He came down to raise you up

[0:00] Father, thank you for Jesus. Thank you that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. Thank you, Father, that he loves us and he loved us enough to die for us.

[0:13] Thank you, Father, that when we put our hand and our trust and our faith in Jesus, that nothing can snatch us away from him. Nothing can snatch us away from you.

[0:24] Father, thank you for this. Father, we confess before you there are many times it feels as if, well, as if we are just too weak or too depressed to hold on to your hand.

[0:38] So we thank you that you never let go of us. Father, pour out your Holy Spirit at this time as we read your word. Help us to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest your word.

[0:51] And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. So, what's up with Jesus saying everyone is God?

[1:07] Like, what's up with Jesus seeming to say that everyone is God? I can imagine if I was reading this to one of my friends in Starbucks, they'd say, George, I thought you guys were against that.

[1:21] I thought you guys didn't believe that everyone was God. So, why is it that Jesus is saying this? In fact, George, you know, I was listening to the text as you read, and it seems as if it's a bit lame.

[1:34] Like, Jesus is a bit lame. Like, on one hand, he says he's God. And then he says everybody is God. So, like, I don't get sort of what's going up. Well, let's just sort of take a time out a moment for a good question.

[1:48] That's a really good question. And I have to confess, when I read this text for the first time, I mean, I've preached on it before, but when I read this text at first, my heart sank a little bit.

[1:59] I don't know if yours did as well when you came back, where it says, doesn't the Bible say everybody's gods? Or it seems to say something like that. And my heart sank a little bit. In fact, I felt a little bit tense when I read it this week that I was going to speak on this.

[2:14] And, you know, it's just a really good thing, just to be honest here with you. And if there are people here who are just either out of curiosity trying to figure out about the Christian faith, or you got dragged here because it's Mother's Day, or I don't know what, you're just here.

[2:31] Let me just tell you, there's lots of times when Christians, lots of times when I read the Bible and my heart sinks. Just being really honest with you. But here's what I found.

[2:44] As you can see, I'm getting, in fact, I can't say anymore that I'm getting gray. Getting is long past. I've gone gray. But here's the thing I've really found over the years, is that when I just sit with Jesus' words and with the words of the Bible and ponder them, and just sort of calm and quiet in my mind and my heart and just ponder them, I always find that they're wise.

[3:11] Like at first they shock me or make me uncomfortable or I wish he'd said something different. And it's not that I kiss my mind goodbye and say, okay, George, you're just going to do this to my brain. Okay, killed my brain.

[3:23] Yeah, now I'm fine. Big smile. You know, Stepford Wives type of smile. Christians aren't to be the type of Stepford Wives. Just, I really found over the years that when I just pause and ponder what is said, that I end up finding out that it's very wise.

[3:40] That's been my experience time and time and time again over many decades. So, you know, like what happens when you just sort of pause and get over the shock of Jesus appearing to say, you are gods?

[3:57] Like if we just sort of pause and get over that shock, well, what happens if we do? Well, let's look. So get your Bible out. We have to look at the text. It always helps to actually get clearer what was said and what wasn't said and what the context is.

[4:11] So we're looking at John chapter 10 and we're beginning at verse 22. And if you're a guest here this morning, one of the things we do here most of the time on Sunday mornings is we go through books of the Bible because the Bible is made up of 39 books written before Jesus and 27 books after Jesus and they're written as books.

[4:30] So we study them as books. We begin at the beginning, go to the end. That way nobody can say that I'm sort of leaving out the awkward parts or the bad parts. And we learn how to read and pray together by looking at the text together.

[4:44] And so we're almost halfway through. And what we call now the Gospel of John was originally written as one of the four biographies of Jesus based on eyewitness account.

[4:56] And John himself is an eyewitness and an earwitness to Jesus. And he wrote this biography of Jesus after the death and resurrection of Jesus. And we're about just almost up to the halfway mark of going through the gospel.

[5:08] And here's how it goes. It goes like this. Verse 22. At that time, that's the time that's about to happen right now when Jesus was still alive, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem.

[5:23] And just pause there for a second. We know it by a different name. Hanukkah. It was Hanukkah. Hanukkah isn't something which is talked about in the Old Testament.

[5:36] It's based on something that happened in the mid-2nd century B.C. when the Jewish people were able to kick the Syrians, I think, out.

[5:47] But just like today, right? The Syrians were in Jerusalem. Or Syrians would like to be in Jerusalem right now, as would the Iranians and lots of others. But they had defiled the temple, and there had been a Jewish leader who'd kicked them out and cleansed the temple from the pagan worship and idol worship and idol sacrifices had gone on.

[6:06] And it's Hanukkah. That's what it was. They just call it a different thing here. This is the original name. We now call it Hanukkah, which is closer to the Hebrew. Read that again.

[6:17] Verse 22. At that time, the Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah, took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

[6:28] So the Jewish leaders 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.

[6:40] The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

[6:50] 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.

[7:02] I and the Father are one. Now, just sort of pause there. I've gone, that's a bit of, you can see, my Bible has red letters when Jesus speaks, so you can see that's sort of the end of his answer. And it might be puzzling to some of you.

[7:12] Why is it? They just ask, these guys ask Jesus to give them a plain answer. He doesn't give them a plain answer. Like, what's up with that? Like, if you come to the service before, one of the things you'll hear me say time and time again is that Jesus always loves honest questions.

[7:29] Like, if you have questions, and they're honest questions, like bring them to Jesus and bring them to his people, and Christians should never be known as a people who are afraid of good, honest questions.

[7:43] If we're afraid of a good, honest question, we're not following Jesus. He was always comfortable with them. But why is this not going on here? They ask him to speak plainly, and he doesn't do it. Well, it's a little bit of a subtle thing, and you have to look at it a little bit closely and just sort of pause.

[7:58] Once again, just if you remember, it's a general rule that Jesus loves honest questions. But most of the time, much of the time, especially in John's Gospel, the questions aren't honest questions.

[8:11] You know what that's like, right? You know when you get a question from somebody, you know, maybe it was back when you were in school, maybe it's from your boss or from a co-worker. They ask you a question. It's not a question. They know the answer.

[8:22] They're trying to embarrass you in front of people or put you down or make you look stupid, right? Those are dishonest questions, and that's what's going on here. First of all, what happens is they encircle him.

[8:36] His enemies encircle him all around him. And while they're all around him, they ask him this question. And Jesus, from his answer, what he says right off the bat to them is he basically says to them, listen, you guys aren't asking me an honest question because you don't believe.

[8:55] Like, you don't believe. Like, you know that no matter what I say to you, you're not going to believe it. Like, your minds are closed. You're closed to evidence.

[9:05] You're closed to conversation. Here you are encircling me, which is, as we all know, just imagine, that's a type of intimidation, right? Imagine if you're in your office and all of a sudden all of your coworkers and you know it's not your birthday and their expressions aren't friendly and open and they all encircle you and ask you a question that's intimidating.

[9:24] It's a specifically intimidating act. And so he said, here you are, you're intimidating me. In effect, that's what's going on. And he said, from the beginning of his answer, I know you don't believe anything I'm going to say. So what he does is, since you're not going to believe anything I want to say, he's going to get to the heart of the issue to try to help bring home to them their problem, to see if it maybe sort of checks them a tiny bit.

[9:48] Because Jesus always goes to the heart. And by the heart, once again, we don't mean the emotions. He goes to the command center of our lives. What's really working at the command center of who we are?

[9:59] And he says, if you look at it now, verse 25, I told you and you do not believe. He basically said he was the Messiah several times in earlier chapters. But here's what he goes to.

[10:10] 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. Now, what does the word works here mean? Works means miracles. That's what this means.

[10:21] That's what he's talking about. It's not talking about the time he worked in the soup kitchen. They didn't have them back then. He's talking about miracles. And one of the things which characterizes John's gospel is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the three other ancient biographies of Jesus based on eyewitness accounts and testimony, they have lots of miracles.

[10:42] But John chose to only have a small number of miracles. It's as if he said to himself, I'm just going to pick a small number of miracles. I'm going to go into way more detail about each one of the miracles.

[10:55] I'm going to go into details to help emphasize that they really happened in history. And I'm going to go into detail with miracles to show that they were received often with great skepticism and inquiry.

[11:09] And so if you were to go back after this and you were to read John's gospel up until this, you'll see that there was several important... The other thing is what he means, what Jesus means here by miracles isn't the way we usually use the word miracle.

[11:23] We usually use the miracle in one of two ways. As something really random or as a way to insult somebody. So some of you this morning might have said, if you said, it's a miracle my son remembered it was Mother's Day.

[11:38] Well, that's a put-down, right? My son is so stupid, so self-centered, so narcissistic, I can't believe he actually remembered it's Mother's Day. Right?

[11:48] We often use it as an insult, right? It's a miracle my boss gave me a compliment, we say over the coffee hour. She never gives me compliments. Or we use it as something really random. It's a miracle I won the lottery.

[11:59] Just random. I mean, eventually somebody's going to win the lottery. It just happens, right? It's just sort of random. But Jesus means miracle in the old sense of the word here. Works is referring to miracles in the old sense, which means something that only God can do.

[12:15] Something that nature would never do by itself. Something that wouldn't come up even if it was random. It's just something that literally could not happen by cause and effect, by randomness.

[12:26] And up until now, there are six miracles that John records. And every one of them are very significant. They're things that we can think about and they're things that in some ways they begin as very private, but they quickly become public.

[12:40] And they're all talked about in such a way that every time you realize it could not be done by anybody other than God. And it illustrates something about the God who really does exist. The first one is that Jesus turns water into wine.

[12:52] And, you know, generally speaking, religious people would turn wine into water because religion likes to take the joy out of life.

[13:04] But Jesus does the opposite. He turns water into wine. And it's very clear if you read the miracle that it's something that, you know, they're big stone jars.

[13:14] Jesus never touches it. It wasn't something they expected. And the same God who's created wine and water, only a God who's created all things can act in his own created order and now turn water into wine.

[13:29] And then the second miracle, that's in chapter 2. The second miracle happens in chapter 3. And in this particular case, there's a high official in Pilate's government or Herod's government, I think it is.

[13:41] I can't remember if it's Pilate or Herod. It doesn't really matter to the story. A high official. And he comes and asks Jesus to heal his son who's on the point of death. And he's walked basically a day to come to see Jesus and Jesus just says, your son is healed.

[13:57] He says it like this. And he actually is healed. Even though they're miles and miles away, a day's walk, a day's walk and Jesus heals the man's son from a distance. That's the second miracle.

[14:08] And it helps to show, the first miracle helps to show that God is a source of joy and celebration. And the second one helps to reveal that God is the God of life.

[14:19] He's not the God of death. He's the God of life. He's the God of health. To draw close to God in John 2 is to come close to joy. In his presence there is fullness of joy. To come closer and closer to God is to come closer and closer to life.

[14:33] It's to come closer and closer to health. And then the third miracle is a really, really interesting miracle. It's in John chapter 5. And by the way, these first two miracles, they would have started to cause a bit of a public stir.

[14:46] They happen in a small community of around 2,000 people. But it would have caused a stir in that neighborhood. And the third miracle would have caused a bigger stir because it was in a far more public place right in Jerusalem.

[14:57] In this case, there was a very, very grumpy man who'd been an invalid for 38 years and Jesus heals him. He heals him so completely and utterly that he's able to pick up his mat and walk.

[15:07] And this would have begun to be far more common. In fact, in this particular case, we know for a fact that the experts, the elite, the opinion makers, they know that a miracle has happened because they begin to question the man.

[15:24] And it's in fact at that point, believe it or not, that religion and spirituality and educated opinion and political opinion turns on Jesus and they start to realize that he's a threat to their order.

[15:35] And then the fourth miracle that Jesus performs is the most public of all of his miracles until the final one, which is going to take place in chapter 20, which we won't look at for quite a while.

[15:50] And that's where Jesus, the fourth miracle is Jesus feeding 5,000 men, which means that he's feeding more than 5,000 people. It might be 10, it might be 15, it might be 20, it might be 25, it might be 30,000 people, we don't know.

[16:03] And from five loaves and two fishes, with them all in a public place where they know there's not some big wagons and wagons and wagons of food that Jesus has just brought out, that he just literally takes the basket and breaks the pieces into another basket and breaks them and breaks them and breaks them and it just keeps going and going and going and going and then the disciples are taking it and breaking it and breaking it and breaking it and it never comes to an end.

[16:26] And 5,000 men, maybe as much as 20,000, 25,000, 30,000 people all at one time witness Jesus performing a miracle, something that only God can do.

[16:38] He created matter out of nothing. He created matter out of nothing in front of their eyes. And then the next miracle which Jesus, which John talks about is Jesus walking on water in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

[16:59] It's not a shoal, it's in the middle. He walks on the water during a storm. And this miracle is told in all of the Gospels and it shows it's actually a set of Gospels but John just emphasizes one, all of them emphasize this one primary fact.

[17:13] And that was only seen by the people in the boat but it actually was known of by many, many thousands of people because if you read the story they know that some type of miracle must have happened for Jesus to get to point A to point B and they couldn't understand how he did it and the apostles would have eventually told them.

[17:29] And then the final miracle which has been recorded up until this point in time is the miracle of Jesus healing a man who was blind from birth.

[17:42] This isn't some psychosomatic healing, you know, some type of placebo effect that brought some type of oh, I guess I can now see or something like that. It's not like if you watch Band of Brothers, great, great, great series.

[17:54] You know, the guy who has that stress from battle and he can't see. You're not sure if he's just trying to get out of fighting or what happened. He can see, he can't see. Not like that. This man has been blind from birth. The miracle is told in great detail and in fact it's actually used to illustrate something because Jesus makes this remarkable claim that he is the light of the world and frankly any charlatan, any kook, any crazy guy could make some type of claim.

[18:18] Any narcissist could make some type of claim, I'm the light of the world. Yeah, yeah, show me. Well, how does Jesus demonstrate that he's the light of the world? By doing a remarkable miracle of healing a man who was blind from birth so that the man could see.

[18:32] And Jesus says to these guys, listen, I've now done more than that but if you've just been reading along, you guys know and the reason this was also going to be a very public miracle is because right where people were going into the temple every day for years and years and years the same guy sat there begging.

[18:50] and now this guy who had sat there begging for years and years and years and years and they knew that he couldn't see that he'd never been able to see and now he could see.

[19:01] Jesus had done a remarkable miracle. He had done something only God could do. And so Jesus says I have done these six things that only God can do and you stand here encircling me and you claim to be interested in my answer to a question.

[19:24] Like you're not. Are you? You're not. So you see Jesus isn't ducking the question and he's doing he has done things that only God could do.

[19:42] Now here's the thing which is so remarkable about this story. It's something you have to keep track of all the way through. Jesus I mean here you know if you were here a few weeks ago and I was talking about the miracle of the man who was healed blind from birth you'll know that modern science has now taught us that there is at least a double miracle there because there not only had to be a miracle of the whatever it was that stopped him from seeing there had to be a healing of the mind because the mind has to learn to see.

[20:16] Babies learn to see. They learn to see. We just take it for granted you can see but you have to learn to see. And so what happened in that miracle is amongst other things is that not only whatever it was that was missing God Jesus created in the man inside the man and whatever was blocking sight was taken out of the man and Jesus does in a sense that double miracle but he does this third thing where he actually heals the man's mind.

[20:45] so that means that Jesus could write that second just like that he could make every single one of the people all around him go oh yeah now I believe in you. He had that power but he never uses it because you see freedom matters to God.

[21:04] Your freedom and mine matters to Jesus. He wants you he wants me to freely choose him and that's because it's not just a myth that God is love.

[21:22] Like earlier on Jesus says for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

[21:33] love and it's of the very nature of love that love must be free. If one of you when you were still single and you started talking to another person it's different nowadays I think when I like I'm really old back in my day I didn't discuss with Louise for a while whether or not we might get married and then after all the details were worked out I popped the question I just popped the question I was hoping she'd say yes I was pretty sure she'd say yes and when I popped the question there was this long pause and then as you maybe heard she said you're supposed to be on your knees and we were both like left wing hippie radical feminist type so I wasn't sure what she was telling me to do I mean I knew the language was you're supposed to be on your knees I could follow it I just wasn't sure but then I thought to myself am I going to this is true am I going to do this she's going to laugh at me true confession but then I thought to myself

[22:42] I was the devil right and then I thought to myself I really want her to say yes like I really want her to marry me so I got down on my knees I asked her again long pause and she said yes and now of course we've been married a long time but you know here's the point if afterwards Louise discovered that her dad offered me five million bucks to pop the question she'd break off with me in a moment because my request wasn't free and out of love and Jesus could have just done like that and worked in each of those man's minds to make them believe and accept but he doesn't do it why?

[23:22] because freedom matters to God because freedom is essential to love and love matters to God because God is love so Jesus doesn't duck the question he just really says you know listen look at what I've done and you're still asking me that question now some of you might say whoa whoa whoa George I was listening to that and you say freedom matters to God but doesn't Jesus say that the reason you don't believe is because you're my sheep like isn't that one of those things that you've got to be sheep to believe and so you know God makes you a sheep and then you believe like isn't that no no no look at look at look what what what Jesus is saying here in fact the whole reason that Jesus does this conversation with them is he's basically saying you know one of the characteristics of people who are who are mine because in the last week we looked in the earlier part he describes his followers as a flock of sheep right and and he says one of the characteristics of people who are my sheep is they believe me they listen to my voice and they believe me and they follow me you obviously aren't but he doesn't say this so they can go away say oh well dang

[24:39] I'm not a sheep I guess I can't believe it's all God's fault no he confronts their heart so they might say you know Jesus you're right I don't know why my heart is so close to your miracles I don't know why I just won't believe my eyes can you have mercy on me that's what he wants that's what he wants but then then you say okay yeah sorry now I don't know if you noticed at the end of the part that I read that Jesus said I and the father are one and this is a very very very very big claim and if you're a guest here this morning the thing that this claim means is that the way that most people think most people in Canada think about Jesus just can't possibly be true it's wrong look again here at verse 30

[25:42] I and the father are one now even in English it's very powerful but it might be that in English you might think okay I and the father are like at one with each other we're like you know like a husband and wife can be sort of like one or two friends can think as one but in the original language it's actually very very very clear because in the original language it can either be a it can be written in such a way that it could potentially mean that we just have one mind or one heart or one will but it actually says one thing my father and I are one thing we are one substance it's very very very powerful language which they as we'll see in a moment the hearers immediately understand and respond look at verse 31 the Jews picked up stones again to stone him because of it now here's the thing about this claim and this is why no matter what Canadian you know most Canadians just say that Jesus is a good religious teacher he's a good man but if

[26:45] Jesus says this it means he's either insane or he's an abuser he's a manipulative person who wants to abuse us that's what that text means unless it's true now let me tell you and you have to take this the right way I've been in and out of psychiatric institutions ever since I was 18 I mean I've had lots of friends in them and I've gone to visit and then I've been a pastor and gone to visit I've had very very close contact almost unbroken with people who are mentally ill ever since I was 18 years of age and it's not uncommon for mentally ill people as we all know to hear voices to make really really grandiose claims and let me tell you if Jesus makes a claim like this and he really believes it he's insane but here's the problem I challenge any one of the any one of you to read the four biographies of

[27:48] Jesus and in no way to any of them in none of them does Jesus sound like he's insane we're in an urban church we all know what insane people are like I mean just go wandering down Rito Street afterwards you're going to meet some mentally ill people we all know what they're like and Jesus in no way seems mentally ill but here's the other thing remember I was telling you about the Bhagwan that Indian grew it's the wild wild west sort of an interesting documentary on Netflix you know and here he is making all of his people he claims that he's a god man and he claims he's a god man and all these people they work all these hours for no pay whatsoever just basically having their basic needs met and he's driving around in Rolls Royce after Rolls Royce after Rolls Royce 95 Rolls Royces by the time he left Oregon 95 Rolls Royces now you know what sorry that's a manipulative manipulative abuser isn't it he makes a grandiose claim about himself he does mumbo jumbo tells them to do all this sort of abusive stuff to themselves and to others all the while just give me the money give me give me give me give me give me give me and give me give me give me and he gets to live in a nice house and have all these Rolls

[29:13] Royces and give me give me give me give me it's a manipulative abuser right that's what we call it an abuser so if Jesus makes a claim that I and God are of the same substance we I God is I am perfectly God and says that with a straight face and if he believes it and it's not true he's insane if he knows it's not true and he says it he only can be doing it to manipulate and to abuse but here's the thing I challenge you to read the four biographies of Jesus and what you see is that he never abuses anyone far from it his entire life is self-giving he heals he takes no payment and when it comes time for him to die he has no place to lay his head virtually no possessions of any value except one simple thing and nothing in his life is abusive he is abused but does not abuse so the way the average

[30:17] Canadian thinks about Jesus you have to choose what you can't tell me is that he's a good man and what you can't tell me is that he was kind and what you can't tell me is that you wish that more Christians were like him because he's just so loving and kind no you listen to him he's either insane or a manipulative abuser or he's God or he's God now some of you might say whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa George I'm going to go with confused there's a third category because doesn't he just say everybody's God doesn't he say everybody's God well let's look read verse 30 again I and the father are one I and the father are one the Jewish leaders verse 31 picked up stones again to stone him and Jesus answered them I have shown you many good works in other words I've done at least these six miracles from the father for which of these miracles are you going to stone me the

[31:23] Jewish leaders answered in verse 33 it is not for a good work in other words it's not for your miracles who are going to stone you but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God Jesus answered them here's the troublesome bit is it not written in your law in other words in this particular case it means the Bible because sometimes what we now would call the Old Testament where our Jewish friends would call the Tanakh is it not written in the Tanakh I said you were gods if God 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 am not doing the works of my father in other words miracles then do not believe miracles even though you do not believe me believe the works believe the miracles follow the miracles that you may know and understand that the father is in me and

[32:30] I am in the father so what's going on here what's going on here is very simply it's an argument from lesser to greater it's an argument from lesser to greater it would be as if I said if you see a couple and the husband and the wife really love each other and it just looks like a really wonderful relationship if you can see how Bob loves Sally and Sally loves Bob imagine how much God loves you if you if you've met somebody and if you've met Sally and she's just been so kind and poured her life into you the lesser just imagine how much God whom you can't see loves you and has poured out his life for you it's an argument from the lesser to the greater look where he quotes it from if you have your Bibles turn to Psalm 82 because he's quoting Psalm 82 Psalm chapter 82 that's where

[33:31] Jesus is quoting from and he quotes them using an argument from the lesser to the greater and here's the lesser it's sort of an ironic psalm that's warning of judgment and it goes like this God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods he holds judgment and here is we're going to see gods on one level could it first just be taken to mean the idols of the nations all around them he's sitting amongst the idols and it also means because in the ancient world many people thought they were like God and it can also just mean in our day and age as we're going to see in a moment people who think they're God in terms of they act like God your boss that abuses you the high school teacher that just was completely and utterly insufferable with you maybe a dad or a mom who were just terrible to you when you were growing up so the psalm goes like this God has taken his place in the divine council in the midst of the gods he holds judgment and then what does he say to them how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked first he calls them gods then he says how come you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked and then he says to maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute rescue the weak and the needy deliver them from the hand of the wicked they have neither knowledge nor understanding they walk about in darkness all the foundations of the earth are shaking now he's talking about these people who act as if they're gods and he says you have no knowledge they're oppressing showing no kindness they're just oppressing doing everything wrong and evil in other words he's saying they're not gods right and it gets even clearer verse six which is the verse that

[35:23] Jesus actually quotes I said you are gods sons of the most high all of you nevertheless like men you shall die and fall like any prince arise so God judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations so here's what's going on in the argument you can see very clearly they're not gods you can see very clearly they're mortal they're all going to die and he's referring to whether he's referring to human beings at least in part of this very clearly and he says very clearly you're going to die you do wrong you're not God but he calls them like God why because in a very real sense human beings who are in positions of I'll use myself so it doesn't sound like I'm just talking about other people sometimes I have to discipline people I hate it I'm sleepless for a week and I'm sleepless for a week afterwards but sometimes you have to discipline people sometimes you know there's been times in this church there's been accusations that when people have been sharing the piece a guy will hug a girl and they hug them a little bit too long and not the right way and

[36:35] I have to have a word with him and I am sleepless or there's been some accusations about maybe there's a person not quite hanging around children the way they should be or a person causing slander or trouble or a staff person who's just not acting right this is years ago not now and I've had to discipline them in a sense I'm acting like God aren't I I'm judging them so here's what Jesus is saying if a mere human being sometimes acts like God and the Bible says you're acting like God that's the lesser thing well what about me one moment I just made just a year ago I made matter out of nothing I turned water into wine I created an optic nerve in a man's head by my will and if the

[37:37] Bible can talk on one hand how a human being is like a God why is it wrong for me God the Son of God sent by the Father into the world to say that I am God and he says the scripture cannot be broken what he's really saying here is he's challenged them to understand the argument from lesser to greater but he's also telling us and this is why it's really important this is very practical for those of us who are Christians Jesus says one phrase in scripture properly understood and used right one phrase just one properly understood and used is enough to hang a whole doctrine on it's strong enough to support the greatest and deepest truth Andrew could you put up the first point please as

[38:37] Jesus trusted the Bible so will I as Jesus trusted the Bible so will I the wording is partially influenced by Hillsong United song that I like called so will I but you know if Jesus has such a view of the Bible so will I so should you now here's the thing just to try to wrap up the whole sermon look again at verse look again at the thing that they say to Jesus in verse 33 they're going to stone him and Jesus answered them it is not for and the Jewish leaders say in verse 33 it's not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God now you see they completely and utterly because they refuse to understand the miracles they've completely misunderstood the whole problem in fact they asked the wrong question because what the right question should be what on earth are you doing here what on earth you are

[39:43] God the son of God like what on earth are you doing here why on earth would you make yourself mad like look at the disease look at the dirt look at the weakness what on earth are you doing here I've only been bumped up to business class or first class on a plane a couple of times in my life twice it's been to Vancouver it is so nice if you folks if any of you want to start donating points so every time I fly I can go into first class I will accept it no just don't give it to me after I've said that don't give it to me I don't want it but here's the thing I'm a very hard hearted man I got up one of you folks gives me points I'm in business class all the way to

[40:43] Vancouver five and a half hours nice wide chair leg room good food drinks whoa and then somebody as they're going through said by the way I have the last seat in the plane you know the one right by the bathrooms where the seat doesn't go back would you trade with me because you're a pastor trying to think of how it is that they know that I'm a pastor and I'm not going to give up my seat for them but I won't and that's just from business class to a seat on a plane the right thing for them to say to Jesus is what on earth are you doing here what on earth are you doing here if you could put up the final point here's the thing there is no pit that we are in that

[41:44] Jesus hasn't gone lower to come from beneath you and lift you up are you a failure he has gone lower are you despondent he has gone lower are you sick he has gone lower are you depressed he has gone lower are you fearful he has gone lower he left heaven above and all the glory the splendor and remaining fully God took into himself our human nature perfectly and lived amongst us he was a cell attached to his mother's womb how low but even lower he ends up on a cross he ends up naked whipped abandoned publicly ashamed publicly humiliated biblically speaking completely and utterly cursed obviously a complete and utter failure all of the people who had conspired against him had beaten him he is dying up there and then he descends into death and he explains that he descends into death bearing my sin in yours my curse in yours my shame in yours my failure in yours my death in yours my sin in yours he bears it all and goes right down to the depths of death there is no pit so low that he has not gone lower to pick you up and we can see it so beautifully expressed in verse 26 and 27 27 and 28 which is the memory verse for this week look at it again my sheep hear my voice and

[43:12] 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 I give them eternal life and they will never perish into doom that you may not perish he descended to hostile powers that you may never be in their clutches a savior and lord he calls you by name to follow him day by day and to receive the privileges he bestows in verse 28 verse 28 when it says I give them eternal life that's the present tense if you hear the voice of Jesus and you say Jesus be my savior and lord your present possession is eternal life your present possession is eternal life the world might think you're ugly the world might think you're a failure the world might think you are poor the world might think you are of no use the world might think you are completely and utterly unimportant but if you put your hand in the hand of

[44:20] Jesus if you hear his voice and respond to him he descended into death that you may receive eternal life he descended into doom that you may not perish he descended to hostile powers why does he have to descend to hostile powers because no matter how whether they're individuals or institutions whether it is the media or the university whether it is the UN or the power of the United States or China or Russia or Iran or Saudi Arabia they are so low high they can't do anything against him he has to descend they might think they're getting at God or doing something no no the hostile powers they can consume and clutch and grab and belittle and diminish us and Jesus descends he descended to hostile powers that you may not be in their clutches and as savior and lord he calls you by name to walk with you day by day as you follow him to walk with him day by day and to receive the privileges he bestows to receive eternal life to receive that you will never perish to receive that no one will snatch you out of his hand please stand friend friend friend i just want to encourage you if you are here this morning and you have been sort of on a bit of a journey or maybe just low call out to

[46:06] Jesus he will not say no to you he will take you he will wrap his arms around you he will take you as his own he will make you his sheep and he will walk with you day by none of you is so much nobody here is so much of a failure we're so depressed we're so broken that he will not take you and no one here is so wise and powerful and full of himself or herself that you do not need Jesus no one so I just urge you as I pray this closing prayer just to call out call out to Jesus and say Jesus be my savior and my lord Jesus be my savior and my lord I turn to you take me just Jesus be my savior and my lord let's pray father I confess before you we confess before you that sometime you feel so distant but we confess before you that you are never distant father you never are distant we thank you

[47:11] Jesus that there is no pit so low that you did not go lower still to pick us up from underneath and raise us up that you came down to raise us up father we give you thanks and praise for Jesus we can't give you thanks and praise that he came to descend to raise us up to make us yours forever father make us disciples of Jesus who are gripped by this good news of your power working in us to give us eternal life and that protection and no perishing father we thank you for the good news of what Jesus has done a news that comes with power grip us with the gospel grip us with this story that we might live free and for your glory and the good of people and all this we ask and God's people all sing together Amen