Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] John, chapter ten is where we'll be. So open your bibles. See, we'll be in chapters 22 through 42. And we've been walking through since the beginning of this year, starting in chapter one, verse one, walking through each chapter, through each verse. And today we find Jesus talking to, again, some of the religious leaders. Now, just a little bit of context. Earlier on in chapter ten, we see Jesus talking about how he is the good. What? The good shepherd. We saw a couple weeks ago when he said, I am the door, there are seven I am statements. Two weeks ago, we saw that. He said, I am the door. And we unpacked that. And last week he said, I am the good shepherd. And then today is not one of the I am statements, but rather just moving forwards. Actually, a few months between verse 21 in chapter ten and verse 22. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. Moment. But just know that as you read through scripture for yourself, just because something is one verse apart or it's one chapter apart, it does not always mean that it immediately happened after that. When that happens, there's sometimes in scripture we'll say immediately after that, or right after that, or you'll see through the context that it did happen immediately following. In this situation, we see that it was actually some weeks, some months apart. We know that the feast of booths was happening not long, not much before in this passage. And so we look now we're going to see there's a different feast going on, which tells us there's been some distance, some time between these two events. So verse 22 is where we'll start. Now, I'm going to pray and then kind of dig into this, and we'll read through the passage together, actually, as we go through our time. So let's pray together.
[00:01:53] Lord, I think even just now about some of the songs we were just singing, reminding us that you are a holy and perfect God. Holy not just a long time ago, not just right now, but holy forever, is who you are and who you will always be as you existed, not just in complete perfection, but one who is unable to be in relationship with sin.
[00:02:28] You saw us in sin, desiring relationship with us.
[00:02:33] And just the song we just sung moments ago, the blood of Christ made us clean, made us righteous. And so now we can be in your presence, a holy God. We can be in relationship with you, a holy God.
[00:02:51] Help us to hold tightly this morning to that powerful truth, the redemption that you brought to us. As we look at this passage here today. Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes to the power and the beauty of who you are and who you want us to be in you.
[00:03:09] For those here maybe today who have never stepped into relationship with you, who've never taken a step into trusting in your blood to cleanse them, Lord, I pray that today would be the day for them, that they choose to do that for those of us who have. Lord, as we read through this passage, Lord, as we look at what you want to say to us, that you would shift our hearts and our minds in such a way to draw us closer to you. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:03:36] Over the last three years or so, if you look at the context of what's going on, Jesus has done a lot of work. He has healed many people. He has taught, he has preached, he has cast out demons. He has done all sorts of signs and wonders. He's walked on water. The mount of transfiguration has happened. There is so much that has happened in the last three years or so of Jesus ministry. Over and over again as we read through not just the book of John, but the other gospels as well, we have seen Jesus teaching people over and over again what it looks like to walk in obedience or walk in repentance in regards to their relationship with God. And so today we're about maybe four or five months or so, maybe away from the time that Jesus is going to go to the cross. And this is a time that we read about in scripture and all the gospels talk about Jesus arrest and crucifixion. And this time is approaching. For Jesus, it's not many months away. And so in this passage, we're going to see Jesus really, it's the last major encounter he has with the religious leaders where he's telling them, this is who I am. And it's time for you to believe, really, time is running out between when this account and Jesus going to the now, I want to give a little bit of history here before we get into the text, and you're going to see why it's really important for us to see this.
[00:05:04] You don't have to go there on the screen just yet, but if you look in your bibles, in verse 22, it says at that time the feast of dedication. So what are we talking about here? So let's do some history before we get back into the text. The Old Testament closes with what book? What's the last book of the Old Testament?
[00:05:23] Malachi. And for those of you who didn't know, the last book of the Old Testament is Malachi. And it covers events roughly up to about 400 BC. So about 400 years after the end of Malachi is when Jesus comes. But there's a lot of things that happen in those 400 years. So after that, Alexander the great all but conquers the known civilized world. He dies in about 323 BC. That is before Christ. His empire is distributed to four generals who consolidate their territory and establish some major dynasties. Ptolemy, one of these generals ruled in Egypt, which is further south, and one of the other generals ruled in Syria. And these generals, they founded these major dynasties. And right in between the two of them was the nation of Israel.
[00:06:18] So now, Ptolemy, one of the other generals, he has this, what's called the ptolemaic rule in Israel, or right around Israel there. And he was pretty tolerant of the Jews practicing their religion. He was like, okay, do what you want to do. I'll kind of stay out of your way. Well, after a little while, there comes another emperor in that reign, and his name is Anticus the fourth. And so he comes to power about 175, 175 years before Jesus comes along. And he says, you know what? I don't like your religion at all. This needs to be gone. I'm not going to put up with your religion. And he, Anticus IV, he actually gave himself a different name. He said, you know what? I want everyone to call me Anticus Epiphanes. Can you say that? Anticus epiphanes. You've heard the word epiphany before, which means this God in the flesh. And that was his view of himself and what he wanted other people to believe about him, that he was like God, manifest. Pretty high view of himself, right? Most of us would say, that's not right. Shouldn't be doing that. He's not God. So because of this, and he realizes, okay, there's me. I view myself as God in the flesh. There's these jewish people that worship a different God. And so he had an agenda. How can I make these people stop recognizing their religion? How can I make them stop worshiping this other God? And so he persecutes them in a major, major way. One, he outlaws the jewish religious practices, including observance of all sorts of koshere. He orders them to worship the greek God. He stole millions of dollars in order to fund his own escapades from the temple treasury, obviously. How do you think the Jews are feeling about this?
[00:08:15] Not super pumped about this at all. And to go a little bit further, he then says that possessing a copy of the law, so, like, for us, maybe the Bible was punishable. Bye, death. He also said, that circumcising the boys was punishable by death. He turns the Temple into a house of prostitution. He goes and he offers pigs, unclean animals on the altar in the Temple. And 80,000 plus Jews are either sold into or put into slavery or killed. The Jews hate this man, understandably so. So that's going on then the jewish opposition has begun to rise. In the midst of that, there was one man, his name was Matthias, and he was a jewish priest, and he led an organized resistance, along with his five sons.
[00:09:16] And they said, we want this to. To stop. I mean, this has gone on long enough. We want to worship God and you are desecrating the temple. You are telling us that we cannot worship our God. You are killing people right and left because you believe you are God and you want us to not worship him and not honor the traditions that we've had for many, many years. So after some time, Matthias, he dies, and his Son, Judas MaccAbees. Have you heard the name MaccAbees before?
[00:09:50] Comes to power now, Maccabees, the Hebrew name for Maccabees is Hammer.
[00:09:57] He was viewed as a very strong, strong leader. And so he, along with his other brothers, go into the countryside and they begin this basically guerrilla warfare against this evil, horrible ruler, and they begin to build a bigger and bigger opposition to the ruler. And then what they end up doing, because this syrian king says, I want to destroy you, they say, we're going to fight back. And so they fight and they fight and they fight. This is the Maccabean revolt. And this went on for about seven years or so, about 167 years to 160 years before Jesus and the Maccabean revolt. They said, we're going to try to instill the jewish traditions back again to our people. And in the end, they ended up winning. And in about 164 or so BC they said, we've won, this guy is gone. We can now bring back our traditions. And from that time, every year, from 165 up to the point of Jesus, every year, they're celebrating how they are now able to. At the time, after they kicked out the syrian king, they went into the temple, they rededicated the temple, and they said, we're finally able to cleanse this of all of the horrible atrocities that have happened in the temple. Are you with me so far? So all of that has happened. They dedicate the temple 165 years or so before Jesus comes along. By the way, this is also what's remembered at Hanukkah. Did you know that? So Hanukkah even people talk about today. This thinks back, this remembers back to the dedication. That's what we're talking. Hanukkah's dedication of the temple after the Maccabean revolt. And so now it has been cleansed of all of its impurities. And they celebrate this feast of dedication, remembering how at one time, the nation of Israel, Jerusalem, the temple had been dirty, had been just horribly desecrated by somebody else, by another king. Now we fast forward 165 years. Now we're about almost 200 years to the time of Jesus in this passage. And here, year after year, they've been celebrating this feast of dedication, this Hanukkah that we talk about today, which, by the way, is not an Old Testament requirement, it's just a dedication. And so obviously, you would think at this time of this feast, people are thinking about the Messiah, because the messiah was to come and give them freedom from any oppression. That's what happened 165 BC. And so now every year, they're probably thinking, when is the Messiah going to come? When is the messiah going to become? Because they're already thinking back. Their minds, their hearts are primed, thinking about the last guy who led a major revolt against the opposition in Israel. All right, so there's a lot of context that leads to verse 22 at that time, the feast of what?
[00:13:11] Of dedication. So this is on your outline, the request you could write in verses 22 through 24, the request, the feast of dedication. So very patriotic. People are thinking about the Messiah. Who's gonna save them from their current opposition to their current oppression under the who, the Romans?
[00:13:30] Feastification. It takes place in Jerusalem. It's winter, and Jesus. Verse 23, was walking in the temple. He's minding his own business in the colonnade of Solomon, which is near that temple there under covering. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, that is the Messiah, which obviously, they would understandably be thinking about this because of the nature of the feast. Tell us plainly, you kind of just imagine this in your mind. Jesus is just hanging out at this feast, by the way, Jesus recognizing a feast that wasn't required by biblical law, by old Testament law. He's there. He's hanging out. They come swarming around him, kind of have that picture. He's walking under a porch. They come around him and they say, Jesus, we're tired of waiting. They're probably thinking, we have been talking about this possible messiah. Are you him? Stop keeping us in suspense. Now, Jesus, he actually says, I already told you. But even the phrase stop keeping us in dispense, or how long will you keep us in suspense? Has Jesus already told him who he was?
[00:14:41] Has he already said this? He has. And he said a lot of other things as well. In chapter three of John, he says, I told you that I came down from heaven. In chapter three, he also says, I'm the one who gives eternal life. In chapter five, I am the son of God. In chapter five, I judge all of humanity. You must honor me like you honor the father. The scriptures speak of me. I and the father, he's gonna say in a little bit, are one. But I reveal the father before Abraham was. I am. He goes on and on and throughout this book and the other gospels as well, saying that he is the one sent from God. But what are they looking for? That's the question. Are they looking for that kind of messiah? No, they're looking for a patriarch. They're looking for a political and military leader. Is that what Jesus came to do? No, but when they think Messiah, they think. Remember ad 65? Remember that guy who led the revolt and brought us military and political freedom? That's what we want to see. Jesus is the Messiah, but he's not the one at this time who's going to call down, fire on the Romans and establish his kingdom on earth. That's not the time. I want to give you a takeaway at the end of each point before we move on to the next one. This takeaway maybe just store in your mind. Looking at this text, is this, don't blame like the Jews did here. Don't blame Jesus for your lack of faith. That's what they were doing. If you had done enough, if you have said enough or why have you kept us in suspense? They're putting it off on him. Jesus has done enough. He has said enough. He's clearly informed them of his identity, his mission, his promises, and his desire.
[00:16:28] But they say, no, it's you. You're the one keeping us in suspense. One pastor that I listened to every once in a while said this about this verse, he says this. Doubt looks for answers. Unbelief looks for excuses. If they truly just doubted, they just weren't sure, they might ask Jesus questions. Can you show us? I really want to know. I want to understand. But they weren't in that position. They were unbelieving, so they were looking for excuses. Here's all of the reasons. We won't believe all of the reasons, and it's on you now that we're not going to trust you. God gave us brains.
[00:17:07] God wants us to use reason, not just emotion, as we follow him. So that's their question. That's the request .2 on your outline. Is this his reply? His reply. So Jesus, he's minding his own business. They say, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? He says, I told you. Here's some words I've given you. Words I told you, and you do nothing. What?
[00:17:30] Believe the works that I do in my father's name. Bear witness. Notice whose name? His father's name. He's not even, like, claiming ownership of himself. He says, my father's name. This is why I'm doing it. Bear witness or affirm about me. But verse 26, you do not believe me because you are not among my what? Which we remember now, especially that immediate connection back with earlier in chapter ten. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me again. They would have that picture. They would know exactly what he's talking about. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Friends, isn't that a great promise, that nothing and no one can snatch you out of his hand? My father has given them to me and is greater than all. No one. If he's greater than all, then obviously no one is stronger than him. Thus, no one is able to take us out of his hands. No one is able to snatch them out of my father's hands. He says in verse 29, I. And here's he's. He laid out a beautiful promise to us and to those who follow him. And then here he says one line, one verse that just grabs them. Verse 30, I and the father are what? One? I and the Father are one. We see at least three things here briefly that Jesus says in his reply, if you like writing things down, you can write these things down. Firstly, he says this. You've ignored my words and my works. You've ignored them.
[00:19:10] He says, they confirm my identity. I've done all sorts of things. We talked earlier, three years worth of miracles and signs demonstrating his power over and over again. And they're like, you still haven't told us who you are. We don't know if you are the Messiah. He's like, look, my works confirm what and who I am. It matches the claim that I have made about myself. Secondly, you are ignorant because of your identity. You're ignorant because of your identity. You see that in verses 26, 27 through 29, he says, the reason you don't believe me is because you're not my sheep. Which, honestly, they probably don't care at first until he says, I and the father are one, which then says, you're not the sheep of God either. That's like us friends saying, because you don't believe me, you're not a Christian. How would you feel about that? Would it grab your heart a little bit? Oh, them are fighting words right there. Like, that's what you would be thinking. And then we might say in our lingo, let's take this outside. We're going to see for them. They're going to say, let's pick up some stones.
[00:20:19] That's the response. And it's very similar here. This is big words for him to say. Jesus is very, very clear. When you have submitted yourself to my authority, he says earlier that I am the door. The only way to get to the Father is through me. When you have submitted yourself to my authority, the Holy Spirit is going to open your mind to things that you have not understood before. You're going to understand things about me that you have yet to understand. So why don't you understand this? Because you are yet to accept me. And so you're gonna misunderstand lots of other things. And the last, the third thing that he's saying here to really bring all of this home for them and to answer maybe even the question that they have sort of is this. You have not only ignored my words and my works, you've not only. Your ignorance is not only because of your identity, but also, thirdly, you have underestimated my identity. You have underestimated my identity. They are thinking, political and military leader. Jesus is not there to be the political and military leader, at least at this time. That's what they are looking for. The big idea, the concept that changes everything, is the identity of Jesus. When he says, I and the father are one, as some might say, oh, that just means that they're actually the same and they're nothing in mission, in pursuit. They are, yes, unified. But when they say, he says one, that word there, one on the screen, is not a male term. It's a word that has no gender associated with it. The point here is this. Jesus and the father are different in identity, but one in character and in mission and in power. Now, some might look at this and say, well, maybe he meant this. Maybe he meant this, and we could dive into some of those details, but I don't think that's particularly necessary. For one reason that I'll say here is because we can look at the context and see how did they understand it. We could look 2000 years removed and be like, well, did he mean this or did he mean this? They understood what he meant and they didn't say, well, that's a nice thought. Like, you guys are unified with God. We're unified with God. So we're one with God and you're one with God. No, they very much understood that he was claiming deity here.
[00:22:38] We see that clearly in the following verses.
[00:22:42] John the Baptist some years earlier declared that he is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's going to be relevant at the tail end of this passage as well. So they asked for suspense to be gone. How long will you keep us in suspense? He says, I am one with God. They are about to have a major reaction in .3 that we'll see. But before that, we have to look at a takeaway here from this. Do you ask yourself this question? Do you regularly evaluate your words and your actions with your professed identity? Do you regularly evaluate your words and your actions with your professed identity? Here's what I'm saying is, when you think about the words that I'm saying to other people or the actions that I'm taking when I'm around other people, do they fall in line with, I am a child of God and an ambassador of the kingdom and a Ydezenhe vessel of the Holy Spirit. Do those things match my words and my actions? Now, obviously we know that for all of us we mess up. We walk in our own flesh rather than walking in the spirit. But here we see that Jesus lays out and he says, look at my words and my actions. They match my claim. Can we say the same is true for us? Do our words and our actions match the claim or strive to match the claim that we have of our self? When you look in the mirror, when I look in the mirror in the morning, or whatever that is, we check our outward appearance. What if we, we made a habit of getting up in the morning? We check in the mirror, we look at our outward appearance and then we pause.
[00:24:10] We say, God, will you look at my inward appearance this morning and let me know what you see? Because I don't want to leave wherever I am without you checking my inward appearance and making sure that I'm right with you.
[00:24:27] Weigh those things. Check those things. Thirdly, in your outline you could write this in. We see the request.
[00:24:34] We've seen in two. We've seen that. He replies, thirdly, another r word. The reaction. The reaction. Just a brief point here. Verses 31 33 makes mention of it as well, and greater action. Their immediate response, a reaction to Jesus words, is, as I said, not something of passivity, but rather they picked up stones.
[00:24:56] I love what it says in verse 31. They picked up stones. What's the word after that? Again, this is not the first time this has happened with Jesus.
[00:25:04] Not the first time to stone him.
[00:25:10] Leviticus 20 416 calls the nation of Israel to stone someone who commits the crime of blasphemy, a man calling themself God. We sang a little bit ago about the holiness of God, and when a man says, I am God, what they're saying is, I am holy like God. And here's God's response. How dare you? How dare you? We cannot have you exist in our nation of people any longer. Thus the punishment was stoning.
[00:25:45] That was serious crime in Israel. A serious crime and a serious crime today, though today, 2000 years removed. Sadly, we take a lot less, put a lot less emphasis in blasphemy, don't we? We see it in music, in tv shows, amongst our vocabulary, there's all sorts of things that we say that really defame or belittle the name of God. But here, look at the response, we're gonna stone you.
[00:26:15] So they follow legal protocol. And we see here in verse 33, if we look ahead and Jesus says something in between there, but look, look at verse 33. It says, we're not doing this because of good works that you've done for the last three years, but rather we're gonna stone you for blasphemy. Because being a man, you make yourself God. Now, what's interesting is, let's just reverse that. The reverse of that is true, isn't it? Being God, he became man.
[00:26:43] They're charging him with being man. You call yourself God, but really the inverse is what's accurate takeaway here before we look at. .4. Their reaction made sense based on what they understood, but it didn't make sense based on the evidence.
[00:27:03] They didn't base this on reality, but they based their reaction based on from what they understood. Their understanding was limited because, as Jesus says, because you've rejected Jesus as a means to get to God. He says, I am the door. They've rejected him as the way for us. How often do our actions and our thoughts or our feelings, how much, how often are they completely out of proportion or perhaps completely wrong because we misunderstood something?
[00:27:36] How often do we make major moves and say things because we understand it one way and we're fixated on that one way and not say, let me check around and make sure that I have all the information. Jesus didn't deserve this response, but because of their misunderstanding, they reacted in a major way. And I would say, and you would say the wrong way. Here's the point. It's valuable for us to weigh all of the evidence, to track with the big picture, to react accordingly, rather than consider only the conversation that I'm in in this moment. That's what the Jews did, didn't they? He said, I and the father are one. Yes, a major claim. But what if they paused and said, let's think about the last three years.
[00:28:19] I guess that makes sense.
[00:28:21] Look at what happens afterwards .4 Jesus now walks through in great clarity why he said what he said and the value that they should be taking from these words and we should be taking from these words is something that we need to really hold tightly to.
[00:28:38] If you have this kind of picture still in your mind. They're in the temple, they're under this porch. Jesus is walking, probably hanging out with his disciples around. The jewish leaders come around him. We don't know how many other people are watching. And he says this, they've picked up stones. They found some stones. They've picked them up and they are angry. That's the imagery that we have to have here is Jesus standing before an angry group of people who want to grab him. I'm sure the temple guard is now paying attention to what's happening. Do we need to get involved here? And jesus doesn't go like, I don't know what to do, and run away. He doesn't curl up in a ball and hide. He stands there, probably very cool, calm and collected, and says, let's talk about this.
[00:29:23] You don't see him heightened emotions. You don't see him yelling back. Verse 33 32, Jesus answered them, not yelled back at them. He answered them. I have shown you many good works from the father. Again, he attributes the works that he's done from the father to the father. For which of them are you going to stone me? We looked at this a moment ago. Verse 33 goes on. It says, the Jews answered and was not for good works. They were going to stone you, but because of blasphemy. Verse 34, Jesus answered them, is it not? And here's the argument he's going to make here. You can go on to the next slide that shows us on the screen.
[00:29:59] The argument he's going to make here is important. Firstly, verse 34, he says, jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? And when he says your law he's talking about the Old Testament as a whole. I said, you are gods. Or some of your bibles might say rulers in quotes. If he being God, called them gods, lowercase g, to whom the word of God came, the scriptures cannot be broken.
[00:30:22] Do you say of him who the father consecrated and sent into the world? He's speaking of himself now. You are blasphemy because I said I am the son of God?
[00:30:34] I'll explain this in just a moment. Let's read through verse 38. If I am not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that I'm doing, that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father. So Jesus offers here two questions and we'll look at them in in order. He offers two questions to them. So remember, they're there, the stone in hand. They're angry. And he looks back, cool, calm, collected. He's like, I have some things I want to say. And he shows us, he gives us two questions. You can write these things down. Maybe that he hopes that they are going to consider, maybe engaging their brains and not just their emotions in this very heated moment. First question that we see in verses 32, 37 and 38 is this, why do you want to kill me for doing good things? That's a reasonable question, right? That's what we see on the screen. You can see that? That's his question. I'm doing good things. And truly you can see, look at verse 37. They align with the heart of God. Yes. These words that I said, punishable by death. But when you consider all the things that I've done and how they align perfectly with what God desires, why are you so angry about this? He tells them to compare his works to the father's works. What are the things that Jesus did? He heals people. Is that something that God would hate?
[00:32:03] He feeds people. Does God hate that? No, he walks on water. That's only God can do.
[00:32:09] He raised somebody from, raises people from the dead. Is God for that? Yeah, like he does all of these things aligned with the heart of God. He expounds upon scripture over and over again.
[00:32:22] And then he says, even if you don't want to believe me, just look at the facts. Have you ever told anyone that? Just look at the facts. Just look at the facts.
[00:32:32] Secondly, we see this and it's a little bit more involved. He begins to make a case in verses 34 through 36. And this next question is this. Why don't you consider all of scripture before condemning me? You're looking at one particular point, but consider all of scripture before you bring this charge against me. So why don't you consider all of scripture before condemning me is the question that we see just offering in verses 34 through 36. And then he goes on, it's kind of complicated. What he's talking about is he's referencing back to psalm 82. And in psalm 82, God's speaking to the judges, to the rulers of Israel, and he's actually speaking negatively about them because they're not doing the right thing. And he says, you are basically acting like gods, which is fine. Their job is to communicate the heart of God to the people of God. Your job is to act like gods to the people. That is to communicate God to the people. Right. Thus lowercase G. And they would have studied the scriptures and said, look, God called these judges, these sinful men gods because of their role communicating the heart of God and the message of God to God's people. So Jesus says to them, here's the case he's offering. It's a case of less and more. He's saying, so if God called these sinful people gods. Lowercase G. If he called them gods, and you're okay with that, he says, and the scriptures cannot be broken. Right? So this is true. This is right. Why do you have such a problem with me? I also say that I'm the son of God and look at what I have done. I'm doing more and better work than these other people who have been called gods. Why do you have a problem with me calling myself God? Are you with me? That's his argument to them, hoping perhaps that they are going to think about this. Here's the takeaway. Feelings and facts can get very convoluted.
[00:34:24] Both are important and a gift from God. But here Jesus calls them to do something. He calls them to let the facts lead their feelings. That can be hard sometimes, can't it? To let the facts lead our feelings, especially since at times, depending on the situation, that we can be very emotional about something and understandably so, considering this text. But here he's saying, think about the facts and let them lead what you're feeling right now. We come to a conclusion in this, as he's walked through this conversation, really, we're just kind of a fly on the wall watching all of this. And he says that. And the Jews still, many of them do not believe .5 on your outline, is this the rejection, the retreat and revelation? We see this in just the next few verses. Firstly, look at verse 39. He says, again, they sought to arrest him, but he fell into their arms. No, they got arrested. No, he escaped their hands. One of the things I love, and maybe you noticed this as well, is notice they again sought to arrest him. It doesn't say stone him. Wasn't that interesting? I wonder if some of them thought about this a little bit and go, oh, you know, he makes some good points, but let's arrest him. We still need to get him quiet. Their goal here now is not, as it says here, to continue the stoning process, but rather to arrest him. Now, some say maybe they just wanted to arrest him, to take him out of this, out of the temple so there they could stone him. I don't know. But he escapes from their hands. We see here this rejection.
[00:36:01] They still do not want to listen to this person who just claimed to be God and showed through incredible works that his claims are valid, Jesus was able to escape their grasp. Now, how did he do that? How did Jesus, in a mob of people who want to kill him, how did he just, like, escape them?
[00:36:24] He's God.
[00:36:28] That's the answer. The retreat, look, what it says. Now, it doesn't say that he was afraid. He was concerned, he was needing to run away, but rather it was not his time to be arrested. That time comes a few months from this situation. Later on, when we remember and see, as we'll see later on in the book of John, the arrest happens and the crucifixion and so on, but the time is not yet ready. Other times in the text in scripture, we see that the jews wanted to arrest Jesus, but it wasn't his time. Over and over again, Scripture tells us it wasn't his time. It wasn't his time. But here we see again, it wasn't his time. So he retreats. One of the things that I see with this, and I think you probably do as well, is that Jesus one, he's not afraid, but he told them what they needed to hear, and then he's willing to step back and say, now you make the choice. You can come follow me, or you can stay over here and continue to reject me. That is up to you. He doesn't chase them down. He doesn't say, let's have individual conversations. Let me try to convince you. He says, I've told you all the things that you actually need in order for you to put your faith and trust in me. I've done that work. And now here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to step back and let you do what you want to do. Jesus respects our choices.
[00:37:45] He does. He doesn't force someone to say, you have to believe. You have to come into heaven with me. I want to make you do that. Rather, he says, I'm going to lay out the evidence. It's going to be very clear.
[00:37:55] And now you get to make the choice. And so he steps back. And then lastly you see in verses 41 and 42 concludes this chapter, it says that many is so encouraging and many came to him.
[00:38:11] So he goes off, I'm sorry, verse 40, he says he went away across Jordan to a place where John was baptizing. It's like full circle of ministry, isn't it? Public ministry started when at the baptism from John the Baptist there. And then we see full circle three years later. Where is he again? Back at where he was baptized by John the Baptist. After this, he'll hang out here for some time, for a few months and then he will go to, well, we'll see him move around a little bit, but we see public ministry stop. And we see public ministry starting at the baptism and ending here again. He moves away from Jerusalem. And many, verse 41, many came to him and they said, john did. Here's rational thinking. This is the revelation.
[00:38:52] John did no sign.
[00:38:54] But everything that John said about this man was what?
[00:38:58] True? Three years ago, they're considering the whole story. Three years. John said, lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And then we saw him prove it over and over again. His power. We saw his power. We saw his power. We saw his power. We saw his power. And here he is. His claim after claim after claim is, I am God, believe me. I am God, believe me. I'm here to save you. Believe me. Come, follow me over and over again. And here they are saying, I think we can believe what John said, and I think we can believe what you have to say as well. There's a true revelation of the heart that took place there and a true revelation of the heart that God desires to happen in every person everywhere.
[00:39:39] For us to look at the evidence, to weigh the evidence and see that it is strongly in favor of Jesus.
[00:39:47] He doesn't say hope on a whim that you might be lucky. He says, here's all of the facts. Here's all of the evidence. And I will show you from scripture, and I will show you from history that I am reliable. What's the takeaway here?
[00:40:04] I mentioned some of this a little bit ago. Jesus is not going to chase us down. He's not going to follow us around saying, if you don't believe, if you don't believe this is going to happen and this is going to happen. Sure, maybe for some of us, but he also is going to do this. I'm going to show you my kindness.
[00:40:18] What is it? Romans chapter two, verse four. I'm going to show you my kindness and hope that my kindness leads you to repentance.
[00:40:28] Friends, Jesus is kind.
[00:40:31] He is kind and his kindness is not one in which he steps back and says, I'm going to be kind and sit from a distance and be okay with you running away from me. Look at my kindness as a demonstration of me calling you back to me. I want you to come back to me. So here's the questions that we have to deal with today. Will you, if you have yet to trust in Jesus, will you trust in Jesus?
[00:40:53] Will you take him at his word and trust in him?
[00:40:59] Will you maybe show other people through the act of public baptism, we look at this happening in this text. Jesus goes back to the place that John baptized him. Will you maybe if you've never been baptized, will you say, I'm ready to be baptized? I want to show the people around me, yes, I have trusted in Jesus.
[00:41:14] Maybe, maybe for you. Will you rationally think through the claims of Jesus in his word and not let, and not let just your emotions lead and guide your eternity? Because Jesus was willing to say, look at the facts. And I think you and I can do that today with confidence. Can't we? Look at the facts. My last takeaway here personally, for me and maybe for you as well, is this, Jesus considered the word of God as something that is true, powerful and reliable.
[00:41:45] Jesus put a lot of weight in what the word says. He referenced, I think, over 64 times in his three and a half year ministry, referenced the Old Testament and gave it authority. Do you and I treat the word of God with the same authority that Jesus did? We can ask ourselves the question, do I believe in Jesus? And the answer, if it's yes, then I can say, then do I treat the word of God with the same authority and power and passion that Jesus did?
[00:42:13] I need to, because Jesus did just that. I need to take it seriously because the word of Jesus, the word of God is one and it's worth our time and attention and our life change. Let's pray to Jesus. We come before you because of your work, because of the redeeming power of the cross. We are able to approach you with confidence, with boldness because of your grace, because of your mercy.
[00:42:43] And here in this passage, we have seen you call those people then and you call us today to think clearly about who you are. You say you and the God that we worship are one. The father are one. You're not just some man that lived 2000 years ago and did some cool things but rather you possess the power and the authority that we should submit to.
[00:43:12] Lord, I know that time is running out for those who have not yet called you savior. To call you savior.
[00:43:21] There will be a time when every knee will bow and recognize you as lord. But not everyone will know you as savior.
[00:43:30] And so, Lord, I pray here today that every one of us can proclaim that as truth for us. You are our savior.
[00:43:38] And we submit to you today as our lord. Help us to treat your word with great honor, with great authority that we would submit to the words that it says. And we let you change us.
[00:43:50] Thank you for your spirit that you've put inside of us to give us the power to change as your children. In Jesus name, amen.
