I AM The Good Shepherd

John Miller

I AM Statements • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Intro

Good morning! We’re continuing our sermon series on the I AM statements this morning. As I’ve said each week so far, in each of these 7 statements, Jesus is making it known that he is God, he is the I AM, and he is making God present in the here and in the now. Jesus is breaking into our world, or the world of the 1st century, and in every passage he is saying to us that he is what we truly need. And Last week we talked about how Jesus is the door of he sheep, and how he came so that we would have life and have it abundantly and we talked about how Jesus is the door to that kind of life and to eternal life. And as we walked through the passage last week, we looked at the thieves and robbers who try to steel the sheep away from the flock, and therefore try to steel us away from the abundant life that Jesus offers us. And we broke this down into four different things:

Pleasure

The first thief we looked at was pleasure. The world tells us that to be truly happy, truly fulfilled, we need to seek a life that is full of pleasure. We’re told to go after a life that finds meaning and purpose in the pleasures that the world offers us. And we said that as we follow after this life that seeks our own pleasure we usually end up in a place of numbness, loneliness, and addiction, trying to find the next thing that makes us feel something. We end up empty.

Performance

Then we looked at performance. If we can just perform more, right? Perform at a higher capacity than our peers If we can just work harder and longer, then we’ll be satisfied. If we can just study more, if we can just get to the top of our class, then we’ll be happy. If we can outperform, then we’ll find satisfaction. This is another lie, another thief that steels us away from following after Jesus.

Posessions

Or, Maybe it’s your possessions. You need the best phone, the best clothes, the best laptop, the best game system. Then, you’ll be happy. Right? Things make us happy, right? The more stuff we have, or if we have better stuff than our friends, then we’re happy? Right?

Popularity

And finally, we looked at popularity. Your popularity, your position in your circle or in your school is sooo important. You need to be the most loved, the most liked, the most sought after, and then you’ll be happy. You need to be the top of your class, and the best at everything, because your position in life is so important and so tied to how you see yourself, that if it’s not where you want it to be, then your whole life crumbles, and everything’s a mess.

There are more things than this, but we closed last with by saying that there are so many thieves and robbers, so many things that call out to us saying “follow us, we’ll bring you happiness.” There’s so much of this, and so many voices screaming at us. But, there’s only one shepherd. There’s only one way to true, full, abundant life. And that’s Jesus. Jesus has come to rescue us from the crap that is pulling us into death and destruction. He’s come to rescue us from our idea of pleasure, he’s come to rescue us from performance, he’s come to rescue us from seeking possessions or popularity. He’s come to rescue us from all of that, because he knows that for all of human history, humans have sought after those things and have found themselves miserable, crying out for something more, something greater, something fulfilling. And Jesus came down and said “I am the door of the sheep, and I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” And it’s through following Jesus, our lives are fuller, richer, and abundant. But, the question for us today I think is, how do we follow Jesus? How is he able to offer us full abundant life, and how is he able to offer us freedom from all of the thieves and robbers mentioned last week? Open up again to John chapter 1, and we’ll read through last weeks verses again, but we’ll focus in on 11-16 this morning.

John 10:1–16 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And 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, one shepherd.

This is the word of the Lord.

Context/Exposition

We spent quite a bit of time last week talking about the sheep/shepherd relationship. If you remember from last week, sheep are really cute, but really dumb. And Sheep have to have a shepherd to lead them. Without a shepherd, sheep are left to themselves, and they’ll end up in real danger. Essentially, the sheep’s best friend is the shepherd. When the sheep gets lost, the shepherd looks for it, when the sheep gets hurt, the shepherd cleans and mends its wounds, and when the sheep refuses to follow the heard, and I read this last night and was low-key shook, but when the sheep keeps wandering off, the shepherd used to break the sheep’s legs, and then he would throw the sheep on his back until the legs would heal, and after that the sheep would never leave the shepherd’s side.

But, as I said last week, the sheep knew the shepherd’s voice. Regardless of where the sheep were, when they heard their shepherd’s call, they would run to him. The relationship between sheep and shepherd was extremely special. And here, in verse 11, Jesus says that he is the Good shepherd.

OT Background

And remember, Jesus was speaking to a primarily Jewish audience, Jews would have known all about what a bad shepherd was. In the Old Testament, the prophets were constantly comparing the rulers of Israel to bad shepherds who were more interesting in feeding and caring for themselves rather than for caring for God’s sheep. For example,

Ezekiel 34:2–4 ESV

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them.

There are so many verses in the old testament that are similar to this. And so the audience Jesus was speaking to were longing for a good shepherd. And what that means, is that what they were longing for was the promises Messiah, the Messianic Shepherd who would make God’s love present. They were likely thinking of

Ezekiel 34:11–17 ESV

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.

Ezekiel 34:11–16 ESV

And so, when Jesus says “I AM the good shepherd,” they knew he was claiming to be the messiah, he was making God present. They knew what bad shepherds did. Jesus is now teaching them what a good shepherd does, and what he has come to do. And so, in the text are three things that Jesus claims to do as the Good Shepherd:

He gives his life as a sacrifice

He knows and cares for the sheep

He searches for the lost sheep

Jesus’ Sacrifice

We’ll look first at the Shepherd’s Sacrifice. Verse 11 says “I am the Good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Reflecting on the way we talked about the shepherd last week, it can be easy to perceive the shepherd as someone who is weak, or who is realy soft and tender. However, the shepherd in the first century would sometimes fight off wolves and robbers and thieves, and maybe even the occasional bear. He was far from weak, but rarely did the shepherd actually die. And so, this verse is definitely a metaphor of sorts, but Jesus is pointing beyond the metaphor of sheep and shepherd and he is pointing to himself. Jesus lays down his life. Jesus lays down his life for us. Don’t miss this, the earthly shepherd would often risk his life to guard the sheep, but if the earthly shepherd were to lose his life, the sheep would likely lose theirs as well. But Jesus doesn’t risk his life. No, Jesus lays down his life. Jesus laid down his life, and by laying down his life, he fought for our freedom. The assumption of this passage is that the sheep, or us, are in some kind of danger, but by the death of the shepherd, or Jesus Jesus, the sheep, us, are somehow saved. I don’t want to get into all of the theology here, but the death of Jesus, the sacrificial death of Jesus, saves his sheep. The sacrificial death of Jesus saves those of us who are his sheep from our sins. And we hear this so much, Jesus’ death saves us from our sins, but what does this mean? Every problem, every evil in the world, every ounce of anger, every bit of hurt and pain and suffering, all of it can be traced back to sin. Jesus’ death saves us from our sins, and therefore saves us from the punishment that is due to us, but it also saves us from the pains that sin causes. When Jesus is your shepherd, when you follow Jesus, when you allow him to work in your life, to change your life, when take captive your thoughts, when you say to him “Jesus, take everything, I trust you, you are Lord, you are savior, and I want to worship and honor you with my life,” when you do that, and allow Jesus to take his rightful place as Lord, then you are saved from all of the thieves and robbers we talked about last week, then you are saved from all of the hurt and pain caused by your sins and the sins of those around you. Jesus has fought for us, died for us, and he sits with God the father and he intercedes for us. His blood covers us. And we can now be freed from sin and from all of the hurt causes by sin.

Jesus Knows us and cares for us

Look at 14-15. “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

This part is huge. Right before these verses, the passage says that there are hired hands who do not care for the sheep, and when danger comes, they run away because the sheep aren’t theirs and they don’t care for them. This is used to set up a huge contrast with Jesus who has died for the sheep, but who owns the sheep and knows the sheep.

If you are in Christ, Jesus knows you and you belong to him.

Knows Us

Jesus knows us. He knows every sin we’ve ever commited, yet he chose to die for us anyway. He knows every temptation we face, every way that we’re going to rebel, every way that we’ll deny him - He knew that Peter, one of his sheep, would deny him, yet he forgave him, and died for him. He knows us, and he knows the deepest darkest parts of our hearts and souls. He knows all this, but still said, I lay down my life for you. He knows all this and says I’m your shepherd.

But, he also knows your pain. He also knows your hurt. He knows your sufferings, he knows your family pain, your relational pains, he knows your anger and frustration towards life or towards whatever, he knows all of that, and he is with us in it. Jesus, by taking on flesh, came into our situation, took on a body like ours, wept over us, suffered for us, and because of this, he is present in all of our pain, and he is able to empathize with us. He’s able to say that he truly understand what we’re going for because he went through it too, and he wants to free us from it. But what tends to happen, one of the reasons that we often don’t feel the freedom and healing that comes from Jesus is we forget. We forget that he went through it too. We forget that he suffered. We forget that he died not just to save us from our sins, but to free us from the bondages that come because of sin. We forget. But, and I’ve been reflecting on this a lot lately, we forget that he’s always with us. I shared this last night, but Friday I went down to New York with pastor Jane to go to a worship service. And during the praise portion, the worship leader said that those who are in Christ, Jesus lives in you and you’re never alone. And I’ve heard this so many times, but Jesus is with me. Jesus is with you, but we forget. We forget that in every situation and circumstance that we’re put in, we have a savior who lived among us, died for us, and rose again, and who now lives within us. His presence is always with us. We aren’t left to ourselves and to our circumstances, even when it feels that way. We worship a risen savior who is with us in these circumstances, and we have the freedom to pray to him. To ask him, through the holy spirit, to comfort us, to guide us, to give us peace. But we forget. So, let this be a reminder: Jesus is with us. Jesus, who is the good shepherd, knows us, and we belong to him.

Jesus Searches for the lost sheep

Look now at verse 16 “And 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, one shepherd.”

When Jesus came, he came first to the Jewish people. He was the promised messiah to the Jews, but even with that, the promises all the way back in the Old Testament, stated that the Jews, or the Israelites, would be a blessing to the nations. And so, Jesus, though the Jewish messiah, came for everyone. He has sheep of a different flock, and that all of us. All of us are under one flock. And the temptation for all believers in every part of the world is to focus only on themselves and their church. And here, we’re tend to focus just on the youth group, but we’re part of the flock with our parents and with the other adults and with the Sunday school. We’re all one church. We’re all under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And we’re all a part of the same family. Everything I said earlier, though we tend to apply it as individuals, and that’s okay, but it’s also applicable as a church and as a family. Jesus’ presence is in this youth group, and it’s in this church. And it’s his presence that can bring healing within our families and within our youth group fam and church fam.