Sermon Discussion Questions:

1. Read back through John 10:30-42. The three points of the sermon were: What is Jesus Claiming? What is Jesus Doing? and What is Jesus Revealing? Answer those three questions.
2. Jesus teaches us that His works reveal that the Father is in Him, and He is in the Father. Why are Jesus' opponents unable to see the Father in what Jesus does?
3. What about Jesus' posture towards sin do the Jews find so offensive?
4. Luther tells us to "let our sins be strong." What does he mean by that? 

Christmas feels magical, doesn’t it? It is a time where we want to believe in something higher and bigger than ourselves. Real life tends to bum us out—we feel like there aren’t many good things that don’t prove to be sour. But during Christmas, we speckle the dark of winter with little pinpricks of light—literally and figuratively. Our family recently watched Elf and in the movie Santa’s sleigh will only fly if people believe in Santa and, poor guy, most people have stopped believing in him. It is a little parable of modern life in general: the mystery of wonderous, magical things in time prove to not be worth believing in when we live in a world of modern technology—even Santa has to upgrade his sleigh with a jet engine just to get around. But during Christmas, there is something in us that rebels against that kind of skepticism. So we watch movies about Santa Claus, or Hallmark movies about the magic of finding true love or families being restored. Or we see people practice generosity or read about Scrooge’s transformed by the spirit of Christmas.

Where does that come from? Why is there something in human nature that resists the dark and longs to believe (contrary to much of our experience) that reality is not fundamentally sad or disappointing, but there is something magical, mysterious, and too wonderful for us to barely believe? It comes from the central event of Christmas that we (literally) divide all of human history around: God Himself entering our world. As the great Christmas hymn puts it:

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased as man with man to dwell Jesus, our Emmanuel Hark! the herald, angels sing Glory to our newborn King

Of course, this has been what John’s gospel has been all about: The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh. This what we will examine today in John’s gospel.

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“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?” 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.” 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’? 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. 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.

• John 10:30-42

What is Jesus Claiming, Doing, Revealing?

What Is Jesus Claiming?

I and the Father are one.

This is one of the most startling, controversial, and clear statements in the New Testament about the identity of Jesus Christ.

It is startling because the enormity of what is claimed. Jesus of Nazareth is a human being. He cast a shadow, He worked a job, He ate lunch, He slept. He stands before the Jews perhaps with goosebumps on His skin from the cold. He is visible, touchable, breathing, limited, fixed. And is claiming that He and the invisible, all-present, all-powerful, all-knowing God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Exodus and Exile, who thundered from atop Mount Sinai and dwelt in the holy of holies—the God the Jews Jesus is arguing with prayed to that very morning—are one.

It is controversial because there is no religion more incompatible with the idea of a human being divine than Judaism.

There were other religions in the world that had a concept for humanity stretching up to the divine, or the divine intermingling with the humane.

But Judaism? The essential statement of faith every Jew would confess daily (the Shema) was “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” (Deut 6:4). Israel historically had been repeatedly beset with the temptation to polytheism, worshipping multiple gods. Some wicked kings and rulers back in the day even demanded fealty like they were divine. But the prophets excoriate Israel for this. And the Jews listening to Jesus are on a hair trigger to avoid the sins of their fathers. For Jesus to claim “I and the Father are one,” would be to take the Shema and to expand the definition: The Lord our God—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Lord is one.

It is clear. When asked to clarify, Jesus does not say: Oh, I would never dare to put myself on the same level of being as the Father. He does not claim He is just a prophet of God (as Islam teaches). Jesus does not claim that He and the Father are two, as if He is positioning Himself as an alternative deity alongside the Father or an angelic being just below the Father (as Jehovah’s Witnesses teach). He does not claim that He is the Father, as if He has just dawned the mask of the Son for this season (as Oneness Pentecostals teach). He does not claim that His will and the Father’s will are one (as Mormons teach), but their being is one. Later, He will demonstrate clearly that He and the Father mutually indwell one another: “the Father is in me and I am in the Father,” (John 10:38). Jesus is clear: I and the Father are one. This is one of the foundational teachings that set the trajectory for the Church’s full-orbed definition of the Trinity.

Of course, Jesus is not violating the Old Testament’s teaching on there being only one God. The opening pages of Genesis already told us so much with the divine plural: Let us make man in our image, or the mysterious figure of the “angel of the Lord” who is described as being distinct from God, yet also being God. The richly furnished room of the Old Testament was dimly lit on this issue, and Jesus has come to bring more light to reveal what was already there.

The crowds, nonetheless, are again scandalized by Jesus’ claims:

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. (John 10:31)

Notice that little word “again” in vs. 31. Twice already in John’s gospel, we have seen Jesus’ enemies either planning or outright attempting to execute Jesus for how He has made Himself equal with God (see John 5:17, 8:58-59).

32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 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.” (John 10:32-33)

The Jews are ready to kill Jesus because they claim: You, being a man, make yourself God!

But what has John been showing us in His gospel so far? The exact opposite to be the case. The question is not how “you being a man make yourself God,” but how “you, being God, make yourself a man!”

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14)

What Is Jesus Doing?

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’? (John 10:34-36)

Okay…what, now?

Jesus cites Psalm 82, which begins:

God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment

• Ps 82:1

And later, the specific verse Jesus cites,

“I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;”

• Ps 82:6

In the Old Testament, there are a variety of terms used to identify God. God’s personal name, Yahweh, is given to Moses in Exodus 3:14. But there are other terms used, like: Almighty, Most High, Lord, and God. The word for “God” is the word elohim. That word is a classification, a term used to describe a particular class of beings (like the title “president” or “mom” describes a class of persons). The elohim in the Bible are the beings who dwell in God’s space, heaven. Yahweh, of course, is the primary being who inhabits the space, and so the term elohim is used most frequently to describe Him. But there are other beings who inhabit this space who are described as elohim as well. We would assume that these would be called “angels”—which they often are—but they are also, at times, referred to (as Ps 82:1 does) as the “divine council.” Sometimes as “gods” (as 82:6 does). Sometimes as “sons of God” or “sons of the Most High.” We see this in the opening pages of the book of Job:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. - Job 1:6 (cf. Ps 89:5-7)

And if you are wondering: Hang on, I thought the Bible was monotheistic? Don’t worry-it is. But the monotheism of the Bible does not mean that God is the only spiritual entity in existence. He is the Creator of all, including all of the other spiritual beings (angels, demons, satan, etc.)—but He is not the solitary spiritual being.

So God is above all other elohim as the Supreme Sovereign and Creator. In fact, in Psalm 82, the divine council is being called to account for how they have ruled over the domain of men which God had allotted them (cf. Deut 32:8; Dan 10:13, 20).

So, to return to the title of this point, what is Jesus doing here? His point seems simple enough: Hang on, hang on, guys: you are angry that I am calling myself God’s Son, but your Scriptures say that there are beings besides Yahweh who are called elohim. If they are called elohim and sons of the Most High, and I have been consecrated and sent by the Father, why are you so upset that I say I am the Son of God? How is that blasphemy?

It is a fairly brilliant rhetorical manuever for Jesus. The crowd is appealing to the Law to charge Jesus as being guilty of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God. Jesus’ reply is “Hang on, in that very law there are individuals who are called sons of God who are not the Father.” Don Carson calls this “a short, sharp shock” of a “scriptural reason why they should not take umbrage just because he calls himself the Son of God.” The point doesn’t prove Jesus’ unique identity, it is simply a means of Jesus shoving a stick in the bicycle spokes of the Pharisees arguing with Him. They are thrown into a brief mental freeze as they try to untangle why it is okay for Psalm 82 to describe individuals as elohim, but not okay for Jesus.

Before we go to our final point, I just want to briefly draw your attention to Jesus short parenthetical comment He tosses out: “Scripture cannot be broken.” Jesus is not appealing to anything from the foundational texts of Moses, nor the scrolls of Isaiah, nor the exciting histories of David. He is appealing to an obscure psalm—specifically, appealing to one word used in that psalm: elohim. And for Jesus that singular word is decisive for Him.

Notice: He does not defend the idea that Scripture cannot be broken. He assumes it. It is a basic belief for Him which He does not need to defend. It is a basis for which He can defend other things. God’s Word cannot be broken, because God cannot lie, and God’s Word is God’s voice: down to the individual words used. And if this is the view that our Savior has of God’s Word, we likewise should. Strive to make God’s Word the Archimedean point by which you move your own perspectives and views.

What Is Jesus Revealing?

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.” (John 10:37-38)

Jesus now turns, for one last time with this crowd (this will be the last public confrontation Jesus has) and pleads with them. He provides them a way they could falsify His account: If the miracles and teachings He performs are not the work of the Father, then reject Him. But if they are—and Jesus has repeatedly taught that is all He does (”the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise,” John 5:19)—then they should be able to recognize the Father in everything that Jesus is doing.

They are not Jesus’ sheep (John 10:25-26), so they cannot hear Jesus’ voice, cannot see the Father in what He does. But this helps expand what it is that defines those who are “not sheep.” If Jesus’ works should reveal the Father to them, and they cannot see the Father, then they have a very wrong understanding of what God is like.

What do they imagine God is like? Well, what aspects of Jesus’ ministry do they most dislike? They dislike how Jesus seems to flaunt their authority, particularly their interpretation of what the Sabbath command requires. They are scandalized by Jesus’ claims of divine identity. But Jesus assumes here that His life (works) should demonstrate that He has the authority to say and do these things. So what is it that predisposes them to ignore those works? To not see the Father in what He does?

I think it is Jesus posture towards sin.

• Sin in others
• Sin in themselves

Think of the woman caught in adultery. He who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone…Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.

Jesus is scandalous here because He is saying to the “righteous”: “You are unrighteous.” And He says to the unrighteous: “I can make you righteous.” Jesus tells those who are so confident in their holiness that they believe they are prepared to Judge sinners—You are sinners yourselves deserving of judgment! And to those who are so confident that their sin is enough to damn them, Jesus says—Come to me, and you will find forgiveness. It is both offensive and comforting; humiliating and emboldening. You are a sinner (worse than you know), and you are loved (more than you can imagine).

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (or “Sin boldly”), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him...Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner. (Martin Luther)

And THAT is the heart of the Father. If you want to know what the Father’s heart is, look to Christ. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. Jesus is not the nice one, and the Father the angry one that the Son has to cajole into loving you. The death of Jesus Christ for your sins was not what made the Father love you—the death of Jesus Christ was the result of God’s love for you! And that heart of the Father to forgive sin, to love the loveless, to redeem the wretched—that is what the church people of Jesus’ day could not see.

Do you? Can you sing:

How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure, that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.