Jesus the Good Shepherd

BIG IDEA: Follow the Sum of the ONE

We have 1 Door, 1 Shepherd, and 1 Flock

INTRODUCTION

MAIN IDEA: God is not a universal Father. We are not a part of a Universal brotherhood. The sheepfold is a much narrower group of people than we could possibly imagine. There are an always will be a distinction made between God's flock and the rest of the world. We should take great comfort in knowing that the Father is keeping watch over our souls that no one can come and take us away from His grip, that means no one!!!!!!!

ILLUSTRATION

Sheep herding in early Palestine. Most families only owned a very small number of sheep so there would be one sheep herder for multiple families. Usually this would be a son or daughter of one of the families. The sheep herder would make his way to the different homes and stand at the door way calling to the sheep to come out and follow. The door keeper would recognize the voice of the sheep herder and open the door for the sheep to go out and graze in the open countryside.

Walking in the Temple at the Colonnade of Solomon or known as Solomon's Porch. The Jewish historian Josephus describes Solomon’s Porch this way: “There was a porch without the temple, overlooking a deep valley, supported by walls of four hundred cubits, made of four square stone, very white; the length of each stone was twenty cubits, and the breadth six; the work of king Solomon, who first founded the whole temple” (Antiquities l. 20. c. 8. sect. 7).

"the porch overlooking a deep valley very well may have seen sheep in the distance being led by a shepherd." Solomon’s Porch was the gathering place for believers in Jerusalem. In John and Peter healed a lame man in Solomons porch and preached a sermon to a large crowd.

We are now entering the winter months so possibly the location is an indicator of having a more sheltered place to gather.

JESUS THE ONE DOOR

ILLUSTRATION

Mary McLaurine has an unusual condition called developmental topographical disorientation, or DTD. This means she can't form a mental map or image of her surroundings. Unlike most people, Mary has no internal compass. Here's how she described a typical incident of dealing with her DTD:

I was staying a friend's home and decided to take their dog Otis for a walk. As I started back, I had no idea where I was. I was only blocks from where I had started my walk, but I was lost. Fear and adrenaline pulsed through my veins and I began to sweat profusely. My surroundings looked completely unfamiliar. It was as though I'd been dropped into the middle of a foreign land.

PARABLE OF THE SHEEPFOLD (1-5)

I hadn't written down the address of the home where I was staying. Walking in any direction would be just a guess: Am I getting closer to or farther away? Would I have had to knock on someone's door to use their phone to call the police? How could I expect them to return me to a place if I had no address to provide?

Fortunately, Mary found someone to guide her back to her house. With DTD there is no brain injury—no car accident, no brain tumor, or stroke. People who have this condition, basically get lost every day in the most familiar surroundings. Mary continues: "Those of us struggling with this disorder are often left with feelings of anxiety, depression, isolation, and self-doubt."

PARABLE OF THE SHEEPFOLD (1-5)

1. There is only one door the problem is the world is looking for a different door.

The pastoral role of Jesus is very important in the Gospel it is written with those who find themselves ejected from their religious base in the synagogue. The man born blind, who appeared in the previous chapter, was ejected for his confession of faith in Jesus. So Jesus the Good Shepherd didn’t leave him out in the pasture alone, he welcomed him into the new fold of those who hear and respond to his voice.

Illustration

Jesus’ imagery would have been familiar in a society where sheep-farming was a staple of the economy. The ‘fold’ or pen was probably a large, communal enclosure where several flocks were herded for safety at night. The calling of the sheep in the morning (3) would be crucial as each shepherd assembled his own flock from the larger herd in the fold. During the night a guard would be hired (3, the watchman). He would remain at the only door to the enclosure. Robbers could enter only by scaling the enclosure. The guard would admit only the true shepherds by the door when they arrived in the morning.

Unlike the other gospels John does not contain parables as such. The preferred mode is that of long discussions where Jesus instructs his disciples and they ask the odd questions.

The Sheep know the shepherds voice

JESUS CONTRASTS HIMSELF WITH THE FALSE SHEPHERDS

1)The appointment he receives. (by the father)

2)The response he evokes. (the sheep listen to his voice)

3)The call he issues (He calls his sheep by name)

4)The direction he provides (he leads them out)

The pharisees saw their strength lying with the fact hat they had the law and were competent to teach people how to live.

But they failed to provide guidance because for them living meant ‘following the rules’. By contrast, Jesus teaches that living means following a Master (‘Follow me’, 1:43; 21:19, 22). True, there are rules which reflect his character, but the essence is a living relationship with a living Lord. This guidance will be amplified by the gift of the Spirit, who will ‘guide you into all truth’ (16:13).

The sheep follow the Shepherds Voice

5)The obedience he demands.

His sheep follow him because they know his voice (4). Jesus is recognized by his own and they gladly give him the rule of their lives. By contrast to the false shepherds whom the sheep of Christ do not recognize and from whom they will run away. (5)

If the stranger attempted to bring out the sheep: They will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because he has a strangers voice.

If the stranger attempted to bring out the sheep: They will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because he has a strangers voice.

NOTE: When a sheep is bought from one owner and placed with different sheep in its new owner's courtyard, it experiences great trauma for the first few days. It hears the voice of a shepherd calling out the sheep in the morning but it is not the voice to which he is accustomed, and it runs from him, even though it is desperate to get out to the countryside to graze.

How do we know when we hear the Shepherds voice that it is Him calling?

*Great question I’m glad you asked. The shepherds voice is most clearly seen and recognized in his Holy Scripture.

- The Lord berates ‘the shepherds of Israel, the religious leaders of Ezekiel’s day, for slaughtering the choice animals, clothing themselves with wool, yet failing to look after the flock.

10:3 The watchman or ‘porter’, probably a hired under-shepherd (cf. notes on vv. 1–2), recognizes the shepherd and opens the gate for him. The sheep listen to the shepherd’s voice. That he calls his own sheep presupposes that several flocks are in the fold; the shepherd calls out his own. Near-Eastern shepherds have been known to stand at different spots outside the enclosure and sound out their own peculiar calls, their own sheep responding and gathering around their shepherd. This shepherd goes further: he calls his own sheep by name, which at the least means that he calls them individually.

10:4-5 Unlike the Western shepherds who drive the sheep, often using a sheep dog, the shepherds of the Near East, both now and in Jesus’ day, lead their sheep and draws them shows us a great picture of the master/disciple relationship.

JESUS THE ONE SHEPHERD

2. There is only one Good Shepherd the problem is the condition of the worlds current shepherd.

“A shepherd is someone who tends, guides, or directs in a specific direction.”

John 10:7–18 ESV

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 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. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 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; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 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. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 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.”

John 10:7-18

At this point Jesus’ imagery becomes more difficult to keep track of. In this section he is both the gate to the enclosed and also the shepherd.

Jesus reveals two blessings which his Shepherding brings to the flock...... 9-10

1)The first is Salvation - from the threats and dangers which surround the flock, but also from the lostness brought about by sin. Salvation is expressed positively as knowing the shepherd. (14).

2)Second the flock is to come in and go out and find pasture (9), an image of security.

1-6 you had the picture of a village setting: the courtyards and narrow streets on which they opened. Here now you have the open country into which the shepherd led the sheep for grazing, and where in the summer months shepherd and sheep might spend the night. Overnight the sheep were placed in roughly constructed round stone walled enclosures. The top of the dry stone walls was covered with thorns to keep out wild animals. Inside the enclosure the sheep were safe as long as the entrance was secured by the shepherd. He slept across the entrance as there was no door and no doorkeeper.

*Because they did not understand Jesus tells them again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.’

Verse 10 “Life to the full”. What does it mean to have life to the full? This is a witness of the new life that Jesus brings.

“The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.” The imagery is of a shepherd ensuring that his sheep are well cared for and contented. Jesus, the good shepherd, came into the world so that people might have (eternal) life, and have it to the full.

Here, the idea is not that Jesus the shepherd draws out his own flock from a rather mixed fold, but that Jesus gate is the sole means by which the sheep enter safely into the fold.

“I am the way and the truth and the life.”

There is only one source of knowledge and spiritual nourishment.

The world still seeks it’s humanistic, political Saviors - it’s Hitlers, its Stalins - and only too late does it learn that they blatantly come to steal, kill and destroy their lives.

Jesus is right. It is not the Christian doctrine of heaven that is the myth, but the humanistic dream of utopia........

ILLUSTRATION

The new green deal to get rid of cow farts, airplanes, and gas guzzling automobiles....

WHAT MAKES JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD?

1)The good shepherd owns his sheep

12-13

The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. When the hired hand see’s the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. The primary motivation of the hired hand is self-preservation. He flee’s in the face of danger.

2) The good shepherd goes after the other sheep that are not in his sheep pen.

In the OT God is depicted as the true shepherd of Israel, and Jesus’ own ministry was predominantly to Israel also (see ; cf. ). However, Jesus widened the role of the good shepherd when he said, I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.

As the good Shepherd, Jesus mentioned that there are other sheep that will listen to His voice and will one day be brought into the fold. More than likely what is in view are the Gentiles who would come to believe in Christ. The idea is not many shepherds with many flocks but one Shepherd joined together as one flock (10:16; compare ). Jesus was not forced into being the good Shepherd; He willingly took the role upon Himself, and for this He is loved by God (10:17–18).

3)The good shepherd willingly lays down his life for his sheep.

2)The good shepherd willingly lays down his life for the sheep.

2)The good shepherd willingly lays down his life for the sheep.

For the kingdom to come, and for its new life to be made available, the shepherd must suffer. Shepherding is a hard, demanding and costly life, in contrast to the perception of most western Christians (excepting farmers!) influenced by memories of cuddly lambs. David experienced this cost when defending his flock from the attacks of wild animals (). The true shepherd is the good one who endangers himself if called upon (11, 14). Some commentators, recognizing that kalos, ‘good’, has overtones of beauty, prefer ‘noble shepherd’, or ‘worthy’118 or ‘model’.

Jesus is predicting Calvary. His love for his own will lead him to sacrifice himself for them.

While Jesus’ life, humanly speaking, was taken from him by the actions of evil men, it was not outside his control. He said, No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.

During the Roman trial, when Pilate said to him, ‘Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?’ (19:10). To this Jesus replied, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above’ (19:11). These incidents show that Jesus was in control of his own destiny. He had the authority to lay down his life and to take it up again, because it was what he had been commanded to do by his Father.

NOTE: Within the metaphorical world, that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep means no more than that he is prepared to do so. He is willing to risk his life for the sheep, perhaps by beating back a marauding bear (cf. ). But the death of shepherds for such reasons must have been fairly rare, and even then it would never be the intention of the shepherd to die. That would leave his flock entirely exposed. But by the strong language Jesus uses, he points beyond the metaphorical world to himself. He does not merely risk his life, he lays it down, in line with the Father’s will (vv. 17, 18). Far from being accidental, Jesus’ death is precisely what qualifies him to be the good shepherd—a point presupposed in , which acknowledges Jesus to be ‘that great Shepherd of the sheep’. And by his death, far from exposing his flock to further ravages, he draws them to himself (12:32).

“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant”

NOTE: The presumption is that the sheep are in mortal danger. The shepherd does not die for the sheep to serve as an example, throwing himself off a cliff in a grotesque and futile display while bellowing, ‘See how much I love you!’ No, the sheep are in mortal danger; that in their defence the shepherd loses his life; that by his death they are saved. That and that alone is what makes him the good shepherd.

Jesus concludes by taking us behind this self-sacrifice (which will produce the new, united flock from all the nations)

1. The self-sacrifice of the Son is related to the fathers love for the Son (17).

2. The sacrifice of Jesus for us was a voluntary one.

3. Jesus' vision embraces not just his death but also the resurrection which will follow.

4. All of this Jesus will do in obedience (18).

Division continues.

3. There is only one flock the problem is with those who are not part of the flock.

10:25 When Jesus says I did tell you, he is not referring to an explicit statement. Had he spoken that plainly, they would have misunderstood him, for their notions of messiahship could not embrace a suffering servant or a kingdom not immediately political and military

ILLUSTRATION:

We human being are so security-oriented. Whether it is conscious or not, we all need and want security in our lives. From the time we are born, we are clinging to something. That's okay, but we've got to be clinging to the right thing. When we are holding onto Jesus, that's when we are holding on to real hope.

The question is what are we finding our security in.....

In the course of his reply (25–30) Jesus refers to some of the supreme privileges of those who believe in him.

1.) They are a summoned group. My sheep listen to my voice (27). The call of Christ has brought them into a new relationship with him (I know them); a relationship which in turn leads to a new lifestyle (they follow me). The proof of faith is obedience. ‘Only he who truly obeys truly believes.

2.) They are a gifted group. The gift they receive is eternal life (28). All who believe will live; the new life of the kingdom is theirs. No longer a part of this passing ‘world’, under the power of the evil one, they shall never perish (28). They are part of the permanent.

3.) They are a secured group: no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand (29). Christ’s people are his possession. He has committed himself to them even as they for their part have, however falteringly, committed themselves to him.

Jesus’ specifying the reason for the Jewish leaders’ failure to believe in him as you are not my sheep confronts us with the mystery of divine election and human unbelief.

WHAT EMOTIONS DOES THE TERM PREDESTINATION STRIKE IN YOU?

Luther: Justification by faith alone, this is the article on which the church stands or falls. The doctrine of election is the core Ecclesial (the heart of the church).

Virtually every church has a statement on pre-destination of some sort or kind of statement regarding pre-destination.

Word Predestined: Where is your destination. Our destination in some sense has been decided in advance. Ephesians the reference of the pre has to do with the foundation of the world. “He predestines people to Christ for Salvation, you have been adopted into eternal life.” So if this is true this should be a cause of great rejoicing. God’s grace is so powerful that it extends back before creation to prepare a place for you in His kingdom.

Man is dead in their trespasses and sins by nature a child of wrath, they are by nature enemies of God and cannot comprehend or understand the things of God unless it is given to Him by the Father. The biggest problem is the Lostness of this world. No man can come to Christ unless it is given to him by the Father.

Charles Spurgeon - “I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love. So I am forced to accept that great Biblical doctrine.”

Charles Spurgeon - “Beloved, do your Master’s work, win souls, preach Christ, expound your Bibles, pray men to be reconciled to God, plead with men to come to Christ. This kind of work will stand the fire; and when the last great day shall dawn, this will remain to glory and honour.

The final matter for comment is the claim I and the Father are one (30). It should be clear from the context that it is an essentially functional unity which Jesus is referring to here. The Father and Son are one in the mission of the Son, and hence those whom the Son calls and undertakes to protect are simultaneously the concern of the Father.

John 31-39 “Son of God”

Jesus is calling the Jews to a revision of their understanding of God. Their radical and uncompromising monotheism implied that any claim to deity represented a claim to rival God.

It is often pointed out that the technical definition of blasphemy recorded in Mishnah (Sanhedrin 7:5) requires that to be guilty a person had to pronounce the name of God, the Tetragrammeton (often transcribed as ‘Yahweh’ today). Because there is no evidence that Jesus ever defied that prohibition, some scholars argue that the Evangelist displays considerable ignorance of first-century Judaism.

Jesus defends his claims by quoting , here drawn exactly from the lxx. The entire verse, and the next (), develops a single line of argument: ‘I said, “You are ‘gods’; you are all sons of the Most High.” But you will die like mere men; you will fall like every other ruler’ (niv). As Jesus uses the text, the general line of his argument is clear. This Scripture proves that the word ‘god’ is legitimately used to refer to others than God himself. If there are others whom God (the author of Scripture) can address as ‘god’ and ‘sons of the Most High’ (i.e. sons of God), on what biblical basis should anyone object when Jesus says, I am God’s Son?

The problem was that the Jews could not see their way to thinking through the implications of Jesus’works. They could always explain them away, one way or another. The immovable point of offence lies in what Jesus says: from their perspective, he has spoken blasphemy. Jesus, a mere mortal, claims to be (literally, ‘makes himself’) God, lining himself up on the other side of the unbridgeable chasm that separates the transcendent, infinite creator from his finite and fallen creatures.

THIS IS THE GREAT FALL OF PEOPLE TODAY: People cannot see or recognize Jesus and his works as being from God. We also note that Jesus’ is passing affirmation on the trustworthiness of scripture. (35)

THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSALITY

The idea of cause and effect was the problem that the Jewish people were having. The law of causality is the law of identity applied to action. All actions are caused by entities. The nature of an action is caused and determined by the nature of the entities that act; a thing cannot act in contradiction to its nature . . . . The law of identity does not permit you to have your cake and eat it, too. The law of causality does not permit you to eat your cake before you have it.

To determine causality, it is important to observe variation in the variable assumed to cause the change in the other variable(s), and then measure the changes in the other variable(s).

37-38 Jesus said to ‘the Jews’, Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. Several times Jesus claimed that he did the works of his Father (5:36; 10:25, 37–38; 14:10; 17:4). He now invited ‘the Jews’ not to believe him if he did not do what God does. However, there is a corollary: But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles. The miracles of Jesus were the works of God, and Jesus invited his opponents to believe in him on account of the miracles, even if they could not believe what he said.

Having secured a breathing space before the threat of mob violence would force him to retreat (v. 39), Jesus appeals to the evidence he wants his opponents to weigh. He does not expect to be believed on the basis of his own naked claims.

39 Jesus’ opponents could not counter his arguments, so they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp. Several attempts had already been made to arrest or kill Jesus, but they had all failed (7:30, 32, 44; 8:20).

CONCLUSION

Today we have seen two features of the Human condition.

The Feature of another door.

2. The Feature of the state of our Lostness

Illustration:

Here's what looks like when we remove the Shepherd from our lives:

1 my ... I shall be in want.

2 me ... me

3 my soul ... me

4 I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear ... me ... me.

5 me in the presence of my enemies ... my head ... my cup

6 me all the days of my life ... I will dwell

We are left obsessing over our wants in the valley of the shadow of death, paralyzed by fear in the presence of our enemies. No wonder so many are so cynical … Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The cynic focuses on the darkness; the child focuses on the Shepherd.

Perhaps you’ve been searching for security and satisfaction behind another door. The door of success, the door of your spouse, the door of your religion........

Perhaps you are still wondering in your state of lostness and are unable to hear the voice of the shepherd calling his sheep to come home.......