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The Gospel of John, The Period of Conflict - The Clash of Belief and Unbelief, The argument on Solomon's porch, Part XXXVII, John 10:28-36 - Lesson 84
Jesus Christ is in Jerusalem during the feast of the dedication of the temple.
His discourse on Solomon's porch continues:
Read Verse John 10:27 for review: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
John 10:28,29, And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Jesus gives eternal life to his sheep.
Eternal life is not a 'worked for' thing.
Eternal life is a gift from the shepherd to his sheep.
It is a gift that comes with belief.
It is a present possession of the sheep and not one that comes later.
We do not have to wait until we die to find out if we made it to eternal life.
If we are his sheep we have eternal life now and we shall never perish.
And when Jesus Christ says never he means never.
No man is able to take his sheep by force.
No man is able to plunder his sheep.
Jesus insures that by saying that we are wrapped up in his hand.
His hand is omnipotent and his hand is wrapped up in the Father's hand.
His sheep are protected in a double walled sheepfold made by the hand of Christ surrounded by the hand of the Father.
Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:11,12 Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost...
Jesus makes himself responsible for the security of the sheep.
What great comfort we can find in this, the most secure place in the universe.
Whatever the outward circumstances that God places us in we can always be assured that that place is also in the hand of Jesus Christ and in the hand of the Father.
No man, not even Satan, can enter and pluck you out of that most secure place.
And you cannot jump out of those hands either.
There is no stronger passage in scripture that guarantees the eternal security of the believer.
We are told that the shepherd has sheep.
They are his.
It is the duty of the shepherd to care for his sheep.
To think that Christ would lose any of his sheep is to blaspheme the shepherd himself.
It is to throw doubt on his ability to shepherd.
The sheep follow the shepherd.
The shepherd has gone to heaven.
That is where the sheep are going, to follow the shepherd.
The sheep are given eternal life.
Eternal life is life that never ceases.
To stop having eternal life is a contradiction in terms.
Eternal life is given and you cannot ungive it.
You cannot give eternal life back.
It is not within the power of sheep to do that.
The shepherd says that the sheep shall never perish.
If a sheep can never perish that means the sheep can not go to Hell, the place of perishing.
If he does not go to Hell then he must go to heaven the place where those who have eternal life will go.
And lastly the sheep are totally surrounded by the hand of Christ and the hand of the Father.
No one can get in and no one can get out.
The sheep cannot get out and nothing can get in to do the sheep damage.
Because: John 10:30, I and my Father are one.
The Son and the Father are agreed on everything.
They are of one mind, they are one in thought, will, heart, purpose, and action.
They are one in purpose toward the eternal well being of the sheep.
They are one in protecting the sheep and exercising power to prevent any one plucking them out of His hand.
They are in total harmony.
Remember John 6:39, And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
John 10:31,32, Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
The Jews were listening closely to Jesus Christ.
They wished to trap him.
Here again he dares to claim equality with the Father.
Was not the punishment for blasphemy stoning?
They were fully ready to murder this just man.
They were filled with rage so they sought to slay him again.
But this was not the time for his sacrifice. Jesus was in control.
Do you stone me because I gave sight to a man born blind?
Do you stone me because I healed a man at the pool of Bethesda who had been ill for 38 years?
Do you stone me because I have cleansed lepers and raised the dead and cast out evil spirits and made the dumb to speak and the deaf to hear and the lame to walk?
Do you remember the multitudes that I fed?
Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
John 10:33, The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
Their minds were prejudiced against Jesus Christ.
There was no possibility in their minds that a man could be equal with God.
They were unprepared for the claims of Christ/
His words nor his works of pure benevolence would convince them otherwise.
Like the children of Ephraim in Psalm 78:11, they: forgot his works, and his wonders that he had showed them.
Their minds were made up.
They were not to be altered with facts.
They could not fathom that he was God manifest in the flesh.
How could one of such humble birth, humble disciples, humble appearance, such self denial acts, humiliating doctrines, be tolerated?
No matter how glorious his miracles, his teachings, or how holy his life, such a Messiah could never be their Messiah.
They had constructed in their minds a far different Messiah than this man.
Such is the conclusion of the prejudiced mind.
Such is the conclusion of a mind closed to light and truth.
John 10:34-36, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?
Jesus refers to Psalms 82:6, I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
The word gods is the Hebrew 'elohiym, el‑o‑heem' was occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and judges.
The word of God was entrusted to them because of their high office.
The same word was applied to Moses when God told him in Exodus 7:1, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, because Moses stood in the place of God to that wicked king.
The office of a judge in Israel was clothed in such dignity that they were called "elohim" el‑o‑heem, because they represented God in this capacity.
So the Lord reminds them of this.
He says that if judges were called gods because they represented God by virtue of their holy office ------ how was it blasphemy for him, the Son of God, set apart by the Father and sent into the world to say, "I am the Son of God?"
It was not blasphemy to tell the truth about himself. |