I Am The Door Series

A man in Australia was arrested and charged with stealing a sheep. But he claimed emphatically that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter. At last he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door. It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master.

Of all the animals that humans could be compared too, God compares us to sheep more than any other animal in scripture. And if you are wondering why, a quick search on the internet will tell you:

Sheep aren’t that smart, and sometimes we aren’t either.

Sheep are directionless. They get lost easily, or will wander away from the flock.

Sheep are weak and need a shepherd.

Sheep become restless when there is a lack of food, or bugs around.

Sheep cannot get up on their own. If they fall down on their back, they need a shepherd to lift them up, or they will die.

Sheep remain dirty until someone cleans them.

Sheep know and follow the voice of their Shepherd.

We are on week 3 of the I Am series, studying the 7 I Am statements about Jesus that reveal things about who he is, and what he does. These next two statements take place in the same story, and they both revolve around this metaphor of the sheep and the shepherd. So let’s take a look at this story, but before we do, let’s open with prayer.

So you may have noticed we are moving in a chronological order here. Last week Jesus was at the Feast of Tabernacles, specifically at the temple in Jerusalem. And during this festival, he declared to the crowd and the Pharisee’s that he was the Light of the World. And we sort of stopped half way through that story, so I want to fill in what happened between last week and this week’s passages in the Gospel of John.

So what happened right after we stopped last week is that Jesus continued to argue with the Pharisee’s, and then claimed that Abraham had rejoiced at the thought of Jesus coming into the world. They mocked him and said, You aren’t even 50, but you have seen Abraham? For context, Abraham was born over 1000 years before Jesus. And then Jesus replied by saying, “Before Abraham was, I Am!”. And then of course he had to run away from the festival, because they picked up rocks to try to stone him, as calling himself I Am was claiming to be God himself.

After this happened, he stopped and healed a man who had been blind from birth. He did this on the Sabbath, so that made the Pharisee’s even angrier, and the blind man was brought before the Pharisee’s. So they started to fight amongst themselves about this, and questioned the man. The man defended Jesus, saying I don’t know who he is, but he opened my eyes, so he must be from God, that’s all I know. Then they got mad at him and put him out.

So then Jesus heard about all this, and found the blind man, and asked him if he believed in the Son of Man. The man says he believes, and then worships Jesus. Jesus then says, “For Judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind.”

There were some Pharisee’s who were with him when this happened, and they said, “What, are we blind too?” And then Jesus says, If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. And then it rolls right into our passage, which is John 10:1-10, and I’ll read that now in the NIV:

John 10:1–10 (NIV)

“Very truly I tell you 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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.