Tag: sheep

After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said,

“Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”

The Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John – 4:1 NASB

Heaven’s door

Let’s not miss that the Pharisees’ debates with the Messiah question His authority from the Lord our God and Father. And Jesus’ signs and parables all point heavenward.

Do you desire eternal life?

It is a question of highest importance. And who may enter the gate or the door to eternal life in heaven?

How can we know? Who will unravel this great mystery of eternal life in heaven and the judgment of sins punished by a sentence to hell?

Closed doors to Scripture

וַיַּעֲמֹ֤ד מֹשֶׁה֙ בְּשַׁ֣עַר הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔ה וַיֹּ֕אמֶר מִ֥י לַיהוָ֖ה אֵלָ֑י וַיֵּאָסְפ֥וּ אֵלָ֖יו כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י לֵוִֽי׃

Exodus 32:26 WLC

Does it help you to read this Hebrew scripture about Moshe (Moses)?

OR does the fact of the Hebrew language create a closed door to the Bible for you?

Then read translation into English about Moshe choosing who will enter the camp of the LORD and who Moses sentences to death.

Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’S side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

Exodus 32:26 KJV

Sometimes the Lord places a Moses or David or Prophet at a gate or the door to guard the integrity of His Own Righteousness.

We addressed this first by our look at the gatekeeper and watchmen. But frequently religion’s wide door or misled path will turn the faithful away from Scripture.

ἔστη δὲ Μωυσῆς ἐπὶ τῆς πύλης τῆς παρεμβολῆς καὶ εἶπεν τίς πρὸς κύριον ἴτω πρός με συνῆλθον οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸν πάντες οἱ υἱοὶ Λευι

et stans in porta castrorum ait si quis est Domini iungatur mihi congregatique sunt ad eum omnes filii Levi

Exodus 32:26: Greek & Latin

Get the picture?

Not really, if you have received the filtered view of religious teachers’ blind teaching of faith.

In fact many in Jerusalem’s crowds depended on the Pharisees or Rabbi’s to tell them what Scripture says. Even the literate often read their Empire-wide language of Greek, but not Hebrew.

So the symbols of Jesus’ parables create important universal pictures to those barred by the misleading of Israel’s shepherds of the gates and the door of worship of the Lord God our Father.

Religious leaders who manipulate Scripture become barriers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a closed door to repentance by sinners.

Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

Symbolism of a gate or a door

Heaven must have a gate (of sorts), like a walled city.

Not everyone gets into the heavenly Jerusalem.

The LORD must have watchmen (perhaps angels – spirit beings who serve the King as messengers and guards in the glorious heavenly city of God).

Who does Almighty God anoint to sit in the gate as the door to enter eternal life?

David? Perhaps Moses? Even the great Prophet Elijah?

No, none of these.

And certainly not a false prophet after Jesus claiming light from the place of darkness. Not even leaders of angels such as Gabriel or Michael. And most certainly no idolatrous intercessors of mothers, antiquated saints leaving only dust in place, or Apostles long passed.

Who then sits at the door of heaven – the gate of eternal life?

The door IS the very Lamb of God, the Shepherd of shepherds, the Son of Man, Christ Jesus!

To Him and no other we sinners must appeal by His mercy to enter eternal life by the grace of His Own Blood of Perfect Sacrifice.

Are we blind too?

Jesus the Messiah, who healed not only this blind man but others as well, clearly sheds light on the judgment for which He is sent to the world.

But as the Lord points out, some shepherds like the Pharisees really don’t see. For the prophet Isaiah had accused:

And they are shepherds who have no understanding;
They have all turned to their own way,
Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one.

These pharisees, rabbis of Judah confront their Messiah time after time questioning and denying His authority. They attempt to discredit Him even after another sign of Jesus. For a man born blind received his sight from Jesus.

John 9: 24-25 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

Most of these pharisees refused to believe in the Messiah sent to save sinners.

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

40 Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”

41 Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

Now this scene of controversy argued before the crowds of Jerusalem plays out in another parable of Jesus told against the pharisees just after the man born blind worships Jesus as Lord.

John 10:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

Gospel of John 10:1 NASB – Caution to believers from Christ Jesus

The LORD is my shepherd

מִזְמֹור לְדָוִד יְהוָה רֹעִי לֹא אֶחְסָֽר׃

You know the imagery of the Messiah and require no translation or interpretation of this parable connected to the sign of Jesus leading a blind man to worship Him.

Suppose heaven is so easy to enter as a wall without the door of the shepherd who gathers his sheep.

Can you climb over an unguarded wall?

Of course.

Could just any shepherd appear to lead the sheep anywhere, even to destruction?

Even in this day they often do.

If heaven’s chosen sheep gathered within the walls of the holy (separated) place cannot trust their shepherd as a door, will the wolves not enter and false shepherds lead them astray?

Are the sheep not destined for the slaughter of sacrifice if the Perfect Sacrifice has not already been made?

I AM the Good Shepherd – Jesus

3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

The Messiah, the Shepherd of heaven, gathers them to a place where He IS the door.

Then He calls to all the sheep, even by name.

The Lord knows them personally. He makes no mistakes and they know His voice rather than that of a false teacher or shepherd who would lead them into the pit of destruction.

Jesus knows you. Do you know Him?

4 “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

Will the blind shepherds hear?

Pharisees, rabbis who teach what they will, preachers who claim they can lead everybody to heaven – all these shepherds, Jesus says, are blind.

And clearly they do not see the Scripture before them, let alone share the Way, the Truth and the Life eternal of the Gospel Good News of our Savior from death, judgment and punishment.

All these believe that heaven has no door or they pretend to hold the only key to the gate (if indeed heaven had a golden locked gate).

The Good Shepherd

7 So Jesus said to them again,

“Truly, truly, I say to you,

I am the door of the sheep.

We are sheep in this world of darkness being led to the slaughter.

False teachers seek to sacrifice follower after follower into the fires of destruction!

The Messiah Jesus accuses these of the misleading the sheep. These self-appointed shepherds over our unrighteousness deceive and destroy.

8 All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.

Jesus speaks of false messiahs, kings and leaders who only claim to follow the Lord, all who “do what is evil in the sight of the Lord.”

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.

John 10:9 NASB

10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Jesus reiterates the contrast between Pharisees and false leaders of God’s people and himself, the One Shepherd of the Lord our God.

The Sacrifice of the Good Shepherd

I have told you once that I AM the door.

When you did not understand I told the crowds my clear meaning and purpose of coming here to lead My sheep.

Now, those with ears to hear, in addition to the clear signs before your eyes here is how you can hear the Shepherd who knows you by name.

“I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

John 10:11 NASB

What does this mean? (For it has not yet happened?)

Jesus gives the hearer of His voice no time to consider a wrong solution to our leading by God, but again shows the false leadership of the Pharisees who have redefined requirements for the flock to enter heaven.

12 “The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away…

Here into Jerusalem Rome has followed other conquerors and the hired hands of Herod abandon the faith of Abraham adding new requirements to the Law of Moses.

“… then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I know My sheep

Who will lead the scattered sheep sent to Babylon and Persia and again to Egypt then conquered once more by a mighty Greece? And though only a remnant returns, who will go into all the world now conquered by Rome?

The shepherds have divided and run, returned and divided the flock.

14 “I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep,
and am known of mine. [KJV]

15 “As the Father knows Me,
even so I know the Father;
and I lay down My life for the sheep. [NKJV]

Now Jesus again states His relationship to God the Father as the Messiah and Savior of Israel. The Lord also clearly states fulfillment of Scripture concerning the gentiles or nations.

A Savior of the Nations

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold;

I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice;

and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

The Good News of the Messiah Jesus to the gentiles – John 10:16 NASB

Three points here in the parable of the Good Shepherd:

1. The Messiah saves some who are not Jews.
2. Jesus will include the chosen of the nations to ‘follow Him’ as the Good Shepherd of all sheep and they too will hear His call to the promise of eternal life.
3. Jews who follow the Messiah and Gentiles will become one flock of the faithful with Him – the Good Shepherd of Israel.

Sacrifice of the Shepherd for the sins of the sheep

Would a father sacrifice his own son?

Abraham offered to do so, believing that the LORD would do right.

Jesus makes personal reference after personal reference to God as His Father. Would God provide the Sacrifice for your sins and for mine as the Lord did for Abraham?

Why would a Righteous Father send His Perfect Son to a world of sinners?

17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.

“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.

“This command I have received from My Father.”

Jesus clearly states after His parable of the Good Shepherd that God His Father commanded Him – the Son of God and only Good Shepherd – to sacrifice His mortal life for the sheep. AND He has the authority and power or the resurrection of life itself!

Controversial?

Even to this day and in every time of these last days.

19 The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?”

21 But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Do you see?

Does Jesus open your eyes to the Light of eternal life? Or are you blind too?

What shepherd do you follow?

The One Who IS the door?

Or have you heard so many who make other claims about heaven?

And Jesus said,

“For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.”