John 10:11-21 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Back in the Gospel of John this morning. John chapter 10.

[0:13] It is my hope that we can get through verse 21 this morning. That's what I'm shooting for. I don't know that we'll make it that far, but we may, we may not, but that's okay either way.

[0:27] Last week we got through verse 10. And beginning of the chapter, of course, I told you all then last week that this was a continuation of the conversation that was going on between Jesus Christ and the Pharisees after the man that had been healed of his blindness that he had had since birth at the beginning of John chapter 9 after he was healed and all these little mini trials went on and everything.

[0:59] And the Pharisees got upset because the man did what was right and refused to do what was wrong. They got upset with this man and cast him out.

[1:10] And so Jesus comes to the man and then the Bible says that there were some that were with the man, which is what we're reading about now. It's still the same account, these Pharisees and Jesus Christ, I would say going back and forth, Jesus Christ has got the floor right now.

[1:30] And he's talked with them last week. We read about how he's the door, he's the door of the sheep, he's the door into the fold. But this week we get into, in my opinion, some even better stuff, how Christ is the good shepherd.

[1:45] And that's what verses 10 through 21 are entailing here. And I appreciate that Christ is the door and I'm not trying to discount that at all.

[1:57] But me personally, and you might see it differently and that's fine. Me personally, I think there's a whole lot more in this section as far as he being the good shepherd goes.

[2:09] I said, I appreciate that he is the door, he's the door into the fold and such. But this whole section we're going to hopefully get through this morning has to do with he being the shepherd.

[2:21] So I said last week we ended with verse 10, we'll read verse 10 again in John chapter 10. It says, the thief cometh not before to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

[2:36] So and we read in verse one last week when Jesus said, verily, verily I say unto you that he that in earth not by the door into the sheepfold, but clumps up some other way the same as a thief and a robber.

[2:51] And I explained last week how this fold that we're talking about here is the fold of Judaism or religion, legalism, if you would, if you want to fast forward into our own times, you could apply it in that sense, legalism, denomination even.

[3:12] It's a fold that it's something that the church was never intended to become. And we could go on about that, but I'm not going to this morning. But there was a lot of legalism and the thing was the Pharisees, these people who were charged with being the shepherds of Israel, they were charged with taking care of this flock, the people that were in this fold, they were abusing these people and they were putting them under more bondage actually with all their legalism and all their rules and their stipulations that they had added unto God's law from the Old Testament.

[3:54] So Jesus again in verse 10 saying that the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and destroy and in verse one we learned that the thieves are ones that come in some other way other than the way that they're supposed to and all this is directed at the Pharisees.

[4:12] So keep all that in mind as we go into this section of the Good Shepherd. Verse 11 in John chapter 10, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep and just on the side note we'll cover it a little bit later on this morning but when he says the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, this is one of five times in these verses here that we're hopefully going to get all through this morning. This is one of five times that Jesus refers to him giving his life or him laying down his life in some way shape, form or fashion. So five times in these verses does he do that?

[4:52] Five times actually in four verses does he make that statement? But here he says I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd. Once again these Pharisees were supposed to be shepherding the Jews. They were supposed to be shepherding the children of Jacob, the sons of Israel, the sons and the daughters of Israel, the entire Jewish race and Jewish people were they supposed to be shepherding but they weren't but Christ here says I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, giveth his life for the sheep and this of course would be a reference to a physical shepherd.

[5:32] We went over some of that last week how physical shepherds took care of the flocks that they were tending to and of course we talked a little bit about the porter, the porter is whom they were turned into at nightfall so that you know when they went into the fold and the porter would keep the way into the fold and out of the fold he would keep it safe for those sheep but the shepherds went on home and they slumbered, they rested up for the next day to take them out, taking them out into pastor and leading them to the still waters as we read in Psalm 23 and all these things that wasn't the porter's job that was the shepherd's job to take the sheep out and do that all the porter did was keep watch over the sheep at night and a good picture of that and I may or may not have covered it last week is what the Holy Spirit what he is doing now that Jesus Christ is not physically present with us, yes spiritually he is in the Holy Spirit Jesus

[6:35] Christ is with us but physically Jesus Christ is not on this earth anymore as he was here when he was speaking these words these Pharisees so in his absence in the absence of the shepherds when the porter's job came into play came into play and it is in the absence of Christ his physical absence on this earth the Holy Spirit whom I said last week was the porter was a picture of the porter is taking taking care of us he's keeping watch over us he's guiding us he's not letting us out out of the fold so to speak and he's not letting the the bad things in either the cross is on the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep he is infinitely better infinitely better than any shepherd that has ever come before him and I said last week we read in verse 8 all that ever came before me are thieves and robbers and this all does not include the true prophets of the Old Testament it doesn't include Isaiah or Jeremiah or any of the other prophets or preachers that we that we read about in the Old Testament that would not include them because those those were true men of God doing the will of God God gave them messages and they faithfully preached those messages so they were not thieves and robbers again he is directing this at the

[7:56] Pharisees that he is that he is addressing here in this discourse so I'm the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep this is also a reference to the deity of Christ if you really think about it because don't you think for a second these Jews wouldn't have understood song 23 that begins the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want they would have understood that and that's not the only time in the scripture that God himself is referred to as a shepherd in fact Ezekiel chapter 34 is gives a gives a main raking discourse to the shepherds of Israel at that time God Almighty telling them he says you haven't taken care of my flock you haven't taken care of my sheep you haven't binded up their wounds you haven't helped to heal the sick you haven't you haven't you've let them starve while you're getting fat is what God says in Ezekiel chapter 34 and God in a nutshell says you haven't taken care of my flock so I will shepherd them I will come and I will be the one to take care of them being you're not taking this upon yourself as

[9:07] I've charged you to do and that's kind of what Jesus Christ is getting at with these Pharisees here but he is he is infinitely and wonderfully and forever better a forever better shepherd than any other shepherd that ever came David was a shepherd of the people of Israel once again all the prophets that we read about that wrote the books in the Old Testament they were somewhat shepherds of Israel but they faithfully preached the word that God gave them to but Jesus making a claim to his deity and saying this because they would have recognized that the Lord is the shepherd of the people of Israel verse 12 but he that is in hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep are not see at the wolf coming and leave it the sheep and flee and the wolf catch at them and scattereth the sheep so again he that is in hireling and not the shepherd whose own the sheep or not that's the key of this whole thing whose own the sheep or not the hireling has no personal interest in the sheep he's getting paid to watch over the sheet and we're not necessarily talking about a porter here that's not what Christ is getting at and this nor is Christ saying that a preacher or a pastor should not take pay and I've heard this verse used in that in that sense the hireling that Jesus Christ is referring to here is the one that if it weren't for the hire if it weren't for the pay that was involved he wouldn't be doing the job he wouldn't be watching over the sheet he has no personal interest whatsoever in the sheep and it tells us why here he says who's owned the sheep or not but it says when he sees the wolf coming who is the wolf I do not believe that we're talking about Satan in this I believe that we're talking about evil influence I believe that we're talking about people that may be led by Satan but nowhere in scripture nowhere in scripture do you find Satan described as a wolf but I'll tell you who you do find described as wolves is men over and over and over you find men described as wolves but never once in the scripture do we find Satan described as that we see him described as a line going back and forth to and for those seeking whom he may devour but we do not ever find Satan described as a wolf but we find men over and over Paul in the book of Acts told the elders at Ephesus he said I know when I leave here there's going to be wolves that come in here there's going to be revenus wolves come in and and Jesus refers to false teachers as wolves all throughout the scripture if you find something or someone being described as wolves it is men that is described as that so when he says see at the wolf coming and leave with the sheep he could be talking about men yes but even more so

[12:17] I believe he's talking about a severe trial severe persecution maybe a severe temptation if you will something along those lines but I don't believe he's talking about Satan in particular when he says this but either way it says he see at the wolf coming and leave with the sheep and flee us well folks the false teachers of this day these Pharisees even if we were talking about Satan here and I don't believe that we are Satan just in general they didn't flee from that the Pharisees didn't flee from that in fact they told Jesus himself and we see it again in this section that we're in here they told Jesus himself you have a devil you're of the devil this man has a demon they said these things but they weren't fleeing they weren't fleeing because of that so again I don't think that we're talking about Satan himself here see at the wolf coming and leave the sheep and flee and then the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep and that's all that the wolf can do he catches and he scatters but nowhere in the scripture does it say he devours the sheep folks I praise God that we the sheep of God we cannot be devoured we can be caught we can be scattered we can we can be roughed up we can we can have all kinds of things done to us we might leave with bruises we might leave with broken limbs we might leave with with blood running out of us or whatever the case is and of course I'm speaking metaphorically here but we cannot be devoured if we are a true sheep of God he says the wolf comes and this pyraling flees he flees he flees the sheep because he's concerned for his own life no personal interest whatsoever in the sheep and this this goes to show how unfortunately some preachers in our time even act they'll hang around a church for years they'll draw the pay they'll quote unquote feed the sheep but at the first sign of trouble boom they're out the door they're out the door and they're trying to find somewhere else once again this this wolf coming this could be not only people not only men but it could be situations circumstances that arise and all of it bulls back to the devil yes all of it bulls back to satan but it's not I don't believe talking about satan himself but the catch they scatter but nowhere nowhere in this in this verse does it say that that they're devour says the hiring fleet verse 13 the hiring flea because he is in hireling and carith not for the sheep this is a very important statement that jesus makes here the hiring fleet because he is in hireling this is the reason that he flees folks it's the same it's the same principle the drunkard drinks because he's a drunkard the liar lies because he's a liar he didn't have to drink or he was a drunkard before he took the drink he was a liar before he told the lie people do what they do because of who they are and folks it is that that way even nowadays two thousand years after this scripture was written it is even that way now people are sinners because that's who they are y'all have heard me say it several times over we we sin not because that's what we do but we sin because we're sinners we sin because that's who we are that's what we're born into that's what we're shaping in that's why we see in but on the flip side of this coin the hiring fleas because he is a hireling because he has no care for the sheep on the flip side of that coin christians act in a christian manner because they are christians we act in a christian manner because we are christians that's not to say that non-christian people can't do good things because well we see that all the time i've done good things before i was saved that that didn't make me saved that didn't make me a child of god and certainly didn't make me a sheep in the fold or the flock of god but we do what we do because of who we are this hire and and jesus here says the hiring fleas because he is in hireling and carith not for the sheep if he truly cared for the sheep he would have hung around he would have hung around he would have defended the sheep he would have run the wolf off he would have run the bear off much like david talks about in the old testament you know he saved the sheep from from the bear and from the lion and that's what a true shepherd does one that has an interest in the sheep but in hireling will flee simply because that's what he is and he cared not for the sheep verse 14 i am the good shepherd i know my sheep and i'm known of mine verse 15 as the as the father knoweth me even so know know i the father and i lay down my life for the sheep now this is important and i put these two two verses together for a reason i'm the good shepherd not and know my sheep and i'm known of mine as the father knoweth me even now know i the father and again he makes the statement and i lay down my life for the sheep so as the father knows christ in verse 15 as the father knows christ and christ knows the father we as the sheep know the shepherd and the shepherd knows us now do we know christ as intimately as the father does absolutely not i'd like to say that i do i'd like to think that i do the folks i know better i know better but it is with the same love and it is with the same compassion that that the shepherd knows me that that the father knows the shepherd or the father knows christ and that gives me wonderful comfort that gives me great comfort to know that i am loved of god the father with the same love and with the same compassion that he loves god the son with and my goodness how comforting is that to a child of god and that i know the shepherd i know my shepherd jesus christ even as christ knows the father even as he knows the father and the father knows him i know christ and christ knows me and that that gives me wonderful comfort to know that to know that that i'm known of the shepherd and because i'm known of the shepherd i'm known of the father if it weren't for the shepherd the father wouldn't know me i mean we went through on wednesday night a little while back to sermon on the mount and jesus christ talking about specifically false teachers there but he says there's going to be people who come to me and say did we not cast out demons in your name did we not work many miracles in your name did we not do this and do that in your name and jesus will say depart from me you that work iniquity i never knew you not i knew you at one time but i don't now not i knew you 20 years ago but somehow you got off the path he said i never knew you but folks because i know jesus christ the shepherd because i know him the father knows me as well because the father knows christ and i know christ therefore the father knows me and he knows my name he knows who i am he knows where i'm at he knows all these things now again verses four uh uh four or fifteen verse 15 as the father knoweth me even so know i the father and i lay down my life for the sheep this word for is used many times in the scripture many times in the new testament it's a greek word called hooper and it's it's it's used to say in the stead of and that's exactly what jesus christ is saying here he says as the father knows me even so now even so know i the father and i lay down my life for the sheep he lays his life down on behalf of the sheep in in the stead of the sheep in the place of the sheep this is this is what makes jesus christ the propitiation for our sin he laid down his life in place of our own lives and one of the greatest places and i've marked it here i'll turn to it and read it real quick is in roman chapter five verses six through eight that you see this word hooper used in roman five certain to verse six he says for when we were yet without strength and do time cross died for the ungodly that word for the ungodly that's hooper in the stead of the ungodly he died in our place verse seven for scarcely for a rochis man and in the stead of a rochis man will one die yet peraventure for a good man in the stead of a good man some would even dare to die then verse eight but god commenced his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners cross died for cross died in the stead of us that's one of the greatest examples in the new testament of the use of that of that word pertaining to what we're reading here in john ten but all those were in the stead of or in the place of and that's what that that word hooper for four stands for y'all have heard me say over and over a lot of times you can exchange the word for with the word becaus but you can't do that here that's not what it means here it means in the place of place of this particular greek word but verse 16 and other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd and we read this last week i told you all this let me know that the fold that we're talking about here is the fold of judaism or the fold of religion and legality legalism they says and they say another sheep have i which are not of this fold but he has those sheep and notice he says other sheep have i that's present tense i currently have sheep that are not of this fold not of this legalistic fold of judaism that these other sheep are coming out of they're coming through me the door of the fold they're coming out of judaism and they're coming into something else more wonderful something else that is everlasting something better than what you Pharisees have given them another sheep i i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd now something i want to point out here he says another sheep i have which are not of this fold that word fold is the actual word for fold and greek it's a it's the word allay and that is the word for fold however when we get to the end of this verse and there shall be one fold and one shepherd that is not the word that is translated as fold anywhere else in the new testament that's the word that's translated as flock that's a Greek word called poimney poimney and that's all it means is flock so y'all have heard me say before i love my king jane's version i will stick with my king jane's version no one's going to pull me away from it i had no problem with people using other versions of the bible i won't look down my nose one bit at them but this word here at the end and there shall be one fold brilliant truly that should have been translated as flock because that's exactly what it's talking about it's talking about a flock if we're talking about a fold at the beginning and other sheep i have which are not of this fold them also i must bring and they shall hear my voice and there should be one fold or one flock and one shepherd folks a shepherd can have one flock and divided up into all kinds of folds i mean you read about people over in the old testament having thousands of sheep i don't think that they squeezed all them into one fold that would have taken a great big fold they would have had a couple of folds a few folds that they would have had to have put those sheep into at night or had to have wrangled those sheep into for their protection at sundown whatever the case is but you could have several folds but still only have one flock even though those those sheep all belong to one shepherd they were all in separate folds they were still of the same flock here christ says and there shall be one fold or really one flock and one shepherd speaking of when he says i have other sheep that are not of this fold speaking of the jews in other words i've got other sheep and they're Gentiles and that's us that's me and that's you that's us we are the ones of another fold we were in another fold outside of Judaism but yet we were there and yet we were his even as he spoke this it was present tense that he spoke this thank you so there shall be one fold in other words the flock the the flock that comes out of the fold of Judaism the flock that comes out of the fold of the Gentiles we will make one flock and we will have one shepherd one shepherd praise God for that verse 17 therefore doth my father love me because i lay down my life that i might take it again now this is another time that Jesus Christ is bringing up the fact that he he lays down his life therefore doth my father love me now does that does that intimidate that that God didn't God the Father didn't love God the Son before he laid down before he laid down his life for the sheep absolutely not but it says therefore says therefore doth my father love me well therefore puts us back to what we just read therefore if it puts us back to what we just read we just read that there shall be one fold and one shepherd he says therefore doth my father love me because i lay down my life that i that i might take it again Jesus laid down his life for the sheep and this was really the ultimate showing the ultimate display of his obedience to the Father he was obedient under under death even the death of the cross according to what Paul wrote in

[27:36] Philippians obedient even under the death of the cross obedient to whom he was Christ who did he have to be obedient to the Father he was obedient to the Father and to the Father's will therefore doth my father love me because i lay down my life that i might take it again no man taken it from me but i lay it down on myself i have power to lay it down and i have power to take it again this commandment have i received of my father that folks this is one of the most important versions that we'll read this morning he says i have power to lay it down Jesus Christ had power to lay it down no man took the life of Jesus Christ he had power to lay it down and he had power to raise it back up and he has power currently to sit forever at the right hand of God the Father and make mediation and intercession for you and i this blows out of the water the people that preach and teach that Jesus Christ was crucified because he was weak and i've heard that said my Jesus was never weak and he was never powerless from the time that that he was on this earth from before he was on this earth but as far as the incarnation goes from the time he was born to the time that he died he had all power he was still the son of god then he is still the son of god now from the time that he was betrayed by Judas he could have put an end to that from the time he was arrested in the garden he could have put an end to that before it ever happened to the time that he was put on trial and he was spit and he was scoffed at and he was mocked and he was ridiculed he still had all the power that it took to climb up to Golgotha's hill and to be crucified and even as he was dying there on that cross he still had all power he could have called legions of angels to come down and rescue him he could have done any number of things to do this he still had power to save a thief that was hanging on another cross there next to him he had power to make sure his widowed mother was going to be taken care of Jesus Christ had all power then and he has all power now don't ever let someone tell you that Christ was crucified because he was weak folks he was crucified and despite his power in spite of his power one of the most beautiful pictures you'll ever find in the in the Old Testament of this is in Genesis chapter 22 and verse 13 we all know the account

[30:05] Abraham took Isaac up on up onto the mount and he was going to sacrifice him and the angel told him don't don't touch him and what was there it was a ram called in a thicket by his horns folks a horn was a sign of strength he was calling the thicket despite his strength Jesus crossed hung there and died for you in spite of his strength he had all strength to do anything about the heck you Lord he could have put an end to it all but he chose not to have power to lay down his life and he had power to take up his life again and that's exactly what he did and he's got all power to take up my life again one of these days when I'm dead and gone and I'm buried six feet under it could be a hundred years from now but he has got power to raise me up again and that is a promise that I have straight from the scriptures that that will happen hallelujah he's not a weak Jesus he is not a weak Jesus there was a division there was a division therefore among the Jews for these sayings and many of them said he hath a devil and is mad why hear ye him others said these are not the words of him that hath a devil can a devil open the eyes of the blind so in these three verses here there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings folks these Jews just couldn't decide what was right and what wasn't even though the truth was personified right there in front of them we know from John 14 Jesus Christ the way the truth and the life he had spoke nothing but truth to them and we saw him begin this in John chapter 9 and here we are halfway through John chapter 10 and he's still speaking truth to them and it says there was a division among the Jews folks Jesus Jesus said I came not to bring peace but a sword what does the sword do it divides a sword divides and that's exactly what it was doing with these

[32:04] Jews some were kind of sort of believing on them some of them were completely rejecting him and some some of them were saying I believe this is the Messiah and I believe Nicodemus personally was part of that sect that was saying I believe this is truly Messiah either way though there was a division among them and many of them said he hath a devil and is mad why hear ye him what horrible words they're accusing the savior of the world the promised Messiah from the Old Testament of being insane they said why hear ye him again verse 21 others said these are not the words of him that hath the devil can a devil open the eyes of the blind this is the same thing that the blind man was saying back in John chapter 9 he said because these people said we know that this man is a sinner and the man said whether he be a sinner or no I don't know all I know is I was once blind and now I see but he went on to tell them he said we know that God cannot and does not hear sinners that blind man went on to say that and that's what these people here are saying others said these are not the words of him that hath him to hath a devil can a devil open the eyes of the blind and the very simple answer to that is no this blind and this ends the discourse verse 21 does that began way over in John chapter 9 this ends the conversation that Jesus Christ was having with these Pharisees and that's the context that we need to keep all this in these Pharisees that had kicked the man out of the synagogue had cast him out from his own people because as I said at the very beginning of this because he refused to do that which was wrong and because he done that which was right which was confirmed Jesus Christ as being from God and that brings us to the end of that we may pick back up on that next week I don't know but anyway anybody got any questions or any comments on any of that