Bible Studies

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We continue the discussion under John 10:25 here in Part 3.

Jesus was reluctant to use the title Christ/Messiah. One reason for that was that there were several wrong ideas associated with that title circulating among the Jews in those days. ((I had a footnote: I'll quote several sentences from what F. F. Bruce says under verse 24 ("Gospel of John" [Eerdmans, 1983], page 230). "Jesus had not so far said outright in Jerusalem that he was the Messiah. His description of himself as the good shepherd was as near to such a claim as made little difference, but he had not used the actual designation 'Messiah.' It was one thing for him to tell the woman at the well of Sychar who he was (John 4:26); to her the term 'Messiah' (or its Samaritan equivalent) had purely religious connotations. But among the Jews it had political and military implications, which Jesus was careful to avoid. ... But the authorities would not have been any more inclined to believe in him as the Messiah if he had made the claim 'plainly.' " I'll quote a sentence from what William Hendricksen says here ("Gospel of John," pages 120, 121). "But although Jesus had not used the very words which the Jews were now trying to extract from his lips, he had, nevertheless employed phraseology which clearly implied the fact that he regarded himself as the Messiah; in the strictly spiritual sense however." I'll also quote a sentence from Gary M. Burge ("John" [Zondervan, 2000], page 295). "But given the explosive, highly politicized views of the Messiah in this period, it is not surprising that Jesus has used restraint so far.")) For one thing, many of the Jews were looking for the Christ/Messiah to overthrow the hated Romans and exalt Israel (cf. Acts 1:6). (There are many prophecies in the Old Testament and the New Testament which show that the Christ/Messiah will overthrow the evil forces of this world, but those prophecies refer to His second coming. The Jews didn't realize that there would be two comings [two very different comings] of the Christ/Messiah.) John 6:15 gives a good illustration of the manifestations of fleshly zeal that Jesus was trying to avoid, "So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew to the mountain by Himself alone."

Matthew 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; and Luke 9:18-22, which are the verses where Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, illustrate two relevant points. For one thing, before the time of that confession (which was relatively late; the last year of Jesus' earthly ministry had already begun) it seems, somewhat surprisingly, that His apostles were not solidly established regarding the fact that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah. (See, for example John 1:41 ("[Andrew] found first his own brother Simon [Peter] and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah' (which translated means Christ)

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