Good morning, church. The scripture for today comes from John chapter 10, verses 22 to 42.
! Please follow along in your own Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, do grab one around the stage or at the back near the door.
If you're using our church's Bible, the passage is on page 843.
Starting at verse 22, we read,
At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem.
It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,
How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.
Jesus answered them,
I told you, and you do not believe.
The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,
but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,
and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.
I and the Father are one.
The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them,
I have shown you many good works from the Father.
For which of them are you going to stone me?
The Jews answered him,
It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you,
but for blasphemy,
because you, being a man, make yourself God.
Jesus answered them,
Is it not written in your law,
I said you are gods?
If he called them gods to whom the word of God came,
and scripture cannot be broken,
do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world,
you are blaspheming because I said,
I am the Son of God?
If I'm not doing the works of my Father,
then do not believe me.
But if I do them,
even though you do not believe me,
believe the works,
that you may know and understand
that the Father is in me,
and I am in the Father.
Again, they sought to arrest him,
but he escaped from their hands.
He went away again across the Jordan
to the place where John had been baptizing at first,
and there he remained.
And many came to him,
and they said,
John did no sign,
but everything that John said about this man was true.
And many believed him in there.
This is the word of God.
Great.
Thank you, Annabelle.
Let's pray together as we come to this passage.
Lord Jesus Christ,
this passage is going to tell us a lot about you.
God,
things that probably many of us have heard many times before.
We need your spirit to write these things on our hearts,
God.
We need you to open the eyes of our hearts
to see these things that Christians have understood
for thousands of years
all across in every corner of the world.
God,
you have revealed yourself,
and we ask you,
reveal yourself to us once again.
God,
for those of us maybe that are not followers of you,
we've never surrendered to you,
reveal yourself to us.
Show yourself to us.
Help us to see you,
that we may believe in you,
and understand who you are.
God,
for those of us that are followers of you,
help us to see you again freshly.
Help us to worship you,
and to adore you.
Lord,
we pray these things in your great and wonderful name.
Amen.
I don't know if you've ever received a final notice letter,
final demand letter.
I confess,
I receive these from time to time.
And the reason is,
I generally am someone that,
whenever I get a bill,
I want to pay it straight away.
I hate having unpaid bills.
But now and then,
there's something that I want to question,
or query,
or think,
hang on,
that's higher than I expected,
and I kind of put it aside
to go and question it,
or query it,
or look into it a bit more,
and then I forget about it,
and then I get another letter,
and I think,
oh yeah,
I must follow up,
and then I forget about it.
And then I get a letter like this,
right?
Saying,
final notice,
final demand.
I don't know if that happens to anybody else.
Maybe I'm the only one.
Sometimes,
when we've been spoken to many times,
we need somebody to kind of
get in our face a little bit,
and wake us up,
and say,
okay,
I've been talking,
now you need to respond.
I can't go on talking forever.
What are you going to do?
Are you going to respond,
or are you going to ignore my words,
right?
That happens in life,
but it also happens with Jesus.
Jesus Christ is so gracious,
so kind,
so wonderful,
but he also wants us to respond to his words.
And so sometimes he says,
I've been speaking for many,
many months now.
I've been speaking for a long time.
I want you to respond.
How are you going to respond?
Now,
we're in John's gospel,
and this is the final sermon
that we're going to be looking at
in John's gospel this year.
We'll pick up again in John chapter 11
next April.
And the reason for that
is because we've come to the end
of a section in John's gospel.
The biblical writers,
when they wrote the books of the Bible,
they wrote them in such a way
in sections and blocks
that we could easily remember
or understand what they were saying.
And one of the reasons for that
is because in the ancient world,
most people couldn't read.
Almost nobody had a Bible.
Even if you could read,
it was way too expensive
to have your own copy of a Bible.
No one would afford a Bible.
And so the way to remember
what are these writers saying
was to write it in a memorable way.
And one of the ways they did that
was they write in blocks or sections.
And you'd know what that section about.
Today,
the end of John chapter 10
is the end of a section,
a block that John has been writing.
And we know that for two reasons.
One,
John chapter 11
starts with a death and resurrection.
And the next section,
John chapter 22,
ends with a death and resurrection.
So that's the next section
in John's gospel,
right?
11 to 21.
But also in chapter 5 to 10
is kind of one section,
one block.
And today we come to the end of that.
And we see that
because chapter 5 and 10
both begin and end
with a man being healed
on the Sabbath day
and then following
by teaching of Jesus
about Jesus
and his relationship
with the Father.
So if you remember
many weeks ago,
Oscar preached
in John chapter 5
way back in September.
There's a man
who's paralyzed
and he's by the pool
of Bethsaida,
I think it was.
And Jesus heals him
on the Sabbath day
and the religious leaders
freak out
because you're not allowed
to do any work
on the Sabbath day
and apparently healing
somebody's work
and he gets in trouble
and Jesus follows
that miracle
with the teaching
about his relationship
with the Father.
And you remember
a few weeks ago,
John chapter 9,
there's a healing.
Jesus heals a man
born blind
by the pool of Siloam
on the Sabbath day
and the religious leaders
freak out
because it's the Sabbath
and you're not allowed
to work on the Sabbath.
And he follows that
with a teaching
about I'm the Good Shepherd
and then a teaching
about his relationship
with the Father.
That's where we're at today.
So chapter 5
and 9 and 10
kind of parallel each other
and in between these two,
if you've been here
the last couple of weeks,
chapter 6, 7, and 8,
Jesus makes all these claims
about himself, right?
He says,
I am the bread of life.
I am the living water.
I am the light of the world.
I am the truth.
I am the Good Shepherd.
But Jesus makes all these
radical claims
about himself.
And as we come today,
what we see
is that these claims
are kind of bookended
with these teachings.
And John today
is coming to the end
of the section.
He's bringing this
to a conclusion.
And he's saying this.
You've heard all these claims
about Jesus.
You've heard what he has
to say about himself.
What do you make about it?
What are you going to do?
John's been showing us
about how the people
in Jesus' day respond to him.
And he's writing this
as history,
but he's also got one eye
on us.
And he's saying,
what about you?
How are you going to respond?
This is how they responded.
How are you going to respond?
So does that make sense?
So this is a section.
He's been telling us
all the claims
that Jesus has been making.
And now he's asking us,
what are you going to do
about it?
And he's been saying,
I've been,
Jesus has been talking a lot.
He's been saying
a lot of words.
In some ways,
this is a kind of final notice.
This is,
I want you to hear
my words.
In some ways,
John's gospel,
we've come to the halfway point,
right?
21 chapters,
we're at the end of chapter 10.
You know,
if you go to the theater
and there's an intermission
and just before the intermission,
someone will leave you
with something hanging,
a question to ponder
or a twist in the story
or something that you go out
at the halfway point thinking,
hmm,
I wonder how that's
going to be resolved.
John is at the halfway point
and he's saying,
you've seen a lot about Jesus.
How are you going to respond?
Now,
the rest is going to be resolved
as we look at the rest of it.
But,
the main idea of this passage
in some ways
mirrors the main idea
of John's gospel.
And if you know
John's gospel,
right at the end,
he tells us why he wrote it.
He said,
I wrote these things
that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God,
and by believing,
experience life in His name.
Okay?
And so that's the big idea.
John says,
will you believe,
will you receive
that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God?
For only by believing in Him,
will you experience
life in His name?
Okay,
so today we've got two things.
There you guys see it on the screen.
The essence of Jesus' claim
and the response to Jesus' claim.
Okay,
two things for us to think about.
So,
firstly,
let's look at the essence
of Jesus' claim.
So,
Jesus has been using
all these figures of speech
in this Old Testament imagery,
right,
to speak about Himself
and to show who He is.
He says,
I'm the light of the world,
I'm the bread of life,
He's the door,
He's the truth,
etc.
And some people come to Him
and they say,
how long will He keep us
in suspense?
Another translation says,
how long will He keep annoying us?
Okay,
you could translate it that way.
How long will He keep annoying us?
Tell us,
if you are the Christ,
tell us plainly.
In other words,
all these figures of speech
you've been saying,
just tell us,
are you the long-awaited Messiah,
the one that we've been waiting for
for hundreds of years
to restore the fortunes of Israel
and make Israel great again?
And so Jesus says to them,
verse 25,
I have already told you.
I've told you.
That's what all my teaching's been about.
This is what I've been saying to you
all this time,
right?
I'm not just saying it,
but also demonstrating it.
He says,
the works that I do in my Father's name
bear witness,
but you do not believe me.
Jesus says,
I've been telling you who I am,
both my words and my deeds,
right?
I've been proclaiming the gospel
in word and in action.
And of course,
the greatest action is still to come.
The greatest deed
is going to be the empty clothes
on the empty grave
at the end of the gospel,
but that's still to come.
But these people,
he says,
I've been telling you,
but you do not believe.
You do not believe.
Why don't they believe?
Well,
a couple of reasons.
Look what he says in verse 26.
One,
he says,
you do not believe
because you are not amongst my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice.
I know them
and they follow me.
Jesus says,
you don't believe me
because you've been drowning out my voice.
I've been sending you letters.
I've been talking to you.
I've been trying to tell you.
I've been demonstrating word and deed,
but you're drowning out my voice.
You're refusing to listen.
You don't want to hear what I have to say.
Earlier,
when they say,
just tell us plainly,
are you the Christ?
Why do they ask that?
Is it because they want to bow down
and worship him?
No,
of course not.
They want to kill him.
They're looking for proof,
for evidence that he's blaspheming,
that he's saying this outrageous thing,
right?
They're not genuine questions
of genuine seekers.
They're evidence gathering
of prosecutors
and they're trying to find
their evidence
that they can arrest him
and kill him.
But here's the other reason
why they can't receive Jesus.
Because they don't understand
what God's Messiah is all about.
They don't,
for them,
the Messiah is a military Messiah,
a political Messiah,
someone who's going to restore
the fortunes of Israel,
someone who's going to make Israel great again
and destroy all their political
and their military enemies.
John tells us in verse 22
that this happened at the time
of the Feast of the Dedication.
What that was,
was about 170 years before,
the Syrians overran Israel
and Jerusalem
and they plundered the temple,
they took all the money,
they destroyed the temple
and then the leader
of the Syrian army,
his name was Antiochus IV,
he takes a pig,
which if you're Jewish,
a pig is like the most
unclean,
dirty animal there is.
He takes a pig into the temple
and he sacrifices this pig
in the middle of the temple
to desecrate the temple
and kind of destroy it,
right?
And one leader
called Judas Maccabeus
says,
enough of this
and he gathers his army,
his friends
and they go
and they destroy the Syrians
and they drive them out
and they kill them
and they restore the temple
and they clean it
and they rededicate the temple
to the glory of God.
And so every year
in the middle of December
they would have this
Feast of Dedication
and that's what's going on here,
right?
But that's the kind of Messiah
that they want.
They say,
okay,
Judas,
he died,
give us another Judas Maccabeus,
someone who's going to
this time destroy the Romans.
Okay,
the Syrians are done,
they've done,
the Romans,
get rid of the Romans
and kill them
and restore the glory of Israel.
And they're looking for
a Messiah like that,
a political Messiah,
a religious Messiah,
a military Messiah.
But that's exactly
what Jesus
has not come to do
because that's not
who Jesus is.
Who is Jesus?
Well,
look at what he's trying
to say here.
Jesus says,
I'm not just the Messiah
that you want.
I'm nothing less
than God himself.
I am the son of God.
Jesus says,
I'm equal with the father
in divine authority,
nature,
and power.
I've come to accomplish
the will of God,
the father,
son,
and spirit,
which we determined
beforehand in eternity
to save and rescue
for ourselves,
those who will trust in him.
Look at verse 25 to 29
in your Bibles.
Jesus says this,
the works that I do
in my father's name
bear witness about me.
Verse 27,
my sheep hear my voice,
I know them
and they follow me.
I give them eternal life,
they will never perish
and no one will snatch them
out of my hands.
My father,
who has given them to me,
is greater than all
and no one is able
to snatch them
out of his hands.
Why?
Why does Jesus say,
what I do
is what the father does.
Why?
Because I and the father
are one.
And that's what Jesus is saying.
He's saying,
I'm not here just to
make your lives great again.
I'm not here to make
your nation great again.
I'm here as God himself.
I'm here to save you
from a far bigger enemy
than the Romans.
I'm here to save you
from your sins.
And that's clearly
the big idea here
because nine times
Jesus uses this phrase,
my father or the father.
Everything is,
he says,
my will is the father's will.
My work is the father's work.
What I do
is what the father does.
What the father says
is what I say.
Verse 38,
the father is in me
and I'm in the father.
Why?
I and the father are one.
Now,
the people that Jesus
is speaking to,
they,
on one hand,
they understand
exactly what he's saying,
right?
Because look at how
they respond.
Verse 31,
the Jews picked up stones
to stone him,
right?
They know exactly
what he's saying.
Verse 33,
I think it is,
says,
Jesus says,
why are you stoning me?
Why do you do this?
And he says,
it's not for good works
that we're going to stone you,
but for blasphemy
because you're making yourself
out to be God.
They know exactly
what Jesus is saying.
In chapter 5,
Oscar preached a few weeks ago,
says the same thing.
Verse 18,
this is why the Jews
were seeking to kill him
because he was calling
God his own father,
making himself equal to God.
They know exactly
what Jesus is doing.
They understand
that Jesus is claiming
to be nothing less
than the uncreated
eternal God,
one in nature,
power,
and authority
with God
who's considered
so holy
that to utter his name
in those days,
to say the name Yahweh
on your lips
was a capital offense
punishable by death.
That's how holy God is
and they know
that Jesus is claiming
he and I are one.
But on the other hand,
they actually
don't know
what Jesus is saying at all.
They completely misunderstand
because look at what happens here.
Jesus says,
I've shown you many good works
in the Father.
For which of them
are you going to stone me?
And the Jews answer him
saying,
it's not for good works
we're going to stone you,
but for blasphemy
because being a man,
you make yourself God,
which is exactly
not what Jesus is doing.
Jesus is not a man
who's making himself
out to be God.
Jesus is God
who's become man.
Jesus is the uncreated one,
the God of all creation,
who's become man,
who took on humanity,
who made himself
a servant.
Why?
To go to the cross
and lay down his life
for you and for me.
Friends,
what they find
so blasphemous
and offensive,
Jesus claiming to be God
is actually
such good news for us
that God himself
became man,
took on humanity,
took on flesh and blood,
took on the nature
of a servant,
humbled himself
to the point of death,
death on the cross
in order to rescue us
and save us
from our sins.
And so again,
Jesus' words
in John chapter 5,
Jesus said this,
he says,
truly I say to you,
whoever hears my words
and believes him
who sent me
has eternal life.
He does not come
to judgment,
he's passed
from death to life.
That's what Jesus is saying.
Why?
Because he's not just
a messiah,
a political messiah,
he's not just
a military leader,
he is God himself.
I and my father
are one.
I don't know
if you know
the New City Catechism.
Catechism is a way
that churches
throughout the ages
have taught theology
and doctrine
through question and answer.
And so the most famous one
is the Westminster Catechism.
Question one says,
what is the chief end of man?
Answer,
to glorify God
and enjoy him forever.
New City Catechism
question two says this,
what is God?
And the answer is this,
God is the creator
and sustainer
of everyone
and everything.
He is eternal,
infinite,
and unchangeable
in his power
and perfection,
goodness and glory,
wisdom,
justice,
and truth.
Nothing happens
except through him
and by his will.
This is who God is.
And the Jews
would have said,
yes,
that's God,
God the Father,
no problem.
Jesus says,
that's me as well.
And when they hear
what he's saying,
they pick up stones
to kill him.
Just this week,
I've been reading
the book of Revelation
in my devotions,
my quiet times,
and I got to
Revelation 4 and 5,
which is the apostle John
who writes,
and in that,
John has a revelation
of heaven,
and he sees
in his revelation
God on the throne,
and around the throne
are these incredible
creatures,
these amazing creatures
and angels,
and they are worshiping
God the Father on the throne.
This is what they say,
worthy are you,
our Lord and God,
to receive glory
and honor and power,
for you created all things
and by your will
they existed.
But then,
after that,
all these creatures
worship Jesus,
and this is what they say
about Jesus.
They say,
next slide,
I'll tell you,
worthy is the Lamb
who was slain,
to receive power
and wealth
and wisdom
and might
and honor
and glory
and blessing.
And then,
after that,
all creation,
the whole of creation,
angels and creatures
and people,
everything,
worship God
and Jesus together,
saying,
to him who sits
on the throne
and to Jesus the Lamb,
be blessing
and honor
and glory
and might
forever
and ever
and ever.
Friends,
you see the essence
of Jesus' claims.
Why is Jesus
able to say
the things that he is?
I am the light
of the world.
I am the living water.
I am the bread of life.
Why is Jesus
able to say these things?
Is Jesus very proud
and hubris?
Is Jesus a great leader
that can help us
just get ahead in life?
No,
Jesus wants us to see
he is nothing less
than God himself.
Jesus is not offering himself
as one option
in a buffet
of good things
to have in your life.
One more guide
to help you
get ahead in life.
So some of us,
maybe we've got our
finance guru,
we're going to speak
to him about finances
and we've got
our mental health expert
that helps us
with mental health
and we've got
our career guidance person
that helps us
with our career guidance
and maybe you've got
a health and fitness
person on the side
and then you've got
Jesus who's your
kind of spiritual coach
or your life coach,
right?
Jesus says,
no, no, no,
that's not who I am.
I'm not one
of a buffet
of options of things.
I am the uncreated God
and life is found in me.
And Jesus says
that if you want
to find life,
life to the fullness,
you have to come to me.
You have to accept me
as God,
as king.
So friends,
what about you?
Is that true of you?
What do you make
of Jesus?
Is Jesus just a wise man
that helps you
get through life?
Someone who gives you
good wisdom
and advice?
Jesus says,
that's not who I am.
That's not who I've
come to be.
I've come to be God.
I've come to be king.
I've come to be a savior.
I've come to lay down
my life for you.
As we often quote
C.S. Lewis,
he says,
Christianity,
if false is of no importance,
if true is of infinite importance,
the only thing it cannot be
is moderately important.
Jesus' claims
are not moderately important.
Jesus' claims
are either true
and of infinite importance
or false
and of no importance.
He will not allow us
to consider him
moderately important.
Now,
what are the implications
of this?
What does this mean
for our lives?
Well,
there's two things.
One positive,
one negative.
One implication is this.
If you know
and trust Jesus,
if you're safe in Jesus,
you are safe in God the Father.
And that's actually
one of the points
that Jesus makes here
in chapter 10.
He says,
to know me
is to know God.
He says here,
sorry,
wrong book of the Bible.
We're in John, right?
He says,
he says here,
I give them eternal life
and they will never perish.
No one will snatch them
out of my hand.
My Father,
who has given them to me,
is greater than all
and no one is able
to snatch them
out of my Father's hands.
Jesus gives us
this incredible assurance
that though your faith
may go up and down,
though you may be strong
at times
and weak in times,
though at times
you may be full of confidence
and other times
you may have questions,
if you are able
to hold on to Jesus,
Jesus himself
and God the Father,
the uncreated one,
is holding on to you.
It's unbelievable assurance
that you don't need
to know everything,
how everything works.
You don't need to have
every question answered.
But if you know Jesus,
if you trust in him,
if you say,
I'm going to try
to hold on to him,
he and the Father
are holding on to you
and no one
and nothing
can let you go.
As the song
we sometimes sing,
when Satan tempts me
to despair
and tells me
of the guilt within,
up would I look
and see him there
who made an end
to all my sin.
Friends,
this week,
you're going to find
lots of reasons
to despair.
This week,
you're going to find
lots of reasons
to doubt.
Christ Jesus,
the one that you're
holding on to,
is holding on to you
and more than that,
God the Father
is holding on to you.
But here's the second
implication.
To reject Jesus
means to reject
God himself.
Jesus says,
I am the Father,
are one.
And there's two ways
we can do that.
We can do that outright
as the people in Jesus'
day did that.
Remember when Jesus
on trial,
Pilate says,
what should I do
with this man
called Jesus?
And what do they say?
Crucify him.
Get rid of him.
Get this man out of here.
We want nothing
to do with him.
And they cast him out.
Maybe that's you.
Maybe you feel like,
I want nothing
to do with this Jesus guy.
But actually,
there's another way
that we can do that
and we can far more
subtly reject Jesus.
And by doing that,
we're rejecting God.
Without even almost
realizing it.
And that's by not quite
following Jesus entirely
in all the areas
of our lives.
So we tell ourselves,
yes,
I'm a Christian.
I believe in Jesus.
I'm just not really
willing to forgive
that friend.
Yes,
I believe in Jesus.
I'm just not willing
to honor Christ
with my sexuality,
with my money,
with my career,
with my relationships,
with my time.
And we can shut the door
on God himself,
the creator and sustainer
of everyone and everything.
The one who is
eternal,
infinite,
and unchangeable
in his goodness and grace,
power and perfection,
wisdom,
justice,
and truth.
We shut him out
of our lives
and we say,
God,
take a step back.
I won't have you
because we don't
want to trust Jesus' words.
And so when we reject Jesus,
we're actually rejecting
the God of all creation
and cutting him out
of those areas
of our lives,
which is a very sad
thing to do.
Friends,
this week,
all of us are going
to be tempted
to treat Jesus
in some area
of our lives
as just a man
trying to make him
out to be God.
And when we say
no to him,
we say no
to all the grace
that God wants
to give us through him.
Friends,
it's important
we take this in,
that Jesus says,
I am one of the Father.
And when you accept me,
you get the Father.
When you reject me,
you reject the Father.
Now,
look at what happens here
in verse 34
and 37.
Jesus throws a bit
of a theological spanner
in their works.
Do you know that phrase?
I was thinking about
that this morning.
Do you know that,
to throw a spanner
in the works?
Is that a very
South African thing to say?
No?
So think about
if you've got this
big machinery,
right?
These big engines
and someone throws
a metal spanner in it
is going to mess up
the whole machinery,
right?
Jesus throws
a theological spanner
in their thinking here
because they
want to kill him,
right?
And so Jesus
says something
to get them
scratching their heads
just to pause
and to kind of like
to throw them off
their thinking a bit
because they say to him,
we're going to kill you
because you're blaspheming
and Jesus quotes Psalm 82.
He says,
well,
in the Psalms,
you know,
the Psalmist
talks about
all God's people
being gods.
So why do you
criticize me
when I say
I'm a son of God?
And why does Jesus
do that?
He's kind of getting
them just to like
drop their stones
for a bit
and say,
that's a good question.
Let's think about that
so that he can escape
from their hands.
And the reason is
because Jesus' time
has not yet come.
Jesus is going
to be crucified
over Passover weekend
in a few months time,
but it's not Passover yet.
His time has not yet come.
And Jesus wants
to make one final appeal,
one more appeal
to get them
to trust him.
Jesus is wanting,
he's not wanting
to confuse us.
He's wanting to help
them to see and believe.
And so look what he says
in verse 37.
And as I read this,
I want you to listen
to the tone
of Jesus' words.
Listen to Jesus
almost employing,
he's begging us,
he's saying,
he's employing us
to come and listen to him.
I find these verses amazing.
his final plea
to them and to us.
Verse 37.
If I'm not doing
the works of my Father,
then don't believe me.
But if I do them,
even if you do not
believe me,
believe the works
that you may know
and understand
that the Father
is in me
and I am in the Father.
Jesus is saying,
you may not like me,
but I want you to see
that I am the Savior
that God has sent to you.
You may not like
what I have to say,
but look at my works.
Don't ignore it.
Don't walk away
for one more day.
You need to see
who I am
because only by seeing
who I am
can you be saved.
Jesus is employing them.
He says,
even if you don't believe me,
that's fine,
but please,
look at the evidence.
Believe the works
that you may know
and understand.
The Father is in me
and I am in the Father.
And if you walk away
from me and reject me,
you're walking away
from the Father.
Friends,
you hear the tenderness
of his appeal?
It's almost like
Jesus begging them
not to walk away
from what he's offering
them one last time.
In just a couple of months' time,
Jesus will come back
to Jerusalem,
but this time
to die on a cross.
He wants them
to believe in him
before that happens
that they may receive
the life that he offers.
So,
how should we respond?
Well,
John is a master writer
of his gospel
and John wants us
to see how they respond
because he wants us
to respond appropriately.
And so,
John gives us
two responses.
In verses 31 and 39,
he shows us
how the Jews
in Jerusalem respond.
And how do they respond?
Verse 31,
they pick up stones
to kill him.
In verse 39,
not killing him,
they seek to arrest him.
They want to get rid of him.
But then,
John gives us
an alternative.
And John shows us
there's another way
to respond.
There's two responses.
You can reject him
or you can receive him.
And so,
look what happens
in verse 40 to 42.
Verse 40,
Jesus went away again
across the Jordan
to the place
where John
had been baptizing
at first
and there he remained.
So,
John the author
takes us back
to John chapter 1,
back to John the Baptist,
right?
I know it's confusing,
two different Johns.
And what is John's witness
about him?
John the Baptist.
Remember what John the Baptist says?
He says,
there is a man
coming after me
whose sandals
I'm not worthy
to untie.
A man who ranks
before me
because he has always
existed before me.
And so,
John's taking us back
to John the Baptist's testimony
and he's telling us
about John the Baptist
and what John the Baptist said.
And then he says,
many came to him
and they said,
John did no sign,
but everything that John said
about this man is true.
And many believed in him.
John the Baptist
did no signs,
no wonders,
no miracles.
He just told them
about Jesus.
He told them
that he was the Christ.
He told them
that he was the son of God.
He told them
that he was the lamb of God
who would die
for the sins of the world.
And that Jesus
would baptize them
in the spirit
and bring them
into God's kingdom.
And now,
having seen Jesus,
they believe.
They believe.
And they experience
life in his name.
But others,
in Jerusalem,
they see Jesus
and they saw the miracles
and they saw the signs
and wonders
and they saw everything
that Jesus did
and still,
they would not believe.
Do you remember
what the Apostle John said
right at the beginning?
He said,
Jesus came to his own
and his own did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him,
who believed in his name,
he gave the right
to become children of God.
And at the end of the section,
these two bookends
of chapter 5 to chapter 10,
John ends with this question.
Which one are you going to be?
Are you going to be
the Jews in Jerusalem
that reject him?
Or are you going to be
like those that believe?
And that makes
all the difference.
That makes all the difference.
John closes off
this first half
of his biography of Jesus,
giving us multiple instances
of religious leaders
who refuse to believe
and now points us
to people that are
on the outskirts of Israel,
the backwaters of Israel.
And he says,
they believed.
Will you be like them?
So friends,
as we come to a conclusion here,
for 18 weeks this year,
18 Sundays,
we've been looking
at John's gospel.
And for 18 weeks
this year,
we've been listening
to John's testimony
about Jesus,
about who he is,
that he is the Christ,
the son of the living God,
that those who believe in him
will find life in his name.
We've heard the words,
we've seen the signs,
we've listened to the miracles,
we've considered Jesus teaching,
we've heard John's witness,
we've seen how he fulfills scripture,
we've seen that Jesus
is one with the father.
And now John ends off asking us,
what are you going to do with this?
Will you believe
or will you reject him
like the people of his day?
These things are written
that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ,
the son of the living God,
and by believing
receive life in his name.
Friends,
Jesus sends us
that final letter.
Don't keep on ignoring it.
Don't keep on rejecting.
Respond
and let him help you
find life in his name.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus,
sometimes,
God,
we confess
our hearts can be very hard.
We can be dull
and slow to listen,
slow to hear.
But God,
you're so gracious,
you're so patient.
Jesus,
even these people
that they want to stone you
and kill you
and be done with you,
you are so patient
that you keep on
employing them
and you come back to them
another time
and you say,
even if you don't
like what I have to say,
believe my works
that you may receive life.
Jesus,
help us to believe your works.
Help us to believe,
Lord,
the death and resurrection.
Help us to believe
the empty tomb
and help us to find life
in your name.
God,
in you there is life
and apart from you
there is no life.
So help us,
we pray.
In your wonderful name,
Amen.