Originally posted: 11/07/2019
The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly,” (10:24).
Several years ago while on a mission trip in Southern Africa, I was able to visit what has been named one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls.
The journey from our village in Zambia to the Falls involved a lengthy bus ride, an overnight stay in a hotel before our boat ride to Livingstone Island. Suspense mounted throughout the long hours in anticipation of what lie ahead.
Photographs and videos veil the breathtaking magnitude of the sight and sound of what is known as the “Smoke that Thunders.” But when finally facing the powerful expanse with my own eyes, hearing the rumbling cacophony and feeling the water’s formidable spray, the travel, the effort and time expended lost all impact. And it was as though every sensory muscle in my physical being came alive to behold the vastness of this magnificent display of God’s glory plainly unveiled.
That same sensation came over me this morning as I considered Him in John 10. As I faced this magnificent display of God’s glory in the Son, I saw Him Plainly Unveiled.
Consider Him Plainly Unveiled
- He is Plainly Unveiled as the Door of the Sheep.
- So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep,” (10:7).
- He is Plainly Unveiled as the Good Shepherd.
- “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep,” (10:11).
- He is Plainly Unveiled in His Knowledge.
- “ …I know My own and My own know Me, 15 even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father;” (10:14).
- He is Plainly Unveiled in His Care for His Sheep.
- “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd,” (10:16).
- He is Plainly Unveiled in His Authority Over Life and Death.
- “I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again,” (10:17-18).
- He is Plainly Unveiled in His Works.
- “If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me,” (10:24-25).
- He is Plainly Unveiled as the One Who Gives and Secures Eternal Life.
- “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand,” (10:27-28).
- He is Plainly Unveiled as One with the Father.
- “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one,” (10:29).
- He is Plainly Unveiled as the Son of God.
- “do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?” (10:36).
- He is Plainly Unveiled in His Position.
- “…the Father is in Me, and I in the Father,” (10:38).
How do we respond to Him Plainly Unveiled?
He is breathtakingly vast and immeasurably majestic, and yet He has Plainly Unveiled Himself that we would know and experience Him by faith.
May every sensory muscle in our spiritual beings grow in desire to behold His beauty Plainly Unveiled each and every day of our lives.
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple, (Psalm 27:4).
Let us take time to gaze and adore the expansive and glorious view of Him Plainly Unveiled. We will forever be changed and blessed as we partake of His goodness.
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8).