John 10:1-18, PRBC, 8/30/09

Father, we ask for Your presence with us now as we open Your Word. May we, as those of old who heard and believed, be those who have sensitive hearts and sensitive ears, to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray this blessing in His name. Amen. Can you hear me now for that advertising campaign, wireless providers? Can you hear me now? Various places advertising the network. It is amazing to think it allows us to hear people in such different contexts.

The Transition From John 9 to John 10

These zeros are a piece of metal that was spinning about 5400, 7200 RPM. And then they're going to take another little gadget, and they're going to take those zeros and ones and they're going to put them on that.

And then they're going to stick it into another gadget. It's attached to another gadget, and it's going to display up on a screen something that took place in Utah a number of years ago. And so people will be listening to what I said in a debate years ago in one place, up in the Portland area.

And I sent that to them, and I sat there watching this little gadget, and I saw nothing leaving. I looked real closely. I didn't see anything going anywhere. But somehow, those words that I spoke, that another man spoke, are going to be watched by people this afternoon up in, sometimes, something else.

The Two Sheepfold Settings in John 10

John chapter 10. All these words vary from our busy lives. And so I want the first six verses, seemingly, to come together inside this more formal, in the city or the town, context. The sheep had their shepherds.

Verse 7 and following, it seems that the picture changes a little bit. Because there would be times when the shepherd would take the flock out and would not be near a city or a town. And so there would be places that the shepherd would sort of spy out that would provide a natural sheep pen.

Maybe a rise of rocks or something like that, where he would take just his flock. And then, in essence, he would become the door to the sheep pen. He would bring the sheep into a particular place, and then he would lay down.

And he would be the one that would keep the sheep inside the sheepfold. This would be a much smaller area. And the concern here is not that a sheep might be called by the wrong shepherd or something like that.

The concern here would be you're now out in the wild. And so you have the wolf. You have the predator that is out in the wild. And so there's two different contexts, I think, that we have here. You'll notice that the people who heard Jesus' first illustration in verse 6 did not understand.

Jesus' First Illustration and the Unbelieving Hearers

And so there is a changing in verse 7. I think that's important to understand. We also might ask the question, there's no introduction to chapter 10. It doesn't say such and such was going on, or Jesus went to such and such.

It's a story of the man born blind. He's healed. He's brought before the Jewish leaders. You have that tremendously ironic, sometimes humorous conversation that takes place between the man who was born blind and the Jewish leaders born seeing.

And they eventually cast this one out. And then Jesus finds him. By the chapter 9, Jesus finds the one who was cast out. He introduces him to him. This is who I am. He worships him. He becomes his disciple.

False Shepherds and the Sheep of Israel

It seems that chapter 10 is where it is. It begins the way that it is, purposefully. That you have the blind shepherds of Israel. And they have been abusing the flock. They have been misleading the flock.

They cannot see killings in essence. And so you have these illustrations in chapter 10. In many ways, illustrate what has happened to Israel with these unfaithful shepherds. In particular, these false shepherds, the sheep.

And they respond that the shepherds love them in a certain way. Fifteen of them go, oh, wrong term. Chose his sheep. It's his job that the shepherd. On temptation, purposefully. It's a similitude. You have a sick relative or something like that, you need to put that seed faith.

The Shepherd's Care for the Gentiles and the Good Shepherd

In reception, the Father and the Son dwell in the people. Most commentators believe he's referring here to the Gentiles. One shepherd. Father's sovereignty. Joyous. Great joy in the journey. Even as we serve him in this way.

Father, if there be any amongst us who do not know the good shepherd,.