John, pt. 61 | John 10:1-10

John 10 and the Test of Spiritual Sight

If you would take your copy of the Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 10. The Gospel of John, chapter 10. We will consider verses 1 through 10. This is the 61st message in this wonderful Gospel.

Before I begin, I want to again recognize Tom, Patty, Red, and Erica for joining this body. It is a great thing that the Lord does when He adds to His number. Earlier when I was up here, my rhythm was thrown off.

I even forgot to pray. Once my tablet started sliding, everything went south. I just wanted to thank you all for being a part of us. I pray that the Lord will, through this church, feed you His Word and Sacrament.

Let me begin with prayer. Glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, please, in the name of Jesus Christ, use me this day to bring to Your people Your Word. Lord, like I said earlier, we're here for Word and Sacrament.

We're here to feast upon Your Word and to feast upon the Lord's Supper. Lord, we just ask that Your hand be upon us as well as all churches that are gathered together. Speak in truth those that are gathered together to worship You in spirit and truth.

Be with us, Lord. And now be with me, Your manservant, as I proclaim the magnificent works of Your hand. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, let's begin with the text, John chapter 10. We'll read verses 1 through 10.

We'll only make it to verse 3 today. Jesus speaking, Truly, truly, I say to you, He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And our theme for this Lord's Day, as well as it was for the last Lord's Day, we have a test, and the test is a test of spiritual sight.

Are you able to see? And this test of spiritual sight means that if you're not in Christ, you are spiritually blind. But if you're in Christ, you have been given spiritual sight. Jesus has, in one sense, as we saw in the story before this, spit on the ground, made mud, and anointed your eyes.

And you have come to that fountain that flows with blood, that's drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And you have rinsed, and you are able to see. This is what it means to have spiritual sight. You know who Jesus is because Jesus has revealed himself to you.

And my proposition is this, is that Jesus the Christ has always been and will always be the only way of salvation. There's never been another way. There's only been one way, and there will never be another way.

There's only one way, and that way is through Jesus Christ. The test of spiritual sight has to do with where you put your trust. Are you trusting in the wall of the law, or are you trusting in the door of grace?

Let's put it another way. Are you trusting in Moses to get you to the Father, or are you trusting in Jesus to get you to the Father? And I'm not talking about Jesus with a side of Moses. I'm talking about Christ alone, solus Christos.

Are you trusting in Jesus Christ alone, not your own works and efforts, but trusting in him and what he has done for you? Past tense. Not what you're doing, present tense. If you're trusting in what you're doing in present tense, you're trusting in Moses.

You're trusting in the law of God, which condemns you to get you in the presence of God. If you're trusting in Jesus, my dear friends, you can see you have been given spiritual sight. But if you're trusting in Moses, my dear friends, you are blind.

Spiritually, as a bat, you're blind. You need to be given spiritual sight, and that spiritual sight comes with trusting alone in Jesus Christ. This is what the book of John has been about. Week after week, verse after verse, that's what John has been trying to get within our thick skulls.

Like last week, John 10 is a word picture. Remember last week I said this is a word picture. He's drawing us a picture using his words. Jesus explains to them, as well as you and I, three mysteries in this chapter, verses 1 through 10.

So in our outline, I want us to look at this section in three ways, and these are the three mysteries. We looked at the first one last week, and that was the mystery of his covenant. And last week, we laid a foundation for what we're going to be going through concerning this chapter.

The second point was the mystery of Christ. And the third way to look at this is the mystery of his kingdom. And as we transition in John 9, we witnessed together three times that the Pharisees denied Jesus.

They denied him in three ways. First, they denied that Jesus was from God, and we see this in chapter 9, verse 16. Some of the Pharisees said, this man, speaking of Jesus, is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.

The second way is that they denied that Jesus healed a man who was born blind from birth. And we see this in verse 18. If you remember last week, I got a little confused here because I marked it wrong.

Verse 18 says, the Jews, speaking of the religious Jews, the Pharisees is who he was speaking with, did not believe that he had been born blind. Speaking of this man, this man who was healed, the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight.

They denied the work. And third, they denied Jesus. And we see this in verse 28. And they reviled him, the him here is the man who was born blind, saying, you are his, speaking of Jesus, you are Jesus' disciples.

But we are disciples of Moses. Look at verse 29. We know that God has spoken to Moses. But as for this man, speaking of Jesus, we do not know where he comes from. They denied that he was from God. They denied that he was doing the works of God.

And they deny that he is God. Ladies and gentlemen, they are spiritually blind. And in verse 40, they ask the question, they say, are we also blind? And they get this from what took place, I think it was three weeks ago, we walked through John chapter 9.

Could have been two weeks ago, John chapter 9, 35 through 41. I just want to read that real quick to give us some background. So John chapter 9, beginning in verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out.

Remember this man, this man who was born blind, he would not give glory to God in the way that they wanted him to, which was to mock Jesus, to speak evil of Jesus, but instead proclaim that Jesus was a prophet and that he was healed through this Jesus.

And so they cast him out. They either removed him from the temple or they removed him from the city gates. And it says, and Jesus heard that they had cast him out. So having found him, he said, do you believe in the son of man?

So the son of man speaking that Jesus is deity, that Jesus is God. Do you believe that I am God? This is what Jesus is asking him. Do you believe that I am God? Verse 36, he answered, and who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?

And Jesus said to him, you have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. He said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. He believed here that Jesus is the son of man, that he is God, and he worships him as God.

Spiritual blindness removed. He was healed of physical blindness, and right here he's healed of spiritual blindness. Verse 39, Jesus said, for judgments I came into this world. And I mentioned that a lot of people, they don't understand what that means, right?

John chapter 3, verse 17, he says that he did not come to judge the world. But in 18, it tells us that the world is already judged if they do not believe in him. And you get into verses 19 through 21, it tells us that his coming is the judgment.

Jesus coming into this world is the judgment, that what you believe about Jesus matters. He said, for judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.

And this is speaking about spiritual blindness. Jesus' main purpose for coming was not to heal physically blind people, although he does heal physically blind people. The main purpose was to give spiritual sight to those that are spiritually blind.

To give spiritual sight to those who are spiritually blind. So he's speaking spiritually, and the remarks of the Pharisees are speaking physically. Some Pharisees, verse 40, some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said to him, Are we all so blind?

They're thinking physical. They're like, this man's crazy. I can see him. He's saying that we're blind. He came into this world to make us blind? I see him! He's a liar. They're not understanding what Jesus is saying.

And Jesus says again, verse 41, and Jesus said to them, If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. Jesus is saying, if you were blind concerning the prophecies of who I am, you would not be guilty.

But since you say you know the prophecies, you know the Tanakh, you know the Torah, your guilt remains. You're guilty. You have all these verses memorized about me, and I'm standing before you, and you reject me.

You say we see. My dear friends, I came to make you who say you see blind. And in chapter 10 here, he continues to answer that question. Are we all so blind? So after careful study of chapter 10, verses 1 through 10, I believe that the sheepfold is simultaneously the covenant of grace and the kingdom of God.

That the thieves and robbers are the Pharisees. The door is Jesus. The another way is Moses. The shepherd is Jesus. The gatekeeper is the Holy Spirit. The sheep are the elect of God, and the strangers are the Pharisees.

And as we walk through some of these, not this week, but next week hopefully, we'll show application on how this extends to stuff then and now. Kind of this week, we're kind of still laying a little bit of the foundation.

Last week, we spent our time together looking at verse 1 concerning the mystery of his covenant. We looked at how a covenant was formed, like what a covenant was. And what we looked at was that a covenant, if it was a coin, has two sides, right?

If you pull out a coin, if you pull out a quarter, you're going to see that there's two sides. You have a heads and a tails. And for something to be a covenant in scripture, at least imposed covenant given to us by God, one side, you would see the inscription, do this and live.

And so we walk through Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, and you saw the do this and live. But if you flip that coin to the other side, you'll see the inscription, do this and die, or do this and be removed from the land.

So there was a prohibition. So God tells them what to do. He tells them what not to do. And the prohibition would be the punishment if you break this. You either do this and you'll live rather long life, like the commandment of being obedient to your parents.

That's the commandment given to us by which if you keep, you'll have a long life. That's what scripture says. Or keep the law and live in the land. And if you break the law, you could be removed from the land, or you could die.

If you commit adultery, you could get stoned. If you blaspheme, that's stoning. You worship another god. As a Jew, you would be stoned. And so you have these do this and live. Other side, do this and die, or be removed from the land.

So we looked at what a covenant was, and we compared it with Genesis 3, where the covenant of grace is revealed, and we saw that it did not meet the conditions of a covenant. My conclusion was that Genesis 3 .15 was a promise of a covenant of grace only.

When you read Genesis 3 .15, there is no do this and live, and there is no prohibition, do this and die, or be removed from the land. And so, we saw this as being a promise of a future covenant, and nothing more.

There was no do this and die, or do this and live. And that covenant, this covenant of grace was inaugurated, this future covenant was inaugurated by Jesus during his time on that cross, or during the time of his death.

And I believe that the covenant of grace is the covenant of redemption, is the covenant of works fulfilled by Jesus in his life, death, in his sinless life, excuse me, and then in his death, it is the new covenant in his blood.

When Jesus, at the Passover, grabs the cup, he mentions that, well, first the bread, that his body would be broken for us, and that his blood would be poured out for many, that this was the inauguration of that covenant, this covenant of grace that we see in Genesis 3 .15.

So, let's look at chapter 10, verse 1, as he finishes answering this question. Again, this was all foundational. Go back, if you haven't heard it, go back to last week's message and listen to it. Jesus says, truly, truly, right here he's saying to the Pharisees, listen to me, I say to you, the Pharisees, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, this man is a thief and a robber.

And so, what is that other way? Verse 28 and 29, they reviled him saying, you are his disciples, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.

This other way that they were trying to get to God is through keeping the law, through Moses. They were not trusting in the promise of God given to them in Genesis 3 .15. That there was going to come a seed from the woman that would bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel.

Well, they didn't believe the promise given to us in Genesis 12 and 17 where it talks about this seed that passed from the woman to Abraham would keep the commandments. He would inherit the land and bless the nations.

They didn't listen to the promise as it was passed through his sons and through Moses and all the way to David. They did not listen to the promises, but they were trying to use the law to get to God. They were trying to use Moses.

And next week, we will revisit that and go into more depth. I'm trying to hold myself back from going any deeper into that verse right now, so please forgive me. There's more that can be said. So let's get into the next point, the mystery of Christ.

We see this in verse 2. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. So first question, who is the door? Verse 7. And Jesus said to them, truly, truly. He's saying, listen to me, pay attention.

I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Verse 9. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. So the text clearly tells us who's the door. Who's the door?

Jesus is the door. The text is clear. Second question, who is the shepherd? Answer, verse 11. Jesus speaking, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Who's the shepherd?

Who's the door? Who's the shepherd? Well, that's weird. So the real question is, is how is Jesus both the door and the shepherd? Or better yet, how does Jesus enter through himself? He says that he has to enter.

It's right here, truly, truly. I say to you, he who does not enter through the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, this man is a thief and a liar. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

Both of them are Jesus. He is the door, and he is the shepherd, and he is the shepherd who has entered in through the door. Make that make sense, right? And this is where understanding Baptist covenant theology, 1689 federalism, comes into play.

Remember last week I gave you an analogy. You're looking out of a window. Someone has smeared mud all over it. You cannot see out of the window. And I put Mr. Clean on my thumb, and I touched the window, and I removed it.

Now you can see a thumbprint-sized hole through this large, muddy window. And then I went and dipped my hand in the Mr. Clean, and I started wiping the window completely clean to where you could see it.

But it started out with a thumbprint. Next thing you know, it's getting bigger. You can see more. It's getting clearer. Next thing you know, I cleaned the whole window, and it's visible. You can see completely out of the window.

Well, God has un-muddied this for us. And this wire is getting to me.

Okay.

The first clean spot on the window in Scripture is the seat of the woman. Jesus is the seat of the woman. Jesus is the one who bruises the head of the serpent while only getting his heel bruised. And this is speaking about his crucifixion.

Jesus is the seat of the woman. Jesus is the blessing of Abraham. Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus is the prophet spoken of by Moses. Jesus is the servant of Isaiah, chosen servant of Isaiah.

Jesus is.

He's cleaning the window. Jesus is the son of David that kept the covenant. Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah. Jesus is the David whose soul was not abandoned to Hades and whose body did not see corruption.

And as you're reading through this Bible, and you get to the New Testament, and you see all these things being fulfilled, what you have by God in Scripture is a clean window. And this is how you have to understand the Bible.

How to read it is with covenant theology. And that's the foundation that we see here in this text, that you see here throughout the whole Scripture. And I would argue that the Baptist perspective is the best perspective to look at it from.

His entrance has to do with him fulfilling the covenant. Him fulfilling the covenants. He had to come from the woman. He had to go through Abraham. He had to, from Abraham, make it all the way to David.

And through David, he had to keep the law. He had to keep the law word of God. The whole covenant structure has to do with the mystery of Christ. And in order to enter in through that door, which is Christ, you must be born again.

Because what I just said might seem impossible. What I just said is not logical. Which is why you must be born again to believe it. Now, how does that happen? And it's through the mystery of his kingdom.

Point number three. Now remember, I said that I believe that the sheepfold is simultaneously the covenant of grace and the kingdom of God. Now I want to make some clarifications. The kingdom of God has two stages.

The earthly kingdom people. Who are the earthly kingdom people? The Jews. The Israelites. And it's also the heavenly kingdom people. Who are the heavenly kingdom people? Christians. Or you can look at it like this.

Earthly kingdom people are the physical descendants of Abraham. Remember the physical and the spiritual. The heavenly kingdom people are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Those who have the same faith as Abraham.

You can be a Jew and not have the same faith as Abraham. And you're only a part of the old covenant people. The old covenant earthly kingdom people. But if you can be a Jew and have the faith of Abraham.

And be a part of that old earthly covenant. That earthly kingdom. But also be in the new covenant. Heavenly kingdom. Both can be true at the same time. I also mentioned that the border wall around the sheep fold.

Represented the law of Moses. Which represented the old covenant. Which represents the covenant of works. I should also mention that this section of scripture. Concerning the sheep God's elect. Is only speaking about the Jews only.

In this section it's speaking about the Jews only. The Gentiles are mentioned in verse 16. Look at verse 16. Jesus says. And I have other sheep. That are not of this fold. That are not born under the law.

That are not Jews. I have other sheep. These other sheep is Gentiles. That are not a part of this fold. I must bring them also. And they will listen to my voice. And there will be one flock. One shepherd.

And when we get to that we'll see how in Ephesians. Paul tells us how God makes the two. Jew and Gentile into one person. One new man in Christ. That there's no longer a Jew and a Gentile. If you're in Christ you're a Christian.

You're a follower of Jesus Christ. So he'll take the sheep. That represents the Jewish people. And the sheep that represent the Gentiles. Who are in separate flocks. And he'll put them in one flock.

Again.

Verse 16. I have other sheep. This is speaking about you and I. If we do not have a Jewish background. So don't get twisted. As we're walking through this. And it's speaking about the Jews only. In the same way.

Jesus passed through the covenants. As the seed of the woman. The covenant of grace passed through the covenants. Jesus passed through the covenants. The covenant of grace passed through each of the covenants.

In this law covenant of the Old Testament. There was grace. There was grace. There was forgiveness of sins. There was grace. The seed was passing along with it. There was grace in the old covenant. And I think as Christians sometimes we can lose sight of that.

So also those in the old covenant. That were looking to Jesus. Remember the faith of Abraham. Came out of the old covenant. And were saved through the new covenant. So those in the old covenant. Who were looking to Jesus.

Were saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. On that cross. We'll dive more into that in a minute. The covenant of grace. Is the covenant for those. Who are in. The kingdom of God. Not earthly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom.

Remember you can be in the earthly kingdom. And be in the heavenly kingdom. Both are true. But if you're just in the earthly kingdom. The covenant of grace is not for you. The covenant of grace is for those.

Who are in the heavenly kingdom of God. Abraham is in the heavenly kingdom of God. Moses is in the heavenly kingdom of God. Like you can just go through the names in the Old Testament. Of these men of God.

Who were looking to God. Who were trusting in the promises of God. And although it wasn't as clear as we have it now in hindsight. They were trusting in the promise of God. Which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And therefore they're saved by the blood of Christ. Which is the new covenant. Which is the inauguration of the covenant of grace. If you never studied covenant theology before. I know this might sound like a mouthful.

A handful.

A mindful.

Whatever.

But I would encourage you to look deep into this. The systematic idea of how people are saved. Again, you can be in the covenant of grace. Without being in the.

Excuse me.

You cannot be in the covenant of grace. Without being in the heavenly kingdom of God. Just like you cannot be in the kingdom of God. Without being born again. You cannot be in the covenant of grace. Without being in his kingdom.

And you cannot be in his kingdom. Without being born again. If you have been born again, you are in the heavenly kingdom of God. And that's right now. Right now, you are in the kingdom of God. The heavenly kingdom of God.

Right now.

As we speak, it was inaugurated at the first coming of Jesus during the Lord's Supper, which we partake in week after week. He brought it. He inaugurated it. You say, Jeff, but I can't see it. He says, unless you're born again, you cannot see it.

You can see it if you're born again, but you can't touch it. It's not tangible. You can't lean against it. It's here, but it's not yet. We're in it, but we're not in it. It's weird, right? I know. I get it.

But this is just what the Bible teaches about it. We are right now in it. Let me put it to you this way. Ephesians chapter two says this, that right now, if you're in Christ, you are sitting with him in the heavenlands, but yet you're on earth.

That's what it says. Do you believe the word of God? Right now, if you've been born again, you are a Christian. You are present tense, sitting with Jesus in the heavens. That's what it says. And yet, I'm looking around.

I physically can't see Jesus. I can't lay my head like John did on his breast. I don't see him, but by faith, I see him. My physical sight doesn't see him, but my spiritual sight, I know that I'm with him.

So, just like this man knew that Jesus was the son of man, I know right now I am with God in heaven, and it is through the new birth. Abraham was given faith to believe. Therefore, Abraham is in the new covenant, kingdom of God.

And the new birth is when the Holy Spirit applies the purpose. Remember, in covenant of redemption, the father purposes to save a people. How does he do it?