How Jesus the Good Shepherd Keeps You Secure (John 10)

When we accept that we are like sheep and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who was willing to sacrifice His life to protect the flock we start to understand how much our loving Savior cares for us. In John 10:27–28 Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Listen to this message from Pastor Chris Teien at Rockwell Church to be encouraged to trust the Shepherd who wants us to experience peace and a full life.

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

Right, so how Jesus the Good Shepherd keeps you secure. So I want to talk to you about sheep. I want to talk to you about sheep. The Bible talks a lot about sheep, and in this passage, in this context, we're going to look at Jesus calls us sheep and refers to himself as the good shepherd. So the Bible has a lot to say about sheep, and all through the Bible there's been shepherds. David was a shepherd. So Jesus says he's the good shepherd. One of the some of the first people to ever visit baby Jesus were shepherds. And so being a shepherd was not a highly esteemed job. So no one really cared for the stinky shepherd. Usually the youngest person in the family or those that weren't very well educated or whatever would be the shepherds. And so God compared the Israelites to sheep in the Old Testament. And sheep are one of the few animals that don't have a defense system. Sheep are helpless without a shepherd. And when we come against a spiritual attack, we have really no defense of our own. We can't fight Satan off on our own, but the shepherd can. And we trust that God would continue to work in our lives and we would follow the good shepherd. So unlike farmers in, Chuck Swindal writes, unlike farmers in Europe who raise sheep for food, shepherds in the first century Judea tended sheep for their wool. The animals grazed and grew thick mats of fleece which could be sheared off and sold for significant sums of money. Naturally, the larger a shepherd's flock, the greater his income, so the loss of just one animal cost him not only a few pounds of fleece each season, but the ability to make more sheep. Therefore he faithfully nurtured and protected each animal throughout its life. He sacrificed his own comfort to provide safe grazing during the day and risked his own safety to guard the flock against thieves and predators during the night. Consequently, it was not uncommon for a shepherd to know each of his animals individually and call each one by name. So the shepherd would care for the sheep. The shepherd would take care of the sheep, and so sheep need to be taken care of. So another interesting thing about sheep is that they often they often go their own way and do their own thing and wander away from the herd and wander away from the shepherd and get themselves into trouble. And we are like sheep. In Isaiah 53:6. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way. And it says, and the Lord laid on Jesus the sin, the iniquity of us all. Of us all. We are quick to wander away. We are quick to do our own thing. We are quick to forget that we need to be taken care of by the shepherd. We learn a lot about sheep in the Bible. So now, um, number one, God's sheep desire to follow the good shepherd's leading. If you're truly a Christ follower, if you're truly in Jesus, if you are truly born again, if you're truly a child of God, you want to follow Jesus' lead. That is the desire of your heart. That is the desire of a converted heart. That is the desire of someone who is led by the Holy Spirit. And we're going to look at John chapter 10. We're going to look at John chapter 10. And so in this context, if you look in John chapter 9, Jesus heals the blind man, and the Pharisees get all put out and say, oh man, Jesus is bad news. Jesus is not of God because he healed somebody on the Sabbath. And they are all up in their rituals and rules, uh, arrogant Pharisees. And so Jesus is addressing this passage actually to them. So what he says here is pointed straight at the Pharisees. So let's read some verses. So addressed to the Pharisees, Jesus says, Very truly I tell you, Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. So the sheep pen would often be uh like a round barrier of rocks. Sometimes they'd put thorns across the top. But if you had a community of people with few sheep, they'd get together and they would share this. Um I don't have a picture, but basically this round enclosure that they could put the sheep in to protect them at night, to keep them all together, uh to keep them safe from harm, to keep them safe from predators. And the shepherd would be in the doorway, he would sleep in the doorway. He was he was the gate, he was the door. Jesus is gonna say this in a minute. But anyway, so the shepherd would block the sheep from going out, keeping them safe at night. And so if you were not the shepherd, you had no right to go through the entrance. So if you went over the wall, if you uh you know went in another way, you obviously weren't the shepherd, you weren't the one taking care of the sheep. And the most amazing thing is the sheep knew. So um, so in this in this pen, uh in this place where the sheep were, you could have like six, seven different groups of sheep all together, and then when the shepherd would come, he would call out just the sound of his voice. Sometimes he would call their names, and his sheep would come to him. And the next guy would come and he would call out the names, or call with the sound of his voice, those sheep would come to him. And the sheep knew the voice of the shepherd, the one that cared for them. The sheep followed the shepherd. They were desired to follow their shepherds' leading. So Jesus says, Um, the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listened to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. These sheep were so valuable, the shepherd spent so much time with them that he would have names for the sheep and call them by name, and the sheep knew their name and responded to that. And when I think of that, man, the God of the universe cares about us. Jesus, our Savior and Lord, knows us by name. He not only knows us by name, but he knows everything about us. He knows that sometimes we are naughty, rebellious, bad sheep. And uh, or maybe we were and we've become better. But he knows and he still loves us and he still cares and he still has a plan for us, and he is our good shepherd, and we are his sheep. Uh, when he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. So um God cares about his sheep together. Uh sheep gather in church, like this, in heaven. Uh sheep share salvation, um, sheep grow together and uh have the uh we look forward to eternal life together in faith. And so when a strange voice calls the sheep, they don't respond. They just follow the shepherd's voice, verse five. When they will never follow a stranger, in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice. Sometimes uh when there is a false proclamation of scripture, a false religion, false psychology, false philosophy, human materialism, worldliness, all of these things, these voices that call to us, we ignore because that is not our shepherd. We hear from our shepherd often through the pages of scripture into our life. The more time we spend in God's word, the more he speaks to us, the more he directs our heart, the more he guides us and helps us. So in a Bible commentary, it talks about uh observations near Jericho about sheep. The Near Eastern Shepherd never drives his flock as our own shepherds drive their sheep. He always walks in front of them, leading them along roads and over hills to new pasture, and as he goes, he sometimes talks to them in a loud sing song voice, using a weird language unlike anything this person has ever heard in his life. The first time I heard this sheep and goat language, I was on the hills at the back of Jericho. A goat herd had descended into a valley and was mounting a slope of an opposite hill, when turning around he saw his goats, had remained behind to devour a rich patch of scrub. Lifting his voice, he spoke to the goats in a language that Han must have spoken on the mountains of Greece. No sooner than he had spoken than an answering bleat shivered over the herd, and one or two of the animals turned their heads in his direction, but they did not obey him. The goat herd then called out one word, and gave goat herder, then called out one word and gave a laughing kind of whinny immediately. A goat with a bell around his neck stopped eating, and leaving the herd trotted down the hill across the valley and up the opposite slopes, and very soon a panic spread among the herd. They forgot to eat, they looked up for the shepherd, he was not to be seen, and from the distance came the strange laughing call of the shepherd, and at the sound of it the entire herd stampeded into the hollow and leapt up the hill after him. Pretty amazing that the sheep, when they realized that they had become disconnected from their shepherd, they went into a panic and realized that they were at risk. They could get lost, they could be um left behind. So it kind of reminds me when I was a little kid, for some reason I'd get lost at the grocery store. And so I was told to go tell somebody that I was lost so that they could call my parents to try to find me, but instead I would try to find my parents. So I would be wandering around this part of the store trying to find them, and they'd be wandering around the store trying to find me, and we'd just keep in going in circles and missing each other. And it's a panic when you feel that you've been left behind by your parents or that they might leave without you, and they never did, but um, still, children don't wander from your parents, and two, if you get lost in the grocery store, stay in the same spot until your parents find you. So, but anyway, uh they will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize his voice. Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. And that kind of made me laugh in this passage, because Jesus takes like three or four runs at it. You know, he's trying to tell the Pharisees, and they just totally don't get it. They're like, I don't understand what you're saying, Jesus. So, but God's sheep want to obey the good shepherd's commands. You know, it's when you've been through a hard time, when you've had a hard life, when you've been saved from great sin, when you've been rescued from the penalty of your poor choices, uh, that you are more likely to obey the good shepherd's commands. When you trust that the good shepherd has the plan, has the resources, can has the provision, can protect you and help you, you do not want to get out of his influence, out of his sight. We as good sheep want to obey the good shepherd's commands. Do you ever go home and say, oh man, my life is so disappointing because I'm obeying what God wants me to do? You might say, Oh, I missed out on what could have been fun, that could have been exciting, but I'm glad I didn't give in to that temptation because I see how that choice could have had some long-term bad consequences. I think we usually go home and we're like, oh man, I messed up. I wish I hadn't disobeyed that command. I wish I would have done the right thing. I wish I would have stayed near the Good Shepherd. I wish I would have followed what I knew to be true and correct. I wish I hadn't grazed on that bad food. I wish that I hadn't hung out with those goats instead of those sheep. God's sheep want to obey the Good Shepherd commands, and I think that we want to obey God's commands because there's reward, because there's protection, because there's a peace about it that transcends understanding all understanding, and there's no regret. So you don't regret not sinning. Really, you don't. Verse 7. Therefore Jesus said, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. So what is he talking about? He is the one that stands in the doorway, he's the only one that lets them in and out. So Jesus says, All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. So basically, he's calling out the false teachers, and he's calling out those people that have gone before, uh, probably even the Pharisees. Uh says, All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. So Jesus doesn't want to, you know, keep us cooped up. Jesus doesn't want to, you know, just keep us hidden away. He wants us to experience life. He wants us to experience the things that we were created to do. And he says, I'm the gate. Uh, when you come through me, like John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. And so uh whoever enters through me will be saved. The sheep will be saved from um predators, from destruction, from um all those bad things, uh, sheep stealers. Uh we are saved from the penalty of our sin. We are saved from living a meaningless life. We are saved from becoming what we would become if we didn't have Jesus in our life. But Jesus says, I'm the gate, whoever enters through me. He says, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Another verse says, have it abundantly. I think the New Living Translation says, have a satisfying life. So here people take this verse and they're like, okay, Jesus wants me to be rich, you know, have an abundant life. That means that I will have a house and a vacation house and boats and vacations and a huge retirement account and all of those things. And maybe you will, maybe you won't. But Jesus doesn't guarantee that. Jesus guarantees that when you are with him, that you will have a satisfying life. A satisfying when it comes to uh living out God's will and way. Now, obviously we know that just like sheep have seen other sheep devoured by predators or gotten sick or got injured or whatever else, that we in our life have seen other people go through really bad things. Um, some believers that are persecuted. Many times the bad things we go through are a result of our own choices or a result of the choices of the people around us that went through the bad thing. So many a time we don't know exactly why the good shepherd allowed something to happen to someone in their life or what the whole story is. Um, but someday on the other side of eternity, maybe it will be explained. But Jesus says that He has come, that they may have life and have it to the full. Not only do we get a better quality of life, but we get eternal life. I would, I said this so many times before, I would not want my life right now to be for eternity. At least not here in this country, in this place, with these people in charge. It's bizarre the things that go on and what political leaders choose to do and what world leaders choose to do. And so, no, I want to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord for sure. But if I live to be 70 or 80 years, that is a long time. I think that I will be like our friend Bill Bremer, who called and sang us all happy birthday and prayed with us and all those things all the time. He literally called me every Saturday morning to pray with me about church. Bill Bremer did. But he, when it was near his time to go, repeatedly said, I'm ready to go be with Jesus. I want to go be with Jesus. And so I think that's a good way to live life. You know when you're supposed to be on purpose, living this life, accomplishing God's purpose, and you know when it's time to go home. So it glorifies God both ways. Number three, God's sheep feel confident when the good shepherd is near. God's sheep feel confident when the good shepherd is near. So they will, from what I understand, they will, when the good shepherd is near, they will not be looking around, wondering, you know, if there's any enemies approaching. Instead, they'll just graze with their heads down and go wherever, and they'll be like, I'm not worried about anything. I don't have any fears because the good shepherd is near. He's watching over me, he's caring for me. I trust. And Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So we know back then that, you know, if some wild animal came to attack the sheep, or you know, some people tried to steal the sheep, that the shepherd would do everything he could to protect those sheep, even if it meant giving his own life for those sheep. And Jesus gave his life on the cross for our salvation. And he knew he was going to do that. He wasn't taken by surprise. He wasn't uh, you know, a victim of somebody that ended up on the cross and said he purposefully went there. He was on mission to go to the cross, to die on the cross for our sins. He knew he was going to take his life back up again. Um, he knew that he was paying for our sins. Jesus says the hired hand is not the shepherd, it does not own the sheep. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. So the hired hand uh doesn't really care about the sheep. He's just there for the wages, he's just there uh, you know, for a job. But, you know, if someone's gonna come and attack the sheep, he's like, I'm not getting in the middle of this. Uh you know, he's like, I can go take care of someone else's sheep, but he's not invested. He doesn't care about the sheep uh like we should. And the wolf. Many people are quick to attribute the wolf to Satan, but it could be instead the wolf are false teachers. Uh Matthew 7, verse 15 here. Matthew 7, verse 15, Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from uh thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree bad fruit. So so the wolves, false teachers. And again, in um Acts 20, 29, Paul had sailed to Ephesus, and let's see here, he was telling them uh guard yourselves and God's people, feed and shepherd God's flock, the church, purchased with Jesus' own blood, over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders. I know that false teachers like vicious wolves will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock. So uh wolves can be false teachers. Wolves can be people who lead us astray, and so we need to trust. We need to be aware, as Christ followers, that God has got a plan for our life, and Satan wants to do everything he can to trip us up, but we are confident when the good shepherd is around. When we're walking hand in hand with the Lord, we're much more confident in our faith, we're bolder in our faith, uh, we're more likely to stand against sin and not get tripped up. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Again, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep, my sheep know me. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep hen, I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. And what this is is the Jews and the Gentiles together, together worshiping the Lord. Um, that was the plan after Jesus was on the cross, and it is a good thing. So, another story about sheep. One glorious autumn, I spent an afternoon climbing with a friend who grew up raising sheep in the Alps. We were climbing near the bottom of a ski area near the steep green slope where a delightful flock of sheep had been eating all week, their bells ringing as they gaze and much and munch the lush alpine meadow. When I got close to them, I tried to speak gently. And though this was their slope and not mine, their food and not mine, their country and not mine, my presence was no comfort to them. They began talking loudly to each other and instantly fled from me as if I were a wolf. So later that day I'm climbing with my friend Martin, and at one point I'm just hanging from the rope. Then I notice, far up the slope, a man and his son walking down the mountain, passing through the sheep. Suddenly the man says a few German words. He isn't shouting or cajoling, he's just speaking. The effect, however, was immediate. All the sheep came running towards him, first the older sheep and then the lambs. Their bells are really ringing now as some of the sheep are running toward the shepherd. When they're all within spitting distance of the shepherd, he walks down to the ski area parking lot and they follow. From there he leads the sheep through town, right through the main street where some people are sitting down to eat ice cream and roasted chestnuts, and where other people are buying their clothes and doing their banking. Right in the midst of all these terrifying people are sheep. And on they walk in the middle of commercial chaos, as fearless as American tourists, because of the presence of their shepherd. That is the kind of confidence we can have when we're following Jesus. We follow his lead, we follow his voice. When we think about missionaries following Jesus in different cultures and dangerous, dangerous places, ready to proclaim Jesus to whoever will listen, it is it is a great thing because we are confident when we're following the good shepherd. And number four, my last point, number four, God's sheep are secure forever because of the good shepherd. John 10, 17. The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the Father are one. We know that Jesus gives us eternal life. But better than just having an extended play in our life is this personal relationship we have with the Lord. This personal relationship to walk hand in hand with Jesus, to follow the good shepherd and to train up others, to lead the young lambs to follow us, to follow us, following the good shepherd. We really have nothing to offer of our own goodness, of our own wisdom, of our own knowledge. But we do know whom we have believed and we have experienced following the Good Shepherd, many of us for many years, and we hold out that kind of faith. We hold out that knowledge and that wisdom to the younger lambs, like in the picture, and hopefully they'll follow our lead and they'll learn. They'll learn things that we have learned. Hopefully they'll listen to the warnings that we give them. Hopefully they will not go off and uh you know make the same mistakes we did, but they will they will follow. And in this relationship we have with the Lord, as we invest in it, um, it's for all eternity. So there's really nothing else more valuable than investing our life in Jesus. And there's nothing more valuable than telling other people about our faith in Jesus so they too can be saved and follow after the good shepherd, because it will be a delight for all eternity to be able to look around heaven and say, you know, um, I remember that person that I used to work with before he came to Christ and the day he came to Christ, or even better, if a bunch of people come up to you in heaven and go, I'm here because you shared your faith with Bob, and Bob showed it with Joel, and Joe shared it with me. And uh, these are the people that I led to Christ, and we're we followed the Good Shepherd, and we are here for all eternity. Let me pray, and then the worship team's gonna come forward. Lord Jesus, we thank you for using these word analogies so that we can totally grasp the love and care that you have for us as we are sheep, not the brightest, quick to quick to fall away, pretty defenseless, can't protect ourselves, but you can. Lord, I pray that you would help us to follow your lead and that we would be productive, that you would keep us from grazing in the wrong places, that you would keep us from being deceived, that you would keep us uh safe and holy and confident and empowered, and that we would make a difference and that you'd be glorified. So we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.