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‘To him the porter openeth.’
Joh_10:3
I. Let us see how true this is.—Christ is the Door, but the Holy Spirit is the Porter who opens the Door. Take the case of the Apostles. Our Lord lived with them, they heard His words, they listened to His Parables, they heard Him speak of His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension; but what effect had these words upon them? They misinterpreted nearly everything He said. When He spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, they thought of earthly dominion and power; when He spoke of Death, they thought of defeat. It was only after the descent of the Holy Spirit that the full meaning of our Lord’s Life and Words dawned upon them. Then the Porter opened the Door and a flood of light streamed into their hearts. ‘They remembered His words.’
II. Was there no light in the world, then, until Christ came?—Was man left to grope his way through the dark vale of tears alone—to follow the light of his own distorted reasonings? There was ever the true light, which lighteth every man coming into the world, at first dim and uncertain, but still shining amidst the surrounding darkness in unbroken line, not always confined to one nation or family, but like the wind of God blowing where it listeth—sometimes manifesting itself in the patient endurance of wrongs, in the bright faith of the Patriarchs, in the bravery of the soldier, in the meekness of the great Law-giver, in the uprightness and simple piety of the King. Then in the long line of prophets it flashed forth with peculiar splendour, and afterwards seemed to die away—as though after all the darkness had comprehended it—until the Dayspring from on high visited us. Then, at the Ascension, the Porter opened wide the Door to let the King of Glory in, and the light came forth in a livid flood and was diffused all over the world, enlightening, guiding, sanctifying every soul of man that will walk in its light, and leading them
‘O’er moor, o’er crag and torrent, till the night be gone!’
Yes, so it is. Our understanding is darkened, our hearts are sealed, our ears are closed, unless the Porter openeth.
Rev. J. L. Spencer.
Illustration‘An old Father of the Church writes, “Christ is the Door of the fold and the keeper of the Door, as well as the shepherd of the sheep. He is the Truth, and opens Himself and reveals to us His Truth;” and St. Bernard sings in that wonderful rhythm from which we get the beautiful hymn “Jerusalem the Golden”:
“Jesus the Gem of Beauty,
True God and Man they sing,
The never-failing Garden,
The ever-golden Ring.
“The Door, the Pledge, the Husband,
The Guardian of His Court,
The Day-star of Salvation,
The Porter and the Port.” ’
‘To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice.’
Joh_10:3
I. What a true picture of the first days of life is given us in the position of the sheep in the fold, dwelling under the porter’s care ere the morning dawned. Christian life, speaking generally, does not begin when His children hear the Good Shepherd’s voice calling them by name and bringing them to know Him with the knowledge of experience. It is the custom of the Church over which Jesus rules and which He guides by His Spirit to receive us to Holy Baptism in infancy. How close the embrace: ‘Baptized into Jesus Christ’ so as to become one with Him! How great the blessing to be made in Him ‘the child of God.’ Truly the love of Christ passeth knowledge. In the unconsciousness of infancy, ere I could embrace Him or love Him with a responsive love, He loved me and took me into His arms and numbered me with His sheep in His fold. Yet how true is it that our earliest days in the Church are like the hours of the sheep in the fold ere morning light appeared. All through the night the sheep slumbered and slept, lying down in safety in a good fold, watched over in faithful performance of duty by the porter to whose care the shepherd had given them. So the unconsciousness of infancy is as the night preceding the dawn. Yet how favoured is the position of the Christian child as it dwells in the fold! From the very first it grows up under the sheltered conditions of the life of the Church.
II. The stage of spiritual infancy is one that is soon passed through.—Soon the sun of advancing years makes its power felt, and the time comes when the future course of the life will depend on our answer to the call of the Good Shepherd when He calls each by name. We cannot always live in the sheepfold in a night of inaction under the porter’s care. We must go forth from the home, the school, the conditions of life in childhood, into the world, to meet its duties, its sorrows, its joys, its temptations. How did we go forth? How have we lived since we went forth? Did we go forth surrendered to Jesus as to our Great Teacher and King when we were no longer ‘under tutors and governors’? Have we lived, are we living, following in His footsteps, submissive to His discipline, trusting in His care as we abide with Him? God grant it may be so! Happy are we if we are numbered with those who ‘entering in by Him into the fold, go in and out and find pasture.’
—
Canon Body.
Illustration‘An Eastern sheepfold is an open yard, surrounded, not by movable hurdles, but by a high stone wall. The wall is sometimes three feet wide at the base, gradually narrowing towards the top. No mortar is used in its construction, but the stones are loosely piled together, and along the top is placed a row of branches of thorn bushes to keep off the wild beasts. When the tribes of Israel who desired to settle on the east side of Jordan came to Moses and asked leave to take possession of the land of Gilead, “They came near unto him and said, we will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones.” That the folds were permanent buildings is also suggested by the Hebrew word “Gederoth” (sheepfolds), which is derived from Gedar, a wall. Sometimes the yard leads to a cave where the sheep are driven at night, but, more frequently, at one end of the yard there is a low building with arched entrances where the flocks find shelter in bad weather. In some instances a wall divides the fold into two portions, and this facilitates the separation of the flocks when more than one occupies the same fold. The language of the tenth chapter of John suggests that more than one flock was sheltered by night in the same fold, and that the shepherds entrusted their flocks to the care of an under-shepherd, who guarded the fold through the night, and opened the door in the morning to admit the shepherds. Then came the separation of the various flocks. The owners claimed their sheep, some calling them by name, and counting them as they came forth one by one. The counting of sheep is termed in Scripture, “passing them under the rod.” ’
‘He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.’
Joh_10:3
I. In the true development of Christian life this surrender should take place in early days. Christian children grow up like the child Samuel of old in the Temple of the Lord. At first it may be truly said them as of him, ‘They do not yet know the Lord’; but very early in the morning of life Jesus comes to them, as He came to the boy in the Temple, with the personal call, ‘Samuel, Samuel,’—a call which marks a crisis in religious experience, since obedience to it leads to a personal knowledge of union with Christ. ‘I know My sheep, and am known of Mine.’ Henceforth, unless he ceases to follow the Good Shepherd, the baptized child lives his life in the joy and peace of Christ’s pastorate, and his gratitude takes voice as he sings aloud, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing.’ Blessed indeed is he who, in early days of life, through the power of the call of Jesus, turns to the Lord in true conversion, and is led out by Him into the experiences of a true Christian life.
II. What is conversion?—It is a turning to God in response to His love manifested in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is an action of man as he responds to God’s attractive and enabling grace. And this turning to God in Christ is necessary for our dwelling in His kingdom. ‘Except ye turn, ye cannot enter the kingdom.’ Now, to turn is an action done in obedience to the command of the will; underneath it lies the surrender of the will to God. This surrender of the will is not the necessary result of receiving the grace of regeneration. It is not so as a matter of fact. Many who had been baptized in infancy have not made this surrender. Many have never responded to His call, have never taken Him to be their Shepherd, and have never given themselves to Him to live in obedience to His teaching, in patient submission to His discipline, in dependence on His care. And all who live lives of obedience, submission, and dependence do so because they have yielded themselves unto God by a willing acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and King.
III. See how clearly this truth of the necessity of conversion is taught us in the Catechism of the English Church.—In it the Church seeks to guide her scholars into the realisation of their position as Christians, to lead them to hearty thanksgiving to God for His goodness in calling them individually into a state of salvation, and to seek from Him the grace of perseverance by earnest and continual prayer. In other words, she seeks to guide them into the way of peace—that is, into the peace of acceptance and hope.
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Canon Body.
Illustration‘The expression “his own sheep,” must not be pressed too far. It simply means that a real shepherd, according to Eastern custom, knowing his own flock individually by name, calls them at once by their names, and proves his relation to them by so doing. If not his own, he could not do so.’