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April 13, 2008 - Mark 12.29. This study guide is based on John 10:22-42, that demonstrates the oneness of Jesus and the Father.

Open It

1. What truths are hard for you to accept? Why?

2. How did your family typically handle conflict when you were growing up?

Explore It

3. What question did the Jews ask Jesus? (10:22-24)

4. How did Jesus answer the Jews' question? (10:25-26)

5. What did Jesus say His sheep did? (10:27)

6. What did Jesus say He gave to His sheep? (10:28)

7. What did Jesus say that no one could do to His sheep? (10:28-29)

8. With whom did Jesus claim to be one? (10:30)

9. How did the Jews respond to Jesus' claim? (10:31)

10. Why did the Jews want to kill Jesus? (10:33) How?

11. How did Jesus respond to the Jews' accusation of blasphemy? (10:34-36)

12. Under what circumstance did Jesus say that the Jews should believe in Him? (10:37)

13. Why did Jesus say that the Jews should believe in His miracles? (10:38)

14. What did the Jews try to do to Jesus? (10:39)

15. Why did the people across the Jordan believe in Jesus? (10:41-42)

Get It

16. Why do people today fail to realize that Jesus is God?

17. In what way are you Jesus' sheep?

18. What makes you feel secure in your relationship with God?

19. How secure is your relationship with God?

20. Why does Jesus' claim to be God cause people to oppose Him?

21. Who today would find Jesus' claim to be God offensive?

22. In what way is Jesus' relationship with God significant for your relationship with God?

23. Why should people believe in Jesus?

Apply It

24. How will you demonstrate your thankfulness to God today for your secure relationship with Him?

25. What steps will you take to follow your Shepherd closely this week?

Notes

John 10:22-23: The Feast of Dedication commemorated the cleansing of the temple under Judas Maccabeus in 165 B.C. after Antiochus Epiphanes had defiled it by sacrificing a pig on the altar of burnt offering. The feast was celebrated toward the end of December. This is also the present-day Feast of Lights called Hanukkah.

10:23 Solomon's Colonnade was a roofed walkway supported by large stone columns, just inside the walls of the temple courtyard.

John 10:24: Many people asking for proof do so for the wrong reasons. Most of these questioners didn't want to follow Jesus in the way that he wanted to lead them. They hoped that Jesus would declare himself Messiah for perverted reasons. They, along with the disciples and everyone else in the Jewish nation, would have been delighted to have him drive out the Romans. Many of them didn't think he was going to do that, however. These doubters hoped he would identify himself so they could accuse him of telling lies (as the Pharisees did in John 8:13).

John 10:28-29: Just as a shepherd protects his sheep, Jesus protects his people from eternal harm. While believers can expect to suffer on earth, Satan cannot harm their souls or take away their eternal life with God. There are many reasons to be afraid here on earth because this is the devil's domain (1 Peter 5:8). But if you choose to follow Jesus, he will give you everlasting safety.

John 10:30: This is the clearest statement of Jesus' divinity he ever made. Jesus and his Father are not the same person, but they are one in essence and nature. Thus Jesus is not merely a good teacher-he is God. His claim to be God was unmistakable. The religious leaders wanted to kill him because their laws said that anyone claiming to be God should die. Nothing could persuade them that Jesus' claim was true.

John 10:31: The Jewish leaders attempted to carry out the directive found in Leviticus 24:16 regarding those who blaspheme (claim to be God). They intended to stone Jesus.

John 10:34-36: Jesus referred to Psalm 82:6, where the Israelite rulers and judges are called "gods" (see also Exodus 4:16; Exodus 7:1). If God called the Israelite leaders gods because they were agents of God's revelation and will, how could it be blasphemy for Jesus to call himself the Son of God? Jesus was rebuking the religious leaders, because he is the Son of God in a unique, unparalleled relationship of oneness with the Father.

10:35 "The Scripture cannot be broken" is a clear statement of the truth of the Bible. If we accept Christ as Lord, we also must accept his testimony to the Bible as God's Word.

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