Jesus Uses the 82nd Psalm

John 10 and the Treasure of Manuscript P45

Turn your Bibles, please, to the Gospel of John, Chapter 10. The Gospel of John, Chapter 10, or if you still have the handout from, I don't know how long ago now. I did not reproduce it this week because we're just about done with that section.

I'll have to produce a new one for the next section in John, Chapter 11. But we continue in our study of Manuscript P45, and we are in John, Chapter 10. If you weren't with us last time, we worked through verse 30.

Once again, it's important to remember where we are and why this section of Scripture is considered to be such a treasure amongst God's people. The last words of Jesus that we heard in verse 30 were, I and the Father are one.

And we emphasize that time that Jesus is here talking about bringing salvation to God's people. He's been talking about being the good shepherd. And he has talked about his relationship with the Father, that no one is able to snatch us out of his hand.

No one is able to snatch us out of the Father's hand. We have in John, Chapter 10, one of the most beautiful explanations of the God-centeredness of salvation that we have anywhere in Scripture itself.

And so when Jesus says these words, we emphasized last time the fact that Jesus is not identifying himself as the Father. The verb that is found here is a plural. It could be rendered, I and the Father, we are one.

There is no lack of distinction here between himself and the Father. But there is a unity in the fact that his sheep cannot be snatched out of Jesus' hand. His sheep cannot be snatched out of the Father's hand.

There is a unity in purpose in bringing about the salvation of God's people. And, of course, that is where the offense is for the Jewish people. The Jewish people who hear these words in verse 31 pick up stones in order that they might stone him.

And so, obviously, there is something in the words of Jesus that have come in the preceding paragraph which are found to be blasphemy. In fact, this is going to be the exact accusation. You will see down in verse 33, the Jews answered him, It is not for a good work, but for blasphemy that we stone you.

And so they understood that whatever it was Jesus was saying, it occurred to the Jews that this was not something fitting for a mere human being to state. This is not something that a mere prophet would say.

You never heard Isaiah. You never heard David. You never heard Abraham himself making statements such as, I and the Father, we are one. I and the Father, we are one in bringing about the salvation of God's people.

As exalted as these servants of God had been, they had never made statements like that. And we cannot, for a moment, fault the Jews for understanding that these words definitely bring with them, carry with them a level of exaltation that would be utterly inappropriate for any mere human being.

But that's where the problem comes in. For once again, we are faced with the reality. It's a reality that's been seen earlier in the Gospel of John. That rejecting Jesus for who he reveals himself to be separates one from eternal life.

I remind you of what happened in John chapter 8. In John chapter 8, there had been Jews listening to Jesus, and he was reasoning, and he was talking about how he testified of the Father, so on and so forth.

And there were certain Jews who came to believe in him as a result of this. And then Jesus pressed his claims upon them and said, Well, being told that they need to be set free was offensive to these individuals.

And so they began to say, we've never been enslaved to anyone. And by the end of the chapter, they're picking up stones to stone Jesus, which is why in many manuscripts anyways, it actually says in verse 31 that they again took up stones.

There are some manuscripts, and I guess I should notice in passing, that our own manuscript, P45, does not have the word again in verse 31. Or later on, it also is not included when it says again in this section.

So they pick up stones, and they did that in John chapter 8 as well. But it was in that very chapter that Jesus had said to the Jews, Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And so we have in our day the very highly offensive but very biblical teaching that there is something about the revelation of who Jesus Christ is that God determines to be relevant to whether one receives forgiveness of sins and life through faith in his name.

In other words, it's not up to us to form our own Jesus. It's not up to us to get to self-identify our Savior. There's a term. Whoever thought we'd be using terminology like that? But here we are in a day where we live amongst a people who are so focused upon themselves and so little focused upon God and so little focused upon his demands upon our lives that we can actually decide what our own gender is, despite any of the objective realities.

And we seem to do the same thing theologically. There are many people today who form their Savior in their own image. And so I'm going to come up with a Jesus that fits my lifestyle, and he's only going to demand of me the things that I want him to demand of me, and he's not going to demand of me the things that I don't want to give.

And so I come up with a personalized Jesus. You know, you can go online, and for example, I don't have it with me today, but I have a messenger bag that I carry when I travel. It's a really nice one. It resists the weather, and it's got lots of places for stuff.

I spent on my recent trip, I added up total time in-plane, not in airport, but in-plane, 40 hours over the past few weeks inside an aircraft. And so when you're inside an aircraft, you want to know where your stuff is.

And so I've got a pretty nice little bag. And in fact, Pastor Frye is not going to believe this is even possible, but I even found a little gadget that I put in my check luggage, because the worst thing to have happen when you're traveling is your check luggage to end up in Dubai when you're in Johannesburg.

And so I bought this little gadget, and it tracks the luggage using GPS. And every time I landed, first time in Heathrow, then in Johannesburg, then back in Heathrow, then back in Phoenix, every time I landed, while we were still taxiing to the gate, my phone went off, and my luggage texted me to tell me where it was.

And it was always where I was, which was the good part. I mean, if I got a text that said I'm someplace else, that's a bad thing, but at least I expect it. At least I know what's going to happen. So there's some really cool stuff, and I've even got a carry-on now that Bluetooths to my phone.

And if I start walking away from it, it locks itself and buzzes my phone and says, you're walking away from me. I mean, how good is that? I mean, how geeky is that, that I would have something like that?

But if you ever lost luggage or done something stupid like that on a trip, you know, it's got your passport in it, I'm glad that it's going to not only lock itself, but say, hey, yo, stupid, I'm back here.

That also means people are going to have a hard time stealing it, too, without my necessarily knowing about it. But anyways, this bag I've got, I went online and I designed it for myself. I designed the colors, and I designed whether it had this in that pocket, designer, stuff like that.

You can do all sorts of things like that online now. Design things the way you want them. Well, unfortunately, when it comes to Christ and when it comes to salvation, that freedom is not ours. We may want to design our own Savior, but the Scriptures say you can't do that.

And the Jews wanted to design their own Messiah. And He was going to be primarily a political Savior, one who delivers them from the power of the Romans and the oppressions of others and make Zion the, we just talked about Zion, and they believe that that should be the standard of the world and that all the nations would flow in.

And He had those prophecies, but they were yet future. And so when Jesus begins to reveal Himself to them in such a way it does not fit their designer parameters, then they're saying, no, we're not going to accept this.

And Jesus says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And so here is the conflict that we have. Jesus speaks of His intimate relationship with the Father. Jesus speaks of His intimate relationship with the people of God.

If you're going to have eternal life, you have it by being in Him. Remember John 6 comes before John 10. And there again you have the same thing. Unless you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life within yourself, etc., etc.

Here you have the same truth being taught and tying it together with the unity that exists between the Father and the Son. And therefore in verse 31 they pick up stones, the Jews pick up stones that they might stone Him.

Psalm 82 and the Charge of Blasphemy

Now Jesus' answer to them is, I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of these works are you stoning me? And so Jesus says, and this is very important because let me give you a warning ahead of time.

The section we're about to hit, especially verses 34 and following, are not only frequently misunderstood by false religion and used against us, but within the Christian academy there is a modern movement that I think very badly misunderstands what's going on not only here but in the Old Testament passage that is cited in this text from the 82nd Psalm.

And so my goal for you today is that when you leave this place you're going to have an understanding of what's actually going on in John chapter 10 verses 33 and following especially. And that involves an understanding of what's called intertextuality, and that's a big long word that simply means that the Old Testament text is being used in the New Testament in a particular way and we need to understand what that way is.

There are entire tomes that have been written, huge books that have been written on the New Testament's use of the Old Testament text. And it's obvious the New Testament uses the Old Testament in a number of different ways.

But this one is a way that has caused a lot of people a little bit of confusion as to what Jesus' actual argument is in response to the Jews. And I think if we pay special attention, you're going to have to do some work this morning to follow exactly what's going on in Jesus' response to the Jews.

But once you get it, once you've seen it once, it's the kind of thing that sticks with you. It's not the kind of thing you've got to write down and go, oh, well, I hope I remember this next time around.

It's not like some of those theistic proofs. It's not like the ontological argument, okay? I always tell my classes, and Brother Callahan I think would definitely appreciate this, but I always tell my classes, we're going to cover the ontological arguments next class.

And so my suggestion is either you take Advil or ibuprofen before or right at the beginning of class. It should help a little bit with the impact of trying to sit there and figure out the ontological argument.

It's not that there isn't some value in working through that. It's just that most people are left exhausted afterwards. And when you walk out of class having figured it out, ten minutes later you're like, I don't remember how I figured that out anymore.

And you certainly couldn't communicate it to anybody else in any way, shape, or form. So why did you do that? Well, because it's a philosophy class and you have to do things like that in philosophy classes.

So be that as it may, that's not the case here. I think once you see the form of argument, then every time in the future you encounter this text or any discussion of it, that will come to mind and you will be able to remember what was going on here.

And so notice what happens. Notice how Jesus sets this situation up. They pick up stones, they might stone him. And Jesus' response is to put them in the position of having to recognize the nature of the works that he has performed in their presence.

Notice what he says. Many good works I have shown you from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me? And so what he's doing is he's placing them in the position of having to make a judgment concerning the nature of the good works which he has shown them from the Father.

So they're being put in the place of judges and they're being judged on that basis. Therefore, notice what their answer is. The Jews answer, we're not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy. Blasphemy.

Speaking against God because you, being a man, make yourself God. Now, there are going to be some people, they're going to look at what happened in John chapter 5. Remember John chapter 5? Jesus heals on the Sabbath.

He says, my Father's working until now and I am working. And therefore the Jews were seeking to kill him. Why? Because he made himself equal to God. Why? Because every Jew knew that God continued to sustain the universe on the Sabbath day.

God works on the Sabbath day because the universe doesn't grind to a halt. And so Jesus was claiming the same authority as God himself. So were the Jews right or wrong in their understanding in John chapter 5?

Well, some people would say they were wrong. Those who are Aryans, those who are subordinationists, deny the deity of Christ, they'll say, well, the Jews are just wrong there. Okay. John chapter 8. Before Abraham was, I am.

The Jews pick up stones to stone him. A little harder here because that phrase, I am, it's all over the Old Testament. It's used a number of times in the Old Testament. John has Jesus using it a number of times in very poignant situations.

So pretty hard to argue that there. But here we are again. The Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus. And what they're hearing in Jesus' words, you're making yourself out as God. Now, Jesus' response confuses a lot of people.

I don't want there to be any confusion amongst us when we finish this morning with the nature of Jesus' response. Because, you see, a lot of people would like to say, well, look, if it was really the intention of our writer to communicate to us the idea that Jesus is truly God, then what you'd have here is Jesus would say, well, yeah, I'm making myself out to be God.

And then he'd just turn everybody into crispy critters right then and there, and then it would be nice and clear, and we'd just go on from there, right? That would be the easy way of doing things. And that's how people would like things to happen, you know, lightning bolts and stuff like that.

And it just makes it real simple that way. You don't have to think much about what's going on. At the same time, people will say, well, wait a minute, Jesus' response here seems to sort of dodge the issue.

Because notice what it says. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, catch that, your law, that I said you are gods? And it's plural, so you are gods. Now, we'll look at the Old Testament background in just a moment, but just hang with me here.

If therefore he identified them as gods, called them gods, notice this phrase. Unto whom the word of God came, and the scriptures cannot be broken, how do you say of the one that the Father sanctified and sent into the world, that I'm blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God?

Now, people will say, see, see, see, he's not God, he's the Son of God. That misunderstands John's entire usage of the term Son of God. In John chapter 19, when the Jews bring an accusation against Jesus before the Roman authorities, they say we have a law, and by that law he ought to die because he made himself out to be the Son of God.

Well, what law was that? Same law, blasphemy. They recognize that to be the Son of God, in the sense that's found in the book of John, that unique Son of God was a claim to deity. They recognize that.

But what about this argument? Why quote a text from the Old Testament that says you are gods, and then say how can you accuse me of blasphemy if the Old Testament calls you gods? And a lot of people are left going, I don't get it.

Well, I think, to be honest with you, that it would have been fairly clear. It would have been fairly clear to those who were listening to the original statement exactly what was going on here. But it's always good to get the Old Testament background, so let's head back there.

Psalm 82, Unjust Judges, and the Meaning of “You Are Gods”

Psalm 82, it's not long. Let's take a look at it. Psalm 82. God takes his stand in his own congregation. He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

Selah. By the way, I think we are the only church on the planet that says Selah. I just want you to know that. A couple times on this trip, I stopped myself in time, but you know how embarrassing it is at the end of a hymn to go, Ah!

Who was that? I don't know. I was just singing the Amen. Yeah. So, Selah and Amen. Remember, if you've grown up around here, you go someplace else, just be careful. Or everyone's going to be looking at you going, why did he say Selah?

I don't know why he said Selah. He must be from someplace else. Okay. So, Selah. Vindicate the weak and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

They do not know, nor do they understand. They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High. Nevertheless, you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.

Arise, O God, judge the earth, for it is you who possesses all the nations. Well, there's all of Psalm 82. Not very long. And there's the phrase. So, what's going on? Well, a couple things to remember.

First of all, the psalter is, of course, the hymn book of God's people. And they knew it a lot better than we know our hymn book. Now, I'm pretty impressed with Pastor Frye's knowledge of the Trinity Hymnal, personally.

Sometimes I'll ask, well, that's number da-da-da-da-da-da. And I'm just like, wow. That's very impressive. What's interesting is you go, I was, Sunday morning, I wasn't speaking Sunday morning, I spoke Sunday evening.

So, Sunday morning, if you go anywhere in London, you walk. And, yes, I, by the way, was on the bridge of the attacks, 48 hours before the attacks took place, walking, myself a couple of times. Actually, I was running.

But, anyway, my hotel was less than a kilometer from where the attacks took place. And so it made it all that more real for me, obviously. But anyway, I looked at the map and said, hey, I'm 1 .5 miles from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon's Church.

So that's where we're going to church today. So I went to the MetTab. And the MetTab hymnal, like all the hymnals over there, only has words, no music. And so you have to somehow, I'm not sure how, I guess it just happens by osmosis, know the tunes.

And so I'd just be able to start singing by the last verse. Because the tunes are just utterly, at least that morning, not a single tune that I know. Sometimes it's the same tunes that we have, sometimes the same words.

But all the hymnals are about yea thick. They've got like 900 or more, I've seen some 1 ,500 hymns in them, but no music. So it's different when you travel different places. The Jews didn't have that problem.

They had one hymnal and they had 150 hymns. And so they were well known. They were known by heart. And that's why so often in the New Testament you only see, Jesus only quotes a couple words. He doesn't have to quote the rest of it.

He doesn't have to give a reference. Everybody knows exactly what it is, exactly where it is, exactly what the context is. And that's important to keep in mind. We may not know the context. Now we know the context or do we?

Because it says in verse 1, God takes his stand in his own congregation. He judges in the midst of the rulers. Well, there are people today, and I won't spend much time on this because most of you won't be running into them, but if you do higher education, you go to university, wherever else it might be, you'll run into this.

You'll certainly run into it in commentaries and things like that. There are people today who will say, well what this is, is God takes his stand amongst the gods. He judges in the midst of the divine beings, the rulers.

This is God in the heavenly council chamber amongst the greatest of his creations in essence. Or there will be others, like the Mormons will say, no this is God amongst all the gods. This is where, this is a God meeting.

If you're a polytheist. Or if you're a henotheist, one main god, lots of smaller gods, this is the idea you have here. Well I have a problem with that. I know it's really popular in Old Testament studies to to posit the idea of evolution basically in the development of monotheism amongst the Jews, but here's the problem.

The very first words that follow this statement are how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? What's that about? Is this some cosmic thing? Is this some there's some cosmic rebellion out someplace else?

No, the only way these words can make any sense is if we're talking God takes a stand in his own congregation, the people of Israel. He judges in the midst of the rulers, the judges of Israel. And then he says to them, how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

How much of the Old Testament text, especially the Minor Prophets, is focused upon this very issue. That God set up this system of judges amongst the people, but man once you get judges that are unjust, we know what happens then.

And you think we know about it? I just spent 10 days in South Africa and every single time something came up about why do you all have this problem? Why is there so much crime over here? Why is that construction thing over there?

Why is that building over there empty? It's always because of how corrupt the government is. Everybody in South Africa knows the president of South Africa is on the take from everybody and it's just expected.

There's nothing to be done about it. That's life. That's how you do it. If you get pulled over by a cop, hope you got a couple hundred rand on you because you'll probably get out of the ticket just by handing the rand out the window and away you can go.

That's just how it works. When corruption becomes an everyday thing like that, justice goes out the window, lawlessness increases and so when judges judge unjustly, when they show partiality to the wicked, the very foundations, according to Psalm 96, the foundations of God's throne is justice.

And so how can his people represent him if injustice is being, if injustice is the very essence of what's going on? And so the accusation is against the judges of Israel. They're judging unjustly. They're showing partiality to the wicked.

Therefore, vindicate the weak and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked. So here is the positive correction to the error amongst the judges of Israel.

These are unjust judges. And then they are described. They do not know, do they understand? They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken. When the leaders are in that situation, the foundations of the earth are shaken.

He said, I said you are gods and all of you are sons of the most high. There is high exalted language of the judges. They sit in the place of God. They speak to the people as God would speak to the people.

But to whom much is given, much is required. And there's the phrase, I said you are gods and all of you are sons of the most high. But what's the very next verse say? Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes.

There will come a day when any judge will stand before the judge. Any judge who does not realize their own mortality. Any judge that does not understand that someday they will be judged for their judging before a higher court is a foolish person.

A foolish person. Now I could take off on that one in our day. But I hope you understand how important that is. The point here is our Mormon friends point to verse 6 and say, see I can become a god. That's not what it's saying.

Has nothing to do with that. Nevertheless you will die like men and fall like any one of the princes. You can hold an exalted position amongst the people of God as a judge of the people of God. And you can fulfill that position unjustly.

And God will judge you for that. So, arise O God judge the earth for it is you who possesses all the nations. So in the finality justice will be done when God arises and judges all the earth. There's Psalm 82.

Jesus’ Reply in John 10 and the Father-Son Unity

Now what does that mean to where we were in John chapter 10? Now you've got that one in mind. Let's go back to John chapter 10. So, remember what's happened. I've shown you many good works from the Father.

For which of these are you stoning me? We're not stoning you for any of the good works. But because of blasphemy. You being a man make yourself out to be God. So what did they hear in Jesus' response?

Now that we know Psalm 82. Now that we've got the context. Now that we know when the psalmist says you are God's who is he addressing? Unjust judges who are going to receive the judgment of God. They'll fall like any one of the princes.

With that in mind Jesus says is it not written in your law you see the consistency now? He's put them in the position of having to judge his good works in their response. They've accused him of blasphemy but he will not be deterred.

And so in his response is it not written in your law. The law you claim to be the ones who are possessors of it. You have knowledge of it. You expound and what do you do with it? You judge with it. What are they doing of him?

To be able to bring the judgment of blasphemy means they are acting as judges. Not only judges but executioners. Instantly so. Instantly so. So they are acting as judges. And so when Jesus quotes Psalm 82 verse 6 of them what's he doing?

He's identifying them as false judges. As unjust judges. That's what he goes on to say. Do you not realize if these words, your gods if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came. Unto whom the word of God came.

This again shows this isn't some divine council some place. These are the people to whom God entrusted his word and therefore responsible for judging justly, defending the needy, the fatherless, the widows, everything we saw in Psalm 82.

And there's his own if he called them gods unto whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world. You say that I'm blaspheming because I said I am the son of God?

Now do you see the force of the argument? It's not just well the Old Testament calls people gods and so I can say I'm the son of God. That's not his point. That's missing what Psalm 82 is actually all about.

He has now made an accusation against them. You are false judges. And yet I have shown you good works which came from whom? From the Father. The one you claim to represent. I've shown you good works you cannot judge them to be bad works and yet you say that the one the Father has sanctified, set apart, treated as holy, sent into the world, you say that I'm blaspheming because I said I'm the son of God?

You're false judges because the basis upon which you would have to make that statement is denied you by the nature of the Father's own testimony as to who I am. And what was the only authority the judge allegedly had in the first place?

God's. So God has demonstrated who Jesus is. God has demonstrated by the nature of the works. God has demonstrated by the nature of his ministry, his character, so on and so forth. He has sanctified him, sent him into the world, and yet you as false judges, standing in the very position of God, to whom the word of God has come.

And I'm not sure if there's a play there. I mean, I don't want to push it that far, but it is interesting. The very word that's used there is halagos tutheyu. The lagos, which John started the gospel with, so I certainly wouldn't put it past John to be throwing that in there as another indicator.

The word has, I mean, that is what John 1 says, isn't it? He came on his own. He's only received him not. And here's an example of it. To whom the word of God came? Seems to be a possibility. But anyway, the point here is based upon the context of Psalm 82.

He is identifying them as false judges. And then he continues that. He continues it in verse 37. If I am not doing the works of my Father, do not believe me. If that unity, because this is a whole section.

And I think very often the reason that Christians become confused about it is because very rarely in conversations with others is the whole section seen. It's just, well, what about those verses in John chapter 10?

Well, so often confusion comes because we're not seeing those verses in the flow of thought. This takes us right back to what Jesus was saying in verses 25 and following, that He is the Good Shepherd and He and the Father together bring about the salvation of God's people.

If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then don't believe me. If there is, if that unity that I've been claiming since, well, in dispute with them since John chapter 5, if that unity doesn't exist, then there's no reason to believe me.

There's no reason to believe in some guy over here doing miraculous works that is not in perfect union with the Father. If I don't do those works, well, then don't believe me. But if I am doing that, even if you don't believe me, believe the works.

But you might know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. The Father is in me and I am in the Father. This type of language is going to become almost repetitive to us in John chapter 17 in Jesus' high priestly intercessory prayer.

Father in me, I in you, the unity between the Father and the Son then becomes the paradigm for the reality of our union with God in Christ. So you see, if that union between the Father and the Son doesn't actually exist, if Jesus isn't who he claimed to be, if modern theologians and people teaching in many seminaries are right, and the Jesus of faith is different than the Jesus of history, there is no reason to be gathering here today.