Latest / Arrow Heights Students / John 5.19-47: On Pregnancy Announcements, a lot of Theology, and the Real Jesus

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John 5.19-47: On Pregnancy Announcements, a lot of Theology, and the Real Jesus · Arrow Heights Students

• 0:00
  All right, you guys can turn to John, chapter five.
• 0:06
  The theme is believe in the Word made flesh.
• 0:11
  At least that is John's purpose to his gospel. He wants you to believe in the Word made flesh. So to this point, all the groundwork has been laid for us to see that Jesus christ is the Son of God and the Son is one with the Father.
• 0:28
  Father, Son and Spirit are the three persons of the one God.
• 0:32
  All that Christ does is what the Father and Spirit do as well.
• 0:37
  The one God created and sustains the universe.
• 0:42
  It makes sense then that we would listen to God's Word.
• 0:46
  And John has already told us that the Word of God is the one who came in the flesh.
• 0:54
  If the Bible's purpose, and I think it is, if the Bible's purpose is to reveal the one who, or who the one true God is, then Christ the Word is the clearest possible revelation of God, the revealing of Him. And he is the one whom the law and the prophets bore witness. He is the one whom we must listen.
• 1:16
  So the main idea of this passage, John 5, 1947, is Jesus, John the Baptist, the Father. And the Scriptures bear witness to Jesus christ, and he is one with the Father. Therefore listen to him.
• 1:34
  Listen to him.
• 1:36
  So let's do that.
• 1:38
  Let's read this passage starting in John 5:19.
• 1:45
  So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does that the Son does likewise.
• 1:57
  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these he will show him, so that you may marvel.
• 2:07
  For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.
• 2:13
  For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.
• 2:33
  He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
• 2:39
  Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. And those who hear will live.
• 2:49
  For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.
• 2:55
  And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man.
• 3:02
  Do not marvel at this. For an hour is coming when all who have are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
• 3:18
  I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
• 3:31
  There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true.
• 3:37
  You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth.
• 3:42
  Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
• 3:54
  But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John.
• 3:58
  For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
• 4:06
  And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form, you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent you. Search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.
• 4:27
  And it is they that bear witness about me.
• 4:31
  Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
• 4:34
  I do not receive glory from people, but I know that you do not have the love of God within you.
• 4:41
  I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him.
• 4:49
  How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
• 4:57
  Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope for. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
• 5:10
  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
• 5:18
  Recently a friend asked at a dinner, there are some other couples sitting at this table.
• 5:28
  And they asked, hey, you know, when you guys were having a kid, did you say, we are pregnant? Or did you say like, my wife is pregnant or we are having a kid or something else?
• 5:39
  And I was trying to think. I genuinely don't remember what I said. Did I say we?
• 5:44
  Did I say Katie?
• 5:46
  Nowadays I think it might sound a bit odd to say we, because of course, I was not the pregnant one.
• 5:54
  But I actually think there's a lot of truth to it. This is because of the one flesh union of A husband and wife is not primarily a legal reality, like we typically think in political terms. It's really a deep spiritual reality to become one, one in marriage. What one does, the other does. In many ways, I hope many of you get to enjoy marriage, and if not, that is great. But if you do, you'll realize you probably start saying the word we a whole lot more.
• 6:29
  And the reason I'm bringing this up is because this union gets about as close as possible to showing the sort of union that the Son has with the Father. And that's a big theme in this passage, of course. The Son and the Father are far more intimately one, something that no purely human relationship can mimic. They have always been one.
• 6:52
  They cannot be separated in any sense.
• 6:55
  So how much more true is it that when the Father acts, the Son acts? When the Son speaks, the Father speaks.
• 7:04
  This oneness gives Christ the authority that the Father has. And so we must listen to Him.
• 7:12
  He has the same authority, the same words of the Creator, because He is that Creator. He is the One who gives us life, because God is the giver and sustainer of life. And if we listen to His Word in the Law and the prophets and now also the New Testament, then it means that we will know the Son.
• 7:33
  So we must approach the Word of God humbly, because within its pages we're introduced to the fullest revelation of God Himself, as we see here.
• 7:42
  So now, point number one. To know the Son is to know the Father and have life.
• 7:50
  To know the Son is to know the Father and have life.
• 7:57
  So in this passage, this is continuing from what we talked about last week.
• 8:03
  The people were angry that Jesus had made Himself equal with God, you might recall. And he did this by saying that he and the Father are both working.
• 8:13
  So the implication that they're drawing correctly is that they do the same works, the Son and the Father, because they are the one God.
• 8:23
  Verse 19.
• 8:24
  So he says to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
• 8:31
  For whatever the Father does that the Son does likewise.
• 8:36
  So this emphasizes that what God does, they call this his operations. The things he operates, his acts, the things he does are inseparable between the the persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, whatever God does, all three persons do together, that's what this is teaching for Jesus purposes. He wants to show them that he is God. He is explicitly making this claim, and that's crucial for us to know as well.
• 9:12
  But we can also learn from this that we should never pit God against Himself.
• 9:19
  You know, one might suppose if they do this, that the Father, he's the Wrathful One and the Son is the Merciful One. Maybe you've heard something similar, maybe you've heard it between the Testaments. But that divides God against Himself.
• 9:34
  And if he is divided, he is not God.
• 9:38
  So in between these two truly, truly statements, in verses 19 and 24, Jesus is explaining what he means. He's explaining with this kind of background, this background understanding of oneness between the Father and Son. And he uses the word for four times to explain what he's meaning.
• 10:01
  First, in verse 19, he shows that the Son, for the Son to be able to do nothing of his own accord, but he only what he sees the Father doing.
• 10:14
  This does not limit him in some way. We might read this. Oh, he can't do anything unless the Father is doing it first.
• 10:20
  It does not limit him because whatever the Father does that the Son does likewise.
• 10:27
  So if we were to say that this kind of makes the Son sound weaker than the Father, the Father is stronger than the Son. But if this limits the Son's abilities, then it also limits the Father's behavior because they do the same works, is what the rest of that verse says.
• 10:43
  Verse 20. Then second, this is grounded in the eternal divine love shared between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. The Son sees exactly what the Father does because they are one and do the same works.
• 11:01
  They are one and do the same works.
• 11:05
  Third, the relevance. So this is the third four, the relevance to healing and salvation.
• 11:13
  Remember, the healing signs we just read are the immediate context. He heals the official Son and then the lame man by the pool.
• 11:24
  That's the immediate context. So the relevance to healing and salvation is that both the Father and the Son give life.
• 11:34
  They are as one God, the Author of life.
• 11:38
  If one wants true life, he cannot choose either the Father or the Son.
• 11:44
  They give life. They are the Source.
• 11:48
  This is why he also says in verse 26, for as the Father has life in Himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
• 11:58
  And then the 4th, 4, 22.
• 12:03
  Lest someone think the Son is then just a puppet doing what the Father does, I'm trying to show us that he has true, genuine power. Lest we think he's a puppet doing what the Father does, he is shown to have some sort of authority on his own.
• 12:18
  The previous also showed that the Son gives life to whom he will.
• 12:22
  But now we see that all judgment has been given to the Son, Jesus. The point of this is he's pressing against the Jewish view that God the Father was the judge. And this is not entirely inappropriate or wrong, but the Son is saying that judgment actually will be given completely through Himself.
• 12:44
  And at the same time, he's not contradicting that the Father is a judge because they do their works together.
• 12:50
  But the Son is saying, I am the judge. This has been given to me.
• 12:54
  So the emphasis is less about the Father or less about saying that the Father is uninvolved in judgment, but more to show the Jews that if you want to escape judgment and have life, which they do, we all do, you must go through the Son. He is the way.
• 13:13
  You must go through Him. For that is the will of the Father and the Son.
• 13:18
  They are one. We can't separate them out and have this Father and then this representative, just this Son, that are separate, they are one.
• 13:27
  Salvation comes through the one God. Judgment will be dealt by the one God.
• 13:33
  So what does this all come to for us?
• 13:36
  This is kind of a lot of theology.
• 13:39
  I'm hoping it's understandable. But what does it come to for us?
• 13:43
  Well, first, you must hear the Word of Christ and believe.
• 13:47
  This is the grounds for why you should believe.
• 13:51
  To hear truly means that you believe not just in Christ, but in the One who sent him, because they are one.
• 14:01
  May the Lord open your ears, your eyes and your heart to believe in the Son of Man.
• 14:08
  Without personal faith in Christ, then you are completely dead in sin.
• 14:15
  You cannot just then give yourself cpr, break out a spiritual defibrillator and resuscitate yourself. No, you need to hear his voice and be healed. You need to seek after his voice. Trust in God that you are indeed revived in hearing His Word and will have life.
• 14:37
  And you can trust him. Because these are not two different guys who might miscommunicate. No, they are perfectly one.
• 14:46
  If you go through the Son, you have the Father second.
• 14:50
  So this is the second way that this can apply to us. Those who believe will have life when Christ returns. Verses 28 and 29, all who are in the tombs, the dead will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection life.
• 15:11
  So what does that teach us? It teaches us that there is no hope outside of the hope of resurrection life. That is the supreme hope, that is eternal life, when Christ returns, this resurrection life.
• 15:25
  But Jesus also shows us that eternal life is. Can be a sort of present reality for you.
• 15:32
  So, yes, it's future. It is the future hope, the final fulfillment of that. But it is present to believers, Even now, verse 24, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
• 15:51
  So if you hear, then you are already have passed into life. You are already on the trail to heaven, and you will get there.
• 16:03
  Those who believe will have life. And then the third way this applies, those who do not believe will be judged.
• 16:10
  So there is no way for us to avoid the reality of judgment. Actually, really frequently in John, we are given a beautiful little sentence about the salvation of God through Christ. It's immediately followed by the surety of judgment.
• 16:28
  So we can't skip around this. It will come for all. We might initially think that those who hear his voice and come out of their tombs and graves, remember, they hear his voice, they come out of the tombs. You might hear that and think, oh, those people are being saved. That refers to everyone.
• 16:43
  Those dead that are being raised is everybody.
• 16:48
  The righteous raise to eternal life. The wicked raise to eternal judgment and eternal death.
• 16:56
  You need to know the Son.
• 16:59
  And the gospel of John is saying over and over and over again, hey, meet my friend Jesus. He can save you from that judgment.
• 17:10
  And he's the only one that can do that.
• 17:12
  To to know the Son is to know the Father and have life.
• 17:17
  If we want to know the Son and have life, we need to listen to the testimony that witnesses to Him.
• 17:26
  So in this passage, we see proofs. We see four proofs that he is the Son who gives life.
• 17:36
  So four different witnesses, four different types of proofs that say, yes, this Son is the Son of the Father who gives life. And this gets to point number two.
• 17:47
  To know the Son is to listen, in this case, to John the Baptist. This is the first witness that he mentions. To know the Son is to listen to John the Baptist.
• 17:58
  So the testimony of John the Baptist, this is the first proof. Now remember that Jesus is going to tie his authority to the Father's authority to emphasize that they are one and he is God. Continually through the passage. He's going to do that over and over again to remind them, I and the Father are one. Our authority is one.
• 18:18
  So he even says, verse 31, if I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.
• 18:27
  The word alone is key here. In fact, it might be easier for us to understand if we translate it legitimately, that his testimony is not sufficient.
• 18:38
  It is not sufficient alone.
• 18:41
  So here's another.
• 18:43
  That's right, another theology lesson from John. It'll help us read the Book and really help us read the New Testament. When Jesus speaks, or when other New Testament writers speak about him, they speak of him in a twofold manner. So in like, two different ways is what I mean.
• 19:02
  Sometimes as God and sometimes as man.
• 19:07
  You may have heard that Jesus is truly God and truly man. He's not half and half or mixture. He is true God and true man.
• 19:15
  And so we want to notice which is in view, because the Bible presents Jesus accurately as one person, right? He's not two people. He is one person who. Who speaks and acts and lives according to two natures. It's hard for us to understand this because you are one person with one nature.
• 19:35
  So everything you do is through one nature. But Christ has two natures.
• 19:41
  Christ is one, but he lives through the two. Therefore, sometimes he says something of one nature and sometimes of the other.
• 19:49
  This helps us make sense when it says, well, he's really sounding like God there, and now he's kind of sounding like a man.
• 19:55
  This helps us make sense of that.
• 19:57
  And I think here he's speaking as a man. If as a man, he bears witness to himself alone, that is not sufficient. That's not enough.
• 20:09
  But the man Jesus does not speak alone.
• 20:12
  He doesn't. He's already shown that he speaks what the Father speaks. But here's the first proof. John the Baptist bore witness to the Son.
• 20:20
  Now, why is he bringing up John the Baptist? You know, the other things we see in the passage talks about the Father, his works, the Scriptures, Moses.
• 20:29
  So why is he bringing up John the Baptist?
• 20:32
  It's significant because earlier in this same book, in John chapter one, we saw how the Jewish leaders had sent people to John to hear what he was preaching. And Jesus mentions that in verse 33, he says, you sent to John. That's what he means. He. They sent people to hear John's preaching.
• 20:51
  So they heard what he had preached.
• 20:54
  They knew what he had said about the One to come. And now they are seeing that this Jesus is doing and fulfilling exactly what John the Baptist had preached.
• 21:05
  And so this is not insignificant. But even still, it's not sufficient because the testimony that Jesus receives is not from man. Says in verse 34, John's witness matters ultimately because it came from God.
• 21:23
  We know it comes from God because this is why he's called in verse 35, a shining lamp. He's a shining lamp.
• 21:33
  This is significant in John's imagery.
• 21:37
  So a lamp eventually goes out. It is a temporary fixture. But Jesus is the light.
• 21:45
  Remember John 1, 4, 5, he is the light who has come into the world.
• 21:51
  And therefore he is the Light that emits from the lamp.
• 21:56
  So, students, ultimately only the light of Christ given by God can save people.
• 22:03
  That's how we know the truth, if we see the light.
• 22:08
  But you too should bear witness as a shining lamp.
• 22:14
  Everything from your words and conversations to your actions and your conduct should proclaim the glories of God.
• 22:25
  And another lesson can be drawn from this that hits home, I think, every single week. So long as a preacher is preaching faithfully what the Word of God says, then we can treat this as God speaking in our midst.
• 22:42
  So when our pastors preach the word, if this is faithful, God is speaking to you, listen to him.
• 22:51
  There's a lamp in the pulpit trying to shine the light of Christ to you.
• 22:56
  Do we think of preaching that significantly? I think we should.
• 23:01
  We don't often think of God speaking when we're at church. We think of Ryan or Nathan or someone speaking. But if the Bible is God's word and the preacher is truly preaching what it means, then we must conclude that God is speaking.
• 23:17
  Now, if people add their own things to it, we need to be careful.
• 23:23
  But if they're preaching faithfully, how can we say anything less?
• 23:27
  So what do we do?
• 23:29
  Well, see, it should be apparent. We must listen intently, even write things down. Seek ways that the Word might transform your life.
• 23:39
  Listen to what God might be impressing upon your heart and mind.
• 23:44
  Be an active listener.
• 23:47
  Listen to the preached testimony of Christ in the church and then preach it with your lives. Prepare. Preach it with your words, just as John did.
• 23:55
  Because though ultimately the testimony has power from God, he uses people like John the Baptist, like you and like me.
• 24:06
  Point number three.
• 24:08
  To know the Son is to listen to his works.
• 24:13
  To know the Son is to listen to his works.
• 24:19
  So this is now Jesus second proof. It's point three, but it's the second proof for why he is the Son of the Father and gives life.
• 24:28
  Jesus own testimony is better.
• 24:31
  What is his testimony?
• 24:33
  He says, the very works that I am doing bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
• 24:39
  This is in verse 36. And just like John's preaching, the testimony of Jesus works does not operate separate from God.
• 24:48
  We can't divide any of these things from God.
• 24:51
  The Father gave him these works to do water into wine. The healings, the teachings all point to who he is.
• 25:03
  No one other than a man perfectly united to God could do these things.
• 25:09
  Jesus or John wants Jesus. Jesus works his signs to cause us to believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
• 25:24
  His works are bearing witness to who he is.
• 25:29
  And I'm well aware many in the room are believers of Jesus christ.
• 25:35
  So I want to ask you, have you considered that God's work in your life might work as a testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing in him grants someone eternal life?
• 25:53
  That's right. The work he has done in your life, if he has transformed your heart, made you new, adopted you into the family, saved you from judgment and from sin, then the work he's doing in you can shine the light of Christ to other people, and often in ways that are very relatable.
• 26:15
  Have you tried telling someone how God has worked in your life as evidence that the Word is true?
• 26:22
  This doesn't mean the way he's worked in your life has to have been so radical and observable. It doesn't mean that it has to all be perfect and every day I get a little bit holier and better.
• 26:35
  No. Whatever work it is, whether it's the work of learning how to repent of your sin every day, or how he has taken temptation away from you, or something of the sort, all of these things can proclaim the work of Christ in your life, because his works really do bear witness that he is the Son of the Father and that he gives life.
• 26:59
  The fact that you can have life if you do have life in Christ is a miracle in itself because you were dead and he has made you alive by his work.
• 27:11
  This proof was good for Jesus, his works.
• 27:15
  Why shouldn't it be true for you?
• 27:18
  Now let's look to the third proof that Jesus is God and gives life. So point number four. To know the Son is to listen to the Father, to know the Son is to listen to the Father.
• 27:29
  So we've talked about the Baptist, the works of Christ, and now the Father. If we listen to the Father's Word, we will hear him say, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.
• 27:42
  But what does Jesus say to the Jews here, verses 37 and 38, his voice you have never heard his form, you have never seen.
• 27:52
  And you do not have His Word abiding in you.
• 27:57
  So keep in mind, as he says, they've never heard his voice, they've never seen his form.
• 28:04
  They do not have His Word abiding in them. Who is he saying this to?
• 28:08
  He's saying this to religious zealots, very religious, strong followers of God, and at least is what they would claim.
• 28:19
  So if anyone in Israel knew God, you would think it'd be them. The people would have thought it was them.
• 28:26
  Yet who are the believers to this point? In John, remember, we've seen people believe kind of shallowly. Some people believe truly John the Baptist, who lives in the wilderness and eats locusts. The disciples who are mostly lowly fishermen and some others, and those Samaritans that aren't really Jews have believed in who he is. Those are the believers, not the Jewish religious leaders.
• 28:56
  So what does this go to show us? It shows us that belief in Christ is not tied to your status and knowledge. It's not tied to the family you're born into or grow up in. It is based on the one in whom you put your trust and nothing else.
• 29:11
  It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from. If you trust in the Lord Christ, then you are saved.
• 29:19
  That's it.
• 29:22
  Sometimes it is those who claim the most prestige that are furthest from the Lord.
• 29:30
  I found this interesting recently.
• 29:34
  The pastor of a church that a lot of people would have heard of in this room called himself an oracle of God because everything he says God tells him to say.
• 29:47
  And yet the gospel this man preaches is false. It is tied to prosperity promises.
• 29:54
  Another pastor of that same church also called himself the greatest storyteller on the planet.
• 29:59
  Now what is being elevated by men like these? The name of Jesus or their public following and net worth?
• 30:09
  They might seem religious, they might be great people. A lot of people follow them, look up to them in the faith, and yet this is how they speak.
• 30:16
  They're not elevating Christ but themselves. Sometimes it is the most religious looking people that are the furthest from the Lord.
• 30:25
  The strict rules they live by make them seem holy.
• 30:31
  But they're really just working for their own righteousness, which does not elevate Christ either.
• 30:37
  Now let me say. I say sometimes it is the most religious looking people.
• 30:43
  Not always, but sometimes.
• 30:46
  Listen to the Father through the Son by the faithful leaders who do not seek to elevate themselves, but want instead to elevate Christ.
• 30:57
  This doesn't mean that fame and holy living are wrong. But we must look and see if Christ is the theme of someone's life and ministry to determine if he is worth following in the first place.
• 31:10
  We want to know the Son, Jesus most of all. That's what we want to know. And this is how we know that we also know the Father.
• 31:20
  This is why Jesus must be elevated, that we may find and truly know who the Father is.
• 31:29
  And now the fourth proof that Jesus is God and gives life. So point number five to know the Son is to listen to the Scriptures. To know the Son is to listen to the Scriptures.
• 31:48
  So these same religious zealots claim that the Bible rules their lives, yet they reject Christ and they're rejecting him to his face.
• 32:00
  Now, remember that the Scriptures to them are what we call the Old Testament.
• 32:06
  They call it the Tanakh, sometimes the Torah, which refers to part of the Tanakh, sometimes used to refer to all of it.
• 32:14
  Now, weirdly, this may be a little hard to understand.
• 32:18
  It seems like he's saying they are actually idolizing the Scriptures instead of worshiping the one of whom the scriptures testify.
• 32:27
  They think in them they have eternal life. And Jesus is claiming that those scriptures are about him.
• 32:36
  Look, verse 45, 40 through 47. He says, There is one, one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
• 32:45
  Remember I said earlier that hope is in the resurrection life. They've set their hope on Moses. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
• 32:54
  But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
• 32:59
  So Jesus refers to Moses.
• 33:02
  Here's why he refers to Moses. Because he wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the first five books of your Bible, which is sometimes called the Torah, which is the law, sometimes called the Pentateuch. They're different names. These are the first five books of the Bible. They're very important. Jesus refers to Moses for that reason. And the Jews lived by the law in some respect. They were supposed to.
• 33:31
  They memorized it. They taught it to their children. They meditated on it day and night. At least that's what they were commanded to do.
• 33:39
  And yet these Jews did not realize, with all of that reading and memorizing and meditating, that Moses was writing of Jesus.
• 33:48
  And now the man of whom he wrote is right there.
• 33:51
  So when did Moses write of Jesus? Well, as a whole, the testimony points to Christ, but specifically, Deuteronomy 18:15 is an important passage that the Jews thought of. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me. So Moses is speaking. A prophet like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen.
• 34:16
  Jesus is saying to them, I am that prophet.
• 34:20
  I am the prophet. From among you, from among your brothers.
• 34:24
  I am like Moses, but greater.
• 34:26
  Listen to me, just as the Father says. Listen to him. My son, these people do not have the love of God in their hearts. And that is evident because they reject the one sent by God.
• 34:41
  You must believe in the one sent to have life.
• 34:46
  And if you are drawn to Jesus. Now then, here are some lessons from this.
• 34:52
  Avoid. First, those who reject the Jesus of the Bible and come in their own names.
• 34:59
  You know, the biggest examples of this are Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses. They reject the Jesus of the Bible. Sure, they say they believe in him, but we need to be careful when we hear this because someone says they believe him but reject the very things that make him who he is, for instance his oneness with the Father, then they're rejecting Jesus.
• 35:21
  They deny the Trinity. If you believe in a different Christ, you believe in a different gospel. And a different gospel, as Paul teaches us, is no gospel at all.
• 35:32
  So avoid those who reject the Jesus of Scripture.
• 35:36
  Second, avoid those who come in their own name. I've already kind of given some examples, but if someone elevates himself and his platform to the extent that Christ is overshadowed, that surely is troubling.
• 35:50
  And then third, and this is pertinent to this section, don't idolize the Bible.
• 35:59
  That's weird. It even feels weird coming out of my mouth. What does that mean? What does that mean? The Bible tells us of the one true God.
• 36:07
  It certainly is the most important book. It is the living word of God. It has transformative power through the Spirit. So here's an example of what I mean.
• 36:19
  Sometimes people will actually misunderstand the Bible by only looking for very specific verses to prove a certain thing. This is maybe what someone might call a radical Biblicism. You don't need to remember that word, but that's maybe kind of what this is describing. For instance, someone might reject what I'm saying. This passage teaches the doctrine of the Trinity or that the Son is begotten of the Father before all ages. Because they can't find a specific place that teaches such a doctrine. You think where even is the word Trinity in the Bible?
• 36:54
  Is this just a figment of church history's imagination?
• 36:59
  Someone else might say the Bible is silent on crucial issues like abortion, IVF and other ethical things like this because there isn't a single proof text for these very modern things.
• 37:14
  Well, we can combine. This is why this is wrong. If we kind of idolize and look for the letter, we miss the spirit of the Bible. Instead, we can combine what the whole Bible says at many different points with our God given reasoning skills to discover truths of the Bible that are not neatly contained in one place. It is a lifetime of studying cover to cover what His Word says that really reveals to us who he is. And at the end of the day, we don't bow down to this, we bow down to him because it has been revealed to us through the Word.
• 37:53
  If we miss the real Jesus in this way, then we have loved the Bible like the Jews and yet missed how the Bible points to Jesus.
• 38:04
  We can do this in many other ways where we take one thing and elevate it too highly. If we're missing Christ because of the letter, we've missed the Spirit of the text. We ought not miss the Spirit, the heart, the life giving heart of the Word, because it points to the One who can save us. We must listen to the Scriptures because in them, ultimately we hear Christ, the Word and Son of God who gives life.
• 38:37
  So all of these proofs, Jesus, his works, John the Baptist, the Father, the Scriptures, they bear witness to Jesus christ.
• 38:46
  So we should listen to him.
• 38:48
  All four proofs. Help us. John the Baptist, the works of Christ the Father, the Scriptures, they tell us that Jesus christ, the Son of God, is inseparably one with God. He is God.
• 39:01
  That God himself would empty himself by adding to himself humanity to draw near to you and to your situation is incomprehensible.
• 39:12
  It is a work of of his mighty grace that we cannot fathom.
• 39:17
  He did not need to do this. We do not deserve this. But he is motivated by his own love for you.
• 39:24
  So look into the Word and listen to him.
• 39:28
  Whether that is when you read the Word on your own, when you do it in a small group, or when the Word is preached, be attentive to the voice of God in your heart through the Spirit, for He just might be leading you to Himself.
• 39:42
  Listen to the Word made flesh and believe in Him.
• 39:46
  Let's pray.
• 39:48
  O God, we thank you for your Son, that you are the one true God.
• 39:56
  That you are inseparably united to one another as an unchanging, unfathomable God. A God that we can certainly trust, that cannot be divided against Himself, that can surely keep his promises and will. Lord, we thank you for your Son, who in his love took on flesh, that he might bring us to you and make us one with you in a way similar to how he is.
• 40:20
  Lord, we thank you for this wonderful grace of the Savior. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.