John: Freedom Is Found in Following the Good Shepherd

Ministry Associate Calvin Chu preaches from John 10:22-42, read for us in Portuguese. Discussion points: We often operate from a mindset of fear like sheep, we should be measuring the messages we receive from the world against the word of our good shepherd, we can trust that following Jesus will give us a better and richer life than anything the world can offer.

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  Scripture reader: [John 10:22-42, read in Portuguese] Celebra-se. A festa de dedicação em Jerusalém era inverno e Jesus estava no templo caminhando pelo pórtico de Salomão. Os judeus reuniram-se ao redor dele e perguntaram até quando nos deixará em suspense. Se é você o Cristo, diga-nos abertamente, Jesus respondeu Eu já disse mas vocês não creem as obras que eu realizo em nome do meu pai. Falam por mim, mas vocês não crêem porque não são minhas ovelhas. As minhas ovelhas ouvem a minha voz e eu as conheço e elas me seguem. Eu lhes dou a vida eterna e elas jamais perecerá. Ninguém as pode arrancar da minha mão. Meu pai que as deu pra mim, é maior do que todos. Ninguém as pode arrancar da mão do meu pai. Eu e o pai somos um. Novamente os judeus pegaram pedras para apedreja lo, mas Jesus lhes disse. Eu mostrei muitas boas obras da parte do pai por qual delas. Vocês querem me apedrejar? Responderam os judeus. Não vamos apedreja lo por nenhuma boa obra, mas pela blasfêmia, porque você é um simples homem e se apresenta como Deus. Jesus Leis respondeu, Não está escrito na lei de vocês, eu disse Vocês são deuses. Se ele chamou deuses, aqueles a quem veio a palavra de Deus e a escritura não pode ser anulada, quer dizer a respeito daquele a quem o pai santificou e enviou ao mundo? Então, por que vocês me acusam de blasfêmia? Porque eu disse Sou filho de Deus. Se eu não realizo as obras do meu pai, não creiam em mim, mas se as realizo mesmo que não creia em mim, creiam nas obras para que possam saber e entender que o pai está em mim e eu, no pai. Outra vez tentaram prendê-lo, mas ele se livrou das mãos deles. Então Jesus atravessou novamente o Jordão e foi para o lugar onde João batizava nos primeiros dias do seu ministério. Ali ficou e muita gente ficou. Foi até onde ele estava dizendo, Embora João nunca tenha realizado um sinal milagroso, tudo o que ele disse a respeito deste homem era verdade, e ali muitos creram em Jesus.

  This is the word of the Lord.

  Preacher: Good morning church. It's good to be able to share God's word with you this morning. I have a, a thought exercise to get us started to think about this passage. Imagine what your life would look like if you had nothing. no, you, you had, sorry, if you knew nothing bad could ever happen to you, right? Just, just start to think about what your life. What would you invest in if you knew that? No matter what only returns of profit will come back? Right? How, how would you, how much would you invest? What work would you do if you knew you never had to worry about providing for yourself and your family? Right? What people would you surround yourself with if you had a total sense of security in all the relationships around you, knowing that you would be socially and emotionally and, and, and, and, spiritually fed by the people around you. Who would you live with? Who would you commune with? Who would you fellowship with? Who would you play with? Who would you hang out with? What would you do? What activities would you do if you knew that you could never die.

  And the reason I think about this and, and bring this up is because if we knew that no matter what we would win, no matter what we would be successful, I think our lives would be incredibly different because after pastoring for over a decade, with, you know, students, students from like middle schoolers all the way up to like married with kids and beyond, I will tell you that I feel like we as a people, we operate much more from a, a, a position of fear, right? Rather than fearlessness. We struggle with the things that we have because we have a, a lack of a true sense of security.

  The reason that we do dumb things, the reason we fall back into old habits and old sins, the reason that we lose our patience, The, the reason that we, we, we, we just get so frustrated, the reason that we gossip, the reason that we just feel like we can't even move forward in life is because of fear. And so without trying to overwhelm us with this sense of guilt, I think what's beautiful about the passage that we just read and we're gonna dive into this morning is it's going to show us how we get over, at least the beginnings of it, the beginnings of the sense of fear. We're gonna see what God has to say through his word. And through a deeper letter, obviously, as we read it, we see that the Pharisees have confronted Jesus again and, but they, they ask very, very plainly Jesus, who are you? What are you about? Tell us plainly. And before we answer, how, how look at how Jesus answered.

  Let's pray, Father God, I know it can feel like an odd thing for us to think about this passage and how it relates to how we operate and how we live through fear. But God help us to understand that there is and there are answers here and that you have provided the answer. You are the answer for the fear that we have. The anxiety that we have as we operate through life. And God as we look around, there's a lot of things to be fearful about. Even right now, we might be, we might be holding off the, the wave of fear that's coming because we know that Monday is coming and we wouldn't know how our job is gonna be or we're going back home and all the the frustrations that are happening there. God, God help us to be affirmed and understanding that there are things to be concerned about because as we look into your word, would you begin to give us the sense of security? This sense of peace that comes from knowing you, let me pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.

  So in very typical Jesus fashion, when asked a question, Jesus is a little bit more round about and, and in his very roundabout way of responding. again, also in very classic Jesus fashion with the Pharisees. They want to kill him, right? And so verse 33 it said the Jews answered him. It is not good for a work that you are going to that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God. Jesus makes it very, very plain. He's like, I've already told you guys, you know what I, well, you know that you, you know what I've done this, this I am the, I am the messiah, I am God. And so they say that, oh, we're going to stone you because you are making yourself God. But the truth is if you remember the, the phrase the Jews that refers to a group of, of people called the Pharisees who were the religious and actually like the, the political leaders of the community.

  And so they were because they were so focused on the, the, the scriptures and they were looking for a Messiah so that they were looking for someone who would deliver them from the oppression that they were, were seeing politically primarily. And so they were looking for this savior. And so it's not that they weren't looking for a person who could deliver them, right? Actually, III I it's not 100% clear because I'm no, I I can't pull a pharisee aside like, hey, what are you thinking? But because I, if you look what you think, but it's not that they were frustrated and mad that he was claiming himself to be the God. I really think it's because he's claimed to be God. And then he says, you are not my people. It's actually the combination of both in verse 24.

  So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly, Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name, bear witness about me and you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. It's the combination of the two, I imagine that they've said I am the Messiah and come to me, my sheep, come to me and my people the back. Ok. Let's go. Let's let's get some stuff done. Like finally, the Messiah, finally, God has brought us to the Messiah. Now we can move forward all the work that we as the political and religious leaders have been doing. Now. It's now we're activated now. Good things are gonna happen. I think if Jesus said that to him, they would be like, oh cool. He's the Messiah. He's listen, have you seen the, did you see what he did the other day? That was amazing. He's a miracle worker. Do you see all the people who are following He's, he's got even Messiah.

  I think that the, that the conflict comes because they, he calls himself God claims to be God. And he says, no, you're not my people. The religious leaders were devo devoted their life to the scriptures, to their religion. They go, yeah, you're not mine, you're not my people, you're not my sheep. And so when he calls him out, calls them out, they can't stop him that they would not be the Messiah's people. Therefore, he must not be the Messiah. He must not be God's chosen. He must not be the savior, right? Instead what Jesus gives us, what, what he tells us that it doesn't matter if you have committed to the religious practices, right? It doesn't matter that, you know, the most knowledge like you could win Bible trivia night every single, you know, week. That's, that's not what makes a person, one of Jesus' people, one of Jesus' sheep.

  What we see here in verse 27 he says my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand. I and the father are one verse 31. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. And so why does Jesus use this phrase sheep? This is like the second time we, we've heard sheep and shepherds last week we read earlier in chapter 10. You know, the, the same sort of analogy, Jesus is the good shepherd and his people are his sheep. Why does Jesus equate his people to sheep? I think it's complicated because again, we don't have a full understanding of sheep unless you have sheep at your home. Which would be really, really cool. I don't know, like Somerville's like ordinances if you can have sheep on your property. But I don't know, chickens maybe. But sheep may probably not but, but most of us don't know what it's like to have sheep, right?

  The, the only thing in our context that we really have for sheep is they're sheep and that there's like a sense of condescension like, oh, they're just being a sheep, you know, they're, they're being mindless, they're not thinking they're just following the crowd blindly. And while I don't think that's entirely wrong in terms of a description of what sheep are, I think people in jesus' time were have a little bit more nuance in understanding how she behaved. And I listen, I this is mostly like research through like commentaries and like the internet. So like, I'm not by no means in my actual, you know, I don't have a, a, you know, the, the, the the hook, the rod, whatever that thing is called. I don't have that, I don't know what people like, but I, what I, what I have I have looked at and what I can see is that the reason that sheep behave the way they do, it's not that they're inherently dumb. Right. I think very often people say, oh, well, sheep are just dumb. They're just sort of mindless.

  But the reason that sheep behave this way is because they are trying to survive. Right. And so because they're prey air and animals, they can't stay and fight like no sheep is gonna be like, hey wolf, come on, what's up? Like no sheep? They can't do that. Right? And so the best way for them to stay alive is for them to stay together it from the flock together. And because that gives them that sense of security. And so that's why you have it. I mean, literally, I looked up in 2005 in Turkey, 450 sheep jumped off of a cliff because they said, well, one did it. And it's like, ok, let that must be the way the security to jump off the cliff and literally 450 sheep that were great. Just, just all, all perished. I mean, really, really sad for that community because I think that was a big part of their livelihood, right?

  But because that sense of security in the collective in the flock. It's because they, oh, this is the way that we survive. If we do what other people do, that's how we get out of here. That's how we don't die. They think they think if I don't follow the crowd, I will die. And their behavior is driven by fear because they feel so overwhelmed by the prospect of being on their own. The crowd feels like the best option to keep them safe and maybe even feels like the only option they have. But a group of sheep on their own is not safety. If predators come lurking around, it's not. If sheep will die, it's how many at first and then how long until the whole flock is consumed. But they have this feeling that there is safety because there's the group.

  And if we're being honest, we're kind of like this. I could see why Jesus is my people are my sheep, right? Because our a our our actions, our behaviors are often inspired by fear and we go along with the crowd because it feels safer, right? We figure if we do what everyone else is doing, it must be the right thing to do. We should be fighting for the promotion. We should be looking for a greater social media presence. We should be, we keep saying, oh, I, I need to get into this sort of shape. I need to get into this sort of mentality because that's what Instagram tells me and all the people on Instagram are doing it. Therefore, that must be the right way, right? And it gives us this false sense of security, but just like a pack of wolves when sin comes lurking, it's not long until the whole community is affected. And so theologically, the reason that we sin is because we have inherited a sin nature at the fall of that theological. That is, that is absolutely true.

  But practically speaking in our day to day life, we sin because we have a sense of security based on others who are just as defensive as us who are just like sheep following something else. And we go, that must be the right way because a lot of people are doing it. A lot of other sheep are going there. So let's flock together. That must be right. Our sense of security relies on a mentality that says what is the next person doing? And I need to do that immediately. And that's why social media is so effective. That's why the algorithm, if you talking about the algorithm, the algorithm is so powerful because all of a sudden you go, oh I guess I do need to buy that thing. So I'm gonna swipe up and I'm gonna click buy, I'm gonna follow that. That's really, really good. I'm gonna send that to my friend and now that has been affected to your friends DM. Then all the people that they follow and all people who follow them that's gonna spread that and this idea that we have whatever it is, it now spreads and it feels like we have all these people affirming this idea. That is good. That is good. That is good. And you go, oh, that is good.

  And now people who are 2, 3, 4, 5 degrees removed from us go, Yeah, that's good. That must be a great thing because look at how many people liked it, how many people shared to the story and that sense of security that just purely comes from being a part of the flock is not a true sense of security. When our perceptions of what is truly safe are wrong following the crowd does feel like the best option. But we as sheep are not safe unless we have a shut. In fact, as we read earlier, Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd and he identifies the his sheep as those who recognize their need for him to be their shepherd. Verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

  And if I'm being honest with myself, as I look through my life and my history and all the stupid things that I've done, I have been a sheep lost in the world following everyone else because it feels right. It feels good, feels comfortable, so safe. But the beautiful thing is that Jesus, our good shepherd knows about us and he came to our world to save us from that lie. He came to bring us into his fold so that we can have a true sense of security. And if you grow up in the church or, or been following Jesus for a while you go, this is the good reminder part of the message. Oh, that's a good reminder. Yes. Oh, good, good. Yes. huh.

  But I have a question for, for all of us, it's, whether you're trying to figure out who Jesus is for the first time or whether you've been hearing sermons since you were little itty bitty kid. Have you ever stopped to think why Jesus is the good shepherd? What makes him so good? Why is he alone worthy of holding the title of being the good shepherd?

  Let's read verse 25. Jesus answered them. I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my father's name, bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. The reason that Jesus is the good shepherd is because he's good in every sense of the word. Right? Thankfully, we have parallels in our, in English.

  The word good has a lot of different meanings, right? But I in the original context of the way that the the dictionary is defined it, it says in any respect, object, unobjectionable, blameless and excellent. So what makes Jesus the good shepherd is because it embodies the fullness of the goodness, right? So basically he's morally, right? As in they are a good person, right? They're virtuous, they are good in the sense that they are skilled or competent as in someone who is good at their job. Good being beneficial or advantageous as in eating vegetables is good for your health. Good as in meet standards as in the book was good. It is widely recognized as a standard bearer for good literature, good meaning pleasant or enjoyable as in the action movie was good, not widely recognized as a standard bearer, but it was satisfying.

  And in all these ways, Jesus is the shepherd, that is all of these things. He's good in all of these ways, he better bodies, all of these good things. He's entirely all encompassing good shepherd. And how do we know this? The father says he's good. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one, the father who is above all greater than all gives him the approval, gives him the stamp of goodness, the stamp of approval. He's good. He's the good shepherd and the flock. I'm giving them to him because he is good. He's the shepherd that is fully good. We're all good, if you're from a certain generation. Or he's good good if you're from a different generation and shouldn't we wanna follow someone like that?

  Shouldn't want, we want to be protected by someone like that? Like, I don't know where you guys are at. But like if we're being honest, a lot of us struggle to follow Jesus. We read this in theologically and academically and intellectually, we understand. Wow. Yeah, that's, that's, that's good. Amen. But it's hard for us to live that way. And I think it's because, and honestly, this is, this is where I think we take a moment to reflect on our lives and, and ask ourselves, who are we following in our lives?

  Who do we turn to when we're looking for a sense of security or direction? Is it our friends? The ones that we lean on for support? Not that those are bad. Maybe it's your coworkers or your boss. Not that that's bad. They provide a sense of stability in our professional life, right? Maybe it's our significant other, the person that we trust to be by our side, thick and thin. Not that that's bad. Or do we follow celebrities and influencers? The, the they they have these larger than life personalities. They, they, they live the life that we feel like we want to live and that, that, that's bad. But who are we ultimately following? Who is the one that we measure all of that to the advice that we get from a friend? The counsel that our, our boss gives us thinking about the, the the trend that we see online. Who, who do we measure that against?

  Because we feel like if we buy that, if we are that if we do that, we will be secure, we will be safe. But we have to compare it with the one, the good shepherd, the one that we should be ultimately following. And so I'm not saying, throw away your phone, I'm not saying don't have any more friends and just like, well, no, the Bible says no, but as we do that because we have to engage with the world around us, we have to go to work, we have to have community. We, you know, social media is a part of our, is a part of our life. It's not to say, throw them all out. It's just measure against the one who we ultimately follow. And so I know that it's so much easier to follow the crowd around us because it feels more secure and we feel like we can see the result of where they're going.

  But I think what Jesus calls us to trust in him because he is good and he is leading us to a good place. It's hard to live that way. A lot of times I feel like we treat Jesus. I'm a, I'm an eighties baby. And so, like, fear around Children was like a really big thing. It's like, it's 10 o'clock. Do you know where your Children are? Like, that was the thing that was regularly and maybe they still played on it over the air TV. I have no idea. it would be, it would be like that and then like, we would have the, this sort of like a stranger danger courses and they'd be like, listen, make sure that you, you know, I mean, this is like, still good advice. I'm not saying this is bad advice.

  You know, it's like you should know if someone's saying, hey, I'm coming to pick you up from, from your mom and dad that you really know that they're telling you. And so we treat Jesus like he's pulling up in like a dirty, broken up w white van and be like, hey, your mom and dad told me you us to go this way. You go. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go here and you're gonna run the opposite direction. I said, we treat Jesus like this. No, like you want me to go there. Hm. I don't know why. Like, I can't go here. This feels right. That feels wrong. I think when we see this or read this. I think it's. Jesus is like pulling up in our dad's station wagon and it's, it's got the keys. He's, he's got everything. He's got a, he's got a note, he's a recorded message. Hey, just, you know, go with, you know, Uncle Jesus, you know, like go, go with him. He's gonna bring me, I got caught at work. He's gonna, he's gonna drop you off with me. He's gonna bring you to me. You can trust him wherever he's leading you, you can go, you can trust him.

  I think it's so hard because we are, our lives are so consumed by the need to maintain a certain level of living a certain standard, a certain level of control, whether it's our wall, our calendar, our reputation and so that we can keep up with these appearances that we can stay with the flock. If the flock is going here, we have to go with the flock is going. It's scary to go out there. It's scary to step out what feels like on our own. Even in Christian circles. We do this, we, we, we treat morality like it's, it's AAA video game where we're trying to gain an achievement with willpower, with brute force. We're trying to get that platinum achievement in, in terms of earning the sinless life. But if we've ever really lived with trying to keep up with social expectations or trying to live a holy life by brute forcing it.

  We know how exhausting and unfulfilling that is because we're always falling short of that standard. We can't keep up with the Joneses in this life. This isn't a life that we live that's surrounded by trust in the good shepherd. That's when we live a life that's surrounded by him. We know we're being led by him. Yes, there are fellow sheep around us who should be pointing us to him. So that because we naturally flock together, we should be going. But we should also know that there's a shepherd who is there who will fend off any attack from any predator.

  When in earlier in the chapter John 10:14 says I'm the good shepherd. I know my own and my own, my own know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep. The sheep won't do that. She was like, oh guys, I got it. I I'm gonna, I'm gonna stuff the belly of this wolf so that you guys don't get eaten. She won't do that. They're all gonna scramble like, hey, look, who's the slowest, good luck, right? We need to shift our perspective to understand that Jesus is good, good, good. He's not just holy, he's capable, he's not just capable. He's good for us. He's not just good for us. The Father approves of him because he's on our side and the Father is with him. We can trust we can have a true sense of security to live the life that God wants for us.

  If we shift our mentality and say no, Jesus is the one to follow Jesus is the one that protects us, then we can do the hard things. And I'm not saying the hard things like getting rich. Right? That's not what Jesus died to do. He didn't die to make you rich. He's, he's doing the hard things like not like you becoming your own boss or you becoming the team leader. That that's, that's hard, that's not what Jesus died so that you could do. Jesus died for something much more difficult. He died, you to free you. He died, excuse me, he died to free you from needing those things. Because what is harder getting rich or loving your enemies? And if you go, no getting rich is harder, then you haven't had enemies. What is harder becoming the boss or dying to yourself, denying yourself? What is harder having a million followers or having hope in a truly hopeless situation?

  That's what Jesus died to. He freed you from sin. So you wouldn't have to worry about those things. So you could get in the station where you can go where he's taking you, bring you to the father because he comes in his name, approved dealers and Ti Right said this about hope and confidence. Christian confidence about the future. Beyond death is not a matter of wishful thinking, a vague general hope or temperamental inclination to assume things will turn out. All right, it is built firmly on nothing less than the Union of Jesus with the father, one of the main themes of the whole gospel.

  It is interesting to observe that where in Christian thinking people have become unclear on jesus' close relation to the father, they have often become unclear also on the uncertainty of Christian hope and vice versa. Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, he has died so that we can have this hope. He has died so that we can be made new. He can be died so that we can be restored. And so that all the worldly passions and desires and goals, we don't need them because we know that no matter what at the end of the day, we can live knowing that no matter what we win because Jesus wins, we live because Jesus lives, we could be poor, we could be ugly. We could have, we could be incredibly unpopular and we still win. We still have the promises that Jesus won for us through his death on the cross.

  And so friends don't you want to live like that? Don't you want to live knowing that you will not die? You may face death in this life. But in the end because you follow Jesus, you will experience a greater life in the life to come than you have ever, ever, ever, ever thought you could live. It won't matter about your bank account. Ma won't matter about your follower account, but you will live because you will be with the father. So friends like I'm, I felt guilty of this too. I get it. It's hard. I get it. But it begins today. If you shift your mentality and you go OK, I'm not gonna get rid of all my friends. I'm not gonna quit my job. That's not, that's not what this is about, but I'm gonna shift my perspective and go, who do I ultimately follow?

  And I hope that you guys answer is Jesus. And as we pray as reflect, as we ask for prayer from people around us, maybe even people here in this space right now as we pray, we go, God just help me. I know I can't do this. Maybe I, I've even tried this before God help me. I want to follow you ultimately because I wanna live that life. I wanna be released to obey you to do the right things because that's the hard, that's way harder than anything in the world tells us that we need, let me say, let me pray for us.

  Father God. Thank you for your word. Thank you that you sent Jesus to be our good shepherd so that we could be free from a painful life that comes from following other sheep who are just like us and are driven by fear and will basically do anything to make sure that they just don't get eaten first yet. We have a savior who did exactly that and was effective at it who laid down his life so that all predators, all pain, all suffering would be taken care of and that we could roam free grazing in the greenest pastures, drink from the clearest waters and experience life so glorious. But the best of this that this life has to offer is nothing in comparison. And God help us experience that help us experience step one of that. This week, God, I pray that He would speak to us in our quiet times, in our commutes, in our reflections. Or even if we're trying to directly resist this guy, we, we hear from you today. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.