Jesus, the good shepherd, guarantees eternal security to His people, to His sheep. This comes to them as an eternal gift, with the promise of no condemnation and no separation, underwritten by the singular and supreme power of the triune God. If we belong to Christ, we have nothing to fear but to live courageously by faith in the Lord who has secured for us eternal salvation.

How does a person know that he/she belongs to Christ? How can we know with certainty that we are saved? Jesus answers this question in this passage of John. Jesus speaks pointedly about the character of His sheep, those who belong to Him who possess eternal life (v. 28). Jesus first contrasts these with those who refuse to trust Christ (vv. 25-26) and then positively speaks of His sheep as those who hear His voice, whom He knows, who follow Him (v. 27).

Jesus is our self-sacrificing shepherd whose motive for self-sacrifice is care and friendship toward His people and the commission He received from the Father. And according to that command of God, Jesus lays down His life (crucifixion) for the sheep so that He may take it up again (resurrection). He is our living Savior who is able to impart life and lead His people as their living and loyal shepherd. He is risen, He is risen indeed!

Jesus is our benevolent shepherd who seeks the good of His people. He is the seeker of the lost, the protector and benefactor of His sheep. As a shepherd puts His own body down as the door of the sheepfold and protects the sheep from predators, so the Lord guarantees salvation and life for His people.

Jesus is our rightful shepherd, and He has a voice that His people instinctively recognize. His voice communicates His personal knowledge of His people and His rightful leadership over His people. May the Lord enable us to see that He knows us personally and that there is no other shepherd for us other than the Lord Himself.

Spiritual blindness means delusion and detriment for those who are blind. The delusion (to be blind to one’s own blindness) is the pinnacle of foolishness and blindness has real consequences of sin. May the Lord open blind eyes among and around us and that no one would suffer the sting of death (which is sin) as a result.

In the first half of this sermon, Pastor Dan exhorts us to be true worshippers. What are we to do if our hearts are cold and apathetic? We listen to the wisdom of Christ who taught us that we work on our hearts by working on our actions. In John 9:39, we see that Christ came into the world to bring a clarifying binary separation between two clear cut spiritual categories: the blind vs. the sighted, the worshipper of Christ vs. the non-worshipper, the one who trusts Christ vs. the one who distrusts Christ. The Lord also came to bring about a binary effect as well: the opening of spiritual eyes and the blinding of spiritual eyes.