Have you noticed the news lately? Of course you have. We hear of horrible acts of violence and lawlessness almost every day now. I propose to you that our world needs to discover who its leader is—who has the ultimate authority to lead us in ways of righteousness and holiness. We as the body of Christ, however, have a special privilege: we know our leader—our Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus—and we worship Him! No bad news can remove us from His hand.
I want to share from John chapter 10. Jesus had just finished telling the story of the Good Shepherd. The Jews had gathered around Him on the Temple Mount in the portico of Solomon, and they asked Him for an answer to their question: “If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” We read Jesus’ response to them in verses 25–30:
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 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. I and the Father are one.
Let’s look at the beginning of Jesus’ answer. He stated that His works bore witness about Him. These works, in fact, were public acts, and many of them were signs that identified Jesus as the Messiah. The Jews should have recognized who He was because they knew that only God could do what He did. Furthermore, the prophets had foretold that the Messiah would do these signs from God. Let’s review some of His works that John recorded in His Gospel:
- Changing water into wine (chapter 2)
- Cleansing the temple (chapter 2)
- Healing of the official’s son (chapter 4)
- Healing the paralyzed man at Bethesda on Sabbath (chapter 5)
- Feeding of the 5000 (chapter 6)
- Healing of the man born blind (chapter 9)
After all these signs identifying who Jesus was, the Jews still asked Him. They had all the evidence they needed, but they would not believe. Then, in verse 26, Jesus tells them why their hearts were hard:
…but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.
What a sad indictment against the unbelieving Jews. Simply stated and to the point—they were not the sheep of Jesus’ fold. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell them how to identify His sheep in verse 27:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
There are three qualifiers that are true of the true sheep of Jesus:
- Jesus’ sheep hear His voice.
- Jesus knows His sheep.
- Jesus’ sheep follow Him.
As His sheep, we are in tune with Christ, and we obey His commands—we follow wherever He leads us.
When I was Adventist, I wanted more than anything to follow Jesus. I tried to follow the organization’s teachings and rules, thinking that by being observant and obedient to them I would experience Jesus’ approval, but like many, I just felt lost—I had no hope.
In the middle of my growing hopelessness, though, the voice of my Savior said, “Come, follow Me.” I turned to the Word of God, intentionally ignoring the words of our prophet Ellen White, and my Shepherd led me into the glorious light of the Truth of who Jesus is and what the Gospel is. Truth was not diet and Sabbath keeping but His finished work on the cross that paid for all my sins!
If what you believe is not true—would you want to know? Would you leave everything to follow Jesus?
The Shepherd finds us
And now we see one of the most wonderful pearls of Scripture that assures us that we secure in a double grip that no one can loosen. We find this promise in verses 28–29:
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. I and the Father are One.
Jesus said, “I give them eternal life.” We sheep don’t do anything to earn eternal life. Church attendance, offerings, church work, good works for the community—nothing makes us one step closer to being more qualified for the gift of eternal life. It is completely a gift from our Lord Jesus.
And then we learn about the double grip that we as His sheep enjoy—the eternal and completed security that is taught here by Jesus and ignored and disputed by many. This is the best news: no one can snatch us out of His hand—and no one is able to snatch us out of the Father’s hand who has given us to Jesus.
The sheep may wander and may even find themselves in a pigpen, but the sheep are always sheep no matter where they might roam. Furthermore, sheep always need a shepherd, even when they are lost, because they cannot rescue themselves.
We have a shepherd, but He is not just any shepherd; He is the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus.
Luke tells about Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep—the shepherd goes after the one sheep that is lost until he finds it, and then he carries that sheep on his shoulders back home. He doesn’t tell the sheep how to find its way back or make it stumble through the rocks and brambles as it returns to the fold; the shepherd carries the wandering sheep back home.
If you have repented and have trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of all your sins, you are His sheep. He has called you and carried you to Himself, and you are experiencing the security of the Father and the Son’s double grip, holding you forever.
And if you haven’t believed, and trusted Jesus—why not now?
In the Parable of the Good Shepherd, Jesus says:
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 (Jn 10:3, 4).
In this crazy world of many voices calling to us to follow, Jesus knows where you are and comes to find you —and He calls you by name. Hear His voice, and follow Jesus! †
- Dale Ratzlaff’s Memorial Homily - March 7, 2024
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- I Chose My Mountain - June 8, 2023