David Macdonald - October 12th, 2025

that you're mistaken. Do you have the presentation I emailed yesterday? All right don't turn into your bibles to do it around me 17. Yeah okay this thank you Lord for bringing us here today we thank you for the Lord Jesus our Savior we would ask Lord that you would help us as we look into your word and that we would learn of you and be encouraged as we study the words of Scripture and we learn more about the Lord Jesus Christ we thank you for Him thank you that He died for us we thank you that He loves us and that He ever lives for us I pray Lord that you would help us Lord to look to Him pray for any who may be here this morning who don't know the Lord Jesus as their Savior and today would be their opportunity that they would come to know Him and they would trust Him I pray that your Holy Spirit would convict and would draw sinners to the Savior and I pray Lord that the Holy Spirit would also encourage us as believers and strengthen our hearts through the power of your word we ask in Jesus name amen and I'm gonna ask if you can turn me down a little bit there because I'm like bouncing into my there we go that's better for me I don't know about you well happy Thanksgiving everyone happy Thanksgiving Paul the only one that answered happy Thanksgiving everyone thank you now I feel better we are glad to have you here today so I'm gonna start off with the question and well I'm gonna I'm gonna just kind of start off talking about what I'm thinking of I find that the world is in in a bit of a mess these days I don't know if anybody else has noticed but it seems to be kind of headed that way it's a very messy place it's hard to know what to actually believe you know you you look on TikTok you look on Instagram and if you're older and you decide you're gonna go to CNN or CBC or CTV or global or Fox News or any of those old things that some people watch that have become less and less relevant because nobody knows whether or not to believe what they say they tend to be more opinions than facts and so how do we how do we figure this stuff out what do we do like where we get our answers I mean the world is not right now there's wars there's violence there's promises a piece that are like just hanging by a spider's web there's shortages of food there's shortages of housing there's crazy prices there's insanely in bizarre weather going on so what what do we do as Christians what where do we get our answers in these things so I'm going to ask the men this is this is a really cruel thing for me to do every two weeks I send out an email keep your devices to yourself right now just keep it down don't open it up don't open up your email your Gmail so every two weeks I send out an email reminding you of the men's study on Saturday morning can anybody tell me the verse that I put at the bottom of that good you don't read them excellent at the bottom of that it says from Romans chapter 15 verse 4 it says for whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction that through the endurance that are the through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope that's Romans 15 verse 4 for whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope we live in a world that is offering very little hope but the scriptures offer great hope they offer us great hope and I would encourage everybody to to be into the scriptures I found just with all the things that have been going on this past number of months I want to go in and read the gospel so I've read through the gospel some of them I've read more than once sometimes I've listened to them when I'm walking but there's nothing like having the book open in front of me I think Stephen made a good case for that last week you drop it you don't break the screen on it doesn't pop up and add that you you don't get these distractions and not only that but you get to get it highlighter up and a pen and you can write in it so and make notes for yourself so going through the gospels I started to notice words that I repeat it that there seems to be almost a thematic repetition of a word a single word as I read through Matthew I see the word fulfilled quite often the word fulfilled you go through mark I couldn't help but be struck by every time Jesus did something it says and immediately whenever he did something immediately somebody was healed immediately the ship or the boat was on the shore and immediately this happened and immediately that happened probably because of the way this is written mark was what probably the first gospel to be written it was probably Peter's account as mark had recorded it for him or had written it for him Luke speaks of the Son of Man the Son of Man the Son of Man and then when you get to John it's believe the word believe so when I started to I started to notice this trend and so then I thought wrong to read through the gospels again and I'm gonna get my highlighter out and I'm gonna find that word every time I come across it I'm gonna stop and I take my highlighter highlight it and and read that through again and just think about what does this actually mean so I've gone through John now a couple of times and I found that the word believe is found 98 or 97 times in the gospel of John the word belief it's a keyword in the gospel of John and I want to look at that a little further today the first the first thing I want to do is look at a key verse in the gospel of John usually if you're you're going to do an overview of John you'd start at the first so I'm going to start at the end in John chapter 20 verses 30 and 31 we read these words 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 Christ is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name so John doesn't lay out the purpose of the book at the start he lays out the purpose of the book at the end so I look at it think why we do that because he wants you to go back read it again I think so you just go back and you read it now you go back and you say okay now this is the key idea this is why this book is written now I'm going to look at it through that lens so if you go through the gospel of John and you read it through the lens of it's written that I may believe you will find the word believe believed not believed jumping off the page at you every time you read through every chapter there's something that speaks about believing so the first thing it says that that he did according to this verse now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples so let's look perhaps at what Jesus did in John chapter 20 verse 30 now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book so his disciples were witnesses to the signs that Jesus did Jesus life was very active three and a half years of ministry he was roughly 29 30 years old when he started his act of ministry he did years of travel these three and a half years he traveled he did signs he did miracles he did teachings he did debates with religious leaders he had one one meetings with people he was very active very very busy and the disciples were all around in witness this activity it says this in this verse he did many other signs in the presence of his disciples there were the witnesses to these things that's why we have them recorded they wrote them down his disciples what's a disciple well there were students they were learners they were followers now various points in scripture you read that he had 12 disciples and that is correct he had 12 disciples that are named in the scriptures but if you read in Luke chapter 10 there were 70 disciples or 72 depending on what that was read this morning they were sent out and then in Acts chapter 1 that's great day of Pentecost in the upper room they're all called disciples 120 of them so the disciple is those who were who were learners and they were followers of Christ but mainly what this would be referring to is the 12 the 12 Peter James John Bartholomew Thomas Judas and Judas and all these guys now it's interesting when Jesus picked his disciples he didn't go and say okay and see sometimes we hear people say that I heard of the other day that if this guy who invented and sells an awful lot of electric cars if he's become a Christian well that would be amazing what a person that would be for Jesus Christ really well it'd be great if he could save yes of course it would be or if this other celebrity really could save like wow wouldn't that have it turn the world upside down like and people ask all the time Bob Dylan do you think you and and and so on and so on but you know what Jesus didn't go and pick celebrities did he did he to be his disciples he didn't pick millionaires or billionaires he just didn't pick those he didn't pick scholars he didn't go to the to the you of Jerusalem and and say I'm going to get your brightest scholar I need Jordan Peterson and I'm just throwing these names out to just these are people that we all look to as scholars as as as impressive people he didn't go and find the most talented people in fact when Jesus was walking with his disciples if you followed behind him you'd probably say what's that smell it's fish these guys they were fishing all day they were around nets they're around fish all day long they were gunning fish they were covered in fish blood and guts and these are the guys that Jesus picked to be his disciples his closest followers those who would write the scriptures he didn't pick those who impress the world they were laborers and they were the ones that followed him and they were the witnesses to the signs that he did now and it says signs that that word actually just means distinguishing marks okay so if I have an X on my that I draw on with a marker somebody say oh what's that sign you have on your head that's a distinguishing mark I don't see too many people with that but the thing is these signs were distinguishing Jesus in one way they set him apart from all their other human beings it showed that Jesus Christ was more than just a man but as he walked and as he did these things they pointed to one thing that he was the one that was sent from God and he embodied God himself in his own personal body only Jesus could do the sign of raising someone from the dead only Jesus could walk on water only Jesus could turn water into wine those are distinguishing marks those are distinguishing signs that he did and that's what the disciples saw the same writer John in his epistle 1 John chapter 1 he writes this that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with her eyes which we looked upon which we touched with our hands concerning the word of life the life which was made manifest we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and which was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaimed to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ so John in his first epistle really lays it out we have witnessed him doing these things I've seen this with my own eyes I've touched the man with my own hands I've heard his words with my own ears you're going to trust somebody like this this is why I say go to the scriptures don't go to the to the to this tiktok tiktok tiktok see what the truth is you will not find it there it's Jesus Christ and these are the men who witnessed what he did so they heard they saw they touched see John's gospel is a selective account it says that Jesus did many miracles which are not written in this book or many signs that were not written in this book so it's very different from Matthew Mark and and and Luke the things that they heard were things like the Sermon on the Mount the all of it discourse the upper room discourse they were there for all of these things and then think of the things that the disciples saw that were recorded they saw withered limbs made whole they saw they saw deaf ears opened they saw blind see again for the first time or see again because they lost their vision they saw Jesus walk on the water they saw him raise the dead they saw water turned into wine and greatest of all they saw Jesus Christ himself raise himself from the dead there's no greater thing than that these are all miracles these signs are miracles miracles are not natural phenomenon I've heard people say well you have to kind of look at the natural and see how how you know God may have used and brought them to the Red Sea at just the right time when it was at it's lowest no no no no miracles are not natural phenomenon that's degrading miracles when you do that when you try to attribute them to natural phenomenon opening the eyes of somebody born blind is not a natural phenomenon that is a miracle people say well every baby every birth is a miracle well every birth is nice every baby that's more healthy that's great we've had tons of them in our family we're thankful every sunset's a miracle no they actually aren't there it's a natural phenomenon it's the way things work naturally in life a miracle is when natural law is suspended or overridden by supernatural forces when God does something that man can't do in the Old Testament there's examples of this and I already mentioned it the purging of the Red Sea the children of Israel are up against it Pharaoh's armies closing in there's no hope what can they do Moses you brought us out here to die what are we gonna do and he stands I don't know I just did what I was supposed to do give me a break then God comes in you want to see me work I'll open up those waters and you can go through and then you want to see me work again I'll close those waters and your enemy is drowned in Joshua the Sun stood the Sun stood still for a day that's a miracle there's days that I wish last forever but they don't natural returns Sun move everything's moved 24 hours half its daily half the start Jesus did a lot of miracles 34 documented miracles pointing to who we really was and recorded in the gospels Jesus it says did many signs so I don't know what I'm doing with my slides I must be like fidgeting with this thing so here's what he didn't do it says that Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book John is very selective in what he puts in here there is I'm looking at I have way more notes and I've jumped to this so we'll keep going here's a John here's what the oh here's what he didn't write John I hear the things that are not written in the book yes so first of all there's no account of the birth of Jesus in the gospel John nowhere in the gospel John does it give the account of the birth of Jesus but in Matthew and in Luke we have very extensive accounts of the birth of Jesus there's no account of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist found in the gospel John there's no account of Jesus temptation in the wilderness there's no parables in the gospel of John I thought that's interesting the others have parables there's no parables here none of the eschatological discourses of Jesus Matthew 24 and Luke 13 speaking of the day of the Lord when the Lord comes when he returns those things are found in the other gospels it's not in the in the in the gospel of John there's no accounts of Jesus casting out demons or healing lepers there's no formal list of the twelve disciples it's found in the other gospels there's no mention of this of his transfiguration there's no formal record of the institution of the Lord's Supper and there's no mention of the agony of the garden of the against 70 these things are not found in the gospel of John John is distinct it is the other gospels are called synoptic gospels I remember somebody brought this up one day at a men's side he said the synoptic gospels mumble-bumble-bumble-bumble I'm thinking I should know what that means but I've never really thought of that and then they said well John's different from all the rest of them and as I kind of went through and studied John looked I thought well is it ever different I'm not sure why they're called synoptic but now I do know because I looked it up when I was a kid my mom used to tell me go look stuff up in the dictionary I said mom if I knew how to spell it why would I look up the dictionary and how am I gonna find it in the dictionary trying pneumonia all right so so here we have this is what's not found in these writings and then we find out what he did right so John recorded Jesus exaltation incarnation and deity the word in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God he was with us from the beginning God incarnate Jesus Christ is God right in the full log of his of his of his writing in John chapter one verses one to five is where you read that he was in the beginning with God all things are made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life and the life is the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness is not overcome it very clearly John is laying out at the very beginning who Jesus Christ is much more so than tracing his earthly genealogy he traces his heavenly beginnings which is no beginning at all he was eternal he's the son of God John mentions the miracle of Kana where he turned the water into wine John speaks of Nicodemus coming to inquire of Jesus we know you must be from God because nobody else could do these things that you do and Jesus looks at him says yeah you must be born again huh and this conversation goes on and on and on and on and as we see later in the gospel we realize Nicodemus did become born again he had this conversation with Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four here's Jesus going out of his way to me the woman who would be considered detestable do a Jew yet he went out of his way to meet with her to have a conversation with her to ask her about her personal life because he cared about her personal life why because he wanted to give her eternal life and this is where he said he was a living water that he provided with water that would never that you would never thirst again she was very thirsty she was thirsty for love she was thirsty for belonging probably rejected by the community she had had many husbands and now was shacked up with somebody else and Jesus by simply asking one sentence said bring your husband I don't have a husband no you're right and he proved where I know everything about you an amazing account that's found in the gospel of John he makes seven IM statements I just put a couple of them down here on the living water on the good Shepherd on the way the truth the life the resurrection the door remember in chapter 11 we read of Jesus coming along and his friend Lazarus died and Lazarus had two sisters and they were just beside themselves their brother that they loved he early died Jesus has had a cool it was as close friend Lazarus was his close friend Lazarus went to his tomb and so Lazarus come out and he did an amazing sign an amazing miracle we also read in chapter 13 of Jesus going in and washing the feet of his disciples again I said these guys were fishermen these guys were laborers they walked along those dusty dirty roads and Jesus comes in and he puts a towel around his waist and he gets down on his knees and he washes the feet of his disciples that's not recorded anywhere else but in the gospel excuse me but in the gospel of John we have the upper room discourse chapters 14 to 16 is very long very deep understanding of who Christ is and what he has done and why he came and then we have in John chapter 17 his high priestly prayer if if you want to get a glimpse into the intimacy between Jesus Christ and his father God read John 17 he's speaking directly to his father John records that nobody else does John contains more of Jesus teaching about the Holy Spirit than all the other gospels in the three and a half years that Jesus walked the earth in his ministry that's 1200 days roughly John focuses on 20 days of that whole ministry that's it just 20 days he doesn't even mention anything from the second year of his life of Jesus ministry I say it's life I mean his ministry that we have recorded so John was very selective in what he what he wrote you ask me why I don't know other than he's portraying Jesus Christ as God he is taking he's taking a different approach the others are recording his life as a man as what he did as a man on this earth John is taken up with the idea of this is God I'm spending time with God on earth he got it Jesus said if you've seen me you've seen the Father John understood that if I want to know what God is like this is him so it's unique it's different so why did John write his gospel why did he write it and why is it different first 31 says this but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and then by believing you may have life in his name so it's not a historical narrative like the Synoptic Gospels John's is more inspirational and application John's gospel gets right into the depths of who Jesus Christ is 879 verses in this gospel it's written that you may believe that I may believe that's the first thing that you may believe it's not written to give you information these verses have one purpose and one purpose only that you may believe 98 times to the gospel of John believe believe believe believe in me secondly or no relative to that is right in the verse it says you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God so believe what believe that he is the Christ I was glad he made was able to clear this up for us that Christ is not his his surname Christ is a title Christ is a title this was this was written after his resurrection it says you really believe that he is the Christ not that he was the Christ that he is the Christ John is saying here clearly Jesus is alive I wrote this after you might think he's dead but he is alive he is the Christ he has that title today he wears that title he is among us he died he rose and therefore he is alive and among us so my question do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God first of all the Christ do you believe he's the Son of God the Christ is Christos is the Greek it means the anoint at one the Messiah the Christ as I said it's not a it's not a last name it's a title michayach is the Hebrew he went by the name Yeshua Shahashwah he was the Son of God it's a title for deity the Christ has mentioned ten times he's a unique son of God he shares the same nature and the same attributes with the Father so the other question is do you believe he's the Son of God in John chapter 1 verse 15 it says that Jesus a one to five rather I'm sorry read that wrong John chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 it says clearly he's the word he is the word that was with God and the word was God the same with God in the beginning if you talk to a Jehovah's with this person they'll take their translation out and says the word was a God no that's not what the translation is it was God the word was God he is God Berkeley wrote these words so often we have this kind of vague wistful longing that the promise that the promises of Jesus should be true but the only way to enter into them is to believe in them and clutch them with the intensity of a drowning man you're fine to the gospel of John many accounts and also in the other three of many people who come face to face with Jesus there'll be at the end of the rope and when it says they believe it's with this kind of faith I believe like a drowning man clutching on to something that will save my life I particularly like the story of the man whose son was dying and he came to Jesus and said you can heal him if you can if you can if you can Jesus says if I can he said do you believe I can he says Lord I believe help my unbelief man I've been there I should have a t-shirt help my unbelief and wear it all the time help my unbelief help me believe Jesus is the Christ Jesus is the Son of God and then secondly by believing you may have life he's not speaking of physical life here but he's talking about a life that is produced from believing life that is produced from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through John we see people who believed and they received life Nathaniel it says in John chapter one he believed chapter two the disciples believed because of this woman's testimony and that I spoke of in chapter four it says that the Samaritans believed the nobleman believed they believed and they received life so what is this life the Bible and the Greek language is kind of interesting because it'll use a word like life and it has three different meanings the word life means three different things when it's in Greek but it's really three different words the English word life we have yeah English is a stupid language because that's that's the one where we have a word that has three different meanings so the great the three different Greek words rather first one is bios now if I say bios B I O S you know what that is don't you biology your physical life the stuff that is racing around inside your body that keeps you alive that's that's your life it's only mentioned 11 times in the Bible and it's always negative and it's what people tend to focus on first John chapter two verse 16 it says that the seed fell or John no sorry in the story of the sea of the soils it says that the the seed fell among the thorns and they were consumed with what the cares of life that's where that word is mentioned the other one is in the first John chapter two verse 16 and I thought I'd put it up there but I will look it up and here we go first John chapter two verse 16 it says do not love the world know the things of the world or anyone if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world the loss of the flesh the loss of the guys and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father but it's from the world so we tend to focus on this whole bios thing the the life that's around us our circumstances our possessions our health all of these things they tend to consume us a lot and we think of that as being life that's only one part of life and again as I said the scripture never mentions it in the positive life the other one is I'll say this wrongs swoosh I think it is P S E U C A G now you wonder why I'm going through Greek stuff I don't know either that's your inner self your thought life your personality so there's a there's a life that you have it's your personality man he's full of life isn't he means he's full of nonsense if they're talking about me but it's it's just you know your personality your psyche here you know your kind of the psychology of a person here's the thing you can have bios and you can have let's go to scall the psyche or something and you can still be dead did you know that you can have biological life you can have psychological life and you can be dead what you need is so a that's the life that's speaking of here Z O E is the Greek word there it's often accompanied by the word eternal or everlasting or abundant that's the life that you want to have that's the life that you need to have that's the life that God wants to give you and that's the life that you get when you believe that's what this verse is about about believing these things you will have life you have so a it's an abundant life life more abundant super abundant life it overflows life to the max that's not biological life that's life that's hope that's a knowledge of of God now dwelling within you who work in you that's knowledge that you will eternally be with the Lord Jesus Christ that you will be in heaven that's what this is written for that you may by believing you may have life in his name you know there's a great danger if you just have the first two and you don't have eternal life you see you will live forever I guess you could say everybody has everlasting life of some kind because everybody will live forever it's just where will you live forever there's those who do not believe and will live forever but will be condemned and separated from God Jesus said in John chapter three I believe it is verse 36 forgive me for not having my page marked John chapter three and verse 36 it says he believes on the Sun has eternal life but he who does not obey the Sun will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him if you look at the words of Jesus which I have up here Jesus to Nicodemus in that long conversation for God so love the world and he gave us only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life so way for God did not send his son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him he who believe this is Jesus words they're in red he who believes in him is not judged but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God it's a strong warning but you can believe today and you can have life it's very simple Jesus said if you believe you'll have life now I'm done here but I remember a time when I wanted to believe and I thought well I know all this to be true I've read it I've heard it a thousand times I know all this to be true isn't that believing no not necessarily knowledge of facts does not save anyone knowledge of facts is not believing you see I can read all I want about that chair right there I can read about how it's put together how the steel is made how the have the plastic is made and how a bunch of people somewhere made this part that part and they brought it all put it together and if you said to me do you believe that a whole person oh yeah I believe yeah I believe the whole person what you believe a whole person as big as you well yeah okay so you know all this right yeah but when do I exercise my belief when I sit in it and I prove this chair will hold me you see here's the thing and I went through all my life thinking I don't know what what why they keep talking to me about believe believe believe I don't know I'm trying to believe and I just like I know all this stuff but what I mean I'm not saved I keep I keep thinking yeah I know all this but what does it mean to actually believe you see the moment when I came to the point when I realized this is actually for me that you may have life by believing Jesus came and died it doesn't matter that he came and died for all of you he died for me and when I when I came to that point when I realized it was for me my sin my shame he came to rescue me and I looked at that fact and I said you know what thank you God for sending your son to die for me to take away my sin I want to be yours I believe I believe that fact to be true that when he died he died for me and you know what immediately I knew I knew I had believed I was trying to put my faith in my faith instead of putting my faith in the Savior so if you're here today and you're and you think I still am having trouble this come and see one of us come and talk to one of us the other thing I tell you if you say well you keep saying to the readers pictures and read the Bible and I mean everybody's got one on their phone but if you want a paper Bible to take home and underline and write in I'll give you one we have lots if everybody who wants a Bible today ask me for one just ask me for a Bible take it home and go home and read the gospel of John and do business with God I'd encourage you today to do that let's pray what we thank you for this wonderful account of the scriptures that John has written we thank you that the things that are written in this book were written so that we may have life where your son promises that believing we will have abundant life and Lord those of us who have trusted Christ we know that is true Lord I pray for anybody who is here this morning who does not know if they've come to know the Savior they don't know how to believe and they need it explained Lord if there's anybody here and that's where you are Lord we would ask that they would come forth and speak to one of us that we may be able to have a conversation with them and point them to the Lord Jesus Christ that they will come on their own to him Lord I pray for anybody here who needs a Bible they would come and ask there's no shame in that at all in fact it will be great joy in reading the words of scripture Lord thank you for your word thank you for the hope it gives but thank you most of all for our wonderful Savior the Lord Jesus thank you in his name amen