Seven Principles of the Seventh Sign, part 1, John 11:1-15

I have said repeatedly from this pulpit, that every miracle presented in the gospel is a parable meant to teach us spiritual principles.  I will say it again to make sure you get that; every miracle presented in the gospel is a parable meant to teach spiritual principles.  Now this is the seventh and final sign or miracle that Jesus did that is recorded in the book of John.  So we may presume that this miracle in particular is of great significance.  We might deduce that simply due to the length of this passage which details it, as well as the fact that it is the last one recorded by John, of which  he said such signs were given that you might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.  

In fact, this passage is so long, and it’s message is so multi-faceted, that we will not attempt to look at all of it today.  I think it will take us 2 Sundays to get all that the Lord would have us learn from this text.  That being said, however, we need to work within the narrative of the story.   But my purpose is not so much retelling the story as much as it is to bring out the principles and their applications as taught in this seventh miracle of Jesus recorded in John.  To that end, I believe that there are seven principles that are illustrated by this seventh sign. That is the title of my message this morning; Seven Principles of the Seventh Sign. Seven principles are taught in this text; the first is the love of God, 2, the timing of God, 3, the Light of God, 4, the comfort of God, 5, the life of God, 6, the power of God, and 7, the death of God. I tell you all of that in advance for your benefit and to encourage you to come back for part two next week, but we will only deal with the first four of those principles today.

The first principle then that we can learn from this miracle is the love of God, vs3 says that the one whom Jesus loved was sick. It’s interesting to note that it does not say, the one who loved Christ was sick, but it says the one whom Christ loved was sick.  The emphasis is on Christ’s love for us. When we come to beseech the Lord, our grounds for a hearing are found in His love for us, not in the faithfulness of our love for Him.  Christ’s love is a faithful love, it is a keeping love.  It is a continuous love. It is a sacrificial love.  1John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

We know that God loved the world, according to John 3:16, but this love of Lazarus is obviously different.  It is indicated as being a special love that Jesus had for Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha. It is obviously a love predicated by the fact that Mary and Martha and Lazarus were believers.  God loves the world, but God has a special love for His children that is so much more devoted. In vs.4, when the sisters sent word to Jesus, they use the word phileo as their word for love.  Phileo is the Greek word indicating love of family.  There is a love that a father or mother may have for their friends, but they have a special love for their children.  And we know that Jesus spent a lot of time with these people, so that they had a special relationship with Christ.  They lived in a village called Bethany, which was about 2 miles outside of Jerusalem.  Jesus at that point was about a 2 day journey away from Bethany, in another town that was called Bethany beyond the Jordan.  The significance of that I’m not sure of, except to show the similitude that they  had to Christ, even though they were separated from Him geographically.  

But vs 1 tells us that Lazarus was sick, and to extrapolate from the principle that I think is illustrated by this opening part of the story, it is that for those whom Christ loves, they are not immune from sickness or hardship.  There are many in the evangelical community today that teach otherwise.  Especially those television fake healers that prey on people of weak faith.  They teach that God’s will is that you can always be well.  They teach that sickness is caused by your lack of faith.  But that is simply not taught in the Bible.  Paul in particular said he was given a thorn in his flesh which he called a messenger of Satan, to buffet him, to afflict him, to keep him from being prideful. He asked three times for the Lord to take it from him, but God said My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. So he was given his infirmity to make certain that God received the glory for what he did in his ministry.  Many theologians believe that he had sores on his eyes that impaired his vision, probably as a result and reminder of his conversion from blindness on the road to Damascus.  

So what this passage teaches us is that God sometimes ordains sickness, even  the death of His loved ones, so that Christ may be glorified. Jesus said the same thing in John 9 in response to the question of HIs disciples; His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

And so in this case, when they tell Jesus that Lazarus was sick, His response shows that principle at work.  Vs.4, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”  Jesus let’s them know the purpose of the sickness.  It is to glorify God.  That is how believers, those who are intimately loved by God, must view their sickness.  We need to remember first of all that we are loved by God. Satan loves to cast doubt on God’s love for us when God doesn’t act as quickly as we would like, or in the manner that we expect Him to act.  But the fact is that God loves us, and nothing can change that, nothing can separate us from His love. Rom. 8:38-39 says, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And then secondly, the purpose of this sickness was to glorify God. That is our purpose  as believers,  to glorify God whether by life or death, or in sickness or in health.  That is the first point of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” And God choses to accomplish that in manifold and mysterious ways, sometimes even through sickness and death.

The second principle that we see exhibited here in this story, is the timing of God, illustrated in vs.6, “So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”  The principle is simply this; that God’s timing is not always according to our timing.   Though the petition was sent to Christ, one whom you love is sick, yet Christ delayed coming.  This has been a frequent principle taught by John in his gospel, that being the timing of God.  Twice in the last chapter, attempts were made to kill Jesus, but He escaped from their midst, because His time was not yet come.  Our prayers must be subject to the timing of God.  

We need to come to accept the timing of God.  God often delays His answers to our prayers.  But though He delays, we need to have faith that His ways are good.  His timing is good.  That is the second way the devil attacks us in difficult situations.  First, as I said while ago, he tries to get us to doubt God’s love for us when we go through fiery trials.  And secondly, he tries to get us to doubt the goodness of God.  That was  implicit in the seduction of Eve, wasn’t it?  Satan implied that God was withholding something good from her.  But we need to remind ourselves, regardless of whatever the circumstances, however dire they may seem at the moment, of Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

The third principle that we see here is the Light of God. After 2 days had passed since they got the news about Lazarus, Jesus said, “Let us go to Judea again.” Now it’s been about 4 months that have passed since He was previously in Jerusalem when they tried to kill Him twice.  So the disciples say, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”  

There are several possible interpretations of this verse offered by various commentators.  But I would like to point out the similarity between this statement, and the one Jesus made in chapter 9 directly after saying, “neither this man sinned nor his parents, but so that the works of God might be displayed in him,” referring to the man born blind.  In 9:4 directly after that, Jesus said, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”

Now in that statement, Jesus is saying that He was the Light of the world, and while He was in the world, they needed to do the works of God. They needed to fulfill the purpose of God. But He also indicates that night is coming.  And that night He spoke of was the night of His trial and His crucifixion, during which Jesus said in Luke 22:53  "While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” So the night referred to the time of His death.

But in this very similar statement in John 11, we notice a different emphasis.  The difference is that the emphasis is on HIs followers having the light in them.  And He changes the metaphor from working to walking.  They are to walk during the day,  metaphorically during the 12 hours of daylight, that means to walk in the light of Christ, reflecting the light of Christ.  But those who are in darkness, who do not have the light of Christ in them, will stumble.  That is, they will perish. 

The principle being taught here is that for those who believe in Christ, those that follow Him, there will be no darkness.  If darkness is the power of death as Jesus indicated in Luke 22, then His disciples need not fear it, because they have the light of Christ abiding continually in their hearts.  Jesus said in chapter 8, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  This light of life cannot be extinguished.  It is the light of life that continues even though we may physically enter into the darkness of death.  Psalm 23 speaks of that light that remains in us; “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for  Thou art with Me.”  Jesus is foretelling in this statement that as believers we need not fear the darkness that comes through death because we have the eternal light of life dwelling in us.

As Hebrews 2 tells us, Jesus has freed us from the fear of death. Heb. 2:14-15 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”

The fourth and final principle we will look at this morning is the comfort of God. It is found in vs.11-15 And after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep."  The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him.”

I want to point out the phrase that Jesus routinely uses to indicate physical death.  That phrase is fallen asleep.  Now this phrase caused some confusion for the disciples.  They said, “Lord if he is fallen asleep, then he will recover.”  They thought he was talking of literal sleep.  But Jesus tells them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.”  Now the question is, why does Jesus refer to death as having fallen asleep?

I would like to spend a little time on this, because I think that this principle is vastly misunderstood in the 21st century church, to it’s own detriment.  I think poor scholarship on the doctrine of eschatology has led to all sorts of errant teachings in the church.  And I recognize that some of you will not agree with me on my interpretation.  But I would suggest you hear me out, and keep an open mind.  On this doctrine we don’t have to agree 100%.  But I feel that it’s important that you hear what I believe the Bible teaches concerning the death of the saints.  Because this doctrine is our hope, our comfort.  And I’m afraid most people have a very fuzzy idea of even where to begin to discern the truth about eschatology, and  they have learned what they think they know from some pretty spurious sources.  What I would like to do is point out what Jesus and the scriptures have to say about it, and then you can begin to do your own research and study in the scriptures to determine what it says, and not base your eternal hope on some movie you saw or fictional book you might have read.

I would point out first of all, that when the Bible uses this phrase “fallen asleep”  to indicate death, it is speaking of the death of a believer.  The death of a Christian, or as the scriptures say, the death of saints. “Fallen asleep” is not the normal choice of words when speaking of the death of an unbeliever. When an unbeliever dies, he is consigned to eternal death.  But for the believer, who has eternal life, he is spoken of as having fallen asleep.  For example; in Matt. 27:52 it says, “The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” Another example is Stephens martyrdom in Acts 7:60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" Having said this, he fell asleep.” And Peter preaching in Acts 13:36 says, "For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.” In 1Cor. 15:6, Paul says, “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep...  and in vs.20 “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” And one more, 1Thess. 4:14 “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”  So it is clearly an expression of those who are dead in Christ, that is who are believers. 

But the question remains, what is meant by this expression?  What is Jesus saying, that the person is asleep in the tomb?  I’m sure some of you are saying “I thought Christians went to heaven when they died.”  Well, I Cor.15:20 which we just quoted says that “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”  Where then did Christ go when He died?  Did He just remain in the tomb for 3 days? No, the answer is given by Jesus Himself on the cross.  He said to the believing thief; “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” So Jesus and the thief went to the same place, immediately upon death.  Their bodies were put in a grave, but their spirits went somewhere else.  Jesus tells him this is Paradise. Peter speaks of this in 1Peter 3:18-19 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;  in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.”  So Peter is saying though Jesus body was in the grave, yet His Spirit went to the place of departed spirits where He proclaimed victory over death.  Jesus calls this place Paradise when He is on the cross.

Now Paradise was a Jewish term for the abode of the righteous in Hades.  Hades being the general name for the abode of the dead.  In the Old Testament, Hades was called Sheol.  That’s the Hebrew word.  But the understanding was that the soul of man went to Hades upon death, which was divided into an upper and lower chamber.  Hades is indicated in scripture as being in the center of the earth. And Jesus confirmed this understanding in Luke chapter 16. Now coincidently, or not, Jesus told the story of another man named Lazarus in Luke 16 saying he was a poor man who laid by a rich man’s gate, covered in sores, and eating the crumbs from his table.  This is a different Lazarus than what we have in this story in John 11.  But I find it interesting that both men’s name was Lazarus.  I wonder if in the design of God these names are the same that we might be drawn to look at both stories conjointly to help us to fill in some of the blanks concerning the afterlife.

First though, I want to say that this story in Luke 16 is not a parable, but an actual event.  No parable that Jesus gave ever used the actual names of real people.  Abraham was a real person.  So I believe that Lazarus was a real person as well.  And I don’t believe Jesus made up some fictional place in order to illustrate something.  Jesus never told a lie to illustrate a truth.  

So notice that when Lazarus dies He is taken by the angels to Abraham’s bosom.  Abraham’s bosom is another Jewish euphemism speaking of Paradise, the abode of the saints where they await the resurrection.  Jesus tells of it this way in Luke 16:22, “Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.” 

Jesus went on to describe it through the voice of Abraham as a place of comfort. “But Abraham said,[to the rich man] ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’” So that is the description of where the soul of the believer dwells upon falling asleep.  The body is metaphorically spoken of as fallen asleep, but they are alive in their spirit.  But they are not asleep in Paradise.  They are having conversations, they are being comforted, they are aware of their surroundings, they recognize friends and family.  And furthermore, they are in the presence of the Lord and HIs angels.  Paul said in 2 Cor.5:8, “we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.”

The Christian who has fallen asleep then is comforted in Paradise, awaiting the resurrection when they will be given a new and glorified body and be with the Lord, being made like Him, ruling with Him, for eternity.  1Thess. 4:14-15 says “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (Notice that phrase; the dead in Christ will rise first.  That is those who have fallen asleep in Christ) Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” 

So that is the comfort which we have in God.  That we who are His will never taste death.  This body will die, but our spirit is alive in Christ, because He is the Light of life and He dwells in us.  We have the Light of Christ in us which can never be extinguished, and so we have eternal life that begins at the moment of conversion.  This fact segues into  the next principle that we will look at next week, #5, the Life of God. But let me close today’s message by just reading the statement that Jesus says regarding this principle in vs.25-26 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"

I want to conclude todays message by asking you this question?  Do you believe this?  Have you come to believe in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior?  Have you trusted Him to forgive you of your sins, to make you righteous in God’s sight, to give you new life, abundant life, even eternal life?  If you have, then you have the life of Christ in you that can never perish.  You will live even if you die, and spiritually speaking, you will never die, your spirit will be resurrected and given a new glorified body to live forever with the Lord  in a new heaven and a new earth.  

Listen, that is the hope of Christianity.  In this life we receive the deposit of that abundant, eternal life through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Through belief in Christ, through faith in Him, we are made righteous, and because we are righteous and holy through Jesus’ substitionary atonement on the cross we are given the Holy Spirit to live in us, so that our spirit is reborn.  That means we need not fear death because we have eternal life given to us through Christ.  I trust that you have come to believe even as Martha did. She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”  Today the light of God has shown forth in your hearts.  Believe on Him and be saved from death and receive the life of God.  Don’t leave this world without knowing Jesus Christ as your  personal Savior and Lord.

You are gods, John 10:32-42

Today’s text is one that is somewhat difficult to deal with, for at least a couple of reasons.  One is we are jumping into what is really the tail end of an ongoing dialogue that Jesus was having with the religious leaders of  Jerusalem concerning His deity.  And we are picking it up near the end of that discussion. So that provides some difficulty in bringing you up to speed without repeating all of last Sunday’s message.  But the main difficulty is that Jesus makes reference to a somewhat obscure portion of scripture as validation of His argument, which potentially opens  up a lot of questions.  But I hope to answer those questions for you today, as well as affirming the deity of Christ, and in the process, offer some principles from this passage that I believe are essential to living out our faith effectively.  So I hope you will bear with me as we go through this somewhat difficult passage, with the firm conviction that all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, if we will give proper place to it.

As you might recall if you were here last week,  Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s portico during the Feast of Dedication, which we know as Hanukkah.  So it is winter time, about three months before Jesus will eventually be crucified.  And the Pharisees and priests have sort of cornered Him there, and they ask Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  They claim to want to know if He is the Messiah.  But the fact is, they don’t really want to accept Him as the Messiah.  They have already decided to kill Jesus, but they need a good excuse.  And so the excuse they are trying to give themselves is to get Jesus to commit what they consider to be blasphemy; to say that He is the Son of God.

Of course, Jesus knows their trickery, and so He answers them by saying, “I have already told you, and yet you did not believe Me.  And then to paraphrase He basically says, “not only did I tell you, but I also did works of God which gave testimony to my authority, but you didn’t accept them either.”  So they did not believe His words, and they didn’t accept His works, both of which confirmed that He was the Messiah.  

But then Jesus makes the most startling, dramatic statement possible, which obviously answered their question, but to an extent that perhaps they were not expecting.  Jesus says in vs.30; “I and the Father are one.”  This is probably the most direct statement that Jesus ever publicly made in His ministry regarding His deity.  He is claiming equality with God.  Oneness with God.  It is to say that He was one essence with God.  There is one other statement that Jesus made to Philip and the disciples, which is just as clear, but it had a limited audience.  Jesus said on that occasion, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.”  But this statement is made to the Jewish leaders, and is the most forthright declaration of His deity that He made.

To claim to be absolutely one with God is to claim to be equal with God. And so we read then, “The Jews took up stones again to stone him.” They feel justified in stoning Him, because they know that He is claiming to be no less than God.  John says the reason that they wanted to stone Him  in vs.33, was because they said, “You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

Jesus could have answered the question of being the Messiah and not taken it that far.  The Biblical definition of Messiah was in fact deity, but their conception of the Messiah was limited to that of a political figure, a descendant of King David who would restore the throne to Israel and overthrow their enemies.  And so Jesus could have played along with their expectations and not given them much reason to condemn Him, but He deliberately declares the Biblical definition by stating not only His Messiahship, but stating that He is One with God.  

So they took up stones to kill Him. And Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

Jesus then answers that charge with a most interesting argument and one that I think has great theological implications.  Jesus quotes a relatively obscure scripture from Psalms 82.  Jesus said, “Has it not been 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’?

Now this quotation Jesus gives is found in Psalm 82 and verse 6 and there we find the words, “I have said, you are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” This is a Psalm in which reference is made to rulers, or unjust judges by calling them gods. And the Lord goes on to say, “But you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.” So he is talking about rulers, or unjust judges, but nevertheless the Psalmist speaks of them as if they were gods, with a little “g”.  The word in the Hebrew is Elohim, which can mean gods, or God, or rulers, or judges.  So the Lord Jesus refers to this rather obscure text in the Old Testament, certainly not one of the more well known texts of the Bible, yet he refers to it as a basis for this most important doctrine of His deity.

Now there are several points that we can make from this statement.  First, we should point out that judges in Israel did have a limited relationship of  union with God because they were  divinely delegated representatives. In Israel a judge was one who was supposed to judge under God, and was supposed to judge with the judgment of God. The Psalmist says they had been given the word of God, and therefore should have judged with the judgment of God.

So there is a sense in which Jesus was arguing from the lessor to the greater.  If the Psalmist under inspiration of God called the unrighteous judges gods, then how much more appropriate can He be called God if He was the righteous judge, if He spoke the words of God, and did the works of God? 

And also in the NT, Paul refers to pagan rulers in Romans 13 as ministers of God, and servants of God, and says that they get their authority from God, are established by God, and we are to be in subjection to them as representatives of God.

But I think there is justification in expanding our text to include an even greater audience.  And though this may be shocking for you to consider, I think that this statement can be applied to us as well.  That to a limited extent, we are gods.  Or at least, we were designed to be as gods.  Now I hope you will hear me out before you charge me with blasphemy as well and stone me here this morning.

As justification for my claim, note that the Psalmist makes a correlation between “you are gods” and “all of you are sons of the Most High.”  Now we would all agree that we that are saved are sons and daughters of the Most High.  But at the same time, we recognize that there is a difference between Jesus being the Only Begotten Son of God and we being sons of God.  Jesus used the designation of God as His Father, and we pray to God our Father, yet we realize that there is a difference.  

But notice that the Psalmist equates “god’s” with “sons of the Most High.”  It’s a parallel statement.  If one is true, then the other is true.  And so I feel justified in saying that this is true for us.  That we are to a limited extent, gods, even as we are sons of the Most High.

Now why do I feel it’s important to make this claim?  I make this claim because I think that this speaks to the relationship of man to God as He was deigned to have in creation.  It refers to the kind of relationship man had with God before the fall.  And so part of the purpose of redemption, the purpose of atonement, is to restore man to that fellowship with God that we had before the fall.  

Look at Genesis 1:26 for a minute.  Hopefully a very familiar passage.  It says, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”    And notice that in Psalm 82, in vs.1, the  word translated as rulers there is the same word translated as gods in vs.6.  So here in Genesis 1, man was called to rule over every living thing in the earth.  

Now that statement alone is justification for calling men gods.  As they were in the beginning, as God designed them to be, they were to rule over every living thing that moves on the earth. Not only that, but we were made in the image of God, in the likeness of God. And in the Garden of Eden, prior to the fall, there was a special relationship that man had with God where he was in full fellowship, full communion.  That was the design of God.

So man was designed to be as gods in this world.  We were designed to be much greater than the ungodly, human judges of Israel who the Psalmist calls gods.  We were to rule over creation. Every living creature on earth we are to subdue and to rule over, according to God’s command. 

You know, I was thinking about this the other day when I was messing around with my dog.  I have a crazy dog named Jackson.  He is a very high strung Husky.  But little by little I am trying to teach him some things.  And as I was working with him the other day, mainly not to try to yank the leash out of my hands and walk beside me, I realized that to Jackson, I must seem like a god.  I do all these things that are completely beyond his comprehension.  He cannot comprehend how I can drive him somewhere in the car.  He can sniff at the car, bark at it, ride in it.  But He doesn’t know how to drive it. He doesn’t understand how it works.  He knows that I give him food and water. But he can’t understand how I do that, how to go to the supermarket and buy him food. To a great extent, he realizes that I am the source of everything that he needs. And consequently, he loves me.  He has no greater joy it would seem, than to lay at my feet and look up at me with those beautiful blue eyes.  I believe that He loves me.  I’m still trying to get him to obey me, but he is learning that as well. 

I wish I could say the same for most Christians and their relationship with God.  I wish I could say that they trusted Him to provide for them even when they cannot comprehend what God is doing.  I wish I could say that we love God, that we love to follow Him, that we have no greater joy than to obey Him, and do what He tells us to do even though we don’t always understand it all.   

So to say that we are gods illustrates perhaps in a small way our relationship to God, that we are little gods over His creation, even as He is the Supreme God over man and the earth.  But I think there is even more to that analogy.  I think it relates to our relationship to God as the bride of Christ.  Remember in Gen.2:18 when God said that it was not good that man should be alone?  It’s interesting to see what God did next.  He didn’t immediately make  woman.  Instead, God brought every living creature to parade before Adam.  And Adam gave them all names. That illustrated the dominion that God authorized Adam to have over the creation. But it also illustrated Adam’s lack of a suitable companion.  When he was finished naming them all, it says, “but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.”  

Now I believe that serves as both a historical fact and an analogy of God’s relationship with His creation. I think that before the creation of the earth, God searched through all of His creation and all the creatures that He had made, through all the vastness and dimensions of the Universe, and there was not found a mate suitable for Him. And so God decided to create a companion like Himself, made in His likeness, with whom He would be able to have a relationship such as Adam had with Eve.  That is why the church is called the bride of Christ.  That is why in Ephesians 5 when Paul starts talking about the way the husband should love his wife, and the wife should love and respect her husband, Paul says in Eph 5:28-32  So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;  for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,  because we are members of His body.  FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

And we see that love relationship borne out in the act of creation.  With everything else in creation, God simply spoke it into existence.  But with man, God got down on His knees in the dust of the earth and formed man with His hands, and then it says that He breathed into man’s mouth the breath of life, and he became a living soul.  God kissed man, breathing His very life into our lips.  That speaks of a relationship like no other.  It speaks of the love of God for mankind, and His purpose for making us, to be His bride.

Here is the point I want to make this morning.  In the second creation, we are born again by the Spirit of God,  we are made righteous and holy by the atonement of Jesus Christ, and as this new creation we are designed to be the bride of Christ.  We are designed to be like God, to be conformed to His image, to share the throne with Christ as His bride, to rule over not only animals and every living creature on this earth, but Paul says we are even going to judge angels, to have dominion over infinite dominions yet to be revealed.  We are made to live forever with Christ and to share His glory.

Listen to Jesus’ promise to the church in Rev 2:26-29 “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS;  AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ And then in Rev 3:21-22 “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"

I spend so much time on this principle this morning, because I want you to get a glimpse of what God has in store for those that love Him.  To understand the scope of our salvation.  There is so much more that I don’t have time to get into this morning.  But this is the love of God.  It is the love of God that pursues us, like Hosea pursued his adulterous wife.  It is the love of God that sent Jesus, His Son, to humble Himself to become a man, to lay down His life for us as the ultimate act of love that He might effect our atonement on the cross, by taking our sins upon Himself, in exchange for Christ’s righteousness.  It is so that we might complete the plan of God before the world ever began, that we might fulfill the desire of God to be His bride, as the object of His desire, and that He would be the object of our desire.  That we might come to Him in love, because of love, and not of compulsion. We were not designed to operate simply on instinctual desires like animals, but to choose to love even as God has loved us.  This is the plan of God.  We do not see it having come to fulfillment yet, but we have a deposit made in our souls that one day will be realized in full when we shall see Him as He is, and then we shall be like Him, and be with Him, forever.

Now let me just make a couple of more points of application.  I think you understand Jesus’ argument.  I hope you understand that He was God, and that He had to be God in order to accomplish our redemption.  No mere man could atone for even his own life, no matter how righteous he may have been.  But for Christ to atone for the sins of the world, then He had to be deity, in order to have an infinite quality of atonement that could cover the sins of the world.   

But there is another point that Jesus makes, and that is the statement found in brackets in most translations; “(and the Scripture cannot be broken).”  The brackets indicate it as an afterthought, or perhaps a clarification but I can assure you that Jesus doesn’t consider it an afterthought.  Jesus had a very high view of scripture.  Jesus is taking a very obtuse word in the Psalms, just one little word, and upon one word He hinges such an essential doctrine as His deity.  And as He does this, He says the scripture cannot be broken.  In other words, every word of scripture is inspired by God.  Jesus is saying that every word in the scriptures is important.  He is making a case for the inerrancy and sufficiency of scripture for all of life and doctrine.  

And I want to give you a couple of more examples of Jesus’ high view of scripture.  First is found in Matthew 22:23.  The Sadducees are questioning Jesus concerning the resurrection.  And Jesus answers them by saying in vs.31-32  "But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”   

Now in that case, He isn’t talking about a word in the Old Testament as being important.  He is referring to a verb tense.  If Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were dead then He should have said, I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, past tense.  But Jesus shows the OT use of the present tense as an argument that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were living, and not dead.  Thus He says the proof of the resurrection of the dead was found in the present tense of the verb.  

And then one other example of Jesus’ high view of scripture.  In Matt. 5:17-18 during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,  "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  There Jesus is speaking of one of the little dots on a Hebrew letter used to distinguish it from a similar letter.  Jesus is saying not even one little stroke of a letter shall pass until all is accomplished.  So then  in these three examples, we have a word which cannot be broken, we have a verb tense which cannot be broken, and we have a stroke of a letter which cannot be broken.  I would say that Jesus had a pretty high view of scripture.  And I would hope that we might have the same.  

The battle against the authority of scripture is undiminished, in fact it has increased 10 fold today compared to what it was a century or two ago.  Yet if our Lord had such a high view of scripture that He depended upon it to defend His deity, He depended upon it to defeat all of Satan’s temptations, and as He was the author of scripture, then how much more should we be in the word of God.  How much more should we depend upon it for every decision that we make.  Notice back in Psalm 82, the judges were called gods because the word of God came to them.  We have the word of God made more sure, because it is written and confirmed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Let us treat it no less seriously than did Christ.

One more point, and that is found in the verses 37-38, Jesus said "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;  but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”  So Jesus invokes one more attempt to show these unbelieving Jewish leaders that He is who He said He was.  They had not believed His words, HIs preaching.  So Jesus asks them to consider His works.  He says, “believe My works.”  My works show that I am from the Father, and that the Father is in Me and I in Him. 

Nicodemus, who was one of them, had spoken earlier to Christ in secret in John 3:2 saying “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  So Jesus is appealing to just that kind of reasoning.  He says, believe Me because of My works.  That was the reason Jesus did signs and wonders.  It was to confirm by signs that God was with Him.  It’s the same reason that the apostles did signs and wonders.  It was to confirm that they spoke the words of Christ.  Miracles were not given to simply heal people because they were sick.  That was a benefit of the sign, but that was not the reason for the sign.  The reason was to confirm the word that they were preaching was of God.  And that is what Jesus appeals to.  Believe My works, that they might believe My words.  

But there is an application of that for us, I believe as well.  And that is this; that when we give testimony to the grace of God, to our salvation, to our Christianity, a lot of times we are met with rejection, with disbelief. Sometimes, we are even met by animosity, as in the case with Christ here in our text.  But there is more that we can share beyond our words.  And that is our works.  We should be able to have the same argument as Jesus Christ.  We should be able to say as He did, “If you won’t believe my words, then believe my works.  I am doing the works of Christ. You should be able to show your friends and coworkers and family, that Christ is in you, and your works are the evidence of His life in you.

Not everyone is going to accept you, or believe in what you are saying.  But as we see in this passage, Jesus left Jerusalem and went to Bethany where John the Baptist had preached during his ministry, and those people saw the signs that Jesus was doing, and it says that many believed in Him there.  

I’m afraid that there is a disconnect today between what the church professes and what it practices.  I’m afraid that when the world looks at the lives of professing Christians today they don’t see the truth of the scriptures lived out.  And as a result, they have an excuse.  I’ve said it before, your life is either an example or an excuse.  Your life is an example of a Christ filled person, and as such points men to Christ, or your life is an excuse as to why they don’t need to believe, and as such your life turns men away from Christianity.  I hope that it may be an example.  

I hope that you will take away from this message today the realization that you were meant to live for so much more than what this life offers.  You were meant to be gods with a little g, to be rulers, judges over the world.  We were meant to be the bride of Christ and to rule and reign with Him.  That is why Christ came to earth and died for us.  That we might become righteous through faith in HIs sacrifice.  And then I hope that you will walk in this life with a dependency upon the inerrancy and sufficiency of scripture.  That we might be totally reliant upon the word of God as our guide for every action and every deed.  And thirdly, that we might be a testimony not just by our words, but by our works.  As we do the works of God we will show the truth of God in our hearts as a testimony to the world.  

Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to live as God designed us to be. To be all that He has desired us to be.  And all that is possible by faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.  Let us pray.