Do You Know Jesus' Voice?
Lessons from John 9, 10 & Luke 13 & 14
Last week, we saw how Jesus criticized the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy – that is, pretending to be religious, but not truly being good behind closed doors. This week, Jesus will heal a man born blind – literally opening a man’s eyes – yet the religious leaders are spiritually blind! Jesus also talks about hearing – that is, His voice; those who know Jesus will recognize His voice, like sheep do their shepherd. When Jesus invites us, how do we know it’s Him? We also address some serious issues with the popular show, The Chosen and why those who truly love Jesus shouldn't want to watch it.
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Do You Know Jesus’ Voice?Mon, May 22, 2023 8:49AM • 52:19SUMMARY KEYWORDSJesus, bible, people, Mormons, listen, banquet, Nicodemus, god, good, grandma, give, blind, read, voice, pharisees, sheep, claims, man, father, call
Good morning. And welcome. If you're new here among us, my name is Jean and I serve here at C three church as your pastor. And it has been said that you have two ears, and one mouth for a reason. Indeed, many people spend way too much time talking and not enough time listening. Now, you might be saying, or thinking, don't say it. Hypocrite, right. Pastor Jean, you're always talking, or so it seems. I would answer that by saying, Well, that's because you're only in the church for like, one hour a week. But if you've followed me around throughout the week, you'd notice that I do a lot of listening, an awful lot of listening. In fact, for every one hour, I'm here preaching the word of God, I'm listening to it for 20. And we'll get into that later. It's about the ratio. So it's a pretty good ratio. I read the Word of God, but I also listened to it a lot. And we'll talk about that today. Now, I didn't always know this. In fact, growing up, I was a chatty little fellow. Imagine that. I talked a lot. But it seemed like there was one person in my life. That loved listening to me. She in fact, you'd always agree with me, or so it seemed. And that was my grandma. She was awesome. Well, as I got older, like, I wasn't as interested in talking to grandma, so much. So I had my Walkman. Whenever we were hanging out, I have like my Walkman on if you're old enough to remember the cassettes, you get about, like, 2030 minutes aside, you got to flip it over. So we're in the car. We're on the way to the mall or something like that. Together. It's just the two of us. I'm in the car, listening to my Walkman runs out. So I go to change a tape. And when I do, there's silence in the car except grandma. And it seems like she's talking to herself. So I don't turn the thing back on because I want to see what's going on. The radios not on she's not like there's no one else in the car. So just start listening. And grandmas going, Uh huh. Yeah, like that. So I started thinking, not saying anything is grandma finally just lost her mind. And she goes, Uh huh. Yeah. And I'm like, Okay, what's going on here? She's just like, randomly saying this, because she can't read my mind. She goes, Uh huh. It keeps going on and on. So finally, let me just test this out. There's randomness of this. We'll see what's going on here. So I come up with some crazy grandma and we get to the mall. Will you buy me an Atari? Not the knockoff Sears one that mom and dad got me but a real Atari. Uh huh. Like, come on. Alright, let's up it. Grandma when we get to the mall? Will you buy me a BMX bike? Not like the Sears one that mom and dad got me. resentments? Yeah. Yeah, she agrees. I'm like, Ah, she's just randomly saying, uh huh. Yet, wait a minute. Has grandma been yessing? me my whole life? Uh, huh. Yeah. So okay, this is not good. So, I get home, I got to immediately report the news to my mom. Right. So it's like ma, ma, ma. Guess. Guess what? Guess what grandma, her grandma did today. Ma, Ma, Ma. Ma did to all the moms like guess what grandma did today? She was just saying yeah, uh huh. To everything. Like it was unbelievable. I even asked her for an Atari. I asked her for BMX. Uh huh. Yeah. And then we got to the mall. She didn't get me anything. So she's, she's just been yessing me my whole life. And my mom explained this by saying, uh huh. Yeah. All right. So we're going to, we're going to talk about listening, recognizing certain voice isn't the appearance or the importance of it. Last week, we looked at hypocrisy, right? So now this week, knowing Jesus's voice. Can you hear His voice? Do you recognize his voice? Jesus is going to call this into question through the scriptures. I gave you another chart today. So we found ourselves in Luke for a long time. But now we have a chart because it's going to be Luke and John, if you don't know the Bible is not in chronological order. So I'm just kind of putting it chronological ish for you putting it together like that. If you're interested that's in our app. You'll be told how to download that conveniently after I'm done, but that's okay. So there's where we're going to be, we might as well just hop right in today. When John nine one as Jesus was walking along. He saw a man who had been blind from birth born blind Rabbi has the disciples asked him, Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents sins? It was not because of his sins or his parents sins, Jesus answered this happen. So the power of God could be seen in Him, we must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us than it is coming. And then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world. So we saw that when we are in John eight, another one of those I am statements. Now Jesus does something really weird or weird to us. He spits on the ground and makes mud, rubs it over the guy's eyes, and he's like, go to the post alone, which means sent and just, you know, rubbing on wipe it off. The guy does it and he can see. So it is really weird. But there's a whole bunch of things going on. We could talk about it Bible study, it might not have been that weird in that day. But here's what happens. The people around him are kind of confused. Jesus is not in the picture at this point. And they're like, is this the guy that we know? They couldn't believe? Right? They're in disbelief about this. So he explains what happened. And they asked where he is. Where's Jesus? I don't know. So they take them in to the Pharisees. The main issue here that comes up just to condense it for you is he's working on the Sabbath. Right? So he made them on he did something we saw this before. They're constantly trying to get him. So he's not from God. He's a senator. And they're making these accusations because he's working on the Sabbath, right? So they start questioning the guy. He tells him what happens when they say, Well, what do you think is a must be a prophet? This is taking me back to the woman at the well, right? That's the first thing she thinks about Jesus. So they refuse to believe the man. So they bring in his parents. And I've always laughed at this dialogue, his parents. So they're like,
what's the deal? And they're like, ask our son, he's old enough. Because they're afraid of the Pharisees. And they're like, Well, you want to get involved is throw the son under the bus, a bring in the son a second time, right? And he gets kind of frustrated. All I know is I was blind, I can see I told you already, what's going on. And then he says, you want to become his disciples, too. And we've seen this accusation get thrown at the Pharisees before us. And now they're totally done with him. You are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses. We know God spoke to Moses, but we don't even know where this man comes from. And the guy kind of calls him out. Well, that's very strange. He healed my eyes, and you don't know where he comes from. We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but he's ready to hear those who worship Him and do His will ever since the world began, no one has been able to open the eyes of someone born blind. If this man were not from God, he couldn't have done it. That's it, like you were born a total sinner. They tried to teach us and they kick this guy out of the synagogue. But if we keep reading, John 935, When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and asked, Do you believe in the Son of man, the man answered, who is he, sir, I want to believe in Him. You have seen him, Jesus said, and he's speaking to you. Yes, Lord, I believe a man said and he worshipped Jesus. Then Jesus told him, I entered this world to render judgment, to give sight to the blind, and to show those who think they can see that they're blind. And some of the Pharisees heard this, are you saying we're blind? If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty, Jesus replied, but you remain guilty, because you claim you can see, he continues John 10. One, I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheep fold rather than going through the gate must surely be a thief and a robber. But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate form, and then she recognizes voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of him, and they follow Him, because they know His voice. They won't follow a stranger, they will run from Him, because they don't know his voice. So they don't understand what he means. He's like, I am the gate for the sheep. So others came. There are thieves and robbers. But the churchy than all of them. Yes, I'm the gate. Those who come through me will be saved as his point. He is the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep. They know me they will listen to My voice and there'll be one flock with one shepherd. So this is the important key here. So people are divided in their opinion. Some are saying he's demon possessed, other says, Well, I mean, can a demon open the eyes of someone born blind? So now Jesus chimes in so it's a different time? Well, different time, John 1022. It was now winter and Jesus was in Jerusalem at the time of Hanukkah, the festival dedication. He was at a temple walking through the section known as Solomon's colonnade. The people surrounded him massed, how long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you were the Messiah tell us plainly, Jesus replied, I have already told you and you don't believe me. The proof is in the work I do in my father's name. But you don't believe me because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to My voice. I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they'll never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me and he is more powerful, powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. The father and I are one this is very, very, very important verse. The father and I are one is equal with the father here, right? So he is God. In that text, He gives eternal life. No one can do that by God. And again, what happens here is the people again, like in John a pickup stones, you're going to stone him and he says it my father's direction. I've done many good works. For which one, are you going to stone me? He says, replied, we're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy, you, near men claim to be God. Now, there's another discourse, we can look at it a Bible study, it gets confusing, and just not enough time really to get it and it gets very, very tricky. So we'll talk about that a little bit Bible study, but I want you to hang on to that, right. So he claims to be God. So once again, they're going to try to arrest him, but he goes away. Many people actually follow him again, there's division about Jesus. Now, if we hop over to Luke, this is chronological ish. Luke 13, Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem, someone asked him Lord will only a few be saved. He replied, work hard to enter the narrow door to God's kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail. Now if you're reading along, I skipped a little bit, the mustard seed the yeast there in the Sermon on the Mount, or one of the ceremony mounts. So we covered that already. So I'm just going not going over stuff we covered. So here you have this idea, the gate, the narrow door, right, so Jesus is the way now that door is kind of narrow, right, and he gives this illustration, it's similar to some of the other ones that he's given. Before, when the master locks the door to the house. That's it, there's a time in which it's going to be too late, right? And so the ones that are out there, go away. I never knew you. Wait a minute, we hung out with your Jesus, you're eating with you like no. And so they'll be sent out where there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. So it's very, very similar to some of the other ones. But the point is, I'm the way through, there's going to come a time when it's too late. You have to come follow me. So Jesus, now it's kind of a funny thing. The Pharisees say to him, Get away from here. If you want to live here, and antipasti king wants to kill you. So they don't really care about him kind of prefer that. They're trying to get rid of Jesus, he's not going away. And he keeps criticizing him. So this parable is about the rejection of the Jewish, the Jewish leadership of Jesus, right? So it's not good, they're done with it. So he responds, go tell that box that I'll keep on casting out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day, I'll accomplish my purpose. And then He grieves over Jerusalem. They haven't accepted him. He wanted to gather them together like a mother hen gathers her chicks, so he kind of grieves over them, and lets it be known again, he heals on the Sabbath. One day Jesus is eating dinner at the home of the leader of the Pharisees, and there's a man, Dropsy, he's both his arms and his legs are swollen as the condition. And instead of being criticized for healing on the Sabbath, He goes them, is it permitted to heal someone on the Sabbath or not? Right? So they don't answer heals the man, then again, goes right at them. Which of you doesn't work on the Sabbath? If your son or your cow falls into a pit? Don't you get him out? No one answers. So now, he gives a teaching on humility. And this is all kind of goes together, I'll definitely goes together here. And it's just a very simple illustration. If someone like invites you to a banquet or something, don't sit at the place of honor, don't sit at the seat of honor. Otherwise, someone more honorable, more important than you might show up. And then they'll say, hey, you know, take a lower seat that's for this reserved for that person. Instead, when you go just sit at the low place, and then you might be called up. That's a good opportunity for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. And he goes into a similar teaching, he turns to the host, so he's just trying to ruin the party, right? When you put on a luncheon or a banquet, he said, Don't invite your friends, brothers, relatives and rich neighbors for their own bite you back and that will be your only reward. Instead, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, then at the resurrection of the righteous, God will reward you for inviting those Who could not repay you? So hearing this man sitting is like, cool, we get to some positivity from Jesus right? What a blessing it will be to attend the banquet in the kingdom of God. Luke 1416, Jesus replied with this story, a man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants tell the guests come, the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses. One said, I've just bought a field and must inspect it, please excuse me. Another said, I've just bought five pairs of oxen, I want to try now please excuse me, another said, I got married, so I can't come. The servant returned and told his master what they had said, his master was furious and said, Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. After the servant had done this, he reported, there's still room for more. So the master said, go out into the country lanes behind the hedges and urge anyone you find come, so the house will be full, for none of those I first invited will even get the smallest taste at my banquet. So now that we went through this whole section, you can see that it all goes together here again, it's about the refusal of the Jewish people to come as invited to enter through that gate, to allow Jesus to be their shepherd. But who gets in? So the gentle things that the people that you think are lower than you to the Jewish leaders, the Gentiles? The, the lame, the blind, the sick, right? So the senators, they're coming in all those who thought they were righteous, who exalted themselves, done with you. That's what he's doing here in this teaching. Now, for us. That's interesting to think about.
Jesus gives us an invitation to the banquet to heaven. Yes, you also gives a stern warning to those who don't accept it. That's what we're seeing here. And for us today, we should be thinking about. Here's the thing though, let me see blind people. Right? Can you hear the Shepherd's Voice a hearing and seeing?
Can we read the invitation? Yeah, sounds like a funny concept. But we'll get there.
Are we blind? Or can we see? Can you hear His voice? He's calling you. But is he your Shepherd? Is your questions? Do you know His voice.
We have eyes that can see him and ears that can hear him or recognize his voice. Apart from those robbers and thieves. Jesus talked about this before. And today, he talks about spiritual blindness, being able to recognize his voice. And the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He says he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he's gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow Him because they know His voice. They recognize him from other shepherds. Knowing Jesus's voice is the key to entering through that narrow gate, the door of the sheep fall to the great banquet, so the question is raised. When Jesus invites us, how do we know it's him? Think about it. Today, we'll talk about how well we really know Jesus's voice. Do we recognize him? From the false shepherds? Can we distinguish it? And I'm going to have a little bit of fun. So we're going to put a verse on the screen. And I'll read it to you. When My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I answered the call of the caller when he calls on me. So let them answer me and have faith in me that they might be rightly good. They don't have to answer out loud.
What does it sound like? to sound like something Jesus said in the Gospels? Would that be your guess? It sounds like maybe something from the Psalms. Maybe more likely there. Well, that's it you don't have to answer. I'll show you where it's from. The Quran if someone said Jesus said that, would you fallen for it? Interesting. That was kind of mean. So I'm not going to do any more of that.
So here's the thing. There are false shepherds who want you to enter the wrong door. But Jesus is sheep won't follow a stranger they will run right because he they don't know his voice. There are so many worldviews competing for our attention calling out to us. And they sound good. Some of them sound pretty good. But here's the thing, the Bible or our knowledge of it is the key to our protection. It's the key, the Bible is so important, the better we know it, the less these false teachers can trick us or their teachings, or lead us down the wrong path leading us astray through the wrong door. Now, other worldviews, and I'll explain this to you often skew things ever so slightly, so it sounds good. But there's a hidden agenda. In doing that. It's Invitational, we're going to make it sound like Jesus. But it's not. Now, sometimes, it's a bit more subtle. And it seems to come from within. And I'll go there. So I've talked in the past, about the problems with some of the Christian shows out there that you see. And I'm putting it in quotes for very good reason. Now, in the past, I've ranted about this, but I do want to bring it up. Okay. So if you're going to make a show about Jesus, right? I'm going to make a show, it's just going to be exact, right? It's going to be like, exactly to the Bible exactly what he said. So we think about doing this, I'll do this real short. I've done this in the past talked about in the past. I won't rant too much on this. But you know, think about it when they make a movie about a book, what's the standard by which they judge it? how close they got to the book, right? And there's total outrage, and they don't get it, right. I mean, we're seeing that all the time with all different kinds of movies. It's not like the original, right? That's it canceled. So all right, with the Bible, when you watch a show, and it's not even close, where's the outrage? There is none. It really bothers me. Like why? It makes no sense. Also, when you're dealing with the Bible, it's unlike any other book, because that's the best author ever. So when you make the show, you're like, we got it, we got the best script ever. It does not need to be changed. Right. But that's not the thinking in any of these shows. There are very few that ever get it right. And here's the thing. The arrogance is astonishing to me. Yeah, that's good. But I can kind of do it better. Wow. And here's the excuse. When I challenge it, well, they need to fill in the gaps.
Are you saying that there are gaps in the Word of God? Wow. Arrogance, I needed, I needed to clarify a few things here, because this is boring. Now, here's some other problems. And I'll go somewhere where they inject bad theology, just
a few words, not thought through very carefully, can skew the whole thing. You have to be very careful. Very, very, very, very careful. So I'm going to talk about a particular show. Because I kind of got to it, it's been coming up a lot. And before I would like kind of allude to the show, but I didn't want to give it any attention. Because it's a horrible show. I'll explain to you why. In a moment, the chosen there are people watching it, and so many people are coming up. Now they're asking for specific exact like, well, I'm like, listen, it get it. It's about 50 to 100%. And more than what's in the Word of God. So they're adding a lot of stuff to it. And they're not just they're like a skew in 18 different directions. I can't even go into it. It's horrible. And they're like, Yeah, but give me a specific example. I'm like, Why do you want to watch a show so bad? You know, just read your Bible. Well, give me another example. It's why is a stupid show that important to you? Why do you need? And then I get like, but all my friends are doing it. What do I say? I'm not watching, I'll tell you what to say. I'm not watching it because I'm a Christian. That's why it bothers me. Right? So there's your answer. So I'm going to give you a few examples because you guys won't stop asking about it. So I'm going to give you a few examples here of how it's skewed and it's not little it's not like there's some little thing so you have on John three, you have the conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus right. And so that's where we're going to get John 316 from but the context, the context is, you have a Pharisee, a religious leader in Nicodemus was a secret follower of Jesus. That's it. Adam what we know right out the gate, right? He's having this conversation. But Jesus is really being pretty simple about one or two concepts. The main one is being born again. And he's challenging Nicodemus about this. Like you don't understand what being your religious leader and you don't get it. Now, here's the thing, just want to paint the picture for you. Nicodemus by my count, and I could be wrong, but by my count, Nicodemus has three verses in the Bible. And he gets mentioned again at the end when Joseph EREMA. Thea wants to bury Jesus, and then it just says Nicodemus is there at the task. But John three, he has two lines in the script, two lines. In John seven, somewhere around verse 50, or so, he has one more line, all of them are questions. One is in defensive Jesus and John seven, right? So he's like, whoa, you know, you just put you condemn someone before you put them on trial or whatever. They're like you from Galilee to they get mad at him, right. So he's just a little defense, but it's a question. The other two are questions. How can you basically how can a man go back up into his mother's womb? That's it, Jesus continues, and it's like, how can these things be? That's it? That's all this dude says. That's it. And it's very intentional. Because like the word of God is intentional. If nothing else, like the placement of it, everything that happens the reveal about Nicodemus, it's perfect. It's the perfect reveal. It's the perfect story. It puts Nicodemus exactly where he should be. And Jesus exactly where he should be. But in the show, like if you looked at your Bible, and you have a red letter version with Jesus, you'd be like, all read the whole sections, right? It's just Jesus talking, Nicodemus interrupting twice with dumb questions. That's it. That's all you get. But in the show, we get 10 minutes of Nicodemus talking. This whiny guy was so scared, he can't backstory, like he has a wife, he doesn't want to leave all this other stuff. I mean, it's just this on and on crying. I feel like I'm watching a counseling session. Right? So Jesus is there and then says a couple of things that are pretty out of character for Jesus. He said this, okay. Take your time. What, what, what do we read about Let the dead bury the dead? Right. One who want to put the hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of being my follower. This line is totally out of character for Jesus. See how bad that is? And what does it do for the listener who may be complacent? The unrepentant and I'll say it, the unrepentant person who doesn't want to change? You know what that says, Well, Jesus just said, take your time. Keep on drinking. You know, keep on beating your wife, keep on just take your time. That's not what Jesus says. Stop it. Repent. Follow me. Put your hand to the plow. Move forward. Don't go back. Just totally out of character. See what it does? Does something worse than that? made me mad. So I can't watch a show. I'm done. So anyway, so Nicodemus, towards the end of this dialogue, he gets on his knees and he goes to kiss Jesus's hand. We've seen stuff like this before, right? In today's account, what did the man do? Born by worship? Jesus worshipped him. Right? Remember the woman? She's crying, whitened Jesus's feet with her hair and like just crying. What did you Jesus applauded it? He applauded it. You didn't do that to me the host, but look what she did. Whenever that happens, this will be remembered. He applauds it, he doesn't turn away worship. But when Nicodemus says in the fraud show, what happens is Jesus says, You don't need to do that. Then he says, again, what are you doing? Jesus doesn't know how to be worshipped. Are you kidding me? Do you don't have yes we do. Philippians two, every knee should bend and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We must we are not getting into that banquet, unless we worship Him. But you don't need to do that. That send someone straight to hell, my friends. That is a serious, serious thing to make Jesus say, Man, you still want to watch a show? Garbage. I'll give you another example. Matthew. Apparently Jesus needs help working on the Sermon on the Mount. This is true. I couldn't believe it. People have told me something like, no, no Christian would ever believe this. Or watch it or entertain the idea of someone doing that. Yeah, but Matthew, this kid, he's like riffing with Jesus. Well, what about this and what about that, and Jesus entertaining these suggestions? Well, What does Jesus do when one of the disciples makes a stupid suggestion? Get behind me Satan. It's not entertaining stupid ideas. But just think about what's wrong with that. This implies that we can have input on the Word of God. What? Or that maybe Matthew, you know, make a few changes or something. This is horrible. Jesus doesn't need any help writing the Sermon on the Mount. He's God didn't need any help writing his scriptures. That's what Matthew is about your father. So it's a sermon on the mount greatest sermon ever implies that we humans can have any input on that at all. Hey, Jesus, that sounds good. But I really think you need to change this might upset somebody. You know, okay. Now here's the here's the thing. This is gets silly. This is like the dumbest thing I've ever seen and watching. I'm like, how do people even watch this? This is bad TV period. So he's talking. Okay. Give me a second. I'm passionate about this. All right. So here's the thing. So before, it's not just Matthew, right. So now you get these women. And I just don't say anything about the women. Just, they're there. And they're like presenting him with different wardrobe choices. None of this is even in there just doesn't. None of this happens. Like, but they're presenting him. He's like picking colors. And I'm talking about the colors. I'm like, you serious, right? So I'm like, listen, listen, listen for the sermon. We're trying to get through the whole thing. Basically had to stop it so many times. Anyway, there have been other colors, right? And then he has married his mom's like, I'm proud of you. And he says, like, basically, it doesn't matter. I can get this wrong. It's like, like, like, like, save it for later. So when I'm done in case I mess up in such in front of such a big crowd. Do you think Jesus was worried about messing up? Now he were he was worried about getting crucified your school anxious about that. But he was not anxious again, about speaking as long as when you mess up. And think about it sounds like not a big deal. It just goes, right. But this implies that Jesus could have said something wrong. I don't even know what to do with that. This is crazy. These shows that give us the wrong idea about God. They make him out to be an under confident sitcom character. But that's me. That's not him. He's not a funny guy like that. I'm stupid. I say stupid things. I make mistakes. I mess up in front of a small crowd, right? So like, that's me. That's me. That's me. That's not God. God can't mess up. He doesn't mess up. But he's saying that he might mess up. Okay, do we see how wrong this is yet? Can I stop?
They portray him is uncertain. But what does it say? As soon as he's done? There's no mic, but he drops the mic, right? He stops the Sermon on the Mount. And this is what it says Matthew 728, When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowd were amazed at His teaching, for he taught with real authority quite unlike their teachers of religious law, or pastor Jean, or anybody else. Authority does say he thought he might have messed up authority. He's God. Now, here's the thing. Go back to the current, the chosen, they both do the same thing. They both put words in God's mouth that he did not say. And they present you with a different Jesus who lacks authority. I will explain this too. And just think about it for a second. Imagine, you know, someone you love. I'll bring it down a little bit because it can be hard, right? Bring it down, like, I don't know, someone you love passes away. And then for some reason, they did something really important. And then they want to make a movie about that person and say, okay, like, you know, write us what they did tell us all about what they did and their whole life. Okay, and you spent all this time you come up with the script, you give it to the producers, the movie comes out But like, there's only as much of the movie, the rest is just made up. And then like the things they make up, make that person less. Would you be offended? Would you get upset if someone you loved was portrayed negatively like that? said things they never said. Yeah, well, how much more upset should we be about that? I love Jesus, when you put words and you make him less than makes me upset. I don't like it. This is what the chosen does. It puts words in God's mouth, which is bad enough. But worse yet, it makes God less than what he really is. And this should deeply bother anyone who loves him. Now, as for the show, there's an interesting thing I want to explain if that wasn't enough, okay, if you're a Christian, and you're like, pastor, but pastor Jean, I'm like, I'm not listening to you anymore. I'm done. Look, don't explain it. If you saying but there's some kind of serious other problem there. I don't know. That's for the Holy Spirit to fix. Not me. Right. But the show and this is interesting. You don't really need any more reasons. But I'll show you what's happening here. It's actually not from within, as a lot of people might think it has crept its way into mainstream Christianity. It's partly produced by someone who claims to be an evangelical Christian, but it is not Christian programming. Because it is heavily influenced, produced by a majority owned by Mormons who have been trying to gain credibility in Christianity for years. And they have crept into the sheep fold with this show. That's what's happening now. They've addressed the Mormon influence because clearly, it's a problem. And I'll tell you what the problem is, if you don't know anything about Mormonism. So watching my word sorry, they have addressed it. So it is would be a problem, right? Because they address it the Mormon influence if you're not going to address something, if it's not a problem, it's a problem. They've addressed it. Like politicians, very carefully worded, but contrary to their claims. One of the co founders of the chosen and two executive producers are Mormons. Despite no claims of Mormon influence, which they're adamant about the facts, just facts are as follows. Both the president and executive producer are Mormons. So is there a distribution company and their whole film set? Mormon owned? No influence? How does that work? Like I don't know, and knows a lot about the film business, you'd say it's impossible. It would be impossible. Impossible. Now, if you aren't familiar, you might be thinking, what's the problem? Why is Gene hate Mormons? I don't hate Mormons. I love Mormons. I want them to come to the real Jesus. And I'll explain this to you in a second. I'm going to give you a shortlist. And when I was in Pastor school, you got to learn about all the different cults and that's what it is, and false religions just so you know what you're working with. But I went back this week, and I will tell you, when I do my research, I encourage you to do the same. You go to the sources, you don't go to what somebody said, somebody said, somebody said somebody said, you just go right to what they say about themselves. And that's what I did. And so all of this is recently reviewed this week is very careful. So I don't want to know the Bible. Very careful. But he spent a lot of time and I know well, I don't know their religion. Well, so I read their stuff. And this is a shortlist of what the more what Mormons believe about the Jesus. They're depicting in the show. This is what they believe it knock your socks off, it should but this is all true. Mormons believe that Jesus is a generic God, not the Son of God, not the second person of the tree, generic God, and that you too, can become a god. That's interesting making sense now why Matthew can write scripture and all that stuff. All right. Mormons believe that Jesus is the brother of Satan. That's what they believe. The brother of same. Mormons believe that Jesus came to North America to preach to Native Americans. What? He came back and did that. I mean, I read Revelation, it doesn't sound anything like what Jesus is supposed to do when he comes back. That's a problem. Mormons believe that Jesus is was he was supposedly born in Jerusalem, rather than Bethlehem. That creates a very big problem. scripturally Yeah, big problem. Mormons believe that Jesus is the product of a sexual union, between the father and the Heavenly Mother. There's one of those not that all things were created through Jesus as the scripture clear Lee teaches. That's a very different Jesus, isn't it? They don't believe in the same Jesus. Today, what did we read from the Bible just today? The father and I are one. He accepts worship. He's God. Now, there are some similarities here, between Muslims and Mormons. And this is true of most false cults a couple of problems they both have. And this is really just go right for the throat. They start arguing about stuff. I don't engage in all that. I know the Bible let's just talk about the New Testament writings about Jesus is true. I've explained this even go back to the Easter message. I usually do this like as an apologetics type of message for people might not believe it is an incredible a lot of study on this. The New Testament is an incredible historical document. It's included, there's nothing like it for that time in history. Even secular scholars will be like, You, you got me there. It's better than the stuff we have for Alexander the Great won't go through the whole thing, but it's really good. There's nothing like 27 witnesses, right? So that's the basis of Christianity. So if you don't, as I say, it's unbelievers, if you don't believe in like, oh, no, did it really happen? Yes, yes. emphatically. Yes. Yes. Even secular scholars like yeah, we can't explain it. But yes, these people believe it. 27 Witnesses now, you look at Islam. I'm not even going to say LDS because they're not Latter Day Saints. Hardly. They're Mormons. And so it all comes from the same place. What happens, for example, with Islam, you got to wait like 500 something years to get this guy who goes out and totally aware of the Bible is out there, except that his history, all the false Gnostic Gospels and things like that. They've all been thrown out. It's codified. Bam, we know what we know about the Bible. Very little disagreement at this point in history. Well, this guy goes out has an experience and says, okay, then goes and proceeds to change it. There's stories about Abraham, too many differences, Moses, too many differences. And Jesus, too many differences. Too many differences. They don't call him son of David. And call him son of God, they call him son of Mary. That's what they call. Interesting. Have you ever talk to anyone? So this guy went off and just had an experience? And the thing is, we have 27 Witnesses in Islam, then one, nobody witness to it. Just guy just says, Hey, this is what an angel told me or whatever. You got to believe it. Okay? It's dumb. Same thing with Mormonism guy goes off as an experience. Okay, now we're going to write a whole other book on top of this book. I'm going to tell you a whole bunch of stuff. You got to believe it. Okay? It's stupid. Christians are called to be smart. faith comes through hearing, right?
We're supposed to like the Bereans. Paul encounters them. They searched the scriptures for a long time. I called to be stupid. That's stupid. Makes no sense. We can back it up. They can't. And here's the agenda. It's all with an agenda. Mormonism. He's not God. He's a son of God, just like you and me. We that's it. We can attain like godness. Somehow. He's reduced to a prophet. Islam right? To the Muslims. What is he? He's a great prophet. Isn't that God is Great Prophet. The problem was that you came up with that idea. 500 years later, after it was already just totally the church's there. Everything's institutionalized. There. No, don't think so. Make him someone else. Would you ever listen to someone who just came up with something on their own and claimed to have this? No, not at all. It's a corruption. That's what they're doing. They're just the corrupt the Bible. Here. You got to believe this new one. No, this one. That's it. Here's a new one. That's crazy. So just to encourage you guys, there's what's going on the back end with the show I'm done. Talking about it. You want to know about your friends want to know about you can send them to the message if you like watch my pastor rant. But I'm done. And now you should know why. They're false shepherds trying to call you into the false sheep fold. It's very intentional. It's very well calculated, but we need to protect ourselves against that. The Bible, very important, very, very important that you know God's word. It's very, very important. Because anyone watching the show and falling for it, I'm just like, You must not read the Bible at all. Like they get it so wrong. The majority of the time. They don't read the lot. You'd be like, Yeah, it's hard to watch. Right? Not good. So it's like anything else. We listen to a lot of things, don't we? But like if your favorite song came on, and like it wasn't the original band or you'd notice it right away, you'd recognize the singer's voice. Sure. Okay. It's the same thing, anything you listen to a lot, you're going to recognize it out of character. If you know someone really well, right, and someone says something about them, you're kind of like, doesn't sound you to any pastor Jean said that Jesus isn't God, right? You're going to go, we're going to work? We're definitely not. It's not something he would say, right? So, it's being in that relationship with someone. That's what that's all about. It's reading material. This is his voice. And this is the key to not being led astray. And here's the thing, just one quick thing. I'll give you some final like practical encouragement. If it sounds like I was being mean by calling the show out, read your Bible. Take you to First Timothy, and take it a second Timothy. Paul has no problem calling out people by name. Not neither just John. He does it too. Right there, John. Jude, the whole book of yours one page. But the whole book is, I want to write to you about all this stuff. And now I got to deal with these false teachers. And rails them was Jesus do he calls out he's constantly calling out false teachers. And we get some of their names. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing, especially from a teacher, someone preaching the word of God, the Bible does it constantly.
They're just saying, Oh, it's kind of mean. I don't know what if that's what you're calling the Word of God and fine.
But it doesn't constantly, why protection, look out? What did your parents don't take candy from strangers. So you're going to point out bad things to watch out. That's what the Bible does for us. Watch out. That's what I'm doing for you watch out. Careful. I got to call it out. Or they can't keep you safe, like my job entirely. So this is not only our protection, but it's God's love letter to us know that. He loves us, He cares about us, but wants us to listen to him now. Some practical encouragement. You are what you eat. You are what you eat. But you're also what you digest with your eyes and your ears. To Be careful, be strong. But people are just listening to this noise all the time. And I just thought he was really very sad had a group of people here. They were watching nothing but that show and the news. That was when you could just watch them get spiritually sicker and sicker. Why don't you watch the show? Look at yourself sicker and sicker. They got to the point where one of these individuals I was just reading the Bible. That's all I was doing. I was just reading this big long thing of Scripture. Individual couldn't stand it. got up, walked out, went and complained someone in the lobby. This can't be that can't be what it says can't be what it says. Yep, that's what it does do was just couldn't reconcile. So as the fake stuff got all in there and scrambled the person's mind up. So what we need to do is spend less time listening to the fake Jesus, and more time listening to the real Jesus, Amen. So one way you can do that. And if you don't know how, if you go to smartphone, pull up your Bible app, there's a play button. Just listen, we do a lot of like just menial tasks. One of the things you don't really have to think about, like, I hope you don't think too hard when you're doing laundry, right? So anyway, if you do I'm so sorry. But and not really any, you know, things you don't have to think about driving, you know, when you're good at driving. You don't do this maybe the first year or two. But when you're good at driving, you don't think a lot about it, you know, washing dishes, whatever it is, right? So I don't like washing dishes. But anyway, you can listen to your Bible. Just listen to it. That's it. It's easy. And you'd be really surprised like how much time you can do that for in a day. That's my encouragement to you. It's really simple. Now, right, yes, I read the Bible too. And the paper has some advantages. And I'll give you one, you won't interrupt you. There's no notifications on your Bible. It's nice, turn off the phone, sometimes you're going to use it, listen to your Bible. And if you're not, was better. And also we have like it engages the site. Better you can listen as you do it to just engage all your senses put it all in there. Right? But some people have spatial memory so you can kind of memorize it a little bit better. Like everyone's going to memorize it, but you get what I'm saying. If you're more familiar with it, it's spatially I can see certain pages in my Bible, maybe that's just me, but, you know, engage all The Census, right? Maybe you were blind. Now you're not. Right. You can see us it you can hear His voice. If you're willing to listen. Jesus wants to speak with you. Jesus wants a relationship with you. And the best place to start is in his love letter to us. Amen. Let me pray for him. Lord, I thank you for this church for everyone willing to come out and hear the Word of God because people know that that's what they get here. And I just encourage everyone to just listen to your voice more, more than all the fraudulent stuff out there to let you end, just praying people, just surrender to you. Receive your Holy Spirit and then go out there and just act as vessels of Your grace and mercy in your love. Ask these things in Jesus's name