John 10:1-18

let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. (Num 27:16)

John 10:1-18 let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. (Num 27:16) At many different points in the Bible we see this need expressed. A group of people will come together and they’ll press one individual- come and be our King. Be our leader. Be our shepherd. There seems to be an instinctive need for the kind of strength, stability, vision, and blessing that comes from having a leader.

John 10:1-18 Context of the Passage Jesus heals a man born blind on the Sabbath

John 10:1-18 Context of the Passage Jesus heals a man born blind on the Sabbath With simple words but powerful testimony he shares what he knows about how Jesus has transformed his life.

John 10:1-18 Context of the Passage Jesus heals a man born blind on the Sabbath With simple words but powerful testimony he shares what he knows about how Jesus has transformed his life. The Pharisees try to find some way to discredit the man’s story

John 10:1-18 Context of the Passage Jesus heals a man born blind on the Sabbath With simple words but powerful testimony he shares what he knows about how Jesus has transformed his life. The Pharisees try to find some way to discredit the man’s story When they fail, they excommunicate the man and cast him out of the synagogue

John 10:1-18 Context of the Passage Jesus heals a man born blind on the Sabbath With simple words but powerful testimony he shares what he knows about how Jesus has transformed his life. The Pharisees try to find some way to discredit the man’s story When they fail, they excommunicate the man and cast him out of the synagogue Jesus finds the man and reveals himself further to him as the Christ

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) In contrast to the thief or robber who climbs the walls to get in, he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) Later, Jesus claims to be not only the Shepherd that belongs to the sheep and have access to them, but as the very means of access itself: Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers [I believe he’s speaking specifically about the Pharisees there], but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) The Pharisees were acting as doorkeepers of the sheepfold when they threw the previously-blind man out of the synagogue.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) The Pharisees were acting as doorkeepers of the sheepfold when they threw the previously-blind man out of the synagogue. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. (Matthew 23:13)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) I am the way and the truth and the life, Jesus said. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) (Formalist and Hypocrisy:) as long as we get into the way, what does it matter how we get in? If we are in, we are in. You came into the way through the narrow gate, as we came tumbling over the wall, and since we are both in, who is to say that your chosen path is better than ours?” (John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) (Formalist and Hypocrisy:) as long as we get into the way, what does it matter how we get in? If we are in, we are in. You came into the way through the narrow gate, as we came tumbling over the wall, and since we are both in, who is to say that your chosen path is better than ours?” (John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress) I urge you to take consider this morning whether you have come truly come into the way through Jesus Christ.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. A sheep instinctively knows the voice of its shepherd as that relationship is forged over many days and years of the sheep being led. And if sheep of different flocks are kept together in one pen, when a shepherd comes, they know him by his voice and when he calls they come.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) And as the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ wants to lead us according to his voice, but you must know him and know his voice.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) And as the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ wants to lead us according to his voice, but you must know him and know his voice. He isn’t the only thing calling you. The world calls as well. In the midst of the barrage of noise this world creates, can you pick out the still small voice of God?

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) And note that our Shepherd does not push us out in front of himself, but asks us to follow. Verse 4 says “he goes before them and the sheep follow him.”

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) And note that our Shepherd does not push us out in front of himself, but asks us to follow. Verse 4 says “he goes before them and the sheep follow him.” In every obstacle, temptation, difficulty, and pain, Jesus Christ has gone before us.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) The Pharisees were thieves who came only to steal, kill and destroy. But the Good Shepherd came to give abundant life.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) Sadly, many people take this abundant life to mean their trinkets and trifles and creature comforts. The abundant life the Shepherd desires for us involve much greater things. Things will never burn, never perish, never spoil, never fade. Things that are eternal and kept forever for us in heaven.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) But although these blessings cannot be bought by us, they were bought, at a staggering price.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) Jesus is a good shepherd in the mold of David: Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears (1 Sam 17:34-36)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) But while losing none of the sheep his Father had given him meant the risk of death for David, losing none of the sheep his Father had given him meant the reality of death for Jesus.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) The things which threatened us- our sins, together with its natural penalty, death- they came upon us to devour us. They crouched at the door desiring to have us. But instead, God gave his Son, the Good Shepherd to bear the full brunt of the attack- dying that we might live.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16) I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16) In the hands of the Pharisees the kingdom of God was small and rapidly shrinking. A Pharisee will shrink his world until he is the only one in it.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16) In the hands of the Pharisees the kingdom of God was small and rapidly shrinking. A Pharisee will shrink his world until he is the only one in it. In contrast to the Pharisees, the Good Shepherd will find sheep from the furthest reaches of the earth.

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16) And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:17-19)

John 10: Belongs to His Sheep (v1-2,9) 2. Leads His Sheep With His Voice- (v3-5, 8) 3. Abundantly Blesses His Sheep - (v1,10) 4. Sacrifices Himself For His Sheep (v11-15) 5. Gathers In His Sheep-(v16) Has Jesus stopped calling sheep into his flock from among the people and nations? Or do you believe that Jesus has more sheep yet to call?