Right Question, Wrong Motives

Unbelief eliminates all of the evidence that Jesus is God.

 

John 10:24-33  The people surrounded Him and asked, "How long are You going to keep us in suspense? If You are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

25  Jesus replied, "I have already told you, and you don't believe Me. The proof is the work I do in My Father's name.  26  But you don't believe Me because you are not My sheep.  27  My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.  28  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from Me,  29  for My Father has given them to Me, and He is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand.  30  The Father and I are one."

31  Once again the people picked up stones to kill Him.  32  Jesus said, "At My Father's direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone Me?"  33  They replied, "We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God."

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Where will your questions lead you? Many times we ask the right question but our mind is already made up so we don't really consider the answer to the question. That's how the leaders in the temple approached Jesus, they had their minds made up, they could not consider the overwhelming evidence that Jesus is who he claimed to be. They were tired of Jesus claims and the threat he was to their power.

The religious leaders make it sound like it is Jesus fault that they don't believe. So they ask him to make it more clear this time, clarity isn't the problem, they just don't like his answer. How sad it is to be so blind that you have an closeup personal encounter with Jesus and you fail to see who he really is. It reminds me of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, fell on his knees and asked the right question, got the right answer but he left without ever knowing Jesus.

Jesus Said:

✔  He Existed Before Abraham - John 8:56-59
✔  He is Equal with God - John 5:19-20
✔  He is the one that scripture foretold -John 5:39-40
✔  To See Him is the Same as Seeing God -John 12:44-50, 14:6-9
✔  He Could Forgive Sins -Matthew 9:6-8, John 8:23,24
✔  He Is the Judge -John 5:21-23
✔  He Can Grant Eternal Life -John 6:40, 11:25, 10:27-28
✔  He Was the Same as God -John 10:30-33
✔  His "I Am" statements say he is God -John 6:35-39, John 7:37-38, John 8:12, 58

Jesus was asked who he is many times and he answered them plainly each time. The prophets in the Old Testament all pointed to Jesus, John the Baptist said it, Jesus miracles said it and Jesus words said it "Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

Jesus lets them know that they will never be pleased with his answer because they are not his sheep. Jesus sheep know his voice, they listen to him and follow him. His sheep hear the answer to the question "who is Jesus?" It makes sense to them, they have no problem believing that he is the Good Shepherd that they should follow.

John 7:17  Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether My teaching is from God or is merely My own.

Unbelieving hardened hearts will always produce ignorance. Jesus tells us that anyone that has the desire to know God will understand Jesus claims to be God. Unbelief eliminates all possibility of the evidence being considered.

Jesus doesn't back down or flinch the least little bit, he continues with a question that is going to make them more determined to get him on the cross, "Which of these good works has caused you to stone Me?” I remember that Peter asked these same leaders a similar question, "are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man?" (Acts 4:9)

Matthew 16:15-17  Then He asked them, "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "You are blessed, Simon son of John, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.

Are you asking the right question? Are you asking objectively with honest intentions? Is your mind made up against Jesus before you ask?

The religious leaders could not answer the question the way that Peter did. His answer was the same when he was being questioned about the healing of the crippled man at the temple. (Acts 4:8-14)

Do you know the shepherd? He gives eternal life to his sheep. You are his sheep if he is your shepherd, do you hear his voice, do you recognize it and follow it, is he in control of your life?

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Missing Christmas: Familiarity

Nazareth was too familiar with Jesus to think that he was special.

Luke 4:14-22  Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about Him spread quickly through the whole region.  15  He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16  When He came to the village of Nazareth, His boyhood home, He went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.  17  The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

18  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, for He has anointed Me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,  19  and that the time of the LORD's favor has come. "

20  He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at Him intently.  21  Then He began to speak to them. "The Scripture you've just heard has been fulfilled this very day!"  22  Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from His lips. "How can this be?" they asked. "Isn't this Joseph's son?"

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Nazareth was a crude, uncultured town that was quite a distance from Bethlehem. It wasn't know as a nice place to raise a family but that is where God decided that Jesus would grow up. Remember the words of Nathanael when he said: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).

Jesus grew up in this rough town yet he did not sin, the devil must have been at work in this town, I don't think that he would leave Jesus alone for thirty years without trying to get him to sin. It seems to me that Jesus would have stood out as somebody special in the crude environment that he grew up in yet the people that knew him best completely missed him.

Since none of the people in his hometown figured it out he went to the temple one day and announced it to them. They were very familiar with the passage that he read from Isaiah, they knew that it was about the Messiah that they had been anxiously waiting for, they knew that Jesus was the only kid in town that never did anything wrong yet they missed out on Christmas.

Luke 4:22  Everyone spoke well of Him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from His lips. "How can this be?" they asked. "Isn't this Joseph's son?"

Luke 4:28-31  When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious.  29  Jumping up, they mobbed Him and forced Him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push Him over the cliff,  30  but He passed right through the crowd and went on His way.  31  Then Jesus went to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught there in the synagogue every Sabbath day.

Despite having all of the facts about Jesus and having their own testimony of what they had seen and what they had heard for thirty years they still thought that killing Jesus was the best reaction to him. The people of Nazareth, who knew Him better than anyone, had no idea who He really was. Mark 6:6 says that even Jesus wondered at their unbelief.

They thought they knew Jesus
Acts 7:51-52  "You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did, and so do you!  52  Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute! They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One--the Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered."

What was their problem? Familiarity. They knew him too well or they thought that they knew him. As Stephen said to the crowd before he was stoned, "You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth." Many people think that they know Jesus and they don't think that he is anybody special because they haven't really met Jesus.

It is sad to see this happen so often in the United States. There is so much access to information about Jesus that we might as well be in his hometown watching him grow up yet so many people in our country don't really know him.

I am reminded of Jesus warning that "when someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required." (Luke 12:48)