Well, if you have your Bibles, please reach down and grab them and turn with me to John chapter 10. John chapter 10, after more than a year working through John's gospel, we have made it now into double digits. So today we'll be looking at the first nine verses of this chapter. John chapter 10, beginning in verse one. This is the word of the Lord. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him. For they do not know the voice of strangers. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this Word that you have given, this Word that you preached, this Word that you, by your Holy Spirit, have preserved infallibly for us for 2,000 years. Lord, we know that before the worlds began, you ordained that we would look at this Word today and be fed by you. God, I pray, Lord, that we would take to heart what you are saying, Lord, that you are the door. Lord, that we might go through and be saved. God, I thank you that you have opened up a way. Lord, that you have not left us closed out of the sheepfold, but that you have opened up a clear way and told us how we are to go in and out. God, I pray that as I preach, you would just guide my words. God, that you would give me great freedom and unction to preach you and your truth boldly. God, I pray that as I'm preaching, Lord, your spirit would speak directly and effectively to the hearts of everyone here. God, I pray that I would not get in the way of what your spirit is doing. Lord, and that if I begin to go down the wrong path, you would just correct me. You would give me a new insight, even if I need to divert from my notes here and speak something else. And God, I pray your blessing on each and every one of us here. In Christ's name, amen. You may be seated. Well, our sermon today will look primarily at the marks of a true shepherd and the marks of a true sheep as displayed in their relationship with each other. I'll say that one more time. Our sermon today is going to look primarily at the marks of a true shepherd and the marks of a true sheep as displayed in their relationship with each other. There'll be important aspects of being a shepherd and of being a sheep that we will not get to touch on today. This is not an exhaustive list of what a faithful shepherd or faithful sheep looks like. This is just how we see those roles, faithful shepherd and faithful sheep put for us today in our text described by Jesus. Between the end of chapter nine and the beginning of chapter 10, it appears that no time has passed. Jesus is still talking to the Pharisees. Chapter nine, if you remember, was all about the healing of the man born blind and what happened afterward. After that healed man received not only his physical sight, but his spiritual sight as well, the chapter ends with the Pharisees sarcastically asking Jesus, are we blind also? And Jesus says to them, if you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, we see, therefore your sin remains. So he ends that chapter with this rebuke to the Jewish leaders. And then immediately, Jesus says, verse one of chapter 10, most assuredly, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. So Christ is talking to the Pharisees and he's talking to them about the difference between true and false shepherds. Not true and false shepherds of literal sheep, of course, but true and false shepherds of God's people. Jesus is explaining the difference between true pastors and false pastors. These Pharisees, they thought they were God's gift to Israel. And it's true, the Bible says that pastors and teachers are gifts to the church, but these men were not true pastors. These were men who had just expelled a true sheep from their fold for not betraying Christ, the ultimate shepherd. Now, a real shepherd would not have done anything like that. These were men, these Pharisees were men who had crept into God's church and occupied positions of authority without divine warrant. They had, as Jesus says, not entered the sheepfold by the door. They had climbed up some other way. Yet Jesus doesn't just say this outright. Rather, he uses a parable to give this lesson. Now, children, I want all the children to listen. Who can tell me what a parable is? Something to explain something else? But how's it come across? What's the form of a parable? Is it just a lesson or is it more like a story? It's like a story, that's right. A parable is a story. God often uses stories to explain things to us. On the one hand, these stories help God's people understand him in better and deeper ways. And then on the other hand, these stories confuse God's enemies and they just don't get it. And the truth is hidden from them. So here we have a story. And I think perhaps one reason Jesus uses a parable here is because the lesson that he is teaching is not just about this particular group of Pharisees. Their wickedness is the jumping off point for his sermon, but really Christ is giving a general teaching for all of his church in all times and in all places. What he says here at John 10 is just as applicable today in America and here at King's Cross as it was 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. And as Jesus often does, he fills this story with pictures and things that would have been very familiar to the people listening to him. Everyone that was listening to Christ here in John chapter 10 would immediately have had an accurate picture in their minds of what he was talking about when he mentions thieves climbing into the sheepfolds and doorkeepers opening doors. But for us, we might not immediately pick up as much as our brothers and sisters from long ago would. So it's helpful if we look at some historical context here. In the ancient Near East, there were tons of sheep and tons of shepherds. Here in our part of the world, we don't have as many sheep. And in most towns, you might even go through in America, you might see cows, you might see chickens, but you're not gonna see sheep. However, that was not the case in ancient Israel. In most towns there, there would have in fact been so many sheep that they would have community sheep folds. These would be places set up in the town where the sheep could be kept safe at night. Oftentimes it would be a large wall around the sheep folds. This would be much more effective than what one man on his property could put up, just a little fence. That wouldn't keep out the wolves and the robbers nearly as well as a wall would. And at some point in this wall, there would be a door through which the shepherds could come in and out as they took their sheep to pasture and then brought them safely back to the pen. And Jesus says to these Pharisees and everyone else listening, he says, truly, truly, you know that a real shepherd goes through the door. How else would he lead his sheep in and out of the sheepfold? Climbing over the wall isn't going to work. Only a thief or robber would do that. Thieves aren't allowed in at the door. Only real shepherds go that way. But the thieves and robbers were a real problem. Everyone knew that. Even though it would be impossible to lead an entire herd of sheep over the wall, a nimble and strong thief could climb over the wall, run in quickly and grab a lamb, and then get back out before the doorkeeper caught him. Maybe even some of the men Jesus was preaching to had felt the sting of losing some of their lambs in this way. And yet Jesus is so clearly showing them that they, the Pharisees, are the ones doing this. They're not the true shepherds. They're the thieves and the robbers. The marks of a true shepherd that we can see here in John 10 are number one, a true shepherd enters the sheepfold by the door. A true shepherd enters the sheepfold by the door. Number two, a true shepherd speaks to his sheep. True shepherd speaks to his sheep. And number three, a true shepherd leads his sheep. True shepherd leads his sheep. And in all three of these marks, you'll see this overarching truth that a true shepherd loves his sheep and spends time with his sheep. So first, a true shepherd enters the sheepfold by the door. Verse two of our text today. He who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens. So remember, this is a parable, and really it's more of what we would call an allegory, where every single character or element within the story corresponds to some spiritual reality. And Jesus says in verse nine that he is the door of the sheepfold. Interestingly, he doesn't elaborate on who the doorkeeper is, but we could understand him to be the Holy Spirit. Therefore, all true shepherds enter the sheepfold by going through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this tells us a lot of things about what makes a godly minister. First of all, a godly minister trusts in Jesus. One of the most influential books I've ever read is called The Reformed Pastor. It was written almost 400 years ago by a Puritan pastor named Richard Baxter. And the whole book is basically about two things that make a true shepherd of God's flock. Number one, a real pastor cares for his own soul. A real pastor cares for his own soul. Listen to how Baxter opens his work. He says, see that the work of saving grace be thoroughly wrought in your own souls. Take heed to yourselves, lest you be void of that saving grace of God which you offer to others and be strangers to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach. And lest while you proclaim to the world the necessity of a savior, your own hearts should neglect him and you should miss of an interest in him and his saving benefits. Many a preacher is now in hell, Baxter writes, who hath a hundred times called upon his hearers to use the utmost care and diligence to escape it. A real pastor looks after his own soul. A pastor who doesn't do that is dangerous. It's like when you get on an airplane and the stewardess says, in case of emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, then help your children put theirs on. Now, why is that? The instinct is to put your children's oxygen mask on first, to always protect your children, to not care about yourself. But the stewardess says that because if you don't put your own mask on first, then you might not be getting enough oxygen. And if you don't have oxygen, how can you expect to give your children oxygen? You could just pass out in your seat before you get to putting their mask on. But if you put your mask on and you start breathing in that good air, and then you look over at your kids and they're starting to turn blue, you don't actually need to panic. You just put the mask right on them and watch them revive. You've got to make sure you're getting the oxygen before you can give it to others. And so a pastor who has gone through the door of Christ himself can lead others through the door too. But a pastor who has never gone through that door obviously can't take others through it. He could maybe point out the door to you, but he can't walk with you through it. If your pastor doesn't know Christ himself, then how could he properly shepherd you to know and love and trust in Christ? Another thing we learned from the fact that all true shepherds enter the sheepfold by going through Christ is that no true shepherd runs unsent. Running unsent means you have taken it upon yourself to be a pastor without a call from the Lord. Men do not make themselves pastors. God is the only one who can truly make a man a pastor. That means that ordinarily there is this internal call that a man senses from the Holy Spirit, and there is an external call that a man receives from a church. And if you don't have both of these, odds are you are not a true shepherd. If you don't go through Jesus by the power and influence of the Holy Spirit, then the only way you're getting into the sheepfold is as a thief or a robber. Now there can be extraordinary occasions where a man can be called directly by God without going through a church. But in scripture, we really only see this happening with the New Testament apostles and the Old Testament prophets. No ordinary priest in the Old Testament and no ordinary pastor, elder, or deacon in the New Testament experiences this extraordinary type of appointment to church office. And it's not the pattern we're given to follow as God's church is being built up. The next mark of a true shepherd that we see in our text is that a true shepherd speaks to his sheep. I said that Richard Baxter's book was largely divided into two parts. The first part is how the true pastor looks after his own soul. The second, much larger part of the book is devoted to demonstrating how a true pastor looks after the souls of his own sheep. And this is done in a number of ways, but largely pastors care for the souls of their own sheep by one, spending time with God, speaking to him about them, and two, spending time with their sheep, speaking to them about God. And it's the second aspect of shepherding that Baxter spends most of his book on and that Jesus highlights for us here in John 10. Pastors talk to their sheep about the Lord. A true shepherd loves his sheep and because of that, he makes sure their souls are well cared for. So he talks to them. That alleged quote by Francis of Assisi, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words. First of all, I don't even think he said it. There's no solid source. And secondly, it's completely false. You have to use words to preach the gospel. And that is what ministers are called to do. Look at verses three and four with me of chapter 10. To him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. We see that the shepherd calls his own sheep by name, that the sheep hear the shepherd's voice, and that the sheep know the shepherd's voice. Now, how is it that the shepherd can call his own sheep by name? It's a simple question and it's got a simple answer. The shepherd can call his own sheep by name because he knows them. A true shepherd knows his sheep. Imagine again that great community sheep pen in the center of town. The shepherd comes early in the morning to get his sheep out, and there might be hundreds of sheep in there, but he calls each one of his own by their name. He looks out into this great crowd of black and white wool, and he can pick out each and every one of his own sheep. He knows the unique sounds of their bleeding. He knows where they like to spend their time in the sheep pen. He knows which ones will be huddled together scared in a corner, which ones will be grazing, and which ones still might be lying around from the night before. And he calls out each and every name. And the sheep hear this man's voice, and they don't speak Aramaic or Hebrew or Greek, they're sheep. But they hear this man's voice, and they hear him calling their own names, and they come to him. Maybe sometimes he has to go pick one up or nudge another one along, but they all end up coming because the shepherd knows and loves the sheep and the sheep know and love the shepherd. So as you can see this first section here in John 10, it deals more directly with describing under shepherds, describing men, true and false pastors. The beginning of this conversation, this lesson that Jesus is preaching is not dealing first and foremost with Christ as the good shepherd. That will come very soon. But for right now, Jesus is talking about what makes a real God called pastor. But the imagery here of Christ as our ultimate shepherd is of course very powerful as well. We can see here the wonderful truth that if you are a child of God, Jesus knows you. And specifically he knows your name. There's something that we've lost in our society about how intimate it is to use someone's name. Just a few generations back, you did not call other people by their first name unless you were close to them, unless you were on what was called a first name basis with each other. Today, that's all but gone. But there is something intimate about using someone's name. And Christ knows our name and he calls us by our name. And not just the name that everyone else knows. Revelation 2.17 says this, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone and on that stone, a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. Sometimes a husband and a wife will have pet names for each other that no one else knows. or parents will have cute nicknames for their children that are only used inside the house. But this is something even deeper than that. If you are God's child, then he has a special name for you that only you and he will know. He knows you and he calls you by name. And so also his earthly shepherds, following the example of Christ, call their own sheep by their own names. Richard Baxter points out that the biblical model for preaching to one's flock was not just in the pulpit on the Lord's day, but also from house to house. That's where he did most of his speaking to his sheep about God. Baxter had 800 families in his parish, and he visited each and every one of them at least once per year. That was his ministry. That's how he knew his sheep's names. That's how the sheep knew his voice. And that's how they had the confidence to follow him. This was how love and trust between sheep and shepherd was cultivated. Baxter was not just a pulpit ornament. He was a shepherd who visited his sheep and talked with them. It's a sad church where the pastor doesn't know the names of his sheep and where the sheep don't know the voice of their shepherd. And the last mark of a true shepherd that we'll look at again today, that we'll look at today, is a true shepherd leads his sheep. A true shepherd leads his sheep. Verses three and four. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him for they know his voice. There are basically two ways that a shepherd can get his sheep from one location to another. That is if he's not using a sheepdog. First, a shepherd can stand behind his flock and drive them from the rear. He can give instructions, directing them, maybe prodding them with his staff, herring them into one direction. He's herding the sheep, driving them where he wants them to go. That's one way. The second way a shepherd gets his sheep from one place to another is by leading them from the front. Here the shepherd stands at the front of his flock and they follow behind him. I don't know much about herding actual sheep, but I imagine that this type of shepherding requires a more intimate relationship between the sheep and the shepherd. You can't see the sheep as well when you're out front. but your sheep can see you better. And they have a clear idea where you want them to go. You're not just threatening with the stick at all times from the rear. But for this type of shepherding, you have to trust, the sheep have to trust you and they have to want to be where you are. Otherwise they'll just stay back in the sheepfold or on the hillside. This is far different. from driving from the rear. The first type of shepherding, the rearward shepherding, essentially pushes your sheep away into the unknown. The second type draws them near to where you are as you lead them along the way. That is the picture of how a pastor leads and loves his flock. A pastor doesn't just get up on the Lord's Day and start brandishing his proverbial staff around saying, go to evangelism, come to the prayer meeting, be hospitable to your neighbors, study the Bible, read good Christian books, give money to the church, work heartily to the Lord. He doesn't just get up and yell with the stick. while he's in the rear, locked away in the church building or the study, living the life of a reclusive scholar, or more common today, the life of a keyboard warrior. No, the true shepherd leads his sheep in these areas. He wants his people to read their Bibles, so he reads his Bible and talks with them about the Bible and comes along, side them to read the Bible with them. He wants his people to share Christ with others, so he says, come with me, I'll show you how to do this. He doesn't just drive from the rear, he leads from the front. An older generation of kings used to be at the tip of the spear in battles. They would rush headlong into the fray with their soldiers following in their wake. They would be, as C.S. Lewis says, the first in every desperate attack and the last in every desperate retreat. But over time, kings began more and more to stay behind their soldiers, sitting on their horses on a hill far away, watching their men kill and be killed. And by the time we got to the 20th century, rulers stopped going to the battlefield altogether. They remained content to watch remotely, receive reports about the battle from hundreds or thousands of miles away. But that's no way to lead. A good king and also a good shepherd leads from the front. The next thing we see in this passage are the marks of a true sheep. Marks of a true sheep. We can see from these first nine verses of John chapter 10 that a true sheep hears the shepherd's voice. He hears the shepherd's voice. He follows his shepherd. and he runs from the voices of strangers. He hears the shepherd's voice, he follows the shepherd, and he runs from the voice of strangers. And since the first two of those marks correspond to two of the marks of a true shepherd really well, The sheep hear the shepherd's voice because the shepherd talks to them. The sheep follow the shepherd because the shepherd leads them. Since we've already discussed those things to some extent, when we're talking about the marks of the shepherd, we're gonna work through those a bit more quickly. First mark, a true sheep hears his shepherd's voice. Acts 17 says that when Paul and Silas arrived in Berea, they went into the synagogue of the Jews and the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica and that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed. A true sheep receives his shepherd's words with all readiness. or some translations say with all eagerness. He diligently attends corporate worship. He gladly receives the shepherd in his home and he trusts and submits to the shepherds that God has given to him. This of course is not a blind faith in your pastor or your elders. It's been said that even the best of men are still men at their best. We can and we will sin. I will make mistakes. I will disappoint you many times. Nevertheless, there is a vast difference between listening to someone with a posture of trust and listening to someone with a posture of doubt. A true sheep has trust. He's grown accustomed to the shepherd's voice and he trusts it. Further, if a sheep's ears are attuned to the voice of the ultimate shepherd, Jesus Christ, then he can more easily trust that God's ordained means of instruction through pastors is a wise and safe path. And he can more easily hear if the under shepherd's voice is in tune with the voice of Christ. Both shepherd and sheep must exercise spiritual discernment here. The Bible tells us that false teachers will try to creep in and deceive and lead away some of God's sheep. So the shepherds must keep a close watch on their flock, but the sheep also must keep a close watch on themselves. And the more you listen to sound teaching, the less your ears will itch for falsehood. So receive teaching and preaching with all eagerness and continue to listen to the voice of the good shepherd. It's hard to know if your pastor is singing the right notes if you don't know what the song is supposed to sound like. So listen to your pastor, and most importantly, listen to God through his word. The second mark of a true sheep is that the true sheep follows his shepherd. When your shepherd says, we're going this way, do you wait until you are independently, absolutely certain that that's the best way forward? Or do you trust the man walking point has your best interest at heart? Knowing that if he's wrong, and if he's out front leading like he should be, then he'll be the one taking the first hit. Remember, if you have a true shepherd, he's not driving you from the rear, he's leading you by example. And a sheep follows a shepherd like that. And this requires a lot of trust. but it's important if the flock is going to get where they need to go. If the sheep won't follow the shepherd, then the shepherd is gonna be tempted sinfully to go around to the back and drive his sheep with the staff. That's not good. Then the sheep will trust him even less. And then it becomes just this vicious cycle of distrust and eventually bitterness between shepherd and sheep. A true shepherd leads and a true sheep follows. And then the last mark of a true sheep that I want us to look at this morning is that the true sheep run from the voice of strangers. All right, children, I have another question for you. This one's very important. Children, what are you supposed to do if a stranger comes up to you and says, your mommy told me to come and pick you up, let's go. What do you do? Yeah, you say no, what else do you do? You better get out of there. You run back in the house, or run back in the church building, or run to your mommy or daddy, or run to the nearest adult you know, or to a policeman or a firefighter, someone safe, and you scream, you run. A sheep will not go with someone he doesn't know, and you shouldn't either. If a man comes to the door of the sheepfold and calls out the name of another man's sheep, those sheep aren't coming, because they didn't hear their shepherd's voice. They don't know that man's voice. A good sheep doesn't follow after strangers, and a true Christian doesn't follow after strange teaching. It's true, a Christian could be wrong in a lot of lesser ways. I'm confident we're all wrong in some ways. We don't know what those ways are, otherwise we would correct them. We can be wrong in a lot of smaller ways. We could even be seriously deceived for a period of time. But a true sheep, a born again child of God, will not follow after heresy in the long run. Rather, he will flee from it. Just like Joseph fled from Potiphar's wife. He doesn't even want to be in the same room as that temptation. We adults often tell our young people to flee from immorality. And that's good. We should absolutely be telling them that. But we also need to be telling ourselves and our fellow sheep to flee from strange voices. What you read matters. What you listen to matters. What you watch matters. Who you spend time with matters. If your nightstand is full of books by liberals and heretics and ex-evangelicals and secularists, you are not acting like a true sheep. You are walking yourself into strange voices. We too often think we can listen to these strange voices but not be influenced by them. That is a dangerous game to play. If you wanna know how to talk with your Mormon friend about why you're concerned about Mormon theology, then yes, reading a little bit about the distinctives of their beliefs is helpful. But the lion's share of your reading, even to prepare for those focused conversations, should be the word of God. And then second to that, sound evangelical Protestant theology. Because the more you listen to the voice of strangers, the less strange their voices start to sound. Heresy starts to sound normal when you've been around it for a long time. And you do not want that. Jesus here says a sheep will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him. That's the approach you need to have, not only for the bold faced immorality, but also for false teaching. You're not gonna put up with people blaspheming Christ in front of you or in your house. That's not allowed here. Either they're leaving or you're leaving. Who here has heard the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer? I think we've probably, all the adults in the room have heard that. Terrible advice. Terrible advice. Worldly advice. Beware of your enemies. Yes, absolutely. But second to God, keep your brothers and sisters in Christ the closest and listen to your shepherd's voice. Now, we've spent a good deal of time talking about the distinguishing marks of a true shepherd and of true sheep. God willing, next week, we'll look much more closely at Christ himself, who is the good shepherd. This was in some ways a different sermon than normal. Pastors don't normally preach about what it means to be a good pastor. But the great benefit of working through a whole book of the Bible is you hit so many different topics, including some that you might otherwise not cover. If I was just picking passages at random to preach each Sunday, then I would not be chomping at the bit to preach about what it means to be a true shepherd of God's flock. But as Van Til says, scripture is authoritative on everything of which it speaks and it speaks of everything. And here we see God speaking through his word about faithful pastors and faithful Christians. And what an important topic this is. So we talk about it and examine our lives in light of this teaching. But as we're going through this passage, I want to make certain that we don't overlook the number one defining mark of a good pastor and a good Christian. It is the exact same thing. The number one mark of every child of God, no matter what station God has called him to, the number one mark is that he goes through the door of the sheepfold. That's the number one mark, verses seven through nine, John chapter 10. Then Jesus said to them again, most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. A shepherd can speak to a sheep, can spend time with his sheep, lead a sheep, But if he doesn't go through the door of Christ Jesus, he will not be saved. Be like those men that say, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in your name? And Jesus will say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You never came through me. You ran as one unsent. That's why Baxter began his book on pastoral theology by spending dozens of pages encouraging ministers to make your own calling and election sure. So I'm preaching myself here and to our elders, John and David, and any other minister that might ever listen to this sermon, make sure you are saved. That is more important than any other aspect of gospel ministry. And the same is true for church members. You can trust your pastor, you can follow your pastor, you can even run away from the heretics. You can read all the right books, say all the right Christian things, go to the right conferences and still be lost. First and foremost, you must enter through the door of Christ Jesus. You must trust in Jesus in your heart. And if your shepherd tries to lead you somewhere else, if I try to lead you away from the sheepfold with some strange teaching, don't follow me. The Apostle Paul says, even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so now I say again, he wants to make sure you hear him. This is the Apostle Paul. If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. Make sure you were in Christ and make sure you were hearing directly from Christ. There is nothing more important in this world. Going through the door and entering into the sheepfold is not primarily just about joining the visible church. It's not about becoming a church member. It's not about being baptized. Both of those things are very important. But going through the door ultimately means having a true and living faith in Christ in your heart. Do you believe in Jesus? Is he your master and redeemer and friend? Is Christ your shepherd? If he's not, then ask him to be. Seek him out, pray that he would stand at the door and call your name. Look unto him today and be saved. He will not cast you out. If you call upon Him in faith, Jesus will accept you. Verse nine here is all-encompassing. Look at how wide the salvation that Christ offers to us here is. I am the door. If anyone, anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. It's a promise, it's a guarantee. A sheep wants the safety of the sheepfold and the bounty of the pasture, but he can only find it in Jesus Christ. And what exactly Christ means here in verse nine by going in and out, to be honest, I'm not entirely certain. Augustine said that going in means entering the church by faith and going out means dying in faith. He writes, we come in by believing, we go out by dying. Whether this is primarily what Christ means here or not, like I said, I'm not certain, but I know what Augustine says is true. If you are in Christ by faith, then you will remain in Christ by faith and you will die in Christ by faith. And blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Sheep need a shepherd. Even though all human shepherds are weak and frail and wrong at times, sheep need a shepherd. And shepherds would not and could not be shepherds without sheep. A sheepless shepherd is a contradiction in terms. So shepherds need sheep. As I think through all of this in the context of our church, my prayer for us is that we would more and more delight in and trust and love each other as faithful sheep and faithful shepherds do. That we would own each other in these roles that God has graciously given to us. I cannot imagine a better church to pastor. I feel that our relationship is so good and so sweet already. There were several churches before I was called here that I interviewed at that I knew if I was called, I would go. But I knew that if I was called there, it would be a massive uphill battle to form this type of shepherd-sheep relationship that Jesus is describing in John 10. And I feel like we got it largely from the get-go. So I'm not praying for some pie in the sky, far away dream. I'm not behind you with the shepherd's crook saying, you better listen to me. That's not what I want you to hear. But I'm praying that we would continue to press forward, that we would go further up and further in as shepherd and sheep to whatever pastors God is calling us to. I remember someone once said to me, when you first start pastoring and your people introduce you to others in the community, they'll say, this is the pastor. of our church is the pastor, is his name, he's new. Then after a little while, they'll start to say, this is our pastor. And then after a little while longer, they'll start to say, this is my pastor. And I hope that's how you as sheep can continue to see our relationship, that you can look at me and say, this is my pastor, not just, this is the pastor of the church I attend. And then on the flip side, I think about how Jonathan Edwards referred to his sheep and his congregations. Some people don't know this, but Edwards, who is perhaps even the greatest theological mind ever to live on this continent, he was fired from his church. And after getting fired, he went to go pastor a congregation of Indians. It was before the Revolutionary War, before we were our own independent nation. And to many people, this would be seen for the last of the Puritan ministers as a step down for him. But Edwards never thought of it like that. He loved those Indians like a good shepherd and labored among them just as much as he had ever done with any other group of people. And in his writings, you can see how much he loved these Indians because he would often refer to them as my Indians. That's how you see it coming up and over and over. I was teaching my Indians. I was visiting with my Indians. This wasn't because he thought he was superior to them. He thought as a white man, he had some ownership over them or that he was educated and they were not. It was because he was looking at these men and these women and these children as his very own sheep whom he knew and loved and had been given by God to care for. Look at how much the word own comes up in this passage. The shepherd knows his own sheep. He calls his own sheep by name. He leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. That's what we see here in John 10. That's how a shepherd talks about his sheep. Following Christ's words, Edwards would say, these aren't just the Indians that I happen to pastor. He'd say, no, these are my Indians. And his church members would say, this is my shepherd. Sometimes ministers are very uncomfortable talking this way. They don't ever want anyone to think that they are exalting themselves too highly, nor do they want anyone to think that they are exerting ownership over God's flock. They'll say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. These aren't my sheep. These are God's sheep. And I know what they mean by that. These are good things to be aware of. Shepherds must be humble and remember that we have a shepherd as well. I don't want you to ever think that I am under some delusion that I'm better than you, because I am not, and I don't think that I am. At the end of the day, I may be a shepherd, but my truest and everlasting identity is not of a shepherd, it's of a sheep as well. Nevertheless, I think the bigger concern with most churches is that the pastors don't press into their roles deep enough. They don't love their sheep enough. They don't identify themselves as the shepherd and their people as their sheep. They're too content to be hirelings or program managers or church administrators. They're too content not to know the names of all of their sheep and to move on to another flock every five years or so. And you can understand why pastors would move from flock to flock. Remember, if it wasn't their flock to begin with, why would it be a big deal to move on and get a new batch of sheep? If none of these people are really your sheep, then it doesn't matter which ones are under your care. But I don't want that for us here at King's Cross. God called me to be your shepherd. God called you to be my sheep. And I want to pour everything I can into that calling. and may God grant us more faithful, trusting love for one another as the years go on. Let's pray. God, I thank you for this model of what it means to be a faithful shepherd and a faithful sheep. God, I am so, so aware of the many ways that I am not what I just described, Lord. I pray that you would just use all of us together as brothers and sisters humbly before you to sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron. Lord, I thank you so much for the humility of my brothers and sisters, some of whom in this room are older and godlier than I, that they were humble enough to call me to be a shepherd. And I pray that we would each be able to just press into these roles joyfully and delight in where you've called us and what you've called us to do. God, I don't know exactly what pastures you want to lead us to in this earthly life, but I know they will be wonderful green pastures. I know they will be the best pastors for us because you always have our best interest in mind. I pray that you would give us all the courage and the trust in each other and the love for one another to pursue you, to follow after you, our great good shepherd into wherever those green pastures may be. God, I pray that each and every one of us would not just be here to punch our ticket and to check off a box, but that we would all in our heart of hearts go through the door by the aid of the doorkeeper, that we would go to you, Jesus Christ, through your Holy Spirit, that you would draw each and every one of us, Lord, further up and further in to your kingdom and your glory until we do on that final day, Lord, go out once for all into the great pastures of everlasting eternity to dwell with you. Lord, we eagerly await that day. We feel like the Apostle Paul, Lord. I do not know if it is better to serve you here on earth or to depart and be with you in heaven. But God, whatever your will is, we will follow you. We thank you, Lord, in Christ's name. Amen.