Sermon Central
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Why Does The Bible Say, ‘you Are Gods’? Series
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Mar 9, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: This is one of the most challenging passages in the New Testament. Why does Jesus say, "You are gods"?
- This is a difficult passage that needs to be unpacked carefully. And so we are going to walk through it step-by-step and verse-by-verse to see if we can make it all add up.
- Also, bonus question as we start: can anyone name the gospel passage that happens at Hanukkah? No? Well, let’s see what we can learn tonight.
HINTS IN THE SET-UP: They were focused on the temple.
- It’s easy to overlook the set-up to this passage, but the set-up gives us significant clues about what is ahead.
a. It happens at the Feast of Dedication.
- In general in John, when a particular occasion for an event is mentioned, it’s not a random thing, but the site or time has weight and meaning to it.
- Here it’s the Feast of Dedication that is the setting. What is that? Well, it’s not one of the Old Testament festivals prescribed in the Law. It comes from a time when Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, tried to impose all things Greek on the Jewish people. It started with trying to get them to buy into Greek ideas. In 170 B.C. he attacked Jerusalem, killed tens of thousands of Jews and selling more into slavery. It was made illegal to have a copy of the Jewish Law. Finally, he turned the Temple altar into an altar for Zeus and offered pig flesh there to pagan gods. Judas Maccabaeus fought for freedom and deliverance and won in 167 B.C. In the wake of that victory, this feast was instituted. If you haven’t heard of the Feast of Dedication, you may have heard of it by its other name: Hanukkah.
- The importance thing for our purposes this evening is simply this: this was a feast focused on a celebration of the Temple.
b. It mentions that the scene happens when Jesus is in the temple area.
c. It mentions that He is at Solomon’s Colonnade, which reminds us of the person who built the temple.
- All told, even in the setup to the actual story, everything is pointing us to the temple as the focus.
THEIR QUESTION: Are you the Christ?
- John 10:24.
- They were focused on the Temple. They thought it would continue to be the centerpiece of the faith. (We’ll discuss later how Jesus intends to redirect it.)
- They had a traditional view of the Messiah. They thought the Christ would come and liberate them from their oppressors. They thought he would be a source of power and strength. And they certainly thought that he would agree with everything they believed!
- It had to be frustrating for Jesus to hear them pose this question. There was abundant evidence that He was giving them. There were numerous miracles. Their question speaks to their stubborn refusal to see what is unhidden.
JESUS' RESPONSE: You don’t understand what new life looks like.
- They are focused on the Temple and the old way of doing things. Jesus instead conveys a vision of what the new life that He is offering looks like.
- He tells them that He has told them that He is the Messiah (v. 25a). He notes that the miracles were clear evidence (v. 25b). He tells them that they are not His sheep (v. 26). (This is taken by some to point to Calvinist teaching on limited atonement. I think it simply points out what Jesus taught in John 7:17 that obedience precedes deeper understanding.)
- What the new life looks like:
a. We listen to His voice.
- v. 27a.
b. We are known by Him.
- v. 27b.
c. We follow Him.
- v. 27c.
d. We have eternal life.
- v. 28a.
e. We are safe in Jesus’ hand.
- v. 28b.
THEIR REBUTTAL: You are not Christ because you claim to be God.
- Now, give them credit for one thing amid all the hardheartedness and denseness that seems to plague the Jewish leaders: they knew what Jesus meant when He said this. They accuse Him of believing that He is equal with God. And they are right. Jesus does believe that because that is the truth.
- Of course, they can’t conceive of the Incarnation.
- The ironic thing is that they cannot correctly parse the Old Testament predictions about the Messiah being God Himself. In their defense, that’s not something that others were able to discern either. It was “hidden in plain sight,” only obvious in retrospect.
JESUS' ANSWER: Let’s talk about embodying God.
- Now we get into the part of the passage that no doubt jumped out to you when we were reading it at the beginning of the sermon. It is provocative and attention-getting. And it poses the question: what do we do with that?
