OUR FATHER WHOSE SON WAS SENT INTO THE WORLD

The book of John chapter 10 verses 31 - 39 says this;

31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”

33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”

34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? 35 If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” 39 Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand.

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OUR FATHER WHO IS ONE WITH HIS SON

The book of John chapter 10 captures another confrontation that occurred between Jesus and the people who were pressing to get Him to definitively identify Himself to them.

22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do You keep us in doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. 30 I and My Father are one.”

Scriptural prophecies gave the markers of the Messiah and the astonishing healings that Jesus was doing in their midst as well as a segment of the people believing in Him from these works and His words, were what those genuinely seeking the Messiah should have recognized.

Instead, some of the people wanted Jesus to self-identify as the Messiah but this would be incorrect because the miracles He was doing were the pre-ordained witnesses to His status and the annointed one.

Jesus said that those who responded to Him on the merits of His own testimony and the miracles He performed were His because they knew His voice and He would give them eternal life.

This passage also contains a great revelation into the nature of God as a triune being where Jesus declared that He, the Son of God, and the Father, were one.

This singularization of two separate identities gives a glimpse into the trinity where God exists as one God and  expresses Himself as multiple persons.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO GAVE JESUS THE COMMAND TO LAY HIS LIFE DOWN

The book of John chapter 10 verse  17 - 21 reveals that the Father gave Jesus the impetus to lay His life down and to take it up again.

It was this abandon to His Father's will as a sacrificial life that Jesus was loved and highly favoured. 

In the garden of Eden, man chose to pick up his own life of selfish ambition to determine which course his life would take according to what seemed good to him. This earned mankind the enmity of God. 

In contrast, Jesus lived a sacrificial life that was submitted to God and he lived His life in strict accordance with the directives of God which gave Him the power to lay down His life and pick it up again.

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

19 Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. 20 And many of them said, “He has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to Him?”

21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

This revelations of Jesus' interactions with the Father were highly controversial to the people in Jerusalem who were listening to Him.

To some people, the concepts were so alien to them that they concluded that Jesus was speaking by a demonic entity or that He was insane.

Others reasoned that Jesus must be a genuine man God because it was only through God that the miracles He did like giving sight to the blind were possible.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE SON IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD

In the book of John chapter 10 verses 1 - 16, the Lord Jesus used the analogy of a shepherd and His sheep to explain what His relationship with the people who believed in Him would be like.

Those who are His would know His voice the way sheep know the voice of their shepherd and when He called them, they would heed His voice and follow Him. 

Jesus asserted in this analogy that the only way to join the flock would be through belief in Him because He was the doorway to the sheepfold and the only legitimate way into the sheepfold was through the doorway. This implies that there is a potential for sheep to be among the flock who are not legitimate members of the flock because they enter by means other than belief in Jesus. Jesus also touched on those who had come claiming to be sheperds before Him had tried to lead the sheep unto destruction but the legitimate sheep did not hear their voices. Those false sheperds came to steal kill and destroy but Jesus came that the sheep would have life abundantly.

1 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.

The Lord told His listeners that He is the good shepherd who takes ownership over His flock and sacrifices His life on their behalf.  Whereas a hired shepherd would not risk his life for the sheep and would abandon the sheep at the first sign of trouble, Jesus faces the enemies of the sheep even to the point of laying down His life to save them.

Jesus explained further that even as His Father in heaven knew Him, He (Jesus), knew His Father and out of that knowledge of each other, Jesus, the good shepeherd, would be able to lay down His life for those that were given to Him by His Father.

It was then that Jesus alluded to the fact that there was a global component to ministry where the sheep of His flock would not be restricted to the children of Israel but would be from elsewhere and they would hear His voice and He would bring them into the fold and He would create one flock under one shepherd.

Praise the name of the Lord.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO ANNOINTED HIS SON TO HEAL THE BLIND

The book of John chapter 9 relays the encouter of a man born blind with the Lord Jesus. A causality debate had arisen about the manˋs blindness and Jesus clarified that it was not the doings of the man or his parents that caused the man to be born blind but rather that the work of God would be showcased in his life.

The Lord then, in passing, revealed an important dynamic in His spiritual kingdom. While He was in the world, He was the singular light of the world and thus He had to be about His Fatherˋs business bringing the power of God into the focus so that the plan of salvation could be carried out.  Once He was taken out of the world and into eternity, all those who believed in Him could become the light of world and do the works that He did in propagating the good news of the kingdom of God. 

1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. 4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Jesus then spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and put the clay on the manˋs eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man returned, he was able to see. Those who knew the man were perplexed by what had happened because it was unheard of that a man born blind would start seeing and they were questioning whether it was even the same man that they knew. The formerly blind man eagerly affirmed that it was he who was the one who had been blind but when asked about the details of what happened so that he was now able to see, the man furnished the bare details; A man named Jesus put clay on his eyes and told him to wash his eyes at the pool of Siloam and when he did so, he was able to see.

6 When He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. 7 And He said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.

8 Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” 9 Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he.” 10 Therefore they said to him, “How were your eyes opened?”

11 He answered and said, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight.” 12 Then they said to him, “Where is He?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”

As people marvalled at what had happened, some religious leaders noted that it was improper that clay was made on a Sabbath day and so they asserted that Jesus could not have been from God because of the legal infraction they had pointed out. Others, however, wondered how someone who was not from God could do such astonishing things and a great controversy began to simmer and the religious leaders called the parents of the man whose sight had been healed and began to interogate them concerning the incident.

16 Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

17 They said to the blind man again, “What do you say about Him because He opened your eyes?” He said, “He is a prophet.”

18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had received his sight. 19 And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” 20 His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. 23 Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 So they again called the man who was blind, and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” 25 He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

26 Then they said to him again, “What did He do to you? How did He open your eyes?”

27 He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

28 Then they reviled him and said, “You are His disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. 29 We know that God spoke to Moses; as for this fellow, we do not know where He is from.” 30 The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! 31 Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. 32 Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. 33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.” 34 They answered and said to him, “You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?” And they cast him out. 

The matter was becoming highly politized as the various factions wrangled over what had happened. The religious leaders, in tryng to tamp down the excitement over the astounding miracle, threatened to ostracize anyone who affirmed the validity of Jesusˋs miracle. 

To their chagrin, the man who was given his sight was not easily cowed by their threats and he challenged their interpretation of what had happened. He asked them why, as religious leaders, they werre ignorant of the source of the miracle that had happened to him when it should have been their area of expertise.

He embarrased the leaders by explaining to them that it is commonly understood that God did not hear sinners but heard the requests of those who worshipped and obeyed Him and therefore, the man reasoned, Jesus must have been from God. The pharisees excoriated the man for impertinence and booted him out of the temple.

The Lord  Jesus tracked down the formerly blind man who had been ejected from the religious community and gave him the opportunity to believe in the One who had been sent as the saviour of the world and the man believed. 

35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”  36 He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?”

37 And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” 38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him.

39 And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”

40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

The Lord Jesus declared that His appearance in the world would have the effect of causing the blind to see and conversly, those who saw would be made blind.

Amen

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 OUR FATHER SENT A SAVIOUR

There was a day

I was a slave

I heard good news

That Jesus came to save

And I believed

Yes I believed

That Jesus died and shed

His blood for me

And rose again and set me free. (X2)