John continues to describe Jesus' ongoing conversation with religious leaders who refuse to believe in Him. It is now the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), a time of fervent nationalism when many of the Jews hungered for a Messiah according to their own desires rather than the Messiah that God had chosen to provide for them and all who would believe in Him. Despite His words, His conduct and His miracles the Jewish leaders would not accept Him. They would not allow Him to be their Good Shepherd. However the passage ends on a wonderful note. As Jesus returned to the rural areas people again flocked to Him and many believed in Him, receiving eternal life from Him. The question remains for us: what type of person will we be?
Faith in Unexpected Places
John 10:22-42
30/01/2011
22 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, b tell us plainly.”
Feast of Dedication
- Celebrates some amazing events around 200 years earlier
- Antiochus IV Epiphanes (God among men) and the oppression of Judaism, desecration of the Temple, torah & circumcision outlawed
- Jewish rebellion led by the Maccabees, a rural priestly family
- 3 years after the desecration of the temple it was rededicated, but there was only one sealed container of pure olive oil for the menorah – enough for one night only.
· Miraculously, the menorah burned for 8 straight days & nights, long enough to have a new batch of pure olive oil pressed.
· The feast of Dedication (Hanukkah) is an 8 day festival to celebrate the cleansing of the temple, the restoration of Jewish worship and the miracle of the oil.
· The Jews love to celebrate miracles, so they would have menorahs in each household which would be lit every evening and placed either outside or near the door so night was filled with lights during the festival. Most commonly, one light would be lit on the first night, two on the second and so on, until on the last night all 8 of the special candles or lamps would be burning. (The Temple Menorah has 7 lamps, but Hanukkah menorahs have 9 – 8 for special use only and one either above or below as a general purpose light).
(examples of the Temple Menorah and a Hanukkah Menorah)
Are you the Messiah?
· Jesus is walking in the Temple grounds at a time of nationalistic fervour, and the Jewish leaders pester Him about whether He is claiming to be their Messiah or not. Will He be the one to do what the Maccabees did – only better? Will He usher in a new age of Jewish freedom and supremacy and judge the surrounding nations in wrath?
· They didn’t want to really understand Jesus’ true mission, they wanted freedom from Roman rule and to be exalted over all other peoples.
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.
“You are not my sheep”
· Remember the first image from last week? A bunch of sheep together in one pen but only those who belong to Jesus hear His voice and follow Him.
· Jesus has been speaking plainly to everyone, and backing up His words with miracle after miracle (Feeding thousands from one lunchbox, turning water into wine, giving sight to the blind, making the lame walk…).
· No matter how many miracles He did, some would never believe.
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 can 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.”
Promise and Provocation
· The Promise – if you have given your life to Christ it is completely safe in His keeping. Nothing can tear you away from His hand. Isn’t that great. Your own failures, the best efforts of our enemy, the greatest temptations our world can offer or the worst trials it can dish up – nothing can take you away from Jesus and His good purposes for your life.
· The Provocation – “I and my Father are one”
For Jews, even saying the name of God was a criminal offence, to claim to be one with God was unthinkable blasphemy.
For Jews, even saying the name of God was a criminal offence, to claim to be one with God was unthinkable blasphemy.
31 Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
· Jesus is setting these guys up. He knows what’s really going on here in the hearts of these Jewish leaders. They may be putting on a show about being zealous for God’s holiness, but really they are not at all receptive to what God is doing. They are selfish and proud.
· With the number of miracles Jesus performed He could say just about anything and people would believe Him – the Jews were conditioned to accept miracles as a sign of God’s approval. That’s come up several times in chapter 9 & 10 already. Jesus cleverly points out that in rejecting Him they are rejecting the evidence of His miracles.
33 “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
· Effectively what they’re saying is: “Those miracles would normally prove that you are from God and we would listen to you, but the fact that you claim to be God is blasphemy, and overrules the evidence of the miracles.”
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 the Scripture cannot be broken— 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’?
· For the religious leaders, this would have been an intensely frustrating moment. Jesus reminds them of a Scripture. He quotes the first part, in usual rabbinic style expecting them to remember for themselves the rest:
Psalm 82:6
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
Psalm 82:6
“I said, ‘You are “gods”;
you are all sons of the Most High.’
· Notice in verse 35 that Jesus again affirms the Scriptures as coming from God and having authority within themselves as God’s revealed word for us. We know the Scriptures that Jesus spoke of here as the Old Testament. Remember that the Apostles applied this same principle to the Scriptures written about Christ which we know as the New Testament.
· The religious leaders knew the Psalm. They knew that God through the Psalmist Asaph was speaking to human rulers who set themselves up as gods or sons of the Most High, but in fact did not share the character of God or follow His ways. God reminds them in that Psalm that they are in fact mere men who will die and face His judgment.
· In verse 36 Jesus contrasts Himself with these people and says “I actually am God, I am from God and I am doing the work of God – unlike the people spoken of in this Psalm. How could it be blasphemy to take those titles that God spoke in ridicule to pretenders, and apply them in truth to Me?
· This is a complex legal argument that Jesus makes here and it could have led to quite lengthy debates, however Jesus bring it to the heart of the matter very quickly.
37 Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38 But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
· Jesus implores them to consider all that the Scriptures reveal of God. If the had a heart to see, they would see all of these characteristics in Jesus, who is the exact representation of God to us. But even if they could not see it in Jesus and in the sorts of things He did because they were so set in their own ways and their own understandings, He begs them to at least give weight to His miracles. Surely His miraculous works could convince them that God was at work in Him.
39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
· Alas, they would not listen.
40 Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41 and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus. [1]
- Despite His words and His works, many people and most of the religious leaders rejected Jesus. They refused to accept that He could be the Son of God.
- Yet out in the back blocks people still flocked to Him and believed in Him.
- I love the statement about John the Baptist, who pointed people toward Jesus: “Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.” 42 And in that place many believed in Jesus.”
· That’s what I’d love to have said about me! I’d love for God to work miraculous signs through me - who wouldn’t? But what I really want is for people to believe in Jesus and receive eternal life in Him. What I most want is to tell people the truth about Jesus, and to see people recognise and hold on to that truth.
· Jesus offers eternal life to all those who will hear His voice and follow Him. Much of this passage is taken up with people who refuse to believe Him no matter what evidence He gives them for who He really is. But I love the ending where suddenly we find a bunch of people coming to Him and placing their faith in Him. Faith was found in surprising places - not in the centre of Jewish religious life but among everyday people who were receptive to the truth.
What sort of person will you be? 
