Let's turn in the Word of God to read together, first from Psalm 119, and then John chapter 20. Let's stand to read. Psalm 119, just one verse, and then John chapter 20, two verses. Verse 105, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And then from John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe. that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. This is the word of the living God. Turn to John chapter 20, this morning looking at verses 30 and 31 in the preaching of the word. This sermon, will be about from the Bible, be from the Bible, every sermon should be. If it's not from the Bible, it's not preaching. But it will also be about the Bible, from the Bible and about the Bible. And the remarkable gift that the Bible is from God to humanity. Sermon from the Bible about the Bible and about the remarkable gift the Bible is to humanity. You live in a world filled with information and a world filled with phones. As our children grow older, phones are proliferating in my house and not just regular phones, smartphones. It's kind of a, I'm not sure it's the best name. I'm not sure they make us any smarter. Um, though I'm sure very smart people design mine cause it does all sorts of things that you would never dream even 10 years ago that a phone could do. But one of the things that our phones do is they give us an endless stream of information. And more and more researchers are finding that that's not all good for us. And that our smartphones are changing really the way we think and even process information. They're reducing our attention span. And they're making us hungry in some strange way for endless empty trivia. We can know what's happening everywhere all the time. As a matter of fact, some people, and I won't name any names, even have their phones set to beep at certain times every time there's new information coming. Now, my phone rings when someone calls me, so I guess I'm partly to blame for this, or I'm partly culpable for what I'm about to say. But I have actually turned off all those beeping features on my phone because, in a sense, every text and new thing is not as important as we think it is. What's amazing is how we can be drawn to this endless stream of what's really often trivia, things that hardly matter. And at the same time, and at the same time, we can have resting maybe on your nightside table. or maybe on the shelf in the living room, a book that's not read nearly enough, which is a message from God that contains in it the power to give you everlasting life. A book that contains the way to eternal life, the promise of eternal blessedness, true joy, communion with the God who made the universe and made you. A letter from God to you. painstakingly and carefully transmitted by the superintendent's power and authorship of the Holy Spirit across centuries, preserved, collected, translated, often at the cost of blood, for you, written, preserved, and given to you often, all in the providence of God. And now getting back to the smartphone, even on your phone or tablet, now for humanity, one click away is a message from heaven to humanity concerning everlasting life in Jesus Christ. The question is, what are you doing with it? How are you using it? And what is its place in your life? Well, these two verses in John chapter 20 have much to say about this. They have much to say about what the Bible is about, about why it was written, a very important phrase, written. What it contains and why God gave it to us. And we're gonna look at a number of things from these verses. First, we're gonna see in them this declaration of the grandeur of the scope of the ministry of Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible is about. It's about Jesus. It's about salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And the apostle John here is first going to make a statement about the grand scope of that salvation, its extensiveness and glory. And then from that, he's going to say that God has seen fit through his hand, but also through the hand of others, prophets and apostles, to have that ministry and its grandeur communicated to you in the written word. And then more than that, that God's design, plan, and purpose for the scope of the ministry of Jesus communicated to humanity in the written word has a purpose. That you would believe in Jesus and believing you would have life in his name. So the scope of the ministry, number one. Number two, that this was written and how it was written. And number three, why it was written that you would believe and have life through the name of Jesus. Well, first there's this foundational idea here in verse 30. The foundational idea is that Jesus did many signs and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. And John here is making a statement about the signs that Jesus has done. The book of John has signs. The signs are important to the flow of the book. And they are, a number of them are the turning of water into wine, the healing of the nobleman's son, which is called the second sign. The first sign is the water into wine. You should read that in John 2.11. The healing of the paralytic in John chapter 5, where Jesus declared himself to be equal with God. I am working and my father is working and displayed his glory. The glory is the only begotten son of the father. He fed the 5,000, you remember, by his hands with some supernatural wondrous power, continually dividing the bread. and the fishes in order to feed thousands himself, showing by the sign that he is the bread of life, the bread of heaven. Jesus walking on the water, the king of glory with sovereignty over all creation. Jesus healing the blind man, John chapter nine, in order that the works of God would be made evident, that the glory of God would shine in the ministry of Jesus Christ. Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. All of these public witness, John chapter six and verse two, all of these are public witness signs to the power of Jesus Christ and his identity. These were publicly witnessed. Jesus did signs in the presence of his disciples. These were not hidden signs, but they were publicly witnessed, attested from multiple directions. And we have not only the Gospel of John, but we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all bearing eyewitness testimony to Jesus Christ and the mighty signs and wonders that he did. These signs, chapter five and verse 36, testify to the identity and origin of Jesus. They are for witness. Jesus says, I have a greater witness than John the Baptist for the works the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do bear witness to me that the Father has sent me, that he is the one from the Father, that he was the one who was in the beginning with God and also himself God. The greatest of these signs is the resurrection from the dead, his power over sin and death. And again, these testify to the reality that the word became flesh and dwelt among us and that John and the apostles saw his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the father, as Peter says. We were eyewitnesses of his majesty. We beheld his glory. We saw the glory of the son of God. We bear witness to you of the signs and wonders of Jesus Christ. Now from this foundation of the signs written in the book of John, John says, I want you to know that these are the ones that are captured in this account. But the scope of the full ministry of Jesus is broader, he says, than what I have written. Look what he says, truly Jesus did many other signs which are not in this book. Now we know this already from the other gospels, not in the gospel of John, lepers were cleansed. Centurion's servant was healed. Peter's mother-in-law was healed. Sea of Galilee was stilled. The demoniac was healed. Jairus' daughter was raised. healing of the deaf mutant Decapolis, we can just keep going. There are other signs not written in the gospel of John that pertain to the ministry of Jesus. And so is John saying, there's a few more that you can ask Matthew about, for example, or is he saying more than that? If you look at verse to jump to chapter 21 and verse 25, and John saying something about the scope of the ministry of Jesus, there are also many other things that Jesus did. which if they were written one by one, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John is saying that you are receiving in the written word an accurate account of the signs of the glory the power and wonder of Jesus Christ. But in another sense, he is saying that grandeur and glory, the scope of it, having seen what we have seen and even written what we have written to communicate the fullness of that glory. You need to understand the scope of the glory of Jesus Christ revealed in his ministry and his person and his work is so grand, it lies beyond the bounds of what I have written. It is unlimited in scope and glory. That there is something to the character, quality, power, compassion, and wisdom that defines finite capture. And this should inform how we think about Jesus. How possibly could you think that you know Him completely? Or even this, that you know enough about Him. Now, what do I mean by that? A lot of people say, well, if I know about the cross and the forgiveness of sins, and then maybe the resurrection, And the people are satisfied with a minimalist knowledge of a few points in the life of Christ. John is telling us, he's communicating to us, that there is a fullness of glory in Jesus Christ, an immensity, an immeasurable depth of the God-man, an unbounded power. And this helps us understand the four gospels. The Holy Spirit, by the work of inspiration, has given us not every single moment in the life of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, we know this from the Gospel of Luke, for example, that we have Jesus, he's born, and then he's 12 years old in the temple. And the Gospels generally jump from there to the point where he's going into his public ministry and he's being baptized. And we have a period of years where there is very little written about the life of Jesus. And then even his public ministry, we don't have every moment, but we have what is written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And John is communicating that to us. That each gospel then gives us, as it were, a different camera angle, but they all harmoniously capture the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. But there is a sense in which John is communicating to us, they do not exhaust the fullness of that ministry. Well, then we move now to the written record of that ministry and how to understand what the scriptures are. Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." Now what's the context of this statement? The context is Thomas. Thomas, who doubts and then believes. giving us that great confession where he says, Jesus is my Lord and my God. And then Jesus says after that, these words, blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed. And the question that that statement raises for us is what is or will be the divinely ordained mechanism by which others who will not with their own eyes see the resurrected Jesus have a sufficient, and this is important, sufficient, all-sufficient, and powerful witness to the glory of Jesus Christ by which they might believe in him. In other words, if Jesus says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, how will they believe? And the simple statement that follows, but these are written that you may believe is the answer to the implied question. And they bring us to the divine work of God in history, which we can call, it's a big word, inscripturation. Very simply, God has seen fit, by the work of the Holy Spirit, to have captured in writing the truth as it is in Jesus, and to communicate in the Scriptures which are sufficient, completely sufficient to communicate to us the fullness of Jesus Christ and the glory of the gospel by the power of the spirit. There's nothing in them that is missing for us to understand the way of salvation. This has been written down. Now, What perhaps you don't often think is that actually the Apostle John has a major emphasis in all of his writings to remind the church how important it is that the apostles wrote. Now that sounds like I'm going in circles, but let me just give you an example. 1 John 2, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, our hands have handled concerning the word of life. He says, we witnessed the ministry of Jesus. It's very similar language that we just had to hear in John 20, verse 30. We saw the glory and the scope of his ministry. He says, the life was manifested. We have seen, we bear witness, and we declare to you, which we have seen and we have heard, we declare to you that you may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And then he says, and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. Verse 2 and verse 1, My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. Chapter 2 and verse 7 and 8, Brethren, I write no new commandment, but an old commandment which you have from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you. If you trace this through 1 John, Again and again and again, John keeps saying, I'm writing this down. I'm writing this down. I'm writing that you may know what we have seen, that what we have handled, what we have touched, what we have heard concerning the word of life. The scribe here, the apostle as the scribe, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he is concerned to keep his pen moving and moving across the page to capture the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. in the written word on the page for you. To the seven churches in the book of Revelation, again and again, the command comes to John, these things write. These things write to the church at Ephesus. These things write to the church at Thyatira. If you read the book of Revelation, page after page, John is writing this down and he's commanded to write this down. Put it in writing, write it down. Don't let it be lost. Luke writes to Theophilus, he says, I've written you an orderly account that you may know, basically that you may know Jesus. And so you have in your hands a Bible by the command of God, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, using the instrumentality of the apostles here, particularly the apostle John in this text, to communicate to you the glory of Jesus Christ, and the fullness and scope of that glory in a manner sufficient that you, having not seen, may believe, love Jesus, and have life through his name. This is the living and powerful word, sharper than any two-edged sword. This is the scripture that is God-breathed and profitable. 2 Timothy 3. This is the word, the written word, delivered to you concerning Jesus. You need to think when you pick up this book of the divinely ordained process of writing down the revelation of Jesus Christ. as superintended by, as authored by ultimately the Holy Spirit of God. This is why the Old Testament saints who had a deep consciousness of this, we don't have time to go through the Old Testament, the phrases is written is all through the Old Testament. The Old Testament saints had a deep consciousness of this and this is why the psalmist said, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. It's the word that shows us the light of God's salvation. This is why Jesus, when the devil came to him in his temptation, had the refrain, it is written, it is written, it is written. Pulling the threads together. Those who have not seen with their own eyes and will not see the Lord risen, back to verse 29, blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed, will depend on the written word to see with the eyes of faith the glory of Jesus Christ. This is God's chosen method of communication to fallen humanity in the present age. He wrote us a letter about his son. Children, your parents probably gave you Bibles. You probably have your own with your name written in the front, don't you? You need to know that what is contained in there is the handiwork of God. And God is the author of the Bible. that He used chosen men by the inspiration of the Spirit to write down a record, an inspired record of Jesus Christ, crucified for sinners, risen again, full of glory. And that you have in your hands a book from, children listen carefully, you have in your hands a book from the God who made the universe. It's the most important thing you could ever read. The most important thing you could ever do is build into your life a deep commitment to reading the Bible and listening to preaching. Satan wants to attack this. How does a church go? How does a church fail? Every time, same way, as God indeed said. And what do people try to get away from? the demands of, the testimony of, the clear eyewitness of the word to Jesus Christ. So we need to be careful as a church that anything that would undermine the Bible, liberalism, skepticism, or neglect, that we resist it. because it has been written by God. The authority of the Holy Scripture, our confession says, for which it ought to be believed and obeys, depends not on the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God who is truth itself and the author thereof. You have a word here from God. And therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God. Now, why did God give us this word? The scope and glory of Jesus Christ, the scope and glory of the ministry of Jesus Christ, captured sufficiently in writing by the Holy Spirit-inspired apostle, but now for a purpose. In order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name. First, the word is given in order that you might believe who Jesus is. There's two things that John would have you believe. Number one, that Jesus is the Christ. that He's the fulfillment of all the Old Testament types, shadows, and promises, that He's the Anointed One, that He's the Messiah, that He's the promised King of glory, that He's the Son of Man of Daniel, that He's the Son of God, exalted and glorious of Psalm 2, that He's the one who rules with the Lord in Psalm 110, that He's the, to use the language of the gospel of John, that He's the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. that He is, as it is written in John chapter 19, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, that He died according to the scriptures, that He rose again according to the scriptures, that He is the fulfillment of every promise God ever gave until He came concerning salvation and reconciliation with God. That Jesus is the Christ, the King of glory, that his death was that the scripture might be fulfilled, testifying to him as the Messiah, Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the only savior of sinners, promised by God first to Adam and Eve, and all through the history of the world. And so John is saying that my gospel, first, is to help you understand the perfect correspondence between the Old Testament and the New Testament. When he says that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, he's saying that you would believe that the whole of the Bible is about salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But that is the one message that God in every age has been communicating to fallen alienated humanity as each new prophet through the ages put his pen to paper to communicate the mind of God to fallen sinners. That Jesus is the Christ. That Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. And then that Jesus is the son of God. that the word, the word that we're reading right now has the power by the operation of the Holy Spirit to convincingly convey this reality that Jesus is the Son of God. This is a great messianic title which pertains to Jesus as being God himself. And this is how the gospel began. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John would have you know that this Jesus is the Son of God, and that the signs, the water into wine, and the walking on the sea, and the raising of Lazarus, and the preaching of the word, and the declarations, I and my Father are one, and the slow unveiling revelation of the glory of the triune God, beginning at Jesus' baptism, culminating in the Great Commission, and pulsating, particularly here in the Gospel of John, in the upper room discourse, that all these realities are communicated to us in the written word through the witness to the signs, power, and glory of Jesus Christ, so that you would know this simple truth, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That the resurrection declares Jesus to be the son of God with power, through the spirit of holiness. And John says, then I have written these things. I put them on paper and you have them here today, that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. And then one more thing, and that by believing, and now it's like a door opens and the first beams of light begin to come out. And as it were, John pulls the door open to the purpose, wonder, and glory of the Bible for sinners. You would know these things, and in coming to know them, you would have life through His name. This was written a sufficient, accurate, eyewitness testimony, so that you would know that Jesus, the Christ, the one promised through the ages, the way of salvation, is the Son of God, and that embracing this reality, that you would have life through His name. That you would believe these plain, propositional truths about Jesus of Nazareth, and that in the believing of these things, in exercising faith in Jesus Christ, that there would be the gift of personal final salvation, everlasting life. And so the call to you this morning, and this is the evangelistic call of the Gospel of John, it's believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, testified to you in the scriptures as the only way of salvation. Some thoughts. Why do you have a Bible? I mean, just a number of you probably have them in your hands right now. Children, if you look ahead, if you don't have one in your hands, there's one in the pew. I have one here in the pulpit. Why do you have it? We know that God speaks through general revelation. His invisible attributes, His eternal glory, His Godhead are clearly seen in the things that He has made. You can know that there is a God. You can know this without a shadow of a doubt, just from getting up in the morning and opening your eyes. But what you can't know from getting up in the morning and just opening your eyes is that to be reconciled to the God who made the universe only comes through Jesus Christ. But God would have you know that, and that's why he gave you the Bible. It's a gift. And I want you to think about the nature of that gift. For centuries, generations, God has seen to it that prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, and apostle upon apostle upon apostle, would write, that those writings would be preserved, and that they would be transmitted to you, that you would read what is written, Know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have everlasting life. This is why you have a Bible. It's urgent. Writing requires reading. Reading and preaching flow from the scriptures, the Bible. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The Bible commends to you a written word that is to be read by every believer and that is to be preached in the world. And it's urgent that you read it and that you hear it preached because this is the way of life. There's no other way. These things are written that you might believe in Jesus and believing you might have life in his name. It's a chain that can't be broken. It's urgent. This is why Christians as missionaries have gone around the world and taught literacy and have developed alphabets and have translated the word. So we believe without it, there's no life. This is why John Wycliffe and William Tyndall, our forefathers in the tradition, at least of the English language, were willing to give their lives to stand against tyranny, to say that everyone might have the word of God in their own language in their hands, that the plowboy would know Jesus Christ reading the Bible. This is why you need regular teaching and preaching. This is why you need to read at parents at home with your children, because these things are written that your children might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and they might have life through his name. This is why you need to read it privately. This is why you need to be in it. Get an audio Bible, listen to it, listen to preaching, read its pages. Buy a study Bible, a good one. Pick up one of those reader's Bibles. Do whatever it takes to get this word in your heart and mind because it speaks of Jesus. The urgency is high. Because if you don't listen to these things, and if you don't read, what's gonna happen? You will die. That final, eternal death. Because believing, there's life in his name. But not believing, Jesus says in John chapter three, you're condemned already. And then the reward. What else can you pick up this week and read that promises everlasting life? What else do you possess? What else can you lay hold of this week? What else could you possibly spend your time doing in terms of priorities? There's other things to do. But how could this not be a priority? If by writing, therefore reading, you come to know Jesus and in believing in Him, you have everlasting life. There could be no greater promise attached to this greatest of books than that which is attached here. This book reveals the path to heaven, to joy, to life, to happiness, to God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Take up and read. Let's pray. Lord our God, we pray that you would help us to prize your word. We're gonna go back over the gospel of John and to read it. to see that it does communicate sufficiently, accurately, inherently, the full scope, the glory of the scope of the ministry of Jesus Christ, commending him to us as the Christ, the son of God, with the indescribable promise from you, the one who sits on the throne, that believing we have life through his name. Lord, help us to prize your word. And this week with new zeal and dedication, search the scriptures, knowing that they testify of Jesus. And that you would, Lord, open the eyes of those who've never done so. And Lord, for those who have been doing this for years, that you would refresh us and encourage us again to take up, to read, and to hear your word. Forgive us, Lord, for all our distractions, and turn us, we pray, back to you. Speak, Lord, we pray, for your servants are listening. We ask in Jesus' name.