John 10:22-42
Why the Good Shepherd is so Good (Part 3)
Context (v22-23)
We come back again this week to our look at Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd. We pick up in chapter 10 verse 22 and are going to finish the chapter at verse 42. There is a transition between verse 21 and verse 22. Verse 21 ended a section that began all the way back in chapter 7:1. The timing of that section was in the fall during the Feast of Tabernacles. This was one of the holidays that God commanded the Jews to observe in the OT. It appears by verse 22 that in between verse 21 and verse 22 is about 2 months, which, as John says, brings the timing into winter. Now notice how John indicates the timing by naming the next holiday the Jews celebrated. It was the Feast of Dedication, also known as the Feast of Lights, or, what we may recognize as Hanukkah. This holiday occurs in the winter, around the time of our holiday, Christmas.
This Feast of Dedication was not commanded by God in the OT to be observed by the Jews. It was not one of the Feasts that required every male Jew to be in Jerusalem to celebrate. This Feast was instituted less than two-hundred years before Jesus was born. It is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the cleansing and re-consecration of the temple by a Jewish man named Judas Maccabaeus.
Judas led a 3 year revolt against the king of Syria, Antiochus Ephiphanes. Antiochus had severely persecuted the Jews and defiled their temple in Jerusalem. During his persecution he killed more than 80,000 Jews and sold another 100,000 into slavery.
He loved everything Greek and he hated everything Jewish, and so he tried to systematically stamp out Judaism. He outlawed owning or reading the Jewish Scriptures – you would be killed for doing so; he burned any copies that were found. He would not allow the Jews to carry out the required practices of their religion like observing the Sabbath and circumcising their children. Any mother caught doing so would be crucified with her children hanging around her neck. He came into the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar – probably the one animal that the Jews hated the most. He tore down the altar and set another one up for worshiping pagan gods and he even put up a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Jewish temple.
But, then Judas Maccabaeus, who was a brilliant military leader, led the Jews for 3 years in warfare. Finally they were able to retake Jerusalem and the temple. Having done so, they cleansed it from all that Antiochus had done and took out all the profane things that were put in there. Then they rededicated it, and established the Feast of Dedication to commemorate the victory.
And so there is a very patriotic feeling in Jerusalem during this feast. The Jews remember and celebrate the victory they had against Antiochus, but, unfortunately, they couldn’t realize their bondage spiritually. What Judas Maccabaeus did for them politically is what Jesus could do for them spiritually.
Notice also that the place is in Jerusalem, and John says Jesus was walking in Solomon’s colonnade. Solomon’s colonnade is on the east side of the temple and overlooks the Kidron Valley. It was about 40 feet high and had a roof held up by large columns. Since it was often cold and rainy in the winters, it makes sense that Jesus would be under the shelter of Solomon’s colonnade.
This was a place that Rabbi’s often taught their students. And later in Acts 3 and 5, we see it was a place where the Apostle’s proclaimed the gospel.
Verse 24
Now, in verse 24 it says the Jews gathered around Him. Jesus is walking in Solomon’s colonnade and the Jews gather around Him. The Greek word for “gathering around” has more malice in it then what the translation lets on. It means to encircle, or, to close in on. It’s like a pack of wolves would close in on a flock of sheep. They are not coming on friendly terms; they’re coming to gang up on Him. They’ve been doing this the whole time. They wanted Jesus to say publicly and plainly that He was the Christ. “Say it straight out, Jesus. Don’t give us the parable’s or figures of speech or illustrations.
And that is what Jesus often did – He spoke in parable’s and used figures of speech when He talked to the crowds. Matthew 13:34 it says that “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.”
And they ask Jesus a question, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Christ was not Jesus’ last name. It is His title. Christ is the Greek word that means “Anointed One.” It’s the equivalent of the Hebrew word “Messiah”, which means “Anointed One”; they can be used interchangeably. To call Jesus the Christ is the same thing as calling Him the Messiah, He is Jesus the Anointed One. The Christ, or Messiah, is the One that the Jews were waiting for. Their Scriptures, the OT, promised that He was going to come. There are over 300 prophecies about the Christ found in the OT. When Jesus of Nazareth came, He fulfilled every one of them, and, that’s why He is Jesus Christ – because He is the Christ.
But the Jews failed to recognize their own Messiah, as we see in the Gospel’s, they attack Him. They rejected His claim to be the Christ, and so they constantly tried to trap Him and kill Him. In other words, this is not an honest question. They were not asking Jesus because they thought He might be the Christ; they weren’t hoping that He was the Christ; and they weren’t going to believe Him if He said He was the Christ.
Just like in chapter 8 when they tried to use a trick question with Him regarding the woman caught in adultery, they are again seeking to finish Him off by catching Him in some open offense like directly claiming to be the Christ. They ask Him this question now, but, do you know when they ask Him again? In Matthew 26:64 when they have finally arrested Him and He stands in court. This is the question that Jesus finally answers straight out and declares that Yes, it is as you say, I am the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Christ.” And it is this declaration what they’ve been waiting to hear. And it is this charge – this claiming to be the Christ – that maddens the Jews and that causes Jesus to be crucified. They would not hear it. They would not believe it. They hated the idea that Jesus was the Christ so much that they wanted to kill Him for it.
But, I want us to see two more reasons why the Good Shepherd is so Good for us. First because He gives Sufficient Evidence, and second, because He Secures Eternal Life.
Sufficient Evidence (v24)
So first of all we see that the Good Shepherd is good because He gives Sufficient Evidence. Notice verse 25, “Jesus answered, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me.’”
Everything He has been doing and saying for 3 years has been making it plain and obvious that He not only claimed to be the Christ, but, that He is the Christ. Notice Jesus mentions two evidences that He has given.
The first evidence is His words, “I did tell you”, He said to them. Jesus has made it plain in His preaching that He is the Christ.
-John 3:13, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man.” Jesus says that the Son of Man has been to heaven because the Son of Man came from heaven. And what name does Jesus use to refer to Himself more than any other? Son of Man. It’s another well-known title for the Messiah.
-John 5:18, “For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath but He was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” So even then the Jews knew He was claiming to be the Christ.
-John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you have eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me”. The Jewish Scriptures foretold the coming of the Christ. Jesus said their Scriptures spoke about Him. It doesn’t get any plainer than that.
-John 8:24-25, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be you will indeed die in your sins.” “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along” Jesus replied” Jesus has been telling them all along for more than 3 years during His ministry that He is the Christ. He has made it plain – over and over again.
-John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born I am” We looked at this verse a couple months ago. It is one of the most direct claims that Jesus makes to being God.
-John 9:37, Jesus says to the blind man that He healed, “You have now seen him [the Son of Man]; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Furthermore, when other people called Him the Christ He did not deny it and when they worshiped Him as the Christ He did not refuse it. Jesus has plainly declared to be the Christ throughout His entire ministry.
Secondly, His works are evidence that He is the Christ, “The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak of me.” We’ve been over this multiple times but we need to go over it again since the Scriptures keep going over it.
Jesus’ miracles were to authenticate Him. They were demonstrations of the power of God that were to convince people that Jesus was in fact sent by God. The miracles were proof that Jesus was from God.
Nicodemus in 3:2; Peter says so in Acts 2:22;
Many times Jesus pointed people to the miracles He did to convince them He was from God….like in verse 38, and in 5:36 and 14:11. He’s turned water into wine, healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, gave sight to the blind….
The point is that Jesus gave way more than enough evidence that He was the Christ. He has given sufficient evidence to them that He is who He has been claiming to be the whole time – the Christ.
But, their problem was not that they didn’t have the information; it was that they wouldn’t believe. They heard, but, they would not accept what they heard. They couldn’t understand and receive the truth because of the hardness of their hearts, not because of insufficient information. That’s the nature of the unbelieving heart – it is one of increasing stubbornness. The more evidence there is to believe the more hardened the unbelieving heart becomes.
John’s gospel is sufficient evidence. It is a record of the words and works of Jesus. John certainly hasn’t recorded everything Jesus said and did, as he says in the last chapter, but, when the Holy Spirit inspired Him he wrote exactly what God wanted to be written. In other words, of all that John could have wrote about, what he has written here is sufficient evidence for us to believe that Jesus is the Christ. There is sufficient evidence to believe in the Good Shepherd, and, to believe that He is good.
Secure for Eternity (v26-30)
Secondly, Jesus makes us secure for eternity. Look at verses 26-30…..
There is no such thing as losing your salvation. The words that Jesus speaks here are some of the most comforting and re-assuring words to those who have trusted Him for their eternal salvation. I want to point out 4 Assurances listed here:
First there is the recognition that we are His. Verse 26 says, “but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” When you belong to Christ, you know that you belong to Him. You are a new person because of Him. He defines you. Your identity is now forever linked to who He is. You know that what was is now past and something new about you has arrived.
Second there is the relationship the sheep have with the Shepherd. Verse 27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” We not only recognize that we are His, but, we are familiar with Him because of our relationship with Him. We know what He is like, we know His voice, we follow Him and His ways; this is the day-by-day relationship with the Good Shepherd.
Thirdly there is the receiving of eternal life. Verse 28 says, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish...” Jesus gives eternal life. He is the only one who can give you eternal life. If He has given it to you then you have it. It is both a continuous life and a quality of life. It is a life that goes on forever and will never end – “they shall never perish”. “Perish” is the opposite of life. Jesus is making a contrast here between eternal life and perishing.
But, it is not only a life that goes on forever, it is also a new and supreme quality of life. It’s a life that we did not have before we trusted in Christ, which is why the Bible refers to us as dead. This new and supreme quality of life we receive is the life of God – His life is supreme.
Fourth, we are irretrievable. Notice the end of verse 28 and verse 29, “…no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” When we are in God’s hands we are irretrievable. In other words, we can never go back to where we were before we were saved. We can never go back to being unsaved. The grip that death had on us is loosed never to clench us again. No one can snatch us out of the safety and salvation of God’s hands. Now, notice that word “snatch”. It is the word we looked at last week in verse 12 “harpazo”. Remember that it means to seize with suddenness something by force and to steal it away. When you are in the hands of the Good Shepherd – when you are in His care you are safe and saved.
Now, it may seem that someone has ‘lost’ salvation, but, the reality is that they never really had it. John says this in 1 John 2, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” John doesn’t say they lost salvation, he says they never had it. And they proved it by abandoning everything they have been doing and believing all that time. The fact is that there will be people in the church who are not saved. In other words, there have been, there are now, and there will continue to be people who associate with Christians but they have never known their Christ.
Notice that Jesus says you can’t be snatched out of His hand, and, you can’t be snatched out of the Father’s hand. Once again He is equating Himself with God. And that is the fact that secures your eternity. There is no one else you can trust with your eternal destiny. What God can do, Jesus can do because Jesus is God. In chapter 14 He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” The same trust you give to God is the same kind of trust you give to Jesus. We do not trust anyone else for the salvation of our souls – no one other than the only One who is able to do it. Only Jesus can save you for there is no other name given under heaven to men by which we must be saved. Our eternal security is secure because of the One whom we have trusted. “My Father is greater than all” He says. That means that there is no one who can take your salvation away. When you put your trust into Him, He is able to guard it. Listen to Paul in
Conclusion
Do you want to be irretrievable? Jesus said that if you trust in Him you will cross over from death to life. Let me put it this way: A person who is spiritually dead can cross over to spiritual life. But, a person who is spiritually alive cannot cross over to spiritual death. Once you’ve crossed over to life there is no way to go back to death. You are secured because of the One who secures you. You have received His life – His imperishable life. He was dead, but, now He is alive forever more. That means that you too will be alive forevermore. Let me put it still another way. Can Jesus die again? Of course not. He is alive forever never to die again. If you have received His life then you will not ever die – you will not ever lose the salvation you have received. “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Now that is, of course, if you’ve truly received Christ. If you’ve never received Christ as Savior and you’ve never trusted Him for the forgiveness of your sins, then the Bible says you are in spiritual death. It says you can cross over from death into spiritual life and you can do that by placing your trust in God’s Son. When you do that you will never be able to cross back over to death. You will have eternal life. But, if you have not believed in God’s Son and you died, then the Bible says that you are irretrievable also. You are lost in hell never to be retrieved. Once you die, if there is no hope. The only hope available is for you to believe today in God’s Son. You have no guarantee that you will go to work tomorrow.
Jesus says in verse 30, “I and the Father are one.” This is yet again a direct claim to deity; a direct claim to be equal with God. Some people have denied this. They say that what Jesus means here is that His purposes and God’s are the same. They are one in purpose. But the fact is that He was claiming to be one in essence and nature with God. All that God was as God is also what Jesus was as God. This is obvious from the text because the Jews immediately recognize that this is what Jesus is saying and they go pick up stones to stone Him. And when Jesus says why are you trying to stone me they say in verse 33, “We are not stoning you for the miracles you’ve performed, but, for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” And that is exactly what Jesus was claiming. Of course His purposes are the same as God’s – He is God.
Blasphemy is what Jesus was charged with in the end and it is the charge that got Him crucified. The people believed that Jesus was just a mere man. What greater mistake can someone make than to think Jesus was just a man?
Why the Good Shepherd is so Good (Part 3)
Context (v22-23)
We come back again this week to our look at Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd. We pick up in chapter 10 verse 22 and are going to finish the chapter at verse 42. There is a transition between verse 21 and verse 22. Verse 21 ended a section that began all the way back in chapter 7:1. The timing of that section was in the fall during the Feast of Tabernacles. This was one of the holidays that God commanded the Jews to observe in the OT. It appears by verse 22 that in between verse 21 and verse 22 is about 2 months, which, as John says, brings the timing into winter. Now notice how John indicates the timing by naming the next holiday the Jews celebrated. It was the Feast of Dedication, also known as the Feast of Lights, or, what we may recognize as Hanukkah. This holiday occurs in the winter, around the time of our holiday, Christmas.
This Feast of Dedication was not commanded by God in the OT to be observed by the Jews. It was not one of the Feasts that required every male Jew to be in Jerusalem to celebrate. This Feast was instituted less than two-hundred years before Jesus was born. It is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the cleansing and re-consecration of the temple by a Jewish man named Judas Maccabaeus.
Judas led a 3 year revolt against the king of Syria, Antiochus Ephiphanes. Antiochus had severely persecuted the Jews and defiled their temple in Jerusalem. During his persecution he killed more than 80,000 Jews and sold another 100,000 into slavery.
He loved everything Greek and he hated everything Jewish, and so he tried to systematically stamp out Judaism. He outlawed owning or reading the Jewish Scriptures – you would be killed for doing so; he burned any copies that were found. He would not allow the Jews to carry out the required practices of their religion like observing the Sabbath and circumcising their children. Any mother caught doing so would be crucified with her children hanging around her neck. He came into the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar – probably the one animal that the Jews hated the most. He tore down the altar and set another one up for worshiping pagan gods and he even put up a statue of the Greek god Zeus in the Jewish temple.
But, then Judas Maccabaeus, who was a brilliant military leader, led the Jews for 3 years in warfare. Finally they were able to retake Jerusalem and the temple. Having done so, they cleansed it from all that Antiochus had done and took out all the profane things that were put in there. Then they rededicated it, and established the Feast of Dedication to commemorate the victory.
And so there is a very patriotic feeling in Jerusalem during this feast. The Jews remember and celebrate the victory they had against Antiochus, but, unfortunately, they couldn’t realize their bondage spiritually. What Judas Maccabaeus did for them politically is what Jesus could do for them spiritually.
Notice also that the place is in Jerusalem, and John says Jesus was walking in Solomon’s colonnade. Solomon’s colonnade is on the east side of the temple and overlooks the Kidron Valley. It was about 40 feet high and had a roof held up by large columns. Since it was often cold and rainy in the winters, it makes sense that Jesus would be under the shelter of Solomon’s colonnade.
This was a place that Rabbi’s often taught their students. And later in Acts 3 and 5, we see it was a place where the Apostle’s proclaimed the gospel.
Verse 24
Now, in verse 24 it says the Jews gathered around Him. Jesus is walking in Solomon’s colonnade and the Jews gather around Him. The Greek word for “gathering around” has more malice in it then what the translation lets on. It means to encircle, or, to close in on. It’s like a pack of wolves would close in on a flock of sheep. They are not coming on friendly terms; they’re coming to gang up on Him. They’ve been doing this the whole time. They wanted Jesus to say publicly and plainly that He was the Christ. “Say it straight out, Jesus. Don’t give us the parable’s or figures of speech or illustrations.
And that is what Jesus often did – He spoke in parable’s and used figures of speech when He talked to the crowds. Matthew 13:34 it says that “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.”
And they ask Jesus a question, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Christ was not Jesus’ last name. It is His title. Christ is the Greek word that means “Anointed One.” It’s the equivalent of the Hebrew word “Messiah”, which means “Anointed One”; they can be used interchangeably. To call Jesus the Christ is the same thing as calling Him the Messiah, He is Jesus the Anointed One. The Christ, or Messiah, is the One that the Jews were waiting for. Their Scriptures, the OT, promised that He was going to come. There are over 300 prophecies about the Christ found in the OT. When Jesus of Nazareth came, He fulfilled every one of them, and, that’s why He is Jesus Christ – because He is the Christ.
But the Jews failed to recognize their own Messiah, as we see in the Gospel’s, they attack Him. They rejected His claim to be the Christ, and so they constantly tried to trap Him and kill Him. In other words, this is not an honest question. They were not asking Jesus because they thought He might be the Christ; they weren’t hoping that He was the Christ; and they weren’t going to believe Him if He said He was the Christ.
Just like in chapter 8 when they tried to use a trick question with Him regarding the woman caught in adultery, they are again seeking to finish Him off by catching Him in some open offense like directly claiming to be the Christ. They ask Him this question now, but, do you know when they ask Him again? In Matthew 26:64 when they have finally arrested Him and He stands in court. This is the question that Jesus finally answers straight out and declares that Yes, it is as you say, I am the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Christ.” And it is this declaration what they’ve been waiting to hear. And it is this charge – this claiming to be the Christ – that maddens the Jews and that causes Jesus to be crucified. They would not hear it. They would not believe it. They hated the idea that Jesus was the Christ so much that they wanted to kill Him for it.
But, I want us to see two more reasons why the Good Shepherd is so Good for us. First because He gives Sufficient Evidence, and second, because He Secures Eternal Life.
Sufficient Evidence (v24)
So first of all we see that the Good Shepherd is good because He gives Sufficient Evidence. Notice verse 25, “Jesus answered, ‘I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me.’”
Everything He has been doing and saying for 3 years has been making it plain and obvious that He not only claimed to be the Christ, but, that He is the Christ. Notice Jesus mentions two evidences that He has given.
The first evidence is His words, “I did tell you”, He said to them. Jesus has made it plain in His preaching that He is the Christ.
-John 3:13, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man.” Jesus says that the Son of Man has been to heaven because the Son of Man came from heaven. And what name does Jesus use to refer to Himself more than any other? Son of Man. It’s another well-known title for the Messiah.
-John 5:18, “For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was He breaking the Sabbath but He was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” So even then the Jews knew He was claiming to be the Christ.
-John 5:39, “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you have eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me”. The Jewish Scriptures foretold the coming of the Christ. Jesus said their Scriptures spoke about Him. It doesn’t get any plainer than that.
-John 8:24-25, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be you will indeed die in your sins.” “Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along” Jesus replied” Jesus has been telling them all along for more than 3 years during His ministry that He is the Christ. He has made it plain – over and over again.
-John 8:58, “Before Abraham was born I am” We looked at this verse a couple months ago. It is one of the most direct claims that Jesus makes to being God.
-John 9:37, Jesus says to the blind man that He healed, “You have now seen him [the Son of Man]; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Furthermore, when other people called Him the Christ He did not deny it and when they worshiped Him as the Christ He did not refuse it. Jesus has plainly declared to be the Christ throughout His entire ministry.
Secondly, His works are evidence that He is the Christ, “The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak of me.” We’ve been over this multiple times but we need to go over it again since the Scriptures keep going over it.
Jesus’ miracles were to authenticate Him. They were demonstrations of the power of God that were to convince people that Jesus was in fact sent by God. The miracles were proof that Jesus was from God.
Nicodemus in 3:2; Peter says so in Acts 2:22;
Many times Jesus pointed people to the miracles He did to convince them He was from God….like in verse 38, and in 5:36 and 14:11. He’s turned water into wine, healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, gave sight to the blind….
The point is that Jesus gave way more than enough evidence that He was the Christ. He has given sufficient evidence to them that He is who He has been claiming to be the whole time – the Christ.
But, their problem was not that they didn’t have the information; it was that they wouldn’t believe. They heard, but, they would not accept what they heard. They couldn’t understand and receive the truth because of the hardness of their hearts, not because of insufficient information. That’s the nature of the unbelieving heart – it is one of increasing stubbornness. The more evidence there is to believe the more hardened the unbelieving heart becomes.
John’s gospel is sufficient evidence. It is a record of the words and works of Jesus. John certainly hasn’t recorded everything Jesus said and did, as he says in the last chapter, but, when the Holy Spirit inspired Him he wrote exactly what God wanted to be written. In other words, of all that John could have wrote about, what he has written here is sufficient evidence for us to believe that Jesus is the Christ. There is sufficient evidence to believe in the Good Shepherd, and, to believe that He is good.
Secure for Eternity (v26-30)
Secondly, Jesus makes us secure for eternity. Look at verses 26-30…..
There is no such thing as losing your salvation. The words that Jesus speaks here are some of the most comforting and re-assuring words to those who have trusted Him for their eternal salvation. I want to point out 4 Assurances listed here:
First there is the recognition that we are His. Verse 26 says, “but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” When you belong to Christ, you know that you belong to Him. You are a new person because of Him. He defines you. Your identity is now forever linked to who He is. You know that what was is now past and something new about you has arrived.
Second there is the relationship the sheep have with the Shepherd. Verse 27 says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” We not only recognize that we are His, but, we are familiar with Him because of our relationship with Him. We know what He is like, we know His voice, we follow Him and His ways; this is the day-by-day relationship with the Good Shepherd.
Thirdly there is the receiving of eternal life. Verse 28 says, “I give them eternal life and they shall never perish...” Jesus gives eternal life. He is the only one who can give you eternal life. If He has given it to you then you have it. It is both a continuous life and a quality of life. It is a life that goes on forever and will never end – “they shall never perish”. “Perish” is the opposite of life. Jesus is making a contrast here between eternal life and perishing.
But, it is not only a life that goes on forever, it is also a new and supreme quality of life. It’s a life that we did not have before we trusted in Christ, which is why the Bible refers to us as dead. This new and supreme quality of life we receive is the life of God – His life is supreme.
Fourth, we are irretrievable. Notice the end of verse 28 and verse 29, “…no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.” When we are in God’s hands we are irretrievable. In other words, we can never go back to where we were before we were saved. We can never go back to being unsaved. The grip that death had on us is loosed never to clench us again. No one can snatch us out of the safety and salvation of God’s hands. Now, notice that word “snatch”. It is the word we looked at last week in verse 12 “harpazo”. Remember that it means to seize with suddenness something by force and to steal it away. When you are in the hands of the Good Shepherd – when you are in His care you are safe and saved.
Now, it may seem that someone has ‘lost’ salvation, but, the reality is that they never really had it. John says this in 1 John 2, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” John doesn’t say they lost salvation, he says they never had it. And they proved it by abandoning everything they have been doing and believing all that time. The fact is that there will be people in the church who are not saved. In other words, there have been, there are now, and there will continue to be people who associate with Christians but they have never known their Christ.
Notice that Jesus says you can’t be snatched out of His hand, and, you can’t be snatched out of the Father’s hand. Once again He is equating Himself with God. And that is the fact that secures your eternity. There is no one else you can trust with your eternal destiny. What God can do, Jesus can do because Jesus is God. In chapter 14 He says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.” The same trust you give to God is the same kind of trust you give to Jesus. We do not trust anyone else for the salvation of our souls – no one other than the only One who is able to do it. Only Jesus can save you for there is no other name given under heaven to men by which we must be saved. Our eternal security is secure because of the One whom we have trusted. “My Father is greater than all” He says. That means that there is no one who can take your salvation away. When you put your trust into Him, He is able to guard it. Listen to Paul in
Conclusion
Do you want to be irretrievable? Jesus said that if you trust in Him you will cross over from death to life. Let me put it this way: A person who is spiritually dead can cross over to spiritual life. But, a person who is spiritually alive cannot cross over to spiritual death. Once you’ve crossed over to life there is no way to go back to death. You are secured because of the One who secures you. You have received His life – His imperishable life. He was dead, but, now He is alive forever more. That means that you too will be alive forevermore. Let me put it still another way. Can Jesus die again? Of course not. He is alive forever never to die again. If you have received His life then you will not ever die – you will not ever lose the salvation you have received. “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
Now that is, of course, if you’ve truly received Christ. If you’ve never received Christ as Savior and you’ve never trusted Him for the forgiveness of your sins, then the Bible says you are in spiritual death. It says you can cross over from death into spiritual life and you can do that by placing your trust in God’s Son. When you do that you will never be able to cross back over to death. You will have eternal life. But, if you have not believed in God’s Son and you died, then the Bible says that you are irretrievable also. You are lost in hell never to be retrieved. Once you die, if there is no hope. The only hope available is for you to believe today in God’s Son. You have no guarantee that you will go to work tomorrow.
Jesus says in verse 30, “I and the Father are one.” This is yet again a direct claim to deity; a direct claim to be equal with God. Some people have denied this. They say that what Jesus means here is that His purposes and God’s are the same. They are one in purpose. But the fact is that He was claiming to be one in essence and nature with God. All that God was as God is also what Jesus was as God. This is obvious from the text because the Jews immediately recognize that this is what Jesus is saying and they go pick up stones to stone Him. And when Jesus says why are you trying to stone me they say in verse 33, “We are not stoning you for the miracles you’ve performed, but, for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” And that is exactly what Jesus was claiming. Of course His purposes are the same as God’s – He is God.
Blasphemy is what Jesus was charged with in the end and it is the charge that got Him crucified. The people believed that Jesus was just a mere man. What greater mistake can someone make than to think Jesus was just a man?
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