MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE

Jn:10:24-28: Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25: Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. 26: But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

          Often in Scripture Jesus is referred to as the Shepherd and Christians or God’s people are referred to as sheep. There is a very good reason for this and it is not because people are stupid. It is because people are limited.

          Christians must follow the Shepherd because they are limited by a number of things. First of all Christians start out as newborns. They mature slowly and are, in comparison to God, small children most of their lives. Some do make it to a maturity that qualifies them to be called adults, but never masters. The Lord alone is master.

          Second, Christians are limited because the world, the flesh, and the devil interfere with their learning process, succeeding on occasion in putting in false information, causing glitches in their learning process.

Third they need the Shepherd because He has earned the position as their leader.

          My point is that many think that God refers to people as sheep because they are stupid or dumb, but that‘s not it. He wants us to follow Him because He is so smart--He has it all. It is important that it be understood that God is not demeaning people and He does not want His people to feel dumb. God uses the sheep illustration because they are smart enough to or learn to follow their Shepherd.

          And Christians do need to follow Him. All sheep (Christians) who do not follow Jesus will end up in a pit, or will eat poison and perish, or will fall off the edge of the cliff, or be eaten by a wolf or bear. All of that must be applied spiritually, but those are the dangers and the reason Christians need to follow the Shepherd.

          This is really good news for those who are serious about being God’s children because all they have to do is follow Jesus, meaning all the decisions and head works are His and all they have to do is what He leads them to do. This is called resting in the Lord. It is a place of green pastures beside still waters.

          What does it mean to follow Jesus, the good Shepherd? It means His sheep do not serve mammon. They take heed what they hear. They are careful about the company they keep. They love their enemies and pray for those who despitefully use them. They reach out to others with love and truth. They and not entangled in the affairs of the world because Jesus said that those things would choke the Word. They put on the full armor of God and keep it on. They remember what they look like in the mirror of the Word and they behave accordingly. The list could go on and on, but hopefully the reader gets the idea.

          SHEEP FOLLOW THEIR SHEPHERD.