THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE

JOHN 19:35-37 NKJV 

35 And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may believe. 36 For these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled, "Not one of His bones shall be broken." 37 And again another Scripture says, "They shall look on Him whom they pierced." 

When we read the book of John, we must remember John wrote 60 years after the other gospels.  

In our passage for today, John is reminding us why he wrote. So we may believe. 

John provides greater detail of Jesus interacting with Pilate. And it is John who reminds us that what happened to Jesus was so that the scriptures might be fulfilled.   

John quoted the scriptures that Jesus' garments were divided, and they gambled for His clothes. 

John was pointing to scripture when he shared that none of Jesus' bones were broken. And that He would be pierced. 

So, a total of four times in this one chapter, Jesus' death was shown to be the fulfillment of scripture. And these scriptures were recorded 800-plus years before Jesus' actual death.  

John declares that he is telling the truth so that we might believe.   

The apostle John was a big proponent of truth. In the day he wrote his gospel, there were many deceptions that had crept into the church. One of the reasons John's gospel was penned was to set the record straight. And so that we might believe.  

APPLICATION: 

It was John who gave us the story of doubting Thomas. John, who told us that the magnitude of what Jesus said and did could not be recorded.  

John also knew that what was written was enough to believe. We don't have to see to believe, as Thomas stated. Nor do we have to have much more proof about Jesus. What we have in the scriptures is enough to go on.  

John's eyewitness account of what Jesus said and did provides some of the very best reasons to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. 

PRAYER:  

Thank You, Father, for what is written. Thank You, we have enough to believe.