Christ saves His sheep by dying in their place, to cleanse them of all unrighteousness, and He promises them everlasting life.
There are some differences between Christ's flock and the flock of God described in the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, God describes His sheep as being driven away, starved, hurt, ill, fearful, and betrayed by the leaders of Israel, but God promises good things for them.
The sheep of the Old Testament are described as the passive recipients of God's kindness to His flock. The promises are physical and temporal.
But not so Christ's sheep! His flock is very differently described.
Christ's sheep hear His voice, and know His voice. Christ's sheep follow after Him.
Better still, Jesus' sheep trust in their Good Shepherd!
Jesus is very clear as to why this is so. Christ's sheep trust in Him, because God His Father gave them to Jesus! The faith of Christ's sheep follows as a consequence of their being given specifically to the Good Shepherd by His Father.
The wicked do not trust in Jesus, He declared, because they are not His sheep, because the Father never gave them to Him for safekeeping.
Indeed, rebellious Israel did not want to follow the Good Shepherd. Instead, they wanted all the benefits of being Christ's sheep without the change of heart that Jesus describes as inevitable for His sheep.
Those who are not Christ's sheep want the benefits of being in the fold without hearing the Shepherd, trusting in the Shepherd, or following after the Shepherd.
Christ does not place a duty upon His sheep to hear and follow Him. Rather, He describes such behavior as the consequence of their being given to Him by God.
SERMON ACTIVITY
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
