The Good Shepherd Dies for His Sheep

John 10 and the Context of the Good Shepherd

You'll turn with me please in your Bibles to John chapter 10 the gospel of John chapter 10 and relying upon the Lord's help this morning. We will Be looking once again here at this tremendous chapter together.

But before we do so, let's pray together My grace heavenly Father once again, we ask for your help and your assistance your spirit's power to Help us to handle your word or right to consider the great truths that are presented here before us.

There are so many things that would distract us, especially at this time of year. We would ask that during this time we'd be focused upon your truth that you would help us to Build that foundation upon which everything else is necessary to stand upon that foundation Lord help us to understand we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. One of the Casualties of flu this week was I did not have the opportunity of rerunning the Bulletin insert that we used a number of weeks ago. Where I presented to you a graphic I can see one right now.

We'll just simply have George hold his up face it backwards. That should be enough for everybody. There you go. That should be enough for everybody right there. Did not have an opportunity of rerunning any of those.

We're certainly not going to be making Super super speed through John chapter 10, so I will have opportunity I'm sure to reproduce some of those in the future. But if you were not with us that last time we have begun an unusual series of studies in the Bible in the books of Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts.

All based upon an ancient papyri known as p45 and we are looking at sections of those books that are contained in what is left of P45 a manuscript that originally contained all of Matthew Mark Luke John and Acts, but does it anymore?

It's actually much more of a miracle that we have any papyri book from 1 ,800 years ago but It is fragmentary. And so we are using that as sort of our guide and we started working into John chapter 10.

And we just got to the first portion that is actually visible on The papyri page that I produced for you here in John chapter 10, but I wanted to remind us of the context. It has been a few weeks and a few things may have happened in your lives since then so Let's look to John chapter 10.

The Door of the Sheep and the Thief

Truly truly I say to you he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep But climbs up some other way. He is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out when he puts forth all his own he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

A Stranger they simply will not follow but will flee from him because he don't know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus spoke to them. But they didn't understand what those those things were which he had been saying to them.

So Jesus said to them again 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 hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through 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 he might have life and have it abundantly. Now this is the portion that we have covered that is the back Context and I just briefly remind you of the fact that we noted the danger that is ours of breaking these chapters up based upon The artificial chapter divisions and forgetting how the text relates to itself.

John chapter 9 remember The man had been healed. He's wrought before the Jewish leadership. They try to get him to say that Jesus is a sinner. He says I don't know about that. All I know is what Jesus has done for me and the man ends up Worshipping Jesus at the end of the chapter and again end of the chapter.

Well at the end of that story, that's the immediate entrance into what is happening in John chapter 10 and so this description of the thieves and Those climbing over walls and eventually what's going to come down here in regards to the hirelings all refer to those Jewish leaders Who were demonstrating that they were not truly concerned about the sheep.

They were not truly shepherds of the flock and this is the background of what we have here in John Chapter 10 and we finished last time by looking at that signal passage in verse 10 the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I came that he might have life and have it abundantly and we had a few thoughts that we shared then on this idea of abundance of life. Certainly, this is the type of text that is rife for abuse. When you're looking when you're searching through the scriptures to find a verse that says what you want to preach about.

This is the kind of verse unfortunately that very frequently gets landed upon. But it does have a very Deep meaning to it. We made some comments last time. I actually preached on this text as a whole at a Reformed Baptist Church in Brisbane Australia a few weeks ago and expanded a little bit on what we had said even in our time.

Here, so that is the the background to refresh your memory. And so the next section Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand that out of shepherd he who is not the owner of the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves.

The sheep and fleas and wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me. Even as the father knows me and I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep, but you're not of this fold. I must bring them all so and they will hear my voice. It'll become one flock with one shepherd for this reason the father loves him because I lay down my life so I may take it again.

No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again this commandment. I received from my father. So we see that we are entering into a rather deep section here.

And of course There are so many different themes that are presented here that Even as we try to outline them, they're they're very challenging but what I what I want to attempt to do in our study today is to Recognize that you can have texts of scripture that are specifically in the context of here Jesus dealing with Himself as the Good Shepherd and yes, the context is his demonstration of of the the Jewish leaders and their Abandonment of the calling that was theirs but he uses that as the grounds upon which into he introduces himself and that he is the true Good Shepherd and Notice the things that are mentioned here.

We have laying down his life for the sheep we have in verse 14 the relationship that exists Between the sheep and the shepherd and the fact that I know my own and my own know me. Then we have that parallel with the relationship of the father and the son in verse 15.

Even as the father knows me and I know the father and then that's connected back together with The laying down of his life for the sheep then in verse 16 as we will see don't worry. We're not getting to all of this this morning, but I'm looking at it in an overview sense then you have a Prophecy of the Gentile mission of the church.

I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will hear my voice and they'll become one flock with one shepherd extremely important text in Regards to the fact there is not to be a Jewish Christian Church and a Gentile Christian Church there was a danger of this happening anyone who reads Acts anyone who looks through Sees what happens in Galatians needs to understand, but what happens in Galatians chapter 2 when the Apostle Paul stands before Peter is Trying to keep this promise alive.

It's how God kept this promise alive was he used someone like Paul to keep that Division from taking place because it looked like it was going to take place. It was taking place in Antioch when you have individuals in Antioch you have the The Jews having table fellowship over here and the Gentiles over there.

It's gonna be there may just be a an aisle between them right now, but eventually that becomes a wall and That is a very very dangerous thing. Here you have the the prophetic word of Jesus there will be one flock with one shepherd and Then you have these of these amazing statements.

I Father loves me. I lay down my life so I may take it again. No one has taken away from me. I lay it down of my own initiative. I have authority lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This is the the very voluntary nature of the self giving of Christ.

The Unity of Scripture and the Problem of Hyper-Red-Letterism

There's a lot in here, and here's the problem. Sometimes you know I've told the story before and Kelly will remember this but many many years ago We had a Kelly and I had a lunch with an individual we weren't members of this church yet that's how many years ago it was and We were talking about interestingly enough the subject of the debate that was just announced in January in Atlanta that I'm gonna be doing with a representative of Catholic answers on the perseverance of the Saints can you lose true salvation and When he asked me well show me Show me where the Bible teaches this where you think the Bible teaches as well.

I decided that you know let's start with the plain things, and I was going to go to Ephesians chapter 1 and Talk about the Holy Spirit as the our bone the down payment so I could talk about the fact that The grounds of believing that is recognizing that salvation is the work of God to his glory.

It's the Father Son and Spirit together, etc. It said you start you start where you need to start if you start with man. You're just gonna end up with opinions. But start what God is doing and go from there.

Well. He stopped me immediately. He stopped me immediately and basically said it look if you can't show it to me in Jesus's words. Then don't bother showing it to me at all. Well I have since described this as hyper red letterism.

And it's the idea that if it's printed in red letters. It is somehow more inspired than if it's printed in black letters and of course printing in black and red letters is a fairly modern innovation anyways, but the idea being that I'm not going to allow you to to go to someone as Complicated as the Apostle Paul.

I mean doesn't doesn't even Peter say there are things in him that are difficult. Yeah, which he says the untaught and unstable Distort their own destruction, so that's let's not get into a discussion of that right now, but the idea is that When we are looking at the text of Scripture That We must handle it.

We certainly attempt to model from this pulpit a Consistent methodology of exegeting of the Word of God handling the Word of God and That is we try to avoid something called is a Jesus reading into the text Concepts and ideas that would have been foreign to the original author and the original audience as well.

That is the greatest way in which the Bible is abused today is When people go looking for a text that will fit the idea that they already want to preach that they already want to present to people. Rather than allowing the Word of God to determine those things and drawing out the meaning from the text the Word of God We want to avoid is a Jesus and so what we normally do in a text of Scripture is to walk through that text and we want to Pay attention to its context what comes before and what comes after we want to look very carefully at the language We want we want to handle.

This is how you honor the Scriptures. We have said many times before if if you write a letter to someone If they honor you then they are going to expend a tremendous amount of effort to try to make sure that they're listening to what you intended to communicate.

If someone takes a letter you have written to them and twists its meaning and Inserts ideas into it that never would have crossed your mind. You are rightly offended and you rightly feel like you have been abused by this individual.

Well in the same way we show respect for God when we accurately handle his his truth. At the same time we believe that what is found in John chapter 10 Is given to us by the very same Spirit of God that gives us Hebrews chapter 7 or or Philippians chapter 2 or in other words that there is a There is a unity That exists in Scripture that is supernatural in character and in content.

Now you can't come to understand what that unity is by ignoring the hard work of doing meaningful interpretation it's real easy to you know put on your your spiritual gown and To to you know claim to have special insights in the scripture and start cobbling passages together.

That's not what I'm talking about. But when we have honestly approached each of these texts then we can take the conclusions from those texts and bring them together and those texts will then clarify and further illustrate the meaning of each other.

This becomes the analogy of scripture where scripture actually becomes its its own context its own milieu of interpretation and this is really where The power of Christian truth and the unity of Christian truth is to be found.

I find that many Christians today find well, I won't go into it right now, but Just a few months ago. There was a bit of a controversy and it really wasn't a controversy it just simply was a light shone upon the fact that there's a lot of confusion in what's called the evangelical world about the Bible and what it actually Is but but there are a lot of Christians who who feel like look.

There's just too much in the Bible for me to ever really master all of it and so I'm not even gonna try to go there this idea of trying to put passages together and harmonizing it. It just seems too complicated for me.

I want something that I can fit into my millennial lifestyle and The result will be a millennial level Christianity which Is not something that I think is necessarily gonna call too many people to die in its defense of unfortunately.

We want to know everything that the Word of God has to say we want to see it in its fullness. We want to see the truth of God in its fullness and that truth is not found in any one text. It's found in the harmonious Relationship of all of these divine texts placed together now.

The John 3:16 Conference and Limited Atonement

What does that have to do with John chapter 10 well? In 2008 a Conference was held I think I don't remember. I was out of the country at the time. I was in London. I remember I May be somewhere down in Georgia might have been outside of Atlanta.

It was a very large Southern Baptist Church called the John 316 conference, and it was a It was one of the wonder of a number of conferences that have been held now By a portion of the Southern Baptist Convention that is openly seeking to try to Protect the convention from what it views as encroaching Calvinism and It's not been very successful.

But they're out there, and they continue to to do their thing. It's not they've come up with anything new but They they definitely are active shall we say and one of the speakers at that conference is dr. David Allen, dr. Allen is a professor of preaching at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas.

And Dr. Allen spoke on the subject of the atonement. He also spoke on issues such as hyper Calvinism and things like that identified me by name as a hyper Calvinist and Though we have refuted that matter many times.

He has refused to Apologize for that which you know look just leave that there, and it says what it says. But the arguments that were put forward against what is called the Calvinistic understanding of the atonement Struck me as extremely simplistic they struck me as someone who was Just starting to think about the subject and was sort of assigned a topic that maybe was just a little bit beyond Where the reading level of that particular individual should have led them to feel competent to address that was eight years ago and The dr. Allen has now come out with an 800 some-odd page book on the same subject after eight years and I was listening to some comments from dr. Allen just yesterday and I'm sad to report to you that the level of argumentation the substance of argumentation Has not changed whatsoever in eight years and I was Caused to reflect upon this statement, which he made.

He said limited atonement is a doctrine looking for a text a Doctrine looking for a text. So it's a it's a doctrine and there's no text in the Bible. It actually teaches it. It's just philosophical implication and speculation.

Now dr. Allen may seriously believe that I have Attempted over the years to interact very often with dr. Allen's claims and I have gotten absolutely no evidence whatsoever that that he can hear. What is being said in response to him?

It may be a very strong dedication to tradition. It may have to do with the politics the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, but whatever it might be. The reality is that as I listened to this I was I was struck once again By the fact that we have entire Organizations such as this amongst the Southern Baptists.

We have what's what I call the non-denominational denomination Called Calvary Chapel. Which I have said over and over again. And unless it comes straight forward and starts dealing with Reformed theology in a meaningful fashion will continue to create Calvinists.

Whether it wants to or not because its way of approaching it has not been to do so in an accurate forthright manner to this point and The point is of all of this is to bring us back to here to John chapter 10 and to go well.

Jesus says that the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep now. Someone like dr. Allen would say ah logical error on your part logical error on your part. Just because he lays down his life for the sheep doesn't mean he doesn't lay down his life for everyone.

I Mean if he lays down his life for everyone then every subset under everyone can accurately say it as well so in John in Galatians chapter 2 Paul makes the profession that the Jesus Christ gave his life for me.

And does that mean it was only Paul. Obviously we have to be very careful when we talk about texts that speak of why Christ gave his life and and so if a limitation on the scope of the giving of the life of Christ Means it's only for that group then then Galatians 2 proves.

It was only for Paul and Of course I think most of us sitting here this morning go really they argue like that and we have to go yes. But here's here's the issue the power and the strength of the Reformed doctrine of atonement Is not found in a single text it is found in the consistent testimony of Scripture to the intention of The triune God in that divine act of atonement and hence it takes into consideration Text after text after text after text in harmony with one another that's why it becomes so powerful and Sometimes we as Reformed folks We we tend to I don't but some people tend to be somewhat embarrassed By this one doctrine of limited atonement or particular redemption.

I Had a I remember a lady came up to me in a church in London. And I had just preached and I was that was a wonderful sermon. That's a wonderful sermon. I knew there was something as always you know that the other shoe was just dangling in the air at that point it was a wonderful sermon, but You don't you don't believe in limited atonement.

Do you? And it was it was almost sort of like You don't have a dreaded communicable disease, do you? And It was an exact that exact tone with that exact expectation of dreaded response and You know we were really not we were standing in a hallway blocking people.

And it was crowded and it was it was not the best place to Be having this conversation, but I just looked straight at her, and I said well of course I do don't you? Yes, put it back on the other shoe and and I When I look at what we call.

And I hope we all recognize the five points of Calvinism. We're just simply a an acrostic and they do not begin to exhaust the fullness of the Reformed faith. But they speak to important issues when you look at those five points.

When you look at what comes before that I? Like the six points of Calvinism, I like a stulip personally, but but the sovereignty of God the the fallenness of man the total power of a man the unconditional electing grace of God and then you look at The last two the irresistible grace of God and the perseverance of the Saints.

Where does the Eternal intentions of the triune God in the past. Meet together with what then happens in bringing about the actual salvation of God's people. Well, it's really focused right there in the L because the L refers to the actual Accomplishment of redemption in the perfect work of the Sun.

It's where all those threads of divine Intentionality and purpose Meet together so that when that what flows from that will be the irresistible grace of God. Why is it that God's grace is irresistible?

Why is it that he brings about? Our Regeneration at his time in his way that he can raise us to spiritual life and do so justly well. It's because of the perfect work that has been accomplished in the installment of Jesus Christ.

Why will we persevere in the in the faith because again the Good Shepherd will not lose any of his sheep. John chapter 6. It all has its focus always in Christ. And when we look at the the summary statement of Reformed faith, where is the central Christological statement?

But in the work of Christ and all all we're saying when we talk about quote-unquote limited atonement. Is that the Sun? acts in perfect Harmony with the Father and the Spirit. I've ever thought about that way that's really what it's all about because.

When you're talking about the elect the electing grace of God the Father when you're talking about his intention to save a divine people. When you're talking about the Spirit of God coming in and making that real and those people's experience now we look at what the Sun does and Is the audience going to be different between the Father and the Spirit?

No, the audience is going to be exactly the same. There is going to be perfect harmony between Father Son and Spirit and the accomplishment of this tremendous triune God glorifying act. And so I really see it as as a place where sometimes we are sort of well.

Yeah, I sort of believe that rather than well you better believe I believe that don't you look at what the scriptures say here because there are anytime we come to these texts and Hebrews chapter 7 the high priest in Hebrews chapter 9 Hebrews chapter 10 the perfection of the work the any of these texts.

They are saying the same things. And so when we come here to John chapter 10 verse 11 there are gonna be some people who can say. Can you really? Can you really see that much theology in a conversation that Jesus has?

There in John chapter 10, and I just want to step back and go have you read that chapter I? Give to them eternal life. No one so snatch them out of my hand the Father gave me is gave to me is greater than all.

No incestion. My father's hand I and the Father are one. You have Jesus quoting from Psalm 82 when they could pick up stones to stone him. I Mean the relationship of father and son in bringing about the salvation of God's people.

Where else would you find this level of theology and teaching in the gospel of John of? Course it's here and so. When you look at these words in verse 11. And you hear Jesus say the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

You cannot separate that out From everything else that Jesus is going to say about the sheep. You can't separate that out from the fact that the shepherd is Sovereign in the selection of those sheep. You can't separate that out from the relationship that exists between the shepherd and the sheep and.

And that also means that you at least have to take into consideration as Uncomfortable as it may be verse 26 verse 26 but you literally are not believing because You're not my sheep. You're not my sheep now.

This had this theme had already been presented in the gospel of John it happened in John chapter 8. John chapter 8 and speaking to the false believers. Jesus said what why can't you hear my words? It's because you do not belong to God he who belongs to God.

Here's the words of God and You and I have been so deeply influenced by the thinking of Modern now 21st century evangelical Methodology that it's very easy for us in our minds to reverse The actual order that's given in Scripture.

It's very easy for us to go well. What Jesus means there is you're not in my sheep, but you can become one of my sheep anytime you want to. I? Mean that's It's all up to man the idea that there is a distinction and That in fact what Jesus is saying is the reason you are not believing.

The reason that you are rejecting my words is in It's it's in you. It's it's who you are. You are of your father. The devil is what had happened in John chapter 8. You haven't been set free you think you have, but you haven't been set free and they rebelled at that.

And now Jesus is saying something. You're not my sheep. But if the reason they're not believing in verse 26 is that they're not his sheep. Then what does that mean when we go back to what Jesus says in verse 11 the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Does this not of necessity present to us a question regarding The scope and the intention of the giving of the life of Jesus Christ. Now it has been Repeatedly said that no one is saying and That no reformed theologian has ever dreamed to try to mean That there's somehow an intrinsic Limitation on the value of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.

In other words, well Christ could only redeem a certain number of people. His the the value of his death is limited Intrinsically To a certain number of people and just because you know God might want to save some more people.

But he just can't because the death isn't sufficient to do anything more than that. That's never ever ever been the thought and I hope it's never a thought that's crossed your mind either. The issue of the scope of the atonement Must first be decided on the basis of asking a different question and that is What was the intention of?

The Father the Son and the Spirit. Well, we asked the question when I Would say what was the intention of the Father Son and Spirit in eternity past? So that that same intention would be there at the incarnation in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and on the morning of Calvary.

You have the same intention the part of the Father Son and Holy Spirit. What was that intention? What did the Father intend to accomplish at Calvary. Well, Jesus has already told us if we're gonna listen to the gospel of John.

Jesus already told us in John chapter 6 I've come down out of heaven not to my own will but the will of him who sent me. What's the will of him who sent me that all he's given me. I lose none of it but raise it up on the last day.

He's already said that. He's already made that clear. So here in John chapter 10 when he says I am the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And then he later on says I have authority to lay it down.

I have authority to take it back up again. This is a commandment. I've received my father. This is not something brand new. It's not something that just popped out of nothing Doesn't make it any less Amazing in what it's actually saying.

But it is a continuation of a theme that has been woven through the gospel of John itself and It will then continue on into chapter 17 where that same Intentionality is presented to us. But what was the intention was?

God Attempting to save every single human being in the cross of Jesus Christ and There is just such tremendous evidence that that is not the case. Not only would you have to ask the question well, what about all those who came before Christ.

What about those who? You know, I've often used the illustration of the Amorite high priest. Who is one of those destroyed by the invading Jewish armies? Are you saying that was God's intention when Christ died to try to save that individual.

Or you're saying well No, for some reason God intended to do this at this particular point in time. And so now it's just every individual sense then but what do you mean every individual sense then? There were Entire places of the planet that for hundreds of years after the time of Christ.

No one came close to those areas as a missionary. So if it was Christ's Intention if it was the father's intention the son's intention the Spirit's intention death of Christ to save The Aboriginals in Australia.

The next year after Christ's death. Well that didn't happen and. So what was the intention? Do you have intentionality in this text you do? You do. What did Jesus say? I have other sheep that are not this fold.

I must gather them together one fold one Shepherd. One he didn't say, you know, it'd be a really good idea. Let's try it. This would be a really neat thing to add. No. He says I have other sheep that are not this fold.

And so those are the that's a direct parallel then with John chapter 6 all the father gives me the father had given him Shepherd the good shepherd they had given him sheep Jewish sheep and Gentile sheep.

They all need to become one and so there's intentionality. What is the intention of the father son and spirit. That will answer the question of the scope. Because the scope of the work of the father the scope of the work of the spirit the scope of the work of the son.

They are going to be absolutely consistent with one another. That's the beauty. Now there's some people would say and there are some people who will actually call themselves some flavor of reformed. It will say look I I understand if we're just talking about the salvific intention.

If you just limit it to that, okay, but see there's there's more than this. There's more to the cross than just salvation. That may sound strange to you. But I happen to agree and most reformed theologians do.

What do you mean? Well Colossians chapter 1 Says that God has made peace having reckon reconciled all things to the blood of his cross. That's the exact same all things that he has just been talking about the preceding verses that exhaust the meaning of creation itself so either you become a universalist a universalist and there are People like that out there.

We almost never went into them. I think we probably better off we did. Because I think they sharpen us a little bit. But you're gonna have to join the group that believes that everyone's gonna get saved.

And then we get to start dealing with all of the mountain of biblical evidence against that assertion or you're gonna have to have some understanding of what this means in regards to Peace through the blood of his cross and what reconciliation means in regards to God's relationship to all things.

Including God's punishment of the unrighteous in eternity to come. Because nothing's going to be left. Undone. Nothing's going to be left where there is not peace, but but wait a minute those people don't have peace with God.

So therefore it's not it's not completed. It's not finished because of the work of Christ because of the demonstration of the justice of God in the cross their judgment is Demonstrated to be just. Their judgment is demonstrated to be Completely Consistent with the character of God which was demonstrated in the cross of Calvary.

This is where this Wisdom is being manifest to the entire universe and So there could be some who would say oh, but but there's but there's more to it. There's more to the death of Christ, okay, I understand if you're just talking about things like that, but but We must understand That when we talk about Jesus's own words when he says he lays down his life for the sheep That implies a relationship that is very specific and When you start abandoning that the result is an impersonal concept of the atonement and salvation where Jesus's death simply makes salvation a possibility and Who will end up being the sheep becomes something that we end up filling out as time goes by and it removes the intensely personal relationship the Intensely personal knowledge.

I know my own and my own know me verse 14 that exists between the Son and the sheep between the Son and his elect people. Once you start going there the cost will be very very great. Unfortunately, there are many who are more than willing to go that direction and so my point this morning is this when we look at a text like this and We see Jesus saying the Good Shepherd.