Introduction to John

Tom Shrader begins a series called 'The Essence of Life,' focusing on the Gospel of John's purpose to show Jesus as the Christ who gives eternal life. He examines John's introduction, emphasizing that Jesus is the eternal Word, Creator, and Light who came to transform spiritually dead people into children of God through faith.

“If you want to find life, you're going to find it in Christ, nowhere else.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: John: The Essence of Life (2003)

Recorded: 2003

Duration: 42 min

Themes: eternal life, salvation, faith, transformation, purpose, meaning, hope, identity, searching for meaning, feeling empty, new believer, unbelieving spouse, adult seeker, questioning faith, spiritual searching, life transitions

Scripture: John 1:1-18, John 20:30-31, John 21:25, Matthew 7:13-15, Matthew 7:24-27, Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 10:4, John 8:44

Theological Themes: christology, incarnation, logos, regeneration, new birth, adoption, soteriology, gospel

Handout Link

Full Transcript

We're going to start a new series today. It is highly unlikely that you've heard this. What we try to do is about every four to five years, we'll cycle a study through. Then we intermittently, as time permits, and there's been less of that lately, I'll try to generate something new. This is a study that I did in 1992, so 11 years ago. It's unlikely that many of you were around for the studies then. So hopefully it'll be new stuff to you.

We're going to spend 12 weeks on a study titled "The Essence of Life." It's a 12-week overview of the Gospel of John. When I say overview, I mean just that. We could spend a long time in the Gospel of John.

I had a situation where I taught this in the church, and this is one of my favorite stories. A lady, she's a believer, her husband was not, and she'd been working and working and working, loving him, doing all the stuff, trying to get him to come to church. Finally he shows up one day, and it's the day I'm doing the introduction into the Gospel of John. They're driving home, and some of you ladies or guys have been in that situation with somebody you really love and care about, and you want them to like what's going on. So anyway, they're driving home, and she doesn't know what to say. So finally she said, "What did you think?" And he said, "Well, I didn't like him at all. He thinks he's funny and he's arrogant. So I didn't like him. But I'll tell you this, it wasn't that bad. I will commit to stay there until he finishes that Gospel of John."

Well, it took four and a half years for me to do the Gospel of John. That was really moving along pretty quickly at a certain point. He was converted in chapter three. So it's a great story. We will not spend four and a half years, although literally we could. We'll spend twelve weeks.

The Quest for Life's Meaning

I've called it "The Essence of Life," and that's just a great phrase. They were doing one of those hour-long exposés on CNN, and they were trying to examine a generation. You know how they put up there, and they have your title, there's your name, and then something underneath. I remember this guy, his name was like Bill Burton, disgruntled baby boomer.

The whole thing was this baby boom generation, and they're talking about all the things that they have looked at, seen, attempted, succeeded at, failed at, in a quest to try to find life, to try to find meaning. I remember one gal in particular, she said, "You know, I've tried drugs, I've tried sex, I have heard there's a glass ceiling, I broke through that, I started my own company, and I've succeeded at every level, and I'm absolutely miserable." It was one hour of that, of people saying, "I've done all these things, and yet there's something missing."

We would say to you, that doesn't surprise us. It's one hour of constant questions, but never an answer. Well we've got answers. We can tell you where to find life, and find purpose in life.

The Snare of Money

I'm reading J.C. Ryle this year. I don't know how many of you are familiar with J.C. Ryle. He would be a contemporary of Spurgeon's. I have absolutely fallen in love with this guy. He writes in a way I can get it, which is pretty helpful to me. He's talking about money here. You will hear this quote a lot from me now, I'm sure. Listen to this. This is magnificent. It fits right in to that whole quest of disgruntled baby boomer.

"Money and truth is one of the most unsatisfying possessions. It takes away some cares, no doubt, but it brings with it quite as many cares as it takes away. There is trouble in getting it. There is anxiety in keeping it. There's temptation in using it. There's guilt in abusing it. There's sorrow in losing it. There's perplexity in disposing of it. Two-thirds of all the strife, quarrels, and lawsuits in the world arise from one simple cause: Money."

"Money most certainly is one of the most ensnarling and heart-changing possessions. It seems desirable at a distance. It often proves a poison when in our hand. No man can possibly tell the effect of money on his soul if he suddenly falls into its lot. Many people live close to God when they are poor, but then forget God when they are rich. I have concluded that those who have money, like the rich man in the parable, ought to take double pains about their soul. They live in a most unhealthy atmosphere. They have double need to be on their guard."

That's a great illustration. I'll talk to lots of people who have lots of money who are not interested at all in the things of God, and almost always they will say, "I don't have any need." All of a sudden I become very self-sufficient, and I'm very proud of myself. And yet we look at it and say, "Boy, if I had that, I'd be happy." So that's a perfect setup, I think, and introduction to this 12-week study.

The Unique Nature of John's Gospel

The Gospel of John, and again, I don't know, in a room like this, and I don't know what many of you know, so I certainly don't want to talk down to you at all, but I want to make sure we cover the basics of this. The four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. John is the most unique of these Gospels. It's the most theological in its nature. It has no parables in it. It is by far the most intimate studies.

It is written by John, who is described as the disciple that Jesus loved. That phrase has been problematic for liberal scholars, who as of late have suggested that in fact John and Jesus had a homosexual lover relationship, and obviously that's not true. But that is why there is that intimacy in this. If you have seen some of the classic portraits of the Last Supper, you will see Jesus, and you will see a disciple reclining, indeed, right next to Him. That's John in that portrait. John is with Christ, He is close to Him, He has a special relationship. So He gives us an insight into the intimacy of this relationship.

The Unique Perspective of John's Gospel

John's Gospel alone records the wedding at Cana, the coming of Nicodemus, the raising of Lazarus, and Jesus washing the disciples' feet. John also records Jesus teaching in chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17—that great teaching the night before He died. If you are looking for something to study, it's hard to beat John 14, 15, 16, and 17. That is the night that Jesus is betrayed, and He takes His disciples and begins to teach them. What great application to you and me.

John gives us some personality insights. He shows us a little bit about Thomas as he speaks, and Andrew comes alive. We get a glimpse of Philip's character, and even Judas is a portrait for us in John's Gospel. It was the last Gospel that was written chronologically, probably 85 to 90 A.D.

Of the apostles, all were martyred except for John, we believe. They did, in fact, boil John in oil, and somehow he survived that. He's exiled on Patmos. John is the one who writes the book of Revelation, and then also at the end of the Bible you will see 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, all by the same author, the same man who writes this Gospel of John.

The Purpose of John's Gospel

We're going to look at the introduction to the purpose of the book. Why is John writing this book? The answer is in John chapter 20, verse 30 and 31. Let me encourage you to bring a Bible with you to these studies. Let me suggest that it's helpful always, but it will be very helpful in these next 11 weeks. We'll be spending a lot of time in large chunks of Scripture.

We're going to look essentially at chapter 1 today, but John chapter 20, verse 30, John says, here's why I'm writing this book. "Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book," John 20:31, "but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."

John tells us something here. He says, "I'm selective in what I've included." If you turn over to the very last verse of this gospel, chapter 21, verse 25, John said this: "There are many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose, even the world itself could not contain the books which were written."

A Selective Portrait of Christ

Sometimes, we think naturally that in these gospels we have an entire portrait of Christ. We have an accurate portrait of Christ, and we have everything that God wants us to know about Christ. That's been revealed there. The Holy Spirit inspires Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to write these. But John just says, "Listen, I'm very selective here. I have consciously selected these events for a very specific purpose."

Lots of other things were done. Lots of other things could be written, but I chose these that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that in believing you would have eternal life.

When we talk about believing in this context, we're talking about something far greater than just intellectual assent. What we're talking about, when we talk about believing, we're talking about a belief that leads to action. There's a sense in which I'm putting my faith and trust in this.

The Two Gates

In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is speaking those words that we know and identify as the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is saying this in Matthew 7, verse 13. There's this broad gate, and there's this narrow gate. In my view, always, as I try to get a picture in my mind, is that there's this broad gate with a big sign over it that says hell, road to hell, and this narrow gate, hard gate that says road to heaven.

In fact, that's not it at all. There are two gates, and both of them are marked road to heaven. It's just that one of them is right, and one of them is wrong. There are very few people, I would assume, who are on this broad, easy gate, who are on their way to hell and are comfortable there, or happy with that.

And I like Jesus' words. There are very few who find it. And I'm not sure what few means. I've evolved over the years, and my whole thinking is this: as basically a non-believer, almost a humanist, I guess, I would just say, "Well, gosh, basically everybody goes to heaven. I mean, there might be a Hitler, and a Saddam Hussein, and those kinds of things, but not much."

The Reality of the Narrow Way

And then, as I saw that's not true, and I was converted, I thought, "Well, you know what? It's like the PGA Tour. You know, the top 70 in ties, and they make the cut. So about half the people go to heaven, and half the people go to hell."

As you read through Scripture, I get the sense that it is a very small group, percentage-wise, that go to heaven. And I think if you look around the world, at the 7 billion people, and you understand that Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him, and in the broadest sense of that, you understand that we comprise a fragment, and a small one, of that general population. My suggestion to you would be, and of those who call themselves Christians, that percentage is probably a small fraction of that other percentage.

Now you begin to see. Now you begin to see that what Jesus says is exactly right. There are few who are on it, and then He says this in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing."

The Warning About False Prophets

He's talking here about not people outside the church, but people inside the church. They're in pulpits. They wear robes, or they rent a room and teach a Bible study, or they lead a Sunday school class. They talk about Jesus. They often have degrees, especially

Now in the seminary, many of the seminaries have become so liberal, essentially stand and believe in virtually nothing, almost universalist. We watch out for those guys who come in, and I think he says this right after this, because he's saying they come in with a false gospel.

I like to think that I'm open-minded, and that's my desire. I'm as open-minded as the Bible is. I think I am open-minded, as open as the Bible is. I didn't write this, and I certainly didn't say it. Jesus said it. The way is narrow. The gate is small. There are few on it. Now, does that sound open and broad and all-encompassing to you?

Jesus speaks some more, and He says this, Matthew chapter 7, verse 24: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, will be compared to the wise man who built his house on a rock, and the rains descend, and the floods come, and the winds blow, and they burst against the house. Yet it does not fall, for it's founded on a rock. And everyone who does not hear My words, and does not act on them, is like a fool who builds his house on sand, and the rain comes, and the floods come, and the winds come, and they burst against the house, and they blow it down."

So it's belief that leads to action. John said, listen, I'm writing this book for a specific purpose. I want you to see the Messiah. It's not accidental.

Where to Start Reading the Bible

Listen, you come in contact with somebody, and maybe they're a brand-new Christian. Or maybe there's somebody that says, "I've never really read the Bible. I want to read the Bible. I just don't want to bog down. Where should I start?" Almost with reflex, we say to them, "Why don't you start with the Gospel of John?" Why? Now you see why. Because John said, this is written so you'd know that Jesus is the Christ.

Now we've titled this, "The Essence of Life." If you're going to find meaning in this life, you're going to find meaning in Christ and Christ alone. Nothing else will ultimately satisfy the deep, crucial longing you have in your heart for meaning and purpose and direction other than Christ, because you're dead.

The Dead Man's Story

About 11 years ago, right now, I was driving with Larry down to Tucson. Larry was going to do the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast. And so what that means is Larry's sharing his testimony. Larry Wright. And we're driving down and I said, "You know what? If these guys had never seen you, I could go in and do this. I've heard this testimony a thousand times. I know exactly what you're going to say. I know what's going to happen."

And at this point in our study, if he were here, here's what he'd say. He'd say, "You're dead spiritually. What's a dead man need?" He would say, "Listen, I can take a guy that's up here in a casket and I can get Raquel Welch in this skimpy little thing and parade her by him and he's not going to respond. I can throw cocaine at him and dump booze in there and drop money in there and put the deeds for a high rise in there and he's never going to respond. Why? Because he's dead. And there's only one thing that a dead man needs and that's life."

The first time I heard Larry say that, I thought of my grandfather, my mom's dad. I believe that the first time I saw a dead body, it was his. We were at Beardsley Funeral Home in Shelton, Iowa. And we went in and it's amazing as a young man, I don't know how old I was then, maybe twelve. A young man, how this sticks in your mind.

And we went in and there was the casket and there was my grandpa. And there he was and we went out and we were standing on the porch in the front of Beardsley Funeral Home and my aunt said to my mom, "Didn't dad look good?" I thought, I better get back in there and check. And you know what? Sure enough, he did. He looked very good. They had him all spiffed up in a suit on him and he had his glasses right.

But as I really looked and I really thought about it, I thought, you know, he does look very good, but it's clear to me that he has one overriding problem here. He's dead. And he doesn't need a new suit and he doesn't need a new tie. At that point, there's only one thing a dead man needs and that's life. And Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, the life." If you want to find life, you're going to find it in Christ, nowhere else.

The Person of Jesus Christ

So as we do our introduction into the purpose of the book, what we see very quickly from John's own pen is that the purpose is that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ. Here's the second point that we want to make to you this morning and that's the person that you're going to meet in this book and that is the person of Jesus Christ.

Here's what John writes, John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." Jesus is God. John claims at the very beginning here that Jesus was self-existing, that He was eternal. The word "Word" in your scriptures, capitalize that W, it's referring to Christ Himself.

If you are around church at Christmas and you begin to hear the Christmas story and you start to research the scripture, you will see virtually all of those scriptures come to us from Matthew and Luke. John does not begin with the Christmas story. John goes way beyond the Christmas story. John goes to eternity and he says this: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." Now to you and me who are somewhat familiar with this, this is just one of those verses. To these Jews, this is a bombshell. Here's Jesus, this guy, walking down the road, and you're telling me He was God?

John doesn't leave it there. John expands on that point. Look at verse 3. He says, you know what? He was the Creator. "All things came into being by Him and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." Paul writes it this way in Colossians chapter 1 verse 16. He says this: "For by Him all things were created, both in the

Heavens and the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things are created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and He is in all things and He holds all things together. Jesus is the Creator. And Jesus didn't just wind this up and walk away. He continues to be involved in this creation intimately.

There was a man who was here, and I told this story somewhere in the last few months, so if it's here and it's redundant, I apologize. But there was a gentleman at this study about four weeks ago sitting right here. And his name is Bob Hage. Some of you may or may not know him. Bob, I think now is about 86 years old. And he just finished a book on aviation spanning from Kitty Hawk in 1903 to the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

For 50 of these years, he worked at McDonnell Douglas. Listen to this job. If you like history at all, you've got to love this. His job with McDonnell Douglas, one of them, he was the liaison between McDonnell Douglas who created Mercury and Apollo. He was a liaison between McDonnell Douglas and the seven original astronauts. What a great job.

The Mystery of Gravity

Well, he begins with all these other scientists to try to figure out, how are we going to make this spaceship work? And their job was to do Mercury and then Apollo, because they were going to put a man on the moon. And they kept bumping against this thing that they couldn't figure out called gravity. As he looks out into the cosmos, as so often happens, those gentlemen become overwhelmed by just mass and size and say, there has to be something. He became convinced that there was something, didn't know what it was, and searched all over the world. In fact, even went to L'Abri and spent time with Francis Schaeffer to try to unlock the complexities of life.

One day he was home in St. Louis, and I'm not exactly certain how the discussion started, but he began to talk with his maid and was saying to her, we got this thing we can't figure out. She said, what is it? And he said, it's gravity. And his maid said, gravity? Gravity is not hard to figure out. That's easy to figure out. And he said, easy to figure out? And she said, absolutely. He is before all things, and in all things, and He holds all things together. And after spending years pursuing these great minds, it was his maid that God used to lead this man to the Lord.

Jesus the Creator

He's the Creator. He spoke it into existence. How do we know that? The disciples are out on the sea with Him, and the sea is roaring, and the wind is blowing, and Jesus says, be still, and it's like glass. How can that happen? Well, He has control over it. Why? He created it.

We see a couple of other things about Jesus. He's a central player in life. In fact, He is life. Look at verse 4: "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the dark, and the darkness didn't comprehend it." He is the life. He is the light.

The Nature of Light

When we say that word light, here's what we know. We know that light has essentially three functions. One of it is a measurement. We'll use laser measurement. I just saw a story this morning in USA Today, where the NFL is considering going now to laser yard markers instead of the standard ten yards and the poles and the chains. And they'll just run that beam, and they'll use that beam, and they'll measure it. They'll measure distance. When they went to the moon, that's what they did. That's one of the first experiments they did. They set a box up there on the moon, they fired a laser beam up, they hit it, they let that come back, they timed the distance or how long that takes, and now they can tell you within a foot or two exactly what that distance is. So it's a measurement.

The other thing, or another thing light does is it brings life, photosynthesis. No light, boom, we die. So the nuclear winter, the whole idea that we have this cloud that covers the light and brings it out, and now we die in the midst of that.

There's a third thing that light does, and that is it reveals. It allows us to see things as they really are.

Light Reveals Reality

"In Him was the life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness didn't comprehend it." All of a sudden light comes in, and there's reality, and we see things as they really are. Some of you have had that experience. You've lived a life in the darkness. You're not converted. You don't know Christ. And all of a sudden you understand who Jesus is, and the light of the world comes into you, and when that happens, you begin to see sin in your life.

Those things that you did routinely, matter-of-fact, with no thought process at all, all of a sudden your heart is pained over this. You can't do this anymore. We have a lady in our church right now who is, if a believer at all, a very much a baby believer, and she is dealing with some very serious sin in her life that's just been ongoing. She's had three years of this. It's a whole summer. It's no big deal. Everybody does it. But now the light's come in, and we see things as they really are.

Personal Reflection

I don't have with me, but when I opened this file, there was a packet of pictures in there. And Susan had put them there. And they were from one of my trips. I go home every summer in August, and this year, probably late August, early September. And I'll always take a day or half day, and I'll get in the car, and I'll just drive around, and I'll go almost the same pattern. And I got certain things that I want to go and see.

And this one particular year, for whatever reason, I took pictures. So as you open this up, there's a picture of Mercy Hospital. That's where I was born. There's a picture of our house, a duplex down on Johnson Street, where it's the first memory I have. My earliest memory, I actually have a memory that is probably about eight months, but everybody laughs at that, so I'm not going to tell you that. But about two years, I got a splinter, and I remember that. When my mom and dad were just down, I said, do

You remember that silver toolbox? Well, that was it, down on Johnson Street. And then there's a picture of the house on 16th Street, and a picture of the school I went to, a picture of the place where my mom used to take four boys, and in about 10 minutes, the four of us could get haircuts. It was very easy. Boom, boom, boom, and she gave the guy a buck.

There's a picture of Dick Ray's Market. The first time I ever had any level of responsibility, my mom sent me to the store to get bread and milk, and I lost the change coming home, and there's a picture of the mound where I found the change. I'm traumatized by everything. No wonder I'm a mess.

Well, there's a picture there of a place called the Circle Tap. Circle Tap was a place that during my later formative years, I spent an awful lot of time. And we would be in there a lot, and this is a real tavern. This isn't like one of these make-believe Friday's deals or whatever. I'm talking about a tavern, and all the windows would be blanked out, usually with advertising. We were a Pabst Blue Ribbon bar, so it would be Pabst Blue Ribbon, be a little bit of light that came in.

The Power of Light to Reveal Truth

One morning, I was in there early, and they were converting from a Pabst Blue Ribbon bar to a Miller Light bar, and all of the wall covering was off. All the glass was clear, and the light came in, and I looked around, and I said, you got to be kidding me. There's the grease in the ceiling, the dirt on the floor, the very place I used to eat. Dirt on the floor. The place just, literally, you could just run your finger across there and just carve out a piece of grease, and it'd get up under your fingernail, and you had no way to get it out.

Well, that place of darkness, once you brought in the light, you saw it for what it really was. That's the same thing that happens in your life. That's what Jesus does. That's why, when somebody comes, and you're talking to them, and all of a sudden, they're saying, I feel guilty about this, and I don't want to feel guilty about this. And we live in a time where we're saying, you shouldn't have any guilt. Listen, if you can go and sin and not have guilt, then you really have problems. You're pathological at that point.

And the closer you get to Him, and some of you have experienced this. It's not just that you're converted, and you begin to walk with Him, and you see these big sins. Now you've walked with Him for 20 or 30 years, and what's happened is, you're so close to Him now, that the smaller things in your life that are indeed really sin, now they appear huge to you.

J. Vernon McGee, a Bible teacher, was telling a story about a lady, a godly old lady. She was the old, classic, stereotypical godly old lady, walked with God for years and years and years and years, and she called Him one Monday morning and said, I need to come and see you right away, I have sinned so grievously. And He said, come in. And He tells the story, He said, I'm trying to imagine what could she have done? And finally she comes in, and she is just distraught. And He said, what is it?

The Conviction of Small Sins

And she said, you know, yesterday, when I was leaving church, and He said, yes, and He said, she said, I told you that it was a good sermon? Yes. Well, it wasn't. And she was so convicted, she said, she was so convicted by that sin that she had been up all night over that lie. Those are the kinds of, that's like saying, oh, you look nice today. We throw those babies out, and don't even think twice of it. See, when the light comes in, all of a sudden, it powers out everything else, and it begins to reveal.

And now, here's what we discover. We discover that as this unfolds in the midst of this, Jesus comes into this world, and He bears witness, and He becomes flesh, and He lives among us. And here's what we're told, listen to this, this is great, John 1, verse 12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believed in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

How Does Someone Become a Christian?

We've only got five minutes, but let me unpack a little of this. There's a couple of things here. We're not going to spend any time on this, but this is gigantic. How does a person become a Christian? Well, not by birth. It's not by flesh. You can't say, well, my folks were a Christian, so I'm a Christian. It's not by an act of your will. It's not by a decision, or praying a prayer, or walking an aisle. It's not by any human. It's of God, totally of God.

If you're a Christian today, it's because God, before the foundations of the earth, saw you, knew you, chose you, and sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross. When Christ dies on the cross, He says, "It is finished." What did He mean? This is so important. If you get nothing else out of today, if you can grab this, this is big. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He didn't mean salvation's possible. He meant your salvation's done. At that moment, the price of your sin was paid for. At that moment, your future was secure.

The Right to Become Children of God

But I want to go to something that's even more significant, especially in our culture. Here's what He said. "But to as many as received Him, He gave them the right to become children of God." Let me read it again. To those who received Him, it's synonymous with those who believed in Him, they received the right to, now listen really closely, become children of God. That raises a question. What were they before?

See, you and I live in a world where we talk about the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, and we believe everybody's a child of God. I mean, there is no more vivid illustration of that than that first Sunday, you remember that? After September 11th, that rally in Yankee Stadium, remember? And they had every denomination and sect, and I've said it to you, they did everything that Sunday but sacrifice a goat. They had everything there was up there.

And remember who the emcee was that night? Oprah. Oprah was the ringmaster of this Looney Tunes that was going on. There was all of this stuff going on, and Oprah's up there, and they're all praying, and they're godden this and godden that. They're not all praying to the same God. If you're not praying to a God who has a Son, Jesus Christ, then you're praying to a different God than us. I want you to understand that.

We're Not All Children of God

We're not all children of God. You've got to be kidding me here. To as many as believe He gave the right to become children of God, to become a child of God. What were they before? That's a big question, isn't it? If they became a child of God, what were they before that?

Well, this is real clear. Paul tells us, you were a child of wrath. You were a child of the devil. That's what Jesus says in John 8:44 to the Pharisees. He says, you are just like your daddy, the devil. You're a child of the devil. He was a liar from the beginning, and a murderer from the beginning, and a destroyer from the beginning, and so were you.

The other day, we've got a guy on our staff, and he and his wife just had a son, Harrison Robert. Harry Bob, I call him. I'm not sure that's what they want him called. So I said, the other day, I said, how's Harry Bob? And he said, you know, I'm holding him last night, and I'm thinking, it is so hard to understand that he is a child of wrath. But he is. And he's going to verify that very quickly.

It will take about another 18 months until he can scoot around. And every parent that I know has children whose first words were mine, me, no. It's just the way it is. Why is that? Why is it that not one person I know has ever had to sit their child down and say, I want to teach you how to lie. We don't have to teach them that, do we? We don't have to teach them how to tell the truth. We don't have to teach them how to fight. We have to teach them how to live at peace with one another. Why? Because they're children of wrath. That's the whole point.

Behold the Lamb of God

Why did Jesus come? Well, for this very point. So that He could be the man that John talks about. John says, listen, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And they say to John, who are you? Are you Elijah the prophet? Are you? No! I'm a bulldozer. I'm clearing the path. Behold the Lamb.

And I'm not sure. We don't have it there. But I can see there's Jesus and John saying, look, the Lamb of God. Again, to us, it's lost to the Jew. They got it. But at Passover? At Passover, it is said that over 300,000 lambs were slain. And the thought was that the blood would somehow appease God.

We were doing a Seder dinner. We're recreating the Passover meal. And the symbolism. If you've never been to a Seder dinner, it is so powerful. Well, we've got to fix the Lamb. We don't know how to fix the Lamb. So I said to the guy, I said, we don't know how to fix the Lamb. I said, we want to do it right. He said, call the temple. And they asked him.

So he came back. He said, I've called three of them. And I said, well, what did they say? They said, we don't use Lamb anymore. We use chicken. And I said, well, behold, the chicken of God. That isn't working.

The Cross and Our Response

The author of Hebrews writes this, Hebrews 10:4, blood of bulls and goats are impossible to take away sin. Jesus died on the cross. And I say this to you every time. I don't think there's hardly a person you know who doesn't agree with that. Virtually everybody acknowledges that Jesus lived and died. But what the Scripture tells us is that He died for the sin of His people. That's why He died on the cross.

Have you been the recipient of that? You know, Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior. Have you come to that point in your life, either it was at one moment or some evolutionary process, I don't care. But have you come to that point where you understand who Jesus really is and that He's the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through Him?

If you have not understood that, two things. Number one, know that hell is your destination. Number two, you're never going to get out of life what you want. Never going to be happy. You're never going to be satisfied. You're never going to be a sense of contentment. There'll be momentary and periodic kind of relief from the anxiety. But you'll always need one more deal. One more gal. One more business. One more victory.

The Bottom Line

We've got a young man that we've come to know when he was a starting catcher on one of the major league teams. And obviously we're in the second day of the season and the first day, he's a young, young kid, 24. So this was his debut as a starter. He goes 0 for 6 the first day, leaves 6 men on base, has a pass ball to tie the game up in the 10th inning to lose it. And I went and looked yesterday, got a hit yesterday, so he's 1 for 4, so he's hitting 100.

And you know, for a lot of people, that's his whole identity. That's what I did today. You do it. All these guys, they walk in here, they open the paper, they put the sports section out, and they pull it out. And what do they do? They don't look for stories. They go right to the box score, right to the victories, right to the standings. That's the bottom line.

Well, the bottom line for us is Jesus Christ. That gives you a sense of this study. If you have people that you've been witnessing to or talking to, this whole study is built around that very thing.

Father, help us see this, understand this, and believe it. God, we understand that's a work of You in our life. Please do that. We pray that in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week.