“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.11
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
Last time we began looking at a number of characteristics of Jesus as the good Shepherd. We discussed that our Good Shepherd enters by the gate and that He knows His
sheep by name. We pick it up today with the next characteristic:
Third, verse 10:3, the Shepherd leads them out.
Here is the picture. The Lord comes to you, He calls you out, just as he called out his people from Egypt and He leads you out…He goes with you. He didn’t take His people out of Egypt and say, Ok boys, you are on own your…hope all goes well, and
you better get moving, because the Egyptians are mounting their horses, and sharpening their spears!No, He was a cloud in the day and fiery pillar at night…He was water from the rock, and food that fell from heaven…
I know what it feels like at times…but would this shepherd, who has gone to such lengths to call you out, now desert you and leave you to yourself? Would this shepherd
leave you alone to fin for yourself…But, you say, I don’t feel his presence…But what will you trust, what you feel, or what He has promised? He has promised to be with you…He has promised never to leave you…do you believe Him?
Fourth and this ties with the last point, 10:4 tells us that the shepherd doesn’t just go with us, He goes ahead of the sheep.
There are two ways that shepherds could do their job. One would be to drive the sheep, to be behind them cracking the whip and moving them forward. The other is to
go before them and to call them to follow, to lead them by going before them. Is this not the good Shepherd? Has he not gone before us, in everything? Think of this; Jesus asks nothing of us that He has not first done. He was tempted in every way like we are,
yet without sin. He led a life through the most difficult of trials by trusting our heavenly Father, just as we are called to do.
You must take up your cross…He took up His.
You must give your life away…He gave up His.
He lived to the glory of the Father, and died to the same…as you and I will be called to cross the same river, into the same joy. No matter how strange or how hard
your path seems to you…if you will but look closely, you will see that your Shepherd has already been there, he has preceded you, and you need not fear to follow…he knows the terrain and He knows where He is taking you.
Fifth, verses 3-4 shows that the shepherd is followed by the sheep.
There was a sermon I read on this passage that took the angle, not of Christ as the good shepherd, but of asking the question:
What kind of sheep are we?
The sheep of God know the voice of the shepherd and they follow him, that is, they obey him. They are utterly dependent upon that voice, they have heard it so often,
they know its pitch, its tone, the sound is distinguishable from all the other voices. The voice isn’t questioned, it isn’t ignored, it isn’t disregarded, it isn’t obeyed only sometimes, but knows the danger that awaits if that voice is not obeyed.
Are we, the sheep, to decide which of our Shepherds instructions are important and which are not? And what do you suppose happens to sheep, when they disregard the
shepherd’s voice and do what THEY want to do? Or when they think He is wrong, that pasture is not the one for me to be in, rather this one over here is where I am supposed to be, or at least where I want to be. Or when we form sheep committees so as to make
the shepherd’s words a bit more acceptable…who knows, maybe if we do that, we will get more sheep than the other pens!
Brothers and sisters, do you know His voice…do you recognize His words so familiar with Him, and so trusting of Him are you, that you don’t question Him, or try to
argue or ignore? What are you listening to, what voices are the most prominent?
A Native American Indian was visiting a friend of his in NY City. They were walking in the financial district downtown and the Cherokee stopped his friend and said,
do you hear that?
Hear what?
That cricket? Do you hear the cricket?
Laughing, the New Yorker said, there is no cricket downtown!
Oh yes there is, I can hear it. He went over to a man-made planter box that decorated the streets and pulled out of the box, a live cricket. His friend was amazed!
How in the world did you hear that?
The visitor said, not so amazing really, watch. He pulled out of his pocket a hand full of change…the streets of course were filled with people and he threw the change
into the air and when the clinking began of money hitting the sidewalk, literally hundreds of people, wheeled around, stopping conversations, to see the money that was now on the ground.
The Cherokee said, “You see…it all depends on what you are listening for.”
So…what are we listening for…who are we listening to? Do you know your Shepherd’s voice and can you hear it, through the noise and the cacophony of voices that bid
you to listen to them? Whose voice has prominence?
Sixth, verses 7-9, the Shepherd furnishes every blessing, the door, and gives abundant life to his sheep.
Verse 9 says that the sheep go in and out through Christ and find pasture. They find the blessings of what they yearn for, they find the blessings of eternity, they
find the food and water that never runs out…or as Psalm 23 says, he leads us to green pastures…he leads us beside still waters…he restores our soul…he leads us in paths of righteousness, and does so for His name’s sake, which is our very purpose. You might
think, “Yea, but at the same time, things where he has led me, or is leading me, is difficult, no, it is painful and frightening!” And then what?
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…I will fear no evil…for thou are with my…they rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”
A hard question: Do you find your blessing, even your comfort in the rod and staff of Jesus, even if, even when he must strike you, to get you back to His path? I
have found there are two kinds of people in the church, those who embrace His rod and those who despise His rod…and sadly I can remember times when I was both. Which are you? And do you believe, do you really believe that this kind Shepherd, in whom are all
these blessings found and in no one else, that he is leading you in all of this…home?
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord…forever.
Seventh and last, verses 11, 14, the Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
For some, it is just a job…just a pay-check. Church is just something socially we do…religion is a necessity for the ordering of the home. So, when it comes to the
sheep, when it comes to the people of God, let’s not get all carried away, and we are not going to risk all that much, or be all that vulnerable.
The Good Shepherd however, not only gives life to the Sheep, but he lays down His life,
for the sheep. Why? Because they are His…he owns them…He loves them…He purchased them, even from our own folly and rebellion, and the price is steep…Torture…death and then the steepest price…rejection by the Father.
The Edict of Nantes was issued on April 13, 1598 by Henry IV of France. This gave the Protestants of France known as the Huguenots rights to worship unmolested by
the Roman Catholic Church. In 1685, 87 years later, Louis XIV revoked the edict, and full-blown persecution of the French Huguenots was almost immediately underway.
Many of the French Christians fled. There was a group of men who fled to Geneva to be trained for Christian ministry and then to return to France to pastor the underground
church. Almost all of those men would be captured, tortured and murdered. The men studying in Geneva, knew that for them to return to put on Christ and shepherd their brothers and sisters in Jesus name, meant almost certain death. The diploma that was granted
from the seminary in Geneva became darkly called, “A certificate to the gallows”, so certain that those who went back to France would end up dead or in prison.
That is love for Jesus. That is love for the sheep, that is Christianity. Brothers and sisters, do you and I have such a diploma in our possession? Does the love of
the Shepherd and His giving of His life for us, work in us, this one desire, to give our lives to Him?
He who scattered his people, will gather them and keep them…and we shall come singing into Zion, streaming into the goodness of the Lord, we will be like a well-watered
garden and we shall sorrow no more. And the Lamb who is the Shepherd will lead us home.
Prayer:
Father, I have barely begun to understand the depth of Your love for sinners…of Your love for me. I have touched but the edges and am overwhelmed! I pray that the love, care and protection of the Great Shepherd would be understood at such a level in my soul
that I cannot want for anything but to love Him in return and to live my life this day for Him. To be loved by such mercy is what gives my life joy, peace, rest and sheer happiness. Thank you Father! May my life be returned to You with the fullness of trust
and faith, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: The Lord is My Shepherd