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We’re halfway through the book of John, one of the greatest books ever written. I thought it would be beneficial if we reviewed the first 11 chapters.

People can be very interesting. There are magazines and TV shows dedicated to the lives of the rich and powerful and successful, the famous and the infamous.

It’s likely that millions of biographies have been written about historical figures, political leaders, artists, scientists, celebrities, and ordinary individuals.

We can learn a lot from people – how they responded to life’s challenges, how they succeeded and how they failed, what they did and what they thought. People can inspire us to become better people ourselves.

Of all the people who have ever lived, there is one person you need to know better than anyone else – Yeshua. Yeshua is the most special, the most important man who ever lived. He is the one who can do the most for you, benefit you the most. You need to be very familiar with Him. You need to know the story of His life, and the things He did and the things He said.

Why? John, close friend and disciple of Yeshua, who knew Yeshua very well, in his biography about Yeshua, a biography along with Matthew Mark and Luke, is the greatest biography ever written, gave us many reasons.

In the beginning was the Word. The Word already existed in the beginning. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. God (meaning God the Father) created everything through Yeshua, 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.

Yeshua was a man but was no ordinary man. Yeshua “is God” and was “with God.” This is not true of any other man.

Yeshua “is God” in the sense of sharing the same divine, eternal, uncreated nature of God. Yeshua always existed. He wasn’t created. He is not a created being.

Yeshua “is God” and Yeshua was “with God” – meaning He was with God the Father forever, from eternity.

God the Father and God the Son are two distinct and separate persons sharing the same divine, eternal nature, in an eternal loving relationship with each other.

Yeshua is the Son of God – sharing the divine nature of the Father but lesser than the Father in position and authority just as an earthly son is lesser than his father in position and authority.

Yeshua is the Word. Words communicate truth. Yeshua is uniquely God’s Word – the Word of God. Moses and the prophets reveal who God is. Nature reveals who God is. However, Yeshua is the greatest revealer of who God is. Of all the revelations of God, Yeshua reveals God most clearly. And He reveals other truths, the most important truths, most clearly.

If you want to understand God the way you need to, if you want to understand other most important truths the way you need to, so that you are reconciled to God and live forever, you need to know Yeshua.

Words enable one person to know the will and then carry out the will of another person. Yeshua carries out the word and will of God the Father. The Father makes His will known to His Son and Yeshua obeys the word of His Father.

God the Father communicated His will to create everything that exists and then His Son created everything that exists. Yeshua is the executor of the Father’s word and will.

Yeshua is the Light of the World. He brings truth, knowledge, wisdom, revelation, victory, salvation, happiness, life and the presence of God to everyone who knows who He is.

Yeshua is the Son of God and He is the Son of Man – the perfect, ideal human being. He is the only man who never sinned, who always, in every situation, did what was right and pleasing to God.

He is the special Son of Man revealed in Daniel 7, who appears before the Ancient of Days – God the Father – and receives authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language obey Him. His rule is eternal – it will never end. His kingdom will never be destroyed.

Yeshua is the Messiah – the ultimate prophet – who speaks the words of God most clearly; the greatest priest – who brings God close to people and people close to God; and the greatest king.

Yeshua is the King of Israel. And He is the Lord – the final authority over every human being.

Yeshua is the Rabbi – mankind’s greatest teacher.

Yeshua is the Lamb of God. He was sacrificed so that we could have atonement, so we could be reconciled to God from whom all are alienated and estranged.

He is the Savior of the world. He is able to help, deliver, rescue, any human being who becomes loyal to Him, save them from the things they can’t save themselves from – the control of Satan and the other fallen angel, save them from sin, the sin nature, death and Hell.

John let us know that there is a great and ancient battle taking place between God and the good angels and Satan and the other fallen angels; between good and evil; between truth and deception, light and darkness. Everyone is on one side of this battle or the other. Everyone who is loyal to Yeshua is on the side of light. Everyone who is not loyal to Yeshua is on the side of darkness.

Most of the leaders of the Chosen Nation in the time of Yeshua were on the side of darkness. They hated Yeshua, and their hatred for Him intensified over several years until they had Him killed.

God prepared the Jewish people for the arrival of His Son, the Messiah, by sending prophets to tell us about Him. The last and greatest of these prophets was John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah.

John recognized who Yeshua was and informed Israel that Yeshua is the Son of God who came from Heaven; that He is loved by God in the most special way; that He is the Messiah, the Anointed One, to whom God the Father gave the Spirit without limit; that Yeshua spoke the words of God; that the Father has placed all things under the authority of Yeshua; that Yeshua is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Yeshua made disciples and formed them into a community. This teaches us that it’s essential for us to be disciples of Yeshua, to know Him and learn from Him, to know His teachings and be an active, involved member a community of other disciples of Yeshua.

Yeshua did many miracles – more and greater miracles than anyone else. His miracles let us know that Yeshua was sent by God and that we should believe Yeshua and everything He said. We should trust Yeshua completely.

John highlighted seven of Yeshua’s miracles:

He turned water into wine, showing that Yeshua cares for people and is the source of happiness.

He healed the son of a government official from a distance, showing Yeshua’s power is not limited by distance and He is the healer of sick and dying humanity.

He healed a man who had been paralyzed for many years, revealing Yeshua is the healer of paralyzed humanity.

He fed five thousand men from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, revealing Yeshua is the One who can provide for the physical and spiritual needs of humanity.

He walked on water, revealing Yeshua is greater than nature and if He’s with us, we’ll get safely to our final destination.

He healed a man born blind from birth, revealing Yeshua brings the truth that saves darkened, confused humanity.

He raised Lazarus from death, revealing Yeshua is able to resurrect and give eternal life to those who are loyal to Him.

Every human being operates out of one of two natures. Yeshua said to Nicodemus, one of Israel’s greatest leaders, that unless he was born again, he couldn’t see the Kingdom of God.

The old nature that everyone is born with is sinful, corrupt, hostile to God, in rebellion against God. That nature can’t please God. It can’t live with God.

To know God, love God, serve God, be acceptable to God, live forever with God, we must have a spiritual rebirth. A transformation of our nature. We must have a new nature. We must be born again.

No human effort, no amount of good deeds, no other religion or philosophy or ideology; not science or politics or education can get rid of our old nature and replace it with this new, godly nature.

The only way to get this new nature is by knowing who Yeshua is and making a serious commitment to follow Him. Then God will give you that new nature and you will be able to love God the way you should and serve God the way you should. And you will live forever.

Humanity is perishing, dying, headed to death, ruin and destruction. We have already been condemned to eternal death in Hell. The only way to not be condemned and sent to Hell is by obeying Yeshua. Everyone who refuses to obey Him will never experience eternal life but will remain under God’s angry judgment.

Yeshua considered all people – men and women, Jews and Gentiles, to be valuable, worthy of His love, interest, care, concern. He said to the Samaritan woman who came to the well to get water, that He was able to give her living water, meaning satisfaction, contentment and eternal life.

There are true worshipers and false worshipers. True worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They worship in spirit – from a heart that loves God – in contrast to worship that is focused on rituals and ceremonies and external things. And they worship in truth, worship based on the teachings of Yeshua – as opposed to worship based on false, man-made teachings.

Yeshua was devoted to doing the will of God. For Him, doing what God wanted Him to do was more important than eating or saving His own life. We need to have that same kind of commitment to the will of God – do what God wants us to do.

Yeshua was committed to tell others the message of salvation. That was very important to Him. And He wants each and every one of His followers to be passionate about evangelism.

He doesn’t want us to wait for others to initiate conversations, but to look for evangelistic opportunities and make them happen. Wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe for harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. I want to get a good reward for my efforts in this life – how about you? Be zealous about telling others about Yeshua.

Yeshua made the most amazing, the most astounding claims about Himself:

He is Jacob’s Ladder, the stairway to Heaven, the bridge that connects Heaven and Earth.

He is better than the bronze snake that was lifted up on a pole in the wilderness. After leaving Egypt the Jewish people became discontent and accused Moses of bringing us into the wilderness to kill us. We complained that there wasn’t enough food and water and we were sick of the manna that miraculously appeared each day. God punished us for our ungrateful, rebellious attitude by sending poisonous snakes which bit many of us. After many died, we went to Moses and apologized. Then the Lord offered us a cure: if a bronze snake was made and put on a pole, anyone who was bitten and looked at the snake would be healed.

The principle? The cure must be related to the disease. Snakes bit the people and the people had to look at a snake to be healed. Humanity has been bitten by the greatest snake. All of us have the satanic venom of sin and rebellion in us. If we do nothing, we will die. But, when a person knows that Yeshua died on a cross and rose from the dead, and is alive now, and that person transfers his loyalties to Yeshua, he will be forgiven, saved, born again, and live forever.

More of Yeshua’s amazing claims about Himself:

I am the Bread of Life. Yeshua alone is able to sustain us with a meaningful life in this world followed by eternal life in the world to come.

I am the Light of the World. Yeshua alone is able to give truth, happiness, victory, salvation and the presence of God to humanity.

I am the Door. Yeshua alone gives entrance to the Kingdom of God.

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to God except through Me. This is not inclusive. This is the opposite – totally exclusive.

Yeshua is the only way to God. He is the only way to eternal life.

Yeshua alone is the truth – completely true, faithful, reliable, trustworthy. His teachings are absolute truth – without any error. Yeshua alone is the truth that is able to save us.

Yeshua alone is the life – the source of life. He has eternal life in Himself, and Yeshua alone is able to give us eternal life.

I am the Good Shepherd. Yeshua alone is uniquely able to protect us, care for us and guide us in this life. Yeshua alone is about to lead us to eternal life in the life to come.

I am the Resurrection and the Life. Yeshua alone was resurrected and has a life that can never die. Yeshua alone is able to resurrect humans and give them everlasting life. The time is coming when all the dead will hear His voice. Those who were loyal to Him will be resurrected and live forever. Those who were disloyal to Him will be resurrected, judged and punished in Hell.

And speaking of judgment, Yeshua claimed that God the Father will not judge anyone but will allow Yeshua to be the judge of humanity. Why? Judges are honored, and the final and greatest judge will have the most honor. The Father has given the Son the authority to judge humanity so that everyone will honor the Son – just as they honor the Father. That’s a lot of honor.

Yeshua claimed He was in constant communion with the Father, so that He was continually seeing and hearing what the Father wanted Him to see and hear. He then perfectly did everything God revealed to Him.

Yeshua claimed that everyone who really seeks God and learns from the Father will come to Yeshua; that God will teach them and direct them to His Son.

Yeshua claimed that Moses and the Prophets wrote about Him. The Tenach, the great revelation of God, points to Him. The Old Testament is all about Him.

Yeshua claimed that those who eat His flesh and drink His blood – by believing in Him, by having faith in Him – will be united to Him. And He will resurrect them and give them eternal life.

Yeshua claimed that anyone who is loyal to Him will have rivers of living water flowing from his heart, from his innermost being. The Spirit of Yeshua, who is the Spirit of God, will live in him, refreshing him, giving him an abundant and satisfying life.

Yeshua claimed that God the Father was always working, and so was He. Yeshua was calling God His Father, making Himself equal with God.

Yeshua claimed: Before Abraham was, I Am. Yeshua claimed to share the special name of God, to be the special name of God – the Yud Hay Vav Hay, the self-existent and eternal God who has life, existence and being in Himself.

These are the things John wrote for us in the first 11 chapters of His great biography about the life of Yeshua.

I hope you believe everything he wrote. I hope you learn everything there is to know about Yeshua and make a serious commitment to follow Him.

Yeshua is alive. He is real. He is present everywhere. He is aware of everything. He knows everything about you. In spite of that, because of who He is, because of His grace and mercy and love – He loves you and wants to be with you. Won’t you make it one of your highest priorities to spend time with Him, talk to Him, listen to Him talk to you? His sheep are able to hear His voice.

I hope you constantly focus on Yeshua, think about Yeshua, meditate on Yeshua, commune with Yeshua.

If you do, He will rub off on you. He will influence you. He will change you. You will become more like Him. His thoughts will become yours. His values will become yours.

He will inspire you. Your faith will increase. You will be empowered by the Spirit of Yeshua who will live in you. You will love God the way you should. You will serve God the way you should. You will resist sin and consistently do what is right.

Your life in this world will be an amazing success. And you will live forever with Yeshua – your Lord, King, Friend and Savior – in His everlasting kingdom.