Christ in Gethsemane
(No. 3190)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1910.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
1, 1879.
"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane." Mark 14:32.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon "Christ in Gethsemane," are #493,
Volume 9–GETHSEMANE; #693, Volume 12–THE GARDEN OF THE SOUL; #1199,
Volume 20–THE AGONY IN GETHSEMANE and #494, Volume 9–THE BETRAYAL.]
OUR Lord had been sitting at the table of happy fellowship with His
disciples, talking to them in a very solemn and impressive manner. He
then delivered those choice discourses which are recorded by John and
offered that wonderful prayer which deserves to always be called, "The
Lord's Prayer." Knowing all that was to befall Him, He and His
disciples left the upper room and started to go to His usual place of
quiet retreat, "a place which was named Gethsemane." You can easily
picture their descent into the street. The moon was at the full on the
Paschal night and it was very cold, for we read that the high priest's
servants had kindled a fire and warmed themselves, because it was cold.
As Jesus walked along the narrow streets of Jerusalem, He doubtless
still spoke to His disciples in calm and helpful tones. And before long
they came to the Brook Kidron over which David passed when Absalom
stole away the hearts of the people from his father. So now, "great
David's greater Son" must go the same way to the olive garden where He
had often been before with His disciples. It was called Gethsemane,
"the olive press." As we think of Christ in Gethsemane, I want you who
love Him not only to adore Him, but to learn to imitate Him, so that
when you are called to "drink of His cup," and to be baptized with the
baptism wherewith He was baptized, you may behave as His true followers
should and come forth from your conflict victorious as He came forth
from His!
At the very outset, there is one fact that I wish you to observe very
particularly. Sudden changes from joy to grief have produced
extraordinary results in those who have been affected by them. We have
often read or heard of persons whose hair has turned white in a single
night–such an extreme convulsion of mind has happened to them that
they have seemed to be hurried forward into premature old age–at least
in appearance, if not in fact. Many have died through unusual
excitements of spirit. Some have dropped down dead through a sudden
excess of joy and others have been killed by a sudden excess of grief.
Our blessed Master must have experienced a very sudden change of
feeling on that memorable night. In that great intercessory prayer of
His, there is nothing like distress or tumult of spirit. It is as
calm–as a lake unruffled by the zephyr's breath. Yet He is no sooner
in Gethsemane than He says to the three especially favored disciples,
"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry you here and
watch with Me."
I do not think that this great conflict arose through our dear Master's
fear of death, nor through His fear of the physical pain and all the
ignominy and shame that He was so soon to endure. But, surely, the
agony in Gethsemane was part of the great burden that was already
resting upon Him as His people's Substitute–it was this that pressed
His spirit down even into the dust of death. He was to bear the full
weight of it upon the Cross, but I am persuaded that the passion
beganin Gethsemane. You know that Peter writes, "Who His own Self bore
our sins in His own body on the tree." But we are not to gather from
that passage that His substitutionary sufferings were limited to the
tree, for the original might bear this rendering–that He bore our sins
in His own body up to thetree–that He came up to the tree bearing that
awful load and still continued to bear it on the tree! You remember
that Peter also writes, in the same verse, "by whose stripes you were
healed." These stripes did not fall upon Jesus when He was upon the
Cross–it was in Pilate's Judgment Hall that He was so cruelly
scourged! I believe that He was bearing our sins all His life, but that
the terrible weight of them began to crush Him with sevenfold force
when He came to the olive press, and that the entire mass rested upon
Him
with infinite intensity when He was nailed to the Cross–and so forced
from Him the agonizing cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
In meditating upon this commencement of our Savior's unknown agonies,
let us think first of THE CHOICE OF THE SPOT where those agonies were
to be endured. Let us try to find out why He went to that particular
garden on that dread night of His betrayal.
First, the choice of Gethsemane showed His serenity of mind and His
courage. He knew that He was to be betrayed, to be dragged before Annas
and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod–to be insulted, scourged and, at last
to be led away to be crucified–but (mark the words), "He came out, and
went, as He was known to do, to the Mount of Olives." It was His usual
custom to go there to pray, so He would not make any change in His
habits although He was approaching the supreme crisis of His earthly
life. Let this courageous conduct of our Lord teach a lesson to all who
profess to be His disciples. Whenever some trouble is about to come
upon you, especially if it is a trouble that comes upon you because you
are a Christian, do not be perturbed in spirit. Neglect no duty, but do
as you have been known to do. The best way of preparing for whatever
may be coming is to go on with the next thing in the order of
Providence. If any child of God knew that he had to die tonight, I
would recommend him to do just what he would do on any other Sabbath
night, only to do it more earnestly and more devoutly than ever he had
done it before! Blessed is that servant who, when his Master comes,
shall be found discharging his duty as a servant–waiting upon his
Master's household with all due orderliness and care. To go and stand
outside the front door and stare up into the sky to see if the Master
is coming, as some I know seem to do, is not at all as your Lord would
have you act! You know how the angels rebuked the disciples for doing
this–"You men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into Heaven?" Go
and preach the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and then, whether
Christ comes sooner or later, you will be in the right posture to
welcome Him! And He will commend you for carrying out, as far as you
can, His last great commission to His disciples!
Christ's courage is also evident from the fact that "Judas, also, who
betrayed Him, knew the place, for Jesus often resorted there with His
disciples." Nothing would have been easier than for our blessed Lord to
have escaped from Judas if He had desired to do so, but He had no
desire to escape, so He went boldly and deliberately to the place with
which "the son of perdition" was well acquainted–the very place,
indeed, to which the traitor at once conducted the officers who had
been ordered to arrest the Master! May the Lord give to us similar
courage whenever we are placed in a position in any respect like His
was then! There are certain trials which, as a Christian, you cannot
escape, and which you should not wish to escape. You do not like to
think of them, but I would urge you to do so, not with fear and terror,
but with the calm confidence of one who says, "I have a baptism to be
baptized with and I am straitened until it is accomplished. I have a
cup of which I must drink, I am eager to drink it. I do not court
suffering, but if it is for Christ's sake, for the glory of God and the
good of His Church, I do not wish to escape from it, but I will go to
it calmly and deliberately, even as my Lord went to Gethsemane, though
Judas knew the place where Jesus often resorted with His disciples."
But, next, in the choice of this spot, our Lord also manifested His
wisdom. For, first, it was to Him a place of holy memories. Under those
old olive trees, so gnarled and twisted, He had spent many a night in
prayer. And the silver moonbeams, glancing between the somber foliage
had often illumined His blessed Person as He knelt there and wrestled
and had communion with His Father. He knew how His soul had been
refreshed while He had spoken there, face to face with the Eternal–how
His face had been made to shine–and He had returned to the battle in
Jerusalem's streets strengthened by His contact with the Almighty. So
He went to the old trysting place, the familiar spot where holy
memories clustered thick as bees about a hive, each one laden with
honey. He went there because those holy memories aided His faith. And,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when your time of trial comes, you will
do well to go to the spot where the Lord has helped you in the
past–and where you have enjoyed much hallowed fellowship with Him.
There are rooms where if the walls could tell all that has happened
within them, a heavenly brightness might be seen because God has so
graciously revealed Himself to us there in times of sickness and
sorrow! One who had long lain in prison for Christ's sake, used to say,
sometimes, after he had been released, "Oh, take me back to my dungeon,
for I never had such blessed seasons of communion with my Lord as I had
within that cold stone cell!" Well, if you have such a place, dear to
you by many hallowed memories, go to it as your Master went to His
sacred oratory in the Garden of Gethsemane, for there you will be
likely to be helped even by the associations of the place.
Our Lord's wisdom, in choosing that spot is also evident from the fact
that it was a place of deep solitude and, therefore, most suitable for
His prayers and cries on that doleful night. The place which is now
called the Garden of Gethse-mane does not, according to some of the
best judges, deserve that name. It is in far too exposed a position.
But one always thinks of Gethsemane as a very quiet, lonely spot. And
let me say that in my judgment, there is no place so suitable for
solitude as an olive garden–especially if it is in terrace above
terrace as in the South of France. I have frequently been sitting in an
olive garden, and friends whom I would have been glad to see, have been
within a few yards of me, yet I have not known that they were there!
One beautiful afternoon, as two or three of us sat and read, we could
see, a long way down, a black hat moving to and fro, but we could not
see the wearer of it. We afterwards discovered that he was a brother
minister whom we were glad to invite to join our little company. If you
want to be alone, you can be so at any time you like in an olive
garden–even if it is near town. What with the breaking up of the
ground into terraces, the great abundance of foliage and the strange
twisted trunks of the old trees, I know no place in which I would feel
so sure of being quite alone as in an olive garden! And I think our
Master went to Gethsemane for a similar reason. And burdened as He was,
He needed to be in a solitary place. The clamorous crowd in Jerusalem
would have been no fit companions for Him when His soul was exceedingly
sorrowful, even unto death.
It seems to me, also, that there is about an olive garden, either by
day or by night, something congruous with sorrow. There are some trees
that seem conducive to mirth–the very twinkling of their leaves would
make one's heart dance with delight! But about the olive there is
always something, not suggestive, perhaps, of absolute melancholy, but
a matter-of-fact soberness as if in extracting oil out of the flinty
rock, it had endured so much suffering that it had no inclination to
smile, but stood there as the picture of everything that is somber and
solemn. Our dear Master knew that there was something congenial to His
exceeding sorrow in the gloom of the olive garden and, therefore, He
went there on the night of His betrayal. Act with similar wisdom,
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, when your hour of trial is approaching!
I have known some people rush into gay society to try to forget their
grief, but that was folly. I have known others, in seasons of sorrow,
seem to surround themselves with everything that is sad–that was also
folly. Some, who have been in great trouble, have tried to hide it in
frivolity, but that was still greater folly. It is a good thing, in
times of grief, not to let your surroundings be either too somber or
too bright, but to seek, in your measure, to be as wise as your Master
was in His choice of Gethsemane as the scene of His solitary
supplication and subsequent betrayal.
II. Now, secondly, let us consider THE EXERCISE OF THE SAVIOR UPON THAT
SPOT. Every item is worthy of attention and imitation.
First, He took all the precautions for others. He left 8 of His
disciples at the entrance to the Garden, saying to them, "Pray that you
enter not into temptation." Then He took Peter, James and John a little
further into the Garden, saying to them, "Tarry you here, and watch
with Me." There ought, thus, to have been two watching and praying
bands. If they had all been on the watch, they might have heard the
footfalls of the approaching band and they would have seen in the
distance the lights of the lanterns and torches of these who were
coming to arrest their Lord. Probably our Master took these precautions
more for the sake of His disciples than for His own sake. He bade them
pray as well as watch, that they might not be taken unawares, nor be
overcome with fear when they saw their Master captured and led away as
a prisoner. From this action of our Lord, we may learn that we, also,
in our own extremity, should not forget to care for others and shield
them from harm as much as we can.
Next, our Savior solicited the sympathy of friends. As a Man, He
desired the prayers and sympathies of those who had been most closely
associated with Him. Oh, what a Prayer Meeting they might have
held–watching for the coming of the enemy and praying for their dear
Lord and Master! They had a noble opportunity of showing their devotion
to Him, but they missed it. They could not have kept Judas and the men
who came with him away from their Lord, but they might have let their
Master know when Judas was coming. It was almost the last service that
any of them could have rendered to Him before He died for them–yet
they failed to render it and left Him, in that dread hour of darkness–
without even the slight consolation that human sympathy might have
afforded Him. In our times of trial, we shall not do wrong if we
imitate our Lord in this action of His–yet we need not be surprised
if, like He, we find all human aid fail us in our hour of greatest
need.
Then, leaving all His disciples, and going away alone, Jesus prayed and
wrestled with Godand, in our time of trouble, our resort must be to
prayer. Restrain not prayer at any time, even when the sun shines
brightly upon you, but be sure that you pray when the midnight darkness
surrounds your spirit. Prayer is most needed in such an hour as that,
so be not slack in it, but pour out your whole soul in earnest
supplication to your God and say to yourself, "Now above all other
times I must pray with the utmost intensity." For consider how Jesus
prayed in Gethsemane.
He adopted the lowliest posture and manner. He fell on His face and
prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
Me." What an extraordinary sight! The eternal Son of God had taken upon
Himself our nature and there He lay as low as the very dust out of
which our nature was originally formed! There He lay as low as the most
unrighteous sinner or the most humble beggar can lie before God. Then
He began to cry to His Father in plain and simple language, but oh,
what force He put into the words He used! Thrice He pleaded with His
Father, repeating the same petition–and Luke tells us that, "being in
an agony He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was, as it were, great
drops of blood falling down to the ground." He was not only in an agony
of suffering, but in an agony of prayer at the same time!
But while our Lord's prayer in Gethsemane was thus earnest, intense and
repeated, it was, at the same time, balanced with a ready acquiescence
in His Father's will! "Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."
So, suffering one, you whose spirit has sunk within you. You who are
depressed and well-near distracted with grief, may the Holy Spirit help
you to do what Jesus did–to pray, to pray alone, to pray with
intensity, to pray with importunity, to pray even unto an agony–for
this is the way in which you will prevail with God and be brought
through your hour of darkness and grief. Believe not the devil when he
tells you that your prayer is in vain! Let not your unbelief say, "The
Lord has closed His ears against you." "Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ears heavy, that they
cannot hear." Yet mind that you also imitate your Lord's submission and
resignation, for that is not acceptable prayer in which a man seeks to
make his own will prevail over the will of God! That is presumption and
rebellion–not the cry of a true child of God. You may beseech Him to
grant your request, "if it is possible," but you may not go beyond
that! You must still cry, with your Lord, "Nevertheless not as I will,
but as You will."
I have already reminded you that our Lord sought human sympathy while
in Gethsemane, but I want again to refer to that fact so that we may
learn the lessons it is intended to teach us. In our little griefs we
often go to our fellow creatures, but not to God–that habit is apt to
breed dependence upon man. But in our greatest griefs, we frequently go
to God and feel as if we could not go to man! Now, although that may
look like honoring God, there is a good deal of pride mixed with it.
Our Lord Jesus Christ neither depended upon men nor yet renounced the
sympathy of men. There were three of His disciples within call and
eight more a little further away, but probably still within call. He
prayed to His Father, yet He asked of His disciples such sympathy as
they might have shown to Him. Still, He did not depend upon their
sympathy for, when He did not get it, He went back to His praying to
His Father! There are some who say that they will trust in God and use
no means–others say that they will use the means, but they fall short
in the matter of trusting God. I have read that one of Mahommed's
followers came to him and said, "O prophet of God, I shall turn my
camel loose, tonight, and trust it to providence." But Mahommed very
wisely answered, "Tie your camel up as securely as you can–and then
trust it to providence." There was sound common sense in that
remark–and the principle underlying it can be applied to far weightier
matters. I believe that I am following the example of my Lord when I
say, "I trust in God so fully that if no man will sympathize with me,
He, alone, will enable me to drink all that is in this cup that He has
placed in my hand. Yet I love my fellow creatures so much that I desire
to have their sympathy with me in my sorrow, although if they withhold
it, I shall still place my sole dependence upon my God."
When our Lord came to His disciples and found them sleeping instead of
watching, you know how prompt He was to find an excuse for them–"The
spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." His rebuke of Peter was
very gentle– "'Simon, do you sleep? Could you not watch one hour?' Are
you sleeping, you who so recently boasted that you would go with Me to
prison and to death and that though all others should deny Me, you
would not? Ah, Simon, you had better watch and pray, for you know not
how soon temptation may assail you and cause you to fall most
grievously." Yet Peter was included with the rest of the disciples in
the excuse which their Lord made for the willing but weak sleepers who
ought to have been watchers. What a lesson this is to us! We do not
make half the excuses for one another that Jesus makes for us!
Generally, we are so busy making excuses for ourselvesthat we quite
forget to make excuses for others. It was not so with our Lord. Even in
His own overwhelming trouble, no sharp or unkind word escaped from His
lips! When we are very ill, you know how apt we are to be irritable to
those about us. And if others do not sympathize with us as we think
they should, we wonder what they can be made of to see us in such
sorrow and not to express more grief on our ac-
count! Yet there was our Master, all stained with His own blood, for
His heart's floods had burst their banks and run all over Him in a gory
torrent! But when He came to His disciples, they gave Him no kind word,
no help, no sympathy, for they were all asleep. He knew that they were
sleeping for sorrow, so their sleep was not caused by indifference to
His grief, but by their sorrow at His sorrow. Their Master knew this,
so He made such excuse for them as He could. And, Beloved, when we are
suffering our much smaller sorrows, let us be ready to make excuses for
others as our Lord did in His great ocean of suffering!
III. Now, thirdly, let us consider THE TRIUMPH UPON THAT SPOT. It was a
terrible battle that was waged in
Gethsemane–we shall never be able to pronounce that word without
thinking of our Lord's grief and agony–but it was a battle that He
won, a conflict that ended in complete victory for Him!
The victory consisted, first, in His perfect resignation. There was no
rebellion in His heart against the will of the Father to whom He had so
completely subjected Himself. But unreservedly He cried, "Not as I
will, but as You will." No clarion blast, nor firing of cannons, nor
waving of flags, nor acclamation of the multitudes ever announced such
a victory as our Lord achieved in Gethsemane! He there won the victory
over all the griefs that were upon Him and all the griefs that were
soon to roll over Him like huge Atlantic billows! He there won the
victory over death and even over the wrath of God which He was about to
endure to the utmost for His people's sake! There is true courage,
there is the highest heroism, there is the declaration of the
Invincible Conqueror in that cry, "Not as I will, but as You will."
With Christ's perfect resignation, there was also His strong resolve.
He had undertaken the work of His people's redemption and He would go
through with it until He could triumphantly say from the Cross, "It is
finished!" A man can sometimes dash forward and do a deed of
extraordinary daring, but it is the long-sustained agony that is the
real test of courageous endurance. Christ's agony in Gethsemane was
broken up into three periods of most intense wrestling in prayer–with
brief intervals which could have given Him no relief as He turned in
vain to the sleeping disciples for the sympathy that His true Human
Nature needed in that hour of dreadful darkness! But, as He had before
steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem though He well knew all
that awaited Him there, He still kept His face set like a flint toward
the great purpose for which He had come from Heaven to earth. It is the
wear and tear of long-continued grief that has proved too much for many
a truly heroic spirit, yet our Lord endured it to the end! And so He
left us an example that we shall do well to follow.
A part of our Savior's victory was that He obtained angelic help. Those
prayers of His prevailed with His Father, "and there appeared an angel
unto Him from Heaven, strengthening Him." I know not how he did it, but
in some mysterious way the angel brought Him succor from on high. We do
not know that angel's name and we do not need to know it–but somewhere
among the bright spirits before the Throne of God there is the angel
who strengthened Christ in Gethsemane. What a high honor for him! The
disciples missed the opportunity that Christ put within their reach,
but the angel gladly availed himself of the opportunity as soon as it
was presented to him.
Last of all, the victory of Christ was manifest in His majestic bearing
towards His enemies. Calmly He rose and faced the hostile band. And
when the traitor gave the appointed signal by which Jesus was to be
recognized, He simply asked the searching personal question, "Judas, do
you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?" How that enquiry must have cut
the betrayer to the heart! When Jesus turned to those who had been sent
to arrest Him and said to them, "Whom do you seek," He did not speak
like a man whose soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. And
when they answered Him, "Jesus of Nazareth," He said, "I Am," and at
the very sound of that great Jehovah's name, "I Am," "they went
backward and fell to the ground." There was a majestic flash of His
Deity even in the hour of the abasement of His Humanity–and they fell
prostrate before the God who had thus confessed that the name of
Jehovah rightly belonged to Him! Then He went with them quietly and
without the slightest resistance after He had shown His care for His
disciples by saying–"If, therefore, you seek Me, let these go their
way"–and after He had healed the ear of Malchus, which Peter had so
rashly cut off! Then, all the while that Christ was before Annas and
Caiaphas, and before Pilate and Herod, and right on to the last dread
scene of all upon the Cross, He was calm and collected–and never again
endured such tossing to and fro as He had passed through in Gethsemane!
Well now, Beloved, if the Lord shall bring us into deep waters and
cause us to pass through fiery trials–if His Spirit shall enable us to
pray as Jesus did, we shall see something like the same result in our
own experience! We shall rise up from our knees strengthened for all
that lies before us and fitted to bear the Cross that our Lord may have
ordained for us. In any case, our cup can never be as deep or as bitter
as His was–there were in His cup some ingredients that never will be
found in ours. The bitterness of sin was there, but He has taken that
away for all who believe in Him. His Father's wrath was there, but He
drank that all up and left not a single drop for any of His people. One
of the martyrs, as he was on his way to the stake, was so supremely
happy that a friend said to him, "Your Savior was full of sorrow when
He agonized for you in Gethsemane." "Yes," replied the martyr, "and for
that very reason I am so happy, for He bore all the sorrow for me." You
need not fear to die, if you are a Christian, since Jesus died to put
away your sin–and death is but the opening of your cage to let you
fly, to build your happy nest on high! Therefore, fear not even the
last enemy, which is Death. Besides, Christ could not have a Savior
with Him to help Him in His agony, but you have His assurance that He
will be with you! You shall not have merely an angel to strengthen you,
but you shall have that great Angel of the Covenant to save and bless
you even to the end!
The most of this sermon does not belong to some of you, for you do not
belong to Christ. O dear Friends, do not give sleep to your eyes or
slumber to your eyelids till you belong to Him! As surely as you live,
you will have sorrows at some time or other, you will have a bitter cup
of which you must drink–and then what will you do if you have no
Divine consolation in the trying hour? What will you do when you come
to die if you have no Christ to make your pillow soft for you, no
Savior to go with you through that dark valley? Oh, seek Him and He
will be found of you, even now! The Lord help you to do so, for
Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN10.1-30.
Verse 1. Verily, verity, I say unto you, he that enters not by the door
into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief
and a robber The positiveness of our Lord's teaching is noteworthy.
Whatever may be said about dogmatically teaching, now, it is certain
that His teaching is of that character! He does not raise questions,
but He solves them. He does not suggest probabilities, but He declares
certainties. This might be taken as the key-word to all the Savior's
teaching, "Verily, verily." He makes a strong statement. He speaks as
one having authority, not as the scribes who only claimed to have
authority, but as the Sent One of the Father who really has it!
"Verily, verily, I say unto you." Whatever comes to us with the
imprimatur of the, "Verily, verily," of the Son of God is not to be
questioned or doubted by us for a single moment! "He that enters not by
the door into the sheepfold, but climbs up some other way, the same is
a thief and a robber." Christ Himself entered by the door. He came
according to the ancient types, symbols and prophecies. He came as God
said that He would come. He entered by the door. There is no
irregularity about Christ's office as the Shepherd of His sheep. It is
confirmed to Him by the sanction of the Holy Spirit. The witness of the
Father is borne to Him–"This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased: hear you Him." We rejoice to think that Jesus our Savior is
also Christ the Anointed. He is Jesus to us, but He is the Anointed of
the Father. He comes by right as the appointed Shepherd of the sheep
entering in by the door!
2, 3. But he who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To
him the porter opens. To Him John the Baptist, as the porter, opened
the door. He pointed to Him and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world." And every God-sent minister is a porter to
Christ, opening the door to Him! That is our office–to stand and open
the door that Christ may come forth among you–and that you may come in
to Him and find the spiritual pasture on which your souls can feed. "To
him the porter opens"–
3. And the sheep hear his voice. Those who are really chosen of God
hear and heed the voice of Christ but those who are not Christ's chosen
ones will not heed His discourse, but will listen to the many voices
which attract the ears and the hearts of sinful men. The elect of God
are known by this mark–that they hear the voice of Christ! Just as you
can find out in a heap of ashes, whether there are any pieces of steel
there by simply thrusting in a magnet, so can you find out God's chosen
people by the mighty magnet of Christ's voice!
3. And he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out. [See Sermon
#2359, Volume 40–personal and effectual calling.] Sometimes He leads
them out from the midst of the world's
flocks. And sometimes He calls them by name when they are in His fold
and leads them out to even higher and better pastures, calls them and
leads them out to higher Truths of God than they have before received.
4. And when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them. Christ
never drives His sheep, He leads them. As the Eastern shepherd always
goes before his sheep, so does the Savior go before His flock. "He goes
before them"–
4. And the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. Christ's sheep
are marked in various ways. They are marked on the foot–"the sheep
follow Him." And they are marked in the ear, "for they know His voice."
They follow the track of their Shepherd and they give heed to the voice
of their Shepherd–and by these tokens they are known to be His sheep.
5. And a stranger they will not follow. There are strangers constantly
coming into our different churches. We know they are strangers, for
they preach strange doctrines and do not keep to the old paths. Those
that are notChrist's sheep follow them directly. "Here is a very clever
man," they say, and off they go after him! But of God's elect it is
written, "A stranger they will not follow"–
5. But will flee from him. They are frightened at the very sight of
him! They cannot tell what deadly pasture he is preparing for them, so
they "flee from him"–
5. For they know not the voice of strangers. They know the voice of
their Shepherd, but they know not the voice of strangers, so they flee
from them.
6. This parable spoke Jesus unto them but they did not understand the
things He spoke unto them. They thus proved that they were not His
sheep, for they did not understand His words!
7. 8. Then Jesus said unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am the door of the sheep. And all who came before Me are thieves and
robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. There were many false christs
that rose up before Jesus Christ appeared–and there were many persons
who followed those false christs. "But the sheep did not hear them."
They still waited with holy Anna, with patient Simeon and the rest of
the faithful who waited for the appearing of the true Shepherd, and
were not misled by the pretenders who were only "thieves and robbers."
9. Iam the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he shall be saved, and' shall
go in and out, and find pasture."^ Sermon #2752,
Volume 47–THE DOOR.] Christ is the Door just as truly as He is the
Shepherd and as He is everything that is necessary and good for His
people! If I come to Christ, I must come to Him by Christ. Any of us
who will but enter in by Christ, who is the Door of His Church, shall
find salvation and more than that–we shall find liberty–for we "shall
go in and out." Our daily pathway shall be a safe one and we shall have
abundant supplies for all our daily needs. We "shall go in and out and
find pasture."
10. The thiefcomes not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: Iam
come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly. [See Sermon #1150, Volume 20–LIFE MORE
ABUNDANT.] I trust that the first purpose of Christ's coming has been
fulfilled to many of us, for we "have life" through Him–but ought we
not to be encouraged to hope that we may reach a higher standard of
that life–and so have it more abundantly? We do not want to have just
enough life to enable us to breathe, but we want life enough for
usefulness, for joy, for triumph, for likeness to Christ, for communion
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ!
11-13. Iam the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd gives his life for the
sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees:
and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep. The hireling flees,
because he is an hireling, and cares not for the sheep. Christ is the
Good Shepherd and, therefore, He never fled as the hireling flees. He
cared for the sheep, for they were His own. The wolf might come, but
the Good Shepherd was ready to meet him. He would not have His sheep
scattered, but He would gather them in the cloudy and dark day, and in
every time of danger He would be the center around which they might
rally.
14, 15. I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of
Mine. As the Father knows Me, even so I
know the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep. [See Sermon
#1877, Volume 32–OUR OWN DEAR SHEPHERD.] Our translators have ruined
this passage by putting a full stop where there should not be one, and
by breaking it into two verses. It should run thus–"I am the Good
Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine as the Father knows
Me and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep." Christ
here sets forth the intimate knowledge that there is between Himself
and all His people–as much as there is between the Father and the Son!
It is wonderful teaching, full of depth and spiritual power. As the
Father knows the Son, and the Son knows the Father, so certainly does
Christ know His Church–and His Church knows Him–or shall do so in the
future.
16. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold. [See Sermon
#1713, Volume 29–OTHER SHEEP AND ONE FLOCK.] They are of this flock,
but they are not of this fold. The flock is divided,
and lies down in different fields for the present–"Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold"–
16-18. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there
shall be one fold, and one Shepherd. Therefore does My Father love Me,
because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man takes it
from Me, but I lay it down ofMyself 'Christ's death was to be the act
of His own free will, as well as of the violence of wicked men.
18-21. Ihavepower to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This commandment have Ireceived ofMy Father. There was a division,
therefore, again among the Jews for these sayings. And many of them
said, He has a devil, and is mad, why listen to Him? Others said, These
are not the words of one that has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind?'Christ's sayings always cause a division between those who
hear them. There must always be two opinions, just as there are some
who are His sheep and some who are not. When you go and try to speak
for Christ, do not be at all astonished if people ridicule you. What
did they say of the Master, Himself? "He has a devil, and is mad." They
will not say anything worse than that of you. And when they have said
it, what does it matter? Hard words break no bones. So have courage
enough to bear opposition and you may, like your Master, yet find some
who will defend you–for there may be those who will say–"These are
not the words of one that has a devil."
22-26. And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of Dedication, and it was
winter. And Jesus talked in the Temple in Solo-mon'sporch. Then came
the Jews roundabout Him and said to Him, How long do You make us to
doubt? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I
told you and you didn't believe Me: the works that I do in My Father's
name, they bear witness of Me. But you believe not because you are not
ofMy sheep, as I said unto you. "You are not My chosen people–there
has been no work of Divine Grace in your hearts and, therefore, you do
not believe." What a brave way that was of putting the Truth of God!
Some would have said, "Because you do not believe, you are not my
sheep;" but Jesus puts it the other way, "Because you are not My sheep,
therefore you do not believe."
27-30. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and
I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out ofMy hand. My Father, who gave them to Me,
is greater than all; andno man is able to pluck them out ofMy Father's
hand. IandMy Father are One. [See Sermon #2120, Volume 35–the security
OF BELIEVERS–OR, SHEEP WHO WILL NEVER PERISH.] This great
Truth of God angered the Jews so much that they "took up stones again
to stone Him." They proved, by thus treating the Good Shepherd, that
they were not His sheep!