JESUS, THE SON OF GOD — John 10:31-42

1 Corinthians 1:10-17, 2017 resolutions, John 10:31-42, John 10:31-42, Uncategorized

INTRODUCTION:

Many years ago, there was a popular game show on television called “What’s My Line”? Maybe you’ve seen it or have heard of it. Each week they would introduce an individual who had an unusual occupation. The contestants on the show would take turns asking this person questions in order to guess what this person did for a living. The first contestant to guess the person’s line of work or occupation correctly would win the game and would receive the prizes.

In this passage of Scripture, the Jewish leaders seem to be playing a game similar to “What’s My Line”, only in reverse. Jesus, who is the person being interviewed, has already told them several times who He is, yet they keep asking Him to identify Himself. Now it’s Jesus’ turn to ask them some questions.

I. JESUS’ FIRST QUESTION TO THEM (verses 31-32)

Verse 31 is a short intermission. It says, “The Jews took up stones again to stone Him.” They were in the temple so those stones weren’t on the ground at their feet. They had to walk away from Jesus in order to find stones and pick them up. These weren’t one-handed stones; they were two-handed, large, and heavy stones. They were picking up those stones because Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” All of those Jews recognized that Jesus was claiming to be God when He made that statement. While they are gathering the stones for His execution, Jesus calls out to them, asking His first question: “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” Within that question, there are several questions that Jesus wants them to consider and answer for Him. “Are you stoning Me to death because I gave sight to a man born blind?” “Are you stoning me because I healed a man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been ill for 38 years?” “Are you stoning Me because I cleansed lepers, raised the dead, and cast out evil spirits?” “Are you stoning Me because I made the dumb speak, the deaf hear, the lame walk, and fed the multitudes?” Jesus pointed to His mighty miracles which fulfilled prophecy and set Him apart as being from God. How are they going to respond to that evidence?

II. THEIR ANSWER (verse 33)

How do you answer a question that would prove you to be wrong? How do you respond to a question that would make you look foolish? Have you ever been in that situation? There are many possibilities. Let’s see which one they choose. In verse 33, the Jews give their answer: “For a good work we don’t stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make yourself out to be God.” I call this the “shame on you for asking” approach. In a loud and demeaning tone of voice, they are saying, “That’s a stupid question!” “You’re not really serious, are you?” “It should be obvious that we are stoning you for blasphemy because You, of all people, are claiming to be God!” They have side-stepped Jesus’ question and His miracles in order to put the focus on Him and His claims. By doing so, they are hoping to have the last word on that topic so they can proceed with their stoning. However, the conversation isn’t over yet. Jesus has another question for them to answer, and this time it concerns a passage of Scripture.

III. JESUS’ SECOND QUESTION (verses 34-36)

Jesus responds to His accusers in an unexpected and unusual way, giving His answer in the form of a question to them. He quotes from Psalm 82:6 saying, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’?” Jesus is going to be using a form of logic called “reasoning from the major to the minor” (or from the greater to the less). The focus of Jesus’ argument is going to be on one book of the Bible [the Psalms], one chapter in that book [chapter 82], one verse in that chapter [verse 6], and one word within that verse [the word “GODS”].

After quoting that verse, Jesus presents His argument in verses 35 and 36, saying, “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scriptures 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’?” There must have been many puzzled looks on the faces of His adversaries after Jesus presented that argument.

We see, in this verse, Jesus’ confidence in the inspiration, the authority, and the inerrancy of God’s Word. He is saying that two things are certain: the psalm calls them gods and the Scripture cannot be broken. The Lord Jesus Christ is staking His life on the reliability, accuracy, and authority of just one word of Scripture, for His enemies were about to stone Him to death.

Down through the centuries, many ungodly people have tried to refute or destroy the Scriptures, but they have all failed. The famous philosopher, Voltaire, held up a copy of the Scriptures and boasted that he would put the Bible in the morgue. Before long, he was in the morgue and the Geneva Bible Society used his house as a Bible warehouse!

In Psalm 82, what did the psalmist mean when he used the phrase “you are gods”? Who was he referring to? He’s talking about the judges or rulers of the people of Israel. They are called “gods” because they represented God as they judged the people of Israel. It was God who put them in their positions of leadership. In Exodus 7:1, God said to Moses, “See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh.” In Exodus 21:6, as well as Exodus 22:8, 9, and 28, the word translated “judges” is the Hebrew word “Elohim” which literally means “gods”. Jesus has brought His argument to its logical conclusion. He is saying to His accusers: “Don’t stone Me just because I use the word “God”. Look at all the people in the Scriptures who were called “gods”, and the Scriptures can’t be wrong.” Jesus didn’t have to prove what He said to them because they knew those Scriptures. After hearing those words, the Jewish leaders started relaxing their grip. I can envision those stones slipping from their hands and falling to the ground beside their feet. You’ll see what I mean when we look at the next several verses of Scripture. They have lost that argument and the crowd that has gathered around them knows it.

IV. A CONCESSION (verses 37-38)

Now that Jesus has deflated their argument for stoning Him to death, He makes them a concession in verses 37-38. “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, 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.” Jesus knew that, if they would believe His works, it wouldn’t be long before they would believe in Him. This was the case for one of the most well-known illusionists in the world. Early in his career, Andre Kole considered himself to be an atheist and he was skeptical of Christianity. He was challenged to investigate the miracles of Christ with the intent of proving them to be illusions or tricks and exposing Jesus Christ as a fraud. However, his quest had the opposite result. Becoming convinced that Jesus’ works were genuine miracles, Andre became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ and used his abilities as a means of presenting the Gospel message to thousands of people around the world.

More recently, a well-known Christian illusionist and escape artist, Brock Gill, set aside his personal beliefs to explore the miracles of Jesus Christ objectively for a BBC television company. In every case, Gill concluded that Jesus could not have tricked people into believing they had experienced a miracle. There was no doubt in his mind that the mighty works of Jesus were actual miracles.

V. THE RESULTS (verses 39-42)

Verse 39 tells us what happened after Jesus finished speaking. It says, “Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.” Notice that it says “seize Him”, not “stone Him”. As I mentioned earlier, the stones that were in their hands have already fallen to the ground.” Now the Jews want to take Him into custody while they figure out what they are going to do next. That plan didn’t work either because Jesus eluded their grasp. His time had not yet come.

Jesus and His disciples escaped. They left Jerusalem and went to a place of refuge. Verse 40 says, “And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there.” The place the apostle John is referring to is on the other side of the Jordan River and about twenty miles from Jerusalem. Why did He choose to go there? There may be several reasons. It was a place of safety because the Jews wouldn’t pursue Him that far from Jerusalem. It was also a special place for Jesus. His betrayal, arrest, and crucifixion were only a week away, and Jesus has returned to the place where His public ministry began. He was baptized here by John the Baptist, and it was here that John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah and urged his own disciples to follow Jesus. Possibly the main reason Jesus decided to go to this particular region is given in verses 41 and 42. “And many came to Him and were saying, ‘While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.’ And many believed in Him there.” These people must have listened to the preaching of John the Baptist while he was in their neighborhood, preaching and baptizing. Some of them may have been baptized by John. It is now almost three years after the death of John the Baptist, yet these people still remember John’s words to them, and everything he said about Jesus has been proven to be true. As a result, many believed in Him. John the Baptist didn’t perform any signs (miracles), but he spoke about Jesus in such a way that people wanted to find out if what John said was actually true.

Bible commentator, Leon Morris, shares the following story about a ringing telephone. A harried housewife picked it up and shouted, “Sorry, I can’t talk now. Our white mouse is loose in the kitchen and I have to catch him before the cat does.” She left the receiver dangling, and strange noises filtered through for the next five minutes or so. Then she picked up the phone and heard a strange voice say, “Excuse me, lady, I know I have the wrong number. But I just had to find out. Who got the mouse?” Like this lady, John the Baptist was not a person of eloquent speech, but He spoke about Jesus in such a way that his hearers wanted to find out more about Him. Therefore, the Lord Jesus found genuine faith among these people. They came to the realization that everything John the Baptist said about Jesus was true, so they put their trust in Him because of who He was, not because of what He did.

CONCLUSION:

This event in Jesus’ life tells us a lot about His own view of Scripture. He held the Scriptures in the highest possible esteem. No one has ever had a deeper reverence for God’s Word than Himself. He read it, studied it, memorized it, meditated on it, obeyed it. and shared it often from memory. Jesus believed in the inspiration, the authority, and the truthfulness of all the Scriptures, and He came to fulfill the Scriptures.

What is your attitude toward God’s Word? It is a reflection of your attitude toward Jesus Christ because He is the main focus of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. If you’re not sure of your relationship to God and are not very familiar with the Bible, I challenge you to read the Bible and take a good look at what it says, as Andre Kole did. Investigate the life of Jesus Christ, His miracles, the prophecies He fulfilled, His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. Visit it, not as a tourist, but as an explorer. There are two ways you can study the Bible: studying it with your mind made up, or studying it to let it make up your mind. If you will take that second approach to God’s Word, you will find every word of it to be true. You will find Jesus to be all that He claims to be. Your life will be changed when you turn it over to Jesus Christ. You haven’t really lived until you’ve done so. You have yet to learn the meaning of true joy and purpose in life. You have yet to experience the relationship that gets better every day and never ends.

Fellow Christian, there’s gold and precious stones between the pages of God’s Word, but you’ve got to dig for it. The deeper you dig, the more spiritual riches there are to be found. Then, follow Jesus’ example and share the wealth with others.

CONSTRUCTION SITE: COMPLETED

Thank you for visiting this completed construction site: John 10:31-42. There are over 150 messages on this blog site and you are welcome to visit them all. I’m sharing the wealth with you.

DIVISIONS IN THE CHURCH – I Corinthians 1:10-17

1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Bible sermons, church fights, church unity

INTRODUCTION:

How important is it that there be unity within the Church? How important is it that there be unity in the Church where you fellowship? How important was unity to the apostle Paul, and to the Holy Spirit who moved Him to write this letter to the Church in Corinth?

This issue was so important that Paul devotes the first four chapters of I Corinthians to divisions in the church. In verses 10-17 of Chapter 1, Paul establishes the fact that there are divisions and begins to deal with them.

I. PAUL’S APPEAL FOR UNITY (verses 10-12)

In verses 10-12, Paul begins by giving an appeal for unity. In verse 10 we see both Paul’s affection for the Corinthian church, and his authority as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He addresses them as “brethren”. They are his family in Christ. And he speaks “in the name of” or by the authority of, our Lord Jesus Christ. There are several important terms in this passage. Paul exhorts them to “agree”. The Greek word used here literally means “to say the same thing”. This doesn’t mean that they have to agree on the minutest points in areas where there is no clear teaching in Scripture. In these cases, there should be freedom to “agree to disagree”. But when it comes to the clear teachings of God’s Word, there cannot be two conflicting views that are both right. God is not confused, and He does not contradict Himself. His Word does not disagree with itself. So Paul is insisting that the Corinthians, and all believers, have doctrinal unity that is clearly based on God’s Word. He appeals to them “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. In other words, there must be agreement with Christ, with His will, and with His Word. For a local church to be spiritually healthy and effective, and for there to be harmony in the local church, there must be doctrinal unity. Paul continues in verse 10 by saying that “there be no divisions among you”. The word “divisions” comes from the Greek word “schismata”, from which we get our English word “schism”. This word was normally used to refer to a tear in a garment. What happens when you get a tear in a piece of clothing and you keep washing and wearing that piece of clothing with the tear in it? Unless it’s mended, the tear gets bigger and bigger, doesn’t it? The church in Corinth was a group of people who were tearing themselves apart!

Paul doesn’t want these divisions to continue, so he offers them an alternative. Instead of tearing themselves apart, he urges them to be “made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment”. The words “made complete” mean “to be perfectly joined together”, like a jigsaw puzzle. How many of you have ever put together a jigsaw puzzle? Every piece of that jigsaw puzzle is different, isn’t it? But when each piece is fitted together into its proper place in the puzzle, you have a beautiful and complete picture. Have you ever tried to put a jigsaw puzzle together with the pieces turned upside down so that they are all blank? Try it some time. It’s a lot harder! On a large jigsaw puzzle of a thousand pieces or more, it’s almost impossible to put it together upside down! That’s not the way a jigsaw puzzle was meant to be put together. In the same way, that’s not the way the Church was meant to be fitted together. God wants the local church congregation and the local community to see the beauty of a church that is unified and “fitted together” in love.

Unity in the church is something that requires cooperation with each other and with the Spirit of God. We need to be “perfectly joined together” in the love of Christ. One day in Africa, a small boy was lost. The news went out but no one had seen the little fellow. The search went on until nightfall, but no answer came to their urgent calls. The anxiety of the child’s mother continued to grow, for she knew that her boy was somewhere out in the darkness where wild animals were constantly on the prowl. When daylight again appeared, they looked for him with renewed energy but still without success. In desperation, they returned and held a meeting. Perhaps, in their individual efforts, they had missed some spots; so the suggestion was made, “Let’s all join hands and go through the long grass again.” Finally, the child was found, but it was too late. When the lifeless body of the little one was carried back to the anxious mother, she cried aloud, “Oh why didn’t’ you join hands before?”

When it comes to seeking the spiritually lost for Christ, we can be much more effective if we are “perfectly joined together” in an unfailing zeal for God’s glory, not our own. Believers who are joined in heart should not find it difficult to be joined in hand, working together for the common good and for the glory of Christ. This applies also to the leadership in the church. The elders should make their decisions with “the same mind and the same judgment. There should be unanimous agreement. Not even a three-fourths vote should carry a motion. There should be oneness of mind, no matter how long it takes. Because the Holy Spirit has but one will, and because a church must be in complete harmony with His will, the leaders must be in complete harmony with each other in that will. The congregation then is to submit to the elders because it has confidence that their decisions were made under the Holy Spirit’s direction and power.

The words “made complete” in verse 10 are translated from a Greek word that was used to speak of mending such things as nets, bones, dislocated joints, broken utensils, and torn garments. The basic meaning is to put back together and make one again something that was broken or separated. Paul wants the Corinthian church to mend the broken relationships that have been caused by the divisions among its members.

In her book, “The Key to a Loving Heart”, Karen Mains includes a parable about the church entitled “The Brawling Bride”. It tells about the most climactic moment in a wedding ceremony. The families have been seated. The groom and his attendants are in their places. The minister is waiting, Bible in hand. The bridesmaids have come down the aisle. The organ begins the bridal march, and everyone stands. A gasp bursts from the guests! The bride is limping! Her gown is ripped and covered with mud! Bruises show on her arm! Her nose is bloody! One eye is purple and swollen! Her hair is messed up!

In this parable, the groom is Christ. “Doesn’t He deserve better than this?” the author asks. “His bride, the Church, has been fighting again!”

Ridiculous? Not when we hear of churches with factions or cliques of people who sit on opposite sides of the aisle. Not when one part of the congregation meets in one part of the building, and the other part of the congregation meets in another spot. Not when some people in the congregation won’t look at, speak to, or even acknowledge the existence of certain other people in the congregation. These kinds of things happen when there are divisions in a church.

In verse 11, Paul gives the reason for his appeal for unity in the church at Corinth. He had received a report from the household of Cloe that there were quarrels among the members of the Corinthian church. We do not know who the people were who belonged to “the house of Cloe”, but we must commend them for their courage and devotion. They did not try to hide the problems. They were burdened about them, and they went to the right person with them. They were also not afraid to be mentioned in Paul’s letter to the church.

Verse 12 tells us the source of this problem. Four groups had formed in the Corinthian church. There were: the followers of Paul, the followers of Apollos, the followers of Cephas or Peter, and the followers of Christ. The content of their messages was in agreement, but the followers of these men probably focused on personality differences and distorted their teachings. Paul was the apostle to the gentiles. They may have carried Paul’s teachings of justification by faith and freedom from the Law to an extreme and felt free to do whatever they wanted. Apollos was an intellectual. Acts 18:24 says that Apollos was “an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man”. Alexandria was a center for learning and philosophy. His followers in the Corinthian church may have viewed Christianity as a philosophy rather than a relationship with a Person – Jesus Christ. Peter was an uneducated, common man and may have appealed to that group of people in Corinth. The followers of Jesus may have believed in Jesus’ words only, and did not believe that the writings of Peter, Paul, and the other apostles were really Scripture. We have “Jesus only” groups even today.

II. PAUL’S CONDEMNATION (verse 13)

Paul condemns their behavior in verse 13 by saying, “Has Christ been divided?” In other words, have different amounts of Christ been given to different people? In Matthew 12:25 the Lord Jesus says, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”

Only the Lord Jesus Christ could pay the penalty for our sins because only He is the Son of God. Luke says in Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.” The ground is level at the cross. We are all equally undeserving of salvation and a relationship with Jesus Christ. Anyone who claims that he or she has an exclusive part in Christ is wrong. Christ belongs fully to every believer in His spiritual body, the Church. I Corinthians 12:12,13 says, “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, and whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” You and I can’t have more of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we can give Him more of ourselves, and experience more fully what is already ours as children of God.

III. PAUL’S EXAMPLE (verses 14-16)

In verses 14 to 16, Paul uses himself as an example. In this passage of Scripture, Paul is very careful to focus the attention on Christ and not on himself. There was nothing wrong with Paul baptizing people, but Paul didn’t want people to boast about the fact that he baptized them. In Philippians 2:9 Paul said of Christ, “Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” No Christian, no Christian minister, is to put himself in Christ’s place, or allow himself to be put in Christ’s place, and take the authority and honor that is due to Christ alone.

IV. PAUL’S CALLING (verse 17)

In verse 17, Paul says that his calling of God was to “preach the Gospel”, and the focus of the Gospel is the cross of Christ. Paul says that he does not preach “in cleverness of speech” because the power of the gospel lies in the facts of the gospel, and not in any man’s presentation of them.

CONCLUSION:

We’ve seen how important unity was to the apostle Paul. How important was unity to our Lord Jesus Christ? If you will turn in your Bibles with me to John 17:20-23, I will read the passage to you. The Lord Jesus is praying to the Father, and this is part of His prayer for us:

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.” (NKJV)

Having listened to Paul’s words and the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, how important is unity to each of us today? Are we willing and ready to pray for unity in His Church, and work at building a stronger unity among fellow members of the congregations where we fellowship and serve? Will we do so by the strength which God alone can and will supply? Are we willing to love each other as Christ loved us? If we are, all our differences and difficulties would soon come to an end. Remember, a believer who is at war with his brother or sister in Christ cannot be at peace with our heavenly Father.