As you look around, do you sense people are increasingly dismissing God and His Word? Does it ever make you wonder if Christianity will somehow fizzle out? Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why that's not possible. Alistair Begg takes us to John's Gospel for a brief overview of the signs and miracles Jesus performed and how they frustrated Jewish leaders. Chapter nine is fantastic, isn't it?
You remember the man born blind. What a predicament this is for them. Because the man can see. And they can see that the man can see. But they don't want to believe why it is that the man can see.
The person says, you know, in fact, thinking of Wesley. Wesley Um was was Uh a vicar. who had a problem with booze and a horrible bad temper while he was a vicar. Because he was an unconverted minister. It was only when his heart was strangely warmed and he discovered the reality of who Jesus is.
That he discovered abstinence, as it turns out. And he began to get his temper by the power of the Holy Spirit under his control. But when he and his brother came to their mother, and said We just actually have discovered who Jesus is. Their mother said, Oh, no, no, you've known who Jesus is for a long time. You're a minister, for goodness sake.
They were unconverted ministers. offering the bread of life to people. Having never eaten the bread, themselves. And these individuals who are the ones who should be declaring the work of the prophets and the fulfillment of their purposes. They are dumbfounded by the fact that this man, who was born blind, can now see.
And once again, notice how gracious they are to him. We can't read it all. But verse thirty-two. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.
This is the blind man speaking. They answered him. you were born in utter sin. And you're going to teach us? And they threw him out on the street.
In in common parlance, You're nothing but dirt. We are the pure ones. We are the ones who understand. And they threw him. out in the street.
In chapter 10, you will remember, in response to the fact that Jesus declares himself to be the good shepherd. Once again, instead of deciding to follow him, verse 31, they picked up stones again to stone him. And Jesus appeals to them. Logic. The Jews said to him, It is not for a good work that we're going to stone you.
But for blasphemy Because you being a man make yourself God. And Jesus actually points out to them If I'm not doing the works of my Father, Then do not believe me. That's what verse 37, yeah, 37. If I'm not doing the words of my Father, then don't believe me. But if I do them Even though you do not believe me.
Believe the signs. Believe the works. That you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. And again they sought to arrest him. You see.
The Jews who are opposing him are right. to conclude that Jesus is claiming deity. That's their problem. They realize that he's actually declaring himself to be the Messiah. And they're right.
to recognize that claim. What they're wrong about is then assigning to him Blasphemy. Because the irony actually is They are. The true Blasphemers. They are within touching distance of the Messiah.
They are the ones who have been present to see His miracles, to hear his words. And he is speaking clearly to them. He's compelling, if you like, them to think logically about things. Forget this idea that the way you become a Christian is you disengage your brain and put it under the seat and try and feel your way into something. No, not for a moment.
And so we're told that he escaped. And he escaped from their hands, verse 39. He didn't escape to avoid Pain but he escaped to fulfil his purpose. Which brings us to chapter 11.
Now, we're not at cruising altitude yet. I think you would understand.
Some of you have already fallen asleep as we try to climb out of Hopkins here. But um Chapter 11, what a shame that there is no truly truly in chapter 11. This is such a disappointment to me because I wanted to do chapter 11. And on another occasion, I hope we'll come back and just study the chapter in its entirety. But you know what has happened.
And you know that in the interchange that takes place between Jesus and Martha and Mary. The striking question that falls right in the middle of it all, and it is a question for the ages, isn't it? where Jesus, having said, I am the resurrection and the life, Whoever believes in me, even though he die, yet shall he live. And to everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. And then here's the question: do you believe this?
Do you believe this? You're not asking, do you believe in religion? He's not asking anything other than, do you believe this? coming to a belief. which in John's Terminology involves personally committing oneself to Jesus.
as Son of God, Saviour. Lord, Lamb of God. and king. You see, Wesley had all the terminology he could preach it. But he had never bowed his knee to Jesus.
He believed certain things intellectually. But there would be no commitment of heart and life laying hold of Jesus as the very one that he proclaimed. And so she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe. What do you believe? I believe that you are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who is coming into the world.
And I find it quite wonderful that she expresses that belief before she sees her brother Lazarus being raised from the dead. She doesn't say, well, hang on, let me just see what's going to unfold here. And I'll hedge my bets. Yeah.
Now, if you think about it, the first sign that was done was in chapter 2 at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Remember, we've run out of wine. Mary comes, says to Jesus, We've got a problem here. Jesus says, Well, you know, it's not really what I'm on about, but I can help you out this one time. And so that happens.
almost in almost in uh in a hidden way. I mean, by and large, the people at the wedding, unless they went to inquire, Would not have necessarily identified what had taken place in the dialogue between Mary and her son. But they were the beneficiaries of it. This one is unmistakable. This one is an unmistakable drama.
You need to read it for yourself again and realize just how amazing it is. That Jesus speaks to a dead man. Verse forty three When he had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice Lazarus Come out. Who speaks? To dead people.
Only Jesus. Only Jesus in the entire world. has the authority to bring death Our final enemy and crush it. underneath the reality of his death and resurrection. We'll eventually get there.
Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, we remain alone. But this is me, and this is what I'm doing. And that is why I am able to call Lazarus out of the grave. It's fantastic. He gives the people around a little piece of the puzzle, you will notice.
Verse 39. The stone lay against the tomb. And Jesus says, take away the stone. That's your part.
Well, he didn't need anybody to take away the stone. He just said, you take away the stone. You'll never forget taking away this stone. You're dead right, says Martha. He's been dead for four days.
He will not be. Smelling like you're aftershafe, that's for sure. This is not going to be good. Take away the stone, he says. And so they took away the stone.
And then Jesus prays. He prays. Last version. Forty-one P. And Jesus lifted up his eyes.
He prays. Audibly? Publicly? Briefly? And purposefully.
Father, I thank you that you've heard me. I knew that you always hear me. But I said this. on account of the people standing around. that they may believe.
There you sent me. You see? It's the constant refrain. This is why I have come. This is why I'm saying what I'm saying.
This is what I am doing. This is why I am doing what I'm doing. And he gives them another low. Part in the puzzle. Then the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus says, Hey. Cut him loose. Let him go. Only Jesus will save our friends. Only Jesus will save our kids.
We might have the opportunity to pull the stone away so that we might see the evidence of it. We might have the privilege of snipping off some of the tying pieces of the puzzle that have kept our children enslaved, or whatever it might be. God working. individually, powerfully. And yet including I was in the process.
What do we discover? Verse 45, many of the Jews therefore who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him. Many. Believed in him. Verse 46.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them. What Jesus Had done.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said. What what are we going to do? For this man performs many signs. What are we to do? frustration.
Every time We try and shut this project down. It fails. Herod tried it at the birth? Let's just destroy all the children under the age of two, all the boys under the age of two. Let's shut this program down before education gets going.
The evil one deals with it in the context of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Throw yourself down. All the way through the story, right up until today. Atheistic communism.
sought to shut it down. Stalin shot sort of shut it down. Mainland China. continues to seek to shut it down. And yet what is happening?
It can't be shut down. This is not a religion. With a guru. From 2,000 years ago, who happened to say some good things and perform some amazing dramas. This is not a show by Jesus.
This is God stepping down into time. He says, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. That's why we prayed for Rwanda. Because the gates of hell are not prevailing against it in Rwanda, nor in Central Asia. Go through the whole world and you discover.
Why is this? Look at them. What are we going to do?
Now, verse 48, I love it. I hope you like it too. If we let him go on like this. Ha ha ha ha. as as if they can stop him.
Yeah.
Who do you think you are? If we let him go on like this, Everyone will believe in him. And then our whole position is going to collapse and the Romans are going to come and shut us down. And Caiaphas, speaking in a purely physical and logical way, actually speaks prophetically, and we'll ignore that for now. These individuals missed nothing but the point.
They miss nothing but the point. Nothing escaped them. Except the truth. And so verse 53, from that day on, They made plans to put him to death. And they gave orders.
that would then lead to his arrest. The chief priests, verse 57, and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should let them know.
So that they might arrest him.
Okay, well here we are now at chapter 12. I'm sure you're amazingly relieved. But you turn a page into chapter 12. And we realize the extent of the hatred on the part of these people. Their hatred now extends to Lazarus.
Verse 9, when the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, All the crowd came. not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus. whom he had raised from the dead. There was no question about this. They knew that he was dead.
They knew that he was now alive.
So they came to see him.
So the chief priests Instead, of humbling themselves, before the revelation of Jesus. said look Let's just kill Lazarus as well. will exterminate Jesus. and will exterminate Lazarus. And that'll take care.
Other whole program. Verse 17, the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. And the reason why the crowd went to meet him was that the was that they heard he had done this sign.
So the Pharisees said to one another, You see that you are gaining nothing. Look. How the world has gone after him. Could I um wow? What do we know?
We know this. that evidence itself does not compel belief. You and I will never argue a single soul. into the kingdom. by the logic of our reasoning.
Well, says somebody, does that mean that we should abandon any attempts to point people in a logical way to the consideration of the claims of Jesus? No, it doesn't mean that at all. And the best that I have found in relationship to that is from the pen of Gresham Machin, who was uh Teacher at Princeton before he began Westminster Seminary. And this is what he says, and I want you to listen to this carefully. There must be the mysterious work of the Spirit of God.
in the new birth. Without that, all our arguments are quite useless. But because argument is insufficient, It does not follow that it is unnecessary. What the Holy Spirit does in the new birth is not to make a person a Christian. regardless of the evidence.
But on the contrary, to clear away the mists from their eyes. and enable them to attend. to the evidence. Spurgeon more succinctly says this. When a person is brought to faith in Jesus, when somebody says, Lord, I believe, I trust in you, I turn from myself, I look to you, Spurgeon says, the mysterious hand of the Divine Spirit.
Drop the living seed. into our heart. that he himself had prepared for its reception. Do you get that? That when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, and when they are actually surprised by it, as C.S.
Lewis says, that he was surprised by joy. What has happened there?
Well, it is a divine work. But it wasn't as a result of some great feeling. It involved all kinds of elements. But the mysterious work of taking that seed Like a grain of wheat that must fall into the ground and die, that taking that seed, It's now planted in a heart. That God who gives the seed had prepared that very heart.
For its Reception.
Now This, of course, is so vitally important, not only as we study our Bibles together, but as we seek to encourage others to believe. Jesus was very, very straightforward in addressing these individuals. and uh making it clear to them. He says, The Father who has sent me, this is chapter 5. The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me.
His voice you have never heard. His form you have never seen. And you do not have his word abiding in you. for you do not believe The one. whom he has sent.
Damn. When Paul who himself was blind, came to understand who Jesus is and what he's done, and when he then wrote his letters. There's no surprise that he is saying the very same thing. In 2 Corinthians, he says, You know, the mercy, the ministry that we have in teaching the Bible. is by the mercy of God we don't lose heart.
We're not using cunning, we're not tampering with the Bible. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And then he says this. And even if our gospel is veiled, It is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers.
To keep them from seeing the light of the gospel in the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God has said, let light shine out of darkness. has shone into our hearts. To give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.
in the face. of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus says. He who has seen me. has seen the Father.
I'm not here to glorify myself. I'm here to introduce you. And that's The end of point one. Look, they said. Look.
The whole world's gone after it. Were they were they actually pointing? To what you see In verse twenty? And there were Greeks. Who had come?
And Jesus looked her in the eyes and he said, Do you believe this? That's the question. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Alistair to talk about his ongoing ministry work here at Truth for Life. One of the initiatives close to his heart comes up in September.
It's the Basics Conference for Pastors and Church Leaders. We talked about the importance of doing the basics of ministry well. Here's a portion of our conversation. There are lots of conferences for pastors. You know this.
People have asked me what makes basics distinct or different, and I think it's in the name because we always come back at basics to the basics and are reminded of what are the fundamentals. Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that is the case. I always say, you know, like with a golf swing. It's not easy, but it's straightforward. I mean, the guidelines that are given. Um In fact, I had one of the best encouragements that I've had in a long time when a good friend had just finished a commentary on one of the Old Testament books.
He referred to it as a large doorstop. and he sent one to me. But when I opened it he had dedicated the volume to me, and in part he said, Thank you for helping me always to keep the main things, the plain things.
Well, as we look ahead to BASICS 2026, we are grateful for the financial partnership from listeners, particularly the consistent monthly giving from our truth partners that enables us to plan events that encourage pastors like BASICS. Becoming a Truth Partner is a great way to invest in the work of ministry, and you can sign up online at truthforlife.org slash truthpartner, or you can give us a call at 888-588-7884. Thanks for joining us this week. We hope you'll worship with your local church this weekend and then join us Monday when we'll learn why it's not possible to be faithful and popular at the same time when it comes to sharing the gospel. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life.
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