Sunday, January 14, 2024 - How Intelligent People Can Make Disastrous Decisions - Pastor Paul Vallee

Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress people experience when exposed to information that conflicts with their beliefs, values, ideals, and actions. There are two responses to cognitive dissonance. You dig in and continue in your current way of thinking and acting by dismissing and fighting the evidence mounting against your position, or the simplest way to address it is to change your beliefs and actions. Considering what Jesus was saying to the religious leaders in his day, they chose to 'persecute' and finally 'crucify him,' in the face of all the evidence pointing to the fact that Jesus is actually who he claimed to be. In light of Jesus's claims about himself, he found earlier in John 5 that He was God. Jesus supports His claim that the miracles he was doing were the Father's authentication of him. Last week, I also pointed out that life was inherent in Jesus and that the Father had given him the responsibility of all judgment. Craig Keener explains why Jesus is about to cite witnesses to his claims. "Confronted by accusations that he is guilty of blasphemy, a capital offence (5:18) [making himself equal to God], Jesus responds by citing witnesses in his defense. He accommodates the biblical rule that requires at least two witnesses to validate testimony in a capital case (Num 35:30; Deut. 17:6; 19:15)." Jesus now closes his defense by appealing to certain witnesses. John's gospel concerns the idea of bearing witness to the person of Jesus. Answering the question of the identity of Jesus is critical for people to understand that eternal life is experienced based on acceptance of Jesus.