Today's sermon will be on John chapter 10. In this section, Jesus will continue to look at the divide between those who belong to Him and those who do not. As the Pharisees and legal experts are still looking for a way to kill Him, Jesus boldly continues to speak up in the presence of these people. He informs them that He is the true shepherd of the sheep, that is, God's people and that He lays down His life for His people. His Father loves Him because He does this for Him. He has authority to lay down His life and take it up again and He will lay it down willingly to save His people. We will also see in this section, how God tenderly loves us, knows us personally by name, and calls us to Him and we will listen and not be deceived by others because those that have been born again know the voice of their God. Jesus, though continuing to be challenged, will point back towards the Old Testament, and in Psalm 82:6, to show that He indeed is God. The God who promised that He would lead His people. He would shepherd them and love them as Jesus does.

So few have received Jesus as Israel's Messiah, the Christ. All Jesus has been doing is healing, and saying wonderful truths of God. Yet, not many come to believe in Him. But, in today's sermon, we see a man whom Jesus healed, though he was born blind, he now can see. This is the power of God through Christ Jesus. And in this particular miracle, we will discover from the Old Testament that it is a miracle that points to who Jesus is - not just being a human but also being God Himself who has come in human form. The man not only receives his sight but the eyes of his heart become open and he believes upon Jesus. Sadly, this will cost him, possibly his family, and he gets kicked out of the synagogue, and even looked down on by the people, especially the Pharisees. But, he gives up all in order to stand with Christ. And so today we will see a remarkable example of a man who comes to know and understand who Jesus is for who He truly reveals Himself to be.

In John Chapter 8, Jesus will have His evidence, authority and even identity attacked by the Pharisees. As He moves through speaking to them, they become more and more aggressive as He reveals more and more about who He is, and what He has come to do in saving humanity. This is how Jesus treats those that are hard-hearted towards Him. He doesn't fight back, but instead just speaks of greater heavenly realities that are to come which their ears cannot handle because they are earthly and Jesus hears heavenly. He loves these people. He desires that they come to know Him. And even some in the crowd begin to believe in Him until He tells them that they must come to Him because they are slaves in their sins. But they rejected these words. They made up excuses for their sin, saying that they are Abraham's children or even that God is their father, instead of realizing that they need to just surrender and believe upon the Lord Jesus. It gets to such a heightened point that Jesus has to confess of those people who in Jerusalem began to believe. He had to confess that their father was not Abraham or God, but indeed it was Satan, because if you loved God, you would love Jesus. And so the arguing and bickering against Him carries on until finally Jesus has enough and He says these wonderful words, "Before Abraham was, I AM" pointing to the fact that He is not just a Prophet, a King, or a High Priest. He is God who has come in flesh to save the world. He must be respected. He must be listened to and believed upon. And at that, they wanted to kill Him all the more.

Today we will take a look at John 8:1 -11 and discover that hundreds of years after the apostles had given their account of what they had seen and heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, some tried to add various stories into the Bible. Most of these have been caught and pulled out but even today, there are even a couple that remain, this being one of them. We will analyse how we have come to trust the Scriptures as we do today and how we can make them even more accurate. Also, we will come to understand that God is not in any way hindered when the Word of God has had anything added to it. We can look at false teaching, such as the Book of the Mormon, that say more of the Word of God has been given, which we utterly reject. Just because that happens, it doesn’t put any issue upon the word of God as we know it today. Whether people add, it does not matter but we have all the Word of God and even try to purify anything that may have been added on top of the Word of God.

A toddler in their family home feels loved and valued, but if that same toddler gets lost at a shopping centre, that value and that love evaporates and turns into fear. So, it is with humanity when we place our value or our greatness in the things of this world. These things are not going to last forever. It is as though we are in the wrong place because our place is with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we are going to talk about true value and true greatness that comes from a relationship with our God. We will most clearly see this from Isaiah 40:11 where we read, “He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads those that have young.” What better place? What greater value and worth could we have, but being in the arms of God?

People don't knowingly go into a situation to be ripped off,nor do they enter a competition when they know that it is rigged. Yet, all across this world and every day, people hand their lives over to the things of this world that they cannot take with them into the next life. It is so important to understand this part of Jesus' ministry - Jesus is calling people to have eternal life in Him, and instead of receiving Him, they are choosing the systems of this world that would rip us off and are rigged to begin with. Set to fail before we even start! And so, Jesus will come up against opposition and rejection, rejected by his own brothers, the crowds, the religious leaders of His day, each of them with their own agenda, giving themselves over to various systems. But throughout the mess of all of this, we do not give up hope. We see that in John chapter 7, Nicodemus, in the day time, stands up and defends Jesus; where before in John chapter 3, he did not believe the earthly things Jesus spoke of nor would he believe the heavenly things. But now, because Jesus shared the powerful word of the Gospel, that salvation is found in Him. Nicodemus, it seems, has experienced being born from above, born again, born of the Spirit. And so, though we have pulled ourselves from the systems of this world, we have taken hold of Jesus and have eternal life because of Him, many others will come. And maybe not in the way we expect, maybe our families will not believe us, our friends, even religious systems of today may all reject us, yet, Jesus thought it worthwhile to continue on for those likeNicodemus who will come, and all that the Father has given the Son will come to Him. And those who do come, in no way will the Son ever cast out. That is our promise, that is our hope and our future that is in Jesus Christ.

John 6 continues with much of the same. The crowds continue to grumble, and even sharply dispute against the Lord Jesus. The Lord has offered them the bread that comes down from heaven, the bread of life and drink that if they do consume, they will never thirst again. Yet as they bicker and complain against the Lord, the Lord talks in more literal terms. Instead of bread and drink, He turns to using His own self that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, lest they have not eternal life but everybody who does consume these things, He will raise up on the last day. What are we to make of this difficult text and how do we consume the flesh of Christ and drink His blood? This we will explore in this text, but also, and a very important point, Jesus will explain why this group of the crowd, why they are about to leave and why they will not stay. It is because the Father has not drawn or enabled them and their hearts to stick with the Lord Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus will cover this point for us before they walk out on Him altogether. Three types of faith will be discussed. Parasitic faith like a leech, symbiotic faith like a honey guide and fence sitting faith like that of Judas.

After Jesus announces to the crowd that they have only come to Him because of the five loaves and two fishes that He had broken to feed thousands, He goes on to give them a very clear description of what it is the Father requires for they to have eternal life. The answer that He gives is that all who come to Him, He will give that life. Sadly, in this exchange, the crowd does not receive Jesus by faith, as God requires, but reject His testimony, the testimony of John the Baptist and the ministry altogether of Jesus, when they throw in His face that they believe that they know who He is, and want nothing to do with His words concerning eternal life. We see also, that the Father must draw and call people to the Son and that the Son is committed to those who have been committed to Him by the Father. In our final thought, we will challenge ourselves to preach this simple message, that Jesus is the Bread of Life who gives life to the world for all who believe and if it is God who must draw, then it is God’s job to convince the lost and ours to just deliver the message.

At this point in Jesus’ ministry, He goes away to spend time alone while the disciples hop back into the boat and head eastward along the Sea of Galilee. As they do, the boat is buffeted by waves and they strain at the oars. Yet, in all three gospel accounts of this time in Jesus’ ministry, the disciples are not afraid of the waves and the water. No! It is when Jesus meets them out on the water, walking on the water, that they become terrified. We see the reason for this miracle in Mark 6:52, where after Jesus had done the miracle of the breaking of the five loaves and two fishes, feeding the thousands, the disciples did not understand this miracle and their hearts were hardened. So, Jesus, by this singular act, makes them question all over again, who this Jesus really is. Yes, the crowds wanted to make Him their King, and they believed that He was the Prophet, but they, like the disciples, were still looking to the miracles which are a sign. A sign pointing to Jesus. Because they had missed this, Jesus, walks on the water, and they not knowing whether this is a ghost or what type of Man this is, they question everything all over again because Jesus needs them to know who He is and not be confounded by miracles but that they may place their faith in Him. To emphasise this point, another miracle occurs as Peter walks out onto the water to meet Jesus. While his eyes are fixed directly upon the Lord, it goes well for him and he walks on water miraculously. Yet the moment he takes His eyes off Jesus, he begins to sink and Jesus chastens him for his lack of faith. Again, as Christians, we must keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, not looking to Him for signs and wonders, though these things are good, but that we would trust Him, who is the Giver of eternal life.

As Christians, once we place our faith in the Lord Jesus, there are two types of faith that we must encounter at times in our life. The first one is when we are put in impossible situations, and we must grit and hold fast to Jesus and this will be next week’s sermon. As for this week, it is about trusting the Lord Jesus for the day to day. In this passage, Jesus goes on to do the impossible, asking a question of Phillip whilst knowing the answer and how He was going to deliver for this great and vast crowd that were hungry before Him. We see that Phillip, though with Jesus, still does not understand the awe surpassing provision that Jesus offers to His people, that He cares for us and looks after us and knows the answer to our problems before they ever arise. It took the faith of a young boy to hand over what he had into the hands of Jesus, and with that small offering, Jesus feeds the multitude. He blesses countless lives with the small act of faith from a small child. May we trust the Lord Jesus with our day to day knowing that He does care about us, He does love us and that the Lord is working everything good for those who love Him. May we be encouraged this season.