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.