Last time I shall touch on these verses. I promise we will see verse 15 and beyond. I realized in preparing for today that it has now been 10 commentaries to cover 14 verses. At this new pace we will complete the Gospel of John in 2010. But these parting thoughts by Bishop Ryle I found poetic, inspiring, and glorifying to God. I pray we are refreshed each time we all read these verses and He touches our hearts and mind anew with each word. May He guide us and lead us in our journey and daily walk.
Extra Credit: As I stated the last post not to purposely go out to condemn a movie and by no means condemning those who decide to view it, I did though decide to expand my explanation over the last couple of posts about the movie The Passion. With the religiosity of the holiday and the renewed promotion of the movie I pray God may use these words to spread His message of Grace on these days of self-righteousness and self-sorrow. With that here is a message by a new contributor Ken Wimer a pastor in Shreveport, LA. With his gleanings of grace entitled What you wont learn form The Passion.
Jhn 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
Jhn 10:8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
Jhn 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
Jhn 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Jhn 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
Discussion forum: We touched on the door, the sheep, the Shepherd, and the thieves, what of the pastures? What is the pastures we will find?
Like a good shepherd, Christ KNOWS all His believing people. Their names, their families, their dwelling-places, their circumstances, their private history, their experience, their trials--with all these things Jesus is perfectly acquainted. There is not a thing about the least and lowest of them with which He is not familiar. The children of this world may not know Christians, and may count their lives folly; but the Good Shepherd knows them thoroughly, and, wonderful to say, though He knows them, does not despise them.
Like a Good Shepherd, Christ CARES tenderly for all His believing people. He provides for all their needs in the wilderness of this world, and leads them by the right way to a city of habitation. He bears patiently with their many weaknesses and infirmities, and does not cast them off because they are wayward, erring, sick, footsore, or lame. He guards and protects them against all their enemies, as Jacob did the flock of Laban; and of those that the Father has given Him He will be found at last to have lost none.
Like a Good Shepherd, Christ LAYS DOWN HIS LIFE for the sheep. He did it once for all, when He was crucified for them. When He saw that nothing could deliver them from hell and the devil, but His blood, He willingly made His soul an offering for their sins. The merit of that death He is now presenting before the Father's throne. The sheep are saved for evermore, because the Good Shepherd died for them. This is indeed a love that passes knowledge! "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13.)
By J. C. Ryle
