5-11-2025

“GOD’S WILL BE DONE”

Text: John 10:22-30

Sunday May 11, 2025 – Easter 4

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Our text for this 4th Sunday of Easter is the Gospel Lesson from John 10 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to that being humbled and ultimately comforted by who you are and what you have done receive whatever comes our way with patience and trust in you knowing where our identity lies. Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

We all have hopes and dreams. The Bible says that God desires all people to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4). Today’s Gospel shares an encounter of purported religious people and Jesus and their different hopes and strategies for the expenditure of our time here on earth.

Which do you wish for? Let us resolve to humble ourselves before God and recognize his will and wishes to be the best for us and all of his people.

Let God’s Will and Wishes Be Done in Our Lives.

I.   Jesus’ enemies confront and challenge him with their will and wishes (vv 22–24).

A. They surrounded him, attempting to intimidate him.

1.  They’ve heard and seen God’s will in Christ, but they challenge Jesus to speak in a way he doesn’t wish (vv 24–25).

2.  They knew Jesus’ will and teaching are different from theirs (vv 26–27).

3.  They did not want to repent but rather to maintain their self-importance.

B. They pretended to ask for information.

1.  They wanted to discredit Jesus and his will for people.

a.  They had tried this before with him and his followers (Jn 8:25 – So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning”.

b.  This is a precursor to their questioning at Jesus’ trial (Lk 22:67–68 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “if I tell you, you will not believe.”; Mt 26:62–66 – Jesus makes the same point before the High Priest).

2.  They sought to teach rather than be taught.

3.  They sought to be their own lords rather than submit to God.

C. Their wishes were focused on this passing world instead of the eternal kingdom God offers.

  II.  The Gospel of Jesus is challenged today, both inside and outside the church, because of wills and wishes different from God’s.

A. The Gospel is challenged and replaced with other wishes of what to do with one’s life.

1.  Some promise temporal healing.

2.  Some guarantee material prosperity.

3.  Some seek to impose their will through pressure, legislation, or court actions (for example, abortion or same-sex marriage).

B. Many trust their own will rather than the source by which God gives his Gospel: the Bible.

1.  They may pay lip service to the authority of the Bible, but they read into the Scripture their own ideas, or they ignore major Bible teachings and emphasize minor ones.

2.  They may discount the Bible altogether.

3.  They prefer their preconceived wishes and ideas to the revelation of God.

III. But what the Father wills and wishes his Christ to do for us, no one can foil (vv 27–30).

A.   Jesus’ enemies will try to snatch us out of the Father’s hands (Mt 5:10–12 – Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

B.  

C. Jn 15:18–25; 16:1–4 – summarize how the world will hate you because of your faith in Christ).

C. But Jesus shepherds us through adversity.

1.  He does not stand behind us and drive us like a ranch hand does for cattle.

2.  He goes before us and cares for us like a shepherd tends his sheep. That means laying down his life for the sheep!

C. Jesus assures us of our victory in and through him.

1.  He promises eternal life (v 28a).

2.  He guarantees us protection from enemies who would snatch away this gift (v 28b).

3.  He speaks as “very God of very God” (v 30).

a.  As God, he knows better than we or the world what’s best for us.

b.  As God, he loves us and even his enemies more than we could ever understand.

c.  As God, he has power to do his will—wiser, more loving than we or the world could do.

 The hostility of the world against the will of God will continue until our Lord Jesus Christ brings human history to its conclusion and inaugurates his eternal kingdom.

We, the people of the Church of God, will be subject to intimidation, humiliation, and even apparent defeat as the world seeks to impose its will and wishes on us.

This should not surprise us. Our Lord and leader experienced these same things, and he has warned us of what we, too, will experience in this world.

But Jesus has proven that God’s will will be done and assures us that we will share in that gracious will. Thus we can confidently proclaim with Martin Luther,

“Were they to take our house, Goods, honor, child, or spouse, Though life be wrenched away, They cannot win the day. The Kingdom’s ours forever!” (LSB 657:4).

Let us always pray “Thy will be done” with joy and confidence, for God wishes for us that which “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined” (1 Cor 2:9). Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

.