I and the Father Are One, Part 2 (John 10:22-42)

we are just having one time in the Gospel of John I there's a sameness to every chapter because John has one singular purpose and that is to present the evidence that Jesus is the Son of God the Messiah and then to call people to believe in his name and receive eternal life he has an evangelistic purpose for writing this book and and so every chapter really circles around the same great realities the claims of Jesus the call to faith the response of hostility maybe even attempt to take his life Jesus escapes then we come to another chapter very similar flow John picks out certain claims that Jesus made we call them the Iams where he claims to be God in in some unique way John also has key miracles strung through the book they are simply samples of the endless miracles that Jesus did he says at the end of his book that if they were all written down the books of the world couldn't contain everything that he did but John has a sole purpose and John sole purpose is stated as you remember at the end of his book or near the end in chapter 20 and verse 31 actually backing up to verse 30 many other signs or miracles Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing you may have life in his name this has been called the gospel of belief or the gospel of believing John's history of the life and Ministry of Jesus in which he does miracles and makes these claims and calls for faith and is rejected really comes to an end in chapter 10 chapter 10 though it's only halfway through the book is just months from Passion Week in fact the end of the story starts in chapter 11 when we get to chapter 11 we'll be right at Passion Week or near Passion Week and the final half of the book looks at Christ's entry into the city of Jerusalem his teaching during that Passion Week his crucifixion resurrection and commissioning of the disciples finally at the end of the book so as far as the chronological flow of the life of Christ goes when we get to chapter 10 we come to the end of John's history of his public ministry it's important here then that John one final time make the salient necessary statement and that is why in verse 30 John records that Jesus says I and the father are one I and the father are one that is unmistakably clear not one in purpose not one in mission not one in attitude one in essence he is claiming to be God and that is why in verse 31 the Jews picked up stones again to stone him the Old Testament law required that a blasphemer be stoned jesus answered them verse 32 I showed you many good works from the Father for which of them are you stoning me the Jews answered him for a good work we do not stone you but for blasphemy and because you being a man make yourself out to be God well they got the message that's exactly what he claimed and that is exactly who he was here his claim is absolute here his claim is unmistakable even those who hated him who saw him as a blasphemer couldn't mistake what he was saying it's all wrapped up in this response you being a man make yourself out to be God and that is blasphemy and for that we stone you by the way he didn't just claim to be God he proved that he was clearly he says to them if I do not verse 37 the works of my father do not believe me but if I do them though you do not believe me that is what I say believe the works so that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I in the father and again they saw that as blasphemy and they were seeking again to seize him and he had to escape at that point when he escaped their clutches he was gone for three months over across the area where John the Baptist said ministered and he was there with his disciples for those three months until he came back to enter Jerusalem to begin heading in days toward the cross we have a period of time when he spends time quality time instructing his disciples this then is the final public statement Jesus makes and he makes it in Jerusalem and John only leaves us with this unmistakable declaration I and the father are one and they understood exactly what he meant they had determined that he was a blasphemer for saying that this is predictable in fact this very specific prediction of their rejection of him is made by Isaiah the prophet hundreds of years ago Isaiah 53 begins who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed it says he has no stately form or Majesty that we should look upon him no appearance that we should be attracted to him he was despised and forsaken of men and a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised and we did not esteem him that is a prophecy of how Israel would treat the Messiah and that's exactly how they treated him we have seen this hostility in every chapter of John the only place it doesn't specifically appear is in chapter 2 and there's hostility there because that's the chapter when Jesus attacks the temple but we don't have a specific confrontation over his claims in - in every other chapter in the Gospel of John there are claims made by Christ to be God there are demonstrations of his deity through his miraculous power and there is conflict and rejection also in all these chapters there is a call to believe and in believing to have eternal life so it culminates really in a way here in chapter 10 as John closes out the history of Jesus public ministry now in this final conflict there are five little scenes that I want to unpack for you and we already looked at the initial one which I called confrontation look at verse 22 where we started with this at that time the Feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem that would be in the november/december season of the Jewish calendar the feast of dedication is Hanukkah or feast of Lights commemorating the victory of judas maccabees during the intertestamental period / Antiochus the pagan invader who had desecrated the temple we went into that in detail it was 164 BC when Jerusalem was liberated in the temple was cleansed and purged and a commemoration of that was put in place that's Hanukkah is still going on even today for eight days the Jews celebrated that great event and lit candles and lamps in their houses so it was also called the feast of lights so it's in the winter now Jesus of course was crucified in the spring so we're getting very close to only a matter of a few months away there he is in the porch of Solomon that was a part of the temple courtyard where you still had some remains from the Solomonic temple destroyed in 586 BC by the invading Babylonians they didn't restore they didn't destroy that massive stone retaining wall so they had rebuilt that area with some 40-foot colonnades and a great porch called the portico of Solomon Jesus was walking there in that place in the winter maybe to stay out of the weather and the Jews verse 24 gathered around him and were saying to him how long will you keep us in suspense if you are the Messiah The Anointed One the Christ tell us plainly of course this is a ruse he has told them many many times he has declared it over and over again in fact on three occasions at John records they already tried to kill him for making claims not only to be the Messiah but more to be God in fact God the Son bearing the same nature as God there's no honesty in their question they don't want information they want Jesus to say something publicly that will infuriate them that they can use to seize him and kill him this is an effort at manipulating him into a very dire place where they can do what they've been wanting to do for a long time there they are at that event the the feast of dedication celebrating a human deliverer while plotting to execute the divine deliverer deed in ironic situation then we came last time 2 verses 25 and following to the claim we went from the initial confrontation to the claim jesus answered them i told you you you you say you want to know if I'm the Messiah you don't want me to keep you in suspense you want me to tell you plainly I told you and you do not believe I told you many many many times regularly he had told them you will remember the section we call the feast section starting in chapter 5 for example in verse 18 for this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God his own father making himself equal with God he said it they knew it there was no mystery there was no suspense chapter 7 verse 1 he is walking in Galilee for a brief time he was unwilling to walk in Judea because the Jews were seeking to kill him chapter 8 into the chapter he declares himself to be God the I am who was before Abraham and in verse 59 they picked up stones to throw at him and he hid himself and went out of the temple they tried to kill him on several occasions enacting Mosaic law of stoning against a blasphemer and what was his blasphemy he said he was God and he affirmed it verse 25 they asked the question in verse 24 in verse 25 he says I told you you do not believe that's the problem you do not believe and your unbelief is unacceptable because the works that I do in my father's name these testify of me you have enough evidence to know who I am to know that I am the Messiah I am God in human flesh you do not believe that is the issue we talked about that last time okay you can never lose sight of that as a Christian you can never never lose sight of that we preach the gospel God so loved the world that He gave His only begun we got an Son that whosoever what believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life John is the gospel of believing I won't take you all the way through to every text but strong clear through this gospel that relentless calls to believing believing believing and warnings against unbelief comes to a kind of culmination I think in Chapter eight and familiar words verse 21 he said to them these are the Jews both leaders and people I go away and you will seek me and will die in your sin where I'm going you can't come I'm going to heaven you're not you're not going to heaven you will die in your sin then in verse 24 I said to you you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins that's been always the plea believe believe believe warnings way back in chapter 3 of what happens if you don't believe in the judgment that falls we saw it in chapter 6 we saw it in chapter 7 I pointed it out to you there in chapter 8 we saw warnings about believing and urgency about believing in chapter 9 this is a great theme through John's Gospel and I emphasize that to say that that is always on the front of our evangelistic efforts we call people to believe to believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God because believing means you can have eternal life in his name cannot underestimate that cannot minimize that now what did they believe if they didn't believe he was the son of God what did they believe how did they explain his miracles simply stated you find this confession in Matthew 24 and Matthew 12 I should say verse 24 and here it is he does what he does by the power of Beelzebul in other words they believed that he was satanic that the power Jesus had was not from heaven it was from hell that's their conclusion and for that conclusion in the face of all the evidence he says you cannot be forgiven because you have blaspheme against the full revelation of the Holy Spirit and that is unforgivable you've made your final conclusion and it's the opposite of the truth you cannot be forgiven that by the way is always the unforgivable sin a fixed final wrong conclusion about Christ and they couldn't have made a more wrong one so what did they believe they believed that he was from hell that his power was satanic demonic you do not believe folks we talked about this last time I don't want to go over it again simply to remind you that in evangelism we call people to believe we call people to believe and then Jesus says something that takes us to a profound place in the same statement that he said you do not believe verse 26 he says because you are not of my sheep you are not of my sheep what an amazing statement there's a reason you don't believe you don't believe because you're not of my sheep this draws us back earlier into chapter 10 to verse 4 a little of Caronia a word picture about a shepherd and sheep an analogy in illustration and in verse 4 the shepherd goes ahead of the sheep and the Sheep follow him because they know his voice they know their shepherd a stranger they simply will not follow but they will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers that this analogy is basically fulfilled in the Lord Jesus go down to verse 14 I am The Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me what a statement what a statement he could say about Judas I know you and you are a devil that's omniscience that's omniscience while we can recognize the reality of that we can't say that I can say to someone if it turns out that you never believed then you are not one of his sheep but I cannot say to a person who doesn't believe you don't believe because you're not one of his sheep I don't know that so the burden for me is to preach the gospel to every creature that I can ever reach and call them to believe but I do rest in the fact that those who are his sheep will hear his voice and they will follow the problem with those who are not his sheep they hear another voice go back to chapter 8 verse 43 why do you not understand what I'm saying why is not acceptable to you it's because you cannot hear my word you can't hear my word why you are of your father the devil you want to talk about who's from the devil it's not me you are of your father the devil you want to do to the desires of your father because you share his wicked nature he was a murderer from the beginning doesn't stand in the truth because there's no truth in him whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature for he's a liar and the father of lies but because I speak the truth you do not believe me in other words you have no capacity to believe me because you know you have no capacity you have no affinity for the truth verse 47 he who is of God hears the words of God for this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God you're not my sheep listen this is the reality that we have to recognize that on the one hand the human side of salvation is believe believe believe we call people to believe and we warn them against unbelief and God holds them accountable for their unbelief and a just punishment will be rendered upon their heads forever for that unbelief at the same time we know that they do not believe because they are not his sheep they cannot hear his voice they have another Shepherd Satan in John 6 that same truth comes through so clearly all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me verse 37 all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out for I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me all that the father gives to me will come and I am in perfect accord with the Father's will so I will receive all that he gives me verse 39 I will lose none I will raise them on the last day but it's not apart from faith verse 40 this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and I will myself raise him on the last day but verse 44 no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will again raise him on the last day it was in this confidence that our Lord rested when he was rejected when he says in the verse that I just read you do not believe because you are not of my sheep this is a sad moment a moment of pathos a moment of wrenching agony but he finds his comfort in the fact that God has a plan and God has a flock and God knows they are that flock is made up of Jew and Gentile as we saw earlier in the chapter there is the fold of Israel and then there is another fold outside Israel and they become one flock one fold one shepherd but our Lord finds his rest in the sovereign purposes of God he's being rejected in Chapter six he's being rejected all through his life even his own disciples later in chapter six walk away from him where does he find his rest he finds his rest in the purposes of God all that the father has given me will come to me I will lose none of them this really a staggering and stunning reality and I know that is that that is the conundrum that baffles all believers be content you're not smart enough to understand it you have a feeble brain it is not a paradox it is not a contradiction it is just beyond your comprehension God understands it perfectly to deny either the sovereignty of God in salvation or the responsibility of the sinner to believe is to deny what Scripture teaches it's no different than Peter indicted the Jews in acts 2 for killing the Son of God by the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God and again in chapter 4 he says the same thing you did on earth and you're fully responsible for what you did to the prince of life you killed the Prince of life you did on earth what heaven had already decreed would be done I always think that this is a mystery in Scripture that proves it wasn't written by a committee of people because they would have taken such a vast incomprehensible unsolvable reality and reduced it to some level of simplicity but Jesus knows why they don't believe and he knows who they are that don't believe just like he knew Judas was a devil I know you're not my sheep because if you were you would believe you would hear my voice you would understand what I say and you would follow me I tried to encourage a week or so ago our missionaries by reminding them of this as they battle against terror and lies and false religion all over the planet trying to try to preach the gospel and see people converted to Christ know this that the Sheep chosen by God names written in the Lamb's Book of Life his sheep his flock will hear his voice will come will not follow a stranger will believe will be received will be kept and held and raised to eternal glory not only do we find our comfort there the Lord found his as well verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and he's still really explaining the meaning of that word picture way back at the beginning of the chapter but follow the flow my sheep hear my voice that's the calling I know them I know who they are that's the predestination they follow me that's the conversion I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand you know when people asked me if salvations forever I usually take them to that verse and ask them how do you get out of this first of all the life that you receive is eternal how long is that I give eternal life to them secondly it's a gift it's a gift based on what based on a choice they're my sheep I already have declared my ownership over them that's a sovereign decision that they're mine and I can give mine whatever I choose to give them and I give them eternal life which is to say they didn't earn it they didn't somehow achieve it they simply received it and it is life and what kind of life it is eternal life it is a kind of life that has no death in it and oh by the way on the negative they will never perish that's put in there for those people who say well maybe even eternal life could be lost and we might perish just so you can't say that you have a positive I give eternal life and then you have a negative and they will never perish well well maybe not on their own but but somebody might come along and lead them away no they will never follow a stranger so no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand this just profoundly rich salvation truth if you are an elect sheep you're a gift from God to Christ by his will and when he gives you to Christ he grants you in Christ eternal life you will never perish it is impossible for anyone any person anywhere to take you out of the hand of Christ or the hand of God it's my hand in verse 28 it's the Father's hand in verse 29 the statement they will never perish is an emphatic statement no one loses eternal life because eternal life isn't based on something you did but on what God gave you because he predetermined to do that in eternity past when he chose you to be one of his own sheep your salvation rests in God's decision before time began I watched an evangelist on television pleading with people to make a decision make a decision to accept Christ make a decision to accept Christ you can't do that that's not your decision that's God's decision you are commanded to believe I wish they wouldn't use that word because I think it confuses you you're commanded to believe to repent to plead for grace and mercy to beat your breast like the publican god be merciful to me a sinner but the decision is God's once the gospel is brought to those who are God's sheep at some point they will hear they will believe they will receive eternal life they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my father's hand Jesus saying if you question my ability to hold my sheep I remind you that in John 6 I said I've lost none of them none of them Jesus even said in John 18 the only one of my apostles of my disciples the only one that is lost is Judas and that was four or deigned sacrilegious violence may nail my hands to a cross but they will still hold on to my own a sword may smite me their Shepherd and lay me low but my father's hand will hold them even when I can't that's why he prayed in John 17 knowing he was going to the cross and being separated from God he said Father keep them keep them this is salvation chosen by God to be in his flock we are the Sheep of God given to Christ as love gifts he calls us by name we know his voice we follow we will not follow another we follow in the care of the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd protects us provides for us meets every need to suggest that any of the Sheep who belong to God and are given to the care of the Good Shepherd could be lost is blasphemy we follow without exception we receive eternal life which by definition has no ending we will never perish and if one of the chosen ends up in hell and God is a liar in Christ has failed that's why Romans 8 Paul says nothing can separate us from the love of Christ a love of God in Christ this is such great powerful truth if one soul who trusted in Christ should be missing in heaven if there's one empty room that was prepared but nobody showed if there's one one unused crown then God is not God but he is this is such credible assurance for us both in our own case to know where his forever in the case of those to whom we proclaim the gospel now it is in that context of the complete perfect union of nature and purpose between the father and the son that Jesus speaks in verse 30 I and the father are one that's not an isolated statement pulled out of the air without a context that is a statement made off the declaration of the father and the son being perfectly in union affecting our eternal redemption one in purpose yes one in power yes one in nature yes equally sovereign equally loving equally divine we both care for the sheep it's like Jesus said back in chapter five when he said about the Sabbath he said my father works and what and I were I do what the father does the way the father does it when the father does it I am the father are one this isn't an abstract concept it isn't just saying your God it is saying I am so fully God that I am engaged completely in the effecting of God's eternal redemptive plan I am the one giving life to the elect I am the one calling them leading them feeding them bringing them to glory there in my hand as much as the father's hand it's an amazing statement I am the father are one redemptive lis in affecting eternal salvation this is God at his most glorious I am the god of salvation Jesus is saying not some lesser God not God with a lesser assignment we already know according to John 1 he's the creator we already know he's the one who gives life and nothing lives without his giving it life we already know that we already know he's the creator and sustainer of everything that lives and now we find out he's the god of salvation that's why Paul in Colossians 2 declares in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form that's staggering all the fullness of deity we talk about God being infinite don't we we talk about God having no beginning and no end he's infinite in terms of his existence he is has no beginning no end he is infinite in terms of his presence there is no end to his presence and yet that infinite God eternal and infinitely present is contained in a body the fullness of deity in bodily form by the way Paul says see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy empty deception according to the tradition of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ don't let anybody corrupt your thinking about who Christ is I am the father one one savingly redemptive ly well they got it oh did they get it verse 31 the Jews picked up stones again to stone him we would expect this because this is a staggering claim now remember we've said before they're there looking into the face of a Galilean carpenter they're looking at a man who looks exactly like they do maybe a little more humanly perfect sinless but in every sense of man and he is saying to them I am the true and living eternal omnipotent infinite God in a body in human form their conclusion he's from hell and why because they were of their father of the devil so they couldn't believe they couldn't understand the truth passed them by now look I know for those of us who are believers it's easy for us to land hard on that divine sovereignty side because we're included right we're included it's easy to be a little bit smug and content about the fact that you are one of those sheep and manifestly so because you've been transformed there's truth in looking at your life and saying yes I'm changed the only evidence of true saving faith is transformation and you see the transformation the love for things that are spiritual and holy and pure and good and all of that indicates the transformation has taken place it's easy to rest in that and then to say well you know the Lord got me and he'll get everybody else in and there's truth in that but the Great Commission is not open your window and watch God save people go places and watch God save people the Great Commission is to proclaim the gospel to every single creature equally advocated in the scripture and certainly in the Gospel of John is the driving passion to call people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you know people aren't angry at us for offering them heaven o people won't want to go to heaven look at all the bogus books on heaven people by nobody got persecuted for offering heaven sad to say they're offering heaven but really dispensing hell in many cases no there's there has never been persecution of people for for telling folks that you can go to heaven you can have eternal joy and but there's not a lot of preaching about heaven today very little really very little it's pretty rare books bogus strange bizarre fabricated deceptive lying stories about heaven all over the place but but that's welcome and that'll be very popular and people buy that by the millions and the more popular approach not to talk about heaven because nobody wants to talk about death so you talk about purpose in life or fulfillment in life or happiness in life or satisfaction in life I don't know that anybody's ever been persecuted for offering that you know any preacher that's been persecuted relentlessly for offering people happiness fulfillment joy whatever they want no they'll show up on Oprah right they're gonna get persecuted this society will embrace them fully they're happy to they're happy to have them around you say well why did they feel the way they did about Jesus go back to John 7 verse 1 they're trying to kill him he finally comes down to Jerusalem for the feast of tabernacles and it comes down to verse 7 we'll just pick it up there his brother's not a not any of them we're believing in him so Jesus said that my time is not yet here but your time is always opportunity world cannot hate you why they're not believers that they're not believers this would have been true of the disciples as well who did believe but but didn't yet really confront in preaching but you're part of it he says to his unbelieving brothers but it hates me why because I offer heaven because I offer eternal life as I offer eternal joy no because I testify of it that its deeds are evil that is the direct path to persecution so you will find in the society any society that you can choose you can start with Jewish society right here in the New Testament and draw it all down through history whenever a preacher begins to confront the fallenness the wickedness the wretchedness the sinfulness of people in an open honest and direct way persecution results you tell people their deeds are evil and the consequence of those evil deeds is eternal judgment and hell I can promise you you won't be on Oprah they hated him because he pronounced judgment on their sins that's part of what we do yes there is heaven yes there is blessing yes there is fulfillment a measure of fulfillment in this life of course and joy and all of that but the gospel is about confronting people's deeds as evil sinful and warning them of judgment and calling them to believe as a way to escape judgment base wickedness these leaders are are as depraved as depraved gets fact in John 1525 Jesus says of them they hated me without a cause they hated him because he was holy they hated him because he confronted their evil which they never would recognize so in chapter 10 at this final moment in John's record of his public ministry we see the confrontation at that event we see the claim that Jesus makes and the claim leads to them picking up stones to stone him at that point he stops them he stops them and confronts them and charges them with blasphemy they're the blasphemers and in doing so he makes a statement in verse 35 the scripture cannot be broken that's one of the most important statements that ever came out of the lips of Jesus but that's for next time

Channel: Grace to You

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Keywords: Sin, Christ, Lord, Jesus, Bible, God, Truth, Grace to You, John MacArthur, Gospel, Salvation, Word, Study, Preaching, Pastor, Believe, Prophet, Prophecy, Ministry, Holy Spirit, Father, Cross, Messiah, Christian, Church, Scripture, Faith, Obedience, Hostility, Jews, Deity, Claims, Miracles, Hanukkah, Feast of Lights, Blasphemy, Sheep, Shepherd, Voice, Know, Sovereignty, Responsibility, Predetermine, Flock, Eternal Life, Decision, Purpose, Stoning, Testify, Confront, Deeds, Evil

Id: VzKN90DhCCc

Length: 45min 6sec (2706 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 29 2014