The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Word Made Playing, with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, pastor Tony is teaching in the book of John. Please open your Bible to John chapter 10 verses 31 through 42.

Tony Clark: All right, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 10. John chapter 10. We're going to be looking at verses 31 to 42 of we're going to finish up this chapter. And Father, thank you again that you have brought us to this point here to study your word. We pray that we would come to know you more intimately, more personally. We pray God that you'll reveal the secrets of our hearts to us today. And God that we would know that you're truly in the midst of us.

Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. All right, John chapter 10 looking at verses 31 to 42. The title of this message is sticks and stones. Sticks and stones. And I'm sure that all of us could finish this familiar nursery rhyme, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words would never hurt me. And this was cute to say as children. But we know as adults that this is not true because all of us have been hurt by the words or names that a parent or teacher or some bully called at school, you know, called us at school.

Well, I I didn't get bullied, but but some of you might have. And you still remember those particular names that you were called. I was usually the one given the name, so I guess I was a little bully. But some folks still remember those particular names. Now, in these particular verses, we see the reaction of the religious leaders when Jesus said in verse 30, I and the Father are one. Question is how did they react to these words? Well, look at verse 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Now, no doubt these religious leaders were incensed at how Jesus would dare make the claim that he was one with the Father.

Oh, to them, this was blasphemy that deserved the death penalty by stoning. However, seeing that Rome had taken the Jews' right to execute capital punishment according to John 18 verse 31, they were so angry that they were going to take matters in their own hands. They said, who cares that Rome has taken away our right to execute capital punishment? We don't care. We're going to take matters into our own hands. And maybe these are the words that you have said yourself that you are so angry about what someone has done to you that now you are about to take matters into your own hands.

And you know that it is unlawful for you to do it because you know that Romans 12:19 says, beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Oh, you know this, but your anger is driving you to go beyond what you know is lawful and you're about to take matters into your own hands. The question is how are you going to do it? Oh, the same way they did it to Jesus by throwing stones. A stone is something that is hard and something that hurts.

And you're about to throw stones at the person that hurt you. Stones that would hurt their reputation, stones that would hurt their good name, stones of slander and gossip. And I am here to warn you not to pick up stones like these religious leaders are doing to Jesus. Why? Because you are the one that's going to end up hurt in the end. The reason why I say that is because whenever we try to take up stones to throw at people, to try to hurt them because they hurt us, we end up more hurt. You know why?

Because we see that they're not as hurt as we would like to see them hurt. And that ticks us off more. This is why God said, leave them in my hands. Allow me to deal with them. Because when you deal with them, you you it's not going to be good enough. You're going to see that they're not as hurt as you would like to see them hurt. And that makes you even more angry. And this is why we are told to leave them in God's hands because he can do a better job than we can do.

Now, how can I be so sure that God will do this? Well, there's a great verse in 2 Thessalonians 1:6 that says, it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. God sees what's going on. God sees the people who are troubling you, the people who are giving you a hard time, the people who have hurt you. Leave them in God's hands. It is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you. And so the Jews who are the religious leaders took up stones. Notice it says took up stones again to stone him.

Oh, this is the fourth time in John's gospel that they attempted to kill Jesus by stoning. Oh, we saw it in in chapter 5 in verses 16 through 18, in chapter 7 verse 1, and in chapter 8 verse 59. They constantly This is the fourth time that they tried to stone Jesus. Now, how did Jesus react to this? Look at verses 32 and 33. It says, Jesus answered them, many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself out to be God.

Now, notice how Jesus stayed calm in the midst of the murderous rage of the religious leaders and said in verse 32, many good works I have shown you from my Father. He said, for which of these works do you stone me? Notice how Jesus points to the good works he did. That Greek adjective for good is kalos and it means that which is noble, excellent or beautiful are the same adjective Jesus used to describe in verses 11 and verse 14 when he described himself as the good shepherd. The religious leaders totally ignored his miracles and brushed them aside and said in verse 33, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God.

See, the miracles Jesus performed showed that he was the one that he was one with the Father. And this is what he told them in verse 25 when he said, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. And this is why Jesus could say in verse 30, I and the Father are one. So Jesus is saying, which one of the miracles I performed were so bad that deserves death? Well, I believe that the the days are coming when we are going to be forced to ask the same questions.

Which one of the commandments of Jesus is deserving of death? You shall not steal, you shall not kill, you shall not murder. And people, the world will answer and say, for none of these things we want to stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God. And then this is what they say, only God can judge me. Which is a quote from Tupac and not the Bible. But people quote it like a scripture. And they go on to say, you're judging me for the way I'm living my life. And you being a man make yourself out to be God in my life and I will stone you for this.

Oh, this is what is taking place right now. Whenever you try to point out anything in someone's life, this is what they all of a sudden are shouting out, you're judging. You're a man, make yourself You're not God. Oh, the very thing that they said to Jesus, they're going to say to us as well. Now, how did Jesus respond to what they said to him? Look at verses 34 to 36. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said that you are gods? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scriptures cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you're blaspheming because I said I am the son of God?

Jesus takes these religious leaders back to the word of God in verse 34 and said, is it not written in your law, I said that you are gods? Little G. Now, the law is not only referring to the first five books of the Bible, but it also includes the entire Old Testament. Now, what blows me away is something in these in this verse that you just I guarantee you missed. It blew me away when I saw it. Now, watch this. Jesus said, is it not written in your law Here it is. I said Jesus is saying that he is the author of the scriptures.

He's the author of the Bible. Is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? Jesus is referring to Psalm 82 verse 6 that the judges in the Old Testament will call gods little G because they held the power of life and death in their hands like God does. So they were acting in a sense like God in this regard. So Jesus is saying, why then are you so upset when I say that I am the son of God? According to verse 36. In other words, if mere men who are evil could in some sense be called gods little G, how is it not right for me Jesus is speaking whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world into the world called myself the son of God?

Or a question that they could not answer. Let me just make something very clear. We can never be God or even a little God. The best we can be is a perfect human. And this is not possible until we get to heaven. I bring this up because there will be people who will come and knock on your door and try to tell you that you one day can become a God. It's just not true. Nor can you be a little God like some of the televangelists would try to tell you over the TV. Did you not know that the whole premise for the whole prosperity gospel, the naming and claiming and blabbing and grabbing kind of gospel it's all the premise is all based in that you are a little God.

And just like God in the beginning said, let there be light and there was light. He spoke the world into existence. Because you're a little God, you can speak things into existence. That's blasphemy. That is blasphemy. That is false doctrine, false teaching. Oh, and I talked about that in the School of Apologetics. So if you were there, you you heard a little bit more about that. If you weren't there, shame on you. You missed. You missed out. So this is what Jesus is trying to teach them. Now, what else did Jesus say? Look at verses 37 and 38.

If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him. Now, in these verses, Jesus confronts these religious leaders with a challenge in verse 37 when he said, if I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. You don't have to believe me. In other words, Jesus is saying, if I am not acting as the Father would, do not believe a thing that I have to say.

Oh, this shows me that no matter how we try to act like Jesus, we're still not going to be liked by some people. See, there are those who think, well, you know, if I can just be like Jesus, you know, everyone is going to like me. That's that's not true. Not true. Jesus challenged them by saying, if I am not acting like my Father, do not believe me. But in verse 38 he says, but if I do, meaning do the works of my Father, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him.

Oh, we know that miracles were never meant to produce faith. But they do provide strong evidence that the one who is able to perform them is telling the truth. Oh, I want you to see that the strongest evidence that what we are saying about Jesus Christ is true are miracles. And the greatest miracle is a life changed by the power of Jesus Christ. Many people say, well, the greatest miracle Well, you know, any miracle, you know, it it is is good. Okay, you got a point there. The greatest miracle The greatest miracle is a life that's been changed by the power of Jesus Christ.

And here Jesus is saying, if you don't believe that I am the Messiah, that's fine, but believe the miraculous works I have done. They validate that I am telling the truth that I am the Messiah. And so too with us, people may not believe what we're saying about Jesus Christ, but they cannot reject the miracle of our changed lives. They cannot. And this is the key that Christianity is true, which is our changed lives. Our life that has been changed to be like Jesus Christ. Oh, I'm sure surely after Jesus said this, they believed what Jesus had to say, right?

Well, look at verse 39. Therefore, they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand. Wow. As we see from this verse that the challenge Jesus gave them fell on deaf ears. Instead of considering the evidence, these religious leaders responded like they did in the past by trying to seize him. How? By either taking him outside to stone him or by arresting him and bringing him before the Sanhedrin, which was the Jewish Supreme Court. But because his hour had not come, the end of this verse says, but he escaped out of their hands.

Please understand something. This is something that is just very true in our lifetime here. I never thought that I would see it in my time. We're living in these days where people will try to seize us by either trying to stone us or arresting and taking us to court for our stance for Jesus Christ. Our recent story, I'm sure many of you are familiar with of a Christian bakery got sued because they refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple. The couple won and the bakery had to close. Oh, this is the times we're living in.

These are the times we're living in. And we going to see this across our nation. That's just one story. There were some others I can I can I can go on and on about other cases because of our stance. Because we want to open up some kind of business and represent Jesus Christ, represent some honesty and some truth and represent Christ in the way that we deal with people and and and all this sort of stuff and and and we we're going to get sued. People going to try to seize us just like they try to do Jesus because of our stance for Jesus Christ.

We're living in this kind of world today. Jesus escaped out of their hand. And there will be times that you would escape out of their hands too, which means you would not lose your job or have to close your business. But there there are people out there that's able to fight back. But people like Chick-fil-A, they're able They They're big enough that they can fight back. You may not be big enough to fight back, but there'll be times you will escape out of their hands the same way that Jesus did. Now, they tried to do this to Jesus.

Just keep in mind because they tried to do it to Jesus, they would do it to us. Just keep that in mind. Look at verse 40. And he went away again beyond the Jordan to a place where John was baptizing at first and there he stayed. This is key right here. We got to understand this verse. As Jesus miraculously escaped out of their hands in verse 39, this verse says that Jesus went away again beyond the Jordan to a place where John was baptizing at first and there he stayed. The place where John the Baptist is was who's being referred to here was baptizing was in the area of Bethany.

Now, this was the Bethany beyond the Jordan River, not to get it confused with the Bethany that was a short distance from Jerusalem. Now, why did Jesus go there? Right after this incident, why did he go there? To simply get away. All of us need a Bethany beyond the Jordan to retreat to to recharge our batteries. Especially after dealing with opposition and especially after dealing with some tough times. We need a Bethany beyond the Jordan where we can go and retreat and recharge our batteries. Now, for those of you who are single parents, I know this is difficult.

This is hard. But you need to. We all need a place. If we don't, we going to fall apart. Life has a way of tearing us apart. And if we don't get away to be with Jesus, we going to fall apart. The signs that you're falling apart is you're yelling at the children, snapping at your spouse, going off on people on the job. It You in your car, you got road rage. And people and and they cut you off and you in there like this. Oh, I'm sorry, that was me. I'm sorry. I I'm I'm sorry, but some of y'all just like that.

It's a sign that you're falling apart. And unless you get away to be with Jesus, it's not going to be good for you. Jesus got away to spend time with the Father, to spend time just getting his batteries recharge recharge, getting away from the opposition, getting away from the mess that's constantly pulling at you. Life has a way of pulling at you. Children and grandchildren and job and spouse and they all got apart and they're pulling you in all these directions. Unless you get away, they going to pull you apart. And Jesus We see Jesus got away.

Let's see what happened in verses 41 and 42. Then many came to him and said, John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this man were true. And many believed in him there. Now, it wasn't long before many came to Jesus as Jesus got away to Bethany beyond the Jordan. It wasn't long before many came where he was. And And they said in verse 41, John performed no sign, meaning that John the Baptist didn't perform miracles. He came for a specific reason. But they said, but all things that John spoke about this man were true.

You know what that tells me? That tells me that they were watching him. When John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so when Jesus came there to get away, to relax, to get away, they just watching him, checking him out. And they came to the conclusion that all things John spoke about this man were true. And I believe that this tells us and shows us the importance of getting away to recharge our batteries. If we don't, we going to end up blowing our witness for Jesus Christ.

Blowing our witness by blowing our top, by getting angry, snapping on people, cursing folks out, all kind of crazy stuff, ignoring our neighbors and and being mean and nasty. We going to end up blowing our witness if we don't get away to be with Jesus. Jesus got away from Jerusalem from the the the hostile religious leaders. And when people came around him, they spoke well of him like verse 41 says, John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this man were true. And this is what we want people to say about us in a positive way.

Because when we don't act like Jesus, let me tell you, people will still talk about us. And they will say all things that they have said about this person is true in a negative way. And we don't want this. So it is so important to get away to be with Jesus, to talk to him before we fall apart. This amazes me. You know why? We give lip service to something that we really don't believe in our head and our hearts. You say, what do you mean? We have access to the creator of the universe. We have access to him through prayer.

And if I would go around and take a survey and say, how many of you, you know, pray or seek God or read the word and all it it would be a small percentage. Oh, we give We We give lip service that we love the Lord and we believe that God is the creator and all that. But we we we Our actions are something different. I You know, I just look at it if we had someone who we think is important, whether it's a sports figure or whether it's it's somebody in politics or something and we deem them to be very important.

And you will come and say, look look who's number I got right here. Look who's number. And you be like, I I can just hit it and And Watch this. Watch this. Hey, how you doing, man? This is your boy, you know. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, somebody don't believe it's really you. And we'll be bragging and boasting about whose number we have. But we have access to the creator of the universe. And we don't use it. We don't access him. But we claim that we love the Lord and we serve God. And it's just blows me away at how we give lip service to the Lord and God and the Bible.

But we barely read it and we barely talk to him.

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