It's John 10, 29-42 for a sermon I've entitled, Rejecting the Christ. And this is what it says. This is Jesus speaking. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of his hand. I and the Father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which one of them are you stoning me? The Jews answered him, for good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. Jesus answered them, Has it not been 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 sanctified and sent into the world, you're blaspheming because I said I'm the Son of God? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe the works so that you might know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father. Therefore they were seeking again to seize him, and he eluded their grasp. And he went away again beyond the Jordan to a place where John was first baptizing, and he was staying there. Many came to him and were saying, well, John performed no signs, yet everything John said about this man was true. Many believed in him there. David Klinghoffer is an author and essayist who writes for the National Review Magazine. He's also a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, which is the main organization promoting the idea of intelligent design in biology as an alternative to the theory of evolution. Now, politically, he's a conservative, so he holds many of the same views that we do on certain issues. But when it comes to Jesus, not so. You see, David Klinghoffer is an Orthodox Jew, and like all Orthodox Jews, he doesn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. But unlike others, he's written a book about it, and it's titled, Why the Jews Rejected Jesus. Now Klinghoffer opens his book by relating an encounter he had with a couple of window washers who came to his office in Seattle. He said one of the men noticed the Hebrew books that were stacked next to his computer, and so he started up a conversation with David, and within a short time he was offering up Bible verses from the Old Testament that he thought proved that Jesus was the Messiah. He also said that it was through Jesus that he came to know God. But Klinghoffer said that he already knew God through Torah, that is the Old Testament. He said the man looked at him with a puzzled look, somewhat distraught by the answer, and said, well, God bless you. And then he left. Now, unlike many who believe that all religions lead to God, Klinghoffer understands what's at stake. He starts the second chapter of his book with these words. If Jesus is the Messiah, then the Jews today are in big trouble, as are all our ancestors have been for the past two millennia, along with a lot of Gentiles who haven't grasped what a vital truth Christianity is. Even setting aside the belief that the dispositions of one's immortal soul depends on recognizing them in this role. If Christians are right about Jesus, then many generations of Jews and other people have missed out on the very climax of history. Now, when it comes to the claims of Jesus, most Jewish people aren't looking to refute them. They just simply ignore them. I've heard many converts from Judaism to Christianity say that growing up, they were always told the same thing. Jesus is for the Gentiles. We Jews have nothing to do with him. But there are others, like Rabbis Tobias Singer, Michael Skobak, Shmueli Boteach, who, like Klinghoffer, have sought to refute the central beliefs about Jesus in the Christian faith. They think that when it comes to Jesus of Nazareth, perhaps he was a Torah observant Jew, and he might have even thought of himself in some sense as the Messiah, but he certainly never claimed to be God. They say the true founder of Christianity was actually the Apostle Paul. And the belief that Jesus was God was a myth that developed about him over time. But you know, when you read through the New Testament, you find Jesus making statements about himself that the Jews of his day certainly understood as claims to deity. Claims so outrageous to them that they picked up stones on several occasions. to stone him. Well, here in this last part of chapter 10 in John's Gospel, we have such an incident. Here we find Jesus not only refuting the charges that he was a blasphemer, but also pleading with his listeners to let the evidence of his miracles lead them to a correct evaluation of him. But they then, like most Jews throughout the ages, would not and did not see Jesus for who he is. Rejecting the Christ, that's what we want to think about today. So let's pray and get into the text. Well, what do we see in the text? Well, the first thing I think we see is the claim, the claim that Jesus makes. That's 29 to 30. By the way, who is the greatest boxer of all times? Now, some would argue it was Rocky Marciano. He never lost a fight when he held the title. He retired undefeated. Others would say Iron Mike Tyson. He was the youngest champion at 20 years of age. Still others, Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, as they called him. But, you know, if you would have asked Muhammad Ali who was the greatest, he would have said, well, I am. Known as the Louisville Lip, Ollie had a way with words and he knew how to turn a phrase. I float like a butterfly. I sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see. And he certainly had plenty of self-confidence. He said, Ollie, I'm the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was. Don't tell me I can't do something. Don't tell me it's impossible. Don't tell me I'm not the greatest. I'm the double greatest. Okay, but even if you are the greatest boxer of all times, you're famous simply for punching people in the face in the center of a ring. That's hardly earth-shaking in its significance. But for Jesus, who he was, and what he did, and what he will yet do, is indeed earth-shaking. Literally. Remember, at the time that he died, the earth quaked. And a man looked up and said, surely this man was the Son of God. On the day in the morning when he rose from the dead, the earth quaked again. And the Bible tells us that at the end when he returns and he puts his feet on the Mount of Olives, it will be the greatest earthquake the earth has ever experienced. Well, here the amazing claim that Jesus makes comes as he speaks of his care for his followers. It says in verse 28, it says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one is able to snatch them out of my hand. He then goes on to say in verse 29, my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. Now last week we dealt with these verses as it relates to the eternal security of the believer. This week we want to zoom in on what Jesus says about His Father and His relationship to Him. Verse 29 says, This verse proves that Jesus is not equal with Jehovah God. Sure, He's a God with a small g, but He's not Almighty God with a capital G. Jehovah's Witnesses follow the ancient heresy of Arianism, which taught that Jesus was the first and the highest of all God's creatures, but he was created not eternal and certainly not equal with the Father. Well, how would I answer that? Well, the first thing that has to be said is that the text of the Greek in this verse is disputed as to what the original manuscript said. Some Greek manuscripts read, My Father has given me that which is the greatest of all. Now if that's the correct translation, Jesus is speaking of his followers who are of greater value to the Father than anyone else. And about half of the manuscripts read that way. But what if we go with the way the New American Standard, or the ESV, translates it? Would Jesus then be suggesting that he was inferior to the Father, a lesser being? No, because in the context, Jesus is speaking of how no one can snatch him, these people, out of his Father's hand. He might be speaking about if there's no one greater who could snatch him from his Father. And so when he says, my Father has given them to me and is greater than all, that might be the meaning that he has. You know, 1 John 5, 18-19 says this, We know that no one who is born of God sins, meaning it's a continual lifestyle. But he who was born of God, meaning Jesus, keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That's why when you look around, you see all the horrible things in this world. Because people are following after the God of this world. Or it could be that Jesus is saying that God the Father is greater than all, including himself. But even then, he would be speaking of their roles, not of their essence. Think about marriage. Does the Bible teach that the husband and the wife are equal? Equal in importance? Yes. But does the Bible teach that they have the same roles? No. Husbands and fathers are to lead and protect and provide. The wife's role is to support and nurture and care for him and the children. God the Father was the originator of the plan of salvation. It's He who chose who the elect would be. That's why Jesus, when He was speaking of the elect in John chapter 17, said, they were yours, He's speaking of the Father, they were yours, and you gave them to Me. John 17, 6. And to someone who claimed that God was their Father, Jesus actually said this, It was God, the Father's idea to send Jesus. I think that's in this sense that Jesus speaks of the Father as greater than all. He certainly cannot mean that he's a lesser being than the Father, for then he goes on to make this stunning claim after that when he says, I and the Father are one. Now notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, I am the Father. He makes a distinction. And the Greek word for one here is in the neuter gender rather than masculine. If it were in the masculine, Jesus would be saying, I am the Father, or I and the Father are one person. But that's not what he's saying. Well, what is he saying? In what sense are Jesus and the Father one? Some commentators, like John Calvin, argue that Jesus is simply saying that they're one in purpose, and in the context would be preserving Christ's sheep to the end. But other commentators, including Augustine, argue that Jesus is saying that he and the Father are one in essence. I mean, didn't John open his gospel with these words, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Notice he distinguishes Jesus, the Word, from God, and yet he identifies him as God. Well, however we understand Jesus' claim to be one with the Father, those listening to him that day understood that he was making a claim to deity. We see that in the next verse where we find, and this is our second point, the reaction. You know, when I was a kid, when teenagers would go out on Friday night to smoke marijuana, we would say, oh, they're going out to get stoned. Bob Dylan wrote a song with the words, everybody must get stoned. But getting stoned in Jesus' day had a different meaning. His listeners didn't think everyone should get stoned, but they certainly thought Jesus should be, for we read, the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Have you been watching the news stories about the protests against ICE down in Minneapolis? After the Somali fraud scandal broke, President Trump sent in something like 1,000 ICE agents. Governor Walz and Mayor Frey were outraged, especially when a woman who was a protester was shot to death by an ICE agent after driving her car into them. As the mayor told the story, the woman was just dropping her kids off at a daycare when ICE agents came upon the scene where she was sitting quietly in her car. She was given conflicting orders by two agents, one telling her to get out of the car, the other one telling her to drive away. When she did, a trigger-happy ICE agent gunned her down in cold blood. Governor Walz was also outraged by what he called the murder. And he wants a full investigation and an impartial trial so that the ICE agent will be held accountable. He already said that he was a murderer and that the woman who was killed was innocent. And you and your wife laid down flowers at her memorial. Yet you say that you want an impartial trial for a person that you've already said was guilty. Yeah, so he'll get a trial just like Derek Chauvin got a fair trial in George Floyd's time. Well, the governor called on people to surround ICE to protest, but do it in a peaceful way. Maybe we can have some mostly peaceful yet fiery protests like they did in the George Floyd riots, where Governor Walz and Mayor Frey allowed their cities to be burned and looted. Well, Jesus' listeners were hot. They were murderously hot. And that's why they picked up stones to stone him again. This had happened several times before. It brings us to the third thing we see in the text of the question. This is verse 32. It says, Jesus answered and said to them, I showed you many good works from the Father. For which one of them are you stoning me? You ever heard that saying, no good deed goes unpunished? Jesus gave many displays of power and showed many acts of kindness and mercy in healing people. So which one of them were they planning to kill him for? Was it for healing a blind man? For causing deaf people to hear or lame people to walk? I mentioned that ICE raid in Minneapolis. CNN, like other news medias, have denounced the crackdown as harsh, unnecessary, illegal, and Gestapo-like. But back in 2016, when President Obama was in office, CNN did a news segment where one of their reporters went out with ICE agents. They talked about how tough their mission was, how dangerous their job was, but that it was necessary in arresting the bad guys who were here illegally. So evidently, they don't have a problem with ICE and their tactics, just with the president who's in charge. Nicolas Manduro, US Special Forces dropped in by helicopter and nabbed the Venezuelan dictator and brought him to the United States where he's going to stand trial on drug charges. Those on the left denounced this lawless act by President Trump. Yeah, but didn't President Biden offer a $25 million bounty to anyone who would deliver him? To the US government? No, said the fact checkers. That was already in place at a smaller number. He just raised it to 25 million. So that was good and right when Biden did it, but wrong and illegal when Trump orders the same. You really have something called Trump derangement syndrome. But what I'm telling you, and here's the connection, these people had Jesus derangement syndrome. They hated everything about him. That brings us to the next thing we see in the text, the response. The Jews answered and said, for good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God. Blasphemy refers to speaking words which are highly offensive and insulting to God. For that, the law of Moses prescribed stoning. You know, in Islam, there's a sin called shirk. A person is guilty of committing shirk when they associate any kind of partner with God. So Christians believing that Jesus is the Son of God commits shirk from a Muslim understanding. Now, Jews don't have the term shirk, but they certainly believe that Christians are idolaters because we worship Jesus, who they consider a mere man, as God. You know, there are others who claim to be God over the years and centuries. Pharaoh in Egypt was considered a God, a living God, a mediator between himself and the other gods. The Caesars, after Julius Caesar, were considered gods. There was a comedy movie a number of years ago called The Gods Must Be Crazy. Well, the people of Rome must have thought so when Caligula was emperor. He made his horse a senator. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Okay, Mr. Ed. The emperors of Japan were worshipped as God. Three generations of the Kims, the North Korean leaders, have claimed to be God. The first one, Kim Il-sung, created the world. Every North Korean child knows that. People can make wild claims. Some have even claimed to be God. But what's the evidence that they have to back it? Jesus responds, and this is our next point, with the argument. This is verses 34 to 36. Now, his critics were standing around him with stones in their hands, ready to hurl them at his head. You think Jesus was terrified? Would you have been? Yes. Was he? I don't think so. Franklin Graham once referred to Islam as a wicked religion. As a result of that, a number of Muslims threatened to murder him. When I asked about this, he said he wasn't worried, listen to this, because I'm immortal till Jesus calls me home. Jesus knew that everything was on the Father's timetable and that he was going to die by crucifixion, not by stoning. But as to the charge of blasphemy, Jesus responds by pointing them back to their own scripture. Look what he says in verse 34. Jesus answered, If He calls them gods to whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, you're blaspheming because I said I'm the Son of God? Now Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82. In that Psalm you have God speaking to the judges of Israel. We read this, God takes his stand in his congregation. He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Vindicate the weak and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and the destitute. rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. They do not know, nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless, you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for it is you who possess all the nations." So the judge is placed over the people by God, Though their mere men were acting in the place of God, and in that sense they were Elohim, gods, and all of you, sons of the Most High." So Jesus' making here is a lesser to greater argument. If in some sense the scripture can rightly refer to these judges as God, who he's consecrated, if that's legitimate and not blasphemous, to speak of him in this way, how can it be blasphemous for Jesus the greater, who the Father sanctified and sent in the world to make the claim, I am the Son of God? Listen carefully. Jesus is not a man who made himself God. Jesus was God who became man. He's the incarnate Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. So their charges fall on cross-examination. But Jesus not only refutes their charges, but he goes on to offer a challenge, and this is our next point. The challenge is 37 to 38. Now, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary gives us one of the definitions of challenge, to confront or defy boldly. Do you remember earlier when Jesus was challenging his critics, asking, which one of you convicts me of any sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the word of God. For this reason you do not hear me, because you're not of God." John 8, 46-47. By the way, could any of us stand before our friends, family members, and co-workers and say, which one of you can convict me of any sin? Dozens of people could come forward and point out incidents of sin in our lives. But nobody could do that with Jesus. Well, here Jesus challenges the people to look at the evidence and draw the right conclusion from what their eyes had been seeing. It says in verse 37 or 38, if I do not do the works of my Father, meaning the miraculous works, do not believe me. But if I do them, though you do not believe me, believe in the works so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father. For those, you know, for those who really don't like President Trump, I wonder if they could look past his mean tweets and maybe see some of the things that he's accomplishing. Gas prices are lower. Inflation is down. Last quarter, the economy grew by 3% and bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. He secured the border. He began deporting illegals, many of whom are criminals. He cut funding for trans surgery. He's put an end to the DEI and woke nonsense. He may not be everything I want in a president, but he's sure better than the alternative that we were offered. Some have complained about the way he treats women. Well, maybe so, but at least he knows what a woman is. Jesus is saying, even if you don't like me, even if you have Jesus' derangement syndrome, look at the miracles that I'm doing. Know that these displays of miraculous powers prove out my claim that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Louise Perry is a British author and journalist who writes on feminism and gender issues. Though she at one time considered herself a feminist, she has become a critic of the modern feminist movement. She wrote a book entitled The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. In it, she argues that the sexual revolution which promised freedom, especially for women, has been an unmitigated disaster. Men and women are not the same. And for women especially, there is no such thing as casual sex. The hookup culture has been devastating on its effect on young girls. Now, she wasn't a Christian, and yet Louise came to understand the value of Christian ethics when it comes to sex. I mean, all of us would be better off if it were confined in marriage. Men would be better off. Women would be better off. Children would be better off. Society would be better off. But then Louise Perry had an aha moment. Listen to her own words. I realized that if Christianity is supernaturally true, you would expect it to be sociologically true. And observing quite how sociologically true it is was very persuasive to me. In other words, she let the sociological evidence drive her to the conclusion that Christian ethics were true because Christianity was true, and therefore Christ was who He claims to be. And so four months ago, she announced on her podcast that she herself had become a Christian. Jesus was telling His listeners to let the evidence drive them to a verdict, the correct verdict of His identity as the Son of God, who is in the Father, and the Father is in Him. Did Jesus' listeners let that evidence of His work lead them to the truth of His identity? Sadly, no. That brings us to our last point, the results, this 39-41. It says, Therefore they were seeking to seize Him again, and He eluded their grasp. As I said, it wasn't Jesus' time yet. Jesus would not die on this day by stoning, but three months later on Passover by crucifixion. For it was then and there on Calvary where He offered up His life as a sacrifice for sins. There on the cross, God placed all the sins of Jesus' followers upon Him and punished Him in our place. The innocent dying for the guilty, the sinless one in place of the sinner. So that on the cross, when Jesus died, the wrath of God, He satisfied for every sin on Him was laid. Here in the death of Christ, I live. It says in verse 40, And he went away beyond the Jordan to a place where John first was baptizing, and he was staying there. By the way, it's bad enough if you walk away from Jesus. It's scarier yet when he walks away from you. It says in verse 41, Many came to him and were saying, Well, John performed no signs, yet everything John said about this man is true. And many believed in him there. Now most Jews in Jesus' day rejected him, but not all. Here, outside of Jerusalem, we're told that many believed. And down through the ages, most Jews then, and most Jews even today, reject Jesus as their Messiah. So do many, many Gentiles. But we know from elsewhere in Scripture that will not always be the case. There will be a national conversion of Israel when Jesus returns. But how about you? Have you experienced a personal conversion? Have you embraced Jesus as a Christ, the Son of the living God? Or have you rejected Him? Perhaps you sense you're sitting on the fence. That's not a safe and secure place to be. If you are not a believer, if you have not accepted Jesus for who He is, I am offering Him to you right now. Believe in Christ, the Son of God, and by believing, gain eternal life as a free gift. And for those of you who have believed, continue to believe in Him, trusting Him with whatever comes into your life. You can trust Him because He's trustworthy. Why did the Jews reject Jesus? David Klinghoffer gives a whole number of reasons. I can tell you the real reason. They rejected him the same reason anyone rejects them, because of their pride and their love of sin. You have to give that up if you come to Christ. If you're not a believer, come to Christ. Come today. Let's pray. Our Father in God, the message is simple, and it's clear. If we turn from our sins and trust in Christ's death on the cross as the payment for our sins, we don't have to pay for them ourselves. But if not, we will pay for them forever. I pray for those who are here listening today, Lord, and for those who are going to listen over the radio and the internet, that you'd open up hearts and open up minds and cause people to believe in your son, Jesus Christ. For we're asking his name and to his praise. Amen. All right.