Services | Jesus: I Am the Door and the Good Shepherd

Bulletin

FBCWest
March 22, 2020

“God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth.”

“His Name Is Wonderful”
Praise and Worship
SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 134
“Song of Hope”
“Raise A Hallelujah”
“Light the Way”
“With Everything”

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
SPECIAL MUSIC – By Pru Hungate

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“The Life and Ministry of Jesus The Messiah”
“Jesus: I Am the Door and the Good Shepherd”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“I Will Follow“

Acknowledgements and Announcements
Benediction “Won’t Stop Now”

Sermon Notes
John 10:1 – 10 He is the door for the sheep
John 10:11 – 18 He is the Good Shepherd
John 10:19 – 21 A division of the Jews concerning Him

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

We've been going through a series of the earthly life and Ministry of Jesus.

As doing that, um, frequently, like any other sermon topic at times.

You have to take the context of what's going on as well as the passage. The context in this situation was that Jesus on a Sabbath healed the Blind man. He spit into. Some dirt may play, applied it to the man's eyes, and told him to wash. That created a furor among the religious establishment the Pharisees, and they conducted an investigation.

They didn't like the answers that they were getting, and so they came and talked to Jesus. Jesus was, in essence saying to them that, um, because they didn't understand who he was, that they were blind. They continue to argue with him that he was that Jesus was the center and that they weren't and that they were blind. An Jesus tells them because they confessed it there, they can see that sins are still.

Help to their account in a part of that conversation in John Chapter 10, we see that Jesus is still talking to the same people. He's told them that their blind now he's going to tell them that they're not hearing from God. Though in John Chapter 10 verse one, it says this truly, truly an hour pause there, and I frequently say, when Jesus says, truly, truly, I jokingly say it's on the test. what I mean. It's important anytime that Jesus speaks.

It's the truth, but when he says, truly, truly, then you want to make sure that you take particular note of what he says to follow who is truly, truly. I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way. He is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is a Shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and leaves them out.

And when he puts forth all of 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. Now Jesus is using an analogy, an one that they should be fairly familiar with. While not everybody president, certainly not the Pharisees were Shepherd, they were certainly familiar with was shepherding, because sheep and lambs were essential to worship in the Jewish form of expression of worship.

And So what Jesus is saying is that there is a sheepfold, and we're not sure what that is, because we don't tend to sheep, but as sheepfold is. A is a pain if you will. A paddock in this particular area of the country.

Made of stones and then there was an opening which was called the door and the sheep would be placed in this pen paddock fold so that they would be protected and it was high enough to keep out. Wolves and Lions and others that might attack the sheep. It would be a safe place for them an sometimes the sheep holds would be privately held in and sometimes they would be.

A large enough for a number of shepherds to place their sheep or in lambs into this bold or protection and Jesus is saying the Shepherd goes through the doorway, but those who are thieves and those who seek to to do harm to the sheep because they can't get in through the doorway go up over the walls to steal the sheep or to do whatever.

So Jesus is saying that when a.

A sheepfold that is there for a number of different shepherds, and different flocks, that the Shepherd would place him in for safekeeping. The doorkeeper would be there to act as a a doorkeeper, and that when it was time for the cheap to leave, the Shepherd would call out to his sheep, and his sheep would hear his voice, and know that they were to follow him, and the Shepherd is so familiar with his sheep.

Then he calls them by name so it isn't a matter of, oh, I hope I get all the sheep that that I own. He's intimately acquainted with them and that he calls them by name, and his sheep are intimately aware of their Shepherd because they understand his voice and they follow him because he speaks and they don't follow another because it's not them and they won't follow.

They're not understanding what Jesus is saying he goes. They don't understand this figure of speech this analogy.

I think it's somewhat obvious is he's already told them that their blind now, he saying that they don't recognize the voice of the Shepherd, and so Jesus is going to be a little more specific.

But I want you to notice something that he says that his sheep.

Here's his voice.

The voice of God.

Often times you'll hear of people wanted to do Bible Studies an questioning. Well. How do I know it's the voice of God?

Is it not, maybe pepperoni pizza? How is it that I know when God speaks to me that it's the voice of God now, generally speaking, at least in my personal experience, I've never heard gods voice audibly, but there have been times that I have felt that his spirit spoke to my spirit in an understanding way.

Well, how is it that it was not pepperoni pizza?

Because I could check it with the word of God.

And if the word of God was consistent with what that voice was telling me that I could be assured.

That it was in pepperoni pizza or my desire because it was consistent with his voice because he spoke in it before.

But to be honest.

10s of thousands of people came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah.

And didn't have the word of God.

They had the testimony of those who saw Jesus raised from the dead.

They did have the testimony of what the Old Testament spoke of Jesus, and they could use that word of God with what this preachers were speaking and compare it to make sure that it was the voice of God. And so unfortunately so many of people who who go to church and whatever aren't sure about the voice of God because we're not consistently in his word, consistently following him and notice it says that they follow.

His voice.

His voice.

So when Jesus says things like.

If you believe in me.

That you will have eternal life.

That's his voice.

I recognize his voice because God has placed his spirit into Maine, so that I might recognize his voice because I am his sheep. Now, unfortunately, the use of the terminology being Jesus as sheep is not all that flattering because sheep aren't that bright and sheep don't have any natural protection. They rely on the Shepherd.

They need to know who to follow and who will have their best interests so they won't follow a stranger because they don't recognize their voice and not recognizing voice means. I can't necessarily trust you. You may be a thief. You maybe one who simply wants add to his sheepfold, and I can't trust you. But Jesus, hearing his voice I can trust him and I can follow him.

So Jesus becomes a little more explicit since they don't catch on. So Jesus said to them again, truly, truly. So, again, Jesus is narrowing in focusing on what he's teaching.

Truly, truly, I say to you now I want you to catch this. I am the door of the sheep.

He didn't say I was the doorkeeper, he says, I'm the door, and the one who gains access into the sheepfold, and one who the sheep gains taxes out of the sheep full. It is me who is.

The door I am the entry in the exit for my sheep.

It's not that I'm the doorkeeper on the way, and as Jesus says, he is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father except through him, and Jesus is consistently stating that that he is the only way. Now in our culture think that's Meryl minded an somehow that we are intolerant.

But I hear his voice saying that, and I say a bin. That's his voice. I can believe it. I can follow it.

He will say other things that I have more difficulty with to love my neighbor as myself, to love my enemy. To do those types of things that just doesn't seem to be in my best interest. And yet it's his voice and I know it's his voice.

So it goes all who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

So isn't there are others who claim to be the Christ. There are others who claim to be that way to Heaven and Jesus says they were thieves. They were robbers and the sheep didn't listen to them.

I am the door. He reaffirmed that if anyone enters through Maine, he will be saved.

Pretty declarative.

It's not you. Hope you're going to be saved, but if you enter through the doorway of Jesus, you will be saved and you will go in and out in find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I am that they may have life and have it abundantly now again. People take a look at that and they say Oh did they may have life and they think that it's a series of positive.

Events and circumstances. Life isn't a series of events.

In circumstances.

It's a difference.

Between being alive and being dead.

Ravine.

A rock.

Or being a sheep.

He came to give us life.

And to give it abundantly and all too often.

Christians.

While we may have difficulties in hard circumstances and may even be persecuted.

He came to give us life and to give it abundantly, we don't look at circumstances. We see the net result and then that result is that we have eternal life.

One that isn't life, death, life, but life goes on forever.

So Jesus and said.

In this statement, he gave them an analogy that in quite understand it. So we made it very clear.

He's the door the sheep. Here the sheep follow because they get access to and from.

The protection of the fold.

Now Jesus is going to move on to a different type of a statement. I don't want to say analogy because he's not saying I'm like this. He is the door. He is. The way he's not like the way he is, the way. And then he's going to say I am the Good Shepherd. He doesn't say I'm like a Good Shepherd because I am the Good Shepherd. And then he's going to explain why he's a Good Shepherd. the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

He's making a statement that's going to come to pass that he's laying down his life for the sheep so that they might have life and they might have it abundantly, and they might be able to follow him because he's not.

As he says, he who is a hired hand and not a Shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the Wolf coming and leaves a sheep and fleas and the Wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and he is not concerned about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

And then he's going to say something really significant, even as a father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.

He goes just as a father. I know each other. I know my sheep.

And I've come to give my life for them.

A hired hand doesn't care about the sheep and will leave at the.

Earliest opportunity of difficulty. They don't want to put their lives on the line or somebody's elses.

But Jesus acknowledges there his. He knows them by name.

He's concerned about them.

To the point that he lays down his life.

Were you in Maine is sheep?

Then he says I have other sheep.

This fold I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they will become one flock with one Shepherd.

Now I believe what Jesus is saying here is that he originally came to the Jew because as the scripture says, it sued the Jew 1st and then to the Gentile, or says the Greek.

The primary initial presentation of the Gospel as far as Jesus was concerned was to Jews, however he did.

Interact with with Gentiles that he interacted with a Roman Centurion. He interacted with others from Samaria's, Samaritan and so we see Jesus discussing eternal life with these people, but his primary focus at that time was the Jew, but he's acknowledging that not just the Jew or his sheep that there are others and the others the Gentiles.

We'll also hear his voice and we will become one flock. One church is not the Jew, the Greek, the whoever. It's we're all one body.

Brothers and sisters.

United.

Because we are following one Shepherd, not different shepherds, not several shepherds, one Shepherd.

For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.

No one has taken it away from Maine, but I lay it down on my own initiative.

I have authority to lay down and have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father. Now you'll hear people who don't understand the scriptures will say to you that Jesus lost control in history.

Roll them over and he was a subject of.

Of Roman and the religious authorities trying to do away with him.

No, Jesus came for this very purpose from the time he spoke to Nick a demas he talked about.

His death.

When he talked to his disciples, he talked about his death.

When you talk to others, he said I'm going to be raised up.

He spoke of his death, but it was that he didn't die. He wasn't murdered. He laid down his life voluntarily because the father notice gave him authority to do that, and the father gave him authority to raise up again. So when he rose the third day from the grave, it was because he and the father had already communicated to each other, and God said.

I'm sending you.

Or I love.

The world so much that I gave my only begotten son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. He sent his son. But when the father sent his son, he also gave him authority to lay down his life and to raise it back up.

It was a commandment.

It was in a suggestion that it received from the father. Now I want you to see something that Jesus says that he's a Good Shepherd.

That he's the door.

That is, sheep hear his voice and follows him, and that he.

Leads them, any guides them. He directs them and he protects them and he gives them life and gives them life abundantly.

Because.

He loves us so much that he lay down his life for us.

So in this passage.

It causes me to remember.

Sure.

Psalms 23

Now we're going to in our Bible studies, hopefully in the not too distant future.

Look at Psalms 23, very specifically. Literally word by word, but I want you to see what it starts off with, it says.

The Lord is my Shepherd.

The god of the universe. Yahweh Yehovah, the god of Heaven and the god of earth. That God is my Shepherd.

He's the one who leaves me. He's the one who guides me. He's the one who protects me. He's the one who provides for me. He's the one who loves me and knows me by name.

And because he does those things I want to hear his voice more sharply more clearly, so that I'm not tempted to go astray by hearing a different voice.

But here's how great.

The love that our father has.

That Jesus has a Good Shepherd will later say.

If a man had 100 sheep and loses, one Willie not go and find that one.

And so sometimes we as sheep try to we get Los either because of circumstances are problems or we think we're hearing the voice and we wander off or the world convinces us to do something else.

Is the Good Shepherd.

Six is out.

Fixes up and brings us back. Now I know.

Not really.

A Christian kind of thing to hear in music in other ways that God also love Maine, that he'll go anywhere and climb any mountain in. Do anything to come get me.

He did something.

To come get me.

It showed Maine that there's nothing else that he needs to do.

Define me.

He walked up the Hill we call Calvary or Golgotha.

Is across.

It was nailed to it.

He was despised and rejected and ridicule.

He hung there between two thieves.

Both initially rebuking an reviling him.

Until one.

Heard his voice.

And said

Remember Maine?

When you enter your Kingdom and you said Today you will enter into paradise.

You see that was all the searching Jesus needed to do for Maine and for you.

The climb up that Hill to be on that cross to lay down his life.

For you and me.

The sheep.

The sheep, who can protect ourselves.

Donora weighing it loste.

Don't have any really other form of protection that the Wolves and Lions.

In terrace apart.

We can't even run faster than them.

But Jesus pursued us of the cross.

Because his father gave him the authority to do so.

Now.

Jesus being the door.

Jesus being the Good Shepherd.

I hope to you that you hear that voice.

And that voice rings true.

And their voices, Yes, Lord.

You are my Shepherd.

And as of next line of that, Psalms 23 says, but the Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.

There's nothing else that I need. Nothing else that I desire other than that he might lean me that he might provide for me that he might protect me.

That sounds true.

Because it comes with the voice of the Good Shepherd.

However.

Not everyone is, is she?

And we're required to present the gospel to everyone cheaper. No sheep, as we don't know initially who are the sheep.

Or who are his sheep?

And so, just as there are many people today who don't necessarily understand who Jesus will, he is a division. Verse 19 of division occured again among the Jews. Because of these words, these are pretty direct words. Jesus is saying You're not going anywhere as far as it comes to the father. Unless you're coming through Maine and that I am going to provide for you and I'm going to lay down my life for you. And those things are part of what I do. It's very clear.

He's gone beyond just an analogy to say this is who I am, I am.

The door.

As much as when Moses asked God the father, well, when I go to the people that you're sending to Maine, who shall I say sent me? God said, tell them I am who I am sent you. And so when Jesus says I am the door, he's been very clear that not only is he the access to God, he is God.

When he says I am the Good Shepherd, he's the Shepherd spoken of in Psalms 23.

The Lord is my Shepherd.

Many of them were saying he has a demon and his insane.

In a lot of people today say, Well, Jesus was either a liar or mistaken or whatever, and we dismiss him.

But usually people give him no thought whatsoever.

And so, just as.

People today say the same thing we said, well, why do you listen to him?

The reason I listen to him?

As I hear is voice.

And I know that he is who he said he is not who he said he was, who he said he is.

Because as he said that he had authority to lay down his life, he also had authority to pick it up again, and he did, as the Scripture said on the third day.

And appeared to his disciples and appeared to the women and appeared to others and appeared to over 500 and one time. We get this impression well for first fruits or Easter, that Jesus rose on the on Easter Sunday. First fruits on a kind of showed up to a few people, and then went away. The scripture say that he was here on earth after his resurrection for 40 days.

Senior disciple seen others and they saw him raise from the dead, so much so that it changed them.

No longer did they hide, instead they rejoiced that they re or considered worthy.

To be persecuted.

So why do you listen to him?

Because he is the door and he is a Good Shepherd. Others were saying These are not the same as a one demon possessed.

A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind and he their back to well. He did something that nobody and seems to recorded history ever done. Heal a blind man. Yeah, was on the Sabbath whatever. But healed the blind man.

And they were saying this ought to give us some reason to pay attention to him.

And yes, he healed the blind man.

Now he'll a deaf man.

And he'll.

Sure, people who are sick both by placing his hands on them and by saying.

Be healed at a distance.

He will even raise others from the dead and has.

But we.

Again, is a hammer. This over and over and over because our faith.

Is based on a historical fact.

The Jesus.

Rose from the dead. Though a demon possessed man and not do what Jesus did, the wages is Jesus did it.

Because the Old Testament pulled us.

How Jesus would die and then he will raise again on the third day.

So his voice.

Is still there.

His voice is still unambiguous.

His voice still says I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the father except through him, not around him, not over the walls, not any other way but through Jesus.

And having gone through the door of Jesus.

You then follow him.

Not because circumstances save. Everything is wonderful or not because events of life. But because he's the Good Shepherd, he lay down his life for you and for me that he.

Noses by name.

He knows the very hairs on our head. He knows when we rise up, he knows when we lay down. He's that intimately aware of you and me. He's not some god of far off.

He desires.

The lead you.

It is my prayer.

That you say.

Lord, I hear your voice.

And Lord, sometimes I haven't followed you as closely as I ought to, and sometimes maybe I've gotten farther away than I ought to.

Lord, I hear your voice, I hear you coming after Maine. Now here you picking me up and I hear you loving me and I hear you considering the fact that you own me.

And that nothing will separate us because you love me.

The last thing I want to say is this.

My children and my grandchildren mean very much to me.

I think they're very special.

I think and hope that they are an will be far better than Maine.

But their special to Maine.

Because her mine.

You are special to God.

Because you're his son or daughter.

And you are his.

So much so.

He laid down his life.

For you.

You can trust him.

And all God's people said, Amen.