Chapter BY Chapter

Jesus Talks Like Yoda

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John 10

 

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”  Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

 

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

 

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

 

The Jews who heard these words were again divided.  Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

 

But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

 

Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.  The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

 

Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

 

Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

 

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

 

Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’?  If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?  Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.  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 in the Father.”  Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.

 

Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. There he stayed, and many people came to him. They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.”  And in that place many believed in Jesus.

 

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What did we learn in John chapter 9?

 

Jesus’ miracle of healing a man born blind proves that Jesus is God.

 

The blind man that Jesus healed worshiped Jesus and Jesus accepted this worship.

 

The man born blind relished his new found sight.

 

The man born blind relished the coming of the Messiah. 

 

The fact that Jesus is God is central to Jesus’ gospel.

          We keep finding this chapter after chapter in the Gospel of John.

          You can’t get to heaven by believing something different than the gospel of Jesus.

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “self-good works jalopy.” 

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “sins paid by a mere man junker.”

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “gotta pay for my own sins in hell wrong way vehicle.”

 

At the end of chapter 9, Jesus is followed by Pharisees that try to criticize him.  This only leads to Jesus’ stinging criticism of them, which is:

 

“If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.”

 

That puts us in chapter 10, and chapter 10 switches from the stinging criticism of the Pharisees to trying to actually explain things to them. 

 

Let’s see how he does that.

 

He says,

 

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.”

 

This goes with what we said about the last 2 chapters. 

 

You can’t get to heaven if you use your own plan instead of God’s plan.

 

Now Jesus uses a figure of speech, which the Pharisees fail to understand.

 

“The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.  But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

 

This analogy is very plain to us.  The gate keeper is the Father, and the shepherd is Jesus.  We know his voice because it rings of truth.  Strangers are false prophets, and we run from the strangers because they teach falsehoods.

 

The Pharisees do not understand Jesus.  Why should they understand Jesus?  They are not sheep going through the gate.  They are not following Jesus. 

 

Jesus tries to explain this again.

 

“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.  I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

 

From this we learn that:

1. All people must be saved through Jesus.

2. Those that came before Jesus, the Pharisees, are thieves and robbers that can only steal, kill and destroy.

3. Jesus came to give life, and to give fullness of life.It is a quality of life that can be realized.It is not just something that you check off on a list.It is something that changes the way you live.It gives you a fullness of the quality of life.

 

And Jesus tries again:

 

 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”

 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father— and I lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.  The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” 

 

From this, we learn that the Pharisees are the hired hand.

1. The Pharisees will not risk their life for the sheep.

2. The Pharisees care nothing for others, only themselves.

 

From this we learn that Jesus is the good shepherd.

1. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep.This is a theme that keeps repeating all throughout the gospel of John.Jesus repeats that it is his purpose to be the sacrificial Lamb for the atonement of sins.

2. Here he says that he lays down his life only to take it up again, thus predicting his death and resurrection.

3. Jesus says that he has the authority to do this and that he received the command for this from the Father.Jesus is saying that this is his mission from the very start of his life.

4. Jesus says he has other sheep that are not of this pen.By this he means that some Gentiles are also his sheep as well as some Jews.This is an important point.

   • In Matthew 15, there is an incident that, at first, seems to confirm the idea that Jesus came only for the Jews. Jesus was traveling through Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile region, and “a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly’” (Matthew 15:22). This Gentile woman recognized Jesus as the Messiah (“Son of David”), but “Jesus did not answer a word” (verse 23). As the woman kept up her appeals, Jesus finally responded, but His words seemed to hold little hope: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (verse 24). However, the woman did not give up, and Jesus eventually granted her request, based on her “great faith” (verse 28).

 

• Tyre & Sidon was a Gentile city, so it is obvious he did not go there to minister to Jews only.

• Jesus puts off the woman because he was trying to talk to his disciples at that time and she interrupted him.

 

• The fact that Jesus helped the Canaanite woman, even though His mission was to the Jews, is a significant detail in the Gospel narrative.

 

• Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus gave other indications that His power and compassion reached to all people.

  • He healed a Roman centurion’s servant (Luke 7:1–10).

  • He traveled through the Gentile region of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1).

  • He ministered in a Samaritan city (John 4).

 

• Jesus came to save everybody (1 John 2:2). Jesus Christ is God Himself (John 1:1). Jesus died on the cross as the payment for all our sins, and He rose from death in resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Jesus said He was the Good Shepherd, and He predicted that His flock would be greatly expanded: “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16).

 

• It took a while for the early church to recognize that salvation was available to the Gentiles. The Jewish Christians who fled the persecution in Jerusalem went into the Gentile regions of Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, but they were “spreading the word only among Jews” (Acts 11:19). Peter was hesitant to bring the gospel to a Gentile household, but God made it plain that Cornelius was also one of the elect (Acts 10).

 

• “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too” (Romans 3:29). Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but He had come to offer salvation to everybody. The Messiah was to be a “light for the Gentiles” (Isaiah 42:6). So call on Jesus, because “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).

 

• Very Early in his ministry, large crowds followed him from Decapolis, a group of ten Greek cities.

 

• Matthew 4:25 “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”

  • Decapolis means “ten cities” and refers to a group of 10 Greek cities North of Galilee.

 

• In John Chapter 3, Jesus teaches Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council and emphasized that His mission is for everyone, for the whole world.

 

• In John 3:14-17, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but through him."

 

• Conclusion: Jesus maintained from his early ministry and all throughout it that he came to minister to the whole world.

 

1. So this passage confirms from the very words of Jesus that he came to save the whole world and that his ministry if for the whole world.

2. Jesus says that both the Jewish followers and the Gentile followers will be combined in the same herd, and that is what happened in church history.

3. Jesus says that the fact that he lays down his life is the very reason that the Father loves him.

 

The Jews are still divided.  Some say that he is demon-possessed. Others are listening to Jesus.  They see that it takes more than a demon to open the eyes of a man born blind.

 

After this we Jump to the Festival of Dedication.  Previously we were at the Feast of Tabernacles, which was in the fall.  Now it is the Festival of Dedication, which is in winter.  The Festival of Dedication is the same as Hanukkah.  Now in 167 B.C., King Antioch IV had invaded the temple in Jerusalem, killed the priests, erected an idol of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed pigs to it.  In 165 B.C., just two years later, the Jews had a rebellion and took back control of Jerusalem and the temple.  When they took back control, cleaned up the temple, threw out the idol of Zeus, and they decided to keep a light going in the temple to commemorate the victory.  The only lamp oil they could find was a flask from the time of Samuel the Priest that had the seal of the High Priest on it, marked with his signet ring.  They used this, but it was only enough for one lamp for one day.  They worked fervishly to press, refine, and prepare some new olive oil for lamp oil, but this takes 8 days.  Miraculously, the oil from Samuel’s flask lasted for 8 days.  This is why they use a Menorah with 9 candles.  The center candle signifies the lamp of the oil from Samuel.  The other 8 candles signify the days that the lamp continued to burn.  There were some Menorah Lamps found from around the time of Jesus.  They were a little clay lamp with one big hole for putting in the oil at one end and at the other end, they had 8 holes to put 8 wicks in it.  They would light a new wick for each of the 8 days.

 

Now Jesus is just walking in the temple courts, at Solomon’s Colonnade.  Solomon’s Colonnade was a double column artifice on the East side of the temple courts with a roof over it. 

 

Now the Jews who were there gathered around him.  In other words, they trapped him.  They ask Jesus if he is the Messiah, to just tell them plainly. 

 

Jesus’ response is as follows:

 

“I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”

 

First of all, this is a very stingingly critical answer to the Jews.  Even though the works Jesus does proves that Jesus is who he says he is, these people do not believe him.  They are NOT Jesus’ sheep.  Only Jesus’ sheep will have eternal life and not perish.

 

Implication: The Jews that don’t believe Jesus are destined for eternal death. 

 

Also, Jesus says that no one can snatch the sheep out of the Father’s hand. 

 

Implication: Don’t even think of persuading people to stop following Jesus.  It won’t work. 

 

Then Jesus says this:

 

“I and the Father are one.”

 

This is a very important statement.  This is one of those statements where we have to look at the Greek to appreciate the full meaning. 

 

Ego (I) kai (and) ho (the) Pater (Father) hen (one) esmen (are).

 

What do you notice about this sentence?

 

The verb is in the wrong place.

 

Greek sentence structure was similar to English.  “Subject – Verb – Direct Object” is the norm. 

 

This is kind of like Yoda saying:

 

“Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.”

 

Where is the emphasis?

 

The emphasis is on the word “will,” the verb.  The emphasis is on “you will.”  In other words, the goal is accomplished because “you will.”

 

This is what Jesus does with this statement. 

 

“I and the Father one are.” 

 

The emphasis is on the word “are.” 

 

The emphasis is on the idea of being.  That being is described as one.  It is not one purpose.  It is not one agreement.  It is not one hand.  It is one being, one existence.

 

And this is how his Jewish opponents understood this because they picked up stones to stone him. 

 

Did Jesus say, “Wait a minute – I didn’t mean to say that I am God.”

 

Nooooooo – he appeals to his miracles. 

 

“I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” Jesus says.

 

Does this help?

 

Not so much.

 

The Jews say, “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

 

The Jews understand that Jesus is claiming to be God.

 

Did Jesus say, “Wait a minute – I didn’t mean to say that I am God.”

 

Nooooooo!  Jesus explains from Scripture how he can be God. 

 

“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’?  If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?  Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father.  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 in the Father.”

 

Did that convince them that Jesus was Not saying that he is God?

 

Nooooooo!  They tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. 

 

After this, Jesus goes across the Jordan where John the Baptist taught.   Many people from that area believed in Jesus because everything that John said about Jesus was true. 

 

In conclusion, it is unescapable that Jesus is repeatedly teaching here that he is God.  This is important.  Jesus is also teaching that that he will lay his life down for the sheep as an atonement for their sins, and the sins of the world.  Such a gift requires that Jesus is without sin.  It requires that he is infinite and eternal.  That necessitates that he is God. 

 

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “self-good works jalopy.” 

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “sins paid by a mere man junker.”

You can’t get onto the highway to heaven in the “gotta pay for my own sins in hell wrong way vehicle.”

 

You can only get onto the highway to heaven in the Jesus, the perfect, infinite, eternal person, who sacrificed his life for you, limousine.