July 30
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MANY BELIEVED JESUS BECAUSE OF HIS WORKS
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I showed you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you stoning Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Has it not been written in your Law, ‘I SAID, YOU ARE GODS’? 35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 39 Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.40 And He went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there. 41 Many came to Him and were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true.” 42 Many believed in Him there. – John 10:31-42
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After Jesus told the Jewish leaders that He and the Father are one, they went berserk and tried to stone Him. As they were going to hit him, Jesus asked what they were stoning Him for. During those times, the law allowed them to stone anyone who commits a crime or defies a law, but they had to have someone testify and have at least two witnesses. Jesus always answered them directly and exposed their unbelief each time they repeatedly ask. They didn’t really want to hear an answer. They were asking Him to catch Jesus in the act of breaking a law. He declared in verse 38, since He is from the Father, He was doing His Father’s works. How many times have they chased Jesus and yet, Jesus was able to elude their grasp? Their narrow and limited minds couldn’t fathom how Jesus was a man and yet says he is God. When Jesus went back to Jordan, many people believed Him because they saw all the signs and wonders He did. What an irony it was that those who actually claim they know the law and Scriptures, didn’t believe what had been prophesied about the Christ. John’s disciples weren’t probably as educated as the Jewish leaders, yet they believed because of the testimony that John had prophesied to them about the Christ who was to be their Messiah.
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REFLECTION
• How can a legalistic mind make you miss truth that is being revealed?