Hello and welcome to this
program "Books of the Book."
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We're so glad that you
can join us in this program.
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We're doing a Bible
study on the Gospel of John.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez
and with us is a Bible scholar,
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his name is Dr. Jon Paulien.
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And he is the dean of Religion
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at Loma Linda University
in Loma Linda, California.
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And we want to welcome him
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for being with us
and taking his time.
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You have flown from a very
far distance. That's right.
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Southern California to
Southern Illinois. All right.
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Loma Linda must be a
very wonderful place.
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Well, the name means
'beautiful hill' in Spanish.
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In Spanish, yeah. All
right. Well, come again.
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And now we are in
the middle of the gospel.
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And by the way if you
have a Bible, you can join us.
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And we are
picking up in Chapter 10,
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again that's the Gospel of John.
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And Dr. Paulien, so the
last program we talked about,
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of course Chapter 9 and
how Jesus healed a blind man
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and now we get into 10.
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And it seems that Jesus is now
giving another discourse. Hmm.
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How is this chapter which is
talks about the good shepherd?
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Is that connected to Chapter 9?
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Okay, I think a lot of
people tend to read Chapter 10
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as if it were by itself.
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Chapter 10 is actually
two separate incidents.
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The first incident is
the good shepherd analogy
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and then you have the story
of Jesus in the temple again,
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this time in another feast day.
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And those are three
months are so apart.
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But this story in Chapter 10
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is actually
connected to Chapter 9,
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which is
connected to Chapter 7 & 8.
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It's all one incident.
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In fact the later
part of 8, 9 & 10,
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all happened on the same day,
maybe even in the same hour.
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So they're all tied together.
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And if you go to Chapter
10, right at the beginning.
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If you have a King James Bible,
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it'll say "Verily,
verily, I say unto you."
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If you have more
modern translation,
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it might say,
"Truly, truly, I tell you."
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That introduction
that "Truly, truly"
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never starts a new
chapter. It's always a reaction.
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If somebody say, look, let me
really emphasize this," you see.
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Nobody's gonna say, "Let me
really emphasize this--" Right.
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When he opens
the door, you know.
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Somebody rings
your door bell, okay.
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You open the door.
"Let me emphasize this."
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He's gonna like,
"Oh--oh. Wait a minute.
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What are we talking
about?" You see. Right.
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So Chapter 10:1 is not
introducing a new thing,
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it goes right on
what came before.
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Jesus' talking to the Pharisees
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in the presence
of this blind man,
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who was healed and saying,
you know, your guilt remains
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because you're
rejecting the light
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that's been brought to you."
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So something about
this good shepherd analogy
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is gonna related to
that previous story.
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And as we get closer
we will see how that is.
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Perhaps just look at verse 4,
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just for a moment. Chapter 10--
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Chapter 10? Yeah.
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"And when he
brings out his own sheep,
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he goes before them,
and the sheep follow him,
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for they know his voice." Okay.
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That I think is a
very clear reference
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back to the
blind man of Chapter 9.
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The sheep of
Jesus know His voice.
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This man was a disciple of Jesus
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before he actually knew Him.
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He'd only met
Him as a blind man.
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Jesus puts
something in his eyes,
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sent him to the pool,
he receives his sight,
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he doesn't know
what Jesus looks like,
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he doesn't know his name,
and he doesn't know who he is.
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But as he's
talking to the Pharisees,
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he comes to know Jesus' voice.
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So when he actually
meets Jesus, he knows--
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So blind people, they
know the voice, you know.
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I had a friend who was blind.
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And it didn't matter if we've
been separated for two years,
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he would know me instantly.
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But here's an interesting
thing, my roommate in college,
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and he'd roam next to us.
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And my roommate in college
had a voice just like mine.
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Our voices are so similar
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that sometimes he'd have
a girl friend on the phone,
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he said "Hey, I got
to go do something."
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And I just take the
phone and say, "Yeah, yeah."
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And she never knew
it wasn't him, you know.
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But this blind
guy, he would know
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the difference between us.
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But there was one
thing, my roommate,
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whenever he would
see him "Hello, Don."
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And he would kind of
tap him under the chin.
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And I remember
that, so 20 years later,
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I see this guy and I just go up
to him and I said, "Hello, Don."
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And I tapped him on the chin.
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And he says,
"Oh, this is Gaspar,"
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you know. "Hello."
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And then I said, "Fooled you."
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Very hard to fool a blind man.
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See the blind man
knows by the voice.
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And Jesus takes
that whole analogy
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and brings it in
here, and He says
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"My sheep know My voice."
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Those who truly
commit themselves
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to Jesus through the Holy Spirit
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will know what is the right way,
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will know the truth, they
will be lead to follow Jesus.
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Why don't we read the
whole first 10 verses?
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As the closest
you get to a parable
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in the entire Gospel of John.
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"Most assuredly, I say to you,
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he who does not enter
the sheepfold by the door,
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but climbs up some other way,
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the same is a
thief and a robber.
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But he who enters by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep.
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To him the doorkeeper opens,
and the sheep hear his voice,
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and he calls his
own sheep by name
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and leads them out.
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And when he
brings out his own sheep,
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he goes before them,
and the sheep follow him,
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for they know his voice.
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Yet they will by no
means follow a stranger,
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but will flee from him,
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for they do not know
the voice of strangers.
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Jesus used this illustration,
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but did not
understand the things,
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they did not
understand the things
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which He spoke to them.
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Then Jesus said to them again,
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'Most assuredly, I say to
you, I am the door of the sheep.
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All who ever came before
Me are thieves and robbers,
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but the sheep did not
hear them. I am the door.
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If anyone enters by
Me, he will be saved,
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and will go in and
out and find pasture.
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The thief does not
come except to steal,
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and to kill, and to destroy.
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I have come that
they may have life,
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and that they may
have it more abundantly.'"
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Why don't you read
verse 11, while you're there?
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"I am the good shepherd."
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The good shepherd gives
His life for the sheep."
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So here Jesus has a
couple of "I am" statements.
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We learned earlier that,
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that these were
showing how divine power
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has been
exercised through his life.
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Here he says, "I am
the door of the sheepfold"
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and then he says, " I
am the good shepherd."
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So what's going on here?
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Palestine back at that time
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and still today is
a fairly dry country
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and there aren't tons and
tons of forests, you know.
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It's hard for a tree to get
established there and to grow,
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because the moisture can
be irregular and so and so.
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When we think of a
sheepfold, we think of a corral,
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you know, made with
wooden fences and so on--
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didn't happen. It's
not the way they did it.
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The favorite
sheepfold was a cave, you see.
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Because you
could put the sheep in
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and if the
shepherd would lay down
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at the entrance of the
cave, the sheep were in there.
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Right. They were safe.
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The sheep couldn't get
out without him knowing it,
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or a wolf couldn't get
in without him knowing it.
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So you see the shepherd and
the door are the same thing.
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When you know the culture
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and the way
things went at that time,
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this story makes perfect sense.
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But what if they
didn't have caves?
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What they do have is
lots and lots of stones.
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It's a very rocky soil
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and you'll see
often stone fences.
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And they would
create a circle of stones,
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maybe a meter
high or little bit more
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or whatever sheep
would not be able to cross,
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create that circle of stones.
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And then there'd be
an opening at one end.
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And that's the place
where the shepherd would stay.
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So sheep would go
in there at night,
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the shepherd would
lay down in that opening
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and everything was safe.
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So that's the
context that you have here
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that the shepherd and
the door is the same thing.
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The shepherd
comes in by the door,
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the sheep come in by the door,
anybody goes in another way,
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is a thief, or a robber
or even a wolf. All right.
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So what's he
doing with all of these?
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All of this is
following on from Chapter 9.
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So why don't we read
verses 11 through 16?
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We're still in Chapter 10. Hmm.
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"I am the good shepherd.
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The good shepherd
gives His life for the sheep.
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But a hireling, he
who is not the shepherd,
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one who does not own the sheep,
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sees the wolf coming and
leaves the sheep and flees,
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and the wolf catches
the sheep and scatters them.
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The hireling flees
because he is a hireling
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and does not
care about the sheep.
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I am the good
shepherd, and I know My sheep,
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and am known by My own.
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As the Father knows Me,
even so I know the Father,
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and I lay down My
life for the sheep.
00:10:01.35\00:10:04.14
And other sheep I have
which are not of this fold,
00:10:04.17\00:10:07.63
them also I must bring,
and they will hear My voice,
00:10:07.66\00:10:11.43
and there will be one
flock and one shepherd."
00:10:11.46\00:10:15.07
So here Jesus
explains the analogy,
00:10:15.10\00:10:17.65
it's not
exactly a parable, this,
00:10:17.68\00:10:19.71
you know, shepherd and
sheep, it's an analogy.
00:10:19.74\00:10:23.34
But he explains it here that
there's two kinds of shepherd,
00:10:23.37\00:10:27.98
there's the
shepherd who owns the sheep,
00:10:28.01\00:10:30.93
who has a
relationship with the sheep
00:10:30.96\00:10:33.10
and this kind of shepherd will,
00:10:33.13\00:10:34.92
if necessary give
his life for the sheep.
00:10:34.95\00:10:37.30
The wolf comes
and he will fight.
00:10:37.33\00:10:40.20
Whereas the other type
of shepherd is the hireling
00:10:40.23\00:10:43.82
and that's somebody
who is doing it for "pay."
00:10:43.85\00:10:46.82
This is a person
who has no intention
00:10:46.85\00:10:48.41
of dying for this job, you know.
00:10:48.44\00:10:50.38
So when the wolf
comes or the thief comes,
00:10:50.41\00:10:53.09
he'll just run
away, and leave the sheep.
00:10:53.12\00:10:55.51
You know, he was happy to take
money for watching the sheep,
00:10:55.54\00:10:57.87
but he wasn't gonna defend them.
00:10:57.90\00:10:59.74
His motive is
salary rather than-- Yeah.
00:10:59.77\00:11:02.41
A genuine care for the sheep.
00:11:02.44\00:11:04.16
Now who do these
two shepherds represent?
00:11:04.19\00:11:08.45
The shepherd, who's willing
00:11:08.48\00:11:09.76
to give his life
for the sheep would be?
00:11:09.79\00:11:12.51
Jesus. Jesus, okay.
00:11:12.54\00:11:14.46
Who are the hired hands,
00:11:14.49\00:11:17.00
who are not willing
to give their lives,
00:11:17.03\00:11:18.40
and who don't really
care about the sheep?
00:11:18.43\00:11:20.91
Going back to Chapter
9, those are the Pharisees,
00:11:20.94\00:11:23.90
who had a sheep in their midst,
00:11:23.93\00:11:27.11
this blind man and
instead of caring for him
00:11:27.14\00:11:30.44
and being excited that,
00:11:30.47\00:11:32.66
you know, he sees now
and he's close to the God,
00:11:32.69\00:11:36.54
they throw him out.
00:11:36.57\00:11:38.27
So they take the sheep
and toss is out of the pen.
00:11:38.30\00:11:41.75
So Jesus is giving this analogy
00:11:41.78\00:11:44.62
as a further illustration
of what was happening
00:11:44.65\00:11:48.12
in the story in Chapter 9.
00:11:48.15\00:11:50.26
And basically
there's two relationships
00:11:50.29\00:11:53.58
with God that are possible.
00:11:53.61\00:11:56.23
One of them is the relationship
00:11:56.26\00:11:57.76
of institutional
or political religion,
00:11:57.79\00:12:01.05
where people
maybe following God,
00:12:01.08\00:12:05.22
giving lip service to God
00:12:05.25\00:12:07.22
for what they can get
out of it in this world.
00:12:07.25\00:12:09.65
And what are the things that
one can get out of a religion?
00:12:09.68\00:12:12.14
Well, you can get power.
00:12:12.17\00:12:14.11
There are some people
00:12:14.14\00:12:16.08
who don't have anything
going on the job or stuff,
00:12:16.11\00:12:19.41
but if they can
elder of the church,
00:12:19.44\00:12:22.28
there's a position of authority
00:12:22.31\00:12:24.40
and they like the
power that comes with it,
00:12:24.43\00:12:27.03
there maybe money
that comes with religion.
00:12:27.06\00:12:29.56
You know, you can use
religion to gather fees
00:12:29.59\00:12:33.81
or sell tapes or
all kinds of things.
00:12:33.84\00:12:35.73
So one can be into it
00:12:35.76\00:12:38.32
for what you can get
out of it in this life
00:12:38.35\00:12:41.49
and those are the hired hands.
00:12:41.52\00:12:43.31
The Pharisees who are there,
00:12:43.34\00:12:45.33
religion for them
was their way of life
00:12:45.36\00:12:47.74
and their way to
power and authority
00:12:47.77\00:12:50.39
and sometimes even
sexuality can get involved,
00:12:50.42\00:12:53.73
as we often
heard in recent times.
00:12:53.76\00:12:57.37
But the true kind of faith
00:12:57.40\00:13:00.20
is the faith that's
willing to die for it,
00:13:00.23\00:13:02.77
something worth living for
and something worth dying for.
00:13:02.80\00:13:08.66
So that's the difference between
the two kinds of religion
00:13:08.69\00:13:12.56
and Jesus is
illustrating that here.
00:13:12.59\00:13:14.58
So there is a major connection
again in Chapter 9 and 10,
00:13:14.61\00:13:18.05
although it appears--we can
take just Chapter 10 by itself
00:13:18.08\00:13:22.18
and it would, you
know, it would make sense.
00:13:22.21\00:13:24.85
But as you said that
those first two words,
00:13:24.88\00:13:28.27
"Verily, verily
or amen, amen." Yeah.
00:13:28.30\00:13:30.78
Well, my version
says, most assuredly
00:13:30.81\00:13:32.52
and then he gets going.
00:13:32.55\00:13:33.65
So then again the
conversation is not over.
00:13:33.68\00:13:38.17
As the blind man
present most likely to face--
00:13:38.20\00:13:40.08
He may well be
present during this--
00:13:40.11\00:13:41.67
it doesn't say one
way or the other, yeah.
00:13:41.70\00:13:43.52
And so as the
Pharisees are casting
00:13:43.55\00:13:46.39
this man out of the
synagogue, Jesus is taking him.
00:13:46.42\00:13:49.49
He's collecting him.
00:13:49.52\00:13:50.55
He's collecting that
sheep and he's following. Yeah.
00:13:50.58\00:13:52.96
So this idea of the shepherd
00:13:52.99\00:13:56.16
and the sheep happens
in a lot of the gospels.
00:13:56.19\00:13:58.87
In Mathew 18,
it's about the church,
00:13:58.90\00:14:02.16
so here it's
about the Pharisees.
00:14:02.19\00:14:04.02
But in Mathew 18,
it's about the church.
00:14:04.05\00:14:06.04
There are big
shots in the church,
00:14:06.07\00:14:08.71
who are throwing out
the sheep, in Mathew 18,
00:14:08.74\00:14:13.18
when you look at it.
00:14:13.21\00:14:14.26
In Luke 15, the sheep
wanders out by itself.
00:14:14.29\00:14:18.80
But in Mathew 18,
00:14:18.83\00:14:20.21
Jesus is the
one protecting those
00:14:20.24\00:14:22.09
that the church
people are throwing out.
00:14:22.12\00:14:24.38
In Luke 15, the sheep
that wanders out by themselves,
00:14:24.41\00:14:28.32
Jesus still goes after them.
00:14:28.35\00:14:30.69
In John Chapter 10,
00:14:30.72\00:14:32.83
when the Pharisees
are throwing people out,
00:14:32.86\00:14:34.91
Jesus collects them.
00:14:34.94\00:14:36.47
So you can see the
character of God in all of this.
00:14:36.50\00:14:40.15
And God is
inviting us to treat people,
00:14:40.18\00:14:44.79
whether they're Jews,
whether they're Christians,
00:14:44.82\00:14:46.78
or whether just people
00:14:46.81\00:14:48.08
who stupidly go the wrong
way, like sheep, you know.
00:14:48.11\00:14:51.84
Grass looks greener over
there, you go over there.
00:14:51.87\00:14:54.18
Oh, there's another greener one.
00:14:54.21\00:14:55.41
Pretty sooner they're
lost, not very intelligent.
00:14:55.44\00:14:58.60
But Jesus still
cares and goes after them.
00:14:58.63\00:15:01.37
Indeed God cares.
00:15:01.40\00:15:02.77
And we're gonna continue
learning more of God's character
00:15:02.80\00:15:05.82
in the Gospel of John
after this short break.
00:15:05.85\00:15:08.41