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[0:00] All right, please turn with me to John chapter 12, and we're reading from verses 1 to 11.

[0:13] Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there.

[0:25] Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair.

[0:40] The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

[0:58] He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

[1:11] Jesus said, Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.

[1:25] When the large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

[1:37] So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.

[1:48] Good morning, everyone. My name's Matt, if I haven't met you before. I am the start of a short series of talks on John that Dave talked a little bit about before, where a couple of us are going through John chapters 12 and 13.

[2:10] So I'm doing the first one. I think next week is Marty Thompson. Yep, that sounds right to me. Then Gareth Jenkins and Dave Bott are doing talks following that.

[2:21] There's also a couple of people who are doing the same series of talks, but in youth groups. So Liz Cameron, actually on Friday, did the same passage that I'm doing today. And so I said to her, if she hears anything in this talk that was in hers, it's a pure coincidence.

[2:36] Then Brie Thompson, Ben McMurray and Beck Matthias are also going to be doing those. So yeah, pray for me, pray for them.

[2:47] Yeah, just that we'd be able to communicate the gospel effectively. But throughout these few weeks, we really should be seeing the same kind of question coming through. And that is the question of, what do you make of Jesus and who he is?

[3:02] You see, John asks this question over and over again through his gospel. And he does it by setting out this huge claim at the start. Dave read a little bit for us.

[3:12] He sets out this huge claim and then throughout the rest of the book, proceeds to show us how people respond to Jesus. And challenges us to show us how we should be responding based on how other people react.

[3:25] And John, really handily for me, also tells us why he wrote the book of John. And it follows this kind of claim and then reaction model that we see.

[3:37] So if you look in John chapter 20, verse 30 to 31, he flips it around here. So he says how he wants us to react and then says what the claim is that we're reacting to. But that's the same type of thing.

[3:48] So verse 30. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written. Okay, here's the reaction he wants.

[4:00] So that you may believe. That's the reaction. And then this is the claim. That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name.

[4:12] Can you see that? He goes, here's the claim. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Do you believe that? And so for us, when we're reading through John, we should be thinking through this as well.

[4:24] What do I think about this claim? When he says that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Well, what do I believe? But it's also something that we should probably just think a little bit about as well.

[4:36] What does that claim mean? Especially the bit that says the Christ. If you have been a Christian for any period of time, you would have heard the Christ a thousand times. But we can sometimes forget what it means.

[4:47] So the Christ essentially means God's chosen one. So throughout the Old Testament, it's prophesied that a chosen one would come and that he would save Israel from their sins.

[4:58] And that's what the Christ means is the chosen one. Messiah as well is another similar name. But it's basically John saying this is that guy that throughout the whole Old Testament has been prophesied.

[5:10] This is the Messiah. This is the Christ, the Son of God. And then John says to us, what do you think about that? And that's what we're going to be talking about today.

[5:23] So let's pray and then we'll crack on with the rest of it. Dear God, thank you that we can come here today, that we can open up your word and hear from John and hear about Jesus that you sent to save us.

[5:41] Please pray that we would be open to what you want to tell us today. Yeah, and just give me the words to speak as well. Amen. So passage that we're doing today is John 12, 1 to 11.

[5:56] Gareth read it before. Something that's really cool about this passage is it really is a bit of a microcosm of the rest of the book of John. And it has these amazing contrasts in the way that people respond to Jesus and his claim of being the Christ, the Son of God.

[6:10] So there's three that we're going to look at. There's actually four in the passage, but we're going to look at three. The first one is, how does Mary respond to this, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?

[6:21] The second is, how does Judas and the disciples respond? The third is, how do the chief priests respond to this? If you're wondering, because I'd be going, what's the fourth one?

[6:34] The Jews also respond, but we're not going to talk about that too much. So let's start with the reaction of Mary. So if you've got your Bibles open, John 12, verse 1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

[6:54] So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. I wasn't going to say this. It's just really weird that they write at table.

[7:07] Like, why not at the table? Anyway, I don't know. Bible. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair.

[7:19] The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. So if you can imagine this scene, it's Jesus sitting with his friends. So he's got Mary, he's got Martha there, Lazarus, he's got the disciples, possibly a couple of others.

[7:34] And they're in this place called Bethany, which is, if you look at the geography of Israel, it's only a couple of kilometres outside of Jerusalem. So they're really close to Jerusalem. And we read through, in the previous chapter, chapter 11, that Lazarus has just been raised from the dead, which is crazy.

[7:51] So if you look in John 11, 33, we can see that Mary in particular, of course, because it's her brother, is really upset by the fact that he's died, of course.

[8:02] So when Jesus saw her, being Mary, weeping, et cetera, et cetera, so we can see she's just really upset. And Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

[8:13] And so Mary is overwhelmed by gratitude, as you would be. Now, she's so excited and so thankful to Jesus that he did this. And it's possible that this meal is a kind of thank you dinner.

[8:25] As weird as that is, it's kind of like, how do you say thank you to someone for raising your brother from the dead? I'll give them a meal, I guess, I don't know. But that's what they're doing. They're having a meal. And this is about a week before Jesus dies on the cross.

[8:38] And they're sitting there around the table. Mary goes away. And she comes back with about half a kilo of this really expensive perfume and pours it all over Jesus' feet.

[8:49] And then starts wiping it with her hair. Now, if there's ever a part of the Bible that needs a cultural translation, it is this one. Because if this was me and you came up and did this to me, I'd probably be annoyed.

[9:04] Like, I know that my feet aren't great. But, like, I do wash sometimes. I don't need this perfume. And, like, it's oily.

[9:15] Like, now you've just got it all over the floor. Oh, it's going to, you know, like I need detergent to wash this up. And it's kind of like when someone offers you a mint or a piece of gum. And you're like, thanks.

[9:27] Are you trying to say something about my breath? It's kind of got that kind of vibe. And, you know, the smell's so strong. It's like, man, it's going to be in my house. I'm going to be walking down the street.

[9:37] And people will be like, oh, what's that? What's going on? It's like, now, just use a towel. Like, why your hair? Like, we have towels in the bathroom. Just this is real weird.

[9:48] And so for us today, that's kind of how I think about it. I'm like, man, this is a bit of a weird act. But for them in the day, it is extremely symbolic. In fact, Rob last week mentioned a bit about this in his talk.

[10:01] And so what they would do is if you had a guest that you wanted to honour, you would get some oil and you'd dab it on their head. And being the Middle East and quite dry, they can rub it on their face and in their hair. But it's a way of being able to honour your guests.

[10:14] And so you don't do this when your dad comes home. It's not like every time he comes home, you're like dabbing with a bit of oil. It's only for people that you really want to honour. And so it's just a bit weird.

[10:27] Like, Mary doesn't even do that. She doesn't even give them a little bit of a dab on their head. She goes to town. Like, if you... When I started using cologne when I was about, like, in year 10 or something like that, the thing was less is more with cologne.

[10:40] And Mary just does not get this at all. She just pours the whole half a kilo on Jesus' feet. And it's not like your Taylor Swift or David Beckham from Priceline. It's pure nard oil.

[10:52] So if you don't know much about this, basically it's a perfume that comes from the Himalayan region. So think India, China, Nepal. And what they do is you can only get this at about 3,000 metres and above, and you can only harvest the plant for about two weeks of the year.

[11:10] So already we're getting to quite a specific period of when you can do this type of thing. They then crush it down. They process it. And then from there, that has to get all the way to where Mary is in Bethany.

[11:23] Now, today, if you made that journey straight, without stopping, you took a direct route, you walked 12 hours a day, this would take you four months. Now, even today, this is a dangerous journey.

[11:36] You're going through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria. I mean, yeah, probably more dangerous even than back then. But it's a long way. And so this stuff is really, really expensive.

[11:48] In fact, if you even bought this today, you'd be looking at about $6,500 for the amount that Mary puts on Jesus' feet. And that's with, like, current processing in cars and planes, etc.

[12:01] But back then, this is worth about a year's worth of wages. So imagine everything you are going to earn this year, everything that you're going to spend, put it into that bottle, and then it's gone when Mary pours this on Jesus' feet.

[12:15] And so when we read this, we actually should be a bit shocked. Like, when Judas and the disciples react with shock, well, it's because it's a crazy act.

[12:28] You know, that could have bought so many things. That could have done so many great things. But the question that we're asking is, well, why? Why did Mary do this?

[12:40] And the answer is, it's because Mary recognises who Jesus is. You see, Jesus brought her brother back from the dead, and that's amazing. But Mary also recognises that Jesus is about to die for her.

[12:59] Mary knows, because Jesus has been telling them consistently up until this point that he's going to die, that he's come to save the world from their sin. And there's actually multiple references of this, of Jesus telling them throughout the Gospels.

[13:11] So there's not particularly that many in John, but through the other three, there's multiple references. And a good example is in Matthew 20. And he actually tells them this as they're going to Jerusalem, where they are now.

[13:24] So he says this just before they get to where they are now, sitting at the table. So Matthew 20. And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the 12 disciples aside.

[13:36] And on the way he said to them, see, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man, which is Jesus, will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified.

[13:53] And he will be raised on the third day. You see, Mary recognises what this means. She recognises that Jesus is going to suffer a horrific death so that she can be saved.

[14:11] You see, this act of Mary, she does it because she is so thankful because of what Jesus is giving her. And so she anoints his feet and prepares him for death, the death that he suffers for us.

[14:27] Mary looks at Jesus and just sees the most amazing, beautiful Son of God who is giving everything he has for her. And so Mary has reacted to the claim of John's book, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

[14:44] Mary recognises that this Jesus is the one that they have been looking for, who has been prophesied throughout history, to save the world from its rebellion. Mary believes that, and so she gives everything she has to show her thankfulness.

[15:01] And I think I see that same reaction in our church. I think I look around, and I can see so many of you who have accepted this news, who believe that Jesus is the Christ, who see the amazing gift that God has given us.

[15:19] I can see how you guys do so many things, not because you want to gain his favour, not because you're trying to earn his love, but as a right reaction to who Jesus is.

[15:31] The way that you serve one another, look out for one another, give what you have, even teaching your kids about Jesus, even when they're throwing tantrums and you're kind of like, man, this is really hard.

[15:42] It's two hours past their bedtime, and you're teaching them anyway. How awesome is it that we can come here and join together to worship God? That is just so amazing.

[15:58] It is so amazing to be around people who know how much they owe God, but because of what Jesus did for us, we don't owe him anything. We have our AGM next week.

[16:14] Isn't it amazing that we could bring DaveBot on full time and no one had to be guilted or manipulated into giving more money? All because you, like Mary, recognise Jesus and who he is.

[16:29] It is so encouraging to come to a church that responds to this message. We 100% take it for granted.

[16:41] It is so encouraging. The first time I actually practised this, I was like crying throughout the whole thing and I'm like, far out. This is just a dang practice. I was just so hit by how amazing it is to have an amazing church.

[16:54] And look, I have been at this church for a while. I know there are things that are difficult. I know that sometimes, you know, it can be hard to turn up on a Sunday morning.

[17:06] I know there's people that, you know, relationships are hard. I know that music isn't always what I want it to be and that's usually when I'm on music. So I know I'm part of the problem.

[17:16] There's so many things that I can see and look at this church and say, man, I wish this was better. But how amazing is it that we have a church that has responded to this message, who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

[17:35] But Mary is just one of the reactions in this story because we also learn about how Judas reacts in this situation. So if you open up to, well, you already have it open, John 12, verse 4.

[17:50] But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

[18:01] He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. We actually have this same story recorded in Matthew 26.

[18:16] It says, and when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor. So here we're talking about Judas, we may be talking about the disciples as well, but they take a great offence to what Mary has done.

[18:33] They see what Mary does for Jesus and they just don't understand. Like, we could have done a lot with this money. This could have fed a lot of people. And we have the benefit of hindsight here and the benefit of a narrator because they tell us what Judas is thinking in this passage.

[18:49] We can see that, you know, Judas is out for himself, that he doesn't, he's not really thinking of the poor, he just wants to steal the money. But you know what, if you were sitting at that table, there's a good chance this would have looked entirely godly.

[19:03] Like, Judas is saying, we could have fed so many people for this and you've just poured it onto the floor. Like, now it's annoying, we're just going to have to wipe this up. Like, Jesus' feet smell good, but that'll last for, what, a couple of days maybe?

[19:17] Like, you know, think about $70,000. Well, if we put that into a term investment, 5%, 30 years, we're talking $300,000 here and you've just thrown that down the drain.

[19:29] You know, at least you could have just used the dab. Like, you know, still honour him, just dab like we normally would. Everyone accepts that and then keep the rest. Like, it's ridiculous. Why did you do that? And Jesus sees through Judas.

[19:43] He sees his selfish motivations and loves what Mary has done. So, verse 7, Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial.

[19:55] For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. You see, Jesus doesn't say, oh, Mary, just chill out. It's fine. Like, don't make a fuss.

[20:06] Like, you know, I'm the son of God, but just chill. You can keep that for yourself. Save it for retirement or something like that. Jesus doesn't say that at all. He says, I have given everything to you.

[20:16] Follow me and give me your life. And Mary does this. She reacts and recognises who Jesus is. That he's about to die.

[20:26] He's about to give this huge sacrifice for her and she's so thankful. But Judas and the disciples, they do not get it. You see, they don't understand.

[20:37] They don't get the claim of Jesus' book that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. They don't see that and so they react really strongly against Mary and what she does for Jesus. I have a friend who I grew up with in school.

[20:52] I've known him since about year six. And when we met in year six, he was not a Christian. He hated Christians. He hated the fact that I was a Christian. He believed in Jesus, which is a bit weird in our society today, but didn't believe the claim and he thought it was just totally stupid.

[21:08] Like, why are you, this is just wacky. Anyway, he became a Christian in year 10. He's like Paul, really. He became a Christian in year 10. And ever since then, he is one of these people who you would just say is on fire for God.

[21:22] It is crazy. He goes around, he spends his days evangelizing. He tells everyone he meets about Jesus. All he wants to do when he catches up is talk about what he's thinking about, what he's been reading, what he's been praying about.

[21:35] He's translated books of the Bible into other languages so that people can read them. Like, we're talking next level. But the thing that is so cool about him is his passion. He's just so passionate to talk about Jesus.

[21:48] He's always telling me how he's trying to convince this person and that person and what this person said about Jesus and how he thought, you know, how he could respond to that next time. And if you're like Mary, you're looking at my friend and just praising God.

[22:02] Like, he is just so encouraging. He's so awesome that God uses him. And I often find myself thinking that. Like, I'm just blown away by his passion. But I often find myself thinking like Judas as well.

[22:20] Because there are too many times for me to be comfortable with when I have been uncomfortable at the idea of seeing him. Because people like Mary expose people like Judas.

[22:38] I mean, that's what makes this story so powerful is you have the example of Mary who's doing this amazing act and then you have Judas who's just being horrifically insensitive. But Mary exposes Judas by confronting him with what he's holding back from God.

[22:55] How selfish he is. She exposes Judas and the disciples and shows that they don't really understand the claim of John's book. They don't understand that he's the Christ, the Son of God. At least in the case of the disciples, not yet.

[23:07] And see, Mary does this huge act of sacrifice for Jesus and we're challenged to do the same thing. We're challenged to respond to Jesus in this way.

[23:19] But I see Mary and I just go, the sacrifice is so big. Like, giving up a tire year's wages, that's insane. See, what my friend has done out of love and devotion for God, it should challenge me and excite me and make me really excited for what God is doing in this world.

[23:39] But the Judas heart in me just becomes dismissive. Like, when I see how much Jesus has given us and what Mary does, it's like, yes, like, but my friend, you know, he's the extreme.

[23:54] I mean, good for him. I can be like that too if I want to be. Like, I can do that, you know, be like that and, but in the long term, like, I don't know, if you've been in ministry for a while, it's pretty hard to get a job after you're done.

[24:08] You know, if you've been there for 20 years, well, you're pretty unemployable. He's going to have to come back at some point. What if he has kids? Is he going to want them to be, you know, taught there? I don't know. Like, maybe he should think about his retirement.

[24:22] Like, is he going to have to rely on family? Is he going to have to rely on friends? I don't know. Like, he's not going to have super. It's going to be a bit of a burden. So really, maybe he should become a bit more like me.

[24:35] Like, just think about it at least. And you know, I have a lot of other things like commitments. I've got a family. So really, what I'm doing is understandable. In fact, I'm probably the responsible one here and not him.

[24:49] And the Mary in him makes the Judas in me scoff. And I know here, at this point, I am not talking to the whole congregation.

[25:01] Like, my wife Alyssa is an absolute Mary and I find I do the same thing with her. She'll challenge me on something. She'll shine the light on something that I'm holding back from God. And how do I respond?

[25:14] I'm so thankful that you brought this to my attention, Alyssa. I will take this away. I'll think about it. I'll pray about it. You've just really convicted me and I'm going to make sure that I do something about this.

[25:28] In fact, maybe in a week's time, can you follow me up and just make sure that I have thought about this properly and I'm committed to change? Of course not.

[25:41] I go, how dare you? You know nothing. I am the one looking after the poor here and you just want to throw it away. If only you understood long-term returns and interest gains.

[25:55] I am just keeping this now so that later on I can use this and I'll have more to give. So really, I am the one who is doing the right thing here and you can just learn from me.

[26:11] That is what I'm like. But if I'm completely honest and I can push away that dismissiveness, I know that the real reason is because I want to keep it for myself.

[26:24] I just don't want to give it to Jesus. I want to be able to use it and I want to be able to do with it what I want to do because I don't yet properly understand in that moment who Jesus is, that he is the Christ, the Son of God.

[26:43] You see, Mary loves Jesus. She has given everything for the chosen one, the Son of God and in doing so exposes Judas and the disciples and how much they want to keep for themselves.

[27:00] And of course here, I'm not talking about money. I'm not talking about the amount of time that you give up. I'm not talking about the sacrifices that you've made. I'm talking about your heart because everything else is just an outworking of that.

[27:16] What is your heart like? Is it committed to Jesus? Is it wanting to serve him with your whole life? Dave pointed out in that song, I give my whole life to honour this love because Jesus doesn't care about how much of my paycheck I give away.

[27:38] He doesn't care that I am here every Friday at youth group. He doesn't care that I'm on the music team. Jesus cares about my heart because the only right reaction we can have when we see Jesus, this son of God who has been sent to die for us, face a horrific death, take the wrath of God, is to look at him and just want to give our whole life to him.

[28:08] Does Mary make the Judas in you scoff? It's not a question I can answer for you. If you can try and push away the dismissiveness that I get when I am confronted with something like this and allow it to confront your heart.

[28:25] I'm not asking you to give up all of your possessions and make sure that you go to another country and evangelise people and live like someone on locusts and honey. I'm not asking for that.

[28:36] I'm asking you to give your heart to Jesus. Now for the third reaction, that of the chief priests.

[28:53] So if you look at verse 9, when the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.

[29:06] So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. We see here the large crowd have come and they've come to see Jesus, but they've also come to see Lazarus.

[29:22] And it's kind of like, fair enough, this guy was dead and now he's alive. That's amazing. Even in today's society, if someone raised from the dead, you'd want to see them. It's a pretty cool thing. And the Jews are going away, they're seeing this, they're seeing Jesus, seeing that he's raised Lazarus, and they're believing in Jesus.

[29:39] And so, we then see what the chief priests do. Something that's important to point out here is it's likely that a lot of these chief priests were from a sect of Judaism called the Sadducees.

[29:50] And basically the main difference between them and the other Jews is that they didn't believe in the resurrection. So they didn't believe in people coming back from the dead. And so you have this belief that well, death doesn't exist.

[30:02] People don't raise from the dead. And then you've got Lazarus, who has literally been raised from the dead. And they're looking at him and they're like, and you'd think at this point they should go, wow, we were wrong.

[30:16] You know what? We didn't believe in it, but here's the evidence. He's literally raised from the dead. Therefore, our belief must be wrong. But of course they don't. They say, okay, Lazarus has been raised from the dead.

[30:29] There is no resurrection from the dead. So we'll kill Lazarus. So that he's then dead and there's no resurrection from the dead. Isn't that amazing? In the face of this overwhelming evidence, this isn't the first sign that they've seen.

[30:43] They've seen other signs from Jesus. This is just one in an escalating series of signs. In the face of that, they just say, no, I don't believe that, and they stick their heads in the sand.

[30:56] It's like this story of a Japanese soldier, and you might have heard this story before, and I'm going to butcher his name. So if you have Japanese heritage or you speak Japanese, I'm sorry in advance. I think it's Hiro Onada.

[31:10] I've said it wrong, but whatever. He basically was a Japanese soldier who fought in World War II, and he was fighting in the Philippines. 1945, the end of the war comes around, and Japan surrender.

[31:24] Now, if you know anything about Japanese culture, soldiers did never conceive of the idea that Japan could surrender. It was impossible. Japan surrendering was just not something that was ever going to happen.

[31:38] 1945, and Japan surrenders. And so Hiro and his friends, they decide, well, this can't be right, so they go into the jungle and they're conducting guerrilla warfare as they've been taught, and lighting farms on fire and stealing food and stuff like that.

[31:55] And they get this flyer that is dropped from planes, and basically what it's doing is telling the Japanese soldiers, just so you know, this war is over, there's no point in fighting anymore, we've surrendered, here's what you need to do, et cetera, et cetera.

[32:08] Him and his friends look at this and they go, can't be right, Japan never surrenders. So what do they do? They keep on fighting. A year later, another flyer is dropped, and it's from their commander, who's basically saying the same thing, you know, we're done, Japan's surrendered, and they look at it and they go, can't be right, can't be right, Japan doesn't surrender.

[32:29] And so they keep fighting, keep, you know, they shoot a couple of people and cause havoc here and there. Seven years after the war has ended, letters are written by their family, with their family photos, showing their, you know, families a little bit older than what they were.

[32:47] They see these letters written in their family's own hand and ignore it, because Japan doesn't surrender. later, 29 years later, after the end of the war, a Japanese man, by the time this happens, they're kind of like folklore legends, because everyone knows that they're there, but they can't find them in the jungle.

[33:11] A Japanese man finds Hiro, all of his friends have died long ago by this point, so he's by himself, says to him, look, this war has been over for so long. He shows him all the evidence, shows him everything, and what does Hiro do?

[33:27] Japan does not surrender, and he ignores him. Eventually, the Japanese government has to find his old commanding officer, fly him to the Philippines to convince him that the war is over before he finally gives up.

[33:49] And you feel like it's a bit like that with the chief priests. They see these escalating signs that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. They see Lazarus raised from the dead, and they just stick their heads in the sand.

[34:06] But what about us? If you aren't a Christian here today, then you have an important message to respond to here. Is Jesus the Christ?

[34:17] Is he the Son of God? Did he, was he sent by God to save the world from our rebellion against him? Because if so, you need to listen to him, and you need to take him seriously.

[34:35] The evidence for Jesus is overwhelming. Don't ignore him. Don't be like the chief priests who just doubled down on their rejection of Jesus. or like the Japanese soldier who just would not believe after repeated evidence, after repeated evidence.

[34:54] Don't be like the chief priests or hero where eventually you'll get to the point where the only way you will believe is when you're facing God on the last day and he makes you bow the knee to him. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and he will save the world from our rebellion against God?

[35:15] Like Mary, do you see who Jesus is? Do you see the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made for us so that we wouldn't be cut off for the rest of time from God?

[35:30] Unwilling or unable because of our stupid selfish hearts to turn back to him. Respond to Jesus with thankfulness, with love because without his love for us we would have nothing.

[35:45] So how do you respond to Jesus? How do you respond to the message of John that Jesus is the Christ, the chosen one, the Messiah, the Son of God?

[36:00] Do you believe the claim and respond to Jesus in the only right way, just as Mary? By giving your all to Jesus, by giving your heart to Jesus? Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

[36:18] What do you say to that? What do you say to that? what?

[36:31]  The outcome of God is a God. What do you say to him that he is so strong? And that he is that one below you and belief that he is the maybe he that he says the Senhor pierwszy then you call me you or