John 10:1-16
Key verse is 11:
I am the Good Shephard.
In the Parable we find three themes
1. The sheep
2. The Good shepherd and
3. The Sheep Pen
1. The Sheep
We are the sheep. We see this is the parable of the Lost Sheep in Luke 15, 17
Read Luke 15. 17
Look at the reaction of the Good Shephard
3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, `Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
We are lost sheep until we come to Christ. And the 99 Righteous ones were perhaps like the Pharisees of Luke 18 v.11 in the Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Gatherer where the Pharisee says:
9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. 12I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.13"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
14"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Jesus said that it was the Tax Gatherer who goes home justified
People in our society don’t believe in confessing sins: cf 1 Jn 1:9&10
The key point is that the lost sheep was found. I think this is tied in with confession of sin.
We have three things in common with sheep:
1. Sheep follow the crowd and don’t think of the consequences.
2. Sheep can be pretty stubborn. There is a leader and there is a tail -ender.
3. When a sheep trusts someone, it follows him without thinking Think of the Sects today.
We have similar properties don’t we? In response to the robber and the Lord?
2. The Good Shephard : What did Jesus mean by I am the Good Shephard?
This is one of the famous "I am of John’s Gospel:
(NB I am being the name that God gave of himself to Moses when Moses asked his name - Ex 3:14)
in John. 10. 9 : I am the Door
in John. 11.25 : I am the Resurrection and the Life
in John. 12.46 : I am the Light of the World
in John. 14.6 : I am the Way the Truth and the Life
in John 6:35: I am the Bread of Life
in John 15:1: I am the True Vine
These tell us a lot about Christ. If we said it it would sound arrogant but it does not in Christ’s mouth
What did he mean when he said I am the Good Shephard?
The key is in verse. 10
I am come that you may have life and have it in abundance.
God wants our very best He wants us to have a rich and full life. That we can spend eternity with Him.
Easter reminds us that Christ the Good Shephard laid down His life for the sheep.
Jesus loves us so much that he wants us to have a rich and full life. He is not going to give us up to the enemy, to the wolves "who are on fulltime staff" as the song from Don Francisco says. But we need to remain close to the shepherd.
David was a Shepherd before he became King. As a shepherd he killed Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:34
34But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
The Shepherd protects his sheep
In Psalm 23 we see he provides for his sheep Ps.23.2
2He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3he restores my soul.
I was told that sheep will only drink by still water and not running water. God waters us by taking us out of the storm. Jesus often pulled away from the crowd to be with the Father out of the storm, shouldn’t we?
In John 17 just before the Crucifixion, we see Christ praying
3. The Sheep pen
A sheep pen is a place which has high wall to protect the sheep, but no roof or door. The shepherd often was the door and regulated who came in and who went out. There is safety in the sheep pen. Only in the presence of Christ can we be safe from satan’s attacks
The church should be this refuge. Sadly often it isn’t. It is also the closet that we draw away into to rest in God’s presence
