69
John 10:11-18 THE
GOOD SHEPHERD
Introduction:
In our
previous text Jesus contrasts Himself to a thief
who kills and steals sheep. In our text today He proclaims
Himself to be The Good Shepherd.
Let us keep in
mind that a sheepfold was designed to
hold the sheep of many shepherds. The shepherds of the
whole area would all bring their sheep into the sheepfold
late in the evening for safe keeping during the
night. Then
they would all come back the next morning and call their
sheep out of the fold and take them out into the pasture
to
graze.
The shepherds
in the parable represented spiritual
leaders from God.
For instance, the shepherds represented
the prophets of old who prophesied of the coming of the
Christ. They also
represented the prophet and prophetess
who sat at the temple of God in Jerusalem when Jesus was
brought there as a babe and they identified baby Jesus as
the Christ. They
likewise represented John The Baptist,
who, at the baptism of Jesus, identified Jesus as "the
Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world." John
the
Baptist also identified Him as "the Son of
God." The
shepherds also represented eleven of the twelve apostles
who
preached to Israel that Jesus is the Christ of God whom
the
prophets had promised.
I. Jesus
proclaimed that He is The Good Shepherd.
In earlier
verses Jesus said that He is represented in
the parable by the Door of the sheepfold. That is, He is
the Door which leads to heaven. When one trusts in Jesus to
be his Savior, that is like entering the door that leads
to
heaven. But in
addition to being the Door, in this text
Jesus proclaims Himself to be The Good Shepherd. V. 11,
"I
am the good shepherd..." But notice that He did not
say, "I
am a shepherd."
Rather He said, "I am the Shepherd." He
said, "I am The Good Shepherd.
You will
recall that in the parable there is more than
one shepherd. All
of the shepherds of the area bring their
sheep into the fold.
There is more than one shepherd, but
there is One Shepherd who stands out over and above all
the
others. Of all the
shepherds that God has ever sent to the
human race, this Shepherd is the greatest of them all.
There is none other like Him.
Other
shepherds could tend the sheep, but He is the One
who created the sheep.
He created the green grass. He
created the pastures.
He created the whole world.
He is the Good
Shepherd. He is good in every sense of
the word. He is
good in the sense of being sinless. He
lived about 33 years in this world and yet without
sin. He
lived 33 years in human flesh and yet without sin. No other
shepherd who ever lived was without sin. No other spiritual
leader lived without sin.
No other human being ever lived
without sin.
He is good in
the sense of being tender and kind and
compassionate. The
hundreds and perhaps thousands of people
whom He healed from all manner of diseases show Him to be
kind and compassionate.
He is good in
the sense of being generous. He came to
the world to give life.
He came to give eternal life. He
came to give life more abundantly. He had come to give the
more abundant life even here on this side of the grave.
(V. 11),
"...the good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep." He
had come to give Himself as a sacrifice for the
sins of the world.
He had come to give Himself to die on
the cross of Calvary so that lost sinners could be saved
and
have everlasting life.
II. Jesus
contrasts Himself to a hireling shepherd
I repeat: No other shepherd was ever like this
Shepherd. Even in
the natural realm, the shepherd who had
been hired was not like the shepherd who owned the sheep.
The shepherd who had been hired would flee for his life
when
his life was threatened.
But the shepherd who owned the
sheep would risk his life for the sheep. He was willing, if
necessary to give his life for his sheep, not for what he
could get out of the sheep, but because he loved the
sheep.
Jesus mentioned this in His explanation of the
parable. V.
12, "But he that is an hireling, and not the
shepherd, whose
own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth
the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep." Even so, Jesus had come to this
world to give His life in order that men might be saved.
V. 13,
"The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling,
and careth not for the sheep." Jesus cares for His sheep.
He cares even for the lost sheep. He loves them. The
Scripture says, "Greater love hath no man than that
a man
lay down his life for a friend." That is the kind of love
that Jesus has for every man, woman, boy and girl.
III. The close
bond between Jesus and His sheep
V. 14, "I
am the good shepherd, and know my sheep..."
Back in verse 3 as Jesus was giving the parable, you will
remember that He said that the shepherd calls his sheep
by
name. He knows
them all by name and he calls them all by
name.
That is the
kind of Shepherd that Jesus is. He knows
each one personally.
He knows each one by name. He knows
everything he ever does and everything he ever says. He
knows his every thought.
He knows his likes and dislikes.
He knows his faults and failures. He knows his every need.
He knows every detail.
He knows every hair of his head.
(V. 14),
"...and am known of mine." He
makes Himself
known to His sheep.
They can go to the Bible and read about
Him. They may
have never seen His face as of yet, but they
know Him well through the pages of God's word. They can
speak to Him. They
can talk to Him in prayer whenever they
wish day or night.
They can know Him well.
IV. The close bond
between Jesus and God The Father
Not only does
Jesus know His sheep and they know Him,
but this is one Shepherd who has an intimate acquaintance
with God the Father in heaven. V. 15, "As the Father
knoweth me, even so know I the Father..." He can speak to
God the Father in Heaven on a personal acquaintance basis
on
behalf of His sheep.
And He does. Jesus loves His
people
and prays for His people that God the Father may grant
them
His special care and special blessings. If you want an
example of Jesus praying for His sheep then later on read
the 17th chapter of John.
Jesus will not put in a good word
for you with the President of the United States, but He
will
put in a good word for you with God the Father in heaven.
You will see
that just as Jesus prayed for the apostles
and other disciples who followed Him in that day, even so
He
prays for all His people today. He knows God the Father
well and He talks to the Father constantly about His
sheep.
He is the Mediator between God and man. He constantly makes
intercession for His sheep.
V. Jesus laying
down His life for His sheep
In the later
part of verse 15 Jesus gets right back to
the sacrifice that He would make on the cross of Calvary
that men might be saved.
(V. 15), "...and I lay down my
life for the sheep."
Jesus suffered the kind of death that
no other human being has ever suffered. Oh, its true that
other men have been crucified. Two other men were crucified
at the same time that Jesus was crucified. But other men
suffered for their own guilt of sin. Jesus suffered and
bled and died for our sins. He died on the cross of Calvary
so that everyone who believes in Him and trusts in Him
for
the salvation of the soul will be saved and will not have
to
suffer for his sins in eternity. One great hymn says,
"Jesus paid it all.
All to Him I owe. Sin had left a
crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow."
VI. Other sheep
not yet in the fold
V. 16,
"And other sheep I have, which are not of this
fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my
voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." Jesus was
talking about the many people who were not yet saved whom
He
knew would respond to the gospel message and be
saved. He
was particularly talking about the Gentile races of
people.
The disciples at that time did not yet know that Jesus
wanted all of the world to be saved.
They should
have. John 3:16 says, "For God so
loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life." Jesus,
Himself, told them that God loved all the
world. Jesus,
Himself, told them that God sent Him to die
for all the world.
Jesus, Himself, told them that
"whosoever will" may come to Him and be
saved. In giving
His church the Great Commission, He instructed them to go
to
all the world and preach the gospel so that all the world
might be saved. So
they should have understood even then
that God loved the Gentile races of people and wanted the
Gentiles to be saved.
Right here in this very verse which
we have just read, Jesus told all that crowd of people
that
He wanted people who were not in His present fold to be
saved and to be brought into the fold.
He was talking
about Gentiles. Let me tell you that I
am most grateful that He loves Gentiles and wants
Gentiles
to be saved because I am a Gentile. This whole congregation
is made up of Gentiles.
I am most happy that Jesus wants
Gentiles to hear the gospel message and be saved.
VII. The special
love which God the Father has for Jesus
In verse 17
Jesus said that one of the reasons that God
the Father has such a special love for Him is because He
was
willing to lay down His life in order that we might be
saved. Please do
not misunderstand. God the Father would
have loved Jesus whether or not He was willing to die for
us. But God the
Father loves Him all the more because He
was willing to die for us. God the Father loves us and
wants us to be saved and the willingness of Jesus to die
for
us causes Him to love Jesus all the more. V. 17, "Therefore
doth my Father love me, because I lay down my
life..."
Let me tell you
something. That is also the reason that
I love Jesus the way that I do. I love Him because He first
loved me and gave Himself to die for me. I know that He
would have been worthy of my love even if He had never
died
for me, but I strongly suspect that I never would have
learned to love Him if He had not died for me.
Yet there is
another good reason why God the Father
loves Him.
"...that I might take it again." God is so very
happy that Jesus arose from the grave. He most certainly
did not want His Son, His Only Begotten Son, to spend
eternity in defeat.
He is most pleased that Jesus would be
victorious over the grave and come forth from the grave.
God knew in
advance that Jesus would arise from the
grave. There was
never any doubt about it in His mind. He
knew for certain that Jesus could arise from the grave.
VIII. More about
the willingness of Jesus to die for us
Now I want you
to see once more the willingness of the
Lord to die for us.
V. 18, "No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself..." Jesus informed this great crowd
of people including His disciples that He would die. He
would die at the hands of men. He would be crucified at the
hands of men. But
no man could take His life from Him
against His will.
He, as the Good Shepherd, would lay down
His life for the sheep.
He would allow men to crucify Him.
He would allow men to beat Him with the whip. He would
allow them to drive the nails into His hands and
feet. He
would allow man to pierce His brow with the crown of
thorns.
Yet even after
He allowed them to crucify Him, they
still could not take His life. He had to dismiss His own
Spirit from His earthly body and give up the ghost. In
every sense of the word, Jesus lay down His life for us.
IX. His power to
take up His life again
(V. 18),
"...I have power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it again.
This commandment have I received of
my Father."
No man had the power to take His life, but He
had the power to both lay it down and also to take it up
again. And it was
all within the will of God the Father.
God the Father had discussed this with Him before the
foundation of the world and God the Son had agreed to do
it
before the foundation of the world. Therefore, God had
given the instructions that He would both lay His life
down
and take it up again.
These words of Jesus were spoken
about six months before He was crucified.
It is His
power to take up His own life again that
should assure us that He is able to save us and take us
to
heaven. If He had
failed to come forth from the grave then
we would have reason to doubt that He can raise us from
the
grave. But since
He came forth from the grave, we should
know that He is able to raise us also from the grave.
Conclusion:
Listen, I want
to appeal to every person within the
sound of my voice who has never trusted in Jesus for
salvation to do so this morning. I want to give you several
good reasons for doing so.
#1: You must trust Jesus to save your soul or you
will
never make it to heaven.
#2: You must trust Jesus to save your soul or you
will
be cast into The Lake of Fire and Brimstone.
#3: You must trust Jesus to save your soul while
there
is time to do so because you have only a limited time in
which to be saved.
#4: You must trust Jesus to save you soul while
there
is time because you will forever regret it if you don't.
#5: Jesus loves you and wants you to be saved and
it
would be a shame for you to disappoint Jesus by passing
up
the opportunity to be saved.
#6: Jesus suffered and bled and died in order to
provide a way for you to be saved. It would be a shame for
Him to die for you and give you an opportunity to be
saved
and for you to wind up in the Lake of Fire and Brimstone
because you neglected to trust Him as your Savior.
#7: If you could talk to those who have already
died
and gone on to the other side and ask their advice, they
would all advise you to trust Jesus right now and get
saved.