John 10:1-10

Well, the Easter lilies are all gone – even the ones that were out in the Narthex last weekend. The big peace lilies are still here along with the white cloth on the cross, the white paraments and the Easter banner. We celebrated Easter three weeks ago but the season of Easter (the celebration of Easter) continues. We celebrated Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three weeks ago but the significance of his resurrection blesses us and our lives every day. Easter and the Easter season – spring itself – is a time to focus on life. That’s what we did last weekend in worship. The Apostle Peter reminded us what a living faith can do.

A living faith shields us from temptation. A living faith enables us to see Jesus as our Savior. A living faith fills us with joy – even during times of grief and sorrow. The glass is always half full. A living faith sees life that way. A living faith lives life that way. But if you think that’s something, if you think seeing what a living faith can do is something, This morning, on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, on Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesus puts his arm around us, he draws us in close, he directs our eyes to the Gospel of John and he softly says, “Hey, look at what a living Shepherd can do!” Our living Shepherd 1.) guards us. Our living Shepherd 2.) leads us. Our living Shepherd 3.) gives us life. The sermon text this morning is recorded in John chapter 10.

I 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 stranger’s voice. Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them. Therefore Jesus said again, “I 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.

Picture the sheep pen. Think of Fred Flintstone’s front yard with that crude rock wall all the way around it, not terribly big, with only one entrance (one gate). The sheep pen that Jesus referred to was very similar. It was a place where the shepherd could bring his sheep at the end of the day, a place where he would keep them at night so that he could guard and protect them. That rock wall would keep out hungry wolves and other animals of prey. That rock wall was also intended to keep out thieves and robbers who were looking to steal his sheep. There was only one way into that pen – through the front gate (unless someone snuck in or climbed in over the wall). The shepherd stationed a watchman at the gate. That watchman allowed only the shepherd to enter. The shepherd would stand guard inside his pen – “keeping watch over his flock by night.” He would allow no one to climb in over that wall.

Look at what a living Shepherd can do! As careful, as vigil, as constant as the shepherd was in guarding his sheep, our living Shepherd is even more careful, even more vigil, even more constant as he guards and protects us his sheep. He wants no wolf in sheep’s clothing to sneak in and steal us. He guards and protects us spiritually. He guards and protects us against work righteousness and humanism – philosophies that tempt us to think that we can save ourselves or that we do not even need to be saved. He guards and protects us against false teachers and false teachings that tell us what our itching ears want to hear. He guards and protects us against anything that would harm or threaten our faith in him. He wants no-one, he wants no-thing to steal us away from him. He does not want that roaring lion to sink his teeth into our beliefs, into our faith, and tear us away from him. Our living Savior guards and protects us and our living faith.

How? – Through the living Word! The rock wall that he places around us, the pen that he uses to guard us, is nothing other than his holy Word, the truth of Scripture. The Apostle John in his first letter encourages us to test the spirits to see if they are from God. If we hear another voice, a voice other than that of our living Shepherd, calling out to us we are not to follow him. Our living Shepherd uses the staff of his Word to fend off and drive away anything that would threaten our faith. Our living Shepherd uses the lamp, the torch, of his Word to expose any lies and any false teaching that are intended to confuse us or to cause us to doubt. Our living Shepherd uses the sling shot of his Word to expose and destroy our inborn humanism and work righteousness so that we will not be led astray. Look at what a living Shepherd can do. He guards and protects us from any and every thing that can threaten our faith so that nothing can snatch us out of his Father’s hand.

The sheep pen was used only at night. The shepherd corralled his sheep into the pen at night so that he could guard and protect them from thieves and robbers who used the cover of darkness in their attempts to steal the sheep. During the day, however, the shepherd would lead his sheep out of the pen. He would lead them to the fields to graze. He would lead them to the streams to drink. e didnHe

“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 . . . He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” The shepherd had a close, personal relationship with his sheep. His sheep knew his voice. His sheep followed him. His sheep went wherever he directed them.

If only we were as smart as those sheep. If only we were as willing as those sheep. If only we listened to the voice of the shepherd like those sheep. If only we followed like those sheep. So often we get distracted in life and we wander off. We follow something new and exciting or something old and familiar rather than the voice of our Shepherd. For you is that the pasture of materialism? Is it the babbling brook of worry? Is it the field of sexual lust and indulgence? Is that a pond where we cannot control our tongues, a pond where we curse or swear or use vulgar language; a pond where we lie or deceive, a pond where we gossip and slander? Sometimes as sheep we are ignorant enough to think, arrogant enough to think, that we are our own shepherds and we insist on walking the path that we want not the path that our Shepherd calls us to follow. Our sinful nature makes us not sheep who follow but stubborn goats who dig our feet into the mud of sin and refuse to follow.

Isaiah said, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” For not following the voice of our Shepherd God does not scold us or beat us or lock us up or punish us in any other way. Rather, he laid our guilt, our sin, on our Shepherd. Our Shepherd became a sheep – he became the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. In the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, the priest symbolically placed the sins of the people on a goat – the scapegoat – and then sent the goat off into the wilderness alone, never to be seen again. This was God’s visual way of showing the people his forgiveness – he literally sent their sins away. Jesus is that Scapegoat. No longer is this a figurative illustration. On the cross this was reality. On the cross God placed our sins and our guilt on Jesus. On the cross God sent Jesus through the wilderness of hell, alone. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all so that by his wounds we would be healed. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross paid for the sins of the whole world – that includes yours and it includes mine.

But our Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep – only to take it up again! The theme of the sermon this morning is not “Look at what a dead Shepherd can do.” The theme of the sermon this morning is “Look at what a living Shepherd can do.” Our Shepherd is alive and he is alive to give us life. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” The life that Jesus gave us on Good Friday and Easter Sunday is eternal life – eternal life in heaven. Through faith in our living Shepherd we will have that life and we will have it to the full. But the life our living Shepherd gives us is also spiritual life – spiritual life now. Our living Shepherd gives us life now so that we can hear his voice, life now so that we can know his voice, life now so that we can follow him, life now so that we will follow him, life now so that we want to follow only him, our living Shepherd. Let’s do that now. Let’s follow our living Shepherd by opening our hymnals to hymn #432. I pray that we’re never too old to sing this hymn – “I am Jesus’ Little Lamb” – hymn #432.

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