Anchor My Faith

Previous Lesson
Author: Stephen Weller
862 words, 5 minutes read time

Final Comments

Scripture: John 20:30-31; 21:24-25

With the previous lesson we witnessed Jesus ascend into heaven and the disciples returning to Jerusalem as instructed to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them to empower them for their work of ministry. With this lesson we come to the close of our study through the harmonization of the gospels. The adventure will not end but there will be a change in who we travel with. Through the harmonization study our adventure was with Jesus and the disciples. Judas left our adventure during the time Jesus was on trial and in the last lesson Jesus ascended into heaven. We now wait with the disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that we can continue our adventure with the Holy Spirit and the eleven disciples. Along the way we will be joined by others assigned by God as we study the book of Acts.

Jn 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 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.

Jn 21:24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

In verses 30 and 31 we find the statement of purpose John had for the gospel of John and a fitting conclusion to our study. In his statement we find mentioned the three major themes of the gospel: (1) the identity of Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, (2) his selected messianic signs, and (3) the importance of faith in Jesus Christ and the resulting gift of eternal life.

¹ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1 – 2, 14 ESV). The “Word” of verse 14 connects Jesus to the eternal God as himself God who in verse 3 created all things.

When the Word took on flesh it did not cease to be God, ⁶ “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6 – 7 ESV). When the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinitely holy Son of God took on flesh it changed the course of history. Never had anything as amazing as this ever occurred. How an eternal God could enter his creation and through a virgin birth take on a body of sinless flesh is beyond full understanding, but he did and he demonstrated before us what God was like, what the gospel was, and then to die on the cross to purchase our salvation. This Jesus is both fully God and fully Man. He is the Son of Man. In Isaiah 9:6 we find the statement “For to us a child is born (Jesus), to us a son is given (the Word, the Christ).”

In connection with Jesus is the expression “full of grace and truth.” Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, allowing God to provide the gift of salvation: ⁸ “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8 – 9 ESV). Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV). There is absolute truth and the source of that truth is Jesus Christ.

As he does throughout the gospel, John refers to himself indirectly in the third person. The things he has written he knows to be true because he spent more than three years living with Jesus. During that time, he saw so many things that Jesus did and there were many things that he did that John did not see. Using a hyperbole, John says that if all were written the world could not contain all the books.

Conclusion

What a wonderful adventure this has been. The journey began for us on March 22, 2017 and ends on April 23, 2020, three years and one month later. I pray that this has been a good journey for you and that you will stay with us as we continue on with the adventure in the book of Acts.