John, pt. 65 | John 10:22-30

The Feast of Dedication and the Setting in John 10

If you would at this time take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to John's Gospel, John chapter 10. We're going to consider verses 22 through 30. John chapter 10 verses 22 through 30 and this is our 65th message in this gospel and we are halfway through the Gospel of John.

The Gospel of John has 21 chapters. We're in chapter 10. We're deep into it and we're working our way to being halfway through. So if we continue the way we are probably have another 65 messages but we'll see.

All right. Hallelujah. I love that. All right. Let me open us up in prayer. Glorious God of heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord we at this time call you to speak to us. Acts 2 42. The people gather together for the teachings of the Apostles.

Lord it says that they devoted themselves to the teachings of the Apostles. Someone would open the book and explain the book. Lord I stand here as your manservant Lord and I just ask that you speak through me.

The book is open. Lord they did not come here to hear from me but to hear from you. Please use me this day to articulate your word well. Convict those who need convicting and Lord to give assurance to those who need assurance and we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. All right. So let's begin with the text. John chapter 10 verses 22 through 30. At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple at the portico 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 my father's hand.

I and my father are one. Our theme for this Lord's Day is the Christ has come. Ladies and gentlemen, the Christ has come. The long-awaited Messiah that the Israelites were waiting for has come. He came nearly 2 ,000 years ago.

Well definitely 2 ,000 years ago. I believe that he was born around 3 BC, 3 or 4 BC. But this right here is working around nearly 2 ,000 years ago when he is revealing himself in his ministry. And this is one of the last public ministries of Jesus's life right here that we are reading.

He's about to just devote himself to his disciples alone. To his disciples alone he's going to be devoting himself. Right here is one of the last times he's going to speak as plainly as he has been and as openly as he has been to those religious leaders in Jerusalem.

And my proposition is this, Christ's sheep will never perish ever. My dear friends, if you are in Christ there will never be a time that you will not be in Christ. If there's ever a time where you have been born again, God has given to you repentance and faith and you're looking to Jesus.

My dear friends, there's never going to be a time when you're not in him. You say, well what if I sin? You're still in him. And if you're living in sin and you're in him, guess what he's going to do? Discipline you.

He's going to discipline you and he's going to bring you back. He's going to take his shepherd's hook and wrap it around you and bring you to him. If he has to go and find you, guess what he's going to do?

He's going to break your leg. Right? There's this old, in shepherding there's this old technique that the shepherds would do when a sheep would wander off. He would leave his one sheep and he leaves all the sheep in the field and he would go and find that sheep that wandered off and when he found that sheep, he snapped the sheep's leg.

You say, oh that's cruel. That's what they would do. He would snap the sheep's leg and the shepherd would take the sheep and he would put the sheep on his shoulder and he would walk that sheep back to the fold.

And as legend has it, that sheep got familiar with the heartbeat of the shepherds. So every time the shepherd's heart would beat because that sheep was wrapped around his shoulders, the sheep would feel the heartbeat of the shepherd.

And once that sheep's foot healed, that sheep so long to feel the heartbeat of the shepherd, it was the one sheep that stayed closest to the shepherd. It never wanted to leave the shepherd's side. So if you are his and you have sinned, let's say all of us sinned, but if you wander away into your sin, if you are his, like a good parent, like a good shepherd, you will be disciplined.

He will come after you. The word perish means to suffer complete ruin or destruction, to be destroyed, or it can mean to die. Being in Jesus Christ means not to suffer complete ruin. It means not to be destroyed and it means even though you die, yet shall you live.

Jesus and the Unbelief of the Jews

And in our outline, we're going to look at Jesus's relationship with various groups from this text. We're going to see Jesus's relationship with the Jews. We're going to see Jesus's relationship with his sheep.

We're going to see Jesus's relationship with his father. So point number one, Jesus's relationship with the Jews. Point number two, Jesus's relationship with the sheep. And point number three, Jesus's relationship with his father.

And listen, as we transition in our text, Jesus is speaking with the of Israel, who were supposed to be the shepherds of Israel. They were supposed to take care of the sheep of Israel by protecting, leading, guiding, and feeding.

By protecting, leading, guiding, and feeding of the sheep. But instead of protecting, leading, guiding, and feeding the sheep, they were feasting on the sheep. As we read last week from Ezekiel 34, 1 through 10, which prophesied the coming of Christ to rescue his sheep.

Jesus's claim as the Good Shepherd is him entering into time by becoming flesh to rescue his sheep from the shepherds hook. These false shepherds hook. You see, with that hook, a shepherd can abuse the sheep.

And with that hook, they could guide the sheep. The false shepherds of Israel were using their hook as a striking stick to abuse the sheep. Jesus came to rescue us from that hook by calling us by name.

By calling his own sheep by name. Now here in verses 22 through 23 gives us the context of when and where they are. Look with me at those two verses. Verses 22 and 23. At that time, the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem.

It was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple in the porticoes. Your translation, my translation actually says colonnade. Portico is what I'm used to reading. It also means porch. And the porch of Solomon, the colonnade of Solomon, or the portico of Solomon.

This tells us that they were at the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication has another name. It's called the Feast of Lights. Something that you might know it by is Hanukkah. This is two months after Jesus had went to the Feast of Boots and he presented to him of being the light of the world.

Being the water, I mean being the spout by which he received the living water. That would have been somewhere in October, September. We are now around November, December depending on the Jewish calendar of how it falls.

But they are in, it's winter. It's Hanukkah. Now this feast you will not find in the Old Testament. It's not found in Leviticus chapter 23 because this feast took place during the 400 years of silence when God was no longer speaking to the people.

Now during this time at this feast, at this time, we're now approaching maybe three months left of Jesus on earth. We're inching closer to his death. Half of the Gospel of John actually takes place within a matter of a couple of weeks.

So far this half has taken place that we've already went through has been nearly three and a half years. It's been three years and right now three years and two months. We've been looking at this book of John, looking over Jesus's life and now we're approaching two, three months left for him to be alive, depending on how the calendar fell at that time.

This feast came about, it was a celebration of a time when a man by the name of Judith Maccabee overthrew an Assyrian monarch who was called Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus Epiphanes was hell-bent on Hellenizing the Jews.

He did not like the Jews because of their religion. He did not like the fact that the Jews only worshipped one God. He wanted the Jews to worship the pantheon of gods that he himself worshipped. And so his whole life was bent upon Hellenizing the Jews to get them to become Greeks.

And it's funny whenever you read the New Testament and how the Jews are now trying to get the Gentiles to become Jews. Like it's kind of like a reversal, right? Anyways, this guy Antiochus Epiphanes, this is his name, he kind of ruled with an iron fist for about three and a half years.

And from 66, excuse me, 68 BC to 65 BC, this man walked up in the Jewish temple at that time, would have been Herod's temple. He erected a statue of Zeus and he sacrificed a pig on the altar. And you can read about this in prophecy when you read the book of Daniel, what took place specifically in Daniel chapter 11.

Now of course it doesn't specify the name Antiochus Epiphanes because it's a prophecy of what was to come. A lot of people look at this as the abomination of desolation. I would say that this right here is a picture, it is a type of an antitype which would be the true abomination of desolation.

If you went through my study when it comes to concerning the end times, I would say that the antitype of what took place at this time with Antiochus Epiphanes, it being a type, the antitype is after Jesus is crucified, dead, buried, and rose again on the third day, any time that they walked into that temple with an animal sacrifice.

That was the true abomination of desolation because they continue to sacrifice offerings to God after the once and for all offering was sacrificed. It mentions that they were at Solomon's porch. If you remember, Herod's temple was not the first temple, it was Solomon's temple.

And when Solomon's temple was torn down by the Babylonians, this porch was built near the temple and it was one of the only things that remained after that destruction. Now it wasn't remained in its totality, some of it was torn down, but there was a piece that was not torn down and actually when you read the book of Acts, we commonly see that Christians would gather there for worship.

Now Solomon's porch, it did protect them from the weather. It says in our text that it was code and there was parts of it that had walls to where it would keep the wind from hitting you. So Jesus gathered there, they're celebrating a time when a Messiah figure came and overthrew a rebellion, overthrew a person who had committed an abomination that was desolate, who overthrew a man who was persecuting the Jews, and now they're asking Christ a question.

Have that in mind as we get to our first point. Point number one, Jesus's relationship with the Jews. Now this is taken from verses 24 through 26, but let's just read 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. Now you know as well as I do, if you've studied the Bible at any length of time, that they believed that the Christ was going to be this figure like Judah Maccabee who would come and overthrow the Romans and would bring them relief.

So that's what they're looking for. So now the Jews are approaching Jesus and they're complaining that Jesus is not speaking to them in a way that they can understand. So why would Jesus speak in such a way to the people that they would not be able to understand, right?

We've been going through the scriptures, it seems that he's speaking to them plainly sometimes, right? I mean there's times where it seems that it's a little muffled and stuff like that, but for the most part as we're reading through this, we understand that Jesus is revealing himself.

They do not think he's revealing himself, and then we have to ask ourselves because of scripture, why is it that Jesus isn't speaking as clear as he could be speaking? Why isn't he not saying, I am the Christ, I am God, believe in me.

Why is he not saying it in those words? The answer is found in Matthew chapter 13. If you would turn there, and in Matthew chapter 13, the disciples ask a similar question. Look at verse 10. Matthew chapter 13, beginning in verse 10.

Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? Verse 11, and he, this is Jesus, answered them, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, speaking of these religious leaders, it has not been given.

For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, that says, you will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's hearts have grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed.

Lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them. Jesus would speak openly to everyone in parables. But, now this is a hard truth to swallow for a lot of Christians and Christian denominations, but he would only explain the parables to them he wanted to reveal himself.

If he did not want to reveal himself to you, he would speak to you in a parable, and this parable will cause your ears to go deaf, your eyes to go blind, and your heart to turn hard. You say, why would God do that?

Well, he's going to answer us. He would speak to those in parables, but if you were his, if you were his sheep, if you were one of his, he would reveal himself to you in a parable. He would explain the parable, because to whom the kingdom of heaven was given, he's going to make sure you know him.

Jesus wouldn't even allow demons to reveal who he was. Turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, beginning in verse 40. We'll read verse 40 and 41. It says, Now when the sun was setting, all those who had, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases, brought them to him.

They brought them to Jesus, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. Look at verse 41. And demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God. But he, this is Jesus, rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.

Demons would see Jesus as you read the scripture, and they would say, What are you doing? Why are you here before your appointed time? They knew who he was. All they had to do was see him, and they knew who he was, and yet he came to his own people, his own people who had the whole Old Testament memorized, and they could not see him.

They could not hear him, and their hearts were hardened to him. First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 8 says this,. None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.

So imagine that. If Jesus had to, if Jesus was to explain to them who he is, if he was to give this parable, and then teach them this parable, and they understood who he was, they would have not crucified Jesus.

And guess what happens if that took place? No eternal life. You're still in your sins. All of us, when we die, are going to be thrown into hell. He had to be crucified. He had to be the lamb who was slain.

He had to be the perfect lamb who kept the law in our place, and he had to be the sacrifice upon the altar. If that had not happened, we would not have salvation. Jesus had to reveal himself to some, and he had to not reveal himself to others.

Those who he revealed himself to are his sheep. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. We're going to be doing a lot of reading today. In Matthew chapter 26, Jesus has been captured. He's been betrayed. He's been captured.

He's standing before a council, and he's being asked questions. He's asked a question by one of the high priests, Caiaphas, in verse 63. He says, "...but Jesus remained silent, and the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.

And Jesus said to him, you have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power and coming on the clouds of heaven.". This is pointing us back to another prophecy in Daniel, this time chapter 7, when the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days, and the Ancient of Days gives to the Son of Man a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

Jesus, right here to Caiaphas, is saying, you have said I'm the Christ, and I'm the Son of Man. Not only am I the Son of David, but I am the Son of Man. Not only did I come here to fulfill the prophecies, but I am going to be given a kingdom.

Notice what he said, you have said so. This is a way of agreeing with him. And let us not forget to mention the countless times in John's gospel, and how Jesus revealed himself in various ways. He has revealed himself in signs and wonders.

We see this with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, said to Jesus in chapter 3 of John, he said, Rabbi, beginning in verse 2, he said, Rabbi, this is teacher, he said, we know he's a Pharisee. So when, you know, like if I, you know, me representing my family, like if you say, you know, Jeff and his family, and I said we, I'm kind of speaking of me and my family, or if I say we as Christians.

So the word we has to be, from what the scholars are saying, it's pointing to the Pharisees. He's saying, Rabbi, we know, we the Pharisees know, that you are a teacher that come from God. So he's admitting that Pharisees believe that he is a teacher that comes from God.

For no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. And watch Jesus' response, verse 3. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see, this is with your eyes, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

My dear friends, knowing that he come from God, and being in the kingdom are two different things. The Pharisees knew that that God had to be upon him, because he was doing these magnificent signs. He was healing the blind.

He was raising the dead. He was doing things that no one else could do. He was casting out demons. Something has to be up with this guy. The Old Testament prophesies about something like this. It was happening in their presence, and they knew that he had to be from God, but yet they could not see the kingdom of God, because their eyes were blinded, their ears were deafened, and their heart was hardened.

And in John chapter 5, Jesus heals a lame man and calls God his father, and by doing so, the text tells us that he makes himself equal with God. So the Jews are seeing a mere man with their eyes, making himself equal with God, and they pick up stones to stone him.

He also tells these religious leaders that Moses wrote about him. In John 6, Jesus feeds upwards to 20 ,000 to 25 ,000 people with a sack lunch. He takes a little boy's sack lunch, and he feeds upwards to 25 ,000 people.

The text will say 5 ,000 men, but you read another account of this, it says plus women and children. And so when you do the calculation, it can be anywhere from 20 to 25 ,000 people that he fed with one sack lunch.

And to them, he became a fish and bread dispenser, but not the Christ. He was someone who could feed them physical food and give them physical drink, but he wasn't the Christ. He couldn't feed them nourishment, like inwardly.

That's not what they were looking for. They were looking for earthly and tangible things. And in John 6, excuse me, also in John 6, he tells them that the work of God, because after he feeds them this bread, they want to know what can they do to do this kind of work.

He said, what can we do to be doing the works of God like you're doing? He says, believe in me. So they're speaking in one area, his response is in another area. They're speaking about what can we do to do these magnificent works you're doing for God.

And he tells them that the work of God is believing in him. The work of God is not performing miracles. The work of God is believing in Jesus Christ. The work of God is not trying to play tricks. It's not trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

The work of God is believing in Jesus Christ. And my dear friends, you cannot believe unless you're one of his sheep. That's what this text has been teaching us. And so many Christians, they deny this portion of the book because it says hard things.

I can remember when I was coming to this understanding how I thought that I had this system, that I had this understanding in a headlock. And then the next thing I know, it turns around and gets me in a headlock.

And then I think that I have it, and it has me. And then I think that I have it, and it has me. And finally, I had to tap out to what Scripture says. You are not his sheep. You cannot hear his voice. That's what we've been going through.

And in chapter 7, he begins the Feast of Booths where he announces that he is the fountain of living water. It's that the Holy Spirit is the living water. Jesus being the fountain of the living water, that in order to partake, in order to drink of this water, in order to have this Holy Spirit inside of you, you have to go to the spout.

And that's what Jesus claims to be in chapter 7, that he is the fountain, he is the spout of this living water. You cannot have the Holy Spirit in you if you do not get it through him. And that is only by faith in him.

And in chapter 8, he makes the announcement that he is the light of the world. Look with me in chapter 8, verse 12. Preaching through this verse, this verse has definitely become one of my favorite verses, especially concerning the deity of Christ.

John chapter 12 says this, again Jesus spoke to them saying, so this will be the Pharisaic religious Jews, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

And at this time, at this feast, they would light these great big torches and it was a way to communicate, to remember what took place in the wilderness as the Israelites were walking through the desert, as they were walking through this dry land.

If that light was moving, they were to follow the light. That light would appear to them as a bright cloud by day and by a fire at night. And if that light, that cloud, that fire was to was to start moving, the Israelites were to pack up and follow that light.

And if they did not pack up and follow that light, they would be in darkness. And that's what Jesus is saying, he's comparing himself right here in this verse to that light in the wilderness that the Israelites would follow.

When that light moved, they had to move. And he says, my dear friends, I am the light of the world and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. What is Jesus doing here? He's saying that he is God because that fire, that cloud by day and that fire by night was representation of God.

This is one of the clearest scriptures about it. Now look at verse 24 of John chapter 8. He says, I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

He is who? The light of the world. He is God. Unless you believe that Jesus is God, you will die in your sins. John, look at verses 58 and 59. Again, there's this another God statement. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Another I am statement. He says, before Abraham was. Before Abraham was, I am. And if you look back to this passage, he tells them that they don't do the works of Abraham because what did Abraham do when he saw God?

Abraham, this is Genesis chapter 18, he runs to God, he bows down, he worships, and he gives God food. God appeared. It was called a theophany or Christophany. God appeared to Abraham. Abraham worshiped him and fed him.

Jesus, God in the flesh, appears and they reject him. They don't want anything to do with him. And it says that they picked up stones, verse 59, so they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went away from the temple.

My dear friends, in this culture, you can only stone someone for several different things. Adultery, before Abraham was doesn't mean he committed adultery. Worshipping a false God, it doesn't say anything about worship of a false God.

He wasn't breaking the Sabbath. This wasn't a Sabbath day. You could stone someone for breaking the Sabbath or making yourself out to be God. That's blasphemy. Jesus was making himself out to be God. He says, before Abraham was.

Thousands of years later, before Abraham was, I am. Abraham worshiped me is what he's saying in this text. So they picked up stones to stone him. They knew that he was claiming to be God, and yet they're saying, speak to us clearly.

You guys have already tried to stone him several times, and they're gonna try to stone him again as we'll read. Now listen to Jesus. Hold on real quick. I don't want to miss this. In John chapter 47, I mean John chapter 8 verse 47, he tells them why they cannot hear him.

Look at verse 47. I about skipped it. That would have been awful. Verse 47, whoever is of God hears the words of God. This reason, I mean the reason why you cannot hear them is that you are not of God.

So he's telling these religious Jews these physical descendants of Abraham, whoever is of God hears the word of God. Speaking of him speaking, the reason why you physical descendants of Abraham cannot hear them is because you're not of God.

Well who are they of? Look at verse 44. You are of your father the devil. Your will is to do your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of the abundance of its character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sins? For if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me?

And then he goes in that verse 47, it's because you're not of God. They're not of God. Now listen to how Jesus responds in our text. Go back to John chapter 10 verses 25 through 26. So remember they're asking him, why don't you speak to us plainly?

Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. So he's saying I have been speaking to you plainly. Now we know that he spoke in parables to deafen their ears, to blind their eyes, and to harden their hearts so that he could be crucified in order to save the world.

Right here he says I have been speaking to you plainly, but the works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. You're not among my sheep.

The response of Jesus is what we just covered. Not my sheep, not from God, children of the devil. He's saying you're not my sheep. You're not from God. You are children of the devil. He's speaking this to physical descendants of Abraham.

Now I want you to imagine yourself in their place. Forget everything you know about Jesus. Forget everything you know. Imagine you first century Palestine, a Pharisee among Pharisee, and you have this man approaching you saying these things.

You know that you are a descendant of Abraham and he tells you you're not his sheep. You're not from God and your father is the devil. What's that going to make you do? Pick up stones to stone him. And that's exactly what takes place in this text.

It's exactly what John is trying to show us. Jesus performed signs and wonders in front of them. He very clearly tells them who he is, but they have no ears to hear. He speaks in parables. Why? So they would not understand.

Are you seeing what's happening here? He's purposely not revealing himself to them in the way that he reveals himself to his disciples because they're not his sheep. His relationship with them had to do with him being an Israelite.

The book of Hebrews chapter 2 tells us that Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every way. And in our study of covenant theology, we're looking at the premise of the seed plural brings forth the seed singular.

Jesus was promised as the Christ in the old covenant and he had to come through the nation of Israel as the prophecies tell us. And John chapter 1 tells us that he came to his own, speaking of Jesus, but his own people did not receive him speaking of the nation of Israel.

They were looking for a Messiah figure such as Judah Maccabee, who put an end to Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 BC. At that time, when Hanukkah first appeared, if you're familiar with Hanukkah, they have eight candlesticks on this menorah.

They had just a very little bit of oil. And you're supposed to light these lights and they're supposed to stay lit for eight days. And as the legend has it, this little bit of oil lit these candles for eight days.

And so Jesus was with them in celebration of this feast of this Messiah figure who overthrew. And I think that he was there in person that day for the same reason why he spit in the mud. And I won't lie, he spit in the dirt to make mud on the Sabbath to start trouble.

They knew. They were longing. They knew it was the time of the Messiah to be revealed. And yet Jesus did not reveal himself to them. The Jews were looking for a Messiah that would overthrow Rome when God sent the Messiah to overthrow death.

Not Rome, death. They're speaking two different languages. We do that quite often as Christians, especially among denominations. Point number two, Jesus' relationship with his sheep. It's found in verses 27 through 29.

He says, My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them, speaking of his sheep, 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 my Father's hand.

Our relationship with Christ from this text has to do with shepherd and sheep. The sheep leads, guides, feeds, and protects. While you and I, if we're his sheep, we are led, guided, fed, and protected.

His sheep are not confused about who is who. The sheep do not think they're the shepherd. Are you following me? The sheep knows who the king is. The sheep knows who their shepherd is. The Lord is my shepherd is speaking about a king shepherd with his rod and with his staff.

And with his rod he rules them and with his staff he protects them. Jesus Christ is king means that Jesus can tell you what to do. Who in here would say that Jesus Christ is king? Raise your hands Baptists.

Is Jesus Christ king? That means he can tell you what to do. There should be no confusion of who is king. You cannot tell Jesus what to do. You do not have that authority. It has not been given to you.

You are a sheep. You are to be led, guided, fed, and protected. The authority is not yours. It's his. He's the king. Look back at verse 28. He says, I give them, speaking of the sheep, those that hear his voice, those that follow him, I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

And no one will snatch them out of my hand. Us being given eternal life is how we know we're dealing with the new covenant. Us being given eternal life is how we know we are dealing with the new covenant and how we know that the covenant of grace is the new covenant.

If the old covenant was the covenant of grace, they would have not lost their position in the kingdom. There would be no do this in order to live. There would be no system that in order for you to live, here's a list of rules for you to do.

The old covenant promised life in Canaan, Jerusalem, while the new covenant promises eternal life in heaven. The old covenant had earthly promises, life in Canaan, while the new covenant has heavenly promise, eternal life with God.

The old covenant, in the old covenant, you could lose your life or be removed from the land by sinning. And we covered this in our Sunday school class today. So remember, if you are in the old covenant and you commit adultery, they could take your life.

If you carried something on the Sabbath, they could take your life from you. If you worshipped another God, they could take your life from you. That's the old covenant. However, in the new covenant, you cannot lose your life because it's eternal.