I AM the Good Shepherd, John 10:11-21

From the very earliest examples of literature, we find the use of anthropomorphic allegories or similitudes used to illustrate various types of human behavior.  Even today, much of our perceptions of human behavior is influenced by tales of animals who talk, and think as we do.  And so it is not surprising that  we find the scriptures uses such analogies from time to time as a means of teaching certain principles.   Today we come to one such allegory, that of the church, or the people of God, presented as sheep, and Christ as the shepherd of the sheep.  Also

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I AM the Door, John 10:1-10

This passage we are looking at today is the first part of a discourse that Jesus gave shortly after healing a man who had been blind from birth.  If you look back at chapters 8 and 9, you will remember that Jesus had been teaching in the temple and said some things regarding His deity to the Jewish religious leaders which infuriated them, and so they took up stones in order to stone Him to death.  But Jesus disappeared into the crowd and escaped.  Then on the way out of the temple, He and his disciples saw a man who

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Salvation in slow motion, John 9:8-41   

Today’s message is the continuation of a story that we began looking at last week.  I realize some of you weren’t here, but you should be able to catch up quickly – it’s the story of a man born blind, that Jesus healed.  We looked at the first seven verses last week.  Today we are going to try to finish this chapter which is basically a narrative of the people who are affected by this miracle. And so I have titled today’s message, “Salvation in slow motion.” The idea behind that title is that this passage illustrates salvation in an

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Sight for the blind, John 9:1-7   

As I have said before many times, every miracle Jesus performed in the gospels is presented to teach us a spiritual parable.  It is important to understand that.  Not every miracle that Jesus did is recorded in scripture.  John will say later that if everything that Jesus did while He was on earth was written down, that all the books of the world could not contain them.  But John said in chapter 20 verse 31 that the signs that he did record, are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that

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Worship in spirit and in truth, John 8:48-59    

Well today’s message is going to be a little bit different than usual.  I’m not going to expound the text, line by line, word by word as I would typically do. But today I want to focus on just a few points that Jesus makes at the end of this dialogue that we have been looking at for several weeks and try to make an application for us here this morning. Almost every week that we have been studying John, I have quoted the same verse of scripture at some point during my message.  Any guesses which verse that would

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Characteristics of a child of God, John 8:37-47     

I have noticed that some people really value their ancestry.  Their heritage means a lot to them. They usually have done all sorts of research into their family tree.  And perhaps your family history should be remembered and valued.  But then again I think some people put way too much emphasis on some great thing they can claim their great great grand daddy did, and they feel that somehow validates them in some unique way.  It’s kind of like those people that believe in reincarnation.  Whenever you hear someone claim to have been reincarnated, it’s interesting that they always claim

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The Source of Freedom is the Truth, John 8:31-36

The idea of freedom, or the principle of being free, is one that is particularly indigenous to Americans.  It’s not limited to Americans, of course, but much of our history is based on the premise that man is designed to be free.  Our country was founded on that principle.  As the Constitution declares, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Liberty means the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on

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The litmus test of heaven, John 8:21-30   

Today is the Lord’s Day.  It is the day when Christians worship the Lord.  It is the day set aside each week to honor Jesus Christ, who laid down His life for us so that we might be truly free. Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friends.” The remarkable thing about Christ’s sacrifice is that He did not just lay down His life for His friends, but He laid down His life for His enemies.  Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that

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Two witnesses to the truth, John 8:13-20

There are many voices calling out for attention in the church today.  And there are perhaps as many messages as there are voices.  How are we to know which are true, and which are trustworthy?  Many of them sound convincing.  Many of them claim to be based on scripture. And yet many messages are at odds with one another.  So they cannot all be true.  If some are true, then others have to be false.  The great difficulty comes in discerning which are true and which are false. I believe that the Bible teaches us that the way to know

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I AM the Light of the world, John 8:12 

As I get older, it seems that my eyesight has gotten a lot weaker. But I have read somewhere that it is not that your eyesight necessarily gets weaker, which makes it difficult to read, or see clearly.  But as you age, your eyes do not receive light as well.  And I know that by experience.  I can hardly read with my glasses on when I am inside and don’t have a good light to read by.  But on a bright sunny day, I can read outside without my glasses on.   Light then, is a great metaphor for the

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