Are you scared today? Are you hurting? Perhaps you’re struggling with addictions or bad habits. Maybe you’re stuck in an abusive relationship. Maybe you’re worried about your health, or the health of someone you love. Or maybe, as you look at the chaos careening through our culture, you’re just anxious about how things will turn out in the future. Maybe you feel just as terrified and helpless as a sheep hunted by the wolves Jesus mentions in John 10:12.

Well, the cross and the empty tomb prove there is a good shepherd who can protect us from our worst fears. His crucifixion proves what Jesus says in John 10:12-13 – that He didn’t take on human flesh and come into our world for what He could get out of it. He is no corrupt politician or greedy conqueror – no, He came not to receive a crown but a cross, not to receive power and glory, but to give us all that He is and all that He has.

And Jesus calls to everyone, no matter who we are, no matter what we’ve done. In verse 16, He points out that His call extends not just to the Jewish people who lived in the first century A.D., but to people from other cultures, all over the world, regardless of time or space. His sacrifice is sufficient to pay for the sins of everyone Who has ever lived.

Yes, Jesus loves sinners like you and me enough to lay down His life for us (10:15). But the reason we know we can trust Him is because He took up His life again (10:18), rising from the grave after His crucifixion. Because He is risen, we know He is still our good shepherd, guiding us every day of our lives, making one flock of all who look to Him as Savior and Lord.

Do you know Him today? Will you listen to His voice? Will you trust the One Who loves you so much?

John 10:1-21 (ESV)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?”
21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”