John 10:1-18, PRBC, 8/30/09

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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Would you please send the scriptures to the 10th chapter of the

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Gospel of John, the great chapter 10. John chapter 10, let's ask the

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Lord to bless our time. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask for your presence with us now as we open your word.

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May we, as those of old who heard and believed, be those who have sensitive hearts and sensitive ears, to hear the words of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We pray this blessing in His name. Amen. Can you hear me now?

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Can you hear me now? Remember that advertising campaign by one of the wireless providers?

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Can you hear me now? A technician walking about in various places, advertising the fact that their particular network would work better than other people.

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They've kept him around, even though they've stopped doing the Can you hear me now part. He has job security,

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I'm not sure who he knows, but anyway. Can you hear me now? It is amazing to think of how our modern world allows us to hear people in such different contexts than we ever could before.

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People 100 years ago could never imagine. This past week, as most of you know,

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I was traveling. I was on the other side of the world, literally. And yet, when

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I arrived in Sydney, Australia, I got my BlackBerry out, turned it on.

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I dialed the number and talked to my wife. It sounded better than when I was here. And called my parents.

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It sounded better than when I was here. And even though there was a 17 -hour difference between us, normally a different day, it's

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Monday there right now, we can talk to one another directly.

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It's very, very interesting how that works so well. And just last evening, a gentleman up in the northwest,

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I saw in our chat channel that he was trying to show one of my debates with a

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Mormon. I even had some Mormons coming, but the post office hadn't delivered the DVD. In fact, they hadn't delivered anything.

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They just hadn't gone by his house that day at all. So he was going to have to call everybody and cancel everything. And I said, well, let me see what

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I can do for you. So I took a piece of plastic and I put it in the machine.

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And an hour and a half later, I took a file made up of zeros and ones, a big file, and I started uploading it.

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And I'm not sure how all that works because I did one part of the file. I did it at the office, so it went through lines to a server.

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And then when I got home, I used a little piece of equipment about yay big, a broadband motor.

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And I took this big file and I directly transferred it up to a computer in the northwest, these zeros and ones, where it was recorded on a piece of metal that was spinning about 5400, 7200

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RPM. And then they're going to take another little gadget and they're going to take those zeros and ones and they're going to put it on that.

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And then they're going to stick it into another gadget. It's attached to another gadget and it's going to display up on a screen something that took place in Utah a number of years ago.

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And so people will be listening to what I said in a debate years ago in one place, up in the

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Portland area, and I sent that to them and I sat there watching this little gadget and I saw nothing leaving.

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I looked real closely. I didn't see anything going anywhere. But somehow those words that I spoke and another man spoke are going to be watched by people this afternoon up in the northwest.

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Can you hear me now? How odd people a hundred years ago thought it was pure magic.

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Not possible. And yet we live with this every single day. Now lots of things could have gone wrong with that process.

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I wasn't sure it was going to work. They might not have heard me today. There were a number of things that could have disrupted all of that.

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But thankfully it all worked. Sometimes people hear, sometimes people don't.

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That was the case long ago when Jesus spoke to people. But it wasn't because of the methodology.

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It wasn't because of the mechanisms he was using to speak. In this situation, something else was operational.

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There is a reason why some people hear and some people don't. It has to do with whether they are the sheep of Christ and whether he is their shepherd.

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So John chapter 10, I would like to look at it this The Lord's Day. Very familiar words to us.

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Most of us know these words very, very well. But sometimes in our busy lives we forget about the good shepherd.

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We forget about these words and the wonderful promises that are found here. So just working through, verse by verse, a portion of John chapter 10.

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Hopefully the Lord will bless it to our hearts this day. We've already read the text together.

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And so I want to point out one thing immediately. As you looked at the 10th chapter of John, as I read it earlier, you saw much discussion of shepherds and sheepfolds and the door and things like that.

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Keep something in mind. In the first six verses, seemingly we are talking about a situation that would happen near towns and villages where you would have a community sheepfold where the shepherds would bring their flocks in from the field and the flocks would come together inside this more formal walled -off area.

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And you would have, as you saw in verse 3, a gatekeeper, a doorkeeper, so that the shepherds could leave their flocks there and then they could go and do business in the city or the town, whatever it was, and then they would come back and they would call their flock out.

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This is the context that you have of Jesus speaking about the familiarity that the sheep had of hearing their shepherd's voice.

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In verse 7 and following, it seems that the picture changes a little bit because there would be times when the shepherd would take the flock out and would not be near a city or a town.

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And so there would be places that the shepherd would sort of spy out over time that would provide a natural sheep pen, maybe a rise of rocks, something like that, where he would take just his flock and then, in essence, he would become the door to the sheep pen.

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He would bring the sheep into a particular place and then he would lay down and he would be the one that would keep the sheep inside the sheepfold.

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This would be a much smaller area and the concern here is not that a sheep might be called by the wrong shepherd or something like that.

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The concern here would be you're now out in the wild. And so you have the wolf, you have the predator that is out in the wild.

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And so there's two different contexts, I think, that we have here. You'll notice that the people who heard

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Jesus' first illustration in verse 6 did not understand. And so there is a changing in verse 7.

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I think that's important to understand. We also might ask the question, there's no introduction to chapter 10.

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It doesn't say, you know, such and such was going on or Jesus went to such and such a place.

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And chapter 9 is the story of the man born blind. Remember? He was born blind.

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Jesus comes along. There's a discussion. Who sinned, this man or his parents? He was born blind. Jesus says, neither one but the works of God might be seen in him.

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He's healed. He's brought before the Jewish leaders. You have that tremendously ironic, sometimes humorous conversation that takes place between a man who was born blind but now sees.

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And the Jewish leaders, born seeing, but are spiritually blind. And they eventually cast this one out.

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And then Jesus finds him. Notice specifically in verse 35 of chapter 9,

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Jesus finds the one who was cast out. He introduces him to him.

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This is who I am. He worships him. He becomes his disciple. And you have the story there.

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It seems that chapter 10 is where it is, it begins the way that it is, purposefully.

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That you have the blind shepherds of Israel. And they have been abusing the flock.

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They have been misleading the flock. They cannot see. They are hirelings in essence.

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And so you have these illustrations in chapter 10 that in many ways illustrate what has happened to Israel with these unfaithful shepherds that are misleading the people.

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And so that is our context then. What can we learn from these words? In the first six verses, we have the picture.

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And I know everyone always spends a lot of time looking at John chapter 10 talking about shepherds and sheep and how sheep are not really the brightest animals on the planet.

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And they are not. They need to be led. They are food for any predator that comes around.

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If they are not in a flock and if they do not have a shepherd. There is no two ways about that.

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But the emphasis here is more upon the shepherd and the relationship the shepherd has with the sheep.

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Specifically, Jesus talks about those who have not entered into the sheepfold in the proper way.

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There is a particular way in which a person is to enter in. And seemingly the idea here is that these false shepherds, those that people look to and say,

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Oh, these are such wonderful religious people. They must have the grace of God in their lives.

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Look how often they pray. Look how often God has blessed them with material blessings. But Jesus says there is only one entrance into the sheepfold.

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Evidently God is the one that determines the proper way in which people become leaders of the sheep.

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And those who come in different ways, well, what are they? They are thieves.

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They are robbers. They are taking things that have not really been given to them by God.

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The one who comes in by the door, this one is the shepherd of the sheep.

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The doorkeeper, remember this is the city situation here, the village situation.

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The doorkeeper opens to him. And then notice what happens. The sheep hear his voice.

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And they know. They know who the shepherd is. And the shepherd knows whose are his sheep.

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And I've read the same stories you probably have as you've read commentary on this subject.

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That the sheep really do come to know their shepherd's voice. Obviously if you have,

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I mean sheep, they look all the same to me. I don't want to be unkind to any of you who really like sheep.

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But I can't tell them apart. And I suppose you might brand them or something.

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But if they're not marked out that way, they all look the same to me. So it's not like you take your flock in.

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And let's say three different shepherds have their flocks in at the same time.

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It's not like the doorkeeper goes, OK, you have 27 sheep right now.

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OK, 27 sheep. And the other guy has 29 sheep. And the other guy has a small flock.

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You only have 15 sheep. And so you just put them in there. And then when you come back, you just pull out 15 sheep.

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I'm just going to take whatever, 15. That's not how it works. That would seem to be the way

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I'd have to make it work. But that's not how it works. Instead, the shepherd comes, and he calls the sheep.

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And they respond to his voice. And the other sheep, for whom he is not the shepherd, don't respond.

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And so the stories I've read is that there are certain noises, certain sounds that the shepherds can make that identify them in a certain way.

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And you've got this flock of sheep. And 15 of them go, oh, time to go. And out they go.

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And the others are like, whatever. And see you later. Next time, Bob, whatever. And that sort of thing.

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And so the sheep respond only to the shepherds' calls, the shepherds' voice.

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And when he has put them out, it's a strong term. When he has put them out, it could actually be when he's cast them out.

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But it's probably just when he's put them out. They follow after him. Now, while there is a strong emphasis in this text on the care that the shepherd has for his sheep, and this good shepherd is unlike any shepherd anyone had ever seen in the world at that time, there's also something that's frequently missed.

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And that is the shepherd has full sovereignty over his sheep. In fact,

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I don't think that anyone would have to make this application, though we have to in our day, unfortunately.

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But shepherds determine who is in their flock. It's not the sheep that choose the shepherd.

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Now, isn't that just a given? I mean, isn't that obvious? It would seem to be. But because we live in a day where so much of the gospel is upside down in the emphasis that people place upon certain elements in it, we have to repeat this.

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Because it would have been a given to those who have read this for so many hundreds of years that the shepherd chose his sheep.

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That that's his job, that's his prerogative. But isn't it amazing today the way that people present the gospel?

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You basically have shepherds standing there. And the sheep come along and sort of look the shepherd over.

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Eh, I don't want one with dark hair. It moves on to the next shepherd. That one's too tall.

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That one looks mean. You know, that one has an iPod, that one doesn't.

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You know, the sheep are just doing their thing and picking which shepherd they want.

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And that's how people present Jesus. He's just sort of standing there, meek and mild. Would you like to be one of my sheep?

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And they present pictures of Jesus like this, and he's holding the little sheep. And Jesus just loves all little sheep, doesn't he?

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Well, you probably read ahead just thinking about that when Jesus says to the

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Jews later on, you're not of my sheep. But even that could be explained away. But if they just decided to be, they could be.

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The sovereignty of God, the power of God, the fact that God is the one that chooses his sheep, really not a part of the emphasis that many people have in presenting the biblical message today.

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So you see, the shepherd, he calls out his own, and they follow him.

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And they will not follow another. Does this go back to this one sheep, chapter 9?

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There had been a bunch of shepherds in front of him, and if he had listened to the voice of the world, maybe like his parents, he would have been a little afraid.

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I mean, these people are powerful people. The people of the land, they all look to them as being the clearest evidence of God's people.

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These are the leaders of the people of Israel. These are rabbis.

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They have an in with God. If they say this

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Jesus guy is not truly a follower of Moses, then you better denounce him, no matter what he did for you.

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You better denounce him. And yet this one shepherd, this one sheep, he doesn't give in to that.

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And even though they've cast him out, as soon as he hears the voice of the true shepherd, what does he do?

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He follows. He follows. Here the emphasis is upon the fact that the sheep, they're not leading, they're not telling the shepherd where to go.

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That would be a bit of a mess. They follow him. They know the sound of his voice.

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There is indeed something comforting in the promise that we have in this text of Scripture.

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Certainly, doing what I do regularly, I see so many deceived people. I see so many people who have been led astray, who are entangled in error, that a strong temptation can come upon me that, you know,

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I've got to be out there. People might just be led astray right and left if I'm not doing it.

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And I think, Christ's sheep hear Christ's voice.

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Yes, he uses means. Yes, we are to try to clearly and with force explain

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God's truth to everyone. He uses that as part of the means he uses to protect his sheep.

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But I don't have to be wringing my hands and going, oh, oh, what about all those sheep?

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Christ's sheep hear Christ's voice and they follow him. That's one of the reasons that in our fellowship, all around us swirl all these programs and isms, movements.

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People say, oh, if you just do this, then you'd grow your fellowship and you'd have to have three services on Sunday morning.

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Well, that one you're just a little early on. But if you just do this, if you just do that, and when

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I look at these programs, I ask myself the question, does this program focus upon the clear, unadulterated, uncompromised proclamation of the entirety of the counsel of God as written?

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Or does it seek to bring people in by not challenging their self -righteousness, by not challenging their sinfulness, by not challenging their pride and arrogance in thinking that they have the right to edit the faith down to what's comfortable for them.

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Designer religion. There's a lot of places you can go to get designer religion.

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You can go places now, you can get your own designer perfume or cologne.

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They'll make it up for you right there. Well, that's nice. But that doesn't work when it comes to spiritual truth.

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The great promise of this text is you don't have to change the gospel. Christ, she will hear

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Christ's voice. So Jesus says these words. Jesus says they will not follow after the voice of another.

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The stranger, they won't follow after him. But they didn't understand what he was saying.

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So verse 7. So again, truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus uses that formula.

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He's about to testify of something that is very important. You need to listen to it. Now he's not trying to give the same illustration.

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They didn't understand it the first time. So he actually purposefully mixes together the various metaphors he's using.

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He even talks about the fact, verse 6, it's a turn of speech. It's a similitude.

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Sort of a parable. Now he says, I am the door of the sheep. Again, this takes us out into the wilderness now.

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Where the shepherd would lie down and he would be the door of the natural sheep pen.

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I am the door of the sheep and everyone who's come before me, they are liars and thieves and robbers.

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But the sheep has not heard their voice. Now, making a little more pointed application, those who have attempted to shepherd the flock who come before him, who do not have his power and authority, they are thieves and robbers.

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He is the door. And if anyone goes in and out through him, they will be saved and they'll find pasture.

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So in other words, they'll be a part of the right flock. The flock that has the good shepherd and the shepherd knows where to take the sheep and he knows where to take them where they'll be able to find good food.

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I mean, if we went over to that area today and just decided we were going to become shepherds one day, we'd go and buy a bunch of sheep and take them out and then start going, hey, you know where, is there any grass around here?

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Maybe some water. Those sheep are in trouble with any of us as shepherds because we don't know the law.

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We don't know where to take them to give them good pasture. Well, Jesus is the good shepherd and he knows where to take the sheep.

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They will go out and come in. In other words, it's safety. They will find good pasture.

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The thief, he only comes to steal, to kill, to destroy. But this good shepherd, which he's going to identify himself as in verse 11, this one, he says,

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I have come. They might have life in heaven or above. Notice the contrast.

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These false shepherds, the thieves, those who have not had divine approbation, divine authority, are thinking about themselves.

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They're lining their own pockets. They use the people of God. And what's the result when you have false teachers and false prophets who use religion to enrich themselves?

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Well, we could spend the rest of our time with illustrations. All you've got to do is hit the remote and you'll get to watch, sadly, documentaries, exposés on all sorts of false teachers.

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I saw one. I didn't watch the whole thing, but I just saw an advertiser for one. I didn't spend the time or invest the time to watch the whole thing.

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But it was another one of these word faith teachers. In the midst of recession, they know how to edit video.

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It's not difficult to do, but they know how to edit video. And here they showed the pile of money down on...

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We could never get big around here. We don't have a platform with stairs for people who put money.

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That doesn't really work over there, does it? But right on the stairs, the platform. These piles of money.

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And I remember listening to folks. There's a group of them that go around. I actually met somebody recently that had come out of all that stuff.

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And he mentioned this one guy, very well known. He has a monetary note as his last name.

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And he had come to this guy's church. And since he doesn't fly in public transportation, he flies on his own jet.

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It's $50 ,000 to have him do one night at your church.

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$50 ,000 plus the take of the gig. $50 ,000. Hey, jet fuel is expensive.

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Come on. Give the guy a drink. And so what they do is they promise that if you'll come and give one mortgage payment in money to God, which means to him, then

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God is going to meet your every need. Do you have a sick relative? Sounds like Tetzel in the Reformation, doesn't it?

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But do you have a sick relative or something like that? You need to put that seed faith down.

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And of course what they did is they zoomed in on this pile of money on the stairs of the church.

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Which even in reception, preaching prosperity works. It's disgusting.

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We've all seen it. It turns our stomach. You're not really allowed to say, excuse me, but if that's

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Christianity, I'm a Christian. That's not my religion. Whatever you want to call that, just call it biblical

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Christianity. It has nothing to do with it. That's a guy who's lying in his pockets. Nothing more than that.

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You're not allowed to say that, because that's unkind and unloving and stuff like that.

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But that's the truth. These people travel the land. Once persecution starts, they just disappear into the woodwork and become some other religion.

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But they ravaged the flock. They ravaged the sheep.

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Paul warned about them in Acts 20. Savage wolves will arise from amongst your own numbers, not sparing the flock.

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And it is so sad to see simple, yet foolish people walking down the fronts of those churches with that ranting madman on the stage, throwing their money upon that stage, as if somehow they can buy something from God.

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It is an amazing thing. They are robbers. And they destroy lives.

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How many of you have talked to someone? Maybe at work, maybe someone in your own family. They won't even listen to what you have to say about the

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Gospel. Why? I already tried that. I already did that stuff.

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They've been burned out, religiously abused. How much dishonor has come to the name of Christ by people who have abused

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His name? And they will be judged. But in contrast to these false teachers, these false shepherds, notice the contrast.

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They are this. I have come. They might have life. They might have it more.

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But because I am the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd lays down His life in behalf of the sheep.

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Now, I don't know how many shepherds in the Middle East in those days lost their lives as shepherds.

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I suppose if a nasty enough predator came along and the shepherd did not give ground, that there may have been some who gave their lives.

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But it wasn't the most dangerous occupation known to man.

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There is something different about the Good Shepherd. The purpose of the shepherd was not to give his life.

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The purpose of the shepherd was to, well, take care of the sheep and get from the sheep things that would be appropriately gotten from them.

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But the Good Shepherd, he has a different purpose. He has come with a particular reason that they might have life.

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And how will they have life? Well, the Good Shepherd gives His life in behalf of the sheep.

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Now, the contrast that will be drawn is between the hireling and the

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Good Shepherd. But we cannot help but start hearing Jesus' own prophecy of His self -giving in these words.

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That's what's going to come out at the end of this section. No one takes my life from me.

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I give it of my own accord. And so here, before the cross, long before that takes place,

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Jesus is speaking about the purpose why He came. Just as the angel has said, His name will be called

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Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. It's part and parcel of Jesus' own teaching that He came to give

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Himself. This is not an afterthought. This is part of His own teaching.

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And so He raises the issue of the hireling, the hired worker.

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And the sheep don't belong to Him. Maybe a shepherd who's getting a little bit big or something like that hires somebody.

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The sheep do not belong to Him. He's just getting a wage. He sees the wolf coming.

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And what's He going to do? I mean, He probably isn't getting paid a whole lot. He's certainly not getting paid enough to try to take on a wolf with His staff.

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And so what does He do? He abandons the sheep. The wolf comes. He grabs some.

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Others He scatters. The flock is destroyed as a result. Why? Because verse 13 says, the hired hand doesn't care about the sheep.

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He doesn't have a specific name for each one. He can't tell the difference between them. Just like me, they all look the same to Him.

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He's just getting His wage. That's it. He doesn't care about the sheep.

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But Jesus says, I Myself, He uses that ego -I -me phrase,

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I Myself am the Good Shepherd. And I know My own, and My own know

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Me. There's the contrast. There's the contrast. I know

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My own. I know My own. My own know Me. That's one of the most beautiful verses in all of God.

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It should be. As you hear it. This is not an impersonal thing.

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As we mentioned Wednesday evening, as we looked at another text of Scripture, the more popular presentations of the

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Gospel that take the control of salvation out of the hands of God the Father and place it in the almighty hands of man end up resulting in a

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Gospel that is impersonal. Well, I'll be amongst the elect. Well, God doesn't know who the elect are.

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It's just a matter of us sort of filling up the slots. It's this nameless, faceless group. Same thing would be the case if the sheep were just the fold of God.

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Well, you know, you need to be a sheep, or sometimes you are a sheep, sometimes you're not a sheep. You can be a sheep, not a sheep, back and forth, whatever.

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It's all up to you. It's impersonal. Jesus says the good shepherd knows his own and his own know him.

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There is a relationship that exists. You can't hear the voice of the shepherd if you don't love the shepherd.

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There is an intimacy clearly presented here that should not frighten us, but excites us.

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Sometimes Reformed folks, or sometimes Reformed Baptists, are known as being a little straight -laced, maybe a little bit less than passionate.

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In fact, we haven't heard a single amen so far which would indicate this. And so sometimes talking about an intimate relationship that exists between the redeemed believer and the

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Savior makes people feel a little uncomfortable. It shouldn't.

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It is the purpose of the Triune God to conform us to the image of Christ.

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And that can't be done impersonally. Just a few chapters,

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Jesus can talk about becoming the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is going to convict the world of sin.

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The Spirit is also going to testify of the truthfulness and the thanks of Christ. The Spirit is going to indwell His people.

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And in fact, the Father and the Son dwell in the people of God, by the

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Holy Spirit of God. That's intimate. To dwell within someone, to know their very thoughts, their very emotions.

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But it goes both ways. And there's a challenge, I think, to all of us to consider.

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My own know me. They hear my voice. There's so many things we can talk about that I've often thought that a text like this would speak to the fact that when a person is truly born from above, there is a hunger for truth and an obedience to the

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Word of God that, as far as I can see, is just part and parcel of that activity of the

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Spirit of God. When I see someone who claims to be a Christian and they look at this and they sort of look at, well,

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I like this, but not what I like next. And that just doesn't fit in my lifestyle.

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And this over here, no, that's right out. I like this, though. There's something strange about that.

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I don't see evidence of grace and spirit there. Oh, but he says he liked those things that Jesus said.

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There are all sorts of things, if you want, to take them out of their context. The lost man, oh, that Jesus is a great moral teacher.

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What do you like about his morality? Well, he said judge not, lest ye be judged. That's about all they know.

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But I like that one. Does that make somebody a Christian? Of course not.

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My own know me, they hear my voice. Do you hear the voice of Christ when

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He speaks the Word? When you make decisions, when you live your life, is

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Jesus just a concept out there someplace? Or do you know

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Him? These are only questions that you can answer. There is an intimate relationship that exists between the

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Good Shepherd and His sheep. He knows them. That is our greatest guarantee.

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Because remember what happens on the Day of Judgment. What does Jesus say to those

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He sends away? I never knew you.

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Not I knew you once, I don't know you anymore. I never knew you.

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Jesus can never say those words to a sheep. Because Jesus says, I know my sheep.

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That's the foundation of our acceptance of God the Father. His flock will all find eternal life.

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But don't let that second half escape. They know me. There needs to be.

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Many years ago, when I was in Grand Canyon College, I had a professor.

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A lot of people didn't like this professor, but I really didn't. He was tough. I've mentioned before, we've got a lot of folks that are here for the first time, or were here maybe 15 years ago, the last time

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I mentioned this. But his name was D .C. Martin. He's gone on to be with the

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Lord. He was a tough man. The low A in D .C. Martin's classes was 96.

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And he didn't give you any slack in the grade. He didn't care if you liked that or not. But I was one of the few people that really got to know the fact that there was a real tender -hearted, compassionate, and passionate man behind that rough exterior.

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And in all of his classes, it didn't matter what the subject was, eventually at some point, he would bring up the difference between formal

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Christianity and real Christianity. He had an illustration. He said, you can know all about Jesus.

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You can go to Sunday school, and you can have the facts down, and you can know about Jesus, but until you are in Him, until that relationship exists, you're not a

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Christian. You will not have His life. You will not have the forgiveness that's found only in Him.

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Has this happened in your life? That's what he would ask.

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And I think that's what we see right here. I know my sheep. My sheep know me.

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Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I give my life, literally my soul, on behalf of the sheep.

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There is that perfect divine relationship that exists between the Father and the Son. That's going to come out in John 17.

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I and me, as I am to the Father, you and me, that perfect relationship that exists between Father and Son becomes the model, the paradigm, that should exist between the redeemed and Christ.

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The only reason it can't is because He lays down, He gives His life,

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His soul, in behalf of the sheep. The sheep have a need.

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That need comes and is satisfied by Christ. Then very quickly notice he says,

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I have other sheep that are not of this fold. Most commentators believe he's referring here to the

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Gentiles. I must gather them together. They will hear my voice, they'll follow me, they become one flock, one shepherd.

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This Gospel that is summed up in my giving of my life is going to go out to the whole world.

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I'm going to make one flock with one shepherd. Not two flocks, not one

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Jewish church, then a Gentile church, that's what Acts 15 was all about.

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One flock, one shepherd. This reason the

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Father loves me. That I give my life, that I may take it up again.

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Notice, Jesus has authority to give His life and to take it up again.

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Why? He's not under the curse. He's made a curse for us, but He is not under the curse.

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He is not a sinner. His life is in His hand.

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As the perfect God -man, He has the authority to lay it down. He has the authority to take it up again.

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As He's going to say, His commandment is received from His Father. But notice what He says, and I must emphasize this, despite the fact that time is short.

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This has become a central theme of the proclamation I make to Muslims. When I was at Sydney, at Sydney University, two weeks ago tomorrow, and I debated a man by the name of Abdullah Kunda.

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I had the opportunity to speak to an entire room full of people, many Muslims. What I emphasized to them is something they need to understand.

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They're scandalized by the cross. They're scandalized by the idea of a prophet of God dying the way

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Jesus did. Here's where you need to go. What does Jesus say? No one takes it away from Me.

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I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to receive it back again.

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This commandment I received from My Father. No one is taking My life from Me. I am giving it willingly.

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This is not something outside of the Father's sovereignty. I and the Father, together, this is what we are accomplishing.

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The Muslim needs to hear that. But then again, so does everyone else. Because the sacrifice of the cross was

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God's intention, God's design, an illustration of God's power.

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No one took Jesus' life from Him. He was in control.

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See, so often the cross is presented in a way where Jesus is not in control.

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Where everything is out of control, and man conquers, and God sort of makes something good come out of it.

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That is not the New Testament teaching. Before the first Roman soldier laid a gruff hand upon the

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Lord, before His hour came, Jesus said, No one takes it from Me.

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I lay it down on My own accord. But notice, in the very same breath, what does

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He say? I have authority to take it from Me. In the prophecy of the crucifixion, the promise of the resurrection.

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These are the words of our blessed Lord Jesus. So my question, in closing, to you.

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Sheep of Christ, hear His voice and follow Him. Where are you?

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You will either hear His voice, and in your heart your desire is, I want to follow.

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Wherever He leads, I will follow. Can you look at your life and honestly,

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I hear, but I love my own sin,

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I love my own life, I love my own things, more than the call of Christ to follow

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Him. Only you can answer that question. Only you can answer the question.

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Why here? Here, Heavenly Father, we thank

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You for the words that our Savior spoke so long ago there in the temple.

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It's the desire of Your people that we follow. We want to hear.

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We want to know. We want to follow. We want to be known. May we rejoice in our good

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Shepherd. May we rejoice in the promise that He knows us and we know

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Him. Guide us. May we find great joy in the journey, even as we serve

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Him in this way. Father, if there be any amongst us who do not know the good

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Shepherd, may You in Your mercy and grace reveal Him, draw sinners unto