John 10. In March of 2004 a group of people on an expedition in Israel came up to a cave, and discovered the mangled body of a man dressed as a shepherd. His half-eaten body was lying across the mouth of the cave, and as they were examining things they began to hear the bleating of sheep inside the cave. When they drug the body away from the mouth of the cave about 100 sheep came out and stood over the body of their dead shepherd, licking his wounds. It became apparent that this shepherd had moved his sheep into the cave to protect them from wolves, and then he himself was attacked and had given up his life for the sheep, literally sprawling his bleeding body across the mouth of the cave to prevent the wolves from killing the sheep. Jesus says in verse 11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The title of my sermon is very simple: Jesus died that we might live. See just as that shepherd spread out his body, covering the mouth of the cave and protecting the sheep inside, so Jesus spread out His body on the cross, and laid down His life so that according to verse 10 we might have life to the full. Jesus died that we might live.
Now, I just want to give us some background, to set the stage for this entire chapter. When Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd” He was announcing the fulfillment of a passage in the Old Testament that the Jews had been waiting thousands of years for. Ezekiel chapter 34, and let’s look at the background of Jesus’ announcement “I am the Good Shepherd.”
Now we should know by now, that everything Jesus did was to fulfill the Old Testament. Jesus said He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it. Now as we look at Ezekiel 34 what we find is God denouncing bad shepherds, shepherds that had no iniative.
“1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ’This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.”
These shepherds were not caring for the flock, and God wants His flock cared for. So God removes them. You can see that in vs. 10: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.”
Now God says that He Himself would be their Shepherd. And He would be a good Shepherd. Look at vss 15-16: 15” I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy (Because they are not humble and obedient.) I will shepherd the flock with justice.” In other words, “I will be the Good Shepherd.” So for thousands of years, the Jews were waiting for God Himself to come and shepherd them.
And Jesus Christ steps onto the scene of history and announces in John 10: “I am here! I said I was coming, and now I’m here. I am the Good Shepherd” in direct fulfillment of God’s promise in Ezekiel 34. Ezekiel 34 tells us how God would shepherd His sheep: He came to feed the sheep. He came to clothe the sheep, He came to heal the injured sheep, and He came to rescue wandering sheep.
And I want us to notice today that He does all four of these things, through His death. In John 10 immediately after He says the words, “I am the Good Shepherd”, He says “the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” thereby connecting His work as a good Shepherd with His death for the sheep.
In other words, He came to feed the sheep with His own body and blood. He came to clothe the sheep with His own righteousness (that perfect undergarment woven from top to bottom that He gives to His executioners), He came to heal the injured sheep by His own stripes (“by His stripes we are healed”), and He came to rescue wandering sheep, by being lifted up on the cross and drawing them back to Himself.
So Ezekiel 34 is the background to John chapter 10, and this morning I want to notice with you three things that Jesus does, that makes Him the Good Shepherd. And I want us to notice that each aspect of this Good Shepherd is based upon the fact that He lays down His life. Each time He describes some aspect of His good Shepherding He takes us right to the cross. Three times He does this. Let’s look at them together.
First, He is the good Shepherd because He protects the sheep. You can see that in vs. 11: “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” In vss. 12-13 He talks about a hired hand who, when a wolf comes, abandons the sheep and runs away, and the wolf comes and attacks the flock and scatters it. The reason the hired hand runs away is because he cares nothing for the sheep.
But in contrast, Jesus doesn’t run away, He stays with His flock, because He cares for His flock. And because He loves the flock He lays down His life for the flock. So I want to give you three wolves that Jesus laid down His life to protect us from:
There is the wolf of sin. Sin comes as a wolf to devour us. Sin has always destroyed the lives of whoever it comes after. And it has come like a wolf to you and me, and nearly destroyed our lives. But just as that wolf opened its mouth to devour us, Jesus stepped in front of it, and sin mauled and mangled and destroyed Jesus instead of us. And the life of every believer has been protected and saved forevermore because the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. What love.
Then there is the wolf of death itself. Death comes to every person seeking our eternal ruin. Death is a wolf that comes to the flock and one by one picks us off and destroys our souls forever. But Jesus sure does love His flock. He stood between that wolf and us, and death literally devoured Him, and He saved our lives by laying down His own. What amazing love.
Then there is the wolf of divine judgment. After sin and death comes the wolf of God’s justice, and His divine judgment. For God to be righteous He must punish us for our sins. But just as the wolf of divine justice was about to attack, Jesus yet again stands in front of it, and God’s justice and divine judgment beat Him to a pulp, punished Him in our place. He was judged in our place and punished instead of us. Oh what love!
Oh yes, the good Shepherd protects His sheep by laying down His life for us, because He cares for the flock. His love is wide and long and high and deep. Question: have you seen yourself in the very jaws of sin about to be devoured? And have you seen your Great Shepherd stand between you and sin and rescue you from it by His death? Have you seen Him swallowed up in death that you might live? And have you seen God judging His own Son in your place? Then you know the dimensions of His love. Let’s sing about that.
Paul wanted the Ephesian Christians to know the dimensions of the love of Jesus and so he prayed that they “18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Jesus is the good Shepherd because, firstly, He lays down His life for the sheep, because He cares for us. Apply!
Secondly, He is the good Shepherd because He establishes a relationship with His sheep. You can see that in vss. 14: 14 "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” We saw from vs. 3 that “He calls His own sheep by name.” Eternal life is all about knowing God and Christ through the Holy Spirit. Look at John 17:3. John 17:3 helps us to know what eternal life is all about: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
The problem is this: God cannot have a relationship with sinners, sin breaks all relationships, so the human race has a huge problem because we are all born sinners, born with a broken relationship with God. And so Jesus once again says, in vs. 15 “and I lay down my life for the sheep.” He connects relationship with His death. The wages of sin is death, so Jesus came to lay down His life for us, to pay the penalty of our sin, to restore that broken relationship. Jesus’ death is the only thing that can restore it!
8 years ago a man in Akron, Ohio killed a young lady, and when He was caught and convicted the judge asked the victim’s family to state their desires regarding the penalty due to this young man. I still remember the father of the victim standing up and walking to the microphone he pointed to the man and said, “Blood. Nothing will suffice but the blood of this man.” If you and I today were to ask God what could restore our relationship with Him (trying harder, being good, becoming religious), we would see Him point to His own Son, and hear Him say “Blood. Nothing will suffice but the blood of this Man.” And so Jesus died to forgive our sin, He died to pay the penalty of our sin: He died to restore our relationship with God.
He’s a good Shepherd because He came to establish a relationship with the sheep, through His own death and Jesus gives the example this relationship. The example is the relationship He has with His father: look at the words “just as” in chapter 10 vs. 15: we can have a relationship with Christ…15 “just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” That’s how intimate we may know Jesus Christ. Just as God the Son and God the Father are one, so we may know Christ as He knows us. Apply! Sing!
And finally, He is the good Shepherd because He builds up the flock. You can see that in John 10 vs. 16. “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Now remember the context is that this “sheep pen” represents Judaism; Jesus came to lead His own sheep out of this pen, but He has more sheep than just the Jews, there are also Gentile sheep. This is us.
But how does He build up the flock? Again, same answer: vs. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."
He builds up the flock by laying down His own life. In chapter 12 He says, “And when I am lifted up, I will draw all men to me.” I will build up the flock. In contrast to those on the edges of Christianity, that only state what is wrong with this church or that, Jesus builds up the flock so that Jews and Gentiles would all be one flock under the leadership of one Shepherd. Jesus builds up the flock, He does not tear it down. By the way, this is one way you can tell the sheep who are truly following the Shepherd. Do they build up or tear down the flock? Do you find them on the edges of Christianity always stating what is wrong, what should be done differently, but never building it up?
So notice the emphasis of Christ. He is the Good Shepherd because He protects His sheep by laying down His life for them. He is the good Shepherd because He establishes relationship with the sheep, by laying down His life for the sheep. And finally, He is the Good Shepherd because He builds up the flock, by laying down His life for the sheep. Do you see the emphasis of Jesus Christ? Everything He says and does points to the cross.
So I want us to think just a minute today of how everything in this passage should increase our love for Jesus. After all, if He did not go to the cross we would be open to the attacks of the wolf, who could scatter and devour us, but no Jesus laid down His life so that we are safe forevermore. And if Jesus had not gone to the cross we would have no relationship with God. Our sin would be standing in the way of a relationship. And if Jesus had not gone to the cross there would be no building up of the flock, we would live scattered and separated lives.
And in closing today, just notice the responses of the people. Again we see that what Jesus said divided the people.
19 At these words the Jews were again divided. 20 Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?" 21 But others said, "These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?"
One group demeaned and belittled Him; they called him insane and demon-possessed and refused to listen to Him. This is because of vs. 26, they were not His sheep. But the other group focused on what He said and what He did and concluded that the opposite. And its always amazing that wherever the gospel is preached you will always find these two responses; some won’t listen, won’t receive the good news, won’t make any changes in their lives at all; but some believe Jesus, repent of their sins, and find joy in following the Shepherd. Which is it with you this morning?
The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep
Our lives to protect and to keep
He gave His body and blood, to be our eternal food
He gave His entire life, all for our good
He leaves the ninety nine, and searches for the one,
He brings back the wandering stray, no matter how far he’s gone
The Good Shepherd goes to any lengths, that His flock not suffer loss
Even going so far as to suffer Himself, and die on a cross
Do you know this good Shepherd today? Through His death He has opened the way
For you, wandering sheep, to return to your Shepherd,
forever to love Him, and follow Him as Lord
Can 1 Peter 2:25 be said about you?
25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
