Introduction: John s Gospel, Jesus Is the Son of God: 38. The Unbelief of the Jews Versus the Followers of Jesus John 10:22 30 September 18, 2016 Pastor Ken Hepner Today we are looking at a passage in the Gospel of John that gives us a tremendous picture of the vastly different ways people have approached the concept of living a Life that Pleases God. Down through the recorded history of the Church and to this day, there are two vastly different approaches that people have embraced as they live out their understanding of what it means to know and walk with God. There are those who believe what really matters is what we do, in terms of our best Human Religious Effort and there are those who believe what really matters is having a personal and growing Relationship with Jesus by Faith. 1.) There are those who believe that the essence of religion that pleases God is to know and obey His laws. God has shown us in the Bible what it is that we are supposed to do. God has spoken and we are responsible to do everything in our power to obey God s rules, to be godly in our thoughts, attitudes, and conduct. Those who seek to follow Jesus in this way seek to do what they can do to provide for themselves. Their watchwords are duty, obligation, and obedience. 2.) There are those who believe that no matter how hard we try to please God by our best human effort, we will always fall short in obedience. God has given to us a Savior in Jesus who takes on and defeats our sin and self-interest. Jesus introduces us to His Spirit who comes to live in us, who makes the Bible spring to life as we read it, and who empowers us to obey Him as we deeply surrender our lives to Him each day. These people believe it is the Spirit of Jesus who works in us to transform our hearts and behaviors. Their watchwords are brokenness, surrender, grace, and mercy! Last week we ended our study by looking at the words John records in John 10:19 21. The Jews were divided over their competing opinions of Jesus. Some thought He was demonic and some thought He was a man of God, simply on the basis of His ability to do astoundingly miraculous and good things for people. We made the observation last Sunday: When we are Confronted with True Love it always demands that we Make a Choice for it or against it! This perfectly leads us right into the issue with which we are dealing in this passage: Unbelief versus following Jesus. Remember that one of John s major themes is that Jesus came down from heaven, the Word made flesh, to do the will of His Father in heaven. That will included being the once and for all sacrifice for sins, destroying the power of sin and self-interest for all who believe in Him. What Jesus did for us makes it possible for you and me to know and walk with God 1
as His adopted sons and daughters. One of John s favorite terms to describe the followers of Jesus is children of God. Jesus models for us all what a life that relates to God as Father looks like lived out in the human arena. It is a life of self-sacrificing love that puts to death the incessant desire to please one s self and that seeks rather to please God no matter what the cost. Jesus shows us what a human life that loves God in deep relationship looks like in everyday life. It is a life that focuses on and lives out of the abundance of God s heart of love, compassion and mercy for people! Remember that John wrote His Gospel account of Jesus life some 25 years after the other Gospel writers had published their accounts. John wrote to fill in the areas of Jesus life and teachings that Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn t address. John tells us in the text why he wrote this testimony to Jesus. It is found in John 20:30, 31: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." There it is. The central issue is believing in Jesus. Believing in the Biblical sense of the word is absolutely entrusting one s entire being to Jesus. It means accepting both who He is and what He did on the cross and in His resurrection to life again, to destroy the power of sin is for me. Faith in Jesus is the central issue, the core from which a life that loves and honors God is lived. In our culture we tend to value very highly what we can provide for ourselves, our intellect, and our ability to create a sense of security about the future. Culturally, we major on selfreliance as opposed to the Scriptural call to know the Lord and to learn to tap into God s sufficiency. We signed a Declaration of Independence rebelling against the monarchy of England. That was a very good thing, which gave us religious freedom to express our love to God in Christ Jesus. What is not so good, however, is how our culture has embraced and lived out our independence. We have brought our independence into the spiritual arena and have applied it to how we relate to the Sovereign God. As a culture we have so embraced what we can do for ourselves, we now live humanistic amoral lifestyles, relativism, and subjective truth. In our culture we have a definitive Work Ethic, in that we prize our ability to provide for ourselves in the material realm, and we can create a good bit of security for our families and ourselves. However, what we can do for ourselves by striving to do our best in the physical realm is definitely not transferable to the Spiritual Realm. Let s look at a Scripture text together that encourages us to take our solid, work ethic foundation and change its focus. We are admonished by the Lord to earnestly strive to know the Lord God more and more intimately. 2
Hebrews 4:10, 11 anyone who enters God s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. Entering into relationship with God meaningfully means that we don t work for Him; we strive to rest our hearts in His work for us. As we seek to live a Christian life our works are to be motivated by His Gift of Love, the desire to be pleasing to the Lord in every act of obedience. Our works, according to the teachings of Jesus in Scripture, are to Love Him and Trust Him. Luke 10:27 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. John 6:29 The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. The bottom line to all of this is that we tap into what is in the heart of God for us. He loves us with an everlasting love and has drawn us again and again with chords of kindness. The Lord God longs deeply for us, just to be with us, even if neither one of us is saying anything, just the awareness of His presence. The Lord deeply longs for Intimate Involvement in our lives, and that by our invitation. He has given us His Spirit as inner Counselor and Teacher. He is there with us to make His Word like a fire in our hearts and to give us the present reality of His inner provisions for the Christ-like life. Peter wrote a powerful word to this effect in II Peter 1:3, 4 his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world caused by evil desires. Jesus has made the Gift of New Life available to His people. That it is a gift means that it is free for all of us who believe. We have come to know the joy of sins forgiven, peace with God, and eternal life while we live in the midst of a world full of sin, death, and the slow demise of amorality and decay. Our only fitting response is to love Him with our whole heart and soul, and to love others with the self-emptying love He gives to us. Our desire must be to Be With Jesus, with no agendas other than to know more of His heart and life beating in ours! This is the real issue regarding our spiritual disciplines of what a meaningful prayer life, time alone in reading and studying the Scriptures, and meditating on what the Lord has said in His Word the Bible are all about. I. The Unbelieving Heart: John 10:22 26 Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon s Colonnade. The Jews gathered around him saying, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father s name speak for me but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 3
John tells us that three months have passed since the Feast of Tabernacles the timeline of the events of John 7, 8, and 9. The Jewish leaders have been walking in offense from Jesus s words for three months and they have just about had it with this self-proclaimed teacher Jesus. They came after Jesus when they saw Him in the temple at Solomon s Colonnade, demanding to know in no uncertain terms if Jesus saw Himself as the Messiah, the Christ of God. What these men meant by this question is pretty important for us to know. The Feast of Dedication that was happening was the celebration of the liberation of the temple from the Greeks who desecrated it with pig s blood smeared on the altar. Judas Maccabeus led a revolt against the Greeks and liberated Jerusalem and led the nation to cleanse and restore the temple rites. He was a great deliverer for Israel. These men believed that God s Messiah who was coming would be a deliverer similar to Judas Maccabeus. The Messiah would come in great power and destroy the Roman s who were occupying Jerusalem, restore the nation of Israel to sovereignty, and they would rule the world with the Messiah. The truth was that their Biases and Beliefs led them to Spiritual Blindness! Their false belief about what God s Messiah was coming to do caused them to miss Him when He came and was standing right in front of them. They were so full of themselves and their own self-sufficiency, believing themselves to be right in all things spiritual, that they couldn t even see the miracles Jesus was doing in the Name of His Father, pointed them to the approval of God the Father on His messages and His mission! Religious effort to please God hears a different voice of God than does the person who responds to Jesus by faith. These religious leaders remained in a state of unbelief because they made a conscious choice to reject Jesus on the basis of what they already knew. The truth is if your mind is closed by what you are doing for God, you can t even see Jesus pointing you to a life that is lived in relationship with the Father. As I was eating lunch with George Otis Jr. he gave me a thought that has always been important to me: When your mind is made up, you never learn anything new on that subject. We absolutely must hear this powerful word about what choosing the path of unbelief really is. Unbelief is a Grave Sin. It is different from having no faith or having little faith. Unbelief is a Self-Imposed Hardness of Heart, the Choice not be Believe! Jesus sees this clearly. Listen carefully to what Jesus says to them: Jesus answered, I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father s name speak for me but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. Jesus tells them two things that it would be good for us to see and clearly grasp and hold onto as we think about what it means to walk with Jesus by faith, His presence living in us, transforming us from the heart. 1.) Jesus said, I did tell you but you do not believe. Jesus pointed them to His works and His words that they had already chosen to reject. He made it clear to them with the 4
miraculous signs that He did. He had clearly spoken of His nature to them with His I am statements pointing to His divinity. But they chose not to believe in Him. 2.) Jesus said, You are not my sheep. He saw their hearts and souls very clearly. They did not have any softness or humility about them, nor were they teachable in regards to spiritual truths. They were convinced they already knew all there was to know about living to please God in life. As a result of their rejection of Jesus, they heard a different voice about spiritual things and they missed the voice of God, which they thought they heard clearly! II. Jesus Knows His Sheep and We Know Him: John 10:27, 28 My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. Jesus says His sheep know what His voice sounds like. We know His tone, His nature, and His voice is always in keeping with how He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures. Jesus says that His sheep know Him. The word know is a word that means Intimacy, deep knowledge of another person with whom we are in Relational Love. This intimate knowledge of Jesus that we each are privileged to have is compared to the knowledge the Father had of Jesus and Jesus had of the Father, oneness and deeply intimate experience! The relationship of the Father with the Son Jesus is the real foundational ground for you and me experiencing the presence of Jesus flowing into and through us enabling us to do God s will in life! The picture Jesus paints to us here breathes communion and fellowship between Jesus and the people He has loved so much that He has offered Himself as the sacrifice to enable us to belong to God! I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Jesus said four things to the religious leaders who were questioning Him, about what it means to know Him, to be part of His kingdom of the heart because we ve responded to His gift of grace. 1.) My sheep Listen to my Voice. In the shepherd and sheepfold analogy of Israel when this was written it was common for shepherds to use a common sheepfold so they could post a watchman and get some much needed sleep. In the morning when the shepherds came to the sheepfold, each shepherd called his sheep by name and led them out. The sheep of each shepherd went to the shepherd whose voice they knew. Jesus is telling us that there are lots of voices in our hearts and minds that want to tell us how to live. His voice is clearly recognizable amidst all of the other voices. His is the voice of truth, mercy, and grace, drawing us away from self-reliance and to God-reliance! 2.) My sheep Follow Me. When we decide to come into a relationship with Jesus something happens within us as we experience His cleansing of sin, guilt, and shame. He knocks on the door of our hearts and asks us to welcome Him to come and live with us and to walk through life with us. As we choose to welcome Him to live in us He comes to us each day and asks us to submit our lives to His Lordship anew every morning. As we 5
submit our hearts to Him, He makes His presence known to us, fills us with love, and for us the obedience question is settled. We are led to follow Him because we have chosen to love Him. 3.) I Give my Sheep Eternal Life. Jesus says if we have come to know Him as the Good Shepherd of our hearts and souls, we will not perish. Eternal life means that we will live forever with the Lord, but it also refers to a quality of life now. Knowing that we have eternal life now means the judgment of our sins has passed into Jesus body on the Cross. We have been given the gift of being able to stand before God s throne and receive the sentence of life, mercy, and grace because we have come to know Jesus personally. That fact enables us to live free to love God and love people now! 4.) No one can Snatch my Sheep from my Hand. Here is another way walking with the Lord Jesus by faith differs from thinking we are responsible to live our lives in a way that please God by our grit, will-power, and determination. Our perseverance in the kingdom of Jesus doesn t primarily rest on our ability to reach out to and take hold of the hand of Jesus. Finishing the race of faith well in life depends wholly on Jesus ability to hold on to us when life gets stormy and to come and rescue us when we think that we can t hold on any longer. Our job is to fix our eyes on Jesus no matter what we are facing, to trust in Him to hold onto us because we are dearly loved! Proverbs 3:5 8 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. III. Kept By the Father s Loving Power: John 10:29 30 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. It would be easy to conclude from the text above that Jesus is talking about His Ability alone to Keep Us in His holy kingdom of the heart when we believe in Him. But in this text we see the other side of His assertion about our security when we know Him. Jesus words are crystal-clear to us that He is able to keep us because He and His Abba Father God are one in nature, life, power, and authority. Remember the context here is Jesus responding to the religious leaders about His life and teachings. They simply can t see who He is and what He came to do because they have chosen unbelief and its self-imposed blindness to the things of God! Jesus again describes to His enemies the religious leaders a Deep and Personal Intimacy He had with God the Father, from before the creation of the world, and the likes of which these men knew nothing! In the eyes and heart of God the Father, the people of God in Christ Jesus are incredibly important. God the Father, Son, Spirit is the most powerful being in existence. There is no power the enemy has that can forcefully remove us from the hand of God the Father. We 6
are kept securely by the power of His love. The only power the enemy has is to get us to embrace sin and self-interest and remove ourselves from the cover of the power of God! That is why embracing a life of daily surrender to Jesus is so important to you and me! That is why Jesus can say with boldness and certainty in the very next phrase. No one can snatch them from my Father s hand. He is Almighty, the Most Holy God. His power and authority know no equals. And He prizes the people of God who are in Christ Jesus His Son. He cares for us and protects us from every enemy that seeks to devour the flock of God, the Church of Jesus in the world. The enemy doesn t act in love. He cares nothing for the people of God. What he wants is to break God s heart by enticing people to Serve the Enslavement of Sin! I and the Father are one. There is a profound bond of love between the Father God and His Son Jesus. The demonstration of that incredible love bond is the deep acceptance of His Abba s will and surrender to that will that we see in Jesus! The foundation of Surrender to the Will of God in our lives is the bond of relational love. The foundation of Seeking to Obey His Voice with a passionate heart is the bond of relational love. The foundation of our Unity with Each Other is the bond of relational love with God the Father, Son, and Spirit! 7
John s Gospel, Jesus Is the Son of God: 38. The Unbelief of the Jews and the Followers of Jesus John 10:22 30 September 18, 2016 Introduction: The passage from John s Gospel is a picture of two very different ways people approach living a L that P God. There are those who believe it is about our best H R E, and there are those who believe it is about a growing and personal R with Jesus by F. Last week we studied John 10:19 21 about the people being divided over opinions of Jesus. When we are confronted with true love, it always demands that we M a C for it or against it! John tells us Jesus came into the world to complete His Father s will. The Father s will was that His Son Jesus address once and for all the issue of S and S -I. Jesus models for us what a human life that honors God looks like: It puts to death the desire to please one s self and seeks rather to please God no matter the cost! John tells us why he wrote the Gospel, why he wrote about what he did in John 20:30 31. In our culture, we value what we can provide for ourselves. We have a cultural value of individualism and independence. We have a W E that is not transferrable to the spiritual realm! In Scripture we are called to strive to enter resting from working to please God, Hebrews 4:10 11. As we seek to live a Christian life, our works are to be motivated by His G of L. Luke 10:27; John 6:29 The Lord God deeply longs for I I in our lives. He has given us His Spirit as C and T. Jesus has made the G of N L available to us. Our only fitting response to His gift is to love Him with our whole heart, to love others with self-emptying love. Our desire is to B W J with no agenda other than more of His heart living in our heart! I. The Unbelieving Heart: 8
John 10:22 26 Three months have passed since the Feast of Tabernacles. The religious leaders have had offense against Jesus in their hearts for three months! These men believed the Messiah would be a deliverer from Roman forces. Their biases and beliefs led them to S B. The truth is, religious effort to please God always hears a different voice of God than does the person who walks by faith in Jesus! Let s be clear: U is a G S! It is self-imposed hardness of heart because it is a C to not B. II. Jesus Knows His Sheep and We Know Him: John 10:27 28 The people who are redeemed know the voice of Jesus. The word know is denoting I and relational L! Jesus says four things to the religious leaders who are questioning Him: 1. My sheep L to my V. 2. My sheep F M. 3. I G my S eternal L. 4. No one can S my S from my H. Our job is to fix our eyes on Jesus no matter what we are facing, trusting Him to hold on to us. Proverbs 3:5 8 III. Kept By the Father s Loving Power: John 10:29 30 It would be easy to conclude Jesus was talking about His ability alone to K U in His kingdom of the heart. Remember our context: Jesus describes to the religious leaders His D and personal I with His Father. In the eyes of our heavenly Father God, the people of God in Christ Jesus are incredibly important to Him! We are kept by His awesome power. You and I are protected from the enemy who seeks to devour the flock of God. The enemy cares nothing for people. His agenda is to break God s heart by enticing people to S the enslaving power of S! Relational love is the F of the power of God to keep us! 9
Discussion Starter Questions for Home Groups 1. What are some key differences between people who trust in their own efforts to please God and those who trust in what Jesus has done for us? 2. What is the key issue relative to living a life that honors God? What does the love of Jesus living in our hearts cause us to do for others? 3. What is so wrong about choosing the mentality of unbelief? How does unbelief differ from having no faith or little faith? 4. Jesus said we who are really His sheep know Him and He knows us. What is behind the use of that word know? What does Jesus mean by knowing Him? 5. How does Jesus describe His loving care for us in the text? Why is it important for us to know that He actively works to hold on to us after we have believed in Him and asked Him to live in our hearts? 6. Jesus told the religious leaders the Father kept His people safe from the malignant work of the enemy. What is the enemy s agenda for the people of God? Why is he filled with such hatred? 7. What reasons can you think of as to why relational love from God to us, us to God, and us to one another is the only true foundation of obedience to God and the security of the believer? 8. Read together aloud John 14:15 31. Discuss insights you have regarding the role of relational love in the lives of God s people. 9. Read together aloud 1 John 3:11 24. Discuss insights you have regarding how the love of God motivates us to make lifestyle choices. 10. When you get alone with Jesus, what is He speaking into your life? How is He calling you to deepen in your love for Him and for people in your sphere of influence? What is His holy, self-emptying, other-oriented love motivating you to do in your lifestyle choices? 10