John 10:31-33 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.… I. WHAT IS MEANT BY SCRIPTURE? The Old Testament as accepted by the Jews of our Lord's Day. 1. This fixes the canon of Scripture for Christians and excludes the apocrypha. 2. This stamps the Old Testament with a Divine authority, against which it is infidelity and blasphemy to protest. II. HOW DID CHRIST DEAL WITH SCRIPTURE? 1. He was zealous in fulfilling it. In looking at Christ as our example this is to be observed. Scripture declares what Christ would be and do and suffer, and all this He was and did and suffered "that the Scriptures might be fulfilled." It tells us too what we must be and do and suffer, and in order to these we must follow Christ, and in the earnest eager spirit in which He saw that no jot or tittle of the word concerning Him was broken. 2. He submitted to it. The only man capable of judging for Himself always submitted His judgment to the written Word. (1) As the servant of God He came to do God's will; but that will was not God's secret will, but His will as declared in the Bible. (2) He submitted to that will without question, and with the utmost joyfulness. III. THE USE CHRIST MADE OF SCRIPTURE. 1. As a weapon against His enemies. To the devil in the wilderness He said, "It is written," and to the Sadducees about the Resurrection (Matthew 22). 2. As His authority. When He drove the money changers from the Temple, His only warrant for doing so was "It is written." On the same grounds He defended His disciples for plucking corn on the Sabbath. 3. As the court of final appeal in different questions (Matthew 19). 4. As His inspiration for suffering (Luke 13). 5. As a consolation in trials. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. |
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