John 20v30-31
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name. (ESV)
Introduction
There are many questions we face but the two that precede them all are these:
a. What is life?
b. What is death?
We pursue the one 24/7 and avoid the other. We know that Christianity has the answers to these questions! See also Deut. 30v19 – Choose life!
Life is sacred, things here are not just terrible – waiting for eternity. Life is worth living NOW. It is sacred and precious. Jesus is it!
He is the Truth, He doesn’t just proclaim it.
He is the Life, He doesn’t just give it, and
He is the Way, He doesn’t just show it to us. See John 14.
He didn’t just claim this, but demonstrated it!
Consider the following:
- The Performance of Jesus
a) The Wonders. They are there and real!
b) The Witnesses – wonders done in the presence of many who could not deny it!
c) The Word – there are many wonders recorded in John – the 7 signs showing His Divinity and many more. But the greatest sign of all, is that He conquered death! And this He proved as well! He came and stood among the disciples when they hid in the locked upper room, saying “Shalom!”, and He spoke to Thomas.
Why must we know these things? What is its effect? We don’t understand God, but while we have finite understanding we know He had a purpose. - The Purpose of Jesus
He came to give eternal life to the underserving.
If we know His signs and believe them and believe in Him, we have life!
Jesus could have been and done many things, but He fixed His purpose on the Cross and didn’t turn from it.
This is recorded in the Word which gives us:
a) Light – that we may believe what we read about Him. We have light in what we learn.
b) Life – that in believing we may have life!
We do not move a millimeter from this. Life from Him is sacred – all life! It is a divine gift. We were created in His image, which is why racism is wrong. It’s wrong to despise life for any reason. Christ brings redemption and restoration. It’s His life you’re living – not to be despised, even when it is difficult. Think of the addicts on the streets of modern-day Philadelphia – beautiful people stooped over.
What do we do with adversity – when we feel we don’t want to be here anymore? Life is His to give and to take – ours to encourage and pick up when we fall. Death is not our friend, it’s the curse Christ has destroyed! The Apostle Paul says that through Him, even when death tries to take our life, death is gain! So, we praise God for every day He gives us – one more day, because life is sacred. When we mess it up – He fixed it on the Cross!