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How One Bible Verse Disarmed a Mob · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, how did one Bible verse from the Old Testament
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  Speaker 1: disarm a mob? Today? We feel the really good Bible.
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  Speaker 1: Question from an international listener to the podcast. Dear Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: Hello to you and thank you for this podcast. My
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  Speaker 1: name is Beatrice and I live in Malaysia. My question
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  Speaker 1: for you is about what the Bible means when it
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  Speaker 1: says you are God's says this ince I'm eighty two six,
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  Speaker 1: and then Jesus quotes it again in John ten thirty four,
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  Speaker 1: a verse we read together today in our Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: John ten thirty four. Can you explain to me what
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  Speaker 1: this means.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the situation. In John ten. Jesus has just said
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  Speaker 2: in verse thirty I and the Father are one. Now
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  Speaker 2: the Jewish leaders who hear him say this, putting it
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  Speaker 2: together with everything else that he's been saying in that
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  Speaker 2: he's blaspheming by making himself equal with God. So in
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  Speaker 2: verse thirty one it says the Jews picked up stones
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  Speaker 2: to stone him. Now that's a crisis because the hour
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  Speaker 2: for Jesus' death has not yet come. Jesus is going
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  Speaker 2: to die when he has chosen to die, and not
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  Speaker 2: a minute sooner. No one takes my life from me.
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  Speaker 2: I lay it down of my own accord. And so
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  Speaker 2: he has to somehow defuse this critical moment where he's
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  Speaker 2: about to be stoned legally because the Jews could stone
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  Speaker 2: people for blasphemy. He's got to somehow get out of
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  Speaker 2: this situation so that he can make his way in
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  Speaker 2: his own time to the kind of death he intends
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  Speaker 2: to die. So Jesus is going to deflect this threat
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  Speaker 2: in a couple ways. First, he says, for which of
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  Speaker 2: my good work sore you stoning me? And they answer,
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  Speaker 2: it's not for your good works that were stoning you,
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  Speaker 2: but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, from all the things that Jesus has said,
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  Speaker 2: including calling God his father and saying that he and
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  Speaker 2: the Father are one, and by implication therefore he's the
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  Speaker 2: unique son of God, they infer, and they infer rightly
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  Speaker 2: that he's treating himself as the son of God in
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  Speaker 2: a unique way, only they call it a blasphemous way.
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  Speaker 2: And now Jesus is going to diffuse the situation a
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  Speaker 2: second way and make his escape, which is what he
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  Speaker 2: does in verse thirty nine. He escaped from their hands.
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  Speaker 1: How did he do that.
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  Speaker 2: He does it by quoting Psalm eighty two six. He says,
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  Speaker 2: is it not written in your law? I said you
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  Speaker 2: are gods? If he called them gods to whom the
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  Speaker 2: word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken,
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  Speaker 2: do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and
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  Speaker 2: said into the world, you are blaspheming because I said,
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  Speaker 2: I am the Son of God. To what's he doing?
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  Speaker 2: Let's go back and read Psalm eighty two. It starts
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  Speaker 2: like this, God has taken his place in the divine
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  Speaker 2: assembly in the midst of the gods. He holds judgment.
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  Speaker 2: Now who are they? These are so called gods and
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  Speaker 2: are angelic beings which the New Testament calls principalities and
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  Speaker 2: powers in the heavenly places. And God is about to
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  Speaker 2: pronounce judgment on them because they are using their authority
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  Speaker 2: behind the authorities of the world in order to support
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  Speaker 2: injustice rather than justice. So verse two of the Psalm says,
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  Speaker 2: how long will you judge unjustly? This is God talking
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  Speaker 2: to that is assembly of gods. How long will you
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  Speaker 2: judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked, give justice
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  Speaker 2: to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of
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  Speaker 2: the afflicted and the destitute. And then after the indictment
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  Speaker 2: which you just gave, comes the condemnation from God. In
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  Speaker 2: verse six, which is one Jesus quotes, and he says,
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  Speaker 2: I said you are gods, sons are the most high
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  Speaker 2: all of you. Nevertheless, like men. Pause there, That means
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  Speaker 2: he's not talking to men. He's talking to angelic beings. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 2: like men, you shall die and fall like any prince.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, even though you have a very exalted
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  Speaker 2: status as gods, principalities, powers, angels, you're gonna come crashing down,
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  Speaker 2: just like human rulers come crashing down who abuse their authority.
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  Speaker 2: So when Jesus says that God called them gods, he's
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  Speaker 2: not talking about us. This is the answer to Beatrice's question.
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  Speaker 2: In fact, he's not talking to any ordinary human beings.
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  Speaker 2: He's talking about and two angelic beings who are sometimes
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  Speaker 2: called gods in the Old Testament. Just like when Satan,
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  Speaker 2: you remember, comes before God. In the first chapter of
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  Speaker 2: Job it says the sons of God came to present
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  Speaker 2: themselves to God, among whom was Satan. That's the sense
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  Speaker 2: in which gods is being used here and sons of God.
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  Speaker 2: So the answer to Beatrice's question is that in this text,
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  Speaker 2: both in Psalm eighty two and in John ten, we
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  Speaker 2: are not called God's angelic beings are called gods. And
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  Speaker 2: Jesus isn't going into any elaborate argument here about the
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  Speaker 2: meaning of this Psalm. He is simply using this text
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  Speaker 2: as a shrewd escape maneuver from being about to be stoned.
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  Speaker 2: They have just accused him of blasphemy because of calling
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  Speaker 2: himself the son of God, and he deflects the accusation
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  Speaker 2: of blasphemy by calling attention to the fact that in
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  Speaker 2: the Psalms the very term sons of God is used
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  Speaker 2: for beings less than God, and nobody accuses the psalmist
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  Speaker 2: or God himself of blasphemy. So back off if you
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  Speaker 2: think this means we might be tempted to think this
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  Speaker 2: means that Jesus is arguing that he is only a
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  Speaker 2: god like angelic being like those gods. That would be
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  Speaker 2: a big mistake. He doesn't equate himself with those gods
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  Speaker 2: in Psalm eighty two. In fact, he uses very exalted
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  Speaker 2: language and says, do you say of him whom the
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  Speaker 2: Father consecrated and sent into the world. You are blaspheming
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  Speaker 2: because I said I am the Son of God. So
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't diffuse the situation by reducing his claim to deity.
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  Speaker 2: He diffuses the situation by complicating the term son of
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  Speaker 2: God for his accusers, so that they have to get
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  Speaker 2: rocked back on their hermeneutical heels in order to think
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  Speaker 2: for a minute about how to handle what he had
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  Speaker 2: just said from Psalm eighty two. And when that happens,
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  Speaker 2: he's gone, or thirty nine says he makes his escape.
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  Speaker 2: So there are interesting and important things to be learned
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  Speaker 2: here in Jesus' use of Psalm eighty two, but that
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  Speaker 2: we are gods is not one of them.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. With a single verse from Psalm eighty two, Jesus
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  Speaker 1: disarms a murderous mob, silence is their accusation of blasphemy,
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  Speaker 1: and escapes death without backing down from his divine claim.
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  Speaker 1: That is an amazing move. Thank you, Pastor John for
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  Speaker 1: walking us through all of this today to appreciate what
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  Speaker 1: Jesus did, and thanks for joining us today. If you
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  Speaker 1: have a question to ask, Pastor John, find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode of archive
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  Speaker 1: at the same place Askpastor John dot com. Well, we
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  Speaker 1: may not form mobs, but we all find other ways
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  Speaker 1: to be jerks toward another and we're trying to become
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  Speaker 1: less of a jerk to one another. And God can
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  Speaker 1: confront us for being jerks to others by showing incredible
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  Speaker 1: kindness to us. You've acted in a way this deplorable,
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  Speaker 1: and then God overwhelms your life with some enormous kindness
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  Speaker 1: and it breaks you in half. Does that ever happened
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  Speaker 1: to you? It's happened to Pastor John, the God who
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  Speaker 1: breaks us with kindness. That's next time. I'm Tony Rinky.
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  Speaker 1: I'll see you on Monday.