Overwhelming Evidence and Unbelievable Hardness (John 10:22-42) Pastor Peter Yi November 18, 2018 (John 10:22-42) 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. The story begins with Jesus celebrating the Festival of Dedication. This wasn t one of the festivals that were prescribed in the Bible. Rather it was a festival that established around 200 years before the time of Christ. A Syrian ruler had taken over Jerusalem and had desecrated the temple by setting up a pagan altar in place of the altar that was already in the temple. The Jews fought back and eventually recaptured Jerusalem. An eight-day festival was celebrated after the victory to commemorate this great victory and this is today known as the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. With this background in mind we see the Jews asking Jesus once again about his identity. They ask, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. The question is most likely meant as an accusation, or as a trap, so that, depending on his answer, they can incriminate him. If he says yes, then they would use it to accuse Jesus of blasphemy. What were they asking in their question? By asking if he was the Messiah, they were asking if he was identifying himself that he was God s chosen one, God s anointed one, God s king who would restore God s kingdom of Israel on the earth. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 1 of 5
Jesus never explicitly answered that question to Jews. It was a loaded question that had layers of misunderstanding. Even if he said yes, they still would have had no concept of the type of Messiah he was going to be one that would reign on a heavenly throne, one that would deliver his people from sin and wrath, rather than deliver them from human oppressors and physical problems, one that would suffer and eventually die. Those were concepts of a Messiah that would have been utterly foreign to them. So, Jesus replies to them saying, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. At first we might think there is a contradiction. I just said that Jesus never said that he was the Messiah in front of Jews, but here he says, that he, in fact, did tell them. Well, it s not a contradiction at all. Look at the next sentence. He says, The works I do in my Father s name testify about me. Jesus tells the Jews that by his actions he has shown that he is the Messiah. His works testify, that is, give witness, or evidence, or proof that he is the Messiah. What works is he referring to? Well, all of them. Consider his miracles, water to wine. There was the healing of an official s son in chapter 4. There was the healing of the paralyzed man at a pool. There was the feeding of the 5000 and after that he walked on water. Then there was the blind man whose sight was restored in chapter 9. In addition to the miracles, there was also his teaching. He told the Pharisee Nicodemus that he had to be born again. He tells the Samaritan woman that he offers a kind of water that if she were to drink it, she would never thirst again. He claimed over and over that he was on par, at the same level as God. What God does, he does. What he says, is only what God tells him to say. The authority God has, he also possesses. The honor the Father is due is also due to the Son. To believe God is to believe to Son. Not to believe in the Son is the same as not believing in the Father. The Father gives life and the Son gives life. The Father is the judge of mankind, so is the Son. The Father can bring the dead to life, so can the Son. The entire Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets, all testify concerning the Son. He claimed that his origin is from heaven, not from the earth like the rest of us. He himself has the power to save and not lose a single person that God has given to him. He knows what s in the heart of man, just as God knows what s in our hearts. He claimed that he was sinless. He said, God will glorify me! He claimed his eternal pre-existence when he said, before Abraham was, I am. In addition, Jesus said repeatedly, that he is the only way to have eternal life. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. (John. 3:14 15) 13 Jesus answered, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13 14) For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. (John 5:21) Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24) 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. (John 5:39 40) Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. (John 6:27) 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 2 of 5
Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John. 6:35) I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51) 53 Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. (John 6:53 55) 37 Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. (John 7:37 38) When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36) Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. (John 8:51) I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. (John 10:9) That s a compilation of what Jesus had said up to this point about salvation, about himself. I want you to consider how unusual this is. No one ever before Jesus ever spoke like he did. Moses, one who wrote so much about God, a great leader, a prophet, a worker of miracles, a transmitter of God s law, the original Ten Commandments, and never did he draw attention to himself. Never did he say the kind of things Jesus said. Or consider the great prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah none of them ever said, look at me, trust in me, believe in me. None of them ever could have even dreamed of saying the things that Jesus said. Let s think of a more modern day example. One of the events that have become kind of iconic in our western culture is Apple events. It s the annual big reveal of Apple s latest and greatest products. Some of you were not old enough. You ve never owned an old Motorola or Nokia phone. You have no idea what a brick phone or a flip phone or a slide phone are. Maybe you remember the Blackberry phone that had a physical keyboard at the bottom. You don t remember a phone that isn t completely a screen. So, when Apple revealed the first iphone, it was in the world of tech, revolutionary. And then a few years after that, it was Apple, again at their annual reveal, introduced the ipad and on and on it went. You know how it goes. Back then, Steve Jobs and now Tim Cook, they would come out, and do the huge reveal. They show you the product. They explain what it is and what it can do and the benefit it will have to your life. Now imagine Steve Jobs doing his presentation, and then throwing in statements like, and that is why you must believe in me or these products will change your life, but true change will happen if you place your trust in me. And did I forget to mention, I and the Father are one. It d be ludicrous. He d be dismissed as insane. We need to see how extraordinary it was for Jesus to say what he said. That s why he can say, I did tell you that I am the Messiah, but you did not believe. Jesus says that I have given you evidence, overwhelming evidence that I am God s chosen servant, God s chosen king, the Messiah, the Christ, and yet you still didn't believe. Why? That s a very important question. Why, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, do people not believe in God and in Jesus Christ? This question is very important both for Christian people and those who are not Christian. For those who are not Christians the question is important because it ll affect the way you approach the Christian faith. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 3 of 5
Because for the person who is not yet a Christian, you might think that all you need to make the right choice are the facts, the proofs, the evidences. So let s say we brought in the world most famous apologist, William Lane Craig, and he was able to just blow you away with his intellectual horsepower, giving you watertight arguments for the existence of God, for the trustworthiness of the original documents of the Bible, for the existence 2000 years ago of a Palestinian Jew named Jesus, who performed miracles and taught unbelievable things, and that he actually died and rose again from the dead. Let s even say, that there were aliens that were far more advanced than we were and they actually video recorded the events of Jesus 2000 years ago, including all his miracles, teachings, his death and even his coming back to life again, and all his post resurrection appearances. So, there was proof after proof after proof; evidence on top of evidence. Would you then believe? Not necessarily. Maybe you re thinking, No, I would believe. If I had that kind of evidence, then yes I would believe. But I say to you, You may, and then again, you may not. How can I say that, because of this very account in John s gospel. Jesus says to his detractors, you heard what I taught, and you saw what I did and yet you still do not believe in me. So, it can t just be about the evidence. What if you are a Christian? I can say with absolute certainty that the reason you became a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, was not because of the evidence. You are not a Christian because all of your intellectual questions were answered. You are not a Christian because you so thoroughly investigated all the issues concerning Christianity and the evidence was overwhelming, so you became a Christian. That is NOT how you became a Christian. Let s turn back to the words of Jesus and see what he says in verse 26. You do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father s hand. I and the Father are one. Jesus gives us the precise reason why we don t believe. We don t believe because we are not his sheep. We don t belong to him. We haven t been invited into his sheepfold, into his family. We haven t been brought in. Let s ask a chicken or the egg question? You all are familiar with the question. What came first, the chicken or the egg? Where did the first chicken come from? Did the chicken just pop into existence, or was there first an egg? We can apply this kind of question here. Ready? Are you a sheep because you believed? Or do you believe because you re a sheep? Pretty deep, isn t it? So, take a few seconds to work that one out. Am I Christian because I believed? Or do I believe because I was made a Christian? According to the words of Jesus in this text, how would we answer that question? This is not an exercise in theological hair-splitting nonsense. This is a matter of eternity. This is about our assurance, (Poiema remember the theme of Moorelands?). Let s tease this out. Stay with me. If you are sheep because you believed, then it follows that if you were to stop believing, then you would no longer be a sheep of Jesus. If becoming a part of the sheepfold of Jesus was dependent upon your believing in him, then if ever you were to stop believing in him, you would cease being a part of his sheepfold; you would no longer be a sheep, that is you would no longer be a Christian. Now, let s look at the other scenario. The reason for why you believe is because you have been made a sheep. That s what verse 26 seems to imply. If the reason why some people do not believe, even in the presence of overwhelming evidence is because they are not a sheep, then the opposite also must be true. The reason I DO believe is because I am a sheep of Jesus. Don t believe me. Look at the book. Read the text. And apply some logic. You don t have to believe it yet, but can we agree that this is what Jesus is saying and this is what he means? Okay let s interpret. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 4 of 5
Jesus is telling us how people get saved. He s telling us how sinners become sheep. They are called by the Shepherd. And when the Shepherd calls, the sheep come. This is what Calvinists call Irresistible Grace or Effectual Calling. When Jesus calls someone to salvation, they will be and are actually saved. When Jesus says, this one or that one will be my sheep, they indeed become his sheep and thus, every sinner that Jesus calls to be his sheep, believes! If you re a Christian, this is how you were saved. You were chosen in eternity past to be his sheep. God already knew and then there was that moment at the retreat in the quiet of your room kneeling over your bed, in your Sunday School, or when mom or dad shared the Gospel with you and asked, Would you now trust in Jesus? That was the call of the Shepherd when he said, Come home, come in, be a part of my family, my fold. And then you believed. You believed, because upon the calling of the shepherd, your sinful heart was instantaneously regenerated; it was at that very moment was given to you and you were, thus, able to believe. Your old heart wasn t able to believe, it was too corrupted by sin, but not your new heart. The first action of your new heart is faith, it s to believe in the Shepherd. It s to trust in the Gospel. Jesus says in verse 27, My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. The very first words that every sheep hears is, Come to me. Follow me. Believe in me. and they can t help but obey those words. The rebel who once resisted every command of God, now listens. It s for this very reason why us Presbyterians, and us Calvinists say, Once saved, always saved? Are we once saved always saved because we believed and thus were made sheep? No. We say once saved always saved because we have a great shepherd, who calls his sheep. He says, You, come. You, come. You also, come. Yes, you, too, come. Come and be my sheep. and so, we came. So, Jesus says, I give them eternal life. I and no other. I by myself. I with my authority. I, with sovereign grace, give them eternal life and to those that he gives eternal life, to those that are made sheep, no wolf, no sin, no trial, no wavering faith, no temptation, no demon, no sickness, nothing, no one, can snatch them out the Shepherd s hand; No one can snatch them out of the Father s hand. I don t want to say evidence is useless, or unimportant. It can be very helpful. But be honest with me and be honest with yourself. When one question gets answered, don t you jump to the next question? And when that question gets answered, don't you have ten more questions? Perhaps, those questions are a smoke screen. Perhaps you have no intention of ever believing. Perhaps it s not really a question of evidence in the first place. Why not try this instead. Humble yourself. Humble yourself before God. Beg him to call your name. Plead with him to extend, even to you, his sovereign grace. Ask that he would invite you also to be one of his sheep. And if he does, then you will believe. Christian, why are you a Christian? Why are you still here, why do you still believe? Because you ve been made a sheep. Because Jesus the Son and God the Father, and the residing Holy Spirit will never let you go. Let s pray. 650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 5 of 5