The Lord is my shepherd

This morning we're going to study week 5 of our Bible study, Simply Jesus, and our text for today is I Am the Good Shepherd, which we found in John 10, 11 and in John 10, 14. Every one of our I Am's have been in the Bible in duplicate so far. Let's see how far that goes. But the setting of this conversation is the same as it was in the last one that we studied. We are still in the temple grounds. Jesus is still talking to the man whom he healed from blindness, as well as religious leaders and probably other Jews that are listening there. He's still giving more explanation and dimension of who he is. And it sort of makes me wonder, the text doesn't tell us this, but it just makes me wonder because I know that Jesus is so good at using common everyday elements around us. I wonder what he would use in this room to explain who he is. I picture him having arranged to meet this man on the north side of the temple at the sheep gate where it would be in close proximity to the sheep for him to explain all these intricacies of the relationship of sheep and shepherds. That's how I picture it, but you can picture it however you want. But let's go ahead and read it starting in John chapter 10 verse 11. We'll read 10 verses here. It starts this way,

and we'll pause right there and deal with that passage first and I want to point out that this passage is simply about Jesus. Sometimes we try to make the Bible all about us and what we should do and what our response is but these words are about Jesus and the metaphor is easy for us to figure out. It's a continuation of last week. Jesus is describing himself as the shepherd and people are described as sheep. Now y'all are Bible reading, church going people and you probably know that throughout the Bible, people, human beings are likened to sheep. That's not a surprise to anybody and maybe there's sometimes that you have disliked that association because you've also heard sheep described in certain ways that you thought you were a little bit above. For example, we've heard sheep described as being not terribly bright and not terribly resourceful on their own. Sheep can be prone to wander, prone to get into trouble. Sheep can be, tend to pick up bad habits from other sheep. They can tend to forget important things like where they're supposed to be, who they belong to. Sheep need constant supervision, constant oversight. They do not do well on their own and sheep need to be led, they need to be fed, they need to be cared for otherwise they will become diseased and perhaps even perish. Now maybe we all find this a little too humbling to be described this way. Maybe we don't want to be described this way. Maybe we would rather say, you know what, I think I'm a little bit more like a horse or an eagle, something super majestic and independent. That's me, I'm not a sheep. But the truth of it is, is that we are sheep. We are very much like sheep and I think the sooner we come to grips with that, the happier we will be. The sooner we say, yep, that's me, I need supervision, I need a shepherd, we will be happier people. And I think that's the heart of the famous Psalm from King David, Psalm 23. I think he came to grips with the fact that he needed a shepherd and he said, the Lord is my shepherd. He was happy with his shepherd. He said, I don't need anything. He provides everything that I need. He leads me in all the best ways. If I did it myself, I would screw it up. But my shepherd leads me right where I need to go. Even if I deal with tragedies, even in the valley of the shadow of death, he is with me. He brings me comfort and I don't have to fear. I have the best shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And I think that that is the attitude that we find and that we should embrace here. My mom has that attitude, this humility and acceptance and gratitude. My dad has been gone for over 10 years and in her later years of life, every time I'm with her, she'll say things like, the Lord helps me with everything that I need. He helps me find things that are lost. He helps me meet people that I need to meet. It's just so sweet. I think we would be so much happier if we would be like King David and like my mother and just say, the Lord is my shepherd. And I think that that's really the heart of John chapter 10. That is one of the things that Jesus is explaining here. So this passage is all about the shepherd. So I want to ask, what do we learn about the good shepherd in this passage? What are the characteristics of the good shepherd? And so I want to give you a few characteristics that we see of the good shepherd from these verses. And the first one, well, I'll give you all four at once and then we'll go through them. I put them on the board here for you. He owns the sheep. He defends the sheep. He lays down his life for the sheep and he then expands the flock of sheep. And so let's start with the first one. This is right from this passage, verse 12 and 14 explain to us that he owns the sheep. It says he calls them my sheep. The sheep belong to him. Now when we own things, we think about them. We care for them, at least in theory. It's not perfect. Sometimes our cars go past their oil changes or we find something in the dishwasher that is not dishwasher safe. It's not perfect. But in general, when we purchase something, when we own something, it came at a price to us. We gave up our hard earned money to have that. It came at a sacrifice to own that thing and we take care of it. Jesus as well sacrificed for us. First Corinthians chapter six tells us you are not your own. You were bought with a price. We have been purchased and we no longer own ourselves. Our shepherd owns us. That's not something that we think about all the time. If I gave a quiz right now and I said, who owns you? Does God own you or do you own you? You would all say, oh yes, God owns me. But yet when we say, what did we think about this morning when we got up in terms of our plans? Did we check in with the shepherd and say, where would you like to lead me? What would you like? We get pretty independent, don't we? So the difference between our knowledge and our actions can be a little bit different. But Romans 14 says, for none of us lives to himself alone. We belong to the Lord. Elizabeth Elliott used to ask the question, whose are you? Who do you belong to? But she phrased it, whose are you? And it's a good question to ask. Many people think becoming a Christian is an intellectual decision, like buying a sweater. I need a spiritual base. I think I'll choose Christianity. I will follow its teachings and I will call myself a Christian. But that is not how you become a Christian. It is not an intellectual decision-making process. It is an exchange. It is life for life. Jesus sacrificed his life so that we may have life. It came at a sacrifice to him. Therefore he owns us. We belong to him because an exchange was made. That is what Christianity is about, is being owned by the Lord. And that might sound really humbling and some people might have difficulty with that, but yet it is the gospel message. He not only owns us, he cares for us. Our second point is that he defends the sheep with his life. Our Bible is filled with examples of people who are shepherds, from Abraham through Moses through David. They cared for their sheep. They defended their sheep. David talked about defending his sheep from the lion and the bear. They would take care in that way. But yet in this passage, Jesus contrasted the owner with the hired hand and he told us what the hired hand would be like. He said he sees the wolf coming and he leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. But that doesn't happen with the owner. The owner defends. In fact that brings us to our third point. The owner defends by even laying down his life for the sheep. Now in this passage there were five times that Jesus used that phrase lay down my life and so I want to put those up for us to look at so that we can identify those. Starts with verse 11. It says the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 15 I lay down my life for the sheep. Verse 17 the father loves me because I lay down my life. Verse 18 no one takes my life from me but I lay it down of my own accord. And then also in verse 18 I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. So certainly this laying down business was a strong theme of what Jesus was expressing right there. And we'll come back to these phrases in a minute. But first I want to give us a mental picture of this laying down part. And in order to do that I want to go on a field trip. We're going to go outside on a field trip. So I wore my little jacket this morning. We're going to go over to the Middle East. We're going to go out into the countryside. We're going to find ourselves a shepherd tour guide. Okay. And we are going to go out into a sheepfold. All of us. And we'll go stand in the sheepfold and we'll be in there and we'll say this is so cozy. I love this place. This is awesome. And then we'll think about spending the night in the sheepfold. And we'll kind of look at that one opening there and we'll say to this shepherd tour guide but what about that opening? Because you know at home when I go to sleep we close the door, we lock the door, we feel all safe and secure. Is there going to be like a fence or a door or a gate or something there? Like how is that going to work? And he will say to us he says don't worry I will lay down in that opening. I will lay down right there. That's what our tour guide would explain to us. We're like oh sounds reasonable. It's good. Okay now pause our tour right there. And I want to go back to Jesus's words right here. And he says as he describes himself I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep. Now no one in his hearing on that day thought to themselves oh so you're going to go and be crucified on a Roman cross and lay down your life for the sins of the world. No one thought that that day. That hadn't happened. That's not what was on their mind. They were thinking of a shepherd. And so when Jesus said I lay down my life what they were thinking is just like I described. Yes that's what a shepherd does. He lays down. Makes sense. But Jesus was talking about more than just what a shepherd does. So now let's zoom back out to our field trip. Let's go back to the sheep fold. Okay. And this shepherd is telling us I'm going to be the door. Any sheep that want out they're going to have to cross through me. Any thieves that want in they'll have to cross through me. Anybody who comes in or out does it over my dead body. Right we use that phrase over my dead body. And that is exactly what Jesus was saying as the good shepherd is that he would defend his sheep over his dead body. His body that would be broken for the sheep. His blood that would be spilled for the sheep. Because even though they weren't maybe getting it in that conversation we look back now and we see it clearly. That is exactly what you meant. That is exactly what you intended. And that is exactly what would happen. That his blood would be spilled to enter into the mercy seat. The holy of holies that we talked about last week. And by the way did you all know that Wednesday was the day of atonement. It was just this week. That was the annual day of atonement on the Jewish calendar. So now let's look at these insights about the good shepherd laying down his life. It says he lays down his life for the sheep. The purpose is all for the benefit of the sheep. If your good friend has the flu and you say to her you stay right there. I will go to the store for you. It is an exchange. You are going to do something so she doesn't have to do it. And it says I Jesus said I laid down my life for the sheep. He said I do it of my own accord. No one made Jesus do this. It was his to offer. It was of his own accord. And no one took his life from him. They did not murder him. He did it of his own accord. And lastly Jesus said I did it to take it up again. And we know this speaks of the resurrection. He had the resurrection power the authority to lay down his life and to take it up again which we don't want to talk about too much because that's next week's I am the resurrection and the life. But because it was his sacrifice to make he could bring whomever he wanted into his sheep fold. And that is our fourth point that we learn from this passage is that he has a desire to expand the sheep fold. Verse 16 said I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice so there will be one flock and one shepherd. No one listening at the time thought oh certainly he's going to save all the Gentiles as well. They did not think when Jesus said whoever will if anyone they did not think outside of the tribe of the Jews. But yet that's what Jesus was saying is that he was going to die for the sins of the whole world not just the sons of Abraham. All right. So now let's go on to verse 19 in our Bibles. It says

. And right after verse 21 right there I believe there's a three month gap. I believe that is the end of the conversation with the blind man and the religious leaders. And now we have a change. And verse 22 begins with a new time marker. At that time the feast of dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. We have the feast of dedication. And so you want to put your time markers on it here. And we say OK we were right at the feast of boots. I know about that. I've heard about like the feast of unleavened bread. And so feast of dedication. What is that about. Where is that in the Bible. Well it's not in the Bible. The feast of dedication was not one of the things that God had told Moses that they should do regularly. The feast of dedication was a modern celebration in Jesus' day. It was only a couple hundred years old. About 200 years old. And so I want to just give you a two minute history lesson about the feast of dedication. About 200 years previous. Oh and by the way do you know what it is. It's Hanukkah. So the feast of dedication the festival of lights Hanukkah. That's what's going on right here. It was winter it says. So it celebrates a purification and a restoration of godly worship in the temple. Because about 200 years ago Judea had been overrun by a Syrian king that had wanted to Hellenize the area. Brought in the worship of Greek gods. The temple had been desecrated. It was really a dark time. And a son of a priest you may know the name Judas Maccabeus led a revolt and was successful in this revolt. Cleansed the temple purified the temple and a restoration of worship of Yahweh was put into place. And so Jewish tradition says that Judas Maccabeus had found a cruise of oil which should have lit the lamps in the temple for one day but miraculously it had lasted for eight days while they could purify the oil that was used for this purpose. So that is what tradition says. That is what they're celebrating at this moment when Jesus is here. And so I want to kind of wrap up our lesson here talking about expectations. This celebration right here in this moment may have created kind of a climate of expectation. You know how Christmas creates a climate of expectation for us? We have different expectations at that celebration than we do at other times of the year. And sheep are sensitive to cultural vibes and cultural things around them. Expectations. It shapes our expectations. So now let's see what the Jews are saying to Jesus in this moment in verse 24. The Jews gathered around him and said, How long will it take to purify the oil that was used for this purpose? And you keep us in suspense, if you are the Christ, if you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. And I just think that their expectations in that moment were for a hero. They wanted a hero. Weren't they kind of celebrating a hero that had done some really great things for them? And I think they wanted a hero to save them from Rome in the same way that this celebration was honoring in a way heroes that had saved them from the Greeks. And I think those people had certain expectations of what a Messiah would do and what he should be. Remember after the feeding of the 5,000, they wanted to take him by force to be king. People have expectations. And you know what? In our day, people have expectations as well. We have expectations, but a lot of people have expectations of God that are improper. I have heard people say, I would believe in God if he would just get rid of all the suffering in the world. Have you not heard someone say this? This is my expectation. If God is real, he can just show himself to me right here. That's my expectation. If God is real, my grandpa wouldn't have died. My expectation is that you would have responded in that certain way. See, we still today gather up expectations. And I think in this passage, Jesus is telling us what our expectations should be. Verse 25, Jesus answered them, I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father's name bear witness about me. He's saying the works prove my words. At least for a soft-hearted person, my works prove my words. For a hard-hearted person, neither my works nor my words are going to make any difference. And Jesus went on to say, you do not believe because you're not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. So what should we expect? What are the benefits of being owned by the shepherd? Look what he says. Here's your expectation. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't, I'm not trying to say we shouldn't expect, we should expect nothing from God. We should expect the proper things from God. We should expect God to treat us the way he has revealed he wants to treat us. And he wants to treat us like a good shepherd treats his sheep. Jesus told us in this world you will have trouble. Through many trials you will enter the kingdom of God. He doesn't change the peripherals around us, but he carries us through. He owns us. He carries us. And so I want to finish this study with the passages that I had put on page, starting on page 42. And I just want to read through those and remind us these are the expectations God has promised, the expectations we should have of our good shepherd. So let's just read these through,

.

.

. And the last one from God's, the coming kingdom,

. These are the things that we can and should expect from our shepherd. Did you read through the action verbs like I suggested in the study guide? It sounds something like this, he'll tend, he'll gather, he'll carry, he'll lead, he will seek, he will bring back, he will bind up, he will strengthen, he will feed. Beautiful to read it that way. Those are the expectations we should have and sometimes they're a little different than maybe expectations we have gathered but it's good for us to settle on that and be able to know that this not only is our foundation but when we're talking to someone who says something crazy like, I'll believe in God when he gets rid of all the suffering in the world, we can say, let me show you, let me show you what the shepherd is like. He is able to carry you through the suffering in the world and lead you to the other side where he'll wipe away every tear. Isn't that awesome? Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you show us this in Scripture, that you are like that expert shepherd that knows all of our failings and all of our wanderings and Lord, you will lead, you will guide, you will carry. Lord help us to fashion that perspective of you in our hearts and to be willing sheep, to be like David and say, yes, you are my shepherd, you're the best, you are the best and I'm so grateful to have you and I know that you own me and I don't belong to myself. So help me to follow steadfastly wherever you lead. Lord, help us all in that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.