November 9, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God Is Our Shepherd"

John 10:1-21

"I Am the Good Shepherd"

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Bob Crabtree, AG Superintendent of Ohio, tells while in the USSR, he saw two shepherds come together in the middle of the road. They had 300 sheep all become one group. He had to wait as the shepherds talked. Finally, Bob wondered how would they ever separate all those sheep. As the one shepherd was leaving, in a low voice he bade his sheep come. The two groups separated instantly and went their ways. The sheep knew the voice! Bob also told about seeing one shepherd be very mean to his sheep. The shepherd was not in front of the sheep leading them. As the shepherd drove the sheep, he kicked them and hit them with a stick. Come to find out, it was not a shepherd, but rather, he was a butcher from the local slaughterhouse. Wade Hughes comments, "As sheep in God's pasture, choose well who you listen to. Remember, God was not in the earthquake. He was not in the fire. He was not in the storm. He was in the still small voice" (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
    2. Context – Listening to the right voice can make the difference between eternal life and spiritual death. John 10:1-21 will help us understand a little more about sheep and how they listen.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. John 10:1-21 (from the New Living) – (NEW SLIDE) "I assure you, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! 2 For a shepherd enters through the gate. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. (NEW SLIDE) 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they recognize his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t recognize his voice." 6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn’t understand what he meant, 7 so he explained it to them. "I assure you, I am the gate for the sheep," he said. (NEW SLIDE) 8 "All others who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the true sheep did not listen to them. 9 Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. Wherever they go, they will find green pastures. 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. (NEW SLIDE) 11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will leave the sheep because they aren’t his and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. (NEW SLIDE) 13 The hired hand runs away because he is merely hired and has no real concern for the sheep. 14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, 15 just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. (NEW SLIDE) 16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice; and there will be one flock with one shepherd. 17 "The Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may have it back again. 18 No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again. For my Father has given me this command." (NEW SLIDE) 19 When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. 20 Some of them said, "He has a demon, or he’s crazy. Why listen to a man like that?" 21 Others said, "This doesn’t sound like a man possessed by a demon! Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
  1. Following His Lead
    1. What are the main roles of a shepherd? Probably the one we think of most often is that of one who nurtures and protects. Sheep are pretty dumb animals that have a tendency to get themselves into places and positions they can’t get out of. Sheep need a protector and a rescuer and a binder of wounds, and that’s what shepherds do. Shepherds also find food and water for their sheep. I think we can all agree on those roles. But there is another role we often forget that shepherds have. There is another task they must perform if the sheep are going to survive and even thrive.
    2. Shepherds have to lead their sheep. It’s not enough for them to find good food and water. They have to lead the sheep to them. It’s not enough for shepherds to find paths that are least dangerous to the sheep. They have to lead the sheep on those paths. When Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd," He didn’t just mean that He is our Comforter and Nurturer and Healer and Protector, which He is. And He certainly didn’t mean that He is merely our comfortable Savior who we turn to when we’re in trouble and when we want to tell Him what we need done. He’s much more than that. Jesus is saying, "I am your Leader. Follow Me and I’ll show you the way to sustenance and refreshment for your souls. Follow Me and I’ll keep you off the dangerous paths of sin. Follow Me and I’ll show you how to live your lives."
    3. That’s the message of the passage. And all that is nice and warm and fuzzy feeling because we find it very reassuring to our souls. Jesus’ message appeals to our hearts, because we know that if we do stray, He’ll reach down and rescue us. So we forget about the thief. What did Jesus say that the thief came to do? Verse 10 – (NEW SLIDE) "The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy." The thief Jesus is talking about is Satan, and Satan’s only goal for the people of the world is to steal their salvation, to kill them spiritually, and to destroy as much as possible their lives. And he’s very good at it. But Jesus also said, "My purpose is to give life in all its fullness." He died to give life in all its fullness. I want life in all its fullness, and I imagine you do too. Right? But having life in all its fullness, gaining all the benefits that the Good Shepherd has to give us, also means running to Him and running away from the thief. How do we do that?
    4. The key is found in verses 3-5 – "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they recognize his voice. 5 They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t recognize his voice." Jesus calls to us – all we have to do is listen to His voice. Piece of cake, right?! Not quite. (NEW SLIDE) There’s lots of other noise going on in our lives – family concerns, jobs, school, errands to run, things to do – noise that often drowns out the voice of our Shepherd or at least makes Him hard to hear. And then we have the thief, the master of deceit, doing his best impersonation of the Shepherd and trying to lead us off the safe path. We’ve all known folks we love and care about very deeply who have followed the voice of the thief off the safe path. The sad part is that, if those sheep don’t turn around and listen to the Good Shepherd’s voice back to the safe path, the thief will steal and kill and destroy all hope they have of eternal life. So let’s make sure we’re very careful to follow the Shepherd’s voice. But how do we tell His voice from the noise? How do we discern His voice from the voice of the thief?
    5. Some keys to hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd are found in the passage we read. (NEW SLIDE) First, as verse two tells us, the Shepherd enters through the gate. In other words, He’s always very straightforward about who He is and what He’s doing. So if anyone comes along proclaiming some secret mystery that’s been revealed to him about the Shepherd or what He’s doing, be very careful. Especially if that person claims that they are the only one who has received this revelation. Jesus is never sneaky. He never tries to be mysterious or give only "special messengers" His truth. The lie of the thief that God is mysterious and only speaks through special messengers has spawned such cults as Heaven’s Gate and the Mormons. The truth is that the only thing He ever told us we don’t need to know is when He’s coming again. The thief sneaks over the wall, but the Shepherd always enters through the gate.
    6. (NEW SLIDE) Second, verse nine tells us that the Good Shepherd is also the Gate. How can this be true? Track with me for a minute. John 1:1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. Jesus is the Living Word – in other words, He is all of God’s truth rolled into one Person. He is the incarnation of all of the truth of Scripture. So how does this apply to the Good Shepherd being the Gate? Everything in Jesus’ life on earth was measured against the standard of Scripture. God took extreme care to fulfill all of the Scriptures that predicted His coming and His life through Jesus, the true Word. So if Jesus is the Gate that allows the sheep to enter the fold and receive eternal life, and if Jesus is the truth of Scripture incarnate, what does that make the gate of truth for our lives? Scripture. The Bible. Everything we do and every truth we hear must be measured against the whole teaching of the Bible. The thief will always put some truth in his lies to make them stronger, but then he will twist it slightly to lead us away. And the farther we get from the truth, the more he can twist it, until we don’t even recognize the real truth anymore. So if we want the Good Shepherd to be the Gate and receive us to eternal life when we die, we’ve got to listen to His voice. And that involves measuring everything we hear and see against Scripture. The thief will always twist the truth, but the Good Shepherd does not. His voice will always match up to His Word.
    7. (NEW SLIDE) Third, verses eleven to fifteen tell us that the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. The hired man will always run when the cost gets too high. And that’s the way we tend to be. We always want to run when we see that something’s going to cost us more than we want to pay. The Shepherd’s voice will always call us to a higher calling, a greater commitment, a larger personal cost. There are no hidden costs when the Good Shepherd is involved. The thief always tries to make us believe we’re getting something for nothing, even though it will cost us our souls. Now don’t misunderstand me here – I’m not saying that just because we’re working harder and harder we’re hearing the Shepherd’s voice. That may be true, but only if at the same time we’re working, He is working a change inside of us. The thief would like us to believe that activity alone will get us into heaven. That’s how the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons work – you do a whole bunch of a number of certain activities and you will get to heaven. The goal of the thief is outward behavior alone – he knows that if we only change what we do, we won’t make it through the gate. The Good Shepherd is always calling for an inward transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit that effects outward behavioral change. In Christian circles we call it dying to self. And that’s a high price! Much higher than we like to pay, and that’s why the thief’s offer is so enticing. But the Good Shepherd laid down His life for us, and He is calling us to lay down our lives, everything we are, at His feet so that He can transform us. Any other calling is simply not His voice!
    8. (NEW SLIDE) Fourth, verse sixteen tells us that the Good Shepherd calls His flock all together. Why is that a big deal? Simple. Jesus is saying that there is no such thing as a Lone Ranger sheep. Sheep live in community. Sheep interact with other sheep, building relationships over time. The thief will always tell us that we don’t need other sheep, that we can be our own flock without anybody else around. The problem is that the only way we can be a Lone Ranger is if we wander away from the flock, away from the fold. And lone sheep can be picked off very easily. Whereas sheep in a flock can be protected by the Shepherd, lone sheep can be picked off by any dog or coyote or wolf or cougar or eagle that comes along. So any voice that tells you that you don’t need the rest of the flock, that you can go your own way, that you can believe what you want and live however you want is the voice of the thief. Many, many folks have wandered away from the faith by trying to live on their own, away from the community and discipline of a church. It’s a sad thing, and it’s doubly sad because we’ve all known people that have done that. The thief wants us alone. The Good Shepherd wants us to stay with the flock, to submit to the love and discipline of a group of sheep who love us, to follow His leading. (NEW SLIDE) The Shepherd never calls sheep to go off alone on their own; that’s the voice of the thief. The voice of the Good Shepherd calls the sheep to live in community with other sheep.
    9. The Good Shepherd always enters through the gate. The Good Shepherd is the Gate. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. And the Good Shepherd calls His flock all together. All keys for us to be able to hear and understand the Good Shepherd’s voice. But we have to want to listen. (NEW SLIDE) We have to have a passionate desire to hear the voice of the Shepherd, or we’ll miss it calling to us in the midst of all the noise of life and the lies of the thief. Remember what verse nineteen says? When he said these things, the people were again divided in their opinions about him. Some folks thought He was nuts and some thought He was demon-possessed. They came up with excuses not to listen. Folks, we cannot afford to ignore the voice of the Shepherd. Our souls hang in the balance.
    10. Illustration – Charles Spurgeon wrote, What is there in you, dear friend, more than there is in any other professor, why you should not prove an apostate after all? What is there about me that I should stand where so many others have fallen? There is nothing to hold me up if I am left to myself; but if, confessing my liability to fall, confessing my liability to be seized by the lion, and the bear, and the wolf, I can still say, "The Lord is my Shepherd," I am safe! The sheep is not safe because it says, "I am stronger than the lion;" or, "I am able to escape from the bear;" or, "I shall always be able to avoid the wolf." Silly sheep, what canst thou do to protect thyself from thy foes (as cited on SermonCentral.com). What can we do to protect ourselves from the thief if we do not listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd? Absolutely nothing.
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Over the course of my life I’ve probably done everything wrong I’ve talked about this morning. I listened for a time to someone who told me they had a special message. God pulled me back. I failed to measure teachings against the Word many times. God pulled me back. I’ve failed many times in my life to die to self, to pay the price because I thought it was too high. God pulled me back. I failed to submit to the love and discipline of a community of sheep who loved me. God pulled me back.
    2. Maybe you’re like me. Maybe you’ve wandered off a bit. And maybe right now you’re a bit off the safe path, out of the fold, away from the flock. It’s not too late to let the Good Shepherd rescue you from the thief. It’s not too late to begin to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd. Maybe it’s your first time entering the fold. Maybe it’s your umpteenth time as a Christian getting back on the right path. It doesn’t matter. What matters is calling on the Shepherd to save you and bring you back into the fold. What matters is right now beginning to listen to the voice of the Shepherd. What matters is right now following Him into the fold. What matters right now is staying on His path.
    3. Do you need the Good Shepherd to forgive you and bring you into His fold, either for the first time or the umpteenth time? Right now, ask Him to forgive you and cleanse your heart and bring you back into His flock. Ask Him to protect you from the thief. Tell Him you trust Him to be your Shepherd from this time on. And ask Him to help you to discern His voice in the midst of the noise of daily life. Let’s pray together.
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