Our Sermons

Bible Passage: John 10:22-30
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  May 8, 2022

Every now and then it can be difficult to tell whether something is intended as a compliment or as an insult. Have you ever had that experience? Someone says something and you don’t know which way to take it? Recently someone told me, “It looks like you’ve been eating well…” Hmmm. The more I think about it, the more I think I know what they meant. But sometimes it’s even more obvious. For instance, if you have ever been referred to as a “sheep”. That accusation can be leveled in all kinds of different situations. Sometimes it’s over our political leanings, maybe over our religious beliefs, maybe even over our personal preferences, over something as silly as whether we prefer Apple or Android. And yet, whenever that accusation is made, it’s always an insult, isn’t it? Being a sheep means that you can’t think for yourself, that you blindly follow someone else’s lead. You’re just a mindless sheep. But of all the situations where that accusation can be made, I would guess that this charge is most often leveled against Christians. Just a bunch of sheep… Has that idea ever caused you to feel a little bit embarrassed about your faith? Has it ever caused you to be a little bit shy about sharing your faith with other people? If you ask me, it’s a little bit unfair and dishonest for anyone to call someone else a sheep. You see, usually that person is trying to represent themselves as someone who always thinks for themselves and never blindly follows where someone else is leading. And yet that cannot be the case. Take, for example, what happened in the verses in front of us today.

It was winter in Jerusalem and Jesus had come to celebrate the feast of Dedication also known as Hanukkah. He was walking through one of the covered areas of the temple courts called Solomon’s Colonnade when the Jewish leaders “gathered around” him. Really that’s a bit too neutral, they surrounded him, and asked, How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (Jn 10:24) We sometimes forget, but Christ is not Jesus’ last name. It is a title which means “the anointed one”, the Messiah, the long-awaited king who would come and reign over Israel. Now, these Jewish leaders were asking Jesus if he was the Christ, not because they actually hoped that he was, but because then they could arrest him as an insurrectionist. They wanted him to go on record once and for all. They wanted to build an airtight case against Jesus. They were like reporters standing there with their microphones in his face, just waiting for the words to come out of his mouth, waiting so that they could say, “Got you!” Which is exactly why Jesus answers them the way that he does. He says, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I am doing in my Father’s name testify about me. But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:25-27) Jesus clearly must be the Christ if anyone paid attention to the work he did in the Father’s name; his miracles proved that he wasn’t just some roaming prophet. But ultimately, Jesus knows they won’t believe because they have chosen not to. And then notice how Jesus didn’t say “you are not sheep”. He said you are not my sheep. They are sheep, just listening to the tradition of the elders, listening to shepherds who point to earthly power and authority. You see, Jesus knows that when you really get down to it, everyone is a sheep. 

The other day I came across a statistic that shocked me. The statistic suggested that with all the channels of information that are at our disposal today, you and I receive as much information in a single day as someone living 100 years ago would have received during their entire lifetime. I’m not sure how one would even go about trying to prove that is true. But here’s why that was initially such a troubling thought. See years ago there were only so many places to go to get answers to life’s most important questions—your family, the church, a book, maybe a university. But soon the voices giving answers to those types of questions became both more accessible and less reliable. They made their way onto the radio, and then the TV, and then the internet. Today we are surrounded by a million voices competing for our attention. Today through smart phones the world comes streaming unfiltered into the minds and hearts of children. We have politically charged mudslinging on twitter and facebook, caustic dialogues which all too often drift into religious territory. We have a thousand different podcasts to choose from which all claim to know the answer to life’s big questions. And on and on. If the world is really that noisy—if that statistic is even halfway true—then Jesus’ description of people is truer now than ever before: We are all sheep. We are all listening to someone. And if we’re all sheep then, really, the only question is “Which shepherd are we following?”

At the feast of dedication, which was being celebrated at this time, one of the main readings of the Hanukkah festival was Ezekiel 34 in which God condemns the bad shepherds who led the people away from him and into violence and injustice. But then the Lord promises to come and shepherd his people, himself! He would be the good shepherd. It is in this spirit of the festival that Jesus speaks about himself as the Good Shepherd. Some more of those connections are included in my sermon extra which you can pick up after the service. But, just think, every jewish person knew from Ezekiel 34 that if you are a smart sheep you would follow the Good Shepherd, God himself, and that’s what Jesus says here about himself in John 10.

So Jesus is the Good Shepherd, but how do we know that we are his sheep? Listen again to Jesus’ words. He said, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus is the Good Shepherd and his sheep not only hear his voice, but they also follow him. Which leads to an interesting distinction: There are many people who hear Jesus’ voice, but there are few who actually follow him. In our age of information, there are many who understand some of the teachings of the Bible and maybe even seek to adopt them, but they do not follow Jesus. They have their own agenda, but they’ll take some of Jesus’ wisdom along the way. They hear Jesus, just like the Jewish leaders did, but they have no intention to follow him. 

The truth is that from the day Jesus arrived until the day he went back up into heaven, his message was completely consistent. He didn’t come into this world to say, “Listen to my advice.” He came to say, “Follow me.” I think it’s very easy for us as Christians to forget that sometimes, especially when the world around us calls us sheep. We are tempted to pretend that we don’t need a shepherd, that we can maintain our own agendas even as God’s people. We are tempted to say that we are more open-minded than those sheeple who simply do what the Bible says. We treat God’s Word as if it is a useful set of principles, not the actual guide for our life. In other words, each of us has turned to his own way, but we utilize some Christian ideas as we go that way. We like Jesus, we listen to him, but we don’t follow him. And the truth is, that if Christianity is nothing more than a set of principles by which we live life, then yes, it is absolutely foolish, absolutely blind, and absolutely mindless to insist that one set of principles is right and every other set of principles is wrong, especially when there is a lot of overlap between many of them. In fact, it would be much wiser to look at all of the principles out there, the principles of Christianity and the principles of Buddhism and Stoicism and Humanism, whatever, and then pick a mixture of all of those principles to decide how you want to live your life.  If Christianity is just good advice and Jesus is just a good teacher, then this would make sense. This is a seductive temptation that tempts each one of us. 

In fact, viewing Christianity as nothing more than a set of principles sort of explains why we act the way that we do sometimes. Are we sometimes indifferent toward opening our Bibles when there are so many more interesting voices to hear which promise more interesting information? And when we do hear the Bible read, are we thinking about it as God’s Word spoken to our hearts? Or more as ancient wisdom which we hope might apply to our lives today? Is our church a place we withdraw for a couple of hours, but from which we then immediately return to our real life? Are we sometimes very quick and very willing to mix the Good Shepherd’s voice with the voice of popular psychology? Are we not all that urgent to make sure those around us hear the Good Shepherd’s message?  Do we sometimes like to stand as the authority over our Good Shepherd and decide whether his words are good or bad, based on our sense of fairness? Or do we read it merely to confirm our current behavior, instead of allowing God’s Word to call us into question and correct us? Again, if Christianity is nothing more than a set of principles by which we live our life, then really there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. But if Christianity is much more, then none of that makes sense. That’s about as logical as sheep trying to lead a Shepherd…In Matthew 7 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven…I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” It steals my heart away to think about Jesus saying, “I never knew you.” But of his sheep, he says “My sheep listen to my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” There are people who think that Jesus knows them as his sheep, but they are not following him. Let us check ourselves today. Are we listening and following? May we ask for forgiveness and turn back to the Good Shepherd’s voice! 

My friends, if Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, then he isn’t just offering good advice, he is offering salvation. Then his voice isn’t one among many, it’s the only one that really matters, it’s one thing needful, it’s the treasure hidden in the field for the sake of which a man goes and sells all that he has. It’s the pearl of great price for which the merchant sells all his goods. It’s the rule of Christ in our hearts, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus at which disciples abandon their boats on the shore and follow. If Jesus is one with the Father, as he said, then his Word isn’t just a set of principles, it’s the very will of God. It is grace; it is life.  It’s the word of the Good Shepherd. Listen to the end of our text again: My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.” The words of Jesus here play off of ancient funeral eulogies which speak of people being snatched out of life by death. Jesus turns that idea on its head saying that no one, not even death can snatch the lives of his sheep out of his hands! The apostle Paul picks up on this in 1 Thessalonians 4 when he says that we are “snatched up by Christ to life out of death.” This is the kind of security that only the Good Shepherd can provide. He laid down his life to forgive our sins. Everytime you and I have followed a different voice,  he calls us back with forgiveness. But not only this, the one who laid down his life also had the authority to take it up again! Because of Jesus’ resurrection, because he has defeated death, he promises to give you eternal life. And no one, and nothing can snatch you out of his hand, not sin, not death, not the devil. 

My friends, we are all sheep and there are a lot of voices calling to us these days. But consider this, what other voice that you hear claims to be “one with the Father”? What other voice has done the works that Christ did in his Father’s name? Who else lays down their life for sheep? And who else can take it up again? Let us be smart sheep! By the Spirit’s power, through the Word, let’s turn away from our own ways and follow HIM!

Amen.