John - The Good Shepherd w/Pastor Jenn Swift

So this morning, we have been in the book of John,

and it's my favorite book of all the books in the Bible.

I really love, it was the book that I was introduced to

when I was exploring faith, and I met with a pastor

who became my youth pastor and very dear to me,

and he encouraged me to read the book of John,

and that's where I started.

And so it is a key piece to my faith journey.

It is the place where I remember God speaking to me

specifically in terms of faith.

And so I believe God had been speaking to me

in many ways prior to that, and I can look back on that now

and see evidence of the Lord's presence in my life.

But the book of John is where I feel like I met Jesus,

and so it is a special place in my heart.

And the passage that we're talking about today

is not explicitly connected to it,

but it is expressive of meeting the Lord

and the salvation he offers to all of us.

So I'm grateful for that.

Greg initially offered me two different passages.

I could either preach from John 10 or John 11,

and up until yesterday, I wasn't sure

which one you were gonna get,

because I was just gone for a few weeks

doing some conferences with families that work overseas.

I am pastor to the kids of these families,

and so I do these programs, and this week,

we spent the whole week in the book of John.

So we really dug into a lot of different things in the book,

and between chapters 10 and 11,

I had a lot of information that I wasn't really sure

where I was gonna end up, and so I ran two parallel sermons,

and it's almost like you could have had

a choose-your-own adventure today, guys.

But there was some chatter even about

maybe I should have you guys bid $5 per message

to see which one you wanted

so I could raise funds for my work

that I do outside of this church.

I'm not gonna do that, but it was a good idea.

So instead of giving you a choose-your-own adventure,

I landed on, in the end, I landed on John 10,

and so that's where we're gonna be today, guys,

John 10 and the Good Shepherd.

I have not been following well what people have been,

what our other preachers have shared

over the last few weeks, so I may be redundant,

or you could just chalk it up to an opportunity

to reaffirm what you know and get it deeper into you

if there's stuff that you're like,

yeah, yeah, yeah, we covered this.

But the Book of John, in the Book of John,

the author really wanted the readers to know,

the author had an agenda, and most authors of these books

did have an agenda, they wanted to record a lineage,

or record events, or convey a particular message

of Jesus to a group of readers.

There was an audience that was very specific.

So in the Book of John, the author really wanted to

emphasize the point that Jesus was the Son of God.

That was his main thrust with this.

So he wanted the readers to understand

that this was in fact the promised Messiah.

And the writer does this in a couple ways.

The writer put forth multiple stories of vetted

and who would be recognized sources that if these people

believe that Jesus was the Son of God, then he must be.

So trusted Jews, even a Pharisee recognized

that there was something to this Jesus character.

A dove settled on Jesus at his baptism.

John even recognized the John the Baptist

that Jesus was greater than he was.

And so there were these sources that the author wanted

to point out as vetted and trusted.

But then, also there's a series of passages

in which the author wanted to highlight moments

where Jesus himself testified to his own sonship.

And anytime Jesus did this, it was always in specific

reference and attention was given to the Father.

Never, ever, ever, ever does Jesus refer to himself

as the Son of God without also in conjunction,

directly giving honor and attention to the Father.

And so in the Book of John, we see Jesus giving

these statements of who he is and they're always followed

by who he is in the Father.

And so he does it by way of these I am statements.

So I am the bread of life, I am the gate,

the good shepherd, the light of the world,

I am the resurrection and the life,

I am the way, the truth and the life,

I am the true vine.

And they were always stated with authority

because he had been given authority

with statements he recognized like,

this command I received from my Father,

for I have come not to do my will,

but to do the will of him who sent me.

I am not alone, I stand with the Father who sent me.

I am one who testifies for myself,

my other witness is the Father who sent me.

I said this for the benefit of the people standing here

that they may believe that the Father has sent me.

So anytime Jesus acknowledged I am,

it was always I am because of the Father.

And the hearers, the listeners to this,

if they were Jewish, they would have had

a switch flip in their heads

because they would have known the book of Exodus

and they would have known that God said to Moses,

I am who I am.

And so when Moses asked, what am I to tell the people,

God said, this is what you are to say to the Israelites,

I am has sent you.

So the language Jesus uses is pretty important.

So anyone who had been hearing Jesus preach the good news,

any who had been walking with him

following this developing story of this person

roaming across Galilee and Judea,

anybody who had happened to be in earshot,

any who happened to be leaders in the Jewish law

who were already trying so hard to trap Jesus,

they would have noted this connection

and some of them were quite offended by it.

Who does this person say he is?

Who is this I am trying to recognize

or trying to state that God has sent him?

So this puts us in John 10 today

and I'm gonna give you a little setup from John 9

so we know where we are.

Jesus had been in the area of Jerusalem

and he had just healed a man of blindness

and this man had been blind since birth.

Not only did Jesus heal him but he did so on the Sabbath.

Huge no no.

So the Pharisees were livid.

They were livid because he was getting away with it.

They weren't livid because he did it.

They didn't care.

Like they weren't really feeling so protective of the,

but if Jesus is doing this it's gonna let people know

that they can do things on the Sabbath

and all things are gonna run amok

and it's gonna be a big problem.

So they sent the man who was healed

and his family through this whole gauntlet of questions

and even when the man testified to Jesus healing him

and explained the whole thing,

the Pharisees did not believe him.

So this is where we find ourselves when we come to John 10.

So I invite you to take a posture of attention

to God's word with me as Jesus tells a story

to the Pharisees.

If that is through standing I invite you to do that.

Otherwise, let's give the scriptures our full attention.

I'm gonna read from John 10

and I'm gonna read verses one through 21.

Very truly I tell you Pharisees,

anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate

but climbs in 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.

And when he has brought out all his own

he goes on ahead of them and his 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

but the Pharisees did not understand

what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, very truly I tell you,

I am the gate for the sheep.

All who have come before me are thieves and robbers

but the sheep have not listened to them.

I am the gate.

Whoever enters through me will be saved.

They will come in and go out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life

and have it to the full.

I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

The hired hand is not the shepherd

and does not own the sheep.

So 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 has a hired hand

and cares nothing for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

I know my sheep and my sheep know me.

Just as the father knows me and I know the father

and I lay down my life for the sheep

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen

I must bring them.

This is a reference to the Gentiles.

They too will listen to my voice

and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

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 of my own accord.

I have authority to lay it down

and authority to take it up again.

This command I received from my father.

So the Jews who heard these words again

were, these words were again divided

and many of them said, he is demon possessed

and raving mad.

Why listen to him?

But others said, these are not the sayings

of a man possessed by a demon.

Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

May God add his blessing to his word.

Let's pray.

Lord please use your word today to bring us light

and transform us by it.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So Jesus is stating I am the gate

and I am the good shepherd.

Guys we get a double play here.

How exciting.

Jesus is getting real serious with this

because he stated two things that he was here.

So I am the gate.

The use of the gate was what differentiated

a shepherd from a thief.

If someone was greeted by the watchman at the gate

as he went into the sheepfold,

people would know that he was the shepherd

or owner of some sheep within that fold.

But someone trying to avoid being seen

would climb over the fence.

The behavior of the sheep at the gate

would also make it clear whether they were being cared for

by a shepherd or stolen by an enemy.

Who has a dog at home?

What does that dog do when you come home?

Yeah, gets real excited, right?

That dog gets real excited.

What does that dog do when a stranger comes to the door

or when the UPS guy comes?

Yeah, not a fan, not a fan of the stranger.

This is a good parallel for us.

So if the sheep came out peacefully following a shepherd,

they were his flock and familiar with his voice.

But if the sheep were frightened and running away

from the person trying to lead them,

he was a stranger and probably a thief.

So Jesus here describes himself as the gate for the sheep.

Leaving the Pharisees to start wondering

who they might be in this story.

Jesus stating himself as the gate

in contrast to the robbers,

makes him the protector of the sheep

from the thieves and the robbers.

So by describing himself as the gate,

he is promising his hearers a few things.

He's promising them salvation,

entering, anyone entering into God's presence

through him will be saved.

He's offering them protection.

The shepherd would protect the sheep as they grazed

and as they returned to the fold.

And he's offering them satisfaction.

A few chapters back, Jesus had earlier told

the Samaritan woman of the satisfaction

provided by the water he gives,

that he gives living water.

He had also spoken of the satisfying bread he provides

when he says, I am the bread of life.

Here he promises that those who enter through him

will find pasture.

And what is the pasture for the sheep?

It is the place where they find food

and nourishment and health.

So Jesus is asking his hearers to compare

the life he offers with that offered by the thieves

and the robbers mentioned in 10 eight.

Whose only motives are to steal, kill and destroy.

He goes on to say, I am the good shepherd.

So in speaking of himself as the gate,

Jesus had already spoken of himself

as having some shepherd responsibilities.

And so it's no surprise when he makes this next,

I am claim, I am the good shepherd.

And as the shepherd, he sets himself against

not just the robber, but even the hired hands.

The hired hands may have slightly more concern

for the sheep than a thief does,

but their concern comes nowhere near that of a shepherd.

Sheep in Palestine were vulnerable

to attack by a number of predators.

There were not only dangerous to the sheep,

but the humans also.

One of these, prominent of these was a wolf.

So when a hired hand saw a wolf coming, he's just

a hired hand, he's gonna leave those sheep behind

and make a run for it to save himself.

The hired hand, no matter what he knows about the sheep,

he will not have the same commitment to them

as the shepherd.

Jesus is the good shepherd.

He is not just one good shepherd among a host of others.

He is the good shepherd.

The Greek word translated here also suggests

that he is both effective and gracious.

He cares for the sheep with love and knows them,

and knows them well.

Church, where have we in the last year

come face to face with the word good?

Though John, yes, though John is written in Greek,

there are some crossovers with Hebrew,

and the word here would have been put through the lenses

of the Hebrew word tov.

So Jesus is the good shepherd.

Jesus' opponents thought of themselves

as the legitimate shepherds of God's people.

It was not uncommon for leaders in that region as a whole

to be spoken of as shepherds, and the word had long been used

to describe some of the faith's leaders as such as well.

So in Psalm 77 20, it says,

"'You lead your people like a flock

"'by the hand of Moses and Aaron.'

"'Moses would have been seen as a shepherd.'

"'In 2 Samuel 5, too, in the past,

"'while Saul was king over you,'

and this is speaking of David,

"'you were the one who led Israel

"'on their military campaigns,

"'and the Lord said to you,

"'You will shepherd my people Israel,

"'and you will become their ruler.'

"'And of course, even God himself is a shepherd.'"

Psalm 23, one through three,

"'The Lord is my shepherd.

"'I lack nothing.

"'He makes me lie down in green pastures.

"'He leads me beside quiet waters.

"'He refreshes my soul.'"

So Jesus challenged the leaders' opinions of themselves.

He was implying that they were not shepherds,

but that they were strangers.

The sheep did not know, and that they were thieves.

Jesus was now saying that the people,

like the once blind man, represented the sheep

that recognized the voice of the true shepherd.

And by contrast, the Jewish leaders were blind

and unreceptive to the words of Jesus.

They were neither good shepherds nor God's sheep.

They did not even understand what Jesus was telling them.

So much like their difficulty in understanding

the blind man's clear and specific testimony

to Jesus' miraculous work in his life,

saying to the leaders,

"'I've told you already, and you did not listen.'"

They had questioned him over and over.

"'I told you already and you didn't listen.

"'Why do you want to hear it again?

"'You're not gonna get it the third or the fourth

"'or the fifth time, I tell you,

"'because you don't want to.'"

Jesus is declaring himself to the Pharisees

in language that they should know.

I am.

And they still respond with division

and uncertainty and questions.

So y'all, it's picnic and outdoor food season.

Have you ever been somewhere where there was food?

Mm-hmm, this is the question we asked earlier.

And you put an unmarked item on your plate,

thinking it was something familiar,

a dessert accidentally set with the entrees perhaps,

and it looks a little bit like the other.

So you go to take a bite,

and it's not the thing you believed it to be.

Your brain doesn't know what to do.

It's confused.

It expected one thing,

you were ready for the one thing,

fully believing that what you were about to put in your mouth

was the thing you thought it was.

And then when it wasn't,

you didn't quite know what you were dealing with.

Someone sees your confusion, they come over to you.

Oh, that's the pastry that Aunt Marge brought.

That should be over here.

You're like, yeah, it should.

And then it's like a revelation.

Once you realize what it is, you can taste it.

Oh yeah, there's the cinnamon.

That's the, that's this, that's this.

The flavors make sense once you know what it is.

Now you recognize it.

But it took a minute when you thought it was the other thing.

And you know, the family event where everyone was drinking

from the same glass of clear plastic cups,

or with the same kind of clear plastic cups.

And I went to go drink my water at this family event.

It was not my water, but my mother's martini.

That was a moment that I was drinking something

that I did not expect to drink.

And I'm still traumatized by it.

It was a core memory and it wasn't a good one.

But those moments where you expect one thing,

you are certain it is this thing.

And when it is something else, your brain doesn't move.

Like it doesn't know what to do.

It can be confusing and it can leave you disillusioned.

But the Pharisees, they were unwilling.

The Pharisees' only agenda was to get this man gone.

Jesus was disruptive, he was problematic,

and he needed to be dealt with.

All the while, there are the blind that can now see

finding life and joy and healing

because they were open to the possibilities

of who this Christ could be.

And the Pharisees could not take joy in that,

but only saw it as a problem.

So weren't those Pharisees gonna be wrecked

when Jesus went on to stress that he has other sheep

that are not of his pen that would be invited to be?

This was startling news for the Jews

and good news for the Gentiles.

God also has sheep from beyond the confines

of the Jewish people.

Gentiles, like the Samaritans,

from the Samaritan Women, chapter four,

who believe are also included in one flock of God

under one shepherd.

This would have really broke them.

And this is what I think about.

From this story, I wonder,

what is God doing to change the paradigm

I once held hard to?

What is God doing to welcome and save and protect

and feed those who were previously unwelcomed,

unprotected, and malnourished in their souls?

Where has God offered a new paradigm

and I have not moved with it

because I thought this is what it's supposed to look like

and God is saying, this is what it is.

Also, where have I gate kept,

a gate that was not mine to keep?

I am not the gate.

The one who has made himself known is.

And so these are the things I think about

with this passage and this story.

Because quite often I have been the Pharisee,

not rejoicing in the one that was healed on the Sabbath,

but focusing on, but it was on the Sabbath.

It's not how it's supposed to be.

And Jesus is like, free yourself.

This is what we're doing now.

It's hard for us to imagine a life

in which shepherds are a part of a community.

I was going through, as I said,

I was going through this passage

with some of the kids I work with this last week

and asked them who lives in a place

where shepherding is still an active occupation.

So the kids I work with are coming from

a lot of different countries.

We probably had some of them

from different countries.

We probably had seven countries represented

in my group alone of teens,

and more in the wider group of the kids program.

But some of them are coming from places

where shepherding is an active occupation

that they see around their communities.

And so it was interesting to see

who understood the paradigm of,

or the life of a shepherd among them.

But I was, so I was in Greece

and I was driving to the airport

and the directions took me through a smallish town

on the way on Friday morning.

And as I passed through this town,

I saw a man out with his herd of,

they were goats, but work with me on this

because he was still herding animals the size of sheep.

But he was a goat herder.

So I think it's still applicable, herding.

So he was walking along with them

as they were grazing and eating the low branches

of the olive trees.

And he had a staff to help tap them

if they got a little bit out of line

to get them back into the direction he wanted them to go

when they pulled away from the others.

The road I was driving on was directly next to the sheep,

or excuse me, the goats, but they were safe.

Those goats were safe because the herder was alert

and engaged and he was guiding them.

All they had to think about was following his lead

and enjoying the food that he had led them to.

They were unbothered by the passing cars.

They were no threat.

The shepherd, or in this case, the goat herder was there.

And I appreciated the visual as I knew this passage

was potentially what I was gonna be preaching on.

It was very helpful to see, again,

we don't have the privilege of seeing shepherding among us

here where we live,

but I love this image of God as Jesus as the good shepherd,

as a protector, as the gate to where we find life,

as the one who leads us to nourishment for our souls.

And the joy of it is, really,

if we are open to watching how the Spirit moves,

is that it is offered not just to me,

but everyone I know has been invited

to enjoy the life of God,

has been invited to enjoy the protection of God

and experience that in their lives,

and has been invited to enjoy the nourishment of God.

So let's pray together

and hold these things in our hearts as we,

I'm just gonna give us a moment to grab hold

of just something from this morning

that the Lord has said that you might want to take

into your week and carry as something to focus on,

and then I'll pray.

Lord, help us listen for and know your voice

as sheep that are following you.

Help us shift our own thinking away from being gatekeepers

to resting and being a part of your flock,

safe within your care.

And where you offer us and others life and salvation,

and where you offer us and others protection,

and where you offer us and others

nourishment and satisfaction.

Let us rejoice in what you offer so freely

and invite us to God.

You are the good shepherd and you lead us with love.

Help us follow well and listen for your voice

in our lives, God.

Amen.