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What does it mean to believe in Jesus?

Introduction -

Looking at the big picture.

Video

Sometimes our circumstances or other factors in life give us tunnel vision.

We lose site of the big picture.

It is in times like this personally that I most acutely feel the world revolves around me and it is broken somehow things should be going better for me or I shouldn’t have to deal with the problems I am facing it is not fair.

At times like this I am tempted to ignore God or even accuse him of not caring or not being fair with me.

It is at times like this we need perspective, we need help to deal with whatever it is we are facing, and for me most of the time i need to come back to trust, to believing that Jesus is doing what is right, and that He is at work in me to bring about his glory, to make me more like Him, not to grant me wishes or enable me to do it My way.

John wrote this book so that we would believe, not believe in Jesus, but believe that He is the Chosen one sent by God and in that believing we would have life.

What does it mean to believe, not in Jesus, but to believe Jesus.

Who is helping you to see all the angles?

How can you gain perspective on where you are at?

Lets listen to Jesus being confronted by those who are seeking to kill him, He is a great teacher, I believe His words intentionally transcend time and in understanding the big picture here we see Jesus more clearly.

Big picture -

Jesus arrives on the scene as the stage is set for His work to be done, just as the prophets foretold, just as the signs indicated, just at the right time in history to accomplish His plan for redeeming his people, to rescue us from sin and death.

How can we relate to this question they are asking?

I see time and time again the idea of faith and belief being trashed, mischaracterized, misused, taken out of context and here it comes again.

This question to Jesus, how long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the messiah tell us plainly?

This question is part of a bigger picture than we are aware of at first glance.

sometimes it is our life experiences which are shading our persepective, we have been beaten down so many times we have a had time looking up.

We have been mistreated or damaged so much that we think it is our fault or our lot in life.

Our problems can grow so large that they block out the light.

Or maybe everything is going great and we are on a mountain top living it up, not a problem in the world.

What do we need God for now?

This passage starts with a question born out of history but mired in the present.

This question seeks to put a religious label on a political question.

Like the old saying being played out in front of us.

Someone says look at that beautiful forest and we look over responding I can’t see the forest because all those trees are blocking it.

Their tunnel vision flows from the history surrounding the festival of dedication or, Hanukkah.

Long story short a few hundred years earlier Jerusalem was overrun and occupied by Antiochus Epiphanes a harsh Syrian ruler.

A Brutal conqueror who would force people to convert to his form of religion.

He had come into Jerusalem and begun torturing people for not turning from their Jewish religion.

He turned the temple into a place of worship of Greek God’s and profane things.

He killed countless people sparking a rebellion lead by the Macabees.

For three years they fought an eventually retook Jerusalem.

They rededicated the temple to God remaking all the needed implements but could not find enough pure olive oil for the lampstand in the temple.

Eventually they found a jar which only had enough oil for one day but it burned for 8 days.

This became the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah, and had become tradition by the time of Jesus.

Imagine now this question under the Roman occupation of Jerusalem, they could still perform their jewish religion but not without Roman supervision and authority watching them.

It was a precarious situation.

During Hanukkah they remembered God’s deliverance from occupation a scene which mirrored their own.

This question then are you the Messiah has all this history behind it.

Jesus however is not here to make the temple great again, he has come as one greater than the temple and the Roman Empire itself.

He was not their political deliverer he was the king of Kings, the Son of Man, The Son of God, the promised one spoken of in their own scriptures.

However their situation and circumstances conspired to keep them from seeing who Jesus really is.

To keep them from believing Him.

He responds I already told you...

These are the teachers who know that Jesus knows they should know who he is but pretend not to know because they know the Messiah will take their places of power and prestige.

How Has God told us?

When we lose sight of Him we can look back, when we are tempted to trust someone or something else we can look back at God and understand His work to understand the big picture and where we fit in.

What does it mean to believe?

It means seeking to understand the big picture starting with scripture the place God chooses to wrap his truth in History.

He gives us his story so we can find ourselves in it, in the big picture and be reminded that it is not about us, our family, our prosperity, our health, it is about God being glorified by a people who do not take revenge on the Romans, but rather love their enemies and become transformed into Christlikeness.

In this humbling revelation that we are not the main point, we can find rest.

We also find relationship.

“My Sheep listen to my voice and they follow me.”

In fact Jesus is re enforcing this truth.

He is the main character but each of us is known and has a place in His story, which has become our story.

It is this perspective we are missing.

This brings meaning to our lives because we discover purpose from a loving Father who give us as a gift into a community of people who will be blessed and strengthened by our participation.

Make no mistake Jesus is talking to a group of people who He knows are plotting to kill him.

Jews with a capital J means the leaders of the Jewish people, not just an ethnic Group.

Jesus and his disciples could also be called Jews.

These are not honest truth seekers their question like I said is political.

You are not my sheep...

I know them by hand and they follow me

Jesus is known by his work and by his trusting obedience, - I'm going to need you to trust me.

the belief we are talking about here is based on relationship.

who would you do a trust fall with?

video of girl falling forward? - We have failed to do the works of God to believe (trust) jesus and follow Him, We have not listened to his voice.

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

What does it mean to believe?

To listen.

How much time have you spent listening?

It takes patience.

Each day we condition ourselves to not have patience by walking around with mini super computers always connected to instant gratification.

That will not be the way to listen to the voice of the Shepherd.

If you start your day by looking at your phone beware that thing will become your shepherd and lead you into unhealth.

Jesus knows their concept of listen was not just to have ones ears process the soundwaves and register that with the brain.

It is the concept of hear and obey or as Jesus says here listen and follow.

What does it mean to believe? it is to take action based on trust.

Notice he says I know them, and they follow me.

Trust fall.

Jesus is more reliable than any of your BFFs.

Back to the big picture, the Father gave them to me.

And no one can snatch them from me.

When you are in you are in, because it is Grace that brings us into wholeness/salvation through faith.

God chooses a people for himself, and it is mysterious to us, but we can take great solace in God’s powerful hand holding onto us.

Jesus questions his mortal enemies.

If I sing out a few lines of a song - Jesus loves me....

Father abraham...

We memorize song lyrics whether we like to our not.

This is what jesus does here in quoting this Psalm to them Psalm 82.

His argument is that it is not blasphemy to call himself the son of God when as they all know the scriptures are calling men god’s, and he is only calling himself the son of God… He destroys their argument and the only real charge they had against Him.

He knows who they are, these are his enemies who wish him dead.

Yet here we see Jesus extending an invitation even to them

They know the Father’s work and have seen Jesus continue it.