Apologiautah

John 10:11-21 All that Jesus was alluding to in our passage last week He now declares plainly. He will identify the Shepherd He was describing. He is not just the ultimate example of the Hebrew shepherd on the plains and mountainsides of Israel. He is the cosmological I AM who has come to shepherd His people. And for the first time in history, to save the flock from predators and death He himself must die so they survive. A hired hand is only concerned with himself and at the first sight of danger, the time when he is needed most, he abandons what he considers not his responsibility. A true shepherd is like David who ran towards the lion and bear, slayed them and pried open its jaw to remove the lamb from its mouth. There is a mutual knowledge and intimacy between the Good Shepherd and His sheep. And that is bound in the triune relationship between the Father and the Son. It’s as if Jesus is demonstrating to us, as He in no way neglects the Father, He will in no way neglect us. Christ has come to His sheep among the Jews and He will remove them from the flocks of the false shepherds. But this is also the point to which all the prophecies of the Gentiles’ salvation will be fulfilled. He has other sheep, not of this Jewish fold that He will take to the rest of the sheep. Making one flock is not even just about putting them together but unifying them in Himself. Christ and Christ alone is our new identity. The Father loves the Son for carrying out their long-planned act of redemption. And in this redemption His resurrection will be as important as His death. His life means we have life. Jesus then finishes this first discourse by establishing that despite all the murder and capture attempts, despite how He will die in the future, He willingly lays down His own life and in His own control. He is the active initiator and not an inactive receiver. This is the plan of God and no one else’s. And it will be the divine power of God, in His own self, that will raise Him up again. The Jews listening became divided again. Those who seem to hear and those who seem to be deaf. The question is: who among them heard their Shepherd’s voice?

Craig Bullock of Apologia Utah lovingly gives the gospel to this young Mormon man. Please be in prayer for him!

John 10:1-10 Jesus had just revealed Himself as the Messiah to the healed man and revealed the truth of the Pharisees’ blindness. He will now give a “Παροιμία”, a figure of speech, in which the Lord will make metaphorical statements with great imagery pointing to a greater truth. In Ezekiel 34, the LORD spoke about the wicked shepherds who did not care for His flock and how He will become a shepherd to them; He will bind them up, heal them, lead them, and love them. And He is sending one like David to watch over the whole flock and gather them. John 10 is Jesus’s declaration of that prophecy fulfilled in Him. The thief and robber comes in some other way to steal and kill the sheep. These are the Pharisees who are shepherding the people to death and causing God’s people to stumble. But the true Shepherd comes the prescribed and ordained way by God: through the door. Jesus alludes to this Shepherd being Him. He finds no access issues to His sheep. He will lead them out of this sheepfold, leave those that are not His, gather His other sheep (gentiles) from another fold and will make one new sheepfold of which He is the Good Shepherd. The Pharisees cast out God’s sheep like the healed blind man but Jesus puts His sheep forth from the pen and goes ahead of them for protection, guidance, and peace. He will lose none that the Father has given Him and cast out none from His presence. All who know Christ’s voice will flee from anyone trying to shepherd them away from Him. Jesus then gives a divine statement about His identity. Ego Eimi. I AM the Door. He is the sole means by which a sheep may find salvation and safety and abundant life. There is only one source of truth. One source of life. One source of spiritual enlightenment. Jesus Christ. Any other shepherd or door leads to the slaughterhouse where the thief steals, kills, and destroys.

In this conversation, Craig and Jacob get into a conversation with a young LDS man who is initially upset that they are evangelizing in front of an LDS temple. However, as the conversation continues we find a Powerful Conversation with a Thoughtful Mormon who is genuinely struggling with the truth being presented to him.

John 9:13-41 After the healing of the blind man, his neighbors brought him to the religious leaders in their district so they could speak a word on this incredible miracle. John tells us that Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath thereby breaking the man-made rules of Jewish leaders’ Mishnah. All they can see is transgression eclipsing this marvelous wonder from God. The now-seeing man begins to have infant faith in Jesus, understanding He was sent from God. The Pharisees dismiss this and want the man’s parents to confirm whether he was blind from birth or not. John pulls us out of the narrative and explains that if anyone confessed Jesus as the Messiah they would be excommunicated. There is already a high cost to follow Christ and the man’s parents weren’t willing to pay it. The man picks up on the leaders’ lack of impartiality and sees an unwillingness to accept the truth. They pit Jesus against Moses, and followers of Christ against followers of Moses, but as Jesus said: Moses wrote about Him. This is a false equivocation. The man, with remarkable logic, establishes that Jesus must be from God and has not sinned otherwise He could not do anything. The Jewish leaders then reject the man and excommunicate him. Jesus then seeks out the man and reveals Himself to him. The man believes on Jesus as the Son of Man and worships Him, recognizing at least in some sense this is the Redeemer from heaven. And Jesus ends this chapter with traits of the seeing and the blind. The spiritually blind don’t hold to the truth, they adhere to works-based salvation, they worship a man (Moses), fear other men (parents), oppose those who see the truth, and remain in the sin of unbelief. The spiritual seeing abide in the truth, seek the grace of God in Christ, they worship Jesus not man, they fear the Lord over men and their devices (excommunication), they receive opposition from the blind, and their sins are removed from them.

In this video Deacon Andrew Soncrant gets into a conversation with a Young LDS man who wants to test what he has been told by the LDS Organization to Scripture, you do not want to miss this Unforgettable Gospel Conversation: Young LDS Man Wants to Know the Biblical Jesus! It seemed like God was really working on this young man during this conversation, please pray for him! In reference to the verse I stated about the saints coming out of their graves (I said Matt 28 but its 27, my apologies): Matt 27:52-53 "And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many." Now in reference to this verse, I am speaking about 1 Peter 3:19 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water"

John 9:1-12 After leaving the temple when the Jews tried to stone Jesus for claiming divine identity, He saw a man blind from birth. Profoundly, the Creator God, who is in the flesh, sees the one who is ailing. He sees those in need. Jesus’s disciples ask him a theological question about the relationship between personal sin and infirmities. Jesus does not disregard sin and fallenness incurring sickness but clarifies personal and individual sin does not always result in sickness. Despite the fall being the cause of this man’s predicament, it will be the sovereign purpose of God to display His works through him. Specifically, it will be the shining of the Light of the world that will move through this man and impact many others. And what this means for us is that even our ailments, diseases, and conditions are not realities of futility but opportunities for God’s glory, our maturity, testimonies to others of God’s sufficient grace, and character-building humility. Jesus then establishes that the Light must work the works of God while it is still day. Night is coming in which He will be betrayed, slain, and although He will resurrect, He will depart back to heaven. However, the Holy Spirit will take up His stead here on earth and the work will continue. We must keep shining the Light of Christ until the end. At this point, Jesus then makes a clay pack with dirt and His saliva, showing He is able to cleanse and heal. The man washed in the Pool of Siloam and gained his sight. This is a foreshadow of the spiritual sight he will gain later in John 9. The man has become a witness of the power of Jesus and showcases Christ’s work to all his neighbors who were astonished by this miracle. In the end, the biggest miracle is the salvation Christ gives. He is the primary blessing; while healing in this life or the next is only secondary.

In this video, Deacon Eric Collins and Ryan McMartin talk with a young LDS man who conflates grace and works. Tactfully Eric displays that grace displayed in the Bible is nothing that someone can work for, instead, it is a gift that is given to us. Watch Christians Telling Mormons about the Grace of Jesus Christ and share.