"I came that they might have
life" (John 10:10).
We
come back to the Gospel by John, for we have seen that
this is the Gospel of spiritual education. The others are
largely a matter of history - the history of the earthly
life, work and teaching of the Lord Jesus, but the Gospel
by John is the spiritual life and interpretation of
Christ in Person. Do you notice how the Gospel begins? It
begins with these words: "In him was life; and
the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). The
main part of the Gospel ends with these words: "Many
other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the
disciples, which are not written in this book; but these
are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have
life in his name" (John 20:30,31). (Notice that
chapter 21 is something added on afterward - it is quite
clear that John intended to finish with what is chapter
20, and he really finished with these words.) The Gospel
begins with: 'In Him was life'. It ends with: 'That ye
may have life'. The main Gospel comprises twenty
chapters, and halfway through twenty is ten. In chapter
10, verse 10, we have: "I came that they might
have life".
The
beginning: 'In Him was life'; the middle: 'I came
that they might have life'; the end: 'Believing,
ye may have life'. In that one word 'life' we have
the full answer to our question: 'Why did Jesus Christ
come into this world?'
Note
one or two things: All the teaching and works of the Lord
Jesus related to this thing that He called life. All His
teaching and all His works were in relation to life.
The
second thing to notice is this: Jesus demonstrated that
to possess this life is a miracle, and showed that it is
impossible to have it without a miracle. To come to be
possessed by this life is something super-natural.
And
the third thing we have to notice is: It is revealed by
the Word of God that the possessing of this life is the
basis of all God's works. He can do nothing in us until
we have this life. He has to stand back and say: 'I can
do nothing until I have My life in you.' His life in us
is the basis of all His work.
So
now we are going to look at this Gospel by John to
instruct us in this matter of life.
Notice
again what it says in chapter 20: "Many
other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of his
disciples". Note - 'in the presence of His
disciples'. John said, in effect: 'All these signs that
Jesus did He did in the presence of His disciples.' That
was because it was His disciples whom He was teaching.
They were the ones who had to learn the meaning of these
things because they had to carry on His work. So we can
take it that Jesus never performed a miracle unless His
disciples were there. If there was some great work to be
done, He looked round to see if the disciples were there.
He was not just doing these things for the benefit of the
multitude, though they may have had some benefit, as in
the case of the feeding of the five thousand, but these
things were for the education of the disciples. Jesus was
most careful that they came to understand the meaning of
what He was doing. We are going to see how important that
is.
I do
hope that when I use that word 'disciple' you are not
thinking back two thousand years! I think the majority of
the people here, if not all, are disciples: those who are
learning Christ. Just as the chief business of the
disciples in those days was to learn Christ, so it is our
chief business today. The most important thing for
Christians is to learn Christ.
We
turn once more to those two verses at the end of chapter
20, and I want you to underIine three words: In "Many
other signs did Jesus" underline the word
'signs'. In "These are written that ye may
believe" underline the word 'believe'. And in "that
believing ye may have life in his name" underline
the word 'life'. Signs - believe - life. The whole
of this Gospel is summed up in those three words, and we
are going to look at them for a few minutes
Firstly:
signs. The whole of the teaching of the Gospel by
John is gathered around seven signs, and they were seven
especially selected signs. John says: 'Many other signs
did Jesus', and that if they were all written "even
the world itself would not contain the books" (John
21:25).
There
must have been many more signs, but John has selected
seven and has gathered the whole of this matter of
learning Christ into them.
There
are four words used for 'miracles' in the New Testament.
In some places they are called 'wonders', and that
conveys the idea of something quite unusual,
extraordinary, a wonderful thing. In other places they
are called 'powers', which conveys the idea of spiritual,
super-natural energy. In other places they are called
'paradoxes', which, as you know, is a contradiction. They
were called 'paradoxes' because they were something which
contradicted the natural order of things. But the fourth
word for 'miracles' is this one which John always chose
and is his favourite word for them. He always called them
'signs', which meant that these works indicated something
more than themselves. The work was not just something in
itself: there was a meaning behind it. It signified
something. There was the actual work, but it had a
spiritual meaning and was a sign of something more. That
is John's word for 'miracle'.
We
leave that for the moment - we are going to take it up
again.
The
second word: believe. This is the key word
to the whole of the Gospel by John and occurs
ninety-eight times in it. Everything in this Gospel
gathers around that word: "That ye may believe".
But what does the word 'believe' mean? It means two
things, which are in the word itself. It means an
acknowledgment of the truth, that is, the reaction which
says: 'That is true', or 'He is true', 'I believe He is
true'. But it means more than that. The word in the Greek
means: 'Believing that it is true, you commit yourself to
the one who says it.' John puts that in another way in
one place: "As many as received him"
(John 1:12). That is only another way of
saying 'They committed themselves to Him'. Believing is
not only a mental thing: it is the committing of the life
to the one whom you believe. I once heard Dr. Billy
Graham put it in a very simple way. I was
sitting on the platform just behind him, and, as you
know, he is quite a big man physically. He could put his
weight on to the platform where he stood. He said: 'Now,
when I come on to this platform I do not stand on the
steps and say: I wonder if the platform will hold me or
whether, if I get on to it, it will collapse and let me
down. I have such confidence in this platform that I walk
right on to it and commit myself to it. I have no
question about the platform. I put my full weight on to
it.' He went on to say: 'That is what the New Testament
means by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.' 'That believing'...
that is, committing yourself to the Lord
Jesus.
Now
our third word - life, and this brings us to the
main object of our consideration. The signs were the
instruments used by the Lord Jesus; the believing was the
reaction of men to the signs, and the life was the result
of their reaction. They committed themselves and they
received life.
Let
us look at this life. What is it? What is its nature and
what does it mean? I do not think it is necessary to
remind you that this is a kind of life that no one has
who does not possess the Lord Jesus. The very word that
is used for life here is different from other words for
life. This is not animal or human life, but divine life,
the life which is in God alone. It is a life which is
different from every other kind of life because it has a
different nature in it. Every kind of life has its own
nature, and divine life has divine nature in it. Peter
speaks about being made "partakers of the divine
nature" (2 Peter 1:4), and with
this life the very nature of God is implanted in us. It
is a different nature from our own nature. We are going
also to see how that is.
But,
remember - "In him was life" (John 1:4). Is He
different in nature from other men? Everyone can see that
He is different from other men in His very nature, and
the difference is made by this life that is in Him. This
life brings with it a new and different consciousness.
Look at the Lord Jesus! What was His real consciousness?
This was a thing about which He was always speaking, and
it was so very evident in His case. He said: "I
and the Father are one" (John 10:30); "I
do always the things that are pleasing to him"
(the Father) (John 8:29); "The works that I do
in my Father's name" (John 10:25). Oh, this word
'Father' in John's Gospel! The consciousness of Jesus
Christ every day was of His union with His Father, the
oneness that existed between them: "As thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee" (John 17:21). The
consciousness of the Lord Jesus was of the very closest
union with God as His Father, and that was because the
very life of God was in Him. His life was a God-conscious
life; but God-consciousness in the sense of perfect
oneness. And that is what it means to have this life. Man
never had that. Jesus came to bring it in His own person:
not to talk about union with God, but to live out a life
of union with God and to bring His disciples into the
same union. "I came that they might have
life" - in other words: 'I am come that they
may have the same consciousness of God as Father that I
have and that they may have the same divine nature in
them as I have.' (Not deity, but nature.)
This
life means another thing. Life must always grow.
You know that very well! Whatever kind of life it is, if
it is really life it must grow. You know that in your
garden, and it is true in human beings. The law of life
is constant development. This was true of the Lord Jesus.
It is said of Him that He was made "perfect
through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10) and that
word 'perfect' means 'complete'. He was made complete,
full-grown, through sufferings - "Though he was
a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he
suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Jesus was growing by
the power of this life in Him, and if we possess this
life we should grow. Paul says: "That we may be
no longer children... but may grow up in all things"
(Ephesians 4:14,15)... "Till we all
attain... unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the
stature of the
fulness of Christ"
(Ephesians 4:13). So, to
possess this life really means that we ought to be
growing, and if we are not there is something wrong with
us.
Now
notice these things: a different nature - a different
consciousness - a different relationship - and a constant
growth.
You
see how these things are illustrated in this Gospel.
Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Let us think of
Nicodemus as being a perfectly honest man. A great many
things have been said about him which are not to his
credit, but I believe that he was a very sincere man. He
came and he called Jesus 'Teacher' - "We know
that thou art a teacher come from God" (John 3:2). What did he
come to Jesus about? Evidently he had come to talk about
the Kingdom of God, because the Lord Jesus read his
thoughts. He knew that Nicodemus was interested in the
Kingdom of God, but He said to him, in other words: 'You
will never get into the Kingdom of God unless you have
God's life. You and I cannot even talk about the Kingdom
of God because we have not the same life. How do you get
this life? You must be born again, and if you have never
been born you are not alive.' So it is quite clear that
Nicodemus had not the nature of the Kingdom of God
because he had not the life. For any of us to get into
the Kingdom of God we have to receive the life of God,
which is His very nature.
Then
we said it is a different consciousness. How beautifully
this is illustrated by the woman of Samaria! Poor woman,
she wanted to know the secret of life. She had missed it,
had tried to find it but had never done so. Hers was only
a poor existence! Jesus began to speak to her about life
and said, in effect: 'The water that I give you will be
living water in you, springing up into eternal life. When
you have the life that I can give you, or that is in Me,
then you will find the secret of life.' What about this
matter of a new consciousness? A whole section of John's
Gospel is taken up with this. On one side stands Jesus
alone: on the other are the Jewish leaders. They are in
two different worlds and do not understand one another -
at least, the Jewish leaders do not understand Jesus. How
different they are! Jesus puts His finger upon the very
point of the difference - He speaks of God as His Father.
He says to them: 'You just do not know the Father'... "Ye
are of your father the devil" (John 8:44) ...'I
came from above - God is My Father.' He had the
consciousness of God as His Father and they had no such
consciousness, and the reason was that they had not this
life in them.
Then
what about this matter of constant development? There is
a very beautiful illustration of this in John's Gospel,
in chapter 12, where Jesus says: "Except a grain
of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by
itself alone:" ...By itself alone...
"But if it die, it beareth much fruit" (John
12:24). The
new life that comes in resurrection means that that seed
is multiplied a hundredfold. There is no end to the
development of it once resurrection life comes into it.
There is constant development by the power of this new
life, and that is a law of life.
Dear
friends, all these things are meant to be true of you and
of me, for this is what it means to have this new life. I
trust that what we have been able to say makes very real
this wonderful thing that Jesus Christ came into the
world to give to us. In his Letter John said: "He
that hath the Son hath the life" (1 John 5:12).
If we have the Lord Jesus then we have this life, and
what this life is in all these respects is supposed to be
true of us. That is the miracle of eternal life. May it
be true of every one of us! We have the Son and we have
the life; we know that we have the life and that, as we
said, we are having it more abundantly, meaning that the
life has to grow forever.