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John 10:19-21  MORE CONTROVERSY CONCERNING JESUS

Introduction:
	
	In explanation of the Parable of The Sheepfold, Jesus
had proclaimed that He is the door of the sheepfold.  Thus,
He is the door to heaven.  One must come to Jesus and place
his faith and trust in Jesus in order to enter into the door
that leads to heaven.  When one does place his faith in
Jesus to save Him that is like entering into the door that
leads to heaven.  He who trusts in Jesus is no longer
condemned.  He is saved.  He is on his way to heaven.
	In our text last Sunday also explained that He is The
Good Shepherd.  He is theGood Shepherd who lays down His
life for the Sheep.  He would die on the cross so that lost
sinners could be saved.  As the Shepherd, He is not only the
Savior, but He is the leader, the protector and the provider
for His sheep.
	In our text today His explanation of The Parable of the
Sheepfold is over.  What we see in this text is a
controversy among the people over what He had said to them
concerning The Parable of The Sheepfold.  This is not a
controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees nor a
controversy between Jesus and the people.  It is a
controversy among the people about Jesus.

I.  A division among the people

	V. 19, "There was a division therefore again among the
Jews for these sayings."  That is, this was just one more
division among the Jews because of the things Jesus had
said.
	I am not certain when the first division among them took
place.  The first one that John recorded was back in chapter
7.  "Then the Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where
is he?  And there was much murmuring among the people
concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others
said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people," John 7:11-12. They
argues over whether or not Jesus was a good man or a
deciever.
	The division at that point of time was not quite as
heated.  But the controversy was there never-the-less.  Some
were for Him and some were against Him.
	Soon the controvcersy heightened.   Many of the people
began to publicly state that they believed Jesus to be a
prophet of God.  John 7:40, "Many of the people therefore,
when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the
Prophet."
	Others were so bold as to publicly declare that they
believed Him to be the Christ, whom the Old Testament
prophets had promised.  John 7:41, "Others said, This is the
Christ..."
	The opponents of Christ, however, tried to persuade them
that Jesus could not be the Christ.  (John 7:41), "...But
some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee?"  They sought
to use Scripture.  Listen to what they said:  John 7:42,
"Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed
of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David
was?"
	John 7:43, "So there was a division among the people
because of him."  This is the second time the division which
was there all the time showed itself publicly.
	During the Feast of the Tabernacles when Jesus was
disputing daily with the scribes and Pharisees in the
temple, many of the common people believed on Him.  John
8:30, "As he spake these words, many believed on him."  So
those who favored Him still continued to grow in number.
	The opposition also continued to build.  John 8:59,
"Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid
himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst
of them, and so passed by."  They actually attempted to
stone Jesus to death.
	Then on the day after the Feast of The Tabernacles,
Jesus gave sight to a man who had been born blind.  John
9:7, "And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam,
(which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way
therefore, and washed, and came seeing."
	It comes as no surprise that this man to whom Jesus gave
sight became one of the chief supprotors of Jesus.  He had
the courage to speak up even to the members of the Sanhedrin
Council and rebuke them for doubting that Jesus had been
sent from heaven.
	Listen to his clear logic as he reasoned with them.
John 9:30-33, "The man answered and said unto them,Whyherein
is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is,
and yet he hath opened mine eyes.  Now we know that God
heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God,
and doeth his will, him he heareth.  Since the world began
was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that
was born blind.  If this man were not of God, he could do
nothing."  Here was a man who was definitely on the side of
Jesus.

II.  Those in the text who opposed Jesus

	John 10:20, "And many of them said, He hath a devil..."
  They actually thought Jesus was demon possessed.They
thought He had a demon indwelling His body.  They thought
His speech and His actions were under the control of a demon
spirit dwelling within Him.  This is not the first time they
had said that He is demon possessed.   Back in John 7:20
they told Jesus to His face, "...Thou hast a devil..."  Now
they seek to persuade those who favor Jesus that Jesus is
demon possessed.
	(V. 20), "...and is mad; why hear ye him?"  They
thought, "Jesus is demon possessed.  He does not have
control of His senses.  He is crazy.  Why would anybody want
to listen to a mad man?"

III.  Those in the text who favored Jesus

	But those who favored Jesus stood their ground.  V. 21,
"Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a
devil."  They argued that the words of Jesus made perfectly
good sense.  They were not the senseless kind of babble that
would come from a mad man.  They were far superior to what
they accustomed to hearing, John 7:46.
	Furthermore they argued that giving sight to the blind
man was abundant proof that Jesus was not demon possessed.
They argued that a man who is controlled by a demon would
not be able to givesight to a blind man.  (V.  21), "...Can
a devil open the eyes of the blind?"
	So by the time of this text there was a well established
division among the Jewish people.  Some favored Him.  Some
who favored Him thought of Him only as a good man who sought
to heal the sick and afflicted.  Some who favored Him were
attracted to Him because of the miracles, but they were
persuaded that He had, indeed, been empowered of God to
perform these miracles.  Some who favored Jesus were
convinced that He is a genuine prophet of God, although they
stopped short of believing that He is the Christ.  Some who
favored Jesus had come to recognize that He is the very
Christ of God whom the prophets of old had foretold.  But
there were some who bitterly opposed Jesus and would not be
persuaded by any means.  They had made their minds up and
that was that.
	It was this growing opposition toward Jesus among the
people to which the scribes and Pharisees would appeal later
on to get them to support the crucifixion of Jesus.  In the
end, there would be a great majority of people who would not
only condone the death penalty for Jesus but would join the
scribes and Pharisees before Pilate demanding that Jesus be
crucified.

IV.  TAhose in our day who oppose Jesus

	Even today we see this same kind of controversyinvolving
Jesus.  There are still many people who still think of Jesus
only as a good man.  They consider Him to have set a good
example for men to follow and claim to be trying to follow,
but they still do not think of Him as the Christ, the Savior
of the world.
	But men need not only to recognize Jesus as a good man.
They need to recognize Him as the Christ, the Son of God,
the Savior of men.  They need to put their faith and their
trust in Him to save their souls.  Then after they are saved
they should pattern their lives after Jesus.  A saved person
does need to pattern his life after Jesus and seek to live a
clean and godly life.  But an unsaved person does not need
to pattern his life after Jesus thinking that he can stay
out of hell and get to heaven by patterning his life after
Jesus.  There is no way in the world that he can live a
sinless life like Jesus.  He must repent of his sins and
trust in Jesus to save his sinful soul if he ever expects to
get to heaven.
	There are some who not only thing that Jesus is a good
man, but they also think of Him also as being a prophet of
God still without recognizing Him to be the Christ of God,
the hope of the world.  They think of Jesus as being sent
from God and being a prophet of God who could speak
marvelous things from God and even do miracles by the power
of God, but they deny that He is the Savior of the world.
They deny that lost men, women, boys and girls can repent of
their sin and be saved.  Some of them even look upon Him as
being the founder of the Christian religion and the founder
of the New Testament church system of worship, but still
they deny that He is the Savior of men.  They think of Jesus
as being a good man and as a prophet of God, but that is all
they see Him to be.  That is all they are willing to even
consider.
 	Then there are some who claim to believe that Jesus is
the Christ of God, the very Son of God and even proclaim Him
to be the Savior of men, the hope of the world, but still
deny that men are saved by repenting of their sin and
trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior.  They believe that the
lost sinner needs not only to believe in Jesus as the
Christ, but they think that he still must earn his way to
heaven by the good works that he does.  I heard Garner Ted
Armstrong say that he does not believe that a man can go to
heaven by repenting of his ain and trusting Jesus Christ for
salvation.   I heard Garner Ted say, "There is not a word of
truth in that." He said that unless you keep the Ten
Commandments, you will never make it to heaven.  Let me tell
you that Garner Ted does not belive what the Bible teaches
about Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ, Himself, said, "He that
believeth in me I will in no wise cast out."
	Garner Ted is not alone in believing that good works are
necessary to earn one's right to enterheaven.  There are a
lot of religious people right here in East Texas who will
tell you that repentance of sin and faith in Jesus is not
sufficient to get you into heaven.  They believe that you
must work for your salvation or you will never get it.
	Also there are those who claim to believe that Jesus is
the Christ, they claim to believe that He has the power to
save the lost, they claim to believe that if one will repent
of his sins and trust Jesus that he will be saved, but they
still refuse to repent and trust Jesus for salvation.  At
least they neglect to do so.  They seem to prefer to miss
out on heaven altogether than to repent of their sin.  It
seems that they love their sin and desire to continue in
their sin knowing that they cannot be saved until they
repent.  It seems that they prefer to continue in sin for a
little while longer even though it will mean that they will
never go to heaven.
	On the other hand, there are some even today who hate
Jesus just as much as did the scribes and Pharisees who
sought to put Him to death.  There are some who hate Jesus
Christ, they hate Christian churches, they hate the Bible,
they hate Bible truth, they hate Biblical moral standards
and they will hate you because you are a Christian.  You
need not expect men who hate Jesus to love you just because
you are a Christian.  Rather they will hate you because you
are a Christian.
	What you need to do is to make up your mind that you are
wiling to live for Jesus regardless of what others may think
of you and regardless of how they treat you.  You need to
make up your mind that you are going to be kind to them
regardless of how they treat you.  You need to make up your
mind that you will pray for them regardless of what they say
to you or about you.  You need to know in advance that you
will be persecuted because you live for Jesus and you need
to make up your mind that you will not let that stop you
from living for Jesus.

Conclusion:

	But now let me put this question to you about your own
soul's salvation.  Have you ever trusted Jesus to save your
soul and to take you to heaven when you die?  If not, then
you need to call on Him today and get this matter settled
with God.  Will you come?