Finishing John's Gospel

 Final Thoughts as I Finish Preaching Through the Gospel According to John

I considered reviewing the major themes of John’s Gospel in this last sermon on the book, but decided against it. Instead I want to reflect briefly on this series which began on January 17, 2016. This is the 153rd sermon I have written in that series (though it will only be the 151st sermon posted on Sermon Audio from it--I’m not sure which ones are missing). This series began to be preached at Reformation Bible Church, one month after we began meeting at East Valley High School where we would continue to assemble for another 13 months. Reformation Bible Church became Reformation Orthodox Presbyterian Church in October of 2016. Some of you have been here for the entire series, but there are many new faces that have come since it began and a few that began the study with us but now are gone. Others came and went somewhere in between.

I preached on the Book of Romans from February 2014 until September 2015, and the church changed a lot during that series too. That series began at what was then called Community Christian Church; by the end of Romans we were Reformation Bible Church and well on our way to becoming fully, confessionally Reformed. Before I finished chapter 3 a mass exodus had begun, eventually including nearly all of the elders who originally brought me to Arizona. One of them infamously announced, “I know I am a sinner, but I don’t like being reminded of it every Sunday!” Indeed. Those first three chapters of Romans are quite uncomfortable if you would rather not be reminded you are a sinner.

When I began preaching through Romans, I was a credo-baptist. By the time we finished the book I had baptized young children and an infant in four different households, including my own. If I had known in chapter 1 what I learned by the time we reached chapter 16, I would have handled some of the text a little differently. But I am gratified to hear periodically from people who are still listening to that series and find something helpful in it. It certainly was helpful to me.

I didn’t think I would survive the book of Romans. I’ve had a few doubts during the last five years in John. But God has graciously sustained my strength and this ministry. We’ve been on a roller coaster over the last seven years. I’ve never seen this kind of recurring and sustained stress and controversy in a church, nor have I ever seen the level of love, unity, joy, and enthusiasm in a local congregation. This church could have perished, collapsed, or closed a half dozen times since 2014, but here we are. We stand only by grace, and we will continue to proclaim sovereign grace so long as the Lord gives breath to our bodies and keeps our doors open.

If Romans was the birth pangs which introduced the gospel to a congregation that formerly had not known it (or had not heard it regularly and distinctly from the pulpit), then John (and the concurrent series on the Westminster Confession of Faith) has been our elementary education. We are not the church we were five or six or seven years ago. I am not the preacher, pastor, husband, or father I was then. We’ve changed. I think/hope/pray/trust we have grown. What’s humbling is realizing how much we still have to grow, how much more there is to know. It is humbling, and exciting. Considering how God used Romans to reform this congregation and how he used John to edify, equip, and empower it, what might he do next? How will the next book series and those after be used by God as instruments for his strengthening, sanctifying, and saving work?

At some point you will be done with me, or the Lord will. I am only a tool in his hand, and whenever he finishes whatever job he picked me up to accomplish, he will put me down. But I hope you are never finished with Romans or the Gospel of John. I hope these books continue to thrill you, fascinate you, and occupy you for the rest of your earthly sojourn. God used expository preaching--which was rarely, if ever, done in the churches of my upbringing--to teach me the gospel and open my eyes to grace. Expository preaching, not the preacher. I hope that is your experience as well. The power is in the message, not the messenger. God willing, the messenger will be forgotten. But I pray the message will burn, bright and hot, for the rest of your life. --JME (August 2020)

John 19:12-16: Who Will Be Your King?

        The time was drawing near. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, and his last conversation with him made the Roman governor even more anxious to release his prisoner. But it was for naught. Jesus’ innocence was unquestionable, his enemies’ motives were undeniable, and Pilate’s inability to set him free was inevitable. Our text today records Pilate’s final appeal and the incredible declaration by the Jewish chief priests that sent Jesus to the cross.

We should not overlook the emphasis the Gospel writers place on Pilate’s knowledge of the Lord’s innocence. As we have labored to demonstrate in our last two lessons, this is not because Pilate was a virtuous man. The point is not that he really wanted to do what was right or that in his heart he was truly committed to justice. John emphasizes Pilate’s knowledge of Jesus’ innocence to demonstrate that he did not die for his own sins. He died for ours. He died to purchase the Church with his own blood. He laid down his life for his sheep. The injustice of this judicial proceeding was an act of divine justice in securing the pardon and salvation of all who would ever believe.

The Jews wanted Jesus to die because he claimed to be the Son of God, but in the end, he would die for sedition. The chief priests alleged that Jesus undermined submission to the Roman authorities. He claimed to be a king in direct opposition to the Emperor’s claims. To release him would be to tacitly acknowledge his messianic claim and to enable an independence movement which would attempt to place a descendant of David on a restored throne in Jerusalem.

Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he was more concerned about keeping his own life than causing Jesus to lose his. If Rome learned that Pilate released a would-be ruler, the governor would not keep his head for long. It was unfortunate, but that’s the way the game was played. Pilate would not lose any sleep over it, but in the end, he would lose his soul.

Christ and Caesar

When the Jewish leaders saw that Pilate was determined to release Jesus, they began to threaten the magistrate. “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend!” It was not subtle. If Pilate did not crucify Jesus, he could expect the religious leaders in Jerusalem to write Tiberius. They insisted the issue was a simple binary. If Pilate showed mercy to Jesus, he could not be considered loyal to Caesar. If he was loyal to Caesar, then he had to condemn Jesus to die. The antithesis between Rome and Israel’s Messiah was absolute.

Of course, in one sense, it is true: there is an antithesis between loyalty to Christ and loyalty to this world. “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad” (Matt. 12:30). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1Jn. 2:15). You have to make a choice. You cannot synthesize loyalty to the Emperor and loyalty to the Messiah. You cannot name Jesus as king of your spiritual life and Tiberius as king of your secular life. Devotion to Christ as King is absolute. He is the King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords. Jesus does not serve beneath or alongside any earthly monarch.

But in another sense, the sense in which the chief priests are trying to frame the issue, what they are saying is completely wrong. Jesus’ kingdom is not an explicit threat to Rome, not the way they are making it out to be. Oh the kingdom of heaven would eventually topple Rome, to be sure, just as it will outlast and overcome all other kingdoms of men in this world. But Jesus was not the kind of Messiah so many of the Jewish people were waiting for. He was not trying to be another Macabbean general. He did not aspire to sit on Herod or Tiberius’s throne. Such a goal would be far too small! Jesus came to open the way to heaven itself, to redeem his Church, and to save the world. Nothing to be gained in Jerusalem or Rome could ever compare with that.

We said there is an antithesis, and you cannot straddle the fence and serve two masters. But loyalty to Christ does not require one to explicitly undermine or revolt against Rome. There were saints in Caesar’s household in Paul’s day (cf. Php. 4:22). Cornelius was both a centurion and a worshipper of God who became a Christian. There is no reason to think he left Rome’s military service after he was baptized into Christ. Christians are strangers and exiles in the present world, and our citizenship is in heaven, not recorded in Washington D.C. or the state record banks. But while we are in exile away from our homeland, like the Jews in Babylon, we are commanded to build houses, plant gardens, have children, and pray for the peace of the city where the Lord has called us to sojourn (cf. Jer. 29).

One day Jesus would subjugate Caesar, and he will subjugate the President and Legislature and Supreme Court of the United States. The Prime Ministers of China, North Korea, and Russia will bow down and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and they are not. But it will be God who does that, not God’s people. It will be through the influence of truth, the preaching of the gospel, and the return of Christ in glory that this is accomplished. It will not be because believers take up arms. It will not be because Christians agitate and work to overthrow governments. Christians have a powerful weapon in their ability and access to pray, but Scripture teaches us to use this for good and not only to call for fire on the enemies of the Church.

Caesar could not have a better advantage than to be a friend of Jesus Christ. Pilate would never have more loyal and faithful subjects than the disciples of Jesus. It is because we are loyal to the Lord Jesus that we can, in his Name and for his glory, serve well those magistrates and rulers God has placed in authority over us. We know their authority is limited. We know their time has already been determined. We know they can do nothing except what Christ allows them to do. So we serve faithfully, humbly, cheerfully, giving Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

The King of Israel

Once again we see the irony in John’s narrative. Pilate brings Jesus out and announces: “Behold, your King!” And it is true. Here is the King of Israel, the Son of David, the Son of God. But the chief priests will have none of it. They decry him. They despise him. “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate, perhaps exasperated by their stubbornness, taunts in reply: “Shall I crucify your King?” Every time I read the next line, it’s as though the narrative stops. Time freezes. The world stands still. “We have no king but Caesar!” And it is true. The word of Yahweh spoken to the prophet Samuel has finally reached its ultimate fulfillment: “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1Sam. 8:7).

Israel had always had a king, and the prophetic regulations given in Deuteronomy 17 about their future monarch did not change that arrangement in the least. After Gideon’s great victory over the Midianites, the people of Israel begged him to become their ruler. But Gideon replied: “I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you; the LORD shall rule over you” (Jdg. 8:23). The Bible is very clear that God was not pleased by Israel’s insistence upon and desire for a king to be like the other nations. He gave them a king, yes, but he punished them for their carnal motives.

Eventually God gave them a king of his choosing, David the son of Jesse. But the Davidic monarchs were not to rule like other kings. Israel was to be a representative monarchical theocracy. That means the kings of Israel were vassal kings, not emperors. They were there to do Yahweh’s bidding, not their own. They were representatives, not of the people, but of God, and their duty was to administer the rule and justice of the kingdom of God. This is why they were to make their own copy of the Book of the Law and keep it with them all the time and read from it every day “that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren” (Deut. 17:18-20).

But this is not the king the Jews wanted. Not in Samuel’s day. Not in Jesus’ day. The chief priests angrily declared, “We have no king but Caesar!” And they spoke the truth. Jesus was not their King. I know what you’re thinking: Jesus is everyone’s King. Yes, in that sense. He is the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Yes, one day each of these priests will bow down and confess that Jesus is Christ and Lord. But their declaration of loyalty to the Roman Emperor was a true confession of the kingdom to which they belonged. They were not truly part of the covenanted kingdom over which the Son of David reigns. They wanted no part in a representative theocracy over which Yahweh would rule according to his wisdom, rather than theirs. They would rather have a king like all the nations. They would rather belong to a real kingdom, one that has power in this world! And they do. They belonged to that kingdom. And that kingdom, like everything else in this world, would soon pass away, and they would share in its fate.

Conclusion: Who Will Be Your King?

We do have to make a choice after all. We can serve Jesus and still live in this world. We do not have to behave like this world’s enemy in order to prove our allegiance to Jesus. But in the end, if we are loyal to Jesus, this world will view us as an enemy anyway. That’s what they did to Jesus, and that’s what they will do to Jesus’ friends. How ridiculous to see the chief priests so violently outraged, seeking to kill the greatest threat they perceive: the Prince of Peace! But that is the insanity we can expect to meet in this world if we live meekly, quietly, but unapologetically as those who belong to another.

When Joshua gave his retirement speech, he challenged the people to choose.

Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Jos. 24:14-15)

This challenge was similar to the one Moses gave them as he prepared to ascend Mt. Nebo and die. Choose: life or death, blessing or cursing, Yahweh or the gods of this world, Christ or Caesar. It is a choice we make all the time when we honor Christ’s rule or when we prefer instead the freedom we imagine Caesar will provide. But inevitably we will discover that Caesar cannot give freedom at all; his service is slavery, misery, and death. And the rule of Christ that we chafed at, that we sought to cast off? Jesus says:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matt. 11:28-30)

Jesus did not die because he was a sinner; he died because we are. He did not die because he posed any real danger to the government; he died because they were a danger to him. He did not die because the Jews and Romans did know who he was; he died because they knew exactly who he was--the Son of David, the King of Israel--and they adamantly refused to allow him to rule over them. And because he died, he won. Because he died, we are saved. Because he died, their reign has been overthrown. Because he died, everything they feared might happen, actually has and will. The kingdoms of this world belong to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Rev. 11:15). --JME

John 3:18 - An Excerpt of Exposition

This is an excerpt from a sermon manuscript on John 3:17-21. It is not as polished as an essay would normally be, and it is written for oral delivery. Nevertheless, it is my hope it will be of some value, even on this platform. This portion is concerned with expounding verse 18. -JME

Faith and Eschatological Judgment (John 3:18)

Verse 18 extends this idea of eschatological judgment which is so important in John’s Gospel. The salvation or condemnation which every person will experience is not something merely at the end of our earthly lives or at the end of time. These are spiritual realities which begin now. Whoever believes in him is not condemned (or, is not under judgment), but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Let that sink into your mind for a moment. Put it in the crockpot and turn it on slow-cook. This is a verse worthy of much meditation.

Those who believe in Christ will be saved because they are saved, right now. They have eschatological life in the present. The new creation has already begun for them; it has begun in their hearts. This theme we have already been introduced to here in chapter three, and we will have many more opportunities to reflect on and give thanks for it before our survey of this Gospel is complete.

But this is not only true of those who are saved. Eternal damnation also begins in the present age. Those who will be condemned on the Last Day already are; they are condemned because they do not believe in the Son of God. This comes up again in 3:36, but this text has much to say about it as well.

No one is lost because he or she has not heard the Gospel. They are lost because of sin. We are all born in sin; we come into this world under its power (Rom. 3:9), and because of this original sin, we also commit ourselves to the practice of it, renewing in our lives every day God’s just judgment against us. If we read v. 18 as saying men are only lost because they do not believe in Christ, we are not reading it properly in its context. Men are already lost. We were lost before Christ ever came into this world. Believing in the name of God’s Son is the only hope we have of redemption and salvation. So obviously anyone who does not believe in his name is lost and will be lost because they already were lost and because they have rejected the only means of being saved.

Unbelief is a particularly egregious sin, and so it is associated here in v. 18 with the judgment of the lost. Imagine for a moment a terrible virus infected the human race and rapidly spread across our nation. This virus turned men, women, and children into a kind of zombies, crazed and vicious and absolutely out of control but retaining basic cognitive functions. They can see and hear and think and speak. They can even discern certain categories of right and wrong and feel guilt and shame when they commit some wicked act. But they continue to do wicked things anyway. They are driven to it. It is their passion. It is what they live for. You might almost feel pity for them except you know that they know, deep down inside, that what they are doing is wrong. Yet they do it anyway. They are violent and hateful because they want to be; they want it more than they want anything else. You don’t have to imagine it, because that is very much how the Bible describes the human condition. We sin because we are sinners, but before you feel bad for us or think it somehow is not our fault, remember that our wickedness is willful and is exercised in the face of a definite awareness of right and wrong. We are sin’s victims, but we are not only its victim, we are its perpetrators.

Now imagine someone who is not sick, someone from outside, comes to our nation. He is exposed to the virus, but amazingly he is not infected by it. He walks among the dead and dying but is not contaminated by their condition. Instead, he works to help the dead among whom he dwells. Finally he takes decisive action. Only by sacrificing himself, by pouring out all of his blood, can a medicine be created that will destroy the virus and end the plague forever. The savior gives his life, and his blood is given to save the human race. But as the cure begins to be administered, something remarkable happens. No one wants it. Indeed, they become angry and violent and even seek to kill those who offer the medicine to heal them. They want to destroy the cure, and they do everything in their power to do so. They would rather remain in their wretchedness than receive the medicine which can cure them of it.

Here is, by way of a vulgar analogy, a description of the human condition. This is who we are. Those who are infected by the virus are dead men walking around, but they are willing participants in their condition, and they will violently refuse aid whenever it is offered. Why are they dead? We could answer that in two ways, and to some extent, Scripture does so. They are dead because of their original condition. Men are condemned because they are in sin, under sin, and continue to sin (Rom. 3:9-20). But they are also dead because they refused the one way that they could have received healing and life. They are under judgment because they do not believe in the name of the Son of God.

Make no mistake. Anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved. The Gospel is that simple. It is that beautiful. But if you do not believe in Christ, if you are not trusting in Him alone, and if you love your sin more than you long for freedom from it, then you are already under judgment and you are headed straight for Hell. While there is life, there is opportunity. If you will repent and turn to Christ in faith, even now, you can be saved. But if you do not turn and trust him, there is nothing that can save you, and no one will, because you have condemned yourself. -JME

The Signs in John's Gospel

The Signs of Christ in the Gospel of John

Introduction

            The Gospel of John is notably different from the three earlier histories of the life of Christ. Whereas the former, synoptic accounts bombard the reader with dozens of miracles and parables from Jesus’ ministry, John’s record is more selective (20:30-31; 21:24-25), more explicitly theological (1:1-18), and more obviously thematic (cf. 6:35; 8:12, 58; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:5).[1] This does not mean the Synoptic Gospels are not selective, theological, and thematic in their presentations, only that the Fourth Gospel is more visibly so.

            The first half of John’s Gospel (1:19-12:50), a section sometimes referred to as the Book of Signs, “sets forth evidence for Jesus’ messiahship in the form of seven selected signs.”[2] There is no consensus on how many signs are to be counted in the Gospel of John. The writer of the book explicitly designates at least four events as signs (2:11; 4:54; 6:14; 12:18), and most scholars would agree on six (5:1-15; 9:1-12, 16).[3] If the episode on the sea in chapter six has Jesus walking on the water, this could bring the total number of signs to seven.[4] Andreas Kostenberger, however, admits the miracle of walking on the sea but denies it belongs in the category of Johannine signs.[5] He includes the cleansing of the Temple as a Christological sign to reach a total of seven.[6] The miraculous catch of fish after the resurrection is also counted by some as a sign and will be included in the observations made in this paper.[7]

The Nature and Purpose of Signs in John

John’s use of the term sign has a distinctive connotation. Leon Morris observes, “It is an important word which points to something beyond itself.”[8] The fact to which these signs point is the true nature and mission of Jesus. The miracles the author selects “he weaves into his Gospel as signs, which testify to Christ’s deity, and establish John’s proposition that Jesus is the Christ.”[9] But while John uses the term sign in reference to Jesus’ activities, the Lord prefers to speak of His works, rather than calling them signs (4:34; 5:20, 36; 9:3-4; 10:25, 32, 37-38; 14:10-12; 15:24; 17:4).[10]

The signs Jesus performs “are simply ‘works of God,’ acts in harmony with His deity and the purpose for which He came into the world.”[11] Jesus calls them “the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish,” works that “testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.” (5:36).[12] Jesus calls men to “believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him” (10:38). He says men “are to believe not because the works are miraculous (though this is true), but rather because the Father is in them, the Father does them.”[13]

The signs produced by Jesus were visible to those with the willingness to accept them, but they were not the sort of “dazzling performance that would compel belief” as some Jews demanded (cf. Mt. 16:1-4; Jn. 2:18; 6:30).[14] Nevertheless, these signs were not only accepted by John and the early church. Their actuality was acknowledged by Nicodemus (3:2), the multitudes (7:31), and the Pharisees (11:47).[15] Even Jesus’ enemies admitted He really was performing miracles. The only question was what these things meant. The Jewish leaders “refused to accept that to which the sign pointed and testified: the deity of Jesus – the fact that the Messiah was among them.”[16] The miracles of Jesus possessed “qualities of moral value.”[17] They “related Him and His work to God” and “were direct evidence to His claims as Savior, shepherd, and sustainer of man and his needs.”[18] These works verified His claim to have come from God, as one with God, for the purpose of revealing God.

Transforming Water into Wine (2:1-11)

            The first sign presented by John occurred at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. Jesus is attending the event with His disciples when His mother informs Him they have run out of wine. Mary’s behavior and boldness in this episode may suggest she was related to the family or somehow involved in the festivities.[19] Though Jesus initially appears to rebuff Mary’s wish that He render assistance, He proves willing to privately satisfy the need. Six stone pots used for purification are filled with water at Jesus’ direction; then a sample is drawn and taken to the master of the feast. The liquid that had been water when poured into the pots miraculously became wine, though only Jesus, His disciples, and the servants knew what had happened. John appears to affirm this was not only the first sign performed by Jesus in his Gospel, but likely the Lord’s first miracle as well (2:11).[20]

In this episode Jesus “demonstrated that He is the master of matter; when he wills, it obeys.”[21] As the story progresses, the emphasis shifts from the quantity of wine produced to the quality of it.[22] “The wine which [Jesus] provided was superior” to what preceded it.[23] The superior quality of Jesus’ work is a thread which runs throughout the Fourth Gospel.[24]

Healing of a Nobleman’s Son (4:46-54)

After Jesus’ visit to Judea and Samaria, the Lord travels to Galilee once again where He is approached by a nobleman whose son is gravely ill. Jesus does not even visit the boy in person; He simply sends the father home with the assurance of his son’s recovery. Healing the nobleman’s son long-distance may be “another instance of John’s emphasis on ‘hard’ miracles of Jesus.”[25] This miracle proved Jesus is “master of distance and space,”[26] but the Gospel writer “refrains from drawing out any specific Christological symbolism that may be reflected in Jesus’ performance of this particular sign.”[27] No discourse is clearly associated with it, though Leon Morris suggests a possible connection with the mention of living water made to the Samaritan woman earlier in the chapter.[28] It seems most likely the significance of the miracle speaks for itself as it intuitively, rather than discursively, establishes the power and compassion of the Lord.

Healing of a Lame Man (5:1-9)

            As chapter five opens Jesus returns to Jerusalem and heals a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. There may have been a tradition attributing saving power to the stirring of the pool’s water by an angelic visitor, but Jesus’ power is clearly greater. Neither the duration of the lame man’s infirmity nor the superstition of healing waters was a barrier to the Lord’s miraculous intervention on his behalf. This miracle proved Jesus is “master of time.”[29] The truth of Jesus set the lame man “free from that which tradition had failed to touch.”[30]

Jesus performed this miracle on a Sabbath, creating a firestorm of controversy that would follow Him for some time (cf. 7:19-24). It is the starting point in John’s Gospel for the ongoing persecution which eventually resulted in His death.[31] This miracle and the subsequent debate also “provide the occasion for Jesus to assert his oneness with God the Father.”[32] The ensuing discussion of Jesus’ deity is one of the most significant in the New Testament. Thus it is an important episode in developing both the narrative and the theology of the Fourth Gospel.

Feeding of 5,000 Men (6:1-14)

            Chapter six finds Jesus back in Galilee teaching by the sea. A large crowd of people, mostly men, gather to hear Him but need food as the day draws to a close (cf. Mt. 14:15; Mk. 6:35-36). After locating five barley loaves and two small fish in the possession of a young boy in the crowd, Jesus seats the multitude on the grass and miraculously, though somewhat obscurely, multiplies the bread and fish until all the people are filled with food. This miracle “demonstrated His claim to provide for physical needs, and by analogy, to provide for [man’s] spiritual needs.”[33] If Jesus is revealed as the Lord of quality in turning the water to wine, the feeding sign reveals Him to also be the Lord of quantity.[34]

The feeding of these 5,000 men in the wilderness was a significant miracle for Jews awaiting the Messiah. This is indicated both by the response of the people, as recorded by John, and by its inclusion in all four gospels. The multitude was so impressed with the Lord’s miraculous provision they were ready to seize Him violently and make Him king, presumably to start a revolt.[35] The Messianic implications of one who could feed God’s people in the wilderness, as Moses did, were not lost on the crowd, though their conception of the kingdom was more political than spiritual. Their expectations were not consistent with God’s ultimate purpose and plan; therefore, Jesus did not honor or yield to their interest in making Him King.

Walking on the Water (6:15-21)

            Later during the night after Jesus fed the multitude in the wilderness, the Lord walks on the sea to meet the disciples who are traveling in the boat to the other side. The appearance of Jesus frightens these men, but it once again displays the power and presence of Jesus as God’s unique Son. John does not devote the same attention to this miracle as Mark and Matthew (cf. Mt. 14:22-33; Mk. 6:45-52). Some have even questioned whether John intends the event to be perceived as Jesus actually walking on water,[36] or if he does, whether it is intended to be a Messianic sign.[37] Whether it is intended as a Johannine sign or not, Jesus’ walk on the Sea of Galilee manifests His true person, power, and glory. Homer Hailey notes:

[Jesus] showed Himself to be the master of the natural forces of wind and wave and the Lord of gravity and its power. Also by this manifestation of Himself, He demonstrated His concern for His own when the winds are contrary and they are alone in the midst of the storm. He would have them know that He is present in time of need and that in His hand lies the control of all forces in the natural world.[38]

 Healing of a Blind Man (9:1-12)

In John chapter nine Jesus is back in Jerusalem and healing on the Sabbath yet again. The man who is healed had been blind from birth, but the Lord has no difficulty in giving the man physical sight with important spiritual implications. This miracle serves as an illustration of Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world, one of the “I am” statements which serve as an important theme in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus’ claim to be the light of the world both introduces and interprets the blind man’s healing (8:12; 9:5, 39).

Healing the blind was a uniquely Messianic miracle.[39] No one in Scripture ever performed such a work before Jesus (Jn. 9:32). Andreas Kostenberger helpfully summarizes the parallels between the two healings in chapter five and chapter nine:

The sites for both healings are pools (5:2; 9:7), and both healings take place on a Sabbath (5:9; 9:14). In both cases the healing is rendered difficult by the attending circumstances (lameness for thirty-eight years; blindness from birth), and in both instances Jesus’ chosen method of healing is unconventional (5:8-9; 9:6-7).[40]

This miracle proved Jesus is “the master of light” and “the master over adversity.”[41] The healing of this blind man became an important metaphor for conversion in the early church, perhaps because Jesus did not restore what was formerly possessed but gave new sight which the man had never known.[42] The theological significance of the signs in John is most obvious when explicitly interpreted and expounded by the Lord as in the healing of the lame man, the feeding of the five thousand, the raising of Lazarus, and in this case of healing.

Raising Lazarus from the Dead (11:1-44)

John chapter eleven may be the most emotionally vulnerable scene in the life of Jesus apart from His prayers in Gethsemane. The Lord receives word His dear friend Lazarus is gravely ill, but Jesus’ journey to Bethany is delayed, and by the time He arrives, Lazarus has been dead four days. Jesus meets first with Lazarus’s sister Martha, discussing the resurrection hope and making another “I am” affirmation, identifying Himself with that hope. Then Jesus meets Mary, Lazarus’s other sister, one who deeply loves Jesus but who appears confused and disappointed He would let her brother die. When Jesus comes to the tomb and observes the grief of His friends, He joins them in shedding tears (cf. Ro. 12:15b). Then with sovereign solemnity, He commands the tomb to be opened and calls Lazarus forth, bringing him back from the dead.

This miracle proved Jesus is “the master over death and the giver of life.”[43] The raising of Lazarus, the final sign prior to the passion narrative, “serves as the antitype (anticipatory pattern) of Jesus’ own resurrection in the narrative.”[44] It also demonstrates Jesus “has given His personal guarantee that every body now lying in the tomb will at some time hear His voice and come forth.”[45] The import of this sign in revealing Jesus’ identity, illustrating His purpose, and foreshadowing His own death and resurrection can scarcely be overstated. It is crucial to John’s picture of the Divine Messiah.

Providing a Miraculous Catch of Fish (21:1-11)

            The final miracle recorded in the Gospel of John is not regarded as a sign in the typical sense by most commentators, but it is a miraculous demonstration of the risen Lord’s power, nonetheless. Some critical scholars question whether the twenty-first chapter was an original part of John’s Gospel, though a sufficient case in favor of its inclusion from the beginning can be made.[46] Leon Morris observes, “This is the longest account we have of any appearance of the risen Lord in Galilee.”[47] The inclusion of this miracle seems intended to support the resurrection rather than belonging to the same category of signs found earlier in the book. The inclusio evident at the beginning and end of the pericope seems clearly to reinforce the idea the author saw “evidential value in this episode in support of Jesus’ resurrection.”[48]

            The scene is once again by the Sea of Galilee. Peter and several other disciples have gone out in the boat, fishing all night but catching nothing. Andreas Kostenberger observes, “Remarkably, the disciples never catch a fish in any of the Gospels without Jesus’ help.”[49] The Lord appears on the shore, initially unrecognized by His followers in the boat, and calls them to cast the net on the right side. When they do so, the net caught so many fish – one hundred and fifty-three to be specific, a textual feature strongly suggesting eyewitness testimony – that it could not even be drawn into the boat. When the disciples realize it is Jesus, Peter jumps into the water and swims to shore. There the men again meet their risen Lord, share a meal, and Peter’s commission as a witness and pastor is renewed (21:15-24).

Conclusion

Whether John intended there to be four signs, seven signs, or eight signs in his book, it is evident his inclusion of these events, his interpretation of them by the associated discourses and claims, and his frequent references to them and their significance is both intentional and theological. They reveal and reinforce his larger message about the Son of God (20:30-31; cf. 21:25), and any study of the Fourth Gospel must take them seriously. They are integral to John’s portrait of the Messiah and essential to interpreting it correctly. 

The signs “reveal the deity” of Jesus and “are the Father’s testimony to the claims of His Son that He and His message are from God.”[50] Each sign points beyond itself. As Leon Morris notes, “The meaning of the individual signs is to be discerned only in the light of the great work of salvation God is doing in his Son.”[51] The signs in John are significant because they point to the One who has ultimate significance: Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed and Unique Son of God.

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[1] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 21-23.

[2] Andreas J. Kostenberger, John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004), 9.

[3] John also acknowledges Jesus did many other signs which are not recorded in his book (2:23; 3:2; 6:2, 26; 7:31; 11:47; 12:37; 20:30).

[4] Leon Morris, Jesus is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989), 20-21.

[5] Kostenberger, 204-205.

[6] Ibid., 89.

[7] Elmer Towns, The Gospel of John: Believe and Live, (Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2002), xiii.

[8] Morris, Jesus is the Christ, 2.

[9] Homer Hailey, That You May Believe: Studies in the Gospel of John. (Las Vegas, NV: Baker, 1973), 106.

[10] Morris, Jesus is the Christ, 13.

[11] Hailey, 105.

[12] cf. Jn. 9:4; 10:32; 14:10; see also Hailey, 106-107.

[13] Morris, Jesus is the Christ, 15.

[14] Ibid., 3; see also pp. 10-13.

[15] cf. Hailey, 107-108.

[16] Hailey, 109.

[17] Ibid., 110.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), 156; see also Carson, 169.

[20] Morris, The Gospel According to John, 163; see also Towns, 21.

[21] Hailey, 110.

[22] Kostenberger, 98.

[23] Hailey, 110.

[24] Kostenberger, 98.

[25] Ibid., 166.

[26] Hailey, 111.

[27] Kostenberger, 167.

[28] Morris, Jesus is the Christ, 25-27.

[29] Hailey, 111.

[30] Ibid.

[31] cf. Towns, 50.

[32] Kostenberger, 174.

[33] Hailey, 112.

[34] cf. Hailey, 110, 112.

[35] Towns, 60-61.

[36] cf. Carson, 275; Carson does, however, regard the event as a miracle and defends the view John so intended it.

[37] Kostenberger, 205: “The walking on water constitutes a private manifestation of Jesus’ messianic glory to his inner circle (similar to the transfiguration) and therefore does not qualify as a Johannine sign; nor is it identified as such by the Fourth Evangelist (Kostenberger 1995b; Carson 1991:274).”

[38] Hailey, 112.

[39] cf. Is. 29:18; 35:5; 42:7; see also Kostenberger, 277.

[40] Kostenberger, 277.

[41] Hailey, 112.

[42] Towns, 90.

[43] Hailey, 113.

[44] Kostenberger, 322.

[45] Hailey, 113.

[46] Carson, 665-668.

[47] Morris, The Gospel According to John, 759.

[48] Carson, 674.

[49] Kostenberger, 590.

[50] Hailey, 113.

[51] Morris, Jesus is the Christ, 8.

Bibliography

Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991.

Hailey, Homer. That You May Believe: Studies in the Gospel of John. Las Vegas, NV: Baker

(reprinted by Nevada Publications), 1973.

Kostenberger, Andreas J. John. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2004.

Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995.

__________. Jesus is the Christ: Studies in the Theology of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,

1989.

Towns, Elmer. The Gospel of John: Believe and Live. Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 2002.

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