I Am The Gate/Door For The Sheep Series

I AM the GATE/DOOR for the Sheep

John 10:1-10

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

Chenoa Baptist Church

10-05-2020

The Goose Meets a Sheep

[Slide] A couple of weekends ago, we took my granddaughter (the Goose) to Tanner’s Orchards. She rode the train, met a unicorn, bounced in the bounce house, and played in a huge wooden ship.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the animals. They had goats, and chickens, and llamas, and alpacas. But Carolelynn liked feeding the sheep the best.

The first thing I noticed about the sheep was how expressive their faces were. Each one seemed to have its own personality. They loved eating the food that she gave them and she said that their tongues tickled her hand.

I couldn’t help getting a little emotional as I thought that our little sheep Carolelynn and how we get to be a part in shepherding her as she grows up. She won’t be a little goose for long.

I AM

We continue in our series on the “I AM” statements of Jesus from the Gospel of John.

So far, we have heard Jesus make the staggering claim that He is the bread of life (John 6) and last week He proclaimed that He is the light of the world (John 8).

After telling the crowd that He was the light of the world, He gave them a case study in what that light does to a human soul.

In John 9. Jesus heals a man born blind and the clearer his sight becomes the more the Pharisees are proven to be blind.

Our text this morning is a continuation of Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisees concerning the blind man. Chapter 9 ends with this stinging rebuke:

[Slide] Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (John 9:38-41)

Jesus watched the shepherds of Israel, the Pharisees and religious leaders, kick this poor sheep out of their fellowship. And He has a lot to say to them about how much they have failed in their provision and protection of the sheep under their care.

Turn with me to John 10.

Prayer

Out of His Mind!

John Piper points out that the key to these verses is found in 19-21:

[Slide] “The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” (John 10:19-21)

In Jesus’ day, demon-possession and insanity were thought to go together. All this talk about about sheep and gates, and shepherds had convinced some in the crowd that he was simply a nutcase and nothing more.

But another group listened and came to the conclusion that although they didn’t understand the whole word picture He was trying to show them, it certainly wasn’t the ravings of a mad man.

And then they ask a question - Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Demons hurt not heal. The miracle of the man born blind receiving His sight was still on their minds.

They weren’t ready to declare Him Messiah and bow down to Him but they were curious about what was really going on.

The choice was then, and still is, between believing Jesus was insane or He was the promised Messiah.

[Slide] C.S. Lewis famously wrote in his classic book “Mere Christianity” :

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”