Fourth Sunday of Easter April 25-26, 2026
“Leader or Follower?” John 10:1-10
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Being a follower has a bad reputation. It is implied that if you are a follower, you don’t have a working brain, and you can’t think for yourself. Followers, many believe, don’t have a backbone.
My dad, dumbfounded by some of my choices as an adolescent, asked me, “If your friends walked off a cliff and fell to their death, would you just follow them?” (I’m still trying to reach a decision on that one – after all they are my friends.) My dad was pretty sure that I was making some poor decisions, and I had chosen the wrong people to follow.
Who would ever want to be a follower? Leaders, the ones who have that special way about them, who seem to have life solved, should be the ones we want to be. Are you a leader? Or, are you a follower?
Recently I have noticed the proliferation of “Caution: Student Driver” signs. Some of them are pretty humorous. “Caution: Student Driver. Terrified Parent.” “Student Driver: I Did Fine in the Driveway.” “Student Driver: Don’t Honk, It Makes Me Sad.” “I Put the Dent in Student Driver.” “Don’t Follow Me: I’m a Student Driver.”
Being a follower can be the most idiotic thing we could ever do in life. But, it all depends on whom you follow. Someone says to you: “Smoke this. It won’t hurt you.” “Drink this: everyone is doing it.” “Take this: you’ll never experience anything like this.” “Hey, let’s go to that party – I heard there will be a lot of action.” If you are a follower, you will find out sometime in your life that you followed the wrong person.
Jesus warned about being a follower listening the wrong voice. This is Good Shepherd Sunday. It is the day to take delight in the security of being under the Good Shepherd’s care. It is the day to know the voice of the Good Shepherd – Jesus. But it is also the day to understand that there are other voices that desire to talk to you, trick you and destroy you.
You know what scammers are, don’t you? They are the filth in this world who deceive you, play on you and try to get into your bank accounts, your retirement accounts, your checking accounts and take what is yours. They steal your personal information and do it in a kind and gentle way. What should you do when such leaches try to suck your blood dry? Hang up. Tell them where to go – but do it nicely, right?
Jesus speaks about two different voices who are leading the sheep. One is the voice of the shepherd; the other is the voice of the thief. “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (John 10:3-5)
If you are listening to the wrong voice, you are in trouble. The wrong voice will always lead you away from Jesus. It will lead you away from His ways. That voice will destroy you. Jesus making a contrast between the two voices, between the voice of the Good Shepherd and the voice of evil and the devil, says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
Are you a follower? I hope so. That is, I hope you are a follower of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. If you follow foolishness and sin and evil only bad will come. There is no good fruit in that. Only shame and regret. Galatians 6 gives us this warning, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” (Galatians 6:7-8) Jesus gave this warning, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate, and narrow the road the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
Be a follower. Of Jesus. That means that you look to Him for your salvation and forgiveness. Be a follower. Of Jesus. That means that your life is directed by Him and His word – the Bible. Be a follower. Of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
Do you know why we follow Jesus? Because His love for you is beyond compare. You are precious to Him. Your life is of great value to Him. Your good is His goal. Listen how Jesus describes Himself and His attachment to us. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:11-15)
Why should you follow Him? Why? Because He has pursued you. There is a lot of sheep and shepherd talk in the Bible. Some of it is about shepherds who fail to care for their people. Ezekiel 34 says to Israel’s shepherds, “You do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” (Verses 3-4)
But that is not our Shepherd. You follow Him because His heart wants to bring you the fullness of life. In the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7), Jesus says, “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.”
I read this quote this week, “We don’t just follow Him to the cross. We follow Him through the cross.” I think what they were saying is the truth that everything God wants to do for us in Jesus comes through the cross of His suffering for us. Listen to our reading for today with that “through the cross” idea: “Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.” (John 10:7-9)
Our Shepherd, Jesus says of His grip on us, “My sheep listen to me voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)
Are you a follower? I hope you are. You know His voice and you follow Him.
We can proudly say that Jesus Christ is our leader. We follow Him through the cross and the empty grave to the fullness of life upon earth and into our eternity. We have no one else who has captured our heart and soul. I hope we with a confident heart say, “I am a follower, and the one I follow is Jesus Christ.” Amen!!
