I pass this once again as found in John chapter 10, as we move through this great section verses 30 to 42 To my slide projection crew follow me as best you can
Father as we come to your word we would hear from you we would ask that you open our ears our inner ear Opened up ears of our heart and the eyes of our hearts so that Lord we can hear and see from Jesus For he is Our Lord and Savior you sent him to be such Father Thank you for loving us and making us part of your family through him We were orphans, but you took us in Made us your children made us your ears Blessed be your name You are worthy of all praise honor and glory and you are worthy of our lives So we lay ourselves before you O Lord preacher and those to whom he preaches we lay our lives before you We give ourselves To your cause to your way to your will may you may thy kingdom come may your will be done Holy Father Give us ears to hear now may Jesus be exalted and may our lives continue to be changed Because we have been in your presence worshiping your great name sitting under your word In Jesus name use your unworthy servant You know how weak he is and Jesus name amen
Beginning of verse 30 of John 10 I and the Father are one Did you picked up stones again to stone him Jesus answered them? I have shown you many good works from the Father For which of them are you going to stone me? Did you use answer him? It is not for a good work that we're going to stone you but for blasphemy Because you being a man make yourself God Jesus answer them Is it not written in your law? I? Said you are gods It's he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken Do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God If I'm not doing the works of my father and do not believe me But if I do them Even though you do not believe me believe the works That you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first and there he remained Many came to him and they said John did no sign But everything that John said about this man was true And many believed in him there That is the word of the Lord Did you see that? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for the beautiful music Thank you. This is not a political statement. So don't go out here and it's political former president Al Gore did a documentary film called an inconvenient truth It was designed to educate Americans about the threat of global warming It built itself as the most terrifying film you will ever see And I'm not here to debate the truth or non-truth or whatever of global warming the title Is what arrests me and that interests me? You see VP Gore assumes that global warming was inconvenient Meaning it wasn't something many people wanted to hear If it is true It will influence Maybe even cramp our lifestyles. It's inconvenient It will make obligations on us It will influence our corporations and individuals spend their money It will indict us for our consumption of the earth's resources without care All of this is inconvenient. It is Better that that discussion go away He said it wasn't a political issue, but a moral issue Now here's the thing That sounds like Jesus to me Whatever you think about global warming. I have my views. You have yours. Amen. We are to be good stewards of God's creation Now that I'll stand on no matter what but that way he described this stuff like Jesus Because Jesus is not and inconvenient truth. Jesus is the inconvenient truth
Jesus is the most important reality facing this planet not global warming Not abortion Not the economy Not the LG BTQ IA plus movement not the poor Not racism Not China or North Korea And not even who's in the White House But the most important reality facing this planet is the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth Jesus dominates history, but not all people enjoy him You see the real Jesus in all of this glory makes people uncomfortable He is even seen as dangerous. I'm gonna come back to this, but let me just tell you now That means the more you look like him you will be seeing the same way Christians what makes Jesus so inconvenient in people's lives?
Isn't he sometimes inconvenient in yours?
Verse 30 Connects two sections here. He ties them together He's been talking about the good shepherd and the good shepherd caring for his sheep and In verse 30 he gives us the reason why the sheep are so secure in his hand because he and the father are one But then does the reaction to that statement and that reaction shows us why Jesus is so dangerous and so inconvenient His claims and his person can be frightening. Let's get to the heart of it The deity of Christ over throws our inaccurate view and Views of God Here as you can see is the doctrine of the Trinity at least two-thirds of it the Holy Spirit is implied because he's the one who opens the eye to see these things Here's the doctrine of the Trinity. I am the father of one Jesus is saying that he and the father are one in purpose in particular here He's in purpose of glorifying God in the salvation of people that the father gives to the sun to bring into his kingdom You saw this a couple weeks ago the father as it were is handing off To Jesus a people that he might say and hold on to and keep forever He calls him his sheep But you can't ignore what the other thing that statement says It says that the father and the son are one in essence in Divinity Though two distinct persons Hmm If you know human being can be absolutely one in purpose with God and let's hear she shares God's essence You can't you can you and I are not one as it were truly one Like the son is one With the father so many times I've seen Christians tricked up by Jehovah witnesses when they knock on your door And some of you have experienced this and they and they begin telling you that Jesus is a God and not the almighty God because they've ejected Trinity That's so deadly And I don't want you to fall for that the Trinity tells us that God exists In three distinct persons yet one being One being The father is not the son the son is not the father and neither are they the Holy Spirit You said I don't understand that Really we're talking about the being of God Not your being or we can die set you and we've done it We've dissected human beings from any centuries. We can and we understand a lot of the human body and yet there's things We don't understand about the human body because we're so finite How much more if we don't understand fully our own bodies how much more do you think you can understand the being of God? I'm okay with that. I'm I think I rejuiced and not being to understand all that is about God. It makes me understand God is God and I'm not I'm okay with that but this but this is a striking thing here is You know the reaction of the Jewish leaders when Jesus makes this statement they try to kill him and then we're going that they try to arrest him That's how the status section is bracketed for 31. Let's kill him for 39 arresting and I'm assuming arrest him so they could kill him That's my assumption Jesus claimed here if understood is uncomfortable for most and for most people even dangerous The Lord seems to be borrowing here from the Shema The Shema is the is not a Jewish prayer is a Jewish creed or confession and you've heard it before Do you know any six forth here? Oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind It combines that mass versus well This is the Jewish creed that that was it that May Judaism distinct from the nations around them We have one God he is supreme creator of all things and therefore all Everything that exists that are called God do not exist. It was a battle cry And one sense in one sense the Shantre's later millennial later you will you be you today have become aware of a phrase a la affa That's a special creed of Muslim people Way before that way before that The Lord is real Yahweh the Lord that's a step that that's the cap all the capital letters the name of God Yahweh our God Yahweh is one Lord is one Jesus is borrowing from that phrase The father of one he's borrowing from that phrase and believe me. They got it His he is saying all that you worship as God do not exist I and the father of one we are God and still one God
Paul picked it up I don't know if we have this on the screen and I but Paul picked it up and first Corinthians chapter 8 4 through 6 He picks this up and he says therefore he's talking about eating food sacrifice to idols and The Jewish remember I'm sorry when the when when Gentile Christians came into the church They were still eating pork, you know that was sacrifice of the at the temple barbecue Big feet and chitlins and whatnot and and and and a Jews and the Jewish Christians are going You know and so Paul has to talk to the Corinthians and church about this kind of thing and so he says this Therefore after the feeding of the eating of food offer titles We know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one For although there are many there may be so cold guys that have an honor as indeed there are many guys in many lords Yet for us come on Christians Yes for us there is one God the father for whom all are all things and for whom we exist and One Lord Jesus Christ through who watches to who are all things and through whom we exist This is what he said the father and the son do for who all things through whom we exist. This is first century teaching Christians have always believed in the deity of Christ And yet today we are seeing those who was in the name of Christ say no, he's not
why it's Inconveying it and dangerous to believe in the deity of Jesus It's it's like a shot over the bow that reality Changes everything Brandon Smith in his book the biblical Trinity Says talking about the shaman Now has a Christian inflection we refer in the Paul statement such that you hear Paul saying listen church God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ a one the For instance he is needed to hear Paul's words to remember to turn away from idols and Toward the one God in lords and we need to hear it to Because those those those today we don't have little little statues that we bowed down before Yet we are full of idols Idols of the heart and mind idols of the culture that we say we must have or anything you say you must have that will give you meaning purpose and direction and life Has become an idol If you must have it And it can be a good thing It can be a really good thing that's that's the danger of idols is because they are Things God has created usually that we then turn into things that are ultimate things Things that we must have that we don't have life as we know it will not be good and that's how we're being sold That's what I's called advertising
We tell people you need this to have your best life now You need this car Oh No, man, you need this car. I know who see I just a day to myself that might my phone is it That did out in we started 1919 get out and push you driving that man that's when stone will be all you need The new hotness that house you living in all man that ain't You you need that you need this address. That's amazing that job. You got it a year ago. You loved your job now I can't because Somebody got a promotion and now you got to have that job. I need some occurrences things it John Calvin said our hearts are idol factories. We just create them tongue Our certain standards are living our certain family Structure Turn the we got to have and all good things It's just when you say you got to have it Is when you say you must have it or you look to anything in Creation to be your identity to be your source of meaning and purpose To be your ultimate happiness anything That you look to in creation to give you that is an idol and Paul said an idol is nothing those things Because of where you are because there is nothing because of your desire you just reduced them to nothing They're not nothing in this stuff, but but but because of your worship of them you reduced them to nothing You've actually short-circuit at your own happiness because you you are hard-wired hard-wired For the living God And you will never find true ultimate happiness and identity in anything other than him and Jesus stands before you and says I and the Father are one you must find your identity in me That's dangerous That's not convenient Because he's he's cutting off everything else He's cutting off all my other attempts to find identity happiness and work And he's cutting off Can I say it? This is online isn't it. Oh boy He's cutting off all over religious faith He's doing it. He's saying their God's don't exist. That's inconvenient and Dangerous ultimately we Jesus claimed I mean we can't he did claim to be God I mean he said it right there the I am statements. We've been looking at in the gospel of John I am the good shepherd. I am the door. I am the bread of life I am the light of the world that I am famous that referred to the burning bush God. Hey, he's been he's been saying it He said it himself He's the first himself is the son of man in the gospel of John and all of the gospel You see that phrase son of man that phrase comes from John chapter as a Daniel chapter seven where where Daniel sees is up there Oh good here we go. I saw in the night vision to be home with the clouds of heaven the clouds of heaven There came one like a son of man He came to the ancient of days That's the father and and was presented before him and to him that's to the son of man was given Dominion and glory and a kingdom watch this that all people's nations and languages should serve him His dominion is an everlasting dominion. We should not pass away and his kingdom one that should not be destroyed Jesus, but he said I am the son of man was saying that's me deal with it In their face constantly about himself being the son of man And even the son of God here in John in particular Oh, but the real kicker. You know the real kicker is Jesus rose from the dead As he predicted he would and at least 500 witnesses to that fact saw him alive That's first reason it's 15 by the way Paul even says this himself and wrote about the resurrection Romans chapter one goes forth He says and was the seeking of Jesus and was declared to be the son of God in power According to the spirit of pulling this by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord and Lord in that culture In christian's meant God That's why the Christians could not say Caesar is Lord and And died for it because Jesus is God. You see how dangerous this is you see how dangerous it is People died for the very idea and still do today Jesus is God Now many want to claim that Jesus was a good moral teacher a good religious leader a doer of good a A champion for the poor whatever he was a revolutionary. They want to say all those good things about him Maybe even he was a prophet some would say, but that's not good enough You know where I'm going see us Lewis Come dad at that kind of thinking Charles Clyde stables Lewis was a Christian apologist who I thought he was a professor. I think it came bridge and Literature I believe and he was also an earlier Christian apologist of the 20th century doing World War 2 and after their He was exceptional. He wrote some great things. I hope you'll read some of his writings He is one from mere Christianity. It's one of his classics I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him Jesus I'm ready to accept Jesus is a great moral teacher, but I don't accept this claim to be God That is the one thing one must not say a Man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher You can't go around saying I and a father are one and be a great moral teacher Lewis goes on he would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a post-ag That's British humor or else listen or else he would be the devil of hell You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the son of God or else a mad man crazy or something worse Devil you can shut him up for a fool. You can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can follow his feet and call him Lord and God But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher He has not left that open to us and he did not intend to In quote Lewis's that was so that's brilliant. Listen. He's right Jesus said things that were recorded and written down that was that are so out of this world that you even got to say He crazy He's the devil Think about how many people have died in his name Come on folks think about these realities How many people have died in his name if he is not who he said he is we should Expunge his name from history We we should never speak it He should be he should be illegal Like to not be flagged in Germany. We should never fly his his colors If he is then nothing is too good for him. He can have me Take me I'm yours I don't care what people say about me I'm his I don't care how much they complain about I belong to him. Are you there? Because here's because we spend so much time trying to make the culture happy with us trying to be cool Trying to be hit and you know When I was when we were when my wife and I were a little younger we were part of this youth ministry in our church And um, I never forget the youth leader at that time His goal was this I want to we want to show The world that we can Be a Christian and still have fun That was the goal of our youth ministry. I mean, okay oh I can go a little bit with that a little bit But the goal of our youth is that the goal of your Christianity show the world you can be a Christian and still have a good time I suggest that you it is practically true for many Who named the name of Jesus because Jesus is inconvenient His ways are inconvenient His person is inconvenient And if you identify too closely with him It gets dangerous In some countries that means your life is a state in America. It may mean something else To associate it with him When you refuse to bow down before the other gods
When you refuse to give yourself and give your body away Because you serve Jesus you know Jesus because he's everything to you and you hear what his words says you see you you're not gonna be popular I don't I'm not just talking to teenagers
If you won't play the game in the and corporate America because you have a higher king a higher Corporate CEO You see that's what happens. Okay, I got fine. I'm I'm getting ahead of my notes. I know you're trying to follow me I don't know where I am. Don't worry about just hanging there You see Jesus is so dangerous watch the deity of Christ over throws our self sovereignty We think we're control. We want to run the show and Jesus steps in when you're not acknowledged his deity Your ability to be in control of your life takes a real shot
Why because if Jesus is God he and his kingdom must have our full allegiance above all of the relationships Including the state and family
It's a car Mike. Tell you he said it Luke chapter 14 20 to 27 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters Yes, even his own life. He cannot be my disciple Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. I didn't say that There's a book called I wish Jesus hadn't said that I Have it. I think I wanted to statement to the world Don't you wish Jesus hadn't said that?
Now hold it now Jesus gave us this The 10 Commandments and one of the 10 Commandments Commandment number honor your mother and father Commandment number Five okay, five. Thank you for saying it Karen and five so you know he's not telling you to actually hate your family He's not actually saying that what but what he is saying is Is even more challenging He's saying that Because of your devotion and love of him
Your care for others in your family or wherever even your own self looks like hate It's a comparison. He's making He said you see me as so glorious. Okay, let me let me give it. Have you ever? I mean come on somebody Have you ever just seen something so beautiful and so amazing That you just stopped and stared I'm gonna tell you the truth It's when I met Sandy and I realized Oh baby I never forget that moment we're at the table talking with this The evangelist on campus and Sandy is sharing the world of God. I'm going go go girl They'll tell me the book hit me with the script job And and then she did the brothers help me out. She did the thing She got up and walked away Now she was now she went trying to do anything, but she didn't have to it was like And I was the mobile. I said man. That's a good sister. He's again There's something's just grab you you just go The grand canyon a sunset in Miami Miami had the most amazing sunset come on y'all remember the sun sets and the sun rises in Miami The views here. I'm coming over the ridge and I'm looking down Into the into the valley and all coming off look out mountain. Oh my God I'm almost running off the road It's so beautiful family that's Jesus Have you seen him like that? Have you? Did he take your breath away? They say Has this is love and it's glory and it's kindness and it doesn't blow your mind. See you go You see when you see you see I know you're with me when you see Jesus like that Every everybody else gets in line Oh, you still love him. You still love him. No, you don't stop loving family and You know, you know, you don't do that crazy But man they get in line
You see that's why Jesus is so dangerous When you recognize who he is the son of God You see this frightens people who idolize family Who idolize ethnicity Who idolize ancestral heritage This terrified governments that demand absolute Uncompromising allegiance China Sharia law of countries Russia North Korea etc Challenges this is a gut punch to out of control patriotism some of this Christian nationalism stuff some of that not all of it but some of it This is a death sentence to ego centrism that makes you and you're comfort the center of the universe You see when you see Jesus all of that stuff got to go If there are that's our Dollar Tree and Jesus fans up and says He takes them out the way That's when you see Jesus like that and as Christians yes We are called upon to obey the laws of our land and to seek the peace of our cities Yet we do so by living our lives under the authority Not first and foremost the state but under the authority of the kingdom of heaven and it came Because we as Paul said the Paul was a Roman citizen That gave him privilege okay at one point they beat him in acts They beat him and Paul said is it right that you beat me without trial and I'm a Roman citizen man Everybody got scared They started tout out. They got because they knew that was wrong membership Citizenship has a privilege okay But that same Paul said our citizenship is in heaven and we look there for a savior You see he recognized his citizenship Roman though and what this was nothing compared to being a citizen of the kingdom of God
I don't care if your guy or girl wins the White House And you are excited and happy that you the next president is your president you voted for don't you understand You have a higher president and he he's beholding to no party None of them none of them can touch him he owes them nothing But we owe him everything This is Jesus you see this is why speaking first the kingdom. I've got it. It's right. It's just Change is everything because we have a God who is king who is Lord who is master who has proven his work and proven who he is by his resurrection from the dead By by by the good works that he did caring for those who were poor caring for those who just who were just hurting Jesus and only careful poor people y'all y'all do know that right They were rich but there were people who had means who came to Jesus and he cared for them Jesus doesn't He's not even care if you're poor or rich. He don't care for you because he loves you
If you get this wrong he just stuff is So much is happening in the church in our country because we we've gotten this wrong We we claim that Jesus is Lord and we call him our God but we end up worshiping idols
You're again, you're a family. You're a tribe. You're ethnic group You're a political group They all fail They all fall in comparison to the glory and majesty of Jesus We've all failed. We all stand guilty. We all need to repent To remind ourselves once again who's really king Who's really God You see when you see Jesus like this That that hurts me. You know that that stuff goes right to the core of your being and you go oh and It's a sense of guilt maybe a sense of dependence a sense of accountability That's my partner to humanity in our natural state outside of grace We don't want those things. No, we want to be strong and mighty My way I can be the thing I want to be I can do it all We want to be those people. It's just no way of saying I'm in control And I'm gonna do it my way In Jesus says I and the father are one
It's meant to humble us But it didn't those folks What did they do Let's kill him Because that is the response of unbelief To Jesus because he's so dangerous See they knew he couldn't control me Their agenda was not his agenda And that's sometimes true of you You may have an agenda and you think it's all going good But the answer is the Jesus agenda and he may not work that for you and that's okay He's got something better But we fight and kick and scream and try to do it anyway Because of our dollar tree You forget who you forgotten who God is And it's not you just in case you were confused He is dangerous to our self-esteem and to our autonomy And once you self-esteem, I mean the way we treat self-esteem that means Your self-worth is something that it comes from knowing who you are in Jesus It comes from knowing your son of God or daughter of God That's your self-esteem. You have a Christ of steam. It's not a self-esteem. It's a Christ of steam That will keep you going that will build you up You know who you are you are a child of God That is everything that will give that will love you out that will give you hope that will give you strength That will give you confidence that will come on somebody am I by myself here come on that see That's what I need to know. I'm in Christ Nothing I can look at the mirror and say you're getting better every day Your handsome, your beautiful, your smart You can do anything you want to do cast that's not going to help me I mean, help me become an idolater And a and a so and so probably too, you know
Kevin KB Burgess No one's was more dangerous than the Lord Jesus From the moment he arrived in the scene Jesus posed a threat to the unjust a threat to the oppressors and a threat to every Simblest of authority wielded by the kingdom of darkness Jesus is what happens when all that is good true and beautiful It's perfectly embodied in a human being living a in a world that is the opposite of all three So myself that his very existence becomes an act of rebellion Oh, that's good. Yes He invaded our world with love for the forgotten hope for the hopeless and freedom for the bound His theme songs of mercy grace and truth Decide every anyone and anything that there is to play a different tune His ideas were disrupted subversive and I dare say Candlest to the world around him They challenge the status quo and turn the ancient world upside down That's the Jesus we need to know And as we know that Jesus come on come on When we know that Jesus we are being transformed into his likeness That's what the chapter 4 right? We're beholding him and we're being transformed into his likeness from glorious of glory The more you hang out with Jesus the more you submit yourself to Jesus the more you humble yourself under his way He will make you more like him. He will lead you to his to his word as I say This is the way walk ye get it. He will work in you and transform me As you submit your desires and hungers and need to him he'll do it They by day he'll do it And but when he does it I got to quit When he does it you become dangerous. Are you okay with that? Are you okay? You see if it's not First of all what you do that makes you dangerous I mean you may be picketing run up and down Save in the poor help in the needy you may be you deal to you know Tutoring everybody and giving food to the poor you doing all wonderful great things That doesn't make you dangerous. We're doing that too
What makes you dangerous? What makes you start in life is your likeness to Jesus Your likeness to Jesus as you are doing those things You're likeness to Jesus as you're If you refuse to compromise on your on your wedding vows when so and so rubs up against you You're you're you're you're likeness to Jesus when you as a single person refuse to give your body a way to somebody who's not your spouse You refuse to do it and when they find out that that's why you're doing it They got names for you when you refuse to cheat in school and and and and and everybody thinks oh man She ain't down he ain't down whatever the word is they use today
You get labeled a do good or a goodie goodie or whatever they call you and because but but you chose not to do so Nothing because of who Jesus is in your life listen to that Not because you're too good. I didn't look at my paper because you don't You didn't study that ain't that ain't thought like y'all are you with me? Characters and likeness of Jesus that makes us fault in light as we do good Because you can do good and love nothing like Jesus You're added to stack horrible attitude And you think Christian and I know we guilty Christians we guilty
Come across the I gotta end on this I'm trying to understand trying to land the plane All right, but I did come across an article in New York Times Did you send this to me Billy? I felt like I sent this to me I don't know article in New York New York Times where I mean this this happened just this month early this month in in California where a guy a guy a guy kills Kill Mr. Lady who has a head head of A kind of business and she had a pride flag apply flag hang you heard about it? Yeah, she had a pride flag hanging on it and He did and He cussed her out basically instead of comes horrible things in public Came back and shattering killed her Well, the police stand off. They end up killing him They go on this man's X account twitter x whatever they call it now And they see all this hatred For the LGBTQ community just hatred But on but on that Also on that what I put I had it somewhere here also on there He had he had written stuff about Jesus beautiful stuff Oh, I forget where I put it where I put it. Look did you get up to me Billy? Oh my goodness, that was a beautiful thing like oh, yeah, David print cheer this is his article
He had he had this um I don't know printed it. Oh, I didn't print it. I'm sorry. Oh, no, yeah, I did print it. I did print it. I did print it. I definitely I found it My notes. I told you I'm confused He says when your heart when your heart is hurting and you have nothing left to pray speak the name of Jesus When your tears fall and no one else can see whisper his name That was on his if this was on his twitter and more like that
listen And then in so-called name of Jesus You Can do you can seek to have a cause that you think is important
But if you behave in a way that's outside of Jesus Ethics and life and teaching
You end up fighting for the force of the darkness. You're fighting against
When you when you when you when you're guilty of gossip and fander and you just listen to anything and people know who to come to get the tea You want to get the tea go go talk to someone so and you and then and you go to be and everybody knows you's supposed to be a Christian and yet here you are being The garbage can You can fight which you believe is the Lord's battles And it might actually be what he did was totally wrong. That's not that ain't the Lord way to fight the Lord's battle
But he could have been a witness and maybe love the some people trapped in that lifestyle and and showed in the love of Christ Is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance Come on people Instead what they got what that dear lady got was a Christian Being used by the devil Ask Jesus to reveal your idols And crush them father in name of heaven in name of your name in name of your son Lord of heaven Lord we pray That you would deliver us from my dollar tree keep us from idols and help us Lord to give ourselves to Jesus Each and every day and be seek his ways in our hearts and lives make us more like him Even if it becomes dangerous for us to be so may we follow Jesus because he is Everything