READING: John 10:22-30

Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

SERMON

The Lord is my shepherd – I shall not want – he makes me to lie down in green pastures – he leads me beside still waters – he restoreth my soul…

What comforting words these are, but are they true words??

Are they words that are true in the sense that they really apply to you??

Jesus said “My Sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

You know – I really want Jesus to be my shepherd.

I want him to be my shepherd because I am told that when I am lost he will look for me – that when I am in danger that his rod and his staff will comfort me.

I want Jesus to be my shepherd because – he promises his sheep eternal life – because he promises that they shall never perish.

“No – one will snatch them out of my hand,” says Jesus, “For what my Father has given me is greater than all else and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.”

As the 23rd Psalm puts it “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

I really want Jesus to be my shepherd. I really want all that the 23rd Psalm promises all that Jesus promises to be true for me and from all the people that I know who have selected the 23rd Psalm for their funeral service – and from all the people that I know who can recite the 23rd Psalm by heart I reckon that all of us here today want the same thing — we want a God to watch over us, A God to protect us. A God to bless us, A God to seek us out when we go astray, A God to comfort us when we hurt, A God to heal us when we are ill, A God to walk with us when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, A God to bring us into paradise when we die.

I want -You want

I think we all want this and God says to all of us, Jesus says to all of us – You can have it – you can have it from me – for I am the good shepherd. I am the one who looks after his sheep; the one who loves his sheep with a love that is stronger than death.

Jesus is the good shepherd, every one of us here today believes that. Every one of us here today believes that he is the shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep – everyone of us here today believes that he and the Father – are – as he said – one, and that what is entrusted to him – is entrusted to the Father, and what is entrusted to the Father – is entrusted to Him.

I know I believe that – and I believe that you believe it too — but the question remains are we his sheep? Do his words of comfort apply to us?

Hear what the Shepherd says about his sheep, hear what every observer of shepherds and sheep knows to be true:

My sheep know my voice and they follow me. They will not follow a stranger but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. I am the good shepherd – I know my own and my own know me. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (pause)

Are we his sheep?

In verse sixteen of the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to John, Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold — I must bring them also – and they will listen to my voice.”

They will listen to my voice, they know my voice, they hear my voice and they follow me.

This is the test, a test of whether or not we are the sheep of the good shepherd; a test of whether or not – no matter what fold we may happen to come from – we are the people who belong to Jesus Christ – the people who belong to God.

Do we pass the test? Do we know and listen to your shepherd’s voice?

I”ve got a book here — it’s called the Bible. How many of us know what it says?

How many of us have actually read it through at least once from cover to cover?

How many of us have actually read from it more than once in the last week?

How many of us actually think to look at it while we are in church to see what it might have to say to us? How many of us look at it to see what the Spirit tells us what God is saying through his word in our heart?

Do we know the voice of the shepherd? Do we pass the test?

Think about it some more. How many of us actually prayed to God at least once a day for each day of the last week? With our own words?

And then how many of you – when you thought to pray; when you thought to talk to God and bring God your requests; thought to listen to God?

How many of you actually took the time to quiet your hearts and your minds and to listen for a message – for a word, a thought, an impulse to come to us from the heart of the living God, to come to us from the stirring of the Holy Spirit?

I know people who believe – and yet who are so unfamiliar with the voice of Jesus – so unfamiliar with the word of God – that they run each day to the astrology section of their newspaper, discover what is happening and what they should do that day — rather than turning to the Scriptures, and to prayer, and to the indwelling Spirit of God for counsel and advice.

What kind of belief is this? To what flock do such people really belong?

The great test of listening is in responding.

I believe that Jesus is the lamb of God – slain for the sins of the world.

I believe that Jesus is the Good Shepherd – who laid his life down for me.

And I want Jesus to watch over me – to protect me – to prepare me a table in the presence of my enemies. I even listen to his voice but does that make me one of his sheep?

No – it doesn’t, it doesn’t until I actually respond to that voice, till I actually try to do what it is calling me to do – till I actually follow the one who is speaking.

I have asked you today if you are sheep that belong to the Good Shepherd. I have asked you if you know his voice and if you follow him.

These are very serious questions, they are serious because the quality of our life here and now is affected by whether or not we have a relationship with the living Christ — by whether or not we actually come when the master calls – by whether or not we listen for his voice and strive to do what he tells us to do.

In the eyes of God each one of us belongs to his flock.

God is calling out to us. God is searching for us. God is asking us to come to Him, to listen to Him, and to enter his fold and be sheltered and made safe with the rest of sheep, safe from the robbers and thieves who only kill and destroy, safe from the evil one who would have us live in darkness and despair all of our days.

As parents call their children to themselves so that they might instruct them and nourish them and show them love, so God is calling us.

Listen – and follow – and we shall not want, Listen and follow – and we will lie down in green pastures, Listen and follow – and our soul’s will be restored. Amen.

PRAYERS

Dear Lord God, we thank you for seeking us out just as a shepherd seeks for his sheep. We thank you for keeping us safe – for standing with us in adversity — and for blessing us with all that we have. Help us to listen more to you than we do right now and give us the faith to follow you more perfectly.

Lord in your mercy…Hear our prayer

Lord God, you are holy and altogether too wonderful for words to capture or for our minds to comprehend. You have formed us, made us, created us – and called us to union with yourself – to fellowship with your Spirit – to peace and joy in your eternal presence.

Lord in your mercy…Hear our prayer

Lord, You have granted us a world – you have placed us in a garden – and given to us companionship and responsibility. Help us God to be worthy of these things – make us both hearers and doers of your word…. Lord hear our prayer…

Lord, there is much that is wrong in this world, yet we see also in this world much that is right. Revive your Spirit within us that within us the right might prove to be stronger than the wrong. Make us people who will listen and obey. Make us people who are able by our listening and obeying to show forth your blessings to others who are in need.

Lord in your mercy…Hear our prayer

Lord, we hold before the special concerns that are upon our hearts this day, those who we raise up to your today, the young who are seriously ill, the family that has no faith to help them in their time of trouble, the man or woman who does not trust and thus cannot share the pain that is in their lives, the couple who have been separated by age and disease.

Lord in your mercy…Hear our prayer

Through Christ Jesus we come before you and ask all these things and we offer our prayers in the name of Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of his sheep.

Merciful Father, accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

And so we pray the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples…

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen

Revd Kevin. Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas