Jesus Came To Save The World

Thanks, Kurt. I appreciate it.

Kurt's actually the first pastor at Vito Springs that I met when

they moved to town here. He one of the, one of the people

that came and helped play at the church was a, a pharmacist at

CVS and one of my elders was the pharmacy manager for the area.

And we would play basketball on Sunday nights and Kurt came and

took it to me that night. So and then I didn't get to see

Kurt again for many, many months after that and got to meet meet

him and get to know him a little bit better.

But yeah, be careful with him on the basketball court, although

I'm really bad at basketball, so maybe you don't have that much

to worry about. And my my expectations are low,

but really, really excited to be here this morning.

We're going to be in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

I know Kurt said John 13, but actually going to be in John 12.

Hopefully that's correct because that's what I was assigned in

the e-mail that was given to me. If not, we're going to get a

text that you heard previously in a couple weeks.

So, and my church actually went through the Gospel of John about

two years ago, took us a little over a year to to work through

through all of it. And so I'm excited to be here

with you guys this morning and, and starting in in about, you

know, the second-half of verse 36.

If you're unfamiliar with John's Gospel, we've arrived at the

point where we are at the end of what is known as Jesus public

ministry in John's Gospel. And what what I mean by that is

the next time that Jesus is going to appear in the Gospel of

John in public, it will actually be at his beating and his

crucifixion. So we, we are at the end of most

of the, the ministry that Jesus came to do in John's Gospel.

There, there may be some other things that you would see that

are not in John's Gospel that would be in the other ones.

But in this Gospel we are now at the the final stages of his

public ministry. And at this point, Jesus has

spent three plus years working and teaching about who he is and

why he came to Israel. He said things like I am the

bread of life. If you work through John's

gospels, you've seen these various I am statements that

he's made throughout the gospel. And when he says he's the bread

of life, what he was saying to the Israelites is that he was

true food and sustenance for them.

He would have been harking on their memory of God's people in

the wilderness story of Exodus, where God provided man a daily

for them, saying that whereas God was your provision

physically in the wilderness, I am your provision spiritually.

He says I am the light of the world, claiming that He was

bringing light to a Dark World that did not know God fully.

He claimed that He was the door displaying to the Israelites

that He was the means by which people would have access to God

the Father. He called himself the Good

Shepherd where he was proclaiming to them that he was

portraying his love and care for them as his people.

And there's shades of Psalm 23 here where David says the Lord

is my shepherd. I shall not want that.

Jesus is saying I'm that shepherd.

I am the shepherd that David was referring to.

He calls himself the resurrection and the life,

proclaiming to the people of Israel that he holds power both

over death and life itself. And so Jesus's public ministry

has had one goal as he's been preaching and teaching over

these these three years. And that was to reveal to them

that he is not just some political Liberator or prophet

or good teacher or a mere man or leader, though He came to reveal

that he was God's only son in the flesh, sent to reveal God's

truth and to rescue us from ourselves.

And that is a loaded statement saying that that we need

rescuing from ourselves. But if you read the Scriptures

consistently, what we find going all the way back to Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3, that mankind has a problem which probably everyone

in this room would agree with. And that problem is you, that

that problem is me. There's a, there's a famous

pastor that I, I've listened to his sermons for years and he has

this line that always sticks with me where he says, no one

robs you of more joy than yourself.

Does it mean that other people don't sin against us or that

things seem unfair at times, but that the ultimate enemy of our

own true joy and flourishing is our self, which is something

that Jesus teaches regularly throughout the Scripture.

And as we've studied John's, Jesus's ministry in the Gospel

of John and what you guys have likely seen from the other

pastors and preachers that have preached to you is John's

writing of this gospel is to really just unveil Jesus's

ministry to us, to truly unveil who he was.

Actually over in John chapter 20, Jesus, John actually shares

John 20 · chapter mention

with us the whole reason why he wrote his gospel.

He says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of

the disciples which are not written in this book, but these

are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life

in his name. Mean that John wrote this gospel

so that we would know who Jesus is, believe in Jesus and in

believing in Jesus, have life in his name.

And that is both life for eternity, but it's also life for

now, the idea that we can flourish in this life.

If you've ever read the Gospel of Matthew and Jesus Sermon on

the Mount, Jesus spends 2 full chapters preaching and teaching

what true flourishing looks like in this life.

And we should understand that. If you've ever read through the

Sermon on the Mount, a lot of the things that Jesus says lead

to human flourishing are going to be the exact opposite of what

the world tells you. Flourishing is meaning that

there is a way in which Jesus and his Kingdom turns our

kingdoms upside down. And last week, as you guys were

working through John's gospel, you saw Jesus finish kind of

with this final appeal as he's preaching and teaching.

He said this while you have the light, believe in the light,

that you may become sons of the light.

And so our big idea heading into the text that we have this

morning is that there will be many who will hear of Jesus,

will hear of his teachings, will know of his life, will know of

his story, and yet they will still reject Jesus in unbelief.

But that does not change the reality that Jesus came as the

light to save the world and all who believe in him receive life,

both life for now, but also life for eternity.

And so John has kind of two things that I want to point out

to us as we work through verses 36 through 50 here in John

John 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. The first one is we're going to

see John's commentary on the unbelief of those who had spent

time around Jesus and his ministry and help us try to

understand why there is this struggle to believe that Jesus

is God's Son in the flesh. And then the second thing we're

going to see is Jesus's own heart and authority towards

unbelief itself. And so if you'll look at me

starting in in verse 36, I'm going to read kind of our first

couple verses for you, and then we'll spend some time unpacking

them. When Jesus had said these

things, He departed and hid Himself from them.

Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not

believe in Him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah

might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what He

heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the

Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not

believe. For again, Isaiah said he has

blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with

their eyes and understand with their heart in turn.

And I would heal them. Now there's a lot going on there

and I'm going to try my best to to unpack what John is is saying

to us. But starting in the next chapter

from John 13 on, Jesus is going to devote himself specifically

to his disciples and preparing them for his crucifixion and

ultimately his resurrection. But as we finish up Jesus's

final kind of minutes in public ministry here in John chapter

John 12 · chapter mention

12, according to John, Jesus makes a final plea to the crowds

that are around him. And as he's made this final

plea, the Jewish leaders, the religious leaders and, and, and

just your comment, everyday Israelite that is with him

responds with unbelief. Now you guys have been studying

John's gospel for months at this point.

And as you've read through the gospel, for those of you that

have been here consistently, it may seem outrageous to you that

that would be their response, especially considering the

number of signs Jesus had performed in front of them.

If you haven't been here, let me give you a quick, maybe 32nd

recap of what we've seen. In John chapter 2, Jesus is at a

John 2 · chapter mention

wedding and he saves the wedding by turning water into wine.

In John chapter 4 he heals an official son simply by declaring

John 4 · chapter mention

that it's done without ever visiting the official son.

In John chapter 5 he heals A paralytic man by the pool of

John 5 · chapter mention

Bethesda. In John chapter 6, he feeds over

John 6 · chapter mention

5000 and then wants to get away from the people and then later

that night walks across water. In John Chapter 9, Jesus heals a

John 9 · chapter mention

man that had been born blind. Then in John Chapter 11, as if

John 11 · chapter mention

what he had done up to this point in John's gospel has not

been enough to explain his power and who he is, he raises his

friend Lazarus from the dead. And after all of these signs,

after all of the teachings that Jesus has given throughout his

ministry, through the I AM statements, after all the

miracles, the response is that there are many who still do not

believe that Jesus is who he says he is.

You're that we get the sense that John is almost sharing with

us this sense of tragedy that he experienced as a disciple

himself. That the entire public ministry

of Jesus, all the good that he had done over his three plus

years moving through Israel, moving throughout Samaria, going

and healing and preaching the good news of who God really is

and why he had come could be summed up that despite

everything that Jesus did, still they did not believe.

And I think this isn't important for us, an important thing for

us to consider this morning, whether you are a follower of

Jesus here this morning or you are not often times as a, as a

pastor, I've heard people say to me, I'll, I'll share the gospel

with them. I'll study the scriptures with

them. I'll explain to them my own

testimony of transformation and what God has done in my life.

And what regularly happens is if someone still after all of that,

after having the truth of who Jesus is unveiled to them and

shared with them, they will, they'll say something along

these lines to me. Well, unless I see God perform a

miracle, I won't believe. And the first response to that

is, is one that Scripture gives us.

And I, I always say, well, that sign has already been given,

been given to you. He's alive right now.

He's risen from the dead. You, you need no other sign

than, as Jesus says himself, than the sign of Jonah being

given to an adulterous and evil generation.

But I think the more important thing and layer to peel back is

that these were people, men and women who walked with Jesus, saw

him perform these miracles, saw him do these things, and yet it

was not enough for them. And I've found over the years in

ministry that when someone says they need something like that,

there would never be a miracle that would be enough for them,

that in the stubbornness of their own heart, they refuse to

respond. And this is actually something

that John shares with us in this passage.

He explains to us why these men and women who have experienced

the love of Christ and experienced his ministry, yet

still refuse to accept Him as their Messiah.

It's helpful to remember too that these men and women in

Israel are no different than their fathers that have come

before them. If you go back to Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

chapter 29, this is not the first time that the Israelites

have rejected God and his teaching and what He's given

them. Starting in verse 2 of

Deuteronomy chapter 29, this is this is Moses kind of reviewing.

Deuteronomy 29 · chapter mention

If you've read the book of Deuteronomy, it's pretty much

Moses reviewing his entire time with them and trying to prepare

them as a nation for entering into the promised land.

And when you get to verse chapter 29, he says this in

verse 2. And Moses summoned all Israel

and said to them, You have seen all that the Lord did before

your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his

servants, and to all his land, the great trials that you saw,

the signs and those great wonders.

But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand,

or eyes to see or ears to hear, saying God.

Moses says to them, God has done so much in liberating you, and

yet you still don't understand how good he is and follow him.

You still do not have eyes to see or ears to hear.

And John says that what we see here in John chapter 12 is very

John 12 · chapter mention

similar to the history of God's people throughout their entire

existence. And he actually quotes the

prophet Isaiah here when describing the unbelief of the

Israelites. He quotes from both Isaiah

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

chapter 53 and Isaiah chapter 6. And this is important for us to

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

understand because Isaiah was a prophet who looked forward to

God one day, sending a Messiah to rescue and redeem God's

people. That's what the the book of

Isaiah is about. And if you're unfamiliar with

that book, let me give you just a little bit of background of

understanding what what's going on.

So in the beginning of the book, God comes to Isaiah and Isaiah

repents of sin and then agrees to be a messenger for God,

something that he would have never done beforehand.

And and in that he's been commissioned by God to go and

preach to the the nation of Israel and basically tell them

it's over for you, right? Not not a fun job.

He says, Hey, you're going to be my prophet now and you're going

to go tell my people that I'm done with them as a nation and

that they're going to experience exile and destruction.

That's what's awaiting them. And by the way, you're going to

go preach to them and tell them to repent and return to me.

But just so you know, Isaiah, you're going to be ignored,

you're going to be scorned and you're going to be rejected

throughout your entire ministry. Could you imagine like you're,

you're at a job interview and you're really excited about the

job and the, the, the person interviews and they look at you

and they say, we think you're the perfect candidate to lead

this team. Just so you know, though, you're

not going to be paid. Your team is going to hate you

and they're not going to listen to you at all while you work.

How many of you guys would still sign up for that job, right?

Because you're not crazy. I was like, no way.

I'm not. I'm not doing that.

And yet Isaiah, because he's had this experience with God

himself, signs up for something that no normal human being would

sign up for, because he knows God is in it.

And he goes anyway. And as God sends him, exactly

what God promised would happen came to pass.

Isaiah goes, he preaches to them, he begs them to repent.

He says return to God. And the people's hearts are

hardened towards God and they refuse to listen.

And Jesus, like Isaiah, is sent to a people who will ignore him,

who will scorn him and reject him.

And yet he went anyway. See, Jesus is the better Isaiah.

Jesus didn't only come to warn God's people and tell them of

what their reality was in light of God.

No, Jesus came and then put himself in their place to die

for them, something Isaiah was incapable of doing.

And as Jesus shares his ministry and makes one final plea here,

John goes so far as to say that God knew this would happen all

along, that the Jewish people who longed for a Messiah who had

the scriptures. You know, I, I joke all the

time. My, my, my, my family is from

somewhere in Northern Europe and England.

We my family was worshipping bark like Thor.

They they were worshipping odd gods that we are unfamiliar

with. The people of God had the word,

they had the revelation given to them.

And yet when Jesus comes they do not respond.

And John goes so far as to say this happens not just because of

the hardness of Israel's heart, no, but because this actually

fulfills the Scripture of what God said his people would do all

along. And as Jesus reveals himself to

them, the more they are hardened to the truth of who he is.

Now, if you look at verse 39, right, that's a that's a

difficult verse to kind of wrestle with in this passage,

right? It says therefore they could not

believe, for again Isaiah said he has blinded their eyes and

hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and

understand with their heart and turn.

And I would heal them. And I want to thank Gordon for

giving me this passage, because how kind to give such a

difficult thing to have to preach through, especially to a

congregation that I don't regularly preach to.

But what are the things we need to see and understand, whether

you are a follower of Jesus in this room this morning or you

are not? Every one of us every day is

responding to to God and what He's done, whether it's through

natural revelation of creation or your own conscience that God

has given you that leaves you guilty before God without excuse

and knowing His existence or whether you actually have the

word. You've grown up knowing the

truth of who God is and what the Scriptures say.

All of us are responding to God every single day, either in

belief or hardening of heart towards Him and His truth, and

without a work of the Spirit by the grace of God.

What John is saying is that we as human beings all respond in

hardness, in our own natural condition and state.

That's what we do. And this does not mean that

God's sovereignty is pitted against man's responsibility.

Actually quite the opposite. Man is culpable here, as John

says. John doesn't say that God forces

men to be hardened or forces them to sin.

But what God does do, and we see this in the book of Romans, is

he turns us over to ourselves into our own sin.

God's hardening of his people is not manipulation here.

And this is important to understand.

It is judicial to put it another way, when God says that their

hearts are hardened, what he is saying is God is putting them to

a test to prove what is already true, right?

God didn't need to make Pharaoh believe that he was God and

king. God didn't need to use Moses to

make Pharaoh more angry against God and to believe that he

didn't need God. No, he simply gave him a a set

of tests and trials to reveal what was already true of

Pharaoh. He believed he was God.

And what John is saying here is that as Jesus has come and

preached the good news of who He is and who the Father is, as the

Israelites have rejected him, they are not being hardened in

the sense that God is actually hard to know.

Their hardness of heart is simply finally being shown to

everyone, including themselves, that they would not believe in

the truth of who Christ is. And God's sovereignty in

salvation and in proclaiming the good news is actually a cause

for celebration and hope because it means some of us, we'll have

our hearts softened in a way where we can actually understand

who this King of kings is. And it also humbles us out of

believing that I'm better than you because I believe and you

don't. But it is the mercy of God that

calls us. And so there's a call here in

these verses, call to pause and reflect on our own hearts and to

seek and understand God's Word, understand Jesus's words, and to

be healed by him. Because if we're not, we fall

into the same trap that the Jewish leaders were falling into

here where they refused to believe and therefore remain in

darkness. And, as John says, are dead now,

it would be easy from an outsider's perspective to look

at Jesus's ministry and then know what awaits him, and to

read this passage in John chapter 12 with the anticipation

John 12 · chapter mention

of knowing he's soon going to be crucified for no crimes of his

own. And to think man, this guy's

ministry is an abject failure from from all earthly

perspectives. It is.

He spent three years trying to convince the people of God that

he is their long-awaited King and Messiah and many reject him.

And yet what we see John say next is that what awaits us is

nothing but the glory and hope that is found in Jesus, right?

Look at verse 41. Isaiah said these things,

referring to the rejection of Christ, because He saw His glory

and spoke of Him. Nevertheless, many even of the

authorities believed in Him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they

did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the

synagogue. For they love the glory that

comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

So, so there in verse 41, right, Isaiah, it says that Isaiah saw

these things and predicted them. Meaning when Isaiah was

predicting the future of this coming king, that he saw Jesus

himself and saw Jesus's ministry and saw the rejection that he

would receive at the hands of his own people.

And yet, if you pause and see what else John is saying, he

says he saw the glory of God in Jesus and his ministry years

before Jesus ever walked the earth.

And John is telling us that the glory Isaiah saw when he was in

the temple was not just some light, was not just some

experience, but it was actually the glory of Jesus coming to

earth. The one who would be rejected by

his own people is not just a teacher, but God himself in the

flesh. And as we read in Isaiah 53, He

would be rejected and despised, and yet He was bruised and

broken for our iniquities and sin, meaning that the very glory

He would carry and contain would be rejected by God's people.

And yet that rejection would be the very means by which God

would crucify the Savior for our sins, meaning God even uses our

hardness of heart and rejection to save us from ourselves.

So I always think like people are like praying and they're

like, I think God wants me to do this thing, but I'm not really

interested in doing it. It's like you don't understand

God is playing 3D chess and you're confused at the rules and

checkers. I would encourage you to submit

to him instead. But if you consider we just got

done celebrating the resurrection a couple weeks ago,

right? Imagine that Good Friday.

The world had thought it had won.

They had gotten rid of this guy who was creating trouble for

them. They had gotten rid of this

insurrectionist in Rome and Caesar could continue to rule

and reign without any problems. The religious leaders now had

control over the people again and didn't need to worry about

this guy pulling them in a different direction and telling

them not to listen to to to their teaching.

Satan was rejoicing because the one who had come to save his

people was now dead. And three days later, boom, game

over. Because God had a plan all

along. And what we see in the book of

Isaiah and what we see here in John is the full culmination of

the promises of what Isaiah saw coming to pass.

This king doesn't look the way that they want him to look, but

he's the exact king that God had promised them.

We even see, if we look closely enough here in John chapter 12

John 12 · chapter mention

is if you consider the ministry of Isaiah, Isaiah wasn't just

motivated by preaching repentance to the Israelites.

He was motivated by knowing that Jesus was one day coming to save

him as well. And we see John say here that

even in the midst of all of this rejection, though some are

saved, some even of the religious leaders who are afraid

to say that they believe in Jesus because they love man's

glory over God's, which I think is maybe an important thing for

us to consider here this morning, especially if you are a

follower of Jesus here this morning is what glory are you

after? Because here these men, some of

them probably even members of the Sanhedrin who quietly sat by

while Jesus is convicted unjustly in the middle of the

night. I always love that scene, right?

The famous part of that scene we always think about is how Peter

denies Jesus. 3 * 1 of the most fascinating things about that

scene, the night of Jesus's arrest is that entire trial is a

sham. The religious leaders violate

their own laws that night to try Jesus before they send him to

the Romans. And there are probably some in

that room who John is talking about right here in John chapter

John 12 · chapter mention

12 who believe and yet out of fear refuse to stand up and do

the right thing. And if you are a follower of

Jesus here this morning, you are given the opportunity daily to

seek the glory of man or to seek the glory of God.

And when you seek your own glory, you will rob yourself of

joy every time. And so we're given this picture

here in John chapter 12, that after all this time, after all

John 12 · chapter mention

that Jesus has done, it is still not enough.

For some, it's still not enough. It's like that book, The Giving

Tree, that we all had to read as kids.

Anybody read that book as a kid? Yeah, like half of you guys.

Right. Like the tree just keeps giving

to the kid, and he wants more and more.

And as Jesus gives and gives and gives, the people demand more

and more and more because they want what He can provide.

They don't want Him. And when we see men respond the

way that they respond here, it would be easy for us to take a

moment and place ourselves in Christ's shoes and think, well,

how would I respond to that? And I've spent three years.

I was sent by the Father. I left my glory.

I left the glory of the throne room of heaven, right?

I put on human flesh, becoming a bond servant.

As as Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, I've preached and

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

I've taught. I've I've done miracles, I've

healed people, I've fed people, I've had sleepless nights.

I've been I've been experienced rejection even by my own family.

And yet still they do not believe.

And I think it'd be easy for many of us to find ourselves in

that scenario, in that situation, and say, well, I'm

done with you. There's nothing more I can do.

And yet when men seek their own glory rather than the glory of

God, look at how Jesus responds starting in verse 44.

And Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me believes

not in me, but in him who sent me.

And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.

I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes

in me may not remain in darkness.

You know, John's gospel regularly uses imagery to help

us try to understand the things of God, and it uses the imagery

of light and darkness regularly. And light is meant to emote

understandings of goodness and safety and, and help and warmth

and, and darkness is meant to describe things that are bad,

confusion, scariness, fear, sin, thinking that we know better

than God, cheering on wickedness and idolatry while slowly dying.

And so the assumption that Jesus makes as he shares these verses

here in the midst of so many people rejecting him and his

ministry, the assumption he makes is these people are still

in darkness. I need to help them find a way

out. Even as he's being rejected

again, Jesus screams out. Come to me, come to the light.

And those that come into the light, if you read those verses,

experience a transformation that is not done through some self

help program or CrossFit or whatever thing you might be into

for your New Year's Eve. No, like New Year's resolution.

No, the things that Jesus does for those who come to the light

is a complete transformation from the inside out.

They're no longer in darkness. They can actually see and

experience life as God has created it for them.

They have an increased knowledge of who God is, and in that

increased knowledge are encouraged by the power and the

work of the Holy Spirit, who comes alongside us as a helper

to move in obedience towards God's Word so that we might

experience true joy and flourishing as He has designed

it. We experience increased fruit in

putting sin to death and loving others because God says that's

what brings true joy. These are both marks of a

Christian, but they're also promises of God to His people,

meaning Jesus is is is standing there at the end of his public

ministry being rejected once again.

And instead of wiping his hand clean and saying I'm done with

these people, he gives one final plea.

Please come to me, come to the light while I'm still around and

I will rescue you. But then he gives the second

part of that plea in verse 47, says if anyone hears my words

and does not keep them, I do not judge him.

For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a

judge. The word that I have spoken will

judge him on the last day, for I have not spoken on my own

authority, but the Father who sent me has given him give it

has me. Let's try that again.

But the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment

what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment

is eternal life. What I say, therefore I say, as

the Father has told me, Jesus is, is sharing with them the

future of what his ministry is going to look like.

He's saying, hey, the remainder of my time, my first coming, I'm

not coming to judge. I'm coming to save.

I'm coming. We're getting ready to celebrate

the Passover. I'm I'm the true Passover lamb.

But in my second coming, I'm not even going to need to declare

you guilty If you haven't come to me.

My words will have done that already.

The words I've already spoken judge you.

Either you obey God's word and you follow after me or you do

not. This is an important thing.

I think especially, you know, we're in the South and I know

you know, Florida's interesting. It's the Bible Belt, but it's

kind of like the bottom of the belt.

So like, you know, you kind of get like some, some like pieces

of like what the Bible Belt culture is here in Florida, but

then you're also kind of like where am I?

And, and, and in that, what that means is, is, is many of you in

this room probably grew up going to church and experiencing,

right, what it meant to be in a Christian family.

Or maybe you didn't have it in your family, but someone brought

you to church. Maybe it was a grandparent or

maybe you were connected to the church in some way and you got

bused to the church. There's so many different ways,

right, that you could have experienced this.

And what can often come from that is having this kind of back

in, in the back of your mind belief that there is a God and

he kind of cares about you when you only need to access him when

you really need him. And, and what I would say to

that is one that's not the God of the Bible, but there's a

famous sociologist years ago who said that the God that most

people in the United States believe in is the God of

therapeutic moralistic deism. He's a God that doesn't really

want to be that involved in your life unless you need him.

He doesn't really care that much about what's going on, but he's

got a few more rules that he would like you to follow, but he

won't actually hold you to him. And He's just there to help you

out. And if you want to believe in

that God, you are more than welcome to.

But I'm here to tell you that is not the God of the Bible and

that is not Jesus Christ. And what Jesus says here is that

there is no kind of following me, as he says in one of the

other gospels, that if you are lukewarm, He will spit you out.

That either you're completely sold out to following Him as

your God or you're not. It's very black and white.

There are many things in the Christian faith that like,

that's a Gray area. We've got to think through that.

But whether you follow Jesus or not is a very black and white

answer according to Jesus himself.

And what Jesus says here is consistent disobedience.

Consistent failure to believe and trust in who I've revealed

myself to be, and consistent disobedience to the things I've

commanded you to do in light of following me shows what your

heart really is. It's rejected and, and this is a

hard thing to hear. I understand that, right?

It's like, well, I go to, I go to church every week or whatever

else. And I, I was just talking to

somebody recently who, who is, is someone in my church and it's

good because they won't be here. So I can use this example.

And there was some strife going on relationally with this person

and some other people that they lived with.

And this person looks at me and says, well, I just treat people

the way that they've treated me. And I said, well, you're welcome

to do that, but that's not the way of Jesus.

And if you think that that honors God, it does not.

He's like, that's really hard though.

Yes, it's the whole point. It's why you need a savior.

But your own words to me. Are indicating to me that you've

decided you like your idea better than the commands of

Christ himself. And I'm not going to tell you

whether you're really a follower of Jesus or not, because that's

not my place. But the fruit of what you're

saying says something to me. And some of us will sit here and

think, OK, well then I've got to, I've got to obey everything.

I've got to do everything. So I want to turn over to John

John 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 just to make sure we understand the foundation of

what Jesus is saying here in verse 29.

He's just got done saying that he is the bread of life.

And they say to him in verse 28, well, what must we do then to be

doing the works of God? And look at Jesus response.

Jesus answered them, This is the work of God that you believe in

him who he said, meaning that we live our lives, we live them in

obedience unto Christ, but then we recognize daily we're going

to fail anyway and we throw ourselves at the mercy and the

finished work of Jesus. And that is the great conundrum

of the Christian life. It is one entirely filled up

every day, day by day, of repentance and faith.

Repentance of sin and faith that Christ is enough.

And that's over the course of time.

As you do that enough times, that repentance will take you to

a place of greater maturity, of more Christlikeness.

But you will not become Jesus. You become like him, but you do

not become him. And therefore you're all of the

Christian life from the moment you believed and prayed that

prayer in your Sunday school class or in your backyard with

your parents, or in college when a friend shared the gospel with

you, or later in life, no matter when it happened, when the

moment the light bulb clicked on, your life from then on out

will be marked by these two things, repentance and faith.

And what Jesus says in John chapter 6 is there is no

John 6 · chapter mention

obedience apart from belief. It's impossible.

This is why Jesus calls the commandment back in verse 50 of

John chapter 12 eternal life, because you're walking towards

John 12 · chapter mention

this experience of the daily trust in Jesus for the rest of

your life. Belief in Him is eternal life.

There is no other way. And that eternal life is both a

transformational experience in the life you live now, but

security and eternity with the Father.

Sometimes as, as Christians, we can be stuck in this place where

we think it's one or the other. You know, the faith that we have

isn't a God that gives life for now, but also life for eternity.

And as John shares Jesus's words here in John chapter 12, the

John 12 · chapter mention

only alternative to that life is darkness.

That's what you're left with. You may be sitting here this

morning and you're not a Christian.

You're like, well I don't feel like I'm in darkness and you may

not some some days life would be much easier for me if I was not

a Christian. But ultimately you are in

darkness to your very core because you don't have the true

understanding of why you were even created and here to begin

with. Without the framework and

understanding of who your God is and why you exist, you live your

life blindfolded, throwing darts at a dartboard that you don't

even know where it sits. And so here's how I want to

encourage us this morning as we finish up looking at John's

recollection of Jesus's ministry.

I want to encourage you to consider how you've responded to

the crying out of Jesus here to unbelief.

If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian.

These words in verses 44 through 50 are for you.

They're an invitation from the God of the universe to come to

the light and to trust in Jesus. You are either walking in the

light or remaining in the darkness.

There is no middle ground. See the The good news of what

Christians believe about Jesus is that starting in Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, God created the heavens and the earth.

And in that creation, you read regularly after each day, God

said it was good. This was good, right?

It's in, in Eden, the the Hebrews have a word that they

use to describe what that was like and they use the word

Shalom. You're probably familiar with

that word. It means peace.

But in English, when we say peace, we we lose some of the

meaning of that word because in the Hebrew, that word doesn't

just mean the absence of conflict, it also means a full

understanding of who you are, full harmony with creation, full

harmony with those you are in relationship with.

And that when God had designed Adam and Eve to tend to and work

the garden as his image bearers that way back in the very

beginning, God's design is that we would be in perfect Shalom

with one another, with creation and with God himself.

That was God's original design and attention.

And yet it takes 1 chapter, Genesis 3, everything is

shattered, right? The serpent enters into the

garden. He speaks to Eve, he whispers to

her and he he places a lie for her to hold on to.

And the lie that Eve ultimately ends up believing is, is God

holding out on me? Is he really good?

Do I really need him to experience the Shalom and peace

that I've been experiencing with Adam here in Eden?

Does God really need to be a part of that?

And says she eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

and Adam does as well and sin enters the world for the first

time. And because of that, mankind

since then has been trying to find peace and Shalom, but apart

from God and it can't be found. This is the this is the story of

God and his people. And the only way that peace is

restored is through Jesus Christ and come into the light.

The story that we just celebrated a few weeks ago of

Jesus coming and and sharing that he was God's Son in the

flesh to reveal to us who God is and who we really are.

And, and in light of that dying on the cross in our place for

our sins so that the wrath of God could be satisfied and his

righteousness before the Father given to us, restoring that

Shalom that had been fractured back in Genesis three.

That is the story of the Bible. That is the good news of Jesus

Christ and who He is. That is what Christians for

thousands of years have thrown their hope upon in Jesus.

And if you are here this morning and you have not yet believed,

hear this call from Jesus himself.

Come into the light, walk in the light, trust in me and I will

restore that Shalom between you and the Father.

There is no other way. Now, if you're here this morning

and you're like Kevin, I've done that.

I've prayed the prayer. I'm in a community group at Vita

Springs. I serve in the kids ministry,

right? All, all the things that you can

do around here to walk the good Christian life.

What what is the call in these verses?

For me it's to walk in the light and to not stop walking in that

light because you are already in it.

It's too when you have the opportunity to share that good

news with other that you speak on His authority, witnessing and

sharing the good news of how God has transformed you and given

you that eternal life. It's growing in your faith as

you walk in the life being encouraged.

You know, if if you believe today, it's not because you are

smarter or better than anyone else, it's because God and His

grace has opened your eyes to the light itself.

Yeah, If you look at verses 49 through 50, again, I want to

read them really quickly to you. He says, for I have not spoken

on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given,

has himself given me a commandment, what to say and

what to speak. And I know that his commandment

is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as

the Father has told me, You know, one of the things I love

about John's gospel is if you read it closely, you end up

seeing that Jesus is the most dependent human being that has

ever walked this earth. You know, we spend our whole

lives thinking like, what can I do to be more independent?

What can I do to be more independent?

How do I, how do I get independent?

I have two kids. My entire life is centered

around how do I get these kids out of my house and be

functional adults one day doesn't mean I'm trying to get

rid of them. I love my kids, but like my

entire existence feels like as a father in many ways is like, how

do I prepare these two knuckleheads to like function,

to do things like eat food that they made, to do things like

clean up messes that they made, to do things like work and have

a job, to treat others with kindness and respect and

dignity, to love them. This is my entire kind of goal

as a father is to launch my kids out to be independent.

And yet if I miss the most important key, which is if I do

not teach them that their independence is solely dependent

upon the one who created them, I'll have failed them.

Because if Jesus himself says that everything he says and does

is dependent upon his heavenly Father, then that is who example

we're following. So if you were here this morning

and you're a Libra, I want to encourage you don't try to

become more independent, try to become more dependent.

Try to become more dependent in your on your Heavenly Father.

And you're going to do that through things that Christians

have done for thousands of years by being in the word, by being

in community with other Christians, by being known and,

and walking in humility and walking in repentance and faith

and growing and gratitude and worship towards God to increase

that dependence upon him. And as you increase that

dependence upon him, you walk in obedience to love Jesus and obey

his commands. And one of the things that

excites me even today is there are some people in this church

today who are taking that step of obedience.

They're going to be baptized. You're one of the last things

that Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew is he tells us to go

therefore, into all nations, baptizing in the name of the

Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to deserve all

that that I've commanded you. And then he promises that he's

with us to the end of the age, right?

Meaning baptism is one of the early steps that a Christian

takes in obedience to the commands of Jesus.

John's gospel was written so that we would believe in Jesus

Christ and have eternal life in him.

And the people getting baptized this morning are going to share

that story of how they have found that in Jesus.

As we see in John 12, many saw and did not believe, but some

believed and received life. And so the question I leave you

with this morning is where do you stand?

If you've received that life, continue to walk in it.

The world has nothing better to offer, I promise you.

And if you were here this morning and you have not yet

received Jesus, come and receive him.

Do not leave this room today with having stepped into the

light. I'm going to invite Pastor Kurt

up. I'm going to pray for us as he

comes up, and then he's going to lead us through baptism.

Would I thank you for your word? I thank you for the ways in

which. It brings clarity to the chaos

of life. Lord, in a world marked by

suffering and and difficulty and challenge, it's easy to ask

questions of why, what is going on?

What do I need to do? What is my, what is my place

here? And yet your word tells us

exactly why all of this is and exactly what you've done about

it. And so, Lord, I pray this

morning two things. If there's anyone in here this

morning who has not yet surrendered to you in trust in

faith, Lord, will you reveal yourself to them now, Call them

to the light. And Lord, for those that are

walking with you who know you, have trusted in you, or will you

encourage them to walk in deeper dependence upon you and your

word, helping them to believe in the things not yet seen, to

believe in the things hoped for? And God, we ask that all of this

would be done to the glory and praise of your name, to make you

look glorious both here in Gainesville and to the ends of

the earth. And I ask this all in Jesus

name, Amen. Thanks, Kevin.

And for the record, that was the correct passage he was supposed

to preach. I misspoke.

Finished up John 12, but super thankful.

It was great. I get the privilege of talking a

little bit about baptism this morning.

And so before we introduce you to our baptizees, what is

baptism? Baptism is a symbol, might say

it's the outward symbol of the inner reality.

Baptism represents a cleansing from sin via repentance and

faith in Jesus, symbolizing that person's death, their burial,

and the resurrection to new life with Christ by faith.

Romans 6 verses 3 and 4 say it like this Apostle Paul writing.

Romans 6:3

He says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized

into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore with him by baptism into death in

order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the

glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of

life. Why would somebody get baptized?

Baptism does not save you. Jesus saves you.

It is by faith and then we get baptized.

You don't get baptized to become a better Christian.

This isn't a magical power, some superstition, and now you get to

be a better Christian because you've been baptized.

You might think of your baptism as like a covering or a sign of

entrance, if you will, into God's family, Something you'll

be able to look back on in faith and remember and think I am his.

And this marked me in that way. We also get baptized and Kevin

was mentioning this due to obedience to Jesus.

Jesus right in Matthew 28, Jesus says go and make disciples of

all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and

Holy Spirit. It's a public display of your

new life in Jesus. Who should be baptized?

Those who have truly repented of their sin.

They have placed their trust in Jesus as their Savior.

You do not need to know everything about the Bible and

Jesus. You don't need to be doubt free

or sin free. The the two people that are

getting baptized today have met with some of our pastors and

they can affirm their profession of faith.

As you can see, we have some children coming to join us

because it's just a wonderful thing.

We want them to be able to be a part of it and witness it this

morning. So hi kids.

Not sure who's he's talking to, but how can I didn't expect that

one note to self next baptism service, don't talk to the kids.

How can I be baptized at Vita Springs Church?

Sometimes as you watch other people be baptized, it stirs up

faith and desire for you to be baptized.

In fact, in a moment you'll hear Mari's story and that happened

to her at our last baptism service back in January.

So if something gets stirred up into you, talk to one of our

pastors today. If you're wondering, maybe that

is what is next for me. We would love to meet up with

you. You can fill out the welcome

card. So just scan that from your

program, fill out the welcome card, put baptism, interested in

baptism in there. Or just talk to myself or one of

our pastors, one of our leaders, talk to somebody and say, hey,

I'm interested. Point me in the right direction.

We would love to meet with you before we I've got a few more

things, but I want to have Mari come on up.

So Mari, why don't you come on up?

She's going to share briefly some of her story now, so.

Hi everyone, so my name is Maury and I was baptized as a baby in

the Lutheran Church but we would only go occasionally me and my

family. I always believed that God was

very distant and that I would never read and that I would

never read the Bible because I thought it was just an old book

that nobody read besides bastards.

Then after watching The Chosen, my mom began taking us to church

and even got his Bibles and devotional books, but nothing

inside me ever clicked. I wasn't willing to give up a

lot of things in the world, and he kept being like that for two

years. I came from Brazil to

Gainesville in 2024 to play volleyball at Santa Fe, and I

believed that my whole purpose coming here was to play

volleyball, do my best in school and go.

Do you want? And it was happening.

I got a 4.0 GPA and had an amazing freshman season.

But I wasn't happy. It wasn't enough.

I needed to do better, work harder, and only then I would be

happy. So I came back the next fall

ready to do even better. However, it didn't go as I

expected. The 2020 fall season was

definitely one of the worst times of my life.

Volleyball wasn't going well, my classes were harder, and I felt

so alone and empty all the time. I felt like I had no worth.

I hated myself and just felt so much anger, loneliness and

emptiness inside of me. I just wanted to pack my things

and go home. I was done.

But then in January of 2026, when I was deep inside that

hole, I came to a baptism service at Vida and it stirred

something in me. It made me want to get baptized,

but I felt like I was dirty. I believe that for me to get

baptized, I needed to be a perfect Christian and that I

needed to be clean enough because if not, God would never

accept me because I knew that the way I lived didn't please

Him. Then I decided to attend to the

membership series to become a member of the church.

And those four days of learning brought me to the biggest

decision of my life. I wanted to change and I wanted

to follow Jesus. I can say that that was the

period of my life that God opened my eyes and he changed

me. I'm a completely different

person from who I was. In January, God saved me.

He put his hand on my eyes and he opened them and I could hear

him calling me and saying, I love you and you don't need all

those things. You need me.

I created you. I know you're worth and you're

worth it for me, and I want you to be with people who see that

worth. God opened my eyes to things

that I was doing that weren't right, and in a matter of a

month He flipped my life over and opened my eyes to so many

things, but mainly to but mainly that this was my purpose in

Gainesville all along. Not school and volleyball, but

so that He could find me and never let me go again.

And I can say that now I'm no longer a lost sheep here I am

getting baptized today. And the reason for that is that

I want to show that I was saved by Jesus Christ, that I'm a new

person. Sorry.

And a new being and that everything that happened, all

the sin, sins that I committed in the past, there in the past,

and Jesus forgave me and saved me from all of them.

Jesus found me in my worst moment and brought me back to

him. I just want to say, I just want

to say that he's willing to save everyone, including you.

So I encourage you, if you feel this emptiness, if you feel

lost, trust me, it's Jesus who's missing.

He's letting that emptiness reach you because that's where

Jesus belongs. Give him a try.

Open your heart. He's perfect, He's merciful, and

you're never too dirty for him. You're never too horrible for

him. He created you, He loves you,

and he's willing to forgive. As long as you believe in Him

and follow His steps, He will save you and He'll fulfill you

in such a way and bring you such joy that you won't even remember

how it was to not feel this joy before.

He's the way, the truth and the life and all we got to do is

deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him.

Thank you Jesus. Worship.

He wants you good. Come on up.

It's been a joy to see Maher grow in the college group this

semester. And I helped her, whittled down

that story to be able to read to us today.

And just hearing out of her mouth is it's powerful.

Mari and Titus, why don't you stand up?

I want to read a list of confessions and commitments.

You guys can respond. I do.

Do you turn away from the sin that has separated you from God?

Do you believe and confess that Jesus Christ died to pay for

your sins? Do you confess that Jesus rose

from death to give you eternal life?

Do you trust Jesus as Lord and the only source of salvation and

choose to follow and obey Him in light of your confession of

faith and your desire to be baptized?

I, along with the elders of Edith Springs Church and our

church as a whole, we affirm that you have been made a new

creation through faith in Jesus. You have been forgiven of your

sin and made righteous through Jesus death on the cross.

You have been adopted into God's family and you will one day be

glorified with Jesus, inherit his Kingdom and reign with him

forever. I encourage you to seek Jesus

daily through Bible reading and prayer, worship and other

disciplines that might help you grow in your faith.

I encourage you to seek to be regularly filled and empowered

with the Holy Spirit that you might be effective in serving

Jesus. I encourage you to seek to grow

and loving God with all of your heart, your soul, your mind,

your strength. And I encourage you to seek to

give yourself in love and unity to God's church, the people.

I want to pray over you guys. Now, if we have our elders and

maybe have our old jaw, Frankie, you in here.

Come on up, Frank. Let's pray for these guys, and

then we're going to baptize them.

Jesus, thank you for the work you've done in Titus and Mari.

Thank you, Lord, for opening their eyes to see you and to

know you and to believe in you. Jesus, you are so good and kind

and merciful, and your timing and your plan is perfect.

We thank you for drawing these two to yourself, for saving

them, and now for leading them into obedience into baptism,

which is only just the beginning as they live out walking in the

light for the rest of their life.

Lord, we pray you would bless them, You would bless their

obedience, and you would protect and cover over them.

Jesus, we pray this all in your name.

Amen. Well, church, you can go ahead

and stand up with me. These two are going to be

baptized here in a moment. We're going to start singing

together because this is a celebration.

And so we get to celebrate and sing to God while we watch them

be baptized. Family and friends, you are

welcome to go ahead and come on up to the front and get a closer

view. Support them, take some

pictures. It's a celebration, church, so

let's make sure we celebrate this.

As the worship team begins to play, we'll sing together when

the worship. After a few songs, I'll come

back up. I'll lead us through a time of

prayer, but for now, let's sing and let's baptize.