One of the great questions of our age, particularly the post evolution scientific age, is whether or not God is real. From time to time you will hear someone ask the question, “if God is real, then why doesn’t He show us? Why doesn’t He reveal Himself? Why doesn’t God prove that He is real?” And sometimes, people will ask us that are Christians to prove that God is real. To prove that He exists.

But it is noteworthy that Jesus Christ never addressed that question. He did not defend the existence of God. In fact, the Bible is not written to prove that God is real. The Bible does not defend the existence of God or try to prove it. The fact is, that God doesn’t need us to defend Him, but just to declare Him. That He is. Period. God’s personal name that He gave Moses out of the burning bush illustrates that fact. When Moses asked God His name, God said, “I Am the I Am.” He is. And you can either accept that, or reject it. It’s your choice. But there are consequences to your decision. Eternal consequences. And consequences in this life as well.

So we do not need to defend God’s existence, nor define Him. Our job is to declare Him. Let the scientist’s expostulate on their theories. God has declared who He is. Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” Science changes it’s mind from day to day, but the truth of God endures forever. I was telling my kids just this week much of the dietary advice we were given about fats and carbs growing up has now been proven to be completely wrong. Science can change it’s mind without any problem whatsoever and what had once been proclaimed to be the facts is just conveniently dismissed in favor of new facts. I saw an interesting quote recently from a man named Werner Heisenberg, who was the father of quantum physics. He said, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you.”

But nevertheless, on the question of God’s existence skeptics abound. But God doesn’t need to answer them. It is foolishness, the existence of God is self evident for those who believe in Him. Now there was a similar question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders of the Jews. They had come to ask Him if He was the Messiah. Christ, by the way, is the Greek word for Messiah. It had a pretty broad definition according to popular interpretation. The limited view which was favored by the Pharisees and scribes and priesthood in Jesus day, was that the Messiah would be a ruler, of the royal line of David, who would restore the throne of Israel, and overturn their enemies. The Biblical view of the Messiah was quite a bit more expanded than that, however. Isaiah, for instance, made it clear in Isaiah 9 who the Messiah would be. It says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.” This prophecy makes it clear that the Messiah who would sit on David’s throne was no less than the Mighty God. Why the Jewish leaders could not see this from such scriptures is beyond me. But as with most people, I guess, they heard what they wanted to hear. And so they had a limited, one dimensional view of the Messiah.

So the Jews come to Jesus as He is walking in the winter time under the portico of Solomon, that is the remnant wall of the original temple of Solomon that was all that had survived the destruction of Solomon’s temple. And John tells us that it was during the Feast of Dedication. We call that feast Hanukkah today. It was a celebration of the rededication of the temple which had happened during the revolt which had been led by Judas Maccabee a couple hundred years earlier. So perhaps that was the incentive for asking Jesus this question. Because Judas Maccabee had been the type of revolutionary that they wanted the Messiah to be like. And I think they knew full well that Jesus was the Messiah. But He wasn’t the kind of Messiah that they wanted. Jesus was concerned about spiritual things, and they were concerned about earthly things. They wanted deliverance from Roman oppression, Jesus offered deliverance from their sins.

I’m afraid that we still have that problem today. People are always trying to define God according to what they think God should be like. But God has already declared what He is like. And so when a preacher like me tries to teach what the Bible says about God and our relationship to Him, we get vilified. Because the Bible doesn’t square with what they have decided God should be like. I had a woman the other day tell me repeatedly that I could preach about God all that I wanted to, but her God was not the same God that I spoke of. She said her God was a loving God, and a merciful God. And every time I tried to speak to her, she just repeated that over and over again, getting louder and louder. The real problem though with her view of God was that she wanted to be able to deliberately sin and not have a guilty conscience about it. But whether or not her conscience is bothered is not going to change the fact of who God is. He is a loving, merciful God. But He is also holy, righteous and just. And you cannot limit God to just the characteristics that you like and dismiss the others. Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

So back to our text, Jesus answers their question without seeming to answer it directly. He doesn’t say outright that He is the Messiah because of their misconceptions about the Messiah’s purpose. He has previously told individual people that He was the Messiah. And His own disciples had professed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. But Jesus knows that what they were attempting to do was not come to an understanding of the truth, but they were trying to find something that would justify them murdering Him. And so they wanted to accuse Him of blasphemy. The way that they decided to do it, was by getting Him to declare who He was in the temple, in the presence of witnesses. And so they descend on Him in a pack, and put the question to Him. Vs. 24, they say “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

But Jesus knows their hearts and their deceit, and so He gives them this answer in vs.25, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.” So Jesus offers two proofs of the fact that He is the Messiah. First His words show that He is the Messiah. Over and over again, Jesus had shown by HIs teaching that He spoke the word of God. For instance, Jesus said in chapter 8 vs 28, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

So as He said there in chapter 8, and now again in chapter 10, “I have already told you and you did not believe.” He offers two evidences; I speak the words of God, and I do the works of God. And they had not missed either of those proofs either. Nicodemus, one of their own, and speaking on behalf of the Pharisees, told Jesus back in chapter 3 that “We know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could do the signs that You do unless God is with him.” So they evidently knew that He had come from God and God was with Him, and yet they had rejected Him.

So Jesus said I have told you, and I have shown you, and yet you do not believe. He said You don’t believe because you are not my sheep. Now all of chapter 10 is on this theme of Jesus as the Shepherd of His sheep. And so even though this takes place three months later than the earlier portion of this passage, yet the theme of this passage remains the same. The theme is that Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep. Jesus has declared Himself to be the Shepherd of His sheep. And this idea of a Shepherd was a great Messianic theme throughout the Old Testament. I don’t have time to take you to all the references for it this morning. But one example in Micah is quoted in Matthew 2:6, “‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,
ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’” So this was a common Old Testament picture of the Messiah.

So having already declared Himself to be the good Shepherd in vs.11, now Jesus delineates those who are His sheep from those that are not His sheep. Jesus gives three evidences for knowing His sheep. First of all, He said, His sheep believe Him. Secondly, His sheep hear His voice. Thirdly, His sheep follow Him.

The Pharisees did none of that. They did not believe His words or His works. They did not hear His voice, that is HIs call. And they did not follow Him. They were not interested in becoming disciples. Here is the crux of it, I think. They didn’t want a shepherd. They didn’t think that they needed a shepherd. And I think that is the state of most people today. They don’t see themselves as needing a shepherd. They don’t see themselves as needing a Savior. They don’t see themselves as being like foolish, wayward sheep who are always going astray, who are always wandering off, who are always prone to get in trouble from predators. People today see going to church as adding some degree of sophistication, or some degree of respectability to their lives. They acknowledge certain facts of the Bible, they acknowledge the existence of God, they are even willing to accept the premise of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but they do not see themselves as needing a Shepherd of their souls. People want God to be like a genie, that sits on a shelf somewhere out of the way until we want our wishes granted, then we come to Him and rub the statue just so, and say some prayer like abracadabra, and poof, God gives you what you want. We want a god like that. But we don’t need a Shepherd. I can decide for myself what I need to do, where I want to go, how I want to live. A Shepherd is too restricting. A Shepherd might try to control me. So we don’t believe we really need a Shepherd. We’ll take a genie though, thank you very much.

But if you have that attitude, then there is a very good chance you are not one of His sheep. You can’t be His sheep unless you accept Him as your Shepherd. Personally, I had to come to the place where I finally realized I couldn’t make it on my own. I wasn’t able to manage things on my terms. When my life finally got so messed up I couldn’t stand it anymore, then I knew I needed a Shepherd to save me, to restore me, to make me one of HIs flock and to lead me and guide me. And I can tell you this, there is no greater comfort or peace that can be found, than knowing that Jesus is my Shepherd and I am HIs sheep. I have a confidence that nothing else can provide, because I know that He knows me, because I am His.

That’s why Jesus said that He came to seek and to save those that were lost. When you come to the point of realizing that you are lost, then you will welcome a Shepherd, who will save you and lead you and guide you. There is a popular slogan out there you see on t shirts or bumper stickers which says, “not all who wander are lost.” But the fact is, we are all lost. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And until you realize that you are lost, you cannot be saved.

So Jesus says His sheep follow Him, and obey Him because they are His. 1Cor. 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” Some people see obedience as a limitation, but I think that it is a great benefit. I just follow Him, and know He will take care of the details. He will take care of me. And that is such a great relief. None of us know the future. None of us know what tomorrow holds. But Jesus sees tomorrow. He has a plan for me, and I can trust His plan. That’s the benefit of being His sheep and following Him.

But the benefits don’t stop there. Jesus said in vs.27, “I give eternal life to them and they will never perish, and no one can 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.”

Now there are three benefits to the life we have been given by Christ. First of all, He says He gives them eternal life. Some people think that eternal life is something that we get when we get to heaven. But in saying that they show they fail to understand the nature of eternal life. Eternal life, or everlasting life, is given to you at the new birth. When you are born again, by the Spirit of God, then you receive eternal life. It begins at conversion. And it continues forever.

Back in chapter 10 vs.10, Jesus said, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” It’s a never ending stream of life. Back in chapter 7:37, Jesus said, “]If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive. Going back to that conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

So in conversion when we are born again, we are born by the Spirit, and as such we become spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings we have spiritual life, which is eternal life. It’s an abundant life, springing up in our soul which will never run dry because it comes from the Spirit of God within us. And then Jesus says they will never perish. Listen, this body will die but our spirit will never die. In the next chapter, Jesus said in 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And when we believe that, we can live victoriously in this life. We don’t need to fear those who can kill the body but do nothing more to you after that. Because we can know that we will never die. In fact, we can even start to look forward to that day when this old body is cast off, and we receive a new body which is not weighed down by sin, which is not weak, which is not corruptible. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I look forward to that day.

And then the last aspect of our eternal life that Jesus is teaching is that it is eternally secure. It’s what the Reformers called the perseverance of the saints. It is the double guarantee of our eternal life. First of all, Jesus said we are in HIs hand and the Father has given us to Him. So that is our first guarantee, and then the next guarantee is that we are in the Father’s hand, and no one is able to snatch them out of HIs hand. In Colossians, Paul puts these two things together: “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:3). It’s a double guarantee.

I’ve used the illustration many times of my kids when they were little, and we would have to cross a road or a parking lot. And I would tell my child, “hold onto my hand.” And usually they would grab hold of my hand. But though I told them to hold onto my hand, I did not rely on their strength to hold onto my hand. Neither did I rely on their obedience. I’ve seen them suddenly try to let go and do something silly like pick up something, or turn around, right at the worst possible moment. So rather, I held onto their hand. I wanted them to obey me. But I made sure that I kept them firmly in my grip. Their security was up to me.

So it is with God and His children. All of us like sheep are prone to wander. But though God wants us to obey Him, He keeps us by His sovereign power. We are not kept by our power. No one, Jesus said is able to take them from the hand of God. No one. That includes you and I. Just as my child could not escape from my hand, we cannot take ourselves out of God’s hand. Romans 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” God will keep us from the cradle to the grave through eternity.

And then Jesus concludes His answer to their question in vs.30, in the most dramatic way possible, saying, “I and the Father are One.” Not only that He is the Messiah, but that He is the Messiah promised in scripture, the very God of God in flesh. Now He is saying two things in that tremendous statement. First of all, He is saying He and God have one purpose. That is the context of vs.28 and 29. Both Jesus and God are agreed in their purpose to keep HIs sheep. And this is consistent to what I read earlier from chapter 8 vs 28, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” So they were in agreement in all that Jesus did and said. He spoke the words of God and did the deeds of God. So they are One in purpose.

Secondly, they are One in essence. They are One God. Isaiah 9 which I quoted from earlier made that clear. The Messiah was called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Now they are two persons, the Father and the Son. But they are One essence. In the great high priestly prayer of John 17, when Jesus is in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion, He is praying with HIs disciples, and He prays to God saying, that they may all be one, “even as You, Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that you sent Me.” So this statement that “I and the Father are One” is the greatest self declaration of His deity. He makes Himself equal with God.

Well, we read in the next verse that they didn’t like the answer to their question. They had wanted Jesus to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah. And Jesus answered that, but according to HIs interpretation of who the Messiah is. He says clearly that He is One with God. And the rulers know that is what He means because they say it in vs. 33. They say we are going to stone you to death, because you being a man makes yourself out to be God. They know full well what He is saying. But they don’t want God to be their Messiah. They want a revolutionary. They want freedom from Rome. They want to be the rulers of Israel, and rulers of the world, and the Messiah that they wanted they thought could provide that.

Jesus on the other hand, made them feel guilty. He made them realize that they needed a Shepherd. That they needed to follow someone. They rejected that idea. And so they picked up stones to kill Him.

No one here today I am sure would admit that you would like to kill Christ. But I wonder how many of you have rejected the notion that you need a Shepherd? How many of you reject the idea that you need to follow Him, and obey Him, if you are going to have abundant life? I believe that the Jews that day knew that Jesus was the Messiah. But they rejected Him and chose to live their lives their way, and rejected the notion of a Shepherd. And I believe some here today may have the same response. You don’t want to be under the authority of a Shepherd, you don’t want to submit to a Shepherd. And as such you reject Christ.

But I hope that is not your decision. Today you have heard the truth. Today the invitation is being extended to you to believe in Him, to hear His voice, and to follow Him. If you will do that then you will be HIs sheep, and He will know you, and He will give eternal life to you. And no one can snatch you out of His hand. You can face life with the confidence that you will never perish but have everlasting life with God, and He will be with you, today and forever. I pray that today is the day of your salvation. Come to Christ, believe and follow Him. Answer His call.

That you may be able to say as the Psalmist David; “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures;He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousnessFor His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” This is the life that the Lord is offering you today. I pray that you will accept Him, believe Him, and follow Him.