The Shepherd Protects His Sheep

I think that if there is anything that you and I want as human beings it is the knowledge that we really do matter. That we matter, first of all, to one another. That’s important, and if you say that it’s not, you probably are bitter and wounded. But not simply that we matter to one another, but even more importantly, that we really matter to God. We matter so much that someday we will see Him, and we will step on shore, and find His hand there. 

In John 10, Jesus speaks about being both the door and the Good Shepherd. If you have your Bible I would invite you to take it and to turn with me to this passage. I shall read John 10:1-5. Jesus says, “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 sheep 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 do not know the voice of strangers.”

Jesus is using this metaphor from the Middle East because in those days when the shepherd came to the sheepfold in the morning, he oftentimes was confronted by a huge sheepfold with high walls in which there were hundreds of sheep—different flocks that belonged to different shepherds. How would they even separate them? All that the shepherd needed to do is to begin to speak. Those that belonged to him would immediately recognize his voice and they would cluster around this shepherd. Another shepherd would speak, and the sheep would cluster around the second shepherd, and so forth, because the sheep know the voice of their shepherd. 

Now don’t miss the analogy. Jesus is saying that He came to the sheepfold called Judaism, and as He looked over the sheepfold, as He began to speak, those who belonged to Him recognized His voice and came out of the sheepfold of Judaism. Later on in this passage, He’s going to say that there are other sheep that He has that are not of this fold. He must bring them also—that is the Gentiles, those who are non-Jewish. That’s you and me who now also can be a part of this wonderful sheepfold that Jesus Christ has. 

I want you to notice with your Bible open that Jesus said in John 10:7, in the last part of the verse, “I am the door of the sheep.” Again, in verse 9, “I am the door.” You’ll notice in John 10 Jesus says, “I am the door,” but He also says, “I am the shepherd.” Actually, He’s both because remember now that He comes to the sheepfold, and He takes those who belong to Him, He begins another sheepfold that really is exclusively His. In those days, sometimes the shepherds would actually sleep at the door of a sheepfold so that no robber or no animal could enter in and harass the sheep. So, Jesus is the door, because He says that no one can enter into that sheepfold unless they go through Him. He is both the door, but He is also the Shepherd true to Middle East custom.

Now there are several things we can say about a door. First of all, we notice that a door means entrance. It is the means of entrance. Not one of us has ever seen a building without a door. If you’ve seen a building without a door, you have seen an encased tomb, because there has to be an entrance in and out. Jesus is the door to this second sheepfold that we must belong to if we want to step on shore someday and find it to be heaven. I want you to notice that the Ark in the Old Testament there was but one door, and in this sheepfold there is but one door, and that is Jesus Christ. A door is a means of entrance.

A door is also a means of separation or inclusion and exclusion. We’ve all had the experience I am sure of, at some time, having a door slammed in our faces. Jesus said that someday there will be people who fully expect to get into heaven, and they will have the door of heaven shut, and even though they knock, it will not be opened unto them. When you have a door there are some who are inside, and there are some that are outside. 

Something else that can be said about a door is that it is a means of protection. Those of us who live in Chicago, when the cold wind blows we close the door, and then behind that slab of wood there is warmth and there is protection, but outside it is very cold. Jesus said, “I am the door,” and there is none other but Him. 

Well, you say, “Fine, but how does this relate to whether or not we really matter? What is the connection that you are trying to make?” What I’d like to do in the next few moments is to give you three benefits that come to us when we receive Christ as door and shepherd. What are the three benefits that are far-reaching in their implications, and that can transform our lives once we know the Shepherd, and we are absolutely persuaded that we are one of His sheep? What are those benefits? 

First of all, there is the benefit of salvation. Notice Christ says in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” He shall be saved. That’s a good New Testament word. To be saved means that we have been reconciled to God. We are in the fold, the fold of those who know Christ as Savior, who can be assured of eternal life. 

Now, how does this salvation come about? I want you to know that there’s no cheap deal here. Jesus Christ purchased the sheep at high cost. I was counting this week as I was reading this passage of Scripture, and discovered that from verse 11 to 18, five times Jesus says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Notice, He says in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Let’s pick it up in verse 15, “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Again in verse 17, and twice in verse 18, He lays down His life for the sheep. He dies for them. 

Some things that will help us to understand the death of Christ: First of all, it is a voluntary death. He says, “No man takes my life from me. It is I who lay it down. I choose to die voluntarily.” Now at this point He is different from any other shepherd, either in the Middle East, or in America, or anywhere else in the world because I don’t know of any other shepherd who would voluntarily die for the sheep. Any other shepherd would use all of the resources at his disposal to make sure that he would live, including trying to outrun the opposition. 

Do you remember that story that floated around a few years ago where there were two guys in the center of a forest and they saw a bear that was off in a distance coming toward them? One of the guys kneeled over and he tightened his shoelace. The other guy said, “Don’t even bother. You can’t outrun the bear.” The guy said, “I don’t plan to outrun the bear. I only plan to outrun you” [laughter]. Well, that’s the way most shepherds do it. In other words, “If I can outrun somebody, I’m not going to voluntarily—”and here is Jesus who could have called twelve legions of angels, and they would have been delighted to deliver Him, and He voluntarily lays down His life to purchase them at a high cost. 

It is a voluntary death. It is a substitutionary death. He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep.” Now hang onto this. In the Old Testament it is sheep who were taken and sacrificed. The sheep died for the shepherd. In the New Testament you find that the Shepherd, Jesus, dies for the sheep. What a remarkable turn of events. He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep,” and it is a temporary death because He says, “I take it again. I take my life again.” So, on Good Friday Jesus Christ, in effect, said to the wolf, “Wolf, today you win.” But on Easter Sunday the wolf loses and Jesus Christ wins. He says, “I lay down my life, and I take it again.” Good Friday was not the end. It was only the beginning. 

Now, why does Jesus Christ do this? Well, look at John 10:10. What beautiful words Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” You see, the very life that Jesus Christ lays down is the life that His sheep now receive. 

Now, in ordinary life if the shepherd dies, the sheep are in great peril. The sheep are severely damaged. They are without leadership, but in this case, Jesus Christ dies, and because He appears again and takes over, He actually gives them the life that He laid down. He says, “I give them life, and I give it to them more abundantly.” Always remember the life that He gives is not eternal existence because everybody has that. The life that He gives is a life of satisfaction of being back in contact with God. 

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden it was as if you were to take a lamp and pull out the plug. But Jesus Christ, because of His death, can reconnect us with God, and so we enjoy life more abundantly. So, the first benefit that this good shepherd gives to the sheep is the benefit of salvation, and He lays down His life that we might have it.

But there’s a second benefit, and actually it is a part of salvation, though for my purposes I’ve separated it. The second benefit is the gift, or the benefit, of significance. We matter to God, and we see this in the text when it says that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep by name. He knows His sheep by name.

One day I was at a Bible conference and a couple came to me and they said, “Do you think that Jesus Christ is going to know us in heaven?” Oh, the answer is, “Yes, of course, He’s going to know you in heaven, and He’s even going to not only know your name, but He’s going to pronounce it correctly.” And for some of us who have names have multiple spellings He’s even going to spell it right. He’s going to get it right.

One of the most sobering things is to know that someday when we do step on shore, Jesus will look at us, and He’ll call us by name. He’ll say, “Faith Wilson, thank you for singing of me with such clarity and power.” And what a day that is going to be because He knows my name.

I used to be a little bit concerned, not that I have to be concerned with a name like Lutzer, but those of you who are Smith—oh like John Smith. You know, you look at the telephone books of Toronto, or Chicago, or Atlanta and you see all of these John Smiths. You think, “You know, God’s computer is going to be so confused. He’s going to say, ‘Yeah, you’re John Smith. What John Smith?’” I want you to know that He knows you. He knows the number of hairs on your head, and you are special to Him, and He calls you by name.

His personal knowledge of us, and personal communication. John 10:14: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Notice the reciprocal relationship there, it isn’t all one-sided. “I know my sheep, but my sheep know me.” I hope that you can say today, “Yes, I know Christ.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve been talking with Him this morning. I hope you have been too. Blessed are those who know Him. 

Jesus also says in John 10:9, if anyone is saved, he will “go in and out and find pasture.” Jesus is saying that there’s going to be something about this life that is going to be enjoyable to people. I’ve sometimes said to Jerry Edmonds—and one of these days I’m not just going to say it; I’m going to request it—that we learn that song that we used to sing when I was growing up:

“My God and I, we walk the fields together.

We walk and talk as good friends should and do. 

We clasp our hands, our voices ring with laughter. 

My God and I, we walk the meadow’s through. 

We go in and out and find pasture, and we matter.”

Some of you don’t matter to your parents unfortunately, or you don’t matter to your friends, but I want you to know today that you can matter to God. He gives salvation, significance, and then, as if that wasn’t enough, security. 

Now, in order for you to understand these next verses, and we’re going to pick it up at John 10:26, in between time Jesus has an altercation with some of the Jewish people who are listening to His speech. We pick it up at verse 26. But before we look at this text I have to ask you a question. Is there any possibility of belonging to Jesus Christ’s fold, to be a member of His sheepfold, to have, figuratively speaking, His mark in your ear, and He calls you by name, and then at the end of the day you end up in the wrong sheepfold, and you don’t step on shore, and you find that you are not in heaven? Is there a chance that that would happen? 

Well, with that question in mind, let’s read John 10:26-29. Speaking to the Jews He says, “but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” Seems to me that those sheep are pretty secure. 

Let’s look at it this way. First of all, they are secure because of the Father’s purpose. These sheep are a gift from God the Father to God the Son. Notice Jesus said in John 10:29, “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.” They are a gift. I don’t know how many times—I didn’t check it—but if you read the Gospel of John at least a dozen times, Christ’s sheep are referred to as a gift that God the Father is giving to God the Son.

God the Father wanted God the Son to have sheep, and verse John 10:29 says, “My Father, who has given them to me.” They are very, very special to the Father. But notice also the Father’s power in verse 19, “The Father who gave them to me is greater than all.” He is greater than all. He’s greater than the wolves. He’s greater than the bears. He is greater than all of the doubts that we might have. “My Father who gave them to me is greater than all that.” 

It was something like twenty years ago, I was a teacher at Moody Bible Institute, and I’ll never forget Debbie White who was the secretary to several of us who were on faculty. She was only 21 years old and yet had a very rare form of cancer. There was some cure that was supposed to help, and it appeared to, but in the end Debbie died. Some of us had the privilege of being at her funeral. I remember before she died she sometimes said, “I don’t want to fall asleep because I may fall asleep—” she knew that she might not wake up again. She knew that possibility existed and she was fearful. Well, eventually that’s exactly what happened. She went to sleep and she never did wake up. 

But I want you to know today that the Father—because she was such a fine Christian and a believer in Jesus Christ, which we’ll explain in just a moment—the Father who gave her to Christ was greater than all, even greater than those doubts. I have no doubt today that she stepped on shore, and found it to be heaven, and felt that hand, and found it to be God’s hand, because John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to me (said Jesus), is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.” The word snatch is the very same word in verse 29 as is used in verse 12 of the wolf who snatches the people of the flock. 

You see, in Old Testament times, as well as in New Testament times, sometimes the shepherds would hire a hired man to take care of the sheep. A hired man was not going to lay down his life for the sheep, I can tell you. That’s why Jesus said earlier in John 10:12, “He who is a hireling.” That’s the hired hand, you see, and not a shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep. He beholds the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees. But Jesus is saying, “I’m not going to do that under any condition because I own these sheep. I’m simply not a hired hand.” 

About a week ago I came out of a store, and someone was handing out tracts with Bible verses on them, and he asked if I would take one. I was most pleased to take one, but then I asked who wrote the tract, or who is the religion that is behind the tract, and I discovered that it’s these folks, bless them, who really do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. They believe that Christ is less than God. And I, in a few moments, urged them to believe on a Savior who is God, because if you believe in a Savior who isn’t God, he is disqualified. 

Well, the point to be made here is that Jesus is saying He’ll not give them up. “They are mine. No man is able to snatch them out of my hand,” and then He says in John 10:29, “no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”

How many hands are here anyway? Well, there’s Christ’s hand in verse 28. There’s the Father’s hand. Years ago, I was thinking of preaching on this text and I was going to entitle it “Hands in Harmony.” But notice that it’s the Father’s hand, and the Son’s hand, and no one can snatch them out. Oh, I know that there are many people who say, “Yeah but”—you know the motor boaters—“yeah, but, but, but, but, but” [laughter]. We can wiggle out of the hand. We can do it if we want. 

Now, wait a moment. You talk to a shepherd who leaves with a hundred sheep in the morning, and you ask him whether or not it’s possible for one of those sheep to be lost and you come back with only 98. It’s possible but, if so, the reputation of the shepherd is at stake. He will be ridiculed for having lost sheep. Jesus Christ’s reputation is also at stake. No matter how stubborn they become, no matter how difficult it is for them to be dealt with, at the end of the day, just as the shepherd counts them in the morning and gets 100, at the end of the day they have to pass under the shepherd’s rod, and he counts them one by one, name by name, and he will end up in the evening with just as many has he had in the morning. They will make it. John 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all.”

What are the benefits that come to those who know the Shepherd? First of all, the benefit of salvation, reconciliation to God. He died for them. The benefit of significance. They matter. And the benefit of security. They know in whom they have believed, and they are persuaded that He is able to keep that which they have committed unto Him against that day. They know that they belong to God now and forever more. Amen, so be it. 

Now having said all of that, I need to point out that that promise only applies to Christ’s sheep. In fact, He says right there in John 10:26, “You do not believe,” speaking to some of the Jewish people, “because you are not among my sheep.” “It doesn’t apply to you but the sheep who hear my voice and follow me, they are the ones that cannot be snatched out of my hand, nor the hand of my Father.” 

And so, the question that we have to ask this morning is how do we know that we are members of his sheep? Because remember there are many, many people who think they are Christ’s sheep who aren’t. Some aren’t because they are in the wrong fold, and they say, “Well, this fold honors Jesus,” but it may not be the real fold. There are those who may not be in any kind of a fold at all wandering from place to place spiritually speaking. 

Let me put it to you this way. One day I was talking to somebody on a plane, as I frequently do, explaining to them the wonder of Jesus Christ, and why He is the only way to God. And the person said, “Well, you know, there are so many different religions. How are we supposed to make up our mind about them?” And I said, “Well, I’m going to simplify everything for you.” You know, I’ve always prayed that God would keep me simple. Some of the staff think that He has overdone it [laughter], that He’s answered the prayer in ways that were way beyond what we could have asked or thought. 

But I said, “Let me make it simple. There are only two religions in the world. On the one side we put all of the religions that say you can be saved by doing something that still needs to be done. And then all the different religions have their list of things to do, and the list gets longer and longer and more cumbersome, and you never know whether you have done enough. That’s all on one side. They can all be lumped together. One the other side is the one religion that says we are saved by trusting in what has already been done for us. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He purchases these sheep, and as a result of that He gives them the gift of eternal life, the life more abundantly.”

Notice what John 10:28 says, “I give them eternal life.” It is a gift to those who stop depending upon their goodness and trust Christ alone. I want you to notice how personal this trust is. It isn’t just a general trust. Jesus said in verse 14, “I know my own (by name) and my own know me.” It’s individual.

The other day I was reading a book in which it criticized those of us who believe in individual conversion. Well, I want you to know today there is none other. It’s not a decision that your parents could make for you. It’s not a decision that others could make for you. It is the decision of those who trust the Shepherd alone, admitting their sinfulness apart from His grace. 

Well, do you matter? One day Jesus was being criticized for spending too much time with big sinners, these people whom the religious leaders believed to be big sinners. He says to defend Himself, “There was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep, and one was lost, and he went to look for the sheep, and when he came back, he rejoiced over that sheep even more than the 99 who were in the fold.” We can understand that. And then Jesus added this, “In the very same way, there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents.” 

Do you realize that at The Moody Church today, if you have never personally believed on Christ, you have no assurance that you are one of His sheep? If you savingly believed, if you heard His voice and said, “I accept what Christ did,” then in heaven there would be a cosmic celebration. A cosmic celebration because Jesus said that in heaven the angels rejoice over a sheep that has been found, over a sheep that has joined Christ’s fold. You, possibly, are the very one that will heaven glad today because you believe in that Shepherd. You matter. Salvation, significance, security, and that’s a lot for some rather stubborn, wayward, rebellious sheep. What a Savior. 

Let us pray. 

Even at this moment, oh Father, You are working in the lives and the hearts of those who have listened. Oh, we pray that in grace You might call some sheep to Yourself today. We pray that they might listen to your voice, not to harden their hearts, but to open their hearts to Your voice. Grant them that, Father. 

And now even before I close this prayer, you can pray where you are, and you can pray, “Lord Jesus, I receive You today as my Shepherd personally, individually. I’ve heard Your voice and I accept.” Are you willing to do that? You say, “I accept Christ today.” You tell Christ that you are accepting Him right at this moment. 

Father, confirm in the lives of those who are praying at this moment, confirm, Father, the voice of the Shepherd, and may the sheep respond. Do that, Lord. Were it not for Your voice we could never hear. If it were not for Your grace, we would never be made alive. In Jesus’ name, Amen.