Highlights from Sunday: I AM the Son of God
I AM the Son of God
Big
Idea: Jesus is the Son of God - Implications: God, Sin, Salvation
Who is Jesus?
(:22-24)
•
22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took
place at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the
portico of Solomon.
-
First, John provides us some context for Jesus’ words.
•
Harper Bible Dictionary - Feast of Dedication or
Hanukkah, a Jewish festival celebrating the purification of the Temple in the
time of the Maccabean revolt. On the 25th of Kislev (December), 167 B.C..,
during the religious persecution of the Jews by the Seleucid Antiochus
Epiphanes, the altar of the Temple was polluted with pagan sacrifices. Observant
Jews, under the leadership of Mattathias (a priest) and his five sons, rebelled
against the Seleucids. Upon Mattathias’ death, his son Judas Maccabee took
command of the revolt, won several victories over the Seleucid army, and reconquered
Jerusalem. After cleansing the Temple, rebuilding the sanctuary, consecrating the
courts, and making a new sacrificial altar and holy vessels, ‘they burned
incense on the [incense] altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these
gave light in the Temple. They placed bread on the table and hung up the
curtains …’ (1 Macc. 4:50–51). Then, on the 25th of Kislev, 164 B.C., three
years to the day after the pollution of the altar, the new altar was dedicated
with sacrifices, song, music, and joyous worship for eight days (vv. 52–58).
Judas and the people determined that those eight days of dedication should be
celebrated annually beginning with the 25th of Kislev (December; v. 59). Hanukkah
thus became the only Jewish festival not ordained in the Hebrew Bible.
•
The Feast of Dedication was a time of celebration
and anticipation for the coming of Israel’s Messiah.
-
Just as they were once victorious over an antichrist
who threatened their worship of God, they celebrated the eventual arrival of the
Messiah who would reestablish their independence and religious freedom forever.
•
John mentions that it is winter, which brought chilly
winds.
-
This may be why Jesus taught the people in Solomon’s
portico, which provided shelter from the winter winds.
•
The Jews’ heightened messianic expectations lead
them to ask Jesus an important question.
•
24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying
to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
-
If we were to go back and read John 1-10, it is
obvious to us that Jesus is the Messiah because the Holy Spirit revealed that
truth to us.
•
The rich, word-pictures that Jesus uses to describe
His identity create a beautiful mosaic of His trinitarian relationship with God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
-
These Jews did not understand Jesus’ teaching, however,
because their hearts
were hard and they would not receive what Jesus had to say.
•
Their minds were made up about Jesus before He spoke
to them.
-
Now they ask Jesus to plainly tell them if He is
the Savior, sent by God.
•
They are asking Jesus this question from a
spirit of antagonism and doubt.
-
They are not asking because they desire to believe
in Him.
•
Application:
-
I think most people in the world are asking this
question.
•
Some with a hardened heart with no desire for
the real answer.
•
Others actually want to know and believe.
Matt 7:7
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
Jesus is God and that is important. (:25-30)
•
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not
believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.
-
God provided ample evidence for the people to know
that Jesus is the Savior sent by God.
•
John 5 describes the four types of evidence:
-
Witness of John the Baptist
-
Witness of Works
-
Witness of the Father (Jesus’ Baptism)
-
Witness of Scripture (fulfilled messianic passages)
-
So what’s the problem?
-
If a person doesn’t have a heart to hear from
God, no amount of evidence will
convince him of the truth.
-
God designed the process of revelation in this way:
•
1 - We seek after God and desire to hear from
Him. Actually a gift
•
2 - God reveals His truth to us.
•
3 - The Holy Spirit illuminates that truth and helps
us understand it.
-
That’s God’s economy of spiritual revelation.
That’s why many of the Jews did not understand Jesus’ teaching,
because they weren’t actually seeking after God and desiring to hear from Him
26 “But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal
life to them, and they
will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.
29 “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. 30 “I and the Father are one.”
-
First, Jesus tells the unbelievers in the crowd why
they don’t believe that He is the Messiah even though He provided evidence to
that fact.
•
It’s because they are not His sheep.
-
They have never received Jesus as their Messiah.
•
They reject John the Baptist’s testimony
•
They reject the OT scripture
•
They reject God the Father’s testimony at Jesus’
baptism.
•
They reject Jesus’ miraculous works.
-
- They reject the shepherd, Jesus.
Those who believe in Jesus respond by listening to Him and obeying
His commands, like sheep who follow their shepherd.
•
Thus, true believers have a relationship with Jesus…They
know Him and He knows them.
-
The way that you know a close friend or family member.
-
The purpose for Jesus’ incarnation is so that we
may receive forgiveness for our sins and eternal life.
•
John 3:16
-
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life.
•
John 20:31
-
31 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.
-
The eternal life that Jesus provides for us is
secure because God the Father, who is the most powerful being in the universe
empowered Jesus to provide it for us.
•
Jesus’ power and authority sustains our salvation.
-
The bond between the believer and Jesus is so strong,
in fact, that nothing will ever break it.
•
Paul describes this in Romans 8:28-31
- 28 And we know that God causes all things to work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew,
He also predestined to become conformed
to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He
also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then
shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who is against us? Are you
walking with Him, obeying His word?
Application:
Do you know about Jesus, or do you
know Jesus?
-
Is Jesus an essential part of your life…or more
like a distant relative whom you see at Christmas or a family wedding?
•
How can I know that I am truly a Christian?
-
That’s essentially between you and Jesus, but we
are reassured of our faith by our fruits.
• Galatians
5:22-23
- 22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
• 1
John 5:1-2
- 1
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the
Father loves the child born of Him. 2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe
His commandments.
• John
14:15
- 15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
-
As a born-again believer, know that your salvation
is eternally secured by Jesus.
•
No mistake, no person, no doubts will ever separate
you from Him.
-
Just let that truth settle in your heart.
•
If you have sin in your life, repent of it and know
that Jesus won’t let you go.
-
He will never fail you.
-
He won’t give up on you.
-
He will always be there for you.
-
One day you will go to be with Him in Heaven!
How can Jesus be God? (:31-39)
•
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.32
Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of
them are you stoning Me?”
- The
Jews (religious leaders) did not like what Jesus had to say.
•
His final comment in :30, ““I and the Father are
one.” was the final straw for them.
-
This proves my earlier point that these people really
didn’t want to know Jesus’ identity as the Messiah, because when He shared the truth
about Himself with
them, they responded with unbelief.
- They
prepared to stone Jesus because they considered His teaching to be blasphemous.
•
This isn’t the first time they threatened Jesus’
life.
- In
other instances Jesus slips away in the crowd when they threaten His life.
- At
this time, however, He confronts their unbelief and hasty action.
- Jesus
demands that they tell Him their reasoning for attempting to kill Him in light of
the miraculous, good works that He performed.
•
Remember that these works were a biblical verification
of Jesus’ identity as the Messiah sent from God the Father.
•
33 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.”
- The
Jews aren’t bothered by Jesus’ works, although they oftentimes attributed His
miraculous works to Satan.
- Jesus’
words were the catalyst for their rage.
- He
grants their previous request and plainly tells them who He is: He is God.
- They
want to stone Him because they don’t believe that He is God.
•
34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written
in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 “If he called them gods, to whom the word
of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 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’?
- Jesus
quotes Ps 82:6, which was a well-known passage to the Jews who debated it
often.
•
This passage refers to a relationship that Aaron
had with Moses in the OT.
-
The Word of God came to Moses and Aaron, his brother,
spoke to the people.
•
Ex 4:16 describes this, “Moreover, he shall speak
for you to the people; and he
will be as a mouth for you and you will be as God to him.
- Borchert
explains this best writing,
•
Perhaps it is best to remember that Jesus raised
the issue in a rhetorical fashion because he knew his opponents could not
supply an answer that would be adequate to defend their charge of blasphemy against
him. The main point is that he was in fact the God-sent one, and if Scripture
could apply such theological terms to created beings, how much more should such
terms be applied to the unique Son of God.
- The
simplified version of Jesus’ answer:
•
I am holy (set apart) and sent by God into the world.
•
I am the Son of God in a unique, unparalleled way.
•
Therefore, I am not blaspheming because what I
am saying is true!
•
37 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not
believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works,
so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.”
- Jesus
appeals again to His miraculous works.
•
Jesus healed the blind, restored hearing to the deaf,
exorcised demons, and raised the dead.
-
It was well-known fact that He did these things.
•
The religious leaders didn’t even both trying to
discredit His miracles.
- They accepted that Jesus did miraculous works.
- Jesus
challenges them to think about these miraculous works and to determine how He
performed them.
•
From where did Jesus receive the power to do
these things?
-
Jesus’ answer is: I do these works by the power and
authority of God, who sent me.
•
Jesus performed the miraculous works as a sign
to them so that they will know that God sent Him, that he is the Son of God and
Israel’s Messiah.
•
39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him,
and He eluded their grasp.
- The
Jews rejected Jesus’ claims, however, and attempted to seize and kill Him.
•
It was not Jesus’ time, however, so He left.
-
Remember, that Jesus will lay down His life according
to the will and timing of God.
•
He is in complete control of every situation.
• Application:
EX: Jesus is still in the work of miraculously changing
lives
- you
can’t pretend this isn’t happening, so you have to decide why it’s happening
- Is Jesus who He says He is or not?
What will you do about it? (:40-42)
•
40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to
the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. 41 Many came
to Him and were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said
about this man was true.” 42 Many believed in Him there.
-
Jesus goes back down to John the Baptist’s old stomping
ground and meets up with some of his original disciples.
•
These were the ones that John baptized in preparation
for the coming of the Messiah.
-
Their hearts were bent toward God and they
desired to receive the Messiah.
-
They waited with hopeful expectation for Him.
-
They revered John because God used Him as a prophet
to prepare the people for the coming of the Savior.
•
While John did not perform miraculous signs, His
prophecies about the coming Savior were true and Jesus fulfilled them.
-
Thus, their reception of Jesus was quite different
from the way the Jews treated Him in Jerusalem.
•
They recognized His miraculous works and
believed in Him as the Son of God and their Savior.
• Application:
-
The state of our heart impacts our reception of God’s
truth.
Conclusion
- Do
you know of Jesus, about Jesus, or do you follow Him?
- Is
there something in your life for which you need to repent?
- Perhaps
you just need to thank Him for the reassurance of your salvation today: spend
this time praising Him!
Comments