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Welcome to Day 2153 of Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me. This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom The Gospel of John – 21 – The Living Door – Daily Wisdom Putnam Church Message – 06/26/2022 The Gospel of John – Part 3 Authentication Of The Word – The Living Door   Today we continue our series, the Good News according to John the Apostle. Last week, we saw Jesus heal a man who was blind from birth. This man not only received physical sight, but more importantly, he received spiritual sight that granted him eternal life, as he proclaimed in verse 38 Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Today, our scripture is John 10:1-42, starting on page 1666 in the pew Bible. As with last week, since it is a more extended passage, I will read it as we go through the message, so follow along. We will see in today’s passage that Jesus is not only the great shepherd, but also The Living Door, which all who receives salvation must pass through.   If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a symbol is worth a thousand messages. Jesus understood the power of a familiar image to unlock the mysteries of heaven. And no sight was more common in first-century Judea than that of a shepherd leading his sheep. With some historical and cultural background, we can learn a great deal from the symbols Jesus used to describe Himself. To the lost sheep of Israel, He was the living door and the good shepherd.   It was common for a shepherd to know his animals individually and call each one by name. A good shepherd never allowed his flock to remain in the field as night fell; thieves and wild animals took advantage of the darkness to steal and kill. If the pasture was close enough to the village, the sheep would be driven from the field to a communal pen, which a designated keeper guarded./ In the morning, shepherds led their sheep out to pasture again. Shepherds frequently drove their flocks into the wilderness during temperate months to find adequate grazing. They always remained with them, camping out under the stars for weeks. Then, as darkness fell each evening, they corralled the flock into a cave or some other natural enclosure and slept at the entrance.   (Bulletin Insert-Read->) To protect their livestock from predators and thieves, shepherds herded their animals into a natural enclosure, such as this cave, and then stretched their bodies across the entrance for a good night’s sleep. Jesus drew on this familiar imagery when He said, “I am the door of the sheep” (John 10:7–9).   Shepherds frequently worked together and even shared the same enclosure during the night. The following morning the flocks could be easily separated simply by calling them in opposite directions. Author H. V. Morton watched this firsthand during his travels in Israel. Early one morning, I saw an extraordinary sight not far from Bethlehem. Two shepherds had spent the night with their flocks in a cave. The sheep were all mixed, and the time had come for the shepherds to go in different directions. One of the shepherds stood far from the sheep and began to call. First one, then another, then four or five animals ran towards him, and so on until he had counted his whole flock. John’s account is unique among the Gospels in that he doesn’t recount any of the Lord’s parables but recalls Jesus’s use of figurative language and extended...