Sheep Sermon

      Greetings in the name of Christ the Lord!  I had a great weekend spending as much time with the college students as possible before they left.  It is going to be a lot quieter around here now and I will have more free time.  I am going to miss all the students of LSF being around, but actually won't mind the town being a little less crowded without the other 12,000 students around.
     I also had a good mother's day.  Mom came up to see me and it was nice to spend some time with her.  We went out for lunch after church and then she came to the nursing home devotions with us.  After devotions I had pie and coffee with some of our church members and a nice visit.
      This week I am trying to actually work ahead on church stuff on top of getting a bunch more projects around home and the garage done.  Last Friday, I finally finished the shelving and tool bench in my garage.  Now I need to finish the hymnal holders for the church pews, my chair I started before Easter, and my deer antlers.  I also need to mow today while it is not raining.  Maybe life won't slow down as much as shift focus.  However, I love all these things and am happy to be able to physically do them.  My car is also in the shop today getting a couple recalls fixed.  That is about all that is new with me.
       Here is my sermon from Sunday, enjoy!

Text: John 10:1-10
Our focus text for today comes from the Gospel reading of John chapter 10, looking specifically at verses 3 through 5: “To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
       In middle school I had sheep for 4H. I had sheep for two years and this experience taught me a lot. My first year, I had two male lambs and I named them Scovic and Daunt. I always chose strange names for my 4H animals. I would ride my bike across town twice a day everyday to the farm on the edge of town where I kept them to do chores. I would spend several hours every morning working with them, walking them on the halters, breaking them to lead. But my favorite time I spent with these guys was after I would walk them for an hour or so, I would take them out to the green grass and just sit with them while they grazed as far as their lead ropes could reach. I had five sheep total over two years and I can tell you sheep have as different personalities as people. Scovic was scared of his own shadow and always stuck right next to Daunt for comfort. I always thought I was going to find him dead from a heart attack because he was just so frightened all the time. However, Daunt was an adventurer. I swear Daunt would have walked up to a barking dog just to get a closer look. He was as fearless of a sheep as I had ever seen. Daunt would come and stand right up in my face as I was sitting on the ground next to him and he would watch me leave as I rode my bike down the dirt driveway. Over the summer, spending time with these guys I got to know them, but they also got to know me. I would talk to them all the time and over time they came to know my voice. When I would ride my bike up and say, “Hey guys,” they would come running out of the barn up to the fence.
       In our text for today Jesus compares himself to the Good Shepherd. Now most of us are probably more familiar with verses 11-18 of this passage where Jesus tells us He is the good shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. We know this is most certainly true, Christ did lay down His own life for us, His sheep by dying in the cross for us. He truly is our Good Shepherd who did lay down His life for us. However, today I want to focus in on a different part of this passage. Today, I want to look at the part where He says that the sheep know His voice. This comparison He is making of shepherd and sheep should have been easy for the people of that day who were accustomed to shepherds and sheep. In verse six John tells us they were confused, but they should have known that sheep do indeed learn the voice of their shepherd. However, the reason sheep know the voice of their shepherd is not because of some divine or supernatural reason. It is not because the shepherd has a specific tone of his voice that rings differently in the sheep’s ears than any other voice. The reason sheep know the voice of their shepherd is simply because they have been with the shepherd since they were little lambs and have spent their entire lives under the care of this one man. Just like Scovic and Daunt who knew my voice. And I was only with them a couple hours in the morning and maybe an hour every evening. But other than my dad who would come once in a great while or the vet who came twice to give them their shots, I was the only person they really ever saw or had contact with. They heard my voice for these few hours every day. Now imagine the sheep of Biblical days who are under the care of the shepherd all day every day. He takes them into the courtyard at night so they are protected by the stone walls surrounding the house and courtyard. But then every day the shepherd takes the sheep out to the green grass of the pastures and using only a staff, He guides them, leads them, and tends to them. They learn to trust him, to follow him, knowing he is leading them to good green grass that they like. Then as they graze, I imagine most shepherds talked to the sheep much like I did. They know the shepherds voice because he has been the one to raise them from little lambs and has always taken care of them, tended to them, and been the only voice they hear on a regular basis. They know his voice because they have grown to know his voice over time.
       The same principal applies to us too. We know a friend’s voice or a relative’s voice, but only because we have heard the voice repeatedly over time. The same is true for sheep who know the shepherd’s voice from hearing it repeatedly over time. So how do we apply this principle to Jesus comparing Himself to the shepherd? Now, before I answer that question I need to make a clarification first. In these first few specific verses, Jesus is the shepherd and the people of Israel are the sheep. However, we know Gentiles are also included in the sheep because of verse 16 in this same chapter that says, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” So the sheep are the Jews in this specific instance, but us Gentiles are also included as this verse says in the one flock. So He is the shepherd and all His people, Jews and Gentiles, are the sheep. He tends to us, He cares for us, he leads us to green grass to feed. We know His voice. But this brings us back to our question of how do we know Jesus’ voice? Have you ever heard His voice? You may be tempted to say no, but I am going to say yes. Each and every one of you has heard His voice. Every time you have heard His Word read aloud, every time you have read His Word on your own, you are hearing His voice. Now I am not trying to say because Pastor Wurm read the lessons this morning or that because I read the text for this sermon that we have the voice of Jesus, but the Word itself is the voice of Jesus. The Scriptures, the inspired Word of God is the voice of our Good Shepherd. So how do we know His voice? Well just as the sheep know the shepherd’s voice from hearing it over and over again we know the voice of Jesus, by hearing it over and over again.
       God has given us His Word to be read, to be heard, to be learned. I thank the Lord that I was brought up in the faith from a very young age, hearing Scripture both at church and at home. Hearing it over and over again until it finally slowly begins to stick. I certainly do not have the Bible memorized, but the longer I continue to study it, the more I continue to read it and reflect on it, the more I can remember verses and passages. This is how we know the voice of Jesus, by over time knowing what His voice or His Word says. And this is important because the better we know His voice, the better we are able to follow Him and not be led astray. Jesus tells us that there are bandits and robbers who climb into the pen by some other way other than the gate. There are many robbers and bandits who have climbed over the wall in our world today, not using the gate to get in, and now that they are in they try to lead us with their voice. They try to get us to follow them instead of following the Good Shepherd. These bandits and robbers have disguised themselves to look like shepherds, they try to use as similar a voice as they can to the shepherd’s, but they are not the shepherd and they will only lead the sheep to death and destruction. These bandits and robbers are all the people in our world who use Scripture but teach it falsely; all the denominations of so called “Christians” who still hold up the Bible but then teach that there is another way into Heaven besides Jesus. Christ Himself tells us He is the door, He is the ONLY way into salvation and His voice leads us to that truth. His Word tells us uncountable times that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. There is no way to the Father except through Him. He is the door and anyone who enters by Him will be saved. By Him being our Good Shepherd who did lay down His own life for us on the cross, He has won for you the forgiveness of sins He free gives you. By His grace and through His death on the cross He gives you your salvation and eternal life. He is the door through which one enters to be saved. And He has given us the amazing gift of His voice in the Scriptures so that we may learn His voice and follow Him all the days of our lives.
       This is why it is so important that firstly we hear, read, learn, and inwardly digest His Word so that we know His voice, so that we know when His Word is being taught in truth and purity. So when we hear strangers voice, the voice of those bandits and robbers trying to lead us astray from the truth of Jesus Christ, we can know they are strangers’ voices and flee from them. He gives us His Spirit to call us into the faith, to enlighten us with the Gospel, and the motivation to continue to read His Word, to hear His voice so that we will not be lead astray by false teachings, by people using His Word against Him, by those who climb over the wall and try to proclaim another door other than Jesus.
      So whether you have been a Christian your whole life and have learned His voice from a young age or are just new to the flock, just starting out remember how we know His voice. We know His voice by hearing it over and over again. I wrote in several of the confirmand’s cards that there is no such thing as too much time spent in the Word. Can you ever read the Bible enough? Can you even know the Scriptures well enough? The more we hear His voice, the better we know His voice, and the less likely we are to go astray from Him who leads us to the green pastures of eternal life.
       He gives us His voice in His Word, because He is the Good Shepherd who does lead us to green pastures, who feeds us, tends to us, cares for us, and talks to us so that we know His voice and always follow Him. He gives us forgiveness of sins so that even when we do go astray, we may be brought back into the one flock. He leads us through the door, the one and only door of Him our Savior Jesus Christ, to the green pastures of eternal life. He does all of this because He is our Good Shepherd who loves us and is always with us.
       In the name of our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, Amen.