Jesus Claims Deity for Himself

Transcript

GR 375
10/12/1980
Jesus Claims Deity for Himself
John 10:31-42
Gil Rugh

John chapter 10 in your Bibles. John's Gospel and the 10th chapter. We're going to conclude our study of the 10th chapter today, and in many ways this concludes the public ministry of Christ. In our breakdown of the Gospel of John, we've noted the public ministry of Christ goes through chapter 12. And there is a sense in which that is so as we'll see. But as far as the teachings and the presentation to the nation, etc., there is something of a climax with chapter 10 as Jesus offers Himself as the One who is the fulfillment of all the passages of the Old Testament where God is viewed as the Shepherd of Israel, that He Himself is the Good Shepherd, the One who functions on behalf of the sheep. Yet the nation is unwilling to have Him as their Messiah and rejects Him. He'll retire from Jerusalem at the end of the chapter. In chapter 11 we'll consider the resurrection of Lazarus, and in chapter 12 we come to the closing events of that public ministry immediately preceding the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ.

In the section we looked at from verses 22-30, Jesus has focused in on who He is. The question has been raised, "Are you the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus' response is, "I've told you and you do not believe," verse 25. "I told you, you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me." The continual stress that will be brought out again in the section before us today, My words and My works. Both combine to demonstrate that I am the Messiah of Israel, I am the Son of God. But these Jews, with their minds made up to a large extent, will not believe.

He gave an interesting explanation of their lack of belief in verse 26. "You do not believe, because you are not of My sheep." We noted He says their lack of faith is because they don't belong to Him as His sheep. And what is in view here is God’s work in election. That He has called out a group and appointed them to salvation in Jesus Christ, and they WILL come to believe. And Jesus says, ’Since you are not part of that group, you do not believe and without that special work of God to overcome the sinful will of a person that person continues to resist and rebel against God, will not submit himself to God's will and God's salvation.’ But when you come to H:s sheep, in verse 27, they do hear His voice. He knows them, they follow them, and He gives to them eternal life. And He gives a strong emphasis in verses 28 and 29 on the security of those who belong to Him. We call it the security of the believer, the doctrine of eternal security—once you are saved you are saved for eternity.
It is brought out in several ways in these verses. One, when He says in verse 28 "I give eternal life to them" and if you have eternal life, you have life for eternity. That is a personal relationship with a personal God that goes on forever. So if there was nothing else here but that, we would assume that the life we receive through faith in Jesus Christ is a life that is eternal. But He repeats it from the other side, the negative side, and says they shall never perish. It is put very strongly. They shall never, in no way, ever, for all eternity perish. There is no possibility at all for all eternity that they shall perish. Looked at it from the shepherd’s side. "No one is able to snatch them out of My hand." Repeated from the Father's perspective in the next verse. In other words, we are totally secure under the Shepherd’s care. And the reason that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will spend eternity with God is not because I am so faithful but because the one who is my shepherd is so faithful. Our security as His sheep depends upon HIS faithfulness, not our faithfulness. So those who are appointed to salvation in Him will come to believe in Him. They experience salvation which is eternal. Now we’ve touched on the fact that this does not mean that I am free to do whatever I choose to do now. Rather, I am free to be pleasing to God. And when He saves me, He makes me a new creature, a new creation. He gives me new desires, new interests, and my longing now is not to sin but rather it is to be pleasing to Him.

Now when He says in verse 28, "No one shall snatch them out of My hand" and then in verse 29, "No one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand," there is an emphasis here on the equality of power between the Father and the Son that culminates in the statement in verse 30, "I and the Father are one." When He speaks about Himself as the Son and refers to My Father, and the Jews' understanding as we'll see, that denoted an equality. The same power that enables Him to sustain His sheep is the power the Father has to sustain the sheep. It denotes an equality of power. It denotes that they partake of the same essence or nature or being, so that Jesus says "I and the Father are one." Distinct persons—there is Jesus and there is the Father, but only one in essence, in nature, in being. And then flowing out of that the attributes that would characterize them, the harmony of their will and purpose, etc.

Now this causes the Jews great consternation. That again Jesus has made a direct statement that He Himself is deity. And we wonder why does He keep doing this? Because the central issue is the person of Jesus Christ. Even His works serve to validate His person. Who He is gives effect to what He does. So He brings them back to this point again. But it's the question they've asked, is it not? They have confronted Him in verse 24, "The Jews therefore gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.'" When He tells them, they will attempt to stone Him. So you see they are not really interested in the truth. Rather, they are looking for more reasons to reject Him and ultimately execute Him. "I and the Father are one." "The Jews took up stones again to stone Him." This is their response. Now it's important as we go through this that we see it as the Jews saw it. That we understand it as the Jews understood it. There are some today that would have us believe that Jesus was not claiming deity for Himself in this passage. But if He was not, He makes a serious error because He speaks in such a way that the Jews understand Him to mean that. And He could have cleared it up very simply. When they say they are going to stone Him for blasphemy because He makes Himself out to be deity, He could have simply said ’You misunderstood me. I don’t mean that I am deity at all.’ That would have clarified it. But as we’ll see, He does just the opposite. He says ’You're right, I am God. You’ve understood.'

Verse 32. "Jesus answered them, ’I showed you many good works from the Father.'" Again that stress on His relationship with the Father which the Jews understand as a reinforcement of a claim to be deity. We’ll see that in a moment. "These works that I do are from the Father." He links Himself inseparably—what He does is what the Father is doing. So your reaction to Me is a reaction to My Father. "...for which of them are you stoning Me?" This is a rather serious matter. They are about to take capital punishment into their own hands without even going through the established court for the Jews, let alone the Romans. And Jesus asks the question, "Why are you going to stone Me? What are the good works for which I am going to be stoned? Was it healing the blind man? Maybe healing the lame man? Maybe going all the way back I turned the water into wine. For what are you going to stone Me?" Their response, verse 33, "The Jews answered Him, 'For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy.'" Now we'll and Jesus is going to draw this to their attention before He is done, they fail to give consideration to the good works that He is doing. The works that demonstrate and reveal His person. They pass right over that. But He makes one statement and they are ready to execute Him. The works have had no impact on them. "But for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." Here is how they have understood His claim which is an accurate understanding. In verse 30, "I and the Father are one" is one of the clearest, most concise statements of the deity of Jesus Christ in all of Scripture. In spite of the way some would try to explain away the concept of being one. All we have to do is read the context and we understand how Jesus meant it and how the Jews understood it. We are going to execute You because You make Yourself out to be God. You are claiming to be God, and for that we will execute You.

Now note here. If Jesus Christ is not God, and He makes such a claim, according to Old Testament Law, He should be executed. Now the procedure here is not according to what it ought to be, but the end result is. For blasphemy He should be executed. If He has made a claim to deity and yet is not deity, He is guilty of a crime deserving death according to Old Testament Law. "So you make Yourself out to be God." This has happened before in John as a result of the teaching of Christ.

Look back in chapter 5, just to refresh your mind. Chapter 5, He has healed the lame man at Bethesda. The impact of that miracle is lost on the Jews because He did it on the Sabbath. They are not impressed that here is a man of such power which could enable a lame man to walk on the spot. Verse 17, He makes one statement and they are ready to kill Him. "But He answered them, ’My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’" You note here, when He draws Himself into that relationship before the Jews, "My Father," they understand it as a claim to deity. Note verse 18. "For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God." Saying that He partakes of the same essence and nature and being as God does. Therefore, He’s claiming to be deity. They’re ready to stone Him. You note they don’t consider whether in light of the tremendous miracle that has just been performed, the claim may be true. They bypass that completely because they have made up their mind that He is not the person He claimed to be. So on that basis they respond.

Look over in chapter 8, verse 58, "Jesus said to them, ’Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.'" Before Abraham ever came to be, I AM. The Jews recognized this as going back to the account in Exodus where God revealed Himself to Moses—I AM THAT I AM, referring to Himself as the eternal God. Christ claims here to be the Jehovah who is the I AM. "Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple."

When we come over to chapter 10, Jesus makes a statement regarding My Father and then says "I and the Father are one" and they are ready to stone Him again. Now we must say that Jesus who grew up in the Jewish environment in a Jewish home, being Himself well instructed in Jewish law, so well that when He was 12 years old He could instruct teachers in the temple, has enough understanding of how the Jews will interpret what He is saying that if He means anything else other than that He Himself is deity, He could have expressed it. And if He is not deity, and knew He was not deity, you'd have to say at best He lacked quite a bit of wisdom. To speak in such a way that the Jews would repeatedly misunderstand that He was making a claim to be deity does not seem to evidence much wisdom, because He should know that the Jews would respond vehemently to a claim by a man that He was God. And they should! And to repeatedly speak in such a way that they would get that idea, we'd have to say at best Jesus was careless in the way He talked. I've preached here for some
I years and yet no one, to the best of my knowledge, has misunderstood that
I have claimed at any time to be God. And yet here Jesus' ministry compacted into less than 3 years has caused that confusion repeatedly. So if He is not God, He is not even very wise in the way that He teaches people, that He should confuse the Jews repeatedly regarding His person on such a crucial issue. The answer, of course, is that the Jews are correct in how they interpret it. He IS claiming to be deity. Now if that's the case, then we have another problem. Either He is deity or He is crazy! We are back to that same issue that has confronted us repeatedly. For me to stand up and present myself to you as deity humanly speaking is crazy. I'm not worthy of attention. According to Old Testament Law I am deserving of death. But the solution is, the Jews understand Him correctly, He is claiming to be deity and HE IS DEITY! They don’t give that third possibility any consideration. That maybe what He says is true. He IS the Son of God. He DOES partake of the essence and nature of God. He Himself is deity. Crucial to everything is the person of Jesus Christ.

We have people today who think that is not a major issue. Whether He was God or not does not matter, and usually linked to that is indifference regarding doctrines like the virgin birth. And if Jesus Christ is not deity, the virgin birth is a non-issue. It doesn't matter. But His person is crucial to everything else. Now I take it a person who says it doesn't matter is ignorant of what the Gospels say concerning Christ. To honor Him as a great man and reject the fact that He is deity is to manifest ourselves as fools concerning the Word of God. A great man does not go around and present himself as God. A good teacher does not go around and mislead people into thinking he is deity.

Now Jesus' response on this occasion is one that has caused confusion to many people. He quotes to them from the law in verse 34, "Jesus answered them, 'Has it not been written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods?''" He quotes from Psalm 82:6. "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 note here before we get into the flow of the passage, in verse 35 the last statement. "The Scripture cannot be broken." We talked a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday evening on the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures. Here is as clear a statement as you could want. "The Scriptures cannot be broken." He is going to use a scriptural argument with these Jews. But He wants to reinforce the fact which they claim to believe that the Scriptures cannot be broken, that what they say must be true. Now it’s going to be interesting. He takes a quote out of Psalm 82:6, that as you read the Psalms you probably read through Psalm 82:6 and it doesn’t particularly seem of overwhelming significance. Here those words are taken by Christ and He said they cannot be violated. They must stand true. Now you might read Psalm 82, and we’ll go back there in a moment in connection with some other passages, and you’d read it and say ’Those verses don't make any particular difference regarding my salvation. They don't have any particular significance regarding my eternal destiny. In fact, the Scriptures would still be of overwhelming value even if Psalm 82:6 was left out.' But what Jesus says, Psalm 82:6 still cannot be violated. It stands true! I take it that is a pattern that is set down for all the Scripture. It doesn't matter that some of the Scripture to me seems irrelevant and doesn’t seem of major significance. Why should we battle over Psalm 82:6? If you don’t believe it, that's alright. I mean, let's not battle over it. We still have our salvation. We still agree about Jesus Christ. We still agree about eternity, why should we get upset over Psalm 82:6?

Because Jesus said the Scripture cannot be broken! And that pattern, I take it, holds from Genesis to Revelation. Everything that God has said stands true! Same idea—back up to Matthew chapter 5, verse 17. "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 away from the Law, until all is accomplished." We're familiar with this verse under the King James—not a jot or a tittle will pass away. Not the smallest mark in God's Scriptures can fall out unfulfilled. That's how important what God says is. Everything He says is important. And a word of warning while we're here to those who claim to be evangelical and deal so lightly with the Scripture today and its inspiration. Verse 19, "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” Serious matter, God's Word, and how we respond to it. It is the final, absolute authority on everything, in every area on which it speaks. John repeats this throughout his Gospel. We won't take the time to trace it through, but you just trace through John, particular when we get to the crucifixion—this happened that it might be fulfilled what was written in the scriptures. He said this that the Scripture might be fulfilled. This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Why? Because everything that God says must come to pass. It stands true!

So His argument back in John chapter 10 is based upon the inspiration and authority of the Scripture. This is what God said, and God's Word cannot be broken. You cannot remove its significance and meaning.

Okay. Now, let's pick up the flow of what He says. Verse 34 says "Has it not been written in your Law..." Let me just note here this quote from the Psalms. We usually think of the first five books of Moses as the Law. But that expression is used of the entire Old Testament Scriptures as well. It is used on other occasions in that way in the New Testament. The Law refers to God's revelation of Himself. The first five books being the basic and beginning part. But it came to refer to not only the first five books but the entire Scriptures. So here He quotes from the Psalms when He refers to the Law of God.

"Has it not been written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'?" Now for the background for this, go back to Exodus chapter 4. The situation here is that
God has called Moses to be His spokesmen but Moses doesn't think he is qualified and eloquent enough, so God says He would send Aaron with you. In verse 15, "And you are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth (to Aaron); and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do. Moreover, he shall speak for you to the people; and it shall come about that he shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be as God to him." You note. In the analogy here, Moses is God and Aaron is the Prophet. Why so? Because God Himself would speak to Moses, and Moses then would give the Word of God to Aaron. And Aaron would give it to the Egyptians. So as far as Aaron is concerned, Moses is acting as God because when Moses speaks to him, He is giving to him the message of God just as he got it directly from God Himself. So Moses is viewed here as God.

Look over in Exodus chapter 7. "Then the Lord said to Moses, ’See, I make you God...(you have the little word ’as' included here but God says to him—) I make you God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet." Now if you’re familiar with the life of Moses, there is never any occasion where Moses claims to be God. That all of a sudden he has changed nature here and has become deity. But God says ’you are God’. In what sense? In the sense that Aaron is your prophet. Verse 2. "You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh." So Moses stands as God from the standpoint that he has God’s message, and he’ll give it to Aaron and Aaron will give it to the people. Now that's the background when you come over to Psalm 82 from which Jesus quotes.

Psalm 82, addressing the judges in Israel, those who would be His spokesmen. He asks them in verse 2, "How long will you judge unjustly?" But down to verse 6, "I said, ’You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless you will die like men, and fall like any one of the princes.™ So you note here, He says they are gods but obviously they haven’t changed character because they’re going to die like men. So in what way are they gods? They have received the message from God, so that when they speak it is just as if God is speaking because they were saying what God said.

Now come back to John 10, and in verse 35 Jesus says "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came..." So you see that's the background. Those who received the Word of God are called gods. They become the vehicles of revelation. They become the instruments to make the eternal God known. So when Moses spoke, God was speaking. We have a close parallel to this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 when Paul says We beseech you in Christ’s stead be reconciled to God." I stand in the place of Christ and exhort you be reconciled to God. Why? Because the message I am proclaiming is the message that Christ proclaimed. So it’s not Paul speaking, but it is Christ speaking because it is what HE says, not what I say. So I am a vehicle for revealing God. And from that standpoint then, those who receive God’s message could be spoken of as gods. They were vehicles to reveal God.

Alright. Verse 35. "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken)..." I mean that must be true. If you Jews have a problem with Me referring to Myself as God, how do you exposit Psalm 82:6? Would you stone Moses? Would you stone those who received the Old Testament Scriptures? Your own Scripture says they are gods and they cannot be broken, maybe you don't understand the issues. Now the real issue is they don’t understand who He is.

"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?”’ In other words, if it could be said of these who received the Scripture they were gods because they became vehicles for making God known or revealing God, how can you accuse the One who was sanctified, set apart by the Father and sent into the world? You note here the emphasis on the pre-existence of Christ. He existed before He came into the world. But He was set apart by the Father in eternity past, and then sent into the world from the Father. How can you say He is blaspheming when He says He is the Son of God? You have the same development here as you have in Hebrews chapter 1. Now maybe you ought to flip there quickly.

Hebrews chapter 1. "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in a Son..." So He spoke in a variety of ways to a variety of people in the Old Testament. They became vehicles for revealing God. They became gods, but the culmination toward which all of that moved was to the completion of revelation in One who is a Son. One who can reveal God fully and completely because He partakes of the same essence and nature. Even Moses acknowledged that there will come One after me, greater, a prophet will be raised after me and you will follow Him. He is the One who will most fully reveal the Father.

So how can you say of Christ that He can’t be called God when I've been sent from God. I’m the One who fully reveals God. I am the Son of God. Who is the manifestation of the essence and nature and being of God? What is the problem you Jews have? Then He says in verse 37, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me." Now you see how immediately He moves to the works, because what He is saying, anybody could claim it. I could stand up and say, Did you know I was sent from God? I and God, we're one. I am deity. I can say whatever I want—and there have been many individuals who have made such claims. Philadelphia used to have Father Divine, but he's dead and gone, and pretty well forgotten! Others have made the claim. What is unique? Jesus says in verse 37, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me." In other words, who else but God could give sight to the blind, give the ability to walk to the lame, could give hearing to the deaf, give the ability to speak to the speechless? Could raise the dead? Of what kind of character are these works? They are obviously the works of God, My Father. Therefore, that means that what I say is true. "If I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works; that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father." In other words, if you're having a hard time with what I'm telling you, just look at what I did. You know we say, seeing is believing. Well, here are people who have the ability to see but they wouldn't believe. They had the ability to observe the miracles, but they would not believe in miracles.
And since they would not believe what He did, they rejected what He said. So we’re back to point zero. Not so different than the way people approach the Scriptures today. Amazing how people who are ignorant of the Scriptures can make such foolish statements. They come to the Scripture with the presupposition that Jesus Christ is not the Savior of the world. The presupposition that He is not the Son of God, deity Himself. On that basis they demythologize the Scripture. Which is another way of saying they take all the things that would be supernatural out of the Bible. Since Jesus Christ obviously was not the Messiah, He was not the Son of God, He was not God Himself, He could not have done these miracles. Therefore, there must be another explanation for them. But you see how they begin. With the presupposition that Jesus Christ is not who He claimed to be. Then they reject the miracles. That’s the same pattern followed by these Jews. They had a little harder time. Since there were hundreds of thousands of witnesses, it was a little more difficult to demythologize in those days. So they just avoided the issue altogether. He raises the subject of the works. They don’t even talk about it. We saw that back in chapter 5. He's just healed the lame man. They just prefer not to deal with it. We saw in chapter 9 when He gives sight to the blind man, they just prefer not to consider it. But the pattern is the same. They’ve made up their mind about the person of Christ and are unwilling to make any other consideration. When you talk to a modern theologian today, he does not believe the miracles of the Bible. Why? Because of lack of evidence? No. Because of a presupposition that Jesus Christ was not God, so all the supernatural things here must be myths. You know what? If their presupposition is right, their conclusion is right. If Jesus Christ is not God, the miracles of the Bible are myths. You know the fallacy? The presupposition. We sometimes think, Oh boy, there must be a lack of evidence. All these great theologians, they reject the miracles. They reject the deity of Christ. But it’s a presupposition. They don't consider the evidence. They don’t consider what the Bible says about Jesus. They don’t consider what the Bibles says about His miracles. Where did they get their information? They had a nightmare one night! They had a dream! All we know about Jesus Christ is contained right here. All we know about His miracles is contained right here. So you know how they get around that—and I don't want to get on it on the side, just want to get wound up! Know what they say? You need an outside source to validate the source you have! And since this is the only record you have and there is nothing outside this record to substantiate this record, this record then is not true. Now, you think about that and your opinion of the intellect of some of our great theologians will bottom out! Back to John chapter 10. Jesus says, ’You have two alternatives.’ If I don’t do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me. If I do the works of My Father, believe Me. Now isn’t that simple? Let's evaluate the evidence, is what He is saying, to see whether what I am saying is true. And you'll note how very open minded they are to consider the evidence. Verse 39, ’’Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him; and He eluded their grasp." Why? They don’t want to be convinced. They don't want to know. I've decided it's not true, and it only aggravates me when you tell me it is. I've decided it's not true, and I don't want to hear anything more about it. They've made up their minds.

Now these little statements here—"He eluded their grasp." A couple of us were talking yesterday. Wouldn’t it be interesting if John had given us a little detail here? How do you get out of Solomon’s porch that enclosed area with a mob surrounding you with rocks to stone you? John summarizes it— He eluded their grasp. Great, John! Just give me a little hint! How’d He do it? Did He change robes with Peter, or how did He do it? You know, there's these points of interest that God left out because we've got all we can do to get through what He's given us, and it would just be a point of interest. The important thing is that He eluded their grasp. How He did it is secondary, although I must admit I do wonder how He did it! But He did it! If my theology was a little broader, I’d tell you how He did it from one of my dreams!

But let's look at verses 41 and 42 and draw it to a conclusion. "He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing; and He was staying there." He removes Himself from Jerusalem because that's where the opposition was centering. And again it has built to such a fever pitch that if he stays there his execution will occur, and there are still several months to go before in God's plan He will be given over to execution.

"Many came to Him; and they were saying, 'While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true." Isn't it interesting? John the Baptist is the man about whom Jesus said he was the greatest man who ever lived apart from Jesus Himself. Up until the time Christ was born, Jesus said there was not a man born greater than John. You know John never did one miracle during his earthly ministry. That's what they say here. John performed no sign. John did no miracles. Yet he was greater than Moses who did all those miracles. Greater than Elijah! Greater than Elisha! And he didn't do any miracles. Yet the people recognized what John said about Jesus was true. “And many believe in Him there."

I think that's significant. Know what He had to do? He had to remove Himself from the center of religious activity. Jerusalem was the center of religious activity. That's where people were the least open to listen to what Jesus had to say. He gets out of that environment, people can come and listen and evaluate the evidence and they come to believe in Him.

Not so different from today. Hardest place to reach people is when they are embedded in their religious activity. And you know how that is. If you could only get them out of that environment a little bit and share with them what God has said, it's so much easier so to speak, humanly speaking.

But many believed in Him, because John had testified of Him and his testimony is true. Jesus had validated His ministry by His works. Then by the clarity of His teaching. He has revealed Himself to be none other than the Son of God, a being who Himself is deity, thus that One who could be the Shepherd of Israel. Because who but God can shepherd His people in such a way that they would be secure for all eternity?

Question. What has been your reaction to Jesus Christ? You've been confronted with the reality of His claims. If you've been here in the study of the Gospel of John, you've been confronted with this miracle. Now we know beyond that He went to the cross and died, and He was raised from the dead on the third day. There is evidence. There is proof! What has been your response? Did you make up your mind before you came today that you didn't want to be influenced? That you wouldn't want to be caused to change your mind? I don't want to change your mind, but you ought to consider the evidence. That whether what the Bible says about Jesus Christ is true. He IS God in the flesh, the One who died to pay the penalty for sins that we by believing in Him might have life. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the greatness of this revelation. Lord that you have revealed yourself. That revelation reached its epitome in the person of your Son, Jesus Christ; Lord, we can gather together on a morning like this in your presence and consider the record of what He did and who He was. Lord, we thank you that we have come to know and believe that He is the Savior sent into the world to redeem us.
I pray for those who are here who have yet to believe, that the Spirit of God might do that work that only He can do in causing them to see and understand that the person we've been considering is none other than your Son, Jesus Christ, who died to pay the penalty for their sins, that they might believe in Him and have eternal life, for we pray in His name