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The Gospel of John | John 10 · Bayside Davis Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis Podcast.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our current teaching series in the Gospel of John.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: So every Tuesday, our staff does a series of meetings.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And this particular Tuesday, we were at our office and we're meeting around this big conference table, and we're preparing for our annual intern team retreat.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We've got a ton of interns right now, and we do a summer school of ministry.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we call the internship, summer school of ministry.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: We've got 50 people signed up.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're having a great time.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we were planning for that, and we usually go through like everything for the week, like all the scheduling, all the big events coming up, and then somebody eventually says, Well, what are you teaching on, Wesley, this Sunday?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And my answer was very simple.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I said, The Good Shepherd.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Tristan, I look over to my right, because Tristan's on my right.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting at the front of the conference table.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's to my right, and he just starts laughing.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm thinking, I'm wondering why Tristan's laughing.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I see Matthew start laughing, a couple other people start laughing, and then it then it was like an aha moment.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: I realized why they were laughing because Tristan thought I said, I'm the good shepherd.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody just starts cracking up in the room, and it was amazing.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I looked at Tristan and I said, Tristan, I promise you, I don't think I'm the good shepherd.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh everybody in the room agreed, and all of you agree as well.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is no comparison to me and Jesus.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I am just a work in progress shepherd, and Jesus is the good shepherd.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody said, This chapter is one of the greatest chapters because Jesus uses a metaphor that is used all over the Bible of God as a shepherd and us as the sheep.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: You could say that John chapter 10 is the Psalm 23 of the New Testament.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been a Christian for a year or two or three, even as an early Christian, most Christians know Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: All of these famous verses around God shepherding his people are drawn out of Psalm 23.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Most people know this Psalm, even if you're not a Christian, you've heard it before.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: John 10 is the Psalm 23 of the New Testament.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Psalm 23 is such an interesting chapter of scripture.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a draw to it, there's a relatability, there's something that it does in seasons of our life that helps us spiritually.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, many, many years ago, when I was a newer Christian, I decided to memorize Psalm 23.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And from that point forward, I have recited it in prayers, in just thinking about God almost every other week since those early days of following Jesus in my heart.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you to memorize Psalm 23.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think it will be a great spiritual help to you in different seasons of your life.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I want to encourage you, once you've memorized Psalm 23 and you can quote it in your prayer to God, to go to the New Testament and memorize the Psalm 23 of the New Testament, John chapter 10.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's a challenge for us this summer.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sound like a good challenge?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So as we look at the Psalm 23 of the New Testament, John chapter 10, I want you to realize that this is not about Pastor Ray Johnston or Mark Clark or Pastor Wesley Town or whatever.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is about Jesus.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, over and over in the Bible, there's a metaphor of spirituality around shepherding that God is drawn to the forefront as the ultimate spiritual shepherd in the Bible.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus is called a shepherd three times in the New Testament.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: First, Jesus is called the good shepherd in John chapter 10, verse 11.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Second, Jesus is called the Great Shepherd in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And third, Jesus is called the chief shepherd, the one who's above all other shepherds in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 4.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And all of this language, this metaphor, this picture of God is teaching us how God relates to his people.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's 12 truths in John chapter 10 about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: So this is one of those Sundays you want to strap on your seatbelt and grab your pen and paper or pencil or iPhone or Android or whatever you use.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: These are 12 truths about the Good Shepherd and how he relates to us as the people of Jesus.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Notice with me the first truth that we learn about the Good Shepherd.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: In verses 1 through 3 of John chapter 10, we see number one, the Good Shepherd is our shepherd.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Verily truly I tell you, verse 1, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: The gate, notice what he says, the gatekeeper opens the gate for him, for the shepherd.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Four hundred times in the Bible, in fact, the most mentions of any animal, anybody like animals in here?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: The most mentions of any animal in the Bible, 400 times the Bible mentions sheep.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: 100 times the Bible mentions shepherds.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big deal.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And shepherds in the Old Testament, you have shepherds like some of the great men of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, and David.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And many people just gloss over the fact that women were also shepherds in the Old Testament.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rebekah was a shepherd in the Old Testament.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: The daughters of Jethro were shepherds in the Old Testament.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you have great men of the faith and great women of the faith who were shepherds in the Old Testament.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus begins talking about this shepherd-sheep relationship.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking to his opponents, the people who are against him, the people who are undermining him, the people who want to kill him by this point in the Gospel of John.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he says something interesting.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says to the Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: The sheep pen was a courtyard in front of a house that had walls constructed, and the top of the walls were thorny briars.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And at night the shepherd would place the sheep within those walls to protect the sheep from thieves and robbers.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a problem in the ancient days in this nomadic agrarian shepherding society.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: The thieves would come late at night, often in pairs.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they would quietly walk up to these walls around these houses that would be protecting the sheep.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, these houses that protected the sheep, they hired gatekeepers at night to stay up all night to lock the gate, but only to open the gate if the shepherd came and knocked on the gate door.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this often would protect the sheep from the thieves and robbers.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: But the problem was that these thieves and robbers found other ways other than bashing in the gate to get to the sheep.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: So they would come in pairs.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they would climb on, they would come in pairs, and one of them would climb on another's shoulders and they would try to hop over the courtyard gate and jump over the briars, the thorny briars that would hurt and puncture their hands, their feet, so on and so forth.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they were able to get to the sheep, they would slaughter them, throw them over the gate, climb back over, and they would utilize them for payment, they would utilize them for food, so on and so forth.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so they built this protective system.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: The gate, the briars, the 24-hour gatekeeper, which was like an ancient security guard.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And they would protect the sheep from the thieves and robbers who did not enter by the gate but another way.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying is that the only people allowed in and out of the gate were the shepherds of the sheep.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Which insinuates in this very beginning teaching about the good shepherd that the only person who had access to the sheep was the shepherd of the sheep, because only the shepherd was allowed through the gate, which pictures the fact that the shepherd is our shepherd, or the shepherd is the shepherd of those sheep.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying that I am your shepherd.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is like what Psalm 23, verse 1 says the Lord is my shepherd.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: I come into the gate, I dine with you, I'm allowed inside with you, I'm the one who is guarding you and protecting you at night through these means, and I'm the only one allowed to come in and lead you out of the gate.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the second thing that we learn also in verse 3, he says at the end of verse 3, he says, and the sheep listen to his voice.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, the sheep listen to the good shepherd's voice.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is so important.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: The sheep, if if a false shepherd came and somehow got through the gate and opened the gate, and the false shepherd began to try to call the sheep out of the gate, the sheep would immediately recognize that's not my shepherd's voice.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: They knew their shepherd's voice.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd could call from anywhere, and they knew that that was their shepherd's voice, and they knew the false shepherd's voices.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Warren Wearsby says in his commentary on John chapter 10, in the morning, the shepherds would come, call their sheep, and assemble their own flocks.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Each shepherd, each sheep, part of me, recognize his own master's voice.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: The point that Jesus is making here is Jesus' people know Jesus' voice.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's something about a voice that is familiar to you.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like your mom.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know your mom's voice, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your dad's voice.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: A good close friend, like you could you could be sleeping, and they come into your house and maybe they have the key, and then they you you cut you kind of get startled, but then you hear their voice and you know exactly who it is, and it calms you down.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's something about a pastor's voice that you know.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I still listen to my original pastor's teachings.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: My first pastor, when I was 17 years old, one of the greatest teachers in the history of Christianity in Oregon, pastored a church of 10,000 people.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: I still listen to his teachings to this day.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: I just know his voice.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we know the voice of Jesus.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, later on in John chapter 10, verse 27, he says, look with me there, John 10, 27, he says, My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: How do we learn the voice of Jesus?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think that we learn the voice of Jesus by being devoted to the reading of Scripture.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think we learn the voice of Jesus by cultivating an ear to listen to what God is saying in prayer.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's something so important about the fundamentals of Christianity that sometimes we bypass.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to like climb the ladder of theology and we're trying to do all these other things, and we forget that the fundamentals of our faith help us to learn the voice of Jesus.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's so important to read your Bible and pray every single day.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is not something we do to like check off a religious box.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is something we do to attune our heart, to lean in to hear the voice of Jesus.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: You hear him in the scriptures, you hear him in prayer, and the more that you interact with him, the more that you connect with him, the more that you spend time with him, the more you learn his voice, and you know his voice when he's speaking to you.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Read your Bible and pray every single day.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Number three.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Look at also in verse three.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're not getting very far, but we're getting far.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get to what we get to.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Also in verse three, notice what he says next in verse three.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd calls his sheep by name.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Check this out.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: He calls us by name.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: A shepherd knew every single one of his sheep.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he would call each of them by name.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: He would name each one of his sheep.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: By characteristics, either personality characteristics of his sheep or something descriptive of some trait of the sheep.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what a picture of the intimate connection between the shepherd and each individual sheep.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is what God says all throughout the Bible.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to this, Exodus 33, verse 17, and the Lord said to Moses, I will do the very thing that you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name, Moses.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is it an amazing thought to think today that God is looking down on you and he knows you by name?
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's not some distant God that's like, I don't know, the sea of people around the world right now that call, uh, that have called on the name of the Lord, that believed in my death and resurrection, like I don't know who you are.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, he knows you by name, like he knew Moses by name.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is power in learning someone's name and knowing it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: People name their kids.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: People name their cars.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know people do this?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: My mom does this.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, she's like, let's get into Lola.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, who's Lola?
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, my car.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, your car has a name?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, of course.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I hear people talking about how they name their cars, and I'm like, is this a thing?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you name your car.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is really a thing.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just my mom.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: People name their cars, and some of us we've never experienced anything like that.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: We're like, this is a real thing?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: People name their kids, people name their cars, people name things.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: When you know someone's name, there is a built-in intimacy of relationship.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: There's something close, like you can have a sea of people, like when the fall starts and 400 people are here on a Sunday.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: You can have a sea of people and you can recognize people, you can be familiar with people, but when you know someone's name, it is a more intimate connection to them as a person.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: People know people by name, and that is a different level of relationship when you know someone by name.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know something this morning.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you believed in Jesus Christ, if you have trusted in Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the dead for the forgiveness of your sin, He knows you by name.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Some of us we think, oh, God doesn't think I'm very important, God's not really concerned about me, God doesn't really understand what I'm going through.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, God knows you by name.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: And everything else going in on in your life.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd calls his sheep by name.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Number four.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Also in verses three and four, the good shepherd leads his sheep.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Notice the end of verse three, and leads them out.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: When he has brought them out, all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice, verses three and four.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: In the morning the shepherd would come and knock on the gate, and the gatekeeper hopefully would be faithfully still there before the sheep are drawn out of that gate in that night in that courtyard.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the shepherd would go into the gate.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: The gatekeeper would open that gate to the shepherd, would go into the gate, into the courtyard, and he would simply start calling out his sheep with his voice.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't wrangling them and nudging them.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: He simply went in front of them and he would use his voice to draw them out and begin to lead them throughout their day.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a great writer of biblical imagery, Leland Riken, and he explains what would happen.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: It was the task of the shepherd to lead sheep from nighttime protection in a sheepfold on safe paths to places of grazing and watering.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: After morning grazing and watering, sheep typically lie down for several hours at midday in a shadier cool place.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you who like napping, this is like a biblical image.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So he would call simply call them by name and use his voice.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: He would draw them out and he would take them to eat food and drink water.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then he would lead them to a shady place to take a nice nap.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you are nappers, and some of us we just can't nap.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then after they took a several hour nap, by the way, they returned at night to the sheepfold where the shepherd would attend to any sheep who was sick or scratched or still thirsty in the day.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just a beautiful picture of how the shepherd leads the sheep.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: It may be that maybe this is a biblical calling for me to build nap pods in our office.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a thing?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nap pods in the office?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: I probably will never do it.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: But maybe it's a good idea.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1 verse 18.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's like, no, that's crazy, Wesley.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1, 18, and he, Jesus, is the head of the body, the church.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd leads the sheep, and Jesus leads us.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: He calls us by name.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: We know his voice.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: We follow him out of the gates.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: We follow him to the water sources.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: We follow him to the grazing places.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: We follow him when he has us lie down in peace and safety because he's present and he's protecting us.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture that Jesus is our leader.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, you're like, Wesley, we've got 12 of these.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pick it up.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, the fifth truth about the Good Shepherd is that the sheep follow the Good Shepherd.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 4 and 5.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: He leads them, he goes ahead of them, and they follow because they know his voice.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 But they will never follow a stranger.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: We follow the Good Shepherd.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love this picture because it correlates with the number one term, descriptive term of our identity as Christians, disciples.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: The term disciple, Mathaites, means follower.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are followers of Jesus.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: He is our shepherd, he leads us, and we are his people.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: We follow wherever he leads us.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: We are Jesus' followers.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: How do we follow Jesus?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: We follow Jesus by the Spirit of God inside of us and the Word of God before us.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: People are like, I follow Jesus by the Spirit.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And other people are like, I follow Jesus by the Word, and I say, you need both to follow Jesus.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And neither of those two realities, spiritual guides that help us follow Jesus will ever contradict one another.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody can't say, oh yeah, the Spirit told me to do something that's in contradiction to the Word of God, because the Spirit of God would never tell you to do something in contradiction to the Word of God.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit and the Word are always in harmony with one another.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we follow Jesus through the Spirit of God inside of us and the Word of God before us, and those will always be in harmony, never contradict one another.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: We will never, hopefully, as we acquaint ourselves with Jesus, the Spirit of God inside of us, and the Word of God before us, we will never hopefully follow a false shepherd.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: You see, a false shepherd, they teach false doctrine according to the New Testament.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Doctrine that is in direct contradiction to Jesus, the person of Jesus, direct contradiction to the teachings of Jesus.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about small things or things that we should have freedom in, like, hey, I believe in all the gifts of the Spirit, and I don't believe in all the gifts of the Spirit.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a big deal.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make you a non-Christian or a Christian.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're all Christians.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, hey, I believe in a literal, you know, God spoke seven-day, 24-hour creation, and I think it actually lasted longer, or what have you.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: These things are not essentials of the faith, and you're allowed to have different opinions.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But on the essentials, there is unity.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: On the non-essentials, there is liberty.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: And false teachers will come in and they'll take the orthodox essentials of the faith, like the deity of Christ, or the, you know, being saved by faith alone and Jesus alone, uh, through grace alone, and they will contradict those things, and that's where you know it's a false shepherd.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the only way to know that is to acquaint yourself with the voice of Jesus.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: To be a person of the word and in prayer, to be studying your Bible on Sunday mornings, to be reading your Bible throughout the week.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: This helps you identify those voices that are not God's voices.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Make sense?
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the sheep follow the good shepherd.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, the good shepherd is the gate to God, verses six through nine.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, Jesus said again, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate to the sheep.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I am the gate.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever enters through me will be saved.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: They will come in and go out and find pasture.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is saying here, listen, he's telling this parable, he's giving this discourse in which the shepherd and sheep are used to represent and illustrate real spiritual truths.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the Pharisees were like, We don't get it, Jesus.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: So he said, Let me double down.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus now changes the picture here from the sheep sleeping in a courtyard at night with a gatekeeper hired to protect them to a sheep sleeping in a den or cave at night with the good shepherd as the gate.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if they were traveling on a long journey, are you with me still?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Is this good?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: If they were traveling on a long journey, the shepherd would recognize that he couldn't find a house with a courtyard at night, so he would find a cave or a den in the rocks.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he would draw the sheep into the cave or den to sleep at night, and he would lay in front of the opening himself.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you couldn't get in or you couldn't get out without him being the gate.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, I am the opening to heaven.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: He, in fact, in verse 7 and in verse 9, two times he says, I am ego, I mean the gate.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the way to God.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he just doesn't say that here.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says that in the most definitive terms, in John chapter 14, verse 6, Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: No one comes to the Father except through me.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: The only way to God is through Jesus.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: The only way to God is through Jesus.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the gate to God.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the way to a relationship with the Father in heaven.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's through his death on the cross, his outstretched arms as he was dying and paying the price for our sins and his resurrection from the grave that we now, because God forgave us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, that we now have access through the gate to God.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the way to God.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Number seven, the Good Shepherd blesses his sheep.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says at the end of verse 9.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: They will come in and go out and find pasture.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us would just kind of breeze by that, thinking, oh, that's great.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: He gate to God and they come in and they go out and they find pasture.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is actually Old Testament covenant language.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let me read to you a verse in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 28, verse 6.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: You will be blessed.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: When, God?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: When will I be blessed?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: When you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is a picture of God blessing us, providing our daily needs, and blessing us as we have access to wherever He is, allowing us through that gate because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: We go in, we go out, we come out, we find pasture.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is covenant language for blessing.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, our good shepherd blesses us.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't you ever just sit down and reflect and be like, man, God's blessed me.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: You should be able to do that in the best moments of life and in the worst moments of life.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: God's blessings on your life transcends your circumstances.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know the greatest blessing?
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: That God loves you.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know the greatest blessing?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: That God is present with you.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: You want to know the greatest blessing that transcends your circumstances?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: That all the promises of God are for you no matter what happens in your life.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And God, the shepherd, blesses us.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is such an amazing conceptual picture of who God is and how he relates to us, and it just gets better and better.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number eight, verse 10 the good shepherd gives his sheep abundant life, verse 10.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: The thief, he steals sheep, he kills the sheep, he violently injures the sheep, but that's not who God is.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: The term full there, you might want to underline that, circle it, highlight that in your Bible.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is a really important term here.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: It means super abundance.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Super abundance.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's been a word in culture lately.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Super abundance.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the good shepherd.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the good shepherd wants you to have a super abundance of life in him.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: You say, Wesley, what does that mean?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let me give you an illustration.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say in the beginning of Tesla, you were an investor.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: The early days of Tesla, you were an investor.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you put$100,000 into Tesla.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you did that in the early days of Tesla, you would be very, very, very wealthy today.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're gonna get a building in Davis for our church.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: We would have announced that and you would have been like, I'm writing the check.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not the chick, I'm writing the check.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm writing the check, by the way, that happens when you're a preacher.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm writing the check today, and I'm gonna buy you the building.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's how easy it would be if you put$100,000 into Tesla in those early days.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: You would have a super abundance of cash.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: What is this extraordinary amount, this full, this superabundance of life?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is eternal life.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is a quality of life you have now, it is a quantity of life you will have forever.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's abundant in nature.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's essentially the life you were designed to live by God.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives us abundant life.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: He restores our life with God.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: He gives us the life we were originally intended to have.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is what the shepherd does for the sheep.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Number nine, we're almost done.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're cooking here.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number nine, verses 11 through 13 and verse 15, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm the good shepherd.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Second time.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I lay down my life for the sheep.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that twice.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, think about this for a minute.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd means he's the model shepherd, he's the ideal shepherd, he's the ultimate spiritual leader.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the good shepherd does what?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Lays down his life for the sheep.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: This pictures the sacrificial care and value that the shepherd has for the sheep.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that Jesus would go to the cross for us teaches us how much he cares about us.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that Jesus would be crucified on a cross for us teaches us how much he values us.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is a picture of the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sins and wrongdoing.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, I deserve to be on the cross.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one who sinned.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the one who rebelled.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he was pinned to the cross.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: He took the punishment.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: He took the justice of God.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: He received the payment for my wrongdoings.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Besides the fact he never did anything wrong.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus took my penalty.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus took my place.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd lays down his life for, in other words, in behalf of the sheep, Jesus died on the cross for me and you.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: So that in him, Jesus, we, those who believe in Jesus, might become the righteousness of God.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, but the hired hand is just there to get paid.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: The hired hand was somebody that was paid by the shepherd to help him as the flock grew.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: They would need more and more help, and so they would hire somebody.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the hired hand was faithful until there was danger.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: They got paid every day, they got their paycheck, they got their Roman coins or whatever it was.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: And uh they got their money, and when any danger or threat showed up, they would run away and let the sheep get destroyed.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's not a shepherd.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd is willing to lay down their life for the sheep.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: The hired hand just wants their paycheck.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the minute there's any problems or danger, they're out.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: But not the shepherd.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: The shepherd would protect the sheep to the point that he or she would die for them.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's Jesus.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're almost done.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Number 10, verses 14 and 15.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd has a close relationship with the sheep.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Verses 14 and 15.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the comparison here.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: Just as the father knows me and I know the father.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: The term here know is Genosco.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Gonosco means to know relationally or know experientially.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is an experiential, relational knowledge of a person.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, listen, this is an important idea.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in a mutual knowing relationship with his people.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: He knows us and we know him.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a knowledge about, it's an experience with, it's a relational connection to.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus compares the father and the son's relationship with the sheep and the shepherd relationship.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's that blew my mind.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading through this earlier this week, and I was like, this is amazing.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: We know Jesus, he knows us, he knows us, we know him, there's an experience, there's a relationship.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then I read verse 15 and I was like, whoa.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: He compares the intimacy of our relationship with him to the intimacy of the father's relationship with the son.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: That blew me away.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows me, and I know Jesus, and he compares it to the same intimacy as the Father and the Son.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And this is such a beautiful thing.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is an experience.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say I was the greatest expert on earth on the moon.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: That I had studied the moon more than any person in world history had studied the moon, that I teach classes on the moon at UC Davis.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: That people all around the world come to hear my lectures on the moon.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then, let's say one Friday I'm teaching a class on the moon at UC Davis, and everybody, packed house, biggest classroom at UC Davis, and everybody's leaned into this great expert on the moon.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the class, somebody walks down and says to me, Professor Wesley, that was an amazing lecture on the moon, but I just want you to know I've been to the moon.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference there.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: You can know everything there is to know about a subject.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can experience, and there is a difference of knowing.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: God does not want you to know the moon like a professor expert knows the moon.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: He wants you to be on the moon and experience the moon.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: He wants you to know him and be in relationship with him.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: The good shepherd has a close relationship with his sheep.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Two more.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: Are we good to finish this out?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Number 11, the good shepherd's death is far reaching, verse 16.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, And I lay down my life for my sheep, and then he says, verse 16, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: I must bring them also.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: I can just real quick say this.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking about how the fact that he's in Israel, and he's speaking to the Jewish people, and they're a part of God's plan and salvation, and he's saying, I have other sheep outside of Israel.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: In Cappadocia, in Ephesus, in Rome, in Africa, all over the world that are also a part of my fold, my sheep, that I also want to reach with my death and resurrection.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' death is far-reaching.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just for the good people, it's not just for the people in Jerusalem or what have you at this time.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was for anybody who would believe in Jesus Christ.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, listen to these verses, 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says next.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who gave himself as a ransom for some people.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't say that.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: For all people.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Titus chapter 2, verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: Offers salvation to all people.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd's death on the cross is far-reaching, offering salvation to all people.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: You might be here this Sunday and you're like, ah, man, I just feel like I'm too far from God.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like God would never want me in his family, never want me to be a part of his fold, never want me to be a part of his people, because I'm too bad and too far gone and I've made too many mistakes.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, all people.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: You're included in that.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're a part of the all people.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: God wants to reach and save you.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, verses 17 and 18.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: Number 12, and we did it, y'all.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: We did it.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Number 12, the good shepherd will die and rise again, verses 17 and 18.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: The reason my father loves me is that I laid down my life.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: That speaks of his death.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Only to take it up again, that speaks of his resurrection.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: No one takes it from me.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow, in the mysterious nature of the sovereignty of God and the human decisions made by the Romans and the Jewish leaders to crucify Jesus, ultimately God was orchestrating it.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have authority to lay it down, die on the cross, and I have authority to take it up again, to rise again.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: This command I receive from my Father.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: The Good Shepherd will lay down his life and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin and my sin, past sin, present sin, future sin, and he will take it up again, speaking of his resurrection, that death and darkness and sin could not hold Jesus down because he is the essence of life itself.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: And through his death, he forgives sin and through his resurrection he gives spiritual life, eternal life, abundant life.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus will die on the cross and rise again to give us all that he promises us through faith in him.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_00: What a good shepherd.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: What an amazing shepherd.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know what you should do today?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: You should leave this place appreciating Jesus more.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: Understanding how he relates to you the more.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking about him and the beauty of who he is in your life more.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: He is the good shepherd.