00:00 Intro music and voice over.
Welcome to jesus loves the world podcast. For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!
00:20 Speaker
As we celebrate who God is and all He has done through the 300 Jesus loves the world podcast messages, we will revisit the most popular episode of each of the five years. The most popular episodes of the fourth year is Who Are You?
In amongst conflict and confusion, confrontation and calamity the truth remains. The Apostle John was part of Jesus’ inner circle and was privy to many intimate moments.
He was the one who rested on the chest of Jesus as they shared their last meal together. He was there on the mountain top where he saw the glory of Jesus and heard the voice of God the Father. Together they were in the garden where he heard Jesus pray, not my will Father but yours be done. He was there at the foot of the cross where he saw the sacrificial love of Jesus and God the Father.
He had seen, touched and testified of the resurrected body of Jesus and His return to God the Father.
He declared in his letter 1 John 1:1-3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
Yes John was there. He knew and experienced a deep revelation of the relationship of God the Son and God the Father.
By the Holy Spirit he wrote about this powerful truth and as an introduction to his gospel he said in John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word of God, God who became flesh in Jesus the Son, sent from the Father full of grace and truth. Jesus was and is the very essence of God.
Therefore as we come to the text today let us receive a greater revelation of who God is and who we are in Him through the eyes and ears of the one who referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. The beloved John.
John 10:22-30 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
The Work of the Eternal One
Jesus did everything in His Father’s name, as a revelation and sign to the Father’s will. He is the embodiment of His Kingdom, power and glory, testifying of the heart of the Father.
He turned death into life, darkness into light, sickness into health, shame into honour, captivity into freedom, blindness into sight and condemnation into transformation. This is the will of the Father, so that we may believe and receive.
Everything Jesus did testifies of who He is and who the Father is, as the two are one. Together as one God, Father, Son and Spirit created the heavens and the earth, spoke forth the stars into the night sky, the sun into our daytime and gave the breathe of life into our beings.
They have been working since the beginning, relentlessly pursuing in love, to give life, liberty and healing for all eternity. This is the heart of the Father. This is the heart of the Son.
John 5:17-24 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Since the beginning of time God has been working, creating, loving, pursuing, revealing Himself to a lost a dying world. In that moment of time when Jesus walked the earth as a man, we see the visible representation of the invisible Eternal One who created. The giver of life itself.
God the Father and God the Son have the divine characteristics of eternal life. The Eternal One who had life in Himself gives eternal life. Only God is eternal, self existing and uncreated. Only God can give eternal life as one cannot give what one doesn’t have. Eternal life given by the Father and the Son.
The Word of the Eternal One
God has spoken. He has spoken clearly and what He has said is true. Those who believe and receive Him acknowledge and honour Him.
If they honour the Father they honour the Son. If they honour the Son, they honour the Father.
Jesus also spoke very clearly to His enemies saying that they do not believe Him because they are not His sheep. They do not receive Him and therefore as a result do not know Him or are identified with Him. They chose to reject God and as a result they rejected the Son, who was sent from the Father.
If the reject the Son they reject the Father. If they reject the Father they reject the Son.
The heart of the Father is that no one should perish yet because He so loves He gives each one a free choice. The Father knows those who will come to Him and those who will never come to Him, yet He still pursues in love.
John 6:37-40 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
God invites all to come, yet there are those who choose to reject Him. In His infinite love and amazing grace God receives us just as we are. No matter who we are or what we have done.
All those who come to Jesus and believe and receive Him come to the Father, are given by the Father and sustained by the Son. They are entrusted into His care and can never be lost again.
The Eternal One has spoken. His Word cannot be changed or contradicted. His Word is eternal and gives life everlasting.
This eternal life is more than a unending existence. It is a passing over from condemnation to acceptance, shame to honour, death to life and live in a continual love relationship with the Eternal One.
Eternal life is the present possession of everyone who has believed and received the Son. It will be fully realised when we receive our perfect glorified bodies. Resurrected bodies that never get sick, never wear out and never die. Until then we live in these mortal bodies possessing eternal life. The here and now is an entree for the full eternal love feast of resurrection life.
The outworking of our salvation and final fulfilment is entrusted into the care of Jesus. Those who come to Him are His sheep. His sheep know Him, receive Him and are identified with Him.
Those who are His are given eternal life. Only God is eternal and only God can give of Himself and eternal life. Jesus explains.
Let us read again John 10:28-30. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
Jesus is the Eternal One who gives those who are His, eternal life. Life abundant that can never be taken away. A life that means they shall never perish.
It is because of who Jesus is that He can give eternal life. It is because of what He has done we are enabled to believe and receive.
That means when we receive Him we are entrusted into His hand. Into His care and provision as He is our Good Shepherd. He holds us in His nail pierced hands as proof of His sacrificial love. The perfect love of God.
Around the nail pierced hands of the Son are the hands of the Father.
Like everything that Jesus does this preserving of our salvation and eternal destiny is not independent of the Father. All that Jesus says and does is the embodiment of the Father’s will, enabling us to believe and receive.
This means that it is the Father Himself who ultimately stands behind the preservation of Jesus’ sheep. For the Son and the Father are one.
In the first instance, those whom the Father has given to the Son are the disciples who journeyed with Jesus when He walked the earth as a man.
Just before the cross Jesus entrusted their care back to the Father, as He was about to physically die. This was not the end.
Jesus rose from the dead and ascended on high at the right hand of the Father. All those throughout human history who come to Him are entrusted into His eternal care. The Son will resurrect them all on the last day when He returns in all His glory.
There can be no greater security than abiding in the nail pierced hands of Jesus, our Lord and saviour. In His hands is our assurance of salvation, our perseverance of victory and our hope of eternal life. All of which is wrapped up in arms of our Father.
Yes John was there. In his gospel he reveals the heart of God and how in His great love reached down into our darkness, chaos, rebellion and unbelief. So that we may believe and receive.
John 20:30-31 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 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.
19:40 Outro music and voice over.
For more information and free resources visit our website jesuslovestheworld.info Be blessed empowered and transformed in Jesus’ name!