Alright, in John 10, the Lord
gives us perhaps the most vivid picture of Himself as the Shepherd
of the sheep to be found anywhere in the New Testament. Let's read. Look at verse 11 through 18.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life
for the sheep. He that is an hireling, and not
the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming,
and leads the sheep, and flees. And the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because
he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the
Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down
my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold, them also I must bring. They shall hear
my voice, they shall be one fold and one shepherd. Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again. No man takes it from Me. I lay
it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of My Father. Dropping to verse 26, But ye
believe not, because ye are not of My sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear My voice, I know
them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them
out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. As we read the New Testament,
we see how frequently the symbol, the similitude of the shepherd
and the sheep comes up in the Old Testament Scripture. That
God is our shepherd, that we are His people, and the sheep
of His pasture, as is said. We see that same thing brought
over into the New Testament. And sometimes it is the shepherd
or the pastor that is the shepherd, but in this case, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the great shepherd of the sheep. Now, He gives His
life for them. He gives them an irresistible
call. And they come, He finds them,
all of His sheep that are lost, and He brings them into the fold. In the New Testament, it is a
frequent truth that we are the sheep, that the Lord Jesus is
the shepherd, and that is cited in many passages of Scripture. Just give some in passing. There's our text here in John
chapter 10. There is that text in Matthew
chapter 7 and verse 15. to beware of false prophet of
wolves in sheep's clothing because the wolf is the natural enemy
of the sheep. Matthew 26 31 I will smite the
shepherd, the sheep shall be scattered. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Great Shepherd of the sheep. used has its corresponding state
or condition, which portrays the state of the family of Adam
and gives us, as it were, a mental picture. For example, when Christ
said, I am the bread of life, it pictures man famished, starving,
perishing without help, and without hope. When Christ declares, I
am the way, the truth and the life, it concludes that the people
are lost from the right way and must therefore be brought into
the right way, which is the Lord. And when he said, I'm the light
of the world, it pictures our spiritual darkness that we cannot
see the things of God. Even so, When the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I am the good shepherd, it paints that mental image in
our mind that prevails in the 23rd Psalm, as we have there,
the shepherd and the sheep. A shepherd, a flock, a green
pasture, still water, wolves, wandering strays, a seeking shepherd,
all these visible images are associated with such a relationship
of shepherd and of his sheep. I remember, pardon this, being
in Colorado, rented a jeep. Went way back in the mountains
where you couldn't go except on a jeep. Came over down into
a valley and there was a man, a shepherd. He had sheep all
over the sides of that mountain and that valley. And there he
was and at night he'd take them in. He had a little trailer to
sleep in. But all of those sheep would be watched over and guided
and led forth that they might drink and that they might eat
for the day and then brought in for the night. Now, the proper
description of depravity under the picture or symbol of a sheep
is that they are lost, they cannot find their way, they're separated,
they're out yonder somewhere wandering and alone and subject
to all the perils of the wild and the wild animal. Now sheep
being wandering creatures, they are lost. Luke chapter 15 and
verse 4, Isaiah 53 and verse 6, all we like sheep have gone
astray. We have turned everyone under
our own way. Now the leading idea being that
by nature they are alienated from God. They are lost. They
are astray. They're not in the fold. They're
out yonder somewhere, subject unto danger and to death. The
strayed flock, therefore, will never find its way back apart
from the shepherd coming, finding it, and leading it in. The truth
being that neither the strayed flock nor the individual sheep,
one by one, ever finds its own way back into the fold, that
he must go forth and find his sheep that was lost. Now the
text said, I am the good shepherd. Notice, I'm the shepherd, I'm
the good shepherd, I'm the great shepherd of the sheep. So let's
look again at the claim of the Lord Jesus Christ to shepherdhood. I am the shepherd. Not just I
am a shepherd, I am a good shepherd, and so forth, good shepherd of
the sheep. Now, he's opposing himself to
the hireling that was mentioned in that passage that we read,
in a greater way than mentioned in verse 2, one of many. No, He is the One Great Shepherd. It is equal to, I'm the Great,
I'm the Good, I'm the Chief Shepherd, as He is called in other places
in the Scripture. We put this in the same category
as all of the other great I Am's of the Lord. I Am the Light,
I'm the Bread, I'm the Way, I'm the Truth, and so forth. So,
John Brown wrote on this statement, Christ's words are to be understood
thusly, I am a shepherd, I stand in the peculiar relation to a
peculiar people who in conformity to the figurative representation
employed or termed my sheep, and I am appointed and engaged
to perform toward them the duty and the work of a shepherd."
The words of John Brown. In other words, I actually perform,
and I perform perfectly, all of the function and the duty
of a shepherd, especially giving them life, saving them, gathering
them into the fold. For they're not left to wander
alone and lost. but are found and brought into
the fold. I believe the Lord is saying
that shepherd or I am the antitype or the fulfillment of that great
shepherd that is described over in the prophet Ezekiel chapter
34 verse 11 through 24. It's a rather long passage I won't turn there and read it,
but if you'd like to sometime, you'll see the great image of
a shepherd and how our Lord fulfilled that in His ministry. Now, as
the shepherd of the sheep, He secures them and provides for
them life, shelter, protection, and all things, and the greatest
need that can be summed up in eternal life. He gives them not
only grazing grass, and flowing water. But He also gives unto
them eternal life. For they are not four-legged
beasts as we think of them, but they are the people of God and
are called sheep. Now notice what He said about
the hireling and the thief in John chapter 10. He said the
thief comes that he might plunder and that he might steal in verse
10. To steal, to kill, to destroy. This is the aim of the hireling
and of the thief. These thieves must surely be
wicked men who come as wolves, Acts 20, 29. though they are
wearing sheep's clothing and pretending that they are a sheep. They draw away disciples after
themselves. Now, the thief only lives and
thrives that he might steal the property of another. That's how
a thief does. He does not work for it. He steals
it, and therefore so it is with these false shepherds, these
hireling, and these thieves. They come to steal the property
of another. They might draw away the sheep
of Christ into their little herd, and lead them astray. Now to
the contrast there in verse 10, the thief only comes to kill,
to steal, and to destroy. I am come that they might have
life and that they might have it more abundantly. Now notice,
a special kind, and a special quality of life. I am come that
they might have life, and have it abundantly. Now in verse 12
and 13, the hireling is compared, or should I say, contrasted unto
Christ. The hireling is hired for a wage. He hires himself out. He expects
a return upon that, but he does not have a shepherd's heart,
not really. He's a hireling, he's paid to
go and do a job, and he would not do it except for the pay. Therefore, he does not really
love the sheep, he does not really own the sheep, and he does not
really care for them. he does not care for their welfare,
he would not risk his life to save theirs, and he would not
lay down his life in order that he might save the flock or the
herd. You can see the case for comparison
of a wicked hireling priest way over in the book of Judges chapter
17. A hireling priest. He was hired by a man to come
and to do what he wanted him to do and tell him what he wanted
to hear. This can be seen in many areas
of life, I believe, that one does not place the same value
upon something that they do not own, or that they did not buy,
or that they have not sacrificed and labored for, do not treasure
that which belongs unto others, as they would something that
belonged unto them. There is so of the hireling shepherd
as well, whose own the Lord said, the sheep are not." They're not
his sheep. He hasn't bought them and He
doesn't own them. He has nothing invested in them. He's put out nothing that He
might acquire them. They are not His. He would feel
no loss if the sheep were taken away, or lost, or strayed, or
killed, or died. But the Good Shepherd, who is
the Lord Jesus Christ, loves the sheep because they are His
very own. He does not flee. when he sees
danger, or coming wolves approaching unto them. No. Verse 11, I'm
the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd gives His life
for the sheep in order to save them. Now, for giving His life
for the sheep, for the sheep was not in the sense of a martyr. He did not die as a martyr in
behalf of the sheep. He is dying for a special cause,
or a special principle, or a special end. Nor was it in a heroic sense
that our Lord would lay down His life for the sheep. But Christ
dies for the sheep in a way of substitution, vicariously, as
a propitiation. This is how or why He laid down
His life, to eternally save them from their sin, for He bore their
sin, that He might expiate that he might reconcile them to himself
and unto God, that he might gather them together into a flock from
wherever they have been scared, scattered, or driven. Now in
the metaphor, we might reckon, if the sheep be dead, if he lay
down his life, if he become one, if he overcome by the horde of
the enemies, what shall be? Then the sheep are hopelessly
lost and are scattered. And they become helpless prey
to the thief, or to the wolves, or beast, or the ravine, or wherever
they might find themselves wandering about. And indeed when the shepherd
is smitten, Jesus said, Zechariah said, the sheep will for a time
be scattered. And when our Lord was put to
death, how they went each one again to their own home, as the
scripture has said unto us. But the picture is clear that
the shepherd is killed by a thief or a wild beast. The sheep are
scattered. They're frightened. They run
wild and blindly in any direction. We saw this with the disciples
of Christ when He was dead and buried. They were as sheep having
no shepherd. Christ puts His death in a proper
perspective, and that is that both His death and His resurrection
are the will of God and will certainly occur. He has the authority
to lay down His life He has the authority to take it up again. So in verse 10, the good shepherd
gives his life for the sheep. Verse 15, I lay down my life
for the sheep. Verse 17, therefore does my Father
love me because I lay down my life. If you look at verse 18,
I lay it down of myself. That is, no man snatches it away. No man takes it from me. You
know, we need to realize that. They could never have put our
Lord on the cross. They could never have put Him
to death, except our Lord willingly yielded Himself up and gave Himself
unto them. Lay down His life is the way
that it is described in the Scripture. You were as sheep going astray,
Isaiah 53, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and the Bishop
of our soul. Peter wrote that in one of his
epistles. You were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the Shepherd and the Bishop of your
soul. Back in the fold again, found,
brought home safely, given eternal life and security, our life safely
hid in that of our Lord and Savior, our Great Shepherd of the sheep. Now this is not to insinuate
that they have returned or on their own initiative. Not at
all. You are returned by the Shepherd,
by the call of the Shepherd, by the irresistible drawing of
the Spirit of God. He has given a satisfaction for
their sin whereby the Father forgives them and they are reconciled. They are restored again to fellowship
with God by the work of the Great Shepherd. Note the double description
of Christ that Peter uses in that passage we referred to.
The shepherd and bishop of your soul. The shepherd and the bishop
of your soul. The overseer of your soul. for our soul is in the hand of
our Great Shepherd. It is a word, I believe, episkopos,
rendered bishop in other places in the Scripture, to take the
oversight, to watch over, to see to and to watch, to superintend,
a watchman, a scout, a sentry, watching over the flock. Notice,
watch for your soul, the overseer of your soul. Now in a lesser
sense, and much lesser, pastors and bishops of souls, and pastors
are that in a lesser capacity, Hebrews chapter 13 and 17 says
of the pastors and overseers, they watch for your souls. They watch out. They take the
Word of God, they study it, they learn it, apply it, and recognize
by the Word of God an approaching danger. So they're watching for
the soul. They're on the watch for heresy
and heretics entering in. They're on the watch for wolves
in sheep clothing that might come in surreptitiously and do
harm under the flock. for those who creep in unaware
and therefore intend to draw away disciples after themselves. But Christ is the greater Shepherd
of the soul. He saves it from sin and from
destruction. He has made an atonement for
it that saves us, therefore we are brought in. We are blessed
to have such a One as Him to watch and to superintend and
to guide our very own soul. Going back to John chapter 10
for closing, let us ask the question, Who are these Sheep? Well, he
first speaks of the sheep, if you'll notice closely. The sheep,
verse 11, 12, 13, and 15. Then he speaks more intimately
and possessively. My sheep, in verse 14, verse
15, and verse 27. So we believe the sheep are one
and the same with the elect. even when they are lost, and
even when they are astray, they are His sheep. For they are given
to Him before the world, before they were born, and such like.
For you see, if one is a shepherd, he must therefore have a flock,
and a flock must have a shepherd. They're not left on their own.
They're guided, provided for, tended, doctored and such like
by a shepherd. We should also notice that he
disowns some as not being his sheep. Verse 26, ye believe not
because you are not my sheep. Now, Don't turn that around. Your unbelief marks you as not
being one of mine, he said. He said you're not my sheep because
you don't believe, but he says you don't believe because you
are not my sheep. And the reason is given in verse
27. My sheep hear my voice, I know
them, and they follow me. This is dealt with in some degree
back in chapter 10 of John and verse 3 through 5, that each,
that every sheep knows and recognizes the voice of his shepherd, and
the shepherd knows each of his sheep, and he calls them by name. They say it's a wonderful thing,
what's described in John 10, that at the end of the day, several
shepherds brought their flocks into the fold. They were put
into the care of a watchman, a night watchman for the night,
while the shepherd refreshed and slept. came the next morning,
each shepherd gave a call, and his sheep and his sheep only
came and followed him. Again, when they gathered at
the watering place, when the shepherd was ready to go, gave
a call, his sheep knew his voice, and they come and they follow
him. What a wonderful picture is that. My sheep hear my voice. They believe me. They obey me. They follow me and watch this. And I give unto 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. Neither shall any pluck them
out of my Father's hand. There can be only two possible
meanings. One, other sheep. Who are these
other sheep I have, which are not of this foal? Them also I
must bring. Beside the little flock, Luke
12 and 32, which were gathered to Christ at that time, others
beside that will hear my voice, They will come, I will add them
to the flock, I will be their shepherd. Now the other sheep,
I believe, are the Gentiles, in addition to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Other sheep I have, not of this
fold, I must bring, there shall be one foal and one shepherd. It's a divine necessity. Them
I must bring. For they're chosen in election. They're given unto Christ as
His sheep. They too will hear His voice.
That is, they will believe. And there shall be one flock
and one shepherd. all under the superintendency
of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Here is a promise of Gentile
conversions, I believe, one flock, one body, as in Ephesians chapter
2. So, let's lay these two texts
side by side in closing. Psalm 23 and 1. The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want. John 10, 11. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. He has died to save us. He leads
us. He feeds us. He gives us the
bread and the water of the word of life. He protects us and we
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever because of the work,
the faithfulness of our great and good shepherd. When the chief
shepherd shall appear, we read in the scripture, I am the Good
Shepherd. You are my sheep. You know my
voice. You follow me. And that's a mark
of Christians, that they know the voice of Christ and will
not follow the voice of a stranger. And that's a great work that
God has done in them.