Learning Jesus | Week 23
Learning Jesus Week 23
I just want to be a sheep. Baaaa
Key Word – rest >> Central Passage – John 10:22-38 and Luke 15:11-32
Day 1 -- John 10:22-42
Background Information – In the book of John, Jesus’ teaching on the Good Shepherd’s relationship with His sheep precedes this passage. John does not include the events between that discourse and this event that takes place later during the Feast of Dedication (Hanukkah). Celebrating this feast is not commanded in the Hebrew Scriptures, but Jesus does teach He is the fulfillment of this feast just as He did at the other feasts.
In 167 BC Antiochus Epiphanes, a Syrian, captured Jerusalem and set up a pagan altar in the Temple. On December 25th 165 BC, Judas Maccabaeus led the Jews to recapture the Temple. (See Daniel 8 and 11 for Daniel’s prophecy of these events.) Afterwards, the Jews re-dedicated the Temple to God. The celebration lasted eight days and was commemorated as the Feast of Dedication or Feast of Lights because the Jews could again worship in light.
In light of the Feast (put totally intended), the Jews in this text ask Jesus to tell them “plainly” that He is the Messiah. In the book of John, Jesus has already pretty much done that. He claimed union with the Father after healing the paralytic on the Sabbath, He healed a man born blind, which is a Messianic miracle, and He has proclaimed Himself to be the Good Shepherd of prophecy. He has, therefore, indirectly stated that He is the Messiah, but Jesus here lays out the real reason they are not believing Him.
1. Read John 10:22-33 again.
o Jesus is stating He is one with God. What does His unique relationship with the Father guarantee about your relationship with the Father and the Son? Note how verses 27-30 affirm your double security.
o Jesus is again in the hot seat with the Pharisees. Why might Jesus choose to assert this truth about His divine identity in the midst of controversy? Consider the purpose of the Feast of Dedication.
Background Information – Addressing their charge of being obscure, Jesus states clearly, “I and the Father are one.” The Pharisees hear Jesus’ allusion to the Sh’ ma -- “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4) – and hear that Jesus is claiming to be God; therefore, the Jews take up stones. So Jesus quotes from Psalm 82:6, which reads “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you.’” In this verse, God is addressing the judges of Israel, who are called sons because they represent Israel. Jesus’ point is that if mere men can be addressed as gods based on their sonship, then He THE Son of God can be called God. His works support His words are true. The Son of God fulfills the Feast of Dedication because He IS the truly sanctified Temple set apart for mission. He will enable us to worship God in spirit and in truth.
2. Read John 10:34-42. Consider the great work that Jesus has in front of Him to accomplish. Why does Jesus keep asserting that if unbelievers do not believe Him, they should at least believe His works?
3. Jesus affirms two key doctrines taught elsewhere in Scripture: 1. a believer cannot lose his or her salvation (John 10:27-30). 2. Scripture is without error or inerrant (John 10:35). How is it comforting for you a sheep to know on this very day or in your current season of challenge that Scripture is inerrant and you cannot lose your salvation?
Deep Think (Totally Optional)
Our theme verses for Learning Jesus are found in Matthew 11:28-30 -- “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and LEARN from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden in light.” Jesus is calling us here to be His disciples, and He promises us rest as we follow Him. What does rest look like?
When I meet a new mentee participating in our re:generation recovery ministry, I first seek to understand if she has trusted Christ as her Savior. If she has, I want to know if she is resting in her salvation in Christ. If she is not a believer, then the Holy Spirit does not dwell in her, and she absolutely needs the Teacher, Helper, and Counselor to walk recovery with her. If she is not confident that her salvation is a gift God will never take from her, then she will not be able to continually return to God after failure for His forgiveness and restoration 91 John 1:9). His Holy Spirit helps her to not sin, but when she does, the Father promises to hear her confession and to restore her relationship to Him again and again. He has sealed her with His Holy Spirit as a guarantee that she is in relationship with Him now and forever. Trusting this gives a disciple, especially one in recovery, true rest in Christ.
Since John 6, Jesus has repeatedly taught that a person only knows Jesus is the Messiah and has a relationship with the Father because of God’s work in them. In our John 10 passage today, Jesus affirms again that the Father has chosen those who believe, and He also teaches eternal security for all who have been regenerated. Scriptures you can read regarding eternal security include the following – Eph 1:3-7, 11-14; Rom 8:23-39; 1 Cor 15:24-26; 2 Cor 1:22, 5:4-5. As a disciple and a disciplemaker, I encourage you to read through these passages so that you can rest in God’s work in you and so you can lead others to rest in Him as well.
How does knowing all this brainy stuff lead you to worship the God of the Word? You might choose to answer this in the form of a prayer to God.
Day 2 -- Read Luke 13:22-35
Background Information – Remember the Pharisees taught that all of Israel would be saved, meaning their bloodline alone ensured they would all enter the Messianic Kingdom. Jesus labels this teaching as the “wide road,” and He has already been challenging it as untrue. In His Good Shepherd discourse that we read in John 10, Jesus said that He is the door to the sheepfold, but the Pharisees are trying to enter like a thief who circumvents the door to climb the fence. In that same discourse, Jesus teaches about the sheep from another fold, meaning the Gentiles. Here He identifies the Gentiles as people who come from east and west and north and south, which is how the Hebrew Scriptures referred to Gentiles coming to worship God in the Messianic Kingdom.
1. Check for understanding.
People who walk through the open door, walk into where? ______________________ Who shuts the door?
____________ Will the door be opened after it is shut? _____________ Who will knock on the door and claim
to know Jesus? __________________ Why are these rejected as “workers of evil? _____________________
________________________________? In what place will there be weeping and gnashing of teeth? ________
Why? __________________________________________________________________________________________
Who are the people from the east and west and north and south? _______________________ Why are they
the last to come? ______________________________________________. What does it mean that the first shall
be last and the last shall be first? __________________________________________________________________
2. What did Jesus want Herod to know about His Person and His work?
Background Information – Those who warn Jesus about Herod seeking to kill Him are not being kind. Remember Jesus has crossed the Jordan to remove Himself from the Sanhedrin’s jurisdiction. He knows He will return to Jerusalem for His final “course” on the “third day.” But after Jesus’ ascension, Jerusalem will not see their Messiah until they repent and acknowledge that the One whom they pierced was indeed the Messiah. This will happen at the end of the Tribulation, and then Jesus will return to set up His Kingdom (Hosea 6:1-3; Isa 53:1-9; Eze 20:33-38; Joel 2:28-32; Rom 11:25-27).
3. One Day Israel will recognize Jesus is the Messiah.
o What is the primary reason Jesus will not at this time gather the people of Jerusalem under His wing like chicks?
o What must they do for Him to return?
o What does God’s timing and standard reveal about His character?
Day 3 -- Luke 14:1-24
Background Information – God’s Word did not forbid healing on the Sabbath because the purpose of the Sabbath was to bring rest to God’s people. The Mishna added the restriction that such healing was only permitted if a person’s life was in danger. Jesus transitions from true Sabbath rest to a parable about God’s blessing for those who humble themselves.
1. Read Luke 14:1-11 again. What could be the possible connection between rest and humility or lack of rest and exalting self?
2. Having spoken to the invited guests, Jesus now addresses how a host can also seek to exalt himself. Read Luke 14:12-24 again.
o Where is the Sabbath rest in inviting those who cannot repay?
o Where is the lack of rest in inviting only those who can repay you?
3. Since Jesus spoke of the resurrection of the just, a guest calls out, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” Jesus’s parable debunks the Pharisaic teaching that all Jews would enter the kingdom. A banquet is a time of rest. Review the excuses those who were invited made for not attending.
o What were the invited guests prioritizing instead?
o Why is it fitting, then, that they would not taste Jesus’ banquet?
Day 4 -- Luke 14:25-35
Background Information – Great crowds are following Jesus, but notice in this discourse how He seeks to whittle that great crowd down to true disciples so that He can teach those who will truly follow Him. To understand what Jesus means about hating family, you must understand that in Scripture to love can mean to choose and to hate can mean to reject. For example in Malachi 1:2-3, God says that He loved Jacob but hated Esau. From the womb God had chosen Jacob as the son who would receive Isaac’s inheritance and blessing, for through Jacob’s line, not Esau’s, the Messiah would come.
1. You are again talking to that ten-year-old...
o What does Jesus mean that I must hate my family and love Him?
o Why must I carry a cross like Jesus did?
2. Why should a believer count the cost of being a true disciple?
Background Information – Jesus taught three lessons on being a true disciple. 1) A true disciple will choose Him over his or her family. 2) A true disciple must carry his or her own cross, meaning a disciple must be willing to be rejected as Jesus was. 3) A true disciple must count the cost of discipleship before committing to renouncing EVERYTHING.
3. Jesus has taught these lessons about being a disciple a few times before this.
o Why is He doing this?
o Why should you teach this lesson recursively to those you disciple?
Day 5 --
The Pharisees established rules that regulated their associations with tax collectors and sinners. These included practices such as buying and selling from them, eating at table with them, and performing purification rituals before them. (This was forbidden because the sinners might repent.) They also taught that heaven rejoiced when such sinners perished from the earth. Notice how Jesus reverses that teaching in particular with His conclusion in each of the three parables.
1. Read Luke 15:1-10.
o Compare the shepherd and the widow to God.
o What do we learn about how God’s true family responds when a sinner repents?
Background Information – Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, supposed shepherds of Israel. A shepherd looking for one sheep who left the open pasture would be traversing hills and crags. So like the widow, the search would be tedious. But in this last parable, Jesus moves from prioritizing searching for the lost to establishing God’s desire for total restoration of relationship. We see in the parables that Jesus often includes a character who could represent the Pharisees. Consider how in this parable He is calling the Pharisees also to come to the Father.
Read Luke 15:11-32.
2. The father gave the younger son symbols signifying his complete restoration: the best robe was a sign of the son’s birthright, the ring signified his authority and position as a son, and the shoes were a sign of sonship. What is the one thing that the father in this story wants? List all the details that prove your answer is correct.
3. Jesus’ target audience, the Pharisees, are represented by the older son.
o How does the father communicate to the older son what he must do in order to be in right relationship with his father?
o Why does he approach the older son differently than the younger son if he loves them both?
REFLECTION Questions
These questions along with the Central Passage will usually be the focus of your group’s discussion each week.
1. Share the history of your relationship with your earthly father.
2. In John 10, you learned that no one is able to snatch you out of your Heavenly Father’s hand. Does the way you think and act reflect that you are resting in that truth? Explain.
3. Some refer to the story in Luke 15 as “The Prodigal Son” because prodigal means “recklessly extravagant” or “having spent everything.” Tim Keller referred to this story as “The Prodigal God” and he wrote a book with that title. Jesus is showing that the son who left home to spend all on lascivious pleasures and the son who stayed home and “did everything right” BOTH had heart issues with their father.
What would you like to tell the Father right now about the type of relationship you want to have with Him?
4. Pray for one another’s relationship with the Father.
COMMUNITY GROUP TIME
• Discuss the Central Passage questions. (This week that is John 10:22-38 Day 1 and Luke 15:11-32 Day 5)
• Discuss Reflection questions.
• Close in prayer.
God’s joy & strength to you,
kpaulson@gracelaredo.org