I and the Father are One (John 10:22-42)
Notes
Transcript
Announcements
Announcements
Brief Building Update—There’s been a significant amount of work done at our new location, but there is still some work that needs to be done before we can move our services there.
Since we’ve entered the building:
Lights throughout the auditorium have been replaced with energy efficient LED lights, a new exterior light was installed for safety directly above our front door.
The ceiling in the auditorium is a drop ceiling, and we took some time replacing quite a few tiles.
Work has started on replacing the walls in the auditorium, the walls should be finished sometime tomorrow.
Plumbing has been fixed in the large bathroom as well as the the kitchen—the large bathroom had a leak from the upstairs unit that was pretty aggressive, and the kitchen sink actually wasn’t connected to the drain pipe, so I took some time to learn how to fix the kitchen while the landlord sent someone to fix the upstairs plumbing.
As part of our lease agreement, we’re responsible to take care of the alley behind the building, which for whatever reason was neglected for many years. Deane and Veronica cleaned up a significant amount of broken glass back there, and Neil went through and essentially chopped down a small forest that had grown in the alley.
The small bathroom, activity room, and kitchen have all been prepped for paint—that included sealing up holes in the wall and coating cracks throughout all of those rooms.
That means, that the following work still needs done before we can start having services there:
The wall replacement should be finished tomorrow morning, which means that we definitely need help with painting.
The activity room, kitchen, hallway, and small bathroom will hopefully be painted by the end of the day tonight—if you’re able to help with that, please don’t hesitate to stop by at the building anytime this evening.
Having those rooms finished, will allow our contractor to do the flooring in all of those rooms while we work on the paint in the auditorium on Monday afternoon.
So, today and tomorrow, if you’re available and willing to paint, please reach out to Natalie and she’ll handle organizing that.
After the paint in the auditorium is dry, our contractor will work on finishing the flooring throughout the building.
A small stage will be built and the seating will be arranged.
We’ll need some help with some final cleaning, as well as stocking the bathrooms with supplies.
Which means, hopefully we’ll be in that building next week—and I’m going to say hopefully, because I don’t know for sure. So, here’s what we’ll do—on Friday, if we’re going to be able to be in that building next week, we’ll call everyone and let them know.
If you don’t hear from us on Friday, then expect to be at the YMCA next week. We will call you and post it on social media if we’ll be in the new building and we’ll let you know by Friday, but again, if you don’t hear from us, expect to be back here in the YMCA.
Let me also explain that us moving our services there doesn’t mean that the projects on the building are done, it just means that enough of the work is done that we can have services there.
We still have several projects that are ongoing, but are paused for the time being because we’ve only received 75% of the $10,000 we needed for those projects.
Those projects include the adding of cabinets and such in the kitchen, the replacement of two windows that our landlord apparently doesn’t care are broken, and the addition of a small sound system, adding two TVs at the front of the auditorium, and having a sign made for the front of the building.
We’ll be working on those projects as the financial means come in.
Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. In order to help you give, we have three different ways for you to do so: (1) check and cash giving can be done through the black offering box in the back of the room, (2) debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done by texting 84321 with your $[amount] and by following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at graceandpeacepa.com and select giving in the menu bar. Everything that you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Prayer of Repentance and Adoration
Call to Worship (Psalm 31:9-18)
Call to Worship (Psalm 31:9-18)
Our Call to Worship is a continuation of Psalm 31. Remember that this is a psalm of David in which he is in great need. He prays for rescue from one who despised, defamed, and persecuted him. Last week’s section was primarily a prayer for God to be his refuge and for God to rescue him quickly. This week’s section is a lament from David concerning the dangers that he’s facing and a prayer for the LORD to deliver him from his arrogant enemies. Please stand and read with me Psalm 31:9-18—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.
9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted from grief;
my soul and my body also.
10 For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away.
11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach,
especially to my neighbors,
and an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.
12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
13 For I hear the whispering of many—
terror on every side!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
15 My times are in your hand;
rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!
16 Make your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love!
17 O Lord, let me not be put to shame,
for I call upon you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
let them go silently to Sheol.
18 Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak insolently against the righteous
in pride and contempt.
Congregational Singing
Congregational Singing
There is a Fountain
There is a Fountain
God, the Uncreated One
God, the Uncreated One
O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer
O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
Today’s Scripture reading is a bit different in that I’ve chosen to re-read last week’s passage rather than select something from a different passage. The reason for that is simple, this week’s passage in John 10 is connected to last week’s passage. So, let’s read together John 10:1-21.
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Sermon
Sermon
Introduction
Introduction
If you have your Bible with you this morning, please turn to John 10:22-42. I don’t have much in the way of an introduction this morning, because the text itself provides quite a bit of its own introductory material. Whereas I would normally spend a few minutes explaining the background of the passage and the information that led up to the passage, what we see in John 10, is that it’s uniquely self-contained. I will point out, that what we learned last week in the first part of John 10 concerning Jesus being the Good Shepherd and the good King is inherently tied to the passage that we’re studying this week, so much so, that Jesus refers back to it in John 10:22-42, but beyond that, our introduction is simply to jump into Scripture this morning. So read with me John 10:22-42, afterwards, I’ll explain how we’ll divide up the text, and we’ll jump straight into the Bible.
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 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 am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
As we study this passage, we’re going to split it into two parts: (1) Vs. 22-30, is Jesus’ claim to be one with the Father and in making this claim, Jesus ties in the previous section in which he claims to be the good shepherd, but he does it in a way that solidifies the point that he made last week—he is the good shepherd and he is the good king because he is God. Jesus’ claim to be God then elicits a response from the people in Vs. 31-42. Jesus’ claim to be God causes the Jewish people to pick up stones to kill him, but he again states that he is God and he points to the work that he’s done through his earthly ministry as evidence for his divinity. This evidence as well as his teachings convinces some to believe, but some continue in unbelief. This sermon is going to focus on Jesus’ claim to be God and how we can know for sure that he is truly God, which should cause us to worship him more and trust more in his divinity.
Prayer for illumination.
Jesus claims to be one with the Father (22-30)
Jesus claims to be one with the Father (22-30)
This text starts by giving us a bit of background information in Vs. 22, “At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade [or portico] of Solomon.”
What’s about to happen occurs during the Feast of Dedication. But unlike most of the feasts that Israel celebrated, the Feast of Dedication actually isn’t found in the Old Testament.
You can scour the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi and what you would find is that the Feast of Dedication didn’t exist in the Old Testament.
Which brings up the question, what is the Feast of Dedication?
In the year 167 BC, Jerusalem was overrun and the temple was polluted by the enemies of Israel utilizing the temple for pagan worship.
The Jewish people, of course revolted, and under the leadership of Judas Maccabaeus, they took Jerusalem back and reconsecrated the temple to Yahweh and every year since, they’ve celebrated the Feast of Dedication, except today, we know it by a different name—we know it as Hanukkah.
Judas Maccabaeus and the rededication of the temple occured in the time period between the Old and New Testaments, what we call the intertestamental period. And at this time, during the life of Jesus, the Jewish people are still celebrating the Feast of Dedication because the temple is still in possession of the Jewish people during the life of Christ.
John is utilizing the Feast of Dedication as a chronological place-marker, so that we can understand when this occurred in the narrative of Jesus’ life.
So, this occurs during the Feast of Dedication, during winter, and Jesus is walking into the temple. The colonnade of Solomon is sometimes translated as Solomon’s Portico or Solomon’s Porch, and it’s not inside of the temple but directly in front of the main entrance to the temple on the temple mount.
This spot is mentioned just a handful of times in Scripture, with this time in John 10 as a notable mention, but also in Acts 3 in which Peter preaches after the healing of the lame beggar.
It is a location in which the Pharisees would teach the public, which explains why this whole conversation with Jesus occurs at this particular location and knowing that it occured during the Feast of Dedication explains why so many people were surrounding the temple in the first place.
So, as Jesus walks into the temple, he’s stopped and Vs. 24, “the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.”
They want him to flat out say that he is the Christ, and remember that Christ isn’t actually part of Jesus’ name. Christ is a Greek title.
And that title means “anointed one” or the “Messiah,” so they’re making the argument that Jesus is keeping them in suspense by not telling them plainly that he is the Messiah.
The issue is that Jesus has told them, but they refuse to believe. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a lack of belief; and we see a lack of belief time and time again through the Gospel according to John:
Even at the very beginning of the book, John the Baptist makes the proclamation that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; John explains that he visibly saw the Spirit of God descend and remain on Jesus.
After which, we see the turning of water into wine at the wedding of Cana, the cleansing of the temple, and all of these different miracles.
But with the exception of the disciples, a few people, and one Pharisee, most of the people who see and hear Jesus reject him. Most of the people who see his miracles and hear his teachings think he’s either crazy or demon-possessed.
Very few people come to true, saving faith in him.
And in this conversation, Jesus makes it clear that he has already told them who he is, but they refuse to believe. How did he tell them? Vs. 25, “The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,”
So it isn’t just that Jesus is verbally claiming to be the Messiah, which he has done multiple times throughout the text; he’s making the argument that the miracles that he’s performed also declare him to be the Messiah.
Occasionally, if you speak to skeptics or outright atheists concerning the deity of Jesus Christ, you’ll hear them say that Jesus never claimed to be God.
But even a cursory look back through the text of John 1-10, we can see numerous times in which he takes Old Testament titles given to the Savior or the Messiah and he applies them to himself.
When he speaks to the Samaritan woman, he makes the claim that he is the Messiah in John 4:26.
When Jesus heals the man at the pool of Bethesda, the Jews were seeking to kill him. John 5:18, “because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
In John 5:27, he calls himself the Son of Man, which comes directly from Daniel 7:13-14, which is a vision of one who would be given dominion and glory and a kingdom. One in which all should serve him.
When Jesus makes the claim to be the bread of life in John 6, you can’t help but to think of the manna given to the Israelites in Exodus, which is Jesus’ point because Jesus makes the statement that even with manna, the Israelites still died, but whoever feeds on the bread that he gives will live forever. Who can give eternal life except God himself?
In John 7, he claims to be the provider of living water, which was to call to mind Isaiah 55:1 in which God himself promises to provide water for life.
This pattern continues as he calls himself the light of the world, as he claims that truth can be known in his word and truth can set them free, as he takes on the title I AM, which causes the Jewish people to want to stone him.
And even last week, when Jesus takes up the title of the good shepherd, it is to remind them of God promising to shepherd them and to correlate God with Jesus.
There is a reason for the Jewish people to constantly be up-in-arms against what Jesus is saying, and the reason is simple; Jesus was claiming to be God by what he said and how he said it.
But he doesn’t just speak it verbally, he shows it to them with his works.
They’ve witnessed Jesus performing miracle after miracle:
From the turning of water into wine
To various healings throughout his life
Mark mentions that Jesus had exorcised demons
Luke mentions the miraculous events concerning the catching of fish.
All four Gospels record the feeding of the multitude
Did Jesus do these types of things just for fun? Did he do it out of some warped sense of pride? No, Jesus did these things to give assurance or proof that he was who he was claiming to be. That he is truly God; and the miraculous events that were caused by him evidenced this truth.
The problem is that no one believed him; and he explains why they didn’t believe him in Vs. 26, which is then built on through Vs 27-28.
Vs. 26, “but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Why didn’t the Jewish people believe that Jesus was and is the Messiah? Why didn’t they believe him when he spoke about being the I AM and he spoke about providing living water and when he claimed to be the light from heaven? Because they were not his sheep.
This obviously ties back to last week’s passage in which Jesus makes the claim to be the good shepherd—and as the good shepherd, that means that Jesus provides sustenance, he provides safety, he cares for his people; it also means that he leads his people in a way that the Jewish kings had failed to do.
And what he’s claiming in John 10:26-28, is that the reason they don’t believe in him as the Messiah is simple, they were never his sheep to begin with; which should be eye-opening for them, because remember, they thought of themselves as God’s chosen people, which they were; but in thinking of themselves as God’s chosen people, they neglected a crucial part—they neglected to actually believe in God.
And since they didn’t believe in God, they didn’t believe in Jesus as the Messiah.
Jesus tells them that “[His] sheep hear [his] voice, and [he knows] them, and they follow [him].”
If they were truly believers in God, they would be his sheep, they would recognize who he is and they would follow him; but since they don’t truly believe, they don’t know him, they don’t recognize him, and they refuse to follow him.
If they were truly believers in God, they would’ve already had a relationship with the Father that would have led them to believe in Jesus as the Christ. Later in John 14, Philip asks Jesus to “show [them] the Father,” and Jesus makes the statement, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” The opposite is just as true, if you’ve seen the Father, you’ve seen Jesus—if you knew God, you would know Jesus; if you know Jesus, you know God.
Vs. 28-30, then says something that is the reason for the Jews’ response in Vs. 31-39. In Vs. 28, Jesus then says, “I give them eternal life [them referring to the sheep], and they will never perish, and no one will 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 the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
What Jesus is speaking about in Vs. 28-30 is the doctrine of perseverance—this is the concept that if you’re truly a believer in Jesus Christ, you are secure in him. Or in other words, those that have truly experienced the grace of God, they’ve repented, and they’ve believed in Jesus are held by the Father and cannot lose the salvation that has been promised them.
The idea is that if you’ve truly believed, you can’t lose the salvation that has been promised you.
That would also mean, that if a person at the end of their life dies and perishes eternally, that they weren’t ever Jesus’ sheep.
Because Jesus’ sheep are secure in him, they have been given eternal life, they won’t perish, and no one can steal them out of God’s hands.
Now to a believer, this doctrine is one of great hope—because it means that even when you suffer setbacks in your Christian walk or even when you suffer through bouts of depression or even when life seems to go awry; you have hope in your salvation because Jesus has promised to never let you go.
In the darkest moments of life, there is still hope because of what God has promised you through Jesus Christ
But for an unbeliever (even an unbeliever who might do the right things and say the right words), who has yet to repent from their sins, call on Jesus Christ and believe in him as his Lord and Savior, this doctrine is a warning.
Those who are truly saved and are truly God’s people can have hope in Jesus’ promise; but those who aren’t truly saved and aren’t truly God’s people, they can’t have hope in Jesus’ promise. Jesus’ promise is for his people, not for all people.
How can Jesus make a statement like this? Vs. 30, “I and the Father are one.”
Jesus can make a claim like this because he very literally is God.
Jesus can make a claim like this because he is the sovereign king
Jesus can make this claim because he has authority to make this claim.
And it is this statement in Vs. 28-30, that elicits a response from the Jewish people. Jesus claiming to not only provide eternal life to those who follow him, but also his claim to be equal to God is what causes the rest of this passage to happen. Remember how I said that atheists and skeptics today typically claim that Jesus never said he was God? That isn’t what the Jewish people thought, read with me Vs. 31-42.
Jesus proves his divinity with his works (31-42)
Jesus proves his divinity with his works (31-42)
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 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 am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
The Jewish people are responding this way because they knew that Jesus was claiming to be God. “The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.”
This tells us that this isn’t the first time that they were going to stone him for his claim to be God and you can see that throughout the book of John.
The Jewish people had though about stoning him multiple times because of his claim to be God.
And Jesus counters their desire to stone him by saying, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
It might seem odd that Jesus would ask this, for two reasons:
First, Jesus knows why they’re trying to stone him—he is omniscient, he knows all things. He doesn’t have to ask them why they want to stone him, so why does he ask this?
Secondly, it’s odd because the idea of asking a question like this when the very real prospect of being murdered is at hand, is odd in and of itself.
Let me suggest that he asks this question in order to make a point. He’s asking this question to claim the works that he has done (the miracles they’ve seen) as the very work of God. He’s essentially making the claim that the miracles that he has done prove that he is God.
But even with him positing this question, the Jews don’t take the time to work their way logically through the issue at hand, they simply answer the question in Vs. 33, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
The Jewish people want to stone Jesus because of Jesus’ claim to be God—because in their mind, he’s committing blasphemy by equating himself with God
And if Jesus wasn’t God, they would be completely correct in their assessment, and they would be following the Old Testament law by choosing to stone him at that time.
Consider Leviticus 24:16, “Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD (whoever claims himself to be God) shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.
So, the Jewish people would be right, if Jesus wasn’t God, but remember, Jesus is making the point that the miracles that he’s performed validate his divinity, but they won’t believe him because they don’t actually believe in God.
Jesus then answers their assessment of him committing blasphemy by quoting a Psalm. And we need to spend a little bit of time here, because these verses are utilized by false teachers frequently. If you watch certain people who preach on television, you’ll hear these false teachings and let me be abundantly clear, they are completely heretical. They’re lying. Let’s read Vs. 34-38, and I’ll explain the heresy before explaining what it means. Vs. 34, “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 consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 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 am in the Father.’”
The heresy comes from a misinterpretation of Vs. 34, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” Certain televangelists, and some theological systems such as Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, and Word of Faith pastors have popularized the idea that people can become “little gods” in their own right. And they base that idea from a misunderstanding of this passage, Psalm 82, and the concept of being created in the image of God from Genesis 1:27.
The heresy that is being taught by certain people on TV in circles that we typically refer to as prosperity gospel teachers or the Word of Faith movement, which utilizes monikers such as “name-it-claim-it,” “prosperity theology” and “health and wealth gospel” is that if you believe in God, you truly believe in God and you have enough faith in God, God will make you like himself.
But when they say that God will make you like himself, they don’t mean that you’re going to reflect his glory and you’re going to live a godly life-style. What they mean is that if you truly believe in God and you have enough faith in God, God will make you a god. Just like God is a god, you are a god. The heresy is the idea that you become a little god because of your faith in the big God.
And I think anyone with any amount of discernment and understanding of the Scriptures will agree, that is completely absurd and antithetical to what Scripture actually teaches.
Got Questions, “claiming divinity for Christians is insupportable, especially taking . . . the Bible into account. God is God alone. We have never been God, we are not God now, and we never will be God. . . If the ‘little gods’ hypothesis is accepted, it imputes to Jesus a lesser divinity of some kind; He became a ‘little god’ like us. John said that ‘the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,’ but this does not indicate ‘a lesser divinity.’ Jesus took on human flesh and blood in order to die for our sins, yet He retained his full position in the Godhead. God created us with a spirit, but that spirit does not hold divine qualities.
We are not little gods and to think that this passage says that, is to take this out of context and make it say what you want it to say rather than seeking to understand what it actually says.
So, what does this passage actually say? When Jesus says, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said you are gods?’” He’s quoting from Psalm 82:6, which is a statement that provides an explanation in the immediate context.
And in the immediate context, it does not imply nor does it indicate that human’s can be gods in the same sense that God is God.
Psalm 82:6 says, “I said, ‘You are ‘gods;’ you are all sons of the Most High.’ but then it continues in Vs. 7 and says, “you will all die like mere men, you will fall like every other ruler.” What Psalm 82 speaks of is men who represent God’s authority in the world—kings, judges, and magistrates. And what Psalm 82 is speaking of is that these leaders of Israel are like gods in the sense that God has given them authority because they know the Law of God.
And it is a warning to those leaders who are unjust who think of themselves as “gods” yet know nothing and walk in darkness.
When Jesus quotes this psalm in John 10, he’s essentially asking them, why is it alright for God to tell someone that he is like god in Psalm 82 because that man knows right from wrong and has been granted authority to judge the people, but it’s not alright for the one who was literally sent by the Father into the world to claim that he is the Son of God?
If we know that Scripture is right, which we do, and we know that Scripture can’t be broken because they are God’s words given to the people
Then why is it that Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God is so blasphemous when he also came from the Father, and the works that he’s done “of [his] Father” validate him?
Or in other words, what Jesus is asking is essentially, why are they willing to follow Scripture; and why aren’t they willing to follow him?
They follow Scripture because they know the Scriptures were given to them through miraculous means. The Old Testament was given to them and miracles confirmed that those were truly God’s words, so they believed them.
Jesus is proclaiming his divinity to them and he’s confirming them through miraculous means. What Jesus is teaching to them is confirmed by the miracles that he’s performing, so they should believe him just like they believed Scripture, but they don’t.
And he sums up his point in Vs 38, “Even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
His whole point here is that they should believe him because the miracles confirm who he is—that he is the Messiah, that he is the anointed one (the Christ), that he is one with the Father, and yet they don’t believe him because they don’t believe in God.
And after Jesus makes these statements, we’re then told how the people responded, Vs. 39-42, “Again, they [the Jews] sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him. And they said, ‘John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.’ And many believe in him there.”
Some believed
Some were skeptical
And some vehemently opposed Jesus.
In our remaining few minutes, I want to look at some specific application. Normally, when we do application, we do it by looking at the text in the different sections that we divided them up in, but I think the best way to apply this passage, is to take the whole passage in one with three specific application points for the whole. And those three application points are simple: (1) be sure that you truly believe in Jesus Christ, (2) be assured of your salvation if you believe in Jesus, and (3) understand that our belief in Jesus as God is proven by his fulfillment of Scripture.
Application
Application
Be sure that you truly believe in Jesus Christ (22-30)—coming from Vs. 22-30, is this idea that you need to truly believe in Jesus as the Christ. Particularly in the statement that Jesus makes towards the Jews, “I told you, and you do not believe . . . because you are not among my sheep.” And I explained that essentially what Jesus is saying then is that they don’t believe in him as the Christ because they don’t believe in God. If they believed in God, they would’ve believed in him as well.
Here’s the thing though, these Jewish people thought they believed in God; and they thought that they were saved purely off of their heritage, which tells us a few things that we need to consider as we apply this to our lives today:
Your heritage doesn’t matter when it comes to salvation—who your parents are doesn’t matter concerning salvation—just because your parents believe in Jesus, or you have multiple generations of pastors in your family, or somehow you trace your ancestry to an important Christian in the past, none of that matters when it comes to your personal salvation.
Your parent’s faith, your grandparent’s faith, you great-grandparent’s faith means nothing for your salvation—only you repenting and believing in Jesus will save you.
Likewise, these Jewish people in John 10, thought they understood the Word of God so well that they knew that the Messiah was coming to save them.
Except they had some misunderstandings of what exactly the Messiah was supposed to do—point being, they thought their knowledge of Scripture was enough.
But just like your parent’s salvation can’t save you, your knowledge of Scripture can’t save you—don’t get me wrong, you ought to be knowledgeable of Scripture, but just because you know Scripture, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve believed in Jesus Christ.
In fact, there are plenty of biblical scholars who claim to know the ins and outs of Scripture, and there are college professors who teach religious courses, who aren’t believers. If you were to ask them questions, they would probably be able to answer your questions, but they don’t actually believe—a key example of this just occurred recently.
Harvard known as a bastion for education, originally started as a religious school. The Puritan colonists who settled the New England area had a concern for pastors being literate, so they started the university with the motto, “Truth for Christ and the Church.”
For the first 70 years of the school’s existence, every president of Harvard was also a pastor. Harvard is now in its 385th year and it was recently featured in the New York Times because their new president of chaplains, the very person who is supposed to help people spiritually on campus is an atheist.
His name is Greg Epstein and he calls himself a Humanist Chaplain and he actually holds multiple degrees which would’ve forced him to study the Scriptures—a BA in Religion and an MA in Judaic Studies from the University of Michigan, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and he’s done graduate work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He could probably talk at length about biblical interpretation, textual criticism, systematic theology, and everything else thinkable; but just like the Jewish people who thought they understand what Scripture said, he doesn’t believe.
Your knowledge of Scripture doesn’t equate salvation. Knowing Scripture and knowing God are two different things.
These Jewish people in John 10, thought they were saved based on their heritage and on their knowledge of Scripture. They also thought they were saved based on their adherence to the Law.
They did all the right, good, and moral things—they followed the Law to the best of their ability, they were in Jerusalem entering the temple at that very moment to observe a religious holiday that was decreed during the intertestamental period.
They were the people who were in the temple and in the synagogues every Sabbath doing the rituals and the sacrifices.
But Jesus says that they don’t believe in him because they didn’t believe in God.
Now consider yourself, do you actually believe in Jesus Christ?
Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
Have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Because if you haven’t, then you haven’t experienced salvation.
Regardless of whether your parents had done this, regardless of if you do all the “right” things, regardless of if your knowledge of Scripture is on par with the greatest theologian—if you haven’t confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you have not been justified and you have not been saved.
Do you actually believe in Jesus Christ? This passage stands as a warning against those who think they’re saved, but don’t actually believe.
Take it to heart and consider your own soul.
If you find yourself in a position in which you realize that you don’t actually believe, then the proper response is to repent from your sin, call on the name of the Lord, and believe in him.
Don’t rely on your parent’s faith, don’t rely on doing the right things, don’t rely on simply knowing what the Bible says—actually repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Be sure that you believe in Him.
Be assured of your salvation if you believe in Jesus (22-30)—if you’ve actually done this, you actually believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior, as your Messiah. This next application point is for you. Recognize that if you are his people, which you are if you believe, this passage teaches that you have been assured eternal life because you are his. Nothing will snatch you out of his hand.
Occasionally, particularly during difficult times of life, whether that’s depression or anxiety or frustration, we tend to doubt God. We doubt his goodness, we doubt his love for us, and in the worst days of our lives, we doubt his ability to actually save us.
And let me be abundantly clear, it is normal to struggle with depression, anxiety, or frustration; and it is normal to occasionally struggle with doubt.
Actually doubt can be a good thing if it leads us seek truth in Scripture and if it leads us to pray, and it leads us to commune with fellow believers.
But if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, you don’t have a reason to doubt your salvation. In fact, the author of Hebrews encourages us in Hebrews 10:23, to “Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.”
If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, your salvation is assured not because of who you are, but because of who Jesus is.
What that means is through life’s ebbs and flows, during times when you feel like your life is a roller coaster of confusion, anxiety, and doubt; you don’t need to be concerned about losing your salvation, because your salvation isn’t based on your emotions, your salvation isn’t based on your difficulties in life, your salvation is based on the promise that Jesus has made to save all who repent from sins and believes in him.
You as a believer in Jesus Christ can rest assured that he will keep his word, because he is a covenant-keeping God.
What he says, he will do; and he has promised to save all who as Romans 10:9 says, “[confesses] with [their] mouth that Jesus is Lord and [believes] in [their] heart that God raised him from the dead.”
If you truly have repented and believed, Jesus promises your salvation so be assured of your salvation.
And lastly, from Vs 31-42, Understand that your belief in Jesus as God is proven by his fulfillment of Scripture—occasionally, Christians are accused of believing something with little to no evidence. The argument is usually that the Christian faith is baseless and that Christians are simply believing old fairy tales that were invented to convince people to act a certain way. The issue with this argument is that it very literally ignores all of the evidence that we do have concerning the Scriptures.
We don’t believe blindly in Scripture and we don’t believe blindly in God—there are evidences for our faith. And I wish that I could talk about it at length, but I could go on and on about it, so let me give you some resources that you can check on your own time and I’ll provide my application for this last section. If you’re looking for apologetic-like resources, resources that defend the faith:
Take a look at Answers in Genesis—their whole premise is that Scripture is completely true including the creation account in Genesis. And they provide videos, blog posts, a magazine subscription, a whole museum in Kentucky of arguments for the validity of Scripture. They focus a lot on the creation vs. evolution debate, but if you go to their website answersingenesis.org, you’ll find resources concerning just about everything—creation, evolution, abortion, evidences for the Mosaic authorship of the Torah, the origin of Ticks and the Genesis and Emergence of Lyme Disease. They have thousands of articles, videos, and blog posts for you to read at your own leisure.
If you’re looking for something focused more on theology, you can visit thegospelcoalition.org or gotquestions.org, both of which provide articles on current events, biblical theology, Christian news, and really anything that you might have a question about concerning the Bible.
If you’re looking for something in particular, come and ask me—I have a whole library of thousands of books that can help answer pretty much any question that you might have.
We don’t blindly believe in God, we believe because there is evidence for his existence.
You might be thinking, in John 10, the ones that did believe in Jesus as the Messiah, believed in him because he did miracles. And you might think, more people would believe if these types of miracles happened today:
And let me encourage you to remember the definition of miracles that we started this whole series with, that miracles were physical phenomena brought about by the work of God (who sometimes utilizes a human agent) designed to authenticate a message or to validate the truth of the message. It is not limited by laws of physics or matter, it is utterly supernatural in nature.
Did you catch what the purpose of a miracle is? To authenticate a message or to validate the truth of the message—so in John, why did the miracles occur? To validate the truth or to authenticate the message, miracles were performed to validate that Jesus is the Messiah and to authenticate his teachings.
Because what Jesus was doing and what Jesus was teaching hadn’t been written and what he was saying was revelation from God that needed to be authenticated.
The same things that were then written and expounded on throughout the New Testament, which we know to be God’s breathed-out words.
We don’t need the same sorts of miracles that they had in the Old and New Testaments because we have the word of God readily available for us; and this Word of God has already been authenticated and validated.
So in line with John 10, why do we believe that Jesus is the Christ? Because God’s Word shows us that Jesus is the Christ.
How does it do that? By recording the life and the teachings of Jesus, and by tying Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.
We believe that Jesus is the Christ, because Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Conservatively, Jesus fulfilled at least 300 Old Testament prophecies during his earthly ministry.
We believe that Jesus is the Christ, because the Old Testament pointed towards the Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled the requirements to be the Messiah.
We believe in Jesus as the Christ because the Old Testament points to him as the Messiah and the New Testament shows him to be the Messiah, and the Bible as a whole has been authenticated and validated and has proven to be trustworthy.
We don’t have a blind faith, we have a faith in which there is evidence. So, hold fast to your belief in Jesus as God, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and Jesus will continue to be the fulfillment of Scripture in his return and in his bringing about a new heaven and a new earth. Hold fast to your faith because Jesus is faithful to his promises.
John 10:22-42 warns us to be sure of our belief in Jesus Christ, it encourages us to be assured in our salvation because our salvation is promised to us by Jesus, and it teaches us that our faith is a faith of truth proven by evidence.
Congregational Singing
Congregational Singing
O Great God
O Great God