A MiniStudy of John 10:22-30

10:22-24 – Then came the dedication festival at Jerusalem. It was winter-time and Jesus was walking about inside the Temple in Solomon’s cloisters. So the Jews closed in on him and said, “How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you really are Christ, tell us so straight out!”

10:25-30 – “I have told you,” replied Jesus, “and you do not believe it. What I have done in my Father’s name is sufficient to prove my claim, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep recognize my voice and I know who they are. They follow me and I give them eternal life. They will never die 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 can tear anything out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are One.”  (J.B. Phillips)

1.  Setting the Scene, verses 22–23

The Feast of Dedication is now known as Hanukkah, and is a commemoration of the purification and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 BC, after it had been defiled by the wicked Antiochus Epiphanes.  Solomon’s Colonnade or Porch was along walkway covered by a roof supported on pillars on the east side of the Temple, overlooking the Kidron Valley.  Jesus used it as a center for informal teaching and preaching since there were frequently people gathered there for worship at the Temple.  It was late December when these events too place.

The verb translated “closed in” (JBP) and “gathered around Him” (NIV) is ekyklosan, and literally means “encircled,” and suggests that the Jews wanted to confront Jesus.  They were probably still offended because of the verbal lashing they experienced when Jesus, by implication, called them thieves, robbers, strangers, and hirelings in the previous verses of this chapter.  So they confront Jesus with the question, “Don’t keep us in suspense.  Are you the Messiah?”  In the Greek, the question is from the heart:  Until when do you lift up our soul? (Hendriksen).  They wanted a Messiah and they were growing impatient.  If Jesus was truly the Messiah, they wanted Him to begin His deliverance of the nation, if He wasn’t, then they would forget about Jesus and keep looking.  The fact of His miracles was well-known, so most Jews knew there was something different about Jesus.  He spoke with such authority; His teachings were revolutionary.  On the other hand, Jesus hadn’t formally proclaimed Himself as Messiah.  The impatient crowd was demanding some kind of statement from Jesus that would either dispel a rumor or enlist their support.

2.  A Strange Reply, verses 25-26

Technically, Jesus had never publicly declared that He was the Messiah to anybody except the Samaritan woman (John 4:25-26).  If He did it for her, why not now for these Jews?

To the Jewish mind, “Christ” meant being a political savior, not a spiritual savior.  Had Jesus used the “plain language” these Jews wanted, He would have been completely misunderstood.  As it was, Jesus had on many occasions used words and phrases that pointed to the fact that He was truly the Savior in the strictly spiritual sense.  That’s why He told the crowd, “I have told you.”  The problem was with the Jews: they didn’t believe Jesus.

His reply placed the burden on them.  They saw the miracles and they heard His words, but their unbelief blinded them to the truth.  In fact, Jesus said that the reason they didn’t believe was that they weren’t His sheep.  Why say that?  Because with that statement, Jesus bluntly stated that it was not being part of “the chosen people” that made one saved.  His sheep showed proved their faith by following Him and enjoyed the favor of God.  His hearers refused to believe, cutting themselves off from God.

3.  The True Sheep, verses 27-28a

Four things characterize true sheep (followers) of Christ:

•     They hear His voice.  The Greek here means they “hear” or “listen,” they “pay attention,” and they “appreciate” what the Good Shepherd says.
•     He knows them.  Again, the Greek here is quite stunning: Jesus knows His sheep personally.
•     The follow Him.  Literally, “they are following” the Shepherd.  It’s a continuous action.
•     He gives them eternal life.

4.  How secure is salvation?  verses 28b-30

When Jesus told His listeners that no one could steal His sheep away, was He saying one is eternally secure regardless of what a man does does himself in respect to his relationship with God?  If we look at exactly what Jesus said, the guarantee of the believer’s security is that nothing outside a man can destroy His relationship with Christ while he is actively putting his faith in Christ.  Westcott observed-

f a man falls at any stage in his spiritual life, it is not from want of divine grace, nor from the overwhelming power of adversaries, but from his neglect to  use that which he may or may not use.  We cannot be protected against ourselves in spite of ourselves.

The guarantee to the one who has faith is rooted in two things: first, in the very nature of God Himself.  Both the KJV and the NIV have inadequately translated 29.  The marginal reading of the verse more closely conveys the meaning of the original text:

What my Father has given me is greater than all.

God the Father assures the destiny of the sheep collectively.  Nothing can take them out of His Hand.  Hoskyns summarized it this way-

The Father is the only source of the ultimate security of the believers in Jesus.  The belong to Him because they have been given to Him by the Father.

Secondly, our guarantee of security is rooted in the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son.  A literal translation of verse 30 would be: “I and the Father, we are one.”  Again, Westcott noted-

Every word in this pregnant clause is full of meaning.  It is I, not the Son; the Father, not my Father; one essence, not one person; are, not am.  The revelation is the nature of Christ in the fullness of His double nature, of the incarnate Son in the fullness of His manifested being, and that in relation to the Father, to God as He is Father at once of the Son and of men.

William Barclay has another take on this issue:

The bond of unity is love; the proof of love is obedience.  Christians are one with each other when they are bound by the bond of unity, and obey the words of Christ.  Jesus is one with God, because as no other person ever did, He obeyed God and He loved God.  His unity with God is a unity of perfect love,issuing in a perfect obedience.