Jesus Is the Good Shepherd

Good morning to you. Open your Bibles to John chapter 10, please. I'll read verses 1 through 21, but we're really focused on 11 and on this morning. So John chapter 10. 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. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. But when he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

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, but 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, they see the wolf coming and they leave the sheep. And the sheep flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. But 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 for this charge I have received from my Father There is again a division among the Jews because of these words and many of them said He has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him? Others said, These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon.

Besides, can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Let us pray. O God, we praise you for your faithfulness and goodness. Yes, Lord, it is everywhere we look. We woke up to another son coming up. We woke up from our sleep in our beds as he washed over us as we slept.

You brought us here to gather with the church to proclaim your faithfulness. Not just to provide our physical life, but we know, God, that you have been faithful to provide us all that we need for spiritual life in Christ Jesus the Lord. We know, God, that we are sheep. Whether we know it or not, whether we're a believer or unbeliever, we know we are all sheep and we're in need of a shepherd who will take care of us.

Would you help us, God, to look to the good shepherd now? Would you help us to see when we're being led by a hired hand or a thief and a robber? And would you help us, Lord, to rather hear and respond to the Good Shepherd, the overseer of our souls? Oh God, would you help us to see your word here and respond? God, I'm a weak vessel. These words that come from my lips come forth from weakness, but I pray that by your spirit, You would make it understandable.

And it would be Jesus Christ preaching as crucified and rose again for our life. And would you help the sheep here before me to hear and to respond in faith to Christ. Thank you, Lord, for your grace and kindness and your mercies that are abundant. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. I think about it often, especially in light of our topic here of this morning, 1 Peter 2 Peter 3 Peter 4 Peter 5 Peter 6 Peter 7 Peter 8 Peter 9 Peter 10 Because of the mistreatment from the Pharisees So we saw we talked about how this man though faithful to Christ now has a hard life before him as he has been kicked out of the synagogue And I think about often how coming to Christ, because he demands everything, and we've already talked about this in part already, but coming to Christ usually, always, in some degree, will require suffering on your end if you are going to actually follow Jesus.

Just like they're suffering for this man now since he has decided to put his faith and to be a testimony to Jesus. I remember not long after coming to Christ and realizing that my old friends weren't going to cut what it looks like to have proper fellowship with Christ. I remember having to cut them off. And for the first time in I don't know how long, on a Friday night, I was alone in my bedroom with nothing to do.

And that was, again, as a teenager, 18-year-old, that could be kind of the end of the world. And it was a hard thing for me to used to being with so many people enjoying a good time out and now I had literally no friends, no one to hang out with. And that was because I recognized that hanging out with the old crew would not be honoring to Christ. I remember that being the same outcast in boot camp just a year or two later.

At one time I would be with all the guys and having a good time during boot camp, but instead because their language and their conduct was so out of step with Christ, I had to be an outcast and be more lonely than what I would like. There are times in our lives where following Jesus makes it harder on us. And even if it's not because of our particular following of Jesus, life can be hard on the Christian.

And it can be easy for us to say, why is this happening when I'm pursuing Jesus? I remember finding out with Jana that we were going to lose our daughter at birth. I remember thinking, we're young Christian parents. Why would this happen to us? Why is this happening? Why are we going through this miserable period of knowing we're going to lose our daughter?

To young Christian parents wondering, are we ever going to have children again? Is this it for us? There are times in our life where we go through miserable times, conditions, and it's important that we remember what Jesus is teaching us here. That even in those miserable times, even whenever it's difficult, He is our Good Shepherd and is leading us unto goodness.

Always. See again this man healed by Jesus has now been kicked out of the synagogue for his faithful witness to Jesus And we talked about how that would make his life terribly terribly difficult He would face religious hardship for being kicked out of the synagogue. No more being part of the covenant community. No more part of the Torah reading. No more part of the prayers.

No more part of the festival participation. He's cut off and he's viewed as an utter heretic. This man being kicked out of the synagogue would face social hardships. You've got to understand that the synagogue was the town's social hub. It was where everything happened. So a loss of community, belongings.

He was an outsider, even dead. There was a stigma attached to him now and his family, and there was certain shunning that he would receive. And there was economic hardship for this man Again, as he has been kicked out of the synagogue, making money would be a lot more difficult now. Whereas it was hard before because he's blind, and now it's hard because he proclaims Jesus.

There's a failure of ability to make money, find work, and so certainly his family would see certain poverty. This is why this man's parents wanted nothing to do with Jesus, if you remember. They said, just ask him, we don't know. And this man was faithful to Christ and now he's kicked out. And yet despite this, when Jesus reveals himself, he worships Jesus.

And now Jesus is teaching us that despite the hardship, he is the good shepherd. Despite the badness, he's still the goodness. He gave a figure of speech of a sheepfold and a sheep following the shepherd to good pasture. And then we saw that he was the door that leads to the sheep and the door that leads to good pasture. And now in our text today, Jesus is going to focus on him being the good shepherd so that this man can be confident.

He can be confident that no matter what miserable season being kicked out of the synagogue will bring him, he can be sure he is following the good shepherd of his soul. And so you can be confident, standing before me, that no matter what miserable season you might be in, you can be sure you are following the Good Shepherd through it. So let's see how this teaching plays out.

We'll see it in three ways. The Good Shepherd sacrifices himself for your greatest good. We'll see the Good Shepherd knows your greatest need. And we'll see the Good Shepherd is authorized by the Father to give you your greatest good and provide for your greatest need. So let's start first with, in our text, in verses 11 through 13, the Good Shepherd sacrifices himself for your greatest good.

John 10, 11-13, Jesus says, Jesus provides a contrast between a good shepherd and simply a hired hand in this figure of speech. Before the contrast was a good shepherd and the thief and the robber, but now it's the contrast between the good shepherd and the hired hand. It's a little bit better to be a hired hand because at least the hired hand seemingly is willing to do their job, But it's still connected to being a thief and a robber in that it's rooted in his own self-interest and not the interest of the sheep.

So the hired hand is given money, take care of the sheep, and he'll do that. But as soon as there's danger to him, he's not going to do anything for the sheep. He's going to flee. And so whereas the thief and the robber is out for themselves and they are out to hurt the sheep, the hired hand is at least willing to take care of the sheep until it means his own danger.

And then he will flee, run away, leave the sheep so that the sheep can be taken out by the wolves. You see, sheep are very susceptible to predators like that. It's just like having chickens. Those things seem to love to die from all the predators that are around. And it's sheep as well. They will quickly be killed if they're not being taken care of.

The hired hand is willing to do so, but as soon as they feel danger, they will flee and run away and leave the sheep to death. And we've got to ask ourselves, who is the wolf in this figure of speech? What is he talking about? Again, this isn't just story time with Jesus. There is something that being said here that we can grab hold of Who is the wolf in this figure of speech The wolf is the one who comes to do the most bad or harm for the sheep The wolf is the one to come to harm the sheep to the greatest degree We're talking about goodness here.

This is the extent of badness. The wolf is the extent of that. What is the worst thing for you and I? What is the worst thing for this man who is now facing hard times? In hard times, you might be tempted to say, whatever is bringing on that hard time, that is the worst thing. That's the wolf.

But the worst thing for you is sin that takes you away from God. That is the worst thing, always, forever, always will be, never will change. That's it. So the wolf is the devil as he brings temptation to sin that will bring you away from God and scatter you from God. That's the wolf here. The wolf came to Adam and Eve in the garden as a snake.

He came telling them their life is found in sin instead of enjoying God in the garden. That's the wolf sent to scatter Adam and Eve forever. And the wolf comes for every one of us in the form of temptation to sin for a false life or enjoyable life. Jesus worked for the good of his sheep by taking those sins, Jesus, taking on the wolf head on, giving up himself so that the sheep would have life.

1 Peter 2, 24-25, Peter talks about this. He says, He himself, that is Jesus, bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were strained like sheep. See, strain to sin, strain for the wolf to come and devour you. Your life would be better if you do this. You were strained like sheep, but you have returned to the shepherd and overseers of your souls because he has taken on those sins and he gives you healing by taking on those sins.

See, where the hired hand will run at the danger, Well, where the robber will literally try to devour you. Jesus takes on that danger on himself so that you will have life. He takes the sin upon himself so that the life of the sheep will be found in righteousness and not sin See this is what Jesus meant before when he said in chapter 10 of John verses 9 and 10 he says 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. And the way he does it for his sheep is he takes upon the sins upon himself so that the sheep can feed on righteousness instead. Instead, the wolf comes to destroy. The thief and the robber comes to destroy, to take you away from God via sin.

And Jesus takes that upon himself and gives you life and righteousness instead. See, the good shepherd takes our greatest bad and gives us our greatest good instead. And he does it through self-sacrifice driven by a motivation of care for the sheep. That's what he does when the wolf comes. See, the hired hand might put on a display that he'll protect you when the wolf comes, but when he does, he'll run away and there'll be no protection for you at all.

Jesus is the only one who can take our greatest problem head on and care enough to give himself for you so that you'll have life instead. So this man may have a tough road before him, surely. This man has a tough road. Being kicked out of the synagogue was no treat at all, but he is in the care of a good shepherd who will give up himself for his greatest need.

And so it is with you. No matter what hardship or difficulty that you have going on, the thing that when you close your eyes, that's all you can see, Jesus has brought you to it, And it does not compare to the hardship or difficulty that Jesus brought you out of by sacrificing himself for you to overcome the wolf or the sin. Any hardship you face now is so you can enjoy the greater good that he has done for you.

So God, the good shepherd, sacrifices himself for your greatest good. The second point here is the good shepherd knows your greatest need. He knows your greatest need. Look at verses 14. We'll look at verses 14 and 15 with this. Verse 14.

He says I am the good shepherd and I know my own He says he says I am the good shepherd and I know my own See a good shepherd will know their sheep well A good shepherd will be amongst his sheep and he will get to know them He'll know their hurts, their sicknesses, the things that they need. He will know them well and provide for their needs because he knows their needs. He will know what injuries they have, what sicknesses they have.

He will know what they need and where to go to fulfill their needs. Jesus is saying that he knows his own sheep in the same way. He knows exactly what you need for your greatest good. He's not confused by it. He's not, I don't know what should happen here. He's not, you come to a hardship, he's like, well, I don't know if that will be your greatest good or if that will come.

I'm not sure, we'll see. He knows exactly who you are, if you're a sheep, and he will provide for your greatest need, No matter the hardship or what difficulty you have before you. He gave himself for your greatest good in order to feed you righteousness, and he will lead you to that greater righteousness. He knows how to do it. He knows your needs. He knows how to do it.

You remember 1 Peter 2, 24-25, he himself bore our sins in his body on a tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He knows exactly what needs to happen in your life for you to live in righteousness. We think of Psalm 23. Go to there real quick. We're going to read the whole thing. Go to Psalm 23.

Starting to regret the sweatshirt choice. It's getting a little sweaty up here. Psalm 23. Psalm of David. It says, the Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want. Verse 2, he makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness. And it's for his namesake. And look at this in verse 4. Even 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. And you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You see, the shepherd will lead the sheep through the valley of darkness. And the shepherd doesn't do that. He's like, well, I don't know where I'm at. He knows exactly where he's going for the good of his sheep and what they need.

Jesus knows his sheep. He knows you. And if you're going through the valley of the shadow of darkness, it's because that's what you need. He's not confused by it. He's not alarmed by it. It's on purpose for your greatest need to be met that you would feed upon righteousness.

The fact of the matter is your greatest need is righteousness, both standing righteousness and practicing righteousness. And Jesus knows you very well, and he knows how to get you to both. He died for your sins, so you stand righteous before God, and now he leads you so that you practice that righteousness, and he will lead you through darkness for that practicing righteousness to happen.

The way of enjoying righteousness is found oftentimes through the valley of the shadow of death, difficulties. Jesus knows this, and he'll bring you where you need to go. Not only does the good shepherd know the sheep and what they need and how to bring it to them, but the sheep know him. Look at verse 14 again. Not only does he say, I know my own, but he says, and my own know me.

So that means the sheep will follow the shepherd through the valley of the shadow of death, because the sheep know that if the shepherd is leading him there, it is for their greatest need to be met. Yes, even 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. That's the tool of the shepherd, to lead the sheep.

So you see the situation around you, you say, this is terrible, awful, I'm scared. And then you look up and you see the leading of your shepherd and you say, okay, I'm good. He knows what he's doing. He knows my needs. He's leading me where I need to go to be fed righteousness. He says, my own know me.

That means we know our shepherd. We know he's good. We know the promises he has for us. We know that he knows everything. So therefore, when we're in hard times, difficulties, it does not lead us to go astray. It leads us to go further, closer to the shepherd.

The mark of a mature Christian is not to act like the valley of the shadow of death doesn't exist. The mark of a mature Christian is not to act like hard times don exist Just look away from it Look away Don think about it I remember I used to put my hands over my eyes during scary movies I had like seven, six older brothers. No, seven, eight, nine. Yeah, six, seven, eight, nine.

Six older brothers. And so I was just exposed to all these terrible movies. And the really scary movies are like seven years old. And I remember when they got scary, I would just put my hands over my eyes. I just wouldn't look. And so if I do that, it doesn't exist.

It's not there anymore. It's safety. And I think a lot of times immature Christians can think, well, when we go through hard times, just put your hands over your eyes, act like they don't exist, right? That's not what we do. The mark of a mature Christian is walk through the valley with a conviction that Jesus has your good in mind as he leads you through it.

Acknowledge the hardship. Acknowledge the difficulty. Cry tears. But do it with the conviction that Jesus is doing it because he knows me and he knows what I need. He's leading me to rich pasture of righteousness. And look at verse 15 when he says, Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep.

See, Jesus knows what makes for the greatest good because it is something he possesses himself. He knows the Father, the Father knows him, and he leads us unto that same relationship that we can have with God, the green and rich pastures. It is righteousness that is what we are led to, that is being right in relationship with God. Jesus knows God, the Father, the Father knows Jesus.

He knows exactly what that looks like, and he brings us to the same place. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and so I know my sheep, and my sheep know me. He leads us to the same intimacy that he already experiences. You know, you go to a gym, let's say you're totally out of shape. You need to lose like 100 pounds, right? You go to the gym, you're like, okay, I'm going to get a physical trainer and he's going to help me.

And he walks in and he's 200 pounds overweight. You wouldn't want to follow that physical trainer, would you? Jesus leads us to what he already has. The Father knows him, he knows the Father. He says, and I will take you to the same experience. Our greatest need is to be with the Father and to have someone defend us from Satan and his lies of sin, to defend us from the wolf.

Jesus overcame the devil and leads you to the same pasture that he enjoys The good shepherd knows your greatest need and he provides it And he can bring you, okay, he can bring you to the fulfillment because he experiences it himself. I'm going to save verse 16 for my conclusion in a couple minutes, okay? So it's going to be a little bit out of order.

If you have an issue with it, you can talk with me afterwards. Just don't be too mean to me. But the third point, the good shepherd is authorized by the Father to give you your greatest good and your greatest need. You see, he sacrifices himself for your greatest good, and he knows your greatest need, and he's authorized by the Father to give you those things.

You see, when the devil came to Adam and Eve, he offered them a better life in which they would be like God, but something he was not authorized to actually give. But Jesus is authorized to give us the good he promises to give. Look at verses 17 through 18. For this reason, he says, 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 on 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. You see, God is the one who determines what is good in life. He knows exactly what his creation needs. And he has ordained that his son would come and authorize him to do the work necessary to bring us to that greatest good.

He has authorized his son to come and die on the cross to feed righteousness to his sheep. He is authorized by God to do the work and so therefore Jesus says, it's not like I'm just dying and being killed and it's not something according to my own will. Paul says, I willingly give myself up for the good of my sheep because this is the charge I've been authorized by the Father to do.

All of history is marked by the work Jesus was authorized to do to feed you what you need and your goodness. You want to know why the world doesn't just collapse into wrath and fire right now? It's because Jesus was authorized to give his sheep what they need and that's what he's going to do. You see, he can give us what we need. He can give us our greatest good because he was authorized by the Father to do so.

And so he gives himself up as a willing sacrifice to do that very thing. So going back and really in conclusion in verse 16 in chapter 10 verse 16 he says And I have other sheep that are not of this fold he says I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice So there will be one flock and one shepherd. And what Jesus is saying there, he's saying it's not just the flock of Israel that I'm calling out to me.

It's not just the flock of Israel that I'm calling out to me, despite the hardship that they're going to face whenever they leave the false Jewish religion. It's not just this flock I'm going to call out to me to feed what they need, righteousness and goodness that the Father has authorized for me to do. But I'm going to call a flock outside of Israel, that is the whole Gentile world to me, So that there will be these sheep coming in because of my voice of the gospel going out, and they'll be fed my righteousness while standing and practical.

And so the point here is that the whole church age, these last 2,000 years that we have, is this playing out, that Jesus is calling his whole flock to himself. Another flock of the Gentile world is now being called in so that we can all respond to the voice of Jesus And go where he says that we need to go to be fed righteousness that he has provided. So this is the entire church age, even to our own day.

Jesus' voice goes out now. Can you hear it? The whole point of this, the reason why the world hasn't ended already is because his voice is going out to gather his flock from the Gentile lands. Can you hear his voice as he calls out? Or is his voice drowned out by other voices that are lying to you? There is the voice of the thief and the robber who says, Give it in to the wolf, it's best for you.

Just live in sin and it will give you your greatest good even as it devours you. There is the voice of the hired hand. He will guide you enough to morality and religion. He'll make it appear like he's taking care of you. Make sure you're not as bad as your neighbor. Go to your church and read your Bible just enough to get by.

But when the wolf comes with the temptation to sin, it will not be enough to overcome him. Jesus is a good shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep and leads them in rich pastures of righteousness. He is the Only one who can overcome, who has overcome the wolf sin for your goodness. A very practical thing for you to do when you are overcome with anxiety and worry and doubt, fear, write down what is making you afraid.

Write down the description of the valley of darkness that you see that's all around you. Do not ignore it. Don't put your hands over your eyes and say, well, if I don't see it, it doesn't exist. It exists. It's there. And it won't go away just because your hands are over your eyes.

Write down a description of what is making you afraid. Describe the shadow of death, the valley. Then write down the promise that Jesus has for you to lead you to your greatest good. Write down Romans 28-29. Yes, we've all heard it before, but we need to hear it again. The moment that you're complaining in your circumstances, you need to hear Romans 8-28-29 again, don't you?

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. The shepherd is leading us. For those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknown, he also predestined to be what? What's the good? Conform to the image of his son.

So when those all things are pressing in on you, and they're dark, scary, difficult, they're driving anxiety, describe those all things. And then remind yourself of the promise that Jesus has said, And I will use it to feed you rich pasture to look like me. Then write down what ways the things you fear, the description of the darkness, the description of the anxiety and everything that's closing in on you, write down what ways the things you fear can work for your good to look like Jesus.

How can that anxious thing right there cause you to look like Jesus? If you don know the answer to that you have many mature Christians around you who probably do Learn to connect the valley of darkness with the goodness of your shepherd Learn to bring them together so that in that valley, scary, tears, hardship, sure, but a confidence that you are being led by the shepherd. Connect your anxieties with the goodness of Jesus and how he promised to lead you to it and specifically say, And I know that he can do that here.

Sometimes the path to that pasture is full of misery, terror. But remember who you are following, the good shepherd of your soul, who knows you and what you need. He is able and faithful to provide for your greatest need. Do you know him? Let us pray. Oh God, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you, Lord, for his kindness and love to us. God, we can all, each one of us can spend so much time considering the different hardships that we have faced, that we are facing. We have anxieties of future hardships that we don't even know about. Oh God, would you help us remember the good shepherd that we follow? Would you help us to remember that he has given up everything for us, even death on the cross to feed us of his righteousness?

Would you help us to know that, to remember that he knows us and he knows exactly what we need and when we need it and how we need it to look like him so that when we face these circumstances, we don't just look at the anxiety, the hardship alone, but we pair them up, we connect them with the goodness of our shepherd. Oh God, I ask that you would help us to practice this very thing so that Christ would be glorified and that we would look more like him and feast well of the good things that he has for us. Thank you for being good to us in Jesus and in his name we pray.

Amen.