Today’s text is one that is somewhat difficult to deal with, for at least a couple of reasons. One, is we are coming into what is really the tail end of an ongoing dialogue that Jesus was having with the religious leaders of Jerusalem concerning His deity. And we are picking it up near the end of that discussion. So that provides some difficulty, in bringing you up to speed without repeating all of last Sunday’s message. And the other main difficulty is that Jesus makes reference to a somewhat obscure portion of scripture as validation of His argument, which potentially opens up a lot of questions. But I hope to answer those questions for you today, as well as affirming the deity of Christ, and in the process, offer some principles from this passage that I believe are essential to living out our faith effectively. So I hope you will bear with me as we go through this somewhat difficult passage, in the firm conviction that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, if we will give proper place to it.

As you might recall if you were here last week, Jesus was walking in the temple under the portico known as Solomon’s porch during the Feast of Dedication, which we know as Hanukkah. So it is winter time, about three months before Jesus will eventually be crucified. And the Pharisees and priests have sort of cornered Him there, and they ask Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They claim to want to know if He is the Messiah. But the fact is, they don’t really want to know. They have already decided to kill Jesus, but they need a good excuse. And so the excuse they are trying to give themselves is to get Jesus to commit what they consider to be blasphemy; to say that He is the Son of God.

So, of course, Jesus knows their trickery, and so He answers them by saying, “I have already told you, and yet you did not believe Me. And then if I may paraphrase the rest a bit, He basically says, not only did I tell you, but I also did works of God which gave testimony to my authority, but you didn’t accept them either. So they did not believe His words, and they didn’t accept His works, both of which confirmed that He was the Messiah.

But then Jesus makes the most startling, dramatic statement possible, which obviously answered their question, but to an extent that perhaps they were not expecting. Jesus says in vs.30; “I and the Father are one.” This is probably the most direct statement that Jesus ever made in His ministry regarding His deity. He is claiming equality with God. Oneness with God. It is to say that He was one essence with God. There is one other statement that Jesus made to Philip and the disciples, which is just as clear, but it had a limited audience. Jesus said on that occasion, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” But this statement is made to the Jewish leaders, and is the most forthright declaration of His deity that He made.

To claim to be absolutely one with God is to claim to be equal with God. And so we read then, “The Jews took up stones again to stone him.” They feel justified, because they know that He is claiming to be no less than God. John records them as giving the reason that they wanted to stone Him in vs.33, because, they said, “You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

Jesus could have answered the question of being the Messiah and not taken it that far. The Biblical definition of Messiah was that He was deity, but their conception of the Messiah was limited to that of a political figure, someone from the line of David who would restore the throne to Israel and overthrow their enemies. And so Jesus could have played along with their expectations and not given them much reason to condemn Him, but He deliberately ups the ante by stating not only His Messiahship, but declaring that He is One essence with God.

So they took up stones to kill Him. And Jesus stops them with a word. Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

Jesus then answers that charge with a most interesting argument and one that I think has great theological implications for us. Jesus quotes a relatively obscure scripture from Psalms 82. Jesus said, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

Now this quotation Jesus gives is found in Psalm 82 and verse 6 and there we find the words, “I have said, you are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” This is a Psalm in which reference is made to unjust judges. And the Lord goes on to say, “But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.” So he is talking about unjust judges, but nevertheless the Psalmist speaks of them as if they were gods, with a little “g”. So the Lord Jesus refers to this rather obscure text in the Old Testament, certainly not one of the more well known texts of the Bible, yet he refers to it as a basis for this most important doctrine of His deity.

Now there are several points that we can make from this statement. First, we should point out that judges in Israel did have a limited relationship of union with God because they were divinely delegated representatives. In Israel a judge was one who was supposed to judge under God, and was supposed to judge with the judgment of God. The Psalmist says they had been given the word of God, and therefore should have judged with the judgment of God.

So there is a sense in which Jesus was arguing from the lessor to the greater. If the Psalmist under inspiration of God called the unrighteous judges gods, then how much more appropriate can He be called God if He was the righteous judge, if He spoke the words of God, and did the works of God?

But I think there is justification in expanding that verse to include an even greater audience. And though this may be shocking for some of you to consider, I think that this statement can be applied to us as well. That to a limited extent, we are gods. Or at least, we were designed to be as gods. Now I hope you will hear me out before you charge me with blasphemy as well and stone me here this morning.

As justification for my claim, note that the Psalmist makes a correlation between “you are gods” and “all of you are sons of the Most High.” Now we would all agree that we that are saved are sons and daughters of the Most High. But at the same time, we recognize that there is a difference between Jesus being the Son of God and we being sons of God. Jesus used the designation of God as His Father, and we pray to God our Father, yet we realize that there is a difference.

But notice that the Psalmist equates “god’s” with “sons of the Most High.” It’s a parallel statement. If one is true, then the other is true. And so I feel justified in saying that this is true for us. That we are to a limited extent, gods, even as we are sons of the Most High.

Now why do I feel it’s important to make this claim? I make this claim because I think that this speaks to the relationship of man to God as He was deigned to have in creation. It refers to the kind of relationship we had with God before the fall. And so part of the purpose of redemption, the purpose of atonement, is to restore man to that fellowship with God that we had before the fall.

Look at Genesis 1:26 for a minute. Hopefully a very familiar passage. It says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Notice that in Psalm 82, in vs.1, the same word translated as rulers there is the same word translated as gods in vs.6. So here in Genesis 1, man was called to rule over every living thing in the earth.

Now that statement alone is justification for calling men gods. As they were in the beginning, as God designed them to be, they were to rule over every living thing that moves on the earth. Not only that, but we were made in the image of God, in the likeness of God. And in the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall, there was a special relationship that man had with God where he was in full fellowship, full communion. That was the design of God.

So man was designed to be as gods in this world. We were designed to be much greater than the ungodly, human judges of Israel who the Psalmist calls gods. We were to rule over creation. Every living creature on earth we are to subdue and to rule over, according to God’s command.

You know, I was thinking about this the other day when I was messing around with my dog. I have a crazy dog named Maggie. She is part pit and part black lab and full on crazy. But little by little I am trying to teach her some things. And as I was working with her the other day, mainly not to try to yank the leash out of my hands and walk beside me, I realized that to Maggie, I must seem like a god. I do all these things that are completely beyond her comprehension. She cannot comprehend how I can drive her somewhere in the car. She can sniff at the car, bark at it, ride in it. But she doesn’t know how to drive it. She doesn’t understand how it works. She knows that I give her food and water. But she can’t understand how I do that, how to go to the supermarket and buy her food. To a great extent, she realizes that I am the source of everything that she needs. And consequently, she loves me. She has no greater joy it would seem, than to lay at my feet and look up at me with those big brown eyes. If I move, she moves. She follows me everywhere I go in the house. She loves me. I’m still trying to get her to obey me, but she is learning that as well.

I wish I could say the same for most Christians and their relationship with God. I wish I could say that they trusted Him to provide for them even when they cannot comprehend what God is doing. I wish I could say that we love God, that we love to follow Him, that we have no greater joy than to obey Him, and do what He tells us to do.

So to say that we are gods illustrates perhaps in a small way our relationship to God, that we are little gods over His creation, even as He is the Supreme God over man and the earth. But I think there is even more to that analogy. I think it relates to our relationship to God as the bride of Christ. Remember in Gen.2:18 when God said that it was not good that man should be alone? It’s interesting to see what God did next. He didn’t immediately make woman. Instead, God brought every living creature to parade before Adam. And Adam gave them all names. That illustrated the rule that God authorized Adam to have over the creation. But it also illustrated Adam’s lack of a suitable companion. When he was finished naming them all, it says, “but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”

Now I believe that serves as both a historical fact and an analogy of God’s relationship with His creation. I think that before the creation of the earth, God searched through all of His creation and all the creatures that He had made, through all the vastness and dimensions of the Universe, and there was not found a mate suitable for Him. And so God decided to create a companion like Himself, made in His likeness, with whom He would be able to have a relationship such as Adam had with Eve. That is why the church is called the bride of Christ. That is why in Ephesians 5 when Paul starts talking about the way the husband should love his wife, and the wife should love and respect her husband, Paul says [Eph 5:28-32 NASB] 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

And we see that love relationship borne out in the act of creation. With everything else in creation, God simply spoke them into existence. But with man, God got down on His knees in the dust of the earth and formed man with His hands, and then it says that He breathed into man’s mouth the breath of life, and he became a living soul. God kissed man, breathing His very life into our lips. That speaks of a relationship like no other. It speaks of the love of God for mankind, and His purpose for making us, to be His bride.

Here is the point I want to make this morning. In the second creation, we are born again by the Spirit of God, we are made righteous and holy by the atonement of Jesus Christ, and as this new creation we are designed to be the bride of Christ. We are designed to be like God, to be conformed to His image, to share the throne with Christ as His bride, to rule over not only animals and every living creature on this earth, but even to judge angels, to have dominion over infinite dominions yet to be revealed. We are made to live forever with Christ and to share His glory.

Listen to Jesus’ promise to the church in Rev 2:26-29 “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ And then in Rev 3:21-22 “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

I spend so much time on this principle this morning, because I want you to get a glimpse of what God has in store for those that love Him. To understand the scope of our salvation. There is so much more that I don’t have time to get into this morning. But this is the love of God. It is the love of God that pursues us, like Hosea pursued his adulterous wife. It is the love of God that sent Jesus, His Son, to humble Himself to become a man,to lay down His life for us as the ultimate act of love that He might effect our atonement on the cross, by taking our sins upon Himself, in exchange for Christ’s righteousness. It is so that we might complete the plan of God before the world ever began, that we might fulfill the desire of God as His bride, as the object of His desire, and that He would be the object of our desire. That we might come to Him in love, because of love, and not of compulsion. We were not designed to operate simply on instinctual desires like animals, but to choose to love even as God has loved us. This is the plan of God. We do not see it come to fulfillment yet, but we have a deposit made in our souls that one day will be realized in full when we shall see Him as He is, and we shall be like Him, and be with Him, forever.

Now let me just make a couple of more points of application. I think you understand Jesus’ argument. I hope you understand that He was God, and that He had to be God in order to accomplish our redemption. No mere man could atone for even his own life, no matter how righteous he may have been. But for Christ to atone for the sins of the world, then He had to be deity, in order to have an infinite quality of atonement that could cover the sins of the world.

But there is another point that Jesus makes, and that is the statement found in brackets in most translations; “(and the Scripture cannot be broken).” The brackets indicate it as an afterthought, or perhaps a clarification but I can assure you that Jesus doesn’t consider it an afterthought. Jesus had a very high view of scripture. Jesus is taking a very obtuse word in the Psalms, just one little word, and upon one word He hinges such an essential doctrine as His deity. And as He does this, He says the scripture cannot be broken. In other words, every word of scripture is inspired by God. Jesus is saying that every word in the scriptures is important. He is making a case for the inerrancy and sufficiency of scripture for all of life and doctrine.

And I want to give you a couple of more examples of Jesus’ high view of scripture. First is found in Matthew 22:23. The Sadducees are questioning Jesus concerning the resurrection. And Jesus answers them by saying in vs.31-32 “But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

Now in that case, He isn’t talking about a word in the Old Testament as being important. He is referring to a tense. If Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were dead then He should have said, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, past tense. But Jesus shows the OT use of a present tense as an argument that they were living, and not dead. Thus He says the proof of the resurrection of the dead was found in the present tense of the verb.

And then one other example of Jesus’ view of scripture. In Matt. 5:17-18 during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” There Jesus is speaking of one of the little dots on a Hebrew letter used to distinguish it from a similar letter. Jesus is saying not even one little stroke of a letter shall pass until all is accomplished. So then in these three examples, we have a word which cannot be broken, we have a verb tense which cannot be broken, and we have a stroke of a letter which cannot be broken. I would say that Jesus had a pretty high view of scripture. And I would hope that we might have the same. The battle against the authority of scripture is undiminished, in fact it has increased 10 fold today compared to what it was a century or two ago. Yet if our Lord had such a high view of scripture that He depended upon it to defend His deity, He depended upon it to defeat all of Satan’s temptations, and as He was the author of scripture, then how much more should we be in the word of God. How much more should we depend upon it for every decision that we make. Notice back in Psalm 82, the judges were called gods because the word of God came to them. We have the word of God made more sure, because it is written and confirmed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Let us treat it no less seriously than did Christ.

One more point, and that is found in the verses 37-38, Jesus said “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” So Jesus invokes one more attempt to show these unbelieving Jewish leaders that He is who He said He was. They had not believed His words, HIs preaching. So Jesus asks them to consider His works. He says, “believe My works.” My works show that I am from the Father, and that the Father is in Me and I in Him.

Nicodemus, who was one of them, had spoken earlier to Christ in secret in John 3:2 saying “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” So Jesus is appealing to just that kind of reasoning. He says, believe Me because of My works. That was the reason Jesus did signs and wonders. It was to confirm by signs that God was with Him. It’s the same reason that the apostles did signs and wonders. It was to confirm that they spoke the words of Christ. Miracles were not given to simply heal people because they were sick. That was a benefit of the sign, but that was not the reason for the sign. The reason was to confirm the word that they were preaching was of God. And that is what Jesus appeals to. Believe My works, that they might believe My words.

But there is an application of that for us, I believe as well. And that is this; that when we give testimony to the grace of God, to our salvation, to our Christianity a lot of times we are met with rejection, with disbelief. Sometimes, we are even met by animosity, as in the case with Christ here in our text. But there is more that we can share beyond our words. And that is our works. We should be able to have the same argument as Jesus Christ. We should be able to say as He did, “If you won’t believe my words, then believe my works. I am doing the works of Christ. You should be able to show your friends and coworkers and family, that Christ is in you, and your works are the evidence of His life in you.

Not everyone is going to accept you, or believe in what you are saying. But as we see in this passage, Jesus left Jerusalem and went to Bethany where John the Baptist had preached during his ministry, and those people saw the signs that Jesus was doing, and it says that many believed in Him there.

Listen, I’m afraid that there is a disconnect today between what the church professes and what it practices. I’m afraid that when the lost look at the lives of professing Christians today they don’t see the truth of the scriptures lived out. And as a result, they have an excuse. I’ve said it before, your life is either an example or an excuse. Your life is an example of a Christ filled person, and as such points men to Christ, or your life is an excuse as to why they don’t need to believe, and as such your life turns men away from Christianity. I hope that it may be an example.

I hope that you will take away from this message today the realization that you were meant to live for so much more than what this life offers. You were meant to be gods, to become the bride of Christ. That is why Christ came to earth and died for us. That we might become righteous through faith in HIs sacrifice. And then I hope that you will walk in this life with a dependency upon the inerrancy and sufficiency of scripture. That we might be totally reliant upon the word of God as our guide for every action and every deed. And thirdly, that we might be a testimony not just by our words, but by our works. As we do the works of God we will show the truth of God in our hearts as a testimony to the world.

I’m reminded of a song written some years ago by the band Switchfoot called Meant to Live. It said something like this;
Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he’s bent for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly,
We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?

Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we’ve been living with our eyes half open
Maybe we’re bent and broken,
We were meant to live for so much more
have we lost ourselves?

We want more than this world’s got to offer
We want more than the wars of our fathers
And everything inside screams for second life,
We were meant to live for so much more

Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to live as God designed us to be. To be all that He has desired us to be. And all that is possible by faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Let us pray.

One of the great questions of our age, particularly the post evolution scientific age, is whether or not God is real. From time to time you will hear someone ask the question, “if God is real, then why doesn’t He show us? Why doesn’t He reveal Himself? Why doesn’t God prove that He is real?” And sometimes, people will ask us that are Christians to prove that God is real. To prove that He exists.

But it is noteworthy that Jesus Christ never addressed that question. He did not defend the existence of God. In fact, the Bible is not written to prove that God is real. The Bible does not defend the existence of God or try to prove it. The fact is, that God doesn’t need us to defend Him, but just to declare Him. That He is. Period. God’s personal name that He gave Moses out of the burning bush illustrates that fact. When Moses asked God His name, God said, “I Am the I Am.” He is. And you can either accept that, or reject it. It’s your choice. But there are consequences to your decision. Eternal consequences. And consequences in this life as well.

So we do not need to defend God’s existence, nor define Him. Our job is to declare Him. Let the scientist’s expostulate on their theories. God has declared who He is. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Science changes it’s mind from day to day, but the truth of God endures forever. I was telling my kids just this week much of the dietary advice we were given about fats and carbs growing up has now been proven to be completely wrong. Science can change it’s mind without any problem whatsoever and what had once been proclaimed to be the facts is just conveniently dismissed in favor of new facts. I saw an interesting quote recently from a man named Werner Heisenberg, who was the father of quantum physics. He said, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you.”

But nevertheless, on the question of God’s existence skeptics abound. But God doesn’t need to answer them. It is foolishness, the existence of God is self evident for those who believe in Him. Now there was a similar question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders of the Jews. They had come to ask Him if He was the Messiah. Christ, by the way, is the Greek word for Messiah. It had a pretty broad definition according to popular interpretation. The limited view which was favored by the Pharisees and scribes and priesthood in Jesus day, was that the Messiah would be a ruler, of the royal line of David, who would restore the throne of Israel, and overturn their enemies. The Biblical view of the Messiah was quite a bit more expanded than that, however. Isaiah, for instance, made it clear in Isaiah 9 who the Messiah would be. It says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” This prophecy makes it clear that the Messiah who would sit on David’s throne was no less than the Mighty God. Why the Jewish leaders could not see this from such scriptures is beyond me. But as with most people, I guess, they heard what they wanted to hear. And so they had a limited, one dimensional view of the Messiah.

So the Jews come to Jesus as He is walking in the winter time under the portico of Solomon, that is the remnant wall of the original temple of Solomon that was all that had survived the destruction of Solomon’s temple. And John tells us that it was during the Feast of Dedication. We call that feast Hanukkah today. It was a celebration of the rededication of the temple which had happened during the revolt which had been led by Judas Maccabee a couple hundred years earlier. So perhaps that was the incentive for asking Jesus this question. Because Judas Maccabee had been the type of revolutionary that they wanted the Messiah to be like. And I think they knew full well that Jesus was the Messiah. But He wasn’t the kind of Messiah that they wanted. Jesus was concerned about spiritual things, and they were concerned about earthly things. They wanted deliverance from Roman oppression, Jesus offered deliverance from their sins.

I’m afraid that we still have that problem today. People are always trying to define God according to what they think God should be like. But God has already declared what He is like. And so when a preacher like me tries to teach what the Bible says about God and our relationship to Him, we get vilified. Because the Bible doesn’t square with what they have decided God should be like. I had a woman the other day tell me repeatedly that I could preach about God all that I wanted to, but her God was not the same God that I spoke of. She said her God was a loving God, and a merciful God. And every time I tried to speak to her, she just repeated that over and over again, getting louder and louder. The real problem though with her view of God was that she wanted to be able to deliberately sin and not have a guilty conscience about it. But whether or not her conscience is bothered is not going to change the fact of who God is. He is a loving, merciful God. But He is also holy, righteous and just. And you cannot limit God to just the characteristics that you like and dismiss the others. Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

So back to our text, Jesus answers their question without seeming to answer it directly. He doesn’t say outright that He is the Messiah because of their misconceptions about the Messiah’s purpose. He has previously told individual people that He was the Messiah. And His own disciples had professed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. But Jesus knows that what they were attempting to do was not come to an understanding of the truth, but they were trying to find something that would justify them murdering Him. And so they wanted to accuse Him of blasphemy. The way that they decided to do it, was by getting Him to declare who He was in the temple, in the presence of witnesses. And so they descend on Him in a pack, and put the question to Him. Vs. 24, they say “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

But Jesus knows their hearts and their deceit, and so He gives them this answer in vs.25, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.” So Jesus offers two proofs of the fact that He is the Messiah. First His words show that He is the Messiah. Over and over again, Jesus had shown by HIs teaching that He spoke the word of God. For instance, Jesus said in chapter 8 vs 28, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

So as He said there in chapter 8, and now again in chapter 10, “I have already told you and you did not believe.” He offers two evidences; I speak the words of God, and I do the works of God. And they had not missed either of those proofs either. Nicodemus, one of their own, and speaking on behalf of the Pharisees, told Jesus back in chapter 3 that “We know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could do the signs that You do unless God is with him.” So they evidently knew that He had come from God and God was with Him, and yet they had rejected Him.

So Jesus said I have told you, and I have shown you, and yet you do not believe. He said You don’t believe because you are not my sheep. Now all of chapter 10 is on this theme of Jesus as the Shepherd of His sheep. And so even though this takes place three months later than the earlier portion of this passage, yet the theme of this passage remains the same. The theme is that Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Jesus has declared Himself to be the Shepherd of His sheep. And this idea of a Shepherd was a great Messianic theme throughout the Old Testament. I don’t have time to take you to all the references for it this morning. But one example in Micah is quoted in Matthew 2:6, “‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,
ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’” So this was a common Old Testament picture of the Messiah.

So having already declared Himself to be the good Shepherd in vs.11, now Jesus delineates those who are His sheep from those that are not His sheep. Jesus gives three evidences for knowing His sheep. First of all, He said, His sheep believe Him. Secondly, His sheep hear His voice. Thirdly, His sheep follow Him.

The Pharisees did none of that. They did not believe His words or His works. They did not hear His voice, that is HIs call. And they did not follow Him. They were not interested in becoming disciples. Here is the crux of it, I think. They didn’t want a shepherd. They didn’t think that they needed a shepherd. And I think that is the state of most people today. They don’t see themselves as needing a shepherd. They don’t see themselves as needing a Savior. They don’t see themselves as being like foolish, wayward sheep who are always going astray, who are always wandering off, who are always prone to get in trouble from predators. People today see going to church as adding some degree of sophistication, or some degree of respectability to their lives. They acknowledge certain facts of the Bible, they acknowledge the existence of God, they are even willing to accept the premise of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but they do not see themselves as needing a Shepherd of their souls. People want God to be like a genie, that sits on a shelf somewhere out of the way until we want our wishes granted, then we come to Him and rub the statue just so, and say some prayer like abracadabra, and poof, God gives you what you want. We want a god like that. But we don’t need a Shepherd. I can decide for myself what I need to do, where I want to go, how I want to live. A Shepherd is too restricting. A Shepherd might try to control me. So we don’t believe we really need a Shepherd. We’ll take a genie though, thank you very much.

But if you have that attitude, then there is a very good chance you are not one of His sheep. You can’t be His sheep unless you accept Him as your Shepherd. Personally, I had to come to the place where I finally realized I couldn’t make it on my own. I wasn’t able to manage things on my terms. When my life finally got so messed up I couldn’t stand it anymore, then I knew I needed a Shepherd to save me, to restore me, to make me one of HIs flock and to lead me and guide me. And I can tell you this, there is no greater comfort or peace that can be found, than knowing that Jesus is my Shepherd and I am HIs sheep. I have a confidence that nothing else can provide, because I know that He knows me, because I am His.

That’s why Jesus said that He came to seek and to save those that were lost. When you come to the point of realizing that you are lost, then you will welcome a Shepherd, who will save you and lead you and guide you. There is a popular slogan out there you see on t shirts or bumper stickers which says, “not all who wander are lost.” But the fact is, we are all lost. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And until you realize that you are lost, you cannot be saved.

So Jesus says His sheep follow Him, and obey Him because they are His. 1Cor. 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Some people see obedience as a limitation, but I think that it is a great benefit. I just follow Him, and know He will take care of the details. He will take care of me. And that is such a great relief. None of us know the future. None of us know what tomorrow holds. But Jesus sees tomorrow. He has a plan for me, and I can trust His plan. That’s the benefit of being His sheep and following Him.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Jesus said in vs.27, “I give eternal life to them and they will never perish, and no one can 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 hand.”

Now there are three benefits to the life we have been given by Christ. First of all, He says He gives them eternal life. Some people think that eternal life is something that we get when we get to heaven. But in saying that they show they fail to understand the nature of eternal life. Eternal life, or everlasting life, is given to you at the new birth. When you are born again, by the Spirit of God, then you receive eternal life. It begins at conversion. And it continues forever.

Back in chapter 10 vs.10, Jesus said, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” It’s a never ending stream of life. Back in chapter 7:37, Jesus said, “]If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive. Going back to that conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

So in conversion when we are born again, we are born by the Spirit, and as such we become spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings we have spiritual life, which is eternal life. It’s an abundant life, springing up in our soul which will never run dry because it comes from the Spirit of God within us. And then Jesus says they will never perish. Listen, this body will die but our spirit will never die. In the next chapter, Jesus said in 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And when we believe that, we can live victoriously in this life. We don’t need to fear those who can kill the body but do nothing more to you after that. Because we can know that we will never die. In fact, we can even start to look forward to that day when this old body is cast off, and we receive a new body which is not weighed down by sin, which is not weak, which is not corruptible. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I look forward to that day.

And then the last aspect of our eternal life that Jesus is teaching is that it is eternally secure. It’s what the Reformers called the perseverance of the saints. It is the double guarantee of our eternal life. First of all, Jesus said we are in HIs hand and the Father has given us to Him. So that is our first guarantee, and then the next guarantee is that we are in the Father’s hand, and no one is able to snatch them out of HIs hand. In Colossians, Paul puts these two things together: “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:3). It’s a double guarantee.

I’ve used the illustration many times of my kids when they were little, and we would have to cross a road or a parking lot. And I would tell my child, “hold onto my hand.” And usually they would grab hold of my hand. But though I told them to hold onto my hand, I did not rely on their strength to hold onto my hand. Neither did I rely on their obedience. I’ve seen them suddenly try to let go and do something silly like pick up something, or turn around, right at the worst possible moment. So rather, I held onto their hand. I wanted them to obey me. But I made sure that I kept them firmly in my grip. Their security was up to me.

So it is with God and His children. All of us like sheep are prone to wander. But though God wants us to obey Him, He keeps us by His sovereign power. We are not kept by our power. No one, Jesus said is able to take them from the hand of God. No one. That includes you and I. Just as my child could not escape from my hand, we cannot take ourselves out of God’s hand. Romans 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” God will keep us from the cradle to the grave through eternity.

And then Jesus concludes His answer to their question in vs.30, in the most dramatic way possible, saying, “I and the Father are One.” Not only that He is the Messiah, but that He is the Messiah promised in scripture, the very God of God in flesh. Now He is saying two things in that tremendous statement. First of all, He is saying He and God have one purpose. That is the context of vs.28 and 29. Both Jesus and God are agreed in their purpose to keep HIs sheep. And this is consistent to what I read earlier from chapter 8 vs 28, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” So they were in agreement in all that Jesus did and said. He spoke the words of God and did the deeds of God. So they are One in purpose.

Secondly, they are One in essence. They are One God. Isaiah 9 which I quoted from earlier made that clear. The Messiah was called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Now they are two persons, the Father and the Son. But they are One essence. In the great high priestly prayer of John 17, when Jesus is in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion, He is praying with HIs disciples, and He prays to God saying, that they may all be one, “even as You, Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that you sent Me.” So this statement that “I and the Father are One” is the greatest self declaration of His deity. He makes Himself equal with God.

Well, we read in the next verse that they didn’t like the answer to their question. They had wanted Jesus to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah. And Jesus answered that, but according to HIs interpretation of who the Messiah is. He says clearly that He is One with God. And the rulers know that is what He means because they say it in vs. 33. They say we are going to stone you to death, because you being a man makes yourself out to be God. They know full well what He is saying. But they don’t want God to be their Messiah. They want a revolutionary. They want freedom from Rome. They want to be the rulers of Israel, and rulers of the world, and the Messiah that they wanted they thought could provide that.

Jesus on the other hand, made them feel guilty. He made them realize that they needed a Shepherd. That they needed to follow someone. They rejected that idea. And so they picked up stones to kill Him.

No one here today I am sure would admit that you would like to kill Christ. But I wonder how many of you have rejected the notion that you need a Shepherd? How many of you reject the idea that you need to follow Him, and obey Him, if you are going to have abundant life? I believe that the Jews that day knew that Jesus was the Messiah. But they rejected Him and chose to live their lives their way, and rejected the notion of a Shepherd. And I believe some here today may have the same response. You don’t want to be under the authority of a Shepherd, you don’t want to submit to a Shepherd. And as such you reject Christ.

But I hope that is not your decision. Today you have heard the truth. Today the invitation is being extended to you to believe in Him, to hear His voice, and to follow Him. If you will do that then you will be HIs sheep, and He will know you, and He will give eternal life to you. And no one can snatch you out of His hand. You can face life with the confidence that you will never perish but have everlasting life with God, and He will be with you, today and forever. I pray that today is the day of your salvation. Come to Christ, believe and follow Him. Answer His call.

That you may be able to say as the Psalmist David; “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousnessFor His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” This is the life that the Lord is offering you today. I pray that you will accept Him, believe Him, and follow Him.

From the very earliest examples of literature, we find the use of anthropomorphic allegories or similitudes used to illustrate various types of human behavior. Even today, much of our perceptions of human behavior is influenced by tales of animals who talk, and think as we do. And so it is not surprising that we find in the Bible uses such analogies from time to time as a means of teaching certain principles.

Today we come to one such allegory, that of the church, or the people of God, presented as sheep, and Christ as the shepherd of the sheep. Also in this allegory, Christ portrays false religious leaders as wolves who prey on the sheep. Most of us can appreciate this type of teaching mechanism. We understand, at least in some fashion, the picture of a shepherd and his sheep.

But I suppose that this allegory is not as clear to us in this modern industrialized world as it would have been to listeners in Jesus’ day. Because even though we are familiar with the idea of shepherding, most of us probably have never spent much time around sheep. The Israelites though were sheepherders by heritage, going back to the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When the Israelites moved into Egypt during the time of Joseph they settled in the land of Goshen. They lived separately from the Egyptians because they were shepherds, and that was a loathsome profession to the Egyptians. So historically, the Israelites were shepherds, and as such the people listening in Jesus’ day would have been very familiar with this type of allegory.

However for us folks living today, we may have a vague picture of Jesus carrying a lamb on His shoulders tucked away somewhere in the photo bank of our memory, but that’s about the extent of our knowledge about the subject. Such anthropomorphic stories might be much more understandable for us if they were about dogs. My kids grew up on Disney tales like 101 Dalmatians, or the Fox and the Hound. We have had several dogs as pets at our house. So most of us can relate to dogs. We like to imagine that they have certain human attributes. Some of us even treat our dogs like humans, sometimes we treat them better than humans.

But Jesus in His wisdom did not use dogs in allegories as teaching entities. To be frank, dogs are much more intelligent than sheep. In fact, in some cases, dogs seem to be more intelligent than people sometimes. But to illustrate humans, Jesus used sheep. And before we can really appreciate this passage, I think we need to first of all recognize that Jesus is symbolizing His people as sheep.

Popular perceptions about sheep are actually not all that accurate. Sheep are often considered symbols of innocence, meekness, submission, and patience. Or at least that’s the common perception. But I read a number of articles written by experts on sheep and shepherding, and I have to say that those attributes were not really highlighted. What we perceive to be innocence of meekness or patience they call just being dumb. Sheep are actually very stupid creatures. One writer listed 12 characteristics of sheep that I will just briefly run through, just so that we might get a more accurate picture of what the Bible says we are like.

First of all, he said sheep are very foolish. Out of all animal IQ’s, sheep would have to be at the bottom of the list. 2. Sheep are slow to learn. You don’t see sheep performing tricks in a circus for good reason. 3. Contrary to idyllic pictures that we might have seen somewhere, sheep aren’t all that attractive. They are dirty, smelly, actually kind of ugly up close.4. Sheep are demanding. They always want to eat, and will turn a grassy field into a mud patch in no time, eating the even the roots of the plants. They constantly need new pastures to satisfy their insatiable appetites. 5. They are extremely stubborn. They are almost impossible to herd. Perhaps that’s why shepherds are described as leading the sheep. Because if sheep don’t want to go somewhere, you can’t hardly make them. 6. Sheep are stronger than they look. They are physically strong. 7. Sheep are prone to straying. They have little sense of direction. They get lost easily. Perhaps because they are always looking down. They will wander away without supervision. 8. Sheep are unpredictable. They do foolish things without any sense of reason. 9. Sheep are followers. If one starts running, others will run as well. If one wanders away, others will follow them. 10. Sheep are restless. For sheep to lie down they need freedom from fear, freedom from friction with others, freedom from hunger, and freedom from pests and parasites. That is a rare combination. 11. Sheep are dependent. Without a shepherd for protection, sheep would die from starvation, from thirst or from predators. 12. Though sheep may look differently in different countries, in nature all sheep are the same. That’s an unflattering picture of sheep, and yet that is the picture of sheep that those Jews listening to Jesus would have had.

Now to be fair, the Bible does not paint quite such a dismal picture of sheep. But it does emphasize their nature to stray as their primary characteristic. One of the best known verses is Isaiah 53:6, which says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That verse emphasizes the nature of sheep to go astray, to wander from the fold, to become ensnared in trouble.

You will remember the parable that Jesus told about a lost sheep who went astray in Matthew 18:12-14. “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”

So it’s important then that we understand what Jesus is talking about when He speaks in this passage to the religious leaders of the Jews and says that He is the Shepherd of the sheep. We cannot understand this allegory while holding onto some idealistic picture of sheep, if we are to understand the simile correctly. Sheep are a picture of people, of the human condition, and His sheep represents those sheep that belong to Christ. That means they are the church. They are followers of Christ. As Jesus said in verse 9, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” He said in vs.4, “the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” And in vs.10, He said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” So to be the sheep of Christ is to be the church of Christ. We are the ones who go astray, we’re the ones who are foolish, who follow our appetites to the point of ruining our life, who will perish at the hands of false teachers if not for our shepherd who defends us. Our well being is completely dependent upon Him and His under shepherds.

So that’s our characteristics as sheep. Now let’s look at those of the good Shepherd for a moment. Jesus said in vs.11, “I am the good Shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Jesus describes first His nature, and then His purpose. First let’s consider His nature. The word Jesus uses for good is the Greek word “kalos”. There is another Greek word commonly used for good. That’s the word “agathos”. That word means morally good. But the word “kalos” is different. It literally means beautiful. But it’s not referring to physical beauty, but to being excellent, magnificent, admirable, noble, praiseworthy. I would add to that desirable.

Not only is He presenting the nobility of His character, but He is contrasting between Himself and the aforementioned thieves and robbers who enter into the fold to take advantage of the sheep. He is the Shepherd of excellent character. One who comes with a noble calling to take care of the sheep, to give the sheep abundant life, to lead them to pasture. So He is making a contrast between the true shepherd and the hirelings of verse 12, who haven’t got the best interests of the sheep in mind, but are in it for money. We can trust that the Lord is good, that His desire for us is for our best interests. This is the failure of our faith many times, that we doubt the Lord’s goodness. We don’t surrender our will to Him because we doubt that His will is for our best. We need to trust in the Lord’s goodness towards us and follow Him.

And then He presents His purpose as evidence of His goodness. He said He gives His life for the sheep. Four times Jesus repeats this phrase that He lays down HIs life for the sheep. This willingness to give His life for the sheep is the ultimate attestation of the nobility of His character. It shows His love for the sheep. Jesus said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” That’s the standard of love that God has given to us to emulate. But I dare say Jesus went even beyond this exalted standard. Because Jesus did not just die for those who were His friends, but for those who were HIs enemies. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Even when we were in rebellion against God, Christ laid down His life for us.

This is the reason that Christ came to earth; to give His life as a ransom for sinners. He says in another place, that He came to seek and to save those that were lost. And the only way that God could bring about the salvation of lost sheep, to save sinners, of which we all are partakers, is by dying in our place. Because God’s law is unchangeable. In the Garden of Eden God declared that if you eat of the tree you will die. Death is the divine punishment for sin that passed from Adam to all men because all have sinned. Romans 3:23 says, the wages of sin is death. But God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son to be our substitute. The Shepherd offers His life in exchange for the sheep. This is the doctrine of atonement; that Jesus paid the penalty that we deserved, by offering Himself as our substitute.

2 Cor.5:21 says that God made Jesus who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is why Jesus came. Not just to be a great teacher about life, not just to be the supreme example of how we are to live. Those things are true, but secondary to the primary reason which is to save us from the penalty of death by offering up Himself as our substitute.

Then in verses 12 and 13, Jesus further defines His ministry by contrasting that of the hirelings. These are those false shepherds who are only doing it for the monetary or political gain or social gain that they might get from their position. When trouble comes, when the wolf comes, they flee and leave the sheep to fend for themselves. The point being that the distinguishing feature of a true shepherd as opposed to a false one is that he loves the sheep enough to lay down his life for them. That’s a distinguishing feature of a true under shepherd as well. He may not become a literal martyr for the sheep, but he will give up his life for the sake of the sheep. A true pastor will give up his life for the sake of the church. He will give up whatever career he might have, what riches he might enjoy, what benefits he might have in this world, for the sake of the church. That’s why when I see these television evangelists sitting in lavish studios wearing $1000 dollar suits, and flying around the country in their private jets, I am skeptical of whether or not they are true shepherds. A hireling is someone who assumes the position of a shepherd but is only interested in the financial rewards.

The next point that Jesus makes in this allegory is the relationship between the true Shepherd and His sheep. In vs.14-15 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Notice that Jesus says that the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is the same as the relationship between the Father and the Son. That is a tremendous statement. The relationship between the church and Jesus, is the same as the relationship between the Father and Christ. Now what kind of relationship is that? Well, I would suggest that it’s a relationship of intimacy, of fellowship, of communion. We could summarize it by saying it is a relationship based on love.

Now when you look at the text you don’t see the word love mentioned anywhere in it. But love we have already determined was the reason that Christ gave HIs life for the church. We know that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to save them, to become His church. But the word that Jesus uses in the Greek is “ginōskō”, which is translated “know”. But He isn’t talking about knowing as just knowing information. He is using a term that indicated intimacy. Sometimes it was used to indicate sexual intimacy. In Jewish terminology, they spoke of sexual intimacy as to know one’s wife as in Genesis 4:1 when Adam knew Eve or Matthew 1:25 where Joseph did not know Mary when she was with child.

And notice that further proof of that is that the word “knows” of vs. 15 is explained in vs.17 as “loves”. God loves Christ in vs.15, and that is explained in vs.17 as God loves Christ. That same type of relationship between God and the Son is to also be between Christ and the church. That love that we have with Christ is the love of intimacy pictured in Ephesians as the love of Christ for His church. Listen to Ephesians 5:25, “ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Here it is again, this concept of love being that Christ gave Himself up, that is, He gave up His life for the church. And that love consummated becomes the basis for a communion that can best be illustrated by the marriage of a husband and wife. Ephesians 5:31-32 “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”

This relationship between the church and Christ is based on the same love between the Father and the Son. Jesus said in John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.” And in John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing.” So that intimate relationship between the Father and the Son is to be mirrored between Christ and His bride, that is the church.

Then notice how that love is manifested between Christ and the Father. Jesus said in vs. 18, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” So that love between the Father and the Son is characterized by the Son’s obedience to the Father. He was obedient to the Father’s command. Phil. 2:8 says concerning Christ, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” And also look at Heb. 5:8 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” So though Jesus was the Son of God, the very God in flesh, yet He humbled Himself to be obedient to the Father because He loved the Father.

Now as Christ was obedient to the Father as evidence of His love, so also Jesus said we are to be to Him. We are to know Him even as He knew the Father. So our relationship to Christ then is based on love, which is based on obedience, even as was Christ to the Father. Let’s look again at that reference which we quoted earlier, John 15:13, Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” But what’s the next verse say? “You are My friends if you do what I command you.” There it is. The correlation of love to obedience. You cannot have one without the other.

Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” That is the way love is expressed. That is the way love is expressed by Christ to God, and that is the way we as the church express our love to Christ. That’s the way the sheep show that they know the good Shepherd. They follow Him. They go where He tells them to go. They answer Him when He calls. In Luke 6:46 Jesus asked, Why do you say to Me “Lord, Lord,” and don’t do the things which I say? But the one who hears HIs word and acts on His word will show that He knows the Lord.

And then that obedience brings about the next characteristic that Jesus teaches, and that is the unity of the church is mirrored by the unity of the Father and the Son. Jesus says in John 10:16-18 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Those other sheep that Jesus had which are not of this fold are none other than the Gentiles, that is you and I. We were not a part of the fold of the Israelites. But Jesus came to save the world, all nations, all tribes, of all tongues. The fact that He is the Savior of the world means that He draws all men to Himself. Where there was once division between the Jews and the Gentiles, He has made into one church, one kingdom, one people.

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, He prays for the unity of the church to be even as the unity that He had with the Father. I’ll give you just a few verses from His prayer which illustrate that. In John 17:11, 20-23 Jesus prayed, “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. … 20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

Why is that unity so important? So that the world might know who Jesus is. The church is to be unified by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, that they may do the works of Christ. We can know Him intimately because He is in us. And because He is in us, we do HIs work. So that the world might know Him as they see Him operating in us. So then the gospel is not the exclusive domain of Christians in America. The gospel is not the exclusive domain of the nation of Israel. But it is the domain of Christ, the Savior of the world, who desires all men to be saved and to know the truth of salvation. That can only be realized when the church goes into all the world and preaches the gospel to every living creature.

Now there is a final aspect of that relationship with Christ to the world. And that is found in the last three verses we are looking at this morning. Vs.19-21 “A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?” Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?’”

So the relationship with the world will be characterized not only by unity with His church, but by division. He came He said in Matt. 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He said in Luke 12:51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.” Listen, the truth of God is dividing. It causes division on purpose. He came to divide between the sheep and the goats. Between the light and the darkness. Between truth and a lie. Between life and death. The gospel of Jesus Christ brings division. Unity is to be unified to the truth. We are not to be unified to the world. James 4:4 You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

This division that Jesus brings causes people to have to make a decision. Will they listen to the voice of Christ? Will they recognize the truth of God? And then what will be their response to it? How about you? You have heard the voice of the good Shepherd today. Is there a response in your soul to the truth? Do you recognize that you are a sheep that has gone astray, and you’re in need of the shepherd of your soul? If the Holy Spirit has so convicted you and called you today, I pray that you will heed the voice of the Shepherd and answer Him, and follow Him. He has paid the penalty for your sin and if you will but surrender to Him as Lord, He promises to be your Shepherd and to lead you into the path of life. I pray that today you will answer that call.

As usual, today we are looking at the next passage in our ongoing verse by verse study in the book of John, particularly the teachings of Jesus. I don’t preach topical messages. It doesn’t matter if it’s Christmas or Mother’s Day, I’m going to preach the Word of God as we come to it. But I will say this in light of the recent events in our country. We live in a fallen world, we live in a broken world, a world broken by sin. And the only hope for the world is not found in political parties, it is not found in social justice, the only hope for the world is found in Jesus Christ. And that hope is manifested in HIs church here on earth, it is manifested by His body. His church manifests Jesus Christ to the world when we are conformed to the image of Christ. So to that end, we are going to look today at a simple allegory which Jesus gave, which illustrates the true church of Christ, and their relationship to the Great Shepherd of the church.

This passage we are looking at today is the first part of a discourse that Jesus gave shortly after healing a blind man. If you look back at chapters 8 and 9, you will remember that Jesus had been teaching in the temple and said some things regarding His deity to the Jewish religious leaders which infuriated them, and so they took up stones in order to stone Him to death. But Jesus disappeared into the crowd and escaped. Then on the way out of the temple, He and his disciples saw a man who John tells us who had been born blind. And so Jesus spat on the ground, made clay and rubbed it on his eyes, and told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. The blind man believed Jesus, and obeyed by going and washing, and John says he came back to the temple seeing.

He eventually finds himself in front of the Pharisees, the religious rulers of Israel, and they interrogate him, trying to find information that they can use to discredit this miracle of Jesus. But they cannot. They can’t dismiss the irrefutable fact that he who was born blind can now see. But their anger so burns against Christ, that they take it out on this man, and so they excommunicate him from the temple. That meant that not only was he now a religious outcast, but a social outcast as well. But Jesus comes later on that day and finds him, and reveals Himself fully to him as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord Jehovah. And so it says that this formerly blind man worshipped Him. Worship is reserved for God. Not for prophets, not for great teachers. But this man worshipped Him as Lord God, and Jesus accepted that worship.

Shortly after that, Jesus declares to the Pharisees in 9:39, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” In other words, Jesus is saying that He came to separate those who are in the kingdom of Light, from those who in the kingdom of darkness. That is the judgment that Jesus said He brought to the world. Jesus said in John 3:19, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” So the judgment Jesus brings is to distinguish between light and darkness, truth and error, and life and death. This is the judgment that comes through Christ on the world.

Now as we come to chapter 10, Jesus continues to teach that principle even further by use of an allegory. The first part of this allegory which we read is that of sheep which belong to a shepherd, which are kept in a sheep fold, and the nature of true shepherds and false shepherds. And this allegory is expanding upon and illustrating the nature of the people who belong to God, which Jesus likens to sheep belonging to a shepherd. This is a recurring theme we see throughout the Old Testament, that of God as the Shepherd of His people.

For instance, one of my favorite psalms is Psalm 23. When we studied through the Psalms recently in our Wednesday night Bible studies, we memorized the 23rd Psalm. I’m suffering a little jet lag this morning, so I don’t trust my memory. I am going to read it for you, because I think it sets the stage for this allegory that Jesus was teaching. Psalm 23 says, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Now that is a beautiful Psalm. And we hear it used to speak to lots of different situations or circumstances in our lives. But it’s important to realize that the primary interpretation of this Psalm is to paint a picture of salvation. And as we look at it through the template of salvation, we see first of all that the Shepherd satisfies our need for salvation, as He gives us rest from our attempts at our own works of righteousness, He saves our soul, He leads us into the path of righteousness which comes through His own righteousness, He delivers us from the penalty of death, He provides blessing for us even though we live in the midst of a perverse world, He leads us and corrects us through the Word, He anoints us with the Spirit of God, He gives us all things to enjoy, He will never leave us or forsake us, and we will live forever with the Lord. That is the picture presented in Psalm 23, the picture of those in the church, who are saved, who are born again into the family of God, and are of the body of Christ.

Psalm 23 shows the relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep when one is saved by repentance and faith in Christ. The natural state of all men is like that of a lost sheep. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him (that is upon Christ) the iniquity of us all.” So those who hear the call of God and turn to Jesus as their Shepherd, by repentance from their sins and faith in Him as Lord who is able to save them from their sins, God lays their iniquity on Christ, and as they follow Him as their Shepherd, they are made part of His flock. That means that they become part of His church, His body.

That method of salvation was true in the Old Testament times and it is true in the New Testament times. That principle of the church is important for us to understand. Jesus was the Great Shepherd of the church of Israel, and He is the Great Shepherd of the New Testament church. In the Old Testament, the church was limited to being or becoming an Israelite, either by birth or by becoming a proselyte. But in the New Testament church there is no more Jew and Gentile, but we are all baptized into one faith, as one new race, a new people, the people of God. But God’s people were always His church.

So Jesus illustrates that relationship through a very familiar allegory in those days, that being the picture of a shepherd and his sheep. Now that was a familiar subject to an agrarian community such as that of the Jews in Jesus day, but it is not so familiar to us today I suppose. And I won’t pretend to be an expert on sheep either. But I have read many accounts from those who are. So I think it’s helpful to our understanding if we explain what these experts have written concerning shepherds and their sheep.

In those days, there was usually a community sheepfold near a village or town which would have been used by several different shepherds. This would be a large pen or fenced enclosure on the outskirts of the village. And during the day each individual shepherd would lead his flock out to pasture and watch over them and care for them. But in the evening, all the shepherds would lead their flocks back to the sheepfold where they would be kept for the night. The shepherd would turn over responsibility to a doorkeeper, or porter, who would guard the door of the fold all night. And from what we are told, this door would be a narrow opening in the fence, which only one sheep at a time could pass in and out of. And so once all the sheep were safely inside the fence, the doorkeeper would lie across the gate, or door so that none could enter or go out. There was no other door.

In the morning, the shepherds would come back to the sheepfold to gather their sheep again in order to pasture them. And the way this was done was each shepherd in turn would call his sheep. In some cases he would call them by name. Names that he had given them. And as his sheep recognized his voice they would come to him and he would lead them out to pasture and tend to them all day, leading them to water, leading them to rest, leading them to green pastures. Now that is a beautiful picture, not unlike that of Psalm 23, but note that it is only true for those sheep that belong to that particular shepherd. There are other sheep that belong to other shepherds, and they do not recognize the shepherd’s voice, and so they do not follow him.

Now that is a simple illustration which shows as I said the relationship of the Lord with His church. And Jesus uses this not only to illustrate that, but to rebuke the Pharisees and expose them as false shepherds. Look at vs.1, Jesus says that “he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

So the contrast is very clear. There are some who enter the sheepfold who are not the true shepherd. They do not enter through the door but climb over some other way under cover of darkness, to steal and rob the sheep. Now this is a pointed reference to the Jewish religious leaders. They attempt to rob from the church of God by climbing up some other way. They do not come through the door, who is Christ. They seek to defraud the church for their own advantage. He explains further in vs.10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” False teachers, false shepherds have the same agenda as Satan. Jesus said in chapter 8:44 to these false religious leaders, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

That’s why in this allegory they come under cover of darkness. Jesus is called in chapter one the Word, and it says the Word was Light. And the Light shines in darkness. That is how we know the truth, because the truth is light. So the characteristic of false teachers is that they don’t come with the truth, they don’t teach the word of God, they come with lies, with half truths, with silly stories, with philosophy, with human reason, with entertainment, tickling the ears of their listeners to deceive them, to defraud them of the truth, which leaves them in darkness and ultimately destroys those who are deceived. It destroys them because it blinds them to the truth, and Jesus said in 8:32 that only the truth can make you free. Only the truth of God can make your free from the penalty of death.

And that is what the Pharisees, the priests, the scribes and lawyers, the religious teachers of the Jews were; false shepherds, defrauders of the church by their false teachings which leave people in darkness. Jesus said in vs. 8, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.” He is speaking of the priesthood and the rabbis and Pharisees that had come to take advantage of the sheep. They are thieves and robbers. They are not serving the sheep, but serving themselves. They do not come through Jesus Christ.

Here is the thing. Though God had appointed the Levitical priesthood to conduct the services in the temple, and to teach the word of God, they had become apostate. They still conducted the services and ceremonies and rituals, but they had departed from the truth. And the other religious leaders in Judaism were apostate as well. They gave precedence to the traditions of their forefathers. They observed their ordinances and traditions, but they had long since lost sight of any application to their hearts. Furthermore, many of their offices were appointed by politics, not by God. Much of the leadership that was controlling and influencing the church of Israel such as the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees had never really been appointed by God. And so they were in it for the political power that it gave them, and for the financial opportunity it provided as rulers of Israel. Jesus says they were thieves and robbers. However, God did use men to be His spokesmen. He appointed prophets such as John the Baptist or Elijah, who would faithfully call His people to repentance. But for the most part the religious leadership of Judaism was apostate.

I believe that has a lot of similarity with the situation in the church today. I would dare say that a large percentage of pastors and priests in churches today are not really called by God to preach His word, but are nominated by men, by denominational boards, by countless human mechanisms, but they are not sent by God, and as such they are not true shepherds or doorkeepers. They have climbed in some other way. They did not come through Jesus Christ. God didn’t call them or appoint them. They are man appointed. But just as in times past, God still speaks through His appointed prophets. Not fortune tellers, not future tellers. That’s not what it means to be a prophet of God. But prophets who are forth tellers. Men who will faithfully proclaim forth the truth of God’s word without adulteration or hesitation.

By the way, let me make something clear that has been on my mind lately. As the church, we need to understand that God has chosen men to be His instruments here on earth. To be His ambassadors, His ministers. We are not all called to be pastor’s or preachers, but we are all called to be ministers, to be workers in the kingdom. God has always chosen to use men to perform His works here on earth. God divided the Red Sea, but He told Moses to strike it with His rod. God raised the widow’s son, but He used Elijah to do it. God is the author of His word, but He used men to write it down as the scriptures. Even when it came to providing salvation for the world, God did not act without incorporating man in that salvation. Jesus not only was God, but He also became a man in order to effect our salvation.

So I say that to emphasize that if there is a work here on earth that God has determined to do, then He will usually use the people of His church to do it. That is the purpose of the body of Christ. To be His hands and His feet. This idea that all we can do is say a quick prayer and then go back to our regularly scheduled programming on television, believing that if it’s going to be done then God will have to do it, and that means we do nothing, is bogus. That isn’t taught in the Bible. Jesus gave us the example of the good Samaritan so that we might learn that if we say we love God, then we need to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. And that means we don’t pass by a situation and say, “My, my. God help that person.” But just keep on going on by. No, Jesus said if you love your neighbor as yourself you will get down off your high horse and spend whatever time and resources necessary to help that person. To be the hands and feet of God. To display the mercy and love of God.

James said the same thing in James 2:14, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

Now we do those things by the strength which God supplies, but we do them. This idea that we need to just give everything up to God and leave the lost or hurting or destitute to somehow discover the love of God on their own is a travesty of what God has designed the church to do. I’m not suggesting the church is about a social gospel either, where we just focus on meals and water and material things. I’m talking primarily about providing for spiritual needs while not neglecting physical needs. Usually both are needed, and God has designed the church to perform His will here on earth in both of those areas conjointly. And there is a reward James said in chapter 5, to those that do so. James 5:19 says “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back,let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

All right, that was a freebie. But I believe it needs to be made clear that God has not given us a commission to be passive, but to go into a hurting, dying world and share the gospel. Well, in spite of His allegory, the Pharisees fail to understand what He is saying. So Jesus expounds upon it starting in vs.7, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” Jesus will say later, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” So when Jesus says He is the door, He means He is the only door. There is no other name given among men by which we may be saved. John said in 1John 4:3, “every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” These cults that say that Jesus was not God in the flesh are antiChrist. The new emergent churches that are espousing that all religions lead to God are antiChrist.

So notice that Jesus is not only the Shepherd, but He is the Door. By Him only is entrance gained into the church of God. He lays down His life for the sheep. But He is not speaking of Himself in this allegory as the doorkeeper. I would suggest that the doorkeepers are the men that Christ has called to be His pastors. The word pastor comes from the idea of a shepherd. Peter tells the elders to shepherd the flock among you. So a pastor is an under shepherd. He is a doorkeeper. When the Great Shepherd of our souls went back into heaven, Paul said in Eph. 4:11 that “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” So the pastors/teachers are to shepherd the flock. We are the doorkeepers. We are guardians of the flock while living in this present darkness. We don’t save people, God saves people. But we guard the flock, we guard His word, we guard the church and we guard the door.

In vs.9, Jesus again reiterates that He is the door saying “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” He will be saved. What does that mean? That word “saved” has fallen out of favor in many churches today, but to their own detriment. Because the Bible speaks of those that believe in Christ unto salvation as being saved. Saved from what, you might ask? Saved from the penalty of death. Saved from destruction. Saved out of darkness into light. And I will add, saved not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. Saved from enslavement to sin. Jesus quoting from Isaiah 61 when He was in Galilee said that He came to proclaim liberty to the captives and set the prisoners free. What He was talking about was setting them free from the enslavement to sin and the trap of Satan. That’s what it means to be saved. To be set free from sin and death.

And yet salvation doesn’t stop there. Salvation is only the beginning of following Jesus. It is the first step. It is new birth. Jesus said in vs.9, not only will they be saved, but “they will go in and out and find pasture.” Why does the shepherd take the sheep in and out to pasture? Obviously, it is to feed the sheep. This is the duty of the shepherd to feed the sheep. And we too need to be fed spiritually through the word of God. This is how we grow and mature. Hebrews 5:12 tells us, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” This is the job of the shepherd of the flock, to feed the sheep. To grow them to maturity, to edify them, build them up, so that they can do the work of service that the church has been commissioned to do.

Then the in the last verse that we will look at this morning, Jesus presents a final contrast between His ministry and the ministry of the false shepherds. Vs.10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Now earlier I already talked about the characteristics of false teachers. They share the same characteristics with their father the devil as we talked about earlier when I quoted John 8:44: Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

That’s the tragedy of false doctrine. If we condemn false teachers we are told we need to be more loving, more tolerant of other viewpoints. But the fact is that nothing short of the truth will save you. Watered down or diluted truth cannot set you free. It will not save. Half of the gospel is not the full counsel of God. So that’s why Jesus was so intolerant of false teachers. That’s why He gives us this allegory, because it’s a rebuke to those false shepherds who continue to keep the people enslaved to their captivity even when faced with a true miracle of God as in the case of the blind man, and then have the audacity to excommunicate this man from the church because they hate the truth so much. They end up killing and destroying with their lies those that Christ came to save with the truth.

But then Christ contrasts their ministry with His own saying “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” See, here is the truth of the gospel; it is not only what you are saved from something, but you are saved for something. We are saved from condemnation. We are saved from the wrath to come. But Jesus says we are saved for an abundant life. What that means literally is exceedingly abundant life. Now that doesn’t mean what the prosperity preachers say it means. Jesus isn’t promising you a Mercedes 500 if you follow Him. But what He is offering is a surplus of life that will not fade away. He is offering everlasting life that will never die. He is offering a life that is filled with the source of all life bubbling up within us. Remember what Jesus had just cried out in the temple a few days earlier? In chapter 7 vs.38 Jesus cried out in the middle of this ceremony, ““He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.” That is the promise to us, that we who believe in Him will have the Holy Spirit in us, like a spring of living water springing up from our soul that will never fail. The promise is that God will lead us and guide us, not only in this life, but in the life to come, and in the ages of eternity to follow forever and ever. As Psalm 23 said, God will anoint my head with the oil of the Holy Spirit until my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

I hope that you will hear the voice of the Shepherd today and you recognize His voice as the word of God. And you will believe in Him, and follow Him with all your heart. Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” The invitation is extended to you today to enter through that door and be saved. I pray that you will. Let’s bow our heads in closing.

Today’s message is the continuation of a story that we began looking at last week. I realize some of you weren’t here, but you should be able to catch up quickly – it’s a simple story of a man born blind, that Jesus healed. We looked at the first seven verses last week. Today we are going to try to finish this chapter which is basically a narrative of the people who are affected by this miracle.

And so I have titled today’s message, “Salvation in slow motion.” The idea behind that title is that this passage illustrates salvation in an expanded way. What I mean to show in this message is the progression of faith as illustrated by this blind man. I believe that is why we have this very long narrative in the scriptures. I believe, as I said last week, that every miracle in the gospel is presented to teach spiritual principles by spiritual parable. So to just focus on the historical narrative here and miss the spiritual implications that are being taught would be a mistake. I think the spiritual principle being taught here is the progressive nature of saving faith.

Jesus said in the last chapter, chapter 8 vs.31, that “if you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” So Jesus is saying that there is a necessity to continue in the truth, to continue to follow His word, and when you do that, the truth will make you free.

That truth finds support in Psalm 119:105 which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” So to continue in the word indicates a desire to follow the truth as God reveals it, step by step, day by day. When you do that, God will make you free. It doesn’t say, set you free. It says make you free. It’s talking about not just being set free from the penalty of sin, but making you free from the power of sin. That’s an important distinction.

In the Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln declared all slaves to be free. But the war was still going on between the North and the South. And it did so for quite some time after that declaration. Even after the cessation of hostilities, there were many slaves that continued to live as slaves. They had been set free. But though they might believe that fact, they had not yet been made free. Because they were still attached to the plantations, they had familiarity with that place. To some extent, the plantation was all they knew. They were made free when they acted on the declaration that set them free. When they walked away from their home, walked away from their bondage, and started living as free men, then they were actually free.

That’s the problem we still have today in the church. Many people come to church and hear the good news that Jesus came to save them. And so they believe in Jesus. They believe that is true. But effectively they are not made free. They continue to live in enslavement to their sins. They are comfortable in the world. That is their home. And as such, they are not made free. The way that they will be made free will be the day that the power of sin is broken in their life and they can begin a new life being free from the power of sin.

So this blind man illustrates that continuance in the truth, and the freedom that comes through salvation. And as we will see, there is a progression to his faith. At the beginning, he doesn’t know very much. But at each step of his journey, his faith grows, culminating in worshipping Jesus as Lord in vs.38. So this man’s salvation was given to us as an example. And John reveals that it is a sort of like slow motion, an expanded process for this guy. We don’t know how long it took, but it likely took all day, maybe longer to come to the full realization of what happened in his life.

Well, let’s jump in. There is a lot to cover in not a lot of time, so we won’t exegete every word. But I do want to highlight each step of his growing faith. First by way of review, we see the beginning of his faith as the result of divine action by Christ who came to him and selected him, chose him to be the recipient of His grace. This man wasn’t really seeking Christ. He doesn’t even seem to be too familiar with who He was at first. But one thing this man does know; he knows he was blind. Nobody had to tell him he was blind. And one thing we can be sure of as well; he didn’t want to be blind.

Now that is the necessary precursor to salvation. Blindness is analogous to being in darkness, spiritual darkness. That is, you are dead in your trespasses and sins. That is necessary to understand if you are going to receive salvation. Salvation is not you’re a nice person, you are a good person, and if you believe in Jesus He is going to make your life really great. That is no where taught in the Bible.

Rather, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus taught that you had to come to God as a beggar, even as this blind man had been a beggar. Matt. 5:3 says “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Poor in spirit is to admit that you are a beggar spiritually. You have no means to buy your way into the kingdom of God. And then Jesus added in vs 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” That means that you must come to a place of mourning over your sin. That’s repentance, and when you come to God in repentance you will be comforted. And then Jesus said in vs 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” That’s the recognition that you need righteousness, and you desire to be made right with God. You cannot supply that righteousness on your own. That need is satisfied by Christ’s righteousness when He takes your sin upon Himself, and trades His righteousness to you.

So Jesus made clay out of spittle and dirt and rubbed it in this man’s eyes, then telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And in this we see symbolized the man’s faith and obedience, we see the application of the Savior, and we see the forgiveness of his sins illustrated in washing in the pool of Siloam.

But that was just the beginning of this man’s progress of faith. His eyes were opened to the truth, his sins were forgiven. But he is still going to continue in the word of Christ and come to complete freedom. Now in this process this man interacts with four groups of people. We have the narrative before us, so I don’t need to belabor each part of the dialogue. But each interaction brings this man further in his progression of faith.

The first group he interacts with after having his eyes opened was his neighbors. Vs.8, “Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, ‘Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?’” Listen, when you get saved, people are going to notice. Your neighbors, your coworkers are going to notice that something about you has changed. I remember when I got right with God 30 years ago, while living in California. The next day I went by the restaurant where I worked to pick up my paycheck or something, and my coworkers thought I had been drinking. I was sober. I wasn’t acting strange. But something about my demeanor was like a great burden that I had been under was taken away. And so they noticed something different. They didn’t know what it was, but it gave me the opportunity to tell them that I had gotten right with the Lord.

Well, that’s what we see happening here. He has the opportunity right at the beginning to share what has happened to him. And I will tell you an important principle here. That is, the testimony of a changed life is the most effective testimony. It’s not what you are like in church, it’s what you are like out of church that matters. The testimony of a changed life is the most powerful sermon you will ever preach.

Now this is also the means of a step of faith for this man. Jesus said, If you confess Me before men, I’ll confess you before My Father. And when this man meets the skepticism, the questions of his neighbors, he confesses Jesus without wavering. They could not help but notice that there was a tremendous change in him. He had been blind, and now he could see. So they ask him how were your eyes opened? And his answer is “A man called Jesus anointed my eyes with clay and told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and I went and washed and received my sight.”

Now that’s a good testimony. Some of you say you don’t know how to witness for the Lord. I would suggest starting by using this man’s testimony as a template. You don’t have to know all scripture. You can simply tell what Jesus did in your life.

Notice that at this point, this man only knows Jesus by name. He doesn’t know all doctrine. He does know more than a lot of people though as we will see from some of his other comments. But at this point, his faith is elementary. He knows Jesus gave him his sight. Jesus was a popular name in that day to be sure. But nevertheless, the meaning of that name was also well known. Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. So when this formerly blind man said Jesus was responsible for his healing, he is professing faith in the name of Jesus as the source of salvation from Jehovah God.

Well, his neighbors are not really sure what to make of his testimony, so they take him to their religious leaders, the Pharisees. And of course, the Pharisees are very familiar with Jesus. They have been plotting to kill Him for some time and in fact just that day they had picked up stones to stone Him to death but Jesus disappeared from their midst. This is the second group, the Pharisees. And they are defiantly a hostile audience. They see this as an opportunity to build a case against Jesus.

You know, if you were to try to condense all the error of Judaism in one practice or one tradition, then that error would be best illustrated by the Jew’s practice of keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath requirements were the best example of all that was wrong in Judaism. And the greatest proponents of Judaism were the Pharisees. I’m not going to give you a lesson concerning Pharisees this morning. I’m going to assume you know all that means. But perhaps what you haven’t thought of before is that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees was best illustrated in the observance of the Sabbath.

So I think that is why Jesus deliberately healed on the Sabbath. There are seven miracles of healing recorded in the gospels that Jesus did on the Sabbath. So I would say He did it deliberately. This idea of a mild mannered, weak wristed Jesus is not Biblical. I think Jesus was deliberately confrontational to those who taught a false doctrine. And conversely, Jesus was deliberately sympathetic to those who were caught up in that false doctrine and as such were still trapped in their sin. But He is deliberately offensive to those who heaped heavy loads on others, but figured out ways for themselves to wriggle out of any burden whatsoever. That’s what false religions do. That’s why the scriptures are so damning towards false teachers. Because it keeps people in darkness, and it keeps people from being made free. That’s why sometimes I name names, or call out certain false teachings. I’m not trying to be mean spirited, but I hate to see people duped by self serving religious teachers.

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that the greatest opposition to true discipleship is often popular religion. Because rather than continuing in the truth so that you become free, they teach traditions of men, which have no redemptive power, and those traditions end up enslaving people to repetitious ceremony that isn’t even founded on truth.

And that’s what the Pharisees did with the Sabbath. Jesus said man wasn’t made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. It was to symbolize rest from your works, rest in what God has done for us through Christ. But instead, they added ordinance upon ordinance until the Sabbath law had become this yoke that kept them in servitude to their religion.

According to rabbinical law, there was a specific ordinance that prohibited using saliva to administer to a sick person on the Sabbath. They had so defined every possible thing that it was just insane. For instance, they prohibited healing on the Sabbath unless it was a life or death situation. So if you weren’t about to die, they could make you comfortable but not try to make you well. This had evolved into something far removed from the original fourth commandment. So anyhow, Jesus healed on the Sabbath in order to confront their hypocrisy, and to expose their false teaching.

So they confront the man about his healing, but the miraculous part of it goes right over their heads. They aren’t interested in a man suffering blindness being healed. They are interested in finding some way to convict Christ. So their deduction is that ““This man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” vs.16. So their reasoning is that their Sabbath law was true, but God’s Word was not true. Listen, that is the hallmark of false doctrine. Regardless of what denomination it is, or what a religion’s name is, the hallmark of false religion is that they subject the word of God to the traditions of men. You see that all the time with cults. They will claim to believe the Bible, but then they say that their prophet had a dream and received new revelation. And angels or someone told them to write it down. And then eventually, you find that their revelation ends up being the means by which they interpret the Bible. And then finally, they ignore what the Bible says if their prophet or priest says something that is not supported or even refuted by the Bible. They basically say their prophet or priest is right and the Bible is wrong. Many times they end up changing the Bible to fit their revelation. Now that’s the progression of false religion. And that’s exactly what these Pharisees were doing. They had added to the law, until their law superseded the law of God.

But notice the progression of faith of the man who was formerly blind. Vs.17 the Pharisees ask him, “What do you say about Him, since He opened your eyes?” And he said, “He is a prophet.” Now I don’t know if he was being obtuse or that simply was the limit of his knowledge. But I will say that even in the language of the ordinary people, the word “prophet” did not mean simply a predictor of events in the future, but one who was as the representative of God. He was not only a “fore-teller,” but a “forth-teller,” declaring God’s truth, revealing His will and character, bearing the witness of divine works.

Now that was a major claim of Christ Himself, that He spoke the words of God. That His word was the truth of God. At the beginning of the feast He said in John 7:16-18 “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

And as I said a few weeks ago, that is the way you can tell a true prophet of God, or a true preacher of the gospel, or a false teacher. A true prophet speaks God’s word. It’s just that simple. That is why I preach verse by verse here. It’s not that I couldn’t buy sermons online like a lot of guys do, complete with sappy illustrations and funny jokes. That’s easy. Anyone can do that. But to preach the word of God is not always easy. It’s certainly not always popular. But it’s what we are commissioned to do. Not to tickle people’s ears. But to teach the truth. That’s the primary purpose for our service. It’s to meditate on the word, to be taught the word. Everything else is just icing on the cake. The music is icing on the cake. Too many churches today only offer whipped cream icing, and there’s nothing substantial underneath. So you get a sugar rush on Sunday morning, and then crash on Monday.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if this man didn’t know a fair bit of theology. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t thinking of Moses when he said Jesus was a prophet. Moses said in Deut. 18:15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” Moses was talking about the Messiah. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this former blind man realized at this point that Jesus was the Christ, that is the Messiah.

Now there is another group that we see in the text. And that is his parents. The Pharisees go after this man’s parents. They probably were disgusted with the former blind man’s answers, so they go to his parents to try to discredit him somehow. And this is where I get additional support for my idea that the blind man meant Messiah when he said prophet. Because it says in vs.22, that they were aware that the Pharisees had stipulated that if anyone said Jesus was the Christ, they would be put out of the synagogue. And so they avoid that question. They answer in the affirmative the Pharisees first two questions concerning whether or not he was their son, and if he was indeed born blind. But the third question, “How does he now see?” They didn’t want to answer that question. And the reason is there was a good possibility that the son had said that Jesus was the Christ. They want to avoid having to confess that for fear of being kicked out of the synagogue. So they say, “he is of age, ask him.” So we can assume that this man’s faith is steadily progressing throughout the day. He has grown from confessing the man Jesus, to the prophet, to the Christ, which is the Greek word for Messiah. And all along he is steadfastly refusing to budge in his faith in Jesus regardless of the criticism and the mounting hostility.

So having got nothing from his parents, the Pharisees call the man back in for questioning. They are like a bull terrier, they won’t let go until they find something. This time, they ratchet up the indictments from saying Jesus couldn’t be of God because He broke the Sabbath, to saying that He was a sinner.

So the former blind man at this point turns the tables and starts to teach the teachers. And he gives a really great rebuttal to these Pharisees. His greatest point is made in vs 25, as he replies, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” This is the evidence that they were too blind to see. This is the evidence that Jesus was who He said He was. And this is the evidence that we need to show the world that does not know Christ. Like the line of Amazing Grace, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

That is the testimony we need to tell the world. The world can’t refute the testimony of a changed life. When you were living in sin, when you were a drunkard, when you were a partier, an adulterer, a fornicator, a liar, a thief, whatever you were, by the grace of God you are not any more. You are brand new. You are remade. You are different. You were once blind, but now you can see. That kind of testimony cannot be argued against. We can have a debate until the cows come home about evolution versus creation. We can argue about the existence of God, and the existence of evil. And there may never be any agreement, and there will probably never be anyone saved as a result of your apologetics. But the transformation of your life is indisputable. That is the trophy of grace that God holds up to the world. That is why sanctification is an essential part of your progression of faith. That is why renunciation of sin is essential in the life of a believer. That is why it’s essential that though you come to Christ as you are, you do not stay as you are. If you are in Christ, you have become a new creature, you’ve been made free. Act as free men and women. Free from not only the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin. Then you will be free indeed.

So in vs. 33, this man makes yet another step in the progression of his faith, he says, “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.” He’s teaching the teachers here. And in the process, his own faith is growing exponentially. That’s what happens when you start putting your faith in practice, by the way. When you start teaching, or preaching, you start growing spiritually. I don’t necessarily mean preaching professionally. But when you start professing your faith to others, it serves to build your faith personally.

Well, they kick this man out of the synagogue. They excommunicate him. Listen, in that day that was a pretty serious deal. That meant he might not be able to even find work in his community. He was a social outcast. His own family would not be able to communicate with him. That was a very traumatic thing. And I will just add that is something I see happen quite often. Someone comes to Christ, and before the glow can start to fade off their face they end up getting sideswiped by someone. They end up having to choose between a boyfriend or girlfriend or Christ. They have to chose between family and Christ. They have to choose between a career or following Christ. And you know, we could blame that on the devil trying to trip them up. But I think God wants us to make a decision for Him first, above everything else. I think God may sometimes put a choice in front of you. Are you going to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and will all your might? Or are you going to love the world and the things of the world. If you chose the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Choose carefully ladies and gentlemen. What does it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

Listen, sometimes getting kicked out of your community is the best thing that can happen to you. Like the slaves on the plantations, they weren’t really free until they left the place of their bondage. Sometimes going back to what is familiar is just going back into bondage. Jesus came to make you free. And that was the case with this man. He was excommunicated, and that was a good thing. Because Jesus came and found him in his solitude. And Jesus revealed Himself to him in a way that completed this man’s faith like very few had found. Jesus said in vs.35, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.”And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him.”

This blind man saw, and kept on seeing, until he saw the reality of the Son of God. He saw Jesus for who He really was. Lot’s of people in that day saw Jesus with their natural eyes. But God gave this man spiritual vision. He gave him the privilege of seeing who Jesus really was. The Messiah, the Son of God, the Lord.

That aspect of Christ’s divinity is one that is sorely lacking today. Some think that Lord is a proper name of Jesus. But actually it’s a title. It means ruler, master, owner of all. I believe in the necessity of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Where we bow our will to HIs will. Where we stop serving ourselves and start serving Him. This is an essential part of the progression of your faith. You cannot stop with just believing. You can’t stop with just forgiveness. But if you continue in His word, then you are truly disciples. And you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. You cannot be truly a disciple, you cannot be truly free, until you bow to Jesus as Lord of your life. All your life submitted and in subjection to the Lord of the Universe. The Lord of Creation. This man understood that. And so he worshipped Jesus. I believe that indicates that he bowed on his knees before Christ, maybe even prostrated himself on the ground in front of Christ. And notice that Christ did not reject that worship. Because He is God, and worthy of our worship.

Listen, worship is not just singing or listening to music. Worship is bowing before the Lord and doing His will, renouncing your will, renouncing everything and everyone for the surpassing value of knowing Jesus as Lord.

Finally, notice Jesus last statement. John 9:39-41 “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

What judgment did Jesus render? I’ll let His words speak for themselves. Jesus said in John 3:17-21 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Today enough light has been revealed through Jesus Christ to expose your sin. To show you your need for spiritual healing, to show you your need to be made free. If you will but confess your sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. He is able to make you free. If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. What a great time to be made free. We are celebrating our freedom as Americans this weekend. But many of us are not really free. Many of us are still in bondage to our sin, still living under the power of sin. Today the invitation is given to be made free indeed. Call upon Jesus today and He will make you free.

I’m going to warn you in advance that today’s message is going to be a little bit different than usual. I’m not going to exegete every word, or every sentence in this text. I’m not going to reveal a three point outline in the passage and expound on each subject. I guess I could. That is what I normally do. But today I want to focus on just a few points that Jesus makes at the end of this dialogue we have been looking at for several weeks and use them as a springboard for our own application here this morning.

Every week, I pretty much make a point of quoting a particular verse of scripture at some place during our service. Any guesses which verse that would be? Let’s assume that is a rhetorical question. The verse of scripture I quote almost every week is from John 4:24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now I do that deliberately. Most of our signage says “Worship on the beach!” And so I would hope that is why you are here this morning. To worship God. I hope that is your purpose. But we are not the only people who are worshipping this morning. There are churches all over this city that claim to be worshipping God. And let me add something – there are a lot of folks that are holding worship services on the beach lately too. I know of several groups that are coming out on the beach to hold some sort of service lately. I guess we make it look to easy or something. So there are a lot of options out there for people who want to worship God.

However, I want to remind you that at the very beginning of the Bible, God makes it clear in Genesis 4 that He is not obligated to accept our worship, unless we worship Him as He desires. As He designed it. In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel come to present their offerings to the Lord. You know the story. Cain brought the fruit of his labor, the best of his crops, and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and their fat portions. That means that he brought animal sacrifices, blood sacrifices. And it says that the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard.

So that simply means that God did not accept Cain’s worship, but He accepted Abel’s worship. That was God’s prerogative, wasn’t it? But what was Cain’s response? He became angry, and in his anger he sinned and murdered his brother.

Now we find a very similar situation presented here in this passage today. The Jews were very religious, they had a system of worship by which they felt they could please God, by which they thought they could become acceptable to God, and yet Jesus said it did not please God. In fact He says that they are still in their sins, and so they become angry, and end up trying to murder Christ here at the end of this chapter, and then finally succeed in murdering Him 6 months later.

The question then is how do you worship God? How do you know that He accepts your worship? How does your worship make you acceptable to God? I’ve been speaking about this for weeks now to some degree or another. I would assume that most of us consider ourselves Christians. But if I were to take a survey of 100 Christians as to what they base their faith on, I would not be surprised to find that there would be dozens of different answers.

There are millions of professing Christians around this country that are attempting to worship God this morning. You happen to be here. But how do you know what is true? How do you know what is acceptable worship and what is not? Why should you believe what I am telling you? Does it really matter how or where you worship? Does it really matter if you go to church? Does the content of the worship service really matter? Won’t God just accept you if you are sincere? Does God really care how you worship Him?

Well, I would say that most of those questions can be answered by Jesus’s statement which I quoted from a moment ago, “God is Spirit, and those that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Note that He says you MUST worship Him in spirit and in truth. It’s not optional, it’s not conditional. He is stating the requirements for acceptable worship. Yet I must say I don’t think most professing Christians really believe that. I think they have this idea that God is going to accept their worship however they may present it. And yet I would point out that illustration again of Cain and Abel. I believe that this was placed at the beginning of the scriptures for a reason, that we might recognize that God does not have to accept any worship that does not meet His requirements. And if God does not accept your worship, then I am afraid I have to tell you some bad news. It’s the same news that Jesus told the Jews in this passage three different times. Jesus said, “You will seek Me, but you will not find Me, and so as a consequence you will die in your sins.” And to add insult to injury, over and over again, particularly in vs.47 and again in vs.55, Jesus said you don’t know God. In spite of their worship, they didn’t know God, and as a result they would die in their sins.

Now why would Jesus say something so dreadful to these very religious people, who were in the temple worshipping God at that very moment? In fact, they had been there for a week, night and day worshipping God. And yet Jesus has the audacity to tell them that they are going to die in their sins. That their worship is useless. Why would He say such a harsh thing as that? These people were sincere. They were worshipping God. They were in church for a week. Doesn’t that count?

I’ll tell you why Jesus said that. First He said it because He loved them. If He didn’t love them, He wouldn’t warn them of their impending doom, would He? But because He loved them, He told them they were still in their sins. We hear all the time, love the sinner, hate the sin. But the Bible teaches that if you love the sinner, you will expose their sin. People get offended though when you tell them that they are a sinner. Just like Cain, the natural man gets angry at the idea he is a sinner. But God’s desire is to save you from the condemnation of sin, and He cannot do that unless you first recognize that you are a sinner.

But there is another reason that Jesus said that they were going to die in their sins. And that is because they did not know the truth. Jesus said in vs 32, “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Some people think that freedom means that they can come to God any way they want, just as they are. But that is not what Jesus is teaching. The freedom Jesus is speaking of is freedom from their sins. In other words, if they knew the truth, it would set them free from the penalty and enslavement of their sins. But these Jews didn’t accept the truth, because it did not fit into their paradigm of religion. So Jesus said in vs.40, “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.” So just like Cain, they plot to murder Jesus, because they didn’t like the fact that God had rejected their worship.

So verse 32 then where Jesus said “you will know the truth and the truth will make you free” correlates to the quote from chapter 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” If you neglect the truth, or reject the truth, or ignore the truth, then your worship of God is in vain. It doesn’t matter how sincere it is, it doesn’t matter how emotional you may be about it, it doesn’t matter how beautiful you may think the service may be, or how inspiring it may seem to you. If it is not truth, then it is not accepted by God, and as such you are still in your sins.

Do you understand that folks? I’m talking to you here today right now. I’m not talking about the Jews 2000 years ago. I’m talking to 21st century Christians right here in this community. I’m telling you by the authority of God’s word that if your worship of God is not according to the truth, then it is worthless and you will die in your sins.

So what is truth? That’s the logical next question, isn’t it? Well, Jesus has the answer to that question as well. First of all, right in this passage He says that His words are truth. Vs.31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Back in vs.14 at the beginning of this dialogue, He says, “My testimony is true.” In John 17:17, Jesus says, “Your word is truth.” And note another tremendous verse, which connects truth and the spirit together as we saw earlier that both are required. In John 6:63 Jesus says “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

So we know the truth by the word of God. And the word of God is spirit and life. So if we are going to do what Jesus said, and worship God in spirit and in truth, then we must worship according to the word of God, which is the gospel of Christ. So God reveals how we must worship Him in His word.

There is an important principle that we find in hermeneutics, which means the interpretation of the Bible, and it’s called the principle of first mention. How that works is that you find the first time a word or phrase is used, and that becomes a template for how you are to understand that usage throughout the Bible. Do you know the very first time that the word worship is used in the Bible? That’s another rhetorical question. But you need to know these things. Because your eternity depends on it. Your life depends on whether or not you get it right. The first time worship is found is in Genesis 22. Abraham has been told by God to offer up his son Isaac on the altar. To sacrifice his son. And so He gets up early in the morning, and his servants and Isaac go to the mountain that God has appointed. And seeing the mountain in the distance, Abraham says to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”

Can you imagine that? God told him to sacrifice his son, he has a knife to slit his son’s throat, he has the wood to make the fire, and his plan is to sacrifice his son in order to please God. And Abraham calls that worship. Now that’s heavy. Think about that for a moment. And compare that definition of worship to most concepts of modern worship today. There is no comparison. There is no correlation. Listening to music and clapping hands does not equate to sacrificing one’s own son whom you love with all your heart. There is no comparison.

Actually there is a comparison. And that is in Genesis 22, As Abraham bound his son on the altar and raised the knife to kill his son, God provided a ram caught in a thicket at the last moment. God pointed out the ram which was provided to be Isaac’s substitute. And that was a picture of the sinless substitute that God would provide for the sin of the world so that sinners condemned to death might be made acceptable to God. So that their sins might be taken away.

I believe that event is what Jesus is referring to in vs.56. Jesus said, ”Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” I think that Abraham was given the insight at that moment, that there would be a Lamb of God who would die in our place, so that we might be saved from the wrath of God against sin. Abraham saw Christ’s day prefigured in the ram that he slew and laid on the altar. And Abraham rejoiced, not only because Isaac was spared, but also because he understood the fulfillment of the prophecy given before Isaac was born, which was that through his seed would come One from whom the whole world would be blessed.

So before you can begin to worship in spirit and in truth, your sins have to be dealt with. And God has provided a substitute to pay the penalty of death that we all deserve because all have sinned, and none of us are righteous. So that is the first step in worshipping God. Believing who Jesus is, and what He came to do, and accepting His sacrifice for your sins.

Listen, that is the basis for our salvation. We cannot come to God without a sacrifice. Because the penalty that God requires of sin is death. Romans 3:23 says “the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” There are two essential elements in obtaining that salvation which Christ paid for. Two essential elements; faith and repentance. Faith is believing who Jesus is; the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and repentance is confessing and turning from your sins and asking God for forgiveness. In the book of Acts, we see that the apostles taught faith and repentance were necessary, Acts 20:21says they were “solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul instructs Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:25 “with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.” Jesus and the disciples went about preaching repentance and the necessity to believe in Christ. So repentance and faith are the twin pillars of our faith.

Now I will tell you what most modern worshippers get wrong. They emphasize faith, but not repentance. They say believe in God, but they don’t say repent of your sins. I would suggest that the word sin is an anathema in most churches today. They don’t want to offend someone. Instead, sin is accepted, it’s even condoned in many churches. But I will say this, without repentance from sin, there can be no salvation. And without the appropriation of Christ’s sacrifice to cover your sin, there can be no worship. There can be no fellowship with God. There can be no acceptance from God.

That’s why Jesus kept emphasizing to those Jewish religious leaders that they would die in their sins, because they would not accept the One who came to pay the penalty of their sin. Now how do you know what is sin? It must be found in God’s word. God’s word defines sin. Not society, not the culture, not some religious figurehead. No one defines sin but God. Sin is anything that does not conform to the nature of God. And God has written His word that we might know sin, that sin would become even more sinful.

Yet how many churches today are trying to accommodate society’s definitions of lifestyle, of behavior? In their efforts to appeal to the world, they accept the world’s definitions of marriage, for instance, when it is in opposition to God’s definitions in His word. I have to say that if they are changing God’s definition of sin then they are not worshipping God in spirit and in truth. They are worshipping God in vain. They are still in their sins.

Notice how Jesus keeps refocusing on this aspect of God’s word is truth, and His words are God’s words. John 8:43-47, “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

So the bottom line is that He says, you don’t believe my word because you are from your father the devil who is the father of lies. So instead of believing my word, you believe a lie. Since you are not of God, you don’t accept My word. I would suggest this is evident in Christianity today; that those that do not believe God’s word is the truth, have no use for God’s word. That is why many churches today rarely refer to the word of God. They rarely preach the word. They rarely teach the word. Instead they sing some songs, watch a couple of videos, maybe watch a skit, and then the pastor ends up telling a couple of funny stories at the end, and everyone goes home feeling vaguely entertained.

So I will summarize so far; if the church does not preach faith and repentance, then they are not worshipping God in truth. And if the church does not preach the word, then they are not of the truth. I don’t care how entertaining it is. They have forsaken the truth, and as such are apostate.

Here is what the religious apostates believe: that God is love, and that sin is ok. That God loves them in their sin. And so they hate anyone who preaches against sin. This is the difference between true religion and false religion. False religion does not deal with sin and claims all that is necessary is a relationship with God, and true religion recognizes that sin must be dealt with in order to have fellowship with God.

I want to point out another statement Jesus made in vs.50 “But I do not seek My glory; there is One who seeks and judges.” This is another way that they should have recognize that Jesus was speaking the truth. He did not seek His own glory, but He sought to glorify the Father in all that He did.

And I would suggest that this is a way that Christians can discern those who speak or teach the truth. If a church or a worship service is geared so that it brings glory to the people who are conducting it, then you need to be suspect of whether or not they are of the truth. I’m going to be very candid with you for a moment. I don’t do this to bring glory to myself. I don’t do this for fame. I don’t do this to bring some sort of honor to myself. To be frank, I’m often humiliated as a pastor. But I think that is the method God employs to able to use me.

There was a time in my life when I had a certain amount of fame. There was a time when I was recognized in my career wherever I went around the country. I used to be an antique dealer, and I was on a national television show about antiques for a few years. And I received a lot of notoriety from that at one time in my life. I made good money from that career. But God took me down more than a few pegs in my pride in order to be able to use me for His glory and not my own. So I didn’t chose this ministry because I thought it would make me popular or well liked. If anything, the more people listen to me, the more enemies I seem to make.

But I will say this. I am in good company. Jesus said inJohn 15:18 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” And I believe that is because I preach the truth of God’s word. We obviously don’t have a whole lot else to offer you folks here. I don’t tell jokes very well. We don’t have a cool band. We don’t have skits or interpretive dancing. But what we do is preach the truth of God’s word without apology and as the central theme to our worship. And I believe that the word of God is truth, and that only the truth will set you free. Some people are offended by that. And as a result they get mad when I preach on sin, and the need for repentance. But I would also hope that there are going to be some that will believe, and will respond to the truth, and will commit to this church. I hope that some of you are here today.

Quite often lately I find myself praying the prayer of Elijah as he contended with the priests of Baal in 1Kings 18:36. He prayed, ““O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O LORD, are God, and that You have turned their heart back again.” I pray that God will show that I have done these things according to HIs word. And that God will turn the hearts of His people back again.

Well, I warned you that I was going to go on a bit of a tangent today. And so I’m going to wrap this up with one last point. And that is the principle found in vs.51, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” So you want to worship Him in spirit and in truth? Then you will keep His word. Jesus emphasizes this over and over again. This key principle is found in vs.31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Listen,1 Samuel 15:22 says, “to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams.” To obey is better than coming with songs and hymns. Isaiah 29:13 says, “Then the Lord said,’Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote.” And because of that false worship, God says He will turn away from them. God wants obedience from the heart. To obey is to love the Lord. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

I don’t have a lot of time to show you every reference this morning, but over and over again Jesus says “continue in my word”, or “keep my word,” or “keep my commandments.” In fact, as an example to us, Jesus Himself keeps the word. That was the measure of His truthfulness that the Jews should have recognized. He says in vs55 “and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him; and if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you, but I do know Him and keep His word.”

And I would suggest that this is the way we know that someone knows the Lord as well. They keep the word of God. If they don’t keep the word of God, then they don’t know God. 1John 2:3, 5 “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” … 5 “but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.”

That’s the reality of true worship. It’s laying down your prerogatives, your rights, your purposes, to obey the word of God. It’s putting Christ first in your life. True worship requires that you bring to God the offering of yourself. Romans 12:1-2 says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

That’s all I have for you this morning. Worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Nothing else counts. Anything less than the truth is a lie. God desires truth in the innermost being. And we do that by being conformed to God’s word. Simply lay the template of the gospel over your life, and follow the commands of God as He laid them out in His word. It starts with a sacrifice, Jesus substitionary death on the cross, and it ends with another sacrifice, presenting your body as a living and holy sacrifice. Acceptable to God. That is your spiritual service of worship. That is how we are made free. Let us pray.

It would have been great if I could have held this message back for another week, to coincide with Father’s Day, since this message has a lot to say about fathers. That’s one of my favorite holidays by the way. My wife and kids always get me some sort of gift for Father’s Day. My second favorite holiday is my birthday, but she doesn’t get me anything for my birthday. Coming the day after Christmas, it kind of is like an afterthought. So Father’s Day is my day. I am really looking forward to it, in case you didn’t notice.

But anyhow, shameless plug aside, it would have been nice to preach this next week, because this message is really about fathers. But not so much your immediate father, as it is talking about ancestral fathers. Who you descended from. I have noticed that some people really value their ancestry. Their heritage means a lot to them. They have done all sorts of research into their family tree. And perhaps it should be meaningful. But then again some people put way too much emphasis on some great thing they can claim their great great grand daddy did, and they feel that somehow validates them in some unique way.

By the way, I’m always amused by these people that believe in reincarnation. Whenever you hear someone claim to have been reincarnated, it’s interesting that they always claim to have discovered that they were somebody great in their past life. There are a lot of people that claim to be the reincarnation of Napoleon or Cleopatra, for instance. I read about one guy who believed he was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. He didn’t look anything like her though. Phil Collins, the rock singer, believes that he is the reincarnation of a survivor of the Alamo. Amazing. And looking around on the internet I even came across a couple of people who claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. I guess these poor confused people want to find some way to add importance to their lives.

But I guess everyone would like to know if they are related to anyone famous. I found out something interesting about my own ancestry the other day, which in light of those previously mentioned people is going to sound like I too am trying to add importance to my life. But my nephew supposedly traced our lineage back to Scotland, and found that our line came from one of the daughters of Robert the Bruce, a Scottish king that was featured in the movie Braveheart. I have to admit, I found that a little bit exciting for a while as I thought about it. But the truth is, someone in my ancestry that lived over 700 years ago has very little to do with my life today.

But for the Jews, their ancestry meant a lot. Being descended from the line of Abraham they could rightly claim the benefits of God’s covenantal people. Their property, their ancestral lands, were divided according to their tribe, according to the sons of Jacob, the son of Isaac, who was the Son of Abraham. So for a Jew living in the first century, being a descendant of Abraham was a matter not only of religion, but nationality, property and even to some degree determined their livelihood.

Now this week as we look at these claims by the Jews to be children of Abraham, we need to remember that we are jumping into the middle a teaching session that Jesus was having with the Jews, which occurred during the Feast of Tabernacles, which has been going on for several days. We have looked at various elements of this for the last several weeks. All of it was occurring in the temple during this feast in which tens of thousands of people are attending. And last week, we saw that Jesus delivered this great statement at one point in the discussion, saying, that if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Jesus wasn’t talking about freedom from slavery, or freedom from Roman oppression, but He was speaking of spiritual freedom, freedom from the enslavement of sin. And three times in the previous section Jesus said they were still enslaved to their sin, and as such they would die in their sins. The Jews, who had already hated Him enough to want to put Him to death, were enraged by that charge. So they argue that they couldn’t go to hell as sinners, because they were descendants of Abraham.

You see, the rabbis taught that no son of Abraham would enter into hell. They believed that their father Abraham was actually posted at the door to Hades to make sure that no circumcised person would enter there. Justin Martyr, in the Dialogue of Trypho in the second century, argued with a Jewish man who said this about the Jews; “They who are the seed of Abraham, according to the flesh, shall in any case, even if they be sinners and unbelieving and disobedient toward God, share in the eternal kingdom.”  So this was their belief, that due to the covenant of God with Abraham, they inherited eternal life with God, and escaped hell, simply due to their being a descendent of Abraham.

So in vs.33, the Jews in response to Christ say, “we are Abraham’s descendants.” They said that as a defense of their freedom, possibly referring to their religious freedom. And three times in this passage before us today, the Jews are going to claim their heritage as a defense against what Christ was teaching. They have three claims they make, and as we look at them you will notice that they are progressive in their claims.  First, they claim to be the physical seed or physical descendants of Abraham, which Jesus says is true in vs.37.  Secondly, they claim to be the spiritual seed of Abraham, which Jesus says is not true.  And thirdly, they claim to be the children of God, which Jesus again demonstrates is not true.  So Jesus agrees with the first claim, and then just debunks the second two, exposing the falseness of their claims.

And I would just like to make a parallel to us in our culture today. Most people in America today claim to be Christian. The Pew research study showed that 70% of Americans claim to be Christians. At the very least that means that they believe in God, they believe in Christ, and they believe in an afterlife in heaven. But I’m afraid that for the majority of those claiming Christianity, they are not unlike those Jews. When we examine the basis for their claims, we find that the number one reason is that they were raised to be Christians. They were raised in a home where Christianity was taught, or at least accepted by parents who believed in God. So most people I believe would claim their heritage as a basis for their Christianity.

Secondly, their claim to Christianity is based on their church affiliation. You could equate the nation of Israel with the church in many respects. And so spiritually, many in our culture claim their Christianity based on their church association. They not only were raised to believe in God, but to belong to a particular denomination; whether it be Catholic, or Episcopal, or Presbyterian or Baptist or whatever, and they find their identification in the rituals and ceremonies and community of their church. And as the Jews were required to be circumcised in order to belong to their church, many denominations require people to be baptized as a mark of belonging to their church.

And then thirdly, as a result of the first two, most people in that 70% would believe that they were children of God. And as such they believe they would escape any judgment that might fall on the world. Rather than Abraham standing at the gate of heaven, they might expect Saint Peter. But I’m afraid that in light of what Jesus is teaching today, we will discover that what Jesus is talking about is not being made a child of God through physical means, but by being born as a child of God by spiritual means. And so the requirements which were true for the Jews are true for us as well.

Now let’s look briefly at each of those claims of the Jews. So number one, they claim to be Abraham’s descendants in vs.33. That’s their defense against Christ’s charge that they would die in their sins. So Jesus’ response is in vs. 37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants; yet you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.” Jesus agrees that they are the physical descendants of Abraham, through Isaac and then Jacob, and then the 12 sons of Jacob, constituting the nation of Israel.

But though Jesus acknowledges their physical relationship, He says that there is something amiss. What is wrong about their claim is that they were seeking to kill Him, because they did not believe His word. This is a very important principle by the way. You cannot say you believe in Christ, but not believe His word. Christ’s word is inseparable from His entity. It’s like the old adage, “a man’s word is his bond.” Or like my Dad used to say, “you may not have much in this world, but the most valuable thing you possess is your name. Don’t dishonor your family name.” The principle that he was trying to teach was that if you gave your word, you better keep it. Your word was who you were. It was your character, your reputation, your nature.

There is an effort by liberal theologians today to try to redefine who Jesus was, irrespective of His word. They want to claim to believe in Jesus, but deny the authority or reliability of God’s word. And what Jesus is teaching here is that HIs reliability, even His deity, is authenticated by His word. So we either have to believe what Christ taught, or dismiss Him altogether. Jesus Christ was the Word, He was in the beginning with God, and He was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and His word is truth. That is why Jesus said in vs. 31, “if you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine.”

So Jesus says, though you might be physical descendants of Abraham, yet your deeds are witness that you are not the spiritual children of Abraham, and further evidence is that you do not accept Christ’s word. So spiritually speaking, your lineage is worthless because it hasn’t affected your spiritual condition. Literally, He is saying is, “my word makes no progress in you.” It’s the same idea as what He said was the evidence of a true disciple; you will continue in His word. A characteristic of a true Christian then is that you have an appetite for His word. I would hope that is the reason that you are here this morning. I hope it’s not to see the dolphins, or to enjoy the beach. I hope it is to drink and eat of God’s word.

And not only to accept the word, but that the word is a sanctifying agent in your life. It changes you. It is the means by which God speaks to you and the Holy Spirit guides you. It is making progress in you. The word of God is progressively doing the work of sanctification in you, changing you into the image of Jesus Christ.

But that isn’t the evidence in these Jews lives, according to Christ. So He says in vs. 38, “I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father.” In other words, you have no interest in things which come from My Father, you are only interested in things that come from your father. So Jesus is saying that their lineage says one thing, but their actions say another. Listen, our actions speak louder than our words. I had a young man come up after the service last week who talked to me about his conversion. He related how as a teenager, a self righteous man acting in hypocrisy in the church had really turned him off on the church. But later in his college years, he came across some believers who really practiced what they preached, and that testimony was the catalyst for him coming to the Lord. When he saw the reality of what they were saying in their life lived out, then it made an impact on him.

So the Jews respond to Jesus again in vs.39, claiming once again to be the children of Abraham, and I think they are claiming not only physical descendancy, but now they are also claiming spiritually to be sons of Abraham. They say in vs.39, “Abraham is our father.” See, I think they realized that Jesus was saying they had another father, and so they are refuting that, asserting once again that Abraham was their father spiritually as well as physically.

Jesus answers, “If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham.” What are the deeds of Abraham? Well, 3 times in the New Testament, in Romans 4, Galatians 3, and James 2, it says “Abraham believed God, and He counted it to Him as righteousness.” When God spoke to Abraham, he believed God. Jesus says I am speaking to you the words of God, but you don’t believe them. Therefore you are not children of Abraham, because Abraham believed God. Jesus said, “But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”

You know what else were the deeds of Abraham? Abraham obeyed God. Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” Listen, we are saved by faith. But faith is more than just lip service. It takes little to no faith to say you believe God, but it takes faith to act on that belief. It takes faith to leave all and to follow Him, as the disciples did. God wants more than lip service. That’s what’s wrong with some of the modern praise and worship movement. We are projecting this image of this narcissistic God that just wants to hear us tell Him how great He is all the time. That’s not the image of God we see in the Bible. But Jesus said “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” To obey is better than sacrifice, it’s better than praise. To obey is the proof of your faith.

So in vs.41, Jesus said, “You are doing the deeds of your father.” See, to whom you obey, you belong. Not whom you claim to be, but to whom you act like determines who you belong to. That’s what Paul said in Romans 6:16 “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” That’s the same thing Jesus said in vs.34, “everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

So twice now Jesus has alluded to another father whom they are obedient to. And it is not God the Father but another father. Their response is very interesting.  They said to Him, “We were not born of fornication.”  And here’s where they make the final claim: “We have one Father: God.”  Not only are we the physical children of Abraham, the spiritual children of Abraham, but we are the spiritual children of God.  Because we’re not born of fornication.

Now some commentators say that the Jews are claiming by this statement that they have not worshipped idols. Idol worship was associated with fornication, which produced illegitimate children. So many feel that fornication was closely associated with idolatry and that was the meaning of what the Jews had to say. But I think it was because they had researched Jesus’ pedigree, and had ascertained incorrectly that He had been born out of wedlock, because He was not Joseph’s true son. So I think that this is more than likely a slam on Him and on HIs sinlessness. Because as we see in vs.46, Jesus asks, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” Well, they couldn’t prove it, of course. But they would have loved to believe that He was born in sin, and thus eliminated from any consideration that He could be God in the flesh.

And that highlights the significance of Jesus being born of the Holy Spirit who came upon Mary. That the sin nature of Adam did not pass on to Him. But He was born of the Spirit. So Jesus was born sinless, and He remained sinless. And therefore He was able to be the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

So Jesus says if you were the spiritual children of God, you would love Me. Vs.42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me.”

To love God then is to love Christ, because He is the physical manifestation of God in the flesh. Hebrews 1:3 says that He is the exact representation of God. So it’s impossible to love God and not love Christ. And how is that love for God expressed? Well, we just said it earlier, we believe His word, and we are obedient to His word. And I would add to that you do not love the world. The world being synonymous with the realm of Satan.Jesus continually refers to Satan as the ruler of this world. So in 1John 2:15 it says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

That love for the world, the love of the things of Satan is the characteristic of those that are not of the Father, but are children of the devil. That’s the next point that Jesus makes, the clarification of who their real father is. Vs.43 “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Listen, physically we exhibit the characteristics of our father, don’t we? That’s natural. You pass on your physical characteristics to your children. I would even say that we pass on more than just physical characteristics, we pass on some of our personality, some of our intelligence, and then as our children grow up, we pass on many of our habits, our personal tastes for certain things, the way we talk. All those things are greatly influenced by our parents. Most of us are horrified to find out as we get older how much like our parents we are. We thought we would be so different. And yet it turns out that we end up very much like our parents.

Well, Jesus is saying, if you love God and are a child of God, then you will take on the characteristics of your Father. But if you love the world, and the things of the world, then you will take on the characteristics of the ruler of this world, that is the devil. And it’s interesting to note the characteristics of Satan which Jesus points out. He was a liar, He says, and the father of lies. There is no truth in Him. What a contrast to Christ who is the truth, and who speaks the truth of God. Satan is a liar and entraps mankind by his lies. But Christ is the truth, and His truth sets men free.

You remember the first time we see Satan in Genesis, he comes to Eve with a lie. And she believed it, and then obeyed it, and was entrapped by it. And as a result of her and Adam’s sin, the entire human race is trapped in the bondage of sin. So Jesus adds that he is a murderer. What that means is that in that first deception, Satan brought about the murder of the entire human race. Because sin brings forth death. From Adam’s sin, came about the murder of all men, of which Satan bears much responsibility. Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

So Jesus expresses that contrast again by saying in vs. 45 “But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.” You could simplify that statement by saying, here’s the way to diagnose a child of the devil: he doesn’t believe the truth, doesn’t love Christ.  Here’s a way to diagnose a child of God: he loves the truth, he loves Christ.

The summary of this principle Christ is teaching is found starting in vs.46, Jesus says, ”Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God.”

Jesus could ask that question, “which of you convicts Me of sin”, because it was apparent to all that He was guilty of no sin. And that fact alone was validation that He was the Son of God. There is no prophet of any religion that can honestly say that he is not guilty of any sin. No one on earth can honestly claim to be sinless. And even if we did have the audacity to claim sinlessness, you better believe someone could convict you of sin, because your life reveals evidence of your sin. Romans 3:23 says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And Romans 3:10 says that there is none righteous, not even one. No one can claim sinlessness. So for Christ to be able to say that, and for them to be silent in response to that claim, is evidence that He was the Son of God.

And yet irregardless of that fact, they choose not to believe Him. They reject His words as the word of God, and Jesus said that is because they are not of God. They are not the children of God. They may have been descendants of Abraham, they may have been members of the nation of Israel, but their sinful deeds were evidence that they were of their father the devil.

Listen, do I even need to make the application here to this present body of people or is Jesus’ teaching self evident? To what evidence is your claim to Christianity? Is it to your heritage? Is it to your church membership? Is it to your nationality? Is it to some religious ceremony? I would submit to you today, that as Jesus said in Matthew 7, by their fruits you shall know them. If you are of your Father in heaven, then you will do the works of the Father. You will love Christ, and love His body, the church, and you will obey His word. And your life will be evidence of your faith.

But if you love the world, and the things of the world, and you do not love the word of God, nor the things of God, then it is evident that you are of a another father. The good news is that there is a way to be adopted into the family of God. Gal. 3:26, 29 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” And then in vs. 29 ‘And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.”

Today adoption as a child of God is offered to you. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins by HIs blood on the cross. That those who believe in Him might receive His righteousness, and our sins would be transferred to Him, the spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And having been made righteous by faith in Christ, we are made the children of God by redemption. The offer is open today to all who will call upon Him in faith and repentance, for the forgiveness of sins. I pray that today is the day of your salvation. Don’t trust in anything else, but in Christ’s righteousness alone.

The idea of freedom, or the principle of being free, is one that is particularly indigenous to Americans. It’s not limited to Americans, of course, but much of our history is based on the premise that man is designed to be free. Our country was founded on that principle. As the Constitution declares, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Liberty means the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.

So the American Revolution was fought over those truths, that we had a right to be free from tyranny. And to some extent the Civil War continued that fight, eventually taking on the context of freedom from slavery. Then in the 1960’s, we experienced a cultural revolution called the Hippie Movement, which espoused the idea of freedom from social mores. However, not all the freedoms that generation sought were necessarily based on truth, as history has made evident. But nonetheless, the entire history of the United States has this search for freedom interwoven in it’s story, from generation to generation.

Yet after 300 years, I would suggest that we are still trying to come to grips as a nation with the notion of freedom. We are still trying to obtain it. For that matter, we are still trying to define it. And so it is to that question that we come to today. What is freedom, and how does one really achieve it?

Well, I believe that this passage teaches us the answer to that question. The blueprint for freedom was written long before the Constitution of the United States. And it’s author was no less than Jesus Christ. I believe that this passage before us today is one of the most important in the gospel. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the heart of the gospel.

The reality of freedom is the purpose of Jesus Christ’s visitation to Earth. In His first message that He preached, He quoted from Isaiah concerning Himself, saying that this prophecy was fulfilled that day in their presence. This is what He read from the scriptures prophesying about Himself. He read from Isaiah 61:1 which says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”

Now how was that freedom realized? What does it look like? Is He talking about social freedom, or political freedom, or freedom from slavery, or spiritual freedom? Because there are people that have interpreted these statements in all those various ways. But remember, Jesus said that they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. So we cannot just apply any template we want to these statements. We must apply them according to the truth.

Well, I suggest that Jesus is speaking primarily about spiritual freedom. But I will add to that the caveat that the spiritual is the fountain from which all other freedoms flow. You can attempt to find freedom outside of the spiritual, but I would suggest that if you do that, then you are being deceived. You are still held captive, still enslaved. Jesus says that in our text in vs. 34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” So until you take care of the spiritual issue of sin and become free in that regard, you cannot know any other freedom. You are still in your sins, and as such, you are still held captive by the devil, and are a slave of sin.

That is why three times in the previous passage we looked at last week, three times Jesus says to the Jews, that they would die in their sins. Because they had believed a lie, and as a result, they were still in their sins, still enslaved.

So what is the solution then? Jesus said if you are going to know freedom, then you must first know the truth. Jesus said in vs.32, that when you know the truth, then the truth will make you free. So knowing the truth is paramount to becoming free. You cannot be free and live a lie. As became evident in the Hippy Movement, things that they thought provided freedom, like drugs and sex, only served to further enslave them, because they were not founded on the truth. And I would suggest that many of the new social mores which are being expounded today are simply more of the same kind of deceit; they promise freedom, but they only will produce greater bondage.

Now that was the scheme of Satan from the beginning was it not? To lie against the truth and as such enslave men to sin. Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden to seduce mankind to sin by telling a lie, by selling Eve an untruth. As Jesus says in our text in vs. 44, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

So Satan, in his rage against God – his rage that God would choose to shower His affection on man, and make man in God’s image, according to God’s likeness, when he himself had desired to be like the Most High and was rejected – so Satan came to man disguised as a creature of God, and he deceived the woman by making her think something evil was good, and he invoked her to pride because she desired to know what God knew, and as such mankind fell from their sinless state in God’s presence just as Satan had also fallen. And mankind has been suffering bondage to that lie all throughout the history of the world.

That is why Jesus calls him the father of lies. And he did not stop with that lie, but he has sold the world a lie ever since. Satan, who controls the world system, has so engineered the world so that according to 2Peter 2:19, he is “promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.” What he means is that they are being promised freedom but instead they end up becoming slaves of corruption.

So what is truth? Well, to start with, God is truth. Truth is defined in God and by God and there is no truth apart from God. In Isaiah 45:19 God says, “I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.” Psalm 119:160 says, “The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.” And vs. 142 of the same Psalm says “your law is truth.” And one more, Numbers 23:19 says “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

Now I cannot overstate this doctrine. God is the source of all truth. His word establishes the standard of truth. All philosophy, all science, all the wisdom of man must be examined in the light of God’s truth, and only when it conforms to God’s truth, is it true. So as Paul said in Romans 3:4, “Let God be found true, though everyman found a liar.”

So as God is true, Jesus also is true. As we have seen in our studies in recent weeks, Jesus speaks the things of God, He does the works of God, He does nothing that the Father isn’t doing. So if God is true, then HIs Son is true. In fact, Jesus says that He is the personification of truth in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Notice in that verse, that Jesus doesn’t say He sometimes speaks the truth, but that He is the truth. That means nothing less than perfect truth comes from God. And as Jesus personifies the Word of God, then He is the truth of God, and no one can come to God except through Him. One must come to accept Christ’s word, in order to come to God. God has chosen to reveal Himself in His Son. And what God has revealed is truth. So coming to know the truth, will make you truly free.

Now we saw that in vs.30, many people listening to Him had come to believe in Him. That simply means that they believed that He was speaking the truth. They believed that He had come from the Father. Vs.26 Jesus had said, “He who sent Me is true; and the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” So some people listening to that believed in Him. Some did not, as we see in the later verses. But some did believe Him. And I think that means that they became Christians at that point. Some commentators think that these people were superficial believers. They didn’t really want to follow Christ, but they just acknowledged that what He said was true. I don’t buy that. I think that what Jesus was saying was so radical, so outrageous, that they had to either acknowledge Him as a lunatic, or acknowledge Him as God come in the flesh. So when John says twice that some believed in Him, I think they truly had their eyes opened to the truth, and they believed in Him and they were saved. That is the way that we are saved, we are justified by faith in Christ. Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

So then now that some have been justified by faith, then in vs.31, Jesus speaks of the next step in salvation, and that is sanctification. There are three phases in salvation; there is justification, then sanctification, and finally glorification. All must exist for salvation to exist. If you are justified, and then you are sanctified, but there is no glorification, no eternal life, no heaven, then your salvation is worthless, is it not? Paul said in 1Cor. 15:19 “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” And the same thing is true of the other two phases in our salvation. If we are not justified, then our attempts at sanctification through works can never save us, can they? Because Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So if you skip over justification by grace, and try to become sanctified by works, then you cannot be saved. And by the same measure, justification without sanctification is worthless. As James said, “faith without works is dead.” So then Hebrews 12:14 warns us that without sanctification, no one will see the Lord. All three then are necessary for salvation.

That’s why Jesus turns to those people, the people that had believed in Him, who believed that He was the Son of God, who were justified by faith, and to them Jesus said, ““If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Now I believe that these people were saved by faith in Him, as I said. And so Jesus now is instructing them how to be His true disciples. That is the consequence of truly being saved. We not only believe, but we follow. We join Him, fellowship with Him, allow Him to teach us as we go through each day and every circumstance. It’s not just “I have faith, so I’m saved, and now I can go on with my life and do what I want to do, live like I want to live.” It’s not like Jesus is now my genie and so He’s going to make sure that everything I do works out. He’s going to keep me safe as I go about my business.

No, that’s not what discipleship. A true disciple recognizes that Jesus is the source of life, the source of truth, the way to God, and so he follows Jesus wherever He leads us. Most Christians today have it backwards. They think salvation entitles them to God following them around and working out any difficulties they might encounter, but stay far enough behind me so as to not hinder my freedom to do what I want to do. That’s not biblical discipleship. Christ doesn’t follow me, but I need to follow Christ.

How do we do that practically speaking? Well, Jesus says how, He says you do it by continuing in His word. He’s talking about relying on the word of God for your day to day situations. This is the way of sanctification. Read the word, and apply the word. That’s called wisdom by the way. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. So we don’t just become hearers of the word, but doers of it.

Jesus said in His high priestly prayer to God in John 17:17, speaking of His disciples, He prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” That’s tremendous. The word then is a sanctifying agent. It’s like the old adage, “sin will keep you from the Bible, or the Bible will keep you from sin.” David in Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

Here is the thing that Jesus is teaching at this point. Justification is taking away the penalty of sin. Sanctification is taking away the power of sin. And one day, glorification will take away then presence of sin. But let’s just focus on sanctification for a moment. Sanctification is deliverance from the power of sin. This is the true freedom that Christ brings. It’s not just taking away the penalty of sin but leaving us to live in sin. That would not be true freedom. Christ gives us the power over sin, the power to be delivered from sin. That is the hope of Christianity in this life. That we have victory over sin.

Now the reality is that as long as we are in the body and living in a fallen world we are going to feel some of the effects of occasional sin. No one is going to achieve sinless perfection this side of glorification. But as a Christian we can be delivered from continual sin. That is the meaning of the word used there for sin. It is continual, habitual sin. That’s the good news that Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 61 which we quoted earlier; “the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.”

That’s the same thing that the old hymn Rock of Ages is talking about when it says, that the blood of Christ will “be of sin the double cure, save from wrath, and make me pure.” That double cure is speaking of being saved from the wrath of God, and then the sanctification that produces purity towards God. Justification and sanctification.

So that is the path of sanctification. That path is progressive, by the way. There is a sense in which we are sanctified, consecrated, and set apart at salivation by the blood of Christ. That is positional sanctification whereby we have been set apart from the world for good works. But there is also practical sanctification, and that comes from continuing in the word. As God reveals truth to you through His word, then you apply that truth and it becomes a sanctifying agent that works to conform you to the image of Jesus Christ. That is why the text doesn’t just say the truth sets you free. That’s true, but it’s not once and done. It’s a continual making free. Each day continuing, and that continuance working in us that which is pleasing to God. That’s discipleship. Sanctification is discipleship.

And that’s God’s goal for His church. When Christ commissioned the church, He said go into all the world and make disciples. Not just believers. But followers of Christ in conduct and in truth which is doctrine.

Well the Jews answered Jesus back by saying, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Now first of all, I don’t believe that this “they” who John refers to is the same people that became saved. I think these people are the Jewish religious leaders who have been having this running debate with Christ all throughout this whole passage. Because these people obviously do not believe in Him. They accuse Him of being a liar, and in vs.41 they even accuse Him of being born of fornication, of being illegitimate. So obviously these cannot be those who believed that He was the Son of God.

But the really confusing part was what they said. They said they had never been enslaved to anyone, when in fact, they had been enslaved numerous times, starting with Egypt and then in Babylon and they were under a form of bondage even then to the Romans. So it is difficult to know what they were talking about. Except for to note the irony that when you are enslaved to a lie, the lie is that you are not enslaved. Many times I meet people who are obviously weighted down under the bondage of sin, and yet they extol the virtues of their freedom. I suppose there is no lie like the lie you tell yourself.

That is the curse of sin which brings condemnation. To refuse to acknowledge it and thus refuse to repent of it. To be an alcoholic and deny it is obvious folly to everyone but the alcoholic. But that is very often the case. They say, “I can take it or leave it.” But in actual fact, they only take it. Or to be a drug abuser and say “it doesn’t hurt me.” And yet the lie is apparent in your body and in your life. Perhaps that unwillingness to face their sin caused them to deny their enslavement and to blind themselves to their reality.

So Jesus gave an answer designed to prove HIs point. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Again, this is speaking of habitual sin. In other words, if you are living in sin, then you are obviously a slave of sin, and you have not been set free. You may tell yourself you are free, you may tell others that you are free, but your actions say otherwise. You are still in your sins, and you will die in your sins, unless you believe in Him, which Jesus said meant to continue in His word and follow Him.

And then Jesus says, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever.” What Jesus is saying was in response to their claim as Abraham’s children. He is saying that their actions demonstrate that they are not Abraham’s children, because Abraham’s children are the children of faith. They believe God and He counts it to them as righteousness. But these men demonstrate that they are not Abraham’s children because they are not children of faith. So Jesus says that they are slaves. And like Ishmael in the house of Abraham, they will not inherit the blessing of the son Isaac. They will not stay in the house forever, because they are not true sons. These men had a temporary stay in the household of God in the sense that they belonged to the tribe of Israel. But when they were judged according to their works, they were found to be doers of wickedness, and thus slaves of wickedness, and not sons of righteousness.

That was the judgment. But thank God Jesus doesn’t stop with the judgment. He offers once again salvation. He says in vs.36, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” This is the reality of salvation, that we are truly free if Christ has made us free. If the spirit of man has been freed, then he is free inwardly, in a way that no earthly chains can contain. Because if Christ has made us free, then we have fellowship with God in a realm that cannot be ascertained by those who are not free in Christ.

In a simplified way of looking at slavery and freedom, we might say that those who are slaves have someone else take advantage of their labors. If they make money, it’s not really theirs to enjoy, it’s their masters. If they have possessions, they are not really theirs to keep, for they are their masters. The master owns everything that the slave has. Such is the reality of the lie that Satan has foisted upon the world. He has promised that you can enjoy the fruits of a sinful life. but the fact is, that he owns all that you do. All that you do in that world ends up being left behind when you die in your sins and face an eternity in hell.

But if the Son shall make you free, then not only are you made free, but you receive the adoption as sons, and consequently you receive an inheritance that will never fade away, reserved in heaven for you. As a result of that hope, we know that our labor is not in vain. That what we do in this world will be used for the glory of God. So we find our freedom in service to God, knowing that He keeps track of our works, and will reward us in the day of our glorification.

Listen, today is the favorable year of the Lord. Today the Lord offers freedom from whatever prison of sin that has kept you hostage. The Lord is ready to save all that call upon Him. Believe in the truth and be saved. That is the offer extended to you today. Receive all that God has prepared for those that love Him. Or continue to believe the lie of this world and you will die in your sins. There is a very clear choice, and the choice is yours. There are two paths, two possibilities before you today; the truth and the lie. God is the author of truth, and Satan is the author of lies. One path leads to freedom, and the other path leads to further enslavement. I pray you chose to believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. May today be the day that you are free indeed.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is the day when Americans remember and honor those who died in service to their country. And it is fitting that we should remember those that paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we might enjoy the freedoms that are ours as Americans. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.”

Today however is another memorial day which is celebrated the world over. It is called the Lord’s Day. It is the day set aside each week to honor Jesus Christ, who laid down His life so that we might be truly free. The remarkable thing about Christ’s sacrifice is that He did not just lay down His life for His friends, but He laid down His life for His enemies. Jesus said He did not come to save the righteous, but sinners. Sinners are by definition the enemy of God who is holy and righteous.

The essential fact of the gospel that is so often missed however, is that all men are sinners. Romans 3:10 says, ”THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

The good news however, is found just a couple of chapters later in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

But a lot of people are so offended at hearing Romans 3:10 that they never get to know the benefits of Romans 5:8. In other words, they are so offended that the Bible says that all men are condemned because of their sinfulness, that they never come to know the salvation that is through Christ’s death as our substitute. The fact is, that if you do not acknowledge your need for salvation from your sins, and trust in Christ’s atonement on the cross as the propitiation for your sins, then you cannot know the freedom from condemnation that comes through salvation.

Now that is really the crux of the passage we have before us today. This exchange between the Jewish leaders and Jesus which is recorded here for us is due to the fact that they trusted in their own righteousness and rejected salvation through Christ. As a matter of review, Jesus had been preaching in the temple for a week at this point, during the weeklong celebration known as the Feast of Tabernacles. And He has presented in many different ways the truth of the gospel. That truth simply stated was that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, the eternal God come to Earth in human form, so that men might have the spiritual life that God offers to them that believe in Him.

And Jesus has used a couple of metaphors to illustrate that doctrine, which we have looked at in detail in previous weeks. In the first metaphor He says He is the source of living water which if anyone drinks of, out of their innermost being will spring up living water. Then His other incredible claim is that He was the light of the world, and that the world was in darkness, but if they follow Him, they will have the light of life. In both of those metaphors, Jesus is teaching that He is the source of life, abundant life through the Spirit of God, and He gives it to those who believe in Him.

But at every point that Jesus makes in His messages during the Feast, the Jewish religious leaders want to find fault with Him and argue over some technicality. And at the heart of their response is their fervent belief that they did not need a spiritual Savior. They believed that they were inherently good people. They were obviously very religious people. They thought that they knew what the scriptures taught. They thought that they had been given entry into the kingdom of God through their heritage and that they insured it by their adherence to certain laws such as circumcision and keeping the Sabbath.

In many respects, they were not unlike many Americans today. According to a recent Pew Research survey, 70% of Americans claim to be Christians. They believe in God. They go to church on somewhat of a regular basis. They believe in the golden rule. They have a few Bibles in their possession. They are what we would call “good people.” And the real danger for these people is that they have never come face to face with their sinfulness and as such have rejected the idea that they need a Savior.

This was the predicament of the Jews who listened to Jesus that day. He had told them repeatedly that He had come from the Father in heaven and as such had been doing the works of the Father and speaking the words of the Father, shining the light of the truth unto the world so that men might have life. But they had repeatedly rejected His claims. Therefore Jesus says in vs. 21, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”

Their response is that of disdain, again missing the significance of what He is preaching, and focusing instead on trying to discredit Him. So they respond with dripping sarcasm, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” I think there is even a hint in their response of their intention to kill Him, but they phrase it as if He will commit suicide. Suicide by the way in Jewish culture of that period, was the most egregious sin, and they believed that the bottom level of Hades was reserved for those who committed suicide. So in effect, they are suggesting that Jesus deserved the pit of hell.

The question must be asked – why such vitriolic hatred towards Christ? I’ll tell you the answer. It’s the same answer that Jesus gave for their hatred in John 7:7, He says, “[the world] hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” It’s the same hatred we see spewed towards those who proclaim the truth today; it’s because of the conviction of sin. If you dare call anyone a sinner today, or suggest that the Bible condemns certain activities as sinful, then you are going to be the object of intense hatred. And by the way, this doesn’t just come from atheists, this comes from those claiming Christianity. I just read on the news last week that Bishop Desmond Tutu said that he would rather spend eternity in hell than a minute in a homophobic heaven. Well, he just might get his wish. Because that statement reveals his hatred towards God. Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That means that God gets to make the rules, not us. We must worship who He is, and not who we want Him to be. The world does not get to define God. God has defined Himself in His word. And we must love God more than we love the world. 1John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

The essential principle that Bishop Tutu fails to understand is that God’s law is a reflection of God’s nature. It is how He reveals His holiness. I read another quote by Bishop Tutu in which he said, “We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low.” I have news for him, God’s standards are anything but low. God’s standard is absolute perfection. And there is only one person that has been able to meet God’s standard, and that is Jesus Christ. All the rest of mankind is dead in their trespasses and sin. That is why Jesus says three times in this passage, “you will die in your sins.” Unless you repent and call in faith upon Jesus Christ – that is the only way for your sin to be forgiven.

And listen, your sin is not forgiven because God just decided one day to get with it – just go along with the culture and forget about all that sin stuff, just live and let live. No, God still counts sin. God did not do away with the requirements of the law. Jesus kept every law perfectly so that He might be the blameless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. No, God didn’t stop counting sin, He just counted it against Christ. He transferred our sin upon Jesus and beat Him for it with a whip within an inch of death. He transferred our sin upon His Holy Righteous Only Begotten Son, and pounded nails into His hands and feet and let Him hang on a rough cross for hours bleeding to death. He transferred our sin upon Jesus and let Him die and descend into Hades to pay the penalty for sin. He transferred our sin upon Jesus so He could pay the price of our sin, and then and only then could He transfer Christ’s righteousness upon us. God’s standards are anything but low. No one comes to heaven, to the Father, except through Jesus Christ and dressed in His righteousness alone.

So in spite of the unbelief and sarcasm, once again Jesus shows compassion by restating His warning to the religious leaders. In vs.23 He says, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Now what Christ has done is give a litmus test of sorts for belonging to the kingdom of heaven. That was the primary message of Christ. He was preaching about the kingdom of heaven. And the Jewish leaders recognized that the requirement of citizenship was righteousness. So Jesus is in effect giving a litmus test for righteousness. He says they are of the world, and as such they are still in their sins, and they will suffer the consequences of that sin, which is death. How do you know whether one is of the world or of heaven? How do you recognize those belonging to the kingdom of darkness, and those belonging to the kingdom of heaven? I mean, anyone can claim to be of the kingdom of heaven, can’t they? People all over the world claim to be of the kingdom of heaven. We already said that 70% of Americans claim to be Christians, that is, belonging to the kingdom of heaven. So how do you know? What is the evidence?

Well, to find out the truth, I’m not going to quote Desmond Tutu, but instead quote the Apostle John once again. As we read earlier, 1John 2:15-16 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

And Paul says virtually the same thing, that those who are of the world set their mind on worldly things. In Phil. 3:18-19 he says, “For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.”

That’s the litmus test. If you love the world, if your focus is on the world, if your passions are in the world, if your love is towards the things of the world,if your pride is in the things of the world, then you are of the world. You cannot serve God and mammon. That’s why James says, show me your faith by your works. Show me. Don’t tell me. You say you have faith, but show me your faith. Faith is not an intellectual exercise, by which we gain heaven. Faith is an exercise by which the will of heaven is worked out on earth. Where God’s will supersedes our will. Faith is praying, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

That’s the litmus test. That is why Jesus was able to point to His works as the litmus test that proved He was sent from God. Three times in this little passage He says that He does the works of God, as evidence that He is not of this world, but of God. Look at vs.26, “the things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” Then again in vs.28, “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” And third, vs.29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

It’s noteworthy that Jesus categorizes things in threes. Three times He says “You will die in your sins.” And three times Jesus says He does the works of God. The principle is clear; if you are of the world, then you will die in your sins. If you do the works of God, then it’s evident that you are of the kingdom of heaven.

Now I hope no one here today tries to weasel out of this principle of your works being evidence of where your heart is by saying that Jesus did the works of God, but grace makes us free to do whatever we want. Grace is the means by which our guilt and punishment are expunged. And grace is the means by which we are given the Holy Spirit to lead us in paths of righteousness. But all through the New Testament we are told to imitate Christ. Peter said in 1Peter 1:15-16 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” And again in 1Peter 2:21 he says, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” We are to follow the pattern that Jesus laid down for us. That is what it means to be a disciple by the way. We follow the pattern of Christ. As He did, so do we. That’s what Jesus is saying in vs.31, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” To continue in His word is to continue in obedience to His word.

And Paul also makes it clear in Ephesians that we are saved to do the works of Christ. Eph. 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” So the principle that Jesus is teaching is clear, how you live illustrates where your citizenship is. Is your citizenship in heaven? Then you will be about your Father’s business. A ceremonial tip of the hat once every couple of weeks is not indicative of where your citizenship is. Jesus said in Luke 12:34 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

You know what disturbs me very much though is when Christians, who have been set free from the enslavement to the world by the death of Christ, try to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. They claim to be all about heaven, but their priorities are all about the world. Everything seems to take priority over the things of God. I worry about such people.

That reminds me of the prophet Elijah, who seeing the double mindedness of the Israelites, who worshipped the idols of the world while claiming to be the people of God. And so he cries out to them in 1 Kings 18, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” If you say you are the Lord’s people, then serve the Lord with your whole heart. But if you are people of the world, then continue to serve the world. But don’t think you can live in two places at once.

Well, back in our text, the Jews respond to Jesus’ words with more sarcasm, more condescension, saying “Who are You?” In a more modern way of speaking they may have said, “Who do you think You are? We have to believe in You or we die in our sins? Just who do You think You are?” That question was obviously intended to be sarcasm as well, but nevertheless, Jesus patiently, compassionately responds to them by saying, “I am that which I have been saying to you from the beginning.”

What had He been saying from the beginning? Well, let’s remember what Jesus has said so far; that He was the Messiah, He was the Son of God, He was the resurrection and the life, He was the Temple of God, that God has given Him the power to execute all judgment, that He is the source of eternal life, that He was the one of whom Moses wrote, that He was the bread of life which came down out of heaven, that He has seen the Father, that He had the words of eternal life, that He was the supply of the water of life, and that He was the light of the world. I think it’s pretty clear who He was.

But since they asked, Jesus gives them another clue. In vs 28 He says, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me.” Now what is Jesus referring to in this statement? I believe that He is speaking of going to the cross, being lifted up as the serpent was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness. Jesus is saying, when you see Me lifted up on the cross, then you will know that I am He.

What a tremendous statement. Not only was His life indicative of His deity, and not only was His words indicative of His deity, but His sacrifice for sinners was the ultimate indication of His deity. The crucifixion was the expression of God’s love for the world. And the magnanimity of that act revealed a love that could only be that of God. I’m reminded of the centurion who seeing Jesus give up His Spirit on the cross said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

But sadly, many of those who were debating with Him would still not recognize Him even when He was lifted up. They should have seen the parallel with the serpent in the wilderness which Moses lifted up for the healing of sting of vipers upon the Israelites. And they should have understood that the serpent on a pole symbolized that there would come One who would be lifted up on a pole for the healing of the sins of the world. And perhaps some did make that connection during the crucifixion such as the centurion. But as I have pointed out before, I believe that by the time of the crucifixion, the scribes and Pharisees and the priesthood not only knew that He was the Son of God, but they deliberately, purposefully put Him to death because they hated Him so much by that point that their hatred had blinded them.

And that is born out by the fact that He says, when I am lifted up, then you will know that I am He. Now in the Greek there is not the pronoun He. It is simply “that I am.” And I suggest that is a direct reference to the same “I AM that I AM” which spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. This is the name that God gave Moses to tell the Israelites and Pharaoh who it was that gave him his authority. It was the name of God that refused conventional definitions. So in answer to the Jews question of “Who are You?” Jesus has just answered, “When you see Me lifted up, then you will know that I am the I AM.” He is telling them who He is in terms that they were very familiar with. See, for the Jews, Moses was their guy. He was the greatest prophet. In fact, the Sadducees only recognized the writings of Moses, nothing else. So it’s interesting that in every evidence that Jesus gives to His deity He uses something that happened during the life of Moses. He was the source of water from the rock. He was the manna from heaven. He was the pillar of fire over the tabernacle. He was the serpent lifted up on the tree. And He was the I AM from the burning bush. Yet these champions of the law of Moses would not accept what He was saying, because they believed that they were justified by the law of Moses.

But Paul tells us that the law was not given to be a stepladder to heaven. But the law was given to be a tutor to lead us to Christ. The law was given so that our sin became even more sinful. Even more apparent. But when Jesus showed them that, in the Sermon on the Mount for instance, then they became indignant, and rejected the idea that they were sinners. And that spurning of the need for forgiveness would condemn them to die in their sins.

From our perspective though it should be clear, that Jesus was not only sent from God to be all the things that we stated earlier like the light of the world, and the source of eternal life, etc, but the characteristic that really completes the picture is that He is the Savior of the world. This is the basis for John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God. So Jesus declares that He is Savior, it completes the picture. It completes the picture of God. God is holy, righteous and just. God is the judge of the earth. God is the source of life. And God is also the Savior of the world because God loved the world. He loved His creation. But for God’s love to be enacted, His justice had to be satisfied. God’s law had to be upheld. And so God sent Jesus to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through Christ.

Well, for a few people in Jesus’ hearing that day, the light suddenly came on. They saw the light of the truth. So it says in vs.30 that as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. I can only pray that someone here today has suddenly had the light of truth dawn in their hearts. You recognize that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. And perhaps you have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God who gave Himself in your place on the cross so that you might be saved. If that is you, then simply call on Jesus to save you, believing in all that He says He is, and God promises that He will transfer you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of heaven. You will become a citizen of heaven, but even more than that, you will be made a son of God by adoption. And as the result of that adoption, you are guaranteed an inheritance in glory and eternal life. I pray that today will be the day of your salvation.