He came down to raise you up

Father, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep.

Thank you, Father, that he loves us and he loved us enough to die for us.

Thank you, Father, that when we put our hand and our trust and our faith in Jesus,

that nothing can snatch us away from him.

Nothing can snatch us away from you.

Father, thank you for this.

Father, we confess before you there are many times it feels as if, well, as if we are just too weak

or too depressed to hold on to your hand.

So we thank you that you never let go of us.

Father, pour out your Holy Spirit at this time as we read your word.

Help us to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest your word.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So, what's up with Jesus saying everyone is God?

Like, what's up with Jesus seeming to say that everyone is God?

I can imagine if I was reading this to one of my friends in Starbucks, they'd say,

George, I thought you guys were against that.

I thought you guys didn't believe that everyone was God.

So, why is it that Jesus is saying this?

In fact, George, you know, I was listening to the text as you read, and it seems as if

it's a bit lame.

Like, Jesus is a bit lame.

Like, on one hand, he says he's God.

And then he says everybody is God.

So, like, I don't get sort of what's going up.

Well, let's just sort of take a time out a moment for a good question.

That's a really good question.

And I have to confess, when I read this text for the first time, I mean, I've preached

on it before, but when I read this text at first, my heart sank a little bit.

I don't know if yours did as well when you came back, where it says, doesn't the Bible

say everybody's gods?

Or it seems to say something like that.

And my heart sank a little bit.

In fact, I felt a little bit tense when I read it this week that I was going to speak

on this.

And, you know, it's just a really good thing, just to be honest here with you.

And if there are people here who are just either out of curiosity trying to figure out

about the Christian faith, or you got dragged here because it's Mother's Day, or I don't

know what, you're just here.

Let me just tell you, there's lots of times when Christians, lots of times when I read the

Bible and my heart sinks.

Just being really honest with you.

But here's what I found.

As you can see, I'm getting, in fact, I can't say anymore that I'm getting gray.

Getting is long past.

I've gone gray.

But here's the thing I've really found over the years, is that when I just sit with Jesus'

words and with the words of the Bible and ponder them, and just sort of calm and quiet

in my mind and my heart and just ponder them, I always find that they're wise.

Like at first they shock me or make me uncomfortable or I wish he'd said something different.

And it's not that I kiss my mind goodbye and say, okay, George, you're just going to do

this to my brain.

Okay, killed my brain.

Yeah, now I'm fine.

Big smile.

You know, Stepford Wives type of smile.

Christians aren't to be the type of Stepford Wives.

Just, I really found over the years that when I just pause and ponder what is said, that

I end up finding out that it's very wise.

That's been my experience time and time and time again over many decades.

So, you know, like what happens when you just sort of pause and get over the shock of Jesus

appearing to say, you are gods?

Like if we just sort of pause and get over that shock, well, what happens if we do?

Well, let's look.

So get your Bible out.

We have to look at the text.

It always helps to actually get clearer what was said and what wasn't said and what the

context is.

So we're looking at John chapter 10 and we're beginning at verse 22.

John 10 · chapter mention

And if you're a guest here this morning, one of the things we do here most of the time

on Sunday mornings is we go through books of the Bible because the Bible is made up of

39 books written before Jesus and 27 books after Jesus and they're written as books.

So we study them as books.

We begin at the beginning, go to the end.

That way nobody can say that I'm sort of leaving out the awkward parts or the bad parts.

And we learn how to read and pray together by looking at the text together.

And so we're almost halfway through.

And what we call now the Gospel of John was originally written as one of the four biographies

of Jesus based on eyewitness account.

And John himself is an eyewitness and an earwitness to Jesus.

And he wrote this biography of Jesus after the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And we're about just almost up to the halfway mark of going through the gospel.

And here's how it goes.

It goes like this.

Verse 22.

At that time, that's the time that's about to happen right now when Jesus was still alive,

the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem.

And just pause there for a second.

We know it by a different name.

Hanukkah.

It was Hanukkah.

Hanukkah isn't something which is talked about in the Old Testament.

It's based on something that happened in the mid-2nd century B.C.

when the Jewish people were able to kick the Syrians, I think, out.

But just like today, right?

The Syrians were in Jerusalem.

Or Syrians would like to be in Jerusalem right now, as would the Iranians and lots of others.

But they had defiled the temple, and there had been a Jewish leader who'd kicked them out

and cleansed the temple from the pagan worship and idol worship and idol sacrifices had gone on.

And it's Hanukkah.

That's what it was.

They just call it a different thing here.

This is the original name.

We now call it Hanukkah, which is closer to the Hebrew.

Read that again.

Verse 22.

At that time, the Feast of Dedication, Hanukkah, took place at Jerusalem.

It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon.

So the Jewish leaders gathered around him and said to him,

How long will you keep us in suspense?

If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.

Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe.

The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me,

but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,

and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father who has given them to me is greater than all,

and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father are one.

Now, just sort of pause there.

I've gone, that's a bit of, you can see,

my Bible has red letters when Jesus speaks,

so you can see that's sort of the end of his answer.

And it might be puzzling to some of you.

Why is it?

They just ask, these guys ask Jesus to give them a plain answer.

He doesn't give them a plain answer.

Like, what's up with that?

Like, if you come to the service before,

one of the things you'll hear me say time and time again

is that Jesus always loves honest questions.

Like, if you have questions, and they're honest questions,

like bring them to Jesus and bring them to his people,

and Christians should never be known as a people

who are afraid of good, honest questions.

If we're afraid of a good, honest question,

we're not following Jesus.

He was always comfortable with them.

But why is this not going on here?

They ask him to speak plainly, and he doesn't do it.

Well, it's a little bit of a subtle thing,

and you have to look at it a little bit closely

and just sort of pause.

Once again, just if you remember,

it's a general rule that Jesus loves honest questions.

But most of the time, much of the time,

especially in John's Gospel,

the questions aren't honest questions.

You know what that's like, right?

You know when you get a question from somebody,

you know, maybe it was back when you were in school,

maybe it's from your boss or from a co-worker.

They ask you a question.

It's not a question.

They know the answer.

They're trying to embarrass you in front of people

or put you down or make you look stupid, right?

Those are dishonest questions,

and that's what's going on here.

First of all, what happens is they encircle him.

His enemies encircle him all around him.

And while they're all around him,

they ask him this question.

And Jesus, from his answer,

what he says right off the bat to them

is he basically says to them,

listen, you guys aren't asking me an honest question

because you don't believe.

Like, you don't believe.

Like, you know that no matter what I say to you,

you're not going to believe it.

Like, your minds are closed.

You're closed to evidence.

You're closed to conversation.

Here you are encircling me,

which is, as we all know,

just imagine,

that's a type of intimidation, right?

Imagine if you're in your office

and all of a sudden all of your coworkers

and you know it's not your birthday

and their expressions aren't friendly and open

and they all encircle you and ask you a question

that's intimidating.

It's a specifically intimidating act.

And so he said,

here you are,

you're intimidating me.

In effect, that's what's going on.

And he said,

from the beginning of his answer,

I know you don't believe anything I'm going to say.

So what he does is,

since you're not going to believe anything I want to say,

he's going to get to the heart of the issue

to try to help bring home to them their problem,

to see if it maybe sort of checks them a tiny bit.

Because Jesus always goes to the heart.

And by the heart, once again,

we don't mean the emotions.

He goes to the command center of our lives.

What's really working at the command center of who we are?

And he says,

if you look at it now,

verse 25,

I told you and you do not believe.

He basically said he was the Messiah

several times in earlier chapters.

But here's what he goes to.

The works that I do in my father's name

bear witness about me,

but you do not believe

because you're not among my sheep.

Now, what does the word works here mean?

Works means miracles.

That's what this means.

That's what he's talking about.

It's not talking about the time

he worked in the soup kitchen.

They didn't have them back then.

He's talking about miracles.

And one of the things

which characterizes John's gospel

is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke,

the three other ancient biographies of Jesus

based on eyewitness accounts and testimony,

they have lots of miracles.

But John chose to only have

a small number of miracles.

It's as if he said to himself,

I'm just going to pick

a small number of miracles.

I'm going to go into way more detail

about each one of the miracles.

I'm going to go into details

to help emphasize

that they really happened in history.

And I'm going to go into detail

with miracles to show

that they were received

often with great skepticism

and inquiry.

And so if you were to go back after this

and you were to read John's gospel

up until this,

you'll see that there was

several important...

The other thing is

what he means,

what Jesus means here by miracles

isn't the way we usually use

the word miracle.

We usually use the miracle

in one of two ways.

As something really random

or as a way to insult somebody.

So some of you this morning

might have said,

if you said,

it's a miracle my son remembered

it was Mother's Day.

Well, that's a put-down, right?

My son is so stupid,

so self-centered,

so narcissistic,

I can't believe

he actually remembered

it's Mother's Day.

Right?

We often use it as an insult, right?

It's a miracle my boss

gave me a compliment,

we say over the coffee hour.

She never gives me compliments.

Or we use it as something

really random.

It's a miracle I won the lottery.

Just random.

I mean, eventually somebody's

going to win the lottery.

It just happens, right?

It's just sort of random.

But Jesus means miracle

in the old sense of the word here.

Works is referring to miracles

in the old sense,

which means something

that only God can do.

Something that nature

would never do by itself.

Something that wouldn't come up

even if it was random.

It's just something

that literally could not happen

by cause and effect,

by randomness.

And up until now,

there are six miracles

that John records.

And every one of them

are very significant.

They're things that we can think about

and they're things that

in some ways

they begin as very private,

but they quickly become public.

And they're all talked about

in such a way

that every time you realize

it could not be done

by anybody other than God.

And it illustrates something

about the God

who really does exist.

The first one is

that Jesus turns water

into wine.

And, you know,

generally speaking,

religious people

would turn wine into water

because religion likes

to take the joy out of life.

But Jesus does the opposite.

He turns water into wine.

And it's very clear

if you read the miracle

that it's something that,

you know,

they're big stone jars.

Jesus never touches it.

It wasn't something

they expected.

And the same God

who's created wine and water,

only a God

who's created all things

can act in his own

created order

and now turn water

into wine.

And then the second miracle,

that's in chapter 2.

The second miracle

happens in chapter 3.

And in this particular case,

there's a high official

in Pilate's government

or Herod's government,

I think it is.

I can't remember

if it's Pilate or Herod.

It doesn't really matter

to the story.

A high official.

And he comes

and asks Jesus

to heal his son

who's on the point of death.

And he's walked

basically a day

to come to see Jesus

and Jesus just says,

your son is healed.

He says it like this.

And he actually is healed.

Even though they're

miles and miles away,

a day's walk,

a day's walk

and Jesus heals

the man's son

from a distance.

That's the second miracle.

And it helps to show,

the first miracle

helps to show

that God is a source

of joy

and celebration.

And the second one

helps to reveal

that God is the God

of life.

He's not the God

of death.

He's the God of life.

He's the God

of health.

To draw close

to God

in John 2

is to come close

to joy.

In his presence

there is fullness

of joy.

To come closer

and closer

to God

is to come closer

and closer

to life.

It's to come closer

and closer

to health.

And then the third

miracle

is a really,

really interesting

miracle.

It's in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

And by the way,

these first two miracles,

they would have started

to cause a bit

of a public stir.

They happen in a small

community of around

2,000 people.

But it would have

caused a stir

in that neighborhood.

And the third miracle

would have caused

a bigger stir

because it was

in a far more

public place

right in Jerusalem.

In this case,

there was a very,

very grumpy man

who'd been an invalid

for 38 years

and Jesus heals him.

He heals him

so completely and utterly

that he's able to pick

up his mat

and walk.

And this would have

begun to be

far more common.

In fact,

in this particular case,

we know for a fact

that the experts,

the elite,

the opinion makers,

they know that

a miracle has happened

because they begin

to question the man.

And it's in fact

at that point,

believe it or not,

that religion

and spirituality

and educated opinion

and political opinion

turns on Jesus

and they start to realize

that he's a threat

to their order.

And then the fourth miracle

that Jesus performs

is the most public

of all of his miracles

until the final one,

which is going to take place

in chapter 20,

which we won't look at

for quite a while.

And that's where Jesus,

the fourth miracle

is Jesus feeding 5,000 men,

which means that he's feeding

more than 5,000 people.

It might be 10,

it might be 15,

it might be 20,

it might be 25,

it might be 30,000 people,

we don't know.

And from five loaves

and two fishes,

with them all

in a public place

where they know

there's not some big wagons

and wagons and wagons

of food

that Jesus has just brought out,

that he just literally

takes the basket

and breaks the pieces

into another basket

and breaks them

and breaks them

and breaks them

and it just keeps going

and going and going

and going

and then the disciples

are taking it

and breaking it

and breaking it

and breaking it

and it never comes to an end.

And 5,000 men,

maybe as much as 20,000,

25,000, 30,000 people

all at one time

witness Jesus

performing a miracle,

something that only God

can do.

He created matter

out of nothing.

He created matter

out of nothing

in front of their eyes.

And then the next miracle

which Jesus,

which John talks about

is Jesus walking on water

in the middle of the ocean,

in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.

It's not a shoal,

it's in the middle.

He walks on the water

during a storm.

And this miracle

is told in all of the Gospels

and it shows

it's actually a set of Gospels

but John just emphasizes

one,

all of them emphasize

this one primary fact.

And that was only seen

by the people in the boat

but it actually was known of

by many, many thousands

of people

because if you read the story

they know that

some type of miracle

must have happened

for Jesus to get to point A

to point B

and they couldn't understand

how he did it

and the apostles

would have eventually told them.

And then the final miracle

which has been recorded

up until this point in time

is the miracle

of Jesus

healing a man

who was blind

from birth.

This isn't some

psychosomatic healing,

you know,

some type of

placebo effect

that brought some type of

oh, I guess I can now see

or something like that.

It's not like if you watch

Band of Brothers,

great, great, great series.

You know, the guy

who has that stress

from battle

and he can't see.

You're not sure

if he's just trying

to get out of fighting

or what happened.

He can see, he can't see.

Not like that.

This man has been

blind from birth.

The miracle is told

in great detail

and in fact

it's actually used

to illustrate something

because Jesus makes

this remarkable claim

that he is the light

of the world

and frankly

any charlatan,

any kook,

any crazy guy

could make some type

of claim.

Any narcissist

could make some type

of claim,

I'm the light of the world.

Yeah, yeah, show me.

Well, how does Jesus

demonstrate that he's

the light of the world?

By doing a remarkable miracle

of healing a man

who was blind from birth

so that the man

could see.

And Jesus says

to these guys,

listen, I've now done

more than that

but if you've just

been reading along,

you guys know

and the reason

this was also going

to be a very public miracle

is because

right where people

were going into the temple

every day

for years and years

and years

the same guy

sat there begging.

and now

this guy

who had sat there

begging for years

and years

and years

and years

and they knew

that he couldn't see

that he'd never

been able to see

and now he could see.

Jesus had done

a remarkable miracle.

He had done something

only God could do.

And so Jesus says

I have done

these six things

that only God can do

and you stand here

encircling me

and you claim

to be interested

in my answer

to a question.

Like you're not.

Are you?

You're not.

So you see

Jesus isn't

ducking the question

and he's doing

he has done things

that only God

could do.

Now here's the thing

which is so remarkable

about this story.

It's something

you have to keep

track of

all the way through.

Jesus

I mean here

you know

if you were here

a few weeks ago

and I was talking

about the miracle

of the man

who was healed

blind from birth

you'll know

that modern science

has now taught us

that there is

at least

a double miracle there

because there not only

had to be a miracle

of the

whatever it was

that stopped him

from seeing

there had to be

a healing

of the mind

because the mind

has to learn

to see.

Babies

learn to see.

They learn to see.

We just take it

for granted

you can see

but you have to

learn to see.

And so what happened

in that miracle

is amongst other things

is that not only

whatever it was

that was missing

God

Jesus created

in the man

inside the man

and whatever

was blocking sight

was taken out

of the man

and Jesus does

in a sense

that double miracle

but he does

this third thing

where he actually

heals the man's mind.

so that means

that Jesus

could write

that second

just like that

he could make

every single one

of the people

all around him

go oh yeah

now I believe

in you.

He had that power

but he never uses it

because you see

freedom matters

to God.

Your freedom

and mine

matters to Jesus.

He wants you

he wants me

to freely

choose him

and that's because

it's not

just a myth

that God

is love.

Like

earlier on

Jesus says

for God

so loved

the world

that he gave

his one

and only son

that whoever

believes in him

will not perish

but have eternal life.

love

and it's

of the very

nature of love

that love

must be free.

If one of you

when you were

still single

and you

started talking

to another person

it's different

nowadays

I think

when I

like I'm

really old

back in my day

I didn't discuss

with Louise

for a while

whether or not

we might

get married

and then after

all the details

were worked out

I popped the question

I just popped

the question

I was hoping

she'd say yes

I was pretty sure

she'd say yes

and when I

popped the question

there was this

long pause

and then

as you

maybe heard

she said

you're supposed

to be on your knees

and we were both

like left wing

hippie

radical

feminist type

so I wasn't sure

what she was

telling me to do

I mean I knew

the language

was you're

supposed to be

on your knees

I could follow it

I just wasn't sure

but then I thought

to myself

am I going to

this is true

am I going to do

this

she's going to

laugh at me

true confession

but then I thought

to myself

I was the devil

right

and then I thought

to myself

I really want

her to say yes

like I really

want her to marry me

so I got down

on my knees

I asked her again

long pause

and she said yes

and now of course

we've been married

a long time

but you know

here's the point

if afterwards

Louise discovered

that her dad

offered me

five million bucks

to pop the question

she'd break off

with me in a moment

because my request

wasn't free

and out of love

and Jesus

could have just

done like that

and worked in each

of those man's minds

to make them believe

and accept

but he doesn't do it

why?

because freedom

matters

to God

because freedom

is essential

to love

and love

matters to God

because God

is love

so Jesus

doesn't duck

the question

he just really

says

you know

listen

look at what

I've done

and you're still

asking me that question

now some of you

might say

whoa whoa whoa

George

I was listening

to that

and you say

freedom matters

to God

but doesn't

Jesus say

that

the reason

you don't believe

is because

you're my sheep

like isn't that

one of those things

that you've got to be

sheep to believe

and so you know

God makes you a sheep

and then you believe

like isn't that

no no no

look at

look at

look

what

what

what Jesus

is saying

here

in fact

the whole reason

that Jesus

does this

conversation

with them

is he's basically

saying you know

one of the characteristics

of people

who are

who are mine

because in the

last week

we looked in the

earlier

part

he describes

his followers

as a flock

of sheep

right

and

and he says

one of the

characteristics

of people

who are my

sheep

is they

believe me

they listen

to my voice

and they

believe me

and they

follow me

you obviously

aren't

but he doesn't

say this

so they can

go away

say oh

well dang

I'm not a

sheep

I guess

I can't

believe

it's all

God's

fault

no

he confronts

their heart

so they might

say

you know

Jesus

you're right

I don't know

why my heart

is so close

to your

miracles

I don't know

why

I just won't

believe my

eyes

can you

have mercy

on me

that's what

he wants

that's what

he wants

but then

then you

say

okay yeah

sorry

now

I don't

know if

you noticed

at the end

of the part

that I read

that Jesus

said I

and the

father are

one

and

this is a

very very

very very

big claim

and if you're

a guest here

this morning

the thing

that this

claim means

is that the

way that most

people think

most people

in Canada

think about

Jesus

just can't

possibly be

true

it's wrong

look again

here at verse

30

I and the

father are

one

now

even in

English

it's very

powerful

but it

might be

that in

English

you might

think

okay

I and the

father

are like

at one

with each

other

we're like

you know

like a

husband and

wife can be

sort of

like one

or two

friends can

think as

one

but in

the original

language it's

actually very

very very

clear because

in the original

language it can

either be a

it can be written

in such a way

that it could

potentially mean

that we just

have one mind

or one heart

or one will

but it actually

says one

thing

my father and I

are one

thing

we are one

substance

it's very

very very

powerful

language

which they

as we'll see

in a moment

the hearers

immediately

understand

and respond

look at

verse 31

the Jews

picked up

stones again

to stone

him

because of

it

now here's

the thing

about this

claim

and this

is why

no matter

what

Canadian

you know

most Canadians

just say

that Jesus

is a good

religious

teacher

he's a

good man

but if

Jesus

says this

it means

he's either

insane

or he's

an abuser

he's a

manipulative

person

who wants

to abuse

us

that's

what that

text

means

unless

it's

true

now let

me tell

you

and you

have to

take this

the right

way

I've been

in and

out of

psychiatric

institutions

ever since

I was

18

I mean

I've had

lots of

friends in

them and

I've gone

to visit

and then

I've been

a pastor

and gone

to visit

I've had

very very

close

contact

almost

unbroken

with

people who

are mentally

ill

ever since

I was

18 years

of age

and it's

not uncommon

for mentally

ill people

as we all

know to hear

voices to

make really

really grandiose

claims and

let me tell

you if

Jesus makes

a claim like

this and he

really believes

it he's

insane but

here's the

problem I

challenge any

one of the

any one of

you to read

the four

biographies of

Jesus and

in no way

to any of

them in

none of

them does

Jesus sound

like he's

insane we're

in an urban

church we

all know

what insane

people are

like I

mean just

go wandering

down Rito

Street afterwards

you're going

to meet some

mentally ill

people we

all know what

they're like

and Jesus

in no way

seems mentally

ill but

here's the

other thing

remember I

was telling

you about

the Bhagwan

that Indian

grew it's

the wild

wild west

sort of an

interesting

documentary on

Netflix you

know and

here he is

making all of

his people he

claims that he's

a god man and

he claims he's

a god man and

all these people

they work all

these hours for

no pay

whatsoever just

basically having

their basic

needs met and

he's driving

around in

Rolls Royce

after Rolls

Royce after

Rolls Royce

95 Rolls

Royces by the

time he left

Oregon 95

Rolls Royces

now you know

what sorry

that's a

manipulative

manipulative

abuser

isn't it

he makes a

grandiose claim

about himself

he does

mumbo jumbo

tells them to

do all this

sort of abusive

stuff to

themselves and

to others

all the while

just give me

the money

give me

give me

give me

give me

give me

give me

and give me

give me

give me

and he gets

to live in

a nice house

and have all

these Rolls

Royces

and give me

give me

give me

give me

it's a

manipulative

abuser

right

that's what

we call it

an abuser

so if

Jesus makes

a claim that

I and

God are of

the same

substance

we I

God is

I am

perfectly

God

and says

that with

a straight

face

and if

he believes

it and it's

not true

he's insane

if he knows

it's not

true and he

says it

he only can

be doing

it to

manipulate

and to

abuse

but here's

the thing

I challenge

you to read

the four

biographies

of Jesus

and what

you see

is that

he never

abuses

anyone

far from

it

his entire

life is

self-giving

he heals

he takes

no payment

and when it

comes time

for him

to die

he has

no place

to lay

his head

virtually

no possessions

of any

value

except one

simple

thing

and nothing

in his

life

is abusive

he is

abused

but does

not

abuse

so the

way the

average

Canadian

thinks

about

Jesus

you have

to choose

what you

can't tell

me is that

he's a

good man

and what

you can't

tell me

is that

he was

kind

and what

you can't

tell me

is that

you wish

that more

Christians

were like

him

because

he's

just so

loving

and kind

no

you listen

to him

he's either

insane

or a

manipulative

abuser

or he's

God

or he's

God

now

some of

you might

say

whoa

whoa

whoa

whoa

whoa

whoa

George

I'm

going to

go

with

confused

there's

a third

category

because

doesn't

he just

say

everybody's

God

doesn't

he say

everybody's

God

well

let's

look

read

verse

30

again

I

and

the

father

are

one

I

and

the

father

are

one

the

Jewish

leaders

verse

31

picked

up

stones

again

to

stone

him

and

Jesus

answered

them

I

have

shown

you

many

good

works

in

other

words

I've

done

at

least

these

six

miracles

from

the

father

for

which

of

these

miracles

are

you

going

to

stone

me

the

Jewish

leaders

answered

in

verse

33

it is

not

for

a

good

work

in

other

words

it's

not

for

your

miracles

who

are

going

to

stone

you

but

for

blasphemy

because

you

being

a

man

make

yourself

God

Jesus

answered

them

here's

the

troublesome

bit

is it

not

written

in

your

law

in

other

words

in

this

particular

case

it

means

the

Bible

because

sometimes

what we

now would

call

the

Old

Testament

where

our

Jewish

friends

would

call

the

Tanakh

is it

not

written

in

the

Tanakh

I

said

you

were

gods

if

God

he

called

them

gods

to

whom

the

word

of

God

came

and

scripture

cannot

be

broken

do

you

say

of

him

whom

the

father

consecrated

and sent

into

the

world

you

are

blaspheming

because

I

said

I

am

the

son

of

God

if

I

am

not

doing

the

works

of

my

father

in

other

words

miracles

then

do

not

believe

miracles

even

though

you

do

not

believe

me

believe

the

works

believe

the

miracles

follow

the

miracles

that

you

may

know

and

understand

that

the

father

is

in

me

and

I

am

in

the

father

so

what's

going

on

here

what's

going

on

here

is

very

simply

it's

an

argument

from

lesser

to

greater

it's

an

argument

from

lesser

to

greater

it

would

be

as

if

I

said

if

you

see

a

couple

and

the

husband

and

the

wife

really

love

each

other

and

it

just

looks

like

a

really

wonderful

relationship

if

you

can

see

how

Bob

loves

Sally

and

Sally

loves

Bob

imagine

how much

God

loves

you

if

you

if

you've

met

somebody

and

if

you've

met

Sally

and

she's

just

been

so

kind

and

poured

her

life

into

you

the

lesser

just

imagine

how

much

God

whom

you

can't

see

loves

you

and

has

poured

out

his

life

for

you

it's

an

argument

from

the

lesser

to

the

greater

look

where

he

quotes

it

from

if

you

have

your

Bibles

turn

to

Psalm

82

because

he's

quoting

Psalm

82

Psalm

Psalms 82 · chapter mention

chapter

82

that's

where

Jesus

is

quoting

from

and

he

quotes

them

using

an

argument

from

the

lesser

to

the

greater

and

here's

the

lesser

it's

sort

of

an

ironic

psalm

that's

warning

of

judgment

and

it

goes

like

this

God

has

taken

his

place

in

the

divine

council

in

the

midst

of

the

gods

he

holds

judgment

and

here

is

we're

going

to

see

gods

on

one

level

could

it

first

just

be

taken

to

mean

the