If you could be any kind of animal that you wanted to be, what kind of animal would you choose? Uh maybe you choose a lion. You know, the king of beasts, mighty, powerful, you know. I always wanted to be a tiger. I mean, tigers, some of them are 8 feet long and weigh over 700b. Man, let me tell you, that's some kitty cat right there. I wouldn't mind being like that. Or maybe you would like to be an eagle, you know, majestic, flying, powerful, hurling, soaring over everything below you. Maybe you'd like to be a lion or a tiger or an eagle. Lions and tigers. Oh my. How many of you would like to be a sheep? Say what? The sheep? Are you kidding me?
But wait, ironically, in the Bible, the animal that is most mentioned by far and away is guess what? And in fact, God's people and the New Testament, especially the disciples of Jesus, guess what? We're called sheep. How do you like that? Now, the type of sheep that were prevalent in the days of Jesus and the early church in Palestine were called aasi. And ai looked something like this. And I think we have a slide or a picture of the aasi.
But we often think of sheep in our culture as being these little white lambs, soft and fluffy. But in their culture, it was more of a sheep with a dark face, usually dark brown, dark brown legs and so forth that looked something like this. But God's people, the disciples of Jesus, are known as sheep. And Jesus taught in a parable, guess what? Who is going to inherit eternal life? The sheep. How do you like that? So today, we're going to look at the Gospel of John chap 10: 1-10.
John 10: 1-10 NIV The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be save. They will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
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