John chapter 10 and will be that that will be our. Passage that will be looking at today in particular. This time of year, people think about the coming of Jesus. But why did he come? Even people that go to church and make much about Christmas often do not know. Why Jesus came? into the world. You're often unclear about this, and increasingly so in our part of the world where people don't know. You need to know why he came. Everyone needs to know why he came. For this reason, I'm going to address this subject today that you might know, and that you might know more fully, and that you might be able to tell other people why he came. Jesus often spoke about why he came. We have a record of the things that he said and the word of God that God has given us and that we might know him and what he did. And he explained it from a lot of different angles. He used different pictures to explain why he came and what he was doing when he came. There's so many things that he was doing when he came. Joel Beakey has a little book that gives us 31 reasons why he came. I saw somebody else had done one of 60-something reasons, I think. But you can divide it up in different ways. But I want to focus on what Jesus said in John 10, in particular, this morning. So I'll read this chapter in God's holy word. Because it's God's Word, we can be sure that it accurately tells us, it tells us rightly why Jesus came. It doesn't make any mistakes. It's God's Word to us. He's given it to us for us to know the truth that will set us free. So give attention as I read it, because it's God's Word. and we'll be examining this passage that I'm going to read to you now after we read it. So here is God's holy and infallible word, John chapter 10, starting in verse one. Most assuredly, this is Jesus speaking, most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Now, just to pause here for a moment in case you're not familiar with this, the one who is speaking here, as I said, is Jesus, and the one he's talking about is himself. He talks about himself in the third person. He says the shepherd here. He's talking about himself as the shepherd. That becomes very clear as the passage goes on. So he's saying that he's the one that the porter, the doorkeeper of the sheep pen, you know, he's there maybe overnight and then the shepherd comes in the morning and he opens the door because here's the shepherd and the shepherd's going to take care of the sheep. If somebody comes to the door that's there to steal the sheep, he's not going to let them in. They'll have to climb over the wall if they want to get in. So that's what he's talking about. Verse four. So here's the shepherd. He says, talking about the shepherd still, Jesus talking about himself. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him for they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The sheep does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a harling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. The wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The harling flees because he's a harling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known by my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my father. Therefore, there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings. And many of them said, he has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? We'll just pause here for a minute for a comment again. In the previous chapter, in John chapter 9, Jesus had healed a man who was born blind. man who couldn't see very well, but for all his life had never seen at all. He was born blind. And the miracle was such a notable one that the leaders of the Jews who were opposed to Jesus, they were envious of him because people were following him. And they spoke to this man and asked him a bunch of questions. What happened to you? How is it you say you're blind, now you see? And he says, yeah, man healed me. He keeps answering them. They keep asking. Then they call his parents in. Is this your son? Yes. Was he born blind? Yes. Well, how did he get his sight? He said, I don't know how he got his sight, but we know he was born blind. And ask him. He's of age. So they go on. And there's this little thing going on there. And so there's this controversy. And then Jesus is speaking, you see, after that controversy and saying, I'm the good shepherd. I'm the one that's going to give my life for the sheep. And these people then are evaluating and they're reflecting on that. And there's some of them are saying, well, he's he's mad. And I'm saying, no, can could someone who is mad, could could he give sight to someone that was blind? That's what they're asking. And so there's people are trying to figure things out. Who is he? Who is he? Who is this one? That's what we're asking, isn't it? OK, look at verse twenty two. Now this this happened about three months later. So Jesus was he came back to Jerusalem again for the time of the Feast of Dedication and several months later and he picks up on what he had said here about himself as a shepherd. He returns to that that illustration again. So this is what he says. Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple on Solomon's porch. Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep. As I said to you, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and my Father are one. And we'll end at that point. We'll end the reading of God's Word. And so you see that in this passage it tells us why Jesus came. I'll get straight to the point here. What does it say? Why did Jesus come? Jesus came to give us life. Look at verse 10. That's really the principal center of what we're looking at today. The second half of verse 10, in fact. Jesus says, I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. What is Jesus talking about? Life, that they might have life? He's talking about spiritual life. That is life in association with God. Favorable association. We are apart from Jesus, dead, in very poor association with God. You see this death all the time. We have a glorious creator who made us, who runs the world, and we don't even know him. Unless Jesus saves us, we're spiritually dead to God. We don't know the God who created us. We walk around without reference to God, Without thanking God. Without worshiping God. Oblivious to the most real part of reality. The essential part, the one who always was and always will be who is ever the same. Who brought about things that are just temporary that he brought into existence now. Now that he's brought us forth, he's he's going to preserve us forever, but he's the one who made us. Paul describes this spiritual death and spiritual life in Ephesians chapter 2. So I'm going to, you can turn over there if you have a Bible, I'll be reading it to you. And I just want you to see what this spiritual death and spiritual life is, because Paul really lays it out here for us. And what he says, verse 1 through 3, this is Ephesians chapter 2. In verses 1 through 3, he explains that the way we were dead was that we were cut off from God. What I was just saying. He's not talking about physical death here, though it's related. He's talking about spiritual death, we're cut off from God. Look what he says, Ephesians 2, 1. And you He made alive. So he's talking about people that have come to Jesus and been made alive. You He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. The way that everybody walks, everybody is dead to God. They don't every every single person until God makes them alive. You, he made alive who are dead, OK, according to the prince, the power of the air. So they walk according to the prince, the power of the air. Who's that? That's Satan. The prince of the power of the air is Satan, and he won allegiance to himself by leading us into rebellion against God when God first made us. That's why, even though God made us, we don't know him because we rebelled against God. We were severed from him. We were cut off from him. We became spiritually dead in that rebellion. So he says of this prince of the power there, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. So Satan manipulates and controls the world and the people who are in the world because we're sons of disobedience, because we're cut off from God by our rebellion. That's what it means by sons of disobedience. Verse three. Ephesians 2.3, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves or lived this way in the lusts of our flesh, the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. So we follow our own way rather than following God's way. We do things, did things, do things that are not pleasing to God. And we're by nature children of wrath just as the others. By nature, children of wrath. In other words, people made God angry because of what they were, what they had become by ignoring him and living in defiance and disregard of him. Then they made God angry. They were children of wrath. God was opposed to what they were. In Ephesians 2, 4 through 10, Paul continues, he explains the life that God gave us through Jesus, his son. So what is this life like? Again, I'll read it with comments interspersed. Ephesians 2, verse 4, but God, notice the but God, okay, there's a contrast. Here we were dead in our trespasses and sins, living according to the prince of the power of the air, walking in rebellion, all this stuff. but God, who is rich in mercy, Okay, in other words, he's gonna do something we don't deserve because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead, spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, the death was death and sin, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. So we were all spiritually dead, all except Christ, but God made us alive with him, with Christ, by grace. which means it was not by anything that we did to merit it. We couldn't do anything. It was by His work, by His grace. He did it for us and we didn't deserve it. He's rich in mercy. The fact that He does not save everyone proves that there's no obligation for Him to save anyone. As Scripture says, He has mercy on whom He will. And whom He will, He hardens. The passage continues, verse 6. Okay, so He made us alive together with Christ and raised us up together with Christ, that is, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So, Jesus was raised from the dead, He took our sins and He was raised from the dead. We come and we trust in Jesus, we're raised with Him, we're brought to life. Verse 7, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God does all this for the display of His grace, to show His character as one who saves wretched sinners. Verse 8, For by grace, again, not what you've done, you have been saved through faith. It emphasizes it's not what you've done. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. No merit on your part. You were dead. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. Verse 9 goes on to drive the point more firmly. Not of works that you've done, lest anyone should boast. You have no grounds for saying, oh, look what I did. I'm here with God. No, God brought you in. Verse 10 shows that shows what the outcome is when you are made alive. What are you like when you're made alive, when God makes you alive? You were dead and he makes you alive. What happens to you? How do you change? Verse 10. For we are his workmanship. It was the work that he did, created, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Since we now have spiritual life, then we're now able to live in a way that is pleasing to God. That's what he's saying. Again, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We're created anew to live, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we would do them forever and ever. That's life. Now we can understand then. Go back to John again. We had that little part of Ephesians to show what is the life and death that Jesus is talking about when he says, I came that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. What is that like? It's spiritual life as opposed to spiritual death and sin. So we can understand now what Jesus means in John 10.10. And the analogy that Jesus uses here, God has sheep, people, represented here by sheep, that he has chosen to be his sheep. Now I ask you a question, what does a person own sheep for? You know, if you get a bunch of sheep, what do you get them for? It's not usually just for pets, is it? You usually get them so that they can bring forth fruit. Fruit. What do you mean by fruit? What does sheep bring forth? Why do people keep sheep? Why do they buy big pasture and get a sheep pen and hire shepherds and get dogs and all these things? Why do they do that? Because they want wool. That's the fruit of sheep. They produce wool. And so the shepherd takes care of them so that they'll be healthy and so that they can produce wool for the owner. Now, what does God the Father own sheep for? And the analogy here, what are we for? Why did he send Jesus to be our shepherd? Why does he have a sheep pen? Okay, the church, the kingdom of God, pastures, and that sheep pen, or the flock is gathered to, ordinances to water and feed the sheep, that kind of a thing, to pasture them. Why does he have that? To produce fruit. That's why a shepherd has sheep, to produce fruit. Okay, what is the fruit that God wants? What is the wool? What does Jesus tell us when he's talking about himself as a shepherd? It's life. Life. I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. A lot of fruit. A lot of life. He came to give life. The life that Jesus gives us is the life that we saw in Ephesians. It is life in communion with God instead of death and trespasses and sins and rebellion and alienation from God. When we are brought to life, our life that was not for Him is now for Him. In other words, our life focus when we're brought from spiritual death to spiritual life, our whole life force is used toward God instead of toward what is contrary to God. We worship him as God. We serve him as God because he's God. We live as we ought to live as creatures. It's very pleasant. As we grow into the riches of this new life that he has given us, we're empowered more and more to serve him and to please him. We struggle along, we don't do very well, but He enables us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, to grow and become more like Him. Not only that, we're enabled more and more to see His glory, to see the glory of God that we didn't know. We were estranged from Him, we were dead, spiritually dead. And now we can see His glory and His perfections. We can see His beauty. We can see His goodness. His kindness, His grace, His holiness, purity. We can see His justice. We can see His wisdom. We can see His complete otherness, His sovereignty, His greatness. We can see His power. We can see His holy wrath and judgment against His enemies. It's a most delectable thing to know Him and to be able to serve Him and to please Him and to love Him. It's a wonderful thing that God does, that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. We who are dead in our sins are now able to live and to live abundantly. As our shepherd, Jesus is the one who brings forth abundant fruit in us, who brings us to life and grows us up in that life. That's what He came for. Now, how does Jesus bring forth life in those who are His sheep? We're gonna look at four things that He does that are in this passage. First is our shepherd, he calls us into life, into his sheepfold of life. His sheepfold is the church, the kingdom of God, it is the household of faith. the kingdom of righteousness, righteousness, where people are righteous, where they serve God, that he established the place where God is served, the place where people know God and live for God is the church and the kingdom of God, the household of faith. A faithful shepherd gathers his sheep and keeps them in the place where they belong, where the owner wants them to be. In this case, living in that kingdom of righteousness and serving Him in life, having life. He gives them life. They bring forth life. Jesus does that with the sheep that belong to His Father by calling them Into the fold, he says, come here. And we hear and we enter the fold, it's a powerful call that grabs hold of us that we cannot resist when that powerful call comes to us, it compels us to come to him. Let me show you that. So OK, right here in this passage, the powerful call Jesus talks about repeatedly in here in verse three, speaking of his own. This is John 10, verse three, speaking of his own voice as a shepherd who calls us. He says the sheep hear his voice. He's saying the sheep hear my voice. the shepherd, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. He comes to you as an individual and he calls you and he says, come, come to me for life. OK, now, now what what happens with it in verse four and five, he adds, and when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him. He called them. Why do they follow him? Because they know his voice. Verse 5. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. So those that are his sheep, they hear a stranger, someone who's telling lies and false things after they become his sheep. And they go, that's not right. And they don't follow him. Jesus had taken in many sheep already from Israel at this point, his disciples that were following him. But in verse 16 he speaks of gathering in of people from other nations too, outside of Israel. Look at what he says. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring. What will happen? How does He bring them? What does He mean, I'll bring them? He says, they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd. He calls them and they hear His voice, that compelling voice that arrests them in their tracks and they say, I need life and they come for life. As I mentioned, some three months later at the Feast of Dedication, Jesus picks up on the theme again. When they ask him, who are you? Tell us plainly. Look at what he says. Verse 25. Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name. They bear witness of me. But you do not believe. Why? Because you are not my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life. How are his sheep set apart from everyone else? They hear his voice. That's what we're talking about. The shepherd calls them together into the kingdom of God, into the kingdom of righteousness, into the fold, into the church, and they follow him. because they're His sheep. Those who are not His sheep say, what's He talking about? That doesn't make any sense. Who are you? Why did you come? And the sheep say, He came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. Now, have you been called with His powerful call? It's compelling. If you hear His voice, you can't not come. You may hear things about Jesus, but when he comes and speaks to you in the way he's talking about here, the sheep follow him. That's what he says. They come, they follow him. His divine voice, what does it do? Well, it exposes your sin. Not just in a superficial way. I've disappointed myself before in the way I live, or what kind of, but so that you see your sin as odious in the eyes of, that you are odious in the eyes of God because of your sin, that you're dead, like it said, in trespasses and sins. You're dead to God. You're guilty and condemned and you're unable to make up for it. You're in the pit of death, that you in fact deserve to go on to hell, and that unless you are delivered, You're unfit to go anywhere else. You don't belong anywhere else. But how? When that voice comes. His divine voice, it exposes what you are. You see this. And another thing is divine voice does. It also convinces you that he's the only one who can change the situation. He's the only one that can save you and give you life. You see that your pardon and your deliverance. Requires a divine work. of none other than the Son of God. It requires no other sacrifice than the sacrifice of the Son of God Himself to atone for your sin. What are you going to offer? What are you going to do to take away your sin? And it requires the powerful working of His Spirit in you to transform you so that you might live, as we saw before, live for God. in allegiance to God, in ways that are pleasing to God, in the kingdom of God, that you might see God's glory, that you might know Him and you might delight in Him. You can't do that unless God changes you. What else does His divine voice do? Well, His divine voice powerfully calls you so that you actually come into the fold. That is, you come into his church. You come in through the door that God provided. What is the door? Is it some false minister? No, it's through Jesus, the door. In verse 9 he says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. He's the one that came to give us life. That's the door to life, is Jesus. If you go another way, it's not going to work. Yes, when you hear His voice, you come through Him as the only door. The false teachers, they climb in by another way. They don't use the door that God established. They say, oh, you can be such a good person that God will think you're wonderful. Or that God already thinks you're wonderful, they say. You know, He thinks all of us are wonderful. Or they give you all kinds of lies. Or they say, oh, do all these ceremonies and then you'll be good. Or, you know, excuses. Well, you poor thing, you poor victim. You know, God is going to have mercy on you because you're such a poor victim. That's not true. Suggesting that you are a poor, abused victim that God receives because you're a victim. That's the denial of the true door. The true door is that we're dead in our trespasses and sins and that Jesus gives life. You may be a victim, you may have been abused and all kinds of stuff, but the problem is you. The problem is that you are dead in your trespasses and sins, and the solution is that Jesus gives life to those who are dead in trespasses and sins so that they can come to God. This is how He gathers His sheep with His voice that belong to the Father into the fold. He calls you to come through Him as the door. You come to be the Father's sheep who produce wool for Him. What's the wool? What's the wool that we produce? It's life. You come to live for God from then on. So have you heard His voice? Sometimes there are people who have been in the church for a really long time, and the voice is there, but they have not yet heard it in the way that I was just talking about. I was like that. I was in a church for 20 years before I heard His voice. It's a long time. I heard also in the church false teachers who had climbed in by another way for most of those 20 years. The ones that I heard did not preach Christ is the way, they preached other ways. It was a big church, it was a fancy church, had a lot of important people in it. But I also heard the truth. Because even in that church I heard the scriptures read. I also went to a Bible study in my neighborhood where I heard the gospel, and still I was dead. I heard in different ways, but I did not really hear the voice of Christ until I was 20 years old, and then I was brought into the fold. I came in to the kingdom of God. It changes you. You who did not think that you are much of a sinner, see that you are much of a sinner. You did not think you really needed Jesus, see that you need no one but Jesus. You need to change. You see that you need to change very much. And he's the only one that can change you. Your outlook changes and you come to him never to look back. So the first thing Jesus does is to call us into the sheepfold through himself as the door that we might be the Father's sheep. What does he do after that? After we come into the fold, what does he do? Well, then he shepherds us, he's the shepherd, so that we'll bring forth fruit for the Father. Ask you again, what is the fruit? For sheep it's wool. What is it for God's sheep? It's life, right? Abundant living. That's what it is. It's life lived for God as life is meant to be. Spiritual life in abundance. In obedience and service. A life lived for his glory. A life of worship and praise and thanksgiving to God. So as the good shepherd, he leads us to green pastures and fresh water. so that we can be nourished and fruitful for the Father. That's the goal, isn't it? Much life. Verse 4 says, and when he brings out his sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him. Where does he take them? Verse 9 and 10. He says, I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. OK, the place of nourishment and watering. The thief, he says, comes not except to steal and kill and to destroy. I've come that they may have life, and they may have it more abundantly. We can only grow if we're nourished, and we can only grow in life, so the shepherd nourishes us. For the kind of fruit the father wants for his sheep, we must be nourished not with grass and rivers of water, physical water, but with God's word and spirit. God's word is the grass and the spirit is the water. That's what is in the pastures into which Jesus leads us as a shepherd. When we are his sheep, he nourishes us with his word, the holy scriptures. He leads us into the truth so that our devotion to God and our love to God and our appreciation, our knowledge of God and of his ways increases. In the word preached, in the word read, we behold the glory of God and we grow in the fear of God. We are nourished up into life. We begin to take dominion. Husbands bear responsibility for their families and lead them as Christ has led them. Wives submit to their husbands and unite with them as one, and children honor and obey their father and mother. When we are his sheep, He waters us with his spirit, so he gives us the word and spirit. He leads us to places where the spirit is at work, to faithful churches and to faithful Christian friends. I said I was in a church where there were a lot of false teachers. When he took me as his sheep, he led me to places where his spirit was in the church, where he was where people that were faithfully ministering the Word were. He sends His Spirit to us, and we read and pray, and we live our lives. Spiritual life flourishes in us. It begins to grow up. We bring forth much fruit to the light of God the Father, and to the light of Jesus, the Son of God. So the first thing Jesus does to bring forth life in us is to call us into the fold, okay, right? That's what we saw, the call that you can't resist brings you from death to life. Then after he's brought you in, he takes care of you as a shepherd. He brings you to the place of green pastures and of clean water to refresh you. So the third thing that he does is what he did in order that he might rescue us from death. He gave His life for the sheep. He gave His life for you if you are His sheep. Now see how Jesus sets forth this glorious truth about Himself in John 10. In John 10, verse 11, He says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. The situation was such that either the shepherd or the sheep must die. A shepherd is expected to risk his life in defending the sheep from wolves and bears and such things, but no shepherd would be expected to feed himself to the enemy so that the sheep might be spared. If he knew one of us is going to be eaten and he fed himself, no shepherd would be expected to do that. Yet that is what Jesus did. The enemy in this case was not exactly an enemy. The enemy that took and would take our life was a different kind of enemy. It was God's sentence of death against sinners. The guilt of our sin brought the sentence of condemnation upon us, which was a death sentence. The wages of sin is death. So if you get wages, you work, and you get what you deserve, what are the wages of sin? Wages of sin are this spiritual death we've been talking about that goes on to eternal death. That's why when Jesus calls us, we're found dead in our trespasses and sins. He finds us dead, cut off from God, which is to be cut off from true life. Not just that we feel guilty, But they were actually unfit for God. We're not fit for Him. Our wool, our life in sin, stinks. It's not wool that anybody would want. It's not wool that God wants. We were fit only to be cast out into the place of darkness, the garbage bin, the pit of destruction, there with the devil that we followed. We are justly sentenced by God to spiritual death and eternal death in the pit of hell because of our sin. That is where we belong because until He makes us alive, the fruit that we produce stinks. It's worthless fruit, it's obnoxious fruit. It is very displeasing. Jesus tells us that the father commanded him to lay down his life for us to die in our place and he did it. He took our penalty. In verse 15, he says, Jesus says, as the father knows me, even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And in verse 17 and 18, he says, therefore, my father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from my father. Now, most of you know what this is talking about. It's talking about Jesus giving himself to be a sacrifice for His people's sin. It's talking about Him taking responsibility for sin that was not His own, for all of His sheep, for all of His people that He calls to the Father. He takes responsibility for our sins as the One who came to save us. It is about the cross where Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, charged with that guilt in our behalf. I will bear responsibility for what they did and He was punished as the one bearing responsibility for that. God sent Him to do that, that we might be the righteousness of God. It is about the just one dying for the unjust ones that He might bring us to God, that He might bring us to live for God. This is offensive to all people, but it is not offensive anymore when we come to believe in it. And it's not offensive to God. This is what God appointed for the saving of his people. It sets Jesus apart as God's true shepherd. As you would expect, when the hireling sees danger, what does he do? He runs away. But Jesus sees death for his people because of their guilt. And he says, let that death fall upon me. He sees the sentence of death on his people. He says, Put that on me, I'll take responsibility for all of that. Look again at verse 11. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but the harling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The harling flees because he is a harling and does not care about the sheep. What a remarkable shepherd we have. Look at the contrast here. I told three men in a Bible study last week that as men, we are to take such responsibility for our families that our wives will say, I am glad that you're the one who is doing this instead of me. Instead of looking and saying, oh, you have to be in charge. They look and say, whoa, I do not want to trade places with you because of the responsibility that you undertake for our family. That's what we say when we understand what Jesus did. I am glad that he's the one that's in charge. I don't want to have that responsibility that he took. I don't want to be the one that has to bear the sins. I couldn't do it anyway, but I don't want to be the one that is in that place. Do you want to be the one who is in charge so that you must die for the guilt of the whole church? Are you glad that he is the Lord? He did this so that his sheep might be able to have life and to have it more abundantly. His coming into the world to give life, even abundant life, to his sheep was no small or easy task. You see the contrast with the harling? The harling won't even risk his life. Now, every shepherd that's worth anything will risk his life in defending the sheep. But here's a situation where there was a sentence of death that was not a risk. This was a sentence of death that was going to fall on the sheep. And he stepped in and said, I take that sentence. That's what we're talking about here. The good shepherd, like no one else, gives his life for the sheep. OK, now we want to come to the fourth thing that our shepherd does that we might have life with God. as our shepherd, he protects us so that the life that he has begun in us may continue and increase. The reality is that we have many enemies of the normal sort. I just told about the enemy that was the sentence of death. That's not exactly an enemy in the same way, but we have many enemies that are that oppose us. Jesus refers to them right from the start of his discourse here in John 10 as thieves and robbers. who do not come into the fold in God's appointed way. Instead of coming through the door of the gospel, they preach a false gospel and entice people to follow them, a gospel that's enticing. Jesus is the true shepherd who comes to do the Father's will, and they are false shepherds who lead people in other ways. Jesus comes to give life to the sheep and life more abundantly as we have seen, life with God. But what would happen if we were led away by a false shepherd? They lead us away from God. That's what Satan did. He came to us in the garden and he said, oh, no, no, no, not that way. Come this way. And he led us in a different way away from God. He said, you can rely on yourself. You can be like God. You can decide what's right and wrong for yourself. Don't listen to what God says. Who's God to say that to you? God knows that you'll be like Him. You can be like Him. You can be the one that makes all of those decisions and those choices. We'd be ruined if one of these shepherds that leads us in another way. It would lead us into death. That's what Satan does. So what about the sheep? Are they safe? I mean, there's these false shepherds that are in there. Are the sheep going to be led away? Well, we heard before that that they won't follow another because they know the voice of their shepherd. Jesus, the reason they won't follow most of all is because Jesus won't let that happen to any of God's sheep who come to Him for life. He will see to it that we never perish. Go and look at verse 27 to verse 30. He promises this in verse 27 through 30. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life. I don't give them temporary life, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." If you have come to Jesus for life, then He will give you eternal life. And what is eternal life? Life that is eternal. Not life that is only for a while. It is eternal life. You will never perish, he says. It means that nobody can take you away from life with God once he has saved you. You are kept by divine power. Jesus points to the Father as greater than I here because Jesus was here in weakness in order that he might die. He became flesh. He was clothed with flesh. He's the Son of God. He has all power and sovereignty. He was upholding the whole universe when he was nursing in his mother's breast. But to us, he was here as a babe that then grew up and lived among us and then died. God can't die. The son of God can't die, but the son of God made flesh can die. The son of God in our nature and our human nature came in order that he might give his life and die. So you will never perish. He's nobody can take you away from God. You're kept by divine power. When he says the father is greater than I, he's saying, You know, then what you see me here, like the father is he is he holds all he's holding all thing. He qualifies that saying by adding, I and my father are one. One is neuter in the Greek language, showing that he means one in essence or one in nature. If it was masculine, it would mean that they're one person. But that's not what he says, we're we're one. in nature or essence. He is the Son that is begotten of the Father. A different person, the Son that's begotten, the Father that begets. Two different people. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, that's the third one. So you've got the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But Jesus became flesh, the Son of God, the one who's the Son that was begotten, He became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth in human flesh. Jesus became then our mediator. The Father sent Him, but the Father did not become human flesh. Jesus is the one that did that. The Son of God is the one that did that. Jesus assures us then that we're kept by divine power so that we will never perish. Once you have come to him, once you have heard his voice and obeyed his call to come to him that you might have life and you have responded to that call, you are secure forever and ever. Jesus will continue to take care of you. He will nourish you as a shepherd using his spirit and his word. He will preserve you forever and you will never perish. So conclusion, why did Jesus come? In order that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. Question. Do you have life? Have you heard? And obey the call. That's how you know if you have life. Have you heard his voice? Have you seen that you're a center? Have you seen that he's a savior in a compelling way? such that you have come into his fold to be his people, to be saved by him, for him to be your shepherd, to bring you to the Father, to give you life. Please stand and let's call on his name. Holy Father, we come before you in Jesus' name, our mediator, our shepherd, the one who came to give us life, Life abundant. We thank you, Lord, that we who are dead in our trespasses and sins have been made alive by Christ Jesus, we who have trusted in him. We pray, oh, father, that you would open the eyes of any that have not seen. That they would hear the voice of the son of God and that they would come, that they would come to him and that they would receive life. We thank you, O Lord, for that compelling call, that call that cannot be resisted, that call that arrested us in our tracks and would not let go of us. We thank you, O Lord, that you brought us in and that now you will keep us forever. We will bear fruit forever. We will be your sheep forever. Oh Lord, we thank you for the hope of the new heaven and the new earth, that we will be with Jesus and that we will live forever for your glory, that no one will molest us or make us afraid. We thank You, O Lord, that in Him we have security already. No one can snatch us out of His hand. No one can snatch us out of Your hand. You and Your Son are one. And the Spirit also, one with You, working with us, O Lord, working in us, working to preserve us and keep us and to make us alive. Oh, Father, let life abound in Your people. Let life be rich in us, Lord. Let us know you and walk with you and obey you. Lord, we are still growing into this life. We need the pastures. We need the water of the Spirit. We need your work in us, O Lord, to sanctify us, to make us more and more full of this life that you give to your people. We pray, Father, that we would be able to help each other, for we are a flock. We are here to to encourage one another and to build one another up. And you've even appointed elders and shepherds and shepherds and such to to nurture your people, Lord, and to bring the word of God to them. The word of Jesus, the very voice of Jesus that you bring by your spirit. Father, work in us by your spirit. May we be a place in your fold where the spirit of God is actively engaged and at work. where your spirit is powerfully transforming people and bringing the word to them in this powerful way, where it is heard and where it is compelling, where it is received, where it cannot be resisted. Oh, Father, deliver us from our sins and help us, Lord, to to be filled with life. We pray that we might honor you in this world, that we might bring glory to you. Help us to tell others why Jesus came. Help us to know why. Help us to tell others why. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. So you who have heard the voice of Christ and have come to him for life, he has a blessing for you. Receive now his blessing as I pronounce it to you. Now may the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. that you may know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe? Amen.