Christ the Door | Sermon 07/09/2023

Apologia Utah

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Church, if you would, please turn with me and your Bibles to John, chapter 10.

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Gospel according to John. We're in a new chapter, chapter 10. We're going to be in verses 1 through 10.

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Chapter 10. The title of the sermon today is simply, Christ the

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Door. Christ the Door. Starting in verse 1 of the

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Gospel according to John, chapter 10, hear now the magnificent and glorious words of the living and true

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God. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

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But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

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When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

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A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.

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This figure of speech, Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which he had been saying to them.

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So Jesus said to them again, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

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All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

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I am the door. If anyone enters through me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

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Thus ends the reading of God's wonderful word. Let's pray. Lord, I ask

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God that you would show us what we all need to know from your scripture today by your spirit.

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God, would you please illuminate these words. God, make them so transformative in our lives, not simply informative.

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God, glorify yourself in this. Show us who Christ is more deeply and more deeply as we continue to go through John.

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Lord, please help me to speak in a way that is helpful and clear and let it always be true.

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I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, church, for the next several weeks we will be looking at a lot of scripture verses related to sheep and shepherds.

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Sheep are honestly pretty interesting animals. They seem to have the uncanny ability to get into danger.

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There is a famous book, you might have even read it, it's been out for many decades, A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23.

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It's a very good, quick little book. And the author describes the precarious scenario for a sheep in which it can become what's called cast or downcast.

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In fact, you'll find in the Psalms, David was a shepherd boy before he became a king.

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And when he says, Why are you downcast, O my soul? This is what he's talking about, okay?

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So the author of this book says, Even the largest and fattest, strongest, and sometimes healthiest sheep can become downcast and be a casualty.

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The way this happens is this. This sheep, whether heavy, fat, or long fleece, will lie down comfortably in some little hollow or depression in the ground.

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It will then very slightly roll onto its side to stretch out and relax.

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Suddenly, the center of gravity in the body for that sheep will shift so that it turns on its back far enough that the sheep and its feet no longer can touch the ground.

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It's up like this. It may feel a sense of panic at that moment.

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It'll start pawing frantically, and if it was kind of diagonal, now it'll get even worse as they freak out.

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It rolls even further. Now it's quite impossible for it to regain its feet, and they die that way.

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If it's in summer, I believe they will die within a few hours. If it's winter, it'll take a few days.

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That is to say if predators don't get them first. In fact, the buzzards and eagles watch as a sheep lies down.

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Predators are looking for this. You see, sheep are almost completely helpless animals.

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They have difficulty even finding their own food. They are habit -bound creatures.

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They will even follow the same paths that they have tread, making a rut.

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Okay? That's where the word comes. They'll make a rut, and they'll continue to go to places in habit of where they used to get food even though they ate all of it and it's all gone.

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They'll just go. They'll follow the path, and then, oh, there's no food again. Let me claw at the dirt even though there might be food very nearby.

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They won't even realize it. They'll just follow along the path they've made. They don't know any better.

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Sheep are given to wandering. They can be easily frightened. Anything can scare a sheep.

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I don't know why. It reminds me of those online videos of where people scare goats or something like that, and they're like, ah!

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They sound like a human almost. It's a little freaky. I'm sure it might be a similar thing.

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The sheep can be stubborn. They can be very hard to work with. And there is just about no way for them to be able to defend themselves.

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They are defenseless. They're hard work for the shepherd.

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It's a hard, hard vocation. Endless are the nights and days of toil for the shepherd.

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They are truly dependent on their shepherd. They need a good one.

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They need a courageous and benevolent shepherd who will treat them rightly.

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You see, sheep don't do well with any sort of abuse. They don't take it well. These are the animals that humans, especially

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God's people, are so often personified with. Sheep. Since the beginning,

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Adam was the very first shepherd in a way, but he failed to protect

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God's flock. He failed to protect his family. And since that time, since that first initial failure, the flock of God has been waiting for a true shepherd to come and lead and care for it in a way that Adam could never do, in a way that you and I could never do.

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You see, many have tried to be that true shepherd, but no one could do it except for one.

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He is the only one who does it rightly, and He'll do it for all eternity. Let's consider that in our text today.

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So, you do have the printout, or you can look in your Bible. The printout has even other references that we're going to go over today, so have that handy if you have a slow hand to turn.

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So, John has not indicated a setting or time change from when

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Jesus healed the blind man. There has been no indicator that there's been a setting or time change.

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And if you remember, at the end, Jesus revealed Himself to the healed man, and the man believed in Christ as Savior and Lord, and then the

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Pharisees were right there, and they're like, are we blind too? And He affirms that they are blind.

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And so as far as we know, Jesus is still in Jerusalem. He's in public probably.

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And it's possible that a crowd is starting to form as He rebukes some

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Pharisees. So I think John 10, even though a lot of people don't take this,

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I think John 10 continues to be an extension of what we saw with the healing of the blind man. That will make sense shortly.

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Chapter 10 is honestly one of the most beautiful spots of sacred Scripture, is it not?

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Beautiful. We get so much imagery here of Christ. The love of Christ.

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The care of Christ. Verse 6 in our passage today calls this teaching a, quote, figure of speech.

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That is paroimia. Paroimia in the Greek. That normally means in the

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Septuagint in the Greek Old Testament, that normally means proverb, a saying of truth.

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It's used typically in regards to wisdom literature. However, this word is only used ever in the

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Gospel according to John in the New Testament. It only occurs in John. And when Jesus says it again, paroimia, in chapter 16, verse 25,

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He'll speak in such a way where He says, I'm speaking like this right now, but there's going to come a day when

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I speak more plainly. And so that kind of gives us an idea of how John is using this word.

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Jesus uses this in a symbolic way. He speaks like this in a symbolic way.

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The sheep and shepherd theme acts as a symbol pointing to a greater reality.

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It's used in such a way by Jesus to give vivid imagery of some truth that He is trying to convey.

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What I'm trying to say is, these words here in John 10 aren't simply meant for you to think about sheep and shepherds and pasture and grazing and all that.

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That is a big part of it. But they're not only supposed to be taken literally.

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They are to be interpreted in light of previous revelation, especially revelation that has to do with the coming of the

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Messiah and His kingdom. In other words, the Messiah, Jesus, is the key to understanding this, unlocking this.

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Now, to see a little bit of that, it's in your handout, or go to Ezekiel 34 in your

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Bibles real quick. Ezekiel 34. We're going to see how

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John 10 is not simply about metaphors and images of sheep and shepherd related to Christ.

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We must go to Ezekiel 34 to see how Christ fulfills prophecy. Honestly, the whole of Ezekiel 34, the whole chapter is applicable to today.

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But we simply can't read it all. Let me point out a few verses to you. Look at verses 2 -5.

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God tells Ezekiel, son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel.

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Prophesy and say to those shepherds, thus says the Lord God, Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves!

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Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool.

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You slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened.

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The diseased you have not healed. The broken you have not bound up. The scattered you have not brought back.

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Nor have you sought for the lost. But with force and with severity you have dominated them.

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They were scattered for lack of a shepherd and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered.

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We see in that indictment, the leaders of Israel, it wasn't simply shepherds,

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God meant even the leaders of Israel who are to be the shepherds of God's people.

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They've been stealing from the flock. They've been stealing from God's people.

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They've been dominating them. Treating them harshly. And they need a shepherd to seek them out.

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They need someone who's actually going to care for them. Verse 10 then says in Ezekiel 34,

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I will deliver my flock. I will deliver my flock. God is coming.

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This is key. Now look at verses 11 -16. For thus says the Lord God, Behold, I Myself, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out as a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep.

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So I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

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I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, see that?

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From countries and bring them to their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the streams and in all the inhabited places of the land.

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I will feed them in a good pasture and their grazing ground will be on the mountain heights of Israel.

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There they will lie down on good grazing ground and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.

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I will feed My flock and I will lead them to rest, declares the

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Lord God. I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered. I will bind up the broken and strengthen the sick.

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The Lord's going to do it. The Lord's going to bring back His sheep. He will take them back from places they are not to be, from where they've been lost.

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He will take them to pasture. He will lead them to rest. All these

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I statements, the Lord, the only God, Yahweh, keeps saying,

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I will do it. Then finally, the Lord says in verse 23, then

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I will set over them one shepherd, just one, My servant

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David, and He will feed them. He will feed them Himself and be their shepherd. Verse 25 then says,

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I will make a covenant of peace with them. This is a new covenant.

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This is the new covenant. And who is Jesus? Jesus is called the root of David.

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He's called the branch of Jesse. Who is Jesse, David's father? In the

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Davidic covenant, the Lord promises an eternal covenant in which one of David's descendants will reign as king, and his dominion will be everlasting.

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His rule will be without end. His kingdom will stretch over the entire earth.

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Brothers and sisters, as the apostle Peter said, David is long gone.

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David is dead. He's buried. And he's in the ground to this day somewhere underneath ruins in Israel.

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David is dead. Who is God talking about? He's speaking of the

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Anointed One, which means Messiah. This is

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Jesus. And so, can you get this? All at the same time, the

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Lord, the I Am says, I will do it. He says, He'll go to His sheep. He'll find them.

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He'll bound their legs. He'll strengthen them. He'll heal their wounds.

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He'll go to them. He'll be like a shepherd, but then He says, I'm going to send a shepherd.

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This is Trinitarian language. Jesus is all at once the

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Yahweh, the I Am. He's the One coming. And also, at the same time, and you think about His humanity a little bit,

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His divinity and humanity, He is the descendant of David. He is the rightful heir to the throne.

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He is the Messiah. He is the King. He is the One Shepherd. That is to say, the fulfillment of Ezekiel 34 is happening right here in John 10 with Jesus Christ.

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He is no doubt alluding to it. And they should pick it up.

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They should get it. But they don't. So verses 1 and 2 say,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

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But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. So the sheepfold was often connected to a family's house.

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It could have been a courtyard by their house. But it seems like in Jesus' example, this appears to be an independent pen that contained multiple flocks belonging to different people.

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And they were all kept together corporately in that one large pen. And the fold of the sheep was an enclosure with walls.

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The sheep would dwell in it. They would come in especially at night. They would keep away from predators and from getting lost in the sheepfold.

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The sheepfold is a place of safety, security from the outside world.

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But often, those of the outside world, in this case, the one who is a thief, in the

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Greek it is kleptos, which is where we get the word klepto, a thief and a robber, would climb into the enclosure over the walls.

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Those who use doors typically aren't individuals with malintent. Right? I mean, most movies you and I see or you watch a video, maybe you're like me and you've seen something that says, look at this dumb thief.

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And it shows a video of a guy. Usually they ascend the walls. They come onto the roof.

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And they find a way to descend into a house or a building. And they come some other way to rob and commit thievery.

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But the one who goes through the door is different. They typically don't go through the main door.

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And that's one theme we are to take away from this. Using anything other than the prescribed way indicates one is not good.

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Someone's seeking to steal. Someone's seeking to kill. Remember, Jesus had just called the

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Jewish leaders what? Sons of the devil? That they're blind? And that they're liars.

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And now He speaks of these terrible watchmen and robbers and thieves and false shepherds.

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I think He's alluding to all of that. In Jeremiah 23, it says,

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Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture, declares the

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Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who are tending My people, you have scattered

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My flock. You have driven them away. You have not attended to them. Behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil you've committed.

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The evil of your deeds, declares the Lord. In Isaiah 56, the Lord calls the shepherds and watchmen of His sheep,

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He calls them blind men. See the connection even to John 9 there.

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He says, You shepherds have no understanding. Why don't you go back to your strong drink and wine?

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They're neglecting God's sheep. Someone's stealing God's sheep, but they're doing nothing to stop it.

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They're not watchful. Now the one who uses the door is a true shepherd.

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He who takes the prescribed way and enters by the designated door to the sheepfold is a shepherd to the sheep,

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He says. A true shepherd. Taking the right way typically indicates no malintent.

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Typically. A true shepherd walks in confidence knowing exactly where His sheep are and what way to take.

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The life of a shepherd in the Judean wilderness was a tough one, my friends.

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They were always out in the elements, whether it be extreme heat or cold, whether grass was abundant or scarce.

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Sheep tend to wander. And when they were away from their sheep pens, there was much exposure and very little protection from predators.

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Those who would seek to kill and steal the sheep. You see, they would take them out of the pen, and they would have to travel to places with grass.

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And they would have to watch over the sheep in the middle of the night. I mean, this was just relentless watching over.

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Diligent vigilance. Endless, constant awareness. Danger was just around the corner.

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Danger from predators. Danger from thieves. Those who seek to steal the sheep and take their wool and take all their meat and leave a carcass behind.

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Rustlers. Taking from the sheep without having given them any care.

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Scottish theologian and preacher George Adam Smith describes the eastern shepherd.

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And as a Scot, he says, with us, sheep are left to themselves.

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In Scotland, he says, sheep can wander by themselves. But he says,

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I do not remember to have ever seen in the east a flock without a shepherd. In such a landscape as Judea, where a day's pasture is thinly scattered over an unfenced track, covered with delusive paths, still frequented by wild beasts, and then rolling into the desert, the shepherd, the man in his character, are then indispensable.

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On some high moor, across which at night the hyenas howl, when you met this shepherd, he was sleepless, farsighted, weather -beaten, armed, and leaning on a staff, looking out over thousands of sheep, trying to see if any of them had been scattered.

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All of them. Each one of those sheep on his heart. And so, he says you can understand why the shepherd sprang to be such an important thing in Christian history.

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You understand why this was a title given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our king was given the name shepherd because it's a symbol of self -sacrifice.

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Self -sacrifice. Standing there, looking out, leaning on his staff, sleepless nights, fighting off predators.

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Self -sacrifice. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, they were shepherds in the

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Old Testament. The most famous shepherd in the whole Bible, of course, is the

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Lord. The Lord Almighty. Psalm 77 verse 20 says, Lord, You led

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Your people like a flock. Psalm 79 verse 13, So we,

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Your people, and the shepherd of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever. Psalm 80 verse 1 says,

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So we, Your people, and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever. I'm sorry,

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I read that. Psalm 80 verse 1, O give ear, shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.

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Psalm 95 verse 7, For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

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Shepherding is in the very heart of God. Shepherding describes our dependence on Him and our love for Him.

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Shepherding also describes His sacrifice and care for us. The problem is, at this first century, right here with Jesus, there have been all these false shepherds leading the people for far too long.

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Jesus says that they have even taken Moses' seat, the seat of judgment, the seat that's only reserved for God.

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These false shepherds have sought their own glory, therefore stealing the Lord's glory.

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They have said that they are the way and that their man -made traditions are the way to pasture.

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But a true shepherd has finally arrived. No more shall they fleece the flock of God.

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No more shall they kill or use them. Christ will call His sheep and He will keep them safe and bring them to pasture.

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Go to verse 3. To Him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear

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His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. You see, the true shepherd has no access issues to His sheep.

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Those standing guard at the door let Him in with no problem. The sheep hear the true shepherd's voice.

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There's a strong familiarity within the sheep for the shepherd.

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I'm reminded of that too because two days ago, we were at a lovely family here.

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We were at their farm, their ranch, and there was a lot of animals around, domesticated animals.

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And I noticed that when they were around these animals, some of the animals had no problem with them, but then if we tried to come close to them, some of them would be skittish or standoffish because they're used to their voices.

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They're used to their presence. And that's the same thing here. He spends, the shepherd spends all this time with His sheep.

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He stands in front of them so they can see Him. And He speaks and He teaches them.

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In fact, shepherds would teach sheep specific commands and they would learn them. Over time, they recognized

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His voice. Even so much so that even if the flocks were mixed with someone else's flocks, maybe there was three flocks in one pen, when the shepherd of one would come and He would call out to them, the sheep would recognize

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His voice so much in His presence, they would come out from among the other flocks and they would follow to their shepherd.

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It was a really amazing thing. They're familiar with Him. But this verse also shows that the shepherd is familiar with them.

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Despite sometimes indistinguishable similarities, sheep looking very much the same, these shepherds could identify specific marks.

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They knew each one to the point where it says here that the shepherd calls them by name.

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He's able to name them. Do you know how that's possible? Christ, the

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Good Shepherd, knows you better than you know yourself. He knows every scar, every wound, every trait, every tendency.

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He knows when there's hurt in your voice, joy in your eyes, worry in your head.

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That's how well Christ knows you. He knows you fully and deeply.

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He knows your name. And it seems here to me that the sheep are

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His before He even calls them. He calls them by name.

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And they already know His voice. There is a sovereignty of God over this, like the naming of the animals by Adam in the garden.

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The shepherd knows his sheep and he names them, which gives a sign of authority and intimacy like Adam did.

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Jesus hasn't said it explicitly yet, and He won't say it until verse 11.

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He'll say then He is the Good Shepherd, but He's alluding to that still here. He is the shepherd.

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And so what's happening here in verse 3? He's leading the sheep out.

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He's leading them out. The question is, out of what?

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What is the shepherd leading the sheep out of? What is the sheepfold in this scenario?

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You see, it can't be the church. Jesus doesn't lead His sheep out of the church.

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It can't be heaven. Sheepfold here isn't heaven. He doesn't lead us out of heaven. He leads us into heaven.

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What is He leading them out of? I would say here that the sheepfold is

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Israel. He'll later speak of another sheep, another flock, who are currently not of this fold.

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He'll say that later. We're going to go over that in the next week or so. And that will point to what we know to be the

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Gentiles. But here, He's speaking of Jesus' elect in the sheepfold of Judaism.

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You see, the true shepherd has come. The Messiah has arrived. And He will lead

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His sheep out of that false Israel and into the true Israel, the church. And then

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He says that there's a sheep, sheep that belong to Him, and He already knows their name, and He'll pull them out from other nations.

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Did you see that in Ezekiel 34? From other countries they will come. And Jesus will do that.

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And He'll pull all of them from all over. The Diaspora, when the Jews were scattered, the Jews in Israel, the

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Jews of Judaism. And He'll pull Gentiles from all their godlessness. And He'll make one fold, one flock.

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He will care for them. He will no longer let false shepherds abuse

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His sheep. He will check them over for wounds. He will heal them. He will escort them personally to heavenly pasture.

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And He calls His own, and we recognize Him. And I would say by the regeneration of the

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Holy Spirit, before you even knew Jesus, you never heard His voice.

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But by the Spirit, when He called you, you came. Inevitably, you came.

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Because He knew you before you knew Him. He will take us out.

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You see, Jesus has to take us out of what we were in. And He becomes our shepherd.

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What were you taken out of? We know what we were all brought into.

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What were you taken out of? Tons of different stuff. What matters now is not where you came from.

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It's what you're in now, in Christ. Go to verse 4. When He puts forth all

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His own, He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice.

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This is very significant. This word, puts forth, right here, when

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He puts forth all His own, this is the same Greek word from chapter 9, specifically verse 34, 9 -34, in which the

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Pharisees finished their dialogue with the healed man, and they insulted him and said, yes, you were of course entirely born in sins.

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And then it says what? It says they put him out. They removed him from the synagogue.

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They put him out. They put the man out with no care for him, no leading, no protection, no safety from the world and its predators.

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But Jesus puts forth all His own and goes ahead of them.

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Same word, different meaning. You see this? False shepherds put out one of God's sheep, but Jesus puts out the sheep and takes them from something evil and brings them to something good.

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Same word. It's amazing. One leads you to His presence.

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The robbers cast you out from their presence. And Jesus promised in John 6, verse 37, all that the

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Father gives Me comes to Me and I will by no means cast out any.

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The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. And I love how

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He says here all His own. Do you see that? When He puts forth all His own, it expresses this special relationship between shepherd and sheep.

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You see, when Christ saves you, He looks at you and He goes, all mine, all mine, you're mine, all mine.

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He'll share us with no one else. We're under His ownership. The devil can't have you.

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The world can't have you. We belong to God now. And He must get the sheep out.

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You see, they have no ability to get out on their own. That's the key.

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The sheep have no ability to get out on their own. He puts them forth. Why?

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Because it's hard to believe. It's difficult to repent.

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It's hard to turn from sin when it's so pervasive and provocative and alluring.

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Sin feels good and we want it. Human nature resists

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God. But the shepherd is so very powerful that the

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Spirit overcomes the nature of man. And Jesus puts forth all

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His own. He puts them forth and they follow. Remember in John 8,

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He said, if you are really My disciple, if you really follow Me, abide or continue in My word.

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His word, what is another way to say that? His voice. His voice. You're going to hear the shepherd's voice.

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You're going to go by the leading of the shepherd's voice. And as He changes our hearts, we do that willingly now.

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We want to know what He has said. It leads us by still waters in greener pastures.

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Follow the shepherd's voice. His word brings us peace. Do you lack peace today?

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Listen to His voice again and again and again and again. Listen to the shepherd's voice.

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Turn to His word. According to one commentator, Western shepherds drive their sheep.

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Western shepherds would go behind the flock and they would get all these dogs, and you might have seen it on a video, and they go behind the flock and they drive them forward.

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That's what a Western shepherd does. But the shepherds of Israel in Jesus' day would go out in front of the flock and lead them.

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The flock would be behind them. He would be in front. He would go before them, and it says, call to them.

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We don't know how to get to those pastures without Him, so He leads us. He goes ahead of us.

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You know, it reminds me, on Wednesdays we've been singing hymns before our

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Bible study, and the Norses brought up, and it's now one of my favorite hymns.

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It says, And I won't sing the rest of it.

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As you can tell, I'm back up today anyways. Lord help me. And a wonderful song,

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He Leadeth Me. Christ is ahead to ward off predators and dangers.

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He will get you and I to our final home. And as He goes ahead, we can see where He goes and how

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He gets there. And we can go where He goes. And how

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He gets there, that's how we'll get there too. And when He goes ahead of us, we'll get to see

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His example. He stands there in front of us. We get to see Him. Like a master and disciple relationship, we follow the example and leading of Christ.

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We'll go where He goes. We'll do what He does. And we ought to flee from any other shepherd that is not

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Christ. Any other example. Any other leading that is not Christ. We should flee from it.

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That's what verse 5 says. Look at verse 5. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from, because they do not know the voice of strangers.

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These parables and stories that Christ told are actually very theologically deep.

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What at first glance in John chapter 10 can seem so simple. Oh, sheep and shepherds. This is actually very deep.

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Even in this verse, I would say we see a divine sovereignty here. We see irresistible grace.

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We see effectual calling. These theological terms that we know that God does perform in His monergistic sanctification and salvation.

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The Good Shepherd has chosen His sheep, and He won't lose a single one of them. They will come to Him as He calls.

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They won't go after strangers. They won't even know the stranger's voice. That's true.

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They are then in full allegiance, full respect, and full love in relationship with the

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Good Shepherd only. His sheep follow Him. You see, when people say, yeah,

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I'm new age, but I love Jesus. I love to follow these practices and astral projection and talk to spirit guides, but Jesus is my

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Savior. What shepherd are you following? When someone says that they think that Jesus is a great prophet, and they like to follow

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Him and the Islamic Allah, God, hey, they're both good.

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Who's your shepherd? No one can serve two masters. You see? Only the one.

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From a stranger, you run. And know this, again, you cannot follow the shepherd and stranger simultaneously.

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You just can't. It just won't work. And so, my urge to you is to not go off the path in which the shepherd is ahead of you.

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Don't stray from the shepherd. You see, the stranger tries to make his or her voice enticing.

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I'm reminded of even Pilgrim's Progress, going off that path, going to the giant, the despondent giant, and all these different paths, going away from the main one.

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They try to make their voice alluring. We are to be careful. They'll lure us away.

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And even some follow for a time. It's true. There are false teachers that look like true shepherds sometimes.

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Don't follow. You are to run the other direction. You see, so many things are vying for our allegiance and our worship and our attention.

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So how does one avoid that? You are to know well the voice of the shepherd.

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That's it. You see, someone says, how am I supposed to keep myself from all this error?

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There's all these false teachers and false shepherds, and there's all these religions out there. How am

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I to keep away from it all? I have to learn what they all teach. No. No, he says, the way to stay on the path is to know the voice of the shepherd.

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Don't be bogged down and worried about not knowing every single weird religion and cultic thing and everything out there.

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If you know the voice of the shepherd, you'll stay on it. Not saying you can't study those things, but that's the key.

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You see, we get bogged down in looking at these random things. Oh, I have to do this so I make sure

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I stay away from that. No, he'll make sure you follow. He'll call to you. You'll hear his voice.

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You'll come to him. You'll come back. And you should know that this makes, honestly, evangelism and discipleship and even pastoral ministry so much easier.

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You see, yes, we ought to be there for people, be there for one another, help someone come out of sin.

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There's commandments about that. If we see our brother or sister in sin, helping them, bringing to their attention without hypocrisy, of course.

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But, ultimately, you can't control what this person or that person does or doesn't do.

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If someone apostatizes or backslides or whatever, we are faithful with what

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God puts in front of us. We warn. We do what we're supposed to do.

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But at the end, you don't own something you can't own. You can't make that person come back.

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Yes, keep praying for your lost sibling or your lost mother and father.

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Keep praying. Keep trying to share nuggets of truth. But ultimately, some of us are so beat down because we're trying to act like our voice can call them.

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It can't. God's got it. Be faithful, but remember that.

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You know, I've seen people who have adult children and said they were in the church their whole life.

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And they've left it. I said, look, ultimately, you've got to trust the

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One. You've got to trust the judge of the earth who will do right. If they're

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His, He'll bring them back. That's the truth. You see, if they're

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His, they won't stay with a stranger too long. Eventually, they'll flee. Pray that prayer.

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God, let this person I love be a true sheep of Yours. And while they're with this stranger for a time, call to them with Your voice.

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Bring them back to Your fold. And Lord, if they're not Your sheep, make them

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Your sheep. Please, God, do that. You can't make a goat a sheep though, too.

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You've just got to be faithful. You can't make them hear the Master's voice when they have no spiritual capacity.

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So give the Gospel. Give warnings in love. But trust the work to the shepherd.

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He's over them. You're just a sheep. I'm just a sheep too. Well then, we jump out of Jesus' discourse, and John gives us some insight just like he does.

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He says, "...this figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which

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He had been saying to them." Verse 6 I won't really go over this much. We already talked about pyromia.

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Oh my gosh. Oh, that's not me. No, you're good.

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I was like, oh Lord, did I have my own phone on? Now we all know it was you, so sorry.

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I said, oh dear. No, no. It happens.

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It happens. Alright, back to it. Verse 6

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Who did Jesus last speak to? At the very end of chapter 9, who did

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He last speak to? The questioning Pharisees. They said, are we blind too? And Jesus affirmed their blindness.

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And so here once again, that's who we assume doesn't understand. The Pharisees listening could not understand

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His words because they don't recognize His voice. This statement shows that not only was it sometimes hard to understand

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Jesus, but it also is an indictment on the ones listening who are not His sheep.

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Now before we finish verses 7 -10, let me just tell you real quick, this can be confusing because verses 1 -5 of John 10 constitute their own symbol and conclusion.

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Jesus will continue the shepherd and sheep theme going on into verse 7, but He will make new metaphorical use of them.

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He will use the theme, but in a different way. Some people get messed up. Verses 1 -5 constitute their own symbol.

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And now we're moving on to a new symbol in verses 7, but He's going to keep the sheep and shepherd theme.

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So Jesus then in verse 7 gives His distinct I Am formula.

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Verses 7 -9, Ego Emi, Truly, truly, I say to you,

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I Am the door of the sheep. In previous verses,

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Jesus was the shepherd who walked through the gate, through the door, and now

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Jesus is the door. He is the door. He's the only way out of bondage.

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He's the only way to freedom Christ. One may consider the door symbol the most important part of this statement, but equally, if not possibly more important, is the

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I Am statement. Ego Emi. I Am. That is to say,

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He is the Lord who came to His sheep. The one who promised to come to His sheep, that's

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Jesus. The Lord who promised a shepherd over them, that's Jesus.

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Divinely, I Am. The holy name of God. He is to gather them, take them to pasture.

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He is not the first of many doors. He is the only door. The only one who can mediate entrance is

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Jesus. Do you know how many doors you're going to walk through in your life?

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You live 70, 80, 90, whatever. Do you know how many times you're going to walk through a door?

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When you woke up this morning, you probably faced a door. When you went to the bathroom, you walked through a door.

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Hopefully you closed it after you walked through that door. Right? You go to work, you walk through a door to get into it.

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There's so many doors in this life, and it's amazing that such a common thing as a door is what

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Jesus says He is. But it's powerful. It's a door.

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The God of the universe, so humble, so lowly, I am the door. But that's the most amazing thing.

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This is incredible. Think about it this way. Jesus says He is the door. What happened in Genesis 3?

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It says that Adam and Eve were driven out, put out of the

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Garden of Eden, away from God's presence. And as they looked back, guarding the door was a cherubim angel with a flaming sword.

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The door was shut to them. Now, in Christ, the door is open once again to Paradise.

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He is the door. He is the way. He is the One with whom the veil was torn between the common people and God through the

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Holy of Holies. He is the One who gives us access to God. We can come before God again through Jesus.

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God walked in the cool of the day of the Garden with Adam and Eve once again through the door, through Jesus, we'll be in the presence of God again.

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We can dwell with our Lord in purity once again because of the pure One.

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He says in verse 8, All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

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This statement, all who came before Me, excludes, of course, those who have served

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God and His people faithfully. See, some read that.

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All who came before Me are thieves and robbers. Some think He's talking about Moses. No, no.

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He's not saying that. It might be better understood this way, as if Jesus is saying, all who came before Me and tried to call out to My sheep and act like as if they were the shepherd and the sheep was their own, they are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

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See, Moses, David, and the prophets, they knew. They knew they were just under -shepherds.

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You see, that is a synonym for the word hireling. An under -shepherd.

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Not truly the shepherd. Sometimes they call pastors under -shepherds. And these men, as under -shepherds, waited for the true shepherd to come.

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They pointed to the true shepherd who was to come. The ones before Jesus, the ones

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He's possibly talking about could be messianic pretenders, false messiahs who promised to lead the people to freedom but ended up leading them to more slavery.

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You see, before Jesus came on the scene, there was people saying that they were the messiah.

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I'm the messiah. I'm here for God's people. This could be what Jesus is alluding to.

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This could also mean the current religious leaders of Jesus' day. The high priest thinking that He is more than He is.

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He's for God's people. He is like the messiah. Whoever they were, they were all illegitimate and the sheep didn't hear them.

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That's the conclusion we get. Let's go to our final verses, church. 9 and 10. They read,

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Once again, I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.

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And will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

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I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. So this word saved right here is the first time that Jesus breaks out of His metaphor.

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He uses the word saved. He doesn't use a shepherd -related term. He says the word saved.

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We have freedom now. We have no need to fear. The Scriptures tell us that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. Nothing like tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.

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Not heights, not depths, nor powers, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come.

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Nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is the reality.

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Shepherd and sheep are bound together forever for all eternity now.

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There is no enemy He cannot conquer for you and me. Our freedom is secure.

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By the way, this is also a statement of exclusivity. Jesus is the sole means by which we must find safety and salvation.

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He is what? Later on in John 14 verse 6, He is the way, the truth, and the life.

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He is the door. When a sheep would enter through the door, a shepherd would check over each one.

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He would look for signs of wounds, disease. He would look for matted wool.

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He would look for broken limbs. It was a serious task. He does that for you and me.

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That sin, you know you need to overcome and remove.

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He aids us in that. He'll aid you in that too. Ezekiel 20 verse 37 -38 says,

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I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant, and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me.

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I will bring them out of the land where they sojourned, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the

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Lord. What does he mean? I will make them pass under the rod. Is that judgment?

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No, it's not. When God says I'll make you pass under the rod, that means that the shepherd, as they were coming back into the fold, he couldn't handle inspecting all of them all at once.

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They would run him down. And so the shepherd would lay down his rod, blocking the way of the other sheep, and he would check over the one in front of them.

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He gives each one individual care and concern. He'd check over, do what he needed to do.

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They'd move on, and he'd lift his rod, and the next sheep would come, and the next sheep would come. And that's how he would care for them.

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You see, we don't approach the rod of judgment, but the shepherd's cane. His rod and his staff now comfort us.

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Psalm 23. It means that we can enter into pasture.

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We have all that we need now to live rightly. We have received all things pertaining to life and godliness.

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All things. We don't have to follow the arduous and burdensome tasks of our old

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Master. Sin no longer reigns over us. The father of lies is not our father anymore.

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God is. And in the pasture that Christ has taken us to, we have food.

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We have sustenance. He will sanctify us and carry us completely to the end.

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The prophet Jeremiah says, Lord, Your Word is sustenance to my soul.

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He feeds us. Deuteronomy 6 says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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He feeds us. Physically too. No matter how poor you are, physically, whatever, you and I have life and we have it abundantly.

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He says that. And one day, that abundant life will be fully realized.

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Fully realized. Fully consummate. Life abundant. And we're headed there.

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We're headed there. We've got to keep following the Good Shepherd. Remember how

01:00:04

I told you the Jews would sing what's called the Halal during the Feast of Booths?

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They would sing the Psalms during the Feast of Booths. And I told you in one sermon that they would sing

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Psalm 118. And right before they would sing the lyric or the verse where it says the builders rejected the chief cornerstone, right before that, verse 20 in Psalm 118 says, this is the door of the

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Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. And the righteous will enter through it. Remember how that stone pointed to Christ?

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Now in this psalm, I believe this gate, this door is pointing to Christ. And He says, and the righteous will enter through it.

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By His imputation, He'll give you a foreign righteousness and you'll walk through the gate.

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Who's the gate? Who's the door? Jesus. It's all because of Him. But the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

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This is slaughterhouse -type language. This is all things opposite of what

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Christ does for His sheep. The thief steals your life and your life gets enslaved to sin.

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One gets robbed of the only kind of true, fulfilling hope in this life, the one that can give glory to God.

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Joy is stolen and traded with misery. The thief fleeces the flock, uses their wool and meat for his own selfish uses.

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You know, charlatans under the guise of Christianity do what we call fleecing the flock.

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They will rob God's people for their own gain. They'll stand here and give you a 20 -minute message in a $20 ,000 suit, and they'll take all your money and live luxuriously.

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That's fleecing the flock. Oh, if you could just sow but a little bit more, we're so close to having another campus.

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What about the Gospel, my friend? What about the Gospel? The Jewish leaders used people for power and wealth to in Jesus' day.

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Ultimately, the thief kills and destroys. What a difference between a lifelong grazing sheep and one that is just quickly fattened for slaughter.

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The point is, for the unbeliever, and for those who don't believe who might even listen to this sermon later, for the unbeliever, something out there is robbing them.

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Something out there wants to kill them. Something out there wants to destroy them forever.

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But Jesus came so that you may have life, and He says have it abundantly. He has slain sin and death by becoming what?

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A lamb. Jesus will win His sheep by becoming the

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Lamb of God. He'll take this slaughterhouse.

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He'll enter the slaughterhouse for you and me so that we never will have to. And the life abundant isn't just having life in your body.

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It's about the quality of life one has too. Jesus not only preserves life, but gives an infinitely better one than we could have ever thought possible.

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All of it, of course, culminating to life eternal. So let's wrap this up, church.

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Recapping some of the truths that Christ gave us today by being the door and being the shepherd.

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Through Christ the door, you will find a house of mercy. You walk through that door of Christ, you will find a house of mercy.

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You will find a pasture of plenty. You'll find white garments are there to replace the ones we're wearing covered in filth.

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There through that door, you will find healing for the sick and the weak. Food for the hungry.

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Waters to wash off blemishes. And all around are those who love the

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Master and Shepherd of the house everywhere. That's where you're going if you are in Christ.

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He will never kick you out. He will never close the door on you. The angels with the flaming swords will guard you from evil rather than keeping you from coming in.

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Interestingly, Christ allows no other option. There is only one singular door.

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He says, I am the door. No works can earn it.

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No other doors, no other shepherds will take you to pasture. It's only Christ.

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Through the door you are saved. Saved from theft, kidnapping, murder, and destruction.

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The saved have the liberties and freedom that access through the door offers. And finally, I want to leave you with this.

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The Lord is a shepherd worth following. He's the only perfect and blameless shepherd.

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He will never fail us as the other ones have. And I find it perfect, so perfect, how

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Scripture depicts this. You know what it is? When Moses knew that he had to soon pass on the mantle of shepherding or leadership onto someone else so that the people of God could go into the promised land, when

01:06:06

Moses knew he was going to soon die and he had to pass that on after the

01:06:13

Exodus, he says this in Numbers 27, 15 -17, Then Moses spoke to the

01:06:20

Lord, saying, May the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who will go out and come in before them and who will lead them out and bring them in so that the congregation of the

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Lord will not be like sheep which have no shepherd. Do you know who came after Moses, brothers and sisters?

01:06:46

Joshua. Which in the Greek, that name is transliterated

01:06:52

Jesus. It wasn't actually Joshua the son of Nun who would ultimately fulfill this calling of leading

01:07:00

God's people. The Lord brought the true and mighty and righteous Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus who would never leave the flock.

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He would never die. He'd always be there and He will be our God and we will be His people.

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And He will bring us to the eternal promised land. We will never be sheep without a shepherd because of our

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Savior. So keep following Him, church. Keep following Him. Keep listening to His voice and go where He goes and you will no doubt enter heavenly pasture.

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Let's pray. Lord, thank

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You for today. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You, God, that You just inundate us with these promises.

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The promises continue to come. You will bring us home.

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You will take us to pasture. You will lose none of us. You go after the one and You've done that for us.

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What are sheep? Ultimately, they're not worth much in this world.

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But somehow, Lord Jesus, You came and died for us. The sinless, spotless, perfect Lamb of God, the one who sits on a throne in the kingdom of heaven became a lamb, a sacrifice, so that we would dwell with You forever,

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Lord. God, help us to rest in these promises. God, we're so prone to forgetfulness.

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Even this week, some of us will need to remember this. God, will You cause us to remember these promises, these truths, this week, and even beyond.

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We love You, Lord. You are our shepherd. We praise You. In Jesus' name