The Good Shepherd
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
The context is still coming from healing the blind man in John 9
There is no break in conversation
John 10:21 forms an inclusio with people still reacting to the blind man
The Pharisees have shown their leadership
Unwilling to listen
Ready to cast people out of the community
Jesus is going to critique them by talking about shepherds - a common picture of Israelite leadership
Why Is This Important?
Why Is This Important?
To the praise of God’s glory - this is who we worship and why we worship him
All of us have been called to shepherd in some sense (John 10:16)
Many of us have some leadership responsibility (elders, husbands, parents)
If this is how Jesus gathers his flock (John 10:16) then we need to work the same way
Jesus Knows His Sheep | John 10:1-6
Jesus Knows His Sheep | John 10:1-6
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
Background: Shepherding communities and communal sheep pens
A gatekeeper would watch over them and grant shepherds access
All others would be thieves and robbers who had no right to the sheep
The sheep were mixed until the shepherds would call them out with their unique calling
A sheep would only follow the voice they recognized
How do I know this is my sheep? He follows me!
Jesus call his sheep by name
Plenty of shepherds would be familiar with their sheep
Jesus takes it to the extreme and knows them all by name
There is an intimacy with this knowing
Connect: Our Desire To Be Known
Connect: Our Desire To Be Known
Everybody wants to be known
We want to be more than a physical presence
When someone knows how to make your coffee in the morning
When someone knows something is bothering you
when someone knows just what you need
A beautiful relationship is where you can just jabber about anything and everything
It’s why people pay $500 a night for the Ritz-Carlton
Jesus knows you | Psalm 139:1-6
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
He’s done his research on you
He’s finding new ways to know you
He knows you better than you know yourself
and he wants to know you even more
We cannot reduce Christianity
To doctrines
To ritual
To right worship
It’s knowing God and being known by him - a relationship
Because Jesus knows us so intimately he is uniquely qualified to nourish us
Jesus Provides For His Sheep | John 10:7-10
Jesus Provides For His Sheep | John 10:7-10
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Imagery: Shepherds would act as doorways for temporary pens while out at pasture
He’s providing his sheep with two things:
Safety
More than safe, pastured - food
Both of these are summed up as abundant life
What abundant life is not:
Portia
Prosperity Gospels
If an abundance of life is having many thing then we’re saying that life is things
Connect: The Abundant Life Is With Jesus
Connect: The Abundant Life Is With Jesus
Things are not life - they are the thieves and robbers
If Life is Stuff we will never have enough of it.
It’s why Apple sells ~220 million new phones every year.
And we spend all of our time and energy attaining, maintaining, and worrying about things that will inevitably break.
If Life is Achievement there will always be more to do.
Since 2000, 20-30 world records have been broken every Olympic Games.
So you’ll sacrifice your time trying to do more.
If Life is Our Reputation there will always be somebody who doesn’t care for you.
One celebrity commented on fame saying "You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be somebody who hates peaches."
You’ll spend your whole life thinking about people who most likely aren’t thinking about you at all
In the end we are either left paralyzed and hiding with our insecurities and resentments of never having enough -OR- we’re led by the chains of our desires - always chasing but never grasping satisfaction
What does abundance with Jesus look like?
Security within the sheepfold
In your lack of perfection he still knows you and loves you
In your lack of achievement he still knows you and loves you
Jesus knows you - all of you! And despite the broken and shameful mess that you are, you are secure in his love. You can come into through the door.
Pasture
He’s giving you more than what those thieves and robbers take from us
A life free from fear is full of love, peace, goodness
Jesus Dies For His Sheep | John 10:11-18
Jesus Dies For His Sheep | John 10:11-18
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 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. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 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.”
Jesus isn’t inventing this shepherd/leadership connection. Notable leaders in Israel were shepherds
Moses wasn’t qualified to lead Israel with all the knowledge and learning of Egypt. He needed to be a shepherd first
David risked his life to save his sheep from bears and lions and then became King of Israel
The shepherd risks his life while the hired hand cares nothing for the sheep
Jesus as the Good Shepherd
Jesus as the Good Shepherd
All who came before were thieves and robbers
The bad shepherds feast on the flocks and scatter them | Ezk 34:1-5
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? 3 You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. 4 The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered;
These are the Pharisees!
Interest is only in self
Ritz-Carlton only said your names so that you’d give us your money
Unfortunate number of preachers and elders who just want the prominence
Ezekiel 34:11-31 | God will be the shepherd himself
Ezk 34:11 | He will seek them out and rescue them
11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
Ezk 34:14 | He will pasture them and provide for them
14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.
Ezk 34:16 | He will seek them out and heal them
16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
Ezek34:31 | WE WILL KNOW
31 And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord God.”
What makes him the ‘good’ shepherd?
More than familiar, knows them by name
More than pasture but an abundance of life
Lays down his life for the sheep
Point: Jesus Dies For His People
Point: Jesus Dies For His People
As the door for the sheep
He is the first line of defense against those who would harm his flock
A real shepherd would not intend to die but Jesus does so he can take his life up again
He lays it down because he knows you John 10:14-15
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Have you ever done something for a stranger only to regret it the more you got to know them?
Hitch-hiker example
He was big
He was angry
He was crazy
If I had known all of that I would have kept on driving
Jesus knows
How crazy we are
How disappointing we will all be
How dangerous it is to know us
Application
Application
Here’s what we need to start thinking about for the coming week:
Do You Hear His Voice?
Do You Hear His Voice?
Beware of bad shepherds
Beware of your own desires
Followers of Jesus are going to listen to his voice
Do You Speak With His Voice?
Do You Speak With His Voice?
Jesus is looking for more sheep John 10:16
We need to know them
Smith’s and Neubaur’s
We need to give them abundance of life
Mercy and patience
We need to lay down our lives in this pursuit
