67. John 10:5-9 THE DOOR OF THE SHEEPFOLD
Introduction:
We are
involved in a study of The Parable of The
Sheepfold. In the message last Sunday we focused our
attention on the shepherd
calling the sheep out of the
sheepfold. In the message today we will focus our
attention
primarily on the door of the
sheepfold.
I. The sheep
following the shepherd out into the fields and
pastures
V. 5,
"And a stranger will they not follow, but will
flee from him: for they know not
the voice of strangers."
We need to make a distinction in this verse and what was
talked about earlier. Earlier the verses were talking about
the sheep knowing the shepherd's
voice when he came in the
morning to lead them out of the
fold. This verse is talking
about leading the sheep after
they have been brought out of
the fold.
When the
shepherd entered the fold and started calling
for his sheep to come to him, an
important factor was that
the sheep knew his voice and
would not respond to any
shepherd but his own
shepherd. The sheep inside the fold
belonged to many different
shepherds and all of the
shepherds would come to call out
their own sheep. Each
sheep knew the voice of his own
particular shepherd and
would not come when any other
shepherd called. He would
come only to the shepherd who
had brought him into the fold.
This was an important to each shepherd and insured that
he
would get all of his sheep and
that he would get only his
own sheep. It was especially important because it would
mean that nobody else would get
his sheep.
However, verse
five is not talking about the separation
of the sheep from the others in
the fold. It is talking
about the leading of the sheep
after they are out of the
fold. Even then, the sheep would follow no man but
their
own shepherd. The shepherd's leading of the sheep will be
discussed again beginning in
verse ten and so I am going to
wait until we get to those
verses to discuss the meaning of
this part of the parable. So I will move on the next verses
at
this time.
II.
The explanation which Jesus gave about the door of the
sheepfold
V. 6,
"This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they
understood not what things they
were which he spake unto
them." His listeners understood perfectly well about
the
sheepfold and the shepherds and
the sheep. They were very
familiar with those things. But they did not understand the
spiritual truths which Jesus was
trying to illustrate by the
sheepfold.
Therefore,
Jesus began to explain what He was talking
about. He explained, or at least partially
explained, the
meaning which He wanted them to
see illustrated in the
parable which He had given. V. 7, "Then said Jesus unto
them again, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, I am the door of
the sheep."
Jesus first
explained to them that in the parable He was
using the door of the sheepfold
to illustrate Himself. He
said, "I am the door of the
sheep." That is, "I am to the
men, what the door of the
sheepfold is to the sheep." That
is, "God's people, God's
sheep, go in and out by me just as
the sheep go in and out of the
sheepfold by me."
In essence, He
is saying, "If anyone wants to go to
heaven, He has to go by me. He has to come to me and place
his faith in me. He has to recognized that I am the Savior
of men. He has to recognize that I am the promised
Christ,
the promised Redeemer, the
promised Savior. If any man
wants his sins to be forgiven,
he has to come to me and
trust in me and I will forgive
his sins. If any man wants
eternal life, he has to come by
me and trust in me and I
will give him eternal life. If any man wants to have a home
in heaven he will have to come
to me and trust in me and I
will give him a home in
heaven. If any man wants to stay
out of the fires of hell, he
will have to come by me and
place his faith in me and I will
keep him out of hell."
On the other
hand, He is saying, "If any man will not
come by me, then he will not
have his sins forgiven. He
will not have eternal life. He will not have a home in
heaven. He will not stay out of the fires of
hell."
III.
What the scribes and Pharisees taught concerning the
door
This is in
direct opposition to the message that the
scribes and Pharisees had been
giving the people. Inessence
they had been telling the
people: "You have got to come by
us. You have got to follow the plan that we
present to you.
You have got to be approved by us. You cannot heal on the
sabbath
day unless we say that you can do so.
You cannot
preach or teach anything until
you first have your message
approved by us. You cannot be the Christ unless we say that
you are the Christ. The people cannot accept you as the
Christ until we say that you are the Christ. That man who
was blind and to whom you gave
sight, cannot stay in the
synagogue unless we say that he
can stay in the synagogue.
Nobody can meet the approval of God unless he first meets
our approval." In essence,
they were saying, "One cannot
even go to heaven unless he
comes by us. We are the door.
One must come to us if he would enter into
heaven." They
never said it to the people in
those exact same words, but
that is the message the scribes
and Pharisees sought to get
across.
Jesus
contradicted that. He said, "I am
the door." He
accused them of being thieves
and robbers. V. 8, "All that
ever came before me are thieves
and robbers..." In the
parable Jesus had already
pointed out that thieves and
robbers climb the fence of the
sheepfold and kill and steal
sheep. Even so that is what the scribes and
Pharisees had
done. By their deceit and by their false teachings
they
were figuratively guilty of
stealing. They stole honor and
respect that rightly belonged to
God. They stole authority
that did not belong to
them. It belonged to God. They
robbed the people, making
themselves rich at the expense of
the people. They robbed the people of the truths of
God.
They robbed the people of their very soul's salvation by
keeping persuading the people to
reject the Christ, the
Savior. They robbed the people of heaven by making
them
twofold more the children of
hell than themselves. They
robbed the people by keeping the
truth of the gospel from
them. They were thieves and robbers.
But, thank
God, there were some who were not persuaded
by the scribes and Pharisees who
stood in opposition to
Jesus and tried to keep the people from trusting in Him.
There were some who accepted Jesus as the Christ and
placed
their faith in Him in spite of
all that the Pharisees did
and said to prevent it. (V. 8), "...but the sheep did not
hear them." There were some who came to Jesus and entered
in through the door by faith in
Jesus Christ. They simply
did not listen to the scribes
and Pharisees. Oh, they heard
what they said, but they did not
listen in the sense of
being persuaded by what they
said.
IV.
What Jesus said about those who entered the door being
saved
Jesus repeated
His statement about being the door. V.9,
"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall
be
saved..." Jesus directs this statement to the masses of
people who had been under the
dominion of the scribes and
Pharisees. They had allowed the scribes and Pharisees to
dominate their thinking, their
beliefs and their actions.
Jesus informed them that if any man wanted to do so, he
could break free from that
dominion by trusting in Him as
the Messiah, the Christ.
If one would
but come to Jesus and trust in Him, he
would enter into the door and be
accepted of God. He would
be saved. His eternal soul would be saved. He would be
born again. He would be born into the family of God. He
would be forgiven of all his
sin. He would be cleansed of
all his unrighteousness. He would be redeemed by the Blood
of the Lamb of God. He would stay out of the fires of hell.
He would make it into the portals of glory when he
dies. He
would get to enjoy the wonders
of heaven. Jesus is the door
and if a man trusts in Jesus
that is like entering through
the door that goes to heaven.
V. What Jesus said
about one going out the door of the
sheepfold
One must be
careful at this point and not misinterpret
the parable. In this verse, Jesus speaks not only of
entering through the door, but
He speaks also about going
out through the door. If one is not careful he will jump to
the conclusion that since
entering in through the door means
getting saved, then going back
out through the door means
loosing one's salvation. One could easily think that if one
enters in through the door means
that one is on his way to
heaven, then going out through
the door means that he is no
longer on the road to
heaven. He has backslidden. He has
lost his salvation.
But that is
not the interpretation that Jesus, Himself,
gave to the parable. In the parable of the sheepfold, the
sheep were brought out of the
sheepfold by the shepherd,
himself, for the purpose of
going into the fields and
pastures to find food and
water. They are still sheep and
they still belong to the
shepherd. They are, in fact, still
following the shepherd. They are still with the shepherd.
He is the one who is leading the way.
Jesus made His
interpretation of the parable in that
light. (V. 9), "...and shall go in and out, and
find
pasture." Let me paraphrase and summarize the
interpretation which Jesus has
given. Jesus said that if
any man would come to Him and
place his faith in Him as the
Christ and as the Savior, then he would be saved. That
would settle the matter as to
where he will go when he dies.
If Jesus saves a man, he will go to heaven,
that is that.
But after he
is saved, he will then follow the
leadership of the Shepherd and
the Shepherd will lead him
into the fields of spiritual
food and spiritual drink. The
Shepherd will lead him into the fields of spiritual
blessings while he is here in
this life. In almost every
instance, a man will not go into
heaven immediately after he
gets saved. He will stay here in this world and will
follow
the Shepherd into green
pastures. In the Twenty-third psalm
King David spoke of the leading him into green pastures.
David most certainly did not mean that he was lost
because
he was out in the pastures. No, not at all. He still
belonged to the Shepherd out
there in the green pastures.
Even so Jesus interprets the parable of the sheepfold to
mean that the sheep go in at the
Door to get saved, and then
the come out through the Door to
walk in the fields of
spiritual blessings.
VI.
Three basic facts and four vital questions
Now let me
emphasize to you the three basic facts
concerning the interpretation of
the door of the sheepfold.
Important fact #1 is that Jesus Christ, Himself is the door.
He is the door of the sheepfold. Important fact #2 is that
any person who enters the door
gets saved. Important fact
#3 is that the way to enter the door is to come to Jesus
and
believe in Him. Believe in Him as the Christ. Believe in
Him ask the Son of God. Believe in Him as the Savior.
Trust in Him to be your Savior. Trust Him to save your soul
and to make sure that you get to
heaven when you die. Let
me repeat: #1:
Jesus is the door; #2; Anyone who enters
this door gets saved; #3:
The way to enter the door is by
trusting Jesus Christ to save
your soul.
This brings up
a few very important questions:
Question
#1: Is there anybody here who has
entered that
door by trusting Jesus to be
your Savior? If so, you are
certain that you have entered
that door then you can be
assured that you are saved and
that you are on your way to
heaven.
Question
#2: Is there anybody here who has not
entered
that door? You do not need to raise your hands. Just
answer this question in your
mind. Have you or have you not
trusted Jesus as your
Savior? If you have not trusted Jesus
Christ to be your Savior then you have not entered that
door.
Question
#3: Is there anybody here who has not
entered
that door who really wants to
enter it? Do you really want
to be saved? Do you really want to go to heaven?
Question
#4: Is there anybody here who desires to
enter
the door of the sheepfold who is
ready to do so now? If so,
then we are going to pray for
you that you will have the
grace to place your faith in
Jesus today without waiting
until some other time.
Conclusion:
Is there
anyone here who will come this morning who is
now saved who will come and
profess Jesus Christ as your
Savior today? Is there anyone who has never trusted Jesus
who will come and trust Him
today?