The Only Source of Real Life | Jn. 20:30-31 | Kade Pierce

Kade Pierce
Pastor, Eastside Community Church

The Only Source of Real Life
Jn. 20:30-31
Main Idea
I. What is the requirement?
a. Believe
i. What kind of belief?
ii. Believe in who?
iii. Believe what?
II. What is the result?
a. Find life
i. What kind of life?
ii. Where is this life?
III. What does this mean for you and I?

Mental Worship:
1. What stands out from the passage today? Is there anything that confuses you? Is there anything that challenges you?
2. Why must we believe that Jesus is both “the Christ” and “the Son of God”?
3. Who around you is living in the full/abundant/real life that Jesus makes available to us? What about their life makes you think of them?
4. What false sources of life are most tempted to turn to? Why can they not give us the life our souls require and that John is talking about in John 20?
5. Who in your life do you need to invite into this life that Jesus makes available to us? How will you begin engaging them about this?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Don't find your source of life and your job status or your job achievement. Maybe you love climbing the ladder. You're good at your job. People praise you, and so you stay there. And you'll sacrifice your family on their altar of your career. And it seems like you're doing a good thing. You're providing for your family. But even when you're home, you're physically present but mentally somewhere else, on your email, on your computer, trying to get something else done, achieve, achieve, achieve, achieve, because that's become your source of life. But my friend, only Jesus can satisfy that. Or maybe you find it in a substance or an experience of pleasure or social media attention. But look at me, if you're a student or a mom or a dad or whatever, there aren't enough likes on the planet to satisfy the longing in your soul. Only Jesus can do that. So don't settle for lesser sources of life when the real thing is available to you.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org. Let's pray together.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

So, Father, we pray along with the psalmist: Who do we have in heaven but you? And there's nothing here on earth that we desire besides you. You're the great prize of our life. You're the source of it. So help us to gaze upon Jesus today. And as we do so, let the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. We ask that now in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can have a seat. As Neil said, my name is Cade Pierce. I do get the privilege of being the lead pastor of East Side Community Church in Dickinson, Texas. If you're wondering where that is, you've passed by it every time you've driven to Galveston. It's about halfway between downtown and Galveston Island, along 45. If you have a Bible, I invite you to grab it. Turn to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John. Chapter 20, beginning in verse 30. If you're unfamiliar with the Bible, feel free to use the table of contents. Navigate your way to the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John is where we'll spend our time together. Chapter 20, beginning in verse 30, we'll be in verse 30 and 31 together. A couple months ago, my middle son, with the help of his mom, for the first time, for him the first time, completed a 997-piece puzzle. You're smart people. I hope nobody in here is like, well, who sells 997-piece puzzles? Where do I get those bad boys? It was supposed to be a thousand pieces. And you can understand that they were putting it all together, they got the picture as they thought it was formed. They looked, and guess what? We're missing three pieces. And not just, oh, they're over here, they're gone. And for some of you, you're like, well, good effort. Way to go, buddy. You tried. And 997 is almost a thousand, so way to go. Some of you are so type A, you're like, I'd just rather you blow your house up and never do a puzzle again. If you can't complete it, what's the point of even trying? And so, what if I went over to my son and said, hey, Noe, no big deal. We have other 1,000-piece puzzles in the closet. I'll just go over there and I'll grab three pieces. You can jam them in and you're done. I hope that my son would be smart enough to say to me, Daddy, we can't do that. Those pieces won't satisfy the need that I've got. There's an exclusive source for that. Here's the point. Every human on the planet that has ever existed, is existing, or will exist, is on this search for where is real life. Life that I'll define here in just a little bit. Life as the Bible defines it. We're all on the search for it, but the problem is, is we too often settle for cheap imitations of it when the real thing's available to us. And I think we'll see that today as we look at John chapter 20, 30, and 31. Follow along with me. This is what the Word of God says. 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. This is our main idea for our time together. Real life is available through belief in Jesus and Jesus alone. What John will invite us into is this real life. And there'll be a requirement for it, and the result that comes out from that requirement. He begins in verse 30 by saying, look, there are all kinds of other things that Jesus did. He did many other things in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. And a skeptic might show up to the gospel and say, You see, that's why I can't believe the Bible, because not everything that Jesus did, not every single thing is in there, so I can't believe it. Or it's actually a reason for which we should believe the gospels. Because what we can assume sometimes is that we just kind of haphazardly lop some like moments of Jesus' life into it. It's like, and out came the Bible. But what we find here from the Gospel writer, from John the Gospel writers, look, he did all kinds of other things. But I've written these things in here intentionally to display something to you intentionally. It's as if, as Peter says, he was being carried along by the Spirit of God to write something for the people of God. So we have here words on purpose for a purpose. The question that we have to answer is what is that purpose? Back in verse 30, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but here's the purpose. These are written so that you may first believe. What John is inviting the readers and as a result us into is to believe. The question that we have to ask and answer is what kind of belief? We may be watered down what we mean by belief, or we misunderstand, or we partially define what it means to believe as the Bible describes it. Maybe we misunderstand it in two ways. One, we describe belief as simply mentally acknowledging something. I know it in my mind, I believe it, like you believe that Abraham Lincoln was the president of the United States at one point. Yeah, I know honest Abe, sure, he's on the penny, whatever. But it has no bearing on your life. You've simply mentally acknowledged it. Or maybe you reduce belief in quite the opposite direction. No, it's not mentally acknowledging something. It's just this blind, baseless, hopeless belief. We can't actually explain anything, put our hands on anything, have reasons for why we believe what we believe. It's just baseless, thoughtless, hopeless. But neither of these are the belief the Bible describes. The Bible describes a belief that's more like what happened with my boys a handful of weeks ago. My neighbor gave them these styrofoam planes, you slide the wings in, you throw them, they do loops and all this kind of stuff. So it's perfect if you've got three boys that are nine, seven, and four. So she gives it to them, they go to the backyard, and I live in the suburbs like you do. So I have a backyard, but I don't have like a backyard. And so they're throwing them, and maybe if you've had children, you know exactly where this is going, they're throwing it and throwing it and throwing it and loops and loops and loops, and eventually one of them lands on the roof. And so they come inside. Hey daddy, one of our planes is on the roof, and I go outside, and maybe I could be a responsible parent like you are, and go in my garage and get a ladder, open that ladder, walk up it myself, get the plane off the roof. Rather, what I did, I just picked up my nine-year-old son and put him on the roof. Which for a nine-year-old boy, no big deal. This is the greatest adventure of my life. It wasn't the issue, it wasn't getting on the roof. The issue was getting off the roof. So he's beginning to kind of come down and he starts to dangle his feet and then dangle his legs, and as he feels gravity kind of pushing him forward, he gets real insecure. And he's grabbing shingles and whatever he can kind of get a hold of. No, Daddy, no, no, no, right? I can touch his ankles. It's not like we're not this isn't 40 feet in the air. And so, can you just imagine the scenario where I say to him, hey son, do you believe that I'm strong enough to hold you? Yes, Daddy, I believe that you're strong enough to hold me. Okay, then let go of the roof. No. Let's try this again. Do you believe that I'm strong enough to hold you, son? Yes, Daddy, I believe that you're strong enough to hold me. Then let go of the roof. What is the proof, the evidence of his belief? Letting go of the roof. It's this all in, whole self, life-transforming belief. I believe that you're strong enough to hold me, therefore I will let go of previous securities to bet my life on the fact that you're exactly who you say you're gonna be. And that's the belief the Bible's describing. That's the belief that we're being invited into here. All in, whole self, life-transforming belief. Now the question is, believe in who? Look back at the scriptures with me. But these are written, so that you may believe that Jesus. The Bible's invitation to believe is to believe in someone specific. The Christianity is not just generic spirituality and a generic God. No, Christianity centers on a person. Christianity centers on the person of Jesus, and it's only because of and through belief in Jesus that we're reconciled to God at all. We are here today proclaiming the glory of Jesus. That's what we're after here. There is salvation in no other name. This is our great hope, and this is what John is inviting us into here to believe in someone specific, to believe in Jesus, but to believe what about him? Again in verse 31. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He wants us to believe two specific things about Jesus. I've written these words. The whole gospel is compiled for this reason. So that you would believe that Jesus, specifically Jesus, is the Christ, the Son of God. Well, why those two things? Why not Jesus as the shepherd? Why not Jesus as the miracle worker? Why not Jesus as the one who walks on water? Why not Jesus as the one who multiplies bread? But Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, I think. John invites us to believe these things about Jesus because it links him to promise and it links him to power. Christ links Jesus to promise. He is the promised one from the Father because you see what happened in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Sinned enters the world, it enters into them, it enters into the creation and breaks everything. And that brokenness is not just an out there brokenness. Look at me, it's an in here brokenness. It affects you and I in every part of our life. But God in his kindness made a promise in the garden. There's going to be one sent who will one day crush the head of the serpent. He will reverse the curse. He will be the promised one. And then Abram showed up, and there was a promise made to Abram. Hey, through your line, the nations are going to be blessed. And then Moses shows up, takes the Israelites to the wilderness, and he says, There's going to be a prophet that's going to be like Moses. He won't be Moses, he'll be better than Moses, and they long for the one to come. And then David sat on the throne and there was a promise made. There's going to be one that sits on your throne, that sits on the throne of David forever, and they long for this one to come, and then Jesus shows up. The promised one. He's here, Emmanuel, God with us. The Christ has arrived. He's the promised one, the one who's come to reverse the curse is him. And so John here says, I want you to believe that Jesus is the Christ. He really is the one promised to deal with your sin. And he's actually powerful enough to do something about it because he's the Son of God. I want you to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. He's not just a man, he's the God man, powerful enough as the promised one to deal with your sin. Eric Raymond, a pastor in the Boston area, says it like this there is no way any mere human could bear and fully satisfy God's wrath. By nature, this wrath is infinite in quality. In order to bear the weight of wrath, it is essential that the Savior be divine. But also in order to satisfy this wrath, he had to offer a sacrifice of such value that God would be pleased to accept it. Only Christ could bring a sacrifice of infinite and eternal value to God that he would propitiate heaven's wrath. And Jesus shows up as the promised one to deal with our sin, as the one powerful enough to bear the wrath of God in full for our sin, so that people who rightly deserved wrath could by grace go free. And this is this great gospel. This is why we're able to sing, this really is amazing grace. How could it be that God would be so kind as to send his own son to come and live the life that you should have lived, die the death that you should have died, and rise from the dead so that rebels could become sons and daughters? It's a message worth proclaiming, it's a message worth believing. And so, if you're not a follower of Jesus today, I would just invite you to believe. All in, whole self, life-transforming belief. That Jesus really is who he says he is. Jesus really is the Christ, the one promised, he's the Son of God, the one powerful enough to deal with your sin. Come and believe. But what if we do? What if we already do? What's the result of that? John will go on in verse 31. But these are written so that you may believe all in, whole self, life-transforming belief, that Jesus is the Christ, the one promised, the Son of God, the one powerful enough to deal with our sin. And here's the result, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. That the result of this belief, John says, is to find life, to have life. But again, the question that we have to answer is well, what kind of life are we talking about? What kind of life is the Bible describing here? I'm not the Greek guy, I'm not that smart. But the Bible uses two different words for life: bias and zoe. Bios, you know well. You took it in ninth grade. It's called biology. And it's just mere existence. Everybody gets to live in bias. Your heart beats, your lungs breathe, your brain functions, you're living in bias. It's mere existence, but Zoe is something altogether different. Zoe is this qualitative, quantitative, full, abundant life like Jesus describes in John 10:10. This life that my mentor says is life stained by eternity. This is the life that Jesus is inviting us into. This is what John is inviting us to believe and as a result find. This life, like we see in Acts chapter 16. We're on the heels of Paul and Silas seeing Lydia, the cellar of purple, converted. They're on their way to catch it, a prayer meeting. So they're living on mission, sharing the gospel. Lydia gets saved, seller of purple, wealthy. The church in Philippi is soon to meet in her house. And they're like, hey, we should go to another prayer meeting. They're doing good godly things, being followed by a demon-possessed girl and the crew of men that have her and make money off of her. And the demon-possessed girl is heckling them. Oh, look, it's Paul, a servant of the Most High God. Look, it's Paul, a servant of the Most High God. Look, it's Paul, a servant of the Most High God. And the text says Paul gets annoyed, turns around, casts the demon out. And the crew of men that own her are furious. We were making money off of her. And you just set her free from what we wanted her in bondage to, so that we could make money off of her bondage. So what do they do? Have a sharp argument? No, they beat them with rods and throw them in prison. They were on their way to a prayer meeting. They had just seen somebody converted that they shared the gospel with. They were doing God's work. What would you do? I'll tell you what I would do. Just to let you into the depravity of Cade's own heart. After I get beat with rods and thrown in prison, what I'm sitting in the jail cell doing that night is this. God, this isn't fair. I was doing what you wanted me to do. I was going to a prayer meeting for goodness' sakes. What did Paul and Silas do? Acts 16, verse 25. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. How do you do that? You don't do that because you're in bias. You do that because you've tasted and seen Zoe. Real life. Full, qualitative, quantitative life stained by eternity. It's like my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. They live in Missouri. They had two little boys as of two weeks ago. And they thought they were done. Hey, look, we've got two kids. The arrows in our quiver. It feels like enough. We're playing man-to-man. That feels like all we can do to stay alive. And then they get a phone call. And there's a family that's connected to a family friend of theirs. And there's three kids out of the foster care system that need a place to stay, and they need a place to stay right now. And so they hear them. And my sister-in-law says, We'll pray about it. My brother-in-law says, I don't think we need to pray about it. I think we know what the answer is. And they say yes. And go from two kids to five kids in 48 hours. I don't know how your family grew. My sense is that's not how it worked. So now they have five kids that are like six and under. You know what those groans are? Those are parents. They're just like, oh god, I was just. And they're in it. Every day, adjusting their life. Bunk beds here, bunk beds there, rooms here. How do we figure out bath time? This problem's going on, this behavior issues, and they're sitting down, dog tired, wrung out, and look at me, they're alive. Because that's what Zoe looks like. Stepping into the work of God, knowing that it's the will of God, and saying, I don't have what it takes here. But you've got a source of life for me in a well that will never run dry. This is the kind of life that's available to us, this Zoe, qualitative, quantitative, life stained by eternity. Then where is this life? John finishes by saying, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So make no mistake about it, family. There is an exclusive source for the life that your soul requires. You cannot find it anywhere else. You will try, you will search the world and come up wanting, apart from turning to Jesus, who has the life that you really long for. It's in his name. So, what does this mean for you and I? Three things. As I said to you earlier, if you're not yet a follower of Jesus, you're invited to believe today. To believe in Jesus, all in whole self, life transforming belief that Jesus really is the Christ, the one promised, the Son of God, the one powerful enough to deal with your sin, and that through that belief, your soul gets the life it's actually looking for. You're invited to that today. And maybe just as questions for you to reflect on as you mull that over in your mind is how will you deal with your sin? You can't be moral enough. There's not enough money that you can give, not enough church you can show up to, not enough Bible that you can read, not enough cussing that you can stop doing. You need Jesus to come and make you new. And what's more than that, where will you find the life that your soul requires? Here's the second thing. What does this mean for us? Because if you're a follower of Jesus, don't settle for lesser sources of life when the real thing is available to you. Don't settle for lesser sources of life when the real thing is available to you. Don't settle for the lesser source of life of your financial status. You can't put enough money in your 401k. You can't shove enough in your Roth. You can't invest enough in the stock market. It won't be enough. Only Jesus can do that. Don't search for life and try to find this satisfaction in your political affiliation. Whatever side of the aisle you fall on, I don't really care at this point in the matter. What I do know is whether you're blue, red, orange, yellow, or whatever color you have allegiance to, you're getting a new candidate about four to eight years. And it's a poor source of the life that your soul requires. Only Jesus can satisfy that. Don't settle for finding life in your kids' athletic success or your kids' academic success. Look, I'm here for sports like the rest of them. But pushing your kid athletically in baseball or volleyball or dance or whatever thing you do, or pushing your kids academically to get a 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, or whatever crazy scale they have to live on now is going to put a weight on your kids that will crush them. Because they were never intended to be the source of life your soul requires. Don't find your source of life and your job status or your job achievement. Maybe you love climbing the ladder, you're good at your job, people praise you, and so you stay there. And you'll sacrifice your family on their altar of your career. And it seems like you're doing a good thing. You're providing for your family. But even when you're home, you're physically present, but mentally somewhere else, on your email, on your computer, trying to get something else done. Achieve, achieve, achieve, achieve, because that's become your source of life. But my friend, only Jesus can satisfy that. Or maybe you find it in a substance or an experience of pleasure or social media attention, but look at me, if you're a student or a mom or a dad or whatever, there aren't enough likes on the planet to satisfy the longing in your soul. Only Jesus can do that. So don't settle for lesser sources of life when the real thing is available to you. Third, finally, what does this mean for us? This belief in real life that's found in Jesus and Jesus alone is what we are inviting others into. It's what we are inviting others into. Your unbelieving non-Christian neighbors, your unbelieving non-Christian coworkers or family members or classmates or people that you rub shoulders with week in and week out. You're not inviting them to just behave better. You're not inviting them to simply belong to an organization, give some money, sing the songs, walk out the door, don't be any different. No, you're inviting them to the kind of life their soul has been searching for their entire life. Which is a far more evangelistic tool. Come and drink from the well that will never run dry. Come and eat from the bread that will always satisfy. Come and find the life you were longing for. This is what you're inviting other people into to believe all in, wholesale, life-transforming belief in Jesus, in Jesus alone, that He's the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you actually find the life your soul requires. This is what we're inviting people into. This is what you're invited into. Christian, this is what's available to you. Real life is available to you through belief in Jesus and Jesus alone. Why don't you bow your heads and close your eyes? Just as a moment of reflection, there are gonna be some questions that come up on the screen. And it's just a means by which you can process what's been said today, process the scriptures that have been read. And just asking the Lord, what do you have for me? You say along with a boy Samuel, speak, Lord, your servant is listening. So I'm gonna give you a few moments just to process these things with the questions on the screen, then I'll come up and pray for us. You take some moments. Father, we bless you. All glory and honor and wisdom and power belong to you. We're thankful, Father, that you have sent your son Jesus to live, die, and rise and to offer us the way of life. Help us to embrace it and live in light of it. Now we ask in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Amen. Thank you for listening to this message. Be sure to give us a five star rating in review and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you'd like to go deeper with our sermon content, you can hear more on our Circling Back with Neil McClendon Podcast at Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.