Finding Comfort in the Words of Jesus - John Chapter 10

Join Preston as he explores John 10 to offer words of comfort and faith. In this sermon, Preston dives into the imagery of sheep and shepherds that Jesus uses, discussing how it forms a foundational part of Christian belief. He emphasizes the importance of trusting in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep and offers abundant life. The lesson is designed to bring comfort to those in their later years and to all who seek a closer relationship with Jesus.

00:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Lesson
01:39 Reading from John Chapter 10
03:55 Understanding the Imagery of the Good Shepherd
05:50 Three Observations about the Good Shepherd
16:28 The Good Shepherd's Sacrifice and Protection
24:29 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Good morning. If you would go ahead and turn your Bibles to John chapter 10. That's where we're gonna be at this morning. And you guys will like me this morning. I've been trying to challenge myself to do different types of lessons, so this morning I'm trying to do a shorter lesson, but that also means the next Sunday I'm gonna have to try to do a long listen, even longer than normal.

No, hopefully not. We'll see. I wanna be able to keep your attention this morning, but this morning we're bringing, I'm gonna bring you a word of comfort from John chapter 10. It seems like a lot of conversations that Harold Reagan and I have been having with different people, Harvard congregation and elsewhere people needing words of comfort especially towards the end of their life.

And and so I wanted to think about those things and I was thinking about what I wanted to preach on this morning. And I'm sure maybe you have different passages that might be more comforting to you, but the passage that came to my mind immediately was John 10. And so I thought that would be helpful for, for some of our brethren that are in those positions in the, in the latter years of our life, but also hopefully for all of us because of the words that, that Jesus says here in John chapter 10.

But it's not surprising to me that, you know, this is a really, it's a, a very well known passage for us. This is a really basic passage a foundational passage for us. But I think it's, it's not a surprise because oftentimes the passages that we know, the, the most well are the most comforting. And for me, John chapter 10 is probably one of the most comforting.

And so today I just wanna read John 10, make a couple observations for the text and the lesson will be yours today. And so let's go and read John chapter 10, verse one through 18 together, and then we will break down the image that Jesus is talking about here and bring a couple points to mind.

So let's start in verse one, where Jesus said, truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheet fold by the door, but climbs in by another way. That man is a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the gatekeeper opens the sheep, hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he is brought out all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him for they do not know the voice of a stranger. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers. The sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and f flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me just as the father knows me. I know, or just as the father knows me, and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheaths that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason, the father loves me because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up. Again. This charge I have received from my father. So we're really familiar, I think with this kind of imagery, even though most of us probably haven't kept sheep.

I know some of the high school kids, you guys have showed sheep and things like that. But in the traditional sense of shepherding sheep, you know, maybe it's something we've never actually done, but growing up and probably hearing this, this passage, you've heard how this imagery is kind of how it works.

A flock of sheep is both a common agricultural, agricultural metaphor in the Old Testament and used to describe Israel's relationship to God, it was a real image before their eyes. Sheep were very abundant in their part of the world at that time. But not only was a way of talking about God and his relationship to his people and the way he tended and flocked and shepherded them, it was also a part of their expectation and hope for Messiah.

Who would come, who would shepherd them in the way that God did and, and the way that their own leaders had failed themselves. Jesus' identification here in John chapter 10. It's really important identification for himself because as he identifying himself both as the Messiah, the one who they've been waiting for all this time, but also he has come to do the works of the Father, and so he's identifying himself as doing God's work, that he is God in the flesh as well.

But we know the kind of imagery of the sheep fold as well that he's talking about. We got a picture here on the screen. Know there's a clear border that separates the sheep from their surroundings. It's for, to protect them from potential dangers, but there's also limited access on how you get into the sheep fold as well.

There's one way in, one way out, so it's easier for the shepherd to protect his flock. The shepherd would take them there and, and let them lie down and rest and lead them to and from the fold to the pasture so that he could feed them and protect them. And so this image for us, even though may none of us maybe here have ever shepherded, she, it, it's still very much familiar to us.

And so there's three observations I wanna make from our texts this morning about the Good Shepherd. And the first is that the sheep that enter the sheep full by the door, as we said, just with the analogy a second ago, are made distinct. From their surroundings. In other words, those who have come in faith in Jesus Christ, they have entered now into the people of God, into a right relationship with God.

As Jesus will say in John chapter 14, I'm the way, the truth and the light and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It's within this relationship through which we enter the door. That is Jesus, that he says, we will be saved and we will go in and out and find pasture. He goes on to say that we will have life and have it abundantly and in Jesus's fold.

What we had this belonging now as being a part of the people of God in which we have this abundant life. In John's Gospel abundant life, it's both a present reality as well as a future reality. In, in the present, our life is abundant, not because everything just always goes my way, the way I want it to, because I've now been a part of made a part of the people of God, but because I know that through Jesus, I ultimately belong to God in whatever my circumstances might be.

I know that I'm eternally safe and ultimately will be vindicated from all the troubles that I experience in life one day. And our abundant life will thus continue on into eternity after the resurrection, when there won't be anything to threaten us, pull us away from this fold, this folock of the sheep.

But what's interesting is that you know, even though there are clear boundaries surrounding God's people, the door, even though it is protected. It is not sealed shut forever. It is open to anyone who's willing to follow Jesus' voice. As Jesus says, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved. And as witnesses of our shepherd, those of us who are part of this flock of Jesus' sheep, well, we're called to continue on his work, to seek after these other sheep who are not of his fold, to continue this mission to bring others into his flock.

While we're first made distinct from our surroundings, we're also given intimate knowledge of the shepherd as his sheep being marked as his. We, we develop a really strong bond with the shepherd. Jesus shares intimate knowledge of himself. You know, we can, might change the words of one John four 19 that says, you know, we love before, because he first loved us.

We, we can almost say in, you know, John chapter 10. You know, we know because he first knew us. Jesus says that he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. He says, I know my own, my own know me. You know, for me, I grew up on a farm, so my, my experience with with agriculture is around cattle. And so I, I, when I think about John chapter 10, I think about my relationship to my herd of cattle back home.

You think about those of you who, who've experienced that here in Texas, I'm sure many of you have. A farmer, you know, what's his relationship towards his herd of cattle versus another person who comes onto their farm? Even if that person knows a lot about cattle, well they come on the farm. Well, that farmer he knows, he goes, looks at the herd of cattle.

He knows every single animal's name, their identification number. He doesn't even have to look at the ear tag. He knows that animal's breeding. He knows his behavior. Hey, you wanna stay away from that one? Oh, this one's a, you know, it's a teddy bear. He knows all the specific features about this herd. While a visitor who might be in his field just sees a blur of cattle, and Jesus likewise, he knows everything about us as our As, as his sheep, and he's gonna protect us, and he's gonna give us what it is that each of us need.

But even more so, our relationship with Jesus models Jesus' own with His Father. We know each other. Just as the father knows Jesus and Jesus knows the Father and that relationship. Again, back to kinda that farming analogy it goes both ways, right? Not only does the, the farmer have intimate, intimate knowledge of his sheep.

But the sheep have intimate knowledge of the shepherd as well. Just like a farmer might pull up to a field, it's just the sight of his truck over a far away. They, they even know the vehicle. Sometimes those cattle might come running, whereas if they see a strange vehicle, they go and run away. They hear his voice from over the hill.

They don't even see him, but they hear his voice and they come running. And since we've come to know Jesus, well, we're familiar with his voice when it comes to his teaching. We follow him wherever he leads us in obedience. And this knowledge is so crucial for us. This is sheep because there's so many powers at Bee that are trying to fracture our bond and our relationship to our, our shepherd.

And so even though we are made distinct and we have this intimate knowledge of our shepherd still dangers that are ever present before us, we are not of the world as Jesus says, but we are in the world. We have dangerous from the outside. Jesus talks about, in contrast to him as this life-giving shepherd.

There's robbers, there's thieves. They come only to steal and kill and destroy. They're strangers. They, they call out, they intend, they attempt to entice the sheep away from the flock. There's wolves that come. They try to snatch, they try to scatter the, the sheep and all these, different dangers that are present.

You know, we could talk about them individually and go a little bit more in depth and try to understand what Jesus is saying, but, but really, they all have one goal. They're all trying to do the same thing, maybe in a little bit different way, where they're trying to remove the sheep from the flock that is in Jesus' kind of deeper meaning.

They're trying to seek to destroy the life of Jesus' disciples by removing them from their life. That is Jesus. We think about our lives today, we, we hear a lot of voices in the world, but we have a comfort in knowing that if we hear a voice that seems odd to us, it seems like something that we don't recognize.

Well, we have a shepherd who we can run to for safety. A shepherd who can be a refuge for our danger, where we don't that that voice that might be calling out to us, it might be offering us safety from somebody. It might be offering us a false sense of security or satisfaction, but we know where the true safety and satisfaction's found he can offer us abundant life.

That'll carry us through whatever persecution we might be facing for our faith. He can be the shepherd that leads us away from Satan's strange voice that's trying to offer us his false pasture in life. And so those dangers are ever abundant before us, and not only from the outside, but also from the inside.

Jesus talks about hired hands. They've been entrusted to care for the sheep, but they don't own the sheep. And since they don't see the sheep as their own. When troubles come, like the wolf that enters into the pasture, well they flee because Jesus says they care nothing for the sheep in Jesus' words.

Again, they, they echo ex or Ezekiel 34. We had that up on the board. I didn't mention it. But Xs three, four is, that's where you get the promise of this messianic shepherd. This new shepherd like David, this, this messianic king will come and shepherd a flock. But before that, Ezekiel is, is chastising all of the, the elders of the people who were supposed to shepherd the people in God's stead.

But they had failed and they had taken advantage of the people of God. You know, we expect the world to be against us. Right? But it definitely hurts a lot more when it's someone who's betrayed us. When the person who's betrayed us is, is, is one of our own, you know, even our, our best and our most well-meaning leaders.

You know me Reagan, Harold, or the elders that, the deacons, whoever it might be. Your friends, your family, your fellow Christians. Well, we all at times might offer fallible advice. Well, we, we struggle with our own temptations to sin. We can often become prideful and even worse, we can, we can lie to one another.

We can take advantage of one another. We can allow harm to befall one another because of negligence. It's, it's a sad thing to think about that our leaders, even the people that we trust and we love so much that they can let us down, but that's why we can't put our complete faith in anybody but the Good Shepherd.

Because if our faith is in Jesus, well, we're never gonna be put to shame. You know, we feel often alone in these times. We, we get kind of attacked by all these different threats, whatever it may be for you. But Jesus is always there in the midst of these threats to shepherd us. And I know it's hard to visualize that now.

It's easy when you're thinking about the image of a shepherd and a she, but it's harder to visualize Jesus as being present there shepherding us in our troubles. John 17, I think is a passage. And if you wanna turn over there, John 17, verses 12 through 15, where Jesus, here, here he is praying for his disciples, his the remaining 11 disciples in Gethsemane and his high priestly prayer the night before his crucifixion.

I know he's, he's praying for his apostles. But I think we can think about the, the, the words that he expresses here for them, for us as well in a certain sense, because they're here facing both internal and external threats. One from Judas who's coming actively, and just a few moments to take Jesus away.

One of his own, one of the, that has previously been on the sheep and the world at large. In verse 12, he says, while I was with them. I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except son of destruction. That's Judas, that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Go to verse 14. He says, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world, I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Jesus, just like he prayed for his apostles here and for us, you know, he's willing to do anything to guard and protect his sheep, but how is it that this good shepherd is able to offer us this abundant life and this protection from the sheep?

It's because the Good Shepherd, he does what only the Good Shepherd can do for his sheep. He does the the job that nobody else is capable of doing. And as Jesus says in verse 11, he says, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the shepherd. You know, we think about a shepherd dying for his sheep.

I think it's strange for us for two reasons. One. Who would think even the, the, the best shepherd, the best farmer out there that loves his animals, takes good care of them. Who would think that animals were worth dying for? And two, wouldn't a shepherd's death for his sheep only make them more vulnerable to future attacks?

Would that just put them in the same position they were before? How would that really help them? Well, Jesus is using a metaphor, so we don't want to look too hard for one-to-one kind of comparisons. He's trying to make two crucial points. The first is that Jesus loves his followers so much that he considers that they are worth dying for.

Jesus will later, later say, if his sacrificial death in chapter 15, verse 12 through 13, he says, this is my commandment that you love. One another is I have loved you greater love has no one than this. That someone laid down his life for his friends Jesus' death on the cross, that he's foretelling here is the greatest manifestation of God's love for humanity.

And we might think to ourselves or think about ourselves just like we might think about sheep. Well, well, how am I worth dying for? Well. Praise God that God believed and that Jesus was willing and saw that we were willing to die, be to die for. You know. Secondly, when we think about kind of why this image might be weird to us, the shepherd's death would only make a difference in the life of the sheep if the threats that that were facing them would ultimately be stopped.

Even though we face all these dangers that we talked about, Jesus self sacrificed, it eliminated those ultimate threats that we face, that sin and death, his defeat of sin and death on the cross and in the tomb, is our guarantee ultimately that he will one day come and vindicate us from all other all of our present troubles.

And so Jesus does what only he can do. He lays down his life. She, but that's not to the end. Jesus lays down his life so that he can take it up again. Jesus says of verse 17 through 18, for this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may 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 I have authority to take it up again. This is the charge that I've received from my father. It's a comfort, I think, to know that Jesus saying here, you know, his death, his ultimate death on the cross that we, that we Dallas, brought to our minds that all that shame and the humiliation that he tried to help bring to the forefront of our minds this morning, that wasn't an accident.

It wasn't a plan B, it was the charge that he had received from his fire. It was his mission. That's why he came. It was not outside of his control. No one took his life from him. He gave it willingly, and his soul was not abandoned by God and death because he had that authority to take his life back up again.

You know, in, in Jesus' death and his resurrection. Well, we, we all know, unless the Lord you know, comes before this happens. We're all, we're all gonna die ourselves. We have hope that we like Jesus because of his resurrection, will take up our lives again. 'cause he's destroyed everything that's trying to separate us from the love of God.

And one day he's gonna call us from the grave, we're gonna hear his voice that says sheep. And we're gonna follow him into eternal life where nothing can ever harm us again. John chapter 10. This metaphor goes on and we get this little kind of end note the end of this, this picture that Jesus is painting and Jesus is here in chapter 10 talking about the good Chevy.

He's pointing forward to his cross as we just to the cross, as we just mentioned. But as we continue to read, we realize that this story's also looking backwards to what has previously happened in John's account. And look in John chapter 10, he says. The Jews were again, divided because of these words.

'cause Jesus is teaching his, his figurative language about the good shepherd. As many of them were saying, he is a demon and it's out of his mind. Why listen to him? Others were saying these are not the words of one who is a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? And so Jesus' metaphor, the reference here to the the blindness is letting us know.

That all of the, his metaphor about the Good Shepherd is a figurative retelling of the events of his healing of a blind man. Previously in chapter nine, and this, this story kind of bookends Jesus' metaphor of the good shepherd and the blind man, he had heard the voice of Jesus and had been healed. Jesus had anointed, anointed his eyes with mud, he'd commanded him to go wash and a blind man being that good sheep, he, he heard the voice of Jesus.

He obeyed him and he came back, seen. He had previously lived a life technically, but the life that Jesus had now given him, given him sight, there was nothing compared to the life that he had previously had. But even though he was called by the shepherd, he heard the voice there was still dangerous before him.

The Pharisees come and they cast him out of the synagogue. He didn't listen to the voice of the Pharisees to their strange voices. It tried to entice them, entice him away from Jesus, but it ultimately cost him, cost him to be thrown out of his community. But Jesus being the good Shepherd goes after and seeks after this outsider of his community, and he makes him an insider.

Once again. This other sheep heard the voice of Jesus. He believed and he worshiped him, and therefore Jesus reversed the decision that the Pharisees had made that that cast him out of the synagogue. There's a lot of things in our life today. I think that, that they try to tempt us to believe that somehow we're on the outside looking in, but the comforting message of the, the Good Shepherd reminds us that.

Jesus has sought each and every one of us out, those who have come to know him in faith and through the waters of baptism. They sought us out. He sought us out, made us his own, and he's removed all dangers, all things that threatened to separate us from God and our shepherd. He couldn't be overcome by anything, even death itself.

And as sheep as his sheep, he's not gonna allow any thief to steal us away, any wolf to come in and scatter us. Nor a grave to hold any one of us. We are all his sheep now and forever. And so this morning for you, believers will praise God that the good shepherd has laid down his life for you and that he now calls you by name.

He knows your name. Jesus knows a lot more than your name. He knows every hair that is on your head, but he loves you. It's a sheep. For you who might be wayward sheep, well remember that Jesus is continually seeking you. He wants to bring you back in to his fold. And for you who might be nonbelievers here, who haven't come to know, to have faith in Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God, well, remember that door is always open to you.

It's always there inviting you in. The shipper is calling you if you'll only hear his voice. And so this morning, we want to help you. We want you to hear his voice today and live. Share the abundant life that all of us have this morning. So this morning Jesus calling you into the waters of baptism to come and to live a life of self-sacrifice and, and submission to him, a life of, of service to each and every one of the people here, the people in, in this community here.

He's just calling you to be one of his sheep to follow in his ways, to hear his voice and the wa and that call starts here by following him into the waters of baptism for the remission of your sin. And so if we can help you with any of these things this morning to, to bring you into the fold to be one of the sheep of, of, of Christ, well then we want to help you If you'll come now as we stand, as we sing.