Faith & Love: A One Year Bible Reading Plan - Part 1Sample

There are several times when Jesus has conversations with the religious leaders of his day and one of those conversations is here in John 10. The Jews pick up stones to stone Jesus for blasphemy – and it would be blasphemy if a mere man declared themselves to be God. But this is God, in Jesus, declaring his deity.

Jesus talks about his followers as sheep with him as the good shepherd. He contrasts the relationship that he has with his followers to the relationship the Father has with him.

In the same context, he talks about the Father’s love, the Father’s words, and the Father’s works.

The picture Jesus is building up to here is that the intimacy he has with his own – his followers (you and me) - is the same as the intimacy he has with God the Father.

But it’s far more than that!

He’s implying here that because he lays down his life for us, we get to receive the same level of intimacy with the Father that Jesus knew.

We get to experience the Father’s love, the Father’s words, and the Father’s works in our lives

We don’t just get to do the things that Jesus did as imitations of him.

Because he goes to the Father, we get to receive the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of the Father – to be at work in us and through us.