John 10:1-18, theme verse John 10:9
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In this eleventh Sunday after the Pentecost, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. During last few weeks, we have been looking at the details of His last exhortations in the farewell discourses of the Book of Glory, yet this week, we would like to learn few lessons after looking at the seven “I AM” Statements of Jesus.
1) The Gospel of John as the last book of Gospels was written by the Apostle John, around AD 90-100 for the Johannese communities who were faced up with the attack of the heresy on Jesus’ divinity and humanity, while experiencing also the growing persecution from the Roman Empire and Jewish communities, in order that they might believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God and also that by believing, they might have abundant life in His name even in the midst of persecution as written in John 20:31.
2) By the way, in this gospel of John, we can find not only 7 signs for Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, but also 7 “I AM” statements through which Jesus revealed who He is. As the first statement in John 6:35, Jesus said “I am the bread of life”. This means those who believe in Him shall not hunger and shall never thirst in the kingdom of God which was prophesized in Is 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” and also will be realized in the world to come as Rev 7:16-17 “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” And Jesus proclaimed this gospel of the Kingdom of God and also through the sign to feed 5000 people with the five loaves and two fishes, made us taste the reality of the kingdom of God even in this side of the world.
3) And in the second statement in 8:12, Jesus said “I am the light of the world” which means those who believes in Jesus and follows will be led by the light, separated from the darkness to receive the life. That’s why after healing a man born blind, He said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” in verse 5. This was the fulfillment of Is 9:2 “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”
4) And then in the third statement in 10:7, Jesus said “I am the door of the sheep” which means that as God was depicted as the door of the salvation as Ps 118:19 & 20 “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it,” now from the NT era, Jesus became the door of the sheep to become the salvation to those who come to Him and also provide the pastures to them. This is the fulfillment of Ezek 34:18-19 that the Messiah is the One who gives the pastures.
5) And also in the 10:11 & 14 as the fourth statement, Jesus said that “I am the Good Shepherd” and “I lay down my life for the sheep.” This is the fulfillment of Ezek 34:23 “And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd” and Ezek 37:24 “My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes” as King David in the OT, risked his life to protect his sheep and Israel. As prophesied, Jesus gave the life to His sheep and gave it abundantly through His suffering and crucifixion.
6) And then in 11:25 as the fifth statement, Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life” and raised Lazarus from dead which means that those who believe in Him not only receive the bodily resurrection in the last day, but also receive the spiritual regeneration to enjoy the joy and abundance of the eternal life, having the eternal life already from this world. This is the fulfillment of His resurrection in Ps 16:8-10 ”I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption” and also the resurrection of the believers in Dan 12:2 “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
7) And sixthly, Jesus said in 14:6 that ”I am the way, the truth and the life,” which means that Jesus who is the truth and the life is the way to go to the Father’s house. That’s why the officer can experience the healing of his deadly son, by coming to Jesus even through the way of about 32km apart from Jesus. This shows that Jesus is the way to the life in the NT era as Ps 16:11 says “You make known to me the way of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
8) And finally Jesus proclaimed in 15:1 that ”I am true vine.” Typically in the OT, Israel is likened to a vine as Ps 80:8 says, it is said that Jesus is true vine who provides the sap to the branches, the church as John 15:5 says and also who fills them richly as the head of the church as Eph 1:22-23 says so that Jesus showed the sign to change the water to the wine in Cana wedding festival.
9) As such, through these seven ”I AM” statements, Jesus is depicted as the One who is the way to the truth and the life, through the regeneration and the resurrection of those who believe in Him by opening their eyes to see the way of the life as the light and also not only gives the eternal life, but also provides the heavenly bread to lead them the abundant life and also protects them and leads their life so that they may bear the fruits abundantly in their life.
10) Through Today’s text, we would like to learn few things. Firstly, this “I am” statement was the divine expression of God in the OT, as Ex 3:24 says “I am who I am” and Is 43:10 says “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.” Therefore, the “I AM” statements of Jesus in the Gospel of John shows firstly that Jesus as the Son of God reveals God the Father as His identity and also shows secondly that Jesus is not simply the Son of God who reveals the Father, but that He is God Himself. In other words, it says that the Image of God the LORD in the OT is revealed in the image of Jesus in the New covenant of the NT. Secondly, among these seven “I AM” statements, in the “I AM the Good Shepherd” statement, it is said that “Jesus calls each of His sheep by name and leads them so after He puts out all His sheep, He goes ahead and the sheep follow Him because they know His voice.” And also it is said that the reason why they know their Lord’s voice is because the Lord, the Good Shepherd laid down His life for His Sheep in verse 11. Therefore, I believe that all those who have been appointed as leaders by the Lord in the world or in the church should remember that the spiritual power of leadership comes from self-sacrifice and serving. And thirdly we would like to look into more details on His saying that Good Shepherd gives His sheep abundant life. In other words, Jesus said that His salvation is not only the life in the world to come, but also the abundant life in this world too, as He said in Jn 10:9 that “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” About this saying of our Lord, I think we need to think more deeply what these mean to those 1st century Christians who had been keeping faith, while enduring the sufferings and even risking the martyrdom in the midst of increasing persecutions. Of course, in the world to come, as Rev 21:3-4 says “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away,” surely there will be no sufferings or persecution anymore. But, not in this world. I mean, even though we are saved by His grace, since we do not yet arrive at final destination, so that still there is the temptation of Satan or the persecutions or suffering which we have to take in the name of the Lord. But even though we are in the midst of these sufferings, we could not lose our heart, to follow Him, because our Lord who is the Good Shephed goes ahead to lead us, as young children can go in joy even in the dark road without fear when their father’s hand holds their hand. And in addition to that, as Jer 12:5 says “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?”, because we know that through these sufferings, our Lord trained His people to purify them as Dan 12:10 says, and to learn the obedience as Heb 5:8 says and to make us receive the praise and the glory and honor in the day of the Chirst as 1 Pt 1:7 says, so that for the joy before us as Heb 12:2 says “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”, we can endure and overcome any suffering with the help of God the Father as 1 Cor 10”13 says “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Therefore when we are faced up with the sufferings which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body or the persecutions in the name of Jesus, then I pray that all we may come out as gold through His trying, by taking heart as our Lord exhorted with prayer in faith to fulfill the will of our Good Shepherd.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 According to today’s text, our Lord, the Good Shepherd, saved us by sacrificing Himself so that we became His sheep to follow Him after hearing His voice. So after reviewing whether we follow Him, I hope we could share our experience and thought with our team members together to learn from each other.
Q2 And also it says that our Lord makes us overcome and win by giving us enough grace in the midst of sufferings or persecutions. So after reviewing our life, if we are faced up with the persecutions in His name, how Jesus made us overcome them, I hope we could share our experiences with each other to learn from each other.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
Kommentarer