The Good Shepherd

John 10:11-18 | You can trust Jesus because he is the good shepherd. 

• He cares for you
• He knows you
• He lays down his life for you

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Our passage is John chapter 10, verses eleven through eighteen. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father. This is the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Amen. Thank you, Christine. Well, good morning, and welcome to Harbor. My name is Trevor. I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm excited to open God's word with all of you today. If you're new, welcome. Glad you're here. You were jumping in right smack dab in the middle of a sermon series called I Am, Discovering Who Jesus Is. It's a sermon series that explores several statements that Jesus makes about himself to reveal his identity to us as God the Son incarnate. Each one of these statements begins with the phrase, I am, which is an implicit reference back to the Old Testament where God reveals his personal name to Moses in the burning bush, and then throughout Israel's history as the self-sufficient, all-existent God of the universe. Jesus applies that name to himself, using these statements to disclose who he is as God come to redeem his people from their sins. So today we're jumping into our fourth statement, which is I am the good shepherd. Throughout biblical history, biblical leadership has always been associated with this concept of shepherding. This concept first is used in Genesis chapter 48, when Jacob, one of Israel's forefathers, says that God is his shepherd, who's been leading him his entire life. It's used in Psalm 23 when David famously says, The Lord is my shepherd. It's used again in Ezekiel chapter 34, where God calls Israel's leaders bad shepherds because they're taking advantage of his people, and he promises that he will one day come and himself be their shepherd. In the New Testament, the Pharisees apply this concept of shepherding to themselves as the religious leaders of their day. And then in the epistles, the letters written by apostles to local churches, uh, eventually elders and pastors are come to be called shepherds. And so throughout biblical history, leaders have always been considered shepherds who are responsible for caring for God's people. The problem is, throughout Israel's history, their leaders have been notoriously bad shepherds. And that is the same in today's passage as well. We're dropping right into a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day, and they're abusing their authority, they're eroding trust, and they are taking advantage of God's people. Now, 2,000 years later, nothing's really changed much, has it? They're good leaders, to be sure. But it seems like every time you turn on the television or you read an article, there's at least one bad leader for every good leader. I'm sure that's an over exaggeration, but the media's attention always seems to draw our attention towards bad leadership. And where there's bad leadership, there's usually mistrust. Where there's mistrust, there's usually hurt. Where there's hurt, you can almost guarantee that there's some sort of doubt and disillusionment. Now, I don't know about you, but for me that hits closer to home than I would like it to. On a personal level, I've been hurt by people who are in leadership. A family member who is transactional in the way they related to other family members, in a way that completely disheartened me, made me feel insecure and unsure of myself. A Bible teacher whose duplicity made me question the faith. A supervisor whose oppositional leadership completely demoralized everyone under his care. Men who use their authority to hurt what they should have healed. On another level, on a pastoral level, I've hurt people with my leadership. There's been times where I've made a commitment that I haven't followed through on. I've asked a question that came across as accusation. I've let a careless word slip out of my mouth that caused unnecessary offense. I've used a harsh tone that wounded people unnecessarily. And as much as it grieves me to say it, at times my own leadership has been poor leadership. And that's one of the reasons why we need this message that Jesus is the good shepherd. Because apart from his gracious supervision, we don't only suffer under bad leaders, we also become them. And you may have noticed, as we've been working our way through the I am statements of Jesus, that he's both tough and tender. Towards the religious and the self-righteous, Jesus is incredibly tough. He confronts them for their moral superiority and their lack of self-awareness. But towards sinners and sufferers, Jesus is incredibly tender. He comforts them in their affliction, both of sin that they've committed as well of sins that have been committed against them. And the thing is, we need both sides of Jesus, his toughness and his tenderness, because that's what makes him who he is. You see, without Jesus' toughness, he's just another would-be savior who wants to fight injustice but can't. But without his tenderness, Jesus is just another ruthless warlord who's using his authority for his own advantage. It's his toughness that causes him to go to the cross, to face injustice, to endure death, and to defeat our enemies of Satan, sin, hell, and death. But it's his tenderness that causes him to draw near to the brokenhearted, to forgive sinners, and to go after the wayward and the weak. It's his toughness that makes us respect him. But it's his tenderness that makes us trust him. Without his toughness, we wouldn't need him. Without his tenderness, we wouldn't want him. And the beauty of the good shepherd imagery is that it brings both of those cataries together in one beautiful and compelling way. And so that's what we're going to look at together this morning. And as we do, I want you to see that you can trust Jesus because he's the good shepherd. And our outline is going to be that Jesus is the good shepherd because he cares for you, because he knows you, and because he lays down his life for you. As we look at this, my hope is that you will not only see Jesus as a necessary and beneficial Savior, but you'll also begin to see him as a beautiful and desirable Lord as well. So we'll start with Jesus is the good shepherd because he cares for you. Look with me at John chapter 10, verse eleven. Says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd does not own the sheep. He sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. So to understand what Jesus is saying here, we have to understand the difference between a shepherd and a hired hand. A shepherd is simply somebody who owns and cares for sheep, much like a farmer is somebody who owns and cares for a farm, or a vine dresser is somebody who owns and cares for a vineyard. Now I realize that this is a bit of an oversimplification of what a shepherd and a farmer is, but those are kind of the the scenario that Jesus sets up for us here in this particular passage. And in some cases, a shepherd's flock could be quite large. In some seasons, they might be able to care for the flock on their own without any necessary help from anyone else. But in other seasons, seasons where the flock has grown larger than they can manage on their own, or seasons that are particularly demanding, a shepherd might hire what's called a hand. It's simply a worker who helps with the sheep for a particular wage. Right? And that's all good, right? It's great to have a hired hand to help the shepherd in most situations. But the problem is, when danger comes, the hired hand, according to Jesus, he runs away. Why? Because he cares nothing for the sheep. The hired hand is only there until he gets paid. And if this job isn't working out or it gets too difficult, guess what he does? He packs up his bags and he goes to the pasture down the field and works for a different shepherd. But the shepherd, the owner, he stays when danger arrives. When the wolf comes and tries to snatch the sheep, he stays, not just because they're his livelihood, but because they belong to him. You see, the difference between a shepherd and a hired hand is that a hired hand relates to the sheep in a contractual way. I'll manage the sheep as long as I get paid, and it's not too difficult. The shepherd, on the other hand, he relates to the sheep in a personal way. I care for them because they belong to me. Because when something belongs to you, don't you, you you grow attached to it. The more you care for it, then more you own it. You don't just manage it because you're obligated to, you care for it because it's important to you. Care is no longer just a duty. Care is something you do from affection. A task shifts from being a personal investment to or to a personal investment from a job-related responsibility. And that completely changes the way that you relate to loss. For the hired hand, a lost sheep, it's unfortunate, but it's not really significant. But for the shepherd, a lost sheep is absolutely devastating because it's not just financial, it's personal. He knows the sheep and he cares for them. Because you always care about the things that belong to you. Now, some of you know that my family recently got a dog. Those of you who know me well know that it wasn't my choice. And uh my family started asking for a dog about a year to a year and a half ago, and uh I kept resisting and I kept resisting and I kept resisting, and then finally I decided I was going to test how much they wanted a dog. And so I put together this little test and I said, Would you rather have a dog or would you rather have a sibling? And their response was basically like, anytime we want a sibling, we can just borrow one from the miners. They got six of them. I'm like, they don't care. We want a puppy. They didn't actually say that, but that's based on their attitude. It was like, why would we get another sibling? We can just borrow one. But uh so we ended up getting a puppy. And uh at first, as I related to that puppy, I related to that puppy as an expensive inconvenience that was imposed upon me against my will. And I treated her that way as well. I kind of refused to call her by her name for a while. Just said dog. Um, but her name is Trixie, she's a little cocker spaniel, got blue eyes, uh, white with some red spots. I'd show you a picture, but I'm not quite ready to be seen with her in public yet. And uh lo and behold, yes, who's doing a lot of care for the puppy? That's right. I am guess who puts the thing to bed at night? I do. Guess who gets up in the middle of the night to take it outside to go potty? Yours truly. Guess who's the first one up in the morning dealing with the puppy when she's barking in the kennel? That's right, it's me. And uh guess what started to happen? I've kind of started to have a little heart change. I no longer actively despise her, and now I reluctantly tolerate her. My family, of course, loves the dog, and as you watch them interact with me, you can see that there's an affection and a care. And there's a sense that because she belongs to me, even though I'm not ready to say that like I love the dog, I've started to care for the dog in a way that I didn't before. Because you tend to care for the things that belong to you. When Jesus says that he is the good shepherd, that's what he's saying about you. He's saying, you belong to me. You're important to me, and I care for you. Let that sink in for a moment. When your family dynamic is full of drama and dysfunction, Jesus says, you belong to me and I care for you. When your health erodes because of chronic illness, Jesus says, you belong to me and I care for you. When crisis threatens you to ruin your life, Jesus says, you belong to me and I care for you. When everyone else in your life is fleeing, parents or family member or bosses or pastors or friends, Jesus pursues. He enters in when everyone else flees. Because he cares for you. Now you might be thinking something. You might be asking yourself, where was Jesus when my aunt got cancer? Where was Jesus when my dad left? Where was Jesus when I lost my job and I had to file for bankruptcy? And those are good questions. And if you're in a moment of suffering or you're trying to process childhood crisis, I'm sorry. But I want you to notice something. The text doesn't say if the wolf comes. The text says when the wolf comes. Jesus doesn't promise that bad things won't happen to you in life. As we saw in our profession of faith, that's just part of life in a fallen world. What Jesus does say is that when those bad things come, he won't leave you when they do. He stays with you and he works in it for your good. So I don't know why those things would happen. But I know that some of you are suffering in hard ways right now. You're going through hard stuff like failing health or marital conflict or moral failure or domestic abuse or mental illness. And I want you to know that Jesus hasn't left you. He hasn't given up on you, he hasn't forsaken you because he's not a hired hand. He doesn't flee when he sees trouble coming. He cares for you because you belong to him. That's the first thing I want you to see this morning. Here's the second. Jesus is the good shepherd because he knows you. Look with me at verse 14. Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I know my own, and my own know me, just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And then in good measure, if you skip down to verse 27, Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. Now there are several different kinds of knowledge in the world. There's implicit knowledge, explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, procedural knowledge, firsthand knowledge, secondhand knowledge, and so on and so forth. But generally speaking, we can categorize knowledge into three very broad categories: conceptual knowledge, empirical knowledge, and personal knowledge. Conceptual knowledge refers to knowledge gained through theory. It's the ability to understand the idea even if you've never had firsthand experiences of yourself. It's the ability to say that you understand that trust is important for relationships, even if you've never been in one. Empirical knowledge refers to knowledge that is gained through direct observation. Right? You can use background checks and uh rental history records and personal references to gain a degree of objective knowledge about a person even if you've never met them. But personal knowledge, personal knowledge refers to that which is gained through firsthand experience. It means you trust a person not because you've checked a background check or somebody gave them a good personal reference or you understand the concept of trust in your mind. It means that your experience tells you that you can trust that person not only in a general way, but also in a personal way as well. So when Jesus says that he knows his own, he's not talking about conceptual or empirical knowledge, he's talking about personal knowledge. It means that Jesus doesn't just know you in an intellectual or scientific way, he knows you in a personal way, intimately, relationally, and deeply. He knows your fear, your doubt, your struggle, and even those things that you won't admit to yourself. But get this part. This is where it gets really cool. Jesus says in verse 15 that he knows his sheep in the same way that he knows the heavenly Father. Think about that for a minute. There is one God who eternally exists in the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. One being in three persons. And Jesus Christ, as God the Son, has always been in relationship with the Father in the most intimate way possible. You cannot possibly get closer to someone than sharing their very being with them. And so Jesus' relationship with the Father is as intimate and close as it can possibly get. And not only that, not only are they have do they have an intimate relationship because they enjoy the same divine essence, but they do so eternally. They have always been in relationship with each other because God is eternal and uncreated. And that makes Jesus' relationship with the Father intimate and permanent. And through the incarnation, God the Son took on flesh, entered into human history, and assumed a human nature, adding to himself humanity without losing or corrupting any of his divinity. Why? To become a perfect substitute for sinners, of course. But it's more than that. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, assumed a human nature so that we could know him the way that he knows the Father. In other words, Jesus relates to us not as a creator to his creation or a Lord to his subjects, but as one man relates to another, as a friend relates to a friend. You know what that means? It means that Jesus wants to be in relationship with you in the same way that he is in relationship with the Father, intimately and permanently. Isn't that what we all want? Don't we all want relationships that are intimate and permanent, that are deep and that last forever? And isn't that so much of the cause of our hurt in life? Is that experience has taught us that people can't be trusted and nothing lasts forever. But don't you see how the gospel changes all that? Because Jesus invites you into an intimate and permanent relationship with him, the same kind of relationship that he has with the Father. And that's why you can trust him. And that's why when you hear his voice, you should follow him. My wife's grandfather lives in a very small town called New Hampton. It's about About a hundred people in the northwest corner of Missouri. And every direction you look, you see nothing but cornfields and cattle. And that is the same for Grandpa Tim as well. For the longest time, he raised goats, but eventually at one point he decided he was tired of goats and he wanted cows instead. So growing up in the city, my kids have very little interaction with goats and cows and farm animals and those kinds of things. That was a part of my wife's childhood, and it was important to us that they have an experience of that kind of stuff. So one day we took our kids down to New Hampton, Missouri to introduce them to Grandpa Tim's cows. We got to the pasture before Grandpa Tim did, and we kind of stood along the fence line, kind of hollering at the cows. We were cow calling them, I guess you could say. And I found like, I don't know, a piece of grass or something, and I'm leaning against the fence. I'm like, here, cow! Come on, cow! Over here, cow, you know, sweet talking the thing and trying to convince it uh that we could be trusted. But the strange thing happened. The more I talked, the further away they got. They did not like the sound of my voice. It made them skittish and it caused them to walk away. Uh but while we were waiting for Tierney's grandpa, and these cows were walking away. Grandpa Tim starts driving down the road and he hollers out the window, I doubt you're gonna get any of them that away. And he didn't even talk to the cows, but they heard his voice. And as soon as they did, they stopped in their tracks and they started walking directly back to where I had been standing because they heard his voice. He knew them and they trusted him. He wasn't just some guy standing at the corner of a fence with a piece of grass yelling, hey cow. He was a guy who birthed these cows, who named these cows, who raised these cows, who understood their medical history and their personalities. He'd say, Hey, that one's Charlotte, make sure you get out of her way. She wants to get to the food first. That one over there, that's Oreo. You gotta scratch her three times under the left ear before she's gonna take a bite. And then he'd be like, Oh, that one over there, that one's brownie. Brownie won't eat until the last, or until he's last. Everyone else will go before Brownie will go. And uh, watch out for Charger. Charger's got this strange infection over by your left hand. You're gonna want to avoid that. Um, but at that point it came became really, really obvious. No one could lead those cattles like Grandpa Tim could lead them because no one knew them like Grandpa Tim knew them. Well, in a similar way, no one can lead lead you like Jesus can lead you, because no one knows you like Jesus knows you. He knows your name, he knows your story, he knows your struggles, he knows your sin and your wounds and your weakness, he is aware of your heart and he hears your prayer and he leans into your pain. And the same way that he Grandpa Tim leads the cattle, Jesus leads you into grudd into greener pastures. So when he calls your name, hear his voice and follow him. In your relationships, hear his voice and follow him. In your career, hear his voice and follow him. In your sickness, hear his voice and follow him. In your cynicism and your doubt and your frustration, hear his voice and follow him. Because he knows you and he wants to be in relationship with you. No one can lead you like Jesus can lead you, because no one knows you like Jesus knows you. That's the second thing I want you to see. Here's the third. You can trust Jesus because he lays down his life for you. Verse 11, Jesus says, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Then again in verse 15, Jesus says, I lay down my life for the sheep. And again in verse 17, Jesus says, For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life for the sheep, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I received from my father. In his commentary on the book of Jonah, Tim Keller makes this astute observation that there's no greater demonstration of love than substitutionary sacrifice. Whether it's a movie, a historical event, a personal experience, the thing that seems to capture our attention, that stirs our affection, that moves us to action always seems to be one person sacrificing themselves for another. We know, says Keller, that anybody who ever made a real difference in our lives made a sacrifice so that we wouldn't have to. And there has never been a greater sacrifice in all of human history than that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would lay down his life for us. From the very beginning, the penalty for sin has always been death. When God placed our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, he said, You may eat of any tree except for the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. For if you eat of it, you will surely die. Later, Israel's sacrificial system was instituted for this very reason, so that God's people, when they sinned, they could substitute an animal in their place so the animal would die and they could live. And that is exactly why Jesus came. There's this scene in the movie The Hunger Games, where Primrose Everdeen, a timid, mild-mannered 12-year-old, is selected for the 74th annual Hunger Games, a televised competition where two teenagers from each of Pan Am's 12 districts are chosen at random to fight to the death. As the youngest, most underwhelming competitor, it is clear from the beginning that Prim does not stand a chance. But the Capitol, they don't care. So the guards seize Prim and they begin to walk her away. And in that moment, a hush goes over the crowd, and you hear a cry from the distance that says, I volunteer, I volunteer as tribute. And stepping out from the crowd, it's her sister, Katniss. So that Prim could go back to her mom and Katniss would take her place. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying here. We, like Prim, are condemned to die because of our sin. Yet Jesus, like Katniss, intervenes and he says, I volunteer. I volunteer his tribute. I will lay down my life for the sheep. But there's a difference. It's in verse 18. Jesus says, I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. See, unlike Prim or Katniss, Jesus has authority over his own life. No one takes it from him. He lays it down freely of his own accord. But the good news, of course, is that Jesus doesn't stay dead. Not only does he have authority to lay down his life, he also has authority to take it up again, rising from the dead to defeat Satan, sin, hell, and death on our behalf. Now, isn't it true that the majority of our trust issues are all the result of misused authority? Are we not skeptical of authority? Because experience tells us that people in authority tend to abuse that authority. And given the fact that we live in a fallen world where authority is often misused and abused, we're right to be skeptical, aren't we? But Jesus is different. Unlike worldly leaders and bad shepherds, you can trust Jesus because he uses his authority for your good. And Jesus rose again, conquering death for you. So when Jesus says, stop sleeping with your girlfriend, you can trust him. When Jesus says walk in the light with your harbor group, you can trust him. When Jesus says wait for that opportunity because the time isn't right yet, you can trust him. Because a God who's willing to lay down his life for you, to use his authority for your good, is a God that you can trust in every area of your life. Let me end by saying this. Jesus says that he lays down his life for who? The sheep. Jesus says that he lays down his life for the sheep. Who are the sheep? The sheep are all those who have come to Jesus in repentance and faith. They're the people who have turned away from sin and self-reliance, who have willingly said to God, I can't save myself. I need you, my good shepherd, to bring me back to the fold again. But trust doesn't end at salvation, it begins. And there's some of you in this room who I fear have trusted Jesus to forgive your sins, but you're trying to do the rest of your life on your own. You've said yes to Jesus and you've trusted him to save you and to forgive you, but you've kind of looked at him and said, My marriage, I'll take care of that. My finances, no, thank you. I've got those taken care of too. My career, my relationships, my health, nope, don't touch those. Those are mine. Thank you very much. Can I just ask? Don't you think it's time that you started trusting Jesus with your entire life and not just some of it? Jesus already proved that you can trust him by laying down his life on the cross, where he used his authority for your good. What more do you need him to do? You can trust him because he uses his authority for you. Jesus also says that he has other sheep that are not of this fold. He says, I will bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. Now Jesus is speaking to the Jews, God's chosen people, and he's speaking of the Gentiles, those at that point who have not been grafted in, who've not been brought into the fold of God. And if you've trusted in Jesus Christ, you are somebody who's been brought into the fold of God by virtue of your faith in Jesus. But you if you have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ for your salvation, you're one of the other sheep that Jesus is talking about. He's looking out at you, he's calling your name. And your invitation is to hear his voice and follow him. I realize that maybe you've been in places where you've been hurt by that. I realize that maybe you have skepticism and doubt and questions that you need answered first. I realize that you're not entirely sure of this faith thing or how it works or what it looks like in your life. But I want you to know that you can trust Jesus because he's the good shepherd. And so if that's you, this morning, would you hear his voice? Call your name and would you follow him? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the good news that we can trust Jesus because he's the good shepherd. We thank you, Jesus, that you care for us, that you know us, and that you lay down your life for us. Lord, I pray today that that would not only be clear to our mind, but that you would make it real to our heart in the Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to see that we are sheep. And that those of us who have trusted Christ for salvation have been brought into the fold, not of our own doing, but by the work of God. May they give us peace and hope and reassurance because our good shepherd has laid down his life for us. Lord, for my brothers and sisters who do not yet know Jesus, who are wandering from the fold of God, who are lost and all alone, Lord, as you call their name right now, would they hear your voice? And by the power of the Holy Spirit, would they follow you? Lord, as we seek to respond now in communion, we pray that you would reassure our hearts with this good news that you are our shepherds, and we come before you as your sheep. In Jesus' name, amen.