John 10:1-10ย
Fourth Sunday of Easter (Confirmation Sunday)ย -ย 7 May 2017
Rev. John Derme
Dear Ethan, dear Haylee, dear brothers, sisters, and friends. Two of you have completed the youth confirmation course and are becoming communicant members of Shepherd of the Mountains today. Some of you have been confirmed as adults over the last year. Some of you were confirmed not too long ago, and so you remember the process well. Many of you have been confirmed congregation members for a lot of years. Some of you were confirmed in this very place. Others of you were confirmed in other places and then joined this congregation. Some of you now belong to other congregations. Some of you may not belong to any congregation. Some of you are still looking forward to your confirmation. Some of us are young, some are old, and many are in between. Among all of us, we have a variety of experiences in our spiritual lives! But in spite of all the differences between the people here, we all have something in common, and this is greater than any of the differences. Each and every one of us can say that Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
Are you familiar with the Bible's picture of us as sheep and Jesus as our Shepherd? Many Christians love the picture. But other people don't like it at all. Some people don't like being called sheep. And they think that they don't need some shepherd to take care of them. Do any of you feel that way? There is a part of me that does. Sheep are considered to be unintelligent, stubborn, defenseless animals. I don't want anybody to call me that! Shepherds tell the sheep what to do. I don't want anybody bossing me around! Yet even if you and I can physically take care of ourselves, spiritually we are just like sheep. We are by nature helpless. And, no matter how independent we like to be, we do follow shepherds.
In our Gospel of the Day, Jesus tells us about the people who would like us to follow them. There are really only two kinds of shepherds: Jesus and everybody else. Everybody who would like you to follow him or her rather than following the Good Shepherd is a thief and a robber. Jesus says, โI tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a strangerโs voice.โ
Jesus describes a sight that would have been very familiar to his original hearers. In any village at Jesus' time, there may have been several shepherds and several flocks of sheep. For convenience, they were all herded into one common sheepfold for protection from thieves and predators. There was one door through which the shepherds would lead their sheep out in the morning and in at night. One man was the doorkeeper, who stayed in the doorway to make sure no unauthorized person or animal entered to harm the sheep. In the morning, each shepherd reported to the doorkeeper, who opened the door to the sheepfold. Then the shepherd called his sheep. Each shepherd had his own call, and the sheep recognized his voice. They followed him out to pasture.
If a thief or a robber wanted to steal the sheep, he couldn't go through the door, because the doorkeeper would never let him in. They would have to climb over the wall. But the Good Shepherd demonstrates that the sheep truly do belong to him when he enters through the door.
There were people who claimed to be the shepherds of God's people in Jesus' day. The Pharisees and Sadducees loved having influence over people. They opposed Jesus because people started following him.
There are also false shepherds in our day, who try to gain control over God's sheep and exploit them for their own selfish purposes. They could come in the form of missionaries, who knock on your door and tell you that Jesus isn't God. They could come in the form of television preachers who tell you that God wants you to be happy, but don't say anything about our real problem, our sin. They could come in the form of scientists who tell you that science has disproved the Bible.
Even if they don't all sound like it at first, these are all spiritual claims, which would lead you away from the Good Shepherd. Their voice is different than his. They say things that he never said. They say that what Jesus said is wrong. They take you away from him. And taking you away from Jesus separates you from the life that he came to give you. If you follow the false shepherds, they will lead you to death and destruction in hell.
But there is something good about being a sheep. When the Bible calls us sheep, we may think about the bad qualities of sheep. Jesus, though, tells us that the very good thing about sheep is that they do not follow a stranger. They only follow the shepherd, and they run away from everybody else. So also, we do not follow false spiritual shepherds. We listen to the voice of Jesus. And Jesus has far greater things in store for us than false shepherds could ever claim.
To show us, he uses a different word to describe who he is and what he does for us. โI tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.โ
The picture Jesus uses in these verses is no longer a common sheepfold near the village. When the weather warmed up in the spring and summer, shepherds wouldn't always bring the sheep to the communal sheepfold. They would stay out in the fields at night. There were smaller sheepfolds out there. At night, the shepherd would bring the sheep into the sheepfold. There was no doorman out there, so he himself would lie down across the entrance. That way, no thief could get in without waking him up. And no sheep could get out without him knowing it.
That's what Jesus is talking about when he says, "I am the gate." The only way to enter into the fold of salvation is through Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can lead us out to the rich, green pastures of eternal life.
The false shepherds claim that they will give you good things if you follow them. They give you nothing good, however. They are thieves and robbers. Jesus, on the other hand, promises you the best blessings possible and he delivers on his promises. He says, I have come to give you life to the full." What do you think of when he promises you a full life? You might think of time spent with family, a nice home, vacations, or plenty of money. But Jesus promises you something far better than any of that. He forgives all your sins! He gives you eternal life in heaven. He protects and guards you each day of this life.
Of course, you might be skeptical of his promises. After all, the false shepherds promise good things, and they can't deliver. The things Jesus promises sound too good to be true. Couldn't he take advantage of you just like the false shepherds try to do? No, because Jesus has already won his gifts and given them to you. You know that Jesus isn't going to take advantage of you, because he has already sacrificed himself for you. He lived a life of suffering in your place. And he gave his live and died for you. After he laid down his life, he took it up again. Now he lives for you.
Ethan and Haylee, in your lives you will be tempted to follow other shepherds. People will tell you that the Bible is wrong, that Jesus isn't God, that you shouldn't do what the Bible says. You know that those things are wrong, because you have been coming to church and studying his Word. You have learned to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd. But if you stop listening to his voice, what will happen? If you stop coming to church and studying the Bible, you won't recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, and you will listen to the voices of the false shepherds. No matter how old we are, there are false shepherds who want us to follow them. You hear the words of thieves and murderers who do not speak according to the voice of Jesus.
We will not listen, though, because they are not our shepherds. Bad shepherds take life. We will listen to the voice of our Shepherd Jesus. The Good Shepherd gives life.