Call that after that healing he was Thrown out
of the fellowship excommunicated I suppose would
be a way to say it of the religious community
of the Jews Because of what he confessed about
Jesus. He didn't know much about him, but he
did Affirm that this one had healed him and that
whereas he was blind now he could see And so,
as a result of his confession, these Jewish leaders
who were so antagonistic and hostile toward Jesus
caused him to be thrown out of their fellowship
of the Jews. And you may recall that that sign
of our Lord, of the healing of that blind man,
was one of the signs that John pointed to in
his writing of the Gospel to authenticate. Jesus
claimed to be the Son of God. And that through
that, then, people might be brought to faith
that they might have life through His name. Well,
then there is a gap of time from verse 18 and
on. You'll notice in verse 22, several months
later, that the time of the Feast of the Dedication
took place at Jerusalem. That Feast of Dedication
was not one of the Feasts of Jehovah. established
by the Lord and recorded in Leviticus. But the
Feast of Dedication was a cultural feast of the
Jews that went back to the Maccabean War and
to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, whom we studied
about in the book of Daniel. And it was winter
time and Jesus was again in the city of Jerusalem
in the Temple Mount when he picked up again this
teaching regarding the shepherd and the sheep.
John says in verse 6 that it's a figure of speech,
a figure of speech that Jesus was using. The
idea is it was an extended metaphor. It involved
an implied comparison. Jesus said over here,
I am the door of the sheep in verse 7. Obviously
Jesus wasn't saying that he was literally a door,
but there is an implied comparison here. It's
a metaphor. He is the entrance. He is the way
in for the sheep is the idea. He calls himself
a shepherd. And again, his vocation in life was
not that of a shepherd. And yet, there is an
implied comparison here, you see. Because he
acted like a shepherd, caring for the flock of
God. This metaphor is one that was used in the
Old Testament. David, in Psalm 23, 1, said, the
Lord is my shepherd. Talking about the way that
he saw his relationship to God, there's an implied
comparison there. The Lord is like a shepherd
to the believer. In Psalm 80 and verse 1, the
Lord is called the shepherd of his people Israel.
And so of the whole nation of Israel, God was
the shepherd. In the book of Ezekiel, I don't
know if Mark has gotten there yet in his study
of the book of Ezekiel, but in the 34th chapter
of Ezekiel, in the first part of that chapter,
there's a warning through Ezekiel the prophet
to the false shepherds of Israel, the religious
leaders. They were exploiting the people of God.
They were not sincerely interested in their welfare,
but only their own welfare. And so there is a
condemnation of the false shepherds. And then
later in the chapter, God says, I am going to
shepherd my people like sheep. And he says, I
am going to send David to shepherd them. That's
an interesting statement because David had died
hundreds of years before this. And God says,
I'm going to send David to be the shepherd of
the sheep, the people of Israel. Well, the reference
is to the Messiah, the greater Son of David,
who will one day shepherd the reunited and believing
remnant of Israel and Judah. When interpreting
a biblical allegory, it's important to keep in
mind some very basic and simple rules. In the
first place, we must be careful not to press
meaning into every feature of the symbol. That
is true here in the text of the shepherd. It's
true in chapter 15 regarding the vine. Whenever
you see an allegory in the Bible, be careful
of not trying to press it too far. To make everything
about that symbol mean something. Normally there
is a central primary thought in that allegory
and that's what we're to focus on. Furthermore,
we need to realize that What may be impossible
in terms of the symbol is often true and reasonable
with regard to its reality. For example, here
Jesus calls himself the door of the sheep and
the shepherd. Well, a door can't be a shepherd,
but in fact our Savior can be both. What is often
impossible in terms of the symbol is often true
and reasonable with regard to its reality. The
main point here is that Jesus Christ is the Good
Shepherd. The Good Shepherd in contrast to the
hirelings, the thieves, the robbers who exploited
the sheep of Israel even in Jesus' time. As the
Good Shepherd, he laid down his life on behalf
of the sheep and then took it up again. so that
he might call out his own sheep to follow him.
Now with that background in mind, let's look
closer at our text and the particular promise
that is in view as we think about the precious
promises of the Bible. Tonight the promise of
security. Jesus promised safekeeping to his sheep.
He said, I give eternal life to them. They shall
never perish, and no one shall snatch them out
of my hand." I think as we consider this idea
of the security of the sheep of our Lord, we
need to think about first the identity of the
sheep. Who are these sheep that he has in mind?
Are they all of the Jews? Are they all of the
people in the world? Who are these sheep that
Jesus says, hear his voice, and whom he knows,
and who then follow him, and to whom he makes
this promise of security? Well, the answer in
the context of this chapter in verse 9 is that
they are the ones who come through the door.
He says, I am the door. If anyone enters through
me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out
and find pasture. Now here's a case where some
people try to press the image too far, this going
in and going out. There are some who try to say,
well, you see, we can come in to be saved and
we can go out and lose our salvation. Then we
can come back in again and go out again. Well,
that's silly. That's pressing the details of
the image here too far. Jesus was simply saying
that when you use the door and you become one
of His own, you have the right of being His sheep.
And he cares for your needs, going in and out
and finding pasture like sheep did in that day.
They didn't always stay in the fold. The shepherd
took them out to pasture, then would bring them
back to the fold at night. So he's simply using
the idea here that those who come through the
door, and he is the door, those who believe on
him are saved, and then really belong to him.
They become his sheep. Furthermore, he says in
our text in verse 29 that his sheep are those
who are given to him by the Father. They are
God's gift to the Son. My Father who has given
them to me, he says, is greater than all. Well,
we could look at other verses in the Gospel of
John and see that unless, in fact, the Father
draws us, we will not come to the Son. Our sin
is such that we will rebel. We will not come
voluntarily and willingly to the Lord unless
we are drawn. But God draws and we respond. Those
who are given to Jesus by the Father are his
sheep. Or to say it another way, his sheep are
those who give evidence of being his sheep because
they believe. Verse 26 says that, you do not
believe, he says, you're not my sheep. So by
implication, and going again to verse 9, those
who believe are his sheep. Who are Jesus' sheep?
Well, they are those who give evidence by their
belief that they belong to him. They are those
who, in verse 27, hear his voice. They do not
recognize the voice of a hireling, a false shepherd.
but they know the voice of the Savior. And as
a result of that, he says, they follow him. Again
in verse 27, they turn away from strangers. And
verse 4 says, when he puts forth all his own,
he goes before them, the shepherd, and the sheep
follow him because they know his voice, and a
stranger they simply will not follow, but will
flee from him because they do not know the voice
of strangers. We might not understand that relationship
that exists between a shepherd and his sheep.
It is a relationship between a human being and
animals, but it is a relationship, and it is
a familiar relationship. The shepherd knows his
sheep, he recognizes them, and they know him
by his voice. And others can come along who are
also shepherds. They can speak to the sheep.
They can call the sheep. They can try to woo
the sheep, but the sheep will not respond to
that voice because they know the voice of their
shepherd. So who are the sheep? Well, the sheep
are identified as those who have entered by the
door and who are thus saved. That is, those who
have been given to Jesus by the Father. Those
who give evidence of being his sheep because
they believe and they know the voice of the shepherd
and they follow him You see the proof of one
being a sheep of the Lord is found in his continuance
in following the shepherd It is the continuance
it doesn't mean that he won't have times of straying
It doesn't mean that there won't be times when
he will stumble But the general direction of
the Lord's sheep is that he follows the Savior,
he follows the Shepherd, and that is evidence
and proof of his genuineness. Well, let's think
about the security of the sheep for a moment.
It seems to me that in our text here it is fixed
upon four thoughts. These are words from Jesus.
He says, first of all, regarding those who are
his sheep, I give eternal life to them. Eternal
life is the same thing as abundant life back
in verse 10. I came that they might have life
and have it abundantly. It's the same thing as
eternal life. Let's think about the nature of
the giving here, this act. Jesus says, I give
eternal life to them. This verb is a present
tense verb. It implies that it's a an action
on his part, he keeps on giving eternal life
to them. It is a present possession that his
sheep have right now and which our Lord continues
to give them right on in to eternity. It is the
wonderful privilege of the child of God to enjoy
this abundant eternal life right now. Even before
we enter heaven, to enter into the essence of
the life of heaven because it is the life of
God. And keep in mind that giving implies an
act of grace. Jesus doesn't say, I dole out wages
of eternal life to them. He says, I give eternal
life to them. And so this act on our Lord's part
is an act of grace. So as we receive eternal
life as a gift, apart from any works on our part,
so we continue to receive eternal life from Him.
Apart from any works on our part. There are those
who say, well yes, we get saved by grace, but
we can lose it by works. Not so. That's illogical.
We are saved by the grace of God and we are kept
saved by the grace of God. It is an act of giving
on our Lord's part. And then I think of the nature
of the gift itself. It is called eternal life.
Eternal life. That is existence that is both
rooted in the eternal God and which also pertains
to a yet future age. It's eternal life. It's
life that brings union with God Himself and fellowship
with Him. Jesus speaks about this life later
as he prays to the Father. He says, Glorify thy
son that the Son may glorify thee even as thou
gavest him authority over all mankind, that to
all whom thou hast given him, he may give eternal
life. And this is eternal life that they may
know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ.
whom thou hast sent." Eternal life is a matter
of union between the one who believes and the
eternal God. And God shares with that one his
own life. It doesn't mean that the believer somehow
becomes God, but it does mean that he shares
in the very life of the eternal one. It is a
gift. And it's a quality of life that is distinct
from that which is known in the world. It's the
kind of life that lasts forever, eternal life.
It's a basis of a relationship. This is eternal
life that they might know thee, it says. It's
not this is eternal life that they might take
the ordinances. This is eternal life that they
might belong to the church. But this is eternal
life that they might know thee. One of the persons
who shared a testimony this afternoon indicated
earlier on the phone to me today that she had
been raised in a certain church all of her early
years and that there she heard about Jesus and
God and His death on the cross and so on, but
it was all kind of institutional. It was related
to the church. It was only in the last few months
after coming into contact with one of the families
of our church that she came to understand that
really, eternal life comes not as the result
of being in a church, but as the result of knowing
God personally. It's a relationship. Jesus said,
I give eternal life to them. And then he says,
secondly, the second thought upon which our security
is fixed, they shall never perish. Perish. That's
a term Jesus uses in John 3 .16. Shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. The very same verb
is in view here. The idea is to be ruined or
to be lost. It's the same word as used back in
verse 10 where Jesus says the thief comes only
to kill, to steal and kill and to ruin, to destroy.
There's the word perish, same word. Here, however,
Jesus ties that verb together with another negative
so that there's a double negative. Literally,
it would say this, and they shall not never perish.
That's awful English, isn't it? It's terrific
Greek. Because what it means is that they shall
not by any means perish. When the Greek wrote
out his sentences and he put two negatives together,
it wasn't like the English where that equals
a positive. It meant, I am underscoring, I am
underlining, I am emphasizing the impossibility
of this. And so as John records these words of
our Lord, he says, and they shall not perish
by any means unto the age. That is, ever. They
shall never perish, he says. That's wonderful
news, folks. That means that When we pass from
death to life, it's a one -way passage. The door
never opens again. We don't go back through it.
The door opens one way to life. It slams shut.
That's it. And it's impossible for us again to
go back to death, to go back to a state of being
ruined, to perish. Jesus said, I give to them
eternal life. and they shall never by any means
perish." And then he says, no one shall snatch
them out of my hand. Now that's an interesting
image, isn't it? The implication is that that
is where we have been placed as his sheep. If
you give a gift to someone, you don't throw it
at his feet. You hand it to that other individual.
That seems to be in Jesus' mind here. He says,
no one is able to snatch them out of my hand
where we have been placed by the Father as a
gift to the Son. This idea here of snatching
means to seize, to carry off by force. It means
to drag away. It means to take away suddenly
and forcefully. It is the word used in verse
12 where it speaks about the wolves who snatched
the sheep. We used to raise some sheep on the
farm and I saw the result of some coyotes, not
wolves, but coyotes who did exactly what Jesus
talked about here. Who out there in the field
seized a little lamb and as a result of that
dragged the lamb away. and then killed it and
ate it. Jesus says here that no one is able to
snatch us, to drag us away from Him. This is
the same word that's used, by the way, in the
rapture passage of 1 Thessalonians 4, about our
being caught up to be with the Lord, snatched
away. Here it's used in a different context.
Jesus says no one can snatch us away from Him.
It is wonderful to know that our security rests
upon the ability of the shepherd to keep us and
not upon our frailty, our inability to keep ourselves.
Our security rests upon the power of our shepherd
to keep us. And he says, no one is able to snatch
them out of my hand. But he doesn't stop there.
He goes on with one more. thought upon which
our security is fixed. He says, my Father who
has given them to me is greater than all, and
no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's
hand. No one, he says, is able to snatch them
out of my Father's hand. The better reading perhaps
of this first part of verse 29, there is a dispute
here as to exactly what the best manuscripts
say. There is an alternative reading that intrigues
me and I rather like. I'm not enough of a Greek
scholar to know whether it's in fact pre -preferred
or not, but the other reading says this, what
my father has given to me is greater than all.
I can tell you that the oldest of the manuscripts
that we have of the Greek text from John say
that that is the rendering of it. And it fits
wonderfully with the whole context here. What
my Father has given to me is greater than all
and no one is able to snatch that out of my Father's
hand. In other words, we May very well be what
Jesus had in mind here when he said this we are
the ones Who have been given to him by the father
and he says what the father has given to me is
more excellent more precious than anything and
The the picture seems to be that what the father
gives to his son he himself still holds secure
Because of its precious value And so our Lord
is saying here it seems that we have been given
by the Father to the Son, and we are more precious
to Him than anything. There is nothing of greater
value than we who are the sheep of the Savior.
And we are so precious that He Himself keeps
His hand upon us so that we have double security.
The same idea is found in Colossians 3 .3 where
Paul writes, your life is hidden with Christ
in God. The picture there again is double security.
We are hidden with Christ and in God. To be hidden
is a wonderful thought. It means to conceal something.
The Greek word gives us an English word, cryptic.
The cryptic writing of the author. It means the
hidden, concealed truth there. Or we use the
word crypt, where we hide or conceal the bodies
of dead ones. The crypt. Here the thought is
that our life is crypted away with Christ in
God. It suggests secrecy. We who know Jesus Christ
are nurtured by secret springs that the world
knows not of. But it also implies safety because
of the double protection that is here. Your life
is hid, he says, with Christ in God. No one is
able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.
I want to say to you that these four thoughts
form a firm foundation for the security of the
believer. I give eternal life to them. They shall
never by any means perish. No one shall snatch
them out of my hand. No one is able to snatch
them out of my Father's hand. Then Jesus says,
I and the Father are one. Oh, this is quite a
statement, and the Jews understood exactly what
he was implying by it, that he and the Father
were equal. That's why they took up stones to
stone him. This is one of the verses I use with
Jehovah's Witnesses, because Jesus here very
clearly is claiming blasphemy, and even if they
can't understand that, the Jews in that day understood
it, that he was claiming to be equal with the
Father. That's why they picked up the stones.
I and the Father are one. In other words, the
safekeeping that he's talked about is their common
purpose. It is the will, it is the activity of
the Father and the Son to keep us safe. The Father
and the Son do not have an argument over us.
They do not take a vote saying, shall we keep
him or not? I'm glad for that. The Father and
the Son are one. and they are united in purpose
that we will be kept secure. F. F. Bruce says,
where the eternal well -being of true believers
is concerned, the Son's determination and pledge
to guard them from harm is endorsed by the Father's
Word and confirmed by the Father's all -powerful
act. This is the will of Him who sent me. Jesus
has already said, that I should lose nothing
of all that he has given me, but raise it up
at the last day. John 6 .39. In guarding his
people, he is obedient to the Father's will.
What wonder then, if they are simultaneously
guarded by the Father himself? What the Father
has given to the Son, he himself protects and
secures by his own omnipotence. It is possible
to go to heaven without understanding this promise
we've looked at tonight. There are many people
in heaven tonight who may be a little surprised
they're there because they didn't understand
this promise. That's all right. But to grasp
it brings heaven even now to the heart of the
child of God. One can go through life without
this assurance of being kept by God. One can
have the ups and downs, the roller coaster rides
of the Christian life that that produces. I know
what I'm talking about as a young person. I experience
that. But oh, the assurance, the glory that fills
the heart when one finally understands and accepts
the promise that is given here. I think that
was Fanny Crosby's assurance as she wrote those
words. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Oh,
what a foretaste of glory divine. She understood
the promise that is made here. Herbert Lockyer
suggests that the communion that we have with
our Savior may be ruptured, but our union with
Him can never be severed. All who are the Lord's
are being kept and will one day be raised up.
The important question of course is, are you
among the number given by the Father to the Son?
You say, well I'm not sure, I don't know. How
can I know? Well, do you believe? Will you believe?
If you will believe, you are one. Do you hear
His voice? Are you following Him? If so, you're
one of His sheep. How wonderful to be His sheep
and to know this promise that the Shepherd keeps
us. Let's pray. Father, I pray if there's someone
here tonight who is struggling with this matter
of assurance. that there will be this evening
a settling of that issue in the heart and that
based upon the promises of your word, sweet and
blessed assurance may rest in that heart. Thank
you for the promise of safekeeping that Jesus
made to us. It is precious indeed and brings
peace to our soul. We thank you that one day
you are going to bring us to heaven, but even
now you've brought heaven to us because of this
promise. And we're grateful. Amen. I'd like for
us to sing together a brief hymn number 327,
a Swedish hymn, Children of the Heavenly Father.
And the words of it express so beautifully this
whole idea of our safekeeping. Let's stand as
we sing in closing. Children of the Heavenly
Father, safely In His bosom gather Nestling burden
or star in heaven, Such a refuge ere was given.
God His own doth tend and nourish, In His holy
courts they flourish, In His mighty arms He bears
them. Neither life nor death shall ever From
the Lord His children sever Unto them His He
showeth, and their sorrows all He knoweth. Though
He giveth or He taketh, God His children ne 'er
forsaketh, His the loving purpose to preserve
them pure and holy. Oh, those are great words.
Thank you, Father, for that assurance, of which
we have sung and studied tonight from your Word.
Father, I pray that you will encourage us as
we go our way, that your eye is upon us. that
you delight in our lives, that you wish to give
us the fullness of all that you are in our daily
experience. May we find that you are all that
we need. Fathers, we depart from this place tonight.
Our minds go to our friends in Indonesia, John
and Melody and Tom. We pray for that team that
you will keep your hand on them this week as
they finish their work and return the first of
next week. And grant that their hearts will overflow
with the joy of seeing what you've done through
them during these weeks they've invested there.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen, and good night.