The Good News of Our Good Shepherd: A Good Friday Meditation

Introduction

It’s an honor to bring God’s Word to you on this Good Friday evening. My aim tonight is that

Jesus would be lifted up,

our affections would be stirred, and

we’d worship him anew as our worthy Savior.

Prayer

Let’s pray together and ask for God’s help to that end.

Father in heaven, we have sober hearts tonight as we gather to remember our Savior and what he endured at the hands of evil men like us almost 2,000 years ago for us and our salvation. Good Friday was the most evil day the world has ever known; yet it was also the most glorious day. It was a day of inexpressible sorrow and horror, but it became a day of indescribable joy—for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Help us tonight as we consider our Savior and the profound theology of Good Friday. Cause our hearts to respond with the mixed emotions of horror and happiness, grief and gladness, as we consider how your “kindness and severity” (Rom 11:22), your justice and justification (Rom 3:26), meet in the person and work of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. In his matchless name we pray. Amen.

Rationale

I’ve chosen John 10 as my text for tonight. It may not immediately seem like a Good Friday text. We typically consider the historical events of the final days and hours of Jesus’ life on Good Friday:

his betrayal,

his trial,

his suffering,

his final words, and

his death.

These real, historical events are critical to the gospel. There is no gospel without them, as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 15:1–4.

But the historical events aren’t by themselves good news—at least not on the surface and without explanation. The good news is found in the meaning and significance of these historical events, in their theology and application.

That’s what I’d like us to consider together tonight by looking at Jesus’ death through the lens of John 10.

Time won’t permit a full exposition. Instead, we’ll draw out a few key themes and meditate together on the Good News of Our Good Shepherd.

Text

John 10 stands alone as the only extended theological treatment of Jesus’ death in the gospels.

The Gospels focus on the historical events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The epistles, on the other hand, spend very little time on the details of Jesus’ final days and instead focus on the meaning and significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

What we have here is Jesus’ own theology of his death. He is both the teacher and the subject, the preacher and the sermon.

Interpreters debate whether this is parable or allegory. In a parable, there’s only one point of connection between the story and reality. In an allegory, virtually everything in the story corresponds to something in reality. I think it’s best to see it somewhere between the two. There are numerous points of connection, but we mustn’t get hung up on all the details and press them too far.

Jesus uses this figurative language to paint a picture for us that helps us understand who he is and what he does—at least for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. While most of us haven’t grown up around sheep and shepherds and may miss some of the richness his first-century audience would pick up, there’s plenty here that’s illuminating for us.

As I’ve soaked in this text over the last several weeks, I’ve come to treasure it as one of the most important and theologically rich passages in all of Scripture. It packs in so densely so many gospel doctrines, and it does it through a beautiful autobiographical extended metaphor that is unlike anything else we have in Scripture.

It’s not surprising that we find this passage in John’s Gospel, which is loved for its unique character and rich theology about Jesus.

Context

It’s critical to note that chapter 10 doesn’t start a new thought. It’s a continuation of Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees in chapter 9, where Jesus was exposing their spiritual blindness in stark contrast to the spiritual sight of the blind man. The “you” in verse 1 points back to the “Pharisees” in verse 40.

So, we should interpret chapter 10 not in a vacuum but in light of the preceeding context in chapter 9, since it’s part of the same conversation—and even back further as Jesus has been clashing with these wicked Jewish leaders who abused the flock of God.

Proposition

What I’d like us to see tonight is that the person and work of our Good Shepherd is the good news our sinful, needy, and insecure hearts long for and need, not just on Good Friday but every day.

And it’s not just what Jesus did in those final days and hours that’s important. It’s who he was and is—from all eternity and from birth—and how his identity influenced his life from the cradle, to the cross, to the crown.

We won’t truly appreciate what Jesus did if we don’t sufficiently understand who he is. It’s his identity, his person, that gives his work its meaning and significance.

We’ll unpack this in three points that focus on

who Jesus is,

what he did, and

what promises to do.

So consider with me, first, . . .

1. Our Singular Good Shepherd

The first big point Jesus drives home in this passage is his uniqueness. There is no one like him. Only he is qualified to be the Good Shepherd. He’s in a class all by himself. He stands alone, without peer or rival. He alone is worthy, as John put it in Revelation 5.

Jesus is unique in all of history, and the Bible is replete with stories and teaching that drive this point home.

Let’s look at the evidences of Jesus’ uniqueness here in John 10.

First, Jesus reveals who he is by showing us who he isn’t.

1.1. Who Jesus Isn’t (vv. 1, 5, 8, 10, 12–13)

Jesus contrasts himself with four others in this passage, and behind each he’s contrasting himself with the evil one and his children (8:44), those under his power, including the blind Jewish religious leaders.

First . . .

1.1.1. He’s not like the thieves and robbers (vv. 1, 8, 10).

who sneak in and want to steal and kill and destroy. We see this in verses 1, 8, and 10.

Second, according to verse 5 . . .

1.1.2. He’s not like the strangers (v. 5).

who are unfamiliar to the sheep and cannot lead them.

Third, we see in verse 12 that . . .

1.1.3. He’s not like the wolves (v. 12).

who attack and scatter and ravage the flock (v. 12).

And fourth, in verses 12 and 13 . . .

1.1.4. He’s not like the hired hand (vv. 12–13).

who cares only for himself and runs to save his own life in the face of danger, leaving the sheep to fend for themselves.

You need only go back to chapter 9 to see these evil false shepherds in vivid detail as they attacked the man born blind, whom Jesus had graciously healed.

What we see in each of these bad characters is the opposite of what Jesus is.

Unlike the thieves and robbers who steal and kill and destroy, Jesus saves, provides, and gives abundant life to the flock.

Unlike the strangers who are unfamiliar and unknown, Jesus knows, loves, and personally calls each of his sheep by name.

Unlike the wolves who attack and scatter and ravage the flock, Jesus defends, gathers, and protects the flock.

And unlike the hired hand who cowardly runs and leaves the sheep to fend for themselves, Jesus courageously faces all opposition and willingly lays his life down to rescue every last one of his sheep.

This is our Good Shepherd. This is what he does for every single one of his sheep, personally, individually, and by name, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year—without exception, interruption, accident, or failure. Isn’t he worthy of your gratitude, affection, allegiance, and worship tonight?

Now, let’s consider the positive statements of . . .

1.2. Who Jesus Is

First, we see that . . .

1.2.1. He is God. (vv. 7, 9, 11, 14, 30, 36, 38; cf. 31)

The full deity of Jesus is unmistakable from this passage.

We see this, first, in how . . .

1.2.1.1. He is the “I Am.” (vv. 7, 9, 11, 14)

John’s Gospel famously records two pairs of seven “I Am” statements of Jesus.

There are seven absolute statements, where Jesus says, “I am” with no noun or adjective to answer who or what he is. In these Jesus was claiming to be Yahweh, who referred to himself as “I am” in Exodus 3:14.

The clearest of these is just two chapters earlier in John 8:58, where Jesus said,

Before Abraham was born, I am.

The Jews understood what Jesus was implying; they picked up stones to stone him (8:59).

John also records seven metaphorical statements, where Jesus identifies as many different things to reveal his character to us.

He is . . .

The bread of life (Jn 6:35, 41, 48, 51)

The light of the world (Jn 8:12)

The gate for the sheep (Jn 10:7, 9)

The good shepherd (Jn 10:9, 11, 14)

The resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25)

The way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6)

The true vine (Jn 15:1, 5)

We don’t have time to fully develop this point, but in each of these Jesus was either (a) connecting himself to an Old Testament reference of Yahweh or (b) revealing something about himself that’s only true of God.

When Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, he no doubt has Psalm 23 in mind, which begins,

Yahweh is my shepherd.

Jesus is identifying himself with Yahweh as the shepherd of his sheep.

A lesser known passage behind John 10 is Ezekiel 34, which has numerous parallels.

Ezekiel 34:31 says,

“As for you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are men, and I am your God,” declares the Lord God.

Jesus identifies himself as the Yahweh of Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34 and fulfills this divine role of shepherd for his people.

Yahweh as the shepherd of his people is all throughout the Old Testament, and numerous other New Testament passages present Jesus as

our “great Shepherd” (Heb 13:20–21),

our “Shepherd and Overseer” (1 Pet 2:25),

the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4), and

the Lamb who will be our shepherd (Rev 7:17).

Second, we see his deity in that . . .

1.2.1.2. He is one with the Father. (vv. 30, 36, 38)

Jesus claims a special relationship with the Father that could only be true if he were himself God.

He says, “I and the Father are one” in verse 30.

He is “the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world” and “the Son of God” in verse 36.

He says, “The Father is in Me, and I in the Father” in verse 38.

It’s clear from verse 33 that the Jews understood the seriousness of Jesus’ claims, where they said,

“For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

So Jesus, our Good Shepherd, is clearly God. But also . . .

1.2.2. He is man (vv. 10, 24–25, 33, 36).

It wasn’t enough for the Good Shepherd to be God. He had to become a man in order to rescue the sheep.

This is taught all throughout the Gospels.

John 1:14—“the Word became flesh”—is one of the best-known passages, but it’s all throughout John’s Gospel, where Jesus says nearly 40 times that the Father sent him into the world.

It comes out explicitly in our text in four verses:

“I came that they may have life” in verse 10

“If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe” in verses 24–25

“You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God” in verse 33

“the Father sanctified and sent [him] into the world” in verse 36

Each of these stresses the reality of the incarnation, Jesus’ coming from heaven to earth in the likeness of man.

As I mentioned already, Ezekiel 34, the prophesy against the evil shepherds of Israel, provides a rich background for John 10. It tells of the one who would come as the Davidic King and Messiah and rule over the flock with love and justice in stark contrast to the false shepherds who abused the sheep.

Ezekiel 34:23–24 says,

I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the Lord have spoken.

Just three chapter later Ezekiel 37:24 says,

“My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd.

The Messiah had to be a man. God could not lay down his life in the way necessary to save the sheep both from their oppressors and from their own sinfulness and fallenness.

Jesus had to become like them. To press the metaphor a bit, the shepherd himself had to become a sheep.

And that’s precisely what John saw and recorded in Revelation 7:17,

for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life.

I love the picture here of the lamb as our shepherd.

This parallels other places where Jesus is both the priest who makes the sacrifice to God for the people and the sacrifice itself (Heb 7:27; 10:12).

No one else can be

both subject and object,

both priest and sacrifice,

both prophet and word,

both king and servant,

both shepherd and lamb,

both God and man.

Jesus demolishes our small-minded thinking. He shatters our false dichotomies and limited either-or conceptions that have led untold millions into false teaching and destruction. We cannot put Jesus into a neat and tidy box. He defies complete understanding. He is the unique and mysterious God-Man. Let us respond in awe and wonder and worship.

Finally, we see that . . .

1.2.3. He is good (vv. 11, 14).

Jesus calls himself good three times in verses 11 and 14.

In verse 11:

“I am the good shepherd”

“The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep”

And again in verse 14:

“I am the good shepherd.”

This is not the normal word for good, ἀγαθός, from which we get the name Agatha; instead, this is the word καλός, from which we get calligraphy, which literally means “beautiful writing.”

Καλός is a rich word that carries connotations of beautiful, excellent, blameless, pleasing, desirable. It’s that which meets a high standard or expectation of appearance, kind, quality. While ἀγαθός stresses the idea of objective goodness, καλός brings in elements of our subjective response. If ἀγαθός is a more logical word; καλός brings an emotional element.

Is this how you see Jesus? Is Jesus merely perfect to you, or is also he beautiful? Do you just affirm the objective truth about Jesus in your head? Or do you also embrace his amazing beauty in your heart? May God give us not just minds to think true thoughts about Jesus, but may he also give us eyes to see and behold, and hearts to experience and embrace, his matchless beauty.

If you want to see this goodness and beauty in action, go home tonight and read John 11 and see the tenderness of Jesus’ care for Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and his disciples.

This is our singular Good Shepherd. He is God, he is man, and he is good.

Next, consider with me . . .

2. Our Sacrificial Good Shepherd

where we learn more about how Jesus is good, as we see what he’s like through what he does.

Jesus’ goodness is seen is his sacrificial actions and love for his sheep.

That’s clear in verses 11, 14, and 15:

Verse 11: “the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

Verse 14: “I know My own.”

Verse 15: “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

The Good Shepherd gives his life for his own. Jesus is clearly referring to what he was about to do in his atoning death, where he willingly submits himself to crucifixion on behalf of his people.

Jesus’ knowledge of his sheep isn’t merely intellectual. He knows everything. There’s something special about this knowledge. The knowing that Jesus has in mind here is relational and particular. It’s exclusive to his sheep. It’s like Adam knew Eve in Genesis 4:1 and like God knew Israel in Amos 3:2. Jesus knows his sheep in this loving relational sense in a way he knows no one else—except for the Father.

It’s this relationship of love that motivates Jesus to lay down his life in sacrificial death for his people.

Let’s look at four characteristics of our sacrificial Good Shepherd.

First,

2.1. He is self-sacrificial (vv. 11, 15, 17).

There are lots of noble ways people can make sacrifices, to give things up for the sake of others. A man can give up personal pleasures to provide for his family, a mother can give up her freedom for her children, an employee can forfeit a raise for a coworker, a neighbor can sacrifice her time to help someone in need.

But that’s not what Jesus did. He didn’t sacrifice just his career ambitions or personal preferences or merely give of his time or resources. He sacrificed himself, his very own life. He says this three times in verses 11, 15, and 17:

Verse 11: “The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

Verse 15: “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

Verse 17: “I lay down My life.”

Jesus was willing to die for those he loved.

He reiterates this again in chapter 15, when he says,

Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

And John says in 1 John 3:16,

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us.

And lest you to start to compare Jesus to others who nobly stand in harms way for their fellow man—our police officers, our firefighter, our frontline medical staff, our military—as noble and honorable as that is, remember that Jesus’ self-sacrificial death was unlike any other.

He wasn’t just willing to face possible death; he signed up for certain death. Jesus didn’t take a calculated risk; he chose a guaranteed death sentence.

And Jesus didn’t die to save his neighbors or his countrymen; he died to save his enemies.

Don’t let the innocence and tameness of sheep hide our true nature. John 10 doesn’t tell the full story; no one parable or allegory can. At risk of stretching the metaphor too far, we were, in a sense, wolves in sheep’s clothing when Jesus died to save us—not cute, cuddly, innocent sheep.

Paul captures this powerfully in Romans 5:6–10:

Verse 6: “Christ died for the ungodly”

Verse 8: “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”

Verse 10: “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son”

Our good, sacrificial shepherd sacrificed not only the glories of heaven but also his very own life to certain death of the worst kind imaginable for those who were by nature his enemies. What an amazing sacrifice, what indescribable love, what a glorious Savior, what a Good Shepherd!

Next, let’s notice that in his sacrifice . . .

2.2. He is our substitute (vv. 11, 15).

The little word for, ὑπέρ in Greek, in verses 11 and 15 carries the idea of in place of, instead of, as a substitute for. This is the glorious doctrine of the substitutionary atonement.

In the shepherding metaphor, Jesus placed himself between his sheep and any threat against them. He shielded them from harm. He would face the ferocity of the lion, the bear, and the wolf, unlike the stranger who would, like a coward, flee and let the sheep be consumed.

Jesus death wasn’t merely a good example for us. No. He took our place and died the death we deserved to die. He bore the wrath of God that was justly directed toward us and our sin and shielded us from it. Our Good Shepherd was also the sacrificial lamb offered to God to take away our sin and appease the Father’s just and holy wrath.

His death wasn’t hypothetically for us or potentially for us. He really died for us, in our place, as a real sacrifice for our sins, making real atonement and really satisfying the full fury of God’s wrath toward us.

He died for us in the fullest sense.

Next, let’s notice that in his sacrifice . . .

2.3. He is sovereign (vv. 17–18).

Jesus was in complete and total control of his life all the way until he willingly breathed his final breath. But it didn’t stop there. What Jesus did next no person in human history has ever done before.

Look with me at verses 17–18:

I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

Jesus was sovereign over his own life. He voluntarily laid it down in death.

Pilate didn’t take Jesus’ life. The Jews didn’t. Judas didn’t. The Roman soldiers didn’t. The powers of darkness didn’t. Jesus exercised his sovereign authority and laid his own life down freely.

John records this sovereignty in 19:30:

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

But his sovereign authority didn’t stop there. The same control he exerted over the end of his life he exercised over death in coming back to life again.

Other shepherds may nobly fight to protect their sheep and may even lose their life in doing so. But after these shepherds die, the sheep are scattered and killed. The shepherd’s mission to protect them has failed.

But not with the Good Shepherd. No. In his death he defeated death. And he raised himself in victory from the grave, protecting every one of his sheep.

Our Good Shepherd is sovereign over life and death—and not just his own, but yours and mine. He is the resurrection and the life. He has conquered sin and death and hell for all his people. What a glorious hope we have because our sacrificial Good Shepherd is sovereign over life and death.

Finally, in his sacrifice . . .

2.4. He is selective (vv. 11, 15).

The shepherd sacrifices his life for his sheep.

Verse 11: “the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

Verse 15: “I lay down My life for the sheep.”

But who are these sheep?

First,

2.4.1. They are Jews and Gentiles (v. 16).

Jesus came not just to save those true believers from among the Jewish nation but also to call out a people for himself from among the Gentiles and to unite them into the one new covenant people of God, the church.

This is what verse 16 teaches:

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

The other sheep that Jesus refers to here are the Gentiles, the nations that had been “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world,” as Paul put it in Ephesians 2:12.

But then Paul goes on in verse 13 with those powerful words “But now”:

But now in Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Peter captures this same reality in 1 Peter 2:9–10:

But you [Gentiles] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This is the reality Jesus is referring to here in verse 16. By his sacrificial death, Jesus was calling out a new people from the Jews and Gentiles, who would be one flock under one shepherd, the one new people of God, the church, under Christ, the shepherd.

Isaiah 49:6 captures this global purpose of Christ’s incarnate mission and death beautifully:

He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

So does Isaiah 56:8, which says,

The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

This is the same reality that John records in chapter 11 when Caiaphas the high priest prophesied about Jesus’s death (Jn 11:49–52), which John interpreted this way:

Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

This is especially good news for us, tonight. Most of us are not from the bloodline of Abraham. We’re Gentiles by physical descent. Praise God that our sacrificial Good Shepherd came to gather in his sheep from outside the fold of Israel, from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev 5:9).

There’s one more important point about the identity of these sheep:

2.4.2. They belong to the Son (vv. 3–4, 14, 16, 26–27, 29).

Jesus refers to them as “my sheep” several times.

Verse 3: He calls his own sheep by name

Verse 4: When he has brought out all his own

Verse 14: I know My own and My own know Me

Verse 26: you are not of My sheep

Verse 27: My sheep hear My voice

And take note that these sheep belong to Jesus even before they’re saved. This is clear from John 10:16, which says,

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

So, these are sheep that are not yet saved. These are the ones Jesus prays for in John 17:20.

Most of us tend to equate sheep with Christians, but that’s not quite the biblical picture.

This is also clear in the brief explanation tucked in verse 26:

you do not believe because you are not of My sheep.

Jesus didn’t say, “You are not my sheep because you don’t believe.”—that if they would believe then they would become sheep. No. Jesus puts it precisely the other way. Being a sheep is a reality that precedes faith and conversion. So, there are unsaved sheep who become saved sheep (v. 16). And there are those who are not and will not be Jesus’ sheep (v. 26).

These sheep are those the Father has given to the Son, as Jesus said in verse 29,

My Father, who has given them to Me . . .

The Father’s giving of a people to the Son is a common expression for the sheep and a favorite of John’s. You’ll find it in John 6:37 and 39; John 17:2, 6, 9, and 24; and John 18:9. You’ll also find it in Hebrews 2:13.

This is the glorious and hope-giving doctrine of eternal election.

Jesus makes it clear that he is the shepherd of his sheep, the ones he knows and loves, and that his self-sacrificial, substitutionary, sovereign death is for them. It’s for you tonight if you know him by faith, and it’s for all who take him at his word, who hear the call of his voice, and come to him in faith.

This doctrine of our Good Shepherd’s death for his sheep, those given to him by the Father, is one of the richest, most hope-infusing doctrines in all of Scripture. Let it encourage your heart tonight that your Good Shepherd laid down his life for you.

This brings us to our final point. Consider with me . . .

3. Our Successful Good Shepherd

When we talk about success, we’re talking about achieving some goal or purpose.

According to verse 10, Jesus clearly lays out why he came, what his purpose was in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension:

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

So, in order for Jesus to be successful, he needs to accomplish his saving purposes to give full and abundant life to every one of his sheep.

This success flows from his sacrifice, which flows from his singularity. In other words, because Jesus was who he was, he could make the sacrifice that he made. And because he made that sacrifice, he could succeed in what he aimed to accomplish.

We’ll look briefly at four aspects of Jesus’ success.

First, notice that . . .

3.1. He successfully seeks (vv. 3–4; cf. 16, 27).

We see Jesus’ successfully seeking as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them.

In verse 3–4 we read,

The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. The sheep follow him because they know his voice.

And in verse 16 we read,

they will hear My voice

This is a beautiful picture of the effectual call of God. This is the call that raises Lazarus from the dead in the next chapter (John 11:43) and that caused light to shine out of darkness at the dawn of time (2 Cor 4:6). This is the call that creates what it commands.

When Jesus calls his sheep by name, they hear his voice and come to him.

Matthew and Luke present Jesus as the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine and goes to find the one missing sheep, puts it on his shoulders, and joyfully brings it home.

This is our Good Shepherd who successfully seeks out his own.

Next, we see that . . .

3.2. He successfully saves (v. 16; cf. 9–10, 28).

Jesus speaks in the strongest possible language about the certainty of the salvation of his sheep.

Their salvation is guaranteed by divine necessity.

Listen to verse 16:

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

And you see this happening even at the end of the chapter in verse 40, where “many believed in him.”

This term translated must is used throughout John’s gospel for the necessity and certainty of

Jesus’ public ministry in Jn 3:30

Jesus’ life of obedience in Jn 9:4

Jesus’ death in Jn 3:14; 12:34 and

Jesus’ resurrection in Jn 20:9.

So, the salvation of every one of Jesus’ sheep is as certain and guaranteed as every other part of Jesus’ work. Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is uncertain or at risk. It’s as reliable and certain as the Son’s commitment to his incarnate mission. It’s as certain as the character of God himself.

This text reminds me of authority, certainty, and success of Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says to Peter,

I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

Jesus doesn’t hope to build his church. He will build it. It’s guaranteed. It’s certain. And nothing can stand in his way. He will not rest until he has brought in every last one of his lost sheep.

Do you believe this tonight? Do you live this way? Do you pray this way? Evangelize this way? Rest your confidence tonight in the invincible success of our Good Shepherd.

Next, and this one’s not on your outline . . .

3.3. He successfully satisfies (vv. 9–10).

In verses 9 and 10, Jesus stresses the abundance and delight of his salvation, when he says,

“he . . . will go in and out and find pasture” and

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

These are expressions of excess. His sheep have more than enough. They have full bellies and delight in the provision, protection, familiarity of their shepherd.

As Psalms 23 puts it, the sheep

lack nothing

they enjoy

green pastures,

quiet waters,

restored souls,

comfort, and

an overflowing cup.

We have a Good Shepherd who satisfies, who delights to shower us with abundance!

Not only does Jesus successfully seek, save, and satisfy his sheep, but finally . . .

3.4. He successfully secures (vv. 27–29).

John 10:27–29 is one of the strongest promises in the Bible about God’s commitment to keep his own and protect them from leaving the fold.

It reads,

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, 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.

The Greek grammar here is amazingly rich; it’s the strongest possible kind of promise:

Jesus uses the emphatic pronoun to stress that it is he himself who gives them eternal life, appealing to his own authority, sovereignty, and character as a guarantee.

He also uses emphatic negation—a kind of double negative—to stress in the strongest possible language that they will certainly never perish.

He also adds “forever” in case there was any doubt about how long this promise lasts.

You could translate it, “I myself give eternal life to them, and they will most certainly never ever perish.”

As if that wasn’t strong enough, he adds that no one will snatch them out of his hand.

And if that’s not good enough, his Father who is greater than all also holds them all in his omnipotent hand.

Jesus layers promise upon promise, security upon security, to state this guarantee in the strongest and most emphatic way possible.

Robbers and thieves cannot break in and steal the sheep. Our Good Shepherd will protect every last one that he was given, even to the point of death and, shockingly, by means of his death.

I love how the fourth stanza of “In Christ Alone” captures the truth of this text:

No power of hell, no scheme of man, Can ever pluck me from his hand. Till He returns or calls me home, Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

“He Will Hold Me Fast,” one of my favorite songs, also conveys this beautifully.

Even more, I love how Paul unpacks this truth powerfully at the end of Romans 8 in verses 31–39:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Conclusion

This is our Good Shepherd, and this is the good news. This is what makes Good Friday so good. All that he is, all that he has done, and all that he will do are ours. Jesus and his work are yours tonight—if you know him by faith—and even better, you are his. Do you believe that tonight? Does it make your heart sing for joy? And he and his work can become yours this very night, if you hear the call of his voice and come to him in faith.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

Father, we stand in awe of Jesus our Savior and Good Shepherd. He is unlike any other and he did what no one else could do, what we could not do. He willingly laid down his life for us, in our place, to save us and unite us, and secure us as his own for all eternity. We’re amazed that you gave us to him as a gift from all eternity and that he came and endured all the fury of God and man and hell to rescue and redeem us and bring us into the fold as your special people. Send us on our way tonight in enthralled with our Savior and in anticipation of celebrating the glory of his resurrection as he exercised his sovereignty to take his life back up again. In the name of Jesus, Our Good Shepherd, we pray. Amen.