As we walk our way back through the John 1-10, we will see that there were hints along the way that when the “Word became flesh”, He came to do something very different and disruptive to the religious system of His people. And the hints will become more than hints, they will become declarations, that the Christ, the Son of God, the “I AM”, came to die. His road was destined for the cross and our salvation.

At the end of John 10, we come to the end of Jesus’ extending teaching in Jerusalem. The next time Jesus enters Jerusalem will be His last. The Good Shepherd will die and rise again to save His sheep. Once Jesus’ sheep are in His hands, they are in His Father’s hands. And once His sheep are in those hands, they are secure forever.

“The Lord is my shepherd…” Christians all over the globe can finish this verse in thousands of languages. But those of us who live in modern places, far away from agrarian life, have a bit of a disconnect with these words. Seriously, when was the last time you spent time around a shepherd and sheep?…

In this story we see a blind man, his parents and the Pharisees, and we will see what it is like when the leading edge of your ministry is light and truth and grace, or when the motive of your ministry and leadership is law, power, fear and shame.

When Jesus proclaimed that anyone who keeps His word will never see death, the Jewish leaders had so many questions for Him:- Who do you make yourself out to be?- Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?- Are you greater than the prophets, who died? They had already been thinking that Jesus needed…

Is the word of Jesus making progress in you? Truth will make progress until it runs into a lie. Jesus can set you free from the law and from lies!

Do not die in your sin. Do not bear sin’s weight and sin’s death. A way out has been provided through the lifting up of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Light. We all instinctively know we need it. Even from a very early age, most of us have experienced being afraid of the dark (and what might be lurking in the dark).  Jesus declares that he IS the Light, and in him there is no darkness at all. 

This is not just the story of a woman caught in sin. It’s a story all of us share. We deserve judgment. And in his great compassion and mercy, Jesus gives grace instead.