john 10
funny, i feel like i've read this passage so many times that i'm really having to fight skimming it with the mindset of "you've read this before...", anyway this passage is all about Jesus as the good shepherd and starts off with this analogy about gates to a sheep pen and the thief entering by a way other than the gate but the sheep following their shepherd because they know his voice ... but the people he was talking to weren't getting the point so he spelled it out:
v9-11: "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. he will come in and go out, and find pasture. the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. the good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep."
== first, i want to note this "find pasture" business...the pasture for a sheep is its food and shepherds lead the sheep from place to place in search of good pasture for them to graze upon...so this business of that we will find pasture with Christ as our shepherd is pretty cool--we will find nourishment, so to speak.
== people often say that "the thief" in this passage is representative of Satan, in juxtaposition to the second part of that verse about Christ coming to give life... i think this is actually a very important thing to remember--if we can keep in mind that Satan comes only to steal and kill and destroy and that Christ comes to give life, and really take it as the truth that it is, i think our outlooks on life might change a bit. the things of our sinful nature that we hold on to so fiercely sometimes, they destroy us. the conviction that we sometimes want so much to avoid...it offers us life.
== and a quick not on v11...well i have a tendency to just skip over stuff like that cause it's so "old news" in my head. but just think for a minute--that actually is a HUGE deal. the shepherd laying down his life to protect his sheep because he loves them...i mean, there's only one of him and he could just get more sheep... but no, he lays down his life to protect those sheep (hint: we're the sheep...).
v16-8: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. they too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. no one takes it from me, but i lay it down of my own accord."
== one flock and one shepherd--we're all in this together. :)
== i want to draw attention to this laying down his life of his own accord thing...sometimes i think it's easy to forget that. Jesus when he was in the garden of gethsemane the night he was arrested prayed that the cup (of dying for all of humanity) might pass from him, but then said 'your will be done' ... he was the God of the Universe in the body of a man, he could DEFINITELY have saved himself. but he *chose* to save us instead, to go through all that pain and humiliation for the sake of the flock.
== as for taking it up again - well, he *is* the God of the Universe, and in taking his life up again he demonstrates the power he has, power even over death.
v27-30: "my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. my Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
== i first kind of passed over this stuff as well--but look, eternal life? that's a big deal. the sheep can't really do much for the shepherd, really i'd imagine they're a pain in the butt most of time cause they're fairly stupid animals. but the good shepherd, he LOVES his sheep and he gives them eternal life freely, knowing that they have nothing to give him in return that could warrant that.
== "no one can snatch them out of my hand" ... now *that* is a promise. worse comes to worse, we're still not getting snatched away from the shepherd.
v37-8: "do not believe me unless i do what my Father does. but if i do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
== we are simply asked to believe. this caught my eye because of the "know and understand" part. if we look at the miracles that Christ performed--the healings, the casting out of demons, the feeding of thousands on scraps of food, water in to wine, the resurrection itself...--the only explanation is that he really is in the Father (God) and vice verse, and if we will look at these things we can know and understand that.
v9-11: "I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. he will come in and go out, and find pasture. the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. the good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep."
== first, i want to note this "find pasture" business...the pasture for a sheep is its food and shepherds lead the sheep from place to place in search of good pasture for them to graze upon...so this business of that we will find pasture with Christ as our shepherd is pretty cool--we will find nourishment, so to speak.
== people often say that "the thief" in this passage is representative of Satan, in juxtaposition to the second part of that verse about Christ coming to give life... i think this is actually a very important thing to remember--if we can keep in mind that Satan comes only to steal and kill and destroy and that Christ comes to give life, and really take it as the truth that it is, i think our outlooks on life might change a bit. the things of our sinful nature that we hold on to so fiercely sometimes, they destroy us. the conviction that we sometimes want so much to avoid...it offers us life.
== and a quick not on v11...well i have a tendency to just skip over stuff like that cause it's so "old news" in my head. but just think for a minute--that actually is a HUGE deal. the shepherd laying down his life to protect his sheep because he loves them...i mean, there's only one of him and he could just get more sheep... but no, he lays down his life to protect those sheep (hint: we're the sheep...).
v16-8: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. they too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. no one takes it from me, but i lay it down of my own accord."
== one flock and one shepherd--we're all in this together. :)
== i want to draw attention to this laying down his life of his own accord thing...sometimes i think it's easy to forget that. Jesus when he was in the garden of gethsemane the night he was arrested prayed that the cup (of dying for all of humanity) might pass from him, but then said 'your will be done' ... he was the God of the Universe in the body of a man, he could DEFINITELY have saved himself. but he *chose* to save us instead, to go through all that pain and humiliation for the sake of the flock.
== as for taking it up again - well, he *is* the God of the Universe, and in taking his life up again he demonstrates the power he has, power even over death.
v27-30: "my sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. my Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
== i first kind of passed over this stuff as well--but look, eternal life? that's a big deal. the sheep can't really do much for the shepherd, really i'd imagine they're a pain in the butt most of time cause they're fairly stupid animals. but the good shepherd, he LOVES his sheep and he gives them eternal life freely, knowing that they have nothing to give him in return that could warrant that.
== "no one can snatch them out of my hand" ... now *that* is a promise. worse comes to worse, we're still not getting snatched away from the shepherd.
v37-8: "do not believe me unless i do what my Father does. but if i do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
== we are simply asked to believe. this caught my eye because of the "know and understand" part. if we look at the miracles that Christ performed--the healings, the casting out of demons, the feeding of thousands on scraps of food, water in to wine, the resurrection itself...--the only explanation is that he really is in the Father (God) and vice verse, and if we will look at these things we can know and understand that.