John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

The Double Amen Emphasizes Truth

Jesus loved to ask His hearers questions, questions to make them think. But Jesus also loved to use illustrations. He looked at the world around Him, and used truths from that world to explain Heavenly things.

Word Study: Today Jesus starts out with “Verily, verily”, which is literally “amēn amēn”. When the Preacher is speaking in the Church, sometimes the people (if they’re not asleep) say “amēn”. When a prayer is said, we generally end it with “amēn”.

Have you ever thought about what “amēn” means?

In the Old Testament, God used the word “amēn” (also the Hebrew ‘āman) to refers to “something that is faithful, established, or unshakable”. Through Isaiah, God prophecies that Israel is going to be punished for rejecting His leadership. Though God will set up a King named Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and promises that …

Isaiah 22:23 And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure {‘āman} place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house.

Nonetheless Israel will fall, because they continue to refuse to repent and return to God. Israel’s fall is not God’s fault, but Israel’s fault. God established Eliakim’s reign in an AMEN place, a certain place. His reign was unshakable, because God made him unshakable. Yet Israel will still fall, because they will ignore the will of God.

Several of my commentaries note that the reign of Eliakim is an Old Testament shadow of the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father established Jesus as “a nail in a sure {‘āman} place”. God even uses language for Eliakim that He later uses for Christ. He said of Eliakim:

Isaiah 22:22 (ESV) … I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.

When Jesus addressed the Church at Philadelphia, He said of Himself:

Revelation 3:7 (ESV) {I am} the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

Jesus Christ is the Nail in a AMEN place, God the Son and the Son of God. Though God sent the Messiah to Israel, His people nonetheless fell to Rome and were scattered throughout the world in 70 AD. It was not Christ’s fault then, and is not Christ’s fault now. Our Lord is faithful. Jesus Christ is the Same yesterday, today, and FOREVER (Hebrews 13:8). He is the AMEN of God.

Yet if we reject Him, we, too, shall fall.
This is OUR FAULT, not God’s!

Before God led Israel into the Promised Land, He gave them very specific instructions. After each directive, God demanded His people respond with ‘āmēn. This was their signature on the contract, their statement that they understood what was being said. We read:

Deuteronomy 27:14-17 And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice, 15 Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen {‘āmēn}. 16 Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen {‘āmēn}. 17 Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen {‘āmēn}.

Twelve times throughout this chapter Israel is to respond with AMEN, one time for each tribe of Israel. When you say “AMEN”, you are saying “I understand what God has said – and now I am accountable to HIM for keeping my part of this contract.

Though the Bible tells us that there is only One God (1 Timothy 2:5), but as Adrian Rogers once said “God reveals Himself to us through many different names in the Bible. No single name can describe all that God is. In fact, God uses each and every one of His names to reveal a different part of His character to us”. We have One God with many different descriptive names. One website notes that there are 967 Names and Titles of God in the Scripture. One of God’s names is “the God of truth”, or “The GOD of AMEN”. This comes from two places in Scripture:

Isaiah 65:16 “he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth {‘āmēn}”.

Revelation 3:14 unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God

God is the “God of AMEN”, and Jesus Christ is “The AMEN”. To say AMEN is to invoke the very Name of God. It is not something to be taken lightly. Unless you heed Christ, and AMEN what He says:

Matthew 18:3 … Verily {amēn} I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

You cannot be saved.

Amēn affirms that what God has said is true.
Amēn says “I understand what You said, God, and I agree with it”.
Amēn submits to God’s authority and God’s Word.
Amēn does not debate what God has said is true.
Amēn fixes on Christ as True North.
The Online Bible College notes:

“All Jewish ears tingled when they heard those words. All conversation stopped. All eyes became transfixed on this one who started his teachings with the double “amen,” for this usage not only underlined the importance of what Jesus was about to say, it also linked his words to the eternal covenant-making God.”

You Can Only Lawfully Enter The
“Sheepfold” By The AMEN Door

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

The “Sheepfold” is the place where the owner of the sheep stored the sheep in safety. There were two types of sheepfolds. There was the sheepfold in town, and the sheepfold out of town and near the pasture.

The sheepfold had three things common to it, whether in the town or out of town. The sheepfold had walls, hedges, or some type of barrier to contain and protect the sheep. The sheepfold had a doorway that the sheep rightly went through to get inside the barrier. And the sheepfold had … wait for it … SHEEP! The whole purpose of the sheepfold was to protect the sheep.

God described His people as SHEEP. We read:

Psalm 74:1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

God’s people described themselves as God’s SHEEP. We read:

Psalm 79:13 But we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.

Psalm 100:3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

To describe the believer as a SHEEP is not an insult, but a perfect description. We are very similar to sheep.

Actual sheep have no natural defenses against the dangers of life. Wolves and lions love to eat sheep, the only defense against the wolves and lions is the shepherd.

The believer sheep has no defenses against the devil and his lot. The Bible says,

1 Peter 5:8 “the devil prowls around like a ROARING LION, seeking someone to devour”

We have no defenses against the devil. We have no real defense against death, disease, or destruction. We need the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, to look after us. We need the words of the Shepherd to comfort and control us. Jesus warned:

Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Sheep need protection. Sheep need the Shepherd, and the sheepfold. How do we get into the sheepfold?

John 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

You can sneak into the sheepfold. But if you do not come through “the door into the sheepfold”, then you are there unlawfully. You are “a thief and a robber”. Jesus tells us in:

John 10:7 … Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

Again we see the DOUBLE AMEN in “Verily, verily”. What does Jesus emphasize this time? That He is EXCLUSIVELY “the door of the sheep”. I hear people often say today,

“There are many ways to get to God”

Jesus says, “You are a THIEF and a ROBBER”. The Pharisees and Sadducees sought to get to God through the keeping of the Laws of Moses. Yet God did not give Israel the Law so that they could work their way into Heaven. God gave Israel the sabbaths, the sacrifices, the Temple services as a foreshadowing of Christ. The various ritual that were repeated yearly taught both Israel and US that we all fall far short of God’s righteousness. The Bible says:

Romans 3:19-25 (ESV) Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…

The Door to the sheepfold is Jesus. It is His Blood that gives us access to God. It is His Word that explains the great truths of Scripture. The Pharisees and Sadducees saw Jesus and, though it was clear He is the Messiah, they rejected Him to create their own doorway into God’s sheepfold. They did not glorify God, but did what they did to bring glory to themselves. Jesus said of them:

Matthew 23:4-7 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

I was reading an article the other day called “The Greatest Danger That Any Human Being Faces” (Joe Rigney, fellow of Theology New Saint Andrews College). He wrote:

“For sinners, God is the supreme terror, and when we rightly understand our situation, we are right to fear. As the Scriptures say, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31). Jesus himself makes this point in seeking to rightly order our fears: “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (Luke 12:4–5)”

The Door to God’s sheepfold is not my abilities, but that which my Jesus has done for me. He is the Door!

The Bible warns that “the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6). What will protect from that wrath, a sure wrath, a justified wrath? Only the Blood of Jesus Christ.

John 1:29 … looking upon Jesus as He walked, {John the Baptist} said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world’ (c/w John 1:36)

That which brings us out from under the wrath of God and into the Sheepfold is Jesus. Again we read:

1 Peter 1:18-19 (ESV) … you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Some turn to Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Ellen White, Victor Wierville, Taz Russell. Some turn away from the Bible to the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, the New World Translation, or some other “holy book”. Yet Jesus recognized NONE of these things. He said:

John 10:8-9 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

God’s Sheep will not hear these who try to sneak in through their own windows, or their own illegal doors. The Sheep enter in through “THE Door”. Those who try and enter into the Sheepfold apart from Christ are likewise thieves and robbers. We are told:

John 3:16-18 (ESV) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

God’s Word is very clear. You can choose to try and sneak in the Sheepfold and be labeled a thief and robber. Or you can enter into God’s Sheepfold through Jesus Christ His only Begotten Son. Pastor C.H. Spurgeon said:

“Christ has come that we may have life! If we could have obtained life without His coming, why did He need to come? If life could come to sinners apart from the Cross, why nail the Lord of Glory to the shameful tree? Why Your bleeding wounds, Immanuel, if life could come by some other door? Yet further, why did the Spirit of God descend at Pentecost, and why does He still abide among men if they can be quickened [made alive] without Him? If life is to be obtained apart from the Holy Spirit, to what end does He work in the human heart? The bleeding Savior and the indwelling Spirit are convincing proofs that our life is not from ourselves, but from above!”

Remember That We Mentioned There Are TWO Sheepfolds That Every Shepherd Had?

John 10:2-3 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. {3} To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

In this parable, Jesus not only makes Himself the DOOR, but He makes Himself also the SHEPHERD OF THE SHEEP. He said:

John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

How can our Lord be BOTH SHEPHERD AND DOOR? And WHO is the PORTER? Let’s go back to what I mentioned earlier. Every shepherd had two sheepfolds. He had one in the city, usually a barn or some type of finished structure, and another sheepfold out in the country near where the sheep pastured. The sheepfold outside of the city was made out of hedges, briers, stone, or whatever natural material could be found and assembled to protect those sheep. Here’s the application.

In the city the sheepfold had a finished door guarded by a “PORTER” (thyrōros, the doorkeeper). When the shepherd came to get his sheep, the thyrōros would only let the right shepherd take his sheep. The thyrōros would not open the door to let a stranger in. He was employed to watch the sheep in the shepherd’s absense.

But in the field, there was no thyrōros, for the sheepfold was unfinished, rough. It had a doorway that the sheep went through. Once in the sheepfold, the shepherd would stand or lay across the doorway, becoming the “door” of the sheepfold. The shepherd protected the sheep with his very life.

While we as the people of God walk this earth, we are not home, not in our permanent city. We are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11). Our God places a “hedge” around us, making a sheepfold for us to rest in. Even the devil knows this, for he said of Job:

Job 1:9-10 Doth Job fear God for nought? {10} Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.

God puts a hedge around His people. He is their Shelter from the storm. The Scripture says:

2 Samuel 22:2-4 The LORD [is] my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; {3} The God of my rock; in him will I trust: [he is] my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my Savior; thou savest me from violence. {4} I will call on the LORD, [who is] worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies ..

God is the Hedge around His people. He is our Sheepfold. He saves us, and loves us, and protects and cares for us. And Jesus is the Door of this Sheepfold.

Jesus has promised “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” He watches over us while we walk through this earth. Jesus stands in the doorway as our Door. He is there – He is always there. One day this life will end for us who have believed in Him. We will be transported to Heaven, that Heavenly Jerusalem, that great City of God. The Porter on the Gate of that City is God Himself. Not Saint Peter, not some human, but God. And Jesus – our Great Shepherd – will take us through that Gate. Only Jesus can do this.

There are two Sheepfolds: That in Eternity, In Heaven, and that on Earth. Jesus Is the Door to both Sheepfolds!

Do you know Him? If you do not, today is the day of salvation. Do not wait. Come to Christ. Give your life fully to Him. He is the Door and the Great Shepherd. Amen. Amen.