me to John chapter 10 this morning. John chapter 10, the gospel. We'll read verses 11 through 17. Really, the whole chapter, of course, deals with Jesus' great narrative where he speaks of himself as the I Am. First of all, he calls himself I Am here, reminding us that he is God who stood in front of the, who spoke out of the bush, the burning bush in the Old Testament. I Am that I Am. Right? So this is one of his I am statements, but it's his great shepherd, good shepherd and shepherd of the sheep narratives. And so, we're going to read verses 11 through 17. Listen to God's word together, brothers and sisters. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a hireling who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I am known by my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice. And there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again." Amen. God bless the reading of His Holy Word. Brothers and sisters in Jesus, last week in 1 Corinthians we saw, 1 Corinthians chapter 4, we looked at Paul's metaphor for the church where he called the church world theater. And then if you were with us sometime back in chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, you might remember that Paul called the church A field, the church is field. And then he said, the church is building. And then he said, the church is temple. So field, temple, building, world theater. And that got me thinking about other ways that the Bible uses metaphors to describe the church. And in John 10, we have the church as flock, the church as sheepfold. And this is maybe one of the more well-known metaphors or pictures that are used in all of scripture to describe the church of Jesus Christ. It is the most used metaphor in the Old Testament and new. It is also the subject of some of the best-loved Psalms, but the best-known, probably Psalm, maybe the most recognized piece of literature in all of the world, in any country, wherever you go, Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, right? Brothers and sisters of Redeemer Reformed Church, right now, at this particular time in history, we can learn something vital for our well-being as a church from this picture of the church as sheepfold. And there are really three main characters in this narrative that we want to take a look at. The first one is that of the identifier as sheep. characteristic of a sheep. Now, right away, when you think about a sheep, I think we have to acknowledge that this is a humbling designation because we are being likened to a sheep. And sheep are, first of all, relatively weak creatures. You can highlight some of the weaknesses of sheep, some of their more helpless qualities, right? Sheep are not the brightest animals in the barn, okay? Sheep are needy. They can't live really and thrive on their own. Did you know that most domesticated animals, if left and let go, will revert to the wild? Horses thrive in the wild. Dogs will pack up in the wild and then they'll become very adept at being a pack and doing what packs do and that is hunting down their prey and eating them well, right? Cats will go feral. Did you know though that sheep? Sheep do not revert to the wild. They are extremely vulnerable to predators. They don't have strong natural defenses. Nobody ever talked about and wrote an ode or a sonnet to a sheep's fangs. They didn't describe the Assyrians coming down like sheep, right? The Assyrian came down like a wolf, right? Sheep don't have any good, worthy, natural, strong attributes, sharp teeth, horns, claws. Sheep are weak. Sheep are needy. Sheep are wanderers. They don't have good long-range eyesight. And so, if a sheep gets out of sight range from its home pasture and barn and things that it can recognize in that fairly short range eyesight situation, they will get lost. Literally, they could be a hundred or so yards from where they need to be and where they grew up. And if they can't see it anymore, they will get lost. They are lost. They have no smeller that leads them home kind of a thing. They're lost, hopelessly lost in just a few hundred yards from home. if one sheep starts to walk away for some reason, for whatever reason, and we don't know why sheep do this, but they will, suddenly the whole flock will just one by one step in line and lead, assuming that that lead sheep knows exactly why they're going where they're going and what they're gonna do, they'll just follow along and next thing you know, they're all off on some other place because they easily follow this one leader and yet that leader is not necessarily a thoughtful leader, they don't even care. Then once lost, sheep don't find their way back home. They won't come home wagging their tails behind them. Sheep get lost and they need somebody to find them. Sheep are very emotional creatures. They're easily terrified. If a wolf or dogs come in and start barking and start threatening, they scatter and they scatter terrified and they just run. And that's why the Bible has many references to God's people as wandering sheep, lost sheep, sheep scattered on the hills. Scattered on the hills. Sheep are wanderers, sheep are wounded easily, or they stay wounded when they are. I'm trying to come up with a bunch of Ws, and so I realize this one really stretched it, but many animals will lick their own wounds when they're sick and when they've received a cut or some kind of an injury, and they'll lick their own wounds. They'll try to be self-healers. They'll go to water, and they will sit by water and drink and so forth. But sheep don't do that. Sheep rely heavily on the shepherd to clean their wounds and to put salve on them. And when they're sick, they need close care. They even need comfort. Sheep thrive well with the comfort that a shepherd gives them. And if they don't have that, they often will give up fairly easily. and die. When a sheep gets somehow, if it's laying on its side, if it's in a little depression in the ground and if it kind of rolls over, if it falls and it rolls over and it's kind of more on its back than on its side, then a sheep is not able to get up on its own and it will lay there and within a few hours it will die on its back. Sheep need constant watch for many of the reasons that we've already talked about and just reviewed in just this brief span, but also there are others. For instance, sheep will eat poison weeds and plants. Many animals sense that a plant is noxious and not good for them, and they won't eat it, but sheep don't have that little radar there, and so they will eat poison plants. Sheep needs to be watched all the time. They're a very social animal, however, and they do very well in a flock. So sheep do well flocked together. They do well in the sheep fold. They're fairly easily trained. They're fairly easily adaptable to a voice that they recognize and they trust. And so they do well with a shepherd and they will learn very quickly to follow along. But, they do need that protection, protection from predators. They need vigilance because of their proneness to wander, prone to wander, and they need to be found, they need to be restored. And again, they need help because they need somebody to tip them over when they fall on their back and can't get up. Sometimes I feel that way. Please tip me over. But with sheep, it's absolutely necessary, right? They need to be led. They need to be led to water. They need to be led to good pasture. They don't have good smellers, and so they actually have to be led to the water. They have to be led to good pasture. But once led, and once they get there, they do a very good job of taking what they're led to. But this is some of the great need of a sheep. Now, brothers and sisters, this is how we are described. And it's not an insult. I don't believe that the Holy Spirit is saying this to insult the people of God. But it's humbling to be compared to a sheep. We tend to use that word sheep in a negative way, don't we? It's not a compliment to call somebody a sheep, right? People are sheep. I remember how that was used so much at the beginning of the pandemic and there was a lot going on there. And I'm not trying to get into the issues of it, just sheeple, sheep, you're sheep. Everybody, you'll follow this person, you'll follow that person. We're all just a bunch of sheep. The American people are sheep and so on. And I just remember hearing that over and over and thinking, the person who's saying that clearly doesn't think of themselves as a sheep. Right? But the Bible says we're like sheep. We like to think of ourselves as lions. We're the lions. We're the independent ones. We're the strong survivors. Our covenant God says, you're the sheep of my pasture. You're the flock under my care. I remember an old professor I had when I was in seminary, and he was old. He was in his seventies. So he was an old professor, but he used to remind us of something. I've never forgotten it. He says, gentlemen, when you study history of civilizations, When you study church history, when you study Bible history, when you study the history of theology and the history of ethics, he says, it is often our case that we tend to be dismissive and contemptuous about those who've gone before, and we tish-tish, he would say, and we posh-posh. He was Australian, and so he used those kinds of words. But we shake our heads and we say, oh, the silliness of those people. How could they have ever thought that that was a good way to live or act or think or whatever? And he says, you know, he says, we're all people of our times. We're all products of our society. We're shaped by the trends of the decades we live in. Some are good and some are not very good. And decades from now, he said, people will look back at you and us and they will shake their heads and they will say, how could they have been so silly? And he says, never forget that. He said that has very important pastoral dimensions for pastoral care. Don't despise so easily the people of the past. Don't despise all those people that you can think of are silly. The fact is, you're one of them. And, you know, we see that. We look to trusted people. We look to voices that we respect. We learn as children, don't we? You kids, this is a good thing. You learn to respect and hear the voice of your parent. Your parent is teaching you things and you recognize you're gaining valuable insights from those wise parents, right? Yes. All the kids are saying, amen, yes, yes, yes, yes, mother and father, I do. Or parent teachers though, you learn from your teachers, you learn from your coaches, you learn in your vocations. We learn from people who are telling us how to do things as we get on the job and as we get developing in it. You learn for your spiritual formation, you learn to be taught, you learn to listen to voices. Now sometimes it becomes disastrous for us to listen to voices. That's true. Some people's voices really ought not to be listened to. But, on the other hand, there is also much good in our lives that came from people's voices that were good, worthy voices to listen to. You know, none of us are really self-made people, right? There is no such thing as a self-made person. None of us are self-taught. We have had people form us in good ways. We learn to listen to the voices of good teachers, good pastors, good parents, good bosses, and so forth. The point is we, because we're sheep-like, we need guiding shepherds. All human beings are looking for a good shepherd. The problem is we are vulnerable to savage wolves. We are vulnerable to the hirelings who are not really all that concerned for our care. Jesus talked about the hireling in here doesn't own the sheep hired to do the job of watching. The hireling often can't be trusted when danger comes because the hireling saying, I didn't sign on for this. This is dangerous. I could lose my life. These aren't even my stinking sheep. I'm out of here. Right? That's what a hireling would do. And we've run into hirelings in our own lives, people that we thought were pretty good for us, perhaps, and we learned that they will desert us or that they will lead us astray. It's humbling then. When God calls us sheep, he's calling us what we are, what we need to know about ourselves. We're more needy, we're more vulnerable, we're more impressionable, we're more in need of watching and healing and restoring than we like to think. And we need the humility to see ourselves as God sees us. Good shepherd. We have one. Jesus says, I am good shepherd. That's very good news, isn't it? Our Heavenly Father knows our need and He provided us a good shepherd. What is really interesting in Scripture is the good shepherd that God provided us is Himself a lamb. If you peek ahead in the Bible to Revelation chapter 5 and to the throne where there is one sitting and all the angels around the throne are singing, salvation and power and praise belong to our God and Savior. You will notice that the one on the throne is a lamb that has been wounded. So the very shepherd he gave us is himself a sheep. He knows what it's like to be a sheep. without sin, but our Father gave us a good shepherd. So if you're a believer in Jesus, if you trust in Jesus as your Savior, if you follow Jesus, if you listen to the voice of Jesus calling you to trust Him and to believe in Him and to put your hope in Him and to obey Him, and if you listen to His voice and you know Him, you say, I know that voice, that's my shepherd, that's Jesus. then you, Jesus, is your shepherd. And Jesus is responsible for you as a sheep, His sheep, a possession, His sheep. So as humbling it is to hear that you are a sheep, Jesus tells us, whoever will humble themselves will be exalted. The Bible says that. If you humble yourself, you will be exalted. And so here's a wonderful example of being exalted where Jesus says in verse 14, I am the good shepherd and I know my sheep, right? And I am known by my own. You've just been exalted. You might be a lowly sheep, but you belong to the good shepherd. Those who aren't knowledgeable about sheep, like probably most of us, we can look at a flock of sheep and we think, they all look alike, right? All sheep look alike, pretty much. but to a shepherd who is with those sheep from birth, from the moment of birth, helps them birth, helps their mothers to birth and is with them every day, all day long, feeds them, nourishes them, takes care of them, heals their wounds and all that. To that shepherd, every single sheep is unique. The shepherd knows every single sheep and knows exactly what they look like and their different personalities. And so, the shepherd knows your favorite food, the shepherd knows your favorite color, the shepherd knows your interest, your music taste. You didn't know sheep had music taste? They do apparently. But go with the idea here. The shepherd knows your fears. Jesus knows the things you are afraid of. He knows the things that you doubt. He knows the things that you worry about. He knows the things that you are grieving about. He knows every single one of yours, not just generic sorrow worries. He knows your sorrows, worries, doubts, fears. He knows your hopes. He knows the things you dream about. He knows the job that you want to have. He knows every hard and horrific thing that ever happened to you. Things that nobody else has ever heard or known or saw happen to you. And you haven't ever even been able to tell somebody those horrific things that happened to you. He knows them. He knows the sins you commit. He knows the specific things that you are tempted to do in sins. He knows those things that you are sort of tuned into. That get your attention and you're most susceptible to. Things that the devil also has seen in you. He knows your tendency to give in to certain things are your weakness. Now, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows all of that about you, and yet He loves you with a love that will not let you go. No one knows and loves you the way that Jesus knows and loves you. No one. So when you're crying out, Jesus, do you really care about me? When you cry out and you say, are you there, Jesus? Do you know me even? Do you listen to the cries I'm throwing up at you in prayer? He does. I know my sheep. I know you," he says. I know you better than you know yourself. I care. I am listening. I love you. I knit you together in your mother's womb. I know your thoughts from afar off. Each one knows the bitterness of his own heart, and a stranger doesn't know its joy, but Jesus does. And Jesus calls you his sheep so that you can know you are loved and you are delighted in. by a good shepherd. Beyond your wildest dreams, you are loved by your good shepherd." Now, that's exalting, isn't it? That's exalting. To be loved like that is exalting. The Creator of the world has taken a special interest in you. He makes intercession for you every day. He values you highly as His special possession and He gives you His care and He gives you His protection. But there's more because he goes on to say in verse 16 he says, other sheep I have which are not of this fold but I also must bring in and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock. That's not what I'm asking for is it? Verse 16. He says, I lay down my life. Is that verse 16? What am I doing here? Verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep. If you read the Old Testament, you remember a couple of times where David talked about his work and he talked about the fact that when he was going to go face Goliath, he wasn't overly afraid because he says, you know, I've had to face a bear and I've had to face a lion. This is just a guy. You know, I've been out there. I've done my thing. I've fought. I'm a shepherd. Well, Jesus is committed to his sheep and that he will do whatever it takes to keep his sheep safe. Whatever, whatever it takes to keep the sheepfold safe, Jesus will do. He will heal our wounds. He will provide us food. He will give us water. He will lead us. He will find us if we're lost and he will leave the 99 and he will go and find that one and he will bring them back. Right. Jesus seeks and saves that which is lost. That's shepherd language, isn't it? That's why he came into this world. Why are we wandering again? Because we're rebellious. We're prone to wander, Lord, I feel that prone to leave the God I love. Why in the world would you leave the God you love? Because we're rebellious. I did not love, I was a wandering sheep. I did not love the fold. I did not love my father's house. I loved afar to Rome." Sin and rebellion is about you and me saying, I'm going to do it my way. Sin and rebellion are about you and me saying, I'm going to run my life the way I want to run my life. I'm going to choose the things I choose. I'm going to go to the places I go. I'm going to be with the people I want to be with. That's what I'm going to do. You fill in the blanks, whatever your I'm going to do's, I'm going to do, right? That's rebellion, isn't it? And it's one of the dumbest things we do, isn't it? That we leave our shepherd, Jesus. But Jesus comes and he seeks us and he will seek us because that's what shepherds do. Good shepherds go seek their rebellious, headstrong, wandering sheep. But what is a sheep's greatest enemy? Well, we talked about the wolves and we talked about those things that come in and scatter the flock and they tear them apart. So what is a sheep's greatest enemy is death. The hireling doesn't stick around when the threat of death comes. The hireling runs. The hireling can't save you from death anyway. The greatest thing that Jesus ever did for his sheep was that he laid down his life for the sheep. Personally and specifically, Jesus laid down his life on the cross Bearing our sins, bearing the sins of each one for whom he died. This is very personal. It's very specific according to scripture. Right. He died for each one of his people who are his who are his named people, his named sheep. He died for each one. He bore your specific sins on himself, on the cross. And he died there. To save us. from the consequence of our sin and from death and from hell. That is exalting. Jesus places that value on us with the love of the Father, with the reasons for the Father gave, for the reasons that Jesus has for saving us, he has said, you are mine, you are my precious possession. And so he placed us in his flock to be under His care and He makes us safe within His fold, forever. Later on in chapter 10, He says, I give them eternal life, forever. We're forever sheep in a forever flock under a forever shepherd. Three, therefore we are one flock. Now you can go to verse 16 again. The end of that verse. He talks about, there are other sheep that I have who are not of this fold. And he's talking to Jews, he's talking to the Israelites in his time upon the earth with them and he's working with them. But he also says, there are other sheep that I have that are not of this fold. He's talking about the fact that the blessing and promise that was going to go to Abraham is to all the families of the earth. It was never only going to be the Jews. And so now I'm going to go there too. I'm going to go to the ends of the earth. There's going to be this Myriad in number people, right, who are going to be praising and glorifying the Lamb, victorious, and they're gonna come and hear my voice too. I've gotta gather them, and what will they now be once I gather all of those other sheep that are also not yet of the fold, but will be? They're going to be one flock. He named us. The name that the good shepherd gave for those he's going to lay down his life for and gather and die, the myriad in number before the throne of God is one flock. So there are no exceptions to this, brothers and sisters. Remember, we saw how sheep are not meant to live alone, how sheep do not live in a separate existence from other sheep. They don't. They die. They wander off. They fall off cliffs. They fall into little holes and they get on their back and they can't get up. They wander in wildernesses and they can't find their way home. They're out there and the sheep can be easy prey to any predator that comes along. There are no exceptions. You cannot live apart from the flock. Jesus makes us one flock. And we need to be in it. Jesus provides for our needs there. He gives us food. He gives us food. He's doing what I'm what he said he would do is what I'm doing right now. He ministers to us his word and spirit. He gives us food and drink for our souls, for instruction, for our correction, for our comfort, for our training in righteousness so that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped for every good work. He says, that's what I do for you. What did Jesus command Peter after Peter had fallen? What did he say to Peter? He said, Peter, feed my sheep. He said, Peter, feed my little lambs. He said, Peter, feed my sheep. Right. He says, go make disciples of all nations. And he says, teach them all things I have commanded. Right. So when we wander, Jesus is also appointed shepherds. He's appointed pastors and He's appointed elders to seek, to find, to gather, and to bring people back into the safety of the fold. He wants to comfort us. He wants to heal us in our distress. Jesus says in John chapter 14, John chapter 16, He talks about sending the Holy Spirit. He says something very striking there. He says the Holy Spirit is a comforter. He says he's the other comforter, meaning Jesus is the first comforter. The Holy Spirit's the other comforter. And he says, I'm sending you the other comforter. And what's the other comforter going to do? He is going to cause Jesus to come to you. And you're going to have two comforters now. Through the word of God and through the spirit of God and through the ministry of Christ, you are going to get comforted. You're going to get healed. Your broken heart, your sadness, your struggles, your difficulties. He's going to heal you. He's going to instruct you. He's going to correct you. He's going to comfort her. He will come to us. He will build us up. He will speak to us. He will love us. He will care for us. He will watch over us. We're susceptible to hearing the wrong voices, right? We're susceptible to all those things that false shepherds can try to tell people to do and to follow and so on. And we know we're susceptible because we're sheep and we're in need of that guidance to turn from false ideas and self-destructive decisions. Self-destructive decisions are part of those voices we hear. And we need watch for that. And He provides trusted and faithful counselors and teachers to help us along the way. They're sheep, too, so they're no great things. But notice what they've been described as. If you go to Acts chapter 20, notice this is very, obviously, very self-conscious kind of stuff that's going on. The Holy Spirit is the one writing the Bible. And look at Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Therefore, take heed to yourselves. He's speaking to the elders in Ephesus, and He says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock. among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves, men will rise up, speaking perverse things, among yourselves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them, therefore watch. And remember that for three years, I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. Jesus gave the one flock, shepherds, overseers, pastors, and elders to do all this work. Why? Right? See, there's no pastor, there's no elders that can do this stuff on his own wisdom, strength, and understanding because a pastor and an elder is also a sheep prone to wander, prone, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. It is Jesus who works in us, and it is Jesus who uses these pastors and these elders and all of those parents and teachers and others to minister to us his love and his care. Jesus gives us that. And Jesus has placed such people into our lives for our good and to lead and feed and guide Jesus one flock. That's our responsibility. Jesus responsibilities oversee us. Jesus gives shepherds whose responsibility is to help oversee. He's given those they're given by the good shepherd. So brothers and sisters, you have problems. I have problems. All shepherds and pastors have problems. We all have problems. Right. But you know what? We don't know what each other's problems are unless we share them with each other. It doesn't say that a shepherd is a mind reader. Unless we share with each other the problems, the challenges, the issues, the weaknesses, the trials, the struggles we're going through, we don't know. If you're convinced that you can be a sheep, and that you can be on your own, and that you don't need the care and the sharing of a life with a flock, if you don't need to seek the guidance, if you don't need the care of pastors and elders and fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord, if that's where you are today, then you really don't understand this metaphor at all. If you know yourself, then you know that you cannot live the Christian life apart from the good shepherd and the flock. Greatest quarterback in the world isn't effective unless he has a team. The biggest, baddest soldier in the world cannot defeat a hostile foreign army without his fellow soldiers in his unit and those who help them work through the strategy. The greatest first chair violinist cannot play a symphony without fellow musicians. Our Lord Jesus teaches us. Believers, we're sheep. That's humbling. But I've given you a good shepherd, our Savior, God says. That's exalting. And he places us in one flock. with Himself as the One Shepherd over us for our care, for our protection, for our blessing. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we can't thank You enough that You are a God who knew who we are in this world. You sent Your own Son to seek and to save us. We were lost. We were dead. We were struggling. We were without hope. We were without God in the world. But you made us your own. You put us in a sheepfold and you made us sheep who have a good shepherd now. A shepherd who heals our diseases, who feeds and nourishes and watch over us, a shepherd who laid down his life for us and then took it up again so that he continued to give us life forever. Thank you, Lord, for making us that sheepfold. Thank you for making us that flock. Thank you for keeping us when we would have wandered on our own. Thank you for keeping us when we will try to wander on our own in the future, and yet you will come after us and you will send others to come and find us. Thank you that you will never let us go because you're a good shepherd who loves us. So continue to keep us, Lord. Continue to preserve us. Continue to minister to us. Help us to learn how to be a part of that flock. Help us to remain part of that flock. Help us, Lord, to hear your voice in the way you want us to hear it and follow you. And may, in the following of your voice, may we find great comfort, great peace, great blessing, great love, May we love to be part of our Father's house. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.