The only way for salvation is through Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who calls His sheep by name “and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” Jesus says He is the door to life. “If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved…I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for His sheep…Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again.” And soon Jesus is going to lay down His life for His flock.
At the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, the Jews question Jesus about whether or not He is the Christ. So Jesus responds, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are one.”
Jesus goes on to say, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”
Jesus grieves over the people in Jerusalem who are rejecting Him and ultimately rejecting the kingdom of God – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Jesus desires for all to repent and turn to Him for salvation before it is too late, before your death or His return. Judgment is inevitable for those who ignore the word of God and reject His Son Jesus. Remember the flood, when Noah, a preacher of righteousness, warned the people for decades of the coming judgment and no one responded except for his seven family members who entered the ark with him. When God finally shut the door of the ark, it was too late for anyone on the outside to be saved. Jesus will soon compare His return to the days of Noah – “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:36-39).
However, God is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, desiring that we all repent and follow Him (2 Peter 3:9). Tomorrow Jesus explains what it will cost to be one of His followers. Keep reading.
(John 10:1-42, Luke 13:22-14:24)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 