John 10:4

THE SHEEP AND THE SHEPHERD

‘He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.’

John 10:4 (R.V.)

That is a parable, and a very beautiful one. For in our text Christ drew His own Portrait and the portraits of His sheep too.

I. They follow Him.—Of course, this means self-denial. It is the way of the Cross. So the Master said, ‘Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’ (Mark 8:34). ‘True, all our lives long,’ as Miss Rossetti says, ‘we shall be bound to refrain our soul, and keep it low: but what then? For the books we now forbear to read, we shall one day be endued with wisdom and knowledge. For the music we will not listen to, we shall join the song of the redeemed. For the pictures from which we turn, we shall gaze unabashed on the Beatific Vision. For the companionship we shun, we shall be welcomed into angelic society, and the communion of triumphant saints. For the amusements we avoid, we shall keep the supreme jubilee. For all the pleasure we miss, we shall abide, and for evermore abide, in the rapture of heaven.’

II. They know His Voice.—Our Saviour had said that dead souls should hear His Voice and live: ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live’ (John 5:25). He not simply foresaw, but He purposed that His sheep should hear His Voice and be saved, for ‘Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold (that is, not Jews): them also I must bring, and they shall hear My Voice; and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd’ (John 10:16). So Jesus speaks, and their ears are opened to hear. And where does He speak? In the Bible. Hence the necessity of reading and meditating upon the Holy Scriptures.

III. At last the hill is climbed, and what then?—‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour’ (John 12:26). And ‘That first sight of the Lord, O what will it be?’

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘ “It fell to my lot,” says Dr. James Stalker, “to look over the papers of a deceased friend. As all who have had the same duty to perform must know, it is a pathetic task. There is a haunting sense of desecration in rifling the secrets kept hidden during life and learning exactly what the man was beneath the surface.… When I opened his Bible especially, it told an unmistakable story; for the marks of long and diligent use were visible on every page—the leaves were well worn, the choice texts underlined, short breathings of the heart noted on the margins. In some parts the marks of use were peculiarly frequent. This was the case especially with Psalms, Isaiah, and Hosea in the Old Testament, and the writings of John in the New. I now knew the reality of the life that was ended, and whence its virtues had sprung.… I copied from the flyleaf of my friend’s Bible a few words which perhaps explain the source of true love to the Word: ‘Oh, to come nearer to Christ, nearer to God, nearer to holiness! Every day to live more completely in Him, by Him, for and with Him. There is a Christ; shall I be Christless? A cleansing; shall I remain foul? A Father’s love; shall I be an alien? A heaven; shall I be cast out?’ ” ’

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE GUIDING SHEPHERD

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, calls His sheep to Himself with a personal call, and leads those who answer to His call to live under His care. Once and for all He ‘puts them forth,’ constraining them by His Holy Spirit to yield themselves to His obedience.

I. Our Lord leads us forth into the common life of men.—He leads us to its home life, to its life of love, to its life of social intercourse, to its life of politics. He calls on us to taste alike its sorrows and its joys. We are, it is true, to be a separated people, but we are not to be a people separated with the separation of those who, like the Baptist, ‘come not eating and drinking.’ We are separated with the separation of those who, following Christ whilst they come eating and drinking, are yet ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.’ We are called to be in the world whilst we are forbidden to be of it. So only can the Church act on the world as its salt, its light, its leaven. In the world, but not of it.

II. Each of us is conscious of his need of a guide as he goes through life.—Ignorance, impetuosity, discouragement so often possess us, and they are each of them causes of peril. We need a guide who is wise with the wisdom of a like experience, who will restrain us with firmness, and encourage us with sympathy. This need Jesus meets as He reveals Himself to us as the director of His people. He is at once wise, strong, and tender. When He came to call His own out of Jewry and Heathendom He went before them in the way of life He would have them tread. From the cradle to the grave He went before, and His people, generation after generation, follow Him in every stage of life’s journey, treading in His steps. In every sphere of life, in the home, in the shop, in the world, in the House of God, in the crowded city, in the still seclusion of the country, on the sea, by the well side, in the garden, on the mountain top His footprints are visible to the eye of faith. Wherever we are Jesus has gone before.

—Canon Body.