Christ the Good Shepherd | Sermon 07/16/2023

Apologia Utah

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If you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel according to John chapter 10. John chapter 10.

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We're going to be in verses 11 through 21. The title of the sermon today,

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Church, is Christ the Good Shepherd. Christ the

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Good Shepherd. So here now, the inerrant and infallible

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Word of the living and true God, starting in verse 11. I am the

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Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

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And the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.

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I am the Good Shepherd and I know my own and my own know me.

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Even as the Father knows me and I know the Father, I lay down my life for the sheep.

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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.

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For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life so that I may take it again.

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No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.

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I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again.

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This commandment I received from my Father. And a division occurred among the

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Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, he is a demon and is insane.

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Why do you listen to him? Others were saying, these are not the sayings of one demon possessed.

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A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he? Thus, ending the reading of God's holy and incredible, wonderful word, let's pray now.

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Lord, I pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word today. Lord, please speak through me.

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Use me, Lord. And God, illuminate the scriptures for your people. Help them to understand, help them to see,

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Lord. And help this to not simply be information, but something that is transforming.

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Lord, we thank you for this moment, for this time together in your word.

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It is precious to us. We pray this in your holy name. Amen. Well, church, we have been in the

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Good Shepherd passage for the last week or so, two weeks.

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And it struck me that if you were to go to YouTube and you were to search

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Good Shepherd sermons, a lot of them you would hear a pastor using

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John 10. And he would then do some research about a shepherd.

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And we did talk about shepherds last week. We talked about the Israelite, the

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Israeli shepherd, the Hebrew shepherd, and what it was like to be a shepherd in the East. And that was very informative.

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But a lot of these pastors, and I'm not saying I disagree or have anything against them, but they would use this as a time to talk about how dumb sheep are.

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And it would be all about how sheep are the most dumbest animals. And I told you a little bit about how they could just roll over and want some rest, and they would get stuck straight up, and they would literally die because they couldn't get themselves back up.

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You know, you have things where they would go and they would find grass, and the flock would eat all the grass in one area.

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And they would eat it completely to the point where if someone didn't take them to more grass, they would eat the dirt, and then they would eat their feces, and then they would die.

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And that's the reality of sheep. And so they need a shepherd to take them to right places, to take them to water, to take them to food.

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But I don't want to simply use this as a passage where we're just going to talk about the sheep analogy and how much they need a shepherd.

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That's true, and we alluded to that last week. And we're going to talk about how much we need

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Jesus today. But I think what John is trying to show us in sharing

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Jesus' words here is to not show us so much about who we are, but who

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Jesus is. Who is the good shepherd? We've talked about who the sheep are, and we'll continue to talk about that.

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But who is the good shepherd? Now, I want you to imagine something.

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I want you to imagine the shepherds on the hillsides in Israel. I want you to imagine their unceasing labors for their flocks.

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Just imagine in your mind. Imagine you're there in Israel, and you're in some village or town, and you see the shepherds on a hill in the distance.

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One sheep's getting away, and the shepherd's running after that sheep and grabbing her.

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But imagine now you're in this Hebrew village, and it's nightfall. And you step out of the house to grab something, and far off in the distance you see a small golden fire on a hillside.

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And around that fire is like a white concentration, a circle, white fleeces, bright under the moonlight from the fire, contrasted against the dark, now darkened brown and green hillside.

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And the shepherds are sleeping on the edges of those white circles. They're taking turns keeping watch.

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You can see clusters of shepherds. And you've grown up to see the labor.

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You've grown up to see the selflessness, the battle scars from predators, and the care of these type of men for sheep.

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You've seen it all your life. And you consider then in your heart the Torah and the Tanakh, the

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Scriptures of old, and how they're spoken at synagogue, if you were a

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Jew at that time. And you remember your favorite hymns and your favorite psalms.

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And you think, God truly is a shepherd to His people.

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God is a shepherd. Truly, God surrounds us with protection.

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Truly, God will bring us to pasture. Truly, God watches out for us.

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And then you remember that the prophet

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Micah spoke just after the prophecy that the

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Messiah would be born in the unlikeliest of towns, that is Bethlehem.

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It says just after that, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, it says just after that in Micah 5 .4,

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the one who is born there, that is of course Jesus, it says, He will arise and shepherd

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His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God.

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And the sheep will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth.

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They will remain. They will abide. The sheep will endure. They will last.

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They will not be destroyed, because the Good Shepherd has actually come.

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Isaiah says of this same One who is coming, he says this,

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Like a shepherd, He will tend His flock. In His arm, He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom.

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He will gently lead the nursing ewes. So this is a care and a love of the sheep that people have been longing for.

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People have been expecting a love from God that He would come and dwell among them and He would care for them and keep them from predators.

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And the One is finally here in our chapter who will vanquish the greatest predator ever, sin.

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And it is in this sort of landscape and this mindset that many possess in this first century

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Judea. Remember, Jesus is speaking to a bunch of Jews right now near the temple. Who will this shepherd be?

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Who is this Good Shepherd? So let's take a look starting in verse 11. It says,

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I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

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See, all that Jesus was alluding to in our passage last week, He now declares plainly.

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He will identify the shepherd that He was describing in the verses prior.

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If you haven't watched that yet, check out last week's sermon. It's Christ the

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Door. Verses 1 -11. And you see, He is the One who entered through the door.

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The One to whom the doorkeeper gives access. The One whom the sheep recognize

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His voice. The One whom He knows each sheep by name.

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He leads them out. He said He goes ahead of them, protects them, guides them. And He promised that He will give life and He will give it abundantly.

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He will give pasture and salvation. And so Jesus says, I am the

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Good Shepherd. And if you've been with us for any amount of time, you know those words, I am, are a phrase that comes from the

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Old Testament. In Exodus 3, when Moses said,

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Who are you that I should tell the people, what is your name God? And God said,

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My name is I am that I am. He is the One who has all being.

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That is in the Hebrew, Yahweh. And so Jesus, if we move too quickly in our

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New Testament English text, we can miss it. Jesus is saying, I am, ego eimi.

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That's in the Greek. I am, pointing back to the Father, pointing back to God. Jesus is ascribing to Himself deity.

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I am the Good Shepherd. He is, all at the same time, the

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Shepherd who would come among His people and He is the I am from all eternity. Jesus is

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God. He's not the Father, and He's not the Spirit. This mysterious thing.

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Jesus is the I am. And most of all, with this

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I am declaration, Jesus is saying He is the Lord of Ezekiel 34. The One who has been promised to come, be with His sheep, to gather

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His scattered flock. He is the Shepherd God of the Old Testament. He is the

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One of the Holy Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Now when the psalmist says in Psalm 14, the

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Lord has looked down upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.

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It says that they have all turned aside. Together men have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one.

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And Jesus says that He's different from these regular men. The psalmist also says, taste and see that the

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Lord is good. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. And Lord, You are good and do good.

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The psalmist says all that about God. Men, the Bible shows that after the fall we are not good.

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We need someone who is good. The Lord is good. He is perfectly good.

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Goodness and benevolence are attributes from that one God. And Jesus assigns those attributes to Himself.

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He calls Himself the Good Shepherd. He is good. He doesn't simply call

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Himself the Shepherd, but in the wake of all these false shepherds of Israel, and all these false leaders of men,

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He says He's the Good Shepherd. He's not like them. Only one will do good and will be fully good

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Himself. And so He is the divinely ideal Shepherd.

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And not only speaking about His righteous character, Jesus is also elevating

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Himself above any other sort of leader. He is the supreme

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Shepherd. He is the ideal Shepherd. He is the highest and best

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Shepherd. Remember as Ezekiel demonstrated, the

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Lord spoke and said, I will come to My sheep and shepherd My flock with justice.

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And the point is, the Lord is here. The Lord is here in this moment, and it's in Christ.

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And now we see in this verse, verse 11, one of the fullest and clearest statements of Jesus' sacrifice thus far in the

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Gospel according to John. Do you see that? He lays down His life. We have not seen

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Him fully talk about yet the coming crucifixion, but this is much more clear than we've seen thus far.

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The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. This word, lays down, is tithimi in the

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Greek, tithimi. And it has several uses and meanings, okay? First, it means to put something in a particular place.

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In this case, Jesus qualifies with the Greek word, which is on behalf of, or in place of, or in front of, and it's in front of the sheep.

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When judgment descends, and the wrath of a holy God is about to consume, the good

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Shepherd then lays down His life in place of, in front of the sheep.

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When we should have been punished, Jesus then lays down His life in place of, in front of the sheep.

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That's the image we get. Before it comes to us, it goes fully to Him.

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He takes our punishment. The other meaning for tithimi is assigning to a task or a function, to appoint something.

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You see, the good Shepherd has appointed His own life for the sheep.

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This is His assignment. And that tells us that laying down His life wasn't on a whim.

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It wasn't a quick decision. Well, I better lay down my life. They really need me at this point.

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The good Shepherd has appointed His own life. The book of Revelation speaks to this as such a firm reality.

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It says that He was the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world. It was so assuredly and firmly predestined that it was as if it happened before the world was created.

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He was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He laid down His life. Jesus giving

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His life was the greatest divine appointment of all appointments. And finally, tithimi also means to lay something aside, that is, to deposit something, like depositing money.

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However, in this case, the good Shepherd will deposit His own life.

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He'll make a payment with His own life on behalf of the sheep. Whatever we owe to God, the sin that we've committed that makes us owe

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God, like as if when someone commits a crime and they have to pay a fine or they have to pay time in jail for the crime they did, our crime is sin, and it says here that Jesus paid for that fine.

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It was as if He went to jail for you. We don't have to go to hell because Jesus endured that for us.

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Our debt is paid in full. The demands of God are completely satisfied. And Paul says to the

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Ephesians that we have redemption in His blood. Redemption, you ever heard of that term?

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Redeem this? Redeem this coupon? Redeem this thing? It's like making a payment.

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And that is to say, Jesus redeemed us. He made a blood payment.

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He made a blood payment. He gave His own blood. He gave His own life for us.

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You see, a shepherd doesn't die for his sheep as an example, right?

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You're thinking back to that shepherd -sheep example in Israel, and the shepherd is there with his sheep and he sacrifices his life, and the sheep are just like, they don't know what to do from there.

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It's not simply about being an example. There's much more significance than that to this.

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The assumption is that the sheep are in great peril. They're not just sitting there.

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The sheep are in great peril. The kind of life -losing or life -retaining kind of peril.

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And the shepherd has to act to save them. Now the

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Old Testament, you might wonder, does the Old Testament bring those themes together?

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Is this completely foreign to the Old Testament? Is this just something in the New? A shepherd's going to come and the shepherd's going to die for his people?

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No. This is not new. Zechariah, and if you look in your printout,

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I have it there too, or you can look in your Bible. Zechariah 13 verse 7 says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man my associate declares the

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Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be scattered. You see, the

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New Testament writers associated that verse with Christ. My associate literally means in the

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Hebrew the one who stands close to me. So who can stand close to God?

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Jesus. Jesus stood by the throne of God. He stood by the Father. This word also, my associate, can be translated in the

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Hebrew my equal. My equal. This is the equal of God.

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And so, in Zechariah, the Father is calling for the sword, that is another word for death, to come upon His shepherd.

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His equal. The one who stands close to Him. And the night that Jesus was struck, indeed the sheep were scattered.

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And the apostolic writers apply that to the apostles, right?

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After the Garden of Gethsemane, all the apostles ran. Sheep were scattered.

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The shepherd seems to be, the one of Zechariah 13, seems to be the same one, the same person in Zechariah 12.

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It says, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication, listen to this, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced.

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They will look on Me whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

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So the shepherd who's going to give His life, who the

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Father calls the sword to come after Him, and the one whom the sheep after will be scattered, is the same one whom they will look upon who will be pierced.

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Despite all this, Jesus will give a clue in a few verses what's going to happen after that death.

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We'll see that in a moment. Now, what else I find interesting about this verse is that Jesus doesn't say the word for life.

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Your translation may say life, but it's not the word zoe. This is the word psuche, which is the word that we use for soul in the

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Greek. It can mean a whole person, a whole living person, one's whole self, but it's also related to breath.

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That is to say, as if it's not just your physical body, it's not just physical life, your psuche is a life force in a way.

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Like when someone's breath comes out for the final time is the image we get.

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It's possible that what Jesus is trying to say is He won't just sacrifice His physical body for us.

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The crucifixion isn't only about the torment of nails and whips and hanging on a cross.

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When Jesus takes the judgment of God on our behalf, it hits even deeper.

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Strikingly, once again in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before Jesus' crucifixion,

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He says this, My soul, my psuche, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.

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And so even He knew that His suffering would be on whips and nails and crosses.

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Now go to verses 12 and 13. It says, He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the shepherd, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees.

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The wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because He is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.

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So if you remember, Jesus previously had contrasted

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Himself in verses 1 -10 to robbers and thieves and inferred in that was false shepherds, poor watchmen.

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But now Jesus will contrast Himself, the good shepherd, against hirelings, hired hands.

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This is someone who gets a wage for a short time and does not own the flock of the sheep.

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They get a paycheck. They get hired for what they do. If this gig does not work out, if it becomes too dangerous or arduous, they can just quit.

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It can be done. He doesn't have to stick around. He has no stock in this except to earn that wage.

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If some sheep get lost, if some sheep get maimed, if something happens, as long as He's good and He gets

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His paycheck, that's who He is. That's who

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He is. He's good to go. He's not nearly as invested in the flock as the shepherd is.

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You know, actually, when you look at this word hireling, most, not all, but many people back in ancient times were more likely to be business owners.

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Maybe they were a shepherd. Maybe they did farming. Maybe they had a fishing company.

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But typically, you were your own boss. And you would work and make some sort of produce.

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You would build things. Maybe you were a carpenter. There were many more business owners per capita back then.

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People would be truly invested in their own work. You see, that word hireling was sometimes used in a derogatory way.

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Hired hand. People who were considered lower quality workers.

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People who clock in, clock out, get a paycheck. They were considered lazier, less invested.

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Now, if you're wondering what the hireling is a symbol for, there's nothing in particular that I see here that Jesus is using hireling for except as a backboard for Himself.

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Okay? So we know the thief and the robber were more about the Pharisees, but here,

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I think Jesus is just contrasting Himself to an example.

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A hireling. But isn't that interesting? I think that's interesting that there's so many more hirelings today.

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Hired hands. You trade time for money.

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Anyhow, the Lord gives us a scenario here. Okay? The hireling is watching over the flock, sees a wolf coming.

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He flees, he runs away, and abandons the sheep for what? For his own life.

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The sake of his own life. And then on the other hand, what will Jesus do?

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What did Jesus promise? He lays down His what? His life. The hireling is concerned about his life.

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Jesus gives up His life willingly. The hireling wants to save his own neck.

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And so the wolf comes and snatches the sheep and tears them up.

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And with a predator coming into the flock, the ones who are lucky enough scatter.

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They run away. And Jesus tells us, this man flees because he's hired.

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He's a hired hand. He has no deep care in him for the sheep.

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He is more concerned for himself. And this sort of person is selfish.

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Sometimes even people can act like the hireling. We can act like the hireling.

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Paul says, have this mind which is in Christ Jesus. Consider one another as more important than yourselves.

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It is better to give than to receive. Jesus says it is better to serve than be served.

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He says, pick up your cross. Deny yourself. Christianity is a faith of selflessness.

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You see, a selfish person typically does not or cannot see how their behavior impacts others.

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They serve themselves. Even when it comes at the expense of others.

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They're top dog. Often they cannot sympathize with one who is suffering.

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They just don't get it. They don't give back to others.

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Their reflex isn't how will this impact this person or whoever.

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Their reflex is, what about me? What about me? And if they actually do good things, if a hireling or a selfish person like this actually does a good thing, it typically comes with, you owe me for that.

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Or there's a price that goes along with it. Price for the help they give.

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Just as we see with the hired hand here. So even if all the sheep scatter, if everything goes downhill, and the shepherd walks up, and he's like, where's my flock?

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The hireling goes, I've been here for eight hours. A wolf came.

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They're all out there. You'll find them eventually. Where's my money? That's the hired hand.

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But this is not what a shepherd is like. We've been raised to think that shepherds are soft men.

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Oh, images of shepherds. They're just laying in fluffy grass with fluffy white fleeces of lambs laying on their chest.

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Oh, make a Hallmark card, right? Look at that. Shepherds are so soft.

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But Christ is the epitome of biblical masculinity and toughness as a shepherd.

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A shepherd needs to be courageous, self -sacrificing, someone who will put himself in between the sheep and the predator in the front.

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That's a true shepherd. He is regard for others over himself.

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It's like when David was still a young man. You might remember this story.

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When David was still a young man, he had not yet become king, and his father Jesse told him to deliver food.

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I believe it was cheese and bread. It was a grilled cheese. David had to bring food to his brothers.

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His older brothers were what? They were on the battle lines fighting against the Philistines. You remember this story?

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And Goliath was there at the battle line, and the Israelites hadn't started the battle yet because they were afraid.

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Because Goliath of Gath, a giant of a man, was like, I'll kill every single one of you, bring someone to fight me, and I'll beat them, and I'll make the rest of you my slaves.

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He was a giant. He was huge. Well, if you remember,

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David brings the little cart of bread and cheese, and his older brothers are there, and he hears what's going on.

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There is this scare, this concern going on throughout the Israelite camp. Oh my goodness. They're so frightened of Goliath.

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But a righteous anger then burned in David. A young man, a righteous anger, a righteous indignation.

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He wanted to show the Philistines that there is a God in heaven, and He is greater than Goliath. So in trying to convince

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King Saul, David goes to King Saul and says, look, let me fight

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Goliath. And they're looking at this young man, still a teenager possibly.

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And this is what happens. 1 Samuel 17 v. 31 -37 When the words which

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David spoke were heard, they told them to Saul, and he sent for him. David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail on account of him.

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Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. Then Saul said to David, You're not able to go against this

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Philistine to fight with him, for you are a youth, while he has been a warrior from his youth.

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But David said to Saul, and this is where the shepherd stuff kicks in, Your servant was tending his father's sheep.

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When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him, and I attacked that animal.

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And I rescued that lamb from its mouth. And when that animal, when that beast rose up against me,

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I seized him by the beard, it says, I imagine that would mean the mane, right?

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I seized him by the mane, and I struck that bear, and I struck that lion, and I killed those beasts.

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He says, your servant has killed both the lion and the bear, and so this uncircumcised

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Philistine is going to be like one of them. He has taunted the armies of the living

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God, and so the Lord has delivered me, he says, from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, and he will deliver me from the hand of the

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Philistine. And so Saul sees this amazing faith.

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He sees the Lord is with David, and he says, go, and may the

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Lord be with you. We'll have to go over the rest of the story another time.

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You know it. You see, a good shepherd doesn't back down from wolves, from beasts, either of the human kind or the animal kind.

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You don't back down. You stand your ground. You know, actually

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I'm reminded, I saw this video. It was incredible. This guy,

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I think he has a GoPro on or something, and his friend is in front of him, and I don't know if they're in Alaska or if they're in Canada or somewhere where there's grizzly bears.

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You've got to see this video. I'll find it. And this grizzly bear, I've never seen a video like this.

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This grizzly bear is running across the beach like full sprint, 35 miles per hour.

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I don't even know. So fast, this grizzly bear is charging at these men, and the guy with the camera is backing up, but his friend comes forward and starts growling and yelling.

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And I'm telling you, between here and 10 feet away, maybe where my brother is here, that grizzly, face to face, and then darts that way.

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I mean, that man stayed firm, yelling, growling, and he actually was advancing steps towards the charging grizzly bear.

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And what do you think would happen? What if those guys dropped everything and ran? Probably a deadly attack.

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It would trigger the predator and prey sort of mode. Jesus did not turn back from facing the most awful and terrifying experience anyone in the history of the world will ever go through.

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He didn't turn back. When the curse wrapped its claws around us, when

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Satan the serpent coiled his body around us, and when our sin bound us in chains,

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Christ stood up and fought for us. He fought for us. He would not let us be taken, because we're

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His sheep. And what did He say in John 6? He will lose none that the

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Father has given Him. He'll lose none. Go to verses 14 and 15.

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I am the Good Shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me. Even as the

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Father knows Me, and I know the Father, I lay down My life for the sheep. Once again,

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Jesus is not like the hireling. And we see again, He says, I am, ego eimi,

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Yahweh. He is the Good Shepherd. He knows His own, and His own know

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Him. There is a mutual recognition. There is a mutual intimacy. This isn't just a thing where you know of Jesus and you pray a special prayer at an altar call or at a church camp.

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You see, a sheep is ever dependent on the shepherd for sustenance, leading, care, healing, binding up, bruises, protection and love.

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You see, there are people out there who have experienced none of the shepherd's care, and they don't currently feel like they need those things.

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They feel like they're fine on their own. They don't need the Good Shepherd's care.

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They believe. Because the prayer that they spoke when they were a kid or a teenager or as a young adult in some big church that had fancy music that made them feel really good, when they prayed that prayer, and that minister said, your sins are forgiven, it doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter who you are, even if you're a false convert, you'll escape hell.

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It's this easy believism sort of thing. People who don't darken the doorstep of a church, people...

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And I'm talking about people who profess Jesus, okay? People who say, I'm a believer,

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I pray to prayer, I'm good. It doesn't matter what I do in my life.

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The things they think will bring them into salvation, that magical prayer, are actually the things that create a mirage.

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A mirage of pasture. A mirage of salvation. And they're going to come to it and realize they're actually the slaughterhouse, those things.

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Brothers and sisters, Christianity, real faith, is more than just saying the right things at the right time.

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It's a living faith. It's a dependency on Jesus. We're the sheep. He's the shepherd.

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That's what I'm trying to get at. And the knowledge and relationship of the

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Good Shepherd and the sheep are two deep things.

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They're just too deep. They're amazing. To the point that Christ likens this relationship of sheep to shepherd to the knowledge of the

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Son to the Father and of the Father to the Son. We've talked about the

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Father and the Son's connection in the Trinity. This is an unbreakable, ontological, cosmological bond.

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The Father and the Son and the Spirit are the one God. Co -equal.

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Co -eternal. They're not parts of God. They're not three parts of one

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God. They aren't one mode of God. Here's the mode of God in the

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Spirit form. Here's the mode of God in the Jesus form. The mode of God in the Father form. They are not that.

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It's amazing. It's mysterious in a way. The Scripture maintains that there is only one

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God, and yet, while that's held up as true, at the very same time, the

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Bible demonstrates that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God. But there's only one.

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And that's where we get the doctrine of the Trinity. That's where we understand that God is triune. You are one being and one person, but God is one being and has three personhood.

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It's hard to explain. But it's between that Godhead, the

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it's that kind of love that then comes over onto us.

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It's that sort of same knowledge and intimacy that flows onto us, that the

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Shepherd has with us. His love for us is grounded in His love for the

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Father and the Father's love for Him. And so as I said last week, this passage in John 10 isn't simply about agrarian works, that is, farming.

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It's not simply about analogies of sheep and shepherd. That's part of it. But when

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Jesus mentions the Father, and He mentions the name of God, I Am, He's showing that this is cosmic.

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This is bigger than we could have ever thought. This is divine. Jesus is fulfilling all the

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Old Testament prophecies concerning Him. In a way, this is more profound than we have ever thought before.

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I love what John Calvin says about these two verses. He says, it's as if Jesus said that it is no more possible for Him to be oblivious of us than for the

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Father to reject or neglect Him. I like that. In as much as the

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Father will never neglect and never reject His Son, in the same way

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Jesus is trying to say I will never do that to My sheep. That's awesome. It's an eternal commitment.

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Now, go to verse 16. Here is some of the most blessed news in all of the

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Bible, honestly. Verse 16, I have other sheep which are not of this fold.

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I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

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We've seen a love of the Son to the Jews of His flock.

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We've seen the love of the Son to the Father and the Father towards Him. And now we see the love of the

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Son towards other sheep. Because who has

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Jesus been talking to this whole chapter? He's been talking to Jews. He's been talking to Jews.

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But now there's other sheep. And I would say that those are the

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Gentiles. Anyone who is not Jewish, there are other sheep that are not of this

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Judaism fold. And He's going to go to them. Jesus first came to the lost sheep of Israel, of Judaism, but the coming of the

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Messiah carried with it prophecies of His salvation touching people all over the globe, all over the world.

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It says of different tribes, tongues, people, and nations. He's talking about you and me.

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Do you see that? That's why this is one of the most wonderful verses in all of Scripture. He's talking to Jews and He says, you're

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My sheep and I'll pull you out. And I'll take you away from predators. And it's like, wow, that's a great promise to the

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Jews. What a great promise. And then this most blessed verse, but I also have sheep that are

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Mine that are not of this fold. There are other sheep. He's talking about you and me.

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Or if you're Jewish, you're in the first camp. We already saw in Ezekiel 34 that the shepherd

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God will go to other countries for His sheep. Paul then tells us in Hosea 2 about this inclusion of the

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Gentiles. God says, I will say to those who are not My people, you are

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My people. And they will say to Me, you are My God. In Isaiah 2, the prophet says that the mountain of the house of the

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Lord will be established and all the nations will stream up to the mountain of God.

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And many peoples will then seek God and they will find Him and they will receive His Word and His salvation.

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That's going to be fulfilled in Christ right here. It says that the coastlands wait for Him. He will be a light for the

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Gentiles. He is the seed of Abraham in whom not some, but it said all the nations would be blessed.

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All the nations would be blessed. And I would say that those blessings are covenantal blessings.

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New covenantal. The kind of covenant that grace enacts on a believer.

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An undeserving Gentile. An undeserving Jew. And Jesus then says here,

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I have other sheep which are not of this fold. And He says what? I must bring them also.

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I must bring them. I must.

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This is an indicative in the Greek. That is to say it's a statement of fact. And it's a fact with force.

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I must get these other sheep. The root word here in the

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Greek is to bind. That is to say Jesus is binding Himself to this promise.

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He's binding Himself to getting these other sheep. He will get every single one of them.

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He will take them to Himself. And He'll bring them to the one new flock.

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He won't fail in His mission. He will not fail to gather every single one of His sheep.

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You know, church, why do you think that Christ hasn't returned yet? It's been 2 ,000 years since Jesus ascended into heaven.

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And many people have tried to guess at when He's going to return. But I think this even indicates to us in the fact that He's tarried because He's getting these sheep.

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He's getting all His sheep. He won't fail to get them. He'll fulfill all

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His calling. He's going to gather them. They're going to hear His voice. And He's going to lead them and be with them.

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We're going to be taken away from our old shepherds in a figurative and literal sense.

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Taken from the old ways, the old things, the old leaders, the old religion, the old faiths that you used to have, the old beliefs.

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Whether it be in Hinduism or New Age thought,

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Jehovah's Witness, Islam, Mormonism, anything.

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He's going to take you from these things, these old shepherds that we were a part of, and He's going to bring us to the true one.

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The right one. And He'll do it. And He's going to lead us to pasture.

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When we depart, we come out of our old flock. The question is, are you sometimes wandering away from the new flock and acting like you're still part of the old?

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Something to think about. What's crazy is when you hear the good shepherd's voice and you leave the old flock and you go to His, everyone in the world around you, everyone who knows you are going to think you're lost.

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When you leave the old life and you enter this one with Christ, everyone who knew you in your old life is going to think you're lost, but you're actually found.

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They're going to think you've scattered, but actually you've been gathered by the true shepherd, by the good shepherd.

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I have family that think I'm a nutter -butter, man. They think I'm crazy.

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That's alright. We see even at the end of our verses here, it says they thought

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Jesus was insane. Alright, I'll be lumped in with Jesus. That's a pretty good thing.

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Amen? The amazing thing is also that although in the old covenant the blessings of God were only for the people of Israel, the

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Gentiles don't just get table scraps. They don't just get to be the servants of Jews or something like that in the kingdom of God.

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Gentile believers, the other sheep, get all the same grace, blessings, privileges, and benefits and salvation of the new covenant in Christ.

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And we all hear the one shepherd's voice in the same way by the regeneration of the

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Holy Spirit. And by the way, when He says He's going to make them one new flock,

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Jesus is going to make Jews and Gentiles one new flock. He's going to make them one. This is more than just simply saving some people in this camp and saving some people in that camp.

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Jesus is over His church. He's going to unify His church. You see, we've seen issues and church councils needed in our

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Acts Bible study, have we not? Wednesday nights we've seen issues between Jews and Gentiles and the inclusion of the

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Gentiles. And it caused a ruckus. Glorious one.

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And remember, men rejoiced. Jewish believers rejoiced because what? They saw the

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Holy Spirit come upon whom? Gentile believers. They could no longer deny it.

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Gentiles are included in this salvation. And I guess that's what

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I'm getting at. Jesus, the good shepherd, He is the one who has worked to bring them together.

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Divine indications were given. You have Peter and his vision. You have the

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Holy Spirit descending upon Gentiles. You have prophecy from the Old Testament. Gentiles get to be saved.

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It's amazing. That last line, one flock with one shepherd, is an intentional play on words.

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It literally says, poimne poimen. Same six letters.

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The last two letters are different order. That is, one flock, one shepherd.

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It's a cool saying. Poimne, poimen. One flock, one shepherd. They're united.

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You see, Christ takes people of multiple identities, multiple cultures, multiple ethnicities, and He converges all these people into one flock.

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One people. One sheep. One identity in Christ.

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And Christ not only established it, but He upholds it. He won't let the unified flock scatter.

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Paul says we have become one in Christ. One people, one flock of God. And so it's not that our national heritages or ethnicities separate us.

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It's that in God's will, in Christ's death, we are forever united. Any dividing walls that were once between Jew and Gentile have been destroyed in Christ.

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You see, there's a group of people out there, some of them very well -meaning, even

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Christians, who say, you know what? We need to just preach that people stop racism and people get united.

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And I think that's pretty good. But I think it's missing the key ingredient. That is to say that we cannot become one without Christ.

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If you don't have the Gospel, and if you don't have Christ, then prejudice and racism continues.

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You want to rid the world of racism and prejudice, praise God, amen, but it's going to take the

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Gospel of Jesus Christ to do that. That's a fact. You see, you give the whole

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Gospel to the whole world, and enemies become brothers and sisters.

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That's how it happens. No matter how different we are, we unite under then one color.

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Red, and most people would say they're our own blood. No, we unite under red, Christ's blood.

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It's Christ's. Go to verse 17. For this reason the

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Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. This can be kind of a confusing of a verse.

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For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again.

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Kind of a strange grammatical construction here, even in the original language.

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You see, it's not that the Father has withheld or will withhold love from the

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Son, Jesus, and He's simply waiting for Jesus to be obedient after the cross, and then

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He'll give His love. That's not what this is saying. It's that Jesus demonstrates

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His greatest act of love and obedience to the Father in the cross, and the love of the

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Father is rightly expressed in return. Think of when a father watches his son or daughter go through some hard thing.

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It's very difficult, and actually, you're so used to taking their burdens upon yourself, but whatever this hard thing is, you can't take it this time.

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Your son or daughter has to go through it on their own. And you watch them, and they go through this hard thing, and they endure after it.

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And on the other end, they become triumphant and successful in whatever way it was.

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See, that's the same with the Father and the Son. Great love is bound in watching the

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Son enduring the cross. The Son goes through the cross.

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The Son resurrects. The Father looks at that. He has love for His Son.

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Doesn't mean the Father doesn't love the son or daughter before the hard thing, does it?

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It's that when your son or your daughter have to go through something hard by themselves, and they get through it on the other end, boy, you have this love for them.

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So the Heavenly Father had a love for the Son. He had it beforehand, but He has this great love for Him in planning out and carrying out this redemptive work of the cross.

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You see, the Father has made many promises to His people prophetically in the

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Old Testament, and He is pleased that the Son is bringing that to fruition. He loves

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Him for committing Himself to the cross and glorious resurrection. Remember, Jesus alluded to the resurrection in John 2.

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What did He say? He said, I will destroy this temple, and He meant His own body, and I will raise it up in three days.

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That was John 2. Do you remember that? And here, Jesus says,

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I lay down My life so that I may take it up again. In several ways, the cross has always been more about life than it was about death.

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That word, take it back, also means to receive.

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He will give His life, and He'll receive it back again. Now, Jesus isn't going to give

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His life and be obedient, and then the Father is going to go, I'm going to give you your life back.

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It's not a gift. What we see here is, He has the power to take

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His life back again. He's going to have life again in His own self, in His own power.

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Remember, John 1 said that in Him was the light and life. John 5 .26

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For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the

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Son to have life in Himself. Jesus has the power in Himself to raise people and Himself from the dead, even after He dies.

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He has that power. Peter affirmed this when he said in the resurrection,

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Christ put an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

01:00:03

Death could not hold Him. The grave could not keep Him. The light that burst open when

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God said, let there be light, is the same sort of power that when Jesus rose from the dead, light and power came forth.

01:00:24

The stone door was rolled away and Christ rose in power, victorious, resolute, kingly.

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You see, Jesus gives the sacrifice of His life and the raising of His life equal weight in the grand plan of the redemption of this one new flock.

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Don't ever forget that. When you're giving the Gospel, we can be super heavy on,

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He died, He died for your sin, He died, He died. But you know what, the resurrection is just as important. Make sure you tell them, and He rose again.

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The resurrection affirms that what He did on the crucifixion actually worked.

01:01:15

And it was actually efficacious and efficient to pay for sins. Always remember the resurrection.

01:01:23

It wasn't an afterthought. It wasn't an addendum.

01:01:31

It was just as important. Look at verse 18.

01:01:37

This is incredible. He says, No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative.

01:01:46

I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment

01:01:51

I received from My Father. You see how He's adding on to verse 17 on the power that He has?

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We know, going through the Gospel of John, that on numerous occasions, the Jews have either tried to capture or kill

01:02:09

Jesus, right? We saw at the end of chapter 8 when Jesus says, before Abraham was,

01:02:16

I am. It says they all picked up stones to throw at Him and kill Him. And so, Jesus has been a wanted man.

01:02:24

He's been a man whom they've wanted to kill. They've sought to kill. But here, standing right in front of Pharisees and Jews, He says, you can't kill

01:02:36

Me. Do you see how that's inferred here? He says, no one has taken

01:02:42

My life away from Me. I will lay it down on My own initiative.

01:02:48

In saying that, He's telling everyone in front of Him, you think you have the power to stone

01:02:55

Me? To kill Me? To take My life from Me? I have it in Myself.

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I lay it down on My own initiative. And I have the authority to take it up again.

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You can't touch Me unless I allow you. Not one iota of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection took place outside of God's plan and outside of Jesus' power.

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He is the active initiator. He is no passive receiver. He will rescue us from the thief of sin.

01:03:36

He will carry not just the shepherd's wooden cane, but He'll carry the wooden cross.

01:03:42

He will provide not just streams of pasture, but the bread of life and living water in His body and in His blood, in His sacrifice.

01:03:57

Jesus alone, apart from any human, possesses all power and control over His life.

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You could put it this way. Jesus is saying, I have control over My life.

01:04:13

When and how and by whom it is laid down, I have the power then to take it up again.

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You see, if all that could be said about Jesus' death is that His enemies came together and colluded and they were able to conquer

01:04:28

Him and kill Him, then there would be no valor in that. There would be no heroism in that.

01:04:34

There would be no divinity even in that. Then He would be just a common man.

01:04:40

But He has the power to lay it down. He has the power to take it up again. You see, a regular sacrifice, an unwilling sacrifice, it's just a loss of life.

01:04:58

But a willing sacrifice, someone who willingly sacrifices himself, that's different.

01:05:09

That's choosing someone else over you. When Jesus the

01:05:14

Good Shepherd dies for His sheep, no one, not even the

01:05:19

Jews, will be able to say it was a mere accident or a tragedy brought about by corrupt men.

01:05:26

No one will be able to say that. This is the plan of God and no one else's.

01:05:35

And He says this is the commandment He received from His Father. So the

01:05:40

Son Incarnate is even submissive to His Father in His earthly ministry.

01:05:48

All three Persons of the Blessed Trinity have a role to carry out and they will do what they must for the salvation of God's people and the glory of the

01:05:57

Lord. This is the commandment of the Father, He says, and He will obey.

01:06:05

Jesus' obedience to the Father leads Him down His path. His Father loves

01:06:10

Him and His Father loves that obedience. No one else gives perfect obedience like Christ.

01:06:18

Let's go to our final verses. Verses 19 -21 A division occurred again among the

01:06:26

Jews because of these words. Many of them were saying, He has a demon and is insane.

01:06:32

Why do you listen to Him? Others were saying, These are not the sayings of one demon -possessed.

01:06:39

A demon -possessed man cannot open the eyes of the blind, can he? So we see another division, another, in the

01:06:47

Greek, eskizma. A division occurred amongst the Jews who were listening on account of Christ's words.

01:06:55

How often do I say this? And how often does John show us this? That divisions occur when

01:07:01

Jesus speaks. Jesus divides the world into the faithful, the believing, the sheep, and those who are not.

01:07:12

But they continue to use pejoratives. They continue to use inflammatory language, personal attacks to discredit

01:07:20

Jesus. He has a demon. He's insane. They can't seem to think of anything new.

01:07:28

They've said this a few times. It's like, come on, man. We've heard you say this before. They say, why do you listen to Him?

01:07:39

And these things point back to the first verses in chapter 10. Why do you listen to Him?

01:07:47

Remember, Jesus said His sheep can hear His voice. They recognize it.

01:07:52

They follow it. When they say, why do you listen to Him, it's clear that the ones asking, why do you listen to Him, they ask it because they can't hear.

01:08:04

They can't hear the Good Shepherd's voice. That question now serves as a rebuke to the ones asking it.

01:08:13

And we see here that this was the connection to the healing of the blind man in chapter 9. I told you that.

01:08:19

Chapter 10 is an extension to this. Why? Chapter 10 is all about Jesus showing

01:08:27

He's the Good Shepherd. And the false shepherds, the evil men, the

01:08:33

Pharisees, the Jews who ruled over the people, who fleeced the flock, who took advantage of them, who scattered

01:08:40

God's people, Jesus speaks against them here. And if you remember, their job was to watch over God's flock,

01:08:51

God's sheep, but they didn't. Remember in chapter 9, Jesus healed the man born blind.

01:08:57

And what did they do? They put him out. And Jesus takes him in.

01:09:03

Throws him out from the protection of shepherds. But in God's sovereign plan, the man who was born blind and now healed,

01:09:14

He came into the true flock. The flock of the Good Shepherd. It's interesting.

01:09:27

On the other side of the division, they're saying these are not the sayings of one demon possessed.

01:09:33

A demon can't open the eyes of the blind, can he? This statement actually refutes their two insults.

01:09:41

They're saying, number one, Jesus' words and sayings are not insane. They're making sense.

01:09:49

We know behind the scenes that they're heavenly, they're authoritative. And then these people say

01:09:55

He doesn't have a demon. He doesn't have a demon. They say demons can't heal blind people.

01:10:02

They don't do benevolent things. In fact, demons want people to stay blind.

01:10:09

So they're like, He can't have a demon because He healed someone who was blind.

01:10:18

And a demon doesn't have this kind of power to heal. Jesus does.

01:10:25

He's all -powerful. He has all power in Himself. As it said in verse 18,

01:10:33

He can reverse the curse effects of the fall because He is divine. Demons are not divine. This group doesn't think that the other group's insults are accurate.

01:10:45

And they're not intimidated by the other group, which is amazing. But as one commentator said, this other side of the division said what

01:10:55

Jesus wasn't. They never said what He was. So only time will tell if they are

01:11:02

His sheep. So let's wrap this up, church. I can't help but think back to the parts where Christ says

01:11:12

He will lay down His life for the sheep. Although it's been the intent for a shepherd to guard the flock, if you think about shepherds throughout history, it's never been a shepherd's intent to die for his sheep.

01:11:27

You get that? In the history of shepherds, shepherds would want to survive an attack of a predator, to survive a wound, to survive sickness.

01:11:40

Why? So that the sheep wouldn't be left alone. Because if the shepherd dies and there's no one else there, then the flock is left to exposure, extreme heat, lack of food, lack of leading, no water.

01:11:59

If the shepherd's gone, the sheep will die. And they'll be scattered.

01:12:06

But this is the amazing thing about this analogy, you guys. Christ the

01:12:12

Good Shepherd, to make sure we don't die, to make sure we're not attacked by predators, to make sure we're not left to exposure,

01:12:23

He must die. He will die. He will give His life. In fact,

01:12:30

His death will preserve and save the sheep. He must die and rise for the flock to survive.

01:12:38

He must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but fear no evil. That must happen.

01:12:45

And that's how it happened, of course, in history. You know, our psalm today was

01:12:52

Psalm 23. Many theologians recognize that Psalm 22 is about Christ's crucifixion.

01:13:00

Psalm 23, some theologians have said, are about Him walking through His death and rising again.

01:13:07

Psalm 24 has been understood to be about the coronation and maybe the ascension of Jesus.

01:13:14

So you have Psalm 22, 23, and 24 going together about Christ. But now through John 10,

01:13:21

Psalm 23 I think can even apply to us. Let's consider it once again.

01:13:28

Let me read it with Christ. The Lord Jesus is my shepherd, I shall not want.

01:13:36

Christ makes me to lie down in green pastures. Christ leads me beside still waters.

01:13:44

Christ restores my soul. The shepherd Jesus leads me in the paths of righteousness for His namesake.

01:13:52

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Christ is with me.

01:13:58

Jesus, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Christ prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

01:14:07

Christ will anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the

01:14:20

Lord Jesus Christ forever. That's us. Let's pray.

01:14:31

Lord, thank You for Your Word. Please bless these people as they go out.

01:14:39

God, I pray that You would show us that You are the Good Shepherd. For us sheep who are so easily able to wander,

01:14:47

Lord, bring us back to You. Let us remember You. Let us hear Your voice. And God, for those here who may not know

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You as the Good Shepherd yet, show them who

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You are. Show them that You're the Good Shepherd, that You lay down Your life, and that You give it.

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And if they believe on You and trust on You, they can have salvation.

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They can have pasture. They can be in this one flock of God for all eternity.

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Lord, please continue to gather Your sheep. We pray this all in Jesus' name.