I and the Father

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. John 10:22-23

The Feast of Dedication is the last of the annual Jewish feasts. It was not established in the Old Testament, but it commemorated the reconsecration of the Jerusalem temple by Judas Maccabeus in 165 B.C., after it had been desecrated by Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes.  There remained only enough lamp oil to burn for one night, but it lasted for eight nights…enough time to process a new supply of oil for their lamps. Judas Maccabeus ordered that this event be celebrated with an annual eight-day feast. The time was around the winter solstice, in late December. This feast is also called Hannakkuh, or the Festival of Lights. Jesus, The Light of The World, attended this feast, as He did the others. He made Himself accessible to the people He came to save.

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.” 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,  but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10”24-27

The unbelievers were still playing their game of ignorance. What part of “I AM” didn’t they understand? How many times does God the Son need to tell them plainly? How many miracles will it take? It seems there are not enough straight-forward declarations and not enough miracles to convince hardened unbelievers of the truth, because the fact is, they don’t want to believe.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” – Verse 27- is one of my favorite scriptures. That’s how simple it is for us humans who are positive to the Plan of God and to the Perfect Person of Jesus Christ. To hear the voice of our Shepherd, we must be willing to believe, and there are many humans who are not only unwilling, but downright hostile. Some will keep questioning, though, and arguing…demonstrating their ignorance and their evil by the way they try to dissect the scriptures, arguing that they were written by men; arguing that the Bible contradicts itself, when the fact is the Bible proves itself by comparing scripture to scripture. Doctrine is built upon doctrine, and doctrine divides. Doctrine divides because it cannot be compromised. We who belong to the Shepherd and who believe His Word cannot have fellowship with those who despise Him and reject His Word. If they cannot understand Him, they cannot understand us. We have nothing in common with unbelievers. Keep in mind that we never have to defend God’s Word. God Word defends us. Stand on it. Jesus did.

He went on to tell the challengers that not only do His sheep hear and obey Him, but He knows us personally and has given us eternal life, which no one can take away. He has the authority to do that, and He has His Father’s guarantee of our eternal security.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 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.  I and the Father are one.” John 10:28-30

So, of course…

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. John 10:31 – Notice the “again.” If they’d carried guns, we’d call these Jews “trigger-happy.” Always ready to throw stones. Always eager to kill.

Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 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.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are 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’?  If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 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: 32-38

I know some arrogant unbelievers who scoff at any believer quoting scripture. A favorite phrase from these folks is “nobody speaks for God.” They choose to ignore the prophets that God appointed to do just that, as well as the apostles to the Church, who taught the Church and wrote the Holy Spirit inspired New Testament. In Israel’s history, God appointed certain men to speak for Him, in judging His people, as referred to in Psalm 82:6. Moses, too, as God’s representative to Pharaoh and Egypt was “God to them,” Exodus 4:16, 7:1. Logic: if God Himself has appointed men to represent Himself and speak “as God,” how is it blasphemous for God’s own Son, the executor of God’s perfect plan, to state His relationship with the Father?  They’ve seen His miracles. This work could only be from God. They should at least have believed what they were seeing with their own eyes.

Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. John 10:39 – He just disappeared. He would die, but not by stoning. He had an appointment with the cross. It was time to separate Himself from the phony religious crowd.

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.” John 10:40-41

Where Jesus reappeared was the place of His baptism. He stayed there a while, and some “sheep” came to him there. They remembered John’s witness about this man, and agreed that John’s witness was true.

Verse 42 - “And many believed in him there.”