(John 10:28, 2928And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (John 10:28‑29).) Great comfort there is in John’s Gospel, in this day of confusion. The ministry there is so desultory. The Lord labored alone, and in a scene of recognized apostasies. His own to whom He had come, had not received Him; the world which He had made, had not known Him; He was outside everything. But to Himself in that condition He calls His sheep. He finds them here and there. All places in the wilderness are alike to Him, Samaria or Judea. He deals with souls immediately, personally, closely, and in solitude. He deals with them individually, “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” John 1:1212But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12). He entered in among them “by the door;” coming to sinners in the way of grace, and forth from the bosom of the Father. And the sheep became distinguished by one characteristic—their ears were awakened by the Spirit to know the voice of Him who thus came to them in grace, as from the Father, with words of life and salvation.
For so we find it in all the early chapters of this Gospel, where the Lord’s ministry is recorded. Each of those whom He finds and gathers is seen to be awakened to know His voice and to follow Him. Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael, in chap. 1; the Samaritan, in chap. 4; the convicted sinner, in chap. 8; the blind beggar, in chap. 10—all are given ears to hear His voice, and all, as it were, had their ears nailed to His door-post. In other words, their hearts are fixed, their thoughts are centered, their confidence is set, and He is the common object. Their need is brought to Jesus only, and left with Him.
They listened; they knew His voice; they followed. This listening is a sinner’s wisdom and a sinner’s salvation. He is wise to be silent, for he can say nothing for himself; he is saved by being silent, if he thus take occasion to listen to Jesus. And such were all these. They listen, they know his voice, they follow. Some have a quicker ear, some a more dull one. But no matter. Their ears are opened to Him.
They are not seen as linked together, but each gathered to Him. A wandering, free, unprescribed ministry we trace here: and the elect are not seen as linked together, save in this characteristic I have been noticing, that each and all of them have an ear for the voice of that Shepherd who had entered by the door, who had come from the bosom of the Father, doing His works, and speaking His words.
For in such a character as this in grace so suited the bosom from whence He came, and the Father whom He represented, the Lord enters every scene in the early chapters of this Gospel. This we may at once perceive. He enters the place where Andrew and his companions go to Him, as the Lamb of God. He enters on the spirit or on the solitude of Nathanael, as the One who was about to open heaven to Him. He enters on the thoughts of Nicodemus, as the One whom the Father had sent for healing and life. He enters the conscience of the Samaritan woman as the gift of God. He enters on the impotent man at Bethesda as his immediate Healer, working after the pattern of the Father. He enters into the midst of the multitude in chap. 6 as the sealed of the Father, to give life to the world. He enters on the guilt of the convicted sinner, as the light of life. He enters on the blindness of the beggar as the light of the world.
Thus, entering by the door, as the Shepherd of the sheep, He saves, and blesses, and quickens, and refuses to do anything else. He will not be a Judge or a King, nor will He display His power or get Himself a name in the world. He came from the bosom. He was declaring the Father. He was full of grace and truth; and entering in upon the flock, He entered only to bless.
But, again, I observe, He meets them in all conditions, one here, and another there one now, and another then. A wandering, free, unprescribed ministry we trace, and such only, in these early chapters of John. And He does not fold them together in this Gospel. They enter by Him, the door, and find salvation and pasture, and aboundings of life; but it is “one flock and one Shepherd.” He does not put them again as in the fold of Jerusalem. He does not encamp them again around the tabernacle, or put them under the shade of Lebanon. But are they unsheltered? Have they been gathered to be exposed? He goes on, in chap. 10, (where we have His own commentary upon His own ministry,) to satisfy this question. And He tells us, that though the sheep had been gathered after this free and broken manner, yet are they gathered to a place of everlasting security. They had been found in a world of apostasies, a scene of infinite confusion, a trackless desert, where death and darkness brooded—where all foundations were out of course. The Lord had found them, some in Samaria, some in Galilee, some in Judea. But now, having gathered them, He has everlasting rest and security for them. They have come to Himself, and they shall find that a place of strength, a fortress, a strong tower, a munition of rocks which no malice of all their enemies can ever touch. It is His own hand and the Father’s hand. No place less than that, folded there, if we please so to speak, a flock kept in that hand, out of which none can ever pluck them.
Great comfort, again I say, in all this; for we find ourselves in scenes of confusion and apostasy, such as the ministry of the Lord, in John’s Gospel, recognizes. The work of Christ, by His Spirit and His Gospel, is desultory now as it was then. His elect are found everywhere; but they have got an ear to hear His voice, an ear nailed to His door-post; round Himself they have gathered for salvation, and pasture, and life in its aboundings, and they are kept in the unassailable fortress of His hand and the Father’s.
Well, let me add, if the Spirit lead us, through the further teaching of the Epistles, to take our place in the body of Christ, as here we see it in the hand of Christ, I would not apprehend it merely, but I would desire grace to enjoy the calling that gives me to Him, who is the head over all things to the Church, and makes me of the fullness of Him who filleth all in all. Eph. 1.