Security and assurance

• Trustworthiness of Bible often underlined by details.
• At Festival of the dedication:- not one of the biggest, long established – in Jerusalem
• In winter:- possibly explains why Jesus was inside the temple
• In particular in portico of Solomon
• Clearly not in hiding:- Jewish leaders knew where to find him
• Question: “why the suspense? Are you the Messiah? Tell us plainly.
• Answer: “I told you already but you don’t believe.  You don’t believe what I said and don’t believe what I did”
• Remember in John 6
• Miracle of feeding 5,000 from 5 loaves & 2 fish-> 12 baskets of leftovers
• “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world”
• During a storm he walked across the lake -> “how did you get here?”
• Jesus knew their heart: “‘Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.  Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.’”
• So they asked him, ‘What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?’ – and this after sign after sign including 12 baskets of leftover miracle.
• Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.

• Mt 12:38 “Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.’ He answered, ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
• That will do or nothing will do/getting  nothing more
  • Still people ask for more: “I will believe if… God showed himself to me / if God does such / …”
  • Visions in Indonesia don’t work
• God is not a vending machine

• Why couldn’t they see it? Even when he put it plainly: “I and the Father are one.”
  • Didn’t want to believe/trying to trap him
  • Mt 16:” 16Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’  17Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.”

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’

• You will have seen the majesty, wonder and power of God in the glorious creation around us.
• As a Christian you will have heard the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit
• The truth that is in the Bible will have moved your heart and opened your mind.
• Jesus’ purpose, his preaching and his message is summed up in his own words: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” – because he is the King
• Repent from whatever idol is more precious to you than God is, of whatever takes priority in your life than does God the Father, Jesus your saviour and his Holy Spirit.
• Jesus gives you eternal life – which lasts for eternity!
• You are born again into eternal life by the power of God the Holy Spirit and you become a member of the Kingdom of God for eternity
• In Ephesians 2:6 it is put this way, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” – there in the Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus the King.
• This becomes a reality for the present and for eternity.
• We are not simply living out this life until we get to heaven – we are active, living believers, disciples of Jesus who are already members of the Kingdom of Heaven.
• With eternal security and assurance: “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.’

Bellingen Uniting Church 12 May 2019