Every culture has the concept of an ideal citizen, someone who typifies its values. For the people of Israel, the farmer wasn’t their ideal citizen. It was the shepherd. Sheep were an invaluable source of clothing and food. But they were hard to keep in the Judean countryside. Its sparse grasslands are intermixed with desert. For sheep, food is sparse, but predators are plentiful. The survival of sheep was dependent on their shepherd. There he is. Weatherbeaten. Sleepless. Armed. In the dusk, he scans the land, counting his sheep, making sure they are all accounted for, every one of them on his heart. You see why Jesus chose the shepherd to illustrate how he cares for us. He feeds us with his Word. He protects us from that roaring lion, Satan. Jesus is leading us into the green pasture of eternal life.
Every culture has the concept of an ideal citizen, someone who typifies its values. For the people of Israel, the farmer wasn’t their ideal citizen. It was the shepherd. Sheep were an invaluable source of clothing and food. But they were hard to keep in the Judean countryside. Its sparse grasslands are intermixed with desert. For sheep, food is sparse, but predators are plentiful. The survival of sheep was dependent on their shepherd. There he is. Weatherbeaten. Sleepless. Armed. In the dusk, he scans the land, counting his sheep, making sure they are all accounted for, every one of them on his heart. You see why Jesus chose the shepherd to illustrate how he cares for us. He feeds us with his Word. He protects us from that roaring lion, Satan. Jesus is leading us into the green pasture of eternal life.
It was the most intense drive to my summer job ever. It seemed like a normal day. My brother Danny and I had gotten up at the crack of dawn, ate a solid breakfast, and were driving to pick up a friend who worked on the corn farm with us. As we drove the familiar streets, something very unfamiliar made us hit the brakes. A SWAT team had a house surrounded, and the K-9 unit was leading the charge. As time went into slow motion we watched as they smashed the door down and the dogs rushed in. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to be a part of a K-9 team! Work with awesome police officers and German shepherds, does it get any better? So I did some research. I went straight to the best source for sound, academic, quality information: YouTube, and listened to a K-9 officer say in a completely serious tone of voice: “German Shepherds only know German.” It sounded like a really bad dad joke! You can picture the surprise painting my face when I found out it was actually true! The officer explained that they train the dogs with commands in German because in a confrontation where there is a lot of noise and words being shouted, the dog is trained to only hear German commands. So if you are ever around a K-9 German shepherd, maybe don’t say, “Angreifen!” Attack! In life, we hear all kinds of voices don’t we? Voices trying to tell us where to place our hope. The voices of our peers, the voices of our spouses and kids, the voices of talking heads online and on TV, the voices within of doubt, failure, and fear. With everyone on our devices now more than ever, we are hearing voices from all over the globe, and sometimes the voices from all those sources leave us paralyzed like a sheep staring down an infinite pack of wolves and having no place to run. No hope to know. No hope to live. However, there is a voice that Christians have been trained to hear above any and all the noise. A voice that speaks nothing but hope!
For the Christians who first read this letter from their Pastor John, that voice was fading in and out. They had witnessed people close to them walk away from their church family. Their flock seemed to be shrinking. Instead of looking ahead to the staff of the Good Shepherd, these former church members set their sights on “higher things.” Finding hope in philosophy. Looking to mix the philosophy of the time with Christianity, and declaring themselves to be of a “higher realm,” saying that Jesus never really was one of us but merely took on a body to die, and then threw away that useless body. They listened to the “logical,” “profound,” and “cultured” voices of the world. Those wandering sheep heard the voices around them, and the further they walked away from the flock, the more lost they became. Now, the ones who stayed in the church were at a crossroads. What they heard from their former fellow members sounded Christian. It sounded like it could be true. Can you hear the voices they heard? “Is Pastor John hiding the mysteries of the Bible from us? Is he telling us the whole truth? What voice should we listen to?” “Who or what should we place our hope in?” That’s the question we subconsciously answer in every life context we find ourselves standing in.
Who do we acknowledge, who did we accept, as the voice of truth? Who speaks the voice of Christ the Good Shepherd, and who speaks the words of the Anti-Christ, the wolf in sheep’s clothing? This wolf is on the hunt in your life right now, look at John’s words, “This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” You break down that word “anti-christ” and it means “in place of Christ.” What voices are you and I listening to that come from that surrounding Satan-driven spirit of the antichrist?
Maybe for you, it’s the voice of confusion. A close friend of mine used to really struggle with anorexia, and she told me how when she looked in the mirror, she saw hopelessness, she said, “The person looking back at me wasn’t who I thought I was, and I felt like there was no way to change that, no hope at all.” Do you struggle with loving yourself? Trying to find hope by self-awareness? Maybe for you it’s the voice of peer pressure. You don’t want to be the weirdo, Jesus-freak, putting your hope in social status. Or maybe for you it’s more political. It’s impossible to escape all the political commentators on every website, app, radio ad, and TV show, and you’ve found yourself depressed with the direction of country, putting your hope in national pride. Can you hear the wolf howling?
When I hear these voices, so often I don’t realize the voice that’s missing: The Good Shepherd. Maybe you’ve experienced the same temporary spiritual deafness, too? I as a sheep in the flock so often gaze over the fence at the other pastures. Hearing the commotion over there instead of listening to the still, small voice who acknowledges me, who calls me by name. Who wants me to know the only hope in this dying world. In other words, you and I need to dial in our ears to the voice that sets the standard of truth.
As word after word floods our outlook on life, look at the voice John says we must listen to first, “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God...Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.” So often when all these viewpoints demand our attention, you and I forget the voice that sets the standard for every challenge and question we have in life. Satan, that bloodthirsty wolf, thinks he has us pinned. But, your and my forgetfulness doesn’t stop the Good Shepherd. He “lays down his life for the sheep.” He doesn’t back down against the voices that attack us. He silences them. The Shepherd who willingly and in total control, laid down his life to save you, his sheep, on the cross, gloriously picked it back up again on Easter Sunday! Even as all the different opinions of the world swirl around, and the voices within yell for attention, He turns our ears back to Him and centers our lives back to where God’s true heart is revealed, where hope is known, found, experienced: The cross and empty tomb. He is the Lamb that was led to the slaughter so you and I, his lambs, would have forgiveness for all the times we followed the wrong voices. He gives us a still, quiet sound that gives us boldness to live our lives as sheep in His pasture. How can we not acknowledge him? How can we not accept him as the standard for truth and hope? How can we listen to any other voice?
When we filter what we hear through the soundwaves of Jesus, the truth rings through brilliantly! When we acknowledge Jesus, when we confess his victory, the wolf tucks his tail between his legs and runs away whimpering. That’s what amazing about when we confess our faith in worship! We are saying fearlessly to Satan. We stand firm on the truth and hope of God, and you will never change that conviction! When you hear a “hot take” or opinion of any kind, you can test it. You can listen to your Shepherd’s voice that sets the standard, a voice that directs your steps and decisions. Now, it’s one thing to acknowledge the facts, to “talk the talk.” It’s a whole other thing to “walk the walk,” to experience the facts. To truly know by experience hope.
Sometimes, Christians need a reminder of who they are. I think that’s what John was doing for his people, he says, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” Do you think we are in need of a similar identity check? Sometimes the struggle isn’t just hearing the Good Shepherd’s voice, but wanting to hear his voice. Have you been there? You and I know Jesus’ take on life, but if you’re like me, do you sometimes keep listening for something more? Do you and I listen to a source that falls more in line with what we know and have experienced in life? We all have experienced rejection. So when we hear a friend question God when they lose their job, we listen to the voice of avoidance. You and I have experienced disrespect. So when all a family member talks about is science and all the hope in the world depends on cures for diseases, you don’t bring up a hope that no disease could ever touch. We listen to the voice of saving face. Doesn’t it hit us right in the gut when we read whose flock we belong to if we cave to such voices? “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.” We need an identity check. We need to truly know and experience our Shepherd’s guidance. Jesus loves reminding you who you are.
The Shepherd turns his staff toward you and says, “I know my sheep.” Even when you and I forget who we are, Jesus knows you. He knows the pain you’ve felt. He knows the suffering you’ve faced. He knows you, because he lived it too. He chose to feel all the hurt you’ve ever felt. He knows how you feel. He knows who you are. You are his sheep. You are the lamb in his arms. By grace, You “know him.” You know the Shepherd who overcame the world, the Shepherd who took away your and my sins of listening to the wrong sources. You have such a tight bond with him that he compares your closeness to him in the same breath as he and his heavenly Father. Your Shepherd gives you a heart of courage to face the voices of this world and to “recognize the Spirit of truth.” There you stand next to your Shepherd when that satanic wolf howls your way. That’s the beauty of knowing. That’s the sheep you are.
You are not a sheep that “might” listen to his voice, you are a sheep that will listen to his voice. The Spirit of truth in your soul that John talked about, leads you to listen to Jesus by default. The new person within you and me always adheres to the Shepherd’s voice and follows. This means that even when the Shepherd is leading us to a place that we would rather not go, we follow like sheep, who don’t even think twice about following the shepherd, it’s an automatic. Even when we hear the voice of rejection or disrespect, we keep walking in that valley, knowing our shepherd alone will lead us to “quiet waters” and his “goodness and love will follow us all (our) days.” And you know what’s even cooler? You aren’t the only sheep in the flock.
John calls the church, “dear children.” There is something special about the plural. It means you are a part of something bigger than yourself. It means you hold each other accountable. It means as the Lord’s flock, we keep each other’s ears turned toward the Shepherd. It means warning one another when we see the Wolf in the shadows. It means guiding our preachers in keeping the flock in line with the Good Shepherd. You have the privilege of guiding one another in the Messiah flock to test what we hear, and to live in the knowledge that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again. Are you ready sheep of God?
Are you ready to follow blindly? Are you prepared to walk on every footprint your Good Shepherd has left? Do you hear the quiet, still, mighty voice of your God who knows you? Listen to your Shepherd’s voice. Laugh in the face of the Wolf, stand at Jesus’ side every moment of every day, hear your Shepherd’s voice, live in the certain, constant, and joy-filled hope of Jesus, your Shepherd who conquered the grave, and who gives you joy that brightens even the darkest valley. Amen.