JOHN 20:30-31 - That You May Believe

Introduction

So we are winding down the academic year for our college students, and in honor of the fact that all of their semester projects and term paper deadlines are looming just over the horizon, I wanted to talk a little bit about one of the most important parts of any writing assignment: Organizing the structure and main point of the paper. (I know we have a lot of high school students as well who know all about this!)

In order to write an effective paper, you always need to start out with a good solid thesis statement—a one or two-sentence summary of what the entire essay is about. If you get the thesis statement right, the entire project falls into place.

This morning we are going to begin our study of the Gospel of John. Now, over the years we have studied several different passages in John’s Gospel (particularly during Advent and Easter), but what I aim to do over the next several weeks is give us a survey of the entire structure of the book to understand what John was aiming to do with this book.

John was the last of the four Gospel writers to set down his account of Jesus’ life and ministry; he most likely wrote around A.D. 80 or later—he notably calls the “Sea of Galilee” the “Sea of Tiberius” (6:1; 21:1), a name that came into usage late in the first century, and he is the only Gospel writer who never mentions the Sadducees as a group (who lost their influence and identity after the Temple was lost in A.D. 70).

Most scholars agree that he wrote this Gospel while he lived in the city of Ephesus, in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey, and one of the cities he mentions in the opening chapters of Revelation). Both of these elements—when the book was written and where it was written—will have a significant impact on the way we understand John’s message.

So what I aim to do this morning as we begin our study is to take a look at the thesis statement John provided for the writing of this Gospel: John 20, verses 30-31

John 20:30–31 LSB

Therefore many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

John says he saw Jesus do a lot of miracles (“Signs”, as we will see he calls them)—but John chose very carefully which signs he included in his account. As I hope to demonstrate through the course of this series, John made some very specific decisions about what to include and how to arrange the elements and events of Jesus’ life and work in such a way as to make believers out of his readers and strengthen his readers who were believers.

John 20:31 LSB

but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

So here is the “thesis statement” I want to submit for this sermon today. What I aim to show you from these verses this morning is that

John’s Gospel is POWERFUL to CREATE and SUSTAIN faith in those who READ and OBEY it

As we get underway with our study of John’s Gospel, we will be greatly helped by considering first

I. The AUDIENCE John’s Gospel ADDRESSES

John says very clearly that he chose the events and teachings of Christ that he did “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ...” So the purpose of writing this Gospel was to create believers. John was writing this book first of all for

Those who need EVANGELISM

There were at least two groups of people in John’s audience. Remember, he was writing his Gospel in the city of Ephesus, which we know from church history was also the home of the first century false teacher Cerinthus of Ephesus, a heretic that taught that Jesus was a mere human being, the natural child of Joseph and Mary. He taught that the “heavenly Christ” descended on him at his baptism but then left him the night before His crucifixion.

His teachings were very influential, and there is good evidence that John and Cerinthus knew each other in Ephesus. In fact, John’s disciple, the early church father Irenaeus, said specifically that John wrote his Gospel to defend the truth of Christ’s deity against the lies of the false teachers who said He was a mere human being and not God.

The other group that John was writing to was the Jewish opponents of the Gospel who rejected Christ’s Messiahship, the ones who would have been in agreement with the actions of the Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus to death. While they were opposed to Christ’s identity as the Messiah, they were also living in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which would have represented a complete collapse of their religion—the Temple was gone, the sacrifices had halted; in fact there was no more Jerusalem to speak of (the Roman historian Josephus said that after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, a traveller who had never been through that region before wouldn’t have even known there had ever been a city there!)

Both of these groups were in John’s target audience—people who needed the hope of the Gospel for their salvation! Their world had been destroyed; their philosophy blinded them to the truth; they were people who needed to hear the truth about Jesus Christ!

Along with those who needed evangelism, John’s audience included

Those who need ENCOURAGEMENT

John was writing to unbelievers so that they may believe, and he wrote to Christians who needed encouragement in their faith to keep on believing in the middle of the persecutions they were starting to suffer. I take this from the fact that the tense of the Greek word for believe in Verse 31 can also be translated “so that you may continue believing that Jesus is the Christ...”

The believers that John was writing to would have been hearing the false teachings about Christ and rejections of Him that the unbelievers were making; they lived in a dry desert of unbelief and John’s Gospel was meant to be an oasis of life and strength and joy for them to encourage them. The way that John ordered and arranged the “signs” that Jesus performed, the events and teachings that John chose to include, were all carefully chosen in order to provide deep, lasting encouragement for every struggling, weary believer.

John wrote this Gospel for those who need to be confronted with the Good News of Jesus’ life and work in order to bring them to faith, and also for those who did believe in Christ for salvation, to encourage them and strengthen them in their faith.

And so let’s consider for a few moments each of these groups in turn—first, according to these verses,

II. What do UNBELIEVERS need to HEAR?

John 20:31 LSB

but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

I can’t remember where it was specifically—Walmart of Hobby Lobby or somewhere like that—seeing one of those decorative shiplap wall plaques with the word “Believe” written in flowing script. In fact, you’ll see all kinds of decorations and knickknacks, hoodies, coffee mugs and the like with the single word “Believe” written on them.

Now, it’s been well-said that “There is no virtue in a transitive verb”. It is not enough just to “believe”—it matters what you are believing in. You can believe that George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Christmas Day 1776, you can believe that the Pirates will win the World Series, you can believe that Bill Gates is one of the lizard people, you can believe 2+2 equals 4, you can believe in time-traveling assassins—not all believing is good or right or helpful.

John is calling his readers to believe some very specific things about Jesus Christ. For the unbeliever, to believe that “Jesus is the Christ” means that

Jesus is the SACRIFICE for your SIN

One of the central tasks John undertakes in his Gospel, as we will see, is to declare and defend the truth that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that had been promised through the entire Old Testament. In Genesis 3, God promises to send a son, born of the seed of the woman, to redeem Adam and Eve’s descendants from the curse of their sin.

In Isaiah 53, the Messiah is described as the suffering servant of God who is perfectly righteous and yet was punished and killed as a willing payment for our sins. He takes the guilty one’s punishment so the guilty one can be declared innocent. Believing in Jesus as “the Christ” (Greek word for Messiah), means believing that He came to pay the penalty for our sins for us. John fills his Gospel with statements about the work of Christ to save us from the penalty of our sins:

John 1:29 LSB

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 3:16 LSB

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

John 8:24 LSB

“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

John 10:11 LSB

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

John 8:34–36 LSB

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

John writes his Gospel to declare to unbelievers that Christ is the sacrifice for our sin, and

Christ is the WAY out of DEATH

Over and over again we see Christ’s authority over death—in the opening verses of Chapter 1, John declares that

John 1:4 LSB

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

And Jesus says in John 5:24

John 5:24 LSB

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

John 6:47 LSB

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

John 11:25–26 LSB

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

John 8:51 LSB

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death—ever.”

Believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, means believing that He is your only escape from death—in this life, or the next.

John wrote this Gospel in order to make believers of his readers. These are written so that you might believe the Good News that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for your sin, and that He is your only escape from death. This Gospel is written for those who need evangelism—and this Gospel is written for those who need encouragement. So having considered what unbelievers need to hear,

III. What do BELIEVERS need to REMEMBER?

Remember that John was writing to Christians who were increasingly coming under attack for their faith—both from those who rejected Christ’s identity as the Messiah and those false teachers who rejected His divine nature as God Himself. And so you will see as we work our way through John’s account of Jesus’ life that he goes to great lengths to prove that

He is the PROMISED MESSIAH

“These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ...” The Greek word christos is a direct translation of the Hebrew word mesiach— “Anointed One”.

John fills his Gospel account with connections of Christ’s life and work back to the history and prophecies of Old Testament Israel— Jesus is the “bread that came down out of heaven” (John 6:32-35) like the manna that fed Israel in the wilderness

Isaiah 5 describes Israel as “the vineyard of YHWH” and the men of Judah as His delightful plant; Jesus connects Himself to that prophecy, claiming to be the true vine—the true Israel—in John 15, with His Father, YHWH, as the vine-grower.

Just a few weeks ago we saw Jacob’s prophecy about his son Judah, that he would have such abundance that he could use wine to do his laundry (Gen. 49:11). What is the first miracle that Jesus performs in John—what sign does John choose first of all? That Jesus provides an abundance of wine for the guests at the wedding in Cana.

The greatest connection of all that John makes with Christ and Israel is in identifying Him as the Passover Lamb whose bones were not to be broken (Ex. 12:46) and as the suffering son from Psalm 22 whose enemies cast lots for His garments as He died (John 19:24).

John carefully chooses the signs Jesus performs and the events of Jesus’ life and ministry to point to the unmistakable fact that He is the promised Messiah who came to bless all the nations of the earth through His work. He is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham; He is the prophet like Moses, He is the Good Shepherd of Israel—over and over again John drives home that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah.

John writes his Gospel account of Christ’s life “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God...” He is the promised Messiah and

He is GOD INCARNATE

We have studied at various times (most recently back in December) how John demonstrates so conclusively that Jesus Christ is the eternal, pre-existent Word made flesh—He existed from eternity with God, identified with God Himself, and yet became flesh and dwelt as a man in our midst.

The signs that John chooses to include in his Gospel are specifically chosen because they are works that could only be done by God. No human being could do what Christ does in this book; and yet throughout this book Jesus is undeniably human! He eats and drinks and weeps and grows weary—John presents Him as completely and utterly human, and at the same time completely and undeniably God. For believers struggling under the weight of the oppression and hatred that they were suffering for their faith, John’s Gospel is a source of strength and encouragement and nourishment for their souls in the middle of a world that rejects Christ and rejects them. He is the promised Messiah, and He is God incarnate. John proves here in his Gospel that Jesus Christ is exactly Who He says He is!

John has written this Gospel account to create and sustain saving faith in his readers. And what is the result of this believing? What does John say his aim is in writing this book so that we will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? So that, in believing, “you will have life in His Name!” So look here for a moment at what John tells us about

IV. The LIFE that faith PRODUCES

John chose the signs and words of Christ in his book to create and sustain faith in his readers—and that faith in Christ leads to “life in His Name”. What does it mean to have “life in the Name of Christ?” There are at least two that we can demonstrated over and over again in John’s book. First of all, the life that faith in Christ produces—life in His Name—means that we have a life that is characterized by

A Future HOPE

When Jesus stood by Lazarus’ tomb in John 11, the comfort that He offered to Lazarus’ sister Mary is the same comfort in the shadow of death that He offers every one who believes in Him:

John 11:25–26 LSB

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die—ever. Do you believe this?”

John included this account in his Gospel so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you would have life in His Name—life that never ends, life that means you will never die. There was no punctuation or red letter editions in the original manuscript, so we can only make the natural assumption that the last words in Verse 26 were said by Jesus to Mary, “Do you believe this about Me?” But it is hard to avoid the impression that it is John who writes this account of Jesus’ words to Mary, then turning to us his readers and saying, “Do you believe this about JESUS??” Because that is why he included this account of Lazarus’ return from the grave—so that you may believe that everyone who believes in Jesus Christ will have life in His Name!

This life is not just a future hope—a promise that death does not have the last word, that the grave will not hold a believer in Jesus forever (because the grave could not hold Him!) The life that we have in Christ’s Name is also

A Present REALITY

The life that you have now, Christian, is life that you have in His Name. The world John’s readers lived in—hostile to Christ’s identity as Messiah and Savior, rejecting His identity as the eternal Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in fully human form—the world you live in today is just as hostile, just as skeptical, just as dead-set against Him as it was two thousand years ago.

But there is a difference between that world and this one—the difference is that you live in a world where Christ has risen from the dead! You live in a world that has been existing in light of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth for two millennia; you live in a world that He has overcome!

John 16:33 LSB

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

This is the present reality that you live in, Christian—you live in a world that has been overcome by Jesus Christ! Not a world that needs to be overcome; not a world that is resisting being overcome—when Jesus Christ rose from the dead on that first Easter morning, He conquered the world. And when He ascended to Heaven forty days later, He assumed the Throne of His Kingdom and is right now reigning and ruling and superintending everything that takes place in this world—even this world’s hatred of Him and dismissal of you are completely under His authority!

As we just saw in the story of Joseph, God’s providential control of all of the events of this world means that even though the enemies of the Gospel mean to do evil to His church, Jesus Christ reigns today to turn it to His good! There is nothing that comes into your life, Christian—no opposition, no scorn, no pain, no heartbreak, no illness, no disappointment or loss or darkness—that has not first passed through His nail-scarred hands on its way to you!

Romans 8:38–39 LSB

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the life that you have in His Name—hope for the future and hope in the now. These are written that you might be strengthened and encouraged in your faith in the midst of a hostile world, in the midst of battles with your remaining sin, in the midst of the brokenness and darkness and lostness of our culture—that you may see Jesus in this Gospel, and that seeing Him you may not just believe in Him but delight in Him for all His excellencies on display here.

Because it is not enough to simply wear the “Believe” hoodie—it is not enough to simply affirm the truth of Jesus’ resurrection or intellectually stipulate that He very may well have been the eternal God in human flesh; it is not enough to look at all the Old Testament prophecies and evidences and agree that He fits all of the criteria to be legitimately considered the Messiah—because Satan himself and all of the demonic host that joined him in his rebellion believe in Jesus on those terms!

When John says that he has written these things so that you might have life believing in His Name, he means that he has written these things so that you would come to delight in Jesus. John calls himself “the disciple that Jesus loved”—he was one of Jesus’ closest friends on this earth, and he has written a collection of the teachings, the miracles, the sayings of Jesus that he most loved so that when you read them you will love Jesus too.

So this is the charge laid before us this morning—read this Gospel account from the man loved by Christ so that you will love Him as well. This is the Word of God to reveal Jesus to you, to draw you to Him in love and obedience, to cause you to see Him for Who He is and in His light to see yourself.

As you read what John has recorded here in these pages, this Gospel will break up the stony ground of your cold heart dead in tresspasses and sins and give you a heart to truly delight in Him as you come to Him for forgiveness and salvation. These things have been written in order to take the weary, fading embers of your faith and fan them into flame again. The Beloved Disciple presents for you here an account of his beloved Friend and Lord, so that you might read and believe, with all joy and delight and wholehearted obedience, that this is the Christ, the Son of God, and in that believing you will have eternal life in the Name of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 LSB

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

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