Pastor Tim Patoka
Good Shepherd Sunday May 3, 2020 Enter the Door to Life John 10:1-10 1) We Choose to Follow Perilous Voices 2) Jesus Chooses to Share his Victory 3) Make Good Choices to Retain Life
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday which gets its name from how our verses from John’s Gospel describes Jesus. For many of us, this is a particularly favorite Sunday. We have images of Jesus watching over us as a shepherd watches over his sheep. We get to read from and sing variations of Psalm 23 which comforts us, not just at a loved one’s passing, but at all times. We are reminded how one of our stained glass windows here in the Grace-Tucson sanctuary shows Jesus as our Good Shepherd which you’ll see on your screens after the closing hymn. But even if you didn’t know Good Shepherd Sunday was a thing, we all treasure this picture of Jesus as our Good Shepherd. Perhaps more so now than before given our current coronavirus times. That even when life is turned upside down and there is so much uncertainty, we still have our Good Shepherd watching over us. But what is interesting about John’s verses for this particular Good Shepherd Sunday is that Jesus doesn’t emphasize his shepherd role. Instead, his emphasis is on how he is the door for the sheep. Listen to how Jesus says it for himself as we read from the John chapter 10 beginning at verse 1. “‘Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the door, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The doorkeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own sheep, he walks ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ 6Jesus used this illustration in speaking to the people, but they did not understand what he was telling them. 7So Jesus said again, ‘Amen, Amen, I tell you: I am the door for the sheep. 8All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.’” (John 10:1-10) It’s a big deal for Jesus to be the door for the sheep. Because it is only through him that we can enter into his promised pastures and receive life. And as
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Pastor Tim Patoka
Good Shepherd Sunday May 3, 2020 we dig into these verses and see what Jesus has to share with us today, let us be sheep of the Good Shepherd who always enter through Jesus, the door to life. 1) We Choose to Follow Perilous Voices You might think at first that having Jesus be the door is at odds with him being our shepherd. After all, door are things. Shepherds are people. You can’t be both a thing and a person. But when we understand how 1st century sheep pens were designed, we see there is no conflict. A modern comparison we have for these ancient sheep pens are the livestock corrals that you would find on a farm or ranch. You have a relatively flat piece of ground that’s been enclosed with walls that are high enough to prevent animals from jumping in and out. If you live in an area with agile predators or human intruders, you might have thorns on top the walls to help deter unwanted company. There is only one way in and out of this enclosure, and that is through the door which the shepherd mans. He determines who gets in and who gets out. And if you were out in the open countryside or didn’t have a fixed door on your sheep pen, the shepherd himself would sleep in the doorway and literally be the door. To be the shepherd in the 1st century world meant that you also functioned as the door. Jesus uses this illustration to drive home our point that he alone is the door that leads to life. He is the shepherd who doubles as the door. The sheep whom are inside the sheep pen are his, what we call Christians because to be a Christian means to call Jesus Christ your Savior from sin. However, Jesus’ sheep face constant dangers from the thieves and robbers who wish to break into the sheep pen and take us away so they can steal, kill, and destroy our life in Christ. We find these thieves and robbers in many different ways. You have the troublesome trio: the Devil, this evil world, and our sinful nature. We can also include anything and anyone who takes our attention off Christ. As Jesus tells us sheep of his, “The sheep follow [their shepherd] because they know his voice. 5They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:4b-5) These sinful thieves and robbers cannot overpower our Good Shepherd. But they still come calling after us to wander away from him to our peril. And when these strange voices come at us, we are expected to run away from them so we can remain with our Good Shepherd! But how well do we actually do that? How often do we make the bad choices of listening to these strange voices and following them to our peril? Our 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
Good Shepherd Sunday May 3, 2020 theme for this worship service is how Jesus gives us victory over bad choices, choices that we ourselves sadly make. When that little voice inside us tells us to doubt God in light of what’s all going on right now. When we see how we fail to use the excess time most of us have to create good habits around God’s Word or improve what was already happening. When we look back at our overly busy lives before the coronavirus, we see how unnecessary stress and misplaced priorities robbed us of time with our Good Shepherd. And that’s just a handful of examples. Whenever we make these bad choices, we do so to our peril because we close ourselves off from our Good Shepherd and open to those thieves and robbers who only want to steal, kill, and destroy our life in Christ. 2) Jesus Chooses to Share his Victory The reason why we make such a big deal about listening only to Jesus’ voice is because he alone is the door that leads to life. As Jesus told us, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: I am the door for the sheep. 8All who came before me were thieves and robbers…9I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” (John 10:7-8a, 9) It is through Jesus alone that we gain access to his promises pastures which we’ll talk about in just a little bit. And whoever does not enter through Jesus sadly cuts themselves off from this life and puts themselves on the path to eternal death. We are certain that Jesus alone is this door to life because he chose to do what was necessary to be victorious over sin. 3 weeks ago, we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday when he publicly confirmed this victory. Everyone who came before him and has come after him is unable to secure this victory on their own. For sin is what we do and sinners is what we are. No matter how hard we try or what theories we devise, we were doomed to defeat. But Jesus did what we never could by conquering that troublesome trio and fleeing from every perilous voice so he could go to the cross and receive our punishment from God. What makes Jesus’ decision even more amazing is that he didn’t have to do this. He chose to. He made that good choice to come down to this world and do whatever was necessary so that he could have victory over sin and every bad choice for all time. A victory that he chooses to share with us so that we may have life. As a door grants access to another area for a person to go through, so Jesus is the door who grants access to his promised pastures of life for those who share in his victory. That only way we get to share in that victory is by having faith, that is, trust, in Jesus as our Savior. Even though we make all sorts of bad choices that 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
Good Shepherd Sunday May 3, 2020 lead us to peril, in Christ we are victorious. Sin is defeated! Death is destroyed! Those thieves and robbers don’t stand a chance as long as we remain close to our Good Shepherd and follow his voice. Not only do we share in Christ’s victory, but we also look forward to enjoying Jesus’ promised pastures of life. Earlier we read from Psalm 23, our aptly-appointed psalm for Good Shepherd Sunday. These familiar words do more than comfort us, they also describe what these promised pastures of life are like. Our Good Shepherd is with us to make sure our needs are met as well as so many of our wants. These pastures are green with life and quiet from troubles. Our souls are restored through the righteousness which comes to us through God’s forgiveness. We are free from fear for our Shepherd beats back the dangers with his rod and brings us back to his safety with his staff. Our Shepherd sets before us a feast filled with his never-ending blessings. And because of all this, we continually rejoice because of God’s goodness and mercy which will be with us for all time. This sounds like a pretty great life! Would you agree with me on that? But did you know that we already are enjoying this kind of life? Don’t get me wrong. It’s going to be all the more when we enter our heavenly pastures. But even in these earthly pastures, it is ours now. Our Good Shepherd is now with us with his victory, forgiveness, protection, and providence. Even when life seems messed up because of coronavirus and the bad choices we make, we have this blessed life in abundance in the shelter of our homes. And that’s all because of our faith in Jesus who alone is the door to this blessed life. 3) Make Good Choices to Retain Life If we would like to retain this blessed life, we can do so by making good choices. We look back to what Jesus said before to see what those choices are, “The sheep follow [their shepherd] because they know his voice. 5They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” (John 10:4b-5) We first need to make the good choice by listening to our Good Shepherd’s voice. That starts by knowing what it sounds like. Thankfully, we have the Bible where our God has spoken to us. The more we read and become familiar with it, the more we will know what our Savior’s voice sounds like and when pastors and others are speaking it as well. After knowing his voice, we then follow it by applying these truths to our hearts and putting them into practice.
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Pastor Tim Patoka
Good Shepherd Sunday May 3, 2020 Our next step is to make the good choice by fleeing from those voices that do not sound like our Good Shepherd’s. There are lots of strange voices out there which claim to speak for God but sadly confuse his words, add in their own ideas, subtract what isn’t convenient, or entirely misrepresent him. When we give them the same attention we do to our Savior’s voice, we give an ear to those robbers and thieves who want to steal, kill, and destroy our life in Christ. And we don’t want to do that! Our last step is to make the good choice by regularly doing all this. Like any good habit, this is not a one and done action. We need to regularly listen to our Savior’s voice and flee from those perilous voices so that we never lose sight of the only door that leads to a blessed life. And perhaps we are better equipped to do these good choices now than before. One of the silver linings I’ve discovered from our current coronavirus precautions is that we have more free time on our hands that we’re used to. Time to look at those bad choices we talked about before and see how not to make them again. Time to review the necessary choice Jesus made so he could share his victory over sin with us. Time to better appreciate what a blessed life we have now and will have in heaven because we have access to Jesus’ promised pastures. Time to consider what practical steps we can take during and after these coronavirus days to retain our identity as a sheep of the Good Shepherd. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we see Jesus describe himself as the door through whom alone we enter to have life. We know that there is no other door that can do this. Yet so often we make bad choices to follow strange voices to our peril and open ourselves up to thieves and robbers who seek to steal, kill, and destroy our life in Christ. Yet even in the midst of these bad choices, we stand victorious because of Jesus who chooses to share his victory over sin with us. He alone did what was necessary to win this victory by dying on the cross and rising from the grave. He thankfully shares his victory with all who look to him in faith and he grants them access to his promised pastures of life. And while it may seem simplistic, the way to retain this life we now have is by regularly making the good choices of following his voice and fleeing from all others. This might seem like a lot to expect from we sheep of the Good Shepherd! But with his constant help, we can certainly continue to enter through Jesus, the door to life. Amen.
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