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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
The Door, The Shepherd, and The Call
There's a term I like to use over the years with different Bible study groups or whatever.
It's called a God sighting. Has anybody ever heard the term a God sighting? It's one of those things as you live your life, as you experience life, you realize that was
God and you actually rejoice in it and you can share it with somebody else.
Sometimes it can be something as simple as seeing a deer out in the field or it could be the fact that you were expecting a difficult situation in a drive and all the lights were green.
It can be something as simple as that where you say, God was really, really, really gracious to me or it can be that God has brought a thought to your mind that where did that come from?
And it's a God sighting. We have a God that cares for us, that helps us, that guides us and is with us and the opposite side is the evil one who is doing his very, very best to make life difficult.
We have promises that God is greater than the evil one.
We have promises that God knows and the evil one doesn't. We have promises in the omnipotence and the omniscience of our
God. Psalm 147 verse 5, great is the Lord and abundant in power.
His understanding is beyond measure. God is the only source of true truth.
Anything else that you can go after, anything else you can experience of this world if it's not of God, it is not true truth.
Pastor, I'm going to steal some of your thunder. There are false shepherds. There's one good shepherd.
The world, everything that it offers to you is at best temporary and flawed.
When we turn to God, we have access to truth, to true truth. It's in the supremacy of who
God is. Amen to all of that. Some announcements. First of all, we'd like to celebrate and praise
God for an amazing meeting that we had Monday night right here, the congregational meeting.
I think the count was 77 people were here. We had an amazing unity of spirit.
It was an encouraging evening throughout the whole evening. We affirmed our new board.
We approved our new budget. We brought in 11 new members. God is just continually adding to our numbers as far as numbers, but God is adding to the strength of our numbers in our relationship with him, with various classes, and we're going to talk about some of that in a minute.
Some of the testimonies that people say when they're here, I come in and I get greeted. People are hugging.
People are enjoying each other's company. This is all a blessing from God. To the gentlemen's retreat,
Michael, you've already promoted it. Want to continue to promote it? Please, please. There's something that's different about it this year than our retreats in past.
This is a men's retreat, but it is also a father -son retreat. If you have children, if you have sons, that is up to you.
At what age are they ready to be part of a men's retreat? At what age are they ready to sit and actually experience it?
We are not putting an age limit to it. What an amazing opportunity, fathers, for you to bring your sons, and they can see men in fellowship and in worship and listening to the word and doing all of this stuff as men under God, and to see that as an example and help them to grow, building the relationship with your sons in that environment.
If you have sons and they can come, please have them come. Now, you spoke about online registrations.
We're not limiting it to online. If you're not comfortable with online type of stuff, and when
I said this first service, my wife looked at me and chuckled, I'm not really good at apps.
If you're not, see John Detoli, and he will take the information and register you for yourself.
We do not want any impediments. Somebody wants to come, and that includes, we are going to have a number of scholarships available for those who have, financially, it's going to be a difficult thing for them.
We want you to come. We will make scholarships available, so be in prayer, and ladies, be encouraging your gentlemen because this will be an important time of gentlemen fellowship.
Love life is on this Saturday. We're at the other end of the spectrum. We're talking about God's precious little children who have not yet been born, who are being butchered, who are being murdered.
Let's not call it anything short of that. And so Saturday is our Love Life Prayer Walk. Please be part of that, and if you can't be part of that, please be in prayer for that and for those precious young lives.
Wednesday, we have, this is the movie night. We have, I guess it's on the 2nd and the 4th.
The 2nd is a game night. This is going to be a movie night. The movie is called Overcomer. I encourage you to come out.
It's a good time of family fellowship. It will be a movie night this weekend. Now we're going to talk about some opportunities for growing in depth, and I'm going to ask
Brother Eric if he would come forward. Good morning, everyone.
I'm actually unprepared this time. John put me on the spot for service. So my name is
Eric Meyer. I only did that because she said I could. So John was being cringy, as the youth would say.
So anyway, my name is Eric. I've been attending Cornerstone for, well, it was
Emily of Seaback when I started over 20 years ago. So about a couple months ago, my wife, you know, the
Lord tends to work through my better half sometimes, put it on her heart to say, you know, like, we need to do something to help with the youth of our church.
So our senior high school -aged kids, Julianne, who recently graduated, is in college, and our son
Nathan, who's a sophomore at Lenape. You know, in addition to what
Tim's doing, you know, with the youth group, we just felt like it would be great to have an additional time for them to get together, to build relationships, to grow closer to the
Lord. So, you know, my wife and I have led a lot of small groups, have served as an elder, and done a lot of different, wore a lot of different hats here.
I used to be the announcement guy a long time ago, so it's kind of good to be up here again. So this
Tuesday, we're going to be starting a small group for high school kids, and it's going to be at our house,
I think, at 7, 7 or 730. My wife knows all the details. But we are going to embark on that, so we would cherish your prayers.
We tried to email everybody that was in the church, in the directory, so if we missed you, we're sorry, but, you know, please feel free to come on Tuesday night.
We ordered some extra books, just in case some people show up. So we're going to do, it'll be 9th grade through 12th graders in high school, whether you're in public school or Christian school or homeschooled.
We're going to be using a book called This Changes Everything, How the Gospel Transformed the Teen Years. It's written by a young lady, and as we read through it, we just felt like this would be a good way to help guide our discussions.
There's some questions, you know, we're going to ask the kids to read and do some homework, and we're going to have some fun and food and things like that.
So we're just praying that, you know, the Lord would just bless this, these Tuesday nights with the kids. So my wife was out in the foyer trying to answer some questions if anybody had any.
So, you know, feel free to reach out to me or to her if you, I'm pretty sure everybody got the email that we sent out.
So we have about 11 kids that are signed up, so we're excited about that, and we're just asking for your prayers, and I think that's it, so thanks.
Let's dedicate this time and the ministry that Eric and Carrie will have. Father, we acknowledge your hand.
We need you, and as Eric and Carrie have answered this call, we say thank you,
Lord, for them, and we say thank you in advance because your spirit will speak through them. We know that our children are in the midst of a battle in high school where so many things are taught or peer pressure, and so to have truth spoken of and that they could discuss it in an environment where the
Holy Spirit is in power, we say thank you, so we lift this time, this study up to you, and we ask you a special blessing on Eric and Carrie in Jesus' name, amen.
Thank you, brother. Continuing with our youth, I'm going to ask
Sister Jill. I don't know if I've ever been called
Sister Jill, but good morning, everyone. This is just a real quick announcement for Vacation Bible School.
Things are underway, and we're working toward a little work day coming up early April, and we're going to be making torches.
It's like a castle sort of theme, knights in shining armor, and if by next
Sunday everyone who has either a paper towel roll or it needs to be an eight -ounce empty can of whatever it is, even dig in your recycle buckets, that's wonderful.
If you could have those to us by next Sunday, that would be wonderful, either to Drew or myself, or maybe leave them on the front pew out in the foyer.
And just one more thing, we know a lot of people are in and out of the shed, and it just got cleaned out so beautifully at the work day, but we're going to need to be putting a whole lot of stuff that we're working on in the shed, so we just appreciate your patience, and we promise that it'll all be out of there after Vacation Bible School.
So thank you again for these things. Jill, is there a grace if somebody's a week late with those things?
That might be okay, but we don't get enough. Be in prayer for the VBS, and then
I also want us to remember, I like to call our young men and women that are off to college, they're actually on the mission field in their particular university, whether it's roommates, whether it's classmates, or whether it's faculty, there are opportunities for them to stand as salt and light in the midst of wherever they are.
So continue to remember our youth that are off to university. At this time,
I want you to remember our regular schedule of the studies, the men's studies, the women's studies, and please come back tonight for our prayer meeting.
Let's turn to prayer. Lord God, we do worship you. Our Lord, our
God, the creator of all. You are omnipotent, you are omniscient.
All that is and will be is under your sovereign control. Great is the Lord and abundant in power.
His understanding is beyond all measure. We worship you.
We surrender to you. We pray for your guide. We rejoice in your love because as sinners, we are not worthy to come to you, but through the precious blood of the lamb, we're washed clean by this abounding love.
Thank you, God, for saving us, for saving me, for transforming us and turning us into your child.
Thank you for the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, teaches us, and guides us.
We thank you for your word which is given, which was inspired by you, which is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword.
It equips us to be more like you. Thank you for your word and that we can have time to read it, to study it, to teach it to our children, to grow in it.
Lord, we continue to remember those in our midst in need physically, emotionally, having lost loved ones.
We pray, Father. And this morning, we ask that you would equip Pastor Jeff with your very word.
Prepare his words by your Holy Spirit's power. Prepare our hearts to hear.
We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's praise his name this morning.
Psalm 148. Oh, praise his name. Let all his wondrous works declare his praise.
Reaches of heaven, starry heights.
Lights of the evening, dancing in silent skies.
Billions of morning, breaking day.
Oh, let them praise him, praise his name.
Oh, praise his name.
Oh, praise his name. Let all his wondrous works declare his praise.
Mightiest mountain, peaceful plain.
Snowfall and fire, thundering ocean waves.
Kings have their kingdoms, age to age.
Oh, praise his name. Oh, praise his name.
Let all his wondrous works declare his praise.
King enthroned in majesty. All things made by his decree.
Hear creation's melody. Praise him, praise him.
Everything with life and breath. Everywhere from east to west.
Every heart raised from the dead. Praise him, praise him.
Angels echo the refrain. Jesus left for sinners slain.
Name above all other names. Praise him.
Throughout the book of Acts, we read over and over again how the power is in the name of Jesus and how important it was to the early believers.
There are so many mentions of it, driving out demons, converting new believers, igniting faith, powerful preaching.
All these things were done in the name of Jesus. Saying the name of Jesus has power beyond ourselves.
It means representing him, speaking on his behalf as the only one with authority.
Lord, we come to you this morning knowing that your name, the
God of all the universe, has created everything. That you are worthy of our praise. You are faithful now, forever, and always.
We worship you this morning in song. Continual singing and praying and reading your word throughout the week.
You give sight to the blind. I believe that the dead came to life.
I believe there are wonders and signs and you're still the same.
I believe every word that you say. I believe there are scars in your hands.
That your goodness is good without end. You'll never change.
I will tell of your wonders, sing of your grace.
The God of creation knows me by name. The Lord is faithful, yesterday, now, and always.
Always. Your mercy is mighty, age after age.
All generations will bow down and praise. The Lord is faithful, yesterday, now, and always.
Always. I believe you will come in the clouds.
I believe in your fear even now. In your presence
I know there is power. Power to save.
Always. You were, you are, you always will be
God. You were, you are, you always will be
God. Yes, you always will be God.
Your mercy is mighty, age after age. All generations will bow down and praise.
The Lord is faithful, yesterday, now, and always.
I come to you, praying without ceasing, in every moment and every day, we confess,
Lord, that sometimes we are not praying as much as we should. Forgive us of that, and allow us to receive your power of the
Holy Spirit, to dedicate our lives to your word, to prayer, and to singing praises to your name.
It's not just on Sunday morning, Lord. We want to do it every day, every moment.
Your mercy is more. Stronger than the darkness, but new every day.
Thank you for the promise that you renew us every day. What love could remember?
No wrongs we have done. Admission, don't know it, is cast out, there's some.
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore.
Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more.
What patience, what ways we constantly know.
What Father so tender is calling us home. He welcomes the weakest, the wildest of all.
Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.
Stronger than darkness, new every morn. Our sins, they are many.
His mercy is more. Riches of kindness, he lavished on us.
His blood was the payment. His life was the cost. We stood, meet the death we could never afford.
His mercy is more. Praise the Lord. His mercy is more.
His mercy is more. Let's sing that chorus one more time.
Just our voices. Praise the
Lord. His mercy is more.
His mercy is more. Let's pray.
God, it is so good to be part of your flock. Under one shepherd.
Lord, it is so good to be called by name. To be known by you.
And to know you. You are a good shepherd to us. We pray,
Lord, this morning we would be found to be obedient sheep. That we would follow you.
That we would hear your voice. And follow your lead. Lead us now into your word.
Lead us now to that living water. That bread from heaven. Christ himself as revealed in the word of God.
Lead us, good shepherd. For we are your sheep. And the people of your pasture.
We belong to you. And you are our shepherd. Help us now to understand you more.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The opposite of a good shepherd is not just a bad shepherd, but a false shepherd.
There are many false shepherds in the world. An example of a good shepherd, one who points to Christ, would be
Mawin Socket. Anybody ever celebrate St. Patrick's Day, maybe last week?
Anybody celebrate that? The world did, and ironically many of them were getting drunk and carrying on for St.
Patrick's Day. But few people know in the world, many of you probably do, that Mawin Socket, later known as St.
Patrick, was an Englishman who was captured and brought to Ireland as a slave.
He was a slave for a number of years until he escaped. But after the call of God on his life, as the power of the
Holy Spirit came over him, as he was acquainted with the word of God, he voluntarily went back to Ireland, this time not as a slave, but as a missionary.
And St. Patrick is the one who in the 300s brought Christianity to a pagan culture.
Now, prior to Mawin Socket, the people of Ireland were led by false shepherds.
They led people to do sacrifices, human sacrifices, in their paganism.
It was a wicked culture, but Mawin Socket brought the true gospel of Jesus Christ and led in the right way.
Similarly, many of you know the story of William Wallace, a good shepherd that pointed to Christ.
Over in Scotland, they were in danger of falling under the oppression of England more so and more so, being taxed, being oppressed, being pillaged in so many ways by the
English. William Wallace rose up to lead them. And why is it that people followed
William Wallace? Well, it's because he was a good shepherd who led from the front.
He was willing to go ahead of the troops in battle. He was willing to lay down his life, and in fact,
William Wallace died as a martyr. Now, few people realize that William Wallace was a devout
Christian. He was raised on the scriptures by some uncles that trained him. He had a psalter given to him, that is, a book of psalms, which he would memorize.
And in his death, he asked for that psalter to be given to him. And he quoted the psalms to endure the suffering of his death.
He wrote a letter carried by Sir James Ferguson in which he said these words, which might sound familiar to some because that movie
Braveheart picks up on it. He says, He says, And a historian says that what
William Wallace understood is that people desire to treasure and protect liberty with their own lives.
And William Wallace did, seeing that it's the only certainty for the continuance of the church, the family, and the nation.
You see, William Wallace valued freedom because under freedom, people can worship their
God. Under false shepherds that oppress them, like the false shepherd of North Korea, or Hitler during the days of Nazi Germany, or Stalin crushing the church in the
Soviet Union, false shepherds rise up and stifle the church and restrain the free worship of God.
There are many false shepherds in the world, which is why we need freedom fighters like William Wallace, protecting the church and the family and the nation.
Now, at the time of William Wallace, there were false shepherds in Scotland. These were men who claimed to be
Christian. These nobles in Scotland were not true shepherds of the flock.
They exchanged the labor of the people, enslaving them to the
English King Edward in exchange for titles and land and greater status as the nobility of Scotland.
These were false shepherds. A good shepherd is one who will lay down his life.
A false shepherd is one who feeds on the flock. We see this paradigm in the
Bible very much so. In fact, it's one of the prominent metaphors to help us understand our
God. It begins as early as the 12th chapter of Genesis, when
Abraham, a shepherd, is called to follow God. And this shepherd
Abraham cares for sheep, but later will become the leader of a nation called
Israel. He is at one point called to sacrifice his most precious sheep, and that is
Isaac. In obeying God, he's even willing to follow God to that extreme, which is mind -blowing.
But God, of course, stops him from sacrificing Isaac and provides a ram in the thicket, a substitute sacrifice.
The heart of Abraham pours out of the pages of Scripture, and we see one who loves the sheep.
His beloved son, Isaac. Abraham is a shepherd. The next great shepherd, of course, in the metanarrative of Scripture, is
Moses. And you realize, Moses lived three lives, 40 years each.
The first 40 years of Moses' life were lived as a false shepherd.
He was enjoying the treasures of Egypt, raised by the
Egyptian princess. And in some sense, part of the oppression of the sheep of Israel.
But making a break and leaving behind the treasures of Egypt, he came out of Egypt.
And for the next 40 years of his life, he was a shepherd of sheep.
He was off in the wilderness caring for sheep. Well, that means something because, of course, it points to the last 40 years of Moses' life when he became the great shepherd of Israel.
And going before them, he leads them out of bondage. He leads them through the Red Sea and the wanderings in the wilderness, and he brings them safely to the
Promised Land. He is a picture of a shepherd who leads the sheep. And then there is the great king.
And do you think it's a coincidence that David, as a boy, was a shepherd?
Caring for sheep until in his adulthood as a man, he was the shepherd of Israel.
A true king. And it was David who wrote those famous words, The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. And he presents God as the true good shepherd. It's God that will correct us with his rod and staff, and protect us from the wolves, and lead us to quiet waters and meadows, and prepare a table before us, and anoint our heads with oil.
He will care for the sheep. He is the good shepherd. And that's what the metaphor points to, that God is the good shepherd.
But there are false shepherds in the scripture as well, aren't there? Ezekiel 34 is a warning of woe against the shepherds of Israel.
Because rather than caring for the flock like good shepherds should, they feed on the flock, and they devour the flock.
And so God says, after condemning the false shepherds of Israel, I myself will come and shepherd
Israel. How is it that God, the good shepherd, will himself come and shepherd?
Well, of course, that is in the person of Jesus Christ. He will take on flesh, become, if you will, a sheep that leads sheep.
He will then become the lamb led to the slaughter. Jesus is the good shepherd in flesh.
And he warns of a false shepherd, the Antichrist. In John 5, 43, Jesus says,
I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
He refers there to the Antichrist, a false shepherd that will lead the people to the slaughter.
Zechariah 11, 16 foretells this false shepherd, this foolish shepherd.
Behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones.
Tearing off even their hoofs. Woe to my worthless shepherd who deserts the flock.
May the sword strike his arm and his right eye. Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded.
This is the woe of God against false shepherds, and particularly the coming Antichrist.
The metaphor of the shepherd points us to God. And it warns us of false shepherds who lead people away from the true.
Turn with me to John chapter 10, where we encounter one of the most beautiful metaphors in all the
Bible. Many of you will be familiar with it, the story of the good shepherd.
It's not a parable. John 10 is not a parable. In fact, nowhere in the book of John do we have the parables of Jesus.
Why do you think that is? I think John, writing decades after Matthew, Mark, and Luke, considered what they had written of the parables to be sufficient.
The parables were there. But John does not add new parables. What he does here is, as verse 6 calls it, a figure of speech.
The difference between this kind of figure of speech and a parable is that a parable always seeks to make one point.
It centers in on one main idea, and if you stretch the parable in other directions, it takes you off into uncharted territory.
You wander where you don't belong. The parable is leading us to underscore one central point.
But this figure of speech, this metaphor, is broader than that. In fact, it's so expansive that it goes in multiple directions, and it's hard to track with unless you have the interpretation of Jesus.
So, the first six verses make no sense to those who hear them.
But then, Jesus will explain the meaning of the metaphor, the figure of speech, in three sections.
And that is from 7 to 10, 11 to 13, and then 14 to 18.
So, let's begin with the figure of speech, verses 1 to 6, and that will give us a sense of where this metaphor is going, and we'll see if we can pick up on the range of meaning that Jesus is uncovering for us.
John 10, 1 to 6. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by 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. 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, let's pause there. Those hearing the figure of speech were not understanding.
Now, for us to understand where Jesus is going with this, we need to set it in context.
Realize that John chapter 10 is 42 verses. But the first 21 and the second 21 take place at different times.
1 to 21 take place still at the Feast of Booths.
How do we know that? Well, look at verse 21. When people are rejecting this and not understanding, their objection is, the ones who do believe say, can a demon open the eyes of the blind?
Why are they still talking about the opening of the eyes of the blind? Well, that is because chapter 9 did not really come to a close.
When scripture was given to us, there was no giant 10 before verse 1. That was a later addition,
Stephanus with the numbering system in the 1500s. Here, the scene hasn't changed.
It doesn't change until verse 21, and then at verse 22, you have the next festival, the next feast, which is
Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. So, through verse 21, you're still dealing with the same body of teaching, and last week we learned that the main idea of the healing of the blind man is that God supernaturally gives sight to the blind, people who can't see
God. Their eyes are open. They're given eyes to see, and so in 941, it says,
Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say we see, your guilt remains.
Even as God gives sight to the blind, and that's up in prior to this,
I think verse 39, for judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.
The meaning of chapter 9 is that God is opening blind eyes to see
Jesus as Messiah, but conversely, the other side is also true. There are those who are blind, who are self -assured in their pride, and they can't see even though Jesus is right in front of their eyes.
The king of the world is in flesh, and they receive him not. They're blind. Their eyes are blind.
That's the idea. So now look at chapter 10, verse 1. Truly, truly, whenever you hear
Jesus Christ say truly, truly, you better pay attention. Truly, truly, or amen, amen in the
Greek. Truly. Whenever this phrase is used, it is meant to underscore something that is of utmost importance.
John 3, 3. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.
Speaking of the human condition, you need to hear this. Truly, truly, without the new birth, you are dead.
Your condition is such that you will not go to heaven. You think that you're righteous, but you're not.
You will not go. You need to hear that. Truly, truly. Or John 8, 58.
Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. You truly, truly need to hear that Jesus is
God. He is the I am who came in the flesh. He's more than a prophet, more than a man.
He is the I am. Truly, truly. And you likewise need to hear this.
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
You truly need to hear that there are false shepherds. They might look the part of a true shepherd.
The Pharisee wore flowing robes and they had a phylactery on their head, a box of scripture to make themselves look holy.
And they prayed on the street corners. And all the people looked up to them as being religious and righteous and holy.
But truly, truly, these blind Pharisees, they're thieves and robbers.
Now why does it say that they're thieves, klepto, and robbers?
Wouldn't just one of the terms suffice? Well, in the text, we're again at verse 1.
The thief and the robber pictures one who steals. A thief is one who steals.
A robber, more than that, is one who comes and takes by force and is even willing to kill or murder the one from whom they steal.
The point here is the Pharisee, the religious teacher who denies that Jesus is the
I Am, this Pharisee is not just taking something from your pocket. He'll kill the prophet sent.
The Pharisees will kill the Son of God. Those who tell the truth, the genuine shepherds, will be put under their sword as William Wallace died a martyr.
As the martyrs through the generations have brought the gospel, those religious leaders, the false shepherds who have gone before them, these will kill by force to hold on to their possessions and to take from the flock, to fleece the flock.
Verse 2, But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. This is a good shepherd.
To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name.
Notice that for later. In verse 4, When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
Stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
Now in the metaphor, we're told they don't understand what he's talking about, but they understand the physical analogy because Israel is a very agrarian culture that depends entirely upon sheep for them to live.
How many sheep are there in Israel at this time? To give you an idea, when
Job was in the Middle East caring for his flocks and his family, the richest man, he had 14 ,000 sheep.
By the time of Solomon, about a thousand years prior to the time of Jesus, when they dedicated the temple,
Solomon offered 120 ,000 sheep on that day.
Those were just the sheep for sacrifice. So now as Israel has grown a thousand years later in the time of Christ, imagine how prevalent sheep were to the economy and to life in Israel.
In every village, most every village in Israel, there would be a sheep pen.
It would be an enclosure built of stone. Usually the stone would be piled about three feet high, and on top of that three foot high stone enclosure, there would be thorns and thistles.
And this would extend out into a large pen outdoors. Sometimes they'd cover a corner of it in case of rain for the sheep to find some cover.
But this huge enclosure was used by all the shepherds of the village. Their sheep would graze on the hills during the day, and then they would call their sheep by name, and they would lead them through the door into the sheep pen for the village.
They would pay the gatekeeper, and he would sleep at night by the door. The shepherd could then go get a good night's rest in his home, and all of the different flocks were together in one pen.
Now if a thief or a robber came, they would have a difficult time getting a sheep. Can you imagine how much a sheep weighs?
It'd be a little difficult to lift a giant sheep over a three foot wall, especially if they go through the thorns.
You're genuinely, generally safe inside the sheep pen. Then the shepherd comes in the morning, and amidst all of those sheep, belonging to so many different shepherds, he would call his sheep by name, and they would come running.
So now picture yourself in the first century. You understand this metaphor. Clearly the shepherd must be in view as a true leader.
But many people miss where Jesus begins the explanation of this parable.
Let's look at verse seven. Surprisingly, he doesn't begin with himself as the shepherd.
He begins with that door, where the gatekeeper would sleep. That door is the first point we need to zero in on to understand this metaphor.
Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I mean you better not be dozing off right now, this one's important, truly, truly,
I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
That's the first thing that he wanted them to understand. He's the door. All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the door. He's referring to himself as an inanimate object, an entryway.
He's not yet talking about him as the shepherd. If anyone enters, this is verse nine, if anyone enters by me, here's the meaning of the door.
Let the text tell you. 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.
The first meaning of the metaphor is that Jesus is the only way to be saved.
One must come through Jesus, through the door to be saved.
Unless you come in and out of this door, you're gonna die. If all you do is ever stay in the pen, you'll starve to death, because it's just tamped down dirt.
There's no grass for grazing in the sheep pen. You'll starve to death. If you can't come through the door and go out and find pasture, you'll starve to death.
But if you're not brought in at night, into the safety of the sheep pen, you'll get devoured by wild beasts out on the hills.
The door is the key to being saved. And the point is, there's no other way.
If there were stones removed from the sheep pen, and someone coming in and out that way, this is only a thief.
It's a false shepherd. He's leading you through that hole in the wall to kill you.
To sell your meat on the market. To sell the fat of the tail.
To devour you. He'll kill you. So you can listen to the
Pharisee, who says, no, Jesus is not Messiah, because he would never heal on the Sabbath.
You can listen to that Pharisee, and die in your sin. Or you can come by the door.
The one way to be saved. You can come through Jesus, who is the door, and you will be saved.
Church, those listening online, everybody here, pay attention. Unless you believe in Jesus, you will die in your sin.
He is the only way to be saved. Any who went before, claiming a different way, be it
Muhammad, or Buddha, or Confucius, or political commentators today, or anybody else in the ethos of American culture that says pluralism, pluralism, pluralism.
Every way is equal. Go whichever way you choose. If it's true to you, then it's true. Everyone who says such things is a thief and a liar.
The good shepherd tells us the way to be saved. And I find it really ironic that some claim to follow the shepherd, and yet reject him at this point.
They say, I'll follow Jesus for me, but others can follow whichever shepherd they choose, and that's good for them.
Then why follow Jesus? Because he's the one here telling us that he is the door, and every other way, every other shepherd, is a thief and a liar.
It broke my heart a number of years ago to see video of Billy Graham going on the
Crystal Cathedral Robert Shuler show. Now mind you,
Billy Graham called many people to the door. Many people to come and be saved by believing in Christ.
But in his later years, as his mind was slipping, and his devotion evidently began to wane, on the
Robert Shuler Crystal Cathedral show, he said that there are many ways that you must come through Christ, but you don't even necessarily need to know his name.
Some might come as Muslims through the Quran, following Muhammad.
Other Buddhists might come through that religion. Christ will be the way, but a person doesn't need to consciously know the name.
And Robert Shuler, that prosperity preacher, lit up with joy when he heard
Billy Graham say that. You could see him delight and say, oh yes, I'm so glad to hear you say it.
There's a wideness, a wideness to the way of salvation. If I, or an angel from heaven, or Billy Graham himself preach that there is any way to be saved other than through the door, through Christ alone, that teaching comes from a thief and a robber.
There is only one way to be saved. Jesus, in fact, said, narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it.
Broad is the way, wide is the way that leads to destruction and many go that easy way. But the metaphor of the door is to say that this is the way.
The way. The only way, as Jesus himself says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.
And as to the need to know his name, to know him by faith, we are told in Acts 4, 12, that there's no other name by which we must be saved.
And we're told in Romans 10, 9, and 10, that if you confess him with your mouth, that Jesus is
Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. This is the metaphor of the door.
This is the way to be saved. He's opened it, and here's the issue. Had we been fine without him, could the sheep care for themselves without a shepherd?
There would be no need for a savior to come. God could have left people to their religion, left people to their devices, sheep to go their own way, that they might wander somehow into heaven.
But that is not the state of humanity. We, like sheep, have gone astray.
We have turned each one to his own way. And unless the Lord lay the iniquity, the sin of us all upon him, and he, like a lamb, go to the slaughter to pay for that sin, we remain in our sin.
You see, Jesus is a high priest to mediate between God and man.
He is also the sheep of sacrifice. He doesn't bring a mere animal, a sheep for sacrifice.
He brings his own body and lays down on the cross and dies the death that we deserve.
He is both the priest and the sacrifice. He is the good shepherd and he is the door.
He is all of these things, and the metaphor expands as we continue. Let's look. Now in verses 11 to 13.
He's opened a door of salvation. Why would you want to follow him? Why listen to Jesus and not the
Pharisee who seems to know better? I mean, after all, most of the Jewish people are believing the
Pharisees and it's few that follow Jesus. Why listen to Jesus and not to them?
How do you know the true and the false? I'll tell you how you recognize a good shepherd.
He doesn't feed on the sheep. He dies for the sheep that he loves.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.
Picture it. And a wolf snatches them and scatters them. I don't know about you, but if I saw a ferocious wolf running at a pack of sheep,
I'd hightail it. Because I don't love those sheep. They're just animals to me. Same as you, right?
In fact, my son and I went to check out some land that the church was considering buying last year.
It was on Phillips Road. Very expensive. We ended up getting a different plot of land for like one -fifth the price by God's providence.
Praise God. But when we were looking at this other land, me and Timmy went to check out the land.
And so we're walking on it, and as we got close to the woods, I don't know if I ever told you this, honey, but there was a bushy -tailed fox.
And it was big. It wasn't just a little pup. It was like big. And it looked back over at us.
And so what did I say? We have a guy in our church named Dan who's like, he's a tough hunter, man's man.
Him and his friend, they would have chased that thing and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and thrown it in the river. I don't know what they would have done, but here's what
I said to Tim. I was like, run, run. We'll walk slowly first.
Don't trigger that chase instinct, that hunt instinct. So we began to walk quickly back to the car, and as soon as we knew we were far enough, run!
Get in the car. We wanted nothing to do. We fled. But let me tell you something.
If that thing had turned as we were leaving and started to chase us and gained on us and targeted my little boy and tried to leap on my son to devour my son, you would have seen a different side of Pastor Jeff.
I would have tackled that thing. I would have fought it. I would have torn it limb for limb if I had to.
And if I had to die fighting a fox on Phillips Road, I would die for my son in a heartbeat.
I wouldn't have to think about it. And every father in this room knows that you would do the same thing. A true shepherd that leads the sheep is willing to die for the sheep.
And I want to tell you that the shepherd that we follow cares for you. And how deep is his love for the sheep?
How deep is that love? He saw the wolf and he did not flee.
He willingly went straight at it because he knew that that wolf of sin and death and judgment, your punishment, you deserve to die.
The soul that sins must die. He went head on to that wolf, looked it in the eye, took the death that we deserve into his body, died in our place, and having paid the penalty of our sin, took his life back up again.
And he will lead us into heaven. That's a good shepherd. You can follow him.
And that's the second of three parts in this metaphor. I told you it's expansive.
The love that you feel that he would make away, you can be saved. Here's a way to be saved. He's a door.
It expands out beyond that. Here's a shepherd that loves you so much. He cares so much that he would go die for you.
Now it expands out a third time to the call of the shepherd. That is, he knows you by name.
He dies your death, particularly knowing your name as he dies. And knowing every sin that you would ever commit.
Some of you think, well, if he only knew some of the worst things I've done, he wouldn't love me.
The truth is he does know you. And he does love you. Look at the call of the shepherd.
And this, in real time, the gospel comes to you. He calls you by name. And he opens your heart.
Just like the blind man of John 9, he gives you eyes to see. Here, he gives you ears to hear.
You were deaf, but he called you and made you alive. Verse 14 to 19. I am the good shepherd.
He repeats it. One of the beautiful I am statements.
I am the door. I am the good shepherd. But look what he's saying here. It's an element, a layer of meaning that we miss because we often just think of the shepherd laying down his life for the sheep.
It's so beautiful. But there's more. I know my own and my own know me.
Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
For whom does Christ die? The sheep. And he knows them so well just as the
Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father so he knows you before the foundation of the world.
And read on. It says, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I think we have some who are born
Jewish. Bonnie, born Jewish. Believing in Messiah from that flock of Israel.
It's saying here and I have other sheep, the rest of you and me, Gentiles by birth.
Not from the flock of Israel. I must bring them also.
And how much certainty was in the call of Bonnie to believe and of Jeff to believe and of you
Gentiles to believe. It says here in verse 16, they will listen to my voice.
Church, I want to teach you something that's very important. Maybe you've never heard it before. Theologically, it is called the effectual call.
The effectual call. In Matthew chapter 22,
I believe it's verse 14, Jesus says, many are called but few are chosen.
Many are called. That is an outward call. It's the publishing of the gospel.
As a preacher, I don't know who God is going to save. I preach to everybody.
Jew and Gentile, slave and free, Barbarian, Scythian, male and female. I don't discriminate.
I don't know the identity of the elect. I just preach. In the same way that's what you do.
It's the outward call. We call everyone to repentance and to faith. The outward call is offered to the world.
For God so loved the world. He's a loving God that offers this. But the effectual call is the calling of the heart.
The opening of the heart to believe. And it's as certain as these words in verse 16.
They will listen to my voice. Or look back up at 10 .3 when the metaphor was first given.
The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name.
So this is not just some nebulous group called sheep. And God would be happy with whoever happens to populate that group.
No. He calls every sheep by name.
And what does it say? He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Verse 4. When he has brought out all of his own, the ones who he knows to be his own, he goes before them.
And the sheep follow him. They know his voice. That refers to the effectual call.
When God's voice goes out and a sheep, it doesn't sound like I'm speaking in tongues.
You've heard his voice because he's opened your heart. I'm going to show you quickly four other passages that speak of this effectual call.
And I'll just reference them. You can turn there if you like. But I want you to see that this is a theology that the
New Testament emphasizes. And this parable actually spends more time on the effectual call than the verses we read ahead of time.
The first is 1 Corinthians 1 .24. Turn there or listen. Guys, the gospel, it's just foolishness to those who are perishing.
1 .18. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. In 1
Corinthians 1 .24, it refers not only to that reality but to the call.
That's the effectual call. Look, but to those who are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
False shepherds will tell you it's foolish to be a Christian. False shepherds will deny that Jesus is the
Christ. The false prophet Muhammad said he was never crucified. Joseph Smith said he's the spirit brother of Satan.
False shepherds will tell you many things and lead you to not believe in Christ.
But to those who are called, that is, the voice of God himself is supernatural power, the power of God, and it is supernatural wisdom.
Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. You are blind unless he gives you eyes to see.
You are deaf and you don't care about what the preacher says until he gives you ears to hear, until he opens your heart to believe, until he calls you by name.
And so the second is Isaiah 43 .1. I'll just read this one. But now thus says the
Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine. True Israel, the believers within Israel are called by name and claimed.
Turn with me though to Acts 16 .14. I want you to see the effectual call on the heart of a woman whose name is
Lydia, a seller of purple. In Acts 16, nobody in Europe even has the gospel.
Nobody has heard the outward call at all. They don't know. But a Macedonian call comes to Paul.
Paul hears that call and knows that he must go to Philippi. So he sails across and goes to Philippi and he finds some women down by the river.
Now he issues the gospel, he gives the outward call, but I want you to notice the inward call in Acts 16 .14.
The effectual call. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods who was a worshiper of God.
Listen. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
I want to tell you that opening of the heart to pay attention, and that is to believe, that is the voice of the
Good Shepherd. Paul could only issue the outward call but the Good Shepherd, the
Lord, it says opened her heart. That's the call of God unto salvation.
It was the Lord that opened her heart. And so she believed. And then the theology of this is unpacked by Paul in Romans 8 and 9.
I'll give you three verses. 28 -30, Romans 8 -28, and Romans 8 -30.
I'm sure all of you guys could finish this verse if I begin to quote it.
Romans 8 -28. And we know that for those who love
God, all things work together for good.
But did you ever pay attention to the second phrase in Romans 8 -28? For those who are called.
That's the call of the Good Shepherd. That's the effectual call. For those who are called according to his purpose, his plan.
And he explains that those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
And now look at the call in verse 30, Romans 8 -30. And those whom he predestined, he also called.
Why is this word called in the golden chain of redemption? What's so important about this?
You see, it's one thing that the Son opened a way of salvation. He's the door. It's another thing that he died, demonstrating his great love.
But unless you believe, you're still in your sins. To be called is to hear the good news and your heart opens like Lydia's and you believe.
And so in the golden chain of redemption, the calling of God is as certain as predestination and final glorification.
It says in Romans 8 -30, those whom he predestined, notice this, he also called.
And those whom he called, he also justified, declared them righteous. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
You made it safely home, but the call of God is at issue.
You see it again in 9 verses 11 and 12. Maybe you remember this phrase.
Romans 9 is hard to work through. Difficult to accept. But right at the center of it,
Paul is continuing with this effectual call that he taught in Romans 8 -28 -30.
Now he says in chapter 9 verses 11 and 12, though they were not yet born, that is
Jacob and Esau, not yet born, and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue.
Not because of works, but because of him who calls.
She was told the older will serve the younger. There are two possible reactions to the teaching of Jesus as the good shepherd.
It's hard enough to see that he's the only way and anybody else is preaching a lie It's one thing to hear of the love of one who lays down his life for the sheep.
It's harder still to see that you're dead in your sins and you can't of yourself even come and believe.
These teachings are very hard. Very difficult to swallow. And as he taught the same thing in John chapter 6, the result of it was that the multitude of 5 ,000 that he had fed on the hill, all of them left, except for the 12, and they refused to leave him saying, you have the words of life, to whom else would we go?
There's two reactions to a good shepherd teaching these things. One is to believe and the other is to disbelieve.
So look at John 10 and we close here in verses 19 to 21, what do you expect happened?
If we're tracking with the thought, we should see it play out, and of course it does.
Verse 19, John 10, 19 There was again a division among the
Jews because of these words. It's difficult.
Many of them said he has a demon and is insane why listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon.
Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? So in closing, what you see is a separation.
Those who hear the voice of the shepherd are willing to take him at whatever he teaches. They're willing to come by that way and believe in the good shepherd.
They hear his call. They listen to his voice and they believe his words. And those who are prideful, spiritually blind, they conclude that he has a demon and that he's insane.
And they say, why listen to him? And that leaves us at this point with the parable, it's not really a parable but a metaphor, the figure of speech.
It leads us at this point. Christ himself has said that he's the door, he's the good shepherd who issues the call.
And he had said earlier, if anyone comes by this way, he will find pasture.
He will live and have abundant life. So that offer to come by the way is genuine and it's for anyone.
That is to say, if you're listening right now and you wonder, can I be saved too? The answer is yes.
He's inviting you. Come. Come drink the living water. Come eat of the bread of life.
Come to the good shepherd and follow him. He's made a way. So come. How do you respond to the good shepherd?
It's to believe him. To take him at his word. To hear his voice. So respond.
Consider the door open to you this morning. Christ invites you to be saved. Think about his love.
He fought death to the death for you. If you hear his voice this morning, follow him.
Follow Christ to freedom. We go back to where we started, right? The Irish followed
St. Patrick. The Scottish followed
William Wallace to freedom. But all of these things are only types and shadows.
The shepherds of the Bible, they all point to one shepherd, and his name is
Jesus. If you've never come to Christ, this is a call to you.
To believe in him. Put your faith in him. Follow him.
And if you've been wandering like a sheep, you know he's the shepherd, but you've been going your own way.
You've been drifting from him. Come back and follow closely. He is the good shepherd.
Let's pray now. Father, my prayer is for the sheep to hear your voice.
I know that as a preacher of the word, I can save no one. I, as a shepherd, can only point to the chief shepherd of our souls,
Jesus Christ. So God, I'm asking right now that you would open the hearts of those who are listening to believe the good news.
To believe that Jesus is the good shepherd. I pray that you would lead them now through the door.
That they would come to eternal life and be saved from their sins. God, I'm not asking them to repeat a prayer after me.
I'm asking you, God, to save them. Only you can save them. Only you can open their heart to believe.
God, I pray for a miracle right now in Jesus' name that you open blind eyes. I pray that you grant hearing to the deaf.
That they would pay attention and believe in Jesus.
God, I'm thinking right now of some prodigals. Wandering sheep. I pray good shepherd that you would track them down right now and take that sheep on your shoulder and bring him or her home to the fold.
Good shepherd, go and rescue the one that left. Leave the 99 to bring back the one.
Good shepherd. I pray for us who have heard these words that we would believe them.
And God, I pray that we would be thankful for the kind of shepherd you are. The shepherd that made a way.
The shepherd that laid down your life for us. And the shepherd that called us by name out of our sin and gave us eternal life.
Thank you, Jesus. You are a good shepherd. We confess that this morning. And we worship you.
And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There is no more for heaven now to give.
He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom.
My steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace.
To this I hold. My hope is only
Jesus. For my life is wholly bound to Him.
Oh, how strange and divine I can see.
All is mine, yet not mine to start and stay.
The Savior, He will stay. I labor on in weakness and rejoicing.
For in my need His power is displayed.
To this I hold. My shepherd will defend me.
Through the deepest valley He will lead.
Oh, the night I shall overcome yet not.
Oh, feet
I tread. I know I am forgiven.
The future sure, the price it has been.
For Jesus led and suffered for I was raised to overcome the grave.
To this I stand. I am free yet not
I. With every breath
I long to follow Jesus. For He has said that He will bring me home.
And day by day I know He will renew me.
I stand with Jordan full of hope. My hope, my hope is only
Jesus. For He ever won't go away.
Still my lips shall repeat yet not
I. Still my lips shall repeat yet not
I but through Christ in me. Yet not
I but through Christ in me.
Amen. Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the