Now I want to begin by reading
the passage and setting it back before your heart, and I pray that God will enable
you to drink in these verses. Jesus is the Speaker, and Jesus
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, who is not the owner of the sheep,
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. He is not concerned about the
sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know
me. Even as the Father knows me,
and I know the Father, and I lay down my life. for the
sheep. I have other sheep 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. For this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life, so that I may take it No one has taken it away from
me, but I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority
to lay it down, and I have authority to take
it up again. This commandment I received from my Father. What makes these verses so special? is that this is Jesus' own commentary
on his own death and resurrection. This is Jesus preaching Christ. This is Jesus preaching Christ
and him crucified. This is Jesus preaching on Jesus. This is the greatest preacher
who ever walked this earth, Jesus Christ, the Living Word. And
he is preaching on the greatest subject that there is in all
of the universe, the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of Jesus
Christ. Jesus is here both speaker and
subject. He is both teacher and theme.
He is both preacher and proposition. These verses are not more inspired
than other portions of Scripture that focus upon the cross, but
these verses are more personal, because this is Jesus bearing
His heart and bearing His soul concerning His own death. and
his own resurrection. And strangely enough, the congregation
that day were the false shepherds of Israel. And the timing is
immediately after his healing the blind man in the previous
chapter, John chapter 9. And there is no break in the
continuity as we move from John chapter 9 now to John chapter
10. And Jesus now addresses the false
shepherds of Israel regarding the nature of the true shepherd,
the good shepherd himself. In verses 1 through 10, which
we will not have time to develop, Jesus really sets the scene in
what is known as what verse 6 refers to as a figure of speech. It
is in reality what we would call an allegory. We do not allegorize
the Bible when we interpret, yet the Bible does contain this
figure of speech that is known as an allegory. An allegory is
a parable on steroids. with a parable, there is one
central truth that is the dominant driving thrust, and you can get
in trouble quickly when you begin to push the details of a parable. But with an allegory, it is multifaceted,
it is far more complex, and there is much more attention to detail
in the individual parts of the allegory. What we have before
us is an allegory. Isaiah chapter 5 is an allegory. There are multiple allegories
that are found in the pages of Scripture. And this is figurative
language, as verse 6 says. And just to quickly summarize
verses 1 through 10, what you need to know in verse 1 is there
is a sheepfold. Now this sheepfold is apostate
Israel, with its dead religion. And inside this sheepfold, representing
the nation of Israel, there are many different individual flocks. and mixed among the individual
flocks of sheep in this large community sheepfold that was
within the city where a shepherd would leave his flock during
the night under the care of the doorkeeper and he would go and
have a night's rest and then come back the next day to call
out his own flock. There were many different flocks
inside this larger sheepfold which represented the spiritual
deadness of the nation Israel at this time. In verse 1, we
also see the thieves and the robbers. And these thieves and
robbers are the congregation to whom Jesus is speaking that
day. These are the Pharisees. These
are the hired hands. These are those who stole glory
from God. These are those who made the
temple to be a robber's den. They have no care for the sheep.
They are fleecers of the flock. They are thieves and robbers,
and they are not the rightful owners of the sheep. In verse
2, we're introduced to the shepherd who is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus identifies Himself as this
shepherd who is mentioned in verse 2, in verse 11, and in
verse 15. He is this good shepherd. He is the one who has been given
the care of the true flock of God. And in verse 3, we see the
doorkeeper and various interpreters give us different explanations. And in verse 3, we also see the
sheep. The sheep are the elect of God. The sheep are those who
have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world.
And according to verse 29, later, they are those who have been
entrusted to the care of this Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Father has chosen and elected
them before time began and has given them to the Son, to this
Shepherd, to be to be his people, to be his flock, to be his sheep. And in verses three through five,
we see the shepherd's voice. This is the effectual call of
the shepherd to the elect sheep. They are the only ones who will
recognize the voice of their shepherd. The other flocks and
the other sheep who are in this large community sheepfold, they
will hear the audible voice, but they will not recognize that
voice as that of their own shepherd. But when the sheep hear the voice
of their shepherd, these elect sheep, they are immediately drawn
to that voice. And the shepherd will call out
to them by name because he is the rightful owner of these sheep.
And he calls them by name, and he calls them White Nose, or
Black Ear, or Brown Leg. And when they hear their name
being called, they begin to separate from the other sheep who just
continue to have their head down and continue to do their grazing.
But when the sheep hear the voice of their shepherd, they immediately
raise their head And they are drawn to that voice, and they
begin to separate themselves from the rest of the flocks and
from the rest of the sheep, and they go to their shepherd. They hear what the other sheep
do not hear. They are given ears to hear.
And the good shepherd cannot leave them in this apostate sheepfold. He must lead them out. He must
lead them out of this graveyard, out of this barren wilderness. He must lead them out of apostate
Israel, and He leads them out according to these verses. And
as they separate and come out, the other shepherds call out
to the elect sheep, but a stranger's voice they will not hear. And
they will continue to follow the voice of their shepherd. And they are one with their shepherd. And he leads them out of the
city and leaves behind this apostate sheepfold and leads them out
into the countryside. And there he builds his own sheepfold. And he rolls the rocks to form
a wall. And he leaves an opening in the
wall. And according to verse 7, he
himself becomes the door of the sheep. and he will call them
in to this countryside sheepfold. And once they're all in the sheepfold,
he will lay down in the opening and he seals them in and he seals
out any predators or any wild beasts who would try to come
into the sheepfold. They have to go through the shepherd
in order to get to the sheep. And He is a heroic shepherd.
He is a courageous shepherd. And if it is necessary, He will
lay down even His own life to protect His own sheep. And then in the morning, in the
day, He will arise from this open doorway and He will call
to His sheep and He will lead them out into green pastures
and beside still waters. And according to verse 10, He
gives them life. He gives them abundant life.
And He feeds their soul to the fullness until they are overflowing. And this is repeated day after
day. He leads them in and leads them
out. Leads them in for protection
at night and leads them out for provision during the day. And what a relationship exists
between the shepherd and the sheep. He is responsible for all their
needs. And if need be, He will lay down
even His life to protect them. In verse 11, when Jesus says,
I am the good shepherd, this is one of seven I am statements
that is found in the gospel of John, which really forms the
spine or the backbone of the gospel of John. And this particular
I am statement in verse 11 finds itself really at the apex position. There are three that will lead
up to it. There are three that will lead
down from it. And the first three I Am statements
that are like stair steps that lead up to this fourth I Am statement,
Jesus has already said, I am the bread of life, John 6, 35.
And I am the light of the world, John 8, 12. And I am the door
of the sheep, John 10, verse 9. But sitting here in the premier
spot is, I am the Good Shepherd. And then leading down and away
from this are the final three I am statements. He will say,
I am the resurrection and the life in John 11, 25, and 26. And then, I am the way and the
truth and the life, John 14, 6. And I am the true vine, John
15, 5. This sits in the very center
of these seven I Am statements, I believe, because the cross
is in the very center of Christianity. There is a reason why over my
shoulder there is a cross. There is not a manger, and there
is not even a throne, and there is not an empty tomb. There is
a cross. Because it is the cross that
is the ultimate focal point of Christianity. And we are to be
reminded of this cross again and again and again every time
we come to the Lord's table. It finds itself at the very epicenter
of Christianity. And so it finds itself at the
very epicenter of these I Am statements. as it will be this
discourse wrapped around, I am the Good Shepherd, will be Jesus'
fullest exposition of His substitutionary death
upon the cross. This will be Jesus exegeting
Himself. This will be Jesus expositing
Himself as the Good Shepherd. who lays down His life for the
sheep. As we look today at verses 11
through 18, there are three things that I want you to note. I want
you to note at the beginning of verse 11, the exclusive claim,
I am the Good Shepherd. And then second, I want you to
note the excellent character. Beginning in the middle of verse
11 and extending all the way through verse 16, Jesus will
give three reasons why He is the Good Shepherd. And it will
be an explanation and a defense of His excellent character. This
is why He's the Good Shepherd. This is why He's not just the
Shepherd, but He is the Good Shepherd. The middle of verse
11 through 16 will explain that. And then finally, the emphatic
choice in verses 17 and 18. And you will find the first person
singular pronoun, I, mentioned six times in verses 17 and 18. It is an emphatic choice of the
will of the Son to lay down His life for the sheep. So please note how verse 11 begins. I want you to note first the
exclusive claim, and here Jesus makes a claim of staggering proportions. He says, I am the good shepherd. Now there are four things that
I want you to know about those few words, I am the good shepherd. And number one, it is a declaration
of his deity. As Jesus says, I am. He is taking to himself the name
that God has assigned to himself. At the burning bush in Exodus
3, verse 14, I am who I am. The tetragrammaton, the I am
statement. This is the divine name. And Jesus is taking this to Himself
in unmistakable terms. And Jesus, by saying, I am, is
claiming to be truly God, truly God. Fully God, fully God. This is a declaration of His
deity. And we believe this if we open
up the wider scope of theology Because Jesus performed the works
that only God can perform. Because Jesus receives the worship
that only God can receive. Because Jesus possesses the attributes
that only God possesses. That Jesus is called the names
that only God is called. And Jesus is equated with God
Himself. Here, Jesus says, I am the sacred
name for God. Yahweh, Jehovah, I am the Good
Shepherd. And throughout the Old Testament,
God identified Himself as the Shepherd of His people. Psalm
23, verse 1, the Lord is my Shepherd. The Lord is my Shepherd. Jesus
now is saying, I am this good shepherd, the Lord Himself. In Psalm 80 and verse 1, the
psalmist, as he prays to God, says, O give ear, shepherd of
Israel. God is called upon as the shepherd
of His people. And Psalm 100, in verse 3, the
psalmist writes that we are to serve the Lord with gladness.
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Again and again and again throughout
the Old Testament, God is identified as the shepherd of His people. Isaiah 40, in verse 11. Ezekiel
34, verses 11 And 12, God says, as a shepherd
cares for his herd in the day, so I will care for my sheep. So first of all, when Jesus says,
I am the Good Shepherd, this is a declaration of His deity. And they would later catch the
drift of this in verse 33, when they realized He was making Himself
out to be God. And Jesus is God and must be
God in order to care for us, the flock of God. But second,
not only does this mean a declaration of His deity, it is a statement
of His sufficiency. A shepherd assumed the total
responsibility to meet all the needs of his sheep. And even so, the imagery is meant
to convey that Jesus as Shepherd assumes full responsibility for
the totality of all of our needs. That is what Psalm 23, verse
1 says, the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He supplies all of our needs.
And Jesus will say to His disciples in John 15, verse 5, apart from
me, you can do Nothing. But in Philippians 4 verse 13,
Paul writes, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens
me. To know this shepherd is to know
the one who is committed to meeting all of your needs, top to bottom,
north, south, east, west, whether directly or indirectly, rather
personally or providentially. He has assumed the care of our
lives. Third, it is an evidence of His
exclusivity. Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd,
meaning the one and only Good Shepherd. Not a Good Shepherd,
but the Good Shepherd. There are no other Good Shepherds,
but this Shepherd. And He is the only one to shepherd
our souls through this life, and one day to lead us into the
very presence of God in heaven. Peter said, there is salvation
in no other name. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. This I AM statement
is an evidence of His exclusivity. And there is no one else and
nothing else in this world that can meet your needs except the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He may work through other
people, and He may work through circumstances, and what would
be the affairs of providence, but nevertheless, it is all under
the watch care of the Good Shepherd. And then fourth, it is a guarantee
of His goodness. He says, I am the Good Shepherd. This word, good, means noble,
excellent, beautiful, choice, ideal, superior. Jesus is excellent in His person. Jesus is excellent in His character. Jesus is superior in His being. He is the Good Shepherd, and
He can only do good to us all the days of our life. Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our life,
and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You and I will never preach any
better than when we preach this Christ, who is the Good Shepherd
of His sheep. And the better we would feed
our flock, the more we must tell them of this Good Shepherd. There
needs to be less of us and more of Him in our preaching. We do
not want them to be dependent upon us. We want them to be dependent
upon Him. And we are but under shepherds.
He is the chief shepherd. He is the great shepherd. He
is the good shepherd. And the best and greatest service
that we can do to our people as we preach and as we shepherd
the flock of God is to do all that we can to hold forth His
goodness, His glory, His greatness. This is the exclusive claim. Second, I want you to note the
excellent character, because Jesus does more than simply announce
that He is the Good Shepherd, He now, the Great Teacher that
He is, gives explanation as to why He is the Good Shepherd. And Jesus will now give three
reasons why He is the Good Shepherd. Again, He does not merely tell
us that He is the Good Shepherd. He now explains to us why He
is the Good Shepherd. And reason number one is found
in verse 11 immediately. And Jesus does not save the best
for last. He actually front loads this
at the very beginning of His explanation. He throws down the
greatest reason. He dies for His sheep. Notice what He says, I am the
Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His
life for the sheep. This is figurative language that
pictures and represents His death upon the cross on behalf of His
sheep. That He lays down His life when
His sheep are in great danger. when His sheep are exposed, as
His sheep are defenseless and helpless, it is this Good Shepherd
who comes to their aid and will deliver them from danger and
rescue them from ruin, because He will lay down His life for
the sheep. I want you to notice how He stresses
how voluntary this laying down of His life for the sheep is.
He says, the shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Please
note, his life was not taken. His life was given. And he will
stress this five times in this passage. Here in verse 11, and
then in verse 15, he will say, I lay down my life for the sheep.
Then in verse 17, I lay down my life. And then in verse 18,
twice, he will say that I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down. Five times. This is the stress. that He makes. His blood was not spilt. It was poured out. The cross
was not a human accident. It was a divine appointment.
He did not say, I am finished. But it is finished. as he chose
volitionally of his own will to give his life for the sheep. This also emphasizes the vicarious
nature of his death. As he says in verse 11, the Good
Shepherd lays down his life, and the idea is unto death, lays
down his life unto death for the sheep. That little preposition for huper,
large doors swing on small hinges. And major theology hinges on
three little English words, five in the Greek. This preposition
for means for the benefit of, for the sake of, instead of,
in the place of. And this speaks of the vicarious,
substitutionary death of Jesus Christ in the place of and for
the benefit of the sheep. In Matthew 20, 28, Jesus says,
He has come to give His life a ransom for many. And in Galatians
1, 4, the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins. Ephesians 5, verse 2, Christ
gave Himself up for us. But there's more in verse 11. We've seen how voluntary it was
and how vicarious it was. But I want you to note how specific
it was, how definite it was, how particular it was. He says,
the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Who are the sheep? The sheep are those who recognize
His voice. The sheep are those who are drawn
to that voice. The sheep are those who are led
out of apostate Israel. The sheep are those who follow
the Shepherd. The sheep are those, according
to verse 29, who have been given by the Father to this Good Shepherd. The sheep are very clearly the
elect. Jesus laid down His life for
His sheep, not for other sheep, and certainly not for the goats.
But He laid down His life for the sheep, His sheep. And verse
26 will tell us that not everyone is one of His sheep. all for whom Jesus will lay down
His life will be saved, and none for whom He died will ever perish."
This text, as Jesus is the expositor of His own death, very clearly
teaches what theologians today call the definite atonement of
Jesus Christ. It is not an indefinite atonement
for an anonymous group of people, but it is a very definite atonement
for those for whom He has assumed the care for their soul, and
those whom He knows by name, and those whom He will call to
Himself by name, it is exclusively for the sheep that Jesus lays
down His life." This text gives us much insight
into this. First of all, this is what the
text plainly says, I laid down my life for the sheep. This text is abundantly clear. He repeats it in verse 15 that
he lays down his life for the sheep. But second, the intent
of Jesus' coming defines the extent of his death. You tell
me why he came, and I will tell you for whom he died. And very
clearly at the beginning of this allegory, He has come not for
the entire sheepfold. He has not come for all of the
other sheep. He has only come for His sheep.
And it is for His sheep that He calls them by name. It is
to His sheep that He leads them out. It is His sheep, according
to verse 9, that they are saved. It is His sheep for whom He has
laid down His life. Because that was His intent in
coming into this world. was to secure the salvation of
His sheep. Third, there is the unity within
the Trinity that defines the extent of the atonement. In verse 29, which is another
discourse, but here very closely related in context, in verse
29 Jesus said, who has given them to Me." The
them refers to the sheep in verse 27, who hear His voice, who follow
Him, those to whom He gives eternal life in verse 28, and those who
will never perish in verse 29, and will never be snatched out
of His hand It is the Father, in verse 29, who has given them
to Him. And then in verse 30, He makes
this extraordinary statement. He says, I and the Father are
one. And that does not mean one person. That would be heretical. It means
they are one in mission, one in purpose, one in intent, one
in saving enterprise. Those whom the Father has chosen,
the Father has given to the Son, and the Son has received them
as the Father's love gift, and the Son has come into this world
to be their Good Shepherd, and He lays down His life for the
very same group that the Father chose and entrusted to His care. I was in London a few years ago
and was spending a couple of nights at London Theological
Seminary in their dormitory, and it just happened to be the
week of the John Owen lectures. I
came down from my room and sat in the dining room with the students
who were gathered from all parts, and I asked them what the focus
of the conference was. And they said, well, this is
the John Owen Conference, and what in particular are you focusing
upon? And they said, well, John Owen,
volume 10, the death of death and the death of Christ. And
the professor who was teaching that week was the leading John
Owen scholar in the world. I can't remember his name. And
I said, I want you to right now throw down the ace of spades
on this breakfast table and give me what he says is the number
one reason to believe in definite atonement. Don't give me number
two, number three, or number four. Give me the most compelling
reason for particular redemption." And he said, well, that's very
easy. According to John Owen, and according to this Owen scholar,
it is the unity of the Trinity, that the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit operate as one Savior. That is why we baptize
in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
because they all three work together as one Savior. The Father is
a Savior, the Son is a Savior, and the Spirit is a Savior, and
they all work as one Savior, with one purpose, on one mission,
according to one eternal purpose. And the only way that the unity
within the Godhead is preserved is what we read here in verse
30, I and the Father are one, in this context of the saving
purposes of God the Father through the Son and laying down His life
for the sheep. Otherwise, what you have is you
have the Father choosing to save one group that
ends up being only those who will eventually believe because
of an obscured understanding of foresight. But you have the
Son saving for a totally different group that He would die for the
entire world The Father is only saving believers, the Son is
saving the entire world, and then the Spirit is saving a group
that is halfway in between as He is trying to woo people to
Christ. This is like a man getting on
a horse and riding out in every direction at once. It cannot be done. And so Jesus is saying, I lay down my life
for the sheep because it is the Father who chose these sheep
and has given these sheep to me. And as verse 14 says, they
are my own. And verse 26 says, the Pharisees
are not of His But he only lays down his life
for the sheep. This is a very important point. In John 15,
verse 13, he will say that he lays down his life for his friends. In Acts 20, verse 28, Paul will
say that Christ purchased the church with his own blood, the
blood of God. And in Romans 8, verse 32, it
says that he has died for the elect. In Ephesians 5, verse
25, it says that he gave himself for his bride. And in Hebrews
2, verse 12, it says that he tasted death for his brethren
who are the given ones who have been entrusted to him by the
Father. This is why he is such a good
shepherd. Because all for whom He has been
entrusted their care, and all those for whom He will lay down
His life, it is these and these only that He will save. He is
a good shepherd. At the cross, Jesus did not purchase
the entire world, and then only receive back from the Father
those who believe. At the cross, there was equity. At the cross, Jesus received
all that he paid for. Jesus received the elect in salvation
because Jesus paid for their salvation alone. In this transaction between the
Father and the Son, at the cross, Jesus was not shortchanged. Jesus was not gypped at Calvary. Jesus was not cheated on the
cross. Jesus was not stiffed at Golgotha. All that He bought, He has received
to be His own possession. And everyone whom He bought at
the cross are now His eternal possession throughout all the
ages to come. This is reason number one why
he's a good shepherd. You say, well, what about the
world? Well, I'm glad you asked. What you simply need to know
is that Cosmos in the gospel of John is used ten different
ways. And only one of those ten ways
means everybody. So you would be a foolish exegete
to go into any text in the Gospel of John and automatically assume
that the use of world means every person, when that is only one
of ten ways that the word world is used in the Gospel of John. And in fact, in John 17, verse
9, he says, I do not pray for the world. But for those whom
you have given Me, and His intercession in prayer, and His intercession
on the cross, and His intercession at the right hand of God the
Father are an equal intercession." Those for whom He intercedes
in prayer are those for whom He interceded upon the cross,
are those for whom He intercedes at the right hand of God the
Father. Notice verse 12. in total contrast
to the Good Shepherd. This is black and white. This
is antithetical. This is in juxtaposition. This
is in polar opposite. Verse 12, He who is a hired hand,
and Jesus is looking at the hired hands as He is preaching this
sermon. They are the false shepherds
of Israel. They are the hirelings. They are the Pharisees. He was a hired hand and not a
shepherd who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming,
the great danger coming, and leaves the sheep and flees. They
abandon in tough times. They have no skin in the game.
and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. Verse 13, he flees
because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. These Pharisees are not the true
owners of the sheep. The Father never entrusted them
to them. The Father entrusted them to
the Good Shepherd in eternity past, before time began, before
the foundation of the world, and He came into this world in
order that He may lay down His life for these sheep. And this
is the very reason why the Pharisees do not recognize the voice of
Jesus, because they're not one of His sheep. And that is why
what He is teaching them is water on a duck's back. It is noise
to dead men's ears. They cannot hear what Jesus is
saying, because they are not one of His sheep. And as the wolf comes, And as
it anticipates the cross of the Lord Jesus, Jesus steps forward
and places Himself between the wolf and the sheep and says to
the wolf, you cannot have my sheep. And He lays down His life
that He might rescue them. How can we ever come to the Lord's
table the same again? Are not our hearts melted down
by this Good Shepherd, that our names were written upon His heart
as He was hanging upon the cross? Are not our eyes filled with
tears? Do not our voices quiver when
we stand at the Lord's table and give instruction to the flock
of God? Do not Our jaws drop and our
knees bend before this God every time we come to the Lord's table
as we remember His death. But I want you to note second
why He's the Good Shepherd. One, He dies for the sheep. Two, He loves the sheep. Notice verse 14. I am the Good Shepherd." He repeats
it again. It's a reaffirmation for emphasis. I am the Good Shepherd,
to distinguish himself from the false shepherds who are standing
there that day. No, no, no. I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my own. And he says,
I know my own. It is a Greek word, as you well
know, that means not that he has just simply intellectual,
cognitive knowledge of their existence, as if to say, I know
about my own. Now, this Greek word, ginosko,
means that he has the most intimate, tender, loving, relationship
with his sheep. This word is used in other places
for the physical intimacy between a husband and wife that is reserved
exclusively for a husband and wife. Adam knew his wife, and
she conceived and gave birth. It speaks of how experientially and eternally
Jesus loves us, His sheep. And please note the reciprocal,
and my sheep know me. The order is very important.
First He knows us, then we know Him. He first knew us and eternity
passed. That's what the word foreknowledge
means. Oh, I love what George Whitefield says when he's preaching
on the conversion of Zacchaeus from Luke 19, and how Jesus saw
Zacchaeus up in the sycamore tree. And Whitefield pauses and
says, well, of course he saw Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree.
He's known him for all eternity past. How could he miss him within
time? The word foreknowledge has absolutely
nothing to do with foresight. That is a pagan myth. That is
a religious superstition that has no basis in any exegetical
reality whatsoever. It is just a figment of someone's
vain imagination. God has never looked into the
future and ever learned anything. Foreknowledge means those whom
God previously set His heart upon with distinguishing love. Distinguishing covenant, intimate,
personal, sovereign love. And the fact that we love Him
is simply because He first loved us. And how close is this intimate
relationship that the shepherd has with the sheep and the sheep
have with the shepherd? Well, verse fifteen gives the
measure To what extent does the shepherd know the sheep? Verse
15, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father. Now
just pause for that, at that point for a moment. Think about
John 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
with God, pros, face to face with God. And John 1, verse 18,
Jesus was in the bosom of the Father. face-to-face, in the
bosom, the intimacy between the Father and the Son, and the Son
and the Father. That is what Jesus is referring
to here, even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and
in the word, and. This now leads, and I lay down my life for the
sheep. Jesus knows us as the Father
knows Him. And Jesus supremely demonstrates
this love for us by laying down His life for helpless, wayward,
defenseless, vulnerable sheep. There's a third reason why He's
the Good Shepherd. Number one, he dies for the sheep. Number
two, he loves the sheep. Number three, in verse 16, he
unites his sheep. He says, I have other sheep which
are not of this fold. Now remember, this started with
apostate Israel, and he calls out his elect sheep out of the
spiritual deadness of Israel. But he now says, I have other
sheep from another fold. And these other sheep from another
fold refer to Gentile sheep, outside the fold of Israel. And
notice it's in the present tense, I have other sheep. They have
not yet come to Him, but He already possesses them because the Father
has chosen them and entrusted them to Him, and He has received
them, and they are His own. I have other sheep which are
not of this fold. Now watch this. I must. If you have your pen, just underline,
I must. I must bring them." This must
is the must of divine necessity. It is the must of divine certainty. It is the must of divine sovereignty.
It is the must of the effectual call. It is the must of the sovereign
drawing and sovereign regeneration of the Son by the Spirit. He
says, I must bring them. And the idea very clearly is,
they will not come on their own. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. Sheep must be
brought. And he says, I must bring them.
Now notice this. And, meaning inseparably connected
with what he just said, and they will hear my voice. I must, they will. I must, they
will. I must, they will. They will be given ears to hear
His voice. And He says, I must bring them
and they will come. And He repeats it and He says,
and they will become one flock with one shepherd. Oh, the divine
certainty of all the sheep for whom Christ dies, the sheep who
have been entrusted to His care, that they will all come. John
6, verse 37, all that the Father has given me shall come to me. And notice it says, they will
become one flock. Do you see that? There will not be a Baptist flock. There will not be a Presbyterian
flock. There will not be an independent flock. There will not be a Messianic
Jew flock. There will not be a Reformed
flock. There will not be an Arminian flock. There will not be a Charismatic
flock. There will be one flock. One
flock with one shepherd. When Whitefield used to preach,
he used to, in the middle of a sermon, look up into heaven
and say, Lord, are there any Baptists in heaven? And Whitefield would say, the
answer would come down from the throne of God. No, no Baptists
in heaven. Lord, are there any Presbyterians
in heaven? Not a single Presbyterian in
heaven. Are there any Congregationalists?
Are there any Methodists? Are there any Independents? And
the answer each time, Whitfield would say, would roll down from
the throne of grace, no, there are none like that known here
in heaven. Then, who is in heaven? And the answer is, only those
sheep who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. But Jesus could not be any more
clear about this. And as I hear some Christians
talk about it, when we get to heaven, we're all going to be
in different rooms. And I wouldn't mind some of them
being in their own room. It's called the outhouse. No, we're all in our Father's
mansion. It's just one big room. It's
one flock, one shepherd, one body, one head. And I love this. Jesus said, I must,
they shall. And the reason you have come
to faith in Jesus Christ is not because you're smarter than others
in your family, and not because you're more spiritual than the
people who live around you. It's because Jesus said, I must
and you will. Listen to Charles Haddon Spurgeon.
We can't have a sermon without Spurgeon. Spurgeon said, oh, I love God's
shalls and God wills. There is nothing like them. Let
a man say, I shall, and what is it good for? A man says, I
will, and he never performs. I shall, he says, and he breaks
his promise. But it is never so with God.
If God says, I shall, it shall be. If God says, I will, it will
be. Now, he has said, many shall
come. The devil says, they shall not
come. God says, they shall come. You yourselves may be saying,
oh, I won't come to Christ. God says, you shall come. Yes, there are some here who
are laughing at salvation, who scoff at Christ and mock at the
gospel, but I tell you that some of you will yet come. You say,
can God make me come and make me become a Christian? I tell
you, yes, for herein is the power of the gospel. It does not ask
for your consent, it gives it. God does not, it does not say,
will you have it? It makes you willing in the day
of His power. The gospel wants not your consent.
It gives it. It knocks the enmity out of your
heart. You say, I will not be saved. Christ says, you shall
be saved. He makes your will turn around and then you cry,
Lord, save me or I perish. Oh, might heaven explain. I knew
I would make you say that. And then God rejoices over you
because He has changed your will and made you willing in the day
of His power. Spurgeon said, if Jesus Christ
were to stand on this platform tonight, what would many do with
Him? If He were to come and say, here I am, I love you, will you
be saved by me? Not one of you would consent
if left to your own will. But He Himself said, no man can
come to Me except the Father who sent Me draw him. Oh, we
want that, and here we have it. They shall come, they shall come,
they shall come. He goes on to say, Christ will
not die in vain. Christ will see His seed and
be satisfied. And He will not shed His blood
in vain. For He will have a bride. And
He will have all for whom He laid down His life. My friend,
that is a gospel I can preach. That is a gospel that makes us
bold in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because as we preach,
God is at work in hearts. And those who put up the greatest
resistance can be brought down in a moment when they are made
to hear the voice of their shepherd. Now finally, I want you to note
the emphatic choice, and we're finished. We've seen the exclusive
claim, I am the Good Shepherd. We have seen the excellent character.
He dies for his sheep. He loves his sheep. He unites
his sheep. Finally, the emphatic choice.
Jesus now concludes this survey of the cross. Far better than
what Isaac Watts could have ever written. And Jesus now stresses
how intentional will be His death for His sheep. In verse 17, Jesus
said, for this reason, the Father loves Me. And why does the Father
love the Son? Because the Father loves obedience.
And because the Son is obedient to the Father. And the Father
loves the obedience of the Son to His eternal will. for this
reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in perfect
obedience to the will of the Father. This is why the Father
loves me. I'm not off doing my own thing.
I'm in perfect unity and in perfect harmony and in perfect conformity
with the eternal decree and the eternal purpose of the Father
from before the foundation of the world. The Son has not come down here
on a vague mission to just roam around and go its own way. For this reason the Father loves
me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it again. This is figurative language,
referring to the resurrection. His death will not be the end.
His death will simply be followed by His resurrection. In verse
18, no one. It's a strong negative denial. No one. No Roman ruler, no Jewish
leaders, no angry mob, no unruly circumstances, no demon spirits,
no devil. No one. has taken it from me." The it
refers to his life. They would all just be secondary
causes under the instrument, under the initial instrumentality
and authorship of God the Father. No one has taken it from me.
But I lay it down on my own initiative. I have authority to lay it down.
exousia, out of one's own being, out of one's own self. He has
the right to exercise power over his own being, even in his incarnation
and in his humiliation. He retained the authority to
exercise the right to lay down his life at the time and at the
place and by the manner of the Father's choosing. I have authority
to lay it down. And I have authority to take
it up again. Jesus raised Himself from the
dead. And it has already been mentioned in this conference
that He was raised. And yes, the Father did raise
Him, and the Spirit did raise Him, Romans 1-4. But it was a
Trinitarian resurrection. And Jesus also raised Himself
from the dead. And He came walking out of that
tomb, a risen, living, victorious Savior. And He concludes this by saying
this commandment. Referring to the entirety of
his saving mission, to leave heaven, to enter the human race,
to be born of a virgin, to be born under the law, to live an
obedient and perfect life, to give his life for the sheep,
to raise himself from the dead, the entirety of the mission,
he says, this commandment I receive from my Father. I am a man under
authority. That is why I have authority
to lay my life down. Jesus came here under strict
orders, a commandment that he had received from his Father
before the world began. As the Father, according to his
own eternal counsel and wisdom, set his heart upon his chosen
ones, and he gave them to the Son,
and then commanded the Son to enter into this world and to live a sinless and perfect
life and to secure the perfect righteousness that is imputed
to us in the act of justification and to go to Calvary's cross
and there, as an act of His will, to lay down His life for the
sheep. This is the Christ we must preach. This is the Christ we must imitate
and emulate in our shepherding. We must give ourselves to our
flocks. We must lay down our life for
their good. We must call them by name. We
must know them. We must allow ourselves to be
known by them. We must have a personal and close
as possible relationship with those who we lead as their under-shepherd. And we must do all that we can
to unite the sheep in our flock, and to be peacemakers, and to
remove any entity that would have the sheep at odds with each
other. And as I close, as you would find yourself here
tonight, are you a true shepherd of the
flock? Because there are false shepherds. Do you know the Good Shepherd?
It is one thing to preach on the door of the sheep. It is
one thing to do word studies on the door of the sheep. It
is one thing to admire the door of the sheep. It is one thing
to point others to the door of the sheep. It is one thing to
have your toes right up to the door of the sheep, but have you
ever taken that decisive step of faith and come all the way
to saving faith in Jesus Christ yourself. Could it be possible
that as you find yourself here today, that you in reality are
like these Pharisees, and if so, you are a thief and you are
a robber and you are stealing glory from God. You must respond to the voice
of the shepherd. And you must come to Him by faith
and entrust your life to Him. And if you've never believed
upon Jesus Christ, it is possible to even be at the Shepherd's
Conference and to be an unconverted shepherd. And so if you've never
come by faith to the Good Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, I call
you today on His behalf that whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. He says to you, enter
by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the
way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it.
The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life,
and few are those who find it. Truly, truly, I say unto you,
he who hears these words of mine and acts upon them is like a
wise man who built his house upon the rock. And when the rains
came and the winds blew and beat against the house, it did not
fall because it was built upon the rock. He who hears these
words of mine and does not act upon them is like a very foolish
man who built his house upon the sand, and when the rains
came and the winds blew and beat against the house, great was
its fall." Have you built upon the solid rock of the divine
revelation of Jesus Christ, or have you built upon simply sand? If you've never built upon the
rock which is Christ. I call you, as we come close
to the end of this conference, to believe upon Christ and to
take that step of faith and to come through the door of the
sheep. Let us pray. Father in heaven, how we praise
You for the Good Shepherd. How we praise You for His excellent character, how
He has laid down His life for us. Father, make us faithful shepherds,
faithful under-shepherds, to serve the Great Shepherd. In
Jesus' name, amen.