John 10:1-10
Fourth Sunday of Easter Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, April 26, 2026 “Know the Voice of Your Shepherd”
Is it ever good to be called a sheep? Every year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter, our Church Year invites us to consider how Jesus is our Good Shepherd. And that implies, of course, that we are his sheep. It definitely is a good thing to be a sheep of the Good Shepherd. King David, centuries before Jesus walked this earth, wrote a beautiful poem, a Psalm inspired in him by the Holy Spirit. “The Lord is my Shepherd,” he gladly proclaimed. “I lack nothing. Green pastures…quiet waters…goodness and love chasing after me…the house of the Lord as my eternal dwelling.” There is nothing bad about being the Lord’s sheep and having him as a Good shepherd.
But outside of the context of this Sunday of the Church Year, or our worship services in general, is it ever a good thing to be called a sheep? People refer to others as sheep when they feel like those people are blindly following some mistaken idea. I’m not sure I see or hear that claim made anywhere more frequently than in political discussions. One side says only sheep follow our current President. They don’t think for themselves. They don’t differentiate about right and wrong and good and bad. They just go along. That’s what makes them sheep. And those whose opinions line up on the other side of the political spectrum are just as convinced that the people who disagree with them politically are sheep, blindly following ideas without any real critical thought. None of this paints a very good picture of sheep, does it?
When Jesus talks about sheep, his sheep, in John 10, his portrayal seems much more favorable. These sheep do discern certain things. These sheep are wary of danger and are relieved and comforted when they have the leadership of someone they trust. If you or I had been on the road with Jesus when he spoke these words, we would have had a much better understanding of sheep and shepherds. We would have had neighbors who were shepherds. We would have walked past herds of sheep on our way through the countryside. We would have seen sheep pens and maybe even seen some of the situations described by Jesus play out. In spite of our relative ignorance of these things a couple thousand years later, we can still appreciate the clear direction that Jesus gives us. He calls on you to know the voice of your shepherd.
Jesus does so because he wants us to be able to recognize danger. When Jesus describe his hypothetical sheep pen to us, he also talks about the people who try to sneak in by ways other than the main entrance, climbing in by some way other than the door. Why would anyone do this? He’s a thief. He’s a robber. He has bad intentions as it regards the sheep and the flock. After all, thieves steal and kill and destroy.
So when the shepherd comes, he not only goes in and out by the main door, the main gate, he is also recognized by his sheep. They know the sound of his voice. They listen to him and follow him. And that is different from anyone else. They recognize when someone is trying to fool or mislead them. When someone else is trying to behave as their shepherd, the sheep run away. They don’t know him. They don’t trust him.
And all of this is to the benefit of the sheep. They should be running away from the one who wants to cause harm. They should be listening to their own shepherd and not to someone else. They should be avoiding danger. And that is right in line with the important point that Jesus is making here. He wants his sheep to understand that there are dangers around them. He wants them to understand that his sheep need to listen to his voice in order to avoid these dangers.
That may not be obvious to everyone. Jesus speaks these words just after a disagreement with the Pharisees. Jesus had healed a blind man. The man could see again, but the Pharisees were concerned about what this meant. They argued with the formerly blind man about who Jesus was. They argued that Jesus was wrong to do what he had on the Sabbath day. They heard Jesus claim that he had come to give sight to the blind and to make blind those who see. They objected to this claim, because they rightly believed that Jesus was preaching against them, that he was calling them blind.
So the leaders, the Pharisees, the people in charge of the worship life and moral life of the Israelite people, were opposing Jesus. That is as dangerous to the followers of Jesus as anything gets. That’s why Jesus wants his sheep to be on guard against danger. It could come from places they least expect it. It could come from those who act outwardly as shepherds. The right response for them is to run away and not to listen.
Recognize, realize, that there are all sorts of messages that bombard you every day. Our phones and our computers deliver messages to us from all over. We don’t even need to be close enough to have contact with someone in order to hear their opinions and teachings and directions. And we can’t simply say, “That seems good.” We can’t rely on someone’s reputation to guarantee their words. We have to compare them to the voice of our Shepherd, the voice of our Savior. Anything else will lead us astray. Anything else will be dangerous. It will be destructive. It will hurt and steal and kill. Run away.
Jesus doesn’t only protect you from danger, though. He doesn’t just oppose false teaching. He gives you, he gives his sheep, something wonderful and valuable and useful and beautiful. This is what he says: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” So even though so many people who first heard Jesus didn’t understand what he was saying and warning about, we can appreciate it. The danger of anything other than the voice of Jesus was that it would take the sheep away from Jesus.
Jesus goes on to refer to himself as the gate, the door. He is the defining feature of how sheep relate to their shepherd. True shepherds enter through the door. They come into that position only through Jesus. They recognize that he has lived and died and risen for the sheep. He gives them life in every way. He allows them to live for God now and to live with God forever. He’s already mentioned the thieves and robbers who enter by some other way. Anyone who does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior and any philosophy or teaching that does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior cannot be good and useful and productive. It is dangerous. It threatens to draw sheep away. It threatens to kill and harm. Only Jesus is the way. Whoever enters through him, through faith, whoever trusts in him is saved.
This is the reality of the life Jesus promises. It is life forever, and that changes lives now. Those who live in Jesus, those who have him as their own Good Shepherd, have a sure hope. They have a Shepherd who lived and died and rose and promises to bring them through death to life with him. And that means that their lives right now have new meaning and fulness. They have a purpose to share Jesus with others. They have a goal of serving and caring for and loving others. They have a perspective about the inevitable suffering that appears in this life. They listen to and love the voice of their Good Shepherd.
There are some implications of Jesus’ words at the start of John chapter 10. Jesus wants his sheep to hear and recognize his voice, and he wants them to notice the difference between his voice and any imposters. The implication is that we spend time listening to his voice. We get to know the sweet sound of it. We think about how it differs from so many outside noises. This means time with our Bibles. That’s how we hear our Savior’s voice. He’s not in the thoughts that come to us or the signs we hope to see in our daily interactions. His voice is right where he invites us to listen to it, in his holy Scriptures. And his voice is strikingly different at times from the political and social and societal voices that are sometimes so loud that we can’t hear anything else. And they are sometimes so deceptive that they worm their way into our thinking. “You can have whatever you want. You can do whatever you want, You can be whatever you want.” These voices are dangerous. They are destructive. There is only one Good Shepherd. Listen to him.
Is it ever good to be called a sheep? Jesus would have every right to point out how hopeless and helpless we are without him. He could compare us to sheep who wander aimlessly and carelessly, but in the first 10 verses of John 10, he doesn’t. He tells us of sheep who discern the voice of their shepherd from the voice of a stranger. That doesn’t sound so terrible, does it? Is it ever good to be called a sheep? It is when they are the sheep of the Good Shepherd. It is because they have life and have it abundantly. Listen to the voice of the one who gives it. Know the voice of your Good Shepherd.
The Text: John 10:1–10 (EHV)
10 “Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the door, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The doorkeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own sheep, he walks ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this illustration in speaking to the people, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
7So Jesus said again, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: I am the door for the sheep. 8All who came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
10“A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.