In the sermon 'Believe the Works' by Scott Brown, the focus is on John 10:30-42, where Jesus claims unity with the Father, provoking the Jews to attempt stoning him for blasphemy. Jesus challenges them by asking which of his good works warrants such punishment, emphasizing that his miraculous works authenticate his words and prove his divinity. The sermon highlights the sufficiency of Scripture for apologetics, with Jesus using Psalm 82 to illustrate the Jews' unjust judgment and affirming the unbreakable authority of Scripture. Brown underscores that Jesus's works are evidence of his identity as the Messiah, urging believers to trust in these works as proof of his divine mission. The sermon also reflects on how Jesus's miracles fulfilled Old Testament prophecies and demonstrated his authority, urging listeners to believe in Jesus for salvation and to recognize the Bible as the ultimate authority.

The sermon text is John chapter 10 beginning in verse 30 and to the end of the chapter John chapter 10 verse 30 I And my father are one Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him 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 God. 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, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me.

But if I do, 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 the Father or in him Therefore they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand and He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there he stayed. 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. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have brought us together on this wonderful Lord's Day to have our fellowship together, to worship together through singing and through receiving the preaching of your word. God, I pray that your Spirit would be on our elder as he brings your word.

God, empower him to speak as he needs to speak. Lord, give him the words that you want him to say and that we need him to say. Lord, I pray for those here who do not yet believe that through what is preached today, They may believe the works that Christ did, that they may believe the words that were spoken about Him, that they may believe in Him for the salvation of their souls. Lord, I pray that you would work in all our hearts today. Make us more like your Son.

In His name we pray, amen. It's always a joy to open up the Word of God and to trust that God leads His people through His Word. That's really the whole hope that we have in our church. You know, your elders just believe that it's the Word of God that leads the church people often ask me What's what's the strategy? Where's this church going?

And the first thing that comes to mind is well? What's the next text we're preaching on that's how God's leading our church And that's how he's he's designed that he would bring his people together so that they would be led by the Word of God. And so I'm very thankful for that. And also very thankful to be where we are here at the end of John chapter 10. And, you know, just recognizing that when you get to John chapter 10, even though you're halfway through the chapters of the book, you're almost at the end of the life of Jesus in what's being recorded in the book.

We're really near the end of his public ministry and You know at the end of chapter 10, you know, Jesus leaves Jerusalem for three months and then goes to the place where he started with his baptism with the baptism of john and and so we we get to chapter 12 and you have or chapter 11 and you have the healing or the the raising of the dead of lazarus And then in chapter 12 Jesus enters Jerusalem in the triumphal entry and the rest of John just records the last week of his life I mean, you know John chapter 13 14 15 and 16 all record one night in the life of Jesus. So John devotes an enormous amount of narrative to just the last week of Jesus' life, and that's what we find here. So this is kind of, these are the final pictures of Jesus public ministry the final scenes before the religious leaders as he begins actually to focus on his disciples particularly and then finally his final passion week and This final section in john 10 is very interesting because It answers it answers a question And it's a really really important question And it's how how do you prove?

To yourself that Jesus is God. How what's the proof? For this and at the end of John 10 is really kind of a short course on apologetics and Here is Jesus argument from his own lips about how to prove that he is the son of God in many ways you can think of this last section is sort of the sufficiency of Scripture for apologetics because Jesus tells you why you ought to believe and he gives you a reason to believe his words. And You know, we've asked many times, you know, as we've gone through the gospel of John, you know, what would it take to push a person over to believe and finally follow him? What would you need to see?

What would you need to know? What would Jesus need to be like or what conditions would exist that would push you over the edge and you know what do you think would happen to you if you followed him and In this passage you find we find a really wonderful explanation of why one ought to follow Jesus and one of the things that I've been thinking about as Jesus speaks of his works here in this passage is you know what good work of Jesus would you not want him to do in your life is there anything that you don't want him to do in your life because Here he says that he has done these works particularly that you might believe and I can't think of more wonderful works In anybody's life than the works that Jesus does in your life. There aren't any better. And so it's been very helpful and good for me to be able to spend time on this. Now let's dive into the text.

We're going to begin in verse 30 And you can see in verse 31, and this takes us really to the first point in the outline where Jesus claims to be one with his father and they pick up stones. The second portion of this really is in verses 32 and 33 where Jesus asks, you know, which one of the good works are you stoning me for? We'll talk about that. And then the third section, Jesus answers the question and he calls these who are before him unjust judges and he quotes a psalm to prove it and then and then Jesus Calls them to believe in the works very specifically in verses 37 to 38. I think this is the heart of the text believe the works which is why I titled the sermon, believe the works, comes out of that section.

And then Jesus slips through their hands again and he departs to Galilee again, to the Jordan River where John was baptizing at the very beginning. So that's our text. Okay, right at the beginning here in verses 30 and 31, Jesus claims to be one with the Father, and they pick up stones to stone him. Now, throughout these chapters, all the way up to now, Jesus has been doing two primary things I know it's dangerous to try to reduce things out of two but I'm gonna do that first he stated that he is God and he's done that over and over again in this in this section and I think it was at Bible study Ashina was said he counted 18 times up to this point where Jesus claimed to be God and John is painting this picture of the Trinity of God the Father God the Son and God the Spirit and God the Father sends his Son From heaven that's a that's an astonishing claim. Jesus says I came from heaven.

That's well, it's either insane or it's true and he's made these radical claims and he claims to give eternal life and here he claims I and the Father are one, one in being and You know As Jesus makes these claims it should be really obvious to us How dangerous it is to self identify Jesus to make Jesus up in your own mind? You know you you can't make up your own Jesus identity and but that's what people want to do. They want to have a Jesus made in their own image. And you know, people, particularly today, we are people are so self focused that even today people think that they can self-identify their gender this is how radical self-focus is and self really selfishness actually and but But Jesus doesn't allow you to self identify him. He is either God or Or really he's a crazy man Because he's claiming to be God and it's very clear that he's doing that and you know we want to put we want to put Jesus in a box we want to make him manageable and so we collect our favorite verses about him and we ignore often what the Bible says about him the world will do that the world wants a gentle Jesus but he doesn't want a ruler and he doesn't want God and so Jesus is making this very clear and The second thing he's doing is that he's proving that he is the Messiah by his works and He's been doing miracles that nobody ever had done and nobody ever has done and nobody ever will do in history.

What Jesus does, by the way, nobody's ever done. All the faith healers and all these miracle workers, they don't do what Jesus does. They're incomparable. And Jesus in these first ten chapters is Proving his claims By his works and he is authenticating His claims by his works and he's he's proving his deity that way and he's he's proving that he is the only Savior now How would people know whether he really was the Messiah? And Jesus is making this very clear that it's not just by what he says that's not enough.

What he says is not enough. But his works prove the things that he has said. And I think that's the focus of this section here. And of course there were many works that the Old Testament prophets prophesied that the Messiah would do so people would be looking for those kinds of works. But so the heart of this whole section is simple.

You know, it's saying Jesus is God and the only Savior and He came from heaven to forgive sins and he and he proved that he came for that by performing very specific and persuasive miracles that everybody saw they weren't done in a corner they weren't done in private rooms they were done all over the place before thousands of people and also in this passage is a is one of the most striking statements about the authority of the Bible we'll get to that soon but this section is also claiming you know the Bible is the only authority Jesus is the only Savior and the Bible is the only authority Jesus is the only Savior and the Bible is the only authority and that really contains The message of the Bible right there. So, you know Jesus has been telling the Jews these things that he's God and that he's a good shepherd and in the midst of this is there's tremendous tension because of these claims they're picking up stones and They're just getting it when we when we find ourselves right here in this narrative There are men around him with large rocks the word that is used has is that they're carrying They're carrying these are not small stones And they're ready to throw the stones on Him and cover him up and kill him.

That's the moment that we find ourselves in and You know Leviticus 24 verse 16 says that you should stone blasphemers, but is he a blasphemer and By the way, they're they're they're actually violating the laws of Moses regarding this kind of execution and that's why in In John chapter 7 19 Jesus says to the Pharisees he says and I now quote it None of you are keeping the law None of you they're not walking through the due process of law that was required and also by the way they're breaking Roman law because the Romans Roman law said that the Jews could not Do capital punishment, but they were gonna do it. Well, they picked up stones anyway, so then Jesus asked them this question in verses 32 and 33 and he's asking very which good works which Particular works verse 32 Jesus answered many good works. I have shown you from my father For which of these works do you stone me?" And it's interesting, I mean this is an astonishing moment really. He's surrounded by men with stones and he's standing there And he's asking them another question. He's not running.

He's not afraid. Apparently his disciples are hanging in there as well. But there's something about the majestic, pure confidence of Jesus Christ and his absolute control over himself and everything that we see here. And you know last week in my morning reading I was reading Psalm 125 and it said, those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion which cannot be moved but abides forever and I thought of Jesus. He's like Mount Zion.

Nothing moves him. And So he asked them this question about works many good works. I've shown you He calls them good works and Jesus uses a word That Isn't present use for moral goodness. It's It's really used for beautiful things, exemplary, amazing, wonderful, lovely things. And he's saying, for what beautiful thing?

He says, I've done many beautiful things. Which one of them are you going to stone me for? And you know, which good work? And you know, you know, think about the, you know, the things that Jesus did. Do you want to stone me for Making that man who is blind since birth You're gonna stone me for that or how about the man who is lame for 38 years you're gonna stone me for that Are you gonna stone me for?

Stopping the flow of blood in that woman she was bleeding for 12 years? Are you going to stone me for Setting that prostitute free and she had a new life? Which one? That's really what he's saying. Which one?

You know, which one thing that you would not want Jesus to do to you, knowing who he is and his motivations and his power, what is there anything that you wouldn't want Jesus to do to you? I think that's what holds a lot of people back from turning and following Jesus. Is They're afraid that he's going to do something to them that won't be good. As if he would hurt them or constrain them. Jesus never abused anybody.

He only did good. He only did good. Whatever work He wants to do in your life is a good work. And you know, what a blessing it is to know that whatever he does is good. Because when you follow him, he shepherds you, he takes you in a certain place.

He becomes your ruler. But for what kind of work would you not want to follow him for? Well that's the question that he asks here. And you know this language of working is all throughout the Gospels. You know Jesus has said, My Father has been working until now and I have been working.

This is in John chapter five. And Jesus says, I do the things that I see my Father doing. My Father is working and I am working and I'm working on this. I'm working the same works of my father that's what Jesus has been saying and He said he said in John 4 my food is to do the will of him who sent me Jesus is doing the works of his father. So in the works of Jesus these beautiful works these lovely compelling amazing Life-giving works they all come from the father if you want to learn about God the father You know God the father is This wonderful as Jesus He's you don't have the mean God, the Father and gentle, sweet and Jesus.

This is not this is not what the Bible teaches. God, the Father is just like God, the Son. They do they do one another's works. And Jesus here is focusing on his works and he's bringing evidence of his words by his works. Now, this is the teaching of the Bible that the words are authenticated by the works.

Now open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 and you'll see how this manifests itself in the preaching of the Apostles where Peter says men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man attested by God to you by miracles wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst as you yourselves also know." So here the Apostle says that these wonders and signs, these miracles that Jesus did were authenticating his message and it really answers the question how how would you know if Jesus is the Messiah would it be enough to just hear what he said and the answer is no it's not enough just to hear what he said because here his works authenticate what he said and He's demonstrating that he is a God by his works Words aren't enough. That's that's the basic message the works authenticate The words now Children Do you know what authenticate means? It means it means to prove so The things that Jesus did and his miracles they proved that Jesus is the Messiah That's what authentic atement is. I want every child to walk out of here knowing what the word authenticate means. It means to prove.

And here's an example. If you put on a donkey costume and you can hee haw like a donkey and you can move your head like a donkey. But if you take the mask off and take the costume off, Everybody knows you're not a donkey. You don't walk like a donkey. You don't look like a donkey.

You don't have the hair of a donkey. You're not a donkey. Or if you wanted to be an eagle, you would pretend to be an eagle and you dress up in eagle suit and you flap your wings like an eagle and you can even make the sound of an eagle. But then somebody says, if you're an eagle then why don't you fly? But you can't fly because you're not an eagle.

Well, Jesus did his miracles to prove that he was God and he did that to authenticate his words so that's what Jesus is saying here he spoke the words of God and then he did the works of God and he did he did the most marvelous work works and we should believe the works now We believe the miracles because they are real. Christianity is based on real things. It's based on real works, real people, real geography, real history. And as far as I can tell I can't find any testimony in history where people didn't believe that Jesus did what he did in fact Jesus says for which work did you do well the Jews don't refute that he did works he did these things but what do they mean that's you are do you Are you going to believe as a result of the works? And we believe because there is something that is real that has happened.

Happened. Now then after Jesus asked them that question about works, he speaks to them in verse 34 and he calls them unjust judges. So let's look at this section here and Jesus answered them and said, 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. Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world you are blaspheming because I Said I am the son of God So here Jesus is quoting Psalm 82 verse 6 one little Set of words there.

He just quotes one phrase and on the surface. It sounds like he's saying Why are you I I claim to be God and you're stoning me. Why are you doing that? Because even David called the judges gods, if David called the judges god, why are you stoning me for saying I'm a God. Well, that's what it looks like on the surface.

But you know, whenever an Old Testament passage is quoted in the New Testament, you need to look at that Old Testament passage and see what it's saying. This is hermeneutics. This is how do you interpret scripture? Here's how you interpret scripture when a New Testament passage quotes an Old Testament passage is that you should look at the Old Testament passage and see what was being said because the New Testament writers usually only quote short snippets and they're expecting you to know what it meant. Now the Pharisees knew, the Jews knew what this meant.

And so Let's read the psalm. Open to Psalm 82 and you'll see in Psalm 82 verse 1, the subject is announced, a psalm of Asaph. God stands in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods. So the scene is, God is in the midst of the judges and The word Elohim is used here for judges.

This is a word that is most the time used of God but a few times it's not used of God. It's used of mighty ones. It's used of people and authority and judges and a very small number of usages. And in the Psalm, God is judging the judges of Israel. By the way, just as a side note, this is going to be distracting, but the Mormons use this verse, you are gods, to prove that everybody, every man who has this holy underwear will be a God and will have his own universe?

That's this distraction, but Then it's very clear who the gods are in verse 2 They are the judges of Israel. How long will you judge unjustly that that these are the authorities gods? They're mighty men that he's talking about and show partiality to the wicked So these have a representative role. They have the law of God and they're judging for God. So in a sense They stand in the place of God and they're called gods in that sense, small g god.

And they're gods' representatives because they have God's law and they explain God's law and they do justice according to it. And this is very similar to Romans 13 where Paul says that rulers and authorities are ministers of God. It's the same idea. And then he makes accusations in verses 3 and 4 about what they do. Well he's saying, you know, you're not defending the poor or the fatherless or doing justice to the afflicted and needy You're not delivering the poor needy and you're not freeing them from the hand of the wicked.

That's what God is. He's condemning these rulers these judges these little G gods for misusing their authority and then he describes them in verse 5 they do not know nor do they understand they walk about in darkness all the foundations of the earth are unstable I said you are gods and all of you are children of the most high. But you shall die like men." So obviously they're not big G gods because they're going to die like men. And Fall like one of the princes arise. Oh God judge the earth for you shall inherit the nations So these judges are not going about doing good.

They are unjust judges and Jesus is using this passage to condemn the Jews and say, you're just like them. You are rulers who are misusing your authority. That's the message that Jesus is using here. And he's saying that they will die and they'll fall just like any other man because they are unjust judges so that's what Jesus is saying and in the midst of this though is one of the most remarkable summary statements of the authority of the Bible of the Old and the New Testaments and look at verses 34 and 35 Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law?

I said you are God's. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the Scripture cannot be broken. Now notice a few things here. The Word of God and Scripture are the same thing and it is written in your law and the Word of God came this is the Old Testament scriptures, but it cannot be broken. That's the key.

That's key the scriptures cannot be broken and the Lord Jesus uses the word in Greek Luo, which means to to loose or dismiss or nullify and what he's saying is that the Word of God cannot be dismissed it cannot be nullified it cannot be broken it cannot be removed That's the argument that Jesus is making and he rests it on this one word. It cannot be broken. And it's interesting, Jesus rests his entire argument on the authority of Scripture in in this text on one word from one psalm in the Old Testament now we see this happening in the Bible as well you know Jesus will prove you know the authority and the inerrancy of scripture on a verb tense one word here often a verb tense so scripture cannot be loosed, it cannot be taken out, it cannot be broken. Now if you want to build your doctrine of scripture from Jesus, this is a good place to go now there are many other places to go you can go to Matthew chapter 5 where Jesus says do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets I did not come to destroy but to fulfill for assuredly I say to you till heaven and earth pass away not one not one jot or tittle will pass from the law until all is fulfilled and then he says Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments or teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So Here you have Jesus' doctrine of Scripture. If you want to think about the Bible the way Jesus thinks about the Bible, this is a good place to go. Scripture is sufficient to help you understand the Bible. This is what we call verbal plenary inspiration of scripture and Jesus declares that doctrine here and meaning that you know the Bible is the chief authority Jesus Christ is the only Savior the Bible is the only authority That's exactly what he's saying here in this entire narrative.

And you know, Moses says of the Word of God, he says obey it because it's your life. It's your life. It's the life of an individual. It's the life of a church. It's life.

You know, and again, you know, when you think about Scripture, you have to think about what God commands in Scripture. Is there anything that God commands that would harm you? Is there anything that God commands that isn't good for you? Is there any work of Jesus that you don't want him to do? And Jesus is speaking of this here.

Well, at this point, they drop their stones, and then we find that they'll try to seize him. But then Jesus continues in verse 37 and he calls them to believe the works. Verse 37, If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. So you see the do nots there, This is a hypothetical negative. If I don't do the works, then don't believe me.

So if I do do the works, then believe me. That's That's the opposite of it. Now, there are legitimate reasons to believe. Here's one of them right here. If Jesus doesn't do the works of his father and if Jesus doesn't do things that authenticate his message Then you shouldn't believe in He is a crazy man If he just says he's from God and doesn't do the works of God and manifests the nature and the character and the power and the omniscience and the omnipotence of God, then you shouldn't believe him.

You should see those things in Jesus or you should not believe in him. That's the idea here. And you know, and Jesus many times he demonstrated the omnipotence of his father. He ruled the winds and the waves. He demonstrated the omniscience of his father.

He saw what people were thinking. He knew what people were doing and what they were thinking. And he proved his deity by his works. And that's why in verse 38 we read, But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works, in order that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and I am in him. So believe the works, but if I don't do the works, don't believe me.

That's the point. Me. That's the point. Now, Jesus in John chapter 14 even drives this home even more deeply. In John 14, Jesus is saying, how long have I been with you?

I've been doing the works of my Father. You know, one of the disciples says, show us the Father. And then he says this, do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works." And then in John 15, He goes even further to explain that it's legitimate not to believe him if he doesn't do the works. In John 15, he makes it clear again that his words are authenticated by his works.

He says, if I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. That's John 15, 24. Here's what he's saying. If I didn't do the works and they didn't believe me, it wouldn't have been sin. It would have been right for them not to believe.

And then he says, but Now they have seen and also hated both me and my father. What Jesus is saying is, if I didn't do the works, then you shouldn't believe. And it wouldn't be sin to reject me but because I did do the works it is sin because everyone saw them and you know and the Pharisees don't refute him here at all These works were not done in a corner. Here I mean this is another amazing thing to me about Jesus. Here is another offer of salvation.

There they are, you know, they want to destroy him and he continues to appeal to them. Jesus is like the you know all the godly martyrs you know they they they go down in flames but they go down speaking the truth of God they they praise God they they they speak to their persecutors kindly That's what Jesus is doing right here. He doesn't give up on hard-hearted people. He keeps speaking to them. It's remarkable.

And Jesus is saying, my works are screaming at you. No one else has ever done these things. No one. And yet you don't believe. And yet you don't believe.

And then Jesus is doing exactly what the prophets foretold he would do. Isaiah 35 is a critical text for that. Isaiah 35, I love this chapter in Isaiah 35. It speaks of this highway of holiness. Years ago I did a conference on holiness and I preached out of this passage to open the conference because he speaks, there's a highway and a road, it's the highway of holiness, but how do you get there?

Here, I'll read it to you. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap like a deer. The tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

The parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes." You know, it's this beautiful picture of the miracles of Jesus. Like that man that Jesus cured of his deafness. He'd been deaf his whole life long. And like that lame man who was lame for 38 years.

And now he's leaping like a deer, just like it says here in Isaiah. And there are streams in the desert. You know, Jesus turns water into wine and He gives water that bubbles up to eternal life. And you know, this picture in Isaiah 35, it's really a picture of a city in ruins and the jackals and the hyenas and the snakes and the owls are there, right? And they don't have any, they're impoverished.

And then streams start flowing and grass starts growing and they have food and water well that's Jesus that's what Jesus does to you He makes water flow and you have something to drink and you have something to eat and it's nourishing, it's good for you and you're healed. That's the whole point here. You know, Jesus went about teaching in the synagogues and Matthew 4 says he was healing all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of disease among the people. Then his fame went throughout all Syria and they brought to him all sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon possessed in epileptics and paralytics and he healed them and he healed them all. How about that?

Wouldn't that be amazing? Even this morning? I mean, I know everybody's body is not running perfectly here in this place. If Jesus were here, he could heal that in a second. And in this case, he healed everybody.

How about that? Nobody ever did that before. So you know, and when you get to the end of the Gospel of John in John chapter 20 verse 30, John says, if all the things that Jesus did were written down, all the books in the world couldn't contain them. And then he says, these things were written that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that in believing you might have life in His name. So the whole purpose of the Gospel of John is being brought together here And he just does wonderful works.

Which work of Jesus do you not want him to do? I want him to do everything to me that he can do. And you know, What do you think He would do to you if you followed Him? Well, He's wonderful. He's absolutely wonderful.

We could talk long about what He does, about His destroying the works of the devil, and setting your thinking straight, putting your relationships in a right place. This is what he does. He does so many good things. But then, well, Jesus slips through their hands again, verse 39. This is amazing to me.

Therefore they sought again to seize him, but he escaped. We don't know how he escaped, but at some point the rocks dropped and they wanted to get their hands on him. They changed their minds. Why? This happened many times.

This is the stone pickup the third time. It happened in John chapter 5, it happened in John chapter 8, and now it's happening again in John chapter 10 and then they drop their rocks and he slips through the crowd and there they are the disciples are watching this scene you know nothing is said about the disciples course John is John is recording this John was there he saw this happening But can you imagine what was going through the disciples' minds? Once they get through with him, they're going to stone us. What's going to happen to us?" And then finally they just all depart and they leave. And then Jesus departs for Galilee.

He's there for three months, verses 40 to 42. You know, maybe Jesus just wanted to take his disciples to a safer place. We don't know why. But he went again beyond the Jordan, verse 40, to the place where John was baptizing at first. And there he stayed.

So Jesus makes this loop. He's back to the place where he began at his baptism and he's there for three months and he's preaching in the wilderness probably like John did. It says John did no sign there, but Jesus does. That's the difference in the two. It's interesting you have, and many believed in him there.

Now the language seems to make it clear that there's an emphasis on there as opposed to back in Jerusalem and Jesus is making a contrast from between Jerusalem and the place where he is now. And in Jerusalem there was coldness, there was hatred, opposition, murder in people's hearts for him. The most religious area was the coldest area. That's often true. But not in Galilee.

You know, you can go to a different place and there's hunger for God and desire for Him. And, you know, there's an example, there are many examples of this. Maybe you remember Jonathan Edwards. He preached what became his most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. So he preached that In another place, and there was a revival, everywhere he preached it, I mean, people were being converted like crazy.

He came back to his home church, and he preached it. And most people just stood there like rocks. Because there's, there are times and seasons of outpourings their places that God pours a spirit out any missus certain areas it just the way that God's sovereign hand works in revival But they just kind of shrugged their shoulders, you know, they're like the people in Zechariah 7, where Zechariah says to them, he says, when you were in captivity and when you were fasting, did you do it for me? He says, no, you just shrugged your shoulders you know if they were doing they were doing the religious things but in their hearts they were just shrugging their shoulders. That's what was happening as well.

He went, by the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Isaiah 9 prophesies this, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of deep darkness the light has dawned so you know God was really working there in that area now also I don't want to miss this too I want you to notice the us the historical and geographical markers that are here. You know, not only are the works of Jesus verifiable, But the places he went are verifiable. You can find most of these places today. And in the New Testament and the Old Testament, you get names, You get dates, you get rulers, you get wars, you get timelines, you get real history. The Bible's not a myth.

It doesn't read like mythology at all. You get genealogies, really complex genealogies. You just don't find those things in mythology. Because they're mythology. But in the Bible you get history, you get real things that really happened in space and in time.

So, you know, the question obviously, you know, is do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe the works? Do you believe that scripture cannot be broken you know so you know as Jesus you know stood before the Jews and He reminded them of His works, of His beautiful and His excellent works, in a way, I stand here today to ask you the same questions. Do you believe the works? And do you believe that the Bible is the only authority?

Everything really hinges on that. Do you believe that Jesus is wonderful? He's counselor. He's mighty God. He's eternal Father.

That His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Do you believe that there's everlasting joy in heaven for those who believe in His name? You know, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the message here. All these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that in believing You might have life in his name.

I No one can be more compelling than Jesus himself to say, Do you believe the works? Which good work do you stone me? Now the unbeliever, The person who doesn't believe in Jesus is stoning Jesus. They're putting him to death. They're putting him out of their sight.

If you don't believe, you're stoning him figuratively. And You know, my question from this passage is, you know, what would it take for you to stop stoning him in your heart? What would it take for you to believe that He only has good in mind for you. And really, what good work do you not want Him to do in your life? Don't hold back.

He is a good shepherd. Everybody else is a thief and a robber, but he came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. What a good shepherd. So we exit this chapter on the good shepherd seeing really how good he is and how many good works he does in those who love him and follow him. Would you pray with me?

Lord, we're amazed at these remarkable things that you have in your Word. Lord, lead us like a shepherd by your Word. Lord, we so desire that you would bring us all up in such trust of you in all of your works, in all of your ways, that we wouldn't hold anything back, that we wouldn't want to withhold any corner of our life from you, knowing how good and beautiful are your works just and true are your ways oh Lord You are the King of Saints. Amen.