JOHN 10:1-30

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PARTICULAR REDEMPTION IS BOTH A COMFORT AND A CALL: THE GOOD SHEPHERD KNOWS HIS SHEEP AND THEY FOLLOW HIM Covenant Presbyterian Church

JOHN 10:1-30

29 April, A.D. 2018

Are you a big-godder or a little-godder?: the danger of making both God & what it means to be a Christ-follower small. Jesus’ claim in our passage this morning is in every sense astounding and unsettling… John 9 13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind…. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast

him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains. The Son of Man (see John 1:51; 3:13-14; 5:27; 6:27, 53, 62; 8:28) is God incarnate, who uniquely and most fully reveals God, fulfilling and explaining the law and purposes of God. God has come and is dividing the blind from the seers. ONE: The Good Shepherd Knows His Sheep, and They Follow Him

10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. Jesus is saying there’s a sheepfold, a Jewish sheep pen, full of sheep who are following several different shepherds. The gatekeeper of the Jewish fold [authorized by the words of the Prophets and by John the Baptist] opens the gate for the legitimate shepherd. The true sheep—who have been given sight to see and ears to hear (John 9)—recognize his voice and walk away from the other sheep to follow him. He is the promised Good Shepherd, the greater-than-Moses, the ultimate Joshua (Ya-shua=YHWH saves) who was promised (Deuteronomy 18:15; Luke 9:33-35; Acts 3:19ff.). TWO: Particular Redemption Is a Comfort 7

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon: I begin this morning with the doctrine of Redemption. “He gave his life a ransom for many.”….All Christians hold that Christ died to redeem, but all Christians do not teach the same redemption. For instance, the Arminian holds that Christ, when he died, did not die with an intent to save any particular person; and they teach that Christ’s death does not in itself secure, beyond doubt, the salvation of any one man living. They believe that Christ died to make the salvation of all men possible, or that by the doing of something else, any man who pleases may attain unto eternal life; consequently, they are obliged to hold that if man’s will would not give way and voluntarily

surrender to grace, then Christ’s atonement would be unavailing…. Now, we believe no such thing. We hold that Christ, when he died, had an object in view, and that object will most assuredly, and beyond a doubt, be accomplished. We measure the design of Christ’s death by the effect of it. … For we declare that the measure of the effect of Christ’s love, is the measure of the design of it. ….We hold—we are not afraid to say what we believe—that Christ came into this world with the intention of saving “a multitude which no man can number;” and we believe that as the result of this, every person for whom he died must, beyond the shadow of a doubt, be cleansed from sin, and stand, washed in blood, before the Father’s throne.(“Particular Redemption”: The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, Vol. 4, 130) Will the eternal Son of God—now incarnate—fail to bring to his to the Father anyone he intended to save? 2 Cor 5:1417; Rom 8:29; John 6:35-40 If you are seeking to enter the presence of God, the family of God, the church of God, only through Jesus—seeking God’s abundance in Jesus above all else—be comforted! He has laid down his life for you. He knows you; he knows your name! You have a place in his multi-everything, forever flock! THREE: Particular Redemption Is a Call 19

There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?” 22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” How big is the big God? How big is the work of the big Jesus Christ? He boldly tells all who think they can see—without believing/needing redemption in God’s Son--that they are blind; he both offers and gives sight to the poor-in-spirit--who know they are blind. He separates believers from unbelievers in Israel and will do so in the church, too. He is greater than nations, religions, families or any other groupings. He alone shepherds to abundance now and in the age to come. God revealed himself to us through his God-man Son, the only one who can shepherd each of us to: Our origin and identity Our purpose and source of true meaning Our needed morality—a firm basis for defining right and wrong Our longed-for destiny—John 17:1-3; 2 Cor 5:17; Rom 8:23: being a part of the redeemed creation What shepherds are you trusting to answer these ultimate questions and needs? Why do you trust them?

John 9 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” John 3:16-19 God loved so the world he provided the Way not to condemn the world: 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For whom did Christ die? The noun (atonement) defines its adjective (limited). If the atonement does not actually save, does not really remove God’s curse from people, does not actually redeem them, then it indeed can be for all the world, even for those who are in hell. But if the death of Jesus is what the Bible says it is—a substitutionary sacrifice for sins, an actual and not a hypothetical redemption, whereby the sinner is really reconciled to God—then, obviously, it cannot be for every man in the world. For then everybody would be saved, and obviously they are not…. either the atonement is limited in its extent or it is limited in its nature or power. It cannot be unlimited in both. If it is unlimited in its extent—that is, that Christ died for every single person…then it cannot be unlimited…in its power; for then all would be saved. [If you believe]…in an atonement that is unlimited in extent, it is necessarily a vague, indefinite, poverty stricken atonement that does not actually save anyone. If, on the other hand, the atonement is unlimited as to its efficacy, its saving power, as the Bible indicates, then it must be limited in its scope. Unless a person believes…that all people will be saved…the atonement cannot be unlimited in both its nature and its extent. [Palmer, Edwin H., & Horton, Michael: “Limited Atonement,” in The Five Points of Calvinism, 1996]