WEBVTT 00:00:13.679 --> 00:00:16.320 Welcome to City Church Dublin Sermon Archives. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:21.199 Join us this week as we continue to work through the Book of John in our series The Gospel of John. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.359 So the reading today is from John 10, verse 22 to 42. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:35.600 At that time the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:40.320 It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:45.359 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, How long will you keep us in suspense? 00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:47.840 If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:51.520 Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:58.719 The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 00:00:58.960 --> 00:01:02.880 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:08.719 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:16.000 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. 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.319 I and the Father are one. 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.519 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:28.480 Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father, for which of them are you going to stone me? 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:37.840 The Jews answered him, It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:43.439 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:48.719 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, the scripture cannot be broken. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:56.640 Do you say to him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, You are blaspheming, because I said I am the Son of God. 00:01:56.959 --> 00:02:01.120 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:10.879 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 am in the Father. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:15.199 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:21.599 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:32.319 And many came to him, and they said, John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true, and many believed in him there, and so reads God's word. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:34.719 Well, good morning, everyone. 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:35.360 Welcome to you. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:36.319 My name is Mark. 00:02:36.400 --> 00:02:39.360 I'm one of the leaders here at the church. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:53.280 In the year 167 BC, so 167 years before Christ, there was a man who governed the region of Israel, Palestine, Judea, uh, the Middle East. 00:02:53.439 --> 00:02:56.639 And his name was Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:00.400 His name meant God manifest. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:03.039 That's uh uh not a humble name. 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:07.039 Uh if you he took it to himself, he said, I will be a Epiphanes. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:12.560 I am God's revelation on earth, I am God's gift to humanity. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:34.000 He was a wicked man, and uh he hated uh the Jews, he hated Jewish worship, and so in 167 he decided that he would uh make a decree, make a law basically banning the worship of Yahweh, the God of uh the Jews, the God of the Old Testament scriptures. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:43.199 He uh broke into the temple, the most sacred place in all of Judaism, and there did what you are not supposed to do. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:56.479 He sacrificed pigs, and he fed the Jewish people pork, he erected an idol to Zeus, he desecrated the temple, their most holy site. 00:03:56.879 --> 00:04:02.800 He wasn't just being petulant, he was trying to obliterate and outlaw the worship of God. 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:12.960 And in response to uh these actions, the the Jews uh rallied together and launched a revolt that lasted about two years. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:16.160 The revolt was led by a man and his sons. 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:19.360 The name of the man was Judas Maccabees. 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:25.279 And the name of the revolt is known now as the Maccabean Revolt because it was led by his family. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:45.920 And during a series of military campaigns in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, he managed by against all odds to push back this Greek, Greco-Syrian army and uh and re establish Jewish rule and order in Jerusalem and in Judea. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:05:01.839 And in the year 165, two years later, the Jews rededicated the temple, they rededicated the altar where the burnt sacrifices would be offered, and that celebration is known as Hanukkah. 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:08.480 So, any friends, fans here, I should be dressed as an armadillo right now, uh, telling you all about Hanukkah. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.240 But that is the story behind the Jewish feast of Hanukkah around Christmas time. 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:19.279 It is celebrating this, this feast of dedication. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:42.000 The Maccabeans had restored true worship, they had dedicated themselves to God again, and it is at this we read verse 22, this feast of dedication in winter, at Christmas time, to be anachronistic about it, but at Christmas time in the winter, Jesus walks. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:52.560 You can see him there almost in your mind's eye, with his shoulders hunched, perhaps with the hood of his cloak up, walking in the colonnades. 00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:53.360 Why? 00:05:53.759 --> 00:05:59.279 To shelter from the wind at the Feast of Dedication. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:20.160 Two centuries earlier, the Jews had expelled foreign invaders, drove back invading armies, and reestablished their national identity. 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:24.639 But now there was another power. 00:06:25.279 --> 00:06:36.560 Rome was in charge during the time when Jesus walked in the colonnade of Solomon, another foreign power in their nation, in their promised land. 00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:40.560 And so the questions hung unanswered. 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:42.399 Where was Messiah? 00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:58.879 Where was the man like Judas Maccabees, who would surpass the Maccabees, and would finally drive out these Gentiles from the land and give the land back to God's people. 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:05.839 In this feast of dedication, those questions were in the mind of every Jew there. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:23.519 And so they see this man who has been saying extraordinary things and doing extraordinary things, walking in the colonnades, and they press in around him, they surround him, and they say to Jesus, Tell us plainly, stop messing about Jesus. 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:26.399 Just tell us, would you please? 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:28.480 Stop playing games. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:30.959 Are you the Messiah? 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:39.279 Are you God's promised king, the one who was foretold that he would come and reestablish God's rule on earth? 00:07:39.519 --> 00:07:40.560 Is that you? 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:42.879 Tell us plainly. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:45.120 How long will you keep us in suspense? 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:46.399 They say, verse 24. 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:49.120 If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:57.759 There's a book by a guy called John Dixon who writes very pithy, um, almost kind of introduction to introductions to Christianity. 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:10.879 They're worth picking up if you've uh if you're wrestling through uh questions of suffering or of the essence of Christianity, but he also wrote a book called If I Were God, I would make myself clearer. 00:08:12.079 --> 00:08:14.800 If I were God, I would make myself clearer. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.199 They're coming to Jesus and saying, tell us plainly. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:21.199 And perhaps actually, you are interacting currently with Christianity like that. 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.079 You're like, why can't it just be clearer? 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:29.040 Why does Jesus keep on sounding like Morpheus from the matrix? 00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.080 Everything is just in a bit of a riddle. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:37.120 You're in good company here with the Jews. 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:39.759 So they asked, tell us plainly. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:50.320 But there's an issue behind their question, a deeper issue that is worth exploring during our time this morning, and it's the one that Jesus really addresses in his answer. 00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:55.840 The question, the deeper question, is what actually keeps people from faith? 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:00.559 What stops people from becoming a Christian? 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:03.679 Is it lack of knowledge? 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:07.279 Is it lack of intellectual clarity? 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:09.600 Both of those things are important. 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.720 We are a church that prizes and values those things. 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:17.600 We we want to uh to press in deep into the scriptures. 00:09:17.840 --> 00:09:24.159 We want people to engage their their minds, but is that really at the crux of the issue? 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:26.960 Jesus' answer is surprising. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:30.159 Look at his answer to them in verse 25. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:34.639 Jesus answers and says, I told you, and you do not believe. 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:40.320 The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, and you do not believe. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:46.879 He says, I told you, I have answered plainly, is what Jesus is saying. 00:09:47.039 --> 00:09:51.759 Moreover, not only have I answered you plainly, but I have shown you. 00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:58.000 I have backed up what I have said, I have both talked the talk and I've walked the walk. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:07.519 I've said things about myself, and I've shown you in my miraculous deeds, in my works, that I am who I said I am. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:10.000 But you do not believe. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:17.840 You see, twice, once in verse 25 and once in verse 26, but you do not believe. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:29.519 The thing that was keeping them from faith wasn't a lack of evidence, it wasn't a lack of knowledge. 00:10:30.879 --> 00:10:32.960 There's something else going on. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:36.639 They do not believe. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:38.960 Unbelief. 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:48.639 Unbelief in Jesus is much more a heart issue than it is a head issue. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:55.919 It is much more an issue of the heart than one of the intellect or of reason. 00:10:58.159 --> 00:11:08.399 We've already seen in John's Gospel and noted it at various points that one of the things that keeps people from believing in Jesus is that they they love themselves. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:12.080 They love receiving glory from others. 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:15.519 That's uh the problem that he diagnoses with the Jewish leaders. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:16.960 He's in back in chapter five. 00:11:17.039 --> 00:11:22.399 He's like, How can you believe when you're too busy seeking the glory that comes from one another? 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:25.840 And not seeking the glory that comes from God. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:30.000 You're too caught up with the opinions of others about your life. 00:11:30.159 --> 00:11:32.639 And that's what's keeping you from faith. 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:35.679 Your heart is captivated by other things. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:39.200 Your heart is captivated by other glories. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:47.120 The glory of success, the glory of the affirmation or adulation of others, the glory of intimacy that comes from another human being. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:54.000 You're obsessing over those things, and your heart is captivated by them, and so you do not believe. 00:11:57.679 --> 00:12:00.240 But Jesus pushes us further. 00:12:01.039 --> 00:12:02.799 And he pushes us deeper. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:07.679 And perhaps even this morning, he pushes us into a slightly uncomfortable place. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:13.440 I'll say, now this will start uncomfortable and hopefully get more comfortable, right? 00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:19.600 That's uh so bear with me through it if you begin to bristle. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.000 Because look at what Jesus says. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.240 What is the rationale in verse 26 for why they do not believe? 00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:37.840 Verse 26, but you do you do not believe because so he's going to give the reason why they don't believe, you are not part of my flock. 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:42.720 You do not believe because you are not part of my flock. 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:46.159 Why do the people listening to Jesus not believe? 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.679 Because they are not one of Jesus' sheep. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:53.519 Huh. 00:12:55.840 --> 00:12:59.039 Some of you might say, but hold on. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:04.480 But isn't believing how you become one of Jesus' sheep? 00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:06.399 Isn't that the whole deal? 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:08.960 Isn't that how it works? 00:13:09.279 --> 00:13:15.360 You believe, and then you become one of the flock, one of Jesus' sheep. 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:20.000 Well, actually, here it's the other way around. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:22.799 The sheep believe. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:32.399 It's been it's been like that all the way through this chapter, it's been like that all the way through John's gospel, but even just in this chapter, what have we read? 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:38.000 My sheep hear my voice and come out. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:56.000 He has sheep in the mixed fold that we talked about last week, and his sheep recognize the voice of him, the good shepherd, and they come out, they respond to him, they believe in him. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:01.360 His sheep believe, not you believe, and then you become a sheep. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:09.600 Let's push it further and try and get some clarity on this. 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:23.200 If I were to ask you this morning, and maybe you can answer the question yourself in your head, if you are a Christian here this morning, if you're a believer in Jesus, ask yourself how did I become a Christian? 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:26.480 How did you become a Christian? 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:28.799 How did you become a follower of Jesus? 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:39.840 The instinct is to begin that answer with the first person, with I. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:53.200 I went to a Bible study, I was invited to church, I was brought up in a Christian home, I trusted Jesus when I was five, I put my hand up at the summer camp. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:05.679 All of those answers are wonderful, but they are all insufficient, they are all in a biblical sense incomplete. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:09.360 They do not go back far enough. 00:15:11.759 --> 00:15:18.639 The answer begins not with I, but with God. 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.360 God acted to save me. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:29.039 God set his love upon me when I didn't even know his name. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:36.080 God chose me before the foundation of the world that I might be his. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:46.480 God made me one of his sheep while I was wandering in ignorance and had no idea that he was searching for me. 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:55.679 And in grace he dedicated me to be one of his own. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:17.200 So that when I was five years old with my parents, or when I was at the youth camp, or when I had come to church after responding to the invite, so that God had dedicated me, and when I was in that context, I heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, and I came out and I responded in repentance and faith. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.080 That is how salvation works. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:29.279 Of course, I am aware that there will be people here this morning. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:37.039 Uh, and one of the things that they will say to themselves, or one of the things that you're saying to yourself, is Am I a sheep? 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.879 How do I know if I'm a sheep? 00:16:41.200 --> 00:16:42.639 If that's the case. 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:44.399 Am I really a sheep? 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:46.639 Let me give you a top tip. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:50.799 Don't look inside yourself for the answer. 00:16:52.000 --> 00:16:58.960 Don't go inside and go, okay, think think I gotta think myself into sheep-likeness. 00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:01.440 What would it mean to be a sheep? 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:08.240 I've got to I've got to search here and go, am I sheepy enough for for God? 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:12.480 That's not the way to answer the question. 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:18.400 You don't look inside to yourself for the answer, you look at Jesus. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:22.240 Do you hear his voice? 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:26.799 And do you hear his voice as the voice of the good shepherd? 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:29.599 Do you believe in him? 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:33.519 Are you following him where he leads? 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:39.200 Then, brother or sister in Christ, congratulations, you're a sheep. 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:41.119 Don't look in. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:42.640 Look at Jesus. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:44.319 Am I hearing his voice? 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:47.119 Am I responding to the voice of the good shepherd? 00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:49.200 Am I following him where he leads? 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:50.720 Then take heart. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:55.039 That's the hard bit of the sermon. 00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:02.720 Let's infuse all of this with some wonderful comfort, because there is glorious comfort in this passage for all of us. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:13.519 He gives us a wonderful encouragement to all those who are his sheep, who are following and trusting in the Lord Jesus. 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:20.559 Because just as God acts to save us while we were still weak, Paul confirms that. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:29.119 Romans 5, verse 8, God demonstrates his love for us in this that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:39.759 And just as God acts to save us before we respond in faith, so also he preserves us eternally. 00:18:39.920 --> 00:18:41.279 Look at verse 28. 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:45.920 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.000 And no one will snatch them out of my hand. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:58.000 My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of his hand. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:00.400 Let's put it plainly. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:08.799 You are saved by God alone, and you are preserved until the end by God alone. 00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:17.519 Not in your strength or in the clarity of your faith, but the object of your faith. 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:20.960 Folks, this is the ground of Christian assurance. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:27.440 If you're in the market for a tattoo, verse 28 is the one to get. 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:30.480 No one will snatch them out of my hand. 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:37.279 You get it translated into Greek or something and down your forearm, like you do you. 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:52.000 But this is the ground of your assurance as a believer when you're when you're anxious or fearful about the future, or you feel you maybe you're sitting here this morning, you think, I don't feel particularly sheep-like right now. 00:19:52.160 --> 00:20:00.880 I feel like I'm clinging with feeble fingers to the ledge of God's great grace, and they're all coming apart one by one. 00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:04.079 You've got to remember, it's not the strength of your faith. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.079 It's not the extent to which you hold on to Jesus, it's the extent to which he holds on to you. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:10.960 Do you see? 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:12.799 Isn't that wonderful? 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.319 No one will ever snatch you out of his hand. 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:23.519 Jesus gifts the believer life eternal, begun now, stretching into eternity. 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:25.119 He says they will never perish. 00:20:25.279 --> 00:20:30.640 We all already looked at this back in chapter eight, where he talked about how they won't die. 00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:43.519 You, your physical body might cease to live, might cease to function, but not even physical death can separate you from the preserving hand of Jesus. 00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:46.960 Nothing can snatch them out of my hand. 00:20:47.200 --> 00:20:50.880 We've already seen this sort of language back in chapter six. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:58.319 All that the Father has given me will come to me, and all those who come to me I will never drive away. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:09.759 These are the verses, friends, brothers, sisters, these are the verses when that dark night descends over your soul and you're wondering, is Jesus really for me? 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:12.960 Am I really his? 00:21:14.799 --> 00:21:20.880 You run to places like John 10, 28 and 29. 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:29.599 You run to places like John 6, 37 for assurance and for rest and for comfort and for counsel. 00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:37.440 The truths of these verses are deep and abiding and wonderful. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:51.119 What they mean is that no tragedy, no war, no exile can displace you from the love of the savior. 00:21:51.680 --> 00:21:58.000 No poverty or lack can separate you from the savior's keeping. 00:21:58.960 --> 00:21:59.599 No sick. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:07.680 Sickness, nor sorrow, nor death can rip you from his loving embrace. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:12.559 No one will snatch them from my hand. 00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:23.200 The nineteenth century Bishop of Liverpool, man called JC Ryle, said this about these verses. 00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:28.960 He said, He says, Christ declares that his people will never perish. 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:33.440 Weak as they are, they will all be saved. 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:36.480 Not one of them shall be lost and cast away. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.279 Not one of them shall miss heaven. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:42.319 If they err, they shall be brought back. 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:45.200 If they fall, they shall be raised. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:55.359 The enemies of their soul may be strong and mighty, but their Savior is mightier, and none shall pluck them out of the Savior's hand. 00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:11.119 Take comfort, that just as God in Christ has acted to save you, so he will keep you to the end. 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:21.119 Through every trial, through every tribulation, he will see that you come through every suffering as gold refined in the fire. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:24.240 No one will snatch them from my hand. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:35.440 And how is it that the believer is unsnatchable? 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:36.960 Well, we're given the answer. 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:47.680 First of all, Jesus pivots to the Father, the Father has given them to me, he's greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my hand, and then verse thirty, I and the Father are one. 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:54.400 The Father is greater than all, and the Father are Son, the Father and the Son are all. 00:23:55.039 --> 00:24:05.440 Here, friends, we could go for a little while and swim in deep theological waters, but I will restrain myself. 00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:12.000 What Jesus is saying is reasonably simple at a surface level. 00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:21.599 What he is saying here in verse thirty is that there is there is no conflict, there is no rivalry between the Father and the Son. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:27.920 Rather, there is perfect unity and harmony. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:29.279 To what end? 00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:33.680 To preserve sinners like us to eternity. 00:24:36.240 --> 00:24:51.519 God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is interested and mindful of you and preserving you until you reach that heavenly shore. 00:24:54.799 --> 00:25:04.079 The Father and the Son are one, united at the level of their will, their desire to preserve a people until the end. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.720 One in their action. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:11.359 One in their essence. 00:25:37.839 --> 00:25:40.480 Verse 31, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:45.920 Jesus answered them, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which one of them are you going to stone me? 00:25:46.160 --> 00:25:54.799 The Jews answered him, It's not for the good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:00.559 Sometimes there's this objection of Jesus never said he was God. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:03.519 He's doing it right here. 00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:05.920 The Jews understand that he's doing it right here. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:07.279 That's what blasphemy is. 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:09.519 He's claiming divine status. 00:26:10.079 --> 00:26:13.359 He's claiming to be God and they're trying to kill him. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:15.920 Now, there's a deep irony to this, right? 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:21.039 They came to Jesus back in uh verse 23 looking for clarity. 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:23.440 And they got it. 00:26:24.079 --> 00:26:29.599 And their response, they understood what Jesus was saying, and they tried to kill him. 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:33.839 This is the thing. 00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:41.039 If nothing else, this confirms that becoming a Christian is an issue of the heart and not of the mind. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:44.880 You can get clarity on who Jesus is and still hate it. 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:51.759 You can be utterly convinced of what you should do and still absolutely reel against your actual doing of it. 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:56.480 You can still have your questions answered and hate Jesus. 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:02.240 It's a matter of the heart, not just a matter of the head. 00:27:02.960 --> 00:27:13.599 So they try to stone him, and uh and Jesus does a Jesus does an intriguing little um little sidestep to really kind of get them to stop long enough. 00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:15.759 Uh look at Jesus' defense. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:26.400 He quotes Psalm 82, and Jesus answered them, verse 34, uh Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? 00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:30.559 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken. 00:27:30.720 --> 00:27:38.000 Do you say of him uh him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God? 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:39.039 Now, what's going on here? 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:41.599 This is this is strange. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:43.519 This is a strange defense. 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:54.480 Now, he quotes Psalm 82, where God is speaking most probably to the to the leaders of Israel who received the law on Mount Sinai. 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:58.880 Back in Exodus, they came out of Egypt, they come to get the Ten Commandments. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:05.839 And God, in a sense, in this Psalm is speaking to them and calling them small g gods. 00:28:06.319 --> 00:28:22.559 Basically, what he's saying is to have my word, my revelation, my law is such a phenomenal privilege for you that it almost makes you gods to the rest of the world, to the nations. 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:27.839 You are small g gods because my word has come to you. 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:30.319 That's what Psalm 82 is saying. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:31.920 It's such a privilege. 00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:58.319 And so Jesus turns it and says, Well, if God called those guys, if God called you Jewish leaders who received the law small g gods, why do you get upset when I call myself God because I am, well, the supreme revelation of the Father, the one who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:05.200 Or in the language of this passage, the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world. 00:29:08.079 --> 00:29:12.319 Here is why I started telling you a history lesson. 00:29:12.640 --> 00:29:16.960 Here is why I started telling you about Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:18.880 Remember his name? 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:21.039 God manifest. 00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:23.039 What has the Father done? 00:29:23.119 --> 00:29:31.599 The Father has sent the Son into the world, consecrated him, and sent him as God made flesh. 00:29:32.960 --> 00:29:41.519 What's more, the word for consecrate here that Jesus uses is exactly the same word as the word for dedicate. 00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:44.480 He's saying the Father's dedicated me. 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:50.160 You're here celebrating the dedication of the temple as the restoration of true worship. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:55.599 But the father's dedicated me and sent me into the world. 00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:00.720 In essence, he's telling the Jews, you've missed the point of Hanukkah. 00:30:01.440 --> 00:30:04.000 You've missed the point of the festival. 00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:16.319 They're celebrating the dedication of the temple, but now a better temple stands in their midst with shoulders hunched from the cold, walking in the colonnade of Solomon. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:20.400 The Father has dedicated the Son and sent him into the world. 00:30:21.359 --> 00:30:22.960 Folks, do you know what? 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:27.039 We're far too easily distracted by shadows. 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:32.160 We are far too easily distracted by shadows. 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:36.400 Pornography is the shadow of intimacy. 00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:41.759 Your virtual life is a shadow of real connection. 00:30:42.079 --> 00:30:52.480 Your marriage, or those of you who long to be married, it is a shadow of the true reality of Christ in its church. 00:30:53.200 --> 00:30:57.599 We're so obsessed with shadows rather than what they point to. 00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:02.799 Religious people, more than most, love shadows. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:09.599 They love the shadows of ritual and sacrament and lose sight of all that they point to. 00:31:10.720 --> 00:31:12.400 Do you not come from a context? 00:31:12.559 --> 00:31:20.240 Are you not aware of how empty religion can become and seem and look? 00:31:22.559 --> 00:31:30.799 Because people become obsessed with shadows and forms rather than what they point to. 00:31:34.640 --> 00:31:37.359 The Jews were celebrating their liberation. 00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:44.640 And yet they scoffed at the one who said to them in chapter 8, if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. 00:31:45.920 --> 00:31:58.960 They were giving thanks for the restoration of true worship, but forgot that all of the sacrifices of God, the sacrifices that God really wanted, were the sacrifices of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. 00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:08.880 They forgot that the Father was seeking worshippers who would worship the Father not in a place, but around a person in spirit and in truth. 00:32:10.319 --> 00:32:21.920 They rejoiced at the dedication of the temple and of its altar, and yet gazed into the face of the one in whom heaven and earth overlapped, because that's what a temple is. 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:25.200 The temple is the place where heaven and earth overlap. 00:32:26.079 --> 00:32:34.480 And when the God man Jesus walked on this earth, heaven and earth overlapped in him, making an end to all temples. 00:32:34.799 --> 00:32:37.839 And they saw him, but they could not see his majesty. 00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:42.880 They were blinded because they were obsessed by the glory that comes from one another. 00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:53.119 They could not see that John the Baptist was right, way back in chapter one, that as they dedicated the altar, there would be an end to the sacrifices. 00:32:53.200 --> 00:33:00.960 And John the Baptist was right when he pointed at Jesus and said, Behold the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. 00:33:01.759 --> 00:33:08.000 They were obsessed with forms and shadows and completely missed the point. 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:26.480 And again, right at the end in verse 39, Jesus does another work just to show us the reader again of the miraculous nature. 00:33:26.799 --> 00:33:29.519 The crowd is pressing in around him. 00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:35.440 They were pressing in around him in chapter six to uh to make him king by force. 00:33:36.160 --> 00:33:41.440 The crowd who had had their bellies filled at the feeding of the 5,000 wanted to go and crown him king. 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:46.720 But now there's another crowd, there's another crowd that's pressing in, but this time they're trying to kill him. 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:48.960 And what do we read, verse 39? 00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:53.599 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their midst. 00:33:54.160 --> 00:33:56.559 This miraculous slipping away. 00:33:57.359 --> 00:34:06.000 Again, we just have a hint, we just have a hint of the son's sovereign control of the events that are unfolding. 00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:15.679 That neither exaltation nor execution will happen outside of his timing, outside of his sovereign will. 00:34:18.159 --> 00:34:24.400 But John leaves us with a contrast, and here we finish with verse 40 and 42. 00:34:25.599 --> 00:34:26.880 John likes to do this. 00:34:26.960 --> 00:34:33.199 He did it in verses 19 and 20, where you had the main narrative and then a little kind of but here's another thing. 00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:34.639 That's really what's going on here. 00:34:34.800 --> 00:34:36.800 So he goes away, verse have a look at it with me. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:42.400 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and he remained there. 00:34:42.639 --> 00:34:52.000 Many came to him, and they said, John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true, and many believed him in him there. 00:34:54.320 --> 00:34:56.000 This is a contrast. 00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:01.360 The religious elites at the feast of dedication were celebrating. 00:35:02.239 --> 00:35:04.159 Celebrating shadows. 00:35:04.880 --> 00:35:10.320 They saw works, and yet they despised Jesus. 00:35:13.519 --> 00:35:25.840 And yet, across the Jordan, far away from the religious leaders, far away from the gods of Israel, there were those who saw no miraculous work. 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:30.000 They simply believed in the testimony of John. 00:35:31.360 --> 00:35:35.920 And they dedicated themselves to following Jesus. 00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:39.199 And many believed in him there. 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:50.880 Devotion to Christ comes not simply as a result of plain answers, though we want to give them as far as we are able. 00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:53.599 But they are not enough. 00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:00.719 Nor does it come from witnessing divine works. 00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:03.039 They are also insufficient. 00:36:04.159 --> 00:36:16.719 No devotion to Christ begins with God, who acts to save us in our weakness, in our ignorance, in our folly and hard-heartedness. 00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:30.079 And who in his grace sets his love upon us so that when we hear the voice of the Good Shepherd calling us, we cannot help but rise and follow. 00:36:37.920 --> 00:36:42.480 Is Are you hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd? 00:36:42.639 --> 00:36:45.199 If you are, do not harden your heart against him. 00:36:48.559 --> 00:36:53.360 Do not hear that voice and fail to respond with repentance and faith. 00:36:56.239 --> 00:37:12.960 Come seek comfort in him and know the joy of his preserving and persevering love through every season of your life until you see him face to face.