Seeking Jesus and his light

In this passage, Jesus still referred to sheep.

Some translations head this section, “reassurance for believers.” We must read carefully, though, to understand who receives Jesus’ promise and its context.

Still, we rejoice in our position close to Jesus.

As we begin reading this passage, two-thirds through chapter 10, John wrote it was time for Hanukkah. How much time passed between Jesus’ teaching about his sheep and this conversation with Jews in the temple courts?

We may be familiar with Hanukkah generally, when Jews celebrate the temple’s rededication after the Maccabean revolt in the second century BC.¹

Zodhiates pointed out the Festival was a time when fasting and public mourning were prohibited. During this time, the Jews sang or recited the “Hallel,” Psalms 113-118.² If you have time, skim those psalms and consider all God has done for his people and how he is worthy of all praise.

Perhaps John included this verse to set the stage. As people celebrated Hanukkah with candle lighting and rejoicing, perhaps they would be more receptive to Jesus’ good news about his purpose and true sheep.

Read John 10:22-26.

• As Jesus walked in the temple courts, Jews gathered around him.
• They demanded to know if he was indeed the Messiah, claiming he “kept [them] in suspense.”
• The word John used for “doubt” or “suspense” here has the meaning “mind or feelings.”³
• Might a paraphrase read, How long will you suspend our rational thought and cause us to doubt our instinctive feelings? As in, what is fiction and what is true?
• How many times had he already told them, and they chose not to believe?
• Jesus referred to the miracles he’d performed in his Father’s name, by God’s authority, as God’s representative⁴ on earth.
• Surely this would resonate with the Jews.
• He further defined their unbelief: they were not his sheep.
• This too should catch their attention after they’d heard about a thief stealing sheep and that Jesus had sheep not from within the Jewish fold.

*What is the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and belief about Jesus?

*How many times did you hear about Jesus before you chose to believe, and what led you to decide to follow Him?

Read John 10:27-30.

• Once again Jesus said,

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).

• Jesus’ true sheep “follow his leading and act according to his example.”⁵
• This time his statement was paired with another repeated teaching.

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish…” (verse 28).

• His sheep will not be “deprived of eternal life,”⁶ they will not be separated from God’s presence.
• He continued his thought with the claim no one would snatch them out of his hand.
• No one will forcefully seize and snatch the sheep away “from God’s power.”⁷
• When I read the definition for snatch⁸, I envisioned a modern TV drama scene with police arresting the “bad guys” and forcing them into patrol cars to take them away.
• Imagine that, we are held in God’s mighty, loving hands, where no one can seize us or take us away from him.
• Again, Jesus spoke to what they should know—God the Father is greater than all.
• No one can steal the sheep from the Father’s hand.
• Jesus holds his sheep close and the Father holds his sheep close: Jesus and the Father are one. (verse 30).
• As if that statement alone isn’t difficult enough to comprehend, Paul probed Jesus’ relationship with his Father while on earth more deeply.

“Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8).

*What does it mean for you to follow Jesus?

*What is the significance for us as sheep to remain in God’s presence?

*How do you interpret Jesus’ claim he and the Father are one?

Read John 10:31-38.

• The Jews heard and understood exactly what Jesus said.
• They prepared to stone him for blasphemy, as it is written,

“Anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death …” (Leviticus 24:16).

• Such blasphemy includes verbal abuse and slander toward or against God.⁹
• Jesus referred again to the miracles he had done by the Father’s power and authority.
• He asked them a pointed question to force an answer.
• He reminded them of his good, useful, and beneficial works, that he “was sent to fulfill on earth,” to show his purpose.¹⁰
• They responded in truth: Jesus claimed to be God.
• Jesus quoted Psalm 82:6, reminding them the word of God came to their appointed magistrates.¹¹
• If the Old Testament judges were “little g” gods–God’s representatives in Israel¹² —how much more so the One God who set apart and sent into the world His only Son?
• Jesus told the Jews to base their belief on how he acted in accordance with His Father’s will.
• Even if Jesus acted like God, even if they did not believe he was God’s Son, they should believe the miracles.
• The miracles proved his deity.

*How do we see blasphemy practiced today?

*How did Jesus act according to his Father’s will during his earthly life?

Read John 10:39-42.

• They tried to arrest him, but he escaped “from their power.”¹³
• Jesus returned to the place John had baptized.
• Did he go on a retreat? Visit his cousin, John the one who baptized?
• People still found Jesus.
• The people said John spoke the truth about Jesus,
• “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:26-27).
• Many people believed in Jesus.

*Why do you think Jesus went back across the Jordan when he escaped the Jews?

*Where do we seek out Jesus? in normal daily life? among crowds? in a wilderness place?

*What will we do with the truth about Jesus?

 

1. Chabad-Lubavitch. “What is Hanukkah?” Chabad.org 2025 https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-Is-Hanukkah.htm
2. Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D. The Complete Word Study New Testament: King James Version. (AMG Publishers, 1991), 341.
3. Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament. (AMG Publishers, 1992), 1494-1495.
4. Zodhiates, Word Study Dictionary, 1048.
5. Zodhiates, 112.
6. Zodhates, 231.
7. Zodhiates, 1474.
8. Zodhiates, 257.
9. Zodhiates, 341.
10. Zodhiates, 650, 814.
11. Zodhiates, 730.
12. Warren Baker, D.R.E. and Eugene Carpenter, Ph.D. The Complete Word Study Dictionary Old Testament. (AMG Publishers, 2003), 1491.
13. Zodhiates, Word Study Dictionary New Testament, 603.