Today we are looking at part two of a message I have called, Seven Principles of the Seventh Sign. This miracle that Jesus did in raising Lazarus from the dead, is the seventh and final sign or attesting miracle that John records Jesus doing in His public ministry. It is a long passage, and as such we don’t have the time this morning to exegete every verse.  However, the story as a narrative is pretty self explanatory.  But there are some important doctrinal truths which are illustrated by this story which is what I want to make the focus of this message.

As I have said on numerous occasions, every miracle presented in the gospel is a parable meant to teach us spiritual principles.  So is the case here in the resurrection of Lazarus.  It is more than a cool story, it is given to teach us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you might have life in His name. So to that end I have prepared this message, and the seven principles taught by this sign are these; 1, the Love of God, 2, the timing of God, 3, the Light of God, 4, the Comfort of God, 5, the Life of God, 6, the Power of God, and 7, the death of God.

Now rather than spend half our time reteaching the first four points we covered last time, I am just going to review them briefly, and encourage you to go to our website (thebeachfellowship.com) and read last’s week message if you missed it.  In our last message, we noticed the first point, which is the Love of God.  The emphasis of the text being on Jesus’ love of Lazarus and not vice a versa.  This  principle is restated in 1John 4:10 which says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” His love for us is both familial and sacrificial.  Familial, like His love for Lazarus, Mary and Martha who were like His family.  And sacrificial because He was willing to lay down His life for His friends.  Ephesians 5 says that Christ loves the church in a similar way as a husband loves his bride. And the sub point from that was that God’s love for us does not mean that we will not suffer, but that He will be with us in our suffering, even as Jesus’ love for Lazarus did not mean that Lazarus would not suffer, but that his suffering was to further the kingdom of God.

The second principle we pointed out was the timing of God.  We saw in vs.6 that after hearing that Lazarus was sick, Jesus did not leave for two more days.  And we learned through this principle that in our petitions to God and expectations of God, we must submit to the timing of God.  His ways are not our ways.  His timetable is on a different scale sometimes than ours.  But ultimately, we need to trust that He is good, and that He is working all things together for good, to those that are called according to His purpose.

The third principle was the light of God. In vs.9, Jesus said “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.”  So if you have the light of God’s truth within you, then you will never be in darkness.  Darkness being in this case a simile for death.  Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”  The light of God produces the life of God which can never be extinguished.

And the fourth principle that we spent a lot of time on, was the comfort of God. In vs.11, Jesus said, ““Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep.”  We discussed the meaning of the phrase “fallen asleep” and how that relates to the death of believers, whose body sleeps in the grave, but whose spirit is alive in Paradise.  And we showed you several scriptures which talk about the comfort that believers have in Christ when they pass from this life to the next.  We examined the story given by Jesus about another man named Lazarus, who was a lame man who laid at the gate of a rich man, and Jesus said when he died the angels took him to Paradise, which He referred to as Abraham’s bosom.  So we understand the comfort which we have in Christ is that He will take us to be with Him in Paradise, where we will live and be comforted until the day of resurrection, when we shall be raised with an incorruptible, new body and be forever with the Lord.  So the comfort is that even in death we will live if we are in Christ.

So up to this point we have seen the love of God, the timing of God, the light of God, and the comfort of God.  And that brings us this morning to #5, the life of God.  Jesus said in vs.25, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

And let me preface this principle of the Life of God by saying this; man was not designed to live independently of God.  We were designed to live with God, to be as one with God and to have spiritual life in God. God said in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that He has planted eternity in our hearts, that is, we are designed to have the eternal life of God in our hearts.  And without that life of God in us, there is a void in our hearts that nothing on this earth can fill.   

Now we can only know that kind of life through the Spirit of God, who gives life to our spirit.  If you will remember, when Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from the presence of God, and their spirit died immediately.  That was the death promised by God that would be the consequence if they ate of the tree in disobedience.  Their spiritual connection and communion with God was the  source of life.  Without Him, their spirit died.  Their physical body followed soon afterwards.  But from the moment of separation from God they were actually considered dead, because they were dead spiritually.  They were separated from the life and light of God which sustains life.  As a result of their sin, spiritual death passed on to all men, so that all men are born spiritually dead.

Eph. 2:1-3 says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

But because God loved mankind, God prepared a way to reconcile man to Him once again.  God became flesh and blood like us, in the man Christ Jesus, and as our substitute, He paid the penalty of death for us, so that we who believe in Him might be reconciled to God.  That means we were given life once again to our spirit.  That’s what Jesus meant in John 3:16 when He said, “You must be born again.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.” That means that once we are born again in the spirit we have fellowship/communion once again with God. We walk with Him spiritually and physically. That means we are one with God, because His Spirit dwells in us, and as such He is our head, our authority, our ruling authority. He is the governing entity of our life.  He guides us in every aspect of life.

Not only then is Christ the life which gives life to every man, but as He said, He is the source of life; the resurrection and the life.  He resurrects us from spiritual death that we might have spiritual life.  That is why He said He who believes in Me will live even if He dies, and everyone who lives (that is spiritually is made alive) will never die.  Those who by faith believe in all that Christ is and came to do are resurrected from spiritual death and given new life, which will never be affected by physical death.  That is the promise of Christ unto salvation.  And that is the picture that we see illustrated in baptism.

And that resurrection power is what Jesus is illustrating by this miracle.  Jesus did not come to Earth to raise every dead person just to live for a little while longer but then die again eventually.  But He did this miracle to show conclusively that He was the source of life; that is the Creator, that He had authority over life and death as God; and that we might have real life in His name. Jesus spoke of His authority over life in John 10:17-18 “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”  And in an even more explicit declaration, Jesus said in John 14:6, ”I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Now there is so much more we could say, but we must hurry, our time is limited.  So let’s look at the next principle; #6. The Power of God.  The power of God is encapsulated by the words of Jesus is vs.46, “Lazarus, come forth.”  Jesus spoke to Lazarus, not to Lazarus in the tomb, but Lazarus who was in Hades, in Paradise.  What power, that speaks from the abode of the  living to the abode of the dead, and exercises power over that realm and the spirits there.  Who not only has the power to beckon spirits with a word, but the power to reclaim ruined flesh.  Lazarus’s body had already started to decompose after four days.  And yet he came out of the tomb as normal flesh and blood without deterioration.  That is the power of the Creator.  The power of life in God.

As John said in the opening paragraph of this book, Jesus was the active power in creation. John 1:3 “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

There are three sub points under this heading that I just want to bring out though briefly.  And that is that the power of God finds it’s origin in the compassion of God, it finds it’s expression in the call of God, and it finds it’s manifestation in the glory of God.  The compassion of God we see illustrated in vs.33 and 35, when Jesus sees their grief and was deeply troubled in His own Spirit.  And then in vs.35, Jesus wept.  As the old hymn says, He had no tears for His own grief, but sweat drops of blood for mine.  Jesus wept out of compassion for His creation who were held in bondage under the fear of death. So because of that compassion, God sent Jesus to suffer and die for mankind, even while they were yet sinners, Christ died for them.

The second sub point under the power of God is the call of God.  Jesus said in chapter 10, My sheep hear my voice, and I call them by name and they follow Me.  Lazarus was called by Christ and He came forth from death in answer to that call, just as certainly as those whom Jesus calls today hear His call and come out of death into life.  The Bible says that Jesus is the author and finisher of our salvation.  His call is what awakens us out of our deadness and darkness, and calls us into light and life as illustrated by His effectual call of Lazarus from the dead.

As Paul says in Romans 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Predestined means that He chose us for salvation  before we were even born, and glorified means that He will finish the good work in us that He has begun.  That speaks of the power of God over the future.  God is not only able to predict the future, but He is able to bring it to pass.  He is eternal.

And that segues into the third sub point of the power of God which is it manifests the glory of God.  Jesus said in vs.40, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”  The glory of God is the power of God manifested. John, speaking of the transformation with Moses and Elijah, when Jesus was on the mountain and the glory of God came upon Him so that He glowed with a tremendous light, said in John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Jesus revealed His glory when He called Lazarus to come forth from the dead.  He revealed His power, the power of God, which is able to raise the dead into life.  This power is the hope that we have, that Christ will one day come again in the clouds in all of HIs glory, to take up His church, His bride, and we will be raised in a glorified body to be with Him forever.

The final point we will look at quickly this morning is the death of God.  And we don’t need to spend a lot of time on this point because we have mentioned it in almost every principle so far.  But at the end of this chapter, we see Christ’s enemies, the Pharisees and chief priests, convene a council to discuss what to do about Jesus.  They have already tried to kill Him numerous times.  Now they say that His fame after doing this miracle will mean that even more people will believe in Him and they will lose their positions of power among the Romans. 

But Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”  

So though the chief priests and Pharisees meant the death of Christ for evil, yet God meant it for good.  In this principle then we see the plan of God come full circle.  It was decided before the world began that God would create a world, and that He would make man to live in that world, that He would love mankind, that mankind would be His companion, be His helpmate, even would be His bride.  But God wanted mankind to respond to Him not as the animals who are slaves to their instinct, but who would to choose to love Him and to obey Him.  So though Satan would seduce man to fall through sin, yet God had a plan from eternity past to send Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins.  The love of God provided Himself to be our substitute to pay the penalty for our iniquities. Jesus would voluntarily lay down His life for His sheep, that we might be restored to the fold of God.  

So this sign of the resurrection of Lazarus is an illustration, not just a dramatic supernatural miracle,  but an illustration of the entire majestic scope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But it is more than just a lot of doctrinal theory.  It offers practical hope for the spiritually dead men and women who are living in this world without the light of God, without Christ in their life.  It is the hope of spiritual life that is available through faith in Christ as their Lord and Savior.  It is the hope of life that will never fade away, that will never die, but will continue to live even if it dies.  And this hope can be your hope.  You can know the life that is possible through Christ.  Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. And the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”  And Jesus said in John 5:24  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

Today is your opportunity to receive the free gift of life that is possible through Christ. Simply confess Him as your Lord and Savior, and believe in Him for salvation.  I pray you do not let this opportunity pass you by.  

One of the great questions of our age, particularly among those who have been taught scientific evolution, is whether or not God is real.  From time to time you will hear someone ask the question, “if God is real, then why doesn’t He show us?  Why doesn’t He reveal Himself?  Why doesn’t God prove that He is real?”  And sometimes, people will ask us that are Christians to prove that God is real.  To prove that He exists.  

But it is noteworthy that Jesus Christ never addressed that question.  He did not defend the existence of God.  In fact, the Bible is not written to prove that God is real.  The Bible does not defend the existence of God or try to prove it or even explain it.  The fact is, that God doesn’t need us to defend Him, but just to declare Him.  That He is. Period.  God’s personal name that He gave Moses out of the burning bush illustrates that fact.  When Moses asked God His name, God said, “I Am that I Am.”  He is.  And you can either accept that, or reject it.  It’s your choice.  But there are consequences to your decision. Eternal consequences.  And consequences you will face in this life as well.  

So we do not need to defend God’s existence, nor define Him.  Our job is to declare Him.  Let the scientist’s expostulate on their theories.  God has declared who He is.  Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.”  Science changes it’s mind from day to day, but the truth of God endures forever.  I was telling my kids just this week much of the dietary advice we were given about fats and carbs growing up has now been proven to be completely wrong.  Science can change it’s mind without any problem whatsoever and what had once been proclaimed to be the facts is just conveniently dismissed in favor of new facts.  I saw an interesting quote recently from a man named Werner Heisenberg, who was the father of quantum physics.  He said, “The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will make you an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you.”

Nevertheless, on the question of God’s existence skeptics abound.  But God doesn’t need to answer them.  It is foolishness, the existence of God is self evident for those who believe in Him.  Now there was a similar question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders of the Jews.  They had come to ask Him if He was the Messiah.  Christ, by the way, is the Greek word for Messiah.  The Messiah had a pretty broad definition according to popular interpretation.  The limited view which was favored by the Pharisees and scribes and priesthood in Jesus day, was that the Messiah would be a ruler, of the royal line of David, who would restore the throne of Israel, and overturn their enemies.  The Biblical view of the Messiah was quite a bit more expanded than that, however.  Isaiah, for instance, made it clear in Isaiah 9 who the Messiah would be.  It says, “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.  There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”  This prophecy makes it clear that the Messiah who would sit on David’s throne was no less than the Mighty God.  Why the Jewish leaders could not see this from such scriptures is beyond me.  But as with most people, I guess, they heard what they wanted to hear.  And so they had a limited, one dimensional view of the Messiah.

So the Jews come to Jesus as He is walking in the winter time under the portico of Solomon, that is the remnant wall of the original temple of Solomon that was all that had survived the destruction of Solomon’s temple.  And John tells us that it was during the Feast of Dedication.  We call that feast Hanukkah today.  It was a celebration of the rededication of the temple which had happened during the revolt which had been led by Judas Maccabee a couple hundred years earlier.   So perhaps that was the incentive for asking Jesus this question.  Because Judas Maccabee had been the type of revolutionary that they wanted the Messiah to be like.  I think they knew full well that Jesus was the Messiah.  But He wasn’t the kind of Messiah that they wanted.  Jesus was concerned about spiritual things, and they were concerned about earthly things.  They wanted deliverance from Roman oppression, Jesus offered deliverance from their sins.  

I’m afraid that we still have that problem today.  People are always trying to define God according to what they think God should be like.  But God has already declared what He is like.  And so when a preacher like me tries to teach what the Bible says about God and our relationship to Him, we are vilified.  Because the Bible doesn’t square with what a lot of people have decided God should be like.  I had a woman some time ago tell me repeatedly that I could preach about God all that I wanted to, but her God was not the same God that I spoke of.  She said her God was a loving God, and a merciful God.  And every time I tried to speak to her, she just repeated that over and over again, getting louder and louder.  The real problem though with her view of God was that she wanted to be able to deliberately sin and not have a guilty conscience about it.  But whether or not her conscience is bothered is not going to change the fact of who God is.  He is a loving, merciful God.  But He is also holy, righteous and just.  And you cannot limit God to just the characteristics that you like and dismiss the others.  Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

So back to our text, Jesus answers their question without seeming to address it directly.  He doesn’t say outright that He is the Messiah because of their misconceptions about the Messiah’s purpose.  He has previously told individual people that He was the Messiah.  And His own disciples had professed that He was the Messiah, the Son of God.  But Jesus knows that what these Jews were attempting to do was not come to an understanding of the truth, but they were trying to find something that would justify them murdering Him.  And so they wanted to accuse Him of blasphemy. The way that they decided to do it, was by getting Him to declare who He was in the temple, in the presence of witnesses.  And so they descend on Him in a pack, and put the question to Him.  Vs. 24, they say “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

But Jesus knows their hearts and their deceit, and so He gives them this answer in vs.25, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me.”  So Jesus offers two proofs of the fact that He is the Messiah.  First His words show that He is the Messiah.  Over and over again, Jesus had shown by HIs teaching that He spoke the word of God.  For instance, Jesus said in chapter 8 vs 28,  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” 

So as He said there in chapter 8, and now again in chapter 10, “I have already told you and you did not believe.”  He offers two evidences; I speak the words of God, and I do the works of God.   And they had not missed either of those proofs either.  Nicodemus, one of their own, and speaking on behalf of the Pharisees,  told Jesus back in chapter 3 that “We know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one could do the signs that You do unless God is with him.” So by their own testimony they knew that He had come from God and God was with Him, and yet they had rejected Him. 

So Jesus said I have told you, and I have shown you, and yet you do not believe. He said You don’t believe because you are not my sheep.  Now all of chapter 10 is on this theme of Jesus as the Shepherd of His sheep.  And so even though this takes place three months later than the earlier portion of this passage, yet the theme of this passage remains the same.  The theme is that Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the sheep.  Jesus has declared Himself to be the Shepherd of His sheep.  And this idea of a Shepherd was a great Messianic theme throughout the Old Testament.  I don’t have time to take you to all the references for it this morning.  But one example in Micah is quoted in Matthew 2:6, “‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,

ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’”  So a shepherd was a common Old Testament picture of the Messiah.

So having already declared Himself to be the good Shepherd in vs.11,  now Jesus delineates those who are His sheep from those that are not His sheep.  Jesus gives three evidences for knowing His sheep.  First of all, He said, His sheep believe Him.   Secondly, His sheep hear His voice.  Thirdly, His sheep follow Him.  

The Pharisees did none of that.  They did not believe His words or His works.  They did not hear His voice, that is HIs call.  And they did not follow Him.  They were not interested in becoming disciples.  Here is the crux of it, I think.  They didn’t want a shepherd.  They didn’t think that they needed a shepherd.  And I think that is the state of most people today.  They don’t see themselves as needing a shepherd.  They don’t see themselves as needing a Savior.  They don’t see themselves as foolish, wayward sheep who are always going astray, who are always wandering off, who are always prone to get in trouble from predators.  People today see going to church as adding some degree of religion, or some degree of respectability to their lives.  They acknowledge certain facts of the Bible, they acknowledge the existence of God, they are even willing to accept the premise of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, but they do not see themselves as needing a Shepherd of their souls.  People want God to be like a genie, that sits on a shelf somewhere out of the way until we want our wishes granted, then we come to Him and rub the statue just so, and say some prayer like abracadabra, and poof, God gives you what you want.  We want a god like that.  But we don’t need a Shepherd.  I can decide for myself what I need to do, where I want to go, how I want to live.  A Shepherd is too restricting.  A Shepherd leads the sheep, guides the sheep, controls the sheep.  So we don’t really want a Shepherd. We’ll take a genie though, thank you very much.  

But if you have that attitude, then there is a very good chance you are not one of His sheep.  You can’t be His sheep unless you accept Him as your Shepherd.  Personally, I had to come to the place where I finally realized I couldn’t make it on my own.  I wasn’t able to manage things on my terms.  When my life finally got so messed up I couldn’t stand it anymore, then I knew I needed a Shepherd to save me, to restore me,  to make me one of HIs flock and to lead me and guide me.  And I can tell you this, there is no greater comfort or peace that can be found, than knowing that Jesus is my Shepherd and I am HIs sheep.  I have a confidence that nothing else can provide, because I know that He knows me, because I am His.

That’s why Jesus said that He came to seek and to save those that were lost.  When you come to the point of realizing that you are lost, then you will welcome a Shepherd, who will save you and lead you and guide you.  There is a popular slogan out there you see on bumper stickers which says, “not all who wander are lost.”  But the fact is, we are all lost.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”  And until you realize that you are lost, you cannot be saved.

So Jesus says His sheep follow Him, and obey Him because they are His.  1Cor. 6:19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”  Some people see obedience as a limitation, but I think that it is a great benefit.  I just follow Him, and know He will take care of the details.  He will take care of me.  And that is such a great relief.  None of us knows the future.  None of us know what tomorrow holds.  But Jesus sees tomorrow.  He has a plan for me, and I can trust His plan.  That’s the benefit of being His sheep and following Him.  

But the benefits don’t stop there.  Jesus said in vs.27, “I give eternal life to them and they will never perish, and no one can snatch them out of My hand.  My Father who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”  

Now there are three benefits to the life we have been given by Christ.  First of all, He says He gives them eternal life.  Some people think that eternal life is something that we get when we get to heaven.  But eternal life, or everlasting life, is given to you at the new birth.  When you are born again, by the Spirit of God, then you receive eternal life. It begins at conversion.  And it continues forever.  

Back in chapter 10 vs.10, Jesus said, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.”  It’s a never ending stream of life.  Back in chapter 7:37, Jesus said, “]If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”  He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in Him were to receive.  Going back to that conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 3, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  

So in conversion when we are born again, we are born by the Spirit, and as such we become spiritual beings, and as spiritual beings we have spiritual life, which is eternal life.  It’s an abundant life, springing up in our soul which will never run dry because it comes from the Spirit of God within us.  And then Jesus says they will never perish.  Listen, this body will die but our spirit will never die.  In the next chapter, Jesus said in 11:25-26 “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,  and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  And when we believe that, we can live victoriously in this life.  We don’t need to fear those who can kill the body but do nothing more to you after that.  Because we can know that we will never die.  In fact, we can even start to look forward to that day when this old body is cast off, and we receive a new body which is not weighed down by sin, which is not weak, which is not corruptible. 

And then the last aspect of our eternal life that Jesus is teaching is that it is eternally secure.  It’s what the Reformers called  the perseverance of the saints.  It is the triple guarantee of our eternal life.  First of all, Jesus said we are in HIs hand and the Father has given us to Him.  So that is our first guarantee, and then the next guarantee is that we are in the Father’s hand, and no one is able to snatch them out of HIs hand.  And in Ephesians 4:3, Paul says we are sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.  So we have a triple guarantee.  

I’ve used the illustration many times of my kids when they were little, and we would have to cross a road or a parking lot.  And I would tell my child, “hold onto my hand.”  And usually they would grab hold of my hand.  But though I told them to hold onto my hand, I did not rely on their strength to hold onto my hand. Neither did I rely on their obedience.  I’ve seen them suddenly try to let go and do something silly like pick up something, or turn around, right at the worst possible moment. So rather, I held onto their hand.  I wanted them to obey me.  But I made sure that I kept them firmly in my grip.  Their security was up to me.  

So it is with God and His children.  All of us like sheep are prone to wander.  But though God wants us to obey Him, He keeps us by His sovereign power.  We are not kept by our power.  No one, Jesus said is able to take them from the hand of God.  No one.  That includes you and I.  Just as my child could not escape from my hand, we cannot take ourselves out of God’s hand. Romans 8:30 says, “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” God will keep us from the cradle to the grave and on through eternity.

And then Jesus concludes His answer to their question in vs.30, in the most dramatic way possible, saying, “I and the Father are One.”  Not only that He is the Messiah, but that He is the Messiah promised in scripture, the very God  in flesh.  Now He is saying two things in that tremendous statement. First of all, He is saying He and God have one purpose. That is the context of vs.28 and 29.  Both Jesus and God are agreed in their purpose to keep HIs sheep.  And this is consistent to what I read earlier from chapter 8 vs 28,  “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”   So they were in agreement in all that Jesus did and said.  He spoke the words of God and did the deeds of God.  So they are One in purpose.

Secondly, they are One in essence.  They are One God.  Isaiah 9 which I quoted from earlier made that clear.  The Messiah was called the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father.  Now they are two persons, the Father and the Son.  But they are One essence.   In the great high priestly prayer of John 17, when Jesus is in the upper room on the night before His crucifixion, He is praying with HIs disciples, and He prays to God saying, that they may all be one, “even as You, Father are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us so that the world may believe that you sent Me.”  So this statement that “I and the Father are One” is the greatest self declaration of His deity.  He makes Himself equal with God. 

Well, we read in the next verse that they didn’t like the answer to their question.  They had wanted Jesus to tell them plainly if He was the Messiah.  And Jesus answered that, but according to HIs interpretation of who the Messiah is.  He says clearly that He is One with God.  And the rulers know that is what He means because they say it in vs. 33.  They say we are going to stone you to death, because you being a man make yourself out to be God.  They know full well what He is saying.  But they don’t want the Messiah to be God.  They want a revolutionary.  They want freedom from Rome. They want to be the rulers of Israel, and rulers of the world, and the Messiah that they wanted they thought could provide that.  Jesus on the other hand, made them feel guilty.  He made them realize that they needed a Shepherd. That they needed to follow someone.  They rejected that idea.  And so they picked up stones to kill Him.  

No one here today I am sure would admit that you would like to kill Christ.  But I wonder how many of you have rejected the notion that you need a Shepherd?  How many of you reject the idea that you need to follow Him, and obey Him, if you are going to have abundant life?  I believe that the Jews that day knew that Jesus was the Messiah.  But they rejected Him and chose to live their lives their way, and rejected the notion of a Shepherd. And I believe some here today may have the same response.  You don’t want to be under the authority of a Shepherd, you don’t want to submit to a Shepherd.  And as such you reject Christ.  

But I hope that is not your decision.  Today you have heard the truth.  Today the invitation is being extended to you to believe in Him, to hear His voice, and to follow Him.  If you will do that then you will be HIs sheep, and He will know you, and He will give eternal life to you.  And no one can snatch you out of His hand.  You can face life with the confidence that you will never perish but have everlasting life with God, and He will be with you, today and forever.  I pray that today is the day of your salvation.  Answer His call and come to Christ, believe and follow Him, that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

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 in this allegory, Christ portrays false religious leaders as wolves who prey on the sheep.  Most of us can appreciate this type of teaching mechanism.  We understand, at least to some degree, the picture of a shepherd and his sheep.

But I suppose that this allegory is not as clear to living in a modern industrialized world as it would have been to listeners in Jesus’ day.  Because even though we are familiar with the idea of shepherding, most of us probably have never spent much time around sheep.  The Israelites though were sheepherders by heritage, going back to the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  When the Israelites moved into Egypt during the time of Joseph they settled in the land of Goshen.  They lived separately from the Egyptians because they were shepherds, and that was a loathsome profession to the Egyptians.  So historically, the Israelites were shepherds, and as such the people listening in Jesus’ day would have been very familiar with this type of allegory.

However for most of us today, we may have a vague picture of Jesus carrying a lamb on His shoulders tucked away somewhere in the photo bank of our memory, but that’s about the extent of our knowledge about the subject.  Such anthropomorphic  stories might be much more understandable for us if they were about dogs.  My kids grew up watching Disney movies like 101 Dalmatians, or the Fox and the Hound.  We have had several dogs as pets at our house.  So most of us can relate to dogs.  We like to imagine that they have certain human attributes.  Some of us even treat our dogs like humans, sometimes we treat them better than humans.  

But Jesus in His wisdom did not use dogs in allegories as teaching entities.  Actually, dogs are much more intelligent than sheep.  In fact, in some cases, dogs seem to be more intelligent than people sometimes.  But to illustrate humans, Jesus used sheep.  And before we can really appreciate this passage, I think we need to first of all recognize that Jesus is symbolizing His people as sheep.

Popular perceptions about sheep are actually not all that accurate. Sheep are often considered symbols of innocence, meekness, submission, and patience.  Or at least that’s the common perception.  But I read a number of articles written by experts on sheep and shepherding, and I have to say that those attributes were not really highlighted.  What we perceive to be innocence or meekness or patience they call just being dumb.  Sheep are actually said to be very stupid creatures.  One writer listed 12 characteristics of sheep that I will just briefly run through, just so that we might get a more accurate picture of what the Bible says we are like. 

First of all, this writer said sheep are very foolish. Out of all animal IQ’s, sheep would have to be at the bottom of the list. 2. Sheep are slow to learn. You don’t see sheep performing tricks in a circus for good reason. 3. Contrary to idyllic pictures that we might have seen somewhere, sheep aren’t all that attractive.  They are dirty, smelly, actually kind of ugly up close. 4. Sheep are demanding. They always want to eat, and will turn a grassy field into a mud patch in no time, eating the even the roots of the plants. They constantly need new pastures to satisfy their insatiable appetites. 5. They are extremely stubborn.  They are almost impossible to herd.  Perhaps that’s why shepherds are described as leading the sheep. Because if sheep don’t want to go somewhere, you can’t hardly make them. 6. Sheep are stronger than they look.  They are physically strong. 7. Sheep are prone to straying. They have little sense of direction.  They get lost easily. They will wander away and get lost without supervision. 8. Sheep are unpredictable. They do foolish things without any sense of reason. 9. Sheep are followers.  If one starts running, others will run as well.  If one wanders away, others will follow them. 10. Sheep are restless.  For sheep to lie down they need freedom from fear, freedom from friction with others, freedom from hunger, and freedom from pests and parasites.  That is a rare combination. 11.  Sheep are dependent.  Without a shepherd for protection, sheep would die from starvation, from thirst or from predators. 12. Though sheep may look differently in different countries, in nature all sheep are the same.  That’s an unflattering picture of sheep, and yet that is the picture of sheep that those Jews listening to Jesus would have had.

Now to be fair, the Bible does not paint quite such a dismal picture of sheep.  But it does emphasize their nature to stray as their primary characteristic.  One of the best known verses is Isaiah 53:6, which says, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, but the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  That verse emphasizes the nature of sheep to go astray, to wander from the fold, to become ensnared in trouble.  

You will remember the parable that Jesus told about a lost sheep who went astray in Matthew 18:12-14.   “What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.”  

So it’s important then that we understand what Jesus is talking about when He speaks in this passage to the religious leaders of the Jews and says that He is the Shepherd of the sheep.  We cannot understand this allegory while holding onto some idealistic picture of sheep, if we are to understand the simile correctly.  Sheep are a picture of people, of the human condition, and His sheep represents those sheep that belong to Christ.  That means they are the church.  They are followers of Christ.  As Jesus said in verse 9, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”  He said in vs.4, “the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”  And in vs.10, He said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  So to be the sheep of Christ is to be the church of Christ.  We are the ones who go astray, we’re the ones who are foolish, who follow our appetites to the point of ruining our life, who will perish at the hands of false teachers if not for our shepherd who defends us.  Our well being is completely dependent upon Him and His under shepherds. 

So that’s our characteristics as sheep.  Now let’s look at the characteristics of the good Shepherd for a moment.  Jesus said in vs.11, “I am the good Shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  Jesus describes first His nature, and then His purpose.  First let’s consider His nature.  The word Jesus uses for good is the Greek word “kalos”.  There is another Greek word commonly used for good.  That’s the word “agathos”.  That word means morally good.  But the word “kalos” is different.  It literally means beautiful.  But it’s not referring to physical beauty, but to being excellent, magnificent, admirable, noble, praiseworthy.   

Not only is He presenting the nobility of His character, but He is contrasting between Himself and the previously mentioned thieves and robbers who enter into the fold to take advantage of the sheep.  He is the Shepherd of excellent character.  One who comes with a noble calling to take care of the sheep, to give the sheep abundant life, to lead them to pasture.  So He is making a contrast between the true shepherd and the hirelings of verse 12, who haven’t got the best interests of the sheep in mind, but are in it for money.  We can trust that the Lord is good, that His desire for us is for our best interests. This is the failure of our faith many times, that we doubt the Lord’s goodness.  We don’t surrender our will to Him because we doubt that His will is for our best.   We need to trust in the Lord’s goodness towards us and follow Him.

And then He presents His purpose as evidence of His goodness.  He said He gives His life for the sheep. Four times Jesus repeats this phrase that He lays down HIs life for the sheep.  This willingness to give His life for the sheep is the ultimate attestation of the nobility of His character.  It shows His love for the sheep.  Jesus said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”  That’s the standard of love that God has given to us to emulate.  But I dare say Jesus went even beyond this exalted standard.  Because Jesus did not just die for those who were His friends, but for those who were HIs enemies.  Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Even when we were in rebellion against God, Christ laid down His life for us.

At the risk of mixing metaphors, I would remind you that the book of John does not have a birth story of Jesus Christ.  We are introduced to Jesus as God in heaven, in the beginning with God. And then John says He became flesh. John the Baptist introduces Jesus to the world saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  John doesn’t describe for us the birth of Christ, but the purpose of His coming, to be the sacrificial lamb that was the substitute who died in the place of lost sheep.

This is the reason that Christ came to earth; to give His life as a ransom for sinners.  He says in another place, that He came to seek and to save those that were lost.  And the only way that God could bring about the salvation of lost sheep, to save sinners, of which we all are partakers, is by dying in our place.  Because God’s law said the penalty for sin was death.  In the Garden of Eden God declared that if you eat of the tree you will die.  Death is the divine punishment for sin that passed from Adam to all men because all have sinned.  Romans 3:23 says, the wages of sin is death.  But God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son to be our substitute.  The Shepherd offers His life in exchange for the sheep.  This is the doctrine of atonement; that Jesus paid the penalty that we deserved, by offering Himself as our substitute.  

2 Cor.5:21 says that God made Jesus who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  That is why Jesus came. Not just to be an innocent baby in a manger, nor to be a great teacher about life, not just to be the supreme example of how we are to live.  Those things are true, but secondary to the primary reason which is to save us from the penalty of death by offering up Himself as our substitute.

Then in verses 12 and 13, Jesus further defines His ministry by contrasting that of the hirelings.  These are those false shepherds who are only doing it for the monetary or political gain or social gain that they might get from their position.  When trouble comes, when the wolf comes, they flee and leave the sheep to fend for themselves.  The point being that the distinguishing feature of a true shepherd as opposed to a false one is that he loves the sheep enough to lay down his life for them.  That’s a distinguishing feature of a true under shepherd as well.  He may not become a literal martyr for the sheep, but he will give up his life for the sake of the sheep.  A true pastor will give up his life for the sake of the church.  He will make sacrifices for the sake of the church.  That’s why when I see these television evangelists sitting in lavish studios wearing $2000 dollar suits, and flying around the country in their private jets, I am skeptical of whether or not they are true shepherds.  A hireling is someone who assumes the position of a shepherd but is only interested in the financial rewards.

The next point that Jesus makes in this allegory is the relationship between the true Shepherd and His sheep. In vs.14-15 Jesus says,   “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,  even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.” Notice that Jesus says that the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is the same as the relationship between the Father and the Son. That is a significant statement.  The relationship between the church and Jesus, is the same as the relationship between the Father and Christ.  Now what kind of relationship is that?  Well, I would suggest that it’s a relationship of intimacy, of fellowship, of communion.  We could summarize it by saying it is a relationship based on love.

Now when you look at the text you don’t see the word love mentioned anywhere in it.  But love we have already determined was the reason that Christ gave HIs life for the church.  We know that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to save them, to become His church.  But the word that Jesus uses in the Greek is “ginōskō”, which is translated “know”.  But He isn’t talking about knowing as just knowing information.  He is using a term that indicated intimacy.  Sometimes it was used to indicate sexual intimacy.  In Jewish terminology, they spoke of sexual intimacy as to know one’s wife as in Genesis 4:1 when Adam knew Eve or Matthew 1:25 where Joseph did not know Mary when she was with child.

And notice that further proof of that is that the word “knows” of vs. 15 is explained in vs.17 as  “loves”. God knows Christ in vs.15, and that is explained in vs.17 as God loves Christ.  That same type of relationship between God and the Son is to also be between Christ and the church.  That love that we have with Christ is the love of intimacy pictured in Ephesians as the love of Christ for His church.  Listen to Ephesians 5:25, “ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”  Here it is again, this concept of love being that Christ gave Himself up, that is, He gave up His life for the church.  And that love consummated becomes the basis for a communion that can best be illustrated by the marriage of a husband and wife.  Ephesians 5:31-32 “FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.  This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.”

This relationship between the church and Christ is based on the same love between the Father and the Son.  Jesus said in John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand.”  And in John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing.”  So that intimate relationship between the Father and the Son is to be mirrored between Christ and His bride, that is the church. 

Then notice how that love is manifested between Christ and the Father.  Jesus said in vs. 18, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”  So that love between the Father and the Son is characterized by the Son’s obedience to the Father. He was obedient to the Father’s command.  Phil. 2:8 says concerning Christ, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  And also look at Heb. 5:8 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”  So though Jesus was the Son of God, the very God in flesh, yet He humbled Himself to be obedient to the Father because He loved the Father.  

Now as Christ was obedient to the Father as evidence of His love, so also Jesus said we are to be to Him.  We are to know Him even as He knows the Father.  So our relationship to Christ then is based on love, which is based on obedience, even as was Christ to the Father.  Let’s look again at that reference which we quoted earlier,  John 15:13, Jesus said “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”  But what’s the next verse say?  “You are My friends if you do what I command you.”  There it is.  The correlation of love to obedience.  You cannot have one without the other.  

Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”  That is the way love is manifested.  That is the way love is expressed by Christ to God, and that is the way we as the church express our love to Christ. That’s the way the sheep show that they know the good Shepherd.  They follow Him.  They go where He tells them to go.  They answer Him when He calls.  In Luke 6:46 Jesus asked, Why do you say to Me “Lord, Lord,” and don’t do the things which I say?  But the one who hears HIs word and acts on His word will show that He knows the Lord.

And then that obedience brings about the next characteristic that Jesus teaches, and that is the unity of the church is mirrored by the unity of the Father and the Son. Jesus says in John 10:16-18 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Those other sheep that Jesus had which are not of this fold are none other than the Gentiles, that is you and I.  We were not a part of the fold of the Israelites.  But Jesus came to save the world, all nations, all tribes, of all tongues.  The fact that He is the Savior of the world means that He draws all men to Himself.  Where there was once division between the Jews and the Gentiles, He has made into one church, one kingdom, one people.  

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer, He prays for the unity of the church to be even as the unity that He had with the Father.  I’ll give you just a few verses from His prayer which illustrate that.  In John 17:11, 20-23  Jesus prayed, “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. … 20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”  

Why is that unity so important?  So that the world might know who Jesus is. The church is to be unified by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, that they may do the works of Christ. We can know Him intimately because He is in us.  And because He is in us, we do HIs work.  So that the world might know Him as they see Him operating in us.  So then the gospel is not the exclusive domain of Christians in America.  The gospel is not the exclusive domain of the nation of Israel.  But it is the domain of Christ, the Savior of the world, who desires all men to be saved and to know the truth of salvation.  That can only be realized when the church goes into all the world and preaches the gospel to every living creature.  

Now there is a final aspect of that relationship with Christ to the world.  And that is found in the last three verses we are looking at this morning.  Vs.19-21 “A division occurred again among the Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?”  Others were saying, “These are not the sayings of one demon-possessed. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he?’”

So the relationship with the world will be characterized not only by unity with His church, but by division.  He came He said in Matt. 10:34  “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He said in Luke 12:51 “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.”  Listen, the truth of God is dividing.  It causes division on purpose.  He came to divide between the sheep and the goats.  Between the light and the darkness.  Between truth and a lie.  Between life and death.  The gospel of Jesus Christ brings division.  Unity is to be unified to the truth.  We are not to be unified to the world.  James 4:4 You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

This division that Jesus brings causes people to have to make a decision.  Will they listen to the voice of Christ?  Will they recognize the truth of God?  And then what will be their response to it?  How about you?  You have heard the voice of the good Shepherd today.  Is there a response in your soul to the truth?  Do you recognize that you are a sheep that has gone astray, and you’re in need of the shepherd of your soul?  If the Holy Spirit has so convicted you and called you today, I pray that you will heed the voice of the Shepherd and answer Him, and follow Him.  He has paid the penalty for your sin and if you will but surrender to Him as Lord, He promises to be your Shepherd and to lead you into the path of  life.   I pray that today you will answer that call.  

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 John tells us who had been born blind.  And so Jesus spat on the ground, made clay and rubbed it on his eyes, and told the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam.  The blind man believed Jesus, and obeyed by going and washing, and John says he came back to the temple seeing.  

He eventually finds himself in front of the Pharisees, the religious rulers of Israel, and they interrogate him, trying to find information that they can use to discredit this miracle of Jesus.  But they cannot.  They can’t dismiss the irrefutable fact that he who was born blind can now see.  But their anger so burns against Christ, that they take it out on this man, and so they excommunicate him from the temple. That meant that not only was he now a religious outcast, but a social outcast as well.  But Jesus comes later on that day and finds him, and reveals Himself fully to him as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord Jehovah.  And so it says that this formerly blind man worshipped Him.  Worship is reserved for God.  Not for prophets, not for great teachers.  But this man worshipped Jesus as Lord God, and He accepted that worship.

Shortly after that, Jesus declares to the Pharisees in 9:39, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”  In other words, Jesus is saying that He came to separate those who are in the kingdom of Light, from those who in the kingdom of darkness.  That is the judgment that Jesus said He brought to the world.  Jesus said in  John 3:19, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”  So the judgment Jesus brings is to make a distinction between light and darkness, truth and error, and life and death.  This is the judgment that comes through Christ on the world.

Now as we come to chapter 10, Jesus continues to teach that principle even further by use of an allegory.  The first part of this allegory which He speaks of is that of sheep which belong to a shepherd, which are kept in a sheep fold, and the nature of true shepherds and false shepherds.  And this allegory is expanding upon and illustrating the nature of the people who belong to God, which Jesus likens to sheep belonging to a shepherd.  This is a recurring theme we see throughout the Old Testament, that of God as the Shepherd of His people. 

For instance, one of my favorite psalms is Psalm 23.  When we studied through the Psalms some time ago in our Wednesday night Bible studies, we memorized the 23rd Psalm. But right now I don’t trust my memory. So I am going  to read it for you, because I think it sets the stage for this allegory that Jesus was teaching.  Psalm 23 says, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Now that is a beautiful Psalm. And we hear it used to speak to lots of different situations or circumstances in our lives. But it’s important to realize that the primary interpretation of this Psalm is painting a picture of salvation. And as we look at it through the template of salvation, we see first of all that the Shepherd satisfies our need for salvation, as He gives us rest from our attempts at our own works of righteousness, He saves our soul, He leads us into the path of righteousness which is the process of sanctification, He delivers us from the penalty of death, He provides blessing for us even though we live in the midst of a perverse world, He leads us and corrects us through the Word, He anoints us with the Spirit of God, He gives us all spiritual blessings, He will never leave us or forsake us, and we will live forever with the Lord.  That is the picture presented in Psalm 23, the picture of those in the church, who are saved, who are born again into the family of God, and are of the body of Christ.  

Psalm 23 shows the relationship between the Shepherd and his sheep when one is saved by repentance and faith in Christ. The natural state of all men is like that of a lost sheep.  Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him (that is upon Christ) the iniquity of us all.”  So those who hear the call of God and  turn to Jesus as their Shepherd, by repentance from their sins and faith in Him as Lord who is able to save them from their sins, God lays their iniquity on Christ, and as they follow Him as their Shepherd, they are made part of His flock.  That means that they become part of His church, His body.  

That method of salvation was true in the Old Testament times and it is true in the New Testament times.  That  principle of the church is important for us to understand.  Jesus was the Great Shepherd of the church of Israel, and He is the Great Shepherd of the New Testament church.  In the Old Testament, the church was limited to being or becoming an Israelite, either by birth or by becoming a proselyte. But in the New Testament church there is no more Jew and Gentile,  but we are all baptized into one faith, as one new race, a new people, the people of God. But God’s people were always His church.

So Jesus illustrates that relationship through a very familiar allegory in those days, that being the picture of a shepherd and his sheep.  Now that was a familiar subject to an agrarian community such as was common to the Jews in Jesus day, but it is not so familiar to us today I suppose. And I won’t pretend to be an expert on sheep either.  But I have read some accounts from those who are.  So I think it’s helpful to our understanding if we explain what these experts have written concerning shepherds and their sheep.

In those days, there was usually a community sheepfold near a village or town which would have been used by several different shepherds.  This would be a large pen or fenced enclosure on the outskirts of the village.  And during the day each individual  shepherd would lead his own flock out to pasture and watch over them and care for them.  But in the evening, all the shepherds would lead their flocks back to the common sheepfold where they would be kept for the night.  The shepherd would turn over responsibility to a doorkeeper, or porter, who would guard the door of the fold all night.  And from what we are told, this door would be a narrow opening in the fence, which only one sheep at a time could pass in and out of.  And so once all the sheep were safely inside the fence, the doorkeeper would lie across the gate, or door so that none could enter or go out. There was no other door. 

In the morning, the shepherds would come back to the sheepfold to gather their sheep again in order to pasture them.  And the way this was done was each shepherd in turn would call his sheep.  In some cases he would call them by name.  Names that he had given them.  And as his sheep recognized his voice they would come to him and he would lead them out to pasture and tend to them all day, leading them to water, leading them to rest, leading them to green pastures.  Now that is a beautiful picture, not unlike that of Psalm 23, but note that  it is only true for those sheep that belong to that particular shepherd.  There are other sheep that belong to other shepherds, and they do not recognize the shepherd’s voice, and so they do not follow him.

Now that is a simple illustration which shows as I said the relationship of the Lord with His church.  And Jesus uses this not only to illustrate that, but to rebuke the Pharisees and expose them as false shepherds.  Look at vs.1, Jesus says that “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. 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. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

So the contrast is very clear.  There are some who enter the sheepfold who are not the true shepherd.  They do not enter through the door but climb over some other way under cover of darkness, to steal and rob the sheep. Now this is a pointed reference to the Jewish religious leaders.  They attempt to rob from the church of God by climbing up some other way.  They do not come through the door, who is Christ.  They seek to defraud the church for their own advantage.  He explains further in vs.10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”  False teachers, false shepherds have the same agenda as Satan.  Jesus said in chapter 8:44 to these false religious leaders, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  

That’s why in this allegory they come under cover of darkness.  Jesus is called in chapter one the Word, and it says the Word was Light.  And the Light shines in darkness.  That is how we know the truth, because the truth is light. So the characteristic of false teachers is that they don’t come with the truth, they don’t teach the word of God, they come with lies, with half truths, with silly stories, with philosophy, with human reason, with entertainment, tickling the ears of their listeners to deceive them, to defraud them of the truth, which leaves them in darkness and ultimately destroys those who are deceived.  It destroys them because it blinds them to the truth, and Jesus said in 8:32 that only the truth can make you free.  Only the truth of God can make your free from the power of death and the  penalty of death.

And that is what the Pharisees, the priests, the scribes and lawyers, the religious teachers of the Jews were; false shepherds, defrauders of the church by their false teachings which leave people in darkness.  Jesus said in vs. 8, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.”  He is speaking of the priesthood and the rabbis and Pharisees that had come to take advantage of the sheep.  They are thieves and robbers.  They are not serving the sheep, but serving themselves.  They do not come through Jesus Christ.

Here is the thing. Though God had appointed the Levitical priesthood to conduct the services in the temple, and to teach the word of God, they had become apostate.  They still intoned the name of God, they still conducted the services and ceremonies and rituals, but they had departed from the truth.  And the other religious leaders in Judaism were apostate as well.  They gave precedence to the traditions of their forefathers.  They observed their ordinances and traditions, but they had long since lost sight of any application to their hearts.  Furthermore, many of their offices were appointed by politics, not by God. Much of the leadership that was controlling and influencing the church of Israel such as the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees had never really been appointed by God.  And so they were in it for the political power that it gave them, and for the financial opportunity it provided as rulers of Israel.  Jesus says they were thieves and robbers. However, God did use men to be His spokesmen.  He appointed prophets such as John the Baptist or Elijah, who would faithfully call His people to repentance. But for the most part the religious leadership of Judaism was apostate.

I believe that has a lot of similarity with the situation in the church today.  I would dare say that a large percentage of pastors and priests in churches today are not really called by God to preach His word, but are nominated by men, by denominational boards, by countless human mechanisms, but they are not sent by God, and as such they are not true shepherds or doorkeepers.  They have climbed in some other way.  They did not come through Jesus Christ.  God didn’t call them or appoint them.  They are man appointed.  But just as in times past, God still speaks through His appointed prophets.  Not fortune tellers, not future tellers.  That’s not what it means to be a prophet of God.  But prophets who are forth tellers.  Men who will faithfully proclaim forth the truth of God’s word without adulteration or hesitation. 

By the way, let me make something clear that has been on my mind lately.  As the church, we need to understand that God has chosen people to be His instruments here on earth. To be His ambassadors, His ministers.  We are not all called to be pastor’s or preachers, but we are all called to be ministers, to be workers in the kingdom.  God has always chosen to use men to perform His works here on earth.  God divided the Red Sea, but He told Moses to strike it with His rod.  God raised the widow’s son, but He used Elijah to do it. God is the author of His word, but He used men to write it down as the scriptures.  Even when it came to providing salvation for the world, God did not act without incorporating man in that salvation.  Jesus not only was God, but He also became a man in order to effect our salvation.  

So I say that to emphasize that if there is a work here on earth that God has determined to do, then He will usually use the people of His church to do it.  That is the purpose of the body of Christ.  To be His hands and His feet.  This idea that all we have to do is say a quick prayer and then go back to our regularly scheduled programming on television – believing that if it’s going to be done then God will have to do it, and that means we do nothing – is bogus.  That isn’t taught in the Bible.  Jesus gave us the example of the good Samaritan so that we might learn that if we say we love God, then we need to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  And that means we don’t pass by a situation and say, “My, my.  I pray that God helps that person.” But just keep on going on by.  No, Jesus said if you love your neighbor as yourself you will get down off your high horse and spend whatever time and resources necessary to help that person.  To be the hands and feet of God.  To display the mercy and love of God.  

James said the same thing in James 2:14, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”  Notice that James refers to fellow believers in the church as brothers and sisters. That sounds old fashioned, I know.  But the reality of our salvation is that we are born into the family of God.  So the church is our new family.  And we are to love one another like we would love our human family.

Now we do those things by the strength which God supplies, but we do them.  This idea that we need to just give everything up to God and leave the lost or hurting or destitute to somehow discover the love of God on their own is a travesty of what God has designed the church to do.  I’m not suggesting the church is to be about a social gospel either, where we just focus on meals and water and material things.  I’m talking primarily about providing for spiritual needs while not neglecting physical needs.  Usually both are needed, and God has designed the church to perform His will here on earth in both of those areas conjointly.  And there is a reward James said in chapter 5, to those that do so. James 5:19 says “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

Oh well, I digress.  But I believe it needs to be made clear that God has not given us a commission to be passive, but to go into a hurting, dying world and share the gospel. And to love one another in the family of God. Well, in spite of His allegory, the Pharisees fail to understand what He is saying.  So Jesus expounds upon it starting in vs.7, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”  Jesus will say later, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except by Me.”  So when Jesus says He is the door, He means He is the only door.  There is no other name given among men by which we may be saved.  John said in 1John 4:3, “every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” These cults that say that Jesus was not God in the flesh are antiChrist.  The new emergent churches that are espousing that all religions lead to God are antiChrist.  

So notice that Jesus is not only the Shepherd, but He is the Door.  By Him only is entrance gained into the church of God.  He lays down His life for the sheep. But He is not speaking of Himself in this allegory as the doorkeeper.  I would suggest that the doorkeepers are the men that Christ has called to be His pastors. The word pastor comes from the idea of a shepherd.  Peter tells the elders to shepherd the flock among you.  So a pastor is an under shepherd.  He is a doorkeeper.  When the Great Shepherd of our souls ascended into heaven, Paul said in Eph. 4:11 that “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”  So the pastors/teachers are to shepherd the flock.  We are the doorkeepers.  We are guardians of the flock while living in this present darkness.  We don’t save people, God saves people. But we guard the flock, we guard His word, we guard the church and we guard the door.  

In vs.9, Jesus again reiterates that He is the door saying “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”  He will be saved.  What does that mean?  That word “saved” has fallen out of favor in many churches today, but to their own detriment.  Because the Bible speaks of those that believe in Christ unto salvation as being saved.  Saved from what, you might ask?  Saved from the penalty of death.  Saved from destruction.  Saved out of darkness into light.  And I will add, saved not only from the penalty of sin, but from the power of sin.  Saved from enslavement to sin.  Jesus quoting from Isaiah 61 when He was in Galilee said that He came to proclaim liberty to the captives and set the prisoners free.  What He was talking about was setting them free from the enslavement to sin and the trap of Satan.  That’s what it means to be saved.  To be set free from sin and death.

And yet salvation doesn’t stop there.  Salvation is only the beginning of following Jesus. It is the first step. It is new birth. Jesus said in vs.9, not only will they be saved, but “they will go in and out and find pasture.”  Why does the shepherd take the sheep in and out to pasture?  Obviously, it is to feed the sheep.  This is the duty of the shepherd to feed the sheep.  And we too need to be fed spiritually through the word of God. This is how we grow and mature.   Hebrews 5:12 tells us, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”  This is the job of the shepherd of the flock, to feed the sheep.  To grow them to maturity, to edify them, build them up, so that they can do the work of service that the church has been commissioned to do.  

Then the in the last verse that we will look at this morning, Jesus presents a final contrast between His ministry and the ministry of the false shepherds.  Vs.10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  Now earlier I already talked about the characteristics of false teachers.  They share the same characteristics with their father the devil as we talked about earlier when I quoted John 8:44: Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”   

That’s the tragedy of false doctrine.  If we condemn false teachers we are told we need to be more loving, more tolerant of other viewpoints.  But the fact is that nothing short of the truth will save you.  Watered down or diluted doctrine cannot set you free.  It will not save.  Half of the gospel is not the full counsel of God.  So that’s why Jesus was so intolerant of false teachers.  That’s why He gives us this allegory, because it’s a rebuke to those false shepherds who continue to keep the people enslaved to their captivity even when faced with a true miracle of God as in the case of the blind man, and then have the audacity to excommunicate this man from the church because they hate the truth so much.  They end up killing and destroying with their lies those that Christ came to save with the truth.

But then Christ contrasts their ministry with His own saying “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  See, here is the hope of the gospel; it is not only what you are saved from something, but you are saved for something.  We are saved from condemnation.  We are saved from the wrath to come.  But Jesus says we are saved for an abundant life.  What that means literally is exceedingly abundant life.  Now that doesn’t mean what the prosperity preachers say it means.  Jesus isn’t promising you a new Ferrari if you follow Him.  But what He is offering is a surplus of life that will not fade away.  He is offering everlasting life that will never die.  He is offering a life that is filled with the source of all life bubbling up within us.  Remember what Jesus had just cried out in the temple a few days earlier?  In chapter 7 vs.38 Jesus cried out in the middle of this ceremony, ““He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.”  That is the promise to us, that we who believe in Him will have the Holy Spirit in us, like a spring of living water springing up in our soul that will never fail.  The promise is that God will lead us and guide us, not only in this life, but in the life to come, and in the ages of eternity forever and ever.  As Psalm 23 said, God will anoint my head with the oil of the Holy Spirit until  my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

I hope that you will hear the voice of the Shepherd today and you recognize His voice as the word of God.  And you will believe in Him, and follow Him with all your heart.  Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” The invitation is extended to you today to enter into new life through faith in Jesus Christ and be saved.  I pray that you will.