We are in John chapter 10, and we are going to start at verse 24, and the thing we are going to focus on is this statement Jesus made in verse 30: ‘The Father and I are one.’ There are some benefits of oneness with the Godhead and Jesus lays those benefits out for us in these verses. We want to look at those benefits today. You know the lower that an object goes into a body of water, the more pressure there is. If a diver goes down deep enough, their jaws will even lock because of the pressure. If a boat sinks down far enough, the pressure of the water that deep will tear that boat apart, and the boat will collapse … unless it is pressurized. Submarines are pressurized. They have a balance of pressure on the inside to combat the pressure from the outside. Many people are collapsing on the outside because they don’t have enough pressure on the inside, and the pressure on the inside comes from the confession of Christ! The Spirit of God pressurizes Christians on the inside so that they can handle the world on the outside.¹ And so some of the things that God put in us internally, some of the benefits, if we know them if we realize them if we walk in the light of them, will us combat the pressure that we deal with on the outside from the world. So, that’s our focus today: What Are the Benefits of Oneness with the Godhead? All this on this week’s Light on Life.

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Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 35 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Tension Over Jesus Oneness with God

John 10:24–30 (ESV) — 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

• It is so vital to your life to know who you are.
• People are continually trying to go out into the world and ‘find themselves.’
• The born-again child of God can find who they are by looking in the pages of God’s Word.
• The Lord did not leave something as vital as ‘identity’ to chance.
• He didn’t just save you and leave you to flop around like a carp on dry land, trying to find yourself.
• Notice that the debate between Jesus and ‘the looking for the Messiah in all the wrong places’ Jews was over this issue of identity, His identity.
• Jesus told them who He was.
• But, they didn’t believe Him.
• They ask Jesus to tell them plainly.
• The Greek word ‘plainly’ is one we need to look at, and with that thought, here is the definition of the day.
• The word ‘plainly’, used here in the ESV means boldness.
• It is the trait of being willing to undertake activities that involve risk or danger, especially that involves being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech.
• ‘Plainly’ does not mean boil something to simple terms.
• The Jews were not asking Jesus to simplify, but to amplify.
• They wanted Him to declare with a straightforward boldness who He was.
• What was Jesus’ reply?
• He said, I already did that.
• Jesus gave the women at the well His ID.

John 4:25–26 (ESV) — 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

• Jesus told the Samaritans, point blank who he was.
• The disciples certainly knew who He was.

John 1:41 (ESV) — 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit One: My Sheep Hear My Voice

• It is a benefit to hear the voice of God, not a burden.
• You understand that an audible voice is not what I mean when I say, ‘hear the voice of God’.
• I mean, what the Bible says about hearing the voice of God and what Jesus meant by this kind of hearing.
• Jesus intentionally sent the Holy Spirit to be our leader and our guide.

John 16:13 (ESV) — 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Romans 8:14 (ESV) — 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

• If you are a born again child of God, you have a right to expect guidance.

How Guidance Comes

• How does guidance come?
• If you keep reading in Romans eight, the Word of God answers this question for us.

Romans 8:16 (ESV) — 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

• God can, and does, use other methods to lead.
• But, Romans 8:16 is the only reference on guidance where the Lord plainly lays out for us how He’s going to go about doing it.
• God can lead us by dreams or night visions: all of that kind of leading is over in the arena of His sovereignty.
• The Lord did clue us in a bit on the operation of spiritual gifts.

Acts 2:17 (ESV) — 17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

Guidance Through Holy Spirit Manifestations

• Guidance can come through dreams and visions, but that is nowhere close to how God will lead you.
• The Lord can lead us by dreams: we have examples of that in the Word — Joseph, the husband of Mary, is one example.
• I’ve had one two visions in 44 years of walking with God and a couple of dreams that I knew where from Him.
• In one of those dreams, I saw the title of a sermon I was to preach.
• I thought for sure that by the way God moved, that sermon was going to bring the house down, but when it was all said and done, the results were rather ordinary.
• Now, that’s 44 years.
• There are a lot of significant decisions to be made in over four decades of time.
• You can’t just wait on manifestations of spiritual gifts for direction.
• The Lord can lead us by the spirit of prophecy: we have examples of that in the Word.
• God can lead us by an audible voice: we have examples of that in the Word.
• But, we don’t have a Bible verse that explicitly states that the primary way God is going to lead us is by dreams.
• What we absolutely have, though, is a verse about the witness of the Spirit in your spirit.
• If you are looking outwardly instead of inwardly, you’re going to miss most of God’s direction for your life.
• Often many, dealing with externally adverse circumstances, look to the same realm, the external for the answer.
• Be watchful here; favorable external circumstances are not always a sign that God is leading.

Guidance By the Holy Spirit in Your Spirit

• God leads by His Spirit in your spirit.
• It is very personal communication.
• It’s mono on mono transmission between you and the Throne of God.
• So, learn the high and holy art of hearing.
• Every single solitary sheep in God’s sheepfold can hear God in their spirit.
• You were born again via a personal encounter with Jesus.
• He will lead you the same way, via a close and personal witness.
• If you are not getting any leadings from the Lord, could it be it’s because you may be looking in the wrong place?
• Location is everything when it comes to leading.
• Leading and location, put those two words together — they belong in union.
• What does that mean, leading, and location?
• It means you look to your spirit for the answer because the Holy Spirit abides there.

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit Two: I Know My Sheep

• Jesus said, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.’
• The Greek word ‘know’ is a word we want to look at, and with that thought, here’s the definition of the day.
• This word ‘know’ is the Greek word ‘ginosko,’ and it means to know experientially.
• It means to know or have knowledge about (someone or something); usually as acquired through observation or the senses.
• Low Nida says this verb means to learn to know a person through direct personal experience, implying a continuity of relationship.²
• So, Jesus doesn’t just know you by His foreknowledge as God.
• If you remember, He laid that ability aside to be born as a man.
• Jesus knows you via personal experience.
• He doesn’t know you as a number or another face in the crowd.
• When you get to heaven, you will see that this is so.
• There will be a massive sea of people there from every tribe, nation, and tongue under heaven.
• But when He looks in your direction, you will know that He is only looking at you.
• When you hear the words, ‘You need to have a personal relationship with Jesus,’ know that those words are not idle ones.
• It’s undoubtedly true, a real personal relationship.

Heaven Knows You By Name

• Heaven knows you by name.

Psalm 139:13–16 (ESV) — 13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

• Isn’t it comforting to know that Jesus knows you?

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit Three: My Sheep Follow Me

• Why is ‘my sheep follow me’ a benefit?
• It all has to do with the quality of the leader.
• If anyone knows where is going, Jesus does.
• It is a sure thing that you will end up in a sure place if you follow a sure leader.
• How about this verse in Ezekiel?

Ezekiel 34:14 (ESV) — 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.

Revelation 7:17 (ESV) — 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

• Now, not only is following Jesus a benefit because of the quality of the person but also consider the abundance of His resources.
• Following Jesus is a benefit because of His endless ‘cattle on a thousand hills’ resources.
• You heard Jesus say it — my Father and I are one.
• That means why God the Father has, Jesus has.
• What Jesus has the Father God has.
• They are one.
• This piece dovetails into the next benefit of oneness with God.

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit Four: My Sheep Have Eternal Life

• My sheep have eternal life.
• Eternal life is quality of life.
• It is the God-Kind of life.
• Another way of saying this is that eternal life is life as God lives it.
• How does God live?
• What is God’s lifestyle like?
• How do we know that eternal life is the God-kind of life?
• Did I just make that up?
• No, listen to Jesus on this matter.

John 5:26 (ESV) — 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

• The Father has life in Himself, and He has given that same life that he has in Himself to His Son.
• So, both Father and Son have the same life.
• Then Jesus said these words concerning you.

John 10:10 (ESV) — 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

• The word for ‘life’ is the same in all three cases, meaning God the Father gave His Son Jesus the same life He had in Himself, and Jesus turned around and gave that life also to you.
• So, eternal life is a benefit we have because of Jesus’ oneness with the Father.

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit Five: My Sheep Will Never Perish

• Here’s another benefit on oneness with the Godhead.
• Jesus said that ‘My sheep, which are in my sheepfold, will never perish.’
• What does He mean, never perish?
• The Greek word ‘perish’ means to be destroyed or ruined.³
• The kind of ruin or destruction that the Lord Jesus is not talking about here is not the physical kind.
• How can we know that? — By looking at a Bible verse like John 3:16.

John 3:16 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

• Perish is the opposite of eternal life.
• If eternal is the God kind of life, and we know that it is then ‘perishing’ is the direct opposite of the God kind of life.
• Perishing is eternal death.
• When you came to Jesus, you went from death to life, that is eternal death to eternal life.
• Eternal death is a dark and ugly kind of life.
• It’s a life full of hatred and strife.
• Eternal death is a life full of consternation and unrest.

Isaiah 48:22 (ESV) — 22 “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.”

• Many who have this kind of life curse God when they die.
• It’s a sad life, eternal death is.
• And with that thought, here is the illustration of the day.

No Peace to the Wicked

The French nurse who was present at the deathbed of Voltaire, being urged to attend an Englishman whose case was critical, said, “Is he a Christian?” “Yes,” was the reply, “he is, a Christian in the highest and best sense of the term — a man who lives in the fear of God; but why do you ask?” “Sir,” she answered, “I was the nurse that attended Voltaire in his last illness, and for all the wealth of Europe I would never see another infidel die.”

• The following is at least some of what Voltaire said at his death.

Voltaire, the most influential atheist of Europe in his day, cried out with his dying breath: “I am abandoned by God and man; I shall go to hell! I will give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months life.”

• It is terrible to die and know you are not going to heaven.

Oneness with the Godhead Benefit Six: No One Can Snatch My Sheep

• The Greek word ‘snatch’ means to grab or seize suddenly to remove or gain control.⁴ and is the same word used of the wolf back in verse 12.

John 10:12 (ESV) — 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

• This ‘sudden grabbing or seizing’ to gain control over someone is by force.
• Once again, Jesus is not referring to the physical here.
• Just think about it for a moment.
• Think about those countries that are hostile to the gospel.
• Haven’t followers of Jesus been taken by force suddenly in these countries, haven’t they been snatched away and thrown into prison for the gospel’s sake?
• Well, of course, they have.

Snatching Is Spiritual, Not Physical

• This snatching, this sudden grabbing or seizing’ to gain control over someone by force, is not physical.
• It is spiritual.
• Jesus is talking about your heart, your inner man here.
• If you have given God your heart, no one can snatch that out of the Father’s hand.
• You placed your trust in God when you said yes to Jesus.
• No one can reverse that, not even by force.

Isaiah 43:13 (ESV) — 13 Also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work, and who can turn it back?”

• There is no one big and bad enough that can take on God.
• No force of nature or force of man can get snatch you out of God’s hand.
• Paul declares this truth as well as Isaiah.

Romans 8:35–37 (ESV) — 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

• The devil does have a weapon big enough to overcome God’s hand.
• The only one who has any say-so about this matter is you.
• You can walk away, but He will never leave you.

I And the Father, I.E., the Godhead, Are One

• All of these benefits are true and right.
  • My Sheep Hear My Voice
  • I Know My Sheep
  • My Sheep Follow Me
  • They Have Eternal Life
  • My Sheep Will Never Perish
  • No One Can Snatch My Sheep
• These benefits exist because of the oneness that Jesus enjoys with God.
• God’s thoughts and Jesus thought’s are the same.
• The Father God and the Lord Jesus are on the same page as far as the sheep go — as far as everything goes.
• What Jesus thinks of the sheep, the Father God thinks of the sheep thing.
• How the Good Shepherd loves the sheep is how the Father loves the sheep.
• They are one.
• Our challenge is to think like He thinks.
• We are woefully behind in this area.
• There must be some catching up on our part, some mind renewal.
• It will happen.

Your Destiny is to Be One with the Godhead

• Jesus prayed for it to happen.
• Your destiny is to be one with the Godhead.
• Listen to what He asked the Father.

John 17:20–22 (ESV) — 20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,

• There has never been a prayer that Jesus prayed in faith that wasn’t answered.
• He has a 100% track record.
• We will be one.
• Already we are one in faith.

How to Develop a Highly Effective Confidence in God

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