PM Home Bible Study Group; March 27, 2013
John 10:22-42
Theme: This passage shows how Jesus’ sheep are identified by their response to Him.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
We have been eavesdropping on an argument—and a rather significant one at that! It’s the argument that the Pharisees were having with the Lord Jesus over His identity.
The argument really began way back in John 5 after Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath day—at which time He began to speak of His own identity and to point to His own works as a witness. The argument became intensified in chapter 8; after Jesus forgave a woman caught in adultery—at which time He affirmed Himself as the Son of the Father. They tried, at that time, to apprehend Him; but were unable to do so (8:20). Later on, they even tried to stone Him; but He escaped from their hands (8:59). Then, the argument really kicked into high-gear when He healed a blind man on the Sabbath in chapter 9. Even the blind man was able to bear witness to Jesus before the Pharisees—which only infuriated them more! Chapter 10 follows right after the testimony of that blind man.
Chapter 10 is about the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd of His people. In the first half of the chapter, He presented Himself as the legitimate Shepherd (vv. 1-3), the recognized Shepherd (vv. 4-6), the protecting Shepherd (vv. 7-10), the sacrificing Shepherd (vv. 11-13), the relational Shepherd (vv. 14-15), the universal Shepherd (v. 16), and the obedient Shepherd (vv. 17-18). What a wonderful Shepherd He is. And now, in the second half of this chapter—in yet another part of this same confrontation with the Pharisees—Jesus speaks of His sheep. Who are His sheep? How are they known to be His sheep? How do we know those who are not His sheep? This chapter tells us.
What a wonderful thing it is to be the sheep of such a Shepherd! What a terrible thing to be shown not to be His sheep!
I. THOSE WHO PROVE THEMSELVES TO BE JESUS’ SHEEP (vv. 22-30).
A. John begins by giving us the context of this phase of the argument. He writes, "Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter" (v. 22). The Feast of Dedication—sometimes called "the Feast of Lights" because of the lamps that were used to light up the temple—was what we today call Hanukkah. It was a commemoration that had its roots in the 2nd century B.C.—in the days of the Maccabean Revolt after the terrible atrocities of the wicked Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This pagan king wickedly defiled the temple of the Jewish people and sought to force the Jews into dreadful acts of paganism. The Jewish people bravely fought against him; and after he was defeated and the temple was cleansed and restored, the Jewish people commemorated its restoration by this week-long feast. The occasion of this feast in Jesus’ day was in the wintertime; and the people would naturally gravitate within the closed places of the temple. Jesus, apparently, was doing so as well; and this gave the Pharisees their opportunity.
B. John tells us, "And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, ‘How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly’" (vv. 23-24). It should have already been plain to them by that point; but most likely, they weren’t asking so that they could really know. One theory about their asking suggests that Jesus could not give them an affirmative answer, because they were asking Him if He was a kind of ‘Christ’ that He would not be for them. They wanted a conquering Messiah who—in the spirit of the great days of the Maccabean Revolt—would drive out the Romans and liberate His people. In that case, they would have been asking, "How long will You keep us in suspense? Will You rise up and be a conquering Messiah or not? If You won’t lead the people into political liberty, then when will You quit presenting Yourself as the Messiah and misleading the people as if you would?" Another theory—a much more likely one—is that they were simply seeking to get Him to make a confession that they could use against Him. John tells us, "Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe’" (v. 25a). He is about to explain to them why they wouldn’t believe. But note that He goes on to say, "’The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me’" (v. 25b). After all, He performed the very works that the Old Testament promised that the Messiah would perform. As Isaiah 35:5-6 says, "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing." If they truly wanted to believe on Him as the Messiah that the Scriptures promised, they had already had ample proof.
C. But it’s then that Jesus explains why they do not believe—and in the course of doing so, shows us what it means to be one of His sheep. He said to the Pharisees, "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you" (v. 26). Note that He didn’t say, "You are not My sheep because you do not believe"; but rather that the reason they do not believe is because they were not His sheep. Someone does not become one of His sheep by believing like one of His sheep. Rather, they believe like His sheep because that’s what they truly are! He goes on to describe several ways that someone is demonstrated to be His sheep:
1. They are acted upon by His initiative. "My sheep hear My voice", He says (v. 27a). He is the one that makes the first move toward them. He calls them (see Romans 8:28-30).
2. He enters into a relationship of love with them; saying, "and I know them" (v. 27b). To "know" them, in this sense, means much more than mere intellectual awareness. It means that He enters into a deep and personal relationship with them (see Matthew 7:23).
3. They respond to His love by obeying Him; ". . . and they follow Me" (b. 27c). Sheep are identified by who they follow; and these sheep show that they belong to Jesus by the fact that they follow Him
4. His sheep are also identified by what He gives them. "And I give them eternal life" (v. 28a). Sheep who belong to Jesus are thus identified by the quality of life they enjoy. Theirs is "eternal life".
5. Once His sheep, they are His forever. Jesus said, "and they shall never perish . . ." (v. 28b).
6. And they are secured forever as His. He says, "neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand" (v. 28c). They are so secure, in fact, that they are given to Him by the Father; and the Father Himself secures them to the Son. Jesus said, "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand" (v. 29).
D. To emphasize the unity of the Father’s gift to the Son and the Son’s securing of the sheep the Father gave Him, Jesus adds, "I and My Father are one" (v. 30)—that is, not merely one in purpose but one in essential being. What a wonderful thing it is to be one of Jesus’ sheep! His sheep are a gift to Him from the Father; and the Father forever secures what He gives to His Son.
II. THOSE WHO SHOW THEMSELVES NOT TO BE JESUS’ SHEEP (vv. 31-36).
A. But it’s then that the Pharisees proved themselves to be exactly what Jesus said they were—not His sheep. They heard His voice and did not come and follow Him. In fact, they did far worse than that—they sought to kill Him. His words "I and My Father are one" were not accepted by them. They responded to these words in much the same way as they responded to His words, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM" (8:59). They sought to stone Him back then; and now, John tells us, "Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, ‘Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?’ The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God’" (vv. 31-33). They rejected Him as the one His works clearly proved Him to be. They only thought Him to be a mere man; and so, they considered that He blasphemed when He claimed to be the Son of God in the way that His words implied.
B. Formerly, when they sought to stone Him, He had escaped. But this time—as one old Bible teacher put it—He caused the stones to drop from their hands by putting a question to them: "Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, "I said, ‘You are gods’?"’" (v. 34). Here, Jesus was quoting from Psalm 82:6. In that passage, God speaks to the rulers and judges of the people—to whom He had entrusted His word—and reminds them of the need to judge justly. They were, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, called "gods" in the sense that they were the appointed rulers of the people and the spokesmen of God to them. How then would Jesus be guilty of blasphemy if it was not blasphemy to call the judges of the people—among whom the Pharisees considered themselves—"gods"? He went on to say, "’If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 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"?’" (vv. 35-36). This being a public confrontation—with people all around bearing witness—what could the Pharisees do but drop their stones? Nevertheless, they were showing by their response to Jesus that they were not His sheep.
III. THE INVITATION TO BECOME ONE OF JESUS’ SHEEP (vv. 37-39).
A. Jesus—again, in this very public setting—went on to speak further of the testimony of His own works. They had seen those works; and they knew that they measured up to what the Old Testament promised would be done by the Messiah. He had called Himself the one "the Father sanctified and sent into the world"; and His works clearly showed that this was the truth. And so, Jesus said, "’If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him’" (vv. 37-38). The works of Jesus clearly testified the truth about Jesus. God would not have granted such works to be done by the hand of a mere blasphemer and a pretender. As even some from among them had already noted, "How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?" (9:16). As a very famous ruler of the Jews—Nicodemus—once said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him" (John 3:2). And so, even if they would not believe His own testimony, they could at least believe because of the works.
B. Jesus was inviting them to be one of His sheep. Jesus excludes no one who truly wants to be one of His sheep. But they would not heed His call. They would not come. They would not follow and they would not believe, because they were not of His sheep. This was proven even further by their hostile response to His invitation to believe His works: "Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand" (v. 40). How bitterly hard the unbelieving heart can be!
IV. THE PROGRESS OF SOME TOWARD BECOMING JESUS’ SHEEP (vv. 40-42).
A. Jesus—the Good Shepherd—does not stay where He is not welcomed. The leaders of the people didn’t want Him, and so He left. He would, of course, one day return in order to give His life for His sheep (see John 12:12-15). But until then, John tells us, "And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed" (v. 40). At the beginning of this Gospel, we’re told that John came as a witness, "to bear witness of the Light, that all through Him might believe" (1:7); and so, Jesus went to that place in the wilderness where John first bore witness of Him—"in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there" (3:23).
B. But it wasn’t as if no one responded. In fact, it’s clear that some heard His voice and came. John tells us, "Then many came to Him and said, ‘John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true’"(v. 41). They did what all true sheep must do—separate themselves from the world of unbelief, and go to where He is. They saw the testimony of His works and understood from them who He was. And in verse 42, we’re told, "And many believed in Him there." They were proving to be His sheep.
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Paul once wrote to the believers in Thessalonica. Listen to what he said to them; and you can see how they too proved themselves to be Jesus’ sheep:
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God. For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:2-10).
May we, like they, show ourselves in this world to be the "proven-sheep" of the Good Shepherd!