“I Am the Good Shepherd”
[John
10:11-21]
May 1, 2016 Second Reformed Church
Last week, we began to look at
Jesus’ use of the metaphor of a sheepfold.
We may remember that the sheepfold was a sanctuary – a protective
structure – for the flock of sheep. It
was a stone walled area of grass in a field with a door, and only one door, so
the sheep and anyone who entered or exited the sheepfold legitimately did so
through the door to the sheepfold. The
walls were not especially high, just high enough to keep the sheep in and to
make it difficult for predators – foxes, lions, bears – to enter and steal away
the sheep.
Jesus explained that He is the door
– He is the gate – to the sheepfold. In
other words, no one can enter salvation, the Kingdom, green pastures, unless
they come through Jesus Alone – through believing that He is God the Son and
Savior Who came to earth, lived and died and rose to make us right with God and
ascended back to the Right Hand of the Father where He reigns sovereign over
all.
Jesus explained that if you do not
believe that, you are not a Christian.
You are not saved. You are not
born again – born anew – born a second time.
You are not a sheep of the fold of God.
And if you do make your way into the fold, it is only as a thief or a
robber – you are honestly only there – pretending to be one of the sheep – to
steal and mislead and kill.
And Jesus pointed to those Pharisees
who stood before Him – unbelieving – during that occasion – as false shepherds
– false sheep – thieves and robbers – determined only to do evil. And we mentioned that there are plenty of
people in pulpits today who say they are preaching the Word of God, but they twist
it and use it to their own advantage and seek to make others likewise disciples
of the devil.
We continue with Jesus’ explanation
this morning, and we see, first, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
“I am the good shepherd. The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 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. He flees because he is
a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
Let us remember, as Jesus gives
these “I am” sayings that the ancient Jewish hearer would be directed to that
most holy name of God given by God to Moses to give to the people of Israel: “I
Am Who I Am.” As Jesus used this
expression, there is the purposeful implication that Jesus was saying that He
is the God of Moses – He is divine.
Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.” He is not merely the Shepherd; He is the Good
Shepherd. The word that is used for
“good” literally means, “beautiful.” “I
am the Beautiful Shepherd.” The
implication is that Jesus is not just any shepherd, but He is the most
excellent shepherd in existence. If you
want to know what it looks like to be the perfect shepherd, that is Jesus. There is no more excellent incarnation of the
shepherd. There is no more perfect exemplar
of the shepherd. Jesus is the Shepherd
par excellence!
And here is a reason why: Jesus was willing to lay down His life for
the sheep.
The shepherd of the sheep is called to
protect the sheep – to keep them safe as they travelled rfrm place to place,
using his staff to lead them away from danger and using his rod to fight off
bears and lions and other predators – even human thieves.
When David was a young man, he said
to King Saul – arguing that he be allowed to stand before Goliath in
battle:
“But David said to Saul, ‘Your
servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a
bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and
delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his
beard and struck him and killed him’” (1 Samuel 17:34-35, ESV).
The shepherd is alert and willing to
fight with all of his strength and skill to preserve the lives of the sheep –
even to the end of his being mauled or killed.
Not so with the hirelings. Not so with those who have taken on jobs to
assist the Shepherd. Not so the under
shepherds – those who are given to watch over smaller sections of large
flocks. If death is upon them, they will
sacrifice the sheep and run to save their own lives.
The hired hands do not care for the
sheep. They do not have the same
investment in the sheep that the Shepherd does.
We can think of employees today, who, when faced with a tremendous task
– or, perhaps, not even that big a task, respond, “You don’t pay me enough for
that.”
Now, that is not to say that the
hired hands are thieves and robbers – they may be – but they may also just be
doing the work of a shepherd for the paycheck.
The point is that no one rises to
the excellency of the Good Shepherd, because only He is willing to lay down His
life for the sake of the sheep. Only He
cares for them so much – as we saw last week – He knows each one of them by
name and they know Him and His voice and do not confuse Him with another – His
care – His love – His protection – of the sheep is to His death.
And that is what Jesus has done for
us – His sheep, is it not?
Not only is Jesus the only One Who
is able to provide salvation for us – and righteousness and eternal security
and abundant life – He is the only One Who would be willing to die for us. He is our Good Shepherd. He is our Excellent Shepherd. He is the One Who cares for us for His sake
and His glory – that He would be shown to be the most glorious Shepherd and
Savior.
Paul wrote, “For while we were still
weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die
for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to
die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much
more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that
we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also
rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation” (Romans 5:6-11, ESV).
Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
Second, Jesus knows His sheep with
the same type of intimacy that the Father and the Son know each other.
“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and
my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay
down my life for the sheep. 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.”
Before the Creation, God is. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have
eternally been and will eternally be.
They are perfectly in communion and in love with One Another, One God
without end.
The Father knows the Son and the Son the
Father and the Father the Spirit and the Spirit the Father and the Son the
Spirit and the Spirit the Son in the deepest and most intimate way – it is not
possible for God to know God better than God does. And it is an intimate knowledge of perfect
love for Each Other.
And Jesus said that with the same type of
intimacy and love that the members of the Godhead love Each Other and know Each
Other – with that same type of intimacy, Jesus knows His sheep and we know
Him.
Jesus knows us as intimately as
possible. He knows everything about us,
and He loves us with an everlasting love because His Father gave us to Him as a
people for His Own, a flock for His Own leading.
And we know Jesus, through the
intercession of God in us that changed out our heart and caused us to believe
savingly in Jesus – we know our God and Savior and we love our God and
Savior. But it is yet an imperfect
knowledge and love, because we still sin, and it is a finite knowledge, because
we are not God and we shall never be God – there is a limit to our
understanding.
But, the day will come when we shall be
glorified, and we will no longer be able to sin, and that will open new vistas
of knowledge and love for us. Yet, we
will still be finite. We will still be
human.
As we saw in our study Thursday night, one
of the glories that we will participate in in the Kingdom is that we will be
before Jesus in worship and joy for all of eternity, and as we are there with
Him, we shall continue to mature in our love and in our knowledge of Him. Our knowledge and understanding and love will
continue to grow in the Kingdom for all of eternity. The love and the joy and the intimacy will
only continue to grow from that day and for evermore.
And Jesus, our Good Shepherd, lay down His
life for us.
Jesus spoke to the crowd before Him –
telling them that He was laying His life down for His flock – and they would
have rightly understood Him to mean all those believing Jews. All those who believe and received the
promised made to Abraham and his descendants.
Paul wrote, “They are Israelites, and to
them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the
worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race,
according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever.
Amen” (Romans 9:4-5, ESV).
God chose the Jews to be His people – to
witness Him before all the nations – to receive God’s Word – and to be the line
through which God gave His Son for all those that God gave to Him for His
people.
But – and this was a shock to some –
though it ought not to have been – although salvation was to the Jews first, it
was also to the Gentiles – the non-Jews – all the nations of the world. Just as God promised to Abraham that all the
nations of the world would be blessed through his descendants.
Jesus told them there is another sheep
fold. The believing Jews are one
sheepfold, and the believing Gentiles are another sheepfold. And through Jesus’ work, He was going to
bring these two sheepfolds together into one sheepfold of all the sheep that
hear His voice – who believe in Him savingly – for He is the One Good Shepherd.
As Paul wrote, “There is one body and one
Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6, ESV).
No matter what background or culture or
religion or race or whatever we came from – we are one in Christ, one as the
Church, one in the sheepfold, one people, with One Good Shepherd, the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And, third, the Father loves the Son for what
He has done.
“For this reason the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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.”
Now, the Father loves the Son for
many reasons – even that They are the same One God – but a specific reason that
the Father loves the Son is that the Son – as the Good Shepherd – lay down His life
for the sheep. Jesus died for everyone
who would ever believe.
And Jesus lay down His life because
He chose to do so and because He had the authority to do so. He had the authority to lay down His life and
to rise from the dead – as the Holy God-Man – He lived a perfect life which He
credits to everyone who believes, and He allowed our sin to be credited to Him,
and He paid the debt for our sin. So we
are sinless and holy in the eyes of God and we will be made so at the end of
the age.
And again, we note that the Son does
the will of the Father in all things:
Jesus chose to lay His life down and take it up again. Jesus had the authority to lay His life down
and take it up again. And the Father’s
will was that Jesus would lay His life down and take it up again.
Peter explained it this way: “Men of
Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with
mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as
you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God
raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him
to be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24, ESV).
Jesus was delivered up and killed
and raised from the dead according to the will and the plan of God. And God used Jews and Gentiles to accomplish
that work. And the Father loves the Son
for doing this.
Do you love the Good Shepherd? Do you love Jesus? Do you love Him Who loved us first and keeps
us safe and provides for our needs and leads us into eternal and abundant life
and security and green pastures forever and ever?
Do you see Him here:
“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall
not want. [We shall have all we need.]
“He makes me lie down in
green pastures. [In the sheepfold and in
the field.]
“He leads me beside still waters.
“He restores my soul.
“He leads me in paths of
righteousness
“for his name's sake. [He does all these things that we would
glorify Him and know Him and love Him.]
“Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
“I
will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
“your rod and your
staff,
“they comfort me. [We are not afraid of thieves or robbers or
lions or bears or other predators, because we know the Good Shepherd, we
recognize His voice and follow Him, and He lifts up His staff to lead us and
His rod to protect us – even to the point of dying for our sake.]
“You prepare a table
before me
“in the presence of my
enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
“my cup overflows.
“Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me
“all the days of my
life,
and I shall dwell in the house of
the LORD
“forever.” [Our Good Shepherd blesses us with blessings
beyond blessings – and though we are in the midst of our enemies, we have
nothing to fear because He is our Good Shepherd, goodness shall follow us into
the Kingdom, mercy shall follow us into the Kingdom, we shall dwell in the
House of the Lord – with our Good Shepherd – the Almighty God knows your name
and my name and died for us and for our salvation. May He ever be praised. May we ever enjoy Him now and in the Kingdom
forever and ever as we bask in His Glorious Presence and know Him all the more
each moment.]
But what of the crowd that day?
“There was again a division among
the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, ‘He has a demon, and is
insane; why listen to him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who is
oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”
Most of them responded by lashing
out: “He’s God the Good Shepherd? He
loves us and will die for us and bring us into everlasting communion with
Him? He has the authority to live and
die and rise again? Now you see: He is demon possessed! He is insane!”
But some of them wondered: “This
doesn’t sound like a demon possessed man – it sounds more like what God told us
in the Law and the Prophets. Besides,
does a demon have the authority to open the eyes of a man born blind?”
Who has that kind of authority?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for
sending Your Son to be our Good Shepherd.
We thank You that He chose to receive the people You gave Him and that
He was willing and had the authority to live and die for us and to Your
Glory. We thank You that He is the
perfect, beautiful, most excellent Shepherd, Who You love. Send the Holy Spirit that when we hear all
the voices calling out for our attention, we would clearly and quickly recognize
the voice of Jesus and hear Him and follow Him and obey Him in all that He has
called us to do and be – for we can trust Him – He loves us – and we are His
sheep. And we ask these things in Jesus’
Name, Amen.
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