Rev. Terry Breum St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lindenhurst, Illinois Reformation Day - Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 26, 2014 "Eternally Secure" John 10:22-42 (ESV) [22] At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, [23] and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. [24] So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly." [25] Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, [26] but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. [27] My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. [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. [30] I and the Father are one." [31] The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. [32] Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" [33] The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." [34] Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I said, you are gods'? [35] If he called them gods to whom the word of God came and Scripture cannot be broken [36] do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? [37] If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; [38] but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." [39] Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. [40] He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. [41] And many came to him. And they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true." [42] And many believed in him there. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen. Between lasts week text in John, which ended with verse 21 and our text this week which begins with verse 22, two months has passed in the life of Jesus. The celebration of the feast of booths was over and now it was time for a new feast called the Feast of Dedication. It took place on the 25 th day of the Jewish month of Chislev, the same month as our December. "This event took place on our Christmas" (R. Kent Hughes, John, That You May Believe, pg. 271. I rely 1
heavily on Dr Hughes's insights, as well as R C Sproul s and John McArthur's). The Feast of Dedication is not mentioned as one of the Old Testament feasts. It was a new feast inaugurated during the intertestamental period, after the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi and before the first book of the New Testament, Matthew. The Feast of Dedication celebrated the Israelites victory over the Syrian King Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.). Antiochus did his best to impose Greek culture on God's chosen people the Jews. He captured Jerusalem and desecrated the temple (170 B.C.) by sacrificing an unclean animal, a pig, on the altar, an insult of insults to God's people. He set up a pagan altar in the temple, erected a statue of Zeus in the most holy place, and did all that he could to get rid of Judaism (John McArthur, John 1-11. pg. 439). Antiochus brutalized the Jews. This is before Islam but he was not unlike an Islamic terrorist of our time. He forced the Jews to offer sacrifices to pagan gods, they could not open or read their Bible and copies of it were destroyed. They could not keep the Sabbath or circumcise children. Dr McArthur writes, "Antiochus was the first pagan king to persecute the Jews for their religion" (ibid pg. 439). The book of Daniel predicted this would happen. A priest named Mattathias and his sons led a revolt and three years later Mattathias's son, Judas Macabeus, retook Jerusalem. On the 25 th of Chislev, our December 25 th, they liberated the temple, rededicated it and established the Feast of Dedication (McArthur pg. 439). Today that feast is called Hanukkah or the Feast of Lights. The verses we cover today ends the public ministry of Jesus Christ. From this point on we are going straight to the cross. Jesus's days on earth as the God man are numbered and Jesus knew his time was drawing near. The religious leaders gathered around him and asked him a question he had already answered several times. He never kept secret who he was. Jesus spoke the truth and they 2
refused to believe because their hearts were hardened. Oh how dangerous it is to harden your heart toward Jesus. When you do God's truth can no longer penetrate and you are left with the lies of this world which come straight from Satan. Some of you have children or grandchildren who refuse to believe in Jesus and refuse to come to worship. One prayer that is so good to pray. "Lord Jesus, please soften my child's heart toward Jesus." "Lord Jesus, please soften my child's heart toward the church." Some of you have spouses that refuse to attend worship. Lord Jesus, please soften my wife's heart, my husband's heart toward Jesus and the church. God's call, God's invitation goes out weekly to every Christian worldwide to come and worship him. Thank you for answering that invitation. I have heard every excuse for why a Christian either leaves a church or refuses to attend worship. There is often a lot of unresolved pain in their stories sometimes, not always, but sometimes mixed with a little rebellion. Still God sends his personal invitation out every week for us to gather and worship him. Who are we to turn down an invitation from God? We have had several people attend St Mark for a season. They got crushed in their church. Here they felt fed by the Word of God. God built them up and they were ready to return. I find that interesting. Friends, we as human beings are quite fragile, easily hurt, easily broken. Some of you have been hurt here. I know the Lord Jesus has what you need to be healed. I know in my own life, the deepest pains I have experienced I have only been able to overcome with the help of a trusted Christian counselor. I had to go to a person who was gifted by God to bring inner healing, the healing of deep excruciating pain that keeps you awake at night and anxious during the day. I know there is healing and when that healing comes your experience of God's grace, God's wonderful kindness grows deeper. The greater the pain the greater the grace. "Jesus, tell us if you are the Christ." Friends they were not asking him this question because they were seeking truth. They were asking him this question because they wanted to 3
kill him and were looking for evidence to put him to death. Jesus was the greatest threat to the power and prestige of the religious leaders. The leaders were envious of Jesus. He had the audacity to call them the hypocrites that they were and they were fed up with him. The sooner they could trap him the better. The miracles proved he was from God. Jesus claimed several time unapologetically that he was God. We have been preaching on all of his "I am" statements which are statements of Deity. Plus, only God can forgive sins and over and over Jesus spoke the words of forgiveness. Several times they tried to stone him for claiming to be God but it was not yet his time. Jesus response cuts to the quick. "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock." I do not claim to know what was going on inside of Jesus as he said this. But I do know that when you are dealing with unbelieving hard hearted people it is so discouraging to hear their responses of unbelief. You want these persons to be saved by God's grace through faith. You want them to know the love of Jesus, forgiveness of sins, the deep working of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the Gospel. But all they do is reject everything you say. The Bible makes it very clear my friends, we are to keep sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ no matter how many times we hear words of rejection. We are all Christian farmers, planting the seeds of the Gospel everywhere. It is not our responsibility to make people believe. Only God can save a soul. But we can keep planting the seeds of the Gospel without fail. When I was a pastor in Mt. Olive, Janet and I once asked a couple to our home for dinner 16 times. We called and invited them 16 times. 16 times they said no. 16 times we were hurt. On the 17 th time they said yes and a beautiful friendship was formed. When we came here we remembered that. Janet and I called a particular couple when we first came here to go out to eat. You know what, they said yes the first time. Gee that was nice and we are still good friends 4
to this day. My point is, keep planting seeds, keep sharing the Gospel even when you do not see any results. When a person is looking squarely at death, the word of truth you spoke can arise within that person and bear fruit. The seed you planted can still bear fruit 50, 60, yes, 70 years later. It lied dormant until just the right time because God's Word will accomplish God's purposes and will not return void. Don't give up on any person. Keep planting those seeds. Please keep inviting people to believe in and receive the Lord Jesus Christ and become a child of God. The Word of our Lord Jesus Christ. "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 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" (vr 27-29) And then Jesus speaks these words describing the most intimate relationship in heaven and on earth. "I and the Father are one" (vr 30). Further on in John we read that the Holy Spirit is also part of this relationship of intimacy, the most intimate relationship of all, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yes Jesus is claiming to be God, at one with the Father. Once again the Jews wanted to stone him because he said he was God. Friends, this is why we are in utter disagreement with Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons, for they refuse to believe in the Deity of Christ. Their Jesus is of their own making and is not the Jesus of the Bible. They refuse to believe that Jesus is God just like the religious leaders of Jesus' day. I say this with great sadness in my heart. Friends, it is because of this passage and a few others that I personally believe that once God saves you by grace through faith, once you are truly saved you cannot lose your salvation. Once saved, always saved goes the phrase. When I hear of stories of persons who fall away from Jesus and reject the faith, become an atheist if you will, I truly believe that person was never saved in the first place. I also believe that if it were possible to lose one's faith, and I don't 5
think it is, but if it were possible to lose one's faith, I believe God will bring you home before you could ever do that. There is a sin that leads to death and even if it were possible to forsake the faith and give your soul back to Satan God would bring you home to him before you did that. No one can snatch you out of the Father's hand. No one is more powerful than God and no one can snatch you out of the Father's hand. The Christian life is not so much you holding onto God as it is God holding onto you and never letting go. This is where I stand on the issue of eternal security. One author writes, "If you have it, you never lose it; if you lose it, you never had it" (R.C Sproul, John. pg. 196). The crowd was hostile toward Jesus but he did not back down. He quoted a passage from the Psalms where judges were called gods. The argument that Jesus was making was not that it is okay to call yourself god as the judges did. Jesus is making an argument from the lesser to the greater. "If you could call certain judges god, I and God the Father are one." "You have someone right here far greater than any judge." "You have the one and only God standing right in front of you." How blind to the truth they were. My God give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Lord, forgive us where we are blind. We have many persons in our church actively involved in evangelism. Please do not think that every time you share the Gospel people will fall down right in front of you and repent. The Son of God spoke the truth and they did not believe. But notice what happens. Jesus goes elsewhere and finds hearts wide open and receptive to receiving the Gospel. Verse 42, "And many believed in him there." Just because some may reject what you say there is always tomorrow and God provides other places for you to speak the truth in love. You may share it 16 times and then they will say yes. So don't stop, please keep planting seeds and keep watering them. God will cause the growth. Amen and Amen. 6