John: The Son of God

Exegetical & Homiletic Point: Jesus is the Christ,who is one with the Father and securely rescues his Sheep.

Intro

Recap:

We’re well into Jesus ministry at this point in the book of John.

There’s been a few trips back and forth between Jerusalem and Jesus home region of Galilee.

Jesus has performed several miracles including: healing a disabled man, feeding the 5000, healing a blind man.

Jesus has been butting heads with the religious elites. He’s had his popularity grow and wane.

Jesus has proclaimed time and time again how he is the fulfillment of prephecy, the expected Chirst. Notice how each week in John the sermon title reflects the a new aspect of Jesus’ identity?

Last week it was the Good Shepherd - Jesus is the shepherd of his flock - the Church. And he lays down his life to secure the flock.

This week’s passage is a different time and place to the previous one, but as you will see, the Shepherd theme is still continuing, but it gives way to one of the most important things that John’s gospel has to tell us:

Jesus and God the Father are one. They are united. And that’s a crazy thing for a human being to say! But Jesus brings the receipts! He can pack up his claim.

We’re going to work our way through this interesting passage, but I will forewarn you: will brush up against two doctrines that have caused people great consternation. Now don’t be afraid of the word “Doctrine” it is a biblical word. It means “teaching”. We all want to have good doctrine; we want to know what Jesus has to teach us.

So we’re going to look at what he has to teach us in this passage, and I have summarized it as: 3 Natures and 2 Responses.

3 Natures and 2 Responses.

Nature of the Non-sheep (v22-26)

This first nature comes about as Jesus addresses his opponents. Lets look at the setting, and then what people are saying (and I’m using ESV on the screen today because it’s better for this passage):

John 10:22–24 ESV

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 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.”

So Jesus had been up at the Temple some months earlier for the Feast of Tabernacles, and now he’s back for the Feats of Dedication.

This Feast isn’t one of the big feasts that the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) required. This was a celebration that Jews of Jesus day had to commemorate the re-dedication of the temple after it had been defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes IV. You can read about that in the non-biblical book of the Maccabees, it give a run down of the historical event around that time from a Jewish perspective.

Anyway, they were celebrating the dedication of the Temple, you might know this feast by another name: Hanakkah. There doesn’t seem to be any significance to Jesus being here at this particular feast, other than we see that time is passing, and Jesus as the ideal God-fearer regularly goes to God’s house to worship.

Jesus is hanging out in the covered areas around the outside of the temple, Solomon’s colonnade. These areas made ideal spots to congregate, teach. This is long before the days of public parks everywhere and community halls like this one. The Temple was the focal point of the Jewish nation, and so even though there was the temple itself in the middle with altars and the Holy of Holies, etc. around the outside was auxiliary buildings and meeting places.

Jesus is probably teaching the public, or at very least his disciples, in one of the outbuildings, and he is approached by “the Jews”. This is most likely some Jewish leaders, like some of the Sanhedrin or priests or pharisees. At first they’re just listening in, but when they get their chance they pipe up in frustration:

“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Every time Jesus has come up to the temple there has been some commotion or controversy and Jesus had been doing some amazing signs. These folks were sick of dancing around the subject so they just come right our at ask point blank:

“Give it to us straight, are you the Messiah we’ve been waiting for?”

How does Jesus answer this question?

John 10:25–26 ESV

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.

Basically Jesus corrects their misconception. He has already been telling them. “I told you” He’s been telling them for ages! Every time Jesus is recorded interacting with people in John, he’s proving this point!

He is the Christ, he is the Messiah!

This is not like the stereotypical wife who’s quite upset that she didn’t get the gift she desired for her birthday, and the husband has no idea what’s going on. She has been dropping subtle hints to her husband for months, and he’s just oblivious. Jesus on the other hand has been direct and quite obvious, yet also avoiding their misconceptions about what they thought the Christ should be like.

But not only has Jesus “told” them, he has shown them as well, with signs - like opening eyes that only God can do, like feeding the multitude with bread from heaven like the old days, making the lame walk, bringing forth the new wine of the messianic age.

But there’s a deeper problem here, even though Jesus has “told” them, and the works bear witness about who Jesus is: they do not believe because they Don’t belong to Jesus’ flock.

“you do not believe because you are not among my sheep”

There is a link here between belief and belonging to Jesus.

You can’t believe if you don't belong to Jesus.

This is that first doctrine that causes people consternation. It’s right here, but it’s also fleshed out in the next nature we’ll get to shortly.

We have to face this as Jesus presents it.

Even though His words and His works are there, plain as day, the Jews there cannot believe because they are not Jesus’ sheep. Not part of the flock.

This is not something that they have control over, at the end of the day. They have been excluded.

This is an issue that effects many people’s attitude to evangelism. If there are people I meet who will not be part of Jesus flock, why evangelize them?

Because you don’t know.

But here’s the thing: Jesus knew. Jesus knew who was in or out of his flock! Jesus knew that most of those who were challenging him would never believe, they would never accept the evidence. Even Judas, Jesus knew that he was not truly part of the flock.

We don’t know. We don’t have that divine insight to know who is or isn’t part of Jesus flock, and so we just do what we’ve been told to do: we go into all the world proclaiming the Gospel.

We know that there will be many who reject it, despite the evidence and the words. And our Gospel proclamation will be their condemnation.

But that’s our job - proclaim the Good News to the whole creation. It’s not our job to figure out who’s names are written in the Book of Life and then only go share Jesus with those people.

But Jesus knows. He know who is in and who is out. The ones who are not prat of the flock do not believe the words. they do not believe the signs. They do not believe the testimony of creation or the call of their conscience.

“you do not believe because you are not among my sheep”’

But there are some who do believe. There are some who will believe. The are Jesus Sheep! What are they like? well…

Nature of the Sheep (v27-29)

Jesus turns straight from describing those who are not His sheep, to those who are! And as we look at this, notice the three parallels here - Jesus describes the sheep and then what he does for them:

John 10:27–28 ESV

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.

See that beautiful reciprocal relationship? Between Jesus and His sheep. Te be fair, Jesus is doing all the work but the sheep are responding to what Jesus does. Look at each in turn:

First,

My sheep hear my voice - I know them,

As opposed to those who are not Jesus sheep, they hear. They receive the words of the Christ. They will believe where the others remain in the sin of unbelief. This is not because one group is “better” that the other, but these are the one whom Jesus knows.

They hear, and Jesus knows them. This is not just in the sense that Jesus knows about them, or knows what they will do in the future (which he does know), but this is the choosing knowledge. From Genesis all the way through the Bible, God knows those who he has chosen. He knows his sheep in a way that is different to the unbelieving. He knows everything about those Jews who will never believe, but he does not “know” them relationally and covenantally. As we looked at last week, he knows them by name!

Second,

they follow me - I give them eternal life,

Those whom Jesus knows, they follow him. They hear, he knows, they follow. They will not listen to the other voices calling them away to danger and destruction, but they will follow the sound of Jesus!

But where does that lead the sheep? to eternal life! As they follow, they are given eternal life by Jesus. He is a gracious Messiah, who can lead his flock to a place that no other Shepherd can! You will not find life in any other name on earth. All other masters are deceivers and swindlers who will cheat you out of your very life! There is only one shepherd who will “make [you] lie down in green pastures.” and “lead [you] beside still waters.” (Ps 23:2).

Third,

they will never perish - no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Those who are given eternal life, surprisingly enough, will never perish. It is impossible for them! They have heard the voice, the followed Him, and so they never die.

There’s a popular TV show that deals with philosophical perspectives in a fun (and often crass) way, they get to a point where their imagining of heaven/paradise/eternity, that leads to people getting bored, and so basically they are given the option of a kind of heavenly euthanasia. The best that they could imagine for heaven is a kind of immortality that you opt-out of when you’ve had enough. But that’s a sad and small view of eternal life. The life that Jesus holds out for his sheep is not one that involves perishing - it is fullness of life! It is not something that any sheep would ever want to escape from!

And not only can the sheep never perish, they don’t need to worry about some outside force being able to put an end to it! They are safe and secure. No one will snatch them. The devil is an adversary to Jesus, but it’s like Tuvalu trying to conquer China; 11,000 people trying to take on billions. Jesus’ sheep are not at risk of being lost or stolen or misappropriated.

Jesus doubles down on this, so we should really take this to heart!

John 10:29 NIV

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

God the Father is greater than any enemy that could possible assault them, and no one can snatch those sheep from Him! Just as no one can snatch them from Jesus!

You can’t snatch the sheep from Jesus and the Father, the world can’t, Satan can’t, demons can’t, sin can’t, even bad theology can’t snatch you away from Jesus.

But notice the other interesting thing in this passage here?

It says “{father] given them to me” - The Father gave the Flock to Jesus. The flock didn’t give themselves to Jesus, the Father did.

This means that there is something in operation beyond our lived experience that causes the flock to believe, be saved and be secure. God the Father has given the flock to the Son for him to save and secure.

This is such a relief!

This is such an encouragement!

My position as a member of Jesus flock is not dependent on me! If it was, I would mess it up, that’s for sure!

Instead we are left to look to God the Father in thankful wonder, that he should give the flock to Jesus, and that Jesus would lead that flock to eternal life!

We are left looking to him for our security and peace, not to ourselves!

We are looking to God to provide, and not to ourselves to measure up or maintain this salvation.

You might ask then, if it is all of God, why should I do anything? Well, it is all of God, and he accomplishes that work through you and in you as you respond to him! “it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Php 2:13).

Yes it is all God’s doing that you are saved, that you have faith, that you will never loose that secure position with Him, BUT, he does it in you. There is change, there is repentance, there is growth in godliness. God achieves your eternal security by warning you about falling away from the faith, spurring you on towards eternal life!

There will be a great many of who will fall away, but we take solace from the fact that the sheep never will. They hear the voice of the Shepherd, they are secure, they will never perish:

1 John 2:19–20 ESV

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

You need not fear that God will forget about you, or toss you aside, or reject your application. He has his sheep, and Jesus has saved them. It’s a done deal. Can’t be retroactively changed.

If you are walking in unrepentant sin, you have reason to doubt whether you are part of Jesus flock, because when Jesus saves people, the HS enters in and starts to change them from the inside out. You will know a tree by it’s fruit! We expect to see Jesus flock turning away from sin as they are convicted of it.

If you’re not turning away from your sin, you must ask the hard question: am I the one rejecting the word of Jesus? Have I entered through Jesus the sheep-gate? Or have I climbed in over the back wall as a pretender among the flock?

Are you the seed sown among the weeds to have your faith choked out by the world?

What if the answer is yes? Based on what you can see, the evidence before your eyes says you are outside the flock.

This should inspire a terror in your heart!

You should feel the grave weight of your sin resting on your shoulders!

You must remember that the great Day of the Lord looms on the horizon and he is ready to call you to account!

Fly you fool!

Fly to the savior and throw yourself on the mercy of the Living Lord Jesus Christ!

Repent your sins and call on the name of the Lord that you may be saved!

Be cleansed of all your iniquities by the blood of Jesus Christ poured out for you. What good is that fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins unless you would be plunged beneath that flood and wash all your sins away?

Turn to the loving Good Shepherd and hear his voice calling your out of your depravity. He knows his sheep and they will follow him to eternal life. They will not perish and they will be secure with the Christ.

Two natures down, the non-sheep and the Sheep, so who’s the third nature?

Nature of the Christ (v30-38)

Jesus turns from describing what his sheep are like: He’s told them that he’s the Christ, they won’t believe it because they’re not part of the flock, he tells them what the flock is like, and the now he want’s to enumerate what it means to be the leader of the flock.

John 10:30–33 ESV

I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 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.”

“I and the father are one.” This is the only way that that it makes sense that the flock are secure in Jesus’ hand just as if they were in the Father’s hand: “no one will snatch them out of my hand”, “no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

Jesus is making a claim to be divinely intertwined with God the Father - not only is Jesus a prophet, a mouthpiece for God, Jesus is actively doing god-like work. In fact he is so closely connected to the Father that they are one. Two persons unified on mission and mindset and power.

Jesus is making a claim of god-hood.

So the Jews are livid, they think it’s blasphemy! If it were anybody else it would be! They want to take matters into their hands and deal with what they think is a wicked blasphemer. They want to purge Jesus from their midst by taking his life. They have a healthy respect for God’s name, but it is misplaced here!

They pick up the stones to kill Jesus, but Jesus asks a pertinent question, that gets the Jews to face the same problem that we saw back in chapter 9 - the miraculous works can’t come from any other source than God so how can you write off the teaching side of His ministry. How can Jesus possibly be sprouting falsehoods about God while running around healing people?

“I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

These guys brush that aside, they won’t be distracted - essentially saying “good works or not, you’re being blasphemous by equating yourself with God.”

Jesus then pulls out a master stroke, he says “look your own Bible tells you that there are some folks called “gods”, are you saying you don’t believe God’s word?”

Oof. If God calls someone a god in the Old Testament, why should the Jews get upset at Jesus using the same language?

Now this requires a little bit of work to suss this next part out, but see if you can follow along. This is the next contentious doctrine.

John 10:34–36 ESV

Jesus answered them, “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’?

Jesus is referring here to Psalm 82 which we read earlier. It’s a psalm the puzzles some people, namely because of the language about “gods”.

We Christians are monotheists - we worship and believe in the One True God. We don’t have a pantheon of gods who are all vying for our worship. Nor are we Tri-theists; we believe that Father, Son & Spirit are one God, not three.

But, you may be surprised to hear that the Bible talks about other spiritual beings as gods. Like in English, the word for god is not exclusive. Elohim is a description, not a name. God is a description, not a name. Just like human is a description, not a name.

If I were to talk about “The Father” you would immediately understand that I’m talking about some kind of pre-eminent father, in our case God the Father. But that does not mean that there are not other fathers. There are, but they all pale in comparison to THE Father.

Same with capital G, God. He is THE God, the only one we worship, and there are other spiritual beings, sometimes called gods, who pale in comparison to THE God.

That’s why God gave us his personal name YHWH (Translated LORD), so that he may be known distinctly and not confused with any other spiritual beings. The Bible helps us out with these distinctions by usually talking about the other elohim as “Sons of God”. And this is exactly what happened in Psalm 82, it speaks about the THE Elohim, who judges the elohim which are later clarified to be the Sons of Elohim.

Lets do a quick flip in your Bibles to Psalm 82. In Deuteronomy 32 we’re told that the nations were divided up between the sons of God, God handed over the other nations to be looked after by these spiritual beings, and but the LORD chose Israel for himself as His cherished possession. God one day planed to reclaim the nations through Jesus Christ, but before that day, we get Psalm 82, where THE God is holding the Sons of God to account for their mismanagement of the other nations:

Psalm 82:1–2 (ESV)

[Elohim] has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the [elohim] he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah

…and a little further down…

Psalm 82:6–7 (ESV)

I said, “You are [elohim], sons of the Most High {elyon}, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.”

So all the stuff about God’s judgment here is a topic for another day, but we need to hone in here on what Jesus picks up: THE God says to these beings “You are gods, Sons of the Most High God”

Jesus is putting this front and center with the Jews, essentially saying:

“If

God called these guys ‘gods’,

and if God spoke to them,

and if the Bible is true,

then there is a clear precedent for

God calling someone god

and God sending His word to them”

Jesus is claiming to be just such a one! “him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world” (Jn 10:36).

How can they charge Jesus with blasphemy if he’s only doing what’s been done by God before?

But Jesus says, you don’t have to take my word for it, look at the evidence!

John 10:37–38 NIV

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.”

The works Jesus has been doing prove the truth. There are the fruit. You will know a tree by it’s fruit.

And by the fruit that Jesus bore, you can see that The Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father. They’re a cohesive unit. Jesus is a god, and not just any god, he is THE GOD.

In fact, Jesus is essentially claiming to be the one judging the Divine Council from Psalm 82. “The one who judges the Sons of God? That’s me, and now I’m here doing the Father’s work. We’re like this <cross fingers>.”

The nature of Jesus is that he is God, the Son on mission from the Father. He’s doing works that are signs to his true identity. Everybody should believe in him!

But we already know that’s not going to happen. Only some will believe. There are...

Two Responses (v39-42)

Jesus is inherantly divisive. He forces people to pick a side. Even if they are apathetic, they have picked the side that rejects Jesus.

In this case however, Jesus has opponents who aren’t apathetic, but in fact try to apprehend him, yet again:

John 10:39–42 NIV

Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 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.

So it was not Jesus time to be arrested, that day was still coming. Jesus head back to old ministry turf where he runs into people who are putting the pieces together. SO we have these two responses laid out:

Those who oppose Jesus, they’re trying to arrest Jesus, or stone him. They are not content to merely say no thanks, but they are actively trying to take steps to remove Jesus from their world. There are a great many people like that in our world! In our day there are people who are actively trying to drive Jesus out of every arena!

But there are others. They show a good response to Jesus. They come to Jesus, see the signs, hear the word, believe Him! They have put the pieces together! They are the ones that Jesus was talking about - they are his flock, they will follow him, they will believe based on the signs, that will see Him for who he is!

Now we don’t know the depth of their faith, but as we approach this transitional section of the Book of John, it is interesting to see this group of people, who unlike the “believers” of earlier chapters seem humble and will not fall away. These see to be the ones that John spoke of in Ch 1:

John 1:12 NIV

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—

These are part of His flock!

What will your response be?

Where have we been?

3 Natures and 2 Responses.

Nature of…

Non-sheep

Sheep

The Christ

Your response?

Reject Him?

Believe in Him?

Believe in Him, receive him, partake in Him!

References:

Carson’s Pillar Commentary on John.

Hutcheson’s commentary on John

Hendrickson’s commentary on John

Sermons by Richard D. Philips,

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version. Orlando, FL; Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2005.

Phillips, Richard D. John. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. 1st ed. Vol. 1 & 2 of Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2014.