Jesus Is Rejected
That winter, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Temple Festival. One day he was walking in that part of the temple known as Solomon?s Porch, and the people gathered all around him. They said, "How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!"
25 Jesus answered: I have told you, and you refused to believe me. The things I do by my Father?s authority show who I am. 26 But since you are not my sheep, you don?t believe me. 27 My sheep know my voice, and I know them. They follow me, 28 and I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost. No one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father gave them to me, and he is greater than all others. No one can snatch them from his hands, 30 and I am one with the Father.
31 Once again the people picked up stones in order to kill Jesus. 32 But he said, "I have shown you many good things that my Father sent me to do. Which one are you going to stone me for?"
33 They answered, "We are not stoning you because of any good thing you did. We are stoning you because you did a terrible thing. You are just a man, and here you are claiming to be God!"
34 Jesus replied: In your Scriptures doesn?t God say, "You are gods"? 35 You can?t argue with the Scriptures, and God spoke to those people and called them gods. 36 So why do you accuse me of a terrible sin for saying that I am the Son of God? After all, it is the Father who prepared me for this work. He is also the one who sent me into the world. 37 If I don?t do as my Father does, you should not believe me. 38 But if I do what my Father does, you should believe because of that, even if you don?t have faith in me. Then you will know for certain that the Father is one with me, and I am one with the Father.
39 Again they wanted to arrest Jesus. But he escaped 40 and crossed the Jordan to the place where John had earlier been baptizing. While Jesus was there, 41 many people came to him. They were saying, "John didn?t work any miracles, but everything he said about Jesus is true." 42 A lot of those people also put their faith in Jesus.