I am the Good Shepherd

John 10:11

This is the fourth of the 'I am' sayings in John's Gospel, and the second to appear in this chapter. We noted in the last study that the 'I am the door' saying is of a piece with the image and the analogy running through this section, with its idea of gathering sheep together and giving them security. The shepherd himself guards the entrance and is the door.

The image is extended in the familiar words of our text where Jesus calls himself the good shepherd. It's an image that runs through the Scriptures, and one with which we are familiar not least because of the words of Psalm 23, 'The Lord's my Shepherd, I shall not want'. In other psalms the same metaphor appears; Psalm 80 describes God as the Shepherd of Israel, Psalm 77 describes him as leading his people out of Egypt like a flock.

God always was the shepherd of his people. This is one of the images that emphasises the uniqueness of the relationship between God and his people. It appears in many different ways throughout the Scriptures. There is a relationship here, which is unique, unbreakable. WE are his flock if he is our shepherd.

Before we come to look at the substance of this claim, let's look at its significance. How significant is it that Jesus should describe himself in this way? I think it tells us one or two things about him.

First, it illustrates the kind of teacher that Jesus was. To have listened to Jesus was to have been brought into a world of tremendous concepts through the simplest of images. Everyone who heard Jesus this knew about sheep and shepherding. Jesus is drawing on that familiar world of caring for the sheep, shepherding the flock to bring home to his hearers the most absolute, and fundamental and glorious of all doctrines.

Isn't it the case that a good teacher will use the simplest of illustrations to teach the most complex concepts? Things that are difficult to grasp and not immediately understood, yet a good teacher will bring us gradually into an understanding of these thigns using these stepping stones of familiar realities to teach us unfamiliar things.

Jesus was exactly this kind of teacher, and we are privileged to be taught by him. Part of his function as Mediator is to fulfil the office of prophet. He is still a teacher. IN this claim that he makes he is taking the familiar, the whole idea of shepherding and he is bringing us into the most glorious of all doctrines.

In this verse, for example, he takes us from the world of shepherding into the very heart of the atonement. We resonate with the image of the good shepherd; but look at where he runs with it: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. So it is a great privilege to sit at the feet of so great a teacher.

Secondly, it tells us about Jesus' relationship to the Bible. This concept tells me not just about the kind of teacher he is, but about the kind of textbook he uses. We are familiar with other passages which share the same image. Isaiah, Ezekiel, the |Psalms and many other Old Testament passages feed into this moment. The Lord Jehovah searches for his sheep, carries his sheep, and pastors his sheep.

All this Old Testament material is being poured into this claim on the lips of Jesus. It is impossible to do justice to the person and workf o Christ without the Old Testament. When the apostles preached the gospel, the Old Testament is all they had. But it was sufficient for them at that point. They took the Old Testament, with its prophecies, insights and doctrines, and they preached Jesus to the people.

They showed them how the Old Testament was longing for and waiting for one to come who would fulfil all these prophecies and promises in the glory of his own work. But never could anyone in the Old Testament say 'It is fulfilled now'. Here is Jesus putting a capstone on all these shepherd passages, these shepherd strands of Old Testament revelation, all culminating in his glorious person. He is the good shepherd.

So we take up the Old Testament because it tells us about him. We are not just New Testament Christians, but whole Bible Christians, who want to use the whole Bible, the book Jesus used. We want to see Jesus not just as the subject of New Testament stories and doctrines, but the object of the Old Testament longing and anticipation, prediction and prophecy. The movements of history of which the Old Testament speaks are all pointing to him. So here, Jesus is telling me about the importance of the Old Testament.

Thirdly, the statement is full of the great doctrine of the divinity and deity of Jesus. That may not be obvious at first reading. When we read that Jesus is the good shepherd perhaps we just think of him drawing on the parallel with other shepherds. But let us think about it for a moment.

What was the Old Testament emphasising? Who was the shepherd of Israel? Who was it that led his people out of Egypt like a flock? Who guided them and guarded them in the wilderness? Who committed himself to Isarel? None other than Jehovah God.

Ezekiel 34:15 makes it explicit: 'I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, declares the Lord God'. This is God speaking. This is no ordinary mortal. The shepherd of Israel is Jehovah, the everlasting God. Now there is one standing before us in the redemptive drama of history and in the pages of the gospels and he is able to say 'I am the good shepherd'.

Everything the Bible ever said about God is true about him. When he makes this claim he is identifying himself with the Jehovah of the Old Testament, and there is no other. There is no Jehovah but Jesus. There is no shepherd but Jesus. There is no Lord God but Jesus. There is no sovereign Jehovah but Jesus.

John is driving forward that doctrine. It is the very reason for his writing. He tells us that he writes in order that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Little wonder that John says in v19 that there was a division among the Jews because of Jesus. Of course there was a division. They knew what he was claiming when he said 'I am the good shepherd'. They knew he was identifying himself with the God they worshipped, the God of whom their Scriptures spoke, and it was offensive to them. Aren't they going to say in v33 that they will stone him for blasphemy! He is a man yet he makes himself God!

Yet he is God, incarnate, in the flesh. The Jesus of the Gospels is the Jesus that we worship. I know that intellectually the whole concept of the Trinity is difficult -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit, yet there is only one God, not three different Gods, but One, Three Persons in the Godhead. Here is the Christian name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible teaches us. My Shepherd, my Jehovah, my Jesus.

So when Jesus says 'I am the good shepherd', it is of great significance. It teaches us about the teacher, the textbook and the divinity that belongs to him.

So what is the substance of his claim to be the good shepherd? Let me emphasis the qualification 'good'. He is not just the shepherd, but the good shepherd. The importance is to be seen in this: the good shepherd is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. If you wish to see how good a shepherd he is, you must watch him as he goes to Calvary.

If you want to see the kind of shepherd speaking here, follow him as he takes his long, lonely journey that will see him at last laying down his life. If you want to appreciate what this claim is saying, then take a look at Jesus; don't lift your eyes from him as he lives among men, and teaches, and moves towards the cross. He does nothing to avoid the cross, he sets his face like a flint towards Jerusalem; he hands himself over to those who will bind him to that cursed tree. What is he doing? AT Calvary he is laying down his life. And why is he doing that? Because his life is going to benefit his flock.

That is how good a shepherd he is. He goes all the way to the cross, and at the cross the shepherd becomes the lamb, sacrificed to take away the sin of the world. That theme has been running through the gospel from the outset, where John the Baptist preached him as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He came to die at Calvary, to go to the cross, to lay down his life for this sheep. That is the measure of the goodness of this shepherd -- what happens at Calvary.

So let us keep the cross before us as we look at this claim of Jesus. What shall we say about the one who says 'I am the good shepherd'.

First, this shepherd FINDS HIS SHEEP. He went to Calvary to lay down his life for those who were completely unlike himself, those who were far from God. He was never far from God. He was always close to God. He and his Father are one. They have communion. But he lay down his life for those who were far from God.

To use the image in Isaiah -- we all, like sheep, have gone astray. That is where we are. We have wandered from the fold, and like sheep, we have followed one another into the paths of sin, far from God.

But this shepherd lay down his life in order to save his sheep. Isn't that what the parable of Luke 15 taught so magnificently? The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine to find the lost sheep. It cannot wander back as it wandered away, or make its way into the fold as it made its way out of it. But there is a shepherd here. There is one who gave his life precisely in order to search out the sheep that was lost.

That means that if you are a Christian, it wasn't that you found Jesus, but that Jesus found you. Of course there is a sense in which we find Christ, but an even deeper sense still in which he finds us. The poet said:

I found the Lord, and afterward I kew

You moved my heart to seek you, seeking me;

It was not I who found, O Saviour true.

No, I was found, was found by thee.

This shepherd searches out and finds the lost sheep. What is he doing in the Gospel? Why has Jesus commissioned the preaching of the Gospel? Why does he send out preachers? He supplies the answer: the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost! That is why he came, and it is what he is still doing.

That is why the gospel is so glorious. There is nothing more wonderful than to be where Jesus is passing by and searching out the sheep that are lost. That is what Jehovah had said in the Old Testament: 'I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out' (Ezekiel 34:11). That note of grace sounds throughout the whole Bible. Why are people saved? It is not because of anything they have done, or their righteousness, or their good works, or their knowledge. It is simply because of the amazing grace of God; 'I once was lost, but now am FOUND'.

That is the testimony of all of God's people, brought into the glory of his presence. They will sing to the praise of the glory of the grace that searched them out.

Secondly, the good shepherd FEEDS THE SHEEP. That is the pledge God made; he said that he would gather the sheep in order to feed them: 'I will bring them out from the peoples and gehter them from the countries and will bring them into their own land, and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel' (Ezekiel 34:13).

He feeds his sheep on the food that he secured for them by laying down his life. He feeds his sheep on the glories of Calvary's atonement. He brings them into the covenant, out of the wilderness and into the fold. He makes them part of his flock, providing for them the best of fare, all that their souls needs.

He feeds them constantly. He makes sure they are nourished and provided for. Tehre is nothing that these sheep need that he has not secured for them through his death on the cross. They lie down on good grazing land. He leads them by still waters and in green pastures and restores their soul.

Thirdly, the good shepherd PROTECTS HIS SHEEP. This flock are exposed to all kinds of dangers and enemies. There are wolves and bears about, and they are so vulnerable. So very vulnerable. There is not one sheep in Christ's flock who would say anything else. So open to the assaults of the enemy of their souls, and the snares and temptations of the world, to the destructive power of sin and the assaults of this fallen world. But the good shepherd who died for them protects his flock.

They are not going to be in any danger as long as he is watching them. They commit their all to him. We were like sheep going astray, says Peter, but now we have returned to the shepherd and bishop, or overseer, of our souls. So we have come to the shepherd, and he is the one who keeps his eye on his sheep. He has a pastoral function -- the word 'pastor' is just the Latin word for a shepherd, and Jesus is the pastor of his flock. He protects them.

If we are in his flock we have every assurance than nothing will harm us, either in this world or in the world to come. Nothing out of Hell will harm us. Nothing at all, because his eye is on his flock.

Fourth, this good shepherd CARES FOR HIS SHEEP. They are not all at the same place. There are not all on the same level. Some are strong, others are weak. Some of them are straying. Some are timid, some are fearful -- there are all kinds of sheep here. Jesus cares for them all.

Isn't it glorious how God puts it: '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 ... I will feed them in justice' (Ez 34:16). Isaiah puts it beautifully: the shepherd carries the lambs in his bosom, and looks after those who are heavy with young. He knows all about the situation they are in, and he knows them personally. He gives them all his undivided attention, and lavishes on them the personal care they need.

All of this is poured into this claim, 'I am the good shepherd'. When he lay down his life, he showed how much he is bound to his flock. Having shown what a great shepherd he is, he will continue to show his people the riches of his grace. When you need him, he will be there. In all the different situations of your life, he will play the part of the shepherd, and you will be able to say 'I shall not want'.

Fifthly, this shepherd LEADS HIS SHEEP. He goes before them, leading them through the wilderness. He has a destination in view; in God's house for evermore my dwelling place will be. This shepherd takes his sheep home, taking them not to the barn or a little outhouse beside his home. He is going to take them home. He laid down his life for them to secure them an eternal portion in his Father's house.

What a contrast there is between what they once were, lost and astray, and what they are going to be when he takes them all the way to glory and makes them like himself. Are we part of that journey? Are we following the shepherd, listening to his voice, as this chapter says? The sheep hear him, and they follow him. He says none will pluck them out of his hand. Are we on that journey?

Finally, this shepherd is going to come again to judge the world. When he does, when the Fahter commits all judgement to the Son, he will divide men and women as a shepherd divides sheep from goats, because he is going to SEPARATE HIS SHEEP and will make the division between those who are his and those who are not.

One day the good shepherd will appear as the great shepherd, and as the final, ultimate judge of all. Everything hinges on our relationship to the shepherd, because he will separate his flock. They will go with him when all the rest will be banished from his presence for ever.

It is a solemn business. He is the good shepherd who gave his life that his people will be with him. Those who are not his will be separated into a lost eternity. Do we know the shepherd? There is nothing to compare with having him as our Lord and Saviour. Am I in his flock? Do I know his voice? Am I in his hand? He gave his life for the sheep. May God grant that I will return to him as to the shepherd and bishop of our souls.

Who are you Jesus?

'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.'