One
John 10: 22-30
April 29,
2007
22 –30
At that
time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was
winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple,
in 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 Messiah, tell
us plainly.” Jesus answered,
“I have told you, and you do not believe. The
works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe,
because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given
me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s
hand. The Father and I are one.”
As many of you know, I love sports. My
favorite two sports are football and baseball. I do have a hard time
listening to the aluminum bats that they use in high school and college.
It just does not have the beautiful sound that is made when that old
wooden bat makes contact with that baseball. I grew up being a Green Bay
Packers and a New York Yankees fan. Someone asked me several months ago,
why I was a packer fan. I had a simple answer. That is because Bart Starr,
Ray Nietche, Paul Horning, Jerry Kramer and Jim Taylor along with many
others were on the team when I was a boy. That is the same way with the
Yankees. They had Yogi, Mickey, Roger, Bobby and others who were our
childhood heroes.
Well, that is enough about memory lane. Of course, I’ll
be gad to talk to anyone after the last worship service today about either
team. I enjoy watching the games. I enjoy watching the coaches and
managers try to outwit each other. What I enjoy the most is watching a
group of people stop being individuals and becoming one. They play as one.
Yes there are nine or eleven starting members on the different teams but
it goes way beyond those nine or eleven. Most teams have thirty plus
players today in baseball and about fifty plus players in football. It is
a great thing to watch those players become one to accomplish their goal.
Their goal is to have a winning season and to win the championship. The
teams that accomplish those two tasks are the teams that play as one. They
are united by their goal. Eventually one playing unit will win the
championship. Then the strange unfortunate thing happens in sports. The
members of the team stop being members and start becoming individuals. The
team that was united becomes fragmented.
John the evangelist informs us that Jesus was at the
festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. There were some folks who were also
in Jerusalem who did not understand Jesus.
They were having a hard time grasping who he was because of some of the
baggage that they were bringing to the table. They were looking for a
Messiah who would enter into their human history to redeem them from the
oppression of Rome. They were looking for a leader who would ride up on
his great warrior steed and slay all those who inhabited Israel by force.
They were so busy looking for what they wanted that they could not
understand the words that Jesus had spoke to
them and was speaking to them. They were acting like they were listening
to him but in fact they were not paying any attention to him. You know the
saying: “In one ear and out the other one.” That was them!
Now, before we are too harsh on those who were asking
Jesus the question in this text this morning.
Maybe, we should ask ourselves have we ever been in a conversation with
someone and walked away from that conversation not knowing what was said
because we did not pay attention?
Their minds were on many things when
Jesus was speaking to them. They were focused
upon the things of the world instead of the Kingdom of
God. Thus many who had probably sat at the
feet of Jesus when he was teaching did not
hear the message that He was proclaiming to them.
Thus they had to finally say to him: “How long will you
keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus did not mind calling
them back to a reality check. He did not hesitate to say to them:
“I have told you, and you do not believe. The
works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe,
because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them, and they follow me…”
Ouch, those words have a little sting to them. They go
straight to the heart. Those words were spoken to convict the person right
there on the spot. There was no hesitation by Jesus
that day. He wanted them to understand that the truth had been revealed to
them in many ways. Yet, they were so caught up in their own lives they did
not hear the truth as it was spoken to them. By their own actions, they
had separated themselves from the word of God
as revealed by the Son of God. They were no
longer a part of God’s team. They had become
individualist with goals that would only benefit themselves and thus they
did not hear God’s word.
I have shared this story with some of the Disciple
Classes that I have led so those of you who have heard it. I invite you to
hear it one more time. We had just returned back from our third trip to
Jamaica and Pear Tree River Methodist Church when I was doing one of my
favorite Sunday afternoon activities. I enjoy watching some of the worship
services that are on the television on Sunday afternoon. I just enjoy
seeing what others are doing. I was cruising between a couple of stations
and trying to grasp the highlights of the sermons being proclaimed by the
two pastors. I flipped back to one channel when I heard the pastor tell a
story of how God had led his wife and him to
this gigantic expensive home and how God was
going to get it for them because they were so faithful. I immediately
thought back to those faithful disciples in Pear Tree River who lived in
one or two room buildings that were held together with string, rusted
nails or by rocks on the roof. That message that day hit hard. It appears
that in American Christianity, that some of us have developed this concept
of material blessings if one declares his or her faithfulness to
God as revealed through
Christ. As the pastor was speaking those words, I could not help
but think about those in Jamaica who are so poor materially yet who are so
rich spiritually. One can ask Jamaican faithful: “How are you today?”
Their immediate response is “blessed!” They know in their heart of hearts
the love and grace of our Lord Jesus. They
are one with him even in the midst of their humble lifestyles.
We need to remind ourselves that this faith journey is
not just about our thoughts and ourselves. It is about glorifying
God here on earth so that others will want to
know the love and grace of our redeeming God.
The faith walk calls us to step outside of the box and become a child of
God. It calls us to stop thinking about what
I want or what we want all the time and start listening to
God through Christ
to discover what God would have us do in His
mission and ministry in the world.
Those who spoke with Jesus
that day were concerned for themselves. They were not thinking about
others. They were not thinking that the Creator and redeeming
God wanted them to love the Romans as much as
they loved themselves. They wanted to be number 1 and they were not
concerned with others at all thus they did not hear the message.
Jesus went on to
say: “…because you do
not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they
follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one
will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater
than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The
Father and I are one.”
He informed them that day that they did not
belong to the Kingdom of God. How was he able
to tell them that? Simple, they did not listen thus they could not hear
the Word. They did not allow themselves to accept the cleansing redeeming
power of God into their lives. They were not
open to being convicted by his words.
The beauty of John Wesley’s spiritual experience
when his heart was strangely warmed is that Mr. Wesley was open to
God word. Once he became open to
God’s word then the Word convicted him and
called him into faithful discipleship. God’s
word for Wesley became more than words. It became his life.
The faithful who hear their names being called by
Jesus are the ones who have turned their
lives over to him completely. They are not playing at being religious.
They have surrendered their entire being to the will of
God. They have become obedient disciples who
have the love of God in and upon their hearts
and souls and share it daily with others.
The faithful disciple is now one with
God. It is no longer about me. It is about
God each and everyday. That is what gave
Jesus the power to continue own with his mission and message. He was one
with God. The obstacles that confronted him
everyday never slowed him down because he was walking daily in the
presence of God. God’s
very being was dwelling in Jesus. We have the same opportunity.
Jesus promised those early disciples and he
has promised us to send God’s Blessed Holy
Spirit to dwell among us. In order for the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, we
are called by God to open up our lives to the
will of God and then invite into our lives
the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Dwight L. Moody once demonstrated the principle like
this: "Tell me," he said to his audience, "how can I get the air out of
the tumbler I have in my hand?" One man said, "Suck it out with a pump."
But the evangelist replied, "That would create a vacuum and shatter it."
Finally after many suggestions, Moody picked up a pitcher and quietly
filled the glass with water. "There," he said, "all the air is now
removed." He then explained that victory for the child of
God does not come by working hard to
eliminate sinful habits, but rather by allowing the Holy Spirit to take
full possession.
The faithful know his voice and are one in him because
the faithful allow the Blessed Holy Spirit of God
to take full possession of their lives. May we be able to do likewise!
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
