The Shepherd Knows His Sheep

The Shepherd Knows His Sheep
John 10:22-30
22 Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. 23 And Jesus walked in the temple, and Solomon’s porch. 24 Then the Jews surrounded Him and said to Him, “How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. 26 “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 “My sheep know My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone 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 My Father’s hand. 30”I and My Father are one.”
Taken from Spirit Filled Life Bible New King James Version
V24 “How long do you keep us in doubt? Tell us plainly” How many times the answer to a certain question has stared us directly in the face and we can’t see. Perhaps it seems too good to be true, or, too hard to do. People want the easy answer, the easy way out of things. To many times we would rather call information than to look it up in the phone book. We often look to short line with envy and wonder what ever processed us to get in this line anyway. In v. 25 Jesus is telling the Jews that the answer has been in front of your face all along. He wanted them to search the scriptures, see the prophecies and see that they all were fulfilled in Him. To see the miracles that He had performed and know that it came from God.
Jesus searches our hearts today as believer and unbeliever alike, and reaches us in a way that is unique to us. So that as unbelievers we can come to Him and as believers we can come to know God’s will for our lives. He tells that the miracles that He has done in the Father’s name are enough to convince us who He is.
V. 26. “you are not of my sheep.” This is not to say that these could not believe. It states that for whatever reason they chose not to. Be it that it went against everything that they were taught, or that they refused to admit that they needed Christ to change them. They, and we today, believe that we are good people, and to admit that we need saving would seem the gravest of sins in itself.
V. 27. “ My sheep hear My voice,…and they follow me.” It was funny moving to the country, where my neighbors are cows. We have learned to enjoy watching them in the field across the street as they eat, and I guess eat some more. This spring was especially enjoyable as we watched the calves play in the field and how the mothers called to their calves, and the calves had learned to know their mothers voices. While watching them one day, they all seemed to take off in one direction at the same time. This was indeed curious, until we heard the drone of a tractor engine and saw that the farmer had a round bale of hay on the back. The cows had heard something we could not hear right away, and they knew that sound meant food.
Unbelievers, for whatever reasons have refused to have ears to hear that Jesus is reaching out to them. It is God’s desire that none shall perish, but that all shall come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. {Read 2Peter 3:9}
Don’t feel that believers are immune from the condemnation of this verse, for all at one point or another have turned a deaf ear to the will of the Father. How can we know the voice of Jesus? John 14:15-17 gives us a promise of a helper to guide us in the truth, and teaches us to listen to the will of the Father. “If you love Me, keep My commandments. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever- “The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
This all takes practice the cows did not automatically know the tractor meant food. I am sure they feared it at first. The calves had to learn their mother’s voice. We too must learn to hear the voice of the Spirit of God, as He guides us in truth and reveals to us the will of the Father. The sheep are those who hear, believe in, follow, and obey the Savior of the world knowing that it is Jesus that feeds us, with truth, love, patience, peace, and joy.
V. 28 “and they shall never perish.” Why? Since salvation is a gift from God, and not from man. It is an imperishable gift for those who walk in Christ. The world did not give you salvation and the world can not take it away. You can walk away from Christ, but He will never walk away from you. He will be there to walk with you and guide you back into the fold. {I John 5:11 and this is the testimony; that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
“Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” In the seventies there was a show entitled Kung Foo. In it the goal of the student was to snatch the pebble from the master’s hand. Jesus says that nobody can snatch us from His hand. In verse 29 He backs that statement up that nobody can snatch us from the Father’s hand. Not this world, not the demons of hell, not even Satan himself. He who loves God must be happy, and he that fears God need fear nothing on this side of eternity.
V. 30 “I and My Father are one.” This flew in the face of the Jews, that Jesus would place Himself on an equal plane with God. We hear this and should rejoice. For Jesus and God are one in nature, one in all the attributes of Godhead, and one in the operations of those attributes. When we say that two people are of one mind, it is to say that they are in agreement with one another, we can count on them to speak and act accordingly. One has become a representative of the other and acts with the will of the other. Jesus acts with the will of the Father and that should bring joy to the believer and comfort to the unbeliever. For it is the will of the Father none shall perish, as it says in the most quoted verse in the Bible. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”