When God Says We Are Safe#6

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Text: John 10:14-18,27,28

What a joy it is to be here today at the West Side Church of Christ. We hope your day has been an uplifting one and we hope that we all can move a little closer to Jesus by being together as his church today.
Please turn in your Bibles to Acts 17:16-18,30-32

The hope of salvation is the hope that all people want!
To be a person without hope must be one of the hardest lives to live! How do you face the future if there is no hope?
How do you handle adversity without something to hope for?
How do you go to bed at night and dream of what can happen if there is not a shred of hope in your outlook?
Life can become a meaningless existence where everything seems so useless without hope!

Over the past couple of months we have been looking at the Christian's hope! The famed apostle said in Romans chapter 8 that Christians are saved by hope! (vs.24) So, we of all people have reason to be a hope filled bunch!!

What is our hope?
Our hope is that something that has been secured on our behalf which nothing could possibly take that away! Our hope is seen in the simple declaration that God has said we are safe in His hands and we can never possibly die!

Now, we have been looking at the teaching of Jesus found in John 10 where Jesus tells the world that if a person will listen to him and follow him he/she will be safe for eternity! But, why does following Jesus make us safe?
I mean so many other things in this life can be taken away from us in an instant, why does our salvation with God not fall under that same category?
Jesus says because:
  1. I am the one leading you!
  2. I know you and you know me!
  3. I will do whatever it takes to save you!
But then as we saw last week he gave us in the second half of his teaching the main reasons why we are safe in God's hands:
The good shepherd laid down his life on the sheep's behalf!
We are safe to the point that even death cannot take our security away because Jesus died instead of and for each and every one of us!

Let's read together John 10:14-18,27,28 and see the big reason #2!
We are totally safe in the hands of God because after Jesus laid down his life- he took it again!
My salvation is secure because Jesus Christ has defeated the grave!
Jesus says the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again!
What does Jesus mean by this?
Is he suggesting that if he didn't die & rise again, God wouldn't love him?
I don't think so, but I do believe that because Jesus was accomplishing the Father's will and not his own selfish purpose- God so loved him!

Now, listen to the assurance of Jesus here:
I will voluntarily give up my life. But that is not the end of the story! I am not just the sacrificial Lamb of God! No sir, but I will also take my life back. I am also the Lamb who triumphs!

What does the resurrection of Jesus have to do with our eternal security with God?
How does one man's rising from the dead affect whether or not we will live forever in glory with God, Jesus the Spirit and all the holy angels?
Let's look at it from the negative point of view. What would it mean to us if Jesus did not rise from the dead?
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
Look at the 6 consequences of an unrisen Christ:
  1. Paul's preaching is vain!
  2. Our faith is vain!
  3. Apostles are false witnesses!
  4. Still in our sins!
  5. Those Christians who have died have perished!
  6. We are of all men most pitiable!
So, that is the state of affairs if there is no resurrection of Jesus! Listen, no resurrection means there is no hope! If there is no hope there cannot be any security, right?

Listen however to Paul's answer:
Vs.20- Christ the first-fruits. Now, first-fruits implies there will be more to follow!
Nothing we do matters if there is not somewhere a Jesus who was crucified but is alive forevermore!

Since, Christ took his life back, how does that give us assurance?
  1. We have someone who always lives to make intercession! Hebrews 7:24,25.
  2. No charge can stand against us! Romans 8:33,34
  3. There must be a reunion some time! 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17- if he rose there had to be an ascension, if there is an ascension there will be a return!
  4. Death has not the final say! 2 Timothy 1:8-10
    Listen to what Philip Yancey said, "Easter hits a new note of hope and faith that what God did once in a graveyard in Jerusalem, he can and will repeat on a grand scale. For Bob. For us. For the world. Against all odds, the irreversible will be reversed."1
The only way I can feel safe & secure is if someone has taken on what makes me afraid and become victorious over it!
The first time I wasn't afraid of the dark woods behind my house was when someone who had been through them took me by the hand and walked with me. In the same way, Jesus took on sin, evil, death & hell-all the forces that make me afraid of not being safe and now takes me by the hand and walks with me.

To his people who were about to struggle heavily at the hands of evil Jesus spoke these words of encouragement:
Revelation 1:17,18-"Don't be afraid…"

To you and I who at times may be tempted to worry whether or not God can actually make sure we get to heaven He tells us not to be afraid, Jesus was dead but behold is alive forevermore and he rules even the gates of death!

Almost a decade ago now, Elton John wrote a song called "The Last song" about a young man who was dying of aids. In this song it expresses the man's greatest fear:
that he thought his father would never come to his side as he was suffering but to his greatest surprise however the father was there with him the whole time as he was in a deep desperate fight. Listen to some of the words:

"Yesterday you came to lift me up
as light as straw and brittle as a bird
Today I weigh less than a shadow on the wall
Just one more whisper of a voice unheard
Tomorrow leave the windows open
As fear grows please hold me in your arms
Won't you help me if you can to shake this anger
I need you gentle hands to keep me calm
Cause I never thought I'd lose
I only thought I'd win
I never dreamed I'd feel
This fire beneath my skin
I can't believe you love me
I never thought you'd come
I guess I misjudged love
Between a father and his son."2

Jesus says the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again. If ever we wonder if this is enough for us to get to heaven, I guess we've misjudged love between the Father & His Son.

How do we find this assurance?
How do we become assured of our own resurrection unto life?
Romans 6:1-7, Let's stand and sing…


1. Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995) p.211
2. Elton John, The Last Song (1992, written by Elton John & Taupin, MCA records)


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