"31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming’, because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there."
John 10:31-42
There is an important association of ideas at work in the last verses of the chapter. Jesus returned to the place where He began His ministry and, it seems, remained there till Passover time, i.e. from December till Spring, when He was taken, tried and crucified. At this point, therefore, we are only three months away from the cross. It is here that John proclaimed Him to be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and now He has returned, many people resorting to Him. It is not merely a sentimental going back to the place where He began to preach and heal but something much more significant. A period of almost three years had passed, three rich and full years in which so much had happened, so many signs performed, so many matchless words spoken. And the people gather round and they are thinking back to that day three years earlier when they first heard John the Baptist speak, pointing them to the then unknown Jesus as the Lamb of God. It is as if they were being given opportunity for reflection, and urged to think back to the days three years previously and retrace their steps up to the present, so as to assess all that they had heard and seen during that time. The association of ideas got through to the people, it is clear (41). They thought of John and said, 'John was right when He said this Man was the Lamb of God, and all that he spoke concerning Him has proved to be true; all that we have seen and heard corroborates what John said about Him. And many believed on Him there’ (42). This is the kind of rational appraisal we spoke of in the Note on 21. They made an accurate assessment of the situation, and on the basis of this they believed on His Name. We can ask and need no more than this as a response to our ministry.