Salvation Signs
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2020 · 3 May 2020
When we come to the two last verses in John 20, we come to John’s purpose statement. This is why he wrote this gospel. He writes in verses 30 -31, “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John has two stated purposes, one is evidential and the other is evangelistic. The first appeals to reason, the second appeals to faith. The first is that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, based on the evidence. The second is that you, in believing, may have life in His name; that’s evangelistic. The evidence is here so that we may believe, and by believing have eternal life in His name.
In John 8:24, our Lord essentially declared the exclusivity of His identify by saying this: “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am He.” The positive one is in John 14:6, “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’” There is no other one to reconcile us to God, only Jesus. He is the only Savior, the only way to eternal life.
There is only one God, only one Savior and only one gospel. Apart from faith in Christ there is no escape from eternal judgment; therefore, it is critically important that God give us the evidence that Jesus is, in fact that only Savior. And that the evidence appeals to our reason so that we can follow the evidence to that conclusion that He is the only Messiah, the Son of God, the Redeemer and Savior.
And then because our reason has taken us to that conviction; our faith takes us to Christ Himself; and we believe and receive eternal life. You can discount all other religions in the world, they do not offer salvation. They are all a deception. There is no other Savior. There is no other gospel. There is no other God than the God of Scripture. There is no other revealed book than the Bible.
John states the exclusivity of Christ by saying in verse 30, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.” If you take all the miracles that John records and add all the ones that are in the other gospels, you have a list of about forty miracles that Jesus did. In particular, seven special sign miracles in John’s gospel.
But that is by no means the sum of all that miracles that Jesus did. In fact, there were many days when He did forty miracles in a day or more. There were many hours when He did seven miracles or more. For three years His life was marked by miracle after miracle, in an explosion of divine power that essentially banished disease from the land of Israel for the duration of His ministry.
The gospel writers, and in particular John, record just some of these miracles as evidence for who He is, and it’s important that you understand who He is and that you believe that He is the Savior. John 21:25 says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”
Now when we talk about signs we’re defining the purpose of a miracle. What is the purpose of a sign? A sign is to point to something. When you’re at the sign, you are realizing that you’re going in the right direction. Verse 31 says, “These signs which have been written by John so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
Now what signs is John talking about? Some say that when Jesus said, “As the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” in John 3:14 that He was pointing to Himself as the one who demonstrated the power of God to heal and restore those who were bitten. Others say that His riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, as prophesized in the Old Testament by Zechariah, is another sign.
Others say that His predicting His own death and even the details around His own death, arrest, suffering, and the crucifixion, just as predicted in Isaiah 53 is an indication that Jesus is the Messiah. And, surely, all of these things do point to Him as the Messiah, and so do the many times that He said throughout the gospel of John, “I am the living water. I am the bread of life, I am the Good Shepherd.”
So what exactly does John mean with “these signs?” He is talking about the seven miracles in the gospel of John. John records seven specific miracles up to and including the resurrection of Jesus. There is another miracle after the resurrection in John 21 where the Lord demonstrates His control over fish, the power over the animal kingdom and make animals do anything He wants them to do.
But leading up to where we are now in verses 30 and 31, there are seven miracles. These are the signs that John has in mind. Three people during Jesus’ ministry were raised from the dead, the third one being Lazarus. And then Jesus Himself was raised from the dead and they still did not believe. Jesus said before, “If they don’t believe the Scriptures, they won’t believe though someone was raised from the dead.”
The Jews wanted supernatural miracles. So in John 4:48, Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” In John 5:36 our Lord says, “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John the Baptist; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish – the very works that I do – testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”
In John 6:26, “Jesus answered them and said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.’” That was after He had fed as many as 20,000 people. You want the food. You want the healing. You want deliverance from demons. You want deliverance from death. All you’re doing now is chasing signs for your own gratification.
There had been signs throughout His Galilean ministry, miracles throughout the final year of His return to Judea, but still they wanted more signs; it was never enough. In John 10:17-18 Jesus says, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
John 10:37-38 says, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” This is late in His ministry, and when He claims to be the one the signs declare Him to be, they accuse Him of blasphemy. Verse 39, “They were seeking to seize Him, to arrest Him, to kill Him, but He eluded them.”
The first sign came in John 2 where Jesus was at a wedding and they ran out of wine on the third day of a seven day festival. So Jesus, at his mother’s request, turned six pots of water of thirty gallons each, into the best wine people ever had. Verse 11, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
Look to John 4, for the second miracle identified as a sign. This is the healing of a nobleman’s son, verse 47 says, who was ill to the point of death. Jesus healed that son who was near death, and verse 54 says, “This again is the second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.” So now we know these signs are specific miracles.
The third one happens in John 5, which is the healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda. He was paralyzed for 38 years, and there was this superstition that the first one in the water would be healed. Jesus came along and healed him instantaneously. And told him to stand up, pick up his bed and walk, after not walking for 38 years. This is an incredible miracle of complete restoration and rehabilitation.
Here is the fourth sign, where Jesus has power over natural law. In John 6:1-14, He creates food to feed 5,000 men. All He has to start with is two fish and five biscuits, and He feeds up to 20,000 people, gives them all they can possibly eat, and has twelve baskets left over for the twelve apostles. Subsequent to that, He walks on water and stills a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
Then in John 9 we see the fifth sign, Jesus heals a man who was born blind from birth. “And the disciples said, ‘Rabbi,’ to the Lord, ‘who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’” This man is healed, to put God on display, to manifest the glory of God to the people.
And then the sixth sign was be John 11, which is raising Lazarus from the dead, and he has been dead four days, his body is in a state of decay, and yet Jesus raises him from the dead. Verse 4, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” All these signs are to display the glory of God manifest in the Son of God who is God.
The final seventh sign comes in John 20 and it’s the resurrection of Jesus. In John 2:18-21, “The Jews were saying to Him, ‘What sign do You show us as Your authority for doing these things?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”
Verse 22, “So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.’” John 20 records that sign. He had the power Himself to rise from the dead to conquer death. Those are the signs that John details as evidences that this is the Messiah, the Son of God. This happened to demonstrate the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
That’s the point that John reiterates in John 20:31, “These signs are given so that you may see His glory as the Messiah, the Son of God, and believe in Him.” In John 1:14, we read, “The Word became flesh,” meaning Christ “dwelt among us, and we saw His glory.” And what glory was it? “It was glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
What is the purpose of the signs? To put the glory of God in Christ on display. Now what was their response? Were there people who believed? There were some. In fact, in John 1:41, the disciples who became His apostles believed. Andrew says, “We have found the Messiah.” And in John 1:49, Nathanael says, “You are the Son of God.” There are those two terms used by believers: Messiah and Son of God.
And then the Samaritans in John 4. Our Lord discloses who He is to the Samaritan woman, verse 25, “The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.’ 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” 28 She left her waterpot, went to the city and said to the men, 29 Come see a Man who told me all the things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’
Verse 39, “And many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things that I ever did.’ “So He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
The man who was blind in John 9, what was his response after he was healed? He didn’t have faith to be healed, Jesus healed him sovereignly. John 9:35, “Jesus looked him up and found him and said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘Who is He, Lord that I may believe in Him?’ Jesus said, ‘You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking to you,’ and he said, ‘Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him.”
There were even some rulers who believed, John 12:42, “Many of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear they’d be put out of the synagogue.” At least two of these silent believers show up to bury the Lord and declare themselves as His true followers: Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb He was buried in and Nicodemus.
The Passover crowds were fickle in their faith. John 2:23, “When He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs.” But Jesus knew it was not true faith. It was a superficial and false faith. In John 8:31, “Jesus said to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.”
This is very disappointing; there are people who believe superficially in Christ, but that’s not saving faith. The sum of it is expressed in John 12:37, “Though Jesus had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.” As Isaiah 6 says, God has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart.
They would not believe, God judged them, so they could not believe. Unfortunately it still is this way right now. Do you believe? Let us pray.