The Living Door │ Msg 7/14

5:11 Therefore they were seeking again to seize him, and he eluded their grasp. And he went away beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and he was staying there. Many came to him and were saying, While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this man was true. Many believed in him there. There are scenes in every country that make that country unique. just the mention of the place, whether it is a town or a state or a continent, brings to our attention the very same scene. Let's try and see if that's true this morning. Hawaii.

6:04 Most of us have a picture in our mind of the great crashing surf, the long string of hotels that stretch alongside that commercial strip of land, and then up in the highlands, the deep purple volcano that rumbles for attention at times, or the afternoon falling of the tropical rain that seems to continue to keep that place beautiful and green. Now, if we suddenly transported ourselves several thousand miles, we could land in Switzerland. There's another scene, totally unlike Hawaii.

6:52 The Alps, standing three miles high at their peak, snow-laden year-round. at the foot of the Alps, the quaint and clean farmlands and villages, fat milk cows standing knee-deep in long grass. A couple of friends of mine just returned from Switzerland, and they both commented, though they didn't travel together and neither one knew of the other's trip, both commented the thing that attracted them were the little bells that hung around the cow's neck. and every time the bell tinkled, they got another nostalgic feeling again of Switzerland.

7:40 And then there's Japan. Get off the ship in Yokosuka, travel to Yokohama or to Tokyo. In the distance is Fuji. Nothing ever in this world will look like a substitute for Fuji. You go north to Atsugi and the highlands or south to Kobe or Kyoto and historic Hiroshima. You see so many gardens that only the Japanese can raise. You see the giant statues that mark the land as a land of idolatry. If you're a lover of the arts, you probably have taken in Italy. if you've been able to do that financially. Who has not stood in amazement before the Areopagus, seen the bony skeletons of time reaching up?

8:41 Seems like miles high. Or if you're a lover of the arts, you would go into Florence or Milan or Venice, the quaint villages along the shoreline of Italy. Each one has its own feel, its own scene. You could say that of Mexico, South America, China, Russia.

9:11 There's no land that doesn't have its own scene, even America, depending upon where you wish to land, sandwiched between the high, beautiful region of the Rockies and the eastern seaboard with its commercial hub or the vast wheat fields of Kansas and Minnesota and the cornfields and then down south into the ranch land. It's a scene all its own. Now, to transport someone not from that country into that country in the mind's eye is very difficult. It would be as difficult, for example, to describe to us those scenes, if we're not able to go, as it would be to describe to an Israeli Fenway Park today for the World Series in Boston.

10:14 Or for him to grasp Michelangelo's David. If he has never been there, he could not see it adequately. Now that's our problem in John chapter 10. the scene in John 10 is the most familiar scene of first century Palestine. Had they minted coins, I'm sure there would have been stamped on one, at least one, the shepherd with his sheep. But most of us have never seen a shepherd. Old, raw bone, leather skinned, weather beaten, dirty, man of the field. But he with his sheep is the most familiar scene known to the Lord Jesus. The reason for it is because of the topographical scenery of Judea.

11:12 It has what historians call an open backbone. The central plateau of Judea is not a land that is open to the farmer's tool, resists his tool, but it's a welcome sight for the shepherd with his sheep. It stretches 35 miles long and about 17 miles wide at its widest point. And it is not unfamiliar for us to see in the historian's mind the scene of the shepherd with his sheep across the Judean hillside. It was as familiar to him as Bart is to the Bay Area people or the freeway is to the Californian in Los Angeles. He didn't get a passing glance from a Roman soldier who was walking with his battalion or from the merchant of Jerusalem.

12:13 But for us, he's an unknown factor. Now the difficulty in coming to an understanding of John 10 is that we've never been there. And even with the imaginary help of the time tunnel, we cannot return adequately to see what Jesus was saying. He begins his sermon, if you want to call it that, I'd rather call it a discourse, with the words, verily, verily, or amen. Amen. Amen. As if to say, give attention to me. There's something I want to say. Then he describes that familiar scene and it confused the listener. What was so great about the scene? It was just another everyday occurrence. the shepherd with his sheep. Then he says, truly, truly, there's an interpretation that the natural man wouldn't grasp. And for the next nine verses, beginning at verse seven, he interprets his remarks in deep spiritual tones. Now, before we do both the instruction and the interpretation, Let's get the scene.

13:37 What was it like to live in century one in Judea? If you were a shepherd, you raised your sheep and you kept your sheep, not to kill them as they do in Britain. You kept your sheep for the purpose of the fleece, and the sheep were shorn regularly. Heavy coats of wool were carried about by the Palestinian sheep, and often a shepherd would be with his sheep for decades, so long that he even called them by name, according to verse 3. He literally had a name for his sheep.

14:21 Now let's back off a minute and get an even better picture. If you lived in the village, you often kept your sheep at night in a communal pen. One large pen, sometimes as large as this room we're sitting in today, was kept by a guardian who was called the doorkeeper. During the night, he would have many different flocks corralled in his pen, and he would hire men to keep his sheep safe through the night, his for the night, that is, while the shepherds got a good night's rest. He was the doorkeeper, and when the shepherd came in the morning to lead his sheep out, he would allow the shepherd entrance, and the shepherd would call his sheep by name. H.V. Morton has written several works on the shepherd and his sheep, and in one of his better volumes, he describes how the shepherd had the ability with his throat to cluck and sometime to have a light, high, whine kind of tone.

15:27 And that sheep would know the sound of his shepherd's throat. There were times even when this writer says he was, during the 18th century, alongside a hillside of Judea, and he saw two shepherds keeping two flocks that got intermingled. and one shepherd called his sheep with that strange weird sound and like pulling threads out of a sweater. Those sheep would come from the hillside and even leap and dance up toward the shepherd who called them with his own sound. Now, in case he didn't get back by nightfall and didn't have a pen to put them in, he looked for a natural spot to keep his sheep, preferably a cave, or an area that was walled on one side by a severe cliff, and then the other two sides by trees and shrubs, and then he would become the door.

16:32 he would lay down overnight and with his sheep dogs he would be a living door for his flock. Now that was so familiar to the Judean, to the Palestinian, that when Jesus began to talk about it in John 10, they wondered, what are you saying to us? Because we know that. And then he talked about what it meant in spiritual words. Quickly, let's look at the passage, shall we? He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way is a thief and a robber. And that's true. The only one that was allowed entrance in a bonafide sense of the word was the shepherd. Whoever else tried to plunder was a thief and a robber. Verse 2, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd. Verse 3, to him, to the shepherd, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice. That is the voice of their shepherd. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

17:55 The fourth verse says, when he puts forth all his own, notice all of them, none of them are left, then he goes before them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They simply will not follow a stranger. That voice they do not know. Now, this figure of speech in the word means allegory. This allegory Jesus used as he spoke to them and they didn't understand the meaning. It doesn't mean they didn't understand the picture. It means they didn't understand why he talked about it. It was an empty story, familiar scene that had an unfamiliar message. And so with great care, Jesus interpreted his own allegory, beginning at verse 7.

18:54 He said to them again, truly, truly, that often is an announcement of a discourse. Truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. So to begin with, the shepherd of verses 1 through 6 is the Lord Jesus. He says, I am the door.

19:15 All who came before me are thieves and robbers. That answers to verse 1. These would be the pseudo-Messiahs. Edersheim tells us in his fine work on the Lord Jesus earthly ministry that there were, in the time of Jesus, several claiming to be Messiah. They are thieves and they are robbers and they come in another way. They do not come in through the door. They are not to be followed. As a matter of fact, the sheep don't hear them. Verse 9, I am the door. If anyone enters through me, notice the access through Jesus, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture.

20:06 The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Not I, says Jesus. I come to save. When you notice in verse 10, he also says, I have come that they might have life and might have it abundantly. The Westerner reads that and he thinks prosperity. He thinks success. Because we connect abundance with things. And you lie to yourself if you deny that. All around us there are sights and scenes of abundance and they are invariably connected with creature comforts, with a fat wallet, a good, well-paying job, a fine bank account, financial security.

21:02 I think it is unfortunate that we have read into Jesus' comment in verse 10 something he never meant to say. How many of the lost are told, if you will come to know Jesus Christ, you will have life abundantly. And they think, ah, there's my answer to a job. There's my answer to relief from pain or heartache or discomfort or failure.

21:29 You know, Jesus never meant that. Jesus meant when a man comes to know me, he has the real things in life which cannot be purchased. Think about them. Money will buy a bed, but not sleep. Money will buy books, but not brains. Ask any student around you and you will find that he will testify to that fact. Money will buy a house, but not home. Money will buy silence and tranquility, but not peace. It will allow you to travel to the most lonely place in the world for quietness, and all you'll have there is loneliness, not peace. Money can buy a crucifix to hang around one's neck, but not a savior. can buy a church building and land for that building but not heaven. You see abundant life includes peace, purpose, destiny, the real purpose of living.

22:44 the joy of facing the grave without fear, and the possibility of handling affliction with a measure of confidence and assurance. You see, Jesus said, the sheep who respond find abundant life. Now, that's why he says in verse 11, I am the shepherd, the good one. I read it like that because in the original John uses a particular construction that is not rare but is always emphatic. The emphatic phrase is the adjective. I am the shepherd, the good one, as opposed to the faithless one. The kind of shepherd I am is one who comforts, cares for, is in love with, knows his sheep. That's why I'm the good shepherd, says Jesus.

23:48 And then he says, I lay down my life for the sheep. I want you to take a moment and notice how often he says it in this passage. Verse 11, he lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 15 concludes, I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 17, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. Verse 18, twice, I lay it down. I lay it down. Now, that's not just a busy observation. Jesus is emphasizing that he is good because he voluntarily lays himself down. Biblical Christianity has sharpened its tools for centuries on the substitutionary work of Christ. In other words, when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, he hung as a substitute for the sinner.

24:57 He hung in our place, on our behalf. You and I deserved death because of sin. He bore. He carried. He withstood. He took our sins and in our place he died. That's called the substitutionary atonement.

25:22 He brought at one met between man and God by his death. But in the declaration of his substitutionary death, I think we have long since overlooked the voluntary aspect of it. That's what makes it beautiful. Jesus was not assassinated. He was not murdered. And in the technical sense of the word, he wasn't killed. he gave himself the very last phrase of the texts in all of the gospels as he is upon the cross is he yielded up his spirit was not snatched from him how wrong to think that he was caught in a web of circumstances from which he could not escape or to have the idea that the plot was against him, and no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer remain free of their grip. It comes to mind when you read the account in the Gospels where Peter takes that knife and slices off the ear of the one coming to make an arrest. I've heard people chuckle over that and think, why, what a bad shot Peter was. But you just haven't stopped to think of the Roman garb. The helmet of the Roman soldier came to a point, literally, and it fit over the head and the ear was a very vulnerable part of the machinery that the Roman soldier wore on his head. And this Peter was going for the scalp. He was going right down the middle and that sword must have glanced off and took off the ear. But the point is, he was defending his Lord. You're not going to take him!

27:08 Jesus said, Peter, one word from my mouth I could command from the Father, legions of angels, 12 legions, 6,000 formed a legion in the Roman army. If I multiply right, that's over 70,000 angels could come to my rescue, and anyone would do, Peter, to stop this mob. They're not taking my life. I'm giving it. Pilate was confused. He said, don't you realize that I have the power of life and death? I can release you or I can crucify you. Intimidating Christ and Christ's response was, you have no power but that which is given you from above. I think Pilate must have sort of shivered at that point. Who's from above?

28:01 You see, the Lord Jesus was not a victim of unfortunate circumstances. He gave his life. He gave his life for you. That's the beauty of the shepherd. The doorkeeper is the Holy Spirit, allowing entrance and exit, providing that beautiful entree to eternal kind of life. There will always be the thieves, the robbers, the pseudos, the hirelings, the Pharisees, who are not the genuine item. They are phonies. They are replicas made of plastic. They're not real. When Jesus came in flesh and blood and gave himself before the Father in perfect obedience and for his sheep on the cross. there were those around who said he really isn't qualified.

29:01 That's why I believe he, in this particular discourse, describes himself as the shepherd of the sheep. You see, they were not sheep. That's exactly the point. He laid down his life for the sheep. I remember hearing an old saintly pastor speak on Psalm 2, which describes the heathen. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine an empty or vain thing? Remember the passage? Why do the heathen rage? He leaned over the pulpit and he said, because they're heathen. Rather simple answer, isn't it? Why do the unbelievers reject? Because they're unbelievers.

29:55 They're not sheep. You see, the man who rejects the claims of Jesus Christ, he doesn't need more information. Most of them have heard more than they can handle already. And you give them more information, it simply drives them deeper into confusion. The problem is not one of information. The problem is one of rejection. and they will simply use, give me more facts, as an excuse to keep from submitting their heart to the claims of Jesus. That's what these men did. But before we look at their reaction, I've got to show you a revelation here, right in the passage, verse 16, where you can be found. Maybe you didn't know that you were in Scripture, but I'm ready to show you this morning. John 10, 16. I have other sheep which are not of this fold.

30:50 To whom was he speaking? He was speaking to Jews. The whole context that stretches back into chapter 9 shows us he had a Jewish audience. There were some of those Jewish-born people who had given their hearts to Christ. They were among the fold. But Jesus said, now, I have other sheep that are not of this fold. He says in verse 16, I must bring them also. They shall hear my voice and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. Ah, there are some Gentiles. There you are in scripture. You that are not of Jewish birth, tell your friend tomorrow that you're in the Bible.

31:45 that'll blow his mind when he hears you say that show him in verse 16 that you are of the other sheep not of the fold not very often do you find yourself in scripture but there you are think of it 19 centuries ago Jesus had you in mind you want to know a mind boggler 19 million centuries before that he had you in mind wow think of it before the worlds were ever framed God wasn't biting his nails wondering what he would do with humanity and with a guy or gal like you when you came on the earth scene he knew what he would do I weary at times of the picture that God sort of catches up with us as though, oh man, I've got to get on the stick or they're going to get out of hand.

32:47 It's not a God like that. Why, Jesus said, I have other sheep who are not of this fold and I must bring them in the flock as well. Does that bring you comfort or does that disturb you? It'll disturb you if you're a goat. frankly Brings me comfort. Thank God. I'm a sheep. Thank God. You see, it bothered them, verse 19. There arose a division.

33:26 Oh, you better believe it. A division among the Jews, verse 19, because of these words. Well, many of them were saying, he has a demon. He is insane. Why do you listen to him? But there was another group. verse 21 these are not the sayings of one who is demonized a demon can't open the eyes of the blind can he that's a good question can he they were thinking back a few hours before and one among the group or two courageous enough to disagree with the majority said wait a minute fellas remember a few hours ago he put clay on this fella's eyes and this blind beggar had never been able to see, and all of a sudden he was leaping and dancing and shouting for joy. A demon wouldn't prompt that, would he? This is one of those places in Scripture where we have just the end of the runway and it drops off. There is no answer. The end of verse 21 is a question mark, and a two-and-a-half-month interval passes before verse 22. Suddenly we are transported to Solomon's porch, and in Solomon's great porch we have another conversation about a shepherd and his sheep. I think John puts them together because they are of the same allegory. In other words, the same style of teaching Jesus uses in the first part, he uses in the second part.

35:08 Except now we come to this place called the Feast of Dedication, which they observed on Solomon's porch. Feast of Dedication, according to the accurate historians, occurred on the 25th of Chislev. That's December 25th. Does that ring a bell? How interesting that the ironic same time that we observe Christmas Day, they met. Solomon's porch. No Christmas tree, no lights, no tinsel. There were great stone columns that had been hewn out by hand, stood 40 feet high, and they were roofed like a vast patio, massive, as if built for giants. And down below this roof and these columns, there walked and sat people who rapped about the issues and answers of the day. Rabbis had their little pockets of people with whom they would be carrying on discussion and even in hostile moments arguments.

36:08 So there was the mumbling of this group and the talk of this one and the listening here. And Jesus was weaving his way along in the winter month, December, this porch, followed by those who still wanted to know his identity. And you think, why would they want to know his identity? He's been telling them all along. That's precisely what he says. Verse 24. Jews gathered around him and were saying to him, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. No more of the stories. No more of the analogies or allegories. Tell us straight. Jesus said, verse 25, I told you. You don't believe me. the works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me. Now, which work do you criticize?

37:02 I've healed the blind. I've taken care of the withered hand. I have worked with those that are penniless and provided help and sustenance. Which one do you choose as an object of offense? They say, no, it isn't the works. It isn't the works. Verse 33, for the good work we do not stone you. Our problem is you're a blasphemer.

37:31 You being a man, make yourself out to be God. Now turn to the page, verse 34. Jesus answered them with a question that has become, well, a problem of conflict to the reader of Scripture. Listen to what he says. Has it not been written in your law, I said you are gods?

37:54 If he then called them, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, the scripture can't be broken. Do you say of him whom the father set apart and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God? If you were to take your time to read Psalm 82, you would find that in that Psalm... God the Father reveals to the psalmist that the judges on earth were the Elohim of the earth. That's a Hebrew word meaning gods. They were considered the great leaders. They were considered those that spoke on behalf of God, the judges in the land. Now Jesus says, you had no argument with the judges being called gods. But I come having been sent from the Father, and I declare I have been sent from him.

38:57 I am his representative. I am in fact God in the flesh. And all you have with me is argument. Now if you don't believe my words, believe at least because of my works. verse 37. That's the argument. If I do not do the works of my father, then don't believe me. Implied if I do, then believe me. And they reacted in good religious fashion. They were seeking to seize him. He eluded their grasp. and then he went to an area where there were some sheep they believed. Now I obviously left out a very important section. I want to save it till the last. Look at John 10 27.

39:56 We've talked about goats quite a bit this morning. We've talked about those who are not among the sheep. I want to talk about the sheep as I close the message. I find in verses 27 through 30, four characteristics of bonafide sheep. Use them as a checkpoint in your life this morning. You sit there and you wonder, am I a sheep? Well, to be precise about it, you should be able to go back in your mind and call attention to a day, though you may not be able to date it, a time in your life when you said, Lord, I accept your plan of salvation personally. Jesus died for me.

40:51 He rose from the dead for me. I claim it personally. Forgive me. Come into my life. I give you my heart. my inner being, I count upon you throughout eternity. Now, as a result of that decision, and notice I did not mention church attendance, did not mention money, did not mention good works. I purposely left it out because they cannot be confused. Being a sheep is not something that you earn. It's a gift that you accept. and he holds out his offer to you today that may wonder, am I really a sheep? Here are the characteristics of a sheep. First of all, sheep are sensitive.

41:46 Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice. That's good, isn't it? You could travel to Japan or Switzerland or Hawaii and dig up a Christian or two somewhere. You can find them anywhere. It's amazing. And before long, as you talk to them, you're going to hear them say, you know, God told me so-and-so. God showed me such-and-such. Isn't that interesting? We have that phrase we use all the time. You're born again, walking with the Lord. You will use that phrase just almost without thinking. I used it yesterday with a group of ministers with whom I was meeting. You know, God showed me such and such. We don't mean that we heard a voice or that we saw something happen, you know, out in the street or in the sky. But we mean inside we have been sensitive to what God is saying.

42:43 That's what he means. Sheep are sensitive. If you are not, you're probably not a sheep. If you're not hearing God's voice describing for you the path of obedience, direction, it's very possible you've never become a member of his flock.

43:10 Because sheep, secondly, are obedient. They follow me. See that? My sheep hear me. They know that voice of mine and as a result they follow me. They're obedient. They do what I say. Jesus described those that were confused as being like sheep without a shepherd. Ever thought of what life would be like without a shepherd? You live like it for a period of time, some of you longer than others. The tragedy is that some that have a shepherd don't live like it.

43:51 And that's another issue entirely. It may very well be that your lack of obedience to the things of God simply reveals you're not in his family. Think about that. He says, thirdly, my sheep are confident. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life. Meaning, from the moment you receive Christ forever, you have eternal life. That gives confidence. Your destiny is set. I had a funeral service for a person I hardly knew recently. Before a group of people I'd never met. But I did know the one I was burying had come to know Christ in his earthly life. So I had the joy of sharing the assurance of the believer.

44:48 That was the whole tone of the message. At the grave site, just a few moments later, I presented that same message of assurance. That when you know how to die, you really know how to live. and that's what this man's life was all about. It was just seconds after I had finished the message before a man who was of some means apparently stumbled over to me alongside all of the dead, gravestones all around. He said, I would give everything I own to have that kind of assurance. Everything. Now friends, sheep have confidence. There's no question when death comes, absent from the body, present with the Lord. And fourth, I notice sheep are secure. No one is able to take them out of my hand. Isn't that beautiful? Not only eternal destiny, but in time, they are not plucked out of my hand. Sheep are unpluckable. Okay, here's a coin. It's a 25 cent piece. Let's let this represent you when you came to know Christ. The Lord says that he put you in his hand.

46:12 from the time you receive Jesus Christ, you're in the Lord's hand. The Son of God holds you. It's omnipotent. You're secure. But this verse goes on to say, no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. That's double security. I don't believe in eternal security. I believe in eternal double security. Look at this handkerchief. there's the father's hand. Okay. If you want to get that coin, you've got to take away the father's hand, which is impossible. And you've got to open the omnipotent hand of Jesus.

46:54 You say, I'm not worth it. Well, that's only two bits. I forget. mostly alloy anyway, but that's what he promises you. You know that truth scares to death the goat?

47:15 He can't fathom it. The most incredible message of salvation is that accompanying word that says you're secure. If you're not sensitive, lacking in obedience, really don't have that confidence that if you die you're eternally destined and you could not say, right now I'm in his hand. You've got homework to take care of. Had a lady write me a note two weeks ago. She said, remember last Sunday you pressed? It gave people the opportunity to respond. I walked in that room, chapel room, two doors behind the organ. I sat down. I came to know Christ. Because you made me aware that that day was the day to make that decision.

48:11 Now, that's her description. I think the Spirit of God did a whole lot of work in her life in which I was just a small part of the chain reaction. But there are some of you that need to make that decision. forget going to church forget your heritage forget your color forget your good works and all that stuff that's garbage as a naked open person on the inside before God have you given him the controls of your life if you have not you're not a sheep you're lost and you need not stay in that condition. That's the whole hope of the gospel. My sheep, hear me and they are secure. I plead with those that aren't sure today to make sure. Make sure. Whoever you're with will wait on you. They may even be so concerned they'll come with you.