“There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, ‘He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’ At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 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.’ 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, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 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. I and the Father are one.’”

The Light of the Good Shepherd

The chapter and verse indicators in our Bibles are wonderful, and incredibly practical, as they aid significantly with navigating the Word as a whole. But it bears reminding ourselves sometimes that the books of the Bible were not originally written by chapter and verse, and that this was a later addition, specifically for navigation purposes. I know that I (and I suspect I’m not alone in this), sometimes imagine a break or a time lapse between chapters that isn’t actually there, or else miss one that occurs because there’s not a change in chapters. This means we need to pay attention to what we’re reading, as sometimes it’s helpful to read a section while ignoring the chapter break entirely, and in other instances, understanding the passage of time can help us appreciate what’s unfolding. The start of John 10 is headed in my Bible, “I Am the Good Shepherd.” While creating a chapter change and heralding the coming of Jesus’s fourth “I Am” statement (as well as His third, “I Am the Door”) makes sense, if we read from the end of John 9 directly into John 10 and ignore the break, the passage flows seamlessly. Jesus has healed the man born blind, He has taken him in when he is cast out of the synagogue for not rejecting Jesus, and He has given the clarification in verse 39 that what He delivers is Spiritual sight,

“For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

When the Pharisees respond to this by asking (seemingly sarcastically), if they’re also blind, Jesus tells them in verse 41 as the close of John 9,

“If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

He moves directly from addressing the matter of being guilty in claiming sight, to giving the principles of the sheep, the thief, and the response of the sheep to their shepherd. When the people fail to understand this, Jesus clarifies: He is the Door, He is the Good Shepherd who protects, dies and lives again for His sheep. This proclamation shows us His love for us as His flock, as well as His love and devotion for the Father and His will. What Jesus tells them is true – He is the embodiment of Truth, and His words paint an accurate picture of the condition of the people, their need for a savior and provider, and His role as the One who saves. This is true, but the Truth can be an extremely divisive thing. While this is rampant in our world today, it is by no means new. Satan questioned what was true when he tempted Eve in the garden. The Israelites doubted what was true when they tested God in the wilderness. The discourse between Jesus and Pilate in the hours before His crucifixion show us a passive, worldly response to what God offers in John 18:37–38,

“Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him.’”

1.      The Division of the Good Shepherd

Disagreement over Jesus’s words, over the Truth is the first thing we see as we pick up in John 10:19.

“There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, ‘He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”

Despite what the world has always said, and continues to say today, the Truth is not subjective. Opinion, perspective, and circumstance are all subjective and can change vastly from individual to individual, but the Truth is the Truth, always. To make a bit of a circle here, or rather a web: Jesus says in John 14:6 that He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

1 John 4:8-9 states that “God is Love” and brings things full circle saying,

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

This attests to the fact that the Father and Son are One. Romans 1:20 says,

“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

This is a passage which largely addresses the unrighteousness of man, but in this particular verse clarifies that God’s existence is self-evident through His creation. If God is self-evident, then the Truth which is manifested in His Son, with whom He is One, is self-evident. The Bible is not a book that says, “Here are my rules, do what I say, no questions allowed.” God does not hide His will, or His reasons, or His Truth, but puts them on display that we might know and take comfort in them. When we honestly ask questions, seeking to understand the Truth and not tear it down and replace it with our own aims, He provides answers in abundance.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12,

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

We know in “part.” We’re not left in complete darkness as non-believers so often pretend, but are given partial understanding of a total assurance that is greater than anything that the world in its wickedness can offer up. This could raise the question, if Truth is self-evident, why is there division? Why doesn’t everyone accept the Truth of God, and come under the submission of the Father? God says to Cain in Genesis 4:6–7,

“Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

Jeremiah 17:9, which is later reaffirmed by Jesus in Mark 7:21-23 says,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Paul writes in Romans 7:21–25

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

In short, the will of God is nourishing and delightful in the spirit, and sin holds a perverse delight and joy in the flesh. Just because the right path is obvious, doesn’t mean you have to follow it. It would be a bad idea for me to sit down and eat an entire cheesecake in one sitting. Don’t get me wrong, I really like cheesecake, but for my general and dietary health, and for the way I’m going to feel for quite some time after, eating a whole one is a terrible idea. That doesn’t mean that in a fit of gluttony, I couldn’t sit down, ignore good sense or any concerns for future sufferings, and indulge in the in the momentary gratification of downing a whole cheesecake – it’s just a shortsighted and stupid decision. Many of the religious rulers (“the Jews” as they’re commonly referred to in John’s gospel), show themselves again in this passage to be an “eat the whole cheesecake” kind of bunch. These are the people that Jesus berates in Matthew 23. They are the hypocrites who, “… shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.” They have constructed an empty mockery of Judaism, worshiping the Law for the sake of itself, berating the people with the strict rules they’ve added to the Law, and neglecting to honor God or reflect His mercies. They are built up on worldly power, and they cling to this as Jesus tears it from beneath them. They do not care about the Truth, they care only for their own aim, power, and comfort. Jesus says in Matthew 11:16–19,

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

It doesn’t matter what John the Baptist, or Jesus, or the Apostles, or we in the church today say or do, as long as it we are in line with the Truth we are at odds with the world, and the world hates us as it hates God. This is the reason why in today’s passage we again see some of the religious rulers accuse Jesus of having a demon, as they have previously in John’s gospel. The accusation is baseless. It’s the equivalent of the squabbling on the internet today when one party makes a well-reasoned argument, and the other party, having no rebuttal, simply starts hurling insults. But if you’ve set yourself absolutely and completely against the Truth, what can you do but hate and revile it when it’s presented before you? Interestingly, we in John 10 that this is some, but not all of the religious rulers. While some hurl insults and blaspheme against the Son of Man, other’s at the very least acknowledge that what Jesus says, and what He has done in healing the man born blind are not the works of a demon. His Truth attests to itself. In this way, Jesus as the Truth and the Good Shepherd creates division, sorting those who are His from those who are not, by the guideline of what is true. This shows a precursor to the division that Jesus promises will unfold in the final judgement in Matthew 25:31–32,

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

The Truth is good, and holy, and righteous – but it is without question a dividing line, between what it is, and what it is not.

2.      The Provision of the Good Shepherd

“At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 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.’ 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, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.”

I mentioned before that chapter breaks don’t always indicate spaces between the passage, but the start of this section, “At that time the Feast of Dedication took place,” gives us some valuable insight as to how much time has passed, and how far we are from the crucifixion. In John 7 we saw that Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Booths, which is a fall celebration, typically occurring in late September or October by our modern calendar. The Feast of Dedication, which in moder times is celebrated as Hanukkah, was a winter feast as the passage says, and falls in late November or December by the modern calendar. To keep the timeline in mind, this puts us roughly three to four months away from Passover, and the crucifixion. I addressed before that Jesus is the manifestation of the Truth, and that the Truth is self-evident. This factors in with Jesus being the Light of the world, as the presence of light or lack thereof declares itself. This ties directly into the relevance of the celebration of the Feast of Dedication. An understanding of this as taken from modern Judaism is going to fall short of appreciating its true significance, as modern Judaism itself falls short. The promises, covenants, and the entirety of the Law that Judaism was built upon were satisfied in Jesus as the Christ, so the religion’s denial of His role as messiah makes it insufficient at the very least, and blasphemous at worst – and ultimately, it’s both. The miracle that is acknowledged and celebrated in the feast of dedication is fully realized in Christ. The feast, while not being one of the commanded feasts given in the Law, is still deeply significant for God’s people. During the period between the Old and New Testaments, Alexander the Great rose to power and spread Hellenistic (Greek) culture and language through his empire. After his death, his four leading generals warred against one another, dividing the empire among themselves. As a side note, Alexander’s rise, fall, and the division of his empire all line up with the prophecy concerning the goat in Daniel 8. In the aftermath of the division, Jerusalem, as well as all the surrounding area was enveloped as part of the Seleucid Empire. King Antiochus IV (who gave himself the title of “Epiphanes” meaning “god-manifest”), doubled down on the principles of Hellenism by not just encouraging, but mandating Greek practices and banning Jewish ones. Jewish rites were outlawed, circumcision was punishable by death, the temple was raided, and an alter where pigs were sacrificed to Zeus was built inside it. Many Jews were killed or sold into slavery, and suffered greatly under the Seleucids. Hanukkah seems to focus heavily on the Jewish rebellion and reclaiming of the temple, but something that doesn’t seem like it’s highlighted is that God allowed all of this to happen. In 1 Samuel 4, the Philistines defeat the Jews and capture the Ark of the Covenant. Israel is not in a right position before God, and He allows this glory to be taken from them. But in 1 Samuel 5, we see that the Philistines aren’t given free reign with the Ark, but suffer for taking it into their possession. First, they place the Ark into the temple of one of their pagan gods, which leads to the statue of the idol being destroyed. Then, the people of the city become afflicted with tumors. Plagues follow the Ark as the Philistines move it from city to city, until eventually they realize their mistake, give glory to God, and send the Ark back to Israel. On the other hand, farther into Israel’s future, Babylon is allowed to completely destroy the temple in Jerusalem, and during the 400 years of silence the Seleucids were allowed to profane the second temple. While the Maccabean revolt and victory to reclaim the temple seems to be the significant focus of Hanukkah, it was God who once again used an invading force to humble His people, and it was God who delivered the gift of the temple back into their hands. The Feast of Dedication celebrates this reclaiming and rededication of the temple to God. Rabbinic tradition holds that upon reclaiming and purifying the temple, they could find only one sealed jug of the purified olive oil that was to be used for the lamp. This should have been enough to last a day, but instead, by a miracle from God, it burned for eight days, enough time for more oil to be prepared. Hanukkah, with it’s nine stemmed candelabra, focuses on the miracle and tradition of the eight days, but the original temple lampstand as instructed to Moses by God, had seven brackets. Exodus 25:31–33, 37, says,

“You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work: its base, its stem, its cups, its calyxes, and its flowers shall be of one piece with it. And there shall be six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on one branch, and three cups made like almond blossoms, each with calyx and flower, on the other branch—so for the six branches going out of the lampstand… You shall make seven lamps for it. And the lamps shall be set up so as to give light on the space in front of it.”

The adoption of a nine bracketed candelabra in favor of tradition, versus the original seven bracketed design is telling. The picture of seven lamps is an image we see come full circle, manifested when John witnesses Jesus glorified in Revelation 1:12–20,

“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

The Feast of Dedication, which celebrates the reclaiming of the temple, and the miracle of the sustained light within the House of God, is shown in the glorified Son. The promise that was signified in God’s blessing of the burning oil, that the temple once again had His blessing, is reflected in the Son of Man standing in the midst of the seven churches, His light shining upon them, and theirs upon Him. To miss this point is to miss seeing that the church as the body of Christ attests to His Truth, and that He in His provision attests to His church. When the Jews in John 10 approach Him, saying,

“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

His answer makes complete sense.

“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 among my sheep.”

This provision has been made; the Light has been shone. They do not see the Light or hear His voice as the Good Shepherd because they’re not His sheep. Their eyes are for worldly things, and so the works of God, the very Light of the world, that is on display before them, goes unseen because they have no sense for it – though they swear that they see, they’re blind.

3.      The Guarantee of the Good Shepherd

“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. I and the Father are one.”

If you want to start debates (and often arguments) among believers, bring up the idea of “once saved, always saved.” If you read passages like this one, Romans 6, which says that our old self was crucified, we’re no longer enslaved to sin, and that we’re “… dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus,” or 2 Corinthians 5:17, which tells us that we’re new creations in Christ, with the old passing away, it does not sound like “losing” your salvation is a possibility. But if we read Hebrews 6:4–6, some questions arise,

“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”

It’s important to remember that the Word of God is complimentary, self-referencing and self-supporting – it doesn’t contradict itself. While there are a number of interpretations and theories behind the exact meaning of this passage from Hebrews, the consensus that makes the most sense to me in relation to the rest of scripture, is that this isn’t speaking of someone who has been truly saved, but of a person who has tasted, who has intellectually come face to face with the gospel, entertained it, and rejected it. While “once saved, always saved,” may be an oversimplification that leads to spiritual complacency, we are given assurance by God in our salvation. David writes in Psalm 23:1

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

God repeats again, and again throughout the Old Testament a promise, “you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

This promise is fully realized in Revelation 21:5–8,

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’”

We have assurance in God, not to be complacent or to take God’s promises for granted. As Paul writes in Philippians 2:12–13,

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This is not a call, as some twist in into being, toward works based salvation, but a reminder that our redemption in Christ is not something to be taken lightly or casually, but approached with awe and reverence. But in all this, we are given the guarantee that in hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd, in following Jesus we are known to Him. We are held in His hand, as He holds the angels of the seven churches, we are washed in the Light that comes from the Light of the world, and we are given assurance in the gift of the Father. God is not mocked, God is not stolen from, and we in belonging to Him, in belonging to the Light, and the Truth, cannot be taken from Him.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDK_l6FMA7g