John 10:1-21 Jesus is the Gate and the Good Shepherd

I want to do something a little different this morning. I want you to close your eyes while I read the Scripture. John is writing good news to us, and I want us to hear it. You’ll have enough time later as we dig into the passage to turn the pages in your Bible to the story and read the parts which are speaking to us. But for now, close your Bible. Put your finger or your bulletin in between the pages, and just listen to the good news Jesus is speaking.

¹"Truly, truly I say to you, the man who does not enter the courtyard of the sheep by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.

⁷Therefore Jesus said again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me were thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.^[a] He will come in and go out, and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it to the fullest.

¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.

¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that are not of this courtyard. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

¹⁹At these words the Judeans were again divided. ²⁰Many of them said, "He has a demon and is raving mad. Why listen to him?" ²¹But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"

Let us pray: Jesus, those who first heard your words did not understand. Give us the ears to hear your voice today. Let this good news be good news to us this morning. Amen.

I lived with music majors for three years during college, and while I didn’t learn much about music that was useful from them, like music theory, piano, or vocal techniques, I did learn about 12-tone music, which is really only useful to modern composers. One of the things I learned was that these pieces have something called a row. In a way, it’s is sort of like a theme that gets repeated through the piece in various ways. The first time you might have all of the notes in a recognizable order, and then it changes. So the second time, the notes might all be inverted. Then they might go up an octave, and then down, then they might be missing a couple of the notes. But no matter how it changes, it is still recognizable as the same “theme.”

In Jesus’ words today, we see a repeated theme as well. It changes slightly throughout, but it is still recognizable. The theme here is Abundant Life. Over and over, Jesus is calling us to live, not just mediocrity, but abundance, overflowing with power and joy and his presence.

We start with Jesus’ first I am statement of this passage. Jesus says, “I am the gate of the sheep.” “Whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture.” I think that too often our picture of salvation is too narrow. Too often we delay abundant life until we walk the streets of heaven. But salvation is not just about going to heaven! It’s about experiencing the love of God poured out on us here and now, about seeing our lives transformed by the Lord who laid down his life for us. It’s about living in the power of God to turn from the fears and sins and habits of the world into people who have the mind and heart of Christ.

Abundant life is here for us now, if only we will enter through the gate. Jesus is inviting us in. We don’t have to enter the courtyard on our own. When our host stands as the open gate, and we choose to run repeatedly into the rock wall that surrounds the courtyard, we cause ourselves a lot more pain that Jesus desires. We won’t find life or nourishment that way. We’ll just be battered to pieces.

But if we enter through the gate, we find pasture. There is good food among the flock – both inside the courtyard and out. The psalmist says that the Lord makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside still waters. These are places that are safe for us the sheep, and places where the food for our souls is more than we need. Jesus has come that we might have life, and that we will have it to the fullest possible measure imaginable.

But Jesus isn’t content to leave us with that picture of him as the gate. He’s much too involved in our lives for that. He says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me.” The shepherd lives among the sheep day after day, making sure that they have everything they need, and protecting them from the people and animals that would try to harm them.

Very few of us have ever seen a shepherd. Some of us who have grown up in Southern California may never even have seen a sheep, outside of the occasional visit to a petting zoo. We may have a romanticized understanding of shepherds in our minds – the picture of little bo peep dances across our minds. And even for those of us who do know about modern shepherds, we probably have a slightly different picture in our minds than the one Jesus’ first hearers had. We think of people who live pretty much the same lives we do, except there are a lot of animals roaming around the yard while the shepherd sends the sheep dogs out to round up the sheep for the evening.

This is not the life of the ancient shepherd. First of all, ancient shepherds didn’t ride horses and send sheep dogs to round up the flock. They called their sheep by name, knowing the slight differences between each animal. And they used their voice to guide the flock, not dogs or whips or modern tools. The shepherd would walk in front of the flock, calling back to any stragglers who needed to run to catch up with the group. And the sheep followed his voice. It’s a little bit like your dog or cat reacts to your voice today. When a stranger comes through the door, your pet might growl or run and hide under a bed. But when you come home and call, your pet comes running and winds itself around your legs. These animals know their owners voice.

Jesus tells us, ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. ³The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has driven out all his own, he goes in front of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will flee from him because they do not know the stranger's voice." Then he says, ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”

Again we hear the theme of abundant life. Jesus knows us, personally, and individually. When you look at a flock of sheep, I’m guessing they all look pretty much the same to you, as they do to me. But we don’t know the sheep. We don’t know the personalities of each one, and the distinguishing marks in their wool. But the shepherd does. And Jesus our shepherd knows each one of us as well. No matter how much you look like the people around you, Jesus knows you individually. He knows what your gifts are, where you are strong and where you are weak. He knows what you are like first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and he’s okay with the fact that you maybe shouldn’t have a conversation with anyone before 10am, or that at night you get a little crazy when it’s past your bedtime. And he calls you by name to come follow him to green pastures where you can find food and rivers that are calm and clear where you can drink without being swept away. He is calling us to follow him, and when we follow we find that abundant life Jesus promises.

Unfortunately, Jesus isn’t the only one who calls us. There are many, many other voices calling us to follow them. Fame, fortune, and pride, selfishness, anger, and worthlessness, time, distractions, past failures, and present doubts all call us to follow. And there are many more. It can sound like a cacophony of voices all trying to get our attention, and all but one voice will lead us to death and destruction. We have to know Jesus’ voice if we are to follow. That means we have to spend time with him.

When my family got our dog as a puppy, she didn’t know us or our voices. She didn’t know her name. We had to teach her all of those things as we spent time with her and taught her to trust us. We had to call her over and over again. But she did learn our voices and her name, and she learned to come when we called. We are a little like that aren’t we? To know Jesus’ voice, and we have to spend time with him!

We enter the sheepfold the first time, unsure of who will call, and our time here, among the other sheep, helps teach us to trust the Lord. The other sheep sitting next to you know the shepherd’s voice, and they know that he will lead to good pasture, so we help teach each other what the voice of Jesus sounds like. And we learn to read the Bible, so recognize the other times Jesus has called his people, so that when we hear that same voice, we recognize that it is calling us. It’s why all of those spiritual disciplines – prayer, study, fasting, worship – are so important to our lives. Not just because we are told to do them, but because we meet Jesus in them, and we learn to listen to his voice and to follow him to abundant life. If we don’t know his voice, all the other voices calling out to us will lead us to death.

But when we follow Jesus’ voice, it’s actually him that encounters death, so we can encounter life. That’s the other part of being the shepherd. You place your life on the life to protect the sheep in your care. When the wolves and lions and bandits come, you stand firm against them and make sure that they can’t get to the sheep.

Jesus knows that when he tells us that he is the good shepherd. ¹¹"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life on behalf of the sheep. ¹²The hired hand is not the shepherd; the sheep are not his own. So when he sees the wolf coming, he forsakes the sheep and flees. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. ¹³Because the man is a hired hand, the sheep are of no concern to him.” ¹⁴"I am the good shepherd; … I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep. … ¹⁷The Father loves me because I lay down my life in order that I take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

Jesus knows the dangers we will encounter as we walk through life with him as our Shepherd. But that is the benefit of having a shepherd who goes before us. All of the dangers and temptations that we encounter, Jesus encounters before us. When we are following Jesus, we allow HIM to fight the wolves for us, instead of trying to fight them ourselves. We allow him to make sure that there are no thieves gaining entrance to the sheepfold and to repair the courtyard walls.

It’s a funny thing to say that the good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. It would seem that the shepherd laying down his life would leave the sheep more vulnerable than before. But Jesus knew better. He knew that the thieves, bandits, and wolves who would attack us don’t just need to be sent away once, they need to be defeated forever. And the only way for him to defeat sin, death, and the devil was to die, and then to rise from the grave. So here, before Calvary, Jesus is teaching that he has the authority to lay down his life, and then to take it up again in victory over all of the things that would attack us.

What are the thieves, bandits, and wolves in your life right now? What is trying to steal the abundant life of Jesus from you? What is trying to distract from the voice of Jesus? Is it the lie that you are too much? That you are too loud, or too strong, or too powerful, or too emotional? Is it the lie that you are not enough? Not good enough, not strong enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough? Is it the lie that you are not worthy of love because of what you have done or failed to do? The fear that even God couldn’t forgive if he knew what you had done? The fear that Jesus isn’t good enough to lead you to life? Is it lack of hope, lack of joy, lack of peace, or lack of love? Are you under attack from those who are angry, afraid, or filled with hatred? Do your besetting sins, those that always seem to be lurking around the corner the second we let our guard down, seem to be climbing right over the wall to the courtyard, ready to steal you away from Jesus, your shepherd?

That was quite a list right? Quite the jumble of lies that stand ready to jump over the wall or scatter the flock. And your thieves and wolves may be hundreds of other things. And I have some bad news for you, they aren’t necessarily going to go away. Jesus doesn’t say in this passage that once you enter the courtyard of the sheep, you will never be under attack. He says the opposite, there will still be thieves, bandits, and wolves that come to steal, kill, and destroy. And that the thieves and bandits will try to climb over the wall another way, wherever there is a crack or hole in the wall where they can gain and foot and handhold, or where they can dig through the wall until the hole is big enough to climb through. What Jesus does say is that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for us, his sheep, and that he has come that we might have life abundantly.

As we spend time in prayer this morning, ask Jesus to deal with the thieves, bandits, and wolves who are attacking you. And ask him to walk with you around the walls, so check for cracks and holes that would let those thieves into the courtyard. And as you go out from this courtyard this morning, ask him to teach you to know his voice better so you can follow, and ask him to deal with the wolves and other animals that will attack you this week while you are outside of the courtyard. Ask him to prevent the animals from destroying or scattering you. Jesus is our shepherd. That’s part of why he’s here.

Heb 2:14-18 & Rom 8:31-39

Mid-30’s AD – Stephen, is stoned by the people of Jerusalem.

155 AD – Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, is arrested by the Romans. At this time, the Christians were being captured and martyred for their faith under the charge of atheism, because they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods or proclaim the deity of the emperor. Knowing that the mob was searching for him, Polycarp fled the city to a nearby village, and when the people came there, fled to another farm. When the people searching for him could not find him, they tortured the people who were living there, and one young man gave up Polycarp’s location. When the officers came to arrest Polycarp, this bishop, having received a vision that he was going to be martyred, chose not to flee, but to remain in the house, offering food and drink to the officers, and praying for the church and the officers before willingly going with the officers. He was given chance after chance to “repent” and proclaim that he was not a Christian; to swear by Caesar and to curse Christ. Instead, Polycarp responded. “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my king who saved me?”

The people demanded that Polycarp be fed to the beasts, but having already returned the beasts to their cages, Philip, head of the government in the province of Asia, agreed to burn Polycarp at the stake. “They surrounded him with those substances which had been prepared for the funeral pile. But when they were about also to fix him with nails, he said, "Leave me as I am; for He that giveth me strength to endure the fire, will also enable me, without your securing me by nails, to remain without moving in the pile." They did not nail him then, but simply bound him. And he, placing his hands behind him, and being bound like a distinguished ram [taken] out of a great flock for sacrifice, and prepared to be an acceptable burnt-offering unto God, looked up to heaven, and” he prayed. They lit the fire, but the fire would not consume his body, so they commanded an executioner to drive a dagger through his body. The people wondered that there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect, of whom this most admirable Polycarp was one, having …been an apostolic and prophetic teacher, and bishop of the …Church which is in Smyrna.

16^th century Germany – The Plague has taken Europe by storm, driving deep fear into the hearts of the people. Remember the scene from Monty Python? Three men with a cart walk through a city with one man crying out “Bring out your dead.” A body is thrown onto the cart, and another man walks up to the cart with an elderly man flung over his shoulder, saying, “Here’s one.” To which the elderly man replies, “I’m not dead yet.” The scene is intended to be funny and deeply ironic, and it is. But there is much truth in it as well. The people were terrified, and anyone who appeared slightly ill was feared and ostracized because no one wanted to die.

Into this situation, Martin Luther writes to his people. Instead of fearing death, the church should be caring for the sick. At a time when hospitals were not really in existence, Luther told his people that they should be the hospitals, taking care of the people for whom no one else in society would care. They should either trust God to keep them healthy in the midst of the sickness, and recognize that if they did become sick, that their inheritance was not of this world but of the Kingdom of God.

21^st century America – A young man is diagnosed with cancer. After a long battle and series of treatments, the doctors determine that there is nothing else they can do. Along the way, he has kept a blog about his treatments and the faithfulness of God in the midst of all his struggles. He and his family have sent emails to the church, keeping the people updated and asking for their prayers. And they tell stories. Stories of this young man bringing joy and hope to people who had no hope. Stories of people hearing about Jesus from a person who had every reason to hide away from the world. The doctors and nurses who treated him were amazed by his joy. And the emails spread, from household to household, and people sent the link to his blog around the world. He was sharing quite a testimony with the world. As he left this world and received life in the presence of God, his peace in God’s presence remained a witness that God is faithful, even in the midst of great struggles.

They say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. But it isn’t just the fact that someone has died that draws others to Christianity. It is the way that the martyrs died and the way that they dealt with troubles. Instead of being consumed by fear, or resisting death, the Christians stood strong. They refused to curse Christ and refused to sacrifice to Caesar as their Lord. And they stood calmly as the beasts were sent out, the executioners approached, the stones were picked up, or the fires were lit. They knew that their treasure was in heaven and that nothing that people could do could remove from them the presence of God.

It is also the way the church deals with troubles that sets Christians apart. The church’s willingness to risk their own lives to care for the sick in the 16^th century distinguished them from the people who were terrified of the plague. The Christian’s ability to display joy in the midst of terminal disease sets them apart from the people on the same hospital floors who spend their days in deep depression and hopelessness. We are “more than conquerors through Christ who loved us.”

Note that Paul is not saying here that life will be easy. Christian or not, we still live in a very fallen world. We still suffer great atrocities at the hands of other human beings. We still have murders on the streets and gangs in our cities, and we still have less visible attacks. Heads of companies may ask their employees to engage in unjust or unethical business practices to bring in the next dollar, and they may retaliate against employees who refuse. Neighbors may speak ill of you. Bullies (either the child or grown up version) may abuse you with their destructive words and threats of violence.

Then we have the reality of fallen nature. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, and hailstorms. The flu, cancer, heart attacks, strokes, blindness, car accidents, and multiple sclerosis. No, this world is not easy, even if we never have to sacrifice our lives, our jobs, or our friends for our faith.

But Paul knows that as well. “What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? God who justifies? Who then can condemn? Christ Jesus who died – more than that who was raised to life? Who is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Do you hear the absurdity of those questions? We are supposed to. We should be answering “Absolutely not!” and “No one!” to those questions. If God has chosen us, who else can be powerful enough to bring a charge against us? The God who justifies us? Absolutely not! If we are justified by God, who else can condemn us? Christ who died and was raised, and who actually intercedes for us at God’s right hand? No, no one can condemn us! What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Is anything strong enough to remove us from God’s love? Absolutely not!

Then why do we so often life as if we were defeated? Why do we so often live as though the devil, death, temptation, and other people have power over us? Not that I think things are always good. I know better. But then I read the stories of men like Stephen and Polycarp, and I get the emails from friends in ICU with a brain aneurysm, encephalitis, cancer, and car accident injuries, and I talk to people with multiple sclerosis, blindness, and lyme disease. And I wonder.

I don’t know if we’ve missed the truth the Paul writes, maybe we’ve never really been able to hear it before. Or maybe we’ve chosen to ignore it? Maybe we really like the pity party we’ve developed. Or maybe we’ve just not really known what this would look like in our context, in 2009 Los Angeles. Maybe we are afraid that we just aren’t really good enough for the promises that God gives us in this passage in Romans. Whatever the case, too often we have let other people and circumstances define who we are.

But we are not defined by our circumstances. You are a child of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and BELOVED. God himself became human flesh and blood, suffering just like we suffer, and being tempted like we are tempted, and sacrificing himself as high priest so that our lives would be transformed. NO ONE can take that away from you. As much as bullies and bosses and unfriendly store clerks and anyone else can attempt to minimize you to make themselves feel strong and good, they still cannot remove your identity as a child of the Father. As many attacks as the devil throws your way, he cannot remove from you the presence of God in your midst. As many fires, floods, and diseases that come, they cannot change who you truly are. We are more than conquerors through the blood of Christ Jesus. That is our identity. Do you believe it? Will you live like that?

God loves YOU. He wants your good. He wants your life to overflow with joy. Too often we settle for less. We wonder who we are to be loved? But the truth is, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. This belief that we should not be loved and experience joy and goodness is a lie of our culture, not a message from God. In The Weight of Glory, CS Lewis writes, “Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not to strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

God is offering us infinite joy, regardless of our circumstances, through his constant presence in our lives. This is why the martyrs could stand praising God’s name as the fires burned at their feet, the animals came roaring into the arena, or the executioner approached with his sword. This is why the church can care for the sick regardless of risk to themselves, and why the sick Christians can sing praises and walk the halls bringing hope to the hopeless, even as they remain in the hospital for the last days of their lives. God is with them. They know who they are. They know that they are God’s children, infinitely loved.

They can say with Paul, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If you are beaten down, bruised, and battered the life and the world, hear this morning that you are a child of God. Take hold of your identity. God wants you to know that you are loved. Close your eyes for a moment. Whatever weights you are carrying, whatever keeps you from living in the fullness of life God offers, whatever hinders you from being a conqueror through Christ Jesus, turn them over to him. Then know that God is reaching his arms around you and holding you. God is telling you, “I love you.” Rest in that love. He may not change your circumstances, that is up to him to decide. But regardless, you will be changed in the midst of your circumstances if you live as the redeemed and chosen child of God that you are. Sometimes God calms the storms of our lives, and sometimes he calms his children in the midst of the storms.

Either way, when we rest in our identity as children of God, we too proclaim with Paul, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Amen.