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Welcome to Day 2142 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 10 – Jesus Heals At A Distance – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 03/27/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – Jesus Heals At A Distance Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. Jesus shows us evidence that his healing is not based on physical contact, but the faith of the person asking must be in accordance with God’s will. Today’s passage continues last week’s message, John 4:43-54, on Page 1653 in the Pew Bible. Follow along as I read. After the two days, he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there. Once more, he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee. Jesus was a “faith healer,” but not what we think of today when you hear about faith healers on TV or ones that make a public spectacle of their healing.  Many of today’s “faith healers” also have a money-making component. In today’s message, we will see that Jesus did not need to be physically present for healing.  I can’t heal anyone, nor am I a “conduit” of God’s healing power. Frankly, the supposed healings performed today by certain notable figures bear little resemblance to the “signs” offered by Jesus and His apostles. However, this is not to say I don’t believe in supernatural healing. I do.  While I don’t have a personal story of instantaneous miraculous healing, let me share a recently-read story.  Pastor and former president of Dallas Theological Seminary, Charles Swindoll, who I respect as a solid Bible teacher, shared this story in one of his books.   “I am aware of and read about examples in which the healing power of God left doctors speechless.  On one occasion, a close friend developed a malignancy on the side of his tongue. By its diagnosis, it had spread to the lymph nodes and through a part of his upper torso. As a father of four with a full life and a promising career ahead, he needed to prepare a will, get his house in order, and begin turning his business over to associates. Several of his friends, including me, were not able to be with him right away, so we agreed to pray

Welcome to Day 2141 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 9 – The Woman Shares The Living Water – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 03/20/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – The Woman Shares The Living Water Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. Jesus presents us with a lesson and an example of building God’s kingdom. Today’s passage continues last week’s message, John 4:27-42, in the Pew Bible on Pages 1652-1653. Follow along as I read. Just then, his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?” Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”  They came out of the town and made their way toward him. Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”  Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”   Let me back up a few verses from last week to set the stage.  If you were here or watched online, remember that Jesus appealed to the woman from Samaria six times, and each time she came back with an excuse.  Jesus could squelch each reason until he got to the core of why he was there.  It was not a coincidence.  In verses 25-26 in the NLT, The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!” Jesus knew he had her now. So he basically said:  “Good! You don’t have to wait any longer. I am the Messiah, and I am here just as promised.” So the woman was now without any excuses.   In verse 26, the phrase “I AM” is particularly emphatic in Greek: egō eimi. This is because it refers to God’s self-identification to Moses: “I AM WHO I AM” (Burning bush-Exodus 3:14). The proof that this woman of questionable moral character life was miraculously changed as indicated by her subsequent actions. As the old saying...

Welcome to Day 2140 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 8 – Water for a Thirsty Woman – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 03/13/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – Water for a Thirsty Woman Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. Today we will learn that Jesus is concerned for and loves those rejected by others.  The passage for today is a rather long one, John 4:1-26, which is located on Pages 1651-1652 in the Pew Bible. Instead of reading it all upfront, I have embedded the scripture in today’s message.   Once John the Baptizer announced Jesus as the Messiah, the Lord wasted no time calling disciples. Within forty-eight hours, five hand-selected students had begun training for the transformation of the world. They had seen Jesus perform miracles (2:1–12), they had experienced His passionate desire for revival (2:13–25), and they had heard Him preach and teach (3:1–36). The time had come for them to glimpse their future as evangelists. Jesus, the Jewish reformer, would become Jesus the missionary and show His students how to reach the world outside of Judaism. Between Galilee to the north and Judea to the south, a lost and forsaken people lived in a spiritual no-man’s-land called Samaria, and they needed to hear the good news. (Bulletin Insert)   Jews traveling between Judea and Galilee usually avoided Samaria, a land they considered defiled by Gentile intermarriage and religious syncretism. Rather than walk on impure soil, they descended the mountains surrounding Jerusalem to the Jordan Plain, journeyed along the eastern shore of the Jordan River, and then turned west into Galilee. Jesus, however, chose a direct route from Jerusalem to Cana, which took Him through the Samaritan town of Sychar.  (Bulletin Insert) —4:1–3— Tracing Jesus’ movements in the Gospel of John is not as helpful as in Luke, which provides more geographical information. However, the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) don’t tell us nearly as much about the Lord’s ministry in Judea. We learn from John that Jesus frequently traveled between Galilee and Judea, and His reasons for moving from one region to the other varied significantly. Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although, in fact, it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.  In this case, He sensed that His ministry in Judea was attracting attention for the wrong reasons. While truth will always stir controversy, Jesus was not interested in squaring off with the Pharisees—at least not yet, not until it served His ultimate purpose (15:22–25). —4:4— Now he had to go through Samaria. The phrase “had to” is translated from a Greek verb meaning “to be necessary.” Anyone unfamiliar with Samaria’s history who might be looking at a map would not see anything peculiar about John’s word choice. Draw a straight line from Jerusalem to Cana (4:46), account for the hilly terrain, and a stopover in Sychar appears perfectly reasonable. However, John’s choice of words would have been provocative to any Jewish reader. Jews despised Samaritans. To the Jews, Samaritans were idolatrous half-breeds—ethnically polluted, religiously...

Welcome to Day 2139 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 7 – The Preacher Who Lost His Congregation – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 03/06/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – The Preacher Who Lost His Congregation Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. Today we see that John the Baptizer fully understood his occupation and mission as a citizen of God’s Kingdom.  Let’s read John 3:22-36. Please follow along on Pages 1650-1651 in the Pew Bible. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 3:22-36 Then Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people. At this time, John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism. (This was before John was thrown into prison.)  A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing.  So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to him instead of coming to us.” John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven.  You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’  It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the bridegroom’s friend is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success.  He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.  “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else.  He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but how few believe what he tells them!  Anyone who accepts his testimony can affirm that God is true.  For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the Spirit without limit.  The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands.  And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”   If you want a lively discussion at your next dinner gathering, ask the following questions: “Except for Jesus Christ, who is the greatest person who ever lived? What made them great?” I guarantee the second question will quickly dominate the conversation, because we all have our own way of measuring greatness, and we rarely agree with the standards of others.   Jesus answered both of these questions for us. As He reviewed history from the dawn of time, He bypassed Abraham, the father of faith, and Moses, the instrument of God, to deliver His covenant people out of bondage. He omitted David, the rugged and humble shepherd, the champion warrior, and the greatest of Israel’s kings. He ignored Daniel, perhaps the world's most powerful and influential man, a leading figure in two of the world’s greatest empires, and a faithful prophet of God. He skipped over Noah, Samuel, Solomon, Isaiah, and every notable figure in secular history. Instead, Jesus boldly named a contemporary: “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever

Welcome to Day 2138 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 5 – Brainstorming the New Birth – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 02/27/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – Brainstorming The New Birth Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message is the dialog between Nicodemus and Jesus Christ.  Like last week’s cleansing of the temple, we should note that this episode occurred later in Jesus’s public ministry. However, because it is crucial to John’s overall dialog, he placed it early in his version of the Good News. Let’s read John 3:1-21. Please follow along on Pages 1649-1650 in the Pew Bible. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 3:1-21 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.     —3:1–2— Here we meet a man confused in his religion. If Judaism had an office like the pope, Nicodemus (Greek for “conqueror of the people”) would have been the ideal candidate. As we observe his encounter with Jesus, we discover that he...

Welcome to Day 2137 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 5 – Wine...Coins...and Signs – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 02/20/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – Wine…Coins…and Signs Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message begins with the miracles of Christ. Let’s read John 2:1-25. Please follow along on Pages 1648-1649 in the Pew Bible. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 2:1-25 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons.  Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After the wedding he went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples.  (Major Break in Dialog) It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. He drove out the sheep and cattle,/ scattered the money changers’ coins over the floor,/ and turned over their tables. Then, going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, “Get these things out of here. Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the Scriptures: “Passion for God’s house will consume me.” But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days? But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had...

Welcome to Day 2136 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 4 – Five Guys Who Followed In Faith – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 02/13/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – Five Guys Who Followed In Faith Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message focuses on the first five of Jesus’s twelve disciples. Before we examine these five guys, let’s read John 1:35-51. Please follow along on Pages 1647-1648 in the Pew Bible. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 1:35-51 The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus. (author John was the other one) Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”). Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.”  Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown. Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” “Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied. As they approached,/ Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.” “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”  Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”     Most of us can remember what was referred to as the Cold War, which was never more frigid than during the 1970s. It seemed that nothing would stop the creeping spread of communism. One by one, capitalist nations in Europe, Asia, and Africa either crumbled before the Soviet military or fell under the spell of socialism. Few in the United States feared a military assault...

Welcome to Day 2135 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 3 – A Man Sent From God – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 02/06/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 2 Presentation Of The Word – A Man Sent From God Today we continue our Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message focuses on the forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the Baptizer. Before we examine the one who announced the light of the world, I will read John 1:19-34. Please follow along on Pages 1646-1647 in the Pew Bible. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 1:19-34 Now this was John’s testimony when the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.” They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” Finally they said, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” Now the Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know.  He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”   John the Baptizer is a shadowy figure in the minds of many Christians. Most could fit all they know about him on one side of a 3 × 5 card with plenty of room to spare. (Hold up card) Clearly, he baptized people. Some know he lived in the desert and subsisted on a diet of locusts and honey. Those interested in theology realize he was the forerunner of the Messiah. But, unfortunately, that is about all most people know. Yet Jesus said of him in Matthew 11:11,  “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is! The Gospel of John gives us very little information about the man, where he came from, and what he was like. This is, of course, intentional. Nevertheless, the lack of information...

Welcome to Day 2134 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 2 – Christ is the Eternal Word – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 01/30/2022 The Gospel of John – Christ the Eternal Word Today we continue our new Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message will present Jesus Christ as the author of all creation. John’s prologue offers four reasons to believe that Jesus Christ, the Word, is God:

• The Word is eternal; He had no beginning, and He will have no end (1:1–2).
• The Word is the Creator; all things were made through Him (1:3).
• The Word is the Source of life; nothing remains alive apart from Him (1:4–13).
• The Word, though completely human, fully reveals the Father (1:14–18).

  Before we examine these reasons in detail, I will read John 1:1–18 in the NLT; if you wish to follow along, it is on Pages 1645-1646 in the Pew Bible.  Take note of John’s deliberate progression from infinity and eternity down to the single individual, Christ, in whom all that is infinite and eternal resides. I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 1:1-18 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. God sent a man, John the Baptist, to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’” From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.   The Word is eternal; He had no beginning, and He will have no end. In eternity past, before the beginning of anything—space, time, matter—in the indefinite expanse of timeless existence, in the beginning, He that had no beginning, “the Word” was existing in an eternal, infinite “present.”  The NLT  is a literal rendering of John’s first...

Welcome to Day 2133 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John - 1 – Who is the Apostle John? – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 01/23/2022 The Gospel of John – Who is the Apostle John? Today we begin a new Good News series according to John the Apostle. This message will examine John's identity and why he was unique among all Apostles. Have you ever started reading a novel, and you go to the last page of it to see how it ends before reading it?  That is what we will do today, so turn with me in your Bibles to John 21:24-25, or join me on page 1689 in the pew Bibles as I read the Scripture for today. Just two powerful verses as we begin this influential extended series of messages.  I would recommend keeping this passage open as we go throughout the message today: John 21:24-25  This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.   John had lived long enough to see it all, from the beginning to the end. As a bold, blustering young man, the idea of tramping around the wilderness of Judea after John the Baptizer appealed to him a great deal—so much so, that the young fisherman left a thriving fishing enterprise in the hands of his brother, James, and abandoned his privileged status for the Baptizer’s diet of locusts and wild honey … and for the chance to help prepare Israel for the coming of the Messiah. He helped the forerunner of the Messiah baptize thousands of repentant Jews. He supported the strange, Elijah-like figure as he called down judgment upon the corrupt leaders of the Jewish people.   Then, finally, the day came when John saw the long-awaited Anointed One. He looked nothing like what John had imagined, but the declaration of his wilderness mentor, John the Baptizer, was unequivocal: This was the One. He and another of the Baptizer’s disciples decided to get a closer look, to follow Jesus home, to hear what He had to say about Himself and Israel. Before the next day's dawn, he knew: They had found the Messiah.   John's few years with Jesus flew by like a flash of lightning, yet remained vividly clear in his mind for more than seventy years. During that short time with Jesus, he saw the man he thought would be a conquering super-David, the Savior of Israel, stripped, beaten mercilessly, and hung on a cross like a petty thug. He saw the sky darken as the world's Light faded into death. Then he saw his hope resurrected to assume a more glorious form than he ever could have imagined, and he stood in awe as the presence of God filled the group of squabbling, self-promoting disciples and transformed them into the body of Christ—the bones and muscle, hands and feet of Christ.   Then, as the blood of his martyred brothers and sisters yielded new believers, John nurtured them. As Paul, Barnabas, Silas, Apollos, Luke, Timothy, Titus, and other missionaries zealously expanded the church westward, John anchored its foundation. As critics bashed, John defended. As imposters subverted, John exposed them. As false prophets misled, John refuted their heretical message. He condensed his teaching into three letters (1–3 John), originally circulated within Asia Minor churches around AD 65.   Having outlived all his martyred peers, John was exiled by Emperor Domitian to...