John 12:12-15 - Hosanna

12:12,13

Now the crowds are out to greet Jesus, having heard He was on His way to Jerusalem. They shouted Hosanna. According to Josephus there could be as many as 2.7 million in Jerusalem at this time, though that looks like something of an exaggeration. Palm branches were used at the Feasts of Tabernacles and Dedication, and were more generally a symbol of victory. Earlier Jesus had been reluctant to receive any acclamation, but now was happy to do so. Why the difference? Before the people wanted a military messiah, someone to set them free from the Romans. They may still have wanted the same, but it would all too quickly become obvious that this was not the kind of Messiah they were going to get. The quotes are from Psalm 118:25,26. It is interesting that the preceding verses in that psalm speak of the stone the builders rejected becoming the cornerstone.

12:14,15

Verse 15 is a quote from Zechariah 9:9. Jesus did not need to ride on a donkey, but did so to emphasise what His mission was about. He was coming as a king, but no earthly king. The people wanted to be set free from Roman oppression. We need to realise that the things we want, the things we think we need, are often not the most important things, or may even be completely the wrong to be wanting. In Scotland there are many who think our “salvation” lies in being made “free” from the English and we had a referendum on this last year. Now there are serious arguments that can be made for independence for Scotland (though the Yes campaign failed to make any of them), but if you honestly think that it will bring “salvation” you are a poor deluded fool. Equally if you think getting out of the EU will bring “salvation” you are equally deluded (almost as deluded as those who think staying in the EU is a wonderful thing :-)).

Jesus came to bring a much deeper salvation. The heart of the problem lies within our hearts, it is the sin that is rooted deep in our souls. That is what we need to be set free from. We react against this, we don’t want to face up to it, but that does not change where the problem lies.

John 12:8-11 - Kill Lazarus too

12:8

Jesus then addresses the objection that Judas raised. “You will always have the poor”. People often raise an objection that something better could have been done with money. Jesus’ words here warn us against a completely utilitarian approach to money. We should be sensible, for the most part, but logic alone is not the only thing that matters. And there is actually no limit on what we can do for the poor. We can always give.

12:9

The raising of Lazarus had made Jesus a star attraction, as if He wasn’t well known enough already. This partly explains why there were such large crowds. They also wanted to see Lazarus himself. Was he really alive? What was it like to come back from the dead? There is a similar interest today in things like near-death experiences, and “Christian” books by people who supposedly have seen heaven (my default position on these things is to assume they are wrong until proven otherwise).

12:10,11

The chief priests made plans to kill Jesus, now they added to their sin by planning to kill Lazarus as well. Jesus’ increasing fame was making Him an ever-increasing threat to them. The ministry of Jesus was showing up the paucity of their own ministry, and Lazarus was someone they could not argue with.

So we see here the effect of sin and how it takes over people. We also see the madness of it all. Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, so reason showed that death was not the “defeater” for Jesus that is is for everyone else.

Regimes try to shut up the church by persecuting it. But if there is a God persecuting the church will not achieve anything. God Himself will take action.

John 12:4-7 - Money given to the poor?

12:4-6

Judas is then introduced for the first time in John’s gospel, and not favourably. Judas questioned the woman’s actions, saying it would have been far better for the money to have been spent on the poor. The nard was worth about a year’s wages.

John makes it clear that Judas’ motives were far from pure, and that he had been pilfering from the money bag. People can often give reasonable, even noble, sounding reasons for ignoble purposes. The motives behind an argument are important, as well as the argument itself.

Judas would soon betray Jesus. Note that this was not a sudden lapse on his part, he was basically corrupt in character. Now isn't it amazing that Jesus chose him as a disciple? Yet Judas had a role to play. God fits even the most evil people into His plan.

12:7

Jesus defended Mary. The perfume had probably been collected over a period of time and Mary had saved it up for this very day. Now she probably had no idea why she was doing this, maybe just had some sort of feeling that she was meant to save it up. Now that Jesus was here she knew that now was the time. Even so, she almost certainly did not realise the full significance of what she was doing, Jesus did. He knew it was part of the preparation for burial, it was pointing to the cross. We do not appreciate the full significance of all that we do, sometimes for good and sometimes for evil. We do not need to fully understand something, but if God is directing us to do something we should just do it.

John 12:1-3 - A fragrant offering

12:1,2

Along with lots of other people, Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem for the Passover. He came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus. John emphasises the connection with the raising of Lazarus. Not surprisingly, a dinner was given in honour of Jesus. Martha was serving, note that this is consistent with what we read of her in Luke 10:38-42. Lazarus was reclining at the table.

12:3

Again, consistent with the picture painted in Luke 10:38-42, Mary takes “a pint of pure nard” (NIV), it should actually read “a pound of pure nard”. This was an extremely expensive perfume. It would normally be applied to the head, but Mary applied it to Jesus feet, and used her hair to wipe His feet. This would entail her unbinding her hair, something that a respectable women did not normally do in public. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

John 11:54-57 - On to the Passover

11:54

Jesus did not seek confrontation nor danger for its own sake, but when the time was right would willingly face up to both. So He withdrew to a town near the wilderness called Ephraim, though this isn’t actually too far from Jerusalem.

11:55-57

We are now nearing the climax of the whole gospel. The Passover celebrated God setting the nation free from slavery in Egypt. So Jerusalem was getting very busy as many people went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. As part of this they needed to purify themselves.

At the same time they were wondering about Jesus. He had made a name for Himself with His healings, miracles, teachings and confrontations with the Jewish leaders. He had also appeared at various festivals, and the people knew that the Jewish leaders were against Jesus. So at this most important of all the festivals the people wondered if Jesus would make an appearance.

The Jewish leaders were on the look out for Jesus, and if anyone knew where He was they were to let the Pharisees know so that Jesus could be arrested.

John 11:49-53 - It is better that one man die

11:49,50

Caiaphas was the high priest. The high priest was sometimes held to be prophetic as well. Caiaphas thought he was speaking his own wisdom. He saw the potential political trouble for the whole nation (and his own position) if Jesus continued in His ministry. So he thought it would be better for one man to die and so save the rest of the nation much trouble. Even in his human reasoning he was wrong, for in AD66-70 Jerusalem was utterly destroyed anyway. Worldly wisdom that is seemingly based on facts can be utterly worthless and wrong. We need to recognise the limits of our so-called wisdom.

11:51-53

However, Caiaphas was not just speaking his own words. John saw him as prophesying that Jesus would die for the nation, indeed for the whole world. So we see here the sovereignty of God and the will of man at work. We always want something to be one or the other. Did Caiaphas choose to say this, or did God make him say it? The answer is Yes to both. The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man go together, both can be operating at the same time, but it is God’s will that prevails.

Caiaphas’ words had much greater significance than he realised. They thought they were dealing with the state of the nation, but in fact it was the salvation of the whole world that was being played out. Events can be much more significant than we ever imagine.

John 11:45-48 - What are we accomplishing?

11:45,46

Many of the Jews believed. Here John seems to be using the term Jews to refer to Jews in general, rather than just the religious and civil leaders. They saw what Jesus did and believed in Him. Also, there is no hint here that the faith is not genuine.

However, not all believed. Some went to the Pharisees to tell them what Jesus had done. Now why did they do this? Perhaps it was out of belief and they wanted the Pharisees to know that Jesus was genuine. However, it seems more likely that they wanted to keep in with the Pharisees.

11:47,48

The Pharisees and the council, the Sanhedrin, gathered to discuss the matter. They were faced with a great problem. Jesus had done something truly amazing, and the people had seen it. Verse 48 expresses the fear they had. They were concerned about their own position, and they were concerned about the reaction of the Romans. The Romans were the occupying power, and the main concern of the Romans was that there was no trouble. If there was trouble then the Roman empire would come down with a heavy blow.

Now is there any evidence that Jesus would have started a political revolution.The short answer is no. Look at His interactions with Pilate, and indeed Pilate could find nothing wrong with Jesus. So the Jewish leaders were rationalising their concern for their own position. It was their own position that they saw threatened, for here was a truly godly man, and a man with genuine divine power. They lacked both of these. But they couldn’t come out and say that they were acting out of a selfish desire to protect themselves, so they had to find some argument that they were really doing this for the good of the nation.

We need to beware that we can also do the same, finding some excuse for a sinful or ungodly course of action.

John 11:38-44 - If you believe

11:38

Jesus was “deeply moved again” and went to the tomb. Now, why is He deeply moved now? He knows the awfulness of the present human condition. Death was never meant to be part of our experience, but because we sinned against God we became subject to death. Death is an awful thing, even when we lose someone who lives to ripe old age there is a deep sorrow at their departing. Jesus understands the awfulness of death, but He also knew that He was going to conquer death, and the raising of Lazarus was a sign of that victory.

11:39,40

Jesus ordered them to take the stone away. The people were appalled at this idea, knowing that the body would have begun to decompose, having been there for four days. Jesus tells Martha not to worry. So we see a perfectly reasonable objection to what Jesus is saying, an objection that is consistent with hundreds of years of experience and all common sense, but it counts for nothing. God is going to do something radically different.

We need to recognise the proper place of common sense in Christianity. Common sense can be an obstacle to faith, an obstacle to obeying Jesus. At the same time we must not go to the other extreme, especially the nuttier the idea the more likely it is to be from God way of thinking. The Bible, especially in Proverbs, is full of Godly common sense.

11:41-44

Martha listened to Jesus and they took away the stone. Jesus then prayed to His Father. He prayed aloud so that everyone would hear and would know that what was about to happen was the result of God’s work. Notice what Jesus is praying. he does not actually pray that the Father will raise Lazarus, instead His prayer is about people recognising who He is. Then Jesus commanded Lazarus to come out. He did this in a loud voice.

Lazarus came out, still bound in his grave clothes. This is sometimes seen as a picture of how someone is saved. We are dead in our sins, unable to respond to God, but God commands us to come to life. In his state of deadness Lazarus would have been unable to do anything, so God must have given life back to him, restarting his heart, blood flow etc.

John 11:33-37 - Jesus wept

11:33

There is disagreement over the interpretation of this verse. Jesus saw Mary and the companions who had followed her weeping. It then says He was “deeply moved in spirit and troubled”. The Greek word is rarely used in the New Testament and implies a strength of emotion. The debate is over whether it means He was deeply moved at the grief that Mary and others were experiencing, or that He was angry at their lack of faith. Charismatic preachers have a tendency to favour the latter, and it makes a good preaching point, but I don’t think it fits at all. First, as we will read alter, “Jesus wept”, and v36 implies that this was genuine sorrow at the death of Lazarus. Secondly, God does not expect us to be raising people from the dead all the time, and death is a normal part of the cycle of life, including Christian life. There will be occasional times when a miracle occurs, but this will not be the norm.

11:34-37

Jesus is taken to where Lazarus is laid, and then we get the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept.” The interpretation of this section depends upon how the previous section has been interpreted. If we take the line that Jesus is angry at the lack of faith of the people, then His weeping here is weeping in sorrow at their lack of faith. In favour of this is the fact that Jesus wept over Jerusalem at their lack of faith (Luke 19:41-44). However, as indicated earlier, I do not think this is the best way to interpret it. In the Luke passage itself it is Israel’s failure to recognise Jesus for who He is that is the cause of the deep sorrow. Here, the reaction of the crowd is consistent with Jesus weeping in sorrow at the death of Lazarus *(v36).

Now we might ask “why would Jesus weep when He knows He is going to raise Lazarus in a short while?”. Why indeed? God is going to transform all sorts of things in the future, but what happens now still matters, it is real and it is important. Lazarus’ death was real and was important. So I see no contradiction or problem in Jesus weeping in mourning for Lazarus.

John 11:30-32 - If only you had been here

11:30,31

Martha had met Jesus outside the village, so most of the people did not know that He had arrived. Again, if we listen to the world we will not be wise. The world does not know everything that is happening. Here they did not know that Jesus had arrived, and had no idea of what He was going to do. We need to listen to Jesus, for only He knows what He is going to do in the world. This does not mean we should not listen to the news or to the world’s “wise men and women”, but we should always be aware of the limits of their knowledge and wisdom.

So the Jews assumed that Mary was going to the tomb to weep. Just as the world does not know what God is doing, so there will be times when it does not know what we are doing, or misinterprets what we are doing.

11:32

Mary’s reaction is somewhat similar to that of Martha, though there is no mention of Martha falling at Jesus’ feet. One gets the impression from here and elsewhere that Mary was the more demonstrative of the two. Like Martha, she says to Jesus that if He had been here then Lazarus would not have died. Again, this could be either an implied rebuke for Jesus, or a sign of faith, or perhaps a mixture of both.

Now let’s remember that Jesus did, of course, raise Lazarus from the dead. The feelings and emotions that Mary and Martha experienced prior to this were real. There was sadness, despair, and disappointment that Jesus had not arrived to heal Lazarus. They had faith in Jesus, and devotion to Him, and both these were genuine, but what was the point? When they needed Him most He did not show up! We can all feel like this at times, but just as Mary and Martha did not see the whole picture, nor do we. They assumed that God had nothing else to do, but the king had one more move!

John 11:25-29 - The resurrection and the life

11:25-27

Now Jesus draws attention to Himself. We have a tendency to focus on the “what”, Jesus wants us to focus on the “who”, namely Himself. Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, He was pointing to the final resurrection. Why would all these things happen? Because of Jesus Himself. Our focus needs to be on the One we believe in. Conversely, if we do this we will actually see more miracles, more answers to prayer, more results. But if we focus on believing for miracles, focusing on results, then we will be disappointed.

If we believe in Jesus then we will have eternal life. Most of us will die, but if we believe in Jesus then we will be raised to new life. The whole point of the Lazarus miracle was to demonstrate the absolute reality of this.

Notice that Jesus “whoever lives by believing in me”. Belief is not an intellectual assent, it is a way of life, it is how we live. Paul said that the life he now lives he lives by faith in Christ (Gal 2:20).

Then comes the vital question, “do you believe this?”.  The central question for Martha was her own belief. Mary answers that she does believe. She knows that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah.

11:28,29

Mary then calls her sister. Because of all the mourning that was going on she did this privately, so that Mary could slip away without being noticed. Jesus wanted to see Mary as well. We can get so involved in what is going on in the world. In this case the mourning at the funeral, all convinced that this was the end of the line for Lazarus. It can be situations at work, situations in society. Jesus calls us to Himself so that we can learn what is really going on. We know from Luke that Mary was devoted to Jesus, so she went at once to Him.

Sermon on John 4:4-26

Sermon on John 4:4-26

John 11:23,24 - Your brother will rise again

11:23,24

Remember back in chapter 4 how Jesus drew out faith from the Samaritan woman, leading her from her current understanding to a new level of understanding. He now does the same with Martha. He declares that her brother would rise again. Now Martha believed this, she held to the same view that the Pharisees had that the dead would rise on the last day. In this she was correct, but Jesus wanted to take her further. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees did not. We may think that we believe the truths of the gospel, and what we do believe may well be true as far as it goes, but the implications and the reality are far greater and far deeper than we ever imagine. All of us need to go deeper in our faith.

See also that the future event of the resurrection has immediate consequences, it impacts the present. We have a tendency to shove things to the last day, thinking they will not impact today. This is not Biblical thinking. We know that Lazarus was going to be raised that day.

At the same time we need to avoid the other extreme. The gospel is not about raising people from physical death today. Lazarus was raised, but raised back to his former state. When we are raised on the last day (or transformed if we are still alive at the time) we will be given new bodies, we will be raised immortal (1 Cor 15:42-44). Now there will still be times when people are raised from the dead as Lazarus was. There are incidents in Acts when this happens, and there are isolated incidents when it still does happen (though not every claim in this area is true!), but it is not the focus.

John 11:17-22 - If you had been here

11:17-19

Jesus eventually arrived at Bethany and Lazarus had been dead for four days. As mentioned earlier, under common thinking this meant he was well and truly dead, he had also been entombed.

Bethany was near Jerusalem, just about two miles away. Remember that John is writing for people who did not live in Israel, so they would not be familiar with the local geography, hence the added details.

Many neighbours had come round to mourn with Mary and Martha.

11:20-22

Martha ran out to meet Jesus. Verse 21 can be taken as a declaration of faith or as a rebuke. She believed that Jesus could have healed Lazarus, but is dismayed that He did not come earlier. Verse 22 implies that there was still a vestige of hope within her, even though all the circumstances said everything was finished, she still knew that Jesus could do something. However, it is not clear what she expected.

John 11:11-16 - Lazarus is dead

11:11-13

We now get back to the central issue of Lazarus. First, Jesus speaks enigmatically, referring to Lazarus as just being asleep, and He going to waken Him. Why did Jesus say things this way? Part of what He is doing is doing away with the fear of death. To speak of Lazarus as “being asleep” and Jesus “wakening” him was not euphemistic talk, seeking to soften the awfulness of the situation. He was expressing the truth. Death has been defeated. We will still die, but then we will rise again. So death is just like sleep, it has lost its sting.

11:14-16

Jesus then speaks plainly. There is truth in what He has said in the previous three verses, but death is still painful, it is still real. At this point the disciples have no idea what Jesus is going to do. Jesus knew what He was going to do, and He wanted the disciples to believe. He wanted them to know who He was and the full extent of His power (Eph 1:19,20), we need to know the same.

Thomas gets more mentions in John’s gospel than he does in the synoptics, where he hardly figures at all. We could read these words as being resigned to their fate, or as being prepared to remain committed to Jesus, even in danger.

John 11:5-10 - Daylight

11:5,6

This is an odd couple of verses, look at what it says. Because Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus He stayed a couple of days. Now when we pray to God we want an answer now, and preferably sooner. So how on earth does this demonstrate love? Well even if Jesus had left immediately Lazarus would still have died. Now there was a common belief that the spirit of a dead person hovered around for three days after someone died, so Jesus’ waiting meant Lazarus had been dead four days, so everyone knew that he was well and truly dead. So the miracle was all the more clear.

When God doesn’t act in the way we want in our life it is because He has something greater planned for us (not necessarily easier!).

11:7,8

Jesus continues to act in a “strange” way, at least from a human perspective. He now leads them to Judea. The disciples are amazed at this suggestion as the Jews were clearly out to get Him, as previous incidents had repeatedly demonstrated.

11:9,10

The disciples saw danger and risk, Jesus saw that it was still time to do good. It was true that there was danger about, indeed a far more dangerous time than anything the disciples envisaged was about to happen. So the disciples were fearful and loathe to take risk. Jesus points out with a natural analogy how ridiculous an approach this was. There are twelve hours of daylight, and we know they will be followed by twelve hours of darkness. Now remember that we are in the middle-east, so day and night were more balanced than they are for most of the year here in Scotland. Also remember that they did not have electric lights! Dark was a far more serious thing than it is for us. However, knowing that darkness is coming soon does not mean that we do nothing during the daylight. Quite the opposite, we make the most of it and seek to get stuff done. So it is in the kingdom. Jesus knew far more clearly than the disciples did what was coming, but that was all the more reason to do good while He could.

John 11:1-4 - This will not lead to death

11:1,2

This is the last, and the greatest, of the miracles recorded in John’s gospel (excluding the resurrection itself!). John introduces Lazarus, Mary and Martha. See from verse 2 that John assumes his readers already know about Mary (Luke 10:39-42). This points to Luke’s gospel having been written earlier than John’s, and that it was well known at a relatively early stage in the later part of the first century. John then refers to Mary anointing Jesus with ointment and her hair, something he does not relate until chapter 12. So why does he mention it now? Presumably the incident was already well known.

11:3,4

Lazarus was ill, so the sisters sent for Jesus to come and help. They knew of His healing gifts and wanted their brother to be healed. “Lord, He whom you love is ill”. This is a strange way to refer to Lazarus. It implies that Jesus already knew Lazarus, which as we know that He knew Mary and Martha is not the least bit surprising. Note that the basis for their calling on Jesus is that He loves Lazarus. When we pray the basis for our prayer is not our goodness, but the Lord’s love for us.

Jesus declared that this illness would not end in death. Now we know that Lazarus did indeed die, but this was not the final outcome. When God is working in our lives it can seem that events are going very much against what we are expecting God to do for us. We should not be dismayed, even death cannot stop God’s plans. The sisters were, quite naturally, focused on their brother’s health, but Jesus had a greater purpose in mind. The Son of God was going to be glorified in this. Now this might seem rather selfish of Jesus, but when He is glorified we benefit as well. In this particular story Lazarus and his sisters would have a far greater concept of the greatness of God and His plans for them.

John 10:38-42 - Everything John said is true

10:38,39

Even so, Jesus does not write them off. Instead He urges them to believe in Him, even if it is only because of the works He does. They needed to understand the truth that He was in the Father and the Father was in Him. Note that He does not seek a compromise position or an acknowledgement of each others’ views. There are times when one position is right and the other one is wrong. True to form, the Jews sought to arrest Him, but could not.

10:40-42

Jesus then left the area and went back to where John had been baptising. If we are to see any symbolism in this it is that repentance is the starting point to getting to know Jesus. We need to acknowledge our sin and seek forgiveness.

Many people came to Him. These would be “ordinary” people, not the leaders. Instead of complaining about Jesus they were delighted. They remembered what John had said, and recognised that it was all true, it could all be seen in Jesus’ life.

Many believed in Him.

John 10:34-37 -"I said you are gods"

10:34

This is a very interesting response of Jesus. One would have expected Him to say something like “I am God”, or “I am the Son of God”. Instead Jesus quotes from Psalm 82:6. So what is this Psalm about? Remember chapter and verse numbers were a much later addition to the Bible, so Jesus may well have the whole Psalm in mind, and the subsequent words would seem to bear this out.

Psalm 82 is a Psalm where God castigates the leaders for not administering justice and not looking after the poor and the weak. It then says they have neither knowledge nor understanding and that they walk about in darkness.The phrase “you are gods” is declaring what they should be like (we were created in the image of God), but instead they would die. It closes with a call for God to judge the earth and to inherit the nations.

10:35-37

So Jesus asks them why they have a problem with Him saying He is the Son of God. Now this is interesting. The Jews were very fastidious about not using the name of the Lord, considering it too holy. Here we see that Jesus is not that concerned about this at all, what He is concerned about is leaders being the good shepherds God intended them to be, and in them recognising their need of a saviour. We need to be very careful if we get all high and mighty about some issue, for we can often use this as an excuse for neglecting what is really important.

Jesus then focuses their attention on what He was doing. Was He doing good works or not? So the Jews were not focusing on their own lack of good works, and neither were they focusing on Jesus’ manifestly good works.

John 10:31-33 - Blasphemy?

10:31

This verse describes what was becoming a common tactic of the Jews (probably referring specifically to the Jewish religious leaders). This is more of the mountain of evidence that Jesus was definitely claiming to be the Son of God, to be equal with God. There are many “theologians” who say that the divinity of Jesus was a later addition of the church and something that Jesus never actually claimed for Himself. Well all that can be said is the Jews certainly thought He was claiming equality with God.

10:32

Jesus challenged them to look at the evidence. His claim to be the Son of God is indeed audacious, but everything He did backed up the claim. So Jesus pointed to the miracles and healings and asked them for which of these were they going to stone HIm? “Good works” is not limited to the miracles, and everything Jesus did was good. And in order to get a complete picture of Jesus we need to look at all that He does, the teachings, the actions and the miracles.

10:33

This verse makes it absolutely explicit that Jesus is claiming to be God, just in case anyone is in any doubt, or is persisting in the myth that Jesus did not claim to be God and that this is something we have foisted upon Him.

Notice that they correctly understood His claims, they just didn’t believe in Him. Faith or belief is not a mere intellectual assent, it is a commitment to Jesus, putting our lives in His hands, seeking to follow Him.

John 10:27-30 - My sheep

10:27,28

In contrast, those who are Jesus’ sheep do listen to His voice. They know Jesus and follow Him. So listening to Jesus and following Him is not the means by which we become disciples, but is the fruit or the sign of being a disciple.

Jesus gives them eternal life. This is not just something that happens when we die, it starts now. Eternal life is about the nature of life, the quality of life, not just the longevity of life. They shall never perish. We can sometimes think that we are going to perish, that our life is going to be destroyed. I am not just talking about death itself, but there are circumstances and situations in life when we think everything is falling apart, our life is falling apart. In the midst of those circumstances we should be confident in the fact that we will not perish. “No one will snatch them out of my hand”. Why won’t we perish? Because Jesus is taking care of us, no one and nothing can snatch us out of His hands. Our security rests in Jesus.

10:29,30

We now get more on the security we have and the grounds for that security. The Father has given us to Jesus, and He is greater than all. So whatever forces are opposing us, are threatening our lives, they are not as great as our Father and He has the last word. Our security lies in the fact that God is greater than all, and that He has given us to Jesus. He is the source of our salvation, our faith is not the source. So to snatch us out of Christ’s hands someone or something would have to snatch us out of the Father’s hands, and there is no way that that can happen.

Notice the transition from snatching out of Jesus’ hands to snatching out of the Father’s hands. The two are one, and Jesus now states this explicitly. As a technical note, the Greek here is neuter “one thing”, not “one person”, the Father and the Son are distinct persons, but completely united.

John 10:22-26 - You are not my sheep

10:22,23

We now move to a later time period. Another feast was taking place, the Feast of Dedication. This was Hanukkah and celebrates the rededication of the temple by Judas Macabeus in 164 BC. This had taken place because the temple had been desecrated by Antiochus Ephiphanes three years earlier. Note that this feast was not a Biblical feast, ie you will find no mention of it in the Old Testament. Jesus was walking in the temple.

10:24,25

There was an air of expectation. The Jews were demanding that Jesus tell them plainly whether or not He is the Christ. Given all the things He had already said and done one would have thought that the answer was fairly obvious, but if people do not want to hear the truth then they will not hear it, no matter how many times we tell,them, nor how plainly we tell them.

This indeed was the answer Jesus gave them. He had told them, the problem was that they did not believe. Moreover the works He did, the healings and miracles, bore further testimony. We often wonder if we are presenting the message clearly enough. Now we should seek to do a good job of presenting things, and can at times make a complete mess of it, but we need to recognise that the number one barrier is a lack of willingness to hear, a stubbornness borne of sin.

10:26

“You do not believe me because you are not my sheep”. The Jews had a very high opinion of themselves, they considered themselves to be the religious elite, favoured by God. Jesus had a very different opinion of them, they were not His sheep. Notice the importance of being “His sheep”, Jesus is the focus of everything, a consistent message throughout the gospels, and John in particular. The verse does also imply that being His sheep comes before belief, we His sheep are the elect.

John 10:17-21 - I lay down my life

10:17

The Father loves the Son because the Son lays down His life for the sheep. When we talk about the Father loving the Son, or God loving us unconditionally, we often make the mistake of thinking it doesn’t matter what we do, or that our actions and motivations make no difference to the relationship. This is not true. Our actions and motives do matter, and they matter to God. Jesus also knew that though He was to lay His life down, He would be raised from the dead as well. This is particularly important in relation to Islam. Islam does not understand how God could allow His “prophet” to be slaughtered on a cross. Jesus laid His life down. While men had their plans and evil motives, it was Jesus who laid His life down. So we see here something of how the sovereignty of God and the will of man interact.

10:18

Laying down His life was an act of love. Love for us, but love for the Father as well. Moreover, there is no hint of Jesus persuading a reluctant God to forgive us. The Father wanted Jesus to lay down His life because that was the only way of saving us.

Jesus now makes clear that it was His decision to lay down His life. The Jewish leaders, nor the Roman authorities, were in charge, whatever the appearances might be. Jesus had authority to lay down His life. In the world we often misuse authority, we use it to get our own way, but Jesus used His authority to serve. He also had authority to take up His life again. Usually the Bible speaks of the Father, or God, raising Christ from the dead. Jesus had authority because He was submitted to the Father.

All that He did was done in obedience to the Father.

10:19-21

Not for the first time, Jesus’ words cause division. There is a lot of nonsense talked about Jesus bringing peace. He does bring peace, but only on God’s terms. More often He actually causes division because He forces us to choose, either to submit to God’s ways or to carry on in our rebellion.

Those who were opposed to Jesus simply claimed He was mad or demon possessed, or rather that a demon has caused insanity in Him. Now if Jesus was not actually the Son of God these would be completely reasonable conclusions. Any notion that Jesus was just a good and wise man bears little resemblance to the facts.

Others could not see how Jesus could be demon possessed. This conclusions was reached based on His teaching, and most of all upon His miracles. Why would a demon do good?