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April 27, 2003
Confirmation Sunday
John 10:27-28
Pastor Joel Zank

Listen To Your Shepherd's Voice!

(John 10:27-28) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

In the name of Jesus who gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart, dear fellow redeemed,

One of the great joys of being a pastor is the happiness that comes from sharing God's truth with his lambs and, then, watching as the Holy Spirit uses the power of that truth to shape and equip a new generation of Christians to lift high the Savior's cross and proclaim his saving name to all the world. Today I invite each of you to share in this joy as we here at Mount Olive prepare to hear twenty-three of our sons and daughters make their good confession of faith and join us as communicant members of our congregation.

But while I'm asking you to share in my joy, I would also ask you to join me in the responsibility that goes with it, a responsibility that falls to all of us Christians to encourage our young people in their faith, even as the Scripture calls on us to constantly encourage one another in our walk with Jesus. Having said so, I hope you will agree that there is no better encouragement to offer than that which comes from the Good Shepherd himself-a word that he speaks to our confirmands today as well as to all of us who are celebrating some anniversary of our confirmation. So on the basis of our Savior's words, I urge all of you, LISTEN TO YOUR SHEPHERD'S VOICE 1) because his Word gives you life; 2) because his Word keeps you safe.

On the day of our Confirmation, we promise that we will be faithful followers of our God. But what exactly does that mean? What does one of God's faithful followers look like? How does he act? What does she do? Is it up to us to determine these things? Should we be the ones to define what faithful means? No, that's not our job; that's for God to do and he has done it. He spells it out for us right here in his Word. Jesus says, "My sheep listen to my voice-they follow me" (John 10:27a). Jesus describes those who follow him as sheep who are always listening to him. That sounds like the same thing Luther wrote in his explanation to the Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.

"My sheep listen to my voice." What else is Jesus saying except that his sheep are thrilled to be here in worship every week so that they can hear what he has to say to them. His sheep are always studying the Scriptures for themselves at home and with their fellow Christians at church because they love God's Word and regard it as the most important thing in their lives. And, then, when Jesus' sheep have heard his words, they always go out and live by them because that's part of listening isn't it?-that's part of following Jesus. What parent hasn't told his or her child to do something knowing very well that the child heard every word but chose to do just the opposite anyway? Doesn't that parent say, "You're not listening to me!"? Jesus tells us today that you will always be able to spot one of his sheep; his are the sheep who hear his word and obey it day in and day out.

Would you say that Jesus is describing you? Does he find you here in worship every week? And if so, does he find you hanging on his every word, listening to it gladly? As he spends time with you during the course of the week, does he see you paging through your Bibles and, then, putting his words into practice, loving one another, forgiving each other, doing all that he says in his Word? Or have you taken it upon yourself to redefine what it means to be one of Jesus' sheep? Have you decided that what Jesus really meant to say was, "My sheep listen to my voice once-in-a-while and they follow me when it's convenient for them."?

I doubt that any of us would really say such a thing, but I suppose we really don't have to. I'm afraid our actions speak louder than words. And I would have to be the first sheep to confess that my actions don't always mark me as a follower of Jesus. Is the same true of you? I would guess it is, because the Bible says that like me, you were born a sinner, and so like me, you're not beyond telling Jesus, '"I'm being the best sheep I can be. This is all the time I've got for your Word. This is all the interest I have in living it. Take it or leave it."

How frightening to discover that given that option, Jesus won't take it. He's not so hard up for sheep that he's looking for part-time followers. We learn that from the words just before our text. A group of men came to Jesus saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly" (John 10:24). Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe...because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice" (John 10:25-27). Jesus had told those men what he wanted them to believe and do, but they didn't listen and so Jesus said, "you are not my sheep." Sound familiar? All of us have given Jesus reason to say that same thing to us. So when he returns to judge us sinners we deserve to hear him say, "I never knew you. Away from me!" (Matthew 7:23). I don't ever want to hear Jesus say that to me or to you because spending eternity away from Jesus can only mean spending it in hell.

We don't want to wait till Judgment Day to start listening to the Lord's voice; we want to listen today. We want to bring our sins to him and tell him, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6a) instead of following you Jesus. Please, have mercy on us. Please don't send us away." Do you know what Jesus says to that? Listen to your Shepherd's Voice! He's already spoken right here in his Word. We've been sinful, lousy sheep, but still he refers to us as his sheep. He hasn't disowned or turned us way, saying I never knew them. Instead he says of us, "I know them." And so he does. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. The Prophet Isaiah tells us why when he reports: "But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, he who formed you: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine'" (Isaiah 43:1).

Jesus knows us so well because first of all he made us, and secondly because he actually took our place under God's punishment. We went astray, but God "...laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6b). You get to know people pretty well when you get nailed with their sin. That's what happened to Jesus on Good Friday. He got blamed for every time we've skipped church for no better reason than we wanted to be somewhere else. He was charged for all the times we came to church but thought his Word was boring. Jesus was the one found guilty for all the times we've ignored his Word and disobeyed his will. So he knows us very well, but best of all, he knows what he's done for us. He knows that he has redeemed us; he's bought us back from our sin, spilling his own blood on the cross to ransom us from hell. That's why we're his, not because of anything we've done, but because in love we don't deserve, he was willing to buy us at the cost of his own suffering in hell. And now, with the kindest, most loving voice imaginable he speaks to us through the gospel and shares all that his life and death and resurrection mean for us as often as he says, "I forgive you." These are the three words Jesus has in mind when he says to us in John 6:63: "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." Without Jesus' blood-bought forgiveness all that is ahead of us is unending pain-eternal death. But with his forgiveness we will live forever, never having to fear or face the punishment we deserve. Our happy future is guaranteed by Jesus himself who says of all his sheep, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish" (John 10:28a).

That sounds great doesn't it? We certainly have reason to be happy today that Jesus has given us life never-ending as a free gift. But it seems that the bulk of our happiness won't come to us until we get to heaven. What if we never make it that far? What if something comes along in life and steals us away from Jesus? We will lose all that he has won for us. Don't worry. I have good news for you; Jesus has taken care of that problem too! Listen to your Shepherd's voice because his Word not only gives you life, his Word also keeps you safe!

Safety means a lot to sheep. They are such defenseless animals. They have no claws or fangs with which to fight off predators. Left to ourselves, we Christians would be equally defenseless and in great trouble. For we have enemies who would like nothing more than to destroy us. The Apostle Peter reminds us, "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Satan hates us because he hates God. So he will stop at nothing to tear us away from Jesus. He will try to get at us through the people around us, using people we think of as friends to tempt us to sin, and using strangers to try to make the Bible's teachings seem foolish to us and outdated. How will we stay strong against such enemies? We won't if we rely on our own strength and energy to defend ourselves because our enemies are stronger than we are. They will wear us down until we fall from the faith no matter how young and powerful we are. The Prophet Isaiah warns, "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall" (Isaiah 40:30).

There have been way too many confirmands who've decided they have all that they need to protect themselves from danger. They go along for a while on the strength of what they've learned from the Bible in the past without bothering to stay in touch with Jesus from day to day. They get too busy, too successful, too tired, too restless, too much in love to find time to keep listening to what Jesus has to say, so before you know it, their faith runs out. They may not even realize it because they manage to keep a certain amount of head knowledge about Jesus, but sadly they no longer believe a word of it. That's all fine with Satan. He doesn't care if they keep a head full of facts from the Bible as long as he can have their heart and soul. It's the saddest thing you every wanted to see-all those former Christians walking around as the living dead-spiritual corpses, decaying from the inside out.

Will that happen to us? It doesn't have to because we have a Shepherd who is strong enough and loving enough to keep us safe forever. He has more power in his little finger than all our enemies put together, so he's not exaggerating one bit when he says of his sheep, "no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28b). Jesus protects us by the power of his Word, the same Word that gives us life. By that Word he feeds our faith. By that Word he trains our eyes to spot the danger of sin; and he trains our ears to detect the damning sound of false teaching. His voice calls to us through his gospel: "Stay right here by me and you will always be safe."

So here's what your Confirmation Day is all about-on this day you publicly profess the power of God's Word and your complete and lifelong dependence on it. You make no promise today to stay strong on our own; instead you confess your complete helplessness and pledge to keep listening to the only voice that can save you-the voice of your Good Shepherd Jesus; and even as you make this promise you need to count on Jesus alone for the strength you need to keep it or you will still ruin everything. So, please, listen to your Shepherd's voice and keep listening day after day, week after week, year after year, until finally we're standing together at our Savior's right hand to hear him say, "Welcome home." In the meantime, may God keep you all as his people, the sheep of his pasture, for the sake of Jesus our Shepherd who laid down his life for us sheep. Amen.