Special

And Jenny is going to come and read John 10 to us now.

So please turn your bibles to John chapter 10. Thanks Jenny. So, verses 11 to 21. 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 flocks and scatters it. The man runs away because he is 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 sheepfold. I must bring them also.

They will too listen to my voice and there shall be 1 flock and 1 shepherd. The reason my father loves me is that I laid out my life only to take it up again. No 1 takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, an authority to take it up again. This command I received from my father.

The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said he is demon possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him? But Otter said, these are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?

Great. Thank you. Why don't we pray as we come to god's word? Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do pray as we come to your word now that we would hear your voice, that we would hear the voice of the good shepherd.

Would you give us ears to hear? Would you give me lips to speak? Would you reveal Christ to people this morning? In his name, we pray our men. Before I start, really interested in the, software for translations.

That is amazing. In our church, people pray in their own language, and we just say amen, we have absolutely no idea what they're praying, but we just say amen, it's fine. Can you remember a time when someone offering you help was the most frustrating thing in the world? Can you remember a time when someone offering you help was the most frustrating thing in the world? In the last 18 months, my wife and I have, been living in our 1st home, and there have been a number of things that we want to do to the house.

And so when my wife has come with me, come to me with 1 of those things, I've decided that there is no DIY task that I cannot do. If she has brought to me a problem, I have said to her, my dear, I can do that. I can do that. And all of the married women in the room would have heard those famous last words, because things that are meant to be simple DIY task, become the most frustrating, sweaty tasks in the world. Like putting up a picture hook is meant to be easy.

Painting straight lines is meant to be easy, but for whatever reason, if you you get your own home, your DDII task, you're like, you put in the nail and then the plastering cracks, or you, like, it just tasks become terribly awful and and difficult to do. The last thing you want when you have been drilling a curtain rail for 5 hours, only to find that there are steel beams behind the end, is your wife to come along and say, should we get a man in? Shall we get a man in? What do you mean? Shall we get a man in?

What do you mean? Standing right in front of you. Should we get a man in? The emasculation is total. There is something in the male psyche that cannot cope with that phrase.

Shall we get a man in? And the wife goes away, and then she comes back an hour later. Simple DIY tasks still not done. Then it gets worse. She says, shall I get dad round?

Shall I get Daryl? Dad has all the tools, doesn't he? We can't marry a father, so, like, doesn't work, does it? And we we've all done that, right? Where we have times where someone comes and offers us help.

And we would rather suffer on alone than accept help. Thank you very much. And and why do we do that? Like, what is it about us that causes us to react in those ways? What?

I think I think the reason is that help threatens our sense of independence. Doesn't it? Help challenges the view that we have of ourselves as people that are independent. As people that can pretty much do life our own way without much help of others. Thank you very much.

And often when we refuse that kind of help in our pride, we're actually worse off. Because we don't get the help that we need. In our passage this morning, Jesus reveals something of himself that threatens our sense of independence. And it's actually something that maybe the world doesn't want, but is something that we all desperately need. Because the 1st thing to see in the passage this morning, the 1st thing to see is that Jesus reveals himself to be a shepherd 1st point, Jesus says, he is a shepherd.

Look down at verse 11. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep looking at it verse 14. I am the good. Shepherd.

Now we've gotta get our heads into what Jesus is saying. Let let's think about the imagery because to understand what Jesus is saying about himself here, we have to see what he is saying about us as well. Now in the gospel of John, there are loads of these I am statements of Jesus. You might remember them. I am the way the truth and the life.

I am the bread of life. I am the door of the sheep. I am the life of the lord. And most of those I am statements of Jesus tell us something about who he is and who he claimed to be. But the 1 before us this morning tells us not just something about Jesus, but it tells us something about ourselves as well.

Think for a moment. What does a shepherd do? Well, 1st thing, they direct. Sheep, sheeps don't have a clue where they're going. Sheeps have to be led.

They have to be directed. 2nd thing sheeps do is, a a shepherd, a shepherd commands. A shepherd tells the sheep the way to go. Didn't have a discussion with the sheep about where they might like to go. No.

No. He commands the sheep and he tells the sheep where they ought to go. A shepherd also protects that the shepherd protects the sheep from the wolves that are out there. And that was like not like a hypothetical idea in these geographies at these times. Right?

A shepherd may have to lay down their lives for the sheep. They also feed the sheep. Right? They water the sheep. They basically keep the things alive.

They meet all of the sheep's basic needs, and they move them on from field to field. They direct them the way to go. They have to keep them in 1 pack because sheep just wander off even when you've got someone directing them the way to go. Right? They just go off in their own direction.

That is why shepherds use crooks and use rods and stuff. Right? Cause they have to tap the sheep. They have to get the sheep in line. They aren't all like nicely, nicely with the sheep.

They tap the sheep that the sheepdogs actually nip the ankles of the sheep so that they can get in line. A shepherd directs, a shepherd leads, a shepherd feeds, a shepherd keeps the the the sheep in line. The the shepherd basically keeps the sheep alive, and Jesus says, I'm a shepherd. The claim of the Christian faith is not just that in Christ, God comes to be our mate. Jesus claims that he is the shepherd.

He is the 1 who says, Hey, I'm gonna come into your life, and I'm gonna lead your life. I'm gonna guide your life. I'm gonna kick you in another direction. Is that how you came thinking about Jesus this morning? As the 1 who will assume total direct control over your life, and I think that idea triggers us.

And that idea triggers us because it threatens how we think about ourselves. Because if Jesus is a shepherd, what does that make us? What does that make us? The sheep, have you ever met a sheep? If you have not met a sheep, when you do, do not expect to have intelligent conversations.

Like sheep are the most stupid animals in the world. They cannot do anything for themselves. They cannot think for themselves. They have to operate in a herd. They get caught in the most utterly ridiculous situations.

They cannot feed themselves. They cannot do anything. They are useless. Sheep. Like, what do you do with sheep?

Like, if I if I came after this service and said, Hey, in my car, I've got a sheep here you go, what are you gonna do with it? There was a slightly strange lady when I was growing up who rented a field from my grandparents for a 2 sheep that she named Colin and Julian, and she would she would spend her summer going to Colin and Julian sitting in the field amongst the daisies, and reading stories to them. It's like the weirdest thing in the world, but like, what else do you do with sheep? She are utterly useless. Sheep get rescued from a ditch.

Have you seen that gift where the sheep gets rescued from a ditch and then it runs along and then 3 seconds later, it jumps into the thing that it was rescued from. They are utterly useless. Jesus says, I'm a shepherd, and therefore, you are sheep. A directionless sheep who needs fundamental help to barely live in this world. Is that how you think about yourself this morning?

Is that how you perceive your need, your the level of your need, forgot? To be led by Christ, to be directed by Christ, to not be able to live without Christ. What do you think actually like? No. I'm okay.

Thanks very much. Kinda got life relatively figured out. It's not really how our world thinks of Christ, is it as a as a shepherd? We prefer to think of god as a therapist. You know, as as the listening ear who will just make us feel good about ourselves.

But here Jesus reveals himself to be a shepherd, do you realize you're the depth of your need for Jesus? Do you realize the depth of your need? For a shepherd in life. Well, let's dig into this a little bit more because this this imagery of Jesus as a shepherd is not just a challenging thing. It is actually the most encouraging and beautiful truth in the world that we need to live our lives in because it is not just that he is a shepherd.

2nd point, Jesus reveals himself to be the good shepherd. And I want us to see 3 aspects of his good shepherding, 3 elements of the goodness of his shepherding that should drive us to love this reality and to live our lives in it. Firstly, he is the good shepherd in that he cares. He cares. Look down with me at verse 10.

Jesus says 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 is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. Now it's important to see that this language and and this discourse here in John chapter 10 comes in the context of what has immediately come before it in John chapter 9.

And what has happened in John chapter 9 is there is this blind man who has been blind from birth who has been healed the, the the pharisees see it, and they continue to refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the lord of as the lord of all. Look, look back at, chapter 9 verse 40. Some pharisees who are with him heard him say this and asked, what are we blind to? Jesus said, if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim to see your guilt remains, and then he goes on very truly. I tell you pharisees, if anyone who does not enter the sheep bowl by the gate.

Right? So this This conversation about the sheep and the shepherd is all in the context of a discussion that's going on with the pharisees. And so Jesus sets up these 2 categories for them. There's the hired hand and there is the good shepherd. The hired hand, who flees when danger comes, but the good shepherd who stays.

Now think he's saying this to the pharisees, rabbis, what are rabbis? They are the people who god appointed to be the spiritual shepherds of god's people. Right? That was their job. And Jesus is saying, frankly, it is the blind leading the blind with this thought.

They claim that they can see spiritually as spiritual leaders, but actually they don't have a clue. And this wasn't the 1st time in Israel's history where they had had absolutely nothing leaders again and again and again when you look through the pattern in the old testament, the spiritual shepherds of god's people are useless and don't have a clue. And years before in ezekiel, you did ezekiel authentic. Maybe you remember this. Years before in ezekiel, god says this about those shepherds.

He says woe to you Shepherds of Israel will only take care of yourselves. Should not Shepard take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not brought back the strays or search for the loch. You've ruled them harshly and brutally.

My sheep says the Lord wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill, they were scattered over the whole earth, and no 1 searched or looked for them. They weren't seeking the welfare of the people. They weren't gathering the people. They weren't shepherding the people. They were bad shepherds.

And in our verses, Jesus is saying directly to the pharisees, that is what you guys are doing. Look at the language he uses for them. Verse 8, he calls them thieves and robbers. Verse 12, he says they are just hired hands. Verse 13, he says that they care nothing for the sheep.

Just like Israel had before, Shepherds who did not care about the sheep, they will serve only as long as serving is comfortable. They will flee the moment danger comes. Jesus is saying pharisees, that is what you are like. You are bad shepherds. When it costs you, you're gonna be gone when god's people are in peril.

The, the social psychologist, Jonathan Heights, perhaps you've heard of him. He, wrote the anxious generation, books like that. He, recently did an experiment where he wanted to test the safety of the algorithms of Instagram. Now, Instagram make, like, a big song and dance, right, about the fact how they protect children, and they protect the welfare of children, how their algorithms are safe for children, And so what Jonathan Hyatt and his team of researchers did was, is they did an experiment, and they set up an Instagram account, and they put their age as 14 or 15 years old, and they said that they were a girl. And they scrolled on Instagram for several weeks, and they chose to only explicitly like content that was like positive or neutral, like cats and stuff.

Right? And they did that for 6 weeks. And 60 percent, 60 percent of the content that was showed to them, was of 14 to 15 year olds encouraging suicide. 60 percent was of 14 to 15 year old children, encouraging suicide, or dangerous body standards for children. And at the end of this study, Jonathan Heights said, well, look, to some extent, what do we expect?

I mean, Instagram. This is this amoral distant company that frankly doesn't care. In fact, Instagram doesn't care about you. Instagram needs something from you because their whole philosophy is profit driven by holding on to your attention. And so they don't really care about you.

They need something from you. And insofar as they get that thing from you, they'll they'll love you, and they'll they'll use you. But but the moment that anything that you do threatens their profit making algorithm. Well, they're not gonna care. They're not your parents.

They're some distant moral company. You're not theirs. Therefore, they don't care. The shepherds in our passage here don't really care. And the reason Jesus gives is because the flock aren't really theirs.

They crave the attention of the sheep. They need something from the sheep. They don't care for the sheep. They care about their own comfort, not the sheep. And in Izekil, hundreds of years ago, when these bad shepherds were doing the same thing as the pharisees, in response to this, god promised his people this, he said this.

He said, I myself will come and search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep? I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness I will bring them out of the nations and gather them from the countries. I will bring them into their own land. I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down declares the sovereign lord.

I will search for the loss and bring back the strays. That right there is the promise of a good shepherd. God promising that he will himself come to get the job done himself, that he will gather his sheep from the nations himself and care for them himself because they are his. And because he loves them. That is what he promised he would 1 day do.

Now read verse 14 of our passage. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Jesus here is claiming that I am God come to find my own people. I've come to do the job myself because I care for my sheep, not like these absolute wasters.

Friends Jesus, cares. Jesus cares for you in a way that nobody else ever can. In a way that nobody else ever will. In this world, there will be all sorts of leaders that in reality just crave your attention. They need something from you.

Jesus has everything he needs in himself. Jesus doesn't need anything from you. That should give you great confidence that he cares deeply for you. You are Jesus's. You belong to him.

Jesus knows you better than you know yourself. Jesus knows what you need better than what you know you need yourself because you are his verse 14. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Jesus wants you to go out to pasture in a hungry world. Jesus wants you to belong in a lonely world.

Jesus is not a nice therapist who just says, oh, feel better about yourself. No. Jesus verse 10 has come that you may have life and have it to the full. Jesus desires abundant life for you. He cares about you deeply.

And it is so important that we know that because so often the narrative is that we have these great plans for our lives, and then god is here to come and bring us down with his rules. And that is so far from the truth. Jesus wants more for your life than you do. Jesus is the good shepherd because he cares. Seriously, deeply.

Do you remember that when people pity you for being a Christian? When people say, oh, you're a Christian. You can't do that. Can you? Pity those that don't have anyone in their lives that care about them like Jesus us.

Pity the lost. You don't know the care of the good shepherd. Secondly, Jesus is the good shepherd not only because he cares secondly because he seeks because he seeks because he seeks. 1 of the things we have had to battle in our new house and garden are ants. Has anyone else engaged in the war against the ants?

Hands up if you have. It is an eternal conquest. Keep going soldiers. Now I've I've, like, had a bit of a fascination with ants that, like, this year has been the year that I've become officially boring. Like, I got a scarifier for my birthday.

Hands off, you know what a scarifier is. Like, here are the other people in the room who also don't have a life. Scarify is a gardening thing. This year, I've got into gut health and gardening. I'm kind of trying to do the midlife crisis thing, like 20 years too early.

I mean, the ants, right? Ants are astonishing. Like, go home and Google ants. When when we pulled up our tiles, we we we the tiles in our back garden, we just saw this, like, conglomerate of ant colonies, and they are like the most intricate, amazing things in the world. And I don't know if you've ever thought of this question.

I don't know why I did, but I googled this. How does an ant know how to do what it does? Right? This is like a tiny tiny thing with like a puny brain. Like, how does it know to, like, gather for the colony and seek for the colony and protect the colony?

Like, how does it know how to do that? And scientists have, done experiments with this. I don't know how they figured this out, but apparently they figured out that ants seeking and gathering for the colony is not a learned behavior. Right? So it's not as if an ant is born and then it watches the other ants doing the seeking and the gathering and goes, oh, Hey, I'm gonna join in with the seeking and the gathering.

No, no, no, right from the very beginning. From the moment that they hatch, they start looking out for the babies and protecting them. And then they immediately go off searching and seeking and gathering. This is not behavior that they develop later on in life. This seeking for the colony.

It is just their instinct to be protectors and gatherers and seekers right from the very beginning notice here Jesus declares himself to be a seeker and a gatherer. This is who he is. Look at verse 16. I have other sheep that are not of this sheepfold I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be 1 flock, 1 shepherd.

And the Mormons strangely say that verse 16 is Jesus specifically going off to find the Americans, which is such a strange American religion, but notice, right? Where is Jesus when he is saying these words? Anyone know? Where is he? What country?

Israel? Right. Jesus is in Israel as he's saying these words, and the point that he is making is he has sheep that are in his flock that are not part of this fold, the Jews. So he says, here's my sheep. I'm in this little fold at the moment with the Jews, but there are other sheep in other parts of the world from all the nations, the gentiles, and he is saying, I am gonna go and seek them.

That's you and me. Jesus in verse 16 is talking about the work that he will do to gather us from the nations. And look at his language, he says, I must bring them also, underline the word must if you take notes in your bibles. He says, I must bring them also. Jesus is seeking is something that he must do because of who he is and because he is a gatherer.

He must gather his people from far and wide, and that is what Jesus has done always right from the very beginning. This gathering and seeking is not a new learned behavior for Jesus. Jesus has always sought his people. Anyone think where in the Bible? What book of the Bible does god 1st seek his people?

Any guesses? Think the beginning? Genesis. What happens in Genesis chapter 3? Genesis chapter 3, Adam and Eve, they run away from God.

They sin, and in their shame, do they come back to him? No. Not at all. They run, and they hide from him. And what does God do in response?

He seeks them. He goes after them. He doesn't wait for them to come back to him. Genesis 3 verse 9, the Lord God called to the man and said, where are you? Friends, right from the very beginning, god has been the seeker.

Of his people, right from the very beginning, even when they immediately run away from him, god runs after them, and he seeks them. And, you know, this started with god even before Genesis 3. Ephesians chapter 1 4, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. If you are Christian here this morning, god has been seeking you longer than this earth has existed. That is how much God loves his people.

Jesus seeks. Jesus gathers his people from the nations. I mean, how crazy is it this morning that we are sat here on an island called England? In 2026, hearing the words of Jesus of Nazareth, we who were so far off from god in our sin and in this world who have been brought near by the seeking gathering 1 into his flock. Jesus gathers his people from the nations and brings them under his care.

Do you know what that means? That means that you're not too far gone this morning. There is no 1 in this room. Who is beyond the seeking and the gathering of our sovereign lord. He must seek and gather his people.

Never think you are too far gone. Nothing in all creation can separate you from Jesus love if you are his. The love of the seeker of his people remember that. Remember that when Satan tempts you to despair and tells you of the guilt within, Don't carry on looking in look upward and see him there who sought you out and made an end of all your sin. The good shepherd seeks you.

Even when you wonder. Isn't that encouraging? Proned to wonder Lord. I feel it? Oh, prone to leave the god I love.

Here is 1 who is prone to gathering and seeking. He will hold us fast. This good shepherd. The shepherd who seeks. Maybe this morning you're here and you're not yet part of the fall of Christ.

Have you ever considered? Maybe you're here and you're searching and you're seeking for God. If that's you, have you ever thought maybe it's not so much that you're seeking God? Be seeking you. Have you ever thought of that?

Jesus is the good shepherd because he cares. Jesus is the good shepherd because he seeks. And finally, Jesus is the good shepherd because he saves because he saves. Now, hands up this morning, if you do an office job of some sort, hands up, if you work behind a desk of some sort, hands up, hands up, hi. Okay.

Hands down. Now, hands up if you do a real job, Like a proper job, you know, plumbers, nurses, doctors, something not behind a desk. Go on. Hands up. Hands up very high.

Brilliant. Okay. Group 2 hands down. Office job people. Well, if you're currently retired as well, like, do whatever you did do when you worked.

Okay. Office job people. Put up your hands. Let's be honest. Our jobs are pretend, aren't they?

Oh, they're not real. We're just chat. We're just keyboard warriors. I don't know about you. We live in London.

Right? And everyone thinks, you know, oh, well, you know, we run the institutions of the capital and the finance, you know, systems, and, you know, we are the wealth creators in the economy, but it's all just words. It's just pretend. Okay. 2nd group of people that do real jobs, put up your hands, put up your hands.

Here you go. Look around. These are the people that run the world. Here are the people that actually work. Right?

The nurses, the sewage people, the doctors. Now, the interesting thing about the difference between those 2 groups of people is that there is often a physical difference that you can see between them, particularly if they work outdoors. Now 1st group, office people, put up your hands. Put up your hands. Look at your hands.

Look at your hands. How would you describe them? Sorry. Fresh. Fresh.

The word my grandfather used was soft. My grandfather was a butcher, and a farmer, and he used to take me aside and used to go, Nathan, you have soft hands. So 1st group, put up your hands. Put up your hands. 2nd group, after 3, I want you to say soft hands.

Okay? What do they have? 1, 2, 3, soft hands. Okay. 2nd group, put up your hands.

Real workers, put up your hands. Everyone look at those hands. Look at them. Call us things, aren't they? They've seen a real day's work.

Okay. What I want us to see in this passage, look here. Jesus doesn't have soft hands. Jesus does not have soft hands. Look at verse 11.

Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 14, 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. Verse 17, the reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life.

Jesus did not come to do an office job as Messiah. He doesn't have soft hands. Do you see the imagery here? This is a filthy, dirty shepherd. Right?

You've seen Clarkson's farm think of this. I'm so confused by how all of the images of Jesus, the Shepard, it's always white Jesus, which is confusing in itself, but he's always wearing white. Have you ever seen a shepherd that wears white? Shepherds do not wear white because shepherds get in amongst the sheep. Shepherds step into the filth.

Shepherds get into the dirt. And if you've seen Carson's farm, you'll see the shepherd clean up the sheep's bodily fluids. Right? The shepherd is with them in the mess of childbirth. The shepherd tends for the sheep as they are ill or undignified.

The shepherds get in amongst it, and that is what Jesus did when he came to this world. And you see this good shepherd is not only willing to get dirty as he comes into this world, but he is willing to get bloody. Why? Because the wolf is coming and the sheep are his. And he is willing to lay down his life.

Why? Because the sheep are his posterity. The sheep are his inheritance. The good shepherd will not lose those who are is, and he will go to the death to protect them. Friends, Jesus Christ came to this world to die.

Jesus Christ came to this world to hang upon a cross so that if we trust in him and his death and new life, by that sacrifice, we can be saved. Jesus is the good shepherd because he saves. When there was danger for his sheep coming for his sheep, Jesus stood in the breach and he saved. His flock, have you been saved by the good shepherd this morning? Because there is danger, friends.

There is a judgment that is to come, and there is death that will 1 day come. There is 1 who desires continually to pull you away from the sheep, but if you come to him, Jesus, will stand in the breach, and he will save his sheep. Friends, if you are part of the flock of Christ this morning. You are in the safest place in the world. You are in the safest place in the world, even through sin.

Jesus will bring his people to forgiveness. Even through death, Jesus will bring his people to everlasting life. Do you feel the weight of your failure this morning? Do you long for a world where death no longer reigns? Come and be saved by the good shepherd, the 1 who will give over his life to give you an everlasting 1.

Jesus is the good shepherd because he cares, because he seeks, and because he saves. Isn't this a wonderful truth? How foolish are we to shirk off the shepherding of god and carry on alone? It would be mad to live your life outside of the care of this good shepherd. Okay.

So how do we land this? Like, what do what do we do with this? Well, something for the wandering sheep and then something for the flock of Christ. There is something here particularly for the lost sheep that we can only see by seeing these words in context. Look at what happens after Jesus has said these words.

Look at verse 19. The Jews who heard these words were again divided. Many of them said he's demon possessed and raving mad while I 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? Now remember I said, right?

This is part of the same discussion that he has been having with the pharisees in chapter 9. And the context of what has happened immediately before Jesus says these words in chapter 9 is that a blind man has been healed. And the blind man has been healed is not just any blind man. He is a blind man who was born blind. And he comes to the pharisees and says, Jesus healed me, isn't this amazing?

And they know that the healing has happened, but they refuse to acknowledge him. And so they say, it must be a hoax. This is clearly not the guy that was born blind. And so they bring his parents and his parents come along, and they go, yeah, this is our son. This is our son.

It is undeniable. And the pharisees continue to refuse to acknowledge the power of Jesus that is right in front of them. And so you've got this whole dynamic surrounding the words of the shepherd and the sheep, where there is this blind man who has now been healed and can now see not only physically, but spiritually. He can see who Jesus is And on the other hand, you've got these shepherds that claim that they can see, and yet are clearly blind to the thing that is right in front of them. Look again at chapter 9 verse 40.

Some of the pharisees who are with him heard him say this and said, what are were you blind to? And Jesus said if you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin, but now that you claim you can see your guilt remains. You see, these pharisees continue to refuse the blatant obvious, explicit power of Christ that is held right before their eyes, and even after they hear the warning of Jesus that they are thieves and robbers, at the end, some of them say this guy is raving mad, and they continue to refuse Christ despite the fact that his power is staring them in the face because to do so would threaten their comfort. To do so would threaten the position that they have in society. To do so would threaten the identity that they have built about themselves and about their knowledge.

And friends, we need to hear that warning as well. There are people in this world who are genuinely seeking, who are genuinely searching. If that's you that you hear this morning, Jesus speaks so kindly to those who are seeking and searching, but it is also possible. To be someone who comes to church, and week by week, by week as it were has the power of Christ undeniably held before your eyes in his word, and yet they continue to refuse to acknowledge him. It's not that they don't know that Jesus is lord.

It's that they won't acknowledge Jesus' lord because to do so would threaten their comfort. And to do so would threaten their position in the society they live in. Or to do so would threaten the identity that they have built about themselves, and if that is you here this morning, I plead with you. Don't harden your hearts against the voice of the shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd.

You're not too far gone. You haven't refused him too long. Come home, wondering sheep. Come home to the shepherd who will seek you and who will lift you up because I promise you though he does humble the proud, he will lift the lowly. Jesus will save any who call upon him.

Come home. Wandering sheep. Don't keep explaining him away if you know that he is lord. And if you are Christians, here this morning, maybe you are part of the flock, and there are parts of your life where Jesus's shepherding or his voice feels particularly difficult. Remember that even in the the difficult parts of god's word, it is still the voice of the good shepherd.

The good shepherd's voice, all of his words are good. All of his words for us are because he cares, because he seeks, and because he saves. Don't refuse parts of god's word and go our own way as if we'd be better off without the shepherding of Christ. We need to learn to say with David, god, your rod, and your staff. They comfort me.

That is the place of comfort that we all need to be flock of Christ be comforted this morning. Sometimes we don't need to do anything with god's word. We do need to be doers and not heroes only. Sometimes we just need to be comforted by the reminder that Jesus is the good shepherd. Sometimes in the mud of the field of this life, we need to remember that our good shepherd is with us.

Sometimes we need to remember that though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death, we cannot fear because you, the good shepherd are with us. Sometimes as we go into the week ahead, we simply need to be reminded that there is no safer place to be. Than in the flock of the good shepherd. Are you in that flock this morning? Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we recognize that you are God. And that in your son, you come to be our shepherd. And we ask for your forgiveness when we, to our own peril, shirk off your shepherding and try to go our own way. Father, we praise you that there are so many people here this morning who though we had gone astray, you brought us back home under the flock of this good shepherd. And we pray that as we go into this week, we would be reminded of the goodness of the shepherding of Jesus, that we would remember that he cares for us deeply, that we would remember that he seeks for us always, and that he saves all those who call.

I pray even now father that you would work in the hearts of lost and wandering sheep and that you would gather them from the nations back to yourself. Do that work in our hearts that only you can do we pray in Jesus' name. Our men.