Reading is a continuation of John 10, which can be found on page 1077 and it commences at first 22. So it's John 10 commencing at verse 22 on page 1077, the unbelief of the Jews. When came the feast of dedication at Jerusalem, it was winter and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's colonnade. The Jews gathered around him saying how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ tell us plainly. Jesus answered I did tell you but you did not believe. The miracles I do in my father's name speak for me but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listened to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can catch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. Again the Jews picked up some stones to stone him but Jesus said to them I have shown you many great miracles from the father for which of these do you stone me? We are not stoning you for any of these reply the Jews but for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claimed to be God. Jesus answered them is it not written in your law I have said you are gods if he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken? What about the one whom the father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said I am God's son? Do not believe me unless I do what my father does but if I do it even though you do not believe me because the miracles believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I in the father. Again they tried to seize him but he escaped their grass then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptising in the earlier days. Here he stayed and many people came to him they said though John never performed a miraculous sign all that John said about this man was true and in that place many believed in Jesus this is the word of the Lord.
Well one of the saddest things about the clips that we saw a few minutes ago was actually just the ignorance really of lots of people both about who Jesus is and was and what he came to do. So let's praise you that as we think about some of the popular errors in our culture at the moment the God will be our teacher and supremely through his word we were again better understanding. Did all we do thank you that in your word we find truth and we pray that you would speak the truth to us through your word this morning and that you give us ears to hear for Jesus's sake. Amen.
Well for the next two weeks I do want to talk about some of the issues that are raised by the Da Vinci code. It's not my normal pattern of preaching because as you know what we normally do is to work through sections of the Bible and to draw out application from the text but obviously you know the whole world is talking about the Da Vinci code also it seems at the moment. It has sold over 40 million copies already been translated into 44 different languages and is a stonking good read. The film starring Tom Hanks as you know is due to be released at cinemas next Friday but of course you'll all be here for the Kate Simmons concert anyway so that's just fine. The book is picked up on the conspiracy theories surrounding the life of Jesus and the origin origins of the Christian faith. Much of what is popularized in the book of course is not new and you remember that there was a court case in February taken out by Michael Baniott and Richard Lee against random house because they claimed that Dan Brown's Da Vinci code lifts wholesale the plot from then 1982 book The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail which is an attempt to be slightly more scholarly book although that's a whole other sermon in itself. However of course at the same time Brown has made his millions and if people flock to the cinema which incidentally I'm really hoping you won't. Along with other church leaders around the country we want to say to you not that we think you're going to be taken in because it is popular myth but surely we don't want Hollywood to have a blockbuster because Christians go to the film. I would encourage you not to see the film and to give credence to his falsehood by bumping it up the box office but one of the problems with both the book and the film of course is that it will give popular popularity to the doubts that he shows. Well we might ask has the church been engaged in a massive cover-up for the past two thousand years? Dan Brown's book of course is a work of fiction but it opens with this curious claim that you'll have heard repeated if you've seen the Tony Robinson program that was on again the other day. He claims all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate. So though he claims it to be a work of fiction there are a number of things that he says are in the book including the architecture which if you know London or Paris well you know it's not completely true and plus also some of the secret rituals and other examination of historical documents he claims are true. In actual fact if it is true of course the Christian faith has practiced by millions of people today is in trouble with its central beliefs nothing more than myth and fabrication. The Da Vinci code is a story of secret gospels, a smeared character, of bold forgeries, of planted documents and daring faith but daring faith of course not from those who are part of traditional religious establishment but those who boldly challenge it and we'll be looking a little bit theories and evidence in the lines of Jesus Mary Magdalene other key people over the next couple of weeks but what I mostly want to do is to not look at the book or the film but rather to look at two key questions which people are asking today and I don't about you but I've already found that in the course of conversations people are asking questions is Jesus really got or is the Bible reliable? And the way that we're going to go about answering these questions is to look at the most reliable historical documents that we have that is the eyewitness accounts that we have in this book he knows the Bible. These are the accounts of those who heard his words who saw his works and who painstakingly wrote them down for us. Now I've got two reasons really for preaching this many series first I hope to give you better confidence that the things that we affirm week by week are based in reliable history then actually the things that the churches believed for 2000 years are authentically found in the Bible and that these things are still changing people's lives around the world. I suppose the second reason for wanting to preach these two servants is that I hope they'll also equip you to respond to some of the questions which people are asking about the movie. Both as it is screened and also as people read the book and I hope that God may use this as an opportunity for people for us to tell people the truth about Jesus who is timeless in his claims and remains attractive to people. At the table at the back there there are some resources there's a couple of things that you can take away to borrow to read and there's some leaflets that you can just take away for yourself or to give away and I'll put a few more things different things out next week as well. So today's question is Jesus God? That eventually code argues that Jesus never claimed to be God but it was something that was decided by a close vote at the Council of Nicer in 325 AD nearly 300 years after Jesus came on the scene. Now actually fact the Council of Nicer from which we get the Nicene Creed that we will recite together in a moment met to discuss the claims of a heretic named Areos. Areos argued that Jesus was a created being and that he should be afforded a state as less than God. So Jesus was a great man and to some extent Jesus sort of adopted a human body but he was less than God. That is the reason why the Council of Nicer met and what they actually did at that Council was to go back to the earliest documents that they had about Jesus that is the four gospels and what they discovered afresh which is what the first follows of Jesus believed all along was that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. Now apparently according to the fictional character in Dan Brown's book Lee Tebbing the outcome of the Council of Nicer was a very close run thing. In fact the findings of the Council of Nicer accept by a vote of 316 to 2 which doesn't sound that close run to me. The voxpops that we watched a few minutes ago make for fascinating but don't you not think very depressing reading. People are ignorant about God and particularly about Jesus Christ and yet he's central to what Christians believe down the centuries and continue to believe in their millions around the world. So we do need to ask therefore two very important questions. Firstly did Jesus ever claim to be God? That's why I'd find it helpful if you'll open John 10 in front of you page 1077. Now we don't have the time to work all the way through this passage and when I've selected is some of the incidents and words that point to Jesus's identity. And I want you to notice what happens as a result of Jesus speaking and the response that he gets starting there at verse 31. We're told again the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said to them, I've shown you many great miracles from the Father for which of these do you stone me? We're not stone you for any one of these replied the Jews but for blasphemy because you a mere man claim to be God. It was a very strong reaction wasn't it to what Jesus had been saying. Why was the reaction so strong? Well the passage goes on verse 34. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? I said you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blaspheming because I said I am God's son? Do you do not believe me unless I do what my father does? But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I and the Father. Again they tried to season that he escaped their grasp.
Well the reaction was very strong and I don't think that their reaction was a result as a result of misunderstanding Jesus but actually it was precisely because they understood exactly what Jesus was saying. He specifically calls himself the son of God. When I became a Christian in my late teens we had a very liberal open-minded six-form and we used to have these great general studies discussions with the head of six-form who was actually a great guy and he used to tease me mercilessly because he knew I was a Christian and on one occasion he said, oh Jesus called him the son of God but surely the whole point he was making in saying that he was the son of God but that he was less than God, that he was God's son, he wouldn't dare to call himself God. Now of course at one level John can say that all who believe in Jesus can be called children of God that's what he says in John 112 and even in this passage he says this rather perplexing thing where he records Jesus saying that even those who heard the word of God were called gods but Jesus then goes on to say if they called those who heard the word of God gods with a little g what about the one he says verse 36 who in the father set apart as his very own and sent into the world. What about me he says if you can call a mere man not only a child of God but also gods with a little g what about the one who's set apart by God and sent into the world. Now John reserves a special Greek construct to talk about Jesus and it's it's hinted at there in verse 36 but it comes out even clearer in John chapter 3 verse 16 the verse that you know very well where Jesus says of himself for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish that have eternal life. God's one and only or God the only begotten is the little Greek phrase and it occurs also in John 1 verse 1 and John 1 verse 18 and here Jesus is saying that there is one who is a true son the only begotten of God eternally begotten of the father as our creed says he was a true son who is of the same substance as the true God and to say that Jacob is my son does not mean that he is not human unless of course you deduce that his father is less than human but is actually to say that he is my offspring but nevertheless he is of the same human nature as I am and to call Jesus the eternal son of God means that mysteriously in eternity God begot his son of the same nature and same substance that he is but he is truly God. Now okay you may say God you're losing me there now and surely words are words anyone can claim to be God in fact many people have claimed to be God down the centuries and some of them have ended up messing up the world forming dangerous cults and others have been sent to lunatic asylum but for now it's important to hear from the lips of Jesus that he claimed to be God unequivocally and I want you to imagine for a moment that I tried to convince you that I was God okay I can stand at the front and say the words Simon Vibert is God and moreover just imagine that somebody rushed into church they fell at my feet and started to give me worship I was you already smiling and laughing I mean apart from the sheer implausibility of it if I said those words and accepted the praise of others I very much doubt that you'd consider me to be wise to be brilliant to be worthy of worship and just in case you're under any illusion taught to my wife she'll tell you that I am not you'd consider me either a madman or a fool is that who Jesus was at some point he thought he was how I want you to notice that Jesus not only said those words of himself but as well see in a couple of minutes he accepted those words of worship from people to him so Jesus claimed to be God how though if we say words of words words don't necessarily mean very much which our culture is inclined to do how then did Jesus go about substantiating that claim well let's just go a little bit further back in John's gospel because there's this little phrase that you're familiar with which is the word Christ or Messiah so here in verse 24 the Jews gather around Jesus saying how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Christ tell us plainly so if Jesus then is asked if you claim to be the Christ the Messiah which meant God's anointed one who would be sent as the long awaited King God among them how do you substantiate that claim Jesus well let's read on Jesus answered I did tell you that you did not believe the miracles I do in my father's name speak for me but you do not do not believe because you are not my sheep my sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they know me I give them eternal life and they can never perish no one can snatch them out of my hand my father who is given them to me is greater than all no one can snatch them out of my father's hands I and the father are one what Jesus is saying in these verses is that the works or the miracles that he does point beyond themselves to his identity and he claims that even without what he says if you look at his actions they demonstrate who I am for both Jesus and the Apostle John the key to his identity is seen in recognizing that his works are both human and divine so verse 32 he says I have shown you many great miracles from the father for which of these do you stone me and then down in verse 37 he says do not believe me unless I do what the father does but if I do it even though you do not believe me believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father Jesus in effect says if you want to know who I am look at what I'm looking not only at what I am saying but also at what I am doing because those two things together point to my identity Jesus said very much the same thing over in chapter 14 in verse 10 he says to the disciples don't you believe that I am in the father and the father is in me the words I say to you and not just my own rather it is the father living in me who is doing his work now let's just pan out the camp camera from this little squabble between the Jewish leaders and Jesus just for a moment and I want to just demonstrate really in the flow of John 10 and 11 what I think John in his narrative shows us about the identity of Jesus in the beginning of chapter 10 that was read to us we have a number of claims that he makes Jesus claims to be the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep he says I am which was the word that was associated with God's revealed name I am the good shepherd which not only was a guy who looked after sheep in their mind but also as associated with the king who would come to rule them rightly I am that God and that king who lays down his life for the sheep this is who I am the one who not only reveals God to you as the good king and the good shepherd but one who sacrifices everything for you and then in the very next chapter in chapter 11 is if that wasn't enough we have this incident where Jesus is given word that Lazarus is very sick and Mary Martha call Jesus to come and of course while he's on the way Jesus gets word that Lazarus has died and Jesus then responds no this sick this will not end in death he is merely asleep and Jesus says those momentous words in John chapter 11 verse 25 he says to Martha I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in me will live even though he dies and whoever lives in me and believes in me will never die do you believe this notice her response before Jesus is actually ever done anything yet I believe that you are the Christ the son of God who was to come into the world Jesus stands at the empty tomb and he calls out the words Lazarus come forth and I love this little incident in the life of Mark and Lloyd James I think I might have told you before that records in biography of Mark and Lloyd James that as a young boy and Sunday school in Wales they were doing John chapter 11 and the teacher turns the class and says tell me children why did Jesus stand at Lazarus to and say Lazarus come forth to which the young Martin Lloyd James responded well miss if he didn't say Lazarus come forth all the dead in Christ will be raised no wonder he went on to be such a great preacher he understood but they understood as well didn't they they understood Lord I believe you are the Christ the son of God who was to come into the world not only through his words but through his amazing works we are to believe that Jesus not only claimed to be the son of God but indeed was all my time has run out and I want to just conclude with this well-known quote that some of you have heard before from CS Lewis he says I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus I'm ready to accept him as a great laurel teacher but I don't accept his claim to be God that is the one thing we must not say a man who is merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher he'd either be a lunatic on the level of the man who claims he's a poached egg or else you'd be the devil of hell you must make your choice either this man was and is the son of God or else a madman or something worse you can shut him up as a fool you can spit on him kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God and let's not let's not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being just a great human teacher he's not left that open to us and neither did he intend to and he concludes Christianity if false is of no importance but if true it's of infinite importance the only thing you can't say is that it is moderately important well let me conclude if he is God so what he is God he came as he claimed to show us what God is like he came also to conquer our enemies sin and death he who is the resurrection of life dying to pay for our sin and rising again and he came to rescue us he didn't come to show us the sacred feminine to encourage us to look within ourselves for self-improvement in life or to affirm in us our spiritual quest there's no conspiracy Jesus came to reveal God and bring us into a right relationship with him but sometimes as the Bible warns men will prefer to listen to lies rather than the truth and gather around them teachers to teach them what they want to hear but you will only find the truth in the true living God who revealed himself and his son and we do well as Thomas did having examined Jesus for himself to fall at his feet and to worship him my Lord and my God shall we pray together Lord Jesus we bow and give you our worship for that is what you are worthy of and in these days we pray Lord do you give us a sure confidence and certainty in your identity and fresh assurance and all that you've done for us as our Savior and our King and pray Lord in these challenging days in our culture that you give us opportunities to hold to our faith unswervingly and to share that with other people in Jesus' name