WEBVTT 00:02.900 --> 00:03.470 In the name of Jesus. 00:04.290 --> 00:05.310 Amen. 00:06.450 --> 00:09.600 Beloved loved siblings of our Lord Jesus Christ. 00:11.730 --> 00:17.680 Seeing is believing, or so the saying goes. 00:19.410 --> 00:23.402 But in the gospel of John, there is much to be said for the suggestion 00:23.466 --> 00:29.940 that something other than seeing, that in fact, hearing rather than 00:29.132 --> 00:33.750 seeing, is what the gospel is meaning to extol. 00:34.810 --> 00:40.780 For according to John, if one is to see with the mind and the heart 00:43.700 --> 00:48.874 what only that mind and heart can see. What eyes of faith alone can 00:48.912 --> 00:54.206 see about Jesus, who he really is and what it is that he has done to 00:54.228 --> 00:56.158 take away the sin of the world. 00:56.324 --> 01:04.114 If above all else, this is what we all must see in Jesus, then what we 01:04.152 --> 01:10.946 fundamentally need, according to John, is not the eyes that we are 01:10.968 --> 01:14.500 born with, but ears. 01:15.500 --> 01:20.280 Ears that are ready to hear what your eyes can in no way see. 01:21.770 --> 01:22.760 You see. 01:24.650 --> 01:31.260 After all, there is more to Jesus than meets the eye, is there not? 01:32.750 --> 01:38.394 Never does the mere seeing of Jesus with the naked eye suffice to 01:38.432 --> 01:39.200 inform. 01:40.210 --> 01:40.960 Never. 01:42.610 --> 01:45.280 Have you believed because you have seen, 01:46.500 --> 01:47.870 asks Jesus? 01:49.170 --> 01:54.820 He likes to ask freighted leading questions. 01:57.910 --> 02:02.414 His question is for all of his disciples. 02:02.542 --> 02:05.960 His question is for all who believe. 02:07.130 --> 02:09.240 His question is for you. 02:12.900 --> 02:15.560 Have you believed solely on the basis of what you have seen? 02:16.810 --> 02:24.250 Or has something else happened, something more? From beginning to end 02:24.320 --> 02:29.926 John's gospel consistently and compellingly proclaims that something 02:30.480 --> 02:38.350 more must indeed happen, must always happen, if any are ever to see 02:38.420 --> 02:41.920 Jesus as he must in the end, be seen. 02:43.330 --> 02:49.700 And so early on, on the first day in John's gospel that Jesus first 02:49.140 --> 02:50.260 appears. 02:50.138 --> 02:55.174 In John's telling of his story, the Baptist, or Jesus that is his 02:55.212 --> 02:56.194 first appears 02:56.242 --> 02:57.430 to the Baptist. 02:59.210 --> 02:59.970 He 03:00.000 --> 03:05.566 appears to the one whose solitary purpose in life was to testify to 03:05.588 --> 03:11.774 the coming of a later and greater one to Jesus, so that all might 03:11.812 --> 03:13.440 believe through him. 03:14.610 --> 03:20.974 So when John sees Jesus coming toward him and says, behold the Lamb of 03:21.120 --> 03:28.470 God who takes away the sin of the world. He says this because he knows 03:29.210 --> 03:32.700 that Jesus is not just greater. 03:33.130 --> 03:40.522 He says this because he knows that Jesus is preeminently, greater. Ha 03:40.576 --> 03:42.600 protos is he. 03:43.470 --> 03:48.780 For those who know a little Greek in this place. The greatest of all 03:49.890 --> 03:50.880 is he. 03:52.450 --> 03:53.840 But there is more. 03:55.970 --> 04:02.882 John says this he knows this about Jesus not because he has seen this 04:02.936 --> 04:04.500 with his own two eyes. 04:05.190 --> 04:10.200 He says this because someone has previously said this to him. 04:11.430 --> 04:19.190 He says this because John has previously been told this about Jesus. 04:20.250 --> 04:24.760 For at first, declares John, I did not know him. 04:27.710 --> 04:33.200 He did not know who his cousin Jesus really was. 04:35.900 --> 04:36.320 Wait, what? 04:38.210 --> 04:38.960 Really? 04:40.930 --> 04:45.522 But then he who sent me to baptize with water, adds John, then the 04:45.576 --> 04:51.614 sender said to me, the sent One, he upon whom you see the Spirit 04:51.662 --> 04:57.350 descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. 04:58.730 --> 05:11.500 Oh, heaven tells the Baptist what to look for, and heaven tells him 05:11.870 --> 05:16.380 how to understand it when he sees it. 05:17.470 --> 05:24.254 Then, and only then, does John see one thing, see Jesus, and believe 05:24.452 --> 05:25.200 another. 05:26.289 --> 05:32.690 Then, and only then, does John proclaim, this is royalty. 05:34.310 --> 05:35.346 This is great 05:35.448 --> 05:38.980 David's greater son, that Son of God. 05:40.470 --> 05:43.900 This is Messiah. 05:45.190 --> 05:51.940 From heaven above, a word is spoken to John. 05:53.300 --> 05:56.500 From heaven above, a word is heard. 05:57.230 --> 05:59.800 A word is taken to heart and believed so that 06:00.250 --> 06:06.640 in turn it might be repeated so that in turn it might be said again 06:07.170 --> 06:10.400 and again and again. 06:12.530 --> 06:19.354 Only with the aid of the voice from heaven does John see the one whose 06:19.402 --> 06:26.390 voice is to be heard above all other voices. First 06:26.460 --> 06:28.150 then John hears. 06:29.130 --> 06:31.800 Then he sees and believes what he has heard. 06:32.170 --> 06:35.800 Then he testifies to what he has heard. 06:36.650 --> 06:40.602 Then the lesser one gives way to the greater one. 06:40.736 --> 06:46.409 The lesser defers to the preeminent speaking of Jesus. 06:47.790 --> 06:54.430 For never will the blind and bereft beggars of this world of darkness 06:54.770 --> 06:58.800 ever otherwise see. 07:00.530 --> 07:04.670 Do you now see otherwise 07:04.750 --> 07:08.659 Blind and bereft are we. 07:10.470 --> 07:16.774 And so on the next day when John is again standing this time with two 07:16.812 --> 07:27.270 of his own disciples and he sees Jesus again he says it again. Behold. 07:28.909 --> 07:31.210 Behold the lamb. 07:33.150 --> 07:34.620 The Lamb of God. 07:35.700 --> 07:40.960 And then John's disciples hear this. 07:41.730 --> 07:45.200 They hear it and they believe it. 07:45.890 --> 07:47.790 And they follow Jesus. 07:49.330 --> 07:52.754 Jesus turns and sees that they are following him 07:52.792 --> 08:00.530 and he says to them he says to us all, what are you seeking? 08:02.630 --> 08:09.206 And they say to him, Rabbi which of course means teacher, where are 08:09.228 --> 08:10.390 you staying? 08:12.490 --> 08:18.454 For at the behest of their former teacher at his word their wish is 08:18.491 --> 08:22.380 now to go and to stay with this greater one. 08:23.150 --> 08:27.289 Their wish is now to be the disciples of Jesus. 08:29.230 --> 08:38.880 So Jesus, rather suggestively says to them says again to us all come, 08:39.569 --> 08:41.280 and you will see. 08:43.970 --> 08:49.310 For greater things than what they have thus far seen must they finally 08:49.460 --> 08:52.638 see. Greater things 08:52.723 --> 08:59.780 will they see. When the preeminent teacher teaches what only he can 08:59.164 --> 08:59.300 teach. 09:04.430 --> 09:11.698 But only he has been given to say for who he is, as the word made 09:11.784 --> 09:18.100 flesh is precisely what Jesus must do. 09:19.590 --> 09:23.460 Who he is is what he does. 09:24.950 --> 09:31.500 He speaks a word, that must be heard if any are ever to see. 09:32.750 --> 09:35.546 He says what none have said before. 09:35.728 --> 09:44.560 He completes what must be said for solely sufficient to inform. 09:44.930 --> 09:51.150 What you see is the word of the word made flesh. 09:52.710 --> 09:58.260 A word is spoken, a word is heard. 09:58.950 --> 10:05.318 A word is taken to heart and believed so that in turn it might be 10:05.404 --> 10:12.934 repeated, so that in turn it might be said again and again until he 10:12.972 --> 10:14.440 comes again. 10:16.350 --> 10:23.770 Each of those who are first to believe in John, the first chapter 10:24.750 --> 10:25.798 hears, 10:25.974 --> 10:29.340 each of them hears from another. 10:30.130 --> 10:35.600 Only on the basis of what they hear do any of them ever see. 10:36.930 --> 10:42.914 Do any of them ever point to the one whose own speaking informs all 10:42.952 --> 10:43.540 things. 10:44.790 --> 10:52.162 Only then do any of them herald the foundationally, necessary and 10:52.216 --> 10:58.230 solely sufficient revelation of God, whose truth the word made flesh 10:58.569 --> 11:07.370 is. Now one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was 11:07.440 --> 11:11.290 Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. 11:12.190 --> 11:18.140 So Andrew departed first and found his brother Simon and said to him, 11:19.410 --> 11:22.880 we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. 11:24.500 --> 11:29.700 And Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. 11:29.890 --> 11:37.682 In other words, he continued the pattern of repeating to others what 11:37.736 --> 11:46.210 he himself had heard. So that others too might hear, so that others 11:46.280 --> 11:49.600 too might come. 11:50.710 --> 11:54.706 For the blessed are not those who believe solely on the basis of what 11:54.728 --> 11:55.860 they have seen. 11:57.550 --> 11:59.800 Instead, the blessed are those who believe. 12:00.000 --> 12:04.960 What flesh and blood eyes can in no way see. 12:06.610 --> 12:08.880 They believe what they have heard. 12:10.530 --> 12:13.360 They believe on account of the Word. 12:14.850 --> 12:18.654 What cannot be seen must be heard. 12:18.852 --> 12:22.880 And so God sends his word. 12:24.290 --> 12:35.782 He sends so that you, too, might see him in your hearing of him and 12:35.836 --> 12:36.440 live. 12:37.610 --> 12:42.646 Lord, keep us steadfast in your word till the day that you come again. 12:42.828 --> 12:47.894 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 12:47.932 --> 12:48.200 Amen.