Safely In His Care

If you are single: There should be serious thought and consideration when you are meeting someone new. You are precious. You are worthy of being cherished and cared for well. If you are spending time with a someone (friend, acquaintance, someone you met on an app or social media, or even a blind date) you are taking time to consider how to care for yourself and evaluating if you can trust this person to care for you the way you ought to be cared for. Do they care for you?

If you are in job: Does your job care for you. What I mean by this is that do they value the work you do for them. This is not just seen in compensation but it also in the culture, the environment, and the conditions leadership creates in order for you to thrive. You are not a robot there to do a job, you are a human being that is more than just what you produce. Do they see that, how do they acknowledge that… does management listen, do they want to see you succeed, do they give you reasonable space to fail, do they look to create an environment where you succeed and thrive? Do they care for you?

If you have children: Often times it is a gift and privilege to have a babysitter so you can get rest, go out with your spouse or significant other, hang with friends, etc. But, you don’t just entrust your children to anyone. There is a lot you think through when screening a babysitter and often times, we’ve found, that there has to be a lot of trust knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that our children will be nurtured and cherished as much as we do, if not more. So for Crystal and I, that was close family, close friends, as our children got older… our oldest is now the built in babysitter. But the one that watches over your children, because they are important to you… by caring for your children they care for you. If anything were to happen, you take it on yourself because you were the one who entrusted them in the first place… so you ask yourself, do they care for them, do they care for you?

Your church: Does your pastor care for you? Is there manipulation, are there guilt trips, are the messages that you here about trying harder and being better? Are they short and hot tempered? Are they inappropriate and make you feel unsafe? Is there a sense that you are just a means to an end? Pastor Josh led us through the difference of the Good Shepherd and the hirelings, wolves, thieves, and robbers last week.

He also excellently pointed out that the imagery that Jesus is evoking is from Ezekiel 34. He tells the leaders of Israel in Ezek 34:30-31 “Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people. This is the declaration of the Lord God. You are my flock, the human flock of my pasture, and I am your God. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’ ””

The minister of the church finds their calling in part in Jer 3:15 “I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me, and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill.”

You should be well cared for, loved, pastored, which means challenged, equipped, and sent out into the harvest field with your shepherds as co-laborers, as advocates, as cheerleaders, as those who speak life into you, those who will tell you the truth (especially when it is uncomfortable)… do your pastors care for you?

As we wrap up John 10 this morning, this is what we find… we who hear His voice are safely in His care. We who know the Good Shepherd’s voice, can rest in His good and not just sufficient care, but abundant care.

If you have your Bibles or on your devices, would you please go to John 10:22-42. If you are willing and you are able, would you stand with me as I read God’s word this morning. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. You may be seated.

Entrusting Care (vss. 22-30)

John the apostle gives us a little context as to when this next engagement by the Jews takes place. It’s December, it’s winter time, it’s during the festival of lights, or as we might know as Hanukkah. The last five chapters of John’s gospel has been centered around the Jewish Festivals. We’ll see next week, John will be moving away from this motif.

**The early church fathers when teaching scripture, gave themselves to allegory. Reading into the text was a very common practice. Today, that is not highly favored amongst Bible teachers, expositors, and scholars. That being said, on an emotional level, this reaches me. In the winter of the soul, cold, harsh, times when we think of more bright, warm, and joyful times, the enemy and the accusers come around. What follows brings comfort. If you find yourself in this season, take great comfort in our passage this morning.

The Jewish leaders are coming around Jesus and continue to extract evidence of blasphemy.

If you have been with us for any length of time in our journey through John’s gospel, or even read the first nine chapters seeing Jesus engage the people and the religious leaders, Jesus says He is the messiah/God multiple times.

vs.30 is another example.

What is interesting though is that John has let a little time go by between what we looked at last week (the first part of chapter 10) and where we are now towards the end of the chapter but still having Jesus speak on the Good Shepherd.

In vss 25-30 we come to a place where many hear the doctrine of election. That once saved always saved. That God will not let anyone snatch the saved out of His hand. While I don’t completely hold to a doctrinally reformed view of scripture, this passage for us in Jesus is deeply comforting.

Church, this is comforting. There is no thief, robber, or wolf that can snatch us out of God’s hand.

We should not confuse someone snatching the believer out of God’s hand with someone who chooses to walk away under their own desires or agency.

But what great assurance we have that God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present holds us and protects us. That His love for us is so great and grand that no matter what situation we find ourselves in, we can find Him, there.

John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.””

Can I tell you whatever you are going through, this continues to be true. If you hear God’s voice, you follow him, and you are secure. Nothing can come in between your relationship with Him.

The Spirit of God speaks, reveals God’s will/heart to us through scripture, and is our ever present help in time of need. (Ps. 46:1)

A role entrusted to us (vss. 31-39)

They pick up stones to kill Jesus. This was the punishment for blasphemy.

Blasphemy is when someone speaks evil of God and or when they attribute evil to the work of God. If they perceived Jesus was just a man, it would have been blasphemous from their perspective. Ironically, they assumed Jesus was just a man which was blasphemous against God.

(Freebie… gracious, kind, and long-suffering character of God is that He didn’t wipe them (us) out)

As Jesus reasons with them as they are gathering their stones, He makes a claim that is bit difficult to understand, but I am going to try and break it down with a little help from our Scottish friend, theologian, and pastor Dr. William Barclay:

(SIMPLIFY)

TO the Jews, Jesus’ statement that he and the Father were one was blasphemy. It was the invasion by a man of the place which belonged to God alone. The Jewish law laid down the penalty of stoning for blasphemy. (Leviticus 24:16). So they made their preparations to stone Jesus. So as they went and fetched stones to fling at him, Jesus met their hostility with three arguments.

(1) He told them that he had spent all his days doing life-giving things—healing the sick, feeding the hungry and comforting the sorrowing—deeds so full of help and power and beauty that they obviously came from God. For which of these deeds did they wish to stone him? Their answer was that it was not for anything he had done that they wished to stone him, but for the claim he was making.

(2) This claim was that he was the Son of God. To meet their attack, Jesus used two arguments. The first is a purely Jewish argument which is difficult for us to understand. He quoted Psalm 82:6. That psalm is a warning to unjust judges to cease from unjust ways and to defend the poor and the innocent. The appeal concludes: ‘I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you.” ’ The judge is commissioned by God to be god to the people. This idea comes out very clearly in certain of the regulations in Exodus. Exodus 21:1–6 tells how the Hebrew servant may go free in the seventh year. As the Authorized Version has it, verse 6 says: ‘Then his master shall bring him unto the judges.’ But in the Hebrew, the word which is translated judges is actually elohim, which means gods. Even Scripture said of those who were specially commissioned to some task by God that they were gods. So Jesus said: ‘If Scripture can speak like that about such people, why should I not speak so about myself?’

Jesus claimed two things for himself. (a) He was consecrated by God to a special task. The word for to consecrate is hagiazein, the verb from which comes the adjective hagios, holy or hallowed. These words always have the idea of rendering a person or a place or a thing different from other persons and places and things, because it is set aside for a special purpose or task. So, for instance, the Sabbath is consecrated (Exodus 20:11). The altar is hallowed (Leviticus 16:19). The priests are consecrated (2 Chronicles 26:18). The prophet is consecrated (Jeremiah 1:5). When Jesus said that God had consecrated him, made him holy, he meant that he had set him apart from others, because he had given him a special task to do.

This word is used specifically for temple instruments. It is not a coincidence that during the “Feast of Dedication” or “Festival of Lights” or “Hanukkah”. The Seleucid army under the authority of the King of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanies the IV had desecrated Jerusalem and the alter after attacking Jerusalem in 170BC. Desecrated the temple, sacrificed a pig on the altar, and sought to eradicate the monotheistic faith of the Jews. In 164 BC, Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers liberated Jerusalem from the Syrians. The purified the temple, its instruments, and consecrated them again for temple ritual and sacrifice.

Jesus used this word, consecrated, shows how conscious he was of his special task. (b) He said that God had despatched him into the world. The word used is the one which would be used for sending a messenger or an ambassador or an army. Jesus thought of himself not so much as coming into the world, as being sent into the world. His coming was an act of God; and he came to do the task which God had given him to do.

So Jesus said: ‘In the old days it was possible for Scripture to speak of judges as gods, because they were commissioned by God to bring his truth and justice into the world. Now I have been set apart for a special task; I have been despatched into the world by God; how can you then object if I call myself the Son of God? I am only doing what Scripture does.’ This is one of those biblical arguments the force of which it is difficult for us to feel, but which to a Jewish Rabbi would have been entirely convincing.

(3) Jesus went on to invite a more profound test. ‘I do not ask you’, he said in effect, ‘to accept my words. But I do ask you to accept my deeds.’ A word is something about which people can argue; but a deed is something beyond argument. Jesus is the perfect teacher in that he does not base his claims on what he says, but on what he is and does. Don’t just look at words but look at action; and that is a test which all his followers ought to be able and willing to meet. The tragedy is that so few can meet it, still less invite it.

Barclay, W. (2001). The Gospel of John (Vol. 2, pp. 88–90). Edinburgh.

If we are His sheep, if we are called by His name, then it is within us to represent and carry the good news of who He is, what His kingdom represents, and what we enjoy as heirs of the Kingdom and let others partake, taste, and see how good God is in Christ Jesus.

We are set apart for good works, that He has foreordained, that we might walk in them (Eph 2:10).

As Jesus used His works to bear witness to who He is and what He did, so our works do not justify us but they are a testament to His working.

What does this tell us in the dark night of the soul, in the season of spiritual winter:

God is for us, not against us.

We hear his voice and can know his heart (prayer and scripture)

We follow Him because He is our Great Shepherd, which means we seek to do what He does. Love, justice, mercy, care, and having compassion. We look to be at work where He is at work independent of other outside forces wishing us harm or causing us to doubt or position in the beloved.

This is not an easy task… it takes time to develop this. We learn it by doing and living. There are spectrums to it also. Some things come naturally to us and others take time, refinement, practice, humility, and deep intentionality.

Ultimately though… we get to...

Take comfort in Who saves us (vss. 40-42)

It’s not our faith that saves us… it is the object of our faith that saves us.

Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we make choices that don’t reflect what we believe or line up with our confession. These can be devastating. Lapses of faith, judgement and allegiance that cause us to question our assurance and position in God’s family.

Here is what I hope we see.

It’s not your intellect that saves you. It is not your faithfulness that saves you. It’s not your title or position that saves you. It is not your faith that saves you. It is the object of your faith that saves you.

It is not the successes that God welcomes you, embraces you and says, “This is my beloved son/daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” It is because of the love, life, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ and His gift of life, taking the punishment of our sin upon Himself that welcomes us at the table of God. It’s what Jesus has done.

As we look at the last three verses in the passage we see how God was at work through John the baptizer… that as Jesus went North there were those who did believe. Who heard, saw, and then gave their allegiance to Him.

If you hear his voice, you are his. Nothing can snatch you away.

Be about the work He has put before you. It is because we embrace what He has done that we are enabled to the work that He is doing. Look for how He is moving and meet him there. In those dark days, nights, seasons, continue to lean into the truth and promises that we find in our text today.

If you don’t know him but are here today or listening online, He is pursuing you. He is offering you life in him. If you hear him calling you today, do not resist. Yield your life to Him and enter into life with Him full of beauty, love, and miraculous wonders.