We've been making our way through this tremendous gospel of one of his disciples, John, and a couple of weeks ago we were in John chapter 9, and of course we saw the whole chapter, the healing of the man that was born blind, a young man that didn't see Jesus at first until Jesus found him later, John chapter 9. And then that led to a conversation that Jesus began with some of the Pharisees. at the end of chapter 9, and then going all the way into chapter 10. So, the rest of John 10, at least the portion that we are in right now, is part of that conversation that Jesus is having with these Pharisees, the ones that rejected Him and rejected that young man. Before we read the Word of God, let's pause and pray and ask Him to grant us not only ears to hear, but soft hearts that are quick to apply the Word of God to our own lives. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful that we live in a place and time in which we are free to hear your word. Grant us, O Lord, not merely the ears to hear. May we heed the warning that James gives us to not merely be hearers, but to be doers of the word, that we would not deceive ourselves, but we would truly see ourselves in the light of your word. especially as we get to know better and better Your Son. And it's in His name that we pray. Amen. Follow along in your copies of God's Word as I begin reading in John 10, verse 1. "'Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.'" But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they don't know the voice of the strangers. Now this figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what He was saying to them. So again, Jesus said to them, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.'" All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me. because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I received from my father." There was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said, these are not the words of the one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? This ends the reading of God's Word. And again, may He bless it, that we would be more than merely hearers, but we would see through His Word how we are to live, to be doers of His Word. Well, as I said, in John 10, Jesus is continuing a dialogue with some of the Pharisees, and he uses an illustration that at first utterly confused them all. He said, I am the door of the sheep. Now, on this side of history, it's easy to understand what Jesus meant. A shepherd, as we saw last week, would lead his sheep into a pen, and then he would lay himself down in front of the only opening to that pen. So no enemy could enter and no sheep could exit without going past Him. He was the way, as Jesus was teaching, of salvation, of security, and of complete satisfaction. He is the only hope that a sheep can have. Well, after explaining what it means for Him to be the door, He goes back to where he began this illustration in the beginning of a shepherd and a sheep, but he uses a different type of sheep pen in this illustration. The other type of pen was a communal pen that would hold more than one flock, where a shepherd would lead his sheep, and there would be a man, a gate man, a watchman, a hired man to watch the gate. And he would lead his sheep into the pen, and he would watch them for the shepherd. And in the morning, the shepherd would return and call his sheep. This is the type of pen to which Jesus was referring when he says, I am the good shepherd. But before we look at this title and its impact on our lives, let's take just a moment to break down that little phrase, that title that Jesus uses. I am the good shepherd. Once again, he starts with, I am. And if you haven't been here, this is a clear way that Jesus was demonstrating equality with God the Father. This was the name of God himself. I am the I am. And the Jews understood what he was doing. And they hated him for it. He was using the name of God and applying it to himself. I am. And he says, I am the good shepherd. There is no other shepherd who can grant salvation, security, and satisfaction. He does not say, I am a good shepherd. He says, I am the good shepherd, the only one. And he says, I'm the good shepherd. The word good obviously could be understood as the morally good, and He certainly is. That's the way we normally think of it. And He is the only good, truly good shepherd. But it can mean more than that. It can also be used to say that He is the beautiful, winsome, lovely, attractive, true, genuine shepherd. He is a good shepherd in all of those ways, and He's the shepherd. And that's the role that we'll spend most of our time looking at this morning. He is the good shepherd. And there's four things that a shepherd does for his sheep that we can see Jesus applying to himself as our good shepherd. The first is that Jesus calls his sheep by name. And therefore, we must follow him. He calls us by name. A shepherd would go to this communal pen and lead his sheep to the pasture. As he entered the sheep pen, he would start calling them by name. And notice the personal nature of that. Maybe it was one with a notched ear and he got a nickname, he got a name because of his ear, this mark or that identifying characteristic. The shepherd would call them by name. In verse 3, Jesus says, the sheep hear His voice and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. Now, if we think about why Jesus was having this conversation and what just happened, then it makes a lot more sense to us, I think. Jesus healed the young man that had been born blind. And after the Pharisees investigated it, questioned the man twice, questioned the man's parents, they became furious with this young man because of his boldness in acknowledging that Jesus is the Messiah. And they excommunicated him. That's when Jesus found the young man. And for the first time, the young man saw Jesus. He didn't know him by face because he was blind. When Jesus met him the first time, he spat on the dirt, made a little mud in it, wiped it on the man's eyes, and said, go wash in the pool of Siloam. The man left. He left Jesus aside, went to the pool, washed, came back seeing, but Jesus wasn't there anymore. So when Jesus found him, it was the first time he actually laid eyes on Jesus. And Jesus revealed to him that He is the Messiah. In John chapter 1, verse 11, we were told, and you go back, you remember this maybe, we're told that Jesus came to His own and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Jesus came into this world, into this giant communal sheep pen, and He began calling names, His own sheep. Many of the Jews, His own people, did not receive Him. They did not know His voice. But this young blind man heard Jesus calling His name. And He came, He received Him, and He followed Him. In chapter 9, verse 38, it says that He said, I do believe, and He worshiped Him. Now, it's very important that we understand what it means that Jesus calls His sheep by name. Being the Son of God, Jesus knew you. He knew your name before you ever came into being. He came into this pen and called His sheep by name." We'll see more on that in the next point, but He called them. This is the doctrine of election, that God chose sheep to be His sheep, and Jesus knew who was His sheep. Remember, we've mentioned it many times already that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus knew that Judas was a devil from the very beginning. And later we're going to see in John 10 and John 15 that Jesus knew that these Pharisees were not His sheep. He knows His sheep, the ones whom the Father has given Him. He came and He calls them by name. The Father gives sheep to Jesus, and Jesus comes to the door of the pen and He calls them by name. He came into this world to call His sheep. The hard reality behind this is that some people are not saved. Some people will never be saved. Jesus did not call many of the Pharisees. In fact, we will hear Jesus say, you are not my sheep. These are hard, disturbing words, even. When Jesus calls you, however, as one of His sheep, the only response is to follow Him. Jesus said in verse 4, when He has brought out all His own, He goes before them and the sheep follow Him for they know His voice. To follow means exactly as it sounds. We follow His lead. We do what He tells us to do. even though we still have a tendency to wander. In 1970, Philip Keller, some of you will recognize that name if you go back that far, Philip Keller is an author. He wrote a book that was published in 1970 entitled, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23. It's a fascinating book. He writes as a shepherd, and he relates a lot of his stories to the description of Psalm 23. One of my favorite stories is the story of a sheep that he named Mrs. Gadabout. He says she was beautiful. In fact, he said that she was one of the most beautiful ewes, one of the most beautiful sheep that he ever owned. But there was a problem. She was restless. She was always discontent. She would literally walk along the perimeter of his pastures, looking for a way to escape. And he took tremendous pride in his pastures. His pastures in that little county, that little region, were some of the best pastures that the sheep had. He took tremendous care, but Mrs. Gadabow didn't care. She wanted what was on the other side of the boundary. They lived along the shore, and sometimes as a tide would go out, she would try to get to the end of the fence and make her way around the fence line. Constant source of problems to him. But he didn't really mind that. It was easy to bring her back into the pasture where she would be fed. The problem became when Mrs. Gadabow began leading her little lambs to do the same thing. And then an even greater problem when the other sheep in the fold began to follow her example. And when he saw how she was endangering the flock, to put it nicely, she became a meal. He put it a little more bluntly than that. for the safety, for the protection of the flock. Mrs. Gadabout had to go. When we become restless and discontent with our shepherd, our savior, we not only endanger ourselves, but we can cause harm to the whole flock, to the whole church family. We must follow our shepherd. We must follow his lead. But secondly, We see why Jesus calls us into the flock. Jesus loves His sheep, and therefore, we must seek to know Him better. Now, you won't find the word love in this passage, in these verses, but clearly, all the actions of the shepherd toward his sheep are acts of love. He calls us because He loved us eternally and unconditionally. He lays down His life for us because He loves us. He leads us to green pastures and quiet waters because He loves us. So even though the word love isn't mentioned, there is a phrase that is an expression of deep love. He says that He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him. in the same way that the father knows him and he knows the father. In fact, look at verse 14, I know my own and my own know me, just as the father knows me and I know the father. I mean, this is a clear description of an intimate relationship, but let that sink in for a second. The love that Jesus has for the father and that the father has for the son is the same love that he has for you. In the words of the old preacher, if that don't flip your switch, you ain't got one. That the same love that He has for you is what they share as Father and Son. And that's how we are to love Him. The challenge for us is to love Him like that. But Jesus says that sheep hear His voice. and they know His voice. The only way that we can love Jesus in the same way is by getting to know Him better, right? We know that interpersonally in our relationships, especially in the home. In fact, in Ephesians 5, it says that the Christian marriage is an illustration of the relationship between Christ and His church, between Christ and His people. I think we can also see how the love that a child has for his parents is a very fitting illustration in our day. Think of a young child, a little one, how the child is totally enamored with his parents. and how they want to do everything with their parents. They don't want the parents to leave them. They want to become just like their mom or just like their dad. They are absolutely, totally in love with their parents. And that's similar to a new believer. They want to know everything about Jesus. They're so excited about this new love that they have experienced. Tell me more. They're enamored with Jesus. Sadly, I think many Christians get stuck in adolescence, where they would say that they love Jesus, but their actions seem to indicate that they do everything that they can to get away from their parents and ignore their parents and not want to be like their parents. But there will come a day, by the grace of God, that we eventually get to the point that we begin to understand who our parents really are. and what they have done. And we grow in our understanding. We grow in our love for them. Brothers and sisters, we must be committed to growing in our love for our Savior by growing in our knowledge of our Savior, who He is, and all that He has done. Don't be content to simply know Jesus has a baby in the manger and an empty tomb at the end. Our love for Jesus, our commitment to Jesus, truly can be measured by the depth of knowledge that we have of Jesus. It's not merely about knowledge intellectually, but as a demonstration of our love for Him. We grow in our understanding, we grow in our love, and we must be committed to growing in our knowledge of Christ. Our shepherd knows us, and He wants us to know Him. But how do we know that He loves us like this, other than the fact that we've already said that He called us? Well, thirdly, Jesus redeems His sheep, and therefore, we must remain true to Him. The greatest proof of Jesus' love is that He willingly gave Himself up for His sheep. Did you notice in that short passage, in five times, in only four verses, Jesus said, He lays down His life for the sheep. There's a little word in that phrase that I think is absolutely crucial that we can overlook so easily. It's the word for. It's what theologians call the vicarious death of Christ. I mean, leave it to scholars to make a simple three-letter word into something so difficult, but it's a wonderful truth that He lays down His life for the sheep. Vicarious means that it is a substitute, a substitutionary death in the place of His sheep. Without the death of Jesus, we can never be in God's presence. Our sin has completely disqualified us from ever going to heaven. The old saying, even the best of men are mere men at best. Being mere men, we are sinners who cannot be in the presence of God without a substitute, without a vicarious atonement, a sacrificial substitutional death. because no one is righteous enough to be allowed into Heaven on their own merit. Our sin demands a price, and Jesus said that He paid that price. Now, you'll see I've used another very important word in this point as well. I said that Jesus redeems His sheep. The word, redeem, is a descriptive word simply for laying down one's life. His life was the payment for our forgiveness. To redeem means that a price was paid to secure one's freedom. Unfortunately, however, today, a lot of people think that for us to get to heaven, we just have to be good enough. that we have to earn our forgiveness by obeying God's commands. And I've told some of you that there was a man I shared with the gospel many years ago, and he said that, I know that I haven't done everything that I should be doing, but I've been pretty good. I've been good enough. It absolutely blew my mind that someone actually thought that way. I was young in my faith, young in learning how to share the gospel. The pastor that was teaching us how to do it, role-played for us before we went out. And as this lady was practicing sharing the gospel with him, and she asked him, why do you think God should allow you into heaven? He said, well, I'm a pretty good man. And I sat there thinking, nobody's going to say that. The very first time I got to go out and share the gospel with someone, that's exactly what the guy said. I think I'm a pretty good man. And he added, I think God will open the gate and turn his back and allow me to sneak in because I'm good enough. But the Bible says that there's no one good. No, not one. Clearly, God's definition of good is different than man's definition of good. Man looks at other men. and says, well, I'm better than him. I may not have done everything that I should have been doing all the time, but I'm not that bad. I've done a lot of good. I'm better than that guy. But God looks at man and he says, you're nothing like my son. If you want to be allotted to heaven, you must be as good as him, not better than some other schmuck. God wouldn't say it like that, but you know the point. We compare ourselves to one another and we look pretty good. But the standard is Jesus. We don't meet the standard. There is no one righteous. No, not one. Our good works, as good as they are, are never good enough. Jesus redeems His sheep. And through His redemption, He grants us the grace that we need to remain true to Him, to then start doing the good works, to follow Him and obey His voice. You know, when you think about what He has done, who He is and what He has accomplished, the appropriate response is to live in such a way that we honor and please Him, right? Well, before we look at the last point, there's one more element to the work of redemption that we must recognize. It's an extremely difficult truth to embrace. Jesus says, I lay down my life for my sheep. Those aren't words of theologians out there. Jesus says it several times. I lay down my life for my sheep. I redeem my sheep. He did not die as a substitute for everyone. If His death was a payment that God accepted for the punishment of sin, and we believe that it is, if the debt was paid in full at the cross, and we believe that it was, then it cannot be for everyone in the world, or hell would be empty. There would be no condemnation. If the transaction in God's sight is complete, has been enacted for the sins of the whole world, then there would be no hell. If He paid the price, He paid the price. Well, the common response to this doctrinal dilemma is that a person must choose to believe in Jesus. that He makes the offer available, but it's up to you to choose, to exercise your will. But I hope you can see that that puts your salvation in your terms. It becomes a work of man. He did that work, but I must do a work now in order for it to be mine. However, in John 1, After we read that by receiving Christ, we become children of God, John explains how a person receives God. So, in verse 13 of John 1, it says that you are born, not of blood, and that draws you back to John 3, where Jesus is going to say to Nicodemus, John says that you're born not of blood. In other words, not of your family line. Not because you're Jewish, not because your parents were Christians, not because you went to church because that was a family thing that you did. It's not of blood. It's not a family line. That's not how you were born. He says, nor of the will of the flesh. It's not in your own strength, your own ability to do it by yourself. And he adds, nor of the will of man. It's not even your choosing to do it. You're born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. Jesus paid the price for His sheep, and God makes you alive. He changes your heart and your will. You follow Him, and He gives you a new family, a new family name. And His family, His flock, includes folds that are all over the world, but one flock. Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish, will have everlasting life. His flock includes a variety of sheep from all over the world, not just Jews. People like you and me, people in North Africa, people in North Korea, people all over the world have been brought into His flock because He has sheep whom He has given His Son, and the Son has called His sheep by name. The difficult doctrine, I think, is easier to embrace when we understand one other simple truth. Jesus knows His sheep. He calls them by name, but we don't know His sheep. We don't know who will listen to His call. Our duty then is to just broadly proclaim what Christ has done and listen for Jesus to finish that call. His sheep include people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. And that leads us, lastly and very briefly, Jesus unites His sheep, and therefore we must embrace our unity. And this could be a sermon all by itself, but it won't be. Verse 16, Jesus says, I have other sheep that are not of this fold, referring to the Jews. I must bring them also, referring to the Gentiles, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd. Again, Jesus is talking to Jewish leaders, and He's saying that there are Gentiles who are His sheep. He's come into this world, this great communal sheep pen, and He is calling His sheep by name, and many of them are not Jews. But they need to be brought into the fold. Now, you think about it, this must have been absolutely, thoroughly confusing to those Jews. Because for centuries, they had wrongly believed that salvation only belonged to the Jewish people. It was through the Jewish people that God brought salvation, but it was not only for the Jews. From the very beginning of the nation of Israel, God declared that they would be a blessing to the nations. God even provided the necessary means for bringing Gentiles into the fold. Jesus says, they will listen to My voice and He will bring them into His fold. There's only one flock, one true shepherd. Jesus does not say that He has flocks all over the world, but He has one flock. meaning we are unified under one shepherd. Now, he has many under-shepherds, like me and Pastor Tim and the elders of this church. We are considered your shepherds, under the chief shepherd. We have one chief shepherd. On another occasion in Matthew 16, Jesus used a different analogy, that of a building, and he said to his disciples, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We are His sheep. We are part of His building. The sheep of His pasture, the flock of God that spreads throughout the world, spans the ages. And He's still calling His sheep, bringing people into His fold, a flock that cannot be defeated. You combine those two analogies, and we have a fascinating idea. I think it's easy to see that hell cannot prevail against the church as a building that is fortified with Christ as a chief cornerstone. It's easy to see that imagery of a strong and mighty fortress under the almighty hands of God that cannot be prevailed against. You put that into a picture of a flock of sheep, sheep aren't very intimidating, are they? How are sheep? able to withstand the attacks of hell. In fact, Jesus raised that question, didn't He, in the illustration of the hired man and how a wolf will come in and the hired man will flee and he'll attack the sheep. But the point is, that's not His sheep, the way His sheep were. You don't have a hired man. You have Christ. He's not saying that you can be pulled away from the flock and devoured by a wolf. He's saying just the opposite. You have the good shepherd who protects his sheep. There is nothing that can penetrate his flock and destroy his flock. The gates of hell cannot prevail against his sheep. He has transformed us into a formidable body because he has secured our victory and our shepherd. is formidable. The Good Shepherd calls His sheep, loves His sheep, redeems His sheep, and unifies His sheep. So may we be committed to following Him, growing in our knowledge of Him more and more, remaining true to Him, and continuing to proclaim and celebrate the unity of God's flock. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, it is certainly comforting to know that we belong to you. As we started this service out, being reminded that we are yours. Father, now we end by recognizing the power of our shepherd, our redeemer. And when he has bought us, we are forever yours, part of your flock. Father, I pray that you would enable us to thrive as sheep. It would recognize our unity as brothers and sisters, as fellow sheep. It would also recognize that we are united because of our shepherd. We are protected, not because of our own strength in numbers, We're protected because of our shepherd. May we trust in Him. May we long to be like Him. And we pray this in His name. Amen. Our closing hymn is another one around the idea of our Redeemer.