Sermon Series: By Way of Reminder

This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “By Way of Reminder” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 27, 1996.

About this sermon

John’s Gospel gets set apart from the Synoptics and Paul here, especially John’s use of double-meaning language operating on two levels at once. That technique is precisely how John distinguishes merely worldly faith from true, other-worldly faith, all while preserving the underlying unity of Scripture.

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Sermon transcript

We begin our scripture reading this evening in John’s Gospel, chapter two, verse twenty-three. This is John chapter two, verse twenty-three. Give your attention to God’s holy word. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in his name, because they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all people. And because he did not need anyone to bear witness concerning people, for he himself knew what was in each person. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Then, turning to John chapter twenty, beginning at verse nineteen.

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be with you.”

As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” And after eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger and see my hands, and reach here your hand and put it into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name.

Pray with me. Our Father. May this day be a refreshment for us, and stand for us as a foundation for our week. Lord, in it. May we delight in the rest that Jesus Christ has procured for us through his sacrifice. And in it, O God, may we perceive the conclusion of all matters related to this world, even as in this day we perceive the last day and all that it brings. Truly, the Lord’s day is that day in which we can see the day of the Lord. Now, Father, as we have asked for your refreshment and have delighted in the grace that you have poured out upon us, may we receive from your word your blessing, even as we give our hearts to it.

We pray this through Christ, who is himself the living Word. This is our sixth message in the series, offered as a reminder. In this series, I have been endeavoring to strengthen you in your appreciation of the orientation of this pulpit. I make no apologies. This is a Protestant pulpit, whose message about the gracious justification by God of unworthy, powerless sinners is grounded in the finality and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ’s saving work. Even as we are blessed by that work, we await his consummate appearance at the end of all things.

Now, while in many ways this pulpit takes its cue from Paul’s powerful presentation of the gospel, it has also been my concern, as a reminder, to demonstrate that the Gospels which we have in our Bibles convey no different message. We have reviewed, in a previous message, Jesus’ own proclamation—the proclamation of the Kingdom—centered on his declaration of the Good News. Particularly, we have considered this proclamation as it appears in the so-called Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These Gospels emphasize Jesus’ declaration that the Kingdom has arrived in him and with him. This focus directs our appreciation and appropriation of the good news of the gospel itself: that the Kingdom has arrived in him and with him, and is already present among us, even as we await its consummate appearance at Christ’s return. This message, though it may sound somewhat different, is actually identical to the one that the Apostle Paul develops from Jesus’ accomplished death, resurrection, and ascension. Therefore, we conclude, in keeping with the consistent message of this pulpit, Paul and Jesus agree. Their gospel is one. But there remains for us yet another gospel among the biblical four—the orphan gospel, the uncommon gospel: John’s gospel. What do we do with John’s gospel, given its uniqueness among the four?

It is not as if I have not spoken about this theme before. Therefore, as a reminder, let us review the matter. Some biblical books present real challenges when it comes to identifying their purpose statements. For example, consider the book of Hebrews. If you have recently read through that book, you may well have in mind what I am referring to. It is not an easy task to isolate the purpose statement in that book.

However, when we come to the Gospel of John, the matter is clear, indeed obvious. John is direct. He is direct with us about this matter, as he is about many others. His purpose statement is found at the end of chapter 20, verses 30 and 31. John writes these words: “Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the 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.”

Now, I have said that John is direct and clear in stating his purpose, but at the same time, this direct and clear statement has created its own confusion and has been obscured by its own complexity. There are those, for instance, who tend to view this statement as clear evidence that John’s gospel is intended for an unbelieving audience, and for that audience exclusively. They believe that John’s gospel is primarily focused on an evangelistic appeal, an appeal by which hearers will come to faith for the first time. According to this interpretation of John and the conclusion of John 20, John’s gospel is, in the end, an extensive gospel tract directed toward the unbelieving world and not toward the Church. The confusion and obscurity are obvious, are they not? For there are others who, in light of multiple considerations throughout the text of this gospel, have sensed that such a reading is too superficial, and that John’s purpose cannot be fully understood by considering its audience as simply and solely the unbelieving world.

In fact, so say these voices. The audience, in the first and primary place, must be the Church. This gospel must be directed to the Church, as its ministry and its life are mapped out in Christ’s own ministry and in His own life. Some obvious examples of this are found in this twentieth chapter, which we have read this evening, as well as in the chapter that follows, chapter twenty-one. Is it not clear that the Church is clearly front and center as the resurrection appearances in this chapter lay out the pattern for the Church’s observance of the new Christian Sabbath, the first day of the week? Jesus meeting with Mary in the morning, and then meeting with the disciples in the evening, sets before us the pattern of Christian observance as it has been in place in the Church from the very beginning. The Church has met in the morning on the first day of the week, and it has also concluded its day with services of worship in the evening.

And is it not clear that the Church is front and center as Jesus explains to His disciples that His action of breathing on them, as indication of the gift of the Holy Spirit, is to the end of the proper administration of Church discipline. Verse 23: “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

And is it not clear that the life and ministry of the Church is in view as the risen Christ in the next chapter, chapter twenty-one, confronts Peter with the threefold exhortation to love and care for His sheep. To be sure, the call to saving faith is directed to a skeptical and even unbelieving population, and that call is heard, yes, even here in the Gospel of John, and may well rise from within this context that is before us, namely the story of Thomas’ unbelief. But even here the message cannot be disengaged from the Church, which takes up the message of the risen Christ as it directs its attention to an unbelieving world.

If then we have established the fact that John 20, 30 and 31 must not be read as a simple evangelistic appeal, in what sense is it to be read as a word concerning the Church? In what sense can John be calling the Church to faith? After all, does the Church not already believe? Is it not already in possession of the very life of which John speaks at the conclusion of this chapter?

To answer these questions, it is important to remember an all-important feature of John’s gospel. I ask you now, by way of reminder, to keep before you this truth. John’s gospel moves at two levels. It consistently keeps before us two realities—the world above and the realm of this creation. According to the Gospel of John, the coming of Jesus Christ means a definitive intersection of those realities.

In other words, while living in this world, we can, by God’s call and grace, arrive in another higher reality simultaneously. While living in this world, we can, by God’s call and grace, be alive to another higher reality and actually be participants in the life of that higher reality. While we await the consummation of this world, while we await the last day, we are told that we are already participants in a higher order.

Jesus makes this clear, does he not, to the confused and resistant Nicodemus, when he tells him that he must be born again. That is, this Nicodemus, this Pharisee, this ruler of the Jews, must be born from above, from that other reality. You see, the problem for Nicodemus, even as a Jew, even as one well schooled in the law, is that he imagines what life there must be generated from this world. Jesus refutes him and contradicts him. He tells him he must be born from above, he must be born from that other reality.

And later in this very context, the third chapter of John, Jesus leads the church in the confession of what this means when He declares that whosoever believes in Him has already eternal life. You are already a participant in eternal life and blessed by its reality. Even while you continue to live here, you are in contact with the eternal order, the eternal world above. Keeping in mind the two worlds, keeping in mind the two levels, it would seem, from what Jesus says in this third chapter, that there is life, and then there is life. There is life in this world, and then there is life, which is something else altogether—life that belongs to a completely different order of existence. And how regularly and consistently this point is made throughout John’s Gospel.

In John chapter 4, a story that you know very well, the story of a woman at the well, Jesus engages this woman in a discussion about water. The woman thinks Jesus is speaking about water, such as would come from the well. In fact, He is speaking about spiritual water from heaven. There is water, and there is water.

You see, there are two orders, and the intention of the Gospel of John is to impress that upon your consciousness. Yes, even you who are in the Church, even you who believe and have made confession, lest you forget it. This is precisely the discipline that comes to you out of this gospel. You, like the woman, want to rush back to the water from the well. Jesus says, I have better water for you, and you must drink of it.

What might we say, then, of John chapter 6? You know the story. It is John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand. But here, Jesus chides the crowd that follows after Him, because He perceives in them that they have a hunger for bread that belongs to this world, bread for their stomachs, while He presents Himself as another sort of bread altogether, a bread belonging to another world.

Again, there is bread, and then there is bread. So it is in the case of faith. Do I need to repeat this point once more? So it is in the case of faith. Do you understand? Do you see it? There is faith, and then there is faith. There is a worldly faith, and there is also an other-worldly faith.

The tension between these two faiths is what creates the opportunity for John’s Gospel and provides the content for John 20, verses 30 and 31. So that we can see that those verses, which sound as if they are addressed to an unbelieving audience, are specifically addressed to a struggling Church. To a struggling Church. You see, as much as John’s Gospel is in fact a challenge to the world’s unbelief, it is specifically a challenge to a Church that is losing its grip on the true faith that flows from that other world. A Church that is in danger of beginning to live out of a false faith that belongs to this world. This tension is not fully explained by a single statement, but also the fact that John, through the course of his Gospel, gives us a number of illustrations in which he contrasts one faith with another.

Let me give you three illustrations. First of all, from the text that we read this evening. John 2, verses 23 through 25. Note what is said. Verse 23 tells us that many believed in Jesus. They had a faith. It says they believed in Him. Verse 24, however, tells us that their faith was not true faith. Because Jesus refused to entrust himself to these so-called believers. But what was wrong with their faith? If it is not true faith, what was wrong with this faith? John tells us in verse 23 that such faith as they had was bound up in seeing the signs performed by Jesus.

It was attached to the external. Do you wonder at the plain style of our worship and of our religion? Do I need to remind you again about the character of a Protestant pulpit and a Protestant worship? Why? Because of the bareness of your surroundings this evening. We dare not tempt you with externals, whether the externals of adornment or the externals of signs and wonders that are so prominent in the Church and its ministry today.

When faith becomes attached to these things, it is an inferior faith, and if left in that state, it becomes a false faith. I plead with you on this matter. I do not have to spell all of this out for you. I do not have to fill in all the blanks. I do not have to make this a diatribe against certain forms of worship or certain forms of Christianity. I leave you to think it through in light of what you are being told in this text.

Here is a faith that is dependent upon externals, upon what you see. We live by faith, not by sight. These live by sight, not by faith. That is the truth of it. True faith then perceives things unseen. True faith perceives an unseen world and rests upon it, because that is the order of faith and of the Spirit. There is faith, and then again, there is faith. Secondly, we have John 12, verses 42 and 43.

Here we are told that many rulers from among the Jews believed in Jesus. That is what the text says. They believed in Jesus. We find that at the beginning of verse 42, but then John goes on to tell us that because of fear, because of these individuals’ love of human approval, they were not confessing Jesus Christ. True faith is bold and confident in the certainties of the heavenly world.

What can they take from us? What are we in danger of losing? Even if they take my life in this world, my life in the world to come is secure because of Jesus Christ. Even if I must stand alone, as it appears, just as Martin Luther stood alone and J. Gresham Machen stood alone, I am not alone. True faith is bold in light of the certainties of that other world. They cannot take from me my life.

False faith calculates costs, measuring what I would lose in terms of my place, my position, and my reputation in this world. It hesitates in its commitment. There is faith, and then there is faith. Finally, we have John chapter 20, verses 8 through 10. John 20, verses 8 through 10. Here we have one of the most challenging passages in all of Scripture. It is deeply puzzling. It is compellingly confusing. It calls for understanding. So, look at it once more.

For faith here is related to the beloved disciple, to John himself, the writer of this gospel. This testimony shows that this man is not without his faults, that this one also is in need of a Savior. Faith is related to John, and specifically to his entrance into the empty tomb, in verse 8. See how the verse concludes. It tells us that he believed, that he had faith. But then we are told in the very next verse, in the most mysterious way, that neither John nor Peter, who was with him, understood what they were seeing. Thus, in verse 10, they both go home. As if nothing had happened. There is a faith that seems to be deeply connected to the details of the gospel and its reality, as was John’s acquaintance, who looked directly at the cross and at the crucifixion, and then went home without understanding and without being moved.

But there is also a faith that, in contemplating the redemptive events of Christ’s death and resurrection, is deeply moved by their profound significance—namely, the gift of life from the heavenly realm to which Jesus has gone, into which he ascends. Just as he tells Mary in the story that follows: “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” This is verse 17 of the twentieth chapter. So then, John writes his gospel. He writes it to warn the Church against a worldly and false faith, a faith weakened by reliance on external things, dependent on sight, dependent on signs and wonders, a faith weakened by fear of people and desire for their approval, a faith weakened by failure to understand the true purpose of God’s saving work in Christ’s death and resurrection.

There is, however, a true faith that recognizes, through Christ’s saving person and work, the reality of participation in the divine realm, which has already been given to those who believe, even while they live in this world. And by their connection with that other realm, the heavenly realm, and with the spiritual realities it contains, they endure in this world until God is pleased to raise them up in their bodies on the last day. Although expressed in different words, this message which we hear from John in his Gospel is precisely the message that we heard from the Apostle Paul, and it is precisely the message that Jesus declared in the synoptic accounts, the accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So then, the Jesus of the four Gospels agrees with the Jesus presented to us in the Apostle Paul. Our Gospel is one. Our Bible is in harmony. This is the commitment of this pulpit.

And I thought it well to remind you of that. Our God, may we step back and wonder before Your person and before Your word. May we gladly acknowledge that the various parts of Your word hang together marvelously. Even though diverse and sounding different in various places, there is a coalescence. How wonderful and beautiful is this harmony. We thank You, our God, that we have this consistent witness, and that we are beckoned to a full appreciation of the consistency of this witness, even through the diversity found in the Scriptures. May we live, Lord, in the unity and the diversity of Your word.

For the good of our souls and for a better understanding of the full breadth and riches that are ours in our Savior. Now, mercifully lead us. Even as we are warned by the Gospel of John: “These things 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.” Blessing us, O God, with a strength born of Your Spirit to live from that world even as we find ourselves in this one.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.