#1501 John 10 Part 4 Little g's

 

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and continue knowing that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.

40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. 41 And many came to Him and were saying, “While John did no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in Him there. John 10: 31-42 LSB

John 10: 31-42

V. 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him - I think they try to kill Him like this a total off four times, but they can't because it's not His time. God is sovereign, and He has a set time for all of these events. Jesus is the Passover Lamb, so it will have to wait till the right Passover in the right year.

…10He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. 11He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—… John 1: 10-12

V. 32 Jesus answered them - That is composure. He doesn't run, doesn't start begging, and it is also power, because they have the stones, they are that angry, yet they don't stone Him. This is very similar to when the religious leaders arrest Him in the garden. They fall back and down when He confronts them. It is such a display that I think it triggers or feeds the courage of Cephas to go on the attack and cut off one the guard's ears. He is the same with the storm on the lake, unfazed. One must ask how He, one man, is also able to make a whip and chase the money changers out of the temple as well? How is it that no guards do anything about it? 

…5“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. Jesus said, “I am He.” And Judas His betrayer was standing there with them. 6 When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. 7So He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.… John 18: 5-7

V. 33 Because You, being a man, make Yourself God - They are trying to get Him for blasphemy, and the worst sort, a man calling Himself God. They see Him only in that sense, blind by what their eyes can perceive. He said, "I showed you many good works from the Father", and they saw that too, that He did things that men can't do of their own, or believe me, we would. There were heresies that came about later denying Jesus' humanity, and this was clear to all that saw Him though, He had a human birth, childhood, the whole human experience, but He was sent from the Father. He was born of a virgin because His origin was divine. As God the Son He preexist His incarnation, was never called into being, but was life itself, before time, before matter, the eternal One. If only they would read their prophets and believe.

…13Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well? 14Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel. 15By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.… Isaiah 7: 13-15

You remember back in chapter 5? He says, “As the Father has life in Himself, so the Son has life in Himself.” That’s God. Whoever does not receive life is God. Whoever is the source of life that everything that lives receives from is God. When Jesus says, “I give eternal life,” He is saying, “I am the source of life, therefore the eternal God.” - J Mac

V. 34 Has it not been written in your law, 'I said, you are gods' - He takes them back to the OT, to the poetry of the Psalms, to Psalm 82. Jesus always uses scripture, and how fitting, He is the Word become flesh to dwell among us. 

Go back to Psalm 82, because that’s what He quoted. Psalm 82. And Psalm 82 is a judgment by God on the rulers of Israel. Verse 1. “God takes His stand in His own congregation.” God shows up in Israel, and He’s not happy. “He judges in the midst of the rulers.” So we’re talking about rulers. And by the way, rulers were judges. That’s essentially what they did. They were judges. They adjudicated issues, solved problems. Says to the judges, “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?” You’re corrupt. You are partial to the wicked; because of your corruption you have an affinity for the corrupt. “Vindicate the weak and fatherless.” You’re supposed to be their protectors. “Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.” The plaintiffs. “Rescue the weak and the needy,” implied from the oppression. “Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.” That’s what you’re supposed to do. “But they do not know nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.” Listen, everything that holds together society is rattling loose because there’s no justice.

Verse 6. “I said, ‘You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” What does He mean? He means look, small G. You are gods. Because you are the representatives of the one true God. You are God’s agents in the world. You are the sons of the Most High. He is delegated authority to you, and you receive His Word. That’s what it says over in John 10. If He called them gods to whom the Word of God came, they were the ones who were to teach, and apply, and uphold the Word of God. “Nevertheless, you will die like men.” And there’s some irony and some sarcasm in use of gods. He may be saying, “And you think you are gods, you think you are more than you really are.” But you will die like men, “and fall like any one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth! For it is You who possesses the nations.”

In the Old Testament, Jesus says, “Corrupt judges were called gods.” Maybe sarcastically, maybe ironically. But the word was used for them because they received the Word of God, and they were the instruments of God, and the agents of God. And there’s a sense in which that’s true, with a small G. Well, if those corrupt judges could be called gods, if He called them gods, God Himself in Scripture called them gods, to whom the Word of God came. Do you say of Him, whom the Father set apart, and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’” You see the analogy. - J Mac from I and the Father are One part 3

V. 35 If He called them gods to whom the word of God came - Watch this, as Macarthur points out He is making the argument from the lesser, these Pharisees and Scribes, of the people that God had set apart to record and teach His word, to the Greater, Himself, the Word sent down from heaven. Think about it, if you are a dad, God shares His name with you, Father, and so to your children you are the representation of that authority, part of that chain. You are entrusted with little ones to teach them about their state as humans, that they are fallen, that all God owes them or anyone else in that state is death, which would be justice. If you are a Christian, you are not Jesus, but the word means little Christ, a representative, and so you should be looking more like Him in word and deed as you are being conformed to that image. 

V. 35b And the Scripture cannot be broken - Jesus is giving His view of Biblical authority. The Scriptures are tested, the prophecies proven, and once God said it it was canon, fixed. 

…15From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.… 2 Timothy 3: 15-17

V. 36 Do you say of Him, Whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world - If you are little g's for receiving the Word of God, what does it say of Me, Jesus, Who is the Word of God? He wasn't from here, His origins are from eternity, He was with the Father, and sent here. "Go ask those who were at My baptism, the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended on me like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, 'this is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased'." The whole Trinity was present for His ordination into ministry. The same at His birth. 

…34“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month.… Luke 1: 34-36

…2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.… Romans 8: 2-4

V. 37 If I do not do the works of My Father then don't believe Me - I tremble here, my heart hurts for people that see this much. He healed by His words, by a touch, told the sea to be calm, nature obeyed Him. There were people that couldn't walk, couldn't see or hear, that met Jesus and had all that change. He raised the dead, and when He did acts of mercy on the Sabbath, they accused of breaking God's law. It's sad, there were those that hated Him because He disagreed with them, showed all the power and sign of someone from God, but they accused Him of being from the devil. He is asking to be judged by His works. He is a model reformer. They want to hold fast to their traditions though, the Pharisees were just like the papal figures of Roman Catholicism. They add stuff that isn't in Scripture, like priests that can't marry, like indulgences, preaching a different Christ, having men take comfort in another gospel. Don't laugh because you are a protestant. How many of you hold to the doctrine of the carnal Christian, that you said a sinner's prayer when you were a kid so you are safe to live like hell now and in no danger of God's wrath? How many of you take comfort in that for your children or that they were sprinkled when they were little, and went to Christian camp? Children that have grown to look nothing like Christ, people who want to believe in the Jesus who can heal their back or their bank account but is powerless to save them from sin, what did you believe? I see the vestiges of the legalist Pharisees and the papal traditionalist still alive in the evangelical churches even today. We need a reformation even among those who are "reformed", we need to return to Sola Scriptura. We put a lot on form, on outward appearance, when my Lord had none of those things that men find majestic about Him. 

20Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.…

…23And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.” 25At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.… Matthew 11: 20-25

V. 38 Believe the works - If you can't believe My words then measure Me by what I am doing. Come on now, who does the things that Christ did? Who lives such a sinless life? Who performs such miracles and knows the very thoughts of men? They are standing there with stones, yet He is able to say all this.

…21And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 22Men of Israel, listen to this message: Jesus of Nazareth was a man certified by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. 23He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.… Acts 2: 21-23

V. 39 He eluded their grasp - Again, it's not His time. He was very clear again, that He and the Father are one. Jesus is God and it is only the cults that do not believe that.

…10So Pilate said to Him, “Do You refuse to speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?” 11Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.” 12From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.”… John 19: 10-12

V. 41 While John did no sign - John preached and many were baptized unto repentance. He was akin to the OT prophets and proclaimed the coming of Messiah. People don't seem to realize the power of God's word; it is beautiful, and when properly handled it is God's voice in this dark world. It is how He calls His own.

…16But not all of them welcomed the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 18But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”… Romans 10: 16-18

1Of David. I give You thanks with all my heart; before the gods I sing Your praises. 2I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your loving devotion and Your faithfulness; You have exalted Your name and Your word above all else. 3On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.… Psalm 138: 1-3