title="English

The Good Shepherd

John 10:1-6, 11-18

Throughout Christmas season, churches all over the world are asking two basic questions: 1) Who was Jesus? 2) Why did he come to the world? Here at LAC, we’ve been letting Jesus answer those questions personally as we’ve looked at a number of his “I Am” statements found in the Gospel of John. Today, we come to Jesus’s declaration that “I am the good shepherd”. This is both the most personal and the most practical self-description that Jesus gives us.

• Most personal – In other places he says, “I am the light, the bread, the vine, and the way.” But here he describes himself in terms of a personal relationship, i.e., one who leads, cares and guides.
• Most practical – A shepherd is one who does life every day with his sheep. Jesus is saying that, when he is our shepherd, we can count on his presence day by day by day.

In the midst of John 10, Jesus also describes himself as the gateway (v. 7) to God’s flock – into God’s people. So, when you have entered through faith in Jesus into the family of God, then there are several beautiful messages Jesus, the “Good Shepherd”, declares to you:

#1: Jesus says, “I know you.”

Shepherds did know their sheep. More than chicken farmers, cattle ranchers, and camel handlers, shepherds had to know their sheep if the sheep were going to survive. Why? At least in part, it’s because sheep make dumb choices, self-destructive choices. When sheep sense there is danger, they don’t run away from it. They just run to and fro frantically. There are many stories about sheep walking directly into an open fire – with other sheep following them into the fire even after their fellow sheep are in flames and bleating loudly. Also, sheep are stubborn in their stupid ways. Once they have adopted a path, they don’t want to deviate no matter how much danger might be around.

And Jesus knows that we are like sheep in those ways. As Isaiah 53 says, “We are all like sheep. We go astray and we lead others astray too.” For example -- Have you ever noticed that most people will look back on the past and say something like this: “When I was younger, I did many dumb things. I can’t believe how misguided and stubborn I was.” The implication is that now, we have learned from the foolishness of the past. We think we won’t make the same mistakes again. But let me tell you this – ten years from now you will probably will look back on this stage of your life and say, “Oh, ten years ago I did so many foolish and stubborn things…” This is the way we are, i.e., we continue to do things we know are misguided.

The Bible says we have a problem. Sometimes, we are guided by our own imperfect inclinations and passions (called “the flesh” in the Bible). At other times, we are guided by the ways everybody else is living (called “the world” in the Bible). We are like sheep. We go astray. We need a shepherd who knows us, who loves us and who will guide us.

Jesus says he knows you and me. He knows our tendencies to walk away from what is good and right. So, why is Jesus willing to enter into our lives and makes things different? – Because he values us as creatures made in God’s image. In Jesus’ day, sheep may have been prone to self-destructive choices but they were also the most valuable creatures pound for pound to the society. Every part of a sheep was valuable – its fleece, its skin, its meat and even its blood (for sacrificial purposes). And, in God’s eyes, every part of each one of us is valued. Jesus knows our flaws – but he also knows what he can make us to be.

With this in mind, when Jesus speaks of being a good shepherd, he speaks again and again of the deep personal relationship he is ready to have with us. He knows you. And, he has created you and me in such a way that we can know our Lord too. We hear the voice of the one we follow and know it. We’re made that way. John 10:3-5: Sheep listen to their shepherd’s voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out… He goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger… And in v. 14: I know my sheep and my sheep know me...

Who is your shepherd? As human beings, we have the privilege of following Jesus or of following someone or something else. Who is your shepherd? What voice do you listen to? What directs and shapes your life? Jesus knows you and, if you have placed your faith in him, you begin to know his voice. Video illustration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coq_grSFlNs.

#2: Jesus says, “I provide for you.”

Another rather embarrassing thing about being compared to a sheep is that sheep are helpless. They are helpless when they need to go to a new place to find food. They often keep trying to find food in the same old spots even when the grass has long been dried up or eaten – and even though wonderful green grass may be a few feet away. They keep going back to the old places and old ways.

There are countless stories of how sheep find themselves in situations in which they simply need help. One of the most unforgettable is the tendency of sheep to become what shepherds call “cast down”. A “cast down” sheep is one that has unfortunately gone, literally, belly up. Sheep like to lie down comfortably in soft places. So, they will often search for an area of softer soil or grass that has a slight depression in it for their mattress, and there lay on their sides. But what sometimes happens is that the sheep can sometimes accidentally role over onto its back with its legs straight up in the air. Its center of gravity often shifts because of the way blood flows in a sheep. What happens is that the sheep cannot right itself. Sometimes, even healthy sheep get stuck on their backs with their legs flailing in the air, totally unable to get up. If a sheep is cast down, it is totally vulnerable to any predator that would like to rip open its neck.

A good shepherd is always watchful for sheep in distress. He will watch the sky for vultures. He will regularly count the sheep, and if one is missing, he will go throughout his pastures to find it. Upon finding it cast down, he will right the sheep and between his legs balance the sheep vertically until blood flow has been restored. And if the sheep falls again, the good shepherd will restore it again and again.

When you and I come to the point that we recognize that we need forgiveness for the past, guidance for the present and re-making for the future, we will be ready to turn to Jesus. When we do, we will find that he provides what we need. He doesn’t always provide what we want – but he is a good shepherd and will provide what we need. In our services this Advent season, we have the names of thousands of people placed in the cross in front of us. They are names of people who are not yet following Jesus. Many, many of you have told me that you think the main reason your family members, friends or colleagues are not yet following Jesus is that they still think they can live life to the full on their own. A sense of self-sufficiency will always keep us from Jesus.

But, when we know that we need a savior from our failures and sins, and a provider for what is missing, we turn to Jesus and find he gives us what we need: a new identity as one known and loved by God, a new freedom as one forgiven for the past, and a new destiny as one who someday will be all God made us to be. Jesus declares to you in John 10:10, “Other things promise so much but they kill, steal and destroy. I have come that you may have life – life to the full!”

#3: Jesus says, “I lay down my life for you.”

Of all things we see today, we dare not miss this. Jesus says it three times so that we will not miss it. V. 11: The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Again, in v. 15: I lay down my life for the sheep. And in vv. 17-18, Jesus lets us know this was a voluntary death. He was not forced to die. No, he chose to die for us: I lay down my life—only to 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 authority to take it up again.

This Jesus who is maker of all, the one who knows all about us, has chosen to lay down his life for us. Indeed, when we come to Christmas season, we need to stop to recognize that he came to this world knowingly to lay down his life for us – intentionally to die for us. Remember, he knows us. He knows that not one of us has lived the life God created us to live and he knows that the wages of our sin is separation from a holy God. So, he lived the life we should have lived but haven’t – and then was willing to die in our place so that we might have abundant life.

Why did Jesus have to lay down his life for you and me? Some have said he did it as an example of love. And surely, when a person is willing to die for another person, that is an example of a deep and genuine love. Jesus said so himself. He said in John 15:13, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

But, there is much, much more to what Jesus is saying than simply a lesson about sacrificial love. A person choosing to die for another person isn’t a loving thing to do if that other person is not in mortal danger. Imagine a young man speaking to his girlfriend. He says to her, “You always are wanting me to prove my love to you – so I’ll do it now.” Then, he jumps off a cliff to his death. Does she say, “Now that’s real love! I never knew what love was until he did that!” No. She says, “What a nut! What good did his death do for me?” It’s not love unless the person you die for is in danger. Then, the person who chooses to give his life does it to rescue the one he loves. That’s love.

Jesus is saying here clearly and unmistakably that you and I are in mortal danger without him. Basically, he is saying that we are not ready to meet God. Using the sheep analogy, Jesus is saying that there is a wolf that is preying on us and that wolf is our own sin. Our eternal souls are in danger because we have things in our lives that are wrong. We need someone to take our place. We need someone to pay for our sins. And Jesus says, “I know my sheep. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Does this make sense to you? This is why Jesus says in v. 7, “I am the gate for the sheep to enter God’s flock.” No one else could die in our place. The way for us to be rescued from danger and to belong to God’s family is to follow Jesus – to receive Jesus into our lives and follow him as Lord and Savior.

So, I ask again – Is Jesus your savior? Are you following him? Have you made him your good shepherd?

What I want you to take home:

#1: Take time to get to know the Shepherd –

You may know that shepherds in the Middle East have always guided their sheep by going ahead of them while shepherds in the west have gone behind and driven the sheep. Jesus is saying that he will go ahead and lead us. But, that means that we need to develop and ear for his voice. Too often, we have so many things going on in our lives that we never stop simply to hear the voice of the one who gave his live for us.

How do I want you to do this? One thing I want you to do is to come to worship with God’s people regularly and consistently. Don’t miss. Jesus speaks in these verses of other sheep he will bring in to God’s fold and he’s referring to the fact that God’s flock will someday be made up of people from every people group. You and I become a part of a larger flock and I’ve found that I often hear God’s voice when God’s Word is opened up to the whole flock. I hear it unexpectedly even in those times I didn’t even want to go to church. Have you ever had that happen?

And, of course, spend time daily in his Word yourself. Take regular times each day to pull away from the text messages, the twitter feeds, the television and video games, the sporting events and listen for his voice. Pull away just for a few moments at a time and develop and ear for God’s voice. Of course, obey that voice when you believe you sense what he would have you to do. It will change your life.

#2: Represent your Shepherd by being a good shepherd to those you influence

Do you remember in last week’s message about how Jesus is THE light of the world? But, when we follow him, he uses us to shed his light into the world. In this week’s message, Jesus is THE good shepherd – but, as Jesus would eventually say to Peter in John 21, Jesus uses us to feed his sheep. We become undershepherds to the Good Shepherd.

So, think of all those you influence in your life. You may say, “I’m not a boss or a pastor or a professor. I don’t lead people.” Oh, but you do. Think of how you affect your friends, your family and countless others. Actually, we influence almost everyone with whom we have a relationship. We can sour someone’s life when we are sour. And we can bring joy to a person’s life when we show Christ’s love.

So, think of those you interact with and then follow the three things Jesus said to you. 1) Get to know them well. Not just superficially – but well. You’ll see some valuable things even in the orneriest of people. 2) Provide as you can for them. We cannot do all Jesus did. But, when we seek to serve others, we will find God gives us resources to make a difference in their lives. 3) Be willing to make sacrifices to make their lives better. Those who watch us should see us reaching out to others with justice and compassion.

If all us will go from here ready to represent the Good Shepherd, we will be blessings to those we meet.

#3: Be sure you have entered through the “Gateway.”

I want to close by having you hear the words of Jesus. Listen carefully and see if you recognize his voice in these words. Do you want to find your life? Here is what Jesus says in John 10:9-10: I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved… The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.

To His glory,

Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor