So, here is the deal, if God is God then you are not god. If God is in charge, then you are not in charge.
I know that seems pretty basic and straight forward, but, let’s face it, this is probably the biggest stopping point for non-believers. Sure it gets masked in lots of other excuses, but it all comes down to who is in charge.
The biggest hang up the Jews had with Jesus is that He was not following them. He wasn’t doing what they expected him to do. If he was supposed to be the “messiah”, then he had better quit with all the healing and teaching and get on with kicking some Roman behind and put them in charge of stuff. He needed to get with the program and skip all this eternal life stuff – we’ve got enough things right now to worry about without bringing up eternity. Right?
But, he was the Messiah, the savior, the promised one. And as the good shepherd, his place was to lead not follow. The only one Jesus followed was His Father and He did that flawlessly and consistently.
When they asked the question, it wasn’t to get an answer, it was to get Jesus to get with the program and do his part. They recognized he was “something”, but, obviously, he couldn’t be God, that would be blasphemy to say a man was God, and he sure wasn’t acting like the messiah they had planned for. So what is he, a demon? Something else?
Like too many of us today, they made up their mind and then they asked questions. When the answers to the questions didn’t fit what they had decided, the one providing the answers was wrong, very wrong, demonically wrong. And, the response was not to reconsider their preset mindset, but to attack the one providing the answers. Because the alternative was to admit that they/we are mistaken. The alternative would be to admit that we are not in charge, we cannot save ourselves. It does not matter how well we know and practice CPR or any type of medicine, we are not going to bring ourselves back to life from the grave. The only one who can offer eternal life, anything other than this temporary few years on this rock in the universe, is someone who has it to give. That rules out every human and leaves only a god. And only Jesus, the son of God, who is eternal himself participating in creation itself, has ever offered eternal life as a gift.
So, here are the two simple questions: Do you want there to be a God? What gift does your god offer to you?
My Answers:
11.
His works, done in His Father’s name, testify about Him – Jesus and the Father are one – He is God. They did not believe because, (1) they assumed they were “in” already, but by not submitting to Jesus they weren’t (2) they expected the Messiah to follow them
12.
Eternal life so they shall never perish. No on can snatch them from His hand. We have the confidence in the gift of eternal life and the comfort and reassurance that it cannot be snatched away. We are Jesus’ sheep and Jesus is one with the Father God.
13.
To stone him for blasphemy. He is claiming to be God – by definition he is either God or committing blasphemy. They refuse to consider that He might actually be God because He doesn’t look or act like their view of God. He does not act like them and they believe they are closer to God than anyone else.
The Notes are Good 
Just wondering when we will be receiving the notes this week.