Instructions for Sheep

We have been in a sermon series for a better part of a year and a half where we have been looking at everything Jesus did and everything Jesus taught. Today, our series brings us face to face with a tremendous and great passage of scripture found in John 10. If you have a Bible, you can turn it over there with me. That’s what we’re going to be today, John 10. In the text we’re studying this morning, Jesus is speaking to some Pharisees, to the religious leaders. In this text, Jesus is in many ways condemning their leadership. If you want to be a great leader, this is a great text for you. This could be a text about instructions for leaders. It’s a great place to learn and to find correction and ultimately to find inspiration for anyone who wants to lead in any capacity, but more specifically, anybody who wants to lead in the church. But this morning, I don’t want to focus so much on Jesus’s correction towards the leaders, and said, I want to draw our attention and find something else and to look at something else that I found fascinating as I studied out this amazing text.

It’s specifically the instruction, not the leaders. But I want us to really hone in on the instructions Jesus gives to his followers. Or in the language of the passage we’re going to read this morning, the instructions he gives for sheep. That’s the title of today’s lesson. If you like that thing and you want to write it down, instruction for sheep. Now, you may look at this and go, I am not a sheep. I am independent and whatever, and I am wonderful. Maybe that is true in your, I don’t know, political persuasion or something like that. But if you’re a follower of Jesus, you are, in fact, a sheep. You are a sheep. It’s one of the most profound pastoral metaphors in all of scripture. The Bible likens us to sheep. God looks at you, and God looks at me, and God looks at us as though he is the shepherd of a flock, and we are his sheep. Psalm 23 says The Lord is our shepherd. The Lord is our shepherd. What does he do? He guides us beside Stillwater. He corrects us with the rod of His correction and His instruction. Throughout the Bible, we are given these instances of what it looks like for us to be sheep.

In Isaiah 53:6, the Bible describes us as sheep who are prone to go astray. Sheep who are prone to go astray. We’re these little animals that are herding animals that sometimes we get distracted by looking at the ground and we’re looking for more pasture and looking for more pasture and looking for more pasture. Then when we look back up, we realize we are nowhere near where we’re supposed to be, chasing after all sorts of things. This is just the way we are. This is the natural relationship that we have with our God and also just in our lives in general. Those are just a few instances of the vast amount of references to our relationship with God, likened to a shepherd and his sheep. What I hope you see today is that this imagery, the imagery of a sheep and a shepherd, is supposed to inform our relationship with God. See, the Bible’s comparisons, the metaphors are not there arbitrarily. They’re not just whimsical illustrations. In fact, the nature of understanding a sheep and his shepherd is supposed to uncover for you and for me, rich insight into our relationship with our God. I want to encourage you to pay careful attention.

Pay careful attention to this vivid illustration, this picture, this physical, earthly, temporal metaphor, and see that it actually has deep-rooted spiritual truths underneath it. I want us to learn, as we read this, about how to be a shepherd, and how to be a sheep with our shepherd so that we can gain an understanding of how to be followers of our God. Amen. Are you with me? All right, that’s my introduction. John 10:1. That’s where we’re going to start, verse 1. It says this, very truly, I tell you, Pharisees, Jesus, he’s just left healing the blind man that we talked about a month ago, just left healing a blind man. Here Jesus is, he’s talking to the group of Pharisees that he’s just rebuked. He goes, Hey, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Verse 4, When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice, but they will never follow a stranger.

In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. Jesus used this figure of speech because the Pharisees, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them. This is a little parable. A parable is a story meant to either reveal a truth or conceal a truth. Here in this story, Jesus is revealing some truths about his relationship with his followers and also concealing some truth to the Pharisees. But again, we’re going to focus on the revealing part. I’ve heard people say there are no parables in John’s Gospels, but I want you to notice what verse 6 says. Jesus uses a figure of speech. Maybe it’s not a parable, meaning that it doesn’t say the word parable, but it’s a parable. Don’t ever use that as a trivia question. It’s not a real question. There is a parable. There are loads of parables in the Book of John. Let’s go through it, though, bit by bit. Let’s take it portion by portion. Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in by some other way is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

I want you to imagine with me for a moment that there is a pen. You can imagine a stone wall about 6 feet tall, about 100 feet in circumference with a few places for sheep to sleep in. This is a picture I found online that does a pretty good representation of it. You can see it. This is what we call an animal fold. They live inside there for a moment. Sheep are placed there behind the walls of that corral because, and here’s an important point, sheep are valuable. The value of a sheep in the Old Testament is 30 shekels of silver. 30 shekels of silver, which by the way, is the same value that you sold a slave for, Joseph, and it was sold into slavery by his brothers for 30 shekels of silver. Also a quick factoid. This is the same amount that Judas was paid to betray Jesus. How much is 30 shekels of silver? Well, in today’s money, it’s about $400 or $500. $400 or $500. How much is a sheep worth in today’s economy? Well, if you use their money, $400 or $500. If you follow, according to the American Sheep Industry Association, which I didn’t even know was a thing, the price for a 90-pound sheep is about 300 bucks.

Three hundred bucks. Anyway, sheep have value. As a shepherd, you had a lot of sheep. Sometimes you had 100 or more sheep. You do a quick math. Let’s say you had 100 sheep and using the shekel number, they were about 400 bucks apiece. How much money investment in sheep do you have? $40,000. It’s not a small amount of money. That’s a pretty hefty investment. That’s a lot of money that needs to be protected. You have to protect your investment. What does the shepherd do when he needs a little bit of respite? Or what does the shepherd do when he needs to go into town? Or what does the shepherd do when he needs to get away from his sheep for whatever reason? Well, he’d go to a pen. He said, Hey, gatekeeper, I want to use your pen for the next whatever, 12 hours, next couple of days. I want to rent it from you. I want to stick my sheep in there so that they will be protected. Why won’t you just leave them in pastoral land because animals will come and eat them, or because someone will come and steal them? You stick them behind these walls for their protection.

Okay, good so far? The shepherd, in order to protect the sheep, puts them in pens. But in story, we learn that even the pens, even though they’re walled up, even though they’re supposed to be a place of refuge, the pens are not protective enough. Why? Because anything that has value has people trying to steal it. In New York City, people steal something called the catalytic converter in your car. The catalytic converter in your car is the thing that runs under your car. People lift up your car, cut your catalytic converter out, and then leave you. You’ll turn in your car and it’ll sound like a tank. Why do they do that? Because it has value. It doesn’t have a lot of value. But if something has value, someone else is trying to steal it. Makes sense? Thieves and robbers. They want the sheep. They want to eat the sheep. They want to maybe sell the sheep, but definitely they want to take the sheep away from the shepherd. Right away, Jesus is saying, Hey, how do you tell who is a robber and who is a shepherd? Well, the first thing that gives legitimacy to the shepherd is that they walk through the gate.

They walk through the gate. He says, The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. Conversely, the one who climbs over the wall is clearly a thief or a robber. You see this, though? You think this is true, right? Imagine you’re driving by your neighbor’s house, and all of a sudden you see someone climbing into their window, think to yourself, That person is up to no good. They’re a thief or a robber, or they’re a 12-year-old boy who’s forgotten their keys. Those are the two options, a thief or a robber. But that’s the way you look at it. He goes, Hey, if you want to know who a thief is, or you want to know who the shepherd is, notice how they come into the pen. We’re good so far? You’re with me? Now, before we move on, I think some introductions are in order. Who is the shepherd in the story? Jesus. Very good, confident answers. Excellent. Who are the sheep? Yeah, the followers. Good, good, good, good. Next question, not so easy. Who are the robbers? Now, before you answer this, I’ve done a fair bit of thought on this.

At first, I thought it was the Pharisees. That’s what I thought. But for a reason, I’ll explain later, I didn’t make much sense. In fact, I think the Pharisees are someone else in the story. Who are the thieves and the robbers? I’ve given this a fair bit of thought, and here are my opinions. First, here’s what we know for sure about the thieves and the robbers. The thieves in the story are those who want to harm the sheep. Later, Jesus will say the thieves and robbers come to steal, kill, and destroy. Steal, kill, and destroy. The thieves in the stories are those who wish to remove the followers away from Jesus’s flock. So who are the thieves? Here’s my answer. The thieves in this story are everything, like every idea, every ideology, every pleasure. It’s Satan. It’s your own flesh. It’s the world. It’s every advertisement. It’s every billboard. It’s every career path. It’s every sociologist. It’s every scientist. It’s every social media company or government. It’s every person and every prosperity gospel preacher that comes to take Jesus’s followers away from Jesus. See, later, Jesus will say that he is the gate. Like, hey, if you want to come in, you mean you have to come in by way of Jesus Christ.

You have to think about it like this the robbers and the thieves in this little parable are anything or anyone that is opposed to the ways of Jesus Christ. You watch a show on Netflix that glorifies money, power, and sex. That’s a thief and a robber. That’s something trying to steal your purity, steal your heart for God, kill your relationship with your own contentment, and destroy your relationship with other people. It’s trying to steal your mind, manipulate your thinking. That is a thief and a robber. A thief can come in the form of your own flesh, longing for pleasure more than for Christ’s Lordship. That’s a robber, right? Trying to devour and destroy your loyalty and your obedience to Jesus Christ. The thieves are the ideologies of our world that love individualism and self-expression so much that they tell you to be apart from the community of God. Those are thieves and robbers looking to steal the most precious thing in your life, your relationship with Jesus Christ. What is a thief and a robber? Well, it’s anything. It’s anyone that comes into your life that opposes the ways of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Here’s a news flash for you right away in this parable.

Two things become abundantly clear. Two things. We learn two things. Number one, you have value. Isn’t that good to hear? You have value. You’re made in the image of God, and God loves you. You’re worth more to Him than $400 or 30 shekels of silver. You’re worth more to Him than anything in all of His creation. He cares about you because you are a precious child of God. The second thing we learn in this parable is because you have value, there are forces trying to ruin your life. No instructions yet, just a realization. The world is after you. Satan is after you. Your own sinful nature is after you. Why? Because you have value to God because He loves you and they hate Him. You and in a spiritual battle. What do those forces wish to do for you? Jesus is so clear. Those forces want to climb over the pen, get into your life, and then steal you away from God, kill you, and destroy you. But I need to tell you this, but I didn’t need to tell you this because you already know this, don’t you? You feel it all the time.

Temptation is everywhere. Even in the simple things, you go to the store and there’s a temptation to look at people dressed a certain way, or there’s a temptation to buy things that would make you look like you’re keeping up with the Joneses. You feel inadequate or less than others because you realize that someone has nicer shoes than you or a better bag than you or looks different than you. All of the temptations hit you in the most common place in our culture. Think about the temptations at home to be lazy or to be selfish. You’re in your own home and temptation is coming after you. Or the temptations on social media, which I don’t even have to describe. All types of nonsense happen there where you look and you go, I don’t go on vacation like them and I don’t look like them. Man, I wish my face could be like this and I wish my weight could look like this and I wish I could decorate my house like that. Everything’s about drawing yourself and comparing yourself. Again, these are all forces trying to destroy you. You know this and I know this, but to be a Christian is to be in a constant state of danger.

You’re constantly in danger. Yay, hooray. Everything’s coming to kill you. Everything’s coming to destroy you. Like even here, you’re tempted to be distracted. You’re like, oh, you’re tempted to be fearful. You’re tempted to figure out where you measure up. You’re tempted to feel anxious. It never ends. You think, wow, I’m in a pen. I’m in a church with 10-foot-high walls, a place of protection. But even then, the thieves are trying to break in and steal your life. You feel this, right? There are so many things trying to take you away from the good shepherd. What are you supposed to do? What are you supposed to do? Verse 3, The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, that’s the shepherd. Notice what it says, the sheep listen to his voice. Instead of the robbers who are coming in to steal, now we have the shepherd who is let in right away. Then he calls out to his sheep, Comes. Hey, I’ve been away for a while. Come, follow me. Come on. They all wake up. They sit up, they perk up, their eyes go to the shepherd, and he says, Comes. Immediately, they leave their pens.

Immediately, they leave their place of the place they were sleeping. Immediately, they leave the water trail and they just begin to follow the shepherd. Everything else in the chapter, in everything else in the chapter to listen is to follow. Here, what are we given the instruction to do? To listen to our shepherd. Here’s your instruction. I’m going to repeat it again and again and again throughout this time, but here’s your only takeaway. Here’s your only instruction. If you want to be a sheep that is not devoured by thieves and robbers, that is not devoured by wild animals. If you want to be a Christian that stays a Christian, if you want to be a Christian that’s not caught up in ideologies of the world, that’s not distracted by the political realm of our society, that’s not distracted by the enticing forces of wealth, that’s not distracted by your own desire to be more than you are now. If you want to be a sheep, that lasts forever in the kingdom of God, here’s your instruction, listen for the shepherd and then listen to the shepherd. Here’s the only instruction. Your job as a sheep is to listen for and then listen to the shepherd’s voice.

For means that you’re aware when he talks. You’re aware. You listen for him. You can hear him through all of the other noise. Listening to him means that you obey him when he calls you. We’ll come back to this a little bit later. He calls his sheep, he calls his own sheep by name. I love the intimacy of that. He goes, Hey, John, Joe, come, come, come, come, follow me. Joe stood up. As I said, that was crazy. Come, come follow me. Each of them, he knows by name. When he has brought all of his own, sorry, when he brought out all of his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. He leads them out. Where does he lead them? To pasture. I like to think about this. This is a life that is more than your current life. He feeds their souls. He quiets them beside still waters. He leads them to something more than just the confinement of the pen to life that is more than their current life, to a life of adventure. He calls you or he calls them. They get up, they file out.

Why do they obey him? Because they know his voice. The sheep have been listening for the shepherd’s voice, and the second he speaks, they obey. But notice the next verse, Jesus adds a little detail, But they will never follow a stranger. Is this true for you? They will never follow a stranger. In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. What the stranger says is so different than what Jesus says that when they hear it, they notice that’s not Jesus. They scatter, they run away. I want you to notice something here. There are more voices in the pen trying to call you out. There are more voices. In fact, in this passage, we’re given the strategy of the thieves. Do you know what the strategy of the thieves is? It’s not that they climb over the fence and then they grab you and they try to throw you off. Instead, they try to compel you with speech, compel you with an argument, say, Hey, come, come. I am better than the shepherd. Don’t wait for the shepherd. I will lead you to quiet waters. I will lie to you besides green pastures.

They call out to the sheep the same way the shepherd calls out to the sheep. It’s words that the thief uses to rob the life of the sheep. I’m blown away by this because the thieves, like Jesus, say, come follow me. It’s the same message. Come follow me. Come join me, come engage with me. I’ll be your new shepherd. You think about it. If the pen is not where you want to be if you’re making the illustration, the pen is your old life, or the pen is this idea of the life you want more than life, so you want to leave the pen then you got to think, Well, we are naturally drawn to want to leave that area. We are then attracted to any voice that calls us out of that thing. We’re attracted to all the voices that call us to a better life. We’re attracted to all the voices that call us into the pasture. We’re attracted to those voices, even if they’re not the shepherd’s voice. I think they’re the point here that the thieves, don’t make their intention of destroying your life public. A thief is not like, you know what I’m saying?

Here’s what I’m about to do, destroy you. You don’t think when you’re 10 years old that are drawn out to watch a little bit of pornography or whatever is going to lead to a lifelong addiction to pornography. You don’t think about it like that. You don’t think about like, Well, if I just buy this one thing, it’s going to make me feel like I need to continue to buy things in order to feel like I can keep up with everyone else. You don’t think that. The thief doesn’t lie to you like that. He goes, Looks, there’s life. There’s life. What they do is they take advantage of our desire to be someone or someplace else. They take advantage of your desire to do that. Immediately, do you know what story I think about? The story of Adam and Eve. Man, Adam, and Eve have everything. They’re in the garden, Genesis 3. They’re in the garden. They have everything. They have God who walks with them in the cool of the day. They have every bit of food they’ll ever need. They have every bit of life they’ll ever need. They have a relationship with God Almighty perfectly.

No issues, no sin, no struggle, but even they are drawn to life more than life. What happens when the snake comes and the serpent comes and goes, Look, you know what I’ll give you? I’ll give you power. I’ll give you a better life. You’re trapped in this garden. You’re trapped with that God. You could be free. You could be God yourself. Just come follow me. They obey. Brothers and sisters, I’m just letting you know that his voice echoes today. His voice continues today. Come follow me, Satan says. Come follow me, your flesh says. Come follow me, the world says, and I’ll give you fame and I’ll give you fortune and I’ll give you love and pleasure and peace and joy and life. You’re trapped in that marriage. Come follow me and I’ll set you free. I’ll give you more than you ever desired. You’re trapped in that church. Come follow me and I’ll give you a better community. Your faith has been a prison for you. Come follow me and I’ll give you liberation. But Jesus is clear. These voices are thieves trying to destroy your life. Don’t even entertain them for a moment.

Be like Joseph, I’m out of here. Get behind me, Satan. Do you know what I’m saying? You entertain those voices, you’re by those voices, you leave the pen, and then you’re utterly and completely destroyed by the thieves and the robbers. I’ll tell you this, I think most people are drawn away because they actually think the voice of the robber is the voice of God. Their issue is they don’t know how to differentiate between the voices of the world and the voice of the shepherd. They don’t know how to differentiate between the voice of God and the voice of Satan. It’s like if the sheep’s role is to listen, to listen for, and then to listen to the voice, you have to do some work to learn to recognize the voice. Otherwise, you’ll be in some serious problems. There are things that Jesus never said that you think Jesus may be said. Jesus wants me to be happy. I don’t know. I mean, he wants you to find joy, certainly. But I don’t know if that’s clear. That you use that as a value to make decisions. Jesus wants me to be happy, and so I’m not happy in this marriage, so I’m going to leave this marriage.

No, you’re listening to the voice of a robber and a thief. Jesus wants whatever. Jesus wants me. Jesus tolerates everything I do. He wants me to come just as I am. I don’t have to change anything in my life. I don’t know what voice that is, but that is not the voice of the shepherd. That’s a voice. It’s these voices that we hear. It’s taking the verses out of context. It’s taking little snippets of the Bible that we can put on Instagram and go, wow, that’s really great. That’s what God wants from me, instead of actually knowing the voice of the shepherd. I think most people are drawn away by voices that sound equally similar to the shepherd but are not the voice of a shepherd. They are the voice of a stranger. How do you listen to the voice with a cacophony of noise? How do you listen when there’s so much noise coming your way? Here’s a takeaway for you. It’s simple. It’s actually too simple, but I’m just going to put it on the screen anyway. If you want to learn to run away from robbers because they’re there to steal, kill and destroy you.

Well, here’s something. How about reading the Bible? I don’t mean to belittle anybody, but how about reading the Bible? How about instead of listening to a podcast about the Bible, you actually read the Bible? Or listening to a sermon. I mean, whatever, I don’t know about clapping. But instead of listening to a sermon, like this is fine, you’re learning something, but you need to read your own Bible to make sure even what I’m saying is true. You need to read the Bible or listen to the Bible. That’s fine, too. It’s the only way to get clarity about what Jesus is actually saying. It’s the only way. Because I could pretend like Jesus is saying a lot of things, but he may not be saying it. If you’re going to be a good sheep for the good shepherd, you need to learn to listen to his voice. The only way to do that is to read and absorb the place where he actually spoke. Let’s continue on. We’re actually going to speed through the rest because I’m running out of time. Here we go. Jesus changes the illustration slightly, in verse 7, Therefore, Jesus said, again, very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.

I love this. He’s not just the shepherd, he’s also the one that protects the sheep from the robbers. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers. By the way, come before me is spatial, not temporal. He’s not saying that Abraham was a thief and a robber. What he’s saying is that all the people that come to the gate apart from him are thieves and a robber. Everybody trying to take you out of the gate that’s not of the shepherd is a thief and a robber. I want to explain the implications of this. Jesus is saying every person other than Him, other than him or the ones that he has sent is trying to destroy your life. I’m not trying to make us suspicious, it’s just the truth. People on podcasts or YouTube influencers or your favorite author or even a friend, sometimes the government, educators, doctors, all these people try to promise you pasture. Anybody who tries to promise you to pasture that’s outside of the way of Jesus or outside of the thoughts of Jesus or outside of the words of Jesus, every one of them is a thief and a robber. Every single one of them.

You have to learn to identify his voice. But here’s the good news. I love the next verse. But the sheep have not listened to them. Man. Be a good sheep. Don’t listen to those voices. Just don’t even listen. I will not listen to those voices. I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. All who listen to me, meaning they obey his voice, are identified as people that find salvation. The promise of salvation here is a promise of rescue. That’s what he’s saying. They’re going to be rescued from the people who are trying to harm them. In a way, Jesus is saying, I have come to bring you out of the place of your pen and then to rescue you, to give you life that is full life. Then the contrast between the thief and the robber is made very clear here in verse 10. The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. What a great promise, man. What a great promise. Everyone is trying to destroy you, but I have come so you can have life and abundant life.

Life is more than the life you’re living right now. A life that leads to salvation and that has salvation in it right now. A life that is full of joy and peace and kindness and amazing things. A life that is really, really, really life. I have come for that. Everyone else is trying to steal, kill, and destroy you. Then he says, Why? I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd. How do you know he’s a good shepherd? Well, he lays down his life for his sheep. That’s saying he’s willing to protect them. He’s willing to protect them. I’m willing to protect you from everybody who comes against you. If you listen to me, if you listen for me, I will protect you from every force trying to devour and destroy you. Then Jesus adds another character. I know I’m going quickly, but I have to get through the text. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. There’s a new character. Who’s the new character? The hired hand. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.

The man runs away because he is the hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Okay, we did all the other people. We know who the sheep is. We know who the shepherd is. We get a sense as to who the robbers are. Who are the hired hands? These are the religious leaders. Yeah, they’re not just those religious leaders, they’re also these religious leaders. I’ll tell you this, I am a hired hand. Joe is a hired hand. Our elders in some ways are hired hands. The community group leaders, they’re hired hands. What’s Jesus’s point? He envisions a scene in which he’s pulled them out into pasture. Now we’ve left the pen and now we’re in pasture and we’re hanging out in the pasture and things are going great. The shepherd goes, Hey, I need some people to be hired to work with my sheep. I can’t watch all 100 at the same time, so let me hire some people. He appoints some people. He appoints them with different roles in the church and different responsibilities in the religious structure. He goes, Hey, watch over the sheep and I will oversee you. Cool. Great. We’re watching over the sheep.

We’re trying our hardest. I’m trying my hardest. Then all of a sudden, a wolf comes. A wolf comes. Precisely because I am only a hired hand, the idea is that I go, and I run away. If you’re not still with the shepherd, but instead you have followed me and we have made my own flock, what will end up happening? You will be destroyed. Let’s say you decided to look to spiritual people who love God to be your good shepherd. Instead of making your good shepherd your good shepherd. If I do something or if I’m afraid or if I pull this side, I love you, but I don’t love you as much as the shepherd loves you. I can’t save your soul. I love you, but I don’t even know exactly what’s happening in your heart. Only God can judge your heart, right? If you follow me away from the flock of Christ and then something comes to devour you, I’m going to run away and you will be destroyed. What should you do and stay? Instead, you should stay with the flock. Now, the hired hand, as long as he’s with the flock is totally fine.

But man, the second he pulls you away because he’s some spiritual guru and you think he’s amazing, this is just a point of disaster for every single person who is a sheep. Do you get what I’m saying? I want to just mention this last thing. I love this community, but I don’t really know how to help all of you. I don’t know. I’m trying my hardest to figure it out. I love you, but I know there’s a place where my love runs out. I don’t want there to be a place where my love runs out, but I know there is a place where my love runs out. Because of that, I don’t want you to follow me. I don’t want you to… I want you to follow Jesus. Then from Jesus, you can follow me the way I follow Jesus, like Paul says, sure. But the second you should say, Hey, Tony, you said something strange there. I want to ask you about it. Hey, you brought that up. I looked at my Bible. I realized it was different. You should bring those things up. You should engage that way because I will not protect you when hardship comes.

Jesus will, but I will not. All right, let’s finish up. Okay, here we go. I like that we’re clapping for me in the weirdest way. Here we go. I’m clapping. I thought I had to follow you. I’m so grateful I don’t. All right, here we go. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. How intimate are we expected to be with Jesus as intimate as God is? The father is with his son. That’s how intimate. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I’ll die for you, Jesus says. I have other sheep that are not of this pen. He’s talking about the Gentiles. He’s talking about all of us. I must bring them in also. They too will listen to my voice and they shall be one flock with the shepherd. I’m going to go to the next verse. The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord.

I have the authority to lay it down and the authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my father. I have the authority to lay down my life and to take it up again, Jesus says. As we’re moving into communion, I want to talk a little bit just about that authority that Jesus has. Early Christian thinkers wondered what was the reason Jesus had to die. Why did he have to die? They popped up multiple theories of what we call atonement. Why does Jesus have to die? There’s one theory of atonement. Well, there are many theories of atonement, some of them that e believe in, some of them that we do not believe in. But there’s one of them that’s absolutely beautiful that I want to present to you today. It’s called Christus Victoris. Christus Victoris. This is about the idea that Jesus is victorious over death. That’s what this passage is teaching. Actually, this is one of the fundamental passages about that subject. But let me just set it up for you and then we’ll transition to communion. Death is the opposite of God. Let me say that again so that you can understand it.

Jesus is all-being. Sorry, God is all-being. The Godhead is all-being. He creates life and it goes on forever. What’s the opposite of God? It’s not the devil, because the devil, God created the devil, or something like that. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s not the opposite. But what’s the opposite? It’s not being. What’s not being? Death. This is the way the theory works. And so destruction, when Adam and Eve sinned, they brought in a broken fabric of the world. They ushered in death. God says to Adam after death, Because you have done this, you will return to the dirt. Death is going to happen to you. The way it works is that every single one of us, because we have identified with Adam in our own sinful nature, is also subject to death. We’re subject to death. We can’t live perfectly. All of us are going to die. Then Jesus comes on the scene. Jesus comes, he lives, he dies. When he is killed, and this is the idea, when he is killed, you know that passage that talks about how he goes in the underground or whatever? When he is killed, he faces death face to face.

Death thinks death can’t think, but you get the idea that it found another body, but it did not find a body. Instead, it found a God. In that place, Jesus destroys death. He destroys it. You might start thinking about that verse, Where, oh, death, is your victory. Where, oh, death, is your sting. Death has been swallowed up in victory. What’s the idea? Death has climbed over the wall. The thieves have climbed over the wall to try to destroy you, to kill you, to decide that your life should be ruined forever. Death and despair and destruction are in your life, constantly pushing on you from in your own heart and from waves without and forces without. They’re pushing on you to be destroyed and to be devoured and to be consumed. It’s coming and it’s coming and it’s coming. The reason it’s coming is because you and I identify with Adam. We identify with death. One day, our shepherd comes to the gate and says, Hey, come, follow me. I don’t want you to be a shepherd of death, or rather to be shepherded by death anymore. I want you to be shepherded by life that is abundant life.

At that moment, Jesus calls us out. He sets us free, and He gives us His identity as the one who conquered death, and we get to hold that. I want to encourage you guys that the promises of God, the promises of God to be set free, to be saved, and to have life forevermore is the greatest promise in the whole world. It’s your responsibility. It’s your responsibility to learn to listen to the shepherd and then to listen to the shepherd. There won’t be a single thing that can destroy you. No thief that tries to break in and steal, no stranger that tries to devour you, no wolf that tries to destroy you. Not a single thing will ever be able to destroy you because Jesus Christ has been victorious. As disciples of Jesus, we can identify with that victory.