No book, media, or form of communication compares with God’s Word. In every way it is the complete revelation of God to us about the salvation we so need, are so undeserving of, and which has been so graciously given.
As we have opened to the final book about our salvation, Revelation, for the past months, we opened to a book filled with “heptads” or groupings of sevens. One element of John’s writing style in Revelation that is very prominent is his usage of sevens.
God Designed Revelation as a
Book Built Around Groups of Seven
There are seven stars, seven lampstands, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls, and seven angels. Beyond these seven named groups of sevens are many other sevens.
There are seven beatitudes, seven spirits, seven mountains, seven lamps, seven horns, seven eyes, seven heads, seven crowns, seven thunders, seven kings, and seven last plagues. Fifty-four sevens are noted by John in the book of Revelation.
John uses the sevens to explain God’s plans for Heaven, the Church, and the end of the world in the book of Revelation. But it isn’t only in Revelation that God uses sevens; today, we find that the way to eternal life has seven intentional markers. As we open to John 20, let me show you this amazing chain of truths about salvation.
The Gospel by John is Also
Built Around Groups of Seven
The Gospel by John has seven titles of Christ in chapter one, and over the next 14 chapters shares seven very precious and powerful I am declarations of Christ. But God especially draws our attention to one string of seven elements in this Gospel with a closing statement about how God designed this fourth and final Gospel. Please turn with me to the last verse of John 20.
In John 20:31, we read that of the many things that Jesus did, seven of the most prominent miraculous deeds of Christ in this Gospel were chosen by God to be unique signs that point to the miracle of salvation. These signs are to help us believe, and as we believe, they also help us understand what exactly salvation accomplished in each believer. Jesus performs seven sign miracles leading up to the Crucifixion.
Please follow along as we read what God says is the purpose of this Gospel by John and the intended result God wants His truth to have in our lives.
John 20:30-31 (NKJV)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.
The divine perfection of Jesus is reflected in the seven “Signs” John records from Christ’s life.
Now notice that John 20:31 , unlike the other three Gospels, seeks to share the inner meaning—the spiritual significance—of our Lord’s works, so that each miracle is a “sermon in action.”
To begin with, the word John used in his book is not dunamis, which emphasizes power, but seimeon, which means “a sign.” What is a sign? Something that points beyond itself to something greater.
Seven Signposts that
Point to Christ our Savior
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