SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
SPEAKER_01: We're glad to have you with us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Would you open your Bible to the Gospel of John?
SPEAKER_01: Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I am so confused by Labor Day weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm told that it is a weekend to relax, but somehow I always labor.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I work harder, get more exhausted.
SPEAKER_01: This morning I would like to encourage all of us to cease our labors and to believe in the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't believe in your own works, don't rest in your own work, in your own labor, but to rest in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: If you have grown up in church, this is a familiar passage of Scripture to you.
SPEAKER_01: If you have not grown up in church, or you are seeking a church, or just trying to figure out which end is up in this world, this is a great place for you to be.
SPEAKER_01: But it's a strange place to be because Jesus is speaking in this chapter and he's saying some very odd things.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the door.
SPEAKER_01: That's strange.
SPEAKER_01: Never heard of a human being being a door before.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 11 of chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that sounds interesting.
SPEAKER_01: There's some protection there.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 14, he says, I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, he says, I have some other sheep that are not yet in my fold, and I'm going to be searching for them, and I'm going to be bringing them in.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, he says, Therefore, for this reason I'm going to lay down my life, so that I might take it up again.
SPEAKER_01: If you know nothing about the end of the story, that may sound strange to you.
SPEAKER_01: What is this guy saying when I'm going to lay down my life and then I'm going to take it back up again?
SPEAKER_01: What is he talking about?
SPEAKER_01: If he's talking about death, then that's really strange because nobody's died and taken up his own life again after having died.
SPEAKER_01: So what is he speaking of?
SPEAKER_01: That's why in verse 19 it says there's some division among the Jews because of these words.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 20, he says, many of them said he has a demon and is insane.
SPEAKER_01: Why listen to him?
SPEAKER_01: Why listen to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is constantly under attack.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the reasons for apologetics, the defense of the faith.
SPEAKER_01: One of our Faith Equip seminars coming up in a couple of months in late October will address that topic.
SPEAKER_01: And it's one of the reasons that is Jesus being constantly under attack is one of the reasons we need training in defending our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is constantly under attack.
SPEAKER_01: And if you belong to his flock of sheep, if you are one of his sheep, if you follow him, then that means to some extent you are under attack.
SPEAKER_01: So why believe in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why believe in this one who said very strange things, who caused division such that some said he is insane?
SPEAKER_01: But others said, these aren't the words of one who's oppressed by a demon.
SPEAKER_01: Can a demon open the eyes of a blind person?
SPEAKER_01: Hold on to that question.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to come back to it in a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Who can open the eyes of the blind?
SPEAKER_01: You know, apologetics is often approached from a military perspective.
SPEAKER_01: God's people must defend the faith.
SPEAKER_01: Or we feel as though we have to defend Scripture, we have to defend Jesus, we have to defend why we believe what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: But this morning I want to approach that topic a little bit differently.
SPEAKER_01: I want to consider a portion of the Gospel of John and ask the question: why believe in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why should we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me with, look at John 10, verse 31 with me.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in verse 31, continuing through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 31 says, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
SPEAKER_01: And before we go on, just stop.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews picked up stones again.
SPEAKER_01: This isn't the first time.
SPEAKER_01: John's very clear.
SPEAKER_01: This is a repetitive kind of thing.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews picked up stones to stone him.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: For which of them are you going to stone me?
SPEAKER_01: The Jews answered him, It's not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: Because you, being a man, make yourself God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods?
SPEAKER_01: If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming?
SPEAKER_01: Because I said I am the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
SPEAKER_01: He went away again across the Jordan, to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.
SPEAKER_01: And many came to him.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, John, that is John the Baptist, did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.
SPEAKER_01: And many believed in him there.
SPEAKER_01: We go from picking up stones to stone an insane guy, to concluding the section with many believing in him.
SPEAKER_01: I think this passage is helpful because it recounts an exchange between Jesus and those who would not believe.
SPEAKER_01: John uses a tense debate, if we can call it that, to assert why we should believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: If you have not yet placed your trust in Jesus as the one whom God sent to save you from your sins, you're going to encounter here in the next few moments four reasons why you should believe.
SPEAKER_01: If you have already come to faith in Christ, you will encounter four truths that will solidify your faith and strengthen your defenses.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're going to leave this place and go out into a world that will assault you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is a means of death.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, though, seems perfectly calm in the face of this danger.
SPEAKER_01: He asks a question rather than defend himself.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I have shown you, verse 32, many good works from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So which of them is evil enough to conclude that you should execute me?
SPEAKER_01: Why would anyone want to stone Jesus to death for doing good, miraculous, beneficial things from God?
SPEAKER_01: The response from the crowd of executioners is this.
SPEAKER_01: We're executing you because you, being a man, make yourself God.
SPEAKER_01: This is where we see the first reason to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We should believe in Jesus because of his claim of deity.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have probably already been out camping this weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting for me to finish talking, so you can go camping.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever made a campfire?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you can even do this in your fireplace at home.
SPEAKER_01: You have a blazing fire and you have a good set of coals, and the next morning when you wake up and you want to warm up from a cold night in the tent or whatever, and you try to stir up that fire and get a fire going, and you just can't.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you haven't learned yet then to bank your fire.
SPEAKER_01: Does anybody know about banking your fire?
SPEAKER_01: Please, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, good.
SPEAKER_01: Some hands raised.
SPEAKER_01: Great.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes this works really well, especially if the night isn't too cold.
SPEAKER_01: You build up a good set of coals and you scoop them together to one side of your fire pit.
SPEAKER_01: It's really great and beneficial if you have some warm stones around the fire at night.
SPEAKER_01: You push those coals up against the fire and you build them up, you mound them up, because that serves as an insulator for the red hot coals underneath.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've done a good job in the morning, all you have to do is take off the top layer, add a little bit of twigs and moss and things like that on top leaves, and below on it, poof, you start up your fire all over again without any matches.
SPEAKER_01: You bank your fire.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good illustration for what takes place with the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Overnight and in the morning, you might not realize that there's a fire underneath those coals.
SPEAKER_01: But there's always a fire stirring underneath the surface of culture, of Christian culture, of world culture about the deity of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes something comes along and stirs up the fire and takes off the top layer, and somebody new injects something, some new question, some new controversy, and poof, all of a sudden you have a fire blazing about whether or not Christ is God.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever that argument is stirred to life, we inevitably hear that Jesus never claimed to be God.
SPEAKER_01: It's claimed that Christians have twisted Jesus' words.
SPEAKER_01: And so we've convinced ourselves that Jesus said something that he didn't really say.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've actually encountered this argument, that Jesus never claimed to be God.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's examine that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 30, Jesus said, I and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: That resulted, yet again, in people picking up stones to execute him.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's safe to say, isn't it, that that's not a favorable response?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a positive response to a statement.
SPEAKER_01: If somebody picks up stones to execute you for what you've said, that is not a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: And John notes that it is not the first time this has happened again.
SPEAKER_01: So why would they want to kill Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Why would they want to execute him?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 33 gives us the answer.
SPEAKER_01: Blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reason.
SPEAKER_01: From his challenger's viewpoint, Jesus was a human being who was making himself God.
SPEAKER_01: They're charging Jesus with claiming to be God when to their eyes, as they see things.
SPEAKER_01: He's simply a human being.
SPEAKER_01: But what made them think that Jesus was making himself God?
SPEAKER_01: It's because of what he said.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' words generated an explosive reaction.
SPEAKER_01: He claimed to be one with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: In the Jewish mind, to be one with the Father was to be equal with the Father and therefore to be God.
SPEAKER_01: They heard in their ears this man named Jesus claiming to be divine.
SPEAKER_01: In the minds of his hearers that day, the issue was not that he is God, but that he was claiming to be God.
SPEAKER_01: He was making himself as though he was God.
SPEAKER_01: Here's this man walking down the same roads, doing the same things that everybody else does, and he's making himself to be God.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying he is God.
SPEAKER_01: He's claiming equality with God.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, they didn't believe his claim.
SPEAKER_01: They understood exactly what Jesus was saying, but they did not believe it.
SPEAKER_01: They saw him as a normal human being.
SPEAKER_01: That's why they wanted to stone him for blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: God cannot blaspheme against himself.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a contradiction in terms, and he would cease to be God.
SPEAKER_01: But a human being can blaspheme against God.
SPEAKER_01: And so they heard Jesus' words as a sin against God instead of the actual truth that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: Because they saw him as merely human.
SPEAKER_01: The irony is that Jesus was not making himself out to be God, but he is God who made himself man.
SPEAKER_01: John declared back in chapter 1 and verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: It's appropriate for me to use the word fire and banking of fire and camping and tenting because dwelt among us is the word tented among us.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God, God Himself, took on flesh and tented.
SPEAKER_01: He came to live with us for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: And everything that Jesus said was designed to demonstrate the reality of that truth.
SPEAKER_01: But they did not believe.
SPEAKER_01: But we can be encouraged by the fact that Jesus' words point to his deity.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus says that he is one with the Father, and the Father is the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, then we can connect that with what Jesus says here, and we can see Jesus is the Good Shepherd who takes care of us.
SPEAKER_01: He's the good shepherd who is powerful enough to rescue us, to keep us safe for himself.
SPEAKER_01: He is the good shepherd who is caring enough as God cares for his own, that he will chase after us and pursue us with his goodness and his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: What a wonderful place to rest if you believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now we have to be honest, though.
SPEAKER_01: There have been many people throughout history who have claimed to be saviors, messiahs of some sort, claiming to be God.
SPEAKER_01: So a claim to be God only takes us so far.
SPEAKER_01: We should believe in Jesus because of his claim to be God.
SPEAKER_01: But that is not the only reason.
SPEAKER_01: A second reason here is because he affirms what Scripture says.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't just come out and say, say things out of the blue that have no connection to anything else.
SPEAKER_01: He says, just go back to your Bible and read it, and you'll find out everything I have to say is true.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus affirms Scripture, he supports Scripture, and He says it's sufficient to know who He is and to believe what He has to say.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what John recorded for us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus answered them in verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: What's the deal?
SPEAKER_01: I've done lots of good things, which one is the bad thing?
SPEAKER_01: And they say, Well, it's not for anything that you've done, but because of what you said.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 34, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods?
SPEAKER_01: So if ye called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, then why do you say of me I'm blaspheming?
SPEAKER_01: Because I said I am the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is a difficult passage.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have time this morning to go down all of the really exciting rabbit trails here.
SPEAKER_01: But I think it would be good to try to simplify without oversimplifying what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: Because this is one of those passages that people look to and say, see, your Bible isn't true, it's not accurate.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's show how it is accurate for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_01: The difficulty here is that someone other than God is called God with a little g, lowercase g.
SPEAKER_01: And that's troubling for some because God has clearly said there are no other gods besides him.
SPEAKER_01: So how do we reconcile those things?
SPEAKER_01: Let's think about this in terms of what we know.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82, 6, Psalm 82, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: We also know that Jesus is using the text of Psalm 82 to further his arguments about his identity.
SPEAKER_01: That is, he's using Psalm 82 to prove the truthfulness of his claim to be God.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that he is affirming the accuracy and the inerrancy of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We know those three things, so let's think about them in a little more detail first.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82, 6.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at that Psalm for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible with you or don't know where to find that, that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I have it here on the screen for you.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 82.
SPEAKER_01: We'll look at the whole psalm for a moment before we look at the details.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 82, beginning in verse 1, it says, this is a psalm of Asaph.
SPEAKER_01: God has taken his place in the divine counsel.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the gods, lowercase G, he holds judgment.
SPEAKER_01: How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?
SPEAKER_01: Give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: They have neither knowledge nor understanding.
SPEAKER_01: They walk about in darkness.
SPEAKER_01: All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You are gods, sons of the most high, all of you.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, like men you shall die and fall like any prince.
SPEAKER_01: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I forgot to advance the slide there.
SPEAKER_01: We know that Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82, 6.
SPEAKER_01: But first, verse 1 identifies for us the setting.
SPEAKER_01: God has taken his place in the divine council.
SPEAKER_01: This is the throne room of God.
SPEAKER_01: This is the judgment seat.
SPEAKER_01: This is where God affects all of his decision making.
SPEAKER_01: God is speaking as the head of all gods.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the gods are, God is the head of all of them.
SPEAKER_01: And his speech goes from verse 2 all the way through verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: Some translations have have it that verse 5 is a break in that.
SPEAKER_01: We can make an argument about that on another time.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8 is the psalmist's response.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8 is Asaph saying, Arise, O God, and do something.
SPEAKER_01: You ever felt that way?
SPEAKER_01: You ever voiced that either internally or with your voice?
SPEAKER_01: God just would you do something about this?
SPEAKER_01: So that gets you to the heart of what Asaph is trying to communicate here.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking God to step into a situation and act, do something.
SPEAKER_01: Do what?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's where we're headed.
SPEAKER_01: The question is: who are the gods, little g of verse 1 and verse 6?
SPEAKER_01: And the answer, I don't think, needs, doesn't need to be overly complicated.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Hebrew word Elohim.
SPEAKER_01: It's a generic term for God or gods.
SPEAKER_01: But its meaning is not strictly limited to a deity.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes this word is used for angels.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's even used for human rulers or human authorities.
SPEAKER_01: It refers to someone, a being of some kind that holds authority, holds power, has a sense of greatness and of excellence.
SPEAKER_01: And God then stands head and shoulders above all gods, all beings who have authority, power, and greatness as the utmost of power, as exceedingly great, and wonderful excellence.
SPEAKER_01: But still it's not unusual for this word to refer to someone other than God who has similar characteristics.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what's happening in Psalm 82.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that God in verse 2 is addressing these beings as judges.
SPEAKER_01: But they cannot be holy and righteous judges because they use their authority to judge unjustly and with partiality.
SPEAKER_01: That gives us an understanding of why Aesoph was crying out at the end, God, would you do something about this?
SPEAKER_01: I live in a world where our rulers and our authorities are doing things backwards.
SPEAKER_01: God, would you arise and do something about this?
SPEAKER_01: Our world is turned upside down.
SPEAKER_01: We have rulers and authorities and judges who do things backwards.
SPEAKER_01: Would you step into this situation?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 and 4 make it clear that they are judging people.
SPEAKER_01: So these gods are people who rule.
SPEAKER_01: They are human judges who exercise a position of authority over others, and they do that with abusive power.
SPEAKER_01: Verses 6 and 7, God judges these authorities.
SPEAKER_01: He says they will die like the men they are.
SPEAKER_01: You're not really gods with a capital G.
SPEAKER_01: You might have authority and power and position and greatness of some kind in the world that you rule, but you're gonna die.
SPEAKER_01: They exercised authority as God's representatives, but once they departed from righteous ways, they ceased to be his representatives.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, I'm gonna remove you.
SPEAKER_01: So we know then that Jesus is quoting Psalm 82, verse 6, I said, You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.
SPEAKER_01: We also know he's using this verse to support his argument about his identity.
SPEAKER_01: So flip back to John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_01: Look again at John chapter 10, verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, scripture cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_01: So you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, You are blasphemy?
SPEAKER_01: Because I said I am the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know whom God was speaking to in Psalm 82.
SPEAKER_01: When did Asaph live?
SPEAKER_01: Who were the gods, little G that he was referring to?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Were they the elders of Israel?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
SPEAKER_01: Were they the king?
SPEAKER_01: Kings?
SPEAKER_01: Queens?
SPEAKER_01: We don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Could have been any of those.
SPEAKER_01: It could have been Israel as a whole, but God was addressing human leaders or human judges.
SPEAKER_01: They are the ones to whom the word of God came, and God called those human authorities, gods, little g.
SPEAKER_01: Why then, Jesus asks, are the Jewish people of his day having a problem with Jesus calling himself the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: It's a fair question.
SPEAKER_01: If God called human authorities gods in the Old Testament, why would they have a problem with Jesus being a son of God?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it blasphemy then for the more excellent person, the greater person, the more powerful person, the one whom the Father set apart and sent into the world?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it a problem for him to call himself the Son of God?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the infinitely greater person, so it should not be a problem for him to be called the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, they never considered the possibility of Jesus being right.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we find in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: In the Gospel of John, there's very, very few instances where people hear Jesus' declaration of himself and think he's right.
SPEAKER_01: It's a rare thing for that to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You see, they had convinced themselves that Jesus was just a man.
SPEAKER_01: He eats like a man, he drinks like a man, he walks like a man, he talks like a man, you must be a man.
SPEAKER_01: But what about all these miraculous things that he oh, he's just a man.
SPEAKER_01: They never thought that he might be telling the truth.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the problem with rejecting our first reason.
SPEAKER_01: If you refuse to consider that Jesus might be the Son of God, then you immediately begin to deny his truthfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And if you begin to deny his truthfulness, then you begin to deny the truthfulness of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you won't then see that Jesus affirms and substantiates the rest of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Many people dismiss Jesus or Scripture or Christians without considering whether there is truth in them.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, though, what Jesus said at the end of verse 35.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_01: He's making a definitive statement.
SPEAKER_01: That's a statement of fact.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot take Psalm 82 and lift verse 6 out of it and toss it away.
SPEAKER_01: Or reinterpret it or make it mean something that you don't want it to mean.
SPEAKER_01: Or that you want it to mean.
SPEAKER_01: It means what it means, and that's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Because God said it and God determined it.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that God called some human authorities gods with a little g cannot be changed.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that when you read your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Or when you think about your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus hung his argument on one word of one short psalm.
SPEAKER_01: How much of your Bible do you trust?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus trusted one word.
SPEAKER_01: This entire situation comes down to one word of one psalm.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Scripture can't be broken.
SPEAKER_01: I'm upholding it, I'm sustaining it because it's true.
SPEAKER_01: And because it's true, it represents who I am and what I'm saying and it supports it all.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to fulfill the law of God, not to do away with it.
SPEAKER_01: It is accurate and it is unbreakable and it points to Him.
SPEAKER_01: If you read throughout your Old Testament, if you listen to the Old Testament without seeing Jesus, you're misreading it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus pointed people to the truth of Scripture because He said, It speaks of me.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, there's no rebuttal from his accusers.
SPEAKER_01: What do they have to say?
SPEAKER_01: They're silent.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing they can say in the face of Scripture properly expounded.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, they can ignore it.
SPEAKER_01: That's their one choice.
SPEAKER_01: They can either believe it or they can ignore it.
SPEAKER_01: But if they believe what Jesus is saying about the scriptures, which is true, then they have to believe Jesus, and they just can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus has shown that the scriptures are true and the scriptures point to him.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see how they've taken a step to not even recognize and give credence that Jesus might be right?
SPEAKER_01: And so if Jesus can't be right, then what Jesus points to and scripture can't be right.
SPEAKER_01: And you just keep going down the road, down the road, and you get further and further away from what God says to be true.
SPEAKER_01: There's absolutely nothing wrong biblically for Jesus to claim to be the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: But we can be confident that Jesus is the Son of God because he fulfills Scripture and He follows Scripture to the T and He upholds it from beginning to end.
SPEAKER_01: But these people refuse to consider that, so Jesus challenged them.
SPEAKER_01: He challenges them to look to his works, his miracles, which is the third reason that we should believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because of his miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 37.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.
SPEAKER_01: It's an astounding statement.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, listen, this is about what is true and what is false.
SPEAKER_01: If you consider everything that there is to consider and it's not true, then don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: But if it is true and you don't believe, then you stand condemned already.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he told Nicodemus in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Here, Jesus says, Listen, if you don't believe what I'm saying, look at what I'm doing and believe what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not believe me, believe the works, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he said in verse 30 that started the whole thing over again.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but if people are holding stones to execute me, I don't want to provoke it.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's making the same statement again that caused them to pick up stones in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: But notice what he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, here's a reason to believe what I'm saying is true.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's a reason that I'm believing to believe what I'm saying is true, and here's another reason.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if you legitimately consider the miracles that I've done, the conclusion that you will reach is that I and the Father are one.
SPEAKER_01: Which is the reason they wanted to kill him in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.
SPEAKER_01: But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 25, Jesus answered their question about whether he is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: But they did not listen because they did not believe.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 26, Jesus said they did not believe because they're not part of his flock of sheep.
SPEAKER_01: John is all about believing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great, great theme on Labor Day weekend.
SPEAKER_01: Stop your working and believe in the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because your working is not going to get you anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: But believing in the works of Jesus will save you from your sin.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, listen, we're going to return to this theme of belief in verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you do not believe me, believe the works.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus claimed to be God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He claimed to be the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: A claim that they clearly understood was a connection to deity.
SPEAKER_01: He was saying, I am God in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: The miracles, then, Jesus says, prove that the Father is with him and he was in the Father.
SPEAKER_01: That's just a restatement of verse 30.
SPEAKER_01: The works are witnesses that testify to Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: Peter will use the same argument later in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: In Acts chapter 2, verse 22, in his first sermon, Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, You saw everything that he did.
SPEAKER_01: You observed it.
SPEAKER_01: You were witnesses of it.
SPEAKER_01: It seems that Jesus is pointing back to what took place in chapter 9, where he healed a man that was born blind.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what I said, hold on to verse 21.
SPEAKER_01: Can a demon open the eyes of a blind man?
SPEAKER_01: Now, where would that come from?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it comes from chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Because everything that happens in chapter 10 is a continuation of chapter 9, where there was this man born blind, and Jesus creates new eyes for him, and that stirs up a controversy about who can create new eyes for a man born blind.
SPEAKER_01: And how does this all happen?
SPEAKER_01: Because only a person who's right with God can do that, but they don't want Jesus to be right with God.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this whole conflagration.
SPEAKER_01: The fire is burning and it's starting to burn out of control.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus is provoking it.
SPEAKER_01: Because he keeps saying, you must believe.
SPEAKER_01: You must believe.
SPEAKER_01: Here are reasons to believe.
SPEAKER_01: So at the beginning of what we're looking at here, there's this question: Who is able to open the eyes of a blind man?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you who knows.
SPEAKER_01: Who knows the answer to that question?
SPEAKER_01: It's the man who can now see.
SPEAKER_01: Look back at chapter 9 and verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Never, this is the man who was born blind but can now see.
SPEAKER_01: He's speaking.
SPEAKER_01: He says in chapter 9, verse 32, never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
SPEAKER_01: If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
SPEAKER_01: He knows.
SPEAKER_01: And he believes.
SPEAKER_01: So what he says in verse 38, he said, Lord, I believe, and he worshipped him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 38, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 38.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' miracles are confirmation.
SPEAKER_01: They are proof.
SPEAKER_01: They are evidence pointing to his deity and they are reasons for us to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' works, his miracles prove that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: The fact that he could create new eyes for a man born blind proves that he is God.
SPEAKER_01: The most significant work, the greatest miracle, comes in the next chapter where we see Jesus raising someone from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: You should believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And my friends, if you have been following Jesus in faith all of your life, praise God from whom all blessings flow.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is so powerful that he has sustained your faith to this very day.
SPEAKER_01: And he will sustain your faith to the end.
SPEAKER_01: He is powerful enough to carry you through any trial, any pain, any suffering, any agony, any uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is the good shepherd who knows his own by name.
SPEAKER_01: There's a final reason that we should believe in Jesus in the last few verses of this chapter, and that is because of the testimony of other witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, in verse 39, they don't seek to stone Jesus this time, but we pick up again.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 31, they picked up stones again to stone him.
SPEAKER_01: This time again, they sought to arrest him.
SPEAKER_01: Well, why didn't they try to stone him when he just said the same thing again?
SPEAKER_01: He's provoking them.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't they seek to stone him?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's because I think they didn't have a legitimate reason to execute Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has stolen their thunder.
SPEAKER_01: In his own defense, he has quoted Scripture and He's brought forth witnesses and he said, For no reason at all can you support by Scripture, by the law of Moses, that I am guilty of blasphemy.
SPEAKER_01: And the stones start to drop.
SPEAKER_01: But they still don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: So what do you do when you don't have a legitimate reason to execute?
SPEAKER_01: But you can't stone him.
SPEAKER_01: You arrest him.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take him to the authorities.
SPEAKER_01: They'll find some reason to get rid of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus' time was not yet, so he somehow, unexplained to us, leaves the region, goes to the area of the Jordan River where John the Baptizer had been ministering.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, many people came to him there, verse 41.
SPEAKER_01: What's most interesting is that these people remember what John the Baptist said about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They said, John didn't do anything like what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_01: John didn't heal blind people.
SPEAKER_01: John didn't heal the lepers.
SPEAKER_01: John certainly didn't raise the dead.
SPEAKER_01: But everything that John said about Jesus was true.
SPEAKER_01: What an amazing statement.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that John said about this man was true.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist was not a miracle, but he was a teacher.
SPEAKER_01: He taught people and he led people back to God.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever was listening to John was ready to see and to hear and to believe when he pointed Jesus out and said, There's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And some of John's disciples left John and started following Jesus because they believed.
SPEAKER_01: John was a witness.
SPEAKER_01: And now these people are witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: They can testify that everything that they've been told is true.
SPEAKER_01: What a contrast to the city of Jerusalem where nobody's willing to believe.
SPEAKER_01: They've been given evidence after evidence after evidence after evidence, and yet they refuse to believe.
SPEAKER_01: And yet you go out to the Jordan River where people are camping by their fires and they're saying, everything that John said is true.
SPEAKER_01: How can we not believe?
SPEAKER_01: In our American justice system, juries hear testimony from witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: When a witness gives true testimony, it's generally believed.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptizer was one who gave true testimony.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke truthfully about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And these people here at the end of this chapter all speak as genuine, truthful witnesses.
SPEAKER_01: They heard the words of Jesus, they considered the miracles, they heard the testimony of others, and they believed.
SPEAKER_01: My friends, Jesus made an astounding claim.
SPEAKER_01: He said, He is God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm the one who has dwelt an eternity full of glory and power.
SPEAKER_01: I think biblically imagine him at the beginning of Job chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: Facing the sons of God, saying, Take everything away from Job and he'll curse you and die.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Oh, you don't know my sustaining power.
SPEAKER_01: He is the God who came to this earth and he took on flesh and he dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one sent from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: He's the promised Messiah who would save his people from their sins.
SPEAKER_01: There's plenty of reason to hear his words and believe him, because trusting in him brings life.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting in him brings security in the hands of God.
SPEAKER_01: Trusting in him brings care from the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: So if you already belong to him, be encouraged, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: Labor on.
SPEAKER_01: Not in your own strength, but in your faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let your faith be strengthened by the The evidence and the word of God for the truthfulness of your belief.
SPEAKER_01: Be emboldened to speak of him, to lead others to him, even if you're rejected.
SPEAKER_01: If you're uncertain of Jesus, consider his claims.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to his words.
SPEAKER_01: Consider his works.
SPEAKER_01: Evaluate his miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Ask God to make the truth known to you.
SPEAKER_01: And you will see in the end that there is no reason not to come to faith and trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
SPEAKER_01: You may choose not to trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But that will be because of your own desires, not because of the evidence.
SPEAKER_01: I like how Pastor J.C.
SPEAKER_01: Ryle from another time summarized a section of John.
SPEAKER_01: He said, The Lord Jesus, in whom the gospel bids us believe, is, without a doubt, Almighty God.
SPEAKER_01: He is equal to the Father in all things.
SPEAKER_01: And he's able to save to the uttermost, to the completeness, to the end, all those that come unto God by him.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, this we affirm.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, he says, Jesus is no less certainly perfect man.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's able to sympathize with us in all of his bodily sufferings.
SPEAKER_01: He's acquainted by his own experience with all that man's body has to endure.
SPEAKER_01: Power and sympathy are marvelously combined in him who died for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And so, because he is God, we may rest in the weight of our souls upon him with unhesitating confidence.
SPEAKER_01: He's mighty to save.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is man, we can speak to him with freedom about the many trials to which flesh, that is this humanity, is heir, that's which which we inherit.
SPEAKER_01: He knows your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Here then is rest for the weary.
SPEAKER_01: Here is the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Our Redeemer is man as well as God.
SPEAKER_01: And God as well as man.
SPEAKER_01: Will you believe this?
SPEAKER_01: Will you come to him for rest as your good shepherd who will lead you home?
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, may you reveal to all who are here today the truth of your claims, the truth of Scripture, the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Strip away all of the falsehoods, all of the things that make us question and make us uncertain.
SPEAKER_01: And would you even this day to some who are hearing, grant new life, resurrection life because of the belief in you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, for all those who are laboring, may they come to you for rest.
SPEAKER_01: To all who are weary, may they find their strength in you.
SPEAKER_01: May you, the God of our salvation, the one who left the glories of heaven and wrapped himself with flesh to redeem us.
SPEAKER_01: May you be glorified in us.
SPEAKER_01: May you give boldness to your people today and strength to be witnesses, to be the salt and the light in a world that opposes you.
SPEAKER_01: May you give us clarity to stand for truth at all costs to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.