Easter 4 - How Do You Know?

22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.30 The Father and I are one.”

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Knowing enough to Question

How do you share your faith?

In the last few weeks, we have read the stories about Jesus sending out disciples in ministry after His resurrection and some of the struggles they had in getting around to doing that work. Thomas didn't want to believe it was really Jesus. Peter wanted to find easier, more familiar work to do than the tasks that Jesus had given them, and some of the other disciples followed his lead. They would both change their minds and change the lives of thousands of others around them by sharing their faith in Jesus and raising up new disciples.

So how about you? When you get past your fear and doubt and are willing to bring your faith out of hiding, how do you share it?

Jesus warned, promised, and demonstrated in His own life that sharing our faith will present challenges, even after we overcome our own anxieties. Not everyone will be willing to receive what we have to share. The challenges we face could be as numerous as the people we meet, which makes us want to crawl right back into our shells and build a life for ourselves with strong walls to keep the world out, preferably on our own private island where only small group of friends can find us. The reality is not that scary though.

People do not need a custom-made gospel or a custom-made Savior. In fact, those don’t really work anyway. Everyone in your life: from the strangers you see at the gas station on vacation to the children you have in your own family needs the exact same gospel and the exact same Jesus that you do.

Our passage today is one of several “Shepherd Teachings” that Jesus gave in the gospels. Some of these, when taken by themselves, have been interpreted and taught as though Jesus does all the work of making disciples and we don’t even have any input ourselves on whether we follow Him or not. If you read just a few verses by themselves, I can see why some people would think that. However, when you read the whole gospel, the whole New Testament, and the Whole Bible, it is very clear that we all have input in our own discipleship, and the ability and responsibility to make them with God’s direction and help. These Shepherd Teachings help us be encouraged to face those challenges because we recognize that we are not alone in the work. As we share our faith, Jesus draws and holds us all close to Him.

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You All Do Not Believe

The gospels teach us over and over again that the people who should have recognized Jesus did not, while those who had a lot less education and experience did. If God's plan was no more elaborate than dropping Jesus down on earth to see what might happen, it would make no sense why fishermen followed Him and Pharisees did not.

Our passage identifies the questioners as "Jews", which could mean anyone of Jewish heritage. We don't know if they were leaders or teachers. They could have been rich or poor. What we do know is that they came to Jesus looking for some specific answers. They wanted Him to say the right words. Indeed, their opening words to Jesus could be translated, "How long will you leave us hanging? Are you the messiah or not?"

These are people who know God. They are also people who know Jesus. Jews didn't walk up to strangers and ask if they were the messiah. That would not have been a thought in their minds unless they had already seen or heard some proof. There is hope and longing in their question that gives them away. The questions we fear the most, the big scholarly proofs of God's existence will not be brought to us by those far from God. They will come from those who know enough already. When people ask us why a good God allows bad things to happen, it is because they know enough about God to know that He is supposed to be good all the time, without fail. These are questions of those whose heads are willing but who will not commit, and we get nervous about those questions because sometimes we have them too.

Jesus responded to those questions explaining that He already answered them, but they chose not to believe Him. They were asking the same questions to Jesus over and over expecting to get a different answer… no, expecting to get the answer they wanted to hear. Jesus did not change His message or His purpose according to the wishes, desires, or perceived needs of those around Him. He led people back into a relationship with His Heavenly Father, in a world where everyone had fallen away.

When you and I have opportunities to share our faith with other people, we face the same challenge as Jesus. I cannot count the number of times I walked into a hospital room or had someone introduce me as a pastor and people around me started pouring out excuses as to why they haven’t been to this church or that church, and don’t you think it’s all man-made laws anyway and God just wants us to be good people. Before I can get a word out, they expose their spiritual conviction like they have an allergic reaction… and I’m not judging them. Now, the excuses, I will judge. It is not biblical to just be good people, and even if it was, who can claim to be truly good. We all fall short, which is why we have to follow Jesus according to His rules, not our own. It is not that the truth hurts or that it will cause terrible disruption in our lives, it is that we are afraid it might. We, yes we (not just those we see that think don’t know Jesus), we too are afraid of what Jesus might ask of us.

I knew a young grandmother who told me once that she took her children to church so that they would know Jesus and go to heaven, but would keep them home anytime mission work or sharing your faith came up because she was terrified that God might call her kids to become missionaries, and she would lose them. Her fear kept herself and her family away from serving God and sharing their faith for many years. What would Jesus tell her, tell us, in our questions?

“I’ve already told you. Follow me.”

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My Sheep Follow Me

“My sheep hear my voice and they follow me.”

We can and do choose to be part of Jesus’ flock of sheep. He said He came into the world to find sheep that were not part of this flock as well, in order to make them one. They would have understood that a shepherd can have sheep that are not right there in front of them. A shepherd can have sheep that are lost. The location of the sheep does not necessarily change who the sheep belongs to. But it does determine whether you are in the flock and sheepfold. It determines what kind of care you have access to. And it determines whether or not you are safe.

We all were created by God and ultimately belong to Him. Those who walk with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, can experience the joy of family in His name and under His care. We enter the flock when Jesus rescues us and brings us there and we stay in the flock by following Him.

We, the sheep of Jesus, hear His voice, know His voice, and follow Him, even if our wool gets in our eyes or the clouds cover the sunlight and we cannot see. We encourage one another when we get confused - and that is the point that most of us and most of the people we encounter will be.

I am not suggesting that everyone in our community is a disciple of Jesus… far from it. I’m not going to claim that for everyone in the room here today. What I am suggesting is the people you meet will have already heard about Jesus, and many may have even experienced Jesus, but at some point, they stopped following. The things they need to hear to draw them back to following Jesus are the very same things you and I need to hear to keep us all following Jesus today.

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The Lord is My Shepherd

We all need the same Jesus. We all need the same gospel. We all need to follow the Good Shepherd.

We read Psalm 23 together this morning. How many of you know that by heart? How many of you taught your children to know it by heart? I’m not good at memorizing anything, but that is one of the easier prayers to learn, and it reminds us what it means to follow Jesus. It reminds us, as Jesus taught, that He won’t let us go. We may try to run off, we may get away from the flock, but Jesus will continue to pursue us because He wants us to be with Him.

Take a moment to think back to the book of Genesis. Adam and Eve walked with God, as His flock. They sinned and were cast out of the Garden and God sent an angel to prevent them from coming back and eating from the tree of life. One angel guarding one tree. Adam and Eve never went back. It would be 10 generations before Noah and while Enoch and Methuselah may have followed God, no one else is mentioned in scripture and the civilization got bad enough that God sent the flood. It would be nearly another 10 generations before Abram started following God. When parents don’t go back to the flock and follow God, their descendants usually don’t either. When we don’t share our faith, those around us get lost. When we try to look and stay busy, but we are not actually following Jesus, going where He goes and doing as we see Him doing, we get stuck, and then lost from the flock ourselves.

The sheep cannot see and do not know where the Shepherd leads them. But they know the love of the Shepherd and follow because they trust Him.

Do you?

What was the last way Jesus asked you to follow Him?

Did you do it?

Are you still doing it?

Are you still following Him, or have you stopped while you wait for different directions?

That is the place where you will find almost every person, every age, in almost every situation out there, and when you remember what it means for you to follow the Good Shepherd, you will have exactly what you need to start sharing your faith with those around you.

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