The Good Shepherd

A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church, Barboursville ( AM)
and Anglican Church of the Risen Lord, Charleston, 9PM).
Based on: John 10:22-39


As we begin talking about our passage today I’d just like to set the context for us. In John chapter 9, Jesus had healed a man born blind, whom the Pharisees promptly tossed out of the Synagogue, thus showing themselves to be very poor shepherds of the sheep of Israel indeed. It’s like the old Hymn we sing, “Beating up the Sheep, Beating up the Sheep. We shall come rejoicing, beating up the sheep.”

Now, in John chapter 10, Jesus is contrasting himself with the Pharisees. They are thieves, who try to come in the sheepfold by the side door to steal. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, who faithfully leads the sheep, even to the point of giving up his life for them. While the Pharisees are interested in power and control, Jesus says “I came that they might have life and might have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). His focus is totally other-directed and service oriented.

In using this metaphor of the Good Shepherd, Jesus is employing an image that the Pharisees would certainly have known well. Psalm 100 says, “we are His people and the sheep of His pasture… v. 3. And there is Psalm 23: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want… to name just a couple.

In using this language, Jesus is making an implicit claim to be God, and is also harshly criticizing the Pharisees. In verses 4 and 5, he says “…he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow”. (This is reiterated in verse 27: “My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.)

Then Jesus starts talking about laying down his life and taking it up on his own authority (v. 18). The Pharisees are really divided now, and they start accusing Jesus of having a demon or being insane. So they ask Him pointedly, “if you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” (v. 24). However, this question is not asked from faith, but as a ploy to catch him in a miscue and so enable them to condemn Jesus.

But Jesus gives them no satisfaction. He rebuffs them and basically tells them that they aren’t of His flock, that God doesn’t know them, and they’re goin’ to hell. He wraps it up with a definitive statement, “I and the Father are One.” And the Jews take up stones to kill him because “he made himself out to be God. (v. 33). They know blasphemy when they hear it. They do not believe Jesus is just a harmless good teacher. No! They are furious because he is making a clear claim to Deity.

And here, let’s point out that as you witness to those who do not know Christ, this is a key passage. Is shows very clearly that Jesus understood himself to be at one with God, not just in some generic sense, but so specifically that the Jews try to kill him on account of Blasphemy.

Now notice that Jesus says, I give them eternal life (v.28). He didn’t claim to have been enlightened like the Buddha. He didn’t go sit under a tree and achieve Nirvana through a life-long quest for spiritual breakthrough. No, he is claiming Ontological unity with a personal God – the Father Creator – and asserting that He, the Son, is at One with the Father and that Eternal Life is found in Him! Now that is a tall claim! Jesus gives us eternal life.

Not only that , but the passage today shows us Gods’ personal, individual interest in us . Verse 29: “My Father, who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them from my hands. “

We call this the Perseverance of the Saints. In Romans 8:38 and 39 we read: “Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” God will persevere with us and keep us in His love because He loved us and chose us for salvation. This in turn points us to the doctrine of Predestination. Article 27 of the 39 articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer, page 871, says:

“Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called according to God’s purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God’s mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity…”


We are called according to God’s purpose (Romans 8:28,29), which is to conform us to the Image of Christ; God foreknew us before the foundation of the word. This means that he loved us particularly. Foreknew …”means ‘whom he set regard upon’ or ‘whom he knew from eternity with distinguishing affection and delight’, and is virtually equivalent to ‘whom he foreloved” (emphasis added) (The Five Points of Calvinism: The Meaning of Foreknew in Romans 8:29. ed. Steele and Thomas).

We were marked, ordained by God for salvation. It’s not that God simply knew who would respond to the offer of salvation ahead of time, but that there is a continuum of God’s action (v. 29). ‘Those he foreknew, he also predestined, to be conformed to the image of his son…v. 30 and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Notice that all these verbs are in the past tense. God’s sees it all as having already been accomplished. Since he stands outside of Time, he can look at all the moments of our life at once and see them all as if they had already happened. He sees the beginning and the end at once. Its’ already done.

Now what about Free-Will? Here’ what Article 10 of the 39 Articles says about Free Will:

X. Of Free-Will.

“The condition of Man after the fall of Adam is such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God. Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without
the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.”

Our natural will is bound to choose death, but somehow, God gives us the grace and freedom to choose Life. God sees it all and knows it, is Sovereign over it all at once. In His Sovereignty, he actively chooses us individually to receive the gift of faith, to be saved and to be kept against the day of Christ’s return.

I really believe that God is the Author of Salvation. He calls us to believe and He gives us the grace to believe. This means that he gives us the actual freedom to choose him. Without this grace, our natural inclination keep us away from God. We don’t know who he has chosen unto salvation, but we do know He wants to use as channels of saving grace for other people. Our job is to share the Good News, so that others might respond to it and be saved. This is the mechanism of salvation: God saves us by His righteous right hand and he keeps us in His love. Knowing this should give us great comfort.


Okay, so God is the author of salvation: He chooses us to come to faith and He keeps us in the faith…but “what about those who fall away from the faith? Jesus did say that not everyone who came to him saying, Lord, Lord would be saved – even those who did miracles in Jesus’ Name. Paul also complains that some of his fellows have fallen away. “Demas has loved the world…

Two Answers:

One: not everyone who professes faith, is actually a Christian. You can say you believe, but never have actually made the commitment.

Two: It’s also true that we can chose how obedient or close we want to be to Him. As sheep, we can wander off, causing the Good shepherd to come looking for us. We can be inattentive and not listen very closely to His voice. We can be disobedient and luke-warm, or even hard-hearted. We can choose to love buildings and traditions and comfort more than Jesus. We can be bad sheep.

Article X of the 39 Articles:

XVI. Of Sin after Baptism.

“Not every deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardonable. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism. After we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God we may arise again, and amend our lives. And therefore they are to be condemned, which say, they can no more sin as long as they live
here, or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent.”

The latter sentence is a response to those who say that Christians never fall into sin. Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean that you never sin, nor that God won’t forgive you. You can choose to sin even though you are a Christian.

But I think everything depends upon God’s Sovereign Action in our lives.

I believe that if He did not keep me, I would fall away quickly. It’s hard enough to be obedient and close to God when we’re really trying, much less when we are bent on our own will! I need Jesus to hold on to me!

My own response to God’s love is important and determines the level of closeness I attain with Christ. You can chose how intimate you want to be with God. And the key to being close to Christ is to listen to His voice. Are we listening? Do you know Him well enough to discern His voice from your own voice – or even form the Devil’s? Do you know the difference between something you really want and the thing that God wants?

This requires closeness with the Shepherd, which we develop through spending time listening to Him closely: reading His Word, being quiet before him, praying, and receiving counsel from other godly Christians. These are all ways that we begin to know the shepherd’s voice. Make it your life’s ambition to know the Shepherd’s Voice!

Brothers and sisters, Listen to the Shepherd. He is good. He loves you. He will faithfully guide you because He is God. Follow his voice and He will protect you, and no one will be able to snatch you out of His hand. Amen.