Dan Herold | John 10:22-30 | April 17, 2016
(Sermon begins at 21:44)
A certain little girl that lives at my house has decided that it is her mission in life to climb things. She can’t walk yet and she can barely stand up on her own, but she has decided that she must climb everything. If she wants to get on the couch she drags toys over to stand on so that she can get up on the couch. She can get in her stroller by herself. She sees her highchair as a mountain that must be summited. Even the TV looks as though it is an object that was meant for babies to climb. Every time we see her start to climb up something we say the same thing to her, “Ellie, get down, you’re going to get hurt!”
Thankfully she has not yet learned the harsh reality of gravity and tile floors, but the day may come when she does. I can just see it now, you’ve probably seen it before with your own kids or grandkids. That time when they fall and actually do get hurt and the tears start pouring down their little faces—their screams can be heard a mile away and they come running to you for comfort as though they have no idea what just happened to them. They act as though they had no clue they could get hurt and you can’t help but think to yourself, “How many times did I tell you you were going to get hurt if you kept doing that?”
That feeling is a complicated one. You want to comfort the injured child—you deeply care about them and don’t want them to suffer. At the same time, though, you are kind of frustrated because it could have all been prevented if they had only listened to you in the first place. Jesus found himself in that complicated position in John 10 when a group of people came up to him and said,
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
Jesus had given them the answer to this question numerous times and in many different ways, but they still hadn’t understood. So really, the question that they ask isn’t as simple as it seems. The people who asked that question of Jesus weren’t looking for their Savior…they were mocking Jesus for saying that he was the Savior.
They start out by asking,
“How long will you keep us in suspense?”
Or another way to put it might be, “How long is this act going to go on?” See, the people were getting bored with the miracles and the preaching and teaching. They wanted something to entertain them again. They had liked the excitement of this new teacher who could put on a good show, but the thrill was starting to fade. So, they came to Jesus at a festival time in Jerusalem at the temple and asked him how long he was going to keep dragging them along—and his answer surprised them…he wasn’t going to drag them along at all.
This is how Jesus answered their question. Jesus answered,
“I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
It’s important for us to see how Jesus answers that question because sometimes we can be tempted to ask the very same question that group of people asked Jesus at the temple. We can be tempted to ask God how long he’s going to stretch this out until he really shows us something interesting. We can be tempted to lose sight of all of the grace, mercy, and glory that God shows us on a regular basis and wish that being a Christian was just a little more exciting. Satan loves it when he can trick people into getting bored with the gospel.
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Thankfully, though, we have a shepherd—a Good Shepherd—who calls us by name and leads us back to him when we start to wander. In his reply Jesus said that the reason that those people felt discontent with what Jesus had been preaching and teaching was because they were not his sheep. They didn’t believe. Jesus had told them again and again who he was. He had done miracles in the name of God the Father and those miracles were a testament to who he is, but they still didn’t believe.
We know our shepherd, though. We know his voice and he knows us. In one way or another, each of us heard his voice calling us to his house for worship this morning. We heard his voice and we were led to follow in his steps.
Our sinful nature doesn’t appreciate having a shepherd, though, does it? Sometimes I get the impression that Ellie doesn’t appreciate me telling her that she should stop trying to climb the TV. Our sinful nature thinks it knows best and that it can take care of itself. It is that idea, which is really just selfish pride, that leads us to get bored with our Shepherd. By nature we don’t like being told not to do something even though what we are doing might be very dangerous. Our sinful flesh would rather have a God that entertains us than a God who saves us.
What a blessing it is, though, to have a Shepherd who watches out for us and cares for us. You might know what it’s like to feel like no one is watching out for you, and it is not a good feeling. Jesus, our good Shepherd, is always watching out for us and fighting to protect us. Jesus also gives his sheep the amazing gift of eternal life. He says,
“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”
What a comforting thing it is to have his promise that no one can ever take away the salvation and forgiveness that Jesus won for us.
Not only has he given us the promise that we are forgiven and saved, but he has also given us proof. Proof is really what the crowd of people we heard about in John 10 wanted. They wanted something tangible to show them that Jesus was the promised Savior, but they weren’t content with the proof that Jesus gave. So, let’s learn from their example and take Jesus’ words to heart. The proof that we are his sheep is that we know his voice and follow in his steps.
Yes, there will be many times that we fail to follow him and listen to his voice, but our Good Shepherd will take us by the hand and lead us back to him when we wander away. He’ll always come looking for us. Jesus will never abandon us and he’ll always be there to watch out for us and protect us.
We need someone to be looking out for us whether we want to admit it or not. What we want is rarely what is good for us. To a little girl, those big tall pieces of furniture look like they would be really fun to climb. It looks like a lot of fun to be able to sleep in on Sunday morning or go out and do the work we didn’t get to during the previous week. But it is often the case that those things look fun and exciting because we either don’t know or ignore the consequences of those actions. That’s why we need a Shepherd—one who knows the dangers that face his sheep and is willing to defend them. That’s who Jesus is—the shepherd who loves and protects you. Listen to his voice and follow in his steps.
Amen.