INTRODUCTION:
Do the words “I dare you” bring back any memories from your childhood? Were you being challenged or coerced to do something you really didn’t want to do or say something you really didn’t want to say? Was it something that might get you into trouble? Did you give in to the pressure and take the dare? Were there negative consequences? Did you wish you hadn’t given in to the pressure? Or did you refuse the dare in spite of the things people said to you? Most of us have been in that situation at some point in our lives, haven’t we?
Jesus was no exception. In this next passage of Scripture, John 10:22-30, we are going to see how Jesus responds to such treatment directed at Him.
I. THE SETTING (verses 22-23)
The scene hasn’t changed, but the time has. Verse 22 begins about two and a half months after verse 21. The apostle John is going from one feast to the next. Verse 22 begins with the words, “Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem.” This was not one of the Old Testament feasts that God required the Jews to celebrate each year. This feast celebrates the cleansing and rededication of the temple in 164 B.C. after the Maccabean revolt ended the harsh rule of Antiochus Epiphanes, the king of Syria. It is still celebrated today as Hanukkah (“To dedicate”). John probably tied these two feasts together because Jesus is, once again, going to be using the metaphor of the shepherd and his sheep.
The rest of verse 22 says, “It was winter”. John may have written those words to confirm that it was no longer the Fall season, and as an explanation for Jesus’ presence in Solomon’s colonnade. Jesus was poor and may not have possessed any cold-weather clothing. Solomon’s colonnade, unlike the various courtyards in the temple, had a roof over it and offered some relief from the cold weather outside.
II. THE CONFRONTATION (verse 24)
Jesus’ time of meditation comes to a quick halt as the Jewish leaders close in on Him and surround Him. They have been planning and waiting for the time when Jesus would be back in their neighborhood again. They’ve been rehearsing the question they want to ask Him, how they want to say it, and how they are going to respond to His answer. Now Jesus was trapped within their circle and His forward progress had come to a sudden halt. The leaders of the Jews had maneuvered themselves around Jesus so that escape was impossible.
In verse 24, they say to Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” They phrase their words in such a way as to put the blame on Him, and they are saying, “How long are you going to disturb and upset us by your teachings? It’s your own fault that we don’t believe you. If you’re the Christ, then say the words: ‘I am the Christ [the Messiah].’ We dare you!” They are “twisting Jesus’ arm”, so to speak, in order to get Him to say what they want Him to say.
III. JESUS’ INITIAL RESPONSE (verse 25)
When you were growing up, can you remember hearing the words, “I told you already but you weren’t listening”? If you’re a parent, you may have said those words to your children. It’s humiliating and embarrassing to be on the receiving end of those words, isn’t it? How about the phrase, “How many times do I have to tell you!” That one really makes you feel ashamed. Jesus is about to give these leaders a “gentle scolding”, at least that’s how it starts. He looks around at them and says, “I told you, and you do not believe”.
When did Jesus tell them that He was the Messiah? That’s a question that needs an explanation. Jesus never said to the Jews, “I am the Messiah”. Only in His conversation with the woman at the well in Sychar, did Jesus say, “I who speak to you am He” when she spoke of the coming Messiah (John 4:26). However, the word “Messiah” had a different meaning to the leaders of the Jews. They believed the Messiah would come suddenly with the armies of heaven to conquer the Romans. They pictured Him as a handsome, distinguished man dressed in Royal robes. The Lord Jesus was the opposite of that description.
When Jesus said, “I told you”, He may have been referring primarily to the description He gave them of Himself two months earlier, right there in the temple. At that time, they were listening as Jesus referred to Himself as the true shepherd and called Himself “the door of the sheepfold”, and “the good shepherd”. There are many Old Testament scripture passages that refer to God as a shepherd, such as Genesis 49:24; Psalm 23, Isaiah 40, Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34, and Zechariah 11. They were familiar with those scriptures. They knew those words were the equivalent of calling Himself the Messiah. The word “shepherd” was often used as a figure of speech, referring to the ruling king (1 Kings 22:17).
In the rest of verse 25, Jesus continues by saying, “the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me.” Not only did Jesus tell them, but He also showed them by His miracles that He was the promised Messiah. Many of His miracles fulfilled the prophecies that were made about the Messiah in the Old Testament scriptures. Isaiah 35 speaks of the coming of the Messiah, and in verses 35 and 36, the prophet Isaiah describes the miracles He will perform saying, “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy.” Isaiah mentions these miracles several times in his book of prophecies, and he wrote those prophecies down over 700 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus. The Jewish leaders were very familiar with those prophecies. They also knew that Jesus performed every miracle on the list. Those amazing miracles, along with many others, offered conclusive evidence that Jesus was the promised Messiah, yet they refused to believe and chose to oppose Him all the more. The problem wasn’t a lack of evidence, but a lack of faith in spite of the evidence. Why didn’t these leaders become convinced by the evidence and respond to Jesus in faith as other people have done?
III. THE CAUSE OF THEIR UNBELIEF (verse 26)
In verse 16, Jesus gave them the reason for their opposition to Him. He said, “But you do not believe because you are not My sheep.” Others have believed based upon that evidence, so the problem wasn’t a lack of evidence. Notice what Jesus did not say. He didn’t say, “You are not My sheep because you do not believe.” In that one sentence, Jesus is communicating the God-ward and the man-ward aspects of salvation. They were not chosen to be His sheep and given the gift of faith, and they chose not to be His sheep by their unbelief. From a human standpoint, a person becomes His sheep by believing, but from the divine standpoint, a person believes because he or she is God’s sheep. Divine sovereignty and human responsibility are wrapped up in those words of the Lord Jesus (John 6:36-37; John 8:47).
IV. THE RESULTS OF FOLLOWING HIM (verses 27-29)
In verses 27-29, Jesus proceeds to tell them what they are missing. I consider these three verses to be the strongest and clearest passage on the assurance of salvation in all the scriptures. Jesus begins by saying, “My sheep listen to my voice.” They listen with the desire to obey their shepherd. Then He says, “I know them.” Jesus has a personal relationship with each of them. They are special to Him. Just as He said in verse 14, “I know my own and my own know me.” For these reasons “they follow me”. They trust their Shepherd and follow Him wherever He leads them. Jesus is speaking of those who have placed their trust in Him, yielded their lives to His control, and seek to be led by Him and imitate Him.
Now Jesus describes to his listeners the greatest miracle that He has ever performed. It is greater than all of His physical miracles because it is a spiritual miracle and it lasts forever. It’s a miracle that He continues to perform in the lives of people today – people He knows intimately and has drawn to Himself. The Lord Jesus begins His description of that miracle in verse 28 when He says, “and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” Eternal life sounds like a good deal, doesn’t it? But it’s not just the length of life but also the quality of life, both now and forever. King David gives us a taste of heaven in Psalm 16:11, where he says, “Thou wilt make known to me the path of life; In Thy presence is fullness of joy; In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever.” Heaven is not only going to be a place of eternal life, but also of eternal enjoyment. When we think about what we will be missing, it adds to the enjoyment of what we receive by the grace of God. Jesus said, “. . . they shall never perish”. The word “perish” means to be destroyed forever, to be punished in hell for all eternity. That is what we all deserve because of our sins, and that is what Christ delivers us from when we choose, by His enabling, to follow Him.
All of us like the feeling of security, don’t we. We like to feel secure in our jobs and in our relationships with people. Here is an example of the loss of security. The sales manager of a company and one of his sales representatives stood looking at a map on which colored pins indicated the company representatives in each area. “I’m not going to fire you, Wilson”, the manager said, “but I’m loosening your pin a bit to emphasize the insecurity of your situation.” There’s one employee who went home feeling anxious and insecure! If you are a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, you can rest in the fact that your eternal security isn’t pinned to a wall; it’s nailed to the cross of Christ. He did it all.
I love the imagery that Jesus used here in verse 28, and also in verse 29, to describe the security of the believer in Him. He said, “no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” We use our hands to hold and secure an object. Likewise, we are safely and comfortably in His grip, and nothing or no one is going to be able to pry us loose because He is never going to let go of us. But Jesus doesn’t stop there in His description of our security as His sheep. He adds, in verse 29, “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all.” We were a gift from the Father to Jesus before the foundation of the world (John 17:9-10; Ephesians 1:3-6), and His Father is “greater than all”. He is the greatest power in the universe and He cares about His sheep and loves them also. The proof of the Father’s love and care is found in the next statement made by Jesus: “no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” If you’re a true child of God, evidenced by a changed life, you’re in the best of hands.
Why did Jesus change His imagery from the shepherd to the imagery of hands? Didn’t the shepherd imagery convey protection and security strongly enough to his listeners? As always, Jesus has a good reason for what He says and does. Once again, Jesus is taking the minds of these leaders of the Jews on a journey back into the Old Testament scriptures, this time to the Psalms. There are many places in the Old Testament that speak about the hand of God but there are four verses from three different psalms that are directly related to Jesus’ use of the word “hand”, and He is refreshing their memories. The first verse is Psalm 119:173, which says, “Let your hand be ready to help me.” The Psalmist is saying, “I need your hand” – “I need the security of knowing that you are near and prepared to act on my behalf because you care about me.” In Psalm 115, the psalmist contrasts the heathen idols with the Lord, and in verse 7 he says, “They [the idols] have hands, but they cannot feel.” Idols have no feeling in their hands because they aren’t alive. They lack emotions and sensitivity. The last verse ties directly into the passage of scripture we are studying. Psalm 95:6-7 says, “Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pastures, and the sheep of His hand.” Then, in verse 8, the psalmist says, “Don’t harden your hearts.”
Jesus brought those psalms to their minds for a reason. He’s saying to His listeners, “Your Maker and your true Shepherd is standing in your midst. You’re surrounding Him! Come close to Me and worship Me with humble and joyful hearts, as the psalmist said.” “Obey the words of the psalmist and don’t harden your hearts to Me and My words.” Jesus is giving them an invitation to worship Him, and He adds to the words of the psalmist when He says, in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” He and the Father unite their hands of protection because they are one and the same God. Charles Spurgeon said, “It’s like the church bells ringing, calling out and inviting the people to worship.”
CONCLUSION:
Are you a worshiper of God? Are you a worshiper of Jesus Christ? You can’t be a worshiper of the true God if you are not a worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is God (John 1:1-3, 14). All of us are worshipers. We all worship someone or something. We all value something more highly than anything else. Each of our lives is oriented in a particular direction and this orientation affects our thoughts, our motives, and our priorities.
Do you hear the “church bells” ringing in your heart? Is God inviting you and drawing you to worship the only true God? That’s the proper response to the Lord Jesus Christ because He is God. As the psalmist said, “Don’t harden your hearts.” Respond to His leading and draw close to Him. Make Him the object of your worship today.
If you are a devoted worshiper and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you can learn from Jesus’ example as He responded to the external pressures exerted upon him by the Jewish leaders. He didn’t give in to their demands but stood His ground as they tried to force Him to say things that would be misinterpreted and used against Him. The Lord Jesus always did the will of His heavenly Father while He was here on this earth. That was His delight because of the closeness of their relationship. As His sheep, it should be our delight to follow Him in spite of opposition because our closest and most secure relationship on this earth is with Him.
Here is a true story of how sheep reacted when others were trying to lead them astray. During World War I, some Turkish soldiers tried to steal a flock of sheep from a hillside near Jerusalem. The shepherd, who had been sleeping, suddenly awakened to see his sheep being driven off on the other side of the ravine. He could not hope to recapture his flock by force single-handedly, but suddenly he had a thought. Standing up on his side of the ravine, he put his hands to his mouth and gave his own peculiar call, which he used each day to gather his sheep to him. The sheep heard the familiar sound. For a moment they listened and then, hearing it again, they turned and rushed down one side of the ravine and up the other toward their shepherd. It was impossible for the soldiers to stop the animals. The shepherd was away with them to a place of safety before the soldiers could make up their minds to pursue them — and all because his sheep knew their master’s voice and wanted to be with him and follow him.
When others try to manipulate you or lead you astray, remember whose sheep you are and choose to follow closely after Him. You’ll be glad you did, and so will He.
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