It All Hinges on Relationship
Chasing Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsJesus continues to emphasize the importance of relationship. It is through our relationship with God that we come to truly embrace and understand our salvation. We find security and peace in our relationship with God. In the system of the law, there was continued worry and doubt about your place before the Lord. Jesus came to usher in a relationship with God where we can know that we are firmly in His hands despite our shortcomings because we are no longer ruled by a system of rules but rather a loving relationship full of mercy and grace. This has been God’s plan since the beginning and we can place our trust in Jesus for He is the fulfillment of the promises given by God since the beginning.
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Relationship is What God Desires
Relationship is What God Desires
Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe 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 shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:22-27
The setting has moved to the Feast of Dedication or Hanukah. This is a time of celebration for the freedom of Israel to worship God in the temple. Antiochus the IV desired to turn Israel to the Greeks. He shut down worship at the temple. He suspended the Sabbath and circumcision and prohibited the Book of the Law. In 167 BC, he offered a swine on the altar.
The setting has moved to the Feast of Dedication or Hanukah. This is a time of celebration for the freedom of Israel to worship God in the temple. Antiochus the IV desired to turn Israel to the Greeks. He shut down worship at the temple. He suspended the Sabbath and circumcision and prohibited the Book of the Law. In 167 BC, he offered a swine on the altar.
Mattathias and his brothers revolted. In 164 BC the temple was rededicated to the worship of Yahweh.
Solomons Colonnade was was a covered area in the temple. Often used for teaching or holding conversations with the rabbi.
Jesus responds to their question with the call to relationship. If you knew me, you would know my claim.
New in this motif is the idea that the sheep find security in their relationship. We can not be snatched from the Father’s hand.
Christ is greater than all. We need not fear tomorrow for God is greater than all.
When Relationship is Not What We Seek
When Relationship is Not What We Seek
Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
Jesus refers to
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
But you will die like mere mortals;
you will fall like every other ruler.”
Jewish law saw that God had raised men to the stature of God through the giving of the law. Through the law, man knew what righteousness and holiness looked like. Jesus responds that how can He be blasphemous if he has just lived the standard of righteousness set before Him. To say otherwise is to call the Scriptures a liar.
When we settle for what God can do and not who He is, we will miss Jesus all together. We will become so fixed on God’s stuff, we will be blind to the fact that it is in Him that the stuff is possible.
Relationship Growth
Relationship Growth
Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” And in that place many believed in Jesus.
Discipleship. The response to our relationship with God is to point other toward Him.