Believe (John 12:37-50)

John chapter 12, starting in verse 37.

John 12 · chapter mention

Even though he, Jesus, had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him.

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said, Lord, who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This is why they were unable to believe, because Isaiah also said, He's blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes, or understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.

Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him.

Nevertheless, many did believe in him, even among the rulers, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, so that they would not be banned from the synagogue.

For they loved human praise more than praise from God.

Jesus cried out, The one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

The one who sees me sees him who sent me.

I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

If any one hears my words and doesn't keep them, I do not judge them, for I didn't come to judge the world, but to save the world.

The one who rejects me and doesn't receive my sayings has this as his judge.

The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father Himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said.

I know that his command is eternal life.

So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.

Lord, I thank you so much for this morning, and I just ask that you would be glorified as we study your word, that you would fill me with your Spirit to teach, that you would fill the hearers with your spirit to rightly discern and divide what is of you, that ultimately we would grow closer to you, fall more in love with you, and be conformed more and more to your image as a result.

Be glorified in your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

Where are we in this book?

It's interesting because we are like, we're roughly halfway through the Gospel of John, and yet we are right at the very end of Jesus' ministry prior to his arrest, death, and resurrection.

So all that we've seen going on through this whole book leading up to this last week, Jesus is going in and out of Jerusalem in this last week.

We saw a couple weeks ago we went through the triumphal entry where he entered and they were saying Hosanna and throwing the palm branches and their clothes down on the ground, and he was entering in that way.

And then starting in verse 13 through 17-ish is going to be one long discourse with Jesus and his disciples during the Passover meal.

So although we're like only halfway through this book, it condenses really quickly into this long discourse with his disciples over many chapters.

And why does that well John was there, right?

So he's writing down a whole lot of what Jesus was writing.

And so we are right at the end of Jesus' public ministry leading up to his death and resurrection.

So that's where we are at here.

And when we're starting in verse 37, it's interesting because John gets to be the narrator again for a moment.

So much of this, we have seen Jesus speaking, we have seen him acting, and an account and the discourse of his words and his actions and the dialogue.

And right here, in this pivotal point, right before the Passover that starts in verse 13, uh John puts on his narrator voice.

And depending on your age, that may look different to you from your like movie imprinting.

I remember being a kid and sitting in a movie theater and the opening narration of the animated Beauty and the Beast starting.

So I have that voice in my head.

I also have the opening narration of the Lord of the Rains going on with that.

This is the same thing.

John is breaking in and giving some narration.

What is this narration and why?

Why is it important here?

Verse 37, even though he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him.

So John, at the end of Jesus' ministry prior to his arrest, death, resurrection, is saying, Everything you have seen, everything that you have read about here that we've been going over, you take the whole body of that from him healing blind people to him raising people from the dead, everything in between, turning water to wine, all these different things.

Despite all of that, they did not believe in him.

This is an intense statement.

And it's easy to sit there and go, like, I thought there were a lot of people believing throughout this whole book.

What on earth is going on?

Because he would do things and they would believe and they would follow him.

So how would they not believe in him?

It's important to understand this as we go through this chunk.

We are looking at not just individual people, but a body of people as the nation of Israel.

What just happened?

The triumphal entry, where he, as the Messiah, is entering in the city and they're all shouting Hosanna and laying down their palm branches and everything.

And yet, even despite that, they were not receiving him as their messiah, as a collective national identity.

So, as a group of people here, despite everything he did, they are not receiving him as their king and as their messiah.

Why is that?

Well, we've talked about this a lot, and I'm not going to rehash it, but ultimately they wanted him to be a different kind of king than he came to be.

They wanted a conqueror who would expel Rome in the spirit of the Maccabees and set up a kingdom of their own in that.

And here Jesus came not as that kind of king, but rather one who would defeat death and sin and provide a way for salvation.

So that is why we continue here.

This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said, Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed.

The very beginning of Isaiah 53, which was a crazy specific messianic passage prophecy in Isaiah.

And then he says, This is why they were unable to believe, because Isaiah also said, He has blinded their eyes and has hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes or understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.

So John the narrator is saying, despite everything that happened here, they are not receiving him.

Why?

Because their hearts are hardened, their eyes are blinded so that they are not turning and understanding.

What is going on here?

This is because you can go a lot of different directions with this, and people start to get a little squirrely already when you start to go through these kinds of passages.

So we have there is something that we see in the epistles, in Paul's writings, the mystery of the gospel, the mystery of salvation, this whole idea that Israel rejecting the Messiah allowed salvation for all, including the Gentiles and the Jews.

That them rejecting him as their Messiah allowed a way for not just the Jews to be saved, but also the Gentiles as well.

This is a super condensed version of this very big topic, but I have a slide for this, just pulling up Romans.

You remember when we went through the book of Romans?

It was a lot easier to unpack all of this at once.

I get like 45 seconds to do this.

And so, with that, there's a lot more to this.

But ultimately, here's a few chunks.

Romans 9, 30 through 32.

What should we say then?

Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained righteousness, namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.

Why is that?

Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as it were by works.

They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

Pause there for a second.

Basically, that Israel, despite their pursuit of righteousness, stumbled, and then it's going to continue to say that stumbling stone being Jesus.

I could only print so many verses on one slide.

And the stumbling stone there being the chief cornerstone, Jesus.

And so they did not pursue that by faith, but rather continued to pursue righteousness by works.

And as a result of that stumbling and rejection, the Gentiles were able to obtain righteousness through faith.

Continuing in Romans 11, 7 through 8.

What then?

Israel did not find what it was looking for, but the elect did find it.

The rest were hardened.

As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see, and ears that cannot hear to this day.

So, Israel looking for salvation, for the Messiah to come through their works, through their righteousness, to set up an earthly kingdom, did not find what they were looking for.

But the elect did, and the rest were hardened.

God given them the spirit of stupor, eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear to this day.

Very similar to the passage we are looking at here in John.

And then finally, Romans 11, 25 through 27.

I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited.

A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And in this way, all Israel will be saved, as is written, the deliverer will come from Zion.

He will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

This will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.

So, this idea there of that mystery that there's a partial hardening until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

What do all these verses mean?

That was again, that was like a minute long of people who write their dissertations on in much better way than I can.

But ultimately, compiling that together, it was necessary for Israel as a nation to reject Jesus as their Messiah initially.

First of all, how do I know that that happened?

Spoiler alert, uh, he was crucified a little bit later, and the same crowd that is yelling, Hosanna blesses you come to the name of me, is incited by the religious leaders to be yelling, crucified him.

So they were did not receive him as the king, as the messiah in that way.

What would have happened if they had?

He would not have been crucified.

He would not have risen again.

There would be no atonement for sin.

We can take this and go so many different ways with it, but at its core, what we see here is John telling us that what is about to happen in the rest of this book was all a part of the plan.

So his readers who are reading this, who are going, what the heck just happened, can go, okay, this was always God's purpose for Jesus to ultimately be rejected by the nation of Israel for the purpose of salvation being afforded to all who would believe in him by faith.

Because that comes through his substitutionary death and resurrection.

You start to use those big words, and people start being like, I'm not so comfortable with this.

This is a family service.

But ultimately, that is what we see.

So Israel is a nation rejected as Messiah so that he would suffer and die for the purpose of offering salvation to the whole world.

If Israel had received Jesus as their king in this moment, there would be no atonement, and neither Israel nor the Gentiles would be afforded salvation.

They would die in their sins.

Because we cannot achieve righteousness on our own.

That is the whole message and point of the gospel.

What doesn't this mean?

Because these words get scary and people get a little okay.

I do not see an instance where somebody desiring salvation through confession and belief, God going, nah.

Nah, sorry.

That is not a thing for somebody who is seeking God, who is desiring for salvation, to be rejected.

On the other side, I do not see somebody who is refusing Jesus and saying, I will not confess him, and God going, now you're gonna anyway.

Now, he presses on people.

I mean, how many people by a show of hands were knocked off of their horse by a blinding light and a voice came from heaven saying, you know, I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting, why are you a very specific thing.

So the level of pressing is very different with that, but ultimately we don't see people who are refusing him and Jesus going, no, you're you're going to anyway.

Why do I say this?

Because people can get this a challenging topic.

This whole idea because people go quickly into this idea of election, free will, all these things, and I'm not going to solve that Rubik's Cube for you today, except just have that peace in knowing that salvation comes through faith and belief in Jesus alone.

And how does somebody know that they have that?

If they have it, if they have repented and confessed and believed.

So also something that never comes up usually in this passage that's important is that this is John doesn't end the Bible here.

We get to see Acts, and in Acts, we get to see this same crowd coming to the next high holiday in Israel, being Pentecost, and we get to see the Holy Spirit falling upon the disciples in the upper room, and then preaching, and Peter standing up and preaching, and 3,000 of them repenting and believing, according to Acts 2.41.

So that's the thing, is that we look and we're like, oh man, well, they have rejected him.

They uh are unable to believe, man.

They must have it's like, well, the story continues, and 3,000 of them will be repenting.

Just wait 50 days.

So having that said, it's interesting in John 40, uh 12, 41, Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him.

John is asserting that the reason why Isaiah made these prophecies is because he saw the glory of Jesus and spoke about him.

This is very similar vein to what we saw in John 8.56 when Jesus was saying, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

He saw it and was glad.

And people are like, What are you talking about?

You're here.

Abraham has been dead thousands of years.

The whole idea is that this was God's purpose and plan from the very, very, very beginning through all of these things to bring about salvation.

How does that salvation come?

It came through Jesus being rejected, betrayed, crucified, and rising again.

Why would that be a thing?

Because what that does is in his innocence, he died in place of us in our guilt.

And as a result, imputes righteousness to us that we did not earn or deserve through his atoning sacrifice.

It's a swap.

And that was the plan from the very beginning.

Okay.

Continuing onward, verse 42.

Nevertheless, many did believe in him, even among the rulers.

And this is further evidence to me why I just see like at the beginning of this passage, he's not talking about individuals, she's talking about a corpus, a group of people.

And here, nevertheless, many did believe in him among the rulers, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, so that they wouldn't be banned from the synagogue.

For they loved human praise more than praise from God.

That's an intense verse.

More intense that some of these people are probably still alive when John is writing this, and so they get to read his writing and be like, Thanks.

Thanks, John.

Appreciate that.

So what do we see here?

Even Jesus' ministry did bring about people believing in him, even among the rulers.

So even among the people who are seeking to kill him, who are seeking to eliminate this threat, there are people who did believe him.

But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him.

What on earth is the difference?

Well, belief is something that happens in work, that is a uh a uh certain, a can being a convinced of something, being persuaded, they were persuaded that he is the Messiah.

However, they did not confess that.

To confess, homologale, is to agree with.

Same word is what that word means.

So they were not assenting and demonstrating that outwardly.

So they were ninja Christians in that sense, basically.

There was a belief, there was not a confession.

Why not?

So that they wouldn't be banned from the synagogue.

That's a big deal.

We've talked about this uh when we were talking about John 9.

Because here in this culture, they could not get banned from this synagogue and then just walk down the street to the second synagogue of Jerusalem and join that, and then if that goes poorly, just go down to the next corner like we can today.

It is a cultural shunning.

It is a uh it's a big deal for your community, for uh your interactions, for your business, for your way of life.

And so the cost here of ostracism was greater to them than the uh benefit of confessing him.

And before we get too hard on them, a few things with that.

And in contrast, though, uh we see the disciples in contrast with that.

They left everything for Jesus.

They left their nets, they left their tax booth, they he left his tax booth and followed him, forsaking everything that way.

And here they believe, but they are not confessing him.

So they wouldn't be banned from the synagogue, for they loved human praise more than praise from God in verse 43.

Kind of reminds me of the friction we see in Mark 10, 21 through 23, Jesus speaking to the rich young ruler.

Where he's like, What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?

Like, you know the commandments.

He's like, I've kept all of these from my youth.

Verse in Mark 10, 21 through 23, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said, You lack one thing, go sell all you have and give to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

He was dismayed by this demand, and he went away grieving because he had so many possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

That is it, that situation is an example of Jesus indicating the one thing that this ruler is still holding dear above Jesus.

And here in this similar situation, John is identifying this one thing that they hold dear more than Jesus.

And I don't want to be too hard on them.

Why not?

Um, well, first of all, because we love to be hard on people in the Bible.

That's just kind of our our default, you know.

It's like this, but with this, do you know who stood with Jesus at his crucifixion?

Nobody.

Absolutely nobody.

Even his disciples who left everything to follow him, who saw everything, who were with him all the time, we will see them absolutely deserting Jesus at his time of arrest, betrayal, crucifixion.

Now, how do I know that?

Mark 14, 50 says, then they all deserted him and ran away.

Now, you don't have to be the finest Bible expositor to understand what that means.

They all ran away.

So, why is that important?

And why is John making this important distinction here that even among the rulers there was belief but not confession?

Who cares?

Is the punchline that I'm why is he saying this?

Why is he letting us know this?

Well, the important thing here, the large-scale thing, is the utter rejection, the utter aloneness that Jesus experienced in his sacrificial death on the cross.

There was not that one person who stood by him that whole time, who was going to go with him to the grave, who was going to nobody, even the person who was absolutely convinced he was that somebody, being Peter, go, No, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna die for you.

Jesus is like, you're gonna deny me three times.

Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.

Why does that matter?

We all wanna think that we're special.

Now, let me say, you're all special.

You're all important people.

I know most of you, and you're great people.

However, we all want to think we're that one person, that one person who would have stood by Jesus' side and have not left him at the very, very end.

I'm sorry, but that's just not true.

There was nobody staying with him at the end, whether that was the religious leaders who believe in him, some of them who believed in him, but did not confess him for fear of being banned, whether that was his disciples who saw everything and then scattered.

The utter singular aloneness that Jesus experienced in his betrayal and his death and his resurrection speaks to the need for that sacrifice.

There is not one person sufficiently righteous, sufficiently zealous, sufficiently upright who would be able to carry that burden with him.

He alone did that for us all.

So that is the big point of this chunk here.

John is preparing us for what is about to come.

He is also reminding those who were there, because again, when John is writing, there are people who are still there who witness these things and their offspring as well.

So he is letting them know the wide-scale rejection of Jesus was all part of God's plan from the beginning.

Nobody could stand with Jesus in that sacrifice.

It is kind of weird, I'm gonna say it is a week before Thanksgiving, and we're basically preaching Easter messages.

But the thing that that is that is it's the gospel.

This is important stuff throughout.

So then we pivot to Jesus' crowd message here that seems to be one of his last messages to the public, to the crowd, in the Gospel of John before the Passover.

We see in the Synoptic Gospels there were plenty of other situations where he is like going back and forth with the religious leaders, talking to the crowd.

But in the Gospel of John, John did his narrator voice, it always has to have a little voice too, this narrator voice for a bit, and then now we see John Jesus crying out in verse 44 the one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

The one who sees me sees him who sent me.

I have come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

We'll pause there.

Jesus is making all these things that we've talked about through this whole book, boiling it down into one final important thrust here.

First of all, the one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

This is why the religious leaders are so upset about Jesus.

Because if Jesus wasn't actually the Messiah, this is straight up blasphemy to be saying that, hey, if you believe in me, you're believing in the Father.

That is the same thing.

That is, there's one person in human history who could say that and it'd be true.

And everybody else would be either false, crazy, or a mixture of both.

Here, the one who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

Think about the scope of that.

He's essentially saying belief in him is fulfillment of God's word, the one who sent him.

That's a bold statement.

Verse 45: the one who sees me sees him who sent me.

We've talked before about the idea of an ambassador.

You have a king, and he has a declaration.

He sends an ambassador with a message.

That ambassador comes with the authority of the king to declare the message.

The people who are hearing that ambassador recognize the authority and the identification with the ambassador to the king.

They don't question that.

They don't sit there and go, can we get a second opinion from the king?

They hear the message, they understand where it comes from.

Jesus here is saying in his authority, he's highlighting his authority as God's ambassador and also his oneness with God.

The one who sees me sees the one who sent me.

You can see the idea of an ambassador or a herald saying, Look, the message that I'm saying is the message of the king.

But here Jesus is also saying, I am one with the king.

Again, anybody but Jesus saying this, big problem.

Jesus saying this is fulfillment of prophecy.

And then his mission, I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me would not remain in darkness.

So his message is that we remain in, that we are currently, our default state is in darkness.

He is the light, so that whoever would believe in him would not remain in that darkness.

There would be a state change there from darkness to light.

So our default state, no matter our works, no matter our own perception of righteousness, no matter our heritage in this sense with the Israelites, is darkness.

Jesus is the light to bring out of darkness into the light.

I liked the imagery last week that Pastor Chris gave with the idea of just being in that cave and just the utter darkness of that.

You turn off the light for just a second and it is pitch black.

I don't have that kind of faith, by the way.

I wouldn't have the faith the flashlight would come back on again.

But that uh, you know, there we are.

But that idea of the light being Jesus.

We've talked about that quite a bit.

So we saw there his scope, his authority, his mission.

And then the stakes in verse 47.

If anyone hears my words and doesn't keep them, I don't judge them, for I didn't come into the to judge the world, but to save the world.

The one who rejects me and doesn't receive my sayings has this as his judge.

The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

So, if you hear his words and you don't keep them, he's not there at this moment to execute justice.

That's not why he's there.

He's there for bringing salvation.

However, there is a point where rejecting his words results in judgment on the last day.

So, for those of you who are parents, there's a lot of times where you lay out the standard.

If you continue doing this, this is the consequence.

At that moment, knowing your child, knowing they're probably going to transgress that law, you don't just punish them anyway in this moment.

That's disturbing.

You know, instead of like, okay, here's what's gonna happen, here's the problem.

Do not do this.

If you do, here's the consequence.

Now I already know that you're gonna do that, so I'm just gonna punish you now.

This is a weird like minority report parenting, but the uh instead, you have the standard, and then a good parent will enforce the standard when the transgression has happened.

So much of parenting that is exhausting but is good, is upholding the standard that you have set in gentleness, in love, in justice in that way.

And that's the that's the hard part.

Because we love our kids and we don't want to do that.

If we set up the standard and we don't enforce it, the children do get to learn a lesson.

The lesson is I can do whatever I want.

And from the child's perspective, that's great.

From the parent's perspective, who knows better, that is grievous to the heart.

When we were children, we thought our parents did not understand what was good, and they wanted to keep us from what was good.

As a child, I thought I was convinced that eating a whole big bag of Skittles was a good idea.

The parent knows differently, probably because they target as a kid and through us, but from the perspective of the child, the parent doesn't understand what is good, and they are keeping me from what is good.

The parent's perspective is I love you and I want you to be well, and I want you to thrive.

And that is the crazy uh disconnect that I am told sometimes reconnects when the child is.

I don't even know what it was like 25, 35, 40, I'm 42, and I'm not sure it's still connected, but at some point in time there seems to be a unity of that.

Why am I saying this?

From the perspective of humans, the judgment of the Lord is harsh, cruel, and unfair.

He's trying to keep us from from fun.

He's the ultimate spoil spur.

From the perspective of the Lord, he wants us to thrive.

He wants us to be whole, he wants us to be made right.

How do I know that?

Verse 50.

I know that his command is eternal life.

Verses like this do not get enough press in the human conversation.

The command of the Father is eternal life.

His desire, his will, his goal for us is eternal life.

How many times have we heard the narrative that God just wants to ruin our fun?

Or that God is an angry, capricious, like Greek or Roman type God who has mood swings and just sometimes has a bad day and just wipes out people.

His command, his will, his desire is eternal life.

Is that comforting?

Does that sink in?

Just how cool that is, that like God's speak, Jesus, who by the way, Jesus doesn't lie, is telling us the command of the Father and the desire and the will of the Father is eternal life.

So when Jesus comes, his word is not in that moment, in his first coming, bringing about judgment, it's bringing about the standard and the means for salvation.

He doesn't just say, here's the standard, now you're on your own, do what you want.

He brings the way to be made right with the Father.

He brings the way to eternal life with the Father in His death and resurrection.

And so, when He says, the words I've spoken will judge him on the, or the in verse 48, the words, one who rejects me doesn't receive my sayings, has this as his judge, the word I have spoken will judge him on the last day.

There is a standard.

The standard of salvation is through faith and confession and belief in Jesus.

That is the bar.

There will be a time where there are consequences as a result of rejecting that.

That is a reality according to Scripture.

That in Jesus' second coming and the judgment that follows is the natural consequence of their choices, and the evidence that is placed against them is the words of Jesus and whether this was accepted or rejected.

Now, what does Jesus say?

Let's take a look.

I broke up this passage into three slides just because there's so much in there that I don't want us to just gloss through it.

So, first we're going to see in this slide John 3, 14 through 16.

Jesus speaking to Nicodemus.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

For God loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

So, point number one here.

Jesus' purpose is to be lifted up.

We talked about that last week, the idea of crucifixion, so that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

God loved the world so much to give his only son so that whoever would believe in him would have eternal life.

Point two.

The next slide, we see John 3, 17 through 18.

God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Anyone who believes in him is not condemned.

Anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

So there again, Jesus saying that the Son did not come into the world for the purpose of condemnation at that moment.

That's what it would look like if he came in as a conquering king.

He came to save the world through him.

And how we respond and react to that is the state of judgment or condemnation there.

Because whoever believes in him isn't condemned, anyone who doesn't believe is already condemned because he hasn't believed in the name of the one and only God, Son of God.

And then finally, the next slide we see John 3, 19 through 21.

This is the judgment.

The light has come into the world.

People love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

Everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

Anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

Final piece of that.

The light came into the world, and how people responded to that light is the indicator of their state.

Whether they came to him and those who live by the truth come to the light, or those who love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil, and hate the light and avoid it.

Because the light is the ultimate exposure of the truth.

So, what on earth, you combine all that together, Jesus came for the purpose of salvation through his sacrifice, through his atonement, for the purpose of bringing about salvation and eternal life.

His first coming that we see in this passage is not a bringing about the execution of justice.

It is to be a herald of the good news and the means for salvation.

And then how we respond to that is the result of whether or not there is condemnation later, whether we accept him or we reject him.

What does all of that boil down to?

What does it all of that come down to?

Everything.

Everything comes down to Jesus.

There is no salvation in any other name except Jesus.

We see in Scripture that our righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God in comparison.

We cannot achieve righteousness apart from God.

And we see Israel as a nation seeking to do that at that point.

We see a remnant of them coming to salvation through faith and belief in him, after the fact.

But it was always the plan from the beginning for Jesus to come, to be ultimately rejected, to die alone, with no human having the ability and power and righteousness to stand with him alone to bear our sins on the cross, so that not only his death would pay for our sins in his sinless state, but in his resurrection, not only does it demonstrate that the payment was fulfilled, but it indicates the newness of life that we can walk in.

Why does all that matter?

Well, because God desires eternal life for us.

Jesus is the herald and the facilitator of the Father's plan for salvation.

And so the invitation is to accept and receive his salvation through belief.

There is no plan B.

There is no alternate.

There is no exception to being made right with the Father, except confession and belief in Jesus.

And that's the cool thing, is that up until that point, we wouldn't have that.

If Jesus came as a conquering king, we would not even have that option.

We would all be doomed to die in our sins.

And so the fact that the road is narrow does not indicate that there's a road, does not negate that there's a road at all.

And that's what's so cool about this, is that the salvation we have is found in Jesus alone, but it is offered to all who would confess and believe him.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your command and desire for eternal life.

That your desire is to bring about salvation.

I thank you, Lord, that when we were your enemies, you offered a way to be made right with you through your Son.

I thank you that the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus, taking our guilt upon his sinless self, was sufficient to pay for the sins of the whole world.

I thank you that although he was rejected and despised and abandoned in his death, that he has brought about the means to eternal life, so that we could be made right with you and not remain in darkness.

For anybody who hears this, whether in the room, whether on the audio, anywhere, I ask, Lord, that by your spirit you would be working on hearts to desire that gift if they have not received it.

That they would desire to confess and belief to be made right with you.

I thank you.

And I ask that you would speak to their hearts and see the goodness of God to offer salvation, the greatness of Jesus to bring the means for salvation.

And Lord, I ask that we would continue to fall more and more in love with you, that we would not seek salvation or righteousness in anything except for you.

That we would never get tired or numb to the glory of the cross and the empty tomb, but rather that we would rejoice in that and we would grow more and more and conform to your image and be glorified in your name.

Amen.