DATE: APRIL 19, 2011
TODAY’S TEXT: JOHN 10_31-42
TODAY’S MESSAGE: DO NOT LET HIM ESCAPE YOU
OPENING PASSAGE: ACTS 26_1-32
OPENING PRAYER: LORD GOD OF BOTH HEAVEN AND EARTH OF BOTH MAN AND BEAST; WE COME TO YOU WITH WHAT I HOPE ARE HEARTS THAT ARE BOTH ATTENTIVE AND TEACHABLE. I AM BUT A MAN LORD TO SPEAK SUCH HOLY AND PRECIOUS TRUTHS, I PRAY THAT YOU WOULD SPEAK THROUGH ME ALOOWING ONLY TRUTH TO ROLL OFF MY TONGUE, LEST JUDGMENT SHOULD FALL FROM HEAVEN UPON MY VERY SOUL THIS NIGHT. AND SO I ASK THAT YOU WOULD SANCTIFY OUR HEARTS, MINDS AND LIPS, THAT THEY WOULD BE SET APART FOR YOUR WILL WITHOUT DISTRACTION AND FOR YOUR GLORY. IN JESUS’ HOLY AND SACRED NAME DO WE PRAY. AMEN!
READ: JOHN 10-31-42
One thing if nothing else that I by God’s grace have come to know through reading the bible is this fact, that God is a God of extremes, He does not stand neutral on any issues of life, He does not waver when making a decision, like any good leader He is very decisive when it comes to making a choice. And because He made us in His image He commands the same of His creatures; when it comes to making a decision for Christ, He wants no halfhearted devotees. He says in His word you are either for Me or against Me; you are either warm or hot when it comes to me, no Luke warmness is allowed. No fence walking, no looking back, no one foot in and one foot out while your heart is poking all about. There is no middle road; you are either on the broad path that leads to destruction or the narrow path that leads to life. You are either building your house on the sand or you are building it on the rock. You are either going the way of Cain or you are going the way of Abel. You are either chaff or wheat. You are either goat or sheep. You either love Christ or you hate Him. You are going to one of two places either heaven or hell, and to be sure there is no other! And so tonight we will look at another such example of this dividing line that God draws between the believing and unbelieving. And so the title of tonight’s message is:
DO NOT LET HIM ESCAPE YOU
John 10:31 (NKJV)
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
The Jews were outraged by Jesus’ claim in verse 30 to be one with the Father; they fully understood this as a claim to be equal with God; and this was not the first time that these wicked Jews attempted to quiet Christ, you may have noticed that our text has the word “again” attached to it. This hostile and unfriendly crowd also attempted to stone Jesus in John 8:59 for His bold declaration of being the (I AM) of the Old Testament found in Exodus 3:14;, Jesus made that declaration in John 8:58 and immediately following in verse 59 the Jews did not hesitate to pick up stones in an attempt to silence Him. They had wrongly presumed Him to be a blasphemer which according to the law in Leviticus 24:16 was punishable by death. But these wicked Jews were not going to wait for a trial; they intended to be judge, jury and executioner; and such is the way of the wicked.
Whatever one is to believe about Christ must be judged against His own word the Holy Scriptures. He does not leave us to develop opinions, He has declared plainly in His word as to His full identity; for man’s thinking has been fully corrupted by sin, and so he is not able to come to a reasonable conclusion as to the things of God. Many people have a false and fraudulent view of God because they have been left to their own human wisdom which is complete ignorance and foolishness when compared with the wisdom of an (omniscient) all knowing God; and that is why Jesus prayed the prayer from the cross “forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. But God will in no way shape or form acquit the guilty; though a loving prayer indeed, for many that is a prayer that the Father will not grant in the positive response.
There was a third time that these wicked Jews desired to kill Jesus and that was back in John 5:17-18 where Jesus said, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." That was in verse 17, then in the immediate following verse it says, Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Don’t miss the tail end of that statement: He said that God was His Father making Himself equal with God. That was the assumed blasphemy; and it is from that one statement that we are made aware of what it means that Jesus is the Son of God; it means that He is equal with God. It is for that one statement that the Lord of Glory was placed upon the cross. Ultimately it is for our sins that He was crucified, but it is for His claim to Be the incarnate God that man was inspired to put Him to death.
For anyone to say that Jesus is anyone but God is blasphemy it is an offence to God, it is wickedness, the apex of heresy, it is an act of desecration, it is sacrilege; ultimately it is to deny what scripture has made as clear as can be.
And so in the tenth chapter of John and in the 31st verse for those Jews to pick up stones for the purpose of killing the King of glory was to commit high treason against God, it was betrayal, an act of disloyalty and treachery. And don’t think for a moment that such a crime was committed only then, no not at all it is committed to this day every time someone rejects the gospel they are rejecting the one and only King who rules and overrules from His throne. And for those who die in unbelief they will be banished and cast out from the kingdom to come, you might remember the treatment that Adam and Eve received for only one sin, evicted from paradise forever; and so why would anybody believe it would be different for those who have many sins on record. And so all rebels, all the wicked, all of those who desire to cast stones at Christ through their rejection of Him will get their wish not to have this King as their ruler and instead they will have the fires of hell to rule over their souls.
In fact 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says that when Jesus is revealed from heaven He will take vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
People go to hell for one reason; they do not have an intimately close relationship with God that leads to the obedience of the gospel of Jesus Christ. for those who would accuse someone like me of legalism because I would dare to preach on radical change in one’s life as evidence that they are saved, well God vindicates me with the requirement of obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ. In order to obey the gospel you must know the gospel, and let me tell you that the gospel itself is deep; it is deeper than the book of revelation itself; for upon the return of Christ we will know the book of revelation perfectly; but as for the gospel, it is never ending, it will continue to be learned and experienced while in Heaven.
My heart aches for those who do not believe that God will damn anyone to hell, I am burdened of soul that there are those who reject the fact that God would possibly judge them. Much of the blame falls at the feet of today’s preachers who focus on messages of encouragement; and although those messages have their place, people also need to have their hearts shaken to its core, fear and trembling at the awesomeness of our God is a good thing if it leads to repentance.
Revelation 6:16-17 says towards the end unbelievers will be so besides themselves, so undone that they will actually speak to the mountains and rocks and say "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
And just listen to what God says in Isaiah 66:24: And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be abhorrence to all flesh."
In Mark 9:43-49 our Lord warned about the deepening sorrows, agonies and torments of hell by saying: If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched-- 44 where 'Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.' 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched-- 46 where 'Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.' 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire-- 48 where 'Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.' 49 "For everyone will be seasoned with fire and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.
And so hell is a real place and the son of God urges everyone to do everything they can to stay out of there. But the truth is there is only one way to stay out of hell and that is to believe in the one and only son of God.
These Jews were headed on a direct path for destruction, when they should have been bending down to worship Christ and beg for the mercy of God, instead they bent down to pick up stones in order to snuff out the life of the only one capable of saving theirs.
And so in John 10:32 Jesus answered them with these words, "Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?"
This is a more subtle and yet it is nonetheless another claim to be God in the flesh. For the miracles He performed were with His own power and yet they fell under the authority of God the Father. And to be sure He did only good, healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, forgiving the woman caught in adultery; and so our Lord’s question was which of these good and noble action warranted Him being put to death.
Their reply came in verse 33 where the Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
And so again here we see that these Jews fully understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. Theologians today may argue over the interpretation of scripture, but the Jews of that day who were experts in the original languages completely understood what Jesus was saying. They had an unquenchable desire to kill Jesus for one reason and one reason only and that was He claimed to be God. The Jews were offended by what Jesus said more than what He did, although His actions offended them as well; you see the works of Christ and the word of Christ both testify to His identity.
But it is the word of God that Hebrews 4:12 says is: living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And what Christ said to these Jews sliced right to the core of their soul and it produced an action of defiance, rebellion and intended violence that was on par with that of Cain.
And oh how there are so many with a Cain like spirit, who have a similar attitude as the Jews in our text. Yes they still exist today, there are some even in Christian churches, some even behind the pulpit who despise the word of God; of course they wouldn’t admit to it; nevertheless it is evidenced by the place the scriptures have in their life. For all too many the bible is something that is read once a week. That is wickedness, in essence such a person is saying that the bible is not worthy of first place in my life.
Let me read an old testament passage to you in which God reveals how He feels about those who would make the bible an afterthought.
The text is found in Numbers 21:5 where it says there: And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread."
That so called worthless bread is Christ, who is the word of God; to neglect the word of God is to neglect Christ. And what is God’s reaction to such wickedness, well the following verse says: So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. In the final judgment God will not judge with fiery serpents in which He may later provide relief; but rather those who neglect the word in this life will suffer in the confines of an unrelenting fiery hell! In which they will find no relief.
I cannot stress enough the importance of a genuine love for the word of God it is one of those tests that prove your love for Christ. When the apostle Paul says examine yourself this is one way to know whether you are in the faith; that you love the word of God and your heart’s desire is to obey it, though imperfect as you may be. It bears repeating that you cannot make a distinction when it comes to the bible and Christ Himself; if you love one you will naturally love the other.
And so in John 10:33 the Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy because of His claim to be God; when in actuality they were guilty of blasphemy in the rejection of His claim. Matthew 7:1-2 would ring so true in the ears of these Jews and any who would reject Christ’s claims where Jesus says:
Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
To reject what Christ says of Himself is to call Him a liar; a matter of fact to reject the bible as the inspired word of the living God is to commit blasphemy against God and His kingdom. It is an act of unregenerate wickedness and irreverence towards God.
And so that takes us now to verse 34 0f John chapter 10 where Jesus answered the Jews charge of blasphemy with these words: "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '?
Jesus’ response to the Jews objection in verse 33 requires a bit of a look into how the rabbis of that day argued and reasoned through things. Jesus first pointed them to the Old Testament with the words “is it not written in your law” usually the law refers to the first five books of Moses. But here it means the entire Old Testament. And so Jesus is pointing His listeners back to psalm 82:6. And so let us turn in our bibles to psalm 82:1-7 where it says:
God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods.2 How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? 3 Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked. 5 They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable. 6 I said, "You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. 7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes."
In verses 6-7 here, Jesus warns the wicked judges that they will perish. He had appointed them as “gods” we see that in verse 1 of this text, and so they were appointed as gods and as sons of the Most High, His representatives on earth (in other words judges and rulers. But despite their lofty and exalted position, they were held accountable by God. Jesus appealed to verse 6 when He was accused of blasphemy in John 10:34. Since Israel’s judges were, in a sense, “sons” of God, Jesus said He was not blaspheming to call Himself the Son of God.
What Jesus was claiming to be in John 10:34 was not just a judge, but rather the Judge of Judges; not just a Ruler, but the ruler of rulers, not just a god, but rather the God of gods. While the Jews were gods only in the human sense Christ is God in divine character.
And so let us read John 10:34 in its full context by reading through to verse 38:
Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods" '? 35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 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'? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe NU-Text reads understand. that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.
And so our Lord used Psalm 82:6 to counter their accusation and halt their actions. The picture in Psalm 82 is that of a court, where God has assembled the judges of the earth, to warn them that they too will one day be judged. The Hebrew word elohim can be translated as "god" or as "judges," as in Exodus 21:6 and Exodus 22:18-19. It is also one of the Old Testament names for God. The Jewish rulers certainly knew their own language and they knew that Jesus was speaking the truth. If God called human judges "gods," then why should they stone Him for applying the same title to Himself?
John 10:36 is of central importance because it gives a double confirmation to the deity of Christ. First the Father sanctified or (set apart) the Son and sent Him into the world, and second, Jesus stated boldly that He is the Son of God. Jesus gave them the plain answer they had requested earlier in verse 24 but they would not believe it!
In verse 37-38 Jesus urged them to believe, pointing to His miracles as evidence that He was God’s son. But as I have often said all the urging, all of the miracles and all of the evidence in the world are not capable of bringing one single soul to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing short of the regenerating power of Almighty God is able to enable one to believe.
And so once again in verse 39 as they had done in John 7:44 and John 8:59 the Jews tried to arrest Him, but He escaped and left the area completely. What a missed opportunity for these Jews to be in the very presence of God’s savior and yet were unchanged, unregenerate and unbelieving. They desired to lay hands on Christ that they might arrest Him, when in reality they desperately needed to be arrested by Him. The apostle Paul was seeking to arrest some Christians when He was arrested by Christ on that dustyy road which lead to Damascus; but not so with these Jews. They believed themselves to be investigating Christ when in actuality it was Christ who was examining them.
And oh how so little has changed in these thousands of years; many come to church and Christ appears to them and yet they go home the way they came in. Oh they may claim to have believed in Christ, but there way of living tattles on them; there is hardly a difference between them and the rest of the world. Jesus said you shall know them by their fruit, and let me tell you for many it is stinky and rotten fruit; and of them Jesus says that they are good for nothing but to be thrown in to the fires of hell! You might think that I am being over dramatic or that I am putting words in our Lord’s mouth that He Himself has not spoken and so let us turn in our bibles to Matthew 7:15-20, and there Jesus says:
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Jesus here is not speaking of false teacher only; that is evident when you continue reading on through verse 21. Neither is Christ speaking of the non-religious, pagans, atheists, agnostics and the like, no He is speaking of those who attend church. There has been many polls conducted in the churches across America, and do you know what was determined; that there is little difference between the unbelieving world and the churches. There are many who go to church who do not see anything wrong with abortion, gay marriage, sex before marriage, adultery, or going to parties on Saturday nights with the outcome being drunkenness; and that is only to name a small amount of the immoral behavior that the church has in common with the world. So how could this be, it is because not all who say Lord, Lord, in other words not all professing Christians shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Genuine Christians do not produce wicked behavior do they? Worldly unbelievers do not produce Christ exalting behavior do they? Every professing Christian that does not produce Christ like behavior will be cut down and thrown into hell; therefore it is by a person’s behavior that you will know whether or not their profession of Christ is genuine. A true encounter with Christ will naturally produce a desire for holiness, meaning that a person will find themselves separating from the world and conforming to Christ; the things they watch, listen to and say will begin to change to that which God approves of.
And so that brings us back to our text in John 10:39 where it says that the people were trying to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.
When they should have been doing everything in their power to worship and reverence Jesus, they could not, for their desire was that but of violence. Unlike the woman with the issue of blood who so desperately desired to only touch the hem of our Lord’s robe that she might be healed, this crowd wanted to lay hands on the Christ that He might be dead. Verse 39 is an accurate picture of the religious but unbelieving in that they have Christ in their grasp and yet He eludes them, so close to salvation and yet so far away. How sad it is to have salvation so close to you and yet to be eternally condemned in the end; It is important to remember that although it is God who is sovereign in the salvation of a sinner in the same breathe it is the sinner that is responsible for his or her woeful and lost condition. Many may cry foul when it comes to the method in which God has chosen to save, but in the end it must be remembered that He is God and He created everything good; and so the fault does not rest with Him, but rather with man. That being said let us now turn our attention to verses 40-42 to conclude our study this evening. And so there it says:
40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. 41 Then many came to Him and said, "John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true." 42 And many believed in Him there.
And so leaving the group of the unregenerate and unbelieving, as he slipped through their grasp, our Lord went to where John the Baptist had begun his ministry, and there a different group of people would meet with Jesus. And this group of people for the most part would not allow the Son of God to escape out of their hand. No this group was much different, they were much better equipped to lay hold of Christ or rather to be lay hold by Him, it is Christ who would seize their hearts, it is Christ who would not allow them to escape. You see this group was equipped with faith; they were spiritually alive, for they are the elect of God.
Notice in verse 41 that it says there that many “came” to Him; this they had in common with the first group, you might remember that group had surrounded Jesus on Solomon’s porch at the temple, asking how long do You keep us in doubt? Saying If you are the Christ tell us plainly; they didn’t want an answer that they might believe but rather they were looking for a reason to justify killing Jesus, they didn’t have salvation in mind, rather they had murder on the heart. And so that these two groups came to Christ is where the likeness ends, you see while one group was drawn by the devil the other was drawn by God the Father; while one group doubted questioning who Jesus was the other group was believing to the point of stating to Christ who they professed Him to be; while one group wanted to snuff out the life of Christ, the other group came to obtain life from Him; while one group wanted to do away with him by stoning, the other group trusted in Him as their Rock; one group ignored the signs and miracles that pointed to Jesus’ identity, while the other group pointed to the sign of John the Baptist as that which testifies to who Jesus is.
It is easy to skip over a small word mentioned in verse 42, we must not miss it, there it says:
And many believed in Him there.
Did you see the word? What was it? It was the word “there” why doesn’t it just say that many believed in Him? Let us remember where the first group was, they were the religious, they were in the church and yet they were outside of Christ; they were so close and yet so far away, they were serving in the temple of God and yet when God stepped foot in the temple they did not know who He was. They are those who will say” Lord, Lord” and yet Christ will say to them “I never knew you”. The second group on the other hand was at the Jordan away from religion and away from the temple made with hands and yet they knew God when they saw Jesus. There is another application to them being at the place where John baptized, you see John’s baptism was that of repentance, revealing that these who believed were genuine converts in comparison to the many others mentioned in this gospel. You might remember that John rebuked the religious leaders saying, who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring fruits that are worthy of repentance. Genuine repentance that is what group two had over group one, genuine repentance has to be worked into the sinner’s heart by the Holy Spirit of God; and once that is accomplished, believing is the guaranteed result; And so two groups, two motives and two different results.
The bible becomes wide open to an individual when God brings them to the understanding that through all of scripture there are only two types of groups the elect and the non-elect, the believing and the unbelieving, the regenerate and the unregenerate, the self-righteous and those with Christ’s righteousness, the proud and the humble, the self-centered and the Christ-centered, the worldly and the spiritual, the hell bound and the heaven bound, the condemned and the redeemed, the enslaved and the liberated, the dead and the living, those who say my will be done and those who say nevertheless your will be done, those who anger God and those who are pleasing to the Father.
And so we must make an assessment of our own lives, we must examine our motives, and we must take inventory of our souls. What do I spend a majority of the day thinking about? The answer to that question will reveal to me who my God truly is. What do I spend a majority of my resources on? The answer to that question will reveal to me who my God truly is. What do I spend a majority of my time watching, reading or listening to? The answers to those questions will reveal who my God is. What do I spend a majority of my time talking about that will reveal to me who my God truly is. What kind of people do I spend my time talking to? The answer to that question will reveal to me who my God truly is.
And so Father as we wrap up this study I pray that if nothing else we will step away being honest with you Lord about our current condition, not being satisfied with what we know of You, I pray that we would desire more and more of You and less and less of the world. Father let us not leave here this evening self-deceived, thinking that we should ever be satisfied with a so, so Christian life; for you did not purchase us with average blood, but rather with the blood of Your one and only Son, the precious blood of the Lamb of God which was slain before the foundation of the world. And how so ungrateful we are to hand You the leftovers of our lives; we openly confess this as sin before You O God and before heaven as witness against us. And so we ask for the strength and power to live lives that are God exalting, Christ glorifying of which the angels may sing of. In the name of our beloved King the Lord Jesus Christ we do pray. Amen!
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