Hello Friends, I'm Wayne Shepherd, inviting you to listen to the following Bible teaching message by Paul Scharf. Paul is a Church Ministries Representative for the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, serving in the Midwest. You'll find all of his ministry resources at sermonaudio.com slash pscharf, where he provides new content on a regular basis, including a weekly column that he writes, along with news and updates. Right now, we encourage you to follow along as we open God's Word for today's presentation. It's our prayer that the Lord God will use this teaching to bring glory to Himself and to work faith in each of our hearts. Here now with the sermon is Paul Scharf. Our topic today is on Hanukkah, light in the darkness. The word Hanukkah is from a Hebrew word for dedication. Hanukkah is all about dedication and it forces us to ask the question. Are you dedicated? Are you one of the dedicated or are you? Compromised are you dedicated or are you undecided? Are you dedicated or are you uncertain? Hanukkah if we had time this morning to develop the whole subject from the beginning and by the way I'm not talking about customs or traditions as Jewish people have celebrated Hanukkah in various countries in the world. I'm talking about Pastor Kurt said the biblically based material is all we're really going to be dealing with even if we had more time and That question I believe if we had time to set all that out It would I could show you that Hanukkah is a message for our time it is absolutely critical for this time right now in which we live and I think maybe you'll see some of that as we go and We have on the table in the back a Hanukkah box or Hanukkah basket if you prefer This is from the friends of Israel and these Hanukkah baskets go out to Jewish friends all over the world and This is my fourth Hanukkah box of this year I've given away three and I have this one that I just opened this morning. It's brand new and I would like to leave this Hanukkah box with someone here today who will take it to a Jewish friend So if you would do that and someone even has taken one that they're going to mail to a friend in another location however, you would like to do it if you would take the box and Have a desire to give that to a Jewish friend. There's a beautifully written card in it that describes the purpose of the box and These are all items made in Israel, and I think by the way as by the time we're done today I hope you'll agree with me. We shouldn't have any problem of conscience saying to a Jewish friend or anyone else Happy Hanukkah and You can send that message to them send that box to them I would love to leave it with you now until someone takes it you're all free to look at the items in the box and Unfortunately, this is not one of those things of everyone come and take a taste of everything in it Because then we'll have to throw the box away right and we really want to give that to a Jewish friend So if there's someone there and you can also find lots more about Hanukkah at this page on fo I org slash Hanukkah and of course at fo I org you'll find much more information in general about our ministries in our history at the Friends of Israel and I've also written an article last year about Hanukkah called The Hanukkah Hangup. Why is it that we don't know more about Hanukkah as we should as Christians, as it's such a vital part of our biblical heritage? And that does not contain everything that we'll talk about this morning, but it contains some other things we won't talk about in written form, and I invite you to check that as well. So that being said, let's think about Hanukkah. It's called the Festival of Lights. How many know that Hanukkah, along with Passover, are the two most widely celebrated Jewish holidays in the world today? Even though Hanukkah is not a biblically mandated feast, it's not found in Leviticus 23 or in the Mosaic Law, like Purim, which springs up in the book of Esther when God saves the people and they develop a new festival, Hanukkah comes about as events happen in the intertestamental period, those 400 silent years, the pages in our Bibles between Malachi and Matthew. That we know so little about and I say that sadly we know so little about that time Because you know during those 400 silent years God was actively at work and I believe we can learn much from that time because I think we are living Uniquely in a prophetic season where God is setting the stage for the future fulfillment of biblical prophecy and the second coming of Christ Here for 400 years God was setting the stage for the first coming of Christ During those 400 years He was working all things after the counsel of his will Ephesians 111 What else was he doing during those 400 years? He was working all things for the good of those who love him Romans 8 28 and How was he doing that? He was working all these events of history to bring history to that exact moment that we're celebrating this morning. When in the very fullness of time, he sent forth his son into the world, born under the law to be our savior and our redeemer. So that by the time Christ came, all of this in precise Fulfillment of the 70 weeks prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel in Daniel chapter 9 is God had this chronological timetable absolutely defined That at the moment Christ came Luke 3 15 says all people were in expectation Wondering what would happen with the birth of this promised Messiah and And that's part of the message of Hanukkah. You can see already how it ties to Christmas. And it's called the Festival of Lights because it's something that is said to have happened back at the events that lead to the celebration called Hanukkah. It's the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication. And you see here the center candle and four candles with it in this slide. Part of the nine-candled Hanukkiah or Hanukkah menorah have two little models of those out on our display table. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. Hanukkah is believed to have occurred on the events behind Hanukkah on the 25th day of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar, which is roughly equivalent to our December. 25th of December does that ring a bell for anyone? All right, and now the Hebrew month is a lunar month and so when you compare to our standard calendar today that date is going to float on the calendar much like Passover or Easter and so we'll see how that plays out here for us this year in just a second and But I'm going to be quoting this morning from a number of highly accessible resources. One reason for that being so that you can go and some of these, like the ESV Study Bible, perhaps you have on your lap right now or you have it at home. It's excellent in Bible background information. And I hope that you'll build on the things because we will not be, by any means, be looking exhaustively at the scriptures that we need to touch on this morning. But I hope this week you'll take some time, maybe sitting by the fireplace while it's still this brutally cold outside, and search the scriptures and see if these things are so. Look in your study Bible. Read the text. Read the notes. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all these things. So take every chapter I reference, if you would, as an assignment to look further as you're embarking on this wonderful plan to Search the scriptures more diligently in the year to come, and I trust maybe you'll find this as a starter in the week ahead as well. Well, the ESV study Bible says that Hanukkah is based on an, it's the eight day feast of dedication. The feast of dedication that celebrates what? The rededication of the Jewish temple in December of 164 BC after its desecration by the Seleucid ruler, the Syrian Greek King of the North, Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes, who desecrated the altar and put a halt to all Jewish worship and tradition and customs and opened a gymnasium in Jerusalem, which means back in that time people, you know, without proper dress, exercising, doing carnal things. And he did more than that, as we'll see. He really ushered in, if you will, an intertestamental holocaust, carrying off tens of thousands of Jewish men and women to their deaths and to slavery, attempting to undo anything related to the worship of the true God from the Hebrew scriptures. and to totally demoralize the Jewish people. You might see already how this is setting up a scenario where you're going to separate the dedicated from the uncommitted. And that's what happened as we'll see here in just a moment. But before we get any further into the details, let's think about Hanukkah for just a second, that time when the Jewish people Remember how even though they sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to them. That when they fall, the Lord will help them to arise. And may we learn from that wonderful historical example that we'll see this morning and what it means and what it can mean in each of our lives. As we want to say in the Friends of Israel, there wouldn't be Christmas without Hanukkah. One rabbi said that at Purim in the book of Esther, God saved the Jewish people physically. But at the Feast of Dedication, we remember how he saved not only the nation physically, but saved the Jewish people's souls. He saved their knowledge of the one true God and their worship of him in the temple in Jerusalem. So Hanukkah intersects with Christmas on so many different levels, and that's why I think that it's Appropriate and it's a wonderful blessing for us to be thinking about these things this morning And I trust there'll be a blessing to your Christmas in fact this year Hanukkah began last Sunday evening at sundown and it continues to sundown tomorrow evening so we're in the second Sunday of Hanukkah and And our Jewish friends are celebrating that right now this year. And it's been a wonderful time for us to have time to plan and prepare and teach about Hanukkah this year. And to have people do things like take Hanukkah boxes to their Jewish friends and to greet them. It's just set up wonderfully on the calendar this year. Let's think about Hanukkah in the Old Testament. Now we've said that Hanukkah takes place in the intertestamental period between the Old and New Testaments, and we understand that it's therefore not recorded historically in the Old Testament, so what do we mean by this? Well, the basis for everything we're talking about today is in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, which God unveils through Daniel's revelation of that dream, the Future reign of man from Daniel's day all the way until the second coming of Christ During which Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled and That will be in the form of the kingdoms of Babylon Medo-Persia Greece and Rome in Nebuchadnezzar's view this this rule of man is like this marvelous statue glistening in the Sun gold, silver, bronze, and iron. But as Daniel receives a vision of the same events in Daniel chapter 7 from God's heavenly perspective, these kingdoms are like natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed. A winged lion, a bear raised up on one side, a winged leopard, and finally an indescribably horrible beast. And then in Daniel Chapter 8, he receives again a vision about just two of these animalistic kingdoms, Medo-Persia and Greece, the ram and the he-goat, the goat that speeds so quickly across the surface of the earth it doesn't even touch the ground. And then its notable horn is broken and split into four. And that talks about Alexander the Great. who conquered the whole world, you remember, and then sat down and wept because there were no more worlds to conquer. And he died at age 33, and his kingdom was divided four ways. And many decades after him, in the 160s BC, there came about this man, Antiochus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes. If you've celebrated in the past Epiphany on January 6, the day that we celebrate the Magi coming, right? That's the unveiling, the revealing of Christ to the Magi, the Epiphany. Antiochus thought he was the unveiling of the manifestation of God. Not the true God though, the Greek God Zeus. He was an insane madman. He was a wicked tyrant. He and the persecution he brought on the Jewish people in the 160s BC, having come into power in 175, were the worst trial the Jewish people had ever experienced up to that time. Sadly, it is not the worst devastation they would ever experience. We'll talk about that before we close this morning. Antiochus who proclaimed himself Theos Epiphanes, God manifest on Jewish coinage, was absolutely a maniacal tyrant. And the story of his dealings with the Jewish people is told prophetically by way of inspired predictive prophecy revealed through the prophet of God Daniel in Babylon in Daniel, chapter 8 and Daniel chapter 11. Now this story is told in such a way that is so accurate, it's so complete, it's so precise that of course critical scholars say impossible. Daniel could never have written this as prophecy 400 years before the events. It has to be a pious forgery that's written after the fact. Because it reads line by line like an exacting history of the events that happened in the 160s BC when an elderly priest named Mattathias and his five sons, who become known as the Maccabees, put up a guerrilla warfare resistance, sort of a little annoyance at first, sort of a laughing stock to begin with. So thought Antiochus. Boy, did he find out something different before it was all over. It's the ultimate David versus Goliath story and David wins. The Jewish people win under the Maccabees. And we don't have time this morning to go through Daniel 8 and 11. I invite you to, again, read and search those chapters, and I'm just going to point you to one verse in the midst of all of this, and that's Daniel 11, verse 32. It's right after verse 31, which speaks of the abomination of desolation which Antiochus commits 167 BC when he sacrifices a pig on the altar in Jerusalem, desecrates the Holy of Holies, pours pig's blood on the sacred scrolls and holy objects, and desecrates the temple, hangs a picture of Zeus in the temple, forbids Jewish worship practices in Entirely you see he had the idea he had a dream of being like Alexander the ruler of the whole world and He thought the only way to do that was to subjugate those under him in such a way. They'd be totally demoralized completely forsaken of everything they knew in the past and would have to become completely devoted to his Greek culture. The technical term for this is Hellenization. He wanted to Greekify them. And by the way, when you read the New Testament, you see many elements of that surviving on into the New Testament age. God is setting the stage here for the world into which Christ would walk The Son of God would come into this very world that is being formed through these events, specifically through these events behind Hanukkah as we're thinking about them this morning. You know, all through these passages in chapter 8 and chapter 11, you'll see amazing statements like this. Chapter 8, verse 19, just to pull out one of them. At the appointed time, the end shall be. God has all of this in control. He's working all things after the council of his will he has a plan he has a purpose Remember that statue that we saw it's not going to be time for Antiochus to rule. He's not going to become the Dictator of the world it's not even going to be time for the Jewish people ultimately to regain their independence as they would love God has a plan. He is working for it. He is working in history. He's setting the stage for the first coming of Christ here directly. Well, I said I was going to point you to one verse in Daniel 11, and we were at verse 31, the abomination of desolation. And note verse 32, those who do wickedly against the covenant. These are the compromised among the Jewish people, the uncommitted, the undecided. By the way, Really helps to create more compromised people when you're hauling people away to their deaths by the tens of thousands conducting a Holocaust, right? It gets pretty hard to be dedicated. But notice what happens. Those who do wickedly against the covenant, Antiochus shall corrupt with flattery. He's a deceiver. He's a manipulator. But the people who know their God shall be strong. and carry out great exploits. How many wanna be like that as we approach the second coming of Christ? To be strong and carry out great exploits at such a time as this, in which we're seeing amazing things happening in our world right now. See, I told you, Hanukkah is a message for our time. And if we had more time here in these Old Testament portions, We develop that much further. But you say, well, what happened to these guys? How did this all turn out? Well, let's think just briefly, and this is another whole study, and of course, this is not found in our Bibles, but there's abundant historical record in the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees, which we believe are not inspired books, but they offer good history, and they're part of, from our perspective, the apocrypha in some editions of the scriptures. But again, not inspired, not canonical books. But 1 and 2 Maccabees, also the writings of Josephus, we have a much indication of what really happened through all this time. And to sum it all up, the third of Mattathias' five sons was named Judas. Judas Maccabeus, Judas the Hammer. And he led this guerrilla effort, this revolt. They ultimately drove the Syrians out of Jerusalem, retook Jerusalem, retook the temple. Rededicated the temple, cleansed the temple for 30 days. December 164 BC. By the way, Judas became so famous, such a hero, that for decades after this, every Jewish household would want a son with the honorable name of what? Judas. That's why Jesus had two disciples named Judas. That honorable, respectable name that won back our independence ultimately for a time in the decades between these events behind Hanukkah and the first coming of Christ. Now, we're boiling lots of things here down quickly because we want to get to Hanukkah in the New Testament this morning. But here is a statement from Dr. Alva J. McLean in his great theology book, The Greatness of the Kingdom. He said the Maccabees made one of the most desperate and historic attempts in all recorded history to reestablish the independency of the Jewish state. And they even to some extent succeeded ultimately in that effort long term. And by the way, we'll see Jesus encounter this morning with some Jewish leaders who say, we are children of Abraham. We've never been in bondage to anyone. You see, this thinking still pervades their minds, their mentality at his time. I guess when they said that, they forgot about Egypt and Assyria and Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and now Rome, right? But in their minds, we've never been in bondage to anyone. But notice what happened, according to Dr. McLean. Oh no, look at this, it failed in the end. This heroic attempt, this selfless, brave, bold attempt to retake Jewish independence ultimately failed. And you say, what happened to these guys? What happened to these Maccabees? I want to know more about them. Well, we'll come back to them in just a second. But let me say this, we have on the back table the menorah, the Hanukkiah, Hanukkah menorah, different than the normal menorah with seven candles total. It has nine candles. And this relates to, I would call it a legend or a tradition. I don't personally believe this actually happened as a miraculous event because there's no indication scripturally there would be Biblical sign miracles between the old and the New Testaments There was not even a true prophet on the earth in these days To speak about such miracles, so I don't think there was actually a miracle of the oil But and this isn't even told until later in the Talmud It's sort of a Jewish commentary that's written years later. But the idea of the tradition of the candles or the light, which again, I think it's sort of like some of the traditions we have around Christmas. I'm not talking about biblical truth. but various things that we incorporate into our celebration, sort of knowing that they're based on a nice myth or lore of some kind, but perhaps didn't really occur. I think that's what happened with the lights of Hanukkah. The story is told that there was only one day's worth of the Sanctified oil that could be used to keep the light on in the temple But that it lasted for eight nights until more oil could be prepared now Some have said that seems very unlikely because first of all there's oil all over the place They could have found in Israel to use for this purpose But I don't think it was an actual miraculous event. I think it's as I said legend, but As a result of that, which by the way, believing that it's in the realm of legend, does not in any way attack the historicity of these other events that we're talking about, nor does it in any way reduce the importance of the whole subject, or even of the fact that Hanukkah is the festival of lights. But what the Jewish people do to celebrate is they take that middle candle, the shamash, or the servant candle, And they use it to light the rest of the candles, one on the first night of Hanukkah, two on the second, until cumulatively all nine candles are lit, as it will be tomorrow evening as Hanukkah concludes. And that just reminds us, doesn't it, of the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, friends, he did more than you and I have done. He did more than come out on a bitterly cold, Christmas morning to come to church. He came all the way from heaven to earth. All the way from the glories of heaven, the king of the angels as we've sung this morning. The eternal son of God, he had existed eternally as a son to God the Father and with God the Holy Spirit in perfect unity and fellowship And He came all the way from that place of glory down to Bethlehem's manger and took also human flesh and became one of us, both God and man, to be our Savior, to die on the cross for our sins ultimately, to take the place that we deserve, to bear the penalty that we should have paid, to pay a debt that we owed. to pay for our sins, to die in our place and for our sins so that we could have the forgiveness of sin and eternal life in heaven with Him if we will trust that He, the Son of God, is our Savior who died and rose again. If you believe in Christ alone, you can be saved this Christmas on the basis of faith alone, without anything else, by His grace alone. Why? Because He is the servant, he is the shamash. He came not to be served, but to serve. Why wouldn't it be a different Christmas story if he'd come to be served? But everything we're saying about and celebrating this morning is how he came to serve. I hope that's your heart and mine as we go into this new year. What a wonderful thing it would be if our purpose in 2023 was not to be served, but to serve. to give our lives in the service of Christ, to be the dedicated, right? To be strong and do great exploits. Well, that takes us into Hanukkah in the New Testament. How many of you knew Jesus celebrated Hanukkah? I don't see any hands here. Maybe one hand. Okay. I think you'll all be convinced, I hope, because we're going to turn to the Gospel of John and we're going to look at John chapter 10 And don't take my word for it. Read it right there in the text, John 10, 22. It was the feast of what congregation? It was the feast of dedication. It was time for Hanukkah. It was the festival of lights. It was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon or Solomon's Porch, which becomes an important meeting place later in the book of Acts for the early believers in the church age. And this is happening in John 10 beginning in verse 22. Now we're going to back up and get a sort of a higher view of this whole section of scripture here in the Gospel of John. Again, I hope you'll go home and read and study further about all of these issues verse by verse beyond what we'll be able to consider this morning. But here is a very important quote for us to note from Elwood McQuaid, great leader of the Friends of Israel, now retired, wrote a wonderful book, one of three, and I'll quote from all three, throughout the history of the Friends of Israel on the Feasts of Israel. Those seven feasts that are found in Leviticus 23 and other places in the Mosaic Law, And then the additional two feasts, we've already talked about Purim and Hanukkah. And he zeroes in here on two of them, the Feast of Tabernacles and Hanukkah and their connection. And I told you earlier, if you want a synopsis of these, you can hear me talking about it with Jimmy D. Young Jr. on Sermon Audio. But here's the point, friends. There was a connection in the Jewish psyche in their emotional understanding of the calendar between the Feast of Tabernacles and Hanukkah. The Feast of Tabernacles takes place maybe eight weeks or so earlier in mid-October and Hanukkah here at this time of the year. Tabernacles was one of the seven biblically mandated feasts. Hanukkah was not. But their connection on the calendar becomes a connection Emotionally in the Jewish mentality by Jesus day Now why is that important because in John 7 and perhaps you've skipped right over this in the past as well But in John 7 verse 2 notice it was the Feast of Tabernacles So John 7 and 8 are about Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles John 9 takes us in a different direction in accord with the purpose of John's gospel, but in John 10 we're at Hanukkah and In the winter, all of this in the final fall and winter before Jesus is going to die as our savior at Passover in the following spring. And the connection between tabernacles and Hanukkah is much like our connection in our minds between, say, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. It's the holidays, right? And so in the Jewish mentality, we have tabernacles and Hanukkah, the holiday season. And what Jesus did and said at tabernacles is still fresh on the people's minds at Hanukkah. I almost forgot to finish a story I told you I was going to tell, which is very important here in John 7 because we're going At the end of the chapter, you're going to encounter a group called the, well, I won't say their name yet. I'll let you guess where I'm going because our question was whatever happened to these Maccabees, right? Whatever happened to those guys? Well, they, you know, the Maccabean movement sort of fades out over time. There's no further need for raising up a guerrilla army to fight off the Syrians. So, you know, they devote their energies to some more everyday types of issues. They love their country. They love God. And they devote a lot of their energy to becoming the small businessmen of their day in Judea. And they continue to treasure that heritage from their Maccabean parents, forefathers. And they have such a fervor for the Jewish faith. They don't want to, not only they don't want to break the law of God, they don't even want to broach the fence around the law. And they put all this energy toward, you know, building up life in Judea. And we would love these guys. They are the conservatives. They loved, again, You know, everything that was right and nothing that wasn't. The best description I've ever heard of these guys that I'll never forget. Do we have any Rotarians here? I was a Rotarian once. Not a very good one, but I was a Rotarian. But the best description I've ever heard of these guys is they were like the Rotary Club on steroids. I mean, they were out for Judea. And we call them. Any guesses? The Pharisees. Those are the Maccabees' descendants become the Pharisees. And we see them at the end of John 7. They were wonderful guys, but you know what they took? They misdirected that zeal, that fervor that they inherited from their ancestors, the Maccabees. and they turned it against ultimately their own Messiah. Many of them, not everyone, there was one like Nicodemus mentioned at the end of Chapter 7 who took a different approach to Jesus. But the Pharisees are very much on guard against Jesus here at this time of Tabernacles and Hanukkah. I mean, the hair on the back of their neck is standing up. Remember what their ancestors resisted? Someone who claimed to be what? God manifest. God in the flesh. Boy, you start talking that way, you really have people on edge. And in John chapter 7 and 8 at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus made some very important pronouncements. Notice what he said, verse 37 of chapter 7, on that last day, that great day of the feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. You see, one of the traditions that had developed by the time of Jesus' celebration of Tabernacles was in this tabernacles is mandated in the Old Testament. It's one of only three feasts where all the Jewish men were required to come to Jerusalem. And it's unique in this sense, it's a time for the whole family to come and gather and they would live in booths for eight days, live in tents to remind them that God had cared for them through their journey of camping out for 40 years in the wilderness. and that God was dwelling with them even then and even now as a people and caring for them. And they celebrated the harvest and they celebrated God's abundance, his provision. By the way, our pilgrim fathers took the concept of the Feast of Tabernacles to give us our American holiday of Thanksgiving. And so that's just a taste of what tabernacles was like. But one of those traditions that had developed, they would have these elaborate ceremonies with water and wine called a libation, like an offering, pouring out water to remember God's abundance, how he had provided water for the crops and how he had blessed the people and poured out his blessings on them. And Jesus in this environment makes this statement. If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And John says this, he spoke concerning the spirit whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now, the Pharisees are on guard after this, as you see it through the rest of the chapter. But Jesus isn't finished at the Feast of Tabernacles. He's going to make one more statement about these things. Actually, two more. He's going to say, this is the big one, though, I am the light of the world. And you see that, John 8, verse 12, a very familiar verse. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And here's why Jesus said that, because there was another custom at the Feast of Tabernacles. You see, just as we've come to church this morning on Christmas Day, and we had the scripture reading from Luke chapter 2. Why? Is that mandated in the Bible that we did things that way? No, it's our custom, it's our tradition. Another tradition that had developed by this time was there were these huge columns placed in front of the temple. that you had to go up a ladder to get to the top and they had candles on the top and lit these huge flames. Someone said from a distance it looked like the whole Temple Mount was on fire as tabernacles had become a celebration involving water and light. I suppose in modern terms it was like a laser light show, you know, like fireworks almost going off. And in the midst of that context, Jesus made this astounding statement, claiming to be the light of the world. But he wasn't finished. He made one more. This brought about that challenge that we talked about earlier when they said, we are Abraham's descendants. I've never been in bondage to anyone. Why did they say that? Because he said in verse 32, 31 and 2, If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And he said in verse 36, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. And now in chapter 10, Jesus is coming back for Hanukkah. And these Jewish people, the Pharisees leading them, are on high alert. Can you imagine? It's sort of like their emotional reaction to all this would be sort of like, heaven forbid this could ever happen. But can you imagine if the attacks of 9-11 had happened, say, on the 4th of July? or on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th. Emotionally, how that would have impacted us even much more than it already did. And that's sort of the feeling here that the disciples of the Pharisees have, not Jesus' disciples, but the unbelieving Jewish people have as Jesus speaks about these issues here on Tabernacles and Hanukkah. and their guard is up, their antennas are up high, as he comes to speak to them in John chapter 10, the Jeremiah Study Bible, another excellent resource for you to consider. And here's the very important point at the end of this note. It says that Hanukkah, like Passover, was a time when nationalistic sentiments would be high. It's a time of nationalism, patriotism. Again, thinking of the Maccabees, thinking of the victory over this one who claimed to be God. And Jesus comes into this setting, and I'm going to let you read and study all of these verses beyond, again, what we can cover this morning. I want to back up, though, for a second and realize Jesus, according to Elwood McQuaid here, he's interacting with Israel's historical past and prophetic destiny. He's right in the crosshairs of history here, we might say, as he steps here into Hanukkah at this time. And here's another tradition that the Jewish people had at Hanukkah. Their text for Hanukkah was Ezekiel 34. Because again, commemorating the victory over this false tyrannical leader, Antiochus. Their guard is up against false shepherds. Their scripture reading for Hanukkah is Ezekiel 34, which talks about the true shepherd and the false shepherds. The true shepherd feeds the sheep. The false shepherd feeds himself on the sheep, right? And you can go and read Ezekiel 34, which leads into the whole section, Ezekiel 36 and 37, the future regathering of Israel, amazingly. I'll let you consider that on your own, but here's the point. As Jesus comes to Hanukkah, he has a pre-Hanukkah sermon. Or if you prefer, a pre-Hanukkah press conference. John 10, 1 through 21. What does he talk about? He talks about being the good shepherd. He says, I am the true, the good shepherd. I am the shepherd who gives life to the sheep. I'm the shepherd who lays down my life for the sheep. The thief comes to kill and steal and destroy. I'm come to bring abundant life. This is Jesus' pre-Hanukkah message. I mean, the emotional temperature here is at a boiling point. When Jesus steps in to Hanukkah, And they immediately, verse 24, the Jews surrounded him and said to him, how long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe because you are not of my sheep. Oh, wow. What a heartbreak that would be. The problem here isn't the shepherd. the sheep. And he goes on, and he speaks about the eternal life that he gives to all who believe. And verse 31, they're ready immediately to kill him. They took up stones to kill him. And he asks them why they're taking up stones to stone him. And they say, it's not for the good works that you've done, but because you, being a man, make yourself God. You remind us of Antiochus. Even though Jesus here, as the Pharisees of all people should have recognized, if I can say this reverently, he was the true Theos Epiphanes. He was God manifest in the flesh. but they didn't have spiritual eyes to see it. And so he makes quite an interesting argument here in verse 34 through 36. It's amazing, in the midst of this very tense atmosphere, He talks about Psalm 82 and the use of the Hebrew word Elohim. And I'm just going to show you a quote here. Well, first of all, in verse 30, Bruce Scott, in an excellent book, the third book of, well, I've quoted two now, of the history of the Friends of Israel and the Feasts, the Feasts of Israel. If you want to just get a simple and easy to read but yet detailed overview of the Feasts, including Hanukkah, This might be a great way to start the Feast of Israel by Bruce Scott wonderful book from the Friends of Israel He says Jesus used this time here to proclaim to explain his deity verse 30 which we went past I and the father are one he's claiming to be God and Again, they say that's why we're going to kill you. That's why we're going to stone you and now I I'll let you read. Perhaps you have a Ryrie Study Bible. I'll let you study this note on your own. Jesus is using this intricate argument in the midst of this very tense atmosphere. Talk about the Hebrew word Elohim in Psalm 82. And he says, God, through the psalmist, calls men God. Our word Elohim is our word for God, but it can be used for angels. It can be used for men. Jesus makes this very detailed argument here in the midst of this emotional discussion, saying God uses the word Elohim to call men gods. Then how is it wrong for me, who is, he is saying, the eternal son of God, to call himself God? And by the way, this is also a very detailed argument here for the verbal plenary word for word inspiration of scripture in these verses. I'm just going to read them quickly and make a point though that you might be apt to miss if you didn't think about it very carefully. Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and the scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the father sanctified and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. If I do not do the works of my father, do not believe me. But if I do, though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him. Therefore, they sought again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand. They want to kill him. Now here's the point that you might miss and go right past if you weren't looking very carefully. Verse 36, in the midst of all this, Jesus says, do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? The Greek word that Jesus used here for sanctified is the same word in 1 Maccabees 4.48 that is used to describe the temple courts being consecrated. rededicated by the Maccabees. What is Jesus saying? He's saying, I am the dedicated one. I am the sanctified one. I am the one whom the Father has set apart. I am the one who is dedicated like the Maccabees back against Antiochus. You've misdirected your energy against the wrong person In essence Jesus is saying this, I am the Hanukkah man. I fulfill Hanukkah is what he's saying. I am the dedicated one and you have missed it. Now we're going to conclude this morning very quickly. We'll think about Hanukkah and prophecy which could be an entirely separate subject because sadly As I said, the events behind Hanukkah were the worst tribulation that the Jewish people had ever endured up to that time. Sadly, it's not the worst that they will ever endure. Arguably, there's been some, like the Holocaust, as bad or worse since. But there will also be another Hanukkah time in the future. Bruce Scott writes about this, that Antiochus was a foreshadowing of the future Antichrist. In fact, the prophecies in Daniel 8 and 11 are so interwoven about Antiochus and the future Antichrist that pre-trib Bible teachers are divided sometimes if a particular verse refers to Antiochus or refers to the Antichrist. We know that they will both commit the abomination of desolation. As Jesus explained, when you see the abomination of desolation in the future, Spoken of by the Prophet Daniel standing in the holy place let the reader understand There's going to be another time of Hanukkah in the future for the Jewish people There's going to be another abomination of desolation We don't wish that for any person any individual to even be there for that time Now there's some good news in all of that is the good news is no one has to be there at all You can be kept even from being here at that time. I believe that before that future time of prophetic fulfillment in the tribulation begins, Christ will take the true church to be with himself in heaven. You don't even have to be here to see that day. And every true believer in Christ, whether Jewish or Gentile, will be caught up to be with Christ and won't be part of those horrific events that will follow under the Antichrist. The other good news is for those even those who aren't taken there will be another rededication time there'll be another Hanukkah time that follows that and God's going to use that time he's going to sift out his people he's going to refine them as gold is refined he's going to bring the nation of Israel to repentance to receive her king and his kingdom and all Israel Romans 11 26 says will ultimately be saved. That's the good news out of all of this. And that's Hanukkah in prophecy. And we could say so much more about that, but we're going to close for this morning and wish you a Merry Christmas with just some final thoughts. from Jesus, really his final appearance that we have recorded in Holy Scripture, based on this quote. Now this is the one book I haven't quoted yet. Dr. Victor Buchsbausen, wonderful early leader of the Friends of Israel, Jewish Christian scholar, and his book, The Gospel and the Feasts of Israel, I commend that to you as well. And here's what he said. Christ, the Son of Righteousness, has dimmed the lights of Hanukkah. He said, we thank God for these small lights during the darkness of the past night. Wonderful to think about Hanukkah, what happened back there in the 160s. Wonderful even to think about the manger and the light that shone to the shepherds and guided the Magi. Oh, we thank God for these lights during the darkness of the past night. But we go on to live. in the daylight from on high. And I'd like to close this morning by reading from Revelation 21, verse 22, which speaks about the holy city where Jesus will take all those who believe in him and they will see him in his glory, in his exalted glory, not as a babe in a manger, not suffering on the cross, but in his exalted glory, ineffable light flowing from him. And all who know him when he appears will be made like him so that they can even physically stand to see him in his glory and to dwell in that light with him and to dwell in this city with him which the Apostle John describes. Revelation 21-22, I saw no temple in it, John says. No temple to rededicate. For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And verse 23 of Revelation 21, the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it. No need of the sun even, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is the light. Boy, these verses sound wonderful when we are having 50 degree below wind chills, don't they? What a difference this will be. Verse 24, the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Just a tiny little picture that we get at Christmas when the magi, these eastern counselors of kings come to see Jesus and bring him gifts. Verse 25, its gates shall not be shut at all by day, there shall be no night there. Verse 26, they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. In chapter 22, verse 5, there shall be no night there. They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. And when we see Christ in that indescribable glory, one thing no one will ever ask is, but where are the Hanukkah lights? But where are the Christmas lights? No one will ever think to ask such a question once they see Christ and the city that He is creating for us, where we will dwell with Him forever, when we see the Hanukkah man, the man of light, the dedicated one whom the Father has sent to be our Savior at the perfect time. and we worship him in his glory. And so I say to you today, happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas, and may God bless you. Thank you for being with us today. And Father, we do thank you for this church, this congregation, and each one here. I pray that you'll give each one a blessed Christmas day and the end to this year, Lord, that it will bring glory to you and that it will just be a time of rich enjoyment for each one. And I pray, Lord, you'll use these things that we've considered today to increase our faith by hearing the word of God. For we pray these things in Jesus' name.