John 10:22-42

Intro

one of the sheep here with and now serving as one of elders here with City Parish

became elder back in march Joe and i will start taking one message each every other month

so we will get to hear from joe again in a few weeks i’ll be honest learning to teach with glasses is almost like learning how to teach all over again so you’ll have to bear with me

Setup

Title for today’s message “You’re in good hands“

Today we start off with a short story about a young girl who got very sick…. It’s 1942 the world is at war

ha you thought you knew where I was going and then we turned 90 degrees off course A father named Davis Ellis is working at Allstate

mostly focused at the time hiring and training women to sell insurance as most of the men were at war. During 1942 Davis’ daughter JoAnn became very ill with hepatitis during her high school year.

She got very sick and doctor told Ellis and his wife that things didn’t look to good for JoAnn but that he was calling in a specialist. Ellis returned to work at Allstate for the day, quite worried about their youngest daughter

He came home that evening to find his wife, Helen, rushing to meet him and hug him reporting “Davis our doctor called and said that the specialist has examined JoAnn and tells me that she is in good hands with the new specialist, Dr. Keyser”

take a quick pause here to let you know

JoAnn did recover Davis realized the line “in good hands” helped him feel less anxious about the entire situation and that phrase stuck with him Years later in 1950 Davis brought it forward as a new ad campaign for Allstate with the two open hands logo we all know

and for more then 70 years now it has been the primary marketing focus for Allstate

Until 2022

Allstate stopped issues new insurance policies for all business and personal property in California

Then the other companies started doing the same Some businesses and home owners have now received letters of notice of non-renewal for their various policies

So not so good hands then?

This is in stark contrast with our passage today, where we see we are in the hands of the Son and in the hands of the Father in v37 and 38

dig deeper in to that later this morning

This weeks passage again features a theological discourse between Jesus and various Jews

Jesus leans again on the shepherd imagery except this time he replaces the pen with his hands and the fathers hands at different times

making it much more secure then a 3 foot fence we read last week and much more intimate

He is holding us this time, Himself Jesus also focuses on the fact that His sheep are a gift from His Father

My hope and prayer for us today is to see us all walk away encouraged and comforted in Jesus’ words which we are going to walk through together

V19-21 - Um, Last week on….

19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.

20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?”

21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

19-21 are actually the closing for the previous section we covered last week with Daniel

Jesus’ words and actions were always controversial and polarizing for the Jews

This wasn’t even close to being the first time Jesus left division behind him they divided in to two camps

Jesus has a demon and is insane Jesus opened the eyes of the blind how could have a demon Neither of these are the camps you really want to be in

the group saying “he can’t have a demon” are right but they also aren’t running after him to pledge their life to follow him

they are just less wrong then the first group

v22-24 - Feast of What-now….

22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter,

23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

John took to point out it was the Feast of Dedication now

John didn’t need to include this so let’s talk about it real quick I’ll confess I’ve literally always read over that and thought it was a smaller random feast from Leviticus I forgot and always moved on

did a small amount of reading

Hanukkah is Hebrew for dedication

They are the same thing: festival of lights, etc Celebration of purification and rededication of the Temple after the Maccabee uprising its in our December

John 7-ish through John 10:21 is all generally accepted to be during and attached to the Feast of Tabernacles

so its been 59-75 days since John 10:21

There could be some imagery John is hoping to invoke in our minds between the Feast of Dedication of the Temple

Or he could just be marking the passage of time and keeping aware a couple months had passed

How long will you keep us in suspense?

That really isn’t what is says in the greek

best translation they can do that as a very English phrase.

Nearly everyone I looked at said that it would translate more realistically in their language and makes sense in our culture.

“how much longer will you annoy us “

not how I normally choose to address God but to each his own

v25-30 - You ARE in Good Hands…

25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,

26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

30 I and the Father are one.”

Jesus didn’t believe he been cryptic with them

It is not that he didn't speak clearly, it was that they did not listen, which he describes as a malfunction of hearts not their ears

v25 “you do not believe”

yes Jesus hadn’t used the term “messiah” about him self but he did claim it when it was said around him

John 4:25-26

25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Jesus was mostly open about being the Son of Man

He continually connects His works as being done in perfect follow of his Father’s will

It was the ‘work’ of the Father

And if their hearts were open to see and hear what he was doing they would easily connect his works to so many of the Messianic prophecies from the Old Testament

It wasn’t like he was just passing out meals to the poor Jesus was doing crazy miracles constantly

giving the glory and praise to the Father

For times sake I will list some of those works but not the massive list of references:

Giving sight to the blind Dispossessing devils healing the sick cleansing the lepers opening deaf ears the dumb to speak lame to walk and privately

raising the dead

until next weeks passages…..

To name a few. For times sake i’m

v26“You do not believe because you are not my sheep”

Jesus draws a line here

there are two sets of sheep

My Sheep Not My sheep This does not mean they can not become His sheep

We see Jesus make another appeal to them in verses 37 and 38 later this morning

Jesus holding the door open and inviting them in

v27 “My sheep hear my voice …. and follow me

This hyperlinks us back to lasts weeks passage

about the shepherd having a tune he sings which is sheep know and know his voice and not other voices and follow him This also links us back to the Shema which we often return to here in our chats

The Shema remember

Listen and Obey

My sheep hear and follow me

But this is more then just the Shema and ‘obey’ they ‘follow me’

we work to imitate Christ not just do his commandments like a checklist

V27 again “I know them”

That is so insanely intimate

The Son of God

God who created the universe God from John 1:1 Knows them

Not ‘you’ but ‘them’

plural

we will come back to that in a second

v28 “I give them eternal life and will never perish”

I do not know greek

most would argue I do not know English great either But every one I referenced said the same thing about the “never perish” here

its like a double double

In modern it might be like

Never never ever there isn’t any room here they never never ever perish

v28b-29 “No one will 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”

I touched on this earlier

2 months ago in John 10:1-18 Jesus has the sheep in a pen and he is the gate

now the pen is gone and the picture is the sheep are in His hands We are a gift to the Son from the Father

Chosen before the foundations of the world

Eph 1:4-5 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will We are Christ’s inheritance from His Father

something so precious to him You will also notice in verses 25-30 its

sheep, sheep them they them they them them them

Not one time do we see Jesus here reference “a sheep” singular

but the plural

the totality of the body of Christ across space and time

Jesus holds us in His hands as a gift from his loving Father, the creator of the universe

literally back to back in v28 and v29

no one can snatch out of Christ’s hands no one can snatch out of my Father’s hands

What an unbelievable amount of security, the Jesus promises, His sheep, the power of the Son and the Father holding them

V30 “I and the Father are one”

Jesus leave zero questions here what he is saying

and the Jews understand exactly what he is saying Anyone who ever argues with you

“oh Jesus never claimed to be God” Is arguing from a place of ignorance or will full blindness

v31-33 - Lets try stoning Jesus, again….

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.”

Don’t judge the Jews for doing this.

They were 100% obeying God law that they are to have one God and only him and anyone that wanted to serve another God or claim to God should be stoned. Yes, they should’ve looked at his works excepted him and understood that he was God because he was not wrong and saying that he was outside of understanding that they were in fact obeying what they believed they were supposed to do in service of god us might’ve been there with them

Jesus challenges them to list out, which of his many great works from the father they would like to kill him for

Of course He knew why they wanted to kill him, but He wanted to created another opportunity for them to review the works that they had seen fulfilling, the mini prophecies, especially of Isaiah of the Messiah

Giving sight to the blind Dispossessing devils healing the sick cleansing the lepers opening deaf ears the dumb to speak lame to walk and privately

raising the dead

until next weeks passages…..

Nope they don’t slow down

We want to kill you cause you a man, make yourself out to be God

v34-36 - You are ‘gods’…..

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’?

Now

I Chose to spend most of our morning focusing on vs. 25-30 and 37-38

So we are going to breeze through this quickly Jesus is quoting PS 82:6

This is most likely referring to bad judges who were doing evil

jailing the innocent helping the rich to hurt the poor etc Jesus is using a type of argument typical of the day

using scripture

which as he said can not be broken

we could pause here and dig deep into that one phrase

the scriptures and their perfection and are never wrong and can’t be changed we won’t for times sake He is saying if it was ok to say judges or the people who were receiving Ps 82 were ‘gods’ then why are you made at me

because I said “I am the Son of God”

v37-39 - Jesus holds the door open, again

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.

Here we see Jesus again, open the door and forcing them to make a binary decision

Back in versus 19 through 21 we saw that they were divided in to two camps

but there really is a third groups right now

the group that’s angry that says you’re bad, Jesus

this group has made a decision against Jesus the group that says no Jesus is doing good things

Group 2 has made no decision at all they are trying to not be against Jesus but making no commitment either way And the third group are His sheep who have already decided to believe him and follow Him at this point in His ministry

Jesus is pushing them towards being part of group 1 or 3

he does not allow you to hang in group 2 no hanging out in the middle

Jesus point here:

The door isn’t closed

Jesus isn’t wanting to push them to turn away from him

He is very much loving and drawing them to look at his works and see his Father and through that understand that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father

He WANTS them to be His sheep Just because someone doesn’t believe today doesn’t mean they won’t be His sheep

while He and Father know who His sheep will be we don’t know we live in linear time and can’t see the future we do not know Do not ever presume to take the place of God and decide who is and is not elect to be part of His sheep

for we have no idea what Spirit may do tomorrow in someone’s heart or 20 years from now It is very possible and very likely some of these very people in Jerusalem who are saying no to Jesus in John 10

Were still living in Jerusalem a few month later at Pentacost and were part of the

3,000 souls saved after Peter’s first message right after the Spirit first came

Acts 2:41 or part of the over 5,000 men a few days later

after Peter and John spoke at this very same Solomon’s Portico Jesus is teaching at here in John 10

Act 4:4 as an aside

if they recorded 5,000 men then there was also a huge chunk of woman and likely some kids They weren’t His sheep in John 10 but many of them may have been by Acts 4:4 so while the Father know who He has given to His Son as His sheep

we don’t and must always hold open the door for all as Jesus is doing here

They stopped trying to stone him though

Jesus’ argument, clearly helped in disarming the Jews who were about to stone him

because they went in verse 31 trying to stone him to verse 39 deciding to arrest him

Don’t stress next week he is going to raise another person from the dead, this time Lazarus

and Jesus is going to do it super publicly

Then the Jews are going to change from their past response

trying to kill Jesus on the spot for something

To full on pre planning to arrest and kill Jesus

But that is over the next couple of Sunday.

back to v39

They try to arrest Jesus instead of stoning him

but of course, as he had done many times, he easily slips through their hands and left

v40-42 - Back to the Jordan, again…..

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 had done no sign

John came only preaching repentance with no miraculous signs and the Spirit drove people to him in massive quantities

John the Baptist had one job he was the forerunner to come before the Messiah and prepare the hearts of the people for the coming of the Kingdom of God

I’m not going to spend a ton of time here cause I could happily do a few weeks just on v40-42

but here are a couple of Old Testament references for you for John’s work

Isaiah 40:3 a voice in the dessert… make way for the lord… Malachi 3:1 messenger will come and prepare the way for me Malachi 4:5-6 will send someone like Elijah before the day of the Lord… preparing hearts John had been dead about 3 years in John 10 but yet his message and impact was still deeply felt and remembered by the people there John had worked hard fulfilling the good works set out for him by the Father to do in preparing the hearts of the people for Jesus to come

Closing

ideas

secure in 2 sets of hands

we are christ’s inheirentance

he isn’t going to let that go can’t be snatched Jesus holds the door open

its open as long as you are on this earth

???

AI Closing:

As we conclude today's sermon, let us remember the powerful words of Jesus: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." We are His sheep, and we are in the safe, secure hands of the Son and the Father.

We have been given the gift of eternal life, a gift that is never to be taken from us. As we go forward into this week, let us contemplate on the security we have in Christ and the Father. Let's strive to hear His voice amidst the noise of the world and follow Him, for He is our good shepherd.

Let's pray: Lord, thank you for the reassurance of our security in You. Help us to listen for your voice in all that we do and to follow you faithfully. Empower us to be a living testimony of your love and grace. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Go in peace, knowing you are in good hands. God bless you all.