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Reading:          Jn.10:22-42

Text:                Jn.10:32 "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?"

In the passage that we are considering this evening Jesus asked three questions of His antagonists. There is the one we are focusing upon in v.32 and then in the subsequent conversation that He has with His opponents He asks two more questions which are recorded in v.34 and in v.36. Each question is designed to promote a degree of reflection. We would do well to learn from such questions too for inconsistency can so easily characterize our lives driving a wedge between our behaviour and our beliefs. How we need to follow through and think clearly and logically about the truths of Scripture especially those which speak clearly to us about the person and work of the Lord Jesus.

The average winter temperature in Jerusalem is between 4-6°C (39-42°F) – that feels cold but is not very severe. The weather conditions certainly didn't stop Jews gathering in the Temple to speak to Jesus who was walking there.

They were intrigued by Jesus and couldn't make Him out at all. They were becoming increasingly frustrated because in their opinion He wasn't speaking to them as clearly as they thought He should. They want to know who He really thinks He is; they want to know whether He thinks He is the Christ and they challenge Him to speak plainly.

Jesus prefers however to let His actions and His works do the talking for Him and in this He acts consistently. Back in Jn.5:36 He has already said this:

"For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me."

And now here He tells the Jews that He has already given them an answer to their question adding further that these witness-bearing works that He is carrying out are being carried out in the Father's name.

These men coming to Jesus with their questions are acting as though they are the judges and Jesus is in the dock – but the reality is very different asserts Jesus. What He has already said and what His deeds go on saying about Him proves to be largely sufficient for His sheep who do hear, recognising His voice and acting upon it. They however are refusing to pay heed to the same evidence because they don't belong to His flock – if they did they would hear and pay heed because that is just what the members of His flock do! Far from judging Him their belief or unbelief reveals their own condition of heart and sadly it is one of basic unbelief however much it may be dressed up.

In responding to them Jesus gives us with a lovely little cameo description of a Christian believer. Does this description fit you?

·         They hear the voice of Jesus

·         They are known by Him

·         They follow Him

·         They receive eternal life from Him

·         They will never perish but are safe in Jesus' hand

·         They are in fact the gift of the Father to the Son

·         They are safe in the Father's hand

Jesus makes it plain that His followers are not being invited to make a choice between the Father and the Himself because He and the Father are one not two!

This forms something of a summary of what Jesus has been laying out before these Jews who profess to want to hear what He has to say about Himself. They should not be surprised by his words that He is one with the Father when He has already been telling them that He has been sent by the Father to do the works of the Father in the Father's name!

The Jews had said they wanted to hear Jesus say who He was but they don't like what they now hear and react with extreme hostility and want to do away with Him and prepare to stone Him.

Many people like to suggest that they are interested in Jesus but then play fast and loose with what He actually says about Himself. I wonder if any of us are guilty of doing the same thing. These Jews sought to stone Him – that was their way of trying to eradicate His influence in their lives – let us beware that we don't adopt strategies that do just the same!

In reaction to the desire of the Jews to stone Him, Jesus challenges them to think carefully – He directs them once again to the works that He has been doing, the very works that He has declared testify about who He is:

"I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?"

Is this another invitation to consider the evidence properly, to take time to listen to what the signs are actually saying? Do they learn nothing from what He has been doing?

Let me remind you of some of those "good" works that Jesus had carried out:

Mt.4:23-24 "And (Jesus) went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them."

Mt.9:35 "And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction."

Mt.12:28"But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."

Mt.15:30 "And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them,  so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel."

John in his gospel would frequently use the word sign when describing the mighty works that Jesus did – and a sign points to something! A signpost doesn't exist in order to be admired and then ignored but is useful only insofar as it sends us off in the right direction to attain the desired destination.

·         Jesus first sign was to change water into wine. (Jn.2)

·         Many Jews in Jerusalem did believe "in His name when they saw the signs that he was doing." Jn.2:23.

·         Nicodemus could declare "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." Jn.3:2.

·         The second sign John identifies was the healing of a sick boy at distance (Jn.4:54).

·         Crowds followed Jesus because they saw the "signs" He was doing on the sick (Jn.6:2) and the crowds when they saw the sign of the feeding of the 5.000 wondered whether it indicated that Jesus was "indeed the Prophet who (was) to come into the world." Jn.6:14.

·         Although the leadership seemed to be implacably opposed to Him yet many ordinary folk "people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”" Jn.7:31.

In similar vein the preaching in the Acts of the Apostles highlighted the character of this man who went about doing good!

Peter on the Day of Pentecost invited his hearers to consider the things they already knew about:

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know."

Preaching again, but this time in the house of Cornelius, Peter was still referring to the same truths:

Acts 10:38 "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him."

There was so much in what Jesus was doing that cried out for serious reflection and for faith but His hearers on this particular occasion were not prepared to change their thinking in any way – all they could think of was the charge of blasphemy!

It is interesting that they had pressed and pressed for more information and now when they have received it they find it unpalatable to their taste. This reaction didn't disappear with those Jews and we can find it all too easily in our own lives as we try to squeeze Jesus into the world of our small pre-conceived ideas – small wonder then that Jesus taught that "new wine must be put into fresh wineskins." Lk.5:38.

The charge was serious indeed and Jesus responded to it not by denying the things that He had said but by appeals to Scripture and to the works He had been carrying out.

He still wants His hearers to think – our problem is not that we think too much but so often that we don't think enough!

In the OT there were several separate strands of teaching that related to the coming of the Messiah. One of these strands spoke of the Messiah as being sent by God – this strand Jesus had referred to clearly – but it wasn't the only strand. Another spoke of the LORD God Himself coming to secure the deliverance that was so desperately needed and that none other than He could effectuate. So the Messiah is both sent by God and Himself divine! Exactly what Jesus was affirming – but His hearers would not wrestle with new light and took the short-cut route of rejection. What a disaster it was for them – instead of becoming His followers they sought to arrest Him and so to oppose Him.

What are we doing with Jesus Christ?

The kind of believing that He wants from us is not a mindless, eyes shut kind of discipleship but He invites us to follow Him intelligently. Christianity is not a mish-mash of confusing ideas and the White Queen in "Through the Looking Glass" is no model for the Christian believer when she speaks about believing six impossible things before breakfast. The type of faith He requires of us is not in the slightest to be compared with the Queen wants us to consider the evidence so that we may be enabled, not to pass judgment upon Him – He is far too important for that – but that we might come to a deeper knowledge and understanding of who He is, of who God is. Do you see that? It's written in Jn.10:37-38:

"If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

These particular Jews instead of hearing Jesus' voice became increasingly hostile towards Him. It is a dreadful thing to harden one's heart – the more we allow opportunities to pass us by the harder it will become ever to seize the moment.

Amen.