John 10:22-29 - Safe in the Hand of God

John 10:22-29

22 At that time the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem; 23 it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. 24 The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying 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, these testify of Me. 26 But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, 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.

Message: Safe in the Hand of God

Time: John most likely wrote between A.D. 85 and 90. John's purpose in writing was, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31)." 

What the Lord is Saying: From the previous passage there was a division among those Jews listening to Jesus with many thinking that Jesus had a demon in Him. Why? Because of what He was proclaiming. That He lays down His life for His sheep (v.11). That the Father knows Him (v. 15) and that in Himself people will be saved (v. 9). And that beyond Israel, he adds the Gentiles as well to the fold of belonging to Him (v. 16). And He will die and be resurrected (v. 17). All this is based upon His authority (v. 18). 

Jesus had entered Jerusalem in chapter 7 following the request of his brother though he did it in His own way. That time was the Feast of the Booths in September/October time frame. Now it is the time of the Feast of Dedication taking place in Jerusalem (v. 22). 

The Feast of Dedication was also called the Feast of Maccabees and now is called Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. The Maccabees successfully revolted against Antiochus IV Epiphanes (ruled the Seleucid Empire (encompass modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon) from 175 BC until his death in 164 BC). The Maccabean revolt occurred from 167 BC to 160 BC. The Seleucids were trying to take control of Judea. Jewish practices were banned, Jerusalem was placed under direct Seleucid control, and the Second Temple in Jerusalem was made the site of a syncretic Pagan-Jewish cult. According to the Talmud, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day's lighting. Thus, this is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple. 

Jesus is walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. This portico is said to have been on the east side of the Temple, and to have been a relic of the original building of Solomon which had survived all destructions and restorations. And the Jews that have probably been a part of the division (v. 19) encircle him and question Him as to who He really is. Some have said he was a demon (v. 20) but others didn't think He could be demon possessed (v. 21). They want to know if He is the Christ. 

The question is rather preposterous. Jesus continues to state clearly He is from the Father and He is the Son of God. While Jesus does not say "I am the Christ" He has been speaking of who He is and that He is the Son of God. 

John 5:19 - Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

John 7:37 - Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink."

John 7:38 - “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

John 8:12 - Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

John 8:36 - “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."

John 8:56 - "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

John 10:1 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber." 

Matthew Poole (1624–1679) in his commentary states, "I have in effect told it you more than once; I have told you that I am sent of the Father, &c., I have said enough for you to conclude it; but you will not understand, you will not receive it, you will not believe what I say. What need you any further witness of it, than those works which I do by Divine power; by virtue of my oneness with my Father, and of that power and authority which he hath committed to me, that by them I might confirm the doctrine which I have taught you?"

This is a sobering reality for many. And a sobering reality for those that know the truth that the reality is many will not conclude the same. Some people are stuck in their ways. Like the man we spoke to at the mall two weeks ago who really would not listen or consider any words that we might say. He was a man that was stuck. And no amount of revelation or words from us was going to change that. 

Jesus points out - you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. The sheep hear his voice and know his voice (vs. 3-4). But these are not His sheep. They don't hear. They may hear words from a mouth, but they don't hear in the sense of understanding and accepting. 

For those that hear and know His voice Jesus confirms their present and future -- My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, 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.

Sheep have a different path - following Jesus. Receiving eternal life, never perishing. Safe in the Hand of God....always. 

This reminds me that once we are declared safe by Him and perhaps Jesus is the only one that really know who has been declared safe, but for those that are safe they will never be unsafe. They will never be lost. 

Summary: Jews encircle Jesus at the time of Hanukkah and want to know if He is the Christ. Jesus has already repeatedly told who He is. They are not His sheep and cannot hear Him. 

Promise: RC Sproul writes, "We are secure, not because we hold tightly to Jesus, but because He holds tightly to us.”

Prayer: Lord, I am thankful that I can hear you and that I know Your voice. It is a sobering reality Lord that others cannot hear. And yet Lord, you still want me to be a voice to people. You still want me to share. You want me to have the conversations and communicate and find Your sheep. Help me to be faithful in this. I need this. This is not a burden but something I need to do continually. For my own sake in who you have called me to be, I need to speak the truth of You to others. Thank you for the richness of Your word and the clarity of it and the history of You saving your people. This can be seen in Hanukkah that you have always been a God who saves their people, no matter what is going on in the world and who has governmental power, you are always present and near. I praise You God for this. 

Note: If you are interested in other studies/devotions, check out my index of Bible Study's. 

Malachi 3:6 - The God Who Never Changes

Malachi 3:6
For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.

Message: The God Who Never Changes

Time: Malachi delivers a message to the Judean people who worship at the temple, but our turning away from the true worship of the Lord. This is after the completion of the second temple. Late 5th Century BC, possibly during Nehemiah's return to Persia, around 433-424 BC.

What the Lord is Saying:

The message here is simple: God does not change. These are the words spoken by Malachi, a prophet of the Lord. His book is the final book of the Old Testament, about 450 years before Christ. This idea only should bring comfort to us - that God does not change. Malachi was speaking a message to his people here in chapter 3 of purification by a messenger. As we study and look back at this message, knowing Jesus came, we naturally want to see this as a prophecy of Jesus and His coming to cleanse the temple, cleans the people. However, the text is not completely clear that this is about Jesus. What it is clear in addressing is the need for the people of Judah to be cleansed, to be purified. In verse 7, they have turned aside from My statutes and have not kept them. He speaks of the kinds of people that are present: the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me. 

And in between these words is the proclamation that I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. By not changing, to me, this means that the Lord's expectations on His people does not change. He still remains a selfish God that wants His people to honor Him and worship Him. He gives them statutes for them to be kept. He expects his people to honor him and not seek their own way. When they do this they become human idol factories, thinking that their own way is the better way. 

What is clear is that the Lord will purify His people. This is a message from God that has remained throughout history. God is our redeemer. And yet this call to purification still requires a response. God may choose us, but there still is a response that is required from man. In verse 7 he says, "Return to Me." 

We think at times that the message of the New Testament, of repentance and love is so very clear, but it is the same message, but simply has a more clear presenter: Jesus Christ. But the message remains: God redeems. Man returns to Him. Our God does not change. 

That's His message and we can accept it or reject it, but that is His message. God will not change. He sits outside of time. One of my brothers in the Lord begins our prayer time weekly with, "Thank you for a new day." It is a reminder that we change. We celebrate with jubilation the turning of time, the beginning of a new year recently. It is 2019. Time is growing. Life is changing. We are growing daily, aging. We are changing. But, our God does not change. We look forward to a day of no change when things will remain the same and when our true relationship as true worshipers will be present. 

Promise: Each day I can rely on the One who is incapable of changing and will never allow His promises to fail. My security remains in Him. He promises to always keep me safe, safe in Him. 

Prayer: Lord, you do not change. You remain the same and your Ways remain the same. Thank you for being that anchor, the rock, the fortress, the horn of our salvation, our stronghold. I love You Lord. You are great. I need this reminder in my life daily that though I live in a day of improvement and wanting each day to be better than the next, I can rest in the idea that You never change. You desire me and desire people to know you and listen to You. You are a selfish God and you always know what is best for me. Lord, I want to return to You. Each day Lord I want to return to You. I want to listen to these words you have spoken through your prophet Malachi 2500+ years ago that remain true to this day: Return to You. As I live and move and change, keep pulling me back to your message, reminding me that you are still there. You still want me. I can still return to You. Lord, I admit my ideals are often the ideals of this world - for daily happiness and enjoyment and peace and security and comfort -- and even as those things are okay, help me have a stronger love for You and seeking you and desiring to never disappoint You. I know you will always take me back, but still I want my life to honor You. You deserve it. And I need it. It is the only way to live.


Note: I follow the readings from the Tabletalk Magazine devotional, though I am a little behind and working through 2017 devotionals. 2017 is a study of key biblical doctrines with January being about the doctrine of God.

Mark 8:34-35 - Cruciform Discipleship

Mark 8:34-35
34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.

Message: Cruciform Discipleship

Time: Mark's personal connection with Peter gave him the source material for this book. This book was composed probably between AD 57 and AD 59. It's a book that is on the move, leading to the cross. 39 times is the word 'immediately' used. Mark reveals Jesus as God's servant, reaching into the lives of people and effecting physical and circumstantial change.

What the Lord is Saying: 

Preface - After Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ - the Jewish Messiah - Jesus states his mission of suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection. Peter rebukes Jesus over this, wanting to correct him. But Jesus sees that Peter misunderstands and exhibits tough love in rebuking Peter, calling him out as Satan because his words are motivated by man's interests instead of God's.  


It seems that Jesus has arrived in Caesarea Philippi and he proclaims a direct message to the people, something I haven't seen him do much in this gospel. If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. This three-fold commandment has always seemed a little outrageous or extreme to me, to the point that I do not know at times how I can in fact live this way day in and day out.

This is not a popular message, I feel, in today's times, especially in America where we are commissioned it seems to "Be all you can be." In life, the focus so often is on me. But, Jesus specifically states that a person must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me. I still find it interesting that in a way this is Jesus' second message to us. He started out in chapter 1 with, "Repent and believe." And now here is the message, "Deny and Follow." In some ways there is similarity. The desire is to turn from yourself.

Come after me
First, is the desire to come after Jesus or follow Jesus. So there is a redundant message here. If we are to follow Jesus we need to deny one self, take up my cross, and follow. So, twice he says follow. Therefore, we need to clarify what is between the follows. 

Deny Oneself
To deny oneself is to relinquish your personal will and surrender that will--always to the Lord. I've been reading about this recently in the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges. The first Respectable Sin he addresses is ungodliness - or having an attitude daily that is not towards God. Conversely, to have an attitude toward God is to think of God throughout the day and to seek His will in all things. Yes, that is the goal. I will fall short. But, I can still press on. I can still try to live this way.

So how? I'm a step-by-step person I suppose. I watched the movie War Room last night and it spoke to me on the subject of fighting our battles with prayer. In essence, as we navigate difficult people and circumstances in life, I first must think about how I am to treat them - with love, compassion, and if I have a problem with them - the problem should be something I am taking to the Lord. I need to be praying for God to fix that problem. For me, this is about denying myself, or denying my will or as it says in Proverbs 3:5, "Do not lean on my own understanding." That is the antithesis it seems of denying oneself.

Take up his cross
So Jesus makes this command prior to going to the cross. The cross is a horrible instrument of execution. Get ready to be treated like a criminal. It is to experience shame. Tabletalk devotional defines this as "the shame and persecution this world heaps upon believers." So, would that be take up the shame and persecution or rather, don't go along with the worlds definitions of life. Take up those things that are contrary to God. Deny yourself and deny the world's ideals. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence that he would say, "take up your cross" when he is going soon to die on a cross.

To experience self-denial is to loses his life. When I deny my self, it implies to self's. I am denying myself. The old self that wants to live opposition free, shame-free, suffering-free, death-free. The new self says, "I want Jesus more than I want to be free from opposition. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from shame. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from suffering. I want Jesus more than I want to be free from death."

There is nothing wrong with me denying myself or losing myself.

Save leads to Lose
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it - I don't want to lose my life, so don't save it. Save means I will pursue acceptance. I will pursue comfort. I will pursue my own glory. I will pursue safety. This is what it means to save my own life. John 12:25 - Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. So, whoever will save his life in this world, he will lose it forever. Whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. So I will embrace not being accepted, not being comfortable, not coming out on top, not being safe.

This doesn't mean I look for suffering or I look to be uncomfortable or I look to be unsafe. But, when these situations arise in my life, I bear my cross. I seek you to see what you would have me learn in those situations.

So, if the focus on my world is being free from opposition, getting my glory, not ever experiencing suffering, always being comfortable, then I will not experience eternal life. Those are tough words, but truth.

Summary - Jesus has just rebuked Peter asserting that he knows the way that is before him. And here he further clarifies that contrary to what Peter thinks, he has a mission and Peter will need to deny himself and what he desires to experience that mission. Jesus very clearly tells us that to follow Him is to deny oneself and take up our cross.

Promise: Following Jesus is the opposite of the old world thinking or my old self thinking to gratify myself and achieve my way in all things. Life is not about my pleasure. It is about seeking the Lord and then seeing what He provides, realizing that sometimes opposition, unsafe, suffering, and uncomfortable are things I need to experience.


Prayer: Lord, I often am living my life in opposition to your calling on my life. Rather then denying myself, I spend my day pleasing myself. I fill my appetite as I wish. Whenever suffering or heartache comes my way, I very quickly ask it to be removed from my life. Rather than waiting to see how you will rescue me, I want the problem to be gone immediately.There are things in my life that I know I need to do. You are always teaching me and reminding me Holy Spirit to do things. Too often, I ignore you and take the easy road. Too often, I ignore you and take the selfish road. I do not want to live like this anymore. Holy Spirit, as you speak to me, I want to listen and obey, even if it means experiencing shame, opposition, suffering, death. Lord, too quickly I choose a life that is all about being accepted, having comfort, getting my own glory, being safe. Lord change me. Change my thinking. Re-write the thinking in my life. Re-write this in me so that I am pursuing that which is hard. When I do hard things, I save my life. O Lord, I hate how selfish my life has become. As circumstances happen in my life, help me to accept what you are teaching me.

https://www.desiringgod.org/labs/what-does-it-mean-to-take-up-our-cross