Sheep, Storms, And The Savior

A storm gathers in Jerusalem as Jesus walks under the lights of Hanukkah and makes a claim that confronts every heart: He will lay down His life and take it up again. We follow the tension between religious control and humble seeking, tracing how evidence, prophecy, and mercy converge to reveal the Messiah. When leaders press Him to “tell us plainly,” He points to His works—opening blind eyes, fulfilling Scripture, and offering eternal life with a promise no rival can match: no one will snatch His sheep from His hand.

We unpack why security in Christ is more than a feeling; it’s a reality anchored in the unity of the Father and the Son. Accused of blasphemy, Jesus answers with Psalm 82, exposing failed leadership and clarifying what true representation of God looks like. The conversation becomes a mirror for us today: will we cling to status and certainty without surrender, or will we test the claims, weigh the works, and step into trust? Along the way, Hanukkah’s backstory sheds light on faith under pressure, and Jesus stands as the faithful Light who does not fade.

The scene shifts beyond the Jordan where John once baptized—no spectacle, no headlines—just ready hearts and steady witness. John’s voice still clears the path: less of me, more of Him. Many believe there, and the question reaches us with fresh force: which group are we in—the controlling or the contrite, the critics or the sheep who hear His voice?

If this conversation stirred you, share the episode with a friend, subscribe for more verse-by-verse studies, and leave a review telling us what evidence most moved you. Your story might help someone else take the next step.

Come On Up is the radio ministry of The Mountain Cross in Waynesville North Carolina. To learn more about us please visit: TheMountainCross.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

The things that John spoke about him were true. We do believe that this he is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. And many believed in him there because they had hearts that were ready to receive the Lord. They were seeking and they were finding, as opposed to the Pharisees that were all about keeping their power and the way they thought the word should read instead of seeking after the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

One of the saddest commentaries in the Bible is that of the religious leaders. They were intelligent, influential, and anticipating the Messiah. And yet, as Jesus walked the earth, fulfilled prophecies, and performed miracles, they accused him and in the end killed him. In today's message, Pastor Carl encourages you to walk away from your pride, arrogance, or whatever is holding you back from accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Look around you and see him in everything. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

But I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. Now we've seen, and we'll see again here, a few times where they've taken up stones to crucify him, to kill him, and they were looking to kill him. And Jesus was able to escape because it was not yet his time. But when we see the crucifixion and we see the roles of the Jewish leaders in there, even the manipulated Jewish people and the Roman government all participating in crucifying Jesus, the truth of the matter is he allowed those situations to happen because it was he that would lay down his life for his friends, for his sheep. He lays down his own life at the appointed time, and he raises himself back up again. This is a neat little trivia question. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The answer is Jesus did. The answer is the Father did, and the answer is the Holy Spirit did. Do a little search on that. There are different verses in the Bible that say different members of the Trinity actually rose Jesus from the dead. But Jesus says, I have the power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father. This is the directive, this is the reason I'm here to come and to serve my sheep, to lay down my life and to raise it back up again. To lay down and take the sin of the world upon myself, so that those who believe could have the righteousness of God and be part of my grand family. Therefore, there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. See, they didn't all not believe. Some of them thought, but some of them were so far steeped in their tradition, in their goals, in their power, that many of them said, He has a demon and he is mad. Why do you listen to him? And the others would say, hey, wait a minute. These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? They were putting two and two together and they weren't necessarily coming to a conclusion yet, but hold on here. Before we condemn the man, you're saying something that probably isn't true because look at what he's done. And as we go on, this is what Jesus will appeal to. Look at my works. If you don't believe me, look at the things that I've done. Don't these reflect the things that the Messiah would do when he comes? Now, it was the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem. So between verses 21 and 22, it could be that there was a couple months that passed. We were just at the end of the feast of the tabernacles, and now we're at the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem, which is in December, which is the holiday of Hanukkah, which is not one of those festivals that are prescribed in the law. Hanukkah is a celebration of something that happened in the intertestament period between the Old and New Testaments. And it was an amazing thing, and I invite you to dig a little deeper because Hanukkah is a great study in seeing how God moved and how it's a picture of Jesus and how he is the light of the world. And of course, Hanukkah has the Hanukkah lights that never went out for a week. Do a study on that. But that's the time of year it was, and if people ever say Jesus didn't celebrate Hanukkah, here is the fact that he did. It was the feast of dedication or the feast of Hanukkah in Jerusalem, and it was winter. Another definition of winter was a storm is brewing. We have a lot of storms in winter time, and we believe that John is using this as a picture, a sign that, you know, it's winter time, and a storm is brewing. Another storm is brewing. In verse 23, Jesus walked into the temple, into Solomon's porch, a place where people would gather and share and talk about things of the Lord. And the Jews surrounded him, the Jewish leaders, and said to him, How long will you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Now it's been a couple months since he was there and speaking to them. But if we remember back to all of his encounters with the religious leaders and with the with the public in general, did Jesus hold back from who he was? Or did he declare it? Again and again and again. Well, he says, I told you already. Verse 2025, Jesus answered them, he said, I told you, and you didn't 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, remember a couple months ago I talked about sheep? My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow after me. If you don't hear my voice, chances are you're not my sheep. And you don't understand who I am because you don't believe who I am. And I give them eternal life. Jesus is the source of eternal life. It is through him, knowing him, following after him, listening to him, and obeying by the power of the Holy Spirit in a changed life. That's how we get eternal life. And they shall never perish. Now, of course, this perish is an eternal perish, eternal separation from God. We will all still die physically, but that is kind of how we move from this body of death into the body of life. We get the new resurrected body that lasts forever and ever and ever. And the sad part is, and we we covered this a few weeks ago, in the book of Revelation, it talks about a second resurrection. And that's a resurrection at the end of that age where all of the dead that did not trust in the Lord would be raised to new life and given new bodies and stand before the Lord and their names not found in the book of life. And they'll be sent to the lake of fire, where they will perish forever and ever. But if we follow and trust in the Lord, we will never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Nobody can take them from me and throw them into the fire. Because I'm greater than the fire. I created the fire. 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. Are you in Jesus? Have you sought after him? Have you found him? Has your life been changed because of him? Did you believe that you were a sinner and that Jesus took your place on the cross and took the penalty for your sin? And that his blood covers, not only covers, but erases all of your sin? Do you believe in the name of Jesus? Do you believe that he rose again on the third day? Has your life been changed? Have you been born again? Has he put his spirit within you? As you abide in him, no one can snatch you out of the hand of the Father or of the Son. Because I and my Father are one. We're both deity, Jesus says. We have the same heart, we have the same goal. And that's to save the world. To anyone who would believe. And of course, he's saying this to the Pharisees, many of which are not believing, and so they don't see. And thus the Jews took up stones again to stone him. And Jesus said, Hold on now. Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of these works do you stone me? And the Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself God. How does Jesus respond to that? How would you respond to that if you were in Jesus' shoes? I'd just be dumbfounded. But that's the point. Can't you see it? I mean, I am the God man because that's the only way it would work, and the prophecies kind of allude to that. That the seed of the woman would come and save the world. Some man has to come to pay the price for man's sin. I am he. And yes, I am God. And in my grace, I am revealing myself to you so that you can have life. That's how I would say it. I'd be getting a little irritated and mad at them. But do you see it? It's like, yeah, that's what I've been saying, but it's not blasphemy. Blasphemy is a misrepresentation of God. Um, I'm not misrepresenting God, Jesus says, because I am He in the flesh. I and the Father are one. I'm not lying to you, I'm telling you the truth because I am the truth. I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. Again, if I were him, I'd be saying, Oi, why do I even bother? You know? But that is not how our Lord responded. He responded by quoting scripture, which is probably a good thing to do. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? Now he's quoting from Psalm chapter 82, and let's just go through that real quick to understand what he's saying here. Psalm 82 starts out by saying, God stands in the congregation of the mighty and he judges among the gods. Now, if you just read that first word, that first sentence there, you might think that this is referring to God and the angels in heaven. But as we read on, we realize that in the context, these gods that he's talking about are not necessarily angels, which sometimes are referred to as gods, but it's actually people here on earth that are put in positions of authority to represent God to the people, to judge and to lead, and so forth. And so that's the context. He's calling those people that he has put into positions of authority gods with a little g. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Say law, think about it. So the people that he's putting into positions of authority to represent God are misrepresenting God in the positions that God has put them in. He says, defend the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and needy, deliver the poor and the needy, free them from the hand of the wicked. He says those things because uh they weren't doing them. They needed to be reminded, if you want to represent God, this is my heart, and you need to be doing this sort of thing. However, they, the gods, do not know, nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness, and all the foundations of the earth are unstable. If those that are representing God don't understand the will of God for one reason or another, they're blind. They're walking about in darkness. They're in their own reality, in their own world, and it affects everything. All the foundations are unstable because the ones who are supposed to represent God, who is our rock, misrepresent him, and they build their foundation on another rock, everything is shaky. All right. Then comes the judgment. I said you are gods, and this is where Jesus is quoting. I said you are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High. And in this context, it means you're all created in the image of God. We're all in that essence, every human being is a child of God, in the fact that he's created in the image of God and reflects the image of God to the rest of the world, if they follow the Lord or not. Now, when we talk about actual children, we we've seen even Jesus call the Pharisees sons of your father the devil, because when we were born, we were born into sin, and in essence we were born into the family of the devil, of Satan. Until Jesus came and he died on the cross for us, and we we encountered him and we had a new relationship with him. We we believed, we were born again, we were changed, and now we were made, we were adopted into his family, we were made sons and daughters of the king. So just wanted to clarify that there. In context, here we're talking about we're all made in the image of God. But you shall die like men and fall like the princes. You were gods. I gave you that title to represent God, and you were created in the image of God, and yet you lived like men, and you're gonna die like men. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations. The Lord will be the Lord of all the nations, from again every tribe and tongue, we're gonna be following after the Lord and worshiping him and celebrating him. Well, there's the context. Let's go back to our study. In verse 35, he said, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, if he called those gods representatives of gods, they're doing things in the name of God, and how did they do with it? They didn't do very well, did they? And yet he still called them gods, and the scripture cannot be broken, okay. He called them that, he gave them that position, and yet they misrepresented it. They still had those titles. If that was the case, verse 36, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God? Think about it. It's obvious what they've done wrong. Now, you might not see what you're doing as wrong, Pharisees and Sadducees, leaders of the Jewish people, representatives of God to mankind. But you could see it in the past in your history, can't you? I mean, that's what all the prophets came up against throughout the Old Testament and challenged the leadership of the Jews, that they were going astray and misrepresenting God, and yet they were called sons of God. Do you agree with that? And you're calling me blasphemous because I use that same phrase? But what did I do compared to them? They did not represent God, I did the will of God. Verse 37. If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. Alright? If I'm not doing the works that my Father has given me to do, the works that are laid out in prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the Messiah, don't believe me then. But if I do do these works, as you look at them, as some of them in the last couple verses said, how can somebody who is a demon cause somebody to see who's been blind all their lives? Only God can do that. Think about it. If I do do the works of my Father, though you do not believe me, it's okay. Just believe the works. And the works will help you that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. I know it's a hard step just to come to some guy who's saying some things to say, yeah, you are indeed the Messiah. I get that, and I don't want you to just blindly believe. But look at the evidence. Look at the words. They will help you to see that what I am saying is true, and I am who I say I am. I am who the Father says I am. We are one. Now, will you believe? And how did they respond? Therefore, they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand because it was not yet time, because it is the Lord who will lay his life down for his sheep at the appropriate time. And this was not the time. So it was time to leave Jerusalem again, and as we saw in a couple of chapters back, things weren't going so well up in Galilee either. And so he went to the place where uh John used to be baptizing. And he went again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there he stayed with his flock of sheep. His disciples came with them because they followed, they listened to the voice of their Lord, and they were there. And others came. Many came to him and said, John performed no sign. It's interesting, isn't it? John the Baptist didn't work any miracles, didn't heal anybody, and yet his whole ministry was one great miracle. This guy who's just uh he grew up in the wilderness, he never shaved, he never bathed, woo. He ate locusts and wild honey, and he went out in the middle of the in the wilderness and cried out, yelling at people, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And crowds would come and be baptized. A baptism of repentance, a baptism of preparation for the Lord is coming. Prepare your way for the Lord. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. He's coming. So I would say that is a miracle, isn't it? Crazy man. People come and are hear from God through this man. But he didn't heal people, he didn't make people that were blind to see, but he did cause. God used him. The Holy Spirit used him to bring people to a place of repentance, waiting for the Messiah to come. But all the things that John spoke about this man were true. John's role was to prepare them for the coming of Messiah. And when Messiah came, what did he say? Behold, there he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Listen to him. Follow him. And more and more of his disciples would leave him and follow after Jesus. And John would say, I want less of me and more of him. It's a good thing that you're following after him, because that is why I came. And the people that that recognize that are coming in meeting with Jesus out in the wilderness where John was baptizing, and they were saying, Yeah, the things that John spoke about him were true. We do believe that this he is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that would take away the sin of the world. And many believed in him there, because they had hearts that were ready to receive the Lord. They were seeking and they were finding, as opposed to the Pharisees, that were all about keeping their power and the way they thought the word should read instead of seeking after the Lord. And that brings us to the end of our study. What group are we part of? Are we a part of a group that insists on having our doctrine, our way, and controlling people in a way to follow after what we say is true? Or are we ones that say, you know, I might be off a little bit, but Jesus is the one. I believe him. He's made it clear to me. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

That's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up. We're currently going through the book of John. We're so glad you've been with us, and we know there's so much to get out of this gospel book. One of the most powerful moments is in a well-known passage in John chapter 3. Jesus is meeting with Nicodemus and explaining what it means to be born again, not physically, but spiritually. As you might have memorized, Jesus speaks this to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What a promise from God! It sounds so easy, right? But sometimes the pressures of life can push you further away from wanting a relationship with God. Let me tell you, the most important decision you'll ever make is being in right relationship with God. He wants you with him for eternity. So don't be waiting around for the right moment. The best time to choose Jesus is now. If you'd like to learn more about what all of this means, head over to themountaincross.com and click on How to Know God. The Mountain Cross is a group of believers in Jesus who seek to grow in faith by simply teaching the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter. We meet on Sundays at 10 a.m. at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. We look forward to worshiping with you. Well, that's all for today, but come on up to the mountain with us again as we seek to learn more from the Lord through His Word. Come on Up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship.