John 10:11-18 April 4, 2010
EASTER SUNDAY!
“Resurrection Life”
Rev. Meagan Boozer
In the summer of 1976 I bought my first car. Before this, I would borrow my mom’s big maroon Thunderbird, or sometimes dad (who often had two cars for some reason) would leave one of his cars in town for us to use. So, it was either the little orange Volkswagon, or the big maroon Thunderbird. Everyone remembers their first car, right? Mine was gold. (Some might say brown. I say gold.) A Toyota Corona 4-door. Chocolate interior. About 75,000 miles. Standard transmission. Nice big trunk (not that I needed it, but it was a nice trunk). A radio that worked. You name it, she might have had it! We all remember our first car. The one we paid for. It’s different when it’s yours, isn’t it? I’m positive I didn’t wash mom or dad’s car nearly as much as I washed MY car. I’m sure I never waxed their car; but I waxed MY car. There is a special attachment when something is yours. Just ask the coach who has been coaching the soccer team for several years, and then his own son makes the team. Just ask that coach what happens inside when it is his son making a breakaway play, or when it is his son who just got plowed over by a hotshot on the other team. It is different when something belongs to you.
Jesus knows this about us. And so, he draws on this common understanding as he teaches us in John 10:11-18. Listen to the Scripture with me: 11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
Jesus is the good shepherd because the sheep belong to him. Other hired hands who guard the sheep won’t lay their lives on the line if something is threatening to harm them: the hired hand values his own life more than he values someone else’s sheep. But Jesus tells us that he is the good shepherd because the sheep belong to him, and he values them more than he values his own life. Four times in this passage Jesus says he lays down his life for the sheep: v. 11: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. v. 15: And I lay down my life for the sheep. v. 17: I lay down my life in order to take it up again. v. 18: I lay it down of my own accord. The hired hand sees wolves on the way, and he runs for safety. The good shepherd sees wolves on the way and takes them on so that his sheep can be safe in his care forever.
Today, on this Resurrection Sunday, I want to put on display four different wolves that could and would destroy us if Jesus hadn’t taken them on for us. In fact, we could call this sermon “The Good Shepherd and the Big Bad Wolves.”
First, Jesus took on the wolf of sin. Literally. He took it upon himself. In John 1:29, we read the words of John the Baptist who said of Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Folks, we have a sin problem. We are born sinners. We are not born wanting what God wants for us. We are not born wanting to give glory to our Creator. We are born wanting what we want when we want it. Often one of the first words a child learns is “MINE.” We are not born wanting to give glory to God. We are born wanting glory all for ourselves. That’s how it started in Genesis 2. That’s how it still is in Spring Run 2010. We are all sinners, and we all need a Savior. Jesus came to save us from being slaves to our sin. He came to draw the wolf of sin off the sheep and onto himself. And when he hung on that cross, his greatest punishment was feeling, for the first time, the separation that sin causes between a man and his God, a woman and her God. His words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” (Matthew 27:46) are our window into his loneliness at that hour. They are words we sometimes think or say when our sinful ways have gotten the best of us. But Jesus broke our bondage to sin through his death on that cross. He broke the yoke of slavery to sin in our lives. And so, if you have answered the call to follow Jesus in your life, than no more should you be saying words like these, “I want to stop lying, but I just can’t.” “I want to stop doing (whatever that thing is that you know doesn’t bring glory to God), but I just can’t.” Jesus took on the wolf of sin, and if you belong to him, that wolf has been destroyed. WE ARE NO LONGER SLAVES to the wolf of SIN, thanks to the good shepherd. Whatever sin plagues you, tempts you, hounds you, Jesus helps you conquer it forever.
The second and third wolves Jesus took on were the wolves of death and divine judgment. Those are big, bad wolves. No one escapes them. Men, women, young, old, big, little, rich, poor, black, white, white collar, blue collar. Everyone dies. And everyone will be judged. Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “It is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment.” Death is the end of all our plans here on earth. Judgment is potentially the end of everything good for us forever and ever. These are very nasty wolves, death and judgment. Listen with me to Jesus’ words as recorded by John in 5:24, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Now, tell me that isn’t good news – to be able to walk into the courtroom of a Holy God and know that because of Jesus we have nothing to fear.
It’s because of Jesus, that I could have a conversation with my little grandson, Luke, last week that went something like this: Luke: “Mamaw,”
Me: “Yes, Luke.”
Luke: “Papa’s in heaven”
(that’s John’s dad).
Me: “That’s right. Papa’s in heaven.” (Luke was born 3 months after Papa died. He never knew him, but we talk about him and we have pictures of him around our houses.)
Luke: “Papa’s in heaven with Cicely.” (Cicely is Luke’s big sister who was stillborn in 2003.)
Me: “Yes, Lukie. Papa and Cicely are up there together.”
Luke: “They are there with Jesus.”
Me: “Yes. That must be pretty cool, to be with Jesus. One day we’ll get to go there to be with them, too.”
Luke: “Yep. Mamaw?”
Me: “Yes, Luke.”
Luke: “We could get a ladder so we can come down from heaven.”
Me: “Well, that would be a very big ladder.”
Luke: “And big people could carry little people up and down the ladder.”
Me: “I guess if there was a ladder like that, they could.”
At that, he jumped off the chair and went to play with his cars, completely free from all that seems to bind us up as we get older.
• Because of Jesus, the good shepherd, death has lost its ultimate sting. Because of Jesus, the pain, the grief of being separated from those we love is temporary.
• Because of Jesus, when we get to our moment of judgment, God sees the righteousness of our Savior, not our wretched rags.
• Because of Jesus, we don’t have to fear the wolves of death and judgment. He has taken them on, and his victory for you and me, is sure.
Who are you longing to see on this Resurrection Sunday? Jesus has opened the way for us to be together forever!
Fourth and finally, Jesus took on THE big bad wolf: the devil. If you look at the verse just before v. 11 in this chapter, you will see this: “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” The devil thought that death was the ultimate blow. He entered into Judas and convinced him to betray his Savior and friend. He was active in those who whipped, who spat, who nailed, who mocked. When Jesus breathed his last on the cross, the devil was doing the victory dance. But remember what v. 18 said? “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.” The devil thought he had dealt the death blow to Jesus! But, it was all in God’s plan, and within God’s power. For on the third day the devil stopped dancing when:
• Death turned to life!
• Sorrow turned to joy!
• Mourning turned to dancing!
• Wailing turned to praising!
• Darkness turned to light!
• Winter turned to Spring!
The devil has been defeated! He is not yet destroyed. But he is defeated, and all of his tactics and schemes these days are his attempts to convince us that there is no life after death, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no hope for us, nothing is ever going to change, its all bad, and its just getting worse. Turn on that news channel. Watch it 24/7. Be convinced that we’re all going to hell in a handbasket (as my mom used to say).
Jesus said (v. 14): “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” In v. 4 of chapter 10, Jesus said, “The sheep follow him because they know his voice.” We’re talking intimacy in our relationship with God. That’s what Jesus came to show us – an intimacy that he had with his Father – an intimacy that he invites us to have with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And in that intimate relationship, Jesus speaks the truth deep into our souls. He tells us the truth. He dispels the lies of the devil. He promises eternal life, light, hope, and real transformation. He promises wholeness, in spite of all the brokenness in the world. He promises to work all things together for good, for those who love him, who listen to his voice, and follow him. The lying, cheating, stealing devil is defeated by the presence of the pure truth of Jesus that grows within those who belong to him. And one day, that devil will be destroyed, and we’ll be doing the victory dance forever and ever and ever!
I don’t know where all of you are in your faith today. I know where I am. Since I was 17 years old, I’ve been safe in the arms of Jesus. There have been some times when I doubted, when I wondered if being the only one in the room who wasn’t going to give in was worth it, but then I hear his voice, and I know that I belong. I belong to Jesus. I belong in his family. Jesus said in John 10:27,28, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” What the Father has given me is greater than all else. He’s talking about you. He’s talking about me. We are more precious to him than his own life.
If you’re not sure if you belong to Jesus, on this Resurrection Sunday, I invite you to respond to the one who is calling for you. Let us pray:
Glory to you, O God. Glory to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Thank you for creating us, and thank you for calling us. You know us. You know our fears, our hopes, our dreams, our addictions, our needs, our wants, our mistakes, our emptiness apart from you. You alone know the ones that are not yet in your fold. Hear them now, as they approach you in feeble, yet hope-filled faith (If you are ready to follow Jesus, just tell him. Tell him you believe he died with your sins on his back, that he defeated death, judgment, and the devil for you – and that in response, you want to live your life for him.) There are no words that can fully express our gratitude, O God. May our lives show you how much it means, today, and every day. This we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
*The beginning idea for this sermon was taken from John Piper’s sermon, “I Have Authority to Lay It Down and I Have Authority to Take It Up Again,” from the Desiring God website.
