Titles of Christians (#14)

John 10:27

Sermon by Pastor Sylvia Chan

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Today we study another title of Christians. In our studies, we will alternate between the book of Romans and other topics. Some time back, we studied the title of Christians, “Stewards of God”; today we are going to study another title, a very familiar one:

^RSV John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; (Joh 10:27 RSV)

Here the Lord Jesus is speaking of his disciples, and he calls them his sheep. If you are the Lord’s disciple, you are his sheep.

Nature of sheep

Many years ago there was an interesting movie called “Babe”; it’s about a little talking pig named “Babe”. Shortly after the little pig Babe was born in a pig farm, its mother was killed, and Babe was sold in the market. Then a farm owner bought it. Babe was very lonely in the farm, and missed its mother a lot. Then the mother dog in the farm had pity on Babe, and adopted Babe as her son. Babe also learned from its mother the skill of taking care of the sheep.

The sheep in the farm were weak and slow. The mother dog kept telling the little pig that “sheep are very stupid”. Then one day a group of thieves came; they used two fierce dogs to drive the whole flock of sheep onto the truck and drove away. As long as one sheep is driven onto the truck, the whole flock would just follow it and walk onto the truck; that’s why the thieves could steal the whole flock of sheep quite easily.

In real life sheep are not as intelligent as dogs and cats; they are very weak, they can’t even run fast, they definitely can’t fight against other fierce animals. If there’s no shepherd to take care of them, they could easily be killed by wolves or other fierce animals.

But the Lord Jesus compares his disciples to sheep; he definitely doesn’t want us to be as slow as sheep, so what does he want to teach us?

People are harassed and helpless

^ESV Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Mat 9:36 ESV)

Here it says that when the sheep have no shepherd, they are harassed and helpless. The Lord Jesus wants to tell us that in this world, we would be harassed and helpless. But who is the one who harasses us?

 ^NASB 1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1Jo 5:19 NASB)

Here it says that Christians belong to Yahweh God, but those who don’t belong to Yahweh God lie in the power of the evil one, that is Satan.

When the Lord Jesus compares his disciples to sheep, he wants to teach us that the whole world is controlled by the evil one, Satan; only those who follow Yahweh God are not under Satan’s control.

The situation of people who lie in the power of the evil one is very sad. When good people want to do things according to their conscience, they are oppressed. That’s because Satan, the evil one, doesn’t want people to do good, he would use his followers to oppress the good people. At the end, many good people become discouraged; they want to do good, but they keep running into troubles. Many of them just give up; they think why bother to do good, for it simply causes trouble for themselves. They might as well just take care of themselves and make money to enjoy life. In this way they also succumb to the power of the evil one.

By contrast, those who do evil enjoy prosperity and riches. Even though some people don’t do evil things, neither do they want to fight against evil. At the end, both those who do evil and those who don’t want to fight against evil enjoy prosperity and riches. Why? Because this kind of people would not offend the evil one, Satan. On the contrary, they might even strengthen his control, that’s why the evil one would not bother them. But they would not have peace of heart in the future when the Lord Jesus comes back to judge the whole world; then they will be punished.

That is the first point the Lord Jesus wants to teach his disciples, that if we don’t have the Lord’s guidance and protection, we would be like sheep without a shepherd, we would be harassed by the evil one, Satan. At the end we will be controlled by him and do things for him.

We have to follow the Lord Jesus just like sheep follow the shepherd

 ^NASB John 10:3 – 5 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (Joh 10:3-5 NASB)

The second point the Lord Jesus wants to teach us is that we have to follow him just as the sheep follow the shepherd. The Lord says the sheep follow the shepherd because they know his voice; but when a stranger calls them, they will run away from him because they don’t know the stranger’s voice.

We see the sheep are weak and slow, just as the mother dog in the movie “Babe” said, “Sheep are very stupid”. Yet the so-called “stupid” sheep have two important qualities: firstly, they recognize the voice of the shepherd; and secondly, they follow him. We have to learn these two qualities.

How can we recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus?

The Lord Jesus calls us to follow him, but Satan can imitate and pretend to be the Lord’s voice, and he will try to mislead us to follow his sinful way to destruction.

The sheep hear the voice of the shepherd every day, so they recognize his voice. But the Lord Jesus is no longer on the earth, so how can we know his voice?

The Lord Jesus left his teaching with us, such that when we study his word and obey his teaching, we would know him. When Satan pretends to be the Lord Jesus and tries to mislead us, we can recognize that it is not the voice of the Lord Jesus.

For example: When I first came into contact with Christians, someone gave me a Bible. By nature I like to read books, so I started reading the Bible, and I got to know the Lord’s teaching. Later on when I heard some people say that we only need to believe in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we will be saved and granted eternal life in heaven. We don’t need to obey the Lord’s teaching, and even if we deny the Lord Jesus in the future, we won’t lose our salvation. I knew it was not right, I didn’t believe it.

 ^NASB Matthew 28:19 – 20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mat 28:19–20 NASB)

Here the Lord Jesus specifically told his disciples to teach all people to observe all that he has taught them. That is opposite to what many people say today.

 ^NASB Matthew 10:32 – 33 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. ³³ But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Mat 10:32-33 NASB)

In this passage the Lord Jesus says specifically that if we deny him before men, he will also deny us before Yahweh God his Father. If the Lord denies us, we would definitely lose our salvation. That’s exactly opposite to what people say today, that even if we deny the Lord, we would still be saved.

That’s why when we study the Lord’s teaching carefully and practice his teaching, we would be able to distinguish the voice of our Shepherd from the voice of Satan.

My testimony: The shepherd calls each sheep by name, so the Lord Jesus also speaks to each one of us. How does he speak to us? He speaks to us through the words in the Bible, or through a sermon, or through the sharing of brothers and sisters, or through the things happening in our lives. The Lord can speak directly to us with an audible voice, or he may speak to our hearts. Many years ago Pastor Bentley and I were serving in a church in Asia. We wanted to have a Bible study group in a couple’s house, and we were praying about this matter. One day when I was walking to a sisters’ group meeting, I was thinking about what to share with the sisters; suddenly a message came into my heart, a short message but very clear: “Move the Bible study group to the house of couple A and B.” I was very shocked, but I was not sure if it was a revelation from the Lord or just my own imagination. I didn’t stop, I continued to walk to the sisters’ group meeting place. The meeting started, and we happily shared with one another. Suddenly a sister asked me, “Why don’t Pastor Bentley and you move the Bible study group to the house of couple A and B?” I got another shock when I heard that statement, for that was exactly the message I had received while I was walking on the road. I knew right away that that was truly a revelation from the Lord! Because I was still not sure, the Lord repeated it one more time through the mouth of that sister; this time I had no more doubt!

That’s how our shepherd the Lord Jesus can lead us, either directly or through his teaching in the Bible!

Finally let’s close with this passage:

 ^NASB John 10:27- 30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; ²⁸ and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.” (Joh 10:27-30 NASB)

Here the Lord Jesus says his sheep will never perish, he will give them eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of his hand. That’s because Yahweh God his Father has given the sheep to him, and Yahweh God is greater than all, no one is able to snatch the sheep out of the Father’s hand. This promise is on the condition that we follow the Lord Jesus; but if we don’t follow the Lord Jesus, we would be attacked and killed by the enemy.

Conclusion

Let’s sum up everything we have studied today. The Lord Jesus says his disciples are his sheep. By nature sheep are very slow, so what does the Lord want us to learn from the sheep?

• He wants to teach us that in this world, if we don’t follow him, we would be harassed and helpless.
• We have to follow the Lord just like the sheep follow the shepherd.
• Sheep only follow the voice of the shepherd; they don’t follow the voice of strangers. We can recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus by studying and living according to his teaching, and we follow only his teaching.