06-27-21 Kevin Goins - Who's Who in the Drama of Salvation

“Who’s Who in the Drama of Salvation?”
John 10:3-10 
Today we are going to look at the last two characters in the drama of salvation found in John 10:1-10.                                    
I The first character in Jesus’ story of the who’s who of salvation is the thieves and robbers (10:1).
II The second character is the true shepherd (10:2).

III In verse 3 Jesus mentions a third character:  the w___________________ who “opens the gate” for the real shepherd.  Who is the watchman?

A. Throughout church history there have been ____________ answers given to that question:

 1. Some say the watchman was ___________ the ___________________.

2. There have also been many who have identified the watchman as the _________________ ___________________.  

B. Which is the correct answer?  It is not necessarily a case of e___________-o_________.

C. Today, without the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of people, no one can r___________________ Jesus for the Savior he is.

IV The fourth character in the drama is “the g_______________ for the sheep” (10:7).

 -Jesus is claiming that in his work as the shepherd of the sheep he also acts as a gate or ________________ for the sheep.  How so?

A. First, he is the gate in the sense that he keeps thieves and robbers a_____________________ from the sheep.

1. Jesus here claims to be a gate or a door that is s______________ enough to keep out any thief or robber. 

2. Sheep who follow Jesus will not be deceived by the evil one if we focus our attention on l_______________________ to God’s Word.

3. One of the special ways in which Jesus acts as a door, protecting us from the evil outside, is by taking the Word of God, which we have stored in our minds, and using that word as a l________ d__________________ to reveal how false are the things the evil one whispers to us.

4. Jesus is our gate who wants to protect us by keeping the lies of the enemy f________ f__________ our heart and mind.

B. Second, Jesus is the gate in the sense that he supplies an e___________________ to eternal life.

A. The only gate through which you can enter God’s sheepfold is ________________.  But that is not the o____________ way in which Jesus is a door.

B. Jesus is also a door in the sense that he is the only one who can enable us to close off the old s____________-c_________________ life we used to live.

C. Jesus closes off the door to our selfish past and he acts as an opening to a new life, a life in relationship with ____________.

D. What does Jesus mean when he says, “[We] will come in and go out and find pasture?”  He is not talking about going in and out of s___________________.  He is talking about how we can interact with Jesus _________ with the world.

V The last character is the ____________________.

A. We do not need to say a lot about sheep because we know them very well.  

B. We know them because we _________ the sheep.

1. We sheep cannot protect ourselves from the _____________ of the false shepherds.

2. We sheep do not know how to find real _________________________.

3. We sheep certainly cannot protect ourselves from the most vicious of our enemies:  the power of ______________________.