If you have your Bible with you, feel free to open it up to John chapter 14.
John chapter 14.
The words will be on the screen so you can follow along there as well.
We're continuing the story of Jesus.
He's in the upper room with his disciples on the evening of his betrayal.
And he's giving his last words of comfort and encouragement and instruction to his friends, his followers.
He's told them that he's going away, but he's given them assurance that he's coming back.
And that when he does, they will be with him forever.
He told them that he is the way to the Father and the truth and the life.
And last Sunday, we heard Philip, one of the disciples, express his own heartfelt desire.
He said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father.
And that will be enough for us.
Would you give us the chance to see God?
And we heard Jesus say, if you've seen me, you have seen the Father.
I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
Believe me, said Jesus.
We ended off on verse 11.
Jesus is talking here.
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
Or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
You know, it may be a struggle, don't you think, for these men sitting around the table with Jesus
to accept what Jesus has been saying.
If you have seen me, you have seen the Father?
God?
What do the men around the table see when they look at Jesus?
Well, their basic human senses tell them that Jesus is a human being, just like us.
He's got skin and bones and flesh.
Eyes, mouth, ears.
He sleeps.
He eats.
He walks.
He talks.
Just like we do.
It's obvious to them that Jesus was truly human.
And so I imagine it would have been quite something for them to hear Jesus say this.
If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.
I am in him.
He is in me.
This goes beyond all the categories that the disciples would have had in their minds.
They knew about Moses, the man who saw God up on the mountain.
They knew about Samson, the man in whom God's spirit worked so powerfully that he had supernatural strength.
They knew about Samuel, the man who heard God's voice and spoke the very words of God.
They knew about Solomon, the man whose wisdom came from God's spirit.
But this, what Jesus is claiming here, goes beyond all of that.
Jesus, the man, claims to be one with God, the Father.
He claims to be a living, breathing, flesh and bones, human being, manifestation of God.
Is this not a tough pill to swallow?
Would doubts not be rising in your mind if you heard him say these things there in the room?
Does God expect you to just take Jesus' word for it?
What if somebody else was to come along and claim the same thing for himself?
Should we believe just anyone who makes these kinds of claims?
No.
God has provided evidence.
He's given us things that can be seen to verify, to authenticate the things which are unseen about Jesus' true nature.
And so Jesus says, believe me when I say that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me.
But if not, or at least, believe because of the works themselves.
Believe because of the works themselves.
What is Jesus saying here?
He's saying, if my words are too difficult for you to accept on their own,
think back to all the works that I have done, which you have witnessed.
What is Jesus talking about?
He's talking about his miracles.
And it kind of makes sense, doesn't it?
I mean, the things Jesus is calling them to believe,
these are pretty lofty things.
That God is in him, that he is in God.
He's asking them to believe that when he opens his mouth,
it's really God's words that are coming out.
What could prove that this is true?
Well, if Jesus can do things that only God can do,
well, that's a good proof.
That would be solid evidence, wouldn't it?
And so he's asking the disciples,
think back over all the works that I've been doing.
What works have we seen Jesus do in this gospel so far?
Well, back at the beginning,
we saw him turn six large stone jars worth of water
into the best, the finest of wines at the wedding in Cana.
We heard about the many signs that Jesus performed in Jerusalem
after that at the Passover festival,
signs which the likes of Nicodemus and his colleagues could scarcely deny.
We've seen Jesus knowing things about people
that he's never met before,
like Nathaniel and the Samaritan woman at the well.
She even acknowledged that somehow he had knowledge from God.
Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
We saw Jesus heal a certain royal official's son from miles away
while he was in a totally different town.
We watched as Jesus healed a man who had been paralyzed
and unable to walk for 38 years.
Jesus, and in an instant, he got up and walked.
We heard about how a great crowd began to follow Jesus
all through the Galilean territory
because, John says,
they saw the signs that he had performed
and how he was healing sick people again and again, repeatedly.
We watched as Jesus miraculously multiplied five loaves of bread and two fish
into enough food to feed a whole multitude out in the middle of nowhere.
We saw Jesus walk across the water of the Sea of Galilee
in the middle of the storm
and then get into the boat where the disciples were rowing.
We heard about how Jesus gave sight
to a man who had never seen before in his life,
who was born blind.
And then finally we saw how Jesus raised Lazarus back to life from the dead,
a man who had already been dead for four days.
And these are just the works that Jesus did that John has in his gospel.
I mean, we aren't even getting into the ones in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
These are amazing things.
These are things that only God can do.
It's only the power and working of God that can explain these things.
Now you might be sitting there and thinking,
well, how do we know that these testimonies in the Bible are accurate?
Well, first of all, I would encourage you to read them for yourself.
See if they bear the marks of authenticity.
There's a man named J. Warner Wallace.
He's a famous and very successful cold case detective.
His job for years has been to pour over the testimonies
and the evidence that's been left behind from unsolved homicide cases.
Having done so for many years, he's been very successful.
He's come to solve many of them.
He's come to see quite clearly what are the marks of authenticity
in people's testimonies, in their statements that they gave.
Even many years after the events took place.
I'm not going to go into his whole story.
If you're interested, you can buy and read his book.
It's called Cold Case Christianity.
But the gist of his story is that in his effort to disprove
the accounts of the New Testament about Jesus,
he applied the same rigorous discipline that he applied to all of these cold cases,
these homicide cases.
He applied that to the accounts in the New Testament
in order to disprove them.
And at the end of his analysis, he gave his life to Jesus
because he couldn't discount these testimonies.
In fact, the opposite.
They seemed to bear all the marks of authenticity
that he was so familiar with from all these other eyewitness accounts
and testimonies that he's studied over the years.
You don't even have to read his book to see that.
Let me point out just two things here in John's Gospel
that lead us that way.
Back in chapter 6,
Why was it that there was this huge crowd of thousands of people
following Jesus around, even out into the wilderness,
out into the place where nobody lives?
John says,
So it wasn't just John and his buddies,
the twelve disciples,
who saw these miracles, these works of Jesus.
There were literally thousands of witnesses
all over Israel.
who had been healed,
who had seen Jesus heal,
or who at the very least knew of someone.
They could verify,
yeah, that person,
they had this persistent disability,
disease, condition,
and after they went and saw Jesus,
they were healed.
I mean, think about this.
With thousands of witnesses
who saw the miracles that Jesus did,
if John is just making all this up,
I mean, there's no way he could get away with saying this.
I mean, probably many of these people are still alive,
even as John writes this.
They would have been willing to confirm or discredit,
give their own testimony of what really happened.
The second thing I want to point you to is the testimony of Jesus' enemies.
They would have loved to expose Jesus as a fraud,
or as a clever magician.
They would have loved to be able to show how Jesus did all these miracles.
But even by their own admission,
they could not deny the miracles of Jesus.
You'll remember when Jesus talked with Nicodemus,
Nicodemus kind of spoke on behalf of the Jewish leaders.
He said,
Rabbi,
we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.
Why?
For no one could perform the signs that you are doing
if God were not with him.
He admitted it.
Real miracles.
Real signs.
And again,
later on,
John chapter 11,
the Jewish council met together.
The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
What are we accomplishing?
They asked.
Here is this man performing many signs.
If we let him go on like this,
everyone will believe in him.
And then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.
We'll forget the bleak forecast for a moment.
Notice that even they acknowledged,
yes,
he's performing signs.
He's doing amazing things.
And they tried to discredit him.
It's not as though they didn't try.
We saw that as they grilled the man who had been blind from birth.
Do you remember that?
They conducted an official investigation.
They brought in the man's parents to confirm.
Was he indeed born blind?
They brought in people who knew the man and friends.
Was he actually blind from birth?
Yes,
yes,
yes.
They all said.
And it was plain as day in front of them that he could now see.
Who did this so that now you can see?
What happened?
Jesus did it.
He said.
So if even the opponents of Jesus had to acknowledge his miracles as genuine,
perhaps we should give a second thought to just writing off all these accounts as historical fiction.
I mean,
think about this.
5,000 plus people out in the middle of nowhere with Jesus on the other side of Galilee.
What was it that they were chewing on?
What did they have in their mouths?
Where did it come from?
They didn't even dispute with Jesus over the fact that he had made all that bread and all that fish seemingly out of nowhere.
They ate it.
No,
their argument was,
what does this sign point to?
What does it really mean?
Well,
now Jesus is telling his disciples what the signs,
the miracles,
and all the things that he's been doing mean.
They mean that the father is in him and that he is in the father.
They mean that Jesus is indeed one with the father,
the divine son.
God here among us walking in human flesh.
As crazy as it sounds,
it's true.
Believe me,
says Jesus,
because of the works that I've been doing.
Think back over those things.
Only God can do such things.
God's not going to work miracles through some shady imposter
who's just putting on a world-class act to make himself famous.
Or rich on the backs of his followers.
God's not going to work miracles through a liar,
through a deceiver.
If the miracles are happening,
and they're being undeniably witnessed by thousands,
even undeniably acknowledged by Jesus' enemies,
then God is truly at work.
And Jesus,
the man doing these things,
speaks the truth.
There's just no way around it.
We should also remember that this is not the first time
that Jesus has called the people
to believe in him because of the works that he's doing.
Remember back to John chapter 10.
This was a more public moment.
Jesus made that astonishing statement
in John chapter 10,
verse 30.
It's just above the black words there.
He said,
I and the Father are one.
Amazing.
And his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him.
But Jesus said to them,
I have shown you many good works from the Father.
For which of these do you stone me?
We're not stoning you for any good work,
they replied,
but for blasphemy,
because you,
a mere man,
claim to be God.
And a little further down,
what does Jesus say to them?
He says,
do not believe me
unless I do the works of my Father.
But if I do them,
even though you don't believe me,
believe the works
that you may know and understand
that I,
that the Father is in me
and I in the Father.
So Jesus has said this before.
Remember,
are you having a hard time
swallowing this truth
that Jesus is the God-man,
both divine and human,
truly God,
truly man,
at the same time,
one with God.
Twice Jesus has said it,
believe me,
I am.
And if you can't take my word for it,
look at the things I've been doing.
It's the testimony.
It's the evidence.
Here's where I want to go with this this morning.
This really applies in two ways.
First of all,
if you are not yet a believer in Jesus,
can I challenge you?
Can I challenge you to give
the eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life
a fair hearing?
We call them the Gospels.
It's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Four men who wrote about
what happened with Jesus.
Can I challenge you to read through
each of them once?
And I'm not going to tell you
before you do it
to just believe them.
But I will encourage you
to have an open heart
and simply to pray
and say,
God, if you're real,
if this is true,
would you make that clear to me?
Would you show me
as I read through these accounts?
Maybe you're thinking,
well, I would do that,
but
what if I find out
at the end of it all
that they are true?
Because I don't really like
to think about the change
that might be required
in my life
if it's all true.
What if I have to give up
some stuff that I really love
in order to be a follower
of Jesus?
Well, let me put your mind
at ease.
Two things.
I'll say it.
Don't worry about the change
that is required
to become a follower
of Jesus.
First of all,
if it's true,
it's true.
I mean,
you can't escape
the consequences
of the truth.
You can run from them,
but if this is all true,
you're going to have
a day of reckoning
eventually,
whether you want it
or not.
And so it's best
to acknowledge this.
It's best to have
that moment
now
rather than
later
on the final day
when you find yourself
with deep regret
and it's too late.
second,
another reason
why we don't
need to worry
about this change
that's required.
Jesus was very clear.
There is change
required in your life
if you become
a follower of his.
Absolutely there is.
He said it in a number
of different ways
and not just a little change,
not just a little adjustment,
but a big change.
But Jesus also said
that he is the one
that works
that change
in us.
we wouldn't be left
to ourselves
to bring it about,
he said.
God's power
comes to work
in us.
God gives us
his Holy Spirit
who works
in us
and he enables us
to be
and to do
what we never could
before.
More than that,
he doesn't just
enable us
to do the good things,
he actually changes
our hearts
so that we desire
the good
and the beautiful
and the right.
It's a wonderful thing
so if you do not believe,
if you have not yet
done that,
I want to challenge you
this morning
to have an open heart
and to simply pray
and ask God,
if this is all true,
if you're real
and this is all true,
would you make that clear
to me as I read
through these accounts
one by one
and then do it?
I promise you,
it'll turn your life
upside down.
But what if upside down
is really right side up?
And all this time
you've been living
upside down
all along,
maybe that's why
things aren't going
so well.
So that's my challenge
for you this morning.
If you have not yet
believed in Jesus
yet,
many of us
in this room,
of course,
we have.
We believe in Jesus.
What's there here
for us this morning?
Most of us
have already heard
all this
in past sermons
or we've heard it
from reading
our Bible.
We're already familiar
with the many miracles
that Jesus did
and we're familiar
with the fact
of who Jesus is.
So what do we do
with all this?
Well, I really do believe
there is something special
here for us
in just this one verse
for us this morning.
You know,
we all know
that God wants us
to share our faith
with others,
with people
who don't believe,
people who've never heard.
We know that
he wants us
to do that
in hopes
that they will come
to share
in our faith,
to believe,
to be saved,
to find life
in Jesus
just like we have.
We know
that's our mission.
Go and make
disciples
of all nations,
said Jesus.
That's our mission.
Of course,
to make a disciple
of Jesus
requires
first
that we tell people
about him.
I mean,
how can you begin
to follow someone
if you've never
even heard of them?
Or,
the way Paul said it
in his letter
to the church
at Rome,
he said,
everyone who
calls on the name
of the Lord
will be saved.
But how can they
believe in the one
of whom they
have not heard?
And so,
our job,
we all know,
as followers of Jesus,
is to tell people
about him.
And we all know
that.
If you're a believer,
I know that you
know that.
But sometimes
we don't do it.
We choose
to stay quiet.
And one of the
reasons we might
stay quiet
is because
we're just not
worried about,
we're worried
about not
knowing what
to say.
We imagine
ourselves having
these kinds
of conversations
with people
and I tell
them about
Jesus and I
tell them that
they need to
believe in him,
that he is the
son of God,
that he is
God.
But what if
they're skeptical
when I tell
them?
What if they
say,
ah,
those are
pretty lofty
claims for a
man who lived
2,000 years
ago?
Why should I
believe that?
Good question.
Why should they
believe that?
Why should they
believe these
things Jesus is
saying about
himself?
And depending
on what you've
been taught
since you came
to believe,
you might be
thinking,
oh man,
now is the
time to pull
out that book
on evangelism
that I read
one time.
What am I
supposed to
say next?
Or now is
the time to
pull out that
apologetics book.
What was the
ontological argument
again?
Or was it the
cosmological argument?
I forget.
You know what?
I'm not very good
at answering these
kinds of questions.
I'm just going to
leave the sharing
of my faith up
to Pastor Josh
church on
Sunday mornings.
Maybe I'll get
the book Case
for Christ or
Cold Case
Christianity and
I'll pass it out
to them and
maybe they'll
read it.
Now there's
nothing wrong
with these
books and I
hope you do
invite people to
come to church.
I hope you do
read these kind
of books and
learn what you
can from them.
There's so much
value in them.
But what if
there was a
simpler and easier
way to answer
that question?
Why should I
believe in
Jesus?
Jesus shows us
that there is an
easier answer to
that question.
How did Jesus
answer the question?
Why should we
believe in you,
Jesus?
Why should we
believe the things
that you're saying?
Jesus said,
if you can't
take my own
word for it,
believe because
of the works
themselves.
the works
that I have
been doing.
Think about
this.
How did he
handle the
doubts rising
in people's
minds?
He called
them to think
about, to
look at, to
consider the
things that he'd
been doing, the
signs, the
miracles.
Why?
Because they
are the best
argument.
They are the
best evidence
that what Jesus
said is true.
Isn't that
wonderful?
You don't have
to memorize the
ontological
argument, whatever
that is.
If people have
doubts, if they
raise objections,
if they question,
why should I
believe in Jesus?
We just have to
do what Jesus
did.
Read it for
yourself.
Look at the
things that he
did.
What explains
these things?
Isn't it
obvious that God
was at work in
all of these
moments and all
these eyewitnesses
who saw these
things?
These works of
Jesus, they are
the evidence.
They are the
argument.
They are the
testimony being
given by God the
Father about his
son, that Jesus
really is who he
says he is.
Just tell them the
story of Jesus or
some of it.
tell them about
that time he
turned water into
wine.
Tell them about
that time he fed
the multitude out
in the middle of
nowhere.
Tell them about
that time that he
raised Lazarus from
the dead four days
later.
Encourage them to
dig out their own
Bible, read it for
themselves.
The works
themselves, the
things he did, the
signs, the
miracles, all of it
recorded here in
our Bibles about
what Jesus did.
This is the
ultimate apologetics
book written by
God himself.
But what if they
simply refuse to
believe in the
supernatural, Josh?
What if they say,
well, that's
impossible for Jesus
to have done these
things.
I don't believe any
of that.
Push back.
Ask them.
What about the
thousands of people
who were following
him around and
witnessed these
things?
Ask them, why
were his opponents
so frustrated?
Why did they go so
far as to kill him
when they could have
just exposed him as
a fraud?
And what of the
disciples?
Why would they give
up their lives if it
was all a sham?
All a big hoax?
What did they stand
to gain?
let the Bible, let
God's testimony work
on their hearts.
There's power in it.
The works themselves,
believe because of the
works themselves,
said Jesus.
So let's be a church.
Let's be Christians that
tell the story of Jesus,
the whole thing.
Let's make it our
mission to tell this
community about both
the words that Jesus
spoke and the works
that Jesus did.
And by God's grace,
may many more come to
believe in his name.
Let's pray.
Father in heaven,
thank you so much for
your word and that you
speak from heaven to
our hearts through
these pages.
I pray that each one
of us in this room
here today would be
deeply stirred and
transformed and changed
by your word.
I pray that we would
act on the things
that we hear.
I pray and ask that
you would give us
courage and boldness
in conversations
with people.
Help us to remember
that our lives are
short, our days are
numbered, and
eternity is coming.
And it matters so
much that we know
your son.
Put that on our
hearts.
I pray.
And lead us in
sharing the good
news of Jesus
with this community.
We ask for
creativity.
We ask for
wisdom.
And we ask for
true love in our
hearts for the
people here in
Davidson.
To your name be the
glory.
Amen.
Yep.
We ask for
everyone.
Hyah.
Truly.