“In Good Hands”
Text: John 10:22-30
5-8-2022
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Do you remember the famous slogan from All-State Insurance? “You’re in good hands with All-State.” Their logo is a pair of cupped hands. The idea behind that slogan is that if you have their insurance, then you can rest secure. If you have an accident or some calamity, they’ll take good care of you. I don’t know if that’s true or not. However, as with any insurance company, sometimes those cupped hands must have the fingers separated because invariably some people fall through the cracks. Somebody is guaranteed to feel insecure and NOT properly cared for. But insurance companies aside, this is the bold statement that Jesus makes about all believers in Him. He says that we are eternally safe and secure in His hands. I guess we could change that slogan and say, “You’re in good hands with Jesus.” Christ promises that no one—absolutely no one—can snatch us out of His hands. Those words are a great comfort for us Christians but do we really understand them? Well, let’s find out by digging deeper into them.
Before we get to those words, we need to check the context of what Jesus was saying. You see, although these words can bring great comfort to believers, they also contain a very strong warning for those who refuse to entrust themselves to Christ’s care. In the previous chapters of John’s Gospel, we see that tensions were building between Jesus and the Jewish leaders. Time and time again they had tried to trap Jesus so that they could arrest or even kill Him right on the spot. They wanted to catch Him blaspheming God so they’d be justified in their hate-filled violence. But Jesus recognized their traps and sidestepped them. That’s the atmosphere of what was going on in our text. The question from the Jews wasn’t some innocent inquiry. They weren’t dancing around like a child at Christmas who’s dying to know what’s in the wrapped box under the tree. Those were angry words when they asked Jesus, “How long will you keep us in suspense?!?” They were frustrated and upset.
But should they have been? Perhaps an illustration would help. Over the years I always told my Confirmation students that absolutely no one flunks my class. As long as they’re doing their best and completing the assignments, they’ll make it through. However, occasionally there is a kid who decides to unplug and refuses to do anything. That then pushes off their Confirmation date until they get serious about their faith. Well, years ago I had a girl who did just that and it went on for quite a while. One day, her highly agitated father stopped me and asked if and when she would be Confirmed. I explained it would happen when she decided to get her head back in the game. Not the answer he was looking for. He was fuming. So he asked again about if and when she’d get Confirmed. My response was the same: It’s up to her. You see, he was pretty much asking the question from our text, “How long will you keep me in suspense?!?”
Look folks, I wasn’t trying to toy with this man. I told him the truth over and over, but it wasn’t what he wanted to hear so he got angry and upset. Well, the situation was similar with those Jews who surrounded Jesus at the Temple. He wasn’t playing word games or skirting the issue. He had been very open and honest with everyone telling them who He was. In fact, back in John 8 Jesus had applied the holy name of God to Himself and the Jews picked up stones to kill Him (v. 59). So they really had no reason to say, “If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” By the way, does that statement sound vaguely familiar? It should, because when the devil was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, he took a very similar approach and said, “If you are the Son of God…” Anyway, to these blind Jews, Jesus answered with the stinging truth, “I told you, and you do not believe.” You see, He could have said it to them 100 different ways and it would not have made a difference. They had their own twisted idea of how the Christ would act and talk, but Jesus didn’t fit that mold so they rejected Him.
That’s really sad, because the eternal safety and security that Jesus had to offer was being recklessly thrown away. Jesus didn’t speak with an angry or sarcastic tone when He said, “You do not believe because you are not among my sheep.” It was said with sadness. And those Jews fully understood what He was saying. This illustration of a shepherd and His sheep was not some secret code that they couldn’t figure out. They knew Jesus was saying that if they didn’t accept Him as the Christ, they could never enter heaven. They also understood that He was claiming equality with God when He said, “I and the Father are one.” How can I be so sure that they understood it that way? Because if you read on in verse 31 it says they again picked up stones to kill Him.
There’s an important spiritual lesson in this for all of us. Throughout the Bible, God has made it clear that He wants everyone to be saved and none to perish in hell. So He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from our sin. As our Good Shepherd, He gathers His sheep around Him and protects them. He calls them and they follow Him. But not everyone listens. Some refuse to pay attention to Christ’s voice and believe in Him. He offers them eternal safety and security but they run the other way.
You need to know that the only reason why someone will end up going to hell on Judgment Day is because they chose to go there. And you’re thinking, “Who in their right mind would choose to go to hell?” Well, Jesus makes a firm promise that no one can snatch you from His hands. But the awful truth is that you have the freedom to leave the protection of His hands. No one can steal you away, but you can remove yourself. Jesus says in John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you…” When you were Baptized, God lovingly chose you to be part of His flock, His kingdom. You were placed in the safety of the hands of Christ your Good Shepherd and given the gift of faith. But God has also given you the free will to choose whether you want to stay safe and secure with Him or whether you want to leave His protection.
Today, more than ever, people have no excuse for not believing in Jesus our Savior. He says that His miracles reveal that He is the Christ. The whole Old Testament pointed to His coming. Now we have the benefit of the New Testament that shows us how all those prophesies were fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We also have 2000 years of witness from Christian believers who can testify to the truth of it all. Most importantly, we have the Holy Spirit who stands ready to create and sustain faith in a person’s heart. And yet, we still hear people say to Jesus today, “How long will you keep us in suspense?!? If you are the Christ, if you are truly God, if you actually died and rose again to remove our sins… tell us plainly!” His response hasn’t changed: “I told you, and you do not believe.”
For those of us who do believe, there is powerful comfort in those words of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. We can find peace of mind in knowing that our eternal destiny is safe and secure in His hands. But even in the minds of believers, sometimes doubts can creep in. We wonder if perhaps Satan is strong enough to pull us away from Christ’s grip. We wonder if some tragedy can tug at us hard enough to snatch our hearts from Jesus. If you’ve ever wrestled with those kinds of doubts then consider this—those hands that hold you are the same hands which created the universe. Those hands created you and me. Those hands are all-powerful. St. Paul understood the importance of this assurance. In Romans 8:38-39 he confidently says, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He was able to say that because he believed the words of Christ were absolutely true when He said, “No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Friends, those hands that hold you are the same hands that were nailed to the cross for our sins. And those hands that hold you are the same hands which will safely carry us home to heaven. There are no trick words in what Jesus said. He very plainly says, “I sacrificed my life so that you could spend eternity with me in the joys of heaven. All you have to do is stay in the safety of my hands.” May God continue to shower on us His grace so that our faith may stay strong, and so that we may rest securely believing that we are eternally safe in His hands. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!