This morning we come to the last passage in our Road of Life through the Gospel of John. This is not the last sermon in the series, because we need to deal with the right response to the Gospel. But, we will cover the last passage you can share with a friend or family member as you witness using the Gospel of John. Last week, we covered John 14:6, so flip back there, and in the margins of that page, write our passage for today: John 20:31. Now, flip to that verse and underline it as I read it. Today, we will focus on four words, so double underline those: Written, Believe, Christ, Son.
First, consider the word “Written.” It’s appropriate that our method begins and ends with the subject of words. We began this road with John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word…”, and we understood that Jesus is the Word of God that defines truth and reality. Now, we end with a note from John about what he has written. John stops at the end of his Gospel to make a quick note about what he has written. That note actually begins in verse 30, where he says, “There are many other things that Jesus did that aren’t written, but these things are written so that you may believe and have life.” In other words, in the three-and-a-half years that John spent with Jesus, he saw innumerable miracles, heard multiple sermons every day, and got personal devotions directly from Jesus every night. As he goes on to say in 21:25, “Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books.” So, John had to make an editorial decision when he set out to write this Gospel. He had to write down the most important things. What would be his guiding principle for doing that? Well, we have that right here: “These things are written so that you might believe and have life.” This Gospel - and the whole of the Bible, for that matter - are given to us by God through his Apostles so that we might believe on Jesus and be saved.
Christianity is not about spiritual discovery. You will not find salvation by climbing the heights of a mountain to reflect on meaning and truth. You will not find salvation by practicing some ritual, whether it be yoga or ayahuasca. The God of the universe is not discovered. He is too great and we are too sinful to find God on the mountain-top or in ritual. Certainly, creation speaks of its creator, but it can be easily misread by sinful minds. The modern view of religion is that it evolved with humanity from lower forms, like animism (belief that everything is God), to Christianity. There is even a sympathy for these “primitive” religions because they are, in this view, closer to the source. Many will criticize Christianity because of its dependence on Scripture, saying that it is better to just experience God in nature. But, actually, everything we come to believe (even what we believe about nature) is revealed, not discovered. Think about the myth that nature is pure and innocent apart from the influence of man. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nature is violent. As Alfred, Lord Tennyson said, “Nature is red in tooth and claw.” Along with that, there is the myth that America was a pristine, untouched wilderness in which the Native Americans lived in harmony with nature before Europeans arrived. This, too, is far from reality, as Indian tribes regularly used fire to shape the landscape for farming and hunting, and the plants and animals were dependent on it. The longleaf pine and the sequoia require fire to reproduce, and the bobwhite quail needs it to generate its habitat. So where does this myth of the purity of nature come from? Where does the myth of the “Noble Savage” come from? Well, we received it from people. We did not discover it. It was revealed by false teachers who want us to believe that we do not need God. We just need nature. They want us to worship the creation rather than the creator. Satan has done this throughout history. In fact, he did it in the beginning. He came to Adam and Eve as a talking snake revealing lies about God and his creation. He told Eve, “God lied to you, and the thing he forbade is actually good.” He twisted the heart of Cain. His fallen angels corrupted the race before the flood. His demons created the false religions of the world to keep men in ignorance. And today, he spins the lie that there is no need for God because now we have science.
So, if we are to know God and have salvation in him, he must speak to us. God must speak into the chaos of false teaching and reveal the truth. And, God has done that through his Word. So, Christians anchor our faith in what is written. We believe that the Bible reveals all that we need to know for life in Christ. So, to our friend we are sharing with, we want him to understand that he should take this Gospel and read. And, he shouldn’t just stop there, but read all of the Bible, because all of it speaks about Christ.
Second, consider the word “believe”. I think it’s important that we end our presentation of the Gospel by emphasizing that salvation comes through believing - through faith. It does not come through works. Here, John says that he writes so that we may believe, and in believing, have life. We have eternal life through faith. But, this is not wishful thinking, nor is it positive thinking. We are not saying that to gain eternal life, you just have to believe in something. Or, that you just have to hope against hope. No, our belief should be anchored in something.
That brings us to the last two words. John says that he wrote so that we might believe “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” The Gospel is not just a hopeful story. It is a proclamation. John says that his Gospel proclaims two things. First, “Jesus is the Christ.” You have to believe this to have life, but what does he mean in saying that Jesus is the Christ? Isn’t “Christ” Jesus’s last name? Well, no it isn’t. It is a title. Christ means “anointed one.” It was a title reserved for the King who would rule over the whole world. Many kings have aspired to rule over the whole earth. None of them have succeeded. But Jesus has. In every corner of this world, people from every tribe and tongue sing praise to him on any given Sunday. They order their lives in service to him. His rule will only expand in this world until he has made every enemy his footstool. This time is a time of grace in which he is calling all men to believe in him for salvation. There will be a time, though, when he comes as the conquering king, and on that day he will bring final judgment on all the world. So, John’s Gospel calls us to believe that he is the Christ and receive salvation through him.
We are also called to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. This is another title given to kings. In Jesus’s day, the coins minted by the Roman government read, “Caesar Augustus, Son of God.” All kings believe that they rule by divine right, and so they claim God as their Father. But, Jesus is the true Son of God. As Jesus said in John 14, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Jesus does not claim divine right as a power grab. No, he is the divine Son who has the power to deliver his people from their sins and the curse of death.
So, this morning, do you believe what is written? Won’t you turn to Christ and be saved.
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