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Early on this morning, I pointed out that in chapter seven it is said of our Lord that eventually, when he went up, uh, to Jerusalem and therefore to the feast and to the temple, he went up not publicly, but as it were, in secret. At the end of chapter eight, uh, uh, uh, he is said of him that when they took up stones to cast at him, Jesus hid himself. The point to be noticed is that the verse in chapter seven, he went up in secret, is in Greek related to the verb at the end of chapter eight, he hid himself.
And therefore we might suppose that chapter seven and eight are closely linked together. They are indeed. They are linked in their subject matter. In chapter seven, our Lord appeals to his hearers to use their moral judgment on him, on his teaching, and on his miracles, and on his motivation. They were unregenerate people. Notice that Christ does not hesitate to invite, indeed to command, unregenerate people to use their moral judgment on his teaching, on his miracles, and on his motivation.
In chapter eight, declaring himself to be the light of the world, he shines on his opponents, and now they see themselves and are invited to use their moral judgment on themselves, as in his light they see themselves for what they truly are. But early on this morning, likewise, I pointed to some evidence that shows us that while chapters seven and eight are closely related, chapters nine and ten are not beginning something completely new.
They too are related in major theme to seven and eight. We notice at the beginning of seven, it is a question of our Lord's going up to the feast, his approach to the feast and to Jerusalem and the temple and to the people. In chapter ten, the very same word is used, the approach to the flo- to the fold by some thief or robber as he climbs up, he goes up, trying to climb the wall at the back, secretly.
That very approach to the fold betrays him as a thief and a robber, because the true shepherd would not climb up some other way, but would come to the doorkeeper, show his credentials, and the doorkeeper would open the way. So that chapter seven and chapter ten are related. One describes our Lord's approach, his going up to the feast in Jerusalem and the way he did it. A great point is made of the way he did it, and that he went up in secret and not openly, and so forth. Chapter ten, therefore, the approach of the robber to the fold and the way he approaches shows just that he is a false shepherd.
When we come to chapter nine then, we find that in a very real sense it is related to chapter eight. For in chapter eight, our Lord declares himself to be the light of the world. I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. And in chapter nine, he again declares himself to be the light of the world, though the context is now a little different. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world. He was soon to leave the world. And the light of his actual presence, bodily presence in the world, that would not last forever.
For our Lord still is the light of the world, but he's not bodily here. So then is chapter nine perhaps related to chapter eight, in which chapters, both chapters, he declares himself to be the light of the world? Can we not think of it as chapter nine containing the miracle of giving the blind man sight to be an example of Jesus' operations as the light of the world. There is, of course, this substantial difference.
He is the light of the world, as we saw earlier this afternoon. He is the light of the world in the sense that he gives us the light to see with. To have the light of life shining on our path. But in chapter nine, he is the light of the world, in the sense that he gives the man eyes to see with. For what use is light to anybody who has not got eyes to see it? So the chapter nine is not just repeating chapter eight.
It is putting the related topic. Jesus is the light of the world, the light in which we see other things. Jesus is the light of the world in chapter nine, in which he gives us eyes to see the light and to see who he is. So it is related, therefore, to God's strategy for making himself known through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And these are the wonderful things that he does for us and in us, so that we may take benefit from the light.
Now, in chapter nine there is a physical miracle, and it is concerned with physical sight. And yet it is like the miracle that we read of in chapter six. where our Lord miraculously feeds the multitude with bread and fish. That was a literal miracle, but it is followed by his teaching that now uses the miracle of the feeding with bread and fish as a pointer to himself, as a sign pointing to himself, who is in himself the bread of life at the spiritual sense.
So this miracle of giving physical sight to the blind man becomes for us also, no less a miracle for that reason, but a parable also, like the feeding of the five thousand becomes a parable, though a miracle. It becomes a parable of the sight that Christ gives us to recognize who he is. Jesus found him, says, do you believe on the Son of God or the Son of Man? He answered, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
In that sense, he had not yet believed, had he? Not discovered really who Jesus was, come to the conclusion he was a prophet and had been slung out of the, uh, synagogue for confessing it. Still didn't know who Jesus was, until Jesus came now and revealed himself to him. Do you believe on the Son of Man? He said, who is he? That I might believe. And Jesus phrasing himself very carefully, says, thou hast both seen him. Just as he cra- fra- phrased himself very carefully in replying to the Samaritan woman.
You'll see. She said at length, well, I know that Messiah comes, and that when he comes, he shall tell us all things. Jesus said, I who speak to thee, am he. And in that very phrase, the analogy recalled to her astonished heart that he, a Jew, had spoken to a woman, and a woman of Samaria. That he had spoken to her, she nearly fell down the well in surprise. Do you see? And now in his grace he reminds her, I who speak to you am he.
So now to the blind man, thou hast both seen him, and he it is that speaketh with thee. The physical sight then being a parable of the spiritual sight, that he comes to recognize who Jesus is, Son of Man, Son of God. We may have a difficulty in always discerning and keeping separate in our thinking as we read the actual miracle, we might have difficulty in separating the literal and physical from the spiritual, of which it is a parable. But notice now what we earlier noticed, the connection in people's thinking and in Jesus' final statement, connection between sin and blindness.
Whose fault was it that the man was born blind, say the apostles? His fault or his parents? Because you see, the Pharisees thought that it was possible for a child in the womb to sin. Whose fault was it? Whose sin was it? Was it his or his parents? And our Lord said, neither, gentlemen. If you confess to having been born spiritually blind, may I ask you whose fault that was? Will God ever hold you responsible for being blind?
And say it was your fault. Indeed not. We have our Lord's own words on it to the Pharisees at the end of this chapter. If you were blind, you would not have sin. That is not that you would be sinlessly perfect, but you would never be blamed for not seeing when it was impossible for you to see anyway, because you were blind. If you were blind, you would not have seen. But now you say you see, ah, but that alters the situation completely. If, like those Pharisees, we claim to see, and to see everything that is, and so much sight that we consider that Jesus is a liar and an imposter.
If you claim to see, then you will be blamed. Your sin remains. Is there anything you could do if you were born blind? In order to get sight. Well, somebody says, no, of course there isn't. You just sit there until the Lord gives you sight, that's all. Well, no, you don't. Not, not in this story. This story is not to be confused with the story in chapter five when a man for for twenty eight years or thirty eight years had been trying to get into a pool and imagined that Jesus Christ had come to lend him a hand to get into the pool, and our Lord said, pool, I don't need pool, my good man.
Get up and walk. This man is sitting by the roadside begging, had no notion of going into any pool. Why did our Lord make him go to the pool? There was something he could do, wasn't there? I don't know if you've ever explained to a blind man who's never seen what sight is. It's mightily difficult. Sight, well, I mean, it's how you can see color. What is color, he'd say. He was born blind.
And yet, when our Lord's, uh, met him, he t- made clay, put it on his eyes, told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. And he had to make up his mind, didn't he? Whether he would or not. Had to make up his mind about this Jesus. Was he an absolute crank? I mean, was it even worth trying the experiment that Christ proposed to go and wash in the pool of Siloam? He might have heard what the apostles said about how Christ had healed other blind men and given them sight, and other things about Jesus.
He had to make up his mind, and he had to do what he was told. That also is part of the miracle and part of the parable. And that washing in the pool of Siloam is in itself significant, is shown us by John because he bothers to translate the term Siloam. Siloam is the Greek for Shiloak. The waters of Shiloak, Isaiah the prophet talks of them, that goes softly. Shiloak means sent one, SENT, not SCENT, sent one.
Christ sent him to wash in the pool of the sent one, with all the prophecies that had, uh, clustered round that term from Isaiah's time onward. That's a very good exercise, soaking oneself in the prophecies of Old Testament to see whether God would fulfill them indeed. Hm. So our Lord spat on the ground and made clay. Herein is the thing interesting in chapter eight, in the story of the woman, our Lord wrote, uh, with his finger on the ground, reminiscent of God with his finger writing the law of Moses on the tables of stone, and writing them twice.
For Christ was the lawgiver incarnate. Now he spat on the ground and molded it into mud or clay and put it on a man's eyes. Yes, but Genesis chapter, uh, two tells us how God made man of pre-existent material, the dust of the ground, molded him, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Here is the Creator incarnate, not healing a man, he never did have sight, creating sight that the man never had had before.
Chapter nine balances, of course, chapter eight. How would you account for the miracle? First of all, there was the question of identity, as the neighbors found him and wanted to make sure that they hadn't mistaken the man's identity. Is this really the beggar that was blind? And in the end, in spite of their diverse opinion, the man's testimony prevailed. Yes, I am he. They brought him therefore to the Pharisees, and because our Lord had done this thing, made clear and anointed his eyes on the Sabbath, some of the Pharisees said that, uh, he he this man is not of God, for he doesn't keep the Sabbath, does he?
Others said, but how can a man that is a sinner do such signs? So there was once more a division. One said this side, the other said the other. So they asked the blind man, what do you say? He said he's a prophet, but the stricter Pharisees weren't going to have that because he was of, if he were a prophet, he was of God, of course. So they went around trying to, to get the evidence that, uh, something, this miracle was not a true miracle. So not a question now of, uh, uh, a mistaken identity, the question of identity as it was with the neighbors, is this the same man?
Here is a question, well, he never was blind to start with. That was all a mistake. So he didn't believe he'd been blind till they called his parents and ascertained from his parents, uh, whether he was born blind or not. Uh, they said in reply, we know that this is our son and that he was born blind, but how he now seeth we know not, or who opened his eyes, we know not. Ask him, and he is of age, he shall speak for himself. And the word they use, at least in John's Greek, is the Greek word oida, that in this ca- context carries a special meaning, of course.
It means direct, basic knowledge. I asked the parents, you see, is this your son? And it was born blind? Well, how then did he get his sight? They carefully reply, we know that this is our son. How did they know that? Well, by direct knowledge, what the philosophers call basic knowledge, if you like. Not, they didn't have to have it proved by some logical deduction or something from a premise. They knew it, they were the parents, weren't they? They knew he was his son. We know he was born blind.
Well, I think they did, yes. That was basic knowledge too, not hearsay. Imagine their disappointment as parents when they discovered that a little child was blind. We know that. By direct basic knowledge. Then they add, but how now he seeth, we know not, and who opened his eyes, we know not. Using the same verb. And if you like, you can justify them because, uh, that how he was, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, how his eyes were opened and who opened them, they didn't know that directly. They only knew that indirectly through their son's report.
They could have known it if they wanted to. They had it from their son, but they weren't prepared to say it unless they'd be put out of the synagogue. Uh, so they said, you must ask him, and the Pharisees proceeded to ask him, and they said, you might as well admit it, old chap, give glory to God, let's confess your facts and your sinfulness. We know. Now they use the same word again, direct knowledge. We know this man is a sinner. How could I possibly know that? We know that he is a sinner. Well, the man said, whether he be a sinner or not, I don't know it.
Direct knowledge again. Do see, one thing I do know, that whereas I was blind, I now see. This is direct experience talking. I know I was blind, I know I s- can now see. They said unto him, what did he to thee? How opened he thine eyes? Presumably they're trying to find out some detail of the operation that they might prove it wasn't genuine or something. He's too much for them. He answered, I told you even now, and you did not hear. Why would you want to hear it again? Would you also become his disciples? And they reviled him and said, Thou art his disciple, we are Moses' disciples.
We know that God has spoken to Moses. Well, how did they know that? Isn't it interesting how people will say what they know and what they don't know? Well, how did they know this then, that God has spoken to Moses? Just through reading the story in Exodus or something about the flames and thunder on Mount Sinai? Or was it deeper still? They knew it out of divine conviction or something.
How did they know it? Gentlemen, you see, uh, they go on to say, but as to this man, we know not. We are agnostic. Now it's a play, can be a reasonable claim, I suppose, to claim to be agnostic, but really it's an impossible position, isn't it? There are two kinds of agnostics. There are agnostics who say, I don't know, and nobody else can know anyway. That is to claim a lot, isn't it? You don't know, and nobody can know that Jesus is the Christ. Well, Christ says you can know.
If you say you can't know, you're making him a liar, and to make him a liar is to know a lot of things, isn't it, Otto? You know a lot if you know he's a liar. There's the milder form of agnostic. I don't know, other people may know, but I don't. But that's a very weak position, because the answer is you could know, old chap. For Christ claims he could give you the knowledge. Why don't you accept it? Agnosticism is a very weak position. We know not whence he is.
And the man replied, why herein is a marvelous thing in all this situation. This is astonishing, gentlemen, he said, uh, that you know not whence he is, and yet he has opened my eyes. We know, of course, is basic knowledge, this is. It was absolutely fundamental to Judaism. We know that God does not hear sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God and do his will, him he heareth. That is absolutely basic to Judaism, basic knowledge. It is marvelous, therefore, that you can tell me that you don't know whence he is, when all the while he's opened my eyes, and consider what a unique miracle it is anyway.
Since the world began, it was never heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. The whole question of basic knowledge, and how do you come to knowledge? I'm tempted to say more, but the clock tells me I mustn't. They put the man out. Then Jesus found him, which makes us aware that all this discussion between the ex-blind man and the Pharisees had been going on in the absence of Christ.
That is also part of the parable, isn't it? You've never seen the Lord? And yet you stand up for him? Not bad going, is it? But anyway, Christ now finds him. And from the miracle that was the parable, that is a parable, now we come back to the plain fact, Jesus found him. And did the final and wonderful thing, opened his spiritual sight to see that Jesus is the Son of Man, the Son of God.
So Christ is the light in which we see, uh, other things, ourselves included. But Christ is the light of the world in the sense that he can give us the sight to see with. The final chapter in this series is chapter ten. and the parable this time is the parable of sheep. Now sheep, they have this quality about them, that they can get to know a shepherd. They may not be able to speak much.
I go up the mountain sometimes and come across sheep, and they're pretty civilized sheep in the mountains. They'll come near you anyway. And so I'll say to them, you know, to the sheep, what do you think of Tony Blair? And you know, that apparently they don't think much of him at all. See, they never reply at any rate, never tell me what they think. Ah. And they look at me with grave suspicion. But it is true of sheep that they can get to know a shepherd. How do sheep get to know a shepherd? This, the final of the four chapters, talks about how sheep come to know a shepherd.
First is the little parable from one to six. Verily I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and the robber. And he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Yes, Christ came to the fold of Israel by the door, came to the doorkeeper. The parable is of a big fold in the center of town where various shepherds may have come and put their flocks into the hole, into the fold, and they pay the doorkeeper, and then they go off on the town for the weekend, and after the weekend they come, and they must show their credentials to the doorkeeper, and then he will let them in.
And Christ came by the doorkeeper. Listen to John, chapter one. And he seeth the La- the Lord coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God. And when the Pharisees asked him, who are you? He said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. And I bear a record because he that sent me to baptize, namely God the Father, sent me saying, on whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit of God descending like a dove and abiding on him, this is he that baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John's testimony to the redeeming Lamb of God and to the sender of the Holy Spirit.
John the doorkeeper. And Christ came to be baptized of him, and let himself be baptized by John. For John was the divinely appointed doorkeeper, pro- forerunner, precursor of Christ to introduce him to the nation. And John opened the door, but now notice what happened. To him the door port torta openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And now you notice, it's not the doorkeeper that goes into the fold and says, now sheep, all you who belong to Tom Smith, come out.
No, no, no. Sheep wouldn't come out. When the doorkeeper opens the door, the shepherd goes in, and among the many sheep there, he calls his own sheep, not the whole lot, calls his own sheep by name, and the sheep hear his voice. Voice recognition. That's one of the ways that sheep know a shepherd. Voice recognition. What do you mean by voice? They hear his voice and they recognize his voice. Well, Paul was subsequently preaching in a synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia.
And in preaching he said, they that dwell at Jerusalem and your rulers, he's talking to Jews way out in Pisidia, so he refers to the Jews in Jerusalem, your leaders in Jerusalem. Knowing not the voice of the prophets that are read every Sabbath in the synagogue, have fulfilled them in condemning him. The, the Jews that crucified Christ, says Paul, knew not the voice of the prophets. For had they known the voice, they would have recognized in Christ the very spirit of prophecy.
There were other Jews, you know. There was a certain Martha and Mary, known to some of you here. Um, they heard the Lord speak, and they picked up their ears. They knew the voice. And the sheep hear his voice, and they follow him. He puts them out, and then he goes in front of them, doesn't drive them. A stranger they will not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto them, but the his, the bystanders understood not what things they were which he spake to them.
Christ coming, therefore, to the fold of Judaism is recognized by his own sheep. They recognize the voice. They follow him. He puts them out of the fold. Not just the Pharisees have thrown the blind man out, but Christ leads his own out of the fold of Judaism. And goes in front of them. Did indeed. First to Calvary, and then by his ascension. The next little parable, verses seven, eight, nine, and ten, describes a shepherd who takes his sheep out of the fold and up the mountains to find pasture.
You'll see, they can't stay in that crowded fold in the middle of the city. That will become horrible and dirty, and there will be no grass eventually. He must lead them out, lead them up out to the mountains, to the green pastures, you see. But there, there would be certain dangers with wild animals and things. Safe, you may say, in the fold in town, but up the mountain? Well, he says, I am the door of the sheep. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out, not go in and out of salvation. He's talking in a parable form of what happens when a shepherd takes a sheep up the mountain.
And so he has a little fold for them up the mountain built of stone, and you can see them still in some parts of Judea, do you see? And at night he will call them back and put them in the fold for protection against wild animals. During the day, if it's safe and there's no lions about or bears, he will let them out. They will go in and out, and they will find pasture, liberty, and yet protection and security. Beautiful parable, of course. For liberty that Christ gives to his people, rather different from their situation in Judaism, and yet not a wild, dangerous freedom, but freedom and security, both, that we might go out and find pasture.
Then in the third bit, beginning in verse eleven and coming down to verse eighteen, our Lord contrasts himself not merely with thieves and robbers that come to destroy, but with an employee. A man need not be a robber or a thief. He could simply be shepherding the sheep for what he got out of it as an employee. Get so much money a week for looking after sheep. I'm not one of those, says Christ. I'm not an employee. In fact, the sheep belong to me anyway.
They're my sheep. Now the employee, he'll look after them as well as he can, but he sees the wolf or the lion coming. Now he's got to make up his mind. Is it worth trying to s- to save the sheep from the this wolf? Well, it wouldn't be worth it if if he lost his life, would he? I mean, what is so much m- money a week, five pounds a week, for instance, or a hundred, if you lose your life on the job? No, no, if he's an employee, he he runs off, for the sheep don't belong to him.
He's merely an employee, and if they get destroyed, well, what could he care? He's not going to lay down his life for them. He's doing it for the money he gets out of it, that's all. But Christ is not an employee. The sheep belong to him. And he lays down his life for the sheep. Uh, uh, but voluntarily, not because he was overcome. No one taketh it from me. Lay it down of myself. I take it again. This commandment have I received from my Father, and my Father loves me because I lay down my life for the sheep.
And in so saying, he points out that there comes an intimate reciprocal knowledge. The sheep know him, and he knows his own sheep. And sets up a relationship of knowledge between his sheep and him that he enjoyed between him and the Father. That is astounding, that is. Relationship between us, a relationship between us and him. On the model of his relationship with the Father. He knows the Father, and the Father knows him. We're told that this, at this time, it was the feast of dedication.
Now, dedication recalled the time when the great sinister ruler, Gentile ruler, Antiochus Epiphanes came and desecrated the temple in Jerusalem, set up a, a pagan image, sacrificed a pig upon the altar, forbade circumcision, destroyed the scriptures as best he could. And the chief priests in Israel at the time agreed with him and went over to syncretism, willing to turn Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city under Hellenistic rulers, and to agree with the heathen that Jehovah, well, that was merely one name.
Baal, that's another name for the same thing. Doesn't matter whether you call him Allah or Baal or Jehovah or On or Osiris or whatever, or Zeus. It's all the same thing, the high priest said. Denying their very, the revelation of God to them, of course. Beside me, there's none else. The Maccabees fought and gained independence for Israel. But that reminds us, of course, that when our Lord says, I'm the good shepherd, we think simply of a shepherd with sh- sheep. But in in Israel's Old Testament, shepherd is also the description of the shepherd with sh- sheep.
But in in Israel's Old Testament, shepherd is also the description of the king. The true king is a shepherd. What about the false king? The false leaders, the high priests, and what about that sinister figure, Antiochus Epiphanes, who put the abomination of desolation in the holy place in Jerusalem? What about him then? And how about this Jesus? Claiming to be shepherd and king. Dare you trust him? What, uh, claim will he make?
And so the final part of John chapter ten is extraordinarily delightful. I don't know if you've ever applied for a job, um, manager of Tesco's or something, or, you know, um, head of the Bank of England, and you were brought before a committee and they said to you, well, tell me, Mr. So-and-so, that flackety you, how would you solve, what would you do with Northern Rock? And you'd have to advertise your, your abilities to prove that you were a good chap.
And here come the crowds around Jesus, and they said, look here, why don't you tell us plainly and straightforwardly, are you the Christ or aren't you? Well, I told you before, says Christ, you didn't believe, but if you know, want to know whether I'm in Christ or not, let me, may I use the term, gentlemen, advertise myself as the true shepherd. Here are my qualities as a shepherd. I give to my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and none shall pluck them out of my Father's hand.
I and my Father are one. All the marvelous qualifications of the shepherd. The eternal security that he gives to all his sheep. You don't believe because you're not my sheep, says Christ. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them. From which some people have, uh, concluded that there are those whom God has elected to be Christ's sheep. They will believe him. There are others, and God has not elected them, and so they are not Christ's sheep, and therefore they don't believe him.
But that can scarcely be maintained on the basis of this chapter. For talking to these same Pharisees of whom he says that you don't believe because you're not my sheep, you know. But that doesn't mean they could never become his sheep. So finally he says to them, now look here, gentlemen, if you don't believe me, start by believing my works, that you may know that the Father is with me and come to know it. Start with my works. The tremendous humility and graciousness of the true shepherd.
At the moment, you don't believe me. You're not my sheep, you see. You could become my sheep. Christ wasn't taunting them, challenging them to do what he knew was impossible. He says, if you don't believe me, then believe my works. You'll see the, uh, when they took up stones to stone him, he said, to which many works have I shown you from the Father, he said. For which of these good works do you stone me? They said, we don't stone you for good works, but because you, being a man, make yourself equal with God.
Oh, is that your difficulty, said Christ? Well, put down those stones a moment. Just a moment. Your difficulty is that I claim to to be God. I see. But that isn't a absolute difficulty, gentlemen, is it? Because in the Psalms it is written of some who were ordinary men. He called them gods in some sense. And you can't alter the scripture, says he. And if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, how do you say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because I said I'm the Son of God? Gentlemen, if yours is a theological difficulty, I can put that right for you.
You, you, you, you, you know, you've misunderstood, gentlemen. Not blasphemy. So the theological difficulty being covered by our Lord. He knows this issues, he now issues the final challenge. Not my sheep yet. You don't believe, you see. But if you can't believe me, start somewhere. Didn't I hear you say just now, for no good, we're not stoning you for your good works. So some of the works I've done have been good, have they? You admit that bit. Well, look here, gentlemen, said he, if you can't believe me, start believing my works, that you might come to know, and therefore know, certainly go on to know, that the Father is with me.
I don't do anything like of this by myself and from myself, but the Father abiding in me, he does the works. Marvelous, isn't it? Do you see, as I say, I go up the mountain sometimes and have a word with the sheep, and they come round, being Irish sheep, and look at this strange thing that's an Englishman is standing in front of them, look very suspicious. And I talked to them and asked their opinion about various things, do you see? And of course they're not going to get too near. Now, one way to do is when they're like that, because they don't know me. I'm not the shepherd, you see. If I were a shepherd, they'd come running at me.
But are you going to trust me? Not of a Saturday afternoon. So you get a bunch of real good juicy, gro- uh, juicy grass and throw it there and then walk back, you see. And they look at you and they look at that. And then they see that's good grass, and you run forward and get the grass and go back again, to see. And then you throw it, but not quite so far this time, another bit. And they look at that and they look at you, and then they come and grab it. If you do it often enough, gentlemen, they'll come and eat out of your hand. Oh, praise, see the pathos.
He's God incarnate. They can't believe him and accuse him of blasphemy. And he says, look, if you can't believe me, let me stand back a bit. And they're my works. Believe that. Make a start somewhere, so that you may know and come to know ever more fully that I am the true shepherd. The Father is with me, and the Father abiding in me does the work.
Sheep coming to know the shepherd. Four chapters we have studied, well, where we've looked at anyway, glanced at superficially, about God's strategies for making himself known through the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of his dear son. It is a fourfold subject. It has four different sides to it. I hope I've given enough pointers to, uh, excite you, if you will, that each chapter is worth studying in its own right, so that we can ask, what does each of these chapters contribute to this whole matter of how do we come to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and believing have life in his name?
For they who come to know the shepherd, he will lead them to the Father's home on high. He will be our shepherd to all eternity.
