Gospel of John, 10:7-18
John 10:7-18 · Mike Doyle · May 18, 2008
Gospel of John (2008), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492611292697

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, I have lesson 18 up here. I'll give you kind of the schedule. Depends on how far I get today. Through 16, right? And then 17. And then Courtney's going to teach on the 31st. I'm not sure whether I'll have all of my stuff done by then, but he'll pick up there and teach that day. I get to go to the sand dunes with the Boy Scouts. Great. OK, we had sort of started in on chapter 10, which is question 11. All right. Did we did we get that far? Yep. And so chapter 10. Somebody read the first six verses. First six. Anybody who can read English can do this. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep that climbs up some other way, he is a thief, 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. This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them, but they did not understand what those things were which he had been saying to them." Okay, the Lord's setting forth now some of the consequences of rejecting him. And he's going to talk about his grace to and for the sheep.

So anybody know how these shepherds did things in those days when they were protecting the sheep? We would call it a corral. It might not have been a corral then. It might have been out of stone or something. And they'd have the sheep inside this enclosure one way in and one way out. so that they could be protected. And there are, you know the difference between a flock and a fold? I think I know these things. There could be several folds inside of this protected area and making up a whole flock. And each fold was controlled by one, each individual shepherd.

With that in mind, the first question I had is, what does entering the door mean? And the Lord Jesus says, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber. So, entering the door takes some qualifications.

The shepherd, who is the Lord Jesus here, has submitted himself to all the conditions established by God who has built the house. Christ answers to all that has been written of the Messiah. So he qualifies to be the place of entrance. And we'll expand on that because he's going to change his tune as he goes forward.

William Kelly said that the woman's seed, the virgin's son, the seed of Abraham, the son of David, the mighty God, the father of the age to come, coming forth out of Bethlehem from old, from everlasting, yet to be cut off after the 69th of Daniel's 70th weeks, the righteous servant, abased beyond all, yet to be exalted above all. What did not meet to point him out and exclude every rival? Yes, the rejected Christ is he, that entered through the door, the shepherd of the sheep is none but he." So not only is he the shepherd, but he's also the door, he's the pathway.

Mike, I was reading Jay Vernon McGee's information on that door, and he says there's no locked gate on those sheepfolds, not sheepfolds, but the shepherd lies down at the door and sleeps at the door. That's right. That's exactly right. And the Lord Jesus is going to take two roles here. He himself is the door or the entryway. And he's also the shepherd that protects. Yeah, because if you're going to get to the sheep, you had to go through him to get to him. And if you were the sheep, you couldn't get out because he was there. Yeah, that's right.

So who's the doorkeeper? If you can answer this one, you get the prize. Who's the doorkeeper? I was reading that it's the Holy Spirit. Some people say that. Yeah, it's interesting. The one who is the keeper of the door really isn't clearly identified. So to be any particular person or principle, but it's really kind of the normal picture of a sheepfold, kind of the way it is.

It may be the Holy Spirit. It may be the Father. It could be Moses. could be John, but the guy that I read that might have been, I don't know, he thinks it's, most of the commentators think it is the Holy Spirit because he's the one that facilitates things, he's the one that ministers to each, or maybe this way, let's say Moses was the keeper of the door, he would be the keeper because the Spirit of God functioned through him, If the father was, it was the spirit of God who enables everything. So you could say it was the spirit acting through any of his agents. I think is the best way to do it.

The keeper of the door. And the reason, why do you have a keeper of the door? To keep out the bad guys. What's that? To keep out the bad guys. No, that's the shepherd's job. Who are the bad guys? Yeah, you have to distinguish between predators and fake shepherds. So what the keeper of the door does is he determines whether you're qualified to be a shepherd or not. That's what he does. Does that make sense? He's not the protector of the sheep. That's the shepherd's job. But who qualifies the shepherd? It's the keeper of the door who does that.

I thought in this, Carthage called the chief shepherd which infers that there are going to be more than one, there are going to be other shepherds and flocks inside the... And in the first six verses he doesn't talk about, well that was my next question, who are the sheep? Only the Republicans, right? Who are the sheep? Believers. Which believers? From when? The church?

He's speaking to Jews. He's speaking to Jews. Those who are in the phone who are Jewish. Yeah, that's right. At this point he's only talking about the remnant of Israel. They are his sheep. They're the ones that hear his voice. Didn't hear my voice. So keep in mind, we're not talking about the church here yet. When we get to verse 16, he relates to the fact that he's got some other sheep that he's got to bring. And when we get down there, we'll find out who they are. But it's important here to realize that this is really a Jewish focus. Shepherd, sheep, and these particular sheep are the Jewish remnant.

So why do the sheep need to be let out and maybe let out from where? They need to be let out of Judaism. They need to be let out of the law system because the shepherd has come with grace and they need to be taken out of, or maybe put it this way, what did the law bring to those who are under it? Condemnation. So he's got to lead them out, the elect of Israel, he's got to lead them out from under condemnation.

So, what is this, if you're, and they're not understanding what he's saying, but really what he's saying to the Jews and the people that are listening to him, Judaism is doomed, fellas. This thing that you've been doing for 2,500 years is over. I've got to, I'm going to lead you out to the outside, outside of this Jewish principle, the Jewish, or the Mosaic system. So, he's not talking here about gathering them back into the land, or the dispersed of Judea, that's got to wait for another day. He's talking about leading the elect of Israel, or maybe the remnant of Israel, out from under the condemnation of the legal system.

So what significance does leading them have? In other words, bless you, the significance can be, maybe put it this way, he goes before them, which means he's the guy out in front. You know, you guys that are One of the cool things that happens when you get to counsel somebody who's going to get married is you have to tell the husband, you have to go before. You've got to be the guy. You've got to step out in front and take the hits. He has the authority. And he's got the authority to do it. And he's got the blessing of God to go ahead. He's got to meet every danger He's got to be their security.

That's what the shepherd does. The second thing is he calls his sheep by name and he leads them. He doesn't follow behind them with the cattle prod. He leads them and he calls them by their particular name. Isn't that interesting? He just doesn't stand there and say, you know, all you guys over here come with me. He calls them by name. particular name. And now trick question. Trick question. Is that true of pastors and churches today? Is this a good analogy for what the way a church ought to function? Yes. What do you think?

I don't understand the question. What's that George? I don't understand the question. You don't understand the question? I don't think so. What do you think? In other words, elders are considered under shepherds. Do they protect the sheep? Yeah. Do they feed them? Yeah. Do they lead them? No they don't. No they don't. What's the under shepherd's job? The word under should give it away. Our job is to point people to the shepherd. He does the leading.

So we're involved in whatever ministry he has. I don't think this fits for the church. I think it's out of place and time here. Because the job, how do I say this? But the way the church is constructed, each individual member has a place in the body of Christ, gifted to edify itself in love. We grow together in the body of Christ to manifest the glory of God.

The sheep don't do that. Maybe put it another way. For believers to look upon themselves as sheep is ridiculous, in my mind, because sheep are the dumbest things there is. A believer is as meek as a lamb, but as wise as a serpent. He knows what's up. He knows what his position is. He knows where he is. He knows who he has, the life that he has in him, and he knows the life that he lives as the body of Christ. That's a much different thing. A believer is not stupid. Ignorant. He is aware. And he lives by faith and facts. Facts.

He wouldn't have faith if he didn't have any of the facts. How would he live if he didn't have facts? He'd live by the way most Christians live today, which is if it feels good, I'm going to do it. If it doesn't, I'm going to avoid it. The heck with the facts. I've made up my mind. Believers are intelligent, informed, and know what's going on. And they follow Christ because they know Him. And they have His life.

That's different than the sheep of Israel. I think this analogy is something that does happen in churches that shouldn't. Not that there aren't under shepherds, because there are. But there's no one guy that you follow. That's why the genius in the plurality of elders, it's wonderful that it's that way. Because then there's no one central figure that kind of you know, one central shepherd. Everybody who's an elder understands that they're an under-shepherd of Christ himself. He's the leader. Which presupposes what? That you hear his voice and he knows you. You see that? It's really important.

Sir, are you saying that the under-shepherds are those behind the flock with the prods? I didn't hear you, I'm sorry. Are you saying the under-shepherds? pointing the way to the Lord and they're back behind the flock with the prods? No, they're in front. They're taking the hits and they're recognizing wolves and heirs and pointing out the danger. They're also doing their job as teachers. But they're following the Lord too. If you get in your mind the idea of an under-shepherd is to be pointing the sheep to Christ.

That's his main job, not him. Look at him. Then he may be up in front of the pack, but he's doing this all the time. He's not saying, follow me to the shepherd. He's not saying that. Which a lot of pastors, that's what they say. Follow me to the promised land. Now, the true under-shepherd is pointing to Christ. He's the one that you focus in on. Not me, under-shepherd. But if they're laying down law, and telling you how to do things... Well, if they're laying down law, their bets are off. Because it isn't functioning in grace like it should be. Yeah, that's right. So, you alright with that?

So what makes the sheep capable of hearing, of knowing his voice? Spend time with him. You know his voice. I know Jack pretty well. He calls. I know who it is. You come, huh? Spend time. I've seen him around your house. He opens up the door and he shakes the crackers. It's time to eat. So you know the voice. You spend your time with him. What gives him the capacity to know the voice? Because? Spend time with him. What's that? Spend time with him. Spend time with him. You could take a room full of human beings that belong to the Jehovah Witness and they're sincere and they've been going to that place for 25 or 30 years.

Do they hear the voice of the Lord? They think they do. They think they do and probably not. Why don't they? What do you gotta have to hear the voice? They have to be in Christ. Yeah, they gotta be in Christ. You gotta have the capacity to hear the voice.

The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. He cannot know them. They're foolishness unto him. You see that? It isn't that he doesn't want to. He's listening on channel 7 and the Lord is broadcasting on 9. He can't hear. He doesn't have the capacity.

So the first thing that's got to happen is what? You've got to have the life of the shepherd in order to hear it. That make sense? So going back to your analogy that this is just a Jewish one and these are not believers, they're sheep. Can they have the capacity? Oh yeah, that's a great point. Do the remnant of Israel, can they hear the shepherd? Yeah, they can. Why? They're chosen, but why can they hear? And when they believe, what happens to them? They get life. They have life. Let's talk about that for a minute. When the Lord Jesus said to the disciples before Pentecost, receive ye the Spirit, what was he saying to them? He was giving them life, wasn't he? Well, gee, were they in the church then? No, they weren't.

So what's the difference between the one we call the good thief? Boy, is that an oxymoron? The good thief? What's the difference between the thief that was saved on the cross and you and me? He's got life, and he has life more abundantly, doesn't he? What's the difference? I love these questions because I'm a realtor. Location is everything.

They're not going to be the bride of Christ. Yeah, they're not in Christ. The unique thing about you and me is that the Spirit of God has baptized us, placed us into Christ as his body. You can't say that about the Jewish remnant, but you can say that they have life. Can't you? Sure. Abraham was accounted righteous because of his faith. He got life. But the key is, was he in Christ? Was he a member of the body of Christ?

The answer, no. That's a big difference. We think, I mean, in contemporary Christianity, most people think that, well, you know, we have life, and at the end game, everybody's going to be kind of put into one herd, and we're all going to go to heaven. Well, you may want that, but to me, that's handicapped. I wouldn't want that. Because what God has said to me in the word, I have so much more than that now. Why would I settle for less than...

Isn't that what it says though in verse 16, there will be one flock? One flock, and when we get there we'll talk about that, because that's one of the questions I asked in the second, the other paper we'll jump on today. Is there a difference? What does one flock mean? Okay?

I'm not putting you off, Marilyn, I'm just I wrote down, precious word of God, the hearing of his voice, it is due to his person, it is the fruit of grace, it is their true Is there true and best safeguard? A stranger will they in no wise follow, but will flee from him, because they know not the voice of a stranger. Their wisdom is to follow Jesus whose they are, whose voice they hear and know. This too, but pleases the Father, it is through faith we are kept, not by discerning shades of skepticism or superstition, though this may be for some a duty."

The point here is this. This is the old example that we use a lot. If you work for the Secret Service and you're in, you know, the guys that are into forgery, and you've got to go to forgery school, what do you study there? all the fakes, and study the real thing. Why? Because when the fake comes along, you can spot it.

Believers are not to be engaged in studying, although some do, all of the things that aren't Christian. Now, is he talking about, boy, I'm going to get this doctrine down, and when I get it down, I'm really going to have my act together? Or is he talking about something else? In other words, to be a follower of Jesus, I've got to have all the I's dotted and all the T's crossed. I have to be a premillennial dispensationalist. I have to know how to exegete the word. Better get a good degree in Greek. Do I need to do all of that?

No. Because these sheep didn't go to Harvard. What's the thing that makes them sheep in terms of having a capacity to understand and follow the shepherd? I don't know what he says. They know his voice. They know him. So believers, if we have one job, that's it. Our job is to grow in the knowledge, epinosis, personal intimate fellowship, and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ so that we can hear his voice. We know. So that we know what's of him, and we know what's not of him. As an example, years ago I was reading, I don't know, someplace, probably one of those Brethren guys, and he made a very interesting point that every human being has a conscience, and believers can have seared consciences.

So how can you trust as a believer your conscience in terms of right conduct? How can you? Oh, gee, that seems right to me. Can you trust your conscience as a believer? No you can't. their religion. So if you take a Muslim against their conscience, it would be different than saying it was against our conscience. Yeah, I mean we can look at a Muslim and say, why, how can you just, you know, murder people like you do? And they think, oh, this is perfect, they're fine with that. We wouldn't.

So what protects a believer? We have the Word of God, and if you have the capacity to read it, that's wonderful. But you have the Word of God, and what's the Word of God designed to do? Make you a theologian? What's it designed to do? Reveal Christ. It's to reveal the shepherd, right? So that you personally know him. Personally know him. So, when you find yourself in a situation where you can't, like when we were talking about in the grace class, when apostles have liberty to do anything, but I won't be subject to anything, nothing will control me other than Christ? How do you know?

I think that the growing believer knows Christ well enough, he knows Him, like you know, there's a lot of things about Jack that you don't have specific rules about, but you know that if you do this, he's not going to be happy about that. It just doesn't fit with him, so you don't do it. With the Lord Jesus Christ, as you walk with Him, It isn't whether a thing is okay to do or not okay to do, it's whether it's pleasing to my Father or pleasing to the Lord or not. It may not even approach the sin issue at all, but I know him well enough to know that that wouldn't please him, so I don't do it. I know him well enough to know that that would please him, so that's what I do. What the Lord Jesus is really talking about here is intimacy with the shepherd and that's true not only of the remnant of Israel but the church. But nobody but the church has the capacity to know Christ on his level because we have his life.

Who are the strangers in this passage? It's all them Presbyterians, right? Who are the strangers? Now, maybe to give you a little background, there were those who claimed to be the Messiah of Israel. There's a guy named Thaddeus, there's a guy named Judas of Galilee, and if you look at As we go through all the Gospels, you'll find that the Pharisees talk about, like Nicodemus said, hey, you know, if this guy's a god, he's going to last. If he's not, he's going to go away, like the rest of those guys did. So it seems like there were a lot of guys showing up who claimed to be the Messiah. And he could do, at least to some degree, some signs of what goes, and that kind of thing.

So the strangers would be anybody who tried to steal the sheep away from the true Messiah. Now, I would also catalog strangers as Pharisees, scribes, them too. You could say unbelievers, but it's interesting, the Pharisees and the scribes, what's the reason they get so angry with the Lord Jesus? Why are they so upset with him all the time?

No, he's not. But he is. He's following the law. He's claiming to be God. People were turning to him. That's right. People were turning to him. See, that really upset him. Because, I mean, if you're a false shepherd, then your focus is on the amount of sheep you had and how much money they had in their pocket. Right?

And so the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Scribes, those were all people trying to be... I mean, here we have in Judaism, we have at least three parties of divisions. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Scribes, and these were all little groups within the hierarchy of Judaism. What? Vying for control of the Jews.

I think that those guys are strangers or false shepherds because they don't have any right to the sheep. What is the word hireling in connotation or whatever? You know Jeff, I'm going to put you off because in the next set of questions we distinguish between the hireling. Whether they were great men or small men, whether they were very orderly men or they were revolutionaries, they didn't have any right to the sheep. That's the issue. There were nothing better than thieves and robbers if they claimed as they did the sheep that were his. He only is the shepherd and only him do the sheep hear his voice.

We don't see much of that, but I think there were a lot of people over the years, especially around 200-100 B.C. where people were coming and claiming to be the Messiah. It wasn't strange for Jesus to claim to be the Messiah. It wasn't as though, gee, this is the first guy that showed up in 2,500 years that said he was the Messiah. He wasn't. He wasn't. But he was the guy that filled all the requirements of being the Messiah. So the Lord calls them strangers or thieves.

So why didn't the Pharisees understand him? Why didn't the Jews that were there not understand him? Let's talk about what were the parables designed to do? Were they designed to instruct people? What were they really designed to do? Reveal the truth, but they were also designed to confuse those who weren't his sheep. because they never understood him.

If you read through the Gospels and he gives you a parable, they stand there and they don't understand what he's talking about. One, because they don't have ears to understand. We can read the parables and we understand and we think, oh, all those people standing in the crowd listening to that, they must have understood him too.

No. You get the Monday morning quarterback. They didn't. One of the answers is they were not his sheep. These words that the Lord Jesus speaks are powerless for men who either rely on their reason or their tradition, for they seek their own honor and they give it and receive it from one another. Couldn't you say that they always assumed they were of God's fold because they were descendants of Abraham? That's exactly right. They didn't need a personal savior or anything that Jesus taught them. That's exactly right. And because they're not men of faith, their focus was in darkness.

Remember last week and the week before we talked about the Lord Jesus, as long as he's on the earth there's light, but when he leaves there's going to be darkness. Well just because he's here and the light's on doesn't mean that, I'll put it this way, how do you get into the light? How do you understand that the light's on? You do it by faith in what the Messiah is saying to you. That's the only way you see.

So these guys, because their focus is on reason, tradition, they have to interchange their mental capacity with one another. So we have all these guys living in darkness who are blind reasoning among themselves to arrive at a conclusion that obviously is false because they are in the darkness. So they prove themselves to be strangers because they don't hear his voice and it's obvious that they don't. And they prefer to follow a stranger. Isn't that interesting? It isn't that, oh, you know, I've sort of got to follow him. No, they decide to follow the stranger.

Superstition is more important to them than the words of the Messiah. A skeptical person will exalt man as he is. But all of these people agree on one thing. that they ignore the shepherd's voice. And so it was then, and so it is now. And you know, as a growing believer, when you listen and pay attention to, I don't know, political speech, the Robert Schulers of the world, are you listening, Bob? You know, if you take any of the high-profile contemporary leaders and just sit and quietly listen to what they're saying, you will reject most of them because they don't speak the shepherd's language. Their focus is on them. Benny Hinn. And there's some that are even more subtle than him. But you can hear that.

If you know and have intimacy with the shepherd, you'll reject all voices that are not his. You'll also receive those that are his, and here's what else you do, and this is kind of cool. You will take from those who do belong to him the jewels that they have to give and reject the rest. In other words, you can pick up a book that may not have 300 pages full of absolute perfect doctrine, take out the things that were really good and throw the rest of it away. Because you can tell the difference between the shepherd's voice and one who's an imposter.

George. Yes they are. Yes they are. There's no question that they are. That's what I mean by that. I mean some of the contemporary Christian stuff is all garbage but some of it you can pick up and you can read through and say, you know, right here, with this issue, it's really good. But then when you get over here, it's like, hello, where was he coming from? And that, as you mature as a believer, you have more liberty to do that. You can find really good things and not crucify the author in the process.

So what's the mistake they've made then? I mean, it's easy to understand how those that do not know the Lord can spew... I mean, that's easy to understand, but I'm talking about brothers and sisters in Christ that have gone off the deep end. What's the mistake there?

I think the number one thing is the contrast between law and grace. You can tell when a guy's getting the handcuffs out, you know, and he pulls out that little invisible rubber hammer and he starts beating you over the head with it, you know Because grace is not, or maybe put it this way, when there's the urgency of law there's kind of a tension there. In grace there's no tension, none. It's gracious, it's glorious, and you can tell the difference. Because your shepherd only speaks grace, these other guys speak law.

That's the number one thing. Whether it's speaking to the old man or the new man, too. I mean, I think that's what you're trying to fix up the old man, and that's going back to identification first. You know, if it's working on the old man, that's another dead giveaway, too. Yeah, we're studying on Thursday Night Colossians in the first couple of chapters.

That's the point that Paul is making, that philosophy and tradition have no place in the mind of a believer. And the caution is, is don't make room for that. Because there are philosophical concepts that sound wonderful, right? And what's wrong with a little tradition? And what's wrong with just a little bit of, well, we've always done it this way. Nothing wrong with that.

Leads to order. Well, like I say, if you're a person of grace, you have the liberty to do virtually anything as long as it doesn't control you. And the other big rule is that it doesn't cause your brother to stumble. We were talking the other night about what's the difference between offending somebody and causing your brother to stumble. If I do something that causes you to stumble, I've sinned. But if I do something that offends you, who sinned, me or you? You did. Why? Because what did I offend? Your old man. Boy, in this politically correct society we live in, offensiveness is the cardinal sin. None of us have any freedom because we just happen to offend everybody in the room. But you as a believer have liberty to, like the Apostle Paul says, I can eat a BLT anytime I want.

But if it causes you, my brother, to stumble, I'm not going to do it. Define stumble again. Stumble is when I cause my brother to sin. But offending is another issue. Because really, can I offend the new man in Christ? Can you do that? I guess I can offend Christ by sinning, which means I would be stumbling. But can I offend the new man's sensibilities? What do you think? Well, can the new man in Christ be offended? Maybe is a better way to put it. Not really. No. Because he was supremely offended by the sins of the world and he took care of them. Anyway, streaking on.

Let's go to lesson 17, which continues on from verse 7. And Jesus said unto them again, Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but a hireling He who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling, and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known of my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold them also I must bring and they will hear my voice and they will be one flock and one shepherd and there will be one flock and one shepherd therefore my father loves me because I lay down my life that I might take it again no one takes it from me but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this command I have received from my father so Now he's saying, look, he's the shepherd, but now he says, I'm the door. Is there something that's changed here?

Well, he says, I'm the door of the sheep. If you look in verse 1, he says, Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. There's a difference here. Here he's talking about, in verse 7, the door of the sheep. I'm most assured I say to you, I am the door of the sheep, all who came before me are thieves. As the door of the sheep, he's the protector.

There's one way in and one way out. So what's he talking about here? If there's one way into what and one way out of what? Like we talked about before, the shepherd positions himself right there to protect them from predators and to keep them from slipping out and getting lost. Is he now assuming two roles? Which he is, but why? What's the difference here? When he says in question two, what does enters by me mean? Enters to where?

Eternal life. Eternal life. Salvation. So he's talking about, he is the door of the sheep. In other words, no one comes to the Father but by me. I'm the door into life. There's no other way but to me. So he's expanding now beyond just the sheepfold in terms of becoming a sheep or eternal life. He's the only way. I'm the truth, the way, and the life. There's no other way other than through me. This is the only door.

You know, is it door number one, door number two, or door number three? It's the Lord Jesus is the only door into the flock. Enter by means, I think means salvation, into salvation. So, as Courtney has said in his classes, have we gone, this salvation now, is it just for Israel?

It's for anybody. It's for anybody. The message here goes from just the sheep to anybody. If anyone, anyone, The verse says, Moshe, I say to you, all who ever came before me are thieves. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and go out and find pasture. Anybody, Jew, Gentile, anybody.

So is it a contradiction from being the shepherd? Isn't that the other sheep that he's talking about? Not yet. But yeah, he's moving up to that. He's beginning to say, look, anyone who desires to have life and be guarded and guided, I'm the way. Now, if you think about it, we like to quote Psalm 23 a lot. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. In the former, the first seven verses, the Lord speaks of himself generally as the shepherd of the sheep, going as their head and they follow him. Now he employs a different figure of himself in direct terms with no less He's no less solemn here. There's no confusion about the former. It's not a question now of a sheepfold. It's now anybody who wants to be one of his sheep. See that? The message is going out to whomever. Obviously Jews.

When the Lord Jesus was at the Mount of Olives right before he left, what did he tell his disciples? in terms of what he wanted him to do. He gave him a command. I want you to do what? Occupy Jalicum. Say that? Is that what he said? Occupy Jalicum? No, he said, look, I want you to go tell him about me.

And here's how I want you to do it. I want you to do it in Jerusalem and Judea and the whole world. So it starts here and expands out. And if you study the book of Acts, that's exactly how it goes. It's Judea, then up to Samaria, then out from Jerusalem to the whole world. And within 30, 40 years, it's out.

So when he says, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. I'm sorry, in 10 he says, a thief does not accept to steal and to kill, to destroy. I come that they may have life and they may have it more abundantly. What's abundant life?

Is that like Ethel in Supreme Lettered? What is it? It's like lacking nothing. What's that? Lacking nothing. I mean, it's abundant. You're not going to be lacking anything. It's the very life of Christ. It's the very life of God himself. And the freedom we have in Christ. What's that? Freedom? The freedom we have in Christ. So the freedom is what makes it abundant? It does if you're doing more than that. Anybody else? He's what makes it abundant. Christ is what makes it abundant. Christ himself makes it abundant because he's God. Grace. Grace. It's a life that functions only by the means of grace. It's unlimited. And it's unmerited.

Don't all human beings have life from God? Not that kind. We've got Adam's life. We've got Adam's life, but that came from God, right? And it lasts forever? Sure does. It's not like my dog, when he dies it goes to wherever. Human beings live forever.

So abundant life means I get to go to heaven rather than go to hell? It's new life. It's new in kind and quality. It's the kind of life that wasn't here before. Maybe put it this way. Even though God breathed into Adam the breath of life, Abundant life is even more than that. And the reason it's more than that is the very life of God himself. You and I have the exact same and very life of the resurrected Christ. And that's new creation life.

Never been that kind of life around before. No human being ever has it other than Christ. So it's different in kind and quality. It's not just eliminating a few things off the old one and adding a few things to it, it's brand new. It's a kinos life, never been that kind of life before. That's the second buzzer, right? Okay, I've got to close. Father, how we thank you for your grace and the life that we have in your dear son, how precious it is. Father, that we might continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of that person who is that life. We pray in his precious name. Amen.