The Great Shepherd Claims
Notes
Transcript
Three conspiracy theorists walk into a bar… now dont tell me that is a coincidence.
What did the duck say when he found the avocado? Guac Guac
Dogs can’t operate an mri…but catscan.
ME
ME
I heard a story about Dave Chapelle meeting Jim Carey… playing Andy Kaufman…
WE
WE
And today we can claim to be a lot of things…
And not only that, there are lots of claims about who Jesus is
Daniel Darling wrote a book called The Original Jesus, where he presents many of the Jesus figures that have been created over the years. There's the "Guru Jesus," who inspires us to live better lives and be better people. There's the American Jesus, who wants nothing more than for America to get back to the good ole days and protect our religious freedoms. And similarly, there's the political Jesus, who pushes a social platform and forces people to choose between right and left. There's the prosperity Jesus, who wants to give us health, wealth, and happiness. Or another common one today; there's the friend Jesus. Which essentially puts us on the same playing field with Jesus, as if he's our homie, our bro, our BFF who we can just chill with when we feel like it.
And these are just a few. Look around, and it won't take you long to find others. But here's the problem with these pictures of Jesus, as explained Daniel Darling. "We have constructed a Christ in our own comfortable image. He has become the clay and we have assumed the role of potters. Guided by our delicate sensibilities, we mold Jesus into a deity we can handle, conformed to our own preferences."
but today we are going to listen and hear Jesus make 4 claims about who he is… and the question is what are we going to do with it.
(10:22–42) Introduction: Jesus Christ is the GreatShepherd—great because of who He is. Note the phenomenal claims He made.
Last week we talked about Jesus being the Good Shepherd and what that means for us. This week we pick up the story in Chapter 10 vss 22-24
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter,
23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.
24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
So Jesus is at the feast of dedication or what we now know as Chanukkah. For a little background here is what happened…the feast was started to celebrate Israel’s freedom from Syria in 164 BC.
Antiochus Epiphanes, the King of Syria from 175 to 164 b.c., loved Greek society and wanted to turn his part of the world into a model Greek society.And the problem came when he tried to change the Jews into Greeks both in life and practice. At first it was by peaceful means, and some Jews tried to do so to keep peace, but Jews weren’t going to give up their beliefs easily, because they truly believed.
So instead, Antiochus knew he would have to destroy the entirety of the Jewish Religion. He attacked Jerusalem, and in the attack killed what was thought to be 80,000 Jews and he took another 80,000 slaves, and then he took over the Jewish temple, turning the altar into an altar for Zeus, he sacrifice pig flesh on the altar, and begun a prostitution trade in the temple. It was almost as bad as you can imagine for the Jewish people. During this time Judas Maccabaeus lead a revolt against the city… it was their first duty to restore the temple… and they needed to keep the light burning at all times, but had enough oil for only one day, and knew that it took 7 days to consecrate new oil… and they were able to keep the oil burning for eight days until the oil was consecrated. It is this that is celebrate as the festival of lights… and during this time they burn lights for eight days in remembrance of the time.And every home and everywhere would have had lights burning to symbolize the freedom that they had, and this happened as you would know during the winter time. THis is the backdrop to our story.
And the Jews come to him and say
24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
And what we need to see here is in this moment they are trying to put the blame for their unbelief on Jesus… they are trying to tell him that it is HIS fault they don’t believe… How long will YOU keep me us in suspense.
And I love the way Jesus responds to these questions:
25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,
I love this, Jesus is telling them I done told you what is up, I’ve already told you everything that I can and you aren’t believing. Its not a me problem, its a YOU problem.
But it is clear, they are no believing, and Jesus is about to put this juxtaposition of the religious people with his sheep, the difference in believing and not believing. And so this is the first claim that we see of Jesus here, he is telling them that he IS THE MESSIAH. ITs a bold claim…. Yo Jesus, if you are the christ let us know… and he is like I have ALREADY told you that I am… what are you waiting on you should already know… and he takes it a step farther and is telling them, look you have seen what I do, the things I am capable of and my works… and you should KNOW all of these things testify to who I am… its pointing to the fact I am the Christ.
And its not that he wasn’t speaking clearly for them to understand, They were just choosing to not believe…
Look at all the things he had said to them
16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.
29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”
19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
And Jesus comes back to them and tells them…
26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
And he is telling them if they were his they would understand what he is saying and believe, it is not as they had thought that all along they are part of the people of God just becase they were Jewish. And they are claiming they were part of Gods people but it was obvious they were not because they did not belief. So as we have talked about a few weeks ago it was Their belief makes them part of the sheepfold.
They had rejected his claims, his actions and his words.
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, 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.
And next we find the Second claim of Jesus, that he was ONE with God. That is that he is God.
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”
And this can really be hard for us to wrap our minds around. Some may read and think that he is claiming to be one and the same, but it was not exactly that, he was claiming that he was the same as God
• in nature
• in substance
• in essence
• in being
• in power
• in glory
This is seen in the word “one.” It is neuter, not masculine. It means thing, not person. Jesus is of the very same thing, of the very same substance as God.
And this is another place where our idea of the trinity comes from and how we wrap our minds around the idea of the trinity. But the fact is it is impossible for us to wrap our minds around that idea, but what this goes clear to show us is that they are different and the same all at once.
And we have to realize that as Jesus is saying all of this the people he was talking to would have very easily understood what Jesus was telling them, and we can see that in their response….
33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
Look they are telling him, we arent killing you for your works… we want to kill you because of what you are claiming… you are saying that you are God. And any idea should be out the window that He hadn’t told them who he was before. In these moments it is very clear they KNEW who he was claiming to be.
And then Jesus is about to lay out his third claim for who he is, HE is the Son of God. And we see the people have stones and are ready to stone Jesus and Jesus is about to show how inconsistent they are in their line of thinking…
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’?
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—
36 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’?
And in this he is referring to when they had called their judges Gods… and when they wrote this in the law they were using the word gods to mean their judges were rulers of men. Rulers who had been appointed by God to represent God to the people… and Jesus is basically saying, look if it was okay for them to say that, and it wasn’t blasphemy when they said it why is it blasphemy when I say it….And it isn’t that he was saying if it was okay for them its okay for me, he is saying I am different from all of those people how can you reject me when you never rejected them and I am ACTUALLY God. I am the one sent to save you and yuu want to shun me and accuse me of blasphemy
Jesus gives us the fourth claim That God is in Him, and he is in God.
37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
38 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.”
39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
And Jesus is showing us how important this is, they are one in mind and spirit and how important this truth is to know. HE is letting us know that He is doing the work of his father and how important it is for is to know that.
Todays’s story closes with
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained.
41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”
42 And many believed in him there.
Jesus goes back to where he had baptized John and many of those followers believed in him becasue of the amazing work that John had done, and this is what can happen with us… we can lay that ground work.
This morning, the question is who do you claim Jesus is… is he the big brother… the hippy…