Eight days later the disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thomas has heard the testimony of the other apostles that Jesus has been resurrected, but he doesn't believe it because he hasn't seen it for himself. These other men that he's known for years have said to him, Look, we've seen him. He's alive, but Thomas doesn't buy it yet, he has to see it for himself. And when he does, he believes. He gives the soul stirring cry, My Lord and my God, which I think sums up the whole point of the story. Having heard all of what John records, our response should be, Jesus, my Lord and my God. Then Jesus replies, It's great that you believe me because you saw me, but blessed are those who have not had the chance to see me and have believed. And he's talking about us. We believers throughout church history are the ones who didn't have the chance to see Jesus and yet we believe. In fact, all of John's readers are in that position. We haven't seen, and John is asking us to believe the story that he tells about Jesus because he was an eyewitness. Now, I don't think John portrays Thomas as a bad guy here. It's understandable that Thomas responds like this. In fact, Jesus' words illustrate this is a problem, and John's aware of this problem. He's been exploring it through the whole gospel. People who haven't seen firsthand have a more difficult time of believing. And John's readers are in the same position as Thomas. We are dependent on the testimony of others. Jesus' own words here imply that he recognizes the difficulty of that position. It's challenging to believe based on testimony. That's why it's a blessing from God to be one of those people who believes the testimony of the apostles, even though we haven't seen it for ourselves. This theme of testimony takes us right to the very end of the book. The next to last verse is John 21, 24. This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Here John concludes, you haven't seen it, but this disciple, me, John, I was there. I'm telling you about it, and I'm telling you my testimony is true. So in our summary sentence so far, we've seen the gospel is about the signs that Jesus did, which were witnessed by his apostles and then passed on through their written testimony. Let's go back to the next phrase. But these are written so that you may believe. The point of all this testimony is that we believe what we have been told, and that is a huge theme in the Gospel of John. In one seven, John the Baptist testified so that all might believe through him. In one twelve, the children of God are those who believe in the name of Jesus. And we see this throughout the book. Each of us who hears the gospel faces a choice. Will we believe it or not? This is a very central part of Christianity, but if you stop and think about it, it's kind of a strange and puzzling thing. How did it come to be that my destiny as a human being depends on what I believed happened to this person in history? Well, a crucial part of John's purpose in this gospel is to explore why it is important whether we believe the gospel or not. Throughout this gospel, John has been exploring the nature of belief and unbelief in a very rich and dynamic way. He comes at it from a lot of different angles with a lot of different stories about people who saw things and heard things, and then he tells us either they believed or they did not believe, or whether they continued to believe. Some form of the word believe occurs 85 times in the Gospel of John. We see it over and over. The disciples believed, the crowds believed, the Samaritans believed, the blind man believed. But then on the other hand, we have this tragic picture of the unbelief of the Jewish leadership. And it starts almost immediately. In chapter one in the prologue, John tells us he came to his own, and those who were his did not receive him. So right from the opening, from the very beginning, we see this theme that Jesus comes and his own people, the leadership of the Jews, won't accept him. And then throughout the gospel, we see this unwillingness of the Jewish leaders to accept Jesus. And it ends in this heartbreakingly ironic picture in chapter 19, where Jesus is before Pilate, the Roman governor, and his destiny is being determined. This is John 19, 12 through 15. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you're not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the stone pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha, or however you pronounce that, not sure. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover, it was about the sixth hour, he said to the Jews, Behold your king. They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. Now the irony of this is that the Messiah, the king of kings, the promised Davidic king who is standing before this Jewish crowd, and especially the Jewish leadership here, yell out, He's not our king, we have no king but Caesar. Now we don't want to judge them too harshly here. In the frenzy of the crowd, they may not believe everything they're saying at that particular moment. But they do know that if Rome gets the idea that Jesus is claiming to be king and trying to lead an insurrection, the Romans will come in and wipe them out. They're trying to keep this representative of Rome happy. They want to get rid of Jesus and keep on Rome's good side, so they say he's not our king. But of course the tragedy is he is our king. And that's the great irony of the picture there. Throughout the gospel, we have these stories of belief and unbelief, which are not simple and straightforward. Many people are described as believing at some point or another, but they end up abandoning Jesus. There was a mob of people following Jesus after he fed the 5,000. They were ready to make him king, and yet in the space of about a day, most of them went away. And part of John's purposes here have been to explore why it's so hard to believe, even when the facts are staring you in the face. The Pharisees see miracle after miracle and yet they refuse to believe. Jesus does a lot of teaching himself on that subject in the Gospel of John. He talks about how unbelief is rooted in our deepest desires and commitments. He says we don't believe because we're unwilling to admit that we're evil. He says we don't believe because it matters more to us what other people think about us than what God thinks about us. I think one of the great insights that comes out of John's gospel is this idea that belief is a matter of will. We believe what we want to believe despite what the facts say. Belief is not something automatic that just happens. It has to do with what we're willing to believe. And even if the evidence is strong, if we don't want to believe it, we won't. It takes the work of God to break through that kind of hardness of our hearts. God has to break through our unwillingness to believe and be born again by the Spirit of God and drawn to Jesus by the Father. So in our summary statement so far, we've seen that Jesus performed miraculous signs. These signs were witnessed by the apostles, and they passed on to us what they saw in written testimony. The purpose of that testimony is that we might choose to believe. And then our next phrase, but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. All this testimony is so that we might believe something very specific. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. The question isn't so much who was Jesus. The real question is who is the Christ? And the answer is, the Christ is Jesus. Now, Christ is just the Greek word for the Hebrew word for Messiah. Messiah means the anointed one. It's the term used to refer to the figure the prophets of the Old Testament talked about, the one coming king who would sit on David's throne and rule from it forever in peace and justice and righteousness. So the crucial question is who is the Messiah? How would I recognize the Messiah when I saw him? And what does the Messiah have to teach me? Well, the traditional formulation is that Jesus Christ is prophet, priest, and king. And I think that formulation captures quite well what we see John doing in this gospel. First of all, Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the greatest of the prophets. He came from God to give us God's message to bring the light of truth into a dark world. And we see that right from the beginning in the prologue in verse 9. John talks about the true light coming into the world to enlighten every man. And then later in the prologue, he says, No one has seen God. The only one who's seen God is the Son. And Jesus says, I've only told you what the Father gave me to say. Our response to Jesus is ultimately our response to God. As the Christ, Jesus is the greatest of all the prophets, the one who most completely and clearly explained to us who God is and what God is doing. Jesus is also the great high priest. And although John does not use that language, he does paint that picture. Jesus describes himself as having come to offer his body for the life of his people. He talks about being the good shepherd who will lay down his life for the sheep. At the crucifixion, Jesus, as our high priest, offers himself as payment for our sins. Not only is his death and resurrection the greatest sign that he is indeed the Messiah, but in offering his life, he brings us eternal life and reconciliation with God. It is his death that secures our forgiveness and reconciles us to God. And then Jesus is the great king of kings over all of creations. This is what it means to be the Messiah. The Messiah is the anointed one, the final king of Israel and ultimately king over all creation who will rule over God's kingdom forever. That's who Jesus is, prophet, priest, and king. And we are waiting for the day when he returns and openly and fully establishes that kingdom and displays his rule. And we can see all of that in John in various places. For example, this is John 18, 33-38, where Jesus is standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus answered, Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priest have delivered you over to me. What have you done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world. Then Pilate said to him, So you are a king. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king, for this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of truth listens to my voice. Pilate said to him, What is truth? After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, I find no guilt in him. In that little exchange Jesus acknowledges his kingship and claims to be a prophet from God, the prophet who has brought the truth from God that all should listen to. And he's saying these things to the man who's going to execute him and thus fulfill his role as our high priest. John loves to bring out these ironies in Jesus' life, and we see another striking one in John 19, 19 through 22. Pilate has decreed that Jesus will be crucified, and we read in nineteen. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write the King of the Jews, but rather this man said, I am the King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. Notice again the details John gives us. He can tell us everybody saw this sign because they didn't have to go very far to get to where the crucifixion happened, and it was written in three languages. That's again the details of an eyewitness. But of course, the great irony is that Pilate didn't mean it. This was his way of baiting the Jews, but in fact, the sign he wrote was the truth. This was, in fact, the king of the Jews hanging there dying for their sins. So as we look at our summary sentence then, Jesus performed signs that were witnessed by the apostles who gave us written testimony so that we might make the choice to believe that Jesus is the Christ. And we have one more phrase to look at. What's the point? Why does it matter whether I believe this testimony that Jesus is the Christ or not? So we go back to our sentence and to finish it. But these things are written 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. In the end, this is all about escaping condemnation and arriving at eternal life in the kingdom of heaven. It is all about salvation. In the Gospel of John, Jesus portrays the nature of salvation three ways. First, we are guilty. We need to escape condemnation. And Jesus says he came to free us from judgment, and his people will escape that judgment. How does he do that? He came to offer his life on our behalf. That's how he does it. His death on the cross was meant to pay the penalty for our sins and to free us from the judgment of God. That's an aspect of the life he's bringing. Second, he tells us we are slaves to sin. We are trapped in our own moral corruption. We need to be rescued. We cannot save ourselves. And that's a second aspect of the salvation that is described here in John's Gospel. Jesus came to free us so that we are no longer the sorts of people who are trapped in our own sin. He came to abolish death, corruption, futility, and make us people who are holy as God is holy. And then finally, Jesus has the authority to grant us eternal life. Right now we are prisoners of death. We are under God's wrath. Death has its hold on us. And Jesus has promised that He is the one who can fully and finally free us from death and grant us a life of goodness, righteousness, and holiness in the kingdom of heaven. And he told us these things right from the beginning in the prologue. In John 1 4, in him was life, and life was the light of men. John 1 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. And then John 1 17, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So John's message throughout this gospel is that by believing in Jesus we receive what we most need. We are guilty, in Jesus we find forgiveness. We are sinful in Jesus. We are rescued from our own evil, selfishness, and moral corruption. And we will all die, but in Jesus we are rescued from death forever. John's purpose in this book is evangelistic. He proclaims the gospel and says, believe this and find life. John wrote this letter many years after these events took place. He wrote to people who are in a situation just like us today. Jesus was no longer physically present on earth for them, and neither is he for us. The other apostles are gone, just as all the apostles are gone for us. Even though Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, most of the Jewish people have not accepted him, and people had to sort out what that means. And so John is writing this account. What John says to them applies to us. He's basically saying, Jesus came and promised eternal life. I saw him, I heard him. He performed many miracles to prove that God was with him, to prove that he would keep his promises of granting life. I saw these miracles, I heard what he had to say, you should believe me. You didn't see it, but I saw it and my testimony is true. This is an important message, not just at the point where we first make our profession of faith, but it is continually relevant to us throughout our lives. Deciding to believe in Jesus as our Savior, our God and our Lord is not a one-time thing you can forget about after deciding. We are in the same situation as the people in John's gospel. Sometimes there was initial belief, but then the pressures of life came along, other questions arose, and they said, no, I don't want this anymore. They had to face the choice, is this still what I'm about? Do I still value the promise of eternal life, even in the face of whatever difficulties or suffering I may be going through now? And we face those same pressures. Every day we're put in situations where we are challenged to answer the question: Am I really still counting on this man who was executed 2,000 years ago to solve the problem of my life today? And that's a question we continually face. So John's gospel is the testimony of a man who saw Jesus, who's telling us, yes, you should trust him. I saw it with my own eyes. He is the Christ. These things are written 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. The choice is yours. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. The blog version of this podcast is on Wednesdayandheword.com slash John 24. You can hear all the episodes in this series and find many other series on my website, Wednesdayintheword.com. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please share it with a friend. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast. You can find more of Reggie's music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.