 I'll begin reading here in John chapter 10 at verse 22. I read to verse 24. Then I'm going to give you a few words that I actually I basically just wrote these out. I'm going to read them to you because it gives you some insight into what's taking place. And so I'll begin by reading the first couple of verses of our study 22 through 24 and then share a little bit about this. So beginning here at verse 22 in John chapter 10, it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter. Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, how long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And so we have the time of this event, this teaching given to us in verse 22. It tells us it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem and it's winter. So this takes place during the Feast of Dedication in a place called Solomon's porch. Now I don't know, I had asked, do we have that picture? Yeah, we do. All right, good. When you look at this here, this picture here, you can see, perhaps you can see the words Solomon's porch there. What you have here, when you look at Solomon's porch off to my left here to the south, that's what's called the Southern Steps. When we go to Israel, we go to that area there, the Southern Steps. That Southern Steps, we give a Bible study on the baptism of the Holy Spirit when we're there in that place. But what you would do is you would walk up the steps to Solomon's porch or the Southern Steps and you'd go into that area that looks like a rectangular building. That's Solomon's porch. What's also interesting about this, and the reason I brought this up and asked to show the pictures, if you were to look off to the right, about three quarters from the left to the right, you see a gate there. That's the eastern gate. And right directly above it, that's the temple area. When we go to Israel, where Solomon's porch is, excuse me, they have the dome of the rock. And so when we're there on that area, we'll stand right there where the temple area is. We stand in that area facing the eastern gate. And I'll give a Bible study there. Now I can't bring a Bible in because the Muslims would have a real hard time with that. And so what we do is I'll stand there at a place there that's called the dome of the Spirit. And when you stand at the dome of the Spirit or the dome of the tablets, you're directly facing the eastern gate. And we give a teaching concerning, out of the book of Revelation, concerning the Antichrist. And we have an opportunity to see that eastern gate that you see here in this photograph would have been the gate that Jesus would have walked in to go into the temple. And that it lines up with the temple because the dome of the rock is actually off to the side to our left. And there's this whole discussion concerning how can the temple be rebuilt if the dome of the rock is there? Well, when you look at where the temple is, it would be possible to actually rebuild the temple and still have the dome of the rock in place. And so we have Bible studies there. I'm not going to teach you out of that right now. I just wanted to point that to you because that's a very intriguing place. And we go and we have a study right there and we talk about how that's going to be possible in the future. Because the scriptures say that there to mark out a certain area and give it over to the Gentiles, which would give the Antichrist an opportunity who sets up a treaty with Israel and give him an opportunity to be able to take over because he's going to sign a treaty with Israel. There's going to be a time of peace. And this treaty that he's going to sign is going to cease all of the different kinds of hostilities between the Jew and the Muslim for a short period of time. Anyway, I just wanted to point that out. Getting back to it, Solomon's porch is right here. And that's where this particular teaching is taking place, right in that area there. So you can turn that off now and we'll get back to this. So this is taking place in that area there. It's called Solomon's porch. This is called, again, notice verse 22. It's called the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication is actually known by other names. It's also known by the name Festival of Lights. It's also called Hanukkah. And so we all know that Hanukkah is celebrated near Christmas. It's usually celebrated in late November, early December. And so this celebration of Hanukkah, this Festival of Lights is the most recently inaugurated festival that is celebrated by Israel. So let me give you a little bit of information before we get into the study in more earnest. Again, Jesus is walking in the temple in Solomon's porch. Now, as this Feast of Dedication, how did that begin? Well, the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes subjugated Israel and attempted to Hellenize or aggressionize the Jews. At first he tried to do so peacefully, but was unsuccessful. When he saw that his efforts were not productive, he attempted to do so by force. So in 170 BC, Antiochus attacked the city of Jerusalem and he killed approximately 80,000 Jews and took thousands alive captive. He then ransacked the treasury of the temple. He built an altar of Olympian Zeus over the altar of burnt sacrifice and sacrificed the swine on the altar. He then outlawed all Jewish religious practice under penalty of death. Now, there's a writer, a historian, his name is Josephus. He lived in 37 to 100 A.D. And Josephus writes, the best men and those of the noblest souls did not regard him, but did pay a greater respect to the customs of their country than concern as to the punishment which he threatened to the disobedient, on which account they every day underwent great miseries and bitter torments, for they were whipped with rods, their bodies were torn to pieces and were crucified while they were still alive and breathed. They also strangled those women and their sons whom they had circumcised, as the king had appointed, hanging their sons about their necks as they were upon the crosses. And if there was any sacred book of the law found, it was destroyed, and those with whom they were found miserably perished also. There were two brothers, Judas and Jonathan Maccabeus, and they arose and they revolted against him. They led a rebellion that secured freedom in 164 B.C., and then they rededicated the temple to God. When the temple was purified and rededicated, there was no sacred oil for the candlesticks. They could only secure enough oil for one day, but by the miraculous provision of God, the oil lasted for eight days, enough time for them to prepare more oil. So the feast commemorated two things, both recognized as acts of God's mercy to Israel. It commemorated the deliverance of Israel and commemorated the miraculous supply of oil that provided light for them. So John is incorporating this event to see Jesus in all that the feast stands for. So Jesus is there. He's in an area called Solomon's Porch, and it's here that the Levites had homes, and it was in Solomon's Porch that the scribes met to hear and answer religious questions. And there's Jesus there in this area. It's the Feast of Education. It's winter. Jesus is walking in the temple. He's in Solomon's Porch. You see him there various times, by the way, he would teach and he would mentor his disciples there. But as this is taking place, verse 24, the Jews surrounded him and said to him, how long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. And so as they're challenging him, they want him to declare himself king, because they want an accusation that they can use against him when they come to pilot the Roman governor. And so Jesus responds, verse 25, Jesus answered them, I told you, and you don't believe the works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. So Jesus answers and says, I've given you two forms of evidence that you should use to judge. One is my words. Many speaks concerning his words. He's speaking of his teachings as well as his identification that he had just given of himself as the good shepherd. So I have two forms of evidence. One is my words. But secondly, it's my works. And the works would obviously refer to things he's done, but also to his recent healing of that man who had been born blind. And so I've been giving you a message and I've been performing miracles. Those are the evidences that you ought to use to determine if I am the one that is to come. If I am Messiah. But he speaks to them and he says in verse 26, but you don't believe. And this is the reason why you don't believe because you're not my sheep, as I said to you. You don't believe because you're not one of mine. You habitually refuse to believe because I'm not your shepherd. You have the evidence, but you reject it because you can't judge correctly. Since no man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is open to all, but there's nothing to hinder us from entering but our own belief. So he's saying, you're not one of my sheep. Instead, you are actually one of my adversaries because in your refusal to hear my voice, you reveal that you don't belong to me. Remember in John 10 in verse four, the sheep follow him. They know his voice is what Jesus said. And in verse 14 of the same chapter, he said, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep and am known by my own. You hear the voice of the Lord and you recognize it. That's because you belong to him. That's because you know him. And as I've been sharing with you, you hear the voice of the Lord through the word of God. When you're reading your Bible, the Lord is speaking to you. He's spiritually speaking to your heart. And you begin to recognize his voice as you read through the scriptures. You begin to see the things that he says that he he that he blesses, the things that he doesn't bless. And because you're a sheep, you want to hear him because you love him. You want to do those things that please him. And that's how it works. You know, for me as a Christian, it's not that I'm afraid that God is going to bring judgment on me if I don't do what he says. It's a different kind of thing. For me, it's a desire to do those things that are pleasing to him. And the way I find those things out is by reading his word, by knowing what he says, then asking him for the power and ability. And sometimes I have to yield my heart to the point of being willing to do that, which he says. But the sheep know him. He said it. The sheep follow him for they know his voice. He says it in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. They hear my voice as I speak to them now. And they hear my voice in my word. They hear me. They have fellowship with me. And they follow me with their lives. You know, as when my children were young and even to this day on occasions, we're able to do this. Some of the more pleasant times that we had were just times of conversation, just times when I would sit and visit with them. My son, Joseph and Karina, my daughter-in-law and their baby, Olivia, were able to stay with us for a month recently. And that's a good thing, I have to say, because Joseph had, they had a problem with the house. There was a water leak in it. They needed to get it repaired and it took a month for that to be repaired. And so Joseph approached me. My son approached me and said, dad, you know, we're going to have to do something. What is that, son? We're going to have to move in with you. Who gave you permission to do that? How much are you going to pay rent, son? You know, no. I said, well, that's great. I said, mom and I are pleased and blessed to have you with us. And so we hadn't spent as much time with my granddaughter, Olive, as we would like. And so for us, it's a joy. And so there she is in our house with us. And at first, you know, because we haven't been around her that much, it's kind of different. But at the end, at the end of the month, she would, Karina would bring her downstairs and I'd be sitting there and I'd see her and I'd say something from another area in the room. She couldn't see me, but I would open my mouth and say, I'd call her a pet name that I have for her. And then this little eight month old little girl is looking around the room to see where her papa is and stuff. And I actually grow to understand spiritual lessons by just life lessons because she loves to hear my voice. You know, she learned her grandfather's voice. And so when I spoke, she would turn to try and look at me. She does it now. It's going to be the way it's going to be for the rest of her life now. And the same with the grandma, our voice. You recognize, you want to hear it. And you know what? I see that in my relationship with Jesus. I want to hear his voice. But how do you, how do you learn to hear his voice? You learn to hear and recognize his voice by spending time with him. That's how it works. Whenever my son Joseph would sit down on the couch next to me and we would visit, we would talk for an hour, hour and a half, just visit. How are things going? What are you up to? How's the job? And he was doing that while he would be over. My Karina has always been very much, she's a takeover kind of gal. And I love her for it. I mean, from the very first day I met my Karina, she came walking in and took over the house. There she goes, walking up to the refrigerator, opening it up, looking in. I'm saying, who are you? But you know what? I love it. I love it. I enjoy that. And we would sit and she sits with me. She'll talk to me and visit it with me and share with me. And that's the pleasure. And it's a joy to be able to sit down with someone you love and to get to know them, to hear them, to speak to them, to recognize them. That's Christianity too. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. But if I'm never in the word, if I'm never praying, if I'm never in fellowship with other believers that God will use to speak things in my life, I'm not going to recognize his voice because I'm not familiar with it. So Jesus made it very clear. You guys don't hear because you're not mine. What is pleasing to me? Well, that's something that will be pleasing to those who love me. You don't care because you don't belong to me. But my sheep, on the other hand, no, they thrive on my voice. They know me. And I know them. We have fellowship and they follow me. They belong to me. So because we're in the word of God, we refuse to follow another teacher. God's word equips us. And we know him through his word. You know, I believe very strongly that when you hear of somebody who says, oh, I was a Christian, but I became a Buddhist or I was a Christian, but I became a Muslim or I was a Christian. And now I'm following this or that. Those people were never Christians. They were never Christians. They may have been in name. They may have been through ritual, but they never were with conversion. They were never born again. The Holy Spirit never dwelt within them. Don't get confused about that. When someone walks up to you, oh, yeah, I was a Christian. I was raised a Christian. But now I'm a Buddhist. No, you weren't. You never were. Oh, we're going to get in an argument. No, it's just a fact. You don't know the voice of the Lord. Because if you knew the voice of the Lord, you wouldn't follow another shepherd. Jesus said, my sheep follow me. So somebody can come to my door. They do knock on the door and say, oh, I've got this new thing for you. You know, it's the latest religion. I don't need that. I already have the truth in Jesus Christ. I already hear the voice of the master. I am his sheep. He is my shepherd. And that's what Jesus is speaking about here in John chapter 10. He had said in verse five, my sheep will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know. They don't recognize or show allegiance to. They do not know the voice of strangers. They don't recognize it and give allegiance to them. So that's the earmark of a genuine Christian. A Christian hears the Lord's voice through time and the word, through prayer, through waiting on him. A Christian follows after Jesus Christ. In Matthew 419, Jesus said, follow me. I will make you fishers of men. And so in hearing his voice as a result, verse 28, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. That's powerful. I give them eternal life. My sheep habitually recognize my voice and by habit they follow me. I'll be honest with you and I'll say this quickly, but I question many of the quote unquote conversions that are being advertised today. There are some who will walk an aisle, raise their hand, make that phone call. I really question not with the heart of judgment, but just with a heart of discernment. I really question whether they understand what it means to follow the Lord. Somebody said, faith in Jesus is not gulping twice and saying, I accept Jesus. It is getting into a state where you have totally committed yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is irrevocable commitment to the person of Jesus Christ. When you gave your heart to Christ, there's nobody else. There's no other savior. There's no other teacher. There's nobody else I'm going to follow. He is my shepherd. I want to hear his voice as he speaks to me. I hear it through the word of God. I hear it by the power of the Holy Spirit who makes his word alive to me. And as I've done so, even as he says in verse 28, I've received eternal life. He says, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. So notice he says, I give them eternal life. It's a gift. We don't earn it. We receive it. It's a gift from Jesus Christ. I give them age, abiding life, eternal life. In John 6, verse 40, this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have everlasting life. I will raise him up at the last day. Notice he says, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. Believers are under his guidance, his care, as well as his protection. As the good shepherd, he's always alert and he's always ready to come to our defense. And he says in verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all. And no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. So he says, my Father has given them to me. Jesus came to do the will of his Father and his Father put the sheep into his hands. But he speaks of him in verse 29 by saying that his Father, notice, is greater than all. Our God is the great and our God is the great almighty God. In Exodus 18, 11, now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods. For in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, he was above them. No person and no false teacher can remove us from the protective hand of God. The one Jesus protects, God protects. The one Jesus holds, God holds. And Psalm 95 verse 7, he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. And so he's making it clear. He says in verse 28, I give them eternal life. They shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. And then he says this verse 30, I and my Father are one. Now that's good news to us. How did they respond? The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Let's look at that for just a moment. When Jesus says here, and this I'm going to take just a moment to develop this with you, it's an important point. When Jesus says I and my Father are one, that word one, is more than simply saying we are in agreement or in unity of will and purpose. It's a deeper statement than that. And this is very important. This is what is called a cardinal point of Christian theology. It's one of the most important things that you could know and believe. It is, it is the thing that makes you a Christian, one of the elements. And that is this. When Jesus says I and my Father are one, he's not speaking of, again, just unity or in agreement. He's speaking of essence, substance and nature. What he is saying is my Father and I are one in essence, substance, nature, in all the attributes of the Godhead. He is claiming to be God. That's why they took up stones to stone him. It's because he was saying I am equal to God. And the scripture points that out. In the book of Hebrews chapter one, verse three, speaking of Jesus, it says being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person. In Colossians one 15, Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Jesus was claiming to be God in the flesh. There are people who will say, well, Jesus never did that. He just did. I and my Father are one. You will speak to people I have, and you will too. If you haven't already, you will. Who will tell you, no, what Jesus was saying is we're simply in agreement. No, Jesus wasn't saying that. Jesus was saying, we are one in essence, substance and nature. He was claiming equality. And that's why the Jews in verse 31 took up stones again to stone him. They wanted to put him to death for making that claim, because that is something that was an offense that was worthy of capital punishment in the nation of Israel, according to the mosaic law. And so when they did that, verse 32, Jesus answered them, many good works I've shown you from my father. For which of these works or those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you being a man, make yourself God. So they understood exactly what Jesus was saying. You have committed blasphemy. You've made yourself God. And according to the Old Testament book of Leviticus chapter 24, 16, the penalty for blasphemy was death. It says, whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. And all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The stranger as well as him who is born in the land, when he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. And that's why they immediately responded and they wanted to stone him. They took up stones to stone him. And so as this is taking place here, verse 34, Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law? I said, you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I'm the son of God? If I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know that, that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. Therefore, they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand. Okay, I'm going to talk to you about something that was being taught, not that long ago. Perhaps it still is being taught. I'm not going to give you a thorough teaching on this, but I am going to allude to it, because perhaps some of you might have heard that. There were certain well-known teachers, there were several of them, so it's not worthy of trying to give you all the names of every one of them. But there were certain well-known teachers who were teaching that we are actually gods, we are little gods. How many of you have heard that? I'm just curious, I'm not going to because a lot of you didn't. Praise the Lord, you didn't. Those of you who raise your hand, I feel sorry for you. It was a real big thing. You saw it on television. I actually did a lot of stuff on this when it was taking place, and so I'm kind of reducing it just a few things right now. But there were well-known teachers who were going on television on Christian quote-unquote TV and saying we are gods. So the question is, is Jesus saying that men are gods? Let's look at that for a moment. The obvious answer, and I'll give you the answer, you already know it, Jesus is not saying men are gods in the way that it's being interpreted. If Jesus was saying that men are gods, that would fly in the face of Scripture that declares there's only one who is God. Remember, Israel by God's command and revelation worshiped the one God. They did not worship many gods. Isaiah 43 verse 10, before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me. Isaiah 45 verse 5, I am the Lord. There is no other. There is no God besides me. In the New Testament, 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So when Jesus is quoting, he's quoting the Psalms in verse 34. Is it not written in your law? I said you are gods. That's Psalm 82. To understand what Jesus is saying here, and I'll develop this for a moment, Psalm 82 is what has been called a Psalm of judgment on the judges of Israel. So in Psalm 82, God called the judges gods. Now why would he call them gods? He would call them gods because they represented him to the people. When you look at the word gods in the Hebrew language, gods in Hebrew is Elohim. The word Elohim can be used in different ways. It's used for judges and the word can also be used to speak of a ruler. In Exodus 22 9, it says, for any kind of trespass, whether it concerns an ox, a donkey, a sheep, or clothing, or any kind of lost thing, which another claims to be his, the cause of both parties shall be brought before the judges and whomever the judges condemn shall pay double to his neighbor. Judges were referred to as gods because they were to administer righteous judgment. Now if they failed to do so, they were to be judged by the true judge. It says in Psalm 82 verses 5 through 7, they do not know, nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are unstable. I said, you are gods, and all of you are children of the most high, but you shall die like men and fall like one of the princes. And so what God was saying there is you are to judge with righteous judgment because you represent my righteous judgment. And so you're taking that place in that position because you're giving my word and giving my decrees and giving my judgment that you are acting in the place of a God. Was he saying you are God? No. He's saying you're acting out the role of making a righteous decision. So when Jesus said you are gods, Jesus is saying, listen, I have the ability to make righteous decisions because I'm capable of knowing the will of the Lord. I was sent by my father to do this. But when you start thinking in terms of the word gods, you need to understand that your judges who were to be righteous were also representing the kingdom of God. And in their judgment, as they did so, they were placed in a position of judging righteously the way that your God judges righteously. And so he was insane. You guys are gods as in incarnate God as Jesus, but rather you are standing in the place of a judge making a righteous judgment using scripture and led by God to make the proper choices and decisions. And so he's just letting them remember that they actually have been called as judges to represent God. And so is he through his words and by his works. So he says in verse 35, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, scripture cannot be broken. Do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world? You are blaspheming because I said I'm the son of God. And that's why he says in verse 37, if I do not do the works of my father, don't believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. Even unjust judges are referred to as Elohim. So how much more right did Jesus have to be called the son of God? After all, his works validated his message, and they could not discredit his works. And that's the point he's making. What is their response? Verse 39, therefore they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand. And he went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first. There he stayed. Many came to him and said, John performed no sign. But all the things that John spoke about this man were true. And many believed in him there. So he went and continued his ministry. He evaded their arrest, if you will. He left Jerusalem. And what is interesting here is that there's a great contrast to where he is now and where he had just left. Because in Jerusalem, the people were rejecting him and pursuing him that they might put him to death. But where he went to, there were people there who were willing not only to hear him, but to follow him but to follow him. It says in verse 42, many believed in him there. His ministry became fruitful. He had the opportunity to share the good news that he had come to bring. And the people weren't tainted by their prejudice and rejection of him. They were capable of hearing the words that he had to say. And as he was there, they saw him and they contrasted him with John. Again, notice verse 41. They said, John performed no sign. But all the things that John spoke about this man were true. So that tells us that these people, because he's in a place where John had been baptizing, that these people had been prepared. It's interesting to note that even into the book of Acts, there were people who had been prepared by John to receive Messiah. Remember that the beginning of John's ministry, he had been sent in order to proclaim that Messiah was coming. And this was the guy who was in the wilderness. He was dressed in a certain way. He ate certain foods and he had a prophetic voice. It was a voice of one crying in the wilderness. And remember how that he came and he told people that there was one who was coming that is greater than he. He said, I don't even have the ability to carry his sandals. I can't even bend down and untie them. This is the one whom I'm pointing you to. And remember that in the Gospel of John as well as the other Gospels, how that he had disciples, many who followed him, because he began his ministry prior to Christ. He was a forerunner. He went before him. And as he went to prepare a way for him, as he claimed he was to do, he said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you a way for the Lord, make his path straight. What he had done when he said make his path straight is he had used the illustration of the individuals who went before the King when the King was coming down a road, how they would send teams out because the King was coming down a road and they would clear all the rubble and all the rocks and they would smooth out the paths. Because if there was a dip in the road or whatever, they would fill it with dirt and smooth it so that nobody would stumble when they were coming with the King. And he said, I'm the voice of one who's saying prepare the way for the Lord, make his path straight. So the way you make your path straight according to John, you know, his path straight is simply make an entrance to God possible, don't have a crooked twisted way, a straight path is through repentance. And that's why he came to baptize. And when he came and he baptized, it was to prepare people for the coming of the Lord. And they would say of John, are you the coming one? And he says, no, I'm not. No, I'm the one who has been sent before him. I'm preparing the way for him. No, I'm not. And that's why he looks at Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then later on, we see he has a couple of disciples who are with him. And he sees Jesus points them out and they went and followed him and wanted to know of him. And they became his follower. That's what John had come to do is to prepare people in order to have a relationship with the Lord. And that's what he did through his entire ministry until the day he was beheaded for his witness of righteousness to Herod the King. But later on in the book of Acts, you go through the book of Acts and you discover that one time when the church had already been birthed and had been moving for some time, it's recorded that Paul came to a particular place. And when he came to that place, he ran across some individuals who were speaking as if they were anticipating or knew of Messiah. But the scripture tells us that when he came across them, he said to them, have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? And they looked at him and they said to him, we have not even heard such a thing as the Holy Spirit. He says, well, what were you baptized into? And they said into the baptism of John. And so he says at that point, he says, oh, well, John came to prepare the way, but the one he prepared the way for has already come. And so that ministry continued on even after death and resurrection and the birth of the church. There were still people who didn't have a full knowledge of the things of the Lord. And so he brought them to faith and they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues and they were brought into a fullness of realization of who Jesus Christ is. So John had a powerful message and a powerful ministry of preparing people. And so when Jesus goes to the place that John was baptized in, the place where Jesus himself, more than likely had been baptized, he stayed there. And there were people who still remembered the ministry of John. Remember your ministry will also be remembered long after you're gone. John is already dead, but they were still prepared by the ministry of John. Your ministry goes on even after you die. Don't forget that. Your ministry goes on even after you die. Don't forget that. You may be praying for somebody right now saying, God in Jesus' name, save them. You in your lifetime may never see them saved, but that doesn't mean God won't answer your prayers. I've read stories of evangelists, great evangelists whose sons did not follow Christ. One of them, I believe it was D. L. Moody's broken heart was that as many people as he had brought to faith in Christ, his own sons were rejecters of Jesus. And yet after Moody died, I believe it was Moody. I believe one of his sons came to faith in Christ, the son that he'd been praying for, for so long. So your prayers, you know, they're not without fruit. And don't ever think that that is a waste of time to pray. Never think that. Pray for your loved ones. Pray for the ones that you love and know that don't know Jesus Christ, because you may go, you may go home to be with Jesus and you never have the joy of seeing them saved. But I've done funerals where people in the funeral have given their hearts to Christ at the funeral that the people who were being buried had impacted, prayed for. So you never know. You never know. So Jesus is there doing his ministry. And he comes back to a place where more than likely is the place that he had been baptized. It's where John had ministered much of the time. And there's still people there. And here comes Jesus. And they begin to listen to him once again. And it says again in verse 41, many came to him and said, John performed no sign. But all the things that John spoke about this man were true and many believed in him there. You never know. Your witness, your witness continues on long after your body may be buried and your spirit is with the Lord. I wonder how many of you have heard of J. Vernon McGee. How many of you, many of you have J. Vernon, my beloved, that guy. He's been dead a long time, but his voice still speaks. Pastor Chuck. Pastor Chuck has been with the Lord for several years now. But you put on the radio and you still hear that magnificent voice of Chuck Smith sharing the love of God with people. And his reward continues to accrue even though he's seen the face of Jesus right now. Don't forget that. Don't forget that your work does not go unrewarded. Keep people in prayer. And remember, your impact may be something somebody remembers later on. And they may say something about you. I'll close with this one last story. Our church had begun. I was standing in the back of the church at that time. It was no longer than, we'd been no longer than two years, two and a half years as a church. And I went into the back. We had a small fellowship at that time. I went into the back and I would shake hands with people as they walked out the door and visit with them for a moment. That's what I would do. There were only a couple hundred people in the church. It was kind of easy to do that at that time. And a young woman walks up to me. And I was, I was about 33 at the time. A young woman came walking up to me and she says to me, I remember you. And I looked at her. I said, I remember you too because I used to work with her. Her name was Teresa. And as I was looking at her, I started remembering her from the job that I had because Teresa was a friend with another young lady that worked in the same office. And I would have to come from my office to their office. This is before I was pastoring this church. I was in my, I was like 26 years old at the time. And I would go in there. And I would say hi because they worked. I gave them orders, you know, that they had to fill out in papers and things. And so I'd have to go from my office to theirs on occasion. And I still remember I would go there. And one day Teresa's friend, I forget her name, said, my parents are gone. And I could use a ride to work. You live close by me, don't you? And I looked at her and didn't say anything. I just looked at her. And Teresa says, you know what she's asking you, don't you? And I didn't answer. I just said, I thought in my heart, mommy, you know, save me from the evil woman. It's Jezebel. And I just kind of smiled because she was, yeah, my parents are gone. I'm all alone. And I'll give you my address. Why don't you come? That's what she was saying. And I just smiled at her. And I walked out. And I thought, man, you know, and I called Maria up instantly. I said, baby, I love you. I just want you to know that. And that was kind of the last time I really ever talked to those people. And there she is standing in front of me at our church. And she says, I remember you at work. It was six or seven years. She goes, I remember you at work. I said, yeah, she says, I just wanted you to know I got saved. She says, and I go to Rawls church. She was going to with Rawls. She goes, I go to Rawls fellowship. And I heard you were here. And I just wanted to come to tell you that I had given my heart to Jesus Christ. You never know the seeds that you plant when they're going to bear fruit. You never know. So keep planting your seeds. Keep sharing the gospel. Keep praying for people because these people did not come to follow Christ even while John was still alive. John's already dead. And Jesus goes and the soil had been prepared. And they're speaking amongst themselves. John didn't do any miracles. They said concerning him. John didn't perform any signs. But all the things that John spoke about this man, they're true. And they came to believe in him. Don't stop preaching the gospel. Don't stop sowing those seeds, guys, because he who goes forth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with them. He goes forth weeping, bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with them. Just sow in tears and you'll reap in joy. Preach the word and watch what God will do. And it may not happen in your lifetime. But one day in heaven, somebody may walk up and say, I remember you. And that's why I'm here now. Can you imagine how that will be someday? I remember you. And that's why I'm here now, because you gave me God's word. So you may not see them come in your lifetime, but that doesn't mean they won't preach the word.