Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Whole Point of John’s Gospel | The Gospels | John 20:30–31

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

Why was John’s Gospel written? Who does John want us to believe Jesus really is? And what kind of life does that belief lead to? In today’s episode, Jensen explores John 20:30–31 and reveals the purpose behind every sign in John’s Gospel: that we would believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and find life in his name. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 20:30-31

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Maybe when you opened up your Bible to read this morning, you had a little sigh of relief, because today we only have two verses to cover. Now, these verses, they function as a sort of conclusion to the book of John. We still have one more chapter and epilogue of sorts, but here, John takes a moment. to tell us explicitly the purpose of this book he has just written. Now, when it comes to scripture and intention and what we should take away from different passages and books of the Bible, there is often debate because the authors of the Bible aren't alive. We have to read and study

and try to uncover the intent and purpose behind the writing. But here, John gives us, with clarity, the answer to why he wrote this book of the Bible. And in doing so, he essentially tells us what we should take with us as we leave the book of John. If we've learned anything, if this book has shaped us, taught us, convinced us of anything, this is what the author intended for us. And I think we'll find that as we unpack these two verses, John is going to take us on a journey back through his gospel, reflecting on what he has written and what we should take with us.

John 20 versus 30 and 31. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. Okay, so John, he begins by saying, yeah, Jesus did many, many other things in his life, even more signs than I put in my gospel. He's telling us that he was selective in his choice of what he included in his gospel, specifically the signs that he included.

Now, signs here certainly refer to the miraculous signs, the miracles that he performed, as they hold a prominent place in the early chapters of his book, but also the signs about who Jesus was. In John's Gospel, he records seven prominent miracles that Jesus performed. And he's clear as he shares these stories that they aren't just to tell us, us about Jesus's power or his miraculous capabilities, but to teach us about who he was. We see Jesus feed the 5,000, and then we read that Jesus is the bread of life. We see Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead alongside Jesus telling us that he is the resurrection

in the life. See, the miraculous signs that John has chosen to share are chosen specifically, on purpose to help the reader uncover who Jesus is. He confirms this in verse 31. The signs he records are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So two things we can pull from this verse on the purpose of John's gospel. The signs that John chose were so that we could believe and that through believing we would have life. So from this, we have to ask what is it we're believing?

And John again tells us in this verse, his signs show us that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Now, the Messiah or the Christ was the long-awaited promised rescuer of God's people. It came with all kinds of expectations. This was the anointed one, the chosen one by God, who would be a great king and savior for God's people. He would lead them, teach them, and ultimately save them. The point that John makes in his gospel is that Jesus is this long-awaited Messiah that the Old Testament scriptures point to.

In chapter one, he records Jesus' disciples telling one another that they had found the Messiah. But John is also making another point. the point that Jesus is not a mere human, like other saviors, Moses, David, or the kings who came before him. No, Jesus is the son of God, divine. Again, in the first chapter of this book, John opens telling us that the word became flesh. God took on human form, fully man, fully God, a true Israelite, and also Yahweh. He is the son of God, not because he was born out of God, but in that he is just like God. He has his attributes and his divinity. He is God and he has a loving father-son relationship with the father. So we believe not just that Jesus is the promised Israelites sent to save his people, or that he's just a moral teacher, or just a good man,

or just a great rabbi, but that he is all of these because he is divine. God. God. God and also human. And then the belief that we are called to, that belief that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Messiah, it's a belief that brings life. See, John is reminding us of a point that he has made throughout his gospel. Knowing facts about Jesus, believing facts about him, that isn't the point. The kind of belief that we're called to is a belief that transforms us and brings life. In John 1, verse 12, John talks about receiving Jesus, and the receiving isn't just accepting intellectually what he says or agreeing with his teachings, but having a personal relationship with

him, submitting to him, receiving his teachings as absolute truth and following them, receiving him as your rabbi, the one who guides and orders your life. It is a relational belief, and this kind of relational closeness will change us. It will give us life because the one we believe in isn't a mere man. He is the son of God. He is the bread of life, the resurrection, the good shepherd, the way, the true vine, the gate, the light of the world. When we believe in an intimate, relational, knowing kind of way, the way that John calls us to in his gospel, that belief will bring forth life in his name. Life because of who Jesus is. Who you believe in matters. And John wrote his gospel so that we could be

abundantly confident in the one we believe in. He is the creator of the universe. He did draw intimately close to us. He wanted to dwell with us because he loves us. He desires a deep personal relationship with us. He wants us to be known by him, to know him, and in that rootedness, we find a life that is beyond anything we could create for ourselves. It offers hope in the darkest of circumstances. It offers us guidance, truth, sustaining power and grace. It comforts us. It nourishes us. It will never be taken from us. That is the life that is available to you and to me today. That is what John wants us to grasp. It is why he has written this gospel. It's the story he has woven for the last 20 chapters. Jesus is who he says he is. And if he really is all of those things, then believe in him

and he will change everything. The ESV study Bible has this note on John chapter 11, verse 25, when Jesus tells Mary that he is the resurrection and the life. And I just want to read it to you because it was so good for me to hear. Resurrection from the dead and genuine eternal life in fellowship with God are so closely tied to Jesus that they are embodied in Him and can be found only in relationship to Him. Therefore, believes in me implies personal trust in Christ. The preposition translated in is striking, for normally it means into,

giving the sense that genuine faith in Christ, in a sense, brings people into Christ so that they rest in and become united to Christ. I love that. We believe in Jesus. We are pulled into His fold, into the vine, into Christ, and all that is true of Him is true of us. In Christ, you are righteous. You are righteous. You are a saint. You are free. You are beloved. You are redeemed. You are holy. You are blameless. That is the life that is found in Jesus as you believe into him. We come to the gospel of John to find life in Jesus' name. The name of God, the Messiah, the son of God, the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the good shepherd, the resurrection, the way and the true vine. Jesus is the life. May we live in Him. May we live lives inundated in the reality of who Jesus truly is. Life in Jesus is the point. It's what we were made for. God, I pray that we would all experience the transformative power of that life today and every day as we follow Jesus closely. Amen.