Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Why don't we stand here as we go to the Lord in prayer?
[00:00:06] Praise God. You know, there's so many neat things happening, wonderful things happening in our church family. And one of the things we've decided we're doing this before, COVID Now we're getting to do it again. We want to make sure that we're acknowledging and affirming and encouraging people who are growing and developing and serving in our church families. So you're going to keep getting exposed to more and more of the ministries that are happening in our church beyond Sunday morning. So, Father, we want to just, let's just lift up our hands to God. I'm sure there's some this morning and I think of the needs in our church family right now. There's so many incredible challenges in people's lives that I'm aware of and there's many I'm not aware of. And you are. Some of you are walking through some very challenging moments. Let's pray this morning that God would do an amazing work of grace in every situation. And that's our prayer, Lord, that you would come, that you would minister grace, that you would bring healing and understanding, that you would bring life and hope and joy and gladness. Father, we thank you for that, that you're a God who can bring that to pass, Lord, and we just rejoice in that. Father, today we're praying that you would set people free, that you would heal those that are afflicted, that you would restore broken relationships, Father, that you would comfort those that are grieving, that you would walk besides those that are perplexed and in despair or doubt. Father, I just pray that you would meet us, Lord, today in a very profound way. And we give you thanks and praise for that in Jesus name. And God's people said, amen. Amen. You may be seated. Thank you, David. Mark, appreciate all that you do in making these ministries a reality. We're going to turn in our bibles this morning back to the Gospel of John. We're going to pick up where we left off a couple of weeks ago or a few weeks ago. We're in John chapter ten, John chapter ten beginning in verse 22.
[00:02:09] So if you've ever taken a management course, and some of us over the years of taking courses, there's a concept that is often raised which I think is really important, that we're aware of. It's called cognitive biases. The word cognitive means our mind, the way we think. Cognitive bias is basically is dealing with how we think about and we perceive things in our lives. And this is not only true, that's going to affect our work environment, but it may be even more critical in understanding cognitive bias when we're relating to each other and how it affects our personal relationships.
[00:02:52] So you say, well, what is cognitive bias? Pastor? Well, it's, while we believe what we receive information objectively, we all think that we're objective. Our brains are actually unconsciously filtering data and many times distorting our perception of reality. What? Well, what it basically means is we all have a predisposition, we all have prejudices, we all have biases in life. And when we hear information, we're listening to that information, and our brain is filtering out what you and I don't want to hear or understand. Or maybe it's a conflicting viewpoint, or maybe we're distressed if we really understood this, the way it's being presented. And so we many times will remain in a state and never change because our mind is so locked into a certain position. And I think this is important that we recognize that there's nobody that's totally objective.
[00:03:47] You know, that's a basic premise. You know, when people walk around there talking about being objective, I go, that's not quite the picture. Everybody's been shaped by the culture. Everybody's been affected by the culture. Everyone's been shaped by the environment in which they grew up in. We've all been shaped more than we realize, and I think we have to be aware of that. It's not suggesting that, you know, we have to buy into everything we hear. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is let's be aware that all of us in this room, we have certain personal biases. That's the point I'm trying to drive across this morning, and I think that's important. What makes us even more critical is that often we think we're right.
[00:04:27] You know, and that's why there's so much interpersonal difficulty in conflict, relational tensions, because both parties think they're right, you know, and we tend to be prone to make irrational decisions and inaccurate judgments about other people.
[00:04:47] You know, a lot of times we're more forgiving of ourselves than we are of others.
[00:04:52] Isn't that true?
[00:04:54] Certainly. So what makes us even more critical? I think, as I've already said, we think we're right.
[00:05:02] Cognitive biases cause us to filter out what we don't agree with. I've mentioned that this is known as confirmation bias, which simply means we're unwilling to hear the opposing point of view and are looking at those who agree with our point of view. So what we tend to do is we just. We try to continue to solidify our viewpoint.
[00:05:22] And one of the reasons why we have problems in relationships is we tend to go to people who we think will be sympathetic to the way we see life, and we want to get allies on our side. And we do things like triangulate, which means I bring people into my pain and I tell my side of the story. And then the other person that I'm frustrated with or upset with, they are painted a certain color, and this other person takes on our offense, and this happens all the time. This is a continual problem in relationships. And then when the eventual principals get their act together, maybe resolve things, the person that they've triangulated is still angry, and this other person has no idea why they're upset with them because they've been triangulated and have no idea. And that's why the Bible tells us that we shouldn't behave like that, that if we have an issue with a brother or sister, we should go to that person and talk to them one on one and resolve the confusion or the misconceptions or their difficulties, and only when we don't or unable to work through those things. That's what we ask for, people that can help us work through those issues. Now, you know, the Bible already knows all this behavior. This is nothing new. This isn't because we have great management courses or we have great counseling courses and all the rest of it. The Bible's always understood this about human nature. And the wisdom literature from the book of proverbs tells us to give consideration to the other side of every story. It says, the heart of the discerning acquires knowledge for the ears of the wise. Seek it out. In other words, we want to have an openness to hear the viewpoint of other peoples and try to figure out where they're coming from. We want to be far more understanding, because I believe part of loving people is learning to understand where other people are coming from. That's an important thing, and that takes effort on our parts. You know, proverbs 1817 says, in a lawsuit, the first to speak seems right until someone comes forward and cross examines them. You know, or the living Bible says, any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight. And so often, you know, when I'm a pastor and I hear a problem from one side, you know, if you were just to hear that one side, you think, well, that's terrible. And then the other person comes in and tells, they're tired of the story. And you go, oh, there's more to the story than I realized. And everybody's right in their own minds, and everybody sees it the way they see it and what the reality is maybe just a little different than what both parties think.
[00:07:55] I'm saying we're basically a little biased, we're a little prejudiced in our lives.
[00:08:02] And so you say, well, that seems to make a lot of sense, pastor, but the tragedy of all of this, and this is where I'm going, one of the great tragedies of Jesus interaction with some of the religious leaders in his hour was that they were unwilling to consider what Jesus was saying and doing, and therefore their blind prejudices and biases kept them from, from responding in a positive manner.
[00:08:26] And that's tragic.
[00:08:29] But what's even more tragic is what that happened 2000 years ago is that it's still happening now.
[00:08:37] And there are people who are misunderstanding who Jesus is. And sometimes, even as Christians, we misunderstand and we think we're advocating for him. And sometimes we may not be.
[00:08:51] I wrote down, it's not just true of our relationship with God, but also with others. Are we trying to understand and love others for who they are or who we want them to be?
[00:09:02] How many know we want to love people, but we're really loving some projection of what we want them to be and not really who they are?
[00:09:11] How many know it's a lot harder to love people for who they really are. Isn't that true? And to really learn to understand. You know, my sister in law made us a beautiful, I don't know how even to describe it, but it's framed. And there's a prayer of St. Francis. And I look at that so often and it says, Lord, teach me not so much seek to want to be understood as to understand, or seek so much as to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive. You see, the very things that you and I want so desperately are the very things you and I need to give to others. And in the process of giving that to others, we ourselves receive it. What I'm saying is, when you and I work at trying to understand the other person's point of view and listen to what they're really saying and try to hear their point of view, and it doesn't mean you have to agree with them. It doesn't mean that at all, but it just means that we're more open to hearing and try to be far more understanding and, you know, seeking to love people rather than to always going around, I'm a needy person, I need to be understood. I'm a needy person, I need to be loved. I'm saying, why don't we just say, God, I know I'm a needy person and I need to be understood. I know I'm a needy person, that I need to be loved. But I recognize that I can only be fully understood and loved by you. And therefore I have to work at trying to practice that into the lives of other people. And in that process, something happens to us. We're changed in that process.
[00:10:43] So in John, chapter ten, verses 22 to 42, we find now this is the end of Jesus dialogue with the religious leaders. This is the end of all of this interaction. We're going to move now quickly to chapters eleven, all the way to 21, which is the last week of Jesus life. There is not that interaction anymore. It's a focus on the disciples, it's the focus on the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. But here we come to the culmination of the conflict that Jesus is having with the people who are so biased they can't see who he really is.
[00:11:16] And so we pick up the story in verse 22. It says, then came the festival of dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's colonnade. And here we have a brief introduction to the section of the dialogue and possibly a reason that Jesus was teaching in Solomon's colonnade was maybe a shelter from the adverse weather that was happening. Because, you know, it does rain in Israel. It can be a little cold in the wintertime there. And so this was in the wintertime. Bruce Mild Milne describes the background of this particular feast, the feast of dedication. He says, unlike the other feasts, which had ancient biblical roots, this particular feast had its origin in comparatively recent history. In 167 BC, when the assyrian emperor Anticus Epiphanes was attempting to establish uniformity of worship throughout his empire, he desecrated the temple in Jerusalem by an erecting and altered zeus. This is the thing that Jesus talks about, the desecration of abomination. It happened 167 BC, he says, in a heroic struggle. Judas Maccabeus. This is the Maccabeans part of the story. They led an ultimately successful revolt against the Syrians. And in December 164 BC, the temple was deconsecrated in an eight day celebration. It was reconsecrated, not de re consecrated. This became an annual joyous commemoration of the victory and the restoration of freedom. Of worship. So most people today know this festival as Hanukkah. Some of you go, oh, what's Hanukkah about? Okay. Hanukkah is the lighting of the menorah, the candles. Remember the eight candles? That's to commemorate the fact that their temple was desecrated. But now it was reconsecrated, and the light came back into their temple, the light of God's presence.
[00:13:14] And so it's a reminder of that. Okay? And I think this is very significant because the discussion we're gonna see relates something very powerful along this line. Kenneth Gangl says it this way. The feast of dedication was also known as the feast of lights, pointing to a time when the Messiah would come to the temple and throw out all of the invaders, thereby reestablishing God's kingdom. These grand visions persisted in the israeli nation until the sack by the Romans in AD 70. In other words, then the temple was no longer there. Therefore, they lost that image of what the messiah was going to come and do.
[00:13:48] It's interesting, though, when you have a biased, you're not open to new ideas.
[00:13:57] There's the problem.
[00:13:59] So, with this background in mind, we understand now this ensuing dialogue between Jesus and these particular jewish leaders. And at the heart of the issue is the claims of Jesus and their refusal, on their part, open their hearts and minds to understand who he really is.
[00:14:18] What we believe and how we respond to Jesus is probably the most critical aspect of human existence.
[00:14:25] Because if Jesus is who he says he is, and I believe he is, that, then what we believe about Jesus and how we respond to Jesus is going to totally affect our entire being for all of eternity. And that's pretty significant. That's why I wrote this statement. It is the most critical aspect. There's nothing more important than this response to Jesus.
[00:14:49] When we finally come to the place in our lives where we understand that life is not all about my life, my rights, and realize that God created us for a specific purpose in order to bring glory and honor to his name, then life becomes for us what God intended it to be.
[00:15:09] What am I saying? You and I have to make a major paradigm shift in our lives. Because, let's face it, when we were born, it's about us, a child. It's all about them. And part of the maturing process is moving away from it's all about me to it becomes, it's not about me.
[00:15:25] It's about God. It's about other people. It's about finding my way in God's design and plan to begin to understand that I'm here for a purpose. But it's not about making a name for myself or creating a legacy or any of those things. It's to bring glory and honor to God by doing what he designed me to do.
[00:15:44] How many say that's a pretty big shift, and a lot of people never get there, but we need to get there because that's where the real joy and that's where the real abundant life really begins to emerge. And so I want to take a look at two issues in shaping our personal biases in relationships. And the first one, it's all going to focus around Jesus, because I believe that's the key point that changes everything in our lives. And first of all, we need to understand the nature of the mission of Jesus. And Jesus is going to bring it out. The idea of a messiah, a deliverer who was to come from God and to set the people free. Just like Moses had come in the midst of their bondage. He came, in a sense, like a deliverer, to set the people free. And God used Moses.
[00:16:27] And now there was an expectation in the hour in which Jesus lived that another deliverer would come and set him free from the oppression, not of Egypt, but of Rome.
[00:16:37] There was a great diversity surrounding their understanding of the nature and the mission and the purpose of the messiah. But none of them anticipated how they were to be delivered and who was to deliver them and what they were going to be delivered from.
[00:16:56] Because, you see, when you and I have the wrong idea and our expectations are wrong, then we're totally disappointed with God. And I think too many christians are walking around totally disappointed with God because they have the wrong expectation.
[00:17:07] We have to have the right expectation.
[00:17:10] Watch what they say here. So I put down, what is frightening is that God often works in ways that we do not expect, and we often miss what he's doing. And we can be disappointed and frustrated when our personal expectations of God are not realized. And over the years, I've seen this over and over again. So the term messiah, it means anointed one, it is someone who comes from God. It's the basic idea of a deliverer that would bring freedom and restoration to the nation. But most understand this deliverance in terms of a political or a military victory over others. What Jesus came to do is bring deliverance on behalf of all of humanity over our greatest problem, which is sin, our sin, the world sin, so that you and I could be freed from its consequences. Which, simply put, is we become separated from God and we experience eternal death.
[00:18:10] That's what death is really ultimately is eternal separation from God. And so you say, well, yeah, but people die all the time past. Did they physically die? I'm going, yeah. If you're a believer, you're not separated from God. You're with God.
[00:18:23] So that's a whole different ballgame. You know, you're just being separated from your physical, earthly body. That's it.
[00:18:30] So the question as to Jesus mission starts out in verse 24. This is a great question. Notice what he's saying. The Jews who were there gathered around him saying, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the messiah, tell us plainly.
[00:18:48] Okay. How many say that's a pretty direct question.
[00:18:52] Jesus said, I did tell you, but you do not believe the works I do in my father's name, they're testifying about me. But you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
[00:19:09] So what is Jesus saying? I've been demonstrating for you through signs and miracles.
[00:19:14] And what I've been telling you, I've been telling you all along, I am the messiah. What I'm doing, nobody else could do. I mean, I think I shared this a number of weeks ago. Jesus is the only person that's ever brought healing to blind eyes. And Isaiah actually taught that God himself would come and help people be able to see, physically see. I mean, there were scriptures backing up what Jesus was doing. Jesus wasn't just doing this, you know, like we read it when we don't have a background in it, and we just go, that's kind of nice. But when you have a background in the Old Testament, you realize that what he's doing is showing the people that he is the messiah, but they can't get it. Some are getting it, but a lot of them aren't. Okay, now the reason.
[00:20:02] But Jesus himself had only said it implicitly and not explicitly. In other words, Jesus hadn't directly said he was the messiah, he just showed him he was the messiah.
[00:20:13] And da Carson says the term messiah, or its greek equivalent, Christ, had too many political and military connotations in the first century, Palestine and such overtones Jesus was always careful to avoid.
[00:20:27] More importantly, even if Jesus had spoken with utmost clarity, the Jews would not have believed on him.
[00:20:33] John himself is convinced that the actual record of Jesus words and works with all of its restraints was more than enough to bring people to believe that he was the son of God. And it was Jesus. When Jesus says, I did tell you, he's not referring to an explicit statement. Had he spoken that plainly, they would have misunderstood him for their notions of messiahship would not embrace a suffering servant or a kingdom, not immediately political and militarily. You see, in other words, Jesus, if I'm the messiah, they wouldn't have understood. Jesus would have said, hey, listen, he tried to tell his own disciples that I have to die and suffer, and they didn't get it. It just went right over their heads. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, it still wasn't registering what was going on. They did not grasp this concept that Jesus had to die in order to bring freedom and life to humanity. They just didn't get it. And so that's why Jesus wouldn't just say to them, oh, yeah, I'm the messiah, to the jewish people, because they had the wrong understanding and he knew that.
[00:21:40] So the real issue that was really impeding their acknowledgement of Jesus was simply they had a prejudiced mind.
[00:21:49] They were already locked in. Their thinking was wrong.
[00:21:52] And, you know, really what is repentance? It's a change of mind.
[00:21:58] You have to, it's all of a sudden you have this awakening where you go, oh, I get it, or I've been on the wrong track all along, or, oh, I have an epiphany, I get it now. I was going in the wrong direction. How many have ever had that experience in your life where you finally figured out you were lost and if you're married, your wife is telling you we're lost.
[00:22:24] Do you know what I'm saying? You have to have that moment where you recognize you're going to have to change directions because you're not going in the right direction. You know, I tell the story all the time. I had a vehicle that had a little compass on it and we were in Calgary for some reason. I was on our anniversary years and years ago and I was looking at this compass and no kidding, I really, I usually have a terrific sense of direction, but for some reason I thought I was going in the exact opposite direction. I was going in and we were getting further away from the hotel we were staying at. And I finally, I looked at this compass and I'm looking at it and everything inside of me is saying the compass is wrong.
[00:23:02] I wanted to argue with that compass, but, you know, things were getting less familiar as I was driving.
[00:23:10] And so finally I turned around and I went in the opposite direction. And eventually I just kept following the compass. And that led me back to places where I recognized and eventually got back to the hotel. I was totally lost in going in the wrong direction. And that is so true of so many people. In their lives. They think they're going in the right direction, but the reality is they're lost and they're going in the wrong direction.
[00:23:33] We need to go in the right direction.
[00:23:38] So when you begin to interpret what others are saying through a wrong lens, you end up making terrible decisions. Jesus identifies their problems as a lack of willingness to really understand who he is and therefore enter into a relationship with him. And what happens is that they are threatened by him. Those who are open to Jesus would encounter a transformation in their lives and begin to follow him. What was true then is equally true today. If we embrace Jesus and accept him for who he is and begin to follow him, change will happen in our lives.
[00:24:12] Listen, Jesus says it this way in verse 27. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them. And what do they do?
[00:24:18] They follow me. That's a very powerful point. Gerald Bochert relates. Their problem, Jesus said, was not lack of information, but failure to belong to a sheepfold. Basically, his sheep understood his works, his words, the indication of true knowing, once again.
[00:24:38] So accordingly, Jesus knew them, and the evidence knowing him, by following him. And once again, John makes clear that his words and works are from the father.
[00:24:50] He is God's messiah, he's God's agent, he's God himself. Come to earth. That Jesus message is not just about cognitive knowledge. This is an important statement. It's not just about what we know in our heads. It's not just cognitive, but it's about a personal relationship with him that's important. But look at the benefits of following Jesus. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my father's hands. Now, Jesus is saying something very profound here. He's saying, both the father and I are the same. You know, the father gives me the sheep and I keep them, and there's, nobody's going to take God's people away from him. You know, we come back to this beautiful analogy, and I love it. It's the shepherd and sheep. Jesus is bringing it right back. This is chapter ten. He's right there talking about this stuff, and he says he reminds them of this beautiful analogy, and we find it in the Old Testament. It says, come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker. That's a great declaration. Recognizing, God is my maker. I'm accountable to him. Number two, he is our God, and we are the people of his pastor, the fourth under his care. How many are so glad you're a sheep in God's fold? I am so thankful. Isn't that beautiful? He's going to take care of us, he says. Do we really believe that he's taking care of us? I do. I believe God will take care of us.
[00:26:21] Here we see Jesus shares this identical purpose with the father. He gives people eternal life. Eternal life is found in a person. It's found in a relationship with Jesus. This is what it means to have life. It's to know Christ, it's to know God, it's to know Jesus as the messiah, to know him as our savior. That's life, you know, and then he goes on, we'll never perish. This speaks of being confident of God's keeping grace. God not only saves us, he keeps us. We're saved by grace, we're kept by grace.
[00:26:56] We just have to learn to keep trusting and following him, you know?
[00:27:01] Even though we may be weak, as we trust him, his grace will be sufficient. You can be the weakest Christian in the world, but if you're trusting Christ, you're fine. You know, how many know? You may be afraid of walking on the ice, but if it's, you know, 3ft deep, you're probably fine to walk on it. You may be having problems getting on it, you might be afraid to do that, but once you're there, you're not going down, you see? So it's not your faith it's trusting in, it's the faith whom you have it in. It's the person you have it in. You know, we ourselves may look at ourselves and go, I'm weak. But I think what we need to understand is we're trusting someone who's strong. There's the difference, you know? Rodney Whitaker relates the theological tension in these texts. You know, there's been a lot of tension in the church over the centuries. He says, in this passage of infinite comfort, this gospel touches once again upon the mysteries of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. In other words, what's God's part, what's my part? Right. We have both the call of God and the response of faith on the part of the sheep. Then he goes on to say, bf Westcott captures the balance well when he says we must distinguish between the certainty of God's promises and his infinite power on the one hand, and the weakness and variableness of man's will on the other. You know, what's he saying? God is consistent and we are inconsistent.
[00:28:27] If man falls at any stage in his spiritual life, it's not from want of divine grace. In other words, we can't make excuses. God's there to keep us through the whole process, and he will, not even from the overwhelming power of adversaries, but from his neglect to use that which he may or may not use. We cannot be protected against ourselves in spite of ourselves. He who ceases to hear and follow is thereby shown to be no true believer. What's he saying now? This isn't about your ability or inability. This is about just continuing to trust and follow Christ. You may not understand everything. Matter of fact, I don't think anybody understands everything. There's not one of us. He goes on to say, the sense of the divine protection is at any moment sufficient to inspire confidence, but not to render effort unnecessarily. So what is he saying? We still have human responsibility. We still need to obey God. We still need to trust God. That's our human part.
[00:29:23] But God's part is to save us. You and I can't save ourselves.
[00:29:28] Okay, let me go on here and talk about, and I like what Gerald Bouchard explains that it wasn't until later in the church's history that we've had more of a struggle with this. But he said, the early church, the perishing of sheep. I don't know. This is. Did I skip something?
[00:29:45] I guess it's not in my notes here on the overhead. The perishing of true sheep was an unthinkable idea to early Christians. But contemporary Christians often wrestled with the question because they failed to perceive the logic of the biblical writers. Moreover, they often feared to read thoroughly texts like hebrews six. The biblical writers did not have such a super superficial view of salvation that one would consider walking down the aisle of a church and going through waters of baptism to be a guarantee of salvation. In other words, it's not just what we're doing, that's not what guarantees anything. Nor did the biblical writers have a superficial temporal view of salvation based on an inadequate understanding of John three three. Another passage, John three three says, you must be born again.
[00:30:29] What is he saying? He's basically saying, look, when you and I are truly regenerated, we're saved and we are eternally saved.
[00:30:38] Okay? We just, we have to be regenerated. That's it. Here's what he's saying. We have to be a person who has a transformed nature. He goes on to say here, instead, the biblical writers have no problem placing side by side texts concerning God's love, grace and covenant promises with God's stern warnings to the readers of scripture. Then he goes on to say this in the same manner, verse 26 must not be used by christian theologians, and verse 26 says, you do not believe because you're not my sheep. To formulate the devastating theory of retribution or the theology of predestination to damnation, frequently used by the non technical designation of double predestination. In other words, there's people that are predestined to go to hell. That's what he's saying. We can't do that. Great care must be observed to avoid such proof texting theology, because 1038, Jesus is continuing to invite jews to believe. When one searches scripture carefully, one generally discovers the continuing tension between the grace of God and human responsibility for decision making.
[00:31:47] To be faithful to the biblical tension and present both God as truly God and humans is truly responsible is the task of adequate biblical interpretation. Let me just say it this way. I'm going to break this down because, I mean, he's a theologian. He's saying it in a theological way. Real simple.
[00:32:04] People make choices, and everyone that goes to hell makes that choice. It's really weird to say it that way, but it's true.
[00:32:15] When you don't choose God, you're actually choosing the alternative. Think of hell as the absence of God.
[00:32:23] If you think of hell that way, it makes total sense. Then I'm either choosing to be with God, which is what heaven is all about, or I'm choosing to be absent from God, which is what hell is all about.
[00:32:34] And we have a choice. And people who don't choose people are choosing to go to hell because they don't want God. And people are making that. That's human responsibility, and we've made that choice. So we can't go around blaming God for the fact that we're going to end up in the wrong place if we have the opportunity to respond to Christ and he's making an invitation, come to me, come to me. He's always doing that. Now notice the response of these people.
[00:33:03] I wrote it. The murderous intent of these opponents to Christ's claims. He says, I and the father are one against again. The jewish opponents pick up stones to stone him. But Jesus says to them, I've shown you many good works from the father. For which of these do you stone me? Now here's my picture. They've got rocks in their hands. How many think this is kind of courageous? They're picking up rocks to throw rocks at Jesus. Some of us at that moment say, I don't think I want to stay around here? These guys are not friendlies, not a friendly group of people. They're pretty intense, right? And Jesus now calmly says to them, oh, by the way, why are you going to stone me? What work have I done that's causing you to want to create such anger inside of you that you want to kill me? Does anybody see the courage of Christ standing here at this moment? And why is he doing that? Because at that moment, Jesus still loves these individuals and cares about them, and he's asking them to think about what they're doing.
[00:34:03] So Jesus statement of being one with the father has caused this profound reaction inside of them. The hearers now are intent on killing him. Jesus, however, is still reaching out in loving grace. And that's the mystery of God's amazing loving grace, that he keeps extending eternal life to people even when they're on the verge of killing him and even when they have crucified him. What is he doing from the cross?
[00:34:32] He's forgiving them. He's extending love. And this tells me a little secret. The only way to overcome the biases, the prejudices, the hurts, the anger and the confusion in people is to love them.
[00:34:47] And that's the christian message, folks. We are to love our enemies. We are to love people. And we have to think about how we're treating people that don't agree with us. Are we really loving them? Let me move my other point here, simply understanding the identity of Jesus. Throughout the Old Testament, we know God sent, delivers, right? Judges, prophets came and spoke, but Jesus now is the ultimate judge. He's the ultimate deliverer, he's the ultimate prophet. He's the ultimate spokesperson, because he's God himself, and he's going to lead people away from the ultimate bondage, which is sin. So here we see his oneness with the father. When Jesus says that he and the father are one, we have to understand what he meant here. He doesn't mean, you know, again, I'm going to quote Gerald Bouchard. He says this. The first matter to note is that the word one here in the greek language, there's neuter and there's masculine and feminine. In the greek language, he said, this word here is not in the masculine, it's in the neuter. So the text is not arguing for a oneness of personalities or Persona, to use the latin concept, because that's a latin concept that we have. We're persons, but rather something akin to oneness of purpose and will. So here it is. Jesus now and the father are one they're not the same person. A lot of people get confused. There's one God, but there's three persons. And Jesus is actually in union to such a degree with the father that whatever he thinks and wants to accomplish and does is totally in unity with the Holy Spirit and the Father. That, to me, is so amazing. See, that's part of us maturing as believers. When we start getting in step with the spirit of God and the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of the Father, we are surrendering and uniting our will so that we come into agreement with their will.
[00:36:38] We actually start loving him and understanding him and knowing his purposes and will that we align our lives with it. It's beautiful. And that's what Jesus is modeling here. Having made this point, however, it must be stated immediately. There's no intention here of speaking about two separate gods or of a certain asserting the arian denial of Jesus as God. Such ideas find no support in John's gospel and his understanding of Christ. Matter of fact, he goes on throughout the gospel. We keep seeing that Jesus is showing to us that he is God in the flesh, right from the beginning to the end. So Jesus now is the son of God. Jesus hears, understand what Jesus is saying, in essence, making the claim that he's God. He said, I and the father are what? Going, wait a minute. We want to kill you because you're blaspheming. You're saying you're claiming to be God. You're just a mere man.
[00:37:29] So this is their response. They said, oh, we're not stoning you for any good work. They replied, but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God. See, they could not conceive. God, who is a spirit, could become a man. They could not conceive in their limited biases that God himself was standing before them.
[00:37:51] How many are beginning to realize that? This is kind of a challenge, isn't it, when we begin to see that when we have preconceived ideas, it limits us to what the possibilities are. So Jesus says to them, I love Jesus. He just pulls scripture. He just pulls the scripture up and he goes, oh, haven't you guys, isn't it written in your law? I have said you are God's.
[00:38:12] He says, I'm the son of God. Yeah, but the Bible says that you're gods. What are you talking about? Well, if he called them gods, to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be set aside, what about whom?
[00:38:27] Okay, yeah, what about the one whom the father set apart as his very own and sent into the world. Why do you accuse me of blasphemy? Because I am God's son. What is Jesus doing? He's quoting psalm 82 and speaking and saying this idea in that text. And I looked at that text carefully this week. It says this.
[00:38:49] The gods know nothing.
[00:38:52] They understand nothing. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, you are gods. This is the text Jesus is quoting. You are all sons of the most high, but you will die like mere mortals. You will fall like every other ruler.
[00:39:10] What is Jesus? What's the scripture's teaching? These were actually human leaders that God was calling sons of God. And so Jesus goes, hey, I'm not saying anything. The scriptures aren't saying.
[00:39:23] I'm making an argument from scripture. Look, the Bible itself talks about human beings as sons of God, so I'm a son of God. That's his argument. Why are you guys upset by what I said now? I think Jesus is saying a little bit more.
[00:39:39] Rodney Whitaker says the psalm is actually a condemnation of the judges for not exercising their responsibilities faithfully. Psalm 82. That's what it's about. Thus corresponding both to the condemnation of these jewish leaders in John's gospel and to Jesus as the true judge. In other words, he's saying, you know, you guys, you know, you're going to die like mortal men. Remember that last verse there in the psalm? He's making an argument here. He's making a point. The point. Jesus is using an argument from the lesser to the greater. He does it a lot. It's a very common argument in the ancient world. Jewish rabbis used it. He compares the people who are called gods to himself, the son of God. They merely receive the word of God, whereas Jesus is the one whom the father set apart as his own and sent into the world. Here is a succinct summary of the central truth of his identity, which has been emphasized throughout this gospel. He is using the language of an agent, but the implication is that he existed with the father before coming into the world. Thus he is putting himself in the category of the law that was given by God rather than the category of the one, one of the recipients of that law.
[00:40:49] There is a lot of information right there, but the point being is simply this. Jesus is saying, look, I am the son of God. I am, but I'm more than that. And we know he's more than that. We know from other texts of scripture he's more than that. But he's telling them, don't stone me because you guys are so locked into your viewpoint again, they're blind to what's really happening here. And then we see here the unity of the father and the Son. Do not believe me unless I do the works of my father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I in the father. Jesus is now giving a task for both himself and us. If a person claims to be God's son or daughter and does not do God's will, that person's not a true believer, not a true son or daughter. What Jesus was simply saying was, if what he had been doing was consistent with the nature of God and demonstrated the power of God, why did they not believe and attribute his work to God?
[00:41:56] And the reason? The answer is because they were biased.
[00:42:01] The mixed response to the message, and I'm going to close with this again, they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. Jesus went back across the Jordan to a place where John had been baptizing in the early days. And there he stayed. And many people came to him. They said, though John never performed a song sign. All that John said about this man was true. And that place. And in that place, many believe in Jesus. So John ends this narrative section with the response of the people to their encounter. And what we see is two responses. One is this intensifying anger and murderous intent on the part of certain people.
[00:42:34] And then there's because, I'm saying, because of their cognitive biases, and the others become believers in Jesus because of the good works they're seeing and the consistency in his life, and they become followers of Jesus. And how many see now? There's only two responses. You're either going to believe or you don't believe. It comes down to that. There's only one of two responses. And we're also confronted, even in the 21st century, with the person of Jesus. Who is he. And in John's gospel we have this continuous presentation of who Jesus is and people continuously having a problem with accepting that.
[00:43:11] And how many know not deciding for Jesus is a decision.
[00:43:15] You're saying, no, you know, I'm going to close with CS Lewis, mere Christianity, this amazing quote. This is Lewis now concluding in his lectures on mere Christianity. He says this, Jesus told people that their sins were forgiven. This makes sense only if he really was God, whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin.
[00:43:36] I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him. Jesus I'm ready to accept jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't want to accept his claims to be God.
[00:43:48] That's the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You can't shut him up for a fool, and you can't. Or can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But he said, let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He's not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
[00:44:20] And that's where we are in our lives.
[00:44:24] We got to make a decision about Jesus.
[00:44:27] It's the most important decision in the entire scope of time.
[00:44:34] We have to make a decision. Let's stand.
[00:44:40] We're either for him and we believe who he is and we follow him or we say no to him. But you know what?
[00:44:49] Then we can't blame him.
[00:44:51] We can never blame him. We can't say, well, I didn't have a choice. Oh, yeah, we do. We do have a choice.
[00:44:57] Say yes to God. No to God. Yes to Christ. No to Christ.
[00:45:02] We're either for Christ or Antichrist.
[00:45:06] How many understand? If you're not walking with Christ and for Christ, you're Antichrist.
[00:45:12] You are Antichrist.
[00:45:14] It means you're saying no. The word anti in Greek means no. You're no to Christ. You're giving a no to Christ answer.
[00:45:22] We have a choice. We either decide to have God in our lives or no God in our lives. We either embrace what heaven has to offer or what hell has to offer.
[00:45:31] It comes down to that. It's just that simple. And once we get that and we choose to say yes to Jesus and we ask him to forgive us and to cleanse us, the work of transformation at that point begins in our life. And here's the beautiful thing. As you and I keep following Jesus, you know what he does? He keeps working on you. How many here can tell me honestly, you're not the same person you were 20 years ago.
[00:46:01] Go look in the mirror.
[00:46:03] You're not the same person you were 20 years ago.
[00:46:06] That's biology, right?
[00:46:09] Can I say something to you? If you've been a Christian now for a while, you're not the same person you were that day. You started the journey.
[00:46:16] You don't know it yet, but you're different.
[00:46:19] You're growing, you're changing. You're moving from victory to victory, from faith to faith, from grace to grace. There's things happening in my life right now that would have happened, you know, 30 years ago. I couldn't handle it. But something's happened since then. Christ has been working, developing, showing, guiding, changing, renewing, transforming. And he's doing that to all of us who are followers of his. And I believe that the genuine believer, let me tell you, the genuine believer just keeps following. It's a call to follow. Come and see. Come and follow. Come and follow Christ. That's the call. And that's the call that's being made right now. Come and follow Jesus. And if you're here this morning and you don't know him, and you haven't been following him, and I mean really know him, I'm not talking about an intellectual assent to an idea. I'm talking about following Jesus. If you're not following Jesus, are you really a believer? See, that's what these guys are talking about when we talk about, you know, I believe if you're really a believer, God's going to keep you. See, that's the point. What's being determined in our lives? Are we really a believer? Are we really a follower? Are we really following Jesus? Are we really trusting him? Or are we just, you know, intellectually assenting to some ideas and propositions about Jesus? Big difference.
[00:47:36] God wants to bring about change, transformation.
[00:47:40] He's here to give us life.
[00:47:42] Our world is offering us death. How many are understanding this culture is promulgating and promoting death continuously? Now, I could just go down and list all the things that our society is about. It's all pro death.
[00:47:55] It's all pro death, folks.
[00:47:59] I'm for life.
[00:48:00] Jesus is about life. Jesus wants to give us eternal life. And when we get to know him, we get eternal life.
[00:48:09] Man, you just move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You move from, you know, death to life. Isn't that beautiful? All you have to do is say yes to Jesus. All you gotta do is say, I want you, Jesus. I want to follow you, Jesus. I believe you're the savior. I believe you're the messiah, the one who's here to take away my sins. I believe and I want to follow just with every head bowed this morning, I'm going to pray. That's you this morning listening via stream or, you know, it's recorded now. I don't know how you're hearing this or reading this or you're standing right here in this congregation, but the. This morning you're saying, I want to say yes to Jesus.
[00:48:56] Just raise your hand. That's you. You're saying, I want to follow.
[00:49:00] God bless you. Someone else. See, I prayed this morning people would get saved. Yes, someone. That's a couple people. That's great. Yes, I see that hand, too. It's great. People are responding. Beautiful. Beautiful. You can lower your hands. It's great.
[00:49:17] You're saying yes to Jesus. Just say, yep. I'm going to follow you, Jesus. I'm turning my life over to you. I'm surrendering to you. I'm going to just trust you and follow. I'm going to allow life to reign. And I just thank you for that, Lord. I pray for the rest of us. We'll just keep following. We'll just keep following to the day we're in your presence. And we just thank you for that. What a beautiful gift you've given us. The gift of yourself. No greater gift than you can give than the gift of yourself. And you've done that for us. We thank you. You, Lord, just continue to work grace in these hearts that are responded this morning. Help them to keep coming, growing, learning, discovering, developing. Lord, allow that grace to really mature in their lives. And I just thank you for that. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you as you leave this morning.
