Is Jesus the Christ? (John 10:17-27)

Audio

This past Tuesday night, an estimated 5 million people worldwide tuned in to the live video stream of a debate about the compatibility of biblical creationism with modern science between Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) and Ken Ham (the founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum). At one point, both participants were asked what, if anything, would convince either man to change his mind. Nye responded that if there were one piece of evidence that supported the biblical view of creation, he would change his mind immediately. Never mind that Ham had already presented numerous evidences to support his own view, what Bill Nye demonstrated throughout the debate was that his intellectual commitment to an entirely naturalistic and anti-supernatural worldview would not allow him to even consider a shred of evidence to the contrary. It is not the there is no evidence; there is plenty. The issue is how much evidence is “enough,” and is a person willing to believe that other interpretations of the evidence are valid? When it comes to creation and evolution, we are all looking at the same evidence. The problem is that our worldviews inevitably form presuppositions in our minds that affect how we interpret the evidence. Nye, and many other secular, naturalistic evolutionists are unwilling to consider that other interpretations of the evidence may be valid.

We see the same thing when it comes to belief in God in general. As most of you know, before I was a Christian, I was an atheist. My primary argument was that if God did exist, there ought to be more evidence of His existence all around us. If He wanted us to believe in Him, it seemed to me that He wasn’t trying very hard. Philosophers call this line of reasoning the “Hiddenness of God” argument. Yet, Christians can point to many evidences for God’s existence, and they often did with me. The problem was not lack of evidence, but lack of willingness on my part to consider the evidence. So, we should not be surprised with the attitudes of some when it comes to believing that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of humanity). There are those who sound intellectually pious as they say, “There just isn’t enough evidence to convince me that He is.” We even find some here in our text today. In verse 24, they are asking Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Like those here in the text, we know many today who would attempt to say that Jesus Himself is the one to blame for the lack of belief in Him. It’s His fault they don’t believe because He hasn’t provided enough evidence to convince them.

Well, is that true? Do we have sufficient evidence to believe on Jesus Christ? According to the Apostle John, we do. In John 20:31, he says that of all the things that Jesus said and did, these things (the things recorded in this Gospel) have been written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” According to John, what we have in this Gospel is sufficient evidence to warrant such a belief in Jesus as the Christ. But of course, for those who were alive and present during the days of Jesus’ earthly ministry, there was more evidence than this available to them. In John 20:30, the Apostle writes that there were “many other signs” which Jesus also performed which are not written in this book. In John 21:25, he says that if they were all written down in detail, “the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” So, it was not that there was a lack of evidence. Their unbelief, and that of many today, is rather the result of a willful refusal to recognize and consider the evidence and thereby to yield to Jesus Christ as Lord.

Let’s set the stage for this dispute that we read about in our text today. In John 9, Jesus healed a man who was born blind, something that was acknowledged as an impossibility apart from a miraculous work of God (cf. John 9:24-33). This occurred just after the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.[1] Seemingly immediately after this miracle took place, Jesus began to speak about Himself as “the Good Shepherd” and “the door of the sheep.” He identified Himself as the One who lays down His life for the sheep and who has the divine authority to do so and to take it up again (10:1-18). Upon hearing these words, there was a division among the crowd of Jews around Him (10:19). Some were saying (10:20) that He was a demon-possessed lunatic. Others were saying that it was impossible for Him to be a demon-possessed lunatic, for a demon-possessed lunatic could not say the things that Jesus was saying, nor could he open the eyes of a man born blind (v21). You see what they are saying? There is evidence in His words and in His works that would affirm that His claims need to be taken seriously rather than dismissed without consideration.

Now, the scene changes in 10:22. It is no longer the time of the Feast of Tabernacles; now it is the time of the Feast of Dedication, perhaps six to eight weeks later. This feast is also known as the Festival of Lights or, more popularly, Hanukkah. As He walked along in the Portico of Solomon, undoubtedly to escape the harsh, cold winds and rain of the Judean winter, He was encircled by a throng of Jews who asked Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” The question and demand that they made of Jesus is echoing today in the words of so many others. We need to look at it to understand what the unbelievers around us are really saying. But, as we respond to them, we also need to consider how Jesus responded. The response He gave is the same response that we need to give to those we interact with today.

I. Many unbelievers are asking the right question, but sometimes for the wrong reason.

For 25 years, Larry King was regarded as one of the best interviewers in the television industry. He had a knack for always asking the right questions and getting real answers. Larry King was once asked, if he could choose any person in history to interview, whom would he choose? He said he would like to interview Jesus Christ, and he would ask him just one question: “Are You indeed virgin born?” King said, “The answer to that question would explain history for me.”[2] Well, indeed, anytime someone asks a question that drives down to the point of who Jesus really, they are asking “the right question.” And that is what the group surrounding Jesus were doing. They were asking, “Are you really the Christ?” That is always the right question to ask. It is the most significant question anyone could ever ask. This is the question that many of us are faced with on a regular basis. It may not be asked directly; it is often hidden under the veil of other statements or questions being put forth. And we need to take that question seriously; we need to recognize the importance and significance of the question. That question has eternal implications. It could mean the difference between heaven and hell for someone. Never despise the one who asks a question about the identity of Jesus. We should commend them for seeking out the most important truth in all the universe.

But, we also need to be aware that some are asking the right question for the wrong reasons. Such was the case here with these in the text. Consider what they had seen and heard already. Did they need more information to make a decision about Jesus? They had heard Him speak openly on many occasions. They had seen Him perform amazing miracles. Untold multitudes of people have come to faith in Jesus without nearly as much evidence as they had already received. So, why were they asking? They weren’t seeking the truth, they were setting a trap. The evil intentions of the hearts of the Jewish leaders had already been made evident. Jesus was a threat to their power over the people because He challenged the religious system, so as all four Gospels point out clearly, they intended to find a way to have Him killed. If they could get Him to say in no uncertain terms that He had come to be the Christ, the Messiah, they would have what they were looking for. You have to understand, in that day, there were many ideas floating around about who or what the Messiah might be when He came. For most, He was viewed as the heroic leader of a great insurrection, who would lead the people into military conquest over the powers of the Roman Empire. If they could get Jesus to admit that this is who He claimed to be, they knew that the Empire would destroy Him quickly to squelch any uprising before it ever started.  

Some who come to us today with their questions, even when they are asking the right questions, are doing so for similar wrong reasons. Some, even many perhaps, are not honest seekers for truth. Rather, they are trying to start an argument. They want an opportunity to advance their own ideas, which they are already convinced are superior to yours. Or, they want to get you to say something that they can use to trip you up and use as a supposed proof that you are wrong. Or, perhaps they want to expose some hypocrisy in you as a means of discrediting the claims of Jesus. Or, they might have many other hidden motives for asking what appears to be the right question. Now, I want to be clear that there are some people who are genuinely seeking truth, and for the sake of those, the Bible says that we must always be ready to give a reason for the hope within us to whoever asks. But we must not be so naïve to think that every person who asks us a question about Jesus is genuinely interested in finding truth. Some, like those in our text here in John 10, are asking the right questions, but for the wrong reasons.

So, how do we answer their questions? Let’s look at how Jesus answered these and learn from Him.

II. Jesus provides the best answer, even if it is not the answer that some are seeking.

I spent a year as a grader in Seminary, and several years as a college professor. During those experiences, some of the funniest things I have ever read have been the answers students sometimes write on exams when they do not know the answer. I’ve been sent even funnier ones by friends over the years, like this one from a history exam: The question is, “Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?” One student answered, “At the bottom.” Well, what do we say to that? It’s not the wrong answer, but certainly it is not the answer that the teacher was looking for.

Well, when Jesus answered those who asked Him to tell them plainly if He is the Christ, He gave them the right answer, and indeed the best answer, even though it was not the answer that they were seeking. He said, “I told you, and you do not believe.” Now, you can search through your Bibles and look for the place where Jesus said plainly, “I am the Christ,” and you won’t find many statements that are this clear. He spoke this clearly to His disciples in private, and to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. But He had not said it so directly in public to the broader Jewish audience. Why not? Well, most importantly, for the reason already mentioned: He wanted to avoid the popular misconceptions about the Messiah. But, even though He had rarely said so plainly, “I am the Christ, the Messiah,” what He had said was plain enough.

For three years, He had been making bold and direct claims about His own identity, His divine nature, and His mission of salvation. After all, He had said plainly that the entire Old Testament spoke of Him and His coming. He had clearly indicated that He was the unique and only mediator between God and man. John’s Gospel records for us seven distinct “I am” statements in which Jesus applies to Himself the divine name of God and uses metaphoric phrases to describe His nature and His mission. He said, “I am the Bread of Life,” indicating that He alone could satisfy the longings of humanity. He said, “I am the Light of the World,” meaning that He is the sole ultimate revelation of God. He said, “I am the Door of the sheep,” by which He had told them that He alone could provide access to God. He had said, “I am the Good Shepherd,” indicating that He, and no other, could lead His people out of the peril of sin and away from the wolves, the thieves, the robbers, and the hirelings who represented the false religious leaders of Israel. Anyone with ears to hear could recognize that Jesus had clearly identified Himself as Christ and Messiah through these and many other expressions. And don’t think for a moment that they didn’t get it. They did, and that is why they were so intent on killing Him. The problem was not that He hadn’t said it; the problem was that they hadn’t believed Him.

But then Jesus says that His words are not all they have to go on. He has also provided them with ample evidence of His identity through His works. He says, “The works I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe.” Any lunatic can walk around making false claims about Himself, but Jesus backed up His claims by performing miraculous signs and wonders. Not only does John record for us seven unique “I am” sayings, he also records seven distinct miracles that Jesus performed openly to indicate who He is. He turned water into wine, prompting His disciples to believe in Him. He healed the nobleman’s son, proving His power to overcome sin and sickness. He healed a lame man, demonstrating that He is able to do for humanity what we cannot do for ourselves. He fed a multitude of thousands by miraculously multiplying just five loaves of bread and two fish, demonstrating that He has the ability to provide and sustain us. He walked on the water in the Sea of Galilee, proving His power over nature. He healed a man born blind, something that no one in history had been able to do. And in the next chapter (John 11), He will even raise a man from the dead, proving His authority over life and death and foreshadowing His own resurrection. But He did even more than what has been recorded for us in this Gospel. The other three Gospels record more miracles, and John says that if all of them were written in detail, you would need a library larger than the world to contain the books.

You ask for proof that He is the Christ? How much more proof do you need? Jesus answers the crowd here by saying that His words and His works ought to be sufficient evidence for them to know that He is the Christ. It is not lack of evidence on His part, but lack of faith on their part. They do not believe. The same is true of many we encounter today. They say, rather arrogantly and pompously, “We need more evidence! We need convincing proof.” How do we respond? We follow the example of Jesus. Point to His words. Point to His works. These things testify plainly of who He is, and answer the question. He is the Christ. If others do not believe in Him, it is not His fault. If we point them to His words and His works, it is not our fault either. Our confidence is not in the convincing power of our arguments, but in the converting power of the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Good News about Jesus: what He said; what He did. People ask me almost every day, “What can I tell my lost friend to make them believe in Jesus?” I say, “Tell them what He said and what He did.” I don’t know if it will make them believe, but that is how Jesus did it, and we are fools to believe that we can do it any better. It may not be the answer they are looking for, but it is the best answer, if for no other reason than it is the answer that Jesus gave.

This brings us then to the final point, the ultimate reality that underlies the disbelief of so many.

III. Jesus identifies the root cause of unbelief, and the remedy for it.

Here is a guaranteed reality about the condition of humanity: lost people will act and speak like lost people. There should really be no surprise about that at all. Sometimes we act surprised, even offended, but this is the wrong reaction. Lost people act like lost people. You can’t pass laws to change that. You can’t shout your way beyond it. And even if you could, it would only mask the real problem of their lostness. In fact, the biggest cultural crisis we are facing today in America comes from a two-fold tragedy. One is that we have been led to expect lost people to act like saved people because of the lingering influence of the Judeo-Christian worldview on our society. The other is that we increasingly see people who claim to be saved acting like lost people. So, we accept the presence of hypocrisy and carnality in our own ranks, and decry moral degradation in the broader culture, when the opposite should be true. Christians complain that there are no plaques of the ten commandments in the courthouse, but we do not display them in our homes or churches. Christians complain that there is no prayer in school, and do not show up for prayer meetings in our churches. You see the problem.

Jesus puts His finger on the pulse of the problem here in verse 26. He says, “You do not believe because you are not of my sheep.” Now, at first glance, it may appear that He is saying the same thing twice. To not believe is to not be one of His sheep; and to not be one of His sheep is to not believe. But He says that there is a causal connection here. Their failure to believe is caused by the fact that they do not belong to Him. Here we are wading into to the choppy waters of divine sovereignty in salvation. It is God who saves. As sinners who are, according to God’s word, dead in our trespasses and sins, we cannot believe until God moves upon our hearts in regenerating power giving us new life. For those who do not believe, He has not, at least not yet, done that. If He had, they would believe. Jesus said that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them (John 6:44). Scripture teaches very plainly that God is sovereign in salvation. Does that mean that you are a Calvinist or a Predestinarian? No, it just means you believe the Bible. But nowhere does Scripture teach that human beings are not morally responsible for their own sin, or can somehow be excused from their sins, including the sin of unbelief, because of something that God did or did not do. The same Bible that teaches us that God is singularly responsible for the saving of a soul also teaches us that every human being is morally accountable to God for our wrongdoings. God has not, or at least not yet, drawn them, but they were already guilty before Him because of their sin. Jesus said in John 3:18 that the who does not believe is “condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

It is not our job to identify the elect and the non-elect of the world. That responsibility belongs to God and God alone. We are not told who the elect are, and who the non-elect are. We are told that God saves the elect through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and we are told that He calls them out to Himself through the preaching of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus. And we are commanded to proclaim that Good News to everyone. The Church of Jesus Christ has been commissioned to make known to every nation on earth that Jesus has died for the sins of humanity, He has borne the wrath of God in our place as our substitute, and He has conquered sin and death through His resurrection. Therefore, all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus can be saved. So, what is the problem? People are lost. How then can they be saved? Through the Holy Spirit working in their hearts as the Good News of Jesus is proclaimed. So Jesus says that they do not believe because they are not of His sheep, but then He says in verse 27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” So, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is shared, people hear, as it were, the voice of Jesus Christ Himself beckoning them to come to Him, to believe upon Him, and to be saved. Everyone who hears that message has the same opportunity to believe or reject Him. So if a person is lost today, and they hear the Gospel message and believe it, and trust in Jesus and follow Him, they will be saved. And Jesus already knows who those are who will believe. In fact, He has chosen them to believe, because apart from God’s sovereign choosing of us, none of us would ever believe because we are dead in sin. But we must make the choice to believe and follow. So, if a person is wondering, “Am I among those chosen? Am I part of the elect sheep of God’s fold?”, the answer is, “What do you do with the Good News of Jesus?” If you believe it, then you are. If you do not believe it, then it may be that you are not, or it may be that you are, and as of yet, God has not yet imparted life to you to believe. But what you must not do is walk away from the offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. If you do not believe, you must keep seeking, keep asking, keep searching, keep knocking on the door. Jesus has promised that he who seeks will find, to the one who asks it will be given, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened. As long as there is breath left in you, there is hope, if you will only believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the solution. Hear the voice of Christ, and follow Him by faith. To anyone standing in that crowd, the offer was openly extended. To anyone seated in this room today, it is extended still. To any you encounter, the offer goes forth as you tell them what Jesus has said and what Jesus has done. He will save you. The God who cannot lie has promised to do so.

So, maybe today you are asking the right questions: Who is Jesus? Is He the Christ? Is He the Savior who can rescue me from my sin and reconcile me to God? Those are all the right questions to ask. Why are you asking? Are you genuinely seeking truth? Are you open-minded enough to let His words and His works have their full weight in your heart and mind? You say, “I need more evidence!” Jesus says, “You have My words. You have heard about My works. That evidence is more than sufficient.” So what shall you say to Him? Will you blame Him for not proving Himself more clearly? Is it not enough for you that He became a man, said what He said, did what He did, and then died in your place to bear your sins on the cross, and rose from the dead? Will you blame Him for not drawing your, or choosing you, or electing you? He has offered you life, and said that you may turn to Jesus and believe – how is that His fault if you do not? Perhaps today, the questions you have been asking have been answered for you in the person of Jesus Christ; what you are seeking in life has been found in Him; the door upon which you have been knocking has been opened to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. This is the promise of God’s Word.

If you know Him, and live for Him, you will get questions. How will you answer? Point to Jesus’ words and Jesus’ works. That is what He did. You won’t improve on that. Share that message of who Jesus is, what He said, and what He did, with everyone. You say, “What if they don’t believe?” Well, many won’t. But some will. You don’t know who will or who won’t but Jesus does. And He has promised that He knows those who will, even if you don’t. Our great encouragement in sharing His Good News is that He will keep that promise. Our part is to go and tell. His part is to save. You do your part, and He will never fail to do His part.

---

[1] The events from John 7 through 10:19 all occur during and immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles.

[2] Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods (Nashville: Word, 2000), 38. 

The Good Shepherd (John 10:11-21)

Audio

Phillip Keller grew up around shepherds in East Africa and later became a shepherd himself. More importantly he was a Christian. Later in life, Keller was able to reflect on life-lessons he learned as a shepherd and how those things helped him understand many truths in the Bible. He is perhaps most well known for two books: A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, and A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd and His Sheep. In the latter, Keller writes,

Reflecting back over my own years as a sheepman I recall clearly those happy, contented times when I literally reveled in the well-being of my sheep. Visitors would often remark how contented and flourishing my flock appeared. But only I knew how much work, effort, tireless attention, and never-ending diligence had been expended on my part for this to be possible. My sheep had literally been the recipients of my life. It had been shared with them abundantly and unstintingly. Nothing was ever held back. All that I possessed was in truth poured out unremittingly in order that together we should prosper. The strength of my young body, the keen enthusiasm of my spirit, the energy of my mind, the alertness of my emotions, the thrust and drive of my disposition were all directed to the well-being of my flock. [1]

Keller had learned from experience that being a good shepherd required nothing less than the investment of one’s whole life. The Lord Jesus also knows this. In our text today, He speaks of Himself as “the Good Shepherd.” Surely, among shepherds, there are good ones and bad ones. But Jesus speaks of Himself here as unique among them all. He is the Good Shepherd. Where others are “good,” He is more excellent still. He is alone in His class as the ultimate Shepherd. Jesus used the Greek word kalos. It can mean, of course, good as opposed to “bad,” but it means far more than this. It carries the sense of being excellent, noble, praise-worthy, and beautiful. When He says that He is the Good Shepherd, Jesus intends to say that there is really no other like Him. He is the most excellent, the most noble, the most praise-worthy of them all. There is a beauty on display in His care for His sheep that can be seen nowhere else but in Him.

There is a singular characteristic of Jesus that marks Him out as the superlative shepherd. Five times in these verses He speaks of His laying down of His own life for the sheep. It is this which distinguishes Him from all other shepherds. Other shepherds who are good at their job invest their whole lives in the sheep, but the Lord Jesus goes above and beyond them all. He gives up His life entirely for the benefit of the sheep. He speaks in the present tense, not the future tense. At that very moment, He was laying down His life for them. His entire earthly life was a sacrifice for His sheep. As one New Testament scholar writes, “The incarnation in its entirety was an act of unbelievable condescension. The eternal Son laid down His life by becoming a man and living among us.”[2] The infinite and eternal Son of God laid down His life in coming to us as a man in the person of Jesus Christ. He laid down His life all day, every day, over the course of three years of public ministry, pouring Himself out for the benefit of others. But then of course, yes, there came that fateful day in which He laid down His life ultimately and supremely for His sheep on Calvary’s cross.

Often we are tempted to view the cross of Jesus Christ as a great tragedy. It can appear to us as an accident of divine and human history, as if God lost track of what was going on, things got out of hand, and the Son of God ended up dead because of the evil hatred of mankind. That would be a mistake to view it that way. Jesus did not view His own cross that way, and neither must we. Jesus tells us how we should view the cross here in verses 17-18. He said that the entire episode flows out of the love of the Father. “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.” He did not earn the Father’s love by doing this. He is eternally the supreme object of the Father’s love. But it was a demonstration of the Father’s love for Him and His love for the Father that He gave Himself up so freely in life and in death. The Father loves Him because He is unconditionally committed to whatsoever the Father wills for Him.

He also tells us that the entire episode of the cross was within His own sovereign control. We think that Pilate, or Herod Antipas, or Judas Iscariot, or mobs of people crying “Crucify,” or Roman soldiers, took Jesus’ life away from Him. He says here in verse 17, “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.” He was the one who was in control of His circumstances leading up to and including His death on the cross. He said, “I have authority to lay it down.” No one else has the authority to lay down his own life. You don’t decide when you breathe your final breath. Jesus did. He had authority over His own life and death. But He also says that He has the authority to take up His own life again. In fact, He says that He lays it down “so that” He may take it again. He chose to die, and He did it in order that He might rise again.

Jesus laid down His life and He took it up again in glorious resurrection. But why would He do such a thing? He did it because He is the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Notice, He does it for the sheep. It is on their behalf, for their benefit. Jesus laid down His life to save us. How does His death save us? It is because He dies for our sins to reconcile us to God. The prophet Isaiah put it this way: “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Isa 53:5-6). In Romans 5, Paul said it this way, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6-8). He laid down His life for the sheep, and that is why He is the Good Shepherd.

Now, we have seen why He is called “the Good Shepherd.” It is because He laid down His life for the sheep, to rescue the sheep, that the sheep might be freed of their sins and be washed clean and reconciled to God through Him. But the great mystery of the ages is why would Jesus do this for the likes of us? Well, I suppose it will take eternity to fully untangle that mystery, but here in this passage, Jesus tells us three reasons why the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

I. The Good Shepherd lays down His life because of His intimate love for the sheep (vv12-13)

In the ancient Near-East, if you saw a man with a flock of sheep, he might be one of two kinds of men. Some of those out among the sheep were proper shepherds, men who owned the sheep, loved the sheep, and cared for the sheep. They belonged to him. Before David became King of Israel, he was a shepherd, and he was an example of just such a shepherd. He cared for the flock of his father Jesse as if they were his own. He spoke of some of his exploits as a shepherd as he sought to persuade Saul to allow him to go out and fight Goliath. He said, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear” (1 Sam 17:34-36). David was willing to risk his life to protect the sheep because he loved them and cared for them. Not all those who tended sheep were like this though. Some were mere hirelings. For them, watching the sheep was just a job. As long as things were easy, and the money was good, they would show up every day and work their shift. When quitting time came, they went home for the night and never gave a passing thought to those sheep. They were not in it for the sake of the sheep, but for themselves. So, when tending the flock put them at risk, say, when a wolf came to attack the flock, the hireling would turn tail and run to spare his own skin. A hireling can always find another job. A shepherd only has one flock, and he devotes himself at all times to the well-being of the flock.

Jesus said that He was the Good Shepherd; He was not like the hired hand. He said that the hired hand was “not concerned about the sheep.” Jesus was teaching something to the people about their own religious leaders. These guys, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the chief priests and the elders, styled themselves as spiritual shepherds of the people. But Jesus was trying to point out to them that they were nothing more than hired hands. They were just collecting a paycheck. They didn’t care about the sheep – the people of Israel. If they were in danger, you couldn’t count on these people to protect them. In fact, they were in danger! A wolf was devouring them! That wolf was sin. But the religious leaders were not helping the people find the love and forgiveness of God. They were capitalizing off of the guilt and fear of the people, bringing in a lot of money for themselves and their corrupt system by breaking the backs of the poor.

Jesus said that He was different than those hired hands of that religious system. He wasn’t a hireling, He was a shepherd. He was the Good Shepherd. They were not concerned about the sheep; He loved the sheep intimately. He loved the sheep even when they were the most unlovely. He loved the sheep even when they did not want to be loved by Him. He loved the sheep even when the sheep hated Him. They led Him to a cross, and in intimate love for the sheep, He laid down His life upon it to rescue them from the devouring wolf of sin. He said it Himself in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” But His love was even greater than this; He laid down His life for His enemies. Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That’s how much He loves you. The wolf that seeks to devour us is sin, and Jesus did not run away when we were in its grasp. He destroyed the wolf of sin for us by His death and resurrection. Jesus is the Good Shepherd because, in intimate love, He laid down His life for you.

II. The Good Shepherd lays down His life because of His infinite knowledge of the sheep (vv14-15)

In our day of social media, we are prone to measure someone’s success, importance, influence by how many Facebook friends or Twitter followers that they have. There is even an online gauge called “Klout” that gives you a score of how influential you are and allows you to compare yourself to others. So, maybe you have a couple hundred or a couple of thousand Facebook friends, a big following on Twitter, and a high Klout score. How many of those people do you “know”? You might say, “Oh, I know them all!” Really? Pick one at random and tell me, what color are their eyes? What are they most afraid of in life? Who do they turn to when everything in their life gets shaken? What is their greatest need for prayer right now? Do we know that? Do we really know all those people at all? No, we do not, and neither do they know us. That’s disappointing, isn’t it? There is something within us that longs to know others and to be known by them. But here on this earth, here and now, the number of people we really know will be a very small number. For many of us, it will be zero. To know someone in the way we genuinely desire would be to know them infinitely – inside and out. But people don’t let others know them that well. We are always concerned about some aspect or area of our lives that, if known by someone else, would change the way they feel about us. We are guarded. We don’t let people know us that well; and they don’t let us know them that well either.

Well, this will either come as a great comfort to you, or else it will be a great terror to you, and most likely it will be a little bit of both: there is One who knows you infinitely. He knows you inside and out. He knows every thought you ever thought; every word you ever spoke; every deed you ever did or didn’t do, and the reason you did or didn’t do it. He knows your hopes, your fears, your joys and your hurts. There is absolutely nothing about you that He does not know. Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my own.” He even says that His knowledge of us is as complete and perfect as the knowledge that God the Father has of God the Son, and vice-versa. Now, if that terrifies you, you need to be reminded of the first truth we spoke of here: “He loves you intimately.” That’s where the comfort is found. He knows us more infinitely than any other; and He loves us more intimately than any other. Let me put it another way: He knows everything there is to be known about you, but He loves you anyway. So much so, that He lays down His life for you and wants to be your Good Shepherd. That is something that is not true of any other person in the universe. Only Jesus.

He lays down His life for you precisely because He knows you and because He loves you. Because He knows you infinitely, He knows that your greatest need is for a Savior to rescue from your sins. Because He loves you intimately, He was willing to be that Savior for you, knowing that it would cost Him death. And because He was willing to do that for you, He offers you this gift in return. He says that not only does He know His sheep, but they know Him. Because of what Jesus has done for us in laying down His life on the cross, we can truly know Him, and in Him and through Him we know God. He is the complete revelation of God, and it is only as we come to know Him that we can rightly understand all that God has revealed of Himself in Scripture and in nature. This is the great miracle of mercy and redemption. We, who were once cut off from the knowledge of God, groping about in darkness, blind in our sin, are invited through the blood of the cross to know God in Christ. We can truly know the one who knows us infinitely. As we continue to grow in our relationship with Him through His Word, we grow in our knowledge of Him, as Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:18 – “Grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” We grow in that knowledge more and more until the day when we see Him face to face. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known” (1 Cor 13:12). You desire more deeply than anything else to know and to be known. In Jesus, and in Him alone, is that desire ultimately satisfied.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He did it for you, because of His intimate love for you and His intimate knowledge of you. And then finally, notice …

III. The Good Shepherd lays down His life because of His ultimate purpose for the sheep (v16)

One of the mistakes we often make when we read the Bible is thinking that in the Old Testament, God only cared about Jews, and in the New Testament He changed His affection to Gentiles. That is simply not true. God’s plan for humanity from eternity past was for there to be one body of passionate worshipers from every tribe and nation of earth. Israel was God’s chosen nation, but they were chosen for a purpose: to be a light shining for God before the Gentiles. They were to be His missionary people in the world. And in the Old Testament, we find many Gentiles coming to know and worship God. But over time, Israel began to be so inwardly focused that they ceased being that shining light of the nations. They began to despise the Gentiles. They came to believe that God was only concerned for them. But God did not give up on them. Even in the New Testament, we do not see God exclusively dealing with Gentiles. The first followers of Jesus were all Jews. In fact, it created quite an uproar in the church when Gentiles began to follow Christ (see Acts 10 & 15). And throughout the book of Acts, we see the missionary strategy of going to the Jews first, and then to the Gentiles. God was always a missionary God, calling out a missionary people to gather for Himself from the four corners of the earth a multilingual, multiethnic throng of passionate worshipers. It is His ultimate purpose that all nations would know Him and glorify His name.

Jesus says here that He is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep, and in so doing, He is accomplishing that ultimate purpose of the Father. He did not come to save Israel alone. In the capital city of Israel, not far from the Temple, the centerpoint of Jewish religion, surrounded by Jewish leaders, Jesus makes a scandalously bold statement. He says, “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.” He has sheep who are not of the fold of Israel. He has Roman sheep, Greek sheep, Indian sheep, European sheep, African sheep, American sheep, and Asian sheep. And He does not leave those sheep stranded out there groping their way in their own best efforts to find God. No, He said, “I must bring them also.” It is a divine imperative. His work is not finished until He brings them in. And He brings them in by way of Himself. They hear His voice calling out to them. He calls out to them as the Gospel goes forth into all the world, and they come to Him and are saved. He must bring them in, and He will bring them in. This is our great encouragement in missions and evangelism. “I must bring them also.” That means He will do it. We go and tell. He calls and draws and saves. It is His ultimate purpose for His sheep.

He does not gather the nations to Himself and leave them separated from one another. His ultimate purpose is that they all will become one flock with one shepherd. He is that shepherd. The Church of Jesus Christ is that flock. He must bring them in, and He will. This is His ultimate purpose for His sheep – from every tribe and nation, that there might be one flock and one shepherd. We are seeing it happen. Look around you. See people here in this very room who look different than you, whose heart language is different from your own. We have been brought together as one flock with one shepherd. But look elsewhere also. Look around the world. God’s truth is marching on. New people groups are engaged with the gospel, and His praise is being sounded perhaps this very hour in a language that has never uttered His name before! When missionary researcher Patrick Johnstone was asked in 1979 about the most difficult places in the world to reach with the Gospel, he identified Mongolia and Albania. Today, there are more than 40,000 disciples of Jesus in Mongolia, and there is a vibrant, growing indigenous church in Albania. In 1980, there were 70,000 missionaries serving around the world, mostly from the United States and Western Europe. Today, there are a quarter-million missionaries serving around the world from 200 different countries, including South Korea, Brazil, India, Philippines, China, and Nigeria. Some of us remember a time when the top missionary-sending countries were among the top missionary-receiving countries. When we look at the number of missionaries sent per million church members, the leading countries are Palestine, Ireland, Malta, Samoa, and South Korea. And the country that received the most missionaries in 2010? It was the United States of America.[3] Jesus is doing it. He is bringing in His sheep from other folds and forming for Himself one flock with one shepherd.

But He is not finished yet. The end is more clearly in sight than it has ever been. And God is raising up a generation of young Christians who want nothing more than for their lives to be invested in this ultimate purpose of God. This summer, a handful of these young people you see in our church every Sunday will go to places like West Africa, South Africa, East Asia, South Asia, to be the voice of Christ calling out to those sheep in other folds. Through them, He will bring them in. He must! In Luke 24:47, Jesus said that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations. It is happening. And it will be completed. John gives us a glimpse of heaven in the book of Revelation, and he says that will be those from every tribe and nation there – one flock engaged in the eternal business of worshiping Him alone who is worthy – the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. Forever our song shall be, “Worthy are You … for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Rev 5:9). It will happen. Jesus has promised it. He must bring them. They will hear. They will come. They will be one flock gathered together by the Good Shepherd Jesus.

He has intimate love for you. He has infinite knowledge of you. He has an ultimate purpose for you. That purpose is that you would know Him even as He knows you, that you would rest in His love for you, and that the ultimate purpose of your life will be the same as His own. We are a missionary people because our God is a missionary God, and our Savior is a missionary Savior. Do you know Him? Do you know His love? Are you living out His ultimate purpose? He laid down His life for you to be your Good Shepherd. Hear Him calling out to you, bringing you into His flock, along with others from every nation of the earth, and sending you out for Him in this ultimate purpose. Is there another Shepherd so good, so worthy, so beautiful? There is not. Only Jesus. If He is not your shepherd, He can be today. If He is, walk with Him as He brings His ultimate purpose to pass in the world.

---

[1] Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at the Good Shepherd and His Sheep (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 108-9.

[2] Robert H. Mounce, “John,” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Rev. Ed., Vol. 10; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 502-503.

[3] These statistics were reported by John Piper in “God is Finishing His Mission Now,” online at http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/god-is-finishing-his-mission-now. Accessed January 30, 2014. 

The Door of the Sheep (John 10:7-10)

Audio

One of the most iconic and recognizable buildings in all the world is the magnificent Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey. Dating back to 537 AD, the cathedral was built to be a Christian Church – the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) in what was then the capital of the Roman Empire. Over the years, there were changes, features were added, modified, and renovated. The most noticeable of these changes are the Islamic minarets that tower over the building, installed in the fifteenth century when Muslims conquered the city and converted this significant Christian church into an Islamic mosque. But long before that, in the ninth century, Emperor Theophilus made a less noticeable change to the building. He had new doors put in. But these were not just any doors. These doors were built 200 years before Christ’s birth for the pagan temple of Apollos in the city of Tarsus, the birthplace of the Apostle Paul. Theophilus had those doors moved to Constantinople and installed in the Hagia Sophia, and he had them marked with the sign of the cross and the name of Jesus Christ. Today, the Hagia Sophia is a museum, but throughout all of its history, as a church, as a mosque, and now as a museum, those doors have remained unchanged. Those doors serve as a lasting reminder of a significant truth: the way into God’s presence is marked with the name “Jesus Christ,” and unless you come by Him, the door into God’s presence will remain locked and barred against you.

Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus uses seven vivid images to describe Himself, His divine nature, and His mission of salvation. In each one, He pairs the image with the powerful phrase, “I am,” or ego eimi in Greek. This is, of course, significant, given that when God revealed Himself to Moses, and Moses asked the Lord to tell him His name, the Lord said, “I AM WHO I AM.” And so, the phrase, “I am,” is not a mere statement or a meaningless phrase. It is an announcement of God’s very own presence. Every time the Lord Jesus took up those words ego eimi, “I am,” He was announcing to His audience that He was God in the flesh. The seven vivid images that He uses in John’s Gospel reveal aspects of His divine nature and His saving mission. We have seen two of these statements already in John’s Gospel. In Chapter 6, we see Jesus saying, “I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst” (6:35). In Chapter 8, He says, “I am the Light of the World; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (8:12). We find the third “I am” statement here in our text today in John 10. Jesus says in verse 7, “I am the door of the sheep,” and again in verse 9, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.”

It is a surprising statement, given that in the immediately preceding verses, Jesus was identifying Himself as the shepherd. Here, He says He is the door. Is He the door, or is He the shepherd? The answer is “yes.” In a sense, it is entirely right and fitting for Jesus to be symbolized by both the door and the shepherd. In the ancient Near-East, during warmer weather, the shepherds would stay overnight in the fields with the sheep. The sheep would be corralled into a makeshift pen, essentially a circle of stones with an opening on one side. When nightfall came, and the sheep were safely enclosed, the shepherd himself would stretch his own body across the opening and become, as it were, a living door for the sheep. If you want to come into that sheepfold, you have to come by way of the shepherd. Jesus is the Shepherd, and He is the door. And this text answers for us the question of how Jesus is the door of the sheep.

I. Jesus is the only door of the sheep (v7-8)

Sometimes people are funny about doors. There are some people who refuse to sit with their back to the door. There are some people who, as soon as they walk into a place, they do a quick study of the room to see where all the exits. Sometimes, they might get nervous when they find themselves in a place with only one way in, and only way out. In a place like that, if you find a door, you have found the only door there is. And Jesus says that when it comes to entering into everlasting life, there is only one door. You notice that He says, “I am the door.” He does not say, “I am a door,” or “I am one of the doors.” He is exclusive here; He says, “I am the door.”

Perhaps you have come here today convinced that there are multiple valid pathways to God and to eternal life. It may be that you think Christians are narrow-minded and intolerant for daring to say in this progressive society that there is only one valid way to God. Friends, if that is what you are thinking today, first let me say that I am so glad you are here. Second, let me challenge you to do what all good intellectual scholars are trained to do – go to the source. Do Christians say that there is only valid way to know God? Why, yes, in fact, we do. But the question should be, “Why do Christians say this?” And the answer is, because Jesus Himself said this. You say, “Where did He say this?” For one thing, He said it here: “I am the door.” But, more clearly and certainly He says it in the sixth of these seven “I am” statements in John. In John 14:6, He will say, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Note the exclusivity there: the Way; the Truth; the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” The first followers of Jesus understood clearly what He meant by these words. In Acts 4:12, the Apostle Peter restates this same truth as he proclaims, “There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” The Apostle Paul said it this way, “There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). The Apostle John said the same thing in these words, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 Jn 5:12). The exclusivity of Jesus Christ is something that Christians have believed and proclaimed since the birth of the Church. And where did we get this idea? We get it from none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

When you consider Jesus Christ, you really only have a handful of options available to you. He is either a self-absorbed liar, a lunatic with delusions of grandeur, or else He is who He claimed to be – including being the only way to God and to eternal life. Now, in the history of the world, there has never been found any serious intellectual movement that would seek to label Jesus as a self-absorbed liar. Even those who do not believe in Him will remark about His humility, His compassion, and His noble teachings. Never has there been any who have seriously considered Him to be a lunatic with delusions of grandeur. On any list of the wisest people to ever live, Jesus always ranks high near the top. By common consent, then Jesus is not a liar and not a lunatic. So, what other option could there be? He is who He said He is. He said He is God-in-the-flesh, the “I am.” He said “I am the door,” “the Way, the Truth, and the Life,” the only means of knowing God and entering into eternal life.

Now, here someone will say, “But there have been others who have made claims such as these before. What about them?” There were many in Jesus’ day, and many who came before Him, who claimed to be Saviors and Messiahs. That is why Jesus said, “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers.” Obviously, the “all” here is not completely exhaustive. He is not referring to Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and a host of other faithful and godly people who had served the Lord and His people wholeheartedly. But then again, none of them claimed to be “the door” to God and to everlasting life. But there were many others who had made that claim. They said, “Follow me, and I will lead you to find true meaning in life. I will lead you in the path of peace. I will lead you to encounter God.” By the multitude they came, and they come still today. But Jesus said every single person who ever came or ever comes making these claims is a thief and a robber.

A thief and a robber are different from one another, and two different Greek words are used here to signify that. A thief is one who steals cunningly or by stealth. The Greek word is kleptes, from which we get kleptomaniac. A robber is one who steals by violence. It is the difference between a shoplifter and a bank robber. And spiritually, there have been plenty of both in the history of the world. Some deceptively lead others away from truth and life with fine sounding words and subtle falsehoods. Others take their spiritual prey by force, leading them in paths of violence and tragedy. It sounds unbelievable, but they have been effective and persuasive. Multitudes have followed them, and multitudes still do. But Jesus said, “the sheep did not hear them.” They might deceive multitudes, but they do not deceive those who are the true people of God. They know the voice of the Shepherd. They follow Him. These do not allow themselves to be seduced or stolen away from the simplicity of faith in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 11:3). They have the ability to compare the words and ways of these pretenders to the person and Word of Jesus, and when they do, they see them for what they are: thieves and robbers. They know that there is one and only one gate that leads to God and to life – and that is Jesus Christ. He is the door of the sheep. The only door.

II. Jesus is the Open Door for the Sheep (v9a)

The need for a door on the sheep-fold is quite obvious. It keeps thieves and robbers out. But there is another all-important function of the door. It serves to let the sheep in! And it is this function, rather than the other, which Jesus emphasizes most in this passage. He is the door, and it is important for us all to know that the door is open!

In verse 9, Jesus says, “If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” Salvation awaits on the inside of this door. But perhaps you wonder, “Salvation from what?” I can remember a time in my life when I would hear Christians ask me, “Are you saved?”, or in some cases they would say, “You need to get saved!” I didn’t understand what they meant. I didn’t think I was in any sort of imminent danger. But I will never forget the day when I finally came to understand what they meant. Frankly, it became clear to me that the thing that God desired to save me from was God Himself. For most of my life, I had rejected God, rejected Jesus Christ, argued that He did not exist, and lived as if He did not exist. I was seeking my own pleasure and pursuing whatever course I thought could deliver pleasure to me. But, as I was reading the Bible, almost on a dare by some Christian friends, I was suddenly, inexplicably, and undeniably aware that God really did exist. My immediate thought was that this was the worst possible discovery I could ever make. If God really was there, then assuredly He would call me into accountability and judgment for how I had been living my life. I did not need to be convinced that I was a sinner. In that moment, I suppose that every wrong I had ever done came flooding into my mind. I knew that if the Lord were to give me what I deserved, that hell would surely be my eternal fate. But it was in that crisis of my soul that I came to know about Jesus, the door that opens to salvation. In His death on the cross, He had become my substitute, bearing God’s wrath in my place. My sin was punished in Him so that I could be forgiven and made clean before God. There was no denying that God existed, and that I was guilty before Him. And if there were any hope for me at all, it was surely in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. Every other religious system in the world says that the way to God is to work harder, to try harder, and to be better than you are. Jesus Christ does not say that. He alone has laid down His life in a sacrificial death to bear our sins, so that we can be cleansed and saved. No one else has done that for you. He is the only door that opens to salvation.

It is important to recognize that the door to salvation is open. The Bible says that all of us are sinners, and in our heart of hearts we know it is true. Our own conscience is sufficient to convict us of the truth of it. No matter what we say, we know that there is right and there is wrong, and we know that we have done wrong. But Jesus says that if we enter through the door, if we come to Him by faith, we will be saved! Saved from our sin! Saved from hell! Saved from judgment! Saved from wrath! In short, in Jesus Christ, the door is open by which God will save us from God and for God!

The door is open, and it is open to all. Notice Jesus says, “If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” You say, “Can I enter in through that door?” Well, are you anyone? If so, then you qualify. You might say, “Well, I don’t know, I have been pretty bad.” He says, “Anyone!” And you might even say, “Well, as for me, you see, I’ve been pretty good. Do I need this door?” And again, He says, “Anyone!” And that “Anyone!” applies to everyone, because no matter how good we are, we are still sinners before God. The standard is righteousness – a sinless holiness that was personified and exhibited in the person of Jesus Christ. You might be better than your friend or your neighbor, but you aren’t better than Jesus. Therefore, you need to be saved, and the door is open to you.

And it is at this point that some Christians will raise an objection. They will say, “How can you say anyone, when we have this thing in the Bible called election or predestination?” Well, first and foremost, we can say “Anyone,” because Jesus said “Anyone.” If your theological system makes Jesus out to be a liar, then you need to change your system. But did He not say, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him?” He did. He said that in John 6:44. And it is true. But He also said “If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” And that is equally true. If it helps you, imagine it this way. Jesus is the door. And on the outside of the door, over top of it, it is inscribed, “If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” And so you enter that door. And as you do, you turn to look behind you, and you find that over the top of the door on the inside is inscribed, “No one came come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him.” You see, no one comes through that door that God has not drawn. From His vantage point, the door is reserved for all those whom He has foreknown and effectually called unto salvation. But from our vantage point, whosoever will may enter into that door. In the end we will find that no one will but those whom God has chosen. You may ask, “But how can I know if I am chosen?” This is how you know – you enter in. No one will enter in only to find that they were not chosen. This same Jesus said, “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” The fact that you chose to enter in is evidence that God was calling you, drawing you, and had chosen you. It is His drawing that is evidencing itself in you in that desire to come to the door and enter.

The door is open, and today, it is open to you. I say today, because the fact of the matter is that it will not be open to you forever. There will come a point in every person’s life when the door will close. Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man to die once, and after this comes judgment.” You do not know the day of that appointment, but God does, and it is an appointment that He will keep. Thus it is a matter of some urgency that you do not sin away the day of grace. This is the day of salvation, now is the time (2 Cor 6:2). Enter in while the door is open to you, and be saved. Jesus is that open door.

III. Jesus is the door of opportunity for the sheep (v9b)

When a person completes a level of education, whether high school, college, grad school or whatever, it is a momentous occasion marked by a special event called a “commencement service.” That’s a strange word for it. “Commencement” means “beginning,” not “end.” We think of it as an ending to something, but the word commencement reminds us that it is not the end, but the beginning. Now is the time to go out and do something with what you have learned. Some people view salvation as “the end” of something. Well, in a sense, it is. It is the end of the old way of life, the life of sin. It is the end of bondage to Satan. It is the end of futile living for one’s own self. But, I want to challenge you to not view the Door that is Jesus Christ as a finish line, but rather as a starting line. Becoming a Christian is not the end, it is the beginning – the commencement – of a whole new way of living. Entering in through this door is entering into a whole new world of opportunity.

Jesus is the door of opportunity for intimate fellowship with God. Jesus said that by this door, the sheep may go in. You are going into the very presence of God. In fact, He is actually coming into you. The Spirit of God is moving in and taking up residence in the core of your being. You are going into God’s family, as an adopted son or daughter. You are going in to know Him and be known by Him, to have Him as a Father and a friend. Having been previously cut off from Him because of your sin, you have been cleansed in the blood of Christ, and welcomed in to His embrace.

Jesus is the door of opportunity for mission for God. What is it that you are really living for? For most Americans, the aim of life is to get a good education, a good job, make good money, buy a nice house, drive a nice car, climb the corporate ladder to the top, and have beautiful children that you can teach how to do the same thing, only better. It’s the American Dream, right? Suppose you attained it. Suppose for a moment that it was all in hand, and then death came. How much of that would really matter in eternity? You cannot take any of that with you, whether you go to heaven or to hell. But what if I told you that Jesus Christ offers you something far more meaningful, an opportunity to live for something that would matter forever? He does. He said that He is the Door, and by this door, the sheep can go out. They can go out for Him to impact the world for Him. Sheep go out this door and they find other sheep, lost sheep who are scattered and don’t have a shepherd. And they bring them back in through the Door. You can be a part of the mission that God has been pursuing since the world began, and that is to fill this planet with passionate worshipers giving praise to His name. As I read the Bible, I find that there are only two things on this planet that are going to last forever. One is the Word of God – it stands forever (Isa 40:8; 1 Pet 1:24). The other is the souls of human beings. They will live forever, either in heaven or in hell. So, why on earth would anyone seek to find fulfillment in the fleeting things of this world when they could be occupied with the mission of imparting the everlasting word of God into the everlasting souls of men? You can live for more than yourself! Do something that matters! You can be on mission with God and for God! But only if you find Jesus as the door and come in to Him, and then go out or Him!

Jesus is the door of opportunity for nourishment from God. He says that you can go through this door and find pasture. Why does a sheep need pasture? To stay alive! The pasture is where the sheep eats, and it has to eat to live. Through Jesus Christ, we have access to the food that nourishes our soul. After all, this is the one who said, “I am the Bread of Life, he who comes to Me will not hunger….” (John 6:35). He feeds us with Himself. How does He do this? He does it every time we meet with Him over the pages of His unfolded Word, the Bible. Reading it is eating. Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4). You need this Word more than you need your next meal (an appropriate reminder at this hour, no doubt!). By this word you live! It is your pasture. How do you find it? You can’t. Unless you enter into this door that is Jesus!

Finally, Jesus is the door of opportunity for satisfaction. Mick Jagger gave voice to the unspoken, unsatisfied longing in every human heart – “I can’t get no satisfaction!” You know what that feels like don’t you. You’ve tried, and you’ve tried, and you’ve tried. You’ve looked for it in education, in your work, in money, in possessions, in relationships, in sex, in drugs and alcohol, and on and on. And what has it gotten you? Disappointment, frustration, despair. Those are the things that the thief – Satan, the enemy of your soul -- offers to you. He dangles them out in front of you and says, “Come and do this, try that, it will satisfy you.” Why does he do that? Because he hates you. He has a threefold plan for your life – to steal, to kill and to destroy (v10). And he is good at it. You know he is. He has done it to you, just like he has to me.

Jesus is not like that. He says that He has come for a different purpose. He has come that you may have LIFE, and have it ABUNDANTLY! Now, that is not just a promise of heaven and eternal life. It includes that, but it is more than that. He’s already promised that in verse 9 – if you enter through Him you will be saved. That’s eternal life. But, what kind of offer would it be for you to just have an endless supply of days to fill with the frustration of unsatisfied longings and meaningless pursuits? No thank you. But this offer is more than that. It is not just eternal life that you have to wait until death to experience. It is abundant life that begins the moment you walk through the Door that is Jesus Christ. It is a life in which the deepest longings of your heart are satisfied forevermore in Him. It is a life in which your greatest treasure is something that can never be stolen or taken away, it will never break or wear out, because your greatest treasure is Him! Abundant living is not living with what this world considers abundance. It is a life that can stand to lose everything, because you know that this one thing is something that you can never lose. And what a glorious testimony this abundant life is to the world, when it seems that all has been lost in the wake of suffering and tragedy, and the Christian says, “No, all is not lost. I have not lost my treasure. Christ is my treasure, and He is with me still, and He is enough.” That is a life that most people will never know. This is the life you were meant to live – life in Him that is found as you enter into the door that is Jesus Christ.

In Matthew 7, Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matt 7:13-14). Make sure you are one of those few. Come in through Jesus and be saved. Know the fellowship with God that is found inside that door. Go out  on mission for Him. Find that pasture by which He sustains and nourishes your life. This is abundant living. It is found through Christ, the Door. He is the only Door, and that Door is open to anyone who will enter. Enter in and live!

Looking Ahead at 2014: I Am Excited!

As we stand at the head of a brand new year, I am taking the time to do some evaluation. I'm looking at my personal life, my family, my ministry, and I'm taking note of where things are, where they need to be, and what it is going to take to get there. I'm also looking at the church I have been blessed to serve as pastor for the last 8-plus years: Immanuel Baptist Church of Greensboro, North Carolina. And I can honestly say, I have never been more excited about this church than I am right now.

Don't get me wrong -- I am by no means saying that we have "arrived," and that there is not room for improvement. There always is. One of the mottoes of the Protestant Reformation has been abbreviated familiarly as "Semper Reformanda" ("always reforming"). But that does not mean "always changing," as if "change" in and of itself is the thing we are aiming at. As Michael Horton has pointed out, the complete phrase is “The church is reformed and always [in need of] being reformed according to the Word of God.” Horton notes, "The verb is passive: the church is not 'always reforming,' but is 'always being reformed' by the Spirit of God through the Word." As I look at Immanuel Baptist Church today, I see evidence that the Spirit of God is reforming His church (this local expression of it) by the Word of God, and is working in and through us in powerful ways.

A couple of important disclaimers are necessary here. I am most assuredly not saying that I am responsible for these things. Nor am I saying that any single member or group of members are responsible. I want to say loudly and clearly that the things God is doing in our midst are being done in such a way that only God Himself can receive the glory for it. My philosophy of ministry is very simple: "Preach the Word" (2 Timothy 4:1-2). That is my job. It is not to preach my ideas or my "vision," but the revelation that is disclosed to us graciously in the pages of the Holy Bible. That's it. That is what I do. But, it is God who gives me the ability to do that, it is God who opens hearts and ears to hear it, and it is God who gloriously moves in us and through us to bring us to obedience to His word and engagement in His mission. What God is doing here today, He can do without me. I am not promised tomorrow anymore than you are. If I am removed by death or the call of God to another field tomorrow, there is no reason that God would not, could not, and should not continue doing what He is doing in our midst, and even greater things than these! Nor am I saying that things are better than they have ever been. This church has a rich and glorious history, notwithstanding the fact that, like all churches, there have been chapters of that history that have been rather inglorious. I am not trying to make any comparisons with the past. My view is on the present and the future. And, neither am I saying that things are as good as they can get. We have a long way to go. I do not claim that we are a "perfect church," or that the time has come for us to rest at ease in Zion. We must labor in the vineyard 'til the Master comes, and all the moreso with renewed energy and zeal that ought to be present within us because of what God is doing presently.

Now, let me get right down to the matter. What is going on that excites me so much? Let me enumerate a few of the many things that God is doing here. Undoubtedly, I will not be able to present an exhaustive list, but these are some of the reasons I am so excited.

I. Our "Jerusalem." A number of years ago, we identified a "local mission field." We know that we cannot reach all of Greensboro. So we asked God to burden us, to mobilize us, and to use us for His glorious purposes here in this community. In the intervening time, here are a few things we have seen happen.

(A) The Coliseum Motel is now closed. I attribute this to God. True, the City of Greensboro was the agent He chose to use to make it happen, but God was the one doing it. While it stood, it was a great mission field for us, but it was also a harmful influence in our community. It was a den of prostitution and drug abuse, and was the leading location for 911 calls in our city. I viewed our responsibility before God as two-fold: (1) to be a witness to the people there; (2) to be a watchman on the wall for the well-being of our community. Numerous Immanuel members served on the citizens' committee which ultimately led the effort to get the city to demolish this motel. We prayed, and we worked. And God did it.

(B) Community Outreach is taking place on a consistent and regular basis. We have begun an annual outreach to the Ardmore Park Community for National Night Out, and it has been a great success. We continue to draw more and more children from our community to Vacation Bible School every summer. Several times a year, we mobilize our members to knock on 400 doors in our community to place the gospel into the hands of every resident. And we are beginning to see fruit. The firstfruits of this field are coming in. Surely, if we continue to be faithful in sowing, a greater harvest will come.

(C) We continue to look out of our front doors and see a strip-club across the street. For years, we have looked at it and wondered why the city would not shut it down. There have been multiple murders on the premises, and God only knows the iniquity that takes place within the long shadow of our steeple there. But today, God is doing a work there. Through this church and others who share the vision, there is a concerted prayer effort for those who own it, manage it, disrobe in it, and lust in it. And moreover, God is raising up an army of women to go into the club in His name to show His love to the women who are trapped in that lifestyle.

(D) We continue to see God drawing in students from UNC-G. Eight years ago, there was not a single college student at Immanuel. How did it happen? God did it. They simply began to come. And they brought their friends. And they are still doing it. But they aren't just coming in; they are going out. They are going out to the campus and out to the nations to make Jesus Christ known. Many of them graduate and move elsewhere, and they plug into faithful, Bible-teaching churches, and serve Him there.

II. Our "Judea and Samaria." Several years ago, God led this church to focus our "Home Missions" efforts on the state of Vermont, statistically the most unevangelized and least religious state in America. God has opened the door for partnerships there, and He is sending out Immanuel's members to serve there on short-term volunteer trips. The first trip was in 2012, and there were only three of us. In 2013, there were eleven of us, and interest is already building for 2014.

III. The Ends of the Earth.

(A) God is sending Immanuel to the nations. In 2011, six of us embarked on a vision trip to Nepal. In 2013, four more went back. In 2015, Lord willing, we will go again. But we are not just going on a "holy vacation." Through these trips, God is developing a heart for the nations in His people here, and fueling our prayer efforts for Nepal and the rest of the world. Through the 2013 team, numerous pastors from mountain villages were equipped to plant even more churches, and they are doing it, praise God! Because of this focus on South Asia, Immanuel has paid for wells to be dug, for clean-water filtration devices to be given to families, for cottage-industries to be developed, for women to be trained with job skills, and a host of other wonderful things. A Christian orphanage has been outfitted with new toys, and uplifted with many prayers. And God has given us a heart for Nepalis living in Greensboro. Relationships are being built, and miraculously, plans are in the works for the planting of a Nepali Church here.

(B) God is enlarging our focus. Immanuel's students are spending their summers in South Africa and other places. They are sensing God calling them to the nations -- some for short term, some for longer terms. And by God's grace, in 2013, the invitation came to bring a team to Dubai. Immanuel sent three, and through our providential relationships, God raised a team of sixteen! This team ministered to children, teaching them about missions and challenging them to consider how God might use them to reach their friends for Jesus, or how He might call them out in their young adulthood to invest their lives overseas as missionaries. As we were doing this, their parents were being challenged similarly by others. And, if God wills, the opportunity may arise in 2014 to return and do the same. God has brought our way a sister church from a neighboring state who are burdened to reach a West African people group that is one of the most unreached on the continent of Africa. There are nearly 1,500 of them in our city. As God leads, we will begin working with them as partners to facilitate the advance of the Gospel to these people in our city.

IV. Internal Reformation

God is not just working "outside the walls." He is working inside as well. A meaningful fellowship is being enriched daily as Immanuel members pour into one another. God-glorifying relationships are being forged between "Old Immanuel" members and "New Immanuel" members. There is harmony and joy among the members. Prayer has become, not something we talk about on Wednesday nights, but something we DO. Attendance at these prayer meetings has waned, because many prefer "the old way," but for those who come, there is a powerful meeting with God as prayers are poured out from the heart in intercession and worship. There is a unity and sweet fellowship among our deacons that is simply marvelous to behold. God is raising up new leaders, new singers, new workers, new missionaries going out in our community and the world with the gospel.

The year ahead will not be without its challenges. One of them is staring us squarely in the face. The departure of the Greensboro Chinese Church from our facility is imminent. We are saddened to see them go, but after 25-plus years, we are proud to see them venturing out in faith. It is like a parent seeing their child move away. There are tears of sadness intermingled with the tears of joy. This will mean great changes for our children's ministry, which presently consists predominantly of Chinese children. There will be changes and challenges for us financially. The Chinese Church presently contributes over ten percent of our annual operating budget. We will feel the pinch of it. But with these challenges comes opportunity. We will have a newfound freedom in planning activities and using space that heretofore has been occupied by the Chinese Church's ministries. It will be up to us to decide how to use that for God's greatest glory. Undoubtedly, in the year ahead, there will be funerals. Past years have taught us that death is no respecter of persons. It strikes the young and the old. It will visit us again in 2014. But God is the One who has promised us that HE will never leave us nor forsake us. He has kept that promise. He has not forsaken us. He has not left us. Rather, He has visited us afresh in recent days and poured out blessings. This is a day for all Immanuel family to rejoice in Him and give Him glory.

As I survey all that God is doing in our midst, I am snapped back by one seemingly ever-present frustration. Many in the Immanuel family are discouraged. Their children, their grandchildren, some of their closest friends have, over the last several decades, gone out from us and have not returned. Some, praise God, are faithfully involved in other churches. Others, sadly, are not. We grieve and pray along with them for the spiritual well-being of those. Many look around at a sanctuary that was once filled to capacity, and see only the empty seats of seventy-five percent of the room. They think to themselves, and not a few will say out loud, "The church is dying." My friends, I hope that the words I am sharing here will encourage you. The church is not dying. If I have any discouragement at all in these days, it is that so many are so discouraged, not seeing or participating in the glorious work that God is doing in our midst. I am reminded of that account in 2 Kings 6, when the servant of Elisha was perplexed because all he could see was gloom and defeat on the horizon. He said to Elisha, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" But Elisha prayed to the Lord, "O Lord, I pray, open his eyes." And the Bible says that the Lord "opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha." Friends, do you see those horses and chariots of fire? The army of the Lord is advancing on our behalf! Please do not miss it because discouragement has blinded your eyes. My prayer for 2014 is the same as Elisha's: "O Lord, I pray, open our eyes!" 

Recognizing the Shepherd (John 10:1-6)

Audio

In Matthew 7:15, Jesus said, “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” This saying of Christ has given rise to our familiar idiom of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In the course of each of our lives, many of us have probably been duped at some point by someone we trusted and considered harmless, only to find that they had evil intentions to do us harm in some way. The dangers of a wolf in sheep’s clothing are obvious. But there is another danger that we may often overlook, and that is the danger of a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.

Six hundred years before Christ, the famous Greek story-teller Aesop told a fable of a wolf and a shepherd. The shepherd had kept his eye on the wolf for some time, and eventually came to trust the wolf, so much so that one day he left the wolf in charge of the sheep. When the shepherd returned, he found a great many of his sheep had been killed and carried away. It seems that wolves in sheep’s clothing are dangerous enough, but a wolf in shepherd’s clothing is potentially far worse. In the passage that we are studying today, we find a True Shepherd who has come to the sheepfold to gather His sheep to Himself, and to warn of those wolves in shepherd’s clothing who seek only to selfishly devour the flock.

Of course, the True Shepherd is none other than Jesus Himself. Throughout this entire Chapter, Jesus will use the language of ancient Near-Eastern sheep-herding to describe Himself and His ministry. In so doing, He is picking up on a theme that unfolds throughout the Old Testament. Most familiar to us is the great 23^rd Psalm, where David (who was a shepherd before he became king) writes, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” The theme recurs throughout the Psalms. Psalm 78:52 speaks of the Lord leading forth His own people like a flock of sheep. Psalm 95:7 says that the Lord our Maker is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. In Isaiah 40:11, we have these beautiful words: “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.” God’s people had learned to view the Lord God as their Shepherd, and themselves as His sheep.

But the Old Testament prophets also declared the word of the Lord concerning the wolves in shepherd’s clothing. Isaiah 56:11 decries the selfish behavior of those “shepherds who have no understanding,” who neglect the sheep in order to pursue their own unjust gain. In Jeremiah 23, the Lord pronounces a woe upon these false shepherds of God’s flock, saying, “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture! … You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them.” Perhaps the most vivid and stern condemnation comes from the Lord through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel:

Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them. Ezek 34:2-6 (NASB)

But the Lord says there in Ezekiel 34 that another day is coming – a day in which He will bring judgment on those wicked shepherds and He Himself will become the True Shepherd of His flock. He says, “I will feed My flock, and I will lead them to rest. … I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick” (34:15-16a) The Lord says that He Himself will do this. But then He turns right around a few verses later, He says something entirely different. He says, “I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.” Is this a contradiction? Is the Lord going to be the Shepherd, or is David going to be the shepherd? Well, it is actually no contradiction at all. Since David had long been dead, everyone would readily recognize that it was not the literal David who would be the shepherd, but one like David – even, one from David’s offspring. And after centuries of longing for this promise to be fulfilled He came. The Lord Jesus came into the world, a son of David’s lineage, and God Himself in human flesh. In Christ, and in Christ alone, David and the Lord Himself becomes the true Shepherd of the flock of God. It is Jesus, of whom Paul says that He is God’s Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power, … Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 1:3-4).

The point of this story, call it a parable if you will, is that Jesus is the True Shepherd of God’s flock, who has come to rescue the flock from the hands of the thieves and robbers – those wolves in shepherd’s clothing – who have sought their own gain at the expense of the people of God. It is obvious that in this context, those false shepherds are the religious leaders of Israel: the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees and the Chief Priests and elders of the nation. You may recall that in the previous chapter, Jesus had opened the eyes of a man who had been born blind. And when this man began to give to Jesus the glory that He was due for the miracle He had done, the religious leaders did not rejoice with him but expelled him from the synagogue and threatened to do the same to his entire family. In Mark 12:38-40, Jesus condemned and warned against those religious leaders of Israel who “like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets, who devour widow’s houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers.” It was these who, for their own selfish gain, had turned the Temple of God into a den of robbers (Matt 21:13; Mk 11:17; Lk 19:46).

Long had the flock of God languished under these wolves in shepherd’s clothing. They were like robbers and thieves who had entered the sheepfold by scaling the walls like a ravenous wolf. But now the True Shepherd had come, and He would call out His own sheep to come after Him and follow Him. That True Shepherd is the Lord Jesus Himself, and here He indicates that there are certain unique characteristics that mark the True Shepherd which make Him recognizable to His sheep.

I. We know the True Shepherd by His Word

When Donia and I first met and were getting to know each other, I used to call her on the phone to talk pretty often. The thing was, she and her sister sounded just alike on the phone. At the sound of “Hello” on the other end, I would launch into conversation, only to have Nicole say, “Hang on, I think you want to talk to Donia.” But the more I got to know Donia, the more I began to recognize the subtle differences between her voice and that of her sister. It is important that we know the voice that is speaking into our lives, and Jesus says here that His voice and His words are recognizable to His own sheep.

Notice the emphasis on the word of the Shepherd throughout this passage. In verse 3, “the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name.” In verse 4, “they know his voice.” In verse 5, “they do not know the voice of strangers.” There is a distinction in the voice of the Shepherd that the sheep recognize. Historians of the ancient Near-East tell us that in a sheepfold like this, the flocks of several families would be kept together and guarded by a doorkeeper who was employed by the families collectively. When each shepherd would come to the fold, he would use a unique call that his sheep, and his sheep alone would recognize, and they would come to him and follow him. That gives us a great image of how the sheep of God’s flock respond to the voice of the True Shepherd, the Lord Jesus, when He speaks.

Notice that they hear His voice (v3). Have you ever noticed how uncomfortable the sound of silence can make people? To combat this, many people fill their lives with noise. Even if it is not intentional or conscious, our ears are constantly filled with various sounds. As I was preparing this message, there was the sound of music playing in my office, the sound of phones ringing, the sound of voices in the office, the sound of keys being pecked on my keyboard along with the various blips and bleeps of the computer, the noise of traffic and sirens on High Point Road, and seemingly a thousand other things. That is the way most of us live. It is like we are drowning in a sea of incessant noise. And amid all of this noise there are many voices seeking to speak into our lives. Each one beckons us to hear them and obey them. But even in the midst of this great cacophony, those who belong to the Shepherd have the ability to hear His voice as distinct from all others. That can only come as we devote time to the discipline of listening carefully to His word. As we spend time immersing ourselves in God’s Word, we begin to notice the sound of His voice, the tenor and dialect by which He speaks, and the vocabulary He uses. When other voices call us to follow them into some pursuit, we are able to recognize whether or not there is a Galilean accent in those words. We can say no to certain things because we know with certainty that our Shepherd would never call to us with those words. We can distinguish between sounds that deserve our attention because they resonate with the words of Christ, and those that can be ignored because they are not in harmony with His words. His sheep hear, above all the noise and distinct from all the other voices, the voice of the True Shepherd.

And then notice that He calls His own sheep by name (v4). He knows us more intimately than any other being, and the really astounding thing about that is that He loves us anyway --  more deeply than any other being. So tenderly does He call to us, that He does not treat us like a faceless mass of humanity, but lovingly and compassionately He calls us as individuals. He call us by name. He has known us from eternity past. We speak of a time when a person “meets Jesus,” but that is only half true. Each of us must come to a point when we meet Him for the first time, but we are meeting someone who knew us completely before we drew our first breath. Some of you may have not yet met Him, but even here and now it seems to you as if He is calling out to you, by name even! That is how it was for me. After spending my life running as fast and hard as I could away from Him, I reached this point where it seemed as if Jesus was calling out to me by name, calling me to come to Him and believe and follow Him. He knows you, and yet He loves you anyway. Imagine it. He calls to you by name because He wants you to know Him and to live in His love. He invites us into a personal relationship, where you become part of His family. More tenderly than a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord God embraces you and becomes the ultimate and perfect Father who knows your name. When He speaks to you in His word, He speaks to you personally.

And then notice the effect of His words: He calls out to His sheep, and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. When He speaks, things happen. Think of how the world was created – it was by the Word of God. Things that did not exist came into existence because of the power of His word. Atoms and molecules arrange themselves in response to the speaking of His word. Do you think that His word cannot have the same kind of effect on you? There is power in His word to move us to obedient action. It begins when He begins to call us to Himself out of unbelief. The theologians refer to it as an “effectual call.” Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me.” What first caused you to believe upon Christ? Was it your superior intellect or your perfect reasoning? No, it was the power of His gracious call. Can it be resisted? Perhaps for a short time, but not forever. If He is calling, you will come. And the same remains true after you come to Him. You continue following Him by faith because He will not let you live in disobedience if you are of His fold. You might resist for a season, but He will bring you to obedience if you belong to Him. He will give you a hunger for His word, and moreover a glad desire to obey it. Why? Because His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.

His word is always going forth. But not everyone can hear it. Even in this passage, in verse 6, there were many who did not understand what it was that He was saying. Of course they didn’t! They are not His sheep. Their lives have been spend in the fold of other shepherds – false shepherds; wolves in shepherds clothing. But if you are one of His sheep, you know it when He speaks to you. Even the very first time He calls to you, you recognize it as the sound of a voice you have longed to hear your entire life, as if your ears were formed for this very purpose – to hear those blessed words fall off His lips as He calls you to Himself by name. His words are one of the distinct characteristics that make the True Shepherd recognizable to His sheep. But it is not the only one.

II. We know the True Shepherd by His Ways

We went over to my dad’s house on Christmas day, and he met us in the driveway and escorted us around to the back door of the house, and said, “Family comes in the back door, friends come in through the side door.” I said, “Who uses the front door?” He said, “If anyone comes to the front door, we just assume they are Jehovah’s Witnesses and don’t answer it.” Maybe your house is like that – family and friends know to enter one way, strangers enter by another. That’s kind of like what Jesus is saying here.

He says, as the True Shepherd, He comes in through the door of the sheepfold. He is allowed entry into the corral because the doorkeeper knows Him. Strangers aren’t allowed in through the door. If they want in, they have to sneak in by climbing over the wall. They sneak in because they are trying to hide their evil deeds – they are coming in to steal or harm the sheep. But the doorkeeper lets the Shepherd in because he knows the Shepherd, and knows that the sheep belong to the Shepherd, and he knows that the Shepherd cares for the sheep. He doesn’t have to sneak in. He is not operating in secret. Everything Jesus said and did during His earthly life and ministry was done before the eyes of a public audience, whether the twelve disciples, the inner circle of three, or multitudes of onlookers. On the contrary, the religious leaders of Israel are often found plotting and scheming in secret to destroy Him and scatter His sheep. And the same is still true of this Shepherd. He is working in your lives in ways that are visible and evident to others. They see Him transforming you from the inside out. He calls you to publicly identify with Him as His follower through baptism, and to testify publicly for Him, and to live for Him before the eyes of a watching world. He is not a clandestine, secret agent. His followers do not scheme in dark alleys. If they have to do that, then they are not walking with Him. I once heard the word “integrity” defined as “who you are when no one is looking.” In other words, if you are a person of Christlike integrity, you live in such a way that it would not matter who sees or hears you. That is how Christ lived. His way is to enter in through the door, not to scale the wall in secret.

But then notice also His way of leading His sheep. Verse 4 says, “He goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” Shepherds in the Western world lead their sheep from the rear, prodding them along the path, using sheepdogs in some cases to herd the sheep along to the place the shepherd wants them to go. But in the Near-East, still today as I understand it, the shepherd leads his sheep from the front. They follow him. He speaks as he walks and the sound of his voice beckons the sheep along in his footsteps. Jesus said this is the way He leads His sheep. He doesn’t lead us along paths that He Himself has not walked. He does not call us to do something that He has not experienced firsthand. Peter gives us a beautiful image of this in 1 Peter 2, when he says that Christ has left us an example to follow “in His steps” (2:21). Everything we encounter as we follow Him is something He has encountered first. Does this path pass through fields of temptation? Christ has walked through that path before us, and survived it without yielding to sin. Listen to Him calling you from the front and follow. Does it lead through an acre of suffering? Jesus has left His footprints on the trail. Hear His voice leading you on and follow. Does it lead into circumstances unknown, where uncertainty abounds? Fear not. He is already there before you. He is calling you to come on behind Him there. Does it lead even into the valley of the shadow of death? He has been there too, and has emerged on the other side. And it is because He has passed through death and into life that you can as well. He did it for you. He died the death that was meant for you because of sin. But He emerged from it victorious and alive forever more. Your sin-debt has been paid by Him, and from the other end of the valley, you can hear Him, can you not, calling you by name and saying, “Come on. Follow My footprints. Don’t wander off the path. I am here, just up ahead. Keep walking.” We know that He is the True Shepherd because He is not goading us on from the rear, sending us before Him to test the waters. He leads His sheep from the front and the echo of His word calls us on to follow after Him. That is His way of leading.

Then finally notice the perfection, or completion, of His way. In verse 4 there is a single little word there to remind us that Jesus never fails. It says, “When he puts forth all his own.” Catch that word: all. Every single one of His sheep makes it to the place where the Shepherd is leading them. He doesn’t put forth some of His own. He puts forth all of them. He said in John 6,

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:37-40)

Notice the absolute certainty of those words. He doesn’t wish or hope to do this. He has promised that He will do it. And He will not do it for some or for certain ones of His sheep. He will do it for all of them. If you are His sheep, He will never fail you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is that great shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in safety to go out and find the one who is missing (Luke 15:4). He is the one who sends you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, but who does so promising, “Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 10:6; 28:20). He is the one who has began a good work in you, and who will be faithful to complete it (Php 1:6). Jesus never fails! And He is the only one who never fails. Every human being you know will disappoint you at some time or another. Jesus never will. You will be let down by others innumerable times in your life, but never by Jesus. Others will fail to deliver what they have promised you, but Jesus has never made a promise that He did not keep, and He never will. What can we say? It is just His way. And His way is perfect. He never fails.

Do you recognize this True Shepherd? Do you know whose voice it is you hear above all of the noise of this world? The one who knows you so intimately that before you ever meet Him He is able to call you by name? The one whose word is so powerful that it can create in you things that do not yet exist – a faith to receive Him, a hunger to hear Him speak, a desire to obey Him with joy and serve Him with gladness? It is none other than the voice of Jesus. Do you see Him, coming in by the front door because He has nothing to hide. All that He does is done so that others can see it and recognize Him as the one doing it. Do you see Him leading you on from the front, down paths that He Himself has already trod, beckoning you to follow in His steps and stay on the path? Do you see Him fulfilling every promise that He ever made to you and never failing you, never leaving you, never forsaking you? That is Jesus. Only Jesus. He alone is the True Shepherd.

In the course of His earthly ministry, Jesus encountered multitudes of people, and the Bible says that when He saw these people, “He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36). How does Jesus see you today? Are you distressed and dispirited? Do you have a shepherd who can tend to you with love and compassion – one who knows you intimately, and loves you anyway. This Shepherd is calling you by name, and beckoning you to come into His fold.

You see them, too, do you not? Multitudes of people who wander aimlessly and perilously through this world because they do not have this Shepherd. How do you look on them? Do you look on them as Jesus did – as sheep without a shepherd? Why not go to them and tell them about your wonderful Shepherd? Tell them about the care that He gives to you, and which He can give to them as well. Invite them to come and meet this Shepherd, and assure them that He is no stranger to them. He already knows them by name, and just may be calling out to them through the Gospel-filled words you speak.