Transcript

John chapter 21, would you turn there with me. If you’re not a regular folk around here, we preach verse by verse, chapter by chapter through books of the Bible. At least that’s the mainstay of our pulpit. I just finished my 28th book of the Bible. Some of them taking up to five years to complete. But I’m in between books right now, so there’s various things that I’m doing to exhort the church.

And today, I was just thinking about two weeks ago on John 21:24-25, and in contemplating what John was saying, I wrote down some things, and that’s my message this morning. I call it The Wonder of it All. The wonder of it all.

John 21:24-25. “This is the disciple John himself who is testifying to these things and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true”. Here’s the powerful statement. “And 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.”

Now, when John says the world couldn’t contain the books if you wrote down everything Jesus said and did, I don’t think John is talking about just in hyperbole or just about the literal words he said, but John is saying as a gospel writer, if you took all the wisdom that was in Christ’s words, the glorious, holy wisdom of God incarnate Jesus Christ, and you wrote out the implications of all that his words meant, there’s not enough cloud storage in the world for it. It’s just infinite and glorious.

I prayed this morning that for so many of us here, you wouldn’t just be wondering about it all, you’d be moved to the wonder of it all. You see, you can watch and look at Jesus from afar and wonder about it all. But when he becomes yours and you become his, then you begin to know the wonder of it all. That’s conversion, that’s salvation. That we this morning some of us would go from examining him to knowing him. Knowing the wonder of his love and the wonder of his forgiveness and the wonder of eternal life. Life that’s different now and lasts for all eternity.

Roman numeral one as we unpack some thoughts from the Gospel of John. Let’s talk a little bit about the wonder of his words. Again, not just the literal words, though we’re going to talk about a couple of those. But the wonder of the infinite value and glory and wisdom of all of his words. Think for just a moment about some of the statements that he made. I am statements. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the true vine. I am the alpha and omega. I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end. One time he just said, before Abraham was, I am. Each one of those phrases is radically, immensely pregnant, if you will, with meaning and understanding. The wonder of his words.

One onlooker has recorded in the Gospels as they heard Jesus said, never has a man spoken the way this man speaks. So literally, I could preach into infinity if you unpacked all the import of the glorious, wondrous words of Jesus. But I wanna pick two words. One word that Jesus gave us is a descriptive of himself. The second word is a directive to us. All right, don’t get hung up in the outline necessarily, but get the truth. The first word is where Jesus said, I am the door. Interesting. I am the door. John 10:9. “I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved.” What a glorious and powerful statement.

When Jesus says, I am the door, it speaks to us of a number of things, but one thing it certainly speaks to us of is the onlyness of Jesus. It’s a definite article. He’s not one of the doors. He is the door. The onlyness of Jesus. There’s no other door but Jesus, period. And when he says, I am the door, it is not just that Jesus shows us the way or the path or the course or the hoop jumps to salvation. It is that he himself, listen, is salvation.

All of my life as a young Christian, and I understand what they mean by it, and I’m not saying it’s heresy, but it is somewhat misleading to talk about a plan of salvation as if we implement the plan and we earn our way to heaven. That’s heresy. Brothers and sisters, the emphasis is not on the plan of salvation, it must be on the man of salvation. I am the door. It’s him. It’s Christ. I don’t want to know if you have the spirit. That’s wonderful. I don’t want to know if you understand theology. That’s good. I want to know, do you have him? I am the door. Salvation is not a procedure. It’s a person. You must have him.

So there’s that descriptive word, and there’s so many others, but he is the door. Now let me add to that one other word that Jesus used a lot. And that’s a declaration or a directive to us. Repent. Repent. I’m convinced a lot of us get out of balance when we think about repentance. Jesus preached a lot about repentance. As a matter of fact, in the Gospels, he preached almost twice more using the word repent than any other gospel preacher recorded. More than Peter, more than Paul, more than any of them. He said it a lot. Matthew 4:17, “from that time Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

But now listen, think this morning. The word of God is worth your best thinking. The word repent very simply means to change your mind. It includes a change of direction. Change of pattern, a change of path, if you will, but it all begins if you simply take the word repent, it means a change of mind or a change of mind and heart. So here Jesus is telling folks to repent. He’s not telling you to make some morbid introspection cycle in your life where you’re constantly calculating up how many good things you did or how many bad things you didn’t do, how good your repentance meter is this week. Did I do 70%, did I do 40, did I get up to 90? That is not what repentance is about. When Jesus said, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, what he’s saying is this, something greater than anything you’ve ever known is now present. Something truer than anything else you’ve ever looked to is now present. So turn from all you’ve known and embrace the new that’s now here, himself. God himself, Jesus himself was there.

Now, all must repent to be saved. Jesus told the religious authorities they need to repent to be saved. He told a woman of the night, a woman of immorality, she must repent to be saved. One of the things we think about, or I thought about, I should say, developing this was that how many of us today, like the people of that day, needed to turn from what they were presently looking to, to turn to Jesus and Him alone. So here’s some wrong doors. Jesus is the door. But you know, we’re born into this world as fallen sinners, and we naturally believe the wrong doors are the right doors. I mean, anywhere I’ve gone in the world, and I’ve gone a lot of places, men are basically the same way. They will look to these wrong doors until God invades their heart and illumines their understanding.

The first wrong door is morality. Some people will say, you know what, I need to clean up my life. I’m gonna quit cheating on my spouse. I’m gonna stop watching dirty things. I’m gonna clean up my language. I got a habit of lying some and deceiving. I’m gonna clean that. I’m gonna morally clean myself up. The Bible says the man that self cleans himself, that demon goes out and brings seven worse ones in. The door of morality is a false door. Don’t try to go through that door to find God. Now, to make you a better person, a better neighbor, that’s all good, but it won’t get you to heaven. You just go to heaven a little more moral than you were before, or go to hell, rather, a little more moral than you were before.

Another wrong door is the door of good works. Well, I’m gonna make some changes, preacher. There’s a children’s home down the road, and I’m gonna volunteer some time down there, and there’s also a senior adult place in our area that needs some support and help, and I’m gonna give some work down there and give some funds down there, and I think I’ll give to the Wounded Warrior Project, probably a very good thing. I’m just gonna do better works, whether it’ll make you a much better citizen, and praise the Lord for that. We got two mayors in our office this morning, and that’d make for better people in our cities, but it won’t get you to heaven. The Bible says all your righteous deeds are as filthy rags because you start with a bad product in the beginning, a sinful heart.

So morality is a wrong door, good works is a wrong door, and then other people try the door of religion. Well, preacher, I think it’s time. I think I need to be baptized and I’ll join the church. I’m gonna take part in the ordinances like baptism and the Lord’s table communion and hey, I might even start going to small groups. I’m just gonna put on some religion. That’s the wrong door. The people of Jesus’ day were very religious and they were keeping the law of Moses. But Jesus said, you’re gonna have to turn from trusting that and look to another way because something new and better has come. And that’s what God’s telling some of you today. Turn from trusting cleaning up your own life. Turn from trusting I’m gonna clean some things up and do some good works. Turn from trusting in the thought, well, I’m gonna go to church and maybe God will accept me.

I meant to say this at the beginning. Did you hear our president just the other day talk about the war in Ukraine? And just out of nowhere, he said, you know what? I’m trying to get to heaven. And if I could stop this war and all the killing, maybe I’ll get there. Mr. President, you’re very, very wrong. If you stopped all the wars of all time and all the wars of all the future, that won’t get you to heaven. Good works, morality, religion, false doors cannot get you into heaven. Only one door and that’s Jesus.

Now, of course, in our context, these Jews, Jesus was primarily ministering to and preaching to, these Jews were very, very hung up on the fact that they were the descendants of Abraham. We’re the blood lineage of Abraham, they would say. Our father Abraham was spoken to by God and God called him and God gave him a solemn covenant that of all your descendants, I will bless them and keep them. And so they missed the whole spiritual side of that whole equation. It wasn’t just the physical descendants of Abraham, but the spiritual descendants of Abraham that will be saved. So he says, you’re going to have to turn, repent, turn from trusting that you’re the child of Abraham and turn to Jesus, who is the God who made Abraham. Repentance.

Now, if you turn from everything else you’re trusting into trust only in Jesus, not the Baptist church, not the Episcopalian church, not the Catholic church, only Jesus. If you turn to him, now, your life should be more moral, your life should have better works. That stuff follows, but that’s not repentance that saves. You see, you can do all of those, repent of all of those individual sins and still not get to heaven. But the primary repentance is turning from whatever you’re looking to, other than Jesus, to turn to him and rest in him alone. So he gave us a descriptive word, I am onlyness, the door, and repent.

Now, number two, not only the wonder of his words, but let’s talk about the wonder of his works. his works while he was here and walked on the earth.” Well, you remember them. He turned the water into wine. He fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves. It just kept miraculously multiplying. He and the disciples were out on the sea of Galilee and a violent storm erupted and the boat was sinking and waves were splashing over them and the thunder was roaring and the lightning was cracking around them. And Jesus stood up and said to the storm, hush, be still. And immediately that raging sea became perfectly still like the starry heavens on a summer’s night. Miracle, it works. He healed all kinds of people with all kinds of physical maladies, lameness, leprosy, raised the dead, Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son who was being carried forth in the funeral procession. Jesus messed up everything. He messed up the funeral. He brought the guy back to life. Lazarus, come forth, and Lazarus comes floating out of the tomb. His works, his works.

But you see, brothers and sisters, these works were but the preliminaries for the work. Actually, what I believe is when Jesus came and fed all of these people and healed all of these people and raised them, he was leaving a splash, if you will, of what it’s gonna be like when he returns again and places his kingdom on the earth. Because there’ll be no sickness. There will be no disease. There will be no demons. There’ll be no dying. So he said, I’m going to give you a touch of it, but that’s not going to be in the full until I return again.

But those types of miracles, as wonderful as they must again, those types of works only led up to the work. In John 17 for Jesus speaks to God, the father, and he says, I have glorified you having accomplished the work that you’ve given me to do. John 6:38, “I’ve come down from heaven,” Jesus says, “not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” Oh, Zacharias, who was John the Baptist’s father, when he was prophesying as John was born, he prophesied of Jesus. Not John, Jesus, and he says of Jesus, Luke 1:68, “for he has visited us and accomplished redemption for his people.” That’s the work of Jesus, redemption.

Now, the idea of redemption is buying something back. Slavery was so common in the world in this day. Matter of fact, scholars tell us probably 50% of the population of the Greco-Roman civilization were slaves. So they understood the slave trade very, very well. It’s part of life. And occasionally a person would have a loved one who became a slave and they would finally get up the money. They’d go down to the slave block and buy that loved one off of the slave market. That’s where the word redemption comes from. And that’s what Jesus did for us. We were the slaves to Satan and the slaves to sin and bound for hell. And Jesus accomplished our redemption. He bought us. That’s the work he came to do. That’s the work he came to do.

The wonder of it all, the wonder of his words, the wonder of his work, and a quick word, The wonder of his welcome. You got to understand something. Can I just tell you this? Will you be okay if I tell you this? You’re not as important as you think you are. God doesn’t need you. God doesn’t need me. Just stick around a while, I’ll die and be gone. But this ministry will carry on. We’re all expendable. but he welcomes us when he doesn’t need us and we don’t deserve him and we don’t qualify in our own abilities to be with him.

John 3:15 reminds us, “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s him putting out the welcome mat. I’m throwing out the welcome mat, Jesus said. If you’ll just believe, I’ll welcome you into my family. John 1:12, “to as many as received him,” the door. “He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name.” He welcomes us. Three thoughts here.

First of all, he welcomes you to hope because before Jesus you had no hope. You were in your sin. There’s not a priest or a pope or a bishop or a Baptist pastor or anybody else that can absolve you of your sin. You can be baptized in a Baptist church enough time to be on speaking terms with catfish, and it’s not going to cleanse you and make you a Christian. There’s no hope outside of Jesus. But he welcomes us to hope the forgiveness of sins. For example, in Matthew 9:6, he has authority on earth to forgive sins. Wow. Don’t just let that go by. You see, here’s what the liberals have done to us. They’ve taught you a lie that you’re pretty good. You just need a little help to get over into heaven. The Bible teaches right the opposite. You’re radically bad, and you need the death of the Son of God to get you into heaven. And he did that. The hope that my sins are forgiven. Well, pastor, I sinned again, and I’m weak, and I fell again, and I sinned again. Yes, but where sin abounds, the Bible says, grace does much more abound. Grace means God’s favor you don’t deserve. I’m a sinner. I’m a sinner. I’m a sinner and God says yes, but my forgiveness is greater than your sin. That’s hope. Hope.

Another part of hope that I would bring out is that whatever following Jesus cost, it is worth it. Because see, biblical hope is not maybe so, it might be so. Biblical hope is it’s absolutely certain. Romans 8:18, “for I consider that the sufferings of this present time,” that means the sufferings of being one of Christ’s followers, “is not worthy to be compared with the glory that’s to be revealed to us.” I have a confident assurance, a hope. that humanly speaking, following Jesus may cost something, but it’s not even close to what I’m gonna get in the end.

Charlie Kirk was a good man. Charlie Kirk was a godly man. He clearly shared the things of Christ. And believe me, friend, Charlie Kirk was not assassinated because he was a capitalist or a conservative. It’s because he brought Jesus and God’s word into the marketplace. That’s why he was assassinated. I believe he’s a Christian martyr. But listen to me, the moment that shell struck his neck, he saw glories that made him forget everything about the cost. That moment he saw Jesus. You know how beautiful Jesus is? You see, even the best, most devoted Bible scholars and disciples of Jesus Christ can only see him through a glass dimly right now. The moment you take your last breath here, the veil, it’s peeled back and you’re ushered into his presence.

Really getting ahead of myself because he not only welcomes you to hope, he welcomes you to heaven. Heaven, heaven’s yours. If you belong to Christ, John 14:2-3, Jesus said, “in my father’s house are many dwelling places.” It means a wing, an extension onto his mansion. He said, I’ve got a wing on my mansion for you. “If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” It means the moment we leave this earth, if we have our faith in Jesus, he comes and gets us and takes us to a place he’s prepared for us. Now, I don’t know what kind of thoughts you have about Jesus, but the last time he prepared a place, he made the streets out of pure gold. The last time he designed the place, he put gates on it, and each giant gate was carved out of one pearl. Make the PTL club look pitiful. Glory upon glory, and all of that is a dim, weak, incandescent light compared to the sun of the presence of Jesus Christ. He welcomes you to hope. He welcomes you to heaven.

If I could go out there and cut you open and pour this into your bone marrow and make it stay with you, I would do it, but I can’t. I trust the Spirit may, and that’s the last part of his welcome. He’s already welcomed you into his heart. You are on his heart. When Jesus died on the cross, you, no, not you generally, not you corporately, you individually, personally, was on his heart. You were one of the lost sheep he died to redeem.

Jeremiah 31:3, one of my favorite verses, my church members will tell you, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Everlasting means it’s everlasting in the past, eternity past, time present, and eternity in the future. What he’s saying is, I’ve always loved you. I’ve never not loved you. And like I tell my church all the time, listen to me. One of the reasons why you know God will never stop loving you is because God never started loving you. He’s always loved you. In the Bible, he says, you’re the apple of my eye. The Hebrew there means it’s the most sensitive part of the eye. If anything happens to you in a threatening way, you know what you do? You shield your eyes, because that’s the most delicate part. He says, I will go to the nth degree to protect you and shield you. You’re the apple of my eye.

What love God has to send his son, Jesus Christ, Because that’s the question. Why would God do this? Why would God die for us? Why would he go to the cross and become sin in our place? And he was sinless and holy. Why would he take the blow of a wrath and punishment that I deserve in my place? Why would he offer the welcome to me? One simple thing. Love. But now listen, not love like your love. Not love like I love. Divine love.

John 3:16 simply says, “For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” Romans 5:8, “but God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were helpless, while we were without hope, while we were weak and unworthy,” all the things that a sinner is, “while we were yet in that state, Christ died for us.” Why would he go do that knowing what we are? Love. That’s why the Bible says God is love. There’s nothing like him. In John 13:1, Jesus is just about to go to the cross and die. In John 13:1, it says, “Having loved his own, he loved them to the end.” Here Jesus is about to die and he’s concerned about his disciples, not himself. Any other normal human being who’s about to be executed would be thinking about themselves, not Jesus. He still had on his heart those for whom he came to die. Those for whom he came to save.

So there is the wonder of his words and the wonder of his work and the wonder of his welcome. But really the wonder of it all is love. The old hymn writer wrote it this way. In this assurance, I find sweetest rest. Trusting in Jesus, I know I am blessed. Satan, dismayed from my soul, must flee when I remind him that Jesus loves me. When Satan tries to tempt you, rob you, lie to you, drag you into hell, you need to look at him and say, I need to remind you something. Jesus loves me. You better be careful who you deal with. Jesus loves me.

Gotta finish my song. Satan, dismayed from my soul, must flee when I remind him that Jesus loves me. I’m so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. I’m so glad that Jesus loves me. Jesus loves even me.

So this morning, oh, dear friend, choose the right door. Say, I’ll just wait and I’ll contemplate that and do that later. We’ve already chosen the wrong door at that moment. Nobody’s neutral. Jesus said, he who is not for me is against me. Choose Jesus. And you know, in a very real sense, Jesus is not the door you go through. He’s just the door you come to. Going through, again, can have that connotation of works. I chose the door, I went through it. Really, the biblical picture would be this. You bow before Jesus, and bowing before Jesus, the door, you look up and you say, I’m unworthy to even touch that door. And I’m too weak to reach up and turn the knob. All I can do is kneel here as a total failure and say, oh Christ, if it’s not all of you, I’m sunk. But the moment in faith you come to that door and from your heart say, oh Christ, save this sinner, forgive this sinner, cleanse this sinner, make me yours and nothing else, then the door opens.

Jesus says it this way. Come unto me all you who are weary, weary of door number one, I’m weary of door number two, and I’m weary of door number three. I’m weary of trying to be moral enough to think God might take me. I’m weary of trying to figure out what works I can do that God might take me and save me. I’m weary of worrying about, have I done enough religious rites and rituals that God might save me? That was prominent in this day when Jesus taught these things. All of those are the wrong door. If you’re weary of everything else, then Jesus will take you. Just by saying, Jesus, I have no hope in me. No hope in my morality, my works, my religion. Jesus, I need you. If you’ll bow at that door, unworthy to touch it, without the strength to open it, he will open it every time with a welcome to be his.

One more word to be his. As the choir sang, a glorious love that will not let you go. How do I know I’m going to make it to heaven? Nothing in Jeff Noblit — He will not let me go!