The teaching and dialogue at the Feast of Booths has concluded – Light of the World, Water of Life, Good Shepherd, etc. The narrative now jumps forward a few months to December and the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah), where Jesus will even more clearly affirm His divinity.

Encounter Jesus – John Week 14

Jesus & the Father

John 10: 22-42

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

John Week 14 – Jesus & the Father Handout

Lesson Notes

I and the Father are One (John 10: 22-42)

  • Verses 22-23 – Sets the scene – it’s winter in Jerusalem, so Jesus is walking through a sheltered area rather than teaching outside in the open
  • Verses 24-27 – Picks up the key themes from earlier in chapter 10
    • Verse 24 – They want to be told plainly that Jesus is the Christ – probably not because they want to believe Him, but so they can clearly charge Him
    • Verse 25 – Jesus says He already told them with His words and deeds
      • His works for God’s glory “bear witness” about who Jesus is
    • Verse 26 – But they don’t want to believe – they aren’t part of His flock
    • Verse 27 – Jesus’ sheep hear His voice and follow Him – they don’t
  • Verse 28 – I give them eternal life
    • It’s a gift – we don’t earn it or deserve it
    • Jesus gives it through faith in Him
    • And NO ONE will snatch them out of Jesus’ hand!
    • We can’t lose our salvation – we didn’t earn it, so we can’t unearn it
    • Genuine faith will persist to the end
    • As Christians we can be bold in our faith and life because nobody can snatch us from Jesus! We need never fear for our soul.
  • Verse 29 – Why do we have this incredible assurance?
    • Because God gives us to Jesus, God is greater than anything and anyone, and nobody can snatch us away from God!
  • Verse 30 – I and the Father are one
    • Echoes of Deuteronomy 6: 4 (the Shema)
    • Jesus is God, He is One with the Father
    • 2 parts of the Trinity – they are distinct (“I and the Father”), yet one
    • They wanted a plain statement about Jesus’ identity and they got one!
  • Verse 31 – They try to stone Him for blasphemy (for the 3rd time)
  • Verse 32 – Jesus asks why? He’s shown miracle from God, and that He’s doing the work and works of God, so why kill Him for these?
    • Verse 33 – They don’t care about His works and all the plain evidence He is God (healing paralytics, healing someone born blind, bread in the wilderness) -it’s His words, claiming to be God, that they focus on
    • Certainly they’d have a point, ,unless Jesus actually is God
    • His point is that His works demonstrate that He is God
  • Verses 34-37 – A discussion centered around Psalm 82 – a psalm speaking to earthly rulers, who styled themselves as gods and sons of God
    • If human leaders and judges, who act as representatives of God, can be called in some sense “gods,” how much more can Jesus?
    • He isn’t using this as a proof of His divinity, merely to explain why His words aren’t automatically blasphemy
    • Jesus invites them to think more deeply about that Psalm and about Him as the true Son of God and fulfillment of the Psalm, the Son of God who is God Himself
    • Verse 35 – Scripture cannot be broken – Jesus held high view of Scripture and so should we!
    • In light of this, how can it be blasphemy when God the Father consecrated and sent Jesus?
    • Verse 36 – Consecration = anointed = Messiah = Christ
    • Consecration is also the theme of Hanukkah, so again, we have Jesus explaining He is the fulfillment of every Jewish festival
  • Verse 38 – Even if you don’t believe me, believe the works!
    • To see these proves Jesus’ divinity – that’s why He did miracles (see John 21)
    • The signs help us understand the unity of God the Father and God the Son
  • Verse 39-41 – Sought to arrest Jesus, but it still wasn’t His time
    • Verse 40 – He went to the east side of the Jordan, where John the Baptist had been
    • The residents knew John well and hadn’t fallen into the murderous anger toward Jesus that was common in Jerusalem
    • So they can observe Him a bit more objectively, particularly through the lens of John the Baptist’s teaching
    • Verse 41 – Many realize that Jesus fulfilled all John said about Him, so they believed

Prayer – Faith in Christ – that many would believe that Jesus is God, one with the Father, sent by the Father, and thereby receive eternal life

Next Week: I AM…the Resurrection & the Life (Sign #6 – Raising Lazarus) (John 11: 1-44)