The sheep have eternal life which brings trust into our relationship with God. John 10:22-28

John 10:22 begins at the time of the Feast of Dedication which is Hanukah which is celebrated in the winter. This is two months after John 10:21.

 

John 10:22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem;

 

The Feast of Dedication is Hanukah. On 25 December, 166 BC the king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes was determined to make Greeks out of the Jews. So he made a gold statue which he called the statue of Zeus - Zeus was the head of all of the gods of the pantheon - and put it up in the temple.

 

The Jews protested. So he said that on 25 December he would offer some animal sacrifices in the temple, and in due course he herded in 1000 pigs.

 

John 10:23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon.

 

The portico or porch of Solomon was a covered walkway on the temple grounds.

 

John 10:24 The Jews therefore gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, "How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly."

 

John 10:25 Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father's name, these bear witness of Me.

 

Notice Jesus mentions the message first. “I told you” is a message. The Lord gives us what is important. Bible doctrine is important. It is the message that is important.

 

He doesn’t mention the miracles first, He mentions the message first. It is the message by which people are saved; miracles merely focus attention on the message.

           

Then He says, “the works” - a reference to His miracles - “that I do,” poieo, present active indicative. All the time He was performing these miracles they were negative, negative.

           

“they bear witness of [concerning] me” - they prove that Jesus is what He claims to be.

 

John 10:26 "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.

 

They did not want relationship with God, therefore a vacuum was created in the soul into which was drawn religion, legalism, emphasis on the details of life, mental attitude sins, etc.

 

Remember that we have been created by God and in His image. Part of what means is that we possess a soul that breathes. God’s soul only breathes in that which is righteous and just, however mankind has a choice as to what he breathes.

 

Those who reject a relationship with God cannot breath in and out the things of God and so the only left to them are the thoughts, motivations, and desires of the creature. Therefore, what is drawn in is religion, legalism, emphasis on the details of life, mental attitude sins, etc.

 

This makes the soul sick. A sickly soul seeks for a cure, frantically seeking to get well it only draws in more garbage until eventually mild to heavy psychosis sets in.

 

But as Christ said, He is the door, there’s only one way in and that is through faith in Him.

 

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

 

Don’t forget that He’s still calling out to Israel, but not all Israel would be considered sheep.

 

ROM 9:6-8

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named." 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

 

His sheep at this time were Jews who believed in Him. They heard His voice and had positive volition at the point of gospel hearing.

 

“and I know them” [ginosko] refers to the omniscience of Christ in EP. We’ve seen this before. Generally ginosko refers to getting to know someone and so usually it means to come to know. But since this is the Lord, since He possesses omniscience the Lord has always known them and every little part of their lives, therefore this word means to love with full knowledge of someone.

 

The reason our perfect Lord can fully love a believer is because at regeneration we are sanctified which means we are made 100% holy. All the imperfect handicaps we possessed before salvation are obliterated positionally. Therefore, by means of the cross the Lord through His own love that carried Him through the cross can now love us fully, without compromise.

 

John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;

 

“and they follow me” - this is the analogy of the sheep. Present active indicative of akoloutheo, used for the second door. The first door was the cross. The cross opened salvation to the entire human race from Adam to the last living human.

 

But the second door is your faith in the Lord as your personal Savior. It is a synonym for personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The purpose of this verse is to demonstrate that when you believe in Jesus Christ you have a personal relationship with God.

           

As we have seen in our study of Psalm 23, the sheep follow the shepherd. Following the analogy, when the shepherd leads out the sheep there is something they have to do.

 

It’s not works, but it’s a decision. They follow him. He doesn’t lead them to the wolves. He leads them outside the gate and out into pasture.

 

He provides for them. He protects them to the pasture and provides for them in the pasture.

 

So there is the concept here of provision and protection and, along with one other word, this is the plan of God: a) Relationship - “my sheep”; b) Provision; c) Protection. God is perfect; His plan is perfect, and these three words describe His plan.

 

The provision is doctrine but the protection is His person, His essence—the wall of fire which He has provided for us. In the plan of God there is relationship, provision and protection. This is going to exist forever because for ever He will be your Shepherd and you will be His sheep.

 

Now, for your relationship to Christ to be real there must be security. If you are not convinced of your eternal security then there is no relationship with Him.

 

The next verses address that. If it is possible for God to ever leave you or forsake you then you cannot have a real relationship with Him.

 

The scripture is clear that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us. But it is also clear that we can think He will when we believe certain lies.  

 

John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

 

“I give,” means grace. Jesus Christ as the God-Man does the giving by means of His own sacrifice.

 

You have to realize that you have been given eternal life through the death of Christ. This means that you have to be oriented to grace and to your very own personal destiny.

 

Believers who lack grace orientation and a personal sense of destiny constantly doubt God’s eternal gifts.

 

Without grace orientation you will think you have to work for it. Without a personal sense of destiny you will think that you have to make your own future. All of this will end up in doubt.

 

So again in John 10:28 and I give eternal life to them [sheep], and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.

 

“they shall never perish” - this is an emphatic double negative with the aorist middle subjunctive. The Greek word is apollumi, the word which is used for the last judgment.

 

It means to bring to nothing, to make void, to utterly destroy.

 

A double negative in the English is a positive; a double negative in the Greek is a strong, emphatic negative.

 

Literally, this is “they shall not no never perish.” The double negative says there is no sin you can commit and lose your salvation.

 

The mood here is the subjunctive of prohibition. It means that God will not permit the believer to perish on the basis of His character.

 

It means that it is totally impossible for the believer to lose his salvation. In no circumstance will God permit the believer to perish.

 

When you put a double negative with the subjunctive mood of the verb it means it all depends on God; that you will not lose your salvation, that you cannot lose your salvation, and that there is nothing you can do to lose your salvation.

 

The middle voice means that the subject is benefited by the action of the verb, and we are benefited by ‘no, not ever perishing.’

Apollumiis a verb of the last judgment, a verb associated with the lake of fire, and there is no way that a believer can ever get close to the lake of fire.

           

“neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand” - the word neither refers to either angelic or human beings. It also means neither can God do it.

 

The word for “pluck” is arpazo which means to seize by violence; it doesn’t means to pluck. Arpazo is used here because there is a lot of violence in the world. This is the devil’s world and every person who lives in this world has an old sin nature and is therefore potentially violent. All of the violence in the world could not take one believer out of the plan of God. All of the power combinations that have existed since the beginning of history together could not blast one believer out of the plan of God.      

 

John 10:29 "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.

 

“My Father.” Whenever Jesus used the words “My Father” He was speaking from His humanity.

 

“gave” is a perfect active indicative of didomi.

 

The perfect tense means that this was given in eternity past. Who were the sheep given to?

 

“me” the Lord said - everything that is important, that is security, everything that is inner happiness, peace and blessing is tied up in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

It is not tied up in the things of this life. Jesus is saying, “My heavenly Father gave me those who are believers.”

 

Believers are in union with Christ. The Father gave us to the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity past, we are now His in reality after salvation (historically), therefore even though the devil is the ruler of this world we are still a gift from God the Father to God the Son.

 

And God the Son does not treat such a gift lightly, and He has made thorough and total provision for each one of us.

           

He goes on to say that His Father “is greater than all” - present active indicative of eimi, ‘keeps on being.’

 

The word greater is meizon, a comparative adverb which means greater in degree. It is a reference to God the Father, the author of the divine plan.

 

It indicates that our security in no way depends upon anything in this life, it depends entirely upon the Father, the Son and the Spirit—members of the Godhead.

 

Our security depends upon God the Father and therefore it says “no man” or literally, “no one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

 

No onerefers to the creatures of this earth: fallen angels, unbelievers. Because the Father is greater than any power in this world we have one perfect security.

           

“able” - present active indicative from dunamai which means to have the ability.

 

No one, angel or human, has the ability or the power; “to pluck” - present active indicative of arpazo again, which means to seize by violence, to do violence to.

 

No one has the ability to do violence to the believer, apart from His permission.

 

Whenever He permits it there has to be a very unusual reason for it, and it becomes an individual matter where it occurs. The believer is under His security and His protection all the way.

           

 

“my Father’s hand” is an anthropomorphism to indicate the protection used in the previous verse. [Anthropomorphism = ascribing to God some human characteristic].

          

 “Out of my Father’s hand”

1.       This is an anthropomorphism of eternal security.

2.       God is perfect; His plan is perfect.

3.       Therefore everything in the plan of God depends on His perfection, His resources, His love - His character.

4.       God’s plan is greater than our failures.

5.       God’s plan is greater than our sins.

6.       God’s plan is greater than our disasters.

 

You as a believer are anchored in union with Christ and nothing can shake it, nothing can destroy it. You are in something that is perfect and permanent.

 

John 10:30 "I and the Father are one.”

 

Here He clearly indicates His deity while speaking from His humanity. For this reason the Jews will again pick up rocks to stone Him.

 

He mentions His hand and the Father’s hand and here indicates that they have identical power to keep you and protect you.

 

So you are not in one hand but two. Two of the most powerful hands in the universe are clamped around you and no one in the universe is powerful enough to pull them apart. If every creature in the universe was together, half on one hand and half on the other, trying to pull them apart, they couldn’t budge them.

 

The Lord doesn’t say that He and the Father is the same person, but that they are identical in essence. So it’s not one hand that they both share, rather it is two hands that both share the essence of deity, and in this case the emphasis is on omnipotence.