HG111-12 John 10:22-42

John 10:22–42 NIV

22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 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.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—36 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’? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 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 in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.

Intro & 22.

It is winter, and the cold has set in. It is December and there was a feast being celebrated. This was an important feast in the Hebrew year but not one mentioned in the Old Testament. And the reason for that is that it happened between the two testaments, the so-called 400 silent years. Today this feast is called the Festival of Lights or Hanukkah. This feast is not to be confused with the Feast of Tabernacles which was two months before. This was known then as the Feast of Dedication.

How did it come about?

A man, who is a forerunner of the Antichrist, known as Antiochus Epiphanes was King of Syria from 175 to 163BC. He added Epiphanes to his name which means: “the Great One”! Very humble man, he was! The Jews were not impressed and played on the name and called him Antiochus Epimanes, which means, “Me, the Madman!” He so loved Greek culture and language that he wanted to turn the area that he controlled Greek. But whilst some Jews accepted this most did not for they were not going to surrender their beliefs. The only way Antiochus was going to get his way was by destroying the Jewish religion and so he attacked Jerusalem and killed 80,000 Jews and sold into slavery a further 80,000+. He then went into the Temple and desecrated it by burning a sacrifice to Zeus, by sacrificing pigs and setting up prostitution in the temple chambers. He then made it a capital offence to circumcise their children. A mother caught was crucified with her children hanging around her neck. This was how much Antiochus was determined to destroy Judaism.

As a result Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, uncles and others joined him and he led a revolt against Antiochus and beat him in 165BC. They rededicated the Temple for worship of the true God - hence the Feast of Dedication. It was an 8 day celebration where lights were burned in every Jewish home to celebrate this great deliverance. And today it is still celebrated. Indeed Judas hands down his own words in the non-canonical book of First Maccabees:

Preaching the Word: John—That You May Believe Chapter 34: The Good Shepherd, Part II

… that every year at that season the days of the dedication of the altar should be observed with gladness and joy for eight days, beginning with the 25th day of the month of Chislev. (4:5)

In keeping with these words, every house in Jerusalem had eight candles in the window on the 25th of Chislev.

I said that Antiochus was a forerunner of the antichrist as the Book of Revelation says that the actual Antichrist will accept sacrifices to himself in the Temple as god. For this to happen and fulfil Scripture the Temple has to be rebuilt. Something the Orthodox Jews have been ready and waiting for in Jerusalem.

But this Festival was a time of great hope for it marked the last national deliverance. Expectation filled the air and the people were wondering whether there was a deliverer among them who will set the people free from their present slavery to the Romans.

23-24

And so it was the Jews surrounded Him and asked if He is the Christ. We know, of course, that they will reject Him and crucify Him but when the Antichrist arises they will accept him until they realise too late what they have done.

What we find in this passage was a defence of Jesus’ deity, the One to whom they should bring worship.

Of course, what they were really waiting for was one like Judas Maccabeus. And Jesus always qualified his answer so to not to encourage this false idea of who He is.

The Pulpit Commentary: St. John (Vol. II) Chapter 10

The Jews would probably have eagerly accepted Jesus as Messiah if he had been ready to take up the rôle, of a political leader.

The Jews asked the right question but they did not accept the answer.

25

Look, Jesus says, My works prove I am the Christ, and more than that, that I am God. Who is able to perform miracles like I do? Who can open the blind’s eyes to see? No normal person can do this but the One who is creator of the eye in the first place. It is like Jesus is reasoning with them in the forlorn hope they will see and go; “ah, now I understand. You must be who you claim to be.” But they were blinded by their preconceptions when He needed to be seen by spiritual eyes.

Ignorance does not produce unbelief but unbelief produces ignorance. If anyone would know God’s will he shall know of the doctrine that it is true according to John 7 17. I spoke with someone yesterday who said that you cannot force someone to become a Christian and the more you tell them the truth the more stubborn in unbelief they become. You get a wilfully unbelieving person and you can’t tell them anything. And as that is true, so is the reverse. Faith is the mother of understanding. When you first put your faith in Jesus Christ, understanding is the result. The truth is obvious to everybody but the unbeliever who has a solid wilful unbelief that cannot budge.

26

The fact is that these Jews could not understand for they were not His sheep. They understood what He was saying but refused to believe. They were ready to stone Him on the basis of what He was about to say. They will not submit to the evidence for they would not hear His voice and follow Him. Why? They are not His sheep.

In fact, it is not the first time Jesus had claimed to be God but despite that they did not believe and asked the question again. In fact by Matthew 12 they had already an answer to the pointing to His good works and they attributed them to the the power of Satan. But again Jesus says, “I’m God, I’ve told you that and I’ve proven it by My works, the healing of dead people, giving sight to blind, rearranging new and healthy organs in old sick bodies. The miracle of feeding thousands of people, walking on the water, etc, etc.” But again they refuse all the evidence.

27-29

But what of those who do believe and put their trust in Jesus? They hear His voice and follow Him. They are given eternal life. This is more about quality than quantity for time does not exist in eternity. It’s a life that does not end and it starts the moment you put your faith in Jesus. As a result it is not possible to perish. Eternal life by its nature cannot come to an end - it is a contradiction. Perish means to be separated from God and His blessedness forever and that just cannot happen. No one at any time in any way has ever lost their salvation.

In the Garden of Gethsemane the sheep scattered from Jesus but they are still sheep. Even if it goes off somewhere it does not become a goat. The moment we sheep sin the blood of Jesus has already paid for it and we are covered otherwise He did not die for all sin. And when we consider the grace of God towards us in His forgiveness, in His giving us His Son our hearts break the more we sin for, who forgives with that kind of forgiveness? And it restrains us from continuing in our wrong ways.

Preaching the Word: John—That You May Believe Conclusion

Christ is saying that our safety does not depend on our immature, futile grip upon him, but on his hold on us. How comforting! “No one can snatch them out of my hand” (v. 28). Then in verse 29 Jesus says, “No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” One hand (the Son’s) is wrapped around us, and another (the Father’s) is wrapped around that hand, so that we are doubly safe.

This passage is one of the greatest ones that guarantees the eternal security of the believer. Here are some reasons, (and thanks to John MacArthur for these):

We are Christ’s sheep and if it’s His duty to care for us as a Shepherd. To say that Christ is the Good Shepherd and that He keeps losing His sheep is to blaspheme the person of Christ. If He’s the true Shepherd, He can keep them in the fold.

The sheep is given eternal life, and to speak of eternal life as ending is a contradiction.

Eternal life is given. Notice verse 28, “I give them eternal life.” Did you earn your eternal life? Did you get eternal life by doing something? No. Well you can’t unget it by doing something either. If you didn’t earn it, you can’t lose it. It’s a gift from beginning to end.

The Lord Himself declares that they shall never perish and if one sheep goes to hell, Jesus Christ is a liar.

From the Shepherd’s hand none is able to pluck them, not even the devil. Nobody is more powerful than God.

Christ and God together hold the believer. My life is hid with Christ in God.

30-33

Now if somebody claimed that God and themselves are One and therefore God then we would rightly ridicule them. I remember when David Icke, whom I used to chauffeur around in my early 20’s to his speaking engagements, came on TV when interviewed by Terry Wogan and said: I am god. The laughter from the audience was clear. Nowadays we daren’t laugh at someone’s beliefs because they might be offended. Even in later years Wogan apologised for the way he handled that interview. Frankly, people should laugh.

But the Jews could not laugh at someone’s claim to be God. This was too serious. There was no way that a man could be God. And every time you are right, except that Jesus was no ordinary Man. He is truly man but He is also truly God. And what Jesus did proved it.

Except these Jews could not get past their initial objection. And let’s be clear from verse 33 there is no doubt in the minds of those present that Jesus was making Himself out to be God. The fact He had opposition is a clear way of proving that Jesus was saying exactly that. Perhaps when a cultist comes to your door or you have a discussion about the claims that Jesus was just a good man, then we can return to John 10 and say, actually, Jesus lays it on the line. Is He lying or is He telling the truth? There can only be two ways and they are opposites. If He is lying He cannot be the good man that they are claiming Him to be. If He is telling the Truth then you had better get with the programme because this Jesus demands everything being the exact representation of God Himself.

In verse 32 Jesus, when saying about His good works, uses the Greek word kalos. This means more than just good but excellent and beautiful. He says, “I’ve spent all my life doing beautiful things, giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf and voices to the mute and food to the hungry and etc”. But they had already made their conclusions about Jesus and there was no way through. It’s interesting that unbelief disqualifies all the evidence. No matter how much evidence you place before unbelievers whether of prophecy and miracles and experience it is completely ignored for they have already decided it is not true.

34-39

Scripture cannot be broken, Jesus said. This is a key thing to grasp. All our understanding about God, His will and His ways, about Jesus, about anything we understand concerning our faith is found in the pages of Scripture. This is our key source and it is the measure by which we know what is true. Jesus Himself said that this cannot be broken.

​Now this next bit is hard to understand from our perspective for Jesus then quotes from Psalm 82. Rabbinic thought argued from the lesser to the greater and Jesus uses the same way to convince the Jews of His deity using their type of argument:

The reason why the judges in Psalm 82 could be called gods was because they were vehicles of the word of God (vs. 35) and because their role was divine in the sense that all judgement belongs to God (according to Deuteronomy 1:17) for they judged in the place of God and all justice is God’s justice, but on that premise Jesus deserves so much the more to be called God. He is the one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world and thus a unique vehicle of the word of God.

If the argument “from the lesser to the greater” were worked out in full detail, it might run like this: if it is permissible to call men gods because they were vehicles of the word of God, how much more permissible is it to use “God” of him who is the Word of God. How can you say that I blaspheme because I said I am the Son of God. After all these judges were on earth to start with but I came from Heaven.

Jesus said in verse 37; “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.” If you’re wondering whether Jesus is God, look at His life, go ahead. Jesus is not ashamed to open that up. But don’t come with some kind of preconceived conclusion based on your own little brain that Jesus isn’t God. Start objectively and look at the facts. Jesus says, “If I do not the works of My Father, then don’t believe Me. But … verse 38 … if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the work.” At least have honest research, start with the works and if they are true, then you have your answer.

So pick up a Bible and read the four gospels and you read the deeds of Jesus Christ. And when you’re done with that, then you find some Christian and you sit down with that Christian and you have that Christian tell you of the miraculous things that Christ has done in their life and in the lives of thousands and millions of Christians throughout history. And then having charted the deeds that He did then you see the conclusion is He can be no other than God in human flesh.

At this point Jesus leaves them. Despite the fact they wanted to stone Him and/or arrest Him He just walks through them all.

40-42

Now He returns to where He started back at the River Jordan where John had baptised Him. This is where His public ministry started and also, now, where it ends. From now on it is spent in private with those who have put their trust in Him. The people had heard John the Baptist and what he said about Jesus that He is the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit. And some put their faith in Him right there. The Jews had rejected Him but here are some who received Him. The chance for repentance has almost passed for the nation of Israel for they wilfully, stubbornly refuse to believe.

Actually, this is like most people. Most do not want Jesus. But here and there some will receive Him and have the right to become sons of God. And everyday some are still coming into the sheepfold of Jesus.

Conclusion

Unbelief is a choice and if one takes it then you will become more hard-hearted to the truth but putting faith in Jesus opens ones eyes. And once we have seen it seems so obvious that we cannot understand why others cannot see. Be that as it may the privilege of coming to faith in Christ means that we are now His sheep and He will never let go of us, we will never perish for we have been given eternal life.

Benediction

Romans 8:38–39 NKJV

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bibliography

Brown, R. E. (2008). The Gospel according to John (I–XII): Introduction, translation, and notes (Vol. 29). New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Fredrikson, R. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). John (Vol. 27). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide. (2004). The Gospel according to John. Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2014). John MacArthur Sermon Archive. Panorama City, CA: Grace to You.

Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). St. John (Vol. 2). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:38 05 January 2019.