We kicked off a new series at Gateway Church in Austin called “Death to Life.”
Discover the character and love of God as we journey through the 7 major signs in the Gospel of John. We will look at the life and work of Jesus through the eyes of one of his best friends and faithful disciples. In these 7 signs we encounter a depth to the glory and majesty of God, and how these truths can radically change our lives. They take us from lost to found; broken to whole; and from death to life.
Digging Deeper:
Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.
Discussion Questions
Message Video:
Message Notes from Carlos Ortiz:
In October of 2022, the international non-profit organization, World Vision, came out with their list of the world’s most popular bible verses (by country).
Some countries were inconclusive, or didn’t have any data, but the overwhelming response to the world’s most popular bible verse was John 3:16. Read it with me:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. – John 3:16-17
It’s no wonder that this verse is found in a book of the bible we call John, and John wants us to know Jesus better. John is part of the gospels in what we call the New Testament, and it is so important for us to know, that we are going to park here for the next few weeks and take our time getting to know the essence of what this author is wanting us to know about God, about Jesus, and our role in being in relationship with Him.
So what do we need to know about the overall book of John. First, as you walked in today at all of our locations, you had the opportunity to receive a New Testament bible. You can keep it if you don’t have a bible, but also feel free to take it and then share it with someone you feel compelled to give it to.
Second, Let’s take a higher view of the book and learn a few things that help inform us about this book that is so important to so many people.
John was written in the late first century and in narrative form, it’s written to compel us to understand Jesus as fully human and still fully divine. There’s a theological term called Christology that informs us of how an author or person sees Jesus. A low Christology would be one that focuses more on the human side of Jesus’ words and life, but then there’s a high Christology that leans towards understanding Jesus the way John does, fully man and fully divine.
There are no anecdotal stories or fables to learn from Jesus, like we see in other books of the bible. For the book of John, Jesus’ teaching and personal interactions are the story. It again lends itself to the narrative form of writing, but it also lets us know as the reader that this is all to be taken quite literally.
John is written in a way for everyone to understand and for everyone to accept the invitation to fully know Jesus, the one who was there in the beginning with God the Father, and is just as relevant today showing up in power and might. Even though it is written for us all to understand, to fully understand we must be willing and ready to understand the depth of teaching and insight Jesus is trying to bring.
The number 7 is important in the book John (known as the number of completion), and that number is going to guide us in this series as we take 1 week for each of the 7 signs that point to Jesus in this book. For John, these works of Jesus aren’t just cool miracles meant to stir the faith of people. NO NO NO…for John the miraculous works are actually miraculous signs that point to the validity of Jesus’ claims throughout the book.
John uses the term signs instead of miracles to direct us to the true Messiah, Jesus, and through these signs we’ll understand the impact and more deepful truth.
John uses the word “life” 36 times. For that reason we saw it all the more appropriate to call this series Death to Life. For we are all dead in our sin, our shame, our brokenness, but when we enter this full understanding of who Jesus is, we have access to redemption and life in Him.
John opens up in chapter 1 with a beautiful poem that again points us towards Jesus, and it ends with verse 14 which becomes the anchor, the lynchpin verse for us to hold on to. So take out the book you were handed when you came in, let’s go to page __________, and follow along with me.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. – John 1:6-14
Now this verse 14 is one we need to fully grasp before we move forward to the weeks to come. It informs and shapes so much of how we understand Jesus.
Jesus was God, is God, and will always be God.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father
He did not come randomly onto the scene 2000 years ago. He is the Alpha and Omega, which means he is the beginning and the end.
For those of you who have questions around this, just know that you are not alone. This belief is not one we just gloss over, because it causes a tension in the hearts of people. We see this in John from chapters 5 through 10, we see Jesus having to face the tension this notion of his divinity created. He was consistent in his communication about who he was, that he was the Son of God, that he was sent by his Father, that he was doing the will of the Father, and he was met with questions like we may have questions. People said things like:
“Who do you think you are?” “Where is your father?”
“Are you greater than Abraham? “You are demon possessed!”
“Jesus is raving mad/crazy” “You are too young”
“This is hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
Finally in chapter 10 the religious people of the day gather to stone Jesus. Jesus responds by reminding them of all of the miraculous signs that prove he is who he is, and their response is…
“We are not stoning you for any of these, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” – John 10:33
And yet…it is true. Jesus was God, is God, and will always be God.
Jesus, fully man and fully God, entered into our existence
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
The Message version puts it this way- The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
Hello…this is the pomp and circumstance many of you are already looking for in Christmas. We make a big deal of the trees, presents, decorations, food, songs, family, ugly sweaters, travel, time off, the nostalgia of it all. But do you and I really know what we are celebrating? I’m going to actually take the next few minutes and share part of a message that Charles Spurgeon shared on Christmas Eve 1854, here’s the excerpt I want to brand in our heart and soul today:
“Immanuel.” It is wisdom’s mystery,
“God with us.” Sages look at it, and wonder; angels desire to see it; the plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths; the eagle wing of science cannot fly so high, and the piercing eye of the vulture of research cannot see it.
“God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan, the enemy of your soul, trembles at the sound of it; his legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the pit quails before it. Let him come to you suddenly, and do you but whisper that word,
“God with us,” back he falls, confounded and confused. Our spiritual enemy trembles when he hears that name, “God with us.” It is the laborer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake, how could the confessor own his Master, how could men labor if that one word were taken away?
“God with us.” ’Tis the sufferer’s comfort, ’tis the balm of his woe, ’tis the alleviation of his misery, ’tis the sleep which God gives to His beloved, ’tis their rest after exertion and toil. Ah! And to finish,
“God with us”—’tis eternity’s sonnet, ’tis heaven’s hallelujah, ’tis the shout of the glorified, ’tis the song of the redeemed, ’tis the chorus of angels, ’tis the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky.
“God with us.”
Jesus is full of grace and truth,
On the surface it looks like an oxymoron but it is the fullness of the character of God. God can still be for you, want the best for you, and still speak truth to the lies we tell ourselves or the lies that the culture around us embraces.
I know it can seem oxymoronic, because we live in an age where we are expecting others to love us as we are without the need to change, evolve or be transformed. But that isn’t how spiritual maturity works.
A couple of years ago I was disciplining my youngest son. He had done a few things that he knew were wrong, he was warned, talked to, clearly explained the ramifications of his decisions, and he still chose to move forward with what he was doing. When he had to face the consequences of what he was doing, he tried to share “his” truth and why I was seeing it all wrong, but because I didn’t agree, and even more importantly, didn’t let him off the hook, he said things like: “You don’t love me” “You hate me” Which broke my heart that my immature 8 year old couldn’t see the multiple branches of grace that had been extended, he couldn’t remember the truth conversations we had engaged in…all he could remember was that he wasn’t getting his way.
As you read John, you will read how Jesus is clear in the truth he speaks, and you will also see how relationally engaged and full of grace his disposition was. And you will also see that there were some who were fully ready to receive that truth and grace, and yet, there were others who could not.
Jesus came to save us.
We regularly talk about Jesus’ desire for us to be in right standing with God the Father, and that he made a way for us to not be enslaved to our own ways of sin and shame. That we are encouraged to repent (to turn) from those very ways and to never return.
We see this as a predominant part of John’s messaging:
John 1:29 – The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 3:16 – 17 – For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus is relational.
As you read the book of John you are going to notice the amount of people that Jesus encounters, has conversations with, sees (that no one really notices). These are just a few of those interaction:
- Nathaniel – chapter 1
- Mary (his mother) – chapter 2
- Nicodemus – chapter 3
- Samaritan woman – chapter 4
- Man ill for 38 years – chapter 5
- The man born blind – chapter 9
- Mary, Martha, and Lazarus – chapter 11
- Mary – chapter 12
- Judas – chapter 12 & 13
- Pilate – chapter 19
- Mary Magdalene – chapter 19 & 20
- Peter – chapter 21
My grad school professor Dr. Jamie Clark-Soles who taught us on the book of John wrote this:
“John could be called the ‘Gospel of intimate, touchy relationship’: there is no more intimate book in the Bible than the Gospel of John. Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit and we are all intimately related to one another. It’s a very touchy Gospel…John wants us to understand that the kind of intimacy between God and Jesus also exists between us and Jesus/God.” – Dr. Jamie Clark-Soles
John is pointing to the access we can have to Jesus. Jesus is portrayed in this book as having deep friendships with those around him. He even had a closeness with the beloved disciple, and yet, by the end of this gospel, you and I are invited to be that Beloved Disciple.
If all signs in John point to Jesus as we stated at the very top of this message, and Jesus points to us as his very reason for coming to this earth, then what about our lives is a sign that we have accepted that truth for ourselves?
I have two basic questions for us all today, no matter what campus or where online you are watching from.
Are there signs that Jesus is fully present in your life?
If Jesus came for you and me, and he wants to have a relationship with you and I, are we ready, can we admit our desire for the same?
