Conflict Over A Miracle and a Teaching

We are in a study on the life of Christ, as you know, and we're in a particular portion of our Lord's life where we are toward the end of His ministry within the last six months. We're in a three month period that is often entitled. Do you remember? What's it often called that three month period? One of the words is on the screen. Pardon me? Conflict and instruction. Okay, that's the time period we're in. And what is happening here? Remember, we just came out of a time period where the Lord spent six months really instructing His disciples. The training of the 12 was that time period of our Lord's life. And you really pulled away from a lot of public ministry and spent time focusing upon the 12. Now, remember, He's gone back to Jerusalem right into the teeth of the opposition and the religious leaders opposing him. And so there's a time of conflict in tense conflict. The conflict escalates in these three months, but there are also times of teaching instruction of His disciples during this time. The emphasis is on conflict. We began this part of our study in John chapter seven where we found that Jesus went to a feast, feast of unleavened bread. And at that feast, he taught and there was great opposition to his teaching. Remember the last day of the feast, feast of tabernacles, I should say. I knew it wasn't right when I said feast of unleavened bread, feast of tabernacles. Remember the last day of the feast, he stood up at a very poignant moment in the ceremony when there was a moment of quietness after the priest had just poured out a basin of water to symbolize the water in the wilderness being provided for the people's physical health and strength. Jesus cries out, if any man is thirsty, let him come to me. And I will provide from within rivers of living water. And of course, he was again opposed because of that. The Pharisees actually sent some temple guards to arrest him and you remember what happened? What did they do? They got saved. Maybe. Yes. They couldn't arrest him. It's so amazing. He's teaching. They said, we've never heard anybody speak like this. So the very guys that were sent to arrest him come back to the Pharisees with no prisoner. And so Jesus is teaching in the temple. He continues to teach in the temple after the forgiving of the woman who was caught in adultery. Remember the Pharisees tried to set him up there. And Jesus forgives her. There's conflict about that. He continues to teach in chapter 8 about being the light of the world. There's conflict about his claims. At the very end of that teaching, remember he said, you are of your father, the devil. And Abraham is not really your father, your descendants of his, but you're not really children of his. So there's this running conflict going on. Last week, we looked at chapter 9 and we saw that there was a healing that took place. Jesus heals a blind man. And we looked at the first six verses and saw that that man or for seven verses to see how he was healed. So we saw last week the miracle performed tonight. We're going to look at the miracle debated. This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. It's just such an engaging story of this man who is healed from blindness. And what happens as this miracle is debated by different people. There are four individuals or groups of people that weigh in on this miracle and talk about it. And the first one of them is the neighbors. His neighbors. Look at what they say. Verse 8. His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, isn't this the same man who used to sit and beg? Some claim that he was. Others said, no, he only looks like him. Wouldn't that be great if that's what people said about us when we got saved? Wouldn't that be great? Is this the same person? I don't think so. It just looks like him. And just like this man, maybe we would be protesting in the end of verse 9, but he himself insisted, I am the man. How then were your eyes open? They demanded he replied the man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to silo and washed. So I went and washed. And then I could see where is this man? They asked him. I don't know. He said, what a beautiful picture of a man who's really still in the dark about who Jesus is, but his eyes have been opened. And he's been changed and people recognize a big change. I just love that though that they're wondering who is he? Is he the same man can't be sure looks like him. And this man says, I am him. And then the people say, well, tell us where Jesus is. That's a beautiful picture of what it should be like for us when we come to Christ. People ought to see the kind of difference in us that causes them to think something has happened. You're not even the same person. Could you really be the same person? Tell me who did this to you. And you know, that's what Peter talks about when he says, well, to be ready to give an answer to those who asked for the reason for the hope that is within us. That's what they were doing with this man. Come on. We use some answers here about how this happened to you. And he doesn't have enough information yet to take them to Jesus. But he knows that this man called Jesus caused him to see. Once you notice as we go through this story, how this man grows in his understanding of who Jesus is. I think he's also a beautiful picture of people who, although we know salvation takes place instantaneously, some people grow in their understanding until a point where they finally make that commitment to Christ. He's a beautiful illustration of that as well. At this point, he doesn't really know who he is, just a man called Jesus. That's all he knows him as. Doesn't even know where he is. So I think with the neighbors, the word we want to put there in the blanket is incredulous. They're just incredulous. They can't believe this is the same person. But then the Pharisees weigh in. Look at verses 13 to 17. And I think the word we probably want to put there is investigating. The neighbors are incredulous. The Pharisees are investigating. Remember, they are the self-appointed investigators of anyone who claims to be a Messiah. And so they've been investigating Jesus all along. They've already come to their conclusions, haven't they? What are their conclusions about Jesus? He's not the Messiah. They don't believe that, do they? He's a false teacher. They've come to that conclusion. What else have they said about him? Doing his miracles in the power of Satan? He's a blasphemer. They accuse him of blaspheming. They accuse him of breaking the Sabbath, didn't they? Not following Sabbath laws when all he had done is violate man-made rules about the Sabbath and not God's law. What else do they say about Jesus? Calling him a Gentile, didn't we? We saw that just recently. Yeah. And they have even gotten to where as the opposition is increased, they're calling him illegitimate. Remember that? They questioned his birth in chapter 8. And so it's getting really ugly with the Pharisees. It's quite clear. They have already made up their mind about him. I want you to notice how they investigate. There are different ways people investigate the truth. Some people investigate the truth with a very open, willing mind asking God to show them. Some people investigate truth with their mind already made up, closed, and they're seeking to prove their own point. That's exactly what the Pharisees were doing here. Notice their investigation. Verse 13, they brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man's eyes was a Sabbath. Uh-oh. You see trouble coming, don't you? Therefore, for that reason, verse 15, the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He put mud on my eyes, the man replied, and I washed and now I see. Now notice their investigation. How they go about it here in verse 16. Some of the Pharisees said this man is not from God for he does not keep the Sabbath. But others asked, how can a sinner do such miraculous signs so they were divided? Now there are two different ways of looking at who Jesus is here. What's the difference in the two? What do you see? You're the difference between these two ways of looking at Jesus. Open mind it and close mind it, yeah. Okay. What else do you see? What was the first conclusion of the Pharisees? Some of the Pharisees at least. He can't be from God. Why? Because he doesn't keep the Sabbath. Now remember we've talked about this before. Jesus did keep the Sabbath, didn't he? We've seen this before. Jesus has done several miracles on the Sabbath and they've accused him of breaking the Sabbath and he has answered them several times with the allowance for deeds of mercy on the Sabbath, the allowance for deeds of necessity on the Sabbath. Remember he's talked to him about the Sabbath was made for man. Man wasn't made for the Sabbath. It was not like God established the Sabbath with all of these rules and then tried to fit man into it. No, no. The key is man and his needs and the Sabbath was made to be a blessing to man, not to be a problem and a hindrance and a curse to man. So he never broke the Sabbath. But the Pharisees, at least this group of the Pharisees already has their mind made up and they formed their conclusion based on preconceived notions about Jesus. Can't be from God. We won't even allow that option to be considered because he's breaking the Sabbath. They've already got their mind made up and they're looking for ways to support their view. Notice the next group though. Others asked, how can a sinner do such miraculous signs? What's the basis of their conclusion? Where are they starting? About to believe in him. Some may have already. At least they're questioning, how could this man be a sinner? Okay. The first group is starting from a preconceived notion. We have already made up our minds. He's not the son of God. We're just looking for evidence. He broke the Sabbath. He can't be the son of God. But this group is starting from a different vantage point. Where are they starting from? What are they looking at? The miracles. So where are they starting with the evidence? They're looking at the evidence that the Old Testament portrayed. This is what Messiah will do. They're looking at the evidence and fitting the evidence that they've seen. The miracles with what the Old Testament prophesied, the Messiah would do in places like Isaiah 35. Very clear passages that were told exactly the kinds of miracles he would do and one of them was to open the eyes of the blind. So they're looking at the evidence and saying, wait a second, the evidence fits what the... how can this man be a sinner if he's doing these works? It's one thing to honestly approach the truth with your mind already made up looking for reasons why it can't be true. That's very different from approaching the truth with looking at the evidence with a mind that says if the evidence points in that direction, that's the direction I'll go. And true seekers, if you want to call them that, people who are really learning and open to learning the truth of God's word are open to the evidence that God shows them. And so the two different groups here, and they're divided. Remember this is the time of conflict. They're divided over him. So verse 17, finally they turned again to the blind man. What have you to say about him? It was your eyes, he opened. The man replied, he is a prophet. Okay, he's growing a little bit in his understanding. First of all, it was just the man named Jesus. Some man called Jesus. I don't know who he is. I don't even know where he is. Now he's come to the conclusion this man is a prophet. He's growing a little bit in his understanding of who Jesus is. Okay, so the Pharisees are investigating. Now notice what happens next. This really gets interesting. They bring in the parents. And the parents quite clearly are intimidated. They are intimidated by the show of force of religious leaders. Notice how this works out. Verse 18. The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man's parents. Is this your son? They asked, is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that he now that now he can see? Now notice their answer. You can almost hear their knees knocking here. We know he is our son. The parents answered. And we know he was born blind. But how he can see now or who opened his eyes? We don't know. Ask him. He is of age. He will speak for himself. They don't want to commit. Do they? To what has happened being a miracle. We don't want to get in a position of putting ourselves in Jesus corner. So they put the responsibility back on him. And notice John explains verse 22. His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For already the Jews have decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Christ. That Jesus is really the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said he is of age. Ask him. All they will admit to is, yeah, he's our son. He was born blind. We know he can now see. We don't know how it happened. We don't know who did this. We're not going to commit to anybody or and they said that out of fear. They were intimidated by their religious leaders. Now it's difficult for us to grasp what it would mean to be thrown out of the synagogue. The synagogue was everything to the average Jew in a small village. That was the center of religious life. It was their social life. If you were kicked out of the synagogue, you were basically blacklisted from everything else in town. It was a big deal to be kicked out of the synagogue. It was the most intimidating thing. It was the most fearful kind of persecution that could be held over the head of a Jew to be kicked out of the synagogue. That's why the Pharisees said, okay, anybody thinks he's the Christ who kicked out of the synagogue. They used that against people. It worked with these parents. They are intimidated by that show of religious force. Now they come to the man himself. This is so beautiful. The way he handles this. The man is illuminated. We're going to see that his eyes are opened in more ways than one in this passage. Look at verse 24. The second time they summoned the man who had been blind, give glory to God, they said. What do you think they said that? Okay, all right. I know some of you have your study Bibles out. Some of you have your iPads out. Some of you are looking it up already. What was meant by this expression? Give glory to God. It was actually like putting someone under oath. We are putting you under oath to tell the truth. The way that religious leaders, the Jews, would say that is now give glory to God. Remember, in our culture we put our hand on a Bible. Remember who you are answering to here. It's that kind of pressure. They are putting him under oath. You have got to tell the truth now. Sometimes we use the old expression. I would say this with my hand on a stack of Bibles. We are just trying to emphasize the fact that we would be truthful. This is that kind of expression. Give glory to God. In other words, we are putting you under oath. They go on to say, we know this man as a sinner. Their mind is already made up. Verse 25. I love his response. Whether he is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. This man doesn't really know anything, theologically yet about Jesus, but he knows what happened to him. You know what? You can be saved for five minutes and tell somebody that. You can tell somebody what happened to you. You may not know everything about Jesus. You may not understand the intricacies of regeneration and how salvation works. You may not understand all that, but you can tell people I was blind, but now I see. I know there has been a change in my heart. Jesus has changed me. You can tell people that. I just love the openness and the candor of this man and the fact that although his parents are very intimidated by these religious leaders, he is not. He is growing in his confidence. He is growing in his understanding of who Jesus is. We are going to see that he will boldly challenge these religious leaders. Let's read on to see how he does it. Verse 26. Then they asked him, what did he do to you? How did he open your eyes? He answered, I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? This is getting kind of close, isn't it? He is really digging into them now. Do you want to become his disciples too? Well, verse 28. Then they hurled insults at him and said, you are this fellow's disciple, we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we do not even know where he comes from. Notice twice they call him this fellow. They do not even give him the dignity of using his name, this fellow. You can be as disciple if you want, not us, we are Moses disciples. They are again pitting the leader of Israel and giving the law, pitting him against Jesus. They are basically saying, if you follow Jesus, you cannot follow Moses. You cannot follow the Old Testament. So they are again putting this religious pressure on. Notice the man's response in verse 30. The man answered, now that is remarkable. You could just see this boldness growing here. That is remarkable. You do not know where he comes from yet he opened my eyes. What do you think this man is beginning to sense? He is in the sight. He is beginning to understand where this man did come from and where did he come from? He came from God, came from heaven, didn't he? He got his power from God. I think this man is beginning to grasp that. We do not even know where he came from. Probably the Pharisees are talking about his origin. There were rumors that because he was from Galilee, he did not qualify to be the Messiah. There were rumors about his birth being illegitimate. I think all of that is packed into the Pharisee statement. We do not even know where he came from. This man says, oh, you do not. That is really remarkable. You do not know where he came from. I think I know where he came from. He opened my eyes. Now look at verse 31. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing. He is understanding. He has just leaped ahead. We know that he has come from God. I know where he has come from. You may not know, but I am beginning to understand exactly where he came from. He came from God. Again, he is starting with the evidence. The evidence in his own life of the great change that is taking place. Because of what he has done in my life, I know he must be from God. He has come from God. Now look at the Pharisees response in verse 34. To this they replied, you were steeped in sand at birth. How dare you lecture us? Notice the pompous arrogance there. Where are the religious leaders? Where are the scholars of the Bible? You do not lecture us about where people, whether or not they come from God. You see that angry arrogance flashing out here. The last part of verse 34 says, they threw him out. What do you think that means? Through the sin of God. Probably so, in the light of the context, what they had threatened and what the man's parents were afraid of, it is probably not just that they threw him out of this meeting, but they said, okay, you have taken his side. You are out of the sin of God. They threw him out. And what happens next is what we are going to call the miracle continued. After this miracle has been debated, it is now continued, but on a different level, the miracle now moves from a miracle of opening his physical eyes to really opening his spiritual eyes and opening his heart. This is the point at which his knowledge bears fruit in genuine salvation. This is beautiful. How the Lord does this verse 35. Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. And when he found him, don't just slide over those words. Jesus went looking for him. When everybody and everything else throws you out, Jesus will find you. If your family turns their back on you, Jesus will come find you. If your friends turn their back on you, Jesus will come find you. If religious people turn their back on you, Jesus will come find you. He is, as we'll see in chapter 10, the good shepherd. The very day that the door of the synagogue closed, the door of the kingdom opened for this man. Jesus came and found him. I love that. Our Savior came and found him. Jesus will never abandon you. In your need, whatever it may be, Jesus will never abandon you. When everybody else throws you out, he'll come find you. Jesus found him. Look at what happened in their conversation. When he found him, he said, do you believe in the Son of Man? Does that title ring a bell with anybody's Son of Man? Remember that anywhere in the Bible? Through the gospels, it is. It is often found on Jesus' lips. Jesus always calls himself the Son of Man. We know that Jesus was the Son of God that talks about his deity. Son of Man might be understood to refer simply to his humanity. He is the Son of God. He is the Son of Man. That is one way to look at it. There is another way to look at that title. This title actually has a background to it. Jesus was fully aware of it. I think it was packed into every time he used it. In the book of Daniel, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14, in one of the visions that Daniel saw, Daniel saw one like the Son of Man in heaven being given the kingdom by the one who was sitting on the throne, the Father, God. And he has a kingdom that lasts forever. I think all of that imagery of the Son of Man receiving the kingdom from the Father and it being an eternal kingdom is in Jesus' use of that term, Son of Man. Not just his humanity here, it is referring back to that Old Testament picture. That is a messianic term. That is a term that shows he is the Messiah. That is a term that shows he is in heaven receiving the kingdom from God. He is God's Son. So it also indicates his deity and that he is the Messiah. And so that is what he is asking this man. Do you believe in the Son of Man? Do you believe what the Old Testament says about the one who will come and receive the kingdom from the Father and set up his kingdom? Do you believe that? Verse 36, who is he, sir? The man asked, tell me so. Tell me so that I may believe in him. Verse 37, Jesus said, you have now seen him. In fact, he is the one speaking with you. I would love to have been there to see that man's expression at that point. I mean, this is one of those moments where the hair stands up on the back of your neck. It is one of those moments where everything comes together and you gain a spiritual perception that is deeper than you have ever had before. And that is exactly what happened to this man. Verse 38, then the man said, Lord, Lord, I believe in him. I believe in him. What does that tell you? Where is this man now? He is in heaven now, isn't he? Yes. What point has he come to here? God, save you understand? He has come to faith, hasn't he? I believe. Lord, the use of that term indicates something. It indicates that he realizes that Jesus is the sovereign. He is the one that deserves the kingdom, the throne. He is the Lord. And so that very term is packed with meaning in this man's heart and life. He has come to understand who Jesus is. And then he says, I believe. He had asked before, tell me who the son of man is so that I can believe when Jesus says it's me, he says, I believe. What's he saying? I believe in you. I believe you are the son of man. I believe you are the Lord. I believe you are the Messiah. He is embracing Christ is what he is doing. And then he worships him. And that really shows that he believes Jesus is God. You know, you don't worship, especially coming out of a Jewish background, coming out of the Jewish religion. I mean, if the exile in the Old Testament did nothing else for us, well, it cured them of idolatry. They believed in one God after that. And so Jews would never worship anything unless they knew it was God. So he is making his profession very clear here. He bows down and worships him, calls him Lord says, I believe you are the son of man. You're the king. You deserve the throne. All of that is packed into what this man saying. He's come a long way from back earlier in the chapter when he just said, this man, they call Jesus. I don't know who he is. Well, he really has grown and he's understanding. Hasn't he? And it's amazing how Jesus led him to faith. Jesus just stepped by step and formed his spiritual understanding and draws out of him this statement, I believe, I believe. What a story. It's a great story. I admit that this man who is willing to stand up to the religious leaders when everybody else is fearful of being thrown out, that mattered handfish thrown out. It's a great, great story. Any questions, comments about this account of this man who was blind and now sees? Okay, look at kind of the PS to this story in verses 39 to 41. Jesus said, for judgment, I have come into this world so that the blind will see and those who will, those who see will become blind. Now, probably the Pharisees were not involved in the personal confrontation or conversation that Jesus had with this man in verses 35 to 38. So, I mean, Jesus went and found this man. That's a personal conversation they had. So, verses 39 to 41, probably a different scene, different setting, maybe just a little while later. We don't know how much later, but obviously the same theme is on his mind and on the Pharisees' minds of blindness. And what he's going to do is he's going to show there is a different kind of blindness and you religious leaders have it. He says, for judgment, I've come into this world. Isn't it interesting that Jesus says that because he told Nicodemus I did not come to judge the world to save the world? In what sense did Jesus come to judge the world when he came at his first coming? In what sense does his very coming judge people? Blinded some of them? Yeah? Did I hear something else? We are. We certainly are. Judged our sin? Yes. He certainly came to judge in that sense. He came to judge our sin. You know, the very presence of Jesus creates division, doesn't it? The very presence of Jesus creates conflict. Remember Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace on this earth, but a sword? That against a difficult statement because he did come to bring peace. But in one sense, Jesus entrants into humanity, into the world of mankind, forces people to make a choice. And the very choices that people make, the very choices that people make, cause them to turn against each other in conflict. And so you have people against each other because some believe in him and some don't. But notice how he says it here, I came into this world so that the blind will see, and those who see will become blind. There are two categories of people here, and both of them have been illustrated in this story up to this point. The blind will see, that's obviously the man, but I think Jesus is talking not just about his physical blindness, but about his spiritual blindness. His eyes were open spiritually too, weren't they? But Jesus also came so that those who see, those who think they see, those who are the spiritual leaders who claim to have the knowledge of the Old Testament, they become blind. They may be able to see physically, but they're blind spiritually. So Jesus, very presence, gives some people sight and it blinds others. People who are blinded by their own self-righteousness, by their own sin, by their own hypocrisy like the Pharisees, Jesus' presence confirms them in that blindness. People who are willing to turn to him and look at the evidence like this man in this story turned from spiritual blindness to being able to see. And that's the sense in which Jesus came to bring judgment to this world, to distinguish between those who see and those who don't. Well, Pharisees didn't like that. Verse 40, some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, what are we blind to? Are you accusing us of being blind? And Jesus response, verse 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. That's quite a statement. What do you think Jesus means by that? They're guilty? Yeah? It really isn't a puzzling statement. I'm not sure I understand that, but let me give a stab at it here. If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin. I think what Jesus means there is an unawareness of truth, where people have not been exposed to the truth yet. They're spiritually blind. And because of that, there is no guilt in the sense that people are not born sinners, but like in Romans 2, where he says Gentiles who don't have the law are not judged by the law. They're not guilty of specific infractions of the law because of God's law, because they've never seen the law. They don't know the law. They know nothing of God's law. I think what he's talking about here is this man who was spiritually ignorant and naive did not have the guilt of God's law condemning him because he didn't know it. But it's different for people like the Pharisees who know their Old Testament. They've been exposed to the light. They claim to have knowledge in sight, but they've rejected Jesus. And for that reason, they are spiritually blind. Now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains. It's this kind of thing. You know, the more light someone has, the more responsible they are to God, right? The more truth we have, the more truth we've heard, the more truth we know, the more guilt we have if we don't respond to that. And so he's saying someone who's not heard any truth is out here in spiritual blindness, you know, never seeing the light. They don't have the same guilt as someone who claims to see, claims to know, has the truth, has heard it and heard it and heard it, but has rejected it. Those are the people that are blind. So really Jesus uses this whole miracle as an object lesson on spiritual blindness for the most religious people of his day. Isn't that interesting? The most religious people can be the most blind people. It just really, again, serves to warn us that knowledge of religious things does not equate to salvation. Person can be very religious and never be saved, still be blind. And because of that guilt is worse because they've been so close to the light. It's very dangerous. Okay. Okay. Questions, comments here? He was bringing us so, he said, you know, families will be turned against each other, fathers against children, children against parents. Yeah. You don't have to look very far. Do you have to see that the light is rejected by many, many people. They hate it. Okay. We've got, we've got a few minutes before the kids start screaming at us out of a wana. So let's, let's start in the chapter 10. Okay. The story of the good shepherd, the shepherd and his flock. Jesus is going to continue teaching here in chapter 10. But the, the image that he uses is rural. It is eastern. It's not one that we're familiar with in our culture. Even, even ranching techniques of shepherding in our culture are different from those of the Middle East. A lot I'd like to say there. There have been books written about Psalm 23, for instance, that come from a western perspective and really miss the whole point of what shepherding and sheep hurting was, was like in the, in the Middle East. But there's something else going on here. If, if we don't understand the Old Testament background of Jesus use of this shepherd and sheep metaphor, if we don't understand the Old Testament background of that, we'll miss a lot of what Jesus is saying here. It ties beautifully into what has happened with the kingdom being rejected, the king being rejected because in the Old Testament, a shepherd was the royal caretaker of the people of Israel. The shepherd was a figure for a king. The Lord is my shepherd. And throughout the Old Testament, this, the shepherd metaphor is used of one who is the king, one who is the royal and spiritual caretaker of the people. God is the true shepherd, even in the Old Testament. God is the true shepherd, but he has delegated responsibility for leading the people to other shepherds, political leaders and religious leaders. And when they failed to lead the people properly, then the prophets were sent to take them to task. Let me just give you one example in Jeremiah chapter 23. Hold your place here and look at Jeremiah 23. I don't have this on the screen for you. So Jeremiah 23 verse 1, woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Okay, this is my pasture. These are my sheep, but there are shepherds that I've entrusted to care for them, and they're not caring for them, they're destroying and scattering them. Verse 2, therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says to the shepherds who tend my people, because you have scattered my flock and driven them away, and if not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you've done declares the Lord. I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified. Nor will any be missing declares the Lord. And then he launches right into this prophecy of the Messiah in verse 5. He says, the days are coming to clear as the Lord. When I will raise up to David a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land, in his days, Judah will be saved. Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. That's the Messiah. That's the king that God will raise up to be the true shepherd for his people, because the false shepherds have led them astray, the religious leaders who were supposed to tend the flock, the political leaders who were supposed to lead the flock. They've led the people astray, and so God says, I'll come myself and bring them back to pasture. In fact, I will send one who's called the Lord our righteousness, and he will be their king. The shepherd is the king, and the king is the genuine shepherd of the people. And if you miss that Old Testament background, you miss the real punch of what Jesus says in chapter 10. Because in chapter 10, he's going to tell the people, by the way, I am the good shepherd. I am the true shepherd. He'll use those words. I'm the true shepherd. There are some imposter who climb up over the wall of the sheep pin. They're not true. I'm the true shepherd. Okay, now we're going to show a couple of three pictures real quick. Because in verses 1 through 6, Christ is seen as the genuine shepherd, and I didn't want to do all this work on these pictures and not using tonight. So we'll probably come back to him next week. Jesus is going to talk about a sheepfold or sheep pin and him as the shepherd. This is what a sheepfold would look like or a sheep pin in the near east. This was a place where sheep would be brought. It was always a rock enclosure. There would be a gate, a door, and the sheep from different flocks under different shepherds would be brought at the end of the day. To go in this sheepfold. And there would be several different flocks that would be protected from wild animals and so forth at night. And so the sheep would be in this sheepfold at night. The next picture shows us, here's some sheep, looking out of that gate, that door to the sheepfold. You see the rock wall behind it was basically a rock wall that had that built up door or gate that all the sheep would go into. Every day, shepherds, multiple shepherds who had flocks that were there overnight would come and call out their sheep. And the sheep would recognize the voice of their shepherd. And only the sheep that belonged to that shepherd would come out of the sheepfold and begin to follow him. Another shepherd would call his sheep and they would come out and follow him and they would take him out to pasture. Now this would be the kind of shepherding that would be done near villages like Bethlehem. Obviously there were sometimes when at different times of the year the shepherd may take the sheep to a totally different place and may keep them in a different format. Not that village sheepfold at night. This is a picture of a shepherd with his sheep following him. You can see he's walking ahead and the sheep are following him. Now keep that imagery in your mind for next week because we're going to come back to it and Jesus is going to talk about coming to the sheepfold and calling his sheep out. And we're going to see that the sheepfold is not what many people have assumed it is not heaven. It's not the shepherd taking us to the fold. It's Jesus the shepherd taking the sheep out of a particular fold so that they will follow him. So chew on that this week and we'll come back next week we'll find out what Jesus meant by the sheepfold and what he was doing taking sheep out of it. Okay, let's pray. Father thank you for your word and thank you for our Savior. Thank you Lord that when others may reject turn against us, turn away from us or throw us out. It is at those moments that you come and find us and you receive us warmly and lead us to a deeper understanding of who you are. Thank you for your love for us and your grace and that you never abandon us and leave us alone. Thank you that you are our shepherd. May we begin to hear your voice and follow you in Jesus name we pray. Amen.