Do you see the Miracles around you?

About this Episode

Do you see the Miracles around you? is the topic that will be discussed today on RIOT Podcast, a Christian Discipleship Podcast.

Last week’s show “Why do we wander?” was a great show, we covered John 10:1-13, and we highly recommend if you haven’t listened to it yet, go back and listen. Today’s show will be a continuation of last week’s show and just as good.

We will pick back up in John 10:14-42. If you remember from last week’s show in the first part of John chapter 10 Jesus makes three declarations about Himself. His first declaration was that He was the door. He used a sheep pin illustration as a way to demonstrate that no one can come in unless they belong to the Shepherd. The second declaration that He proclaimed was that He is the Good Shepherd and that His sheep know His voice. We didn’t have time to unpack that proclamation thoroughly last week so we will pick back up where we left off in vs 14- 21. Then we will end with His last proclamation that He is the Son of God in vs 22-42.

Read John 10:14-15 The Good Shepherd knows His sheep.

In the gospel of John, the word “know” means, much more than intellectual awareness. It speaks of an intimate relationship between God and His people. The shepherd knows his sheep personally and therefore knows best how to minister to them. If we are in a relationship with Jesus, He knows our name and most likely has given us a new name.

The second thing the good shepherd knows is our nature. While all sheep are alike in their essential nature, each sheep has its own distinctive characteristics, and the loving shepherd recognizes these traits. One sheep may be afraid of high places, another of dark shadows. A faithful shepherd will consider these special needs as he tends his flock.

Thirdly He knows all of our needs. Often, we do not even know our own needs! Psalm 23 is a beautiful poetic description of how the Good shepherd cares for His sheep. In the pastures, by the waters, and even through the valleys, the sheep need not fear, because the shepherd is caring for them and meeting their needs.

As we press into Jesus more, we get to know Him better. We come to realize that we never have to worry or fear, for He is always watching out for us. Religion will never get you close to him. We must spend time with Him in prayer and reading His word. Silent listening and meditating on His truth are needed to know Him intimately. The good shepherd will never compete with what the world offers, He operates differently. We are to come to him daily with a broken and contrite heart. In His presence, we will find rest and peace.

Read vs 16, the good shepherd brings other sheep into the flock.

Read vs 17-21 the good shepherd takes up His life again.

Let us now move into Jesus’s final declaration of being the Son of God. The events in this section occurred about 2 ½ months after John 10:1-21. John put them together because in both messages Jesus used the imagery of the shepherd and the sheep.

Read John 10:22-24

The festival of dedication is Hanukkah, the Feast of Lights. Takes place in December, near the time of Christmas. The feast commemorates the rededication of the temple by Judas Maccabeus in 164 BC, after it had been desecrated by the Seleucids of Syria. The leaders surrounded Jesus in the temple so that He had to stop and listen to them. They had decided that it was time for a showdown. They did not want Him to evade the issue any longer. Tell us plainly are you the Messiah?

Existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC The Hellenistic period spans the period of Mediterranean history between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire.

The Roman–Jewish Treaty was an agreement made between Judah Maccabee and the Roman Republic in 161 BCE according to 1 Maccabees 8:17–20 and Josephus. It was the first recorded contract between the Jewish people and the Romans.

Read vs 25-42

Once again Jesus reminded them of what He had already taught them. He emphasized the witness of His words. But He went much deeper in His explanation this time, for He revealed to the Jewish leaders why they did not understand His words or grasp the significance of His works. They were not His sheep. From the human standpoint, we become His sheep by believing, but from the divine standpoint, we believe because we are His sheep.

Notice that Jesus’s teaching reveals his relationship with His sheep. He has a loving relationship because He died for the sheep, as well as a living relationship because He cares for the sheep. It is also a lasting relationship for He keeps His sheep and no one is lost. What about the people that believed in Jesus but no longer walk with Him, aren’t they lost?

Jesus made the statement in vs 30 I am the Father are one. He knew this would startle His enemies and give them more reason to oppose Him. It was the plain answer they were looking for. He made it clear to them at that moment that He was a deity. The word one does not suggest that the Father and the Son are identical persons. Rather it means that they are one in essence. The Father is God and the Son is God, but the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father.

In vs 37-38 Jesus invited them once again to believe in Him. In fact, He urged them to believe, He said believe based on the miracles you have seen. If they would believe in miracles, then they would know the Father, and that would open the way for them to know the Son and believe in Him. It was simply a matter of examining the evidence honestly and being willing to accept the truth.