John 10:31-42

John 10:31-42
Theme: Did Jesus Blaspheme God?

This morning I want us to look at the third attempt that was made on the life of Jesus in the gospel of John (Read Jn 10:31-42).

Our text this morning begins with the Jews taking up stones so as to stone to Jesus to death….

He was their long awaited Messiah and deliverer but they could not accept him because he did not meet their religious and cultural expectations. He had the wrong pedigree, he was not from the best school, he lived in the wrong part of the country, he was not orthodox, he hung our with sinners, he was disrespectful to the religious leaders, he did not go along with the status quo, wherever he went controversy followed.

Jesus’ death was not going to happen that day because, for one thing, his humiliation was only partial; he needed to be handed over to gentiles to be publicly degraded. He also because needed to be betrayed by Judas- you know, the guy who was more concerned about money than the destination of his soul.

The question (if this were a court of law and you the jury) is, ‘was the charge against Jesus of blaspheming God an allowable charge?’ If so, then the Law clearly says in Leviticus 24:16
…whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him…. …he shall be put to death.

And, to be lawful, a second witness from Deuteronomy: even if your own family member
6 “secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known.... 8 you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; …you shall stone him with stones until he dies….(13:6-10).

These men who were about to stone Jesus, were (they thought) offering a service to God and defending His glory. The Law (they thought) was on their side and they would have done it even if Jesus was their own brother or son.

The charge is this: Jesus, claiming to be the Son of God and one with the Father was making a claim to being God, or a god- something, if it were not true, was the highest form of slander against God and treasonous against the nation of Israel. It was a crime worthy of summary execution in those dark days of Israel.

This raises an important question, “why don’t we stone people today for blasphemy?” Well, I guess the simple answer would be that if we stoned people for blasphemy, there would be very few of us left.

But pragmatism is no excuse for ignoring the commands of scripture. So why do we no longer practice the stoning of heretics for blaspheme… for witchcraft… for rape… for homosexuality… for disobeying parents?


One reason is that, whereas the Ten Commandments given by God are universal rules for all people everywhere and at all times, the exposition of those rules as they apply to the nation of Israel (which was originally constituted as a theocracy) was limited to Israel for the purpose of preserving for God a unique people among the nations that surrounded them. It was essential to guard the purity of the people (who were not personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit to give them an inner motive for purity) by imposing a rigorous and demanding external motive for purity.

But these rules were rarely enforced and they hardly slowed the process of moral and spiritual decay in Israel. In fact, it was not long after the death of Joshua that the Jews actually began to practice the evil religions of the Canaanites. So much for externally motivated religious piety!

Another reason for the harshness of the Law was to show the purity and holiness of God. God is so just, so pure, so holy; He is truth without mixture of error, light without mixture of darkness, good without mixture of evil. And His holiness demands that any infraction of the Law, any darkness, any sin or evil be put to justice. So the consequence of breaking one part of the Law is death because it is not just an infraction of a rule, it is an assault on the holiness of one who gave the Law.

The Law shows that the consequence of sin is death- we must die to atone for our sin. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. And every one of us is riddled with sin like a cancer patient whose cancer has spread to every organ and limb and extremity in his body!

And the point is that we are so wrought with sin and our will is so bent from keeping the Law of God that we need to die eternally to atone for our infinite sins. And that’s only enough for ourselves, we can’t do it for anyone else. That’s not my opinion, its not a construct of theologians, its one view of religion, it’s the gospel! Jesus taught it!

That’s the bad news, the stumbling block of the gospel— the real reason that the Jews wanted to stone Jesus— even if the Bible didn’t reveal my sinfulness to me, my own conscience would convict me of my sinful motives and thoughts and deeds. Even if I was so callused to my conscience I still couldn’t escape reason because it’s reasonable to say we are sinful— just look at human history… and the evening news. Humanity is a flawed creation; it’s a cancer in a world that was once called good God; but no longer thanks to us!

That’s why we need a saviour!

And not just any saviour, we need a saviour who is (unlike all other humanity) completely sinless so that he does need to die for his own sin, and we need a saviour who is (like God alone) infinitely endless, so as to be able to make his death count for all mankind.
So either Jesus, who claimed to be that saviour, is a liar and a blasphemer deserving of being stoned to death, or he is that saviour: sinless and divine. Is he who he said he is in verse 30, one with God almighty, which the Jews correctly interpreted as claiming to be God- blasphemy if it were not true.

So Jesus engaged them in a classic form of Hebrew logic, like a great scene from Perry Mason, Jesus’ question reveals their own guilt (Watch how he turns the tables on them). Exhibit A, Jesus asks, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”

The answer from the accusers, “None. We don’t want to stone you because of your good works, we can’t find any fault with your works, we’re stoning you for claiming to be God.” Notice Jesus does not deny that he claims to be God, because he most certainly did make such a claim, and the gospel does too. So it is established the by testimony of Jesus’ accusers that Jesus works are good.

What are Jesus’ works? He lists them in Luke 4:18 as evidence that the Spirit of Lord has anointed him:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

In another place, John the Baptist sends messengers to question Jesus if he is really the Coming One or should they look for another, Jesus response was an emphatic YES, I am the Coming One and here is the evidence,
“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

Jesus quickly moves on to Exhibit B in John 10:34, He points his judges to Psalm 82:
1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty;
he judges among the gods.
2 How long will you judge unjustly,
and accept the persons of the wicked?

3 Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. 5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

6 I have said, You are gods;
and all of you are children of the most High.
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.


The Key verse is verse 6 of Psalm 82, which Jesus quotes. God, speaking to the judges of Israel, calls them gods- Elohim in the Hebrew, which is one of the names of Jehovah God in the Old Testament. In its singular form it’s pronounced El. It’s parallel to the Greek Theos in the New Testament and may have some connection to the Arabic Alah (El… Alah). The English equivalent is God!

Psalm 82 is God’s rebuke of the unjust judges of Israel for failing to defend the poor and the fatherless and rid them from the hand of the wicked the very thing that Jesus would-be executioners agree that Jesus has been doing.

But nevertheless God calls those unjust judges of old gods. This verse has been used by heretics to teach that believers will become little gods. It’s a key doctrine of the Mormon Church.

When God refers to the wicked judges as Gods, it is not intended to be a complement! Nor is it meant to be something we should aspire to. In fact, all the grief and human suffering I have just alluded to stems from humanities attempt at self-deification (the lie of Satan).

Describing the judges as Elohim, is not a reference to their divinity. Elohim is an expression; it can mean God almighty, the gods or the mighty ones referring to people of power. The Judges have been put in the place of God; they are His spokesman. God said the same thing to Moses when He described the way that Moses would speak to Aaron and Aaron to Pharaoh, “So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God” (Ex 4:6).

Jesus asks in verse 35 “If he called them Gods to whom the word of God came…” in other words, there is precedent in the scripture of men being called gods. Macarthur explains,
Jesus’ argument is that this psalm proves that the word "god" can be legitimately used to refer to others than God Himself. His reasoning is that if there are others whom God can address as "god" or "sons of the Most High," why then should the Jews object to Jesus’ statement that He is "the Son of God" (v. 36)?[1]

We the jury are privy here to a key piece of information that Jesus’ judges are ignorant of, John 1:1 and 14 tells us that the Word (that came to those judges of old) is God very God and that the Word became flesh and dwelt among. So here’s the point, if they were called gods because the Word came to them, how much more is the Word God who is now present in the flesh.

Jesus has turned the tables on his judges, he has shown them that his works testify that he does the works of the messiah and that his own testimony to be God is not blasphemy. But he has also shown his judges their failure by pointing them to the very scriptures that indict them. They think themselves to be judges and by default, gods. But they do not do the work of the messiah to set the captives free and preach the gospel to the poor. Instead, they attempt to obstruct the word that has come to them to keep it from the poor and the deaf and the lame. And Psalm 82 now becomes their own accuser,
But you shall die like men,
And fall like one of the princes.” (Ps 82:7)

Conclusion:
The Word of God has come to you this morning. Its not just the thoughts of men, the ideal religious sayings, a collection of moral myths— Its life and death. Throw down your stones and choose Life, choose Jesus. You cannot save yourself from the consequence of this cancerous sin that riddles your mind and body and soul and deceives you into thinking that your rebellion is actually a service to God. But Jesus can do it. He’s proven it not by dying on the cross, but by dying on the cross and then being raised from the dead. He’s had the victory over death enough that you can share in his victory by repenting of your sins and putting your trust in him to deliver your soul. Worship Jesus as God. Let’s pray…

[1]John Jr MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, e (Nashville: Word Pub., 1997, c1997), Jn 10:34.