I Am: The Good Shepherd - 26

I Am: The Good Shepherd

Palm Sunday 2026

John 10:11-18

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this beautiful day that the Lord has made!  I always love the Palm Parade, seeing the kids wave their branches in the air like they just don’t care… some just having a blast with it, some trying to figure out what’s going on… and others who refuse to participate. 

Well, this day, Palm Sunday begins the week we call Holy Week.  It is the week we remember the final days leading up to the Passover meal, Jesus’ arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.  But I am getting ahead of myself.  We will cover all that this Thursday, Friday, and next Sunday.

Sermon Slide

Today, we are talking about the shepherd.  More importantly, the fact that Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  If you remember, what Jesus said was “Ego eime” – I AM… The Greek version of the very name that was spoken from the burning bush, declaring God’s name forever.  In using that word, Jesus defined himself for those listening.  Jesus basically said, “God in the flesh stands before you today.”  So first he defined who he was, is, and ever will be… then he goes on to describe His character.

I am the Bread of Life… I am the Light of the World… I am the Living Water… and today, I am the Good Shepherd.

Let’s read the passage together.  You already know we are in John since all the “I Am” passages come from John’s Gospel. So, flip on over to chapter 10 and we will begin reading from verse 11.  I won’t read the entire passage you just heard, only through verse 14.

John 10:11-14

 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—

<Prayer>

Sermon Slide

I have not forgotten that today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week.  Today, we remember Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem.  Usually, we would read that passage, maybe John’s version in chapter 12… or Luke’s in Chapter 19. We know that it was the beginning of Passover week, and His followers gathered around him as he rode, “on a donkey, the colt of a donkey,” down the hill from Bethphage and Bethany, through the cemetery, through the Garden of Gethsemane, and into the Temple through the Beautiful Gate.  As he rode along, the people were shouting “Hosanna… Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  It was a joyous time.  I’ve preached in detail on the events of that day before, and I will preach on them again, but today we are looking at Palm Sunday from a different perspective.

Today, as we focus on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, we find parallels between this passage and the events of Holy Week.  As the lambs are being herded into the city for the sacrifices and the Passover meals, Jesus is coming into the city as well.  The Good Shepherd has become The Passover Lamb.  We call it Jesus’ Triumphant Entry, but when you know the rest of the story, it appears to be anything but a triumphant entry.  Jesus is willingly walking, or riding, into Jerusalem to be sacrificed.  Only those who know the end of the story can have a clue about the triumph.  But I am getting ahead of myself.

Today, as we consider Jesus, our Good Shepherd, I want to recognize four things:

1) The people understood God as a Good shepherd.

2) Jesus is the Good Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep

3) Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he knows the sheep by name

4) Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he lays down his life for his sheep

So, let’s take them one at a time.

1)          The people understood God as a Good shepherd.

All through the Old Testament, we find passages that use the imagery of God being a good shepherd for the people.

-             Psalm 100:3  “We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

-             Psalm 23:1-4  The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.

He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

-             Isaiah 40:11  “The Lord tends his flock like a shepherd.  He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

So, when Jesus uses this imagery along with the statement, ”I AM”, it is undeniable that He is claiming to be God in the flesh.  The people were looking for a Messiah who would fulfill the role of the good shepherd. Those gathered around, especially the Pharisees, knew exactly what he was saying, and as we look at Jesus’ life described in the Scriptures, we can see that he met their expectations. That’s the next three points.

2)          Jesus is the Good Shepherd who goes after the lost sheep

Flip over to Luke 15. 

Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! So, he tells them a parable…

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.

Then he calls hisfriends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

You and I tend to look at who is present, who is here.  We count, we say – Oh, we’ve got 80 in worship… that’s pretty good!

Or, well, there’s 99 out of 100 that’s excellent, that’s almost 100%!

But not Jesus. Jesus looks not only at who is here; Jesus looks at who is missing.  Jesus said he had other sheep not in this fold… what Jesus meant was we were missing… You and me, we gentiles, we non-Jews.  That Jewish crowd would have been a bit perplexed, thinking they were present… they were the ones to be counted, but Jesus looked at them and beyond them. Jesus included us, now we are his sheep, and He is our one shepherd, our Good Shepherd.  A shepherd who knows you and me!

3)          Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he knows the sheep by name

In the Middle East, even today, sheep and shepherds wander the countryside. There are some fences in places, but across the Judean desert, you will find Bedouin shepherds roaming the hillsides with their sheep. In fact, when we were coming out of Jericho on our visit in January 2020, a shepherd had stopped traffic to cross the road.  All the cars and busses where honking their horns.  Drivers were yelling at him and his sheep, but what did he do, he kept calling to his sheep and guiding them across the road. The sheep knew him, and they knew his voice. In the midst of all the noise and other voices, they knew who to follow.

Here's another interesting thing.  These shepherds knew the safe places to pen their sheep for the night – caves, box canyons, places where they could place the sheep and then place themselves as the gate to protect them from the predators.  When a shepherd would arrive at one of these places, they might find 2, 3, or more shepherds already there with their sheep.  They just let the sheep all mingle together for the night as the shepherds visited and took turns on watch, protecting the sheep. 

Which, to a rancher, that probably sounds like a nightmare the next morning… but it wasn’t. The shepherds started calling their sheep, and the sheep came to them.

Each shepherd knew his sheep, and the sheep knew their shepherd's voice.

That’s what Jesus was talking about here in John.

You and I need to know the voice of our Good Shepherd.  We need to be able to listen for the voice of our Good Shepherd by spending time in prayer… by reading our scriptures… by gathering together in worship… by fasting… by sitting in a quiet place. 

We need to learn his voice and listen to him, so when the noises are all around us, we can still recognize the voice of our Savior who guides us, who taught us how to live and to love, and who gave his life for us… and that’s our final point.

4) Jesus is the Good Shepherd because he lays down his life for his sheep

This is what we remember and celebrate during Holy Week…

John 15:13  “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Jesus willingly rode a borrowed donkey into Jerusalem.  No one was forcing him. In fact, all through the story of his life told in the Gospels, we see moments where the humanity of Jesus could have said, “No.”

He could have given in to the temptations during his 40 days in the wilderness.

Jesus could have changed his mind in the Garden of Gethsemane when he prayed that the cup would pass from him…

but he said, “Not my will but Your will be done.”

Sermon Slide

Jesus willingly gave his life for you and for me. That’s what the Good Shepherd does… but Jesus did not give his life as one who died never to live again. Jesus gave his life, and took it up again, and that is where we find the power of the resurrection… but more on that next Sunday.

At the end of John 10 there is a wonderful little paragraph, hardly noticeable really. “Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days.  Here he stayed and many people came to him.  They said, ‘Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true.’  And in that place many believed in Jesus.”  (John 10:40-42)

This is a beautiful example of the sheep recognizing the voice of the shepherd. “Many people came to him...”  John introduced them to the Shepherd, and they could do nothing else but follow him… He knew them, and they knew his voice.

As we inch closer to Easter, let’s take some time this week to consider all the ‘voices’ in our lives. Some are encouraging, some are hurtful, some are just adding to the cacophony of noise we live within… Take some time to consider Jesus’ voice… How do you tune your ear to Him? Have you spent any time listening to Him or for Him recently? And if this is a completely foreign concept to you today, ask in prayer that Jesus would speak to you this week. Ask that you could hear Him. I’m not talking about an audible voice… I’m not talking about voices in your head… I’m talking about a spiritual knowing and spiritual hearing of your Lord Jesus.  Trust me, when you listen with Spiritual Ears, Jesus will speak, and it will be undeniable.

Now, as we look toward the end of the week with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and then the celebration of the Resurrected Christ, let us prepare our hearts and minds to receive the miracle of Easter.

Let’s pray together.