John 10:22-30

Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴ The Jews gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

²⁵ Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can 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.”

Dear Christian friends do you think it would be possible for an infant to grow up into an adult without any aid of any kind from a parent or guardian or anyone? Probably not. Parents are very important to a child. They provide the child with everything that they need. They give them a home, food, shelter and the emotional support to make it through the tough times. This job is not easy but without the parent fulfilling their role the child would not make it at all. During these struggles faced in childhood, it would be easy for a child to feel like there is no one who understands them and that is why it is so wonderful for them to have a parent, because that parent is so much more than one who offers them a place to live. The parent knows the child and knows what they struggle with and their weaknesses. The child knows that that parent is there to help them.

The idea that you have someone who knows and understands and cares about you is an incredible comfort. And it is so much more of a comfort when we know that those words of understanding come from our Lord, when in our section for today he says, “I know my sheep.”

The section from which we read today tells us of a time late in Jesus ministry. He had just healed a man born blind and there was much controversy over where Jesus came from and by what authority he was teaching what he was teaching and by what power he was able to do these miracles.

So having seen all the things Jesus had done and heard all the things Jesus had said, during the Feast of Dedication, the Jews came up to him, with a question. They said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Though this may seem like an innocent question, the Jews were asking it out of heart of unbelief.

For by that time in history, in the minds of most people, the idea of the Messiah that was coming was not the idea of a Savior from sin. It was instead the idea of a king that would drive out the Romans and establish the kingdom of Israel again, just like king David and Solomon had done many years before.

When they looked at Jesus they did not see the Messiah they were expecting. So they went straight up to him and asked him the question, all the while having no real intention of believing in him no matter what his answer was.

Jesus of course knew this and so he responded with an answer which addressed the heart of the problem. They had said to him, “if you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus responded to them saying, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me.”

Jesus had already given them an answer in his life, which they had watched very closely. The word the NIV translates here as “miracles” could also be translated as “works.” What Jesus was saying was that his whole life was the testimony that he was the Christ and that they should know this. They had seen how he had given sight to the blind man. The Jews had investigated it thoroughly and they knew that it was no trick. The way he showed kindness and compassion to everyone was also a demonstration of the fact he was who he said he was. And finally in his teachings he made it very clear that he was the one the world has been waiting for.

Jesus then uses a picture of sheep and a shepherd to help them and us understand why some do or do not follow him. It is a picture he has used often. In the area in which Jesus lived shepherds would not walk behind the sheep, driving them, instead they would walk in front of the sheep calling out for the sheep to follow. Now sheep are animals that are not very bright and are completely defenseless, but what they are able to do is recognize their shepherd’s voice and so they are able to follow him.

In the picture Jesus says, these three elements of his life: the miracles, everyday actions, and the teachings, combine into what Jesus calls his “voice.” This voice calls out to all the people of the world. Then he very plainly tells those Jews, to whom he was speaking, that the reason they do not believe in him, the reason that when they hear his voice they do not follow, is because they are not his sheep. They are not part of his flock.

Jesus is able to tell them this because, being the shepherd, he knows his sheep and can recognize them. Those who are part of Jesus flock, follow his voice. This means they follow his teachings and believe in him as the Savior.

These words Jesus spoke about his flock, he was speaking about us. We are the ones who hear his words and walk after him, but that does not mean that we are always right behind him. It is true that sheep follow their shepherds voice but another fact about sheep is that they are easily distracted. They encounter a long and difficult road or they see something they think is interesting and they walk off after that instead of after the shepherd, or they will spend so much time looking down at the ground while walking that they will completely separate themselves from the flock and be totally lost.

How often doesn’t this same thing happen to us? The Jews refused to believe in Jesus because he was not the kind of Savior they thought they were going to get. They were not in his flock. But even when we are in his flock, we can still have those same kind of feelings on occasions.

We also have those feelings that say Jesus our Savior needs to meet our expectations. One of those expectations is that when we follow the Lord in our lives, then everything should go great for us. When everything is going well we follow behind our shepherd very happily, but when things start not going so well then our willingness to follow begins to diminish.

When a serious sickness or injury enters our lives and we have to deal with pain every day. If we struggle with our finances and it always seems like we are working so hard and yet we are barely breaking even. Or if you want so badly to be in a relationship and yet you still find yourself alone or you are in a relationship and it is not going as well as it could be, we start to question God’s love for us because at the moment he is not meeting our expectations of a Savior.

Jesus told the Jews that he had given everything they needed, but at that moment they looked an said they hadn’t been given everything they needed, they needed more proof he was the Savior. At those moments of struggle we can feel that God has not given us everything that we need and that he needs to do more for us. We think of how Jesus says he is the good shepherd and he knows us and what we need and yet we have to struggle with these problems every day. They nag at us and cause us to worry. This is a powerful tool that the devil uses against us. That temptation to think, “doesn’t God love me?” His methods are powerful and he can even lead us to wonder if God is out there at all, cause if he was he would be making my life go a lot smoother than it is.

Our actions and thoughts against God show that we don’t think he is the loving all knowing shepherd he says he is. As we act this way, we are like those sheep that wander away from the voice of their shepherd. We leave him because we don’t think he is worth following.

Jesus should let us continue to wander. Wander away from his protection, away from his grace and eventually away from any form of his love, because we have acted like sheep that are not part of his flock. But he doesn’t do that, instead he pulls us back and brands us as his own, by dying for us on the cross. All those times we doubted God’s love for us and even his existence earned us a punishment, because we had strayed, but Jesus knew what kind of trouble we were in and what we needed and he died and in doing so made the payment for that punishment.

God accepted Jesus payment and raised Jesus from the dead, his body did not see decay. The payment for your sins has been made in full, you are forgiven.

Now we are willing to follow our Good Shepherd’s voice because we know that when we were in our greatest need he came to help even though he didn’t have to. We now know that we can trust him. Even when the path of our life heads through difficult times, we follow the voice of our Lords, because we know he is going to keep us safe and take us where we need to be.

Our shepherd promises that he is not going to leave us alone in this world. While this world may be a difficult place to live in, we still know that Jesus is with us and he is keeping us safe. Whatever burdens we may be facing, whether physical, financial or emotional, God promises to take those problems and turn them into something wonderful for us. Jesus knows us and how much we can handle so we do not stray when we encounter hardship. We instead know that our shepherd is in control and if we are suffering right now, then it is because he is intending to use it in someway for our benefit. Whether we can understand what he is doing or not we trust him, because he knows his sheep.

Christ bought us with his own blood and now God has taken us and placed us in Christ’s hands. He is now our protector. Just like a shepherd drives wild animals away from his flock, so also Christ keeps us safe from the enemies that seek to take us away from him. Our Lord knows our weakness and promises to guard them against the enemy. Therefore we do not need to fear that someone is going to take us out of Jesus hand, because there is no one more powerful than he, we can rest secure.

As part of Jesus flock, our Lord says there is something wonderful waiting for us because he has bought us back from our sins. He says that a time is coming that we will be given a life that does not end. A life into which no sadness will come, no illnesses will plague us, no worries over how we will be able to pay our bills and no loneliness will dwell in our hearts. All these things will be gone, because sin will be gone. All we need do is follow our Lord until that time.

Brothers and sisters in Christ to have someone who knows you is a great blessing, because they can understand what you are going through. Our Lord knows us. He knows our struggles and our weaknesses. He knows how much we can take and he knows the wonderful things he has planned for us. What an amazing blessing it is to have a Lord who can say, “I know my sheep.” Amen.