Witnesses to Christ's Deity part 3 The Witness of the Word

Take your Bible this morning and turn with me to the Gospel of John. You should know where we are. We are in chapter 5. John chapter 5 and we are finishing up this portion of scripture that we've been in for quite some time. This portion of scripture that started in verse 30 goes on down to verse 47 that deals with the witnesses for Christ. The witnesses about Christ. Now sometimes I'll do review and I do that on purpose because there are certain truths we need to make sure we remember. You should remember the first witness and that was John. Jesus reminds them of John. Who's the them?

Those are the religious leaders, the Jewish leadership that were persecuting Jesus we saw starting in verse 18. They were following him, watching him, listening to him. And the first witness that Jesus called to his defense was John. And they knew of John because they had investigated John previously. Remember he burst on the scene baptizing and he had a message of repentance especially for the religious leaders of the day. Remember Jesus presents John as that ordinary lamp who was a true reflection of the light of the world. I have repeated that. I've prayed that because that should be our job, our task, our goal in life.

Just to be that ordinary lamp that will always be a reflection of the light which is Jesus, the true light of the world. Now the second witness was Christ's miracles, Christ's works, Christ's signs. John says that his works were greater. Jesus says that his works were greater than John. And these works or their signs were given to him by his father. Remember that early on John gives us signs. Purposely John uses the word signs and he gives us signs that Jesus performed. In John chapter 2 Jesus changed the water in the wine. And the text says this beginning of his signs Jesus performed in Cana. These signs were to point the people to Christ.

He was deity. He was the Messiah. Remember it was the disciples there at the wedding feast who believed in Jesus because the signs pointed them to Christ. So the first witness was John. The second witness they were Christ's signs or miracles. And the third witness was the father. Jesus declared that the Jewish leadership had neither heard his voice nor seen God. We know that no man can see God but Jesus was saying they had neither seen a manifestation of God. They were completely and totally ignorant of the workings of God. Isn't that amazing?

They heard the words of God but that hearing there, remember it talked about a hearing which is a hearing, a listening and an obeying. An absorbing of the word abiding in one's life. They didn't hear it. And nor did they see God. Isn't it amazing? As they followed Jesus every time Jesus did a work there was God manifesting himself to them and they never saw it. They never saw God. Now this morning we will finish these verses with the fourth witness. And that is the witness of the Scriptures or the witness of the Word. And you will remember that Jesus made a swift change in verse 38.

Because in verse 38 Jesus changes his approach with these religious leaders. Jesus begins to challenge them. Jesus begins to make indictments against them. Previously he's building his case starting in verse 30. But then in verse 38 he changes. There's this challenge. There's this indictment that he makes against them. And Jesus carries this same approach all through the remaining verses. And you will notice in our verses this morning he's speaking directly to them and he's challenging them time after time. Now remember also that Jesus, his reason for giving these witnesses. Jesus did not need witnesses.

Because his witnesses, his signs, his miracles, they were sufficient. Were they not? Jesus was being true to the principles taught in the Old Testament Scripture. Remember that principle of having two or more witnesses to establish a proper and accurate testimony concerning a testimony. Or concerning a situation. That principle comes from Deuteronomy 19 verse 15. There's an example in Numbers chapter 35 verse 30. The example of one who was accused of murder. Then we see that Paul abides by this principle in the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 13.1 dealing with church matters. And in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 19.

Dealing with discipline in the life of the elders. Paul is operating under this principle of two or more witnesses. So Jesus is being true to the Old Testament principles that all of the Jewish leaders would have operated under. Now, so Jesus is establishing his case. He is presenting his own miracles. But he's also presenting his witnesses. Listen, to corroborate his case. Being the Messiah, being deity. God in the flesh. Now, you know the title of the message that we've carried through these messages. It's Witnesses to Christ's deity. And this is a, this is the continued series title. Witnesses to Christ's deity.

And we are going to look at the witness of the word. The witness of the word. Now this is a part three. We combined two last week. We combined the works. Jesus works in the witness of the father. And so we're looking at part three. The witness of the word. Let's look at the scriptures together. Starting in verse 39. Jesus says to the religious leadership. You search the scriptures because you think that in them. You have eternal life and it is these that bear witness of me. And you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life. Verse 41. I do not receive glory from men. But I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves.

I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another shall come in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from the one from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God. Do you not do not think that I will accuse you before the father, the one who accuses you as Moses in whom you have set your hope for if you believed. Moses, you would have believed me for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Now we will break down these nine verses in four truths. You see them before you on the screen.

We have misguided study of the scriptures. We have a misguided love. We have a misguided about the Messiah. And then they were misguided in judgment. Misguided study of the scriptures, misguided love, misguided about the Messiah and misguided judgment. Like I always say each week, I trust that you're taking notes. I encourage you to study your notes. Make sure you get the truths that the Lord has before us for your own edification, growth and teaching. So let's look at this first truth. Truth number one, we see a misguided study of the scriptures, a misguided study of the word. This comes out of the first two verses.

Listen to these verses as I read them again. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is these that bear witness of me and you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life. Now, studying the scriptures is a good thing. And I believe we would all say it. We do this together. That's why I encourage you to take notes. That's why I encourage you to go back and study your notes and study these messages so that you would retain all that the Lord would have you to retain. Now, here Jesus speaks of the Jewish leadership and their habit of diligently studying the scriptures.

But we will see that although they study the scriptures, they are greatly condemned. And see, some might see some confusion here. Why is he condemning them for studying the scriptures? Well, let's break these verses down and we're going to see that they were misguided in their study of the scriptures. Right out of verse 40, first we'll see Jesus' observation. Jesus and his observation. Verse 39, excuse me, the verse portion of verse 39. You search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. Now, this is an observation, but I want you to see how this is worded.

The King James reads, "Search the scriptures for in them." Now, the New American, it reads, "You search the scriptures." Now, there's a little bit of a debate here about the original language. In the original, it can be translated either a command or an observation. The King James says, "Search the scriptures." Then the New American says, "You search the scriptures." That's where that comes from, that little debate. But what we see is Jesus was not commanding them to search the scriptures. He was observing that they were searching the scriptures. Now, how do we know how to interpret this? The key is the context.

The context reveals that this is an observation and not a command. We will see as we continue in these verses. Jesus is observing, He's saying, "You are studying the scriptures." But second, they had a false hope of eternal life. They had a false hope of eternal life. Look at the second portion of verse 39. "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life." Now, Jesus reveals their motivation for studying the scriptures. We repeat that. He is revealing their motivation for studying the scriptures. They thought that their study of the scriptures somehow earned them eternal life. Now, a question.

Did they know this was their motivation? We really don't know. But Jesus knew their motivation. We will be reminded several times all through these verses this morning that Jesus knew their motives, Jesus knew them intuitively. This was not an acquired knowledge because He was God in the flesh. He knew their motives even if they did not know their motives. But what do we see? Jesus observes them that they study the scriptures.

But now He says, "You study the scriptures with a wrong motive, and your wrong motive is you think you will earn eternal life because you study the scriptures." The third thing I want you to see, they're misunderstanding about the scriptures. This is the third portion of verse 39. "You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these that bear witness of Me." This is a misunderstanding that they had about the scriptures that they studied. They failed to see that the very scriptures that they studied were a witness of Christ Himself.

Now, something very interesting to note here concerning John's Gospel. There are six passages in John's Gospel where Scripture or some form of Old Testament passage is quoted referring to Jesus. Let me repeat that. There are six passages in John's Gospel where he refers to Scripture or some form of Old Testament passage that speaks of Christ. Some of you like to get these references, and I will give you these references. John chapter 1 verse 45. John chapter 2 verse 22. John chapter 3 verse 10. These verses, John chapter 5 verses 45 through 46. In chapter 20 verse 29. All of these are references concerning Christ in the scriptures.

And we will see some of these a little more in our message. What am I showing you? There was scripture after scripture that referred to Jesus being the Christ, but they must misunderstood these scriptures because the scriptures that they diligently studied that pointed towards Christ, they missed. Because what do we see? And it is these that bear witness of me, but yet we will see that they totally miss the point. Now the fourth observation of the fourth truth, fourth truth I want us to see out of these verses, is their refusal to come to Christ. This is verse 40. This is a short verse.

Notice he says, "And you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life." See, they refuse to come to Christ. The very scriptures which testify about Jesus, they refuse to believe. Therefore, they refuse to come to Christ that they may have life. They believe that they understood the scriptures, therefore they believe they had life. But Jesus said otherwise. Do you see? Now, this is a misguided study of the scriptures. See, Jesus observed their study of the scripture. He described that they had a false hope of eternal life because they were improperly motivated.

He saw that they had a misunderstanding concerning the scripture and yet they refused to come and believe in Christ. John MacArthur gives a good little description of these Jewish leaders. He says, "Cleaning to their superficial system of self-righteousness by works, in their stubborn unbelief, they became ignorant of God's righteousness and sought to establish their own." Now, I want to key on that portion. They sought to establish their own. That's a reference to Romans chapter 10 verse 3. Let me read that verse.

"For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness." Paul is writing about these Jews. See? "When they chose to reject Christ, what do we see? They revealed that they were ignorant of the very word of God that they said they studied. And they revealed that they rejected a righteousness from God and they sought to establish their own. And they would not submit to God's way God's righteousness." So what do we see? They were misguided in their study of scripture. And let me tell you, no one studied the word like the Jews. They knew it backwards and forwards.

But they had a false hope of eternal life. They misunderstood the scriptures totally, and they refused to come to Christ. And so we might look back and say, how pitiful. How blind. How short-sighted. For us, we could look at the totality of God's word and the totality of their mistake, and we can step back and we can say, how ignorant could you be? But did you know that there are people that make the same mistake today? Did you know that there are some people that they study God's word for one reason? They study God's word only to support their theological position. Now, I am all for sound theology. I am all for sound doctrine.

That's why we're going verse by verse in many of our studies. Why? Because we must let the word of God be preached and let it come to the surface and determine our doctrine and our theology. I've said this before. I've said it to Brother Keith. The first four chapters of the Gospel of John are rich in the doctrine of conversion. And so many churches and so many pastors would benefit if they would hold up their view of conversion in light of what we've learned so far. So I am for sound theology and sound doctrine.

But there are a lot of people, they are in certain theological camps and they will go to the word of God and they will always make the word of God line up with their theological position. And that's the same mistake the Jewish leaders made. What did they do? They would read the word of God and they would always adjust it. Now listen to their traditions, to the teachings of their elders and to their religion. You see? They always adjusted the word to their position. And so we must be careful never to read God's word in light of our theological position. We must read God's word and read God's word. You see?

Because we must remember that there is no perfect theological position. Because there is no man who can fully understand the mysteries and the glories of the teachings of the word of God. Sometimes we just declare it and sometimes we explain it as best we know how. But at the end of that explanation we say I cannot fully understand it nor explain it. Now that's not an excuse for faulty study. That's not an excuse for laziness. But beware of people because I know many of them. They will study the word of God to support their theological position and they're just as dead and many of them are just as lost to these religious leaders.

There are some people who study the word of God just to support their convictions. See this can go on and on. There are a lot of people who study the word of God just for their personal convictions. There are a lot of churches. They study the word of God just to do church the way they want to do church. See it is our desire to study the word of God and let the word of God tell us how to do church. I've said this before chapter and verse chapter and verse. If we're doing anything in the life of the church that does not come from chapter and verse, we need to question why we do it and if we even need to be doing it.

Because if we're not careful we can have a misguided study of the scriptures. Let's continue. Let's look at main truth number two. I want us to see they had a misguided praise. A misguided praise. Verse 41 and verse 42. Two short verses. I do not receive glory from men but I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. Now Jesus had previously stated in verse 34 that he did not need human testimony concerning his deity. Now Jesus is adding to that statement by saying that he did not means glory or praise. It is interesting to note that Jesus is revealing that he knew the motives of these men.

Remember back in chapter two verse 24 through 25. Remember we learned that there were unbelieving believers. They had a superficial faith and in those verses in chapter two Jesus said he knew all men and he knew what was in man. So what do we see? They had a misguided praise and Jesus knew it. Two things out of these verses. First Jesus rejected the praise of men. That's right out of verse 41. I do not receive glory or honor from men. The King James reads honor. The English Standard, the New American reads glory. Jesus refused praise. Jesus refused honor. Jesus refused glory from men. These words are interchangeable.

MacArthur says he did not want public praise and hypocritical honor from those who privately repudiate him. And that's who these religious leaders were. Jesus rejected the praise of men. Now a question. Why did he refuse honor from these men? Well that is answered in verse 42. Notice these men did not love God. Look at verse 42. But I know you that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. That's why he would not receive their praise and honor. This is the answer to the question. He knew that these men did not love him. Again this word no is a reference back to chapter two verse 24.

He knew all men and this is that intuitive knowledge not an acquired knowledge. So what do we see? We see a total rejection of these men by Christ. No matter their words whether they were favorable or not he would not receive them anyway. He knew they were hypocritical and he would not receive their praise. And we will see that this was a misguided praise. Now for us, for you, for me, I want us to see that really Christ does not want our words. What does he want from us? Jesus doesn't want our words. He wants our obedience. Jesus did not want their words. Jesus did not want them piling up a claim towards him. Jesus wanted obedience.

Isn't that what we see exemplified in the lives of the disciples? Each time their faith was tested, what did they do? They exemplified obedience. They exemplified true discipleship. They were following him. They were living with him. They were walking with him and they lived an obedient life, not a perfect life. So it wasn't about words and that's what Christ wants from us. He does not want our words. He does not want our promises. He wants our obedience. Now this leads me to another question. Should we seek after men's praises ourselves? That's a dangerous trap, is it not? Jesus refused to fall into this, this misguided praise.

Because listen, the same men that can praise us are the same men that can curse us. We kind of have a joke in ministry. The joke is when you go on church staff, the ones that love you when you first come, sometimes are the ones that hate you a year later. The praise of men can be fickle and empty and even hypocritical. But I want us to see they had a misguided praise and Jesus wouldn't receive it. The third truth I want you to see, they were misguided about the Messiah. See this ties into this misguided praise. Look at verse 43 and verse 44. "I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me.

If another shall come in His name, you will receive Him." How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Here in this verse, we will see a repeat of what we've already seen in verse 40. They are rejecting Jesus. But now Jesus adds to their rejection. He reveals what or who they will receive. They're rejecting Jesus. They're rejecting Jesus. They're rejecting. But He's adding. Now He's saying, "Let me tell you who you'll receive." But now Jesus is revealing that and it almost seems like He's being prophetic.

It almost seems like He's predicting their future actions because that's exactly what He's doing. Three things out of these verses. First, they rejected Jesus. Verse 43. "I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me." Again, this is a repeat of what Jesus had been teaching all through these verses. All along, Jesus had been saying that they were rejecting Him. But now there's the new twist. The second truth. Notice they received others. Look at verse 43. "I have come in my Father's name and you do not receive me." "If another shall come in His own name, you will receive Him." What do we see here?

Jesus, knowing their hearts, said that if a false Messiah should come claiming to be the true Messiah, they would follow the false Messiah. See the new twist? You reject me. You reject me. You reject me. But now let me show you who you will receive. Jesus is saying, "I know what you will do in the future." Now, interestingly, if you study Jewish history, you can see that Jesus' prediction did come true. From the time I'll refer to a very popular Jewish historian. His name is Josephus.

I've had his works for years, and I've enjoyed through the years studying what this Jewish secular historian told us about the day and the time which we're talking about. Josephus was a Pharisee by trade, and his historical accounts are very accurate. Josephus wrote that many so-called prophets came along claiming to be Messiah. And there was a whole string of false messiahs that came up after Christ all the way up to the Jewish revolt in 70 AD. Does that date 70 AD ring a bell? That's when the Romans came and finally crushed the revolt and destroyed the temple that Jesus said would be destroyed. That was part of that judgment on Israel.

And what do we see? Those Jewish leaders received false prophet after false prophet after false prophet. All along they rejected Jesus. You see? They were misguided about the messiah. Now, let me show you the third truth. Inside of verse 44, they received praise from men. How can you believe when you receive glory or honor from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? Notice this is in the form of a question. Again, the King James uses the word honor. The modern translations use the word glory. Now, notice that this is not a question to be answered. This is a rhetorical question.

This is a question that Jesus asked really to make a point. He is saying you do not seek honor from God because you seek honor from men. That is just what these false messiahs did. They honored the Jewish establishment rather than call it for what it was. You see? They received praise from men. Simply put, Jesus is saying you are rejecting me and I have come in my Father's name, yet you will follow false messiahs and it is because you love their praise. We see this again later on in John's gospel. Because in John chapter 12 verse 43, what does he say?

"For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God." So what do we see? They had what? A misguidance about the messiah. They had a misguidance about who the messiah was. And I am going to tell you, I am afraid that we see this fleshed out in many different ways in the lives of the church today. Because what do we see? There are a lot of people who are misguided about what the church should be, about what pastoral ministry should be, about what ministry in the life of the church should be. I want to carry the principle on. See, they rejected Christ and they received false messiahs.

But I want to carry that principle and I want you to see that there are a lot of people, they want church their way, not God's way. They want ministry their way, not God's way. It's amazing the people that will subject themselves to uncalled, unsaved leaders in the life of the church. They have no room to subject themselves under that leadership from God's Word and it is misguided. And I don't know where you draw the line. I feel sorry for some of the people, some of the friends that we know. Because listen, they are in churches that are dead, in churches that are unbiblical. But yet what do we see?

These religious leaders rejected the truth and they went towards the false messiahs. Now truth number four, I want you to see, there was misguided judgment. Misguided judgment. Verse 45, down to the last verse, verse 47. "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. The one who accuses you is Moses. In him you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would have believed me. For he wrote of me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" You might not realize it, but one of the biggest arguments the Jewish leadership used in defending themselves was that they worshiped the one true God just as Moses did. And they did this repeatedly. We serve the same God as Moses. We serve the same God as Abraham. I'll give you two verses. John chapter 9, verse 27 and 28. He answered them, "I have told you already and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again?

Do you also want to become his disciples?" And these religious leaders, it says, "And they reviled him saying, 'You are his disciples, but we are disciples of who?'" Moses. Matthew 23, verses 1 through 2. "Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat.'" What is he referring to? "They adhere to the teachings of Moses." Now in these verses we will learn some specifics concerning their judgment. First, notice that Moses will judge them. Verse 45, "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father.

The one who accuses you is Moses." Jesus is saying that on that day of judgment, it will be Moses himself who will accuse them before God the Father. Moses wrote about the coming Messiah, and despite claiming that they followed the law of Moses, they rejected that same Messiah. So Moses will judge them. Second, if they followed Moses, they would have followed Jesus. Look at verse 46. "For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me." Here we see that they claim to follow the one that Moses wrote about, and that is Jesus. I give you two references, Genesis 3.15.

Moses writes, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, and he shall bruise his head, and you shall bruise his heel," referring to the Messiah. Genesis 12.3, "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all of the families of the earth will be blessed," referring to the Messiah. And there are more. Deuteronomy 18.18, which Peter quoted in Acts 3.22, and Stephen quoted in Acts 3.37, "What am I showing you? If they followed Moses, they would have followed Jesus, because they said they followed Moses and did not obey what Moses said.

They proved they didn't follow Moses, and they proved they didn't follow Jesus." And then third, "They did not believe Moses, therefore they would not believe Jesus." Verse 47, "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" Here Jesus is simply saying that if you reject one, you reject the other. That if you receive one, you receive the other. Now, question, how can it be any other way? You see, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that He is inseparable from Moses and his writings. Matthew 5.17, the Sermon on the Mount, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets.

I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them." Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all that Moses wrote about. And they did not believe Moses. Therefore, they would not and did not believe Jesus. And you will notice that I call these verses a misguided judgment. It was misguided in two ways. First, they judged Jesus. They accused Him of being a false messiah and a false prophet. And second, they did not realize that the one they revered was going to be the one who judges them, and that was Moses. Do you think that they will be in a total shock when at the judgment, Moses will be the one who stands up and accuses them?

They will, because they have said all along, "We follow Jesus, Moses. We trust Moses." They had a misguided judgment. See, I think we see many people in the life of the church. They do the very same thing. See, the Jewish leaders, they said they believed in the Old Testament, but they rejected Jesus. And there are a lot of people in the life of the church. They pick and choose that which they want to believe. They pick and choose from the Scripture that which fits their lives and fits their convictions and fits their little kingdom. See, that's a tragic mistake. That's what the Jews did.

They did not want to receive Jesus because He cut against the grain of everything they were. And what I want you to see is that there are people who will pick and choose the Scriptures and they will ignore the ones that run contrary to their convictions and their beliefs and the way they want to live their lives. I'm sad to say I've dealt with many people in the life of the church like this.

I've dealt with many people in the life of the church when the Word of God is preached straight and narrow, when the Word of God is taught right down the line, and when it comes in contrast with their life, they come to a crossroad and they can either adjust their lives to the Word of God or they can reject the Word of God and go the other way. That's what these religious leaders did. They rejected Jesus. And Romans chapter 3 says that they had a righteousness of their own and they went the other way. And people do that in the life of the church.

And it should not surprise us when the Word of God is taught, when the Word of God is taught, when there are those who come to that crossroad and they reject it and they go their own way and listen, they do exactly what the Jews did. They have their own little righteousness. And listen, the Scripture that they say that they love will rise up against them at the judgment. It's all of it or none of it. Isn't that what Jesus is saying to these religious leaders? If you say you love Moses and follow Moses, then you will follow me. Now in conclusion, we have the title of the message, "Witnesses to Christ's deity," part 3.

This is the witness of the Word, the witness of the Scripture. And I want you to notice they rejected this great witness of the Word. All through here, it's about the Word, the Word. You search the Scriptures, verse 39 and verse 47, but if you do not believe His writings, it's all about the Word. And they rejected His great witness from the Word starting with Moses all the way to everything He was doing. But you know what's sad? It was a total rejection. They rejected John. They rejected Jesus. They rejected the Father's voice, the work of the Father, and now they're rejecting the Scriptures. And therefore, they are rejecting Moses.

They rejected everything, and their actions in the future will reveal that even more. But you know what's sad? There are those today who reject, just like these religious leaders. You know, there are people in our lives, they really don't claim much religion at all, and they reject so much. They reject the work of the church, and they come in contact with it. They reject true Christians when they come in contact with them. They reject even family members when they try to serve God and walk with God. They reject, they reject, they reject. But then there are also some who do sit on our pews.

There are some who are in the life of the church, and what they do is they have their own little kingdom, and they reject certain portions of the Scripture. They say they believe in certain things. They hold on to certain things, but yet they reject others. Sometimes they hide behind their theology. Sometimes they hide behind their convictions. Sometimes they hide behind their form and their view and their way of doing church when really they're rejecting and they're rejecting. So I guess as I close this message, now listen, we receive it all or we receive none. Isn't that what the disciples had to do? They had to receive it all.

They received John's witness, the witness of Christ's works, the witness of the Father and the witness of the Scripture. How and why? Because they believed in Him. I trust that that is you. I trust that you're on the same journey that I'm on, and that is believing in Jesus and accepting all that is found about Him in the Scripture. And listen, wanting to flesh out Christ as deity in my own life and in the life of the church. And I want to wrap up this portion starting in verse 30, all the way down to verse 47, the witness of Christ's deity by challenging you, by challenging me, by challenging us.

Now listen, we must go out and we must be exactly like John. Remember that word lamp that spoke about John? That word lamp in that day and that culture referred to an ordinary clay vessel. Nothing spectacular, nothing decorative. It was just a tool. It was an ordinary lamp and it was filled with that oil and it was lit and it was to give off light. And what Jesus says is, "John, He's just a reflection of me." Those G's refused to do that. See, that should be our goal. Listen, individually and collectively. And I'm going to tell you, Nola, if that is our goal as a church, is just to reflect Christ, then God will use us.

You use these disciples and we should be thankful for that. Let's pray. I am thankful, Lord, for how you use these disciples. I am thankful that they were that simple clay lamp. I'm thankful for John's example, the disciples' example, and the early church's example. Lord, I come to you now and I ask you to help us to just be a reflection of you.