The life of Vincent van Gogh is a poignant example of how actions can convey deep emotions and truths. Despite struggling with mental illness and societal rejection, van Gogh poured his heart into his art, creating masterpiece works like “Starry Night” and “Sunflowers.” His paintings express feelings of hope, despair, and beauty that words alone could not capture. His art speaks volumes about his inner turmoil and passion for life, revealing a man who sought human connection and understanding through his work.

Van Gogh’s legacy reminds us that actions—works—whether through art, service, or love—can communicate truths that words often fail to express. Not only that, but Van Gogh’s dedication to his craft and the emotions—pain, suffering, beauty, and joy— that he conveyed through his brushstrokes, remind us of the reality that our actions and our works often reveal our true selves, our true nature, our true character, our true beliefs, which is to say, our true identity—more powerfully than our words ever could.

And it’s the exact same thing multiplied by infinity with respect to the masterpiece that is Jesus’ life, actions, and works and what they reveal about his self, his nature, his character, and his identity.

You can dismiss the words of Jesus as a liar. You can deny the claims of Jesus to be God as a lunatic. But though you might dismiss his words as a liar and deny his claims of divinity as lunacy—one thing you cannot do is ignore the mountain of evidence in the form of his works—his actions—his entire life and ministry—which serve as undeniable, historically verified, eyewitness testified, and indisputably authentic evidence that his words and his claims to be God are true—especially the single most important and miraculous work—his resurrection from the dead on the third day after his substitutionary atoning death for sinners—

No these—his life—his miraculous deeds—his might works—are the works of God—done through the power of God—by the prerogative of God—that only God can do—and they are undeniably true—which means that his words and his claims must also be true—and they are.

The question is: do you believe him? Do you believe in his words and his claims? Do you believe what his works reveal about the reality of his identity as the Son of God and Savior of the world? Do you believe in the body of the witness of his works which John says at the end of the Gospel are so innumerable, that all the books in the world could not contain them.

Or will you continue ignoring all of these, just like these religious leaders this morning, who continue hardening their hearts against Jesus, despite what they know his works reveal about him to be true…he is the Son of God…