The Strong Leader We Need
October 15, 2023
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
John 10:22-42
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter,23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 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.” 25 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, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, 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. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And many believed in him there.
Let’s pray as we begin.
“Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
Right from the jump, right from the start of the sermon, right from hello, I want to encourage you with the truth offered to you by this passage: In Jesus we have the strongest, best leader we could ever ask for. Again, in Jesus we have the strongest, best leader we could ever ask for or imagine.
And all of us want this—in one area of our life or another, we all want a strong leader.
Last week, Pastor Ron talked about our common desire for “green pastures.” I know that’s not exactly what we long for; we’re not sheep. Green pastures is a metaphor, just like being sheep. But that’s what Jesus talked about in our passage last week. We long for good health and peace and relationships free from conflict and abundant life. We want this. And we’re not wrong or sinful to want that. I’m sure those in the Middle East right now, with all the turmoil and war and violence, want green pastures even more so.
In a similar way to having a common desire for abundant life, we all—I think—have the desire for a strong leader. The amount each of us wants to be a leader ourselves may differ; some of us may have desires for leadership, and others not as much. But in areas where we feel weak or areas where we feel helpless—and even some areas where we might have relative expertise—we all want someone out in front of us to lead us and look out for us and protect us and show us the way. It’s a good desire. The desire for some industry leader to be out in front and mentor you, the desire for your doctor to be out in front, leading her medical field.
Over the last few presidential cycles, I think this has been one of the appeals of Donald Trump, at least for some people. I’m not going anywhere near whether you should or shouldn’t vote for him or whether I would or wouldn’t. I’m just trying to describe why some people find him a compelling leader. The narrative goes something like, He’s strong on China, strong on the economy, strong against career politicians in DC. People want someone who will, in his iconic slogan, make America great again. Now, again, I’m not saying that having him as the leader of our country is a good idea or not. In fact, whomever you vote for, I’d suspect it’s the man or woman you consider the strongest leader.
And this isn’t just a desire of citizens of a country. A few years ago, my title here at church changed from teaching pastor to lead pastor. That’s fine. I’m thankful for the role and feel God helps me and us get by. But there are days that I can look out the window of my office, days when there’s some problem we just can’t seem to figure out, or some conflict among members or a marriage that is all tangly, and I look out the window and can wish we had a better lead pastor who could lead me, lead us. These are days I don’t want to be a lead pastor or an associate pastor; I just want to be a member and sit out there with you and have some other group of strong leaders figure it all out.
We feel this way, this desire for strong leaders, in all sorts of places. We feel this about the places where we work. Perhaps you’ve worked somewhere in the past or maybe even in the present where it seems the leadership is weak and confused, and you wonder if they are even incompetent. That’s not a great place to work, is it? Your life—your livelihood—will feel unstable. Without a strong leader, you can feel like you must make your own way, forge your own path, or find someone else who do that for you. To some degree, that’s where the people in the first century of Israel found themselves, looking for a strong leader, call him a Messiah or something else.
Look at how the passage opens and what John tells us in vv. 22–23 as I read them again.
22 Then came the Festival of Dedication* at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
You might not be as familiar with the name “Festival of Dedication” as the other name for this festival. In many Bibles you’ll see a footnote that says, “That is, Hanukkah.” Okay, we know Hanukkah. We know it happens around Christmas time. We know that whereas the colors of Christmas are red and green, Hanukkah’s colors are blue and gold. Rather than one day of presents, on Hanukkah there are eight days of presents—they are just smaller. And there’s a giant candle called a menorah. That’s about all most of us know. But knowing more about Hanukkah helps us understand this detail in John 10 and the leadership Jesus offers us in this passage.
So, about 150 years before Jesus (just using round numbers), a leader from a foreign country was expanding his reach. He was a Syrian leader named Antiochus Epiphanes; you might have heard his name before. He was successful in his violent military expansion. When he got to Israel, specifically Jerusalem and the temple, it’s said that he went into the temple, and on the holy altar he sacrificed a pig to a pagan deity. If you don’t know, that’s kind of a big deal. That would be like conquering the United States and going into the Oval Office and wringing the neck of an eagle or burning an American flag on the steps of the Capitol, or something like that—only it was worse because it insulted more than national sensibilities; it was an abomination religiously.
This story is recorded in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees, books named after the family line of a leader named Judas Maccabeus. Those books are not in the Bible, but they record some of the history leading up to Jesus. Anyway, through something like guerrilla warfare and strategic attacks, the strong leader Judas Maccabeus led a successful revolt. And the temple was rededicated. And the story goes that they only had enough consecrated oil for one day, but miraculously it lasted eight. Hence, Hanukkah and the festival of lights. Or what this passage calls The Feast of Dedication, meaning rededication of the temple. And just like for us in our calendar, this festival fell in winter, which it says at the end of v. 22 was when Jesus was walking in an area called Solomon’s Colonnade, an area likely shielded from winter winds.
In this colonnade, they ask Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
With all this in mind, with the Hanukkah story in the background, can you hear how explosive this is? Remember, the Syrian leader had been gone for many years. But now Rome is over Israel. And they are asking Jesus if he is the kind of strong leader who will overthrow Rome. Will Jesus lead a revolt? Will Jesus organize guerrilla warfare? Not to be cute or clever, but they are asking if Jesus will make Israel great again.
This, as you can imagine, is a delicate, explosive question to answer. This is what makes Jesus’s conversations in the gospel so riveting. The religious leaders know all this context. But their question is not sincere. They want to trap him. They know that, depending on how he answers, Jesus will split the people. They know he’ll make some people happy and others angry. Jesus, they assume, can’t win.
Back in chapter 6, during the Passover feast from the year before, we learned that people “were about to come and take [Jesus] by force to make him king” (6:15). In that scenario, as in this one (v. 39), Jesus withdrew quietly. He disappeared. The crowds thought that in Jesus, if they made him their leader by force, then Jesus would be their mascot, their Judas Maccabeus, if you will. Jesus would be their strong leader.
And they were both very right and very wrong. And that’s what the rest of the passage is about. In his words, in his works, in his life, in his death, in the power of his resurrection, Jesus is offering to be for you the strongest and best leader you could ever have. But you have to take him as he is, not as we imagine him to be.
So how is he a strong leader, a better kind of leader, the kind of leader our souls need? The passage shows several ways Jesus is our strong leader.
1. Jesus eternal life.
First, Jesus is the strong leader who gives eternal life. Look with me again at vv. 25–28.
25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Now just focus on the first part. “I give them eternal life,” he says. This is the sort of verse and saying we can become accustomed to in the church and in the gospel of John. But do not be too familiar with it and miss how explosive it is. “I give,” he says.
That’s significant, isn’t it? Jesus says, “I give.” He can do it. He has the strength, he has the authority, he has the power. Jesus is strong.
And in his strength, he gives. He does not say, “My sheep listen to my voice, and I give them the possibility of earning eternal life. I give them the potential that, if they achieve and try and work and labor and follow good enough, then I will allow them to have a happy, joy-filled forever.” This is notwhat he says. Jesus is the strongest best leader you could ever have because he gives you what you neither deserve nor could ever earn. He gives his sheep his happiness forever.
2. Jesus protects us from our worst enemies.
And there’s more. Jesus is the strong leader who protects us from our worst enemies. Look again at what he says. I’ll read 27 and 28 again.
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
That word for perish is the same word back in John 10:10 that’s translated destroy. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” Jesus said. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Church, you have an enemy that hates you and wants to destroy you and wants you to perish (cf. going into the ocean and remembering the power of waves). Satan wants you not to have eternal life with God and his people but to go to hell forever. Hear Jesus say, “No, not on my watch. I am the Good, Strong Shepherd.”
Think about this in context. Just as one leader from a foreign nation had desecrated the temple, and that leader was then overthrown, so now the Jewish people were asking and looking for a leader to overthrow another foreign nation. And into this context Jesus says, “No, I will not be that kind of strong leader. I could be and I will be one day. But this is the era in which I show my strength by coming to my sheep who are being eaten by terrible leaders, and I put my hands about them, and I don’t squeeze them and crush them, but I protect them.” From all the waves about them, from wolves and thieves and robbers.
Church, there is nothing that can ever separate you from the love of God. Nothing. Not your difficult marriage, not your lack of marriage, not your financial troubles, not your failing health, not your hurts from bad pastors, not your sins. Nothing.
And do you see how practical and relevant the words of Jesus are? If you’ve been around church for some time, you might have heard these truths talked about in the theological language of “eternal security” and what that means and doesn’t mean.
It’s not wrong to explore this topic from a theological framework. We should approach it that way. But often the discussion becomes so heady and complex. We want to know whether someone can lose their salvation. I’m convinced the Bible, as in here and elsewhere (e.g., Phil 1:6), gives a resounding “No” to that question. No, you can’t lose your salvation.
Well, okay, so what about people who seem to have lost their salvation? What about these religious leaders who seem to know God, but they really don’t? How about them? What about some pastor of some big church who did some bad things? Does it mean that he never knew God in the first place, or better, that God never knew him in a saving way? And how long can someone disobey the voice of the Shepherd? If we can disobey for ten minutes, does that prove we don’t know God? What if we disobey for ten days? Does that mean we don’t know God? What about ten weeks? Ten months? Ten years of disobedience? And what if someone dies while in disobedience? And how bad of disobedience are we talking about? And Jesus says nothing can snatch them out of his hand. Fine, but can you jump out of his hand? And let’s not forget to explain the exact relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
You see how heady and complex this can become. And for some of us, these are real questions about people you know and love. They are not hypothetical. Maybe you are wandering away from the Lord right now. And these questions are about you.
Yet here, in these verses, Jesus looks into their question—he looks past the trap of the religious leaders—and speaks to the felt need of the people in his day and the people reading the gospel of John for the first time. Jesus answers the question behind their questions. Maybe it’s the deeper question you have as well. Will I really make it to the end? Am I too weak? Are my sins too great? Is my past too dark? Is the enemy too powerful? Am I going to make it to the end? Will I ever find eternally green pastures?
And Jesus says to you right now: You will. Because I hold you.
3. Jesus’s strength comes from God.
Finally in this passage we see that Jesus is the strong leader because his strength comes from God… because he is God. This theme starts in v. 29 and becomes the focus for the next ten verses. I admit, the logic of what’s going on and why Jesus says what he says gets a little tricky. Remember, Jesus was talking to biblical scholars, so they are able to go back and forth over details that might feel obscure to us. But let’s at least look a little bit closer. Look at vv. 28–30.
28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
Jesus gives eternal life. And he protects us from enemies such that no one can snatch you out of his hand. Then he says that his sheep are also in God’s hand and that he and the Father are one. These Old Testament scholars would not have lost the significance of the mighty hand of God. The hands that reached into the dirt and formed Adam, hold Jesus as they both hold their sheep, hold you. And the mighty hands that rescued Israel from Pharaoh in the Exodus story, hold Jesus and their sheep, hold you.
Later in John 10 there is a discussion of Psalm 82 and the line about the Word of God calling people “gods” who were not actually gods. This feels cryptic and strange to us. In context, it would seem that the Psalm is saying that the people had a role in enacting divine judgment, which could be god-like in some sense. And Jesus is saying that if this could be said of them, how much more should it be said of the one who is actually sent from God, the one who is actually God himself?
And for that, they want to stone him. They heard Jesus’s claim rightly, namely, that Jesus was calling himself God. They didn’t believe it. They didn’t want to believe. They were supposed to be the shepherds of God’s people, and they weren’t even his sheep.
It is an audacious claim, though, the claim to be God. Just because we’re accustomed to Jesus making that claim, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be in awe. I heard a preacher illustrate it like this. If we took this room and said, “Will everyone who is not God, please stand over here. And will everyone who is God please stand over there?” We’d all go stand over here. Then we’d try to take another step or two back just so that God knew that we were not confused that we are not God. Yet here is Jesus in this illustration, not only saying words but doing actions that clearly walk him to the other side of the room with God, as God. The strong hands of the Father, he says, are his hands too—different hands but the same.
Like with the question of eternal security, we can become very abstract and heady in our conversations about the deity of Christ, about Christology, the theological study of Christ. And that’s not wrong. But again, note how practical all of this is, so emotional and pastoral of Jesus. When talking about his power to be the leader who can lead his sheep through many dangers, toils, and snares, he says he can do this because his strength is one with the Father.
Conclusion
Some of you need to hear this truth that you are eternally secure in the hand of God. Neither dementia nor Parkinson’s can snatch you out of his hand. Nor anything else in all creation. You might need to hear this from me.
And for others, you might need to testify to the strength of Jesus to others. You might need to preach it to family and friends. You might need to say it to coworkers. You know people who aren’t here at church; they aren’t listening to me preach. But you can preach to them or talk to them. You might say something like, “You know, one of our pastors said something the other day, and I think it would be helpful to say to you.” Or, “You know, I was reading my Bible, and I read this verse that might encourage you.” Or you can write it on a card and mail it if that’s easier. You say, “I read this verse from Jesus and thought it might encourage you.” Then write, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” This is not beyond you, beyond us. These Sunday morning truths, are for Monday night at the hospital or wherever you find yourself next week.
Next week we have several baptisms planned. And I’ll be preaching a short sermon from John 11, the story of the raising of Lazarus. I’d love for you to be reading ahead. And to get you thinking, I’ll ask you to consider one question. In v. 39, Jesus says, “Take away the stone.” I’d love for you to consider what tone of voice he said this.
Let’s invite the music team forward so we can have a time of response through singing. Let’s pray.
“Dear Heavenly Father. . .”
Sermon Discussion Questions
Have you known someone who seemed to be a committed Christian and then walked away from the faith? How do you reconcile that experience with what the Bible has to say about these topics? To what degree will the answers be mysterious and to what degree can the answers be clear and firm?
How does the context of the Hanukkah celebration color the passage and the desire for a strong leader?
The passage speaks of God’s sheep following him. In what ways do you feel like God is telling you to follow him? Have you been resistant and why? How has the Lord blessed you through obedience?
How does it encourage you that Jesus holds on to us?
