The Triune Shepherd

Intro

Christ is our Sovereign Shepherd

Setting the Scene: Hanukkah at the Temple

John 10:22–24 ESV

At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

State: This is taking place at the Feast of Dedication, which is also known (especially today) as Hanukkah. This is the feast where the Jews celebrate a time that we actually don’t have recorded in the Bible, but we do know about from other sources. There was a period where Jerusalem was overtaken by the Greeks, and then the Jewish people retook the land that included the temple. This is a feast to celebrate when they then “rededicated” the temple to the Lord.

It’s ironic then what plays out in this text. Here we have the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, walking on temple grounds during the feast of rededication. And during this feast day celebrating a time of rededication to the Lord, the religious elites are going to approach the Lord with malicious intent, seeking to destroy him. This comes in the form of a complaint: they want Jesus to simply say the words “I am the messiah,” which is something that he has only done privately with his disciples up to this point. All of his public claims have been allowed a certain ambiguity, although their meaning has been plain to anyone who is willing to listen.

The problem with their desire for a clear and public messianic claim is that they had a degenerated view of what the messiah would be. If Jesus simply said the words, “I am the messiah” to these people, they wouldn’t have really understood all that meant. Because of the popular interpretations of the day, they would have certainly taken that to mean that Jesus intended to claim a physical throne, depose the empire of Rome, and lead them in a miliatristic conquest of the land of Israel. This would have misled the people and would have certainly resulted in a death sentence from the Romans for Jesus and any who followed him.

Illustrate: This word for “gathered around him” is the word that also gets used to describe an army closing in to siege an enemy. The intent here is malicious; they are seeking to destroy him. They are pressing in and seeking to apply pressure.

This gives us a picture of the spiritual state of Israel at the time of Jesus; they were blind to God and had fallen so far from communion with him that they now sought to destroy him in their presence when they were meant to be celebrating their dedication to him.

This helps us to understand why Jesus answers in the way he does.

Those who aren’t Christ’s Sheep will never believe in him

John 10:25–26 ESV

Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.

State: Jesus does not give them the words that they wanted to hear, but he takes steps to reveal their inherent unbelief towards God. They want Jesus to conform to their understanding of the Messiah, and they want him to adopt their language and definition; he refuses to conform himself to their expectations.

He insists that he has already told them about himself, including those aspects which reveal him to be the Messiah. Not only has he said as much in his public and private ministry, but his actions have been clean enough in and of themselves. He has been healing the sick, casting out demons, opening the eyes of the blind, proclaiming victory to the oppressed, and leading the hopeless to hope in God. He has done all of these things in the Father’s name, as the Scriptures would lead us to expect of the Messiah, and yet these Jewish elites have remained blind to all of this. Why?

Jesus reveals why they cannot believe in him: it is because they are not his sheep.

This is a terrifying word that Jesus speaks to them. It is reminiscent of what he would say in other places:

Luke 5:31–32 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

In effect, Jesus tells this unbelieving people that he is not here for them, because they are not his sheep.

This helps us to see that belief in God is not something that originates in the heart of man. Belief is not something that we can work ourselves up to; it isn’t the logical result of a formula. We can’t simply do the right things and guarantee that belief will automatically occur. If someone does not belong to Christ, if they are not counted among his sheep, there is nothing anyone can do to bring that person to believe in Christ.

Even Christ himself here is content to leave these sinful people in their unbelief, telling them that they simply do not belong to him and so they will never believe in him, no matter what he says to them.

Transition: Conversely, Jesus comments on what his sheep are like when they listen to his teachings:

When Christ makes us his sheep, we hear his voice and follow

John 10:27 ESV

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

State: In the opposite sense, those sheep who belong to Christ hear his voice, are known by him, and so they follow.

Once again, this is clearly not because the sheep have chosen the right sheepfold. They have not done the calculations, arrived at the proper logical conclusions, and then chose the right side. Rather, we are told, Christ knows his own sheep, he calls to them, and they follow him.

We see here that whether or not one is Christ’s sheep is not dependent on anything inside of the individual, nor any ability the individual might have in themselves to make themselves Christ’s sheep; they are simply known by Christ to be his sheep or they aren’t.

If they are Christ’s sheep, they hear his voice, and they follow him. If they aren’t Christ’s sheep, it doesn’t matter how clearly the message of the gospel is proclaimed to them; they will not hear him, they will not know him, and so they will not follow him.

Illustrate:

Apply: This is all very clear from what Jesus is saying, but we must tread carefully when it comes to applying these teachings. Some from the Reformed tradition have earned the title “the Frozen Chosen” because of how they have applied these teachings

In these cases, because they know there isn’t anything they can do to determine whether or not someone belongs to God, they have deemphasized evangelism as unimportant. In their view, someone is going to arrive at a knowledge of the truth even if we aren’t out proclaiming it, so why waste the time?

But this is a horrible and inconsistent application of this doctrine. It goes against many of the commands we have received from the Lord. And very importantly: it forgets that God has chosen to use us, his people, to bring his own sheep to himself. Though he did not need to, God has chosen to include us in his work of redemption in the world.

And so we must recognize that evangelism is a privilege and not an inconvenience; and this doctrine of God’s election ought to increase our evangelistic zeal, not quench it. For we know that the results do not depend on our own abilities, but on God, who will never lose one of his sheep.

Therefore we go out with confidence, proclaiming the words of Christ, knowing that all who belong to him will hear his voice and come, and follow him.

And so this understanding that Christ knows his own sheep, that he is our adopting shepherd, it should bring us courage in our evangelistic efforts, but it does more than that.

We also recognize that Christ is our almighty shepherd, and we recognize that because he is both sovereign and almighty, being his sheep comes with amazing benefits.

Christ is our almighty Shepherd

Those who are Christ’s have eternal life

John 10:28 ESV

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,

State: Here Jesus begins to teach about what he gives to those sheep that are his. Here he shows the power he wields as our almighty shepherd, and the benefit that he gives to those that follow him. We have already found that he is the sovereign Shepherd, and now he shows us that he is the Almighty Shepherd.

To all those who are Christ’s sheep, to those who hear his voice and who follow him, Christ has the power to give eternal life.

This is the promise to those sheep of Christ: to all who have heard his voice, who have known him, or rather, who have come to be known by him; death no longer has any sway over you. What amazing news! Think about it: this is not just religious jargon. This is the kind of news that changes everything about the way a person lives.

Apart from Christ, what is the ultimate motivation for what we do? Isn’t it death? What is the source of our greatest fears? Isn’t it death?

So much of our life i controlled by our anticipation and fear of death. Much of what we do is done because we want to accomplish something before we die. Much of our fears center on sickness, injury, and what harm might come to us or to our loved ones.

Apply: When Christ our Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd tells us that he gives his sheep eternal life, and that we will never perish, it turns everything on its head. The things that we do, and the reasons that we do them, are all changed now. There isn’t any clock we’re racing against; not even death stands in our way. No illness, no injury, no disease, no accident, nothing can stand against us. This is something that the Scriptures repeatedly rejoice over, and I think its summed up best in the book of Hosea and 1 Corinthians when they say,

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 ESV

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we are in the care of our Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd Jesus, we need not fear death. We act now out of love for him and for people, not fear of the unknown. We do not fear what might happen to us, for we are fully confident that our Shepherd watches over us.

What have we to fear? We are under the watchful eye of the Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd.

The only question that may appear in our minds to cause us to worry is this: What if I run away? What if I used to be his sheep, but I’m not anymore?

Thankfully, Jesus answers that question here as well: Our almighty Shepherd will never let us go.

Those who are Christ’s will never be taken away

John 10:28–29 ESV

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

State: Here we see that God the Father is the one who has given the sheep to Christ that he would Shepherd them. We also see that all the sheep who are given to Christ cannot be taken away.

This gives us absolute assurance that everyone who belongs to Christ, who has been given to him by the Father’s will, is also preserved by the Father’s will. In other words, everyone that the Father would save and place into the care of Christ, he would also keep in the care of Christ forever.

This means that our salvation does not begin with our own power or merit, and it does not continue based upon our own power or merit. Our salvation, from beginning to end, is entirely the work of our Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd.

Apply:

How does this apply to us today?

First of all, let me say what it doesn’t mean: This doesn’t mean that just because you’ve said a prayer or made a statement that you got your ticket to heaven and can now live and act any way you want. That is not the kind of assurance provided here.

What is provided is that all those who truly believe in their hearts, who have heard the word of Christ and have responded by following him, who are known by Christ to be his sheep, all these are completely safe from any attacks of spiritual evil. There is no sense in which someone who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit can then be lost from the hands of this Shepherd.

As our Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd, Christ knows all his own sheep, and he will not suffer the loss of a single one of them for any reason. Therefore take heart: to be known by Christ is to have absolute assurance that you will never be lost again.

This leads us to our last point, which is a natural conclusion of the last two points but which nontheless shocked the religious elites once more when he made the claim.

That Jesus, our Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd, is also God, our Triune Shepherd.

When I say Triune, that is simply a word that means “three in one” and is a reference to the trinity. That is to say, that the Triune God, or the Three-In-One God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, is our Shepherd. Jesus begins to make this claim in verse 30:

Christ is God, our Triune Shepherd

Christ is one with the Father

John 10:30 ESV

I and the Father are one.”

State: Here Jesus begins to show that the reason he is the Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd is because he is God and is One with the Father. Here Jesus is expressing the idea that the creeds of the ancient referred to as the three persons of the Trinity being “one substance,” or “one being.”

The idea is that, while the three persons are distinct from one another, they are so united in their essence that it is right to speak of them as One God.

So Jesus is not simply saying that he and the Father are on the same page (although they are), he is saying that he and the Father are one in their being. They are united in the most intimate sense.

And so when Jesus is acting as our Shepherd, we see that along with him we have also the Father and the Holy Spirit acting as our Shepherd.

To us, this seems like the natural and logical conclusion — how could one claim to be a Sovereign and Almighty Shepherd unless he was also God?

Yet for this statement, the religious would immediately pick up stone with which they would attempt to kill him.

Christ’s deity is evident in the Scriptures

John 10:31–36 ESV

The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken— do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?

State: Jesus responds to their murderous intent by proving from two sources that his claims are all true and well founded. First, he shows them that his claims are well founded on a Scriptural basis.

Here it can get a bit confusing, and there are some pretty deep exegetical weeds we could get stuck in here, but allow me to just explain briefly what Jesus is doing here.

Because the Jewish people here are angry that Jesus makes himself God, and specifically the Son of God, Jesus responds by quoting Psalm 82:6, which is making reference to the Judges period of ancient Israel. In this period, God had set up rulers on the Earth for his people, but they were faithless to God. As a result, God reminds them that he made them “gods,” or rather, that they operated as God on earth, and were called sons of the Most High.

Jesus then argues, if the Scriptures can use this kind of language to refer to sinful men, then he is well within his rights to refer to himself as God, and as the Son of God. This is because Jesus is the consecrated one, the one sent by the Father, and is in fact the Son of God.

Therefore, Jesus has Scriptural grounds for the claims that he has been making. But he also has grounds based upon his works that he has been doing.

Christ’s deity is evident in his works

John 10:37–38 ESV

If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

State: Jesus says, even if you do not understand the Scriptural basis for my claims, at least look at what I’ve been doing!

Jesus appeals to his works at many points when the Jewish people began to doubt his claims. This is a strong case considering the record of his works.

Up to now, Jesus has taught with authority, cast out demons, healed the sick, cured lepers, made the lame well again, gave sight to the blind, fed thousands of people with a few loaves and fish. He has done nothing but astound people with the wonderful works he has done; and to add to it, he has not sinned a single time. His works have given no reason for anyone to doubt him, and in fact they are sufficient evidence to prove all of these claims that he is making.

When we consider what he would then go on to do, it is absurd to believe anything about Jesus except for that which Jesus claimed for himself. For Jesus would go on to prophesy his own death, and his own resurrection from the dead. There were earthquakes, the sun’s light failed at midday, the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. He would appear to hundreds of eyewitnesses, and then he would ascend up into heaven.

The works that Jesus did leave nothing to doubt, and we can have absolute assurance:

This Jesus is the Lord, the Sovereign, Almighty, Triune Shepherd of our souls.

Apply:

I ask you, having heard his voice, is your desire to follow him? Do you long to know him, and to be known by him?

If you do, then allow me to give you great assurance: you are under the protection of the Shepherd. Whatever life may throw at you, whatever it is you may have to endure, move forward with the utmost confidence, knowing who it is that guards your body and soul.

FCF: We have need of saving and are completely powerless to bring it about

CFC: The triune God is our Shepherd, and he powerfully accomplishes our salvation