[01:00:00:00 - 01:00:10:00]
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[01:00:13:03 - 01:00:17:12]
Chris
 That's why we've got to know God's word. And my theology really, truly does matter.

[01:00:19:10 - 01:00:38:21]
Chris
 Why I love to preach God's word and why I try to do it so passionately, because it's not just facts or things that don't really matter to the day-to-day of our lives. They literally matter in everything we do, every environment. We live every relationship that we are in.

[01:00:38:21 - 01:00:41:18]
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[01:00:41:18 - 01:00:44:16]
Brenton
 Welcome back to Further. I am Brenton Grimm.

[01:00:45:20 - 01:00:53:17]
Brenton
 This week we got two guys here. We got Matt Mitchell, who preached in Fort Madison, and Nathan Williams, who preached in Danville. Welcome, guys.

[01:00:53:17 - 01:00:54:22]
Speaker 6
 Good to be here.

[01:00:54:22 - 01:01:04:19]
Brenton
 Yeah. So you guys were tasked with wrapping up the book of John for this series. And this passage is really just the end of the conversation between Peter and Jesus.

[01:01:05:21 - 01:01:08:04]
Brenton
 I want to start out the show just by asking,

[01:01:09:05 - 01:01:12:03]
Brenton
 what stood out to you most as you studied for this week?

[01:01:14:02 - 01:01:26:08]
Speaker 6
 I guess for me it was kind of rethinking again of the deity of Jesus. And that last verse, when I first looked at it, I think a lot of times we look at that and we say, oh, yeah,

[01:01:27:14 - 01:02:12:11]
Speaker 6
 if everything Jesus did was written down, the world could not contain it. And as I'm thinking about that, it's like, yeah, really? And then the more I just kept thinking and thinking and thinking about that, it just made me wonder at the wondrous majesty of Jesus and who He really is as the creator. And it's like, no, He is just-- and it just-- my mind just kept going there for that. And then it's like, all right, He is beyond our imagination. We couldn't even begin to write the books about how amazing and wonderful He is. And that just kind of consumed me as I'm going through this passage. And kind of everything then revolved around that for me. Right.

[01:02:12:11 - 01:02:15:22]
Speaker 7
 Yes, similarly, I kept seeing this--

[01:02:18:00 - 01:02:31:02]
Speaker 7
 not tension, but correlation between the last verse that Nathan just described. If we were to write everything that Jesus did, the world couldn't contain the books. But then the verse right before that,

[01:02:32:06 - 01:03:03:15]
Speaker 7
 it says that this is the disciple who's bearing witness about these things. He's written them down so that we might know they're true. And it's like, so much more could have been written. There's like that wonder and that amazement. And like, oh, my goodness, this is God in the flesh. But then there's-- but we have what we need written down by John in these 21 chapters. It's sufficient. We didn't need all the books in the whole world. We needed what He wrote.

[01:03:04:15 - 01:03:22:02]
Speaker 7
 And any new or mature believer can pick up the Gospel of John and read it and be amazed. And like, here is our God, even though we don't know all these other things, which is just remarkable. There's this correlation and this back and forth between what we have and what's unknown.

[01:03:22:02 - 01:03:42:05]
Speaker 6
 Kind of referring back to the last couple verses of chapter 20. Exactly, after Thomas. Yeah, which is saying, hey, these things-- there's other things He did in the presence of His disciple. But these are the things that are really important. I'm writing these things. This is everything you need to know about Jesus. And the reason I'm writing it is that you will believe.

[01:03:42:05 - 01:03:48:11]
Speaker 7
 Absolutely. Yeah, those were ringing true. Chapter 20 and chapter 21 had that theme.

[01:03:48:11 - 01:04:07:14]
Brenton
 Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, you bring up that John is sufficient. But we do also have three other books that are the story of His life. So there are-- we have this kind of treasure trove of information that share different stories as well. So they're--

[01:04:09:12 - 01:04:20:23]
Brenton
 both of you warned us about worrying about other people more than we are worrying about ourselves, much like the way we see Peter focusing on John in this passage.

[01:04:22:11 - 01:04:44:20]
Brenton
 Matt, you talked about how focusing on others often produces anxiety and unrest, while Nathan, you talked about how focusing on Jesus changes our perspective on everything else. So you came at it a little different way. So it'll be interesting to get your perspective on this. But what are some common ways that this behavior shows up in our lives?

[01:04:47:20 - 01:04:50:15]
Speaker 7
 Yeah, I mean, for me personally, I mean,

[01:04:52:08 - 01:05:37:15]
Speaker 7
 I don't have to think about who I've observed as a pastor that does this. I do this where it's so easy. I was using the illustration at the beginning of baseball and keeping your eye on the ball. And if that's focusing on Jesus, we're so quick to take our eye off the ball and be consumed with what somebody else is doing or what we think they should be doing or why doesn't God have somebody at this spot? They should be more mature. How can they not see that? And I think for me, I've noticed it's out of a place of control or judgment or pride. When I really dig down deep and I get through that, it's not out of genuine love for them. It's like I'm really worried about myself

[01:05:38:16 - 01:06:00:00]
Speaker 7
 and kind of a comparison. So this stuff crops up in all sorts of different ways. But yeah, I shared from real life experience, unrest, anxiety, no peace. That's what takes place when I'm not focused on Jesus, but I'm focused and worried about someone or something else. Let's just turn into a distraction in my life.

[01:06:02:00 - 01:06:39:08]
Speaker 6
 I think just distractions in general are not good. I mean, we need to focus on what's the most important thing. When you're driving, the most important thing is keep your eye on the road, right? Why do you think they've made laws about don't text when you drive? Because if I'm distracted and texting while I'm driving, guess what? I'm going to hit somebody or go off the road. It's a good possibility that-- just distractions in general. And I think what you said about keeping your eye on the ball, I mean, Jesus is the main thing. And so, so easy it is to take a right off that. I mean,

[01:06:40:14 - 01:06:56:05]
Speaker 6
 Peter did. Peter did. And he's looking at John. You know, we do. Or what's somebody going to say about if I do this or don't do that or whatever? And my really question should be is like, what would Jesus have me do?

[01:06:57:06 - 01:07:07:05]
Speaker 6
 I mean, do I want to please the people? Or do I want to please Jesus? You know what I mean? And sometimes when we're trying to please people,

[01:07:08:17 - 01:07:14:21]
Speaker 6
 we're not pleasing Jesus. And sometimes when we are pleasing Jesus, we're going to set some people. Well, what's more important?

[01:07:16:01 - 01:07:26:14]
Speaker 6
 And hopefully, Jesus is the truth. Hopefully, if my goal is on trying to serve Jesus and what he would want me to do,

[01:07:28:04 - 01:08:00:21]
Speaker 6
 whether I'm upsetting people or pleasing people, ultimately, the Holy Spirit is going to do his work in convicting or bringing people to God. And really, my goal is keep focus on him. Now, do I get distracted all the time? All the time, because I'm human. Just to think that I'm any better than Peter, far from it. I wish I could be even a part of Peter, right? But it's our goal. We got to keep back focused on the main thing. And Jesus is the main thing.

[01:08:01:21 - 01:08:02:02]
Speaker 6
 Yeah.

[01:08:04:00 - 01:08:25:10]
Brenton
 OK, so I don't often have you guys speculate on stuff, but sometimes. So if you guys were to speculate, what is Peter's motivation here when he's asking these questions about John? Was this actual concern for a friend? Or what do you think this was?

[01:08:26:11 - 01:08:36:01]
Speaker 7
 That's a great question. And Nathan and I both took this in the same direction. And I think from the commentators I read and just at face value,

[01:08:37:08 - 01:08:39:12]
Speaker 7
 what's taking place here? Why did John include it?

[01:08:42:02 - 01:08:45:21]
Speaker 7
 Excuse me, Peter says about John. He turns. He says, Lord, what about this man?

[01:08:48:14 - 01:09:07:00]
Speaker 7
 And then Jesus sets him back on the right path and says, no, that's not of your concern. You follow me. It's in the bigger context of Peter's got told he's going to be carried places he doesn't want to be carried. When he's in his old age, his arms are going to be stretched out. Pastor Chris did a great job of explaining that he's going to be crucified eventually.

[01:09:09:05 - 01:09:24:09]
Speaker 7
 And so he's received, excuse me, his assignment from Jesus. And then the very next thing it says Peter turned. And he sees John following them. And he gets distracted off of his assignment.

[01:09:25:12 - 01:09:35:15]
Speaker 7
 And what about this guy? What's his plan? And I think it's out of this suspicious, maybe

[01:09:37:17 - 01:09:45:13]
Speaker 7
 busy body, like what about John rather than a genuine concern for his brother? What's his fate going to be, Jesus? Let me pray for John.

[01:09:46:20 - 01:09:55:19]
Speaker 7
 So that's the way I interpreted it, is a sinful distraction or a distraction that can become sinful. Maybe that's a better way to put it.

[01:09:55:19 - 01:09:56:16]
Brenton
 OK,

[01:09:57:19 - 01:10:18:12]
Brenton
 so given that this is something that could be viewed as altruistic or whatever, like him caring about his brother, but is actually presenting his sin, right? How can we today, as we care for others, how can we be careful not to fall into that same trap?

[01:10:21:08 - 01:10:24:09]
Speaker 6
 So I think from the passage here,

[01:10:25:09 - 01:10:33:04]
Speaker 6
 because of the way Jesus answered him, we could see that it wasn't for genuine concern for John, but rather than a distraction.

[01:10:33:04 - 01:10:33:16]
Speaker 7
 Yeah.

[01:10:33:16 - 01:10:37:00]
Speaker 6
 Because of the way Jesus answered him and says, hey, Peter,

[01:10:38:04 - 01:10:53:15]
Speaker 6
 don't worry about it. It's none of your business. Your goal is to follow me. So that should be-- in my mind, I'm thinking, OK, that should be my motivation, following Jesus, right? Now, in everything I do--

[01:10:54:16 - 01:10:57:18]
Speaker 6
 and should I help people? Should I feel sympathy for people?

[01:10:59:17 - 01:11:59:04]
Speaker 6
 That's part of following him, right? Yes. So in doing-- absolutely. So in doing that, is that because I'm following Jesus and I'm doing that because I want to draw people into a closer relationship with him. I talked about us being ambassadors. So being an ambassador for Christ, as being Christ's representative, and as I put my arm around somebody who is grieving, as I feed the poor, should I be doing that? Because I am representing Jesus in this, and I'm following Jesus in this. Or am I doing it from a different perspective? I mean, there's so many-- I'm going to say, pretty good NGOs out there that are doing really great things. There's some really nice people, you know what I mean, that are doing great things and feeding poor and stuff. But they're not believers. And so then you get asked, well, what is the motivation for them doing it? And not saying that that's a bad thing, I'm glad they're doing it.

[01:12:00:05 - 01:12:30:12]
Speaker 6
 But for us as believers, we've got to keep the main thing. The main thing is that is I've got to follow Jesus. So everything I'm doing should go through that filter. Why am I doing what I'm doing? It's because Jesus has told me to. He's told me to feed the hungry, have compassion for those who are mistreated. And why should I do that? Because they should look at me and see me as an ambassador for Jesus Christ, and it's like, I can show them Jesus through that.

[01:12:30:12 - 01:12:34:12]
Speaker 7
 Yeah, I think in the instance of Peter and John,

[01:12:37:23 - 01:12:55:10]
Speaker 7
 we very often fall into the sinful distraction that tends to lead itself more towards some pride and some suspicion, us being judgmental of, hey, what about this person over here?

[01:12:57:17 - 01:12:59:02]
Speaker 7
 If we're walking by the Spirit,

[01:13:01:19 - 01:13:07:02]
Speaker 7
 Galatians 6 talks about bearing one another's burdens and so fulfilling the law of Christ.

[01:13:08:04 - 01:13:18:07]
Speaker 7
 And that's not prideful, suspicion, judgmental. That's out of a love for God and a love for my neighbor. My heart's going out with compassion and genuine love.

[01:13:19:21 - 01:13:25:00]
Speaker 7
 And there's peace and joy that accompany that. But just being stewing and worrying about somebody else,

[01:13:26:05 - 01:13:45:00]
Speaker 7
 that anxiety and that unrest that won't actually fade away if we continue to stew on something or somebody else. But the Lord's favor and his blessing accompanies genuine care out of love and prayerfully engaging in that.

[01:13:45:00 - 01:13:46:06]
Speaker 6
 Well, I think, too,

[01:13:47:16 - 01:13:54:12]
Speaker 6
 Peter is focusing on John, and it's not really about concern for him, but rather about, well, what about him? You told me I'm going to die.

[01:13:56:14 - 01:14:08:13]
Speaker 6
 When we start focusing on other people, it's so easy sometimes to just get bitter, to get jealous, or even to give up. Well, it's like, well, I can never be like Pastor Matt. Come on.

[01:14:09:18 - 01:14:11:18]
Speaker 6
 So I might as well just give up and not do anything.

[01:14:12:22 - 01:14:19:15]
Speaker 6
 And it's so easy. Or it's like, well, they're doing that, so I guess it's not bad.

[01:14:20:17 - 01:14:25:11]
Speaker 6
 So I guess I can do it, too. And every time we do that,

[01:14:26:18 - 01:15:03:06]
Speaker 6
 we're taking our eyes off Jesus. It's like, what does he want me to do? If I'm following him, I should be wanting to do what he wants me to do. Now, our goal should be, if we do want people to follow us, it's like, well, Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. You know what I mean? It's like, hey, come on. This is what we should be-- come with me in this journey, and that's discipling, right? So I wish I could just even be a part of Paul and really say that. But we should be helping people to come alongside us and say, hey, follow me. But not because I'm perfect. As I follow-- let's do this journey together.

[01:15:04:07 - 01:15:06:16]
Speaker 6
 Again, it's keeping the focus on Jesus.

[01:15:08:03 - 01:15:15:14]
Speaker 6
 And once we take our eyes off Jesus and put it-- because it's so easy. We put people on pedestals.

[01:15:17:00 - 01:15:28:10]
Speaker 6
 And guess what happens? A lot of times, them pedestals fall down, and we're like, oh my goodness. Now our world crashes down around us because I'd put all my faith and hope in following that person.

[01:15:29:23 - 01:15:46:22]
Speaker 6
 And they've led me astray. Now where am I? You know what I mean? So we've got to be careful who we're looking at, whether they're putting on a pedestal and following them to the max, or even looking at someone who's really bad and saying, hey, well, if they're doing that-- I guess it's not too bad.

[01:15:48:23 - 01:16:00:06]
Speaker 6
 No matter who I'm looking at, it's distracting me from Jesus. And I need to keep going back and back and back and back and say, no, I've got to follow Jesus. He is the example.

[01:16:02:08 - 01:16:02:13]
Brenton
 Yeah.

[01:16:04:00 - 01:16:15:12]
Brenton
 Well, I guess, kind of sticking on that topic a little bit, Nathan, you spent a significant portion of your sermon reflecting on Jesus as the creator and sustainer of all things.

[01:16:17:10 - 01:16:33:00]
Brenton
 Why do you think that Christians are quick to affirm Jesus, His deity theologically, while practically not really acknowledging the full implications of that?

[01:16:33:00 - 01:16:52:15]
Speaker 6
 I don't think it's necessarily a conscious decision to do that, to downplay the deity of Jesus. I just think it's in our humanness we tend to forget. And we try to think about things that we can understand.

[01:16:53:17 - 01:17:20:04]
Speaker 6
 And I mean, Jesus is beyond our understanding. We're created in His image. In other words, we've got the attributes of God, but in obviously a broken way. So God is the creator, right? So He's given us a creative nature. We create things, right? Or artistic or whatever. However, the difference is God makes something from nothing.

[01:17:21:09 - 01:17:24:03]
Speaker 6
 And we can only create things from stuff that He's already created.

[01:17:25:05 - 01:17:37:11]
Speaker 6
 Now, we try to understand God in a way that we can understand. Well, we've already got something so we can create-- no, He's beyond our understanding. We can't even begin to understand. How do you make something from nothing?

[01:17:39:01 - 01:17:49:12]
Speaker 6
 And it's when we start to think about Jesus in that aspect that He is beyond our understanding. When we think we've got something figured out,

[01:17:50:22 - 01:17:52:09]
Speaker 6
 we've barely just scratched the surface.

[01:17:53:22 - 01:18:03:00]
Brenton
 So what would you say are the implications of that? Like practically, how should understanding those things affect us day to day?

[01:18:03:00 - 01:18:05:18]
Speaker 6
 So I think it's a constant reminder.

[01:18:07:07 - 01:18:12:22]
Speaker 6
 I mean, I got to wake up every day, and I got to look at nature, and I got to say, wow.

[01:18:14:06 - 01:18:14:10]
Speaker 6
 Really?

[01:18:15:12 - 01:18:46:23]
Speaker 6
 And I've got to be constantly just amazed every day at the magnificence of just everything that God has created. And remember, keep reminding myself that how fantastic-- because I tend to take things for granted. And as I take things for granted, it's like, oh, yeah, blah, blah, blah. And I tend to then just downplay the awesomeness of Jesus as the Creator.

[01:18:48:09 - 01:19:24:12]
Speaker 6
 And then I kind of like, oh, yeah, Jesus. Yeah, He was a great-- yeah, I know He's God. You know what I mean? But in my mind, in the back of my mind, I'm like, yep, He's God. But He's just an amazing person, even though I know back in the back of my mind-- theologically, I know He's God. But yet, I just don't revel in that because I'm not blown away-- because I'm not thinking about how amazing-- and I've got to keep reminding myself of that. But the more I keep reminding myself, the more in awe I am of-- and I should be reminding-- I should be like the Psalmist says,

[01:19:25:22 - 01:19:43:06]
Speaker 6
 this is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad, and just wake up with my eyes open to everything He has done that I can even take a breath in, that I can open my eyes, that I can see, that I can see color, depth. You know what I mean? Just be amazed. Be amazed.

[01:19:43:06 - 01:19:57:19]
Speaker 7
 Absolutely. I'm thinking-- I was thinking of a John Calvin quote. I just pulled it up here to get it exactly. But there's not one little blade of grass. There is no color in this world that is not intended to make men rejoice.

[01:20:00:03 - 01:20:17:14]
Speaker 7
 And when we stop long enough to know God for who He is, that is just so evident. Every step we take and what's happening all around us is He made it. He's holding it together. It brings some glory.

[01:20:19:02 - 01:20:35:13]
Speaker 6
 The one thing that just makes me marvelous-- when I think of Jesus, all things were created to Him. And think of the billions and billions of stars and planets that we can't even begin to even understand. We can't even wrap our mind around it. Yet He knows me.

[01:20:36:15 - 01:20:50:10]
Speaker 6
 He knows me, a little me. And that to me is just like, boom, but yet He does. And knows everything about me. I mean, the facts of this, of knowledge of this, of knowing this,

[01:20:51:11 - 01:20:55:09]
Speaker 6
 and even scratching the surface and even knowing it should just blow our minds.

[01:20:57:21 - 01:21:17:00]
Speaker 6
 But we get lazy and we forget to just give Him the glory and give Him the praise. I need to be rejoicing in the Lord always. And guess what? I'm going to confess. I'm not. I'm not always rejoicing in the Lord because I tend to get inward focused. And I need to remember, keep remembering, always remembering

[01:21:18:12 - 01:21:25:07]
Speaker 6
 of how great and magnificent He is. And it's like, keep reminding myself that. I'm still never, ever even going to understand that.

[01:21:27:03 - 01:21:35:23]
Brenton
 To continue off this a little bit, Matt, you broke your sermon into three W's. They were warning, witness, and wonder. And I want to talk about that last one a little.

[01:21:37:11 - 01:21:43:22]
Brenton
 First, can you just kind of explain what that point meant for anyone who hasn't listened to you?

[01:21:43:22 - 01:21:44:18]
Speaker 7
 Yeah, sure.

[01:21:46:17 - 01:22:17:03]
Speaker 7
 So the warning was in Peter. We were talking about that. The witness is John. I wrote these things that you can believe. And then that last part, verse 25, that we've been expanded upon this whole time, that we're left in wonder as John leaves us with Jesus, that I wrote down, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what I was supposed to write down about Jesus. But if everything were read or written down, the world itself couldn't contain the books would be written. And it is just one of those moments

[01:22:19:05 - 01:22:23:22]
Speaker 7
 that ought to make us stop and have wonder and awe of who our God is.

[01:22:25:15 - 01:22:28:03]
Speaker 7
 What would those other things have been?

[01:22:30:02 - 01:22:37:07]
Speaker 7
 Maybe we'll find out one day in eternity. Maybe that'll be unnecessary because of the glory of God. And it'll be like, we don't need to know.

[01:22:38:15 - 01:22:41:09]
Speaker 7
 He's got other stuff that he's revealing to us at that point.

[01:22:43:04 - 01:23:02:01]
Speaker 7
 But we're kind of left with John's own wonder at the end of the book. He's leaving us at that spot of not-- he isn't tied up with a bow. He leaves us in wonder of-- it's open-ended.

[01:23:03:12 - 01:23:07:16]
Speaker 7
 There's all these other things that Jesus did. And he's that wonderful. He's that great.

[01:23:09:19 - 01:23:12:12]
Speaker 7
 And yeah, that's that wonder. We need to have that.

[01:23:14:11 - 01:23:27:06]
Brenton
 Yeah, I think so often it's maybe tempting for us to know everything. We know all these things about God, and we should, obviously.

[01:23:28:11 - 01:23:34:00]
Brenton
 But maybe it's hard to leave that room for,

[01:23:35:21 - 01:23:55:01]
Brenton
 like you said, wonder, the mystery of God. There's so many things that we don't know. What do you think is-- what is that in us? That we feel like we need to know all of these things, and we can't leave any room for mystery.

[01:23:57:11 - 01:24:02:18]
Speaker 7
 That's a great question. I don't know if I can give an adequate answer, but I would just start in with thinking,

[01:24:03:21 - 01:24:06:21]
Speaker 7
 the more we know,

[01:24:08:16 - 01:25:07:07]
Speaker 7
 I think the more control we think we have. Or I've got a corner on that. Like, I'm the one who's the expert on whatever. And it kind of insulates us in a way that probably is unhealthy at times. But on the flip side, there's certainly all these discipleship moments of someone engaging in church for the first time, or reading, or a pastor turning him on to some resources. Like, hey, I've got questions. There actually is answers for those questions. There's these gaps that it's like, oh my gosh, that's so helpful that I'm provided with these. But then there's these moments where it's like, your best pastor or kind of shepherd type mentor figure in your life ought to be able to say, I don't actually know the answer to that. There's not scripture that I could point to and say, this is exactly how that is, or will be, or whatever their question is.

[01:25:08:12 - 01:25:12:22]
Speaker 7
 But kind of like Nathan was getting at towards the beginning of the podcast of,

[01:25:15:14 - 01:25:22:16]
Speaker 7
 God is God and we are not. And we have to submit to that, but not submit in a way that's,

[01:25:24:06 - 01:25:30:15]
Speaker 7
 God is this tyrant we need to submit to him. God is this good, faithful, amazing, benevolent creator and savior.

[01:25:31:18 - 01:25:47:00]
Speaker 7
 Like, it's a joy to submit to him in the mystery. Like, I can entrust my life to the living God. And I don't have to know these things. And I think that it keeps us longing for him too and dependent upon him in the best of ways. So.

[01:25:47:00 - 01:26:16:03]
Brenton
 Now, just as a quick point here, like I don't want to, I think often, especially in our culture, like we can have this kind of agnostic view toward truth or toward spiritual things. And I am not suggesting that we can't know things, right? Like we should study, we should know what God has revealed to us. But there are gaps in our knowledge and there should be, right? If God is who he is, right? There should be gaps.

[01:26:17:04 - 01:26:41:06]
Speaker 6
 So back to your original question, it is like, should we know and why do we have the desire to know everything? You know what I mean? And yes, we should study to make yourself approved. You know what I mean? We should study. God gave us a brain to be able to be filled. But sometimes in our pursuit of knowledge,

[01:26:42:06 - 01:27:21:14]
Speaker 6
 we become puffed up and proud and goes right back to the Garden of Eden. Well, Eden, don't you want to be like God? Don't you want to know everything? You can know too, right, Eve? Right? And so right through all that, you know what I mean? In our pride, we want to be like God. We want to know everything. We want to understand everything. You know what I mean? I love how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians, chapter one. He says, where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where's the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

[01:27:23:01 - 01:28:09:20]
Speaker 6
 You know what I mean? So in our striving to be wise and to know everything like God, the more we know, if we're really humble in our heart, it should point to how much we don't know because God is just so much greater than us. And then down a few more verses in verse 25, he says the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom. The weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Now, obviously God isn't foolish or weak, you know what I mean? But I think this is Paul's way of sort of saying, even if God was weak, you know what I mean? All your strength couldn't even compare to God's weakness, which would still be so much stronger than him. You know, in other words,

[01:28:11:00 - 01:28:25:20]
Speaker 6
 we strive for all this knowledge, strive to understand everything, and we just fall so pitifully short. We should understand, strive to understand, but do it in a humble way that's saying, God, I want to know you more.

[01:28:26:20 - 01:28:28:05]
Speaker 7
 It reminds me too,

[01:28:29:22 - 01:28:43:01]
Speaker 7
 I think we're getting close to wrapping up, but I'm just thinking of all that we've been talking about, about God's greatness, and he's unsearchable, and he's all powerful, all knowing,

[01:28:44:16 - 01:28:46:06]
Speaker 7
 sustains everything by the power of his word.

[01:28:47:07 - 01:29:03:13]
Speaker 7
 And, but to think of that, and then John's emphasis at the very beginning of his gospel is that this word, capital W, O-R-D, the logos, the way, the truth, and the life, since the beginning of time,

[01:29:05:07 - 01:29:07:20]
Speaker 7
 he became flesh and he dwelt among us.

[01:29:09:01 - 01:29:10:22]
Speaker 7
 And going back to the knowledge thing,

[01:29:13:21 - 01:29:26:07]
Speaker 7
 you know, we think to be great is to have the most knowledge and to be the most powerful, and to achieve these things or this high status, but the gospel shows us that the highest,

[01:29:27:07 - 01:30:03:17]
Speaker 7
 the being with the highest status, Christ Jesus humbled himself to becoming human, you know, and flushing himself. And then beyond that, he goes to a cross and he dies the death that we deserve. And it's all because of sacrificial love and to transform others. And just thinking about that though, it's like the goal of the Bible isn't for us to get through the Bible, it's for the Bible to get through us, you know, and to transform our hearts into these people that look like Christ,

[01:30:05:00 - 01:30:11:01]
Speaker 7
 not as the greatest being in all the universe, who knows all things and is all powerful, but as servants and as those who are loving and serving,

[01:30:12:04 - 01:30:20:15]
Speaker 7
 our fellow brothers and sisters. And just seeing John doing all of that throughout his gospel, beginning to end is just awesome to see.

[01:30:22:07 - 01:30:43:21]
Speaker 6
 Yeah, and why God would even do that, the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But for those who are, you know, in Christ is the power, you know what I mean? And then back to Corinthians, I was quoting from chapter one, but in chapter three, he says, "The wisdom of the world is foolishness in God's sight." You know, unless we're trying to seek God,

[01:30:45:04 - 01:30:51:04]
Speaker 6
 you know what I mean? If we're trying to gain wisdom apart from God, it's nothing but foolishness. Yeah.

[01:30:52:19 - 01:30:53:01]
Brenton
 Yeah.

[01:30:54:04 - 01:30:54:09]
Brenton
 Yep.

[01:30:56:00 - 01:31:03:10]
Brenton
 Okay, let's wrap up with this last one. We've spent almost two years walking through the gospel of John.

[01:31:05:04 - 01:31:07:22]
Brenton
 Both of you have preached a decent amount in this series.

[01:31:10:01 - 01:31:20:19]
Brenton
 And I'm just curious, as you've studied and preached through this book, what have you come to appreciate about Jesus that maybe wasn't as clear to you when we started?

[01:31:23:12 - 01:31:25:10]
Speaker 6
 Well, you know, again, it's just,

[01:31:26:12 - 01:31:29:10]
Speaker 6
 it was a great way to wrap up this book, you know what I mean?

[01:31:30:13 - 01:32:11:05]
Speaker 6
 And in my sermon, I brought it back to chapter one. And I referred to them as bookends, basically. In the first for you, Jesus, the verses John is pointing out that Jesus is the creator. And the last verse he's saying, you know, and all the things that could be written about him could fill the book, the world couldn't even contain the books written about him. So again, I think John's real emphasis, the whole way through is twofold. Number one, it's the deity of Christ. I mean, of all the gospels, that's what he's focused in on. Jesus is God, that number one point. And then two is that,

[01:32:13:03 - 01:32:24:11]
Speaker 6
 but he loved you. Little old you, John 3 16, and his goal was to reconcile us with him. So two things, Jesus is God and he came for you.

[01:32:29:12 - 01:32:40:14]
Speaker 7
 I agree. I think just the theme of the whole series being believe and that being John's purpose,

[01:32:42:12 - 01:32:47:13]
Speaker 7
 just like Nathan said, because he came for us generally,

[01:32:49:19 - 01:32:52:23]
Speaker 7
 but he came for me as an individual.

[01:32:55:07 - 01:32:56:19]
Speaker 7
 These things have been written so that I may believe.

[01:32:57:22 - 01:32:59:15]
Speaker 7
 And just thinking about that,

[01:33:01:04 - 01:33:36:05]
Speaker 7
 we don't just believe one day and then we're saved. It's we keep believing in him and we're saved that whole time, but that's part of that, my W wonder or whatever. That's just another way of saying, I believe in Jesus still. He's still beautiful to me, he's still wonderful. I'm still in awe of him and not every day, we're on cloud nine because we're sinful and we're fallen and we get distracted, but I'm just reminded again as we finish this up, I'm not just a preacher preaching through the gospel of John. I hope other people believe that are coming in here that aren't believers yet.

[01:33:37:19 - 01:34:07:09]
Speaker 7
 I hope that and Pastor Chris, Nathan, myself, the other campus pastors, those who have preached have done a good job. We're always saying to the unbeliever, believe today, but this is a call to the unbeliever, but also to the believer, believe in Jesus. Keep believing. Yeah, focus on Jesus, keep the main thing, the main thing. So as a grace from God, I'm really grateful I got to preach this last sermon in Fort Madison because I think I'm seeing that.

[01:34:08:17 - 01:34:25:10]
Speaker 7
 Nathan mentioned the bookends, but I think even preparing for this podcast today and even talking it through now, that's even coming through for me clearly and I appreciate that. It's a beautiful gospel. We have a beautiful Savior.

[01:34:27:23 - 01:34:34:12]
Brenton
 Yeah, all right. Well, thanks guys. If you have any questions, ask at furtherpodcast.com and we'll talk to you next time.

[01:34:34:12 - 01:34:39:14]
 (Upbeat Music)