Deciding who Jesus really is.

Good morning, church. The scripture for today comes from John chapter 10, verses 22 to 42.

John 10:22–42

! Please follow along in your own Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, do grab one around the stage or at the back near the door.

If you're using our church's Bible, the passage is on page 843.

Starting at verse 22, we read,

At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem.

It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,

How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

Jesus answered them,

I told you, and you do not believe.

The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,

but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,

and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father are one.

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

Jesus answered them,

I have shown you many good works from the Father.

For which of them are you going to stone me?

The Jews answered him,

It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you,

but for blasphemy,

because you, being a man, make yourself God.

Jesus answered them,

Is it not written in your law,

I said you are gods?

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came,

and scripture cannot be broken,

do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world,

you are blaspheming because I said,

I am the Son of God?

If I'm 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 you may know and understand

that the Father is in me,

and I am in the Father.

Again, they sought to arrest him,

but he escaped from their hands.

He went away again across the Jordan

to the place where John had been baptizing at first,

and there he remained.

And many came to him,

and they said,

John did no sign,

but everything that John said about this man was true.

And many believed him in there.

This is the word of God.

Great.

Thank you, Annabelle.

Let's pray together as we come to this passage.

Lord Jesus Christ,

this passage is going to tell us a lot about you.

God,

things that probably many of us have heard many times before.

We need your spirit to write these things on our hearts,

God.

We need you to open the eyes of our hearts

to see these things that Christians have understood

for thousands of years

all across in every corner of the world.

God,

you have revealed yourself,

and we ask you,

reveal yourself to us once again.

God,

for those of us maybe that are not followers of you,

we've never surrendered to you,

reveal yourself to us.

Show yourself to us.

Help us to see you,

that we may believe in you,

and understand who you are.

God,

for those of us that are followers of you,

help us to see you again freshly.

Help us to worship you,

and to adore you.

Lord,

we pray these things in your great and wonderful name.

Amen.

Amen.

I don't know if you've ever received a final notice letter,

final demand letter.

I confess,

I receive these from time to time.

And the reason is,

I generally am someone that,

whenever I get a bill,

I want to pay it straight away.

I hate having unpaid bills.

But now and then,

there's something that I want to question,

or query,

or think,

hang on,

that's higher than I expected,

and I kind of put it aside

to go and question it,

or query it,

or look into it a bit more,

and then I forget about it,

and then I get another letter,

and I think,

oh yeah,

I must follow up,

and then I forget about it.

And then I get a letter like this,

right?

Saying,

final notice,

final demand.

I don't know if that happens to anybody else.

Maybe I'm the only one.

Sometimes,

when we've been spoken to many times,

we need somebody to kind of

get in our face a little bit,

and wake us up,

and say,

okay,

I've been talking,

now you need to respond.

I can't go on talking forever.

What are you going to do?

Are you going to respond,

or are you going to ignore my words,

right?

That happens in life,

but it also happens with Jesus.

Jesus Christ is so gracious,

so kind,

so wonderful,

but he also wants us to respond to his words.

And so sometimes he says,

I've been speaking for many,

many months now.

I've been speaking for a long time.

I want you to respond.

How are you going to respond?

Now,

we're in John's gospel,

and this is the final sermon

that we're going to be looking at

in John's gospel this year.

We'll pick up again in John chapter 11

John 11 · chapter mention

next April.

And the reason for that

is because we've come to the end

of a section in John's gospel.

The biblical writers,

when they wrote the books of the Bible,

they wrote them in such a way

in sections and blocks

that we could easily remember

or understand what they were saying.

And one of the reasons for that

is because in the ancient world,

most people couldn't read.

Almost nobody had a Bible.

Even if you could read,

it was way too expensive

to have your own copy of a Bible.

No one would afford a Bible.

And so the way to remember

what are these writers saying

was to write it in a memorable way.

And one of the ways they did that

was they write in blocks or sections.

And you'd know what that section about.

Today,

the end of John chapter 10

John 10 · chapter mention

is the end of a section,

a block that John has been writing.

And we know that for two reasons.

One,

John chapter 11

John 11 · chapter mention

starts with a death and resurrection.

And the next section,

John chapter 22,

ends with a death and resurrection.

So that's the next section

in John's gospel,

right?

11 to 21.

But also in chapter 5 to 10

is kind of one section,

one block.

And today we come to the end of that.

And we see that

because chapter 5 and 10

both begin and end

with a man being healed

on the Sabbath day

and then following

by teaching of Jesus

about Jesus

and his relationship

with the Father.

So if you remember

many weeks ago,

Oscar preached

in John chapter 5

John 5 · chapter mention

way back in September.

There's a man

who's paralyzed

and he's by the pool

of Bethsaida,

I think it was.

And Jesus heals him

on the Sabbath day

and the religious leaders

freak out

because you're not allowed

to do any work

on the Sabbath day

and apparently healing

somebody's work

and he gets in trouble

and Jesus follows

that miracle

with the teaching

about his relationship

with the Father.

And you remember

a few weeks ago,

John chapter 9,

John 9 · chapter mention

there's a healing.

Jesus heals a man

born blind

by the pool of Siloam

on the Sabbath day

and the religious leaders

freak out

because it's the Sabbath

and you're not allowed

to work on the Sabbath.

And he follows that

with a teaching

about I'm the Good Shepherd

and then a teaching

about his relationship

with the Father.

That's where we're at today.

So chapter 5

and 9 and 10

kind of parallel each other

and in between these two,

if you've been here

the last couple of weeks,

chapter 6, 7, and 8,

Jesus makes all these claims

about himself, right?

He says,

I am the bread of life.

I am the living water.

I am the light of the world.

I am the truth.

I am the Good Shepherd.

But Jesus makes all these

radical claims

about himself.

And as we come today,

what we see

is that these claims

are kind of bookended

with these teachings.

And John today

is coming to the end

of the section.

He's bringing this

to a conclusion.

And he's saying this.

You've heard all these claims

about Jesus.

You've heard what he has

to say about himself.

What do you make about it?

What do you make about it?

What are you going to do?

John's been showing us

about how the people

in Jesus' day respond to him.

And he's writing this

as history,

but he's also got one eye

on us.

And he's saying,

what about you?

How are you going to respond?

This is how they responded.

How are you going to respond?

So does that make sense?

So this is a section.

He's been telling us

all the claims

that Jesus has been making.

And now he's asking us,

what are you going to do

about it?

And he's been saying,

I've been,

Jesus has been talking a lot.

He's been saying

a lot of words.

In some ways,

this is a kind of final notice.

This is,

I want you to hear

my words.

In some ways,

John's gospel,

we've come to the halfway point,

right?

21 chapters,

we're at the end of chapter 10.

You know,

if you go to the theater

and there's an intermission

and just before the intermission,

someone will leave you

with something hanging,

a question to ponder

or a twist in the story

or something that you go out

at the halfway point thinking,

hmm,

I wonder how that's

going to be resolved.

John is at the halfway point

and he's saying,

you've seen a lot about Jesus.

How are you going to respond?

Now,

the rest is going to be resolved

as we look at the rest of it.

But,

the main idea of this passage

in some ways

mirrors the main idea

of John's gospel.

And if you know

John's gospel,

right at the end,

he tells us why he wrote it.

He said,

I wrote these things

that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God,

and by believing,

experience life in His name.

Okay?

And so that's the big idea.

John says,

will you believe,

will you receive

that Jesus is the Christ,

the Son of God?

For only by believing in Him,

will you experience

life in His name?

Okay,

so today we've got two things.

There you guys see it on the screen.

The essence of Jesus' claim

and the response to Jesus' claim.

Okay,

two things for us to think about.

So,

firstly,

let's look at the essence

of Jesus' claim.

So,

Jesus has been using

all these figures of speech

in this Old Testament imagery,

right,

to speak about Himself

and to show who He is.

He says,

I'm the light of the world,

I'm the bread of life,

He's the door,

He's the truth,

etc.

And some people come to Him

and they say,

how long will He keep us

in suspense?

Another translation says,

how long will He keep annoying us?

Okay,

you could translate it that way.

How long will He keep annoying us?

Tell us,

if you are the Christ,

tell us plainly.

In other words,

all these figures of speech

you've been saying,

just tell us,

are you the long-awaited Messiah,

the one that we've been waiting for

for hundreds of years

to restore the fortunes of Israel

and make Israel great again?

And so Jesus says to them,

verse 25,

I have already told you.

I've told you.

That's what all my teaching's been about.

This is what I've been saying to you

all this time,

right?

I'm not just saying it,

but also demonstrating it.

He says,

the works that I do in my Father's name

bear witness,

but you do not believe me.

Jesus says,

I've been telling you who I am,

both my words and my deeds,

right?

I've been proclaiming the gospel

in word and in action.

And of course,

the greatest action is still to come.

The greatest deed

is going to be the empty clothes

on the empty grave

at the end of the gospel,

but that's still to come.

But these people,

he says,

I've been telling you,

but you do not believe.

You do not believe.

Why don't they believe?

Well,

a couple of reasons.

Look what he says in verse 26.

One,

he says,

you do not believe

because you are not amongst my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice.

I know them

and they follow me.

Jesus says,

you don't believe me

because you've been drowning out my voice.

I've been sending you letters.

I've been talking to you.

I've been trying to tell you.

I've been demonstrating word and deed,

but you're drowning out my voice.

You're refusing to listen.

You don't want to hear what I have to say.

Earlier,

when they say,

just tell us plainly,

are you the Christ?

Why do they ask that?

Is it because they want to bow down

and worship him?

No,

of course not.

They want to kill him.

They're looking for proof,

for evidence that he's blaspheming,

that he's saying this outrageous thing,

right?

They're not genuine questions

of genuine seekers.

They're evidence gathering

of prosecutors

and they're trying to find

their evidence

that they can arrest him

and kill him.

But here's the other reason

why they can't receive Jesus.

Because they don't understand

what God's Messiah is all about.

They don't,

for them,

the Messiah is a military Messiah,

a political Messiah,

someone who's going to restore

the fortunes of Israel,

someone who's going to make Israel great again

and destroy all their political

and their military enemies.

John tells us in verse 22

that this happened at the time

of the Feast of the Dedication.

What that was,

was about 170 years before,

the Syrians overran Israel

and Jerusalem

and they plundered the temple,

they took all the money,

they destroyed the temple

and then the leader

of the Syrian army,

his name was Antiochus IV,

he takes a pig,

which if you're Jewish,

a pig is like the most

unclean,

dirty animal there is.

He takes a pig into the temple

and he sacrifices this pig

in the middle of the temple

to desecrate the temple

and kind of destroy it,

right?

And one leader

called Judas Maccabeus

says,

enough of this

and he gathers his army,

his friends

and they go

and they destroy the Syrians

and they drive them out

and they kill them

and they restore the temple

and they clean it

and they rededicate the temple

to the glory of God.

And so every year

in the middle of December

they would have this

Feast of Dedication

and that's what's going on here,

right?

But that's the kind of Messiah

that they want.

They say,

okay,

Judas,

he died,

give us another Judas Maccabeus,

someone who's going to

this time destroy the Romans.

Okay,

the Syrians are done,

they've done,

the Romans,

get rid of the Romans

and kill them

and restore the glory of Israel.

And they're looking for

a Messiah like that,

a political Messiah,

a religious Messiah,

a military Messiah.

But that's exactly

what Jesus

has not come to do

because that's not

who Jesus is.

Who is Jesus?

Well,

look at what he's trying

to say here.

Jesus says,

I'm not just the Messiah

that you want.

I'm nothing less

than God himself.

I am the son of God.

Jesus says,

I'm equal with the father

in divine authority,

nature,

and power.

I've come to accomplish

the will of God,

the father,

son,

and spirit,

which we determined

beforehand in eternity

to save and rescue

for ourselves,

those who will trust in him.

Look at verse 25 to 29

in your Bibles.

Jesus says this,

the works that I do

in my father's name

bear witness about me.

Verse 27,

my sheep hear my voice,

I know them

and they follow me.

I give them eternal life,

they will never perish

and no one will snatch them

out of my hands.

My father,

who has given them to me,

is greater than all

and no one is able

to snatch them

out of his hands.

Why?

Why does Jesus say,

what I do

is what the father does.

Why?

Because I and the father

are one.

And that's what Jesus is saying.

He's saying,

I'm not here just to

make your lives great again.

I'm not here to make

your nation great again.

I'm here as God himself.

I'm here to save you

from a far bigger enemy

than the Romans.

I'm here to save you

from your sins.

And that's clearly

the big idea here

because nine times

Jesus uses this phrase,

my father or the father.

Everything is,

he says,

my will is the father's will.

My work is the father's work.

What I do

is what the father does.

What the father says

is what I say.

Verse 38,

the father is in me

and I'm in the father.

Why?

I and the father are one.

Now,

the people that Jesus

is speaking to,

they,

on one hand,

they understand

exactly what he's saying,

right?

Because look at how

they respond.

Verse 31,

the Jews picked up stones

to stone him,

right?

They know exactly

what he's saying.

Verse 33,

I think it is,

says,

Jesus says,

why are you stoning me?

Why do you do this?

And he says,

it's not for good works

that we're going to stone you,

but for blasphemy

because you're making yourself

out to be God.

They know exactly

what Jesus is saying.

In chapter 5,

Oscar preached a few weeks ago,

says the same thing.

Verse 18,

this is why the Jews

were seeking to kill him

because he was calling

God his own father,

making himself equal to God.

They know exactly

what Jesus is doing.

They understand

that Jesus is claiming

to be nothing less

than the uncreated

eternal God,

one in nature,

power,

and authority

with God

who's considered

so holy

that to utter his name

in those days,

to say the name Yahweh

on your lips

was a capital offense

punishable by death.

That's how holy God is

and they know

that Jesus is claiming

he and I are one.

But on the other hand,

they actually

don't know

what Jesus is saying at all.

They completely misunderstand

because look at what happens here.

Jesus says,

I've shown you many good works

in the Father.

For which of them

are you going to stone me?

And the Jews answer him

saying,

it's not for good works

we're going to stone you,

but for blasphemy

because being a man,

you make yourself God,

which is exactly

not what Jesus is doing.

Jesus is not a man

who's making himself

out to be God.

Jesus is God

who's become man.

Jesus is the uncreated one,

the God of all creation,

who's become man,

who took on humanity,

who made himself

a servant.

Why?

To go to the cross

and lay down his life

for you and for me.

Friends,

what they find

so blasphemous

and offensive,

Jesus claiming to be God

is actually

such good news for us

that God himself

became man,

took on humanity,

took on flesh and blood,

took on the nature

of a servant,

humbled himself

to the point of death,

death on the cross

in order to rescue us

and save us

from our sins.

And so again,

Jesus' words

in John chapter 5,

John 5 · chapter mention

Jesus said this,

he says,

truly I say to you,

whoever hears my words

and believes him

who sent me

has eternal life.

He does not come

to judgment,

he's passed

from death to life.

That's what Jesus is saying.

Why?

Because he's not just

a messiah,

a political messiah,

he's not just

a military leader,

he is God himself.

I and my father

are one.

I don't know

if you know

the New City Catechism.

Catechism is a way

that churches

throughout the ages

have taught theology

and doctrine

through question and answer.

And so the most famous one

is the Westminster Catechism.

Question one says,

what is the chief end of man?

Answer,

to glorify God

and enjoy him forever.

New City Catechism

question two says this,

what is God?

And the answer is this,

God is the creator

and sustainer

of everyone

and everything.

He is eternal,

infinite,

and unchangeable

in his power

and perfection,

goodness and glory,

wisdom,

justice,

and truth.

Nothing happens

except through him

and by his will.

This is who God is.

And the Jews

would have said,

yes,

that's God,

God the Father,

no problem.

Jesus says,

that's me as well.

And when they hear

what he's saying,

they pick up stones

to kill him.

Just this week,

I've been reading

the book of Revelation

in my devotions,

my quiet times,

and I got to

Revelation 4 and 5,

which is the apostle John

who writes,

and in that,

John has a revelation

of heaven,

and he sees

in his revelation

God on the throne,

and around the throne

are these incredible

creatures,

these amazing creatures

and angels,

and they are worshiping

God the Father on the throne.

This is what they say,

worthy are you,

our Lord and God,

to receive glory

and honor and power,

for you created all things

and by your will

they existed.

But then,

after that,

all these creatures

worship Jesus,

and this is what they say

about Jesus.

They say,

next slide,

I'll tell you,

worthy is the Lamb

who was slain,

to receive power

and wealth

and wisdom

and might

and honor

and glory

and blessing.

And then,

after that,

all creation,

the whole of creation,

angels and creatures

and people,

everything,

worship God

and Jesus together,

saying,

to him who sits

on the throne

and to Jesus the Lamb,

be blessing

and honor

and glory

and might

forever

and ever

and ever.

Friends,

you see the essence

of Jesus' claims.

Why is Jesus

able to say

the things that he is?

I am the light

of the world.

I am the living water.

I am the bread of life.

Why is Jesus

able to say these things?

Is Jesus very proud

and hubris?

Is Jesus a great leader

that can help us

just get ahead in life?

No,

Jesus wants us to see

he is nothing less

than God himself.

Jesus is not offering himself

as one option

in a buffet

of good things

to have in your life.

One more guide

to help you

get ahead in life.

So some of us,

maybe we've got our

finance guru,

we're going to speak

to him about finances

and we've got

our mental health expert

that helps us

with mental health

and we've got

our career guidance person

that helps us

with our career guidance

and maybe you've got

a health and fitness

person on the side

and then you've got

Jesus who's your

kind of spiritual coach

or your life coach,

right?

Jesus says,

no, no, no,

that's not who I am.

I'm not one

of a buffet

of options of things.

I am the uncreated God

and life is found in me.

And Jesus says

that if you want

to find life,

life to the fullness,

you have to come to me.

You have to accept me

as God,

as king.

So friends,

what about you?

Is that true of you?

What do you make

of Jesus?

Is Jesus just a wise man

that helps you

get through life?

Someone who gives you

good wisdom

and advice?

Jesus says,

that's not who I am.

That's not who I've

come to be.

I've come to be God.

I've come to be king.

I've come to be a savior.

I've come to lay down

my life for you.

As we often quote

C.S. Lewis,

he says,

Christianity,

if false is of no importance,

if true is of infinite importance,

the only thing it cannot be

is moderately important.

Jesus' claims

are not moderately important.

Jesus' claims

are either true

and of infinite importance

or false

and of no importance.

He will not allow us

to consider him

moderately important.

Now,

what are the implications

of this?

What does this mean

for our lives?

Well,

there's two things.

One positive,

one negative.

One implication is this.

If you know

and trust Jesus,

if you're safe in Jesus,

you are safe in God the Father.

And that's actually

one of the points

that Jesus makes here

in chapter 10.

He says,

to know me

is to know God.

He says here,

sorry,

wrong book of the Bible.

We're in John, right?

He says,

he says here,

I give them eternal life

and they will never perish.

No one will snatch them

out of my hand.

My Father,

who has given them to me,

is greater than all

and no one is able

to snatch them

out of my Father's hands.

Jesus gives us

this incredible assurance

that though your faith

may go up and down,

though you may be strong

at times

and weak in times,

though at times

you may be full of confidence

and other times

you may have questions,

if you are able

to hold on to Jesus,

Jesus himself

and God the Father,

the uncreated one,

is holding on to you.

It's unbelievable assurance

that you don't need

to know everything,

how everything works.

You don't need to have

every question answered.

But if you know Jesus,

if you trust in him,

if you say,

I'm going to try

to hold on to him,

he and the Father

are holding on to you

and no one

and nothing

can let you go.

As the song

we sometimes sing,

when Satan tempts me

to despair

and tells me

of the guilt within,

up would I look

and see him there

who made an end

to all my sin.

Friends,

this week,

you're going to find

lots of reasons

to despair.

This week,

you're going to find

lots of reasons

to doubt.

Christ Jesus,

the one that you're

holding on to,

is holding on to you

and more than that,

God the Father

is holding on to you.

But here's the second

implication.

To reject Jesus

means to reject

God himself.

Jesus says,

I am the Father,

are one.

And there's two ways

we can do that.

We can do that outright

as the people in Jesus'

day did that.

Remember when Jesus

on trial,

Pilate says,

what should I do

with this man

called Jesus?

And what do they say?

Crucify him.

Get rid of him.

Get this man out of here.

We want nothing

to do with him.

And they cast him out.

Maybe that's you.

Maybe you feel like,

I want nothing

to do with this Jesus guy.

But actually,

there's another way

that we can do that

and we can far more

subtly reject Jesus.

And by doing that,

we're rejecting God.

Without even almost

realizing it.

And that's by not quite

following Jesus entirely

in all the areas

of our lives.

So we tell ourselves,

yes,

I'm a Christian.

I believe in Jesus.

I'm just not really

willing to forgive

that friend.

Yes,

I believe in Jesus.

I'm just not willing

to honor Christ

with my sexuality,

with my money,

with my career,

with my relationships,

with my time.

And we can shut the door

on God himself,

the creator and sustainer

of everyone and everything.

The one who is

eternal,

infinite,

and unchangeable

in his goodness and grace,

power and perfection,

wisdom,

justice,

and truth.

We shut him out

of our lives

and we say,

God,

take a step back.

I won't have you

because we don't

want to trust Jesus' words.

And so when we reject Jesus,

we're actually rejecting

the God of all creation

and cutting him out

of those areas

of our lives,

which is a very sad

thing to do.

Friends,

this week,

all of us are going

to be tempted

to treat Jesus

in some area

of our lives

as just a man

trying to make him

out to be God.

And when we say

no to him,

we say no

to all the grace

that God wants

to give us through him.

Friends,

it's important

we take this in,

that Jesus says,

I am one of the Father.

And when you accept me,

you get the Father.

When you reject me,

you reject the Father.

Now,

look at what happens here

in verse 34

and 37.

Jesus throws a bit

of a theological spanner

in their works.

Do you know that phrase?

I was thinking about

that this morning.

Do you know that,

to throw a spanner

in the works?

Is that a very

South African thing to say?

No?

So think about

if you've got this

big machinery,

right?

These big engines

and someone throws

a metal spanner in it

is going to mess up

the whole machinery,

right?

Jesus throws

a theological spanner

in their thinking here

because they

want to kill him,

right?

And so Jesus

says something

to get them

scratching their heads

just to pause

and to kind of like

to throw them off

their thinking a bit

because they say to him,

we're going to kill you

because you're blaspheming

and Jesus quotes Psalm 82.

He says,

well,

in the Psalms,

you know,

the Psalmist

talks about

all God's people

being gods.

So why do you

criticize me

when I say

I'm a son of God?

And why does Jesus

do that?

He's kind of getting

them just to like

drop their stones

for a bit

and say,

that's a good question.

Let's think about that

so that he can escape

from their hands.

And the reason is

because Jesus' time

has not yet come.

Jesus is going

to be crucified

over Passover weekend

in a few months time,

but it's not Passover yet.

His time has not yet come.

And Jesus wants

to make one final appeal,

one more appeal

to get them

to trust him.

Jesus is wanting,

he's not wanting

to confuse us.

He's wanting to help

them to see and believe.

And so look what he says

in verse 37.

And as I read this,

I want you to listen

to the tone

of Jesus' words.

Listen to Jesus

almost employing,

he's begging us,

he's saying,

he's employing us

to come and listen to him.

I find these verses amazing.

his final plea

to them and to us.

Verse 37.

If I'm not doing

the works of my Father,

then don't believe me.

But if I do them,

even if you do not

believe me,

believe the works

that you may know

and understand

that the Father

is in me

and I am in the Father.

Jesus is saying,

you may not like me,

but I want you to see

that I am the Savior

that God has sent to you.

You may not like

what I have to say,

but look at my works.

Don't ignore it.

Don't walk away

for one more day.

You need to see

who I am

because only by seeing

who I am

can you be saved.

Jesus is employing them.

He says,

even if you don't believe me,

that's fine,

but please,

look at the evidence.

Believe the works

that you may know

and understand.

The Father is in me

and I am in the Father.

And if you walk away

from me and reject me,

you're walking away

from the Father.

Friends,

you hear the tenderness

of his appeal?

It's almost like

Jesus begging them

not to walk away

from what he's offering

them one last time.

In just a couple of months' time,

Jesus will come back

to Jerusalem,

but this time

to die on a cross.

He wants them

to believe in him

before that happens

that they may receive

the life that he offers.

So,

how should we respond?

Well,

John is a master writer

of his gospel

and John wants us

to see how they respond

because he wants us

to respond appropriately.

And so,

John gives us

two responses.

In verses 31 and 39,

he shows us

how the Jews

in Jerusalem respond.

And how do they respond?

Verse 31,

they pick up stones

to kill him.

In verse 39,

not killing him,

they seek to arrest him.

They want to get rid of him.

But then,

John gives us

an alternative.

And John shows us

there's another way

to respond.

There's two responses.

You can reject him

or you can receive him.

And so,

look what happens

in verse 40 to 42.

Verse 40,

Jesus went away again

across the Jordan

to the place

where John

had been baptizing

at first

and there he remained.

So,

John the author

takes us back

to John chapter 1,

John 1 · chapter mention

back to John the Baptist,

right?

I know it's confusing,

two different Johns.

And what is John's witness

about him?

John the Baptist.

Remember what John the Baptist says?

He says,

there is a man

coming after me

whose sandals

I'm not worthy

to untie.

A man who ranks

before me

because he has always

existed before me.

And so,

John's taking us back

to John the Baptist's testimony

and he's telling us

about John the Baptist

and what John the Baptist said.

And then he says,

many came to him

and they said,

John did no sign,

but everything that John said

about this man is true.

And many believed in him.

John the Baptist

did no signs,

no wonders,

no miracles.

He just told them

about Jesus.

He told them

that he was the Christ.

He told them

that he was the son of God.

He told them

that he was the lamb of God

who would die

for the sins of the world.

And that Jesus

would baptize them

in the spirit

and bring them

into God's kingdom.

And now,

having seen Jesus,

they believe.

They believe.

And they experience

life in his name.

But others,

in Jerusalem,

they see Jesus

and they saw the miracles

and they saw the signs

and wonders

and they saw everything

that Jesus did

and still,

they would not believe.

Do you remember

what the Apostle John said

right at the beginning?

He said,

Jesus came to his own

and his own did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him,

who believed in his name,

he gave the right

to become children of God.

And at the end of the section,

these two bookends

of chapter 5 to chapter 10,

John ends with this question.

Which one are you going to be?

Are you going to be

the Jews in Jerusalem

that reject him?

Or are you going to be

like those that believe?

And that makes

all the difference.

That makes all the difference.

John closes off

this first half

of his biography of Jesus,

giving us multiple instances

of religious leaders

who refuse to believe

and now points us

to people that are

on the outskirts of Israel,

the backwaters of Israel.

And he says,

they believed.

Will you be like them?

So friends,

as we come to a conclusion here,

for 18 weeks this year,

18 Sundays,

we've been looking

at John's gospel.

And for 18 weeks

this year,

we've been listening

to John's testimony

about Jesus,

about who he is,

that he is the Christ,

the son of the living God,

that those who believe in him

will find life in his name.

We've heard the words,

we've seen the signs,

we've listened to the miracles,

we've considered Jesus teaching,

we've heard John's witness,

we've seen how he fulfills scripture,

we've seen that Jesus

is one with the father.

And now John ends off asking us,

what are you going to do with this?

Will you believe

or will you reject him

like the people of his day?

These things are written

that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ,

the son of the living God,

and by believing

receive life in his name.

Friends,

Jesus sends us

that final letter.

Don't keep on ignoring it.

Don't keep on rejecting.

Respond

and let him help you

find life in his name.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus,

sometimes,

God,

we confess

our hearts can be very hard.

We can be dull

and slow to listen,

slow to hear.

But God,

you're so gracious,

you're so patient.

Jesus,

even these people

that they want to stone you

and kill you

and be done with you,

you are so patient

that you keep on

employing them

and you come back to them

another time

and you say,

even if you don't

like what I have to say,

believe my works

that you may receive life.

Jesus,

help us to believe your works.

Help us to believe,

Lord,

the death and resurrection.

Help us to believe

the empty tomb

and help us to find life

in your name.

God,

in you there is life

and apart from you

there is no life.

So help us,

we pray.

In your wonderful name,

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.