I Am The Good Shepherd
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We are so removed from the agriculture world
Maybe you grew up in the country but none of us here have probably met a shepherd
No one here wanted to take over the family business of sheep herding i don’t think
Our image of a shepherd is so off
Weak and docile calm and bored almost if we are honest when we picture it
We need to dive into the first hearers of John 10 ‘s world to truly feel the force of what Jesus is saying when he says I am the good shepherd
it is something we need to see to get this today
J. L. Porter met shepherds in the same part of the world that Jesus was in that day we are looking at
Here’s Porter’s description:
The shepherds themselves had none of that peaceful and placid aspect which is generally associated with pastoral life and habits. They looked like warriors marching to the battlefield—a long gun slung from the shoulder, a dagger and heavy pistols in the belt, a light battle-axe or iron-headed club in the hand. Such were the equipments; and their fierce flashing eyes and scowling countenances showed but too plainly that they were prepared to use their weapons at any moment.
He shakes our view of the shepherd we imagine
Jesus Christ, our Shepherd, is no weakling. Our Shepherd is a warrior, as shepherds had to be. No one can snatch his sheep out of his hand . The muscles of his arm are flexed to defend his flock; he doesn’t carry a club for nothing. He is obviously enough for whatever the valley throws at us.
That is the force of how radical what Jesus is about to claim is as he proclaims I Am The Good Shepherd
We are going to see two parts of this epic claim today- Our Shepherd is Good, and our Shepherd is on mission
Our Shepherd is Good
Our Shepherd is Good
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.
J.L. porter helps us understand the shepherds nature better but we need help with the sheep part
This is the only of the 7 I am statements that are personal and intimate
I am the light, I am the vine, I am the bread are powerful but aren’t personal
It’s personal because sheep are unique
I don’t mean in that you are a beautiful snowflake unlike anyone else unique
I mean they are the most powerless and vulnerable and honestly dumb animals people tend too
Owning sheep isn’t like owning a horse or a dog
When a horse is free it can defend itself or a dog can roam and no its way back home
We owned chickens in an epic fail of urban homesteading
When we let them out they were fine on their own
They stuck together they could hide under brush to protect themselves
And to our disappointment they didn’t come running when we called their names like Dolly
They also needed fed everyday which was a deal breaker
Sheep are unique
They need a shepherd who they know and knows them to survive
That is us
We panic when we are prone to wander we need help more then we would ever admit
And we are needy
For Jesus to stand in the rural area of Israel and make the claims he is about to make reshapes the paradigm we have of a shepherd, and should make us aware of how much like sheep we are
We all need a shepherd
We want to feel whole and secure and we cannot get there ourselves so we need external voices to make us ok
We want to be beautiful and are insecure so we long to hear we are from the voices that matter to us
We want to know there is life for us in the face of funerals and suffering
That is what is unique about this I am statement
This is an “I am” saying that concerns the issue of life.
He has just promised life to the full (v. 10), and he now says this life comes through his death for his shepp
For Jesus to bring life to the full for his followers there was a cost
Entire companies have a loss prevention department
It is assumed there will be theft and loss in damaged stuff
That is not the economy of Jesus
You are worth him being good too
why does he say good and not just shepherd?
what makes him good and true? the GOOD shepherd lays down his life for his sheep
As we saw with the door he says if you want to get to them you have to come through me
No shepherd listening to this would have done that
There was a big difference between a shepherd from one of the families who owned the sheep and someone from outside who was just paid to do a job
And there is a big difference between the voices you look too to make you ok when you aren’t and this Jesus who stand before you
The shepherds of this world are hired hands
But like sheep we wander and panic and desperately long for a voice
Every one knows things aren’t how they are supposed to be
A million voices say they know the true way to what we long for deep down
Hope and wholeness safety and security confidence the good guy wins in the end
But here is the reality
Christine Hoover said “We must not forget that competing ideas are not equal competitors. There is truth and then there are many iterations of counterfeits to the truth.”
We all have a shepherd the question is - is yours the true shepherd or a counterfeit
Who is defining the good life to you....and how do they say to get there
And in this epic claim Jesus is saying spiritually who is telling you there is hope in the face of the human experience
And it is His tenacious work to show you he is what you long for
It is amazing in the book of John where Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd the very first words the author records Jesus speaks in John 1
He turns to those looking for hope and asks what do you long for
James Smith says This is the most incisive, piercing question Jesus can ask of us precisely because we are what we want. Our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow.
And when we are honest
when we long for life and hope and love that doesn’t end he asks a second question in John 1…
Will you come and see
Will you come and see that in Him the true shepherd alone can come through on the promise that in Him everything sad will come untrue
If you long for thriving in this life the true shepherd alone can give it
If the Lord is your shepherd He seeks out where the sheep can flourish thats what verse 2 means
The language means the love and work of the shepherd is never resting in seeking out an environment in which the sheep may thrive
The hired hand runs away from you and leaves you alone with the wolves of life
The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them. This happens because he is a hired hand and doesn’t care about the sheep.
But because he made you and owns your heart he is the good shepherd
And what makes him good- what is the metric we should use when we are confronted with counterfeit voices?
The metric is this - is this shepherd or influencer on instagram or this podcast or this relationship i need to affirm me willing to lay down its life to have me
Is sin willing to die for you or is it selling a self destructive way to be ok
When you see the same patter rear its ugly head in your life and you give in again to that thing you said you never would do again
When sin seems so tenacious in the war to find life
Here is what is amazing about the tenacity of The GOOD Shepherd
Cornelius Plantinga says - Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way
To make us safe in the pastures we were made for he took on our sin and laid down his life so that no matter what we have done when God the Father looks at us he only sees the perfection of the Son
he knows His sheep
He knows the dumb sheep things you did last year and here is what is insane he sees the dumb sheep things you will do 5 years from now you don’t even know you will do yet
And yet he loves you
Let that sink in
Other voices don’t know you like that and they don’t love you like that
Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way
he is the good shepherd tenacious and unwavering to save you
he is heavily armed to save you
And he laid down His life to get you home
No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
That was His Mission
And letting others into this intimate relationship with him to save them is his mission
Our Shepherd is on a mission
Our Shepherd is on a mission
“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. I lay down my life for the sheep. But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”
References to Jesus as the good shepherd recall Jeremiah 23:2–4, where God himself promises to gather the scattered people Israel, and Ezekiel 34:11–16, where God promises to look after his sheep, providing them with good pasture, caring for the injured and weak, and shepherding the flock with justice
John: An Introduction and Commentary (2nd Ed.) iv. Jesus Lays down His Life for All His Sheep (10:14–18)
So Jesus’ claim to be the good shepherd was more than a claim to do what the national leaders of his day failed to do: it was also a claim to be one with God the Father, who is ‘the good shepherd’ of his people
For him to say he is THAT shepherd was a throat punch to the Pharisees
This is a claim that he is God come to shepherd his people because they failed too
Ever wonder what Jesus could have said that made the Jews kill him?
It was stuff like this
he is claiming to be God come to save the people religion has left busted up
No matter if they are Jewish or not
People like me
I am the sheep outside of the Jewish community he was and is on mission to save through the gospel
But I have other sheep that are not from this sheep pen; I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.
I have heard this actually used in support of there being aliens and i assure you that is not what he is talking about sorry conspiracy theorists here
Jesus was foreshadowing the church time when his gospel would be taken to non-Jews—to Samaritans and Gentiles: something that would take place through the preaching of his disciples
What he is saying to an all Jewish audience is that this is a mission to reach the world and non jews not a mission to simply make Israel Great Again
Thank God that is the work
We are that work
We are the fruit of that mission unless you are Jewish here and believe in the Messiah if you are shalom
ALL the father has given to Jesus will be and are his
You part of that mission
You and I invite others into intimate relationship with the shepherd we long for
And think about what we get to offer
we don’t offer a get out of hell free card or a get right with some form of a traffic cop God
Michael Reeves says “Clearly the salvation of this God is better even than forgiveness, and certainly more secure. Other gods might offer forgiveness, but this God welcomes and embraces us as his children, never to send us away.”
How many people need to hear what Jesus offers?
How many people do you know that need the security of the Good Shepherd
I am one of them ….
He was on mission when he went to the cross for you and me
This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again.
He laid down his life he was not some weak victim
He was in a war to kill sin and death and cancer and funerals by taking it all on himself to make everything sad come untrue
The cross was not a passive weak moment
It was an assault on death to save you as the good shepherd laid down his life
that is why Psalm 23 says the shepherd has a rod in his hand
As John 10 promises he will never lose one that is his
John 10:14“I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me,
The rod helps us to know, that having the Lord “with” us “is not merely a feeling.
It doesn’t signify mere presence but also action. . . .
This presence expresses itself by aggressive action to defeat enemies and protect
Defeating enemies and protecting sheep are His mission
Your shepherd is the hero you long for
Our shepherd is heavily armed. This is why we need not fear the darkest of valleys.
How do we know?
We know because Easter really happened as he said in this passage it would
He has entered the darkest valley and defeated its king
The valley of the shadow of death is only a shadow for those who are his because it wasn’t for Him
He took the worst the valley could do
Descended into its depths and conquered death with His own
I close with this quote -
David Gibson says: So let the rod in Jesus’s hand also put strength into your failing heart; for, remember, he’s leading you through the valley, and on the other side is the house of the Lord where we’ll dwell forever. We should always remember how the Bible ends: on the other side of it all, the Lamb wins. The Lamb wins because he’s also a Lion. We should never mistake the tenderness of our shepherd for weakness or his care for us for carelessness about all that threatens us.
