Rude religious people keep pestering the Lord but never believing in Him. John 10:19 - 23

John 10:1-18

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. 4 "When he puts forth all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 "And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."  6 This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which He had been saying to them.

7 Jesus therefore said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. 11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 "He who is a hireling, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, beholds the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf snatches them, and scatters them. 13 "He flees because he is a hireling, and is not concerned about the sheep. 14 "I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 "And I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. 17 "For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father."

 

In light of the several lessons on Psalm 23 this passage should be much richer for you.

 

Now despite the Lord’s sacrifice and despite His beautiful promises there are still those who refuse to believe.

 

It makes me think of the Millennial Reign of Christ in which He will be visible on the throne of David, in His resurrection body, in all His glory, with the nail prints to prove His sacrifice on behalf of all men, and still there is unbelief as those who reject Him number as the sands of the seashore and even make war against Him.

 

This is one of the great mysteries of mankind as well as angelic kind. We could ponder all year in an attempt to find a reason for their rejection of eternal life and certainly many forms of arrogance might come to mind as well it should, but in the end the mystery remains.

 

Therefore it is fruitless to over analyze the reason for the depravity of man. It just is. For those of us who know Christ, occupation with Him is the solution to all afflictions.

 

John 10:19-21

There arose a division again among the Jews because of these words. 20 And many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?" 21 Others were saying, "These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?"

 

The unbelieving Jews again fall back on their only explanation for the power of Christ and that is He’s demon possessed to which they add, insanity.

 

I appreciate this accusation because it really can’t be proven. It’s like the salesmen of tonic back in the old west. They promise it will cure you but have no evidence to the fact. If you’re desperate you’ll buy it.

 

The unbeliever is desperate and he’ll buy any lie about Christ in order to quiet that still small voice in his soul that desires eternal things.

 

The other camp think more logically. No one has ever seen or heard of a demon healing a blind man, especially a congenital blind man.

 

So again, as all throughout the scripture and all throughout our personal lives on planet earth, we see the unbeliever and the believer hearing the same words and being in the same environment.

 

If you were to stand up in front of a thousand people and speak and there is no division, it means that you have said nothing. No one can speak doctrine and not become controversial, and I don’t only mean pastors, I mean every positive believer.

 

If you’re out to be liked by everyone then you cannot stand up for any of the absolutes of the word of God.

 

The Greek word for division is schisma, where we get our word schism from.

 

It shows one certainty; environment does not determine anyone’s destiny.

 

Satan and the KOD are right now in human history convincing the globalized world to make it a better place to live with the redistribution of wealth and the socialist, progressive state. They are fooled into thinking that a changed environment will change a person and for 6 thousand years it has not.

 

A new chapter should start right here. The reason is because the next verse occurs two months after the Lord’s message at the Sheep’s gate.

 

So here ends a long period in the Lord’s ministry and one of the most important periods in His ministry.

 

This began in the beginning of chapter 7 when the Lord went to Jerusalem from Galilee to the Feast of Booths. He spoke in the temple during the last days of the feast, then left to the Mount of Olives and then returned a few days later to speak in the temple again, which is in John 8. In John 9, immediately after leaving the temple He healed the blind man and then the next day taught the message of John 10 at the Sheep’s Gate.

 

John 10:22 begins at the time of the Feast of Dedication which is Hanukah which is celebrated in the winter. This is two months after John 10:21.

 

John 10:22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem;

 

The Feast of Dedication is Hanukah. On 25 December, 166 BC the king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes was determined to make Greeks out of the Jews. So he made a gold statue which he called the statue of Zeus - Zeus was the head of all of the gods of the pantheon - and put it up in the temple.

 

The Jews protested. So he said that on 25 December he would offer some animal sacrifices in the temple, and in due course he herded in 1000 pigs.

 

To the Jew the pig was an unclean animal. Since the 11^th century BC the Greeks had been sacrificing pigs - when they were not sacrificing people.

 

This was how they were going to turn the Jews into Greeks! They had the Greek priests in the temple cutting the throats of pigs and spreading the blood all over everything and the people began to protest.

 

Then they rounded up a thousand Jewish children and sacrificed them.

 

By the time the 25^th December was over there was the blood of pigs and people mixed all over the temple and it was one horrible mess. This led to the Maccabaean war.

 

The Jews killed so many people that Antiochus gave up and they were able to win their freedom and independence for the moment.

 

In the middle of December in 164 BC they began to clean up the temple and on the night of the 24^th everything was cleaned up, so the next day they decided to have a celebration which they called the Feast of Lights.

 

They lit up the city of Jerusalem with lights. They brought in a great golden candelabra and lit it up. The feast went on for seven days and it ended on 1 January.

 

So for seven days they exchanged gifts and had this big celebration. This was called two things: the Feast of Lights and also the Feast of Dedication.

 

Now 134 years later they were still celebrating this feast and it was a big time in Jerusalem. They celebrated their freedom in this way. It had no religious connotation and it was a time of happiness and gaiety, and so on. It was probably one of the more pleasant times nationally for the Jews. Whenever it came around people seemed to forget all of their differences and they all made a real effort to turn Jerusalem into a real party town.

           

Jesus gave His last message one day after the feast of the tabernacles, a seven-day feast which went from 15 October through to 22 October. So the difference between 23 October when Jesus gave His message and 25 December is roughly two months and two days.

           

Now we have a new message. The city of Jerusalem has had two months to calm down, but in that time they have not calmed down! This was one year when the fun time didn’t quite make it. It didn’t come off. The reason it didn’t was because the religious leaders would not mind their own business.

 

They would not respect the privacy of someone else. That ‘someone else’ was Jesus Christ. They would not leave Him alone.

 

 

John 10:23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.

 

The portico or porch of Solomon was a covered walkway on the temple grounds.

 

John 10:24 The Jews therefore gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

 

Jesus is just walking along minding His own business when He gets rudely interrupted.

 

When they gathered around Him it means that they encircled Him. This is a very aggressive action by religious people who are the greatest murderers in all of human history.

 

And like all religious people they are arrogant. They reveal their arrogance by giving a command to the incarnate God.

 

"How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

 

Now, in what way, shape, or form has the Lord kept them in suspense? How many miracles has He performed, how many times has He said that He came from the Father? The Jews already took up stones to kill Him because He claimed to be God when He said, “Before Abraham was born, I am.”

 

He has performed numerous acts of miracles and healings. He has been giving message after message after message which was lucid in its presentation. The issue has been clarified time after time. And yet they say, ‘How long do you hold us in suspense?’ He is not holding them in suspense. The question is totally unfair but it expresses maximum legalism, religion.

 

He has told them plainly, but they have rejected it. They only here ask Him to state it plainly again so they can call Him a blasphemer in an attempt to embarrass Him in the crowded temple.

Hanukkah was supposed to be a happy time, a carefree time, it wasn’t a religious holiday, it was just a time of celebration. They are ruining it for themselves.

 

I like the fact that Jesus is in attendance. This is not a feast commanded in the scripture but the Lord is here anyway. Why? In my opinion it’s because this 8 day festival commemorated the recapturing and cleansing of the temple by the Jews under Judas Maccabee. The Greeks sacrificed pigs and children in the temple, and right now the religious Jews are doing the same in principle. They are ruining people’s lives with religion and they have no faith or understanding of the sacrifices they are making in the temple.

 

Christ has come to take the temple back, to cleanse it with His own blood.

 

Christ said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.” But the temple He was referring to was His own body. His temple would replace the old temple and His temple would be spotless. And when the CA ushers in, everyone who believes in Him is made the very temple of God by means of the baptism of the HS.

 

Christ is going to cleanse the temple, but not with sword, but with love, sacrificial love by means of obedience to the Father’s plan.

 

The Pharisees were clean on the outside, but inside they were full of dead men’s bones.

 

Matt 23:27-28

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 "Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

 

 

 

So in response to their commands the Lord in verse 25 uses the indicative, simply stating by dogmatic fact that He already told them everything they needed to know concerning Him.

 

John 10:25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me.

 

These people have had 2 months to stew over what Christ taught in the temple and to ponder His miracles, but they still lack faith.

 

This shows us that time is not an issue just like environment isn’t an issue. Today is the day of salvation. People don’t need months and months to figure it all out. The question is, what do you think of Christ? That can be answered either positively or negatively in a second.

 

Now they have cornered Him on Solomon’s porch and now He is telling them, “I can keep on saying this as plainly as I have in the past and you will still not believe.”

 

And He is surrounded by these people who are negative. At that time these people were vicious. There is nothing more vicious than a self-righteous religious person. When they are motivated to kill they are the greatest murderers in the world.

 

And were it not for a wall of fire the Gospel of John would end right here.

 

Jesus had a wall of fire around Him, He was totally surrounded by the most hostile people in the world. Every one of them would gladly have killed Him.

           

Notice Jesus mentions the message first. “I told you” is a message. The Lord gives us what is important. Bible doctrine is important. It is the message that is important.

 

He doesn’t mention the miracles first, He mentions the message first. It is the message by which people are saved; miracles merely focus attention on the message.

           

Then He says, “the works” - a reference to His miracles - “that I do,” poieo, present active indicative. All the time He was performing these miracles they were negative, negative.

           

“they bear witness of [concerning] me” - they prove that Jesus is what He claims to be.

 

John 10:26 "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.

 

They did not want relationship with God, therefore a vacuum was created in the soul into which was drawn religion, legalism, emphasis on the details of life, mental attitude sins, etc.

 

Remember that we have been created by God and in His image. Part of what means is that we possess a soul that breathes. God’s soul only breathes in that which is righteous and just, however mankind has a choice as to what he breathes.

 

Those who reject a relationship with God cannot breath in and out the things of God and so the only left to them are the thoughts, motivations, and desires of the creature. Therefore, what is drawn in is religion, legalism, emphasis on the details of life, mental attitude sins, etc.

 

This makes the soul sick. A sickly soul seeks for a cure, frantically seeking to get well it only draws in more garbage until eventually mild to heavy psychosis sets in.

 

This is the plight, the mystery of the human race. These religious folk have been breathing evil in their souls for so long that they can’t see the Messiah standing right in front of them, even after hearing Him speak and witnessing His miracles.

 

When they eventually hear the gospel they have all this background of religion. The gospel is now presented by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, with all the eloquence of the God-Man, and at the same time the one who has performed all of these miracles and presented these credit cards, and their minds are so filled with the corruption of legalism and religionism that at the point of gospel hearing they say no.

 

They retain and cling to their religion.

 

So He says, “you are not my sheep.” His sheep are those who have accepted His invitation to a relationship with God by believing on His name.

 

The blind man became one of His sheep and that took a moment of faith. These guys have probably been debating Jesus for months, but they are not willing to become one of His sheep.

 

They instead make the choice to be on the other side of the fence, outside of the Lord’s pasture. They’ve chosen to be the sheep in Phillip Keller’s book that are starving and disease ridden on the wrong side of the fence, looking for a way to sneak in other than faith in Christ.

 

But as Christ said, He is the door, there’s only one way in and that is through faith in Him.

 

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

 

John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

 

John 10:29 "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.

 

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