You're listening to City Church Manchester. We are a church that invites
everyone to enjoy Christ for the glory of God. If we can serve you in any way
then visit our website at citychurchmanchester.org to find out more.
Well for those of you who do have your Bibles we're going to be looking at the
Gospel of John and we're going to be reading from John chapter 10 verses 1
to 30. John chapter 10 verses 1 to 30. If you're reading from the Blue Church
Bibles you can find John chapter 10 on page 1076. 1076 we're reading John
chapter 10 verses 1 to 30. Thanks Katie. Great so let's go. Very truly I tell you
Pharisees anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by
some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the
shepherd of the sheep. 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.
When he has brought out all his own he goes on ahead of them and his sheep
follow him because they know his voice but they will never follow a stranger. In
fact they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.
Jesus used this figure of speech but the Pharisees did not understand what he was
telling them. Therefore Jesus said again very truly I tell you I am the gate for
the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers but the sheep
have not listened to them. I am the gate whoever enters through me will be saved.
They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal
and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the
full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep so when he
sees the wolf coming he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf
attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand
and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my
sheep know me just as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down
my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold. I must
bring them also. They too will listen to my voice and there shall be one flock
and one shepherd. The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only
to take it up again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I
have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This
command I received from my father. The Jews who heard these words were divided.
Many of them said he is demon possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him? But
others said these are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon
open the eyes of the blind? Then came the festival of dedication at Jerusalem. It
was winter and Jesus was in the temple court walking in Solomon's Colonnade. The
Jews who were there gathered round him saying how long will you keep us in
suspense? If you are the Messiah tell us plainly. Jesus answered I did tell you
but you do not believe. The works I do in my father's name testify about me but
you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I
know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never
perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me
is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand and I and
the father are one. My name is Ralph and I'm one of the pastors here at City
Church and it's my privilege to be taking us through that passage we just
had read John chapter 10 and thinking through more today about what it means
for us to be a reformed church. Let me pray for us and then we're gonna dive in
to think about that a little bit more. Let's pray. Father God thank you that you are
the sovereign God who rules and reigns on high. You are above all things and you
all things live and breathe and have their being and Lord we pray that as we
think about who you are in relation to our salvation Lord would you open our
minds? Would you help us to leave behind preconceived ideas and to be open to
hearing what your word teaches us? Amen. Well I'd like you to imagine a scenario
please. It's not very pleasant I'm afraid but bear with me on this one okay. So
imagine we finish our service you go out you grab another coffee you haven't
had enough coffee yet you grab a cookie you're having a chat with one of your
friends then you decide it's time to go you walk down the back staircase you go
out of that exit onto Church Street and you step into the road without looking.
Smash! You're hit by a bus and the very next moment you find yourself at the gates of
heaven and God himself looks directly at you and he says why should I let you
into my heaven? How would you respond? Well if you're a Muslim you might say
well I've done my duty I've done the five pillars of Islam I've just finished
fasting for Ramadan I've celebrated Eid on Friday I've even given my zakat this
week that is why you should let me into heaven and according to the Bible
God will say no or maybe you're here and you describe yourself as a kind of
secular tolerant atheist and you'd say well well I've done my best I really
have I've tried to be a decent person I've tried to defend and champion the
rights of the oppressed women ethnic minorities transgender people I've given
to children in need I've even been along to church several times in my life
that's why you should let me in God and according to the Bible God will say no
the only answer the only answer that the Bible gives is that we must point to
Jesus and say because he died for me and said come and so I've come that's what
the thief on the cross did on that night that he arrived in paradise according to
Luke 23 the only ground to be welcomed into God's eternal presence is Christ
and Christ's work you know there's been another answer that's being given down
through history in the church it's similar to that answer is very similar
so similar you might not even notice a difference but it is different this is
it well I heard the good news about Jesus at church 20 25 years ago I thought
it was the very best news in the world and that Sunday I decided that I was
gonna follow Jesus so here I am now you hear that and that sounds awfully good
doesn't it that sounds incredibly close to the gospel but it is different in a
crucial in a fundamental way it makes salvation dependent on us on my decision
to follow Jesus we're week two in a four-week series looking at what it means
for us as a church to be reformed so last week we looked at how God speaks to
us he speaks to us through his his authoritative word the Bible this week
we are thinking about how God saves us and the reformed answer is he saves us
through his sovereign grace alone this is the great debate between what is
sometimes called Calvinism on the one side and our minionism on the other side
now you might be sat here thinking boy this all sounds a little bit abstract a
little bit intellectual a little bit academic not sure I'm really that
interested in these sort of distinctions might might switch off for the next
half hour or so might catch up on my emails if you're thinking that can I
urge you don't don't do that please because what we are talking about this
afternoon is nothing less than the very heart of the gospel in a nutshell it's
the simple question did Jesus's death on the cross save us or did it merely make
salvation possible did it actually say or did it just make salvation possible
but what we're talking about is not obscure and intricate points of
theology they were talking about competing worldviews one worldview has
God at the center absolutely and squarely at the center the other worldview has us
there as well it is about competing understandings about how we become a
Christian one sees it as entirely the free and unmerited gift of God the other
says that it's something that we decide upon ourselves and it's a fundamentally
different view about the future one view says that we are secure in God's hands
and nothing and no one can ever snatch us out from them the other says that if
you're a Christian actually you you can fall away so you better watch out this
friends this is not some obscure theological discussion this is a big
deal and as a church leadership we adopt the former position what is sometimes
called Calvinism now I think that's a really unfortunate label for this view
because it didn't originate with John Calvin in the 16th century in fact it's
a view that's been believed right from the very earliest times in the church
and the sort of formulation of it that we're talking about actually wasn't
written down by Calvin it wasn't written down until 50 years after Calvin's death
in 1618 by the Synod of Dort now the Synod just refers to a meeting a meeting
of 84 members of Dutch clergy they met together in Dort in order to provide a
response to a Dutch theologian called Jacob Arminius from whom we get the term
Arminianism okay now don't make the mistake that I made when I first heard
that term Arminianism I assumed it referred to people from the country of
Armenia but it doesn't okay not all people from Armenia are Arminians and
not all Arminians are from Armenia they are different things anyway Arminius
Arminius the theologian taught that people have free will to respond to God
with faith he insisted that the God's election of people for salvation was
based on his foreknowledge of their future faith he said that Christ's death
on the cross wasn't for a specific group of people but for the whole world he
said that human beings were able to resist the work of the Holy Spirit
bringing them to faith and he said that once you become a Christian once you've
been born again it's possible for you to fall away and lose your salvation in
response the Synod of Dort came up with a set of statements to counter his
position those statements were known as the
cannons of Dort now it's springtime I was looking out in my neighbor's garden
earlier today and I saw some beautiful tulips in his garden and tulip is a
great way to understand and remember what the cannons of Dort were there were
five statements that you can remember through the acronym of tulip says T
stands for total depravity we are dead in our sin and we are unable to submit
to God you is for unconditional election God chose or or he elected us out of his
love it had nothing to do with any goodness he saw in us nothing to do with
any faith that he saw we would one day have the L stands for limited atonement
Jesus death only saved those whom he had chosen I is for irresistible grace that
Holy Spirit overcomes all of our opposition to him in bringing us to
faith and the P is for the perseverance of the Saints of those who are truly
Christ those are truest Christ they cannot ever be lost but that's what
tulip stands for that is what we believe as a church leadership here at City it's
important to say not everyone believes that here and a members can be members
of church without holding to that position but it is the position of the
leadership and it will always be the position taught from the front here from
beginning to end we believe that salvation is a work of God and only a
work of God I'm conscious that is a very long introduction thank you for bearing
with me I promise we're gonna speed up but what I wanted to do at the start was
to give you the big picture of what we're talking about today and then we're
gonna get into the detail of it by seeing how it's a position that is taught
in the Bible now we could have turned to lots and lots and lots of passages in
the Bible to look at this today but I wanted to focus on just one because I
think just one actually demonstrates all five things so we're looking at John
chapter 10 verses 1 to 30 John 10 follows on from Jesus healing a man who
was born blind in John chapter 9 and John chapter 10 gives us what John
describes in verse 6 is a figure of speech it is a picture that Jesus uses
to illustrate to us important things about salvation and the figure that the
picture he gives is of a shepherd with his sheep now that would have been
incredibly evocative for Jesus's first century Jewish hearers you see in Ezekiel
chapter 34 the Lord speaks to to Israel in exile and says to them your leaders
they've been bad leaders they have been bad shepherds and then Ezekiel 34 the
Lord promises that he himself will come and be for them a good shepherd verse
11 of Ezekiel 34 I myself will search my sheep and look after them verse 12 I
will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered now back in
John chapter 10 verse 19 do you see why why the Jews were so angry at Jesus
saying I am the good shepherd they realized that he was saying that he
himself is God the true good shepherd now I don't have time to unpack all the
details of that here today but what I want to do is show how each of the five
points of tulip are taught here in John chapter 10 so first up we see here in
John 10 that we are helpless sheep that's total depravity verse 14 Jesus
says I am the good shepherd I know my sheep and my sheep know me I think we
have a problem when we come to a passage like this today because we have an
over sentimentalized view of sheep I think so we used to singing Mary had a
little lamb when we were growing up and we used those beautiful little pictures
of lambs leaping around in springtime aren't we so for us lambs just cute
little beautiful things and we think frankly shepherds they're pretty lucky
people because they get to spend all their day just cutting up the little
sheep and stroking them okay that's that's what we think when we hear about
the good shepherd and his sheep but that's a load of nonsense the reality is
that sheep sheep are dirty smelly stupid obstinate creatures that's what sheep are
what's more sheep are utterly dependent if you were to go out to the peaks
yesterday and join the rain in the peak district you may well have seen you may
have seen wild deer running around you might have even seen wild rabbits and
wild foxes if you went down to the new forest you would see wild horses down
there but you will never see wild sheep why well because sheep can't survive on
their own left to their own devices sheep will overeat or under eat they will
fall off cliff edges they'll get run over by cars they'll fall over and not
be able to get up sheep are needy dependent creatures and they look to one
person to provide everything that they need they look to the shepherd now what
picture what what figure of speech does Jesus choose to describe a Christian's
relationship to him we are sheep in need of a good shepherd if our problem was
simply a lack of knowledge Jesus would have said you are the pupils I am the
teacher if our problem was a lack of wisdom Jesus would have said you are the
followers I am the guru if what we really needed was just to kind of pull
up our socks and try a little bit harder Jesus would have said I am the good life
coach but he says you are sheep you are needy dependent helpless people totally
depraved now that does not mean that we're as bad as we possibly can be we're
not but it does mean that we are lost in our sin it does mean that we are
helpless and utterly dependent just like the blind man in John chapter 9 we are
spiritually blind in need of having our eyes open just like Lazarus in John
chapter 10 we are dead we are spiritually dead we don't need someone to
come along and merely shake us to wake us up we need someone to come and give
life to the dead we are helpless sheep and Jesus is the good shepherd
secondly we see here in John 10 that we are chosen sheep that is
unconditional election in the ancient Near East verse 2 shows us this verse 2
in the ancient Near East sheep when they were being kept overnight they were kept
in in shared communal pens that the shepherd didn't have their own pen but
they put all of their sheep into the same pen overnight now look at a second
sentence in verse 3 and see what the shepherd does the the morning comes the
gatekeeper opens the gate and each shepherd takes out their flock and look
at verse 3 the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out he
calls them by name now in biblical language a name is really really
important it's not so important for us for us it's just a label so my name is
Ralph okay it's a way for you to distinguish me from my co-pastor Matt
okay I am Ralph he is Matt okay people confuse us all the time but we are
different people okay and the way you know we're different is I am Ralph and
Matt is Matt okay names are simply labels to help us to distinguish but in
the ancient Near East a name meant so much more a name was who a person was
at the deepest most profound level so when Jesus says that he knows each of
his sheep by name well he's saying that he knows them at the deepest most
profound level we know how to keep up appearances don't we I mean it's written
to British etiquette keeping up appearances in it so you know you come
into church on Sunday I say how you doing you say all right your your arm
might be hanging off having been severed outside and you would still say I'm
alright that's just what we do we keep up appearances don't we we use makeup
and we use concealer we use Instagram filters to project that we're something
that we aren't truly but what verse 3 says is that Jesus looks down to the
very depths of who we are he sees us truly with all the Instagram filters
removed he sees behind the facade he sees behind our attempts to look good
and godly he sees us in all of our sin and mess and he says you're mine you're
mine listen this point is so important that Jesus repeats it a second time in
this passage verse 14 he says I am the good shepherd I know my sheep and my
sheep know me he knows us he knows us inside out back to front he knows
exactly what we're like and yet he's chosen us we're his sheep now our
minneas and his followers they taught that the God chose us in eternity because
he foresaw that one day we would have faith faith in Jesus but that's not how
it worked here in John chapter 10 verse 4 the people aren't his sheep because
they follow Jesus rather they followed Jesus because they are his sheep it's
unconditional election the Arminian say I owe my election to my faith the
Calvinist says I owe my face to my election I follow Jesus because I am one
of his sheep so I guess that begs the question well why did God choose some to
be his sheep when the Old Testament the people of God are asking exactly the
same question and just as they're about to enter the promised land Moses gives
the answer in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 7 he says the Lord did not set his
affection on you and choose you because you are more numerous than other
peoples for you were the fewest of all peoples in other words God didn't choose
you because you are bigger or better or smarter or more godly than the other
people no verse 8 Deuteronomy 7 it was because the Lord loved you and kept the
oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand I
remember the first time that I realized that my wife Anna truly loved me we've
been on a trip to France together with some my old school friends we were going
to visit a mutual friend of ours who was on a gap year and I had a great friend
great time with my old school friends we we were having a hoot we were going
around acting like complete idiots okay all of our silly French accents and
saying silly French things and Anna was utterly embarrassed by her boyfriend's
conduct and when we got back I remember in Waterloo station Anna confronting me
about it and saying you just acted like a fool that whole weekend I was
devastated but she said she still loved me and that's when I knew that she really
loved me she didn't simply love things about me she didn't simply love things I
did she loved me you see God chooses people not because he sees potential in
them not because he sees good but because he loves the love is within
himself in fact did you notice did he notice where the love was in this
passage just look at verse 29 look on in the passage verse 29 tells us that we
his sheep we are a love gift from God the Father to God the Son we are chosen
sheep unconditional election out of God's love within himself thirdly Jesus died
for the sheep now here are minions really differ from what we believe here
at City Church you see they see the cross as merely having removed an
obstacle that stood in the way of God forgiving us they see the cross as
simply having satisfied the unsatisfied claims of God's justice but in a broad
and general way it was a display of God's justice they say that it didn't
deal specifically with any individual specific personal sin it just made
saving faith possible we believe that on the cross Jesus died in the place of
sinners substituting for us taking the punishment we deserve in our place and
the reason that we believe that is because it's taught throughout the Bible
so in Romans chapter 3 verse 25 we read that God presented him that's Christ as
a sacrifice of atonement that means a substitutionary sacrifice through the
shedding of his blood in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 which which Chris took us
through several weeks back we read that he Jesus was pierced for our
transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities the punishment that brought us
peace was on him and by his wounds we are healed it's the language of
substitution he was punished he was wounded in our place and that's what we
have right here in John chapter 10 verse 11 we read I am the good shepherd the
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep now now that word translated for
is the Greek word hyper and we don't really have a good English equivalent
for it the closest we would get is on behalf of so Jesus laid down his life on
behalf of the sheep in their place a few weeks back I was speaking at a
conference for international Baptist Church pastors in Lisbon Portugal it was
great fun time and on the final night one of the pastors he was the pastor of
a new church plant in Scandinavia said I'd love to go out for dinner with you
tonight I've got loads of questions to ask I'll tell you what I will pay for
the dinner will you come for dinner with me and I said yeah of course I will but
but as we started to speak it became clear that he was the pastor of a very
small church that only just started he was on a very very low salary and I
thought this this shouldn't be on you so just before we finished a meal I went
up to the bar and I paid the bill both for me and for him which means that when
he got up at the end and went over to pay the waiter the waiter said well no
it's already paid and that's what we believe about the cross no it's already
been paid at the cross Jesus took on himself the punishment for all the sin
of Christians past present future he didn't deal with sin in some kind of
abstract general way it was specific he was nailed to the cross for the prideful
thought I had this morning he was nailed to the cross for the bitter thought I
have tonight it was specific but because the cross was specific because it really
paid for my sins that means it could only really pay for the sins of the
elect those God has chosen before creation because if it paid for more but
it would be double payment wouldn't it it would be double punishment for the
sins of unbelievers their sin would have been punished on the cross but then
punished on them in final judgments as well and that will be unjust and God is
never unjust now our minions say that we have too smaller view of the atonement
they say it's limited at home and after all but actually it's far bigger than
their view you see what our minions claim to be unlimited at home that Jesus
died for the sins of all the world is actually very limited indeed because it
means the cross didn't actually save anyone it just made salvation possible
for anyone we believe that the cross really did save absolutely fully finally
it saved all of those who God and his love has chosen in eternity to die for
fourthly having died for us Christians will follow his voice our minions teach
that people are able to resist the Holy Spirit when he starts to bring them to
salvation we can stop it but look at what we read here in John chapter 10 the
shepherd calls and the sheep come verse 3 not some of them not most of them all
of them because verse 4 they know his voice they listen verse 27 and they
follow him Jesus uses a double metaphor in this passage it contains two I am
saying so in verse 7 he says I am the gate and then in verse 9 he says I am
the good shepherd and I think Jesus point his reason for using these two
different metaphors he to I am saying is he's saying that he's both the way to
eternal life through his death but also the one who will lead us to eternal life
he does it all he hasn't just made it possible he has brought us through to
eternal life itself gifting us faith he is the good shepherd it is irresistible
I mean that's not surprising is it I mean a dead person cannot bring themselves
back to life they're dead a sheep cannot stop themselves from being led by the
shepherd the shepherd will win the battle of wills every single time the
grace by which we're saved is irresistible and understand what this
means it means that there is no heart too hard to be soft there's no mind too
made up to be changed there's no life too damaged to be redeemed there is no
history to blot it to be turned around God saving grace is powerful and it is
irresistible and that is great news for a city that has turned its back on God
as we hold out the good news of the gospel to the city of Manchester we
should have great confidence that we will see salvation happen because his
grace is irresistible and finally Jesus will never let go of his sheep look at
verse 27 he says my sheep listen to my voice I know them and they follow me I
give them eternal life and they shall never perish no one will snatch them out
of my hands this is one of the most wonderful promises in the whole Bible
Christians are safe because we are in Jesus it is firmly gripped and he will
never let us go now we need to be clear what this does not mean it is not once
saved always saved in the sense that if you went to the front at the end of a
meeting 20 years ago you're saved forevermore no matter what happens in
the rest of your life it doesn't mean that but it does mean that if we have
truly believed if we've truly been born again of the Holy Spirit then nothing no
one no power no authority can ever take us away from Jesus and that is so so
encouraging that the Christian life can be hard the name of this doctrine it's
the perseverance of the Saints not the holiday of the Holy the Christian life
is tough but this doctrine means we're safe we may lose our health in this life
but we will never lose eternal life we may lose our job in this life but we
will never lose the one who worked for us and laid down his life in our place
we may lose our smile in this life but we will never lose the joy of the one
who takes joy in us we may lose our loved ones in this life but we will
never lose the one who is supremely loved us that's the promise Christ will
hold us to the end so that's what we believe about how God saves it is his
work from beginning to end and it is to be received as a free gift God's sovereign
grace now it is possible to believe all these things in your head it's possible
to score top marks on a test on Calvinism and still to go straight to
hell but we're not saved on the basis of our knowledge we're saved on the basis
of Christ and all he has done but if we get this if we really get this not just
in our heads but in our hearts as well then it will change everything in our
life we'll be secure in who we are
knowing that we're dearly loved children of God not because of who we are but
because of who he is we will be free to live a radically transformed life knowing
that God will equip us for everything he calls us to be as his holy people we
will be bold in our evangelism knowing that no heart is too hard for God to
soften it and we will be confident about the future knowing that nothing and no
one can ever snatch us out of his hands all we need is Christ all we have is
Christ let me pray for us Lord Jesus thinking that you are supreme and
sovereign in all things thinking that you are the one who is saved from first
to last we were dead in our transgressions and sins but through your
death and resurrection you have made us alive you have raised us up with
yourself and you have promised that you hold us in your hands the love gift from
the father to the son and nothing can ever snatch us from that safe place