Title: Who’s Your Shepherd?
Text: John 10:1-6
MP: Your shepherd is whomever you follow. Choose the Good one
SERMON NOTES: WHO’S YOUR SHEPHERD?
Real question: How do you recognize your shepherd?
1. He has a legitimate claim
a. Why is God slow?
b. How does the Tempter enter?
2. He knows your name
Why did Jesus wait so long to heal?
3. He leads you where you need to go
a. Experiences not for entertainment but action
b. Devil nothing but the Pied Piper
c. Jesus takes you not where you want to go, but where you need to go – and he’s already there
Outline:
1. Intro
a. Maddie knows who her Master is
b. Axiomatic – sheep hear my voice.
c. Question isn’t if but how
d. Romans 6.16 – you are the slave of whomever you present yourself to
In other words - who you listen to is your Master. People who have sold out to the Devil have no problem listening to him. You’ll hear a voice. The question isn’t “If?” I’ll hear his voice, but “Whose?” In John 10:1 – 6, I want to suggest that instead of focusing on the sheep, we focus on the shepherd. We recognize our Shepherd
2. He has the legitimate claim
a. Entry of the Master (He literally owns the place) vs. the Theif
b. Very few people accuse God of acting too fast…
i. He’s patent (2Pet 3.9) / deliberate / Even his anger is slow
ii. He Created / fashioned / bought / He knows we’re slow
c. Context – Pharisees missed him / No one more blind than the one who will not look / But do we recognize Jesus claim / Do we see CFR on our hearts?
3. He has a gentle persistent call
a. Makes the sounds of the sound of the sheep’s name / he knows you
b. Who healed you? – This thing I know / We recognize his healing
c. Pharisees try parents / books – just to avoid the actual experience of him
d. The experience of being blind made this guy open to seeing Jesus at work
4. He leads where you need to go
a. Do you want to become his disciple to? Knows experience not for entertainment but action
b. Jesus takes us through difficult times b/c we know where he’s going (prepared heavenly mansions for us)
c. Devil – Pied Piper enticing away / nibbling away / Angel of Light
d. There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death
e. Maddie
f. Good Shepherd lays down his life – You need to go there with him
Your Shepherd is there. He’s opened the gate, he’s already called you. He’s going to take you where you need to go. The only question is, will you listen to his voice? Will you respond to the sound of your own name? Can you – Will you follow him? Will you let him be your shepherd?
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There’s little doubt who my Labrador retriever thinks her Master is.
Susan & I adopted Maddie from the Hillary’s animal shelter over in Marshall six years ago now, and we‘ve done the things a responsible dog owner is supposed to do. We have all her shots and licenses; we’ve taken her to obedience classes; we’ve spent time just playing with her; we feed her, give her water – we even spent entire days working on an electric fence to keep her from visiting the neighbors’ vineyard, although I fear, Debbie, that you & Perry have not seen the last of the black dog. I apologize up front for that.
But three years ago, Susan & I also got a great neighbor – Barbara – who lives in that wing of our house off to the side, and who loves our dog. Barbara feeds Maddie too. She loves feeding the wildlife around our house, and Maddie definitely thinks she’s wildlife. What’s more, every time she comes home, Maddie just goes nuts wagging her tail, because she knows Barbara is going to give her way too many treats and she’s going to play tug of war.
I haven’t actually done this, but Susan & I have often wondered what would if Barbara were to call Maddie in one direction and Susan & I in the other direction. Based on how hard it can be to get her in at night and yet how quickly she runs to Barbara’s car whenever she pulls in, I think we know who Maddie thinks her Master is.
In our text this morning, Jesus presents that truth pretty clearly. My guess is that if you’ve ever wrestled with the question of how to hear God, someone’s already told you about this morning’s text. “My sheep hear my voice,” is the clear tenor of what Jesus is saying. It’s almost axiomatic. If you are my sheep, you will hear my voice.
We’ve already spent time seeing why Jesus would call instead of demand, and the last time we talked we saw that God has already spoken loudly to us in the Bible. But I know that we all come to the point where we need to know how to hear God talking to us in our gut. The printed page of the Bible goes back nearly 3000 years in some cases. How can we know how that’s supposed to apply to us in the next 30 seconds?
The answer is not to ask, “Will I hear my Master?” Rather, you need to ask, “How can I recognize who my Master is.”
Paul is going to answer that question pretty clearly in Romans 6:16. He writes
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
In other words - who you listen to is your Master. People who have sold out to the Devil have no problem listening to him. You’ll hear a voice. The question isn’t “If?” I’ll hear his voice, but “Whose?” In John 10:1 – 6, I want to suggest that instead of focusing on the sheep, we focus on the shepherd. We recognize our Shepherd
1. When he has the legitimate claim on us
2. When he knows us and calls us by name
3. When he takes us where we need to go
When we recognize who our Master is, the how and the what of what he’s saying will become obvious.
The Master has the Legitimate Claim
Look with me at 10:1-2. Jesus is imagining a pen of sheep – whole racks of lamb just bleating about in the pen. They’re getting hungry and they’re getting loud. They want out on the grass, right? Well, one of two things is going to happen. Either the shepherd is going to waltz in by the door or else a sheep wrangler is going to sneak in and try to steal.
Now, the shepherd owns these sheep. He can walk in at broad daylight, and no one is going to question him. He might fumble with the lock, but he has no shame in saying, “Hey guys! Time for lunch!”
The thief, on the other hand, knows he’s not supposed to be there. So, he’s going to hide a bit. He’s going to use force and deception. He isn’t going to announce his presence – he just shows up and hopes he can carry off what we wants.
Very few people accuse God of acting too fast. For an all-powerful God to whom everything is owed, he certainly seems slow at times, doesn’t he? Well, I want to suggest to you this morning that he isn’t slow concerning his promises, but rather he’s patient. [2 Pet 3:9] Deliberate. He’s giving you so much warning that it seems like he’s going to take forever. That’s just how he works. Even his anger is slow, thank God.
He took his time in making you, fashioning you out of the dust of the ground. Seven of the most important days in creation, and you were Day Number 6. Before you were formed in your mother’s womb, he took the time to get to know you. He can take his time, because he has the right to take his own. You were bought with a price. [1 Cor 6.20 / 1 Cor 7.23] You were taught in his ways. You were told of his return from the beginning. Yes, God is slow, but not because he is slow, but rather because He knows that we are [slow to pick up on him].
Now please, understand the context in which Jesus spoke these words. You cannot understand John 10 until you know the story in John 9. Basically, Jesus comes and heals a Blind Man – on the Sabbath no less – and you know what the Pharisees are going to make of this. John 9 goes on for some time with these Pharisees questioning not Jesus, but the ex-Blind Man.
The dialogue between these guys gets downright funny, and we’ll get to that in a second. But in the end, you get a Blind Man who can see Jesus and some Pharisees who end up being blind. The Pharisees: the ones who are supposed to be looking for the Messiah – they have to ask Blind Man who Jesus is. Jesus tells the Blind Man – ‘Look, I came so that people under judgment – people who are blind to the truth of my Father – will see!”
The Pharisees overhear this and they ask, “Are you calling us blind?”
You just hear Jesus saying to himself, “What a setup!” no?
Of course these Pharisees were blind and deaf and pretty lame too! They had become a Master of themselves, and so of course they couldn’t hear the real one anymore. Jesus even says it – If you understood how blind you were, you’d be able to see! There is no one more blind than the person who refuses to look. There is no one more deaf than the one who will not hear.
Now, before we get down on the Jews, ask yourself this – do we recognize Jesus’ claim on our lives? Do you see the story of Creation, Fall, Redemption as written on your heart? Or are you just wanting to “see Jesus” the way you’ve always imagined him? Are you trying to be sheep or Master in your own life? Do you hear his call?
The Master has a gentle, persistent call
You’ll notice in verse 3 that the Good Shepherd simply calls out his sheep. He calls them by name. If you’ll pardon a very wooden translation, the text literally says, ‘The Shepherd makes sounds of the sound of the sheep’s names.’ He calls gently, but persistently. The only question is, can you hear him over your own bleating? [baaaas & bleats]
If he knows your name, he knows who you really are. He does that by living life with you – giving you life, in fact, and giving it to you more abundantly, as he is going to say just a few verses down.
Simply put, I want to suggest that Jesus will force you to have experiences with him in order that you can learn who he is. If we’re willing to see our lives lived in the context of his legitimate claim, we’ll begin to recognize our Master’s voice.
Back in John 9, the story gets downright funny. When these Pharisees brought the Blind Man in to question him, they simply tell him first off that Jesus is a sinner. “Now who healed you?” they asked. No leading there. And such a legitimate claim, too!
Well the guy says, well, “I don’t know much about him – but this I know. I was blind, and now I see.” Hey – facts are facts. He healed me. You can’t deny that. That’s just who God is: the God who heals. Healing is one way that we learn to recognize God.
Since these Pharisees aren’t getting the answer they want, they ask the guys parents – and they say – Why don’t ask him? He’s old enough! If you are living in your parents’ faith, you may hear God talk to your parents’ but not to you! You need your own experience with him.
You see, the Pharisees are searching for an answer, and they’re unwilling to see the answer staring them in the face. Jesus is trying to have an experience with this man, in order that the man can be saved. Jesus would have loved to have had the same experience with the ones who thought they knew him best – but they assumed that the Messiah wasn’t a person any more – just a principle.
Well, Jesus comes back to talk to this guy he healed, and he introduces himself. It’s almost as if his blindness is lifted a second time: once to announce his presence and then a second time to open his heart. Without the experience of having his physical sight restored, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize the spiritual sight being restored. That man had been blind most of his life. Jesus took a long time in healing him. But it was just the right amount of time for him to know and recognize who Jesus was, and that saved him for an eternity.
The Master leads where you need to go
Well, the Pharisees press the ex-Blind Man once again. So the guy asks, “Why do you keep talking to me about this – Do you want to be his disciples too?” That’s because the Blind Man intuitively knows that these experiences aren’t for entertainment, they’re for action. They are a call to do something about it.
In John 10, the Master doesn’t call his sheep just to say Hi. He needs to lead them somewhere. His sheep recognize that the Shepherd is going to lead them to nice grazing pasture.
My ponies don’t like walking on our gravel road, but they know that if they follow me, they’ll get to the good stuff. And at night, when they’re out in the field, they know that if they follow me home, they get grain. They don’t fight because they know where I am leading them.
We know that Jesus is going to lead us through difficult times, but he has prepared a heavenly mansion for us. He has life for us now.
Contrast that, if you will, with the Pied Piper that is the Devil. He’ll do his best to distract you baubles that are immediate but they die. Of course you may confuse the two sometimes. Paul tells us that the Devil comes as an Angel of Light. If you knew he was the guy with the pitchfork, you’d never listen. So the Father of lies who is nothing but a lie has to start with something that is true. He distracts you and misleads you.
But you already know that he is leading you to your death. Proverbs says there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death. But God be praised, even though a man may plan his way, the Lord - the Good Shepherd direct his steps.
In May, Barbara is going to moving up to Pennsylvania. Maddie is going to be crestfallen to say the least. But Maddie knows that we’re still going to be there. We’ll call her in and lead her out. Maddie knows that we love her. There is no doubt she knows who her Master is. We may not be the fun ones, but if you look to the end, you’ll see we’re her Masters. She may not want to go there, but she needs to.
Understand this – the Good Shepherd may not lead you where you want to go, but he will always lead you where you need to go.
Notice how he leads there in verse 4 – he goes out ahead of his sheep. He’s already been where you’ve been. He’s been through the rough parts. He’s even died. But he knows where you need to go.
When he tells you that he is the Good Shepherd, he even gives you the ultimate test. He says the Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
Your Shepherd is there. He’s opened the gate, he’s already called you. He’s going to take you where you need to go. The only question is, will you listen to his voice? Will you respond to the sound of your own name? Can you – Will you follow him? Will you let him be your Shepherd?
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There’s an old saying that no offer is so good that it won’t stick around and no news so bad that it’s willing to leave. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be acting when we know the Truth – there’s always a Judgment Day – but
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I already told you that the Pharisees were blind because they thought they had it all figured out. Their problem, of course, was that they had put themselves in charge and thus missed out.
1. Intro
a. Maddie knows who her Master is (Barbara)!
b. Hearing is inextricably linked to following – you hear who you recognize
c. How do you recognize your shepherd’s voice?
d. Our text is pretty clear, ‘My sheep hear my voice’, so how did they do it?
2. The Shepherd enters to what is his own (10.1-2)
a. Context
i. Jesus & Pharisees arguing about his divinity (John 9)
ii. Pharisees “knew” what Jesus supposed to be and missed it (9.39 – 41)
iii. Blind Man just knew one thing – Jesus had healed him (9.25)
b. Love is based on freedom / Power is based on fear
c. He bought you with a price and ransomed us…
3. The Shepherd calls to what is his own
a. Literally
i. “the sound the Shepherd makes is the sound of their names”
ii. The implication is a soft tender personal call, not a yell
iii. Based on recognition (v5 is going to say stranger danger!!!!)
iv. Having experiences with God – Cause or Effect?
b. The confusion comes because Satan lures us away with things that sound good.
i. We need to be able to distinguish / run away from strangers
ii. Paul tells us that Satan comes as an Angel of Light
1. The red pitchfork routine doesn’t work
2. His strategy is to confuse us
3. That’s why we need genuine experiences to learn from
iii. We need to know the Savior to recognize the counterfeit
iv. Satan as the Pied Piper
v. The ultimate safeguard is the Word – that’s why I keep coming back to it – but it needs to be in your gut
c. Sheep naturally go where they want – and if there following that’s good. But sometimes the shepherd calls you to do something that’s out of your comfort zone. That’s leading. That’s why you need to recognize the person and not just the principle
4. The Shepherd leads on his own
a. Hearing implies following
b. If he’s leading and you’re not following, that implies distance
c. He already did the hard thing, we follow him
i. The Good Shepherd laid down his life (10) & Keeps giving life
ii. The Bad Shepherd will entice you away – nibbling away like Rev. Garret said last week
5. Maddie is going to be shocked when Barbara leaves in May! The Savior was there all along
Jn 9:35-41
Jn 8:42
Jn 8:47
Jn 8:31-32
1 Co 7:23
Jn 10:11
Jn 8:54-56
2 Pe 3:9
Jn 10:24-30
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation Psalm 23
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #690
“He Leadeth Me, (O Blessed Thought)”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer [See Insert]
*Hymn #688
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Leads Us”
*Responsive Lesson [See Right]
*Hymn #790
“We Gather Together”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*Scripture John 10: 1 – 6
Sermon
“Who’s your Shepherd?”
Invitation Hymn #680
“All the Way, My Savior Leads Me”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE LESSON
Jesus heard that they had cast out the one he had healed, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
He answered, “Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”
Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”
He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?”
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but of him who sent me.
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.”
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you have not known him. I do know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
JOHN 10:1 – 6
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The
one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. CropWalk was yesterday. See Charles!
2. Business Meeting after church today.
3. Keep 12/9 after church open
4. Marshall Christmas Canata - ___________
