The Good Shepherd

Q: What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

The Bible describes the Good Shepherd as one who lays down His life for His sheep, offering salvation and eternal life. In John 10:11-14, Jesus identifies Himself as the Good Shepherd, stating that He gives His life for His sheep. This title emphasizes His sacrificial love and divine nature, indicating that He not only protects but also atones for His people’s sins. Psalm 23 beautifully illustrates this relationship, showcasing the care and provision that the Good Shepherd offers, leading His sheep beside still waters and restoring their souls.

Q: How do we know eternal life is a gift from the Good Shepherd?

Eternal life is given by Jesus, who promises that His sheep will never perish and cannot be separated from Him. In John 10:28-29, Jesus assures His followers that He gives them eternal life and that they will never perish. This doctrine is foundational in Reformed theology, emphasizing God's sovereign grace in salvation. The security of believers is rooted in the relationship they have with Christ as their Good Shepherd; they are held securely in His and the Father’s hand, illustrating the invincible nature of their salvation. This promise is crucial for believers, indicating that their salvation is not based on their merit but solely on Jesus’ sacrificial act.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to recognize Jesus as the Good Shepherd?

Recognizing Jesus as the Good Shepherd reassures Christians of His sacrificial love and personal care. Understanding Jesus as the Good Shepherd is vital for Christians as it highlights His role in their lives. He offers protection, provision, and guidance. Psalm 23 illustrates this, assuring believers that they lack nothing under His care. In John 10, Jesus states that He knows His sheep, signifying a personal and intimate relationship with each believer. This comfort encourages Christians in their faith journey, knowing they are cared for and led by one who willingly sacrifices Himself for their well-being.

Q: What does it mean that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep?

It means that Jesus has an intimate understanding of His people, encompassing their needs, struggles, and identities. When Jesus states in John 10:14, 'I know my sheep,' He communicates a profound intimacy with His followers. This knowledge goes beyond mere recognition; it encompasses the total awareness of their lives, struggles, and needs. As seen in the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep, this connection involves care, guidance, and protection. In Reformed theology, this truth reassures believers that they are not distant from their Savior; rather, they are His treasured possession, known and loved deeply by Him.

Q: How does the Good Shepherd provide for His sheep?

The Good Shepherd provides for His sheep through His sacrificial death, guidance, and ongoing presence. The Good Shepherd’s provision for His sheep is multidimensional. Firstly, He lays down His life for them, as stated in John 10:11, underscoring the substitutionary atonement that provides forgiveness and eternal life. Additionally, He leads them in their daily lives, guiding them through the challenges they face, much like David describes in Psalm 23, where God leads the faithful to green pastures and still waters. This daily guidance is coupled with the presence of the Holy Spirit, reinforcing believers’ assurance that they are never alone in their journey.

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to our reading in John chapter 10. And we read for our text two verses, verse 11 and verse 14. I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. And verse 14, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. John chapter 10 verses 11 and 14. The Good Shepherd.

We read together in Psalm 23, where David declares, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And in this chapter, and in the New Testament, The Holy Spirit makes very, very clear to us who was David's shepherd. And it is a blessed thing if we also are able to say with David that the Lord is my shepherd, and can say so with understanding and with assurance as to how it is that David knew that the Lord was his shepherd. And of course, David in Psalm 23, he speaks of the Lord's shepherding of him, what the Lord actually did, making him to lie down in green pastures, leading beside the still waters, restoring his soul and leading him in paths of righteousness, preparing a table, all these things. David speaks of what the shepherd was actually doing for him. And we will know as well. The Lord's shepherding of us will know who is our shepherd and that we also are his sheep.

Now David, he goes from himself as being a literal shepherd, having sheep himself, looking after them, stepping in to save them from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear, And he goes and looks from then to the Lord Jesus, to his seed that should come through the promised Messiah or the seed of David.

And it's a good thing where those of us that are ministers, those of us that are under shepherds, that we have that same desire as well, that we're able to go from what the Lord has positioned us in bringing forth the Word of God, that the people of God then are led to not the under-shepherd, not the highling, and may the Lord preserve us that we be just a highling just for those that go into religion for the money and just to get out of what they can, but may we be like the Apostle Paul the Apostle Peter, all of them directing, not just to how an under-shepherd should act, but pointing above, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The Apostle was grieved with the Corinthians, that they were called and blessed church. They were saying that one was of Paul, one of Paulus, one of Cephas. They were going after the under-shepherds, but Paul would point them to the chief shepherd, point them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And this truly must be the comfort and help of all the people of God. I want then to look with the Lord's help this morning. Firstly, the Lord's description of himself. This is what the Lord says of himself, that I am the good shepherd. And then secondly, what he says of his sheep. He tells us some things of his sheep. And any good shepherd, they do know their sheep and would be able to tell things about them and to recognize them. But then thirdly, what he does for his sheep.

Our Lord is not silent in that either. In this passage, he begins with a parable, and then he opens up that parable. And then later on, we have the Jews' opposition, in which we find out even more about our Lord's claims and who he is. by how the Jews who heard him reacted to them. So I want to look firstly then at the Lord's description of himself. Our text, it begins with the word, I am. Both of those verses do. Now, the Jews would have known very well what our Lord was claiming here, both with the I am and with the shepherd.

He was claiming divinity. Remember when the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush and Moses asked what his name was. When Moses came to the children of Israel in Egypt, what should he say? Who was it? I am that I am, the Jehovah, the one that was always in existence and ever will be in existence. one that is divine, a title that no other could claim to be their own. And this is what the Lord was doing, claiming that he was divine.

The Jews also would have known their history very well. They would have known what dear Jacob said on his dying blessing. for his children in Genesis 49. And in verse 24, we read this concerning Joseph, or the blessing on Joseph, that his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel. The shepherd, and so they would have known that that title is given to Messiah, the one that was to come, the promised seed. They would have also known what was said in the Psalms, the way Psalm 80 begins in the first verse. Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, Thou that dwellest between this cherubim, shine forth. And again, there's a joining, a linking with Joseph, and God is spoken of as the shepherd of Israel. And this is where it is good to realize the reaction of the Jews who knew the Old Testament scriptures, who knew the expectation and claims that were made there as to who would bear the title of the shepherd.

And so when we come to verse 33 in John 10, then we have the Jews answering him as to the reason why they were taking up stones to stone him. And the Lord asked why that was so when he'd done many good works that he'd shown them from his father. And the Jews answered him saying, Pray good work, we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." If we were in any doubt as to what the Lord was claiming for Himself, the Jews here make it very clear He was claiming to be God and to be one with His Father. Indeed, He says, and my father are one, in verse 30.

And so our Lord here is setting him for describing himself as the Good Shepherd. Now, the main character of the Good Shepherd, that which is spoken of in verse 11, is that the Good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And when we think of our Lord coming to this world, He left His Father, He left His life, as it were, with the Father before the world was, and He took into union with Himself a body like His people. When you think of the Lord Jesus Christ, often He is referred to as the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

But his people are also spoken of lambs and of sheep. Feed my lambs and feed my sheep. There is an identifying, not just as the Lord is the shepherd, but that he identifies with his people as also being a lamb. Well, he was made like unto his brethren, sin accepted, and so that he could, as God manifest in the flesh, lay down his life for his sheep.

And this is what he testifies here. The good shepherd giveth his life. He gave his life, his whole life, coming to this world, joining with the seed of Abraham, yet sin accepted, and then laid down his life. No man taketh my life from me. I lay it down in myself. This commandment have I received of my father. is also contrasted with the Highlings, the Highlings that hurt the sheep, that were doing everything for their own life and for themselves.

And so the Lord is saying, I am not just a shepherd, but I am the good shepherd. And this then, we look at later on what he, or what he's done for his sheep. But this is how The Good Shepherd is identified as what he does for them and specifically laying down his life for them. Now the title of Our Lord as Shepherd is also taken up by Paul and also by Peter.

When the Apostle Paul in writing to the Hebrews, some people don't believe it is Paul, I believe it is, as others of the Lord's people do. We have in Hebrews and chapter 13, the last chapter, Paul's benediction, as it were, upon the people of God, the Jews, the Hebrews who thought that the Lord was coming and destroying and taking away all of their ceremonies and all that they had, But Paul says, no, our Lord coming fulfills all these things. He is the embodiment of all of these types and all of these shadows. And so he says in Hebrews 13 verse 20, now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

And so our Lord is set forth by Paul as the great shepherd of the sheep, contrasted with the good shepherd who laid down his life, Paul is emphasizing him that was brought again from the dead, arisen a risen saviour, a living shepherd, is set before us here. And then when Peter takes up the same account in his epistles, in 1 Peter and chapter 5, we read in verse 4, and when he speaks in the beginning of that chapter, he's speaking to elders, he's speaking to under shepherds and he's giving us the chance to feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not for not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being lords over God's heritage but being in samples or examples to the flock and then he says when the chief shepherd shall appear." So he's speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ now as the shepherd, not good shepherd, not the great shepherd, but the chief shepherd, his title is here, shall appear. You shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. What shall that crown be?

Oh, the greatest blessing, really, that when The people of God, when we are brought to be with God, we shall see him as he is, and we shall be like him. He was made like unto his brethren here below in sufferings, in his death, in his humanity. And in heaven, the people of God, as brought to be with him, shall be like him. And there is the glory, the crown of glory, and the blessing.

We have in these three passages, we have our Lord's teaching, himself the Good Shepherd, we have the Holy Spirit through Paul setting before us the Great Shepherd and his rising from the dead, and then Peter as the Chief Shepherd in glory and giving to his people glory. Yes, our Lord was truly claiming to himself as the good shepherd, as the divine, not as they were saying to him that thou being a man, makest thyself God, our Lord is God. And he made himself man and dwelt among us. And this beautiful title, this title that joins his people with him, that gives such assurance and such comfort To the people of God, this is what the Lord takes up here and sets forth here. Though his own people, they are deriding him, they're speaking against him for these very words that he said.

But may we be truly blessed to be able to see the Lord as the good shepherd and to come in with David and to say that the Lord is my shepherd. Want to look then secondly at what the Lord says of his sheep. The first thing I say concerning his sheep, he calls them my sheep. In verse 14 of our text, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep. They are his sheep, they belong unto him.

You know this is something that is offensive to our fallen nature. We don't like the idea of not being our own. Paul says you are not your own, you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are his, but we do not like that idea to not be our own, to be another's.

You know, in the Old Testament, the servant that would not go out with his wife, with his children, he loved his master, he wanted to stay with his master, his ear was bored to the door post, He became His masters forever. He was not His own. He belonged to His master. And so with the sheep of God, they are not their own.

They are the Lord's. They belong to Him. We read our Lord saying that they were given by the Father. My Father, verse 29, which gave them Me is greater than all. Every one of the people of God have been given by the father to the son and given to redeem them, to save them, to be his inheritance, to be with him forever.

But there was the cost that he should have to lay down his life for them and to take that life again and to be to them a shepherd. What a contrast it is that In verse 12, with our Lord, he says, they're my sheep. But in verse 12, he speaks of the Highling, whose own the sheep are not. The relationship between the Lord and his people, there is a belonging and ownership, a possession and we are the possession, the people of God are the possession of the Lord, a purchased possession, the scriptures speak of. But then another thing he says of them is that he knows them. Verse 14, again, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep.

How does he know them? They were chosen in him before the foundation of the world. Their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And he knows them in that he undertook to suffer for them, to bear their sins in his own body on the tree. And so he knows them, he knows their foolishness, he knows their sins, he knows all about them so that he may pay that debt, so that he may lay down his life for them and is able to care for them and look after them.

There's one mark of an electoral shepherd is that they do know their sheep, they recognise their sheep. It is said of good shepherds that even if that sheep is sold, even if it's mingled with another larger flock, they will recognize those sheep. They'll be able to pick them out. I remember seeing some time ago this put into actual practice and a video of this farmer that said that he could do this and they took three or four of his sheep and mingled it with a large flock of sheep.

They said to him, you go out now. There's going to be no mark that is seen on this sheep, but we'll put a mark somewhere where it's not seen. But you go out and pick out those sheep. And he did. He looked over that flock, and he went to one, and he picked them all out without fail. He knew those sheep.

Remarkable thing that the Lord says of this regarding his people, that he knows them. He knows them. like a shepherd knows his sheep. There's another thing that follows along with this, if we think of how we're set forth in the prophecy of Isaiah 53. Because here, the people of God, again, are likened unto sheep. And what the Lord knows of them is set forth through this beautiful prophecy of the Lord's sufferings and death and the blessings that flow forth to his sheep. It's said in verse 6 of Isaiah 53 that all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so the Lord knows His people that are like sheep that do go astray, that do get into holes, that do get into positions where they need that help.

You know, sheep are one of those animals that need a shepherd. They need care. They can't just be turned out loose and just let go. They need to be watched over for flying, being able to be shorn each year to be cared for. They're not like other beasts that are quite OK to go and be wild and not have any interaction with man. A shepherd is needed for sheep.

And so in Isaiah 53, the Lord's people are spoken of sheep, but then also he is. as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. And our Lord is then likened again. He's a lamb, brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And on one hand, the Lord is spoken of as the shepherd. On the other, he's identifying with the sheep and made flesh so that he may dwell among us and lay down his life for us.

A near kinsman is a very clear theme through the Word of God. One thing that is very evident with the shepherds, especially of Israel. You know, shepherds today, they'll live in their knight's house and they'll go out into the field and they'll shepherd their sheep. In Israel, as is very evident when our Lord Birth was heralded by the angels. The shepherds were with the sheep in the field. They lived with them. They identified with them. They weren't remote from them. This should be a great encouragement and help for us. The Lord has said, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

He identifies being with his people as well as being the shepherd. and remember those passages that we read of Paul, of Peter, this is not just looking at the Lord being a shepherd now, but right through to when the Lord comes again as the chief shepherd. He is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. But another thing that The Lord says of his sheep is that they know him. Verse 14 again, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. How do they know him?

We said of Peter, I said of David, what was written right through that Psalm 23 was that he was speaking of the Lord's shepherding of him, that he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. It's pointing to what the shepherd has done for David. Verse three, he restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And thy staff, they comfort me. Thou art with me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over."

And all the time, David is speaking of what the Lord, as a shepherd, has done for him. This is why it's a wonderful testimony, really, when we can say what the Lord has done. for us, so we can join with one of old, come and hear all ye that fear God, and I will tell what he hath done for my soul.

The Lord hath done great things for us. We have that in Psalm 126, and this identifying again with what the Lord has actually done for his people. Then was our mouth filled with laughter when the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, our tongue with singing, then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them. The Lord had done great things for us, whereof we are glad. And of course, the testimony of the preaching of the word is setting forth what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people, what he has actually accomplished for them. And so it is through those things that the Lord has done for us and to us, and we have to look at this in our third point, but it's through these things that we know the Lord. And one mark here is that those of His sheep, that they hear His voice, they know His voice, they recognize his voice. And it's a blessed thing if we recognize the whole Word of God as the voice of the Lord.

When the Lord appeared to Samuel at first, Samuel thought that it was Eli. He did not yet know the Lord. But when he did know the Lord, the Lord appeared to him again under Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the Lord. an incarnate word, the same. The Lord speaks to his people through the word, where the word of a king is, there is power, where the word is like as spoken by the Lord on the way to Emmaus. Those two, they didn't recognize the person of the Lord, but as he spoke the word, Christ, in all the scriptures, then their heart burned within them by the way, and that led to them realizing who he was. Their eyes were opened. The Lord said to the rich man when he wanted Lazarus to go and appear to his five brethren, Moses and the prophets, if they hear not them, neither will they believe, though one rose from the dead.

And it is the word. The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of them that published it. And it is the Lord speaking to his people through the preaching, through the word. That is where his voice is heard. Where the word of a king is, there is power, there is authority. And the word preached is to profit the people of God through the faith that he gives to his people.

Another aspect of it is in our lives, how the Lord appears to us, and I believe each one that God's people know it in maybe different ways, unique ways, and I can look back to times when the Lord has come in from when I've been so hard, so far off from the Lord, and how He's dealt with me in providence, in chastening, in mercies mixed with chastening, how that I've heard the rod, and who has appointed it, the effect it has had upon me, and when that comes again, I recognise that same manner, that same way that the Lord has appeared. Often when the Lord appears again, my mind goes back to previous times, and with each one of God's people, it may be in a different way, but it's the way the Lord did appear to them. in time past. Often think of with dear Jacob, one of the marks that you can see that the Lord did with him was that he had a venture by faith and then the Lord appeared to him.

He left his father's house through fear of Esau and then that first night, lying with stones for his pillow, the Lord appears and gives him the vision. assures him he will be with him in all places where he went. And then when he comes back again, he only just starts setting off and the Lord appears to him again. When he hears that Joseph is alive in Egypt, he sees the wagons, he hears what they are saying, he takes those things and believes that Joseph is yet alive and he goes. But the first night the Lord appears to him. And he's not left just to go off the providences or just to go off what his sons are saying. He's now blessed in his own soul. And the Lord tells him that Joseph is alive and he shall see him.

And so with Jacob, there was that pattern that went through his life, how the Lord dealt with him. Now it doesn't mean with every one of the Lord's people, it will be in the same way. But for Jacob, he could recognize It was something that the Lord did that had a pattern for him, a pattern that was recognized, a hallmark that was recognized.

Now, some of us, you might know a builder, or you might know someone in how they care or what they do in their profession. You might go past a building site. You may never see the builder working on the site, but you see how it's done. You see the care. You see the method. You see what's done first and what's done next, and you think, I know who that builder is. There's only one I know that builds like that. And so by the actual works, you recognize it. You think of what, when David was looking, when Absalom was slain, and the messengers were coming, before they ever saw who those messengers were, And we may know this.

You might see someone in the distance. It might be in the dark. And they're walking. They're walking away from you or to you, maybe away from you. You can't even see their face. But you recognize who they are by their gait, how they're walking. And so they said from over the wall that the running, the foremost, is like unto a heimerhaus.

And so they recognized who they were. is in that way as well, that the people of God are able to recognise the Lord and as their shepherd. So these are things that he says of his sheep, that they are his, they're his by gift and by purchase. He says that he knows them and they know him and he knows all that they are in waywardness in the description of sheep that need a shepherd. What a comfort, what encouragement to us when we feel how easy we go astray, how easy we make mistakes, how easy we get into places that are helpless, how we feel that we need a gospel, we need a word that sets before us one that does all things for us, that we belong to him and he cares for us, and does these things for us. So I want to look in lastly at what he does for his sheep. Well the first one is that which is before us in verse 11.

And the mark which we said was a good shepherd that he gave down, gave his life for them. Central to the whole Gospel is the cross of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Our Lord laying down His life, not for Himself, but for His people, for His sheep. And we are to look upon Him whom we have pierced, and especially in connection with our Lord saying who He is. May we view Calvary, we view the sufferings and death of our Lord as the death of our shepherd laying down his life for us. It was not fate that brought him there, it was an actual deed. I lay down my life, no man taketh my life from me. In every aspect of it, there was love what the Lord did.

The substitutionary offering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Abraham, our Lord said, saw my day and rejoiced at him. He saw Isaac taken off the altar and the ram put in his place. Again, a time of our Lord identifying with his people as a substitutionary offering.

The second thing is that he gives them eternal life. Because I live, ye shall live also. In verse 28 we read, And I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. This is the very first thing that God's people, His sheep, the sheep of the shepherd, ever really know of the work of the shepherd. Because before He gives us life, we do not have spiritual life. We are not spiritually alive. We're dead in trespasses and sins. Our languages depart from us. We desire not the knowledge of thy ways. We are strangers to him. But it is the Lord that passes by his people when they're in their sin and bids them live. It is he which hath begun a good work in us and he which will carry it on and perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

The shepherd gives life. You might say in a natural way, you might have a shepherd that has a flock and you might say that flock has given life because he's got the ewes, he's got the ram, and he builds that flock up. He makes that flock to be what they have and they live because he is the shepherd over them. But in a spiritual sense, It is the Lord that gives spiritual life to every one of his people. It is eternal life. It begins now. It begins in time. It begins with a spiritual awareness that is not there before. Eyes, spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, senses, appetite, desires, a knowledge and a leading to the shadow.

Remember the work of the Holy Spirit. He shall receive of mine and show it unto you. God's people are not to be ignorant of what He has done for them and the relationship that He is to them. It is the Spirit that beareth witness to that relationship. And if you and I have spiritual life at all, any appetite for the things of God, Any desire, the desire of the righteous shall be granted, any sense of our sinnership, our need of the Saviour, our need of the Shepherd, these things they come forth from the Lord. The dead know not anything, but those that are alive, they see, they have life from the Lord. The third thing is that he puts them forth. In verse four, going back to the parable part, when he puteth forth his own sheep. It is the Lord that puts them forth.

We would think in the very first place, he puts them forth in this world. Why were we born in our day, in our generation? Why were we not born in that day of our fathers and our grandparents? He has chosen our time when we should be born. And although some mourn when they see a child or grandchild born, well, they're born into this wicked world. But except they're born first, they can't be born again second.

It's the very first step. And I believe we can say we can trace the Lord's providences and care right from His sending forth into this world, when we are born into this world. Our hymn says, parents, native place and time all appointed were by him but it's especially putting forth when he calls by grace when he gives them the eternal life and he sets them first on that walk as a christian as a follower of the lamb a disciple of the lord he's a behind a beautiful type with the shepherd because our lord speaks of those of his disciples, indeed, are they that follow the Lord, follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth.

And so we have tied to this what he does for them. He doesn't only put them forth, but he leadeth them, and they follow him. He putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. leading them out in verse three as well. He calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out.

There's many descriptions here that are all set as the beginning of the pathway, the beginning of a work of grace, where the Lord first makes known that life, that calling, that leading, that going before them. These things are all the Lord is instigating. And the sheep are first being aware of what the Lord has done for them. The Lord said to Moses, I'll make all my goodness pass before thee in the way. And the Lord does. He makes those crooked places straight, those rough places plain.

He goes before, he's gone before in choosing, gone before in suffering, in death, in rising again, gone before in providing the means of grace, and in causing that word to be heard and to be blessed. Verse three again, he calls them and calls them by name.

Very particular, we know where Samuel goes, he used his own name, but there's that which the Lord Dears with these people, they have to say like Nathanael did, when the Lord said that before that Philip called thee when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Because Nathanael said, whence knowest thou me? And the Lord just said, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And it seemed amazing to Nathanael how the Lord knew him.

We think of how the Lord dealt with the woman at the well of St. Mary. Remember in John 3, he insists on the new birth. In John 4, he gives four examples of the new birth. And with the woman at the well of St. Mary, as soon as she desired life, those living waters, he says, go call thy husband, come hither. And when he reveals to her he knew about her life, he knew about her previous life, and where she was at that present time.

She said, I perceive that thou art a prophet. When she calls those as Samaritans, she says, come see a man that told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? And the Lord is dealing with his people in a way that they are persuaded that he knows them. He knows about them by what he brings in providence, what he brings in the word of God, he's making known to them. that he is calling them by name as one that really knows them. The sixth thing is that he cares for them.

This is implied in an opposite way regarding the Highling in verse 13. The Highling fleeth because he is an Highling, and careth not for the sheep. The Lord does care for his sheep, and this is what David sets forth in Psalm 23 all of the care that the Lord had over him. The care to feed, the care to protect, the care to chasten, to correct, all what the Lord has done, bestowed on his people this care. He careth for you, can be said of the sheep of God. This is something that he does.

And you know that care will never cease. It will be there forever. What would we think of a father or mother that didn't care for their children, that didn't feed them, that didn't clothe them, that didn't watch over them, that didn't even lay down their life for their children? The Lord cares for His people.

And lastly, He keeps them safe. In verse 28 and 29, not only giving them eternal life, but he says, they shall never perish, neither shall any man 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.

What an intimate connection and relationship between his people and himself, the sheep and the shepherd, spoken of as being in his hand. the Lord's keeping of his people, those that are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, says Peter in his epistles.

May we be and be recognised in this way, that we are his sheep, that we see in the Lord that he is our shepherd, and what he says of us as his sheep, we can say that truly is of us and what he does for us, we can come in and say, hear what the Lord has done for my soul. The Lord delights in doing that for his people. He loves them and he'll bring them safely home to heaven to be with him at last. But while we are here below, May we know the Lord is our shepherd, and may we say with David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The Lord says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Amen.

The Good Shepherd

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

How do we know eternal life is a gift from the Good Shepherd?

Why is it important for Christians to recognize Jesus as the Good Shepherd?

What does it mean that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep?

How does the Good Shepherd provide for His sheep?

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About Rowland Wheatley

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The Good Shepherd

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the Good Shepherd?

How do we know eternal life is a gift from the Good Shepherd?

Why is it important for Christians to recognize Jesus as the Good Shepherd?

What does it mean that the Good Shepherd knows His sheep?

How does the Good Shepherd provide for His sheep?

Sermon Transcript

About Rowland Wheatley

Comments

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