Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to John chapter 10, the chapter
that we read, and reading through our text, verse 11. Verse 11, I am the good shepherd,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 10,
verse 11, where the Lord clearly tells us who he is, and then
gives in this, our text, one thing that the shepherd, the
good shepherd does, and that is giveth his life for the sheep. The whole of the teaching here
is based upon a parable, and we would be mindful of what the
Lord said when he spoke to his disciples in the 13th of Matthew,
where he spake to them in parables. We read, all these things spake
Jesus unto the multitude in parables. And without a parable spake he
not unto them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, I
will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation
of the world. And of course Matthew 13, it
has the key parable, the parable of the sower, the hearing of
the word, and then many other parables. And here we have a
parable, that the Lord speaks, and it's a very simple message. A parable is a natural story
with a spiritual meaning. And it especially has weight
when it is something that we can really picture, and it really
touches our affections, our feelings. We engage with the parable first,
and then there's the application made to it. We think of how the
Lord through Nathan used a parable, a similar parable, it's actually
concerning sheep, to convince David of his sin of murder of
Uriah and adultery with Bathsheba. Nathan used a parable that David
could hear about a supposed another man, who, though he had a large
flock of sheep himself, when he had visitors and travellers
come to him, he didn't take one of his own flock, but took a
lamb that belonged to a poor man. It was the only lamb that
poor man had, and it was kept by him as one of the family,
a pet if you like. And he took that lamb And he
slew that. And you know, David, when he
heard that account, it made him very angry, angry with the man
that had done that. He could picture the whole account.
And then Nathan turned and he said, thou art the man. And then
he explained to him how many wives he had, and yet he had
taken Bathsheba. and then he had slain Uriah.
David fell under that. He said, I have sinned. And Nathan
said, the Lord hath also put away thy sin. The Lord used parables. The prophets used parables. Many
of the prophets, in addition to what they prophesied, had
to do many strange things that they might be a living parable
to those that they ministered to. And those parables drew attention
to them. It provoked questions. It caused
the people to look well to them before the word was to be spoken
to them. And so we have here a parable,
a parable of a shepherd. and his flock. A parable that
contrasts a good shepherd with a bad shepherd. A parable that
gives us several aspects of a shepherd and his sheep, but goes further
in the interpretation to show even more when the good shepherd
is identified as the Lord Jesus Christ. and the sheep are identified
as God's people, both of Jews and also of Gentiles. And so it is in this way, looking
this evening at this verse, if we keep in mind the parable and
where the teaching is so very closely related to the parable,
may we have in mind and picture the shepherd, the good shepherd
and his sheep. But here we have the Lord saying
in our text, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And so with the Lord's help,
I want to just look at two main points, but split them up. And the first one is the Good
Shepherd. There's many things that we could
say of the Good Shepherd in this chapter, and I couldn't possibly
cover them all. But I do want to notice quite
a few of them. What is said about the good shepherd. And then secondly, what is specifically
said about him in our text. The giving of his life for the
sheep. How it is, the life that he gives
for the sheep. But firstly, the Good Shepherd. What he's told us here, what
he's told us about the Lord Jesus Christ. In the text, he's told
us that our Lord Jesus Christ gives his life for his people. As the good shepherd, he would
give his life for the sheep. And because I want to look at
that more closely later, I won't mention more on that point now. But we begin there with the text,
what is said, one aspect of the good shepherd that marks him
out. If someone were to say, well,
what is it that makes him a good shepherd? What are some of the
traits? What are some of the things that
you would notice? You say, well, it is this. He
gives his life for the sheep. And so it is in this way I want
to look at further points through this parable, what is said of
the Lord, what is said of him as the good shepherd. And the
second thing is this. that he actually owns these sheep. We read in the verse after our
text, but he that is an highling, and a comparison with one that
is not the good shepherd, and not the shepherd, whose own the
sheep are not. And the implication is in this,
and taught clearer later as well, that these sheep are owned by
the Lord. They are his sheep. He is not the one that the farmer
has hired to look after the sheep. It is the owner of the sheep
that is the shepherd himself. He has purchased them. They belong
to him. If any loss is sustained in them,
he bears that loss. There's a direct relation between
him and those sheep. He can't just walk away from
them and just set out with another flock, another farmer, because
there is a bond with them. He actually owns them. They are his own sheep. The Lord says later on, concerning
the Father, thine they were, and thou gavest them thee. The sheep were the Father's,
the people of God were the Father's, and he gave them to the Son to
redeem. One blessed aspect of the Good
Shepherd of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that, dear friends.
If you and I are of the sheep of the Lord, then as the Apostle
says, you are not your own, you are bought with a price. We belong
to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a relationship. What a bond. The third thing is that he knows
these sheep. In verse 14, he again makes the
statement, I am the good shepherd. But this time, instead of adding,
the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, he adds this,
and know my sheep. And he also adds that he is known
of mine. That is, the sheep know him as
well as he knowing them. And so we might think, well, if If a shepherd
has bought a flock, surely he would know them. Well, if you
had one or two sheep, then you think, well, that's quite possible. But if you had a hundred of them,
and I understand the shepherds, they can know when they have
a great number. even 300 or so of them. But when we think of our Lord,
that in heaven there is to be an innumerable multitude of every
nation, kindred, and tongue. And our Lord in this passage
says that there are those of another fold, them also I must
bring, and he's speaking of the fold of the Jews and the fold
of the Gentiles, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. He's speaking of the sheep from
Abel right through to the last one that shall be redeemed and
saved and brought home to glory, an innumerable multitude. And
the Lord knows everyone. We can hardly grasp the greatness
of God. His understanding is infinite. His knowledge of his people,
not only knowing about them as we might know about someone literally,
but knowing their thoughts, knowing their hearts, knowing everything
about them. When he says that he knows his
sheep, he knows them intimately. everything about them. No thought
is withholden from him. No place that they'll go, no
affliction that they'll have, no trial that they have, no burden
that they have, no case that is not known by
this good shepherd. Maybe tonight you are thinking
the Lord doesn't know He doesn't know where I am. He doesn't know
what I'm going through. He can't enter into my case,
but he knows his sheep. And he knows them completely
and intimately. Now this was so known when he
began calling like the woman at the well of Samaria and then
Zacchaeus and Nathaniel under the fig tree. In each case, it
was Whence knowest thou me? The Lord knew their names. He
knew their lives. The woman at the well of Samaria
had five husbands. He knew all about them. He knows
all about you. He knows all about me. He is the Good Shepherd. The fourth thing is this, that
he gives to these sheep that he knows, he gives them eternal
life. Now may we be clear that When
he gives them eternal life, he knows that they're wretched sinners. He knows that they're dead in
trespasses and sins. He knows that they have been,
like with the Apostle Paul, a persecutor of the Lord's people. And yet
he still gives them eternal life. Passes by them when they're in
their blood and gives them life. The Good Shepherd, I give unto
them eternal life. What a blessed gift. What an
indispensable gift. That life begins here below and
is evidenced by some of the other things that we noticed of the
Good Shepherd. And it doesn't have an end. It
goes through death and it lands that soul in heaven and that
soul will live forever with the Lord. Eternal life, not eternal
death, eternal life. Then we have in the fifth place
that he is the door into the sheepfold. I am the door. We have a picture
of the sheepfold in Bible times, where it was a circular enclosure,
a brick wall, with one opening in it. And the shepherd, he sat
in the opening. He counted the sheep as they
went out, he counted them as they came in, he sat in it as
the door, so that none could go out or in without him knowing,
and to preserve and keep them. The entrance, the way in to that
fold, to the people of God, the way to heaven, the way to the
narrow way that leadeth unto life, is the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And here he says that he is the
door. In verse seven, then said Jesus
unto them again, verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door
of the sheep. The good shepherd is the door,
is the way, is the way. into the fold. But then, sixthly, we read that
he speaks to them. Several times he refers to that
in the passage here, how that he speaks to them. And the sheep
hear his voice. It's the one mark that marks
them out. as his sheep, because they have
ears to hear his voice. And so we have in verse 27, my
sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. Again, reinforcing his knowledge
of them. But he speaks to them. May we
be very clear in this, that God The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to his people through the Word of God. The Holy Spirit shall
bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said
unto you. And he said, I pray not only
for these, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word. And it is through the word of
God that everyone shall receive my words, that they shall recognize
the shepherd, they shall hear his voice, and they shall follow
him as directed, as guided by the word. Thy word, says the
psalmist, is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Thou shalt hear, when we turn
to the right hand or to the left, a voice behind us saying, this
is the way, walk ye in it. I will instruct them and teach
them in the way that they shall go. I will guide them with mine
eye, not like a horse is got a bit in its mouth and it's pulled
from one way to another. I often think of it as, again,
a picture. And you never see it in a natural
way, I don't think. A rider sitting on a horse without
a bit or bridle and just saying to the horse, turn right here,
turn left there, stop, go. But our Lord said that is how
it is with his people. He will be their eyes. He will
be the one that gives the directions and he will cause them to know
the way that they should go as they hear his voice in his word. He speaks to them, be not silent
unto me, says the psalist, lest if thou be silent unto me, I
become like them. that go down into the pit. The seventh thing is that he
does not leave them when the adversary comes. When the wolf
comes, in the verse after our text, he that is in hiring and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf
coming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. The wolf catcheth
them and scattereth the sheep. The Highling fleeth because he
isn't Highling, and careth not for the sheep. The Lord doesn't
run away, doesn't desert his people. And what a comfort that
that is. When the enemy shall come in
like a flood, the Lord doesn't desert his people. When their
corruptions arose and rise like a cloud, the Lord doesn't desert
his people. When the world envelops them
and entraps them and ensnares them, the Lord doesn't desert
his people and leave them. It's a beautiful picture. The
sheep in all the troubles and all the things that they may
get into, through their own foolishness and their wandering, the shepherd
doesn't desert them. And when it's an active enemy,
like described here as the wolf, or like a Satan as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour, he doesn't desert them. You know,
David spoke of how that he delivered the sheep under his care. out
of the paw of the bear and out of the paw of the lion and he
ascribed that ability to do so unto God. That God watches over his flock
just the same. And may we really remember that
and not think that because we've got into such a place because
of our foolishness And we've so fallen, we've so sinned, that
the Lord will then desert us. No. The good shepherd, one thing
that marks out this good shepherd, he doesn't see his sheep, see
his people, and then just leave them when they're in the most
need of help. You might feel helpless and unable
to extricate yourself from some snare. from some clouds of doubts
or fears. The Lord won't leave you, enveloped
in it, snared, destroyed. He sees, he hears the groans,
the sighs. You know a good shepherd, he'll
go seeking out a sheep when he sees that one is missing from
that fold. The sheep doesn't need to make
any noise at all, but that shepherd will find it. He does not leave them. I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. The last thing I'd notice,
and I know there is many aspects, it may be something that we're
able to take home, and go over this passage and see what marks
out the Good Shepherd, the contrast between the Highling, the Bad
Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd, and see all what the Lord Jesus
Christ is to his dear people. It truly should be the delight
of the people of God, the comfort of the people of God, that they
look into what the Lord says He is to them, that they believe
it, that they rest in that, they trust in that. You know, if the
sheep could think there it was in the ditch, if it knew that
it had, for a shepherd, just a highling, He would think, he's
hardly going to miss me. He doesn't even know the sheep
anyway. And even if he does, he would
just leave me where I am. But if that sheep knew the character
of the shepherd, what comfort that would be to think, he will
miss me. He won't go away until he has
found me. He will deliver me. The reassurance,
the comfort of that. And the Lord would have His people
have the comfort of what He is to His sheep. And so the last
one is this, that He keeps them safe in His hands. Verse 28 and
29, where He says that He'll give them eternal life, They
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand." A real place of security for the people of
God. Now we mentioned that Through
this chapter, the Lord not only tells us what marks him out as
a good shepherd, but he also tells us what marks out a sheep
as well. The most conspicuous mark is
that they hear his voice. But we could add a lot of other
marks by just going over the marks of the good shepherd. The fact that he knows the sheep. Has there not been things in
your life and in mine that we have reacted or felt the same
as what the woman at the well of St. Mary or Nathaniel, that
the Lord knew. He knew our thoughts, he knew
where we were, what was happening. Do you remember one time, I'd
been going up to preach from here in Cranbrook up to Luton,
so I got a drive of 105 miles or so. And I was very despondent, very,
very low that Lord's Day and hardly wanted to go at all. But I went. And as I pulled up
outside of the chapel there in Luton, I just turned the car
engine off and my mobile phone went. I didn't have Hands-free
in those days. If it had been a little while
before, I couldn't have answered it. It would have been driving.
If it had been just a minute or so later, I would have left
the car, the phone in the car, gone into the chapel. But it
just rang exactly at that time the engine was turned off. And
it was my dear one saying that she'd had a phone call from Australia,
my father, had been taken into hospital and she thought I should
know. And obviously fearful it would
cast me down even more. But the way that it worked was
this. I thought the Lord knows where
my father is, the other side of the world. He knows where
I am in this land. He knows exactly where I am. to go to preach here at Luton
and the exact time of turning off the engine and the timing
of that phone call. And instead of casting me down,
it so lifted me up. It so strengthened me to know
that the Lord knew exactly where I was. He'd brought me from Australia
to England He brought me to preach. He brought me to preach there
and that day. He would look after my father
and he would look after me and help me. And I had a good day
in the ministry that day. My father was spared to us. I
think it was probably a few years after that time in glory now. But we don't forget those times
that the Lord has used timing and use circumstances so that
it's so impressed upon us that he does know us. So those aspects
of the Good Shepherd, as well as knowing his voice, hearing
his voice, it's having the Lord's dealings. He's demonstrated to
us that he does know us. and the aspects, when the enemy
has come in, when we've been tempted, when we've been tried,
and the Lord has made a way of escape and he's helped us, he's
delivered us, he's saved us out of that snare, we've got another
token that the Lord is my shepherd, where we have that spiritual
life where the Lord has quickened us into life, where we once were
blind, now we see. We have again another token.
We have this good shepherd. We could put it another way. If there was a sheep in a natural
way, and they had a good shepherd, and
had a highland, Would they know the difference? Of course they
would. In the way that the shepherd
dealt with them, they'd know whether they had a good shepherd
or whether they had a bad shepherd. What kind of a shepherd have
we got? A shepherd that goes after us? that keeps us, that knows about
us, that speaks to us? Or is he a bad shepherd that
doesn't care for us? We never hear his voice. We've
never had life from his hand. He's never delivered us from
the adversary. May the Lord shine upon our Lord's
testimony of himself and what he is to the sheep here to show
us that not only he is the Good Shepherd, but we are his sheep. We are those that he actually
owns, this sheep. And then what a comfort and what
a joy it will be to realize that we are part of this flock, that
we are the purchased property of this Good Shepherd. I am the
Good Shepherd. I want to look then secondly
at the life that he gives for the sheep. The latter part of
the verse reads, The Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Now you might say when we first
mention this part of the text, well, of course what is meant
here is that he died at Calvary. And yes, that is what is being
pointed to, but not only that, not only that. There are five
ways that the Lord Jesus Christ, this good shepherd, gives his
life for the sheep. The first is this, he gave his
life on earth for the sheep. We might know of a person that
in their lifetime devotes their life to maybe charity work or
perhaps they're a missionary in Africa And they spend their
life laying aside the comforts of home and maybe getting married and
having children. And they devote their whole life
to this ministry and to this work. Well, our Lord, he came from
his father, the glory that he had with his father before the
world was, and he came into this world. And all of his life, right from
when he was born to when he died, was for his sheep. He didn't come for his own pleasure, but for his people, for his sheep. And all that he did here below
was for them. Yes, it was for the honour and
glory of God. It was for the love that he bore
to his father and love that he bore to his sheep. But all that
he did, and we, put under this head that what his life was,
was to work out a righteousness for his people. This is the name
wherewith he shall be called the Lord Our Righteousness. That
is, he lived a life that we could not live. We might say, well, did he live
that then from 12 years of age unto when he died, that was the
life that he lived in the place of our lives, so that when that
is imputed to us, we, a believer, the righteousness of Christ,
his life is put for our life, so when we appear in heaven,
it's not God looking at Our sin stone lies but looking at the
perfect life of his beloved son as our righteousness. Did that
just begin when he was 12? Or when he was five or two? Or was it not right from his conception? The whole of the life of our
Lord was to weave out a righteousness for his people. It was perfect
in every way, in every aspect. And all that he did was to glorify
his father, to finish the work that he gave him to do, to do
his will. But in doing he was weaving a robe of righteousness
for his people. And so he gave his life, he laid
down his life, he laid down his robes in heaven, and he came
to be a man, a real man, the God-man, came to be with his
people. How long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you? But the life that he lived is
a life that we could not live, but he lived for us. So when we read here, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, we view in the first
place that he gave his life as a life of righteousness for his
people. But then secondly, it is in this
way that he gave his life a ransom. He gave his life a sacrifice. The same way as what Isaac was
taken off the altar and the ram was put in his place, So the
Lord Jesus Christ was the substitutionary offering offered in the place
of his people. He hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He had laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions. It is by his stripes that we
are It is the sin-atoning sacrifice, the wrath-ending sacrifice, the
sacrifice that paid the debt completely that our Lord then
gave his life. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. The Lord cried with a loud voice,
it is finished. and yielded up the ghost. No
man taketh my life from me, though it was not man. He did not have
to die, like you and I as sinners must die, but he could die by
a voluntary act. And he died in the place of his sheep. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Calvary. The bloodshed. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. The children of Israel were very
familiar with seeing the paschal lamb slain and knowing that God
said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. The lamb shall
be in the place of your firstborn. This is the work of the Lord,
giving his life for the sheep. The third is that he gives his
life in heaven for the sheep. We read that he is our great
High Priest, that he hath appeared in the presence of God for us,
for us. He is like Mordecai was at the
right hand of Ahasuerus, speaking peace to all his seed. Like Joseph
was at the right hand of Pharaoh, and speaking peace for the good
of all of his brothers, giving them the best of the land in
Goshen, feeding them, keeping them, watching over them in the
time of famine. The Lord Jesus is our advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is and he lives
to carry on his people's cause above on earth John 17, he prays
for them. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world and in heaven. I will pray the Father. He will
give you another comforter which will abide with you forever.
Tarry at Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on
high. And the Holy Spirit came at the
day of Pentecost and the blessing was given. The token also that
we have a voice. that speaks for us in heaven's
high court for good. A lamb as it had been slain in
the midst of the throne. The life that the Lord lives
in heaven is for his people. The fourth is that his life is
as food for his people's souls. He taught this in the sixth chapter
of John, where he tells them that he is that true bread from
heaven. He reproved them, labor not for
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. And he tells them very clearly
when they wanted that bread from heaven, they said unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And the Lord said, I am the bread
of life. I have these beautiful I am's
right through John 6 and right through John 10, right through
John. I am that I am, the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal God. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. So
the life that the Lord has, he gives his life as the manna,
as the food. Because I live, you shall live
also. He gives them their daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. And it is, you might say, well,
don't we feed upon his flesh, his blood? Don't we feed upon
his death, his sacrifice? Yes, we do, but if he never rose
from the dead and wasn't alive, we could never feed on that.
It is that which he has finished and completed And that which
we feed upon is, as the Apostle so emphasised it is, the Lord
is risen indeed, an empty tomb. And that is the meat and drink
of the people of God. That our dear Redeemer, our dear
Shepherd, He lived, He died, He rose again for me. And that is what we are to feed
upon. So when we read in our text The
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He gives them
their food. And of course, a good shepherd,
he will, he'll lead them in green pastures. He is indispensable
to the food that those sheep have. And the Lord himself is
that manna, is that food. And then we have lastly, His
life is to be their life. The Apostle Paul when he writes
to the Colossians and he says to them, ye are dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory. So when the good shepherd says,
he giveth his life for the sheep, the apostle will say, yes, his
life is my life. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. Bound up with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because I live, he says, ye shall
live also. The good shepherd giveth his life
for the sheep. He giveth of that life that he
has, and he gives it to the sheep, maintains their life, quickens
them, keeps them alive, He says, I am come, that they might have
life, but that's not all in verse 10, and that they might have
it more abundantly. Day by day, those sheep, they
live upon the shepherd. If he just leaves them in a field
where there's no pasture, they'll die. But if he leads them to
green pastures beside still waters, then they flourish. And with
the Lord, he is their life. Their life is bound up with him
in all that he leads them, in all that he feeds them, in all
that he does for them. He is their life, is bound up
with him. So when we read the words of
our text, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep, Let us
not just view it in the one aspect of giving his life at Calvary,
but let us view it in the fullness of it, in his righteousness,
in his intercession in heaven, in the food for our souls, in
the life that we now live here below. that we live it by the
life of the Lord, receiving that fullness and receiving that life
from him all the time. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. May the Spirit bear witness that
we are his sheep. that the shepherd we have is
this good shepherd, and that we might have the comfort and
the joy of knowing this precious truth that's set forth in this
verse. Amen.