One with the Father... For You | Dave Sloop

Welcome everyone. I would encourage you, if you have your Bible here today, to get it out and turn to John chapter 10. We're gonna be looking at the second half of that chapter. If you wanna put your finger in Psalm 82, we're gonna be looking at that too. I've intentionally not done slides today because I want you to read the source material yourself. We're gonna be walking through this somewhat didactically—just kind of teaching through what it means.

If you remember, last week we looked at John chapter 10, the beginning part where Jesus claims to be the good shepherd of the sheep. What I was hoping to convey last week is that what Jesus was claiming wasn't so much something about his character as much as he was claiming to be a character of Old Testament prophecy. When he said, "I am the good shepherd," he was not merely saying, "I'm like a shepherd"—though he is. He was saying, "I am a particular shepherd." Namely, the one from Ezekiel chapter 34, who would come to seek out the lost and bring back the stray and bind up the injured and strengthen the weak.

This shepherd who would come—which would be God himself, but also would come as a man, a descendant of David. A shepherd who would become the rejected shepherd of Zechariah 11, and then would become the slain shepherd depicted in Zechariah chapter 13, fulfilling Isaiah's vision in chapter 53 of a servant who would come and suffer and bear the sins of his people.

The language of Isaiah is: "God was pleased to crush him in order that we would be healed by his wounds. And through his death, the many would become righteous." — Isaiah 53

The great mystery that was hidden in plain sight for generations was that the great shepherd of the sheep himself would become the lamb that would be slain. And Jesus is saying on this day, "That's who I am." Many of the themes that we looked at last week are going to be repeated in the text that we're looking at today. In fact, it sounds like it's the same conversation. But John makes it pretty clear that it's not. It's a conversation that happens two months later.

The reason we know that is because the events that take place starting in John chapter seven and going all the way through the first half of John chapter 10 happened around the feast of booths, the feast of tabernacles. It was an eight-day feast. We talked about it for weeks and weeks and weeks. It was rich with imagery and pageantry and all of these rituals. And Jesus is going throughout the feast saying, "I am the fulfillment of every single one of these rituals that you're doing. I am the bread of life. I am the living water. I am the light of the world."

Because you see, all of these rituals in the feast were enacted to both be grateful for God's faithfulness in the past to Israel, to thank him in the present, but to look to the future—to the day when the messianic age would be ushered in. For example, he is the living water. They thank him. They do this water ritual, and they thank him for the rains that come down from heaven to feed the ground so that they can have crops and sustain themselves. It comes from God, but also they're looking to the day when the living water would come—the Holy Spirit. They were looking to the messianic age. There was always this sort of longing for the future in all of their feasts.

The Feast of Dedication

The first words of this passage that we're gonna look at today is that it was the feast of dedication. Whenever you see detail in John's gospel, he's gonna give you some specific detail. In fact, I'm just gonna read to you the first couple of verses of our passage today. It starts in verse 22:

"At that time the feast of dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him." — John 10:22-23

Whenever you see details like this, you have to ask the question: Why? What is it that John wants to convey? Why is he giving us this specific detail?

The first thing that he wants us to see is that it's the feast of dedication. This feast is also known as Hanukkah. Maybe you've heard of it. It celebrates the Maccabean revolt. There was a wicked man named Antiochus—Antiochus Epiphanes—and he desecrated the temple by erecting a statue of Zeus. They sacrificed unclean animals, and he banished circumcision and the Sabbath and law keeping. He tried to blend or synchronize Greek religion with Jewish religion. And there was a man named Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabeus. It sparked this revolt. They were outraged at what this man was doing in God's temple.

And they led a revolt against this Seleucid army. And against all odds, they won. And this feast was to commemorate and celebrate the rededication of the temple, setting it apart again for the worship of God in the way that God wanted to be worshiped.

But just like in the feast of tabernacles, there was a looking forward because the history of the temple in Israel was a sad one. If you look back in First Kings chapter eight, Solomon, the son of David. David originally got this vision to build a house for God, a dwelling place for him, but it wasn't until his son that this house would actually be built. It took him seven years to build it. And in First Kings chapter eight, you see Solomon dedicating the temple. And do you know what happens? The spirit comes. The glory of God fills the temple, which is a repeat of what happened in the feast of tabernacles. They were celebrating God's faithfulness to them in the wilderness in Exodus chapter 40. The people lived in tents—that's what they were celebrating at the feast of tabernacles. And so God himself lived in a tent in the tabernacle. And in Exodus 40, God's glory comes and fills the tabernacle. In First Kings eight, when God gets this permanent home, he comes and he fills the temple.

And Solomon's prayer is beautiful. He says, "God, I've built for you a house that you can live in forever." But we know that is not what happens because over the next several centuries, the wicked kings of Israel would worship idols. They would even erect idols within the temple gates. And in Ezekiel nine through 11, we see this sad vision. It's almost this begrudging departure of the glory of God. It takes three chapters for the glory of God to depart. It breaks his heart, but he leaves because the people have already departed from him.

Six years after this vision of Ezekiel, the Babylonian empire comes in and destroys the temple. And the Israelites are led into captivity. And even after they return to the land and a new temple is built led by Zerubbabel, when the priests see it, they weep because it lacked the former glory of Solomon's temple. Not just in its physical beauty and splendor, but more importantly, the glory of God had not returned.

But Ezekiel in chapter 43 promised that one day it would. He depicted the glory of God returning through the Eastern gate of the temple. And they were longing—this feast of dedication, I think John is being very intentional to show us that this was a season of longing for the glory of God to return to the temple, to the Eastern Gate.

Jesus is having a conversation with some religious leaders. Do you wanna guess where it was? In Solomon's Colonnade, which is right next to the Eastern Gate. If you walk through the Eastern Gate and turn left, it's Solomon's Portico, right there. Here, the fulfillment of the temple. Jesus is gonna call himself the new temple, the better temple. In fact, in a different gospel, I forget which one, he says, "One greater than Solomon is here." He's standing in Solomon's porch talking to these religious leaders. The glory of God has returned through the Eastern Gate, and yet they fail to see it. That is the context of the conversation that we're about to witness.

And here's what it says:

So the Jews gathered around him and they said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." — John 10:24-25

See, Jesus did not speak plainly to these men and there's a reason why. What they were seeking was a yes or no question: "Are you the Christ? Answer." He refused. Do you know why? Because their view of Messiah, the Christ, had so devolved from its biblical intent that if he was to say yes to that question, they would hear something he did not intend. And so Jesus spoke to them in what the gospel writers call figures of speech. If you saw earlier in John chapter 10, in the first several verses, I think in verse six, it says when he's talking about the sheep and the shepherd, it says he talked to them in this figure of speech, but they did not understand it. They say, "Tell us plainly." Listen to what Jesus says to them:

"I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me." — John 10:25-26

This is exactly what he said in John chapter five. But you do not believe me. The problem is not that you lack evidence—it's that you lack humility. I have told you and I have shown you, but you refuse to see it.

We've been in John. We're about halfway through the book. Let's do a quick refresh on what he has told them and what he has shown them to testify to the fact that he is, in fact, the Christ. He's not dodging the question. He's not afraid of it. In fact, his answers are far more bold and expand what the view of Messiah was in that day.

In John chapter two, he clears the temple and he says, "I am the temple."

In John chapter three, he takes Daniel's vision in Daniel chapter seven of the son of man. He takes that name unto himself and he says, I am the one that will give eternal life to people. I am the bringer of Ezekiel's new covenant from chapter 36. In John chapter five, he heals a man who has been an invalid for thirty eight years by the Pool Of Bethesda, and he does it intentionally on the Sabbath to incite a conflict so that he can essentially say to them, I am the Lord of the Sabbath.

My father is working until this day and so am I. By the way, whatever he can do, I can do. He has given me all the authority that he has, even the authority to judge mankind. And all the honor that's due him is due the son as well. He has life in himself. I have life in myself and I give it to whomever I please. — John 5

Don't be surprised by any of this because one day at the sound of the son of man's voice, dead men will walk out of their graves. Jesus is saying, I am the one who will bring about the resurrection of the dead in the last day. That's who I am. But that's not all.

In John chapter six, he feeds 5,000 men and their families with five loaves of bread and two fish, showing himself to be the prophet like Moses who was to come. And Jesus says, that's not all. I'm not just the greater Moses, I am the greater manna, for I am the bread of life that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

If you eat this bread, you'll live forever. But if you don't, you will die just like your fathers in the wilderness did. — John 6

But that's not all. Jesus would also say, I'm the one who brings the living water.

Come to me and drink. — Isaiah 55

Echoing the words of Isaiah 55. But that's not all. In John chapter eight, he is the light of the world. He is the one that brings spiritual sight to blind, darkened hearts. And to prove that he can do the spiritual, he does the physical, and he heals a man born blind in John chapter nine because that is the exact spiritual condition of every single human being on planet Earth—born blind.

At the end of that chapter, Jesus says:

This is the testimony. This is the judgment for which I come into the world: that the blind may see and that those who see may become blind. — John 9

In other words, I came to help people see. I'm the only one that can do it, but the only way for you to get it is to acknowledge that you're blind.

In John chapter 10, he says:

I am the good shepherd. — John 10

From Ezekiel 34, to bind up the wounded, to seek the lost, to bring back the strays. It's who I am.

The crowd turns to him and asks: "Tell us already, are you the Messiah or aren't you?"

This Jewish group of religious leaders was so hard hearted and filled with pride that as Jesus said somewhere else, even if a man raised back from the dead, they would not have believed. They refused to believe. And Jesus tells them a little more specifically why they can't and why they wouldn't.

I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. — John 10

I want you to notice the order in which Jesus says this. He does not say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. He says you do not believe because you're not my sheep. In other words, something's gotta happen in you before you can believe me. Believing is not what leads to belonging. Belonging to him is what produces the believing.

It is why he says to Nicodemus in John chapter three:

You must be born from above. — John 3

That is why you don't get it, Nicodemus. This is not something you can figure out on your own. There's only one chapter that I didn't mention between chapters two and ten. Do you know what it was? Chapter four, where Jesus does in fact speak plainly to someone. Do you remember who it was? The woman at the well, a Samaritan. Not just that, a Samaritan woman. Even worse, an immoral Samaritan woman who'd had five husbands, and the man she was with now wasn't even her husband.

And this woman said to Jesus:

When messiah comes, he will tell us everything. — John 4

And Jesus said, almost like he couldn't contain himself:

I, the one who am speaking to you, am he. — John 4

What unlocked this plain speech from Jesus? I don't know for sure, but is it possible that when she said, "Messiah will tell us everything," she was in that statement acknowledging that she knew nothing? For this judgment came into the world—that the blind would see, and that those who see would become blind. It was in her acknowledgment that "I know nothing" that Jesus spoke plainly to that heart. Because that level of humility is what turns the lights on. It's what welcomes the spirit.

He continues:

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. — John 10

This is what belief looks like in the sheep that he's producing. It's not just that they hear his voice and instantly recognize that it's true. It's that the words that they hear produces a belief that turns into obedience. They don't just hear me, they follow me. They don't just believe me, they obey me. They do what I say.

There is no category in the scriptures for a Christian that gives mental assent to some theological propositions, but exhibits zero life change, has no affection for God, is not grieved when he or she sins. It's not in here. Some folks may say, "Well, I believe in God." Jesus' half brother James would say, "Yeah, the demons believe in God and shudder."

Jesus says, my sheep, they hear me and they follow me. Why? Because I know them. I set my affection on them. I caused them to be my own by putting my spirit in them, enabling them to obey. That is what the new covenant is. He says, "I will put my spirit in you and cause you to obey because on your own, in your sin, you never will."

Eternal Life and Security

He continues: "I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. — John 10:28

That's verse 28. He says, notice, I give them eternal life. Not I will give them something in the future. You know, there's two words for life in the New Testament. One of them is a Greek word, bios. Bios is just like physical existence. Zoe is rich quality depth of life. Jesus is not here just saying that what we get as his sheep is perpetual existence. He would say in John chapter 10:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. — John 10:10

That it is a depth of life, a richness of life. In fact, in John five, he said:

The life that I give to my sheep is the life that's in myself and that I give to whomever I please. — John 5

When we get his life, his spirit, that's what we are tasting and experiencing. And because it's his life, we don't die because he doesn't die since he's been raised back to life. That's the life that we get.

But then he adds one more thing. He says, no one can snatch them out of my hand. He would say it this way in John six:

Whoever the Father gives to me will come to me, and I will raise him up at the last day. — John 6

That's another way of saying, I will bring that man or woman to the finish line. It will not be because of their good works or their good deeds or their own efforts. It will be my spirit in them. Because whatever good work I start, I finish. That's what Paul would say in Philippians two:

He who began the good work will bring it on to completion. — Philippians 2

It's my job. This is another way of saying, once you become his sheep, you will never cease to be so.

And to emphasize this point even further, he says in verse 29:

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. — John 10:29

He says, they're in my hand, and the Father has given them to me, and they're in his hand. Which is it? Did the Father give them or not? Are they in your hand, or are they in the Father's hand? And here's how Jesus answers that question:

I and the Father are one. — John 10:30

This is a profound doctrine of God, the multi-personal nature of God, distinct in his personhood, one in his nature. And I want you to notice something: this probably one of the most majestic mysterious doctrines of God, which has so many implications that are rich that I don't have time to get into. But I want you to notice that Jesus speaks about this doctrine of God incidentally. He is not giving a theological lecture talking about the deep recesses of God's nature.

Do you know what his primary aim is? He's talking about the radical commitment that the Father and Son have to save and seek and sanctify their sheep. And in trying to convey how committed they are to that, this doctrine of the oneness of God in the multi-personal nature of God sneaks out incidentally. How insane is that? That God is that committed. That the God who created everything is that committed to sheep.

I want to pause here and remind you what sheep are like because that is what you are described as in the Bible. And I want to show you a video that my wife showed me in the last week that I think will help us to remember who it is that he has pursued.

That is who you are and that is who I am. We get free and we jump right back in the pit because sheep aren't smart and sheep by nature wander. And God knew until I become their shepherd and put my spirit in them, they will be lost perpetually.

He is one with the Father for you. That was the title of my sermon. But then I kept studying, and there's so much more that I have to say. And we're going to breeze right past that.

Because of that declaration that Jesus makes, they pick up stones to kill him. John tells you they pick up stones again because this is not the first time they've tried to stone Jesus. I just want to set the scene for you for a moment. Imagine staring down the barrel of a gun, with an angry mob that believes they have legitimate biblical grounds to stone you. What would you do? Jesus has the presence of mind to quote an obscure psalm—not even one of the famous Davidic psalms, but Psalm 82. And he does so to establish legal precedence for why they should pump the brakes. It's incredibly brilliant what Jesus does.

In order to punctuate this, I want to read you the psalm that we read, and then I'm gonna come back here and show you what Jesus does. But before I do that, let me tell you what happens here.

They picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered, "I have shown you many good works from the father. For which of them are you going to stone me?" You can hear the sarcasm in Jesus' voice, but also what he is suggesting here is you cannot divorce his works from his words. You can't just kill me on a technicality because I said something. You have to investigate. And that's where he goes to Psalm 82.

The Defense From Psalm 82

God has taken his place in the divine council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. How long would you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. They have neither knowledge nor understanding. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. — Psalm 82

God is speaking to his judges—Israel's judges—and he's rebuking them because they have done a poor job. And then here's the verse he's going to grab from:

I said you are gods, sons of the most high, all of you. Nevertheless, like men, you shall die. — Psalm 82:6-7

In context, it's so obvious what he's saying. "You are gods" means you have a god-like role. I have delegated to you executing justice on the earth. You are my vice regents. You are in my stead to do my work, and you have blown it. You think that you're gods, but you're gonna die like men. You'll come back down to earth eventually. And then:

Arise, oh God, judge the earth. For you shall inherit the nations. — Psalm 82:8

That was Asaph's prayer.

Back to John 10. Jesus says in verse 34:

Is it not written in your law, "I said you were gods"? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, "You are blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God"? — John 10:34-36

Follow Jesus' logic here for a moment. Notice this too: he calls God's word "the law." Typically, law means the first five books. He calls the whole thing the law. This is a psalm. What is meant by law? It's something you obey. And Jesus says all of it. None of it can be broken. The scriptures cannot be broken.

You know, Tim Keller's sermon on this passage focuses only on this verse, and he's making the point that Jesus had a view of the scriptures that was inerrant. It cannot be broken. Even down to the little word, he builds an entire argument on a word that cannot be broken. That was Jesus' view of the scriptures.

What he is saying here is to understand what is meant when the word of God comes to you. You accept it as true, and you seek to understand what it means. You look at the context, you understand what he's saying, and then you interpret it. Jesus is gonna say, "At least give me that. At least evaluate my words in context of my actions. Look at what I have done. I dare you. I'm begging you. Find one thing that I've done that is incongruous with what my Father does. Find one sin in me, I beg you. Look at my works. Is there any other explanation that I can do the things that I'm doing except for the fact that I am who I say that I am?" He's asking for an investigation.

But he's also doing something else. He's making an argument from the lesser to the greater. He's saying, if those to whom the word of God came are called gods, how much more the word of God who comes to you in the flesh?

Earlier, here's their accusation. In verse 33:

It is not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God. — John 10:33

What's the irony? He is not a man who makes himself God. He is God made man.

Or to use Paul's language, he who being in very nature equal with God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing. Taking on the very nature of a servant, being found in human likeness, being found in appearance as a man. He was not man making himself to be God, he was God who had become man.

I want you to notice something else. Here's the deeper meaning that I don't know for sure, but I think what Jesus is doing here by drawing on this psalm is he is saying to them: you are the failed shepherds in this psalm who have failed to execute my justice, who have not given care to the weak and the needy and the afflicted, and I am the answer to Asaph's prayer.

Rise up, God. Judge the earth for you will inherit the nations.

I'm here. I've entered through the Eastern Gate, and you can't see it. Now, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. And it might as well have said, because it was not his hour, because Jesus lays down his life. No one takes it from him and it was not yet his time.

Now, this is where we think it should end. There's three more verses.

He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. And many came to him, and they said, John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true, and many believed in him there.

Again, whenever we see detail in John, we have to ask the question: what is it that he wants us to see? Why does Jesus leave the temple and go across the Jordan to the east side? That place which is typically known as the outside. If you are a good faithful Jew, you didn't go over to the other side, which was more controlled by gentile thought and philosophy. Why did Jesus go there?

Perhaps it was to embody or enact what John had already said in chapter one verse ten and eleven.

Jesus was in the world, but the world did not recognize him. He came to his very own, but his own people rejected him.

Here he is with the religious leaders of Israel that knew all the promises and they refused to see it. He was rejected, just like Joseph, rejected by his brothers, left for dead, and given to a Gentile world to be a blessing to the nations. You could say Joseph, in a sense, was the bread of life in that day when famine came. Only Egypt had food. And it wasn't because of pharaoh, it was because of their Jewish friend, the messiah in a sense. Jesus was that rejected brother who goes across to the other side, almost a foreshadowing that Jesus, having been rejected by his own people, would be received and loved by the Gentile world.

But I think there's something else. The Jordan was the place where Jesus' ministry began. And here, as his ministry comes to a close, he goes back to where it all started. He goes back to where people came to John, and they start thinking about things that John said. They said this: everything that John said about this man is true. Many believed in him there.

You know, there was something that had yet to become true that John said about this man. Look.

The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The next time that Jesus would cross over that Jordan, just like his predecessor Joshua, who led people across the Jordan into the promised land, Jesus was about to usher in a new and better promised land, but it would not come by military conquest. It would not come through political victory. It would come from allowing himself to be the lamb who was slain. The promised land that Jesus was bringing in when he comes through over the Jordan into the Eastern Gate: the glory of God nailed to a cross. Jesus said,

When I be lifted up

to signify the kind of death that he would die,

I will draw all men to myself.

This was always the plan. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The Question for You

The question that I have for you this morning is: has he taken away yours? He will, in a word, if you let him. If you open your heart and acknowledge that you are blind, that you are morally bankrupt, that you bring nothing to the table, and all you do is let him heal you. Do surgery on your heart like a lifeless corpse on a table. Let him bring you back to life. Breathe his spirit into you and become his sheep. It's available to you today.

And for those of us that have forgotten, hear this: He hasn't left you because he doesn't quit on his sheep. Those that come to him, he will keep. No one, not even your sin, can snatch you out of his hand.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for this word. Father, we thank you. There is no one like our God. I pray that even as we pray right now that some—that you, by your spirit, would move into the hearts of some, open their ears, open their eyes, cause them to hear and sense and feel the affection of a God who has known them from the day they were born and has written every day until this moment—that they would hear you calling them by name. Lord, restore unto us the joy of thy salvation.

Salvation is your work. It belongs to you, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Some of us might need to respond. We will have some folks in the back that would love to pray with you. Maybe today would be the day of salvation for some of you. But for others, maybe you would wanna come and privately be with the Lord. These rails will be open to you. For the rest of us, let's stand and worship.