John 10:3-5 To him the porter opens; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.… Jesus Christ presents Himself before the whole race of man, and declares Himself able to deal with the needs of every individual in the tremendous whole. "If any man" — no matter who, where, when. For all noble and happy life there are at least three things needed: security, sustenance, and a field for the exercise of activity. To provide these is the end of all human society and government. Jesus Christ here says that He can give all these for everybody. The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, in His mind, and colours the form of the representation. But the substance is the declaration that, to any and every soul, no matter how ringed about with danger, no matter how hampered and hindered in work, no matter how barren of all supply earth may be, He will give these the primal requisites of life. "He shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." I. IN AND THROUGH CHRIST ANY MAN MAY BE SAVED. 1. The word "saved" here is rather used with reference to the imagery of the parable than in its full Christian sense, and means "safe," rather than "saved." At the same time, the two ideas pass into one another; and the declaration of my text is that because, step by step, conflict by conflict, in passing danger after danger, external and internal, Jesus Christ, through our union with Him, will keep us safe, at the last we shall reach everlasting salvation. You and I have to betake ourselves behind the defences of that strong love and mighty hand if ever we are to pass through life without fatal harm. For consider that, even in regard of outward danger, union with Jesus Christ defends and delivers us. Suppose two Manchester merchants, made bankrupt by the same commercial crisis; or two shipwrecked sailors lashed upon a raft; or two men sitting side by side in a railway carriage and smashed by the same collision. One is a Christian and the other is not. The same blow is altogether different in aspect and actual effect upon the two men. The one is crushed, or embittered, or driven to despair, or to drink, or something or other, to soothe the bitterness; the other bows himself with "It is the Lord! Let Him do what seemeth Him good." So the two disasters are utterly different, though in form they may be the same, and he that has entered into the fold by Jesus Christ is safe, not from outward disaster — that would be but a poor thing — but in it. 2. In our union with Jesus Christ, by simple faith in Him and loyal submission and obedience, we do receive an impenetrable defence against the true evils, and the only things worth calling dangers. For the only real evil is the peril that we shall lose our confidence and be untrue to our best selves, and depart from the living God. Nothing is evil except that which tempts, and succeeds in tempting, us away from Him. Real gift of power from Jesus Christ, the influx of His strength into our weakness of some portion of the spirit of life that was in Him into our deadness is promised, and the promise is abundantly fulfilled to all men who trust Him. Oh, brother, do not trust yourself out amongst the pitfalls and snares of life without Him. And so, kept safe from each danger and in each moment of temptation, the aggregate and sum of the several deliverances will amount to the everlasting salvation which shall be perfected in the heavens. 3. Remember the condition, "By Me if any man enter in." That is not a thing to be done once for all, but needs perpetual repetition. When we clasp anything in our hands, however tight the initial grasp, unless there is a continual effort of renewed tightening, the muscles become lax, and you have to renew the tension if you are to keep the grasp. So in our Christian life it is only the continual repetition of the act which our Master here calls "entering in by Him" that will bring to us this continual exemption from, and immunity in, the dangers that beset us. Keep Christ between you and the storm. Keep on the lee side of the Rock of Ages. Keep behind the breakwater, for there is a wild sea running outside; and your little boat, undecked and with a feeble hand at the helm, will soon be swamped. Keep within the fold, for wolves and lions lie in every bush. Live moment by moment in the realizing of Christ's presence, power, and grace. Only so shall we be safe. II. IN JESUS CHRIST ANY MAN MAY FIND A FIELD FOR UNRESTRICTED ACTIVITY. That metaphor of "going in and out" is partly explained to us by the image of the flock, which passes into the fold for peaceful repose, and out again, without danger, for exercise and food; and partly by its frequent use in the Old Testament, and in common conversation, as the designation of the two-sided activity of human life. The one side is the contemplative life of interior union with Jesus Christ by faith and love; the other the active life of practical obedience in the field of work which God provides for us. 1. "He shall go in." That comes first, though it interferes with the propriety of the metaphor, because the condition of this "going in" is the other "entering in by Me, the door." That is to say, that, given the union with Jesus Christ by faith, there must then, as the basis of all activity, follow very frequent and deep inward acts of contemplation, of faith, and aspiration, and desire. You must go into the depths of God through Christ. You must go into the depths of your own souls through Him. It is through Christ that we draw near to the depths of Deity. It is through Him that we learn the length and breadth and height and depth of the largest and loftiest and noblest truths that can concern the Spirit. It is through Him that we become familiar with the inmost secrets of our own selves. And only they who habitually live this hidden and sunken life of solitary and secret communion will ever do much in the field of outward work. Remember the Lord said first, "He shall go in." And unless you do you will not be "saved." 2. But if there have been, and continue to be, this unrestricted exercise through Christ of that sweet and silent life of solitary communion with Him, then there will follow upon that an enlargement of opportunity, and power for outward service such as nothing but the emancipation by faith in Him can ever bring. Howsoever by external circumstances you and I may be hampered and hindered, however often we may feel that if something outside of us were different the development of our active powers would be far more satisfactory, and we could do a great deal more in Christ's cause, the true hindrance lies never without, but within; and is only to be overcome by that plunging into the depths of fellowship with Him. III. IN JESUS CHRIST ANY MAN MAY RECEIVE SUSTENANCE. "They shall find pasture." The imagery of the sheep and the fold is still, of course, present to the Master's mind, and shapes the form in which this great promise is set forth. I need only remind you, in illustration of it, of two facts, one, that in Jesus Christ Himself all the true needs of humanity are met and satisfied. He is "the bread of God that came down from heaven to give life to the world." Do I want an outward object for my intellect? I have it in Him. Does my heart feel with its tendrils, which have no eyes at the ends of them, after something round which it may twine, and not fear that the prop shall ever rot or be cut down or pulled up? Jesus Christ is the home of love in which the dove may fold its wings and be at rest. Do I want an absolute and authoritative command to be laid upon my will; someone "Whose looks enjoin, Whose lightest words are spells?" I find absolute authority, with no taint of tyranny, and no degradation to the subject, in that infinite will of His. Does my conscience need some strong detergent to be laid upon it which shall take out the stains that are most indurated, inveterate, and engrained? I find it only in the blood that cleanseth from all sin. Do my aspirations and desires seek for some solid and substantial and unquestionable and imperishable good to which, reaching out, they may be sure that they are not anchoring on cloud land? Christ is our hope. For all this complicated and craving commonwealth that I carry within my soul, there is but one satisfaction, even Jesus Christ Himself. Nothing else nourishes the whole man at once, but in Him are all the constituents that the human system requires for its nutriment and its growth in every part. So in and through Christ we find pasture. But beyond that, if we are knit to Him by simple and continual faith, love, and obedience, then what is else barrenness becomes full of nourish. ment, and the unsatisfying gifts of the world become rich and precious. They are nought when they are put first, they are much when they are put second. I remember when I was in Australia seeing some wretched cattle trying to find grass on a yellow pasture where there was nothing but here and there a brown stalk that crumbled to dust in their mouths as they tried to eat it. That is the world without Jesus Christ. And I saw the same pasture six weeks after, when the rains had come, and the grass was high, rich, juicy, satisfying. That is what the world may be to you if you will put it second, and seek first that your souls shall be fed on Jesus Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. |
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