Another visit to Jerusalem and another address.
Jesus left the city for two months, and, after ministering in Pereea, returned for the Feast of Dedication, which commemorated the purification of the temple, in the time of the Maccabees, from the profanation of Antiochus Epiphanes. It was held in December, and "Jesus was walking in Solomon's porch," a sheltered arcade for such a season.
I. THE FRESH APPEAL OF THE JEWS FOR AN UNAMBIGUOUS DECLARATION OF THE MESSIAHSHIP. "How long wilt thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly."
1. They encircled him by closing in around him, so as to enforce a categorical answer to their question.
2. They seemed to be weary of answers ambiguous in their eyes, because they had not eyes to see their meaning, and demanded an answer without reserve and without fear.
3. The Maccabean tradition brought so vividly before their minds by the least suggested the bare possibility of Jesus being such a temporal Messiah as they looked/or, possessing as he undoubtedly did a marvelous power over nature and man.
II. OUR LORD'S FIRST ANSWER TO THEIR APPEAL. "I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father's Name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep."
1. A direct answer would have been impossible. If he had said, "I am the Messiah," he would have led them to believe that he was the temporal Prince of their false conceptions. If he had said, "I am not the Messiah," he would have uttered falsehood, for he was the Messiah promised by God.
2. He recurs to those significant testimonies by which he had applied to himself all the Messianic symbols of the old dispensation.
3. He adds the weighty testimony of his Father—"the works of the Father"—as signifying his oneness with the Father.
4. His words, "Ye are not of my sheep," signify that he was not such a Messiah as they desired.
III. THE BLESSED PRIVILEGES ATTACHED TO THE RELATION BETWEEN CHRIST AND HIS SHEEP. Our Lord asserts in parallel clauses the acts of the sheep and the acts or gifts of the Shepherd.
1. The acts of the sheep.
2. The acts or gifts of the Shepherd.
(a) He gives himself, who is that "Eternal Life" (1 John 1:1).
(b) He gives the knowledge of himself, which is life eternal (John 17:2).
(c) It is a present gift.
(d) It is a pure gift—of grace, not works.
(a) The sheep are placed in Christ's hands by the Father; for they are "the sheep of his hand" (Psalms 95:7).
(b) The power, the wisdom, the love of Jesus secure the final salvation of his sheep.
IV. THE ABSOLUTE SECURITY OF THE SHEEP AND ITS TRUE GROUND. "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one."
1. The safety of the believer is guaranteed by the power of the Father as well as that of the Son.
2. The oneness of Father and Son, not merely in will or power, but in nature, is the supreme guarantee of all salvations, which is the common work of Father and Son.
V. THE EFFECT OF THIS DECLARATION UPON THE JEWS. "Then the Jews brought stones again to stone him."
1. This act of sudden rage implied that they understood our Lord to claim supreme Deity.
2. The stones had been previously carried to the porch, in the expectation that the sacrifice of Christ could not be much longer delayed.